If you scroll up, there is definitely a 4. I like where this story is going. Now, is he going to get caught with stealing and if so, did Sue double cross him or did she have no choice.... Will there be a second date?
Community Event / Creation Dealing with maintenance - A little story
- Thread starter Chock
- Start date
If you scroll up, there is definitely a 4. I like where this story is going. Now, is he going to get caught with stealing and if so, did Sue double cross him or did she have no choice.... Will there be a second date?
I stand corrected. And yes, it's getting interesting.
I'm considering writing my own story based on an idea that's been buzzing around in my head for a few weeks.
6
A chair. Why was he looking at a chair? Hollister blinked and woke up fully, the chair sat alongside the bed, in an unfamiliar room. Then he remembered the night before. Turning over he saw Sue, lay alongside him, still sleeping; slowly, he retrieved his arm from under her, it was numb with pins and needles. Well at least he genuinely would have something to tell Manzo about. Sue stirred but didn’t wake.
Finding the kitchen, Hollister noticed the coffee, milk and sugar jars were more well-used than the others, and so he made white coffee with sugar for he and Sue. He carried it back to the bed and placed it on the chair, then gently woke her.
‘Coffee.’
‘With a side serving of regret and embarrassment?’ She added.
‘Not from me. I’d like to hope last night wasn’t a first and last supper.’ Hollister chanced. It had occurred to him that she might have simply been part of an elaborate trap in league with Pierpoint, but he genuinely had enjoyed the evening with her, wanted to see her again, and was prepared to take a gamble on it being for real.
‘Sorry, I didn’t want to be the first to admit I felt that way too. Defence mechanisms and all that.’ Sue admitted and smiled.
He kissed her.
‘But before we can live happily ever after, you and I have got work to do.’ Hollister said as he sipped his coffee.
‘Oh sh**. What time is it?’
‘Don’t worry girl, it’s early, You’re not late for work. However, I am.’ Hollister said, finishing his drink quickly.
‘What do you mean?’
‘The last piece of the puzzle. Well two pieces actually, but you only need to know about one of them at the moment. So, a question: Is there anyone Pierpoint tries to avoid or keep things secret from? I’m thinking maybe some security or other official. If there is, he or she would be the person to go to with that evidence. You don’t have to worry about us being implicated, we can ask for immunity in return for blowing it wide open.’
‘Hmmm.’ Sue pondered.
‘Come on girl, think. There must be someone.’
‘What was his name? He’s a Regional Marshall, he comes around once in a while on patrols, asking about and Pierpoint definitely doesn’t like it. I’ve seen Pierpoint really back things off whenever he’s due to arrive on Rapier. Callendar, that’s his name, don’t know his first name. You know you could be right, he’s probably legitimate. That makes a lot of sense.’
‘You sure about the name?’
‘Yes. I remember thinking it was amusing and ironic that there would be regular periods when Pierpoint would close things down; it being due to someone called Callendar. That’s why I’m sure of his name.’
‘Well that’s good enough for me. I’ll find out where that guy is and do the other thing I need to do, and then we’ll be good to go.’
‘What is this other thing Joe? Tell me.’ Sue pleaded.
‘The less you know, the easier it will be to appear normal at work. We don’t want to tip Pierpoint off. Trust me, it’ll be okay, just go to work and act like nothing is different. I’ll see you when you’ve finished work, okay?’
‘Please be careful Joe.’
‘It’s my middle name.’ Joe assured her. Actually it would have been more accurate to say his middle name was something along the lines of ‘smartass bull in a china shop’, but she didn’t need to know that either.
Kissing her goodbye after he'd showered and dressed, Hollister left, feeling slightly self conscious in his casual clothes. He swung by his tiny rented apartment to change into his more familiar flight suit, before heading to Manzo's workshop.
‘So. How was it?’ Manzo enquired.
‘It was great, but you’re going to have to wait for the grisly details Manzo. I need to borrow your terminal.’
‘Oh come on, you’re not getting off that easily Joe. You can borrow my terminal after you’ve told me all the filthy details.’ Manzo urged.
‘No, seriously Manzo. This is urgent, it’s to do with Pierpoint. That’s all I can tell you. I’ve got to work fast.’ Hollister said with a sense of urgency which Manzo could hardly fail to miss, although he made a mental note to not let Joe get away with it when they had that beer later.
Hollister keyed up the rental deeds for Manzo’s workshop and then panned the accompanying station schematic back to the rear of the shop where the hub was. As he had hoped, access conduits were marked on the schematic for the benefit of engineers who had to fit out the power to units. It looked like quite a way to the service duct at the rear of the customs warehouse, but it was definitely possible to get there from Manzo’s shop, in fact for most of the way you’d even be able to stand upright and walk.
‘Are there any security cameras in your service bay Manzo? Don’t point at them if there are.’ Joe enquired, as Manzo worked on the pressurisation system of a Sidewinder in his service bay.
‘Sure are. Just one, it’s over my shoulder up on the wall at my seven o’clock.’ Manzo advised, without stopping his work.
Hollister faked a yawn and surreptitiously observed it slowly sweeping back and forth. Damn, it would pivot and take in the access duct hatch about every fifteen seconds. There was no way to get the hatch cover off, climb in and re-secure that cover in that time. He wasn’t sure if Pierpoint would have access to what was security surveillance, but it was a possibility. Hollister sat and pondered that, he couldn’t think of a way to avoid it.
‘If you want to do some sneaky sh** in here Joe, there’s a way around that though, you know.’ Manzo said absently.
‘There is?’ Hollister asked, hopefully.
‘Oh sure. You see when we do shield integrity tests on ships, it puts out a freaky electrical field. Fills the entire hangar, anything that isn’t isolated from the deck - which that camera isn’t because it’s on a metal bracket on a metal wall adjoining the floor - goes **** up for a while. That’s why I never do tests on shields if there’s a ball game on. It f*** up my plasma screen. I missed Blazer Thomson getting that rocket ball hat-trick in the final three years ago because of that. Still ed off about it.’
‘Manzo, you’re a genius, you know that?’
‘Of course I know that. But, then again, anyone is a genius compared to you dumbasss throttle jockeys.’ Manzo smiled. ‘So come on then, what sneaky sh** are you up to now?’
Hollister briefly explained what he had in mind, and then enquired as to when the next shield test would occur.
‘Oh I can do one right now if you like. Security used to to me about it, but they got so bored of coming down here, because I do shield tests all the time, they don’t even bat an eyelid at it nowadays. They told me they would insulate the camera, but they’ve never got around to it and I don’t care if they don’t. It doesn’t bother me that they can’t record me working.’
Manzo finished his work on the Sidewinder’s pressurisation plumbing and then pulled the gauss scanner cart out of a locker and wheeled it to the corner of the hangar beside the service conduit access hatch.
‘Stand here inside this yellow line, or the shield will microwave your b******* when it goes active.’ Manzo laughed.
Hollister stepped well inside the line with a worried look and placed a surreptitious hand over his groin. Manzo, glanced at him and sighed, then remotely fired up the Sidewinder’s shield system. A low thrum filled the air and Hollister felt the hairs on his arms rise. Manzo read off the score for the Sidewinder’s shields, for his service records, then shut the shields down and made the system safe.
‘That camera’ll be f***** for about twenty minutes. How long you gonna be in there?’ Manzo enquired.
‘I dunno, say twenty to thirty minutes, depending on what I find.’
‘Okay, when you get back here, gimme a bell and I’ll run another test so we can pull you out again.’
‘Won’t that look suspicious? Running two tests?’ Hollister asked.
‘Nah. It’d look suspicious if I didn’t actually. If I run two tests it’ll look like I’ve found a problem, fixed it and then I’m checking it again. I’ll f*** about a bit, making it look like I’m adjusting the shields in twenty minutes when the cameras will be back on. Not that those dumbass security types would know the difference, but we might as well at least try and look authentic in case one of em does. And it’ll look like you’ve p***** off in the meantime before the cameras came back on. The next nearest camera to that one is on the promenade, so you can get away with it.’
‘Thanks Manzo. I promise I’ll tell you what all this is about soon.’ Hollister advised. ‘Now, help me get this damn hatch cover off.’
It turned out to actually only be a relatively short walk to the customs office location through all the ducting, but some of it was in zero G, other parts in 0.8G, so by the time he’d got there, Hollister was sweating. Checking Sue’s drawing on the napkin, he identified the section of ducting with the access cover where Pierpoint’s stash was supposed to be. He’d borrowed a star drive spanner from Manzo to enable him to open it up, there were only two bolts and they were not done up tightly, so he had the cover off in ten seconds, taking care to first observe and note their clock position. He placed the cover carefully on the deck, then stood on it so it would not float off.
Inside the duct, there was a Pro-Tech flight case, Hollister was just about to reach in and grab it when he noticed a red glint in his peripheral vision. He glanced up and saw a laser emitter shining down from above onto a reflector at the bottom of the duct. Not for the first time he thanked his luck that he had 20/10 vision; in addition to having saved his ass many times in combat, it had enabled him to spot the trap. Craning his neck up into the duct around the laser beam, Hollister saw it was coming from a Ballantyne Systems CryBabee. Any break in the beam would trigger a phone dialler. He didn’t need to be a rocket scientist to know whose phone that thing would call.
‘Sneaky, mistrustful b******.’ Hollister muttered.
This put a spanner in the works where his plan was concerned. But he quickly worked out a revision. Noting the case’s size and guessing that, if it had drives and papers in it, it would probably only weigh about three pounds, he eased back out of the duct and replaced the cover, taking care to tighten the bolts to exactly the point they were at before.
The new plan might mean things would get a bit more exciting when it came time to take the case. But before that, he had to find out where this Callendar guy was.
Back at Manzo’s ducting hatch, he gave Manzo a call and presently he heard the cover being unbolted. Climbing through, he saw Manzo’s puzzled, disappointed look.
‘No case?’ Manzo enquired.
‘Nah, this was simply a recon. I wasn’t going to take it now, I wanted to see its size and make sure I could find and get to it easily. But there’s a problem, it has a CryBabee on it.’
‘Really? Sneaky, mistrustful b******.’ Manzo said, with Hollister joining in on their familiar idiom.
‘Yeah, I know. So there’s a change in plan and now it will involve you a bit more buddy.’ Hollister said apologetically.
‘Really? Cool!’ Manzo said brightly. Excited at the prospect of the old team working another job.
Hollister just had time before the camera would recover from its blanking to borrow Manzo’s terminal again. It took him about two minutes to find what he was looking for; Robert Callendar, Regional Security Marshall, based at Bradbury Station, three jumps away from Rapier. He’d have preferred it to be somewhere closer, but the distance tended to confirm that he would be outside of Pierpoint’s sphere of influence.
‘Thanks Manzo. One last favour.’
‘What?’ Manzo enquired, with anticipation.
‘Can you pull 286 into this bay in time for tonight, say 21:00? Pretend to work on her?’
‘I’ll have to get this piece of sh** out of here, but she’s nearly done. So yes.’ Manzo answered, pointing a thumb at the Sidewinder.
‘And be ready to join me on her tonight when we depart.’ Hollister added.
‘We?’ Manzo exclaimed.
‘Yup. No time to explain, that camera will be back on soon. I’d best f*** off.’ Hollister said evasively.
‘The old team is back, Joe.’ Manzo smiled.
Hollister thought about that as he left Manzo’s shop with a smile. Then he recalled that last time ‘the old team was back’, they both ended up having to shoot their way out of a cafe, then run half a mile to their ship with a bunch of mercenaries following them, shooting at them all the way. He hoped this time it would be a lot easier, he couldn’t run that fast these days.
A chair. Why was he looking at a chair? Hollister blinked and woke up fully, the chair sat alongside the bed, in an unfamiliar room. Then he remembered the night before. Turning over he saw Sue, lay alongside him, still sleeping; slowly, he retrieved his arm from under her, it was numb with pins and needles. Well at least he genuinely would have something to tell Manzo about. Sue stirred but didn’t wake.
Finding the kitchen, Hollister noticed the coffee, milk and sugar jars were more well-used than the others, and so he made white coffee with sugar for he and Sue. He carried it back to the bed and placed it on the chair, then gently woke her.
‘Coffee.’
‘With a side serving of regret and embarrassment?’ She added.
‘Not from me. I’d like to hope last night wasn’t a first and last supper.’ Hollister chanced. It had occurred to him that she might have simply been part of an elaborate trap in league with Pierpoint, but he genuinely had enjoyed the evening with her, wanted to see her again, and was prepared to take a gamble on it being for real.
‘Sorry, I didn’t want to be the first to admit I felt that way too. Defence mechanisms and all that.’ Sue admitted and smiled.
He kissed her.
‘But before we can live happily ever after, you and I have got work to do.’ Hollister said as he sipped his coffee.
‘Oh sh**. What time is it?’
‘Don’t worry girl, it’s early, You’re not late for work. However, I am.’ Hollister said, finishing his drink quickly.
‘What do you mean?’
‘The last piece of the puzzle. Well two pieces actually, but you only need to know about one of them at the moment. So, a question: Is there anyone Pierpoint tries to avoid or keep things secret from? I’m thinking maybe some security or other official. If there is, he or she would be the person to go to with that evidence. You don’t have to worry about us being implicated, we can ask for immunity in return for blowing it wide open.’
‘Hmmm.’ Sue pondered.
‘Come on girl, think. There must be someone.’
‘What was his name? He’s a Regional Marshall, he comes around once in a while on patrols, asking about and Pierpoint definitely doesn’t like it. I’ve seen Pierpoint really back things off whenever he’s due to arrive on Rapier. Callendar, that’s his name, don’t know his first name. You know you could be right, he’s probably legitimate. That makes a lot of sense.’
