I had to knock down the other two to escape alive. And these two were somewhat shorter than the first. Couldn’t be too hard.
Both of them took out their electric swords and readied them for me. They both acquired a menacing stance. Their swords floated over their heads as if they were part of their bodies. I’d taken a few sword classes, but nothing similar to them. I lost much of the faith in my training all of a sudden.
They both ran towards me and swung their swords in the air. I don’t know how I parried them, but I struggled to keep the pace. They did all the footwork tricks, lunged towards me and attacked me from both sides. My reflexes somehow kept up with them. Hey, if I was this good at sword fighting, I had to take part in some contests.
One of them punched me just below my ribcage, sending a wave of pain through my body. I dropped onto the floor. They stood before me, waiting for me to stand back up.
If I stood up normally, they’d crush me. I needed more air, needed better reflexes, and needed a better weapon. Perhaps Dr. Langley was right, and I wasn’t able to defeat four of his alien friends at once.
“Mind if we take a five-minute break?” I said. “I need to check that a couple of bones are still fine.” I left my sword on the floor beside me to avoid looking like a threat.
No, no, no. I’m no coward. I was just trying to save them the damage on their knuckles and the boredom of hitting me so much. And besides, if they thought that I was defeated, they were less likely to attack again.
The soldiers didn’t bother to reply. One of them stepped forward and tried to grab my shirt to pull me back up. I ducked and slid between his fingers, picked the sword back up, and brought it onto him, knocking him down. I jumped on top of his armor and used the impulse to jump-kick and attack the other one.
I don’t know how I managed, but I knocked the fourth soldier down too.
And with my lucky victory, I headed back into the shuttle and took the pilot’s seat.
Dr. Langley stared at me in awe.
“What?” I said. “Don’t you learn to fight back in your planet?”
The doctor didn’t look impressed anymore. “I was actually thinking that educational reforms have hurt Fraterans even more than kids on Earth,” he said.
“I’ll take it as a compliment, Doc,” I said. I turned on the shuttle’s controls and activated the hangar doors. “I’ve beaten four of your soldiers. See if you can beat my record.”
The hangar doors opened and I flew the shuttle out. As soon as we crossed the door, the alarms went off.
I was hoping for a quick and relaxed trip home, but we were going to have to dodge a million bullets.
Chapter 42
Nobody shot us on our way out, so that’s something.
Flying the escape shuttle wasn’t too hard despite the alien control systems. Frateran aliens think just like average humans. We were supposed to be distant cousins, after all, so it made sense. I’d never get used to the icky and gooey blue blood, but their ships were fine.
After disabling the autopilot, I tapped on the communication system to contact the Defender. Nothing worked. We were unable to open any comm channels to the ship.
“They’re broken,” Dr. Langley said. He’d been pretty quiet all along. I was sure that he’d been waiting until I made a mistake.
“How do you know?” I said. “Might be restricted.”
“I know more about my own tech than you do,” he said flatly. Oh, yeah. Fraterans aren’t racist or elitist at all. And they’re grateful whenever you risk your life to fight four of their brutal armored soldiers.
“I don’t know why I’ve brought you along,” I said sarcastically. “You’d be much more comfortable amongst your own people than with a stupid and inferior travel companion. I’m sure that your rebel general would like to get his hands on you and make you a second wound just like the one on your stomach.”
“I’m sorry,” he replied with the same pungent tone. “Is your ego brittle enough to break with a simple comment? Human nature always surprises me.”
Ugh. I wanted to get to my ship and send this alien surgeon back to sick bay and hopefully not see him again until I caught the flu. Most doctors seem alien to naval men, but Dr. Langley was an alien. Made him much weirder than your average doc. And don’t forget the blue blood. Yeah, I’m obsessed with it, but it’s icky.
“Can you send them a message?” I said.
“Can’t you?” he said sarcastically.
