by Kal Spriggs
“You seem a little short to be the pinnacle of anything,” Eric said. “In any case, you guys can watch him, I’m going to go get some sleep.”
Crowe stayed in the hatch and Ariadne saw him peer in the bag for a long moment, “Hey, where’d he manage to get a staple gun?”
“GIVE ME MY TOOLS!” Run shouted.
“I thought that Chxor did not get emotional,” Ariadne said to the little Chxor. “Why are you shouting?”
He looked over at her, and spoke in a calm, level, voice, “I find that humans seem to respond better to a loud, authoritative voice.” Run turned back to Crowe, “GIVE ME MY TOOLS NOW!”
Ariadne stood and snatched the bag out of Crowe’s hands. She held it out to Run, “You get these, but you have to behave. No experimentation on unwilling people, understand?”
“I WILL AGREE TO NO SUCH-”
Ariadne reached out to his mind. She felt a moment of disorientation as she connected. His thoughts, the way he saw the world, seemed so alien. She felt as if she dove into a reef. The muted colors of the cockpit panels seemed so much brighter. The drab ship suits the humans wore seemed garish and flashy. His mind seemed a thing of right angles and progressions. She found what she wanted quickly enough, his desire to experiment, a massive foundation of his very being. She could no more change that about him than change him into a human, but she could nudge it a little. “If you received consent from people, you would probably gain better feedback, and you would have fewer interruptions with your work,” Ariadne said, just as she nudged him slightly.
“Agreement from my subjects would improve my data collection,” Run said. “Your argument meets logical parameters. I will accept such terms.” The little alien tapped his fingers together in thought. “This will require some planning and preparation.”
“Well, you can get around to that after you tell us what you know about this star system,” Mike said. “Three inhabitable worlds, plus the gas giant in the inner system. That must be pretty unique right?” Ariadne nodded. Surely the Chxor doctor would know where they were.
Run peered at the display, “It could be Logan or Krandel.”
“Logan or Krandel?” Mike asked. “You have more than one star system with three inhabitable worlds?”
“That question seems illogical to ask,” Run said “Of course we have more than one system that meets such parameters. I know of four such systems we have colonized, but two of them lie much more distant from Human space and the Beneficiary Council has decreed that no humans are allowed there, not even as slave labor.”
“Four systems with more than two inhabitable worlds,” Ariadne said. “Wow that’s a pretty impressive set of colonies.
“Oh, no, you misunderstand, which hardly surprises me with your emotional mindset,” Run said. “We have over a dozen systems with more than two inhabitable worlds. Laran has five worlds, while Garan has four, both lie near human space, the other worlds do not.”
“Five inhabitable worlds?” Mike asked. “That’s… how do they even fit in orbit?”
“I am not a physicist,” Run said. “I do not know this information. I have, however, studied the biospheres of many of these worlds, including the subject species of those worlds, extensively.”
“Subject species? As in sentient?” Ariadne asked. “You Chxor have enslaved others?”
“Yes, though we find few as mentally and emotionally unstable as your own race,” Run said.
“Thanks,” Mike said. “Well then, do you happen to recognize any of these ships? Do any of them have Shadow Space drives?”
Run stared at the screen, “This is outside my area of knowledge.”
“Care to hazard a guess?” Ariadne asked.
“Guesses are illogical leaps in thinking and often lead to easily avoidable mistakes,” Run said. “I do not guess. I state a hypothesis after careful study.”
“Care to make a hypothesis?” Ariadne said and she could not keep a note of irritation out of her voice.
“No,” Run said. “I must return to my research. I will obtain a list of volunteers for my further experimentation.” He snatched the bag out of Ariadne’s hands and scurried away.”
“Well, that was useful,” Mike said. He frowned, “Though the thought that they have that many worlds to colonize scares me, frankly. I thought the Chxor Empire didn’t have more than a handful of systems.”
“Well, I mean, it sounds like they have expanded out away from human space,” Ariadne said. It seemed to her that signified a preference of the Chxor to open up new worlds, rather than conquer human ones. “And there are limits to natural expansion.”
