By 0030, everyone was ready and in position. Sydnee gave the order to commence, and the sky lit up as several Corplastizine explosions rocked the area at the south side of the rebel camp. Sydnee hoped every rebel in the camp was, at that moment, picking up their weapons and heading towards the explosions. Sydnee and Morales reached the ship she intended to take, but a large stack of boxes blocked the hatch. They put their weapons down and began working furiously to clear the hatchway. As they moved the last large crate, Sydnee heard, "Stop right there or die." Sydnee froze, as did Morales next to her. She turned her head and saw a man holding an RPG launcher on his shoulder. It was aimed at them and he had his hand on the trigger. All he had to do was squeeze, but that would probably destroy the small ship as well.
When the man spoke again, Sydnee glanced at a readout inside her helmet and saw that he was speaking Yolon. The translation circuitry converted the words to Amer and she heard, "Back away from the ship. Leave the weapons on the ground where you put them and don't make any sudden moves."
Sydnee no more wanted to see the small ship destroyed than the man with the RPG launcher on his shoulder, so she and Morales slowly moved away.
When they were clear of the ship, the Yolongi said, "Who are you?" He shifted his own position slightly so that if he fired, the RPG couldn't hit any of the parked ships.
"Space Marine Corps," Sydnee said after turning to face the man and activating the speaker on her chest plate with a wink of her eye at the correct entry in the helmet display. The translator automatically spoke her reply in Yolon.
"I thought so," the man said.
"Who are you?" Sydnee asked.
"I am Colonel Suflagga, late of the Empire's Green Guard. I've been waiting here every night for you to come. I knew you'd either come to destroy the ships or try to steal them. You didn't seem to have any transportation of your own, and it's the only thing of value we have left after your raid. I'm glad you came early. I'll be able to get some sleep tonight."
With her speaker off, Sydnee said on Com 2, "Sergeant, are you behind me."
"Just off to your five o'clock, Lieutenant."
"Good, when I make my move, I want you to dive to the ground at your three o'clock. Got that?"
"Oo-rah."
"What are you doing on this planet?" Suflagga asked.
"You should know that. We're here to take you into custody for violating Galactic Alliance space and performing terrorist acts."
"You spent days running away. That's no way to take someone into custody."
"We have to wait until our ship returns. We have no intention of standing guard over several hundred prisoners without a place to house them. If you hadn't pursued us and forced us to fight, your force would be a lot larger than it presently is."
"You murdered dozens of my people."
"We didn't murder anyone. You boxed us in and forced us to respond or die. The Marine Corps doesn't teach its people to accept death without a fight. Your people were lost to you when they chose to attack us without the proper ordnance."
"We had the proper ordnance until you destroyed it."
"Hence the reason for destroying it. Are you going to fire that thing or put it up?"
To Morales, Sydnee said, "Get ready, Sergeant."
Suflagga couldn't believe his ears, but he had learned everything he wanted to know. Without another word, just a sneer, he tightened his grip.
"Now," Sydnee said as she pushed the flap of her holster aside and pulled her pistol with one swift movement. As the pistol cleared the holster, she fired, her shot striking Suflagga in the lower abdomen almost immediately.
Reaction to the shot rocked Suflagga back slightly. He had already squeezed the trigger on RPG launcher, but the delivery wasn't as quick as a laser.
Sydnee would never know if her shot had caused Suflagga to 'pull' his shot, or if he was simply unfamiliar with the weapon and the manner in which you had to brace yourself when firing it. In any event, the grenade passed high over her right shoulder on its way to the treed area behind her as she dove for the ground on her left. A large tree suffered the effect of the blast, but it was far enough from their position to have no effect on the ship or the people in the clearing.
Suflagga was still standing, but he had fired his one shot and didn't have the strength to reload. His face mirrored the disbelief he felt when he was shot. As Sydnee and Morales climbed to their feet, Suflagga fell to his knees and then collapsed face down into the dirt.
