Metal Boxes - Trapped Outside (27 page)

Wyznewski snorted in derision. “I don’t give a big whoop about her rights and I don’t imagine Doctor Triplett does at this point either. As her appointed supervisor, all data concerning any activity on Allie’s World is mine by Emperor’s fiat. That includes any information about Hyrocanian contact since they are, without question, on this planet.”

Ryte said, “That is some pretty shaky legal ground, Whizzer. Any defense attorney will use that as grounds for appeal because we violated Triplett’s right to privacy with her personal documents.”

“I don’t care.”

Stone nodded. “I agree with Whizzer. I don’t care. Besides, we’re on an enemy shuttle that might be recalled by automatics to the mother ship with hundreds, if not thousands of enemy soldiers onboard, before we can get off. For all I know, the mothership knows we’ve taken control of their shuttle and they already set the self-destruct to go off. I’ll worry about a legal grey area if we live through this.”

THIRTY-SIX

Stone was concerned about the possibility of the Hyrocanians using automatic controls between their mothership and their shuttles. He didn’t think it was wise to start pushing buttons at random. He pushed the second button. It showed a view of a command center. He could see a marine in a combat suit standing guard by the hatch. “Agent Ryte, would you push the first button on the left, please?”

“Why?”

“Well, Whizzer is working on the language barrier, I’m trying to work out the shuttle controls. The first button on the left should give you a split screen visual with me and shuttle component number two.”

“Button one is for shuttle number two?”

Stone nodded. “You are number one and don’t need a button. I figure your button number one is for shuttle piece number two or it will connect you with the mothership. Either way, good luck.”

“I get a visual of a control center with a marine at the hatch.”

Stone was relieved. He was more concerned button one would alert the mothership than he had let on, “I’ve pressed button number three and that gives me shuttle section three.”

“My button number two shows me a control room, with marines dragging Hyrocanian bodies out of the hatch.”

Stone nodded. “That’s what I see, too. Let’s not press button number four just yet. That should be the central core section. I’d rather not try it until Whizzer can talk to the Hyrocanians that Major Numos has trapped there. Let’s see what these other controls do.”

It didn’t take long to work their way through each of the buttons. Navigation was a simple point and click. One button laid out a map on the monitor. The map could be shrunk to show only a few hundred yards beyond the size of the shuttle for delicate maneuvering or expanded to show the whole solar system. It showed an accurate map of the planet below and even gave them a bright red dot in orbit, that everyone assumed was the mothership’s location. Once a destination was selected by sliding a finger on the map, the pilot pressed a button and the shuttle would go there.

Ryte had accidentally leaned on a hidden lever and made the shuttle disappear behind a camouflage cloaking system. She was relieved she hadn’t blown them all up, but everyone else was relieved they were hidden in case the mothership came looking for them. Becoming invisible had startled a marine jumping from the ground to the shuttle at the instant they disappeared. Shortly thereafter marines jumped back and forth with ease, having become adjusted to jumping at nothing or seeing a fellow marine appear out of nowhere to drop to the ground.

Numos and Hammermill swept the shuttle sections clear of Hyrocanians, except those they had trapped in the central core. Marines swept through all facilities on the ground and all rooms in the shuttle.

Lunch or supper or whatever meal had come and gone. The little piglet type creatures were scanned for protein and for intelligence. The scanner returned conflicting levels of sentience, making the protein scan moot. A hornless goat creature they found came back as having less intelligence than an earth-style chicken, and as such, became lunch. They made pretty good sandwiches when cooked. The Hyrocanians didn’t have galleys or kitchens, so the marines built a fire on the planet and brought food up to the shuttle. No one was concerned about feeding the trapped Hyrocanians.

Stone wiped his hands on his chest and ran his sleeve across his mouth. He knew his mother would have yelled at him for not using a napkin after eating, but most of the available cloth had recently been wrapped around a Hyrocanian’s rear end and he didn’t want to get any of it close to his lips.

Wyznewski said, “I’m wasting my time. I don’t have a frame of reference for Triplett’s language database. I can’t make heads or tails of it. I need more reference material and a fresh set of eyes.”

Stone nodded at the scientist and looked at the split monitor in front of him. Numos, Hammermill, and Wright stared back at him. The fourth section, the view to the central core remained blank. “What next? I think we’ve delayed here beyond reason.”

Ryte nodded, “I agree. Surely, the mothership knows we’ve taken their compound and the shuttle. I don’t know why they haven’t counterattacked and blown us out of the sky.”

Wyznewski said, “I suppose it’s possible we have someone of importance trapped in the core and they don’t want them injured.”

