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They waited in the cave, the shuttle hovering between the rock ceiling and the churning surface of the water. Conzel stood on the edge of the cargo ramp, watching for any sign of the young human. When Coulter dropped into the dark water, he dove in.
It wasn’t just Conzel’s fear that Coulter might drown, that motivated him. The flashlights attached to either side of his helmet would help him find Coulter, but they would also announce his presence to any waiting predators. No sunlight reached the water that flowed through the cave, so despite his thick fur, he was shivering violently.
It only took Conzel a few seconds to find Coulter. As he wrapped his arms around his friend, something moved in the murky water. The canine pulled on the cable attached to his vest and felt a strong jerking motion as they were lifted out of the freezing liquid.
As Coulter and Conzel were pulled into the shuttle, something burst forth from the water’s surface and rose upwards. Its head reached the edge of the cargo hold, and it sunk its teeth in the safety netting attached to one wall. The shuttle lurched and scraped against the stone walls of the cave.
Conzel dropped Coulter and grabbed a laser rifle, firing it at the creature’s head. The creature released its grip on the netting and disappeared. The dog pulled a lever and the cargo ramp retracted, allowing the outer doors to shut behind it.
Qeeope was piloting the shuttle. “What was that?”
“Do I look like a Marine Biologist?” Conzel yelled. “It’s big enough to eat a dog, that’s all I need to know,”
“Did you kill it?”
A powerful force struck the side of the shuttle, slamming it against the rock wall again.
“No, I just pissed it off,” Conzel growled, but maybe if I give it something to eat, it’ll leave us alone. Can I throw Coulter back in?.”
“Sorry buddy,” Qeeope yelled back, “we have to bring him back...Captains orders.”
As Qeeope turned the shuttle around, the creature struck again, but this time they were clear of the rock walls.
Coulter sat on the floor of the cargo hold. “They think I’m heading for the surface.”
“The planet’s surface?” Conzel asked. “How did you manage that?”
“I sent a Laser Boring Machines, almost straight up. They think I’m at the controls.” Coulter answered.
“How much time do we have?”
“The same amount of time you always get in life...not enough.”
Conzel helped Coulter onto his feet, sat him on a bench, and strapped him in.
Coulter glanced at the cockpit.“Is that you Qeeope?”
“How many short, purple guys do you know?” asked Qeeope.
“Well,” Coulter said, “so far my escape attempt has succeeded, but we still need to get out of here. How do we do that?”
“First, we have to get clear of the planet and engage our stealth systems,” Qeeope answered. “Hopefully, it will give us enough time to rendezvous with the Challenger.”
“What do you mean, ‘hopefully’? If you’re using stealth tech, they won’t be able to find us.”
Conzel raised an eyebrow. “What did they teach you at that Academy? Stealth doesn’t mean you’re invisible, it just means it’s harder to pinpoint your location with scanners. If you’re close enough, they can still see you. Besides, the Karzonians might have some new tech that makes our stealth system obsolete. You never know.”
Qeeope smiled. “Shall we find out?”
The shuttle blasted out the cave entrance and climbed into the sky above the prison island.
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The Challenger steadily increased speed as it crossed into Karzonian territory. Keelatt sat at the navigator’s console on the left, Kriss sat in the pilot’s seat on the right. Captain MacKay sat behind them in the command chair.
“We’ll reach maximum velocity any moment now,” Kriss said, “I’ll mute the alarm.”
“We’ve just picked up another vessel on our scanners,” Keelatt reported.
“Are the Karzonians here to greet us?” asked the Captain.
“No,” Keelatt answered, “it’s definitely not a Karzonian design.”
“Another freighter?”
Keelatt watched as data appeared on his console. “That’s a Gottsleen design.”
“Pirates,” the Captain noted.
“We might be able to outrun them,” Kriss suggested.
“I know,” replied Captain MacKay, “but we have some excess cargo I want to get rid of.”
The Captain opened a channel to the cargo hold. “Hey Rilo!”
“Yes Captain.”
“We need to get rid of those barrels.”
“The ones that are full of rocks?” Rilo asked.
“Those are the ones.”
“All twenty of them?”
“That’s right,” the Captain replied. “Put them on the ramp, get out, lock the doors and give me a call.”
“I’m on it boss.”
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Rilo, who stood about two meters tall, was covered in green and purple scales. Human scientists described her species as amphibian. It wasn’t a very accurate description, just the closest analogy they could come up with.
