Ambush

by G J Moses

  “Goodbye my friends, we all wish you both great success in your endeavor. But let me say one final time. Survive my friends, please survive. Get to an escape pod, if possible, but do whatever you need to do to make that happen. We all need you; I need you!” with the last being said as she looked directly at Zeke.

  Conspiracy

  Holding back tears that clouded her vision, Jeanne ran back to the fighter bay jumping into her fighter. In less than a minute she was flying out of the bay only to turn around and reenter. Landing her fighter just as a Marine shuttle entered and landed next to her fighter.

  The rear door dropped with a clang. Stepping out together as one, Khaleesi, Jan and Karter, dressed in military fatigues, walked briskly down the ramp and quickly moved off to the side to make room for those following. With precision, six Marine officers in pairs of two marched down the ramp in full Marine armor carrying their helmets onto the now empty bay. Following close behind them were two unexpected Marines, Shon Dennison and Michale Lance, also in armor and carrying their helmets. The Marines moved to the opposite side of ramp to let out the last passenger.

  The last one that stepped off the shuttle was Mrs. Jacquotte Delahaye, suited up in one of Jeanne’s spare fighter suits. Red and black coloring and all. With the helmet on, it would have been hard to distinguish any difference between Jeanne and Jacquotte unless you noticed the height difference. But once she was in the fighter, you would never know it was not Jeanne, which was the object of this ruse.

  The group then made their way to surround Jeanne, except for Jacquotte who made her way directly to Jeanne’s fighter. As the group made their way to the bay’s main doors, both Jeanne’s fighter and the Marine shuttle took off.

  “Unless I am wrong, Zeke was monitoring the ship traffic to make sure I left. Hopefully, Hawke accessed the chip with my instructions to remove any trace of us if he looked at the cameras from inside the fighter bay after I left.” stated Jeanne before turning to point to Shon and Michale. “What’s up with those two? Why are they here?”

  “They reminded me that they were ordered to watch over you and Captain Kinsley. Of course, they did not say anything until after they had boarded the shuttle fully suited up with both experiencing” at which Khaleesi gave both Marines a serious look “a temporary communication glitch. That required them to remove their helmets before they could explain whereupon it was too late to send them back as we had left the Fox. And once here, well, let’s just say they were ‘insistent’ on staying.”

  Looking at both Marines in question, Jeanne saw one shrug his shoulders while the other returned her gaze with indifference. It took all she could do to hold in her laughter.

  “That may work actually work out for us. Ok, time to split up. Everyone knows where they need to go? And remember, quietly. We cannot make our presence known until after we have been underway for several hours. And pray Masson gets his part done.”

  With that, Jeanne, Khaleesi, Jan, and Karter along with the two unplanned for Marines following loudly in their armor, made their way to the far end of the bay to access the nearest lift. Meanwhile, the six Marine officers broke up into three groups of two where they headed off to their preplanned locations.

  There were half a dozen engineering departments on a ship of this size, but the one they were heading to was vastly larger than all the others as it housed the huge ship engines. Opening the entrance hatch, Jeanne could hear some heavy cursing in the distance.

  “That has to be Jax. He could make a Marine blush with his vocabulary. You would too if you smashed your fingers working on these power plants all the time.” laughed Khaleesi.

  Following the cursing, they finally saw the man making all the racket standing next to one of the huge engines. The man’s figure against it looked tiny in comparison. Sure enough, it was Jax wildly shaking his left hand.

  “Hi Jax, did you bang your hand again?” asked an amused Khaleesi.

  “Aaugh… damn thing almost took my finger off. There should be a crew of six working on this, not just one. But no, Cap has to go off to save the planet by himself. Well, this ship will not be going anywhere without an engineer, not my ship anyway, dammit. Captains must think these things run by themselves.”

  Wiping his hands on his greasy slacks, Jax walked over to join the group while looking at them sternly before centering his gaze on Jeanne. “I take it that you are the head of this group of conspirators? You got guts lady; I like that. Now, we can do our part, but can you?”

