Mitchell's Revenge
The Zond, Karhu System border

Maxim was impressed. Anja Stern satwhere she was told, observing the crew on the bridge. She quietly asked Maxim questions as theyapproached the jump point and he surprised himself by answering her. She was anintelligent, articulate girl, who was keenly interested in everything going onaround her. She confided in Maxim that she wanted to be a pilot when she grewup, just like her brother.

Pavel Azanov listened to theirexchanges and reflected that there could be little harm in letting the child watchand learn while she was travelling with them. Once they reached Tarasov shewouldn’t be going anywhere. And it was a lot easier to have a compliant hostagethan one trying to sabotage the ship.

Pavel was working on the jumpcoordinates to take them back to the Laika system via the fastest route. Ifthey went directly they would have to make three jumps. The first and longest jumpwould land them at the edge of the Spansion shipping lane, a busy transportroute, where pirates were common. Transports moved in groups, often accompaniedby armed protection vessels. They would have to pass through the shipping lanebefore making their second jump.

The second jump would take them tothe edge of the asteroid belt that separated the Laika system from the fourother inhabited systems in the quadrant. Once they reached the asteroid beltPavel would take the ship manually through the debris field before they couldmake the third and final jump to Tarasov. He thought that the asteroid belt waswhere Anja would really learn something about piloting.

The last jump would be the shortestone. As it turned out, the crew of the Zond were looking forward to going home.They had been away from Tarasov for almost a standard year. Maxim’s childrenwere adults now. His wife had died in a plague that struck the planet a fewyears before. There were no grandchildren yet, but he looked forward to the daywhen there were.

Elena and Sergey both had partnersand family based on Tarasov. They missed them when they were travelling, butdue to the nature of their work, they were unable to tell them where they weregoing, or what they were doing. Their families knew that what they did wasdangerous, and the money they made allowed them to live well.

Pavel and Nadezhda were both singleand loved their shipboard life. They enjoyed their visits home, but soon becameanxious to be back amongst the stars.

Anja was thrilled she wastravelling in space, regardless of where she ended up. She now felt reasonablysafe with the crew and figured she would eventually work out where she washeaded and what for. She just had to be patient. She thought that someone wouldlet something slip sooner or later.

Pavel finished working on the jumpcoordinates and programmed the first jump into the FTL drive computer. As the Zondcompleted the jump and slowed to enter the transport lane, the nav board beganto register hot weapons activity around them. In a matter of minutes the boardwas flashing wildly.

“What the hell?” Pavel muttered ashe studied the data streaming down his vid screen.

Nadezhda was quicker to identify what washappening.

“Looks like a freighter’s been hitby something,” she said. “It’s dumping cargo pallets into the transport lane,and leaking oxygen and water.”

Maxim brought a wide view of thetransport lane up onto the big vid screen at the front of the bridge. Therewere several ships clustered around the stricken freighter, not all of themwith friendly intentions. They could see bouts of weapons fire between some ofthe smaller craft, and a larger ship attached to the remaining section of thefreighter with grappling hooks. It looked like an escape chute was positionedbetween the two ships.

“There!” Nadezhda pointed to asmall craft hurtling away from the scene in front of them. “Escape pod’s beenjettisoned.”

“I’ve got a bad feeling aboutthis,” said Maxim. He turned to Pavel. “Get us away from this mess as fast aspossible. Now!”

“Too late,” said Sergey quietly. “Look.”

He gestured towards a schematic ofthe Zond on Pavel’s board. Flashing red lights indicated someone or something,trying to cut their way through their hull. A much smaller craft had attacheditself, limpet-like, to the exterior of the Zond and they were under attackthemselves. They could not turn their weapons on it without harming themselves.They would have to do this by hand. Maxim could feel a faint vibration that didnot belong to the regular operation of his ship.

Anja hunkered down in her seat andwatched in amazement as the crew quickly prepared to repel the boarders. Therewas no panic or shouting. A detached calm descended on the bridge. A schematicof the Zond appeared on the big screen in front of them. Maxim pointed to thecorridors and utilities ducts surrounding the area where the smaller craft waspositioned.

“Seal off access to these areas,”he said.

“Already doing it,” repliedNadezhda. “That thing’s got a very tight seal on our hull. I’m detecting at leastthree life forms, not necessarily humanoid.”

Anja shuddered, and then thought‘Aliens! How exciting!’ and continued towatch and listen intently. Elena was suddenly standing next to her.

“Can you handle a weapon?” shewhispered to her. Anja grinned.

“I can certainly try!” she replied.“I’ve only ever used an air rifle back on EQ2, but I could shoot prettystraight with it.”

