Running With Argentine (22 page)

On
Trinity

Lieutenant
Stark broke the circuit with the captain and returned the communicator to his
pocket. He surveyed the scene in front of him again. The three of them were
hiding behind a hedgerow that was growing almost flush against the front side
of the house.

He knew their situation was a long shot, but as long as
Argentine kept his nerve and didn't strand them on this sorry excuse for a mud
ball, they still had a chance.

The scene in front of him was one of confusion.

A number of people were running back and forth between the
flitter landing area and the main house. It seemed a new flitter was landing
every couple of minutes.

There were also guards.

Plenty of guards.

Twenty minutes ago, he'd been right to expect a guard
outside their door. He'd opened it as quickly and quietly as possible and
Gossip rushed out before it was even fully open. By the time the lieutenant
could step into the hallway he was already lowering the inert form of the guard
quietly to the ground.

They were able to liberate the guard’s handgun, but
strangely, they couldn't find any type of communications device.

They'd made their way quietly down the hall and passed
through a couple of empty rooms. Fortunately, at this early hour there weren't
a lot of people around.

They’d almost made it to what the lieutenant estimated to be
the outside wall of the villa when a voice rang out, "Halt! You're not
allowed in this…"

Without hesitation, Lieutenant Stark shot the guard in the
throat.

Unfortunately, the energy guns weren’t very quiet.

Gossip had grabbed the second gun and they’d all sprinted
down what he’d hoped would be the last hallway.

ΔΔΔ

Fortunately,
that hallway had led them to an outside room.

Again, without hesitation, the Lieutenant had fired his gun
at the largest window.

It shattered, and almost without breaking stride he’d leapt
through the opening.

He’d landed in the hedgerow below. Only slightly worse for
wear, he’d quickly clawed his way to the narrow path between the shrubs and the
house.  He’d then scuttled his way down the side of the house – putting as much
distance between them and the window as he could.

He’d barely paused long enough to make sure his companions
were behind him when he came upon the area opposite the flitter Park.

He'd scanned the chaos in front of them and only then pulled
out his communicator to call the ship...

ΔΔΔ

So this was their
situation.

They had to get to the city and their only realistic shot at
that was to grab one of those flitters.

He wasn’t worried about who was on the flitter; they would
deal with them. He was far more worried about the guards patrolling between
them and the car park.

He counted one small blessing; just like outside of the door
to their suit, they seemed to operate independently. Every professional
security detail he’d ever known used at least two guards; it was for mutual
protection.

There was a small voice in the back of his head telling him
that this was significant, but he didn’t have time to focus on it now…

“Okay, listen up,” he whispered to the two behind him.

“We’re going to have to make a run for the next flitter that
touches down. Professor, it’s an all-out sprint. Keep your head down and don’t
be looking around - just focus on reaching the flitter.”

“I… I don’t think I can,” he responded somewhat shakily. “I
landed bad, out the window…”

Lieutenant Start shared a look with Gossip and received a
small nod.

“Okay. Then you’re going to have to ride piggyback on our
large friend here. Do you think you can do that?”

The professor looked like he was going to cry, but nodded
his head, yes.

“Okay, here comes our flitter… Ready? Go!”

In
Orbit at Trinity

“Captain, we’re being hailed!” Sami
spoke out.

“Are they that close already?” Argentine asked with some
concern.

“No, not really. At this range there will be a 32 second
delay on communications - each way.”

“Why are they being so antsy-pantsy?” Barry wondered out
loud.

“Because they’re trying to scare us off,” Argentine said
with confidence. “Throw it to the speakers,” he told Sami.

“Unidentified ship! This is the Asperian patrol ship Gideon.
You are in orbit around an embargoed planet. Withdraw immediately or you will
be boarded.”

“That’s not right,” Mandi said. “We’re already in violation.
They should be arresting us, not telling us to leave.”

He nodded at Sami, and then said, “Asperian ship Gideon.
Please be advised that our ship has sustained engine damage. Repairs have been
initiated and we will leave as soon as they’re back online.”

After almost a minute, a reply came…

“Unidentified ship - identify yourself!”

