Aces (23 page)

“Shuttle,
Tigershark
.
We
’
re sending a lander down to the surface first, with an
emergency oxygen supply for the miners. Hold your position, we are computing a
rendezvous.”

“
Tigershark
,
shuttle. Acknowle-“ Schroeder started to say.

“No!” Manny
interrupted. “They need to help Jen first!”

“Ach!” Schroeder
winced. The boy was right. Vassily
’
s condition was stable,
Jen
’
s was unknown. “
Tigershark
, I have a wounded
crewman, in the ship
’
s sickbay. She needs medical
attention immediately. We
’
ll be fine here, for a short time.”

“Roger that,
shuttle,” Gante replied. “We will rendezvous with your ship while our shuttle
drops to the surface. The oxygen situation at the mining camp is critical.”

“Can you bring
our Dad up?” Kaylee shouted, to be sure she was heard.

“Your three crewmen,
and the pirate, on the surface, yes, our lander can bring them back up, when it
returns.” Gante
’
s voice had a touch of amusement.

“Kaylee?” Manny
prodded.

“Uh-huh?”

“We need to warn
Tigershark
about the tinos.”

“Oh, shoot. Um,
yeah. Hey,
Tigershark,
uh
,
listen, there's a, um, kind of a funny
thing to tell you about the ship- ”

Rick watched the
frigate
’
s lander approach, it was hovering around a
hundred meters altitude, and flying sideways. The lander was not a sleek craft
like most shuttles were, it was military, designed for combat. Doors in the
nose contained cannons, and along each side were spars for missiles, those
racks were empty now. The pilot turned the lander in a full circle, clearing
his landing zone, then dropped it onto the pad.

Rick, Sam and
Nelson were staring out the window of the mining camp
’
s
mess hall, where everyone had gathered. The lander was bringing a temporary
oxygen supply, but only one unit. Enough to supply oxygen to one room, until
other ships arrived with a replacement recycler system.

“Hey, Mac, your
ride
’
s here.” Nelson taunted the pirate. “Jailbird
express. One way trip to Hell, for you.”

Mac didn
’
t reply. Sam had gotten tired of listening to the pirate
mouthing off, so Sam had disconnected his suit radio
’
s microphone.
Mac was sitting on the floor, arms and legs tied, avoiding the homicidal looks
of the miners.

“Perfect timing.”
Rick remarked. He glanced down at his suit
’
s oxygen meter.
Twenty seven minutes remaining. And he had more than some others.

The frigate
docked with the freighter, and remained there for almost an
hour.
Gante next
flew her ship over to
Nightengale
,
took Valjean under arrest, then scooted off to pick up
Nightengale
’
s ove
rloaded shuttle.
Tigershark
’
s lander came up from the surface soon after, and docked with
its mothership.

“Jen is going to
be fine,” Capain Gante announced, as she came into
Tigershark
’
s wardroom,
“and
we
’
ll take her to Aurora for treatment. Our doctor says she has a
concussion, and she lost a lot of blood. Vassily
’
s condition
is more serious, our doctor has put him into a temporary coma, to avoid brain
damage. But his prognosis is excellent.”

“
Can
we talk to Jen?
” Kaylee asked anxiously, twisting a strand of hair with
her fingers.

“No,” Gante said
gently, “not right now. In a few hours, perhaps. I'm sure she would like to see
you.”

“And that pirate,
Haney?” Captain Schroeder inquired.

“Taney. The one
who was shot by their leader. He
’
ll be fine, he had
strapped himself to the top of an access ladder, there were two tinos below
him, and they'd broken off several ladder rungs trying to get to him.
Surprisingly strong creatures, these tinos. I
’
ll have
Taney out of sickbay and locked up in our brig, soon. The others, Dooley, he
’
s the one Kaylee, uh,” Gante nodded in the girl
’
s
direction with a slight smile, “disabled, we found him trapped in a shipping
crate.” Gante couldn
’
t suppress a snicker of laughter.
“And their pilot, his name is Becker, the Navy has been looking for him for a
while. Manny, you injected him with enough sedative to knock out one of those
tinos.” She shook her head. “Our doctor administered an antidote, Becker is
awake, and feeling very foolish. And very angry. I
’
ll have
to keep their leader and the other pirates separated, because the other pirates
all want to kill him. He shot Taney, and was going to abandon or kill all four
of them. There is apparently no honor among thieves.”

“And the tinos?”
Manny asked hopefully. He didn't want to hear that the Navy crew had killed the
tinos.

Kaylee made a
sour face. She had mixed feelings about the tinos. She had named them, and they
were, after all, only animals. Her brother thought Tinos were cool. Her brother
had not been chased down a dark corridor by the terrifying beasts.

Gante smiled.
“All the tinos are back in hypersleep containers. We flooded the ship with
anesthetic gas after we got Jen out of sickbay. Three of the tinos were
injured, from gunfire, and apparently from fighting with each other. It
’
s nothing serious, they are very tough animals. Would you like
to meet the pirate leader, I think you know him as ‘
Ted Miller
’
? XO, bring him in.”

Tigershark
’
s Executive Officer escorted a very subdued looking
pirate. Joy took a step forward, and raised her hand as if to slap him across
the face, then dropped her hand, and went back to stand between her children.

“This is Valjean
D
’
Amonte. Among many other names he goes by.” Gante
explained. “A career criminal, he
’
s been on the Most
Wanted list for a decade.”

Valjean lifted
his head in a perverse pride at hearing Gante
’
s description
of him. A criminal, a man to be feared. He met Rick
’
s
eyes, glaring at him. “I
’
ll bet you
’
d
like to kill me now, Mr. Sanchez? You
’
re too late, Captain
Gante has to follow the law.”

