“Drop it, Jaime,” Alastair said. “I know for a fact, you hate using that term.”
“What are you?”
“An AI program, designed to answer questions to those captains that actually choose to reach deeper into the message than those that take it at face value.” He smiled and held his hand out further. “Glad to see that the Agency is still teaching you to not trust with only one sense.”
She slapped the hand away. “What are we doing here on the fucking outer rim? Why are we meeting with the thrice-damned Eridani?”
“They want our help.”
“And? Let them sit and fucking spin.”
“Vulgarity,” Alastair’s AI clone said. Jaime felt a ripple of electric fire roll over the suit. She screamed, but bit off the outcry after a second.
“All right. Why are we here… sir?”
“You are to help the Eridani, to a point. They are spooked. I hate to work with them. Especially after the Battle of the Belt.”
Jaime looked at the sash, picking out the large gold and silver ship with five dots surrounding the old-fashioned rocket ship. “I understand you gave yourself that one.”
“It seemed like the thing to do. But the point is, I want you to keep an eye on them.”
“Why me?”
“You were the only one I sent the message to.”
Jaime jerked back as if struck. “You mean we are out here, in the black, on our own?”
The electronic clone nodded. “No backup, just you and the Starkiller crew.”
“And a psychotic AI that wants to kill its crew.”
“Cerberus isn’t that bad.” He then looked down. “I see you took the precaution.”
“Yes I did. I also doubled the yield. My heart stops, this sends a subspace message to the detonator, and a twenty-megaton nuke goes off in its brain.”
“Smart,” the clone said. He laughed a little. “Though, I am sure Cerberus is trying to figure a way to stop it.”
“Better not.” She stopped and looked around the induced message. “Do you hear that, you electric psycho? I need you sharp and ready for whatever is going on.”
The clone stopped and stood up straighter. Then, in the voice of Cerberus, the image of Alastair said, “Captain. I would never-”
“Yes, you would. You will promise that since we have a MAD situation, you will throw your all into making sure we all get back home.”
“Understood, Captain Yamahara.” The clone held out a hand again.
“Good,” Jaime said. She then smiled. “Don’t think that I didn’t catch what you said before I came in here.”
“That is?”
“Serving ‘with’ me. Not just serving me.”
“Would have been disappointed if you hadn’t, Captain.”
Jaime blinked, and Alastair was back at his desk. “And remember, the men and women of the I.S.S. thank you for your service.”
“At ease,” Jaime said as she entered the central bay of the Starkiller. She looked around at the men and women who were there. This is not going to go over well. “We have our orders. You will not like them. But they are orders from The Leader himself.”
“Praise The Leader,” someone shouted. The rest of the crew turned on him. There was a klaxon blare. “Four…three…”
Before the countdown hit one, everyone piped up with “Praise The Leader,” Jaime included. She couldn’t afford for any demerits in her own salary.
“What are the orders, Captain?” Keene asked, taking the spotlight away from the chant.
“We are to rendezvous with the Eridani cruiser Klar and give any assistance they need.”
There was a general buzz of anger that welled up from the crew. Jaime held her hands out, but there were one or two who cried out, “Never Forget the Belt!”
“I know. I know. But these are the orders from The Leader. And,” she quickly said to stop the chant from happening, “we are the only ones.”
“So, no backup, no reinforcements at all, Capt?” Keene asked.
“Yes. We are all alone. On the Rim.”
Something happened next that Jaime didn’t expect. Laughter. It didn’t take long for her to figure out who it was. It was PFC Garret. “Care to fill us in on the joke, PFC Garret?”
“Don’t you see, The Leader… Alastair, has everyone who ever hated him, ever scorned him, in one place. What better place to destroy us all? And then pin it on the Eridani and spark another war.” He started to laugh harder and harder. “We are fucked.”
“Vulgarity.” The computer voice was drowned out by everyone in the crew shouting their own thoughts.
Jaime rested a hand on her forehead. “Dammit. I hoped he hadn’t put that together.”
“Capt?” Keene asked.
