The remaining shuttles folded up their ramps and lifted into the air. Anna saw the little scout drone detach itself from the Sergeant’s armor and fly off towards the nearest one. It attached itself to the side of the shuttle’s hull. The shuttle, which had been about ten meters off the ground, stopped dead. It turned and began moving towards Andrew.
When it was directly above him, it began to descend. The airlock hatch just behind the cockpit opened, Andrew jumped up and pulled himself inside. A moment later, two figures in Imperial flight suits came hurtling out of the airlock. The little drone detached itself from the hull and entered the shuttle, the airlock door closing behind it. The shuttle rose into the air, heading straight for the refinery roof.
Anna and the others craned their necks as the shuttle circled overhead. It stopped and then descended, hovering just above the roof a few meters from them. The side facing them lowered to form a ramp. They ran aboard, the side folding back up behind them. The door to the cockpit opened, the little drone whizzed through Andrew coming right behind it. His faceplate dissolved to reveal a sweat plastered face.
“Found us a ride Major.”
Chapter 40
Lieutenant James Harbid examined the door’s control panel. Grudgingly, he had to admit he had no idea what he was doing. He'd been able to find an input for the data stick Suun had given him. The problem was that whatever was displayed on the control panel right now, just looked like a big mess of symbols. How had Suun expected him to use this thing, when all the controls on this ship were in the bessra's standard language?
Harbid turned back to where Katie was lying on one of the sleeping racks.
“You don't by any chance know anything about bessra languages?” He asked.
Katie slowly raised herself into a sitting position.
“I'm an intelligence officer, of course I do.”
“You do?” Asked Harbid surprised.
“I never got any training in bessra languages.”
“Well I know Imperial Intelligence doesn't deem it worth teaching their personnel alien languages,” replied Katie.
“Not when they can simply use translation software. I however, find it useful to actually learn the languages of the people I'm spying on. Software translation isn't perfect and sometimes subtle nuances in the meaning of words get lost.”
“You should submit a proposal to Imperial Intelligence on amending their training program,” said Harbid.
He walked over to the bunk Katie was lying on and helped her to her feet. They made their way back to the control panel.
“That data stick Suun gave you seems to have an override program on it for all the ship's systems,” said Katie, examining the alien symbols.
“So we can use it to take control of the ship?” Asked Harbid.
“In theory yes, but not from here, we would need to plug this into a terminal that has access to the rest of the ship's systems,” she explained.
“This terminal is simply for the door and the living quarter's environmental controls.”
“We'll worry about that later,” said Harbid.
“Can you unlock this door?”
“Yes.”
“Good, do it and then-”
He was cut off by a change in the sound of the engines.
“I think that's the Dimension drive, warming up,” said Katie.
“Come on open the door, we need to hurry,” Harbid replied.
Katie tapped a few buttons on the control panel and the door slid open. Harbid poked his head into the hallway beyond, the coast was clear.
“Visha's bound to be in the cockpit,” said Harbid, looking at the door to his left.
“And that leads back into the cargo bay,” he added, turning to his right.
“So let's try the door straight ahead,” suggested Katie.
“Ok, get that data stick and make sure the door locks behind us,” said Harbid.
Katie tapped a few more buttons and pulled the data stick from the control panel. They stepped out into the hallway and the door slid shut behind them.
“Let's hope this door isn't locked,” Katie whispered.
“I don't much fancy fiddling with the control panel with Visha just down the hall.”
The door slid open as they approached it. Beyond was a large room, in the center of which, stood an equally large rectangular table. The table looked like it was made of some sort of polished black stone. Around it were half a dozen high backed, leather chairs.
“Looks like some sort of conference room,” said Harbid, as he helped Katie inside.
“Look, in the center of the table,” said Katie, pointing to a computer console.
Harbid took Katie over to the table and sat her down on one of the chairs. Katie plugged the data stick into the console and view screens rose out of the table in front of each seat. She began tapping symbols on the screen in front of her. The door to the room slid shut and the locking mechanism clicked.
“There,” Katie announced.
“I've locked the door and overridden any other controls; no one can get in here now.”
“Can you get control of the ship?” Asked Harbid.
Katie scrutinized the view screen.
“No,” she replied shaking her head.
“The only places to do that from are the cockpit and the engine room.”
“Well the cockpit's out,” said Harbid.
“I've got a map of the ship here,” said Katie.
“The engine room is through that other door we saw in the cargo bay.”
“Good,” replied Harbid.
“If we hurry, we might be able to stop the ship from opening a dimension vortex.”
“Hang on a second,” said Katie.
She tapped a few buttons.
“Hah!” She exclaimed triumphantly.
“What?”
Katie turned to look at Harbid, a grin spreading across her face.
“I just locked the cockpit door and Visha won't be able to open it from where she is.”
“Well that should piss her off,” Harbid remarked.
