Baxter Moon, Galactic Scout (18 page)

“Okay SC, open the door,” I ordered.

“Are you sure?” SC said. “I have some access to the Explorer’s cameras and I see that there are currently ten zombies leaning on the door. If the modified weapon does not work you will all quickly be taken captive.”

I thought for a minute. SC certainly had a good point. If this didn’t work then we’d be making ourselves easy to capture with no backup plan in place.

“We are on an elevator and the zombies aren’t going anywhere,” Kymm said. “We can go down to the bay area, just far enough from the action so we can help or retreat.”

We all looked at each other and nodded.

“I’m lowering the lift now,” SC said.

There was silence on the way down. The trip couldn’t have taken a minute, but it seemed longer. I guess that’s why people make small talk; it helps make time pass quicker. Only in this case the situation was too big for small talk.

The lift stopped.

“We have reached the bay,” SC announced. “I have scanned the area. There are no hostiles present.”

K-999 led Kymm, Chriz and Elvin off the lift. Before Kymm walked off, she turned to me. “Good luck,” she said.

I gave her a little salute. “When you’re good you don’t need luck,” I said as the door closed.

“You better hope for all the luck you can get,” I heard Kymm yell through the door as we started our way back up.

The trip up to the conference room went a lot faster than the trip down. The princess and I didn’t say anything to each other. After all, there wasn’t anything that needed to be said. We knew what we had to do.

“We have arrived,” SC said.

“Open the door on three.”

The princess and I both pointed our rods at the door.

“Why do you humans always pick three? Why not two or five?” SC asked.

“Tradition,” I said.

“Yes, you are creatures of habit.”

“Can we get back to the business at hand, SC?”

“I am a very powerful mega super computer. I can open a door and still have a conversation about human idiosyncrasies.”

“Maybe so, but the princess and I need to concentrate,” I said.

“Ah yes, good point. I am ready at your command.”

“Thanks, one, two, open the door.”

The door receded into the wall. The sudden move caught the zombies who had been pounding on the door totally off guard. They weren’t used to us making it so easy on them. The lead zombies who were leaning on the door fell into the elevator.

The princess and I both aimed our weapons and fired at them. The weapons made a strange buzzing noise, but nothing else seemed to happen. The zombies who were on the ground suddenly stopped trying to get back to their feet. Their eyes which had been glazed over in a mental fog suddenly cleared. They were confused about what had happened, but it looked like they were once again in control of their actions.

I took this as a sign that our little tweaked devices were working. I quickly aimed and fired at the second group that had been standing right outside the entrance but weren’t leaning on the doors. They had started to lurch into the lift. A split second after I fired they stopped. They shook their heads. Their eyes cleared. They, like the others, were still dazed but they were no longer dangerous. I smiled and pushed my way past them into the conference room. The princess followed close behind.

“You take your people and I will take my people,” she said.

“Too complicated, Your Highness. You take the right side of the room, I’ll take the left.”

“Simple but effective,” she said.

“The story of my life.”

I wanted to move fast. Even though our plan seemed to be working, I knew we had to execute it fast before the TVTrons had a chance to react. A couple other zombies came at me. I blasted them. (Well, actually I sound-waved them, but blasting sounds cooler.) They instantly stopped coming at me.

I ran toward the spot where four zombies had Zenna pinned to the wall. I had to give Zen credit. She was still fighting.

“I’ll never give up,” Zenna shouted.

I aimed in the middle of the four of them. My rod made the strange buzzing sound. The four of them instantly stopped struggling with Zenna and released their grip on her.

“Thanks,” Zenna called to me as I ran by.

“Since your weapons work, I told the others to join us on this floor,” SC said over my communicator.

“That’s kind of not your place,” I said as I continued to run. “I thought your job was just to give information, not make decisions.”

“My job is to be efficient,” SC said. “This is the most efficient way. Doing it my way means you can save at least thirty tics!”

I was too busy to argue. Besides I’ve learned that arguing with a super computer is even more futile than arguing with Elvin. Above and beyond that, I had to admit SC had a point.

