Eclipsing Vengeance

by Jeremy Michelson

  Liz got tired of him and wrapped him up in some steel beams she ripped from the wall.

  After that no one bothered us. At least until we got into the ship.

  We settled into the cockpit. Or Liz settled in. She seemed to know what she was doing. All I saw was a smooth black panel that curved around each of us. Another dark gray surface surface curved in front of us where a window should have been.

  I looked at my black armored fingers. The suit and I seemed to be getting along okay. I had told it to not, under any circumstances, attack Liz. A voice replied back from inside my head: Acknowledged. It sounded a little disappointed. Or maybe I just imagined it.

  I turned my head to Liz. “How do I get out of this thing?” I asked.

  “Wait until we’re up,” Liz said, “I don’t trust Mattany to not try and shoot us down.”

  My insides ran cold at the thought of getting blown out of the sky. Would the suit protect me from even that?

  Something whined from my suit. Red lights flashed at the edge of my vision. Weapons systems arming. I felt power surging through my limbs. I got jittery, like I was the winner of an espresso drinking contest.

  “Uh, Liz?” I said.

  She gave me half a glance, then went back to the smooth black surface in front of us.

  “Just tell it to stand down,” she said, “Piece of crap Don hardware. We need Chris to program the twitchiness out of it. Try to think calm thoughts for now. We’ll work out the kinks on the way.”

  Calm thoughts? Fricking easy for her to say. I told the armor to stand down. Again a disappointed sounding voice acknowledged me. I was certain of the disappointment in the voice this time.

  The flashing red lights dimmed and the surge of power I felt faded. The jitteriness diminished, but didn’t go away. When I mentioned it to Liz, she told me it was likely the Don armor had pumped some combat drugs into my system.

  I clawed at the armor. “Shit! How do I get this thing off me!” I cried.

  “Just calm down, you’ll be fine,” Liz said.

  “Does your suit do that!” I said.

  “No, of course not,” Liz said, “My suit is Dendon. They did things right.”

  Something rocked the ship. The hull vibrated with the impact.

  “Stupid Mattany,” Liz said.

  She put her golden hands on the black surface. A second later the surface came to life. Colored shapes popped up, pulsing and rotating. Vibrations ran through the ship and up my armored feet. The gray thing in front of us split in the middle, then slid away.

  It gave us a fine view of the open door of the hanger. And the barrel of the tank cannon pointed right at us. An instant later, fire belched from the cannon.

  My suit did something weird. It slowed time down. Suddenly I could see the shell emerge from the fire and smoke. It spun in a lazy circle. Flecks of debris flew off it like fleas jumping off a dog. It got bigger and bigger as it approached. The suit drew circles and lines around the image and told me interesting things like impact velocity, type of explosive payload and how many feet of terrestrial armor it could penetrate.

  I hoped my suit had a way of disposing of urine, because I let off a load of it.

  The ship shot upward. I watched the shell pass under us. Maybe it went out the back of the hanger, because I didn’t hear an explosion. But then, I hadn’t heard the cannon fire, either.

  “Fricking moron,” Liz said.

  She still had her hands flat on the control panel. She wasn’t pushing any buttons or flipping any switches. It reminded me of the way Christ held onto the counter in the kitchen of the other ship.

  Don’t touch him, he’s flying the ship.

  I wasn’t going to touch her. No matter what.

  The ship moved forward. The tank’s cannon angled up. I imagined the crew inside it shouting directions to each other.

  Blue white plasma blasts pulsed out from either side of us. They hit the tanks’ treads. Which exploded in white hot geysers of metal.

  An instant later we were out of the hanger. The ship tilted up toward the blue sky. Then we were streaking up though it, bursting through high clouds. The sky purpled, then went black. The black became dotted with tiny white lights.

  Stars. I was back in space. Speeding away from Earth. Again.

  I hadn’t even gotten to have a real beer while I was there.

  Thirty-Three

  “Where are we going?” I asked.

