Metal Boxes - Rusty Hinges (26 page)

CHAPTER FORTY-ONE

Stone immediately wanted to take the statement back, but unlike a poorly written digital message, there wasn’t any way to retract the statement once the words were out of his mouth. Everyone was looking at him like he’d lost his mind. Everyone except Jay, who was lying quietly at his feet. She nodded at him as if to say that whatever was good for him was good for her.

Butcher said, “Would you care to elaborate, Ensign?” His tone made it clear he wasn’t asking.

Stone said, “Sir, the orbital platform is in a geosynchronous orbit. There are a dozen military satellites in orbit that we can assume are visual relays, right?”

Gupta spun the display of the planet above the conference table. He highlighted the satellites. “Yes and we’ve all seen the dozens of gaps all around the planet large enough to drive a shuttle through to the surface.”

Butcher pointed at a couple of the gaps. “We can drop an attack force through any of these gaps close enough to the planetary base to facilitate a ground attack, but …”

Numos finished for him. “I can’t split my forces for this. That orbital base is so big it’ll take all of my marines to secure it.”

Butcher added, “Even the closest LZ is too far away for navy suits. They just aren’t designed for long term engagements. That’s a three-day bounce even for marines. The atmosphere won’t allow for anyone to get out of their suits.”

Whizzer nodded, “The planet appears to have a light chlorine atmosphere. The pressure and temperature are low, not freezing, but low enough that hydrochloric gasses and acids shouldn’t accumulate in heavy concentrations.”

Stone said, “Sir, my suit can make that distance. However, I wasn’t thinking of taking a navy assault team. I was thinking of using drascos. There are eight of them and they’re all marine trained fighters. Breathing isn’t an issue for them. Their lungs can breathe anything except a vacuum. They prefer carbon dioxide, but the drascos can breathe a chlorine atmosphere.”

Jay snorted and slapped the deck with her tail. The bone spike at the end rattled the rusted deck plates. The look in her eyes was a clear indication that she was ready to go.

Butcher shook his head. “Son, one navy officer and eight drascos taking on a whole planet-based weapons platform doesn’t sound like a recipe for success. We don’t know what you’d find.” He waved a hand to stop Stone from interrupting. “I know they’re tough, but that’s too much to ask.”

Numos said, “Thom, those drascos are tougher than most of us give them credit for. Both Jay and Peebee have been able to beat a whole platoon of marines in training. I will admit that the younger drascos are easier to beat, but only because they’re easier to distract and they aren’t quite locked in on the whole teamwork concept yet.”

Butcher asked, “So they can’t do it?”

Numos replied, “I didn’t say that. I said my marines can beat them by being trickier. We’ve got hundreds of years of learning to adapt to unknown situations. The drascos are learning, but they don’t have a history to draw from. And as you said, we don’t know what they’ll find on that base.”

Stone should have kept his mouth shut and let these men talk him out of what looked like a suicide mission, instead he said, “Sir, I’m not saying that we can attack, destroy and get away unscathed. I’m saying that we can cause enough disruption that the Hyrocanians won’t be able to stop you from killing a dozen Hyrocanian ships, damaging a dozen more, and getting out of the system. Besides, suppose they do kill Jay or Peebee, what do you think would happen?”

Wyznewski laughed, “That would be the worst thing they could do. The surviving drasco would immediately begin the change to male. We don’t know how fast the growth would be, but the chemical change would rapidly affect her brain turning her into a rampaging male.”

Stone said, “Sir, we can’t stop a male short of a lucky shot.” He stood up, walked around behind Jay and grabbed her head in his arms. He gave her a gentle squeeze. “If it comes to that and this ship’s survival depends on it, I’ll put a bullet into Peebee myself.”

Jay snuffled and whoofed a huge breathe across Stone’s face. “
No, Mama. Shoot me.”
She didn’t broadcast the request through her dataport translator.

Stone breathed back into Jay’s mouth. He didn’t know if Jay was willing to die first to save Peebee or if she would rather be shot than turn male. He filed the question away to ask later. That was a discussion he wanted to have with each of the drascos. The younger ones needed to know what might happen to them if two of any triplet died.