  Just as Jeanne was about to reply, several other engineers appeared around the corner. Startled a bit, Jeanne made her response while putting her hand on Karter’s hand, which had moved to his holster. “I sure hope so.”

  With that, she turned again to face Jax. “I stopped here first to make sure you understood the plan and see if you needed any assistance.” Gesturing to the two other engineers “Are they enough for what we plan?”

  “They should be. Let me introduce you to Senior Engineers Shannon Willis and Ronald Estrada. We have worked together for over a decade and share my love for this ship. They also refused to leave even if it means a court martial. As far as our part, we will try to get you your ten hours, maybe a bit more, but after that, Zeke would start to get suspicious. Just so you know, we will not be able to hide our presence for long once Zeke heads out. Not if we are going to do what you asked.”

  “Understand. We will let you know when we are ready for Zeke to know we are on board. Karter?”

  Reaching into one of the many pouches on his armor, Karter pulled out a communicator and handed it to Jax. “Contact us if you need any help or if anything changes. Stay off the ship communications. This should be able to work throughout the ship, although I am not sure that is still true if you are inside an engine. Not sure anything would get through all that metal.”

  “I will remember that young man, I will try anyway.” Jax replied sarcastically, but with a smile to show he was only having fun.

  “Ok, unless anyone has anything else from me, I need to make a few more stops. Remember, we need to stay on our timeframe if we want to make this work.” Jeanne said as she turned while waving goodbye.

  As the group retraced their steps back to the lift, Jeanne found it a little disconcerting with the precision sound of the Marines walk. All were in lockstep with their heavy boots hitting the metal floors with a deep resonating sound that echoed off the walls and ceiling. It did not seem to matter that Karter was not an RGN marine, his march matched exactly with the others. She felt out of place in her much quieter boots. And Jan marching in step with them did not help matters any.

  “Medical” said Khaleesi as they stepped into the lift.

  The lift went into a long series of ups, downs, left, right, forward and backward before they reached Medical.

  Khaleesi laughed at the puzzlement on Jeanne’s face. “The new shape of the cruiser limited where they could put medical and keep it protected. It is directly behind main engineering, which houses the ship’s engines. Both are protected with additional armor. It was just quicker to take the lift than have to traverse through engineering and enter the medical bay from the rear.”

  Turning her head to glance at Khaleesi with raised eyebrows as they exited. “It would be really funny if Doc was heading towards engineering and we had to go back to meet him.”

  Entering the Medical bay, she saw that would not be necessary. Dr. Preruet could be seen playing with several injectors in his hands. Without turning his head, he spoke. “Well, it’s about time you showed up. I was afraid you might have got lost.”

  Placing the injectors on the corner of a desk, Dr. Preruet turned with a huge smile on his face.

  Walking right up to Jeanne, Dr. Preruet looked her straight in the eye. “Well, my lady, I have heard only pieces of your plan and the parts I have heard so far speaks very little of what you expect from me. Yet, I get the impression from those snippets, I have a major role to play. Do you want to enlighten me?”

&
nbsp; Turning her head to glance at the Marines with raised eyebrows, Jeanne returned her gaze to Dr. Preruet. “Your part is very simple, but probably the most critical of them all. Once we make our presence known, you have around twenty-four to thirty some hours to fix your captain. Then again, knowing your captain, that may be a lot harder than it sounds.”

  Chuckling, Dr. Preruet nodded his head in agreement. “True, Zeke can be a bit stubborn. But then again, here we are on a ship headed to our doom. Are we no less stubborn?”

  Placing her palm on the doctor’s cheek, Jeanne smiled. “Doc, not sure ‘stubborn’ is the right word for us.”

  Covering the hand on his cheek with his own, Dr. Preruet gave it a squeeze before pulling it down gripped tightly in his left fist.

  Walking back to his desk with Jeanne in tow, Dr. Preruet lifted one the injectors in his free hand. “Unknown to the Captain, as least I hope so, I have been getting updates from his command chair on his physical status. Not good. Several fractured ribs, one of which looks to have punctured his left lung, spleen bruising, severe enough that I believe that it could rupture at any time, but the worst based on the readings of his heartbeats being way too fast along with the other symptoms I described, a bruised or torn heart.”