Elena handed her a small handweapon. She quickly showed her how it worked.

“Keep this hidden,” she said. “Maximdoesn’t need to know you’ve got it. If anything happens to you I could neverforgive myself, and Yuri will have my head on a plate. So you need to be ableto defend yourself if necessary. OK?”

Anja nodded, studied it briefly andthen tucked the small weapon into the pocket of her jacket.

“Your best option may be to hide ifthis goes pear shaped,” Elena went on quietly. “It’s up to you. And good luck.”She squeezed Anja’s shoulder and returned to the group at the front of thebridge.

“Sergey and Elena, you’re ourstrike team,” said Maxim. “You’ll have to get the reinforced lightweight EVAgear on. Take every type of weapon you can possibly carry, and dispose of thosecreatures. I don’t care how you do it; just try not to damage our girl toomuch.”

They nodded, checked the vid screendisplay again and disappeared into the bowels of the ship.

“Nadezhda, replace out if there’s away to get that thing off our hull without sending a piece of us with it,”Maxim went on. “I’ll take the Silver Musca out and try the sonic.”

“Pavel, keep us on our path andlook out for any other approaching ships that look like trouble. Warn them offthem if necessary.”

“Anja, stay here. And help Nadezhdawith whatever she asks you to do, OK?” Anja looked at Maxim.

“What are you going to do?” sheasked innocently.

“I’ve got a little surprise up mysleeve. Stay here. I’ll be right back.” He left the bridge and made his way tohis cabin to collect the things he needed.

Anja sat next to Nadezhda. Shesmiled at the child.

“We’ll be OK,” she said. “We knowwhat we’re doing. We’ve dealt with worse.”

“What’s Maxim going to do?”

Nadezhda grinned viciously.

“You’ll see in a few minutes.” Thenshe explained the plan to Anja as she continued to watch the data streams andthe schematics.

“Because we’re such a small ship wedon’t have huge fire power. So Maxim and Pavel developed a sonic weapon thatpacks a big punch. The problem is that Maxim has to leave the Zond to make itwork. The sonic only works in conjunction with a particular type of gas. Watchthe external vid feed, and you’ll see what I mean.”

Meanwhile the internal vid feedshowed Sergey and Elena moving from different directions towards the sealed offsection of the ship underneath the alien vessel. They moved easily in the EVAsuits and were bristling with weapons.

“We’ve got one shot at thisNadezhda,” came Maxim’s voice over the coms unit. “Are you ready?”

“All set Captain,” she replied.

“Better go now Boss!” shouted Pavelsuddenly. “Their weapons are hot and aiming at you!”

The ship shuddered and a highpitched wailing filled Anja’s ears. She covered them with her hands, trying toblock out the sound. The vibration through the ship grew stronger.

She glanced at the vid feed to seeElena pushing a mass of greenish tentacles and slime from her suit to the floor.At the other end of the sealed off corridor, Sergey was doing the same.

Nadezhda had jammed the doors shut ateach end of the corridor underneath the alien boarding craft. The mercenariesdismantled the creatures as they oozed through the gap they had created in thehull of the Zond. But as soon as they destroyed one section of the creature,another replaced it. Suddenly the vibration stopped.

The alien ship broke free from theZond and the distance between them was growing rapidly. Anja could see an evensmaller craft ducking and weaving around it.

“Run, Pavel, run,” came Maxim’svoice. “Then fire on this bastard for all you’re worth!”

“I’m not leaving you behind!” Pavelreplied.

“Just go, I’ll follow you.”

“You’re a bloody lunatic!” said Pavel.

He pulled the Zond away from thedanger zone and began to ramp up the weapons. Nadezhda did not take her eyesoff the data stream showing the location of the alien ship. Anja watched Maxim’stiny craft send something floating towards the alien ship and then pull quicklyaway from it to follow them.

“Now!” yelled Nadezhda.

Pavel fired all their weapons atthe alien ship and it disintegrated before Anja’s eyes. He slowed the Zond,allowing the tiny craft to catch up with them. It disappeared from view.

Anja looked back at the vid feed tosee Elena and Sergey pushing tentacles and green slime out of the hole in thehull made by the creatures. The mercenaries were both tethered by safety linesthat prevented them from floating out into the vacuum. She watched withinterest as they worked to seal the hole with some kind of filament thatthickened as it was fastened into place. It was all over so quickly. And theyseemed to be safe.

Maxim arrived back on the bridge grinningfrom ear to ear. Sergey and Elena appeared shortly afterwards, sweaty andtired.

“We’ve got a bigger problem nowBoss,” said Pavel, looking up from his nav board. “The mother ship’s justjumped in.”