by Ryk Brown
CHAPTER 6
Jessica stepped carefully around the storage crates that had been repositioned at the forward end of the hangar bay. It had been slow going making her way from the entrance to her present location about halfway into the massive compartment. Still only illuminated by emergency lighting, it was difficult to see where she was going. Many of the smaller containers had been knocked about by recent events, creating a maze of sorts, composed of crates of varying size and shape, strewn about in no discernible order. She had noticed, however, that they would make good cover in the event of another firefight, which is what she was expecting.
Following her were Sergeant Weatherly, the two surviving technicians that had fought off the first boarding party, and three other crewmen they had picked up and armed along the way. As they broke out into the open, she looked about, glancing up to either side of the bay. There were catwalks located about 2 decks up, running the entire length of the bay.
“Sergeant,” she whispered as she stopped. “Put two up on each side,” she instructed, pointing to either side of the bay. “Tell them to open fire if our guests start shooting. You stay with me.” The sergeant turned to deploy their remaining forces, sending the two that had fought with them earlier to the starboard side, while the other two that had just joined them were sent to the port side.
Jessica took up a position crouched on one knee behind a crate out in the middle of the bay, the sergeant joining her. About one meter high and three meters long, it would provide good cover for their confrontation.
“As good a spot as any,” she whispered. “They’ll have to come through that smaller personnel hatch built into the bay door,” she explained, pointing at the large bay doors at the opposite end of the bay. She had been through this entire section only an hour ago, on her way to board the Jung patrol ship back in the Oort cloud. “There’s no decent cover between them and us, so they’ll have no chance. As long as those guys on the cats can shoot straight,” she added.
“Bridge,” she whispered over her comm-set. “We’ve established a defensive position in the hangar bay. No one’s getting through here without some serious fire power.”
“Don’t shoot first and ask questions later,” Nathan warned over the comm-set.
“I know, Sir. We could use some intel.”
“Exactly. But don’t take any unnecessary chances, either. We’re running out of crew.”
Just then, the hatch lock turned and the hatch swung open. She watched across her gun sights, waiting for someone to step through the hatch. It was at least ten seconds before a helmet leaned in and peeked through briefly before disappearing again.
They’re not stupid, she thought. She tightened her grip on her weapon, her entire body tensing up in preparation to fire as the first visitor stepped cautiously through the hatch. It appeared to be a man, dressed in a pressure suit similar to their own. He was still wearing his helmet, the interior of which was lit, but from this distance she couldn’t make out any facial features. He was however, carrying a weapon that looked exactly like the ones carried by the enemy boarding party they had just defeated. And to her, that wasn’t a good sign.
“You notice that weapon, Ma’am?” the sergeant whispered in barely audible fashion.
“Yeah,” she whispered back. “Just hold, let’s wait for a few more to step through.”
They watched as the first one took a few steps into the bay, after which he stopped and twisted his body about, scanning the dimly lit interior. He turned back toward the hatch as three more stepped through, two men and a woman. As they began to move forward, Jessica and the sergeant popped up from behind their cover, weapons held high in firing position. “That’s far enough!” she shouted.
Two of the male visitors immediately raised their own weapons in preparation to defend themselves.
“DON’T DO IT!” Jessica insisted, leaning slightly forward to not only prepare herself for her weapon’s recoil, but also to emphasis her point, the sergeant imitating her posture.
The man at the center of the group of visitors raised his hands up slowly, stopping about chest high. He turned his body right and left, leaning back slightly to see the four others, two on each side, their weapons also trained on them. Realizing Jessica and her team had the tactical advantage, he motioned for his men to lower their weapons.
“That’s it!” Jessica instructed, as she watched them stand down. “Put them on the deck!” she continued, sweeping her weapon in a downward fashion to indicate her meaning. The two armed men slowly placed their weapons on the deck, before standing upright again, hands held out and up to communicate their cooperation.
The leader of the group slowly removed his helmet. He was a rugged looking fellow, perhaps in his late forties to early fifties, with light brown hair and dark eyes that looked both sympathetic and fiercely determined at the same time. He looked at her for a moment, as well as at the others under her command, after which he said something unintelligible to Jessica, something in another language. He repeated himself one more time before realizing that she did not understand him. It was apparent by his expression that her lack of comprehension was a bit surprising to him.
The other two men removed their helmets next. Both were considerably younger than their leader, one with black hair and eyes, and the other with similar features but of considerably darker complexion. Neither of them smiled, however, only glancing upwards out of the corner of their eyes to assess the guns trained on them from above.
The fourth one to remove her helmet was, as Jessica had observed, a woman, young enough to be the daughter of the leader, but not possessing any similar features. She was of similar complexion, with long straight black hair, and green eyes that held the same determination as their leader’s.
“Bridge, Engineering,” Vladimir’s voice came across the internal comm system. Nathan was instantly encouraged by the improved clarity in the hard-wired comms.
“Go ahead.”
“Main internal communications are fully operational again,” he announced proudly. “We are working on getting full power restored to command decks.”
