IMAGINATION'S PLACE
FICTION
JOURNEY TO THE LIGHT
By; Speaker Gerald Polley
All rights reserved.
Chapter 36
She woke up, got her suit on, and took her chair,
got a few more readings before it was time to swing back towards
Mars. She suddenly brought the ship to a halt, and sat dead in
space.
"Something wrong?" the instructor asked.
"I'm not sure!" Carol answered. "Two very
strong contacts. They seem to be on a course that will cause them
to pass by Mars at some distance. But these contacts indicate
refined metal, unnatural objects."
The instructor took the readings and studied
them. "They sure as hell do!" he sighed.
"Steel! Hmmm! They're on a course, the same course we came
in on. There was something I heard on the ship just before we
went into whatever that was the asteroid creates. We picked up
two contacts coming towards us. If they got sucked into the
passage at a much slower velocity than we were traveling, or the
passage failed, they might only be arriving here, now. As it is,
at the speed they're traveling they're eight days away from Mars!
If we wanted to we could be out to them in a day."
"Signal Mars," Carol snapped, "tell them to bring
the ready ships to standby. If they lose contact with us they are
to launch and intercept whatever these things are. We're going
out to have a look. Oh, I'm sorry! You're the instructor.
I'd like to go out and have a look."
"I concur!" the instructor answered. "I want a look too. Set course and speed, pilot!"
Carol did so. "Well!" she managed, "Guess I get to take some more readings!"
"Appears so!" her companion answered.
They continued on and Carol took her readings.
Finally she bedded down. She wanted to be bright and alert when
they caught up with these things. She woke up precisely on
time. She found the instructor dozing in his chair, gently woke
him, and took her seat. "Anything?" she asked.
"Nothing!" her companion answered. "Sent
standard hails, no responses. We should be close enough now, that
we could get some images with the telescope."
Carol went to work. In a few minutes they were
staring at two ships. "Not very pretty things!" the instructor
answered. "They look like nothing more than standard
rockets. But they obviously have flight controls and canopies."
"Let's get closer!" Carol muttered. 'Can sensors detect armaments?"
The ship answered before the instructor did.
"I should be able to pick up the synthetic dichoronium in pulse
generators. I am detecting nothing of that type. I'm getting
sensor feedback on the main sections, indicating heavy material
shielding. No sign of hatches for missiles. These are very
strange vehicles!"
"Yeah!" Carol agreed. "Could anything be alive over there?"
"No," her instructor answered. "The cabins are
just above absolute zero. If there's anything organic over there
it's frozen solid."
Carol sighed. "I think we should destroy these
things," she muttered. "I think we should back off to maximum range and
lob a missile at one, see what happens, and then hit the other
one. I don't want them to reach Mars."
"We might be able to board them," the instructor commented.
Carol shook her head. "If they're as unfriendly as I think
they are," she argued, "they might be booby trapped. No!
Let's back off, signal Mars what we're going to do, and carry out the
mission."
"Affirmative!" the instructor snapped. "Proceed with operations, pilot!"
Carol backed off to maximum range. "Mars is
signaling," the instructor commented. "They want us to hold off until
they can get some back up ships out here."
"I don't think so!" Carol argued. "The closer these things
get to Mars the more my skin crawls! I want to take them out, I
want to take them out now!"
"Very well!" her instructor answered.
"Prepping missiles one and two!" Carol
snapped. "Locked on the lead ship. Preparing to fire.
Missile away!"
Carol watched through the telescope as the missile
approached its target. Suddenly she heard a bang, and looked up
to see the ship had closed the front ports. "Good thinking!"
Carol muttered.
Suddenly the universe exploded! Sparks flew out of
equipment. The ship began to rock. Carol felt like she'd received
an electric shock. "Jesus Christ!" the instructor moaned.
"The god damned things were nuclear! Damn! They were
nuclear! The missile never hit it! They must've had a self
destruct. You all right ma'am?"
"I think so!" Carol managed. "I feel like I've been zapped!"
"Electrical discharge," the ship answered.
"I'm afraid I'm disabled! Even my internal shielding didn't
stop all that pulse. To get functional again some replacement
parts are going to have to be taken out of stores and installed."
Carol got up. "Where do we start?" she sighed.
The ship began to give instructions. Carol and
the instructor worked for some time. Finally the ship announced
"Have operational control! Systems rebooting! Looks
good. We seem to be ok. Engine is out of phase. Will
have to be manually adjusted."
"I'll get that!" the instructor snapped.
Carol didn't argue. Finally he came back. "Set to go!" he managed.
"When you get an opportunity," Carol insisted, "send
a note to whoever built these things and tell them what a good job they
did?"
