“I’ve told you to get out of there,” Hooke warned. She wasn’t going to warn her a third time.
Kate walked out from under the desk and stepped slowly backwards to gain more distance between the captain of marines and her. The woman no longer saw her as a person, but as a disgusting and dangerous alien. Kate knew those eyes. Nobody would stop Hooke anymore, not even with a direct order.
“Harry, tell her,” Kate urged him. “Tell her that I’m not a threat.”
Everyone around the bridge had fallen silent. The scientists no longer complained about their skin rashes or the wounds that the Frateran Armors had caused them. They’d all stopped staring at their screens and stood up to see Kate better. Their eyes showed fear, confusion, and resentment. They saw her as a traitor.
“Harry,” Kate begged him. “Say something. You know me.”
“Do you know her?” Hooke demanded.
“It’s a long story,” Harry said. He was nervous and his voice didn’t sound convincing at all. He was considering the possibilities, probably thinking that defending her would only make his case more difficult. Aliens had designed him. He’d be scrapped if someone discovered it.
“Harry,” Kate insisted.
“There’s no need to shoot, I assure you,” Harry added. “She’s unarmed. She’s peaceful. Take her to the brig and let Fleet Command decide her fate.”
Fantastic. Fleet Command, once they realized that their secret was no longer a secret, would deny all knowledge and would sentence her to death for infiltrating the Navy as an alien spy. Harry was doing an awesome job at helping her.
Hooke’s murderous eyes didn’t leave her prey.
It was tragic: Kate had spent her entire life devoted to humanity. She’d helped them build starships to protect themselves from the Frateran threat. She’d renounced her own people to defend humans. She’d shown more loyalty towards the human race than many humans, and she’d renounced Fratera forever in order to do so.
And now she was going to die to a Frateran gun in the hands of a human.
Humanity was short-sighted enough not to realize that they’d lose the war without the Frateran refugees’ help. Actually, only Hooke was short-sighted enough, but the result was the same: if the refugees died, so would humanity.
“Harry, do something,” Kate said. She needed him to turn off the lights, to contact Commander O’Donnell, to contact Fleet Command, or to do whatever it took to avoid her execution. Swift justice didn’t benefit Kate at all.
Harry didn’t react. He simply stared at the scene, showing some concern for Kate but without interfering. Kate was alone, unarmed, and unable to do anything but wait for Hooke to decide her fate.
Commander O’Donnell entered the bridge dressed in full Frateran military clothing except for the helmet. His eyes paused on Kate and his face acquired a displeased expression. She’d expected him to dislike her origins, but she hadn’t expected him to judge her so harshly.
The commander took out one of their electric guns and stunned Hooke without uttering a single word.
“Are you insane?” Harry stared at the captain of marines and then at O’Donnell. “She’s one of our own. You’ve stunned the captain of marines. She’ll wake up in an awful mood, and she’ll want to blow someone’s brains off.”
The commander ignored Harry and approached Kate. “What’s happened?” he said, lifting her hand and inspecting the superficial wounds on her skin. Some of her blue blood shone through, and yet he showed no apprehension.
“How did you know?” Kate asked, raising her eyes to meet his.
“Doesn’t anyone hear me?” Harry tried to shove them both apart, but his holographic hands simply moved through both of them. “You’ve shot one of our own. That’s treason. And you’ve saved an alien. Don’t you realize that you’re siding with the wrong guys? And why are you dressed like the Fraterans? Have they given you a hypnotizing serum to make you change sides?”
Kate barely heard Harry. The commander ignored him too.
“I’ve known just now,” O’Donnell said. “But it makes sense. Too much brain to be human, huh?”
Kate’s cheeks heated up and she avoided his gaze.
“Is anyone going to grow some brains for a change?” Harry insisted. “She’s an alien. She’s on our side, but she’s an icky, gooey alien. It was hard enough for me not to turn on her, but getting so close…? That’s disgusting. Think about the ensigns. You’re going to traumatize their young brains with an intergalactic romance. Don’t you realize that you aren’t from the same species?”
