Escape 2: Fight the Aliens (16 page)

“Bill!” called Mack. “We’re outside the Command Bridge of this ship. We heard. We’re placing demo balls at three spots. Captain and crew are inside the bridge. We’re pulling back . . .” Three loud booms came over the comlink audio. Which he expected as every vacsuit had an external speaker and pickup per emergency regulations. “Two Aliens down from the blast. Laser fire!”

Too much now happened.

“They’re fighting us!” called Janice. “The two crew up front are out in the hallway and shooting lasers at us from behind an open hatch. Gravity is out! We’re tossing a demo ball their way.”

“Laser fire,” called Stefano. “From the two outside the Food Chamber. We’re at the hatch by the Water Pool room. We’re returning fire with tasers. Gravity is out here too.”

“Damn!” yelled Mack. “We’re in control of the Command Bridge. It cost us. The captain lasered Andre in his chest plate while the other crewman hit Apsara with a taser. She’s out and shaking like a leaf. Andre moved sideways before the laser penetrated, but his left arm was slashed badly. His vacsuit is melted on that arm. I’m wrapping his wound. Will take ship control in a moment. And the bridge wall holes are starting to close up. That flexmetal is amazing!”

“Stefano!” Bill called. “Holo track those two out by the Med Hall. They may be moving to hit you from behind by way of the Engine cross hallway.”

“Just what the holo says they are doing,” Stefano said. “Cassandra is covering that approach. Bob and I are advancing.”

Richardson looked Bill’s way, his expression grim. The CNO understood that Stefano’s team was in danger of being blocked in from two ends. Either they moved through one of their opponents, or they would take fire from two directions.

“Two Aliens are down and twitching,” Stefano said, his voice hurried. “Bob took a laser in his chest plate and left shoulder. His vacsuit is melted there. He’s still functional. We three are advancing on the bridge. Left a ten minute calling card demo ball at the hatch entry to the Weapons hallway. Might catch our pursuers.”

“Ship is under our control,” Mack said dourly. “The AI accepts me as primary bioform. Andre, Apsara and I are naming this ship
Rolling Thunder
. We are heading for L4 in view of the CNN idiocy!”

Bill felt relief at that news. “Alicia, Jake and Frank, take your ships out to L4 also. No point in pretending. They already know you control your ships. Janice? Talk to me.”

“We’re advancing on the Command Bridge,” Janice replied, sounding short of breath. “The demo ball blast knocked out the two crew firing lasers at us. We tasered them. Leaving them behind as we advance.”

No one else reported for the moment. He looked over his shoulder at Jane. “Captain, I strongly urge we move this ship down to where the two remaining Collectors are located. Maybe we can distract their captains and crew with some laser strikes.” A thought hit him. “Builder of Joy, follow along with us to Earth!”

Jane nodded, her expression thoughtful. “Navigator, set our vector for those two enemy ships above Earth. Engines, full power to our Magfield drives! I want us to hit one-tenth lightspeed!”

“Vector set,” chittered Lofty Flyer.

“Engines moving us,” Time Marker hissed. “Twelve seconds to one-tenth lightspeed. Same time for deceleration, which happens upon achieving top speed. Arrival above Earth expected within 29 seconds.”

Bill ignored the wonder of traveling 240,000 miles in 29 seconds. He was deeply worried about the opposition to Stefano and Janice.

“I am alongside you,” called Builder from
Tall Trees
.

“We’re in!” yelled Janice. “Demo blasts knocked out the two crew on the bridge. George is tasering them. He and Larry will take them and the other two critters to containment cells.” Silence came. “I’m in the command seat atop the pedestal. Ship AI’s name is Lovely Green. She accepts me as primary bioform. Ship
Takur Ghar
is leaving orbit for L4. And . . . yup, the two blast holes in the bridge wall are slowly closing up. Amazing ship this is.”

“Excellent news Janice.” That left just one Collector ship in the control of the enemy. Which ship might just try to escape with human captives. “Jane! Our arrival above Diligent’s ship will stop him from escaping, likely with human captives.”

“Sounds good,” she said. “I had thought the same.”

“Crap!” came from Stefano.

“You hurt?” Bill called over the comlink.

