Another blast echoed down the passageways. This time closer. Making her grimace, wondering as to what had caused it. The passageway being too bright for her to see clearly much beyond a few bulkheads away. Not daring to take her eyes off the passageway's entrance even though she knew nothing was that close yet, though she could briefly see blobs of energy approaching and blowing bulkheads with each explosion in the distance. Her mind started to race as she found herself hopping Jack was not to fare away down the hole for help. Just in case she needed him. Kicking herself again for abandoning Jack many years before when he needed her as his older brother tormented and abused him relentlessly.
Back when she was eight she had developed breasts and discovered boys, older boys to be exact, like most girls and she had lost interest in The Game and to her at the time, in the immature Jack and the abuse he was getting at home. Thinking he was a week pansy nerd for not fighting back even against impossible odds of an older brother bigger and nastily smart enough to keep from getting caught by parents that did not want to know. Did not want to get that involved in a boy that could die any day.
Luckily, her parents did not believe or care about that and smothered her with love. Something her mother and father had done with Jack for his first 6 years since his parents were much too busy running the ship waiting for him to die and pretty much left him in the care of the Ensigns parents. She had considered Jack to be her brother which made it easy to dump him when she discovered boys until she was raped because of her huge breasts and had decided it was Jacks fault. Blaming Jack because of a lie (even though she knew in her heart that he had nothing to do with her rape), and wanting to kill him. Her hate forcing her to follow him into the Navy otherwise she would never have the opportunity to kill him.
Another bang shook the passageway, knocking dust and debris down the passageway. Swallowing as her eyes grew big and the light in the passageway became too bright to see anything but the passageway directly in front of her. She tried to keep her hands from shaking as she wished she could take them off the weapon's grip, take off her gloves to wipe the sweat off of them, and the drops starting to run down her face, but dared not to. Her lips felt incredibly dry, licking them did not seem to help. She forgot about the drinking tube only inches from her lips. Growing more scared each time she tried and failed to look past the passageway bulkheads and the approaching horde of psychopathic Crazed Berserker Apes slowly approaching her guard position.
She heard another noise from down the side passageway out of sight. Sounding like metal on metal. Maybe a hatch being pried open. "Jack." She said in a whisper. The suits sound amplification brought her every little noise from down the passageway. Something horribly nasty this way was coming. Getting louder and louder.
She wanted to get up and run but her basic training took over freezing her in place, freezing her muscles so she could not get up. Forcing her to stay rooted in place and wait for orders.
Another bang sounded from the passageway followed with a screech as more dust and debris drifted across the intersection. "Jack!" She whined. Desperately wanting to look down the hatch to see if anyone was there to help. Even that strange looking guard that had opened the hatch. Wanting to pull the trigger of her weapon in the hope of scarring the approaching monster away but her training would not let her before she saw a target. An Enemy Target.
She suddenly started hearing far away footsteps. "Jack!" Fighting tears. She did not want to die alone without Jack. "Jack!" She yelled into her comm.
"What Ensign." Came Jack's response. "I am a bit busy down here. Has the Fire Team reached you yet?"
The footsteps were intermittent, ending each time in clanks of something hitting something and getting closer. It sounded like a bunch of different footsteps taking turns advancing.
"Something is coming down the passageway. A lot of something and they are big. I need to leave."
"No Ensign. The fire team will be there in a few minutes. You have to hold until then."
"I am by myself damn it Jack. I need you to get your butt up here now." Her voice was trembling trying to break.
"I can't Ensign. I am in a situation here that I can't leave and I don’t have time to explain. You are going to have to hold that hatch until relieved."
"But I can't, something terrible is coming."
"Ensign you have a damn Cannon that will kill anything that walks into the passageway. Just stay calm and keep your head and shoot anything you see. Just make sure it is not human. Not your relief."
