Insurrection (Athena Lee Chronicles Book 5) Page 4

  ___

  Alvin-the-taker was extremely happy right now. Kneeling before him were two ‘cowards’ who ran from the enemy. Both men were clutching their bleeding hands tightly against their chests. “Next time, if there is a next time, I will cut off something a little lower for my collection. Get out of my sight and back to work!”

  He looked at his navigator ‘Lieutenant’ Allendale. “Allen-a-dale, how far until we reach Legation Station?”

  “We should be in communication range in 12 hours and within sight of the the station in 24, sir.”

  “Good, good. So far things are going to plan. What do you say about that, Jenna?” He looked toward the woman at the weapons station.

  Jenna the Butcher was wanted on at least ten worlds. She was a known cannibal having been caught by local authorities ‘feeding the homeless to the hungry’ at her husband’s butcher shop. Of the husband nothing was ever found. Tried and convicted of mass murder she had been sent to the prison world on Rustof 3 to serve a life sentence. En route to the prison the ship carrying her and 350 others was waylaid by pirates. Since her release she had been spotted on various worlds buying spices and cooking utensils…

  “I still say we should keep this ship, park it on a moon somewhere and have a big barbecue.” She smiled, her sharp pointed teeth, gleaming in the dim light.

  “Jenna, Jenna, you know who is boss here right? This job will bring us closer to this sector governor. With him backing us we can do anything! Get away with anything. You can practice your culinary delights without fear of prosecution. Won’t that be fun? Now, put the caps back on your teeth, I think you’re scaring young Carson here.” Alvin patted the young looking ‘ensign’ on his back. “So, Carson? Have you broken into the captain’s computer system yet?”

  “No, sir! Not yet. He has the newest military encryption on it. I did get into the communications system backups, though. The Captain did send some kind of message from that satellite. It used a protocol I’ve never seen before.”

  “Keep working on it, Carson. We need whatever leverage we can get with Governor Norton. Make sure you have something tangible before we get there or I will let Jenna here take you out for lunch.” He smiled at the computer wonk. “Someone find McCoy and tell him to take over here. I’m going to see what is going on with the navy.”

  Alvin gathered his bodyguards and left the bridge.

  ___

  Still shaken by the explosion and death of someone under his command Lieutenant Mutai took stock of the men and supplies at the new defense point. His two lightly wounded men were now joined by the rest of his Marines and a burly engineer. The cook with the bleeding eye had been taken to the first aid station. “Set up your sniper rifles and take out those guns. Try not to hit the crew members, if possible. This is a ‘needs of the many’ type of situation.”

  The four Marines began taking pot shots at the Medved brothers. In the flurry of shots the two quartermaster loaders were unfortunately shot and killed. With their human shields now gone the pirates were forced to abandon their positions and retreat back to their defensive line.

  The Marines tossed several improvised explosive grenades built from plastique and scrap metal at the two heavy guns. The resulting explosion destroyed the guns setting off the ammo like a string of firecrackers. Echos of the explosion were heard across the whole ship.

  ___

  Alvin’s head jerked around at the sound of the explosion, the repetitive sounds were magnified by the corridors. “What in the hell was that! Contact McCoy, that better have been him destroying those navy pukes or I’m working on my collection tonight!”

  “Sir, Alvin, sir! Please don’t kill me..” The messenger dropped to his knees.

  “What ..Is..It! If you didn’t do whatever it is then YOU have nothing to worry about! What?”

  “The navy killed the human shields and blew up both big guns!” The pirate looked scared as he huddled on the floor.

  “What the Hell are those idiots doing down there! You, get up! Stand over there by the wall.”

  “Thank you sir, thank you.” The pirate got off the floor and turned away from Alvin. He started to walk away when Alvin pulled his pistol and shot him point blank in the head. The messenger fell to the floor with half of his head now gone.

  All of the other pirates looked away or at the floor when Alvin passed. Once he was out of sight, money began to change hands. There was a large pool over how long a messenger would survive.

  ___

  Deep in the access tubes a small party of men were still carefully making their way toward engineering. Seth was about on his last nerve. The western hicks that he had picked for this mission were driving him insane. They had claimed to be from a known pirate ship but the world they all came from was a backwoods hellhole that had nothing but horses and hicks on it. They had zero knowledge on how to open airlocks or access doors. They kept telling these god-awful stories about something called a wagon train. Seth had scratched his head on that one. How DO you train your wagon? That must be a fecked up planet for sure.

  “OK you idiots. We have about another 200 meters or so to go. Once again don’t touch the conduits they have electricity in them. Like we learned last time. I think Flint may have feeling coming back to his hand by now. Whatever you do don’t pee on them, right Duke?

  “Uh, yes, sir, lieutenant, sir.” He was scratching his beard. “Uh, sir? What do you think all those ‘splotions were a bit ago?”

  “What I think is that we need to get moving. The dang battle will be over before we get there! Damn it, now I’m talking like y’all again. Aaargh!”

