Revolution: The Ship Series // Book Two (7 page)

CHAPTER TWELVE

Give
me the blaster!

Kalare
spoke as soon as the vidscreen faded back to the image of the human fighter.

“OK, that settles it. We’ve got to get out of here now!”

Aleron seemed dumbfounded. “Are you crazy? You heard
her. They’ve got full control and are talking to the Bridge right now. The
Captain will agree to whatever they want and end this any min. Why do you want
to risk running into trigger-happy civilians and getting ourselves killed?”

“You’re delusional if you think the Captain is going to
surrender, Aleron.” Kalare’s voice became more strident. “I don’t know the
woman, but I damn well know the Flight Boss, and they’re cut from the same
cloth. That man would sooner cut off the oxygen supply and kill everyone on board
before he would give in to a civilian’s demands. In fact, we’re all probably
lucky that Primary Life Support got blown up and now it will be more
challenging for the Omegas to do exactly that. We’ve got to get out of here and
find a safer place to be before all hell breaks loose. You know I’m right, Zax,
tell him!”

Zax had intended to back Aleron once again, but Kalare’s
observations about the Flight Boss hit their mark. He certainly hadn’t spent as
much time with the man as she had, but he had even greater reason to believe
the man was ruthless enough to consider the deaths of nearly all ten million
aboard the Ship a small price to pay if it ended the uprising. If that’s how
the Boss would solve the problem, it seemed a safe bet to assume the Captain
would act similarly.

“Kalare’s right, Aleron. We’ve got to get out of here.
Engineering is clearly a hotspot for anyone trying to wrest control of the Ship
and we’re likely to get shot or blown up if we stick around here. We’ll have a
greater chance if the three of us stick together, though, so please come with
us.”

That last bit was painful for Zax to utter, but he
believed it to be true and choked it out regardless. He watched as Aleron
silently weighed his options.

“Fine—I’ll stick with you two oxygen thieves, but I want
the blaster.”

Kalare guffawed and her response instantly triggered a
change in Aleron’s demeanor. He stood tall and puffed out his chest as he
walked menacingly towards her with his arm reaching for the weapon. He hadn’t
quite achieved the height and mass of his (thankfully Culled) mentor Cyrus, but
he towered over both Kalare and Zax and was clearly prepared to leverage his
size advantage if violence was required. As he approached her, he bellowed,
“Give me the blaster!”

Kalare’s posture shifted from defiance to acquiescence
as she moved the weapon towards Aleron’s outstretched hand. The boy was half a
stride away from her and a satisfied grin was forming on his lips when Kalare’s
weight shifted to her back leg and her forward foot shot off the deck and
connected with his testicles. Aleron emitted no sound as he crashed to the deck
in the fetal position. Kalare turned to Zax and spoke as if nothing had
happened.

“Do you have any ideas about where we should go?”

Zax pondered alternatives for a moment, but he couldn’t
think of anything better than the first thought which had come to mind. “Waste
Systems. It’s not that far, and I know how we can reach it through maintenance
tunnels rather than the main passageways. I can’t imagine the civilians care
enough about sewage to send anyone there to take it over.”

Kalare nodded in agreement. “Perfect.” She paused and
appeared contemplative for a moment before speaking again. “I think we should
first figure out how to free the Boss and Bailee and take them with us.”

“What? No way! It’s bad enough we have to deal with
Aleron. What makes you think I want to put my neck on the line trying to save
that man?”

Kalare sighed. “Trust me, Zax, I’m not about to throw
away my life trying to help the Flight Boss out of any sense of duty or
anything silly like that. But think about it. Won’t we stand a much better
chance of staying alive if we have a little more help than Captain Clueless
here? Can you think of anyone better than Bailee to have by our side in the
middle of all this craziness?”

Zax hated to admit it, but Kalare was right. Connecting
with the Marine would increase their odds of survival substantially and,
unfortunately, getting access to him meant throwing their fate in with that of
the Boss as well. Zax tried to find solace in the possibility they’d get caught
in a firefight along the way and he might be able to witness the Boss get
killed by a civilian.

As Aleron continued to writhe on the deck, Zax
visualized the maintenance tunnels and crawlspaces he had studied months
earlier. His ability to vividly recall the details of imagery like maps and
schematics had served Zax well during his time as a cadet, but this was the
first time he’d rely on it in a truly life or death situation.

“OK. This can work. It would be so much easier and safer
if we could just access the crawlspace directly above us, but our Plugs are
blocked by these damn collars and I can’t release the lock on the hatch.
There’s an access port around the corner though that has biometric controls. I
can get us in there, and it connects with a shaft that will put us into the
crawlspace above the compartment where they put Bailee and the Boss.
If
they
are still in there, and
if
the guards are still outside, we can use the
manual override for the hatch from the crawlspace to get them out.”

