Solbidyum Wars Saga Book 1: Battle of the New Orleans (40 page)

“Not easily,” one of Regeny’s staff answered,
“the system has redundancy built into it and unless you get all of those tuned off at once, as soon as you do one they will know on the bridge because it will set off an alarm.”

“
In that case Captain Stonbersa, I suggest you place the New Orleans in harm’s way between the
DUSTEN
and the planet so that the RMFF shields will take the hits in case Thimas decides to try and exact revenge on the planet.”

“I understand Tibby,” Captain Stonbersa said
grimly.

“Well
Admiral?” I asked.

“I can’t think of anything better and unless someone else can I think
of something better than that I think we need to get moving on it right away.”  Regeny said.

“We only have one problem,” I said sadly, “We can do it in the allotted ho
ur, we will need more than that, and I do not think there is any way we can keep Thimas from pushing more people out of the airlock.”

“Let me w
ork on that issue, you just do whatever it is you need to do.” The Admiral said.

“Tib are you sure about this, you could get killed,” Kala said.

“Kala, if I don’t do this and more people get killed I could not live with myself. Right now I am having a difficult enough time trying deal with all the lives that were lost in the taking out of the Brotherhood base in the Western Ocean.  If I do nothing now all of those who died in the tidal waves will be meaningless deaths, I could not live with that.”  Kala hung her head, “I understand Tib; do what you have to do.”

The first thing I did was track down Lunnie. She was just about to seal the Solbidyum container in a compartment when I stopped her.  “Hold up Lunnie, I have another task for you. I need
you to build me an exact replica of this container, at least from outside exterior.  It needs to have a device that looks like the locking mechanism on it just like the real thing. I need it to be able to be opened from the inside.” 

Lunnie looked at me like I had lost my mind and
asked, “What are you planning now?”  I told her as quickly as I could and asked how long it would take.

“We have the materials in the ship
’s shop and with the cutting machines we have, in all I would say about three hours, and that’s working like hell to get it done by then.” Lunnie answered.

“Lunnie, every hour on the hour, Thimas is going to push
one hundred people out of the air lock on the
DUSTEN
.  He’s already killed one hundred that way and he’s torturing Captain Maxette by slowly cutting off his fingers and who knows what else since then, do what you can but we need it NOW!”

Lunnie responded that she would and pulled some device out of her pocket and began scanning the Solbidyum container taking measurements.  While she was doing that I called Kala to
give me directions to where I might find Cantolla and her team.  Kala told me it was in one of the gyms that I was familiar with on the ship and I met Kala there moments later.

As we entered
Cantolla and her staff were gathered around a table with the headband and some instruments, Cantolla turned and noticed us on our entry and said, “Tibby I think we have it.  We decided to increase the number of input and output leads in the headband so that information is going into portions of the brain that control muscular functions, we’ve tested it using ourselves with other physical skills and it seems to be working. All we need to do now is have you record the signals again.” 

Dakko excitedly added “Oh my, oh my yes, Tibby, most assuredly we have it this time
,” while Rivez in his less enthusiastic manner nodded his head and grinned.

“
Let’s get to it then, if this works this time it couldn’t have happened at a better moment.” I answered.

Once again I had to run through all the movements I could think of and once again poor
Marranalis got tossed about as a test subject. By now he had been sent flying through the air so often he knew what was coming and now landed on his feet or in a reasonable position that would allowed him to quickly regain his balance.

After nearly an hour we were interrupted by
Captain Stonbersa appearing on the vid screen saying, “Another broadcast is going out from the
DUSTEN
,” and then the image shifted to the Bridge of the
DUSTEN
and the image of a clearly demented Commander Thimas.

“It would seem,” Thimas was saying
“that the Federation is not taking me seriously enough.  Admiral Regeny and his staff wish to play games with me, begging me that they need time to get the Solbidyum and the
TRITYTE
from where ever they have them hidden and that I should be tolerant and not send any more person of out the airlock, but rather I should allow them time to accomplish their tasks.   They take me for a fool, I know full well they devise some fiendish scheme to try and regain the
DUSTEN,
but I am not that foolish.  It seems it is necessary to remind the Federation just how strong I, Captain Thimas, and the Brotherhood,” he quickly added, “are.  Our word is never to be questioned.”  As he said this, the image on the screen shifted to the air lock which was now filled with more panicking people.  Once again the red light began flashing and Thimas voice was heard saying in a sickening tone, “Bye, bye people say thank you to the Federation for your little trip!” Behind me I heard someone being sick as the doors was opened and the people were sucked out into the vacuum of space. “Now, let us get back to business shall we.” Thimas said his image now displayed on the screen once more. His mental state obviously had digressed since an hour earlier and the mad look of desperation in his eye and his erratic mannerisms more pronounced.  The front of his uniform displaying more blood, obviously from Captain Maxette who could be seen in the background tied in a chair, his uniform covered in blood and his head hanging down but still moving so we knew he was still alive. “Like ex-captain Maxette, who I am sure would gladly tell you, if he could speak, just who is Captain of the
DUSTEN
now, it is not wise to resist my wishes.”  As he said this Thimas walked over behind Captain Maxette and grabbing hold of his hair lifted his head so his bloodied mouth could clearly be seen on the vid screen.”  Behind me I heard Rivez voice exclaim, “My stars, he’s cut out his tongue.  Then I heard a thunk, and looked to see that Dakko had passed out.  “One hour and one hundred more people go out the airlock unless I have the Solbidyum and the
TRITYTE
here More will go every hour until I do.  I hope that this little demonstration makes it clear to all that I am not to be disobeyed!” The screen went blank again.