  Liz didn’t answer. She still had her hands on the control console. Communing with the ship, I guess. I wondered how much of that suit was Liz, and how human she still was on the inside.

  I looked out the window–if that’s what it was. Stars moved slowly across it. The ship we took wasn’t all that big. As spaceships went it was probably a coupe instead of a big, comfy sedan. It definitely wasn’t a truck.

  The ship didn’t seem to skimp on the good stuff though. Gravity still held me to my seat and the air tasted clean, if a little like plastic. Or maybe that was my suit. How the heck was I breathing anyway? Was the suit filtering the air, or was it generating it somehow?

  A tremor ran through me as I realized just how completely I was trapped inside the thing. What if I couldn’t get out of it? Would I starve to death? Or did the suit had some way of feeding me?

  Necessary nutrients are supplied when the biological form needs them.

  I wasn’t too happy about those voices in my head, either. I preferred to be alone inside my own head. I’m kind of funny that way.

  “Better hold on to your ass,” Liz said, “I’m going to initiate jump.”

  “Jump? What the hell is that? And why does my ass–”

  The world turned inside out. It swirled and flushed me down to a different reality in a rainbow of colors I’d never smelled before. Then it vomited me up in a crazy cacophony of sounds that just about blistered my eyeballs.

  I resettled back into my body. Everything seemed okay until I looked out the window. Then my head exploded.

  Well, not literally. But it felt like it should have.

  The panels slid out from either side of the window and made the terrible horrible wondrous scene disappear. I sat there for a few seconds, and concentrated on making air go in an out of my lungs.

  “What in the hell was that?” I asked, pointing at the mercifully closed window.

  “That’s the unknowable,” Liz said, “You can call it hyperspace if you want. It’s not, but it’s as good an explanation as any.”

  I went to rub my face. My armored hand clanged against my metal encased head. Dang it. I wanted this stupid suit off.

  “Are you saying we’re going faster than light?” I asked.

  “Don’t be silly,” Liz said, “That’s impossible. We’re just kind of taking a shortcut.”

  “I thought no one had a faster than light drive?” I asked.

  Liz took her hands away from the console. The surface stayed lit with all kinds of shapes and numbers that were incomprehensible to me.

  “No one does,” Liz said, “But the Dendon race figured out how to make shortcuts. And so did humans. Although Chris thinks the Dendon Ark gave us a lot of help.”

  Dendon Ark? I put that aside for a moment. I had something else to wrap my brain around.

  “Are you saying that human beings have invented some kind of hyperdrive?” I asked, “We can travel faster than any of them aliens?”

  “Yup, pretty much,” Liz said.

  She got up out of the pilot’s chair.

  “Come on, let’s see if those idiots outfitted this ship like they were supposed to.”

  She left the cockpit area. I scrambled after her, my metal feet clanking on the floor. The ship had a central area that seemed to be a kitchen/common room. As I followed Liz around I saw there were two cabins on either side of the common room, for a total of four small cabins. At the back of the common room, a door opened up to a maintenance or engineering area. There were a lot of tubes and wires and bulky objects encased in metal or plas
tic. I guessed it was the space engine. Or maybe it was plumbing for the toilets. Hard to know since I wasn’t a fricking space engineer.

  The interior surfaces of the ship were done in lots of whites and silvers. It reminded me a lot of the other ship I’d been on with Liz.

  Which made me suddenly realize that the ships shared a common manufacturer. Chills ran up my spine as I realized somewhere on Earth was a shipyard building faster than light spaceships.

  It gave me a twinge of pride to think us lowly Terrans had something the Dons and Blinkys and Stickmen could only dream about. Yeah, suck it, you space creeps.

  Not that I could claim any responsibility. I wondered how much Buck knew about these things. Quite a lot, I bet, since the son of a bitch stole one of Earth’s only faster than light spaceships.

  Allegedly.

