Scrapyard Ship

by Mark Wayne McGinnis

  Jason wasted no time and headed directly towards the center of the group and for High Priest Overlord Lom in his green robes. With one quick movement, the priest’s neck was solidly in Jason’s firm grip. Slowly, Jason lifted the small Craing off his feet, forcing him to hang several feet in the air.

  “You murdering cowards. I’m going to enjoy squeezing the life out of each and every one of you,” Jason threatened, bringing the Craing’s face close to his own and watching Lom’s terrified expression as Jason tightened his grip.

  “Perhaps you will listen to reason, before you snap poor Lom’s fragile neck, Captain Reynolds,” came another voice near by. Startled, Jason almost did exactly that. Instead, he let the high priest fall to the floor in a whimpering heap. At first, he thought he was staring into the face of Ricket, with its similar moving gears, pistons and actuators behind near transparent skin. From behind, the emperor looked nearly identical to the other priests, but under closer inspection there were clear differences. His cream-colored robes were more intricately woven; his headdress was square rather than cylindrical and shorter.

  “I am Emperor Quorp. Yes, I have undergone the transformation of eternity. This is the same process Emperor Reechet underwent over two hundred years ago. Harming us will do you no good. My lineage is long and succession is a simple matter. Understand, tens of thousands of Craing warships reach to the far corners of the galaxy. We have proven, time and time again, that we are the chosen people. Please understand there is no malice, no hatred. We respect and honor those that serve the Craing Empire,” the emperor said, in a calm, deliberate voice.

  Jason caught Traveler’s attention. Just as he’d grabbed Lom moments before, Jason now did the same with the little emperor. All nine of the other priests inhaled in shocked unison. From previous experience, Jason knew the emperor would be nearly indestructible. With a metallic clunk, Jason slammed Quorp’s triangular-shaped head down onto the statue’s solid marble pedestal. Realization set in as two orange orbs looked up at Jason, first confused, then terrified. Jason barely had time to move his hands away before the rhino-warrior’s heavy hammer, with thousands of pounds of pressure behind it, slammed down onto its mechanized skull. It took several blows before the emperor ceased to exist. It may not have accomplished much, but Jason, Traveler and the rest of the team nodded their heads in silent approval.

  Billy bent over the crumpled emperor’s body, and said, “Vete a la mierda.”

  They made their return to the main open area of the Grand Sacellum. Back in the main feeding area, Jason’s HUD indicated that close to a hundred hybrid combatants were making their way onto the concourse outside the two enormous entrance doors. It was just a subtle nod, but Jason and his team, one by one, acknowledged each other.

  Taking in the room again, Jason figured this would be as good a place as any to make their last stand. The men double-checked their weapon’s charge levels. The two rhino-warriors began their characteristic shifting of weight back and forth. Jason got Traveler’s attention and signaled for him to follow. At the front of the Sacellum, Jason looked around. He tried lifting up one of the large solid-rock tables closest to the door on its side. It wouldn’t budge. Traveler understood and hefted a close-by table onto its side with relative ease, which in turn knocked its center caldron to the floor, sending a blaze of sparks and hot coals skittering about. The caldron’s big metal grill continued to roll around, while flakes of charred meat and flesh fell out. With a loud clang the grill finally came to rest near the front doors. Nodding his appreciation, Jason signaled for the other rhino-warrior, Silent Hunter, to help flip more tables, creating a major obstruction into the room. The team repeated the process with tables at the very back of the Sacellum. Here is where they would make their last stand, Jason thought to himself. The big rock donuts would be perfect cover.

  There was knocking at the front door.

  “What are they going to do, ask to come in before shooting us?” Billy asked, looking over to Jason.

  With a shrug Jason made his way back up to the Grand Sacellum’s front doors, a difficult passage with the upturned tables and still glowing hot coals strewn about. While the remaining four SEALs took up positions behind back tables, both Traveler and Billy accompanied Jason.

