Overrun: Project Hideaway (9 page)

“I wish I knew.”

Barnes reached across the cabin
directly in front of Parker’s face and started throwing switches and firing up
ship systems.

"It happened, Jeff,"
Parker said more loudly and full of command. "It happened. It
started."

"The fuck it did,” Barnes
replied. His voice had started to even out and color had returned to his face.
“Someone brought us up. No recent signs of contact or ship communications. If
it’s been fucking sixty years, there’s probably not even a reason for us to be
up here anymore. We’re going the fuck back. Right fucking now."

Barnes did not lower his arm and
continued to haphazardly punch at the control consoles in front of Parker’s
face.

Parker reached up quickly and
grabbed Barnes tightly by his left wrist. When Barnes tried to pull it away,
Parker didn't release his grip. The tips of Parker’s knuckles turned white from
the strength of his hold.

With their foreheads only inches
apart, the Hideaway pilots shared a frightened stare. Barnes tried to yank his
arm forcefully away. Parker did not let him go.

"Sixty years, Jed,” Barnes
almost pleaded. “That can't be right. There’s no way that can be right."

"Major Barnes, you know as
well as I that everything I’ve said just now is exactly right,” Parker almost
whispered to him. “The ship hasn’t been brought online in at least fifty-four
years. Probably to ensure that we were even better kept hidden. I guarantee
there’s a reason for that. We have an obligation to figure out that reason. We
cannot yet make contact or even think about going back.”

Barnes glared with hatred at the
man who still held him tightly by the arm.

“Besides that Barnes,” Parker
continued, “we have to consider there can't be that many people left alive
anymore that even care we're gone."

With this last sentence, Parker
released his grip. Angrily, Barnes snatched his hand back away and rubbed at
the splotchy red marks Parker's fingers had left at the base of his arm.

"Fuck you, Jed."

Parker didn't respond.

Barnes maneuvered his body as
far back away from Parker as he could in the small cockpit compartment and
resumed scrolling through the ship’s records on the terminal in front of his
lap.

"I'll tell you what, Jed,”
he said without looking up. “We may well have been floating here for close to
sixty years. Something on Earth may have gone horribly wrong. And that's why we
haven't been contacted. But, what if that isn't what happened? Maybe they're
actually looking for us. We don't know. And as long as we don't know, as soon
as those engines warm up, we're going back."

"The ship was kept offline
for a reason, Barnes," Parker said rubbing the crusty stubble on his chin.
"Our job is to sit here and wait. Wait for the dome to contact us. They’re
the only ones that could have brought this ship back up. That's been the
standard planned procedure in the case of this eventuality since day one."

"Again, Jed, fuck that, and
fuck you," Barnes said spitefully. "Maybe you have no reason to go
back to Earth. But I do. And that's why, right now, I could just almost give a
shit about the standard planned procedure in the case of any fucking
eventuality. Give me a goddamn break."

Parker hesitated briefly before
responding and stared over at Barnes. He tried to determine whether or not
there might be any sort of rational thought left somewhere behind his wild eyes
and blind raging fury.

Parker knew that soon he was
going to have to make a move and seize control. And contain the wrath that was
about to come.

"Barnes, most everyone
you’ve probably ever known is dead."

In an instant, movement left
Barnes’ body as if he had somehow been suspended in time. Barnes’ eyes shifted
slowly towards him. Parker could all but feel the danger to both himself and
the ship that lurked behind them.

The reason for Parker’s presence
aboard the Hideaway mission was now more than ever becoming perfectly clear.

"Jed, the engines are
almost fully lit. In two minutes we are heading back to Earth," Barnes
said through clenched teeth. "I don't give a shit what the hell else you
say otherwise."

Parker waited a full minute
before making a reply.

"Barnes, that is not what
we are about to do,” Parker spoke in a soft level tone. For the moment, he
ignored the open defiance and threats of mutiny by the only officer onboard the
ship. “This situation has to be assessed according to War Procedures Act 1. We
must assume Plan Zero is underway and proceed appropriately."

