Fatal Boarding (24 page)

With one arm under my shoulder he
practically dragged me through a narrow opening. The passage way
was shadowy-dark and lined with more shelves, punctuated by cables
and conduit running vertically. As we maneuvered our way along, I
began to straighten up and get control. The world slowed and soon
stopped spinning. I began grabbing on to things as we went, and
finally broke away from Perk and followed under my own power.

The corridor continued to narrow until, to
our dismay, a dead end wall blocked any further advance. We stood
in the tight fit and looked at each other.

Perk sighed. “Only two choices.”

I shook my head. “Go back, or wait here
forever.”

“Only one choice, really.”

I looked back to the darkness from where we
had come.

“Are you up to speed, Adrian?”

I winced. “I’m motivated.”

“Guess we need to be weapons ready.”

I looked mine over. It was smeared with
something, but had five green bars, and a full load.

Perk joked, “When we get there, it’ll be the
colonial infantry method. You kneel. I’ll fire over your head.”

I nodded and pushed myself back through the
cluttered path. Perk stayed close behind.

When the doorway ahead began to be visible,
we slowed our pace. The same white light was escaping from the room
beyond. We paused fearfully as we went, listening for the commotion
of angry aliens, but heard nothing. Near the door, I signaled Perk
to hold, and eased my way up alongside. There were still no sounds.
I peered for a split second around the corner and pulled back
quickly. There had been nothing. I looked again, longer this time.
There was no one. Stepping into the room, weapon poised, nothing
had changed. Perk followed me, and we stood in disbelief. The body
lay in the same place on the floor. Damage was everywhere. The
place was a mess, but no one had come. I wondered if it was the
ultimate case of not-my-job. What could be so distracting that an
onboard explosion had gone unnoticed? Or, was the crew compliment
so small that the splattered ugly little man had been the only one
around?

We let it go, and continued on. There were
two more choices. A closed, waist-high hatchway on the wall, or
back the way we had come. The hatchway looked like a service
entrance. There were no door sensors visible. I began to signal
Perk but saw him dragging what was left of the alien into the
corridor from which we had come. He returned and shrugged, as
though maybe the room would be less alarming with no body.

We tugged the hatch open and felt a rush of
cool air. I stooped down and crawled in head first. Perk
followed.

A ramp led down to a narrow passageway. The
ceiling was a good twenty feet above us. Ahead, there were patches
of grating covering the floor with light coming up through. The
alien alley seemed to go on forever.

Quietly, we moved along until we reached one
of the vents. We knelt and peered in. Below was a huge open
chamber, two or three stories deep. It looked like an auditorium.
What we saw there made us flush with anger.

Chapter 25

It was a party. The ugliest party I had ever
seen. There were quite a few of them, maybe thirty or forty.
Somehow, they had masked the fact that this ship was fully manned.
They were sitting at tables, or milling around doing things we did
not understand. It was a macabre, festive atmosphere.

The main attraction was at on one side of
the room. Oversized, gray environmental-type suits hung from
stanchions attached to the wall. They were not space suits. They
were permanently attached to their stations by fire hose-size
cables. The party guests were taking turns putting them on,
spending time in them, and then leaving for other interests. Some
of them seemed more anxious for the treatment than others.

We watched for several minutes until
something strange caught my eye. I unsnapped the scope from my
weapon, set it to high power, and positioned myself so I could
watch one suit close up.

A particularly old-looking little man
climbed into a suit. After ten or fifteen minutes the suit opened,
and to my shock, a much younger, ugly little man emerged. I looked
up to find Perk watching the same event. We stared at each other in
disbelief.

It was a rejuvenation party. Somehow they
were infusing life into themselves. It couldn’t be a coincidence
that this was happening just at the time they were raiding Electra.
I didn’t want to believe that the victims from our crew were the
source of their physical restoration, but the thought persisted in
my mind. What had they wanted our people for? It couldn’t be
this.

