by Joe Crouch
“I’m sure it will be,” the President smiled, pulling herself from the shadows, “Is that all for today?” she asked.
“Yes Ma’am, it was a pleasure.”
“Well then, good luck on whatever it is that you’re up to, we eagerly anticipate your arrival home,” she nodded as the screen faded to black. Letting out a large sigh and sliding down into his seat, he could finally relax, it had gone better than he expected but it wasn’t something he would be doing regularly. Now that his mind was cleared of one stress, it turned to another, the curiosity of the frozen corridor, it had been killing him from the inside not knowing what was there, and it was finally time to find out.
Grabbing a pair of gloves, he set out from his quarters, stumbling a little as the ship traversed into slip space flight, his mind raced about what he might find at the end of the corridor, was it just storage for medical supplies like he had thought, or something more sinister, there was only one way to find out. The walk seemed to take an eternity, it all turned into one large blur, turning the corner he slammed into the chest of Taris, knocking him back to reality.
“Whoa,” he hesitated, his mind snapping back into place he looked up and saw the smiling Ioution staring back, “Sorry Taris, I wasn’t watching where I was going.”
“Oh don’t be sorry little Human, bumping into you was exactly what I was hoping for,” she smirked as she leant up against the wall, “So, why are you in so much of a rush?”
“There’s just something I’ve got to do, don’t worry about it,” he said as he tried to barge past, the strong Ioution pulled him back and gazed into his eyes.
“Something’s wrong, I know it, let me come with you, it can be our own little adventure together,” she smiled, tilting her head, the lights warmed her face showing off her soft features, an allure he couldn’t say no to.
“Well…” he hesitated, “I suppose two heads are better than one, I could always use you as a battering ram.”
“That’s sorted then,” she beamed as she motioned forward, “Lead the way, Ambassador.” He was hesitant to bring her along, it could be nothing, but if it was, he would be happy with the backup and knowledge she provided. It didn’t take them long to find the door, it was beside med bay and the route there was well sign-posted.
“You sure we’re in the right place?” she questioned, “This is just another empty hallway.” He was positive this was where he had seen it all, removing his gloves he placed his hand on the wall and felt the radiating warmth that came off the polymer. Running his hand along the barren white surface he felt a sudden drop in temperature.
“Here,” he whispered, “Feel here,” he grabbed her hand and placed it on the warm wall and moved it along until he held her hand over the cold portion. “Do you feel it?” he asked to the Ioution who stared at him, a certain look in her eyes. She put both hands against the wall and pushed – Nothing happened, looking around she noticed an out of place light strip.
“Lift me up,” she said, “Grab me by the legs,” he bent down and with all his might tried his best to push the tall Ioution up, getting her a foot off the ground before he crumpled into a heap on the floor.
“I know you shouldn’t ask a woman her weight but wow…” he marvelled, drawing a fierce gaze. They were interrupted as an opening hissed next to them, a cold mist flowed out that sent a chill down his spine. The hallway was covered in a cold fog, they both stood and stared at each other, neither one wanting to proceed, only the shove of Taris on Sean’s back got him moving. “It’s right at the end,” he gulped, pointlessly creeping along the barren, frozen tundra of a corridor.
The access terminal came into view sending him into a sprint, he placed his hand on the frozen surface and was met with the ever-present beeping rejecting him access, “Well, looks like we’re not getting in,” he sighed. Tutting, Taris walked over, bending at the waist to examine the pad closer, she ran her fingers along its rim searching for a way to pry it open.
“You’re right, I can’t hack this terminal,” she smiled, “But I can crack it,” she spun around and slammed a fist right into its central mass sending sparks flying, the door in front of them squeaked open to reveal a circular room, large lights hung from overhead above a table that sat in the middle of the floor space. The pair strolled in, their eyes darted about the chamber searching for anything that might give them a clue as to what was stored there. At the far end, a small handle extruded from the wall, they both approached and stood staring at it, waiting for the other to turn and see what was inside. Building up the courage he grabbed the handle and pulled. A loud hiss filled the room as a frozen mist poured from the cracks that appeared, he yanked at the handle almost falling backwards as he slipped on the ice-covered ground. Alarms began to blare throughout the ship, they hadn’t tripped them, though. An announcement came over the speakers.