“Nope. We just dodged laser strikes from two tin can robots stationed outside the Command Bridge door. They’re floating out of metal contact in zero gee,” the SEAL replied, his voice once more calm. “What’s worse is there are two more robots on the far side of the door, ready to block an approach from the left side of the ship. And these robots are floating side by side, with mech arms outstretched. Ship AI, restore normal gravity to this hallway!” Silence lasted a few seconds. “The robots are down on the floor. We’re firing on their caterpillar treads.” Silence came again. “Their treads are fused to the hallway floor. Cassandra and I took out their head-mounted lasers. But their arms are still operational and those pincers are nasty. No room to get by them.”

“Enemy to the rear!” yelled Bob.

That told Bill the two crew who had been on the left side of the ship had now come around through the Engine cross hall and advanced up the right side hallway, putting them behind Stefano’s team. Apparently the demo ball blast had happened before they arrived in the hallway section that went past the Collector Pods Chamber.

“Stefano!” yelled Bill. “Use your red cube to shut the hatch behind you! Then seal it shut with your lasers. That will stop the crew behind you.”

“Doing it,” the SEAL replied hurriedly. “Cassandra! Keep your laser aimed at those robots. Bob and I are lasering the hatch behind us.”

“This ship is now in Earth orbit above enemy ship,” called Lofty Flyer. “Range to enemy is 9,933 miles. Transport
Tall Trees
is alongside us. Nose lasers of both ships are aimed at enemy.”

Bill tapped his Weapons fire control. “Firing our lasers at that cockroach! Builder, you do the same. Lofty Flyer,” he called to the lady flying squirrel. “Take us down slowly in the Scenario Orion spiral approach we used earlier.”

“Do as he says,” Jane said. “Do you think—”

A green sparkle showed in his true space holo. “Got a hit on them! Star Traveler, what’s the result?”

“Ship mind of Diligent ship says one nose laser is dead, along with the plasma battery on the top hull,” the AI hummed. “Interesting. My fellow ship mind says the bioform in the Command Bridge is causing the ship’s nose to flip down. Tail lasers will be able to fire at us within seconds.”

“We’re boxed in,” Stefano said. “Cassandra and I are going to try tossing magnetic disruptor boxes at the robots.”

Bill felt relief. That was the logical thing to do if they hoped to gain access to the Command Bridge. “Right. Is gravity still normal in your hallway?”

“It is. But Cassie and I throw good. As you know.”

Bill knew that. Stefano and Cassandra had long played softball on a local Denver amateur team. “Good choice!”

“Damn!” came the second profanity from Stefano.

Bill felt surprise. The man never cussed during an operation. At the saloon, yes. Out fishing, yes. Playing Scrabble with fellow vets, yes. But the man had said he never cussed during a field operation. “What happened?”

“The mech arms of the two robots knocked the disruptor boxes back toward us. They attached to hallway walls. Entry doors to two habitat rooms shorted out. No impact on the robots.”

There was one last option. “Use your demo balls. Roll ‘em or throw ‘em,” Bill said.

“Activating two golden balls,” the retired SEAL said calmly. “Tossing them.” Silence came. “Watch out!”

Two loud booms came over the comlink.

“Stefano!” Bill yelled, not giving a damn what Richardson or anyone else thought.

“We’re alive,” his buddy replied, his voice sounding strained. “Someone is teleoperating those robots. Those mech arms knocked the balls back at us. This hallway is filled with blast residue.”

“You and Cassandra and Bill, you okay?”

“Cassandra is knocked out. She was closest to the blast wave,” Stefano said. “Bob and I went tumbling back toward the rear hatch. His wound patch is holding. Uh, the ship hologram shows our two rear attackers are moving back down the hallway. They’re stopping next to where the Weapons Chamber door is. They may be trying to cut their way in.” Brief silence came. “If so, they can take out our sealed hatch with ball blasts the way we just tried to kill the robots. Then it comes down to whose demo ball hits first.”

Bill knew that. His three saloon buddies were in a stalemate that could only get worse. While it was just three Aliens against a SEAL and two fine spec ops vets, the Aliens had the top hand in maneuver choices. Up front, Diligent was blocking Command Bridge access thanks to his tele-operation of the four robots outside his entry door, while his two crew were working to attack the team from the rear. He looked over at Richardson. “Get over here and operate our ship lasers.” He stood up and headed across the bridge. He looked up at Jane, who seemed surprised by his move. “That team down there needs help. I can get to them onboard the
Tall Trees
. Builder can offload me to the top hull of that ship. I will outflank their attackers.”

“Bill!” she said, her tone upset. “You are this ship’s Weapons Chief! There is no one who shoots better than—”

He passed her by, pointing his red cube at the bridge entry door. “No SEAL abandons another SEAL!” he yelled. “I know we have to dodge laser fire from the cockroach ship, but Builder is a born flyer. We’ll get there. I’ll get there. I
want
that cockroach bastard!”

