BLUE GENDER
"Children of the Blue"
16. Dead End
Pistol Jones ducked around the corner once again, dodging another fierce volley of fire from the cargo bay. The rounds ricocheted off the metal walls of the tight corridor.
The sound of running footsteps echoed along that passage but from the other direction, not from the cargo bay.
Gunther and Pistol were armed only with handguns. They raised them in anticipation of a new threat from the dark regions of the station. They were quite relieved when Captain Junker and Moss emerged from those shadows.
"What the Hell is going on here?" The Cap asked as he flattened his body against the sidewall as more deadly fire reverberated through the area.
"Another shuttle," Pistol explained. "Looks like them fellas from the village, too."
"Ya," Gunther agreed.
"Where's Denise? Where's Gamble?" Moss asked with an emphasis on the former.
"In the command center," Pistol answered. "That's on the other side of the bay from here."
"We'll find another way," Moss stated.
"Okay, let's go," Captain Junker moved them away from the bay in a new direction.
---
There were half a dozen red and white clad mercenaries in the command center but Yuji ignored them and squatted on the floor next to Denise. He put a finger on her throat. She was dead, probably strangled. There were strange round blotches on her neck.
"You lived with us," Marlene spat at Gamble. "We welcomed you."
The doctor was working the main computer terminal.
"Yes, and thank you for your hospitality. Of course, I paid my way by setting broken bones and bandaging cuts. As the only real doctor around, I also had extraordinary access to Takashi and Yuji here. And, as it turns out, you, too, Marlene. So it was mutually beneficial."
"Where is my son?" Marlene insisted.
"All in good time, my dear," Dr. Gamble focused on the computer.
General Deeves—an imposing man—walked to Marlene.
"After all the trouble we went through to leave that Double Edge for Yuji… and he was beaten so fast…I was quite disappointed. But you…I watched you fight when we let you catch up with us at the supply depot. I was impressed. You have earned my respect as a soldier."
Marlene was not flattered. Her eyes narrowed and if looks could kill…
"You kidnapped a four year old boy from his mother; you attacked unarmed villagers with armor shrikes. You have nothing but my contempt."
Deeves did not like the response but he said nothing to her. Instead he turned to Dr. Gamble: "What are you waiting for?"
"I have to lock out the computer," the Doctor said. "Otherwise they'll just override the dock commands from here and we'll be stuck."
The doctor hit a few more keys, was satisfied, then nodded to Deeves.
The "General" spoke into a hand held radio.
"Beta team, status?"
A reply could be heard: "Docking bay secure, standing by."
---
The door to the command center was in the middle of a "T" intersection. Junker's team approached from the stem of the "T" as the door opened and red and white clad mercs came out.
They immediately engaged but Junker and his men were outgunned (one assault rifle among the four). The mercs, Gamble, Deeves, and their two prisoners exited the center to their right, headed toward the docking bay.
When Pistol Jones saw Marlene and Yuji being led away at gunpoint—and when he saw Dr. Gamble obviously on the wrong team--he became enraged. He pulled both his weapons and charged forward, letting loose a torrent of small arms fire.
He instantly downed one of the bad guys then, a moment later, felled another with a perfect shot through the chest. But Deeves himself opened up with a heavy machine gun, one bullet from which hit Jones' left shoulder.
The mercenaries offered suppression fire as their group collapsed toward the docking area. Junker braved those rounds to pull Pistol to cover behind a support beam.
"You think'in 'bout being a hero today?"
Jones clamped a hand over his bleeding wound.
"Next time, partner, stop me from do'in something that stupid."
Moss and Gunther took the lead and advanced as the mercs moved along the hall in retreat toward their shuttle—they had what they wanted.
Moss managed to kill another merc just as they reached the docking bay. But as the good guys tried to enter the shuttle hanger they were greeted by many more enemy soldiers, two of which had massive "street sweeper" heavy grade weapons.
Those high caliber shots produced a thunderstorm of lethal rain. Junker's team had no option but to bid a hasty retreat all the way back to the command center.
---
"He's locked out the controls," Junker said as he examined the main computer. "We can't stop 'em from high tail'in it outta here."
