Wings of Steele - Destination Unknown (Book 1) (54 page)

Jack
was too close to abort his landing, he braked hard and cut off
his
anti-grav as Maria's fighter buried itself in the snag nets. After
thumping hard, Jack's fighter skidded off the landing strip in a
shower of sparks stopping in the taxiing lane. After tearing off its
nose gear, Maria's fighter came to rest in the third net.

Jack
yanked the canopy release handle and tore at his harness. He
tossed
his helmet on the dash, not bothering to shut down all the systems
and stood in his seat, pulling all the power and comm leads free.
Jumping to the deck, he rolled, bounced to his feet and leaned into
a full run towards the netted Warthog. It was a long run, but he got
there fast, the ground crew was still pulling her from the cockpit.
Two missiles lay scattered on the deck and one hung in the netting.
"Watch those, sir," pointed a crewman. Jack stepped around
them.

Paul
and Mike braked early on their approach and coasted slowly in
for
a short, cautious landing. They could see Maria on a stretcher,
surrounded by CABL M7, a medic, Jack, Derrik and Brian. But they
couldn't tell if she was moving or not. Exchanging glances from
their cockpits about forty feet apart, they too jumped to the deck
without waiting for ground personnel or a ladder.

The
medic wiped the blood from her forehead while M7 adjusted the
sensor
pads to monitor her vitals. "How many fingers do you see?"
asked Jack holding up three fingers for her to see.

"How
many am I
supposed
to see...?" groaned Maria. "Why does my head
hurt?"
She ran her hand lazily through her hair and touched blood. "Ichh,
what's thisss stuffff...?" M7 glanced around and shook his
head, making it clear they were not to tell her.

Derrik
changed the subject. "That was a spiffy landing, love..."

"What
landing?" Her eyes rolled around.

"Time
to go..." urged M7, punching the keys on the electric gurney.

Paul
and Mike skidded to a stop next to Jack as the medic and M7
trotted
off alongside the whirring electric gurney carrying Maria. Paul
grabbed Jack's elbow. "Is she Ok?" he said breathlessly.

Jack
was watching them go. His arms folded tightly across his chest,
he
was battling his emotions. He thought about the friend he lost on
the police department. "Maybe I shouldn't have taken her
out..." He stared at the floor and toyed with the head of a
rivet on the deck with the toe of his boot.

"She
wouldn't have had it any other way," said Brian. "You
couldn't
have
grounded her if you wanted to..."

Mike
nodded, "He's right, she would've never stood for that."

"Stop
talking past tense," said Derrik. "She's not bloody
dead...
she'll
be fine!"

A
mechanic ran up to Jack and handed him a wireless headset. "It's
Commander
Edgars, sir."

Jack
held the headset to his ear, "What's up, Walt?"

"We're
reading several small power sources in that debris out there,
Jack..."

"Damn!
They're back?"

"No,
no, screens are clear. These originated
in
the debris. Maybe
you'd
like to take another look?"

Jack
nodded, "Yeah we've already talked about it. Listen, get a
shopping
list from M7, if we go aboard, we might see something he needs."

"Right-o."
He paused, his voice was quieter, "Um, how's Miss Arroyo?"

Jack
cleared his throat and blinked hard. "Uh well, um, they took
her
to the infirmary. We don't know yet."

"I'll
ask when I call for that list."

"Thanks,
Walt."

Jack
turned to the other pilots who stood by. "We need to go out and
take
another look around, who wants to go?" They all did. "Ok,
how about this... Mike and Pappy in fighters for cover. And me, Bri
and Derrik in the shuttle?" It seemed to be agreeable to all.

A
ground crewman walked up to Jack with Maria's helmet in his hand.
It
had a sizable crack in it. "I don't get it, sir, we just can't
figure out what she hit. There's no marks on anything in the
cockpit, nothing's broken..." The pilots huddled around and
examined it. Someone gave out a low whistle. Jack handed it back to
the frowning lineman. "Is she going to be Ok, sir?"

Jack
smiled at him. He was pleased with the concern. "I hope so."

The
Crew Chief for Maria's fighter strolled up. "Well it's fixable,
but
it'll be a couple of days." The fighter's nose was sitting on
an anti-grav pad and a group of men began pushing it to its
maintenance bay for repairs. The snag nets had been retracted back
to the ceiling. "She took a couple of hits with no shields,"
he continued, "that caused her fuel leak. Another hit or two
and she wouldn't have come back." He scratched the sparse hair
on the top of his head. "She's lucky..."

BAHIA
SYSTEM, DEBRIS FIELD:
GUNFIGHT
AT THE OK CORRAL

Being
that the shuttle was slower than the fighters, Brian had a
much
easier time winding through the debris than Mike and Paul. Some of
the pieces were as small as a bread box, the largest, the size of a
good-sized American car. Striking a small piece was of little
consequence, hitting something sizeable could damage a craft, even
with its shields up. "I got something here to the left,"
said Derrik who copiloted for Brian.

