Sunday is the third day of their trip. It's been quiet, no other traffic around, but BC wakes with a small bit of panic. He's got none of the books a real, proper priest should have to read the liturgy Longeux wants him to perform. He's got no clue. Longeux has left him to himself mostly, but he's expecting BC to perform this liturgy for him today.
It doesn't look like we're going to get there early. That was my only hope...
BC walks up to the common area. Longeux has thrown a white sheet over the table and pushed it over in front of his shrine. He's cleared the chairs away to the side.
"I thought you could use this as an altar. It's not consecrated or anything, but it's fine by me if you're okay with it."
"Sure, sure, no, that's fine. I'm a little embarrassed, though, Mr. Longeux. I've come to realize I haven't brought any of my liturgical books with me."
Longeux is surprised, but nonplused.
"I've got the liturgy we need stored on the ship's computer. Hold on just a sec and I'll print it out for you to use." He walks over to a wall-mounted screen, calls up the text, prints it out and brings it to BC. "Here you go, Father. New United Reform Liturgy. I keep a copy handy, sometimes say it for myself when I'm traveling on Sundays."
BC isn't even sure where to start. He takes the papers and stands behind the table in front of the shrine. He smoothes the papers out on the makeshift altar.
This should do... let's see now...
He raises his arms and a loud alarm sounds.
What the...
"Proximity alert, Father. Hold on, I'll be right back!"
Longeux runs to the ladder and disappears up into the bridge. BC follows, climbs up to see what's going on. Longeux looks back at him from the pilot's chair on the left, then looks back to the controls and shouts over his shoulder.
"We've got company, Father. It's a UIN scout. They aren't hailing us. We wouldn't know they were even there without the alarm being set off. That's not normal, usually they at least hail you. Not a good sign! Looks like they're charging weapons! Hold on!"
BC is thrown forward, feels his stomach leap up through his chest as Longeux attempts evasive maneuvers. He's on the deck in between the two flight chairs.
"Hold on, there, Father. We're only about four hours from Fortune Station. We're not on a direct route, so he probably doesn't know where we're going. They shouldn't care who we are or why we're here. But they're firing!"
BC is thrown sideways into the right side flight chair as he hears a boom and resounding clang at the same instant.
"We're hit!" Longeux yells, "Returning fire!"
BC pulls himself up and holds on to the back of the right flight chair, watching Longeux scramble to maneuver their ship around the UIN scout ship. Suddenly, the scout ship falls into view, large in the bridge viewport as Longeux brings his ship up behind it. Longeux flips switches and hits buttons on the console as missiles and bright laser fire flashes away from the Paladin IV towards the UIN scout. Bright orange blossoms flame up from the scout ship, blinding BC momentarily.
"We hit ‘em! Hold on."
Longeux maneuvers the ship up and to the right of the scout. As the ship banks, BC is thrown back and down through the hatch, flailing and falling all the way down to the common room floor. He's all right, just shaken up. He gets up and dusts himself off, checking for broken bones.
Seems fine. Head hurts... there's a goose egg. Ouch!
BC climbs back up the ladder and through the hatch into the bridge, where Longeux is working furiously to keep his ship together and out of harm's way.
"They hit us again as we banked. We've lost some fuel. Father, why don't you get back down to the common area. There's a fixed seat you can strap yourself into in an access area just behind the shrine. There's a computer with a viewstation there, wired in to the bridge. We'll be able to talk but you'll be safer than you are flapping around up here. Seal the hatch as you go, huh? Go on!"
BC climbs back down and seals the hatch. He goes over to the shrine and finds an access handle behind the gilded crucifix. The shrine itself is mounted to the door, and moves aside with the door as BC opens the compartment.
Another muffled boom and BC suddenly finds himself on the ceiling of the small compartment.
The artificial G must have been hit! Shit. Which way is down? Damn... Oh, man, I don't want to be sick. Freefall, falling every which way all at once, love it...
BC pushes off from the ceiling and grabs the top of the chair as he floats down. He pulls himself down into the chair, straps himself in and activates the computer. It swings up into place in front of him. He hears Longeux firing again, sees flashes on the viewstation, and hears Longeux from the speakers in front of him.
"We got ‘em again, critical hit, looks like. They're going down! Shit, they've still got fire power..."
BC is surprised. He hasn't heard Longeux swear until now.
WHAM!
The ship is rocked backwards, like a giant hand just reached out, stopped them, and pushed them back. The screen in front of him goes to static. The lights dim. Everything is strangely silent.
"Mr. Longeux?" BC tries the com unit in front of him. No response.
He unstraps himself from the chair. Moving slowly and cautiously in the zero G, he opens the access door and floats out into the main room.
The common area looks okay. Hard to tell in this dim emergency lighting. But we must have taken a big hit. I don't hear the engines. I hope that scout ship isn't coming around to finish the job! I gotta get back up to the bridge and check on Mr. Longeux.