Rilo leapt on a forklift and drove through the cargo hold, pulling out five skids, with four barrels on each one. Once the pallets were placed on the ramp, she secured the forklift to a bracket attached to a wall. Rilo checked that rest of the cargo and equipment were locked in place by netting, forcefields, and heavy straps. Nothing was going to to be pulled out by the vacuum, expect the barrels.
Once she was in the corridor next to the cargo hold, she called the bridge. “Everything’s ready Captain. The barrels are on the ramp, and I’m clear.”
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A Karzonian patrol ship was in pursuit of the shuttle. Qeeope was using the gravitational field of the Karzon’s third moon, as a slingshot to pick up speed. “We only need to get out of sight for a moment. When we engage the rotating plasma shields, we should disappear off their scanners.”
“What we’re counting on,” Conzel added, “is the Karzonians will expect us to pull away from the moon’s gravitation field immediately. Instead, we’re just going to keep travelling in circles, increasing our velocity.”
“So your theory,” Coulter said “is they’ll be looking for us in all the wrong places.”
“I’m hoping it’ll confuse them,” Qeeope answered. “The Karzonians are obsessed with technology, they won’t expect us to do something low-tech, like sneaking up behind them.”
“What happens if they check behind their vessel?” asked Coulter. “They’re bound to have some cameras pointing behind their ship.”
Conzel shrugged. “If we’re spotted, we’re spotted. Have faith, Captain MacKay is coming for us. Once we’re onboard the Challenger, she’ll take us to safety.”
Coulter thought about it for a moment. “So, everything is fine, if the Challenger finds us. What if Captain Mackay doesn’t find us?”
“Then” replied Qeeope, “we’ll head for the border by ourselves. Getting across the border is everything, because they won’t follow us outside their territory. Once they leave their territory, they have to consider laws established by other species. Nothing is more repulsive to Karzonians, than answering to laws established by off-worlders.”
“And that,” Conzel added, “is why we expect the Karzonians to eventually start a war, and expand their territory. They want everyone to obey their Sacred Laws.”
Coulter touched the prism in his pocket. That explained just about everything. “We are expecting the Challenger to find us, right?”
Conzel laughed. “We’re expecting the Challenger to find us, we’re hoping to the Challenger will find us, we have faith the Challenger will find us....”
Coulter put his hands up in surrender. “I get the idea.”
“There are no guarantees out here,” Qeeope added, “that’s what makes life interesting. Wouldn’t it be boring if you knew everything that was going to happen, and there were no surprises?”
“There will be no surprises if they catch us,” replied Coulter, “they’ll skin us alive. It’s what happens when an off-worlder violates the Sacred Laws by doing something stupid, like trying to escape.”
“Being skinned alive, that would be a lousy way to die,” Conzel said.
“You think?” Coulter yelled.
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The Gottsleen pirates were getting close. Keelatt glanced at his boss. “How soon do we open the ramp?”
Pamela MacKay grinned at him. “Are you feeling uncomfortable?”
The Navigator’s ear’s ears started flapping. “I think you know the answer Captain.”
The Captain was silent for a moment. “I can’t give Kriss a heart attack, because he’s an android, but you’re a different matter. Since you have two hearts, would I be giving you a heart attack, or heart attacks?
Keelatt’s ears started flapping again.
Captain MacKay laughed. “Relax Keelatt, just watch their energy signature. They’ll have to drop their plasma shields to fire their lasers. The moment you see an aberration, open the cargo hold.”
“Are they going to try and slice and dice us with their lasers?”
“Not a chance,” replied the Captain, “they want a functioning cargo ship to sell. It will earn more profit than scrap metal. They’ll use a wide beam and try to overload our systems, then
hack into our main computer. If they’re successful, we’ll have a boarding party of Gottsleen pirates moving through the Challenger.”
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Gottsleen pirates understood and calculated the risks of everything they did. They suffered, however, from the same disease as most species...greed. The Challenger would sell for a huge profit. Surviving crewmembers would be sold to the Karzonians as prisoners, for violating their territory and breaking their Sacred Laws. The problem was, if the Challenger escaped, then the Gottsleens would cease to be bounty hunters and they would be treated as criminals for violating Karzonian territory. The Gottsleen pirates would either earn a huge profit, or rot in prison, and there was only one roll of the dice..
