Ringship Discretion (11 page)

AJ pulled out the scanning device. It was shaking wildly in his hand. Ben grabbed his hand "It's OK. Calm down. The tough part's over!" AJ nodded and started to push buttons.

Ben thought "I'll be right back." and he pushed off toward the station to get behind where their inner airlock would be. He found where two sections connected and set a charge.  He then went to the other side and did the same.

AJ thought to Ben "I've got something."

Ben thought back "I'll be there in a second."

After the docking tube made a hard seal with the ship, the captain opened the ship's outer airlock hatch and he, Doc, and Helen stood there, just inside the now open hatch. They had two loaded M24s and a shotgun just behind the hatch door just in case.  The lead man from the station opened the docking tube space-side airlock door and walked the short distance to the ship's hatch. "You must be Captain Elliot. Why don't you come out and let's trade?" 

The captain said "That's OK, we're fine right here."

The lead man said "Did you lose your real pilot?"

The captain said "Something like that. You going to show us the cash?"

The lead man said "You not even going to ask my name?"

The captain asked "Do I need to?"

"Well, it is customary you know.  It's Duane. Duane Schmidt." He pointed to a box  "I have the cash right here, but where's our prize?"

The captain replied "Well..Duane, there's been a slight hitch.  See, we only have three of the plates in here."

In an angry voice he asked "Where the hell are the other three?! And who said you could open the cargo!  We can't take three plates to our buyer, we need all six!. What did you expect, half payment or something?! Well you can.." The captain interrupted "HOLD ON! WE HAVE the plates! We just had to borrow them for a bit to get here.  Half the damn galaxy is chasing us you know!" 

Duane freaked. "Borrowed them?! What the Fuck were you...." While Duane rambled on the captain thought to Ben "They just admitted they're middle men.  Wonder how much they're going to get paid on their end of the run, and how much you want to bet they make a play for the plates and the money?" 

Ben thought back. "Right! Captain, we have a lock on one of his boys next to the umm....fourth window back."

The captain looked and thought "I see him."

Ben went on, "Well, according to the scanner, he is ready for a firefight, but he doesn't know if there will be one.  He's just waiting for orders. But from his scan, I can tell you that he has 5 more men down the corridor that you can't see.  Their ship is located at 44E and there are two guys there, the pilot and the cook."

The captain thought back. "Great, Ben. See if you can scan someone else...". Then the captain suddenly became aware that Duane had finished his ramble and was calling his name.

Duane was yelling "Hey Elliot! You not even paying attention to me?! Or are you...you thinking to someone?!"  The exact second he was saying that, Ben tried to move, forgetting his carabiner was still attached to the station. It clanged and AJ's extra line flew outward and then down over the window.

The fourth guy backed up from the window and cocked his rifle "DUANE! There's someone outside! Ambush!" Duane turned to yell "Don't shoot in here!" and when he turned back, he saw Atticus pushing everyone into the ship and going behind the hatch for something.  Duane lifted his shotgun and  fired. The shot hit the metal hatch and part of the tube. Air started to hiss.

Atticus thought "BLOW IT!" and Ben pushed the remote detonator.

Atticus lifted the M24 as he frantically backed away from the hatch and got a round off just as he heard the explosion and felt the air pressure drop. He saw everyone in the rear of the corridor start to fly backward, but the inner two docking tube airlock doors immediately slammed shut into emergency mode, while his own hatch didn't. Duane had fallen backward, but cocked his shotgun for another shot. Atticus took another shot of his own, and with his foot, kicked his hatch shut just as Duane's second blast hit it.

Ben thought to the captain. "We have cut ourselves free of the station.  Floor it and come back for us!"

The captain yelled "Amelia!! FULL POWER!!"

She yelled back. "What about Ben and AJ!?"

"They're OK! Just go goddammit!"

