Alcantaran 1: Alien Abduction (21 page)

The group headed into Auntie and went to the galley.
 
Kota
took his items to the crew quarters.
 
He saw that he was going to have to sleep on the floor.
 
None of the bunks were long enough for him to sleep comfortably.
 
He wondered if Gus would have to do the same thing.
 
When he arrived back at the galley, he commented on the short bunks.
 
Ron said that he would fix that first thing tomorrow.

The group fixed a meal and sat down to catch up on all that had happened.
 
Kota
told his story about being close to the sealed area.
 
He said the decontamination teams were working around the clock to eradicate the virus.
 
He thought it would take another month to get the hangar completely cleared.
 
He told about his idea of using the shield to screen for the viruses and how he guessed that the trio would know that something was up.
 
The real surprise came as he told the real reason for bringing the crippled freighter to the repair hangar.

Kota
explained, "The freighter has a big load of fuel.
 
Here is your chance to get what you need for the escape.
 
Also there is water, food and air.
 
If we can work this right, we will bring cargo in here and overwhelm the robots.
 
They will be very cautious about moving the cargo into the storerooms until everything is double and triple checked.
 
Once the cargo is piled up, it will be a simple matter of getting what supplies you need for Auntie.
 
Maybe you can get some of the computers and comm gear you need also."

"Are you going to be able to fly all of that in a short space of time?" Ron asked.

Kota
replied with a sly grin, "I can with the help I'll have from the other pilots.
 
Poor Gus will be on the freighter loading things and will have his work cut out for him."

Tik's head whipped up to attention as she asked, "What other pilots are going to be helping you?"

"I'm looking at them,"
Kota
grinned.

"Wait a minute!
 
I'm a computer tech, not a pilot.
 
I have never claimed to be one nor do I really desire to learn," Tik complained.

"Do you want off this mother ship with a chance to return home?"
Kota
cut off the protest in mid-sentence.
 
"You're going to have to do whatever is necessary to get out of here.
 
You have the perfect opportunity right now, so don't blow it!"

Tik still hesitated as she said, "I don't know if I can do it.
 
I want off this ship so bad I can taste it but you're sitting in that seat hanging right out there with nothing to protect you.
 
Besides, I don't think I will fit in the seat."

Kota
laughed and said, "This is coming from the one that has wandered the passageways gathering items.
 
You're ready to take on the whole ship-load of Bugs but you want solid deck under your feet.
 
After we finish this meal, I'll take you down and show you how to adjust the seat to fit.
 
Then I'll explain how the controls work.
 
You two will be flying like pros in just a few days.
 
Besides, it will be good practice to help get the feel for flying Auntie.
 
I would suggest that everyone, including Gus, learn how to fly Auntie.
 
You never know when someone will be sick or incapacitated."

As they ate, they told
Kota
all that they had accomplished while he was gone.
 
Suddenly it hit Ron that he would now have time and opportunity to repair the damaged systems.
 
There might even be parts on the crippled freighter for the repairs.
 
The excitement was starting to build in everybody.
 
They were now ready to do whatever it took to get Auntie ready to blast off.

Kota
took them down to the fliters after they ate and showed Tik and Ron how to adjust the seats to fit them.
 
Then he showed them how to get into the machine.
 
There was a control arm, which looked like the yoke on an airplane, which swung out of the way to let you sit down in the seat.
 
Once you were in and belted in, the arm swung back and became the 'steering wheel' to fly the fliter.
 
Kota
showed them that pulling the control backward made the fliter rise up.
 
Pushing it forward made it drop.
 
Turning the wheel left or right turned the fliter in a corresponding direction.
 
There was a grip on each side of the yoke and when you twisted the left side it made the fliter fly in reverse.
 
When you twisted the right, the fliter went forward.
 
Using those controls also acted as the brake when you were moving.
 
Kota
explained that outside the mother ship, there was nothing to slow you down once you were started.

Tik was muttering to herself so
Kota
had her get into her fliter first while he climbed on the load platform to direct her.
 
He had her practice going straight up and straight down until she was comfortable with that.
 
Then he had her ease forward and come to a stop.
 
He had her practice backing and stopping, and then he had her set the fliter down while he set up an obstacle course for her to fly around.
 
After a few minutes of this,
Kota
ran Ron through the same procedure.
 
They both were really stiff and jerky at first but after 30 minutes of practice, they were becoming smoother.
 
By this time it was bed time so they all trooped back to the crew quarters to sleep.

They were all so excited that they were up before the bell went off in the mother ship.
 
They grabbed a bite to eat and hurried to start the day.
 
Ron went to his work station and quickly made beds that would fit
Kota
and Gus.
 
He carried them into the crew quarters and set them up in both Gus' and
Kota
's quarters.
 
They would have to find something later to extend the mattress.
 
In the meantime, Gus got his first lesson and Tik continued to practice.

The decontamination team came back to the hangar and the robots started slowly pushing the cargo into the entrance door to be screened.
 
Like
Kota
said, the Bugs double and triple checked everything for the virus.
 
