Outside the cargo hold she clanked down the narrow metal hallway. On each side of the hallway were rooms, hopefully empty, for rusty androids. Halfway down she heard footsteps above her on the outside. Then pounding. Then more footsteps. A loud metallic thud. Muffled voices cried through the hull. Then silence. Without realizing it she held her breath waiting for the sound to reappear. Nothing, but she dared not move.
Finally, she took a big gasp of air which fogged up her face shield. Footsteps again. This time they ran away from where she heard the fighting. She listened intently as they grew fainter moving towards the helm of the ship.
Get it together Rahab.
When she reached the cabin the windshield had been covered by retractable armor. She heard little ting ting ting sounds coming from outside.
“We’re taking small arms fire,” Shelby said. “Nothing the ship can’t handle, but I want to take extra precaution.”
Rahab noticed only Shelby and Paul in the room.
“Our androids were taking a beating. Zeke’s team went to assist.”
“I want to see what’s going on out there.”
“There’s no chance in a million I’m opening the cabin windows to direct fire,” she thought for a second, “there’s probably a room in the back with a small porthole.”
As Rahab turned to leave, Paul, still tied to his chair, spoke, “Ms. Rahab, I’d like to watch too. Would that be OK with you?”
Rahab looked to Shelby who had already buried herself in the flashing buttons and gauges that needed attention on the control panel.
“Sure.”
~
Outside, android smashed android. Both forces were Russian, but Zeke’s team was able to easily override the outdated allegiance codes before sending them to fight. They had numbers and the technology they were up against was probably forty years old. Almost level playing ground.
Except for the weapons. The miners had newer technology. They were firing small weapons, but up close is where they really took an advantage. Their melee tactics consisted of boring tools, saws and other mining equipment that worked surprisingly well when accompanied with a zealous desire to destroy, pillage and render useless anything in their path.
Nearby the ship the human team watched assessing the momentum of the fight before jumping in, guns blazing.
“They are more like pirates than miners,” Matt said to Zeke.
“Reckless. Chaotic. They’ve got us where they want us, but they’re too careless to move in close. They’re taking on more casualties than they need to. Thank God for that.”
“Maybe that’s the answer to our prayer.”
“No,” Bart said. “There’s still not enough of ours. We need get in there.”
Luke was ready; his weapon in hand and his finger on the trigger.
“Alright boys,” Zeke said, “move out!”
They pushed off their ship towards the midspace carnage separating them from the Russian mining vessel.
Bang!
Crash!
Booooom!
They shot and were shot at. They cut, spun and twisted away. Their androids provided the perfect distraction while they sniped off a few minerdroids. This allowed more of their androids to double team the miners. Luke took a shot to the arm, but his armor reduced the damage.
“It’ll be big and blue tomorrow,” Zeke said. “Long as it didn’t puncture your suit you’ll live.”
A dull gray and dirtied brown android chucked a wrench at him. He dodged, found his bearings and shot him in the chest. It went right through, but the android was undeterred. More wrenches came flying at Zeke. Unable to get out of the way he took a few hits. His armor helped, but it hurt more than he expected.
Out of wrenches to chuck the android charged swinging an enormous wrench the size of his leg. Zeke floated backwards firing and yelling, “Die Chuck die!” at the machine-that-would-not-die. He spent his last magazine, tossed the weapon and plunged, wielding a dismembered metal arm, straight into Chuck’s reach.
The collision was painful. He wasn’t sure if he landed a solid blow or not. Chuck on the other hand nailed him with a shot from above on his left shoulder. He could feel the armor crack as the solid metal pushed through into him. The force of the impact sent the android up and spinning head over heals. Using his right hand only he swung the arm, conserving his momentum, taking out the android’s head.
Surprise.
Now headless, the android swung wildly. Apparently still operational, just unable to gather it’s bearings. Carefully, he closed in and when he saw an opening in the frantic swinging of that giant wrench Zeke kicked its back sending it towards the Earth.
Minerdroid after minerdroid went down. But they were getting closer. The mass of fighting machines had turned into a junkyard of floating debris. The action slowly moved towards the mining vessel.
Just as they were about to take out the last handful of miners the ship rumbled to life and took off. It sped away flying towards the moon.
“Take that you cowards!” Luke was shooting in wild celebration above him. “I dare you to come back!”
Zeke looked to his ship. “Officer Shelby, its safe to take a peek. Why don’t you come pick us up?”
“Copy that.”
~
The urn had been emptied. The miners defeated. Rahab was tending to Zeke’s shoulder. The armor was shattered, but the suit was still in fine working order. Some of their warrior androids even survived the skirmish and returned to their holding places on the ship.
“What next?” Zeke asked Rahab.
“…”
“What is it?”
“We’re out of fuel.”
“What?”
He should have known. Regardless of what the organization had told him he knew better than to expect a plan of this magnitude to include a safe return. They just needed to get that urn into space.
“Mission accomplished,” he said pushing Rahab’s hand from his shoulder. “Let’s just sit back and enjoy the rest of the ride.” He pulled a pair of shades out from inside his suit and put them on. “Does this thing recline?” He fumbled with the control of the seat until he got it right.
Some of the team was restless, but not as much as he would have thought. At least they didn’t express it.
“What’s that?” Luke said looking out the window.
“What’s what?” Zeke said surprised. “Probably just some newly created space junk.”
“No, that.” Luke pointed to the moon.
A ship zoomed around from behind the moon and took a course directly towards them. Dozens more followed it.
“A destroyer!” Zeke jumped to his feet.
“And an entire Russian fleet.” Matt said.
“So much for that distress signal,” Rahab examined the controls to double check Shelby deployed it correctly. Everything checked out.
“Surprised they didn’t get here sooner,” Zeke said with his shades still on. “Well, I guess this is the real goodbye now.”
