My Other Car is a Spaceship (14 page)

“Will do.”

Hal turned to Kalen. “I have the asteroids targeted. We’ll be ready when we reach the designated coordinates.”

“Very good.
Keep me posted.”

“Roger that.”

The seven remaining ships comprising
Squadron 6
, along with the six left in
Squadron 5
had twenty-six tactical nukes between them, two per ship. They were the most powerful warheads that would fit inside a Type-26 missile; however, even in the aggregate they had nowhere near the firepower needed to destroy all the asteroids guarding the pirate fortress. However, destroying the asteroids was not the mission. Although the pirates had left meandering pathways through the asteroid shield, those pathways were clearly kill zones for any ship without the proper transponders. The Unity attack force needed another way in.

T
hirteen ships bore down on the shield asteroids. The ships took numerous hits from missiles and energy weapons against their energy shields. The ships’ APCs picked off as many missiles as possible, but their mission brooked no deviation from the flight plan. They had to take whatever the pirates dished out.

Three ships
sustained heavy damage but all kept going.

A
t the designated distance, Wessel’s ship launched its nukes. They sped for the gap between two asteroids. Each missile was programmed to detonate at the proper distance from the asteroids and each other, at exactly the right moment.

T
hey exploded, each exerting incredible force against the nearest asteroid. Furthermore, the blasts’ shockwaves were timed to reinforced one another and increase the concussive force tremendously in opposite directions.

The blasts disintegrated
meters of solid rock on the facing sides of the asteroids, but that damage was irrelevant. Slowly, ever so slowly, the asteroids began to move away from one another, creating a gap large enough for several ships at a time to slip between. The shockwave from the blasts buffeted the thirteen ships, but their enhanced shielding held, withstanding even the tremendous gamma and X-ray emissions generated by the detonations, and they entered the gap between the asteroids. Their passage triggered a net of gee mines launched at the lead ships from the far sides of the asteroids, where they were shielded from the electromagnetic pulse of the nukes.

Four of the mines snared
Apogee
, Senior Captain John Wessel’s ship, in beams of directed gravity and held it fast in place as eight missiles targeted it.
Apogee’s
pilot picked off two of the quems, and two of his squadron picked off three others. But the final three got through, the first two weakening the shield and the third smashing into the hull and damaging both the port and starboard shield generators at the bow. Missiles struck five other ships in the two squadrons, but they managed to intercept most of the quems.

Adventurer
received an incoming call. “Captain, call from
Apogee
.”

“Put it through,
Hal.”

“Roger.”

Kalen flipped to the appropriate channel. “Jeffries.”

“Ka
len, we’re dead in the water. Our shields generators are fried. We’ll try to get free, but the odds aren’t good. One more strike and we’re dead meat. You’re in charge now. Take the ships through and complete the mission.”

“Forget it, John. We’re not leaving you alone. We’ll fight off the missiles and block the energy weapons with the other shi
ps until you get free.”

“Negative. We don’t know how long the rest of the fleet can hold off the pirates. And if you and the other ships stay here shielding us, you won’t last long either.”

A jolt from a combination of an energy blast and a missile jarred
Adventurer
, driving home the message.

“That’s a direct order, Kalen. You need every ship you have to try to take out that fortress. You can’t afford to lose any protecting us. Go.”

Kalen swallowed as the awesome weight of responsibility suddenly descended on his shoulders. He knew Wessel was right. The fate of the Merchants’ Unity—and to a large extent the entire sector—rested in his hands. He took a deep breath.

“I understand. Godspeed, sir.”

“You too, Kalen.”

Captain
Jeffries closed the communication link. He knew that Wessel would order his ships to close ranks with
Squadron 6
. “Take us in, Hal.

“Roger
tha— Shit.
Apogee’s
gone. A missile just took them out. It looks like it’s all up to you now, Captain.”

“So far, so good,
Tarl. Our secret weapon caught them completely by surprise.” Ishtawahl bared his teeth in a feral grin.

“Yes, the battle is progressing nicely,” Penrod agreed. “Do you want to wager
whether they get through?”

