Chapter 5
Sabotage
Captain Shilling had known Rossi Sincini for many cycles. He’d been one of her crew members on her first trip to Earth on ES 26. He was a mechanical engineer by trade, and had worked for cycles for Wiggins Engineering, the manufacturer of the first FTL drive.
Since FTL drives were still relatively new, Wiggins Engineering had loaned Rossi to Captain Shilling to keep an eye on the FTL drive during its first flight to Earth. Eventually, Wiggins transferred him to Clarion to supervise the work on the FTL drives being installed on the ships of the Intergalactic Fleet.
Captain Shilling’s communiqué sent a shiver down Rossi’s spine.
Admiral Lugart refuses to surrender. Fleet headed for Earth. All workers to be killed. Must sabotage departure, take cover in storage bunkers. We’ll come get you. C. Shilling.
He tore the note into shreds and dumped it in a trash can. His crews had been working double shifts for the past cycle trying to get the Intergalactic Fleet flight ready. His employer had been promised huge bonuses if it met Videl Lai’s deadlines. Those deadlines were fast approaching and the atmosphere on Clarion was hectic. When Videl Lai was killed, Rossi had thought that things would calm down, but the opposite had occurred. Panic had set in.
Rossi was not political. He was a scientist and too busy working to pay any attention to politics. To him, the civil war was an abstraction. It hadn’t made its way to Clarion—at least until now.
He ran Captain Shilling’s message through his head again. All workers to be killed. That was hard for Rossi to swallow, but he knew Captain Shilling well, and had never known her to be anything but deadly serious. He looked around for someone he could talk to. He saw his friend Paalo and went over to him.
“What’s the word on the Fleet’s departure?” Rossi asked.
“We’re on standby. It could happen any time,” Paalo replied.
“What’re our instructions once they leave?”
“Don’t know yet. All communications with Wiggins terminated when the TGA surrendered.”
“So, who do we work for now?”
“I don’t know. We’ve been assured all contracts would be honored.”
“What does that mean?” Rossi asked. “How will Intergalactic Command honor our contract once they leave? The Loyalists will take over the base as soon as they’re gone, and they’re not going to be happy that we helped the Fleet escape.”
Paalo looked alarmed. “You’re right. What should we do?”
“I’ve just received a communiqué from an old friend, Captain Shilling, the shuttle commander I used to serve under. She wants us to sabotage the Fleet. Try to stop them from leaving. She says Intergalactic Command plans to kill all of us before they leave.”
“What!” Paalo exclaimed. “The skutz are going to kill us after we’ve been working our tails off for them for the last cycle?”
“Shh! Keep your voice down,” Rossi warned.
“Sorry,” Paalo whispered. “It does make sense. They wouldn’t want us providing intelligence to the Loyalists.”
“Right. So, we better get something organized quickly.”
Paalo swallowed hard.“Okay, we should gather a few people from each of the guilds so we’ll have the entire base covered.”
“Good idea. I’ll take the north end, you take the south. We’ll meet behind the machine shop in half a kyloon. It’s noisy there and there isn’t any surveillance.”
Paalo nodded and they split up. Rossi felt sick thinking about Intergalactic Command’s plan to murder everyone. It was hard to believe, but he wasn’t about to take any chances with so many lives at stake.
It was about time to take sides anyway, he reasoned. He’d never liked the Purists, but he hadn’t been in a position to oppose them. That would have been suicide. He was actually starting to feel good about this turn of events when he saw a couple of TGA soldiers coming at him. His heart skipped a beat as they passed, but they paid him no attention.
Rossi next saw a friend of his from the electronics guild. He grabbed the man’s arm and led him behind a giant wire cable. When he’d explained the situation, the man went off hurriedly in another direction.
After passing on his message to several more of his friends, Rossi headed for the rendezvous spot. When he got there, only a handful of people had arrived. His spirits fell. He wondered if the TGA had found out about the meeting. Then he looked around and saw others coming, in groups of two and three, until there were so many he feared the gathering would attract unwanted attention. As the others approached, he warned them to stay out of sight of the cameras and to keep their voices down.
“As you know,” Rossi began, “I’ve been contacted by Captain Shilling on behalf of the new Loyalist government. She contacted me because I served on ES 26 for almost three cycles under her command. She’s an honorable woman and I am sure we can trust her. What I learned from her is that, apparently, Intergalactic Command is not going to surrender.”
There were murmurs from the group. “I heard that, too,” Paalo added. “We’ve been given orders to ready the ships for takeoff.”
“Yes,” Rossi agreed, “and Captain Shilling believes Intergalactic Command has ordered that each and every one of us be killed when our work here is finished.”
