Ep.#9 - "Resistance" (11 page)

BOOK: Ep.#9 - "Resistance"
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Short, simultaneous squirts of accelerated propellant shot out of the topside docking thrusters located all around the perimeter of the ship, nudging her downward toward the moon below.

“Descending at one half meter per second,” Lieutenant Commander Kovacic reported.

The four ovals of light in the center window on the main view screen merged, crossed, then began separating out in opposite directions as the ship descended.

“Four meters,” Ensign Schenker reported. “Three meters.” His voice was becoming tenser with each announcement.

“Picking up speed,” the lieutenant commander stated. “Point seven meters per second.”

“Two meters! She’s got us!” Ensign Schenker declared.

Luis activated the second firing sequence.

Another set of short, docking thruster bursts shot out from all around the Celestia, this time toward Metis, slowing her descent and kicking up dust from the surface below as her shadow came up to merge with the vessel herself.

“Half meter,” Lieutenant Commander Kovacic said. “Quarter meter! Comms, all hands brace for impact!”

“One meter and falling!” Ensign Schenker announced.

There was nothing more that Luis could do. The weak gravity of Metis had hold of the Celestia and was pulling her down to the surface. If he fired another burst of docking thrusters, he risked pushing them away from the moon again and having to thrust back downward. Every thruster he fired created heat signatures that someone looking their way with the proper equipment might be able to see.

He grabbed the sides of his console and held on.

The Celestia slowly settled the last meter down to the surface of Metis. Her aft end made contact with the surface first, sending a wave of dust up around her curved underside. As soon as the aft end made contact, the bow of the ship came down and made contact as well, sending even more dust forward and to either side.

The bridge rocked as the ship made contact with the small moon, her empty hull moaning as the forces were transferred through her frame. The shaking seemed to last several seconds but was far milder than Luis had expected.

“We’re down!” Ensign Schenker reported.

“Hey, that wasn’t so bad,” Luis said, feeling somewhat proud.

“Nice work, Ensign,” Lieutenant Commander Kovacic said, reaching over and patting Luis on the shoulder. “But don’t get too cocky. The inertial dampeners were still running at forty percent.”

“Yes, sir.”

“Everyone all right?” the lieutenant commander asked as he rose from the navigator’s chair.

“Everyone aft reports they’re fine, sir,” Ensign Souza said.

“Get rid of those windows and give me the forward view,” the lieutenant commander ordered. A moment later, the main view screen showed only a cloud of dust swirling about the outside of the ship. “Jesus, Delaveaga. You weren’t kidding about kicking up some dust.” He turned to Ensign Schenker. “I don’t suppose that will go unnoticed.”

Ensign Schenker shrugged again. “If they’re looking, maybe not. I just don’t know, sir.”

“Well,” the lieutenant commander sighed, “not much we can do about it now. Schenker, go through all the external cameras and check the area out. Also, look at the hull whenever possible for signs of external damage, especially across our underside.”

“Aye, sir.”

“Luis, shut all the flight systems down, and power down the flight console. Your job is over.”

“Gladly, sir,” Luis answered.

“Souza, tell engineering to shut everything down including the backup fusion reactors. We’ll run on batteries for now. After that, tell them to go over everything. Look for any damage due to our landing. We’ll do the same on our deck.”

“We can’t run on batteries for more than a few days, sir,” Ensign Schenker warned.

“We can fire up one of the fusion reactors every few days while we’re on the far side to recharge them,” the lieutenant commander said. He turned back toward Ensign Souza. “Tell Tilly to figure out how often we’ll need to do a recharge cycle. We’re going to have to go dark and cold twenty-four seven here, people. We no longer have the luxury of keeping our hot side pointed away from our enemy, and we sure as hell can’t run the heat exchangers on a regular basis. I want us to be a cold patch of moon, so let’s get to work.”

* * *

By the time Loki and Major Waddell made it down to the river at the bottom of the narrow canyon, the morning sun was already high in the sky over Tanna. The canyon floor was lush, green, and heavily overgrown. The fact that there were already well-worn trails made the going easier, but it also kept the major on edge, always on the lookout for what he referred to as ‘locals’.

As they approached the falls, the forest became damp from the mist that traveled out in all directions. They were on the opposite side of the lake at the base of the falls, at least half a kilometer away, yet the roar of the falling water was nearly deafening.

