Far Space (19 page)

“Crud,” Ian muttered. He ignited his thrusters and grabbed Imuro as the biologist ignited his thrusters in the wrong direction. “Whoa there, Doc,” Ian said. He swatted the older man’s hands away from his suits thruster controls. It took a few tries to get the two of them back to the hatch since their combined center of gravity was difficult to maneuver with just Ian’s suit pack.

“Wait at the junction until the others come across,” Ian said as he helped Imuro safely through the hatch. “It’s easy to get lost in here.” He looked up and about fell over.

Jennifer was standing right in front of him in a white soft suit.

“Sorry, did I scare you?”

“Just wish you would wait ‘til I was watching before you stepped over,” Ian said.

“Ah, didn’t I tell you,” Jennifer said. “I’ve got five hundred hours suit time.” She pulled her feet off the hull and jetted through the open hatch then down into the alien corridor.

Ian grinned. God, she even looks good in a space suit.

Ian helped two more computer techs across without incident. He gave a wave to O’Brian.

The NASA pilot ignored Ian and reentered the shuttle. A moment later, the tiny ship was moving back toward the Cheyenne, a gleaming collection of modules, propellant tanks, and support structure five kilometers distant.

Ian went back inside the alien ship to find his charges had scattered, save Jennifer.

“So much for providing an escort,” Ian muttered.

“They were just excited,” Jennifer said. “Imuro went that way to check on the dead alien and the other two guys went that way.” She pointed to the front of the ship. “They all downloaded the map you brave soldiers started.”

“And what’s your preference, ma’am?” Ian said.

“Oh, I’m here for the nickel tour until the computer guys can get me into the navigation system.” Jennifer pushed off for the front of the ship. “Come on, I’ll let you show me the bridge.”

“If that’s what it really is,” Ian said. He gestured around at the walls. “Look at this stuff, it’s…”

“Alien?” Jennifer said.

Ian smiled behind his face plate. “Exactly. It’ll take the computer jockeys days just to figure out how to turn anything on.”

“But they will,” Jennifer said. She gently ran her gloved hand over a pearl smooth section of the corridor. “In time.”

Ian led the way through the twists and turns of the tunnels until they came to the room where the two techs were busy running handheld sensors over the walls and formations around the room.

“I should really go check on Dr. Imuro,” Ian said over a private channel he had established with Jennifer.

Jennifer reached out and grabbed Ian’s arm before he could leave. She turned from her study of the room and focused her eyes on Ian’s. “Stay with me.”

“Why?”

“To protect me of course,” Jennifer chided. “There may still be evil aliens running around.”

“Swimming, actually,” Ian said. “From the looks of the two aliens we found and the layout of the ship, it seems like this whole place should be filled with water. But, I should remind you, although I may look like a tough soldier guy now, I’m really just a simple Space Corps pilot who got drafted into the infantry.”

Jennifer smiled, revealing her perfect white teeth through her helmet face plate. “Ian, I know you’re in the Corps.”

“Thanks.”

“That makes you my little Marine,” Jennifer laughed.

Ian shook his head as best he could. “Wrong Corps,” he reminded Jennifer. At least their private joke stayed between them since they had had switched over to the private net.

Ian activated his map and pointed a chamber closer to the bow of the ship. “Want to see the alien in the bottle?”

“Well, when you put it that way,” Jennifer said, “how could a girl resist?”

Ian led the way through a branching corridor. At a juncture, he turned to move left.

“I think it’s this way,” Jennifer said, pointing to the right.

Ian reactivated the holo and pointed at their position. “No, we’re here and we want to get here.”

“But you’ve got the map upside down.” Jennifer tapped the controls on Ian’s wrist display. The holo inverted. “We need to turn right.”

Ian looked around at the odd formations and too-small corridor. He did a quick spin and planted his feet on what Jennifer said should have been the floor. “I would have sworn this was the top of the ship,” Ian said, pointing at his feet.