Shorty had stood up, but his short height made him hard to notice. He climbed up on his chair and then onto the table. He walked over to the display of the planetary base and typed furiously into his database translator. “Our combat suits are smaller, but we can cross this distance in four days. I’ll go with Stone and my drasco friends.” He held a hand up to his ear. Stone noticed he had a listening device attached there.

Jay said, “
Mama, he’s asking his piglets for volunteers. I can’t hear their answers.”

Shorty nodded, “I have a team of thirty fighters in suits.”

Stone pushed Shorty to the side and expanded the display area around the Hyrocanian base. “We should be able to shuttle down to here. This spot is hidden from the base by this mountain range. We can bounce from there to attack. After we destroy their ability to fire on the Rusty Hinges, we hike back to the shuttle. If you’re still in the system, we can rendezvous. If not, well—Shorty is a pirate, right? We just take another ship and follow you home.”

CHAPTER FORTY-TWO

Dollish’s face fell in disappointment. He looked at Vedrian, Hammermill, and Tuttle for support, but there wasn’t any to be had.

Stone shook his head again. “I’m sorry, Spacer Dollish. I can’t take you with me. Your navy suit doesn’t have the capability to support you that long.”

Dollish said, “You’re taking some supplies, right?” His voice cracked as he desperately searched for a way to make Stone change his mind. “We could take a tent. I could get out of my suit every now and then. We could recharge and reset it ...” His voice faded away.

Stone said, “We’re moving too fast for that. Look, Tim. You’re my friend, right? If I could take anyone, I’d take you, but I can’t. You know it.”

Dollish nodded. “Me and a few marines, right?”

Dollish was correct. He would feel more comfortable taking a platoon of marines along, but that wasn’t going to happen either. Major Numos needed his full compliment to shut down the massive orbiting weapons platform. The much smaller planetary base was an easier target. Easier or not, Stone knew if he didn’t destroy or at least disable the planetside base, the marines would all die in orbit. The Hyrocanians on the orbiting platform might be able to repel and kill the marines, no one knew for sure, but if Stone’s attack force wasn’t successful, the Hyrocanians on the planet would open fire on their own platform rather than lose it to the humans. Stone had to succeed or his friends would die. As much as he wanted Dollish with him, the spacer would slow him down.

“Tim, I’d take you if I could.”

Dollish shook his head. “I wouldn’t take me. Don’t worry about it, Boss. I understand.”

Stone wondered whether his friend understood or not. Dollish wandered away, his eyes wet, obviously trying not to cry in front of Stone and a trio of marines.

Tuttle shook her head as she watched Dollish walk away. She wrapped an arm around Stone’s head and pulled him in close. “Don’t worry about Timmy, Ensign. He’s a good kid and really does understand. He just has a few abandonment issues. You know about his family, right?”

Stone realized he didn’t know anything about Dollish prior to their meeting on Allie’s World. “What about his family?”

Tuttle said, “He told me one night when he’d been drinking too much jungle juice. It seems they sent him off to school one morning and when he got home that night they were gone. Took all of their stuff and left him behind. He hasn’t seen them since. He joined the navy shortly after that just so he could get a good meal and a warm bed.”

Stone looked at the tough marine corporal. “Two things, marine. One, I’m not abandoning, Tim Dollish. He’s my friend and I will be back for him.”

Tuttle laughed, “Of course, you’ll be back. I’ll make sure he knows.”

“Two. What the heck are you doing getting Tim drunk?”

“Me? It was his jungle juice, Ensign. Honest.” Tuttle had a look of complete innocence that didn’t fool anyone. “I’ll talk to him. He’ll be okay.” She squeezed Stone a little harder. “You got time for a quickie before you go? Last time offer.”

Allie laughed, grabbed Tuttle by the ear, and pulled her away. “Back off, Barb. He doesn’t have time for a quickie with me, so he sure doesn’t have time for you.”

