by Kal Spriggs
“Let’s try to avoid that,” Simon said from the hatch.
“Aren’t you supposed to be watching the engine room hatches?” Eric asked.
“I will be very… unhappy with you if Ghost has escaped,” Anubus growled.
“I’ve put some of the others around the engine access hatches. They probably can’t take down the Wrethe, but they can warn us if Ghost makes an escape attempt. I also locked down the Armory, just to make sure that Ghost doesn’t access our weapons.”
“Hey man,” Rastar said, “Good idea.”
“Unless we need more weapons,” Eric said.
Simon looked around the room, particularly at the splattered remains of Krann. “I think we have enough guns.”
“You can never have enough weapons,” Eric answered.
“Enough!” Ariadne said. “We need to work together, not fight one another.” She looked away from Mike, “Excellent job to lock down the Armory, in the future, please let us know beforehand. I assume that Rastar as the Master of Arms can access it?”
“Yeah, should be him and no one else,” Simon responded. “I tried to get you, but there was no response on the bridge intercom.”
“I observed the panel indicating an attempt to reach us,” Run said. He pointed at the panel, and Eric noticed the splatter of green and purple fluids across it. “However, due to the risk of contamination, I suggest we leave it alone until I have performed full decontamination. I cannot take this action while you remain on the bridge.”
“Run, we’ve got a lot of things to do,” Eric said, “It’s not like-”
“I see I must use my command voice,” Run said. “ALL PERSONNEL EVACUATE THE BRIDGE WHILE I PERFORM DECONTAMINATION PROCEEDURES!” His shrill voice cut through Eric’s head like a drill.
“Run, that is not a command voice, you sound like a blender full of marbles,” Ariadne said.
“YOU WILL LEAVE IMMEDIATELY OR I WILL BE FORCED TO PACIFY YOU!” Run shouted. Eric rubbed at his temples, as he fought the onset of a headache. He could feel his left eye twitch. “I MUST PREVENT INFECTION-”
“All right!” Ariadne shouted. “We’re going!” She looked at Rastar, “Bring Mike, the rest of you, come with me.”
“Thank you for your cooperation,” Run said calmly. He glanced over at a flashing light. “What is that light?”
“That is a repeater display for the engineering computer,” Rastar said. “The light indicates that there is an issue with the generator coils…”
“Now we deal with Ghost,” Eric said. “Plans, anyone?”
Rastar nodded as he walked Mike over to the stairs. “I have thought about it for some time. I believe that our best option…”
* * *
“You have not bargained in good faith with me,” Ghost’s high pitched rasp spoke as Eric drew near to the Ambassador. “So I have initiated my program. You have thirty minutes before the ship’s reactor detonates.”
“Look,” Alara said. “We have started to move the gold up, but it’s a lot of mass to move. We haven’t pushed it out the airlock yet to get it to your ship because-”
“I will no longer tolerate your lies,” Ghost said. “I gave you your engineer. Clearly you did not reciprocate.”
Eric gave Alara a nod, “We’ve got this.” He walked up to the intercom, “Ghost buddy, this is Eric, you remember me, right?” Eric asked.
“You are the irritating human, yes?”
Eric heard the Ambassador snort behind him, he studiously ignored that. She thought Eric irritating, did she? Eric smiled slightly, eager to deal with this last threat, and pay Ghost back for how he had injured Pixel, “Yes, that one. Now, we appreciate the effort you’ve gone through, so I’ll give you this one opportunity to get off the ship alive. My buddy Rastar wants to just kill you and he’s the Master of Arms, so normally I’d be good with that. But I figure I’d give you the opportunity to go. Leave the engine room now and I’ll make sure you get off this ship alive.”
“I am confused… is this some sort of human humor?” Ghost asked.
“Nope, me being a nice guy, giving peace a chance and all that,” Eric said. “Now what do you say?”
“I say, human, that for your insolence, I will torture you for weeks. I will feed you your own eyes, after I force you to watch me kill your companions…”
Eric flipped off the intercom. “Well, that went well.”
