Oolite Bulletins

Just done a bit of editing and added part 4. I really wanted to avoid this turning into a shooting fest, and keep it more as a mystery, but seems I'd underestimated how many words it would take to describe the combat sequences/aftermath.

Definitely want to keep this under 10K words, so will probably try to finish up in the next two chapters. The next part will shed light on what happened on Petra - if it isn't obvious already Hope it's not!

really like the fiction Pansen. Looking fwd to next instalment.

Thanks, Ifnfan - glad you are enjoying the story

One of my concerns with this has been that with the paragraphs jumping from one character's situation to another's (espeacially during the last part posted), things may have become a little confusing/disjointed.

What do you guys think? Is it easy enough to follow?

So busy again right now, but gonna try to finish this off in the next few weeks.

Cheers

no, it's fine to follow - don't mind the jumping at all

Very good - keep it coming!

Cheers,

Drew.

Thanks Drew,

Been in the Azores for the last couple of weeks, so not much done on this lately! def gonna try and wind it up soon;-)

And part 5.... nearly done now...

Fab, something to read over lunch!

Cheers,

Drew.

6.

Sol turned to Philips – a bemused look drawn across her face. “Well, I don’t know about Greg and Sukes, but looks like we have a doctor!?”

“So it seems” replied Philips. “I can live with a doctor, but definitely could do without any more dogfights where we’re outnumbered five-to-one”, he replied, still clutching his head.

“You’re telling me” said Sol.

“I was expecting the worst as soon as we jumped back here – I’m keeping a bloody good look out”.

The Herbert and Carter had taken up position alongside the asteroid designated Delta 194/B)iii, minimising the likelihood of being picked out by any hostiles. Petra was approximately two kilometres in front of the Cobra. Both Sol and Philips were in a state of high alert. The Herbert and Carter was in an extremely precarious situation, having just returned to a system which, if it hadn’t been for Sol’s piloting, would probably have been it’s last. Compounding this, Sol and Philips now had to identify and scoop several escape pods. If there was one thing Sol detested it was a feeling of impotence. They were playing a waiting game.

Just then, the intercom crackled again: “Sol? Philips?”

“Suki!” shouted Sol – “great to hear you! What’s the story?” Her shoulders relaxed a little as the overwhelming tension on the bridge eased a little.

“A long one, I’m afraid” her voice sounded strained and tired “I’m currently crawling through a service tunnel to get to comms – I’m with the ship’s doctor: things have been terrible here: look sol: I’m afraid it’s jus…I.. Gray….It..”

Her voice began to break up, and finally, the intercom cut out completely. The short-lived elation on hearing Suki’s voice that had eased the extreme anxiety in the cockpit quickly gave way to a physical sickness that began to creep through both Sol and Philips. Bad news was one thing; the warning of bad news with no further explanation was almost worse.

For what seemed an eternity, nothing was said on the bridge of the Cobra. It was Sol who eventually broke the silence: “Well that didn’t sound good. I guess our being here seems to have been the result of a little more than just a cock-up on the crew’s part”. She thought back to the conversation her and Philips had had when the command to investigate had initially arrived on the secure channel.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

The service tunnel into which Suki and Axel had climbed was about 1.5 metres in height, and wide enough for only single-file progression. Following initial success, and then repeated failures, Suki gave up on trying to contact Sol on the short range intercom. It was warm – too warm: about 45 degrees, Suki estimated, and the dust that was swilled up as they moved through their dimly lit metal pathway was stifling. Various grills and hatches presented themselves at intervals – presumably to allow access to electrics and other systems buried deep within the Anaconda’s superstructure. After what was two minutes of shuffling down the service tunnel (though to Suki and Axel it seemed more like twenty) a blast – sheering metal – echoed down the tunnel behind them.

Both Suki and Axel stopped in their tracks.

“For the love of… It sounds like our ‘rescue crew’ has just blasted their way into the sickbay: they’re going to be right behind us! So much for that sick-bay being a secure area!!”

Axel was shouting. Suki grabbed his shoulders and brought his face towards hers: “Look: you were up for this: we have to just go with it – there’s no point in us getting upset: let’s move!

Axel let out a deep breath. He looked into Suki’s eyes. “You’re right”. He said to her, and calmed a little. They set off again, more quickly than before.

“Just make bloody sure you follow those blue prints: this place is a maze!”

