My Other Car is a Spaceship (22 page)

“I know it takes time, damn it, but it’s taking too
much
time. I want you to put every available person on it.”

“Do you want me to take people off prisoner processing, or food services, or ship maintenance, or—”

“Don’t be a smartass, Jern. You know I don’t mean
them
. But you can call up everyone who’s off-duty and have them help with a door-to-door search. That should more than double your manpower. And upgrade those locks so the calibrator can’t open them.”

“
Yes, sir. It will take weeks to upgrade
all
the locks, but we will find the prisoners before the day is out.”

“Damn right you will.
The longer the prisoners are loose, the weaker we look—both to the other pirates and to the prisoners. We don’t need any rumors getting started that we’re anything less than invincible. That sort of thing breeds hope, which leads to ideas, and that’s something we don’t need prisoners getting.”

“You two go down that side, and we’ll go down this side,” a deep voice declared. “Look for anything suspicious.”

“Suspicious?
” a higher-pitched female voice replied. “This is a warehouse. Half the stuff
in
here has been opened at least once.”

“So what? Check anything that looks like it has been opened. Do
you
want to tell Ishtawahl that you missed catching the prisoners because you were too lazy to open a few boxes? I would rather avoid that conversation myself.”

“Yeah, yeah.
Fine.”

At the first sound of the door opening, Hal, Kalen, Sue, and Merry dove into the crate full of pillows.
The crate was two-thirds of the way back in the chamber. That gave them plenty of time to burrow down to the bottom of the meter-and-a-half-high box after Hal and Kalen carefully replaced the lid. Then all they could do was wait in the dark and listen to the sounds of the searchers getting closer.

“I’m scared,” Merry said.

“Shh,” Kalen said, pulling her closer to him.

“I want my daddy.” She began to whimper.

“We’ll find him just as soon as we can, sweetheart,” Kalen whispered into her ear. “But right now you have to be brave. If they hear us….”

He started to say that the bad pirates would hurt them, but then realized that might scare her even more.

“If they hear us, we won’t be able to find your daddy. Okay?”

He felt her nod against his cheek. “Good.” He
put both arms around her and squeezed tighter.

The foursome huddled among the pillows
, straining for the slightest indication of the searchers’ locations. Merry began to tremble in Kalen’s arms. He kissed the top of her head to comfort her and the trembling stopped for the moment.

Kalen froze as he heard
a sound—the scuff of boots. Merry heard it too; she tensed in his arms and emitted a tiny gasp. Kalen slid a gentle finger over her lips.

“Tek
k! Did you hear that?” A raspy voice spoke from close range.

“Hear what?”
The female responded from farther away.

“I don’t know. A noise.
”

“Where?”

“Close.”

“All right, let’s start opening crates.”

Merry’s trembling returned. Kalen held her tighter still.

A thump and then another came from the right—someone checking for
loose boards. A lid rattled on the left. Merry tensed up.

Several minu
tes of rummaging sounds ended with the clunk of the lid being replaced. Seconds later, brilliant light flooded the pile of pillows. The lid fell to the floor with a clatter, eliciting another gasp from Merry.

Did they hear that over the noise?
Kalen felt a warm wetness spread along his thigh. His palm was now over Merry’s mouth.
I guess we’ll find out in a few seconds.

The light filtering between the pillows brightened as layers
were cast aside. At last one layer remained. Through a small gap Kalen saw bright eyes amid a shadowed face.

That’s it, then. They’ve got us.

Damn. Some escape this turned out to be. All we accomplished was to cower in a box.

He sighed to himself as the pirate reached for the pillow that separated them.

“Tekk! Marjen! Over here!” the deep voice called out.

“What is it?” the
raspy-voiced pirate leaning over the crate called back. He lifted the pillow several centimeters, enough that Kalen could clearly see his ugly Melphim face turn toward the other voice.

“
We have movement! Get around over there and cut them off.”

“Coming
!” He dropped the pillow without ever looking down.

Two sets of footsteps raced away from the crate. Kalen let out the breath he’d been holding and removed his hand from Merry’s mouth.

They listened to thuds, shuffling, even the crash of a crate falling.

Kalen frowned.
Who else is here, besides the guards and us?

“Ah, hell!”
The third voice called out. “It’s only a sanibot. What about what you were checking out over there?”

“Nothing. Just a box of pillows.”

“All right, then. Enough of this crap. Let’s clean up this mess and get out of here. We have plenty of other places to search before we get to eat.”

“I’m with you.”

Heavy footsteps neared the crate and Kalen once again put a finger across Merry’s lips. The duo tossed the pillows haphazardly back into the crate and slid the lid back on top. Within seconds, the footsteps receded from hearing. A minute later, a faint hissing and sighing indicated the departure of the pirates.

Whew! Thanks, Roger.

