Jerry Oltion - The Getaway Special

“Your readings are correct. We have sustained damage to the vertical stabilizer. We won’t be able to reenter. Request you reserve space for us on the next flight down.”

“Roger, Discovery . What kind of damage to the stabilizer?”

“It’s been vaporized. Completely melted away. We assume it was either a particle beam or laser antisatellite weapon, automatically fired. We do not consider ourselves to have been attacked. Please be sure the Pentagon understands, over.”

“Roger, Discovery . I’m sure they’ll be glad to hear that.”

Allen butted in. “Uh, Commander?”

“I’ll bet they will. Hold on a sec.” She turned off the mike. “What, Allen?”

“I think we should get away from here. We’re picking up velocity being this close to the Moon. It’ll make it hard to put us back into orbit.”

“Velocity? How?”

“Gravitation. We’re falling toward the Moon. When we make our next hyperspace jump the velocity we gain will still be with us. We’ll have to cancel it before we can go into Earth orbit.”

“Oh. Right.” Judy tried to visualize the situation in her mind. Too close to the Moon; well, “Can you put us on the other side of the Earth?”

“I don’t want to fool around near the planets any more. I need to calibrate it. I think the danger of war is past, is it not?”

Judy nodded. “Okay. Give me a minute to explain what we’re going to do, then you can take us wherever you want. Within reason,” she amended quickly. She turned on the radio again and said, “Control, this is Discovery . Doctor Meisner says that the Moon’s gravitation is causing us to build up unwanted velocity. We’ll have to make another hyperspace jump in order to leave the area, plus another series of jumps to calibrate the engine. We’ll be out of radio contact for a while. Promise you won’t let them blow up the world while we’re gone? Over.”

“We’ll do our best, Discovery . Things are a little hot down here.”

Judy imagined they were. If the ground controller didn’t have a Marine holding a pistol to his head within the next couple of minutes she would be very surprised. “Just keep the lid on until we get back,” she told him. “Remind the President that this would be a really stupid time to go to war.”

“We’ll do that. Good luck, Discovery .”

“Good luck to you. Discovery out.” Judy switched off the radio, turned around, and screamed.

“Be calm,” Gerry said as he floated up through the mid-deck hatchway with the .45 from the emergency survival kit in his hand. “Allen, you may continue with your jump. Judy, you will please come away from the controls.”

“What do you think you’re doing?” she demanded.

“I’m appropriating this vessel for the Russian Federation . You won’t be harmed so long as you do as I say.”

“Come off it, Gerry. You’re not going to fire that thing in here. One stray shot and you’d lose all your air.”

“There is that risk. I’d have preferred a less destructive weapon, but the survival kit doesn’t carry a dart gun. I’ll just have to be careful not to miss, won’t I? Now come away. Slowly, that’s it.” He reached out and stopped her in midair, leaving her floating where he could see her move long before she reached anything to push off against.

He glanced out the aft windows at the surface of the Moon beyond the cargo bay and said, “Allen, you may move us away now.” He kept the gun aimed at Judy as he spoke.

Allen swallowed. “Right.” He turned to the keyboard and began keying in coordinates.

“Why are you doing this, Gerry?” Judy asked. “You’re not a Russian.”

“That depends on your definition. I’ve been a sleeper agent since before I entered the space program, since before the Union collapsed. In any case, my nationality is not the issue. What matters is my belief that the Federation should have this device.”

Allen cleared his throat. “I, uh, I was planning on giving it to everybody. You see, part of the reason I did things the way I did was to get everybody’s attention so they wouldn’t think it was a hoax when I sent the plans out over the internet.”

Gerry shook his head. “A noble thought. Unfortunately, the world isn’t ready for it. Russia will have to keep your idea secret until the rest of humanity is sufficiently civilized to handle something this dangerous.”

“Bullshit,” Judy said. “You can’t believe that. You want to keep it for yourself. You want Russia to be a big superpower again, and you think this will—”

Gerry waved the pistol at her. “Be quiet. Allen, you will make the jump now.”

Allen turned back to his keyboard and pushed the transmit key. The radio sent its timing pulse, but nothing else happened.

“What—?” He looked out the window, pushed the key again, and again. Still nothing changed.

“I must have miskeyed it,” he said. He entered the coordinates again, canceled the tinier and reset it, and hit “Jump” again.

Still nothing.

“Something’s wrong.”

“Allen.” Gerry had the gun pointed at him now.

“I’m not lying! It’s not working! It’s hardly surprising, with all the jumps we’ve been doing in a row. Something’s probably burned out. It’s still an experimental model, you know.”

“Then you will find the problem and fix it.” Gerry glanced out the window and added, “I suggest you do it quickly.”

Judy followed his glance. The Moon’s surface was definitely closer now.

Allen said, “You’ll have to go out and get the canister.”

“Not until you’ve exhausted the possibilities inside. The problem may be in the computer.”

“It isn’t. The signal is reaching the radio, and all the data uses one line. The problem is in the canister.”

Gerry thought it through and nodded. “All right, but Judy will go out and get it. I prefer to remain here where I can watch you.”

The Moon was larger still by the time Judy stepped out into the cargo bay. She had cut the suiting-up time to its bare minimum, but it still took time breathing pure oxygen to wash the nitrogen out of her bloodstream, and even Gerry with his pistol couldn’t force her to go outside before she was sure she was safe from the bends. Once she was out she took time for one quick look—she could see their motion now, the cratered surface growing inexorably closer by the minute—then she unfastened the “mystery” canister and climbed back into the airlock with it under her arm. When she got back inside she handed it to Allen and started to pull off her helmet.

“Leave it on,” Gerry said. Judy could hear the tension in his voice even through the intercom. She understood the reason for it, and for his order. She wouldn’t have time to become uncomfortable in the suit. If Allen found the problem she would have to take the canister back outside, and if he didn’t they would crash into the Moon; either way she wouldn’t have to worry about the suit for very long.

Allen floated over to the wall of lockers in the mid-deck and opened the one holding the tool kit. Then he opened the canister and held it so the light shone down inside. Judy looked over his shoulder and saw a maze of wires and circuit boards. Allen looked at them for a minute, then reached in and pushed a few wires around. He let go of the canister and left it floating in front of him, looked up, and said, “I think I’ve found it. Judy, could you help hold this a minute?”

She nodded and reached out to take it from him.

“Here, over on this side,” he said, pulling her around so she was on his left. Gerry floated to his right with the gun at the ready. Carl was still unconscious in his bunk beside Judy; evidently Gerry had given him a sedative when he had the chance.