Alien Outcast

by Tracy St. John

  Hilg scowled and turned away. He didn’t answer.

  Grinning as ferociously as ever, Kila pressed the muzzle of his blaster against the man’s skull. “Who’s the first officer? I’ll deal with him instead. Right after I make an example of your captain.”

  The Dramok Terig had in his blaster’s sights twitched. Terig called, “We have a winner over here, Captain Kila. My guess is, he’ll be more inclined to assist us.”

  “Fine by me.” Kila stepped back from Hilg to move out of splatter range, his finger tightening on the trigger.

  “Don’t blast!” Hilg yelled, cringing. “It’ll be another hour, and we’ll have enough power to return to the fleet.”

  “Which I’ll confirm with the engineer I brought over. I wanted to be sure you understood how important cooperation is for your good health.” Kila slapped Hilg between the shoulder blades, like he might a drinking buddy, but with considerable force. Hilg nearly flew off his feet.

  When Hilg had recovered from the blow, Kila used his blaster to tap him on his well-brushed head. “Be a smart boy and repeat the lesson. What’s my message to Maf?”

  When Hilg stuttered through it, it was not to Kila’s satisfaction. Terig watched with delight as Kila smacked the traitor halfway across the bridge.

  As the Nobek captain stalked to the gasping Hilg and yanked him upright, he said, “Don’t worry about not getting it right. We’ll go over it until I’m sure you won’t fuck it up as badly as you have the rest of your miserable existence.”

  Hilg only required two more rounds of instructions. By then, his pride had crumbled, and he was not the tidiest officer on the bridge any longer.

  With the bowed destroyer captain agreeing to deliver Kila’s message to Maf, the group readied to depart the bridge. Terig joined them in backing from the traitorous crew, his blaster steady.

  It was almost over. He noted Sesin lagged a bit in keeping pace with the retreating boarding party, sneering unpleasantly as he strutted from the destroyer’s weapons commander, the man he’d held hostage. He drew level with the first officer, who continued to tremble after being held at Terig’s blaster-point.

  Captain Hilg only had eyes for Kila and Kila’s phase device. “That’s not cloaking technology. We heard the way you killed off the Holy Leader was linked to phasing.”

  Naturally, Kila didn’t honor the observation with any comment. They’d accomplished their objective, and it was time to go. Only a total fool would have responded.

  Which was why Terig shouldn’t have been surprised when Sesin opened his big mouth while within reach of the enemy. Patting the silver gadget attached to his chest, the bastard boasted, “Amazing devices, huh?”

  No surprise. What Terig hadn’t fully expected, however, was that it would be the most visibly shaken of the destroyer crew who would grab for a hero moment.

  The trembling first officer lunged for Sesin. He didn’t reach for the Nobek’s weapon, which even Sesin wouldn’t give up unless he were dead, but for the phase device. As the weapons commander swung his blaster towards his assailant, the Dramok grabbed the device and tore it off his uniform.

  Terig didn’t require clear thinking to act. Pondering the situation, considering his opponents’ next moves—such time-wasting had disappeared long ago, back in training camp. Everything was automatic for his deft mind. The knowledge that the destroyer crewmembers were reaching for blasters, that Sesin was still trying to determine what had happened and who to shoot, that both sides were yelling and preparing to fire—recorded and filed in an instant too infinitesimal to measure.

  Terig’s blaster fire trembled the air. He took out the first officer, another man leaping for Sesin, and the destroyer’s weapons commander without conscious thought.

  The situation resolved in less than two seconds. Captain Hilg went down, his body relieved of its head by Kila’s shot. The enemy crew put their hands in the air and shouted surrender.

  “Cease fire!” Kila shouted, and quiet fell over the bridge.

  Terig’s blaster had somehow ended up pointed at Sesin. He stared down the barrel at his commanding officer, who peered about with confusion. With Terig’s senses heightened to the screaming point, he felt someone’s gaze on him. Flicking a glance to the side, Terig noted Kila was watching him.

  The spy’s eyebrow lifted, one side of his mouth twisting up with an unasked question. Well, are you going to finish the stupid fuck, or shall we move on?

