The Star Traders: The Star Traders Series Volume One

by Gary W. Feather

  “She’s coming, captain.” Lynna said.

  In a few minutes Catriona Zhou came walking inside carrying a blaster. “Thank the Goddess you’ve gotten here! Dorothea is fucking nuts. I never cared for my third cousin. Did I ever to you that, captain?”

  Alberta smiled at her chief engineer. Catriona was just under five foot, with a round flat face and brown skin. She also had a brilliant engineering mind. “More than once as I recall.”

  “Humph.” Catriona replied. Then gave her daughter Tilly and tight hug. “Tilly! Your safe.”

  “So far, mom!” Tilly laughed.

  “Is your other mother with you?” Catriona asked.

  “No. I don’t know where she is.” Tilly shrugged with a worried frown. Alberta knew that Catriona’s wife and Tilly mother was Mabbina Zhou. A well respected Yin Confederation painter.

  Catriona Zhou pulled out her tablet to show Alberta a map of the engineering deck. “Here’s the area we hold and here’s the area they’re holding. They control the antimatter reactor, the FTL control/maintenance rooms, and the control/maintenance rooms for stern and bow plasma ion engines. Mostly we control the maneuvering rockets.”

  “Okay.” Alberta nodded.

  “We need to control the FTL engines.” Piper pointed at the map. “Get some people through here and there.”

  “Could we jump Guinevere out of here if we held the FTL engines?” Alberta asked Catriona.

  “Yes. I don’t like it, but yes we could do it.” Catriona nodded grimly. “I’d rather have navigations calculating the hyperspace jump for we’ll be doing it almost blind.”

  “Damn it.” Alberta said. “We might try it.”

  #

  “Captain, you should see this!” Mindy waved her tablet. Then she stopped at looked at the consoles in the room. “I need a bigger for this. Can I?” Mindy looked at the chief engineer.

  “Go ahead. Let’s see what you have.” Catriona Zhou pointed at station.

  “Thank you, ma’am.” Mindy dropped into the chair and quickly connected the tablet to the station console. She looked at a data screen before bringing it up on a visual screen. “This is where we are. Kansbar star system.”

  “So this is the system Ellie jumped us into.” Alberta rubbed her chin. “What’s that?” Is that an approaching spacecraft?”

  Mindy glanced over the info on two data screens. “That’s what the sensors are telling me. No. Two spacecraft. The larger one is as big as Guinevere. I’ll have a better image of them soon. Let me just…there.”

  The image appeared of the two approaching vessels. Alberta recognized them immediately.

  “Lorkiiz!” Alberta said it like a curse. It still felt like a curse to her as she remember the nightmare of being captured by that brutal alien race. Alberta rubbed her chin and felt her hand shake. She made a fist. Calm down. Don’t them see you panic! Damn it. Alberta felt Piper loving hands on her shoulders. Caressing. Caressing. The kiss on her neck helped her relax. Oooh. I needed that. Alberta and the others watched helplessly as shuttles flew over from the two Lorkiiz starships. We’re being invaded. Why would Ellie let this happen? Alberta with a growl. “Lorkiiz are invading my starship! We need to get control back and stop them bastards.”

  #

  Alberta saw everyone were watching her. Of course they want me to tell them what to do. I hate this. Which of them will die following me? Damn it. We’re civilians not military women.

  “Now is the time we take this engineering back.” Alberta looked upon all the women standing in the room. “Let’s go.”

  “Uh, I already sent Keiko ahead with most of the security women.” Piper told Alberta.

  “Fine.” Alberta touched Piper’s cheek. Alberta’s other hand held her stunner. “Let’s join them.”

  “Right.” Piper nodded with a blaster rifle in her hands.

  Alberta was wise enough to know she had no business leading them into…battle. This was a situation where Piper’s skill and training needed. Alberta was more of a ship-handler and trader type of leader, not that she hadn’t been in some tough scrapes in her day. Right now I’m just the figure head that my people need. My woman knows what to do.

  Alberta and Piper led the way to where Keiko and her security people had joined with Catriona’s engineers. It turned out that Keiko had taken command and pushed the enemy out of one of the large FTL control/maintenance rooms. No one was inside the reactor rooms for neither side wanted to damage them. The radiation or explosion would kill everyone on the starship.