BC works his way hand over hand around the walls of the room until he gets to the recessed alcove and the hatch to the bridge. He floats up the ladder to the hatch. It looks strange to BC.
It looks different. It's lower, bulging down. Shit indeed, Mr. Longeux.
The small screen next to the door clears up from static to a self-test screen.
The ship's systems must have taken a jolt. Maybe they'll come back on-line now. Wonder if I can get this hatch open...
BC struggles with the hatch, trying to get the handle to budge, to get it to move. It's stuck. BC keeps trying to force it. He's thinking about going back to the stateroom for his handlaser when the screen next to the door beeps.
BC reads the screen: "Emergency: Door Sealed--Zero Atmosphere On Bridge."
Shit indeed, Mr. Longeux. At least there are no more booms, so far. Hopefully, Longeux disabled the scout ship before they got him.
BC hears the Paladin IV's engines sputter back to life.
They don't sound good. And there's no way we're still going in the right direction... Can't get back on the bridge... I wonder if there's any other way to fly this thing.
BC floats down out of the alcove and hand over hands his way back around to the chair in the compartment behind the shrine. He straps himself back in.
The computer has come back to life. He begins searching out how the ship's systems are controlled, trying to get control of the ship from the console he's on.
After about fifteen minutes, BC finds a way to transfer ship's controls to his terminal. He checks the engines, damaged but working. He checks the fuel.
Just about gone, that's bad.
He manages to set course corrections and points the ship toward Fortune Station. As more ship systems come back on, he tries to take a look around the ship. The main viewscreen cameras mounted front of the bridge are gone. He searches for other external viewers and finds one mounted on the top of the ship. He can see front and forward, but can't see any of the ship itself to see what external damage has been done. The engines are even beginning to sound normal again, but BC worries about how little fuel remains to feed them.
Got to save some fuel to maneuver in when I get to the station, so I can dock. Have to figure out how much to use for thrust. Shot in the dark... no scanners, can't see much of anything visually, either. Just gotta guess. Hope that's a good guess.
BC saves about a quarter of his remaining fuel for maneuvering
when he gets to the station, then pours what's left into a long sustained burst, sending the ship in the general direction of Fortune Station.
With the ship's artificial gravity disabled, the force of the thrust pushes BC flat back in his seat. He hangs on and watches the screen in front of him.
I don't think I'll be riding back to the Moon on this thing... just get me there, that's all I ask. I hope that scout ship didn't get to call any of his friends...
After almost four uneasy hours, Fortune Station finally looms in the console screen.
Hello, Fortune Station. Old looking. Man, this place looks primitive.
Fortune Station is about a mile long, made up of two fat ring sections each about a quarter mile across rotating in unison half a mile apart, connected to each other by four major walkways.
BC can't make out too many details. The station is mostly just a deep, unbroken, black silhouette against the stars.
Docking. How do I dock this thing? Wish there was an automatic "docking" button. I've got bring the ship in close and match the spin of the station, first. Place looks like a couple of donuts with four styli poked through them. Big fat old rusty donuts. Plain, no glaze. The far donut looks more lit up, so I'll line up on this closer, darker one. May be able to sneak in, we'll see.
BC fires thrusters and orients the ship, facing the darker "donut". He gets the ship spinning with the station, rotating slowly as they approach the donut "hole." There are two corridors crisscrossing the actual hole with a docking access in the middle. BC can see it on the screen in front of him as the ship approaches. The station looks still in front of him, the stars spinning around them.
This camera is supposedly mounted above the docking hatch, so this is good. Ew... don't look at the stars, look at the station, not at the stars...
Dizzying.
The Paladin IV is almost next to the station when he sees in the view screen that the hatch he's been aiming for is blown.
Useless. Shit! If I remember the plans for this place there are hatches out toward the rim of the donut on this side, have to try to find one and dock. The rotation is gonna make that tricky.
He uses what little fuel he has left, firing maneuvering thrusters to line up with another hatch, still on this side of the donut, but down towards the edge, where there's a feeling of gravity created by the station's rotation. He starts to move the ship in towards the hatch, trying to keep "down" down as rotation induced gravity begins to exert its pull on the ship.
I better line the ship up right or I'll be walking across the walls or the ceiling...
Red lights suddenly come on. The ship's computer warns, "Collision Alert. Collision Alert. Collision Alert..."
"I know, I hear you, I know!"
BC gets the Paladin IV to stop just short of impact. He can see the station's hatch looming large. He fires directional rockets to bring the ship in slower, slower...
A loud, piercing, metal on metal screech echoes off the ship's walls.
Ouch! Not even close. Gotta back off, try again. Almost no fuel. How many tries do I get? Let's find out.
It takes two tries and a lot of scraping and bumping, but BC finally gets the Paladin IV to dock with Fortune Station.
Not the most graceful entrance. So much for sneaking in. Hope I didn't wake anybody up...
Chapter Fifteen