I wasn’t in the mood to play. If we didn’t send any notes to them, they’d take us for a hostile shuttle. Hostile Alpha was trying to stick onto the Defender. A boarding was only a matter of time. Nobody shoots at transport shuttles that don’t attack anyone, but we’d all seen what the armored soldiers. Nobody would let us land peacefully.
“Look, Doc,” I said. “I know you’re all a bunch of geniuses and we’re intellectual ants compared to you. Contact the Defender before they shoot us down.”
“Can’t,” he simply said. “Broken communications. Told you already.”
I decided not to kill the doctor. His loyalties were split between Earth and his own people, but he was a surgeon in the eyes of the Navy. Killing the medical or engineering crew is generally frowned upon. Men of science are insufferable and everyone knows it, and losing one’s patience means that one isn’t fit to command. It’s more or less a patience test.
I don’t know why neither the Fraterans nor the Defender shot us down, but I managed to enter the Defender’s hangar and land safely and peacefully. The doctor took it for granted. This stank of a trap.
I wasn’t going to be surprised if they greeted us with grenades.
Chapter 43
I opened the shuttle and braced myself for the grenades.
Instead, three dozen marines ran out of hiding places and aimed their guns at our noses. Dr. Langley wasn’t surprised by the greeting.
“Hi guys,” I said, standing up. Their guns remained aimed at us. “I’d hoped for a different kind of surprise party. Is anyone going to sing happy birthday to me?”
Hooke, the captain of marines, took off her black helmet and pulled my arm to get me out of the shuttle. It wasn’t an invitation and wasn’t a helpful hand. She was just impatient and didn’t want to wait for me to get out by my own means. That’s marine courtesy for you.
The other marines remained with their guns aimed at us. I’m not used to boarding alien ships and fighting civilizations that I know nothing of, but I hadn’t considered the possibility of becoming a threat even if I returned safely to my own ship. I hadn’t hoped to be greeted like a hero, but it’s pretty awesome to fly out of an enemy ship shortly after finding yourself unarmed and locked up. It’s disappointing that nobody values those kinds of escapes anymore.
“Mind lowering those things down?” I said.
Hooke gave me a formal salute and gestured at the others to lower their guns. “Too many drills, sir,” she said in her classically loud voice. “We’re not supposed to let you roam the ship until we’ve checked for threats.”
“Yeah,” Dr. Langley said from his seat. “I’ve inspected us. He’s fine.” He’d covered himself better with his blanket so that his icky blood didn’t show up. He disliked the idea of being identified by the marines.
Marines are trained all their lives to shoot first, shoot again, and avoid asking questions. Hooke took this philosophy to the extreme. She’d have freaked out and killed us both if she’d known what the doctor was.
I told them to gather up and asked for updates. They didn’t tell me anything new. Hostile Alpha had created a force field that stopped them from escaping the region, and now they were trying to get rid of them. My explosives would solve the problem as soon as they destroyed the alien ship.
“Did you really manage to place the bombs on your own, sir?” Hightower asked from behind Hooke. She directed one of her cutting and authoritarian glances at him and made him step back and meld amongst the others. Marine officers don’t like that anyon
e stands out from the rest of the squad.
“Wait and see the fireworks, Hightower,” I said.
He nodded back, but without making it too noticeable. Marines respect hierarchy more than your average naval man. You just need to look at their clean-shaven appearances compared to our scruffier seamen to see a difference: us naval men take life less seriously.
Harry ran into the hangar claiming that he didn’t believe that I’d escaped. He stared at me with suspicion in case I was an alien and I’d replaced myself to kill them all. He avoided eye contact; we both remembered what he’d done the last time we’d chatted. He’d preferred to save Dr. Thompson and to let the enemy hit my ship rather than protecting us both. He’d claimed that the Defender didn’t have enough shield power to protect both of us, but how can you trust a drinking AI’s word?
“Glad to see you too, Harry.” I stared at him to show that I did remember everything he’d done.