“I don’t know about you guys, but I’m going to great them face to face.” Luke already had his helmet back on and was exiting the cabin.
“I’m with him,” Enoch said. “We got nothing else to lose. You with us Zeke?”
“You guys go on ahead. I’m gonna watch from the front seat.” He peeled off his suit and threw it behind him. Rahab picked it up along with his helmet. She rubbed the shoulder between her fingers and could feel all the pieces of the armor.
Shelby released the few remaining androids to accompany the team outside, but knew it was futile. “Maybe they can buy some time for the ashes to spread. So they can’t collect it again.”
Rahab left the cabin and walked slowly down the hallway. Her head hurt. Her body ached. Her eyes watered. She couldn’t understand. What had she accomplished? She didn’t know.
She leaned against one of the doors and fell into the room.
“Are
you OK?” Paul asked.
“Oh, I’m sorry.” She was on the floor and she didn’t want him to see the tears on her face, but it was too late. He could hear them in her voice. “It seems we’re going to die.”
“We weren’t before?”
“Now it’s certain. There isn’t anything we can do. There’s a fleet coming after us.”
Paul looked out the little window in the room. He saw the team outside waiting for action. Then he looked back to Rahab who tried to wipe dry her face before he looked back at her.
“What’s in your hand?”
She lifted up Zeke’s suit.
“What are you doing back here? Why aren’t you with the rest of the team?”
“I…I don’t know. I just felt like I wanted to do something. Something else. Not give up.”
“Where were you going?”
“I don’t know. I just wanted to get out of there.”
Paul leaned over as far as he could. His arms were still tied behind the chair and his feet were shackled, but from the floor Rahab met his gaze.
Take a deep breath.
Think real hard.
“Where were you going?”
“The cargo hold. That’s it! The cargo hold.” She popped to her feet and cut him free. “You have to come with me.”
In the cargo hold she had him put on the suit and helmet. “The shoulder’s all busted up, but you’ll be fine.” She showed him the peculiar gun she saw earlier. It took both of them to lift it down from the wall. They carried it over to the lift.
“There’s a lever over here,” Paul said standing by the coiled up wires.
“Flip it.”
He pushed it up. Instantly, the gun began to hum and dribble out multiple colors of goop like a blue and white tube of minty fresh toothpaste. Rahab found a steel pipe, set it next to the wires and pulled Paul onto the lift with her.
She shut the door, careful to rest its weight on the steel pipe instead of the wires, and instead of activating the release she opened the hatch. They had a perfect view of the bright moon and the angry Russian fleet coming at them.
“Let’s hope this works,” she said.
Paul picked it up from the right side. She from the left. They aimed it at the biggest ship in the fleet and…there was no trigger. She examined the gun. The canisters on the rear were glowing. Each with its own color.
“Maybe it needs to charge,” Paul offered.
“How long would it need to charge for?”
“I don’t know, but those things weren’t glowing befo”
Kabooshoom!
They were stunned. It fired just as they let down their guard. The gun was no mere gun. It was a gravitational force of electrical powered omnicolor injected laser rainbow canon.
And it took a chunk out of the moon.
“Get ready,” Rahab said lifting the rainbow canon for better aim. “I don’t know when it’s going to fire again.”
Kabooshoom!
This time they saw the blast. A long pulse of multihued laser energy sprung from the canon and wiped out a portion of the fleet. All that was left in its path was a debris field glowing like hot coals for every color of the rainbow.
They kept the canon firing until it would fire no more. Together they eased the heavy canon to the ground. “The ship must be completely out of fuel. So, the canon won’t work.” Rahab looked closer at the fleet trying to confirm its destruction. “We got ‘em all. The entire fleet is vaporized.” But Paul was looking the other way. A giant pendulous stream of frozen lightning illuminated the naked space. The moon wore not his usual white clothes, but a striking carmine suit.
“I knew something was going to happen,” Paul said. “He’s strong enough. He’s God, remember?”
The lightning pulsed red and yellow. Then orange. Then blue. Green. White. Once it displayed every color that had been named it changed again. This time it flickered every color at once like the iridescent scales of a fish. It stretched out and waved around as if in an infinitely large pool sparkling and shining then began to condense into a smaller brighter light.
“What’s happening?” Rahab asked.
Paul said nothing, just watching the metamorphosis. The bright ball of light was still a long way away. It continued its change until it took the form of a giant constellation-like dragon. Bright dots speckled his hide. He kicked wildly and raised his head high shaking his sharp horns. Shavings of light sprayed in every direction like a wet dog shaking himself dry. The dancing dragon flexed his muscle in a circle of space, undefined by any manmade measurement.
“He’s saying something,” Paul said. “He’s declaring his domain.”
“Space?”
“Everything. It’s all His. And He’s telling us. He wants us to know we’re in His hands.”
The dragon finished his speech and romped his way closer to the ship. A beam of yellow and another of blue proceeded from his whiskers like tentacles creeping towards the front of the ship.
“Come on,” Paul said, “let’s get up there.”
In the cabin they found the rest of the team watching in awe in what was a front seat view to the most splendid show on Earth. The tentacles had latched onto the fuel exhausted ship. The dragon, in his infinite strength, was pulling them home. Not without first prancing and kicking and taking a lap around the Earth. Shards of blue and white and every color they’d seen before sparked out from his paws with every step bathing the ship in the romance of the light.
“We’re in His hands now,” Rahab said.
Thank you for sticking with this series. This is the last issue and I had a blast writing it. I hope you did too reading it. If I get some positive feedback from my fans I may extend it. Connect with me at my website to let me know what you think.
If you enjoyed JESUS & Co. check out my new series, The Miserable Planet.
https://jacoblindaman.com
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