She was right again: they’d passed at least three rudimentary ladders leading to different areas – different tunnels above and below the main route that they were traversing.

“I’m following the plan as best I can, Suki! It’s not like they’ve signposted this crawl space or anything!”

Just as he completed his sentence, both Axel and Suki Suddenly laughed: a metal plate bolted to the wall displayed a ‘down’ arrow. Above it read ‘COMMS ROOM’ and in smaller letters ‘ 3 minutes’”. Obviously it had been fitted for the benefit of engineers or whoever else was unfortunate enough to find themselves scrabbling thorough the poorly lit metal warren.

“Ladies first” Axel bowed towards the ladder with a rolling hand gesture as best he could in the cramped space. Suki gave him a wry grin and began her descent. She stepped onto a metal grill, and immediately wished she hadn’t. The grill gave way, and a muscular male arm clasped its hand around her ankle. “Axel!” she screamed.

She crashed onto her back, and though winded, was able to sit up, desperately trying to grab onto a length of piping that ran down the service tunnel with her left hand. Through the foot-wide gap into which her leg was being pulled she was greeted with a face that appeared to be possessed – she could vaguely make out the area below – it appeared to be the mess-room that she had walked through earlier. Leaping down the last three struts of the ladder, Axel landed just behind her, and grabbed the shoulders of her sturdy flight suit. The assailant’s strength was incredible. Axel thought to grab the Brett & Lin pistol (which Suki had returned to the ankle holster on her free leg), but realised that would mean letting go of Suki– and likely allowing her to be dragged away. Instead, he remembered the syringes in his upper pocket, and that they were prepped with tranquilliser.

“Suki” the left pocket of my coat!” take the syringe and…”

It didn’t take any more than that – Suki grasped at the syringe, and, with all her strength, dragged her right leg as high as she could, revealing the assailant’s arm. Bringing it just in range of her own, she thrust the syringe into the hand that grasped her ankle. Three seconds later, the grip loosened, then the offending hand disappeared completely, and a loud thud was heard from the mess-room below, as a heavy body hit the floor.

“Goodness! Are you OK?” Said Axel, trying to catch his breath.

“I’ll live” replied Suki, trying to catch hers. “I think we’d better go now!”

They scrambled down the metal tunnel, and after several minutes, Axel yelled “Stop!” “We’re right above the Comms room, according to these plans”. And sure enough, the hatch below read ‘COMMS – SERVICE ENTRY”.

The brief relief from their struggle was short lived, however, as the crash of heavy, industrial footwear was heard echoing from the thin metal flooring behind them.

“Here come our rescuers! Get it open!” yelled Suki.

Axel lifted the hatch.

Suki was shaking in terror. “They’re right behind us!”

Axel ripped open the hatch, and Suki lowered herself into the comms room below, Axel right behind her.

They both dropped into the comms room.

“What the hell’s that!?” Suki said, staring at the glass jar that contained a colourless liquid and a test-tube, in which hung a light green gaseous substance. Axel had just produced it from an internal pocket within his – now dust covered – white coat.

“Well Suki, It’s something I’m very glad didn’t break in my own pocket following our little scramble just then” He looked up to the open hatch above.

“That, and a little parting gesture for these bastards, who I’m quite sure will have no qualms about tearing us apart in about 30 seconds”.

With that, he threw the thin-walled glass jar through the hatch and into the tunnel above, and a split second later leapt up grabbing the handle of the hatch door, and slammed it shut. Pretty acrobatic, so Suki thought.

“Down!” He ordered, and grabbed her around the neck, pulling her to the floor as the explosion reverberated around the comms room.

“What the hell was that?!” Suki asked in shock.

“Hey, I’m a doctor, but I paid attention in chemistry classes too!” He felt unnaturally macho.

“I just seriously hope that wasn’t a real rescue party that you just fried up there!” said Suki, and shot another wry smile his way.

They both arose from the floor.

“Where’s the access to the escape pods? Suki asked, dusting herself off.

“Should be down here” Axel strode over to a hatch in the centre of the comms room. Most of the equipment surrounding them appeared to have been disabled. Cables had been torn from the various computer banks around them.

“If, once we’re done hear, I never have to crawl through another hatch I will die happy!” Suki replied.

Axel lifted the hatch open to reveal a ladder, which led into the shadowy release bay. Allowing her eyes to become accustomed to the dark, Suki glimpsed the angular outline of one of the escape pods.

