Fenris Unchained
Page 25
She grimaced. How had things gone so wrong yet again?
Stasia was at the blast door behind her. A moment later, it opened.
Marcus pushed Swaim through, followed a second later by Roush.
Mel inched back from the edge. She saw Bob get into relative safety behind a large pipe. He had a clear route all the way to the door.
She didn’t see Brian; he’d been off to the left, and she hoped he was still alive.
Mel crept back from the edge some more. A hint of movement in the corner of her eye made her glance left. She ducked behind a support beam as two men rolled over the lip of the ladder well. Their shots bounced off the sides of the beam.
“Mel, get out of there!” Marcus shouted.
“I can’t!” she yelled back. A gap of six meters lay between her and the shelter of the doorway. As she watched, Bob made that shelter in a dash. She saw him stumble the last bit as a bullet clipped his leg.
Marcus crouched and moved toward Mel, then fell back as a bullet caught him in the shoulder.
Bob leaned around the corner and fired twice. He ducked back as still more fire tracked in on the doorway.
“Go! It’s too late!” Mel shouted. She leaned to the right and fired twice in the direction of the attackers, then ducked back as the terrorists focused on her and her cover.
A bullet bounced off the ceiling and down to catch her on her thigh. She choked off a scream and clutched the bleeding wound with her left hand, squeezing her pistol tight with her other.
Didn’t think I would die like this, she thought.
“Mel!” Marcus shouted. He tried to jump out, but Bob grabbed him by the back of his vest and pulled him back.
“I’m sorry, Marcus,” she said, taking a deep breath. “Someone get him out of here. He doesn’t need to see this.”
She closed her eyes. Silently she counted down, preparing herself for one last act.
If she had to die, she was going to kill Frost too.
All she needed was for the men below her to stop firing, if only for a second. Then she could finish him at least.
It would be easy; she just had to stand and get one good shot.
***
Frost listened to his men and gnashed his teeth. The enemy had pulled back. It sounded like his men had trapped at least two of them. Even so, he’d hoped to finish them off.
He gestured at his group to start toward their ladder. Now that Smith’s team had them flanked, they’d be able to climb unimpeded.
Frost ejected his magazine and pulled a new, full one out of his ammo-pouch.
Then he saw movement above him.
***
Mel saw her chance when the fire cut off from below.
Protected by the pillar from the attackers on her side, she stood.
She brought her pistol up.
Her sights leveled on the lone man standing below her. It had to be Frost. She saw the surprise in how he froze and stared up at her.
She had him.
She wished she could see his face under his helmet.
She started to squeeze the trigger.
Something grabbed the back of her suit and pulled. She flew backwards, like someone kicked by a martial artist from a cheap action movie. In a blur, she went over the back of Brian. She hurtled through the doorway and slammed into Bob in the doorway.
They both went down in a tangle of arms and legs.
Brian, sans helmet, still stood. Bullets struck him from two sides. Then, like a falling tree, he wavered. He dropped to one knee. As the door began to close, Mel saw him collapse, the deck covered in his blood.
The worst thing was the faint smile on his face.
The door slammed shut.
***
“We have to go,” Stasia said. She’d pulled off her helmet. Her mousy brown hair hung in sweat-soaked locks. Her face looked pinched and pale, but she spoke with calm determination.
Mel staggered to her feet. “Okay, let’s go.”
She couldn’t get the image of Brian’s death out of her mind. He’d died to save her, and in his death, he’d taken her chance to kill Frost. She couldn't decide if she felt anger, regret, or gratitude for his sacrifice.
A moment later, a pair of crushing arms wrapped around her. “Oh, God, Mel, why do you always scare me like that?” Marcus said.
“We need to get out of here,” Mel said, patting Marcus awkwardly on his uninjured shoulder. “It won’t be long before they blow the door down or find a way around.” She took a couple limping steps. It hurt, but at least she could walk.
“Uh, should we go to the hangar?” Swaim asked.
