Russell let go of the carbine and it floated away. He couldn’t see any reason to keep the gun; it had served its purpose.
Reaching under his left arm, Russell extended the controls of the backpack around and just in front of his stomach. He flicked a button on his belt and demagnetized his boots. Gradually he began to float away from the ship and he pushed another button and there was a short burst of air from the backpack and Russell shot upwards toward the second ship he had noticed earlier. He didn’t hold the button for long as he didn’t want to slam into the second ship and break his neck. Even though he didn’t have the air for it, he had to go slow.
Even as that thought ran through his mind, a warning beep began ringing through his helmet. He knew what that beeping meant; it was the out of air warning.
Chapter 27
Aaron reached the small gap in the compartment doors and peaked through. These doors could be opened wide, maybe as much as twenty yards, but the gap in them now was only three feet. Kyle’s computer program had opened the doors that much and then kept them like that. Closing, or opening them farther, was impossible until the ship’s computer came back online.
Poking his head through, Aaron looked out on the main hangar for the first time. The hangar was long but rather narrow. The opening to space was on his left hand side and it was standing open; the vacuum of space was being held back by a protective force field. The force field generators were tied to the hangar doors and would remain on as long as the doors were open. Personnel and cargo elevators were on his right, and the far side of the hangar bay was several hundred yards away. The hangar was brilliantly lit and appeared deserted. The only thing that rested on the floor were several stacks of crates near the elevators; undoubtedly, cargo that still need to be relocated. The elevators were shut off so the only way to enter the hangar was through the gap in the compartment doors.
Aaron turned around to face the rough looking crowd. “We’re almost there,” he said in a carrying voice, “just a bit farther.” He glanced over the prisoner’s heads and spotted Susan in the rear of the group. He nodded at her and said, “Time to signal the shuttle.” Susan nodded and began digging in her bag.
He turned back to the hangar and took one more look around; it was absolutely deserted. “Let’s go,” he called and stepped through the gap in the hangar doors.
Aaron’s boots clicked on the hangar floor, sounding quite loud in the silence of the hangar. He didn’t go far into the hangar but instead stopped maybe ten yards in, and turned. He began directing the stream of prisoners to stand along the wall of the hangar. He wasn’t sure how big a shuttle to expect so it was safer to keep all the prisoners out of the way.
They didn’t have long to wait. A couple of minutes after Susan sent the signal, a large grayish shuttle slid through the force field and came to a easy stop on the hangar bay floor. The shuttle was a rather older model and looked boxy and unwieldy. The shuttle’s exterior paint was scratched and peeling in some areas. Nevertheless, it was one of the prettiest sights that Aaron had ever seen.
The shuttle sat down and Aaron could just make out Adam’s smiling face through the front canopy. It took him another minute to get the shuttle shutdown and then the shuttle door opened up; a short, stepped ramp folding down to rest against the hangar floor. Adam appeared at the top of the steps and he smiled down at them. “Need a lift?” he asked.
Aaron found himself smiling back; he just couldn’t help it. “I’ll say, but you just get back in that pilot’s chair,” he said, motioning towards the front of the shuttle with the plasmic in his hand. “We’re taking off just as soon as we’re loaded.”
“Yes, sir,” Adam said and it made Aaron flinch. He didn’t want these prisoners thinking of them as military, but it probably wouldn’t matter much anyway.
Aaron stepped to the side and motioned the nearest prisoners up the ramp. They grinned and charged into the belly of the shuttle.
Russell was floating smoothly away from the prison ship and in the general direction of the rescue ship. He was also wrestling with a dilemma. The air was just about gone and he had very few options. His pace was slow and steady, as it would have to be to avoid crashing into the second ship, but at his current pace, he would suffocate long before he crossed over.
He had come up with a way to extend his meager air supply, but it also involved some difficulties. His plan was simple; he could attach the air supply from the backpack jets to the input valve of his suit. The jets used regular compressed air and could keep him alive long enough to reach the far ship. However, without the backpack, there could be no course corrections. Most likely, he would float right past the other ship and never be able to reach it. He could radio for help as well, but he wasn’t sure how long it would take for the shuttle to come for him. In the end, of course, the immediate need of air won out. He stole the air from his backpack and hastily connected it to the second input on his suit. There wasn’t much air left and the new supply barely moved the needle out of the red.
He glanced back at the prison ship and jerked in surprise. His speed was deceptively fast and the old warship was quickly shrinking in size. Floating in space, and being so far from either ship, caused Russell to suffer a lost, panicky feeling.
Thinking about his distance from the ship brought another, more unpleasant thought, to mind. Wonder how far I need to be from that thing when it explodes? They hadn’t really discussed it before. He glanced down at the time and felt his insides go cold; twenty minutes had already passed. The ship’s computer could be back up at any time— hell, it might already be back up. Kyle had assured them that most of the ship’s systems would come up well after the primary computer. But how long and in what order? he thought nervously. It’d be a bitch if the weapon systems came online immediately after the computer and the prison ship was able to blast their escape ship to smithereens.