“What did you just do?” Alara asked. “We almost had him-”
“He’s going to try to kill us anyway, he’s already activated his sabotage program. So best if we get him angry and possibly too angry to think,” Eric said. “Rastar and Anubus have already gone to the aft hatch. The straightest shot to an airlock goes through there, and we locked down the other two manually. I want that bastard to come out here where we can shoot it. Now I suggest that you and your Marines go aft, out of the line of fire.”
“Why did you even have me speak with the Wrethe if you intended to anger it into combat all along?” the Nova Roma Ambassador demanded.
Eric shrugged, “You bought us some time, and jabbering at him seemed to calm you down a bit.” Eric smiled as she glared at him. “You’re pretty sexy when you’re angry, you know? Anyway, the crew cabins should be safe enough. I would recommend your helmets though, just in case things go bad. Granted you might prefer to just vent yourselves rather than die waiting for rescue, but I’ll leave that to you.”
Eric turned away and pulled his rifle off his back. “Alright, time for me to get into position.” He listened to the Ambassador’s choked sounds of anger as she tried to restrain herself. Some days he loved his job.
* * *
Eric glanced over his shoulder as he heard a hatch open. He frowned as Simon stepped out of the galley. Pixel had an arm draped over his shoulder, and took slow, cautious steps. “Pixel, you should not be up and around,” Eric said.
“I know,” Pixel said. “But Simon needs my help to do his job.”
“You think it will work?” Eric asked.
“I looked at the bit of code that Crowe pulled from then engineering repeater console,” Pixel said, his voice strained as he took several more steps. “I think that Ghost’s talents are more exclusive to computers. It has, well a feel, to it, I guess.”
“Can you override it?” Eric asked.
“I will need direct access and some time,” Pixel said.
“We’re working on both of those, and Simon’s part should get us the time you need,” Eric hesitated. “Be careful, both of you.”
“You too,” Simon answered and Pixel just managed a nod.
Eric continued down the corridor until he came to where Rastar stood. The big Ghornath had a set to his shoulders that seemed more serious than usual. His hide had turned an odd, orange color, which Eric had not seen before. “You ready, big guy?”
“Yes,” Rastar nodded. “I hope this works.”
“It’s a good plan, Rastar,” Eric said. He tapped his fingers on his jaw impatiently as they waited. Simon would need several minutes to do his part, and they could not take any actions without that. He frowned a moment later, “But if anything goes wrong…”
“You wish to tell me what a great friend I have been?” Rastar asked.
“Well, that,” Eric nodded. “But mostly, I got to ask, what’s with the stack of cokes in the cabin?” He personally tried to avoid caffeine and energy drinks in general, but he understood why some humans liked them, but he had no idea why his Ghornath friend seemed so fond of them, especially coca cola.
Rastar looked down at him and a slight green shade came over his hide. He opened his mouth to speak.
“Rastar, this is Simon, we’re ready here,” Simon’s voice interrupted from the station nearby.
“Good,” Rastar’s hide flushed a brighter orange. “Come on up and take position at the airlock. Eric, since Ghost seems to like you so much, would you do the honors?”
“Sure,” Eric smiled as he toggled the intercom switch. “Hey there G
host, Eric here, just letting you know that we’ve come to a decision.”
“You surrender?” Ghost asked.
“Funny you should say that,” Eric smiled. “You a fan of history? I like military history. The battles and everything are nice, but the heroics are what I like. You know, the stories about a single unit or sometimes individual who changed the course of events.”
“Your words waste time,” Ghost growled in its high pitched voice.
“We’ve got enough time for this,” Eric said. He added that extra tone of boredom to his voice that he knew drove people nuts. “See, human history has all kinds of last stands, ones where a few brave men and sometimes women held off their enemies until the last breath. The Alamo, Iwo Jima, Acturus Three, Patrol Base Tripoli… well there’s a few. Hell, back in some of those wars, men and women, sometimes even children strapped bombs to themselves and ran at the enemy, just to kill a few more of them before they died.”
Eric waited for a response, but Ghost did not speak.