“Understood. Be smart, be safe,” came her voice over his helmet comlink, her tone personal for a brief moment. “Vice Admiral Richardson, you are now Weapons Chief. Fire on that ship below us before it can fire on us!”

Bill ran into the hallway and turned left, heading for the Weapons Chamber of the
Blue Sky
. “Builder, come alongside the Collector Pods Chamber side of our ship! I’ll jump out through the open hull. You move so I’ll hit your midbody airlock hatch. Let me in and then head down as fast and crazy as you can!”

“Understood,” chittered the flyer squirrel who had once been a construction engineer on his world. “Moving to your location.”

His helmet speaker hummed. “I am withdrawing air from the pods chamber,” Star Traveler said.

In seconds he was into the Weapons room, had grabbed demo balls, a red laser tube and a nuke bar which he stuffed into his backpack, and was out and heading across the hall to the airlock door of the pods chamber. It opened. He ran through it, out the inner airlock door, then into the cavernous chamber. He stopped next to the tall rack of collector pods.

“Star Traveler! Open the hull!”

Above him the white ceiling of the pods chamber split down the middle. Its hull segments moved apart. Above him shown the stars of the Milky Way and, to one side, the white disk of the Moon.

“Stefano, I’m coming!”

CHAPTER ELEVEN

Bill strapped himself into a bench seat in the cargohold of the transport ship and braced for a wild ride down. Even with inertial dampers going full bore, he expected the flying squirrel pilot to make the transport do things it was never designed to do. But a Magfield spacedrive can push a ship sideways, diagonally and lots of other ways even as it mostly heads downward. He pulled his backpack onto his lap and checked his demolitions. He had three golden globes, two yellow, one white globe and a single nuke bar. The last was not something he intended to use. But maybe he could scare the giant cockroach into thinking he was going to nuke part of its ship.

“Bill,” called Stefano. “The holo shows the two crew heading back our way. Any suggestions?”

An image filled his mind. He knew the inside halls and rooms of the
Blue Sky
like the back of his hand, thanks to nine months aboard her. He could visualize his team’s position. They were in the section of the right side hallway that curved toward the Command Bridge entry door. The curve was a shallow crescent, but at least it meant they could move out of direct line of laser fire once the Alien crew blew the sealed hatch. “Yes. You can access the decks above and below you using your golden globe explosives. Above is the particle accelerator for the antimatter projector. I’ve been in that part of our ship. It’s a big room. Blowing a hole in your hallway roof will give you access upward. Once you’re up there maybe you can laser the power feed cables to the accelerator. That will kill cockroach’s ability to fire antimatter.”

“Sounds good,” Stefano said. “What about the deck below us?”

“The room below you contains the maglev railgun launchers for that ship’s torps,” Bill said. “Blowing a hole in your hallway floor could send shrapnel into one or more torps. The demo charges in the thermonuke end of each torp could be set off if the shrapnel carries an electric charge. Best to blow a hole through your ceiling. Nothing explosive up that way.”

“Right,” Stefano said. “Uh, Cassandra is now awake. She, Bob and I have discussed our final option. If we can’t access the bridge and it looks like we are going to be overwhelmed, we’ve agreed to detonate the nuke bar in my backpack.”

“No!” Bill yelled, his heart pounding with frustration and worry. “No. Do . . . not . . . detonate your nuclear device. For one thing, it might cause the ship’s AI to take defensive action against
you
. For another, I’m coming! Will be there in a few minutes. I plan some nasty diversions. Hold on!”

“We’re holding on,” Stefano said as, through his suit speaker Bill heard the ‘zirzap’ of a laser hitting something. “Damn! Those Aliens cut a hole to one side of the hatch and poked a laser through it. Nearly got Cassandra. They’re wearing vacsuits too! We’re moving back and around the curve of the hallway. They will blow the hatch and the blocking wall soon now.”

“Then blow your own exit the hell out of there!” Bill yelled. “Through the roof of the hallway. Before Diligent lasers you from one of the robots on the far side of the locked down robot pair!”

“Moving. Placing a golden globe against the hallway ceiling as close to the robots as we can get,” Stefano said. “Moving back to the hallway curve.” A low
kaboom
sounded over his vacsuit comlink. “The Aliens have blown the rear access hatch!”

A bigger
kaboom
sounded over the comlink.

