Asteroid Patrol: Trouble

"It is more than sufficient."

"I want paying up front."

"Why would we do that?"

"Because it's bloody dangerous. I want to know my family is taken care of if the worst happens."

"Half now, half on completion."

"Done. What ship do I use and where is this rock?"

"The ship is docked at our repair facility; your guide is waiting on board. Alphonse will take you there."

"Money?"

"Ah, right. Here is the first payment."

"I'll need half an hour to get it safe."

There was a pause.

"All right. Be back here in half an hour and Alphonse will take you to your ship." Another pause. "What do I call you?"

"Stacey." It must have slipped out; it wasn't the cover name we'd decided on. "Stacey Ferguson." She recovered well.

"Well Stacey, I'm Dante; I look forward to seeing you again when you get back from the belt."

"Just make sure you've got the rest of my money."

I breathed a sigh of relief; she had pulled it off. She was on the inside, at least temporarily.

"Stace?" I called her up as she left the building. "Meet me on 'Juliet'. We'll sort out how I'll follow you."

"You know you can't take her into the belt Dave."

"I do, that's what we're going to discuss."

---

Paul and I stared at the high security fence around the repair yard; it seemed to afford no easy way in.

"We can't climb that." I muttered.

"Could we go under it Lieutenant?" Toddy asked. We both crouched down to take a closer look. The ground was solid concrete. "Probably not." He said after some consideration. We stood.

"At least not without leaving some sign that we had." I smiled wanly, feeling discouraged. "There has to be some way in." I said softly to myself as I tried to think.

"Well, there's always the front gate." Paul said jocularly, trying to cheer me up.

The notion exploded into my head.

"Brilliant! Absolutely bloody brilliant!!" I exclaimed, kissing a bemused Toddy.

"W... what is?" He stammered, surprise by my response.

"It's so simple. We just walk in with all the other workers."

"Won't we be spotted?"

"There's a chance, but most of the people here are unaware that this is a front for some nasty people. To them we'll just be other workers, new faces. Then once we're in..."

"We can grab a couple of clipboards and start poking about." Paul finished for me.

"Clipboards?" I raised my eyebrow in puzzlement.

"No-one ever questions someone with a clipboard; you can go anywhere and do nothing at all." He grinned sheepishly.

"I'll have to remember that when I see someone wandering around the station not appearing to do anything but carry a clipboard." I smirked.

"Just don't tell anyone who let it slip will you? Or my name will be mud amongst my fellow idlers."

"Any other little skives I should know about?"

"I think you can work the rest out for yourself boss." He said, going very red.

"All right," I laughed, "now let's find some overalls and bluff our way in."

---

Dave and I had decided that the only thing he could do was track me from 'Juliet' from the edge of the belt. Once again it was far from ideal, but it was the only sensible option. He left Mondas as I returned to find Alphonse, my guide to whatever ship I was supposed to be piloting, the idea being for him to get to a point on the fringe of the belt where he could maintain contact with me. Just before I left we got a call from Nobby saying he had recovered Sierra Alpha Sierra and was towing it back to the hub.

Alphonse wasn't the talkative type; he just led me to the yard's docking bay and there pointed at some guy stood next to a small patrol-type ship, checking something. He introduced us.

"Stacey Ferguson, meet Andreas Bergman, your co-pilot for this trip."

"Pleased to meet you." I said, holding out my hand as the guy turned around. I nearly gasped out loud when he did; it was my dad! Or his twin brother.

"I used to know a 'Stacey'." He smiled, shaking my hand. He had to know it was me! I nearly said the distress word there and then, Dave would be getting nervous, but something told me it wasn't necessary. "She was very pretty too. I wonder what she's doing now?" He smiled.

"Maybe she's wondering what her father is up to?" I asked cryptically.

"Maybe she doesn't need to know yet?" He laughed.

Alphonse looked from one of us to the other, obviously wondering what the hell the joke was. He shrugged to himself, not paid to think, and walked away. I could hear Big Dave calmly, but with a hint of worry, talking in my earpiece.

"Stacey, if you're in trouble, just say the distress word. No need to work it into a sentence, just say it."

My dad pulled me close and whispered in my ear.

"I suppose you're wired up, but there's no need to worry. I'll explain everything when we've got off base."

At the same time Dave was getting more and more worried.

"Stacey? Are you there Stace? Say something."

