Junkyard raiders, p.16
Junkyard Raiders, page 16
part #5 of Junkyard Pirate Series
“Leavitt?” AJ asked.
Oddly, this earned him Lisa’s ire. “Are you serious? First female fighter pilot? General Jeanne Leavitt?”
“Oh, that Leavitt,” AJ said.
“Right.” Lisa rolled her eyes sarcastically.
“What? I’m Army.”
“How are we getting in?” Jayne asked, not getting caught up in the conversation. “Are we sure it hasn’t deteriorated from all the saltwater?”
“Darnell, Seamus needs you to get closer so he can attempt to wake the ship,” Beverly cut in.
“Don’t hit too hard. We’re an overstuffed water balloon at this point,” AJ said.
“I’ll keep that in mind,” Darnell said.
Suddenly, lights blinked on all over the large craft. “We’ve got control,” AJ said, his hands flying over a virtual keyboard as he started reading through system logs of the new vessel. “Damn, she’s in good shape too. Remind me to compliment Sharg on her ancestor’s engineering skills next time we see her.”
“How are we going to board it?” Jayne asked, clearly uninterested in staying aboard the small runabout any longer than necessary.
“We’ll do a slow diver’s ascent and keep her next to us while we do,” AJ said. “Hopefully, we can get to a safe pressure before we attract any Lago attention.”
Painstakingly slow, the two vessels ascended from the depths of the briny sea. Unfortunately, by the time they’d made it to twenty feet, the water inside the runabout was over the seats.
“To be safe, we’ll hold here for twenty minutes,” Jayne said, having taken over monitoring their blood gasses.
“I hope we haven’t ruined the food,” Lisa said. “I’m afraid to open those crates.”
“I do not like underwater spaceships,” Purba said very seriously. She hadn’t talked much for most of their trip and the statement caught the group off guard. They tried not to react, but after several surreptitious looks, they burst out laughing. Purba looked embarrassed, so much so that Lisa finally came to her defense.
“Dear Purba, we’re not laughing at you. We’re laughing at the situation,” Lisa said. “Not one of us likes the idea of underwater spaceships.”
Finally, the time came for them to ascend the final twenty feet and they were soon bobbing lightly atop the rolling waves of the Dagrosh sea.
“Jayne and I will go over first and make sure it’s clear,” AJ said, strapping on a rocket belt. “I don’t expect trouble, but we’ve had our share of surprises. We’ll leave Darnell aboard to keep the runabout above water. I figure you’ll have to lift us both up about ten feet, so we don’t completely swamp that ship when we open the hatch.”
“We’re heavy with all the water we took on, but I think the runabout will handle it. Maybe I can tip some water out the door as we go up,” Darnell said.
“No, you don’t,” Lisa said. “We’ve had enough excitement. If you want to mess with things once I’m off, that’s fine.”
“Okay, Seamus, go ahead and open the hatch on … what are we calling her, anyway?” AJ asked.
“Seahag,” Lisa said with certainty.
Darnell and AJ exchanged a look. “Seahag it is,” Darnell said, grinning. “I think you might have a knack for names.”
“That’s a horrible name,” Jayne said.
“Bad luck to change names,” AJ said, opening the runabout’s door and allowing several hundred gallons of water to pour out, taking with it anything on the floor that wasn’t secured. Before anyone could discover the issue and give him a hard time, he bolted from the hatch and sailed out over the water into the fresh sea air, a welcome change from the sour air of their submarine. Turning, he took Greybeard from Jayne’s outstretched arms and approached Seahag’s partially open aft hatch.
Unlike the runabout, Seahag’s decks were free of water. Even though fresh air moved through the crowded cargo bay, the space still smelled stagnant.
“Oh, baby,” he said, taking in the shelves filled with ordnance.
“What is it?” Darnell asked.
Jayne landed lightly next to him. “Looks like an ammo depot,” she said, as AJ was too busy inspecting the various armaments to answer.
“This baby has some good, old fashion slug throwing ammo,” AJ said. “Looks like that 30mm stuff from the Apaches, but it’s real lightweight. I hope they’re not duds. Okay, we’re heading forward.”
