NaNoWriMo Chapter 4
Just as you are thankful that Chapter 4 is here, we are thankful you are here reading and enjoying the Mr.'s story. If you are new to Jess and Walter, you'll likely want to start at the beginning. Here's the links to all previous chapters.
If Jess and Walter are old friends and you're ready to continue on the adventure, keep reading below. We're glad you're here! And, as always, we would love to hear any feedback you'd like to share. Please just comment below or email us at mr@wolfestew.com. Now, let's get back to Wally...
Walter
came to a section of the ship where he knew there would be a large amount of
enemy forces. Sneaking into a side
maintenance closet, he searched for the hatch into the maintenance corridors
that ran through the ship. When he found
it, he brought a small multi-tool from one of the shelves in the closet and
used it to unscrew the bolts securing the hatch. The dull red light from the hallway made it
take him way longer than he thought the task should have taken. Finally, with a soft grunt, he pulled the
hatch open. The stale air from inside
told him the air systems had shut down in the maintenance sections. There should still be more than enough for
one soul to maneuver around inside. He
dropped into the accessway and flipped himself gracefully as he glided into the
dark corridor.
He
wondered how the Orcs had not figured out the maintenance access, yet. They had inside help, so why wouldn’t they
have given them the schematics to the maintenance corridors? He stopped pondering about something that
didn’t matter at the moment. Walter took
out the multi-tool and flipped a lever inside of it, bringing the small light
from the tool into focus. He started his
way toward the Command Deck, it would be where his sister was holed up with the
Captain. He smiled as his journey became
easier, and the goal became even closer.
Jess
sighed heavily. The core systems should
reboot any second. The air was getting
very stale, and the heat in the core made her sweat, which made the smell
worse. The air systems would be a heaven
send for her. Suddenly, the core swelled
back into existence, glowing possibly even brighter than before. The air systems kicked on a few seconds
after, since cool, fresh air swam around her.
She took a deep gulp of the oxygen-rich air. It was so clean, it almost hurt. Well, now that the core had rebooted, she
knew she could make her way back to the Command Deck. “Time to kick some butt!” Then the artificial gravity kicked in and she
fell with a grunt, hard, onto her very own bottom. “Okay, very funny, nice irony there…” She started squirming her way through the
corridors and away from the core.
As he
peeked his head out of the open hatch, he found himself staring into the barrels
of three laser rifles. Walter put his
hands straight up and shouted, “Don’t shoot!”
The captain’s voice could be heard from behind, “Lower your weapons,
people! That’s Walter!” Pushing past his men, he leaned in, “Son, how
in the world did you escape?”
“Well…the power going down allowed me to use my zero-g
skills. The Orcs don’t really seem to
have a lot of zero-g combat skills, Sir.”
Looking around Walter noticed his sister was not amongst the crew. “Umm, Sir, where’s my sister…?”
“Well, Wally, she’s the one who helped you escape….”
“Wait! She’s still
down there?!?” He swiveled his head to
stare down into the tunnels he had just come from. He started turning back toward the tunnel,
when the captain said, “Son, stop, it’s better if you allow her to make her own
way back.”
Walter ignored him and slithered his way back into the
corridor. Sighing, the captain put his
hand to his eyes and let him go. “He’ll
be back, you can never get a mission-born to back off when it comes to
family.” The crew dispersed, as two of
them stood guard over the hole.
“Orcs…not good….” Captain Argent stated under his breath.
Jess
was just rounding a corner in the tunnel-system when she heard a noise, like an
animal trapped in the ventilation. She
pulled the energy blade from its sheath and balanced herself to take on the
incoming threat. A small head poked
around the corner. The youthful face
moved her head to look toward the low light from the energy blade. The scream was quick, but far too loud in the
confines of the tight corridor. Jess
stifled the scream with her other hand and put down the knife. The girl’s cousin came into view seconds
later and saw Jess, relaxing his guard.
Whispering briskly, Jess tore into them, “What in th’ world are you two
doin’ here? I told ya ta stay in that
bay!”
The boy was the first to answer since Jess still had her
hand over the girl’s mouth, “Well…you see…the invaders kinda went by our hiding
space. Well…at least one did. I thought it best that we move, since more could
have come by and found us. Plus, you
said the power would come back on, and it did.”