Two seconds later, the ship threw the captain against the far wall of the airlock. What was left of the connecting tube ripped from the station and wrapped it self around the rear of the Discretion, striking the grav plates.  The ship started to spin and this caused the tube to straightened out.  The captain pulled himself to his feet and took a look out the portal. Duane was still in the connecting tube against the space-side airlock door that had shut.  As Atticus watched, Duane managed to open it, get back into the docking tube and shut it again, then the whole tube ripped free, with Duane now trapped inside.  Atticus watched it fly off towards the crescent of Io, while a huge volcano plume erupted in the distant background.  He yelled again "Amelia! Stop the ship!...I'm going to puke."

Atticus stumbled his way to the bridge. 

Amelia, very upset, "What the hell happened?!" 

Attie climbed into the co-pilot seat. "It went bad!  We need to go back and pick up Ben and AJ."

Amelia pushed buttons, engaging and disengaging the engines "Shit, I can't make this thing go in a straight line". 

The captain took a breath, coughed and said "What about the MFG's?"

She said "Yeah, I'll try that." The ship turned and began to approach the station. "Damn, its working!"

The captain said "Because of all the ion flux?"

She said "Well indirectly. I think we are pushing off the station's magnetic field."

Then Ben's thoughts came in. "Captain, we see you.  Looks like that tube smashed all the new plates we put on. Everyone OK?  Did you get the money?"

The captain sat up in his chair. "Everyone's fine. What about you two?  The money was in the back end of the tube.  Should be floating out there somewhere.  Look for a metallic box."

Ben thought "I'm fine, just rattled a bit.  AJ hurt his arm again, but he's alright."  Ben watched the Discretion's motion. "Captain, you are steering too far toward the station.  Here, I will think to you where we are."

Attie tapped Amelia "Turn on your TC implant and Ben will guide you in."

She pushed the side of her head above her ear and began receiving Ben's thoughts.

As they approached Ben and AJ's position, they noticed lights from the station turn and shine on them.

Ben thought "I see it! The money box! When they turned those lights on, it was right there sparkling. A thing of beauty!" 

Amelia did her best to precisely control the ship with magnetic flux, but she kept overshooting.  "Attie, I think this is as close as I can get.  Tell them to use their suit thrusters to come in."  Attie climbed up to the window to look down.  He could see AJ and Ben coming in.  Ben had something big in his arms.

Attie jumped down, suddenly realizing that they had tried to run the drives with the internal plating still on.  It's a wonder it worked at all!  He ran over to the hatch and watched through the portal. He waited and finally asked "Come on guys. Whats the problem?"

Ben came back with "It's the hatch, its still has part of the hard seal attached to it and it's jammed. We are going to go around and use the hatch on the other side."

Amelia yelled "Ships are powering up on the station!" 

Atticus frantically ran to the other side and thought "Come on guys! We've got to get out of here!"

As Ben and AJ made it around to the other hatch, Amelia yelled "We have two ships pulling away from the station!"

Attie looked at Doc and Helen. "Help them, I have to see what's happening" and he ran back to the bridge.  He jumped into his usual chair. "What have we got?"

Amelia pointed. "There. Those two".

The captain said "Whoa, those are big ships. Can we run?"

She looked at him white eyed. "There's no way without the drive plates!"

The captain looked back at the other airlock and slapped his head. "Think. There has to be something we can do!" 

Amelia pointed "Here they come."

Attie yelled "Everyone suit up! You too Amelia!" and he jumped up to help the others.

Amelia grabbed his arm as he went by. "Attie! Look!"

He turned and saw one of the ships fly by them at full throttle and then the other. He stood there for a minute trying to see where they went. "What the hell was that? Where did they go?"

Amelia hit him again. "Look there go more ships!"

Attie looked. "What the hell is going on?"

And then he heard Ben's voice from behind him. "Hey Captain!"

Attie turned and hugged him. "Damn! You OK?"