I threw myself onto the long table that traversed the room. I slid down the table, aiming my rod to the left and firing away as fast as my hand could squeeze the trigger. I figured this would give me great coverage of the left side of the room. After a few tics I had slid across a good portion of the table. By the time my momentum gave out I was three-quarters of the way down the table. I aimed my rod up and fired a couple more times, just to make sure I got everybody on my side.

I sat up and looked around. All the zombies that had been on the left side of the room were now standing there shaking their heads. I looked to my right. All the zombies on the right were also returning to normal. The princess had managed to get her side cleared without sliding on the table.

I hopped off the table and over to the princess. “Nice job,” I said.

“When you are as accurate with a power rod as I am, you don’t need to be flashy,” she said with a superior smile.

“Let’s get our ambassadors and our people out of here,” I said.

I never met our ambassador, but he was still easy to pick out from the crowd, especially now that the crowd wasn’t trying to kill us. He was a balding, middle-aged man with a big stomach, wearing a fancy, gold dress uniform with stars running up and down his sleeves and his pant legs. I of course couldn’t see it but I was betting his underwear had stars on it also.

“Ambassador?” I said as I ran up to him.

“Yes, I am Ambassador W.G. Plant. You may address me as Your Excellency,” he said very dignified. “Who are you? Why are you here? Where is here?”

“The who is easy, I’m Baxter Moon, Galactic Scout Second Class,” I said. “We’re on the Explorer. The why is a bit harder to explain.” I pointed to the lift. “I suggest I explain it on the way out of here.”

Ambassador Plant, who was obviously still a little dazed and confused, nodded. “Yes, I’m not sure why, but I totally agree with you.”

“Everybody on the lift now!” I shouted. “Let’s move it, people!”

We took the lift down to the bay area. We entered the bay with our weapons ready, but met with no resistance either from the TVTrons or any of the machines on Explorer. We scanned the bay for some sort of hostile activity but it was calm.

“It’s quiet. Too quiet,” Elvin said. He paused for a tic. “I just love saying that!” he said.

“I guess we’ve given them enough of beating,” Kymm said.

K-999 took a quick head count. There were thirty-two politicians, sixteen from Earth and sixteen from Aqua. “We need to split up.” K-999 pointed with his nose to Kymm’s ship. “The ones from Earth will go with Cadet Clark.”

Kymm saluted to Ambassador Plant. “I’m sure you and your people will find the ride on my shuttle back to the Searcher acceptable,” she said.

The ambassador gave Kymm a polite bow. “I am sure my staff and I will find the ride more than acceptable,” he said.

K-999 pointed to my shuttle, leaning against the wall. “The Aquarians will ride with Scout Moon.”

A very formal looking woman with light blue hair done up in a bun looked at my beat-up shuttle. She shook her head. “Why do the Earthlings get the better shuttle?”

The princess spoke for K-999. “Ambassador Marga,” she said sternly, “I assure you Baxter Moon is a fine pilot. We could not be in better hands.”

Ambassador Marga looked at my shuttle, she looked back at me, then back at the shuttle. Finally her gaze met the princess’s gaze. She bowed deeply. You could see she knew the princess and that she didn’t have the chance of a snow ball on the sun of winning this one.

“I am not one to argue with my princess,” she said.

“Good,” the princess said. She pointed to my shuttle. “I suggest we board before the TVTrons have more time to counteract our moves.”

“Yes, Your Highness,” the entire Aquarian delegation said.

The two groups split up. Kymm, her crew and the Earthlings to her shuttle; my crew, the Aquarians and I to my shuttle.

“Thanks for the compliment, Your Highness,” I said.

“I had to do it to reassure my people,” she said. She gave me a little wink. “You may call me Princess.” I took that as a good sign.

I led my team and the Aquarians into my shuttle. To be on the safe side, I entered with two energy weapons ready. This way I could handle either TVTrons or any leftover zombies that we didn’t know about. The shuttle was empty, though. I wasn’t sure if the TVTrons had given up or were prepping for a new attack. Whatever, I decided it was best not to worry about it. Like GiS would always harp, worrying doesn’t help; if you’re prepared you don’t have to worry. I sort of understood that now. I was well trained and fast on my feet. I was prepared for anything the TVTrons could muster.