  Chapter 5

  Captain Pigot sighed with relief. Good news at last. Hopefully that was all the heavy ordinance those pirates had. There were still too many of them to attack head on. He looked at the schematic of the ship. His forces held engineering, medical, and life support. The pirates had everything else. “If I was a pirate what would I attack first?” He stared at the screen for a few moments then yelled for his aide to call the Marines.

  “Did you call for us sir?” The Marine Lieutenant had arrived with his four man squad. One of them, Sergeant Sveldig, looked a bit tattered and worn.

  “Is your sergeant there OK? He looks a bit bedraggled.”

  “Sir, he is fine. The sergeant was up front at the barricade with me when the rockets hit. We were both rattled around a bit but we are OK now.”

  “If you are sure. I have been trying to think like a pirate. I think that life support is their next target.”

  The Lieutenant slowly nodded his head. “You may be right, sir. I still think that they will try a frontal attack to save face. Do we have any idea of where this ship is headed?”

  “The last look we had of navigation showed we are still on the course I laid in, Legation Station.”

  “Captain, why would we be going there still? Do you still think that someone in the local Government is behind this?”

  “We, that is the other officers here, believe that it is Governor Norton. Of late the Governor has been behind several unpopular land deals and new taxes on the Hong Kong farmers. That clip we saw from the rebels may be for real and the Governor may have hired these pirates to help him take over.” Captain Pigot stared out the window at Engineering. “Who knows? Maybe we are wrong and they have all ready changed course and are taking us somewhere worse.”

  “Sir,” the Marine Lieutenant said hesitantly. “Didn’t the engineers rewire the navigational controls? I’m pretty sure I heard Chief Tad say that he did it.”

  The Captain pressed the intercom button on his console. “Ask Chief Tad to come in here please.”

  “I do believe that he may have said that. We'll just have to ask him.”

  The door to ‘his’ office opened and Chief Kościuszko entered the room followed by one of the computer techs. “Sir, did you call for me?”

  Captain Pigot smiled at his old friend. “Tad, have a seat. Did you need something too?”

 
“Sir, this is Computer technician Kovak, she is here to disconnect your computers sir. All of them.”

  “Tad! What is going on? I need those to keep track of the pirates and our people.” He watched as the young looking technician disconnected all the systems in the office then short circuited the system. Sparks shot in all directions as the built in computer panel died. With a smile on her face the young woman exited the room.

  ‘What the hell was that? Damn it Tad, what is going on?”

  “I’m sorry sir, but that young woman is the only tech that we have at the moment. She detected a computer intrusion that was just about to compromise everything we’re doing here. Every time you pressed a button in here they could track it from CIC. We couldn’t take any chances.” The Chief smiled and looked down at the table. “If its any consolation, she shut down all the computers except for those in the engine room. We separated them from the system so the pirates couldn't take control of engines, too.”

  “Too? What else do they control?”

  The Chief looked grim. “They gained control of of life support about an hour ago. My engineers are trying to get the system back under our control but, whoever they have over there is a kick-ass computer specialist.”

  One of the Marines raised his hand like he was in school. “Uh, sirs? Why don’t we shut down the system on our end?”

  The officers all looked at the Marine in surprise. “Shut it down? What about life support for us? Without it we die! Explain yourself Marine.” Lieutenant Mutai looked mad.

  Private Ascot cleared his throat and spoke. “Sir, you said yourself that we’re still on our way to Legation Station. Uh, Chief Tad, we are, aren’t we?” The Chief nodded. “If we’re still on course then we should be there in less than a day. My parents own a small freighter, I was born in space. Any spacer brat will tell you that if life support fails not the freak out. Unless the hull is holed due to battle damage the air inside will keep you alive for several days a week at least. Plenty of time for a rescue or for us the recapture the ship.”

  “Out of the mouths of babes…” The Engineer looked at the Captain. “We have been concentrating on the pirates so much we forgot the basics. He’s right. Hell, Hugh you should remember this from the Tri-Space battle back on the old Jupiter. We lost life support for almost a week, remember? Old Chief Martin had to link in the shuttle craft so we didn’t all die. I know you remember that one.”

  Nodding his head the captain smiled back at his friend. He chuckled, “I remember Chief Ricky yelling at you when you almost blew up the ship connecting us to that …” He stopped himself. “Sorry gentlemen, that mission is still Top Secret even after all these years. Anyway, yes, losing life support is no big deal under these circumstances. Tad, have your team start ripping out the controls.”

  Captain Pigot looked at the Marines. “Good work Ascot! I will have to think of some reward for you. Maybe a feather in your cap, so to speak? Anyway, since my idea of a mission has changed lets try and plan a new one. Is there any way we can either free the hostages or regain the bridge?”

  “Sir, the only way that my men and I can gain access to Cargo hold one is to exit the ship and and come back in through the engineering repair hatch here right below the fueling station. To get there we would have to cross the outside of the ship without any of the anti-grav units or jet packs. Those are stored in Cargo hold two.” Yet the Lieutenant and his men were all smiling.

