Junkyard Dogs 1: The Scrapyard Incident (28 page)

Chapter 51

New Ceylon Orbital
Station,
spoke one stairwell area, October 9, 2598.

Kresge continued
to grill the runner who had breathlessly brought him the latest information on
the progress of the Resistance effort to liberate the orbital station.

"What else
can you tell me?" Kresge
asked,
eyes intense. He
was keyed up, still pumped from the action of just a few minutes ago.

"So far, so
good," said the runner, the same young girl who had been assigned to him
before. She looked to be about sixteen and had bright red hair and freckles.
"Maggie says we have only minor casualties and we've either killed or
captured somewhere around fourteen raiders. The enemy can't have many men
left."

"Good
news!" said Kresge.
"Seems as though everything is
going according to plan."

Over on stairwell
eight, the group headed up by Kathy Haines and CPO Jenkins, who had used their
captured pulse rifles to take out the two armored guards almost without
incident as soon as they heard the commotion from Kresge's attack on stairwell
one, were preparing for the assault on the Governor's suite. Haines heard the
soft whine of a maintenance cart coming down the corridor towards them.

"Everyone, take cover!
Someone's coming down the
corridor.
Probably the enemy.
None of our people are
supposed to be in that area yet!"

The cart stopped
about twenty meters from the stairwell landing and a voice called out to the
Resistance fighters.

"Lower your
weapons," the voice called out. "We are going up the spoke to the
spindle area. I advise you not to try and stop us. We have Governor Larkin and
all three members of his family. Any attempt to interfere will result in some
of them dying. I suggest you let us pass."

Ezra Brimstone,
in battle armor, came out to where the defenders could see him. He had a little
girl in front of him and was holding a pulse pistol to her head.

"You'd
better make up your mind!" said Brimstone, his look grim.

Haines ran
through her limited list of options and drew the only possible conclusion.

"Stand down
everyone. Let them go..."

"That was
most wise," said Brimstone, reasonably.

He and his small
group of escapees, Haines counted only five additional raiders, made their way
quickly into the spoke area. With the elevators still disabled, they began to
climb the zig zag sets of stairs that led to the central spoke area. Haines and
her fellow Resistance fighters fumed in silence as the terrorist group
disappeared from sight.

"Jenkins?
You're in charge here till I get back," said Haines. "Cummings,
you're with me, we have to get this information to Commander Kresge,
immediately. Come on, we'll take the enemy's maintenance cart."

Within a few
minutes, they reconnoitered with Kresge over in stairwell one. Haines explained
what had happened.

"I'm sorry,
Commander, it all happened so fast."

Kresge shook his
head in resignation. "I don't know that I could have done any better,
Kathy. At least the Governor and his family are still alive, for the moment,
and the enemy is down to only a half a dozen men."

Kresge called to
the men in the stairwell one area.

"Everyone,
the enemy has fled into the spindle area and there are less than ten of them
remaining at large. That's the good news. The bad news is that they still have
four hostages, Governor Larkin, his wife, and two children." He looked the
group over. "This changes everything. I want our men in battle armor at
stations one and eight and at least ten others at the top of the other
stairwells guarding any access to the wheel from the spindle. With the security
and maintenance people in the southern end of the spindle, the enemy is
confined to the airlock and receiving area. His options are severely limited,
but he still has hostages. Vasquez?"

"Yes, Commander?"

"Take
whoever you need and get those guard stations up as soon as possible."

"I'm on it,
Commander."

Vasquez rounded up
eight men and disappeared down the corridor.

"On the plus
side," said Haines, "we should now have access to the station
communications suite. Including the Stage I transmitter."

"Good
point," said Kresge. "Where's my runner?" The slender young girl
spoke up from behind him.

"Here,
Commander," she said, her voice only shaking a little.

"What's your
name, young lady?"

"Amanda,
Sir, Amanda Steuben."

"You Orville Steuben's kid?"

"Yes, Commander."

