Starship Defender: Beyond Human Space

by Michael Keats

  Harry remained frozen in his seat. He didn’t move or react. His eyes were fixed on the puddle of blue blood.

  If someone saw her, they’d ask questions. She’d hoped to tell everything to Commander O’Donnell at some point. She didn’t expect the marines or the rest of the crew to react well to the news.

  “Turn off the lights,” she insisted. “We can’t let everyone see this. This isn’t the time to explain anything to anyone.”

  Harry didn’t. Instead, he kept working and acting as though he didn’t hear her.

  “Coward,” she mumbled. She wiped the floor with her jacket and rolled it around her arm to stop the hemorrhage. It would hopefully last until the battle gave them a rest.

  If the battle remained intense for long, someone would eventually notice.

  Chapter 46

  We reached the Frateran Armors soon enough. Hightower led the marines and took cover. I joined them and took out some of our stolen guns.

  The first few men were easy to defeat: shoot a couple of times, hit them straight in the chest, and don’t even give them the time to react. As soon as they noticed us, they accelerated their pace and charged against us. We shot some of them down and they fell onto the floor and convulsed to unconsciousness. The others simply jumped over their companions, ignoring them and heading straight at us.

  They worked like a pack. Losing a handful of men didn’t affect them. They had a clear target and didn’t give up. The Navy needed to hire some of their boot camp officers; some of our own lads and lasses would’ve turned around and deserted with much less.

  One of the armored soldiers reached one of the marines, a tall and imposing woman with toned arms. She tried to push the soldier away, but it punched her chest, throwing her several feet away. She gasped for air and crawled back behind out lines to breathe for a couple of seconds before returning to the center of the action.

  Not all of us were so unlucky.

  The Frateran Armors were strong and powerful fighters and they were well-trained, but their overconfidence made them run around the ship making noise and making themselves easy to track. They didn’t pay attention to their surroundings and barely saw anything coming their way. Technological superiority makes both people and aliens think they’re invincible.

  The fight was fun: Hightower took a couple of his men to act as bait, and the Frateran Armors focused on attacking them and dodging their shots. Meanwhile, I shot them from the side and incapacitated them within seconds. Fighting them was like fighting elephants: they were angry, they could crush us easily, but they lacked any form of peripheral vision.

  I knocked three Armors using the same tactics, and we stole their weapons and handed them to our men. Soon, we’d stolen about a dozen guns, and we had three more armors to defeat.

  “Leave them to me this time,” Hightower shouted between chuckles. “I don’t need any backup.”

  “Stop bragging and get rid of them, will you?” I said. I tried not to pant, but officers never have enough time to exercise. I wasn’t fit enough for this fight, but I couldn’t let the men notice.

  Hightower ran towards the armors, one gun in each hand, and shot at them like a madman. He roared and placated them even before his bullets made them fall. He punched them once they were on the floor, pulled off one of their helmets, and put it on. He stood back up, turned to us, and raised both fists up in the air.

  The other marines congratulated him and roared victoriously.

  The fight was over at last and we could head to the bridge. I sighed in relief. It was finally done.

  “What are you doing shouting like idiots?” Harry said through the intercom. “You’ve only defeated a detachment. You have a bunch of them running around the Defender with nobody to stop them.”

  I hated it whenever he didn’t warn us of small details. And I’d hoped to return to the bridge and check that Hooke wasn’t causing us too much trouble. I had a bad feeling about leaving her in charge of the bridge.

  I waved my hand over my ear to activate my intercom. “We’re on our way,” I said.

  “Better hurry,” Harry said. “Because the ships keep landing. Dr. Thompson is too worried about her own problems to help. And she’s creeping me out.”

  Creeping him out? Harry was the strangest AI I’d ever dealt with, but perhaps there was something wrong with the scientist. She’d been held captive, and most people aren’t prepared for that kind of mental ordeal.

  “Is Dr. Thompson okay?” I said.

