It's been almost two years since I posted a chapter for Panther in the mist, and I was recently inspired by someone who really likes this story line, and decided to give it some time. Thanks, Matt, for the well intended threats.
Daniel Lund
rimshotsplanet@hotmail.com
Panther in the mist Part 6:
In the ten months that followed Bacca's death, Zak had visited seven planets and three colonies, and had participated in sixteen drop rescues, nine of which involved time jumps. His status with the crew, even at the tender age of twenty, was one of father figure and counselor. He was revered for making time to talk, even if it was only a few minutes, and had proven himself more than once in battle. It made him feel much older than he was.
Three days ago, they had been called to a mining colony on a remote planet that had only a number, not even a name. There had been reports of hit and run attacks by the Jur'Kaalchik, and Panther was the only ship in the area, and even then they took two days to get there.
What they found was a completely destroyed mining camp and no bodies, which could only mean one thing. The Jur' took every last person. The barren plain that had been the center of the camp was littered with burned out buildings and ruined equipment. They had only been on the ground for an hour when all hell broke loose.
The troop shuttle neared Panther and banked towards the small landing bay. The mining planet below had a magnetic field problem that made the flashpoint mode of travel unreliable. The small twenty-man vehicle stunk of blood and charred flesh, and Zak sat at the controls icily looking at the readouts as he initiated the docking commands.
"Medical attention present." Panther growled\purred in his head. The comp link remained open between them most of the time.
"Thanks, Panther. Status on the Captain's shuttle?" Zak adjusted their trajectory slightly and set the controls to auto, allowing Panther to guide them in.
"Nearing orbital insertion. ETA thirteen minutes." Panther responded out loud.
There was a slight jolt as the catch cradle stopped the shuttle's momentum.
Zack shut his board down and turned to his co-pilot, a totally inexperienced marine that he'd pressed into service to help him lift off. "Tell the others to see to the wounded first. I need the ranking marine on Deck One in ten minutes."
"Sir." The marine responded. He unbuckled and stood up to go into the passenger compartment. They had taken a pounding on this drop, and there were numerous casualties. Zak watched as the officer in command of this platoon was respectfully carried off the shuttle by his troops. A large section of the man's chest was a hole now, and his lifeless eyes watched the ceiling go by.
Krimm, the only Gransorian aboard the Panther, waited for Zak to come out. His tall muscular frame was covered in course brown hair, and his head was wide with two large ears and a fierce snout with sharp teeth. He looked like an upright grizzly bear. As Zak stepped onto the deck Krimm fell into step with him, handing him a reader pad. "Forty one dead, two of them officers, and the Jur' got nine of them alive."
"It was a fucking disaster. Where the hell did they come from and why weren't we notified?" Zak snarled and stopped short in the corridor, turning to face Krimm. "Why didn't the sensors pick up the ship, and who was on the fucking bridge, Krimm? We got a load of shit dropped on us. We couldn't respond."
"I don't have answers, Zak. We didn't see it. We have a full section of deck fourteen open to space because we couldn't see their weapons coming." Krimm held up his paws in supplication. "I have no answers."
"That isn't good enough, Krimm." Zak turned and headed for the lift. "If they know they got us they'll hit us again."
An hour after everyone was back on board a briefing was called. Zak walked into the conference room behind Deck One with Krimm and Storm, the Lead Navigator. Tony, Panther's young Captain, looked up from his place at the head of the table and nodded. A bandage covered the right side of his face down to his jaw.
"Take your seats." The Captain said, sliding his chair in to the table. "We don't have much time." He glanced at the navigator. "Storm, status."
"We are en route to the largest of the system's two moons, sir. The high mineral content will help shield us from their sensors." The lean blond young man leaned back in his chair and sighed. "With the mains off line, it'll be a two hour trip."
Tony grunted and looked at his display. "Krimm, engineering."
"Two of the four Grav-Generators will be up in an hour. Three and Four will be a day at least. B-Drive is fully functional." The furry engineer said.
"Comp." Tony looked at Zak. "Tech Support?"
"Panther is going through the sensor grid right now. We have no idea what blinded the sensors." Zak hit his fist on the table. "There is no reason for us to not be able to see them or their weapons. None."
"What we can't figure out, sir, is why only our sensors were effected." Parlant, a female member of the planet Raaniss said. Her thin almost frail build gave her the appearance of an elf, and her skin and hair were tinged in green. "If something was strong enough to disrupt them, why not our communications and other outboard systems?"
"Zak, get with sciences and keep me up to speed." Tony made a note on his screen and turned to Krimm. "Put however many men on the drives as you need. I want to be able to leave at a moments notice, and I don't want to get beaten bloody if at all avoidable."
"Yes, sir." Krimm stood up and headed for the door.
"Medical." Tony turned to the two young marines that Panther had trained for the Medical Bay.
"Forty two now, Captain." Fisher, the senior officer in the department said. "I haven't had time to complete the tests, but I think the Jur' have beefed up their bacteria."
"Grand." Zak sighed and rubbed his temples. "Make samples available to sciences and Panther, okay?"
"Okay everyone. Back here in four hours." Tony stood up and waited for everyone else to follow suit. "We got caught flat out today. This is the finest crew Earth has, so let's not bullshit around. Find out what happened so we can fix it. Dismissed."
As the others filed out Tony sat back down. He glanced over and noticed that Zak hadn't moved from his seat yet and chuckled. "I take it you have something troubling you?"
"I've gone over the data for the attacks and I think they were toying with us." Zak laced his fingers together and let his head drop back. "They were testing their new toys today, Tony, and next time I don't think anyone will walk away."
