Dutch awoke as cold as ice and shivering from the collision. She couldn’t see anything and for a moment thought she was blind until she remembered what happened. She shook her head and concentrated.

“Are you hurt?” she heard an anxious Sweet Mary say, her arms wrapped tightly around Dutch.

“I’m okay sweetie. You stop worrying,” she said and then passed out again.

 

 “Don’t struggle – go with me,” said a masculine voice in her ear as her senses started returning to her. This was not what she wanted to hear. There was a torch beam in her face and she could hear other male voices bustling around her and cries and groans coming from the wounded somewhere in the darkness. She tried to struggle but she didn’t have the strength to resist. Strong hands held her immobile as her arms were strapped to her sides and she felt herself being pulled through the darkness, torches flashing here and there as the men navigated her through the chaos. She could feel Sweet Mary’s weight tugging at her belt and knew they were still attached to one another.

These men knew what they were doing and they were well prepared. Within minutes the girls were bundled through the security door and into the flight deck area where the emergency lights were on.

“Okay. That’s the last one.”

“Right: close the door and let’s get started.”

The man turned Dutch to face him.

“We’re not going to hurt you,” he said kindly. “We just need your help. If you promise not to cause any trouble we will untie you.”

Dutch was on the verge of telling him to go and get knotted when her befuddled brain started to clear. There was nothing she could do all trussed up like a Christmas turkey. Best would be to behave herself and then see what happens.

“Okay, I promise,” she said grudgingly.

The man took a deep look at her, trying to judge whether she meant it or not. He didn’t have much of a choice though. Their whole escape plan hinged on her.

“Okay,” he sighed. “Untie her.”

They released Dutch from her constraints.

“Just relax. We’re not going to hurt you. We just need you to fly the ship.”

The man wasn’t overly worried about her being a problem. Firstly, she was a woman, and secondly, it was hard to start a fight in zero gravity where all the men were armed and wearing magnetic contact-boots that allowed them to walk on any metal surface.

“How did you know I was a pilot?”

“From your files,” said the man.

“What do we do with her?” said another man pointing to Sweet Mary floating close by and seemingly attached to Dutch by an umbilical chord.

“No passengers. Cut her loose and put her with the others.”

“She stays with me,” said Dutch in a firm voice.

“We don’t have any extra room in here. Put her in the main hold with the others.”

One of the goons untied Sweet Mary and began pulling her towards the door. Dutch grabbed hold of the back of the G-seat and launched herself into a swinging arc. Before anyone could register what was going on she pivoted round the chair and slammed her big feet into the man’s head. The blow was all the more stunning as his magnetic boots didn’t let go and held him tight to the floor. In a flash Dutch had removed his plasma pistol from his holster and hooked an arm around Sweet Mary. Then she wrapped her legs around the now unconscious man to anchor herself and brandished the pistol at the rest of the frozen crew. Nobody had moved more than a centimetre.

The great thing about a plasma gun is that it only disrupts human anatomies and not the ship’s hull. An ordinary bullet stood a chance of going through the hull and causing massive depressurization, sucking everyone out into space through a virtual pinhole. Also, a plasma gun wasn’t fatal, unless of course you had a weak heart. It just disarranged the central nervous system for a few hours, not unlike a massive, prolonged electrical shock.

“Stop. Awright. Jesus. We won’t touch her. She can stay if you want,” said the leader with a placating gesture of his hands. He had badly underestimated the situation.

“I want nothing to do with this,” said Dutch. “I’m already in for murder, and if they catch me they’ll terminate me.”

“You don’t have a choice lady. You’re already implicated, along with the rest of us. We’re all terminal here if we don’t do something.”

Dutch turned to see that all eyes were on her. She felt angry at having been dragged into such a compromising situation, and she didn’t really believe that any cockamamie plan they had cooked up would work. Nothing like this had ever been attempted before. She tightened her trigger finger on the plasma pistol, just itching to take it out on someone. She looked hard at the guy giving orders. He wasn’t your run of the mill thug. He was quiet spoken with intelligent eyes and a good humoured lift to his mouth. Probably some white collar criminal. The brains behind all this. Well, she hoped he’d come up with a good one.

“So what’s the plan?” she said, relaxing her grip a little.

“Slight course change.”

“I bet.”

The man gave her a wry smile, and she had to admit that he was actually quite good looking.

Satisfied that she was onside, he turned to his motley crew and said, “Okay will someone get the spin going.”

There were five men sitting at various consoles busily punching in numbers and running off radar readings.

“And do it slowly. There are a lot of people in there and some of them are probably hurt already; just nice and easy.”

As the drum began to spin Dutch could feel her weight coming back. It was like climbing out of a swimming pool. She could feel herself get heavier and drift towards the floor.  It wasn’t a pleasant feeling being so heavy again. Sweet Mary moaned in her arms and Dutch eased her gently to the floor.

“It’s going to be alright. Just trust me, okay?” she said with a hug. Sweet Mary nodded and sniffed.

Dutch turned back to the leader as he switched on the intercom and addressed the ship.

“Hello everyone, this is your captain speaking. Sorry about that little hiccup; just a technical problem that’ll be fixed in no time. In the meantime, these are your new living arrangements. The prisoners are all free to come and go as you please but the guards will be locked up permanently. However, the same schedule will apply as far as thrust is concerned. Eight hours in every twenty four you will hear the alarm and strap yourselves into your G-seats as per usual. The rest of the time you can do pretty much what you want. Right now I would suggest you take advantage of spin-time and get yourselves sorted out and bandaged up as best you can.”

 

N

 

The course change was going to cause all sorts of problems because this barrel wasn’t designed to thrust at an oblique angle – especially at these massive speeds. It could go forward or it could turn around 180 degrees and go the other way. But that was all. So unless she could initiate this course change with the greatest of delicacy, the ship was going to collapse like an empty tin can being trampled on by a cow.

She had hardly let herself entertain the possibility that they might escape. Those kind of hopes are too dangerous to harbour, because if it didn’t work then life just wouldn’t be worth living. Her mind briefly brushed by an image of her and Sweet Mary, free somewhere…walking down a street, looking in shop windows…. ‘Stop!’ she told herself. ‘Just concentrate.’

 

Dutch crossed her fingers and tentatively engaged the directional boosters to line the ship up on its new course. Then she cut the spin and eased the main throttle forward very carefully.

 

 

N   N   N

AND BE SURE NOT TO MISS NEXT WEEKS EXCITING EPISODE OF SWEET DREAMS