Chapter 16 Liberation
As soon as they were aboard, the docking clamps automatically released them and the docking web guided them effortlessly towards the subterranean tunnel and the world beyond. Lucy slipped into the pilot’s seat and inspected the clear, concise, minimalist controls. Apart from the joystick, she was confronted with a matt black sheet of glass that provided a constantly changing array of information according to her needs. A simple bank of buttons running down the right side for engines, comms, weapons, shields and sensors. A traditional manual throttle to the left between her and the co-pilot.
Ford eased himself into the co-pilots seat beside her. “Well what's your verdict? Gaia thought you’d like the retro look.” he nodded at the throttle and joystick. “A good pilot likes a bit of tactile feedback.”
Lucy scanned her controls with a critical eye for a few moments before replying. “Where's the cup holder?”
Ford rolled his eyes upwards monumentality, showing the whites of his eyes in the same disconcerting manner of the Gaia avatar, then slipped his hand under the secondary console that sat between their seats. He hit a concealed button and two cup holders popped out, one from either side. He smiled as he punched as a few buttons on the centre consoles touch screen and materialised two sealed steaming cup of coffee in the holders. “Satisfied?”
“I'll let you know when I've tasted it.”
“Might have to wait.” he replied as the docking web ejected them from the tunnel into the ocean beyond.
Lucy fired up the engines and they moved effortlessly through the water.
“Is there anything this ship can't do?” she asked.
Ford rolled eyes again. It was something they we're going to have to get use to she thought. “Land, sea, air, space, hyperspace it can go just about anywhere, so long as you don't try and fly it into a sun.”
“Wasn't planning to.” she pulled the stick back hit the throttle and they watched as the water fell away and they lifted effortlessly into the sky. “Is there anything left of the original ship?”
He pulled an old rabbits foot on a silver chain from a compartment in his seat and attached it to the ceiling so it dangled between them.
“Perfect! Now this ship really is mine.” she cried as they banked steeply and zipped over the waves towards the shore.
Carol voice came over the comm. “Luther has an update, Malstrom have lost control of the planet.” There was a loud cheer from the compartment behind them. “What’s left of their forces have retreated into the spaceport and rigged it with explosives, they're demanding safe passage off the planet. The miners at Yaddle Mountain mines have taken the Malstrom staffers and collaborators there hostage and are threatening to massacre them unless they surrender. It’s one hell of a stand-off.”
“What are our options?”
“I'm working on them if you'd care to join us” interjected Bryson.
“Keep us in a holding pattern off the coast, till we're ready to go.” he said as he slipped into the compartment behind them.
A few minutes later he was back in the cabin and a new course laid in, Lucy kissed the rabbits foot and hit the throttle.
“Keep the weapons powered down and take us in low, with any luck they won't see us.” Ford instructed her.
“And if they do?” asked Lucy.
“Well let’s just hope they don't do anything stupid.”
They came in low, very low and fast, skimming the mountain tops as they went. As they screamed over an isolated ventilation shaft set in one of highest peaks a single paradrop tube activated. As soon as the payload was dropped Lucy pulled the throttle back climbing and banking steeply as the mountains receded rapidly into the distance.
The parapod dropped like a stone then suddenly its braking thrusters fired rapidly slowing its descent and adjusting its trajectory. Bryn hoped and prayed its on-board computer had been programmed correctly and that he wasn't about to find himself bouncing hundreds of meters down a steep mountain. He felt it hit the mountain side as it bounced once, twice, then slithered to a halt as the automatic arresters activated and it clawed itself into the snow-capped peak. He took a deep breath. At the least the inertial dampers had saved him from the worst effects of the buffeting and he was still, he hoped, on the mountain, as he blew the hatch.