"Hell! My damn relief would be yelling at me by now damn it Jack. There is a whole damn army coming down that fricking passageway damn it." She wanted to scream, to cry, and to run. The last thing she wanted to do was lay there while a damn army of Berserkers ran her down and ripped her body apart like she had seen Apes do a dozen times already on other ships. Like she had seen Berserkers doing on this ship. She did not want to be ripped apart and eaten while she was still alive.
"Just hold until your relief shows Ensign, they are coming. I just talked to the Major and they are almost there. Just hold on. That is an order."
Suddenly she regretted letting Gutner shorten the barrel of her assault gun to make it easier to carry. She decided she wanted that little extra power the additional 6 inches of barrel would have given her. But then Gutner had said it made her gun better for short range work inside a ship's passageways. She was not sure she believed him now she was facing death. Would it even work with the barrel cut down?
Starting to panic she jerked the trigger without thinking as a bang sent something across the passageway. Tears ran down her face as she blew a foot wide hole in the far bulkhead across the intersection. She remembered the normal guns blowing holes in armored bulkheads only 3 inches around all day as some of the shots went wide missing the Berserker Apes as they were being killed. She realized the big foot diameter hole the blaster had created, made it easier to hit a target at close range but would it still kill them. Desperately wishing she had at least killed one Berserker just to make sure she could. The fact that she did not like the idea of killing the pore stupid beasts in the first place suddenly sounding ridiculously stupid now her life depended on her being able to. She realized the sounds of the approaching army had stopped.
Listening for a good minute she started to relax a little. Maybe she had scarred them off.
Then she heard it again. Only now the movements were quicker, sharper and shorter and it sounded like more were coming from a distance. Jack had told her to stay behind in the boat and stupid her, had ignored his orders. After all he was only the fricking Captain. Suddenly hating herself for being stupid as much as she now hated Jack. "Come and get me you ass holes!" She screamed and let off a burst stitching a series of foot round holes in the far bulkhead again making her feel better as the tears in her eyes made it hard to see. But then realized the holes could be used to shoot at her out of.
A recon disc slid into the passageway and she blasted it though she was not sure what it was. Only that it had been something solid that moved. "Got you little sucker! You're not getting past me shit head!" She screamed wanting to cry, instead she started laughing. She thought about throwing a grenade down the passageway but could not force herself to take her finger off the trigger long enough to get one. She could hear hundreds more Berserkers arriving. She didn’t want to die. She was going to kill Jack the next time she saw him. Stab him with her knife, shoot him with her pistol, blow a foot round hole in him with that damn gun. No, strangle him with her bare hands around his neck. He was going to die for putting her in this position. She was going to live long enough to kill him even if she died doing it. She pulled the trigger sending a long burst down the passageway across the intersection tearing out bulkheads and fixtures as she continued to scream at the Berserker Apes, the universe and Jack.
----------------
Jack stood some 10 feet from a Command Chair with his empty hands raised in the air to his sides. Pan hovered next to him with her own
hands raised. None of the sounds of battle reached them through the thick inner hull of the power section. A copy of the little maintenance Dwarf Jack had dealt with while fixing the engines on the Spider Assault Transport they had used to escape the first enemy Battleship he had stupidly boarded looking for high tech booty and intelligence seemingly years before, sat in the much too large seat with his hand over the self-destruct button for the Power Core he was in charge of. Ready to blow all the fusion Cores of the ship.
"The Gods told us all about you humans, Human. I am not going to let you Godless monsters eat us alive. You are not going to chew on my leg while you keep me alive for your next meal. You are not eating my family, my baby for a snack." He started jumping up and down on the chair as he ranted trying to make his point. His hand hitting the console only inches from the big red self-destruct button.
Pan waved her hands as she slid closer toward him. "I have been with the humans for months and studied them for years. They do not eat intelligent beings. They are not going to eat you or your family. They believe in only the one Supreme God in all of us and have liberated my family and set all the slaves free. We are no longer slaves. They even pay us wages for our work and let us work at what we want. And they do not kill us for making mistakes. They forgive."
