Ep.#4 - "Freedom's Dawn" (The Frontiers Saga) (21 page)

The sound of weapons fire, both energy and projectile having stopped, Vladimir pushed the dead man’s body off to one side and peeked in the direction that the gunfire had come from. There stood Deliza, smoking pistol in hand and shaking with fear, her eyes wide.

The respite was short lived, and the room was immediately lit up with energy weapons fire once more as a fourth man opened fire from behind the corpse lying in the hatchway. This time, the red bolts were flying in both directions.

Deliza screamed, dropping the gun and running back into the other room.

“Vlad!” Allet cried as he returned fire from his position behind the console.

Vladimir looked and saw that Allet was trying to cover his retreat. He quickly scrambled on hands and knees across the floor toward Allet’s position, staying low enough to avoid being hit by Allet’s return fire.

Vladimir made it behind the console with Allet just as several energy bolts struck the wall directly behind him. For the moment, he was safe.

“Thank you my friend,” he panted, staring at Allet in disbelief. This quiet man who had spent his every waking moment working to repair and sometimes even upgrade this ship, was now risking his very life to defend them, and without a moment’s hesitation.

Allet continued returning fire, pressing the trigger as quickly as he could. He muttered something to Vladimir in his own language. He repeated himself several times, finally gesturing with his head toward the same doorway that Deliza had been standing in moments ago. Vladimir got the hint.

He jumped up and ran toward the other door as Allet continued returning weapons fire in rapid fashion, diving through the doorway and onto the floor in the next room.

Deliza screamed as he came tumbling into the room. Vladimir quickly got to his feet.

“Where is the gun?” he asked frantically.

“I dropped it!”

“Where?”

Deliza pointed back toward the other room where the firefight still raged.

“What?”

“I’m sorry! It was loud!” she cried.

Vladimir grabbed her and held her, trying to comfort her.

“Did I kill him?” she sobbed.

“Yes, yes. You did. I am very proud,” he told her, looking around the room.

“What?”

“Go,” he told her, pointing, “into the service tunnel.”

“What? Why?”

“Go now!” He pushed her hard toward the tunnel entrance, nearly knocking her over. “GO!”

Deliza stumbled over to the tunnel and quickly climbed up inside, scrambling to get deeper.

Vladimir quickly moved back over to the doorway, keeping himself out of the line of sight of the attacker at the main entrance to engineering. He could see Allet holding his ground from behind the main console, firing red energy bolts as fast as he could.

“Allet!” Vladimir called.

Allet looked to his right and spotted Vladimir standing in the next room, but the Russian’s hands were empty. Allet saw the gun that Deliza had dropped to the left of the door, the slide still back and the chamber empty.

Another enemy soldier appeared at the hatchway and joined his cohort in spraying the room with energy bolts. Allet had little choice but to run. He made a mad dash for the doorway toward Vladimir, firing his weapon the entire time. He only made it three steps before one of the red beams struck him in the left leg, knocking both his legs out from under him. He went down hard, bouncing once off the floor.

Vladimir watched in horror. It seemed like everything was moving in slow motion as he watched the Karuzari’s body bounce a few centimeters up from the floor. His body fell back down just as another energy beam struck him in the top of his head, causing the right half to explode outward, sending pieces of bone, blood, and brains spraying up and outward into the air.

“ALLET!” Vladimir yelled, but there was no movement.

The weapons fire continued for what seemed like an eternity to Vladimir as he stood there staring. In actuality it was only seconds. As soon as the enemy realized they had killed the only threat, they began to slowly move forward.

Vladimir caught a glimpse of one of the enemy’s gun muzzles and reacted instantly. He ran across the room and climbed into the tunnel entrance, scurrying after Deliza. “Quickly,” he called ahead to her in a hushed shout. “We must get to the next junction quickly.”

Deliza crawled through the tunnel as quickly as she could. Her knees were bleeding from the textured non-slip surface. The rough surface had already torn through the thin tights she had been wearing under her skirt. Her hands were holding up much better, partly due to the amount of work she had done around her father’s molo farm back on Haven.

“Quickly. Quickly. Quickly,” Vladimir called from behind.