He gasped and took a sharp intake of breath as the hatch vanished into a deep icy crevasse. The arresters had brought him to stop facing a drop of, at the best guess, over a hundred meters. He thanked his lucky stars he'd used the harness provided to secure himself in place inside the pod. He checked his backpack was intact and attached before activating his suits grapple and looking for a secure point to fasten on to as he felt the pod begin to move from under him. He fired the grapple and punched the harness release pulling himself clear as the pod slipped over the edge into oblivion. Leaving him hanging in space. He watched the fluctuating readings on his stress gauge as he winched himself out of the crevasse as quickly as he was able and once clear made for more stable ground. Fortunately he'd come up on the right side of the opening to reach the shaft and it was a simple matter of climbing over some rocks to get to it.
Once at the top he pushed a heavy metal grill aside and peered down. He couldn't help feeling as he prepared to repel down it that it was actually deeper than the crevasse. He secured his grapple and lowered himself over the side and began his descent dimly aware of a large fan somewhere beneath him sucking air through the mines. It occurred to him as he went further and further down the shaft they had been decidedly vague about how they were going to extract him afterwards. He tried not to think about it as the fan got larger and louder. Eventually he stopped just above the fan and positioned himself opposite a service hatch. He pressed his feet against the shaft either side of it and swung himself back bringing his feet together to kick his way through it. The hatch clattered onto the floor and he followed, releasing his line, landing on the floor beside it.
He pulled out his pistol and looked around him. It looked like no one had inspected the ventilation plant in years. Just in case he pulled open the control panel on the access lift that led to the main mining complex below him and locked out the controls so no one could surprise him. He brushed a combination of ice and dust of the controls and eventually found what he was looking for, the controls to the air filtration units. He opened each of the three large filter housings in turn and inserted the gas injectors Anna had fabricated back on the ship for his part of the mission. The harmless anaesthetic she'd manufactured would put everyone out in seconds. He closed the filtration units back up, radioed in his confirmation code, and waited for the signal that everyone else was in place and ready to go.
Lucy meanwhile, putting the mountains behind her, zigzagged back towards the spaceport making a series of preplanned paradrops along the way.
Anna and George, the medic from Lucy's team, emerged from their pods alongside the ruins of the New Hope Infirmary. Cracking open a third pod that had landed with them and activating the high capacity fabricator inside. A few minutes later they had a rudimentary field hospital up and running. George was running triage while Anna was busy programming medical nanobots and fabricating medicines. Thankfully Luther had managed to patch them into some resistance contacts and they soon had a small team running security and support.
Bryson's security team and David's Pod came in on a low trajectory to avoid detection and landed a short distance away from the base of the spaceport. David had a good idea where the charges would have been placed to bring it down. Bryson's job was to get him to them so he could disarm them without being detected or setting off any booby traps, ably assisted by some advanced cloaking tech Gaia had given them.
By the time the spaceport came into view it was just Ford, Lucy and Carol, left on board. Ford had just finished adjusting his glasses and slipped them back on.
“We've got green lights across the board, everyone is in place and good to go.” announced Carol.
Ford turned to
Lucy. “We forgot the naming ceremony, what do you want to call your new ship?”
She pondered the question for a moment or two before answering. “Phoenix.”
“Phoenix it is then.” Ford replied as he opened a line to the spaceport. “This is Guardian Ford of the Phoenix requesting permission to land.”
There was a moment of stunned silence before their request was denied, laced with a threat to destroy the port if they attempted an unauthorised landing.
Ford persisted. “We'd like to come aboard to negotiate your surrender.” he ignored an outburst of expletives. “I suggest that if you want to leave this planet alive you put your senior office or whoever is in charge on the line. “
“What if they don't want to play ball?” said Carol as the seconds ticked by.
“They will.” Ford replied.
“This is Brigadier Polson we're willing to accept your surrender.”
Ford laughed. “With all due respect Brigadier this is our planet and you’re an unwelcome guest, however I'm willing to negotiate an end to this stand-off that allows everyone to leave here alive.”
“Go to hell.”
