Overdrive (17 page)

Felix was
currently behind the bar serving drinks. Bruce, the Gorilla, was contentedly
curled up on the couch with a pint of beer in one hand and a banana in the
other. His partner, Derek, staring out at the starfield, managed to block out a
large part of the view with his white bulk. A pint of beer was almost swallowed
by his large paw. Crystal, Logan and Tarquin sat around one of the tables
having an animated discussion.

“So why can’t you
tell us who you work for?," asked Logan

Crystal sighed.
“I’ve already explained this to Felix. We can’t risk any other interested party
finding out who developed it until we get Felix safely to his destination.”

Logan exchanged a
look with Tarquin. “And what do you actually do again?”

“Security. Look,
do you want to look at my fucking resume.”

Logan waved his
hand at Crystal. “Sorry. No need to get upset.”

“Can we just drop
this please?," said Felix from behind the bar. “Its my hide. I trust her
and besides, she got us out of a pretty nasty predicament back there.”

“Yeah, yeah. Ok.
I’ll drop it.” Logan buried himself in his beer.

Tarquin turned to
Bruce. “And what about you guys?”

Bruce swallowed
his banana in one gulp and had a swig of beer before answering. “You can keep
us on if you like or drop us off at this Fever place.” He shrugged. Crystal had
to stop herself from laughing. A Gorilla shrugging with a thoughtful look on its
face looked a little ludicrous.

Controlling
herself, Crystal answered him. “We might keep you on for a while yet. There’s
always a chance that we’ll get traced to Fever in which case we’ll need some
heavy hitters. My employer will pick up the tab and I’m sure Tarquin won’t mind
you borrowing some of his toys. You will be compensated of course," she
added hurriedly to Tarquin after a frown crossed his face. “Seeing as both you
and Logan are currently unemployed, we might put you both on the payroll in
addition to the cost of hiring your ship. Does that sound acceptable?” Both Logan
and Tarquin nodded. Logan turned to Felix.

“How does that
grab you? We’re working for the same company. Bet you never thought that would
happen?”

Felix grinned.
“Well considering they don’t normally employ people with low IQ’s, it looks
like you’ve lucked out.”

“Kiss my arse
tossnuts.”

“Pass."

“While you’re up
there," said Tarquin, “can you make me another of those cocktails. You
know, the one that’s pretty much pure alcohol.”

“I thought you
were meant to be driving the ship?," said Felix.

Tarquin shrugged.
“The ship’s AI can handle it. I normally just confirm its decisions.”

The ship’s alarm
went off.

“Looks like you
might have to do some confirming," said Felix.

Crystal stood up.
“What is it?”

Tarquin was
already heading down the stairs towards the bridge. “Proximity alert. Shiva.,"
he said over his shoulder.

Felix downed his
beer. “Oh fuck.”

◊

To the assembled
observers on the bridge of the
Debacherous Weekend
, it looked like a
many tentacled grapefruit was wrestling with a discus.

Still some distance
away, the Shiva was magnified to fill the screen. With no apparent color in
Nospace apart from grey, the scene looked like something out of an old black
and white movie.

“Is that a Martian
ship its got there," asked Felix, bending over Tarquin’s shoulder.

Tarquin enhanced
the view. “Looks like it. Must be those guys that were on the
Dirty Little
Minx
. Lucky for us too. We might be able to make a run for it while it
sucks the life out of the poor bastards.”

The rest of the
group looked on in amazement. Few people had been fortunate to escape after
actually seeing a Shiva in action. The readout showed the Shiva to be 4km in
diameter. Six “tentacles” protruded from the main body – two of them firmly
grasping the Martians ship and slowly drawing it in.

Tarquin queried
his AI. “The draining process must have only just started. The readout shows
that their ship still has power although its fading fast.” Four hundred meters
in length, the Martian ship, inevitably a flying saucer, was dwarfed by its
attacker.