He made his way past the shelves and opened another hatch. The inside of the vessel was taller than would be required for humans, which made sense, given that female Vred could be as tall as seven and a half feet when fully grown.
“Looks like she’s a one-deck design,” he continued. “Must have hella-thick armor because she’s not that big inside. Room for maybe six, but not real comfortable. We’re clear, Big-D. Let me switch places with you so you can get Seahag out of the soup.”
“Copy that,” Darnell agreed.
They passed each other in the air and even though they hadn’t talked about it, Lisa had Purba wrapped around her. She struggled to move the Fimil girl across, so AJ helped them reach Seahag’s hatch before returning to the runabout.
“We should probably move the supplies,” AJ said, looking back at the poor condition of the runabout. It would take time and effort to repair it. Time he wasn’t sure the Lago would give them.
“Seamus has the passive sensors fired up,” Darnell said. “Those Lago aren’t showing up. It’s kind of weird how they just disappear like that.”
AJ grabbed a crate and hauled it to Seahag, which was now completely out of the water, level and oriented directly across from the runabout’s doors, making the transfer less difficult.
“I’m not complaining,” he said, heading back for another load. “They could disappear forever and I’d be plenty happy.”
“What are the chances of that?” Lisa asked although the tone in her voice suggested she already knew the answer.
“What do you say? Do we check that next coordinate, or do we try to get the runabout back to our cave on Gauder mountain?” Darnell asked. “We’ve got a full load of fuel, although I have no idea how hard this old girl burns.”
“I hate leaving Farno by himself for too long,” Jayne said. “He wasn’t in a good mindset.”
“I say we try one more location,” AJ said. “Seahag is kind of tight quarters. Once we get to shore, I’ll find a way to drain the rest of the water out of the runabout. We can leave it there for later pickup. I’d hate to waste a good machine.”
“You and your junk,” Lisa said. “That thing is ruined.”
“Not even close.”
FIFTEEN
SPLASHDOWN
The bridge of Seahag resembled that of a mid-sized fishing boat. Adjustable seat posts sat in front of a wide array of controls, allowing two people comfortable viewing angles forward through the narrow, transparent strips of armored glass. Both positions equally controlled piloting chores as well as weaponry, although the array of weapons options were enough that it would require focus if fine control was expected.
“What ordnance loadout should we go with?” Darnell asked after picking up AJ from the shore.
“Depends on if we’re going after the ships or the actual Lagos themselves,” AJ said. “I’d go with something hefty if we’re going to make a run at those ships. I guess we test using what we have the most.”
Darnell set the Seahag on a course to intercept the second of three coordinates provided by the Tok commander and flipped through various options on the vessel. “Dang, this thing can shoot just about anything. We’ve got thermite grenades, a 300mm machine gun with three different ordnance choices and white phosphor smoke bombs. Any suggestions?”
“Let me look,” AJ said, pulling up the second station. “Take us to that other ship.”
“We don’t know it’s a ship,” Lisa said.
“Fine,” AJ agreed, poking through the menus. A prompt illuminated on a screen before him, suggesting that he needed to equip the optional targeting helmet. Tapping acceptance, a panel popped out from the forward bulkhead, exposing a transparent visor attached to a headband. Trailing down from the headband were small, round probes.
“I need a moment to calibrate that device,” Beverly said, appearing in front of him in her work coveralls and polka-dotted Rosie the Riveter garb. “Okay, you should be good to go. I’ll work on learning the interface so you won’t need the device after a while.”
AJ placed probes against his temple and over his brow. At first, they felt like they might fall off, but then they adhered after extruding a sticky substance. On the visor, a HUD appeared, showing the same menu that was on the console. The interface preferred to show the menu on the real screen on the bulkhead, but when he turned away, the screen tracked with his head’s movement. Even more impressive was that when he wasn’t focused on the screen, it lost most of its opacity and became nearly transparent.