Tony stifled a groan and leaned his head against his fingers. "I sort of got the same feeling. Tell me what you think they used to blind us."
Zak shrugged and closed his eyes. He used his link to Panther to call up information. "Panther picked up a focused emission from their ship a about three seconds after they suddenly appeared. A few seconds later the entire deck bellow the barracks was open to space. Coincidence?"
"What kind of emission?"
"I can't describe something I've never seen before."
Tony shook his head and leaned back in his chair. "There was nothing here.
Why attack this worthless rock?"
"My guess is to see if their new weapons work."
The Jur'Kaalchik didn't come back. The repairs to Panther were completed in two days, and they returned to their assigned area. Panther and three other QRV's (Quantum Rescue Vehicles) patrolled the main flight lines between Earth and three of her colonies. The ship's compliment had been augmented almost a year ago, just before her former Captain died, with a large company of marines and attending equipment as well as more powerful shielding and weapons, effectively turning the ship into a battle cruiser.
Zak sat with his legs folded under him in the middle of the floor in his quarters in a pair of replicated boxers and a white t-shirt. The floor was covered in thick carpeting, also replicated from the past, and Zak liked to spread his work out around him. Several pads sat in a pile next to a silver mug of Coke. He leaned forward on his elbows and brushed his shoulder length hair out of his face.
The door chime sounded, startling him, and he looked up at the door irritably. "Come." The door slid open and a young marine stepped in. "Sir, I'm Marken. The computer told me to report to you."
Zak waved to a chair at the table next to the door. "You're a specialist in Flash Point and Bercolli Drives, aren't you?" Zak stood up and went to the desk near his bed. He picked up a data pad and handed it to Marken.
"Yes, sir. I' m a secondary repair tech for the ground equipment." Marken looked at the small screen. "What are these pattern lines, sir?"
"That's what you're here to help me figure out. Panther believes that the Jur'Kaalchik used their version of the B-Drive to make themselves invisible to the sensors." Zak picked up one of his pads and matched the screen to Marken's. "What does this look like to you?"
Marken was slightly un-nerved by Zak's presence. He shifted in his seat and looked at the pad again. It was hard to concentrate. Everyone on board knew of Zak, and everyone had heard the stories about how Panther was always in direct communication with him. Marken glanced at the deep red and black stripes on Zak's left arm, leg, and face, and dragged his mind back to the information.
"Sir, we use Flash Point accelerators on the surface to bring down large numbers of troops or heavy equipment. This looks like the gravity focus pattern that forms just before the object in transit reappears." Marken felt himself sweating under his light armor. He looked up to meet Zak's purple eyes.
"Good." Zak smiled and dropped his pad. "So the question is why are these patterns present just before the Jur' showed up, and why was it present just before their weapon hit the ship?" Zak picked up a different pad and handed it to Marken. "Exactly two point seven three seconds before the weapon detonated."
Marken's brows slid together in concentration as he looked at the pad. "Their using some sort of Bercolli wave to hide themselves." He mumbled. "That can't be, though, sir. It doesn't work that way."
"What?"
Marken tapped a command into the pad, looked at the information, and then handed it to Zak. "From what I'm seeing, Panther says they were using their B-Drive while they were in normal space. It doesn't work that way. They have to tell it where it is and when it is for it to go to where and when. See what I mean? It's not a means of propulsion, and it won't allow for faster than light travel while it's engaged."
Zak sat down and folded his legs under him, looking up at the flustered marine. He smiled. "Right. So how did they do it?"
"I have no fucking clue, sir." Marken waved his arms in frustration. "It looks like a B-Wave, but it's not possible."
"Please don't call me sir anymore." Zak chuckled. "Call me Zak, okay?"
"Yes, sir. I mean Zak." Marken's face reddened. "It's sort of automatic."
"I understand, but it drives me nuts. I'm only about a year older than you." He leaned back on his hands and looked up at the ceiling "Panther, can you create a simulation involving local gravity, the Jur' ship, and all present variables for the incident?"
"Affirm. Lab?" Panther's deep gravely purr responded.
"Fine." Zak stood up again and grinned at Marken. "I probably ought to put on a uniform. Gimme a sec, okay?" He moved into the bathroom and called up a ship suit from the replica or. "Panther, I may need Marken for awhile. Can we get him out of duty with the marines for a few days? I need him rested, and I know they love to be up at all hours."
"Affirm. Transfer to ship crew?"
Zak stopped pulling on his boots for a second. "I better ask him. He might like being a soldier." He finished with his uniform and pulled on the crimson jacket before going out into the main room. Marken stood up and almost came to attention, and Zak fought the urge to laugh. "You really have to relax around me, Mark."
"Sir, you're the first officer. My commanding officer would have my ass if he saw me showing disrespect like that." Marken said almost reverently. "Besides, Zak, I was one of the guys with your team on the surface. You earned our respect."
Zak was touched and decided maybe he shouldn't be such a prick about the 'sir' thing. He folded his arms and leaned against the wall, fixing Marken with his eyes. "Mark, I need to know how sold you are on being a marine."
"Sir?"
Zak tilted his head to the side as he continued. "This mess with the B-drive could take some time to clean up, and I want your help doing it. That means that for a while, maybe a few weeks or longer, I need you dedicated to the task, not polishing blast rifles. Are you willing to transfer to Panther's crew? At least until we get this thing done?"
Marken was quiet for a moment before he met Zak's eyes. "I'd really like that. I tried to get into the fleet when I signed up, but when they saw that I could shoot they assigned me to the marines." He swallowed hard and wiped his hands on his pants. "I'd really appreciate it, sir. Zak, I mean."
