by Jake Bible
“Best route is sent to you,” Flay said.
“Got it,” Axson said. “We’ll come in close to the planet’s north pole and roll down from there.”
“Still no sign of the Dorso?” Parveet asked.
“No, Boss,” Flay said. “I’ve got all scanners, even Stegson’s, punched into my console. Sky is clear of any and all ships.”
“Then it’s on the other side of the planet,” Parveet said. “Can you punch a scan through?”
“Not this far out, Boss,” Flay said.
“Do it the second we are close enough,” Parveet said.
“Already locked in,” Flay said.
“Lucky?” Parveet asked.
“We find the Dorso first, Boss,” Lucky said. “That’s priority. We assess from there.”
“We are dropping onto the planet,” Parveet said.
“Unless what we find on the Dorso suggests otherwise,” Lucky said.
“Noted,” Parveet replied.
The bridge crew waited in silence as the Jethro drew closer to Hrouska.
***
“I’m bored,” Shock said.
“Me too,” Giga said.
“Want me to come over and punch the shit out of you?” Wall asked. “I like punching the shit out of things.”
“Stay in your cockpits until Parveet says otherwise,” Chomps said.
“I was talking about walking my mech over and punching Shock,” Wall replied.
“No,” Chomps said.
“No fun,” Wall said.
“I could liven things up with some low-voltage current sent directly into your cockpits,” Stony said.
“Stony, get off the comms,” Chomps said. “This is a pilots-only channel.”
“Snob,” Stony said and the distinct chime of his disconnection rang over the channel.
“Anyone have a problem with the plan?” Chomps asked.
“Little late for input, babe,” Gore said.
“Well, maybe, I’m bored too,” Chomps said.
“Ha! See!” Shock cried.
“Keep it down,” Roar said. “You’re giving me a headache.”
“Plasma KYAGs are the best route,” Giga said.
“I agree,” Roar said.
“Okay,” Chomps said. “We go with plasma KYAGS first. But be ready to switch it up.”
“We always are,” Gore said.
“Oh my God,” Shock said. “When is command gonna update us?”
***
Schroeder sat stone-faced in her drop ship seat, heavy straps crisscrossing her battle armor.
“You good, Sarge?” the soldier to her left asked.
“Good,” Schroeder replied.
“You look a little–”
“I’m good, Corporal!” she yelled.
“Hooyah!” the entire drop ship yelled back.
Schroeder cracked a smile, but it only stayed cracked for a split second.
***
“What is that?” Stony snarled as he stood over Rots. “What the bloody hell have you done now?”
“This? It’s something I came up with in the academy,” Rots replied as she stood up from crouching next to a device that looked like it was part scooter, part toolbox, and part octopus. “We used to have timed assembly drills in the quads. The dorm that lost had to buy drinks for the month. My dorm never bought drinks.”
“You giving Rots shit again, Stony?” Hawker asked.
“What do you make of this thing?” Stony asked, pointing Tina at the device.
“Don’t know what to make of it,” Hawker said. “What’s it do?”
“I’ll show you,” Rots said. “Three-point-five wrench.”
One of the many arms dove into the toolbox and came out with a three-point-five wrench almost faster than the eye could track.
“Do it again,” Stony said.
“Chunk blade,” Rots said.
A second arm dove in and came out with a thick, curved blade on a heavy handle.
“Bolt driver,” Stony said to the device. Nothing happened. “Bolt driver.”
Still nothing happened and Stony smirked.
“Has to be perfect to be of use on the Jethro,” Stony said.
“It’s single-voice programmed,” Rots said. “That way it doesn’t get confused when a bunch of mechanics are yelling at once.”
“Good idea,” Hawker said and spat. “Stony does nothing but yell a bunch of confusing crap. He’d break it in a day.”
Hawker walked off, but Stony stayed put.
“How fast can you build more?” Stony asked.
“You serious?” Rots replied.
“Don’t waste my time asking stupid questions,” Stony said.
