by Korza, Jay
When that avenue seemed to lead nowhere, Seth decided that it was time to end it. Each boot on a pressure suit was equipped with magnetic soles for space walking on a ship’s hull. He used both hands to wrestle one of Surgeon’s to the deck. Seth stepped on Surgeon’s hand and initiated the magnetic lock. He heard several metacarpals in Surgeon’s left hand start to creak as the boot adhered to the deck plating without regard for the flesh and bone pinned beneath it.
Surgeon didn’t even cry out in pain as he felt his bones being bent to near their breaking point. Instead, he wrote off his left hand and began to reach for the belt on Seth’s suit to pull him down to the deck. Seth easily swatted his hand out of the way and drew back his free foot.
“We can end this now or I can kick you until you’re unconscious.” Surgeon nodded his agreement to his captor’s terms and slumped back onto the deck.
Seth tapped his comlink once to open a channel to anyone still conscious on the ship. “All hands, this is Cadet. I have captured the bridge, along with Surgeon. I’ll flood the entire ship with choline succinate gas and paralyze everyone on board unless I receive an unconditional surrender from all remaining hostile forces.”
A long pause and then a reply came through the comlink from Ace. “After situation confirmation from Surgeon, we will comply.”
Surgeon looked up at Seth with respect. “C’mon, let’s all go have a beer. They’re on me.” And then to Seth, “Now will you get off my goddamned hand?!”
Seth released the magnetic boot and helped Surgeon up, who in turn pinched Seth’s broken nose. “You didn’t have to break my hand. You could have just said ‘please surrender.’ But noooo, you couldn’t play nice, could you?”
“Let’s get you to sickbay and find out how everyone else fared.”
With a look towards Beast, Surgeon said, “So, should I get you a cigarette or do you just want to be held?”
Seth had no idea what Surgeon meant by that. He also thought it odd how Beast was smiling. He would have been crying after a hit like that.
Later that same day, Beast asked Surgeon how he knew about something so secret in Shirka culture. Mating rituals were never and would never be discussed with outsiders. It would take an extremely hard and focused hit to produce the effects that Surgeon had. It was not by accident that he had accomplished what he did.
Surgeon had been a close friend with Beast’s brother. Beast and his brother had come from the same litter and shared a special bond that was deeper than usual for Shirka littermates. After his brother was killed in battle, Beast took his spot on the team. It was Shirka custom for brothers to finish each other’s missions if one was unable to complete it himself. And although Beast was not a formal member of the Coalition military, he had a distinguished record of battle and the general thought that he would be the best last-minute replacement for the dead soldier.
Surgeon smiled as Beast stood waiting for an answer. “One night, your brother and I were in a bar on Solis III. Some human purists were talking shit about your brother. We just ignored them at first but then they had to go and get physical.” Surgeon paused.
Beast leaned in towards Surgeon with anticipation. Surgeon continued. “One of the purists threw a beer bottle, which hit your brother on the head. It didn’t even faze him. He slowly got up and turned towards the much smaller man.
“That guy must never have seen a Shirka up close before because his eyes almost popped out of his head when he realized that he was picking on someone almost three times his size.
“The guy threw a couple of punches at your brother, which he took in the face without even flinching. The purist resorted to bar room tactics and kicked your brother square in the crotch as hard as he could. Nothing, absolutely nothing. No flinch, no wince, no bulging eyes. I couldn’t believe it.
“Apparently the guy couldn’t either because he tried again. And again, nothing. I thought that your brother must have been wearing a protective cup or something. Well, he finally laughed and with a slight flick of his wrist, he backhanded the stupid purist across the room.
“Of course, the fight didn’t stop there. His friends decided to come to his aid and your brother and I finished them off. When it was over, I noticed that we both still had our beers in our hands. That guy was lucky that your brother had one hand occupied, otherwise you know what he would’ve done to him.”
“You still haven’t explained how you know about…” Beast paused and looked around to make sure that no one was listening. “About how to stimulate our sexual organs.”
“Well,” Surgeon said with a sheepish grin, “I was pretty drunk at the time. So when we finished the bar fight, we turned to each other for a toast. Like I said before, I figured your brother was wearing a protective cup or something. So as a joke, I reared back and kicked him with all my might right in his balls. Of course, you don’t have balls but I didn’t know that at the time.
“He went down fast and I couldn’t understand it. I thought maybe that other guy was so drunk that he wasn’t kicking as hard as I thought he was. Or maybe that I could kick harder than I thought I could.
“I knelt down by your brother and he was moaning. I thought that I had really hurt him. Then I saw him grinning from ear to ear. Shirka pain maybe? No, I had seen that before but never this. Never had I seen a Shirka smile so broadly or deeply. He was REALLY enjoying himself.
“He looked up and grabbed me by the neck and told me to get him back to his quarters immediately. I did and there he explained to me what I had done.
“By accident, I had hit his pleasure center. And now that I know where it is, I never hesitate to use it when I have to.”