  “Yeah, but I’m no longer interested in her,” Harry said. “She’s all yours if you like.” Dr. Thompson told him something in the background. “What? I haven’t said anything.”

  “Shut up, Harry,” I said. Dr. Thompson echoed me in the background.

  Harry’s eccentricities weren’t our priority. I had a bunch of aliens aboard my ship, and I didn’t want them there. We were going to infiltrate them using their own uniforms.

  I grabbed one of the armored soldiers’ helmets, put it on, and clapped my hands to get the marines’ attentions. “All right, lads and lasses,” I said. “We have a second round of armored guys up there. Does anyone want an early Halloween party?”

  Chapter 47

  We dressed up as Frateran Armors and reached the elevators before our boarders got there. We hid around the lobby and behind the plants in the area, ready to strike. The Frateran Armors arrived and walked past us without paying attention. None of them turned around to see why we were waiting near the elevators.

  The moments before action make your blood freeze. Your lungs stop breathing. For a few seconds before attacking the enemy by surprise, the human body tries to meld with the walls as if we were chameleons.

  Half of our men were hidden farther down the corridor, equally disguised in the stolen armors and with red armbands around their left arms to make it easier for us to spot them. We were ready to strike as soon as the enemy entered our trap. We were going to surround the enemy and shower them with bullets.

  Hightower stared at them through his helmet and shook his head. “They can’t be serious,” he said through the intercom’s squad channel. “They see a bunch of armors hiding here and they don’t stop to ask what’s going on?”

  A few of the marines chuckled. Handling the stress before the battle is part of the waiting game.

  “Hold it, gentlemen,” I said.

  The men shifted their positions and fidgeted with their guns. Nobody wants to face an enemy who outnumbers them, but waiting is worse than actually fighting. When fighting, you need to defeat your opponent before he defeats you. If you’re waiting, you stand the risk of being attacked by surprise.

  “Hold it…” I insisted.

  “Won’t hold it for long, sir,” Hightower said. “We’ve downed too many beers before coming here.” He laughed. Many of his men echoed him.

  They joked and lowered some of their stress until the Frateran Armors were exactly where we wanted them.

  I gave the order.

  We aimed our guns at them, blocked the gates to the elevator area, and chased after the Frateran Armors as they attempted to take cover.

  The other marines waited for them on the other side of the hallway and knocked down the armors who managed to escape. A few of our lands fell, but soon we were no longer outnumbered and we kept going against the remaining armors.

  One of them charged towards me and knocked me down. My hand accidentally lost my sword. He aimed a gun at me. I rolled aside before he hit me. I crawled and tried to find a replacement weapon, but the nearby fallen armors didn’t have any.

  My opponent dropped the gun aside and took out an electric sword. Frateran guns disabled human nerves and knocked people down almost instantly, but the swords sent an electric shock through the body that felt like a million wasps stinging at once. Some people woke up bruised after being hit by a Frateran sword, and that’s if they woke up. Many hearts were unable to survive the experience.

  The armored soldier ran towards me. I ducked
and lifted some of the fallen men’s arms to look for a sword or gun to defend myself with.

  Nothing.

  If I didn’t find anything, I was dead.

  He brought down his sword a few inches away from my arm and raised it to strike once more. In one last attempt to find a sword, I pushed an unconscious marine out of the way and found a gun. I turned around and shot the armor. He instantly lost control of his body.

  It had been close.

  The inertia made him fall forward with the sword over his head. I ducked and his body toppled over me.

  It had been too close even after he’d fallen.

  I pushed him off and stared around in case some of my men needed help, but they were simply tying up loose ends. I took off my stolen Frateran helmet and silently observed the fallen men and aliens. The fight was over.

  Naval men generally respect and fear death in equal parts. We can delay and cheat Death, but we can’t stop her from knocking on our door.