Ishtawahl shook his head. “I might have taken tha
t bet earlier, but no longer. I would say it is simply a matter of time until we crush them.”

Beyond the outer shield wall—a sphere composed of hundreds of asteroids loosely arranged three to five layers deep—lay an inner wall consisting of hundreds more. The eight-kilometer band of open vacuum between was a perfect trap, a killing zone. Batteries of missiles and energy weapons opened up on the dozen ships from asteroids both before and behind. The pilots performed heroically, backed up by other crewmembers concentrating on the decoys and other defensive weaponry. Still, two Unity ships died within seconds of reaching the open band. There simply was not enough room to maneuver and avoid the worst of the threats.

“Fire
!” Kalen ordered.

“Roger.” At
Hal’s thought, the two nuclear-tipped missiles sped toward the gap between two smallish asteroids, using the same tactic as before. And as before they detonated, forcing the two rocks aside, as well as three beyond them, and leaving a gap wide enough for several ships to pass abreast.

Adventurer
led the remaining ten ships past the shockwave and through the gap between the asteroids. Again they had to defend against incoming quems and hellish bolts of energy.
Solar Flare
died next, impaled by a missile directly through the bridge right after firing its nukes to push aside the next set of asteroids.

We probably don’t have enough ships left
to reserve any nukes to force an exit on the way out. Our only option is to use the pathways provided by the pirates and hope we can fight our way through. And that’s assuming we can even get out before the nukes obliterate the fortress and us along with it. These next few minutes will probably tell the tale.

This
could be it for all of us.

Kalen shrugged
off the thought.
If I have to die, I can think of worse causes to die for. What we do here today could save thousands—hell, tens of thousands—of innocent people from suffering and death at the hands of these cutthroats.

Let’s get this show on the road.

At last,
Adventurer
and eight others burst through the far side of the inner shield wall and into the sixteen-kilometer sphere of vacuum enclosed by the shield wall: the
sanctum sanctorum
of the pirate fortress. The other eight ships had their sixteen nukes armed and ready to fire at the fortress. A solitary asteroid lay dead ahead, with no ships defending it.

Strange.

That’s when Tarl Penrod played his trump card.

“Now, Jern.”

Penrod’s second-in-command tripped the switch that slammed the trap door closed on the Unity fleet. Within milliseconds, the massive gravity generators on the asteroid in the center of the sphere kick
ed in and connected the 640 gee mines located around the interior of the shield wall together into a huge spider web of gravity fields. Within seconds, all nine ships were immobilized by the force beams. Some got farther than others, but all were equally snared.

“Damn it, we’re stuck just like
Apogee
! So’s the rest of the fleet.” Hal pounded the console in front of him in frustration.

Kalen was equally frustrated. “That’s it, then. We can’t fire the nukes without them getting stuck, too. If they all detonate while we’re stuck inside this enclosed space, we’re all dead anyway. These shields couldn’t possibly stand up to the force of sixteen nukes.”

“Captain!
The Sea of Jestron
just fired her nukes!”

“Damn that F
erThrenil! Doesn’t he realize—?”

“
It looks like the missiles are on partial-thrust, trying to avoid the strands of the web; they’ve passed several so far. Wait. One’s caught, but the other’s still going. If it gets through, it might disrupt the generators in the center and break us loose. C’mon, baby, go,
go
! Five kilometers away…still going. Three. Two kil— Damn. The second nuke’s caught too, less than two klicks from the asteroid and about six-and-a-half klicks from us.”

“Shit!
Even if the proximity sensors don’t set them off, they’re on a timer. We only have a few seconds. Signal all the ships to safe their nukes and redirect maximum power to the shields. Maybe if we’re very lucky we can survive this and get another crack at the bastards.”

“Sir, one of the ships has fired two missiles.” Ishtawahl looked up from the console in surprise. “Sensors detect radiation! They actually resorted to nukes! The gee web caught them well short of the asteroid.”

“Damn those fools!
” Penrod grimaced. “They’re going to deprive me of my prizes. Eight captured Unity ships would have made a nice addition to our collection.

