Hammer's War 1: Forging the Hammer (22 page)

Thorne had his office staff overseeing the cleanup and rebuilding operation, while he was dealing with his very upset boss.  “Damn it George, it’s all over the news feeds, we don’t need this, not right now!” Helen Sexton was yelling.

“Helen, I told you already, the spin doctors are saying it was a gas main that blew up, an accident.  The press doesn
’t know anything we don’t want them to.  It’s being handled.”

Her hologram looked tired
, he had never seen her this way, “Everything is in play now and if you do your job, then in a few days, you will be reinstated and who knows maybe even promoted to Sky Marshall.  You will command all of the combined forces of the Rep Com, the Star Guard, and the mighty Terrain Empire.  So don’t screw it up!”

“Look our asset is in place and will carry out the mission on time.  This side problem is being handled by me, personally.”  Under the table, where the hologram cameras could not see, Thorne’s fingers
instinctually crossed.  

“Good, I feel much better about things, now you are finally taking a hands
-on approach.”  Her hologram disappeared, without so much as a good bye, or even a kiss my ass.

Back on Nome, Fiona was trying to buy tickets on the next ship off world, but her credit account was frozen, “Thad honey, I have a problem here, the accounts have been frozen.”

He came over to her computer, “Yeah I thought that might happen.  See here, we have been flagged for investigation of tax fraud.”

“Well that sucks!”  She pouted.

He punched in some new credit codes, “Here, use
this.  I figured someday my past might rear it’s ugly head, so long ago I set up a few false ID’s and accounts.  Don’t worry your pretty little head.  We still have plenty of money.”

“My pretty little head
huh?  I will show you pretty little head mister, Freya could you come here for a second?”  Fiona asked.

“Sure
, be there in a second,” she responded.  Freya entered the room.  “What’s up Sis?”

“Would you hold him while I beat him?”  Fiona
teased.

“Ooh
, has he been a bad boy?”  Freya asked wrapping herself around Thad.

“Oh he has been a very, very bad boy!”  Fiona replied
, as she wrapped herself around Thad’s other side.

“Women!” was all he could say before they dragged him to the ground.

Thorne was in the conference room two floors below his destroyed office.  He had finished his call with
Ambassador Sexton, and now he turned his attention to doing everything he could to make Thad’s life difficult.  If he could not kill or capture him, maybe he could at least be contained.  Thorne put freezes on all of Hammer’s accounts, put out
a bounty on Thad and his wives, and listed them as armed and dangerous criminals escaped from a mental reprocessing center.

The day they chose to depart, Archie drove Thad and the crew to the spaceport where they found the Sheriff waiting for them.  These days he was walking with a limp and leaning on a cane.  His right arm still bandaged and hanging in a sling, Thad shook his left hand, “It’s good to see you up and about.”

The
Sheriff laughed, “Thanks to you, but should have let me die there on the floor.”

“I
’m sorry, but you are just too cranky to die.  You would have laid there bitching and I don’t think anyone wanted to hear it,” Thad said.

“You got me there,” he said
.  “Look, all kidding aside, Thad, you need to see this. It just came across the Law Enforcement Net,” he paused and handed him another alert, “And this one, on the Bounty Hunters Net.  I think you got their attention with your little bomb trick.”

Thad looked over the bulletins, “Yeah I kicked the hornet’s nest, but that was
only just the beginning.”

The
Sheriff looked past Thad, “I can see you are taking enough gear with you,” he was referring to the two shipping containers being loaded onto the shuttle.

“What?  That
, it’s just their luggage,” he pointed to the three women.

“I may be
an old drunk, but I’m not too drunk to buy the crap you’re selling,” the Sheriff said with a laugh.

“Thanks for everything.  Take care of things here, while I’m gone, and when I get back, I’ll have a case of Jack Daniels for you.  We can drink to Doctor Hammer and everyone else’s memory,” Thad said
, as he shook the Sheriff’s left hand.

“It’s Wyatt,” he said.