"What? Stop right there Human lover. Who ever heard of not dying for substandard work? Why would anyone do good work if they could not be killed for not doing perfect work? You lie fishtail. Take your tank and leave this ship with the humans before I save us all from being dinner."
Jack had heard the Godspeak word "fishtail," before the Dwarf had used it but this was the first time he had understood it along with several other words. He was starting to understanding the language but still could not speak it worth shit.
Jack's comm beeped. "Captain, you have got to see this."
"Ahh, Not now Major. I am busy."
"Can't wait Captain, you have got to see this. We pulled back from the ship as you ordered but you will not believe what happened. Is happening. Tap into the feed sir."
Frowning as he looked at the Dwarf. "I am not going to hurt you. I am only activating play on my wrist comm to make sure my troops have left your ship as you asked." He slowly reached over and tapped his wrist. Jack could still not understand how anyone could prefer the Monsters they knew over what only rumors said were monsters. But fear could be a powerful force.
A large picture materialized over his wrist. It showed the side of the Spider Battleship with one of the Assault Transports drifting only a few hundred yards from one of the open boat locks. A steady stream of Ape figures were running out the lock, launching themselves out into space toward the transport. "Major I can't tell for sure on this small frame, but do they have suits on?"
"No Captain they do not have suits on."
Turning to the Dwarf. "Could you put this up on your screen please?"
The Dwarf turned to the other arm of his chair and slapped at several of the controls built much too big for him and the image sprang onto the main screen.
Jack could see the Black Ape bodies out gassing foam and blood as they drifted away from the open boat lock trying to swim. Hundreds followed as more threw themselves out the lock trying to attack the boat with the human marines standing in the open hatches behind the air curtain firing at the Apes still inside the lock running through the locks air curtain.
Another Transport pulled up stopping just off another lock a ways around the ship and marines and Red Apes started firing into the lock and then unsuited Black Apes started throwing themselves out that lock at that transport as well. Their bodies kicking and trying to swim through the vacuum of space.
The Dwarf stared at the screen in shock. "You did not come to save the Berserker Apes for your own army. But you have Apes in your army. I saw them."
A figure that looked like a twin of Pan slid into the Control room from behind the little dwarf. "Gimpy, Gimpy, Gimpy! What are you doing? Calm down this instant. Tell me your problem." She said in Godspeak as she slid up beside the chair. The Dwarf sat down and looked at the long dressed woman as she slapped the cover plate over the big red button and locked it down. "What did I tell you about jumping to conclusions about these new people and listening to the God’s propaganda?"
"Yes mother but they have funny Red painted Apes with them." Looking at Jack. "They look funny and I don't want them eating my children."
"Gimpy, they are not going to eat your children or anyone else. Now go. The Core needs to be cooled and the fuel transferred back to the storage tanks. We no longer need to be able to self-destruct or take a Godship with us. These people will guard us." Turning toward Jack and Pan she bowed. "My deepest apologies." she said in English. "The Chief of this Power Cell is a little high strung and well-conditioned and bread to be easily controlled by the Godofficers. I and all the slaves had to leave the Comm pads out where any of the God Officers of the Berserker Troops could find them or they would have used them to track us down and kill all. I was not expecting you or I would have risked keeping one of the comm units. Then when you showed up I was expecting you to enter the Center Power Cell where we have a main entry that is hidden but guarded. Instead you found your own. I understand now that your Translator is from an older attack ship and does not know the design of our new model Planetary Assault Ships. I believe her ship still had the Power Balls with all three reactors grouped together on one deck instead of spread down a cylinder and was not suitable for being used as a hidden bunker. But you are here, so how may I help you Grand Warrior Captain?"
"Ah... Thank you for deactivating your self-destruct. Blowing up while trying to rescue you would have ruined my whole day."
