Metal Boxes - Rusty Hinges (24 page)

Hearing a screech, he turned and saw Peebee throw a Hyrocanian to Bea. The Hyrocanian was trying to get into its combat suit, but was only partially covered. Bea ripped it the rest of the way out and drove her armor-tipped bone spike through its skull.

Peebee shouted at Tee and Ell. “
Training, girls. Block that hatch and do not get ahead of your teammates.
”

Stone nodded. Peebee had learned. The first time … no, the second time they’d invaded a Hyrocanian ship, she and her sister had raced so far ahead some people had died trying to keep up. He shook his head at the thought that this was actually his fourth time inside a hostile alien ship. That was crazy. What was a rich kid like him doing such things for!

He glanced up and chuckled. “At least this is inside.”

Catching movement out the corner of his eye, he turned and watched Bea jump into a knot of Hyrocanian’s trying to get through a small maintenance hatch. Most were too fat to fit through the hatch more than one at a time. She scattered them and yanked the hatch shut. The Hyrocanians, suddenly faced with an enemy they could see, yanked knives and wrenches from hidden spots in their hideously colored trousers.

Stone said, “This is stupid.” He leapt into the middle, covering the thirty yards in one distance-eating shallow leap. He triggered the welding flame on the suit’s left wrist and flexed out a double-edged dagger from his right gauntlet. Grabbing the nearest Hyrocanian, he killed it before he could squeeze his hand into a fist, the high temperature of the welding torch burning into its brain. His right hand jabbed into the eye socket of a Hyrocanian trying to jump on Bea.

Bea grabbed a pair of Hyrocanians and threw them to her mother. “
Oh, like, you know. Tag you’re it.”

Peebee only caught one with her hands. The other she skewered with her tail spike before it hit the deck. Rather than keep the one she caught, she threw it on to her other daughters, turning back to charge into the knot of aliens surrounding Stone and Bea.

Stone’s suit reported added weight on his back. A pair of Hyrocanian hands wrapped around his head, blocking his faceplate. He was about to activate the counter-attack switch when the hands and the weight disappeared. He spun around in time to see Dollish put a boot against the creature’s neck, pinning its head to the deck. The spacer put a quick bullet into its brain.

Tuttle patted Dollish on the back as she and her two companions strode past him, nearly knocking him to the ground. She slapped Stone on the back of his helmet. The suit protected him from damage, but the clanging rang loudly in his ears. “I’m supposed to be your support, Ensign. You get ahead of me again like that and I’ll tell the LT you asked me to give you a blowjob because you didn’t think she was any good at it.”

She, January, and al-Julier waded into the rest of the Hyrocanians struggling to run away. Her voice took a different tone as she put a fist through a Hyrocanian throat — in one side and out the other. “I’ll do it too, sir. Don’t keep testing me.” Gripping a Hyrocanian under each arm, she stopped and looked back at him. “Wait. I mean I’ll tell her. Not the blowjob thing.” She twisted and dropped the two bodies to the deck. “Wait. I mean, I’ll do the blowjob thing, but I won’t tell her if you want. But if you get ahead of me, then I’ll tell on you.”

Allie’s voice popped onto the comms. “Private Tuttle. I’m listening in. What did I tell you about propositioning Stone?”

Tuttle chuckled, “Sorry, LT, but it’s Corporal Tuttle.”

“Not if you keep trying to get into Ensign Stone’s pants. Now shut up and go kill something.”

Stone turned to the maintenance hatch as the knot of Hyrocanians dwindled to a few panicked stragglers. His welding torch was still lit, so he melted the hatch closed with a quick tack of liquid metal. It wouldn’t hold long, but he didn’t need it to hold long.

Before he could comment about the women not fighting over him, Numos announced over the comms, “Hangar bay is secure. All hostiles eliminated. Marines, stand by.”

CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT

Stone was privy to the rest of Numos’s conversation as a member of the officers comms net. The major said, “Rusty Hinges bridge, are we still a go?”

“Butcher here, Dash. Whizzer and Kat say yes, you’re still a go. No one on the warehouse ship knows we’ve captured their hangar bay. They think there was a minor explosion, but the hangar deck crew has it under control and they’ve locked the bay down for safety reasons. The rest of the ship is busy running around filling out a flurry of phony warehouse orders. The number of supply requests Whizzer and Kat sent should empty their stores completely.”

