Chapter 10: Misfire
Debbi bristled visibly, even through her suit. 'My 'laser thing' can do a great deal more than this pile of junk. And that's assuming you can even get it to fire.'
Judith gave Debbi a penetrating look. 'Your laser isn't even powerful enough to drill a hole in a ship's hull, is it?'
'Listen,' Debbi said, 'It doesn't need to be. There will be at least one, most likely quite a number of input devices using infra-red, which feed directly into the pirate ship's on-board computer, including the fly-by-wire system.'
'Ah, I see. So you can burn out their controls.'
'Not at all! By beaming the laser straight through the flight deck view ports. The signal will bounce around the control deck until it enters the sensors. At that point my virus will download, locking them out and turning over control to me.'
'Hang on,' Lucy said, 'where does the virus come from?'
'Instead of using the coms laser to transmit a voice signal, I shall connect my tablet, on which I have stored a number of viral agents. Used in the correct sequence, the first virus will shut down their ship-wide systems before deleting itself. The second virus will then restore their life support, but under my control, and the third virus will give me direct one-way control over their flight deck.'
'Sounds complicated,' Lucy said.
Debbi sniffed. 'Just the sort of thing we software engineers keep in our toolboxes in case of emergency.' She lost no time in leaving the derelict ship via the tunnel connected to the pressurised domes. Once inside the first dome, she flipped up her faceplate and switched off her oxygen feed to conserve her supply. After a quick survey of the adjacent domes, she chose the one she would use because it gave the best line of sight to the point where the pirates were to emerge from the hyperspace pipe.
After collecting her crates of gear, Debbi opened the near side of the airlock into the shattered dome she had selected. She carried through the parts necessary to assemble the coms laser and grabbed up two of the drums of reclaimed cable which lay stacked up the side of the dome. Once through, she quickly assembled the tripod base right under the fracture in the dome roof. She then clicked into place each of the active components, and in completing the assembly, she attached the heavy duty emitter and lens system at opposite ends of a ruby glass column. Finally, she attached two lengths of cable to the portable power supply she had brought with her, and set up a wireless connection between her tablet and the coms laser. She checked the firewalls and looked at her chronometer. It had taken her forty-five minutes for the set-up. Wondering how far the other two had got with the antique gun, she went back into the pressurised dome again to conserve oxygen. Rather than chase after the other two, Debbi decided to sit on a crate and wait until they contacted her.
When Debbi had gone into the next compartment, Lucy had touched her helmet to Judith's so as to speak without using the suit radios. 'Get her!' she said.
'Yeah, it was all way too pat, wasn't it? I bet it'll be something Marshall put her up to ages ago. Probably in case some clever-dick captain tried to pull a void payment on him.'
Lucy shrugged. 'You've got to admit the guy's got imagination.'
Judith tried to see Lucy's expression through her faceplate to make out what she was referring to. 'Never mind about that, we've got a job to do.'
The hydraulic suit was too heavy to carry even on the moon, so the only way to get it from the taxi to the gun compartment was to wear it. Lucy guided Judith through the person-sized rent in the hull of the ship and helped her try to squeeze through into the firing compartment. That was when they saw that, even with the hydraulic exoskeleton detached from Judith, it would not fit through the hatch.
'I'll have to stay outside and move the gun from there. You'll have to tell me where to aim it.'
'OK but I can't lift these shells on my own, it's a two-person job.'
Judith left the suit outside the hatch and took one end of a shell, while Lucy took the other and together they loaded it into the breach of the gun.
Judith stood looking at the dusty hulk for several seconds before saying, 'That only leaves the question of how we fire the thing.'
'It's ancient, it must have been one of the first ships dumped here.'
'It was an early Febis ship,' Judith said. 'And there was a fight over it, way, way back when old Silas lived here.'
Lucy stared around at the ancillary equipment. 'I can see a pipe over there which I'm half expecting to be marked 'steam'.'
'You mean the firing mechanism is powered and therefore we can't do it manually?'
Lucy bit her lip. 'Not something of this size,' she admitted reluctantly.
'You must have known that all along,' Judith cried in exasperation.
'I'm sorry, I only sort of half knew it. I thought you knew what we were doing.'
'I've never handled one of these things before, any more than you have. What does it say on that pipe?'
Lucy hopped over and brushed off the dust. 'It says 'air'.' She paused and thought for a few moments.
Judith, not wanting to waste any more time that they probably didn't have said, 'Do you have pneumatic tools in that tool box of yours?'
'Oh, yes, of course.' Lucy needed no more hints and with a task to complete, she sprang into action, finding wrenches she could use to remove a short section of the old pneumatic pipe, and couplers to connect one of her spare pressurised gas bottles to the inlet valve on the firing mechanism for the gun.
When she was ready and stopped working, Lucy's mind turned to another question. 'What if they come out shooting?' she said with a tremor. 'You know, the pirates.'
In a voice, the calmness of which surprised her, Judith said, 'The last place they'll expect an attack to come from will be up here.' She checked her chronometer. 'And we should have time for a test firing.'
Lucy's eyes widened and her helmet bobbed up and down in excited agreement. 'There should be enough gas in the bottle for two or three at least.'
Judith went outside, climbed in the hydraulic suit and tilted the gun by swivelling the turret manually to point down at the pock-marked hull of a derelict freighter.
'Are you ready?' Lucy called through the suit com.
'I'm clear,' came back Judith's reply.
With absolutely no idea what was to follow, Lucy depressed the actuator she had connected by a length of fine plastic tube to the firing mechanism.
She felt the shockwave inside the turret impact her stomach and the gun recoiled on massive springs, the purpose of which she had only guessed at previously. A split second later, the target freighter, which she could see only dimly through the dusty transparent wall of the turret, erupted in a ball of flame. In the complete lack of atmosphere, the ball expanded, as it was pierced by shrapnel bursting through from its interior.
'Cripes,' Lucy said, 'I hope that lot dissipates before the pirates come through.
Another voice burst through the suit radios. 'What the hell are you two doing?' Debbi screamed.
'Oh, we thought we had better attempt a test shot,' Lucy offered.
'Well, thanks for not bothering to tell me. I felt a massive vibration through the ground and saw a huge ball of flame.'
'Yeah, impressive, huh?'
'Yes, sure, if you can aim it. And by the way, the laser is all set up, just in case you were wondering.'