Beast looked at Surgeon for a minute and then allowed a small grin to play across his face. “It was the best sex I’ve had in a while.” Surgeon collapsed on the floor with uncontrollable laughter. That was the best joke from a Shirka he ever heard.
“I assume that my brother told you of our customs and secrecy surrounding our rituals.” Beast stopped grinning.
“Of course. And don’t worry, I may use that little technique but I would never tell anyone about it. I swear.” Surgeon’s laughter had stopped and was now replaced with a look of utter sincerity and respect.
“Thank you”, Beast replied before rejoining the party and celebrating their victory.
Meanwhile, Seth was asked to recount the tale of how he took over the starship, not to mention the war game story. Midway through telling the tale of his most recent victory, the general walked, no, floated into the mess hall. For a man of his size, grace just wasn’t a fitting description but no other word could describe how he always seemed to get where he was going without even moving or making an effort to get there.
“Attention on deck.” An attempt at loudness was made but whoever tried was just too tired to get much louder than the conversations around the room. It was still heard by all and a much weaker attempt was made by every bruised and broken body in the mess hall to come to attention.
“Cut that shit out!” the general barked. “Get your asses back in your seats and don’t stop drinking your beer. You all deserve a rest.” He paused for what seemed like an eternity. His tone indicated they were about to be told something. The something that they had all been waiting for.
The general continued much softer this time, “You’re all going to need it with the shit we’re about to get into.”
A holovid appeared at the front of the mess hall with images of planets and a star system that no one recognized.
“You have all been briefed by your respective instructors as to what has happened within the Coalition during the past five years and the pains we have gone through to keep it secret. And now I’m going to tell you what you don’t know. What we are going to do about it.”
Chapter 13
Vengeance’s Pride
“Sir, they have accessed a door panel”, the operations officer said to his captain. “The door hasn’t been opened yet.” He paused. “But if they’ve
gotten that far, it stands to reason that they might be able to eventually.”
The captain’s disgust grew within as he pondered what to do. He had orders to just observe. But now this? They could not be allowed to enter that base. If they were able to access information stored within it, it could shift the balance of power. “Send emergency traffic to Supreme Command and request immediate direction.” It didn’t seem to him that his communications officer was acting fast enough. “NOW!” he barked with a boom that all the other officers on the bridge felt deep inside their chests.
The captain sat back in his chair. What else could he do? Nothing, he told himself, with more rage and hatred growing for the slugs on the planet’s surface.
Emily
“Emily!”
“What?!”
“Hurry up! We’re going to be late for your flight if we don’t leave in the next few minutes.”
“I’m coming, Mom”, Emily said as she came down the stairwell and into the kitchen. “I’m sorry. I just wanted to make one last check of everything before we left. It’s not like I’ll be able to head to the corner store and get some toothpaste once we get to the dig site.”
“Don’t worry so much. You’re going to be with a lot of people who have done this before and will help you out if you forgot anything. Now let’s go, your dad is waiting in the car.”
Once they were in the car, Emily allowed herself to relax a little. “I hope this trip isn’t for nothing. I’m missing out on some summer activities that would look great on my college application”, she said aloud, but not having meant to.
“Look,” her mother began, “we’ve been through this before; you need to relax and stop worrying so much about college. You’re sixteen and have two years of high school left—you should enjoy them. You’ll be fine. You’re a great student. I’m sure you’ll have your pick of colleges. When your dad and I were kids, most alien schools wouldn’t even think about taking human students. You have a whole galaxy of colleges to apply to.”
“I know you keep saying that but it doesn’t make me worry any less.”
“You get straight As, honey.” This comment was from her father.
“Yes, Dad, but so does thirty percent of my high school. And with a last name of O’Riley, I’m pretty far down the list when you put all of the 4.0 averages alphabetically. I need something extra, something to make me shine more than the other kids once we start applying to college.” Emily made a small snort. “Some of my classmates actually already have applied and received early admissions to their first choices.”
Emily’s father punched in a few commands to the car’s dashboard and let the autopilot take over. He swiveled his seat around to face the rear passenger compartment. “Honey, a long time ago some colleges did care about extra-curricular activities and how much you filled out your resume on their applications, but that’s not so much the case anymore. With so many different species applying to schools throughout the galaxy, it’s pretty difficult for them to sort out those sorts of things anymore. They really tend to rely more on the placement exams, psych exams, and all of the other admissions testing they do. They look at the data in those results more than the person or applications themselves.”
“Maybe, but you never know. That’s why I decided to do this trip. It might make history and that would make me look good.” Emily crossed her arms and tried to look as if she was sulking.
Her mother took over. “Oh sweetie, I wish you had a different attitude about this. Aunt Janine wouldn’t even be going on this dig if it weren’t for you.”
“What do you mean? Aunt Janine loves these things. She’s always telling stories about how they are the greatest adventures of her life.” Emily thought her mom was trying to throw in a guilt trip to get her attitude to change.
