“What happened?” Night asked as they reached the end of the ramp and jumped down.
“The shuttle’s gunner kicked Good Twin in the chest,” Witch replied. “He be havin’ some broken ribs.”
“And this is the shuttle’s pilot,” Valkyrie added with a touch of pride in her voice. “After we killed the gunner, it decided to play nicely with us.”
“Does it understand us?” Night asked.
“No, sir,” Valkyrie replied. “It speaks Jotunn, but not any other language we tried. The Shaitans must have some sort of implant system because it speaks Jotunn fluently.”
“What has it said?”
“Nothing much,” Witch replied, handing Good Twin off to the squad’s medic, Corporal Anaru ‘Spuds’ Ngata. “He just asked for us not to be killin’ him. I told him I wouldn’t if he came along nice and quiet, and he did.”
“Lieutenant Contreras, I want you, Valkyrie and Skank to take our prisoner back to the shuttle and see if you can start learning its language. The more we know about them, the better we’ll be able to kick their asses.”
“Yes sir!”
“Gunny Dantone!” Night called.
“Yes sir?” asked the cyborg as he jogged over.
“Take everyone who’s left and start going through the shuttle’s cargo and—” he paused as a transmission came in. “Disregard my last. Set up a perimeter along the path that leads to the town. We’ll have five to ten more Shaitans here momentarily. They’ve already been hit once, so they may be expecting us. Capture them if you can, kill them if you can’t.” He looked pointedly at the remains of the Kuji known as Bill. “I don’t want any more casualties.”
“Yes sir!”
Ducting, Jotunn Ship Falcon, Kepler-186, December 18, 2021
Calvin finished tapping out the five long pulses, his hands shaking so badly he had to concentrate with all his might to make sure the metal ends came in contact correctly. He dropped the wires when he nearly sent a sixth pulse by mistake.
The plan had worked beyond his wildest dreams. The bugs had reported that the robot the Jotunn sent had followed Farhome, who was leading it on a chase toward engineering, somewhere about a mile aft of where he was. It would take a long time for the robot to return.
“We’ve got to go!” Paxton exclaimed as he ran up.
“Why?” Calvin asked.
“The bugs just said there are several robots headed toward us. At least the first two are armed!”
“Just a second,” Calvin replied. “I’m in contact with my ship. It will only take another minute or two…”
“We have to leave now! The robots are only a couple of turns away.” In confirmation, all of the bugs left, scurrying off down one of the passages. Only the Ssselipsssiss remained…and they were edging away.
“We’ve got to go!” Burkuri agreed. “You said we can’t get caught here, remember? They’re going to catch us!”
“I can shoot them if you want,” Karver said.
Calvin sighed. “No, you’re right, damn it. Let’s go.” He took one last look at the wires and then began crawling as fast as he could on his hands and knees in the direction the bugs had fled.
“Lieutenant Commander Hobbs, Vella Gulf. We received your reply and understand you are aboard the Jotunn vessel. The CO says to tell you we’ll be coming for you. Please transmit three long pulses if you copy my transmission.”
Damn it, Calvin thought. No way to reply. They’ll come anyway…I hope.
Cargo Bay, Shuttle 01, Anti-Kepler-186 System, December 18, 2021
Valkyrie led the captive up the shuttle’s loading ramp. While the shuttle was primarily configured for troop seating, the Terrans had left some room for the cargo they were hoping to acquire on the mission.
“That’s far enough,” Valkyrie said in Jotunn as the creature stepped off the ramp and fully into the cargo bay.
Lieutenant Contreras looked the Shaitan over slowly. Although the creature’s body resembled a Terran cow, up close he could see it was actually covered in fine scales that overlapped each other like mail armor. The two sets of hands were generally human-shaped, but the fingers were more spread out around the periphery; not only were the thumb-like appendages opposable, the digits corresponding to the Terran’s pinkie fingers were opposable as well, with four fingers in between. The creature looked at Contreras, slowly opening and closing its upper hands; they closed more like a bird’s claws than human hands.
