Chapter 4
Unwanted Guests
The trip back to J-27 seemed unusually long. Fortunately, that gave Finn and Jake time to look into the Ulasomorf's systems and discover that Krieger had the forethought to install a medical bay into the ship. While not equipped for anything as severe as Krieger's injuries, it did have a cryogenic storage pod. Finn did what he could with the medical bay's equipment to better stabilize Krieger before moving him to the pod.
As the cryo pod put him in a state of suspended animation, Jake said, "You did what you could, man."
"I know." Finn said, staring into the pod. "I was hoping he might wake up again. I mean, what the hell happened back there?"
Jake shook his head. "Well, at least now we can ask him after he gets patched up. C'mon; we can't be too far from J-27."
In fact, it took them another hour to reach the junkheap they called home. Never before had that pile of floating flotsam seemed a more welcoming sight to the repairman and his robot dog brother. There were no vessels there either; they could dock straight away and get to fueling immediately.
As they drew near the station, Finn activated the comm and said, "Mannon, this is Finn; I'm about to dock for refueling."
There was no reply. Frowning, Finn said, "Come on, Sherle, I know you're listening. Krieger's been injured, and we need to refuel to reach the nearest hospital."
Jake peered at Finn around the seat. "That's bonkers. She's always watching the array like a hawk."
Finn shook his head and took the controls. "She's probably in the bathroom or something. Whatever the reason, we can't wait. I'm docking."
Once the docking tube was in place, Finn hopped out of his seat. Jake moved to follow, but Finn stopped him.
"We're not staying long." Finn told him. "I'm just gonna let Darsan know what's going on. Could you stay on the bridge and keep an eye on the sensors?"
"Why?" Jake asked. "You expecting company?"
"No. Yes. Maybe. At this point, I just don't want any surprises." Finn said, already heading toward the docking tube.
Finn hurried down the docking tube and into the station. The main room was vacant at the time, so after authorizing the fuel transfer, he slid down the ladder to his loft and grabbed what tools were convenient, just in case the Ulasomorf needed any touching up during the trip. He half expected Sherle to come sliding down the ladder, or to hear Darsan's booming voice from above asking him about the trip. Neither happened, which only increased Finn's uneasiness.
"Finn! Are you okay?" Jake asked, his voice sounding unnaturally loud in Finn's earpiece.
"I'm fine." Finn told Jake as he lifted his tool bag. "What's wrong?"
"A buncha ships are heading our way."
"Hanar?" Finn asked, remembering Darsan's argument with Opylius.
"Dunno. Sensors can't tell what they are, but they sure seem in a hurry to get here."
Finn couldn't help but wonder if the arriving 'guests' had something to do with what happened to Krieger.
"They know about J-27." He said, horror stealing over him as the impact of Krieger's warning finally hit him.
"Huh?"
Shaking his head, he said, "I'm on my way back now. We good on fuel?"
"Let me check; drive core's refreshed, fuel is at eighty-six percent full."
"Good enough. Go ahead and cut the fuel pumps and prep us for launch, okay?"
"You got it."
Hearing the sound of boots climbing down the ladder, Finn let out a relieved sigh, "Thank the Creator. Sherle, Krieger just got hurt pretty bad, and the bastards who did it might be heading here next. We need to-"
He turned around in time to see a human in combat armor drawing his rifle. Thinking fast, Finn threw himself behind a stack of hull plating he kept on hand for small repairs. The soldier opened fire, but fortunately the plating was thick and heavy enough to protect him from the bullets.
"Who the hell are you?" Finn demanded, his eyes darting around for something he could use as a weapon.
Not responding, Finn's assailant approached slowly with his rifle raised. Swearing, Finn dug in his tool pack for something heavy. As the man stepped around the sheets of bulkhead, Finn yanked out whatever his hand could grab and brought it down on the man's helmet.
The pipe wrench left a sizeable dent in the metal headgear. The man staggered back from the blow clutching his head, giving Finn plenty of time to yank the rifle from his grasp.
Aiming it at the guy's head, Finn demanded, "Now let's try this again; who the hell are you?"
The man twisted something on the side of his helmet that let out a loud hiss. Thinking it was poison or some kind of nerve agent, Finn quickly stepped back and covered his mouth. He needn't have bothered; the soldier fell over moments later. After a few seconds, it became clear to Finn that the soldier wasn't going to be getting up again anytime soon ... or ever.
Finn stood completely still for a few moments as the shock of what had just happened passed over him. Reality came back all too soon as he remembered his friends.
"Darsan! Sherle!" Slinging his tool bag over his shoulder so he could take the soldier's rifle, Finn climbed the ladder to the main deck slowly, watching for signs of more soldiers in wait. After doing a quick visual sweep of the main deck and finding it clear, Finn hurried over to Darsan's room and banged on the door.
"Darsan! Darsan, are you there?"
