Escape 3: Defeat the Aliens (24 page)

“Complying,” the AI hummed over her helmet comlink.

Her targeting reticule hit the upper center of the ship’s bulbous nose. “Fire!” she yelled as she touched her firing patch.

Seven green streaks shot forward.

In the true space holo, bright green flares filled the upper nose of the teardrop that was the
Fear Arrives
.

“Bill! We’re okay!”

♦   ♦   ♦

Jane’s voice over his helmet comlink made a chill go down his spine. His life he readily put at risk. Her life should never be this close to death. He aimed his laser tube at the holo of Death Leader and fired. The green beam passed through the holo of him.

“Bastard! You failed!”

The creature’s cobra hoods flared wide. White eyes stared. “I have more antimatter! She—”

“Its projector is dead!” Jane yelled.

Death Leader clearly heard what Jane had said. It snarled, turned and the holo disappeared.

As the snake-gorilla vanished, Bill turned round, pointed the red cube at the hatch leading into the airlock of the Containment Cell Chamber, grabbed one leg of the shaking mantis, and ran inside. The hatch closed behind him. He pointed the red cube at the inner hatch. It opened. He ran out onto the central metal walkway that ran down the room and ended at a similar airlock on the opposite end. The shaking body of the mantis came with him. He stopped at the first cross walkway that led to white pods on the left and right.

“Dexterity! Which of these pods is empty?”

“The pod on your left is empty,” the AI hummed.

Bill turned, pointed his red cube at the twenty foot wide white pod, walked fast down the side walkway while keeping his finger pressed on the cube’s open button. He stopped before the open entry. Red light showed inside. White walls were apparent. No landscape holo emitters were active. He lifted the mantis’ body and tossed it inside. It landed with a thud he heard through his suit’s external speaker. He let up on the red cube. The entry hatch slammed down, sealing the mantis inside. It would survive in there. It was unlikely the nuke bar blast would reach this far up the ship. Which reminded him to check his wrist iWatch. Forty-three seconds to detonation. He ran back to the central walkway, turned left, pointed the red cube at the airlock entry oval and slid inside. Letting up on the cube, he ran twenty feet ahead, opened the airlock exit door, and entered the left side hallway. Behind him the containment cell chamber hatch slid shut. To his left was the giant oval door that gave access to the ship’s Med Hall. He was three-fourths of the way to the Command Bridge entry—

“
Kaboom-crunch!
” came over his comlink.

The hallway shifted sharply.

He slammed against the wall on his right. His helmet stayed intact. Blinking away the impact disorientation, he grabbed his laser and taser tubes from where they’d fallen on the floor, checked his holster to be sure his .45 was still there, saw his survival knife was still in his left leg pouch, then ran down the left side hallway at a fast lope. He would pass through the giant Transport Exit Chamber, go down a ramp to the deck below, then up a ramp to this deck and exit into the long hallway. Which had several pressure walls and hatches to pass through. His red cube would open them all.

“Jane! I’m heading for Death Leader. He’s in the Command Bridge. Time to take him out.”

“Bill!” she cried. “The last third of the ship is gone. Your transport broke free. Forget him. Take one of their transports and get back to me!”

He didn’t answer.

His duty demanded that he enter the Command Bridge, taser zap the two crew there so the ship’s lasers would not hurt his wife or Stefano or one of the subs, and then zap or kill the monster who had brought 36 Collector ships to kill his world.

♦   ♦   ♦

There was no response from Bill.

Jane did what she had to do. “Lead ships! Reduce your Magfield speed to 10 percent!” She paused, then spoke. “Bill is onboard the enemy ship. If he fails, the
Blue Sky
will go to 15 percent and chase down this bastard!”

“Engine speed reduced,” called Chester from up front.

“As you command,” said the comlink holo image of Stefano.

The captains of the
Tennessee
,
Kentucky
and
Maine
said the same. Those subs, like her ship, were at 3,814 miles out from the
Fear Arrives
. Which continued ahead on momentum at 14 percent of lightspeed. The same speed as her two Collectors and the subs. The enemy ship fired its two nose lasers at them. Lofty Flyer lifted them further up and beyond the angle that the laser nodes could adjust to. The
Neil C. Roberts
and the subs did the same. The five of them formed a ring with the enemy ship at its center. Far ahead. They had maneuvering power. Death Leader did not.

Behind them were three clusters of ships. There were the
Moberly, Fallujah
and
Harken
not too far back. Jake’s remaining fleet of the
Rolling Thunder, Takur Ghar, Chapultepec Castle, Seafloat
and
Manila Bay
were strung out according to when they’d lost an engine or had dropped back to ten percent of lightspeed. The 14 surviving boomer subs were scattered among those ships. Farther away was Jake’s ship
Tangi Valley
, which was diving south ecliptic to catch the engine-less
Musan
.

What could she do to help Bill? The system graphic holo gave her the answer.

“Star Traveler! Is Bill’s transport
Talking Skin
still intact? Is it operational?”

“The transport is intact and its Magfield engine still operates. The nuclear blast was modest and did not reach the transport’s hull,” the AI hummed.

“Good! Take control of its autopilot and move the transport back to the enemy ship. Have it hover just above the Command Bridge section of the
Fear Arrives
.”

“Complying. Transport is responding. New position reached. Transport is holding position.”

Jane was growing to like the echoing sound of Star Traveler’s voice inside her helmet.

Two green laser beams shot out from the
Fear Arrives
. They passed through the middle of her ship ring, hitting nothing.

