Chapter 10
From where he crouched atop the crates, Duo could hear cursing from the deck below. Then another gunshot breezed past him where he lay on top of the boxes. Clearly there was someone in the hold and they were not friendly. He edged back until he was laying against the wall, then began moving toward the aft of the room, where the large bay door was. He had some half formed thought of opening the door and knocking the enemies out of the ship. Halfway there he heard a clang and a thud, followed by another round of gunshots. A quick glance behind him confirmed it, Heero had returned.
The Japanese man was no fool, and he quickly pressed himself up against the wall as well. They inched their way towards each other even as they could hear two voices down below trying to decide what to do about them. "What's going on?" Heero whispered.
"I think they figured out they had unwanted guests," Duo said.
"Where is Quatre?"
"They had him and a girl prisoner. I told them to take our glider and we'd steal one of Kushrenada's."
Heero nodded, "This will be a short fight unless you can run them out of bullets."
Duo smirked, taking the change in subject in stride. "Not that short," he said raising one of his guns, "Can you use this?"
Heero looked at the gun like it were a snake that might bite, "Un, not at all" he managed.
"Damn," Duo hissed.
"We know you're up there!" one of the people below yelled, "Surrender immediately and come out with your hands raised."
"Zechs!" Heero hissed.
"I'm not coming out there just to get shot!" Duo yelled back.
There was a murmuring sound from below, "We promise not to shoot you if you come out with your hands up."
"Will your hands be up?" Duo countered as he adjusted his holster to sit out of sight over the small of his back. The belt hung loose that way, and kept trying to slide back in position, but he cocked his hip and the gun stayed put.
"Of course not!" Noin yelled back, her higher voice carrying clearly.
"Holster your guns!" Duo called, then he popped the chamber on the spare gun and hid the bullets into his pockets.
"Surrender your weapons first," Zechs replied.
"Fine!" Duo yelled. He silently passed his razor to Heero, who took it with a confident nod. Acting on a cue from Duo, he hid the blade in his belt. Then in a quick movement Duo threw the now empty gun off the crate.
"Watch where you throw that thing!" Noin complained, but was ignored.
Heero watched Duo carefully as the cowboy slowly stood up with his hands held away from his sides. He motioned for Heero to stand as well, and the other slave warily came to his feet. "We're coming down unarmed," Duo said, "you'd better keep your word."
To Heero's surprise Zechs and Noin had holstered their guns, though they kept their hands on the grips in readiness. Carefully both men walked down the steps of crates, being sure to never turn their backs on the enemies. "What are you planing to do with us?" Heero found himself asking.
"What wouldn't we do with you?" Zechs replied, "A good boiler slave is hard to find, and as The Dutchman is still airborne I take it you two managed to repair all the trouble Trant caused."
"Something like that," Duo agreed, "but I doubt you'd get either of us back in a locked harness that easily."
Zechs smirked below his goggles, "No, not easily."
Duo shifted his feet a bit more, looking for an opening. He was a fair gunman, not an expert or much of a trick shooter, but there wasn't a cowboy alive who hadn't practiced shooting from the hip until it became second nature. Duels at noon or dawn didn't happen daily, but they were common enough that a good cattleman could expect to run into at least one in his life. Duo had never been the type to go looking for a fire fight, but he'd liked the way a good display of gunmanship would earn a free beer. If he did well this time he'd have a bit more than a glass of bad brew to show for it. If he missed... well, he really didn't want to miss.
His opportunity came a moment later when Zechs took a step toward Heero, looming over the shorter man. For his part, Heero met his eyes steadily and didn't flinch at all, though his left hand tightened over where he'd hidden the razor in the belt of his jacket. Something about the move must have surprised Noin because she took her eyes off Duo to follow the confrontation between Zechs and Heero. The moment of inattention was all Duo needed. In a smooth motion he rolled his holster back over his hip, drew the gun, and fired.
Noin staggered back, clutching the shoulder of her gun arm and swearing. Zechs reared back, one hand fumbling to pull his gun from its shoulder holster, but he was drawn up short by a sharp kick to the knee by Heero.
"What are you -" Zechs snarled as his leg crumpled underneath him, but was cut off as Heero dealt another hard blow to the taller man's shoulder, numbing his gun arm completely.
"Shut up, Zechs," Heero said.
Then the whole ship shuddered as it took a heavy blow. "Quatre and Relena must have made it clear," Heero said, his eyes narrowing, "we're out of time Duo!"
"Grab some rope and get Zechs tied down!" Duo yelled as he grabbed Noin by the injured shoulder and half-marched, half-dragged her over to the far side of the room.
"You want me to what?" Heero asked as he struggled to drag the tall blond over where Duo had dumped the injured Noin.
"Oh for the love of -" Duo muttered, "get over here and tie Noin to the crates."
Heero nodded, gratefully passing Zechs off to the taller cowboy. Zechs was hard to manage, he kicked out with his good leg, and while there wasn't as much difference in their heights, he stilled outweighed Duo by at least half. But Duo had honed his upper body wrangling cattle and shoveling coal and he wasn't going to be daunted. He wasted no time on gentleness as he hogtied the other man.