“No, we need to get to the bridge,” Mel said. In her mind, she again saw Frost in her gun sights. No later did she force the image out than she saw Brian collapse with that damned smile on his face.
“Why the bridge?” Marcus asked, holding out his uninjured arm to support her. She took the support with a grateful nod. She tugged the helmet off, and inhaled the less-rank air of the ship. God, I stink, she realized.
She staggered on for a distance, trying to organize her thoughts:
“Frost will head there. It’s the only way for him to take control of the ship. Also…” she shrugged, “If the AI does wake up, there has our best chance to reprogram it.”
“Uh, I’m not sure that’s possible,” Swaim said. “Can’t we just, you know, give up? Jump ship or something?”
Mel clenched her jaw, seeing Strak die again; feeling the weakening pulse in Giles’ hand as he died. The slight smile on Brian’s face as he’d collapsed.
“No. Too many people died for us to get this far. We can’t stop now.”
“She’s right,” Roush said. He grimaced at the surprised look she gave him, “Don’t look at me like that. We can’t let Frost have control of this ship. He’ll cause too much damage to the picket at Vagyr. I may be a cold-blooded bastard, but everything I’ve done I’ve done to preserve the Guard and defend humanity.”
“Okay, so we go to the bridge then,” Marcus said. He sounded oddly happy, but she couldn’t guess why. She just leaned on him, glad for the support.
“Elevator is quickest way,” Stasia said.
Bob spoke, “We’ll need to stop soon. Half of us are leaving a blood trail. Get us to a spot where we can lick our wounds. Then we go to the bridge.” He’d holstered his BFR 25mm and drawn a more standard pistol.
Mel just nodded. She felt too tired to protest.
***
“Why the hell is he smiling like that?” Smith asked. He toed the body, as if he hoped for an answer. At least a dozen bullets had struck the man in the chest, and a huge sticky puddle of blood coated the deck.
The corpse’s left arm ended in a mutilated stump, and Frost absently wondered how that had happened.
“Which one is it?” he asked, feeling oddly subdued after his brush with death. He’d recognized Rawn’s sister. From what his men said, this man had saved him.
They didn’t see it that way, but he did.
It felt somehow wrong that the man who’d saved him had also saved the woman who nearly killed him. That he’d paid for it with his life left Frost’s feelings conflicted.
“Brian Liu, Colonel,” Rawn said. “The one we killed in the workshop was his friend Strak.”
The boy seemed more unsettled than Frost felt, probably because he’d nearly seen his sister die. Best to take that problem out of the picture.
“Rawn, you and Hugh get down to the hangar. Make sure our escape option is secure and hold that position.” Frost cleared his throat. “Smith, take your team up to Deck Six. Get Anderson and our wounded out of that locked down section. After that get to the bridge.”
“Yes, sir.” Smith said. He sounded a little disappointed not to be on the heels of the enemy.
“Rawn, do you know what your sister meant about a backup mainframe?”
“No, sir. I can pull up the schematics and check. It might have been a bluff,” Rawn said, sounding uncertain.
He thought for a moment: “We wounded them. That will give us a window to get ahead of them. Peters and Gibbs, we’ll go up to Level Six, then cut through to the elevator.” He paused, “Any questions?”
No-one spoke.
“All right, men. Move out.”
***
“How’s the leg?” Marcus asked.
Mel’s head jerked up, and she realized she must have fallen asleep. “What? Oh, the leg, fine.”
They waited halfway down the midships central corridor. With no sign of immediate pursuit, they’d stopped to patch themselves up.
“You all right, Mel?”
She shook her head, “Just tired. Shouldn’t be, not after all the sleep I got as a hostage.” Even she didn’t chuckle at her weak joke. “You know me; just lazy I guess.”
She rubbed at her eyes, “How’s your shoulder?”
He felt at the bandage, “Hurts. Not as bad as the head surgery, granted, but it hurts.”
“Sorry. About the implant, anyway.”