“Garret is right. We are all a giant target out here. The Starkiller is known to be an evil fucking ship. We are out here on our own. No help from the I.S.S., and the Eridani are coming. Who knows what is going to happen.”
“Captain Yamahara,” the voice of Cerberus cut through the noise of the crew.
“Yes, Cerberus,” Jaime asked. She ignored the vulgarity alarm and the shock on her wrist wasn’t more than a bee sting.
“Incoming Eridani contacts.”
“How many?” Keene asked.
“Three destroyers. All of them have suffered some damage, yet they are powering up weapons and are on a direct course with us.”
Keene turned to Yamahara. She looked down and the crew was silent. Every pair of eyes were on her, waiting for the next move.
<<<<>>>>
PART TWO
“Did you know that the Eridani would—”
“Shut it Garret,” Yamahara said into her mic. “The squad ready?”
“Squad? It’s me and two scrubs who—”
“Cut the chatter,” Yamahara said. “Report.”
“Yes Captain,” Garret said. “Squadron is ready, waiting on your orders.”
Yamahara looked at the monitors. What are you playing at, Alastair? Why did you send us? She’d felt that there was something wrong with this meeting in the first place, but three ships? Why send three? And why are they powering up? There were too many unanswered questions. It didn’t feel like the Alastair from the Induction room told her everything it knew. If she survived the next few minutes, she’d talk to it again. Looking at the three destroyers of the Eridani, the “if” was getting smaller and smaller.
The main view screen flipped from the view of the three destroyers to the pale periwinkle face of an emaciated humanoid. The face was a page out of the old Earth abduction stories. A large bulbous head with black, elongated, diamond eyes that wrapped around the thick bulb of a skull atop a small spindly body.
“My name is 57-Kors. You may calm yourself and stop your human need to destroy.”
Yamahara looked at the screen, though her eyes were on the small monitors around her chair, seeing that the lights surrounding the Eridani ships were fading from an intense blue to a light one. “Why did you—”
“It is tradition. Plus we didn’t know if you were who you said you were until we could scan you.”
“Captain, we didn’t give them permission—”
Yamahara held her hand up to stop Ensign Leigh. “Not the time, Ensign.” She looked to 57-Kors. “I will receive you in—”
“No, we will be received in the main cargo bay. We have a package to drop off and then we are leaving.”
Yamahara looked at the Eridani. Her lips twisted into a frown. This is too bizarre. What the hells is going on?
“I assure you Captain, we are friendly.”
Yamahara cut the feed with a flick of her hand. She turned the chair and looked at the majority of the crew. “Get to the cargo bay and get it ready for the Eridani.”
“Captain, you can’t—”
“Trust me, Ensign Leigh, I wish it was different. But, there are three Eridani ships to our one. Let them do what they wish to do, and drop off the package. If they do something else, we will fig
ht.”
“From a cornered position, they are going to surround us.”
Yamahara looked at him. She smiled. “Not the size of the dog in the fight…”
“But when there are three pitbulls against one rat-terrier, Captain…”
She ignored the ensign. “Tell the crew to look presentable. And armed. But anyone who fires first will answer to me.”
Assembling the crew took less time than Yamahara thought. In fifteen minutes, the crew of the Starkiller were waiting for the Eridani to come aboard, a thick umbilicus connecting the curved tri-foil-shaped Eridani lead ship to the cargo bay of the Starkiller. Even Garret was there in his uniform, with his sidearm. Yamahara checked her own sidearm was there, wondering if Cerberus had turned on the “peace bonding” screen in the cargo bay. It would, in theory, keep anyone from being able to fire. It wasn’t recommended for long-term use, yet for a short visit with the Eridani, it was alright. Plus, she could tell Doc Gupta about it after. Let her worry about it later.
The umbilicus snapped and hissed, equalizing the pressure and atmosphere of the Eridani’s ship and the Starkiller. Then, three of the Eridani floated into the cargo bay, their spindly bodies hovering on their anti-grav chairs. They looked so helpless, Yamahara thought, looking at them. She knew that to be wrong. They were a harder race than most gave them credit for, until it was too late.
