Rust Bucket (18 page)

***

While everyone ate a quick breakfast, complicated because the cooks had to deal with a slight tilt, I brought up the subject of the mission I was forming. Quickly I stated, "I need volunteers to go with me to investigate the Ape-oids ship. We'll be checking for survivors to make sure that they don't attack us. If there's only one or two, we'll attempt to take them prisoner for intelligence purposes to take back with us. If there's a lot of them, we'll either disarm them and keep an eye on them somehow until we leave or we'll have to kill them to protect ourselves. Not everyone can go. If we have to kill them, then I don't want anyone who might have a problem with their conscience later. It might not be right to just kill them outright, but I will order it to protect the lives of everyone here unless they're willing to accept and honor a truce in exchange for their lives. Regardless of the circumstances, I would like to take one or two of them prisoner if any are alive."

      I grabbed another bite of my breakfast while hands went up everywhere among the crew and officers who wanted to volunteer for the mission. Then I started selecting volunteers to go with me.

      The surgeon came over as I got another bite or two. He said, "I'd like to follow close behind in case my services are needed by a few of their survivors or if there's a fight."

      "Okay. Shirley! Pick one more volunteer to accompany you and the Doc. You'll stay far behind us, but close enough in case you're needed. Got that?" I asked.

      Shirley nodded and went to select one more volunteer.

      The surgeon replied, "Thanks, Captain. We'll be ready whatever happens."

      I replied, "If it turns out that most of them survived and they start kicking the hell out of us, you get your butt back to the ship to take care of the people here. Are my orders understood, Doc?"

      He said, "Yes. I understand. Take care of the largest group or whatever logic you're using."

      I said, "Doc, if too many of them survived and they're armed, you won't be able to get to us in time. You'll only have one responsibility left. That's my logic."

      He said, "I see. Okay. In that case, I'll return to the ship."

***

A few minutes later, my group of volunteers and myself were drawing stinger rifles from the ship's armory. We checked ourselves and rechecked each other before we finally walked back outside the ship. We then started for the alien ship, visible a few kilometers away by virtue of the smoke that still rose from it. I know that the amount of time I had delayed in starting out had probably given any survivors enough time to get away if they were so inclined, but I wasn't about to rush my people over to what might have been a hastily constructed trap. By now, the Ape-oids might be thinking that we thought them to all be dead. They might even think that they had successfully killed us. They might be getting careless in that case. Of course, if there were only a few injured survivors, we might have already delayed too long to save any of them with medical assistance, that is if Doc could successfully treat any of them. I doubted that he had any knowledge of their anatomy or physical needs.

      We had to skirt around most of the lake to cross where several shallow streams emptied into it. Then we reached the other side of the lake and made our way through the forest to where the alien ship crashed. It took us almost a half-hour to get there. When we could see some of the debris from the alien ship, we slowed down deliberately so that we wouldn't walk into any hastily prepared traps.

      There were survivors. They were quietly waiting in the wreckage of their craft. The odds of that many survivors wasn't unlikely because of their low altitude and airspeed. What surprised me was that they managed to survive the subsequent explosion and fires inside their ship.

      Only a few of them were armed. We dealt with that group first, taking cover and rushing them from different angles while others of our group provided covering fire. There were a few without weapons who had taken positions at other locations. They leaped out to engage in hand-to-hand combat with us at the last moment just when we finished taking out the last of the Ape-oids with weapons.

      One of them leapt out at me before the last of the armed Ape-oids fell. I was glad for my physical conditioning as I managed to step back and fire my stinger rifle point blank at him. His hands clasped about the barrel of the stinger rifle, keeping me from using it on another Ape-oid who followed him. I released my hold on the stinger rifle and reached for my stinger in my holster. The Ape-oid was remarkably fast, but mostly he had longer arms than I was used to. He managed to knock the stinger out of my hand just as it cleared the holster. I think he was just as surprised when he realized that I had longer legs as my foot lashed out and hit him in his hairy chest, knocking him onto his back. I reached into my hidden holster and pulled my antique projectile weapon. I flicked the safety on it and pulled the trigger. The sound of my gun discharging caught everyone's attention because it was so unusual and made them all pause and look. The Ape-oid I shot died as the bullet hit him in his chest where his heart must have been. The rest of the Ape-oids suddenly found themselves facing too many weapons at one time and slowly raised their hands over their heads.

      The battle was over that quickly as we took the three remaining Ape-oids prisoner. The handcuffs we brought along, in case we found survivors to take prisoner, were used to secure them. Then we marched them back to our ship. A few of my volunteers remained behind while Doc was sent to the wreck to see if there were anymore survivors who might be saved and to take care of two wounded personnel of ours. I felt lucky that we didn't have any of our personnel killed. Had the Ape-oids had a few more weapons, the battle might have been more costly to us.

***

Once back at the ship, each of the Ape-oids was locked in a different room to keep them from communicating with each other. Each had a guard the entire time to keep them under constant observation. I thought about trying my hand at interrogation, but decided that I didn't know enough about how to do it right. So, I didn't attempt to interrogate them, let alone learn their language or teach them ours. For the time being, a few simple instructions would have to suffice. We would turn them over to Headquarters when we got back to port.

***

Frank came over to me a little later. "Dave, I've taken a look at the other ship. We can use some of their framing materials to repair ours and then put a skin back on. There might not be anything underneath the skin, but at least we won't look as damaged as we are. Could make a difference if we're spotted."