By the time he had finished, Heero had done a fair job of lashing Noin's good arm to a crate and moved back down the deck. "I'm opening the hatch," he called back.
"Ready!" Duo shouted before he leaned closer to Zechs so that Heero wouldn't overhear what he said next. "Now I'm sure you two could get out of this," another shudder of the ship interrupted him, "but it'll be a close call before The Dutchman blows you out of the air. I'd recommend one of you get untied and call for an abandon ship, but I'm a kind soul. Heero would probably love to see you all go down with the zeppelin."
"You bastard," Zechs snarled, and Noin echoed something equally unflattering, but it was lost in a rush of wind as Heero finished winching the hatch open.
"Duo!" The boiler slave called.
"Have a nice day," Duo nodded to his prisoners with a cocky grin on his face as he turned to help Heero push one of the gliders to the launch position. Then Duo settled once more behind Heero as he double checked the glider was ready, and then they kicked the chock that held them in the ship. Moments later they were launched out over open space once more, circling the two airships to face The Dutchman. And that's when they found a new problem.
"Damnit!" Heero yelled, "The Dutchman's too high, we won't gain enough altitude to land without a thermal."
Duo eyed The Dutchman for a moment. The gondola of the other ship hung below the envelop like a child from a balloon string. They would need to gain at least forty feet of altitude and even then they would be scraping bottom when they landed in the narrow hatch way they had left through. Duo ignored the hatch for now, looking for an alternate point of entry. There were hooks for tether lines that descended about five feet from the bottom of the ship. With an eye to those, he quickly measured off the length of rope he had pilfered from Kushrenada's ship and checked the knot in his lasso.
"Can you get us near the hooks?" he shouted to Heero.
Heero looked back over his shoulder for a moment and then nodded once.
Duo barely caught the glance, he was too busy building up the momentum he was going to need to catch a narrow hook on a moving target while in a high wind. It wasn't an impossible move, but it wasn't a music hall rope trick either. But Duo soon found that his time on The Dutchman shoving coal and wrenching on pipes was working in his favor. His shoulders were stronger than ever before, and Heero was a steady pilot.
The Japanese man turned them in a circle, having found a weak thermal that was enough for them to build a bit of height. As they drew close to The Dutchman, Duo let the lasso fly only to have the loop fall short and miss. Swearing, he reeled the rope in quickly and prepared to try again.
As they rounded to face Kushrenada's ship, he caught a flash of movement out of the corner of one eye, and then the fore end of Kushrenada's envelope began burning. A second later he caught the report of cannon fire: The Dutchman had fatally shot the larger ship. Duo watched wide eyed as the fire quickly traveled along the huge zeppelin, devouring everything in its path. He made out a few small figures jumping from the wreckage and opening parachutes, but he doubted most of the occupants would make it out alive. It was a sobering sight.
If Heero was affected by the stunningly fast collapse of the enemy dirigible he gave no sign, but instead he maneuvered their glider above the burning wreckage. It felt like he took the glider straight into a hot oven, and they shot up through the air gaining altitude rapidly. Unfortunately the hot air current was also blowing them further from The Dutchman.
As soon as they were high enough, Heero turned them back toward their home ship, only to see the hatchway they had used was being closed up. "Damnit!" He swore, freeing a hand momentarily to point out what had happened to Duo.
The cowboy just narrowed his eyes, "Bring us in close again."
Heero nodded and brought the glider around. They were much higher this time, above the top of the gondola, and he wondered what Duo was going to try and catch with his rope. For his own part Duo had sighted some lanterns attached to the envelope of The Dutchman, and he figured he could catch one of those without problem.
"Bring us in straight against The Dutchman," he yelled as he got the rope spinning.
Heero nodded and adjusted their course appropriately. A moment later Duo let the lasso fly, this time hooking his target easily. The rope played out of his hands quickly, burning his unprotected palms, but he held tight to the end and instinctively gripped the glider more tightly between his legs. The result was an illustration of pendular motion as the lasso went taut and the glider with her riders swung in towards the ship.
Heero was the first that realized what would happen next, and turned around to grab Duo tightly by the waist and kick the glider away. The glider dropped and went crashing through one of the portholes on the upper deck of The Dutchman while the two young men swung into the gap between gondola and envelope and rolled to a stop just before they went off the far side. There was a long moment when neither of them dared move, hardly believing that they were still alive despite the stunt they had just pulled.
Then Heero managed to get himself upright, and he yanked Duo up after him by his shirt. "That was crazy you God be damned lunatic!" He shouted.
Duo was grinning too hard to care, he gave Heero a quick kiss, "Crazy, but it worked!"
Still grumbling Heero helped Duo make his way across the swinging deck of the dirigible and to the side where they had knocked out a window that would allow them entry. It was good that he held tight to the taller man as their close escape seemed to have made him drunk. He staggered across the deck and laughed loudly at the slightest provocation. It only took them a minute or two to cross the deck and swing through the window after the glider, but it felt much longer for the young boiler slave as he tried to keep Duo on course.