  “I have been prepping these with surgical nanos for the Captain anticipating what you were going to request of me. I will require more time to finish getting these ready. Thirty minutes should do. The normal one will not meet your time frame so I have prepped a pair of them. The first will be to get his system ready to accept the next injection. The second injector contains a super dose of nano’s that is rarely used, only in the most extreme cases. Are you sure this is necessary? It will be very dangerous; I am not sure that his system will be able to handle it.”

  Lifting the second injector, she inspected it closely. Hefting it in her hand, she noticed it was much heavier than it looked. “Yes, Zeke must have a clear mind and be able to move on his own when we are ready to continue on his quest. Besides, I am sure he is programming his attack programs with the AI now and without knowing what they are, limits any plans I have drastically.”

  Handing the injector back to Dr. Preruet, she slowly walked over to Khaleesi. Placing her hand on Khaleesi’s shoulder, she lowered her head while whispering softly enough that all had to strain to hear. “Without Zeke, I fear for my people, for all humans and Sorath’s in these nearby systems. It will take more than arms to beat these Chohish, the war with the Sorath’s proved that. It will take a unique mind that, as someone once told me, does not think inside a box. Not a scientist, not a Marine, not a politician, nor even a doctor” with the last said while she looked up directly at Dr. Preruet. “But a military tactician of unique capabilities, a true military genius.”

  “And how many, do any of you know, meet that criteria in all the systems within several light years? I know of only one.” Tightening her grip on Khaleesi’s shoulder before releasing it. “That one, while leading us to impossible results against an unknown enemy, may have identified the root cause of why the Chohish are here, where they came from, how they fight, their social makeup. Even the Sorath’s, over thousands of years, never figured all that out. And all in only a matter of a few days. Someone who kept his eye on the long game, not just how to win a battle.”

  It was Dr. Preruet who broke the quiet that followed. “Best description of Captain Kinsley I have heard yet. I have worked with many officers over my long career. Some good, some bad, but very few that had all the capabilities you mentioned. But you missed the one aspect that I respect the most, he cares about his crew. Not just for how they manage their duties, which he does, but also for their safety. In the few years I have worked with Zeke, I have seen him in my infirmary checking on the ship’s crew more often than any other commanding officer that I have ever worked under. And status calls, I was getting so many that I was forced to limit him to two a day. And that is not just my opinion, that is what I hear from my patients. This crew cares as much for their captain as he cares for them.”

  With a cough to grab Jeanne’s attention, Jan pointed to his watch. Nodding, she sighed before gesturing to Karter who handed her a communicator.

  “Once you are ready Doc, let us know through this. That will be the kickoff signal for the rest of us.” Sighing, Jeanne turned towards the entrance. “Hopefully, against all odds, Masson is able to get his part done. Without that, I doubt that we will even make it to the planet.”

  Dr. Preruet, puzzled at her comment responded “Why do you say that?”

  “Think about it for a minute. The Chohish must know this ship was contacted by Niflhel. I bet they even planned on it. What would you do if you were in charge? They know we will not come back through the tunnel as I am sure they have that monitored and blocked by now. If I had several fleets, I would put some form of intercepting force in our way. And in the condition the Lucky Strike is in, it would not require very much.”

  Dr. Preruet’s eyes widened at the response, as this was not something he had considered before. “Well then, looks like I better finish up sooner than later, goodbye all.” At which the Doc went back to his table where he picked up his injectors and placed them into slots in his desk. Murmuring under his breath, it was obvious the doc was already back to work and ignoring his guests.

  Leading the way back to the lift, Jan started rubbing his right arm and grumbling. Jeanne, seeing this sighed and asked.

  “Ok Jan, what is bugging you. So far we seem to be moving along pretty much as we hoped.”