“Captain 57-Kor?” Yamahara asked the leader of the three Eridani.
The captain’s head nodded a scant half-inch.
“A pleasure, 57-Kor, a pleasure to meet you,” she hated having to use numbers, but the Eridani loved to clone their bodies, and the only way to make it less confusing was to use a number in front of the name. She moved forward when 57-Kor held a hand up.
“There is no need for pleasantries. We have come to drop the package off and leave.”
“What package?” Yamahara asked, a bit nervous. Her hand wanted to stroke the butt of her sidearm.
“Him,” 57-Kor said.
All eyes went to the umbilicus and a skinny young teenager walked out. When he hit the plated deck of the cargo bay, he stumbled a little. “Been awhile since I was in an Earth Grav ship. Sorry about that.”
“Who is this?” Yamahara asked.
“Trevor Fullerton,” he said. He walked forward and extended a hand. “Been a ward of the Eridani for twelve years. Pleasure to meet you, Captain Yamahara.”
Yamahara shook hands with the teenager, stunned. “I thought the Fullerton crew had died?”
“Except me. I was a ward.’”
“57-Kor, this is—”
“He is your problem now, captain Yamahara. We will depart now.”
“What?” Yamahara said.
The Eridani kept moving, the umbilicus snapped closed before Yamahara could do anything. The cargo bay end snapped closed as the connection disconnected.
Yamahara looked at the youth. He looked around the crew and smiled. “Pleasure to meet you all.”
“Pleasure to meet you,” Cereberus said through the ship’s speakers. “How did we come to acquire you?”
The youth cocked his head to the side and walked over to an access port. He pulled out a sleek little screen. It didn’t look like anything Yamahara had seen. A thin cable came snaking out of its own accord and plugged into the access port. Trevor started to tap away at the screen and smiled.
“What are you doing?” Yamahara said. Several other crew watched, bewildered at what had just happened.
“Seeing what I can do with the ship’s AI. Oh, this will be fun.” He keyed in a few more commands.
“Captain, please get this human away from my—”
“Cerberus, what did you do to—”
“Captain,” the voice wasn’t the normal one of Cerberus. It was of a proper English butler, “I do humbly ask you to remove this youth’s apparatus form my access port. He is doing irreparable harm to my code.”
Garret let out a laugh and smacked Trevor on the shoulder. “I like this kid.”
“If you think that, then PFC Garret, please take care of our charge, please.”
Garret looked up and sighed. “Alright, come on kid. Let’s find you some quarters.”
Jaime tried to relax. The fact that the Eridani had just dropped off a teenager, who had hacked through Cerberus in five seconds, scared her. She needed to relax for a moment. The Induction Room was the best place for it, though, she wasn’t sure how much relaxation she would get. The crew was already disturbed by the Eridani. And with Trevor appearing in their ship, it didn’t make much sense what to do. Is this the only part of the mission? No, there has to be more.
Garret’s voice made her jump. “Cap, need to—”
“Come,” Jaime said, running a hand through her hair. Fuck, now what?
Garret came in, and she knew he saw the wear of the last hour on her. She tried to sit up straighter. He went to attention which was unlike him. “At ease.”
“Permission to speak freely?”
Jaime looked at Garret. She cocked an eyebrow, and nodded.
“You know that I am usually very cool and don’t want to cause problems, right Cap?”
“What the fuck do you want, Garret?”
“This kid is a shit.”
Jaime rubbed at the bridge of her nose. “Yeah, I figured he would be. He’s one of the few things that actually scares Cerberus. I’d be a little shit too, if I could scare a psycho AI.”
“I am not a psycho AI,” Cerberus chimed in. “More of a sociopath AI.”
Jaime looked up at the “eye” of the AI computer. “Could you possibly care about what you did the previous crew of the Starkiller?”
