THE FOREVER GENE (THE SCIONS OF EARTH Book 1) (23 page)

His eyebrows shot up.  "How are we going to manage that?  Who is going to pilot the ship if you give yourself up?  And how are we going to open the hangar bay dome?  There is an override system in the ops room."

"Let me worry about all that.  There is just one thing I need to know.  How long will it take you to finish the star drive?"

He pulled a face.  "I can't answer that; it might take a week, perhaps two."

"We don't have that much time.  Chang will throw me in the brig at first, but if my government starts making threats, he may decide that it is simpler to send me back to Earth.  I will have a few days, at most, to escape and join you.  You need someone to pilot the ship, remember.  But if I escape before you are ready, the Chinese will realise what is going on and capture us before we can get away.  We have to time this to perfection, so give me your best guess."

He closed his eyes and thought hard.  "I still need to extrapolate the quantum strings feeding the particle accelerator, then underpin the programme code with..."

"Hans, spare me the geek gobbledegook."

He opened his eyes.  "This time in three days; but I can't promise you that it will be ready."

She glanced at her 'link to mark the time.  "Well I can't promise I will make it to the ship.  We'll both just have to do our best."

She opened the hatch again.

"I hope we don't get trapped in a trash compactor," he said with a grin.

"What?"

"Never mind, what do we have to get from the Russian stores?"

"A 'get out of jail free' card."  She darted out of the room and he had no choice but to follow.

The corridors were deserted.  She reckoned that Chang had probably rounded up everyone on the base so that he could see who was missing.  It was what she would have done.  It should give them the time they needed.

They slowed as they approached the hatch of the Russian delegation store.  She was relieved to see that it was unattended.  The Chinese were too busy to worry about a room full of equipment and supplies.  She tapped a code into the touchscreen panel and the hatch slid open.  They hurried inside, closing the hatch behind them.  She moved quickly along the rows of shelves, found a locked strongbox, and opened it with a small key she produced from an inner pocket.

"What's in there?" he asked, quizzically.

"Stun-grenades," she said, casually pocketing three of them.

His eyebrows shot up again.  "You Russians brought grenades onto a moonbase?  Isn't that a little dangerous?"

"They aren't that sort of grenade.  They're for crowd control; standard Russian issue.  You never know when the locals are going to get restless."

"Surely the Chinese will take them away from you before they lock you up?"

"They're not for me, they're for you."

His eyebrows couldn't go any higher.  "Er, are you aware that I am a civilian and have never handled a grenade in my life?"

She motioned for him to be quiet and opened the hatch again.  "Let's go."

They hurried through the corridors towards docking bay four.  About halfway there, she turned down a corridor which led away from their destination.

He hesitated.  "Where are you going?  We should be going that way."

She didn't reply and he ran after her.  After a few more turns, she stopped next to a grille set into the wall of the corridor above her head.

"Open that for me, please," she said, taking one of the grenades out of her pocket and fiddling with it.

"Be careful with that, will you," he whispered, glancing around nervously.  He was tall enough to reach up and open the grille without any difficulty.

Inside was a recess, densely packed with electronic systems.

She moved closer.  "Give me a leg up."

He interlaced his fingers to make a step for her foot and boosted her so that she was able to reach inside the recess.  She quickly wedged the grenade amongst the systems and then jumped down.  He closed the grille and they ran back the way they had come.

As they entered docking bay four, the hatch of the suit locker adjacent to the airlock slid open and a soldier stepped out.  They both froze.

"You took your time," said Carson.  "We have the extra suits.  What now?"

"Let's get inside and get changed."

They crowded into the locker and the astrophysicists put on the space-suits Carson had brought from the other suit locker.  He and Katya put on suits from the locker they were in.

Then Katya took out the two remaining grenades and gave one each to Hans and Harry.  Carson blinked, startled to see stun-grenades on the moonbase.  Ignoring his reaction, she showed the astrophysicists that each grenade had a little timer and how to set it.

"Why are you giving them to us?" asked Harry.  "Aren't you coming too?"

"No, I told you, Carson and I are going to be captured.  Now listen carefully so that you will know what to do.  All four of us will go into the airlock.  A signal will alert the ops room to the fact that the inner hatch has been opened and someone will be sent to investigate.  There should be just enough time for us to de-pressurize the airlock and open the outer hatch.  Hans and Harry will then go outside and make their way towards the airlock of the hangar dome."

"Which way is that?" asked Hans.

"It will be on your right as you step outside.  Move away from the hatch as soon as you can.  You won't have any trouble spotting the dome.  When you get to it, set the timer of one of the grenades for thirty minutes.  That should give you more than enough time to get into position.  Attach it to the outer surface of the dome and then go around the base of the dome to your left.  You will find the hangar bay airlock about a third of the way around."

"What is the other grenade for?" asked Harry.

"It's just a spare."

"Why do we need a spare?"

"In case something goes wrong with the first one."

"Like what?"

She scowled.  "Listen, we are running out of time.  You are going for a spacewalk with stun-grenades in your pockets.  And then you are going to try to sneak into a base full of Chinese soldiers.  Something may go wrong and it may be useful to have a second grenade.  What if the first one doesn't detonate?  Russian weapons don't come with a money-back guarantee."

Hans held up his hands.  "Alright, we get the picture.  Just tell us how we get back inside."