"Done." Zak hooked his thumb over his shoulder at the bathroom. "Help yourself to the replicator. Put on a ship suit. Panther, handle the transfer, will you? Put it over my signature, and put Marken in a room on this deck."
"Officer?" Panther asked. The entire deck was for the senior officers and section heads. Zack hadn't thought of that.
"Make him an ensign, assigned to the computer lab. You plan on testing him?" Zak asked, sitting down at the table. "Want to give him an uplink?"
"Level one. Uplink will be in the lab." Panther answered. "Transfer complete, sent to Captain and marine commander Captain Deegan."
"Good." Zak looked up as Marken walked out of the bathroom. He was now dressed in a skintight ship suit, gray with a dark gray jacket and boots, and Zak was surprised to see how muscular the kid was under his uniform. The lightweight battle suit had hidden that, and the new uniform really showed it off. He realized he was staring.
"Feels funny to not be in armor." Marken said quietly, fidgeting with the shiny dark red metallic belt Panther had given him, designating him as a member of the computer department. "I feel almost naked."
Zak stood up and waved him to the door. "You'll get used to it. I did." They left and headed for the lab.
For several days, there was nothing along the lines of Jur' activity, and Panther was fully repaired and operational. Zak met a few times with Tony to discuss the problem with the Jur' weapons, but they didn't get to socialize very much. Even when Zak stood watch on Deck One, the rarely saw each other.
It had been painful to drift apart, although Zak felt selfish because of his feelings. Tony did everything he could to prove to his superiors that he deserved his command, and that left little or no time for them. The two or three times they had gotten together and had been 'in the mood', it had felt forced, and neither really wanted a repeat.
Zak buried himself in the research related to the invisible weapons. He didn't need a lot of sleep because of the Panther link, and spent most of his days in the lab or in the Bercolli Drive Room with Marken and the four techs he had been assigned. With Krimm standing over them like a vigilant mother, they removed the outer casings to the time transfer engine and began testing theories.
"Zak, got a minute?" Tony's voice came from the comm hanging on his belt. Keeping one hand on the relays that Marken had exposed to keep them from falling, He took hold of the little comm. unit and spoke into it.
"I'm up to my ass in busy, oh fearless leader. Can I get back to you?" Zak asked casually.
"Fisher in Med Bay has something he needs to go over with us. Twenty minutes in the conference room okay?" Tony asked, carefully not demanding. He knew that Zak was driving his team hard, and nerves occasionally got a bit tight.
"Yeah, I'll be there. Want the scoop on the project while we're at it?"
"Bring Krimm. Out." Tony signed off.
Zak replaced the comm. On his belt and looked up at the engineer. "Twenty minutes?"
"Okay." Krimm nodded his shaggy head and turned to back down a ladder into the deep well that Marken was working in. It led into the bowls of the Bercolli Drive, a little over fifteen feet deep and surrounded by pipes and conduits.
"Sonofabitch!" Zak heard Marken curse and saw what appeared to be sparks reflected off the metal walls. "Zak, the fucker's gone out again. It's not going to work in this configuration." Marken walked into view, the sleeves of his ship suit pulled off, brushing at a dark patch where the sparks had hit his chest. He looked up angrily and met Zak's eyes. "It was never meant to do this. It has to have a starting where and when, and a finish where and when. You can't just keep it running."
Zak sighed and nodded. "Come up. We have a meeting with the Captain in a few minutes. Tell Krimm he can close it up. This is getting us nowhere." He stood up straight and stretched his back, focusing inward on the Panther link.
"You heard?" he asked the living computer that had become his friend over the last year.
"Affirm. New model does not match parameters. Adjusting." Panther rumbled in Zak's mind. The computer had become a grand expert on Zak, often showing far more intuition than any other bio-processor ever had, and often more than most humans. "Zak needs diversion. Focus is muddy."
Zak laughed out loud as he approached the flash point and set it for the officer's deck. "Yeah, that would be nice, Panther old chum, but the prospects are shitty."
"Shitty?" Panther inquired, puzzled by a word centuries out of date.
"Great. Now I'm teaching the computer to swear." Zak smirked and shook his head. The door to his cabin opened as he neared it, and he could hear swing music playing as he walked in. Brian Setzer, one of his favorites. "Good choice, Panther." He pulled open the front of his ship suit and kicked the boots off. ".......big black Cadillac....." He sang along tonelessly, dropping clothes on the way to the shower. "Oh, Panther, call Marken and tell him to bring the data pads, will you?" He stepped into the shower and hummed to the music.
Marken put his comm. Back on his belt and looked at Krimm in resignation. "Is it repairable?" He asked.
"Everything can be fixed!" Krimm's comm. translated his humor-laced growls. "We just need to keep Zak out of there for a day or so."
Marken chuckled and waved, turning to head for his quarters. He felt grimy and sweaty, and he really wasn't in the mood to sit in a meeting with the command staff all afternoon. He ran his fingers through his sweaty hair as he entered the flash.
He still felt funny walking down the corridors of the officer's deck, and even funnier wearing a ship suit instead of a battle uniform. He often found himself down on the marine decks after his shift was over talking with his friends. They ribbed him constantly about his new uniform but always welcomed him back.
He stepped thru the door into his new quarters and tossed the jacket of his uniform over a chair. "Panther, you know those pants and shirt that Zak always wears in his quarters?" He pulled open the front of his ship suit and headed for the shower.
"Affirm." Panther's voice sounded like a whisper and two rocks grinding together.
"Can you make those in my size, please?" Marken kicked off his boots and set his comm on the counter. "They look really comfortable. I want to try them." He stepped out of the suit and into the shower.
