Transmission Lost (17 page)

Unsure, Aria cocked an eye at him. “Well...Is possible. But dangerous.” She looked down into the valley, the tip of her tail twitching in thought. “But maybe is best plan. Very well. We do it you way.”

“Alright,” Jack said. The next part of the plan was harder, and he knew she wouldn't like it. “So I'll need you to wait up here when I sneak down there.”

The Ailian whipped her head around to stare at him. “No! Is not good idea. I not allow that.”

“Be reasonable,” Jack begged her. “I'm smaller than you. I might not be as stealthy, but I'll be less noticeable. And I know you.” He grabbed her shoulder, shaking it a little. “You know that if you get down there, you're going to want to kill them all. That's not going to do us any good with that many of them, and if they have comrades in space nearby that'll raise the alarm and get us in even more trouble.”

Aria bared her teeth at him, and she looked as though she was going to lose control of her anger. Jack braced himself for what was to come, but she closed her eyes and took a few deep breaths. When she opened her eyes again, she looked more calm.

“I still not like,” she cautioned him. “But...you right, I think. You sure about this?” Jack nodded. “Very well...We wait until they sleep, then you go down. And if you fail...”

“I know, I know,” Jack said, grinning. “If I fail, you'll kill me.”

******

With a plan in place, the pair used the rest of the afternoon and evening to rest, since they would be up during the night. They ate a meal together and retreated into the trees to get a few hours of sleep. The entire time, Aria kept trying to convince Jack to change the plan, but he stubbornly stuck to it. The Ailian had a forceful personality, but Jack knew he was right this time, and he wasn't going to let Aria change his mind. By the time darkness had completely fallen, she had resigned herself to the fact that it was going to happen.

Jack waited another hour after nightfall, until they couldn't detect any more movement through the scope of Aria's rifle. At that point, he began his slow descent down the sloping ridge. Before descending, Jack removed his belt and the sling from his rifle, along with anything else he was carrying that might jingle or rattle. This, of course, meant that his only armament for his mission would be the thirty rounds that the rifle held. While nothing to sneeze at, thirty rounds in an automatic rifle was not very much in the scheme of a firefight.

As he descended the slope, moving carefully and slowly lest he slip on the grass, Jack remembered what Aria had said to him before he left:

“I wait here, but I not patient for long,” she'd warned him, a hint of heat to her voice. “You not back in three hours, and I start killing pirates.” Then she'd turned her back to him, sitting down on the ground and crossing her arms, seeming to sulk in the fact that she was left out of a chance for a fight.

Jack grimaced as he reached the bottom of the slope. He paused, crouching down low and taking a moment to look and listen. There was no noise from the pirates' campsite, and no signs of movement. They hadn't bothered to light a fire, so it was likely they'd come more prepared for cold than Jack and Aria had been, since they'd probably had a chance to survey the planet. Whatever the case, that was good news for him. The blue-pattern camouflage that Jack was wearing wasn't as good as woodland colors might have been, but in complete darkness it did just fine.

He still wondered what the pirates were doing here, and how they'd found the wrecks. Jack found it hard to believe that they were part of an organized search effort. More likely, they'd been cruising through the area and their sensors had revealed the signs of the crashes. With the complete absence of technology or civilization on this planet, two crashed ships would have stood out like white on black.

Well, whatever,
Jack thought to himself.
Not like it really matters how or why they're here. More important to find a radio and get away without being detected. And while I'm searching, I might find some answers.

Jack switched on the light attached to his rifle, playing it around the pirates' campsite for a few seconds, just to get a feel for the area. He quickly switched it back off so that the likelihood of detection was minimized, and then moved to another position so that if anyone had seen the light, they'd be looking for him in the wrong place. Then he stayed still again, listening and looking around. There was no sign of movement, so he felt safe enough to start exploring.

He headed into the pirate camp, each of his senses on edge for any sign of detection. With a little bit of skill and a lot of luck, he'd be in and out long before Aria's three hour deadline. He hoped.

- 9 -

Jack slowly and carefully made his way through the pirates' campsite, his senses on high alert for any sounds that would tell him that his intrusion had been detected. All he could hear was the occasional rustling of the grass as a breeze blew by, or a distantly faint chirping of some insect or another, but apart from that all was silent. He fingered the grip of his rifle nervously, his eyes darting around. The human knew he didn't have nearly as good night vision as Aria, but his eyes were gradually growing used to the pitch blackness. That was good; he wanted to use the flashlight attachment on his weapon as little as possible.

Creeping through the camp, he kept a sharp watch for a radio which he could snag and take back up the ridge he'd just descended so that he and Aria could signal for help. But whether the pirates hadn't brought one out of their ship, or they just kept them better secured than he'd hope for, he had no luck. What he did find was evidence that the pirates planned to stick around for a while. They'd set up power generators in their camp which were not easily moved, and these seemed to be trailing wires into many of their tents, possibly to power portable heaters or other modern conveniences.

Makes sense, if they're going to make this a salvage job,
Jack thought to himself.
They're going to want to strip everything of value from the ship, and that means staying here for at least five days or so.

