Lost Sols 1: Ancient Treasure (18 page)

Patrick was listeni
ng to the exchange between the Captains when he received a message on his data pad. "You have a request to play poker with one opponent." He hadn't played poker with anyone since his training days. Who could possibly be asking to play poker at a time like this? He quickly clicked on the link. "You have an internet poker request from Sandy Greyson." He was shocked, he hadn't spoke with Sandy since their days at training. She had to be on the Lexington. Patrick clicked the link to begin the game and went to the chat box. "Are you alright? Where are you? Is there anyone else with you?" he asked. Sandy couldn't believe it when she received the response from Patrick. "I'm locked in a cell alone on the Lexington. I'm alive for now. They killed my crew and all of our families." she texted back. "Hang in there and stand by, I'm going to talk with my Captain." Patrick texted.

"Isabella what is your status? How soon until you are ready to fire?" Vincent asked. "I'm leaving the airlock now, I should be ready in just a few minutes." she responded. Vincent was interrupted by Patrick. "Captain, I've established contact with a prisoner on the
Lexington." he said. "Who is the prisoner, and how did you manage that?" Vincent asked. "She asked to play poker with me, I'm communicating with her on poker chat. She's locked in a cell." Patrick replied. "If she's locked in a cell, I don't see how she can be of any help." Vincent replied. "Captain, let me talk to her some more. If she can get out of her cell let me take the rocket pack and go get her." Patrick said. "It's out of the question. You can't get over there without being seen and someone would have to open the airlock. I don't want to see her die either Patrick. It’s hard to accept but losing one life is better then losing two. It would be a suicide mission and I won't let you do it." Vincent replied.

Patrick knew there had to be a way. He typed another message to
Sandy. "Can you get to the airlock? You won't need an EVA suit. I'm going to try and come get you if you can get to one." he texted. "The airlock is close to the bathroom. I think I can get to it. Just tell me when I need to be there." Sandy replied. "Stand by, I have to talk my Captain into authorizing this plan. Be ready when the time comes." Patrick texted.

The situation was spiraling out of control. Vincent didn't like losing the upper hand. The only option he had left was the untested alien missile. If it didn't work the battle would denigrate into firearms and hand to hand combat. Patrick approached again. "Captain, Sandy says she can get to an airlock. I think I can get over there undetected. Please Captain, you have to at least let me try. Listen to my plan at least." he said. "How do you plan to get over there undetected?" Vincent asked. "I've got an excellent low tech solution. We have all those large plastic containers in the hanger bay. I'll patch a few together which will big enough to hide the glow of the ETS suit. Then I will paint it black and strap it on. There's no way they'll see me." he said. "Seriously Patrick? You're going to hide in a plastic container? This isn't hide and seek, this is your life. There's very little time as well, we're down to fifty minutes." Vincent said. "Give me the time to try. I'll be off the ship in fifteen minutes." he said. "I'll let you make the attempt on one condition. At the first sign of trouble you abort and return to the ship. Do you understand?" Vincent said. "Thank you Captain, I understand." Patrick said. "Don't just stand there, get moving and good luck. Have Dominic help with the containers. Get off the ship as quickly as you can, and remember to abort if you’re in any danger. Take this, you might need it." Vincent said as he handed him a gun. Patrick began to head toward the cargo bay. “Patrick, wait a minute. I have an idea, check with me before you leave the ship. I’m going to try and send an explosive device with you. Let’s try to take the ship out from the inside if we can.” Vincent said.

After some trial and error Isabella believed she had the missile properly inserted into the launcher. She activated the display and lined up the shot. If she was reading the display correctly she had a lock on the Lexington. After she double checked her work she was sure of it. This was the moment. It was time to blow those bastards to hell and back. Her headset crackled and came to life. "Isabella, put the missile launch on hold for now. Patrick will be leaving the ship on a rescue mission in a few minutes. Take a visual and let me know how visible he is. He’s going to try to make it to the Lexington undetected to rescue a hostage. Remain on standby with the missile launcher for now. Do we have any more explosives on board? " he asked. Isabella knew what Vincent had in mind. “I made a second fragmentation bomb. It’s the same type we used on Rhea with the Captain. The bomb is designed to inflict the same type of damage as the first one. It may not have enough explosive power to seriously damage the Lexington.” Isabella said. “If it’s all we have then we will use it. Maybe it will be enough.” Vincent said. “The bomb is in the cargo bay along with the trigger. You can set it off once Patrick and his passenger are clear.” Isabella said.

