Chapter 12

It felt good to be out of the hot sun but even at the top of the beach under the shade of a tree, the ropes binding Peter and Maynard's wrists more more than a little annoying.

"I was impressed" Peter admitted "All that time standing in front of Sage and you didn't say a word."

"Yeah well... considering he almost killed my daughter, the only words I had to say to him would have been censored on network television. Doctor Spencer said this would not be an easy task but who would have guessed Sage would have gone off the deep end because we weren't in a heavily armed ship?"

"Shh, here he comes" Peter whispered.

As Sage returned with a small group of his makeshift soldiers, Peter and Maynard managed to hear some of what he said, including an order for two men to go out in a small boat and secure the yacht Star Runner.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you" Maynard called out "My clever little friends back in Sumatra installed a pretty neat security system."

Sage approached the two bound men with a wry smile on his face.

"Security system eh? I suppose you're telling me if anyone steps on board, the whole thing goes up in a massive explosion" Sage mocked.

Lex Morrison leaned in close and spoke low to Sage.

"With respect sir, I don't think you should risk it. The members of your attack force are all behind you, but most of them have no experience with fighting and are unaware of the risk of battle. If we lose anybody to a simple booby trap before we arrive at the Railgun, it may cause some of them to think twice."

"You don't need to worry Lex" Sage smirked "That boat represents their only means of escape, and I'm sure they wouldn't destroy it."

"Destroy it, no... but we'd sink it" Maynard told his captors.

"Alright then; how do we disarm it?" Sage placed his hands on his hips and successfully tried to look intimidating.

"You don't" Peter said bluntly "It requires both our hand prints on the pads in the galley. And you only have thirty seconds to do it after stepping on board."

"Suppose I just cut your hands off?" Sage gave another evil smile.

"Ah yes but that's the smart bit" Peter continued "the pad also detects a pulse so if you present dead hands, the computer will assume we are both already dead... and then it will blow up."

Sage considered the possibility and probability of the threat before coming to a conclusion.

"You're bluffing!" he decided.

"You're wrong" Maynard did some smirking of his own.

"Lex, stay here and keep an eye on these two" Sage ordered

Turning on his heels, the leader of the Raiders took the rest of his shore party away leaving the captives alone with their one guard. Seeing a great opportunity, Peter decided to use the truth to sow some seeds of doubt.

"Hey Lexy baby, have you ever heard the term, shooting yourself in the foot?"

"You want to stay in my good books and therefore uninjured, you'll never call me Lexy baby again."

"Okay... fair enough" Peter shrugged "But have you heard that ol' saying?"

Lex heaved a big sigh as he decided it would probably be better if he just played along for now.

"Yes I have... so tell me; how am I shooting myself in the foot?"

"Simple; you're letting Sage lead you into an unnecessary battle you do not need to fight."

"You think you can beat us?" Lex laughed.

"No, but that's not what I'm saying" Peter replied "We came here to offer a truce; a compromise to give you everything you want in exchange for a few simple compensations."

"We don't need your so called compromise" Lex smiled "We'll just take what we want."

"Maybe so, but at what cost?" Peter tried to get his foe thinking.

"Cost?" Lex wondered.

"If you let Sage attack the Railgun Complex, there will be many downsides for you" Maynard pointed out.

"Indeed" Peter continued "Firstly, even if you win and take over, there will be casualties and you could be one of them; you'll almost certainly lose some of your friends and family. Secondly, every person in the Railgun Complex killed or injured during the fight, every scientist, every engineer, every technician, will be one less person able to work on Sage's plan to get you all to Mars by greatly reducing our ability to get the job done. Either way you can be sure Sage won't be leading the charge against us or giving up his seat on the first flight off planet."

Lex Morrison considered what he had been told. He didn't trust these two men, who would say anything to be released, but everything they said made perfect sense. In the end he decided to let Sage know what he had been told, so he called on his radio for some men to guard the prisoners before leaving to find Sage; who was currently standing on the shore watching two of his men approach the Star Runner.

Sage felt sure the story about the yacht being rigged to sink was nothing more than a bluff, but there were two things he did not know. He did not know the engineers at the Railgun Complex had indeed made some modifications to the vessel, and he did not suspect that there were still two people on board hiding below deck.

"Peter was right" Emerson said as he stared at the shore through his binoculars.

"Sage didn't stick to the deal?" Doom asked.

"Not even close; men everywhere and they all have guns."

"We'd better stay down here then" Doom nodded.

"Actually... I think we'd better hide; they've just sent a boat out from shore and it's headed this way" Emerson informed her.

"Of course" Doom shrugged "Where else would they go?"

The Star Runner had not been fitted with powerful weapons like the One and All but just like the bigger ship, the keel had been replaced with a large carbon fibre tube that sat hidden under the hull and provided the crew with extra storage space, battery backup propulsion, and a clever little defensive trick. As the small raiding party approached the yacht, Emerson Linwood and Harriet 'Doom' Ingerson each grabbed a bag of personal possession and retreated down into hidden tube keel. If Calla had been there, she could have stood up straight inside the keel but Doom had to stoop over a little, and Emerson had to bend himself in half.

"OWW!" he exclaimed as he hit his head... again.