“That’s neat,” he said, flipping through the menus with thumb and forefinger. It didn’t take long to switch the loadout, filling the mini-missile tubes with armor-penetrating explosive rounds. He also switched the machine gun so it had a mix of super-hardened armor-piercing rounds and their opposite, softened kinetic loads that would expand on contact. “Slow down a minute. I’m going to toss out a target and see how this works.”
“Want me maneuvering or not?” Darnell asked.
“Either way,” AJ said. “I’ll let you know what’s going on.”
Darnell slowed Seahag, giving AJ time to locate and eject a target. A small box was flung forward, expanding many times its original size and fluttered as it arced toward the sea. AJ tracked the target and discovered his chair turned as his focus neared the edge of the HUD’s field of view. Squeezing the trigger, Seahag bucked slightly under the expulsion of twenty rounds in only a few short seconds. Purba yelped at the shift in Seahag’s attitude as well as the staccato rumbling of the weapon beneath their feet.
“Oh, boy,” AJ said, tearing a line of destruction through the target, shredding it. “We’ll need to slow that fire rate or we won’t have much ammo left.”
“Seems like you got it,” Darnell said. “That work okay for you?”
“Very smooth,” AJ said. “Lisa, Jayne, you want to give it a try? It’s intuitive enough.”
“Maybe not yet,” Jayne said, but Lisa moved forward, her eyes gleaming with interest.
“Anything I need to know?” Lisa asked.
“Not for aim,” AJ said, transferring the targeting helmet. “It might be worth talking about different load-outs, but you tend to pick this up quickly enough. Also, I’d hold back on tossing any of the mini-missiles. They’re probably harder to replace.”
Lisa sat in the chair and looked up at him. “Do you think I pick this up fast?”
“Don’t make me regret sayin’ that,” he replied. “That visor only gets so big.”
She grinned as she familiarized herself with the controls. After a couple of minutes, she asked, “How’d you get that target out? I can’t find it in the menus.”
“It was in a utility submenu.” AJ was looking at Lisa’s screen on the bulkhead as her focus shifted between the different options. As soon as she asked the question, however, an item highlighted and she didn’t need any further prompting.
“You might want to stand back,” Lisa said. “Okay, baby, slow her down a bit. I’m tossing out a pumpkin.”
AJ looked at Jayne and mouthed pumpkin questioningly. Jayne smiled and shrugged, but when a round, orange target appeared, they both laughed. It took Lisa a few moments to orient on the target, most of her time taken as she struggled against the shifting chair. She paused for an uncomfortable few beats when she was on target. Finally, she loosed a five-second burst of automated fire, tearing the target to pieces just as AJ had.
“Oh man,” she said. “That’s amazing!”
“Feel good?” AJ asked.
“That’s an understatement,” she answered, pulling the visor from her head. “I mean, I’m a little nauseous from the spinning, but boom! That sucker packs a punch.”
“Against a cardboard target,” he said. “Hopefully, it’ll have the same impact against the Lago.”
“You might be out of a job, big boy,” she said, waggling her eyebrows at AJ. “Momma likes. Think you can handle that?”
“Getting you comfortable in the gunner’s seat is a big win, Lisa,” AJ said. “We have no idea what we might run into.”
“Makes me wonder what other toys Commander Cer might have left behind,” Jayne said. “Are there just a bunch of ships like this or maybe other fun toys?”
“Hopefully, Cer has some idea what we’re getting into,” Darnell said.
“Seems likely,” Jayne said. “Why else would she leave something so advanced as Seahag on a backwater planet?”
“Makes you wonder where else she’s stuffed little trinkets,” AJ said.
“We're about to find out,” Darnell said. “We just arrived at the next set of coordinates. I’m headed in.”
He dropped elevation and for a moment, Seahag rocked as salty waves slapped its bottom side. However, unlike the runabout, it slipped beneath the water, switching from atmospheric flight to submersible without complaint. The sea was deeper at the new coordinates, and the depth meter spun until they were in pitch black. The only illumination available was ship lighting.
“I see something,” Lisa said, excitedly pointing at a boxy shape on the seafloor.