Having descended the ladder into the illy-lit bay, Axel noticed the anomaly first: “Two of the escape pods are missing” he informed Suki – “Look”.

It did indeed appear that the spaces in the bay for two of the small vessels were empty. “Well, I certainly don’t blame anyone who wanted out of here” commented Suki. “Have you been in one of these before? She asked.

“No, well, only in training. I remember that the escape sequence is totally initiated from inside the pods – it’s pretty intuitive”.

“Yeah: I remember the drill. Well. Time to go I guess” Suki turned to face him. “Good luck”. She said.

Axel Smiled as best he could under the circumstances, then both he and Suki turned to board their respective vessels.

Suki pressed the ‘entry’ panel on the surface of her pod, and a door sprung quickly outwards and upwards. In her haste to get inside, she smacked her head on the door, and cursed the low gravity on her home planet. She held her forehead and waited for the stars to move from her vision. “a great end to a great trip…” she said to herself facetiously.

“You OK?” Called Axel.

“I’ll live!” Suki called back.

With that, the doors to both pods closed, and Suki and Axel prepared to exit the brutalised anaconda.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Amongst other specialist equipment on the Herbert and Carter was an ultra long-range telescope, deigned to study asteroids at great distance. This enabled the crew to assess a particular rock’s potential for exploitation from afar, saving a great deal of time when surveying large fields in a particular system: it avoided having to fly between all the asteroids within a particular belt for an ‘up-close’ inspection.

Philips had been staring at the bow of the Anaconda through the monitor linked to this scope for over 30 minutes, waiting for any sign of escape pods being launched.

“Okay! We’ve got two released!” Though unclear, he was able to make out the pyramid structures of the tiny vessels. “Let’s do some scooping – we’re going to have to be quick with this”.

The knowledge that the Vipers could be lurking nearby was at the forefront of both his and Sol’s minds.

Miz-Miz fired up the witch injectors, and the Cobra rocketed away from their hiding place alongside Delta 194/B)iii. The great rock rolled slowly away behind them.

“500 metres and closing!” Lets bring them in!

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Crammed into the tiny pod, Suki had followed the Herbert & Carter’s progress towards them on the craft’s rudimentary scanner. She disallowed herself to bathe in any relief – this was not done yet, and the thought of Gray, and reliving her experiences of the last hours to Sol and Philips, was eating at her.

She watched as Axel’s pod vanished into Cobra’s cargo scoop, then a few seconds later, braced herself just as the same scoop jolted her pod into position, then flung it into the confines of the Cobra’s hold. There was another great jolt as the pod was decelerated. She opened her eyes, and saw the dull grey interior of the Herbert & Carter’s cargo bay. Exhaling, she allowed the tension that had gripped her body for the last hours to release for a few brilliant moments.

The next conversation she was going to have would not be an easy one – it put into perspective those ‘difficult’ ones that she’d had with her (soon to be ex) boyfriend, Karl – but, at least, she was alive.

7.

Two weeks later, having crossed through several systems without incident; having lived through Suki’s agonising account of Gray’s death and the last hours on board Petra; having met Axel; having undertaken essential repairs to the Herbert & Carter’s systems, and finally having made contact via the Secure Channel to command, to receive a – verging on unsympathetic – instruction to remain in the Cobra at all times whilst at the various stationed stops along their way to the Corporations headquarters in Zaonce, and discuss no matters relating to Petra with anyone whatsoever before being debriefed; Sol and Philips sat opposite each other at the circular mess-room table in the crew’s quarters of the Herbert & Carter, both with bottles of Riedquatian Ale in front of them. Following a few hours of down-time, they were scheduled to make the final jump from Lave to Zaonce, where this mission would be brought to a close.

“Well, can’t say I’m looking forward to this debriefing at HQ”. Said Sol, picking up the bottle in front of her, and studying the torn foil around its neck.

“It is what it is – but it’s going to be quite a story for command”. Philips replied.

“You bet. I can’t believe they wouldn’t even let us leave this iron ass! Just glad I got plenty of this stuff on the way out – we’ve sure needed it over the last weeks, just hope command don’t go psycho over that unscheduled stop in Riedquat!”.

Philips laughed as Sol cracked open another bottle of the Ale, and pushed it over the table towards him.

