Aces (10 page)

At least she knew
she didn't need to waste time trying to fix the radio. There was nothing wrong
with the radio, it was being jammed. "Kids, kids, Kaylee, Manny, quiet,
please. I need to think."

Nightengale
briefly fired her engines, to match
Ace
’
s altered
orbit. The pirate ship then approached, quickly at first, then slowly, warily.
As it got closer, the radar which constantly swept the area around the
freighter began to burn through the electromagnetic jamming, and the radar
receiver was able pick up a fuzzy, intermittent echo.

Jen kept trying
to contact the command section on the radio, using frequency hopping, and
boosting power to the antennas, but the jamming was too strong. Running checks
of the ship
’
s systems revealed the damage wasn't as bad as
she feared, until a collision alert popped up on her console. The pirate ship
was approaching. “The, uh,” Jen blinked to clear her vision, “the pirate ship
is getting close to us.”

“We have to do
something!” Kaylee shouted through tears.

“I
’
m
sorry, Kaylee,” Jen said through teeth gritted from pain, “until your parents
can get back here, I need to keep you out of trouble somewhere.” She twisted in
the bed, trying to find a position that was comfortable for her ribs. She was
still very groggy, experiencing double vision, and waves of feeling like she
was on the verge of passing out again.

“They
’
re
not
coming back! They can
’
t! You
said so!” Kaylee balled up her fists and hit the side of the bed in
frustration. "The shuttle is destroyed."

Jen reminded
herself once again that she was dealing with children. “They can
’
t
get back right now, I didn
’
t say never. There is always
hope, Kaylee. Don
’
t give up. Your Mom and Dad aren
’
t giving up, wherever they are, I
’
m sure
of that. Your father can walk to the mining camp and wait there. The command
section I know has plenty of air. The Navy will be here, we just need to wait
until then.”

Kaylee asked
“What is a decaying orbit?”

“Oh, that
’
s just, uh,
” Jen averted her eyes, “it
’
s a navigation term. It means their section of the ship is in a
different orbit now than we are. So, uh, the two pieces of the ship are moving
further apart.”

Manny blinked
away his own tears, and shot her a look. He knew she was lying. “What are we
going to do?”

Jen gave up
trying to make her ribs comfortable. If she didn
’
t breathe
too deeply, it was manageable. She coughed again, spitting up blood. One of her
lungs must be punctured. “We do what the captain said. When the pirates come
aboard, we get out of their way. They take what they want, go away, and we wait
for the Navy.”

“No.” Kaylee
looked up, her mouth set in a hard line. “Don
’
t talk to us
like we
’
re children, Jen. When the pirates have what they
want, they
’
re going to kill everybody. They can
’
t leave witnesses.”

“
I,
um-
” Jen was taken aback.

“You know it
’
s true,” Kaylee said, standing up and placing her hands on her
hips, “they tried to kill our Dad.”

Manny nodded. “We
need to slow them down, give the Navy time to get here, right?”

“Kids, I-” Jen
realized the ‘kids
’
wasn
’
t the best thing to say at that time. Still, what did it matter
what she said? Kaylee was absolutely right. She was responsible for the
children
’
s live now, and the best way to keep them safe
was to make sure the pirates never got aboard. “Kaylee, Manny, I
’
m
not going to lie to you. I don
’
t know what will happen. I
do know that if the two of you try to fight the pirates, they will hurt you.
Besides, I can
’
t stop them, I don
’
t
have any weapons.” Jen said regretfully.

“Jen, what
if-" an idea was forming in Manny's head, "what if we did have a
weapon? A big one?”

“
Then
I
’
d blast them, Manny.” Jen answered weakly.

He put his arms
across his chest and stared her straight in the eye. “I
’
m
serious.” It would have been comical, the twelve year old boy lecturing the
veteran starship crewman, if the situation had not been so serious. “Why can
’
t we ram them? With this part of the ship? We have the
engines.”

Jen was taken
aback. “Because, Manny, that would be very dangerous. Even if I had the codes
to control the engines, they
’
re shut down. The nav
computer is in the command section, and secondary systems like-“ She stopped,
her jaw dropped open, and she stared off into space for a moment. Her brain
wasn
’
t working very well. “Manny, you may have a good
idea," she said very slowly, thinking it through. "I can
’
t fire the main engines, but I can control the thrusters from
here. We could push ourselves sideways, and knock their little ship around like
a ping pong ball. Before we do that, we would need to be somewhere deep inside
the ship, someplace safe.”

Kaylee sniffed,
and dabbed tears off her cheeks. “What place is safer than here? You told us
before, the sickbay has its own power and air.”

Jen looked
around. “I guess you
’
re right.”
She bit her
lip.
“This is going to be dangerous, and I don
’
t
have any authority to put passengers into danger.” The bad guys will likely
kill us all anyway, once they
’
re aboard, she said to
herself. “
So I
’
m going to have to
deputize you both as starship crew.” Jen had intended the gesture as a way to
make sure they did exactly what she told them to, but the two children both got
such serious looks on their faces that Jen almost laughed. Her eyes unfocused briefly,
and she experienced a fit of dizziness. It would not be long, she knew, before
she would not be able to keep her eyes open. “Hold up your right hands. Do you
swear to follow my orders to the letter, no fooling, and to perform your duties
to the best of your abilities, as crew members of the Universal Transport
starship
Atlas Challenger
?” She used the ship
’
s
full name to lend weight to her words.

“
I
do.
” Kaylee said.