Hammermill reached over and slapped Stone upside the head. It stung, but Stone knew the big marine had pulled his punch. He stuck his hand out to shake. “Ensign Stone, man-to-man, I’ll race you to Valhalla.”

Stone said, “Hammer, I didn’t think you believed in stuff like that.”

Hammermill shrugged, “Gotta believe in something. I believe in Major Dashell Numos to lead me into the valley of death and out again. I believe I’m invincible. I believe you’re indestructible. It’s these others around us that I worry about.” He squeezed Stone’s hand. Then he grabbed Tuttle’s shoulder and they followed Dollish.

Allie kissed him, looked him in the eyes, and kissed him again before walking away without a word.

Stone walked across the hangar deck, vaulted into the shuttle hovering above him. Stepping into the nearest shuttle hatch, he turned and saluted the Rusty Hinges, holding his salute until the hatch cycled shut.

Turning back, he banged his knee against a luggage cart. Three dozen carts and shipping containers lined the corridor. He’d done his best to strip out every working cart or container he could find on the Rusty Hinges. He’d found them tucked in almost every corner where someone had left them laying about. The navy used hundreds of the small anti-gravity carryalls during the retrofit and resupply of the Q-Ship. Most were banged up, had faulty leads, a short-life power system, or the anti-gravity hum sounded off-key.

He would use them to haul everything his team needed to cross the hostile, toxic planet. His suit could keep him fed and watered and the piglet suits were built on the marine’s design and were as self sufficient as his. However, his drasco’s couldn’t go four days without food and water and be expected to fight at their peak condition. He even packed tents to allow everyone to get out of the chlorine atmosphere and rest. The same type of tents Dollish had thought to bring. Stone hadn’t wanted to bring Dollish along, even if the man’s suit was capable. Not that he didn’t trust or like Dollish, but he fully expected to beat Hammermill to Valhalla and didn’t want to drag Dollish to an early grave.

He tapped open his comms. “Shorty, we’re all aboard. Let’s move.”

CHAPTER FORTY-THREE

Yellowish air swirled around Stone. A light breeze picked up dust, tossing it around like small dirt tornados. At the base of the tall escarpment, protected by the bulk of the shuttle, the wind only threw small dust and tiny sand particles. Shorty’s pilot had grounded the shuttle after a treetop level radar evading race across the rugged terrain. They couldn’t fly any closer to the base without the Hyrocanians spotting them. From here they’d walk.

Looking in the distance, he saw gusts of wind wrenching fist-size rocks from the mountains, throwing them around like invisible giants playing dodge ball. The rocks fell to the ground like hail or slammed into a mountainside shattering into ever increasingly small pieces until they were little more than dust to be picked up and swirled around again. Spinning up his suit optics, he saw rocks hitting  the escarpment, splintering, being snatched by the wind before falling to the ground, and hurled again. The shards looked sharp, but not sharp enough to damage any suit in his expedition. They wouldn’t put a dent in a drasco with their rusty pig-iron-like hides, but they could blind an unwary drasco.

Stone dug into a luggage cart, pulled out a handful of sand goggles and tossed them to Jay. “Pass these out to Peebee and the girls.”

Jay’s eyes blinked against the dust, her voice from the dataport getting sucked away by the wind, “We’ll be fine, Mama.”

“I don’t want you fine. I want you better.” He jabbed a finger at the goggles. “Those will make you better after a couple of days of this.”

Jay shrugged her shoulders, forgoing the dataport translator,
“I feel wrong without my armor.”

Stone slammed a gauntlet down on the top of a shipping container, “It’s packed in here. You can put it on when we attack. We have a long hike ahead of us and we all need to be rested when we get there. We’re going to ride as much as we can, bounce when it’s possible, and hike when we have to. I don’t want you carrying any more weight than you’re forced to.”

Jay looked askance at the luggage cart.
“Yes, Mama. I’m bigger than I used to be. Think that tiny thing will hold me up?”

Stone nodded. Then realized he was closed inside his own combat suit. Nodding wasn’t the most effective way to communicate. “They have the anti-gravity and propulsion to carry anything we can balance on them. Can you balance on them?”