“You know,” Jennifer said as she stared at him in the face, now upside down, “I’ll never get used to this zero gee stuff.”

Just then, an armored figure floated into view from the direction of the control room. The Marine stopped close to Ian and Jennifer.

“What’re you doing hanging from the ceiling, Langdon?” Murst asked.

“Just letting the blood rush to my head, Gunny,” Ian replied as crisply as he could manage.

“Might want to keep on eye on those tech boys,” Murst said. “They look like they’re about to take a hammer to that alien tech.”

“I will, Gunny,” Ian said. He watched Murst disappear around the tunnel Ian had first suggested taking.

“Huh.” Jennifer looked from left to right.

Ian flipped again so he was right-side-up again.

“Guess you were right,” Jennifer said. She held up Ian’s arm and put the hologram back in the right perspective.

“I can’t believe you questioned me,” Ian said, heading off with new confidence.

“Me either,” Jennifer said. “I’m awful with directions.”

Ian quickly showed Jennifer the alien frozen inside the container then pulled her back to the bridge where the techs were working. He did not want to be the one held responsible if they started tearing stuff up in their zeal for discovery.

Ian floated with Jennifer in the middle of the bridge. The techs were swearing, trying to figure out how to interface with the alien equipment.

“Any suggestions on what to do first?” Ian asked Jennifer.

“No idea,” Jennifer replied. She pulled herself to a raised clump with what seemed to be control panels. They were arrayed in an arc around the forward side of what could have been a pair of seats.

Ian was happy to watch her explore; glad to just be with her. Watching her approach the alien controls, Ian could not help but share in her child-like wonder as she saw everything with fresh eyes.

“This was their command station,” Jennifer said. “Maybe a pilot sat here.” She patted the oddly curved seat. “This is probably a good place for one of the aliens to sit or rest. Want to give it a try?”

Ian smiled, “I’m not sure a Marine could fly this thing.”

“Then do it for me,” Jennifer said with a lop-sided smirk.

Ian was at her side. He reached out tentatively and let his armored hand rest against the material of the seat. He ran his gloved hand over it, taking in the texture.

“If this is a seat,” Ian said, “then maybe this is their version of a leather interior.”

“Ew! I wonder what they use for cowhide,” Jennifer said.

“Don’t know.” Ian looked up at the consoles crowding the seat from the ceiling. “Like you said, perfect set up if you’re a squid.”

The seat looked like it was made for a child. Ian figured the main body of the squids was about a meter or so long. The tentacles, arms, whatever you called them where just as long, making them nearly the equivalent mass of an adult human. But they obviously fit into the seat compactly, maybe because they lacked hard stiff bones and joints.

Ian could not hope to fit into the seat with the combat armor. So he settled for floating over the seat, his face near the controls.

“How’s it feel, pilot?” Jennifer teased.

Tapping the stiff controls melded onto the platform around him and on the consoles hanging from the ceiling, Ian almost imagined he could fly this thing. He grinned back at Jennifer, now fully caught up in the moment. “Feels like I could take us to new star systems, strange new worlds, the whole nine yards.”

“Sounds nice.” Jennifer pulled herself into the seat next to Ian, crouching, with her knees drawn up to her chest, a feat made possible thanks to her soft fabric suit. “Cozy.” She reached out and touched one of the dimpled buttons.

Screens came to life all around Ian and Jennifer, enveloping them in a holographic display. Ian stared around at the stars and planets, easily recognizable as their solar system. Other data, unrecognizable symbols and displays crowded the rest of the space all around them.

“Wow,” Ian said, “Now I’ll have to really take you somewhere.”

“Well, you know how we girls are,” Jennifer laughed. She ran arm through the display surrounding her. “It’s beautiful.”

Ian gazed around at the incomprehensible diagrams. He had to agree.

One of the techs pushed over to their sides. “Cool!” He started pushing other buttons.

A rumble coursed through the ship.