"Affirm. Color and style?"
"No preference." Marken keyed in a sonic shower, sighing as the sound waves began to work into his muscles. He could've spent the entire evening in the shower and still taken more. It was a real luxury to have privacy and his own room and bathroom. Of all of the things he missed being a marine, a crowded shower room wasn't one of them.
He stepped out of the shower after it completed its cycle and found his new garments ready for him in the replicator. He lifted up the boxers and looked at them curiously, and them slipped them on, having to do it twice after he figured out what the fly slit was for. The baggy t-shirt was very comfortable, and he flopped on his bed and picked up his Panther link, touching it to the side of his head.
"What's tonight's lesson?" He asked, stretching out and getting comfortable. "I really used that quantum theory and applications lesson from last night."
"Spatial Harmonics." Panther rumbled, a trace of humor in his voice. "Makes last night's instruction make sense."
"That'd be nice." Marken chuckled and closed his eyes. "It helps when it all makes sense."
At a few minutes after three in the morning ship's time, Marken was jolted awake. "Defensive Condition Two. Report to Deck One." Panther said in his mind and out loud. "Panther is in combat mode." Marken yanked at the thin sheet he'd gotten tangled up in and blinked into the darkened room.
"Panther, what's going on?" He stumbled out of the bed and pulled the t-shirt off. "Dial me up a ship suit."
"Enemy attack on nearby freighter. Parameters match new weapons development."
"They're using them again!" Marken was horrified. He struggled into his uniform. "Panther, how close are we?"
"Not close enough."
Kona Kanuai Lost consciousness and drifted into the darkness. He had been thrown the length of the small hanger bay by the last explosion after trying to get the freighter's only shuttle ready to launch. It was standard procedure during any sort of attack to have the small launch ready for the Captain to leave the ship. His coveralls were torn in several places, revealing bruises and cuts on his caramel brown skin.
The Jur'Kaalchik attack came with out warning as the freighter Honolulu Fury made her way at an almost crawl towards the planet Kedan Prime with her holds full of fabricating machinery for the tera-formers there.
Kona was at his post on the ship's tiny bridge when the first weapon stuck them amidships followed closely by the second. On his sensors there was nothing to indicate that another ship was within a light year, and yet holds four and six were now open to vacuum.
"Make ready to abandon ship." The Captain said as he struggled back to his chair in the center of the small bridge. "Arm all of the escape pods."
Kona did as he was told, instructing his computer to allow anyone that needed to launch the pods. There were forty pods and only thirty-one crew, so there would be enough. Another weapon detonated near the engines, and suddenly the room was deathly silent as the power went out.
"Ah, hell." The Captain scowled at the ceiling. "Kona, go get the boat ready. They can have the goddamn fabricators."
"Okay, Dad." Kona jumped up and headed out of the bridge at a run. His compact muscular body was thrown against the bulkhead just outside the small hanger bay as the ship was hit again. A klaxon went off, one that no one on board ever wanted to hear and feared the most. It meant that there was a hull breach and that the 'Fury" was loosing its atmosphere. He put his fingers to his forehead and came up with blood. He swiped the back of his hand across his eye and ran for the shuttle.
The ship groaned and creaked, and for several seconds the lights flickered and finally went out. The artificial gravity field collapsed, and Kona pushed off for the far wall. Losing gravity was nothing new on the 'Fury', and he was well practiced at zero-gee maneuvers. He landed near the main control panel and brought the secondary power online for the shuttle. The interior lights came on and he could hear the pre-starts on the engines.
"Fifteen seconds, come on baby." He urged the shuttle to hurry up. It was easy to hear explosions outside the hull, and at one point he was sure he heard one of the cargo pods being jettisoned, probably to save what little power they had left. The green lights came on and Kona switched the board over to the shuttle. It was now fully operational. Just enough time to get his dad and get the hell off this tub. He was almost to the forward hatch when the ship suddenly went completely silent, and then twisted harshly in a deafening impact. He reached for a handhold, but was thrown up and over the shuttlecraft and into a wall. His last sight was of a crack in the main bulkhead, and hearing the escaping air from a major breach.
"Jarvan, this is Tony. Get in and get out. No heroics. I signaled them that we were pulling the crew off." Tony's voice issued from the Marine officer's comm.
"Aye, sir. We have a lock on their sensor suite." Jarvan, a tall muscular man in his late twenties pulled his face shield down and turned on the mike.
"Marines, total armor and suit seals. Squads one and two into the flash. Go!" Sixteen troops ran up onto the Flash Point and pulled their face shield into place, checking their air supplies. The two squad leaders gave thumbs up and Jarvan pointed at the Flash Operator. "Now, Tagg."
"They materialized on the deck below the small bridge and immediately switched to grav-locks on their boots. Artificial gravity and life-support were failing. The first squad headed deeper into the ship to get survivors while the second squad moved into the computer core and up into the bridge.
Storm and Marken materialized a moment later and followed the others into the computer core. "Team two, find the main sensor panel. I need the transfer node intact if possible." Storm pointed towards the other side of the room. "Marken, use that comm Relay to set up a link to Panther."
"Got it." Marken moved to the panel and used the box Panther had given him to establish a two-way download link. There was no power to the board. "Shit. Storm, I get nothing over here. Can I borrow two marines?" Storm nodded, and Marken waved at two of his former troopers. "Grove, Tanem, help me find the main trunks. I need power over here."
On Deck One aboard Panther, Tony turned to Zak. "I can't find anything to shoot over here. Got any suggestions?" The ship shuddered around them as another weapon appeared from nowhere. Zak? Panther? I could use some fucking help."