"Hopeful; Finn, is that you?"
Finn breathed a sigh of relief. "Yeah, it's me. You can open the door."
"Cautioning; there is a soldier-"
"I know. He's dead."
"Alarmed; you killed him?"
Finn shook his head. "He killed himself. Some kind of self-administered poison gas."
The door slid open, revealing Darsan. "Grateful; Thank you for dealing with him. I don't know what we would've done had you not arrived."
"We? Is Sherle in there?" Finn peeked around Darsan and saw Ensign Mannon lying on the floor.
As he hurried over, Darsan said, "Concerned; she fainted when the soldier first attacked."
Finn opened his mouth to respond but was interrupted as a shudder ran through the station. Finn steadied himself against the edge of Darsan's desk, calling out, "Jake?"
"Jesus, Finn, they're opening fire! You gotta get Darsan and Sherle outta there!"
"We're on the way!" Finn said, secretly impressed that the station hadn't flown apart at the first shot.
Darsan was somewhat less reassured. "Alarmed; what is happening?"
"Looks like that guard had friends." Finn said grimly. He picked up Sherle's limp form. "We need to get out of here, now."
He started to leave the room, but Darsan blocked his path.
"Incredulously; are you seriously suggesting we abandon this station? What do you know about those assaulting us?"
"Nothing. I mean, a little. Look, I'll tell you everything I know, but we gotta get outta here before-"
The station shook again. Finn stared Darsan in the eyes. "Reluctant; is there any other option?"
In as calm a voice as he could manage, Finn said, "They destroyed Krieger's place, Darsan. If we don't leave, we're as good as dead."
After a moment's hesitation, Darsan finally relented and stepped aside.
After making sure he had a good grip on Sherle, Finn hurried past Darsan toward the airlock that led to the Ulasomorf. The station continued to shudder, no doubt in response to enemy fire. The kinetic barriers were taking a surprising amount of damage, considering they usually blinked on and off every hour or so.
They were halfway through the docking tube when a shot managed to blow past the kinetic barriers and hit the station. The door to J-27 slammed shut in response. Unfortunately, the door to the Ulasomorf slammed shut too, trapping them inside the docking tube.
Finn banged on the door with his free hand, shouting, "Jake! Jake, get this door open!"
"I'm trying, man! Some kind of safety measure … don't worry, just give me a sec, bro!"
In the ensuing silence, Finn realized that he could hear the sound of air being rapidly sucked out of the tube. He turned around and looked over the walls of the tube, "There's a breach! It's not going to let us in until we-"
Another shot hit the station, blowing off the entire communications array. The tube shook, but thankfully the seals held. That still left their problem, though.
Finn set Ensign Mannon by the door to the Ulasomorf and hurried down the tube, looking for the leak. After a few panicked moments, he spotted the hole; a few cracks near the J-27 side of the tube. It wasn't a big leak at the moment, but it wouldn't take long to empty the docking tube of breathable air.
"Panicked; there must be something we can use to seal it!" Darsan said, backing away from the breach.
Finn looked at his boss for a moment, eyes narrowing as a wild idea leapt into his mind.
"Jake," He said, moving toward Darsan, "Get ready to open the door as soon as the safety seals release."
"You got it!"
Darsan stared at Finn. "Suspicious; what are you going to do, Finn?"
"I'm going to seal the breach. As soon as that door opens, you get Sherle inside, okay?"
Without waiting for a response, Finn yanked the wide-brimmed zebra hat from Darsan's head.
"Outraged; that is mine!" He said indignantly, but Finn was already halfway down the tube.
"Thank God he went for completely tacky." Finn muttered as he pressed the vinyl hat over the hole. The suction held it fast, but the bowl was already deflating.
The door to the Ulasomorf slid open. After giving his hat one last longing look, Darsan tromped into Krieger's ship with Mannon in tow. Finn ran toward the door with everything he had.
Unfortunately, it wasn't quite enough; the bowl of the hat completely collapsed, and was promptly sucked through the hole, making it even bigger in the process. As the door to the Ulasomorf slid shut. Finn leapt forward and managed to jam the soldier's rifle into the doorway, giving him just enough room to squeeze through.
"Finn!" Jake shouted in Finn's ear. "That thing's collapsing! Finn!"
Finn squeezed his way through the barely open door, trying to ignore both the sounds of the vacuum behind him and the cracking of the rifle as the doors slowly crushed it into scrap.
Several of the seals on the J-27 side of the docking tube tore loose as the enemy ships fired at the helpless station once again. Fortunately, Finn was wedged in well enough to not get sucked out by the increased suction.
Darsan's massive hand shot through the opening to grab Finn and unceremoniously yank him through the hole just before the rifle''s stock collapsed. The ruined firearm fell into the vacuum as the door finally slid shut.
"Finn!" Jake said, panic in his voice. "Finn, can you hear me?"
