Hades- the Revolution, page 7
part #2 of Hadesjan Cycle Series
“Theodore?”
“What?”
“Why did you come to Hades?” I asked.
“Alimony. The judge gave me a simple choice: two years of prison or working here and paying off my debt. Some money would even remain for a new start.”
“Why did you leave the army?”
“What kinds of questions are these?” he was irritated.
In the middle of the corridor there was a small gap in the mountain of rubbish. He squeezed into it first, and I followed. We were lucky as some cables and pipes had fallen to the ground before, and now we could get to the other side. We could walk upright again. In the wall to the right there was a gaping hole left after the dismantling of a Pauli’s Revenge. Theodore stood next to it, took a cigarette out of his pocket and lit it.
“I spent ten years in the service,” he started when I was resigned that he wouldn’t answer. “In our last mission we were given wrong coordinates. I fired on the wrong building and lots of civilians, including women and children, died. I was acquitted but decided I had had enough. I left.”
He took a few puffs on the cigarette and threw the stub into the hole. I only hoped those dismantling the capsule had cut off oxygen.
“If thanks to that action we save the families of the miners, I hope to even my score. What do you think?” He was waiting for my opinion.
“I don’t know,” I answered honestly. “I believe in God, although I don’t go to church regularly. Not after our parish priest turned out to be a pedophile. What else could you do? I think what matters are the intentions, and these are fine.”
I didn’t know whether my answer satisfied him. We went on. To our surprise, we found two people in the container we were looking for. One of them was wearing a firefighter’s full uniform. The other one turned out to be Fat Bill. The next thing we found incredibly surprising was hiding behind a lifted window shade. Through it we saw the panorama of Hades with the docking station blinking in the distance.
“Where are the containers?” I shouted. “We’re a dozen short!”
“Yep,” Bill beamed. “And another dozen from the Yellow zone. Besides, we’ve snitched a few excavators.”
“But, where are they? They couldn’t just have disappeared.”
“I don’t know,” he answered with disarming honesty. “If I knew, I could spill the beans when interrogated. And now I only know they’re gone.”
The firefighter took the canisters from us and checked their contents. Then he put them aside gladly.
“Twenty-two people remain on the whole station,” the manager explained the current situation. “The rest have been evacuated or hibernated and hidden all over the planet. It is our duty to make sure they have a seven-hour safety margin. After this time further resistance doesn’t make sense. The choice of method is entirely up to you. We just need to buy some time – we don’t expect an Alamo. Sacrifice looks good only in the movies. A bomb exploding right in front of a soldier will discourage him from running, just like the one ripping off his balls would. But it won’t make them seek revenge. One more thing. If you somehow manage to get out of the mayhem, we’ve buried containers one hundred yards behind each of the two nests. You can find in them shelter with provisions for many days. Then wait for somebody to get in touch with you.”
He looked at our faces.
“I’m not saying it’s going to be easy, but there’s hope. If you would like to pass on some information to your families, now is the time.” He handed us thick envelopes of the cosmic mail. Each contained a few sheets of paper and a pencil.
I took one, Theodore the other. The firefighter refused. A tough guy.
Having moved to the side, I kept looking at the empty sheet wondering what to write. Nothing came to mind. I couldn’t say I missed my family. After all, I ran away from them. They say that in situations like that one ceases to bear a grudge and forgets all wrongs. Maybe some people do, but not me. If that was the reason why I would go to hell, that’s too bad. I took a memory disc from my pocket and tossed it inside. I put the address on the envelope with an annotation “Send only when death is confirmed.” It was only then that my parents could get the artificial intelligence of my love doll. I wasn’t doing it for a joke. Even a doll deserves something. Maybe it will go through the turmoil this way. On Hades she wouldn’t stand a chance. Besides, I put some interesting data on the disc. Somebody might still find them useful one day.
Handing the packet to Bill, I clearly stated that I wanted to get it back if I managed to get safely out of this mess. He agreed.
We heard a high-pitched squeal and walked up to the window. Among heavy leaden clouds we saw some blinking lights. They were in many different places. It was not a single ship, although the strongest light was moving closer to the docking station. Finally, the clouds dissolved unwillingly, revealing a massive body of a transporter stern. The ship was descending on its maneuver engines. The nozzles sent out vertical flames.
A few ferries accompanied the transporter, as if they were monitoring its flight. Others dove towards the surface and landed at a safe distance. Armed figures ran out of them. There were an awful lot of them. I started counting them, but having reached thirty I gave up. Out of the hatches came heavy armored vehicles. The barrels of their guns were directed at the landing unit.
“Holy crap,” Bill moaned, “if all this company charges our way it might be tough.”
“It’s a full company of infantry and a platoon of tanks,” Theodore estimated and he could be trusted without question.
“They are not regular troops. The support team should have taken a more remote position. They are standing too close to each other. These guys seem to lack experience,” he was trying to comfort us. “They’re behaving like soldiers after their first training.”
“They’re not coming our way,” the firefighter said cheerfully, “but making a circle around the aerodrome.”