With a secret grin to myself I answered both of them at the same time.

"All right old man, let's get this done." Dad gave me a look and I heard Dave say 'Bitch' in my ear.

---

The Lieutenant and I had split up as soon as we had passed through the gate to enable us to cover more ground at once. The clipboard scam appeared to be working well. As long as I made the occasional note on it no-one bothered me. At the moment I was checking out some likely-looking sheds not far from the docking bay. They looked dilapidated and unused but there seemed to be people constantly moving in and out of them and there was the noise of some sort of construction work coming from within. I knew I had to find a way to get a look inside somehow. As it happened it was simple. One of the workers came out of the shed looking for something. It appeared to be in a large crate or box. He looked up.

"Here mate," he called out, "gis a lift with this will ya?" He hefted one end of the crate upwards.

"Sure, no problem." Talk about luck I thought as I stuffed the clipboard into my overalls and picked up the other end.

"I know some of you supervisory types don't like getting your hands dirty, so thanks." He said.

"Glad to help out actually. Sometimes I feel like an extra wheel around here." I laughed.

"Yeah, I know what you mean. Sometimes it feels like we got more chiefs than Indians around here." We both grinned as we manoeuvred the unwieldy box inside the shed where we set it down next to a bench where the guy was working. Around the inside of the rest of the shed were several of what we had come to call 'meteorite engines' of varying sizes and in various states of construction. My eyes lit up: We had been right, this was where the machines that been used to attack 'The Boonies' had come from. I chatted with some of the other workers in the shed, getting a good look around at the same time, before I slipped away to get to the rendezvous with Emmy.

---

After Toddy and I had split up I had decided to try and get a look around at some of the offices. I shed the overalls and cap I had disguised myself in to gain entry to the yard, primped my hair and put on a pair of glasses: Criminal types always seemed to think secretaries wore glasses. As I began to poke around in the office block I found that Paul's 'clipboard' idea worked much better than I thought it would. I varied it for snooping around the offices by slipping some blank pieces of paper into a couple of empty file folders I picked up. This proved highly effective as if there was someone in an office I just waved the folders and said 'Is Jenny here?' If there wasn't then I had time for a quick snoop through the desks within.

Pretty soon it became obvious that it wasn't just the repair yard that was run from here; there were too many people busily working away on paperwork for that. Most of the lower floor offices were open, I could just walk in, but most of those on the upper level weren't. I had to resort to following someone in, still using the folders as an excuse and then hoping that they'd leave so that I could nose around.

Eventually I came across a door marked 'Dante' in elegant curly script. Someone who in no way could be thought of as a 'Dante' came out of the door. I decided to take a chance and walked quickly up to the man.

"Could you hand those files to Mr Dante for me? I'm in a bit of a hurry." I held out the files to him.

He looked me up and down, a perverted grin spreading over his face as he mentally undressed me. It was a disgusting experience, I felt more violated than when Lafarge had stripped me of my uniform blouse and body armour.

"MISTER Dante ain't in at the moment." He continued to leer. "Just leave them there on his desk." He held the door open but didn't move out of the way as I squeezed past.

"I need to know he's read them." I said in my best 'plaintive' voice. It was taking all my self control not to strangle this loathsome creature.

"Then you'll have to wait here sweetie. He's gonna be about an hour." He gave me one final leer and then shut the door on me.

I gave a shudder and then smiled to myself; men with a tiny bit of power in a big organisation were so predictable. And the vile but stupid man had even told me how much time I had to search the office. I quickly went to work. The first thing I wanted to do was copy his computer files. As I started that I noticed that part of the hard drive was partitioned off, so I copied that too. As my mini drives downloaded that I went to find the safe. When I'd been at the academy I'd never realised that I might need to crack a safe. Luckily for me Big Dave had seen this gap in my education and taught me a few tricks; Nobby had taught me some more until I was a safebreaker of some repute, at least around the hub. It took me less than five minutes to get in and start to copy the documents inside.

After half an hour I had done as much as I could, I didn't want to push my luck any further. It was time to rendezvous with Toddy.

---

The ship was a disarmed version of an old 'Delta' class patrol vessel: Small, nippy, fairly reliable, but old. As with all patrol craft the pilots seats were side-by-side and were dual-control. Although I'd never actually flown one before, the Delta proved easy enough to pilot. It was like a cross between 'Juliet' and a Sierra scout.

