What May Come

Please see chapter 1 for author's notes.

Chapter 13: To the Rescue

Harlan spun the scout ship on its access, allowing Goddard to fire the more powerful forward lasers at the cruiser that had locked on from behind. It felt a little strange to be firing on UPP ships, but they didn't really have any other options. Reprogramming the simulators to display Spung rather than UPP ships would be waste of time they didn't have. He jerked the ship abruptly to one side, avoiding a blast from a heavy cruiser…and turned directly into a swarm of single-seat fighters. And, once again, their ship registered as destroyed. "I never realized how dangerous those things are," he muttered.

"The major disadvantage with them is they don't have much range—you have to have the carriers to go with them—but they're fast, abominably hard to target, and enough blasts can take out almost anything," Goddard agreed. "It would be better if Radu was running these drills with us, since he'll be the one tracing the path of battle and plotting our course out, but…"

Harlan thought back on the strained look in Radu's eyes when he'd gone into the galley to invite the navigator to join them. "I don't think that's a good idea right now. He's working with Jacie."

"I know." Goddard shook his head. "When we start acting as escort, we won't be able to keep up transmissions between the two ships without the Spung getting suspicious. We'll run a few simulations with the three of us then. Let's do one more now, and then you need to get some food and some rest."

"I'm fine, Commander, really. I'll just grab a snack and we can keep drilling."

"You need sleep, Mr. Band, and I'll be giving Mr. Radu the same order shortly if he doesn't do it on his own. Restart the simulation once more."

They made it farther the next time, but eventually the ship was destroyed, and Harlan sat back with a sigh. The few times they'd been in combat in the Christa the focus had been on running away…that they would have to fight a real battle was making him more nervous than he thought it would. Not much like the vid games he'd always enjoyed. "Are you going to get some sleep too?"

"I will shortly, after I go over the weapons capabilities again. Find Radu and get yourselves something to eat, then find a bunk. Aslinn—Jacie—will alert us when it's time to undock with the Rockhopper."

Radu was where Harlan had last seen him, in the galley hissing at Jacie's image on one of the consoles. "Hey, how's it going?" He blinked as the young Andromedan turned and snarled. "Uh, you want to run that by me again? Maybe in Standard?"

"Ignore him, it's going fine," Jacie told him with a glare at Radu. "We've run over what engine troubles you could have, why you're on escort duty—Aslinn found some security codes we can try although I'd save those as a last resort—where you're going, who you report to…everything either of us could come up with that they might ask about. I take it your commander wants you two to get some sleep now?"

"Yeah, food and then rest."

"I can't rest now! I need to practice…I have to make sure I can cover up my accent, and—"

"Sorry, buddy, he said he'd make it an order. There'll be time for you to practice after we nap."

"But then we'll separate…I won't be able to talk to Jacie again. What if I forget something, or mess up?"

"Then we deal with it when it happens," Jacie answered with a shrug. "Remember, we don't want this to sound too rehearsed. Keep the sentences simple and don't try and give any details or explanations unless they ask. And if you don't know what a question is, or you don't know how to answer, tell them they don't have clearance. How did the simulations go?"

"We died," Harlan answered bluntly. "We were up against UPP ships though, not Spung, and hopefully there won't be multiple heavy cruisers around the station. Or carriers."

"If they've got carriers, we're all dead anyway. As it is, I'm counting on a fairly small complement of station-bound fighters. Those things are fast and nasty, and the Rockhopper only has forward guns—not much use when you're trying to run away." He grinned slightly. "Well, pleasant dreams." Jacie cut the connection.

"At least he seems better," Harlan said with a glance at Radu. "At least the warped sense of humor is back. He was pretty shook up before, after the fight."

"Yeah…I tried to ask him, but he definitely didn't want to talk about it."

"Guess I can understand that." He opened up one of the bags they'd brought from the Rockhopper and pulled out two ration packs. "I know these things are made to be edible by almost any race but I wonder if they actually taste good to any of them. Sure don't to humans."