I slumped down and tried to get a grip. Perk
looked at me and shook his head in disbelief. My anger was so great
it was paralyzing. I wanted to scream and curse, but we were
precariously perched above them. Slowly, the tidal wave of hatred
morphed into a steady stream called revenge. It was the only
comforting thought. I wanted to trip those big rocket motors and
send their ship to hell, but we weren’t ready. Cold determination
checked in to cover the revenge request. It was there in Perk’s
eyes, as well.

We pushed ourselves up in unison, and
quietly continued down the grated passageway.

The passageway ended at a large vertical
tunnel. Warm air was rising from below. A ladder on the right
provided access. Without speaking, we swung around and started
down.

Three levels down the warm turned to heat.
Our only option was a circular, horizontal ventilation tunnel. I
had to slide my weapon and satchel in before pulling in on hands
and knees. We were blindly trying to find our way in the bowels of
an alien ship, and we didn’t care. No force on Earth or in space
could have robbed us of our revenge. We would search relentlessly
like wolves. Our lives were funded by vengeance.

We began to find vents in the sides of the
ductwork. Through the first, we could see support equipment for a
reactor system. It gave us new hope.

The third vent was pay dirt. There was a
control room with big switches and levers, the kind you see for
power systems. Perk tapped on my shoulder and pointed. A second
later an ugly little man walked past below us.

When the room looked clear, we switched on a
weapon light and took a close look at how the grill was fastened to
the ductwork. It was a simple snap-in with a turn-lock. We needed
to unlatch and punch out one corner at a time, but not allow it to
fall. Perk worked his weapon around and undid the strap. With a
quick check outside, he worked the strap through the grill and
caught it lower down with his knife blade and worked it back in. He
gripped the two pieces, unlatched the grill, and waited. Before I
could set up to palm heel the first corner, the little ugly man
walked past once more. Perk rolled his eyes.

We waited, but he did not return. I hit the
nearest top corner as hard as I could. It popped out easily. The
next top corner came out the same way. Perk lowered the grill and
let it swing aside. I had to go out head first. There was a desk
below us. As quietly as possible, I landed on my hands and folded
up to hit the desktop sideways. The commotion was minimal. Standing
on the desk, I held the grill and braced so Perk could climb down
me. Quickly, I pulled down the weapons and satchel, and replaced
the grill. We crouched behind the desk and got our bearings.

It was definitely the main power control
room. The cooling monitors and distribution panels were all there.
We couldn’t read the Arabic-like markings, but the layout was
unmistakable. We hadn’t found propulsion, but power generation was
almost as good. The key to it was that power control areas are
never very far from the actual generators. We had no way to
understand what kind of system they were using, but there was no
doubt we could do great harm.

I leaned over to whisper to Perk but a
beeping alarm interrupted me. A second later, the little ugly man
went racing by. After a few moments, he raced back in the other
direction. The alarm continued to beep. We sat with our backs
against the desk, and looked at each other dejectedly. The alarm
had to be about us.

Perk leaned over and spoke in a whisper,
“We’re screwed.”

I dared a look over the desk. There was no
one. “Actually, my friend, we’ve won.”

“Won what?”

“The motors are waiting to go. They burn for
five to seven minutes. If we plant the two big explosives in this
control room, and set the timers for say, four minutes, we could
fire the motors, drive this scow away, and then the bricks would
wipe out this room and their power systems forever, maybe even more
damage than that if there’s a cascade. I’d say we have them just
about where we want them.”

“I see your point. We weren’t in a hurry to
get back, anyway.”

‘We need to set up without alerting the
nervous guy who keeps running back and forth. We don’t want them
swarming down here just yet.”

Perk looked at me with a smirk. “Kind of
ironic isn’t it. Not long ago, we were racing around in confusion
trying to find intruders on Electra, now they’re having to do
it.”

“Goes around, comes around, I guess.”

“You realize this will ruin the party.”

“I just wonder if this guy is the only one,
or if there’s more. I can’t tell the bastards apart.”