“That’s not a ship,” Darnell said. “AJ, see if you can find something to grab it with.”
AJ equipped the targeting visor and drilled into a menu that was already highlighted. Seahag was equipped with an extendable grapple that, once deployed, was suspiciously well proportioned to fit around the large, rectangular crate on the seafloor.
“Hold still a minute,” he said calmly, extending the narrow arm that articulated from beneath the ship and held cables connected to the grapple. The system gave him a few yards of play and with the fine-tuned control of the targeting system, he homed in on the prize. “Forward ten yards.”
“How’s that?” Darnell asked, slowly skimming forward. “Do you need me lower?”
“Nope,” AJ said. “Almost there, almost there … got it! Take us up nice and slow. The strain gauge on the cable reads about six hundred pounds. Probably double that if we try to take it airborne.”
“What’s the alternative?” Lisa asked.
“We’re four miles from shore,” Darnell said. “I could take us in that direction and lift it once we’re in shallower water.”
“That’s a good idea. No sense dropping her in six hundred feet of water,” she agreed.
“What do you think it is?” Purba asked. “Why would Tok help us?”
AJ considered the small Fimil. She’d been through an awful lot for someone so young. “I think that’s a good question, Purba. I wish we knew.”
“It was mean of them to wreck your vessel on Fimil Alpha,” she said. “Danger is everywhere. I once thought my home was safe. I don’t believe this anymore.”
“That’s not necessarily true,” Jayne said. Concern for the teenage alien was evident in the doctor’s words and posture.
“I think the Tok knew that you needed help,” AJ said. “That’s why they sent us. You might hear me say that I’m mad that they sent us here. I am, but that’s not everything. We’re all kind of used to fighting aliens. If those Lago are invading Fimil Alpha and we can do something about it, we’ll do what we can.”
“It feels wrong to me,” Purba said.
“That’s life, kid,” AJ said. “Sometimes, the best thing to do is the least bad thing. Maybe that’s what Commander Cer was thinking. Putting us here was the least bad thing she could do.”
“That does not sound wise to me,” Purba said. “If Tok believes there is a problem, they should be brave enough to fix it. To endanger others is an act of cowardice.”
“You know what, Purba?” Darnell said. “You’re pretty wise for being such a little thing.”
“I did not invent this. Every child in my village knows that to make your problem someone else’s is wrong. Surely this is not a lesson lost to the powerful Tok.”
“You’d be surprised what other people believe,” Lisa said.
“Knowing wrong and ignoring it is not a belief.”
“I don’t think you’re going to win this one,” Darnell said to Lisa. “Are we ready to lift out and see if we can make it to shore?”
“I’d clear those waves entirely,” AJ said. “Don’t sit too close to the water.”
“Copy that.”
Water sheeted from atop Seahag’s well-rounded fuselage as they slowly lifted into the air. Free from its watery prison, their rectangular payload started spinning from the twist in the cable.
“Bubba, you better make tracks,” AJ said. “I don’t know if we’re gonna make it.”
Seahag tilted slightly forward and accelerated. “One mile,” Darnell called out.
“It’s slipping,” AJ warned. “Oh, crap.”
“What?”
“It slid to one side. It’s going to hit …”
Seahag shuddered as the crate slammed into a particularly high wave. Unable to stop soon enough, Darnell did the next best thing and dipped lower, hoping to drag the crate back into the shallow water. At that moment, however, the grapple lost its grip and the big crate tumbled end over end just once and sank beneath the surface.
“Did the box break?” he asked.
“I didn’t see,” AJ said. “Take us down. BB, how deep is this water?”
“Twelve feet,” Beverly answered.
“Crap, I see flotsam,” AJ said. “Lisa, take the controls, would you?”
“Uh, sure,” Lisa said, momentarily concerned about the new operation. She then seemed to accept the request and took over the second seat along with the targeting visor.
“What are you doing?” Darnell asked as AJ raced aft.
“Get lower,” AJ said, opening the aft hatch. “But stay out of the drink.”
“You don’t even know the temperature of that water,” Darnell called.
