The Santana Nexus (Junkyard Dogs Book 3) (36 page)

Chapter
53.

Santana Nexus Station, ring three spindle area, January 13, 2599.

An hour later
, Harley Earl and a contingent of the Junkyard Dogs were ready to begin working on the decoupling process. Earl had been able to get everyone outfitted in Nexus Station uniform coveralls and the invaders were all posing as station maintenance people. An assortment of toolboxes, utility carts and backpacks did an excellent job of concealing hand weapons and other items that might be useful for executing an invasion or performing a partial demolition on a space station. As Earl had promised, the number four spindle elevator was sitting with the doors open and the "out of order" light on the panel over the top of the doors illuminated. The bored guard told Earl what he thought about it.

"You the elevator maintenance crew?" asked
the guard.

"
That's us," replied Earl.

"Well it's about time!
The cursed thing stranded me between floors for more than ten minutes just yesterday!"

"
Sorry to hear that," said Earl, "but that's why we're here." The rest of the "repair crew" said nothing and just nodded their heads and watched as the exchange took place.

"While you're at it," continued the guard, "the sanitary facilities in this area
aren't working so well either."

Harley Earl made a show out of noting the guard's concerns.

"This group don't do toilets," said Earl, in a good imitation of a maintenance foreman, "but I'll get my cousin on it right away." He used his handheld communicator, a device that only the Sheik's men and a few selected station maintenance people had been allowed to keep when the Sheik had taken over. "Jeremy? This is Earl, do you copy?" A carefully calculated nine seconds went by before Earl received an answer.

"This is Jeremy. What's goin' on
, Earl?"

"We got another washroom problem. This one's in the spindle area of ring
three."

"Damn
it! That's the third one this morning."

"How soon can you get a couple of workers in here?"

"I'll see who I can round up. Shouldn't be more than ten minutes or so. Hope to hell I don't get too many more calls like this. Next thing you know I'll have to do one myself!"

Earl laughed. "We sure as hell wouldn't want that to happen
now, would we? Earl out."

"You heard my cousin," Earl said to the guard, "Shouldn't be too long at all."

"We shall see," said the guard, "I've heard plenty of empty promises from you maintenance people."

"Hey, I'm not the bad guy here
," said Earl, looking as though his ego had been bruised. "I just called the people who can fix it for you, that's about all I can do!"

"Best you get on with your elevator repairs then," said the guard. "We
're not supposed to let locals hang around in this area."

"We're
getting on it now," said Earl.

He and his four extra "workers" got on board the elevator and
made a show of inspecting the doors and workings before jiggling one of the buttons. The doors closed and the elevator headed southward towards the bottom of the spindle where the elevator motors were situated and, just as importantly, where the junction between ring ten and the rest of the station was located. On the way down, the elevator stopped at the hub of each of the ten rings and picked up another one or two workers.

The elevators
that provided north-south transport within the spindle were quite large. One of the innovations that Earl had come up with to gather and transport the crew he needed to perform the separation was a fake panel. As soon as the elevator doors had closed on ring one, the "workers" had set the panel up and stretched it across the elevator cab, keeping the very back portion of the elevator screened from the eyes of the guards at each stop. The screen was well enough designed that it would pass a cursory inspection. The guards at each stop saw an elevator with a single worker who was joined by one or two others. By the time the elevator arrived at the junction between the ninth and the tenth ring, there were somewhere around twenty personnel on board. The last three workers that Earl had picked up were dropped off in the ring ten elevator entrance area. Those workers immediately removed several panels and set about pretending to work on the elevator. The elevator doors scissored closed.

Earl
then used a special key card to open the service doors in the back wall of the elevator. The service doors provided access to areas of the station not available to anyone but maintenance personnel and even they had to have the proper clearance level. These areas included the elevator motor area and, just as importantly, the massive ring coupling mechanisms. There were none of the Sheik's Revolutionary guards anywhere in this area of the spindle, nor were any expected. Once the service door had been opened and the panel had been folded up, Earl and the remaining fifteen Federation operatives dispersed into the inner workings of the tenth ring on the extreme south end of the station.

