"Six more minutes until the room is fully pressurized." Watts said. He took a few sniffs. "Smells done though." He tried to override the system with Amaya's codes - and amazingly it worked.
Bort was about to run into the hallway, but Watts stopped him.
"Remember the defenses!" Watts said as Bort pushed past him. Bort was much bigger than him, so Watts didn't have the ability to stop him, at least not without stunning him with a grenade.
Bort ran down the hallway to the elevator with his rifle pointed at the ceiling where the defenses should be dropping down to kill him. The defenses didn't come though, which surprised Watts as he ran after his friend. Again, Bort punched the console to get the door to open, and again it didn't do anything. Watts attempted the override again but noticed an alert in the shaft.
The elevator was stuck one deck below the observatory.
Chapter 16
The elevator came to an abrupt halt extremely quickly after Dan left the observatory, knocking him fully to the floor. After a minute or two of being dizzy, he reached up and pressed the button for the docking ring, but nothing happened.
He sat there trying to figure out what had happened. He knew his grenade couldn't have caused that explosion. Was it Too’Zer? Too’Zer had brought explosives with him, right? He couldn't remember. Was it Watts? Watts carried a full bag with him into the station, he could have had explosives in it. It was probably Watts, he thought, nodding his head.
There was metal on metal scraping noises coming from the door. He crawled, as best he could with his hurt arm and leg, to the back of the elevator. He wasn't the greatest shot with his right hand, but he reached across his body to get his pistol - which wasn't there anymore.
He looked down at the empty holster and tried to remember where he had lost it. Probably in the explosion, he thought to himself.
The metal on metal scraping turned into metal on metal grinding and was getting worse by the second. The door started moving, not enough to be pulled apart, but it was shaking, Dan was sure of it.
He reached down to grab another EMP grenade but found those were missing as well. He shook his head and pulled the combat knife out of it's sheath from under his coat. It was his last resort, and considering he could barely stand, he wasn't sure it was going to help much. He held it in front of him anyways.
The elevator doors opened a crack, enough for a metallic hand to wedge itself between them. Then another hand, facing the other way, inserted itself.
He watched as the metal hands opened the doors slowly, and soon the hands turned into metal covered arms, followed by a full metal covered head and torso. Kirk had encased himself in metal. His eye implants glowed a bright red. Red for anger, apparently.
"Now I will dissect you and figure out how it works." He said between raspy breaths.
Dan looked down to his knife, which seemed kind of worthless at the discovery of Kirk's metal body. He laughed. And Kirk stopped.
"What's so funny, Trevor?" He said, coughing afterwards.
"It doesn't matter now." He said as he tried lifting his arm. "I'm bleeding out anyways."
"Yes, the shrapnel in your leg cut through the femoral artery, though the heat from the shrapnel appears to have cauterized a portion of it." He said with a deep breath. "I calculate you have about twelve minutes of life left."
"Twelve minutes is a long time to live." Dan said quietly. "Or long enough to get to a medical bay." He said as he looked up and smiled.
"I'm not taking you to a medical bay, Trevor." Kirk said as he stepped forward.
"Probably not," Dan said. He was having trouble staying conscious. "but he will." He added right before he heard the shot from Too’Zer’s rifle, and then he passed out.
Kirk turned around, the laser did nothing to his metal skin.
* * * * *
"I'm commandeering your ship, Lieutenant." Amaya told the pilot of the Blazer. It was a small ship used for insurgence and rescue missions, like docking with the now lifeless Heatseeker and collecting the Space Admiral.
"Ma'am, I'm under orders to take you back to the Valor." Lieutenant Price attempted to argue with her - and failed.
The Blazer only had two seats in the cockpit, and benches along the cargo area for soldiers or rescue personnel. Amaya climbed into the left seat in the cockpit and entered her codes to take control of the ship. She looked back and saw Belladi laying on the floor in a medical stretcher with an oxygen mask on. She looked weak but gave a small nod to the Space Admiral.