"That
explains a lot. I need you to get down to the wired communications point
downstairs and have Central Command tell the people in the spindle and the rest
of the station what just happened. Then I want you to tell the people in the
spindle to restore normal oxygen and CO2 levels on the first level. Can you do
that Amanda?"

"Absolutely, Commander!"

She ran eagerly
down the steps.

"Kathy,
Clancy, come with me, we're heading for the communications suite."

They took several
more of the Resistance fighters and headed down the corridor towards the
Governor's suite and the communications area.

What they found
when they arrived was beyond disheartening. The communications room was a
complete shambles.

"My
God!" said Davis-Moore. "Did they leave anything intact?"

"It doesn't
look like it," said Haines.

The invaders had
smashed or shot up everything in the room just before they had departed. The
damage was extensive. Repairs were going to require replacement parts and a
great deal of time. Any hope they had of restoring communications, station wide
or otherwise, was going to require that they get the old communications suite
at the southern end of the spindle up and operating.

"I'll
strangle that bastard with my bare hands if I get half a chance," said
Kresge, disgustedly.

"Not if I
get to him first," said Haines.

They headed back
down to the stairwell one landing area where a large group of Resistance
fighters had gathered. Amanda Steuben came running up the stairs and stopped
breathlessly in front of Kresge.

"Commander,
come quick! They need you down at the communications point. Maggie says it's
really important."

Kresge followed
the teenager down the stairs and into the area where the wired handset operator
was waiting. He took the handset from the operator and pushed the talk button.

"Kresge here."

"Commander?
This is Fowler over on stairwell five.
We've had some problems over here. I'll get to that in a minute.
Most important thing first.
We picked up one of the invader
communicators after its owner went down. The leader was still on line when I
picked it up... He gave me a message."

"You talked
to the leader of the terrorist group?"

"Yes, Commander.
He told me he wants to talk to you. He
says he'll call you in half an hour and you'd better answer or some of the
hostages are gonna get hurt."

"What
happened?" asked Kresge, tersely.

"We screwed
up big time over here, Commander. One of my men dropped his breathin' tank just
as we were gettin' set to take the guard out. The flippin' guard was drugged or
somethin' 'cause he was wide awake even before the noise. I got him with my
stun rod, but he was too far away and he didn't go down. I hurt him, though. He
dropped his pulse rifle and then he turned tail and ran. We went after him
quick as we could, but he pulled a communicator off his belt and called the
leader. I grabbed the pulse rifle but I didn't have time to shoot him; he
dropped like a sack of soggy coffee beans about fifty meters down the corridor.
Looked like he tripped over his own feet.
Dead as a
New Ceylon weekend by the time we got to him. I think it was low oxygen and
some kind of drug overdose that took him out... They told me the leader
high-tailed it into the spindle. Sorry, Commander, it's my fault.
Should've kept a closer eye on my guys."

"What's done
is done," said Kresge "The hostages might not be alive if we'd
trapped them in the Governor's suite. Who knows? Are all of your men
okay?"

"
Yep,'least we didn't have no
injuries."

"Good, that
means that we didn't lose anybody, there's just a couple people with minor
wounds and only one with serious injuries. Hanna Jordon is working on him as we
speak. I'd call that a successful counterattack. Thanks for reminding me about
the damned communicators, I knew I was forgetting something.
I've got six prisoners and at least as
many dead terrorists.
At least
one of the dead ones was carrying a
communicator; he was using it when we nailed him. I imagine there are more of
them?"

"I'd think
so, Commander, but you don't know 'til you check."

"Oh, I'll
check! Like I said, I'm glad you called. I can't have prisoners giving away
information about us! We'll get right on it. How long ago did Ezra say that I
had a half hour?"

"It was
'bout five minutes ago," said Fowler.
"Commander?"

"What is it
Fowler?"

"I...I take
full responsibility for the screw up."

"As I said
earlier, what's done is done. Don't lose any sleep over it."

Kresge came back
up to the first floor landing and galvanized his men into action.