Evidently the shields were working because they started moving cargo to the storerooms.

Ron,
Kota
, Gus and Tik suited up.
 
They were ready to try the fliters out in space and start moving cargo.
 
They set their suits to the same radio frequency and
Kota
flew out first to take Gus to the freighter.
 
As soon as he had dropped Gus off, he flew back to coach Tik.
 
Tik came out into outer space barely making any head way.
 
She had such a death grip on the steering yoke that she was having trouble flying.
 
Kota
had her fly around just to give her some confidence and to get her to relax.
 
After about 10 minutes, she started to relax and was moving a little better.
 
Kota
guided Tik to the freighter and told her to take a small load until she started feeling more confident.
 
Then
Kota
turned to Ron.
 
He had him repeat the same procedure as Tik.
 
Ron seemed more relaxed than Tik and was soon flying fairly smoothly.
 
Tik came out of the freighter with her load and
Kota
sent Ron for his load.
 
He cautioned him to take a small load for the first three times until he got the feel of the fliter with weight.
 
Kota
then coached Tik into the mother ship with her load of cargo.

Kota
watched Tik ease slowly into the mother ship.
 
She approached the spot where she wanted to set the fliter down.
 
She gave it too much down and dropped like a rock.
 
She quickly jumped back up twice as high as she had come in.
 
Kota
could see she was shaking but she gently set the fliter down this time.
 
The robots quickly came and unloaded the cargo.
 
Tik flew the fliter out of the mother ship and headed for the freighter.
 
She had just moved out of the way when Ron came ripping back.
 
He was trying to show off a little for Tik and almost got himself into trouble.
 
He came into the mother ship too fast and had to apply hard reverse to get stopped.
 
He almost dumped his load of cargo.
 
After he got stopped, he slowly lowered the fliter to the deck for the robots to unload.
 
As soon as they were clear, he headed back to the freighter.
 
Kota
decided he couldn't do much more coaching as they were making the usual newbie's mistakes but would soon have the hang of flying the fliter.
 
He flew out to the freighter to start hauling his share of the loads.

On
Kota
's return to the mother ship, there was a Bug in a space suit waiting for him.
 
He was going out to the freighter to mark which parts of the cargo were the priority.
 
Kota
flew him out there and Gus recognized his old boss,
Sabah
.
 
Ron had jumped off his fliter to help Gus get some of the cargo moved around and ready to load.
 
As
Sabah
led the two through the cargo bay; pointing out the different priority cargo, Ron would mark it with a marker he had.
 
As soon as he was through, Sabah had
Kota
fly him back to the mother ship.
 
Tik and Ron continued to make trips and each trip was with a larger load until they were at capacity.
 
Both of the new pilots were getting smoother with each trip and feeling more confident.
 
On the last trip for the day, Gus rode back with
Kota
.
 
The new pilots were too nervous to start hauling live cargo this soon.

When the cargo was unloaded from the fliters, the group got out of their space suits and went to the galley in Auntie to eat.
 
As they were entering the space ship, they saw the robots shutting down and the decontamination team leaving the hangar.
 
Wurden had already left with his group.
 
After they had finished eating, Ron and
Kota
climbed up on the outside of Auntie and pulled off a couple of panels to see what they needed to repair on one of the broken systems.
 
They made their list and just laid the panels back in place.
 
While they were doing that, Gus and Tik went to scrounge mattress material for Gus and
Kota
.
 
They found a substitute and took it back to the crew quarters.
 
There was not much talk tonight because everyone was dead tired.
 
The strain from the new job hit them all suddenly.
 
They went to bed and didn't wake until they heard the bell.
 
The next day was pretty much a repeat of the previous day except they started putting pressure on the decontamination crew to keep up.
 
By the end of the third day, there was still a small pile of cargo left on their side of the shield.
 
Ron and Tik were much more comfortable now and
Kota
instructed them to try some fancier maneuvers as they were flying out to the freighter.
 
He gave them a routine to try each time.
 
They learned to do barrel rolls and loops.
 
Each step they learned gave them a renewed boost of confidence.
 
Ron traded off with Gus to give him a chance to learn about flying the fliters.
 
He took to it as quickly as the other two.

After a week, they were so far ahead of the decontamination team that Ron had time to start exploring the freighter.
 
One evening he was the one loading cargo.
 
At quitting time he was still on the freighter.
 
He had a pile of parts he needed to repair Auntie and
Kota
flew back to get him.
 
Kota
signaled that the decontamination team had already left so it was safe to bring the parts into the hangar.
 
Tik was on the computer making sure none of the Bugs would see anything in the spy devices.
 
Tik had figured out how to drop the big rear door on Auntie and had it down when
Kota
flew into the mother ship.
 
He flew directly into Auntie and Gus quickly unloaded the parts.
 
Kota
then flew out to the hangar deck and shut the fliter down.
 
He and Ron climbed out of their suits and headed to the galley to eat.
 
That evening Ron and
Kota
started repairs.
 
Tik and Gus started testing systems as soon as they had them repaired.