O’Donnell didn’t pay attention to Harry and instead took out the DNA melder and handed it to Kate. It was empty. “I promise not to mess with your tech things again,” he said. “Too complicated for a man of space.”
Kate inspected it: the only charge was gone. Had Commander O’Donnell used it? Human genes weren’t supposed to tolerate Frateran DNA. Their species had a common denominator, but it was too distant. The difference between both species was too skewed in favor of Fraterans. No human could survive after using the melder with a Frateran charge.
O’Donnell shrugged and gave her a lazy smile. “Lucky move, I guess.”
His face and hands showed no signs of adapting to Frateran DNA. He was a living, breathing contradiction. He should’ve dropped dead within seconds of applying the device.
And yet there he was.
Chapter 49
Taking care of the scientific and medical team is part of any acting captain’s job, and I wasn’t acting like a love-struck idiot out of pure instinct alone. One of my top scientists was an alien, so was the surgeon, and so were several of the other civilian contractors. Was I supposed to kill the top minds on Earth to conform to standards? Not my style.
I ordered some of my men to take Hooke to the brig before she woke up. I didn’t expect her to be nice towards me or towards the rest of the crew once she woke up. She wasn’t going to accept our Frateran allies, no matter what her officer in command told her.
I’d placed one last wave of explosives aboard the Frateran ship to turn it into space trash. We’d used everything we’d found and transformed it into a clockwork bomb. I hadn’t told anyone about it and Dr. Langley was too worried about remaining alive to start talking to the rest of the crew. This was a card up my sleeve and I only needed to be patient before getting rid of the enemy ship and returning to Earth like a hero.
My family meeting with Aunt Eleanor wasn’t going to be nice, but Fleet Command can’t kill heroes. Or at least that’s what I was hoping. I actually went from one extreme to the other: thinking that they’d execute me, and then expecting fanfare and processions in my honor.
I drew up a large screen to see the fireworks. Some of the men on the bridge joined me and watched. The explosives triggered, but only blew up about a quarter of the ship’s outer hull. The rest remained intact. The inner decks maintained the pressure anyway.
If you pierced through human ships’ outer hulls, the decks rarely held the pressure. Frateran ships did. Their scientists were better than ours.
“You suck at placing explosives,” Harry said. “Are you sure that you aren’t on their side? Because you make us look useless. You’re simply boosting their ego.”
I dismissed the scientists and asked everyone to return to their control panels: the battle hadn’t ended. I moved to the center of the bridge and activated several holographic screens to get a bird’s eye view of the fight.
“Why are you ignoring me?” Harry said, chasing after me. “You’re supposed to accept your AI’s opinion. Why would anyone bother with making me intelligent if I’m supposed to say your wish is my command to every stupid thing you do or say? I’m not a genie.”
“I’ve tried to win and failed, Harry,” I said. “The fight is going to last.”
“A naval captain can’t fail after boarding an enemy ship, planting explosives, and returning to his own ship. I don’t trust that you’re Commander O’Donnell, actually. What if those
alien people have replaced you with a clone? I can’t let you destroy humanity’s best ship. And besides, if the Defender falls, I doubt that I’ll get another ship.”
“You do realize that most of the scientists who worked on you were alien too, don’t you?”
Harry shook both of his forefingers in the air to emphasize his words. “Don’t go that route, Decaf. I’m not friends with the aliens.”
I didn’t want to get into an argument with a relentless AI. I sat down on the admiral’s chair in the center of the bridge and ignored him.
I didn’t get the chance to relax.
General Dovrik, the leader of the alien ship, sent us a message. It wasn’t a diplomatic or particularly nice message: he wanted to brag about his firepower, criticize my command abilities, and say that we were all doomed. The classic kind of message that you get whenever you’re about to win or about to lose a fight.