Jack
sat behind them at a detailed sensor array panel. He examined
the
oblong shape on his view screen. "Say's here it's an escape
pod. Can you get closer?"

"No
problem," said Brian. He maneuvered closer. "How's this?"

"Just
fine..." Jack was concentrating on reaching it with an extended
mechanical
arm. "Gotcha..." he said, succeeding in grabbing a tow
ring. Working the remote control, he drew it in close to the
shuttle's hull and secured it with one of the many grapple claws on
the outside of the hull. "Done," he announced.

"There's
another one over here," called Mike. Derrik pointed out
Mike's
position on the scope and Brian swung the nose of the shuttle in his
direction. All in all, they recovered four of the pods, three with
power, one without. Everyone agreed it would be best to return to
the Freedom and deposit the pods, before returning to the wreck for
a walk through exploration.

Brian
maneuvered the loaded shuttle slowly through the field. With
its
added girth, Brian was finding it more difficult to navigate. He
armed the single Mercury Gatling gun and flipped off the safety.
Derrik looked curiously at him. Brian smiled, pulled the trigger and
wiggled the nose of the shuttle. The stream of silver balls swept
everything from their path, destroying smaller pieces and hurling
larger things out of the way.

Derrik
smiled in appreciation and nodded. “Nice...”

■ ■ ■

Aware
of the life pod recoveries, the Professor had arranged for an
armed
security team to meet the shuttle as it landed, since the origin and
loyalties of the ship and its crew was unknown. It was also unknown
if the pods contained survivors or not, there was no way to tell
until they were opened.

Brian
brought the shuttle to a stop in front of the tower and shut
down
the anti-grav system, it settled to the deck with a thump. As he
busied himself with the task of shutting down all it's systems, Jack
popped the port hatch. It hissed like a leaking tire before
releasing and swinging open. He jumped to the deck before the short
boarding ramp had dropped all the way down. Raulya, leading the
security team, greeted him. "Hi Jack," she said quietly,
taking him off to one side. "I talked to CABLE M7 while we were
waiting for you..."

"Yeah?"
Jack moved closer. "How is she?"

"She's
got a concussion and some swelling, but he said she'd be Ok
in
about a week." Raulya adjusted her tunic absent-mindedly. "He
said she's grounded for about a month though..."

Jack
sighed, "Who cares, as long as she's gonna' be Ok." He
relaxed,
his stomach had been in knots since M7 and the medic, took her away.
Brian and Derrik stepped out of the shuttle and over to where Jack
and Raulya stood. "Raulya talked to the Doc," he began,
"Maria's going to be Ok, but she's grounded."

They
both expressed a sigh of relief. "Mind if I pop up to see
her?"
inquired Derrik.

"Nah,
go ahead, we got this covered." Jack glanced at the mechanics
who
were working on releasing the escape hatches on two of the pods.
"Tell her we'll be up a little later." Derrik nodded and
trotted off. One of the pods was sweating condensation profusely,
creating a puddle of water underneath. "That doesn't look
good," commented Jack.

"It's
not," said a mechanic. Jack could see M7 and the medic standing
behind
the security team. They were leaning casually against the gurney,
talking quietly. Jack turned back when he heard the hiss of the
hatch, first for one, then the other of the two pods. There was a
cold rush of air out of the first, as the door squeaked open, the
hinges frozen with ice. Two frozen figures covered in frost, one
man, one woman, sat huddled together, wrapped in blankets. The
mechanic shook his head in sorrow. "Total system failure..."
Ironically, the second life pod which was functioning perfectly, was
empty.

Everyone
moved around to the other side of the shuttle, to open the
last
two life pods. Again, the doors hissed as the seals were broken. A
man stood in the doorway of the first, wrapped in a blanket. He
shielded his eyes with his hand from the lights in the landing bay.
"Where am I?"

"Safe,"
said Raulya, taking his hand. "You're on the cruiser
Freedom."

"What
is you're alliance?" he inquired as he stepped to the deck.

"Independently
owned, we ally with the UFW." He nodded and looked
relieved.
M7 and the medic assisted him to the gurney. As he laid down, the
blanket parted and revealed a tattered uniform tunic and a bent pair
of wings. Raulya noticed but said nothing.

"What
of Dakkah... Mozzy..." The medic hushed him and administered
a
sedative.

The
last pod held a prone occupant cocooned in blankets. Raulya
and
M7 entered to see if he was alive. His eyes opened slowly and did
not blink. "Let's get him outside," said M7. He was
carefully moved out and placed on a second gurney. With the
assistance of security, M7 and the medic moved the two survivors to
the infirmary.

Jack
grabbed a line Chief. "What about the other two?" He was
referring
to the unfortunate couple who had frozen to death.

"Well,"
he thought for a moment. “We'll probably just seal the pod...
permanently,"
he added, "then eject it with the others."