“You both coulda got killt’.
Next time stop thinkin’ and do what I say!” She sighed and resheathed the energy blade.
“Come on you two, we gotta get goin’ if we’re gunna get
safe. If there’s Orcs in these tunnels,
we’re gunna need some way o’ gettin’ ‘round them.” She sat back a moment and thought it
out. “Okay, got it, we’ll sidestep ‘em,
which is gunna be dangerous. We ‘ave to
go inta th’ decks where they are gunna be.”
She started past them; into the corridor they had come from. “Welp, follow me ya dolts, not gunna invite
ya twice!”
They started following her slowly, making far too much noise
for her liking, but knowing they were just kids. They reminded her of her sibling and herself,
sorta. Sighing, she just kept moving,
hoping they met with friend before they had to meet foe.
Walter
sensed movement ahead, some kind of low glow.
As he came to the end of the section, he found a small flashlight laying
on the floor. His instincts instantly
responded and he started to back away quickly.
It was a trap! “Now, kid, I
wouldn’t move, if’n I was you.” He could
hear a dark smile in Tyke’s voice, as Tyke levelled a pistol at him, from his
right side. “Um…Tyke, I didn’t want to
hurt them…. They kept firing at me!”
“That’s enough kid!”
Tyke snapped. “You’re goin’ back
with me. You are goin’ ta fix this mess,
by being a good hostage! Don’ think I
won’t shoot you, cause I will.”
He motioned Walter to move, with the pistol. “Move.”
Walter moved over to the hatch entrance Tyke had
opened. He grabbed up into the hatch and
pulled himself into a different maintenance closet, where two Orcs stood above
him and pulled him roughly out. They
threw him down on the ground, his face slamming into the cold metal floor,
probably leaving a bruise for later inspection.
He let himself be maneuvered by the guards, taking some bodily injuries
in the stomach and ribs. He deserved it,
really, he had killed their friend. Once
Tyke was in the hallway, the guards straightened Walter up and walked him down
the hallway. The lights were fully on
again, and it made him realize the change in these people. They were now looking hunted, nervous, and
possibly a little afraid. They put on a
strong show of force and played down their fears by trying to increase
his. He knew this tactic, it was one
that had been used on him at the academy, when Jess and he had been top cadets. They had surpassed all their class in skills
required for mission training. Of
course, that had attracted the interest of more blunt minds. The bullies had tried to play the tactic he
now faced, it had not worked then, as it would not now. He put his head down and started calculating
a plan to escape. This time it would
have to be on his terms, no help would lend its hand.
Jess
pounded on the sealed hatch in a rhythmic motion. Three-two-three-four, it was the designated
passcode given to mission-born back in the academy. The captain would know what it meant, and a
resounding five thuds came from the other side in response. She nodded and got ready to enter the command
deck. The hatch was removed quickly and
she jumped into the open space, then turned around and gave the kids a hand out
of the confined space. Captain Argent
turned to talk to her, “Jess, where’s your brother?”
“Huh?! What’ya
talkin’ about?” Her eyes got big and she
spun toward the captain. “He was
here?!? You didn’t keep him here?!”
“I couldn’t lieutenant, he was worried about you, and would
not be stopped. Now, you need to take
your place on the bridge and help me reactivate the cannons so that we can blow
the invading ships off of the hull!” His
crew resealed the hatch, before any complaint could be made. Jess stomped to her console in a rage. She started enacting the codes to operate the
cannons. “Um, sir, the cannons have been
manually overridden. Not one shows that
it can be fired. What do we do now?” She raised her eyebrows in a mocking fashion,
since she was still perturbed by her forced stay.
Shaking his head, he called an ensign to relay his order.
“Imperious, this is Little Fish, please come in.”
A baritone voice on the other end of the comms chimed in, “Little
Fish, this is Imperious. Operation Flash
in the Pan is active. Repeat, prepare
for Flash in the Pan.”
Suddenly, outside of the bridge windows, there was a fleet
of five ships that flashed into view.
