Overrun: Project Hideaway (22 page)

"As of now, we wait. They
haven't increased speed. Ready the rest of the ship."

"Jed, we have to think in
terms of guarding this cargo. We need to light it up. Light it up now. That way
we can get everything ready at once. Make sure everything works. And not get
taken by surprise."

"Barnes for now, we
wait."

"That sucks, Command
Center," Barnes muttered under his breath and pulled his transmitter away
from his mouth.

Back in the cockpit, Parker lifted
the extended range glasses back to his eyes. He stared across the nose of the
Hideaway at the coming object.

With every passing second, it
loomed larger. Its course was even and steady. Parker stared through the
extended range glasses and watched it slowly approach.

"Still nothing, RadCom? No
sign of life on the Hideaway?"

"Nothing, sir," the
radio communications officer reported back to the captain of the search
frigate. "No indications of sensor use or extraneous power. As far as I
can tell, the ship is still down."

"Good. Navigation
Officer," the captain spoke back over his shoulder. "Maintain your
present heading. I want you to slide in nice and easy beside them."

"There is one thing,
however, sir."

"What is it?" the
captain looked down at RadCom scowling at his monitors and controls.

"It’s not much, but
low-level bounce readings are showing something behind us. Some other entity in
the area. I’m not quite sure what it is. "

"Something on an intercept
course?"

"Not that I can tell. It’s
not moving very fast, sir, and it’s so far back it’s almost hard to say."

"Can you determine a source
trajectory from Earth?"

"Not really, Captain. I
can't trace its source to anything. It shows up off and on. I'm having problems
even confirming its actual existence."

The captain let his breath out
slowly between his teeth. "Keep an eye on it, RadCom. It’s probably just a
sensor echo bouncing off the Hideaway. Sometimes they throw shadows. We'll
blast it with a full sensor scan once we get close to the ship and are fairly
certain it isn't going to run away. Even if the pilots are awake. We'll get a
good look then at what's going on."

The captain moved back to his
station.

"But I want everyone to
keep top interest priority on all visual and soft-bounce scans in that area,”
the captain spoke louder to all the personnel manning the command center of the
ship. “Monitor everything around us as best you can. I especially want utmost
attention on the Hideaway. Keep an eye out for any sudden surge in life or
energy readings. Our presence is still a secret. I want it kept that way so
that we can just get this job done and head back to Earth.”

“Or perhaps just to another
world willing to take us,” the captain finished softly under his breath.

RadCom was the only one that
heard him, but he didn’t raise his head from his controls. He knew what the
captain meant and felt it too in his heart.

He would have preferred just
changing course and heading to another world. And if there wasn’t one to take
them, just setting the ship on course to deep space until everything ran out.
And they all just died alone and unnoticed deep in the galaxy away from what
had become of the Earth.

Behind him, the captain sat back
down at his station leaving RadCom to his own thoughts. The rest of the men in
the command center busied themselves again at their command stations and
returned to their assigned work.

"That's two! We got two! We
got a second ship on scope!" Parker's strained voice filled Jeff Barnes'
left ear. Barnes stopped running down the corridor and pulled his transmitter
closer to his face.

"What do ya got, Jed?"

He stopped in front of a small
view porthole on the starboard side of the Hideaway. Lights from the outside
hull of the first approaching ship began to cast an eerie glow through the
Hideaway’s dark corridors. It was less than a mile away.

The large ship was almost upon
them and was making final maneuvers to bring itself in line with the Hideaway’s
docking bay. It was where Barnes was heading next to ready weapons and prepare
to defend the ship against possible unauthorized boarders.

"No markings on the first
ship. Repeat. No markings. None that I can make out. Still unable to determine
if it’s from Earth."

Barnes ran to a small room just
down from the landing bay entrance tunnel. He banged his fist against the
locking sensor and ran inside. Once within, he hurriedly threw open the large
steel doors that lined the walls on two of its sides. One after the other, they
banged loudly open against the metal wall behind them revealing the Hideaway's
weapons arsenal.

