Starship Defender: Beyond Human Space

by Michael Keats

  She acquired an offensive pose and attacked me from above, slashing the air between us. I managed to keep up, but she was an unyielding fighter.

  I almost tripped myself with some of my footwork tricks. I should’ve paid more attention in dueling classes.

  Her sword came down near my chest, and I stumbled sideways. I almost lost my balance, but I regained it and slashed sideways with my sword, scratching her arm. She flinched but ignored the pain and continued. Her wound healed almost instantly.

  “That’s cheating,” I said. “You’re supposed to be wounded now.”

  She didn’t reply. I don’t even know if she understood me without one of their translators. She shouted and ran towards me with her sword high above her head. I jumped out of my position and parried her mid-air. We collided and fell onto the floor. I fell onto my elbow, and it sent a wave of pain through my body. I dropped my sword and pressed my arm close to my chest to mitigate the pain. That kind of attack is much better on TV than in real life.

  My foe used my distraction to run towards me, sword in hand. I saw her when she was a few feet away. I rolled aside to dodge her blow, grabbed my sword in the last second, and dug my steel into her stomach. She looked surprised at first, then down at the sword that stuck out of her. She dropped theatrically to her knees.

  Her genetic upgrades weren’t going to heal such a deep wound too easily. I pulled my sword out and struggled to stand back up. After checking that my arm still moved, I looked around, hoping that my rivals would give me a couple of seconds to recover.

  Captain Dovrik was busy fighting my men. I was going to defeat him myself. He’d defeated a few of my men, whose lifeless or wounded bodies lay at his feet, and he was fighting three more. He wielded a five-foot metallic pole with a sharp blade at each end.

  He drew circles in the air, swapped it from hand to hand, and confused his opponents before striking. The three marines panted and stood around him: one to each side and one in front of him. He kept all of them at bay with a single weapon, moving it in circles and using his hands as a pivot.

  Dovrik parried with one end of the pole and attacked with the blade at the other end. He brought down the blade and slashed the man in front of him, slashed the man to his left with the other blade, and dug the first blade again into the third man.

  He’d been designed and trained to kill. He was a formidable fighter.

  Dovrik looked up and stared at me with defiance.

  Chapter 52

  This was a duel for two. I held my sword firmly and readied myself for battle.

  Hightower crossed my path and stuck a palm out to halt me. “He’s mine, sir,” he said. “I don’t want that blade of his scratching my officer in command.”

  I would’ve ignored him and jumped into the fight, but I’d seen Hightower in combat. He didn’t need my help or anyone else’s. He could beat Dovrik while blindfolded and with a hand behind his back.

  And I wasn’t too confident in my fighting skills.

  Hightower picked up a second sword along the way and carried one in each hand. He swung both of them to challenge the general. Dovrik accepted the challenge and made his bladed pole rotate in the air. It protected his head, torso, and legs. It acted like a force field made of oscillating steel. Its rotation speed was so high that nothing could wound him.

  The show didn’t intimidate Hightower. Instead, he ran towards the general. He shouted loudly and attacked both from above and from below, then again from the sides. His sword moved like a snake eager to bite its prey.

  The general struggled to keep up with the marine’s attacks. He ducked and grunted with some of the harder impacts, but he remained standing.

  Hightower wasn’t even trying. He made the fight last longer than he should have. He grinned at Harry, at me, and at some of his companions, bragging and boasting with every move. He was a natural. A big-headed natural.

  Once he got tired, he kicked the general. The man dropped onto the floor and Hightower laughed. He swung both swords in the air and got ready to give the final blow.

  The general didn’t stay still on the ground. Instead, he dug his hand into a chest pocket, brought out a gun and shot Hightower twice. Dovrik smirked at him as he dropped onto the floor. Hightower wasn’t dead, but he wasn’t going to live for long either without medical attention.

  That was a low move.

  General Dovrik stood back up, dusted his clothes, and checked the small wounds and scratches that were slowly disappearing after the fight. He healed quickly, but I wasn’t going to let him survive.