"We're docking with Beta Station. We have a crew to rescue and a murderer to stop." Amaya told Lieutenant Price as she turned the ship towards the station and fired the engines as fast as they would go. The soldiers standing in the back lurched backwards, but everyone remained standing.
"This is against protocol, Ma'am." The Lieutenant said quietly.
"I make the protocol." She told him loudly so everyone could hear. "Listen up everyone." She said after turning on the microphone so everyone on board could hear her over the engines. "We're going to dock on the upper ring of the station. You'll make your way to one deck below the observatory and take out the humanoid that looks like a damned robot." She didn't swear much, but she felt more authoritative when she did. "Then you'll rescue the crew of the Heatseeker. There are three Humans, a Drogant, and a Grot." She said. She didn't know about Dort yet.
"Yes Ma'am!" Everyone shouted, except for the Lieutenant.
"You'll stay on the Blazer with me and tend to Belladi." She said, pointing to the patient on the floor in the back. Belladi gave her a pink-skinned thumbs-up. She noticed the men starting to stare at Belladi and hoped her pill would last long enough to get them off the Blazer and into the station to rescue her crew.
The men were already wearing their combat armor, as they had prepared to extract the Space Admiral. All the men started checking their gear.
"Also beware, the stations internal defenses may be activated and will attempt to kill you all." Amaya told them. Some of them looked at her with wide-eyes. She turned off the microphone.
"Stay alive Trevor, we're coming..." She said quietly.
She swung the little ship into the docking ring at an incredible speed. The Lieutenant grabbed the armrests on his chair with white-knuckles. Amaya smiled. It had been a few years since she attempted a high-speed dock, but she assumed it was like riding a hover-bike - you never forget. The ship slowed and came to a stop with only a little bump, and she used her command codes to override the airlock. Both the ship's and the station's doors opened before the pressurization cycle was complete with hardly a little breeze.
"Deploy!" She shouted to the unit behind her. They rushed out of the Blazer and into the station at a speed that had impressed her.
"Where did you learn how to do that?" The Lieutenant asked in surprise.
"From a smuggler." She said with a smile. "Cover the door, I'll check on Belladi."
Chapter 17
Too’Zer shot Kirk at point-blank range, even jamming the rifle's tip into the metal-man's chest and pulling the trigger as many times as he could. It had no effect.
Kirk grabbed the tip of the rifle and snapped it in half, and then jammed the broken part into Too’Zer’s shoulder. It barely scratched his tough rock-like skin.
Too’Zer took the rest of the rifle and clubbed him across the head until the rifle fell completely apart. He had to grab one of Kirk's arms as he attempted to hit Too’Zer in the head - and was surprised at the human's strength. He could barely hold the arm and grabbed his other arm to hold him there.
They locked grips, and it was a test of strength. For a moment, Too’Zer was winning. Kirk smiled and started to move his arms upward. His eyes glowed a deeper red than before.
"One of the last Drogants in the universe. It will be a shame to kill you." Kirk said in a deep metallic voice. He was straining to move his arms against Too’Zer’s. "Let me go and you can have a place at my side."
For a reply, Too’Zer headbutted him - repe
atedly. Small chips from the Drogants head fell off as he kept slamming his head into Kirk's. Kirk's arms fell to his side immediately, and Too’Zer swung him around and tried to slam him into the floor.
Unfortunately, Kirk was ready for that, and landed on his feet with a cat-like grace. Too’Zer was so surprised that his grip on the robot’s arms slipped. Kirk quickly got behind Too’Zer and jumped on his back, putting one arm around the rock-man's arms, and used one arm to brace it, then one of his arms went around his neck. Too’Zer tried frantically to remove the arm around his neck. Failing that, he ran his back into the hallway's walls, first one, and then the other. The walls were breaking before Kirk was, and he saw sparks come out in a few places.