“Don’t be. I should have cut the thing out myself years ago.” Marcus looked away.
“Do you think this is all worth it?” she asked, keeping her voice low so the others couldn’t hear.
Marcus quirked a half smile and reached out to grab her hand. He met her eyes and spoke softly, almost gently: “Mel, that you know the truth about me and you don’t hate me for it… anything’s worth that.”
She flushed and turned her head away, “I never hated you, Marcus.” She cleared her throat, “I hated the things you did. I still hate how you’ve run away from things in the past. I’m glad you’ve decided to stick this out.”
He pulled her close and hugged her tightly, “God, Mel, I wish you understood how unique you are.”
Mel patted his arm, “Okay, yeah, whatever.”
“If you two are done?’ Bob asked.
Mel flushed again, “Uh, yeah.”
Marcus let her go, but he kept one arm across her shoulders.
“Now then,” Bob said, “we’re on deck four. We’ve got to get to the elevator. Stasia, you had any luck with the sensors?”
“Nyet,” the hacker said, sounding frustrated, “Most of the security ran off the same power supply. Without it, I can’t track them.”
“OK. Swaim, what’s the status of the AI?”
“Uh, I’m not really sure,” Swaim said. “I’m sure the backup mainframe is still intact. I’m pretty sure the AI would restart in that secondary location. I don’t know if it would reset or if it’ll come back as crazy as it got before.”
“How long?” Mel asked. She hoped that Fenris would return to normal, but she was afraid of the severity of the damage the computer had taken.
“Uh, I think soon. Maybe a few more hours,” Swaim said.
“Can you reprogram it or shut it off?” Bob asked.
“We need to be at the bridge for that,” Stasia said. She scratched at her hair and squinted down at her datapad. “Even then, it will be easier to reset it than to reprogram it.”
“But you can reset it?” Mel asked hopefully.
“Maybe,” Swaim said. “It, uh, could take a few hours, though.”
“A few hours?” Marcus asked. He shook his head, “We’re less than a day from Vagyr.”
“Uh, also, we’ll need the AI to be on the primary mainframe in order to reprogram it or reset it,” Swaim added.
“How likely is that?” Mel asked.
“Well, it would make sense for it to repair the damage to the power conduits. I doubt it would take long,” Stasia said. She looked around, a frustrated expression on her face. “I wish we had just one engineer.”
“Well, we don’t,” Bob said. “That’s still our best bet. So, we try for the bridge. What’s the quickest way, the elevator?”
“Yes,” Mel said. She frowned, “The terrorists will know that too, though.”
Bob pulled out his BFR. He frowned slightly, “I’d say no problem’s too big for this thing, but I’m out of ammo.”
Mel frowned and checked her pistol, “I’ve only got five rounds left.”
A quick inventory left them all with concerned expressions. Marcus summed it all up, “So we’ve got twenty pistol rounds, thirty carbine rounds, and… that’s it?”
“Pretty much,” Roush said. “I’d ask for a gun, but I think I’d prefer everyone else have one full magazine at this point.”
Bob frowned at him. Finally, he pulled out his folding knife, “I’m cutting you loose, Roush. Cause us any trouble and I’ll kill you, if it costs me my own life.”
“Love you too, sweetheart,” Roush said. After Bob cut him loose, he massaged his wrists. “I’m as kinky as any guy, but I like to be the one doing the tying.”
Mel suddenly wished she could trade his life for Brian’s or Strak’s, or even Giles’. At least they’d been people who tried to live good lives. Roush seemed to wallow in his own sins.
“Stasia, can you remotely access the elevator?” she asked.
“Da.”
“Well, send it to our level and then lock it down,” Mel said. She hoped the terrorists wouldn’t take the time to go up through the access hatch in the engine room.
“They could still force open the doors. There’s a ladder in there, isn’t there?” Bob asked.
“Yeah,” she sighed. “ But we’ve wasted enough time. Time to go.”