‘You sure about the name?’
‘Yes. I remember thinking it was amusing and ironic that there would be regular periods when Pierpoint would close things down; it being due to someone called Callendar. That’s why I’m sure of his name.’
‘Well that’s good enough for me. I’ll find out where that guy is and do the other thing I need to do, and then we’ll be good to go.’
‘What is this other thing Joe? Tell me.’ Sue pleaded.
‘The less you know, the easier it will be to appear normal at work. We don’t want to tip Pierpoint off. Trust me, it’ll be okay, just go to work and act like nothing is different. I’ll see you when you’ve finished work, okay?’
‘Please be careful Joe.’
‘It’s my middle name.’ Joe assured her. Actually it would have been more accurate to say his middle name was something along the lines of ‘smartass bull in a china shop’, but she didn’t need to know that either.
Kissing her goodbye after he'd showered and dressed, Hollister left, feeling slightly self conscious in his casual clothes. He swung by his tiny rented apartment to change into his more familiar flight suit, before heading to Manzo's workshop.
‘So. How was it?’ Manzo enquired.
‘It was great, but you’re going to have to wait for the grisly details Manzo. I need to borrow your terminal.’
‘Oh come on, you’re not getting off that easily Joe. You can borrow my terminal after you’ve told me all the filthy details.’ Manzo urged.
‘No, seriously Manzo. This is urgent, it’s to do with Pierpoint. That’s all I can tell you. I’ve got to work fast.’ Hollister said with a sense of urgency which Manzo could hardly fail to miss, although he made a mental note to not let Joe get away with it when they had that beer later.
Hollister keyed up the rental deeds for Manzo’s workshop and then panned the accompanying station schematic back to the rear of the shop where the hub was. As he had hoped, access conduits were marked on the schematic for the benefit of engineers who had to fit out the power to units. It looked like quite a way to the service duct at the rear of the customs warehouse, but it was definitely possible to get there from Manzo’s shop, in fact for most of the way you’d even be able to stand upright and walk.
‘Are there any security cameras in your service bay Manzo? Don’t point at them if there are.’ Joe enquired, as Manzo worked on the pressurisation system of a Sidewinder in his service bay.
‘Sure are. Just one, it’s over my shoulder up on the wall at my seven o’clock.’ Manzo advised, without stopping his work.
Hollister faked a yawn and surreptitiously observed it slowly sweeping back and forth. Damn, it would pivot and take in the access duct hatch about every fifteen seconds. There was no way to get the hatch cover off, climb in and re-secure that cover in that time. He wasn’t sure if Pierpoint would have access to what was security surveillance, but it was a possibility. Hollister sat and pondered that, he couldn’t think of a way to avoid it.
‘If you want to do some sneaky sh** in here Joe, there’s a way around that though, you know.’ Manzo said absently.
‘There is?’ Hollister asked, hopefully.
‘Oh sure. You see when we do shield integrity tests on ships, it puts out a freaky electrical field. Fills the entire hangar, anything that isn’t isolated from the deck - which that camera isn’t because it’s on a metal bracket on a metal wall adjoining the floor - goes **** up for a while. That’s why I never do tests on shields if there’s a ball game on. It f*** up my plasma screen. I missed Blazer Thomson getting that rocket ball hat-trick in the final three years ago because of that. Still ed off about it.’
‘Manzo, you’re a genius, you know that?’
‘Of course I know that. But, then again, anyone is a genius compared to you dumbasss throttle jockeys.’ Manzo smiled. ‘So come on then, what sneaky sh** are you up to now?’
Hollister briefly explained what he had in mind, and then enquired as to when the next shield test would occur.
‘Oh I can do one right now if you like. Security used to to me about it, but they got so bored of coming down here, because I do shield tests all the time, they don’t even bat an eyelid at it nowadays. They told me they would insulate the camera, but they’ve never got around to it and I don’t care if they don’t. It doesn’t bother me that they can’t record me working.’
Manzo finished his work on the Sidewinder’s pressurisation plumbing and then pulled the gauss scanner cart out of a locker and wheeled it to the corner of the hangar beside the service conduit access hatch.
‘Stand here inside this yellow line, or the shield will microwave your b******* when it goes active.’ Manzo laughed.
Hollister stepped well inside the line with a worried look and placed a surreptitious hand over his groin. Manzo, glanced at him and sighed, then remotely fired up the Sidewinder’s shield system. A low thrum filled the air and Hollister felt the hairs on his arms rise. Manzo read off the score for the Sidewinder’s shields, for his service records, then shut the shields down and made the system safe.
‘That camera’ll be f***** for about twenty minutes. How long you gonna be in there?’ Manzo enquired.
‘I dunno, say twenty to thirty minutes, depending on what I find.’
‘Okay, when you get back here, gimme a bell and I’ll run another test so we can pull you out again.’
‘Won’t that look suspicious? Running two tests?’ Hollister asked.
‘Nah. It’d look suspicious if I didn’t actually. If I run two tests it’ll look like I’ve found a problem, fixed it and then I’m checking it again. I’ll f*** about a bit, making it look like I’m adjusting the shields in twenty minutes when the cameras will be back on. Not that those dumbass security types would know the difference, but we might as well at least try and look authentic in case one of em does. And it’ll look like you’ve p***** off in the meantime before the cameras came back on. The next nearest camera to that one is on the promenade, so you can get away with it.’
‘Thanks Manzo. I promise I’ll tell you what all this is about soon.’ Hollister advised. ‘Now, help me get this damn hatch cover off.’
It turned out to actually only be a relatively short walk to the customs office location through all the ducting, but some of it was in zero G, other parts in 0.8G, so by the time he’d got there, Hollister was sweating. Checking Sue’s drawing on the napkin, he identified the section of ducting with the access cover where Pierpoint’s stash was supposed to be. He’d borrowed a star drive spanner from Manzo to enable him to open it up, there were only two bolts and they were not done up tightly, so he had the cover off in ten seconds, taking care to first observe and note their clock position. He placed the cover carefully on the deck, then stood on it so it would not float off.
Inside the duct, there was a Pro-Tech flight case, Hollister was just about to reach in and grab it when he noticed a red glint in his peripheral vision. He glanced up and saw a laser emitter shining down from above onto a reflector at the bottom of the duct. Not for the first time he thanked his luck that he had 20/10 vision; in addition to having saved his ass many times in combat, it had enabled him to spot the trap. Craning his neck up into the duct around the laser beam, Hollister saw it was coming from a Ballantyne Systems CryBabee. Any break in the beam would trigger a phone dialler. He didn’t need to be a rocket scientist to know whose phone that thing would call.
‘Sneaky, mistrustful b******.’ Hollister muttered.
This put a spanner in the works where his plan was concerned. But he quickly worked out a revision. Noting the case’s size and guessing that, if it had drives and papers in it, it would probably only weigh about three pounds, he eased back out of the duct and replaced the cover, taking care to tighten the bolts to exactly the point they were at before.
The new plan might mean things would get a bit more exciting when it came time to take the case. But before that, he had to find out where this Callendar guy was.
Back at Manzo’s ducting hatch, he gave Manzo a call and presently he heard the cover being unbolted. Climbing through, he saw Manzo’s puzzled, disappointed look.
‘No case?’ Manzo enquired.
‘Nah, this was simply a recon. I wasn’t going to take it now, I wanted to see its size and make sure I could find and get to it easily. But there’s a problem, it has a CryBabee on it.’
‘Really? Sneaky, mistrustful b******.’ Manzo said, with Hollister joining in on their familiar idiom.
‘Yeah, I know. So there’s a change in plan and now it will involve you a bit more buddy.’ Hollister said apologetically.
‘Really? Cool!’ Manzo said brightly. Excited at the prospect of the old team working another job.
Hollister just had time before the camera would recover from its blanking to borrow Manzo’s terminal again. It took him about two minutes to find what he was looking for; Robert Callendar, Regional Security Marshall, based at Bradbury Station, three jumps away from Rapier. He’d have preferred it to be somewhere closer, but the distance tended to confirm that he would be outside of Pierpoint’s sphere of influence.
‘Thanks Manzo. One last favour.’
‘What?’ Manzo enquired, with anticipation.
‘Can you pull 286 into this bay in time for tonight, say 21:00? Pretend to work on her?’
‘I’ll have to get this piece of sh** out of here, but she’s nearly done. So yes.’ Manzo answered, pointing a thumb at the Sidewinder.
‘And be ready to join me on her tonight when we depart.’ Hollister added.
‘We?’ Manzo exclaimed.
‘Yup. No time to explain, that camera will be back on soon. I’d best f*** off.’ Hollister said evasively.
‘The old team is back, Joe.’ Manzo smiled.
Hollister thought about that as he left Manzo’s shop with a smile. Then he recalled that last time ‘the old team was back’, they both ended up having to shoot their way out of a cafe, then run half a mile to their ship with a bunch of mercenaries following them, shooting at them all the way. He hoped this time it would be a lot easier, he couldn’t run that fast these days.
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Here you go, penultimate chapter...
7
The Promenade was damn busy, businesses were opening for the day’s trading and a lot of people were milling around. It was time for the next part of his hastily-revised plan. Hollister strolled down to the commercial tech sector, pulling out his phone to call Sue as he did so, but just as he was about to dial, the phone rang.
‘Hollister?’ It was Pierpoint.
‘Yup?’
‘Time for your next errand. Hope you hadn’t forgotten about that sonny.’
‘Absolutely not. What is it?’
‘Not over the phone. Come to my office in two hours.’
Pierpoint didn’t wait for an acknowledgment, hanging up before Hollister could object. Damn. That didn’t leave much time. He dialed Sue’s number.
‘Can you talk?’
‘Joe, is that you? What is it?’ Sue answered, happy to hear his voice.
‘You wouldn’t happen to know what kind of phone Pierpoint has, would you?’
‘Mobile?’
‘Yeah, his mobile. The exact model. And I mean exactly.’
‘Yes, I know exactly what phone he has, because he sent me out to buy it. I’ve even got the receipt for it.’ Sue laughed. ‘It’s a Lehman VX27, matt black - naturally, the ***** - with the memory upgrade.’
‘Any sort of fancy case, or anything like that?’
‘Pierpoint? You must be joking, he’s got the imagination of a stick. No, it’s completely standard, even still has the default wallpaper. I had to show him how to work it. Why?’ Sue laughed.
‘And where does he carry it?’ Hollister enquired, ignoring her question.
‘In his breast pocket.’
‘Left or right?’ Hollister pressed.
‘His left breast pocket.’
‘So, nowhere near his heart then?’ Hollister joked.
‘He doesn’t have a heart. Look, what’s all this about Joe?’
‘I need to switch his phone for another one.’ Joe revealed. ‘I’ll be over to see him in a while. You wouldn’t happen to have bought that phone on this station, would you?’
‘Yes, as a matter of fact I did. I got it from Stacks Communications, it’s on the promenade, on level 4. How are you going to be able to switch his phone Joe? He keeps it on him all the time.’
‘You let me worry about that Sue. Oh and I need you to do two more things, and then we’ll be finished with all this mess and we can get on with getting to know each other better, which incidentally, I’m looking forward to.’
‘Me too Joe. Those two things are?’
‘When I come to see Pierpoint, I’ll have Manzo with me. I need us to both be in his office when I talk to him, if you can help to make that happen or cause any kind of distraction, then do so. That’s one thing, the other thing is, when you finish work, I need you to go to Manzo’s repair bay and stay with him. Get there no later than 19:00 Station Time. He’ll be expecting you. My ship will be there, get on board and stay there. I’ll join you not long after that. Got it?’
‘Yes, but-’ Sue answered, somewhat puzzled.
‘You’re the best, girl. I can’t wait to see you.’ And with that he disconnected the call.
Sh** Hollister thought, he would have to have a f****** expensive phone, wouldn’t he? Still no time to worry about that.
Hollister walked into Stacks Communications.
‘Can I help you sir?’ An assistant offered enthusiastically. Pilots always had more money than sense and the prospect of a big commission loomed. The assistant beamed with anticipation.
‘Lehman VX27, matt black, with the memory upgrade. You got one?’ Hollister fired at him.
‘A discerning choice if I may say so sir...’ The assistant fawned. ‘One moment.’
A f****** overpriced choice more like it, thought Hollister. The assistant bustled back to him with the phone.
‘The Lehman VX27 features a continu-’
‘I’ll take it.’ Hollister snapped. ‘Don’t bother to wrap it.’
2,450 credits for a f****** phone, Hollister thought miserably, as he headed back to Manzo’s. Still, it was a necessary expense.
‘Joe Hollister! Hey man, how’re you doing. Boy have I got a tale for you...’
Hollister spun round at the mention of his name. For a second it seemed surreal. It was Piesecki. He looked even fatter than usual.
‘Oh hi.’ Joe managed weakly.
‘Come and grab a drink man. I’m celebrating, or commiserating, depending on which way you look at it.’ Piesecki blabbed in his usual over-friendly way, convinced that he was everybody’s best friend.
‘A drink? At this time? I can’t...’ Hollister countered.
‘Aaaw b******* Joe. You can manage one drink.’ Piesecki insisted.
Hollister thought about how guilty he’d been feeling over shooting Piesecki’s ship up and decided to oblige, although it would really have to be quick.
‘Okay, one. But I mean it, I’ve got an appointment in less than an hour. So just one.’
‘Sure Joe.’
The pair wandered into The Chalice, one of the upmarket bars on the promenade. It was not somewhere space truckers like they normally frequented.
‘These are on me Joe. Two Stratos.’ Piesecki called to the barman, as he jammed his credit chip into the bar slot.