What troubled Jack was that the pirates hadn't bothered to keep anyone awake on sentry duty. He wasn't sure what that meant. Maybe they weren't too concerned about the local wildlife, which made them stupid. Or perhaps they had sensors set up around the camp which would automatically raise an alarm, in which case he was already screwed. Jack figured that unlikely because if they had such sensors he probably would have been set upon by the pirates already.

After nearly forty minutes of carefully searching the pirate camp, Jack was certain that he wouldn't find a radio anywhere easily accessible. That meant that the only other places to find one would be in Aria's wrecked ship, the
Cha'la'fa
, or in the pirates' ship. Since Jack hadn't the foggiest idea of the interior layout of the
Cha'la'fa
, or how he would separate the radio from the ship if he
did
manage to find it, he decided to try looking in the pirate ship first. He'd been inside a ship of that type numerous times before and was familiar with the layout, so he'd be able to get to the radio and do what he needed to do quickly.

With that decided, Jack picked his way towards the pirates' ship. The ship was very large, easily three times as big as the ship he'd come to this planet on, the
Star's Eye
. Blocky and unattractive looking, the pirate vessel was a fairly standard military transport that had been modified with larger engines and upgraded weaponry. Basically, it was a large box with a smaller, rounded box attached on one end for the bridge area, with six large, cylindrical engine blocks on the other end. Weaponry bristled from numerous points on the exterior of the ship, and Jack was certain that there would be hidden weapons elsewhere. All in all, nothing too terribly impressive but definitely not something one would wish to face in combat if it could be avoided.

The ramp leading up to the main hatch was still down from when the pirates had begun unloading earlier in the day. Sweating profusely now, despite the rapidly cooling evening, Jack stepped up onto the ramp. He cringed at the dull clunk his heavy boot made on the studded metal, though the sound wasn't much louder than his feet on the grass had been. He climbed up, pausing every few steps to listen. Still no sound from the pirates' camp. When Jack got to the hatch, he laid his rifle against the hull next to the entrance.

“Alright...,” he mumbled to himself. “Let's see here.” Jack had spent three months crewing on one of these same types of transport ships during his time in the UN Navy, before being promoted up to pilot status. As such, he remembered exactly the type of lock that this ship had. Usually, to get inside this model each crew member was given a coded key card, which was waved over a small gray panel next to the hatch. Of course Jack didn't have one of these cards, so he ran his hand around the door. “Come on, I know it's here somewhere.”

A second later, Jack felt a raised square edge halfway down the side of the hatch. Triumphant, he ran his finger around the raised edge. Every ship constructed for the UN Navy was required to have an override panel that could be opened up, allowing for a numbered code to be punched in. This code was required for non-crew members who would need to get in, specifically inspectors and maintenance personnel.

Jack pressed his hand down in the center of the panel, and it swung open. Inside was a lighted number pad with  a few additional buttons, just as he had expected to find. Now came the tricky part: While Jack had known one of the override codes once upon a time, that had been ten years ago. The way the codes were implemented was that the code was hardwired into the ship's systems, unable to be removed except by a complete gutting and reinstall of basic components. This was essentially the same as creating a new ship, and was prohibitively expensive for all practical purposes. Jack was reasonably sure that this ship was old enough to have been the same model year as the one he'd used to crew on, and all military vessels of the same model year and type were programmed with the same override maintenance override code. If he was right, the code Jack knew would open the door. If he was wrong, the code would lock out the manual override and probably set off the ship's alarms.

Only one way to find out,
Jack said. He extended a finger to the number pad and started inputting the old code.

******

“Se hala na ka'vehe...,”
Aria grumbled to herself, sitting back against a tree trunk near the top of the ridge.
Take too long. Hate waiting.

Jack had already been away for an hour, and she was growing impatient. The Ailian wished that she had set a shorter deadline, but the plan had been agreed upon and Aria would stick to it. But she was still anxious, still nervous, and every five minutes she would go back to her rifle which was set up at the top of the ridge and look through the scope. Aria knew that it would be very satisfying to kill a few of the pirates from her perch, but then Jack would get in some serious trouble.

Snarling, she got up for the fifth time and crawled over to her weapon. Snugging the stock tight into her shoulder, she put her eye up to the sight and looked down at the pirate camp. Even if she had wanted to snipe some of them from where she was, she couldn't see any of them. The lack of vision wasn't the fault of her eyes; Aria could see fairly well in the dark. It was just that all of the pirates seemed to have bedded down for the night, and taking random shots into the tents would not be productive at all.

Scanning around the ground below, Aria finally spotted Jack. He was walking up the ramp to the pirate ship, which confused her. She'd expected him to go for her own ship, to try to retrieve the radio inside. Then again, perhaps the pirate ship made more sense. With all of the stuff that the pirates had removed from the wreck during the daylight hours, it was possible that her radio might not even be inside the
Cha'la'fa
any longer. If that was the case, Jack would need to get a working radio from the pirates.