SC had the shuttle ready for us. The extra passenger seats were up and ready. I had to give SC credit. He might have been acting a bit odd, but he was also making good choices. “The quicker you take your seats, the quicker we’ll be out of here,” I said to the Aquarian party. “Please buckle your harnesses.”

They still weren’t exactly clear what had happened, but they knew it wasn’t pleasant and none of them wanted to hang around any longer. They hastily grabbed seats and sat down.

I looked at my crew. They were already at their stations preparing for takeoff. I couldn’t help being proud.

I headed to the pilot’s seat. I sat down and buckled myself in. This was going to be a rocky flight, but I didn’t want to say that.

The princess sat next to me and buckled in. She gave me a forced grin. “I have faith in you, Baxter, but this is going to be tricky, even for you.”

I couldn’t blame her for being scared. My shuttle didn’t look like it could fly across the street, much less across space. It wasn’t going to be easy to fly. Yet I knew my shuttle, my crew and I could do this.

“Tricky is my middle name,” I said.

“What an odd name”

“It was a joke, princess.”

“Oh, not a very good one.”

“You just don’t get Earth humor.”

The princess just looked at me. “True, I studied your greatest Earth comics — the Six Stooges — and I barely smiled… I found them to be not at all entertaining.”

“Don’t worry, princess, you’ll grow to appreciate my humor.” I told her.

“I hate to interrupt the sparkling banter,” Kymm called from her shuttle. “But we have to hightail it out of here. Since my shuttle’s still in good shape, I should lead the way out.”

“I won’t argue with you there, Kymm,” I said.

“Once you clear the Explorer I’ll give you a tow back to the Searcher. Then we’re back to good old terra firma.”

“Once again I won’t argue,” I said.

I looked over at Kymm in her shuttle and gave her a formal salute. She returned the salute with a crisp salute of her own. She fired up her shuttle and easily steered it out of the Explorer.

Now it was my turn. I fired up my engine. It complained a bit and rumbled a bit more, but it did eventually spring, well at least crawl, to life.

I touched the accelerator just enough to ease us away from the wall. We wobbled forward.

“Are you sure this ship will hold together?” Ambassador Marga asked.

“Of course he is!” Princess Amana said. Turning to me she said, “You are sure. Right, Baxter?”

“Of course I am!” I said, trying to sound more confident than I felt.

I eased the shuttle forward. It made a slight creaking noise when it pulled away from the wall. The noise caused the entire Aquarian delegation to gasp.

“Nothing to worry about,” I said loudly so everybody could hear.

I nudged the control stick forward. The shuttle started to roll toward the bay door. We were a little off center so I realigned her a bit. The handling wasn’t as precise as it normally was but it was still acceptable. I checked my radar. Kymm had cleared the Explorer and was now hovering 500 meters above it. She was in position to catch us should we start to plummet once we made our exit. Apparently Kymm had about as much confidence as the Aquarians. I checked my boosters and engines. They were both still at 70 percent so we would have enough power. The question was, how much would I be able to control the shuttle in gravityless space?

We moved forward. The shuttle seemed fairly stable, which made me reasonably confident. We cleared the opening. We were back in space, but for once in my life I wasn’t that thrilled to be there. My shuttle had taken a lot of damage in my crash landing, but I hoped it still had enough left in it to make the trip back to the Searcher.

I pushed the acceleration button. “Come on baby! Let’s go!” I coaxed.

The shuttled rocked forward.

“Does talking to it help?” the princess asked.

“It doesn’t hurt,” I said.

I looked at my meters. Everything looked okay. Not great, but at least I should have enough power to make the quick trip over.

I pulled back on the control stick. The shuttle pulled up. It didn’t have the instant response it normally had but it was still good enough. We started to climb and pull away from the Explorer.

I pushed the throttle forward and headed toward the Searcher. The ship was shaky but controllable.

“Uh oh,” Elvin said.

“What? I don’t like Uh oh,” I said.

“We’re leaking fluids!”

“Which ones?” I asked.

Elvin looked at his console. “It would be easier to list all the ones that aren’t leaking.” Elvin squinted at his console. “Our engines and controls will be dead, in three, two, one, now.”