“Well, we can’t
just sit here and let them die,” said Felix.

Logan mesmerized
by the view on the screen turned towards Felix. “What do you suggest? Get out
there and try and distract it with your scrawny arse?”

Tarquin prepared
his ship for evasive maneuvering. “Face it Felix. There’s nothing we can do.
Our best bet is to get the fuck out of here.”

“There might be
another way," said Crystal quietly.

The others turned
to her in surprise.

“Sorry," said
Logan, “I didn’t quite catch that. It sounded like ‘there might be another way’."

“That’s what I
said.”

“But that’s
impossible," said a dumbfounded Felix. “Everybody knows there’s no escape
from a Shiva. Unless," he added, “you’re an Angel.”

Crystal looked a
bit sheepish. “Well…ummm.”

“Tell me you’re
not. Please. It can’t be.” Felix was almost pleading.

Crystal took a
deep breath. “The organization I work for discovered the secret to creating
Angels 25 years ago. I’m the prototype.”

“But you haven’t
got wings," spluttered Felix.

“The wings are
just for show. This way I can remain incognito.” She put her arms around Felix.
“Don’t worry. I’m with the good guys.”

Felix looked at
her for a long moment and then nodded. “I trust you.”

Logan, recovering
from his surprise, was getting impatient. “Yes, yes. Blahdidah. Whatever you
can do to the Shiva, you better do it now. Those Martians are just about to be
thoroughly sucked off.”

Crystal looked at
the screen. “The big secret the Areopagite’s and Watchers have kept all these
centuries is that Angels possess a few strands of Shiva DNA – hence our ability
to communicate with them.” She paused and looked around at the others. “I’ve
only done this once before and it takes a great deal of concentration. Be ready
to move the ship in at my signal.” She closed her eyes.

The men turned back
to the screen. No immediate change with the Shiva was apparent. Two minutes
passed. Beads of sweat covered Crystal’s brow. The Shiva had almost brought the
Martian ship to the kilometer wide orifice that the onlookers assumed was its
mouth when a shudder appeared to run through its colossal body. It slowly
released the Martian ship which floated, obviously without power, away from it.
The Shiva shook itself like a dog emerging from water and headed off in the
opposite direction.

Crystal opened her
eyes, stumbled, and would have fallen had Felix not caught her. “She’s out
cold,” he said. “I’ll go put her in one of the state rooms.” He left carrying
the unconscious woman.

Tarquin had one of
his eyes closed. “I’ve just received a message from the Martians distress
beacon. They’re still alive and require assistance. Their ships fucked though.
I’m maneuvering for dock now.”

The
Debacherous
Weekend
powered up its Ion drive and slowly moved towards the crippled
ship, spinning to match the trajectory of the Martian ship. Thanks to AG, the
men on the bridge were only aware that there was any spin at all by watching
the forward screen.

Tarquin turned to
Logan. “You alright for a bit of an excursion?," he asked.

Logan shrugged.
“Don’t see why not. Have to borrow your suit though. Mines been slightly
ventilated.”

“Definitely wear
the suit. Just as a precaution. I’ll use the pressurized docking corridor but
they may well have lost life support or hull integrity. They don’t know we’re
here either so you might surprise them. Their comm channels are out apart from
the beacon. ”

Logan nodded and
made his way out of the bridge. Tarquin turned to the two Transplanters. “Any
other volunteers?”

“I’ll go,"
said the gorilla, Bruce.

“Good o. There’s a
universal vacuum suit in the hold. Its not really designed for Nospace so you
may be a little uncomfortable. It should be alright though.” Tarquin turned
towards the Polar Bear. “And you?”

Derek
shook his head. “Nah. Don’t like cold open
spaces.”

◊

The
Debacherous
Weekend
, matching velocity and spin with the Martian ship, had extended its
telescopic docking corridor, joining the two ships together at their respective
air locks. Logan, in his borrowed battle armor, was halfway along the corridor.
Behind him, Bruce, wearing a shapeless and unflattering vacuum suit, struggled
to keep up.

