Wednesday Briefs - In Enemy Hands #1.4

Welcome to the Wednesday Briefs flash group (click to go to the site). The short stories have a maximum of a 1000 word count plus links at the bottom to the other flashers. If interested in joining us, drop me a line and I'll tell you how. :)Prompts for this week:
or “I haven’t been bowling since the Nixon administration.”

or “That was no football game, that was a massacre.”

or “Well, give me some beans and I’ll grow you a beanstalk, if you like.”

or “Shit that's spooky, I just emailed you 0_o” (face is optional!)

or “Wake up and fetch my purse”

or “Give me a kiss”or “You don’t really think I’m going to let you have all the fun, do you?”

or "Time and time again you…"

or "You want me to do… what?"

or "Now see, that’s a problem."

or "I never dreamed this would happen!"

or "You look like the cat who ate the canary.”

or "Kneel for me."

or "Touchdown!"

or "I got to second base."

or use: carpet, iron, mug

or use: clippers, needle, CD

or use: pen, tile, pavers

or have your character fly a kite

or have a rooster in your story

or have a character trying on clothes

or have a character plot a murder

or find a new use for honey



Chapter 1.4
Haus jerked his hand out of the way before Sarik’s boot landed on it. “Why in the Goddess’ name would we want to get to the surface? Once they get the SSN up again, we’ll be trapped there. They’ll hunt us down like animals. And I hate the dark too. It’s nothing but darkness there!”
“I know. They call it a Nightshade planet for a reason. I said it would get us to the surface. I didn’t say I wanted to land on the surface.” Varo stopped at the deck labeled Shuttle Bay and kicked out another side panel. “We’re there.”
Haus climbed out of the shaft after Varo. “Then what are you planning, sir? And why do you think they won’t just shoot us out of the sky?”
“Because, I’m hoping you can hotwire the shuttle so we can activate stealth mode.”
Haus’ eyes widened. “But, Captain, that’s more Darn’s job. She’s the engineer.”
“I’ve seen you hotwire more than one com panel, Haus.” Varo nodded to the shuttle.
Haus swiped a hand over his face. “Okay, so maybe I can, but what good will that do?” Haus walked to where Artan stood by the open shuttle door.
“The net is down, and that’s an opportunity I can’t pass up. If you can manually activate the shuttle’s stealth mode, we can go invisible and get past them. We set coordinates and aim for their capital city. With any luck, we can use the shuttle as a weapon and blow up their royal family.”
“Oh,” Haus breathed. “Suicide mission.”
Varo paused at the shuttle door. “I won’t order any of you to join me. If you can get the stealth mode working on the shuttle, you can stay here if you wish, Haus. Same goes for you, Sarik and Artan. Slavery or death is the only option we have now. I choose death. Hopefully, I can take a few of their royal family with me.”
“I’m in.” Sarik nodded. “But they live in places literally carved directly into cliff faces.”
“And can you imagine what a shuttle with a warp engine exploding on contact would do to that rock face? I promise you, that explosion would be seen from space,” Varo answered.
“What a morale booster that would be if we could pull it off.” Haus pursed his lips. “At least death would be quick.”
Artan crossed his arms over his chest. “You don’t really think I’m going to let you have all the fun, do you? Of course I’m in.”
“I’m in too, Captain.” Haus stepped onto the shuttle.
“Well then, let’s tinker with this beauty and get her set up.” Varo slapped Haus on the back. “Go work your magic. We need to leave like five unit minutes ago.”
Activity picked up around the shuttle. Haus lay flat on his back, with a panel off under the Helm, busy with the wires. Artan monitored the approaching Helkan fighters. Sarik sat in the pilot’s chair, checking the systems.
Varo leaned over Sarik’s shoulder. “How it’s coming?”
“I’ve…” Sarik tapped the screen a few more times. “Yes! Son of a dirty comet, he did it. We’re a go, Captain. Haus, you big sexy goof, you did it!”
“Oh goddess, would you stop that?” Haus wiggled out of the guts of the Helm and sat up. “You are such a perv.”
“You’re just now figuring that out?” Varo shook his head and sat in the co-pilot’s chair, thankful his officers had loosened up a bit. He was about to die, and he wanted to be around friends, not subordinates. “Okay, Sarik, you’re the best pilot we have on board, so let’s go stealth and get out of here.”
“Yes, sir. Everyone strap in.” Sarik tapped the Helm controls. “Closing shuttle doors and releasing Shuttle Bay dampeners. And here goes nothing…” Sarik engaged stealth mode. “Good. Our systems are limited, but we do have some operational, Captain.”
Varo activated his part of the Helm panel. “Requesting coordinates for the last known location of their royal family and…”  The screen jumped, static disrupting it. Varo smacked it with his fist. “There we go. We have a location.” Varo manually typed in the information. “Excellent. Course laid in, Sarik, and good news is it’s not on the other side of this stars-cursed planet. According to the flight path I’m reading, we’re right on target.”
“Let’s hope this is accurate.” Sarik tapped a button, and then tapped it again until it responded. Finally a hologram appeared in front of Sarik.
With a swipe of his hand, the shuttle bay doors opened. Another tap and the smaller ship lifted off the flight deck. Moving his hands in connection to the hologram screen in front of him, he gently eased them toward the open end of the bay and the blackness that was space.
“Even if it’s not, at least we can cause some damage.” Artan held his breath as the shuttle moved farther down the runway, then outside and away from their ship.
“And we are clear of the main ship and on course,” Sarik said.
“Fighters incoming.” Varo expanded his sonar screen to view their distance from the enemy.
“Noted. They don’t appear to know we’re here.” Sarik kept his eyes on the Helm. “They are scanning the main ship. Wonder what they’ll think when scans show no life forms?”
“If they aren’t stupid, they’ll scan the surrounding area for life forms that match ours.” Varo watched the Helm’s screen. “Let’s hope they think we abandoned ship. They should when the scan shows missing escape pods. Come on, come on,” he muttered to the little blips on the screen. “Nothing to see here. We’re all gone, so just go on about your business while we slip down to the planet and blow your asses up.”
Sarik snorted at Varo’s whispered mutterings. “They are indeed scanning the surrounding area.” Our scans show they aren’t powering weapons. Yet.”
“Good. Continue course to the planet.”
Silence reigned in the cockpit, no one uttering a word as enemy fighters circled the abandoned ship. As they watched, the warbird moved away from where autobot ships worked on the satellites that were part of the net surrounding the planet. The warbird dwarfed the ship they’d abandoned.
He growled softly when he saw a tractor beam attach to his ship. He really wished the main computer system had been operational so he could’ve set the ship’s autodestruct. It would have been a pleasure to watch the Helkan’s warbird blow up. Only thing better would have been blowing up and taking out the SSN.
They piloted on, slowly making their way to where the net’s satellites were down.
“Okay, here we go,” Sarik said. “If the SSN is nonfunctioning—and scans say it is—then we should slip through the hole in their defenses undetected.”
TBC