Numos said, “Phase two is a go.”

Looking back up at the shuttle they had arrived in, Stone watched a torrent of piglets, both in armor and unarmored exit and surround Jay and her daughters. An armored piglet pointed at a life support grate set high in a bulkhead.

Shorty typed a quick command into his virtual dataport keyboard. His simulated voice said, “I want up there.”

Stone hadn’t recognized Shorty in his armor. Jay grabbed the piglet around the waist and lifted him as high as she could. He reached up, grabbed the grate, and pulled. It popped away so easily he lost his balance, falling backwards. Jay prevented him from hitting the deck. She then inserted him into the gaping hole. He dropped a flexible ladder allowing half a dozen armored piglets to climb up to him. They disappeared into the ship’s life support system followed by a dozen unarmored piglets, each carrying a full bag of tools.

An armored piglet pushed Stone. It pushed with all its might, but he didn’t move.

Jay said, “
Mama, he says you’re in his way and to move your bloated human body so he can go to work.”

Stone stepped to the side. The piglet cut the tiny weld away from the hatch, yanked it open and disappeared into the bowels of the ship followed by a couple dozen of its companions.

Anne shouted after them, “
Like, you all be careful, you know?”

Emily said, “
I wish I was small like them, for sure. I mean, like, then I could fit through these small holes. Do you think I have a fat butt?”

Anne wooted, “
Of course you have a fat butt, but, like, it matches your fat head.”

Charlotte plunked down on the deck and hung her head, “
Should have stayed with the marines. We didn’t get to fight Hyrocanians, like Peebee and her girls.”

Peebee and her daughters had scattered with their marines. Charlie Platoon reforming near the doors. 2LT Escamilla’s Delta Platoon was disappearing into a second shuttle parked in the bay. 1LT Vedrian’s Bravo Platoon was swarming up into a third shuttle. Both platoons would ensure no Hyrocanians were hiding in the shuttles.

Jay said, “
Easy girls, we aren’t done yet
.”

Emily said, “
They stink like they need to be killed.”

Anne asked, “
Mama, is it true they eat us?”

Stone signaled his team to follow him. They joined up with Charlie Platoon and a growing contingent of piglets. Most of the unarmored piglets had disappeared through various maintenance hatches, even cutting into the decks to disappear into the bowels of the ship.

Stone said, “Ell, it’s true that these creatures eat drascos. If we don’t stop them, they will cut off your tail spike, tie your hands, and cut chunks out of your bodies to eat while you watch.”

“
Ewwww, gross
.” He wasn’t sure whether it was Anne, Charlotte, or Emily who responded, but he had to agree.

“They eat humans and piglets, too.”

Emily said, “
That’s like, not right, you know?”

Stone couldn’t agree more. Jay said, “
Girls. Remember your marine training. Stay with your assignment. Remember to use your comms when talking with any human except Mama.”

Jay’s daughters spread out, each paring up with a small group of piglets. Jay slid into place next to Peebee. The two sisters hung their heads close together. They didn’t like being assigned to different spots even for a short time. For the initial phase Jay had been assigned to the piglets, more to ride herd on her daughters than interpret, and Peebee had been assigned to Charlie Platoon with her daughters as shock troops. Being separated was hard for them and Stone had to agree. Jay and Peebee would remain with Stone for the next phase of the operation.

If either Jay or Peebee was killed, the remaining drasco would begin the conversion to male. No one wanted that. They could lose any one of the drasco trios, but having two killed would be disastrous. Males were known to be raging, raping idiots. The prevailing theory was that drascos always came in threes. When one of the triplets died, the remaining two would grow to a larger size like Jay and Peebee. If one of the remaining two died, the last of the trio would begin the conversion to male. No one knew how long the change would take. Various scientists wanted to test the theory, but during Stone’s tenure as governor, he had steadfastly denied permission for those scientists to capture three wild drascos and kill them off one by one just to see what would happen.

Shorty’s voice boomed in Stone’s ear through the comms, “We’re at the bridge and engineering will lose all power in five mikes.”