To his own
surprise, Rick shook his head. “
No, I don’
t want to kill
you. You
’
re too pathetic to bother with. You came here
with a ship full of missiles and guns and killers, and your master criminal
plan was beaten by two children.” Rick
’
s face broke into a
broad smile of parental pride. He stepped behind his wife, and put his arms
around his family. “Two
children
!” He laughed, and
everyone joined in, everyone except Valjean. “Every criminal in the Milky Way
galaxy will be laughing at you for the rest of your life. Good luck in prison,
loser.”

Valjean
’
s face twisted in anger, his gaze dropping to the deck. He knew
Rick was telling the truth. The only way to retain any scrap of his dignity was
to remain silent while he fumed with anger, so that is what he did.

“Do you know who
he was working for?” Schroeder inquired.

Gante shook her
head. “No, not yet. And he
’
s not telling
what
he
was looking for.”

“Oh, we know
that.”
Manny spoke up.

“Yeah,” Kaylee
added, “it
’
s some old alien thingy.”

Manny took off
his pack, and astonished all the adults, including Valjean. “I have it right
here.” He reached in his pack, and pulled out the item Valjean had been looking
for. It hadn
’
t zapped anyone since Kaylee got shocked the
first time she touched it.

Rick shook his
head in amazement. "Kids, just when I thought you couldn't get any more incredible,
you surprise me again."

All the adults,
especially Valjean, craned their necks forward to see better. “Here, Dad,"
Manny handed the object to his father carefully, "you
’
ll
probably know what it is.”

Rick took the
item, and turned it over in his hands. He studied it, held it up to the light,
then pronounced “I have no idea what this is. From the markings, it
’
s Kutoru, Second Expansion, probably over a hundred thousand
years old, but I don
’
t know what it is.”

All eyes turned
to Valjean. He shrugged. “I was paid to get it. I wasn
’
t
told what it is.”

"Be careful
touching it, Dad," Kaylee said, "the first time I touched it, it
zapped me."

"Zapped
you?" Rick asked skeptically. Whatever the thing was, it was ancient, the
surface was tarnished with a layer of corrosion. "What do you mean,
zapped?"

"Like an
electric shock, but it was more, uh, I don't know. It was weird."

"Kaylee, was
it weird like, sort of hearing a voice in your head?" Captain Gante asked.

"Yes! How
did you know?"

Gante exchanged a
glance with her XO. There had been a Navy secret Special Bulletin a year ago,
about people getting shocked by alien artifacts, and hearing voices, with some
briefly seeming to sense an alien presence in their minds. Whatever was going
on, people in the Admiralty were worried about it. Gante held out her hand,
took the alien thing, and handed it to Ross. “XO, secure this in our weapons
locker. And take him away.” She indicated Valjean with distaste. The pirate was
led away, without protest. "Kaylee, our doctor will need to check you
later, to make sure you weren't injured by being zapped by this thing, as you
said."

“What now?” Joy
asked, directing her question to Gante.

“
Tigershark
will stay here, until other ships arrive. The Navy is sending a cruiser to take
charge here, it should arrive the day after tomorrow. Then, we
’
ll
transport Jen, Vassily, and the prisoners, to Aurora.”

Schroeder cleared
his throat, and spoke. “My ship, unfortunately, will not be leaving here for a
long time.” If ever. “The company is sending another freighter,
Atlas Champion
, to detach the cargo pods, and finish our
original journey.” Schroeder knew that what the company would likely do is
salvage the engine section, then scrap the rest of the ship. He needed to find
a new ship to command. He turned toward the children. “I understand that
Specialist Jennifer Tanner deputized the two of you as starship crew?”

Kaylee and Manny
nodded, their smiles turning to serious expressions as they remembered that
moment. “Yes, sir.” Kaylee replied.

“Ah.
Unfortunately, Ms. Tanner did not truly have authority to make you, as we say,
‘Aces.
’”

Kaylee and Manny
’
s faces took on such a crestfallen look that Schroeder hurried
to add “Howver, as Captain, I
do
have such authority.” He reached in his
pocket, and pulled out two ‘Ace of Diamonds
’
patches, and
fixed them to the right sleeves of sister and brother. “Now, you are officially
Aces.”

“
Cool!
”
Manny blurted out.

Schroeder
held up a finger for silence.
“I am not finished, please.” He
dipped into his other pocket, and pulled out two shiny, gold-plated objects.
“Manuel Sanchez, this pin designates you as Pilot First Class. You have
certainly earned your wings.” He attached the pin to the left front pocket of
Manny
’
s shirt. “Nelson tells me that, in his opinion, you
did a first class job of docking the shuttle to the command section. You do
realize that, at the time, we were technically in the atmosphere? No? Well, I
can assure you, that was excellent flying.”

He turned to
Kaylee, who let Schroeder pin to her collar a blue bar with two gold stars.
“Kaylee Sanchez, after Jen was disabled, you were in command of the ship. You
kept the ship, passengers and crew safe, in the best traditions of our
profession. These stars designate your rank as Commander.”

It was not clear
who was more bursting with pride, Kaylee or Manny, as Schroeder clicked his
heels together and saluted. They returned the salute, as solemnly as they
could, considering their ear to ear grins.

“Now, to answer
your question, Ms. Sanchez, my company is sending the company yacht, to take
you and your family back to Earth. The company, and all of us, are very
grateful to you, all of you.”

“A yacht? That
’
ll be fun, huh, kids?” Rick said with feigned enthusiasm.

Kaylee and Manny
looked at each other. “Aw, Dad, do we
have
to go back to Earth?” Manny
protested.