Reaching the
Martian outer air lock door, Logan tried the manual override before opening a
link to the Gorilla.

“The power’s gone
and the manual override is wedged shut. Hasn’t been used for a few years by the
looks of things. I’ll use the lowest setting on my plasma cannon. Should cut
through but will take a while.”

“Nah. I’ve got a
better way. Get out of the way.”

Logan looked back
in surprise. “What the fuck are you doing?," he said while moving hastily
to one side of the corridor.

“We’re in a hurry
ain’t we?," he said by way of explanation. The Gorilla pointed the large
plasma cannon he’d liberated from Tarquin’s armory at the door and fired. The
door flew apart. Bits of metal flew into the corridor but the majority
liquefied and floated inside the airlock. One of the pieces struck the corridor
accompanied by a loud hissing noise.

Logan raised his
eyebrows. “Stupid but effective.”

His heads up
display came alive showing the angry face of Tarquin. “What in the name of the
seven cunting hells are you doing over there? I’m losing pressure in the
corridor.”

“Nothing to worry
about," Logan replied. “Bruce was just showing me how mercenaries use
diplomacy, tact and subtlety in their everyday activities.”

“Well you better
hope our little green friends have suits or have the galactic record for breath
holding. Otherwise they’re buggered.”

“I’m sure they’ll
manage.”

Careful to avoid
any of the liquid globules of metal, the man and the gorilla gingerly entered
the air lock. Reaching the far end, Logan anchored himself using one of the
grab hoops and indicated that Bruce did likewise. He then triggered the manual
override on the inner air lock door. The doors opened with a hiss of escaping
air which soon dissipated. Logan was surprised at the relatively small amount
of air. The Martian ship must already have a hull breach.

Ahead of them
stretched a low ceilinged corridor bathed in a dull green light and covered
with tubes, pipes and conduits. The corridor, obviously designed with Martians
in mind, forced both Logan and Bruce to stoop as they entered from the airlock.

The AG had failed
with the power so both were forced to use the grab hoops evenly spaced along
the walls. Logan moved carefully along the corridor followed by Bruce, who,
although was rather adept at catching the hoops, had obviously little
experience with zero gravity and was struggling with the cramped confines.

“Fucking little
green turds," he muttered under his breath.

“What was that?,"
Logan enquired through his AI.

“You’d think that
they’d make their access ways a little bigger in the interests of staying
friends with us normal humans."

Logan turned
towards the gorilla in surprise. “You call yourself normal?”

The Gorilla
shrugged causing his whole suit to undulate. “Yeah. Why not?”

Logan turned back
to the corridor and pushed himself towards the next grab hoop. “Ok then.”

Some 20 meters
ahead, the corridor split into two. Getting closer, Logan could see one was
marked “Bridge” and the other “Engineering."

“Lets split up,"
he said to the Gorilla. “You check out Engineering for survivors and I’ll take
the bridge. I meet you back at the ship.”

Bruce saluted.
“Yes sir," he said enthusiastically. Logan was unsure whether he was
taking the piss but thought it best not to start an argument with a 200kg
gorilla.

He watched as
Bruce started on his awkward way towards Engineering before making his own way
towards the bridge. Fifty meters further on Logan emerged into a large
cluttered space filled with screens, chairs and consoles. Discarded fast food
wrappers and empty beer dispensers floated haphazardly about in the near total
vacuum. A large sign on one wall helpfully spelt out bridge just in case
someone might have missed it. He took another step forward and almost walked
into a plasma bolt that narrowly missed his head, splashing on the bulk head
behind him with an audible sizzling sound.

Logan grabbed a
hoop and forced himself down level with the bridge’s metal floor. His targeting
graphics were already on-line and had identified the direction of the attack.
He opened a channel, ordering his AI to connect with any other in the vicinity.