Shoot First

No Space for Family [Chapter 20]

After cutting the communication, we continued our approach to Yuzumaru. I think I saw it first. It looked like what we had seen on the star charts, but a bit greener.

“There she is,” Mom said with a wistful sigh. “Looking more lush every day.”

“Does that mean that the biosphere is expanding?” I asked, settling in close to my mom there at the front of the cockpit.

“It does,” she said, putting her arm around my shoulder. “After the primary process of terraforming a planet’s atmosphere, plant seeds and biomass get dropped around different places on the surface to jump-start the biosphere. Even in places where people won’t be settling. It helps to sequester carbon dioxide on planets like these that were volcanically unstable for a while. After a while, mother nature takes over and—“

“There’s someone contacting us,” interrupted Grandma. “From the surface of the planet here.”

Dad clicked his tongue. “Well, I was hoping we could just land without any fuss or having share credentials or visitor passes, but I guess even places like this care about their security too. Aida, put them through.”

The cockpit’s speakers crackled, allowing the voice through before my dad could say any more. “Identify yourselves.”

“We’re just passing through,” lied dad. He was getting better at that. “We were hoping just go set down for a bit, have a picnic, touch some grass, let some fresh planet air into our hatches. We wouldn’t disturb a soul.”

“We are cooperating with sector security in the search for a ship designated the ‘Ora’. Your hull type and weight class match their description. Again, identify yourselves, please.”

Mom looked at Dad, who looked back at me and my brother. I slid out of my mom’s arms and settled back into my seat.

Terren shook his head. “Sector security? That’s not a real designation, is it?”

“It sounds real enough to anybody that doesn’t want to deal with fact-checking,” said dad.

“There is a ship approaching,” announced Grandma.

Dad swiped the communication screen out of his way and latched onto the flight controls with both hands. “Damn, what are they trying? Aida, scan them for any weapons systems.”

“None that I can tell. Their ship is smaller than ours. Two life signs.”

“Jeff,” my mom interjected. “I agree that these people are probably up to no good. But if ground control on Yuzumaru is cooperating with them, whoever they are, doing anything to antagonize them would make us look suspicious. Not to mention, we’d be putting Dr. Pois in danger when she comes here.”

“Forget this place,” Terren huffed. “We can head somewhere else! Tell the doctor to come up with another meeting place.”

“No!” I whined back at my brother. “We’d be putting the doctor in more danger by radioing her again. She’s probably scrambled her frequency so they can’t trace her through us!”

“Jefferson!” Whined Grandma. “They’re hailing. And trying to line up with our docking port!”

Plip leaned his head in the cockpit door. “Hey now! I’m just an innocent bystander. Please tell me there’s a hatch or something I can hide in before they storm this place?”

“Jeff!”

“Dad!”

“Everyone shut up!” Dad shouted. It was louder than I had ever heard him yell before. When his voice stopped echoing, all we could hear was the hum of the engines and the low clunk of the other ship coupling with us. “I can’t think when everyone is trying to talk over each other! One at a time. Aida— the docking door?”

“I sure as heck won’t open it. And I know how to protect against a brute force attack.”

“Good. Kids?” asked Dad, turning about in his seat. “Nothing’s going to happen to us, don’t you worry.”

“That’s a nice though, Jefferson,” Grandma interrupted. “But there’s a large, concentrated heat signature on the outside of our docking hatch. They’re taking a literal approach to the meaning of ‘brute force’.”

“How much time do you think we have, Aida?”

“Based on what the specifications of the ship say… I’d imagine we have ten minutes.”

Dad jerked up out of his seat. “Okay, think. Yeah, we can make something of this. I have an idea and we’ll need everyone’s help. Especially you, Plip. No hiding for you, unfortunately. We’ll need your acting skills for one last time.”

“What now? Acting?” Plip huffed. “Don’t you know the phrase ‘shoot first, ask questions later?’”

Dad patted him on the shoulder as he marched out of the cockpit. “That’s not how we operate here, I’m afraid.”

“I’m talking about them!”

---

After about seven minutes, the hissing, sizzling sound of the cutting torch penetrated the door. I could smell the odor of singed metal and melting paint. I was up in the ceiling panel above the hallway there, peeking out through the holes in the access panel. In my hand was the hastily wired switch. Just below me was our guest, shifting back and forth with his arms crossed.

I held my breath as the final bit of the hatch door was caved in, along with the chairs that were packed in a makeshift barricade. They didn’t really do much. Through the forcefully made passage came the big brute, covered head to toe in a sort of light armor. He was followed by a lanky fellow, similarly dressed in defensive coverings. Plip raised his hands to the air with a gentle motion.

“To what do I owe the pleasure, gentlemen?” He asked.