      I said, "Okay. Take what you need from the alien ship. Also, I want you and whoever you take with you to be alert to anything that might be of value to intelligence. Documents, logbooks, textdisks, and so forth. Be careful of booby traps. They had enough time to rig up some and we haven't combed through anything yet. So far, all we have are prisoners. There might be some more of them alive over there. Do not take chances and do not take the other pilots with you."

      He replied, "Thanks, Dave." Frank left to get some assistance and go over to the alien ship.

      I went back outside to look at the
Thurman
again and see if I had any new ideas of how to raise part of the ship without causing more damage so that we could repair the broken beam. As I walked outside, my mind was thinking of a fulcrum. It was one of the easiest ways to move a large weight, but it also depended on us having a long enough log and counter weight to lift that much. We could also take rope and try to pull the ship back the other way, but what I could see was that we might have to try each method and then combine them if each one wasn't successful by itself.

***

It turned out that I didn't have to solve the problem. Kyle solved it. His solution was even easier than I thought it would be. His proposal was to take a log which just barely fit between the remaining space and then drive a wedge between it and the bulkhead to force the bulkhead back up. Drive a second wedge to force it up a little more. Then substitute a slightly longer log next to it and keep working at the problem with the wedges until the gap between bulkheads was back at the proper spacing. Instead of requiring almost all of us to do the task, his method would only require a few people at a time.

      Frank found enough material at the alien ship to replace the now broken beam and brought it back with his volunteers. They also found enough metal sheeting to replace what was lost from our outer hull. It might not look pretty when finished, but it would give us back more aerodynamics and that could be important to our success.

      It took almost a week to get the spacing between the bulkheads back to the proper amount. Then the broken beam was removed and the new material was used in its place. When it was welded into place, the logs were removed from the other damaged beam and it was reinforced using the pieces left over from the broken beam. Once the beams were replaced and repaired, the logs were removed completely. We waited a day to see if they were going to hold. The next day, the crew started replacing the missing outer hull with the metal sheeting. That also took a day to do, but when it was finished, the
Thurman
looked like a whole ship again. Some more of the sheeting was used to cover over where the Mark II single had been destroyed.

      We spent two more days putting water into the tanks to be sure we had enough to last until we reached port. Finally, the scaffolding was removed while everything was picked up and stowed away as we prepared to leave.

Frank was the designated pilot, not so much because I thought he was the best, but because the other pilots thought he was the best. The nuclear isotope engines were powered up. We listened to them for unusual vibrations for a few minutes before Frank nodded that he was satisfied while saying, "We're as ready as we're going to be."

      "Okay, Frank, launch," I replied.

      Frank put the engines to turning out full power. We lifted off with a kick that snapped us back into our seats as the
Thurman
reclaimed its rightful position in the heavens. The ship went into orbit where we held our first battle stations drill in quite a while. It lasted almost two hours before all the officers were satisfied. I was satisfied with the drills after only an hour.

***

A day later, we came upon an enemy scout. We blasted him to bits just as he began to broadcast his message.

      "Communications, why aren't we giving the score? Our Navy needs its morale lifted. Mason, good shooting back there!" I said.

      I listened as Shirley broadcasted the score again, even though it gave away our position. Meanwhile, we were moving towards our port at top speed. I hoped that the message had an impact on both sides of the war.

      "Captain! I've got a message from Headquarters!" Shirley said.

      "What's their message this time? Am I still under arrest?" I asked.

      She said, "Yes sir, but they also said welcome back."

      I replied, "Give them my thanks. We're glad to be back."

      That time, Shirley didn't give them a raspberry. She quickly brought them up to date on what happened.

***

A day later, we blasted one more scout. Evidently, he didn't believe that we were still alive when he saw us and started broadcasting instead of taking evasive action. Then we entered into familiar space and arrived at our port a day later.

***

I had expected the Ape-oids to really mount an effort to stop us after Shirley told Headquarters that we had three prisoners. For some reason, only the two scouts were in our way. We had to make a side landing with the
Thurman
because we didn't want to damage the ship or lose the prisoners if the repairs didn't hold up. For that, Frank was again the designated pilot.

      When we made the landing, I quickly understood why the other pilots let Frank have the task. It was the first time I was in a ship that made such a landing. It was quite a scary sensation to see the terrain flash by so quickly. When the ship lost its momentum, we were practically at the exact point where Frank intended for us to be. The ship was almost directly beside the river vessel that quickly dispatched divers to attach floatation and lift devices to the hull. Then the
Thurman
was towed a short distance to shore where a crane was used to lift the ship onto land.

      A lot of crew members and officers shook Frank's hand that day as we left the
Thurman
for a repair crew to take care of. A truckload of Shore Patrol came rolling up to where we were. I thought at first that they came there for me, but they took charge of our prisoners instead.

      A little bit later, a Shore Patrol officer showed up and walked over to me. "Captain Oden?"

      I said, "Yes sir, I'm he."

      He said, "Sir, you are restricted to base during the time you're under arrest. Because we're at war, you'll be allowed to keep your weapons, especially since you've been quite good at using them on the enemy. You're to report to Headquarters immediately. I believe your trial will start tomorrow. Good luck. I hope you win. If you like, I can give you a lift over to Headquarters now."

      "Thanks. I accept your offer of a ride," I said as I followed him to his vehicle.

***

I walked into Headquarters where the Fleet Admiral was trying to look at me as if he was impartial. To me, he looked like he was caught in a dilemma. He was obviously caught between having to discipline me and congratulate me. I tried not to make his job any harder. "Captain Oden reporting, sir," I said as I saluted.