The Soldier

The Morning Star looked like a child’s toy as it sat nearly motionless just outside The Wall, waves of the Atlantic lapping against her hull. The sun shined bright and there was a gently breeze from the North.

All was quiet.

Then a low rumble rolled over the ship, and a section of the wall began to recede, like a giant building blocked pushed by a child’s finger. The wall section continued to move back for several minutes and then stopped. After a moment, the wall section began to move downward. It took several minutes for the top of the section to disappear below the waterline, leaving an opening clearly large enough for the freighter.

Several minutes later, the rumbling stopped. The docking bay inside The Wall was massive, and brightly illuminated. Commands issued over loudspeakers echoed, overlapping one another.

At the far end of the bay, two beam emitters came to life and the final docking tractor beams began pulling the Morning Star forward. As the bow of the ship slowly moved through the bay’s opening, the ship started to move slightly left and right. Its movement was minimized by large, rolling guides that kept the ship from actually crashing into the sides of the bay.

As the ship was drawn further into the bay, more guide rollers engaged the side to bring the ship fully into the docking area and the tractor beams disengaged. Once the ship was in position, the guide rollers stopped and additional docking clamps latched onto the ship making any movement impossible. The opening to the Atlantic Ocean began to close as the wall segment rose above the water line dripping water as it moved to its full vertical position and then slid forward and locked into place.

Viewed from the outside, the Wall was once again uniform, with no visible indication of where the opening to the docking was, or if one even existed.

In their quarters, Caitlin and Logan sat quietly, listening to the various sounds that penetrated. Finally the light through the covered portal dimmed and the majority of the sounds, at least the ones from the docking machinery, stopped.

“Well, sounds like it’s time,” Logan said as he pulled a pistol from its holster and pulled back the body to chamber a bullet.

Logan walked over to the door and thumbed the opening mechanism. He held his breath for a moment as their seemed to be a delay, but the door slid open.

“We need to move quickly,” Caitlin said. “I disabled the locks and rigged the heat sensors I could easily get to, but there might be some other monitors that I couldn’t find, or a failsafe subroutine that might undo my handiwork.”

Logan nodded and moved into the hall, motioning with his hand that Caitlin should follow him. She inched out into the corridor slowly, looking back and forth.

By prior agreement, the team would meet at the room where their extra gear was stashed so they could divide out the load before attempting to get off the ship and out into America. It took Caitlin and Logan four minutes to arrive at the room. They immediately went inside and closed the door behind them.

The wait for David and Willie seemed to stretch on forever until finally the door slid open. Logan immediately brought his gun up, pointing it directly at the opening until Willie looked inside.

“It’s us,” he whispered.

Logan brought his gun up toward his ear and then placed it back into its holster.

“What took you two so long?”

“It took David a few extra minutes to quiet his cabin mate,” Willie said.

David shook his hand a bit as if it were still sore.

“Don’t worry, he should be out for at least half an hour,” he said without a hint of a smile.

Logan quickly distributed weapons and ammunition. He took a second pistol for himself and gave one each to David and Willie. Willie also took a high powered sniper rifle; David a sub-machine gun. Each of the men draped belts of ammo over their shoulders. Caitlin picked up a satchel containing her computer gear.

“Our primary goal is to get off this tub and into the countryside without being detected,” Logan said. “Which is, I admit, a lofty goal.

“Assuming we are spotted, let’s try to avoid killing anyone unless absolutely necessary.”

“In either event,” Caitlin said. “I think it’s highly likely that we will be on the American’s Most Wanted list no matter who we finesse our exit and will be on the run pretty much from the get-go.”

Logan nodded. “Regardless, I didn’t come this far just for the ocean voyage.”

He looked at his team.

“Right, everyone ready, let’s go.”

They had managed to work their way up to Deck 2, one level below the top of the ship, without being seen. The four were gathered around a stairway that led to the top.

“No matter how you slice it, Logan, one of us is going to have to stick his or her head topside to see if anyone is there,” David said.

“Are you volunteering?” Logan asked.

“If necessary, of course, but I . . .”

His response was cut off by the simultaneous sound of the ship’s emergency klaxon and a corresponding alarm from outside.

“Alert, Alert, This is a level one security alert. This is not a drill, I repeat, this is not a drill.”