The pirate vessel’s captain was staring a hole through the view screen, with his three eyes. His pulse was racing. He lived for moments like these, when the predator was about to sink its teeth into the prey. “Are we in range?”
“Almost,” responded a crewmember.
“The instant we are in range, disable their ship.”
The crewmember watched as digits flashed on the console. He checked the settings for the lasers again, making sure he wouldn’t destroy the prize by mistake. It would be two swift movements, shutting down the plasma shield, and firing the lasers. His right hand slammed down on the pad that controlled the plasma shields.
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Keelatt reacted instantly. With the touch of a finger on his console, he opened the cargo hold’s main door. Captain MacKay had kept her promise, she had disposed of the rocks, free of charge.
The vacuum of space sucked the twenty barrels into the path of the pursuing pirate vessel, creating a wall of steel and rock. The lasers fired by the pirates destroyed a couple of the barrels, and scorched sections of the Challenger’s hull, but there was no significant damage.
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The Gottsleens were too close. There was no time to maneuver. Their plasma shield was down. The steel barrels, packed solid with rocks, collided with the pirate vessel, ripping a hole through the structure protecting the bridge.
Like so many other species, the Gottsleens had become so dependent on technology, that they no longer anticipated dealing with simple weapons. It was like being on a battlefield using lasers and someone throws a spear at you. You haven’t thrown spears at your enemies for centuries, so you aren’t expecting anyone to throw one at you. Time and technology, however, do not change the laws of physics or biology; when the spear goes through your chest, the results are the same.
Registering severe damage, automated systems onboard the pirate vessel started reducing its speed. Eventually, it would bring the vessel to a complete stop.
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It was a good thing that Coulter had been strapped in tight. The shuttle shook violently as it ripped free of the moon’s gravitational field, and raced through open space. Things weren’t going exactly as planned; they hadn’t fooled the Karzonians. The mouse had a head start, but the cat wasn’t giving up the chase.
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On the bridge of the Challenger, the Captain leaned forward in her chair, speaking to Keelatt. “You know what to do.”
“Moving to intercept.”
As the Challenger crossed deeper into Karzonian territory, the Captain spoke to Kriss. “You know, I think the modifications you made to the drive system may have been illegal.”
Kriss glanced back. “Everything is legal somewhere.”
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Conzel had been watching the Challenger, and the other vessel, on the long-range scanners. “Whoever was following the Captain, has decided to stop following.”
“What do you think?” asked Qeeope.
“I’m guessing pirates,” Conzel replied.
“Pirates?” Coulter asked.
Conzel shrugged. “It’s one possible translation. It doesn’t really matter what you call them, you just have to decide whether you’re going to surrender or fight.”
“Did the Captain fight?”
Qeeope laughed. “Do you really have to ask?”
“The Captain is always thinking,” Conzel replied, “that’s why she survives out here. If they’ve stopped, it’s because she made them stop.”
The shuttle shook.
“We’ve been hit!” Coulter’s heart was racing again.
“Nothing to worry about,” Qeeope replied. “At this range their lasers don’t have enough sustained power to destroy us.”
“Although,” remarked Conzel, “they don’t really have to destroy us, they just have to slow us down.”
Qeeope glared at his co-pilot. “Thanks for the reminder.”
“No problem pal.”
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“Open the hangar,” ordered Captain MacKay. “and adjust your velocity. I don’t want to turn the shuttle into a steel pancake.”
“Pancake?” asked Keelatt.
“Pancakes are flat, you eat them, preferably with Canadian maple syrup. Jamaicans make the best rum, the Barbados have the best mauby, Canadians have the best maple syrup.”
“The Karzonians just fired at the shuttle,” Kriss said.
The Captain shifted her position. “Launch a pattern of energy flares, put them between the shuttle and the Karzonians.” A small hatch opened, and the Challenger launched twenty small rockets.
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Qeeope adjusted the shuttle’s course and speed, to meet the Challenger.
Conzel watched his console, as scanners detected the heat signatures of the rockets. “The Captain just launched twenty energy flares.”
“Why twenty?” Coulter asked. “Those are used to mark damage vessels. At the Academy, we were told you only needed two.”
Qeeope laughed. “I hope the Karzonians have their sunglasses on.”
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The Karzonians had also been keeping track of what was happening with Challenger and the other vessel. Something wasn’t right. Kallac, the Commander of the Karzonian patrol vessel paced the bridge, unable to relax long enough to sit down. Did the human captain enter Karzonian territory to avoid the pirates? It didn’t’ matter. He’d take care of the shuttle, then arrest the crews of the other vessels. He stared at the main viewscreen.