While Emerson rubbed the back of his head, Doom repositioned the floor panel that hid their escape route and sealed the hatch. As soon as his eyes had adjusted to the low lighting inside the tube, Emerson sat down in front of a small monitor screen and picked up a keyboard. Using the tracking ball, he selected the surveillance icon and turned on the yacht's hidden cameras.

"They're not far off now" Emerson noted.

He kept a close eye on the approaching rowboat thanks to the tiny camera on the top of the mast. As soon as the men stepped onto the Star Runners stern, Emerson switched to one of the deck cameras, and watched them both approach the steps leading down to the galley. The time had come to act but before he could, he had to deal with the soft warm breeze wafting into his ear.

"Not now Harriet, I'm busy!"

"Alone with me below deck, and all this mood lighting, you at least could try to be romantic... and don't call me Harriet."

"Sorry... I'm busy, Doom."

"That's better" she whispered.

Emerson remotely opened four sea valves while the raiders looked around above them, blissfully unaware of what was about to happen.

"I don't see any hand print readers" one of them noted.

"Sage was right" the other grinned "They were bluffing about..."

They both noticed the gurgling sound echoing around the cabin simultaneously, followed by a slight change in the slope of the deck as the bow dipped lower in the water. They silently looked at each other with a stare that said 'No... it can't be true.'

"whaAH!" one of them gasped when he realised his feet were now underwater.

"LET'S GET OUT OF HERE!" the other cried out as they both sloshed their way back to the steps.

The forward angle of the yacht grew steeper as water started to flow down from the tiller. Just as one of the raiders managed to reach the handrail at the base of the steps, the other fell on his face as the water flow swept is feet out from under him. The deck of the sleek yacht dipped below the surface, with the roof of the cabin following close behind. Down below deck, water rushed in as air bubbled out causing a swirling vortex the men could not successfully fight against. They held their collective breaths as best they could while trying to protect their heads from being struck against the side of the cabin as they spun.

With the main hull of the ship now fully submerged, the water finally calmed enough for the two men to regain their bearings and swim out of the Star Runners cabin. One of them caught his shoulders in the rigging on his way up but managed to free himself from the taught wires without too much difficulty. One after the other, the two men broke the surface gasping for air, relieved to be freed from the surging aquatic death trap that had held them.

Relief soon turned to disappointment though for as they looked around them, the only thing to be seen close by was the top of the Star Runners mast swaying slowly back and forth.

"Dammit" one of the raiders swore "We shouldn't have tied up with such a short rope."

With their small rowboat now sitting on the sea floor next to the yacht it was tied to, there was no other choice for the men but to start swimming back to shore which they did, but they were in no hurry. The sinking of the yacht was clearly not their fault, but they both knew General Sage would still have a lot of shouting to do; Sage liked shouting.

If there were any proof needed to show this to be true, it soon came when Sage watched the Star Runner disappear under the water. Hurrying back up the beach, he made his anger clearly known to all.

"WHAT THE HELL DO YOU THINK YOU'RE UP TO?" he cried out as he stormed up to his prisoners.

Fearing Sage would go too far in his anger, Lex Morison and his colleagues held the furious general back to prevent him from getting too violent.

"I'm sorry about your row boat but we did warn you" Maynard said what Sage did not want to hear.

Fearful that Sage may let his anger get the better of him, Lex Morrison turned his back on the captives and quietly pleaded with his boss.

"Sir... please... think about what I told you before, back on the beach. If we can walk into the Railgun Complex without a fire fight, we will get off this planet sooner rather than later. And consider how much this will affect the trust and respect your people have for you. I spent my life with the Raiders, and I know they don't feel comfortable fighting alongside the men who once worked for Prime Governor Redding; and Redding's guards probably feel the same way about us. But if you can spin this right, both sides will see it as a testament to your leadership and hopefully, put aside their petty distrusts."

Sage scowled at his lieutenant in a way that did not fill Lex with confidence.

"You know how much I hate being told what to do, don't you?" he growled.

"Err... yes sir... but I'm not telling you what to do, just giving you my council" Lex offered.

"Maybe so, but I'm not very fond of that either" Sage declared and walked off to fume by himself.

'

'

Having never encountered a human being before, the small dragon had no way of knowing the stone circle and its caves were not a natural phenomena. And since there had not been a human in that place for many hundreds of years, there were no odd smells to give the game away. There were however, many other loose stones in the general area with flat surfaces and square sides and the dragon soon realised he could put them to good use.

And so after a very satisfying fish breakfast he did not have to give up to a larger dragon, he began to gather some of these stones and pile them around his cave. By the end of the day he had almost completely blocked off the entrance, leaving only a small space for his personal access. The small dragon had no reason to think anything big and angry would turn up and kick him out of his new home, because all signs pointed to this place being long abandoned. But the little fort the dragon had made did help him to feel quite safe and secure.

'

'

I agree Vin; as the saying goes, Dogs have owners but Cats have staff.

I have found studying up on space tech can really help me when it comes to these stories. I didn't want to just invent stuff like warp drives but only use what was real (with a little exaggeration of course). So I was very pleased to see a video recently about Nuclear Fusion Propulsion Rocket Engines designed back in the 1960's and refined this century.

Now I finally know what will power the next generation MTV (yay). Believe it or not, it had been weighing heavily on my mind lately.