Katie and Harbid made their way through the hallway to the door that led to the cargo bay. Once through it, they headed for the only other door leading out of the bay. Katie had already unlocked it for them and it slid open at their approach. The Engine room was quite small, given the size of the ship. It was a small, round room, with control panels and view screens everywhere. Protruding from the ceiling was a large, dome shaped reactor housing. Power and coolant lines ran out of the housing and into various spots on the ceiling above them.
With Harbid's assistance, Katie made for what looked like the main control panel. It was on a raised pedestal, at the far end of the engine room, directly across from the door. A large view screen protruded from the wall just above it. Katie plugged in the data stick and the view screen came to life.
“We've got a minute before the dimension drive is fully charged,” she announced.
“Can you shut it down?” Asked Harbid.
“Hang on, almost got it,” replied Katie as she furiously typed in commands.
Suddenly, the sound of the engines and reactor changed in pitch and grew quieter.
“Got it,” said Katie, grim satisfaction in her voice.
“Can you tell where we are?” Harbid asked her.
Katie typed in a few more commands and the view screen above the console showed a readout from the ship's sensors.
“We're near one of the system’s vortex staging points,” she said.
“Can you open a secure communications channel to the shuttle?”
“Hang on, I want to try something first,” replied Katie.
She typed in more commands, red warning lights flashed across the view screen.
“What are you doing?” Asked Harbid.
“I'm trying to reconfigure the composition of this ship's atmosphere. I'm tired of wearing this damn breathing mask.”
There was a whooshing sound, as the air around the
m began to move.
“There,” Katie announced.
“This should take a few minutes.”
“What about that channel?” Asked Harbid.
“Working on it.”
She typed in a few more commands.
“There, we're hailing them.”
A few seconds passed, then the view screen flickered and the sensor readouts were replaced by a shengyet face.
“I take it your plan worked,” said Darmst.
“No, actually it didn't,” Harbid replied.
“But never mind that now, we've got a ship. Can you send them our coordinates?” He asked turning to Katie.
“Yes, just give me a moment.”
“Once you get our location head over here as fast as you can,” said Harbid.
“Well I would like to,” replied Darmst.
“But we're still docked to the trading outpost and if those bessra see a shengyet on the com asking for permission to detach.”
“They'll raise ten different kinds of hell,” Harbid finished for him.
“Yes, I'm afraid they will,” said Darmst.
“Good,” said Katie, looking up from her console.
“Good?” Harbid and Darmst asked in unison.
“Yes,” she replied.
“The last thing they'll want is a ship full of shengyet docked at their outpost. They may raise the alarm, but they'll also decouple the shuttle so fast it'll make your head spin.”
“Why would decoupling a shuttle make my head spin?” Asked Darmst.
“What? No, your head won't actually spin. Never mind, it's just an expression,” said Katie.
“And you shut up,” she added to Harbid, who had burst out laughing.
“Once you're free, get here as fast as you can and we can get out of this system.”
“Will do,” replied Darmst and the view screen switched back to the sensor readouts.
Katie continued typing in commands.
“If you're quite done laughing,” she said without looking up.
“You could get me over to the airlock controls in the cargo bay.”
“Yeah, sure,” replied Harbid.
“But hang on, before we do that, you should lock the other door to the cargo bay. Just in case Visha somehow manages to get out of the cockpit,” he explained in response to her puzzled look.
“All right,” said Katie.
“But in order to actually fly this ship, we'll have to get into the cockpit at some point.”
“We can worry about that later,” Harbid replied.
“First let's get Darmst and the others on this ship.”
Harbid helped Katie through the cargo bay to the airlock control panel.
“I just thought of something,” he said.
“This massive airlock door isn't exactly compatible with the shuttle's docking system.”
“The outer airlock door can be opened in sections to accommodate different airlock mechanisms,” said Katie.
“I had a look at the ship's schematic before we left the engine room,” she added in response to Harbid's surprised look.
Five minutes later the control panel before them beeped.
“Looks like we have contact,” Katie announced.
She typed in a few commands.
“There we go temporary seal established, opening outer airlock door, okay looks good.”
Katie typed in another command and the inner airlock door slid open. Beyond it, they could see shengyet pouring through a small section of the outer door, Darmst in the lead.
“How are you two,” he asked, then he saw Katie still leaning on Harbid for support.
“What happened?”
The story was told in a minute, by the time Harbid and Katie had finished recounting it, the rest of the shengyet had made their way into the cargo bay.
“So in short,” said Harbid.
“We've got one very angry bounty hunter in the cockpit and we need to get her out of there.”
“Leave that to me,” said Darmst.
He called out and a large shengyet male hurried over to them, carrying a small equipment crate.
“Before we left the shuttle, we stripped it of anything useful,” Darmst explained.
“Including the contents of its arms locker,” he added, as the shengyet opened the crate and handed him a pistol.
