Chapter Eighteen: --Continued--

It was a long wait before the ship was out system and the decks went silent. The crates were very uncomforatable after the many long hours. Once the party could no longer hear the crew moving about the ship, they muscled their way out of the crates and into the dark cargo bay of the small excort vessle.
Grinder looked at Jonathan and Andy, who had never preformed an operation like this, and raised a finger to his lips, indicating taht they should stay quiet.
Grinder knew his way around the escort - he had boarded more than one for inspection during his days in the Spacing Commission.
It took a while in the dark, but they navigated their way to the door, holding onto each-other's shoulders so they would not get seperated. They would need to stick together if any of the crew was still awake - and on a military vessle, that was almost a garuntee.
The door slid open a crack and a shaft of bright light illunimated the interior of the cargo bay. A security chain was hooked on the outside of the door to keep it from sliding open during spaceflight. Andy procured a crowbar that alowed Marcelle to reach the latch and un-hook the chain.
They stalked into the corridor, trying to keep as quite as possible. they stalked their way all the way to the bridge without seeing so much as a hint of another human being. The door was ajar, and there were people stretched out of bunks and one man sitting in a command chair, all with thier eyes calmly closed.
There was one man sitting with his feet up on a control panel, obviously asleep. He was snoring softly, and his arm was hanging down fromhis chair. Grinder steadied his weapon at the mans head and nodded. Andy shook the man's shoulder and he awoke with a start.
Seeing the gun in his face, the man exclaimed "Oh shit!"
"Shhh," Grinder demanded. "How many others are not with The Mind?"
The man sat silent.
"Alright, Jonathan, keep your gun pointed at this man's face. We'll check the rest of the ship."
Jonathan moved forwards a pulled his weapon out. He had never even fired it. It was teh same one he used in the battle. If he couldn't shoot a woman in combat who had killed her own husband, what was he supposed to do about this man? He stood there, sweating, and staring down the barrel at the man's calm face. Jonathan kept expecting to make some sort of move and wrest the gun from his grasp, thus taking the situation into his own control. The man, however did not budge, and it was not long before the rest of Jonathan's party returned with two more military personel with their hands tied.
Almost immediately, Marcelle began talking to the crew in a soothing voice. She repeated the destination's co-ordinates again and again, easing the five sleeping members of teh crew into taking them where they needed to go - Norton.
She spoke for almost two hours before her voice gave out. Sortly thereafter, the ship transfered to world they needed to go to.
"That's it" Jonathan said, looking down from orbit. "That's Norton."
Andy spoke from a scanning console. "I've got a small patch of buildings on the scope."
"We're going to have to set this beast down, quick." Marcelle said. "Who knows how long it'll be before the rest of the crew wakes up? There's no way we could fight them."
"Let's tie them up and throw them in the back" Andy suggested.
"Classic move, lad. Good planning," Grinder replied. Andy grinned at the compliment.
Marcelle began to operate the ships controlls as Jonathan, Andy and Grinder tied the crew up and carried them gently back to the store room. The three concious crew members were taken back as well, but tied up more tightly.
The ship glided through the atmosphere and down to the surface or Norton. After a sort touch-down in the wilderness, Marcelle grabbed a data pad that had a map of the surrounding topography and met the three men at the hatchway.
"It's going to be a little cold out there" Jonathan warned. "It's not harsh, but it's very dry."
The hatch creaked open and the four people jumped to the hard soil of Norton. Marcelle handed Jonathan the topographical date. He took a minute to look at it, and then at the surrounding area.
"It's this way," he said, beginning to walk towards his old base camp.
It wasn't two minutes before the work rover Jonathan had left behind him was seen driving towards them over teh terrain. It stopped and a woman wearing a parka jumped out.
"Who the hell are you?" She demanded.
A reply came out of Marcelle's mouth, but it was not heard. The thrum and whine of the escort ship's engines drowned her out.
The ship flew overhead. Jonathan could just see one of the men they had tied up waving from the cockpit. Teh ship screamed out of the atmosphere.
"What the hell was that?" The parka wearing woman demanded. Jonathan recognised her form training back on Earth - she was the captain of the second vessel - Star Shark. Her name was Rebecca.
"Rebecca, I suggest you take us back to the base camp right away." Jonathan was technically her senior in rank. It didn't mean much as part of a colonial settlement group, but Jonthan knew that he would be able to get anything he needed there.
"Jonathan Brooke! Johhny! You're alive?"