Chapter 5
For the first time in a while, I had a dream. A pleasant dream. I dreamt of being back with Ellis and patrolling New York, just like the old times. It turned out to be a nightmare until I realised that I had woken up. I looked at my watch, and mentally noted in my brain the time of 4:29. I lay on the scratchy bunk, looking up at the ceiling. I would never get back to sleep now. Instead, I settled for deep thought.
Two hours later, whilst I was staring into space, my alarm went off. I reached to my watch and turned the ghastly sound off. After a couple of minutes, I forced myself to get up, and I gathered some clothes and went to have a shower. The fresh water was a pleasure on my rough skin. A guy called from in the shower area.
"Mr. Miller? Are you in here?" I though about weather I ought to keep my mouth shut, but I decided against it
"Yeah, what do you want?"
"I have a message for you."
"Put it in my hand." I stuck my hand around the side of the divider, and he put a piece of paper in my hand. I brought it into the cubicle, careful not to get it wet. This is what it read.
Authorised personnel only.
Copied for Robin Caper, Damon Miller and lt. Brian parker
ORDERS
You have been requested to co operate in an important confidential mission, which is not included in this transmission for obvious reasons
You are to proceed to the interview room on deck four at 7:30 pm of the day you receive this transmission.
ANY REFUSALS WILL BE IMMEDIATELY EXCECUTED. YOU HAVE NO CHOISE. END
Signed: Captain Mills.
That was a shock. Robin was in it as well. Maybe it was for us especially as we were captured. I really had no choice. I'd better be there at 7:30 sharp if it was that important. I got out of the shower and grabbed a towel. I re-read the letter to make sure I didn't miss anything out.
The rest of the day I spent my time checking out the Hispania in greater detail. It was massive, that was for sure. And you could see the old freezing chambers everywhere. It was 6:00 when I finished the search, and went to get some grub. I had some tasteless 'protein poison' which was filled with protein and other helpful ingredients. At 7:15, I made my way to deck four, and was let in. The captain complimented me for arriving early, and we sat down to wait for the others to turn up.
At dead on 7:30, the others arrived, including the lieutenant. The guard shut the door, and we all sat down. The captain started to talk.
"I have called you here for a special mission, as said in the transmission I sent. We have recently acquired a range of Rhineland capital ships, and have outfitted them all with cloaking devises." We all passed looks. "Our mission is to drive the SAR out of omicron alpha. We need all the best pilots we can get. This is why we chose you three. There are others, but none here are worthy apart from you. Besides, each battleship can only hold a certain amount of fighters and bombers. Any questions before I go on?" Robin raised his hand.
"How many people are involved in this operation, including the operators?"
"There are just under one thousand people involved in this task." I raised my hand.
"In that case, how many Cap ships do you have exactly?" Robin nodded at my question and it got answered.
"Well, we have seven battleships, seventeen cruisers, and thirty four gunboats, so forty one in total."
The lieutenant swore in disbelief. I leant back in my chair a little.
"I will carry on. Tomorrow, we will launch at 4:00 and arrive at Malta within the hour. There will be several squads containing a Battleship, two to three cruisers and four to five gunboats. Each battleship will have about 60 pilots. You three will be in fighter squadron Bravo. Lieutenant, you will be the wing commander, as you are the most experienced pilot.
"Our plan is to surround Malta so there is no escape for the SAR. You will be contained in Battleship Shakespeare. You are to be expected aboard the ship at twenty one hundred hours today. Make sure your ship is safely docked, and then you will sleep aboard. Any further comments?" I raised my hand again "Mr. Miller"
"How do you manage to hide that many capitol ships?" everyone leant forward, ready to listen to what was about to be said.
"Well, you can only access military areas from secret passages. Or from space, but both are well protected. If you have had a look around, you may think that this place is huge, but you were only allowed to see a third of it. The rest is strictly military, and no one civilian even knows about it. You will receive the location of one of the passages. Any more questions?" No one raised their hands. "Good, dismissed!"
I walked out of the room behind Robin, and tapped him on the shoulder. He looked around, and I ushered him into a corner.
"What are we going to do?" I asked him. He looked past my shoulder, checking if anyone was there.
"We are going to do as we are told. No way can we swap sides now, it's too risky."
"Yeah, and who is this Lieutenant? Is he captured as well?"
"No, I think he is criminal as he's ranked and we aren't."
"Good point. How about we meet in an hour, and walk to the Shakespeare together."