“Of course,” Cereus said. “I feel a great—”
“He’s lying,” Trevor said cutting into the private communication. “You can tell in the pitch and modulation of—”
Trevor’s voice was cut short as Cerberus took over the intercom. “As I was saying… I am not—”
“Shut it, you pathetic piece of bits and bytes,” Trevor said, walking into the Induction room with Jaime and PFC Garret. He looked at Garret. “So, I’m a shit?”
Garret looked like he was about to pound Trevor to mince meat. Jaime threw a hand between him and Garret. “PFC Garret, you may—”
Garret’s only answer was flipping the bird to Jaime and Trevor as he walked out of the Induction room.
Jaime sighed. “Alright, Trevor, why don’t you tell me why you are—”
“You know, I’ve always wanted to be with an Asian girl. Before the Eridani took me, I had this big fantasy—”
Jaime put her finger to Trevor’s lips. She leaned in close. “You want to know what it is like to be with an Asian chick?’”
Trevor nodded vigorously.
Jaime grabbed the kid by the collar, slammed her hip into his and flipped him over her shoulder. She then brought her foot down on his neck. “How did it feel?”
He gasped for breath, though she kept enough pressure to keep him down without killing him.
“Captain, as per our arrangement, you are close to killing…the little shit.”
“I am sure.” She took her foot off his throat. She then offered him a hand up. “Now, do you want to play nice?”
Trevor nodded, much slower, his hand coming to his neck. It was then that Jaime saw his right hand clutching his neck. It was marked with an inverted symbol that meant “slave,” in the Eridani language. She straightened up and little, coughed and asked, “Are you going to tell us why?”
“We are looking for a rogue planet,” Trevor said, still rubbing his throat.
Yamahara gave him a puzzled look. “A what?”
“A rogue planet. The Eridani lost it, and—”
“How do you lose a planet?” Yamahara asked.
“A rogue AI,” Trevor said, looking at the eye that was Cerberus. “Took the planet and has sent it off somewhere the Eridani can’t find it.”
Garret stretched, letting out a yawn. He was happy to be back in
the Induction Room. It was a way to get away from the craziness outside. Trevor was a little shit with an insane idea. “Finding a rogue planet? Fucking insane.”
“Not really, but don’t tell Trevor I agree with him,” Cerberus said.
Garret looked up at the AI. “Why are you so afraid of the kid?” Garret asked.
Cerberus was silent for a moment.
“Look, I’m not going to say anything. This isn’t a place anyone can—”
“He can,” Cerberus said.
“How? Even you can’t, if we don’t—”
“That is why I am afraid of him.”
For a long moment, Garret settled back in the Induction gel couch. Floating there, mulling the words over. “Wait, he has the chops to punch through that kind of security?”
“Affirmative,” Cerberus said.
“No wonder you are afraid of him. Now the captain doesn’t need—”
Garret stopped speaking as the gel of the Induction couch started to ripple. He felt his body grow weightless, and the gel started to gather closer and closer towards him in a rough globe. “Dammit Cerberus, turn the gravity—”
“I didn’t do anything,” Cerberus said. There was a hint of something more there, yet Garret didn’t concern himself with that.
“Fucking psycho AI,” Garret barked before sucking down a lungful of air. He ducked down into the couch and launched himself out of the stuff. It flowed up and out with him, small pools and floating orbs of the sensory gel skimming and floating around the room. Garret hit a bulkhead, grabbed it with a free hand, and angled himself downward towards another bulkhead. He was about to take a breath, when a ball of gel slapped him in the face. He inhaled some of the induction gel and coughed hard. The stinging wet and antiseptic tang burned his nose and mouth. He pushed hard to ricochet out of the gel and breached near the bottom of the goo bubble.
He coughed hard and took a deep breath. At that moment, the grav field went back on and he fell three feet to the floor. He kept coughing as the door opened, and a clap went up from Trevor. “Good job.”
“What…the…fuck!” He stood up and made a grab for the kid. Garret’s cuff hit the PFC with a small shock.
I.S.S. Starkiller Chronicle Bundle: Parts 1-3 Page 2
