Chapter 8

We couldn't jump into the base at our convenience because of the enormous shield they had in place. They never lowered the transporter shield which covered the whole base, including the manufacturing plant, the living quarters, and the loading docks. The only way in or out was the old fashioned way: by physical movement through a mechanical doorway, or, in this case, an airlock.

Our most obvious route into the base was by means of one of the criminal spaceships as it was returning from a spraying mission. We thought of jumping into the cabin of the spaceship and overpowering the pilot, but that would put us at the mercy of an opposing sentient being who might be able to trick us into being killed or captured. We had to find a better way.

Augusta suggested that we transport into the sprayer's holding tank while wearing our spacesuits. We could hide there and wait until the spraying mission was completed and the ship had returned to base. At that point, we could cut our way out of the tank and attack the base from the landing dock. This seemed like a workable idea, so that's what we selected as our plan.

We spent a month training with our new spacesuits and equipment before we considered ourselves ready to go. We already knew the schedule and lack of attention to his job exhibited by the crook who had carried in the beacon, so we decided to pick on him to be our pack mule.

The spaceship doing the spraying was a standard freighter modified to have the spray nozzles, so plans for the vessel were easily obtained. As a result, we knew exactly where we wanted to spend our time aboard ship, and we could be transported there without the pilot ever being aware of our presence. We transported aboard as he was finishing up his spraying run and settled down for the trip back to Earth's moon.

As expected, this slob fiddled and fooled around before getting down to business, so we had plenty of time to get ourselves situated. You'd think that somebody who looked like the devil in yellow-green pants would be efficient; but, I don't know, maybe it was the yellow-green pants that did it. It easily took ten time longer for us to get to the base than it should have, but, except for the possibility of running out of air, we didn't have a deadline to meet.

We expected to breath the air at the criminal base because the air within the spaceship was acceptable, according to our remote analyzing devices. We had some extra air tanks along, just in case, but we didn't plan to need them. We waited until things had quieted down at the landing dock before leaving our hiding place.

Julia burned our way out of the cargo hold and we breathed the local air. WOW! We didn't bring enough air bottles! The air might not be toxic, but it smelled to high heaven of sulfur compounds. The air was what any human would associate with Hell, it smelled of rotten eggs and farts—very appropriate for the devils in yellow-green pants! Fortunately, we had air filters in our helmets. We just hoped that they lasted long enough for us to find some decent air!

We formed up into our fighting column and went looking for a way out of the loading dock. Our weapons were set for ten-minute stun, so we weren't afraid to be quick on the trigger. Jim was at point and Justina was at drag, so we were well protected at both ends of the column. Maybe it was lunch time or sleep time or something, because we didn't see any workmen around the dock.

Our first contact was at the door leading out of the dock area. Two people were sitting at a control console, but not looking out of the large glass window facing the dock area. They were playing some kind of gambling game, judging by the markers they kept passing back and forth. Jim stunned them through the window and Julia melted the lock off the door so that we could get in with them.

There was no language difficulty, since we had our implanted communicators. We waited for them to wake up; Amy guarded one while I questioned the other. Both of these guys were no smarter than the spaceship pilot, I'll bet that they had to be potty re-trained every day! The upshot was that they knew nothing of value to us. They knew how to find the mess hall, the latrine, and their bunks and not much else, so we shot them with a 24-hour stun and left them for greener pastures.

We left the control room and moved down a hall toward a main corridor. The goons had told us that they always turned right to get to their quarters, so we went left. That wasn't much information to work with, but what else could we do?

About a hundred feet down this corridor, we came to a closed door with some sort of label on it. We couldn't read the label, so we decided to investigate. Jim pushed the door open, and he saw a devil in orange pants sitting at a desk. He said, "What the hell do you assholes want? Ms. Ahnfang is busy and can't see anybody right now."

I didn't like his attitude so I shot him with a 20-minute stun. We stood to either side of the door behind the devil in orange pants and Jim shoved it open. This room appeared to be a conventional office with a desk and several chairs. The occupants were a male and a female devil, both naked, doing what you would expect two naked devils of the opposite sex to be doing. She was lying on her back on the desk and he was standing between her raised legs, humping away. Without looking our way, he growled, "Get out! Can't you see that we're busy?"

I was a little pissed at his rudeness, so I shot him with a 1-minute stun. He fell to the floor and the female shouted, "OH, SHIT! WHY'D YOU DO THAT? I WAS JUST ABOUT TO COME!" When she said that, Justina shot her with a 10-minute stun. Justina is still a little short tempered about some things.

When the man came to his senses, I said, "Mr. Ahnfang, I'd like to ask you a few questions."

"I ain't Ahnfang, she is. I'm Kosolapov. She's the shift manager and I'm a general foreman."

"Please excuse me, I made an unwarranted assumption. Where can we find the big bosses?"

"The plant manager's office is three doors down that way," he said, pointing in the direction we had been traveling.

Cicero asked, "Pardon my inquisitiveness, but why are you fucking your boss?"

"Because, if I don't, my pay gets docked! She's got the power around here on this shift, and she demands that all four of the general foreman fuck her at least once a shift. Now I have to wait around until she wakes up and start fucking her, again, from scratch. You bastards have really messed up my day!"

"Sorry about that! Have a nice day." We left, headed for the plant manager's office.

We counted off three doors down the corridor and found this one open. We went in and I walked up to a desk blocking a door behind it. A female devil was sitting behind the desk; she was almost wearing a very revealing outfit. Her breasts were enormous and I wondered if they were artificially enhanced. She was wearing a halter which was made of transparent material, except for right over her nipples. Her skirt was minuscule and barely covered anything. Her desk had no "modesty panel," and she was sitting with her legs slightly spread, so that I could see that she was not wearing panties. Amy poked me in the ribs when I spent too long checking out the merchandise.

"What can I do for you, sir?" she asked.

"We're here to see the plant manager on urgent business. Please announce us."

"What name shall I give?"

"Tell him that we represent the power in the galaxy and I'll give him the details, personally." I was playing the arrogant bully with the macho chip on my shoulder to impress the female devil and, hopefully, the plant manager. It looked to me like that was an attitude they understood.

She got up and went into the inner office and closed the door. A few moments later, she came out with a funny look on her face. "Mr. Igor will not see you today. You will have to make an appointment and come back at another time."

"Get your ass out of the way, bitch, we're coming through!" With that, I pushed past her and threw open the door to the inner office. We marched in with me in the lead and each of my cohorts peeling off to form a line to my left and right. I marched up to the desk and slammed my weapon down on it. It made a loud clatter when it hit and the male devil behind the desk jumped back a little.