  Liz pointed to one of the cabins. “That one will be yours,” she said. Then she pointed to a cabin on the opposite side of the common room. “That one is mine. If you ever go in there without my permission I will reach down your throat and pull your nuts out from the inside. Do you understand me?”

  “Yes ma’am,” I said. I had no doubt of her sincerity. Though I had to admit I was a little offended that she would consider me a fellow who wouldn’t honor a previously standing relationship between her and that Chris dude. And I wasn’t going to inquire what her feelings might be if this Chris fellow were permanently expired. Whether she might entertain the idea of gentlemen callers then.

  Then again, I recalled what General Mattany had said: He can’t be killed. We’ve tried.

  That Chris dude had seemed pretty mild when I met him. But maybe he had an angry side.

  I looked Liz over in her golden armor and though about her kicking big military transports over with one foot. I think I’d rather stay on her good side, thank you very much.

  I thumped at the chest of my armor. It clanged like a misshapen bell.

  “How do I get out of this thing, ma’am?” I asked.

  “You think your way out of it, cowboy,” she said.

  “If that were the case, it’d be off me by now,” I said, “I’m been trying to think my way out of it since it got on me.”

  Liz shook her golden head. “You’re not much of a warrior,” she said.

  “I’m really more of a behind the scenes logistics and business guy,” I said.

  “You’re in the wrong place then.”

  “Yes ma’am, I have been for a while now,” I said, “Could you give me some clearer pointers on how to undo this suit?”

  “I don’t know specifically,” Liz said, “Don armor is different than what I have. Try visualizing the suit sucking itself back into the medallion on your chest. Do it along with a verbal command like disengage, or retract.”

  I put my armored hands to my head. “Are you kidding me lady?” I said, “You put this thing on me and you don’t know how it works? And this thing is made by the Dons? You know they’re trying to kill me, don’t you?”

  “Don’t be a baby,” Liz said, “This armor was specially made by them for a Terran, so it will conform to Terran physiology and thoughts.”

  I wasn’t sure I wanted to know why the United States government was in possession of a piece of highly advanced Don technology that the Dons had made for a human. This whole thing was giving me a headache.

  “Go on, try to think it off of you,” Liz said, “Just picture it flowing off you and back into the medallion.”

  “Do I need to jump in the air when I do it?” I asked.

  “Hmmm, probably not,” Liz said, “I guess we’ll see. Now hurry up. We’re going to drop out of otherspace soon.”

  Oh joy. I decided I’d ask about where we were heading later. For the moment, I concentrated on the suit of armor. Think it off. Yeah, believe in the power of positive thinking, Roy.

  I closed my eyes and imagined the suit sucking itself back into the thingy stuck to my chest. Get off me, I told it, Git, retract or whatever.

  After a few seconds I opened my eyes. I still had a 360 degree view and when I looked at my hands, they were still encased in black armor. I looked up at Liz. If she had a concerned expression on her face, I couldn’t see it because she was still encased in her own armor. Obviously she wasn’t going to get out of hers until I figured out how to get out of mine.

  Which meant we might both be stuck this way.

  “Did you visualize it?” she asked.

  “Yes,” I said, “And I told it to retract or whatever, too.”

  Liz held her elbow with one hand and tapped her finger on her chin. It rang like a crystal bell.

  “Hmmm, it’s probably stilled keyed to that bitch,” Liz said, “What would she say to it?”

  “What do you mean, still keyed to that bitch?” I asked.

  “I took that off General Mattany’s daughter, Chris’ former fiancé,” Liz said, “It’s a long story.”

  I bet. These people were more twisted than an accident at a candy cane factory. It made me pine for the simplicity of home. I shoulda gone to school and learned computers. Computer guys never got into situations like this.

  “Too bad Chris isn’t here,” Liz said, “He can program any kind of computer.”

  “He go to school for that?” I asked.

  “For Earth computers, yeah. The rest he learned on his own.”

  So much for the idea that computer programers lived nice safe, dull lives. It didn’t matter. Momma would have set me after Buck anyway.

