by Marc Stevens
“Sael, we had you tagged further out in the system.”
The noise that came over the IST was not a ladylike response.
“The A.I. could have altered your course. Your drive emissions registered as a strike on our shields. This had better not be some kind of foolish game you are trying to play on me.”
My response to her statement would be the truth. “Sael, I would not pull a reckless stunt like that. Justice said he was closing the distance to your location.”
“Nathan, it is time for you to take charge of the Legacy and take the important decisions away from that arrogant A.I. If the Legacy is truly your starship, then TAKE COMMAND!”
I had to admit it was a foolhardy stunt on Justice’s part and his response to Sael’s continuous jabs were getting out of hand.
“Sael, we are coming about and will rendezvous with you.”
“No, Nathan, let me spare you the indecision. We are coming to you.”
Now the old witch was getting on my ass and my nerves. I would let her have her way for the moment.
“Acknowledged!”
Justice must have been eavesdropping on my implants and knew I was getting pissed.
“Commander, I find the Senior Operative’s disparaging comments towards my crew and myself distasteful and offensive. It is irritating to my human sensitivities.”
“Really, Justice, that’s all you got for rationalizing the dangerous stunt you just pulled? What could that old witch possibly say that she has not already said to our faces.”
“Commander, while in her cabin she loudly vocalizes insulting comments about you, the crew and myself.”
“She is purposely doing it because she knows you display human emotions. She is trying to prove her suspicions are correct that you have stowed away on her ship. I know you don’t need me to tell you this, but you should be able to see her true intentions. I’m sure you have heard me call you worse than she can come up with.”
“You have never claimed that the A.I. of your toilet is more intelligent than I am.”
“She is just trying to anger you.”
“She is succeeding.”
“Justice, don’t get mad. Eventually we will get even. Just ignore her. One day we will reveal she was right all along and it will aggravate her twice as much, especially when we gain transporter technology.”
“Her superiors have taken several steps to prevent that from happening. The transporter systems are isolated from the rest of ship operations. The Chaalt have gone to great lengths to make the transporter bay a modular self-sufficient compartment within the Fury. It has its own power and control systems and can only be accessed with the use of three separate encryption keys that are held by command personnel other than the Operative. Someone would have to physically bring a device I inhabit into the transporter room and allow me access to the computer systems.”
Tria stated what was already bouncing around in my simple mind. “My people’s scientists and engineers are not underestimating Guardian technology. I am confident that every time Justice has displayed small samples of his true potential, Sael has reported what she felt was necessary to remain our handler. It would be foolhardy to believe they do not suspect Justice is present aboard the Fury. Sael is trying her best to prove it before her science team does and then reports it to the council.”
Once again, I felt like transporter technology was within my grasp only to be pulled out of my reach. One day in the future, that was going to change.
“Commander, I have allowed the Fury to come alongside. Should I also allow the Operative to board?”
I transmitted an IST signal in the open to the Operative. “Senior Operative, how about a tour of your new command?”
Tria was shaking her head no. She had already informed me the council forbid such actions. I was trying to see if we might be an exception to the rules. Sael’s answer confirmed we were not.
“I am sorry, Nathan, I am governed by Chaalt military law. Even though you have proven your loyalty and shed your blood in our defense, it is forbidden for another race to board Chaalt military assets. This law was established well before my time to prevent espionage. All Chaalt command personnel are bound to this rule. I am no exception.”
Coonts gave me an ‘I told you so!’ look, and Klutch just shrugged his wide shoulders. Xul just sat wide eyed at our conversations. He was quickly coming up to speed on our love–hate relationship with Tria’s people and the Operative in particular. I ended the transmission. That was sure to piss Sael off.
“Justice, is the matrix charged?”
“Yes, Commander, and I have already taken the liberty of covertly placing a comm buoy out the starboard side of the Legacy.”
A smile crossed my lips when my IST came online. “Nathan, I am sure you are already familiar with my military laws. I would like to meet with you to present a gift from my people for your generous support and the hard work of your followers.”
The way Sael’s statement came out of her mouth it was easy to tell it wasn’t intended as a polite request.
“Justice, open the hangar for the Senior Operative and then DEHD core jump to a location where we can reach the derelict ship in a couple of standard transitions.”
“Acknowledged.”
My crew seemed to be trying to ignore the fact I was going to kidnap the Operative, again. One by one, Coonts, Klutch and Xul headed to someplace where they would not have to listen to Sael blow her top. It was about five minutes before Sael came storming onto the bridge.
“You are an ungrateful primate, you could have at least met me in th—”
The ship and everything around us went dead quiet, then started glowing blinding white. The last thing I saw was the look of anger on the Operative’s face as she faded away. I thought I felt Tria grab my hand just before my reality disappeared. My return to normal space-time might have been pleasant if it were not for the very colorful Chaalt epithets being yelled at me. I did, however, take some small comfort in the fact Tria was indeed holding my hand. The small smile I gave her was rudely terminated by the impact of several credit vouchers bouncing off my chest and face.
