Rust Bucket (15 page)

      Then the reduction in force came about. The rich families bribed more officials to keep their kids in the Academy so that their kids could continue to get into the Navy and send home information about new discoveries before they were released to the public. Consequently, a number of rich families were in on the ground floor, so to speak, when any newly discovered planets were opened up. And I had six of those rich kid officers on my ship along with forty-three enlisted crew members when we left port. Now, I had only twenty-seven crew members, seven of whom were from Pennyweight Shipping Company. I was going to miss the two Pennyweight personnel we lost in the battle.

***

I kept us moving almost until night when we finally stopped after covering almost thirty kilometers of straight line distance. We had been in sparse forest the whole time since leaving the clearing where the
Thurman
was. Rather than leave ourselves open to wild animals of all descriptions, we climbed one of the trees and set up our hammocks. I took the first watch for three hours. Each of the others took their turn after me. The animal calls during the night were chilling to the bone. Even so, we were tired after our full day and sleep came easy.

***

At the end of the fifth day, we knew that we were only about twenty kilometers from the alien ship. Then came the hardest part of the mission. We had to find it. The forest was thicker and more densely packed with brush. Visibility was hampered greatly. I could visualize us walking right by the clearing without spotting it or the alien ship. I mentally debated splitting up to search as we got closer. I decided against that. It wasn't for lack of confidence in the other two officers' abilities on the ground, but for security in case the Ape-oids were maintaining patrols. I was also unsure what type of sensor arrays they had. Could they pick up a person walking near their ship as we could? Their technology was nearly as good as ours, so I had to suspect that they did have that ability. It meant that we would have to approach very cautiously and be alert to anything that seemed out of the ordinary.

      So far, we had maintained communications silence with the
Thurman.
We would only break our communications discipline if we were spotted. There would be no rescue party if anything happened to us. The ship and the rest of the personnel were the reason for this mission. It wouldn't do them much good to keep sending out people to be lost.

***

On the morning of the sixth day, we moved out on the last leg of the mission to the alien ship. That day we were using hand signals exclusively. They were the same signals taught to us at the Academy, so there was no need to suddenly invent anything. I moved out in the lead while the other two officers adjusted their distance appropriately for the type of contact we expected to make. Kyle, Lieutenant Kruler, wanted to take the lead, but it was my job and I wasn't about to shirk my duty. As I moved forward, I was just barely in Lieutenant Shirley Sorenson 's sight. She was just barely visible to Kyle who brought up the rear. I kept us at a slower pace so that I would have a chance to spot any traps or sensors that might have been placed by the Ape-oids. I'll admit that it was unlikely for them to put them out that far, but none of us knew enough about the Apeoids to know just how they behaved or acted in such circumstances.

      We got to about a kilometer from the enemy ship when I spotted the first sensor device placed haphazardly in the brush to detect movement. If nothing else, it reassured me that we were getting closer and not walking past the ship without spotting it. The wire that ran to it even gave us the direction to go to reach their ship. When I saw the sensor, I backed off immediately and gave signals to Shirley to back off. Kyle automatically stood his ground when he saw Shirley backing up and watched to see if I appeared. When I could see him, I gave him a signal indicating that a sensor was in place ahead. He then knew that we needed to back off to make our plans.

      For a moment, I wondered how I was going to communicate the amount of information I wanted to give them in light of the circumstances. Then I remembered the marker and note pad that the Sarge put on my list. Suddenly, I had a way to communicate quietly and get my meaning across without question.

      We backed off another twenty meters where I pulled out my marker and note pad much to the surprise of the two officers. I doubt they had seen such items other than in old movies, if they watched any. Quickly, I wrote down what we should do in light of the sensors surrounding the enemy ship.

***

Silently, we moved forward again through the dense forest and brush. We picked up brush and tucked it into our belts to break up our outlines. Each of us looked for more sensors, figuring that the enemy didn't have an unlimited supply of them to put out. When we found a second sensor, we then knew where the blind spot was. We quietly moved to that point between the sensors before we started forward again, still alert for more of the sensors.

      We didn't have to go but a quarter of a kilometer before we reached the edge of the clearing where the enemy ship was located. We sat quietly just inside the forest for about two hours and watched their activity to get some idea of how well they worked and how many personnel they had. Shirley recorded images of the enemy ship as it was being worked on by the Ape-oids.

      I was a little surprised to see that they had a lot more personnel on board their ship than we had. Using only the number of personnel I saw, we were outnumbered about three to two. One thing I noticed was that they were sending out hunting and gathering parties to get food. I guessed that they lost their provisions in the battle.

      We got back up and made our way along the edge of the clearing to another location where Shirley got different image angles of the alien ship. Then we went farther along the clearing's edge to get the last angle so that we had an image of the entire ship's surface area.

      We spent about three hours watching and taking images before we left the edge of the clearing to make our way back to our ship. By nightfall, we were back where we stopped the previous night. Though I was eager to get back and take a look at the images, I knew that hurrying was the surest way to make mistakes and could lead to disaster for our mission. We went ahead and set up for the night in the same tree.

The next two days were as uneventful as the five days spent travelling to the enemy ship. The third day was totally different. It provided another surprise for me as to the Sarge's choice of items for me to buy.