“We are the good ship Chickenhawk.”

Argentine noticed out of the corner of his eye that Mandi
was grinning.

After another slightly shorter delay…

“Chickenhawk, we know… We think it unlikely that your story
will hold up. Keep your weapons powered down and prepare to be boarded.”

ΔΔΔ

“Of course they
know our story is rubbish,” Barry said after the connection was closed.
“They’re in on the scam!”

“Once they board, what will they do with us?” Argentine
asked.

Mandi furled her brow.

“They can’t really let us go, can they?” she responded. “I’d
say the best case scenario is that we all end up in some secret prison
somewhere and the Pelican is sent spiraling into the star… but that’s just a
guess.”

“Barry, can we still escape an intercept?”

“We’d have to break orbit now, Captain. And it would be
close - their weapons might still be able to reach us.”

The bridge was deathly quiet until Argentine finally spoke…

“Chief, are the railguns online?”

“Powered up and ready to go.”

“Did anyone else notice that he told us to keep our weapons
unpowered? He thinks we’re defenseless.”

“No, he said to power down our weapons…” interjected Barry.

“No, the captain’s right. I caught it too,” the chief said.
“He’s not thinking about our railguns.”

“Why would he?” Mandi added. “No one uses railguns anymore,
not for centuries.”

“Captain? What should I do?” Barry asked nervously.

“Hold our position, pilot.”

ΔΔΔ

"How long
before they're in range?" Argentine asked.

"A lot closer than what they are now," Barry said.
"It all depends on how they want to do their station keeping. We're in a
low orbit, but if all they care about is taking a shot at us they'll probably
want the high ground. With a high orbit, though, they'll be orbiting slower
than we are so we'll eventually go over the horizon.

"It also means they'd be a moving target," he said
while giving a quick glance to the weapons station. Apparently he wasn't to
certain about the chief's skills.

"If they're really serious about boarding us, though,
they'll probably want to match us in a low orbit," he continued.

"That means as long as they’re in orbit and we have
line of sight, they'll be a stationary target and we can hit them. One good
thing is that a low orbit approach will effectively reduce the range of their
weapons. They can't shoot over the horizon, so we both have to be above it at
the same time.

"They'll still have an advantage on us, but it will be
seconds not minutes.”

"How much time do we have before they're in
orbit?"

"Just a bit over seven minutes, by my timing."

"Okay… Chief, track them all the way in. Barry, be
prepared to break orbit if things go south, give me a signal once we're in
their weapons range, and another when they're in ours. Sami, I'm going to want
you to work the comms for me and make sure they only hear what I want them to
hear… Also, in case we do make it out of this godforsaken gravity well in one
piece, make sure we have a vector to skip out on."

"Already plotted," she responded.

Argentine took a quick moment to reflect on his crew. Up
until this point he'd mostly thought of them as simply a group of people
running away together. But now… Now they were his people and he felt proud of
them.

"Okay Sami, open a channel and let's see if we can't
talk this guy into where we need him to be."

ΔΔΔ

"So you
see, Captain Bismarck. There is no reason for everyone to be so out of sorts.
The repairs are almost complete and we’ll be on our way before you even know
it."

Out of the corner of his eye, Argentine saw Barry hold up
one finger.

They were now in range of the enemy ship's guns.

Captain Bismarck of the Asperian ship Gideon wasn't having
any of it.

He glanced to the side and apparently liked what he saw; a
small smile spread across his face.

"It's not up for debate, Captain. You're now within our
weapons range and if you try to resist our boarding, we’ll destroy you. I hope
that's perfectly clear."

Barry raised two fingers.

"Are you sure we can't talk this out, Captain?"
Argentine asked one last time.

Captain Bismarck just laughed.

Argentine looked over to the chief and both men held each
other's gaze.

Argentine rubbed his eyes with his left hand. He then moved
his gaze to the ceiling.

With a sigh he raised his right hand in resignation…

"Fire."

On
Trinity

The sun had
already dawned but the sky was still dark enough that the intense flash made
false shadows on the ground before the flitter.