‘We don’t serve Strato sir. Perhaps you might try one of the lower deck’s establishments?’ The barman suggested snootily.
‘Perhaps, you’d serve us whatever passes for beer in this joint and stop with the smartass comments, you f****** little p****?’ Piesecki returned.
The barman looked the pair up and down, decided discretion was the better part of valour, serving up two glasses of Optima, the poncy designer beer that city types tended to favour.
Piesecki took a big swig of his overpriced beer and began to regale Hollister with the tale of how he’d heroically fought off three pirates, got one of his engines shot out from a ‘f****** lucky shot’ by one of the attackers, but managed to cripple all three of his assailants with skillful gunnery. Eventually limping into Outpost 12 at Zucharis. The adventure caused him to miss out on a good trade deal with fuel, apparently.
‘You should’ve see the smoke coming out of the last one I hit Joe. God I hope that b****** blew up.’ Piesecki beamed.
‘Phew! That sounds like quite a fight Bill.’ Hollister admitted.
Which it certainly would have been if it had in any way resembled the truth. Then added: ‘But you know you really are asking for it running fuel to Rapier. Check around and you’ll find out why; something to do with customs I understand. I know one thing, it’s not a healthy lifestyle choice. So Bill, I’m going to help you out with a hot tip. One that’ll make you a lot more than that fuel run, and with no danger whatsoever.’
Hollister cringed at the thought of giving away what genuinely was a great tip for making a fortune, but he couldn’t deny that he owed Piesecki a big fat favour. Damn, that was how he was going to have got Manzo his 24k back. Still, he mused, if it all went to plan later, he’d at least know that when Piesecki eventually found out the truth, he’d be in a forgiving mood.
‘Cartois to Fimeal IV. Take robots one way and synthetic meat back the other, and contract out other ships to freight more of it for you too. With Diwali coming up, there’ll be a ton of demand from all the veggies and robots go for a real premier price on Cartois. After that, take medical supplies, there are always a crapload of injuries from the dodgy fireworks at Diwali. Trust me, you’ll make a pile.’ Hollister advised, with a conspiratorial wink.
It was true, with that big Clipper, Piesecki would indeed make a fortune.
‘Really?’ Piesecki enquired, somewhat suspicious of his motives. ‘Why you telling me if it’s such a hot tip Joe? Why not make the run yourself?’
‘I did, last year. But this year no can do. I’m committed to another run for some time. And we’re buddies aren’t we? I’d rather see someone I know make that cash if I can’t make it myself. So here’s to you Bill.’ Hollister toasted, downing the appalling Optima in one and slamming the glass down on the bar, hoping it would crack.
‘Gotta go. Don’t make that fuel run again. It’s too risky.’
‘Oh come on Joe. Have another!’ Piesecki pleaded.
‘Sorry, gotta dash.’ Hollister said firmly, and raced out onto the promenade. Fetching out his phone and dialing Manzo, as he hurried along.
‘Manzo?’
‘Yeah Joe.’
‘I’ll be at yours in five minutes, be ready to come with me, we’ve gotta go see Pierpoint.’
‘We do?’ Manzo asked, somewhat puzzled.
‘Yeah. I need your talents buddy.’
PV-286 sat in the service bay at Manzos. Hollister was surprised to see her as he walked in from the promenade exit.
‘Damn buddy. You got her down here quick.’ Hollister said, with more than a little admiration at Manzo’s expediency.
‘No point in f****** around when we’ve got a plan.’
‘Well we’ve got another plan too now. Come on, or we’ll be late.’
As they hurried over to customs, Hollister explained everything to Manzo, and passed him the Lehman phone. Manzo tampered with it expertly to make it look like it was working okay; he assured Hollister that it would neither receive calls, nor make them, looking like it was temporarily glitching on getting a signal. Hollister thought carefully for a second, running the plan over in his mind to ensure he’d forgotten nothing. Satisfied all was in place, he offered one final thought: ‘You’re clear on all that buddy? If this goes **** up in any way, we’re dead, you know that, right?’
‘Clear as a bell Joe. Although I’m a bit rusty on dipping. I’ve given all that sh** up these days.’
‘Like riding a bike isn’t it?’ Hollister enquired, hopefully.
‘You’d better hope so. Or we’re f*****.’
‘You are now entering the live deck area, please ensure magnetic boots are active and use the handrails provided. Asegúrese de botas magnéticas...’
Just before they stepped into customs, it occurred to Hollister that Pierpoint might want him to go somewhere right that minute, which would screw up his plan beyond any quick-thinking saves. He turned to Manzo...
‘Pretend I’m arguing with you about fixing my ship.’ Hollister muttered.
‘What?’
‘Just go with it.’ He hissed through closed lips.
‘Okay, don’t forget you’re the ‘stop’, Joe.’ Manzo reminded him, as he readied the bogus phone.
They ambled into customs, Sue pretending she had no personal acquaintance with Hollister.
‘I’m here to see Pierpoint.’ Hollister announced.
‘Wait one moment, Sir.’ Sue announced, playing along with surprisingly convincing indifference.
‘Anyway Manzo, that’s too long. It’s only the thruster.’ Hollister said in an overly loud voice.
‘That may be so, but it’s going to take fou-’
‘Six.’ Hollister hissed under his breath, gently thumping Manzo.
‘I mean six. Six hours to fix it.’ Manzo quickly amended.
‘Six hours?’ Hollister exclaimed loudly.
‘Maybe even seven.’ Manzo exclaimed, picking up the ruse.
Pierpoint appeared in the doorway to his office.
‘What the f****** hell is going on out here? What do you think this is, a goddamn circus?’
‘Well, here I am, as requested.’ Hollister announced brightly.
‘Shall I make everyone some coffee?’ Sue announced, attempting a distraction.
‘No goddammit!’ Pierpoint yelled. ‘And what the hell are you doing here?’ He added, glaring at Manzo.
‘Oh Mister Pierpoint, Sir.’ Manzo began, in an overly grateful fashion. ‘I cannot thank you enough for returning my effects. They mean so much to me. My mother...’
‘Yes, yes. Alright. Now get out of here.’ Pierpoint said gruffly.
‘No no Sir. Allow me to shake the hand of a true gentleman.’ Manzo announced loudly, as he advanced toward Pierpoint.
Hollister could barely restrain himself from laughing at Manzo’s brilliant improvisation, but remembered his role as the ‘stop’ in the ruse and watched for the perfect moment to fire off the required distraction.
Manzo thrust out his hand to shake Pierpoint’s and reached over his shoulder to hug him, as he launched into a tearful thank you. This was the moment. Hollister caught Pierpoint’s attention and tapped the side of his skull and then spun his finger, in the time-honoured indication that Manzo was a lunatic. Manzo made to pat his heart in feigned admiration and quickly swapped the phones. Hollister barely even saw it happen and he was certain Pierpoint hadn’t. Manzo definitely still had the touch.
‘You are a saint sir, a saint. I thank you. My deceased mother thanks you...’ Manzo wailed, even producing some fake tears.
Pierpoint eventually managed to extricate himself from the preposterously over-friendly hug of Manzo and motioned him to the door, giving him a gentle shove, in the hope that it would expedite his leaving. As Manzo passed Sue and Hollister, he gave them a surreptitious wink and thumbs up. They could hear him as he disappeared down the corridor: ‘A saint I tell you, that man’s a saint!’
Shut up, Hollister thought to himself. He could barely stop himself from laughing. He knew Manzo was doing that on purpose, trying to make him corpse, the b*****d. Sue was having similar problems, but masked her smile by pretending to go back to working on her monitor. As she disappeared behind it, she was nearly in tears from having to suppress her laughter.
Hollister stepped into Pierpoint’s office.
‘Sorry about that, he was stalling on fixing my thruster and I know you need me to be ready. I think he’s been drinking. But, I’d trust that guy with my life. When we were in the 501st together, he was my armourer, and he’d load that sucker up faster than any other plumber on that squadron, even when he was p***** as a fart. So what’s the deal pops?’ Hollister enquired, remembering to sound annoyingly arrogant instead of compliant, which would indeed have seemed suspicious to Pierpoint.
‘Lucky for you - and him - that I don’t need you to take off until tomorrow then. Wouldn’t you say sonny?’ Pierpoint threatened.
‘Tomorrow?’
‘You heard me sonny. You’re gonna fly out to Beacon 285 and wait. A ship will meet you there and give you further instructions from me. That’s all you need to know right now. Be at Beacon 285 no later than 13:00 Galactic.’
‘Beacon 285, 13:00 Galactic. Tomorrow. Got it.’ Hollister confirmed.
Coming from Pierpoint, and knowing he’d already considered offing him, that sounded more like a set up than anything he’d ever heard in his life. Fortunately, if everything went to plan, there would be no way he’d be making that trip. In fact he’d be long gone with any luck and merrily dropping Pierpoint in it from a very great height.
‘Leave.’ Pierpoint said bluntly.
Oh you can bet I will, thought Hollister, as he walked out and gave Sue a wink.
7
The Promenade was damn busy, businesses were opening for the day’s trading and a lot of people were milling around. It was time for the next part of his hastily-revised plan. Hollister strolled down to the commercial tech sector, pulling out his phone to call Sue as he did so, but just as he was about to dial, the phone rang.
‘Hollister?’ It was Pierpoint.
‘Yup?’
‘Time for your next errand. Hope you hadn’t forgotten about that sonny.’
‘Absolutely not. What is it?’
‘Not over the phone. Come to my office in two hours.’
Pierpoint didn’t wait for an acknowledgment, hanging up before Hollister could object. Damn. That didn’t leave much time. He dialed Sue’s number.
‘Can you talk?’
‘Joe, is that you? What is it?’ Sue answered, happy to hear his voice.
‘You wouldn’t happen to know what kind of phone Pierpoint has, would you?’
‘Mobile?’
‘Yeah, his mobile. The exact model. And I mean exactly.’
‘Yes, I know exactly what phone he has, because he sent me out to buy it. I’ve even got the receipt for it.’ Sue laughed. ‘It’s a Lehman VX27, matt black - naturally, the ***** - with the memory upgrade.’
‘Any sort of fancy case, or anything like that?’
‘Pierpoint? You must be joking, he’s got the imagination of a stick. No, it’s completely standard, even still has the default wallpaper. I had to show him how to work it. Why?’ Sue laughed.
‘And where does he carry it?’ Hollister enquired, ignoring her question.
‘In his breast pocket.’
‘Left or right?’ Hollister pressed.
‘His left breast pocket.’
‘So, nowhere near his heart then?’ Hollister joked.
‘He doesn’t have a heart. Look, what’s all this about Joe?’
‘I need to switch his phone for another one.’ Joe revealed. ‘I’ll be over to see him in a while. You wouldn’t happen to have bought that phone on this station, would you?’
‘Yes, as a matter of fact I did. I got it from Stacks Communications, it’s on the promenade, on level 4. How are you going to be able to switch his phone Joe? He keeps it on him all the time.’
‘You let me worry about that Sue. Oh and I need you to do two more things, and then we’ll be finished with all this mess and we can get on with getting to know each other better, which incidentally, I’m looking forward to.’
‘Me too Joe. Those two things are?’
‘When I come to see Pierpoint, I’ll have Manzo with me. I need us to both be in his office when I talk to him, if you can help to make that happen or cause any kind of distraction, then do so. That’s one thing, the other thing is, when you finish work, I need you to go to Manzo’s repair bay and stay with him. Get there no later than 19:00 Station Time. He’ll be expecting you. My ship will be there, get on board and stay there. I’ll join you not long after that. Got it?’
‘Yes, but-’ Sue answered, somewhat puzzled.
‘You’re the best, girl. I can’t wait to see you.’ And with that he disconnected the call.
Sh** Hollister thought, he would have to have a f****** expensive phone, wouldn’t he? Still no time to worry about that.
Hollister walked into Stacks Communications.
‘Can I help you sir?’ An assistant offered enthusiastically. Pilots always had more money than sense and the prospect of a big commission loomed. The assistant beamed with anticipation.
‘Lehman VX27, matt black, with the memory upgrade. You got one?’ Hollister fired at him.
‘A discerning choice if I may say so sir...’ The assistant fawned. ‘One moment.’
A f****** overpriced choice more like it, thought Hollister. The assistant bustled back to him with the phone.
‘The Lehman VX27 features a continu-’
‘I’ll take it.’ Hollister snapped. ‘Don’t bother to wrap it.’
2,450 credits for a f****** phone, Hollister thought miserably, as he headed back to Manzo’s. Still, it was a necessary expense.
‘Joe Hollister! Hey man, how’re you doing. Boy have I got a tale for you...’
Hollister spun round at the mention of his name. For a second it seemed surreal. It was Piesecki. He looked even fatter than usual.
‘Oh hi.’ Joe managed weakly.
‘Come and grab a drink man. I’m celebrating, or commiserating, depending on which way you look at it.’ Piesecki blabbed in his usual over-friendly way, convinced that he was everybody’s best friend.
‘A drink? At this time? I can’t...’ Hollister countered.
‘Aaaw b******* Joe. You can manage one drink.’ Piesecki insisted.
Hollister thought about how guilty he’d been feeling over shooting Piesecki’s ship up and decided to oblige, although it would really have to be quick.
‘Okay, one. But I mean it, I’ve got an appointment in less than an hour. So just one.’
‘Sure Joe.’
The pair wandered into The Chalice, one of the upmarket bars on the promenade. It was not somewhere space truckers like they normally frequented.
‘These are on me Joe. Two Stratos.’ Piesecki called to the barman, as he jammed his credit chip into the bar slot.
‘We don’t serve Strato sir. Perhaps you might try one of the lower deck’s establishments?’ The barman suggested snootily.