“It seems,” Willie said, “that cautious approach is no longer necessary.”

“It might not be us,” Caitlin said.

“Of course it’s us,” Logan said. “Let’s get the hell out of here.”

Logan immediately climbed up the stairs and thumbed the panel that should have opened the hatch, but the door refused to open.

“Shit, they’ve locked down the ship,” Logan said. “Caitlin, any other ways topside.”

Caitlin tried to think.

“I didn’t really examine the ship for escape routes, I was looking for someplace to stash our stuff.”

“I know, but can you remember anything at all?” Logan said.

“Let me think a minute.” Caitlin’s brow furrowed as she tried to recall all the different deck layouts she had examined.

“I really doubt that we have a minute,” Willie said, looking nervously about. “I really think we need to get moving.”

“Agreed,” Logan said.

Logan moved towards the front of the ship, thinking that moving in any direction was better than staying put and waiting to be discovered by American security. The rest of the team followed him with their guns ready.

Willie poked his head around a corridor and jerked it back just quick enough to keep from having it shot off by a guard.

Logan grabbed Willie to keep him from blowing the man away, signaling to him to be patient. Logan waited until the young man was just inches from the corridor before he sprung around and leveled his gun in the face of what turned out to be a youth that appeared to Logan to be no more than 11 or 12.

“If you want to live, you will be quiet and help us,” he whispered. His voice was like ice.

The young man said nothing.

“How old are you, lad?” Logan asked.

“Fourteen.”

Logan snorted, disgusted that children were put to work as guards. He imagined they didn’t really train them very much, not really expecting a member of the freighters crew to try something like this.

“What’s your name?”

“Chris.”

“Right, Chris, we just want off this ship,” Logan said with a cold voice. “And you are going to help us, or you are going to die right here.

“I want your override code so we can open a door topside.”

“I don’t have one.”

“Then how do you get back out?”

“I don’t, not without you, anyway. When the sensors see five heat signatures at a certain hatch command radios in, I give the right response and they open the door.”

“And if that doesn’t happen?”

“Then I die with you and the rest of your invasion team,” Chris said. “And I die proudly for America standing against you traitorous British.”

Logan didn’t have the time or the patience to argue geopolitics with the youth. Clearly the Americans had been indoctrinating their people ever since before the Wall was built.

“How did you find out,” Caitlin asked.

“We scan the ship for heat signatures,” Chris explained. “And when we saw four sigs someplace they weren’t supposed to be, we had the computer check all systems.

“That’s when we discovered your pathetic hacks that kept the doors from locking and the interior scanners from detecting your movements. Once we found that out we rounded up the rest of the crew.”

“What for?” Caitlin asked.

“Termination,” Chris said. “After we off-load our cargo, we’ll lock you all in your cabins and use the tractor beams to push your ship out into the open ocean.

“Then we’ll sink it.”

“But the rest of the crew didn’t have anything to do with it,” Caitlin protested.

“Doesn’t matter, its how it’s done,” Chris said. “Anyone who violates our security requirements is executed.”

“That’s ridiculous,” Willie said.

Chris said nothing but glared defiantly at Logan.

“Well, we’ll just see about that, won’t we,” Logan said. “Where’s the rest of the crew now?”

“Bite me,” Chris said.

Logan looked at Willie and nodded towards Chris. Willie reached into a pouch and pulled out a hypospray.

He moved towards the young guard who started to struggle, but was held tight by David. Willie injected him in the neck and Chris immediately slumped to the deck.

“Nighty, night, Chris,” Willie said.

“Now what?”

“We find the crew and take them with us,” Logan said. “Clifford and his men didn’t ask for this, they don’t deserve to die for it. The least we can do is get them off this ship and into the U.S. Where they can have some sort of a life,”

“Into the lion’s den, eh?” Willie asked. “But where?”

Logan thought. “Main mess, it’s the largest, most central room.”

Logan and David crouched just around the corner from the main mess. Willie and Caitlin were about a dozen paces up the corridor. Logan signaled them to stay low and wait.

He carefully looked around the corner and down the corridor. The mess room was guarded by only one man, who appeared to be holding his machine gun casually, but to Logan’s trained eye he looked more experienced than Chris.