“She did love them, once. She’s been teaching for the last five years and really enjoying it. When they called her to head up this dig, she initially refused. They told her to think about it some more and that they would call her back in a couple of weeks. They really wanted her to go.”
“Why wouldn’t she want to go? This is right up her alley. They found the ruins of a completely unknown alien species. It’s her chance to make history. Again. For like, the sixth time or something ridiculous like that.” Emily was now sitting forward, obviously more engaged than before.
“Janine has been comfortable for the last five years. She has been sleeping in her own comfortable bed. Eating warm food that wasn’t from a dehydrated pouch. She hasn’t had to pick alien fleas from her hair.”
“Eww! Mom!”
“Exactly. And that’s why she wasn’t going to go on this expedition. She’s been comfortable and she’s also satisfied with her previous adventures. She’s even dating another professor, so she’s happy with where she’s at.”
“Then why is she going?”
“Because of you.” Emily’s mom let that sink in for a moment before she continued. “Look, we didn’t tell you any of this stuff because we wanted you to want to go on this trip for yourself, for fun, for adventure and not for other reasons. Janine called me a few weeks ago, just our normal sister talk time, and she was telling me about what’s going on with her and stuff. When she got to the part about the dig and how she was going to turn it down, I mentioned that it was too bad because when you were younger, Janine had always said that when you were old enough she was going to take you on a dig. You used to get so excited about that.
“We talked for a little bit more and she decided that she would take the job if you wanted to go with her. She thinks it’s very important for you to get out as a young woman, see for yourself what adventures you can have and open yourself up to more than what your little corner of the galaxy has for you.”
“I didn’t know. I’m sorry, mom; I’ll have a better attitude, I promise. I really do want to go. I’m actually pretty excited.” Emily started to feel better as she allowed herself to slip her self-applied grumpy shackles. “I was just a little down because Shelly called me this morning to wish me luck and she let it slip that she got early admission to her father’s alma mater. But she is one year ahead of me and she deserves it. I’m letting it go, though, all of it. If Aunt Janine is doing this for me then I’m all in, no more attitude.” Shackles gone.
The family reached the airport and took the transorbital shuttle to the spaceport. Once they found Emily’s flight, they said their tearful goodbyes and Emily boarded, feeling more excited than ever, now that she allowed herself to.
Two days later, she was onboard another transport, this time with her Aunt Janine and the rest of the expedition’s crew. This transport was so much better and faster than the first. It was a private craft and a fairly expensive one at that. Janine explained that the expedition was being staffed by people from ten different universities and had at least four wealthy private backers.
“Thank you so much for having me along on this trip, Aunt Janine!”
“No problem, dear. I’ve always waited for the day that you could join me on one of my adventures.”
“You should have your own kids. You’d be a great mother.”
“I never had time, and I always had you to pretend you were mine.” Janine smiled warmly at her niece.
“Mom said you have a new boyfriend.” Emily smiled back. “Maybe you two could have kids?”
“Ha! You’re worse than your mom is!” Janine playfully pushed Emily’s shoulder. “He has a son already, eight years old. Great kid, we have a lot of fun together. He was very jealous that he couldn’t go on this trip. I think I’ll be happy with them as my family. But if Steve wants another kid, I don’t think I’d be opposed to it. I’m just not going to be the one to push for it.”
“Well, they are both lucky to have you. I know I am.” Emily finished eating her lunch while she and her aunt caught up on everything going on in their lives.
~
Three weeks later, Emily had all but forgotten about college as she immersed herself in her work.
Aunt Janine kept her close by either herself or one of the four other senior specialists. Emily was learning so much from each of them and was thankful she was given a daily assignment rather than having to decide for herself where she’d spend her time; she didn’t think she’d be able to choose between her five mentors if she were forced to.
Janine was a woman of many talents but she focused her expertise in the area of predictive xenobiology. She would be able to build a profile of a species based on what she found at the dig site. She could determine, to a fairly high degree of accuracy, almost anything you wanted to know about the physical and mental make-up of the species that left the artifacts behind. Though on this mission, Janine was sought out for her leadership qualities along with her vast experience in handling many other similar finds. Doctor Hillstep, a human who taught at a Nortes university, was filling Janine’s role as the predictive xenobiologist.
Janine had tried to stay away from Doctor Hillstep because she didn’t want him to feel crowded or as if she were going to take over any part of his work from him. So she was delighted when he asked her and Emily to join him today with a new chamber that they had just yesterday finished making safe for cataloging.
“Thank you again for letting me tag along, Doctor.” Janine was holding on the guide rope with one hand as she followed Hillstep and her niece through the corridor.
“My pleasure Doctor, er, uh, Janine. I don’t think I’ll get used to that. The Nortes are extremely traditional people and I’ve been with them for quite some time now.” Hillstep looked back over his shoulder to give a slight smile.
“Yes, well, with all the doctors around here, it would get confusing if we didn’t interject a little individuality into things.” Janine had told all of her staff to call her by her first name. She felt that it engendered a sense of openness that would make them more comfortable to approach her with problems or needs.