Eric smiled a bit as he thought about how the wheels must begin to turn in the alien’s head. “Something you might have forgotten is that Wrethe do not have a monopoly on spite. We’ve realized that you intend to kill us, regardless of what we do. So we put it to a vote, and you know what, Ghost? We decided that if we can’t save ourselves… well we can damned sure take you out.”
“You are bluffing,” Ghost said.
“Check the reactor feeds, you dumb dog,” Eric snapped. “Right now you should see a sharp spike in feed to the fusion reactor. It should have jumped from standby status to almost full load, right?” Eric felt his smile grow wider as he waited. Perhaps it was a flaw, but he loved to anger his enemies. Come to think of it, I just like to piss people off in general, he thought. “We’ve turned on every system on the ship. The reactor has reacted to that. In addition we’ve increased the feed, so even if you manage to shut those systems off, you’ll need to cut the flow to the reactor to bring it back down.”
Ghost spoke a moment later, “This is foolish. Give me what I want and I will leave-”
“No,” Eric said. “And in the words of William Barrett Travis, ‘Victory or Death.’ We can’t trust you, Ghost. So we’ll do what we know will work. When your little trap goes off, the fusion reactor will detonate, our engineer estimates almost a fifty megaton release.”
“You are insane. Clearly this is some sort of bluff,” Ghost snarled.
“Try me, Ghost,” Eric said. He flipped the intercom off. “Well, that went about as I expected. How long do you think?”
Ariadne spoke from behind him, which startled Eric, he hadn’t heard her come up behind him, “We’ve fifteen minutes before the reactor detonates. Ghost’s ship probably takes at least ten minutes to do a full start up. It needs to clear the blast radius… so pretty soon.”
“Dude, you sounded pretty scary there,” Rastar said.
Eric gave a thin smile. He felt it best not to mention to the others that he had meant exactly what he said. When it came down to it, he would accept his own death if it meant he killed his enemy in the process. For that matter, he could remember a few times he had nearly died for that very reason.
“Well—” Ariadne broke off, “He’s coming!”
Eric spun around and brought up his laser rifle. He hoped that the weapon would penetrate Ghost’s armor better than his TEK-15. Ahead of him, Rastar spun around and sprouted weapons from each of his four arms. The big Ghornath advanced towards the hatch, ready to pour fire from the four TEK-15’s he had. They all figured those would have better penetration than the Ragers or the Chxor riot guns.
Down the corridor, he saw Simon draw his pistol and duck around the corner, headed for the airlock and the most direct route for Ghost to escape the ship.
A moment later the engine room hatch opened and a blur of motion exploded out.
The thunder of Rastar’s four SMGs signaled the start of the ambush. Eric brought up the rifle and his holographic sights centered on Ghost as the murderous Wrethe charged into Rastar’s fire.
Eric got off one shot before the Wrethe closed with Rastar. Eric heard his friend grunt in pain and stagger to the side as Ghost slammed into him. The armored Wrethe swept past a moment later. It paused for just a heartbeat and Eric thought for certain that Ghost would come back down the corridor at him and Ariadne. Eric saw Rastar stumble and fall to his side.
The moment passed, and Ghost ran for the airlock.
Anubus dropped from the ceiling. The two Wrethe grappled with one another. Eric heard a screech as Anubus’s claws raked across Ghost’s armor. Ghost gave a shout and threw Anubus up against the bulkhead. The big Wrethe hit hard enough that Eric felt the vibration through his feet.
Eric squeezed off another shot and saw Ghost stagger from the hit on the torso. Suddenly the air seemed to grow cold and Ariadne stepped up next to Eric, her hand extended. A moment later, Ghost let out a howl of pain as smoke emanated from its open helmet. Eric fired off another shot as Ghost staggered.
Simon came around the corner and fired his ancient relic of a gun. The loud concussion of his shots assaulted Eric’s ears, even as Ghost let out another banshee shriek. Eric advanced on the Wrethe, and fired the laser rifle twice more as he did so. He saw Ghost drop to the ground, battered by the weapons fire.
The Wrethe writhed on the ground and as Eric drew close he saw flames crawl out of Ghost’s flesh. He brought up his rifle from a distance of two meters. He knew one of the others might have paused to make some snappy comment. Instead, he just leveled the sights on Ghost’s head and triggered a final shot.