The new Translator looked at Jack and bowed. "I believe that was an attempt at what you humans call a joke. I am honored." Turning to the screen as another Transport took up position and started another avalanche of Berserker Apes out into the void. "I believe you humans have an old saying. Like Lemmings the God troops go to their deaths. It will save us having to clean so many rotting corpses up. Thank you. It may even shorten the time needed for all the Berserker Troops to finish dying."
Jack shrugged his shoulders. He did not have a clue what she was talking about and had no idea what lemmings were. "You picked up human English rather well in such a short time but we call the God troops Apes which is what they look like to us even though they have no hair and are more lizard than mammals. Just how many Apes are or were on board this ship ahhh, Mother?" Copying what the Dwarf had called her.
Looking back at Jack she tried a human smile that settled into what Jack recognized as a Translator Smile. "We still had 80,000 battle worthy Troops or what you call Apes, aboard before they went Berserk Captain. I have had much practice with human speech. We have several thousand humans aboard ship that were to be taught to become slaves. I will have to check when I have access again to the ships Computer if you wish an exact number Captain."
Jack jerked around looking for a human in the crowd lining the 3 stories of walkways around the control center. "What? Damn. Ok, where did you get the other humans from and where are they?"
"They came from several of your outpost planets and ships the troops... The Apes of this ship participated in taking. I have put them into hibernation until your race has been completely conquered. Standard operating procedures with a new race."
"Ok Mother. Why?"
"It was found long ago that while a new race believes that it has a chance to win. It is costly to train. Once all hope of freedom is gone, training is simple."
"Ok so until then you keep all the captured inhabitants on ice?"
"I do not understand Ice Captain, but no. We only keep the more intelligent, skilled workers and captured military troops and crews. Once hope is gone, trained military personnel who are already half trained to take orders are easily completely retrained to police and help cull the conquered populations to a more manageable level. Depending on what manufacturing is required of them. The intelli
gent educated captives will make sure we have enough educated slaves to construct and operate the factories." Noticing Jack's change of expression but only picking up his emotions as to what it meant. "Don't worry Captain. With the Empire's Main Battleship Engine manufacturing planetary systems captured or destroyed back in the Galactic Core and as rich as your empire sounds like it is. Most of your planetary systems populations will be required for producing new engines and Battleships. Though you will lose most of your outlying systems as not worth maintaining and simply left to weather and die or used as combat training grounds for new Ape hatchlings. As long as you produce serviceable engines, your race will survive as we do."
"Ok, you said you have 3 Power Cells that I take it are just as packed as this one. How many slaves does this ship have?"
"Over 20,000 slaves not counting humans at the moment. The 50,000 humans we have in a form of hibernation, are not considered slaves at this time. They need much training and we yet do not have any statistics on what percentage will survive training to become slaves. Some past races have over a 75% failure rate. A few had to be exterminated because they could not be domesticated even though they were easily conquered. Most have an 80% success rate with a few close to 100%. Your race is a strange race and we do not have a clue where you stand yet. It is much too early in the training cycle. The fact that you have been able to destroy most of this fleet throws all prior predictions as you humans say, Out the Window."
"Ok. How did your race do Mother. Were your people easy to train?"
She looked at Jack for several seconds as her face changed. Glancing at Pan several times. "We were almost exterminated before the God officers realized our special talents made our domestication worth the effort. We still lose over 80 percent of our trainee's we send to the God Officers for approval." Jack returned her stare as he waited for her to finish. "Our special abilities make us useful to the Gods in only one job. Our only occupation is Translator/ Overseer to the rest of the slave races. We can interpret new languages rapidly with the ability to speak thousands of languages. Our ability to feel other races emotions with training to correlate, understand and smooth relations between the races give us the ability to control most races keeping them at peak production, predictability and efficiently working together while preventing uprisings and revolts."
Battleship Destroyer 2 (Battleship Destoryer) Page 6