“Uh, I could have six done by the end of the week,” Rots said.
“I want six done by the time we get to the Dorso, you got me?” Stony asked. “Six. And they better work perfectly.”
“Yeah, sure, I can do that,” Rots said and stood there dumbfounded as Stony sauntered off, already shouting at another mechanic that was busy reassembling a mech backup power drive.
“And name them!” Stony shouted back at her.
“Name them?” Rots asked.
“Not individual names! A device name!”
“Oh, yeah, sure.”
Rots stared down at the device.
“Crap,” she said. “I need to take you apart to copy you, but I need you together to get the job done. Crap.”
***
The bridge door slid open and Torn slowly made her way inside.
“You need to be in your cabin,” Parveet said.
“I was going nuts in there,” Torn said.
Parveet swiveled her chair around and locked eyes with the ambassador.
“That wasn’t a suggestion, Ambassador Torn,” Parveet said. “You are a distraction on my bridge.”
“I will stay out of the way in my seat by the wall,” Torn said.
“That is not the issue,” Parveet said. “This is my ship, my command, and every call is my call.”
“Of course,” Torn said. “I wouldn’t think of getting in the way.”
“Until you do think of it,” Parveet said. “You can pull rank over any one of my bridge crew. Not that they’ll listen to you, but if you do voice a disagreement with one of my calls, then that could cause hesitation. Hesitation can then cause death. I will not have a death caused by hesitation when the source of the distraction that caused the hesitation can easily be contained in her cabin.”
Torn waited then raised her eyebrows. “You are serious.”
“I am serious,” Parveet said. “Return to your cabin or I will have someone escort you to your cabin.”
“Jesus, Jay,” Torn said. She waited a couple seconds then nodded. “Fine. I’ll return to my cabin.”
“Good,” Parveet said. “I will have to trust you will do that. I can’t afford the distraction of monitoring your walk back.”
Torn looked about the bridge, but all of the crew were busy with their duties and none even glanced her way.
“Let me know when I can come out,” Torn said.
“I will,” Parveet said.
Torn got up, walked to the bridge door, and exited as soon as she could fit through the gap. It closed behind her with a soft whumpf.
“Kind of harsh,” Luck said.
“I needed to be,” Parveet said. “If it turns out that Hrouska is as viable as the data shows then despite our history, she will use this planet to further whatever agenda she has.”
“You think she has an agenda?” Luck asked.
“Every politician has an agenda,” Parveet said. “She came here without knowing who I really was to her. She came here for a reason, and I have a few suspicions as to what that reason may be. Discovering the one planet that could save the human race, and having it all the way here in the outer reaches, would boost her family’s standing exponentially. As much as she may not like the way the lineage system works, she is a part of it. I’m not.”
> “Still,” Lucky said. “Kind of harsh.”
“Shut up, Lucky,” Parveet said.
“Shutting up, Boss,” Lucky said.
11.
Hrouska hung below the Jethro, a blue planet that held who knew what dangers.
The MEU command ship crested the north pole of the planet and began to descend into an orbit that would take it around the other side, hopefully to find the Dorso.
“There we are,” Lucky said, almost too quiet for the rest of the bridge crew to hear. “Look at it. It’s seen some shit, Boss.”
Two days had passed before the Jethro reached Hrouska from the wormhole portal. With immediate threats no longer an issue, the entire crew was ordered to stand down, but stay on alert, until otherwise notified. That meant two pilots rotated in and out of shifts in the mechs while one SpecCom team stayed inside a drop ship, ready for launch.
The bridge crew, however…
“Will someone kick Flay?” Axson asked. “His snoring is going to drive me insane.”
“It’s already driven me insane,” Wan said. “You all look like bunny rabbits in tuxedoes to me.”
“That’s a weird thing for your mind to conjure,” Stegson said. “Why tuxedoes?”
“Because gowns would get tangled around their legs,” Wan said.
