NULL SPACE - Part 7

“ANGEL” said Null as they ran down alleyways back toward the ship docks. Her voice was almost a whisper, she was almost afraid to say the name out load even though she knew it wouldn’t make a difference.

Had they not been chased by the Myth military Jeran might have stopped in surprise. ANGEL was a peacekeeping organization in the galaxy. They helped mediate conflicts between different governments. However, more importantly, they also regulated forbidden technology. The problem was that in order to maintain their position many of their agents used forbidden technology.

Since they held that technology they were able to control it and prevent it from falling into the wrong hands. However it also kept it out of the hands of the people who legitimately needed the technology, like Jeran’s daughter.

“Then does that mean that the person is also after us?” Asked Jeran. ANGEL was usually very busy and he had been trying to stay below their radar during his search for forbidden technology. He had hoped that he would not have been found out before he had managed to cure his daughter, he might have also wanted to escape before anyone discovered what he had done so that ANGEL would never have found out.

Null shook her head, “No, he isn’t after us, he is after me.” Null knew it was true, ANGEL only rarely came after small fry like Jeran, those types of people usually never uncovered any forbidden technology and even if they did it wasn’t hard for ANGEL to deal with them afterward. However Null was a different problem for them, she knew too much, enough to lock away forever. She wouldn’t let herself get caught again, however until she could complete her nanobots she would be almost defenseless against an agent of ANGEL.

So they ran because running was the only thing that they would be able to do. A member of ANGEL had access to technology that normal people couldn’t even understand but they were bound by certain rules and regulations which gave them a measure of protection. “One of the Angels has limited detection inside a space ship to protect the private of the individual, at least until how dangerous we are exceeds the required limits set by their regulation.” Said Null to Jeran as she tried to explain to him about ANGEL.

“That is good, isn’t it? However how will we escape the space station. Isn’t ANGEL supposed to have super fast ships which are impossible to escape from? I know my ship is good but I don’t think that it will be able to match one from ANGEL.”

“Actually, an Angel doesn’t need a ship. They can travel through space using a protection bubble. It allows them the ultimate freedom in space travel and is faster then any ship. However with the alarm going off you can bet that there will be other ships escaping and we should be able to escape with them.”

Jeran nodded as they rounded a bend and he was quickly required to knock out a couple of Myth soldiers which had been waiting for them. “Alright, sounds good…. But what if the Angel knows what ship we are traveling in.”

“Then we will just have to hope that he doesn’t know that.” Said Null who rushed past him while he was busy hiding the weapons for the soldiers that he had just knocked out.

“That doesn’t sound like a very good plan. Don’t you have any better ideas?”

“There are times for plans and times to think quickly. If you think this is one the former then please feel free to stop and mack a plan. I’m going to run and escape before anyone else can figure out what has happened.”

“Well if that is the way you put it.” Said Jeran, “Then it looks like we don’t really have a choice.” The battlefield was a constantly shifting foe which always had some new problem to throw at a soldier, so if it was time to think on his feet then he would have to do that.

They had been rushing so fast that even Jeran was a little winded by the time that they had reached the station docks. However when Jeran looked over at Null she seemed to be perfectly fine, not even a bead of sweat on her brow. What sort of body did that woman have to be able to recover to being drunk so fast and to be able to run so fast without even breaking a sweat. Jeran felt a little bit jealous at her ability.

They looked out to see that Jeran’s ship was surrounded by at least a dozen men. They had been running fast enough that these people must have been left here. How many people have Solvar brought with him to capture Jeran, it seemed like a bit of an overkill.

Jeran contimplated a good solution as he asked Null for advice, “Do you have any good ideas? I don’t know if I would be able to take them all out by myself. Maybe if I snuck around behind them but I don’t know if we have enough time to do that.”

Null pointed toward one of the towers inside the dock. They were there so that the staff could easily keep track of all the different ships in the dock and to make sure that nothing strange was happening. “If we knocked that down it would cause them to scatter, giving us enough time to get over to the ship and make our get away. Unless of course you have a better idea.”

Jeran shook his head, “Nope, not really. I guess knocking over the tower is what is going to happen.” They moved over to the tower, keeping out of the sight of the soldiers. Jeran pulled out his stunner and broke open the casing. When Null cocked an eyebrow at him he said, “The stunner had plenty of electricity in it and if I overload it then I could cause a small explosion. If placed correctly then that would cause the tower to collapse.”

He pulled a couple of the wires out of the stunner and removed their protective covering. Now he would have to be more careful. If he accendentilly touched one of the bare wires he might be knocked uncounsous for hours. He carefully touched the two wires together until the device started beeping errors at him then set it down delicately on a crucial beam of the tower. Then with Null following him he moved out of the way of the tower and closer to the ship. The explosion might scatter the guards but that would only give him a couple of minutes to get to the ship and take off. He wanted to move to the best position before the explosion went off.

There was a bang from behind him, sooner then he had wanted it to go off. The tower began tilting dangerously and he could hear shouts from the guards. There was almost a whisteling sound as the tower came crashing down. During the resulting spray of rubbish and cloud of dirt Jeran ran for the ship only looking back to make sure that Null was following him.

As he entered the ship he shouted behind him to Null, “Lock the door to make sure nobody else enters.” Then rushed to the cockpit before he discovered if she had even heard his command. He sat down and began flipping switches and pressing buttons and the ship began to give off a rumbling sound as it started up. He could here the sounds of gunfire outside, they must be really serious if they were using guns inside of a ship. However his ship would last a little bit against small arms, at least long enough for them to get away.

However his wishful thinking was soon shattered. There was a loud bang from outside and he looked outside to see what had caused it. They had an portable artillery out there shooting at them. That was bad, one or two good shots from that and their hull would start to look like swiss cheese. However ship still need a few more seconds to get ready and he wouldn’t be able to leave just year.

“Come on, come on, come on,” He kept repeating at the ship, hoping that it would be ready soon. He was glancing over the controls hoping there was some way to quicken it. His brow furrowed, why was the door to the ship still open, hadn’t Null shut it.

Null had shut the door however when she had heard the artillery sound he hadn’t wasted time. She grabbed one of Jeran’s guns and reopened the door to the ship. She didn’t want their chance to escape pass and she certainly didn’t want to be trapped in a Hexion Sphere again. Then using the door as cover she began shooting at the artillery unit. She wasn’t as good of a shot as Jeran was, however she was good enough to make it count. The people manning the artillery had to escape from her line of fire and as long as they were doing that the ship was safe from them. However as soon as she started shooting the other troops noticed her and began firing back.

However Null’s action had given the ship enough time for it to take off. Jeran slammed the ship forward, quickly getting out of the way of fire. He screamed back at Null, “Let’s good, shut the door!” However he didn’t have time to make sure she had done so. He needed to get out as quickly as possible.

He quickly keyed in the communication frequency for the port tower as the ship rushed toward the exit, “You had better open the gates unless you want more gunfire inside your space station, and this time I will promise that the hull will be pierced.”