“Actually I'm planning to land on platform eighty five, as gesture of good will we're coming in with our shields and weapons powered down. See you there.” Ford cut the transmission and gestured to Lucy to follow his instructions.
“Is that really wise?” asked Carol.
“Well I'm assuming the virus has disabled most of their weapons and they won't risk harming us in case its triggers a response from the miners.”
“Aren't you worried he'll follow the liturgy? All that no mercy or compassion for the weak crap.” Carol pressed him.
Ford shook his head “I doubt it, he'd have blown the port by now if he was, in any case we'll find out soon enough.”
Lucy powered down the weapons and shields and banked around sharply to the right to line the Phoenix up with an isolated and exposed landing pad on one of the upper tiers, not far from the main nerve centre of the control tower. She killed the main engines and lowered them smoothly onto the centre of the pad. They could just make out a youngish man with vivid blond hair standing at the edge of the pad with a security detail. A few moments later Ford emerged from the Phoenix, his hood cast back so his face was clearly visible, hands in the air, Lucy and Carol adopted a similar posture as they emerged behind him in single file. Once on the deck of the landing platform they flanked him Lucy on the left, Carol on the right.
“We're unarmed.” said Ford, slowly lowering his hands and opening his cloak to show he had no weapons. “We're here to negotiate.”
The blond headed man stepped forward and examined him with cold grey eyes. Ford guessed that the pale fair skinned individual could be no more than about twenty-five years old. It crossed his mind that judging by the age of its officers Malstrom must be running out of cannon fodder.
“I might have known it would be you. What's the matter, fed up with robbing graves, so you’re taking entire planets now?”
“You need to get out more,” replied Ford, “and stop watching newscasts.”
“I could just kill you now and be done with it.”
“Ain't going to happen, you need me more than I need you. I'm offering you all safe passage off the planet if you surrender. Now lay down your weapons.” he watched as several members of the security team exchanged glances.
“I’ve, I mean we've, already got our ticket out of here.” he gestured to the small trigger switch he was holding. “Dead man’s handle anything happens to me, anything happens I don't like, we all go boom.”
“As a gesture of goodwill I’ve already resolved the situation at Yaddle Mountain Mines.” he activated his suits holoprojector and with Gaia's assistance tapped it into the mines internal surveillance cameras, showing everyone unconscious. “We've pumped anaesthetic gas into the mines, they'll wake up in a few hours unarmed.”
“Maybe, maybe its poison and they're all dead, but at least if I die here I'll take you all with me and won't be remembered as the coward that surrendered a planet to a criminal.” he released the trigger switch and dropped it. Everyone, apart from Ford, flinched as it bounced onto the floor of the landing pad and waited and waited as nothing happened. Polson stared at him slack jawed and lost for words.
Ford smiled and softly stroked his goatee before speaking. “Did I forget to mention my people disarmed your charges?”
Polson gave Ford a stunned look of shock as he collapsed forward on the floor in a crumpled heap taken down by the butt of a rifle wielded by one of his own security detail “You’re relieved of duty sir.” he said before dropping his weapon and sliding it across the floor to them. The others followed suit. “If you want the planet that badly take it. There's nothing here we can see worth dying for, most of the men feel the same way.”
He took the hand of the man who'd spoken and shook it. “Surrender accepted. As of now you're all accorded full POW status.” he turned to Carol and Lucy.
Lucy hands on her hips, legs apart tore into him. “When exactly did you plan to tell us the charges had been disarmed?”
Ford shrugged his shoulders. “I needed your reactions to appear genuine, even though you were never in any real danger.” he tapped his glasses. “Concealed comm unit, not as antique as they look, I knew the moment David disarmed them.” he turned to Carol “Get Bryson and the others up here we'll need him to find somewhere secure for POW's.”
A short while later Carol was back in the control tower she'd been forced to vacate two and half years ago. She was getting ready to broadcast a planet wide message on a repeating loop Ford had recorded a few minutes earlier, against the backdrop of the Phoenix and Polson's men surrendering.