Logan signaled to Willie who stood up and walked into view of the guard. The guard started to raise his weapon but Willie ducked back into the corridor behind Logan. The guard started to run in Willie’s direction but ran straight into Logan who quickly knocked the guard out with two quick blows to the guard’s neck and head.

“Let’s go!” Logan shouted, but the others were already moving up.

Logan bent down and quickly searched the American.

“What are you looking for?” Willie asked.

“I don’t know, but I was wondering . . .”

He pulled a card out of the man’s jacket.

“Bingo!” If I’m right, this may be our best bit of luck so far today.”

He looked at the comm panel mounted next to the door to the mess hall. He felt around it for a bit before finding what he was looking for.

“Ah, here it is,” he said as he inserted the card into a slot in the comm panel’s side.

The panel beeped and the door to the mess hall slid open. Logan led his team inside to find Clifford and the remaining members of the crew. The captain went up to Logan, his face red with anger.

“Do you have the slightest idea what you have done?”

“I do now, sir, and if there were any other way I wouldn’t have put you and the rest of the crew at risk,” Logan said.

“At risk! At risk!” The captain was sputtering in Logan’s face. “We’re all dead men!”

“I know,” Logan said, keeping his voice level to try and calm the understandably upset captain, “unless you come with us.”

“Go with you, where? Out there? They’ll just track us down.”

“Most likely, they’ll try,” Logan said. “But at least you’ll have a fighting chance instead of being trussed up like so many turkeys to drown in your cabins when they sink this ship.”

Logan looked around at the Star’s crew.

“You best make up your minds quickly, I suspect we will be having company very soon, so the four of us must be going.”

“I’m in,” Jackson said. “Either way I won’t see England again, but at least this way I’ll be around to worry about it.”

“Me too,” piped in Billie McAllister. Logan thought it looked like Billie was looking at Caitlin when he answered, but he put that out of his mind.

The rest of the crew quickly agreed to try and escape.

“It’s all but you, captain,” Logan said gently.

“Oh, blast the lot of you to hell,” Clifford said. “I’ll tag along.”

“Grand,” Logan said. “But by chance are there any weapons aboard that we could lay our hands on. We only brought enough for ourselves.”

“Actually, there is a small armory. It’s not much, but it’s better’n nothing, I suppose.”

Logan clapped Clifford on the back.

“All right, then, let’s move out. Willie and I are on point, David and Caitlin bring up the rear.”

Logan’s team had grown much larger than he anticipated and as such was an unwieldy group to move through the ship. But they moved cautiously out of the mess hall and down the corridor to a locked door. Clifford entered his access code and the panel beeped it’s acceptance.

“Bloody good thing they didn’t think to change that code on us.”

He opened the cabinet door to reveal a small, but lethal stash of weaponry.

Logan’s eyebrow went up in surprise.

“In case of pirates,” Clifford said.

“I pity the pirates that would have to come up against some of this,” Willie said with admiration in his voice.

The Star’s armory included an eclectic assortment of weapons including Browning Automatic Rifles as well as three Sten submachine guns and one of England’s latest inventions, an energy pulse pistol.

“You best let me hold onto this,” Clifford said as he took the pulse pistol. “This is one of the prototypes and it can be a wee bit temperamental.”

“Understood,” Logan said. Then he noticed some rather powerful explosives in the stash. “And what do you need these for?”

“You never know what will come in handy,” Clifford said.

Logan laughed as he and his expanding team emptied the armory and distributed the weapons amongst themselves. He was beginning to like Clifford even more, completely understanding the predicament he had put Clifford and his men in.

“Very well, let’s move out, and everybody stay sharp,” Logan said. “I have no doubt that the Americans will have orders to shoot on sight, but all things being equal, I’d prefer to avoid killing any of them.”

Logan saw the feelings expressed in his team’s faces. “If at all possible.”

“Understood,” Jackson said as he slapped a magazine into his BAR.

Before anyone could say anything else, Logan saw the red dot of a targeting laser on Caitlin’s forehead. He instantly tackled her, pulling her down behind some crates just as the crack of a rifle shot filled the room. The bullet ricocheted off of the steel bulkhead.

“Thanks,” Caitlin said as she untangled herself from Logan.

“No problem, you can save me next time,” Logan said.

The other members of the team split to either side of the corridor, keeping low while trying to get a shot at the shooter.