“Those are mostly limits of population and distance,” Mike said. “The Chxor have expanded their border with human space since we first discovered them. I would bet that they have something of a population boom too. Something else to worry about anyway.”
Ariadne frowned, “Well, I think it more important to select our next ride than those kinds of worries right now. Should we call the others in, talk it over and make a decision?”
Mike shook his head, “I would rather make one and just tell them later, once we have already committed everyone and they can’t change it. Otherwise we’ll have an argument, some chaos, and Anubus will probably threaten to eat anyone who disagrees with him.”
“It’s not that bad,” Ariadne said. She did privately agree with his assessment of Anubus, however. “And they have a say in this too. We’re a team, remember.”
“Right…” She didn’t need to be a mind reader to tell Mike had rolled his eyes. “Well, if you want them all to see this, you can rotate them through. We’ll discuss it in the mostly empty bay.”
“What about the other escapees?” Ariadne asked, “Should they get a vote too?”
“They got their vote,” Mike growled, “They voted to come with us, that’s the only vote they get right now. No battle is ever won by committee, and this whole team thing feels too much like rule by committee already.”
* * *
After an hour, the group managed to rotate everyone through the cockpit to look at the meager data from the sensors. They sat on the crates in the cargo hold, all except for Rastar who sat on the floor and Anubus who crouched in the corner.
“Very well,” Simon said, his voice calm and precise, “It seems we have four viable ships, correct?”
“Yeah,” Mike answered. “Two larger freighters, one ship that might be a courier or cutter, and a smaller fusion drive freighter, that last one will be the easiest to intercept.”
“But least likely to have a Shadow Space drive,” Ariadne felt necessary to add.
“Right,” Pixel said. “I have to say the sheer amount of traffic in this system is very impressive, it’s far over what I saw in most systems in my travels.”
“Yeah, those crazy Chxor sure are productive,” Eric said. “If they didn’t work humans to death to achieve their productivity, I might not want to kill them all.”
“It’s not just humans who have suffered,” Rastar said. Ariadne had noticed that his hide had shifted towards red, “The Chxor have exterminated over ninety percent of my people, and conquered my homeworld. Trust me, you have nothing near the rage I feel at them.”
“Why don’t we just focus on the task at hand?” Anubus growled. “We pick a ship, capture it, and then get somewhere that we can go our separate ways. I keep the gold and you all keep whatever ship we take.”
“Wait, you keep the gold?” Mike said. “That doesn’t seem fair.”
“I’ll throw in a guarantee that I won’t kill and eat you unless you try to touch any of it,” Anubus said. “With the qualification that I retain the right to do so at any time if you piss me off.”
“Anubus, buddy,” Rastar said. “I know you mean well, but that kind of behavior is just the kind of thing I won’t tolerate. We worked together to escape the station, and to capture this ship and that gold. I know that if you value our friendship, you’ll agree to an even split with the group.”
“Friends are for those too weak to stand on their own,” Anubus growled.
“Let’s worry about the gold later, alright?” Ariadne said. “I mean, I’m sure we can work out a deal on that. I mean, there’s no need to fight about it.”
“Not yet,” Anubus growled.
“Okay…” Ariadne said, grateful for even the token agreement, “So we’ve got these four ships. We’ve all spent time looking at the imagery we managed to get of them. None of us recognized the classes, but we have some pretty good assumptions to make plans from, I think.”
“Sure,” Eric said. “Which means that we’ll get our plans torpedoed as soon as we get close enough to see how badly we misjudged our targets.” He looked over at Mike, “I think it more likely that the fast one you pointed out is a customs cutter, especially with its current course. That looks like a patrol of sorts.”
“If it is, it will have weapons,” Mike said. “Maybe not much, but I bet enough to smash us.”
“And if it is designed for system patrols, it probably doesn’t have a Shadow Space drive,” Pixel said. He frowned, “So should we just write it off?”
“It would be nice to capture something with guns,” Eric said. Ariadne saw Mike nod in agreement.