“About that…” Harry said. “No offense meant, Decaf. Just a last-minute choice that didn’t turn out well. I’m just a robot and make mistakes.”
“And you tried to kill the officer in command,” I mumbled. “Do you know what will happen to you if I’m killed? Fleet Command will want to blame someone, and equipment malfunctions are easy to justify before everyone. No public hangings, no harm to human life, and a clean record for those who’ve sent us on this mission. Nobody thinks twice before scrapping a whole ship.”
“Hey, it was an accident!” Harry stared at the marines who looked at him with their expressionless marine faces. “I swear. I didn’t try to kill anyone. It’s one of the laws of robotics.” Nobody followed his explanation. “What? Don’t you guys read the classics in science fiction? I’m not supposed to hurt people.” Still no response. He rolled his eyes and waved both hands in the air, gesturing at me to take part in the justification of his actions. “Tell them! Tell them it was just a silly accident. Any reasonable man can understand that I preferred to save a pretty girl than to save another guy.”
Harry realized something as he was talking and glanced around with a disgusted expression. He wanted to tell me something but didn’t dare to. He’d probably learned about the aliens and wanted to brag about his findings. So had I.
There was no point in arguing or paying more attention to him. He was a showman and wanted to be the center of the world. There’s no place for egos in the middle of a battle.
I told the marines to disperse to give the chance to the surgeon to recover and head to sick bay without letting anyone see the color of his blood. I was disgusted, but I was more open-minded than some of the marines. The crew didn’t need to know about our alien refugees for the time being.
Once the marines were gone, I asked one of the ensigns to update me with everything they’d done in my absence. We went to the bridge and Harry chased after us.
“About the girl…” he began.
“Is she wounded?” I asked.
“No…” Harry measured each word. “She has a minor scratch on her arm, but we should talk about her…”
This wasn’t the time to argue about whether he or I had the right to court her and attempt something with her. We were in space, we were in charge of a ship, and we couldn’t focus on our lower brains’ wishes.
“Not now, Harry,” I said.
“But, but…” He groaned. “Don’t complain once you realize. No wonder that not even the aliens wanted to keep you aboard their ship. I’d send you back too if I could.”
The ensign told me about the force field, Dr. Thompson’s help to dodge it, and their feeble attempts to leave. Lucky that I’d planted explosives everywhere aboard Hostile Alpha, because the Defender would’ve been helpless if the enemy kept going.
We didn’t have enough time to get to the bridge to see the fireworks, so we stopped by a systems room and turned on several of the screens. Many desks were covered in a fine layer of white dust. Nobody used the room and nobody worried about cleaning it either, but at least the screens worked. We counted down for the explosions.
One of Hostile Alpha’s outer decks exploded, but the rest of the ship remained intact. Their ship had been designed as independently pressurized decks, with enough resistance to withstand explosions.
So that’s why nobody had asked me any questions when I’d headed to the enemy armory to steal a few explosives. Someone should’ve added a couple of notes to aspiring saboteurs to save us the time: don’t try to blow the ship up; it’s useless. Makes saboteurs look less like fools once nothing happens.
At least the explosions could’ve damaged some of the force field that was trapping the Defender. I doubted it, but we could always try. And we still had another batch of explosions ready for a while later.
“And that’s your plan?” Harry said with a wry smile on his face. He was glad that I was alive, but he was going to make my life impossible anyway. He was Harry and he liked to make everyone’s lives difficult. I was actually getting used to him, though, so he had to up his game to keep causing annoyance. “You’ve made me think that you were about to save the world and the universe from a technologically superior enemy. You’ve just managed to burn a bit of the ship’s outer hull. That’s sad even for you, Decaf.”
“So you do have a good opinion about my skills,” I said. “Thanks.”
Harry opened his mouth in confusion. He hated it whenever he didn’t rule the conversation. “I wasn’t trying to―”
“There’s a projectile coming our way, sir,” the ensign interrupted.