"I'm not assuming shit,
Jed!" Barnes screamed at him. "We’re floating out here in space like
two men coming back from the dead. I'm going to find out what the hell is going
on before I assume one goddamn thing! Do you understand me!?"

"You're going to act
according to proper protocol and procedure,” Parker’s voice dropped to a
whisper. “As outlined and presented to you by both Science Dome 15 scientific
and military staff before you came up here. That is the one and only standing
order you will now follow."

"Parker, you know what you
can do with that standing order," Barnes answered tersely before turning
away.

Without expression, Parker
turned to his copilot.

The situation had progressed as
far as he could allow it to go.

He reached down and felt along
the side of his seat. Popping open a small compartment door at the seat’s base,
his fingers brushed against the handle of his service weapon hidden inside. Its
steel still felt cool to the touch due to the ship’s extended downtime and
reduction in life support.

He had loaded and fired the
Sunszk only once at the Science Dome 15 weapons range. Five days before they
went up and only after arguing and pleading mercilessly with those overseeing
the mission to secretly store it on board.

Parker didn’t know how else they
expected him to control him.

Without bringing it up from the
seat, Parker’s fingers moved across the firing mechanism and pulled at its
safety. However, he was not able to control its soft “click” when it completely
disengaged.

Barnes looked over quickly at
Parker. For the moment, Parker kept his hand holding the weapon still hidden
down near the floor. In a heartbeat, the hate and defiance seething behind
Barnes’ eyes changed to a primal almost uncontrollable fear.

"What are ya doin’,
Jed?!" Barnes shifted his body quickly around in his seat.

Spurred by Barnes’s sudden
movement, Parker set his finger across the weapon’s trigger and raised his arm.

But not in time.

Before he could pivot his body
and bring the Sunszk around, Barnes clenched his fist and slammed it against
Parker's jaw. The blow knocked Parker’s head hard against the control panels
momentarily clouding his senses in a warm fuzzy haze.

Through it, he briefly caught a
vision of his wife and son. Looking concerned and afraid, they watched him from
the other side of the cockpit window. From out in the deepness of space.

Parker then felt his body start
to rise out of his seat. Barnes had activated the emergency life support system
conservation controls before running from the cockpit toward the rear of the
ship.

Many of the ship lights powered
down and the gravitational generators had already disengaged. Parker's
half-conscious form floated lazily towards the top of the cabin until the
ceiling pressed down against his face.

Parker turned his head in time
to see Barnes floating away down the center of the corridor working his hands
in front of him like he was doing a waterless breaststroke. He then rounded a
corner and was gone leaving Parker alone in the control cabin.

Disorientated and painfully
annoyed, Parker felt a couple drops of sweat break from his face into the weightlessness
around him. He raised his hands over his head and pushed up at the ceiling
trying to get his body back down into his seat. With his senses starting to
clear, he strapped himself back into his command chair and began punching at
the main control console.

He regretted it had already come
to this. No matter how much he disliked the man with whom he shared this
mission, Parker preferred his company many times over to dying alone out in
space.

"Commencing emergency
override," a computer-generated voice spoke calmly through a small speaker
in the ceiling overhead.

Parker slumped back in his chair
as the gravitational generators fired up and came back on.

Loud slamming sounds echoed
behind him through the metallic passageways.

Parker punched hurriedly at the
main control terminals and entered a series of number and letter sequences.

"Emergency Zero Sequence
activated," the computer voice reported serenely from over his head.

Parker could feel the jolts from
the large steel doors slamming shut throughout the Hideaway. The
emergency-activated doors were individually sealing off each compartment and
separating the pilots from the cargo at the rear of the ship.

He heard another loud slam. And
then from somewhere in the far back recesses of the ship’s chambers, came a
loud shriek.

Parker turned his body slightly
and reached back towards where his Sunszk hand weapon had fallen across the
floor. He released himself from the straps and buckles holding him to his seat
and swung his feet to the ground. After firmly securing his weapon to his
waist, Parker ducked out of the cockpit into the empty passageways.