Mel snickered slightly as they limped down the corridor, she and Marcus leading the way.
“What?” Marcus asked.
“Just thinking how comical we must look. Bob and I with leg wounds and you with your shoulder. Swaim wouldn’t know what to do with a weapon. Stasia has an empty carbine.” She shook her head. “We’ve got two pistols with full magazines, three that are useless, and the one carbine you’re carrying with a full magazine.”
“Yeah, those poor bastards won’t know what hit them,” Marcus said.
“Glad you see the humor,” she grinned. She doubted she’d survive all this, but it had been an adventure.
“Oh, I’m not being humorous.” Marcus said. “With you on our side, we can’t lose.”
She punched his shoulder, and he grinned at her. “Seriously, Mel, I can’t think of any place I’d rather be, or any other beautiful woman I’d rather have hanging on me.”
“Don’t start that again, Marcus,” Bob said. “We’ve established that Brian was the heroic sidekick. You might, I repeat, might get the humorous sidekick role. No way in hell are you the hero.”
“Uh, what the hell are they talking about?” Roush asked.
Mel just laughed.
***
“Colonel Frost, Smith here.”
“This is Frost, send it.”
“Sir, we’ve reached the blast door. We’re trying to get it open. The computer already did an environmental seal on the door. It’s going to take us a while to get it open.” Frost could hear the exasperation in his voice.
“Colonel, do you want me to head up there?” Rawn asked.
“Are you at the hangar already?”
“Yes, sir. We just got here.”
“No. Smith can handle it then.” Frost shook his head. Fenris had locked down two sections of Deck Six. Frost and his men had lost valuable time going around those sections, but there’d been no choice in the matter. “Anderson, will you be all right for a couple hours more?”
“Yes, Colonel, I think we’ll manage.”
“All right, let me know if anything changes.” He looked over at Peters and Gibbs. “Let’s pick up the pace. We need to get to the bridge as soon as possible.”
They broke into a jog, then a run, Frost relying on his memory to lead them through the corridors.
Even so, it took nearly a half hour for them to reach the elevator.
“Peters, call it up,” Frost puffed. All
the gear added almost seventy five pounds of weight, and his muscles felt like jelly. But he bet that the others with their wounds wouldn’t have reached the elevator yet.
“Sir, we’ve got a problem,” Peters said.
“What now?” Frost snarled, gritting his teeth. Should have expected something else to go wrong...
“Someone’s locked down the elevator. They’ve put in a numeric password. Without that, I can’t get it to come up here.”
“Can you get the door open?” Frost asked. “There’s a ladder inside the shaft. We can take that to the command deck.”
“Uh… maybe.” Peters frowned. He tapped at the elevator controls, then shook his head, “Honestly sir, Smith would be better at this.”
“Smith is getting Anderson and our wounded.” Frost said. He knew the remark was unnecessary, but he had become to feel slightly overwhelmed. He’d lost too many men. Too many tasks remained. He sighed, “Can you do it?”
“I’ll try, sir.”
Frost nodded. He flipped on his radio, “Smith, this is Frost.”
“Colonel?”
“As soon as you get Anderson out of there, I need you at the elevator, ASAP.” He chewed on his lip. Finally he shrugged, and said what was on his mind: “The others have locked down the elevator. It probably means they expected us to get here first.”
“Roger, Colonel. I’ll expedite.”
“Thanks Smith.” Frost sighed. He glanced at his suit’s clock and hoped that Rawn’s sister had only bluffed about the AI’s backup.
***
“Well, this complicates things.” Bob said.
Mel decided to give him a few points for understatement.
Somehow, significant portions of the central part of Level Four had taken damage. She guessed the pocket they’d fallen into earlier was an extension of this damage. In any case, the central corridor ended in a pressure-sealed blast door.
Stasia cursed over her datapad nearby. “This will be difficult. Without sensors, I have to map against old data. We might miss a corridor Fenris fixed recently.”