They watched on a monitor as the last mercs entered their shuttle and the engines to that vehicle started.
Moss wasn't listening. He was on the floor cradling his dead lover in his arms.
"When I git my hands on dat doktor," Gunther was muttering.
"Hold on…what's this?" Junker watched the monitor curiously.
The communication console in the command center came to life as Captain Junker watched two robotic arms lower two large crates from the red shuttle's cargo hatch.
The voice on that communications console was Dr. Gamble's.
"Well, Captain, we have to be going so I guess this is goodbye. But don't worry, we're going to leave behind some company for you. Fire all the bullets you want but, if you don't mind some friendly advice, I'd save one for yourself."
The robotic arms retracted leaving the crates floating in zero g. Captain Junker was afraid that he recognized those crates.
The shuttle's maneuvering thrusters fired as the space doors opened. The red shuttle exited the station.
Dr. Gamble offered more information: "We've been working on these babies for a while. Genetically engineered to hunt down human life much better than any Blue. But these aren't just Blue…a good ole' boy like yourself might just call them hounds. I hate to sound so cliché, but you can run but you can't hide."
Two lights on the crates flashed red and the containers opened.
"What in God's name…?" Pistol Jones, still wrapping his shoulder wound, murmured as he watched.
Two creatures, one from each container, emerged. They had some resemblance to the Blue but no core was visible.
They were centipede-like with a thousand short legs on each side and a sharply pointed tail. They were not tall but thick enough to fill half a hallway and at least twenty yards long. Their heads were round with black spider-like eyes everywhere yet with a circular mouth in the center. They were green and red with black spots.
From what Junker could see on the monitor, the creatures exited their sleeper hutches, then 'swam' through the zero g in a manner that suggested to the Captain that the things knew exactly where he and his men were.
"Oh shit," William Junker said. "We have to go. We have to go now!"
Gunther didn't ask Moss to leave Denise's side. He hauled his friend to his feet and pulled him along (Gunther took the assault rifle; Moss was too grief stricken to use it).
The men exited the command center quickly.
"We need to get go'in, Chief," Pistol said to Junker.
"It's going to take some time to finish repairs," Junker replied. "I don't' think we have that sorta time right now. We gotta put some distance between us and these damn things."
As he spoke he could year the Blue coming. He could see a shadow in the distance creeping toward the bay.
"Faster! Move faster!"
The men ran deeper into the bowels of the Training Station—Junker and Moss explained to the others the types of horrors that awaited them down there, too.
Gamble's advice to save some bullets for themselves sounded better every minute as they could hear the Blue pursuing.
Pistol Jones offered a suggestion that Junker had been thinking of, but hadn't yet said: "We need to split. At least into two groups. They catch us—"
"Yeah," Junker said. "They catch us together and we had it."
"What 'bout dose Blue call tings you took from Estes' place?" Gunther asked.
"I was thinking about that," Junker said. "But they're back at the shuttle. If we can get back there they may work. I don't know. But I don't think we have much time."
They were in a primary hallway. It was wide and dark and cluttered. Behind them, the way they had come, they could hear the creatures approaching fast, sweeping aside debris as they moved. Ahead of them, somewhere, lay more monsters that were probably just as lethal.
They came to an intersection.
"Cap, you take Moss with you, I'll take Gunther here."
"Okay, okay," Junker hated splitting but he knew it was the best chance.
Moss gathered himself. Thoughts of vengeance made him focus.
The men stared at one another and said goodbye without speaking. Then they went in opposite directions.
A minute later the two fast-moving Blue arrived at the intersection. They looked in both directions then they, too, parted ways.
---
"The door—you close it now please…close it now please!"
Gunther panicked as one of the Blue came swooping along the passage directly at him. He raised Moss' assault rifle but he didn't know which part of it to aim at.
He was spared the decision. The bulkhead slammed shut. The Blue banged into the door from the other side, immediately denting it.
Gunther looked at Pistol Jones who had just hot-wired the portal to close. They knew that the door was not going to hold forever. This Blue was strong.
The men looked around at the large room that, it seemed, was going to be the place they made their last stand.
Scattered, isolated emergency lights on high walls lighted the room. There were lots of things in here but they were, for the most part, too dark to make out.