Numos said, “That’s possible, however, I get the feeling they haven’t bothered to look. You know, the old, no news is good news syndrome? Remember the obese fellow in charge when we attacked? The thing was so concerned with what went on in front of its own nose it was oblivious to our attack. They didn’t even notice the crab swarm until the crabs stepped on their minefield.”

Stone asked, “What do we do then?”

Wyznewski replied, “I think we use the shuttle, pick up our people, head for the jump point, and get the hell out of dodge until we can come back with enough navy to sweep the system clear. Hell, we have captured more Hyrocanian technology and more prisoners than everyone else during the whole war combined. I think we’ve done enough.”

Stone said, “We should be able to slip through any minefield they may have put around the jump point to Brickman’s Station by using the shuttles IFF system, but does anyone know if this shuttle has jump capable engines?”

Numos shook his head, “No, but you managed to convert engines before, right?”

“Human designed engines, Major. I wouldn’t know where to start on an alien ship.”

Hammermill laughed, “I’ve taken a quick walk through this shuttle piece’s engineering compartment. I don’t think the Hyrocanians understand their own tech either. There are notes, diagrams, and scribbles all over the walls, floor, and ceiling. Sure, the engines are on, we’re still airborne, but there are machines in the engine room I don’t think the Hyrocanians know what do with.”

Ryte asked, “What are you saying, Hammer? This shuttle isn’t Hyrocanian tech?”

Hammermill shrugged, “It might be. Maybe there are some smart ones somewhere, if so, they’re letting their idiots operate things. I think it’s more likely they stole the tech from someone else and they don’t know how to work everything they stole.”

Stone said, “What about we pick up our people from the canyon and hide until the navy comes to check on us?

Numos shook his head, “That sounds good, but when the navy comes, they’ll jump into a Hyrocanian trap. We already lost the Vasco de Gama and your family’s ship. How many other ships would be blown to pieces before someone figures out what’s going on?”

Stone said, “Then we have to spring the trap and keep it sprung. The navy might only send a small scout ship with few people on board, but we can’t take the chance they might send a huge cruiser with a hundred times the number of people we have here. We’re going to have to take on the Hyrocanian mothership with everything we’ve got. Live or die, it’s the only way we can protect incoming navy ships.”

THIRTY-SEVEN

The camouflaged shuttle settled over the treetops at the edge of the clearing in front of the canyon about a hundred feet off the ground. It was an easy jump for a marine in a combat suit, but that left Numos, Ryte, Wyznewski, and Stone stuck aboard unless they caught a ride with a descending marine.

Stone decided to stay on the shuttle and move to the central command center on piece number one. He sorely wanted to see Allie and his drascos, but Numos promised to transfer everyone to the ship as quickly as possible. Once the shuttle locked into a stable hover, Stone walked out to the shuttle’s surface. Hanging upside down was disorienting because his inner ear told him he was right-side up. The trees below him and the canyon just beyond hung over his head like a ceiling.

Although he was too far away to see the expression on the faces of the marine guards on the wall, he could tell by their body language they were a bit more than startled to see Lieutenant Hammermill, with Major Numos in his arms, appear out of nowhere, drop to the ground and march to the wall as if they had just been out for a stroll to the latrine pits. Word of their arrival in a stolen Hyrocanian shuttle spread faster than gossip about some starlet claiming to have given a virgin birth to the Emperor’s reincarnated great-grandfather.

The canyon’s overhead tarps were torn down, folded up, and packed away for moving. Clearing the sky allowed Stone to get back to the controls and move the shuttle, foot by foot until it settled next to a canyon wall, giving everyone a short ten-foot jump, not up, but down to land on the sloping side of the pyramid. He’d tried to get closer, but the shuttle fought against actually coming in contact with the planet. Wyznewski said it had something to do with opposing gravity forces, not to mention when they got close to the planet, the shuttle began to attract loose rocks, dirt and even people, sucking them up like a vacuum cleaner on automatic.

Instead of helping get the seriously wounded aboard, Stone stayed at the control console keeping an eye on the mothership. They’d had someone watching the red caret ever since they’d figured out how to use the map. So far, the mothership hadn’t moved or tried to contact them. Or rather, if they had tried to contact them, Stone didn’t know how to receive the message or open communications.

Wyznewski planned to enlist his scientific buddies in helping to decipher the Hyrocanian language using the notes Hammermill found on the walls of engineering. He claimed they might act like a Rosetta Stone.

The humans had so little in the way of material goods it didn’t take long to get everyone and everything transferred from the canyon to the ship. Stopping the mothership would take every one they could muster, even the walking wounded would need to help. Those too injured to help couldn’t be left behind because they couldn’t care for themselves. Besides, the shuttle was probably safer than the surface of Allie’s World, even with a horde of Hyrocanian prisoners trapped in the central core.