Zak winced from the physical pain that the link cause him when it was in rapid exchange mode. He tried to make sense of everything Panther fed him, and it was overwhelming. "There!" He cried silently through the link. " Panther, lock onto the distortion in grid 9!" The computer rumbled in pleasure, and Zak turned to Tony. "Lock the targeting array on these coordinates and fire!"
"Do it!" Tony barked at the helmsman. He leaned forward over his own console and watched the readouts as Panther's weapons began to unload a hail of fury. In front of them, through the clear steel windows, they waited, holding their breath. It looked like there wasn't going to be any form of a hit when suddenly the view port blazed with white light as impact after impact detonated on the hull of the Jur' ship.
"Ha!" Tony jumped up and pumped his fist. "Take that you sneaky sons of bitches!" He looked over at Zak and leaned on the rail. "Can we use that again, or was it a lucky guess?"
"Panther knows what to look for now." Zak leaned back in his chair exhausted. "What do we have on the screens?"
"Sir, I have three Jur' ships and two unknowns!" The helm shouted. "They're turning towards us. I think we pissed 'em off."
Tony moved to the weapons console and looked over the operator's shoulder. "Turn it over to Panther and let him shoot. He's faster than we are."
"Massive incoming fire, sir." The gunner pointed at his readouts.
"Firing." Panther's gravelly voice came over the comms and they felt the ship shudder as the weapons opened up again.
"Panther's taking out the incoming torpedoes, sir." The helm reported. "We have one, two, total of three that got through."
Tony took his comm off his belt and spoke into it quickly. "All hands brace yourselves!" The first missile hit near the stern of the ship, and he was knocked of his feet. He shouted from the deck where he'd landed. "Get us out of here! Full speed."
"Engines are off line!" Krimm shouted from the engineering console. "Structural damage near Generator One. We're going to lose it!" The ship bucked again as the other two weapons impacted. "Hull breach on decks thirteen and fourteen."
"Sir, I have the Terrain Fast Attack Ship Moscow." The comm operator shouted. "They're two minutes out and offering assistance."
Tony made his way over to Zak's station. "Send them what you have on tracking the Jur'. See if they can use it."
"Transmitting." Zak worked on his console. "They have it." Outside the view ports, they looked up to see a small sleek silver ship sail by and start firing. "The first ship we hit just broke up." Zak said, looking back at his board. "The other two are breaking off."
"Tell me how bad the damage is when you can." Tony put his hand on Zak's shoulder and then turned back to the rest of the crew. "We got pounded, people. Give me a report by sections."
"Storm, this is Marken. You should have power now." Marken sighed heavily and leaned against the wall. He and the two marines had had to strip out the deck plates to find the severed power trunks and were all exhausted.
"Good job." Storm responded. "We're sending now. Locate survivors and report back to the ship. Panther got the shit kicked out of it, and we need to get back."
"Got it." Marken said and severed the comm. Link. He looked wearily at the others. "You heard him. Lets get the crew out of here." They pulled out their portable scanners and went back to searching. The freighter groaned from time to time, causing him to jump, but Marken stuck to the weak signal he was following. He passed several bodies as he went, fighting nausea. It would be really bad to throw up in his suit.
The little scanner beeped, and he turned, trying to localize the reading. He stood out side the hanger bay. The indicator panel showed that the hanger was depressurizing rapidly. He adjusted the scanner and there it was, a life sign inside the hangar.
"Great." He mumbled and reached out to start the emergency airflow to the hangar. It would be just his luck to get inside and have the whole damned thing break open. He'd been in open space before in a suit, and it had made him sick. There was no up or down, just spinning, and he'd hated it.
The pressure got as close to equalizing as it was going to get, and he triggered the manual release on the door and pushed it open. There was a long crack in the wall opposite the door, and he carefully closed and resealed the hatch so it wouldn't decompress the entire deck if it blew.
The little four-man shuttle was powered up, and obviously someone had been getting it ready. He walked around it, avoiding the debris, and looked at his scanner. He bumped into something soft and nearly tripped. There was an arm stretched out from underneath the shuttle. He reached down and pulled the boy out. His caramel skin was bruised from the lack of pressure Marken had just corrected, but he was alive. Blood ran from under his black hair down across his right eye and nose.
The ship shivered and shifted, and Marken fell against the wall. He could hear the hiss of escaping air worsen, and although he was in a sealed suit, the boy was not. Thinking quickly, he reached over and keyed the shuttle's hatch open and shoved the kid in, then closed it behind them. The ship shook harder, and Marken moved forward to the controls and belted himself in.
The wall where the crack had been suddenly vanished, and the sounds of the ship went with it. Marken sighed and thanked silently whatever powers there were that he'd gotten them in the shuttle. The controls were fifty years out of date, but he was able to bring the engines to life and signal the hangar door to open. It was more accurate to say that the door fell off than slide open, but he was able to get them out of the ship.
There was debris everywhere, and he had to move slowly so as to not endanger the shuttle's hull. He called Storm and the others and told them where he was, and then headed for Panther. It was a shock to see his ship as they approached. The usually gleaming silver hull of Panther was scorched and had several gashes in it. One of the main engines had been blown off and was slowly spiraling away.
He swallowed hard as he approached the landing bay. He could see several of the escape shuttles were manned and powered up. Panther must be in pretty bad shape, he thought. The freighter shuttle hard docked next to one of the large blocky military shuttles, and with a little effort, Marken picked up his rescu-ee in a fireman's carry and left the shuttle.