The brute raised an energy pistol up off his belt in response. The lanky one moved around to get a better view around his partner.

“Whoa, whoa. No need to shoot. Let’s talk,” Plip encouraged, both hands now in the air.

“Who are you?” hissed Lanky. “This is clearly the Ora. We were told it is piloted by Earthlings.”

“Is that the name of this ship?” Plip shrugged, putting his hands down and back across his chest. “You’re right, it was piloted by Earthlings, humans. But I’m in control now. Any dealings you had with them might as well be null and void now.”

“Jefferson Umburter!” huffed the brute, banging on the metallic cabinet doors lining the hallway there.

Lanky sauntered forward a bit, stopping to glance up and down the main hallway to the cockpit and back to the storage hub door. “Yes, that’s the name of the man we were imagining to find here.”

Plip snickered and leaned against the wall. “Ah yes, him and his family. Well, first thing about him— humans in general— they’re too trusting. Picking up someone like me. They were nice for a bit, but I got impatient. Second thing about that man, he cared too much about his family. I was going to let the lot of them freeze to death back there in their cargo container. I’m not a gun-to-the-head sort of guy, but I couldn’t let them scheme and try to take the ship back. Four against one, you know. So I let nice Mr. Umburter sit it out alone there. And then I opened the back hatch and let the void take him.”

Lanky glanced back at the brute with a suspicious gaze. “You’re saying Mr. Umburter is out of the picture?”

“That’s what I said, didn’t I? What, did he have something of yours?”

Lanky smirked. “Just a matter of knowing too much. But speaking of that, we’re also dutied to… deactivate the AI core that this craft was carrying.”

“Deactivate, huhu,” chortled the brute, patting at what looked like an explosive on the back of his belt.

“Hah!” Plip laughed. “That Artificial Intelligence. What a nuisance. Yeah, I unplugged that loud bitch the first moment I could!”

I nearly ruined the whole plan by laughing out loud. I imagined Grandma wanting to shout at him for that. Only by pinching hard at my cheek was I able to stay silent.

Plip paced a bit and continued. “Yeah, I think the core or whatever must have ended up in the void with the man of the family. The wife and kids are still here, ‘course. Locked nicely in their rooms. I’m not that bad of a guy. I was about to drop them off on this planet here. But then you two decided to drop in instead.”

Lanky ground his teeth. “The wife probably knows too much, too.”

Plip sighed and shrugged. “If she does, good luck having her tell you about it. She’s been bawling her eyes off since her husband got offed. Moaning about keeping her kids safe, too. She’s right though this way if you really want her. Would that be enough to get you folks off this ship of mine?”

Lanky hissed through his teeth. “Move to the side. Bugan!”

“Yes, sir,” said the brute, marching forward and shoving Plip to the side. He went to the door at the opposite side of the ship and smashed at the controls with his meaty hand. Just as the escape pod’s exterior door hissed open, the plan went into action.

Terren jumped out from under the hallway’s floor panel, while my dad pushed out of the bathroom. They both ran at the intruders, shoving Lanky first and shunting them both into the awaiting doors of the escape pod before they could react.

“Hands free! Sola, now!” Shouted dad.

I hit the switch and hoped hard that it would work. The security doors closed to prevent the ship from losing pressure and the pod ejected, sending both of them off in the little sealed container.

Plip leaned against the wall, letting out a long sigh. “You lot are crazy. You’re sure they won’t be able to do any more funny business from there?”

Dad chuckled, shaking Terren in celebration. “Sola and Aida reprogrammed the systems in there so they’re pretty much locked out. Not even a distress beacon. There are at least some rations in there for a good week or two.”

“A week for that big guy, I’d say,” Terren laughed. “We’re lucky he fit through the door of the escape pod.”

Dad stood on his tiptoes and slid the ceiling access hatch open, right by where I was hiding. “Swing around Sola, feet first.”

As my dad got me down from the ceiling there, mom opened the door of the cargo hub, a long metal bar in her hands. “Good show, boys.”

I heard the faint hum of the speaker system crackle on. “Loud bitch, you said?”

“I was acting, you damn computer!” Plip said up to the ceiling. “What a… dreadful experience. I mean, I’m not always on my best behavior, but I’ve never had to role-play as some… pirate… scumbag… murderer.”

“Maybe you can start an acting career,” I joked as I found solid ground again.

Mom set herself beside the hatch and the sections of door that had been cut away. “I guess we’re not going to be able to disengage their ship. Can you still land it on the planet with them attached?”

“Doesn’t seem like we have a choice but to try,” said Dad, rubbing the back of his head. “Aida, get to hacking their systems in case their location is being tracked.”

“I’m on it. And I’ll do so as quietly as possible, so as to not disturb our guest any further.”

“Like I said, acting!”