Merry immediately began to squirm, but Kalen held her in place. A moment later, another hiss and sigh revealed another pirate’s departure—or was it a re-entry? There was no way to tell from the sound.

Kalen listened intently for a full five minutes, but heard nothing.

The only way to be sure is to look outside the crate. But if I do that and someone’s there, I’ll give our position away. The best option is simply to wait a bit longer. But how
much
longer? We can’t stay in here forever.

After another five minutes, he decided enough time had passed to venture a glimpse. He gently disentangled himself from Merry with a whispered “stay here” and wormed his way back up through the pillows until his head was just below the lid. Taking infinite care to avoid making a sound, he gradually raised the lid, supported by his head and hands, an inch and then another and then another, until he could just
peer over the edge of the crate.

No
thing moved. Slowly, ever so slowly, he turned his head clockwise as far as he could. Still nothing. He reversed the process, looking as far left as possible. The coast looked clear.

How can I be sure
it’s safe?

He thought for a moment, before making a decision.
I can’t. If they’re waiting out there, they can wait a lot longer than we can. If they know we’re in here somewhere, they’ll guard the doors and we’re already as good as caught. We don’t have any way of fighting back—especially not with Merry here.

We might as well get it over with.

He stood and lifted the lid off the crate and let it down beside the box with a clatter. “Okay everyone, I think we’re safe. Come on out.”

Hal stood and stretched with a groan. Sue followed. Kalen felt a tug on his pants and looked down to see Merry standing with her arms raised, waiting to be lifted out. Kalen did so, handing her to Hal, who was now standing outside the crate. Kalen hopped down himself.

Merry burst into tears at last.

Kalen knelt and gathered her in his arms. “Hey, it’s all right, sweetheart. The bad pirates are gone. We’re safe.”

“I-I’m sorry, Uncle Kalen.”

Uncle?

“I w-wet myself.” Tears soaked Kalen’s coveralls as she buried her face in his shoulder.

He smiled and squeezer her tighter. “Was that you? I thought it was me. I was certainly scared enough. But
you
weren’t. You were the bravest little girl—no,
big
girl—I’ve ever met.”

Mer
ry pulled her head back, tears now abated. “Really?”

“Really. I’m the
captain of a ship. I know bravery when I see it. When we get back to Unity headquarters, I’m going to see about getting you a medal for bravery.”

“Really?”
she repeated, now with eyes wide and a grin dripping with the remnants of her tears.

“Absolutely.
In the meantime, let’s see about getting you—and me—some dry clothes to wear. Okay?”

Merry saluted.
“Yes
sir
, Uncle Captain Kalen, sir!”

Kalen and Hal burst out in a release of cathartic laughter.
Merry giggled. Even Sue smiled.

Kalen dabbed at
Merry’s eyes and face with his sleeve. “Good. Now I think it’s time we figure out how we can get back at these mean ol’ pirates.”

“Are you telling me you
still
haven’t found them?” Penrod roared. “You’ve had
two entire days.
Are you actually saying three prisoners dragging a child around with them are more resourceful than your entire security staff?”

Ishtawahl bristled. “As I told you earlier, there are thousands of places they could hide.
Those miners drilled hundreds of kilometers of tunnels, chambers, side-passages and niches. We have not even explored many of them. Unless the prisoners emerge where they can be seen, we will have to search every possible hiding place. That is a tedious and time-consuming proposition and we have less than infinite resources to devote to the search. We
will
find them; I guarantee it. However, it may take several days, unless they make a mistake.”

“I’m not happy, Jern.
An ineffectual pirate is a
dead
pirate, if you get my drift. I want them found!”

Senior Engineer MilGrensol leaned against the hyperflight drive as Captain Feshen Tro inspected the balky Groltaf relay deep in the bowels of
Queen Anne’s Revenge.

“I see what you mean,” the
captain replied. “We need to replace it now. It will not wait until we return.”

“No sir.”

“How long will it take? We must be ready to leave as soon as the next nuke is functional.”

“Only a day or so,
Captain. It
is
tricky to replace, but we have done this several times. We can do it almost as quickly as a refit crew could at a well-equipped spacedock.”

“
Very good. Let me know as soon as it is done. In the meantime, we will begin our other preparations.”

“Uncle Kalen!” Merry squealed.

Sue and t
he others came running, assuming she’d hurt herself.

“Look what I found!”

“What’s that?” Kalen asked, taking it from her outstretched hand. It was a folding knife, used for opening boxes and sacks.

He flicked open the
blade and tested the edge and wicked-looking point with his thumb. “Well, well. This could come in handy indeed. Good job, Merry!”

She stood there, beaming, with her thumbs tucked through the rope belt tied around her waist. She wore
only a white shirt someone had left behind, but it came down to her knees. It had been reasonably clean when she donned it three days earlier. Now it was as dusty and dirt-smeared as her face. Across the chest, Kalen had written “Assistant Captain” using a green marker he’d found.