  Alberta took command with Piper telling everyone what to do. Dorothea Zhou’s her third shift crew defenders found themselves outgunned and outnumbered. A lot of shots were fired but not too many hits were made, especially in the case of the blasters. It was a fight betweens sisters and cousins. So far neither side wanted to kill the other if they didn’t have to. I wonder how long that attitude will last?

  “Captain.” Catriona Zhou announced. “As of now no one on the bridge can control any of the engines.”

  “Good job, Catriona.” Alberta placed her hands on her hips. “Any possibility that we can get out of this system?”

  “Give me a hand with the navigations calculations and maybe we can do it.” Catriona replied. Alberta smiled for it almost sounded like a whine to Alberta’s ears.

  CHAPTER ONE HUNDREDELEVEN

  Fighting for the engineering deck

  Alberta saw Mindy nearby and searched around for her communications chief Agatha Gee. Alberta whistled when she saw her. “Agatha! Come over here!”

  “Coming captain!” Agatha had been working with an engineer on a station’s data screens. Agatha raced over to her captain.

  “I get a message out to the authorities back in Yin Confederation space.” Alberta waved Mindy Bettencourt over. “Work with Mindy. She’s our best hacker. Together the two of you might be able to do something.”

  Agatha gave Mindy a friendly smile and raised her tablet. She wanted to record Alberta’s message with her tablet. “What’s the message?”

  “SOS! SOS! We are in the Kansbar star system. Two Lorkiiz starships have captured starship Guinevere with the help of Acting Senior Captain Ellie Williams and Second shift crew Cargo Chief Tawny Williams. Junior Captain Alberta Williams and crew are trying to defend Guinevere. We need help! SOS! We are in the Kansbar star system and are being attacked by the Lorkiiz! Help! SOS! SOS!”

  “Got it, captain.” Agatha nodded. “We’ll get to work on that.”

  “Right.” Mindy added. The two women walked off together.

  #

  Alberta received a call on her tablet. Ellie Williams’ face appeared on its screen.

  “Hello, Ellie. How’s things with you?” Alberta gave her best tilted rogue of a smile.

  “I’ve sent security people to engineering.” Ellie frowned. “From what I’ve been told by Dorthea Zhou you’ve kicked her out of engineering, but one has been killed so far. Let’s not go that far, Alberta. I know you don’t want to go there. Yes?”

  “True.”

  “If you surrender now no one has to get hurt.” Ellie said. “I’ll permit you, your wife, and daughters to leave Guinevere in peace. I promise not to sue or pursue legal matters against you over this matter. I’ve sent a signed agreement to you for consideration. Just sign it, Alberta. Please.”

  “I’ll take a look at the agreement with Jo Grant Williams and speak to you again about it afterward.”

  “Thank you. That’s all I ask.” Ellie gave her best fake smile.

  “Do we have a ceasefire at the moment?”

  “Yes. For uh…twenty four hours.”

  “Good. Thanks, Ellie. I agree to the ceasefire.” Alberta nodded.

  “At least we have that.” Ellie nodded.

  “We’ve seen the two Lorkiiz starships approaching Guinevere with no hostile intent. Did you make a deal with them? You can’t trust them.”

  “They have a agreed to assist me with your mutiny.” Ellie replied. “I can ha
ndle the Lorkiiz. You just need to surrender.”

  “I’ll think about it.” Alberta replied. Ellie nodded and her face vanished from the screen.

  Alberta lower her tablet. She gave a silent prayer to the Goddess that Ellie would keep the ceasefire agreement. I sure hope Agatha and Mindy can get that message out. Two Lorkiiz starship sitting out there and Ellie actually working with them. Damn.

  #

  An hour later Alberta heard shouts and blaster fire from where Alberta and her women had entered engineering. “What’s going on?” she asked Piper. They were seated at an auxiliary station in FTL engine control room B. Alberta’s chief engineer Catriona was monitoring things from the room’s main control station with with one of Catriona’s engineers.

  Piper tapped at the data screens and shook her head with a grim face. “Heidi says were being attacked.”

  “Damn it! Ellie promised. The bitch!” Alberta’s fist struck her chair arm.

  “No. Heidi is telling me their aliens.” Piper shook her head. “Lorkiiz and they’re armed with blaster rifles. Heidi lost two security women and she’s in retreat.”