“I’m betting most of them are at the party,
getting youth-inized.”

“Nice play on words. Set up the charges and
I’ll see if I can get a better look.”

“Let me have the remotes for the motors.
I’ll set them up so that either unit will light up both with a
single button.”

I handed him the satchel and staying low,
worked my way around the desk, daring another peek over the top.
The room was clear. There was a door at either end. I strained to
see through the one on my left, but only a portion of more control
consoles were visible. On my right, the other door led to a short
connecting corridor.

We needed a place to hide the charges after
the timers were set. One of the consoles nearby had what appeared
to be a storage drawer in the very bottom slot. I quietly stepped
forward, grabbed the handles and opened it. Some kind of manual
took up a small portion of the space inside. It was a perfect place
for a bomb. I gently shut the drawer and turned to creep back, when
something in the distance to my left set little bells off in my
head. I hurried back behind the desk and sat back down.

“I just saw something that blew my
mind.”

“Nice play on words.”

I opened my mouth to reply, when the
footsteps of the ugly little man made me freeze up. He entered the
control room from the left, paused, and then raced away. We
continued, keeping our voices low.

“Didn’t see you, did they?”

“No, I watched in both directions. They’re
all upset, running around like chickens with their heads cut
off.”

”Well, that’s what they’re gonna be. What’d
you see?”

“You’re not going to believe this, but about
three hundred feet off to the left, there’s an empty elevator that
looks just like the one we came in on.”

“No shit?”

“Problem is, if we try to leave, we can’t be
discovered here. They’d search the place.”

The footsteps returned once again, but raced
quickly by and faded away.

“Two choices.”

“What?”

“Kill everyone in this area, or depart
without being seen.”

“That first one’s messy.”

“If we tried for the elevator, and they came
and found it gone, that wouldn’t be a problem. They’d think it was
just called to another level.”

“We’ll have to set timers on the big
charges. It’d be a wild guess. Then we’d need to fire those rocket
motors four or five minutes before the blast, no matter where we
were at the time.”

“It’s a long shot, no matter which way you
go.”

“So, option one, we set the big charges for
four minutes, plant them as far apart as possible, then immediately
set off the motors, and go along for the ride.”

“Yep.”

“Or, option two, we set the big charges with
maybe enough time to get out of here, and try to make the elevator
without being seen.”

“You have an excellent grasp of the
situation, my friend. Hold up, here comes our guy.”

Once again, the little old man went rushing
by, disappearing into the next chamber.

“I’ve been timing him. He’s always been gone
at least three minutes.”

“That would do it. I plant in this room, at
the same time you plant in the next. First guy in the elevator
stands by the up button.”

I looked around the corner of the desk, but
still saw no one. “You know what would be good, a distraction on a
different level to help keep them away from here.”

Perk smiled. “I know one. How many of the
small charges left?”

“Five.”

“Let me have one.”

I dug in the satchel and handed it to
him.

Perk separated the remote control from the
charge and put it in his breast pocket. “As we pass up through one
of the other floors, I’ll chuck the charge as far as I can throw
it. If nobody’s there, it will attract all kinds of attention. If
there are creepo’s there, it will shut them up.”

“Works for me. Now, how much time do we give
ourselves?”

“Plant charges, ride the elevator, get into
space suits, hope that hatch is still open. Ten minutes would be
cutting it close.”

“Let’s be extravagant and make it fifteen,
in case they’ve closed the front door.”

“Yeah, no way they’ll find the big charges
by then.”

“So fifteen for us, plus four to let the big
motors burn them away from here, nineteen minutes.”

“Nineteen minutes.”

We unpacked the big charges and set nineteen
minutes on the timers, then waited for the little man to go by
again. We sat with the explosives in our laps, staring at the arm
and execute buttons, silently wondering about our chances. We
didn’t have to wait long. Ugly little man trotted by even more
quickly, as though he was actually going somewhere this time.