“We’ve been hit with an interdiction field, they’ve knocked us out from slip space, two Xuron warships are approaching us from port, everyone to battle stations.” The pair stood speechless, staring at the body that lay in front of them, Taris was the first to break the silence, “That’s…” she could only squeak out.
“- That’s me…” Sean quaked…
Chapter 15
Sean and Taris were thrown across the freezing, slippery room as blasts rocked the ships outer shielding sending shockwaves throughout. Powerful blasts echoed through the ship, but Sean had more pressing matters to attend to and as he pushed himself up from the floor his attention turned to Taris who laid motionless. Standing upright, he caught sight of his frozen remains, the lower half cocooned in an opaque substance. He couldn’t believe, or even understand, what was going on, but there was no time to argue, survival was his first instinct. Lunging towards Taris, who didn’t show any signs of life, he shook her cold body generating no response, wetting the back of his hand he placed it near her light lips and felt a faint breath. A trickle of blue blood slid down her icy face, panicking, he pushed her hair aside and searched for any wounds – A large gash ran across the top of her head. Ripping a piece of his clothing he pressed tightly against her injury, trying his best to remember any medical training he had when he was part of the planet landers, he knew it wasn’t much.
He glanced around the room looking for any moveable surface he could lay the injured Ioution on, remembering the table his corpse laid on he looked and noticed the wheels on the feet of the bed. Unstrapping his body and rolling it onto the floor with a thud, he pulled the gurney over towards the still female, without warning the ship was struck again pushing him onto the tables cushioned surface. Bending down, he wrapped his arms around Taris and pushed with all his might as he lifted her off the ground and threw her in an act of desperation onto the trolley. Panting heavily and swearing under his breath, he took one last look over at his corpse but his questions could wait.
Grabbing the chilled handle, his hands retracted at the sudden temperature change. He didn’t wait and proceeded to push the gurney down the winding hallway, knowing the med-bay was just up ahead, he just wished that no harm would come to her. They managed to get halfway before a large crackling sound emanated from the ship, pulsating through his skin he knew something had just happened. “Our shields were down for a second there, we need more people in engineering,” Yumie’s voiced blared over the speakers, his train of thought was interrupted as another large burst impacted the shields, making him stumble. But at the same time, Taris’ body flew from the gurney and landed propped up against the wall. Shit he thought, I probably shouldn’t tell her about this, making his way around the table and once again wrapping his arms around the heavy Ioution, he pushed as hard as he could but his feet slid out from under him on the icy surface, making him fall on top of the immobile alien. Trying again yielded the same result, so instead he grabbed her hands and pulled her along the icy floor, praying that she wouldn’t wake up, at least right this second.
The alarms continued to wail throughout the ship as he pulled her out fr
om the cold hallway and into the warmth, “Doc!” he screamed in a panic, “We’ve got injured here.” It didn’t take long for two well-dressed Ioutions to sprint from the nearby med-bay, both carried a large bag. They knelt over her lifeless body and looked up and him.
“What happened?” the larger of the two Doctors asked.
“We were down there,” he pointed to the hallway, “The ship got attacked and we were thrown, she just happened to come off worse.” Grunting, the doctor examined her head wound and rubbed a bright white gel across the injury that frothed up and disappeared. The second doctor came back out with a small circular machine and placed it on her chest, making a loud sucking noise as it attached itself. They picked her up with ease, the small contraption made her body effectively weightless as they carried her into the sterile med-bay. Another blast rocked the ship, the loose instruments that already covered the floor jolted around as bottles fell off the once neatly stocked shelves and smashed on the floor.