Looking forward, their escape ship was drawing nearer, but it was still a good distance away.
Russell sighed as he could already tell he would miss the ship down and to the left. He hated to waste his air, but he knew he’d better get on the radio.
The shuttle took off under Adam’s skilled hands but all the extra weight of the prisoners made the shuttle more sluggish. He slowly rotated the small ship while they were still in the hangar, and then gracefully nudged the ship into space.
As the shuttle slid out the hangar doors, the lights in the hangar bay flickered twice and then steadied. Aaron was afraid he knew what that was; he suspected the ship’s computer was back online, or would be momentarily. He glanced down at the time and, sure enough, it had been nearly twenty-five minutes since the computer had been shut down.
Aaron shook his head. The climb down the elevators had delayed them or they would have been well on their way before now. He couldn’t shake the feeling that, at any moment, the shuttle would be fired upon. At least dying in a fiery explosion would be quick, it would be far worse if they were hit with a tractor beam. The thought of being pulled back aboard the prison ship and then being taken to a Unionist’s cell was more than Aaron could stand. After a moment, a feeling of peace settled in upon him. He would not see that prison cell. He would put the plasmic in his own mouth before he surrendered.
Captain Rogers appeared to be sitting calmly in the Captain’s chair, but beneath her calm exterior, she was seething. The reboot of the ship’s computer felt like it was taking forever and the waiting was nearly unbearable. Without the computer, they didn’t have any sensors, weapons, not even internal communications.
It was horrible not being able to see what was out there, but then she also feared what they might find once the systems came back up. Her fear was that another ship was out there and trying to break some, or all, of the prisoners free. She had several ideas how that might be done, but the most plausible one involved having someone in the crew helping. Whoever they were, she couldn’t imagine that they had foreseen her shutting down the main computer. With the reboot of the ma
in computer, the offending computer virus had been nullified. She grinned at the thought of the traitors stuck somewhere on the ship.
Her grin disappeared as another thought occurred to her. If there was another ship out there, they might fire on her ship once they realized their plan had failed. They might prefer the prisoners dead, rather than being interrogated.
“Captain,” the computer tech called from his post. “The main computer is up and I’m trying to log in.”
The Captain swiveled in her chair, not towards the computer techs, but towards the sensor station. “Scan the area. I want to know if there’s any other ships out there.”
The sensor tech sat bolt upright and began typing on his keyboard. After a moment, he quit typing and just stared at his terminal.
“Well?” Captain Rogers demanded.
The tech glanced over his shoulder. “Sorry, Captain, but the system seems really slow.”
The computer tech spoke up. “That should be expected, Captain. Most of the other systems are not up yet.”
Captain Rogers took a deep steadying breath and slowly turned back to the computer station. “How much longer until this ship is fully operational?” she demanded.
The compute tech blinked several times before answering. “I’m not exactly sure, Captain. It could take another twenty minutes before everything is back up.”
A vein began pulsing in the Captain’s forehead and she stared at the computer tech with an intense, almost frightening gaze. “I thought you said twenty minutes a little over twenty minutes ago.”
The computer tech opened his mouth to try and respond, but the sensor tech rescued him. “Captain! Sensor readings just came back. There is another ship—it’s about ten kilometers off to starboard.”
The Captain pushed herself up from her seat and rushed over to the sensors station; Commander Griffith was right beside her. “What type of ship?” she demanded. “Is it a warship?”
“No, Captain, the ship’s too small. I would guess a freighter of some sort.”
The Captain was silent for a moment as she considered. “Check the prisoners. I want to know if any of them are missing.”
“Captain!” another crewman said interrupting. “The hangar bay doors are open and I have a shuttle taking off.”
“What?” Captain Rogers demanded, taken completely by surprise. She had anticipated traitors in her crew helping the prisoners, but she had been positive they would not have planned for the reboot of the computer.
“Captain,” the sensor tech called, “I have thirty-seven prisoners missing. Their cells are empty.”
“Target that shuttle with everything we got. NOW!” the Captain barked. If they destroyed the shuttle, they would at least minimize the damage. Perhaps they could get away with just a reprimand in their file, but if those prisoners got away, then she might as well step in the airlock and cycle it.
Another couple of crewmen began typing on their keyboards, but nothing happened. “Captain, the plasma batteries are offline,” the weapons specialist paused and checked another terminal. “Sunburst inter-ship missiles are not responding.”
“Tractor beam?” Commander Griffith asked, leaning over the weapons console.
The crewman typed on the keyboard for several moments and then looked up, “I’m sorry, sir, it’s not back up yet.”
“Damn!” The Captain took a deep breath and tried to think of another way to stop the prisoners from escaping; only one thing came to mind. “Helm, set a collision course with that other ship.” Based on how small that ship was, she fully expected that her ship would emerge unscathed from the collision. Regardless of the outcome, she could not simply sit here and let those prisoners escape.
Roughly half of the prisoners let out a cheer as the shuttle slid between the hangar doors and out into space. Regardless of the outcome, dying in space had to be better than dying in a prison cell, not to mention quite a bit quicker.