“What?”  Thad said caught off guard.

“Wyatt Jackson, it
’s my name.  You always just call me Sheriff.  When you get back my friend, call me Wyatt.”

Thad smiled, “You got it, Mr.
Sheriff Wyatt Jackson.” 

Freya ran over to them, grabbing Thad by the arm, “Come on, they
’re waiting for us.”

Thad waved goodbye and left with Freya.  Thad
’s little group boarded the shuttle while Archie got back in the limo and departed for home.  He still had a lot of work to do helping with the rebuilding.  The port attendant and the Sheriff watched as the shuttle lifted off.  “May God have mercy on their souls,” the Sheriff said.

“Who, Thad
?” The attendant asked.

“No, the people he is going after,”
the Sheriff answered.

The accommodations aboard the cargo ship left much to be desired, but Thad and the girls made do.  The captain was a bit on the rough side, but he didn’t ask questions.  His small crew stayed mostly to themselves.

Thad spent most of his time working on his body armor
, first removing the active camouflage unit.  His suit did not have the space or the power to run two units.  If Doctor Hammer had still been alive he could have figured out a way to integrate the built-in power trans-dimension source of the phase device to power both units, but he was not Doctor Hammer.  Thad, however, was able to install the phase device, as well as a DDSD into his suit.

He put on the suit
, turned to the girls, and said, “Here goes nothing.”  He pressed a control on his belt and his whole body tingled as if someone had stuck a million needles into him.  The world seemed to fade. Thad saw what looked like a double image of everything.  He held up his hand, “Trippy.” 

“Yeah
, I would say so, you look like a ghost,” Fiona said.

“Well let’s see if this thing works
, shall we?”  Thad walked up to the cabin wall.  He held out his hand and pushed it through the wall.  It felt like he was trying to push through gelatin. He pushed on through. It was the strangest feeling he ever experienced.  On the other side of the wall he shut off the device, and everything went back to normal. 

Freya poked her head out of the door, “Still in one piece?”

“It appears so,” he replied, as he looked himself over.  “I’d say it works, and it’s going to give us a major advantage.”

“Great, now you stop playing with your toys and come play with me
instead,” Freya said.

He laughed and followed her back into the cabin.

They were two days on board and things so far were uneventful, even boring.  Thad asked the twins to keep to their cabin.  He wanted to keep as low a profile as possible.  The twins on the other hand had no intention of staying confined to a room, not after the months they spent as prisoners in a room like this on the Night Terror. 

Freya found that she liked to walk about the ship and even talked with a few of the crew.  She wanted to see the stars.  It had been a long time s
ince she had the chance to see them from space.  Every human ship made, regardless of the make or model had two great places to view outer space.  The first was the bridge and the other was some form of observation deck. 

Freya
, having grown up on cargo haulers just like this one, knew right where to look.  She found the observation deck devoid of anyone at the moment.  She pushed the open button on the control panel.  The shield covering the window rose revealing the infinite brilliance of space.    

It was not long before her tranquility was interrupted by a rather gruff voice, “They are almost as pretty as you.”

Startled she spun on the balls of her feet to see a balding man. He stood taller than her by a few inches, and his rather large belly was hanging over his wide belt.  When he smiled, he showed off an array of rotting teeth.
 
There was a glimmer of sweat on his balding head.

“I’m sorry miss I didn’t mean to startle you,” he said.

She gave him a warm smile, “It’s okay, I guess I was just lost in the stars.”  He took a step towards her and this made her feel uncomfortable, “I’m sorry, but I need to get back to my cabin.”  She left before he could say anything else.

Later Freya was lying in bed, sweating and unable to sleep.  The temperature control on this boat
was constantly on the fritz, one minute they were ready to freeze and the next their cabin felt like a sauna.  She looked at Thad who was sleeping, although she couldn’t figure out how.  Fiona had also found some way to sleep through the heat.  She gave up and quietly slid from bed.  She donned running shorts, shoes, and a sports bra.