“Great…”
“…Bridge, Nash,” Jessica’s voice interrupted over the wireless.
“Hold on, Vlad,” Nathan told him, switching back to Jessica. “Go ahead.”
“We’ve got four, uh, visitors in custody down here.”
“Who are they?”
“No clue, they’re not speaking English.”
“What are they speaking?”
“No clue there, either, Sir. What do you want us to do with them?”
Nathan thought for a moment. Somehow, he needed to speak with these people, to find out who they were and what had just happened out there. More importantly, he needed to learn their intentions.
“Bring them to me, I guess,” he said, not really knowing what else to do.
“To the bridge? I wouldn’t advise that, Sir,” she warned. “Too risky.”
He could tell she was trying to hide that last statement from their guests, even if they didn’t appear to speak the same language. But he didn’t see what harm it could do, especially considering their current inoperable state. But he also knew that being a graduate from the spec-ops school meant that Jessica probably knew better about such matters.
“You’re right,” he admitted. “Bring them to the main briefing room on deck C. I’ll meet you there.”
“Yes Sir.”
“Vlad?” Nathan asked after he switched back.
“Yes.”
“How are you for crew down there?”
“I’m not sure,” he admitted. “There are six of us, including myself. We have found four dead, two of them we cannot identify, and three more are missing.”
“What about Chief Patel?” Nathan asked. At some point in time, he was going to have to figure out who should actually be in command. Surely, somewhere on the ship there was a higher ranking officer who was still alive and could relieve him.
“H
e is still missing,” Vladimir answered, a touch of sadness in his voice.
After a respectful pause, Nathan made his first battle-field promotion. “I guess that makes you chief engineer, Vlad.”
“Yes,” he answered soberly. “Then I guess I should be getting back to work,” he added before clicking the line off. Nathan knew that Chief Patel had been important to Vladimir, as he had talked about him often and had been looking forward to learning from the chief. So he had to figure that the loss was difficult for his friend.
Nathan stood straight and straightened his uniform. “I’m going to the briefing room to meet our visitors,” he announced as he turned to exit. “You have the bridge, Cam,” he added.
“Me?” It caught her slightly off guard. “Why me?”
Nathan looked around the bridge. Other than Doctor Sorenson and Ensign Yosef, Cameron was the only other person in the room. “Why not?” It wasn't much of an answer, it was just the first thing that came out of his mouth.
Cameron had no response, her mouth just hanging slightly open in shock as she watched him exit. She couldn’t see the smile on his face as he exited, as it was the first time he could remember that she had been left speechless.
Nathan entered the briefing room a few minutes after Jessica and their guests. The room was a bit large for such a small gathering. But considering how its contents had been tossed about recently, it probably was just as well. For it had been easy for them to push the knocked over tables and chairs out of the way.
As he entered, he saw the four visitors sitting at the table that had been hastily setup. Two younger men, an older man, and a young women who had green eyes the likes of which Nathan had never seen. There was a strength and compassion behind them, and he found it difficult to look away.
The leader of the group rose as a sign of respect to Nathan, whom he considered to be the leader. The expression on the man’s face seemed a bit off to Nathan, hinting that Nathan was not what the visitor had expected.
Jessica’s reaction to the man’s attempt to stand was more defensive, immediately raising her weapon, with the other two guards following suit. She saw in the man’s eyes as he froze half standing, that he was aware of the threat, just as she noticed how the other two men’s bodies suddenly became taught, as if preparing to take action. This told her much of the experience and demeanor of these men, and she didn’t much like what she saw.
“It’s okay,” Nathan immediately intervened, not wanting things to turn ugly. He watched as Jessica and the guards slowly lowered their weapons, allowing the man to finish standing. The man nodded at Jessica, as if to pay respect to her alertness. But she couldn’t help but feel like he was silently conveying an open challenge to her. There was something in this man that she did not trust.
The leader of the group finished standing and began to speak in a strange language. Although Nathan did not understand him, it was obvious that he was trying to identify himself, by patting his chest and repeating the word ‘Marak’. Within moments they had managed to learn each other’s name, but that was all. But there was something about the language that he kept speaking to the woman sitting next to him. It sounded familiar to him. That’s when he realized that it sounded a lot like Russian.
“Engineering, Briefing Room!”
“Yes, Nathan.”
“Vlad, listen, I’m here with some visitors, from those ships you spotted approaching. They’re speaking a language that sounds like Russian to me. Can you try to speak with them?”
“So I am translator now?”
“Just give it a try, Vlad. Say something to them in Russian.” Nathan pointed at the comm, indicating to Marak that the voice on the other end would be speaking to him.
“Vui ponimayetye po Rooski?” Vladimir said through the comm. The leader of the group looked at the woman next to him, a puzzled look on his face.
“Vui po-ni-ma-ye-tye po Roos-ki?” Vladimir repeated a little more slowly, sounding a little impatient. The leader started speaking in his language again, this time into the comm-set as if he were expecting the man at the other end to understand him.