“You’ve made a grave mistake by planting explosives around my ship,” Captain Dovrik said. He was a typical bulgy-eyed kind of alien, but he was much taller and broad-shouldered than most others. He flexed his biceps to show that he wasn’t kidding and that he could crush two skulls at once, one in each hand. “We’ll explode, but so will you. What will your people do once they lose their only half-decent ship?”
“There’s a calculation error in your logic,” I said. Harry stared at me as if I were insane. I wasn’t; I just had to play along. I was starting to get the hang of Frateran politics. “You’ll be destroyed, so you won’t be able to attack Earth.”
Dovrik roared in laughter. His laugh had a metallic buzz in it. “You have thirty of your minutes to surrender, or I’ll destroy my ship and take yours as I fall.”
A kamikaze attack? It was fairly dated. Ships are expensive enough not to destroy them unless it’s your last, desperate move. I wasn’t buying his threats.
I could end up regretting it.
“I’m not giving up, mate,” I said, trying to sound confident. “I’ve beaten all the Frateran Armors that you’ve sent our way, and I’ll keep doing it as long as you keep sending them. I’d give up and retire if I were you; I doubt that your kind takes defeat well.”
He hanged up without even replying. What a rude species! Hostile captains are supposed to keep bantering and bluffing their way to a pact or truce, or simply to do it for fun. This man had serious constipation issues.
“Have you lost your mind?” Harry said. “He’s going to blow us up if you don’t reach an agreement with him. You aren’t supposed to act like an idiot with an enemy captain who can crush us with his little finger.”
“You do act like an idiot towards me,” I told Harry.
“But you can’t crush me. You’re forced to stand me because I’m the ship AI, and I can make your life impossible if you aren’t nice to me.”
“Stop sulking and lend me a hand. Let’s stop his explosions and let’s defeat them.”
I left the subcommander in charge and summoned some of my marines in the hangar. Hightower was now the acting captain of marines. He looked somewhat confused about Hooke’s absence, but he asked no questions. Marines never ask any questions. He simply saluted, barked a few orders at his men, and followed me.
We boarded some of the fighters. We didn’t send unmanned ships because we wanted to board the enemy and deactivate whatever self-destruct mechanisms Captain Dovrik had activated.
Harry appeared holographically inside my fighter’s cabin. “This is one of the stupidest things you’ve done this week, and you’ve done quite a few of them.”
I knew, but I didn’t care. I guess that’s why I was still acting captain instead of captain.
Chapter 50
“Get off my ship, Harry,” I said while I activated the engines. I knew he wasn’t going to obey my orders, but I had to say it anyway. It’s part of being an officer: you need to give orders even if your insubordinate and drinking ship AI is going to ignore them.
“I respectfully object,” Harry said, fastening a holographic seat belt. “My place is beside the officer in charge, and you’re aboard a ship and about to kill yourself. I want to see it. Call it morbid curiosity.”
I would’ve flown in loops to make him dizzy, but a hologram never showed any signs of dizziness. We flew out and joined the other marines in a tight formation.
“Want to play a game of tag, sir?” Hightower said through the intercom. He highlighted two Frateran fighters on my tail using our HUD communications. He was dodging a couple of them too.
“Fraterans too fast for you, Hightower?” I said.
“No, sir,” he replied, “but you might need a hand or two with your lack of flying practice. When did you last fly in a simulator? You’re flying in circles.”
I shot one of the enemy fighters and hit its engines. Their shields were weaker near their engines to let them change directions without creating weird singularities. To hit them, I only had to aim well enough.
“Not bad at all,” Hightower said. He shot down a couple of fighters himself.
Frateran ships had stopped being close to invincible now. General Dovrik must’ve hated us for it. Our pilots flew between them, shot down the enemy, and opened a route to Hostile Alpha. Only two of our own ships fell in the process. It was easy.
We landed aboard Hostile Alpha and there was no greeting party to receive us. Nobody remained there to shoot at us, not even the ship’s automated defense system.