Once we were clear of Mondas dad spoke;

"Can your partner hear me?" He asked.

"I can hear." Dave said. "Are you absolutely sure about him Stace?"

"Of course I am Dave. Where are you and 'Juliet'?"

"About thirty clicks ahead of you."

"Who are 'Dave' and 'Juliet'?" Dad asked.

"Senior Sergeant Dave Baldwin, and 'Juliet' isn't really a person; she's my ship."

Dad gave a low whistle.

"Don't you move in exalted circles? You're the girl who succeeded 'Big Dave' as the pilot of good old 'Juliet' then?"

"You've heard of them?"

"Everyone who works in and around the belt has heard about Big Dave and Juliet. It wasn't you who married him as well was it?"

I heard Dave spluttering and smiled.

"Sorry dad; that was Emmy, my boss. I was just the bridesmaid."

"Wait a damn moment. That would make you the one who won the Armstrong Cross?"

I nodded, still embarrassed by the award.

"My little Stacey is a hero, who'd have thought it?" Dad mused.

"I would." Dave broke in. "This is all very touching, but can we get to the point Stacey? Like what does your dad know about the meteorite engines and why is he working for that scumbag Lafarge's uncle Dante, who is probably an even bigger scumbag."

"All right Dave; keep your stripes on. I'll ask him shall I?"

"Ask me what?"

"Who you work for, and why."

Dad looked across at me, surprise on his face.

"I rather thought you knew. I work for you, the space patrol, a special undercover unit." Puzzlement was evident in his tone.

"Stace," Dave said quietly in my earpiece, "we don't have an undercover unit, nor do any of the other sectors, or even the local planetary forces. And even if we did, we wouldn't use a civilian as an operative. Either your dad has been duped or he's trying the strangest defence ever."

The blood drained from my face.

"How...how long ago were you recruited dad?" I asked haltingly.

"When you were accepted into the academy princess, I thought that was why they asked me. I was a bit upset when they told me I had to cut all my ties with my family for safety reasons though." He saw the shock on my face. "Why, what's happening Stacey?"

"Tell him." Dave said. "If he's faking it then he'll realise we're on to him. If he's not then he deserves the truth."

"Okay." I said quietly. I took a deep breath; this wasn't going to be easy. "Dad, we don't have any undercover units, and even if we did we would never put a civilian at risk like that."

"You mean I was set up?" He asked, the realisation showing on his face.

"It looks that way. What were you doing at the repair yard anyway?"

"I designed a system to guide the meteorites when they were fitted with an engine."

"But they used that to propel them at us! Dad, you could have wiped out the 'Boonies'!"

"But I told my undercover contact about the emergency override that I'd fitted...." He tailed off. "Except he wasn't an agent was he? I told them that I'd sabotaged my own design. Stupid of me." He looked downcast.

"You didn't know that dad."

"But I suspected it. That was why I reported some 'unusual activity' near where they were testing the engines and the guidance system."

Dave suddenly spoke very loudly and urgently.

"Stacey! I'm turning around and coming back for you. The whole thing is a trap!"

"How do..." I started to ask.

"I'll explain later. Tell me, just how thoroughly did you check the ship before you took off?"

"Pretty thoroughly. I thought they'd be suspicious if I didn't."

"Doesn't matter really, there are dozens of hard to spot ways of sabotaging an old ship. They could have just put an explosive device on board."

"SERGEANT BALDWIN, YOU ARE NOT HELPING HERE!" I shouted.

"Oh! Sorry Stace." He mumbled sheepishly. "But we need to get the pair of you off that ship smartish."

"How? We're literally in the middle of nowhere. As we can't breathe vacuum we can't just get out and float around till you turn up."

"I'm working on it. I'll be there in about eight minutes. Don't die or Emmy will kill me!"

I smiled at his feeble attempt at a cheerful joke. Dad nudged me. I realised that he'd only heard my half of the conversation and didn't know what the shouting was about.

"What's happening princess?" He asked.

"Dave has got it into his head that the ship is rigged somehow. We need to stay alive long enough for him to rescue us. Any ideas?" I smiled a lot more jovially than I felt.