“Maybe they don’t want anyone to get close to it and are afraid we might want to use it to escape?” I put forward a hypothesis.
“No,” Theodore said, “if this were the case they would have their weapons directed to the inside. It looks like they’re expecting trouble from the newcomer.”
The whole situation was very mysterious. It’s not what we had been expecting. We watched in silence as the colossus was coming down. The power of the exhaust flames was fluctuating slightly. The pilot kept adjusting to position the ship centrally. Strong gusts blew clouds of dust into the air. Visibility was poor and getting worse with every minute.
We heard a signal of the communicator coming from Fat Bill’s pocket.
“It has started,” he explained. “The management of Bio&Sonic have left their bunker.”
He gave us earphones of coded low-power radiotelephones.
“Stick them into your ears. They might come in handy.”
“Unless they turn on jamming,” Theodore remarked.
“They will for sure. Let’s hope they do as late as possible.”
I placed the phone into my ear. I couldn’t hear anything except for the quiet humming of the carrier wave. Meanwhile, the ship landed with a noticeable thud. It turned all its outside position lamps on and was soon washed with light.
From the central part of the base a column of Bio&Sonic human resources personnel was approaching, all dressed in space suits. From the distance I couldn’t recognize anyone. They were met by an officer accompanied by a few sidekicks. Visible gesticulation on both sides pointed to the conversation being rather animated. At the same time the freighter opened the airlock, out of which a gangway moved out. Nobody stepped out of the unit.
The armed soldiers formed a tight cordon and it was not possible to get to the ship without their consent. The man in charge of coordinating the evacuation of the mining company personnel seemed to have gotten the idea. He moved aside, letting the first person go. The officer flashed a torch into his face and checked the data against a list. He nodded and let the man go. Then he went on to verify another one. It all looked as if both companies in fact did clinch a deal behind the ordinary workers’ backs. The elite was leaving the planet, leaving the rest prey to Uroboros.
I felt overwhelming anger and sadness. Even though I had only been working for Bio&Sonic for a few weeks, the feeling of betrayal was very strong. At the end of the column I saw three men. They were holding bludgeons and glancing behind as if expecting trouble. I recognized one characteristic figure. It was the duty officer Mark “Pitbull,” the one who had chased me around for the first few days. He beat the crap out of me. Now he was nervously treading from foot to foot.
“Can it be that they are expecting trouble?” I showed the three bludgeon-carrying figures to the others.
“They are scared that we’ll run after them,” the taciturn fireman growled.
“Bastards!” said Bill. “Still, I’m much more interested in why they don’t run the checks on the orbit but here. For us it’s better. It’s enough if we keep our position for the next five hours,” he said looking away from the departing ship.
“Set the timers in your watches,” Bill said and we quickly followed his order. Then he ripped the identification strips off our wrists. “If they happen to catch someone, they will have a hard time identifying them. Every such trick works to our advantage. Good luck then!”
Finally, we shook our hands. Theodore and I set out on our return trip to a suitable place which we had prepared earlier. It wasn’t too far, only two containers away. We didn’t talk all the way. I hoped it wouldn’t come to the worst. I expected we would make it. I thought five hours wasn’t that long.
We sat among some piles of rubbish. I switched on a few monitors, on which we could see through micro cameras what was going on. There was no movement, which meant we still had time.
“Too bad we didn’t put a big camera outside,” I said.
“Don’t moan,” the mechanic shut me down. “Open the bottom hatch. We might not have enough time later.”
“You’re the boss!” I said jokingly, leaving towards the technical tunnel in the floor. At the end of it there was an emergency exit. It was a hatch, which was practically never used. I hoped the attackers didn’t know about it, or else we were in for a short and lost battle. The screws didn’t want to let go and I had to kick the wrench really hard to make them budge. After that it was plain sailing. All four unscrewed easily. I pulled a lever and the atmosphere of the planet got inside with a hiss. I lowered the lid again and returned to our nest.
“What’s up?” I asked.
“Nothing,” Theodore answered calmly.
“All right, boys,” we heard Bill’s voice in our ears. “The game is on. The freighter has loaded all the rats and all the ore. The recent readings from the hibernators are all within the norm. Part one is a success. The next good thing is that most of the uniforms are leaving. The bad news is the tanks are staying.”
“Put it on,” Theodore pointed to a spacesuit used to walk on the surface of the planet.
“Now?” I protested.
“Now!”
He was already squeezing inside his own. I followed suit. I thought he knew what he was doing. With a spray found somewhere in the pile of junk he painted over the reflective elements and put tape over light controls.”
“What’s that for?” I asked.
“We’ll be more difficult to spot,” he said.
I fixed his suit in the same way for him.
“The freighter is taking off,” the voice in our earphone was updating us on the situation. We could feel delicate vibrations.
Theodore took my rifle into his hand. He checked the breech, unfastened the sights and threw them away.
“Hey!” I protested.
“You won’t need it. They will not be such dimwits as the last time. If shooting breaks out, fire without aiming. We’re supposed to scare them. We won’t break through any armor with these bullets. You will break somebody’s rib at most, nothing else. You will get better effects shooting into the air.”