Stone keyed his comms for all marines and the Rusty Hinges bridge to hear his relay. “Shorty reports Phase Two complete in five minutes.”

Stone expected the gathered assault troops to get ready, then he realized they were all in place and ready. At Numos’s call Baker and Delta Platoons came swarming back from searching the two shuttles, their numbers swelling the ranks of marines, drascos and piglets all waiting for Shorty to give them the go signal.

Shorty’s gruff voice simulation shouted, “Go.”

CHAPTER THIRTY-NINE

Stone shouted, “Go.”

Soon every marine NCO was shouting “Go. Go. Go.” Marines blasted through hatches, spreading into the ship, flowing like water from a broken dam seeking every nook and cranny. Piglets followed behind, digging into every bit of technology they could find: shutting down this, turning that off, and putting locks on the other.

Tee raised up on her hind legs, wonking excitedly, pounding on a wide hatch. Two Charlie fireteams clustering behind her raced past her when the hatchway gave in. The eight marines entered the bay with weapons blazing. Tee followed on their heels. Suddenly, a Hyrocanian flew out of the hatch to the far side of the corridor, slamming into the opposite bulkhead. It crumpled to the deck in a broken heap. Tee stuck her head back out of the hatch and with what looked like a typical human reaction, spit on the lifeless body of the dead alien. However, considering drasco physiology and their fertilization method, the spitting thing probably had a different meaning to Tee.

Peebee said, “
Left, Mama. Down that way
.” Rather than point, she raced away from the bulk of marines.

Jay shouted, “
Yes. Yes. There
.”

Stone raced after his girls. He was confident Dollish, Tuttle, January and al-Julier were following him. Peebee crashed into a wide hatch, the thick metal door giving way under her weight. She jumped high, almost flying through the open hatch while Jay, only half a step behind, slid beneath her.

Screeches and cries of terror echoed back out of the cabin. A pair of obese Hyrocanians ran out of the hatchway into the corridor. Their tiny eyes were wide with fear. Spotting the advancing humans, they turned and fled the other way. Fat folds wobbled as they ran.

Tuttle said, “January and al-Julier.”

Without waiting for a command, the two marines raced after the runaway aliens. January took great bounding leaps while al-Julier actually managed one long shallow bounce. He killed both Hyrocanians before his wife could catch up to him.

Not rushing, Stone stepped into the bay through the wide hatch. Jay and Peebee had eliminated a pair of exceedingly fat Hyrocanians; officers from the size of their waistlines. Jay wore a deep cut across her face. Her chosen target had been holding a long knife when she attacked. She had stomped him into little more than a puddle.

Peebee was methodically backing a Hyrocanian pair into a corner. The long-bladed knives they held in each hand whirled and swirled as the eight blades clanged against Peebee’s tail spike. She hunkered low to the ground, attempting to spear either or both of the four-armed freaks.

Angry and in pain, Jay held a Hyrocanian in her arms. She was slowly pulling its arms out of its sockets one at a time. Stone understood her feelings, but he couldn’t condone torture. A quick bullet from his suit put the creature out of its misery. Jay wonked angrily, shaking the dead body in frustration.

Tuttle reached around Stone and shot one of Peebee’s cornered hostiles through the chest. Peebee vaulted on top of the remaining alien, crunching bones and breaking parts. Her angry, triumphant wonk was so loud Stone’s suit dampened the noise to protect his ears.

Stone recognized the dead remains in the middle of the cabin. Bloody pieces were scattered carelessly about. The remains were human. He raised his arm to shoot this last officer. The Hyrocanian, the fattest one they’d seen to date, held a long-bladed knife. The creature was poking its blade through the slats of a cage set against a bulkhead.

A blur sped past him. Dollish leaped into the arms of the remaining Hyrocanian, blocking Stone’s shot. The Hyrocanian caught Dollish in mid-leap with its back arms while still trying to jab his knife into the cage. The weight of Dollish’s suit caused them both to crash onto the deck with Dollish on top. Pulling knives from hooks at his waist, the spacer shoved them deep into the Hyrocanian’s neck nearly decapitating him.