Radu shrugged. "Doubt it. Taste awful to me too. Worse than that sand-wich you made me try."

"Hey, at least I don't eat intestines." Radu barely cracked a smile at his teasing tone; most of his attention was focused on the blank countertop. "Hey, are you going to be all right?"

"Y-yeah, I think so. I'm just worried. There's just so much to remember…if I mess up, they could trap us all on the station. And if they figure out we aren't who we say we are…Aslinn and Jacie won't even have a chance."

"It'll be all right. Just tell them who we're supposed to be and claim everything else is classified." Harlan finished off his meal and stood. "I claim one of the top bunks." Radu followed him into the bunkroom, most of his meal still untouched.

"Harlan?"

"What?"

"Do you think Suzee is okay?"

"What do you mean? Are you afraid they killed her?"

"N-no, but I was talking to Jacie and trying to get him to tell me more about this station we're going to, but…he wouldn't tell me anything else. He just kept saying it was bad."

"You heard what they said, though—they just do extractions. Probably all he knows are rumors, and he just doesn't want us to worry more. Besides, you know Suzee. She's probably driving them all crazy telling them what a genius she is. Or making them assault themselves with more dinnerware."

"Maybe. It's just…"

He went silent, and Harlan stared up at the other bunk. "What?"

"I had a friend, once, back at home. Jesh. He was older…he was alive during the war. In one of the slave mines. Most…most of the children from the hatching before mine…when they were taken, they never made it back. He did, somehow. The only one in his group. Some nights he couldn't sleep…he was about the only person I really liked so I didn't mind sitting up with him. A lot of times he didn't make very much sense, but other times he'd talk about what the guards had done, what other ones would come in and do…. H-he had a lot of scars."

"What happened to him?" Harlan asked quietly. He'd never really thought about what had happened to Andromedan children during the war…until he started making friends with Radu, he'd never thought of them at all. But the idea that the Spung had used them, used and apparently tortured at least some of them…not to mention kidnapping babies, or eggs, or whatever. He was starting to understand why Radu hated the Spung so badly.

"He died," Radu answered after a moment. "Not quite a cycle after I hatched. The dust in the mines did something to his lungs. He wasn't the only one to die like that, he just lasted longer than most of them."

"They've only had her for a day, two at the most. She'll be all right." He put as much conviction into his words as he could. "I'm sorry about your friend." Radu didn't respond, and a few moments later he rolled over and looked down to find Radu's eyes closed. Whether he was asleep or faking, Harlan wasn't sure, but if he had managed to drop off Harlan wasn't going to say anything to wake him back up. He flipped back onto his back and stared at the ceiling, trying not to think about dying children.

"Time to get up, gentlemen," a voice called what seemed only moments later, bringing Harlan back to consciousness.

"Hm? Commander?" He sat up, banging his forehead on the ceiling panel. "Ouch."

"It's time to separate from the Rockhopper."

Everything came back in a rush, and he jumped down from the bunk to stand beside Radu. "Man, I must have been more tired than I thought. Did you get any sleep, Commander?"

"Some," he agreed. "Command post, gentlemen."

"Commander, do you think maybe Jacie should join us over here?" Harlan suggested. "I mean, I know he can't get caught by the Spung, but at this point none of us can. And if we meet another Ashrach on the station…. He seems better now, not as shook up as he was before."

"I understand your concern, Mr. Band, but I'm not sure he'd be able to handle another fight like that. At least not yet."

"He seemed okay earlier," Radu objected. "After he got some sleep."

"I don't claim to be an expert in Andromedan biology, but the symptoms he was showing earlier—slurred words, difficulty focusing—are pretty clear signs of shock in humans. Well, shock or blood loss, and since he wasn't cut…. As useful as his fighting abilities might be, if that happened again on the station, either due to another fight or even a relapse, he'd be a serious liability. Besides which, I don't think he'd willingly leave Aslinn."