“Stefano!” yelled Cassandra’s high-pitched voice. “The ceiling is open! Come on!”

“Exiting hallway,” Stefano said. “Cassandra and Bob are safe in the room above. I’m at the ceiling. Inside! Got my taser aimed through the big hole in this room’s floor. Aiming at the curve in the hallway. Might get one of them as they come round the curve!”

Bill’s mind worked like a movie, building distinct images of what had happened in the hallway, how the hallway ceiling had been breached, and how the two Alien crew were advancing. Before him a real image happened. The transport’s midbody airlock door opened. Below him was empty space. Or what looked empty, with the Earth lying below.

“Collector ship top hull is just below you,” chitter-cried Builder of Joy. “After you exit I will move to enter through the ship’s Transport Exit Chamber. Captain Jane tells me the ship mind will open it for me. Safer inside there than for me to move away.”

Bill could believe that. He unsnapped his restraints, slung his backpack, walked to the edge of the open airlock hatch and looked down at the green and brown landscape of Ukrainia. All of which was an illusion as the Collector ship’s hull wrapped the images of Earth around its hull so as to appear normal light invisible. “Do that, Builder, and thanks for getting me here! Kill the gravity in the cargohold.” That happened and suddenly Bill felt his feet lose contact with the cargohold floor. He grabbed the edge of the outer airlock hatch, pulled himself through it, then kicked at the transport’s hull to propel himself downward. Right after the kick he pulled his legs and arms into his midbody, felt his body spin forward, then he straightened out so his boots were aimed downward.

“Thunk!” came a soft sound as his boots hit the Collector ship hull and he felt the ship’s local gravity glue him to the invisible hull. Following his mind picture, he turned left, arms outstretched and walked slowly.

“Star Traveler!” he called over the comlink. “Have this ship’s AI tell you when I am above the right side hallway where the two Alien bioforms are located. Let me know!”

“Inquiring,” the AI said. “Ship mind Soft Glow says you are past the location of the two bioforms. Reverse your direction and walk nineteen paces. That will place you above the crew bioforms.”

“Bill!” called Stefano. “Glad you came. I taser zapped one of the ship crew. The other retreated back beyond the hallway curve. What do we do?”

A mental picture filled his mind. “Go to the far end of the particle accelerator room. Follow the black tube that enters a wall ahead of you. That’s the antimatter projector. Just below that spot is open floor. It is
also
the ceiling directly above the command pedestal and Diligent Taskmaster! Place a demo ball at that spot, set it for six minutes and get the hell behind cover! I will blow my own entry hole in the hull in a minute, enter the hallway below me and taser the Alien in the hallway. Act!”

“Acting,” Stefano said.

Bill pulled a golden globe out of his backpack and put it at his feet.

“Bioform Bill, why are you attempting to explode a hole in my outer ship skin?” called an AI whose voice was new to him.

“Are you Soft Glow?”

“I am. Be aware that Protocol Ten of Emergency Operations of the Ship requires that I oppose any effort to damage the structural integrity of this ship. Please stop your efforts.”

Bill stopped from tapping in the activation code. “Stefano! Hold off on blowing your demo ball. This ship’s AI is upset.”

“Holding off,” came his buddy’s calm voice. “The hole in this room’s floor where we entered is closing. Flexmetal again.”

“Soft Glow, I must gain access to the hallway below in order to save the lives of my crewmates and in order to prevent loss of life among your crew,” Bill said calmly, aware that Diligent could hear everything that was being said over the vacsuit comlink. “Do you have a suggestion for how I can do that?” Below his feet the hull vibrated briefly.

“Bill!” yelled Jane over his comlink. “Kiev is gone! An antimatter beam from your ship just hit the center of the city. Our spysat says total devastation covers four square miles!”

Fuck and worse
. “Tell the Ukrainians it will not happen again! We are taking over this ship! Stefano! You and Bob and Cassandra use your lasers to cut anything that looks like a power cable to the accelerator. And cut holes in the accelerator itself!” A memory gave him a warning. “Do
not
fire at the back wall, towards the tail of the ship. That is the weapon’s antimatter reservoir chamber. Fire on it and the chamber will lose magnetic field containment. You and the entire ship will vanish!”

“Cutting cables and accelerator blocks!” called Stefano.

“Bioform Bill,” called Soft Glow. “I can cause the hull below your feet to open wide enough for your bioform to enter and descend to the hallway. Will that allow you to achieve your purpose of saving lives?”