“I think what has just happened with Petra is going to take precedence in Z & R’s parade of questions over an unscheduled stop in Riedequat to pick up booze two months ago!” Philips replied, jokingly.

“You know, I think you’re right; I’ll leave my concern with that one there. Where are Suki an the Doc, by the way?”

“In the lab – have been pretty much since we docked at Lave” replied Philips.

“They seem to be getting along well! Good luck to them!”.

She leaned over and clinked bottle-necks with Saul. They both laughed, and swallowed more of the deep yellow ale.

Sol relaxed back as far as she could in the uncomfortable chair, throwing the long red and black hair over her shoulder and revealing the black tattoo on her neck – a small circle with perhaps 15 straight lines of varying length protruding from it’s circumference in all directions.

Philips pointed to it: “Tell me about that one” he said.

Sol reached to her neck: “Bit silly that – got it done when I was twenty, on my beautiful home planet, Ribilebi (she added, facetiously): the guy told me it was an inscription placed on an Old Earth spacecraft way back – probably just a myth, but he sold it well!”.

They carried on talking and drinking the Riedquatian Ale. About an hour later, Suki and Axel joined them for the last R&R of the mission.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Two-Hundred Old-Earth Years later, the report on the ‘Petra Incident’ (as it is referred to in the Z & R Corporation’s archives) offers only the following ‘facts’ written almost flippantly, in note form:

‘Deep space mining vessel, converted Anaconda class freighter ‘Petra’, found abandoned in Xexedi system following complete breakdown of communication with command. Unclear what exactly occurred on vessel. Report filed by Saul Philips, Commander of Z & R Enterprises ‘Herbert & Carter’ (an exploration vessel sent to investigate), suggests that crew believed drive systems had become unstable and abandoned in escape pods and escort craft that accompanied the ship. It can only be surmised that escaping crew were lost in deep space, possibly destroyed by pirate fleets known to be operating in the area’.

Omitted from the Corporation’s archives are the facts that, on arrival at Zaonce, Z & R’s headquarters; the laboratory on the Herbert & Carter was stripped by uniformed officials under military guard, and all samples, sampling equipment, data and other logs removed from the vessel. Suki and Axel were told that they had entered a ‘psychotic episode’ following narcosis, probably brought about by gasses leaking from the ship’s damaged drives. These had, it was suggested, been responsible for the death of Engineer, Gregory Rage. The skirmish with the vipers was put down to Petra’s escorts having been hijacked by pirates. This was the official line, and Suki Howe, Axel Vrest, Sola’kiki Miz-Miz and Saul Philips were informed that it was in their ‘best interests’ to stick to it. They continued to work for Z & R for several months, before various personal reasons took them – or at least their careers – in different directions.

It is also not noted in the corporation’s archives that within four hours of the first communications via the Secure Channel from the Herbert and Carter, (following its departure from Xexedi) to Z & R Corporation command, that a fleet of Corporation vessels with a significant military ‘back up’ departed to the Xexedi system. The fleet returned several weeks later, without the bodies of Gregory Rage or any crew.

Petra was never, officially, seen again - though several reports have suggested that she was recovered, refitted, and sold on as a freighter vessel - Z&R were not in the business of letting valuable assets disappear, of course.


The End.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Notes:

George Herbert and Howard Carter - Discoverers of the treasure-filled tomb of Tutankhamun in the Valley of the Kings, Egypt

Petra - (from the Greek for 'rock') an Ancient Jordanian city, famed for its rock-cut architecture

Ballarat - City in Victoria, Australia; the growth of which was initially due to a Victorian-era gold-rush.

Just added parts 6 and 7 - all done now, though sure there's plenty of tidying up/editing left to do.

Ran out space on the initial post, so had to paste the final parts above.

At some point, I'd like to change a few of the system names used so that they are actual Oolite planets.

Cheers!

Hi.

I've read through this quite a few times now, and I'm not very happy with the last half of the story - it feels rushed and could do with more description/explanation. Not totally convinced the whole Suki/Axel and escape part works too well, either - at least not in the way I have approached it.

I think I became a bit obsessed with getting it completed to a certain arbitrary word limit, which was exceeded anyway;-).

I've got some feedback from outside of the forum, which has pretty much confirmed the above for me.

I'm going to leave this up here - at least for the time being - but I'm going to substantially re-write the last half of the story (at least part 5 onwards).

Cheers.