"I'm breaking out the
weapons," Barnes said breathing hard. Beads of sweat dripped from his
forehead.

"There is some hull
damage," Parker reported again from the command center. "Burns of
some sort. It’s already been in a fight. They're not displaying any
identification codes that I can pick up."

"Would you expect them
to?" Barnes asked while running to the glass containers behind him that
held the assault rifles. Skipping the locks and using the butt of a hand
weapon, he obliterated the doors of each protective case.

The shattered glass spilled
across Barnes’ feet and slid across the floor. The noise momentarily drowned
out Parker’s voice in his ear.

"I would expect
something," Barnes could hear Parker say grimly after the clatter of
crashing glass had finally subsided. "If they were just here to bring us
back online, they would be trying to contact us."

"I don't know how much more
you need, Jed," Barnes said while loading ammunition by the fistful into a
large carrying bag.

Inside a second bag, he threw an
assortment of hand assault weapons. He strapped the ones that were too long for
the bag across his back.

Suddenly the ship jolted sharply
to the side knocking Barnes down hard to the ground into the piles of broken
glass strewn about the chamber. Groans of tortured steel came from the walls
around him. Its echoes sounded throughout the surrounding corridors.

"They're scraping us!"
Parker's static-laden voice blared loudly in his ear. "They came right up
against us! No approach procedure! They're bombing us with sensor scan!"

Barnes ran again to the outside
porthole and pressed his face against the turbo glass.

"They're putting out their
boarding tube! Panels are retracting all over the place!" Barnes said
pulling an assault rifle from his back and throwing his ammunition bag loudly
to the floor. "They're coming in, Jed. They're coming in right now!"

Barnes clicked his weapon barrel
open and jabbed the unit’s large explosive ammunition cartridges roughly inside.
His hands shook as he did.

When his first weapon was fully
armed, he threw it roughly aside and grabbed the second of four he had strapped
across his back. A handful of cartridge rounds flew from his sweaty grasp and
clattered loudly across the metal floor.

Barnes didn't bother to pick
them up. He just reached in his bag for more.

"Jed, you better get down
here. We don't have much more time."

The sparse sunlight that was
able to reach their position from behind the moon slowly began to fade. The approaching
ship cast an ominous shadow across the Hideaway’s bow. It drowned everything
else in an eerie blackness.

Barnes felt his eyes widen in
fright. On the other side of the viewport, the metal boarding tube stretched
like a probing hand toward the outside of the Hideaway.

"Parker get down
here!" Barnes screamed into his headset.

"We're lighting it up in
two minutes," Parker answered back.

"There's no time for that.
They're coming in now! Punch energy into the ship as soon as you leave. And
blast a sensor scan at that second ship! If that’s even going do us any good
anymore. But we're going to have boarders right fucking now!"

Parker didn't answer. Only a
slight burst of static came back through Barnes' earpiece. Another large jolt
shook the Hideaway’s walls.

Barnes stuck his forehead up
against the view window. The boarding tube had latched itself onto the
Hideaway’s side. The sound of hissing air came from the direction of the
landing bay. Barnes grabbed both weapons, and with his two hands cupped together,
scooped what remaining ammunition he could into the giant bag.

"Parker!" he ran down
the corridor and yelled into his headset. "They're resetting the vacuum!
The only thing left is for them to bust open the door!"

Barnes turned a corner and
almost collided with Parker sprinting from the opposite side.

Barnes ripped off his headset
and threw it to the floor.

"They're coming,"
Barnes said quietly.

He dropped the weapons he
carried across his back and turned the bag of hand weapons upside down. Its contents
spilled across their feet. They scrambled along the deck to load the last of
the empty firearms.

"Everything ready?"
Parker wheezed at him.

"The Defenders will be
completely primed when you throw the switch. Same thing with the nukes. They've
got power, but it'll take thirty seconds to arm."