“I’m moving as fast as I can,” she defended as she scurried along.

The tunnel was rapidly becoming darker as she moved farther along. Finally, Deliza reached the first tunnel junction. It led off the main tunnel to the left, going downward at a sharp angle. Afraid to go down the steep drop headfirst, she managed to turn around in the cramped tunnel and go in feet first.

Deliza slid down the four meter long tunnel before she reached the level portion at the bottom. It was darker here, with only the slightest bit of light spilling down from the main tunnel now. It was even dustier here than it had been in the main tunnel. She coughed as the dust she had disturbed during her landing swirled about her.

“Lookout!” Vladimir warned as he came sliding down the tunnel headfirst. He slammed into her right shoulder, pushing her further into the level portion of the dark tunnel below and kicking up even more dust. She moved to her left, as this tunnel was both wider and taller than the first one.

“Forgive me,” Vladimir apologized as he rolled onto his back and struggled to right himself. “Oh, my head. I think it hit your shoulder.”

“Yeah, I’m sure of it,” she said as she rubbed her painful shoulder. “Why didn’t you turn around and come down feet first?”

“I am not as small as you.”

A voice called from the distance. Vladimir became silent. “Ssh.”

Another voice responded to the first, this one slightly louder. Vladimir could not understand their language, but he did recognize it. They were speaking Takaran; he was sure of it.

Vladimir looked at Deliza. He could barely make out her face in the darkness, but from what little he could see he could tell she was petrified. “What did he say?” he asked in a barely audible whisper.

Before she could translate for him, the more distant voice spoke again. It was a little louder now, as if the speaker had joined his comrade in the second room where the service tunnel entrance was located.

The closer of the two men spoke again, only this time he was quite loud, as if he were in the main tunnel itself. Vladimir’s hope began to vanish. He had no idea where this tunnel led, and without lighting, they would never be able to navigate the tunnel system, not in the dark. If they came into the tunnels after them, they were doomed.

The louder voice continued speaking. The more distant voice immediately answered.

“Oh no,” Deliza whispered as they heard the sound of the hatch sliding closed. In the total darkness, they also heard the sound of the tunnel hatch locking mechanism being engaged. “Now what do we do?”

“Let me think,” Vladimir said as he panted in the blackness.

* * *

The medevac shuttle rolled briskly out of the transfer airlock and onto the exposed flight deck. It came to a stop in the middle of the deck and then fired its thrusters to push it gently upwards and away from the Aurora. As it rose slowly, the shuttle rotated quickly to port until it was perpendicular to the Aurora’s flight path. Another blast of its rear-facing maneuvering thrusters and it began to move away from the Aurora on its way to the Yamaro.

* * *

“Aurora, Aurora. This is Ensign Mendez aboard the Yamaro. Do you copy?” Enrique sighed in frustration. “It’s no use. I get nothing but static.”

“Maybe the batteries are dying?” Sergeant Weatherly wondered.

“No way,” Enrique said. “These things will last a week without a recharge, and this one came off the rack only a couple days ago.”

“May I listen?” Ensign Willard asked.

“To what?”

“Please?”

Enrique shrugged and handed him the comm-set. “Suit yourself.”

Ensign Willard placed the comm-set onto his ear and listened intently.

Enrique and Sergeant Willard both spun around with their weapons high when someone appeared at the hatchway.

“Jesus,” Enrique exclaimed. “You guys scared the shit outta me!” he added, lowering his weapon. “I thought I told you to call in.”

“We tried,” Marcus defended. “Nobody answered.”

“Did you manage to make contact with the ship?”

“No,” Loki said. “No one’s answering. Not on the Aurora’s channels or anything else. We got nothing but static.”

“Yeah, us too,” Enrique said.

“Oh no,” Willard interrupted. Everyone turned to look at him. “It’s not static; it’s white noise.”

“What?” Enrique asked.

“Like the kind generated by a Takaran jamming pod.”

“A what?” This time it was Marcus that asked.

“Very simple devices. Multi-band high-power transmitters. They transmit white noise on all frequencies. It interferes with all transmission within a ten kilometer range. It is standard practice to deploy one during any Takaran assault action.” Ensign Willard’s voice showed genuine concern. “That means they are here.”