“Perhaps the missiles will not detonate. They are
nearly two kilometers from the asteroid.”

“Perhaps.”

“One of the ships just fired an APC at the first nuke and destroyed it before it could detonate! Maybe they will destroy the other as wel—”

T
he second nuke detonated, creating a colossal blast wave that split open the asteroid at the heart of the sphere and destroyed the gravity generators. A split second later, the ships, no longer anchored in place, were dashed backward by the blast, against the asteroids of the inner shield wall at supersonic speed. No shield ever invented could withstand such a blow. The Unity ships might have been gnats flattened by a giant’s hand for all the chance they had.

“Ah well,” Penrod sighed. “It was a thought. Maybe we can salvage something from the wreckage. Perhaps there are survivors we can sell as slaves.”

“Not likely. They had to have taken quite a beating. I would be very surprised if there was
anyone still alive.”

“
Pity. It would have been fun to see the expressions on their faces when I informed them that all their planning, all their effort, all the deaths, were for nothing. That we knew they were coming and moved
Smuggler’s Cove
elsewhere weeks ago. All that fighting and they never got within a hundred and sixty kilometers of us.

He flashed a smug grin.
“It’s amazing what you can do with an asteroid when you equip it with sublight engines.”

“Salvage operations are under way, Tarl.” Jern Ishtawahl smiled to himself, hours later, pleased with how everything had turned out. He’d been instrumental in developing the defensive plan for the fortress and it was satisfying to see everything come together as designed.

They did have a few surprises for us, of course. But what conflict does not? We did not expect those piggyback power generators that gave their shields and energy weapons so much strength. That cost us many ships and people.
And the electromagnetic pulse from the nukes burned out many of the defensive sensors and weapons in the area.

He shrugged
mentally.
Ships and equipment can be replaced, and fewer pirates mean fewer ways to split the obscene profits we can expect to reap from this victory. Besides, soon we will be beating off new candidates with a moofbah stick. There are opportunists and sycophants aplenty in this universe.

Now that Smuggler’s Cove had been returned to its rightful place at the center of the
sphere surrounded by the inner shield wall, Ishtawahl watched the large holoscreen in the command center as the salvage ships closed in on what was left of the first two Unity vessels.

“Good, good,” Penrod replied, only half paying attention. He was already nose-deep in the quarterly earnings report he was preparing for the stockholders.

“Next year should be a record-breaker.” He looked up and smiled. “In fact,
every
year from now on should be a record-breaker.” His smile broadened. “After all, who can stop us?”

“Not the
Merchants’ Unity, certainly.” Ishtawahl snorted. “The few ships we let scurry home with their tails between their legs will spread the word of how crushing their defeat was. It matters not that we lost two-thirds of our ships as well. We can rebuild. The Unity as a fighting force is effectively done.”

Penrod nodded. “I agree. They’ve got a couple of dozen ships left that they held back, so we may run into one now and then, but there’s no way they’ll be able to convince their membership to come up with the money to build another fleet from scratch. Not after this debacle. No,
you’re right—the Unity is dead but not yet buried.”

“O-o-o-o-o-h-h-h-h-h, my head.”

Hal
tried to put a hand to his temple to stop the pounding. It moved less than four centimeters before coming to a sudden stop against something hard. That made Hal open his eyes. He saw no more with his eyes open than he had with them closed.
Omigod! Am I blind?
He blinked several times to be sure. Nothing changed.

He tried to move his right hand again. It was able to move a few
centimeters up and down or left and right, but there were obstructions in every direction. He pulled his arm back, only to find an obstruction behind his elbow.
What the hell’s going on?

He trie
d the exercise with his left hand and discovered that his arm was pinned by something unyielding. In fact, there was something tight across his chest as well, keeping him from moving much at all.

Crap. Where am I? What happened? Clearly something bad.

For several minutes he strained to remember. Then the smell of burnt electronics
, human sweat, and the cinnamony scent of Chan’Yi assailed his nostrils. That flushed the fuzziness from his brain.