  Terig found a different target to threaten, an enemy Nobek who looked both pissed off and embarrassed. No doubt second-guessing his life choices.

  Kila bellowed with rage. “There! Now your ridiculous excuse of a captain is dead, as a traitor should be! Give me an excuse to finish off the lot of you!”

  No one did. They waited before Kila, most wearing that angry humiliation of having been beaten in a fight. Sullen silence reigned.

  “Fine. Keep your heads then. Who’s in charge with the three lead idiots gone?”

  Faces turned to a young Nobek manning the helm control podium. He darted anxious glances around, as if to ask for help, but the eyes of the others turned away. He swallowed hard and snapped to attention. His chin lifted as he addressed Kila. “I’m next in rank.”

  “What are your orders, next-in-rank?”

  “I’m to get the engines online, return to the fleet near Laro, and report to the Basma that Admiral Piras desires a meeting to combine forces to stop an attack from the treacherous Bi’isils.”

  Kila glanced at Terig. Not Sesin. “Hot damn, Subcommander. We’ve got someone with sense here.”

  “There’s always hope, Captain. For some.” Terig also refused to look at Sesin, who was scrabbling around the deceased first officer’s body, no doubt trying to recover his phase device. He watched the crew instead, making sure no one moved.

  “For some.” Kila agreed. He told the helmsman, “Keep it up, and I won’t blast your destroyer into pieces. Understood?”

  “Yes, Captain. I will do as you have commanded.”

  “Good. Terig, you and your men are with me.” Kila phased, and the rest followed suit.

  Sesin yelled out, only just having found his device. It took him several seconds to remember how to activate it, during which the destroyer crew might have blasted his sorry ass. Maybe they would have, had they not been so demoralized by their commanding officers being wiped out. Instead, they watched Sesin fumble the bloodied silver, growling in frustration at them as he did so.

  As soon as Terig confirmed Sesin had phased, putting his device out of the enemy’s reach, he followed Kila and his shipmates out of the bridge, ready to return to the raider and Nako. Where, no doubt, his Dramok would hear the story of the weapons commander’s latest and greatest debacle and demand for Terig to take over.

  Terig had no idea how he could argue against it this time.

  Chapter 12

  Nako watched the captured destroyer fire its engines. Right on schedule, the vessel started its journey to its poisonous nest among the Basma’s fleet.

  Nobek Atar said, “Admiral Piras is hailing the raiders and the battlecruiser, Captain.”

  “Acknowledge and open the frequency.” At the com officer’s nod, he said, “Captain Nako of raider RD-1202 reporting, Admiral.”

  The ships under Piras’s command also answered. Piras’s rough voice filled the bridge. “Phase at my mark and follow the destroyer in. Mark.”

  Terig, at the weapons commander’s podium, nodded to Nako. “All instruments indicate phase was successful. We should be invisible to the enemy, Captain.”

  Atar spoke up. “Admiral Piras sent a private message for us to switch frequencies to speak to our ship alone. Frequency online. You are clear to communicate, Admiral Piras.”

  “Acknowledged. Welcome to our shadow war, Captain Nako.”

  “Delighted to be along.” Not entirely the truth, but at least progress was being made. Nako’s engines were once more in working order, and he had phase capability. He’d take the
good with the bad. “Do you think they’ll pass the message to Maf, Admiral?”

  “They might, and they might not. With everything we have in place, it’s no longer a concern. They’ll communicate with him in some fashion, and it will lead us directly to the bastard.”

  The cagey admiral was playing it close. Nako had suspected Piras had more up his sleeve than sending a plea to talk. “I wish you’d allow me to be a part of your meeting with him.”

  “Perhaps. Intimidation suits my purposes when it comes to Maf, and you do that well. Speaking of officers and what they do and do not do well, is your issue with weapons command sorted out, Captain? We can’t afford any further mistakes like what happened on that destroyer.”

  Nako thought of Sesin, taking up space in the brig with Ob. The white-hot urge to walk down to the holding area and use his blaster, until no trace of the man remained, returned. Sesin had not just made an error that Terig could easily cover this time. He’d endangered men as well as the mission.

  “It’s been remedied, Admiral. I assure you, we’ll hold up our part from here on out.”