---

Toddy and I had met up and we had returned to the sub-station on Mondas. I was anxious for news of Stacey's mission and so was Paul. Dave had left a terse message saying that she had been accepted as Dante's new pilot and he was tailing her, but there were no details. He also mentioned that Nobby had recovered Sierra Alpha Sierra. I wanted to tell him what Paul had found and I also wanted to see what was on the mini drives I had downloaded from the computer in Dante's office. For some reason I felt that here on Mondas wasn't the safest place to be doing that, so I needed the resources of 'Juliet'. With all that in mind I called Dave on the comms.

"Juliet Hotel Uniform, this is 'Big Boss', (He'd know who that was!) What is your status and location?"

There was a pause while I wondered if he was going to answer.

"Big Boss, I'm a bit busy at the moment. Things are a little awkward. Please refrain from calling in the red zone. Meet you at the usual place in thirty minutes."

That didn't sound good. The 'red zone' meant that he felt the communications were compromised and the usual place must mean the docking bay. I looked at Toddy and saw that he understood all that too.

"What's happening Lieutenant?"

"I wish I knew Paul. We'll have to trust Big Dave and meet him in thirty minutes like he said. It sounded like it wasn't just the communications he was worried about though."

"I hope Stacey is all right." He said fervently.

"So do I Paul, so do I." I said, wondering what the hell had happened out there, and whether I should get Nobby and his repair ship out here.

---

Stacey had halted near a meteorite on the cusp of the belt's influence.

"Now what?" She demanded a little petulantly, evidently not convinced that the ship was in danger.

"I'm going to open the cargo hatch. Then you release your canopy and make for it as quick as you can."

"We can't breathe space Dave!"

"Don't. Just get across the gap." I was getting a bit annoyed now, probably because I wasn't used to people questioning my decisions. Even Emmy would (generally) accept what I said in cases of extreme danger. Stacey couldn't seem to grasp the trouble she was in. I knew that I was going to have to explain my reasoning about why she was in a trap. "Stacey, our detective was murdered not long after Toddy and I spoke to him. They also seemed to have found out about your dad's 'unusual activity' incident report. All this points to us having a mole at the hub. Your dad also told his 'contact' that he'd fitted something to disable the meteorite engines. Dante must have decided to cut his losses and have him rubbed out. Knowing who his daughter was and what a good pilot she is, he let us know he needed a belt pilot. That, along with some other little clues, probably planted, meant he was confidant of getting either you or me to try and get into his organisation. It didn't matter which one of us he got, he wants us both dead. Now do you understand?"

"DAD! Get ready; we're going across to Juliet."

"Stacey, I've never swum in space." He said apologetically.

"Just aim for the open hatch and push yourself off after I blow the canopy away."

"NO! Stacey, crank it open. The explosive charge would be easy to tamper with." I nearly screamed.

"I don't know that I can crank it quickly enough."

"Course you can, a fit young thing like you. Quicker than an 'old man' anyway."

"Sorry about that, it seemed funny at the time."

"It was." I laughed.

"Get ready dad."

I could hear then both taking deep breaths and then I heard the rapid whirring as Stacey manually opened the canopy as fast as she could. I looked over at the little 'Delta' ship and saw the pair of them pushing out of the cockpit and heading towards 'Juliet'. Locking the controls I ran to the outside of the cargo bay and peered through the tiny window. I wanted to close the outer door as soon as both of them had passed the threshold so I could pump some air into the hold. Stacey had already reached the edge of the door but her father was lagging behind, obviously tiring rapidly. She reached back and grabbed his flailing hand. With a tug she threw him into the hold and dove through the door herself. I hit the both sets of control sat once; the door slammed shut and the hold began to repressurise simultaneously. I opened the inner door and rushed in to check that they had survived. The two of them lay on the floor gasping for air. Stacey seemed to be recovering quite quickly but her father didn't look too good.

"Stace, look after your dad. I'm heading back to Mondas to pick up Emmy and Paul."

"They all right?" She gasped.

"It sounded like it when Em called a few minutes ago, but I want to get to them ASAP just in case."

"Okay, go. We'll be up in a while."

I dashed back to the cockpit and immediately set course for Mondas once more.

---

Lieutenant Baldwin had been pacing the docking bay at the Mondas sub-station for forty minutes, getting increasingly anxious as 'Juliet' failed to appear.

"Where the hell is he?" She muttered. "He should be here by now."

"Are you sure he meant this docking bay Boss?" I asked, a little concerned myself.