"I'm fine." Finn breathed. "Thanks to Darsan."
"Sulking; you owe me a hat." Despite his words, Finn could tell Darsan was relieved. While not as obvious as that of a human or an asari, Darsan had cultivated something that could be called a smile, even if the crew of J-27 were the only ones to recognize it as such.
Finn opened his mouth to respond when the Ulasomorf shuddered. With the station vacated and possibly destroyed, their aggressors were now moving their attention to the Ulasomorf.
Darsan was barely affected by the tremor; being a quadruped definitely had its advantages. "Alarmed; wasn't the station enough?"
Finn was on his feet and moving in an instant. He raced to the bridge, where Jake seemed all too eager to give up the pilot's chair.
"Better strap in, buddy." Finn said as he brought the Ulasomorf's drive back online. "We're going to make a run for it."
Once they were detached from the docking tube, Finn set course for the nearest relay. The Ulasomorf's engines roared to life; in a matter of moments, refueling station J-27 (or whatever was left of it) was just a blip on the sensor screen. Unfortunately, there were four other blips closing in on the Ulasomorf fast.
"Okay." he said grimly. "Let's see if they can keep up with this!"
He activated the FTL drive. The star-filled expanse beyond the front windows of the bridge leapt forward as the Ulasomorf accelerated beyond the speed of light.
Finn breathed a sigh of relief, but it turned out to premature; moments later, the four craft reappeared on the sensors, continuing to slowly close in on the Ulasomorf.
"We need more speed!" Jake said. "Finn, we need more speed!"
"This is as fast as this tub can go!"
"No it's not, you know it's not!" Jake put a paw on Finn's arm. "You gotta stream us outta here!"
Flushing, Finn said, "You know I can't-"
"Yes, you can! You know you can, man!" Jake insisted.
"But ..."
A shudder ran through the ship; the first of the pursuing vessels was close enough to open fire.
Finn met his brother's pleading cartoon gaze for a moment before letting out a sigh. "All right; just ... it's been awhile, so don't blame me if we end up a bunch of flaming bits."
"Ha!" Jake said, "You got this!"
Finn stared out into the expanse of stars displayed in the window-like displays. His eyes were as wide as they could go, but not from fear. He resisted the urge to blink as he stared out to the starry expanse whizzing past the ship.
As tears formed at the corners of his eyes, the streams of light in his vision separated into different colors, each seeming to angle away from the Ulasomorf's path as though deflected. The longer he stared, the more he could make out the invisible edges of the field around them, a bubble of energy with the ship in the dead center. It was more than simply seeing; he could feel the Ulasomorf as it barrelled through the cosmos.
"All right." He whispered, his hands manipulating the controls almost independant of any conscious thought from him. "Here we go."
The FTL field wavered as the ship moved closer to the front of the field. The safety systems started to dispel the field, but Finn quickly disabled them. He would disable the field himself, but not until he was ready. The ship drew nearer and nearer the boundary between the FTL field and normal space until finally Finn sent the command to disable the field and routed as much power to the engines and the structural integrity field.
The universe lit up in an explosion of light and color as the field collapsed, the final wave of energy propelling the ship forward like a dog stung by a bee. In mere moments, the ships behind them were left in the proverbial dust.
"Whoa!" Jake said, leaping up and down in his chair. "You did it! You really did it! We're streaming! Woohoo!"
Finn couldn't reply. His hands flew over the controls, adjusting shields, managing power-feeds, and keeping tight control of the engine. A low shudder ran through the ship, but Finn barely noticed. His eyes were on the sight before him; the universe, whirling past his vision in a wild display of color and energy.
"Uh, Finn?" Jake said, his excitement now concern as the tremor grew to a mild shaking. "Finn, we need to stop."
"Just a few more seconds." Finn whispered, tears streaming from his wide eyes.
"Uh-oh." Jake leapt off of his chair and ran over to Finn. "Finn, snap out of it! We're clear!"
When Finn didn't respond, a small plug-like extension emerged from Jake's side. A spark of electricity shot from the plug and hit Finn's leg.
"Oww!" Finn blinked and shook his head. "Jake? What are you-"
"Stop the ship!"
"Stop the …" Finn's face went pale. He hurriedly reversed the engines, bringing their breakneck flight down to a more reasonable speed before finally slowing to a crawl.
Finn leaned back in his chair and let out a sigh as he rubbed his eyes. He soon felt Jake's metal paw touch his shoulder.
"Good work, bro. I knew you could get us outta that pickle. Those losers are probably still wondering where the heck we went."
Finn let out a half-hearted chuckle as he undid his safety harness. "Take over for me, would ya, Jake? I need to go check on the others."
"Sure thing. Where are we heading?"
Finn contemplated the question for a moment before shaking his head and saying, "I'll let you know when I figure that out."
