Scrapyard Ship (18 page)

“You’re safe now, you’re OK,” Jason said, to reassure her.

Staring back at him in disbelief, Nan tried to talk, but started coughing instead. She swallowed, tried again, “Get me the fuck out of here, Jason!” she screamed. Jason almost smiled.

“OK, OK… let me free your hands and feet.” Looking behind her, he realized he’d need a key for the metal shackles. “I have to leave you just a quick—”

“Don’t you dare leave me here, for God sakes, Jason, please don’t leave me here!”

“I’m just getting a key. I’ll be right back.” Jason kissed the back of her head, ran from the cage and headed off down the catwalk to one of the carts parked at the far end of the floor. He saw more terrified expressions and heard muffled cries for help. This cart was relatively clean. The Craing tools-of-the-trade were still lined up on its metal cutting board. Jason, near frantic now, looked for the keys. He pulled open its cabinet-like doors and rifled through more cutting implements, letting them fall to the deck plates with a clang. Frustrated, he moved back up to the top shelf, where those items ended up on the floor as well. Finally, he found them hanging from the push-handle, swinging from a thin chain. He yanked it free and ran back toward Nan’s cage.

As if she’d been holding her breath, Nan exhaled and relaxed, somewhat, when Jason was back at her side. As he worked the lock, Nan looked back over her shoulder, “How’s Mollie? Oh God, Jason, tell me she’s all right.”

“She’s perfectly fine. You’ll see her soon.”

Jason got the lock open. He gently opened the shackles on her wrists and ankles and threw them on the cage floor. Slowly, Nan straightened her legs and pulled her arms back around. Relief spread across her face. “Thank you, Jason, I didn’t think I’d ever—” Nan pulled him into her arms and buried her face in his shoulder. Her tears turned to sobs, her body shook uncontrollably. Eventually, she looked up and kissed Jason on the mouth. Slowly, she pulled away and tried to stand. Off balance at first, she managed to stand upright. “Oh my God, turn around,” she said.

“What do you mean, turn around?” Jason replied, not understanding.

“Just turn around. I’ve got to pee, Oh, my god, I’ve got to pee!”

Jason turned around and heard the sound of urine hitting the side of a metal bucket. He checked in with The Lilly.

“Go for XO.”

“What’s the status on the rest of the Craing ship—they obviously know we’re here?”

“Captain, they’ve cordoned off this deck from the rest of the ship. Our sensors indicate there are still another hundred Craing on board that we’ll need to contend with. Also, Admiral Crawford came through with additional troops, but the Craing are shooting at anything that moves out there. So we’re on our own ‘till we take out their weapons.” Just then Orion hailed Jason.

“Go ahead, Gunny.”

“Weapons are back up, Cap.”

“Excellent! XO tells me that Admiral Cramer delivered on her promise and is standing by with a company of SEALs. So we need to do something about the Craing’s onboard weapons. Is there any way The Lilly can target them from inside the hold?”

“From inside this ship? Are you serious?”

“Of course, I’m serious. Yes or no?” Jason barked.

“I guess… yes, that shouldn’t be a problem. Give me a few minutes to figure it out though.”

When Jason turned around Nan was buttoning her pants. “You OK to walk,” he asked, putting an arm around Nan’s waist and carefully helping her take a few steps.

“I think I can walk, I’m alright.”

In front of her cage on the catwalk was a procession of other released prisoners. Jason’s team was already ushering them to the lifts. Five at a time were being moved below to the bottom deck. In the distance, Jason heard weapons begin firing, then a hail from Gunny.

“What do you have, Gunny,” Jason asked her, into his NanoCom.

“I’m working with Ricket on the best way to target the Craing weapons. I’ll need a few more minutes on that.”

“Good work, Gunny.”

Jason and Nan reached the lift and shuffled on with three other women captives. As the lift made its way downward, they looked up at him, each with tears in their eyes. An elderly woman mouthed the words “thank you,” reached up and gently touched Jason’s face. When the lift came to a stop, Jason pulled open the lift gate and helped everyone out, moving them past the Craing meal hall, and into the far corridor. Jason watched as Nan’s eyes locked onto the fiery caldron grills and then looked up, into his eyes. She knew exactly what they were, what they were used for. Jason’s team had assembled their Craing prisoners outside the large chamber, but everyone was moving into the corridor. Too high off the ground to escape, they sat along bulkheads in groups and were provided water.