Jay straddled a grounded cart, wiggling her belly as she settled on top of the cart.
“Ta-da!”
She picked her feet up off the ground putting all of her weight on the cart.

Stone reached under her neck, popped open the panel and pulled out a controller. His suit’s external receptors picked up the scent of milk chocolate and mint from Jay as he turned the dial, giving the cart lift to push her into the air. He remembered her trying to jump onto a moving cart years ago and laughed. She was much bigger now and more coordinated than when she was a baby.

The cart hummed louder as it lifted her bulk, but it stayed in tune as if it was happy with more weigh on its back. Jay wonked loudly and jumped to her feet. She stood upright on the cart, her neck stretched out and her arms spread wide, wonking in enjoyment. The light breeze caught her vestigial wings appearing to give her the feeling of lift.

In a flash, all eight drascos were balancing on the luggage carts. Stone popped open the control cover on the Charlotte’s cart. He ran the cable from that cart to Jay’s cart, hooking the daughter just behind her mother. He bypassed Ell and Bea to open the control panel on Emily’s cart. Raising the cart to the same height as Jay and Charlotte’s carts, he maneuvered it into place behind Charlotte’s cart.

He turned to find Anne, but Shorty squeezed in between him and the carts, attaching Anne’s cart behind her sisters. All the piglets were linking the carts into strings. A few piglets had climbed onto carts and were racing around, running them at top speed, slamming them to a stop, raising them to their highest level, and seeing how fast they could go as low to the ground as they could get. Soon there were strings of carts whipping around like mini-trains gone berserk.

Stone didn’t say anything. They were going to travel a long distance and piglets were going to be doing a lot of the driving. They needed to become familiar with cart capabilities. He heard an off-key hum and then another. The carts all seemed to be working fine, but he heard some straining.

“Shorty, have your people drive those carts past me slowly.”

“Yes, Boss.”

It only took a moment before Stone identified the carts with problems. “Pull them out of the line. Switch their cargo to other carts. We’re leaving these behind.”

Stone sensed Shorty wanted to ask why, but the piglet did as he was told. Stone said, “I don’t want to take equipment with us that might break down at the wrong time. Once we get through these mountain passes, we’re going to be racing across open ground. We’ll need to move as fast as we can for a couple of days. These carts are already not working up to standard. Even in this wind, I can hear their power systems working off key.”

Shorty nodded. “Yes, Boss. Anything or anyone breaks down, we leave them behind.”

Stone put a gauntlet on the piglet’s shoulder. There wasn’t any way the little alien could feel the touch, but he could see the gesture. “We leave things behind, Shorty. Not people.”

Shorty said, “We’re here, Boss. Every one of us knows this is going to be a hard slog. No one wants to be left behind, but we have a saying — the slow rat gets eaten.”

Stone said, “Shut down as much power on the shuttle as your pilot can manage without. We don’t want it discovered, even by accident.” He looked at the mountain range hiding them and their shuttle. “Send out your scouts.”

A dozen piglets raced away from the shuttle, scattering into the cracks and crevasses of the escarpment. He tapped open a map and set it to hover stationary between him and Shorty. Finding a pass up the escarpment and through the mountains was going to be time consuming. Although they had scans from the telescopes on Rusty Hinges, they only had a general idea of a pass through the mountains. They hadn’t been able to get close enough views to see a path that could be easily traversed.

He glanced around him. Piglets were driving cart trains around like they were being clocked for speed and graded on recklessness. Drascos stood on carts, wings flapping in the wind, whooting with abandon. Anne and Ell took tumbles off carts, but were back up and on another cart long before the laughter from their mothers and sisters died down.

Shorty stared at the map as if trying to force the details to fill in by the strength of his vision alone. Little lines were filling in as piglets in suits raced through canyons and gullies looking for a way through. The lines centered along their suit’s video transmissions of the mountains surrounding the scouts. All too often, the lines backtracked and took another path when a piglet found its path blocked.

Stone couldn’t hear anything Shorty was saying, but the little guy was waving his arms like he was directing each piglet’s movement.