  According to his HUD, several hundred hybrids had taken up positions around the concourse outside. But the one standing on the other side of the door was not only being read as human, but also United Planetary Alliance personnel. Jason looked to Traveler and Billy—both gestured for him to open it. Jason cracked open the door and peered outside. Nothing could have prepared him for what he saw, not in a million years.

  Chapter 23

  The last time Jason saw his brother was close to seven years. That was before Brian had been reported killed in a friendly fire incident in Iraq. He’d attended his brother’s full-honors military funeral; visited Brian’s grave at Arlington National Cemetery on two occasions. Now his brother, if this was his brother, stood before him wearing a standard spacer’s jumpsuit and looking no worse for wear.

  “Hi Jason,” Brian said.

  Jason didn’t respond at first, only stared into his older brother’s face. He felt the anger rise in him. He’d grieved for his brother. And here he was, standing in this doorway and acting as if none of that had mattered. Jason nudged the door open with his left foot, while simultaneously letting loose his right fist towards his brother’s smiling face. The blow hit Brian below his eye, sending him sprawling to the ground.

  “I guess I deserved that,” Brian said, rubbing his cheek. “But you only get one, next time, I’ll kick your ass.”

  Jason assessed his brother who was slowly getting to his feet. He’d be thirty-eight now and there were a few grey hairs at his temples. “When we were young kids, I was about six, you were eight, I stole something from your room. Something important,” Jason said.

  “You stole my G.I. Joe. And up until now, you’d never admitted it, you shit,” Brian said, with a friendly scowl.

  It was his brother Brian. But how? Jason wondered to himself. He stepped aside and let his brother pass through. Out on the concourse, a small craft sat with its gangway lowered.

  They found one of the few unturned tables and sat across from each other. Jason had removed his helmet and waited for his brother to say something.

  “Sorry about the whole charade, having to attend my funeral and all. I guess seeing me here, still alive, brings up a few questions.”

  “You think?”

  “I’d always suspected something was fishy about dad’s disappearance, or so-called death. So when he contacted me, I wasn’t completely surprised. Although when he told me he was fighting aliens thousands of light years from Earth, well, that did shock me. His intention was to bring you along as well. The Alliance needed officers, and Dad needed people he could trust.”

  “So what happened, Brian? Why the hell are you here? Why are you with the Craing?” Jason asked, clearly disappointed.

  “I’m what you’d call an emissary. I negotiate with other humanoids on their behalf. But to back things up a little, I was captured by the Craing two years after I’d joined the Alliance. I’d been through HyperLearning on The Lilly, trained as a space-fighter pilot and eventually given a small battle cruiser to command. Two months later a Craing warship stumbled upon our small fleet and obliterated it. I spent months in one of those confinement cages. As far as I know I was the only survivor.”

  Jason looked over the dancing flames of the caldron at the center of the table and raised his eyebrows. “What kept you from being barbecued like everyone else?”

  “I think it was my big mouth.” Brian hesitated before continuing, as if looking for just the right words to say. “Let me be perfectly clear here, right from the get-go, Jason. I’m not a traitor to the Alliance, and especially not to Earth. Dad might not see it that way, but I’ll let you decide. Fair?”

  Billy, standing near by, gestured to his helmet. Jason held a finger up for his
brother to hold on for a second. With his helmet back on and able to see his HUD again, Jason could see that additional contacts, mostly hybrids, had taken up positions across the catwalks at their backs. They were now flanked from both sides.

  “Go ahead, Brian, tell me how you’re not a traitor to your planet and family.”

  “I’m not, in fact, just the opposite. Do you think it’s an accident the Craing have stayed away from Earth these last few years? Not only did they want to infiltrate earlier, they planned to make Earth their seat of power. To them, Earth is the jewel of the galaxy. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve manipulated them to divert their fleet elsewhere, gone so far as to instigate wars hundreds of light-years away in distant sectors.”

  Jason shook his head, not seeing it. “Why haven’t you escaped, gone back to the Alliance or even Earth?”