“We’re lucky we noticed that shuttle break away from the moon; if they’d put any more distance between us, we’d have lost them for sure,” a crewmember noted. “Our scanner barely register their energy signature. They have some equipment we’re not familiar with.”
Kallac glanced at her. “Do you know what that means?”
“No Commander,” answered the crewmember.
“It’s means I won’t be the only one who benefits from their capture,” Kallac replied. “If they have new technology and we hand it over to our leaders, we will all be richly rewarded. This is no ordinary opportunity.”
“Remember, we don’t have to make a direct hit with full strength,” Kallac continued. “We just need to slow them down long enough to board the vessel. We can’t risk destroying their equipment, there’s too much at stake. Increase the strength of the laser, but be careful.”
“The larger vessel has launched flares,” noted the Navigator.
“How many?” asked the Karzonian commander.
“I don’t know yet.”
“Turn off the screen!” Kallac screamed. It was too late. Crew reports would later compare brightness to a star moving across the patrol vessel’s path, exposing them to its full intensity. The pain was excruciating. Eventually, most of the crewmember on the bridge would regain their sight, but for the moment, they were all blind.
It wasn’t over yet, two more Karzonian patrol vessels had joined the hunt.
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The shuttle hangar was located above the Challenger’s cargo hold. The hangar doors opened as the Challenger moved directly in front of the shuttle. Qeeope and Conzel had taken their hands off the shuttle’s consoles and gave control to the Challenger’s computer.
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The two Karzonian patrol vessels started to gain on the Challenger, as the vessel matched its velocity, to receive the shuttle. Ellaz, the commander of the lead Karzonian patrol vessel watched the scanners. She tapped a crewmember on the shoulder and pointed at the scanner on his console. “Magnify the energy signature of the cargo ship.”
It was almost imperceptible, even for keen Karzonian eyesight, but there is was, a small anomaly in the challenger’s energy signature., a minor flaw in their defences. “I see it,” noted the crewmember.
The Karzonian commander’s heart was racing. “The pirates must have damaged their hull. We got lucky.”
Ellaz hailed the second patrol vessel. “We’ll take care of the cargo ship. Check on the crew of our patrol vessel, then find out if there are any survivors on the Gottsleen vessel. If any of them are still breathing, arrest them for violating Karzonian territory.
As the second patrol vessel changed course to help the Karzonian vessel with the blind bridge crew, Commander Ellaz turned back to the crewmember. “Program the long rang missiles to lock onto the anomaly, and fire. Hopefully, the missiles won’t completely destroy the cargo ship. Just imagine the glory, bringing back all those prisoners!”
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Keelatt’s eyes were beginning to sting from staring so intensely. “Captain.”
Captain MacKay leaned forward.
“They’ve just fired missiles, and those missiles are tracking us. I thought that with the new modifications, that was supposed to be impossible. Can we get a refund from the guy who designed the new system?”
Kriss looked over at Keelatt, acknowledging the verbal swipe; he had designed the new stealth system.
“If only the smallest area of the hull was damaged,” Kriss explained, “there will be noticeable changes in the flow of the energy shields. That would be enough for their missiles to track. It isn’t a design flaw.”
Keelatt shrugged and turned to Captain MacKay. “What do you want to do Boss?”
“Fire all the missiles we aren’t supposed to have. First salvo, to intercept their missiles, second salvo to target their propulsion system.”
Inside the hull of the Challenger, warheads glowed on eight missiles. Eight hatches opened along the body of the cargo ship. Flush with the hull, they weren’t normally visible. The missiles launched.
The first two missiles launched by the Challenger destroyed the Karzonian long-range missiles. The remaining six missiles continued toward the Karzonian vessel. Decoys lead two missiles safely out of range and lasers destroyed three, but the final missile from the Challenger found its target and slammed into the plasma drive.
The massive explosion completely destroyed the propulsion system, and systems failed throughout the vessel, leaving no energy fields to seal hull breaches. Only a few crewmembers made it alive to escape pods, the rest were sucked into the void.
The Karzonian patrol vessel sent back to assist the blinded crew of the first patrol vessel, had almost reached its first destination. A crewmember reported the explosion. “That was our vessel.”
The commander jumped up from his command chair, screaming “They will die! Maximum velocity! Now!”