‘Perhaps, you’d serve us whatever passes for beer in this joint and stop with the smartass comments, you f****** little p****?’ Piesecki returned.
The barman looked the pair up and down, decided discretion was the better part of valour, serving up two glasses of Optima, the poncy designer beer that city types tended to favour.
Piesecki took a big swig of his overpriced beer and began to regale Hollister with the tale of how he’d heroically fought off three pirates, got one of his engines shot out from a ‘f****** lucky shot’ by one of the attackers, but managed to cripple all three of his assailants with skillful gunnery. Eventually limping into Outpost 12 at Zucharis. The adventure caused him to miss out on a good trade deal with fuel, apparently.
‘You should’ve see the smoke coming out of the last one I hit Joe. God I hope that b****** blew up.’ Piesecki beamed.
‘Phew! That sounds like quite a fight Bill.’ Hollister admitted.
Which it certainly would have been if it had in any way resembled the truth. Then added: ‘But you know you really are asking for it running fuel to Rapier. Check around and you’ll find out why; something to do with customs I understand. I know one thing, it’s not a healthy lifestyle choice. So Bill, I’m going to help you out with a hot tip. One that’ll make you a lot more than that fuel run, and with no danger whatsoever.’
Hollister cringed at the thought of giving away what genuinely was a great tip for making a fortune, but he couldn’t deny that he owed Piesecki a big fat favour. Damn, that was how he was going to have got Manzo his 24k back. Still, he mused, if it all went to plan later, he’d at least know that when Piesecki eventually found out the truth, he’d be in a forgiving mood.
‘Cartois to Fimeal IV. Take robots one way and synthetic meat back the other, and contract out other ships to freight more of it for you too. With Diwali coming up, there’ll be a ton of demand from all the veggies and robots go for a real premier price on Cartois. After that, take medical supplies, there are always a crapload of injuries from the dodgy fireworks at Diwali. Trust me, you’ll make a pile.’ Hollister advised, with a conspiratorial wink.
It was true, with that big Clipper, Piesecki would indeed make a fortune.
‘Really?’ Piesecki enquired, somewhat suspicious of his motives. ‘Why you telling me if it’s such a hot tip Joe? Why not make the run yourself?’
‘I did, last year. But this year no can do. I’m committed to another run for some time. And we’re buddies aren’t we? I’d rather see someone I know make that cash if I can’t make it myself. So here’s to you Bill.’ Hollister toasted, downing the appalling Optima in one and slamming the glass down on the bar, hoping it would crack.
‘Gotta go. Don’t make that fuel run again. It’s too risky.’
‘Oh come on Joe. Have another!’ Piesecki pleaded.
‘Sorry, gotta dash.’ Hollister said firmly, and raced out onto the promenade. Fetching out his phone and dialing Manzo, as he hurried along.
‘Manzo?’
‘Yeah Joe.’
‘I’ll be at yours in five minutes, be ready to come with me, we’ve gotta go see Pierpoint.’
‘We do?’ Manzo asked, somewhat puzzled.
‘Yeah. I need your talents buddy.’
PV-286 sat in the service bay at Manzos. Hollister was surprised to see her as he walked in from the promenade exit.
‘Damn buddy. You got her down here quick.’ Hollister said, with more than a little admiration at Manzo’s expediency.
‘No point in f****** around when we’ve got a plan.’
‘Well we’ve got another plan too now. Come on, or we’ll be late.’
As they hurried over to customs, Hollister explained everything to Manzo, and passed him the Lehman phone. Manzo tampered with it expertly to make it look like it was working okay; he assured Hollister that it would neither receive calls, nor make them, looking like it was temporarily glitching on getting a signal. Hollister thought carefully for a second, running the plan over in his mind to ensure he’d forgotten nothing. Satisfied all was in place, he offered one final thought: ‘You’re clear on all that buddy? If this goes **** up in any way, we’re dead, you know that, right?’
‘Clear as a bell Joe. Although I’m a bit rusty on dipping. I’ve given all that sh** up these days.’
‘Like riding a bike isn’t it?’ Hollister enquired, hopefully.
‘You’d better hope so. Or we’re f*****.’
‘You are now entering the live deck area, please ensure magnetic boots are active and use the handrails provided. Asegúrese de botas magnéticas...’
Just before they stepped into customs, it occurred to Hollister that Pierpoint might want him to go somewhere right that minute, which would screw up his plan beyond any quick-thinking saves. He turned to Manzo...
‘Pretend I’m arguing with you about fixing my ship.’ Hollister muttered.
‘What?’
‘Just go with it.’ He hissed through closed lips.
‘Okay, don’t forget you’re the ‘stop’, Joe.’ Manzo reminded him, as he readied the bogus phone.
They ambled into customs, Sue pretending she had no personal acquaintance with Hollister.
‘I’m here to see Pierpoint.’ Hollister announced.
‘Wait one moment, Sir.’ Sue announced, playing along with surprisingly convincing indifference.
‘Anyway Manzo, that’s too long. It’s only the thruster.’ Hollister said in an overly loud voice.
‘That may be so, but it’s going to take fou-’
‘Six.’ Hollister hissed under his breath, gently thumping Manzo.
‘I mean six. Six hours to fix it.’ Manzo quickly amended.
‘Six hours?’ Hollister exclaimed loudly.
‘Maybe even seven.’ Manzo exclaimed, picking up the ruse.
Pierpoint appeared in the doorway to his office.
‘What the f****** hell is going on out here? What do you think this is, a goddamn circus?’
‘Well, here I am, as requested.’ Hollister announced brightly.
‘Shall I make everyone some coffee?’ Sue announced, attempting a distraction.
‘No goddammit!’ Pierpoint yelled. ‘And what the hell are you doing here?’ He added, glaring at Manzo.
‘Oh Mister Pierpoint, Sir.’ Manzo began, in an overly grateful fashion. ‘I cannot thank you enough for returning my effects. They mean so much to me. My mother...’
‘Yes, yes. Alright. Now get out of here.’ Pierpoint said gruffly.
‘No no Sir. Allow me to shake the hand of a true gentleman.’ Manzo announced loudly, as he advanced toward Pierpoint.
Hollister could barely restrain himself from laughing at Manzo’s brilliant improvisation, but remembered his role as the ‘stop’ in the ruse and watched for the perfect moment to fire off the required distraction.
Manzo thrust out his hand to shake Pierpoint’s and reached over his shoulder to hug him, as he launched into a tearful thank you. This was the moment. Hollister caught Pierpoint’s attention and tapped the side of his skull and then spun his finger, in the time-honoured indication that Manzo was a lunatic. Manzo made to pat his heart in feigned admiration and quickly swapped the phones. Hollister barely even saw it happen and he was certain Pierpoint hadn’t. Manzo definitely still had the touch.
‘You are a saint sir, a saint. I thank you. My deceased mother thanks you...’ Manzo wailed, even producing some fake tears.
Pierpoint eventually managed to extricate himself from the preposterously over-friendly hug of Manzo and motioned him to the door, giving him a gentle shove, in the hope that it would expedite his leaving. As Manzo passed Sue and Hollister, he gave them a surreptitious wink and thumbs up. They could hear him as he disappeared down the corridor: ‘A saint I tell you, that man’s a saint!’
Shut up, Hollister thought to himself. He could barely stop himself from laughing. He knew Manzo was doing that on purpose, trying to make him corpse, the b*****d. Sue was having similar problems, but masked her smile by pretending to go back to working on her monitor. As she disappeared behind it, she was nearly in tears from having to suppress her laughter.
Hollister stepped into Pierpoint’s office.
‘Sorry about that, he was stalling on fixing my thruster and I know you need me to be ready. I think he’s been drinking. But, I’d trust that guy with my life. When we were in the 501st together, he was my armourer, and he’d load that sucker up faster than any other plumber on that squadron, even when he was p***** as a fart. So what’s the deal pops?’ Hollister enquired, remembering to sound annoyingly arrogant instead of compliant, which would indeed have seemed suspicious to Pierpoint.
‘Lucky for you - and him - that I don’t need you to take off until tomorrow then. Wouldn’t you say sonny?’ Pierpoint threatened.
‘Tomorrow?’
‘You heard me sonny. You’re gonna fly out to Beacon 285 and wait. A ship will meet you there and give you further instructions from me. That’s all you need to know right now. Be at Beacon 285 no later than 13:00 Galactic.’
‘Beacon 285, 13:00 Galactic. Tomorrow. Got it.’ Hollister confirmed.
Coming from Pierpoint, and knowing he’d already considered offing him, that sounded more like a set up than anything he’d ever heard in his life. Fortunately, if everything went to plan, there would be no way he’d be making that trip. In fact he’d be long gone with any luck and merrily dropping Pierpoint in it from a very great height.
‘Leave.’ Pierpoint said bluntly.
Oh you can bet I will, thought Hollister, as he walked out and gave Sue a wink.
Had to split it onto four posts because the final chapter is long. But here you go, the end of the story. Hope you all liked it and thanks for reading it.
8
Hollister clattered awkwardly after Manzo in his magnetic boots until he reached the end of the live deck, back where 0.8G was in operation. Manzo was propped casually against the wall, awaiting him. Hollister disengaged the power on his boots and glanced up.
‘You son of a , you were doing that on purpose!’ Hollister laughed.
‘What?’ Manzo grinned innocently. ‘Did I or did I not manage to switch the phones?’
‘Sure did. Apparently you’ve still got the touch. Frankly I would have preferred to switch them later; there’d be less risk of Pierpoint spotting it, but I figured that would be our only chance.’
‘Oh don’t worry. I set the glitch to be intermittent. His phone will conk out for half an hour, but come back on for half an hour, with that cycle repeating, so it will seem like a dodgy signal dropping in and out, or some temporary weirdness with his phone. That way if there are any settings different on the one we switched, he’ll put it down to that.’ Manzo assured Hollister.
‘You are a sneaky b*****d, you know that?’ Hollister responded.
‘It’s one of my best qualities.’ Manzo replied.
‘Okay buddy. Time for you to go back to work and for me to get ready to do the deed. I’ll see you at your maintenance hangar at 18:00.’ And with that Hollister trotted off to make the final preparations.
Back in his apartment, Hollister grabbed everything he thought might prove useful when the show began, and shoved it into various pockets in his flight suit. He was all done by 17:00 station time and so he ambled over to Manzo’s hangar at a leisurely pace. With nothing to do now until at least the time he knew Sue would be aboard PV-286, he was starting to get his familiar ‘pre-mission’ nerves.
At 17:30 station time, Sue finished work and hurried to her apartment. She was glad to be out of customs, having been nervous and twitchy all the afternoon, afraid that Pierpoint m catch on to something being amiss, but nothing had transpired. Like Hollister, she grabbed some essentials from her apartment and stowed them into the various pockets of her jumpsuit, also grabbing a bag and filling it with some food and clothing, since she didn’t really know what Hollister had in mind. Then she hurried over to Manzo’s repair hangar as arranged.
Manzo and Hollister were waiting for her in the companionway just outside the hangar. Hollister looked her up and down approvingly and gave her a quick peck on the cheek.
‘Wait here.’ Manzo advised, and he trotted inside the hangar.
Sue gave the pair a puzzled, slightly worried look.
‘He’s going to spike the security camera.’ Hollister informed her, smiling to let her know all was okay. ‘When he’s done that, we can go in without anyone observing us. Then I’ll go and grab Pierpoint’s case, while you and Manzo wait in the ship and when I get back, off we go to Callendar.’
‘I’m scared.’ Sue admitted.
‘Me too. You might criticise my driving.’ Hollister joked, hoping his levity would help Sue to relax. It did, a little, and she gave him a smile.
‘In you come guys.’ Manzo called.
The service conduit cover was already off and PV-286’s doors were open. Hollister pointed to the cargo doors.
‘In you go girl. Best get this done ASAP.’ Hollister announced.
‘Okay. Be careful Joe.’ Sue replied, kissing him as she reached for the entrance grab handle.
‘I love you, girl.’ Hollister called to her, as she clambered in.
Did I really just say that? Hollister thought. Then he realised, with a slight shock to himself, that he really meant it. Manzo passed him a star drive spanner, some feeler gauges, a spring-loaded centre punch and a small carry bag.
‘Don’t forget these. See you in a few minutes. Call me when you get back here and I’ll zap another test, to freak the cameras out. 286 is good to go.’ Manzo advised as he patted Hollister on the back. Then he bolted the hatch cover back on.
Clambering into PV-286, Manzo showed Sue around and pointed out the cockpit access tunnel which led from the cargo hold.
‘When he gets back, you climb through there and sit in the right seat and strap in. I’ll sit back here.’ Manzo instructed her.
‘Shouldn’t you be in the cockpit with Joe?’ She enquired.
Manzo wasn’t convinced they’d get away too easily, and he preferred the idea of Sue being strapped in tight in case they had to pull some fancy moves.
‘Nah. I’ll sit there on the ledge. You’ll be more comfortable in the seat.’ He assured her, trying not to convey the idea that it might not be as smooth a getaway as Hollister had led her to believe.
‘Besides.’ Manzo added. ‘Wouldn’t want to cramp you two lovebird’s style.’
‘Did you hear that? Joe said he loved me. Do you think he meant it?’ Sue asked, hopefully.
‘Well, let’s put it this way. When I first heard that he was going out to meet you, I told him I wanted all the juicy details.’ Manzo began. Sue looked shocked.
‘I know, I know. That was before I knew how nice you were. Anyway, you know what Hollis, I mean Joe, told me?’ Manzo offered.
Sue shrugged her shoulders.