Several people gasped in shock. Rossi held up his hand and everyone quieted. “I know it sounds outrageous, but I’m afraid it’s true. You all witnessed the atrocities perpetrated by the TGA during the war. You know what they are capable of. They don’t care about us, only about escaping to Earth at all costs. So, we must take action, not only to protect ourselves, but to try to thwart their plans to steal the Intergalactic Fleet.”
Heads nodded in approval and excited conversation broke out. “Quiet,” Rossi warned. “We don’t want to attract attention.”
“So, what should we do?” someone asked.
“It was suggested we could hide in the underground storage bunkers after the Fleet departs. We’d survive there even if they blew up the base after they took off. As to how to sabotage the Fleet, we’re open to suggestions.”
There was a moment of silence, and then a thin, grey-haired man spoke up.
“I helped program the ships’ computers,” he said. “I could introduce a chaos virus into them that would take kyloons to purge.”
“Excellent. Must you have access to each ship?”
“Yes, but I can introduce the virus one ship at a time and keep them docile initially. Then I can trigger them all remotely later on.”
“Great. Be ready to do that when the time comes.”
Another hand rose. “Each of the ships have fire sensors. If you burn something near them the alarms will sound and all nonessential systems will shut down. That could cause much delay.”
“Okay, anyone who has access to the ships find out where these fire sensors are located and be ready to set them off when I tell you,” Rossi said.
“That will piss them off,” a man in the front row said, shaking his head. “They’ll know it’s sabotage. They might decide to kill us before they leave, rather than attack the base with their ships.”
“Good point,” Rossi said. “We don’t really know how they plan to kill us.”
“We each need to have a weapon with us to defend ourselves,” Paalo said.
“So, how can we get weapons?” Rossi asked the group.
A man raised his hand. “I work in the armory, but it’s nearly impossible to smuggle anything out of there.”
Rossi raised his eyebrows. “What’s your name?”
“Rep Repaldi. You can call me Rep.”
“Okay, Rep. So, if the base were under attack you could let us in and we could just help ourselves.”
“Yes, but there are two guards always on duty.”
“Don’t worry about that. If we can’t lure them out, we’ll just have to kill them.”
“We’re not soldiers,” Paalo pointed out. “How do you know we’ll be able to handle th
e weapons once we get our hands on them?”
“Fortunately, firing a gun is not that complicated,” Rossi said. “Once you get the weapon loaded all you have to do is release the safety, point, and pull the trigger. And with smart bullets it doesn’t matter if you’re a good shot or not.”
“It may not be complicated, but when someone is shooting at you is no time to be fumbling with your weapon.”
Rossi shrugged. “Well, I’m not going to force anyone to take a weapon, but if you want one I’ll try to get one for you.”
“So, how will we know when to begin sabotaging the ships?” Paalo asked.
“Whoever gets word the Fleet is about to take off, or that the Loyalists are attacking, should signal the rest of us,” Rossi replied.
“What kind of signal?” someone asked.
“How about the fire sensors?” Rossi replied. “Set one off, and that will be the signal to get ready to sabotage the ships and to attack the armory. And when the alarms go off that will be the signal to trigger the chaos virus. That will cause much confusion and give us time to get to the armory and then down to the bunkers.”
Paalo nodded. “Okay, everybody got that?”
Nobody said anything in response, so Rossi concluded the meeting.
“Don’t leave all at once,” he said. “Two or three at a time. And may God and Sandee be with you.”
When the crowd had left, Rossi and Paalo went to the armory to view the layout, so they could devise a plan of attack. It was located underground on the third level. As far as they could determine, there was just one way in and one way out. It was obvious there would be no escape if something went wrong. Nevertheless, for the next two days they fine-tuned their sabotage plans. Then they watched and listened.
On the morning of the third day, the first alarm went off. When Rossi heard it, he sprinted to his room and retrieved the pistol he’d hidden under his mattress. Then he made his way to the armory, trying not to attract attention. By the time he got there, several fire alarms were sounding, and soldiers and workers were rushing to their posts. He spotted Paalo standing at the entrance to the stairway that led down to the armory.
“Okay, let’s go,” Rossi said, beginning the long descent to the third deck.
“Right behind you,” Paalo said.
At the bottom, a worker they recognized said, “The guards are still inside.”
“Try the door,” Rossi ordered.
Paalo went over to the door and gave it a push. It swung open. Paalo glanced at Rossi and then pulled a gun from his waistband. They went inside together.
The room looked deserted. Then Rossi saw one of the guards lying on the ground, apparently unconscious.
“Over here,” a voice Rossi recognized as Rep’s said.
Rossi rushed around the corner in the direction of the voice. The other soldier was tied up, with a gag in his mouth.
Rep looked scared. “We don’t have much time,” he said. “Let’s get the guns and get out of here.”
“Okay. Nice work, by the way,” Rossi said, pointing down at the captive soldier. “Where are the weapons?”
“In the back room.”
The three men rushed into the back room and started carrying out rifles and pistols as fast as they could. Soon, reinforcements arrived to help pass the weapons around.
