“Hurry,” Aaron called over his shoulder as he sprinted back down the ramp.
Russell waited for him on the ramp to the other shuttle. “Susan’s doing the pre-flight and Jessica’s getting strapped in. Adam?”
As if in answer to his question, the other shuttle in the hangar roared to life and slowly turned and headed towards the blackness of space. As it flew, the ramp rose slowly.
Adam jumped from the shuttle, just clearing the ramp before it closed with a hiss. He landed hard and rolled. He climbed to his feet hesitantly and then ran slowly towards the first shuttle. He was limping a little as he ran.
“You okay?” Russell asked as he got near.
Wincing a little, Adam looked up as he got closer. “I’ll live, just twisted my knee.”
“How long do we have?” Aaron asked, checking his own watch. He wanted to make sure his estimate was correct, this wasn’t something they could get wrong.
“About twenty minutes,” Russell answered quickly. “What do you think, take off in eight minutes?”
“No,” Aaron replied, shaking his head. “Closer to ten.”
Russell whistled. “That’s cutting it awfully close.”
“I know, but we can’t afford for that cruiser to come after us too quickly.”
The three men climbed the ramp together and Aaron closed it by hitting a switch. Adam rushed forward, taking the pilot’s seat next to Susan.
Russell leaned close. “Why did you put the guards into the other shuttle?”
“Because they’ll scan the shuttle and without any life signs, they’ll know it’s a decoy.”
“I hadn’t thought about that,” Russell said slowly.
“I’m disabling the hangar shield so that the hangar will decompress,” Adam called out from the front.
“Is something wrong?” Aaron asked quickly, moving forward to lean over the pilot’s shoulder.
“No, but the alarms are going off. It’s probably just a matter of time until they send someone to check it out,” Adam replied.
“Pre-flight’s done,” Susan said from the right of the cockpit. “Everything’s good to go.”
Aaron checked the time. “Not for nine minutes.”
It had to be the longest nine minutes of his life, but Aaron forced himself to breathe slowly and be patient. Finally, with a tremendous feeling of relief, he said, “It’s time. Let’s go.”
Adam was apparently feeling the strain of waiting as well because as soon as the order was given, he gunned the engines and the shuttle lifted from the ground, turning to the hangar entrance. He wasted no time, but immediately guided them out the hangar doors into the blackness of space.
Unable to remain seated, Aaron moved forward to the cockpit. Standard gravity was maintained by the grav generators, making it easy for them to move about. “Where’s that cruiser?” Aaron asked, looking at the sensors.
Adam pointed to the readout. “I sent the decoy shuttle straight towards the star, like the shuttle is trying to reach the Hasan point by going through the solar system. The cruiser followed and it looks like they are trying to catch the shuttle with tractor beams.” He turned their shuttle towards deep space and gunned the engines to their maximum output.
“Good,” Aaron started saying, but he immediately fell silent. The cruiser seemed to have detected the second shuttle and changed tactics, they had opened fire on the first shuttle and it disappeared in a flash of laser fire.
“They’ll be coming after us,” Susan said, looking up.
“Yes they will,” Aaron said grinning. “And the shortest path to us is right past the science station.”
“I hope this works,” Adam said, looking at the readouts. “It’s going to take us at least ninety minutes to reach the Hasan point.”
“How long until the cruiser catches us?”
“Half an hour, maybe forty-five minutes.”
“You hope what works?” Susan asked, looking confused.
“Just you wait and see.”
Adam leaned forward and hit a couple of buttons and the rear view from the shuttle popped up on a screen to the left of the cockpit. The moon was quickly falling behind, but a bright spot in the middle of the screen was getting bigger.
The seconds and minutes slowly ticked by while Aaron paced back and forth behind the cockpit. On the screen, the moon continued to get smaller, while the cruiser was getting bigger.
Checking the countdown and noticing that the countdown was nearing zero, Aaron asked, “How close is that ship to the moon?”
Susan leaned forward and checked a readout. “A hundred miles, give or take.”