  “As a Craing emissary to a humanoid race on another planet, one similar to Earth, I fell in love. She was my counterpart; she was negotiating for the survival of her people. She came to realize that I was working on her behalf far more than for the Craing. Although the natural resources of her world have been plundered ruthlessly, the people there have gone untouched. I live on this planet, Jason. She’s now my wife, we have two kids.” Brian looked at Jason and shrugged, almost apologetically.

  “And let me guess, the Craing use that as constant leverage to keep you as their emissary?” Jason asked. Brian simply shrugged again, seemingly resigned to how things were.

  “So what do you want from me, Brian?”

  “I want to keep you alive, Jason. I want to continue to protect Earth. And I can do that if you let me. Let me do what I’m good at. I have the emperor’s ear.”

  “So you don’t know,” Jason said, more of a statement than a question.

  “Know what?”

  “The Craing destroyed The Lilly, with Mollie, Nan, and Dad on board. I’ve lost everything I care about. What could you possibly offer me now?”

  Brian’s mouth fell open. It was a while before he spoke again. “I’m so sorry, Jason, I didn’t know.”

  “Oh, and I wouldn’t put too much faith in the emperor’s ear thing, The high point of my day was watching Traveler here use his heavy hammer to flatten his ugly skull.”

  “He’s here, on board now?”

  “What’s left of him,” Jason said, nodding his head.

  “I knew he was with the fleet, but I had no idea he was here. Jason, you have no idea what you’ve done. What you’ve done to Earth.”

  “I did what you should have done the first time you were in the emperor’s presence,” Jason replied, “and by the way, Earth’s their next stop.”

  Brian got up and turned to leave, then turned back to his brother. “I’m sorry, truly I am. But there is nothing I’ll be able to do for you now.” With that Brian turned and left through the Grand Sacellum’s front doors.

  How could he? Even indirectly helping the Craing was unthinkable. Jason felt sick at the thought of his brother continuing to do the Craing’s bidding.

  “I’m not going to sit here and wait for them to come through the front doors. What do you say we cause some trouble?” He got up, checked his weapon’s charge level, and headed for the rear of the Grand Sacellum.

  * * *

  He counted about one hundred hybrid contacts strategically positioned on the lower level catwalks—presumably with their pulse weapon sites trained down on anything on the move into the open courtyard below—cutting off access to any of the eight lifts. At first it looked hopeless, no way out. But under closer scrutiny the lift shafts did have heavy metal-sided bulkheads, and the lifts themselves seemed to be fairly well-shielded from the hybrids.

  “Traveler, Silent Hunter, we need to get onto the lifts without getting ourselves killed.” He scurried over to several overturned tables. “Can you break off all but one of those table legs?” Jason asked, pointing to the solid rock, twelve-foot diameter tabletop. Traveler grunted, and the two of them put their heavy hammers to use until a single table leg protruded from the back of the table.

  “Perfect, now let’s do the same thing with the other table,” Jason said, seeing a rough, though ludicrous, plan come together in his mind. With a rhino-warrior positioned behind each table, along with three SEALs, the warriors lifted the tables onto their rims. Using the table leg as a lever—together, they began to roll the tables forward in the direction of the courtyard. With the two teams huddled behind both tables, they slowly made their way out into the open.

  Plasma fire erupted from above but couldn’t penetrate the solid rock tabletops. Jason was the first to trip and almost got himself killed when he momentarily fell beyond the table’s protection. But once they’d all gotten into the rhythm of jumping over the table leg as it came around, things started to go a bit smoother. Staying clear of the open cutout was also tricky and if it weren’t for their hardened combat suits several legs may have been blown off. Jason’s group made it to the first lift. The second team had another few moments of rolling to do.