  “Kinno, that’s crazy! Anything could happen to you out there and we would not be able to help. There'd be no rescue at all.”

  “Sir, we have thought about it and discussed a few tricks to doing it. If we make it they won’t be suspecting us at all. It is rather insane, and we'd have to take several packs of weapons with us, but we think we can do it. Do I have your permission to try?”

  The Captain looked at the smiling men. They looked as cheerful as if this was a ‘Sunday picnic’ or something. Fine. Let them try, they were the professionals. “Approved. Permission granted. Don’t die.”

  The Marines stood up and left the room. Laughing, Sergeant Sveldig turned to his commander. “You didn’t tell them the real reason we want to do this.”

  “We're professionals. I don’t think they know or care that by doing this, we become Marine legends!”

  ___

  “OK ‘heroes’ don’t think I didn’t see those smiles back in my old office. I’ve been around Marines my whole life, I have two brothers in the corps. Are you absolutely sure that you want to do this?” Chief Engineer Tad was staring at the five Marines.

  “Sir, we don’t have a choice. Eventually those pirates will rush us or use them as human shields. If I had more Marines I would do something different. All I have is cooks.”

  “OK Lieutenant, it’s your show. Now come over here and look at this view screen.” The gruff sounding engineer led them over to a tabletop screen viewer. “In case you didn’t know already, this ship is a Fubuki class destroyer. It was originally made for the Pan-Pacific-League navy before the last war.” He stopped at their expressions. “Yes, our ship was built pre-war and is older than all of us, including me. The PPL built 24 of this class. It was originally designed as an anti-pirate ship which given todays circumstances is ironic. Only two of this class survived the war, our ship the Paney and the original one the Fubuki.” He paused and just glared at the Marines. Touching several buttons on the table the Chief brought up a close up of the hull.

  “This is important because this ship is rare. It has a few features that other Destroyers don’t. Size is one. We are about 30% bigger than most Empire destroyers. The ship builders envisioned having to do hull repairs en route to new locations without the benefit of a shipyard. At the time these were built there were only about three major yards in the galaxy. Surrounding each hatch is a series of rings or pitons. These were to be used by suited up engineers, they would ‘hook up’ to the ship and be able to move about outside without fear of flying off. We don’t use these anymore. That is what we have shipyards for. But, the pitons are still there in most places. Many have been damaged or removed with successive repairs but there are some there. You can take the rope and carabiners that we found use them to ‘Climb’ the ship.”

  “Chief are you sure the rings are still there?” The lieutenant was uncertain of this man’s plan.

  The Chief ignored his question. “Every hatch on every Navy ship has a secret pass code known only to engineers. It allows us access to hatches in out of the way places.”

  “Wait, what? Do you mean to tell me that anyone can just walk right in with this code? On any Navy ship?” All five Marines were just staring at the engineer with wide eyes. “Do you realize what a huge security risk that is? Who knows this code?”

  “Son, you worry too much. That’s why it’s a secret! The code is passed from one engineer to the other. It’s like a rite-of-passage to be let in on the canon of engineering.” He took off his glasses and wiped his forehead and eyes. Putting his glassed back on he glanced at the Marines. All five stood there with their palms of their hands on their faces.

  “Chief, if we survive this we need to have a talk about the code. OK? Now what is this mysterious code?”

  The Chief Engineer cleared his throat and began to speak in a formal tone. “As it was told to me, in the distant past an Engineer named Tommy got locked out of his ship called the Jenny. Unable to remember the number to get back he was trapped without air and dying, he wrote his wish on the wall for those that came later. In memory of this poor engineer the numbers were at first written on the wall. Later they were learned by all as a remembrance of the Jenny and poor Tommy. The sacred engineering numbers are 8675309.”

  One of the Marines, turned his head and started laughing. “Sorry Chief, but that sounds like the biggest bunch of crap I have ever heard in my life.”

  “Well private I suppose that if I told the same story but changed it to Corporal Steve White from the Mars Colony that lost his life would you still think that?�
� All the Marines’ demeanors quickly changed to outrage.

  “Sorry if that angers you but I was only using it as an example. I told you that I have Marines in my family. I know that the Corporal’s hand-to-hand battle against the rebel General on Mars is legendary. No offense was intended. Like the Corporal’s statue in Mars Prime city, the Engineering Corps has a mural done in mosaic tile at the Academy. The black and white shades make Tommy come to life on the wall. I will admit that the story is an allegory to always have an escape route planned.” The Marines were grudgingly nodding their heads; having an exit strategy was something they could understand.

  “So, back to the ships plan. Just below the number one hold is an access port. It’s a leftover from the original layout of the ship. Before the torpedoes were added this ship could act as a mine layer. There is a small hatch on the bottom of the ship. The larger mine door was sealed and plated over years ago so don’t try and use that. The hatch should be dead center, look for a recessed access panel. It opens up to a small room with a ladder going up. At the top of the ladder is another hatch. Make sure the outer hatch is closed before opening this one.” He stopped and met each of their eyes.