  “Damn it.” Alberta stood up. “How many of them are there?”

  “I don’t know.” Piper sighed. The visual screen blink on and Keiko’s face appeared. “Keiko?”

  “Piper, Heidi just got here.” Keiko looked worried. “She told me a large Lorkiiz force is headed this way. Hundreds of the damn things. She slowed them down by a leaving a few grenade booby traps, but that won’t slow for long. I don’t think we’ll be able to hold them. I can try to-”

  “No. Don’t try. Pull back to we are at FTL engine control room B.” Piper gave a look. Alberta recognized her wife’s unspoken question. She wants to know if its okay for her to give that order. Alberta nodded her confirmation of the order. Piper smiled back. “We have more options here.”

  “Yes, ma’am.” Keiko nodded. “On our way.” The visual screen went blank.

  Alberta noted something Keiko had said with raised eyebrows. “Grenade booby traps?”

  “Oh, uh. “That was Keiko’s idea.” Piper shrugged. “But I told her only if we had no choice. I didn’t really want to use them on our own relatives.”

  “Good.” Alberta snorted with a head shake. “Anyway I need to get everyone gathered together just in case we have to run for it.”

  “Where will we go?”

  “Not sure.” Alberta crossed her arms and paced forward. She spun around. “Flight deck might be closest for now.” Alberta nodded to herself. “Flight deck. Yes.”

  #

  Alberta and Piper organized everyone once they reached FTL engines control room B. They got a barricade set up to slow the alien invaders. Most of the non-security women raced through FTL engine control room C to where two elevators waited for them. They’d been told to take the elevators to the flight deck A and the rest would follow later. Alberta waited with her sister Doctor Amy Menendez, Nurse Tilly Zhou, and three other nurses by the auxiliary station. Tilly’s mother Catriona Zhou was back with the rest of the non-security people. Amy and Tilly are here to take care of the wounded security women who’ll get shot when the Lorkiiz attack this room. So what the fuck am I doing here? Captain Dunsil?

  Alberta heard Piper shouted, “Here they come!”

  Alberta left the medical women to get a closer look from behind the barricade. The Lorkiiz marched forward on their four powerful bare legs. A dull brown cloth covered their torso with a yellow cloth covering their tails. They looked almost like Komodo dragons, except for the elephant trunk-like arms attached to their long necks. Each one carried an alien blaster rifle in their arms and their lower tusks gave them a horrifying appearance. Alberta knew the leaders cover be recognized by the sphere they wore on their head. A hat? A leader with a red sphere led about thirty armed Lorkiiz towards the barricade. The Lorkiiz screamed a weird hissing war cry as they attacked.

  “Fire! Fire!” Piper screamed at her security women.

  Charging Lorkiiz went down under blaster fire. They looked like lizard centaurs. A woman nearby Alberta fell back with a scream. The side of her face burned and bleeding from a Lorkiiz blaster shot. She’s still alive! Alberta pulled her back to Amy and Tilly, who went to work on the woman’s wounds. Alberta stood back feeling helpless with her stunner in its hip holster. Well I didn’t want to hurt anyone. Of course I didn’t know at the time that the Goddess damn Lorkiiz were going to invade my starship! Alberta raced back with an antigravity trolley for wounded. She quickly pushed the trolley back to the nurses to help the wounded woman.

  “Ready grenades!” Piper shouted to her women. “Throw!”

  Alberta had returned again for a wounded women and had placed her on the trolley. Now Alberta protected the woman by leaning her own body over the wounded woman. She heard the grenades explode and the floor under Alberta and the woman shook savagely. The wounded woman whined for she must have been too weak to scream.

  “It’ll be okay, honey.” Alberta wasn’t sure what to do. So she gave the young woman a motherly kiss on her bloody forehead. Alberta pushed the trolley towards Amy and Tilly as fast she could.

  “Damn it! Here’s comes the next wave of them!” Piper shouted. “Retreat! Everybody! Retreat!”

  Alberta looked back as she reached Amy. Alberta recognized she was breathing hard partly fromt pushing the trolley several times but mostly from fear. Shit! Piper and her security women were retreating. Damn! Now what?

  “We need to get the wounded to the elevators!” Alberta told Amy.