It was h
ere that the eight spokes of the tenth ring converged onto an inner ring assembly, called the hub, that slipped around the central cylinder of the spindle. Contrary to popular belief, the spindle itself was not the main central structural member of the ring system. Instead, this function was performed by the stacked inner hubs of the ten rings that made up the station. Each hub was latched securely onto the hubs of its neighbors, or in the case of the first and the tenth ring, to a single neighboring hub.

Th
ese stout central hubs were intentionally designed to further strengthen the huge ring assemblies. The hubs were constructed with a locking disc on one side and a receptacle with a system of latches on the other to firmly attach each of the hubs to its neighbors and facilitate the stacking of the rings into a multiple ring space station. When latched together, the stacked hubs became a very substantial central axle. Within this hollow axle was an additional structure, that being the central spindle itself, which housed the station's north-south spindle elevators, the reactors that generated power for the station, the waste management facilities and life support.

The
stout coupling discs were incorporated into the north side of each hub. These discs were firmly clamped onto an equally stout receptacle by a set of latching lugs on the south end of each neighboring hub. Once again, the first and the tenth rings were only attached to a single neighbor while the other eight hubs were latched to inner and outer neighboring hubs.

To provide a means to inspect the latching system and perform periodic maintenance, a
corridor ran around the entire circumference of each latching disc within each of the hubs. The inspection corridors were tall and narrow, just wide enough to allow two people to negotiate them side by side. Because these corridors were so close to the center of rotation for the station, the gravity effect of the station's spin was minimal but working in the corridors without mag boots was possible, if the workers had some experience in low gravity and they were extra careful. The entire area was dimly lit by a series of utility lights that were built into the floor of the structure and spaced about ten meters apart.

The group
, with Earl leading, migrated down the ring ten hub corridor towards a position about midway between the first and second of the eight spokes that connected the hub to the outer portion of the tenth ring. As they headed down the corridor, they could see and touch the massive collar of the latching disc, since it made up the entire north wall of the space.

"Th
is structure is the latch ring," said Earl, patting the northern wall of the inspection corridor with his hand. "In a minute, we'll get to one of the clamps."

Within the next thirty seconds,
Harley instructed the group to stop and look upwards as he shined a hand torch at one of the latch ring clamps, a thick, L-shaped structure that was actually part of the ninth ring. The clamp fit into a matching notch that had been designed into the latch disc. The clamps were pushed inwards into their respective notches by massive, threaded rods, also a part of the ninth ring, that were connected to a set of huge, geared down, electric motors. The "L" portion of the clamp was slightly beveled so that pushing the clamp onto the latching disc tended to pull the ring more tightly towards its neighboring ring.

The disc and latching system did more than just hold
the hubs of the rings together. A spinning structure as large as the Santana Nexus station was subjected to a great many forces and these forces could vary considerably over time. One of the most frequent of these was the expansion and contraction of the rings and hubs due to temperature changes as the station rotated and portions of it were alternately bathed in sunlight from the neighboring star on one side and exposed to the cold dark of space on the other. There was a complex system of sensors and computer programs that would periodically operate the motors to adjust the tension on each of the clamps, tightening or relaxing the pressure on the latch disc to keep the hubs perfectly aligned. Most of the occupants of the Nexus Station were blissfully unaware that their home was a living, breathing construct!

"There are seven more of these
clamps, each one of them located exactly half way between each of the spokes. When I actuate the motors connected to these threaded rods, these clamps will be pulled outwards and lifted out of their locking slots. All of you look carefully and tell me right away if you don't understand what I'm saying. Note that each lug has got to have at least a meter of clearance from the latch disc before we can safely push the tenth ring away from the rest of the station. Pulling these clamps away from the latching disc is how we'll begin the process of detaching the ring. We'll need a person at each clamp to observe the progress and tell us when the clamps have that meter of clearance so that everything is ready for the separation. I'll need eight volunteers to monitor the clamps. I'll warn you right now that there is a catch."