"Yeah why not, I'll see you outside the bar at half eight." He patted me on my shoulder and walked off. I watched him walk down the corridor, not believing that he was here.
I met Robin at west point whilst training and we had become good friends during that time. Then, when we qualified, he went missing and hadn't been seen since. That was three years ago. Everyone thought he was dead. His parents even had a service for him, and bought a coffin.
I walked off in the other direction, heading for the equipment dealer. Something had been bothering me. How did I manage to get some top of the range weapons for free? It must be a dodgy deal, unless they took it out of my wages, which would explain no payment yet. I got to the equipment door and thought about what I was going to do. Then I realised, how can you sell a dodgy gun? It had to be real. Maybe they wanted me really bad, so they gave all the stuff free.
In the end, I decided against the protest, and headed for the bar as it was the only worthy alternative. I backed away from the door and walked off back down the corridor, my feet tapping on the metal girded floor. I looked down through the tiny squares, and saw the deck below, noticing that it was the shopping deck. Two people were standing against the wall, and were whispering to each other, looking around them suspiciously. As far as I could tell, they were civilian, but from this angle, I could see down their long coats, and saw a rifle! I panicked. There weren't any guns allowed on civilian decks. But these guns looked different from the ones that of the military based here. These were familiar in some kind of way. They were SAR guns! Bloody hell, what were they doing here. How did they get in?
I looked around me, and knelt down to the ground. I listened in on their conversation.
"…are launching soon. We have a convoy ready to meet them. Operation genesis will work, and when will our extraction meet us!"
"Tonight at ten. Apparently, two of our own men are here, held captive. One lieutenant Brian Parker, and one Damon Miller, we want them back." I stood up again, almost stunned at what I heard. So the lieutenant was a captured person from the SAR, but what about Robin? Do they think he is dead? I ran off, headed for the bar, it was 8:25, and I was running late.
At the bar, Robin was already there, and he saw me run in. he obviously saw something in my face.
"What's wrong?"
"Nothing, why?"
"No, there is something wrong, what is it?"
"I kept silent for a minute, wondering if I should tell him what I saw.
"Follow me." I walked over to the corner seat, and ushered him to sit down. I sat down myself, and spread my hands over the table surface.
"SAR is here." I whispered
"What!"
"Yes, and they are looking for me and that lieutenant."
"Well, what about me? Are they looking for me?" he looked me in the eye, and I tried to look as comforting as possible.
"They didn't mention your name"
"What do you mean, did you meet them?"
"No, I eavesdropped on them, I was directly above, and listened in through the grills. They are being extracted at err, ten I think. That's what they said."
"Are you sure?"
"Yes" he paused.
"We'd better get to the Shakespeare. Come on, I was told to show you one of the secret entrances, we'll talk later." We got up, and walked over to the bar, and placed our empty glasses on the side. He led me to the dorms, and pointed at the floor. There was a trap door in the carpet, which had metal edges to it, and carpet in the middle as well. It said 'MAINTENANCE ONLY' on the top. He opened it up, and walked down it; I followed, and closed the door. We walked blind until a light came on automatically, as a sensor became aware of our bodies.
"This is all I was told, to come to this trap door. Your guess in which way to go now." I reached the bottom of the stairs, and we were standing on a raised canopy above a cavern type structure. I held onto the railing, and walked up to a crossing, going left and right both at ninety degrees. I went straight to the edge and leant over the railing, and there it was; the battleship Shakespeare was right in front of us. Beyond that was another battleship. And another. And another. In total, there were seven battleships, all in a line next to each other. There were tiny figures on top of each battleship, either cleaning it, or fitting turrets and maintaining it.
I looked over to the engine end of the battleship, and saw the rest of our 'Squad'. Three cruisers and four gunboats. I looked at robin, and he caught my glance.
"Holy crap, he wasn't joking when he said just a few!" we walked to the left, and a man met us half way.
"Good evening Mr. Miller and you Mr. Caper. Follow me, your ships have been loaded into the Shakespeare, and are in docks 12 and 13. I'll take you to your sectors." We walked along the canopy, which was held up by wires right above the Battleship, and we came to some part of the canopy with a swing barrier and a panel. He pressed a button on the panel, and a lift came up to greet us a second later. We all got in, and descended to the bottom. Now the Battleship towered above us, as we walked through a sliding door, entering the battleship. This was it. I'm working for the bad side. That's not something you would say everyday.