Trade World Saga 1: Manual Interpretation (37 page)

"Brad...Colonel. I don't think I can do anything about the microwave. It's either on or off on this model and I don't think I could do anything effective in less than two hours. We can pinpoint our location and point of travel now and then cut it off when we would get anywhere near the station. That might work," Susan said.

"Guess it will have too. Figure out as best you can how close we can get without showing up on their receivers. Fran," he turned to her. "I..."

"I'll understudy the Sarge over there at the field controls. I've worked with those enough I might even be useful." Fran gave Brad a wink and headed over to the field control station.

Susan patted him understandingly on the arm and said, "She'll be fine."

Brad hoped Susan was right but haste did not often produce the best outcomes.

"We can probably get within fifty kilometers before we'd be detectable... that's if they stay close to the surface. Further we go up -- further away they can spot us. We can cover the last fifty kilometers with one short, high-speed hop for altitude and then a short burst to the station. Where do you want to go at the station?"

"Let's go straight to the rear of the closest ship. We can't contact our people at the station without giving away our position and they wouldn't be able to answer without giving away their position. How are we doing on time? Ling. You okay on that laser turret?"

"Fifty minutes 'til the station crew are supposed to start their attacks," Susan said.

"I'm set up. This setup looks fine. It's not half the power of what we got hit with though," Ling said.

"Let's start that move. Everyone up for it?" he asked.

They all gave him a ‘thumbs up’ and then set about with grim determination.

General Alexander had had his first reports and they left him ill at ease. No bodies. Why were there no bodies? Better put up a lookout. He called the second ship and ordered it up ten klicks act as an overwatch. He didn't want to be surprised again. His teams were doing a room to room search and hadn't...

"Papa. We've run into... " the transmission from one of his assault teams was cut off.

This was something the General understood. "Find out where the resistance is coming from and then we'll clean it out with the ships’ weapons," he said to all teams. "Do not engage except as necessary. Just pinpoint the resistance." Alexander turned to his communications officer. "Where'd that transmission come from?"

"Not sure which of the three teams. Sounded like Jennings; which would be Team Three. They were supposed to be checking the main power plant we hit. I can't raise them."

"Keep trying. Kingfisher. Swing toward the power plant and assist Falcon. They have engaged hostiles. Just pinpoint them for us," he said as Team Two acknowledged. Don't want to destroy the whole station… too hard to rebuild.

Andrew didn't like infantry work with modern weapons. The station crew had set up their ambushes and discussed if the command group had made it to safety. He hoped Susan was with them. He couldn't keep from thinking...hoping that was the case. They had to base all their plans on a few sentences from Brad before he got out of radio range. It had worked out well so far but he wasn't looking forward to what those ship mounted lasers would do...they certainly totaled the power plants, burning deep into the lunar surface.

They had gotten indications on their infrared sensors and then a team of soldiers had come into view. Andrew's team let them get most of the way down the corridor and then used the one molecular disruptor they had. The soldiers didn't have any personal fields on. The disruptor vaporized large sections of their bodies and viscera from their sudden depressurization had covered the faceplates of all who weren't initially hit. The rest died instants later and never got off a shot.

Andrew and the rest of his team moved toward the cafeteria in an attempt to come in behind whomever they would send to reinforce the destroyed assault team. Andrew didn't want to be where the laser crews above could find them.

"Papa...Kingfisher. Papa...Kingfisher. We located Falcon. No survivors sir. Looks like those reports of a weapon that dissolves matter are true. Over."

"Kingfisher," General Alexander was getting angry. He'd be shorthanded when he restarted negotiations with the aliens. Aliens would deal with the disciplined military better than any intellectual elite. Earth had to be protected by someone with vision. "You have personal fields that are supposed to completely protect you from those...use them man. Over."

"But..."

"Papa... Out," Alexander pounded the arm of his command chair with his fist. He needed to pinpoint the resistance fast so he could renegotiate with the aliens himself.

"Sir. The cover ship has picked up a return about sixty klicks toward the terminator and close to the surface. Moving this way too fast to be a surface transport. Pretty slow for a ship," said the comm officer.

"Take us up with the cover ship and go dark. Cut off the field and standby with laser turrets."

Fran asked the sergeant what those blips were on the field display.

"That must be one of the ships we were going to meet. Just coming into view over the horizon. Colonel. One of their ships is in a high cover position."

"Stop us here. Well so much for surprise. We can only assume they've seen us. What's their position?"

"They're about 10 klicks off the surface. Looks like the other one is joining them. Oops. Lost it. Only see one of them now sir," said the sergeant at the field control console.

"Susan. Let our other three ships know what is up. Can they get here any sooner?" Brad asked.

"They'll try, " Susan said after a few seconds waiting for her signals to return.

"Let's hope they sit tight for a few minutes. Might be a good idea for us to put some random movements into our flight. I don't want to take a hit," Brad said and the sergeant started to vary their flight plan.

Thought they'd take the bait, thought General Alexander. Surely, they see my first ship. Why aren't they attacking? Maybe they don't like the odds. Philips did a good job building our own enclosure and these lasers. Let's go ahead and use them. They aren't too far away to hit and we can both fire to double the probability of a hit. "Battle stations. Prepare to fire on my command. An extra week of leave for the crew that destroys that ship. Let's synchronize this...ready, ready, ready, ready, ready, ready, ready, aim fire."

Four lances of coherent light leaped from the two ships. One hit the midsection of Brad's small ship.