‘Nothing. He told me nothing. Now I know Joe, and if you meant nothing to him, I’d have got a full blow-by-blow account. So yes, actually I do think he meant it.’ Manzo laughed. ‘Now you wait here. I have to pretend to be fixing this thing.’
Hollister clambered up to the hatch cover where Pierpoint’s secret stash was. Again he surveyed things quickly to ensure there were no traps, then removed the hatch cover and secured it under his foot. The case was still there, as was the twinkling laser of the CryBabee. Easing carefully around it, Hollister pulled out the spring-loaded centre punch. Placing it carefully on the CryBabee’s case, he pressed the trigger. The centre punch bolt sprang out, smashing neatly through the CryBabee’s casing and destroying the circuitry within. Pierpoint’s mobile phone, in Hollister’s flight suit shoulder pocket, gave one muted ring and then stopped as the CryBabee expired. Switching the phones had been a good idea, it seemed.
Hollister removed Pierpoint’s case carefully and popped the lid open ever so slightly, then inserted a feeler gauge into the gap and felt around the edges. He certainly wouldn’t have put it past Pierpoint to booby-trap the case. It was clear, so he opened it up. There was a tracker, rather poorly hidden in the case lid’s lining. He was sure there would be others hidden in there too.
‘That’s the one you want me to find, isn’t it, you f****r?’ Hollister muttered.
He removed all the case contents, transferring them to the carry bag. He still suspected there might be trackers on the contents, but he would let Manzo deal with that, so he returned the empty case to the hiding place and replaced the cover, then headed back to the hangar access hatch.
8
Hollister clattered awkwardly after Manzo in his magnetic boots until he reached the end of the live deck, back where 0.8G was in operation. Manzo was propped casually against the wall, awaiting him. Hollister disengaged the power on his boots and glanced up.
‘You son of a , you were doing that on purpose!’ Hollister laughed.
‘What?’ Manzo grinned innocently. ‘Did I or did I not manage to switch the phones?’
‘Sure did. Apparently you’ve still got the touch. Frankly I would have preferred to switch them later; there’d be less risk of Pierpoint spotting it, but I figured that would be our only chance.’
‘Oh don’t worry. I set the glitch to be intermittent. His phone will conk out for half an hour, but come back on for half an hour, with that cycle repeating, so it will seem like a dodgy signal dropping in and out, or some temporary weirdness with his phone. That way if there are any settings different on the one we switched, he’ll put it down to that.’ Manzo assured Hollister.
‘You are a sneaky b*****d, you know that?’ Hollister responded.
‘It’s one of my best qualities.’ Manzo replied.
‘Okay buddy. Time for you to go back to work and for me to get ready to do the deed. I’ll see you at your maintenance hangar at 18:00.’ And with that Hollister trotted off to make the final preparations.
Back in his apartment, Hollister grabbed everything he thought might prove useful when the show began, and shoved it into various pockets in his flight suit. He was all done by 17:00 station time and so he ambled over to Manzo’s hangar at a leisurely pace. With nothing to do now until at least the time he knew Sue would be aboard PV-286, he was starting to get his familiar ‘pre-mission’ nerves.
At 17:30 station time, Sue finished work and hurried to her apartment. She was glad to be out of customs, having been nervous and twitchy all the afternoon, afraid that Pierpoint m catch on to something being amiss, but nothing had transpired. Like Hollister, she grabbed some essentials from her apartment and stowed them into the various pockets of her jumpsuit, also grabbing a bag and filling it with some food and clothing, since she didn’t really know what Hollister had in mind. Then she hurried over to Manzo’s repair hangar as arranged.
Manzo and Hollister were waiting for her in the companionway just outside the hangar. Hollister looked her up and down approvingly and gave her a quick peck on the cheek.
‘Wait here.’ Manzo advised, and he trotted inside the hangar.
Sue gave the pair a puzzled, slightly worried look.
‘He’s going to spike the security camera.’ Hollister informed her, smiling to let her know all was okay. ‘When he’s done that, we can go in without anyone observing us. Then I’ll go and grab Pierpoint’s case, while you and Manzo wait in the ship and when I get back, off we go to Callendar.’
‘I’m scared.’ Sue admitted.
‘Me too. You might criticise my driving.’ Hollister joked, hoping his levity would help Sue to relax. It did, a little, and she gave him a smile.
‘In you come guys.’ Manzo called.
The service conduit cover was already off and PV-286’s doors were open. Hollister pointed to the cargo doors.
‘In you go girl. Best get this done ASAP.’ Hollister announced.
‘Okay. Be careful Joe.’ Sue replied, kissing him as she reached for the entrance grab handle.
‘I love you, girl.’ Hollister called to her, as she clambered in.
Did I really just say that? Hollister thought. Then he realised, with a slight shock to himself, that he really meant it. Manzo passed him a star drive spanner, some feeler gauges, a spring-loaded centre punch and a small carry bag.
‘Don’t forget these. See you in a few minutes. Call me when you get back here and I’ll zap another test, to freak the cameras out. 286 is good to go.’ Manzo advised as he patted Hollister on the back. Then he bolted the hatch cover back on.
Clambering into PV-286, Manzo showed Sue around and pointed out the cockpit access tunnel which led from the cargo hold.
‘When he gets back, you climb through there and sit in the right seat and strap in. I’ll sit back here.’ Manzo instructed her.
‘Shouldn’t you be in the cockpit with Joe?’ She enquired.
Manzo wasn’t convinced they’d get away too easily, and he preferred the idea of Sue being strapped in tight in case they had to pull some fancy moves.
‘Nah. I’ll sit there on the ledge. You’ll be more comfortable in the seat.’ He assured her, trying not to convey the idea that it might not be as smooth a getaway as Hollister had led her to believe.
‘Besides.’ Manzo added. ‘Wouldn’t want to cramp you two lovebird’s style.’
‘Did you hear that? Joe said he loved me. Do you think he meant it?’ Sue asked, hopefully.
‘Well, let’s put it this way. When I first heard that he was going out to meet you, I told him I wanted all the juicy details.’ Manzo began. Sue looked shocked.
‘I know, I know. That was before I knew how nice you were. Anyway, you know what Hollis, I mean Joe, told me?’ Manzo offered.
Sue shrugged her shoulders.
‘Nothing. He told me nothing. Now I know Joe, and if you meant nothing to him, I’d have got a full blow-by-blow account. So yes, actually I do think he meant it.’ Manzo laughed. ‘Now you wait here. I have to pretend to be fixing this thing.’
Hollister clambered up to the hatch cover where Pierpoint’s secret stash was. Again he surveyed things quickly to ensure there were no traps, then removed the hatch cover and secured it under his foot. The case was still there, as was the twinkling laser of the CryBabee. Easing carefully around it, Hollister pulled out the spring-loaded centre punch. Placing it carefully on the CryBabee’s case, he pressed the trigger. The centre punch bolt sprang out, smashing neatly through the CryBabee’s casing and destroying the circuitry within. Pierpoint’s mobile phone, in Hollister’s flight suit shoulder pocket, gave one muted ring and then stopped as the CryBabee expired. Switching the phones had been a good idea, it seemed.
Hollister removed Pierpoint’s case carefully and popped the lid open ever so slightly, then inserted a feeler gauge into the gap and felt around the edges. He certainly wouldn’t have put it past Pierpoint to booby-trap the case. It was clear, so he opened it up. There was a tracker, rather poorly hidden in the case lid’s lining. He was sure there would be others hidden in there too.
‘That’s the one you want me to find, isn’t it, you f****r?’ Hollister muttered.
He removed all the case contents, transferring them to the carry bag. He still suspected there might be trackers on the contents, but he would let Manzo deal with that, so he returned the empty case to the hiding place and replaced the cover, then headed back to the hangar access hatch.
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Pierpoint wandered lazily out of the bar that he’d stopped by on the way back to his apartment and headed home. It was a short walk. As he entered the apartment, he noted the phone message recorder was blinking, and so he idly flipped the info switch, as he poured himself a drink, and listened to the phone messages.
‘You have two messages. Message one: Pierpoint? Listen, it’s all in place, that little **** won’t know what’s hit him when he gets to 285. I’ll see you around. Ha ha. Message ends. Message two: Security call from Ballantyne Systems laser alerter, time 19:03 station. Message ends. No further messages.’
Pierpoint dropped his drink and felt for the phone in his breast pocket. He dragged it out and looked at it. The familiar scratch on the casing wasn’t there and it was displaying a ‘no signal’ message.
‘That little f***.’ Hollister yelled, hurling the mobile at the wall.
He snatched up the apartment phone and dialed the Rapier Station Centre.
‘This is Ray Pierpoint from customs. Put me through to the docking control.’ He demanded. It was only matter of seconds before the call was connected, but he tapped the desk impatiently until he heard them answer.
‘Docking control. Chief Callum here. What can I do you for?’ The Dock operator said chirpily.
‘Have any ships left in the last ten minutes?’
‘Who’s asking?’ The Chief replied, lazily.
‘Listen you little f*****, this is Pierpoint, head of customs. Answer the f****** question!’
‘Nope. There’s nothing gone in the past forty minutes.’ The Chief replied shakily.
‘Keep it that way. Nothing leaves, you got that? I’m on the way up there with a security detail.’ Pierpoint advised, disconnecting the call.
Quickly redialing, he ordered a security detail to meet him on the observation deck above the departure hangar doors, then hurried out of his apartment.
Hollister clambered through the hatch into the maintenance hangar. Manzo began to replace the cover.
‘Leave it. Let’s rock buddy.’ Hollister advised as he tossed the carry bag to Manzo. ‘Check that for trackers and sh**. Get Sue to help you, she’s good at that stuff.’
Manzo dropped the cover and bounded into the cargo hold of PV-286, followed by Hollister, who jumped through the access tunnel into the cockpit.
‘Close her up Manzo. We’re out of here.’ Hollister yelled as he strapped in.
‘What’s the rush?’ Manzo yelled back as he hauled the cargo doors shut.
‘I don’t trust that Pierpoint. It was too easy. The sooner we’re off this place, the better I’ll like it.’ Hollister yelled as he prepped PV-286. ‘Stick us on the live deck elevator Manzo.’
Manzo thumbed the remote and the hangar platform rumbled into life, taking PV-286 onto the elevator to the docking hangar. PV-286’s engines whined into life and Hollister flipped on the navigation lights as she jolted to a stop on the elevator floor. Manzo released the mechanism and they felt the magnetic clamps on the landing gear secure the ship to the deck for the elevator ride up to the docking hangar.
‘PV-286 to docking control.’ Hollister said, trying to sound bored.
‘This is docking control, go ahead 286.’
‘Requesting clearance for straight out departure. Test flight.’
‘Negative 286. No launches permitted at this time. Stand by.’
‘286 to docking control. What do you mean no launches permitted? What’s the scoop?’
‘Docking control to 286. Customs request. No launches, that’s all we know at this time.’
The elevator shuddered to a halt. The docking hangar sat tantalizingly in front of PV-286, but the doors to space remained firmly closed.
‘Oh sh**. I think we’ve been rumbled guys. Better strap in back there.’ Hollister yelled back to the cargo hold.
With no time to show Sue how best to clamber through the cockpit access tunnel, Manzo instead shoved Sue into the rearward-facing acceleration couch on the front bulkhead of the cargo bay and then threw himself down beside her, helping her with the straps.
‘What’s up?' Manzo yelled.
‘Security have locked the station down. No launches permitted.’ Hollister shouted.
‘Great. Now what do we do?’ Manzo yelled back.
‘We use my special clearance. Don’t worry, just strap in guys. Manzo, help Sue fasten her harness.’
‘All done!’ Manzo yelled.
Hollister lifted PV-286 off the elevator platform a couple of feet and then thrusted her forward into the docking hangar. Then he kicked on right rudder and swung her nose around to point at the launch control booth up in the top corner of the hangar. Slowly, he brought her up level with the booth.
‘PV-286 to docking control. Open the doors.’ Hollister radioed as he flipped the master arm switch. The chain guns swung up onto the nose and four missiles dropped down onto their launch pylons as the laser designator beam twinkled on the glass of the docking control booth.
‘Are you f****** crazy Joe. Shut her down. You can’t fire that sh** in here. You’ll blow yourself up too.’ Chief Callum advised him.
‘Listen Callum. There’s a bunch of people on their way up here to kill us. So we’ve got nothing to lose, but I assume you want to see your wife again. So open the doors, or I will fire, you can trust me on that one.’ Hollister said calmly.
‘Let’s get the hell out of here.’ Callum’s assistant stammered. Hollister heard it come over the radio.
‘You make one move to leave that booth and it’ll be the last thing you ever do guys. I’ll give you twenty seconds to open the doors, and my watch is busted. 20... 19... 15... 8...3...2...’
‘Alright, alright you crazy b*****d.’ Callum yelled as he thumbed the hangar door switch.
The space doors began to slide open.
‘I knew you’d see it my way guys. Now if I were you. I’d get the hell out of that control booth. PV-286 out.’ Hollister responded.
Two silhouettes raced out of the docking control booth. Hollister gave them ten seconds to make it down the shaft, then he opened fire on the booth with a short burst from the chain guns, destroying the door control switches. Swinging the nose of PV-286 around, he steadied the gunsight pipper on the elevator motors and destroyed those too. No other ships would be able to leave Rapier Station until they repaired the elevator motors.
‘What the hell are you shooting at?’ Manzo yelled.