“Now who is acting like a primate?”
“Take me back to the Fury, NOW!”
“We were going to take you with us to investigate the derelict ship, but if you insist on going back, JUSTICE—"
42
My comment registered the proper response from Sael when her mouth snapped shut, but the look on her face was still anger. Justice’s timing for our next jump couldn’t have been more perfect as the slight nausea of a standard transition gripped me.
“WAIT! I want to know what kind of scat you are pulling on me now?”
“No scat involved, Sael, we are trying to ensure what we have discovered remains ours.”
“Don’t be ridiculous Nathan. We have no intentions of seizing your discoveries.”
“While it is easy for you to say that, past events have proven otherwise.”
Sael had nothing to say to that and instead said what I knew she would. “Take us back. I want to go with you.”
Justice again jumped us at the most opportune time, further convincing Sael we had turned around and were now jumping back. She had no idea we were attempting to make it harder for her people to track us down. I knew they would eventually find us, but not before we got a good look around. Justice alerted us we were entering the gaseous nebula. My crew finally wandered back to the bridge from their cabins when they heard me shut the Operative up. They took their stations and Justice brought the view dome online. We could see the gas and dust was thinning out at the edge of the rocky debris field the junkyard for a ship was hidden in. We got a surprise call from Justice.
“Commander, it appears that the dimensions of the ship have been slightly altered.”
“Altered? What do you mean?”
“The ship is larger than our previous visit. I will superimpose the current image over our previous recordings and highlight the
areas of change.”
I didn’t know why, but I was getting a bad feeling, and it was contagious because I could feel the Oolaran in me stir.
“Justice, bring the shields up, maximum output.”
Everybody turned and gave me questioning looks. The image Justice showed us had two areas that were now obviously larger. One of them appeared to resemble part of a ship’s hull. We were still closing with the target but I could tell Justice had slowed us down. Tria’s curiosity got the better of her.
“Justice, I am not showing any power sources, but I do have very weak heat signatures scattered all over the wreck. Could you magnify and highlight them as well.”
Justice added them to the outline of the derelict and it was like several hundred candles were suddenly lit all over the ship. Coonts asked the next obvious question.
“Justice, were any of the heat sources present on the shuttle scans?”
“Negative. The Legacy’s scanners are several magnitudes more powerful than the original systems aboard the Chaalt shuttle. As we close the distance, I am now detecting a very faint power source. I will add my findings to the display.”
Goosebumps crawled all over me and it didn’t have a thing to do with Tria’s Sha’leen. The entire ship had faint lines that resembled blood veins pulsating throughout the hull. The goosebumps were now accompanied by a chill that ran up my spine. Klutch and I had considered boarding that piece of crap.
I jumped when Xul called out rather loudly. “Justice, magnify the largest highlighted area!”
The screen zoomed in closer to the area he was referring to. “Maximum magnification please!”
A large round shaped hump filled the view dome and all of our eyes grew large with the recognition of what we were seeing. It was a huge piece of an Ilor habitat ship’s hull and it was somehow melded into the huge junk piles that made up the ship. Justice made a crazy hard turn away from the ship and broadcast for all to hear.
“ENERGY SPIKE, BRACE FOR INCOMING FIRE!”
A blinding flash whited out the view dome and the Legacy was violently thrown aside by a massive impact. The Operative was the only one that chose to stand, and it turned out to be a poor decision. She was thrown into an instrument panel and came to rest against the side of the view dome. She lay in a heap on the deck and was not moving. The crew and I had braced in enough time to not be ripped from our seats. My crew hastily fastened their combat harnesses as Tria and I ran to the Operative’s prone body. She was unconscious and bleeding from the mouth but appeared to be breathing normally. Tria was holding the Operative’s head off the deck and showed me her hand. It was covered in blood. We rolled her over as gently as possible and found an ugly gash on the back of her head. Out of the corner of my eye I saw a gurney moving in our direction when we were suddenly knocked sprawling by another weapon strike.
“JUSTICE, WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON?”
“The hostile ship has a powerful main weapon system that appears to recycle enough energy to fire in one minute and fifty-seven second intervals. It is similar in nature to our beam weapons with very impressive range and is extremely accurate. The weapon has a capacitive capability and an effective method of masking the power surge before discharging. The first strike brought our shields down to twenty-nine percent but they recovered to just under ninety percent before the ship could re-engage us. Our return fire has dislodged massive amounts of debris from the ship’s hull but has made no detectable difference in the main weapon’s discharge capability. We are now cloaked and the hostile ship’s last two discharges missed their mark by several thousand yards. I sense it is still able to track us because the misses are almost exactly the same clearances.”
Tria had the Operative loaded on the gurney and it disappeared off the bridge. We took our seats and securely fastened our harnesses. I was still shaking my head, thinking Klutch and I should be dead right now. I was pretty sure we were within the weapon’s envelope when we first discovered it. Apparently, something as small as a shuttle didn’t warrant the release of so much energy. I thought about it a little more and my thoughts went in another direction completely. A ship the size of a shuttle would normally be accepted as a precursor to boarding. Did someone or something on that pile of shit want people to come aboard?