A sinking feeling settled in on Aaron. It’s not going to work, he thought. His best guess was that in order for their plan to work, the cruiser had to be within seventy-five miles of the moon; one hundred was too much. They wouldn’t get away unless something changed, and quickly. The last few seconds ticked off of the counter and it happened. A blinding light erupted across the center of the screen.
“What was that?” Jessica called from her seat.
“That was the station’s reactor exploding,” Aaron answered calmly. It had been his idea, his one hope for escape. They had rigged the reactor to blow and then tried to time it just right so that the cruiser would be passing the moon when the reactor exploded. If the cruiser had been around seventy-five miles from the moon, the explosion should have damaged it severely, but one hundred miles was probably too much. “We rigged it, hoping to catch the cruiser in the explosion.”
“Did it work?” Russell asked. He was sitting next to Jessica, both of them having remained strapped in. The anxiety was plainly showing in their expressions.
Sighing, Aaron leaned forward, looking down over Adam’s shoulder. For a moment he was confused, not sure of what he was seeing. “What is that?” he asked.
Both Adam and Susan stared at the readouts as well. Finally, it was Susan that answered, “The explosion, it must have ripped the moon apart.”
Aaron was dumbfounded; he hadn’t expected that. It was a small moon, probably an asteroid that had been caught by the planet’s gravity, and the explosion had simply been too powerful. “Where’s the cruiser?”
Adam and Susan both began pushing buttons, finally Adam leaned back looking dumbfounded. “It’s been destroyed; chunks of the moon obliterated it.” He wore a giddy unbelieving grin. “We’re in the clear.”
Chapter 4
There was a moment of stunned silence and then the shuttle erupted in cheering and laughter. Jessica, who was grinning from ear to ear, even hugged Russell. Adam moved to join them, leaving the pilot’s chair. Susan also stood, although she remained more reserved.
For a moment, Aaron wasn’t sure how he should react. He was thrilled that they had escaped from that horrible place and were in the clear, but he had just killed the entire combined crews of the station and the cruiser. Each of those people were partly responsible for their predicament, but still, were they worthy of death? He forced the thoughts away, knowing that every thing that they had done was absolutely necessary. He looked up and caught Susan watching him.
“That was your idea?” She asked the question quietly, but it immediately cut through the other’s celebration, and they quieted to listen.
Aaron nodded. “Yes,” he answered simply, and then feeling the need to explain, he added, “it was a long shot, but if we failed, we were dead anyway. At least this way, I hoped to take most of them with us.”
“Do you think they’re all dead?” Jessica asked is a small quiet voice. “Could any of them have survived?”
Aaron thought it was rather unlikely, but he didn’t think that was the answer Jessica wanted to hear. “Don’t know. Does it matter?”
Jessica looked troubled, but Russell was still grinning as he spoke. “It was us or them, so I don’t have any problems with it.”
Susan turned her attention to Adam. “How soon till we can create the wormhole?”
Everybody’s attention focused
on Adam, and Aaron felt a surge of gratitude towards Susan. The topic of the crew’s death was uncomfortable and he was thrilled that Susan had changed the subject.
Adam moved back towards the pilot’s chair, leaning over it and studying the readouts. “Little over an hour.”
“The more important question,” Aaron said quietly, “is where are we going to go?”
“Someone, somewhere, has to be resisting the Unionists. Maybe we could join up and help.” Russell said, looking from face to face. He looked eager.
Aaron shook his head. “That’s not for me.” Russell and Jessica both looked surprised; Adam and Susan looked confused. “Gamma Crucis has been destroyed; Dr. Moore told me. There’s nothing for me to go back to.”
“So what do you want us to do?” Jessica asked. She returned to her seat, sitting forward on the very edge. “Where do we go from here?”
Russell was still standing in the middle of the walkway between seats; he still looked dumbfounded. “Are you giving up?” he asked, sounding as if he didn’t want to believe it.