  Jason heard Billy, who was part of the second team, spew a string of derogatory comments over the comms, something about all the crazy shit Jason comes up with. Once in front of the lift, their next problem was keeping the table upright. It took a few tries before the rhino-warriors simply spun the table in place and the leg was back at the bottom, providing enough coverage while everyone ducked into the lift. Jason turned the mechanical lever for the lift to move upward. According to his HUD the top decks were clear of combatants. Plasma fire continued to pound the lift’s heavy metal doors as they progressed past the lower decks. At Deck 8, Jason stopped the lift and opened the doors. He checked his HUD, and then peeked out. It seemed clear, but the hybrids were already clambering into the other lifts below.

  “Can you disable those lifts before they reach us?” Jason asked, looking over to Traveler and Silent Hunter. Without answering they headed off down the catwalk, heavy hammers raised high. Looking out at the wide-open corridor, Jason realized he was back where he had started. His father’s cage had been somewhere close to this same spot. Dark smoke rose in the distance. Billy and the other team joined Jason on the catwalk.

  Jason tried to reach the two SEAL teams holding the bridge again without any luck. Behind them were the thousands of Deck 8 confinement cages that stretched miles into the distance. He avoided looking into the cages. Mealtime preparation for the Craing had come and gone and only partial body parts remained. The catwalk deck plating shook in accordance to Traveler’s and Silent Hunter’s heavy hammers going to work on the lift mechanisms, bending guide rails, smashing pulleys, and dislodging cables. At least for the time being, they wouldn’t be dodging plasma pulses. Their relief was short-lived though. Three Serapins were headed their way from the other end of the catwalk. Their approach should have been indicated earlier; something was wrong with his HUD.

  According to his readings, the rapidly approaching icons were just the tip of the iceberg; at least ten more were headed their way. The catwalk was wide enough for Jason, Billy and the other four men to stand side-by-side. With weapons raised, they waited for the raptor-like beasts to come close enough to target accurately. At fifty yards, they opened up on them. Short bursts had little or no effect; only combined sustained plasma blasts from multiple weapons had any real effect. The fallen Serapins were quickly trampled. At ten yards out, Jason’s team walked backwards as they fired. Three Serapins lay dead on the catwalk, ten remained.

  At this near-distance, the beasts pace had slowed some. Smoldering black burn marks covered their bodies. Ever determined, they trudged forward, their large jaws snapping with anticipation. At five yards, Jason and the others dropped their rifles and accessed their Ka-Bars. Mallory, the SEAL to Jason’s left, was the first to die with most of his upper torso disappearing into a Serapin’s mouth. As its jaws gnashed and tore at the still-kicking SEAL, Jason brought his Ka-Bar down onto the Serapin’s skull, killing it instantly. With hands slick with blood, Jason fo
und it nearly impossible to get a solid grip on the hilt of his knife. Jason and Billy continued to fight on, side by side, just as they had done countless times before. But now, exhaustion had set in. Jason realized this would be their final battle.

  Together they would die here fighting the Serapin. As the realization set in, he was perfectly fine with that. That is until both he and Billy were picked up and thrown several yards backward. Hammers raised, and this time hand-held plasma weapons firing, Traveler and Silent Hunter engaged the Serapins. Another SEAL had gone down in the meantime. Billy, still sitting on his ass, looked over to Jason.

  “So we do all the work and they barge in and take all the credit. I see how it works.” In the end, the Serapins would be defeated, but not before Silent Hunter lost most of his horn and Traveler an ear.

  “Billy, have you been able to contact the bridge teams—or any of the teams, for that matter?” Jason asked

  “Not since the train. HUDs acting weird too,” Billy said. He’d removed his helmet and wiped the sweat from his face. “What’s our next move, Cap?”

  Jason took in the scene around him. They’d all taken off their helmets and were leaning up against the confinement cages behind them. The two rhino-warriors, Petty Officer Rizzo, Billy, and Jason stared across several hundred yards to other decks and identical confinement cages. There had been constant movement over there, just two levels down, but no one noticed.

  Perhaps it was exhaustion, but when Petty Officer Rizzo’s shoulder gushed red in a bright flash, and plasma bolts erupted all around them, there was no place to hide or run to, or anything to take cover behind. If it hadn’t been for their hardened combat suits, they would have been killed in seconds.