“We didn’t see anyone,” Marcus insisted.

“Yeah, the hangar bay was clear.”

“There’s two hangar bays on this ship, right?” Enrique asked Willard.

“Yes, port and starboard.”

“They could be on the Aurora,” Sergeant Weatherly pointed out.

“Maybe, but if they are there’s nothing we can do about it,” Enrique said. “Hell, we can’t even warn them as long as that jamming pod is active. We have to assume they’re coming here. That’s all we can do.” Enrique turned to Sergeant Weatherly. “You, Marcus, and Loki go back down and check both hangar decks. Pick up the two goobers you left guarding the prisoners in the cargo bays and go check out the starboard hangar bay.”

“Why are you sending us down there?” Marcus asked, not terribly crazy about the idea.

“You still have that big ass gun in the back of the shuttle, don’t you?”

“Yeah.”

“Point the back of the shuttle towards the entrance. If they land, blast the shit out of them.”

“And if that don’t stop them?”

“Then blast a whole in the hull and depressurize the whole damned bay,” Enrique spelled out for him.

“Case you hadn’t noticed, we ain’t got no spacesuits neither,” Marcus protested.

“I do,” Loki said. “Or I did. Do you think there’s time for me to put it back on?”

“Shut up, kid.”

“If it comes to that, just close your back hatch as soon as you take your last shot.”

“The ramp don’t come up that fast—”

“Then hold your fucking breath,” Enrique said, getting frustrated.

“Come on,” Sergeant Weatherly told Marcus, pushing him toward the exit. “Let’s move out.”

“Your plan sucks,” Marcus protested on his way out.

Loki glanced at Enrique as he followed them out. “It’s better than most of the plans Josh comes up with,”

“If they make it aboard, they will head straight for the bridge,” Willard told him.

“The bridge? Wouldn’t they try to free their crew first?”

“Doubtful, as most of them are not Takarans. In fact, many are from Corinair.”

“But still, why the bridge? This ship is too busted up to go anywhere.”

“But her weapons systems are still mostly intact. If powered up, she could do considerable damage to your ship before they had a chance to escape. She could even resume bombarding the planet below.”

“The Aurora’s main reactors are offline for repairs. She’s not going anywhere right now.”

* * *

The medevac shuttle slowly rolled into the Yamaro’s brightly lit port side hangar bay, coming to a stop just before it reached the mining shuttle the Aurora had been using since they escaped the Haven system a few days ago. Its clam-shell rear doors already opened, the cargo ramp came down as the shuttle rolled to a stop, the ramp touching the deck a split second after the shuttle had stopped rolling.

The sound of the metal ramp striking the deck reverberated throughout the empty hangar bay as six heavily armed men came charging out, down the ramp, and into the hangar bay. Just as soon as the last man’s foot came off the ramp, it began to retract back up into the medevac shuttle.

The two groups of intruders split out in opposite directions as they left the ramp, three to each side. The group on the right immediately took up fire support positions to cover the team on the left as they made their way to the ragged-looking mining shuttle. One man positioned himself on one knee and stood guard at the bottom of the mining shuttle’s ramp as the other two charged up the ramp and inside the shuttle.

Less than a minute later, the two men came running back down the ramp, moving quickly away from the mining shuttle with the last man rising from his kneeling position beside the ramp to follow. A moment later, there was a loud
bang
accompanied by a flash of red-orange light from inside the mining shuttle and black smoke started pouring out the back of the shuttle, wafting its way out into the massive hangar bay.

The first team made its way across the bay and joined up with the second team, after which they continued across the hangar bay, disappearing through one of the many exits that led deeper into the Yamaro.

Chapter Six

Bright flood lights illuminated the tall grass that surrounded the compound as it swayed in the late night breeze. For at least thirty meters in all directions, the night appeared as day. Normally, the perimeter would not be so brightly lit, as doing so always drew complaints from the surrounding towns. However, roving spotlights were insufficient when the missile base was in a high state of alert, and on this night,
all
Corinairan military installations were in such a state.