“True,” Stegson replied.
“Shut it,” Parveet ordered. “Talk to me, Lucky.”
“Scans show zero power,” Lucky said. “Severe damage throughout the superstructure. There are airlocks open all over the place. The ship is Swiss cheese, Boss.”
“Shit,” Parveet said. “Not what I wanted us to find.”
“No, sir,” Lucky agreed.
“Lock weapons?” Stegson asked.
“Yes,” Parveet said. “Also, I want–”
The rest of her words were drowned out by a blaring klaxon.
“What the hell is that?” she struggled to shout over the noise. “Talk to me, people!”
“We’re losing the engines, Boss!” Axson yelled. “They’re glitching out! I’m killing the main drives and bringing up backups now!”
“Lucky!” Parveet shouted.
“I don’t know, Boss!” Lucky shouted back. “Scanners aren’t picking up any outside threat! Whatever is happening is internal!”
Parveet activated her comms. “Stony! Talk to me!”
“Engine crew is saying that something shorted out!” Stony said.
“Ya think!” Parveet yelled.
“Hold on, Boss!” Stony cried. “Give me a second to… Ah, crap.”
“What is it, Stony?”
“The wormhole portal,” Stony replied. “There must have been a quantum flux within the exit irising. It hit the engines. We’ve tweaked the Jethro so much that if it was any other ship, it would have been dead in the water upon arrival. It took two days to work through our drives.”
“How fast can you fix it?”
“Fast? Not fast at all, Boss. Twenty-four hours to stabilize and another twenty-four to get them back up and running. Then we’ll go from there.”
“You have twenty-four hours to do it all, Stony.”
“I don’t think you heard me, Boss,” Stony insisted. “This isn’t a negotiation. You can’t motivate these engines into becoming operational again. Twenty-four to stabilize, twenty-four to get up and running. Otherwise, we lose the whole Jethro with a very large bang that no one will hear because we are at the farthest point explored in our galaxy. Have I made myself clear, Boss? I really hope to hell I made myself clear.”
“And your better half? What will she tell me?”
“I’m listening,” Hawker said, “and he’s wrong, Boss. I think it’ll take thirty-six hours to stabilize. I’m watching power spikes like I haven’t seen since the academy sims.”
“Goddammit,” Parveet said. “Lucky? Axson? Will we stay in orbit without engines?”
Before they could answer, a huge explosion rocked the ship.
“Stony!” Parveet yelled.
“There went the back-up drives!” Stony shouted. “I gotta go!”
“I’m launching drop ships to lock onto the hull and keep us in orbit,” Lucky said. “That’s about all we can do.”
“Axson?” Parveet snapped.
“It’s the best move, Boss,” Axson replied. “I’m doing everything I can right now with directional thrusters, but we were moving when the engines went. We need the drop ships to keep the planet from grabbing us.”
“And without main engines we can’t land on the surface,” Parveet stated.
“You said it, Boss,” Axson said. “We’d just be creating a massive crater.”
“Get to work, everyone,” Parveet said.
“Already are,” Lucky said.
***
Crew members raced through the passageways, some with firefighting equipment, some with medical equipment, some with dazed looks on their faces and blood dripping from various wounds. But no one hesitated when it came to helping others or securing the ship. They ran, they worked, they comforted, they cried, but it was all done for the Jethro.
“Hella!” Chomps shouted as she caught a crewman just as he passed out.
“Chimera!” Hella yelled from the other end of the passageway.
“I’m on it!” Chimera shouted.
Chimera thrust a pressure patch into a woman’s hand and dodged several weaving crew members before reaching Chomps. The man she held was bleeding profusely from a wound to his neck. Chimera produced another pressure patch and slapped it on the wound then shook his head.
“Here,” he said and handed Chomps his med bag. “I’m grabbing the cart from sick bay. We’ll need bots for all of this.”
“Bots? Jesus, Chimera!” Chomps replied. “Those things tear people apart about as much as they patch people up!”
