Chapter 25
The cargo vessel shared the sparse design elements of the RS Freedom, though the habitable space was far smaller. It was almost a pared down version of the full-sized starship. There was nothing more than a tiny bridge with all the controls centered around the pilot’s chair. A second seat remained to the side, to which command functions could be directed at the commander’s discretion, if at all. Behind the bridge rest two small quarters and a room housing a class 10 scrambler. The engine room lie beyond that. That was it, simple and efficient. Meant as a temporary transport, this ship had no extra features for entertainment.
Like the Freedom, this ship was laden with interlocking cargo pods: pods to either side, pods on top, pods in front. There were far more cargo pods attached to this tiny vessel than there were to the Freedom, making this the larger vessel overall. They didn’t plan to dematerialize the complex and take it with them as was expected by the designers, but Anders suspected they were better off with the extra cargo space than without it. If Colonel Freedom had been able to repair his key systems before they could lift off, they would need the extra protection against his weapons.
After inspecting the tiny bridge, Remy and his companion moved to the scrambler to see how Magnus was making out. Without the space to house everyone, they were resigned to scrambling everyone they could, saving their life patterns and storing their raw elements in cargo. It was difficult enough selecting a mere four individuals who were crucial to their escape; shaving that number in half seemed impossible.
Lieutenant Anders seemed necessary as someone with military tactical experience and the only one among them who had any experience with starship operations. Magnus, being the engineer, was the second most important choice. Anders may have been comfortable around these controls, but he had only the vaguest notion of how operate them harmoniously. Magnus was sure he could figure out the operations on the fly and teach his findings.
Though Dirk had no special skills helpful to an escape, he argued to be excluded as the leader of this resistance. It could be argued he had a certain leadership quality that could pull them together when combat heated up and chaos reigned. There was certainly value in having someone who could keep a cool head in crisis.
Remy also fought to stay out. He had to admit being a mere observer on the Freedom’s mission, he didn’t have anything special to add to the crew. However, he knew what everyone was capable of and what horrors they could exact on each other when hope was lost. Remy feared for their very souls if he wasn’t around to keep the primitive impulses in check.
There wasn’t much time to make the final decision. Since falling back from the complex, it was only a matter of minutes before Fortune’s men would take control of the complex and its scrambler. Anders had wanted to destroy the dish after they scrambled the ship, but with all the smaller scramblers tucked around the complex in the med bay, the mess hall, crew quarters, and anywhere else someone would need the technology, it seemed pointless to waste the time on one of them.
Magnus scrambled the retreating miners ten or so at a time. Should they need one individual out of the many, it would be difficult to separate the single pattern from the group file. Not impossible, but it would take someone skilled to avoid separating a partial person. Still, they didn’t have time to save everyone individually.
Remy returned to one of the quarters where Roxanne sat on the bed reading her book. He had requested they wait until the last minute to place her in storage since her known life had already been so brief. It was cruel to think of her stored as a separate computer program and pile of atoms when her life began as such. He wanted her to remain free as long as he could.
Roxanne closed her book and jumped on Remy with excitement. “Are we going to Earth now?”
“Not quite. We have to get away from some bad people.”
“When we do,” she dreamily asked, “can we go to a place called Yellowstone Park? I want to see a geyser!”
Remy chuckled at her innocence. This book he had given her turned her into a child discovering the world for the first time and dreaming of wonders that yearned for her the moment she read of them.
“I think that can be arranged,” he promised. He would promise to show her the entire world if it would keep her at ease about disappearing into the white light for the journey. He couldn’t imagine the fear hiding in her mind that she might come back from that light with the same blank mind she had when Pittman pulled her from its embrace. Nor had he any desire to experience that for himself.
Anders showed up to retrieve him back to business. “Magnus is scrambling the last of the miners. Fortune’s men are following right behind them, so as soon as he’s done we’re bringing the inhibitors online and lifting off.”
Remy took Roxanne’s hand to lead her off to the scrambler, but Anders stopped him. “She can wait until we’re safely away. We won’t be able to scramble her with the inhibitors up and Magnus doesn’t want to delay our defenses any longer than we have to.
So he said goodbye to the girl and headed outside, pressing the button to raise the barrier between them. As the metal plating flashed into place, he paused, thinking back to his time aboard the Freedom and trying to remember if they had scrambled the doors open and closed with the ship’s inhibitors in place, online. His suspicions once again drew him to the Lieutenant. His proclamation, “I kind of found Colonel Freedom to be the father I never really had,” flooded his mind like a tornado siren placed against his ear.
“What’s the matter,” Anders inquired.
He wouldn’t voice his nagging suspicions. He couldn’t voice them to his partner. If his escape from the Freedom and the help provided to these miners had been staged, then his liaison was not the innocent and offended young man he seemed to be in Doctor Sadile’s secret lab.
“Nothing, I was just thinking there was something I need to ask Magnus before we take off. You go ahead to the bridge and get the autopilot to lift us off.”
“Okay.” Anders left him for the bridge, keeping his eye over his shoulder and on the Inspector as suspiciously as Remy had viewed him.
Safely away, Remy found Magnus, shutting down the scrambler and pushing a few buttons on the control panel to activate the inhibitors. “We’re ready for takeoff,” he shouted down the short hallway to Anders in the bridge. With a rumble, Remy felt the ship lifting from the surface. The inertial dampening kept them both from being flattened against the floor, but there was a lag allowing him to experience a brief increase in the gravity.
“Magnus, can you explain something to me?”
“Go ahead.”
“If these doors are operated by mini scramblers in the walls, how do they work when the inhibitors are online?”
Magnus pushed the button to materialize the door in the frame, then again to dematerialize it. He pulled Remy closer to inspect the tiny mechanisms within the wall.
“The inhibitors usually don’t cover every inch of the ship. Most of the time you activate a series of inhibitors that only put up a shell of protection on the outer sections. The scramblers in this part of the ship will still function, but only if they don’t have to draw material from the outer storage pods or park it there. Standard replication will be impossible, but these door units store the atoms within the walls so they will still function with the inhibitors in place. Otherwise you wouldn’t be able to move about the ship in a crisis, or seal off breached sections.”
“Huh,” Remy muttered still thinking. It amazed him there was always an explanation to his suspicions, yet he couldn’t shake the feelings of distrust in Anders after all the help he had been.
“Is something wrong,” Magnus pressed him.
“No, I just didn’t know that. It kind of spooked me when I realized we were opening doors on the Freedom.”
“Try to put it out of your mind,” Magnus suggested. “It doesn’t help when all you can think about is being snatched from thin air and
vaporized into oblivion. Everyone down in that facility couldn’t help looking over their shoulders at some invisible curse.”
Remy supposed he was right that his fears were induced by things he had learned. Anders had proved himself over and over again; it was ridiculous to think these were the lengths he went to just to trap him, or to gain access to the miners.