Pistol found a bank of circuits near the door and clicked them to life. Miracle of miracles, most of the lights came on.
There was an old dirty banner hung on one of the dark walls. It told anyone who cared to read it that this place was the home of the "2nd Advanced Mecha Platoon – 'Rolling Thunder'".
"Training and repair center," Pistol Jones observed. "Might find some goodies in here."
There were shrikes—but all in disrepair. If they had more time they could probably put together three or four Bullseys or Heavy Duties but…
BANG.
The bulkhead bent in more. Time was getting short.
"Lookit here, Piz-toll," Gunther called.
One large area of the room was a live-ammunition firing range. There were several long alleys at the end of which were robotic mannequins dressed to look like soldiers and some like Blue.
Many of the targets were on tracks that allowed them to move and the dummy soldiers held dummy weapons complete with blinking lights and sound effects.
At the front of those alleys were shrike cockpits—no leg assemblies, just the tops with arms holding large heavy mecha guns.
"Finally, Piz-toll, some good luck. There's some ammo in here."
"Naw, sorry pal, but those are fixed. We can't move em' around at all. They're for shootin' at the dummies. We take them off the shrikes and try to fire them by hand and the recoil would kill us. Ass-um'in we could even hold em' enough to aim em'."
Gunther offered one of the few lines of sarcasm ever to come from his mouth: "Maybe we ask da Blue to stand over 'dere."
Pistol chuckled…then he had an idea.
---
"Oh no, not them again," Moss whispered to Junker.
They were in a waste recycling area, a part of the station filled with tanks, pipes, recycling pools and more. The two men had climbed a ladder and crossed the top of a massive empty water tank.
They stopped and looked down at a mass of the mutated inhabitants of the station. The creatures were huddled out at the base of the only ladder on that side of the tank. There were about a dozen of them sitting in a circle fighting over "scraps" from a recent battle.
Junker knew, however, that their other enemy wasn't far behind. They had slowed it by closing an access hatch. That hatch had bought them some precious minutes but it was not a permanent respite.
Junker and Moss withdrew. As they moved the Captain took note of the tank they were on top of. The interior volume had to be as big as a very large room. Access was provided from the top via a round hatch.
"Wait a second…" the Captain's words were interrupted as he heard the sound of their other foe approaching from the far side of the recycling area. No doubt the mutants below had also heard.
"What? If you got an idea now is the time, Boss."
Junker looked over the side of the massive tank. He saw what he was looking for. Aside from the hatch on the roof there was one other hatch at the bottom and it was open. Other than that the other ways out—through water pipes—were too small for a man.
The Captain put on his story-time voice and told Moss: "Did you ever hear the one about the battle at Baikonur space base?"
Moss could hear the mutants starting to climb the ladder at the far end of the tank.
"Not the time, Cap."
"The base's attacker robots had gone haywire and were attacking anything, even humans. A nest of Blue was also near the base and threatened the shuttle catapult. Marlene and Yuji were there—so was this dumb ass commander I once knew. But anyway, do you know what they did?"
"What?" Moss asked.
Captain Junker told him.
The centipede-ish Blue was on the ceiling of the recycling area and closing in. The mutants were arriving, one by one, on top of the tank.
---
The bulkhead crashed open and the Blue slithered into the home of "Rolling Thunder." It was dark, but the hunter could feel that its prey was in the general area and it could sense no other avenue of escape.
It moved forward, pushing over the old battle machines that were in disrepair.
Then it found site of its quarry. Two men began firing at it—the creature could see the flashes from the men's barrels. It rushed toward its prey and the men did not move, just stood there firing.
The Blue brought its jaws down on the first of the men and snapped him in half.
Lights popped on the firing range. The Blue was devouring one of the test-range dummies and was directly in the line of fire.
The range's shrikes could not swivel too far to either side but it didn't matter. The centipede-like creature was in the only spot in the room where it could be hit.
Gunther and Pistol Jones, both in separate live-fire test shrikes, let loose a hail of heavy-caliber rounds. The creature was caught unaware and ripped to shreds.
