Chapter 17

A twinge of panic went through Red's body when she saw Lieutenant Cranston and Smitty staring at them.

She was in serious trouble.

She punched the COM button on the forearm control panel of her suit. "Cranston, Smitty, listen. Ellsworth Fletcher is alive and he stole The Rascal. He's gonna try to wreck the Gravity Lassos. We gotta stop him, now!"

"Slow down there, Red. Fletcher's dead. Everyone knows it." Cranston continued, "Besides, we have a serious problem here. You breached the restricted area, Red. There's gonna have to be..."

"Cranston! Stop acting like a military idiot! You think the Rascal took off on it's own? Listen, he tied us up just so he could steal my ship. Fletcher is gonna destroy everything as we know it, again, unless we stop him!"

"I-" Cranston began.

Red cut him off by punching the button on her sleeve. She turned to Garth. "Garth, get us outta here now. Don't worry about them. They'll follow."

"Aye, aye, Captain Fargo. We're disengaging now." Garth punched the unlock button, that released the bus from the Fletcher and then increased the lateral thrusters. The Yellow Beast moved away from the ship.

"Garth, find the nearest Lasso in the NAV computer. That's where Fletcher'll be heading," Red prompted.

"That's gonna take time, Red. These things don't have the same navs as your ship."

Alex stood up in his seat. "Use my pocket pal, Garth. It's got a proxy program of Rosie. She'll be able to find it."

Garth saw Alex's little computer was still on top of the instrument panel.

"Well done, Alex." He punched one of the keys. "Rosie, can you find and plot the nearest Gravity Lasso?"

Almost without missing a heartbeat Rosie's image winked on to the little screen and responded. "Hello, Garth. I'm so happy to see you again. I knew you'd be all right. That course is plotted and entered."

"Thanks, Rosie," responded Garth as the distance increased between the bus and the K-P ship.

Cranston and Smitty looked at each other. This was unlike any situation they had ever been involved with and certainly wasn't covered in the regulations manual.

"You think she's right, Jer?" Smitty said. "Was Ellsworth Fletcher really alive in there?"

Jerry Cranston was loyal to the Kohlner Patrol to a fault. He was as straight an arrow as they come, but he was also smart and understood what the implications of this situation meant.

"I don't know, Smitty. There's never been a breach before. I didn't even know what this thing was. Just that we were supposed to prevent anyone without clearance from getting near it. But I can tell you this. A lot of stuff is gonna hit the fan when this is over."

By this time the Yellow Beast had pulled away and was accelerating rapidly. Cranston pushed the thrust lever forward and turned after them.

The Rascal wasn't a fast ship. It didn't have to be, for what it lacked in speed, it made up for in maneuverability. The Yellow Beast behaved something like a whale with the cornering ability and speed of a snail. Garth's piloting skills would have to compensate for the Beast's shortcomings.

"Red can you see him yet?" Garth struggled with the controls of the bus trying to think ahead and dodge around pieces of junk.

"No, he's still too far away," said Red. "Let me try the COM." She punched a sequence of buttons on her arm controls and tuned in the correct frequency. "Fletcher, can you hear me? This is Red Fargo."

There was only faint static.

"We're still too far away, Garth."

"Can you use your arm control to stop the Rascal?" asked Yavi.

"It's limited, Yavi. I can control the manipulator arms and other small things if we're pretty close, but not the main engines."

"I got an idea," said Garth, "Rosie? Can you plot the Rascal's course and speed and then compare it to ours? That'll tell us how far away we are from it?"

"Why, of course, Garth. I'll have that information for you in a few seconds," Rosie replied cheerfully.

Ethan looked out his window and saw the K-P ship slowly pull alongside. "Take a look over here, everyone."

"That's pretty skiz," said Tasha "Hey Red. It looks like they want to talk to you."

K-P ship forty-two had matched speed with the bus and Cranston appeared to be gesturing for Red to talk.

"Yeah, I can hear them trying to hail my suit COM."

"Red, talk to him. I really think he didn't know anything about Fletcher. He's only doing his job." Garth pleaded with her.

"Fine." She punched the keys on her arm. "What is it, Cranston?" She rolled her eyes.

"Red, listen. We're gonna give you the benefit of the doubt."

"Oh gee whiz thanks, Lieutenant," her tone was cutting.

"We'll try and hail Rascal with our COM and patch it through to you."

Rosie's image spoke from the small screen. "Garth, here is the course information you requested." Vector lines appeared on the bus' nav computer indicating the position of the Gravity Lasso and Rascal's projected position.

"He's almost there," said Garth.

"Cranston, don't try to call him yourself. Let me do it. The way he feels about the K-P you'll probably just make him madder."

"Okay, Red. You're hooked up," Smitty said as the patrol ship flew steadily next to the bus.

She punched a button on her arm that allowed what she heard in her helmet to be heard by everyone else. "Fletcher, this is Red Fargo. Read me!"

After a few seconds Fletcher's voice answered back. "Ahh, Red how unfortunate that you managed to escape. Not to worry, though. In a few moments you'll just be another piece of junk flowing into the Orbit Stations."

Cranston cut in, "Fletcher, this is the Kohlner patrol. Stop the ship now or we'll be forced to fire."

"A Kohlner Patrol ship. How delightful it will be to watch you also tumble helplessly in a sea of junk."

"Cranston, what are you doing?" Red yelled.

"He's there! He's at the buoy." Garth called out.

Red continued into her mike, "If you fire on him now you'll destroy my Little B."

Mavis pointed out the front view-screen, "Look, there he is."

The Gravity Lasso Buoy with its flashing warning lights was visible, but still far away. The Rascal, though tiny compared to the huge beacon, was visible next to it. Fletcher was using the manipulator arms and creating havoc with the gravity regulating circuitry.

"All right, I'm close enough now," Red quickly pushed a series of buttons on her arm control. "That should lock the manipulator arms in place."

Garth slowed the Yellow Beast down just as the junk around them started to shift and move.

"He did it! He let all the junk go," yelled Jody.

"Not all of it," Red explained, "For now it'll just wreak havoc on this section of the Zone. If he makes it to another Gravity Lasso though-"