  Liz snapped her fingers, setting off another crystal bell sound. “I’ve got it,” she said, “Visualize the suit going back into the medallion and say: return to your lair, faithful servant.”

  “Seriously?”

  “Give it a try. It’s the sort of stupid crap that bitch would say,” Liz said, “And this time, visualize harder. Imagine you can feel it retracting.”

  “Okay, but this feels stupid.”

  “You’ll feel stupider if you can’t get that suit off and you end up starving to death,” she said, “Though the suit’s waste transfer system might do you in first.”

  I didn’t even want to know what that meant. I closed my eyes. I imagined my body as a smooth surface with the armor a layer laying on top of it. I visualized pushing it away from my skin, formed an image in my mind of black water receding from my skin.

  “Return to your lair, faithful servant,” I said, then gave the suit a mental shove toward the thing on my chest.

  That’s went I felt something. My feet felt a sudden chill. Then my fingers. I kept my eyes squeezed shut and kept up the mental push. I pictured black liquid flowing away from my limbs, around from my back and head, down and up to my chest, back into the stunted triangle stuck to me.

  A chill ran over my whole body. I felt different. My skin twitched and there was a different odor in the air. A odor of ozone and machine oil. I didn’t open my eyes, though. I didn’t want to find out if I failed or not.

  “Did I do it?” I asked.

  “Open your eyes, idiot,” Liz said.

  “My name’s Roy, ma’am, I’d appreciate if you used that instead of idiot.”

  “Fine. Roy. Open your eyes.”

  I lifted the lid on my left eye and raised my hand. A gasp of relief escaped me. My hand was just a hand again. I opened both eyes and laughed as I opened and closed my hands in front of my. Nice, bare, normal hands.

  Bare.

  In a flash I had them hands down covering my man parts. Heat rushed up my face and threatened to set my cheeks on fire.

  Liz still stood there, hands on her golden, armored hips. She laughed.

  “Good job, Roy,” she said, “There might be hope for you yet. There should be some clothes in the cabin. Meet me back out here in five.”

  She turned and disappeared into her cabin. When the door fully closed I spun myself around and sprinted for my own cabin. The door slid open just like one of them Star Trek doors, only without the whoosh. It just hummed.

  The cabin was da
rk. I fumbled at the wall. Weren’t the lights supposed to come on automatic-like?

  There was a foul odor in the air. Kind of like–

  “Now you are mine,” a blood freezingly familiar voice said.

  Thirty-Four

  I stumbled back against the door. Rancid cat food stench. The door hummed open and I fell out, still naked as the day I was hatched–only much hairier. I scrabbled backwards as Yen Kovan clomped towards me. She was encased in shiny black armor. Bright orange, flame-like designs curved up her arms from her hands. The flame designs encircled her shoulders and licked down her chest, going around her small breasts.

  Her helmet mirrored the triangular shape of her head, bulging at the back. Where her eyes would have been was a glowing yellow slash. She raised her right arm. A plasma cannon was clamped to it.

  “Now you will pay for the death of my brother,” she said. The end of the plasma cannon crackled with electricity.

  Gold flashed above me and slammed into Yen Kovan.

  Liz and Yen disappeared into the cabin, taking a chunk of the wall with them. There was a horrific crunch and clash of metal. A second later Yen’s armored body smashed through the wall and sailed over me. She hit the floor and bounced up to her feet.

  Liz exploded out of the room, driving at her in a flying kick.

  “Suit up!” she shouted.

  Metal on metal thundered behind me like a truckload of steel plate turning over on a highway. I rolled out of the way as the two armored amazons stomped through the spot my bare ass had been.

  I looked down at the black medallion thing on my chest. Dang it, I’d just gotten out of the thing.

  The Liz and Yen fell next to me, their bodies crunching and denting the deck.

  On the other hand, being naked with these two wasn’t the kind of threesome I fantasized about. I slapped my hand on the black medallion.

  Nothing.

  Shit. Air gap.