The nuke
! But why are we still alive?
Then a scary thought hit him.
What if I’m the
only
one still alive?
The idea of dying slowly and alone in a steel coffin terrified him.

“Hello?
Hello?
Is anyone there? H-e-l-l-o!”

Not even an echo replied.
The ship was as silent as the tomb it resembled more in Hal’s mind with each passing second.

Now panicking, he struggled to escape from his
blind prison.

Got
…to…get…out…of…here!

Hal
found that his legs were pinned in place as well—pinned or paralyzed, he couldn’t tell. He tried to wiggle his toes, but couldn’t decide if he actually felt them or only imagined it.

After two minutes of futility, he finally stopped.

This is pointless.

“
Get a grip on yourself, Hal! Struggling aimlessly is getting you nowhere. Be methodical. Feel around a bit. Maybe you’ll find something you can shift to get you out of here. But whatever you do, focus!”

Once he stopped thrashing and concentrated on what he was doing, he realized that the queasiness in his stomach indicated not hunger, bu
t the lack of gravity.

Okay, so
the power’s out. That explains why it’s so quiet. No equipment hum. And maybe it’s dark because the lights are out, rather than me being blind.

That thought calmed him further.

All right. Time to get myself out of here.

With the limited range of motion available to him there wasn’t much he could do. He tried pulling his right arm back. Again he hit his elbow against something unyielding. This time, he tried bending his wrist to bring his
fingers as close to his wrist as possible.

Maybe I can slip my hand out of this if I
….

His knuckles came up hard against the ragged edge of something metallic.

Come on…just a smidge more.

He forced his fingers to move just the tiniest bit, mindless of the pain of torn skin and the smell of blood.

Just a little…there!

His hand slipped free from its cage, perhaps lubricated by his blood.

He brought his torn knuckles to his mouth and sucked the blood from them. That hurt, but the pain reminded him he was still alive. And if he was alive he had a chance to escape. Except, to where, he had no idea.

Hey, where there’s life, there’s always hope.

Using his free hand, he felt all over his upper body, wherever he could reach, looking for injuries. His scalp and forehead were sticky. He sniffed his fingers.
More blood. I hope I have enough to go around.
He felt across his chest and abdomen. They felt intact. Then his hand encountered what was restraining his chest.
My harness! You mean I’m still in my seat?

He
depressed the latch in the center of the five-point harness and it unlatched. By twisting his torso, he was able to wiggle enough to free his left arm, which was pinned against the armrest by what felt like a girder. There was more blood on his hand and wrist from several cuts and abrasions, but nothing serious. He flexed his hand and wrist. “Ow!”
The wrist is definitely sprained, but I don’t think it’s broken.

Next came his legs.
Hal hesitated before touching them, fearful of what he might find.

Come on,
Hal, you’re a big boy. You can handle whatever cards you’re dealt.

He took a deep breath, reached down to his right thigh and pinched.

“Ow!” He rubbed the spot vigorously.

Well, at least I know I’m not paralyzed. Now I just have to figure out whether there’s any way out of this mess.

Carefully bending down so he didn’t hit his head on the girders and scrap metal crisscrossing in front of his face, he ran his hands down his legs until his hands encountered a metal bar across his ankles. It pinned his feet tight against the base of the pilot’s couch, which was in its upright chairlike position, not in the usual extended easy-chair configuration. He tried to lift the bar, pulse pounding in his temples with the effort. The debris crisscrossing in front of his chest made it difficult to reach that far. When lifting failed, he tried pushing the bar away from his body. No go; not enough leverage.

Great. I’m gonna die here because my feet are stuck? No freakin’ way!

Hal felt around his seat, looking for anything that might provide leverage.

C’mon! All I need is a piece of girder, a broom handle, anything.

There was nothing usable within reach. He reached down and grabbed the bar again, straining with everything he had. “

Ee
e—
yah-h-h
!” He screamed with the effort, before finally giving up in frustration.

That’s it, then. I’m only going to get weaker with time. If I can’t get myself free now I never will.