There was a spirited discussion about what to do with their prisoners. Numos and Stone agreed that killing prisoners outright was criminal. Stone was loathe to set them free on Allie’s World, even on a remote corner, since Whizzer hadn’t been able to determine their breeding capability. Whizzer didn’t have any way, short of an autopsy, to determine if a trapped alien was male or female. If the Hyrocanians bred and spread, it would be harder to eradicate them than removing the chips from a freshly baked chocolate chip cookie. They decided to leave them sealed up in the central core. Besides, attacking the mothership with a shuttle would most likely get them all killed anyway and that was as good a way as any to kill off their prisoners without a human actually pulling the trigger.

Stone was eyeballing the mothership’s location as it hung in a lazy orbit when Allie tried to sneak up behind him. He caught her scent of wet, dark chocolate long before she dropped into his lap. “Oooofff!” he complained, “Gad, you are sure getting heavy.”

Allie laughed, “All the better to hold you down, stickman. You’re nothing but bones. Have you been eating anything at all?”

He kissed her on the side of her neck. “I’ve just been waiting for you.” He nibbled lightly.

“I’m going to have Dollish bring you something as soon as he can find something to fix. I don’t suppose the four-armed freaks have a cupboard full of prepackaged dinners?”

Stone said, “No. I think they prefer their meals alive and raw at suppertime. There are quite a few animals running around the ship and in pens that we can eat,”

“I saw a herd of those little piglet things.”

Stone shook his head. He clearly remembered eating drasco meat. It nauseated him realizing now that drascos were intelligent. No matter what, he would err on the side of caution. “The sentience scans on the piglets were inconclusive. I think someone needs to redefine intelligence and redesign our scanners. Half of the time those things don’t register Jay and Peebee as any smarter than a domesticated pet, yet we know different.” He looked over his shoulder; they were alone. “You haven’t told anyone they can talk have you?”

Allie said, “No. I’m still not sure they can. Maybe you are crazy.”

“I am crazy. I’m crazy ‘bout you.” He nuzzled her neck again, making eating noises. She yanked his head up, holding it between her hands and kissed him long and hard on the lips.

A voice interrupted, “Excuse me, sir.”

Stone sighed and looked over his shoulder. Spacer Dollish had chased a trio of piglets into the room and was trying desperately to catch all three at the same time. Stone said, “Those things aren’t to be eaten until I say so, Spacer.” Allie tried to get off his lap, but he held her tight. She didn’t put up as much of a fight as she could have. He wished they were sitting in the overstuffed chair in the middle, instead of the least comfortable chair at the console, she really was heavy, still he didn’t want to let go.

Dollish nodded, “Yes sir. Major Numos told everyone they are not to be harmed, but they are running all over and Hammer, I mean Lieutenant Hammermill suggested we round them up just to keep them from being underfoot and getting hurt.”

Stone nodded, “Just be careful with them. I’m hungry, Spacer and I imagine these little guys are too, if you can wrangle something for me soon, that would be great and see if there is some way to find their feed. That will help you keep them corralled.”

Dollish managed to catch one of the piglets, but the other two vaulted into one of the overstuffed chairs. They sat staring at Stone and Allie with big eyes. He said, “I guess those two ain’t hurting nuthin’. I’ll come back for ‘em later, if that’s okay, sir.”

Allie said, “Just bring Ensign Stone something to eat soon. Something as high caloric as possible.”

Dollish shrugged and dug deep into a pocket. “Well, I was saving this for later, but Doc Menendez says your metabolism has gone haywire. With your body changing, you need to eat more or you’re going to get even sicker.” He finally grabbed what he was digging for and pulled out a thick block of something paper-wrapped. “This is a block of condensed sweet dark chocolate. We’re supposed to break off a piece, add water and use it to make cake, pies, and candy. Shoot, I even like to shave off a few pieces of this stuff and put in my chili, when I have the right spices. It’s about as high a calorie count as we’ve got, so you just gnaw on that until you can’t eat no more, sir. That’ll keep you from eating your own liver.”

Stone watched the spacer leave and said, “I’ve met chief petty officers in kitchens who didn’t have as much on the ball as Dollish.” He took a bite of the chocolate and nearly gagged at the sweetness, nevertheless there was just enough snap and a hint of heat to make it bearable. He pulled a small knife from his pocket and cut a chunk off for Allie.

Allie nodded, sucking on the chocolate rather than chewing it, “He’s turned out some astonishing meals out of nothing, but that really shouldn’t be a surprise. Getting on a planetary exploration team is a plumb position. It’s a good career move whether you are civilian or military. He would have to be the top in his field even to get a job washing pots and pans here. He may be young, but he is a natural cook.”