“Commander the ship has ceased fire. I surmise it can no longer track us and we are out of its range. I find it interesting that when I turned off our shields, the ships attack missed by a very large margin of error. I now believe the ship can detect the minute emissions of our shields even while we are cloaked. Fortunately, the hostile’s systems cannot process the correlation in a timely enough manner to determine the proper lead necessary to effectively strike us.”
“That’s just lovely and wonderful, but I am not going to risk the ship and crew by turning off the shields and going back to play chicken with that pile of crap.”
“It will no longer be necessary to prove it.”
“What do you mean by that?”
“I have made two passes through the hostile ship’s weapons envelope and it made no attempt to fire on us.”
That got me wide eyed stares and gaping mouths from my crew. I slapped both my hands to my forehead and then proceeded to massage my aching temples.
“Justice, you will NEVER, and I use the word EVER for emphasis, pull a stunt like that again without first asking one of us first! YOU GOT THAT!
“OK.”
“What is the Operative’s medical status?”
“I have felt better, but I will live.”
We spun around to see Sael Nalen walk back onto the bridge. One of her eyes had a ring around it much darker than her normal deep tanned brown complexion. Other than that, and a small gob of nanite gel on the back of her head, she didn’t seem injured. At least I had one less thing to worry about. That was until she opened her mouth and let it run some more.
“Now are you going to heed my words and reel in that out of control machine you let run this ship?”
I redoubled my efforts to massage away what might turn into a doozy of a headache. It was a wasted effort, as it blossomed into a real ring-dinger. I stood up and approached Sael. Tria jumped up and grabbed onto my arm. The look on my face made her promptly let go. With great effort and control I calmly told Sael what I thought of her little outburst on my bridge.
“Sael, that machine just saved our lives whether you choose to believe it or not. He also has a name and I know you are familiar with it. While on my ship you will use it or you can get the hell off so you can exercise the right to call him whatever you want. To make myself perfectly clear, AGAIN! You are not a member of this crew and are not in our chain of command. You have no say when it comes to the operation of this ship, so you will kindly keep your mouth shut about command decisions pertaining to how it may or may not be run. I give you a certain amount of leeway when it comes to your behavior that I would never grant to another alien outside of this ship. Do not make me regret that decision. Think about what you might have done had someone pulled the same scat on the bridge of the Fury. You might also take into consideration what might have happened if the Fury was the target of the surprise attack. Would your A.I. have responded the same way Justice did to save our ship?”
The Operative was momentarily lost for words. Then she tried to rationalize her outburst.
“The A.I. recklessly endangered us all by testing its theories—”
I pointed my finger in her face. “Not another word, Sael! He would not have done it without having a high percentage of success.”
Justice could not stand the thought of not adding input to our heated discussion. It made me involuntarily grit my teeth and roll my eyes when he did.
“Ninety-six-point eight percent—”
“JUSTICE!”
You could have heard a pin drop. My crew had made it a point to turn their backs and pretend they weren’t listening. It was at that point I ran out of steam and my anger was subsiding. Sael was coming to grips with what c
ould have happened to her and the crew of the Fury. She took a seat at an unoccupied console. She belted herself in and sat quietly with all her arms crossed. It was time to get back to what we were going to do about the attack we managed to live through. Evidently a great number of races could not claim the same feat and were lured to their deaths by the monstrosity we were again closing with.
“Justice, have you located the source of the weapons fire?”
“Yes. We were fired upon from three different locations on the ship. It appears the weapons are of a pop-up turret design and all three are ringed by immense piles of spacecraft or other debris. Do you still wish to board?”
I looked at my crew and, with the exception of Xul, got nods of agreement. Turning to the Operative, she gave me a less than enthusiastic answer.
“I guess if I have a choice I would rather die killing the Throggs who attacked us than get reduced to atoms sitting on this ship.”
I gave her one last chance to back out.
“Give me the word and we will take you to the Fury and we will finish this ourselves.”
“Don’t be foolish. The five of you can’t go in there by yourselves. You need my help and my troops if you want to capture that thing intact.”
“You seem to forget I have other allies who would be willing to help, and I intend on asking for it.”
“Commander, the Overseer has warned me you should avoid involving others in your initial investigation. If this ship is a Prule asset, the chances for subjugation of unprotected personnel is high and could lead to a mass Prule infection of non-Guardian designed systems.”
Sael could not stand it anymore. “WHO OR WHAT IS THE OVERSEER?”
“Justice do you wish to clarify your statement or the nature of its origin?”
“No.”
Sael looked like she was on the verge of a meltdown, but to her credit she just shook her head and held her tongue. I could tell my crew was anxious and ready to go no matter what we were up against. I felt the same way, because there was no chance I would leave that piece of crap floating out there without getting some payback for the countless races that fell prey to it. If the amount of junk on the outside of the ship was an indication of how many victims stopped to investigate, the number was substantial.