The similarity to Terran evolution ended at the creature’s head. The two eyes on stalks were unlike anything he had ever seen, destroying any resemblance to a lizard the scales might have given. While the two lower eyes stared back at Contreras, the ones on stalks never ceased moving; they scanned the shuttle from front to back. Up close, the Terran could see two holes under the stalk eyes, which matched a similar set of perforations under each of its lower eyes.
Its mouth was directly under its eyes and seemed larger than normal. It hung open, exposing a mouthful of pointed teeth meant for tearing food to shreds, not chewing a cud, and it appeared to serve double duty as part of the creature’s respiratory system; the Shaitan’s breath went in and out through it. A slight odor of citrus permeated the cargo bay with every exhalation.
Aside from the fist clenching, the alien gave no other visible indication of being tense, if that was indeed what the hand motions meant. It stood still and silent as if patiently waiting for the Terrans to determine its fate.
“So let us talk,” Lieutenant Contreras said in Jotunn as explosions began sounding outside. “I am Second Lieutenant Cristobal Manuel Contreras,” he added when the Shaitan remained silent. Aside from one of the eye stalks turning toward the source of the explosions, the creature neither moved nor flinched. “To whom do I have the pleasure of speaking?”
“Come, come,” he added after another few moments of silence. “My men tell me you speak the language of the Jotunn, so you understand me, yes?”
“He definitely speaks Jotunn,” Valkyrie interjected. “He understood what we were saying to him and obeyed us; he couldn’t have followed our instructions if he didn’t understand.”
“So you do speak Jotunn,” Lieutenant Contreras said. “Then one of two things is keeping you from talking. Either you can’t talk, or I haven’t given you a sufficient reason to. I suspect that if you can understand the language, you can also speak it; therefore, I am left to believe that it is a matter of you choosing not to speak with me.”
He noticed the eye stalk continued to face the open cargo bay door. The sounds of fighting had slackened noticeably.
“If you are hoping your comrades will save you, I am afraid it isn’t going to happen. Our forces have already met yours in battle once and defeated them; they are not going to rescue you.”
“They will come,” the Shaitan said. Its voice was high; far higher than Contreras would have expected from something so large. “They will never surrender, especially to you.”
“What do you mean, ‘they won’t surrender?’” Lieutenant Contreras asked. “You surrendered.”
“Yes, but I am not one of the—” His sentence ended in a harsh squeal. “I only surrendered because I knew they would come for me. They will come. They can’t leave this planet without me.”
“They won’t come,” Lieutenant Contreras stated. “If they won’t surrender, then they will be destroyed.”
“It is not possible. They cannot be defeated, especially by you—”
“I’m sorry, your last word didn’t translate.”
“They will not be defeated by beings from your universe. It is neither permitted nor possible.”
“Permitted by whom?”
“I have said all I am going to.”
“Ah, but I still have questions,” Lieutenant Contreras said. “You still haven’t said how you learned to speak the Jotunn language.”
The Shaitan didn’t respond.
“Well, either your kind is incredibly intelligent and has an excellent language tra
ining program,” Contreras continued, “or you have some sort of implant system in your brain to help you learn. As I have not seen anything to indicate superior intelligence, you must have some sort of implant.”
The creature neither moved nor spoke.
“If you won’t tell us, perhaps we will need to kill you and remove it to find out how it works.”
All of the creature’s eyes turned to the Terran. “No,” it squeaked, “you do not need to kill me. I will tell you what I know.”
“Good,” Lieutenant Contreras said. “I rather hoped you would.”
Outside the Shaitan Shuttle, Anti-Kepler-186 ‘e’, December 18, 2021
“The Shaitans are all down,” Gunnery Sergeant Dantone reported. “All are dead except for one that appears unconscious.”
“How bad off is it?” Night asked.
“Hard to tell,” Dantone replied. “It doesn’t appear to be very badly wounded. There are some superficial cuts but nothing major. It looks like something hit it on the head, though; it may have gotten knocked out. Assuming they get knocked out, that is. It’s down, but it still appears to be breathing.”