Stone checked the time. “Shorty, we only have three hours to find a way through or we have to abandon this plan. Unless we find a way through the mountains, we have to go to plan B.” Plan B required them to wait until just before the attack time, take the shuttle over the mountains and hope they didn’t get spotted before crashing onto the base hangar deck.

Shorty said, “Yes, Boss. I don’t like plan B.”

Stone agreed, “Plan B is stupid.”

“Might as well fly the shuttle right in front of the gun muzzles. They won’t expect anyone coming in on foot over this landscape, but they will spot a shuttle sized object and shoot us down before we get close enough to do any damage.”

Stone said, “They’re probably going to kill us before we get close anyway.”

Shorty said, “I know. Just don’t tell my people that. They think this is going to be a cakewalk. And that we’re all going home again.”

Stone made a mental note to look up cakewalk. He wondered how Shorty’s translator picked up a term like that. He was about to ask about it, but the piglet kept talking.

“I don’t mind dying here. Here is as good as anywhere for an old man like me and a warrior like you, but I do want to get close enough to hurt these bastards before I go.”

Stone didn’t think of himself as a warrior, but he suddenly felt puffed up that Shorty thought of him that way. “Well, I don’t know about all of that, but if we don’t shut that base down, all the marines are going to die on the orbital weapons platform.”

Shorty looked up at Stone. “That is why I gave my shuttle pilot orders to use Plan R.”

“What’s Plan R?”

“Last resort. It’s ramming speed, full-on engines to overload.”

“He’ll do that?”

Shorty shook his head, turned, and looked at the shuttle as if he could see the pilot deep inside. The translator managed to sound both sad and worried. “My pilot is female. She
has watched more of her children eaten alive by those four-armed freaks than a mother should have to watch. It was a challenge to get her to agree not to ram them until she knows for sure we’ve failed.”

“Then we better find a pass.”

Shorty looked at the map excitedly, pointing a finger at a piglet’s position on the map. The piglet was moving quickly, streaking farther and faster ahead than any of his counterparts. Stone couldn’t hear the command, but other piglets abandoned their tracks. They backtracked and, in a swarm, dashed up the same path as the front running piglet.

The front piglet came to a halt, sending them a panoramic view of a high rock face stretching up for a thousand feet. Unable to hear Shorty’s command, Stone felt he heart skip a beat. The swarm of piglets didn’t catch up to the front runner before they began to branch out, fanning farther and farther into the mountain passes. Piglet’s paths halted, they backtracked, and followed the next farthest piglet’s track, fanning out, searching and probing. All along the way, the map updated as video of the mountains broadcast from piglet suits filled in the blank spots. Shorty waved his arms like conducting an orchestra, although none of the scouts could see him.

Stone glanced behind him. The trains had pulled up to a halt, lining up in one neat row. Everyone was watching the map. He tapped the map. Making duplicates, he threw them to every driver. The few piglets not on driver duty or searching the mountains, peered over their driver’s shoulders. He didn’t recognize the hand gestures between the piglets, but it looked like they were taking bets and gambling on the outcome of the search for a path.

Stone looked around him. Peebee sat atop a cart, her goggles making her eyes look oversized. She was grinning into the wind. He asked her, “What are the piglets saying?”

Peebee shrugged,
“They’re making a game of the race through the mountains. They make games of everything.”

Stone laughed, “Grandpa would say that’s like the pot calling the kettle black.” There wasn’t any activity the drascos hadn’t turned into a game. They’d even had a running contest to see who could hold off going to the bathroom the longest and who could make the biggest pile of poop.

Peebee said, “
When can we meet Grandpa, Mama? You talk about him all the time. We all want to meet him.
”

“When we get back to human space I’ll take you to meet my family.”

“I don’t think it’s fair that you get to know them and we don’t. You’re my Mama and we should know your mama.”

“Soon, Peebee.” He turned back to check the map in time to see a search line streak forward at an amazing speed. The swarm behind it abandoned their tracks, backtracked and followed the piglet’s trail at a run.

“Well, it’s not fair that Allie got to meet your family on Peach’s Rest and we didn’t get to go.”