  Marines had grown accustomed to death. They lost some of their own men and took down many of their foes with them in every fight. They laughed at death, stared at it straight in the eyes, and didn’t fear if she stared back. The end of a battle was only the start of a bragging competition to them: they needed to prove that they’d been more useful than any of their companions.

  Hightower carried several Frateran helmets under one arm and offered me one of them. “Having a nap, sir?” he said. “Better take one of my extra helmets so that everyone thinks that you’ve fought too.”

  I pushed the helmet away and stood up. “Keep your alien rubbish to yourself, Hightower,” I said. “They must’ve fleas in them.”

  Hightower laughed out loud. “I’ll keep them for myself, then,” he said. “I might build a throne over a pile of alien armors.”

  “Don’t put it on the bridge,” I said. “I don’t want to catch any alien diseases.”

  The lads talked about having some drinks after the fight, but Harry interrupted the moment of rest: a group of Frateran Armors had boarded us a moment before and was heading straight to the bridge.

  They weren’t going to get anywhere if I could avoid it. I grabbed a gun in each hand and headed there.

  Chapter 48: Kate

  Kate had to leave the bridge and get to sick bay before someone noticed her blood. She couldn’t leave the battle before it ended or the turrets would be unable to distinguish Frateran combat ships from normal shuttles or escape pods. Dovrik had used all his available ship designs to make detection even more confusing to humans. So far, he was doing well.

  Harry approached Captain Hooke. Kate’s heart contracted. He couldn’t be planning to tell the marines that she was an alien, could he? Not after everything they’d gone through.

  “I don’t mean to interrupt,” Harry said, “but we have a bunch of armored brutes heading here.” He grinned at Kate; he wasn’t planning to say it. For now. “Your friendly marine toy soldiers are too busy with their new stolen armors and none of them will get here on time.”

  “We’ll be fine,” Hooke replied without even looking at Harry. She always had a serious expression on her face, full of hatred towards her surroundings. Something in her manner of speaking towards Harry marked him as an undesirable before her eyes. She could’ve belonged to the new Luddite waves. Kate instinctively checked her wound in case some of her blood showed through. Luddites weren’t particularly nice against changes, especially if they entailed aliens.

  “Half of these people are engineers, and I don’t see them holding weapons.” Harry gestured around the bridge at all the hunched men and women who sat in front of multi-screen displays. Most of them were working hard to track and destroy enemy ships. They used the ship’s remotely-controlled defenses, but none of them were warriors. Direct physical confrontation rarely suited engineers.

  “We’ll be fine,” Hooke insisted. She remained still, with both arms crossed and staring at the bridge’s main entrance. “Sit down and stop distracting my men.”

  “And with a bunch of brains working in the same room,” Harry said loudly, “nobody’s thought of protecting the area better. That’s pure genius. I can’t imagine why anyone’s still alive. Not adding protection to the bridge is as bad as forgetting about life support.”

  “Sit down, Harry.” This time, Hooke did turn to look at him. It wasn’t an offer; it was a threat. The kind of threat that gave him a few seconds to react and sit down or she’d blow up his circuits.

  Harry exhaled loudly and noticeably and sat back down beside Kate. He eyed her with a disapproving face, as if blaming her for everything that was happening. “You knew about this all along, and you helped build a ship to annoy your bosses. Great work, Doc. Why don’t you take a gun and start killing humans to save us the time and the suffering?”

  “I’m not working for anyone,” she whispered back.

  “And I’m not an AI,” Harry said sarcastically. “I’m actually a real person, and someone’s trapped me in one of the storerooms and forced me to act like an AI. What’s your boss after, huh? Is he after my ship? Or does he want to build AIs with cool personalities? I can join him voluntarily for the right amount…”

  “Harry, this isn’t the time to talk about the general,” Kate began, but several loud shots interrupted her.

  “Down!” Hooke barked. She took her machine gun and aimed at the door. “Everyone, heads down! Someone looks up, someone loses their head. Understood?”