Before they could finish, however, they heard gunfire in the hallway. Paalo rushed to the door, peered outside, and saw two of their men firing on a TGA soldier. One of the men had taken a bullet. Paalo stepped out and joined in the firefight. His third shot hit the soldier, who immediately went down.
“Come on! Let’s get out of here!” Paalo yelled.
The group rushed up the stairs and made their way quickly to the elevators that would take them to the storage bunkers. When they reached the elevators, however, they saw several guards milling around. Suddenly, one of the guards spotted them and began firing. A bullet ricocheted off a pipe next to Paalo, who took cover behind a concrete post. The others turned and began firing at their attackers as they ran down a ramp toward them.
An explosion rocked the building. Debris began falling. Then a second explosion severed a hot-water pipe, and the room began filling up with steam. Bullets flew past them as more and more soldiers responded to the gunfire and opened fire on the workers.
They’d almost given up hope when the solders themselves were hit by fire from behind them and they slumped to the ground, dead. Several more workers arrived.
“The Loyalists are attacking the base,” one of them said. “The Fleet may try to leave.”
“We’ve got to get to the bunkers!” Rossi yelled. “There’s no time to lose.”
“We’ll have to storm the elevators,” Rep said. “We don’t have any other choice.”
“Okay, Let’s do it!” Paalo yelled and began running at the soldiers in front of the elevators, his gun blazing.
Two soldiers fell before Paalo took a bullet to his shoulder. Rossi grabbed him and dragged him behind a barrel. The rest of them continued the assault on the elevators until all the soldiers were dead and the elevator had been secured.
Fortunately the elevator had been designed to move large machinery, so it only took two trips for all the workers to get to the bunkers. That was a good thing, because not long after the hatch was secured, a tremendous explosion rocked the building. But as promised, the bunkers remained intact.
There was another problem, however: Rossi had forgotten that the bunkers didn’t have their own air supply. The only air available was what was in each bunker when they’d closed the doors. It wasn’t long before the group started to feel light-headed.
“We’re running out of air,” Rossi warned them.
“There must be space suits stored down here, and oxygen bottles,” Paalo moaned. One of the other workers had given him first aid and had managed to stop the bleeding, but he was still in a lot of pain.
“Right,” Rep said. “I’ll go look around.”
Several loons later Rep returned with two space suits and a large oxygen bottle.
“Rossi. You and I should take these suits and go see how bad it is topside.”
“Right,” Rossi replied.
He turned to the group. “After we shut the door, open the oxygen valve for thirty tiks, then close it. That should let enough oxygen into the room to keep you all alive. Open the valve whenever the air seems to be getting thin. There are more bottles if we need it, but we shouldn’t waste any oxygen. Only God and Sandee know how long we’ll have to be down here.”
Two kyloons later, Rossi and Rep, protected by their spacesuits, ventured out of the bunker to see what was left of the Clarion base. There were no fires raging now that all the oxygen was gone, but the remnants of one huge fire were still visible. They moved through the rubble to the elevator shaft and peered upward. It looked clear. Rossi slung a coil of rope over his shoulder and began climbing up the shaft. Rep followed. When they got to the ground level, Rossi pushed open the elevator door and climbed out. Rep was right behind him.
The base was a heap of smoldering debris, and all the tunnels connecting the six hangars had collapsed. Rossi scanned the base. His heart sank.
“Sandee save us. The Fleet’s still here!” he exclaimed.
“Oh, no. They’re going to be coming for us soon,” Rep moaned. “What are we going to do?”
“That’s why we have the guns—to hold them off until we are rescued.”
“As long as the Fleet’s here, I don’t think any rescue party will come,” Rep said, shaking his head.
“Probably not, but it still won’t be easy for the soldiers to find us. Hopefully, we won’t be a high priority. They’ll probably just shoot a few extra missiles our way when they leave to be sure we’re dead.”
“What do you think they will be doing in the meantime?”
“Right now, they’re probably dealing with the chaos virus and the systems that have shut down. I would imagine they’ll leave just as soo
n as that’s been accomplished.”
“So, what should we do now?” Rep asked.
“You go back down to the bunker and fill everybody in on the situation up here. I’ll keep my eyes out for TGA soldiers coming our way. If you hear gunfire you’ll know they’re on their way.”
Rep nodded and left. Rossi looked up into the sky at Tarizon. He prayed that a rescue ship would arrive soon.
He wondered how long their sabotage and the attack on the base would delay the Fleet’s departure. He knew the damage they’d caused so far would be repaired the next day. He didn’t know the extent of the damage from the Loyalist attack, but he couldn’t imagine the Loyalist fighters being much of a match for attack cruisers. He just prayed that he and his fellow workers would survive. But even if they didn’t, maybe their sacrifice would at least have made a difference.