“What, so we can shoot it out with a Chxor dreadnought?” Crowe asked. “I’d rather get something small and fast and get out of here.”
“Well,” Mike said, “That leaves the other three. The two freighters are both pretty damned big. Probably a crew in the hundreds.” He looked over at Rastar and then at Anubus, “How many Chxor can you guys handle?”
“Not that many,” Eric said. “No offense to you two, but all it takes is time for one crewman to decide he’d rather die a hero and sabotage or destroy the ship. I don’t think we could operate on a larger ship, especially not with the small number of weapons we have.”
“So the last ship, the small intrasystem freighter?” Ariadne asked.
“But it probably doesn’t have a Shadow Space drive,” Pixel said. “And if that’s the case, how is that an improvement?”
“We get a bigger ship and one that the Chxor traffic control expects, rather than a cargo boat probably reported destroyed already,” Mike said. “For that matter, we gain whatever cargo it carries, some of which may be valuable, and the rest could be useful.”
“Good point,” Pixel said. “That ship looks big enough to have a machine shop, maybe I can make some things.”
“So we go with the small intrasystem freighter?” Ariadne asked. She smiled at the nods of agreement on everyone’s faces. “See, how well things work out when we discuss the issue and find a solution?”
“Sure,” Eric said. “We get threatened by Anubus, bullied by Rastar, and I get to listen to your drivel. I feel so much better about myself now.” He looked over at Mike, “We done here?”
* * *
Ariadne sat in the copilot seat in the cockpit as they began their final maneuvers. As they drew closer to the target ship, they had made out more details. The ship appeared larger until a closer inspection revealed it as some kind of containerized transport. Racks of containers covered the relatively small inner ship.
It seemed an interesting idea to Ariadne. Pixel had found it fascinating, and he had spent the past few days with his datapad as he went over different designs for similar ships. Ariadne did not really understand his interest, but it kept him happy and she thought that a good enough result.
“Perfect course, by the way,” Mike said from behind her. “We’re coming up from directly behind them, and it doesn’t seem that they have any sensors to aft.”
“Thanks,” Ariadne smiled happily. She felt good to use her skills. The knowledge that she helped the team made her feel even better.
Mike adjusted the thrusters a bit as they came closer. Ariadne could see the other ship out of the canopy now, and it grew at what seemed like a glacial crawl. She knew the course, knew that their plan required a gradual approach to avoid detection. Even so, she felt nervous as she waited.
She worried about Eric, out on the hull. Granted, he annoyed her, and his bitter and sarcastic attitude kept her at bay, but she realized he must have his reasons for his behavior. And besides, for all his bitter talk, he had volunteered to go out on the hull to do the most dangerous task.
I think that really shows he wants to be a team player, Ariadne thought. She smiled at that, glad that she had not misjudged him and the others. When it came down to it, they worked together, despite any minor differences of opinion.
“You’re smiling again,” Mike said. “I know you’re naturally cheerful, but can you stop that? It bugs me, I keep trying to figure out what you’re so happy about.”
“Thanks, Mike,” Ariadne said. “I was just thinking about Eric and how he volunteered to lead the boarding operation. I told you we all worked well together.”
“Right,” Mike said. “Sure we do. You think he’s doing that because he really cares about the rest of us?”
“Of course, why else would he put himself at risk like this, I mean, he’s going across to the other ship on a bit of metal cable!” Ariadne said.
“Don’t forget his little love affair with that harpoon gun of his,” Mike said. “I think he just really wants a chance to shoot the damned thing. More than that, I think he really wants an opportunity to kill something. Same thing with Anubus, or did you think he volunteered out of the goodness of his heart, too?”
“Well…” Ariadne said, “maybe not him.”
They had drawn close enough now that the freighter hung only a few hundred meters away. It seemed close enough to touch to Ariadne, yet she suddenly saw the scale of it when she made out an airlock on the port side, projected out from the racks of containers. “It’s pretty big, something over a hundred meters long and about fifty meters wide, right?”