  “Too many variables, most unknown if they can be accomplished, Masson most of all. Marines are good fighters, I know, I have seen them in action. But breaking into the controls for the lasers? It is secured by the best security software the RGN has while also being monitored by the ships AI. And Captain Kinsley, from when I last saw him, I will be surprised if he survives the next few hours let alone the next several days. You do not even know if Hawke got your message. If any of those items fail, all of your planning could be for naught. I feel we are headed towards a disaster.”

  Smacking the side wall with her left hand while bending over and grabbing her chest with her other hand, Jeanne rocked on her heals for a few seconds before she straightened up where she started bellowing out laughing. Gasping while she caught her breath, Jeanne pointed her right hand at Khaleesi. “He’s all yours.”

  Sighing, Khaleesi, without any warning, twirled on the heels of her feet where she punched Jan on his left shoulder with force.

  Flying across the hall to smack into the opposite wall, Jan barely stayed on his feet, staggering a few steps before leaning heavily against the wall. Gasping in pain he yelled. “Shit woman, what was that for?”

  “Headed towards a disaster? Really? We are on a crippled ship with no crew, a dying captain, a Sorath anxious to join his ancestors, hoping Masson can do the impossible, no idea on what’s in front of us, nor what we will find if or when we reach our destination except that it will be a large fleet containing a minimum of several battleships and support ships.” replied a calm Khaleesi.

  “If you were one of my Marines, I would have hit you a lot harder for saying something so stupid.” Moving to stand by Jan before grabbing his arm to assist him to stand straight, Khaleesi finished with. “Welcome to my everyday world.”

  Rubbing his shoulder, Jan grimaced in pain as he looked questioningly at the two Marines who had not moved a muscle during the whole exchange. It was a few seconds before Shon quietly stated unsympathetically in his booming voice. “It was a stupid comment. The Major should have hit you harder.”

  Still chuckling, Jeanne waved her hands in the air. “We do not have time for this.”

  “Well, I guess it was kinda stupid thinking back on it.” murmured Jan before he too started laughing. With that Jeanne hurried down the corridor, followed by the rest.

  Puzzle

  Holding his breath for a moment, Zeke gripped the arms of his chair, hoping to get a moments relief from the
pain in his chest. But no sooner than he started holding it, another sharp spasm of pain racked through his body.

  Breathing through pain clenched teeth, he glanced over at Hawke, who was watching him with concern written all over his face. The coppery taste in his mouth was getting worse as the pain increased. Several times already he found himself close to losing consciousness. But he had not finished his coding and until then, he could not afford himself that luxury. Afterwards, it would not matter.

  The waves of pain increased as he continued coding only to spike when the ship suddenly jerked to port. A screaming sound echoed throughout the bridge.

  Leaping to his feet, Hawke glanced around wildly. Running over to a set of monitors, he peered at the display for a minute or two before turning back to Zeke.

  “Seems we have lost power on both engines three and four, engines one and two are still functioning.”

  “What if we rerouted all power to the working engines, can we keep up our current speed?” asked Zeke.

  “No, some power, but we still need a good bit of power for life support, scanners, AI, shields and so on. Usually, something like this would only be temporary as the engineers can handle almost anything except a full engine meltdown. And no ship has had that in over twenty years.”

  Reviewing additional data, Hawke updated Zeke. “The engines that failed were the ones Jax was unable to do the maintenance on prior to our departure from Nocuous. Without those engines, per the ships AI, our speed will slowly diminish until we are at quarter speed at best.”

  “Sorry Hawke, I knew the answer already, I said it out of frustration. We cannot afford the time. Every hour, every minute counts. We have to stop the bombardment regardless of the risk to ourselves. Route all available power to the remaining engines, including life…” when they were unexpectedly interrupted.

  “Captain, this is Jax in main engineering. I am sorry to say I, along with Senior Engineers Shannon Willis and Ronald Estrada, missed the last shuttle. Looks like it was good we did. Preliminary analysis done by the ships AI matches my own analysis. Engines three and four have experienced a power overload, most likely due to all the stress we have been put on them. I warned you we needed to do some maintenance.”