“I don’t suppose you could clean some of this up?” one doctor asked, not breaking sight with his patient and not feeling the courage to look Fez in the eyes yet, he obliged and got on his hands and knees to scoop up the mess. The build-up of energy throughout the ship was palpable as the Mar’Ell charged her weapons for a counter-attack, making a stand was admirable, but it could be foolish.
“Slip-Drives are down, I repeat slip-drives are down, we’re here to stay,” Yumie announced throughout the ship. He desperately wanted to be on the bridge to see what was happening, and he would be soon enough, but first he had to ensure Taris was stable and more importantly, make sure he was stable, an outburst on the bridge wasn’t what was needed. Multiple hits impacted the shields, plunging everything into darkness for a split second while the lights reinitialised. He turned to face Taris who lay unconscious, unaware of anything that was happening if we don’t survive this her last memory will be of my corpse Sean thought.
“Is she going to be ok, Doc?” he asked, pleading inwardly for an answer he could work with.
“Sure, she will be fine, she only smashed her skull, easily fixed,” the doctor replied, mortifying Sean, smashed her skull, he thought, how is that an easy fix? Forcing himself to remember their technology was centuries beyond anything humanity had even speculated about, he left the med-bay, confused as to what he was meant to do. On one hand, he was a trained fighter pilot now, he could go and help with the ships defence, but he was also an ambassador, on a technicality it probably wasn’t his place to get involved. Deciding to make no decision, he rushed through the ship towards the hangar, I’ll just hang around in case I’m needed he thought non-committedly, knowing he shouldn’t get in anyone’s way. He raced through the empty corridors as more weapons fire was exchanged, he had to wonder how the ship was taking such a beating, in the fight for Earth the Ioutions did lose ships, but also destroyed much more in the Xuron fleet. Sparks flew across his face as a conduit on the wall exploded into a hail of shrapnel that flew across the now pitch black hallway. Placing his hands on the railing he guided himself forwards, unsure of where his feet were landing as the floor was covered in debris.
It wasn’t long before he found himself back in an illuminated part of the ship, but the damage was severe, terminals sparked and hung from the walls by a bundle thin wires exposing the ship's innards, a mess of large pipes and wires apparently. A faint whimpering came from down the hallway, he rushed towards the sound and saw an Ioution laying on the ground, burn marks across his face and body, his clothes torn and dyed blue from his injuries. Rolling the alien onto his side he saw a large wound that stretched across his back, blood flowed without restriction, having no idea what could be done he placed the Ioution down and looked around. A small handheld tablet lay on the floor, picking it up he called the doctor letting him know what had happened and where they were, a pulsating beacon flashed onto the screen showing where the doctor was in relation to them.
As soon as the doctor arrived, he continued at a brisk pace towards the hangar deck, the damage strewn across the floor didn’t instil much hope into his fragile psyche, the flickering lights only briefly giving purchase to what was in front of him. The hangar was surprisingly calm, the deckhands worked in a monotonous motion, going about their business as they had been trained. He strolled down the stairs and caught the eye of a senior officer who motioned him over, “Why are you down here, Human?” he asked.
“I was thinking about offering myself to pilot the Arrakis-two, am I even needed?” he replied, unsure as to whether he wanted to know the answer. The officer pondered it for a short moment.
“I think you’re safe for now, your best bet is to report to the bridge, Feghouli will give you an assignment,” he said. Begrudgingly, he nodded and turned to walk out the bay before the officer shouted once more, “Also tell him to hire some pilots, the idiot.” This was the moment he had dreaded, it wasn’t something that he was looking forward to, but the quicker he got answers the less time it would play on his mind, so picking up the pace he rushed towards the bridge. The weapons fire died down creating an eerie atmosphere aboard the ship, the Ioutions he passed were as clueless as he was, all he got was a shrug from them when he inquired about what was happening. It didn’t take long for the fire to restart, though, which threw him to the floor as the Xuron focused their attempts on a specific portion of the Mar’Ell’s failing shields.