"
And that would be...?" asked one of the men.

"
The plan is to get everyone evacuated before we begin to move the ring because the entire area we are now in will be opened to space when the ring comes free. I want all of our volunteers to be wearing spacesuits but if you can't get out of this space in the allotted time, I'll tell you right now that you could be in for a pretty rough ride!"

"How much time
do we have?" asked one of the men.

"I'm only going to wait
for two minutes after the clamps are clear before I initiate the separation," replied Earl.

"I think we can live with that," said another of the men.

"And if one of these clamps isn't retracted far enough?"

"That's a very good question. It means that
attempting the separation could result in massive damage to the ninth and tenth rings and, very likely, to the rest of the station. If all eight clamps aren't free of that latch ring, we won't be able to go forward without risking a lot of lives."

"What if, for some reason,
one of these clamps doesn’t pull clear?"

"We'd have
to wind the motor for a long enough time that he tension rod comes out of the clamp," said Earl, "but I would really rather not have to do that. It would require several extra minutes that we may not have."

"How soon are we gonna try to do this?"

"As soon as we hear that the threat from the Sheik's Navy has been neutralized. Hopefully within the next few hours."

Chapter
54.

Santana Nexus Station, January 13, 2599.

"Maintenance?
This is the ring ten spindle hub control room."

"How can we help you?"
said Jeremy Fenster, who was the station's Head maintenance foremen.

"We have a problem down here
in the control room; the low gravity toilets are malfunctioning."

"There's been a lot of that going on since the station...changed hands. I'll get a crew down there sometime in the next fifteen minutes."

"Fifteen minutes? I would advise you to get someone down here
now
! If you don't have someone down here in the next five minutes, you will be receiving a personal visit from me! Are we clear?"

"Loud and clear," replied Fenster.

In the maintenance headquarters facility on the fifth ring, Fenster turned to the three federation infiltrators, all dressed in maintenance coveralls, who had been picked to temporarily take over the ring ten control room and authorize the ring separation. Orville Steuben, the maintenance expert, had actually been a maintenance foreman on the New Ceylon Orbital Station and looked right at home in the outfit. The other two agents, Carlisle and Donahue, had been selected for their combat abilities in zero and low gravity. Donahue, who was one of Kelly's Marines, had worked with Carlisle before.

"
The restroom malfunction is a go, everyone," said Fenster. "Steuben? You and your team need to get to the computer station down there and enter the codes so that we can get to work on the clamping system. No heroics! Just get your team in there, get the job done as quietly as you can and then get the hell out of there!"

To keep the enemy from discerning their true objective, the
team would make it look as though their real target had been the life support computers for the tenth ring, though the plan was to vacate the control room before doing any real damage. It wouldn't do to alarm the enemy too much. A failed attempt on the life support system was a perfect diversion, since various random acts of vandalism had been steadily increasing on the station over the last few weeks.

T
he small infiltration team was able to get to the tenth ring hub area without incident. They simply went to the number one spindle elevator in their Station coveralls, accompanied by a maintenance cart loaded with plumbing supplies. One of the guards even opened the elevator door for them. They exited the elevator on the tenth ring and, in the low gravity, carefully maneuvered the cart down to the computer control room. They were granted immediate access.

Fenster may have done his job too well, the odor from the malfunctioning restroom was nearly overpowering in the confined area. After the outside door was closed, there was
a brief scuffle with the two guards stationed in the room before Carlisle and Donahue disabled them with stun rods.

"It's this console over here, Steuben," said
Carlisle.

Steuben
took a seat in front of the console and began working the keyboard. Ten seconds later he announced, "I'm in! The password worked!" He typed in the first set of authorization codes that he had gotten from Harley Earl and hit the return, "It took the codes for the alarm system," he said, sounding somewhat relieved, "now to authorize the separation sequence." His fingers began clicking furiously on the keyboard again.