Sliding the thrust rearwards, PV-286 eased backwards out of the docking hangar, Hollister retracting the weapons as she went. Above the hangar doors, the observation deck was crowded with faces pressed up against the plexiglass. Hollister fancied one of them might be Pierpoint and so he extended the landing lights. Sliding his thumb over to the joystick signaling switch, he dashed out a quick message with the nose light of PV-286:
••- •--• -•-- --- ••- •-• ••• •--• •• ••• ••• •--• --- -
Sue appeared in the hatchway and clambered into the right seat. Manzo was just behind her and sat on the access tunnel ledge.
‘What are you doing?’ Manzo enquired.
‘Oh just sending a little private message to our friend.’ Hollister laughed.
On the observation deck, a number of pilots were collapsing in fits of laughter as they read the signal from PV-286. Pierpoint grabbed the security detail’s Commander.
‘What the hell are they all laughing at. What did that signal say?’ Pierpoint demanded.
The security Commander suppressed a grin.
‘I don’t think you really want to know that sir.’ He managed, before breaking into a barely suppressed laugh.
Pierpoint pushed the Commander away and reached into his pocket. Fishing out a remote device. He glanced out at PV-286, she was turning away from the station.
‘I’ll wipe that smile off your face sonny.’ Pierpoint muttered as he pressed the remote button.
Two decks below him, Pierpoint’s empty case erupted in a thermite explosion, the blast took out part of the rear wall of the customs hangar and flames began to spread toward Pierpoint’s private hydrogen fuel supply. Pierpoint saw PV-286 continuing its lazy turn as he heard the muffled explosion coming from the direction of the customs hangar.
Before Pierpoint had time to explode into a rage himself, Chief Callum appeared alongside and informed him that, although the actual damage to the docking hangar was fairly minimal, they would be unable to launch any craft for at least two hours, whilst they repaired things.
‘You have two messages. Message one: Pierpoint? Listen, it’s all in place, that little **** won’t know what’s hit him when he gets to 285. I’ll see you around. Ha ha. Message ends. Message two: Security call from Ballantyne Systems laser alerter, time 19:03 station. Message ends. No further messages.’
Pierpoint dropped his drink and felt for the phone in his breast pocket. He dragged it out and looked at it. The familiar scratch on the casing wasn’t there and it was displaying a ‘no signal’ message.
‘That little f***.’ Hollister yelled, hurling the mobile at the wall.
He snatched up the apartment phone and dialed the Rapier Station Centre.
‘This is Ray Pierpoint from customs. Put me through to the docking control.’ He demanded. It was only matter of seconds before the call was connected, but he tapped the desk impatiently until he heard them answer.
‘Docking control. Chief Callum here. What can I do you for?’ The Dock operator said chirpily.
‘Have any ships left in the last ten minutes?’
‘Who’s asking?’ The Chief replied, lazily.
‘Listen you little f*****, this is Pierpoint, head of customs. Answer the f****** question!’
‘Nope. There’s nothing gone in the past forty minutes.’ The Chief replied shakily.
‘Keep it that way. Nothing leaves, you got that? I’m on the way up there with a security detail.’ Pierpoint advised, disconnecting the call.
Quickly redialing, he ordered a security detail to meet him on the observation deck above the departure hangar doors, then hurried out of his apartment.
Hollister clambered through the hatch into the maintenance hangar. Manzo began to replace the cover.
‘Leave it. Let’s rock buddy.’ Hollister advised as he tossed the carry bag to Manzo. ‘Check that for trackers and sh**. Get Sue to help you, she’s good at that stuff.’
Manzo dropped the cover and bounded into the cargo hold of PV-286, followed by Hollister, who jumped through the access tunnel into the cockpit.
‘Close her up Manzo. We’re out of here.’ Hollister yelled as he strapped in.
‘What’s the rush?’ Manzo yelled back as he hauled the cargo doors shut.
‘I don’t trust that Pierpoint. It was too easy. The sooner we’re off this place, the better I’ll like it.’ Hollister yelled as he prepped PV-286. ‘Stick us on the live deck elevator Manzo.’
Manzo thumbed the remote and the hangar platform rumbled into life, taking PV-286 onto the elevator to the docking hangar. PV-286’s engines whined into life and Hollister flipped on the navigation lights as she jolted to a stop on the elevator floor. Manzo released the mechanism and they felt the magnetic clamps on the landing gear secure the ship to the deck for the elevator ride up to the docking hangar.
‘PV-286 to docking control.’ Hollister said, trying to sound bored.
‘This is docking control, go ahead 286.’
‘Requesting clearance for straight out departure. Test flight.’
‘Negative 286. No launches permitted at this time. Stand by.’
‘286 to docking control. What do you mean no launches permitted? What’s the scoop?’
‘Docking control to 286. Customs request. No launches, that’s all we know at this time.’
The elevator shuddered to a halt. The docking hangar sat tantalizingly in front of PV-286, but the doors to space remained firmly closed.
‘Oh sh**. I think we’ve been rumbled guys. Better strap in back there.’ Hollister yelled back to the cargo hold.
With no time to show Sue how best to clamber through the cockpit access tunnel, Manzo instead shoved Sue into the rearward-facing acceleration couch on the front bulkhead of the cargo bay and then threw himself down beside her, helping her with the straps.
‘What’s up?' Manzo yelled.
‘Security have locked the station down. No launches permitted.’ Hollister shouted.
‘Great. Now what do we do?’ Manzo yelled back.
‘We use my special clearance. Don’t worry, just strap in guys. Manzo, help Sue fasten her harness.’
‘All done!’ Manzo yelled.
Hollister lifted PV-286 off the elevator platform a couple of feet and then thrusted her forward into the docking hangar. Then he kicked on right rudder and swung her nose around to point at the launch control booth up in the top corner of the hangar. Slowly, he brought her up level with the booth.
‘PV-286 to docking control. Open the doors.’ Hollister radioed as he flipped the master arm switch. The chain guns swung up onto the nose and four missiles dropped down onto their launch pylons as the laser designator beam twinkled on the glass of the docking control booth.
‘Are you f****** crazy Joe. Shut her down. You can’t fire that sh** in here. You’ll blow yourself up too.’ Chief Callum advised him.
‘Listen Callum. There’s a bunch of people on their way up here to kill us. So we’ve got nothing to lose, but I assume you want to see your wife again. So open the doors, or I will fire, you can trust me on that one.’ Hollister said calmly.
‘Let’s get the hell out of here.’ Callum’s assistant stammered. Hollister heard it come over the radio.
‘You make one move to leave that booth and it’ll be the last thing you ever do guys. I’ll give you twenty seconds to open the doors, and my watch is busted. 20... 19... 15... 8...3...2...’
‘Alright, alright you crazy b*****d.’ Callum yelled as he thumbed the hangar door switch.
The space doors began to slide open.
‘I knew you’d see it my way guys. Now if I were you. I’d get the hell out of that control booth. PV-286 out.’ Hollister responded.
Two silhouettes raced out of the docking control booth. Hollister gave them ten seconds to make it down the shaft, then he opened fire on the booth with a short burst from the chain guns, destroying the door control switches. Swinging the nose of PV-286 around, he steadied the gunsight pipper on the elevator motors and destroyed those too. No other ships would be able to leave Rapier Station until they repaired the elevator motors.
‘What the hell are you shooting at?’ Manzo yelled.
Sliding the thrust rearwards, PV-286 eased backwards out of the docking hangar, Hollister retracting the weapons as she went. Above the hangar doors, the observation deck was crowded with faces pressed up against the plexiglass. Hollister fancied one of them might be Pierpoint and so he extended the landing lights. Sliding his thumb over to the joystick signaling switch, he dashed out a quick message with the nose light of PV-286:
••- •--• -•-- --- ••- •-• ••• •--• •• ••• ••• •--• --- -
Sue appeared in the hatchway and clambered into the right seat. Manzo was just behind her and sat on the access tunnel ledge.
‘What are you doing?’ Manzo enquired.
‘Oh just sending a little private message to our friend.’ Hollister laughed.
On the observation deck, a number of pilots were collapsing in fits of laughter as they read the signal from PV-286. Pierpoint grabbed the security detail’s Commander.
‘What the hell are they all laughing at. What did that signal say?’ Pierpoint demanded.
The security Commander suppressed a grin.
‘I don’t think you really want to know that sir.’ He managed, before breaking into a barely suppressed laugh.
Pierpoint pushed the Commander away and reached into his pocket. Fishing out a remote device. He glanced out at PV-286, she was turning away from the station.
‘I’ll wipe that smile off your face sonny.’ Pierpoint muttered as he pressed the remote button.
Two decks below him, Pierpoint’s empty case erupted in a thermite explosion, the blast took out part of the rear wall of the customs hangar and flames began to spread toward Pierpoint’s private hydrogen fuel supply. Pierpoint saw PV-286 continuing its lazy turn as he heard the muffled explosion coming from the direction of the customs hangar.
Before Pierpoint had time to explode into a rage himself, Chief Callum appeared alongside and informed him that, although the actual damage to the docking hangar was fairly minimal, they would be unable to launch any craft for at least two hours, whilst they repaired things.
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‘Commander!’ Pierpoint yelled as he pointed at the dwindling shape of PV-286. ‘What’s the nearest security patrol craft with a jump range longer than that thing?’
The security detail Commander had managed to control his laughter and trotted over to Pierpoint: ‘A Mark 3 is it? That’d probably be the Sigma Unit out at Lambda Sector. They’ve got Mark 9s. Two of ‘em. Want me to order them to pursue him Sir?’
‘No need. I know where that son of a is going. Tell them to stop their patrol immediately and head for the jump in point at Bradbury Station. And when they get there, tell them to destroy that ship - PV-286 - on sight. He’ll be there shortly.’ Pierpoint said calmly.
‘Destroy it Sir? Shouldn’t they try to apprehend him?’ The Commander enquired.
‘I said destroy him, and I meant it Commander.’ Pierpoint said, with an icy glare which left no doubt about his intent.
‘As you wish Sir. I’ll do it right away.’ The Commander replied as he grabbed his communicator.
Down in the customs hangar, Rapier Station’s fire crews had the blaze under control, although at least half of Pierpoint’s fuel stash had been destroyed before the halon had managed to smother the blaze.
‘Christ, we actually made it.’ Manzo gasped, as PV-286 sped out to the jump point clear of Rapier Station.
‘Don’t count your chickens yet buddy. When we land at Bradbury and hand over that stuff to Callendar. That’s when we’ll know we’ve made it. Is there anything nasty in amongst it by the way?’ Hollister asked.
‘If you mean booby traps or tracking devices, the answer is no.’ Sue replied. ‘But if you mean evidence, then yes there certainly is. This is easily enough to finish Pierpoint for good. They’ll throw away the key when they see this lot. I just hope they won’t do the same to us.’
‘Ah we’ll be alright. If it’s so bad, they’ll be happy we’ve uncovered it and forgive us for how we had to get the stuff. We’ll do a deal, you’ll see. Is there anything juicy in digital format that we can transmit to them now?' Hollister asked.
‘Oh yes. But I’d have to add the code key up the top to ensure they could read it.’ Sue advised him.
‘Can you do that now? There’s a card interface on your right on the cockpit wall just there.’
‘Okay. Will do. Are we really still in any danger Joe?’ Sue asked with a hopeful look.
‘Nothing we can’t handle girl. Don’t you worry.’ Hollister replied, although he wasn’t quite as convinced of that as he had made it sound.
PV-286 made the two initial jumps without a hitch, and the trio were beginning to think it was all going to go smoothly, until they dropped out of the third jump. Hollister quickly oriented the ship to pass close to Bradbury Station, which lay 38,000 kilometres away, in a geostationary orbit above Elsinore IV, a fairly sparsely-populated world with evidence of one or two long-gone ancient civilisations dotted around its continents. It was then he also saw the two spikes on the scanner, and he didn’t need to be a psychic to know their intentions. Locking onto one of them, he read the ID: CYT-1220 Federal Revenue Security Mark 9 Scout.
‘Oh... Sh**...’ He said slowly.
Manzo craned his neck upwards and looked at the scanner readout.
‘You’ve got to be kidding me. How the hell did Pierpoint know where we were going?’ Manzo quizzed.
‘Well, Callendar’s the nearest cop who isn’t bent it would seem. It’d be my first guess in his shoes, although this is well outside his jurisdiction.’ Sue replied.
‘And when were you planning on revealing that bit of wisdom to us?’ Manzo enquired.
‘Whoa there buddy.’ Hollister interrupted. ‘It’s not Sue’s fault. I kind of figured this might happen too. I just wasn’t figuring on it being two of those mean mothers. I’m not sure we can outrun them. But we’ll have to try, they’re right in line with the station.’
‘There is one way we can outrun them.’ Manzo offered.
Hollister and Sue both looked around slowly. ‘There is?’ They said in unison.
‘But you’re not going to like it.’ Manzo added.
‘If it gets us past those guys and into transmission range for that data I will. All we need to do is send Callendar some juicy bits of evidence and he’ll send the cavalry. I hope.’ Hollister said. Sue nodded in agreement.
Manzo shrugged: ‘Okay.’ He muttered and pulled off the rear bulkhead fuse panel.
‘Wait! What are you doing?’ Hollister asked with a worried look.
‘Do you want to go faster, or not?’ Manzo said.
‘Yes. Faster would be good.’ Hollister confirmed.
‘Well then you shut up and do that pilot thing and let me do that engineer thing, okay?’
Hollister nodded and wound up the throttle, heading straight for the two Revenue scouts and the station beyond them. He was piloting PV-286 manually, but loosely following the station guidance cues.
‘System failure.’ The audio cockpit warning announced.
‘What was that?’ Hollister shouted.
‘Nothing. Just keep going.’ Manzo answered, as he continued fiddling with the circuit breakers.
Hollister noticed the speed creeping up well past PV-286’s normal redline speed capability.
‘System failure.’ The cockpit audio warning announced again.