“Me too.” Manny
whispered. Starship crewman. He was twelve years old. Wait until the boneheads
at school back on Earth heard about this. For a moment, he forgot about their
predicament and the danger his parents were in. “What do we do?”

“You know how
adults talk down to you sometimes, because you
’
re
children?” Jen saw Kaylee knowingly roll her eyes. “I
’
m
not going to do that, I
’
m going to tell you the truth,
straight out. I don
’
t know how much longer I can stay
awake. Whatever we
’
re going to do, we need to do it fast.
Here
’
s the plan.”

Kaylee and Manny
watched the pirate ship approach through the viewport. With the ship's
proximity radar buring only intermittently through the jamming, the children
’
s eyes were the only accurate way Jen could tell where, and how
close, the pirate ship was. Unable to leave sickbay herself, she had sent them
to one of the two observation decks, which aboard the transport ship was
nothing more than a small compartment with several portholes which provided
views in multiple directions. Kaylee reported back that they couldn
’
t see anything, so Jen had sent them running to the other
observation deck. From there, they could see the bottom of the pirate ship, it
was approaching slowly, intending to latch onto on cargo pod 4, and Manny saw
what he recognized as magnetic grapples. The fact that he recognized the grapples
from watching video programs didn
’
t make his opinion any
less valid to Jen. Kaylee pointed the portable laser rangefinder through the
porthole at the pirate ship. Jen had shown her how to use it, it was easy.
“Jen, it says the range is 178 meters, closing at two meters per second.”

The other ship
was already quite close, almost too close. “Good work! Kaylee, Manny, there is
going to be a hard bump when we ram the pirates. I want you to go back out into
the corridor, run quickly.”

“OK,” Kaylee
reported, slightly out of breath, “we
’
re there. What do we
do?”

“Just to your
left there are three closets, tall, thin doors that are numbered. Closet number
1 has bins of clothing in it. I need you to drag the bins out to make room,
take the clothing out of the bins, then the two of you get into the closet and
pack as many clothes around you as you can before you shut the door. You need
the clothing as cushions, to protect you when we hit.” Jen
’
s
head was spinning as she spoke. “Can you do that, and hurry?”

“Affirmative!”
Manny replied.

They moved as
quickly as they could. The bins were heavy, and wedged in tight, it was a
struggle to get them out. Kaylee climbed up and grasped the topmost bin,
yanking on it. She fell backward, and the bin fell on top of her, bursting open.
It was filled with crew uniform work clothes, shirts and pants. She moved to
yank on the second bin, when Manny held her arm. “We can get on top there,
Kaylee.”

Kaylee studied
the closet. With the top bin out, there was just enough room for the two of
them. Less room meant less space for them to get banged around. And tracks kept
the bins from moving up and down, so they wouldn
’
t be
crushed. “Good idea, up you go.”

Manny climbed up
and backed in, then reached down as Kaylee handed a pile of shirts to him.
“Hurry, Kaylee!”

She climbed up
next to him, wriggling backwards, and bunching up the shirts next to her. Then
she reached down and slid the door- “
Jen, won
’
t we be locked in here if I close the door?”

Good thinking,
girl, Jen thought to herself. “No, there is an emergency release on the inside,
a big orange handle, at the top and bottom, do you see it?”

“Yes, I see it!”

“Good. It will be
dark once you close the door, OK?”

“We
’
ll be OK. The door is closed.
”

Jen checked her
wristwatch. The pirate ship would have slowed down its approach as it got
closer, so that it would be barely moving once it made contact. She wanted to
make sure the pirates were close enough so they didn
’
t
have a chance to get out of the way, but far enough so the
Ace
could
build up speed before the collision. She verified that the portable console had
positive control of the thrusters, and that the thruster units were still
operational. A few more seconds.

The pirate Rene
Valjean, AKA ‘
Ted Miller
’
, a criminal
wanted by law enforcement authorities on all human-occupied planets, had
considered a plan to get aboard the transport by posing as doctors, then take
over the ship. He had discarded that idea early on, because he couldn
’
t be sure the crew wouldn
’
t be able to regain
control remotely, and because he figured the ‘doctors
’
would
be scanned for weapons in the shuttle bay. His current plan was perfect. Knock
out the command section with a low-yield warhead, and then easily deal with one
or two remaining crewmen in the cargo section. Just to be sure, destroy the
transport
’
s shuttle, so they couldn
’
t
interfere. Then, dock with the crippled ship, get aboard, find the object, and
get away before the Navy figured out something was wrong. Finally, restart
freighter
’
s fusion reactor and set explosive charges
there, to make sure there were no witnesses left behind. and not way for anyone
to know what the pirates had taken. Easy. So far, the only glitch in the plan
was the shuttle crew was alive, which irritated Valjean, but three people
stranded on a barren planet in suits that were running out of air was not
actually any sort of problem. When their oxygen bottles began running low, the
three men might wish they'd died aboard the shuttle. Quickly and painlessly.

Valjean pulled off
the collar that had projected the holographic image of ‘
Ted
Miller
’
over his face and altered his voice.
Without the holoprojector, Valjean was not at all bland and friendly looking.
His longish dark hair matched his dark eyes, although it wasn't his
hair
that made people frightened of him. There was something
feral, predatory, about his eyes, that made even his fellow partners in crime
wary of crossing him.

“Aaah.” Valjean
made a choking sound as he rubbed his throat. The collar always irritated him.
“I hate wearing that damned thing, What are you looking at?”