It was difficult to see anything
within the steel girders of the corridor leading from the cockpit. Red
emergency lights cast eerie slow-pulsing beams across the metal walls of the
ship’s narrow hallways. Stepping slowly with his weapon clutched rigidly at the
end of taut outstretched arms, Parker inched further away from the cockpit.

About twenty steps down the
hallway, the corridor veered sharply to the left. Parker stopped before the
turn and stood silently at its center.

Barnes continued to scream.

"Barnes!" Parker
yelled without stepping around the corner.

Barnes’ screams stopped upon
hearing Parker’s voice. They were quickly replaced by the sound of something
dragging softly across the metal floor.

Parker knew Barnes was close. He
could hear his heavy breathing and soft whimpering moans coming from around the
next corner.

Parker took a breath and was
about to step around the turn when a large creak of strained metal filled the
hallway. The sound was immediately followed by a resounding thud. Pain-filled
shrieks followed immediately after. Barnes's terrified voice pierced the air
and echoed throughout the ship.

"Barnes!" Parker
yelled again without turning into the next passage.

Barnes only continued to scream.

Parker moved from the center of
the corridor and leaned against a far wall. He pulled his arms back against his
body and rested his Sunszk, with its barrel pointed upward, against his
forehead. He took two deep breaths and wiped the line of sweat creeping across
his forehead with the back of his left hand.

Again grasping his weapon with
both hands and continuing to hold it straight up, Parker crouched to his knees
and lowered his body chest-first to the floor.

"Barnes!" he yelled
again while squirming across the ground to where the hallway turned to the
side. The coolness of the deck cut through Parker’s uniform bringing a slight
discomfort to his skin. Much of his body was still tender from not yet being
adjusted to being free of the hibernation liquid that had surrounded it for so
long.

"Jed! Son of a bitch! Jed!
Help me for god's sake!"

With both arms and his weapon
pointed out, Parker rolled his large body around the corner. In the same motion,
he clicked off its safety and with a quick pump action readied it to fire. With
his finger across the trigger, he stared out into the darkness searching for
the source of Barnes’ voice.

With his Sunszk still extended
outward, he hugged the cool steel-grated surface of the corridor with his
chest.

He sensed Major Jeff Barnes
ahead of him in the gloom. Judging by his groans, he was somewhere along the
floor.

Parker waited for his eyes to
adjust to the darkness. Staying sprawled across his stomach, Parker centered
his weapon at the figure moving slightly in front of him. Through the dimness,
systematically interrupted by the red flashing emergency lights, Parker saw the
reason for Barnes’ screams.

"Barnes!"

Barnes answered with a soft
moan.

Parker raised himself to his
knees and continued to point his weapon at the dim shape slumped ahead across
the ground.

Barnes sat barely moving in the
dark. His body was pinned roughly beneath the mammoth weight of the corridor’s
emergency door.

His hands pushed weakly at the
heavy steel that was crushing across his left shoulder and pinning him to the
floor. His right leg kicked grotesquely out behind him trying to find a
foothold to push his body back up. Barnes howled in agony as the door’s
unyielding force slowly drove his tailbone into the deck of the ship.

Parker fought the uncomfortable
feeling in his stomach and did his best not to turn away.

Setting his teeth in a thin
line, Parker slowly stood. With his arms outstretched and his hands still
locked tightly about the grip of his Sunszk, he inched down the corridor
towards the large emergency door.

Watching him make his way
forward, Barnes stopped his wounded shrieks.

"Jed, get me out of
here," he pleaded. He pressed weakly up again at the heavy door. Its intense
weight was driving his spine hard into the ship’s metallic deck. “Please,
Jed….”

Parker could barely hear his
pleas over the bellow of the sirens. Finally reaching where he was pinned to
the ground, Parker stared down over him. Barnes looked wildly around, his eyes
lit by the glare of the jabbing swirl of the emergency lights. Parker moved
closer and lowered his arms.