‘Ignore it.’ Manzo shouted. ‘That’s me.’
PV-286’s speed was now very much faster than any Mark 9 Scout could achieve, and still rising.
‘System failure.’ The audio announced again as the speed shot up further.
‘How the hell are you doing that Manzo? And why have you never told me you could do that before. This is great!’ Hollister yelled, gleefully.
‘I’m cutting out essential circuits that normally drain power from the engines. And the reason I’ve never told you I could do that is because, A, it’s illegal to do it, and B, it’s not always a great idea either.’ Manzo offered.
‘Wait. What do you mean: Essential? You said essential.’ Hollister replied with a worried tone.
The Revenue scout ships were almost in firing range.
‘Well there’s essential and then there’s essential. Nothing's going to fall off if that’s what you mean. But you might be lacking a few useful features.’ Manzo said sheepishly.
Hollister flipped the switch to transfer shields to the front array. Nothing happened.
‘We’ve got no shields!’ He yelled with dismay.
‘You see what I mean?’ Manzo said brightly.
‘Manzo, we’ve got no f****** shields!’
‘Don’t worry about it. Just do very gentle evasive course changes. Their tracking computers are calibrated to add the correct amount of targeting lead based on our ship ID, and that includes a calculation based on our maximum speed. So their lead reticules will be miles off.’ Manzo smiled.
‘You sneaky ******* Manzo. Did I ever tell you I loved you?’ Hollister beamed.
‘I thought you said you loved Sue?’ Manzo laughed.
‘I do.’ Hollister smiled.
Energy beams began to slash past the cockpit, well wide of PV-286.
‘Fast enough for you?’ Manzo enquired.
‘Oh yes.. And I thought you said I wouldn’t like it!’ Hollister confirmed as he lazily shifted track to throw off the targeting computers on the Revenue scouts.
‘Is that thing ready to send?’ Hollister asked.
‘Yup.’ Sue confirmed.
‘PV-286 to Bradbury Approach. Stand by for data burst transmission.’ Hollister radioed. He indicated to Sue to press the Commit button, which she did.
‘Bradbury Approach to PV-286. Confirm full identification and intent.’ Came the reply.
‘We’ve got evidence of severe corruption at the Revenue Department on Rapier Station, It’s in that data burst we just sent, and there is plenty more where that came from. Please forward that data to Marshall Callendar urgently, and inform him that we are inbound, being pursued by crooked Revenue ships and we require assistance.’
‘Wilco PV-286. Stand By.’
‘Make it quick Bradbury. It’s getting a bit toasty out here!’ Hollister added, as a blast from one of the scouts landed on the port engine intake.
As PV-286 shot between the Revenue scouts in their combat spread formation, Hollister triggered the smoke oil display in the hope it would add to their targeting difficulties. The scout pilots stared in disbelief at the speed their quarry was achieving, but they swung about to commence a tail chase, firing continuously as they did so.
Hollister’s radio crackled into life.
‘CYT-1220 Federal Revenue Security Scout Lead, from Bradbury Station, you are ordered to abandon your pursuit of PV-286 immediately and cease fire. We are launching fighters to escort you into this station.’
Cheers erupted in the cockpit of PV-286, but the incoming fire continued.
The security detail Commander had managed to control his laughter and trotted over to Pierpoint: ‘A Mark 3 is it? That’d probably be the Sigma Unit out at Lambda Sector. They’ve got Mark 9s. Two of ‘em. Want me to order them to pursue him Sir?’
‘No need. I know where that son of a is going. Tell them to stop their patrol immediately and head for the jump in point at Bradbury Station. And when they get there, tell them to destroy that ship - PV-286 - on sight. He’ll be there shortly.’ Pierpoint said calmly.
‘Destroy it Sir? Shouldn’t they try to apprehend him?’ The Commander enquired.
‘I said destroy him, and I meant it Commander.’ Pierpoint said, with an icy glare which left no doubt about his intent.
‘As you wish Sir. I’ll do it right away.’ The Commander replied as he grabbed his communicator.
Down in the customs hangar, Rapier Station’s fire crews had the blaze under control, although at least half of Pierpoint’s fuel stash had been destroyed before the halon had managed to smother the blaze.
‘Christ, we actually made it.’ Manzo gasped, as PV-286 sped out to the jump point clear of Rapier Station.
‘Don’t count your chickens yet buddy. When we land at Bradbury and hand over that stuff to Callendar. That’s when we’ll know we’ve made it. Is there anything nasty in amongst it by the way?’ Hollister asked.
‘If you mean booby traps or tracking devices, the answer is no.’ Sue replied. ‘But if you mean evidence, then yes there certainly is. This is easily enough to finish Pierpoint for good. They’ll throw away the key when they see this lot. I just hope they won’t do the same to us.’
‘Ah we’ll be alright. If it’s so bad, they’ll be happy we’ve uncovered it and forgive us for how we had to get the stuff. We’ll do a deal, you’ll see. Is there anything juicy in digital format that we can transmit to them now?' Hollister asked.
‘Oh yes. But I’d have to add the code key up the top to ensure they could read it.’ Sue advised him.
‘Can you do that now? There’s a card interface on your right on the cockpit wall just there.’
‘Okay. Will do. Are we really still in any danger Joe?’ Sue asked with a hopeful look.
‘Nothing we can’t handle girl. Don’t you worry.’ Hollister replied, although he wasn’t quite as convinced of that as he had made it sound.
PV-286 made the two initial jumps without a hitch, and the trio were beginning to think it was all going to go smoothly, until they dropped out of the third jump. Hollister quickly oriented the ship to pass close to Bradbury Station, which lay 38,000 kilometres away, in a geostationary orbit above Elsinore IV, a fairly sparsely-populated world with evidence of one or two long-gone ancient civilisations dotted around its continents. It was then he also saw the two spikes on the scanner, and he didn’t need to be a psychic to know their intentions. Locking onto one of them, he read the ID: CYT-1220 Federal Revenue Security Mark 9 Scout.
‘Oh... Sh**...’ He said slowly.
Manzo craned his neck upwards and looked at the scanner readout.
‘You’ve got to be kidding me. How the hell did Pierpoint know where we were going?’ Manzo quizzed.
‘Well, Callendar’s the nearest cop who isn’t bent it would seem. It’d be my first guess in his shoes, although this is well outside his jurisdiction.’ Sue replied.
‘And when were you planning on revealing that bit of wisdom to us?’ Manzo enquired.
‘Whoa there buddy.’ Hollister interrupted. ‘It’s not Sue’s fault. I kind of figured this might happen too. I just wasn’t figuring on it being two of those mean mothers. I’m not sure we can outrun them. But we’ll have to try, they’re right in line with the station.’
‘There is one way we can outrun them.’ Manzo offered.
Hollister and Sue both looked around slowly. ‘There is?’ They said in unison.
‘But you’re not going to like it.’ Manzo added.
‘If it gets us past those guys and into transmission range for that data I will. All we need to do is send Callendar some juicy bits of evidence and he’ll send the cavalry. I hope.’ Hollister said. Sue nodded in agreement.
Manzo shrugged: ‘Okay.’ He muttered and pulled off the rear bulkhead fuse panel.
‘Wait! What are you doing?’ Hollister asked with a worried look.
‘Do you want to go faster, or not?’ Manzo said.
‘Yes. Faster would be good.’ Hollister confirmed.
‘Well then you shut up and do that pilot thing and let me do that engineer thing, okay?’
Hollister nodded and wound up the throttle, heading straight for the two Revenue scouts and the station beyond them. He was piloting PV-286 manually, but loosely following the station guidance cues.
‘System failure.’ The audio cockpit warning announced.
‘What was that?’ Hollister shouted.
‘Nothing. Just keep going.’ Manzo answered, as he continued fiddling with the circuit breakers.
Hollister noticed the speed creeping up well past PV-286’s normal redline speed capability.
‘System failure.’ The cockpit audio warning announced again.
‘Ignore it.’ Manzo shouted. ‘That’s me.’
PV-286’s speed was now very much faster than any Mark 9 Scout could achieve, and still rising.
‘System failure.’ The audio announced again as the speed shot up further.
‘How the hell are you doing that Manzo? And why have you never told me you could do that before. This is great!’ Hollister yelled, gleefully.
‘I’m cutting out essential circuits that normally drain power from the engines. And the reason I’ve never told you I could do that is because, A, it’s illegal to do it, and B, it’s not always a great idea either.’ Manzo offered.
‘Wait. What do you mean: Essential? You said essential.’ Hollister replied with a worried tone.
The Revenue scout ships were almost in firing range.
‘Well there’s essential and then there’s essential. Nothing's going to fall off if that’s what you mean. But you might be lacking a few useful features.’ Manzo said sheepishly.
Hollister flipped the switch to transfer shields to the front array. Nothing happened.
‘We’ve got no shields!’ He yelled with dismay.
‘You see what I mean?’ Manzo said brightly.
‘Manzo, we’ve got no f****** shields!’
‘Don’t worry about it. Just do very gentle evasive course changes. Their tracking computers are calibrated to add the correct amount of targeting lead based on our ship ID, and that includes a calculation based on our maximum speed. So their lead reticules will be miles off.’ Manzo smiled.
‘You sneaky ******* Manzo. Did I ever tell you I loved you?’ Hollister beamed.
‘I thought you said you loved Sue?’ Manzo laughed.
‘I do.’ Hollister smiled.
Energy beams began to slash past the cockpit, well wide of PV-286.
‘Fast enough for you?’ Manzo enquired.
‘Oh yes.. And I thought you said I wouldn’t like it!’ Hollister confirmed as he lazily shifted track to throw off the targeting computers on the Revenue scouts.
‘Is that thing ready to send?’ Hollister asked.
‘Yup.’ Sue confirmed.
‘PV-286 to Bradbury Approach. Stand by for data burst transmission.’ Hollister radioed. He indicated to Sue to press the Commit button, which she did.
‘Bradbury Approach to PV-286. Confirm full identification and intent.’ Came the reply.
‘We’ve got evidence of severe corruption at the Revenue Department on Rapier Station, It’s in that data burst we just sent, and there is plenty more where that came from. Please forward that data to Marshall Callendar urgently, and inform him that we are inbound, being pursued by crooked Revenue ships and we require assistance.’
‘Wilco PV-286. Stand By.’
‘Make it quick Bradbury. It’s getting a bit toasty out here!’ Hollister added, as a blast from one of the scouts landed on the port engine intake.
As PV-286 shot between the Revenue scouts in their combat spread formation, Hollister triggered the smoke oil display in the hope it would add to their targeting difficulties. The scout pilots stared in disbelief at the speed their quarry was achieving, but they swung about to commence a tail chase, firing continuously as they did so.
Hollister’s radio crackled into life.
‘CYT-1220 Federal Revenue Security Scout Lead, from Bradbury Station, you are ordered to abandon your pursuit of PV-286 immediately and cease fire. We are launching fighters to escort you into this station.’
Cheers erupted in the cockpit of PV-286, but the incoming fire continued.
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‘This is CYT-1220 Federal Revenue Security Scout Lead to Bradbury Station, by what authority are you ordering us to abandon our mission?’
‘CYT-1220 Federal Revenue Security Scout Lead, this is Regional Marshall Robert J Callendar. Cease fire immediately, or this Station’s artillery will engage you. I’m ordering you to land here. You will be escorted in. We have evidence that your Commander is involved in major corruption, so unless you want to be implicated in that criminal activity, and probably destroyed by our guns too, I suggest you comply.’
‘CYT-1220 Federal Revenue Security Scout Lead. Wilco. We are coming in and we have gone weapons cold.’
‘You son of a !’ Hollister yelled. ‘You did it!’
‘We did it.’ Manzo replied. ‘However. You know I said you wouldn’t like it?’ He added in a slightly ominous tone.
‘What?’ Hollister enquired, sounding a little worried.
‘Well. We’re probably not going to be able to slow down. And, erm, we might not have any landing gear either. Oh and we’ve used up nearly all our fuel too.’ Manzo said sheepishly.
Hollister hauled the throttle levers all the way back, clicking them past the detent, into reverse.
‘System failure.’ The ship added in its monotone.
‘Bradbury Approach from PV-286. Be advised we are diverting to Elsinore IV. We’ve lost our brakes. We’re going to try to slow down in the atmosphere and make an emergency landing.’ Hollister radioed calmly.
‘PV-286 from Bradbury Approach, do you wish to declare an emergency?’
‘Would it make any difference if I did?’ Hollister joked. ‘I’m sorry, skip that, yes, I am declaring an emergency and would appreciate you sending out someone to locate us when we make planet-fall. PV-286 out.’
‘Good luck PV-286. We will send the alert bird. Bradbury Approach out.’
‘Don’t worry girl. I’ve done this before. That emergency stuff is just standard procedure.’ Hollister lied, as he touched Sue’s arm gently.
‘Manzo, what do you reckon the best de-burn angle is at this speed? I’m thinking around seventeen degrees, dropping to no lower than four as we slow down.’ Hollister asked, trying to sound matter of fact.
‘Yeah. Seventeen is good. I’ll monitor the hull temp and call the numbers if you like.’ Manzo replied.
‘Sounds like a plan. You’ll have to swap places with Sue to do that. She can strap in on the bulkhead seat.’ Hollister said, with a surreptitious wink to Manzo.
Manzo cottoned on immediately. Like Hollister, he knew that it was just as easy to monitor the temperatures from right where he was sat, on the cockpit access tunnel edge. But it would be more dangerous in a crash landing to be in the cockpit, and so Hollister was really asking him to get Sue out of that seat, without trying to worry her.