Morales raced to retrieve his weapon, but it wasn't necessary. Suflagga wasn't moving.
"Quickly, Sergeant, let's get into the ship. That explosion is sure to attract the attention of somebody and we want to be long gone before they get here."
With the obstructions removed, the hatch opened fully. Sydnee was in the command chair, studying the controls, by the time Morales had retrieved her rifle, climbed in, and closed the hatch.
The controls of the ship were different than anything she had ever flown, but she was able to get the oh-gee engine started and lift off. After a few seconds on the controls, she began to get a feel for the vessel.
"Bravo-Leader to Bravo-One, what's your status?" Sydnee said on the prearranged com frequency once she had figured out the ship's com system and entered the encryption code.
"Bravo-Leader, this is Bravo-One. We've completed our mission and are returning to base."
"Understood. Bravo-Leader and Alpha-Two are airborne. Continue monitoring the established frequencies. We'll be in touch. Bravo-Leader out."
"Good luck, Bravo-Leader. Bravo-One out."
"Uh, Lieutenant? If I'm reading this crazy display right, it looks like someone is coming after us."
Sydnee glanced at the display. "You're right, Sergeant. It looks like they got the two fighters up. Strap in. Things might get very serious very quickly.
Chapter Twenty-One
~ Mar. 12th, 2285 ~
The small ship was already straining to climb away from the planet, so there was nothing further Sydnee could do to hasten their departure. The fighters had much greater speed in atmo.
"I wish we'd taken a fighter," Morales said wistfully.
"Shuttles and fighters don't have FTL capability."
"Yeah, but tugs don't have lasers and rockets."
"True. It remains to be seen which is more important right now."
"They'll be on us in another two minutes."
"Maybe," Sydnee said. "We've just passed from the planet's sensible atmosphere. From this point, fighters quickly lose the speed advantage they have from aerodynamic design."
As Sydnee operated the controls, an invisible envelope began to coalesce around the tug.
"They're almost on us, Lieutenant," Morales said after a tense minute of watching the monitor.
"They haven't had a shot yet because of their angle of climb through the atmosphere. It's going to be close, though. If they can get free of the planet and line up on us before our envelope is built, they could puncture our hull, or worse. Whatever you do, don't remove your helmet.
The next sixty seconds were nerve racking. As Sydnee engaged the FTL drive, two laser shots passed over the bow. A second later, the small ship disappeared from the view of the fighter pilots.
"Wow, that was close," Sydnee said. "I was beginning to think we wouldn't make it."
"We're lucky they missed us with those shots."
"Did they?"
"Well, yeah. Of course. Why? Were we hit?"
"No, we weren't hit. I just don't know if they missed us. Those shots may have been an attempt to get us to stop. Fighters don't normally carry the electronics that would allow them to determine if a ship is building an FTL envelope. And you can't see one. They may have thought that by firing across our bow we'd heave-to and allow them to stop us without damaging this ship. You can remove your helmet now. The air filtration system seems to have removed any insects that might have been in here."
As Morales removed his helmet, he said, "So they sho
uld have targeted us?"
"I would have, given the same situation," Sydnee replied as she set her helmet on the deck next to her chair.
Morales chuckled. "You shoulda been a Marine, Lieutenant. You have a Marine's attitude towards warfare."
"I almost did apply to the Corps."
"What stopped you?"
"Um, I think it was Admiral Carver."
"The admiral stopped you from applying to the Corps?"
"Not directly. I was just so inspired by her that I decided on Space Command instead of the Corps. I want to be just like her. And— my dad was Space Command. He died at the Battle for Higgins just before Admiral Carver arrived and saved the station. I know that if she'd been able to get there quicker, he would have lived. I want to have that chance to save others aboard a ship or station."
"Marines save people too."
"I know, and I'm not trying to diminish anything that the Corps does or has done. I simply think I can be better positioned to help if I command a battleship rather than a battalion. The Corps serves a vital role, and I've been proud of my association."