He closed his eyes and sighed.

Not with a bang but a whimper
, eh?
He chuckled. “Not exactly how I saw myself going out.”

“HaHal? Is that you?”

Hal
sat up straight. “Who’s that? Who’s there?”

“
Kalen.” His voice came from somewhere across the bridge, not from the captain’s seat next to Hal’s.

Hal
sighed in relief. “Thank God. I thought I was alone. Are you all right?”

“I-I think so. I’m dizzy and nauseous and my shoulder hurts. I think I have a couple of
cracked ribs, but nothing life-threatening. How about you?”

“Just cuts and bruises
, a sprain. But I’m trapped. There’s a steel bar pinning me to my seat. I’ve tried, but I can’t move it. Can you get over here?”

“Ye-yeah, I think so. Keep talking so I can find you.
”

“Sure. What happened? Why are we still alive? Any idea?”

“Not a one. That close to a nuclear warhead, we shouldn’t be having this conversation.” His voice was closer now, and steadier.

Creaks and clatters
from off to Hal’s right told him where Kalen was coming from, hand-over-handing his way through the wreckage in zero-gee.

“Well, I’m certainly not looking this particular gift horse in the mouth. Of course, there’s the slight problem of figuring out how to
stay
alive.”

“What? Just because we’re trapped in a dead ship surrounded by bloodthirsty pirates who want us dead, too?
What could possibly be the problem?” His short laugh, followed by, “Ow!” came from directly in front of Hal.

“Ye
ah. Broken ribs hurt like a son of a bitch, don’t they?”

“You said it. Okay, where’s that
bar? Ah; found it. Between my shoulder and my ribs, and in zero-gee, I’m not sure how much help I’ll be.”

“
Well, whatever you and I can do together will be more than I’ve been able to do by myself. All right. Let me get a grip. You ready?”

“Yeah.”

“Okay. On three. One…two…
three
!” Both men grunted, Kalen’s turning shrill with pain.

“Stop, stop!”
Kalen grunted. “This isn’t working. Let me see if I can find something else to use for leverage.”

“I hope you have better luck than I did.”

Hal had to sit and wait in the dark, chewing his lower lip as he listened to the sounds coming from various parts of the bridge.

“Aha! I think this might do.”
There was victory in Kalen’s voice. At this point, even small victories were worth savoring. A moment later, he was by Hal’s side. “All right. I’m going to slide this pipe down beside your foot, behind the bar. You’ll need to scoot your butt to your left so I can use your seat as a fulcrum. Grab the pipe and pull back. I’ll get behind your seat and brace my feet against the back.”

“Sounds good.”

“On three, then. One…two…
three
!”

This time the
bar shifted. Hal tried to raise his right foot. It moved slightly, then caught. “Harder!” He pulled with all his might and tried his foot again. This time it slid free of the bar. He tried to pull his left foot out. It was still stuck fast.

“Stop!”
He panted from exertion. “It’s no good. I got the right one out but the other’s still stuck.”

“That’s progress anyway. Let’s try shifting the rod over. Maybe we’ll have better luck.”

“Sure. I— Ow, ow, ow!”

“What is it? What’s wrong?”

“Nothing,” Hal chuckled. “Just pins-and-needles. Give me a minute to massage some blood back into my foot.”

“Take your time. I’m not going anywhere.”

“That makes two of us. Okay, I’m ready. Let’s give it another try.”

“Give me a second to move the bar.” A pause. “All right. On three.”

This time, the girder shifted enough that Hal slid his foot out easily.

“Got it! Thanks, Kalen.”

“Hey, what are friends for? Besides, I needed you to help me find a light somewhere. All this thrashing around in the dark is very annoying.”

Hal
chuckled. “Give me a minute to massage
this
foot and I’ll be happy to help you. Ow!”

“More pins-and-needles?”

“Yeah, but my foot really hurts, too. I don’t think it’s broken, but it’s badly bruised. I’m not sure I can walk on it.”

“Good thing you’re weightless, then.”

“Yeah. Guess so. All right, captain my captain, let’s have at it.”