It was tense in the command center. "What do you think Vincent? Do we have a chance?" Julia
asked. "Hopefully the bomb will cause enough damage. It might be enough to compromise the integrity of their hull in a few locations. A catastrophic hull breach would do the trick just fine. If it doesn’t work, it becomes more complicated. We will have to rely on the alien missile." he said. "If our ship is taken the Captain of the Lexington will have access to the pyramid if he can figure out how the ETS suits operate." Monique said. "If it looks like we will lose the battle, I will jettison the ETS suits. I promise you it won’t come to that. We will make it back to recover the artifacts and treasure." Vincent said.

With help from Dominic
, Patrick retrofitted and painted the containers black quickly. Dominic brought him the bomb to plant on the Lexington. He was in the airlock with the bomb just fifteen minutes after speaking with Vincent. He typed a message to Sandy. "Get to the airlock now. I'll be there in just a few minutes. Get out of that cell, and be waiting for me, it's your only chance.”

Sandy
received the message from Patrick. She would do anything to make the Captain and crew of the Lexington pay for what they had done. It was time to summon one of the guards. "I have to go to the bathroom. You better hurry or you're going to have a mess to clean up. You need to get me out of here right now." she yelled.

She heard one of the guards approaching.
"Damn it Sandy, didn't you just go to the bathroom an hour ago? What’s wrong with you?" he asked. "It must be this poisoned food you’re feeding me. I don’t understand why your Captain doesn’t just shoot me. My stomach hurts. I guess he’d rather poison me then waste a bullet." Sandy replied as she was led out of her cell. She closed the bathroom door behind her. She looked around for some type of weapon and tried to rip the metal lid off the toilet. After a couple of minutes she still wasn’t able to pry it off. Running out of options she began to panic and kicked it as hard as she could. The lid finally came loose. "What's going on in there?" the guard asked. "You don't want to come in here right now. I'm done, but I'm having trouble with the latch on this door again. Can you try to open it?" she asked. “Hang on, give me a couple of seconds.” the guard responded. She heard him approach, and prepared herself. The door opened and she hit him across the face as hard as she could. He stumbled back into the wall and she hit him again on top of his head. The guard fell to the floor and didn't move. She made her way as fast as she could to the airlock. She didn’t see any other guards in the area. When she arrived at the airlock she found a message from Patrick on her data pad. "I’m here, open the outer door now." She opened the outer door. As soon as the outer door was closed she pressurized the airlock and opened the inner door. Patrick was in the airlock without an EVA suit. He was surrounded by a light blue luminescent light. He handed her what looked like a white ball. "Press the control right here. This is an alien EVA suit. It’s perfectly safe. I used one coming over here from the Constellation." he said. She activated the device and was immediately encased in the same light blue light. As she looked behind her she saw the guard she had knocked unconscious approaching. He was bleeding. Patrick saw him too and raised a gun. He fired four shots. The shots were loud, and the guard fell to the floor clutching his chest. Patrick quickly pulled something out of his pack and threw it on the floor near the airlock. "Come on, let's go before more guards show up." Patrick said. He had left the jet rocket and the black container hovering outside the airlock. He strapped Sandy to his belt and she held on to his back. Patrick activated the rocket and the two of them were on their way back to the Constellation.

“Vincent, we have an incoming transmission from Patrick.” Sarah said. “Captain, Sandy and I are clear of the
Lexington. You can detonate the bomb.”

