The Ill-mannered Door (humorous sci-fi)

36.2: Flight of the Hornets

What began as little more than a quiet buzzing noise had before long grown to become an approaching roar.

I then heard the sound of running feet as Derek came back up onto the deck to see what was happening. He ran to the rear of the ship and up onto the upper deck.

Soon I heard him shout, "Gah!"

I was creeping toward the side of the ship to see what was making the noise when the angry roar got much louder and I saw a blue and white helicopter pull alongside the Bounty.

I heard the sound of running feet again from somewhere behind me as the side door of the helicopter slid open to reveal a full complement of disgruntled-looking, camouflaged blokes pointing rather impressive looking rifles in my direction.

I knelt there, paralyzed with fear, watching the scene play out as if in slow motion. Then they started firing, and I suddenly fell onto my back and slid along the deck for a few meters before I realized that I was being dragged toward the captain's cabin.

"What's wrong with you, are you trying to get yourself killed?!" Derek shouted, dragging me with one hand as he fired his rifle inaccurately toward the helicopter with the other.

Despite his inaccurate fire, the sight of energy bolts blazing past the windscreen was enough to cause the pilots to veer off, at least for the moment, and they disappeared from my view as I was shoved into the cabin and thrown roughly to the deck.

"Now stay here before you develop some more holes!" Derek said, just before slamming the cabin door to shut me inside.

Looking about the room, I saw Higgins and the king hiding under the large, wooden desk at the far side of the cabin. The king gave me a polite wave, and I rather awkwardly waved back.

Just then I heard the roar of the helicopter again as it flew past the windows of the cabin, followed by the sound of gunfire and screams out on the deck. Then came the sound of men yelling and running about on the deck.

"Turn the ship!" Derek shouted from somewhere nearby, and I felt the Bounty turn away from the side that the helicopter had been on.

I sat up a bit more to get a look out the rear windows behind where Higgins and the king were holed up and saw the helicopter coming up from behind to race past the side windows again for another pass.

There was more gunfire, which was quickly followed by the report of Derek's rifle again, only this time it sounded like he had scored a hit.

I was brave enough, though some might say foolish enough, to creep over and peek out the nearest window just in time to see the blue helicopter bank away and dive toward the ground below, trailing a long plume of black smoke.

Then, just as quickly as the sound of angry hornets had appeared, they were gone.

What followed was a strange gamut of mixed emotions that washed over me as relief coursed through my mind at the same instant as I worried that the blokes in the helicopter had died in a fiery crash. They were the good guys after all, or we were, or... I didn't know what to think.

As I sat there, thankful to be alive, the door to the cabin flung open and Derek stumbled in with his hands and trousers covered with blood.