Steadying his flying, he looked up through the canopy to see
the remnants of what must've been a high-altitude explosion.

He quickly looked back to his front – nape of the earth
flying was dangerous.

Lieutenant Stark was not a naïve man. One of the ships in
orbit was no more, and he wouldn't know which one until dawn tomorrow.

It was only a few minutes ago that they'd made their mad
sprint for the flitter.

To his amazement, even with the professor on his back,
Gossip had been outdistancing him. Of course, he'd had to slow slightly a
couple of times to shoot a guard… at least that would be his excuse.

They'd reached the flitter and started throwing the
passengers out on the ground when they’d started taking serious fire.

The lieutenant had jumped into the pilot’s seat and given a
quick glance back to the passenger compartment to make sure his people were
onboard.

So as disturbing as the thought of losing their ship was, he
had more immediate things to think about right now…

When he’d glanced back, the professor was fine… But gossip's
left side was a bloody mess.

ΔΔΔ

The flitter
kept wanting to gain altitude.

The city was now clearly visible in front of them and its
screen kept highlighting mid-tier or rooftop landing pads.

He kept the nose down. They needed to be on the ground
level. The last thing he wanted was for them to be trapped halfway up some tall
building.

Besides, if this city was going to be anything like all the
others he'd ever known, the class of
off the books
,
below the radar
type of people that he was looking for would only be found on the street level.

He brought the flitter in fast and low; its alarms started
blaring as soon as he hit the city's edge. He didn't slow down and he didn't
take the time to try to figure out how to turn them off; the airspace this
close to the ground wasn't designed for flying. There were all types of
aerials, poles, and wires to occupy his attention.

They'd taken the flitter hard and fast; apparently nobody
had been expecting it. So that meant nobody was immediately on their tail. It
was a situation that wouldn't last forever, though.

He zigzagged a course in deeper and deeper into the city
until he finally found what he was looking for.

A large section of the lower floor of the building in front
of him was open to the sidewalk. He didn't have time to figure out what it was
used for, but at least it was mostly filled with closed stalls rather than
people.

He literally bounced and skidded the flitter into the
opening.

They came to a sliding stop; now he knew they couldn't be
found from the air.

Without wasting a moment he was back in the passenger
compartment.

Gossip didn't look good.

"Help me, professor. We've got to get him out of
here."

"How?" the professor asked. "We can’t carry
him!"

"C'mon Gossip," the Lieutenant said while lightly
slapping him on the cheek. "Wake up!"

He stirred, and the lieutenant continued…

"You're going to have to help. Let's get you out and
you can lean on both of us, but we've got to get out of here, now. Do you
understand?"

Gossip nodded once and the professor blinked in surprise. He
couldn't believe the strength of this man.

They half-carried half-drug him out from under the building,
across the street, down the block, and around the corner.

As early as it was, there were a lot of people out. And all
of them were staring. At least he’d guessed right about what he'd find at the
street level…

He saw what he thought might be a clinic and guided his team
through the front door…

ΔΔΔ

"In the name of Kreiten! What are
you doing bleeding all over my clinic?" the doctor said abruptly as they
walked into the crowded lobby.

"He needs help," the lieutenant said.

"I can see that," she shot back. "But what
makes you think we’ll help you here? You're obviously up to no good… We play it
straight here. Now you're going to have to leave!"

With that, she walked to the door and held it open to the
street.

Lieutenant Stark had met her type before. The People's
Republic had been full of self-righteous zealots.

On the one hand, the clinic had medical supplies he
desperately needed. On the other, though, there's no question that they'd be turned
in if he tried to stay long enough to grab any.

He made a snap decision to get Gossip to someplace safe…
Then he'd make a visit back to the clinic.

"If anyone tries to turn us in, I swear I’ll come back
and burn this place to the ground," he said loudly so everyone could hear.

They left a trail of blood on the clinic floor as they
helped Gossip back to the doorway. Just as they were passing through the doctor
whispered, "Turn right at the end of the block. At the third door down
knock twice, then three times, then four times more...

"Wait for me there."