Mitchell's Revenge

Maxim was impressed. Anja Stern sat where she was told, observing the crew on the bridge. She quietly asked Maxim questions as they approached the jump point and he surprised himself by answering her. She was an intelligent, articulate girl, who was keenly interested in everything going on around her. She confided in Maxim that she wanted to be a pilot when she grew up, just like her brother.

Pavel Azanov listened to their exchanges and reflected that there could be little harm in letting the child watch and learn while she was travelling with them. Once they reached Tarasov she wouldn’t be going anywhere. And it was a lot easier to have a compliant hostage than one trying to sabotage the ship.

Pavel was working on the jump coordinates to take them back to the Laika system via the fastest route. If they went directly they would have to make three jumps. The first and longest jump would land them at the edge of the Spansion shipping lane, a busy transport route, where pirates were common. Transports moved in groups, often accompanied by armed protection vessels. They would have to pass through the shipping lane before making their second jump.

The second jump would take them to the edge of the asteroid belt that separated the Laika system from the four other inhabited systems in the quadrant. Once they reached the asteroid belt Pavel would take the ship manually through the debris field before they could make the third and final jump to Tarasov. He thought that the asteroid belt was where Anja would really learn something about piloting.

The last jump would be the shortest one. As it turned out, the crew of the Zond were looking forward to going home. They had been away from Tarasov for almost a standard year. Maxim’s children were adults now. His wife had died in a plague that struck the planet a few years before. There were no grandchildren yet, but he looked forward to the day when there were.

Elena and Sergey both had partners and family based on Tarasov. They missed them when they were travelling, but due to the nature of their work, they were unable to tell them where they were going, or what they were doing. Their families knew that what they did was dangerous, and the money they made allowed them to live well.

Pavel and Nadezhda were both single and loved their shipboard life. They enjoyed their visits home, but soon became anxious to be back amongst the stars.

Anja was thrilled she was travelling in space, regardless of where she ended up. She now felt reasonably safe with the crew and figured she would eventually work out where she was headed and what for. She just had to be patient. She thought that someone would let something slip sooner or later.

Pavel finished working on the jump coordinates and programmed the first jump into the FTL drive computer. As the Zond completed the jump and slowed to enter the transport lane, the nav board began to register hot weapons activity around them. In a matter of minutes the board was flashing wildly.

“What the hell?” Pavel muttered as he studied the data streaming down his vid screen.

Nadezhda was quicker to identify what was happening.

“Looks like a freighter’s been hit by something,” she said. “It’s dumping cargo pallets into the transport lane, and leaking oxygen and water.”

Maxim brought a wide view of the transport lane up onto the big vid screen at the front of the bridge. There were several ships clustered around the stricken freighter, not all of them with friendly intentions. They could see bouts of weapons fire between some of the smaller craft, and a larger ship attached to the remaining section of the freighter with grappling hooks. It looked like an escape chute was positioned between the two ships.

“There!” Nadezhda pointed to a small craft hurtling away from the scene in front of them. “Escape pod’s been jettisoned.”

“I’ve got a bad feeling about this,” said Maxim. He turned to Pavel. “Get us away from this mess as fast as possible. Now!”

“Too late,” said Sergey quietly. “Look.”

He gestured towards a schematic of the Zond on Pavel’s board. Flashing red lights indicated someone or something, trying to cut their way through their hull. A much smaller craft had attached itself, limpet-like, to the exterior of the Zond and they were under attack themselves. They could not turn their weapons on it without harming themselves. They would have to do this by hand. Maxim could feel a faint vibration that did not belong to the regular operation of his ship.

Anja hunkered down in her seat and watched in amazement as the crew quickly prepared to repel the boarders. There was no panic or shouting. A detached calm descended on the bridge. A schematic of the Zond appeared on the big screen in front of them. Maxim pointed to the corridors and utilities ducts surrounding the area where the smaller craft was positioned.

“Seal off access to these areas,” he said.

“Already doing it,” replied Nadezhda. “That thing’s got a very tight seal on our hull. I’m detecting at least three life forms, not necessarily humanoid.”

Anja shuddered, and then thought ‘Aliens! How exciting!’ and continued to watch and listen intently. Elena was suddenly standing next to her.

“Can you handle a weapon?” she whispered to her. Anja grinned.

“I can certainly try!” she replied. “I’ve only ever used an air rifle back on EQ2, but I could shoot pretty straight with it.”

Elena handed her a small hand weapon. She quickly showed her how it worked.