  I took my sword and headed straight to him. This was a battle for the two of us.

  The general shrugged, aimed his gun lazily at me, and shot. The beam bounced off my chest, without even tickling me.

  “Hadn’t I mentioned it before?” I said as I approached him, sword in hand. “I’ve borrowed a couple of your shields. Hope you won’t mind.”

  We both stared at each other from across the room. Everything disappeared aside from the Frateran general and my own sword. He switched to using a sword and walked towards me but didn’t run. Men make mistakes when running.

  He brought his sword down and I parried it, but he was too strong for me and I had to retreat with every move. He attacked again and again, and I moved back until my back touched the cold metal of the hangar walls. Dovrik had a permanent grin on his face and didn’t even get tired. He was barely trying.

  “Your back isn’t straight,” the general said. In his next move, he tapped on my back with the flat side of his sword. “And watch your right knee. It’s too close to me.” He scratched the lower part of my thigh, and I didn’t react on time to block him. A superficial and innocent scratch that proved his superiority.

  It was too late to take sword fighting classes, wasn’t it?

  “Your face isn’t right either,” I told the general. “Want me to fix it?”

  I kept fighting and protecting myself from more serious wounds.

  Our swords met in the air and stuck together. I held my sword with both hands, but both blades came dangerously close to my neck.

  “Don’t you have anything smart to say?” General Dovrik’s voice sounded calm and relaxed, as if we were both having some drinks at a bar.

  “I’m thinking of something.” I tried to push him back and groaned with the effort. It was useless. “I’ll tell you as soon as I get an idea.”

  I pushed my back to the wall and kicked his stomach with my foot. He stumbled backwards and I separated myself from the wall. The fight continued, but he remained faster and stronger.

  It wasn’t a matter of who’d win, but of when he’d win.

  Soon, he smashed the hilt of his sword against my head and I fell backwards.

  My ears rang and buzzed.

  He ran towards me. I’d dropped my sword five feet away and hurried to fetch it, but I didn’t have enough time.

  Harry ran between the general and me. “Can you tell me the time?” he casually asked him.

  General Dovrik didn’t realize that Harry was a hologram, so he dug his blade in Harry’s stomach. I used the chance to pick up my weapon and end the general’s life. He dropped onto the floor. Not even his quick healing genes saved him.

  Chapter 53

  “I can’t believe what I’ve just done for you, Decaf.” Harry looked down at his holographic stomach to check that he didn’t have any holes in it. He didn’t; nobody could kill him by stabbing his hologram.

  Once we’d called the medical team, I stood up and stared at the general before my feet. It had been close. Too close.

  “Can’t you hear me?” Harry said. “I’ve sacrificed myself for you. He’s stabbed me.”

  “He hasn’t hurt you. You’re a hologram.” I wasn’t in the mood to joke. We’d lost too many brave men and women to the aliens. Making jokes about death is hardly funny whenever your fellow crewmen’s corpses are still warm.

  “And here comes Commander Discrimination to mark the differences bet
ween us.” Harry bowed low. He wanted me to argue with him. He soon realized that it was useless, so he changed topics. “And what’s an outlaw like you going to do? You’ve killed the enemy general and have an alien ship in your power. We’ll get a decent bounty for capturing her if we take her back home.”

  Once we got back home, Aunt Eleanor wasn’t going to accept me easily. I’d go through a series of trials to prove my innocence. My aunt might not sentence me to death after my victory, but she’d never allow me to continue my career without consequences.

  “Afraid of your auntie?” Harry teased. “You’ve simply stolen the Navy’s best ship, fled Earth, and forced an AI to impersonate your admiral aunt. All’s well that ends well.”

  “Shut up, Harry. You contributed to this too.”

  “Don’t look at me.” Harry moved his hand past his face and turned into my aunt, then did it again and changed to himself again. “I was just a machine following orders. You can’t blame me for your actions. And you don’t want this face to go to jail. Handsome men have the worst problems in there.”

  The end didn’t always justify the means in the Navy, especially when someone confronted the fearsome Admiral O’Donnell. I’d defeated the Fraterans out of luck and due to their overconfidence. Now we had a crew full of wounded marines and wounded Frateran soldiers.