---
Moss had insisted—he was younger and faster. He stood on top of the tank as the lumbering mass of mutations came across the catwalk, waving their iron clubs and knives.
Darren could also feel the Blue moving across the ceiling, almost directly over him now. He wondered if it was still focused on him or if the whole gang of humans made him less of a target.
It didn't matter.
At the last possible moment, Darren Moss climbed into the topside hatch and descended the ladder into the tank.
"Over here," said a voice in the dark, barely audible above the grunts and groans of the mutants who were following Moss down the ladder.
Moss moved toward Captain Junker's flashlight. He was next to the only other exit from the tank. He turned off his flashlight as Moss got close enough—he didn't want their pursuers to see it.
The monstrous denizens of the lower levels of the Training Station poured in, already fighting over who would dine on the newcomer's corpse. But an even bigger problem followed—the light from the upper hatch was blocked as the centipede-like Blue pushed into the hatched then disappeared in the shadows as it walked upside down on the roof of the tank.
"Go!" Moss encouraged and go Junker did. He exited the side hatch with Moss right behind him.
The sound of carnage—of the Blue attacking the mutated humans and them attacking it--echoed through the tight chamber with screams and hisses both human and otherwise.
Junker was out. Moss was crawling when something grabbed him from behind—something strong.
The Captain could tell by the look on his friend's face that he was in trouble. He grabbed at Moss' hands and tried to pull but, instead, Darren was slowly being dragged in.
There was a ripping noise. The lower half of Moss' body was being torn apart by something.
"Go…" he said as the first traces of blood trickled out his mouth. "Go…get them for me…for…D—"
Moss' arms grabbed the inner handle of the hatch. As he was pulled into the tank his hands pulled that hatch shut.
Junker could not stop to think. He climbed the tank's external ladder, got to the top, and closed the roof hatch. He then hurried to a pump station and flooded the tank with wastewater.
Blue can't swim.
The sounds of the dying creatures flailing hopelessly against the sides of the heavy chamber filled the recycling center for a time. Then they stopped.
Junker put his head in his hands and sat there for a long while. As he did, he thought about the store he had told Moss just minutes before.
The commander had a group of shrikes attack the Blue nest then retreat until they were within the defense perimeter of the automated attackers. While the Blue and the automatons fought the rest of the humans infiltrated Baikonur, fixed the attacker's program, and used them as cover to get the shuttle off.
It's a great story, but Yuji tells it even better than me.
---
The red shuttlecraft descended through the clouds.
Its destination became clear—a massive walled compound on the wasteland plains of Manitoba. That compound was dominated by two large domes surrounded by smaller buildings with a landing strip also within the walls.
One of those buildings had a balcony. On that balcony was a young boy who watched the shuttle—still just a speck in the sky—as it glided earthbound.
That young boy was Takashi Kaido.
There was movement behind him. A man walked to the boy and rested his right hand gently on Takashi's left shoulder.
Takashi turned his head, looked at the hand, then looked at the man.
The stoic boy spoke plainly: "They are coming."
"Good," the man answered. "Now we can bring this to conclusion."
Takashi returned his eyes to the sky. The craft was closer now, floating through the air as if it were a big graceful bird of prey with its wings spread wide.
Takashi thought of something and looked up at the man once again.
"Tell me," he asked with a child's innocent curiosity. "Are you afraid?"
The man withdrew his hand from the boy's shoulder, considered, then answered the question with a question of his own.
"Do you think I should be?"
Takashi Kaido returned to watching the descending shuttle. His blue eyes followed it as it eased toward the airstrip on approach.
"Yes."
The landing gear opened with a hydraulic clang. The shuttle raced above the tarmac easing lower…lower…lower…then the rubber screeched as the rear landing gear touched the Earth.
Brakes.
More brakes as the nose cone's gear touched the runway.
Reverse thrusters drained momentum until it slowed to taxiing speed.
The shuttle arrived at the final destination.
NEXT FACTOR:
17. Redoubt
Cpt. Junker: "Okay, here's the file in Amicks' old computer. It's called 'Second Son.' This Professor guy was trying to…oh my God. This makes the Sleeper program look like Kindergarten. Marlene and Yuji are in more danger than they can possibly imagine."