Chapter Two: Grab and Go
By the time they had reached the docking bay, the Crimson Light was dangerously close to the burning dreadnought. Little Cato donned his helmet and Gary activated his own suit apparatus even as he checked the tether attached to his son's belt.
"Hey, Dad?" asked Little Cato softly, letting Gary fuss.
"Yeah?"
"Thanks. For doing this. For him."
He raised his fist and Gary answered with his own in a quick bump, giving and getting reassurance and a bit of hype.
"It's for you, too." Gary paused as AVA opened the airlock, double checking to be sure the laser gun on his belt was secure. For a brief moment they looked through the glowing plasma shield that maintained the ship's atmosphere with the bay door open. "You know he won't quite be the dad you know, right?"
"I know. He won't be your friend, either," Little Cato replied. "Not yet."
"Yeah, well, so long as he's cranky."
He could hear the grin in Little Cato's voice. "I don't think you'll have to worry about that."
"The Kalibar's battlebridge has been breached," said AVA as she and Nightfall fought to keep the ship steady against the waves of radiation and super-heated gases being bled by the Kalibar as she died. "There is one Ventrexian life form present and two – no, make that one Chundu. Also present are multiple Scoti life readings. There are no life readings on the Kalibar itself."
"Let's go!" called Gary, activating his booster boot jets. With Little Cato zooming alongside him, they dipped and dodged around the wreckage of a ship that had been burned and twisted almost beyond recognition. There was no relative direction in space, but years of working to repair satellites and marker beacons served Gary well now, because he was long past the disorientation many people experienced when in zero gravity. Every direction was up, every direction was down, and it took a lot of experience and focus not to get lost even when you were aiming for something as big and obvious as a burning dreadnought.
"Scans indicate there's a firefight going on," AVA provided. "Proceed with caution."
Said Little Cato wryly, "Sounds like my dad."
"Be ready to yank us back full throttle, AVA," ordered Gary.
"Ready to yank your chain, aye," she answered smartly.
They could feel the heat radiating off the Kalibar and Gary suddenly understood why none of the crew survived. It was like flying into an inferno.
"Guys, there is literally a tunnel drilled through this ship," called Ash. "There's a really weird ship in there that ate right through all the way through the battlebridge. These Scoti really wanted to get to him. Fly up one level toward those bent gun turrets, then it's straight ahead. Can't miss it. You've got a clear shot."
"The hell is going on here?" questioned Fox over the open comm.
Little Cato answered instantly, having put the pieces together. "It's an assassination attempt. A lot of people want my dad dead, back then and now."
"Fly faster, kiddo," ordered Gary. "How we gonna get him out?"
"I can hack the doors. I know . . . I know Dad's personal codes."
"Why you know your old man's codes?" demanded Nighfall in astonishment.
"He told me," Little Cato replied, his voice full of pride at his father's foresight.
"He knew you'd be coming to save him," Gary realized quietly.
The simple statement gave Little Cato pause, though he never slowed down. "Y-yeah. I guess he did."
Gary shook his head in admiration. He had to give it to Avocato – he knew how to plan and he knew how to survive and he never wasted an opportunity. Still trailing their tethers, Gary and Little Cato found the tunnel Ash had discovered. It bored straight to the Kalibar's heart like a bullet wound or some gaping mouth ready to swallow them, a jagged pit lit only by ion fires and sparks. Debris and swirled about and slow-moving smudges of gas and smoke curled up from its depths. Gary would have said it looked like the entrance to hell, but in truth he'd seen worse places to be. Without hesitation, they plunged in.
"Some sort of drill has gone through the ship and penetrated the bridge. Plasma fields sealed the breach it made. If you open the blast doors, you'll kill everyone inside the bridge," Nightfall insisted. "They still have atmosphere in there."
"Not my dad," insisted Little Cato, corkscrewing to avoid a chunk of blasted medical equipment. "His uniform is a shocktog. It'll protect him long enough for us to get back to the Crimson Light."