  He stole a glance at Terig as he spoke. The situation would not be truly resolved until his Nobek recognized that the need to step up was so much bigger than his fear of failure.

  Terig returned his gaze with unwavering attention. Did Nako dare to hope? Would his clanmate at last accept the responsibility that he had more than earned in the years since the scandal?

  Nako jerked his head to indicate his Nobek should follow him out to the corridor. His expression revealing nothing, Terig did so.

  The corridor was empty of crew. With the door to the bridge closed, Nako relaxed his official bearing. “It would have been nice if Admiral Piras had accorded you the same compliments on your outstanding performance as Captain Kila did.”

  Terig shrugged, but a smile drifted over his lips. “Captain Kila’s enthusiastic approval in front of everyone was more than enough for me. Besides, the admiral is not known as the Terror of the Fleet because he hands out praise.”

  “Still, I would have appreciated his acknowledgment that the majority of my men did their jobs and more. Something to balance out the single fuckup’s stupidity. I may never live this down.”

  “It was monumental stupidity on a scale even beyond Sesin’s usual, my Dramok. And Piras does not suffer fools.”

  Nako ordered his next words carefully, keeping his tone diplomatic. “I’m not letting Sesin out of the brig. I don’t care if he becomes our last hope of survival, Mother of All help us. The fool will rot in that cell.”

  “I agree. When he fucked up on the destroyer, I half-hoped the traitors would kill him. The utter idiocy—well, we survived it. We were lucky.”

  “It was skill that kept you and the rest of the boarding party in one piece. You did well, my Nobek. I am left with a problem, however.”

  Terig’s start at a protest sounded halfhearted. “Nako—”

  The captain silenced him with a look. “I’m not ordering you to take the weapons commander position. What I’m doing is asking you, who on this crew is most qualified for that post? Given the mission we’re on, who do you trust to keep your shipmates and your clan safe?”

  Terig frowned, but he didn’t trot out his usual reasons for refusal. He stared at a spot over Nako’s shoulder, but the Dramok suspected he actually looked inward. Weighing the bad decisions of the past, the terrors of the future.

  Nako said nothing, allowing his companion of seven years to struggle on his own. In his head, he pushed Terig to come to the correct answer, the only answer, the answer he didn’t want to give.

  It’s time to set aside the crimes of the past. To move towards making your peace with the dead. I know you are the man, the hero, everyone once believed you were. You can handle it, Terig.

  Yet guilt and anxiety had to have its final say after all. Between gritted teeth, Terig grumbled, “If you or Ulof were to die because I screwed up—”

  “What are we in more danger from, my Nobek? You committing a mistake, or you not stepping up and accepting the challenge? What will get us killed faster?”

  “Fine. I’ll do it.” He muttered so Nako almost couldn’t hear, “Maybe she’s right about me. I hope so.”

  The concession had come so quickly that Nako could hardly credit it. It left him a little dizzy, and he had to push it aside for the moment to fully absorb Terig had at last agreed to be weapons commander. He fixated on the quieter comment instead. “She’s right? Who is this she?”

  “Piper. She said some things yesterday that made me think.”

  Ah, the Earther. She had worked her charms on his Nobek in more ways than one. Gratitude that she had helped Nako, even inadvertently, swelled within him. “She’s a fascinating woman, isn’t she? Complicated. I get the idea she wouldn’t raise a hand to defend herself, but she’s quick to defend that disgusting Tragoom.”

  Terig smiled for real, lending his bearded features a rare warmth. “There’s a darkness about her, most certainly. It makes me wonder at her history.” He shook himself, scowling to erase any softness he’d put on display. “What’s with this psychological mumbo-jumbo? Fuck all of you and your stupid emotions. I don’t have time for that shit.”

  Nako managed to keep humor out of his tone. “Of course not.”

  “I have plenty to worry about with keeping everybody alive.”

  “Yes. I suggest you get to work on that, Weapons Commander.”

  Terig grimaced to hear himself referred to by his new rank. He left Nako without another word and stormed back to the bridge.

  When the door shut between them, Nako grinned. “You’ll see you’re everything you were before you led that stupid war party. Congratulations on reclaiming your soul, my Nobek.”

