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A Mater of Viral Resistance - Chapter 3
"That's impossible!" exclaimed another member of the revolutionary group. "We know the goods were moved here."
"Well, in that case," retorted Beka, "who ever moved the stuff put everything into new crates, and I don't see an inventory list on any of the boxes. We'll have to open every container, and empty it out to find your contaminated vaccine, and there are an awful lot of crates in here."
The Maru's captain wasn't exaggerating, the warehouse looked more like an explosion in a crate factory than a warehouse. Packing crates were scattered helter skelter over the floor and stacked in a completely haphazard fashion.
"Damn!" swore Brendan. "We don't have time to open every crate. We're going to have to use the fall back plan. Thomas, Sean, Corwin, you guys know what to do. The three men put down the back packs they were carrying and began to remove black, brick shaped objects from them. Cuz," he turned to the group's electronics expert, "we're going to see if your toys make as big a bang as you claim they will."
"Are you sure, Brendan?" asked the young man. "Those medicines could save a lot of lives. We could simply tell everyone not to get the flu vaccination."
"Which would alert the Ubers to the fact that we can monitor their communications. No, cousin, I was going to smash things up in a way that looked like a random smash and gab, and take out the contaminated vaccine in the process, but since we can't do that we're going to have to take it all out."
As he was speaking the three men were planting the bricks, which Beka surmised were explosive charges throughout the warehouse. Two of the men had climbed up into the overhead of the warehouse, and were busily attaching the bricks to the beams supporting the roof, while the third placed his charges on various sections of the floor, attached wires to his boxes and then began to carefully string the wires across the floor at about ankle level.
"Aren't those trip wires rather obvious?" asked Vexpeg.
"They're supposed to be," answered Brendan's cousin. "The Ubers will see them when they enter the warehouse and bring in a bomb disposal team. The team will disable the bombs and give an all clear. Then the Ubers are going to swarm all over this place."
"And?" asked Bobby.
The young man pointed upwards. "Five minutes after the Ubers deactivate the bombs on the floor, those puppies go off. It's amazing what you can do with common chemicals and ball bearings."
"
Ok, the charges are set," said Brendan. "Cousin, I want you to
guide our guests back to their ship."
He turned to look at Beka. "Remember your promise. Let the Than know what really happened here tonight."Shifting his attention back to his cousin Brendan continued.
"If they don’t make it back to their craft and off planet, cousin, you might as well turn yourself in to the Ubers. Any death they devise for you will be more pleasant than what I’ll do to you if they don’t get off world. If it becomes a choice between your life, or them getting of world to get the word out about what the Ubers are doing here, you make sure they get off planet. Understand? Right now their lives are more important than any of ours.
"Ok, folks, lets get out of here. If the Ubers don't trigger the charges, they're set to detonate in 30 minutes, and when they do the Ubers will be swarming like ants whose hill has been kicked. I don’t want us out on the streets when they do."
Brendan's cousin picked up his carry all and signaled for the Maru's crew to follow him. They took off in single file, the revolutionary in the lead followed by Bobby with Beka in the middle and Vexpeg taking up the rear. He led them down trash-strewn alleyways heading in the general direction of the spaceport, but then he suddenly took an abrupt turn away form the direction of the Maru. Bobby immediately grabbed their guide by his shoulder, spinning him around and at the same time drawing his gun and thrusting it in the younger man’s face.
"This isn’t the route to the Maru," hissed Bobby "What do you think you’re doing? Leading us into an ambush set up by your friends."
The look the Earther gave Bobby was a mixture of fear and contempt. "Use your brain," he hissed back. ‘The Resistance needs you alive. If we keep going the route we were taking, we would walk right into an Uber check point. I don’t know about you, but I'd rather go around it than end up in an interrogation room explaining why we are all out after curfew. That is assuming they didn’t simply shoot us without waiting for an explanation."
"The boy’s right, Bobby," growled Vexpeg. "it would make sense for them to guard access to the spaceport."
"Yeah, but how did he know it was there tonight?" argued Bobby.
"Because it’s there every night, moron," snapped the young man, his anger overcoming his fear.
"Put the gun away, Bobby," said Beka in an exasperated tone of voice. "We can always kill him later if we need to."
The young man gave Beka a ‘Gee thanks, I think’ look then asked. "How much more time till the bombs go off?"
"They're your bombs, don’t you know?" asked Beka.
The Earther held up a bare wrist. "No watch."
Vexpeg glanced at his. "Twelve minutes," he said.
"No problem then," said their guide. "We’re only five minutes from the perimeter of the port. Once you get in act like you belong; since your ship is there you’ll be fine."
No sooner had the words left his mouth than the group heard what sounded like some sort of animal cry 'tuu WHEE, tuu WHEE.' Their escort immediately stopped and strained to hear the sounds. After about a minute there was another cry 'tuu tuu WHEE, tuu tuu WHEE,' it sounded closer than the first cry.
"Crap," snarled the Earther. "The Ubers have foot patrols out. They must suspect that the Resistance was going to try something tonight. This way, we’re going to have to play tag in the alleys, hope we don’t get spotted, and that I can get you to the spaceport before the bombs go off."