“I want to get you onto The Lilly, so you can see Mollie and get cleaned up. How’s that sound?” Jason asked, as the two of them continued down the corridor.

“That’s fine. I don’t know what The Lilly is, but just get me out of here.”

Chapter 13

When Nan entered the captain’s suite, Mollie screamed and ran into her mother’s open arms, almost bowling her over.

“Mom, I missed you so much.”

“I missed you too, sweetie,” Nan said, stroking Mollie’s hair.

“I wanted to be a big girl, for Dad and everyone, but it was really hard.”

“I’m so proud of you, Mollie. You are a big girl.”

As they hugged in the Captain’s ready room, Jason rushed back to his bedroom to collect some of his things. He’d put Nan there so she could be closer to Mollie, and he’d bunk in one of the officer’s open quarters. Long term, he wasn’t sure if Nan would want to stay on board or not, but for the time being, this was the safest place for both her and Mollie. Jason arrived back in the ready room with arms loaded up with his officer’s jumpsuits, his old backpack, and assorted odds and ends.

“Jason, I’m not kicking you out of your room…” Nan said, with a furrowed brow.

“I’ll be right next door. This way you’re with Mollie. Hey, I’m in and out—crazy hours.”

Earlier, on their way into the ship, Jason had given Nan an overview of The Lilly, and what had transpired over the past few days. When he mentioned the part about landing the ship in the Pentagon courtyard Nan stopped him with, “You did what? You landed this spaceship at the Pentagon? Who’d do that sort of thing?” she spat. After some explaining, she almost understood his reasoning, but not completely; especially the fact that Mollie had been on board during the whole escapade. Jason told her his father was still alive and leading the United Planetary Alliance, and about the impending attack by the quickly-approaching Craing fleet.

Mollie was still talking a mile a minute, and Nan looked exhausted.

“Mollie, let’s give your mother some time to get cleaned up and rest,” Jason said, pulling his ex-wife to her feet and leading her to the back bedroom. “Washroom’s in there. The bed’s surprisingly comfortable. I’d like to have you checked out in Medical when you’re up to it as well. If you need to talk—you know… about your whole ordeal—”

“Thank you, Jason.” She pulled Jason closer, so Mollie couldn’t hear. “I was unconscious during some of it. When I woke, it was so awful. I heard their screams. Jason, they cut these people up—alive. I knew I’d be next. I kept waiting for that cart to pull up in front of my cage.” Nan headed for the washroom, turned and looked back at him before closing the door.

Jason turned and headed for the door. “Can you watch over her, Kiddo?” Jason asked, looking over at Mollie.

“I’ll take good care of her, Dad.”

* * *

Jason made it back to the bridge just as Orion and Ricket had begun targeting the Craing weaponry systems. An elaborate virtual representation of the Craing ship, with targeting vectors crisscrossing in multiple directions, was displayed with bright yellow lines.

“What’s the status on taking out their weapons, Gunny?”

“Just making sure we don’t kill ourselves in the process—or take out crucial Craing systems. We’re going under the assumption you’ll still want this ship to be operational once we’ve taken her.”

Ricket looked up from the console and said, “The biggest problem is keeping the Craing bridge intact, as well as these two primary drive systems, here and here,” he said, pointing up to their locations on the wrap-around display. Jason had a hard time concentrating on what the mechanical man was saying having just encountered the Craing—of which Ricket was clearly the same species.

“But we think we have it. Short micro-bursts using our four plasma cannons, which will give us a wider selection of shooting angles,” Ricket said, already back at work at his console.

“How about the Craing crewmembers being held in our makeshift brig, and the released captives still out in the corridor?” Jason asked concerned.

“As of right now the targeting vectors don’t put anyone in a direct line of fire,” Orion said, “that is unless someone moves.”

“Go ahead, Gunny, fire when ready,” Jason commanded, taking a seat in the command chair. Displayed in red, the four plasma cannons snapped into position on The Lilly’s outer hull. The gimbal-mounted cannons immediately started to rotate, track and then lock onto their pre-programmed targets. The cannons started to fire in unison; bright red vectors overlapped the yellow ones indicating the new shooting solutions. Within thirty seconds the firing stopped.

“Weapons destroyed, Captain,” Orion said, a confident smile on her face.