Leaving Donahue to stand guard
, Carlisle crossed the room to the life support computer and began negotiating the main menu, searching for the programs that regulated the carbon dioxide scrubbers. She found what she was looking for and left it displayed on the screen, to leave the impression that she had been interrupted before she could finish what she had come to do.

"Separation sequence authorized," said Steuben. He then set the display back to the normal interface for th
at computer station, as though nothing had been done at that console.

"That's it!" he said, "I'm done, let's get the hell out of here!"

The escape plan was to get back onto one of the spindle elevators and use the service door in the back of the elevator to join up with the crew that was monitoring the clamp system. The plan worked, but only up to a point.

Steuben and
Donahue were pulling the maintenance cart towards the nearest elevator when they were spotted by three of the Sheik's men who, as luck would have it, were coming around the hub to use the same elevator. One of the guards thought that three unaccompanied maintenance people in that particular part of the station looked suspicious.

"Halt! In the name of the Sheik of Barsoom!"

Carlisle had remained on the other side of the maintenance cart in case she needed to cover their retreat and found herself blocked from a direct path to the elevator by the now superfluous cart. She snaked her hand into the cart, pulled out a pulse pistol and snapped off a series of pulses in the direction of the guards. One of the bolts struck home and a guard went limp in the low gravity while the others, not expecting to be attacked, frantically pulled or shoved themselves around behind whatever cover they could find.

"
Go!" she said to her team. "I'll hold them here while you guys get to safety." She emphasized the order by snapping off another burst of pulses to keep the enemy soldiers pinned down.

"We aren't leaving without you, Tamara!" said Steuben
as he and Donahue dove into the elevator. Carlisle fired another burst to keep the enemy pinned down and prepared to leapfrog over the cart to cover the short distance into the elevator, intending to simply abandon the cart. In the meantime, one of the two enemy soldiers that the infiltrators had stunned earlier during the takeover of the control room had revived. The man was still groggy but he was able to figure out that something was going down due to the commotion out in the corridor. After fumbling his stun rod free of its holster, he came unsteadily out of the control room behind Carlisle. Just as she was getting ready to vault over the cart, the revived guard knocked her down with a stun bolt to the middle of her back.

For Carlisle, suddenly
everything went black.

Steuben
wore a look of pure anguish but, unable to get to her without suffering the same fate, or something worse, reluctantly allowed the door to the elevator to slide closed.

***

Santana Nexus Station, somewhere on ring ten, January 13, 2599.

When Carlisle awoke, she found herself
on her back strapped to a metal bedframe that was welded to the wall. There was no mattress. She could tell by the pull of gravity that she was no longer in the central spindle area and that she must have been taken to somewhere on one of the rings. The strapping holding her down appeared to be overkill, the doorway into the holding cell she was in was covered by a force curtain. There wasn't much to see through the curtain but it looked like her cell was one of several that lined the walls of fairly large compartment. A guard sitting at a desk out in the compartment made a call on the intercom.

"
The prisoner is awake," he said, "You wanted me to call you right away."

"Very good," came the reply, "bring her to me."

The guard made another call and just a few moments later, four of the Sheik's guards entered the large compartment. The guard at the desk entered a string of code into his computer terminal and the force field on Carlisle's cell shut down. While two of the guards stood watch, pulse pistols at the ready, the other two undid Carlisle bonds and escorted her out into the central compartment and down several corridors to an interrogation room. The guards forced her to sit and bound her into a chair that was bonded to the deck. The guards left and after a couple of minutes a short, homely little man came in, closed the door behind him and took a seat across the table from Carlisle. He laid an old-fashioned folder on the table, opened it and spread out the papers within in front of him. Only then did he speak.

"
I am Rahman Halabi, the chief interrogator for the Sheik of Barsoom. If you answer my questions, things will go better for you."