Marines and ship's crew were everywhere, and the deck was littered with cargo containers. One of the ship's officers saw him and waved him over. "Is he from the freighter?" Marken nodded. "Take him to the command shuttle straight forward. They have a medical shuttle set up right behind it."
"Are we abandoning ship?" Marken said incredulously.
"They can't stabilize the hull near the full tanks." The officer pointed towards the cavernous landing bay. "Get going."
Marken nodded and headed into the throngs of people.
"Zak, they need you to help get Panther's tank into the command shuttle." Tony jogged up the corridor towards him. "They got the memory core moved, but the tank isn't sliding down from the ship into the shuttle." Panther's tank that housed his living brain had been designed to be evacuated from the ship if needed so that an experience ship's computer wouldn't be destroyed if at all avoidable.
"Yeah, Panther's cranky as hell." Zak tapped the side of his head where the black and crimson metallic stripes were. "Talk about madder than a wet cat."
"Boo." Tony shook his head at the sad little joke. "That one stunk."
"I tried." Zak shrugged. "I'll be in the shuttle. See you there."
"Right." Tony took of down the corridor, sweeping the ship with a few others to make sure everyone got off. He and a minimal crew would attempt to get Panther to Kedan Prime. The Moscow wasn't large enough to tow Panther, so they had to do everything they could to get the ship under way. No small task.
Zack walked through the hatch into the shuttle and found several people all talking at once with Marken in the middle holding up his hands and trying to get their attention. Zak folded his arms and leaned against the wall. "Excuse me." He didn't speak very loud, but the sound of his voice went through the small crowd like lightening. He was irritated, but smiled slightly. "Is there some reason why we are having a cluster fuck and I wasn't invited?" They all started talking at once, and he held up his hand for silence. "Ganes, would you like to have a go?"
Ganes, a tall lanky man in his early thirties served as the assistant section head for engineering. He stood straighter and spoke quietly. "Zak, that last hit we took caused the rails that guide Panther into the shuttle to misalign. We're having a hard time getting him in here."
Marken pushed through to the front. "It's a small piece of shrapnel, Zak. It's holding the pallet up so it won't slide down. Right now, we couldn't put him back into the ship or launch the shuttle if we wanted to."
"Guys, I have one severely pissed off bio-mass raising hell in my head right now, wanting to know why this is so hard. Marken, can you get the piece of metal out?"
"Yes." Marken said and squared his shoulders.
"He wants to shoot it out with a blast pistol!" Ganes threw up his hands. "Why not just jettison the pallet and save the effort?!"
"Zak, I'm a marine, remember? I'm not going to hurt Panther." He tapped the removable link he had stuck to his temple. "He knows what I'm doing."
Zak rubbed his forehead and pushed off to walk over to the ten foot tall six foot deep well that would hold Panther's brain and looked up. About twelve feet up he could see the bottom of the tank, and on the right side was the offending piece of metal. "You can hit that and get out of the way fast enough?" He looked at Marken skeptically. Marken nodded. "It weights about two and a half tons, Mark."
"It'll work." Marken answered. "The shot just needs enough power to dislodge the fragment. His weight will do the rest."
"Do it." Zak glanced over at Ganes. "Grab his belt and help me pull him out of there."
"Sir, this is nuts. He could be crushed. It's insane."
"I agree," Zak got a grip on Marken's belt. "But, we launch in three minutes, and I'm tired of this already. Panther wants him to try it." They watched as Marken took a pistol and adjusted the power output. He looked nervously at Zak, and stepped underneath the enormous tank. "Soon as you hear the shot, guys."
Zak and Ganes braced themselves, and Marken took careful aim. He fired, and they hauled back as hard as they could, landing in a heap on the floor as Panther crashed into the socket. Immediately the status lights went green and they could feel the deck vibrate as Panther fired up the engines and brought the shuttle to life.
"Shuttle is secured. All crew to stations." Panther's deep voice rumbled.
Zak tussled Marken's hair and pushed him up and off his legs. "That was fun."
"Sir, the ship has cleared us to leave." Storm said from the helm. "They're getting ready to blow the hull plates." Zak stepped into the small bridge and climbed into the command chair. "Twenty seconds."
"Tell them we'll see them on Kedan." Zak said. As they watched out the windows, the total darkness was suddenly interrupted with bright flashes and vibrations through their hull. Huge sections of the ship's lower hull began to float away exposing all of the shuttles to space.
"When you're ready, Storm." Zak leaned back in the chair and rubbed his neck. "Get us clear of the ship and have the others fall in with us." There was a clanking rumble, and they floated free of the ship. Storm's hands danced on the controls, and the large command shuttle surged forward and down.
"We're clear, Zak." Marken sat next to Storm and assisted with the controls. "The ship is veering off. The rest of the shuttles are free."
"Set a course for Kedan."
Tony pulled himself up out of the floor plates and dusted off his hands. "Okay, Krimm, I bypassed the main relays." He walked over to where the chief engineer stood at the controls for the gravity generators. "If you can't get power now, we'll have to leave in the fighters and blow the ship."
"Assuming we could get the ship to blow." Krimm growled sarcastically. "Let's see if this does it." He touched several keys and looked at the screen. "Come on you great beast, show me a sign of life!"
There was a deep slow rumble from the rear of the ship and the overhead lights flickered and came on. They'd been in the dark except for emergency lights for several hours. Around Deck One, consoles began to light up and sounds came from them. Fowler, the assistant helmsman, looked up and grinned.
"I have green lights on the board, sir. I think we can maneuver." He went to work on his controls. "Nav is online."
"Best speed to Kedan, and don't push your luck, okay?" Tony walked over to the command chair and sat down wearily. "Just keep it steady."