"Okay, I can live with that, even though I can't imagine my life without the Corps. And I have to say that you're the fastest draw I've ever seen. You drew and hit that guy back there before he could even pull the trigger on the RPG launcher. I'd heard about your quick draw, but it has to be seen to be believed. If you hadn't had to dive out of the way, I bet your shot would have been spot in."
"You saw me draw?"
"Yeah. I had to know what was going to happen so I could decide on my next move if you hadn't taken that guy out. I was looking over my shoulder as I dove for the ground. That's how I knew you missed hitting him in the chest."
"I hit where I was aiming."
"Then why didn't you go for the kill shot? He was trying to kill us."
"I did. A Yolongi's heart is in his pelvis. He was dead the second my shot reached him. It just took his brain a few seconds to register it."
"His heart was in his pelvis? That sounds like a bad joke, or an insult. Where did you learn that?"
"Alien Anatomy classes at the Academy. I never expected that anything I learned from those classes would prove to be useful information, but it sure paid off today."
"Then what's in a Yolongi's chest?"
"His womb sack."
"Womb sack?"
"Yes. Yolongi females sit on the chest of their mates and deliver one or more fertilized eggs into the male. Then the male cares for it until it's ready to wean. The womb sack is a little like the pouch on a kangaroo, except the baby kangaroo is already born when it makes its way into the kangaroo's pouch."
"Whoa. Talk about learning more than I ever wanted to know about the Yolongi."
Sydnee smiled. "Everything you know about an enemy is useful."
"I guess. Uh, where are we headed, Lieutenant?"
"We're going to the last reported position of the Perry to see if we can discover what happened to them."
"Ah, now I understand why you wanted the tug instead of a shuttle."
"Yes, FTL made the decision. I have to know what happened before I send a message to Space Command."
* * *
"Captain, we're picking up a contact on the DeTect. It's headed directly this way."
"How far away, Milty?"
"Maximum distance— about four billion kilometers. It appears to be traveling about Light-75. It should be here in just under three minutes."
Lidden looked up at the chronograph in his bedroom. It indicated that the time was 0428 GST. "Sound GQ. I'll be there in two minutes."
"Aye, Captain," Lt. Milton said as he nodded to the tac officer.
In seconds, crewmen were rolling out of their racks and jumping into their clothes. The ship, whose corridors had been as quiet as a church a few minutes before, was suddenly as busy as a department store during their annual one-day, ninety-percent-off sale on women's shoes.
Lidden made it to the bridge and relieved Lieutenant Milton before the DeTect'ed vessel arrived. As he climbed into the Command chair, the tac officer said, "Unknown vessel will reach this location in thirty seconds."
All eyes on the bridge not otherwise engaged turned toward the large monitor. A half-minute later a freighter came to a halt some seventy thousand kilometers off the starboard beam. Lidden was glad they stopped there rather than on the larboard side or the stern because the sensor grid on those quarters was still mostly unavailable.
There was little doubt that the ship was of Clidepp origin. It was too far away to get an image that could be used for matching it to one in the database, but the ship was definitely Mydwuard in design.
"It doesn't appear to be here for us, Captain," Milton said from the XO chair.
"No, Milty, it doesn't. Let's see what she does now that she's here."
The freighter remained where it had stopped for more than an hour, then moved towards the damaged Clidepp destroyer controlled by rebels.
"I guess she wanted to see if we made any kind of move in response to her arrival before she showed her true colors," Lidden said to Milton.
"Well, there's no doubt now."
"It could be worse. I don't see any weapons showing on that freighter."
"There are none visible," Milton agreed. "What now, Captain?"
"We wait to see what they do. We're still not in a position to act the aggressor."
"Captain," the tac officer said. "I'm DeTecting another vessel headed directly this way. It just came on the monitor. Range is roughly four million kilometers. Speed is Light-75. ETA is three minutes."