Kirk was able to start choking him. Too’Zer was breathing heavily. He aimed his back to the hallway and pushed off, falling backwards and landing on the metal-man. Kirk released his grip when they landed and started coughing horribly. Too’Zer rolled over and made a fist. Spikes came out of his knuckles and he used them to punch Kirk in the face as many times as he could. Finally, he pierced one of his robotic eyes, making Kirk scream in pain.
He kept punching.
The other eye finally broke.
He kept punching.
"Too’Zer!" Watts said as he came down the hall with Bort.
Too’Zer kept punching.
Kirk's head was starting to dent, and a little smoke could be seen come out of the eye sockets. It didn't stop him.
He kept punching until something in the head finally broke with a loud crack, and the head itself started crushing.
The body started beeping as Watts made it to Too’Zer. "He gonna blow!" Watts said. "Throw him down the hall!" He said as he jumped over and into the elevator. Bort sidestepped the Drogant and the robot and made it into the elevator.
Too’Zer punched the head a few more times, then picked up the body and threw it as far as he could down the hallway. He nodded as the body hit the floor.
"Get in here ya big lug!" Watts said as he tapped furiously on his wrist console.
As soon as Too’Zer stepped into the elevator, the doors closed quickly.
The explosion put dents into the elevator door right before the magnetic panels holding the elevator on the floor malfunctioned - and the elevator dropped.
* * * * *
Belladi sat in the co-pilot's seat next to Amaya, looking towards the entrance. "I do hope they're okay." She said quietly. She held her hand over the now bandaged part of her stomach.
"It's Captain Dan. He always seems to find a way to escape alive." Amaya said with a small smile.
"Did you say Captain Dan? As in Captain Trevor Daniels?" The Lieutenant said from the airlock. He was holding a rifle but lowered it when Captain Dan was mentioned.
"Yes, why?" Amaya asked.
"That son of a bitch!" He exclaimed. "We're doing all this for him?" He asked incredibly.
"No, we're doing this because a mad man took over the station and fired missiles at the capital of Beta Earth, Lieutenant." Amaya told him.
"Sorry Space Admiral. Captain Daniels made us all look like fools when we picked him up for smuggling." He said, looking back down the hallway. "Still don't know how the bastard managed to get drugs through a blockade."
Belladi smiled.
"How do you know he was smuggling drugs?" Amaya asked. She had read this specific report. She was informed whenever the Captain's name was entered into a report.
"We had a spy on the ground. He told us Dan landed and handed out drugs to the people we were blockading." He told them.
"I was there for this. Dan gave them every medicine we had on-board the Heatseeker." Belladi told him.
"Illegal medicines..." The Lieutenant said.
"They weren't illegal on the planet." Belladi said. "The medicines were a specific drug that cured what ailed them. They required it, and the UPA stopped them from obtaining it in order to kill everyone on the planet and take it over."
"The blockade stopped them from sending out their weapons. Weapons which were being sold to the UPA's enemies." He said, angrily.
"Enough." Amaya said. "Captain Daniels and his crew are risking their lives to save millions." She stood up. "They're heroes, and you'll treat them as such, Lieutenant."
"Of course, Space Admiral." He said. "My apologies for speaking out of line." He said quietly.
"Where are they?" Amaya said quietly so the Lieutenant wouldn't hear her. Belladi heard her though.
Chapter 18
Watts was able to get the brake system working in the lift - barely. They were currently stuck between a floor. Too’Zer had wedged the doors open with some effort, and Bort had jumped through the door to the bottom floor. They were currently attempting to move Dan out of the elevator, but the lift kept jumping a few inches every so often. They had no idea how long it would hold.
"Yer' gonna’ have to pick him up and jump." Watts told Too’Zer.
Too’Zer nodded and did as he was asked. He was about to jump when the elevator dropped three-fourths of a floor, knocking him against the back of the lift. He grunted and jumped out on the next floor. Watts followed quickly, and barely made it before the lift fell again. They didn't bother to watch it fall, they were safe - for now.
"You there!" came a shout. "Stop where you are!"
A small and heavily armed platoon of men in UPA uniforms rushed down the hallway.