The shuttle was overloaded; it was standing-room only and there was a constant undertone of grunts as people bumped into each other or the bulkheads. The shuttle had a small cockpit at the front and then the body consisted of four rows of seats; two rows ran along the hull and two more ran down the middle of the ship.
Adam sat in the pilot’s chair and Susan had the co-pilot’s seat. Aaron stood just behind them and tried to keep the prisoners from bumping Adam—interference with a pilot at the wrong time could lead to disastrous results. Shielding Adam from the crowd was more difficult than Aaron had imagined and he kept having to grab the back of the two chairs.
Aaron poked Susan’s shoulder. “Can you show me the prison ship on one of these monitors?” Susan flipped several switches and typed in a couple of commands and one of the upper monitors flickered and then displayed the prison ship. A cold dread settled in the pit of Aaron’s stomach and he realized they had just made it out in time. Then he realized something else. “That damn thing’s moving,” he said in surprise.
“Evasive?” Adam asked. The young man’s gaze was intense but not frightened. He was a pilot who had survived a war, there wasn’t much he hadn’t seen.
Aaron paused and considered but the answer was obvious. “No, if they could’ve fired on us, then they already would have. I’m betting their weapons systems are still offline.”
“They appear to have propulsion,” Adam said, stating the obvious. “What do we do?”
“Get us aboard that ship,” Aaron replied, pointing out the canopy at the ever expanding freighter that waited on them.
Susan had taken on a far-away look and she jerked, like she was just waking up. She hastily picked up the radio headset and placed it on her head; she only kept the headset on for a few seconds and then she pulled it back off and looked over her shoulder at Aaron. “Russell’s in trouble.”
Aaron blinked at her and then her actions made sense. She must have sensed Russell’s predicament and then used the headset as a cover—she was trying to keep any of their guests from guessing about her telepathic abilities. “What kind of trouble?” he asked quickly.
“His suit is low on air and the backpack is completely out. He’s drifting towards our escape ship, but he’ll miss it rather handily.”
Worry was settling in on Aaron and he tried to ignore it and focus on resolving the problem. Still, Russell had served under him and was a friend. He paused at that thought, Were any of them truly his friends? He shook his head to clear it of the jumble of thoughts. “Can we get him aboard the shuttle?” Aaron asked.
“There’s not an airlock,” Adam said quickly.
“And no room,” one of the male prisoners said from just behind Aaron.
Aaron brought his left elbow up and back hard. He caught the man somewhere in the head area and he fell back cursing.
“We don’t need to get him onboard the shuttle,” Susan said slowly, “all we need to do is get close enough where he can grab ahold.”
Adam and Aaron both turned to stare at her. “You want to give him a ride on the outside of the shuttle?” Adam asked.
“Do you have a better idea?” she replied.
Adam looked flummoxed and Aaron knew how he felt. Trying to catch Russell with the shuttle was fraught with danger. If they were going too fast when they connected with him, then he would be crushed. There was also the little problem of the prison ship to deal with. In the end, what choice did they have. If there was even the slightest chance of saving his life, then they had to give it a whirl. He nodded at Adam. “Do it.” There was a grumbling from behind him and Aaron tightened his grip on the plasmic and turned around. He half-expected a full blown riot, but all he heard were some angry mutterings.
Those prisoners directly around him wore angry expressions. “I say let him die rather than all of us,” a prisoner said. He was a white man, in his early forties. He was short with grey hair and had several days of stubble on his cheeks.
Aaron pulled the plasmic up a bit higher, but didn’t point it directly at anyone.
“That won’t work forever,” the prisoner said. He looked around at the other prisoners, trying to judge if they would back his play or not.
In a smooth motion, Aaron turned the gun and fired. The plasma hit the prisoner in the chest and flung him backwards. The man’s body fell into a bunch of the other prisoners and they fell to the ground like dominoes. The other prisoners tried to back away from Aaron as much as they could; unfortunately they couldn’t go far. Aaron raised his voice in anger. “Now listen up! There’s a man out there that might very well die in an attempt to free you. I would rather we all die than sacrifice my friend so that scum like you can go free.” He pointed his plasmic at the man lying on the floor, the wound in the man’s chest was still smoking. “Anyone else think he was in the right?”
No one answered Aaron, they just watched him through narrowed eyes.
Gliding though space, Russell was beginning to get a little disorientated. Whether the disorientation was from the vast openness of space or from the shortage of air in his suit, he couldn’t tell. He was drifting along and watching the escape ship drawing closer. The freighter was getting large now and it rather resembled a stretched triangle with the point rounded off. The freighter had not responded to his hails and he had quit calling fairly quickly. Either they had heard him and would respond if they could, or they had not heard him and it no longer mattered.
The beeping of the low oxygen warning had started back up. In fact, the stolen air from his jetpack had not silenced the alarm for long. The sound wasn’t unpleasant and it almost seemed to be lulling him to sleep. Although, the sleepiness could also be from the lack of oxygen.
Long Shot Page 23