"Without question!" her companion agreed.
They headed back towards Mars. A day later
three other ships joined them. They wanted to dock and take over
the vessels. Carol said "No way!" she had taken her ship out, she
was going to bring it back.
"Two of you," she instructed, "go look for any debris. Be
extremely careful, but if you can find anything bring it back, tow it
if you have to. I doubt if they'll be anything. Probably
everything vaporized. But have a look. And get readings. I
want to know the megatons of those things."
"Understood!" the pilots answered. "Two of the ships
peeled away and headed back. Carol looked to her
instructor. "If I had decided to go in closer and take our shot,
would I still be here?"
Her instructor shook his head. "We're God damn lucky
to be here as it is!" he answered. "If you had been any closer we would
not be!"
Carol nodded. A few hours later two more ships
joined them, and again it was requested that they take the crew on
board. Again Carol declined.
When they got in range of the carrier they
were instructed to head for the receival bay. Carol snapped
"Negative! I left from a hull position, I will return to a hull
position. Vacate one near engineering so the ship can be picked
up and taken inside."
"Understood, commander!" a voice came back.
"That slot is open! You are receiving docking data. Bring
her in!"
Carol edged the ship forward, matched the carrier's
speed, and eased her down. "Grapples away!" she snapped.
"Grapples have contact. Cables being drawn down. Docking
hatch extended."
There was a bump. Carol checked her instruments and
snapped "Ship is secure! Docking hatch may be opened!"
She heard the hatch cycle and then heard
footsteps. She looked up to see her husband standing over
her. "I made a slight mistake," she remarked.
"Nobody around here thinks so!" her husband
answered. "Get to hell out of that thing! I've got a robe.
There's a wheel chair ready to take you to the hospital. They
want to make sure no harm was done. If I find the people that did
that there isn't going to be much left of them!"
"I have a bad feeling," Carol told him, "some of them are headed this way. They could be here in a few days."
"Good!" her husband growled. "I won't have to go looking for them!"
Him and Carol smiled at each other. She got out of
the suit, was handed some underpants, and then the robe was put on her,
and she was whisked to the hospital. Her doctor performed every
test they could think of! Finally he said "You're o.k., the
baby's o.k. DON'T do that again!"
Carol assured him she would try not to.
She didn't particularly like the feeling! "I don't doubt it!" the
doctor snapped. "I don't doubt it at all! Now, I've got
other people to take care of. Go home! Stay out of trouble!
Remember, medical is the only department on this ship that can
override you! Don't make me do it!"
Carol smiled. "I like your counterpart better!" she teased.
"He does seem to have an effect on the women!" the doctor sighed. "Get outta here!"
Carol went back to her quarters. The children
weren't about to let her rest until she gave them a full report. She
didn't mind! The wonderment on their faces was precious!
"Mama's a warrior!" her youngest one piped.
"And a damned good one!" the oldest put in. "Suicide jockeys, glory idiots. Somebody's unhappy!"
"They're going to be unhappier!" Carol sighed, "They're
going to be a lot unhappier! I don't like somebody sending atomic
warheads at us! I don't like it one little bit!"
"Somebody's in trouble!" Little Tin laughed.
"You betcha!" Carol answered. "Somebody's in a lot of trouble!"
She got some rest and tried to get back into the
swing of things. But she knew that she wasn't going to be able to
keep doing her favorite thing much longer. It was only going to
be a sideline, a hobby. Her youngest one was right. She was
now a warrior! There was no question of it, there was no doubt of
it. She was a warrior! She had been stung in battle, they
were threatening her children. Whatever else she had wanted to
ever be was gone. She was a warrior.
The next morning she went up to the command
deck. "Send a message to The Marshals," she snapped, "I want an
eight point star surrounding this planet, one day out at all
times. I don't want there to be a place that anybody could slip
passed our sensors. I want to see anything coming before it gets
anywhere near us. Break out reserve weaponry! Fully arm the
ship!"
"Yes, ma'am!" the ship commander snapped. "Orders will be made immediately!"
Carol went back to her telescopes. She was going to
enjoy them as much as she could, for as long as she could. However she
called her subordinate to her. "You wanted something, ma'am?" he
asked.
"I know regulations," Carol explained. "I'm
supposed to be restricted to ground duty, but when trouble comes I'm
going up! If I can't get into my space suit I'm going without
one, but I'm going up! There is to be no discussion, If I
have to have an escort to get me to my ship, it will be
provided. Move my ship to the receival bay here. I
think I can handle a take off."
"Undoubtedly!" her young friend answered. "The
ship might be a problem ma'am. It might refuse to take you out."
Carol smiled. "I don't think so!" Carol answered.