“Well, get it tied up and have Spuds take a look at it. We’ll take it back with us and see if we can interrogate it.”
“That’s going to be a problem, sir,” Staff Sergeant Collyn ‘Canary’ Loftis said. “I was moving the unobtanium to our shuttle, and there isn’t going to be a lot of room. We’ve already got the one damn alien in our shuttle, and it’s taking up an ass-load of room. If we bring back another one of these bastards, we’re going have even less.”
“Well, we need to bring back everything we can,” Night said. “We need it for our weapons and to make more transporters. How much are we going to have to leave behind?”
“A lot, sir,” Canary replied. “There’s tons of it in the back of the shuttle. Tons. If we take both the damn cowtaurs, we’re going to have to leave most of it behind.”
“Well, that ain’t gonna work,” Night said.
“We don’t have to bring back the second one,” Dantone said. “I can put it down for good if you’d like.”
“Hell, if you’re going to do that, just give it to the locals,” Lieutenant O’Leary said as he jogged up. “I’m sure they’d love to have one of the Shaitans to play with. The ones I talked to were pretty pissed.”
“No, the damn thing is a prisoner of war, even if it is an alien. We’re not going to kill it, nor are we going to give it to the locals so they can kill it.” Night shook his head. “No, we’re going to have to take it home with us.”
“But what about the unobtanium?” Dantone asked.
Night’s face was grim as he looked around, searching for answers. Finally his eyes stopped moving, and the beginnings of a smile touched the sides of his lips. “Maybe we don’t have to decide which one we’re going to take.”
Lieutenant O’Leary turned to see where he was looking. “Sir, I think you’ve been around Lieutenant Commander Hobbs too long.”
Chapter Nineteen
Bridge, TSS Vella Gulf, Kepler-186 System, December 18, 2021
“Stand by to make the jump,” Captain Sheppard ordered as he scanned the bridge.
“Standing by,” the helmsman replied.
“All defensive and offensive systems operational?” Captain Sheppard asked. They looked ready, but it didn’t hurt to make sure.
“Yes sir,” the officers chorused.
“Make the jump!”
“Jumping now,” the helmsman replied.
Everything flashed, and there was a brief period of nausea, but like the rest of the crew, Captain Sheppard had done it so many times he barely noticed.
“All systems operational,” the duty engineer advised. “Stealth holding.”
“We are established in the anti-Kepler-186 system,” Steropes noted.
“Comms, get ahold of the shuttle and see if they’re ready for pickup,” Captain Sheppard ordered. “We need to get them back aboard before one of the Shaitan ships jumps back in here. We won’t have our normal advantages with the stealth modules blocking our weapons ports. If a couple come back at the same time, it’ll get interesting, and I hate interesting even more than I hate ‘odd.’”
“I’ve got them on my system,” the DSO announced. “They’re close to the rendezvous point, but…” She stared at her monitor.
“But what, DSO?”
“Their signature is all messed up, sir. The shape doesn’t look quite right and the engine harmonics are off…clearing…Sir! I’m getting indications of a Shaitan engine! There’s a Shaitan ship on that bearing! It’s a trap!”
“Keep the stealth up,” Captain Sheppard ordered. “Steropes, what have you got?”
“There is definitely a Shaitan vessel nearby,” the Psiclops replied.
“It’s okay sir,” the communications officer interrupted. “I just spoke with the shuttle crew, and they captured the Shaitan shuttle. It was damaged in the fight, so they had to attach our shuttle to it to get it into orbit. The shuttle crew says the Shaitan ship is full of unobtanium; they are recommending bringing it aboard.”
“Sir, I don’t know if that’s a good idea,” the duty engineer said. “Keeping that much unprocessed unobtanium next to the ship is a recipe for disaster when we jump back into our universe. If it detonates…”
“Yeah, if it goes high order, we’d be destroyed,” the CO agreed. “Still…having a shuttle load would give us a lot of capability we currently don’t have.” He thought for a couple of seconds, weighing the options.