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When Coulter, Qeeope and Conzel were finally allowed to leave the shuttle, there was no time to celebrate the fact they were still alive. Qeeope was ordered to the bridge, Conzel and
Coulter went directly to the propulsion section. Rilo and another crewmember had been monitoring the system, but left as soon as Conzel arrived. This was his domain.
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On the remaining Karzonian patrol vessel, a worried crew member glanced over at the commander. “Our engines haven’t been tested at this power level, for any extended period of time. Are you sure you want to continue maintaining maximum velocity?”
“Yes, I am,” the Commander replied.
The Commander stood up from his command chair, and moved behind the crewmember. He spoke softly. “There are times for words, and there are times for action. This is a time for action.” Grasping the sides of the crewmember’s head, he quickly twisted, breaking the crewmember’s neck. The commander pushed the lifeless body aside, and sat down at the console. He looked around the bridge, making eye-contact with each crewmember. No one else was questioning his commands.
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Conzel watched Coulter staring at the propulsion system control panel. “Think about it Coulter, right now you could be working on a cruise ship, travelling at a safe speed. There would be no danger of the system overloading. Instead, you’re on a cargo ship with all the fail safes disabled, and it could explode at any second. The Captain is pushing her ship to its limit, and Karzonian commander is doing exactly the same thing. All we can do now, is wait.”
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The lights flickered on the bridge of the Karzonian patrol vessel. The Commander had been praying to every deity he could think of, and now he was cursing them. An alarm sounded, warning that the propulsion system was overheating, and about to shut itself down. If he let that happen, he would be remembered as the fool who let the off-worlders escape. He typed in the override code.
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Conzel walked to the cafeteria, complaining about how long it had been since he’d had a decent cup of coffee.
Coulter followed Conzel and sat across a table from him. “How long do we have, before we explode? Is this really a good time to have a coffee?”
“Staring at the numbers won’t make any difference,” Conzel replied, and it’s always a good time to have a coffee. Never heard of the stuff until I started working with humans, now I can’t live without it.”
Conzel paused for a moment, considering the situation. “Sooner or later, everyone dies. If the ship explodes, at least we won’t feel any pain.”
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The commander on the Karzonian vessel watched the control panel as the propulsion system’s temperature continued to spike. He glanced at the weapons officer. “Are we in range?”
“No,” replied the weapons officer, “but we are very close.”
“We have our prey by the throat,” the Commander said to everyone on the bridge. “Stay calm. Our Engineers have designed an excellent vessel.”
The Karzonian Commander had every reason to be optimistic they would capture the off-worlders. The propulsion system had surpassed all expectations. All he had to do was ignore the alarms, just a little longer....
If the energy released by the explosion had escaped into space, perhaps some of the crew would have survived. The force field that protected the hull from space debris, however, remained intact for an instant, momentarily trapping the intense heat. The new heroes of the Karzonian state were cremated.
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Keelatt turned to the Captain. “The Karzonian patrol vessel is no longer in pursuit.”
“Did their engines shut down?” The Captain asked.
“Yes,” Keelatt replied, “but it wasn’t a planned shut down.”
The Captain shrugged. “There are worse ways to die.”
Captain MacKay learned forward, speaking to Kriss. “You’re constantly running the numbers. How close were we to exploding?”
Kriss looked back at his commander. “I can give you an estimate.”
“On second thought, don’t bother,” replied the Captain, “facts always ruin a good story.”
Captain Mackay opened a channel. “Hey Conzel!”
“At your service Captain. Any news about the Karzonians?”
“There’s good news and bad news.”
“I’m all ears boss.”
“The good news is, the Karzonians are all retired from active service. The bad news is, they don’t get to collect their pensions.”
“What’s next?”
“Have you ever been to Jamaica, the most beautiful island in the universe?”
“I’ve heard the coffee is good there.”
“Everything is good there.”
“Set a course for Earth, Keelatt” the Captain ordered. “It’s been a long time since I was home.”
Keelatt glanced at his commander. “Should we reduce our velocity to a safer speed?”
The Captain laughed. “Yeah, that would probably be a good idea.”
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Conzel watched as Coulter backed into a wall and slowly slide down to the floor. He contacted the bridge. “Captain.”
“What is it?”
“Do you need to debrief Coulter right now? He desperately needs sleep....after he takes a shower.”
“No problem, let him sleep. I don’t know what Hell is like, but the Karzonian prison has to be a close second.”