"I'll be in engineering. If we can't get to something a little faster than light, this trip'll take months." Krimm walked away scratching his head. "I'd hate to see a Jur' cruiser right now."
"The Moscow will see us in." Tony reminded him and waved as he left.
Kona wanted to stay in the darkness. It was peaceful in the darkness, and safe. Nothing blew up. But something nagged at him, forcing him into a fuzzy sort of consciousness, and he waved his arm at it irritably. "Leave me alone!" He grumbled.
Fisher, the med tech, leaned back against the next bed over and chuckled. "Look, you're my last patient, and I want to go help the ground teams explore. Wake up." His British accent was melodious. "You're not sick anymore."
Kona blinked his eyes open and glared at the room around him. There were gray blue walls and a blue cushion under him. "This isn't the Honolulu. Where am I?"
"You're powers of observation are intact." Fisher chuckled. "You're on the medical shuttle which is currently sitting three hundred yards from the beach on Kedan Prime." He picked up the pad that had Kona's information on it and made some notes. "Your freighter, or what's left of it, is several million miles that way." He pointed at the ceiling.
"You rescued us?" Kona sat up quickly and instantly regretted it. "Oh, damn."
"I said you were better. I said nothing about after effects." Fisher gently pressed him back down. "We're from the Panther, a rescue ship." He took a small silver cube from a socket on the wall and touched it to Kona's neck, injecting him with something for the dizziness.
"You guys landed on Kedan Prime?" Kona asked, confused.
"Yes and no. We had very little choice. The Panther was nearly destroyed intervening on your behalf." Fisher set the pad aside and went to get Kona a ship suit and boots. "We came in the shuttles. About fifteen of them. This is the medical shuttle."
Kona took the suit and stood up, carefully bracing himself on the edge of the bed while he pulled it on. Fisher stood close by incase he got dizzy or felt feint. "Did you get all of us of my ship?" Kona asked, slipping on a pair of boots.
"I really don't know." Fisher lied. "I'll take you to the commander of our little safari, Zak. He'll answer your questions." Fisher indicated the door. "You're going to feel weak for a few days, so speak up, alright?"
Kona nodded and carefully made his way out of the small room and into a short corridor. There were small windows spaced through out the large shuttle, and he could see tall wispy looking trees and tall blue grasses. It made him realize how long it had been since his father had taken him home. He was suddenly very homesick for palm trees and the surf.
They went out through the main airlock, and Kona was surprised at the differences between Kedan Prime and Earth. The vegetation looked more spindly, like bird feathers, and the dirt and sand had an almost purple hue to it. The sky was blue and the water was right, but everything on land looked way to blue. It bugged him.
"Put these on." Fisher handed him a pair of dark eyewear. "The sun is a lot brighter than earth normal."
"Thanks." Kona did as he was told and followed Fisher towards a village of tents not far away. As the approached, he noticed that along with what appeared to be soldiers putting up more of the temporary shelters and moving cargo cases around, there were several people of more than one species engaged in various forms of recreation like beach games and talking in small groups as well as just lying in the sun.
"Panther's crew doesn't get shore leave very often, and hardly ever in a tropical paradise." Fisher picked up on what Kona was thinking. "In fact, the last time we were off the ship was on Polaris, and I can tell you that everyone here hates snow."
"I was born in Hawaii on earth. I hate it, too." Kona said in agreement. There were four of the hard sided tents set up a little ways from the rest, and they headed for those. They were arranged in a semi-circle, and in the center was an unlit fire pit and several collapsible chairs. Two guys a few years older than Kona sat in chairs soaking up the sun. He had to look twice, because one of them was wearing surfing shorts from Earth and some really strange sunglasses.
"Here we are." Fisher stopped near them and put his hand on Kona's shoulder. "Kona, this is Panther's First Officer and Comp Tech, Zak, and this is the Assistant Comp Tech, Marken. Guys, this is the guy Marken pulled out of the freighter hangar."
"Kona, eh?" Zak stood up and offered his hand. "Glad you still with us. Cool name, by the way."
"It's Hawaiian." Kona said automatically, absolutely shocked by the pattern of what looked like a red and black metal tattoo on Zak's left arm, chest, leg, and face. He swore they looked like tiger stripes, and although Kona wasn't really aware of it yet, they were extremely arousing. They accented every curve of Zak's abs and chest, and they disappeared beneath the waistband of his shorts and reemerged following the muscular definition of his thigh.
"Sit down, gentlemen." Zak waved them towards the other two collapsing chairs. "Tell me, Kona, what happened to your ship? Did you get any kind of warning about the attack?"
Kona had to make a deliberate effort not to stare at the stripes. "Uh, no.
We never got any kind of sensor info on them. It was like they never existed."
"Sounds familiar." Marken readjusted himself in his chair and lifted his sunglasses up. "Were you boarded? We couldn't tell if the Jur' had been there or not."
"No, not that I know of, but I went straight from the bridge to the hangar.
Thanks for saving me, by the way." Kona leaned back in his chair and had to fight the urge to look at Zak again. On freighters, it's common for any and all members of the crew to occasionally get together for sex. Even at seventeen, Kona had been to bed with men and women. None of them had given him the strange feeling he had right now looking at Zak. The guy was built like a god, with perfect muscles and lines, and those entrancing tattoos. It was hard to concentrate. Even his shoulder length blond hair had some black and red highlights in it on the left side.
"I'm very sorry about the others. We got there as soon as we could."
"Huh?" Kona blinked and focused on Zak's face. "I'm sorry, I was zoned."
Zak smiled faintly. "I said I'm sorry about the others. We tried to save them, too."