"Oh, yeah. I didn't think of that. And when we run, they'll need one person to fly and the other working the weapons. Radu, how long do you think we'll have to get Suzee out once we're on the station?"

"Jacie said Aslinn said we should claim we have a burnout in the Zarhas connectors…I'm not really sure what they are, but he said that if the main shunt gets clogged or accidentally disconnected—like in battle—it can set off a chain reaction that would destroy a ship if it tries to go into hyperspace. They take about two hours station-bound to replace, and another to run tests."

"So three hours." Goddard nodded. "You remember the layouts of the quarantine stations?"

Both Harlan and Radu nodded. "We're going to take over one of the monitoring rooms?" Harlan asked.

"I think it's the safest way. Searching cells at random, especially in corridors that are bound to be patrolled, will take way too long and will probably get us all killed. If we can make it into a monitoring room and get the cameras disabled we'll have a relatively safe base of operations. We just have to make sure we aren't seen on the way there. Then, if we're lucky, we can get Suzee out and after three hours claim our repairs are done here and leave the station normally without them being the wiser."

"I think they'll notice Suzee disappearing," Radu disagreed.

"If we get to a monitoring station, we'll be able to time our rescue as close to the three-hour mark as possible. Half the battle will be getting out of the bay before they lock down the station."

An alarm rang through the hull, and Goddard glanced up. "We're moving into communication range, gentlemen, let's get to command."

The expected challenge came from the Spung station soon after they took their stations, and although Harlan didn't understand what was being said, anyone could read the relief in Radu's face as he cut the transmission. "They bought it?"

"Yeah." He looked a little surprised. "I…they didn't even seem interested; they just gave us a berth."

"Well, engine troubles aren't exactly newsworthy, and since we aren't asking them to actually do anything for us it's probably easier for them to just cooperate." Goddard shook his head. "Mr. Band, bring up the first simulation again. Mr. Radu, we're running battle simulations using the specs for a Spung scout ship. Unfortunately, the sims have us facing UPP fighters, but at least it will give us a feel for the ships in battle."

The time inbound to the station passed fairly quickly, and almost before Harlan realized it they were docking. The simulations had gone a little better this time around—they'd died all three times but lasted much longer than in the previous simulations, and the last time they'd nearly escaped. If there hadn't been a heavy cruiser in just the right position, they'd have made it. Fortunately there didn't seem to be any heavy cruisers currently orbiting the station…half a dozen light and several transport vessels, but nothing with major weaponry. He landed the ship in the appropriate bay neatly, and then turned back to the other two. "When are we going in, Commander?"

"We'll wait here for a bit longer, just in case someone tries to contact Captain Radu, and then we'll move out as soon as one of the doors is clear. We can't be seen exiting the ship. Remember, keep the cloaks up over your heads, and keep your hands covered."

Harlan donned one of the cloaks they'd found in the storage locker, pulling the hood up. Radu and Commander Goddard had matching ones, and they had a fourth for Suzee. Jacie assured them that it wasn't unusual for non-military Spung to go cloaked and as long as they didn't do anything obviously out of place they probably wouldn't be questioned. Hopefully. The only other option was to attempt to crawl through air vents, and since the largest of those were less than a quarter of a meter wide that wasn't really viable. The only weapons they would be able to take with them were the handheld blasters they'd used earlier, but if everything worked out they wouldn't need them. And if it didn't work out…well, nothing short of a shuttle cannon would help them then.

Sneaking out onto the station was almost anticlimactic…the bay cleared at shift change, and they were able to slip out and seal the door behind them. They couldn't talk without alerting anyone, and using hand signs was limited to when they were out of sight of others—it would be hard for a passerby to mistake skin for scales—but they had the plan worked out. Monitoring stations had been located on decks one through three of all the stations they'd had the plans of—those were the decks that had prison cells. They were on deck seven now...the next two down should be living quarters and the one after that public facilities. That was where things would get tricky.