  A group of six Frateran Armors entered the bridge. They wore classic reinforced plates covering their bodies, and large and almost indestructible helmets. They didn’t only shoot at the crew or the marines; they also wanted to cripple the Defender’s systems.

  Kate ducked under the table. Harry joined her.

  “What?” Harry said. “Plan to make me stay outside and get shot just because I can’t be killed with bullets? Thanks, but I’d rather remain without any holes in my chest.”

  Three marines guarded the bridge with Hooke. All of them took cover and shot at the enemy using some of the stolen Frateran guns, but the Frateran Armors dodged the bullets and charged towards them. One of them shot at a marine and hit him in the chest. The marine’s heart succumbed to the impact and he fell listlessly onto the floor.

  Another Frateran Armor turned his head and stared straight at Kate. He aimed the gun at the desk over her head and shot. He missed the shot by several inches, a very rare mistake in an experienced soldier. Kate couldn’t see who was under the helmet, but he gave her a subtle nod, gestured at the entrance to the bridge, and aimed his gun elsewhere.

  Kate had never seen such behavior in an official member of her people’s military. Men and women were genetically altered to follow orders and to shoot whenever their officers ordered them to do so. They were little more than automatons and lacked any form of free will. The soldier’s actions were impossible according to all history and sociology books.

  Perhaps history and sociology were wrong.

  She needed to leave the bridge immediately. Whatever the Frateran Armor had meant with his gesture, she needed to discover it. Perhaps they’d left something useful for her, or perhaps this was the person who’d helped her escape from General Dovrik’s ship. Or maybe some of her own people disapproved of the general’s tactics and wanted to live peacefully alongside humans.

  “What’s that about?” Harry said, panicking. “He hasn’t killed you. He could’ve killed you but he’s ignored you. You two are working together. Are you working for the aliens?”

  “I’m not,” she said. “Just shut up and let’s get out of here.”

  Before she reacted, the Frateran Armor who’d gestured at her dropped a small biological grenade onto the floor in the center of the bridge. The device clinked several times on the floor. Hooke Jumped to one side, Kate ducked under a table and protected her head between her arms, but she’d seen those devices before.

  No matter where they hid, if they were within the grenade’s action radius, the gren
ade would pierce their skins and cause small wounds, rashes and eruptions. The device was not lethal, but it slowed down the enemy. Frateran soldiers were protected by their armors, but nobody aboard the Defender carried any of those armors.

  The grenade exploded.

  Kate’s arms and legs burnt with the impact. The biological damage sphere expanded through walls and tables, and only stopped the moment it touched a living creature. The scientists around the bridge shouted in pain. Kate raised her sleeves and saw some of her blue blood dripping slowly down her arms. Her legs and torso were equally affected. She couldn’t hide anymore.

  Hooke didn’t even feel the pain. She looked up, confused by the lack of explosion, took her gun, and shot the two remaining Frateran Armors with her burnt hand.

  “That must hurt.” Harry looked at Kate’s arms.

  “I need to get out, Harry,” she urged him. “There aren’t any enemies left. Turn off the lights and give me ten seconds to leave the bridge.”

  “I…” He hesitated and glanced at Hooke. He wasn’t supposed to turn the lights off without permission, but both Kate and he knew her predicament. If she didn’t leave, everyone would start asking questions.

  A starship crew turns into a mob very easily. They’d hang her without even telling the commander.

  Hooke’s boots stepped beside Kate. She was still hiding under the table, but Hooke was fine despite her skin damage. Her face had been temporarily scratched by the biological grenade, but none of her muscles showed the pain.

  “Get away from the controls,” Hooke said. She cocked her gun and readied it for action in the kill setting. She wanted an excuse to shoot Kate without even hearing her version of the story.

  Kate couldn’t let everything end there. She’d worked too hard.

  “This is a mistake,” Kate said. “I don’t work for them. I’m a scientist. I’ve been a scientist all my life. I’ve worked for the Navy. We’re both working towards the same goal.”