“What, no order to ‘Freeze?’” David said.

“No reason too,” Logan said. “After all, they’re not trying to capture us, they’re trying to kill us. If they kill us now, it saves them the trouble of killing us later.”

“Fine,” Fritz said, “If that’s the way they want it, then that’s what they will get. No one tries to kill Frtiz Hammergalt. ‘If someone tries to kill you, you kill them first’ I always say.”

Fritz switched the Browning to automatic mode and started to creep forward before Logan could get a restraining hand on him. The first officer moved slowly, keeping various pieces of machinery between himself and the American security team. He arrived at a junction in the corridor. He motioned to Logan that he intended to move across the corridor to an alcove that would give him a clear view. Logan nodded and Fritz leapt across the corridor causing a hail of bullets to erupt from the far end. Fritz immediately bounced back out of the alcove and opened fire with the Browning, sending his own shower of lead in response before ducking back out of sight. He waited for a response from the other end of the corridor. When none came, Frtiz cautiously stuck his head out for a look, then grinned in Logan’s direction and waived his hand to indicate it was safe for the team to move forward.

Logan walked up the corridor to where the body of a security officer lay in a pool of blood. He nudged the corpse over and was relieved to discover that it was not another child-soldier but a man in his late 20s. Logan bent over and relieved him of his rifle, handing it to Jackson.

“Stay alert, I’m sure there’s more of them and they’ve just pulled back.”

They continued to move forward, eventually making it to the bridge without further incident.

“Where the blazes is everyone all of a sudden,” Logan said. “First they send teams in and now nothing. I don’t get it.”

Clifford glanced at the console next to his command chair. Then he entered a few commands with no response.

“It’s because they don’t have to. Take a look at this.”

Logan walked over and looked where Clifford was pointing.

“They’ve completely locked me out all control functions. All they have to do is wait until they have all of their cargo, then just shove the ship out and sink it.”

Logan was desperate for ideas.

“The cargo containers -- we could hitch a ride in or on one of those.”

“The locks are electronic, and I doubt even your Miss Anderson would have time to hack them, even if we could get access to one without being seen. And if we rode on top, we’d be in full view of every soldier on shore.”

“It would be like shooting fish in a barrel,” Logan said. “What we need is a distraction of some sort. Any ideas?”

He looked at the rest of his growing team.

“Maybe,” Fritz walked over to one of the control stations and punched a few keys, bringing up the schematic of the Star’s power systems. Clifford looked at the display with a grim expression on his face.

“Aye, that would work.”

Logan looked over the men’s shoulders.

“We blow the cooling systems here and here.” Fritz said pointing. “The reactor would start to overheat almost immediately.”

“Couldn’t they just use the computer to stop it?” Logan asked.

“If it were a control problem, aye, but we are going to take out both the main and the backups. There will be nothing left to control. Their only choice is either shove the ship out with the cargo still on it, which they won’t do, or put people on board to try and hookup an emergency cooling system.

“And that’s when we have our best chance to get off this tub, in the confusion with teams of engineers coming on board.”

“I expect it won’t be that easy,” Logan said

“And if they can’t control it and it blows, how far away would we need to get?”

“I assume they would just shove the Star out to sea rather than risk an explosion inside the docking bay,” Fritz said. “Then their blasted wall itself would protect them from the worst of it.”

“Anyone got any other ideas?” Logan asked.

The men and Caitlin stood quiet.

“Right. OK, Fritz off with you. How long will it take you to reach the reactor and set the explosive?”

Fritz thought. “Give me 15. I’ll set a 10 minute delay so I can get clear before the big bang.”

“Right,” Logan said. “Fritz will take care of the diversion while the rest of us get into position.”

Logan Looked around.

“David, you go with Fritz to make sure he gets off this tub without any problems.”

Fritz shook his head.

“No, he’ll only slow me down. I can get into the power room and out a lot faster if I’m not babysitting anyone.”

“Look, mate,” David began, but Logan cut him off.

“Very well, it’s your call and it’s your ship. Just make sure you’re with us when we jump ship because we’re not going to wait for you. My plan is to disappear into the countryside as soon as we touch Terra Firma.”

“Understood,” Fritz said. Then without a word he turned and headed for the nearest stairway.