"I just bled some mid-level
power to the command center for a full sensor scan on that second ship."

"Anything?"

When the last weapon had been
loaded, Barnes and Parker stuffed as much of the remaining ammunition as they
could into the pockets of their flight suits.

Parker threw the empty bags
under the grates of the floor deck. Barnes clicked the last weapon he loaded to
its ready position and handed it to Parker. Parker took it with one hand and
maneuvered the other three he had strapped behind his own back into a more
comfortable position.

"Not yet," Parker
replied quietly.

They ran side-by-side down the
corridor until they reached a metal access ladder jutting from the wall to
their left. Parker jumped at it grabbing the rungs with his hand and slipping
his boots around its side. Releasing his grip on the rungs, he slid down deeper
into the ship.

He landed with a thump on the
metal grates of the landing bay where a flurry of sparks spit from the air and
spilled across his boots.

He looked over at the landing
bay door. There was a bright red and yellow glow around its frame as someone on
the other side worked to burn through. Turning his gaze to one of the landing
bay’s viewports, he saw the dark ominous shape of the landing tube latched
securely against the Hideaway’s side.

Parker pulled one of the weapons
from behind his back. Stepping quickly away from the ladder, he flipped the
safety from its trigger. Barnes dropped to the ground next to him and did the same.

Parker backed away from the door
deeper into the giant vastness of the landing bay. Barnes followed closely next
to him with his weapon pointed at the small curls of flame starting to lick
around the sides of the door. Its metal began to groan and bend inward.

Again side-by-side, Barnes and
Parker stepped back towards a small command console near the rearmost wall of
the bay. Their fingers rested nervously on the triggers of their assault
rifles.

The thick metal surrounding the
door started to emit a brighter glow. They could hear the voices of the men
holding the torches on the other side.

Resting his rifle across the top
of the console, Parker jabbed quickly at its keyboard to access the ship’s
command center network.

The flurry of sparks from the
glowing door increased. Its metal buckled further away from its frame. Barnes
slid his feet slowly back across the metal floor grates inching towards the
rear of the landing bay and the tunnels at the edge of the room. The tunnels
led to the rear of the ship and the docking tubes of the two Defender fighters.

"What are we going to do,
Jed? You have to decide right the fuck now. When they break through, are we
going to talk? Or are we going to shoot?"

Parker scowled at the terminal.

"I still can't confirm anything.
There just aren't any identification codes being sent out there. By anyone.
There’s just no way to tell who they are."

"Talk or fire, Jed? It’s
obvious they're not supposed to be here."

Parker continued to tap at the
controls.

"What about that second
ship?"

"It’s holding a steady
course. Definitely not drifting or in orbit. It’s coming this way too."

"Parker listen to me,"
Barnes said backing further away from the terminal towards the rear of the bay.
"Whoever's out there has locked onto the ship without permission and is
trying to board without making any attempt to identify themselves."

The hull of the Hideaway shook
hard again thrown about by the thruster movement of the attaching ship. The
glow from the landing bay door became even more intense. Both men raised their
hands to shield their eyes.

“And on top of that, there’s
another ship out there.”

The searing metal of the door
glowed brightly as its frame fell completely in.

"Until I say otherwise, we
are defending a hostile takeover of the ship," Parker said ignoring
Barnes’ last statement. He straightened up and backed away from the console. He
grabbed the assault rifle he had placed on top of it and pulled the rest of the
weapons from across his back.

With quick motions of his arm,
he readied each weapon’s arming mechanism. When they were all set to fire, he
slung them back across his shoulder and retreated after Barnes towards the
tunnels at the back of the bay.

"Are you ready for this,
Barnes?"

Barnes nodded. His face was a
ghostly white as he readied his own weapon and backed away next to Parker from
the disintegrating door.

Its frame groaned one last time,
gave a final blast of fiery sparks, and made a loud crash when it landed across
the floor.