Harry and I stopped acting like overgrown kids and stared at the screens. A slow-moving object was flying our way. I’d seen thousands of missiles with that precise behavior. This one was the size of a whale. A small whale, but still a whale.
“Can you fly out at maximum acceleration?” I asked.
“Yeah, sure,” Harry said, chuckling. “The Defender’s sitting here in the middle of space because I like it better. I hadn’t considered the option of fleeing, Commander.”
“We’ve tried to fly away, sir,” the ensign explained. “The grappling field doesn’t let us leave. It had already trapped us when we’ve noticed it. There’s nothing we can do.”
“We’ve already tried to flee and we wanted to leave you here,” Harry added. “Would’ve made a much nicer expedition and I’d have kept your room for myself. Now I need to take my stuff out of it.”
“Can you increase the power of the shields?” I asked.
“No more shield power left,” Harry said. “Just the basic levels. If we increase something now, we won’t be able to keep the hull stuck together once we head back to Earth.”
I continued asking for solutions. They couldn’t repair the shields later because our power generators were still being tested. I’d stolen an unfinished ship without all the upgrades, and Fleet Command and my wonderful Aunt Eleanor hadn’t considered it necessary to warn me not to go into space.
Wait. Actually, they had. They’d declared me an outlaw and I was probably dead whether I died in this battle or not. Going back to Earth was going to put me through an awkward and difficult trial for me. I love family reunions.
“We can just wait and hope that the shields are enough, sir,” the ensign said.
“And then you can go back to Hostile Alpha and put some more explosives in it. I’m sure that they’ve liked the laughs after you’ve single-handedly tried to defeat them.”
I stared at the screens to see the missile approaching and braced for the impact.
Chapter 44
The Defender didn’t explode.
Harry pulled out several of the Defender’s diagrams and didn’t detect any damage. “We’re still up.” He let out a sigh and dried his holographic forehead with the back of his hand. I no longer knew if he was faking his human functions or if someone had actually made him sweat even though holographic sweat had no biological justification. Artificial intelligence experts had too much free time.
“Congratulations, sir,” the ensign said
. “We’re still alive and well.”
“Yeah,” Harry said. “Mind picking my next lottery numbers? You’re on a lucky streak.”
The grappling field started weakening itself around us. The change was subtle and faint, but enough to notice. It was shutting itself down, probably because one of the explosions had damaged it.
“Awesome,” Harry said. “We’ll be able to fly away soon.”
“Set the engines to maximum power,” I said. “Let’s get ready to leave as soon as this thing weakens enough. I don’t want to waste any chances we get.”
“Now that we’re safe and happy again,” Harry said, “I’d like you to know something about the girl…”
I know that he wanted to act human, but he was starting to sound desperate. He was a hologram; she was an internationally-known scientist. I doubted that she’d ever show an interest in anyone who didn’t match her in brains. I didn’t want her to feel pressured to show anything towards us.
Naval men risk their lives to rescue people, and it creates strange feelings of gratefulness. If she ever showed an interest in me, I wanted it to be real. And I didn’t want an AI to meddle in my love life. If he wanted to flirt with her, fine. I wasn’t going to join his game.
“This is hardly the time to talk about Dr. Thompson, Harry.”
“It’s never the time to talk,” Harry said, “but she’s ruling over the bridge. First she’ll take over the Defender, and then she’ll conquer Earth.”
What? I didn’t know what Harry was talking about, and I honestly didn’t have the time to decrypt his words. We were at war. I wasn’t going to lower my guard until we fled.
“He means that she’s helped the subcommander, sir,” the ensign said. “She’s learned a lot about Hostile Alpha while she was trapped in it.”
“And for some other reasons,” Harry added, “but of course, I’m not allowed to talk about her. And I don’t want to work with her either. I don’t like her at all.”
Starship Defender: Beyond Human Space Page 18