Ghost lay still.
Eric stepped back and lowered his rifle. “Well, that went well.” He looked over at Anubus, “You okay?” The Wrethe stood to his feet, and Eric saw that its arm hung dead at its side. Black blood dribbled on the deck.
“I will live,” Anubus growled.
“Rastar, you alright, bud?” Eric asked.
Rastar groaned, “Dude, I need a coke.” The big Ghornath lay where he had fallen, but he raised one arm and gave a thumbs up.
Crowe leaned out from behind the corner, “That’s all?”
The harsh buzz of an alarm startled Eric enough that he brought his weapon up, “What’s that?” A moment later, a deep Ghornath voice snarled from the intercom.
Rastar grunted something that sounded almost angry. Eric looked over at his friend. Rastar pushed himself back up to his feet. Eric saw blood pumped from three deep gashes in his side. “It is an automated warning,” Rastar said. “The main reactor has become critical.”
“Oh,” Ariadne said. “Where’s Pixel?”
“I dropped him off at the lounge…” Simon said. “I’ll go get him.”
“Crowe can get him,” Eric said, just as he remembered that he hadn’t seen the other man involved in the fight. Red lights started to flash from the ceiling. The alarm grew more shrill. “Probably better run, Crowe,” Eric said. He tried not to think of the threats he had made to Ghost. He really did not want to face death by fusion reaction.
“We should check out the engine room,” Ariadne said. “See if there’s anything we can do and if Ghost left any traps behind.”
Simon holstered his pistol and stepped forward, “Right, another one of those explosive locks could give us a lot of problems.”
Eric stepped away from the Ghost’s body, even as he wondered if he should check the Wrethe to ensure it no longer posed a threat. He followed Ariadne and Simon as they entered the engine room.
As he passed Rastar, Eric paused. His friend had managed to stand, yet he still looked to be in pain. “Do you want me to send Run down?” Eric asked.
“No,” Rastar said, “I’m good, man. Got a solid constitution, but you might want to have him check Anubus, he doesn’t look so good.”
“Not a problem,” Eric said, even as he made a mental note to have Run check with Rastar. The wound looked serious. He stepped up to the intercom, “Run, this is Eric, if you’re d
one on the bridge, we have wounded down on second deck main corridor.” Eric didn’t wait for a response.
Simon and Ariadne stood near the main console. Lights and alien text scrolled across the screen and holograms flashed above the console. “So, you guys know what to do, right?”
“I don’t really know anything about engineering,” Ariadne said. “Pixel planned to show me, but he never got around to it.”
“I’ll see what I can do,” Simon said. “I think this should bring up the main menu.” The former cop tapped several controls and a moment later a shrill siren started up. “Or maybe not.”
“Whatever you did, I think you made it worse,” Eric said. “Great job, moron.”
“Says the guy who blew up the main weapon mount and burned out all the capacitors?” Simon snapped. “I don’t see you making things better.”
Eric opened his mouth to retort, but Ariadne cut them both off, “Shut up, I’m trying to contract Pixel or to read his mind and find out what we need to do.”
“Hey, that’s a good idea,” Eric said. Only after she shot him a sour glance did he recognize his own tone of condescension. Well, he admitted, she does surprise me when she has a good idea. It wasn’t that he didn’t trust or respect her abilities, he just felt surprised when she used them in a way that he would not have thought to try. Eric made a mental note that if they survived this, he would work on expressing himself a little better.
“God, this is no good, he needs to be here,” Ariadne growled. “He can’t see what’s on the console and the text is in a language neither of us speak…”
Eric’s eyes focused on a flashing indicator which materialized above the console. A moment later, a deep Ghornath voice began to speak over the intercom. Eric only recognized one word, “Evacuate.”
Come to think of it, he thought, if we live, I’m definitely going to ask for some engineering tips from Pixel. Eric remembered their last conversation on the subject, and Pixel’s sarcastic comment about his own inability to stop Eric from his own inadvertent act of sabotage.