There was no point in arguing. He had enough experience to know that.
“The first group of our guests is approaching the magazine section. Let the show begin!” We were listening hard to what Bill’s voice was saying. “The fireman is stepping out. He’s waving his arms in panic. Good! They must believe there’s a fire. Too bad we had to sacrifice the first row of containers but desperate times call for desperate measures.”
“Sonnuvabitches!” Theodore growled. “They’ve set fire to the magazines!”
Uncontrolled fire was the greatest threat to man in space. According to all laws, the firefighting took precedence over anything and put a stop to all active procedures.
“They’re approaching the main entrance, entering the ramp. The fireman doesn’t allow the gates to be opened. He’s pointing to his suit. As the one supervising the action, he should have the last word. He’s stopped them! They’re withdrawing.”
“Do you think they’re going to buy it?” I asked the former storm trooper.
“It depends who is leading them,” Theodore shrugged his shoulders. He lay down next to the monitors. Nothing was happening on the screens so he checked the helmet once again. He opened and closed the visor. He looked at it from all sides.
“What do you think about it?” I kept asking. I couldn’t sit still. I fidgeted, walked a few steps one way, took a turn and paced back again.
“Do you have hemorrhoids?” he asked me full of concern.
“No, why?”
“You’d better sit down then. We don’t know how sensitive their movement sensors in the tanks are.”
I sat down instantly. I didn’t know whether he was joking or telling the truth. I would have to check that later. Now the most important thing was to do everything so that the “later” would ever arrive.
“They’re calling for a higher rank,” Bill was relaying the situation on the outside. There was a moment of silence as we waited for what he would say next. “It’s not good. From what I can see they want to get inside. The fireman resists. They’re pulling him aside and there’s some fighting. Shit! They’ve hit him with a barrel and now he’s falling down. The man in charge orders the operation to be continued.”
Theodore and I looked at each other. Now we were the defense line.
“They’re opening the gates. Holy crap! A fire blast hits them. A few of them are falling over the barrier and onto the ground. It serves the bastards right. They should have listened to the fireman. Hey! Leave him alone!” Bill shouted as if the attackers could hear him. “They’re kicking him. Kevin, don’t go out! Come back!” In the coordinator’s voice a new desperate tone could be heard. “You’re not going to help him! Don’t shoot the marker!”
Apparently, one of the miners couldn’t stand the tension and joined in the action on his own. The voice of reason didn’t manage to reach the careless defender.
“Kevin fired a series. He got them. The rest are falling onto their faces!”
“Amateurs,” Theodore assessed. “Look at the monitors. It’s just about to start.”
I didn’t have enough time to ask how he knew it. We felt a series of strong shakes. The image disappeared off the screens, but returned a second later. At the same time we lost radio contact with Bill.
“What’s going on?” I asked my buddy.
“And what do you expect? The cannons have joined in.” He picked the communicator out of his ear. “Throw this shit away. They’ve turned on the jamming. If I were them, I’d rather tune up the wave and listen to the defenders.”
Chapter VI
Orbital Station. Command post of Uroboros Industrial.
Linda Collins carefully looked at the officer entering her office. He was a tall dark-haired man with a charming smile.
“Good morning, Madam,” snow white teeth flashed against his dark olive skin.
“Please sit down,” she pointed to the seat on the opposite side of her desk.
“Thank you,” he waited for her to sit down first.
“I’m sorry not to stand on ceremony, but I don’t really know how to explain your unexpected urgency to speak to me, Mr…” she hesitated, looking at the unusual symbols on his epaulets.
“Commodore Hugo Perez. I represent the free Hessians,” he explained.
“Please explain the reason behind this meeting, Commodore, and then immediately leave this system,” she was clearly not in a good mood. She knew she had a hard day ahead when she got the information about the guests’ request. She didn’t believe this meeting could affect the present situation in any way. She had a lot on her plate and she hated to waste time. The number of people engaged in this undertaking was getting on her nerves. The whole of security was turned upside down. Behind the door of her cabinet eight of her soldiers were watching guard, looking askance at two Hessians. One wrong move would be enough to open fire.
“I’ll do it soon,” the officer said. “But if you don’t mind, I’d like to show you something.” He slowly moved his hand towards his inside pocket.
Linda moved her foot to a micro switch under her table. A slight touch was enough to trigger a safety system. At this very moment it was set to full power, which would have tragic consequences for the commodore. He must have been aware of it, as he waited for her consent. She nodded her head.
He slowly slid his fingers into the pocket and even more slowly withdrew them. He was holding a standard memory stick by the tips of his fingers. The tension visibly lessened.
“What is it?” she asked.
“It’s the results of our scientists’ research.”
“Commodore,” Linda sighed. “Your nation, if I may call it that way, was shifted outside the margins of society. Uroboros, which I represent, is not interested in any sort of cooperation. And I don’t care whether this disc contains plans of super weapons or an undetectable drive. I don’t buy it.”