      We were in our usual order when a creature we hadn't seen before emerged in front of me. I stopped while Shirley and Kyle stopped just behind me. I began to circle around the strange creature when it advanced on us. We were already spread out because I was leading us around the creature. We all fired with our stinger rifles and were astounded to see that the weapons had no effect on the creature. It just shrugged off the electrical bolts that we shot at it. Then it leaped at us and landed on Kyle. He was yelling from the pain of the electrical shocks that it gave him and then passed out. Shirley pulled her knife and slashed at it only to be shocked when she came into contact with it. For a moment, I wondered what to attack the creature with when I remembered the antique projectile weapon I carried, reached under my shoulder pack, and drew the weapon from the hidden holster. I aimed at the creature's head and fired one shot. The shot, at that range, couldn't miss. The creature suddenly went into convulsions as the bullet apparently began to short circuit its brain and internal organs. It collapsed at Shirley's feet onto the ground and died.

      Shirley looked at me and then at the strange antique I held. Her eyes went large for the second time during that mission as she continued to look at the gun and then the dead creature. "Thanks," she said. "What is that?"

      "It's an old projectile weapon. A friend of mine suggested I purchase it as survival equipment. I've been carrying it around for years now, wondering if he was just a trifle too cautious or distrusting of modern weapons. Except for testing it when I bought it, this is the first time I've had to use it. Are you okay?" I replied as I bent down to check out Kyle.

      "Yes. That creature really carries a wallop of a charge. It's no wonder our stinger rifles didn't bother it. We were practically feeding it," she said.

      I said, "So I noticed. Kyle's taken a bad shock. His hands and face are burnt. We'll need to treat him some now and then carry him back. I reckon he's going to be in a great deal of pain when he comes to."

      We treated Kyle with our medical supplies from the three shoulder packs. Then Shirley and I went about treating her hand before we made a stretcher to carry Kyle on. Kyle was lucky that he was wearing his overslicks. They insulated most of his body from direct electrical shock and burns. Only the exposed areas of skin were burnt. To carry him, we used his hammock and two saplings that we cut down with our knives. Then we resumed our movement back to the
Thurman.
Of course, our movement was slowed considerably as we had to carry Kyle. It would depend on him as to whether we had to carry him the rest of the way. Once more, I was glad that he and Shirley were in peak physical conditioning.

      Kyle came to a few hours later with a groan. We set him down and gave him some water and rechecked his wounds.

      "How are you, Kyle?" I asked.

      "Awful. Did you kill that whatever it was?" he asked.

      "Yes, Dave shot him with a projectile weapon," said Shirley.

      "A what?" he asked.

      "Show him, Dave," said Shirley.

      I pulled the antique weapon from the hidden holster and held it out for a moment before placing it back.

      "I thought those were found only in museums or the movies," he said.

      I replied, "Nope. There's a place two blocks from the Academy that sells them. Never knew just when I'd need it. I bought it on the recommendation of a friend. The old man who runs the store won't sell you one unless you test fire it, take it apart, clean it, and reassemble it in his presence. He believes in a person being responsible for and knowledgeable about such weapons."

      "You mean you have to learn all that before you can go to his store?" Kyle asked.

      I said, "Oh, no! He taught me himself while I bought it. It just took an hour extra. I'm glad now though that I spent that hour."

      "You aren't the only one," Kyle admitted while letting out another groan.

      Shirley asked, "You going to be able to walk or do you expect Yellow service back to the ship?"

      He said, "Me? You've got to be kidding. Just give me a hand up and, if you don't mind, pack away my hammock since I'm a little clumsy in that department right now. I'll walk you both into the ground to get back."

      "That's the spirit!" I said as encouragement.

      We helped him up and repacked his hammock in his shoulder pack since his hands were both bandaged. His stinger rifle had to be slung over his other shoulder. Then we resumed our movement, only Kyle was now in the center since he couldn't handle a weapon.

      That night we helped Kyle into a suitable tree to spend the night. I switched shifts with him for night guard duty.

***

The next morning, it was a little harder getting Kyle out of the tree than it was to get him into it. He was feeling better, so we were moving along at almost our best pace again after we ate breakfast. Along the way, we talked about the electrical creature, comparing it to electrical eels on Earth and how we might fight another one if we had to. We kept the stretcher poles as a precaution, in case Kyle became sick or developed any after effects later. We decided that the wooden poles were probably the best thing we could use to fend off an electrical creature without getting shocked. I hoped that none of those creatures had shown up at our ship. They would have been helpless against it, in all likelihood.

      I had no such hopes for the Ape-oids. I wished them all the bad luck and misfortune they could get. It wasn't because I hated them. On the contrary, I felt no hate for them. They were simply the enemy who attacked my people when we tried to approach them diplomatically as we had with the Blues. If anything, we weren't looking for a war. We were more interested in exploration, trade, and bettering ourselves.

      The fact that our Navy was armed wasn't because we wanted to fight but to defend ourselves against the terrors of space and unexplored planets. Had our Navy been solely for the purpose of fighting, I'm sure we would have had a lot more ships and bigger guns than were on the ships. What was on the ships was mostly to fend off asteroids and for shore defense against wild animals. At least, that's what the weapons had been used for before. Of course, the weapons were used against pirates, but that wasn't exactly the same as preparing for a war. I will admit that our Navy spent a lot of time talking about tactics and strategy, but that was again mostly for use against pirates and because some long range thinkers said that we might someday come across a downright hostile race. None of us imagined the someday would come so soon.

      So, I didn't hate or fear the Ape-oids. I respected them for having achieved as much as they had and for their obvious abilities. I wished they would become our friends and not remain enemies. The moment when they were willing to lay aside the weapons and embrace us as fellow intelligent beings, I would gladly do the same. But until that moment came, I would fight them with all the ferocity and skill I could muster.

***

It took us only a half-day longer to return to our ship than it had taken to get to the alien ship. I was glad to see that everyone was alive and well. Immediately, I called a meeting, described the electrical creature, and warned everyone that firing a stinger was useless. After the meeting, several crew members went to secure more wooden staffs for use in fending off the electrical creatures should any appear.