Aaron shook his head and moved over and sat down in the seat directly opposite of Jessica, the walkway separating them. “There’s nothing to give up. We lost, so now I’m moving on and surviving.” He leaned forward, his elbows resting on his knees.
Adam stepped away from the pilot’s chair, facing Aaron and Jessica. He didn’t speak, but he didn’t want to miss anything either.
Susan stood up and moved closer to hear as well. “Besides,” she interjected into the conversation, “someone ordered our deaths, and I would bet those people are still around somewhere.”
Russell still looked troubled and Aaron knew how he felt—a person didn’t give up one’s loyalty easily.
Aaron dropped his eyes to the floor, not able to meet the other’s gazes. “We’re not in the army anymore. The Commonwealth military doesn’t even exist anymore, so you’re on your own.”
“You don’t want us with you?” Jessica blurted, looking hurt.
Aaron’s eyes snapped up. “Of course I do, but you have to choose to come with me.”
“Choose?” Russell repeated, speaking the word as if it was unfamiliar to him.
Nodding, Aaron leaned back in his chair. “Yes, choose. No one’s ordering you to come with me. You have to decide to do that on your own.”
“Where are you going?” Russell asked, still looking confused.
Aaron grinned at Russell’s reaction. Russell was as sharp as they come, but he was having difficulty adjusting to their new freedom. “Beta Leporis,” he finally said.
Susan cocked her head to one side. “Why there?”
“Well,” Aaron began, looking uncomfortable—he wasn’t used to having to explain himself and it just didn’t feel right. “For starters, those systems are all aligned with the Lagashians, so the Unionists shouldn’t be a problem.” He hesitated, not sure how they would like the rest of his plan. In truth, it wasn’t much of a plan, he had, in fact, just begun working on it. Beta Leporis and the systems around it were fairly disorganized, which allowed for a lot of criminal activity. Beta Leporis was one of the better policed systems, which meant the criminals didn’t kill each other in the streets, instead, they quietly killed each other in the dark alleys.
“But what are we going to do?” Russell asked.
Russell looked lost and Aaron understood the feeling perfectly. Until recently, the Commonwealth Army had been his entire life and it was difficult to let all that go. It was a scary feeling, not having any idea what the future held. Aaron looked around at their faces, they were all looking to him for the answers. Once, that had been expected, but they were in completely uncharted territory now. “It’s a long shot, but I was hoping that we could try and get a ship of our own.”
“A ship?” Jessica repeated. “For what purpose?”
“Well,” Aaron said slowly, “our homes have been destroyed. A ship could be our new home. Plus it would allow us to move freely.” That was important; it was possible their abilities would cause them to need to get away quickly from time to time, but he didn’t want to mention that right now.
“But we have a ship,” Jessica said, raising her hands indicating the ship surrounding them.
“This?” Aaron asked, unable to resist smiling. “This is a shuttle. I don’t know about you, but I want a bed and my own room. I’m talking about a much bigger ship than this.”
“And how were you planning on getting this ship?” Susan asked. “We don’t have any credits.”
The smile faded from Aaron’s face, turning into a grimace. “I’m not sure yet. We’ll have to sell the shuttle, but that’s just a drop in the bucket and we’ll need some of those credits to live on. I’m not sure where the rest of the money will come from.” That wasn’t exactly true; there were several possibilities, but he hadn’t thought them through yet. Probably was a good idea to just hold his tongue for now.
Chapter 5
Aaron stepped off of the shuttle, blinking his eyes in the glare of the early morning sun. The sun of Beta Leporis wasn’t any brighter than normal, but their eyes were unused to the light after eight days aboard the shuttle.
The scientists were still trying to explain exactly why traveling through a wormhole wasn’t an instantaneous trip. According to the physics theory, the wormhole was capable of bending space so that two distant points touched, but in reality the wormhole simply brought the two points close together. This made interstellar travel possible, but it did require that a ship fly through something akin to a tunnel outside normal space. The farther apart two places were, the longer the trip through the wormhole tunnel.