“Yeah, plus or minus,” Mike said. “Pixel drew up a rough interior sketch earlier, based off of some modeling he did on his datapad. I think he said a crew of ten or so.” She could hear the worry in his voice, and she realized that worry lay partially with the risk to their companions, and partially in the lack of control he had over the situation once they began the boarding. “I hope Crowe’s little hacking program works with their communications.”
“It will,” Crowe said from behind them. Ariadne repressed a start of surprise, but only just. She had not heard the hatch open behind them, nor had she heard Crowe slip into the cockpit. She repressed an urge to shoot him a glare.
“Will people stop doing that,” Mike snapped.
“Doing what?” Crowe asked.
“Sneaking up behind me when I’m talking and then interrupting me and scaring the crap out of me,” Mike said. “Doesn’t anyone know how to knock?”
“Sorry, didn’t realize that you and pyrogirl here needed some private time,” Crowe said. Ariadne could see the smirk on his face in her mind. She felt her cheeks flush in embarrassment. She wondered why his opinion and comments bothered her so much.
“Did you come up just to annoy me while I do some delicate piloting or did you have some actual meaningful purpose?” Mike said.
“Oh, Anubus wanted me to tell you that Eric is about to take the shot,” Crowe said.
“Right,” Mike said.
They waited. A moment later, Ariadne saw a shadow swing out over the canopy of the cockpit. She held back a gasp as she saw Eric climb hand over hand across the gap. A deeper shadow followed behind him, and Ariadne recognized Anubus’s suit a moment later.
“Are we sure we’re outside their proximity alarms?” Crowe asked.
“Should be,” Mike said. “Those are normally infrared sensors that pick up a ship or shuttle about to dock, and our course is still behind them enough I think we’re clear of that. Granted, I’ll bring us in after they secure the bridge. This whole thing depends on surprise.”
“Why is that?” Crowe asked, just as Ariadne saw Simon go up the cable hand over hand.
“Becaus
e if they can maneuver at all, they can avoid letting us dock,” Ariadne said. “Just a little bit of thrust or even some spin would make it difficult, and if they mix things up, they could make it too dangerous to try.”
“So why do pirates have such luck in movies?” Crowe said.
“Because they have a ship with guns?” Ariadne asked. “I don’t know, I don’t watch a lot of movies. I’m more of a people person.” A larger shadow went up the line next, and Ariadne recognized what had to be Rastar. He had volunteered to take the last position, he said he felt certain he could grab someone if they slipped, and still retain the ability to climb.
Of course, if they fell and drifted away from the cable and out of his reach, then he would not have the opportunity to save them. They would drift through the void, lost forever to the cold airless emptiness of space. Ariadne felt her heart in her throat as she thought of one of her new friends exposed to that kind of death. “They’ll make it, right?”
Mike did not look away from the controls. “I give it a fifty fifty chance that we lose someone during this. Boarding an unfamiliar ship is dangerous, and we don’t have any safety equipment or any real medical gear. Plus none of them speak Chxor, so…”
Ariadne looked at him, horrified by his calm detachment in the face of that terrible possibility. “We’ll get through this, they’ll be fine,” she said. She raised her chin. “As a matter of fact, I’ll bet you that we all get out of this system without losing one person.”
“Yeah, right,” Crowe said. “I got dibs on the stuff from whoever dies.” He went silent. A moment later, when he spoke, he sounded almost too casual, “Hey, you know, I’m going to check and make sure everything is secured back there. Wouldn’t want anything loose flying around if you have to make any maneuvers.” Ariadne didn’t say a thing as he left, but she forced her irritation aside. She would not let the one bad apple turn her sour.
Mike didn’t look up from his controls. “Tell you what, I bet you that you’ll regret that some of them don’t die here eventually, how about that?”
“Mike, now I know you’re just trying to get under my skin,” Ariadne said. “You’re doing it to keep my mind off my worry, which I appreciate. But, no… you’re wrong. We’re a team. I’ve become friends with these people, I don’t want any of them to get hurt.”