"Great." Watts said, putting all his arms up.
They stopped short. "It's them!" One of them said.
* * * * *
Dan woke up on a bed in a large medical bay. He assumed Too’Zer had got him to the one on Beta Station - until he saw Captain Norman talking to Amaya. She was in her UPA uniform.
She looked good.
He attempted to sit up, and immediately fell back. He looked down and found that he was in a medical gown. He could feel the bandages they had dressed his wounds with.
"I'm glad you're alive." Amaya said when she came over. "I guess no one wins the bet on your ship." She said with a small smile.
He ignored the bet. His crew would bet on anything. "Please tell me we're on my ship and not the Valor." He said.
"The Heatseeker is undergoing repairs in the hanger. Watts said she'll be space worthy in a few days." She told him. "How are you feeling?"
"Like I was shot with hot metal shrapnel." He said, instinctively moving his hand down to his stomach.
"The doctors on the Valor are the best in the fleet." She said, looking over to their office. "They were planning on removing the rest of the implants from your body, but I told them they couldn't without your permission." She said quietly. "Captain Norman disagreed, but I overruled him. He will tell the council."
Dan turned his head towards her.
"Though, the one in your leg was damaged by shrapnel, and that one was removed." She told him as she brought up a three-dimensional scan of his body which showed his leg. "I've ordered a full crate of Dopsusophene to be delivered to your ship, as well as our newest surgical kit and plenty of refills for all the medicines inside the kit," She said as she turned off the display of his body. "In case you wanted to do it in the privacy of your own ship."
"Who says I want them all out?" He asked.
She turned back to the computer. "Kirk was more machine than man. He had downloaded himself to a robotic body, so theoretically, he could still be out there. I've ordered his robotic body destroyed, and Captain Norman is heading up the investigation to find his real body."
Dan grunted.
"Since all the files on Project Cyber-Hercules, save the ones I gave you, were destroyed when you were freed, we don't have much to go on. I was hoping you'd be interested in chasing Kirk's real body down." She handed him a small data pad. "For a sizable commission, of course."
Dan looked at the number on the small screen and raised his eyebrows. "I'll think about it."
"I've also ordered you full access to the UPA's databases. Please don't hack into them anymore, not tha
t you can now, we've been upgrading every UPA device with new code that should stop Kirk and you from entering them without authentication codes."
"Should?" He asked.
"We can't know for sure what you both are capable of."
"Then maybe you shouldn't have destroyed the robot." He said as he attempted to sit up again.
"I can't risk someone attempting to restart the project again. I won't have anyone treated the way you and he were." She said sadly.
There was a long pause as Dan managed to sit fully up, with a little help from Amaya.
"The doctors say you should be up and about in a few days." She told him. She still had her hands on him. They felt warm and inviting.
"I guess I could use a nurse until then." He said with a big smile.
Amaya laughed. She pointed to a desk in the corner of the medical facility. "I've temporarily moved my office in here. The doctors don't like it at all, what with everyone coming and going."
"Keeping an eye on me?" He asked.
She paused for a moment. "Yes." She said with a small smile.
"You know the minute I'm able to walk I'm heading to my ship, right?"
"I know."
"I don't think your office will fit in my quarters." He added wryly.
She laughed. It had been awhile since he had heard her truly laugh. "You'd want me to come with you? I disobeyed your orders and broke your ship."
"You did what was right." Dan told her.
She was quiet for a minute. "I have too many responsibilities here..." She said, looking over to Captain Norman, who was watching Dan like a hawk.
"Well, you'll always have a place as First Officer on my ship." He said as the doctor came over and gave him a shot of something he assumed was for pain. It was kicking in fast. He closed his eyes. "If you ever reconsider."
She didn't say anything.
"Did you find my gun?" He asked before falling asleep.
* * * * *
"Space Admiral! Reporting as ordered!" Lieutenant Matthew Melton shouted with a crisp salute.
Captain Dan Saves Beta Earth Page 11