“Stefano, sub captains, I am having Star Traveler indicate the exact locations of the enemy ship’s nose lasers,” she called over the ship-to-ship neutrino comlink. “Will you join me in taking out the last weapons of the enemy?”

Enthusiastic responses came over the comlink.

Jane knew she could have shot all seven lasers herself, using her weapons cross-linking with the lasers on the other ships. Instead, she chose to give her combat mates the chance to join her in removing the last teeth of the monster who enslaved people and would murder a world.

“Firing,” she said.

“Firing,” came from the other captains.

Her true space holo showed green flares on the right and left sides of the enemy ship’s bulbous nose.

“Star Traveler, are the enemy lasers melted down?” she called.

“They are,” hummed the AI. “Also, its plasma batteries were destroyed by Weapons Chief MacCarthy.”

That confirmed what her sensors had told her “Bill, your transport is hovering just above the Command Bridge. Come to me when you’re done doing your duty.”

♦   ♦   ♦

Bill heard Jane’s words. The news his transport was intact and waiting for him was almost as good to hear as her voice. She loved him. He loved her. While his duty remained, he was not going to be stupid and let three Aliens kill him. They had to be removed or killed in order to take control of this ship. Only when all crew were unconscious would Dexterity accept him as the substitute captain. Which would allow him control over the remnants of the ship. He arrived at the spot where the left side hallway joined the front cross hallway. His hallway curved to the right in a long arc. Was anyone waiting for him with lasers? Were there repair robots ready to shoot lasers at him? One way to find out.

He knelt, pulled off his backpack, reached inside and grabbed a canteen of water. He held it up.

“Dexterity, reduce gravity in the cross hallway to zero.”

“Complying,” the AI hummed over his comlink.

Bill tossed the canteen down the curving hallway. Then he grabbed his backpack and weapon tubes. He stepped forward into the gravity free part of the hallway. Lowering his taser tube, he pressed it diagonally against the metal floor. His body floated forward slowly, his right hip close to the hallway wall. Holding his laser tube with his left hand, he pointed the taser tube forward, ready to use it to stop his forward movement, depending on what he saw.

Green light speared into the canteen. Steam and water spurted out.

He poked the floor with his taser. His forward momentum stopped. Pushing sideways against the floor he felt the inside hallway wall stop his movement. Floating two feet above the floor, he reached inside his backpack, grabbed a yellow demo ball, tapped in a three second delay and tossed it ahead. His body moved back as it obeyed Newton’s Third Law.

“
Kaboom!
”

The sound echoed in his helmet.

Pushing his taser tube against the floor in front of him, his body rotated upright. His feet touched the floor. Pointing his laser tube forward, he kicked hard, aiming up and sideways.

Smoke and flames showed as a tin can repair robot burned from the demo ball impact. Behind it a second robot’s top dome swung its black laser tube toward him.

Bill fired.

His green laser beam hit the second robot’s laser.

Black smoke and yellow sparks spewed from the top of the second robot. But its two mech arms still moved. The pincers at the end of each arm opened and reached for him. But its effort to move forward was blocked by the burning hulk of the first robot. Clearly there was still gravity in front of the entry hatch to the Command Bridge.

“Dexterity, restore normal ship gravity to this hallway.”

“Complying.”

Bill pulled his knees up to his chest and landed easily on his boots. The impact was minimal. Which told him the local gravity was still a half gee. He’d felt far worse during chute drops. He scanned the space between him and the two robots. They were twenty feet away. His laser would not harm the laser resistant body metal of the tin can-shaped robots. But the caterpillar tracks on which they moved could be made half-molten. He lifted his laser tube, put it atop his right shoulder, held the midbody power pack with his left hand and with his right hand touched the tube’s firing button.

Green light spat forward, hitting the gray metal treads of the first robot. He moved to the right and forward. He fired again. The metal treads of the second robot glowed red, then orange, then a light yellow. He let off the firing button. A mech sound came from the second robot as it tried to rotate its treads. It could not move.

“Jane,” he called. “I’m outside the Command Bridge door. I’ll get inside like I did when I helped Stefano’s team.”

“Understood. The ship’s lasers are dead. We all are intact. The subs are holding back. Be careful.”

“I will.”

Bill looked up at the ceiling of the hallway. The roof was 15 feet above the floor. He had no doubt there were monitor eyes present on the ceiling. Every Collector ship had monitor eyes along its hallways and inside its chambers. He’d taught himself exactly where those eyes were. He lifted his taser tube, aimed and shot a red electric beam at a spot above the entry door. Yellow sparks showed. Moving his taser aim, he took out the monitor eyes ten feet further down the hallway, the eye directly above him, and the eye just above the captain’s habitat room door. Which was directly across from the entry door to the bridge.

“Death Leader, lasers cut both ways. The wall between you and me will yield to my laser,” he said.

“Your death awaits you inside,” grunted the snake-gorilla.

Bill opened his backpack, took out two yellow demo balls and a magnetic disruptor box. He moved forward.

Ten feet from the entry hatch, he put one demo ball against the wall separating him from the bridge. He tapped its detonation to ten seconds. Moving forward very carefully, he lifted the disruptor box and attached it to the wall section that butted up to the entry hatch. He tapped it active and set it to surge power into the wall. The way he’d done at the Engine hatch. He tapped in a six second delay. He moved to the right, ducked the reaching mech arm of the second robot, and tossed a demo ball past it. The ball hit the bridge wall at five feet past the entry hatch. It stuck to the wall. Its delay was two seconds. Moving back past the first demo ball, he held his taser and laser tubes in his hands and waited.

“
Kaboom!
” went the distant demo ball. A hole five feet wide showed in the flexmetal wall.