He took them on a twisting turning route, this time moving at a quick jog. On two occasions he stopped them, making them crouch in the deepest shadows of the alleyway as a Nietszschean patrol went by. The second patrol passed so close that they could hear the Nietzscheans talking and joking among themselves. Unfortunately dodging the patrols took time, too much time. From somewhere behind them there was the sound of an explosion.
"Well that tears it," said Beka. ‘What now, kid?"
"The Ubers will be swarming like mosquitoes, but the edge of the spaceport is only about two alleys from here," answered their guide.
"Is there any good news?" muttered Bobby.
"That was the good news, the bad news is that the Ubers are going to have guards stationed around your spacecraft. But not to worry. I have a plan."
"You'd better," said Beka. "Or you won't have to worry about being turned over to the Nietzscheans by your own side. We'll have already killed you."
"Have faith," reassured their escort. "This is what I do."
He then led the Maru's crew through several more wandering back streets, then abruptly they were at the perimeter fence of the spaceport. The area was well lit but deserted since curfew was in effect.
"I can get you through the fence, but after that you're on your own. Your ship is down that way." He pointed almost straight ahead into the darkness.
"Isn't the fence alarmed?" asked Beka.
"That's part of the plan," replied the Earther. Seeing the puzzled look on Beka's face he explained. "Rather than bypass the alarm, I'm going to fool it into registering multiple breeches throughout the fence line. It should cause the Ubers to draw most of their guards away from your craft."
The young man turned his attention to the fence and began removing various items from his equipment bag. "There you go," he said stepping away from the fence. There was a hole cut in the chain link large enough for a person to squeeze through, and numerous wires connected to various points on the fence. The wires led to a box the young man was holding. The box had a keyboard on it and the Earther was busy tapping on the keys. "Time to go, and thanks for the help."
Beka indicated for Bobby and Vexpeg to go through the hole. She turned to their escort, planning to say goodbye and thanks, but her farewell was interrupted by the arrival of a squad of Nietzschean soldiers emerging for the alley she and the others had emerged from a few minutes earlier.
If the Nietzschean squad had been composed of front line combat troops Beka and the others would have died there at the perimeter fence, but the majority of the troops garrisoning Earth were the dregs of the Drago-Kazov military, fit for browbeating a subject population but little else. Upon seeing the interlopers their first reaction was confusion followed by a series of poorly aimed gunshots.
"Run!" shouted Beka.
The Earther seeing the confusion in the Nietzschean ranks, reached into his shirt pocket and removed what appeared to be a child's whistle, put it to his mouth, and blew. No audible sound emanated but the members of the Nietzschean squad immediately stopped shooting and put their hands over their ears. The device was nothing more than a homemade dog whistle. Nietzschean hearing was more sensitive than a human's and extended into the ultrasonic range. The ultrasonic whistle was inaudible to humans, but extremely painful to unprotected Nietzschean ears. Called a shriller by the Resistance, the whistles had saved the life of more than one Resistance member. With the Nietzschean squad temporarily out of action, and with nowhere else to go, the Earther took off after the crew of the Maru, who by this time had a considerable lead on him.
One of the Nietzscheans must have either been better trained or simply luckier than the others for suddenly Vexpeg fell face forward onto the spaceport tarmac. Beka stopped running and turned to aid her fallen comrade, but was literally jerked backwards by Bobby, who grabbed her by her arm and began to drag her away from the fallen Umbrite and in the direction of the Maru.
As the Resistance member neared the downed Umbrite, Vexpeg started to rise, then fell back onto the tarmac. Acting more by instinct than conscious thought, the young revolutionary stooped to help Vexpeg up. The Nietzschean's round had taken the Umbrite squarely in his right shoulder blade. The wound was serious but not necessarily fatal. As he bent over the wounded Umbrite the Earther heard a loud explosion from the general area of where the Maru's captain and her crewman had been. He hoped that they were on the giving and not the receiving end of the explosion.
The Earther helped Vexpeg get to his feet, then slung the Umbrite's unwounded arm over his shoulder, put an arm around the Umbrite's waist, and the two resumed running towards the shelter of the Maru, bullets whistling past them as they ran.
To the Earther's relief , it had been the Ubers that had been on the receiving end of the explosion. Several of them were lying scattered about the Maru's entrance elevator. Even better was the fact that the elevator was at ground level and the crewman called Bobby was crouched in the entranceway shooting at the pursuing Ubers.
A mad scramble later, the Earther and Vexpeg were in the elevator. Bobby hit the button to close the access door and the Maru began to lift off.
"I guess we don't have to shoot you after all," said Bobby. "thanks for helping Vex"
"Hey, kid," came a female voice from over the intraship communicator. "Welcome to the Maru. Looks like you're going to be around for a few days, so what should we call you?"
"Harper. You can call me Harper."
Epilogue
Date: CY 10086 - AD Oct 5163Location: In Transit
"Wow, that was an exciting story," gushed Trance. "What happened after that?"
"You pretty much know most of the rest of the story, Trance," replied Beka. "Harper became a member of the crew, Bobby left, Vexpeg died, and then you came aboard."
"Why did Bobby leave, Beka? You've never told me that either."
The older woman put down her cup of cocoa and stood up. "That's a story for another day. But right now we both need to try and get some sleep. Tomorrow's going to be a busy day."
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