“Keep this hidden,” she said. “Maxim doesn’t need to know you’ve got it. If anything happens to you I could never forgive myself, and Yuri will have my head on a plate. So you need to be able to defend yourself if necessary. OK?”

Anja nodded, studied it briefly and then tucked the small weapon into the pocket of her jacket.

“Your best option may be to hide if this goes pear shaped,” Elena went on quietly. “It’s up to you. And good luck.” She squeezed Anja’s shoulder and returned to the group at the front of the bridge.

“Sergey and Elena, you’re our strike team,” said Maxim. “You’ll have to get the reinforced lightweight EVA gear on. Take every type of weapon you can possibly carry, and dispose of those creatures. I don’t care how you do it; just try not to damage our girl too much.”

They nodded, checked the vid screen display again and disappeared into the bowels of the ship.

“Nadezhda, find out if there’s a way to get that thing off our hull without sending a piece of us with it,” Maxim went on. “I’ll take the Silver Musca out and try the sonic.”

“Pavel, keep us on our path and look out for any other approaching ships that look like trouble. Warn them off them if necessary.”

“Anja, stay here. And help Nadezhda with whatever she asks you to do, OK?” Anja looked at Maxim.

“What are you going to do?” she asked innocently.

“I’ve got a little surprise up my sleeve. Stay here. I’ll be right back.” He left the bridge and made his way to his cabin to collect the things he needed.

Anja sat next to Nadezhda. She smiled at the child.

“We’ll be OK,” she said. “We know what we’re doing. We’ve dealt with worse.”

“What’s Maxim going to do?”

Nadezhda grinned viciously.

“You’ll see in a few minutes.” Then she explained the plan to Anja as she continued to watch the data streams and the schematics.

“Because we’re such a small ship we don’t have huge fire power. So Maxim and Pavel developed a sonic weapon that packs a big punch. The problem is that Maxim has to leave the Zond to make it work. The sonic only works in conjunction with a particular type of gas. Watch the external vid feed, and you’ll see what I mean.”

Meanwhile the internal vid feed showed Sergey and Elena moving from different directions towards the sealed off section of the ship underneath the alien vessel. They moved easily in the EVA suits and were bristling with weapons.

“We’ve got one shot at this Nadezhda,” came Maxim’s voice over the coms unit. “Are you ready?”

“All set Captain,” she replied.

“Better go now Boss!” shouted Pavel suddenly. “Their weapons are hot and aiming at you!”

The ship shuddered and a high pitched wailing filled Anja’s ears. She covered them with her hands, trying to block out the sound. The vibration through the ship grew stronger.

She glanced at the vid feed to see Elena pushing a mass of greenish tentacles and slime from her suit to the floor. At the other end of the sealed off corridor, Sergey was doing the same.

Nadezhda had jammed the doors shut at each end of the corridor underneath the alien boarding craft. The mercenaries dismantled the creatures as they oozed through the gap they had created in the hull of the Zond. But as soon as they destroyed one section of the creature, another replaced it. Suddenly the vibration stopped.

The alien ship broke free from the Zond and the distance between them was growing rapidly. Anja could see an even smaller craft ducking and weaving around it.

“Run, Pavel, run,” came Maxim’s voice. “Then fire on this bastard for all you’re worth!”

“I’m not leaving you behind!” Pavel replied.

“Just go, I’ll follow you.”

“You’re a bloody lunatic!” said Pavel.

He pulled the Zond away from the danger zone and began to ramp up the weapons. Nadezhda did not take her eyes off the data stream showing the location of the alien ship. Anja watched Maxim’s tiny craft send something floating towards the alien ship and then pull quickly away from it to follow them.

“Now!” yelled Nadezhda.

Pavel fired all their weapons at the alien ship and it disintegrated before Anja’s eyes. He slowed the Zond, allowing the tiny craft to catch up with them. It disappeared from view.

Anja looked back at the vid feed to see Elena and Sergey pushing tentacles and green slime out of the hole in the hull made by the creatures. The mercenaries were both tethered by safety lines that prevented them from floating out into the vacuum. She watched with interest as they worked to seal the hole with some kind of filament that thickened as it was fastened into place. It was all over so quickly. And they seemed to be safe.

Maxim arrived back on the bridge grinning from ear to ear. Sergey and Elena appeared shortly afterwards, sweaty and tired.

“We’ve got a bigger problem now Boss,” said Pavel, looking up from his nav board. “The mother ship’s just jumped in.”