“Nice work, Gunny, you’ve redeemed yourself from blowing up that mountain yesterday.” This brought chuckles from the other crewmembers. Jason looked up at the virtual display, still hovering above their heads. “Gunny, other than the ones we’ve taken prisoner—can you display the positions of the Craing—those on other decks?” Jason asked, the seed of an idea forming.

“Here you go. Craing are represented by the orange symbols now displayed throughout the ship on decks two through ten.”

“Is there a way to target them without blasting through the outer hull?” Jason asked, looking from Orion, then to Ricket, and then over to his XO. Both Perkins and Orion shrugged, not sure. But Ricket’s expression seemed to convey there was a possibility.

“Not everyone on those decks could safely be targeted. Not without destroying engineering and bridge sub-systems. But certainly here, here and here would be no problem.” Jason looked on as Ricket drew virtual circles around various areas on the ship diagram. “That’s approximately ninety-three percent of the Craing crew.”

As tempting as it would be to assassinate all the Craing crewmembers in one fell swoop, Jason didn’t feel comfortable in doing so. At least not without giving them the option to surrender first. “Ricket, can I address the Craing crewmembers throughout the ship?”

“Yes, it would need to be translated to Terplin, their native language—but Lilly will do that for you.” Jason watched Ricket closely, wondering how much the possible killing of hundreds of his own kind was affecting him.

“Lilly, please translate the following and have it broadcast ship wide.”

“Yes, sir, whenever you are ready,” she said, in her usual no-nonsense voice.

“Crewmembers of the Craing Vessel. This is Captain Jason Reynolds of the United Planetary Alliance vessel, The Lilly. You must immediately lay down your weapons and surrender. We have freed your captives, taken over one hundred Craing crewmembers into custody, and have destroyed your vessel’s main weaponry. Every one of you is currently being tracked and will be killed unless you relinquish any weapons you have and surrender. You have one minute to comply.” Jason nodded for Orion to cut the connection. All eyes were on the display. There was no movement at first, but then, slowly—the orange dots started to move.

“Captain, we have Craing crewmembers, from multiple decks, heading down to Deck 1,” Perkins announced.

“Armed?”

“No, sir. Looks like they’re surrendering.”

This all seems too easy
, but a hail from Billy interrupted his thoughts. “Go ahead Billy.”

“What are we supposed to do with all these guys? Looks like hundreds of them—they have their hands up—docile as little lambs.”

“Round them up, Billy, secure their hands. Find out who their captain is and who their other officers are. Ask Lilly to help translate for you. The rest of them I want confined somewhere outside of the vessel. Let them stand in the sun for a while.”

“Ricket, Orion, you’re with me. XO, you have the bridge and once were off The Lilly, shift her out of here. Just in case they’ve booby-trapped this bucket, I want her to be at a safe distance.

* * *

On the way off the ship, Jason needed to find a new helmet. He’d left his in Nan’s cage, and there was no way he was going back up there. Orion, and even Ricket, had quickly dressed in hardened combat suits and carried pulse rifles. On the other side of the hold, Billy and his Bear team were waiting, their guns pointed at six Craing crewmembers. Several moments after Jason, Orion and Ricket joined Billy, The Lilly disappeared. Startled, the six Craing officers jumped and looked nervously between one another. Seeing Ricket, they became noticeably more uncomfortable. Jason hadn’t quite figured out the various Craing expressions, but he was pretty sure what he was seeing was hatred.

“Who do we have here, Billy?” Jason asked, eying the six Craing.

“Their equivalency to captain, XO, pilot, chief of engineering, and two others. I’m not sure what the hell they do.”

Jason nodded and quietly watched the Craing for several more moments before speaking again. “Will they understand what I’m saying?”

Billy nodded. “They seem to understand everything we’re saying just fine. I think they’ve been interacting with humans for quite some time. This one here, the one with the gold medallion, is their captain.” Jason had been studying the various medallions around each of the Craing’s necks: one bronze, one copper, another silver or platinum, and the captain’s gold one. Jason walked over to the Craing captain.

He stared at him for several more seconds until he started to fidget and looked away nervously. Jason reached down and pulled the golden chain from around the Craing captain’s head. Jason held the chain and looked at the medallion for several moments before placing the chain around his own head and positioning the medallion in the middle of his chest.