It had been a truly miserable trip; eight days aboard a shuttle that lacked sleeping berths and the built-in seats were at a fixed angle. Several of them had finally given up sleeping on the chairs and started sleeping on the cold hard floor.
“I hope I never see that tub again,” Adam said in disgust, looking back at the ship with obvious disdain.
“Me either,” Jessica agreed. She had quickly seen the wisdom of getting a bigger ship after a couple of sleepless nights. She adjusted the makeshift pack on her shoulder; she had her medical sleeve and the three shock sticks in her pack. In addition, they had taken everything from the shuttle that they might ever use. They had even taken the emergency rations, which none of them ever wanted to see again.
They gathered together at the bottom of the shuttle ramp, looking out at the hustle and bustle of the spaceport. Humans and aliens walked the crowded pathways between the ships and buildings. Aaron’s eyes wandered to the enormous variety of spaceships that stretched off into the distance of the colossal spaceport. Even farther off were the buildings of Anduilapore, the capital city of this little backward planet.
“All right,” Aaron said, looking at Adam, Russell, and Jessica. “Susan and I will see you soon.” He turned his attention to Russell. “You’re in charge,” he paused, “you have the gun?” He asked that last bit quieter, not wanting to broadcast the fact that they were armed. They had the two guns that they had taken from the guards on the moon; Russell was carrying one and Aaron had the other.
Russell nodded. “We’ll meet you back here soon.”
Aaron and Susan entered a small bar located just outside the spaceport grounds. The place was a little rundown but there was already a decent crowd. The number of people was a little surprising, given the early hour. Few of the small tables in the center of the main room were occupied, but nearly half of the booths that lined the walls had people sitting in them. Maybe the people at the booths wanted to keep their backs to the wall. There were two or three rough looking men sitting at the long bar along the far wall. The room was sort of dark and gloomy.
Squaring his shoulders, Aaron walked through the small tables, making straight for the bar. Most of the customers watched them warily as they crossed the room and Aaron was glad they had at least tried to alter their clothes. Their clothes were still a hodgepodge of mismatched pieces, but the
y didn’t resemble a patient’s uniform anymore.
They stopped towards the left end of the bar, as far from the other customers as they could get.
After a moment, the bartender approached. The man was fat with long greasy hair. He looked from Aaron to Susan, his eyes narrowing slightly. “Something I can do for you?”
Smiling, Aaron leaned on the bar; it wasn’t exactly clean but at least it was dry. “Yeah, we just made planetfall and want to sell our ship. Could you point us to some reputable dealers?” He didn’t bother to keep his voice down.
The bartender’s face got a little more cloudy. “Hey, I just run the bar, not give directions.” He motioned towards the door. “Either order something or get the fuck out!”
For just a second, Aaron considered option number three; reaching over and smacking the mouthy bartender upside the head. The scrape of boots on the floor alerted him to the newcomers and he glanced over his shoulder—two muscle bound giants were standing just behind them. They were both tall, the one on the right had short blond hair in a buzz cut, while the one on the left had long jet black hair. They had to be bouncers.
“Is there a problem, Izzy?”
The bartender, whose name appeared to be Izzy, grinned and shook his head. “No these assholes were just leaving.”
Aaron considered letting that go, but he just couldn’t. Never mind that the bartender didn’t look like he had the right to call anyone an asshole, but there also was the fact that in some places you just couldn’t show weakness; Beta Leporis was such a place.
The buzz cut giant reached for Aaron. “Come on asshole.”
Aaron moved in a flash, catching the man’s wrist and twisting. The bouncer turned slightly, his right arm extended and Aaron kicked the man in the back of the elbow. There was a loud crack that reverberated through the suddenly quiet bar. Moments later, buzz cut began screaming.
The other bouncer charged forward and Susan moved to intercept him.
Aaron didn’t watch Susan or help her. As soon as buzz cut dropped to the floor, Aaron spun drawing the gun from inside his cloak and pointing it at the bartender.
Long Shot Page 4