Major Waddell stopped and stared at the massive waterfall on the far side of the lake. Even from this distance, it was awe-inspiring. It came pouring over the top of the mesa on the far ridge of the canyon, then fell at least seven hundred meters to the lake below. He turned and looked at Loki. “You flew through that?” he asked, pointing at the falls with a grin on his face. “Are you serious?” He laughed heartily. It was the first time Loki had ever seen the major smile, let alone laugh. “Why?”

“We didn’t have a choice,” Loki answered.

The major looked around, holding his arms up and out to indicate all the open space between the falls and the opposite side of the canyon.

“We came flying around that bend in the canyon back there,” Loki explained, pointing back to his right. “We were going so fast, we swung wide left. Josh barely had time to level off before we plowed into the side of the waterfall. If he hadn’t, we wouldn’t have made it through. We’d probably still be at the bottom of this lake.”

The major laughed again. “Your friend is either an amazing pilot or absolutely crazy.” He turned and continued down the trail.

“A little of both, unfortunately,” Loki mumbled.

“I’m surprised you made it through at all,” the major commented as they walked.

“We entered them pretty high up,” Loki said. “If we had hit them lower, the water would have had a lot more force behind it. At least, that’s what Lieutenant Yosef said.”

“But you were still flying when you came out the other side.”

“I don’t know that I’d call it flying,” Loki said. “More like falling forward, really. One turbine was out. The other two were sputtering… Too much moisture got into them.”

“No surprise there.”

“It really was some amazing flying Josh did that day. Quick thinking, too, shooting off those drones and stuff to make it look like we crashed. Bought us the time we needed. Of course, at the time, I just thought he was crazy.” Loki plodded along behind the major. He had never spent any time in such a place. His homeworld was a relatively barren world that had been reformed and heavily landscaped to suit the needs of his people. Other than its oceans and a few of its yet undeveloped equatorial wastelands, there was very little that was natural about his homeworld. “How much farther do you think we have to go?”

“According to the logs from your flight, the cave should be on the far side of the falls, about four hundred meters up the canyon. The bridge we went over a ways back was the big river. There are three more small ones that we’ll have to cross yet.”

Loki stopped in his tracks. “Uh, I don’t know how to swim.”

Major Waddell also stopped, turning back to look at Loki. “Seriously?”

“Seriously.”

The major smiled again. “Relax, kid,” he said as he turned and continued forward. “They’re only knee deep where we’ll be crossing.”

“You’re sure about that?”

* * *


Bridge, environmental,
” Devyn called over the comm-set from the aft end of the Celestia.

“Go ahead,” Lieutenant Commander Kovacic answered over his comm-set.


Sir, we’ve got a problem. The command deck shows a drop in pressure. It’s been steadily losing pressure ever since we set down.

“Are you saying we’ve got a hole somewhere?”


No, sir, more like a slow leak from a bad seal or in a feed pipe in the walls. Honestly, sir, it could be a million different things.

“Don’t you have sensors that tell you where the leak is located?”


Normally, yes, but most of them haven’t been installed yet. All I can monitor are the individual compartment sensors.

The lieutenant commander rolled his eyes in frustration. “What do we do?”


We need to close all compartments on the command deck so that I can monitor each one of them individually. That will at least tell us if the leak is in one of the compartment structures.

“And if it’s
not
in one of the compartment structures?” the lieutenant commander wondered.


Then it would have to be in the system itself, like in one of the oxygen lines between decks.

“Which would mean?”


It would mean our problem would be much worse, sir.

* * *

Loki stood along the river’s edge staring at the fast-moving water flowing past them. “This does not look like the last one,” he told Major Waddell.

“It’s a little deeper, yes,” the major admitted. “It’s moving a little faster as well.”

“A little?” Loki turned and looked at the major. “Maybe we should look for another place to cross.”

“It would take too long. We’re running out of light.”

“What are you talking about? It’s not even noon yet.”

“In two hours, the sun will be at our backs,” Major Waddell explained. “That means the canyon wall we have to climb will be in direct sunlight instead of shadow.”

“So we’ll be hot.”

“And we’ll be highly visible to people in the valley over there,” the major said, pointing to their right, “including the Jung.”