They glided through space in an effortless fashion, and strobing lights
started to flash from the cannons aboard those ships. Small explosions could be seen all over the
hull of the heavy cruiser. Damage would
be incurred on the ship, but this tactic removed the ability for their enemy to
escape. Jess realized that this was no
emergency fleet, but had been the plan all along. Somehow, the council had known they were
going to be targeted by the Orcs.
Her brother was somewhere in the ship. He could be killed! She had to save him somehow. She moved to a security console and started
searching the cameras for any sign of her brother. There he was!
He had been moved to the lounge area on Deck C. That was quite a ways from the command
deck. She started calculating what she
could do to help her brother.
“Tyke,
they blew all our ships! What do we do
now?” Tyke smiled and pointed at
Walter. “He’s our ticket out of here. Get everyone down to the landing bay! Now!”
The Orcs started mobilizing. They
packed up equipment which had been brought on board and some that belonged to
the ship itself. They moved Walter
quickly down the metal corridors. The
change in hallway color turned from yellow to gray. This was definitely the way to the landing
bay. Walter tried to trip the guards up
once and then was cuffed so hard over the head he almost lost consciousness. Tyke waved his fist at him and yelled some
obscenities at him, figuring that it would be effective enough to stop him from
trying it again. When they reached the
landing bay, Tyke took out his comm and switched it to a different
channel. “Captain Argent, we ‘ave your
young friend ‘ere, and we are leavin’ ‘ere alive. Otherwise, your friend may not make it back
to you in the same shape.”
“Copy, traitor, we understand…. But, the Admiral of the incoming fleet may
not agree to those terms. We have no way
of stopping him from vaporizing you and our friend, so we would appreciate it
if you would surrender.” You could hear
the tension in the captain’s voice. He
was serious.
Tyke shook his head angrily.
“We’ll take ‘im with us, and we’ll jus’ see!”
Turning to the other Orcs he stated flatly, “Get ‘im on
board. Hit the translight engines the
moment we get out of the bay!”
The orcs nodded to Tyke and dragged Walter with them. They entered a small shuttle that was docked
off to the side of the landing pad. Tyke
directed some others to different craft, as he boarded a larger shuttle. Walter watched out his porthole in the small
shuttle. Something inside the craft
didn’t seem right to him. There were
extra cables and many of the interior bulkheads had been removed. The space was more industrial looking, and
there was a large machine in the back of the cabin. He assumed this was the translight engine
they would need to produce the warp they would need to get out of here in one
piece.
Every craft in the landing bay started its preflight
preparations. The engines of each craft
flaring into a blue burning wave. The
landing bay opening was protected by an osmotic shield that allowed craft out
but kept the atmosphere within. The
ships started making their way out of the heavy cruiser’s bay and Walter could
see the bigger warships, outside, start to flare with cannon fire being aimed
at the caravan. His ship was going to be
third out of the bay. The first ship
exploded and caused the second to careen into the right side of the bay
entry. The hairs on his neck started to
stand on end. He didn’t understand why,
until the machine next to him started to make a high-pitched whine. Suddenly as they hit the osmotic envelope and
the engines hit the actual vacuum of space, Walter’s world started to
spin. They hit translight speed, faster
than he had ever felt. He almost
vomited, but was able to hold it in.
Jess
almost whooped when she saw her brother’s shuttle escape the shot that had been
aimed for it. Instead, she screamed,
“Direct hit from the Imperious on our interior bay! Atmosphere is leaking out, and Deck C is
closed off due to emergency doors kicking in.”
The captain turned to his comm ensign, “Tell the Imperious
to stop firing! She’s going to destroy
us along with the Orcs!”
A few seconds after the command had been relayed, the firing
stopped. The only craft that had escaped
the warship’s bombardment had been Walter’s ship. Jess could only hope that this didn’t mean
they would kill him outright, once they were clear. If they did, they would have hell to pay, for
her own sense of vengeance would not be matched. Orcs were now a primary target. She did not like that the Imperious had fired
on her brother, and she saw no reason for them to have threatened his life as
well as the Orcs. She also saw what this
had been; they had been used as bait in a trap.
She would pursue her own inquiry later in private quarters. She had learned to be careful, since the
political incident in the Council chambers.
Her brother had warned her about when things became complex, the best thing
to do was keep a closed mouth.
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Thank you for adding your flavor to the stew.