"All of a sudden this area of space seems very popular," Lidden said to Milton. "If we'd been able to get a message out, I could hope that it was someone coming to assist us."
* * *
Sydnee halted the small ship a hundred thousand kilometers from the group of three ships. She didn't cancel the tug's DATFA envelope because she wanted the ability to make a quick getaway if the ships weren't friendlies.
"It looks like two destroyers and a Mydwuard freighter," Sydnee said to Morales. "One destroyer looks a lot like the Perry, but it's too— short. It has the right length but doesn't have enough decks."
"That's the Perry," Morales said. "There can't be two old buckets that look that much alike. All the other ships in his class went to the scrap dealers decades ago."
"But what happened to the lower decks?"
"Maybe that's why they never came back to get us."
"I'll contact them and verify that Space Command personnel still control the ship before I move in."
After ten minutes of hails, Sydnee gave up. "No one is responding. I wonder if anyone is left alive over there."
"Maybe we should get a closer look."
"Yes, let's go look at the keel."
* * *
As Sydnee moved the small vessel closer and lower, she slipped off the working part of the sensor grid and the Perry lost her image on the monitor.
"The tug was moving in slowly, but I can't see it anymore," the tac officer said. "There was no sign of mounted weapons."
"Do you think they're a salvage operation, Captain?" Milty asked.
"I don't know," Lidden said. "I saw no company markings on the exterior. Com, find out if Engineering has people outside."
"Aye, Captain," the com chief said. A few seconds later he reported, "Engineering states that no one scheduled to be outside until the next watch."
"Then tell them to get someone suited up and out on the hull so they can report what the sensor grid isn't."
"Aye, Captain."
* * *
"Wow," Sydnee said. "Would you look at the damage to the keel and lower larboard decks. No wonder the Perry didn't respond to my hails. Her two communications arrays are completely gone."
"What do you think happened, Lieutenant?"
"The last message we received said that cutting across the bow of the Clidepp destroyer hadn't worked to cancel their envelope and that they were about
to try a different maneuver. The only maneuver I can think of is an envelope merge. If it's not executed properly, the two vessels can collide. I think the Perry collided with the other destroyer. That has to be it with the freighter."
"Do you think there's anyone left alive inside? And how do we tell them we're out here?"
"I can think of only one way."
* * *
"Sir, look at the monitor," Milton said to the Captain who was busy reading a report on the small monitor near his left hand while they waited on word from the Engineering personnel suiting up to go outside.
"What's it doing?" Lidden said.
"It looks like it's waiting to be invited in."
The tug was sitting just outside the starboard shuttle bay, its nose pointed towards the Perry. Lidden debated for a minute and then said, "Com, tell the Marine commander that we need two squads of armed Marines at the larboard shuttle bay on the double, then tell Flight Operations to open the hatch and let it in."
"Aye, sir."
"Milty," Lidden said, "go greet our guests. But use extreme caution until we know that they're unarmed and what they want."
"Aye, sir."
* * *
The bay controller had to reposition the bulkheads of the temporary airlock to their maximum size to accommodate the tug because it was twice as large as a shuttle. As the hatch rose out of the way, Sydnee piloted the tug into the bay.
As the outer hatchway closed and the transparent airlock bulkhead retracted out of the way, Sydnee released the magnetic skids and moved the small ship to a parking area. Once properly aligned, she let the small ship settle to the ground and engaged the magnetic skids again.
Morales headed for the tug hatchway while Sydnee completed the orderly shutdown of all systems. As the hatch opened, Morales stared into the barrels of the thirty rifles pointed at the opening. "Whoa, guys, I surrender," he said with a smile. "We come in peace."
"Who's with you, Sergeant?" First Lieutenant Kelly MacDonald asked.
"Lieutenant Marcola, ma'am."
"Who else?"
"That's it, ma'am. Just the two of us."
"Okay, people, at ease," she said to her squads. As Sydnee appeared in the hatchway next to Morales, MacDonald said with a smile, "Welcome back, Lieutenant."
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