With all the hostiles dead, Stone turned his focus toward the cage. Three naked humans huddled in the cage. One of the two women was more than a little pregnant. The male was cut across his hands and forearms from trying prevent the Hyrocanian’s knife from reaching the women. Blood dripped from his arms, splattering the bottom of the cage.

Stone flipped up his faceplate. “The emperor’s forces are here. Take it easy folks and we’ll get you out of here as quickly as we can.”

The women started babbling, but the man just stared. Stone grabbed the door to the cage and yanked. The lock gave away with a creak and snap as the metal twisted. “Let’s get you out of there.”

The man pointed at the drascos. “What kind of hell-spawn demons are those? Are they dangerous?”

Stone looked at Jay and Peebee. “Yes, they are, sir. However, they’re on our side.” He pointed at the dead Hyrocanian under Dollish’s blade. “I’m sure you’ll prefer their company to that.”

The man nodded, “Of that, I have no doubt, sir. How many are you? How do we get —”

Stone interrupted, “One moment, sir.” He turned from the man to make a comms call. “This is Ensign Stone. The Hyrocanian database was wrong. We’ve found more humans on board. My locator is on. Please send medical corps to my location, asap. We have three civilians in hand, one injured.” He looked around. “January, can you and Private al-Julier see about getting first aid —”

Dollish interrupted, “I got it, Boss.” He made the man sit down next to the women. Pulling a pair of thermal blankets from some deep pocket in the thighs of his suit, he covered the women. “Sorry, sir. I’ve only got two covers. I do have a first aid kit, so let me see what I can do for those cuts.”

Stone said, “Thanks, Tim. January and al-Julier, please backtrack and make sure we get medical safely in here as soon as we can.” The two marines got a confirming nod from Tuttle and bolted out of the cabin.

He keyed his comms, “Major Numos, I think we stumbled into an officer’s banquet. Pardon my language, but the fat bastards had four humans on the menu. We were too late for one, but we have three civilians with us now. I suggest we keep our eyes open for more humans and piglets.”

Numos asked, “Are you sure they were officers?”

Stone replied, “No, sir. Just that they were fat enough to be officers and their pants are so bloody garish they’re hard to look at. I’m not even sure Hammer would wear something that gaudy. Besides, who else on this ship would have the authority to fudge their warehouse database to keep a few tasty human morsels for their own enjoyment?”

Numos said, “We’ve encountered a lot of workers crammed into barracks or shuffling cargo in warehouses. Fat, but not obese. You may have finished off the officers. What does Shorty say about the bridge?”

Stone looked around. “Sorry, Major. I haven’t heard from him. I’ve tried calling but I don’t get an answer. We need to find a piglet in armor.” He looked at Tuttle with a raised eyebrow.

She shook her head, “Not a chance, Ensign. I have no intention of leaving you to go find a communications link to the bridge.”

Peebee was licking Jay’s cut. They looked at him expectantly. Stone said, “Jay, would you and Peebee please go find me an armored piglet and bring it back here?”

Jay raced through the hatch followed quickly by her sister. Tuttle stood in the hatchway, her back to the cabin, weapons at the ready. An explosion caused her to duck back into the cabin. She stuck her head back into the corridor quickly, the muzzle of her rifle swinging back and forth looking for something to shoot.

Stone turned back to the injured man. Dollish had most of the cuts bandaged, although the wrappings were quickly soaking through. “Sir, do you know how many other humans were on this ship?”

The man shook his head. “We started with seventeen. Just us three now.”

“How many were military?”

The man looked surprised. “Military? No, sir. All seventeen were from the skiff we were on. We was out past Holliman’s Rift headed toward Epimides Four. They was three crew and fourteen of us refugees.”

“You weren’t taken from a military ship? You were in deep space in a skiff?” He made a mental note to look up where Holliman’s Rift and Epimides Four were in human space, but it sounded like they were at the edge of human space; far enough out and off the normal space lanes that they hadn’t ever appeared on a Stone Freight Company manifest. He knew a skiff wasn’t designed as anything more than an intra-system runabout, most not even hyperspace capable, although smugglers often retrofit them. These three, and probably their whole ship’s company might never have appeared on the Hyrocanians ship’s warehouse logs.