"Captain, the primary airlock has been activated within the last few minutes."
the communications officer reported. Captain Samuels tried to contact the guard on duty closest to the airlock. There was no response from the guard. “Tavaris get down there and see what the hell is going on." he instructed. Just as Tavaris got up the ship was rocked by an explosion, and air began rushing out of the command center. After a few seconds everything seemed to return to normal. “Get me a report! I need to know what just happened.” Captain Samuels screamed. “We’ve had a hull breach in multiple locations near the airlock. Emergency bulkheads are holding.” Tavaris said. “Get me the video. I need to see it now.”

With Captain Samuels and his crew preoccupied with the explosion, none of them noticed a barely perceptible dim light traveling in the direction of the Constellation.
Patrick new the bomb had been a good idea. Even if it didn’t disable the Lexington, it gave him and Sandy time to escape.

Watching the video, Captain Samuels saw
Sandy knock out the guard. The guard went down hard. He knew it wasn't possible to suit up and get out of the airlock as quickly as she did. He watched as the airlock opened and a man appeared without an EVA suit. "What the hell? What's that light?" he said aloud. A few moments later he watched as the guard got up and stumbled toward the airlock. Captain Samuels became angry when he saw the guard gunned down. He became furious when he saw the man throw what had to be a bomb on the floor. The two of them were gone seconds later. The external video outside the airlock showed the duo heading in the direction of the Constellation. Shortly afterward the bomb exploded and everything which hadn’t been bolted down blew out of multiple holes in his ship. The guard who had been shot was briefly stuck in one of the holes which had been blown into the hull. After a few seconds he was sucked into empty space with the rest of the debris. “If he wasn’t already dead from the gunshots, he is now. What a terrible way to go. The Captain of the Constellation has a lot of balls. We were lucky the bulkheads saved our asses. We need to constantly monitor the Constellation in case they try that trick again.” Captain Samuels said.

Patrick was ecstatic.
He had single handedly rescued Sandy from a certain death. As the two of them arrived aboard the Constellation he gave her a hug. "They killed my crew and my family. They’re all dead." she said as she began crying again. "I'm truly sorry Sandy. Let's go find the Captain, maybe you can help pay them back. I’m sure he would like to talk to you." he said as he led her to the command center.

Sarah had been tracking and monitoring Patrick during the rescue.
She had been updating Vincent each step of the way. He was impressed the rescue had gone so smoothly and his trust in Patrick had paid off. Vincent was glad he had relented and let him go. The Lexington was still floating silently in space. He wondered if anyone was left alive onboard. Some debris had been spotted and at least one body. “Captain, the Lexington just made a slight turn. There is someone onboard who is still piloting the ship. At least one or more people have survived the explosion.” Sarah said.

Patrick and Sandy arrived in the command center.
"Good job Patrick. Welcome aboard the Constellation Sandy. I'm sorry to hear of your loss. You're welcome to become part of our family now." he said. "Thank you for saving me Captain. To be honest I haven't had much will to live lately." she said. "Don’t thank me. Patrick insisted on going after you. I know this is a horrible time for you Sandy. There's nothing I can say which will ease your pain right now. We have a lot of friendly people on board you can talk with. In time, you will find a way to honor your family and to continue with your life. Your loved ones wouldn't want you to give up, and would want you to move forward. Is there anything you know which might help us defeat the Lexington?” he asked. “I’m sorry Captain, I was locked up the whole time. The Captain on the Lexington is a cocky son of a bitch.” she said. “Thank you Sandy, go get some rest. Patrick, find her some quarters and return immediately." he said.

Patrick brought
Sandy to his quarters. There wasn’t anywhere else to put her, and he was the only person on the ship she knew. “I’m sorry you can’t have your own quarters, I’ll do what I can to make sure you have your privacy. What happened is horrendous. Have trust in the Captain. We’ve made it this far with him. For what it’s worth I’m here for you if you want to talk.” Patrick said. “I appreciate it Patrick. I’m trying to come to terms with what’s happened. It will take some time. You better go, the Captain needs you.” she said. The Captain was right, we’re like family here. If you don’t want to talk to me, you can talk to anyone else onboard. Let me know if there’s anything you need.” Patrick said. “I’m going back to the command center with you, I need to know what’s going on. I’m not going to die without knowing why. I’ll rest later.” Sandy said.