"No wonder he was so stinkin' hard to kill," bitched Fox under his breath, clearly not meaning to be heard by all and sounding as if he'd given it serious thought.
Gary had zero clue of what they were talking about, but he gathered General Avocato was ready for whatever the universe saw fit to throw at him. Typical Avocato. Hell, he was about to blow his own ship to smithereens and take his would-be killers along for the ride. That took some serious moxie, which Gary knew Avocato had in aplenty. And speaking of nerve . . .
He glanced at the young Ventrexian flying alongside him at such breakneck speed. That Little Cato was confident his father would survive this mess was evident. What took Gary's breath away was his son's determination and the sheer faith he put in his father's instincts to survive long enough for Little Cato to get there. Small wonder Avocato had been willing to move heaven and earth to get this child back. Gary understood how his friend would have done anything to free him, to get him back and keep him safe, because Gary knew perfectly well that he'd go as far or farther himself.
"HUE, time," ordered Gary.
"Three minutes, ten seconds remaining."
The drill ship - a huge, bulky beast of a thing – filled the hole it had bored, but to either side the corridors and rooms of the Kalibar spread out. Little Cato waved Gary to follow him to the left. They braked just inside a hallway as they came to a set of massive – and massively heavy – blast doors. Little Cato immediately pounced on the control panel and got to work opening the doors.
"Oh, no, you don't!" Nightfall suddenly yelled over the comms.
"Guys, what's happening?" Gary shouted.
"Scoti fighters are trying to stop us. They must have picked up our transmissions," HUE replied, ever calm.
"AVA, drop the tethers," ordered Nightfall. "Gary, I have to move the ship. Get Avocato, get out of the tunnel, and I'll get you. I promise."
"Roger that!"
"I suggest you pick up the pace."
"Oh, ya think, HUE?" He looked to Little Cato. The kid was so focused on hacking the blast doors that he'd missed every word. Suddenly an ecstatic little whoop of, "Got it!" rang out and Little Cato pumped his fist. "No time to bleed out the air, I'm venting the bridge."
"Do it, Spider Cat!"
He smashed the last button home. Lights flashed and Gary leaped, pushing his son aside and bracing them both against the mangled metal as the battlebridge depressurized. Debris, corpses, equipment went soaring out, sucked out by the sudden exchange of vacuum and atmosphere as the multiple layers of doors slid open. Inside was a chaos of lights and bodies as the trappings of civilized space travel – artificial gravity, recycled air, and simulated daylight – were torn away in a rush. One corner of the bridge was a mass of laser damage and scorch marks – this was where Avocato had made his stand against the Scoti assassins. Gary freed the tether from Little Cato's belt before detaching his own and drawing his blaster. Kicking off the wall, they made a beeline for the corner.
"There! Dad! There he is!"
Knocked unconscious when the doors had opened, Avocato had fallen in the corner, bleeding and burned. To Gary's eye, the teal Ventrexian seemed to shimmer in the Kalibar's garish emergency lighting, and he realized a plasma field encased Avocato. Shocktog. Right. Avocato drifted just off the floor, the lifeless forms of his Chundu defenders floating away. Ruthlessly, Gary shoved the bodies of dead Scoti out of their way, clearing a path.
"Spider Cat, let's grab and go!"
In zero gravity, Little Cato had no difficulty lifting his father. Gary spared a swift glance at Avocato and suppressed the urge to shudder at the sight of blood and burns. Avocato had been shot multiple times at close range, and someone had been at him with a bladed weapon. Even though Gary knew his friend should live, there was no denying he was in for a rough recovery. Little Cato seized Avocato around the waist, passing his arms through his father's gun belt to secure him.
"Got 'em! His suit is damaged," Little Cato said tightly, clutching his father close to his chest. "He must have taken a lot of fire. We gotta move or he'll suffocate. There's only about three minutes of oxygen left with this suit."
"That's more time than this ship has."
They kicked off, careful of the debris and their burden, picking their way back through that jagged, gaping maw. The fires were growing and the integrity of the ship was increasingly compromised.