She looked at Eve who was sitting in a chair at the small table that doubled as a desk, her eyes were closed, which she often did when she was in contact with the copy of herself she left at home.
She waved, but got no reaction.  “I’m on my own then,” she said softly as she left the room.

Freya noticed the clock just before she left the room
; it read 1:45 am. 
Prefect time for a run, no one should be on the track to bug me,
she thought.  The track was built around the top of the cargo bays, and was standard on all cargo ships.  The ship designers put them there for ship’s crews to use, a way to get some exorcise, however most crew never touched them, and by the look of the track was the case on this ship.  She ran two miles worth of laps then did one more lap to cool down.  When she finished her run, she stopped near the hatch that lead back to the rest of the ship.

Standing in the shadows was the same fat, balding crewman that startled her earlier in the observation deck. 
“Get a good work out Miss?”  He asked from the shadows in the hallway.

Freya was not expecting to see anyone awake after two in the morning ship’s time. “Ah yeah, it was good, thank you.”

He moved closer, she could smell
his sweat and bad breath, “I didn’t get a chance to finish what I was saying earlier.”

“
I’m sorry to have cut you off earlier and I’m sorry to have to do it again.”  She was getting uncomfortable with how close he was getting.  She shifted her feet into a combat stance.

“
I was trying to say that you have a real pretty smile, and I thought maybe since we are all alone,” he tried to close the gap between them.

She quickly stepped back, “I know where you are going with this
, and I’m happily married.”  She held up her left hand to show off the ring. 

“Oh that doesn
’t matter to me.  You know it can get very lonely up here in the black.”  He tried to put a hand on her shoulder.

Side stepping
his hand she said, “I’m sorry, buy a sex doll!  Now get out my way.  I’m going back to my quarters.”

Before she could get past him, h
e pulled out a nasty looking long knife, “Come now don’t be that way honey, just you wait, I will give you the time of your life.”

“That looks really sharp.  You should put it away before you hurt yourself.”  She slipped the towel off her neck and slowly twisted it up behind her back.  He was too busy
staring at her chest to notice what she was doing, his mistake.

“Oh honey, I have used this blade on much prettier
girls than you.  Now you just hold still while I cut your bra off, so I can see those tits of yours.”  He stuck the knife towards her shoulder strap.

She tried to g
ive him one last chance to do the right thing, “What is it with men, just because you see a pretty woman you think you can just take her?  I mean what about my feelings?”

He laughed, “Your feeling
s,” he reached down with his free hand and grabbed his crotch, “Don’t worry, sweetheart, there is enough down here for you to feel.”

Rolling her eyes she said, “Oh now I get it!  You use so much of your blood volume to get that thing hard
, it drains it from your brain.  Poor little thing, it must be all shriveled up from lack of oxygen. No wonder you are too stupid to see that I’m not scared of you!”

That made him more enraged and stupid, but she was right, he was use
d to girls that would freeze up with fear when they saw the size of his knife. When Freya sidestepped the knife and snapped the towel in his eyes, temporarily blinding him, he was greatly surprised.

Freya knew this guy was almost three times her weight.  So fighting him
in close quarters was not her best option.  She tried to get past him and make a run for it, but he was not stunned for long. He reached out, snagging her hair as she ran by.  Even though it hurt like Hell, she twisted around to face him as he was bringing the knife down on her.  She looped the towel around his wrist and yanked his hand into the metal wall. 

He screamed, “You bitch, you’
ll pay for that!”  She slammed his hand into the wall again, this time knocking the knife free.  It fell to the ground with a loud clank.  He still had her hair with one hand so he lifted her off her feet.  Freya did the only thing she could.  She ran up the front of him and wrapped her legs around his neck.  Once she had a hold of his neck, she squeezed with everything she had.