Susan was slammed against the console and felt a burning heat across her back, even through the suit. The sergeant at the field controls took the brunt of the hit and his colloidal explosion sprayed the cabin with his organic matter that weren't vaporized. Fran was knocked against the bulkhead and Brad was slammed backward as the main cabin depressurized. The lights went off and the cut off of the field along with the rapid loss of atmosphere on the upper side of the ship had forced it toward the lunar surface.

Ling and Fran were the first ones to recover in the darkness and they switched on their suit lights. They looked around.

"Can you patch that hole in the wall?" Fran asked and pointed where the bulkhead had been breached.

"Yep, " she answered and she pushed off the console, floated over to a locker and began pulling out rolls of fiberply and sealant.

Fran turned to where the sergeant had been sitting just moments before and just stared. She shook her head and then bent over the console whose base was melted by the remnants of the laser pulse. She could see where a control module had been damaged. The base looked intact and she had remembered the Sarge... she paused. She had remembered him telling her that spares for this whole section were…where? Over there… Mustn't think about the man...just the mission... It was hard to focus with the tears inside her helmet.

Need to know what I'm looking for first. She reached to pull out the damaged module but couldn't get purchase enough to pull it out. She put a foot on either side of the module and grabbed it as well she could with her gloved hands and counted to three. On three, she jerked up and back as hard as she could. There was a moment of hesitation and then the module popped out and she went flying backward across the room. Without thought, she slapped the control that turned on her suit field and stopped dead when the field touched the opposite bulkhead. She floated there for a few seconds and then used her pressor to move to the locker with the spares. The pressor was fine for outside but had too gross a control mechanism for inside work. She soon turned it off.

It took a minute to find the colorcoded spare and she went back to the console. Pressing against the top of the opening with one hand, she was able to snap it into the socket with the other hand. She then looked up and saw Ling putting the finishing adhesive on the patched area. "Turn on your suit field. I'm going to try turning on the ship field. See if you can strap Susan and him in," Fran said and pointed to a crewman she was embarrassed not to know. "I'll strap in Brad."

She lifted Brad off the floor, glided him into the control chair and strapped him in. When Ling was finished, Fran went over to the field console and turned on the backup power supply, which should have come on automatically, she thought. Lights came on in the cabin and with only a few seconds hesitation; Fran punched the button she thought would turn on the ship's stressed space field.

The stressed space field switched on a full two seconds before the ship would have impacted on the lunar surface, but Fran did not know any of that. She did not know that if she had hesitated another few seconds their ship would have been scattered across the lunar surface.

Brad, Susan and the other crewman were still unconscious but Fran went over to check over her man. Brad started to come to but groaned miserably and put his hands up to his helmet.

"Oh-h. How bad are we hit? Oh, my eyes are watering like hell. I can't see anything. Is anyone hurt?" he asked.

"The sergeant is dead. Susan and the other crewman are unconscious. Ling and I are fine. Ling patched the wall. I fixed the field console. I don't know where we are but we're out of this ballgame," Fran said.

"We need to find out where we are and get word to those other ships."

"Ling," Fran nodded to her friend who had overheard and moved to the comm console. "Okay. She's gonna’ try to get them. What do you want her to say?"

"Ling. tell them our situation and tell them how powerful those lasers were. Tell them that there may be one ship blacked out but there are two ships; two, not one. One ship may have their field down so sweep the area with the disrupters," Brad said, obviously in a lot of pain from the way he grabbed the sides of the chair. "Put the sergeant's body aft."

"Okay Brad. You take it easy. It will all work out," Fran said.

Colonel Brad Kyger wasn't so sure. He hoped the ships above would disregard them so they could get back to the station. He hoped the station crew were not all killed and he hoped the three approaching ships would not get killed outright. He didn't want Fran to die this way. She was such a good person and made things grow. He realized he loved her deeply but had never told her.

"General. The ship we hit seems to have impacted on the lunar surface and I have another ship approaching fast but it's too far away to be effective."

"It's okay son. Calm down. We'll swat it down too," Alexander said. "Tell them to hold their fire 'til the last minute. Seems we have the range on it anyway. It doesn't know we're here remember."

"General. It's not one ship. It's three and they've spilt up and are coming from slightly different headings. My returns are not fast enough to keep up with their changes."

"Guess where they're going to be and fire there. We have plenty of power," Alexander said.

The laser pulses from the three Earth regulatory force ships targeted the first of Alexander's ships. All were direct hits. The intensity was not as great as Alexander's but the ship exploded in a very quiet flash of gas and metal. The other ship bugged out fast toward Earth. They weren’t about to be a sitting duck for three ships and didn’t have the surprise factor any longer.

"Colonel Kyger...Thor," The Regulatory Force ship called.

"Go ahead," answered Brad who had Fran help him key his link.

"Sir, One of their ships was destroyed and the other is heading back to Earth. What do you want us to do?"

"He appears to be heading for that second enclosure we found in New Mexico. Take two of your ships and proceed there as fast as possible. Destroy that ship and then knock out the enclosure power plant. Use the disrupters over anything that looks like a ship or would help build a ship... all the hangars, all the labs, all heavy equipment," Brad said gravely.

"But sir...don't we need higher authority. They'll be a lot of people down there," questioned the officer.

"We were in the midst of trade with an alien vessel. We, are a signatory of an Exploration Service agreement; which states that interference with trade can result in destruction of that member's planet. We are the ONLY ones delegated to uphold that agreement. We do not have time for a guerrilla war. We don’t have time to get decisions from people nearly a quarter of a million miles away. We are STILL fighting off an assault at our lunar base. Send one ship and meet us just north of the lunar station," Colonel Kyger said.