“Get us to the rendezvous,” he finally decided. “We’ll take both shuttles aboard and begin processing the unobtanium through the replicator while we chase the Jotunn. We will stay in this universe as much as possible to keep it stable.”
“How will we know where the stargate is?” the helmsman asked. “I don’t have any data on how to get to the Jotunn home world. If we can’t see where they jump, we run the risk of losing them while we look for the stargate.”
“I’m aware of that,” Captain Sheppard said. “We’ll jump back and forth periodically so we can keep track of the Jotunn. If we don’t stay in our universe long, we shouldn’t have any problems with the unobtanium.”
At least I hope not, he added to himself.
CO’s Conference Room, TSS Vella Gulf, Anti-Kepler-186 System, December 19, 2021
“After we killed the Shaitans,” Night reported, “we realized we didn’t have enough room to bring back all of the metal they had stolen plus the two captives. The only way we could get everything back was to use the Shaitan’s shuttle, but it had been damaged in the fighting, and one of its motors was destroyed. Lieutenant Walsh jury-rigged a way of attaching our shuttle to theirs, and with ours helping we had just enough boost to get both the ships into orbit. It was close, but Harv pulled it off.”
“You trusted their pilot to fly their shuttle for us?” Captain Sheppard asked. “That seems pretty risky.”
“Trusted him?” Night asked. “No sir. I wouldn’t have trusted the Shaitan to do it alone. Lieutenant Walker, our shuttle’s WSO, rode up with it to watch what the pilot was doing, as well as Lieutenant O’Leary and several of our troops. The Shaitan pilot really doesn’t want to die, and Lieutenant O’Leary is really good at threatening bodily harm; it all worked out fine.”
“I didn’t even have to threaten it that much,” Lieutenant O’Leary added. “As long as we kept a couple of weapons on it, the thing pretty much did what it was told.”
“What about the other Shaitan?” the Vella Gulf’s executive officer, Commander Russ Clayton, asked. “That one was one of their soldiers, right?”
“Yes sir,” Night replied. “That one was a lot less tractable. He got knocked out in the fighting, and we hand-cuffed and hoof-cuffed the bastard before he woke up. Good thing we did, too; he did everything he could to break out and attack us even though he was greatly outnumbered. We’ve got to watch that son of a bitch. I don’t trust him as far as I can
throw him, and he’s too big for me to even lift. He has no sense of self-preservation—he just wants to kill us.”
“Interesting,” Captain Sheppard replied. “The two sound completely different. Is there any indication whether that is just their individual personalities, or if they are two different races or nationalities or something?”
“I don’t know,” Night replied, “but we better watch the second one at all times. I told Solomon to keep an eye on him in the brig, but I almost think we ought to have killed him rather than bringing him back onboard.”
“Well, I’m glad you didn’t,” Captain Sheppard said. “We’re not going to start killing them for no reason. We’ll play by the rules of war until we’re told otherwise.”
“Even if they don’t?” Lieutenant O’Leary asked.
“Even if they don’t,” the CO confirmed. “Have we made any progress translating their language?”
“I have been overseeing the effort with the Shaitan pilot,” Lieutenant Contreras said. “The Shaitan soldier refuses to cooperate. I was unable to make much progress until we returned here, and then it was Solomon who made the breakthrough. We are now making great headway.”
“What changed?”
“Solomon realized that part of the Shaitans’ communications are at a higher frequency than we can hear. They use ultrasound to see and communicate with each other, in a technique similar to what dolphins use back home. We couldn’t hear that and were missing out on a lot of the cueing. Just like a lot of Terran speech involves facial movements, tone and gestures, without being able to hear the ultrasound, we were unable to understand the nuances. Once Solomon recognized it, we began to understand their speech. Somewhat, anyway.”
Captain Sheppard turned to Steropes. “Were you aware of this?”
“Yes sir, they told me.”
“What do you make of it?”
The Dark Star War (Codex Regius Book 3) Page 15