After a while of fumbling around, he eventually burst his way onto the bridge and in stark comparison to the hangar deck it was bristling with activity, orders were thrown around as if they had no meaning. “Navigation,” Fez shouted, “Bring us about, do whatever it takes to ensure they’re hitting our starboard side. Weapons, bring the repeaters to full power, we need to combat those incoming small craft, set them to automatic targeting and firing, we can’t waste time picking them off ourselves.” He watched on in awe as the usually placid captain barked orders with a fervour he hadn’t witnessed before, it drilled home that this was a life or death situation, and not the right time to bring up what he had found.
Sweat rolled down Fez’s face, the small beads glistened in the bright lights that still operated on the bridge, turning to face Sean he noticed the fiery look in his eyes, ignoring it, Fez returned to his terminal. Sean sat on the nearest chair and brought up the tactical display for their surrounding space, two large Xuron warships lumbered across the radar, Xuron – Destroyer class – X11 the information read next to the manoeuvring ships. The larger threat right now seemed to be the swarm of smaller fighters that were pelting the Mar’Ell’s shields, the two destroyers would let off infrequent massive blasts, but the cloud of fighters were still sustaining a high damage output. Flicking the screen, he gasped at the condition of the Mar’Ell, her shields were faltering, the transistors connected to their largest weapons had overloaded and primary life support was on the brink of collapse.
“Comms, send out a distress signal, someone must pick it up nearby,” Fez barked, trying desperately to get control of the situation, “Weapons, bring the two front kinetic blasters online and Nav, put us on a course directly towards the nearest Xuron vessel.” Every officer in the room glanced around at each other, wondering if their captain had gone mad, the kinetic blasters were nothing more than glorified railguns, although vastly superior to the ones Earth used. In a fluid motion, everyone was thrown across their seats from the violent attacks the ship was a target of, the crew lurched to one side as navigation tried its best to throw the ship around in a tight manoeuvre. He watched as the blaster’ arcs of fire were overlaid onto his screen, the Mar’Ell tried her best to lumber around and get a direct line of sight, the build-up of power made any non-primary terminals blink and flash as energy was diverted away.
“Sir, ten seconds until they’re within our firing arc,” the weapons officer cried out.
“Very good, fire when ready,” Fez replied, a deathly silence filled what had become an auditorium for Sean.
“… Firing,” he was twice pushed b
ack into his seat as two massive explosions rattled every surface in the ship, pushing the Mar’Ell into reverse with the kinetic force that was exerted. Regaining control of his body, he flicked the terminal to a view showing the Xuron destroyer, it was identical to the one that attacked the Arrakis, its tentacles flailed across space. It didn’t take long for the results of their exercise to come to fruition, two large holes tore through the Xuron ship, a green liquid exploded into the space surrounding the damage. Secondary explosions took hold within the ship as they ripped along the vessels exterior in a series of flashes, large cracks snaked out from where the initial impact had occurred, moments later a blinding white explosion filled the screen, making him reel and cover his eyes. Once it had died down, the remnants of a Xuron ship laid floating in space, her individual parts slowly dispersing away from the grave.
“Hell yeah,” he shouted, “That was incredible.”
“Don’t celebrate yet,” Fez replied, giving him an exasperated look, “We are severely damaged and this second ship hasn’t really been involved yet.” Dread suddenly flowed over his body like a wave, Fez was right, looking at his display the Xuron’s power output was still far higher than theirs, the Mar’Ell’s weapons were failing and the kinetic blasters would need to be physically reloaded. There was little he could do, so he slumped down into his seat and let out a defeated sigh, he watched as the Xuron ship closed in on them, the swarm of smaller fighters darted about his display leaving nowhere for the Mar’Ell to run, with a last roll of the dice he stood up.
“Fez, how much damage could I do to that larger ship in my gunship?” he asked, drawing looks from the bridge crew, “I know it wouldn’t be much, but do you think it’ll be enough for the Mar’Ell to escape?” The bridge was silent as everyone turned their gaze to Fez, who had a confused look on his face.