“Yes! Why didn’t you and Star Traveler tell us you AIs could open holes in your hull?”

“No bioform ever asked that question,” the ship mind hummed over his helmet comlink.

“Give me access to the hallway below!” A thought hit him. “And return hallway gravity to half-gee normal.”

“Providing access. Gravity resuming.”

Below Bill’s boots the invisible hull metal puckered open, making a hole three feet wide. He pointed his taser tube down as local ship gravity pulled him below at half an Earth gee. He bent his knees and prepared for an impact similar to a chute drop.

“Thunk!”

Ahead of him was the wide hallway that led to the Command Bridge. At the point where it curved there stood a two-legged vulture with black wings, a pair of chest-arms, a yellow beak and two red eyes. It had been looking away from him toward the bridge entry. The vibration of his boots hitting the floor made it look back. Those eyes locked onto him just as fast as he had fixed on the vulture. Its chest-arms swung a red laser tube toward him.

“Got you!” Bill called as he fired his taser at the vacsuited form of the Alien crew-critter.

The vulture person’s red eyes went wide. The red laser tube fell from its grip. Its entire body began to shake, tremble, jerk and then fell to the floor. He stowed his taser tube in a belt loop of his vacsuit, then pulled his laser tube from his backpack. With the laser aimed ahead, he ran along the hallway, past the Alien he’d tasered, past a green praying mantis Alien who was also having the taser shakes thanks to Stefano, and up to the spot where his team had blown a hole through the hallway ceiling. That hole was now closed as the silvery flexmetal of the hallway roof resumed its smooth appearance. Ahead of him, just five feet away, stood two robots that resembled trash cans on caterpillar treads. The treads of the front two were welded to the metal floor. Behind them stood two more robots. Which now swung their head lasers toward him. He fired his laser at one, killing its laser as he hit the floor and rolled toward the nearest welded robot. Its laser resistant body blocked the second rear robot from firing at him. But its pincer arms now lowered to grab him. Reaching back he grabbed a disruptor block and dome from his backpack, tapped in the code hurriedly, then slammed the block against the barrel body of the robot. Yellow electric arcs flared. The robot’s two pincer arms stopped an inch from his shoulder. He rolled back, grabbed his laser, sat up carefully and aimed.

“Zirzap!” came the sound of his laser hitting the laser tube on the second rear robot. Black smoke rose from where the laser tube had been. That robot was not welded to the hallway floor, nor was its partner. He fixed that, using his laser to fire between the two nearest robots at the two on the far side. In seconds their treads were stuck to the hallway floor.

“Bill?” called Stefano.

“I’m in. As Diligent surely knows from his spyeyes. Bastard just tried to laser me. From the other two robots. He failed.” Bill stepped back from the still active pincer arms of the three active robots blocking access to the Command Bridge door. He reached out and touched the silvery metal of the hallway wall. Beyond that wall lay the circular Command Bridge. “Stefano, are you and Bob and Cassandra in position?”

“We are. Tasers at the ready,” called his fishing buddy.

Now came the moment of exact timing. “Soft Glow, create a human-size wall opening in front of me please.”

“Opening wall before you,” the AI’s melodious voice said.

Bill stepped to one side as a basketball size hole opened in the silvery flexmetal wall. It gave him a view of the command pedestal in the center of the room. On top the pedestal sat the brown barrel body of Diligent Taskmaster. Who now shot the laser he had aimed at the wall opening.

“Zirzap!” came as the green beam missed him and hit the hallway wall behind, its impact vaporizing metal. That metal impact made the telltale sound he associated with laser use.

The opening grew to be four feet tall. “Soft Glow, open the floor beneath the three humans in the room above the bridge!” he yelled as he jumped low into the large room. As he hit the bridge deck floor he rolled toward a control pillar that lay between him and Diligent’s elevated seat. But the pillar did not shelter him from an elevated shooting angle. The black eyes of Diligent fixed on him. The Alien’s red laser tube held steady. He twisted to one side. A green beam shot out.

“Zirzap!”

“Ouch!”

Three red taser beams shot down from the ceiling, hitting the upper shoulders and head of the giant cockroach whose laser had just burned a hole through Bill’s left arm.

The brown exoskeleton of the critter jerked out of its seat, its four arms flaring wide. The laser tube went flying as it fell to the floor. From above there now dropped the vacsuited shapes of his three buddies.

Bill dropped his own taser tube and gripped his left arm where Diligent had hit him with a laser shot. Red blood seeped out between his gloved fingers.