“Natural or not, he seems to love it.” He stopped chewing and looked down. One of the piglets had climbed down from the chair and was standing next to him staring up at him with big curious eyes. He gestured with his chin. “Allie, what do you think of this thing?”

She shook her head. “I don’t know. The Hyrocanians didn’t care whether they were smart or not. I’ve seen the vid of what they did to Doctor Triplett. Maybe these guys were smart at one time, or maybe they still are, just had the education bred out of them.”

The creature watched them, its eyes shifting back and forth as they talked. Stone cut a tiny piece of chocolate off the bar and held it out. He was surprised to see their arms didn’t end in hooves like their legs, but had three fingers that could separate and come together like a three pronged claw. The piglet took the piece of chocolate from Stone’s hand and went back to its chair. Climbing up the side, it sank only slightly in the cushion. It broke the chocolate piece in half and gave it to its companion. They sat, chewing their candy, watching Stone and Allie.

Allie finally took her eye off the piglets and Stone, staring at the monitor. She pointed at the big red dot. “Is that the Hyrocanian ship, Governor?”

Stone nodded. Hearing her use his planetary rank was a clear signal they were done with the personal pleasantries and discussing military strategy. If she’d call him ensign the conversation would have turned to tactical strategy. If she’d call him Stone, she would be discussing anything personal. “We are pretty sure that’s it.”

Allie said, “And your plan is to attack it, sir?”

Stone nodded again, “Seems like the thing to do, Lieutenant. What do you think?”

“I don’t think we have a choice. Do we?”

He shook his head. “No, Lieutenant Vedrian. And since you don’t have a combat suit and you’re suffering from a slight injury. I think you should be the shuttle pilot.”

Finally, she said, “Okay, Governor Stone. I can pilot a marine shuttle in a pinch so I guess I can learn to fly one of these. Show me how this thing works.”

They ran through all Stone knew in a few moments. The controls weren’t the most complex system in the universe. A replicator in any break room on any military base was more complicated. The design was to put a finger on the map where you want to go and push the go there button. They were just about to start discussing the other buttons when a scream cut through the air. Allie was on her feet, handgun trained at the door before Stone could move, but his rifle was at the ready quickly.

He caught the odor of Jay and Peebee and heard a marine cursing about losing a swath of skin on her forearm. Seconds later, he was cornered by two affectionate drascos. Dancing around him, heads wagging, hooting wildly, their tails whipped around the room threatening everything and everybody. Both were too excited to say much more than “
Mama. Mama. Mama!”

Stone laughed, “Easy, girls. I haven’t been gone that long.”

Tuttle spoke from the doorway, “They have been a bundle of nerves ever since you left, Governor. I’ve been babysitting them and they’ve missed you so much they haven’t slept at all.”

“How are you, Barb?”

Her voice hissed a little bit as she raised her right arm, emphasizing the missing hand. “Running low on pain killers. Even sex doesn’t help, so if we’re going to go kill something, let’s do it soon. I need the distraction.”

Stone nodded. “We’re working on it, Barb. Take a seat and relax some.” His conversation was punctuated by having to pet Jay and Peebee to keep them from climbing into his lap with Allie.

Allie said, “Corporal, now that Ensign Stone is back, I want to you to go back to keeping an eye on him. Don’t let him do something stupid and get killed, hear me?”

“Yes, sir. He can do something stupid, just not stupid enough to get killed. Got it, LT.” She plopped into the middle chair, its overstuffed cushions sighing as it took the weight of her combat suit. She unhooked her helmet, swinging it back away from her head. She looked down at the two piglets sitting next to her. They stared back at her with obvious curiosity. “Who’re your friends?”

Stone said, “I don’t really know. We haven’t been introduced yet.”

Tuttle asked. “These the critters Major Numos said may be intelligent?” She continued to stare at the creatures as they stared back at her. One of them reached out a small hand and tapped her combat suit. The metallic echo seemed to startle it, causing it to shrink away, but it didn’t run away.

Stone nodded. “As soon as we survive our encounter with the Hyrocanian mothership, I’ll check with Whizzer to see if we have a civilian who can run an intelligence study on them. Our resident civilian xeno-biologist was Doctor Triplett and she managed to get herself eaten by a supposedly sentient species.”

Allie asked, “You doubt the intelligence of the Hyrocanians?”

Stone shook his head. “Oh, they are intelligent enough, I am just beginning to doubt they’re sentient. I recently looked up the word and I got a three-part answer that has apparently been used for hundreds of years. One: responsive of sense impressions meaning they act when they taste, smell, hear, see, or touch something. So far, that sounds like a Hyrocanian. Two: they must be aware. Check. And three: finely sensitive in perception or feelings of themselves and others. There’s the clinker.”