Ben hugged back. "Yeah. Yeah. Hell yeah.  That was a hell of thing. But we're all still here!  AJ is fine and we got the money!" Ben looked out the window. "Where are all those ships going?!"

Amelia suddenly said "They're evacuating.  I was just listening to the radio chatter and they say the Big Sis ship will be here tomorrow and they're talking about the fleet of them that are going to pass soon." Amelia laughed "Wait! They think what we just did was a prelude to an attack!" She turned and looked at Attie with a huge grin.

Attie smiled back and shook his head. "It might be!  Whew...OK...." He turned to Ben "Did you get a look at the grav plating?"

Ben nodded. "It looks like the plates are all still there. Just looks like the jury rigging we built got bent to hell."

Attie sat down "OK, lets sit, calm down for a sec and think.  What do we need to do next?"

Amelia said "Well, we need to get the hell out of Dodge, so we need to fix the plates.." Attie interrupted "But, we need somewhere to go.  We certainly can't go home."  Just then, AJ came up and asked "How did we do Captain?"

He looked at AJ with a smile. "You did great kid! You OK?"

AJ set down the mind scanner and pointed to his wrist "I let go too late and pulled it really bad, but considering what..." The captain interrupted "I have an idea!  Sorry AJ. Amelia, where is that tube at?"

She looked at her displays. "You mean the one that was attached to us?"

He said "Yeah, that one!"

She got up and looked out the side of the window "Its down there."

Attie said "Great. Take us as close to it as you can."

Ben looked at him puzzled. "What do you have in mind?"

The captain grabbed the brain scanner. "This! We have a rat in a cage with information we need - and we have the 'cheese of life'."

Amelia looked at Attie and the scanner and she felt that protective side of him coming through. That "kill anyone or destroy anything to protect his crew" feeling.  Just like back when he used that laser to kill the disabled bridge of the BB ship.  She felt safe from it, but at the same time feared it. "Captain, you really would do anything to protect us, wouldn't you?"

Her calling him "Captain" got everyone's attention.  Attie looked at her. And then he looked around to the whole crew. "I think we all would.......Now lets get to work.  Ben, I need you and AJ to go back out and fix the grav plating. Doc, finish getting suited up and you are with me. Amelia, check the main hatch to see if it's leaking and see if we can get it unjammed.  Helen, you have communications.  OK, lets go!"

Doc, Ben, AJ, and the captain all crammed into the functioning airlock along with the cutting and welding equipment.  It seemed like they were in there forever. Usually the emergency situations were coming into the airlock and pressurizing, which could be hurried, although its still felt slow.  But dropping the pressure to 40 kPa had to be done slow and it felt like an eternity. 

The pressure finally hit 40 kPa and they all donned their helmets and checked the gear.  The captain said "Everyone ready?".  They all gave the OK signal and he released the remaining pressure in the lock.  When it hit zero, he opened the outer door. In front of them was the yellow and orange pizza  surface of Io.  The volcano he had seen earlier was erupting so high that its plume went into space.  The view caught all their attentions for a minute, until the captain said "Come on. It's damn beautiful, but I don't want this to be the last thing I ever see. Let's move!"

Amelia had done a fairly good job getting close to the floating tube airlock wreckage.  The captain said to Doc "OK, I want you to go to the top of the airlock section and see if you can get a reading on that Duane guy inside.  Let me know as soon as you do.  I am going to go inside the tube and see if I can bargain with him."

Doc said "Aye Captain." and he thrustered off.

The captain headed inside of the tube. He floated up to the sealed door's portal and looked in.  Duane looked up and jumped. He beat against the door and was yelling, but the captain couldn't hear him. The captain stuck a note up to the window that said "Information for life". Duane calmed down and nodded. Just then Doc came over the headset "I've got a mind lock".  He is thinking about how to get out and kill you, but also about delivery to Oberon. It's apparently an Oorter base of some kind.  Now, he's thinking about what his crew is doing and his daughter back on.."Doc, relevant details please."