That didn't make Aria feel any better about what he was doing, but at least it made sense.

“Luck to you,” she wished him quietly, taking her eye away from the scope. Her stomach was rumbling, and she wanted a snack. Aria had the sneaking suspicion that she would need her energy before the evening was over.

******

Crossing his fingers on one hand, Jack reached for the number pad with another. Double-checking his memory just to make sure he had it right, he slowly tapped out the six-digit sequence he'd learned during his time in the military. Each press of a button made an audible beep, and he held his breath, certain that one of the pirates would wake up and hear what he was doing. When he finished he leaned back from the pad, waiting. A small red status light blinked above the numbers as the ship computer processed the code that he'd entered.

Just as he was thinking that the code had been wrong, and that the alarm would sound at any moment, the red light blinked off and a green one shined steady. The number pad chirped an acceptance of the code. Hardly able to believe what he was seeing, Jack pressed a button next to the manual input and the main hatch slid open with only a slight creak. Elated, he picked his rifle back up and proceeded into the ship.

The ship's interior was dim, and seemed to have mostly been shut down for the night. Things inside weren't completely dark, however, and small auxiliary lights shined along the ceiling panels, giving him enough light to see his way by. Holding his weapon in a ready position, Jack started inside the ship. This type of ship had numerous corridors inside, and would have been impossible to navigate under ordinary circumstances, but Jack remembered the floor plan from his younger days. However much the pirates had modified the ship they seemed to have kept the alterations external, limited to the weaponry and the engines. Everything else was exactly the same.

From the entrance, Jack turned right down a corridor which would eventually take him to the bridge area. That wasn't where he needed to go, however. Jack was looking for a radio, and every ship of this type had a communications station separate from the bridge which contained the integrated ship comm system as well as communications equipment which could be unhooked from the ship's systems and carried in a more portable fashion. Since that was what he was after, Jack followed the corridor for a few minutes and then detoured to the left.

The whole time, Jack moved slowly, trying to make as little noise as possible. Just because the pirates had camped outside didn't mean that there might not still be a few of them inside of the ship. He prayed that he wouldn't encounter any of them. Though he was prepared to shoot to save his own life, once he fired his weapon that would be it, and the rest of the pirates would know he was there. He had Aria up on the ridge in case things went south, but she might not realize that anything was wrong until it was too late for her to do anything, and if he was in a fight inside the pirate ship she wouldn't be able to help in any case.

Putting those thoughts aside for the moment, Jack concentrated on keeping track of where he was going. He took another left from the corridor he was walking down, then turned right into a hallway that extended a long ways across the width of the ship. Doors lined this hallway, but Jack was only concerned with the one that stood at the very end. That, if his memory was serving him well, would be the access door for the communications station. Quickening his pace a little, his heart pounding like a sledgehammer against the inside of his chest, Jack walked down the hallway until he reached the door. Unlike the doors which led into the ship, this one had no security since it was assumed that if someone had made it this far into the ship they were probably one of the crew or another authorized person. Jack pressed the access control beside the door and it hissed open.

Jack's heart nearly stopped when he saw that someone was inside the room. A pirate was sitting at the communications array, a set of headphones over his ears. Thankfully, he had his back to the doorway. The reason he hadn't turned around at the sound of the door opening was evident right away. The pirate was bobbing his head slowly, a bottle of what looked like beer in one hand and a cigarette in the other. Heavy metal music was audible, muffled somewhat by the headphones being pressed against the pirate's ears, but clearly cranked up to high volume. Jack shook his head slightly, suppressing a snort of laughter. The pirate was using the communications set for his own personal music player.

Taking the chance that luck had tossed his way, he crept into the room and raised his rifle. Swinging his arms as hard as he could, Jack brought the butt of the rifle crashing down on the back of the pirate's head. With a dull crack and a low groan of pain, the man slumped in his chair and slid to the floor. Making sure the door was closed behind him, Jack dragged his unconscious form away from the chair and rested him against the far wall. Taking his place in the chair, Jack shut off the music and looked over the equipment arrayed around the room.

“Hm...,” he said to himself. “Looks pretty standard. They haven't done much customization when it comes to the communications equipment.” Jack quickly found one of the portable radios and detached it from its housing. He made as though to get back up and leave, but paused for a moment. He might want to do a little more investigating. Maybe it wasn't important to know a whole lot about these pirates, but then again, it might be. Jack surveyed the integrated radios, not touching any of the switches to avoid setting off any signals. Every few moments he glanced at the unconscious pirate, making sure that he was still in dreamland. So far so good.

******

Chewing on a piece of dried meat, Aria sat near the edge of the ridge, looking down at the silent pirate camp. Nearly two hours had passed now, and there was still no sign of Jack returning. Aria was growing even more restless, and was seriously considering going down there. She was anxious now, worried that something might have happened to Jack. He should have been back by now; the three hour time limit had been a generous estimate of how long he would have needed for a quick sneak-and-peek. About the only good news, from Aria's perspective, was that the moon had climbed in the alien sky, giving her a clearer view.