Katie tapped a button on the control panel and the airlock doors slid shut. They could hear a clang reverberate through the hull as the shuttle detached. She reached up and pulled off her breathing mask.
“Ahh, that's better,” she sighed.
“I think I can walk on my own now,” she added.
Harbid slowly released his grip, ready to catch her if she showed signs of falling. He needn't have worried, Katie still looked a little shaky on her feet, but she had no trouble staying upright. Harbid pulled off his own breathing mask.
“What did you all manage to get out of that arms locker?” He asked.
“Two pistols, ammo and energy packs for them. Two armor vests and some com gear,” Darmst listed off.
Harbid looked around the cargo bay, the rest of the shengyet were all huddled around the small pile of provisions they had brought with them.
“That com gear we can use,” he said.
Darmst nodded and the shengyet standing next to them pulled two com units out of the crate. Harbid handed one to Katie.
“You'll need to head back to the engine room and unlock the doors for us.”
Katie took the com unit and made her way to the engine room. Then she stopped and walked back to them.
“What's wrong?” Asked Harbid.
“Be careful James,” she said.
She leaned forward and kissed him on the lips, then turned and headed back to the engine room.
Lieutenant Harbid just stood there for a moment, staring after her. The sound of Darmst making, what he assumed to be an amused noise, brought him back to reality.
“So, we'll need com units,” he said, sounding distracted.
“Yes, that would be what you're holding,” replied Darmst, grinning.
“What? Oh yes, right.”
Harbid shook himself mentally. He bent over the equipment crate and pulled out one of the armor vests.
“I don't suppose the other one would fit you?” He asked.
Darmst, who was still grinning slightly, shook his head.
“I'll be fine,” he assured him.
“Right,” said Harbid, putting on the armor vest.
The com unit in his had beeped.
“James, you read me?”
“Ah, yes I read you.”
“I'm back in the engine room and plugged into the control console,” said Katie.
“Just let me know when you need a door unlocked.”
“Will do.”
Darmst reached into the crate and handed Harbid the other pistol. He took it and after checking to make sure it was fully charged and loaded, he flicked off the weapon's safety.
“Be careful,” he said, as the two of them made their way to the cargo bay door.
“This Visha is dangerous.”
Darmst nodded and flicked the safety off his own weapon.
“Okay, we're at the door,” Harbid said into the com unit.
“Copy, unlocking now.”
The door slid aside to reveal the hallway leading to the rest of the ship.
“It's the door at the far end,” said Harbid, indicating the cockpit.
They made their way forward, weapons at the ready. They came to a halt a few feet from the door.
“Katie, can you somehow patch my com unit into the cockpit's communication system?” Harbid asked.
“I can try,” replied Katie.
“Give me a moment, okay try it now.”
Harbid cleared his throat.
“Visha, can you hear me?”
There was no reply.
“Visha?”
“Is that you Lieutenant?” Asked Visha's oddly mechanical voic
e.
“Yes, it's me.”
“So you're the one who locked me in here. Interesting and here I thought it was some sort of booby trap that bessra had built into his ship.”
“Visha,” said Harbid.
“I'm standing out here with a very large shengyet and both of us are armed. There are also quite a few more shengyet just down the hall, in the cargo bay. Now you can either give up peacefully, or you can get hurt.”
Visha was silent for a moment, then an amused chuckle emanated from the com unit.
“Really Lieutenant? Shengyet, that's the best bluff you can come up with?”
Harbid and Darmst exchanged glances.
“Hand me the com unit,” said Darmst.
Harbid did as he asked.
“It is not a bluff,” Darmst spoke into the com.
“I am a shengyet, I am armed and I have a lot of company.”
Visha was silent again for a moment.
“Well you certainly sound like a shengyet,” she said at last.
“But why in the universe are you helping this human?”
“I am helping him, because he is helping me and my people,” Darmst replied.
“You have my word that if you surrender peacefully, you will not be harmed,” he added.
The com was silent for a full thirty seconds before Visha spoke.
“Very well, open this door and I will surrender.”
Darmst handed the com back to Harbid.
“Katie, you get that?”
“Yes, get ready, opening the door now.”
Harbid and Darmst moved to either side of the door, their weapons at the ready. With a soft hiss, it slid open. Harbid peered around the edge of the open doorway. Visha was standing in front of the pilot's chair, facing them. Slowly she raised her hands in the air. Harbid entered the cockpit, his pistol pointed at Visha's chest, Darmst right behind him.
“You even twitch wrong,” Harbid warned.
“I understand,” said Visha.
“My weapon is lying at my feet,” she added, nodding at the floor.
Darmst and Harbid spread out, both keeping their weapons trained on her.
“Take out a pair of binders,” Harbid Ordered.
“I don't have any” Visha replied.
Imperium: Contact Page 31