‘Good idea Joe. Come on Sue, let’s get you strapped in back there.’ Manzo said brightly, managing to make it all sound matter of fact.
Having strapped Sue in, he gave her a wink and told her it would all be fine, then clambered back into the right seat. He wasn’t entirely convinced that would be true.
Elsinore IV filled the canopy as Hollister rolled PV-286 level to make the approach. She was traveling way too fast to be sure of anything, but he made his best guess. Within minutes, he felt the hull begin to buffet as they met the thin exosphere of Elsinore IV, but he kept the nose down and ploughed on into the thermosphere. Manzo began to monitor the temperature gauge as Hollister kept his eyes firmly on the pitch ladder.
‘2,700 ambient.’ Manzo reported, matter of factly.
Noctilucent clouds began to whisk past the canopy, and electrical discharges made the canopy begin to glow with a strange bluish hue. Now PV-286 began to complain, buffeting coming on rapidly.
‘3,240 on the hull and rising, get the nose up Joe.’ Manzo advised.
Hollister pitched PV-286 up to twenty degrees angle of attack, let her float there for a second or two, then dropped her down to around eighteen degrees, where the buffeting seemed more stable, awaiting Manzo’s next report.
‘Dropping slightly. Keep it there Joe. It’s good.’ Manzo again advised.
‘**** we’re still damn fast buddy.’ Hollister muttered as they passed into the mesosphere. The buffeting was making it hard to read the numbers on the gauges and the HUD.
‘Drop her to maybe eight. Feel for it Joe. We’re doing okay.’ Manzo reassured Hollister.
The green pitch ladder rolled up against the gaudy yellow flames dancing and racing past the canopy. The buffeting seemed to calm down a lot at nine degrees and Manzo reported the temperatures under control at that point, so Hollister held PV-286 there. She streaked down into the stratopause.
‘You okay back there?’ Hollister called out.
‘Yup. How’re we doing?’ Sue responded.
‘Great. Just keep strapped in tight.’
We’re too fast thought Hollister. Give me some air pressure to slow us down. He got his wish. PV-286 began to bounce around wildly, as she thundered into the stratosphere.
‘Watch it. We’re getting real hot Joe.’ Manzo said, sounding slightly worried.
‘I know.’
Hollister chanced pitching PV-286 up to brake her aerodynamically. The hull creaked in protest and the buffeting reached an alarming level. Pitching her back down to ease the vibrations, Hollister was able to read the HUD more clearly, the speed was dropping rapidly. They were through the atmosphere and flying.
‘Nice job buddy. I think I might owe you a drink.’ Manzo laughed.
‘I’ll try and land near a bar.’ Hollister joked weakly. He was sweating.
Manzo’s speed tweaks had disabled the doppler scanner, so Hollister rolled PV-286 inverted in order to see the terrain ahead. It was not an encouraging sight.
‘That spot looks good.’ Said Hollister brightly, as he pointed toward what looked, from that altitude, like wetlands.
‘It’s a forest.’ Manzo said, unconvinced.
‘It’s a swamp.’ Hollister countered.
‘Those are trees, buddy.’ Manzo insisted.
‘Alright, it’s a swamp with some trees in it then.’
‘In other words, a forest.’ Manzo concluded.
‘Well. Now it’s a runway as well. Because it’s our only option.’ Hollister added, his decision made.
Stabilising the descent rate, Hollister rolled PV-286 out of inverted flight and settled her into a curving high speed glide, making shallow S-turns to keep his chosen landing ground in sight. As they dropped completely clear of a bank of clouds, the dazzling low sunlight hit them.
‘This is it guys. Brace yourselves.’ Hollister yelled.
He’d judged the descent well, they were still fairly fast, which meant he could get away with a few last-second shallow turns to steer them clear of the larger trees which were dotted around the swamp. A much denser group of trees loomed ahead, so he decided to put PV-286 down before they reached them.
Pitching the nose down, he dived the ship at the watery rush-covered field, at the last second, he popped the spoilers out and hauled the stick all the way back into his stomach. PV-286’s tail slashed into the muddy water, making her want to pitch forward with the drag as she threw up a massive plume of spray. But Hollister was ready for it and thumbed the ventral nose thruster into life, as he struggled to keep the stick back. PV-286 shuddered and groaned in protest, but slowly she began to stop flying, aquaplaning to a halt a few metres from the dense bank of trees. Her left wing almost clipped an ancient ruin, as she floated to a gentle stop in the muddy shallows. Steam issued from her intakes as water trickled in and came into contact with the engines, and she popped and hissed as the hull began to cool down.
Hollister let out a long sigh.
He and Manzo disconnected themselves from the seats and clambered through the tunnel into the cargo hold, where Sue was busily unfastening herself from the bulkhead seat.
‘And I love you too, Joe.’ She said, as she kissed him, then hugged Manzo.
Hollister popped open the rear cargo doors and felt the inrush of musty swamp air as the pressure equalised. He jumped down into the muddy ankle-deep water, gave PV-286 a pat, then walked a few paces turned and surveyed the condition of the ship. Sue and Manzo stood by the edge of the cargo bay.
‘Manzo?’ Hollister muttered.
‘Yeah buddy?’ His friend replied.
‘So, how much is this gonna cost?’
If anyone is interested, not that you really need it, since it is free here, this story is available on Kobo and Amazon as an ebook for a quid. Although you do actually get the uncensored swearing in the book, unlike here on the forum, for obvious reasons. Anyway, since you've read it, feel free to slag it off on the Amazon reviews if you like!
I'm considering writing more stories about Hollister and his friends, so let me know if you'd like to see that.
‘CYT-1220 Federal Revenue Security Scout Lead, this is Regional Marshall Robert J Callendar. Cease fire immediately, or this Station’s artillery will engage you. I’m ordering you to land here. You will be escorted in. We have evidence that your Commander is involved in major corruption, so unless you want to be implicated in that criminal activity, and probably destroyed by our guns too, I suggest you comply.’
‘CYT-1220 Federal Revenue Security Scout Lead. Wilco. We are coming in and we have gone weapons cold.’
‘You son of a !’ Hollister yelled. ‘You did it!’
‘We did it.’ Manzo replied. ‘However. You know I said you wouldn’t like it?’ He added in a slightly ominous tone.
‘What?’ Hollister enquired, sounding a little worried.
‘Well. We’re probably not going to be able to slow down. And, erm, we might not have any landing gear either. Oh and we’ve used up nearly all our fuel too.’ Manzo said sheepishly.
Hollister hauled the throttle levers all the way back, clicking them past the detent, into reverse.
‘System failure.’ The ship added in its monotone.
‘Bradbury Approach from PV-286. Be advised we are diverting to Elsinore IV. We’ve lost our brakes. We’re going to try to slow down in the atmosphere and make an emergency landing.’ Hollister radioed calmly.
‘PV-286 from Bradbury Approach, do you wish to declare an emergency?’
‘Would it make any difference if I did?’ Hollister joked. ‘I’m sorry, skip that, yes, I am declaring an emergency and would appreciate you sending out someone to locate us when we make planet-fall. PV-286 out.’
‘Good luck PV-286. We will send the alert bird. Bradbury Approach out.’
‘Don’t worry girl. I’ve done this before. That emergency stuff is just standard procedure.’ Hollister lied, as he touched Sue’s arm gently.
‘Manzo, what do you reckon the best de-burn angle is at this speed? I’m thinking around seventeen degrees, dropping to no lower than four as we slow down.’ Hollister asked, trying to sound matter of fact.
‘Yeah. Seventeen is good. I’ll monitor the hull temp and call the numbers if you like.’ Manzo replied.
‘Sounds like a plan. You’ll have to swap places with Sue to do that. She can strap in on the bulkhead seat.’ Hollister said, with a surreptitious wink to Manzo.
Manzo cottoned on immediately. Like Hollister, he knew that it was just as easy to monitor the temperatures from right where he was sat, on the cockpit access tunnel edge. But it would be more dangerous in a crash landing to be in the cockpit, and so Hollister was really asking him to get Sue out of that seat, without trying to worry her.
‘Good idea Joe. Come on Sue, let’s get you strapped in back there.’ Manzo said brightly, managing to make it all sound matter of fact.
Having strapped Sue in, he gave her a wink and told her it would all be fine, then clambered back into the right seat. He wasn’t entirely convinced that would be true.
Elsinore IV filled the canopy as Hollister rolled PV-286 level to make the approach. She was traveling way too fast to be sure of anything, but he made his best guess. Within minutes, he felt the hull begin to buffet as they met the thin exosphere of Elsinore IV, but he kept the nose down and ploughed on into the thermosphere. Manzo began to monitor the temperature gauge as Hollister kept his eyes firmly on the pitch ladder.
‘2,700 ambient.’ Manzo reported, matter of factly.
Noctilucent clouds began to whisk past the canopy, and electrical discharges made the canopy begin to glow with a strange bluish hue. Now PV-286 began to complain, buffeting coming on rapidly.
‘3,240 on the hull and rising, get the nose up Joe.’ Manzo advised.
Hollister pitched PV-286 up to twenty degrees angle of attack, let her float there for a second or two, then dropped her down to around eighteen degrees, where the buffeting seemed more stable, awaiting Manzo’s next report.
‘Dropping slightly. Keep it there Joe. It’s good.’ Manzo again advised.
‘**** we’re still damn fast buddy.’ Hollister muttered as they passed into the mesosphere. The buffeting was making it hard to read the numbers on the gauges and the HUD.
‘Drop her to maybe eight. Feel for it Joe. We’re doing okay.’ Manzo reassured Hollister.
The green pitch ladder rolled up against the gaudy yellow flames dancing and racing past the canopy. The buffeting seemed to calm down a lot at nine degrees and Manzo reported the temperatures under control at that point, so Hollister held PV-286 there. She streaked down into the stratopause.
‘You okay back there?’ Hollister called out.
‘Yup. How’re we doing?’ Sue responded.
‘Great. Just keep strapped in tight.’
We’re too fast thought Hollister. Give me some air pressure to slow us down. He got his wish. PV-286 began to bounce around wildly, as she thundered into the stratosphere.
‘Watch it. We’re getting real hot Joe.’ Manzo said, sounding slightly worried.
‘I know.’
Hollister chanced pitching PV-286 up to brake her aerodynamically. The hull creaked in protest and the buffeting reached an alarming level. Pitching her back down to ease the vibrations, Hollister was able to read the HUD more clearly, the speed was dropping rapidly. They were through the atmosphere and flying.
‘Nice job buddy. I think I might owe you a drink.’ Manzo laughed.
‘I’ll try and land near a bar.’ Hollister joked weakly. He was sweating.
Manzo’s speed tweaks had disabled the doppler scanner, so Hollister rolled PV-286 inverted in order to see the terrain ahead. It was not an encouraging sight.
‘That spot looks good.’ Said Hollister brightly, as he pointed toward what looked, from that altitude, like wetlands.
‘It’s a forest.’ Manzo said, unconvinced.
‘It’s a swamp.’ Hollister countered.
‘Those are trees, buddy.’ Manzo insisted.
‘Alright, it’s a swamp with some trees in it then.’
‘In other words, a forest.’ Manzo concluded.
‘Well. Now it’s a runway as well. Because it’s our only option.’ Hollister added, his decision made.
Stabilising the descent rate, Hollister rolled PV-286 out of inverted flight and settled her into a curving high speed glide, making shallow S-turns to keep his chosen landing ground in sight. As they dropped completely clear of a bank of clouds, the dazzling low sunlight hit them.
‘This is it guys. Brace yourselves.’ Hollister yelled.
He’d judged the descent well, they were still fairly fast, which meant he could get away with a few last-second shallow turns to steer them clear of the larger trees which were dotted around the swamp. A much denser group of trees loomed ahead, so he decided to put PV-286 down before they reached them.
Pitching the nose down, he dived the ship at the watery rush-covered field, at the last second, he popped the spoilers out and hauled the stick all the way back into his stomach. PV-286’s tail slashed into the muddy water, making her want to pitch forward with the drag as she threw up a massive plume of spray. But Hollister was ready for it and thumbed the ventral nose thruster into life, as he struggled to keep the stick back. PV-286 shuddered and groaned in protest, but slowly she began to stop flying, aquaplaning to a halt a few metres from the dense bank of trees. Her left wing almost clipped an ancient ruin, as she floated to a gentle stop in the muddy shallows. Steam issued from her intakes as water trickled in and came into contact with the engines, and she popped and hissed as the hull began to cool down.
Hollister let out a long sigh.
He and Manzo disconnected themselves from the seats and clambered through the tunnel into the cargo hold, where Sue was busily unfastening herself from the bulkhead seat.
‘And I love you too, Joe.’ She said, as she kissed him, then hugged Manzo.
Hollister popped open the rear cargo doors and felt the inrush of musty swamp air as the pressure equalised. He jumped down into the muddy ankle-deep water, gave PV-286 a pat, then walked a few paces turned and surveyed the condition of the ship. Sue and Manzo stood by the edge of the cargo bay.
‘Manzo?’ Hollister muttered.
‘Yeah buddy?’ His friend replied.
‘So, how much is this gonna cost?’
If anyone is interested, not that you really need it, since it is free here, this story is available on Kobo and Amazon as an ebook for a quid. Although you do actually get the uncensored swearing in the book, unlike here on the forum, for obvious reasons. Anyway, since you've read it, feel free to slag it off on the Amazon reviews if you like!
I'm considering writing more stories about Hollister and his friends, so let me know if you'd like to see that.
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Yes, I agree. Please write more.
Definitely worth the pound.
Talk to the guys at lave radio about doing an audio version as a one off
I would.
Thanks very much for writing this, I just bought it on Amazon. Hope you do some more!