  Amy nodded. She had blood covering her operating robe, which she quickly pulled off and left on the floor with her gloves. “Let’s do it, captain.”

  Alberta, Amy, and Piper got everyone retreated to the elevators as the Lorkiiz onslaught continued towards them. Alberta sent others ahead of her in the elevators. She waited with Piper to go up in the last trip. Everybody got in with a few more blasts at the charging Lorkiiz. The doors shut and the elevator took off.

  CHAPTER ONE HUNDREDTWELVE

  Mistakes she has made

  Lorkiiz are everywhere! I’m losing control of this! Ellie Williams cried with her head down on the desk in the captain’s officer by the bridge. Alberta was right. I shouldn’t have trusted them. Ellie wiped her eyes and stood up. She’d been told that the Lorkiiz was walking around everywhere on Guinevere. They weren’t just looking for Alberta and her people. They’re trying to figure out the starship’s computers and how to control it. They’re threating everyone. They’re demanding we tell how things work on the starship. They want to steal her from me. From us!

  #

  Ellie buzzes the locked door of Tawny Williams’ quarters. The door opens.

  “Yes? Ellie? What is it? Come on.” Tawny smiled and held out a hand.

  Ellie entered. She screamed about her fears. Ellie found herself pacing back and forth in the front room of Tawny’s quarters.

  “I-I don’t know what to do either, Ellie.” Tawny admitted after several minutes of silence.

  “What?”

  “I tried speaking with the admiral in command of the two Lorkiiz starships, but she or he or whatever wouldn’t say what is going on.” Tawny squeezed her hands together for they were shaking. “I don’t know what to do either, Ellie. The Lorkiiz admiral said something about trade. This was trade or something. I don’t understand them aliens!”

  “You said you know how to handle them!” Ellie felt a tear roll down her cheek as screamed.

  “I don’t kno-I was wrong!” Tawny looked at her feet like a little girl in trouble.

  “Goddess damn it!” Ellie grabbed Tawny by her blouse and shook her.

  #

  Ellie ran out of Tawny’s quarters and returned to her captain’s office by the bridge. She sat in the chair for a few minutes before forcing out the courage to call the admiral of the Lorkiiz starships. The Lorkiiz admiral’s alien lizard face appeared on the desk’s visual screen.

  “Heellloo?” the alien
said. Ellie swallowed her supper.

  “Hello, admiral.” Ellie replied. “I want to talk to you about your people running around my starship without permission.”

  “Yes.” The admiral replied.

  “Our agreement was that they would only help me stop the mutineers on my starship. But they are threatening my loyal crew and wanting to know how my starship works. They’re demanding passwords for excess to important areas of my starship. This was not in the deal. This is my starship. I will not allow this!”

  “Yes.” The admiral made a new sound that Ellie had never heard the alien utter before and it sounded like laughter.

  “What?”

  “Trade? To us trade is what we take. We want what you have and we take it from you. If you can stop us then we can’t take it from you. Trade.” The admiral laughed.

  “Th-That’s not trade! That’s piracy!”

  “Piiraceee!” the admiral paused before adding. “A good word.”

  Ellie screamed. The Lorkiiz admiral’s face vanished from the screen.

  Ellie blinked her tired eyes and rubbed them. She’d been awake been awake longer than she should have. Long time ago when I was I young I could stay up long hours partying or studying, but not anymore. Ellie used a key to open a little metal box on the desk. Inside was the hypo-spray syringe with the stimulant that she was using. After this is all over I’m going to crash horribly from this drug use. Damn it. I’m almost a hundred years old. Too old to be using this shit! Ellie bit her lip and inject the stimulant into her arm. She rubbed her arm and started feeling better after a few minutes.

  The acting senior captain straightened in her chair and went to work one last thing she had to do for her family and Guinevere.

  #

  Ellie entered the bridge where Junior Captain Cindy Williams stood beside her executive officer. They both looked back at her. They smiled and gave her a nod. But Ellie could tell that neither of trusted her anymore. It was just so obvious now that Alberta was right and she’d sold them out to damn aliens. This is not what I wanted! I didn’t really want Alberta dead that was Tawny stupid I did. Why the fuck did I start sleeping with her? Why? She never spoke any of her thoughts out loud, but heard her voice tremor when she spoke.