"By the time the grenade detonates you must be on the other side of the hangar bay service airlock.  Don't worry; the grenade won't do any serious damage.  Conceal yourselves below the lip of the dome.  Sensors on the outer surface will send a warning signal to the ops room.  They will think it is a meteorite strike.  These are common and the standard response is to send a two-man maintenance team out of the service airlock to inspect for damage.  From the time they exit from the airlock it should take them about five or six minutes to get to the detonation site, a few minutes to survey it, and five or six minutes to return.

"Once the team has left the airlock, the safety protocol dictates that it be closed, but with a two minute delay to give the team time to get well clear.  Within that time you must slip inside, so don't hide too far away and don't wait for the team to disappear over the curve of the dome before making your move.  The team members have no reason to turn around so they shouldn't spot you."

Hans looked doubtful.  "But isn't there a surveillance camera in the airlock?  The operator will see us and want to know who we are."

"No, he won't, because his priority will be to monitor the team's progress.  He will have switched his screen to visuals from the external cameras.  As soon as you get inside, stand right up against the internal hatch; you will be underneath the surveillance camera's field of vision.  If you move quickly you won't be seen.  Wait until the hatch closes.  The airlock will re-pressurise automatically.  Then open the inner hatch.  It has an internal control panel like this one.  Don't forget to close the hatch behind you."

"But didn't you say that the ops room receives a signal whenever a hatch is opened?"

"Yes, and the operator will send someone to check.  But by then you and Harry will be gone and there won't appear to be anything wrong.  The operator will assume it was a false alarm."

"Won't we be seen leaving the service airlock?  It opens directly into the hangar bay."

Technicians in space-suits coming from the service airlock are a common sight in the hangar bay.  No-one will realise that you are not supposed to be there.  Walk calmly into the suit locker and get out of your suits.  Don't hang them on the empty pegs, however.  You don't want the returning maintenance team to wonder where the two extra suits came from. There is a ventilation shaft feeding air into each room on the base.  Open the grille of the shaft in the suit locker and stuff the suits in there.  They are never opened unless there is a problem so they shouldn't be noticed for a while."

"How do we get onto the ship from there?"

"Just walk across to the loading ramp.  In your sanitation suits, you have the perfect cover.  You are going in to clean something up.  By then, Carson and I will be in Chinese custody and everyone but you two will be accounted for.  Hopefully, Chang will have bought the story that Armitage planted and any active search will have been called off.  Non-military personnel will probably be allowed to go about their business."

"Probably?"

"There are no guarantees, Hans.  I am just thinking what I would do in Chang's shoes.  The soldiers guarding the ship will think that anyone who is already inside the hangar bay has been vetted by the soldiers at the entrances.  They will have no reason to question you.  If you are confident and give the impression you are supposed to be there, you should be able to walk in unchallenged."

"Won't they be suspicious when we don't come out again?"

"I don't think so.  There are technicians moving into and out of the ship regularly.  The guards will have no reason to remember you specifically, unless you give them one.  When the shift changes, the new guards won't even know that you are in there."

"What about you and Carson?"

"We are going to wait here to be found by the Chinese."

"Won't they suit up and follow us outside?"

"No, because they won't know that you two are there.  Now, I want you both to repeat the whole sequence to me, word for word."

Once she was satisfied that they had committed every detail of the plan to memory, she made them practice setting the timers on their grenades.

Then she checked that the bay was empty and led them out of the locker.  She opened the inner hatch of the adjacent airlock and waited while Carson reached up and covered the lens of the surveillance camera with a sanitation swab.  They all trooped into the airlock and he closed the hatch.

"Whatever you do, maintain radio silence," she said to Hans and Harry as they put on their helmets.  "Unless you get stuck out there and need to call for help," she added as an afterthought.

They quickly cross-checked each other's helmets and then she tapped briefly at the touchscreen.  The airlock de-pressurised and the outer hatch slid open.  Hans and Harry both hesitated, and she gave them a vigorous hurry-up signal.  The moonskin they wore made walking out of the hatch a simple task.  They turned to the right and were gone.

During her career she had ordered thousands of men into dangerous situations many times, knowing that some of them were going to be killed or injured.  To keep her sanity intact, she had learned to do so dispassionately; to distance herself from what she had to do.  Her analytical approach and unflappable manner had made her very good at it, so good that most of her fellow officers believed she was simply cold and unfeeling.  She herself had often wondered whether they were right.

So when Hans and Harry stepped out into space, she was surprised to feel an unfamiliar emotion.  Exactly what it was she couldn't say.  It felt as if her windpipe had suddenly become narrower and she couldn't breathe freely.  She checked the flow of oxygen into her helmet and found that it was normal.  Perhaps the years out of active service had softened her.  But perhaps not; she was still able to visualise herself walking into the ops room and strangling General Chang.

The sudden appearance of the face of a Chinese officer at the inner hatch window interrupted her thoughts.  She made a show of fiddling with her suit as if there was something wrong with it.  The officer spoke briefly into his 'mote, and the outer hatch slid closed.  The airlock re-pressurised and the inner hatch slid open.  She and Carson were hauled none too gently out into the docking bay by Chinese soldiers.  They took off their helmets.

The officer thrust his face belligerently at Carson.  "How many go out?" he asked in broken English.  Carson shrugged his shoulders, pretending not to understand.  The officer turned impatiently towards Katya and repeated the question.  "How many go out?"

"We couldn't go out because there was a problem with my suit."

The officer spoke briefly into his 'mote, and was silent as he received instructions.  He ordered Katya and Carson to strip out of their space-suits.  Once they had done so, one of his soldiers picked them up and accompanied him to the suit locker.  They disappeared inside for a few moments.  When they came back out the officer reported briefly into his 'mote, apparently satisfied by the fact that there were no suits missing.