"Someone prep the recovery pod and get us some way of moving him from the docking bay," ordered Gary, grimacing at the heat. They were going to get toasted if they lingered too long. "Stay close, kiddo."
He let his son go first, keeping a sharp eye out for any floating wreckage that might strike him or block his way out. In those few moments on the battlebridge, the fires had spread and the hole penetrating through the Kalibar had partially collapsed. It was still enough for them to get through, though more than once Gary had to shoot through fallen decks or blast objects out of Little Cato's route.
"Almost there and coming in hot," called Little Cato.
"We're getting back to your – dammit!" snarled Nightfall as the Crimson Light was forced to sheer off once again, pursued by Scoti fighters.
Confident she would shake the attackers, Gary focused on Little Cato and getting out. He had just called out a warning as he aimed his gun again, and he was so intent on what was ahead that he failed to check what might be behind . . .
Just shy of escaping the pit, something clamped around his ankle, yanking him back. Gary twisted, expecting to be tangled in some cables or snagged on a fragment of broken plating. To his everlasting shock, he was faceplate-to-faceplate with one of the Scoti assassins and the assassin's laser boltcaster, which had to be first cousins with that super-giant Infinity Guard laser they'd met back before the earth had been destroyed. Gary had almost left one gaping maw, only to be confronted by another, even more deadly one, and he let out a manly yelp of terror. The Scoti was nearly twice his size and many times his strength, though in zero gravity that didn't actually amount to much. Speed and maneuverability were what determined the outcome of a dust-up in space.
"Dad!" cried Little Cato.
"What the hell, dickweed?" Gary screamed, not realizing he did so. "Point that cannon somewhere else! Spider Cat, get out of here! Go! Go!"
"Out of my way, humanoid trash!" bellowed the Scoti over the comm channel, trying to move around him to aim. "You're not my target! I just want the Ventrexian!"
He tried to shove Gary aside, but Gary laid hold of his arm and held on for all he was worth, fouling the Scoti's shot. "That's my best friend and our son, you son of a bitch! You'd shoot a little kid?"
"If I have to!" yelled the Scoti, who seemed to have one volume. "I'm here to kill the general and anyone who gets in my way! Like you!"
"Well I'm here to save his ass and kick yours!" Gary replied with a bravado that only existed in hindsight, struggling to keep the Scoti from bringing that cannon to bear.
"Then you can die with him!"
Lasers spat from the boltcaster. Gary twisted, horrified, but the beams went just wide of Little Cato and Avocato's retreating forms. He turned back, so far beyond furious that he didn't have a word for what he felt.
"Gary! Cato! Get in the clear!" cried Nightfall over the comm. "We're coming to you now!"
While it could be a struggle to move quickly in zero gravity, Gary had the advantage of booster boots and the Scoti himself for leverage. He used both at once, activating the boosters even as he kicked the assassin, knocking the Scoti away as he rocketed free of the Kalibar. He could see Little Cato ahead of him and called,
"Coming at you from behind, Spider Cat!"
Little Cato glanced back and let out a cry of alarm. "Dad! Look out!"
Something slammed into Gary, propelling him forward. He looked down and in the reddish-gold glow of the Kalibar's burning hulk, he saw two beefy arms clamped around his middle. The Scoti assassin. Great. This guy didn't know when to give up, let alone how. Gary twisted free, but the Scoti clung to his wrist. Beyond this space limpet, the Kalibar shuddered as flashes of white-hot light came from deep within: the lightfold engine was exploding. When it went, everything for a few million miles would go with it. They had seconds, if that . . .
"Got you!"
The Crimson Light swept overhead, her bay door opened as she scooped up her wayward crewmen and their two refugees. It happened too quickly for Gary to see – one moment he was in space, the next he was swallowed whole and slammed against the far wall of the loading bay with one Scoti and two Ventrexians piled on top of him.
"We're on! You got us! Go! Go! Go!" he called.
"Spooling engines! Lightfold engaged!"