With the dirty shirt and face, rope belt, and unkempt hair, she looked more like a pirate than a Unity officer, but that hadn’t kept the expression of pride off her face when he “promoted” her the day before.

“It’s only a three-inch blade,” Kalen said to the others, “so we won’t exactly be dueling with cutlasses in the aisles, but it helps. That gives us a pry bar, a wooden table leg, a pneumodermic, and a knife between us. At least we’re all armed now, to some extent.”

He winked at Merry. “No, I’m sorry
, kiddo; no weapons for you. You’re too valuable. Someone has to take over and be in charge if I’m captured.”

She nodded in wide-eyed seriousness.
“Yes, sir.”

“Maybe it’s time we expand our horizons,” Hal suggested. We’ve pretty much explored all of this warehouse. We’ve got food, weapons, and other useful odds-and-ends. Isn’t it about time we start looking for a way to fight back?”

Kalen nodded. “I agree. The third shift should be starting soon. You and I’ll split up and explore some of the surrounding chambers. Sue, you and Merry will defend our home base. Right?” He winked at Merry.

She
nodded vigorously.

Sue knew Kalen meant for her to keep Merry out of danger.
They’d already had to hide several times from pirates entering the warehouse to get various items. Once they’d been too far from their box of pillows to return, and had to play cat-and-mouse with the pirates, trying to stay out of sight and as far away as possible at all times. Merry had gotten separated from the others at one point and was only one crate away from being spotted. Had the pirate turned right instead of left….

“Good. We’re looking for better weapons, equipment we can sabotage, a m
eans of escape, other prisoners we can release, and so on. Anything that might help us or hurt the pirates. And we have to do it without being seen and leading them back here.”

“Then tell him—” Penrod froze as the intercom went dead and he was plunged into blackness—not the darkness of the night sky, for that provided enough light to see by once the eyes adjusted, but the inky depths of the deepest mine, so far below ground that light never penetrated. The kind of darkness from which nightmares are made.

For a moment, Tarl Penrod
, chairman of BAE Corporation and leader of an army of murderous pirates, was transformed into little Tarrie, a filthy, starving, five-year-old waif with deep-set eyes rummaging through the trash in an alley near the outskirts of Albezon. He desperately scrounged for something to eat—anything, even moldy bread or maggot-infested scraps of meat. Something to salve the burning void in his belly. Three days with nothing to eat or drink but muddy puddle water will bring anyone to that point.

An instant later, the alley went
dark. Not as black as now, but in the lee of a tall building, on a cloudy, moonless night, the effect was just as heart-stopping for a young child. He’d crawled in darkness to the end of the alley, where he saw sparks jetting from the power station the pirates had just destroyed down the street.

The ship that hovered overhead, providing cov
ering fire for the pirates on the ground, symbolized power to young Tarrie. As he gazed upward with wide, terrified eyes, he told himself that someday
he
would be like that: strong, powerful, fearless.

As the emergency lights flickered and then held, Penrod let out the breath he’d been holding. He assumed a wry smile.
Well, two outta three ain’t bad.

“Jern!” he bellowed. “What happened?”

Ishtawahl, in the next office, rounded the doorway and stuck his head in. “I have no way of knowing yet, but clearly a junction box or power generator for this part of the asteroid blew. It may have been a faulty part, or a sudden surge—”

“Or it’s those damn prisoners. You’ve had five days,
five days
to find them and still you’ve failed. It was bad enough when they were simply hiding, but now they’re going around sabotaging equipment and disrupting power. What’s next, an assault on these offices?”

“That is highly unlikely, given—”

“That was a rhetorica—oh, never mind. Just find them and kill them. I’m through screwing around. I thought we might turn a nice profit on them, but they’re not worth this much trouble. Tell security to shoot on sight. Spare the child—we can still sell her—but kill the others.”

“Yes sir.”

After a week of exploring
corridors and chambers, Kalen and Hal knew their way around much of the fortress. They knew which chambers contained things of interest and which corridors the pirates didn’t use because they hadn’t been refurbished since the miners left. They found changes of uniform, so they didn’t look suspiciously dirty to anyone they encountered. They picked up the occasional tool left unattended, and now each looked like just another workman on his way to or from a repair job.

“Hey, how’s it goin’,” a bearded pirate called out and waved as he passed Hal
traversing an intersection.” Hal had crossed paths with that particular pirate several times in the past few days.

“Good,” He replied with a grin and a friendly wave of his own. “You?”

“Same shit, different day.”

“I hear ya. Take it easy.”

“You too,” the pirate called back over his shoulder.