“I didn’t think of that,” Loki admitted, looking at the river again. “This side isn’t so bad. It’s fast, but it only looks to be waist deep. It’s the other side that I’m worried about. All that green water. It looks really deep over there.”

“I have an idea,” Major Waddell told him. “See that big rock just up river, the one in the middle?” Major Waddell pointed at the massive rock. “If we can get to that rock, I can swim across the deep side with a line and pull you across after me.”

“Uh, the water looks to be deep on both sides of that rock, Major,” Loki said, “and fast, too.”

“It’s shallow enough here that we can walk out halfway, then work our way upstream to that rock. You see the tan area of water just downstream of the rock? That’s got to be a sandbar of some sort, probably created by the flow of water around the rock.”

“You’re sure about that?”

“No,” the major said, “but I’m willing to go first.”

Loki sighed. “Okay. It can’t be any worse than jumping out of a perfectly good shuttle at the edge of space.”

Major Waddell pulled a bundle of thin cord from his pack and handed one end to Loki. “Tie this around your chest, up under your armpits.”

“This little thing? Are you sure it’s strong enough?”

“This little cord could hold ten of us,” the major assured him. “This way, if you lose your footing and get swept away by the current, I can haul you to me on that rock.”

“If you say so,” Loki said. “You know, I haven’t dried out yet from the last river we crossed.”

“Be thankful we’re not in the high mountains,” Major Waddell told him.

“Why?”

“The water would be melted snow. Very cold.” Major Waddell unbundled the cord as he walked out into the river, letting the cord drift downstream. He tied the opposite end of the cord around his own chest and then continued out across the river.

Loki watched from the shore as the major waded out into the waist-deep water. As he had suspected, the river was moving faster than it looked. The water was bubbling up higher on the upstream side of Major Waddell, while there was a trough forming on his downstream side. The major was leaning into the current to steady himself, and more than once he looked as if he were about to lose his footing. The major was both taller and heavier, and Loki worried that the current might be more than he could handle.

In only a few minutes, the major had made it to the middle of the river and had worked his way upstream along the underwater sandbar that led to the downstream side of the rock. He removed his pack and tossed it onto the flatter, upper side of the rock. He then climbed up. He looked neither fatigued nor concerned, only wet from his mid-torso down.

The major looked all around the rock, sizing up the area as if deciding whether or not his plan would work. He motioned for Loki to join him. Loki groaned as he began to wade out into the river.

A minute later, Loki was himself waist deep in the rushing current, leaning hard upstream to steady himself. The water continued to move deeper with the upstream side splashing at his left armpit. For reasons he did not understand, he couldn’t help but hold his hands up high above the water as if he were afraid to get them wet.

His breathing was quick and his pulse raced as he took one careful step after the other, constantly struggling to stay upright against the pull of the water. Every instinct in him screamed for him to turn around and head back to shore. As he plodded along step by step, one thought kept racing through his mind.
Why is it that humans love the water so much?
The stuff seemed way too dangerous to him at the moment.

Soon, the moment had passed, and he found himself on the sandbar heading upstream with the water level down to his waist once more. Once he arrived at the downstream side of the rock, he removed his pack and tossed it up, then took the major’s hand and scrambled up the side of the rock to join him.

“Okay,” Loki sputtered, feeling out of breath. “That was scary.”

“I’m afraid that was the easy part,” Major Waddell warned him. The major pointed to the other side of the river. The water near the rock was deep green, indicating deep water. The current also appeared to be quite powerful. The green portion extended for a good twenty meters before it looked to be more shallow and moving more slowly. “That’s the scary part.”

Loki stared at the water as it rushed past them. He felt his pulse racing again. He looked at the major, who was pulling something out of his pack. “What are you doing?”

“Testing the currents,” Major Waddell answered. He pulled a meal bar out of his pack and tossed it a few meters out into the deep water. The current immediately grabbed it and swept it downstream.

“With a meal bar? We’re supposed to eat those, you know.”

Major Waddell didn’t answer, just kept his eyes on the meal bar as it continued riding the river’s currents downstream. After about twenty-five meters, the bar began to move toward the far shore until, finally, its downstream motion stopped all together. It bounced gently in a swirling pocket of water for a minute or two, then drifted into shallow water along the far side of the river, only thirty or so meters downstream of them.

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