"All of
you,
listen up!" shouted Kresge. "Some of the
prisoners may still have communicators. Search them and search all of the dead
ones too. If you find anything, bring it to me immediately! Go!
Now!"

The men scattered
as they went to do his bidding. Within a minute, the Resistance fighters
brought Kresge communications devices from several dead terrorists. Kresge
checked his wrist chronometer.

Twenty minutes
until the call from Brimstone was due.

Chapter 52

UTFN Reclamation Center,
onboard the wreck of FNS Terrier, October 9, 2598.

Hawkins, unharmed
by the pulse beam blast by virtue of being inside the heavily armored turret
with the added protection of the makeshift protective coating the defenders had
applied, urgently made his way out through the damaged part of the ship to
check on Harris. The
Rover I
had gone
completely dead, all of the electronics most likely fried to a crisp by the
pulse beam impact. Harris remained tethered to the sled, floating upside down
near the control console, but he was not responding to calls on the suit radio
and did not appear to be moving. Hawkins shined his suit lights though the face
plate on Harris's helmet and, to his immense relief, thought he could detect
breathing.

Carlisle
arrived
a minute or so later and helped him move the
immobile form of their companion over to the
Rover II
. She deftly maneuvered the
Rover II
over near the airlock door and
waited,
her heart in her throat, while Hawkins unhooked the cable that had connected
the old ship to the
Rover I
and
connected a similar cable from the
Rover
II
.

"This sled
ain't quite
so
powerful as the other one," he
said as he went about making the connections, "but it be enough to run
life support, for a while at least."

The airlock
cycled and, as soon as the pressure equalized, they maneuvered Harris in the
bulky armor into the service room. They removed Harris' helmet and went about the
process of getting him out of the heavy suit. He groaned weakly and his eyes
fluttered open as he regained consciousness while they were completing the
process. Carlisle, beside herself with relief, hugged him tightly. In response,
Harris closed his eyes again.

"Careful,
Lass, you don't want t' be smotherin' him!"

She relaxed her
embrace.

"What? No,
Hawk, don't stop her," Harris joked weakly, "Ensign, I order you to
continue what you were doing!"

She smiled down
at him, but did not resume any further attempt to smother him.

"What
happened?" asked Harris, beginning to gain some strength, "I saw the
bow of the enemy ship coming toward us and then...nothing."

"We were
takin' a pulse bolt, Lieutenant. I'd nay believe it if I had
na
'
seen it for myself; that reaction fluid we gooped on be stoppin' it."

"That was
one of the most amazing things I've ever seen," said Carlisle.

"And then
what?"

"We got the
bastard, Lieutenant. Our last shot
be
goin' right down
his throat.
Must've hit him all but perfect.
The ship
just...disappeared."

Harris remembered
more as his recovery continued.

"There was a
guy in battle armor...Tamara? That trick with the booster..." He shook his
head appreciatively, and then frowned. "No, that's not quite right... there
were two of them. What about the other guy?"

"He made the
mistake of coming into the cargo bay after me."

"He came
after you?
Into the cargo bay?
In
battle armor?
What did you do?"

"Don't
forget I have my own battle armor. I took his pulse rifle away from him and
shot him with it," she said matter-of-factly.

"Remind me
not to get on your bad side! We'll want to hear all about it."

They swapped
stories and congratulated one another for the better part of half an hour
before one of them remembered their prisoner. Hawkins retrieved him from
confinement.

Caleb Jordan
wasn't nearly as happy as they were about the destruction of the second ship.
The last he knew, his wife had been on that ship. Not knowing what else to do,
they restrained him over on the starboard side of the bridge. With their
permission he took a tattered pocket Bible from somewhere out of his coverall
and consoled
himself
by reading various passages from
it and praying softly. Sometimes he would weep silently for a few minutes
before going back to his reading.

Carlisle busied
herself going through the ship's computer and copying all of the
Terrier's
log files. With the Meridian
Ambassador's ship due anytime, Harris made frequent checks through the bridge
periscope in the direction of the system's Whitney jump point.