Kalare smiled at Zax before looking down at Aleron who
remained on the deck grasping his crotch. Her grin widened as she gave him
another (reasonably light) kick to get his attention. “Quit your sniveling and
get your butt up. We’re getting out of here.”

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

We have to deliver a message.

Kalare
led the way out of the compartment with the blaster hidden under her shirt in
the small of her back. Aleron shambled along directly behind her. Zax brought
up the rear once he removed the sheath from the dead civilian’s boot and
secured the blade in his own.

Zax was most worried about the first fifty meters of the
trip. They would be totally exposed as they made their way from the compartment
to the access port for the maintenance tunnels. If they ran into any civilians,
their plan was to pass themselves off as random cadets desperately trying to
make their way back to their quarters, but Zax didn’t hold out much hope that
would work.

They approached a T-junction where they needed to turn
left when suddenly Aleron sprang to life and grabbed a fistful of Kalare’s
shirt. He dragged her backwards and pushed her up tight against a closed hatch
while using his other hand to pull Zax in alongside them. It seemed like the bully
was making his play to reestablish dominance until Zax heard voices and
footsteps approach from arround the corner. He held his breath and waited until
a group of three civilians walked past in the connecting passageway without
looking their way.

The voices faded and eventually Aleron released his grip
and backed away from Kalare and Zax with a smirk. “Who’s Captain Clueless now?”

Kalare straightened her shirt and glared at Aleron. “I
might have been able to hear them a little more easily if I wasn’t so
distracted by how slowly you were moving your sorry carcass.” Her expression
softened a bit. “But thank you—that would not have been good to run straight
into that group.” She held up her hand to signal quiet and then peeked around
the corner until she was satisfied the next passageway was now empty.

They walked the last ten meters without incident and the
three cadets were soon through the access port into a world entirely unknown to
almost everyone who called the Ship home. The network of maintenance tunnels
was a motley collection—some were the same size and build quality as the main
passageways while others were nothing but crawlspaces roughly hewn into the
mammoth asteroid that formed the foundation of the Ship. Civilians were not
allowed unescorted access, and most Crew never bothered requesting the security
credentials needed to open its hatches and access ports. The tunnels were
universally considered a warren best left to those with the lowest Leaderboard
rankings, so Zax had never encountered another person during his travels within
them.

Frequent usage of the tunnel system made life in Waste
Systems more efficient which is what inspired Zax to study and explore it in
the first place. Thankfully his eidetic memory meant prior glances at the
schematics for Engineering were sufficient for him to recall how its
maintenance network was laid out as well. Zax confidently led the other two
cadets through seemingly random twists and turns until he stopped them at the
base of a ladder and spoke.

“This goes into the crawlspace above the compartment
where the Boss and Bailee are being held. I want you two to wait here with the
blaster. If you hear any commotion, I want you to run. I know you don’t have a
clue where you’re going, but it doesn’t matter. Just run. Better to be lost in
the tunnels than dead from the civilians. Any exterior hatch you find will have
a manual override which will let you exit the system. Be careful, though. If
you let a hatch shut behind you, you’ll be stuck wherever you exited because
neither of you has the access credentials to get back into the tunnels.”

Aleron leaned against the wall and pouted. The bully
clearly didn’t appreciate being stuck in a situation where Zax’s low
Leaderboard status actually provided the advantage which left him in charge.
Kalare appraised Zax with a worried expression. She took a deep breath and
opened her mouth in the fashion which usually kicked off a monologue, but then
she appeared to think better of it and turned away. When she looked back, she
graced Zax with a tight smile and simply wished him luck.

The journey through the crawlspace was uneventful. Zax
stopped to listen at each hatch he passed, but every compartment below was
empty until he came to the one which held the Boss and Sergeant Bailee. He sat
quietly to ascertain whether the two men were by themselves inside the
compartment or if they were being more closely guarded. He couldn’t make out
their words but after a few mins had only heard their two voices. Civilian
guards wouldn’t be likely to let them carry on a conversation for so long
uninterrupted and Zax hoped the lack of unknown voices meant they must be
alone. There was no other way to find out for certain, so Zax took a deep
breath, triggered the manual override, and lifted the hatch.