Jennifer raised her hands. “I’m not sure you should be doing that…”

“I would agree,” Ian added.

An armored suit dove into the room from an access tunnel in the ceiling. He executed a flip and came face-to-face with Ian and Jennifer.

“What exactly do you think you’re doing?” Murst asked.

Ian and Jennifer looked at each other. Ian opened his mouth to speak but Jennifer got there first.

“Our pilot was taking us to far off places.”

Ian looked from Jennifer to the hulking Marine. He held his hands up and shrugged. “Couldn’t help myself, Gunny.”

“Well help yourself out of those seats,” the trooper said. “And kindly refrain from touching anything else!

Jennifer tapped the key which had activated the displays. The holograms flickered but did not disappear. Instead, more holos began to light up, spreading around the entire outer wall of the chamber. “Crud,” Jennifer said. “Now what?”

“Well, that solves one question,” one of the techs said.

“What’s that?” Ian asked.

“All this stuff still works!”

Bealeman looked up from the controls on the portable scanner. He and Taylor had been trying to find if there were any other accessible chambers they might have missed in their initial survey. “What was that?”

Major Taylor touched the wall. “The ship’s vibrating.”

Bealeman tapped a few keys on his sensor. “I’m reading rising temps below us.”

“Engines?” Taylor asked.

“Don’t know,” Bealeman said. He swung the sensor back a forth. “Looks like there’s another series of chambers beneath us.” The Marine Lance Corporal tilted his body so he could look at Taylor. “It’s got a heavy atmosphere.”

“How heavy?” Taylor asked.

“Looks like water slurry,” Bealeman said. “Maybe its ice breaking up.”

“The whole ship didn’t decompress,” Taylor said. “It just froze up.”

Both Marines started drifting back along the corridor.

“Ship’s moving,” Bealeman noted.

“We need to get down there now,” Taylor stated.

Bealeman was nodding. “The water is almost liquid again,” he said studying the sensor display. Bealeman swept the device back and forth.

“Gunny,” Taylor called over the Ops net, “get to our position, we have a situation.”

“Figured that sir,” Murst called back. “On my way.”

“Rucker,” Taylor called out over the net. “Rucker do you read? If you’re getting this, get your armored butts back inside.”

Bealeman was running his sensor over the floor of the corridor. “This is as good a spot as any.”

Taylor reached behind Bealeman’s suit pack and pulled off a bulky package. “I wish we could figure out how to work their stupid hatches,” the Major said. “I’m getting tired of making my own doorways.”

Bealeman took the pack from Taylor and carefully unfolded the contents.

Murst came barreling around a corner, his weapon seeking any target. He took a moment to take in the situation. “You need MAMA?”

“The compartments below us were frozen over,” Taylor said. “For some reason they’re now thawing out.”

The Gunnery Sergeant hooked a thumb in the direction he had just come from. “Those yahoos in the control room managed to turn something on.”

“That’s great, Gunny,” Taylor said. “There’s something going on down here though, too.” He pointed at the floor.

“Better check it out,” Murst replied. “Make it happen, Hulk.”

Bealeman activated the control board on the package he had laid out and pushed back. He tapped his wrist display ensuring MAMA was slaved to his system.

“MAMA’s hot!” Bealeman warned. “Stand clear!” He tapped a command onto his wrist-mounted controller.

The pack on the floor expanded with astonishing speed until it filled a better portion of the corridor’s cross-section.

MAMA, the Marine Assault Mobile Airlock, was a tool of the trade for the highly trained Marine Space Reconnaissance Units. The mobile airlock allowed troops, tasked with taking over hostile vessels or facilities in space, to set up their own hatch. Cutting open a bulkhead and blowing out the atmosphere into space would certainly remove the threat from unsuited personnel inside the ship or structure, it also left messy repair work to be completed after the Marines moved in. MAMA gave them the option of moving in when the soft target, or squishie, needed to be brought back alive or the integrity of the structure needed to be maintained.