At this point Hal and Kalen were taken for granted by the pirates they passed and assumed to be like everyone else working
third shift—on someone’s shit-list somewhere. As long as they acted like they belonged, and maintained a purposeful stride—no obvious loitering—no one paid much attention. On the rare occasion when one of them spied a security patrol, they simply pulled a gauge or sensor pad out of their tool belts and made a point of looking down and reviewing its readings as they walked. Invariably, the security guards sailed right past them. After all, what prisoner would be so blatant, so nonchalant about walking down the middle of a corridor and past the very people sent to capture them? The fact that they now wore typical worker coveralls and caps helped them blend into the background.

In fact, Hal was so pleased with his ability to
pass as a pirate, he’d joked to Kalen, “Just hand me an eye patch and a parrot and call me Pegleg Pete!”

In order to keep from being so obvious about
when they performed their sabotage, they’d had to find creative ways to have the damage discovered during other shifts: a short that occurred only when someone turned the machine on during first shift or a damaged fuel cell that wasn’t discovered until someone attempted to use the truck during second shift. This kept security from concentrating their sweeps during third shift.

Now, feeling more comfortable about blending in with the pirates, Hal and Kalen had taken to committing some of the sabotage during other shifts. True, there was a greater chance of being observed and caught, but there were rooms that were locked during off-shifts.
That meant if one of the men wanted to enter such a room, either he had to chance taking Sue with him to unlock the doors with the calibrator during third shift, or he had to infiltrate during one of the other two shifts, when people used those rooms. That was how they had disrupted power for several hours earlier in the week.

They’d had some concern that Merry might panic over the darkness, so they planned ahead. They’d left both Merry and Sue flashlights to use, and made sure Sue knew what
act of sabotage was coming and when. Then, when the power cut out—there were no emergency lights in the warehouse—she kept Merry entertained with a succession of stories about her home planet and exploring the stars as an astronomer. Merry treated the whole situation as an adventure, much like camping out, except without the stars and the ghost stories.

Today, Hal’s mission was to disrupt the water supply. The pumping station was guarded, as expected
. Hal carried a toolbox in one hand and a replacement valve under his other arm. He wore the usual black coveralls.

One of t
he Melphim guards was too busy chatting to give him more than a cursory glance. The other was more diligent.

“You! Where do you think you are going?”

“I have to replace the valve at J12. It’s way past its scheduled maintenance date.”

“No one notified us that there was any maintenance scheduled for today.”

“Look,” Hal said with exasperation. “I just told ya, it isn’t scheduled maintenance. We’re way past that time. Someone just noticed this morning that it’s more than a month overdue. The Chief told me to get my ass down here ASAP and take care of it. This is the replacement.” He held it up under the guard’s nose. “So you can either let me do my job, or you can call the Chief and argue with him about it. It doesn’t matter to me either way. I can go grab a break while you two yell at each other. Your choice.” He stood there, expectantly.

The guard looked to his compatriot, wh
o merely shrugged. It was obvious he wasn’t about to stick his neck out for the other.

“All right. Go in. How long will you be?”

Hal shrugged. “It shouldn’t take long. Turn off the water, unscrew the old valve, screw in the new one, turn the water back on. Ten to fifteen minutes, tops. You’re welcome to watch, if you have nothing better to do with your time.”

The guard waved him on. “Go.”

Hal’s offer wasn’t bravado. The guards could have watched him closely and it wouldn’t have mattered. What they didn’t know was that the valve wasn’t a replacement for a defective part. It was purposely and carefully damaged by Hal and Kalen back in the warehouse to create a hairline crack that wouldn’t be noticed by casual inspection. However, when the water requirements of the morning shift caused the pressure to build, it would fail spectacularly, splitting down the middle.

Like the other acts of sabotage committed by Hal and Kalen, it wouldn’t cause permanent damage
. It would only harass the pirates and distract them temporarily from their business of murder and mayhem. That was the best the two men could manage so far. They were still looking for an opportunity to create a major and lasting impact on the pirates.

At the same time, they were taking bigger and bigger risks by operating during the first and second shifts. It was likely these guards would remember Hal’s face after the J12 valve blew in a few hours. If they passed him in the corridors, they might very well recognize and capture him. Still, he reckoned, that was no worse a situation than he’d been in earlier as a prisoner.

As promised, he was in and out in less than fifteen minutes. Four hours later all hell broke loose, along with forty-four thousand liters of water under high pressure. It took more than an hour to shut off the water “upstream,” shut off the electricity to the pump room, and replace the valve by flashlight. Then several more hours to clean up the water that flooded out of the pumping station, down the corridor, and into several other rooms. And then there were the additional hours spent replacing the damaged electrical components that shorted out on contact, and the time spent purifying the water for reuse. Finally, there was the not insignificant matter of tying up more than a dozen pirates for hours taking care of all those problems.