“I only have two hands, Chomps!” Chimera yelled then sprinted down the passageway.
There was a loud clanging noise then the ship began to list to starboard hard and fast. Chomps activated her comms.
“Bridge? What can you tell me?” Chomps asked.
“We’re deploying drop ships to stabilize the Jethro and give her some maneuverability,” Lucky said. “That’s all I have time to tell you.”
The comms cut off and Chomps stared at the chaos and carnage around her.
Then the lights went out.
***
“Goddammit!” Stony yelled as he cracked glow stick after glow stick and threw them around the engine room. “Spotz! You down here? Spotz!”
“Right here, Stony!” Chief Engineer Lori Spotz yelled from the far side of the room. “And I’m not going anywhere!”
Stony raced over to her as mechanics and techs ran about the engine room to check the various stations and consoles that kept the Jethro going.
“What the bloody hell are you doing?” Stony asked as he reached Spotz.
The woman stood with her back braced against a large slab of metal alloy. Stony glanced around and saw a huge chunk had been cut out from the floor.
“Spotz? What’s happening on the other side of that patch you made?” Stony asked, pointing Tina at the wall behind Spotz. “You cut floor for wall?”
“Breach,” Spotz said.
“Breach? Hull breach?” Stony asked. “We’re fifty meters away from the hull, Spotz.”
“I know the math involved, Stony,” Spotz said. “Oh, I am goddamn aware of the math involved. But I ain’t lying when I say there is a hole that goes from the hull to this room behind this patch.”
“I’ll weld it into place,” Stony said.
“That would be nice,” Spotz replied.
Stony pulled a hand welder off his belt and moved to the panel. He quickly tacked what had been flooring to the wall in several places, taking the burden off of Spotz, then proceeded to run a bead around the entire thing until the red flashing light in the far corner of the engine room turned green and the distinct hiss of air filling the room could be heard.
&nbs
p; “Pressure should hold for a while,” Stony said.
“Not for long,” Spotz replied. “We have to seal it from the outside.”
“Shit,” Stony said. “I’ve got all hands on deck trying to put out every damn fire and short that this mess has caused.” He looked around the engine room. “Where’s your crew?”
Spotz hooked a thumb over her shoulder at the panel.
“All of them?” Stony gasped.
“Chez and Jong made it out,” Spotz said. “But everyone else was lost either at first or as we tried to wrestle that panel into place.”
“Shit, Spotz, I’m sorry,” Stony said.
“You’ll have to send some of yours out to fix the hull,” Spotz said.
“I guess so,” Stony said as his comms buzzed to life.
“Hey, Stony?” Chomps said. “We’ve lost power in decks eight through fourteen.”
“Lost power?” Stony said and spun about in a circle until he saw an active console a couple feet away. “Hold on.”
Stony brought up the power grid for the Jethro and blanched.
“Oh, wow,” Spotz said, looking over his shoulder. “That ain’t good.”
“We have to do an entire reboot,” Stony said flatly. “An entire reboot.”
“You said that,” Spotz responded.
“An entire reboot?” Chomps asked. “What does that mean?”
“It means we become a hunk of floating nothing,” Stony said. “The whole grid has to be reset and that takes a dead five.”
“Dead five?” Chomps asked.
“Dead five means the system has to be down for a full five minutes to purge all data,” Stony said. “If I start it up too soon, then the system will just corrupt itself all over again.”
“You may want to get on that,” Chomps said.
“You’ll need every single hand,” Spotz said and glanced over at the patch. It was definitely starting to bow out towards the hull. “But we need someone to fix that.”
“Hey, Chomps?” Stony asked.
“Yeah? What?” Chomps replied. “I ain’t liking that tone, Stony.”
“Which pilot is best with a torch?” Stony asked.
“Probably Gore,” Chomps said. “Why?”
“I need someone on the hull to patch a breach that will probably tear the ass end of the Jethro off within the hour.”