  Thinking about all the paperwork linked to everything we’d done unsettled my stomach.

  Harry kept talking, but Dr. Thompson returned from sick bay and my eyes followed her. I was glad to see her alive, and I was glad that she hadn’t felt rejected by humanity just because we had a senseless captain of marines.

  Harry strutted towards her. “Hey, sweet-cheeks,” he said with a flirty voice. “How’s your icky alien arm doing?”

  She scoffed and walked past him to talk to me. Whatever Harry had done to her, she hadn’t forgiven him for it.

  “Dr. Thompson,” I said. “I’m glad to see you healed.” I wanted to tell her that I’d feared for her life and that I’d have wanted to keep her DNA melder intact. I’d spent years fantasizing about her as a scientist. Now that she was in front of me, I was dumb enough to run out of words.

  “The surgeon was kind enough to heal me.” She gave me a kind smile. Was it a friendzoned smile, was she just grateful, or did I have a chance with her?

  Women should come with an instructions manual. It would make my life much easier.

  Harry joined us and stared at her ass. “I’d have expected you to drink normal coffee,” he told her. He wiggled his eyebrows at me as if I hadn’t caught his subtle reference to my being decaffeinated.

  Dr. Thompson considered not replying to him, but she turned to Harry and said, “You didn’t plan to do anything to stop Hooke from shooting. That’s all I have to say.” She turned around and left without even saying anything else to me.

  Harry let out a whistle as she left. “Challenge accepted,” he mumbled once she was no longer within hearing range.

  “Weren’t you disgusted by aliens?” I asked.

  “Ever heard about scarce goods?” Harry said. “She’s an icky alien, but she’s still the prettiest woman aboard the Defender. I saved her from General Dovrik’s attacks while you were too busy trying to crash onto his ship, so I have more rights than you do.”

  We had an AI interested in an alien member of our crew and I wanted to punch a hologram for looking at her with such lustful eyes. The Defender was truly the first ship of its kind.

  Know what? I wasn’t going to lose my patience. I was the acting captain of the Defender, and I was going to act my age for a change. Harry wasn’t going to make me punch the air.

  Harry quickly changed topics and wrapped a holographic arm around my shoulders. “So, Decaf, what’s the plan for the day? Joining the dark side and heading for Tortuga? And, before you ask, we don’t have any planets called Tortuga, but we should found one. Suits our role as outlaws. Or let’s go and have some drinks to celebrate. If we’re lucky, you and I might find suitable female company for the day. I’ll do the talking, though, if you don’t mind. You wouldn’t find a date even if we lived in a female-only planet for a year.”

  Scratch what I’d said before. I was going to disconnect Harry as soon as I learned where his creators had hidden his systems.

  Chapter 54

  We rescued the rest of the Frateran refugees from General Dovrik’s ship, locked up the baddies, and kept Hooke in the brig in case she decided to impart her own justice again. Dr. Thompson spent most of her time aboard Dovrik’s ship, which we named Arrogance after her former commander.

  I checked myself on the mirror every day in case the DNA melder hadn’t misfired. I would’ve sworn that my eyes were getting bigger, but it was just my imagination playing tricks on me. My eyes were still human, my hands were still human, and I hadn’t become any shorter than before.

  I still don’t know how our engineers managed to repair the Defender and make Dovrik’s ship fly, but they did. I stayed aboard the Defender and one of the lieutenants took care of following us aboard the Arrogance. We headed for Earth to return our men.

  It sounds stupid considering my outlaw status, but I planned to offer the Arrogance as a bribe to stop my aunt from chasing after me and trying to kill me.

  Once Earth appeared in our communication systems, Harry joined me in the great cabin, sat in the admiral’s armchair and leaned both feet on the desk. “I should’ve brought some popcorn,” he said. “This is going to be fun. Will you start with I’m sorry, or are you going to kneel before your aunt to beg for forgiveness?”