Only a moment later Lunnie
’s voice came across my wrist communicator, “I  saw Tibby, working as fast as I can, no promises but I may have it in about forty-five minutes.” 

Her message had barely ended when
Admiral Regeny’s appeared on the vid screen.  “Tibby I know we all are under a lot of pressure here, but we need to do something to stop this mad man as quickly as possible, do you have anything at all that we might do?”

“We’
re doing all we can, I need
all
the troopers and my security people that are available to get down here immediately for a three minute dose of mental input martial arts learning, we do not have time for a test and we can only hope and pray that it will work. I will need Marranalis, Reidecor, and if I can have him Lt. Commander Wanoll, as well as four other troopers to go with me on this mission. Lunnie thinks she can have the fake Solbidyum container ready in less than an hour. Also we need to move the
NEW ORLEANS
out of visual range of the DUSTEN so we can release the
TRITYTE
without revealing the ship.  Then we need to move the
TRITYTE
remotely from the
NEW ORLEANS
while being cloaked but within range of the
DUSTEN
to take over remote control.  We have no time to test anything, so I suggest that if anyone has any gods they pray to they do it now.”

“Tib you can’t do this, it’s too risky, you could all get killed,” Kala was saying.

“Kala, if we do not do it, in one hour more people will die. We cannot really let Thimas have the Solbidyum and the
TRITYTE
, so what other choice do we have?  Sooner or later Thimas is going to decide to start blowing things up on the planet and thousands or even millions will die.  That’s an insane mad man over there, and there is no reasoning with him.”

Troopers began arriving at the facility we had set up for
Cantolla and her team and the learning downloads started. Each down load took three minutes and I needed all seven of the people going into the container with me implanted.  Reidecor got re-breather masks off the
NIGHTBRIDGE
that we would need as the oxygen in the air in the container would not be sufficient for those of us inside.  Forty minutes later we were assembled in the hanger area as Lunnie delivered the mock Solbidyum container to the
TRITYTE
using a low automated device that functioned both as palette and a forklift only without the forks. 

Behind us as troopers were entering the few patrol ships we had aboard the
NEW ORLEANS
as fast at Cantolla and her team could process them.  Their orders were that once my team had secured the hangar on the
DUSTEN
they would be rapidly deployed from the
NEW ORLEANS
to the
DUSTEN
hangar and stealth fully as possible, take out the Brotherhood guards and troopers, and then regroup to take the bridge.   As Security officer of the
DUSTEN
, Lt. Commander Wanoll knew the security codes for everything on the ship, assuming that Thimas hadn’t changed them and it was unlikely that he had with is state of mind.  Wanoll would be able to override the lockout on the bridge and get our people inside.  It was not expected to be pretty, but it was necessary.

Admiral
Regeny was in the conference room with the High Command and they were starting a broadcast to the
DUSTEN
saying that Federation would meet their demand and that the
TRITYTE
was on its way and that the
DUSTEN
should have it on its sensors at any moment.  There was no response from the
DUSTEN
, but they must have gotten the message because shortly after the message two patrol ships came out and took up positions near the hangar bay doors.  We hoped this was intended to be a security measure on Thimas’s part and that once the
TRITYTE
was aboard the
DUSTEN
they would enter the hangar again, but regardless we were committed to our plan now, fail or succeed.

The mock Solbidyum container that Lunnie h
ad made was a perfect replica, right down to a deep scratch that was on one side of the original.  I doubt that without having the two containers side by side anyone would be able to tell the difference.  Lunnie showed us how to open the container from the inside, it was not going to comfortable for all of is inside.  We would barely have room to reach the latching mechanism that would let us out, but we could and that was all that mattered. 

Just before I entered the container Kala came running to me and threw her arms about me and gave me a kiss.  We were running of time and much as I wanted to hold her in my arms I knew that I needed to go. I entered the container with my team hoping
we would not have to be in the container longer than two hours, but we didn’t know.  It was going to be a guessing game when to come out, from inside we could detect some muffled sounds outside, but that was about all, we could not see outside at all.  We were just outside the DUSTEN’s sensor range when we entered the container and sealed it.  We were jostled about a bit as Lunnie positioned the container in the
TRITYTE.

Moments later we felt a slight movement as the
TRITYTE
was remotely moved from the hangar of the
NEW ORLEANS
and into space and then all was quiet.  We had no way of talking with the re-breathers on and so all we could do was wait.  I still had my grandfather’s watch which while nonfunctional on the galactic time system still gave me an indication of how much time was elapsing. Fortunately it had a luminous dial and I was able to see it.  I had worn it out of habit on my left wrist while on my right wrist I wore the short range communication band that most people in the Federation wore on ships on larger accommodations or building.

It seemed like we were in the container an eternity.  One thing we had not thought about was body heat and it was becoming very warm in the container, with the heat and the natural loss of water from the body from perspiration the inside of the container was becoming a sauna and we all were soaked in perspiration.  This only seemed to add to
agony and length of the trip.  At one point we felt a slight lurch and I hoped it was the
DUSTEN
taking over control of the
TRITYTE
then what seemed an unbearably long period of time later we felt a another lurch and a bump, shortly thereafter there was a sound of movement in the ship and the sounds of muffled voices.  There seemed to be some excitement and scuffling about but we could not tell what was going on from inside the container.  Finally all was quiet again and we waited.  A few times we heard what sounded like people walking about outside the container and then at last it was silent for a long period and I hoped it was safe for us to make our exit.