There was a moment of silence, broken only by Vladimir’s voice. “That is not Russian. May I go now?”
“Sure, thanks.” Nathan sat down, rubbing his face with his hands. It had been worth a try. After all, the humans living on the core worlds were descendants of people from Earth. And Fleet intelligence indicated that many of the primary languages spoken on Earth more than a thousand years ago when they first began to colonize other star systems were still being used out here, at least in some derived form. That was why all communications officers were usually fluent in at least half a dozen languages. But their only comm officer was dead. And even though they had translation software, with all the systems down he wasn’t able to utilize the programs. This is not going to be easy, he thought. What should I try first? After thinking for a moment, he looked at the man and started talking slowly and clearly to him. “Where-are-you-from?”
The man just looked at him. Nathan thought he saw a spark of understanding in his eyes, like he thought he understood what Nathan was trying to ask him, but was afraid to answer incorrectly. And the woman, she had the same look, but even more so than her leader. Nathan repeated himself, after which the two of them exchanged words in their own language. It sounded as if the woman was trying to explain something to her leader, maybe something she understood, or at least thought she understood.
“We-are-from-the-Sol-system,” he began. Nathan frantically searched his mind for the right words, which was usually not a problem for him. But these people were from another world, another planet. How do you communicate with someone from another planet? “Sol? Have you heard of it?” he asked in frustration. Again, he thought he saw a glimmer of recognition from the women. “Earth?” There were more unintelligible words exchanged between the woman and her leader, and Nathan got the feeling that the two of them were in disagreement about something. “Earth? Have-you-heard-of-Earth?”
The leader said something else to the woman in a stern voice, after which she spoke up. “I hear,” she said, thinking for a moment before continuing, “I-hear-Earth.”
“You have?” Nathan responded, shocked that he had actually made a connection, no matter how slight. “You’ve heard of Earth?”
“Yes,” she answered, her pronunciation of the simple word slightly off. He could see she was struggling to try and use a language that she might once have learned, but had long since forgotten. “I-have. I-heard-of-Earth.”
“Then you speak English?”
“An-glees?” she mispronounced.”
“Yes, Eng-glish.”
She thought again, then realized what he was saying. “Ah, Angla!” she exclaimed excitedly. Suddenly a flurry of communication erupted between her and her leader that seemed to last forever before she finally settled down to try and communicate with him.
“I-learn-Angla-much-young,” she stated slowly, thinking about each word before speaking them. “Please-slowly-I-to-understand-you-much.”
He could see that she was struggling to remember the language that she had learned when she was young. “I-will-speak-slowly. My-name-is-Nathan.” It was difficult for Nathan to control his excitement over his new found ability to communicate with her. And all manner of questions were popping into his mind, making it impossible to select which one to ask first.
“Me, Jalea.
“Jalea?” he grossly mispronounced.
“Jah-LEE-yah,” she corrected.
“Jalea?” he tried again, getting a nod of approval from her.
“Ask her who was shooting at us,” Jessica suggested. Nathan motioned with his hand for her to be patient.
“And he is Mah-rahk?” Nathan asked, pointing to her leader.
“Yes. Marak.”
“Marak-is-your-leader?”
She thought a moment before responding. “Yes.” Her tone of voice left Nathan less than convinced, and he wondered if he was their
leader, or just the leader of this little group. But he figured he could unravel that mystery later.
“Where-are-you-from?” he asked next. “Your-world?”
“Bah-KAH-rah.”
Nathan repeated the name of her planet to verify the pronunciation.
“The-big-ship. Was-it-from-Bakara?”
“No,” she answered immediately. “Ship-from-Takara.”
“Takara? And they are bad? These Takarans?”
“Yes. Takar, very bad.”
“You fight them, yes?”
“Yes. Long time. Many years.”
Jessica was growing impatient. “Ask them why they’re here?”
Nathan knew she was right. He was letting himself get swept up in the situation and not thinking of the big picture. They were still without main power, and the sensors were down. And they didn’t have maneuvering or main propulsion back online yet, let alone any weapons. And to top it all off, he had no idea what the tactical situation was in the immediate area. Hell, he didn’t even know where the immediate area was.
“Okay. Why are you here?”
“To help,” she answered instantly, and with a smile. “We call. You no answer. We come. You help us. Now we help you.”
Nathan was a little surprised by the offer. He had no idea how they might help them given the circumstances, but the fact that they were offering seemed a positive step. “How can you help us?”
“Your ship, broken. We help fix,” she explained, pointing at the other two men. Up until now, Nathan had thought of them as their personal security detail. But she seemed to be indicating that they were some kind of engineers or technicians.
“You can help us fix this ship? How?”
“These men, very smart, fix many things. Maybe they, fix you.”
Jessica did not like the idea, and feared that Nathan was thinking of accepting the offer. “Lieutenant, I don’t know about this. Maybe we should just say thanks but no thanks and try and fix it ourselves?”
“Soon, more will come,” Jalea added. “Very soon, maybe few, maybe many.”