He let go of her hair to use both hands
, attempting to pry her legs off his neck.  He dropped her to the floor. The blow stunned Freya for a second.  It was long enough for him to roll her over and grab hold of her sports bra strap.  He pulled hard.  Freya felt as if he was trying to pull it straight through her shoulders, and she thought he might actually do it, when the strap finally broke.  His other hand grappled for her throat.  His massive bulk was far too much for her to move under, she was pinned.

“It’s okay.  I like it when they flight.  It makes it so much sweeter.”  He leaned down and licked her face.  She
still had her arms free so she cupped her hands and boxed his ears.  He let go of her throat to grab his ears.  His face was close to hers, she lifted her head with all her strength.  The top of her forehead smashed into the bridge of his nose. 

Blood burst from the broken nose and he fell forward enough for her to get a leg free.  Freya brought
her knee up into his groin as hard as she could muster.  He screamed and rolled off her and onto the floor.  Freya rolled over and got up on her hands and knees.  The would-be rapist grabbed her leg and pulled.  She slid back towards him.  With her free leg, she kicked and kicked at his head until he let go. 

Freya jumped to her feet, but the running and ensuing fight had drained her, she stumbled.  The man grabbed the knife off the floor and somehow made
it back to his feet.  He raised the knife to throw it.  There was a flash of light followed by a loud bang.  Freya looked up to see Thad standing in the hallway, smoking pistol in hand.  She turned round to see her attacker’s body lying in a heap, a large hole in his forehead, and most of the back of his head missing.

“Thanks” she turned back to Thad.

“No problem, but next time Freya, duck when I say duck.”  He wrapped his arms protectively around her.

“When did you say duck?” she asked, happy to be in his arms.

“Just before I fired, you were in the way which made the shot a really tricky one.”

“I never heard you, but thank God, you can shoot.”  She buried her head into his chest.

They heard the sounds of boots running on the hard steel floor.  The captain and a part of the crew came running.  “I got an alarm there was weapons fire.  What in seven Hells, is going on here?”  The captain gasped, out of breath from the run.  Then he saw the dead crewmember, “Holy shit!  You shot him!”

“Yes
Sir, he was trying to rape my wife.  He had a knife in his hand and was about to put it in her back.  I had no choice,” Thad said, as he slid the pistol back into his holster. 

“Well
, we will never know his side of it, will we?  Look, maybe he did and maybe he didn’t, but I can’t have passengers running around shooting crew.  The fact is you people are just too damn dangerous to have around.”  A vane in the side of his neck was bulging as he talked. 

“Captain,” Thad tried to calm him down, but the
captain was having none of it. 

“Do you know what the penalty is for transporting armed criminals?”  Thad opened his mouth to speak
, but was cut off by the captain, “At the very least, I would lose my pilots license and my ship.  Worst case I would do jail time myself, and depending on what government stopped me, it could mean death for me and my crew.”

Freya spoke, “What are you saying?”

“Just before I came down here I got a request to divert to the next check point for inspection. They happen to be looking for some dangerous people.  People who left on a cargo ship from Nome in the last few days.”

“But Captain, you don’t have anything to worry about
, we aren’t dangerous,” Freya cocked her head, faking a wide-eyed innocent look.  

He pointed to the body of his dead crewman, “I would beg to differ.  Look, he was no angel, so it mostly likely was self-defense.  Nevertheless, I would rather not have to explain a dead crewman and you folks too.  So I don’t care if you are the ones they are looking for or not.  I’m dumping him in space now and you folks are getting off at the next planet, whether they have a space port or not.”

Freya started to protest, but Thad squeezed her tight enough for her to get the message, “I understand captain and I’m sorry about the crewman, but he did have it coming.” 

He led Freya back to their quarters where Fiona was still asleep and Eve was busy communicating with the copy of herself she had left at home.  Freya came in and plopped down on the bed next to Fiona, who rolled over.  “Thad, how did you know to come and find me?”

“I couldn’t sleep and when I noticed you weren’t here, I figured you went for a run.  You like to do that when you can’t sleep.  I came looking for you to keep you company.  I’m just glad I couldn’t sleep tonight.”  He smiled at her.