Chapter 23
As soon as Buck reached the hangar, he turned and shot the control panel beside the doors. They closed quickly behind him.
"That should keep them out of here!"
He raced across the hangar, shooting everyone he saw until all the Gaussians were lying on the floor. He quickly entered the hatch of the shuttle.
"Wilma!"
"Buck!"
He noticed Bill sitting in the pilot's seat. He nodded in approval. "Are we ready to get out of here?"
She latched herself into one of the seats. "Am I ever? Don't ever ask me to do something so disgusting again."
"Sorry, Wilma. Hey, wait a minute! That wasn't my idea!"
"I know. Let's just go."
Buck hopped into the copilot's seat. Quickly his hands flew over the controls to bring the shuttle back to life. He tapped the final switch, but nothing happened. His eyes widened in alarm.
"Buck, what is it?"
"It won't start!"
"Try it again."
He repeated the process with the same result. He threw up his hands in disgust. "It's no good! The controls are locked out!"
"What do you mean 'locked out'? What do we do now?"
Buck looked around the cockpit desperately. Suddenly Wilma saw the answer. She pointed across the hangar. "That's our way out!"
Buck followed her finger pointing to a Gaussian scout ship across the hangar. "We can't leave the shuttle here! What about Bill?"
"We can use the scout ship's tractor beam to pull it out!"
Buck nodded. "Yeah, good thinking!"
Wilma stood up and patted Buck on the shoulder. "You go get the scout ship ready. I'll finish up here."
"With what?"
"Hooking Bill back up to the shuttle controls, changing the auto navigational computers for Earth just in case we get separated…"
Buck nodded. "Okay. But don't take too long!"
He quickly went back to the hatch. Just as he was about to exit, he turned to see Wilma bending over the apparently oblivious body of his past self. Ever so slightly she caressed his lips with her fingers before kissing him softly. She then replaced the space helmet over his head and latched it into place.
Suddenly Buck's eyes opened widely as a flood of images came rushing into his brain. He nearly fell to the floor of the hangar. He shook his head violently to clear his head. Somehow he managed to get across the hangar and to the scout ship. He inspected the controls briefly before figuring out how to start the engines. A few minutes later Wilma entered the cockpit and jumped into the copilot's seat.
"Ready! Let's go!"
Buck simply sat there, staring blankly at Wilma. She turned to look at him. "What? Buck? BUCK!"
He shook his head again violently, then turned toward his controls. He activated the tractor beam onto the shuttle and then moved the scout ship to the launch tube.
"I hope this works!"
The ship screamed down the launch tube and into space. Just as the scout ship reached the last accelerator, a slight muffled explosion sounded and the ship lurched forward rapidly. When they were clear of the warship, he checked the instruments before him. His body froze as he turned to look at Wilma.
"What was that?" Wilma asked.
"Check your console," he said slowly.
"Why? What's wrong?"
Buck took a deep breath. "I don't see the shuttle.
"What?"
She checked her instruments, and then the sensors and scanners. Her face was pale as she turned back to face Buck.
"The tractor beam's been disabled!"
"Ours or the warship's?"
"Ours. That bump we felt in the launch tube was the tractor beam. According to the sensors, the space shuttle was too heavy for our tractor beam, especially at high acceleration. I think the shuttle successfully entered the launch tube, but I have no idea where it went from there."
Buck turned to his console. "I'm gonna check the infrared scanners."
"This close to the warship? Don't you think that will skew any readouts you get?"
"I have to try!"
The cockpit fell into silence as both pilots tried desperately to find the missing space shuttle. Buck turned the scout ship around until he was flying laterally across the front of the massive warship. Suddenly he pointed to the radar in front of him.
"There!"
Wilma checked her infrared scanners where he had pointed. Her eyes expanded. "Buck? You might want to see this."
"Hang on, I'm gonna get visual confirmation. I think I found it… yes, there it is!"
"Buck, I really think you need to see this."
He moved the scout ship into a parallel trajectory. He looked into the cockpit of the space shuttle. "Oh my God," he whispered. "He's-"
"Frozen," they said in unison.
They turned to look at each other. She pointed to the readout on her console. He moved his head forward to get a better look at it. "How is that possible?"
"I think the blowback from the tractor beam sucked all the power out of the ship," Wilma explained. The entire ship is… is frozen!"
Buck couldn't take his eyes off of the frozen shuttle. He breathed deeply and slowly for several minutes until the sound of an alarm penetrated his senses.
"Buck, we have company," Wilma informed him.
He forced himself to look away from the shuttle and to his radar. He shook his head once. "I see them. It looks like there's five of them."
"Does this thing have any weapons?"
Buck clenched his fists and teeth as he took one last glimpse of Ranger Three. "We're going to find out. First thing we need to do is lead them away from the shuttle. Hang on to your hat, Wilma. I'm gonna see what this thing'll do!"
He jerked on the controls roughly. Rapidly the ship turned and accelerated away from the massive warship. The ship sped in silence for several minutes until Wilma found a subroutine on her console. She tapped a few buttons, then looked up from her controls.
"I think I found the weapons."
She pressed a button on the arm of her chair. A blue flash of light appeared from somewhere below them. She grinned slightly.
"I found the weapons."
"Good."
"They're gaining on us."
"Yeah, I noticed that. We're carrying some extra weight."
"Do you want me to get out?" she asked.
He looked at her out of the corner of his eye. "Just until I take care of these guys," he replied.
"You just worry about flying. I'll take weapons control."
Buck pulled back on his controls to reverse his course. Quickly he sped into the path of his pursuers. "Take them out, Wilma!"
She fired as quickly as she could. Two of the oncoming ships exploded immediately while the other three broke off their formation. Buck expertly maneuvered into position behind one of the ships and Wilma easily picked him off. Just then the ship rocked slightly side to side.
"They missed, but not by much!" Buck mentioned.
He grasped the controls harder and almost willed the ship to do an aerial flip right behind his closest pursuer. Again Wilma fired the laser to extinguish one more threat.
"One more," she breathed.
Buck banked, rolled, and flipped the scout ship every which way he knew how, and two ways he didn't think possible. Twice the enemy pilot fired at them, but both times Buck was able to avoid the lasers. On the third occasion, however, they weren't quite so lucky. The ship rocked violently briefly.
"Buck, we're losing power."
"I'm not done yet!"
Buck made one more desperate maneuver and managed to finally get behind the enemy ship.
"This guy is good," he mumbled. "But not good enough!"
He finally got in behind the final ship and Wilma fired the laser. The last ship exploded into a giant fireball.
"Yeah!" Buck yelled.
He turned the ship around to head back toward the warship.
"Buck, where are you going?"
"To find the shuttle."
She rested her hand on his arm. "We're losing power. We don't have enough to find him again. Our fight has taken us so far away from the warship that we probably don't have enough power to get there. We should have enough to get back to Earth, but not much more than that."
"Are you suggesting that we leave him back there?"
"He's safe. We were lucky to find him. The only reason we found the shuttle is because we were looking for it. It has no heat signature, no radio beacon, and the warship has no sensors. He's probably better off than we are."
Buck closed his eyes briefly. Finally he sighed and turned the ship around. "Next stop planet Earth."