Kona had to digest that for a second, and his chest tightened. "My dad's dead?"
Zak looked down for a moment and shook his head. "The three we got back to the ship died of radiation poisoning. I'm sorry." He looked over at Fisher and then at Marken. "Will you guys excuse us, please?"
"Sure." Marken got up and followed Fisher back towards the rest of the camp.
After a long silence, Zak stood up and pointed at his tent. "In there is a replicator. Why don't you go dial up some civilian clothes, and we'll take a walk on the beach. Last time I was in Hawaii there wasn't any purple sand, but this place isn't so bad."
Kona stood up and looked Zak in the eyes and nodded stiffly, feeling shocked and blank. He walked mechanically into the tent and changed, his mind swirling. The last memory he had of his dad was when he left the bridge for the hangar, and his dad had been setting up the escape pods.
The replicator made him a pair of surfing shorts with a loud floral print on them and a pair of sandals. He left the boots and ship suit lying on the floor and went back out. Zak was waiting nearby. He had put on a white shirt and left it open, and it fluttered in the breeze. He held out his arm towards the beach, and Kona fell in step with him.
"We have some things in common." Zak said, putting his hands in his pockets. "I had my entire family wiped out by the Jur'. I was rescued by the previous captain of the Panther."
"What happened?" Kona asked, meandering towards the water.
"The Jur' used a time warp to go back into Earth's past to harvest people for their breeding. My family and I were camping in Montana. They took about a hundred people that night. Panther, the ship's computer, had the captain take me to the ship. I ended up becoming the computer tech." Zak stopped and sat down on the sand, kicking off his sandals. Kona joined him.
"You're from the past?" Kona asked.
Zak nodded and looked out over the water with a feint smile. "According to the calendar, I had my six hundred eighty third birthday, or something like that, two months ago. I personally don't feel a day over twenty."
Kona chuckled and looked down at his feet. "So what do I do now?" He drew in the sand with his finger. "No family, no nothing, you know?" He sniffed and swiped at his eyes.
"You're welcome to stay with us. We should get back to Earth before to long. Panther will need a major fix up job this time." Zak leaned back on his hands. "Who knows? You might find a job you like on the ship if you try hard. Your record said you were a decent helmsman."
"Really?" Kona asked. "You'd let me stay?"
"If you earn you keep, sure. That's how I made it."
Kona sniffed again and saw a tear fall from his nose and hit the sand. "I'm gonna miss dad. He was one of a kind." He swiped at his eyes again. "He'd be real proud if he saw me serve in the fleet."
Zak put his arm around Kona's shoulders. "I'm sure he is." Kona looked up at him, and the dam broke. He leaned against Zak and cried, pouring out his heart. "Two of a kind, that's for sure." Zak held him and let him sob.
"There's another one!" Krimm snarled and pointed at the screens. "We need those fighters launched, Tony! I can't get weapons on line."
Tony jumped the rail from the command chair and ran to the weapons console.
"Moscow, can you draw them off?"
"Negative, Panther. We have hull damage. The engines are down." The speaker crackled overhead. "Can you land?"
"I can't move." Tony answered and keyed in a manual launch sequence for Panther's torpedoes. "Krimm, can you get me atmospheric thrusters?"
"Hang on!" The helmsman shouted. The ship heaved hard on its side sending everyone flying against the wall. Everywhere around the command deck there were small explosions and smoke. Tony was trapped under Krimm and pushed the engineer off with great effort. Only when he was free did he realize that Krimm was dead.
"Deck One, This is environmental support. We have Jur' on the ship! I repeat, we have Jur' on the ship!" The voice came over the speakers, and fighting could be heard in the background. Tony's shoulders slumped, and he leaned back against the wall. The comm was still open, and he could hear screams and weapons going off.
"Computer," He said quietly. "This is the captain. Set the auto-destruct sequence. Two minute count down. Warn the Moscow off."
"Affirm." The mechanical voice of the back-up ship's system intoned. "Ship will self destruct in two minutes. Moscow confirms orders."
Tony glanced out the wide view ports towards the planet Kedan Prime, not so far away, but it might as well be on the other side of the universe. He imagined Zak standing in a group of the ship's crew and explaining some trivial bit of information, his metallic stripes picking up the sun.
"I wish it was different, Zak." He said, and leaned his head back against the wall.
"What was that?" Kona pointed at a bright flash in the sky, clearly visible in the early evening twilight. He sat near the fire in the center of the officer's tents eating with Zak and Marken. They both looked up and Kona looked worriedly towards Zak.
"Panther, analysis of light in the western sky. Details." Zak sent to the computer through their link. "Is the ship in orbit?"
"Zak!" Storm came running up from the command shuttle. He was the officer of the watch tonight, and had been in the shuttle to monitor the comm. And sensors. He was slightly out of breath when he stopped. "I just talked to the Moscow. They're in orbit, and they were jumped by Jur'. Tony had ordered the ship evacuated."
"Zak." Panther interrupted in Zak's mind. "Source of the explosion was the ship. Self-destruct was ordered by the captain. Main charges detonated at 19:42 hours. There were twenty-seven humans and one hundred fifty-one Jur'Kaalchik on board. Command was transferred to you by Tony as of 19:36 hours."
Zak's mouth hung open, and he looked up at Storm. Neither could think of anything to say. There was a long silence before one of the crew ran up and handed Storm a pad with a message on it. Storm read it quickly, reread it, and handed it to Zak. "Moscow confirms that the Panther was completely destroyed. What are your orders, Captain?"
Zak closed his eyes and leaned back in his chair. After a moment he opened them and looked up into the night sky. "I knew you'd do this to me."