We’d fought Fraterans before and we’d learned a good deal about them, but this had been far too easy.
And the ship was completely empty. This stank like a trap, but we couldn’t turn back just yet. We needed to make sure that Hostile Alpha wasn’t going to explode and take us with it.
We ran to the bridge, checked the controls, and didn’t find anything or anyone. General Dovrik had deserted his own ship.
“It might be a surprise party,” Harry said sarcastically through the intercom. His hologram couldn’t follow us along, but he could keep communicating and listening to our open mics. “Is it anyone’s birthday?”
No surprises, no traps, and no lethal gas or deadly viruses waiting for us. The bridge and the entire ship was just empty.
I left two of the marines to look for survivors aboard Hostile Alpha. The rest of us headed back. I was an idiot for falling for such a silly trap, and now Dovrik had had the time to approach my ship and board her before we returned.
I wasn’t going to lose my ship to an arrogant alien captain.
Chapter 51
I felt dumber than the rest of my men. The Defender was my responsibility, and I’d fallen in a simple.
The marines didn’t blame me for my choice; marines rarely complained about anything. Like Admiral Graff would’ve said, they played toy soldiers and mostly barked monosyllabic answers to questions.
We returned to the discovery, and we had a greeting party waiting for us. Harry’s hologram stared at the landing from one of the hangar’s walls. He shook his head slowly to show how much he disapproved everything I’d done. I sometimes wondered if my mother had given him a couple of tips to make him more similar to her.
Dovrik’s men no longer wore their classic armors; they were ready to fight without protection.
At least the man was honorable and wanted a fair fight.
We took out some of the Frateran guns we’d borrowed from our fallen opponents and started shooting. Our bullets flew true, but they bounced off the enemy.
Awesome. They’d brought their portable personal shield tech with them. That explained the lack of armors.
We resorted to swords, which did go through the shields. These weren’t your classic buzzing electric swords; these were real steel swords. Frateran shields protect people against electricity, but they don’t react well to real blades. Or that’s what we hoped.
Marines rarely sparred with swords like officers did, but some of them were killing machines anyway.
Hightower roared and charged at a group of three aliens with a high g
uard. He brought the sword down towards them and hit two of them with the same slash. He brought it down again and again. The remaining Frateran ducked and parried, but Hightower’s sword never stopped. He defeated his third opponent with ease.
I’d only seen that kind of fighting a couple of times before, long before joining the Navy. Bored aristocrats practiced with the sword and competed against each other like in previous centuries. It was a symbol of our own decadence, a skill that nobody needed or cared about except for aesthetic reasons. Hightower fought as if he’d spent his life in those tourneys, but his rank as a marine meant that he lacked the family connections to compete in such events. He must’ve learned from online tutorials.
Hightower roared in laughter and turned to me. “Not bad for a brute who doesn’t know how to play with swords, eh, sir?”
“Don’t lose your concentration,” I said. “There’s enough entertainment for a while.”
He laughed loudly and fiercely in his adrenaline high and continued fighting. Like him, many of the other marines fought Frateran soldiers with various degrees of ability. Some had fought before; others hadn’t. Some of our marines fell easily, while others defeated their opponents just as easily. It would’ve been a balanced fight, but we had too many foes for my liking, even with the reinforcements that arrived from the rest of the Defender.
A Frateran soldier charged towards me with her sword. I parried, but she brought the steel back up behind her head and struck again. I ducked just in time and raised my own guard. I held it at a middle guard: it didn’t give me a gravitational boost when slashing downwards, but it kept my legs better-guarded.
My opponent raised her guard above and behind her head, keeping her sword perpendicular to her body. I’d seen a similar guard in some Muslim civilizations. Those fighters were brilliant. At least in film.
Her stance was impeccable. Her moves, unpredictable until she actually made them. She stared at me with fierce and bulging eyes. She wanted to defeat me. She was going to do everything in her hand to win.
Starship Defender: Beyond Human Space Page 21