The man said, “These two girls are my daughters, sir. That’s all that’s left of my family now. I expected God’s saving hand before now, but His will be done. We was running from Edenside out beyond Holliman’s Rift. Had to. It was either deny our god or be slaughtered by the prophet. We surely never expect to be scooped up by alien devils.”

Stone shook his head. “Wait. You were religious refugees before you were captured by Hyrocanians?”

Religious freedom was one of the basic tenets of an individual’s full-rights as an Empire citizen. There were lots of reasons for citizens to become refugees, but religious oppression generally wasn’t one of them.

The man nodded and pointed at the bodies of the four-armed freaks. “Hyrocanians is them things that been killing and eating us?” At Stone’s nod he continued. “Might as well stayed at home, even though the prophet’s men would have put us through the testimonies.”

“I am sorry, sir,” Stone said. “The prophet? Testimonies?” He glanced around. Dollish and Tuttle shrugged, but Dollish didn’t stop trying to keep the man from bleeding to death and Tuttle never took her eyes off the corridor.

“We sent word to the emperor for help, but he don’t care nothing for us poor folk far out at the edge of human space.” He let out a long sigh. “The prophet is the self-appointed leader of Edenside. Says he be appointed directly by his god and has a right to rule. He claims his obligation is to convert all of human space to worshipping his way. His testimonies are how he done gets folks to convert. I tell you many a person come out of the testimonies with their eyes poked out, missing fingers, toes, or a whole hand. He miraclizes some to replace an eye or a hand here and there. But some folks who refuse to give in, don’t come out at all. We-uns was running from that, but I guess we should of stayed; death by these animals or by the prophet be all one and the same, excepting the prophet wouldn’t have eaten the children first.”

Stone started to speak, but the man had a faraway look in his eyes. “I don’t guess getting eaten would be much worse than being worked to a slow death in the prophet’s spaceship factories.”

“Spaceship factories?”

The man nodded, “The prophet and his men are building a huge fleet of ships. He says it’s to spread his gospel across human space, but he’s already built more ships than he has people to use them.” He looked thoughtful. “I don’t rightly know where all his extra ships go.”

Stone spun around at a loud crash. January and al-Julier raced past the open hatchway, guns blazing. A medical corpsman trailed behind them. Tuttle grabbed the medic by the collar of her flak jacket and dragged her into the cabin, pushing her toward the rescued humans.

The medic squeezed past Stone and shoved Dollish out of her way without regard to their rank. Dropping to her knees, she began working on the man’s wounds. She yanked Dollish’s first aid attempts away with disgust, spraying the cuts with anti-coagulant. Stone turned back to the hatch.

January and al-Julier had returned. They bracketed the hatch to the corridor, each facing a different direction. Tuttle stood a few steps back from the hatch but no less alert.

Stone opened his comms. “Stone here. I’m sending the three rescued humans back to the shuttle —”

Numos’s voice interrupted. “Negative, Ensign. We aren’t secure yet.”

Shorty’s gruff voice blared out. “We have the bridge, but our people can’t get into engineering. They’ve blocked us.”

Stone marveled. The piglet must be a wizard with a keyboard. The voice translation was almost without hesitation.

Numos said, “We’ve cleared or locked down almost everything else, but without engineering we’re at a standstill. I need all hands to help break through to engineering. Stone, lock your captives in for their safety, then get down here with your team.”

“Aye, aye, sir.” He turned to the medic. “Did you hear?”

Not looking up from her work, the woman nodded. “Just lock the door behind you when you leave.”

It only took a moment to slam the hatch behind them. January welded a quick tack of metal to seal the door as al-Julier used a spray can to make a huge note on the wall about humans being inside the cabin. Before any of them could draw a second breath, they had left the cabin behind them, sprinted down the corridor, and vaulted down a ladderway. Tuttle leaping to a point position, al-Julier and January following behind with Dollish right on Stone’s heels.

After a few decks, Tuttle shouted a warning and Stone screeched to a halt, almost bumping into Jay and Peebee coming up the ladder. Jay held a squirming armored piglet in her arms.

He started to wave them on to follow him, but stopped and called to his small band, “Wait.”