  And that, friends, is the kind of support you can get from a machine. They might be intelligent, but they lack empathy. At least Harry did.

  Aunt Eleanor appeared on the screens in the great cabin. She drew her lips to a line, leaned both elbows on the desk in front of her, and interlaced the fingers of her hands like a villain. “Commander O’Donnell,” she said. “What makes you think that returning to Earth won’t make me execute you instantly?”

  “I’m pleased to see you too, aunt,” I said. “Any news from home?”

  “Surrender the ship immediately,” she said. “And stop bringing the other ship closer to Earth. We don’t want any trickery.”

  “Tell her that you’ve brought a tribute for the Fleet Command gods,” Harry said. “Say that we can sacrifice some lambs and dance around a campfire for forgiveness.”

  Aunt Eleanor glared at him with her classic style. Harry took his legs off the desk and sat up. My aunt had that effect on everyone.

  But my duty still hadn’t ended. I had to ensure the safety of my crew and the Frateran refugees. I told her about everything I’d done and about how I’d influenced the marines to follow me. I said that Harry hadn’t had anything to do with her impersonation, and made myself sound as pathetic and as miserable as my aunt liked her relatives to act.

  Harry raised his eyebrows in shock. The more he heard me beg for my aunt’s mercy, the more amused he was. He must’ve enjoyed the conversation more than anyone else.

  “Very well, Commander,” my aunt said. “Leave your weapons aboard the Defender, board a shuttle with the rest of the Frateran refugees, and ask the marines to escort you to Earth.” She ended the conference abruptly.

  “Good luck to you too, aunt,” I said.

  My tale hadn’t avoided the trial. I shouldn’t have expected my aunt to show kindness towards me, but I was disappointed nevertheless. I took a deep breath and searched for the brig controls. I was going to take this with as much dignity as I could. It was my duty as a commander. I’d avoided it for too long.

  The refugees hadn’t been mistreated before the Defender and I had no reason to think otherwise now. I kept repeating it to myself, but I disliked the idea of sending the refugees back to Fleet Command. Now that we’d met General Dovrik, the admirals were going to interrogate the refugees about everything they knew.

  I opened the brig remotely, but Harry shut the door again.

  “Wh
at are you doing?” I said.

  “Stopping you from doing anything stupid,” Harry said. “We’re supposed to fight the bad guys. In case you haven’t noticed, Earth is at war. I need a decent crew with me or I’ll end up turned into space trash.”

  “So the best hope for Earth is to become outlaws and defy all laws known to man.”

  “Yeah, more or less.” Harry stood up and drew several star charts on the desk. “We can turn into pirates too. I have a couple of contacts who might pay well for captured ships.”

  I have no idea of why I agreed to steal the Defender again, but I did. We did. Most of the Defender’s crew liked the idea of becoming the unsung heroes of our time and protecting Earth from a threat that nobody knew about. Many of the marines disagreed, so we allowed them to board shuttles to head back to a friendly spaceport.

  The Fraterans didn’t like the idea of joining us either. Dr. Langley, now recovered from his wounds, had become a sort of leader to them. I’d never liked the guy’s arrogance, and he didn’t like me either.

  “We shall not join you in this fight,” Dr. Langley said. “You can’t win, and we won’t sacrifice ourselves for your people.” He stood in front of the others, including Dr. Thompson, who preferred to dodge my gaze. She was ashamed of abandoning us, just like some of the others. None of them dared to speak up against the surgeon, though.

  “And what do you plan to do?” I said. “Hide until they find Earth, and then run away for the rest of your lives? We’ve stolen shields and weapons, and we have a ship. We can repair her and use her to steal more.”

  “We won’t fight for humanity,” Dr. Langley said. “This isn’t our war. You should return the ships to your officers and let them take care of this.”

  They didn’t hate the idea of fighting for us; they simply disliked joining the losers. Losers get the worst part in every war, and Earth was at a significant disadvantage. The doctor had spoken, and his people were going to follow him.

  I looked at Dr. Thompson, hoping that she’d speak up, but she didn’t. She thought just like the surgeon: my war was doomed.