  Now as for that pretty and conflicted Earther…

  * * * *

  When Nako walked into the brig, the first—and ugliest—thing he noticed was Sesin taking up space in the nearest containment. Even Ob’s rank smell, coming from the far end of the brig, didn’t turn his stomach as the sight of the shamed officer did.

  The ousted weapons commander immediately set in with complaints and arguments. “Captain Nako! I should not have to share space with that foul Tragoom! Listen, I know I screwed up. Demote me. I’ll do anything to make it up.”

  “How about shutting the fuck up for two seconds?” Ulof’s shout drowned out Sesin’s furious screech. But then, the Imdiko could knock a wall down with his voice when he wished to make sure he would be heard. Piper, who stood next to Ulof, covered her ears with a pained grimace as he continued to bellow. “Nako, I swear if you don’t gag that whining piece of shit, I’m going in his cell and stuffing my fist down his throat until he chokes to death!”

  “It’s unthinkable for me to be imprisoned with a Tragoom! Captain, no one on the away team was harmed! This punishment is too severe for the circumstances!” Sesin roared his protest despite the threat.

  Either he thought himself safe within the containment, or he’d forgotten the day over a year before when he’d insulted Ulof’s intelligence and spit in his face. The resulting fight had led the head cook to crack several of Sesin’s ribs with a frozen ronka haunch. It had taken half a dozen men to keep the irate Imdiko from caving in Sesin’s skull as well, earning most of them their own trips to Medical for treatment. Ulof was damned near unstoppable when he was cranked up to full fury, and anyone near him could count on injuries. Terig had been forced to fire a tranquilizer dart into his own clanmate—from a safe distance—to halt the rampage.

  Nako weighed the option of letting Ulof into Sesin’s cell, imagining the joy of setting his temperamental Imdiko loose on the most worthless Nobek he’d had the displeasure of knowing. However, he’d put his foot down about Ulof indulging in mayhem for mere violence’s sake. He couldn’t back away from that now.

  Instead, he snarled at Sesin, “You nearly got the entire boarding party killed, asshole. I should send you out of an airlock for that.”
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  “You still could,” Ulof grumbled from the end of the block.

  “I won’t sit in the same area as that Tragoom! It’s a disgrace to treat an officer this way!” Sesin just couldn’t take a hint.

  Fine. He’d be blunt about it then. Nako faced Nobek Lopdod, who was on guard duty. “If Sesin says another word, just one more word, rip his fucking jaw off and jam it down his throat. That’s an order.”

  Lopdod nodded eagerly. “Yes, Captain. Gladly, Captain.” He cracked his knuckles loudly, as if to ready himself for the privilege.

  Sesin opened his mouth. Lopdod took a step forward while Nako glared. Sesin blinked, closed his mouth, and backed toward the far end of his containment. He pressed his lips together, and Lopdod deflated with disappointment.

  “Maybe he’ll slip up,” Nako sympathized with the guard. He dismissed Sesin from his mind and moved on to the end of the block where Ob, Ulof, and Piper watched the proceedings with avid interest.

  Nako’s heart quickened at the sight of Piper. Golden hair, blue eyes, those charming features, that lissome body to which her little dress clung so lovingly—she was a vision of wholesome beauty on a ship that had never enjoyed such a presence. She shone like a beam of sunlight through the clouds, drawing Nako close.

  She smiled at him, and his throat felt thick. Ancestors, had he done anything to deserve that expression? He had a hard time forcing words past the constriction in his throat. “How are we on this fine morning?”

  “I’m okay, thanks. You seem in a happy mood,” Piper said.

  “I finally have the weapons commander I’ve wanted for years. We’re heading in to stop that death ship and hopefully rescue those women. Life is good.” She was still smiling at him. Life was good. He reluctantly switched his attention to Ulof. “How is my Imdiko?”

  “I’m okay.” Ulof was in a decent mood, despite his earlier demands to kill Sesin. Certainly, he was brighter than the night before when Nako and Terig had wrestled him down and forced him to leave the kitchen for the clan’s quarters. As long as no one called him dumb or spit in his face, the Imdiko’s rages were loud and threatening, but no longer violent. He tended to burn through anger quickly now that his clanmates knew how to handle him.