The utter confusion on the gruff Marine’s face when he
saw Zax’s head pop down from the overhead was priceless. The Flight Boss was
speaking with his back to the hatch, and it took him an extra moment to react
to the sergeant’s expression and follow his eyes up to the hatch opening. Once
he made eye contact with Zax, however, the Boss didn’t waste any additional
time before addressing him in a forceful whisper.

“You’re not quite the rescue party I was hoping for, but
I suppose you’re not entirely worthless. Get down here and get our hands
loose!”

Zax was tempted to shut the hatch and leave the
obnoxious Omega to whatever fate the civilians had in mind for him, but then he
thought about Kalare waiting back in the tunnel counting on Bailee’s
assistance. He shimmied out of the hatch and lowered himself down slowly so as
to land on the deck as quietly as possible. He cut the binds holding the Flight
Boss’s hands and then freed Sergeant Bailee. There was something about the
expression on the Marine’s face and the way he carried his body that made Zax
think something was wrong, but the Boss started hissing commands before Zax
could ask any questions.

“I’ll boost you up first, Zax, and then Bailee. You can
both help me climb up. From down here the hatch looks just like every other
panel in the overhead so if we can manage to do this without moving any
equipment underneath then just maybe these idiot civilians won’t be smart
enough to figure out where we went.”

Without waiting for any form of acknowledgement, the
Flight Boss grabbed Zax and roughly heaved him up to the hatch. He almost
clambered back into the crawlspace, but then he lost his grip and slid back
out. Only the outstretched arms of the Boss prevented Zax from crashing to the
deck. The officer slammed him down onto his feet and then spun Zax around to
look in his eyes.

“Boy—you need to do this right and you need to do it
now
!
If you screw this up, I will kill you with my bare hands and stand on your
lifeless corpse to boost myself up into that hatch.”

Zax certainly hadn’t expected much in the way of
gratitude from the Boss, but even so he was taken aback by the way the man was
treating him. Before he could say a word, he was once again spun around and
launched up towards the hatch. This time, he established a firm grip and pulled
himself into the crawlspace. Zax turned around and poked his torso back out
with his arms outstretched to assist Bailee. The Marine was putting a foot onto
the Boss’s interlocked fingers for a lift up but shook off Zax’s offer of assistance.

“No—back up and let me grip it myself. If I struggle,
then grab the back of my shirt and pull me in.”

It struck Zax as odd that the Marine doubted his ability
to perform the same maneuver which Zax had just done, but he moved away from
the hatch. A moment later the sergeant’s left hand was inside the hatch. Zax
looked down and saw the man’s right arm hung limply by his side. The man’s face
was deep crimson from exertion as he tried to power himself up into the hatch
with nothing more than the strength of one hand’s fingertips. Zax grabbed two
fistfuls of Bailee’s shirt and after a few moments of furious struggle was able
to help the Marine into the crawlspace.

Once the sergeant was settled, they next turned to the
Flight Boss. This would be the trickiest maneuver as the officer would have
nothing but his own strength plus whatever assistance Zax and Bailee could
provide from above to climb in. They each extended one arm and after taking a
few steps backwards the Omega got a running start and jumped high enough for
them to get a hold of him. Even though Bailee was doing most of the heavy
lifting, Zax felt himself losing his tenuous grip on the Boss’s arm. He held on
for dear life after the admonition he had received earlier, and they
successfully wrangled the man in.

Bailee secured the hatch shut, and then Zax led the way
through the crawlspace back to the ladder. Zax called out to Kalare as they got
close to be sure she wouldn’t get nervous and start blindly shooting at the
noise of their approach. A moment later the five Crew stood in a circle and
appraised each other silently until the Boss spoke.

“Getting into the maintenance tunnels was a great idea,
Kalare. Where were you planning to go if you hadn’t been able to link up with
us?”

“It was actually Zax’s plan, sir. You should hear it
from him.”

The Boss appeared thoroughly disappointed with Kalare’s
response but turned his attention to Zax and gestured for him to speak.

“Sir—I’ve been working in Waste Systems since I left
Flight Ops, which is how I got familiar with the maintenance network in the
first place. It’s not that far away and we can get there using the tunnels
exclusively. I was thinking sewage treatment is probably the last place where
the civilians will have bothered sending anyone.”

The Boss turned away to consider the plan. The muscles
in the man’s cheeks twitched as his teeth sought the unlit cigar which would
normally be chomped upon as part of his thought process. After a couple of
secs, he turned back and addressed the group.

“That’s a surprisingly good idea, Zax. I suppose
creativity goes hand in hand with that active imagination of yours. There’s
something critical we need to do first. We have to deliver a message.” The Boss
paused for a moment to look at Sergeant Bailee who nodded agreement. “To the
Chief Engineer.”