Star Force 10: Outcast

by B. V. Larson

  “I needed the space so I did some…rearranging,” Marvin said.

  I shrugged. It wasn’t so bad. “Fine, just as long as we can put it back the way it was sometime later. Are all four staterooms like this?”

  Marvin squirmed some more. “I only preserved two this way, one for you and one for your woman. The others are—gone.”

  “What do you mean, gone? And she’s not my woman,” I said quickly.

  Cameras stared at me. “I’ve been observing humanity longer than you have existed, Ensign Cody Riggs. I know the physiological and psychological signs of attachment.”

  “Attachment, maybe, as in friendship, but I think it takes a human to know whether another human is ‘his’ or ‘hers.’”

  Marvin performed a tentacle-ripple that passed for a shrug. “My empirical observations suggest otherwise.”

  Ignoring the stupid robot and his unwelcome empirical observations, I squirmed inside to retrieve my clothing, packing it into a pillowcase, then went and got Adrienne’s stuff. I noticed a pair of skimpy underwear but forced myself to shove it all into another pillowcase without thinking about it too much. With the two makeshift sacks over my shoulder, I headed back to Marvin.

  “What else have you done to this ship?” I asked. “Anything of operational usefulness?”

  “I’ve thickened the ship’s armor and improved the efficiency of the magnetic shield. I’ve also rearranged vital systems to be less vulnerable to damage. The ship’s single laser mount has been upgraded with improved sensors, but without access to Valiant’s factory I couldn’t perform more significant alterations. I suspect I could at least triple Greyhound’s usefulness as a combat auxiliary given full access to the factory deck.”

  Unrestricted access to the factory…? I considered the idea briefly, and came up with a resounding response which I didn’t verbalize: No.

  “Coordinate with Warrant Officer Adrienne Turnbull for anything you need from the factory,” I said. “You’re not to use it on your own except in the case of a true life and death emergency.” I pointed my finger at him accusingly. “And don’t go bending that principle. She’s in charge of all production, and while I’m sure she can give you a few barrels of constructive nanites if you ask nicely enough, you’re not getting full control. I don’t want our only factory to be diverted toward some crazy experiment of yours.”

  “Command accepted,” Marvin said. I now realized that when he felt insulted he deliberately talked like a brainbox, like a crewman who exaggerated his “yes, sir” and “no, sir.” He was playing the good, cooperative robot. Well, I wasn’t buying it. Right now he was probably trying to lull me into a false sense of security, building up a bank account of goodwill toward the inevitable time when he would go rogue again. I suspected that only the threat of the Lithos and his lack of a factory under his control had caused him to follow orders up to this point.

  “Good,” I said. “Thanks, Marvin. I have what I need. Good job with your ship. Just keep in mind that other Star Force personnel need to be able to use it if you’re unavailable or incapacitated.”

  “Command accepted,” Marvin repeated in a tone of quiet defiance.

  Apparently, he was still sulking. I ignored him and went back aboard Valiant. Marvin followed at a distance.

  The crew bustled about, and I nodded and smiled at them as I walked through Valiant's passageways. Morale seemed good. We’d gotten out of a tough situation, and under my command at least, we’d only lost a few people. I headed up to the bridge. After checking that everything was all right there, and that we continued to cruise toward our target comet, I spent some time touring the ship.

  In the big factory space at the center of the battlecruiser, I saw Marvin talking to Adrienne. I waved, but she pretended not to notice. I shrugged, figuring she’d get over it.

  Suddenly, I was confronted by Professor Hoon. As soon as the Crustacean saw me, he came scurrying over in his suit. For a moment I regretted not carrying a sidearm. Waving his lobster claws, he said, “You there. Offspring of Kyle Riggs. You still have not apologized for your offense against my person.”

  “And you have not apologized for assaulting me with your claw. And by the way, I now command this vessel and its occupants, so don’t go getting all high and mighty toward me.”

  “I am not part of your military organization,” Hoon replied arrogantly. “I have diplomatic immunity as a representative of the Crustacean government.” In fact, “arrogant” seemed to be his only tone.

  My voice climbed. “Your government and your entire race only exist because my father saved all your watery butts. I tolerate you because you’re supposed to be smart, and we’re going to need everyone to pull his weight. If you’re so damned intelligent, why don’t you come up with some ideas to improve our capabilities or find a way back home?”

  I took a step forward, and despite the fact that Hoon massed several times what I did, he backed up.

  Waving his claws, he spun around and scuttled away, burbling. I looked up to see the rest of the tech team watching and trying to suppress grins. Probably Hoon bugged them, too. I didn’t see any point in them trying to hide their expressions unless Crustacean suits had software that translated our faces. Maybe they did. The lobsters were intelligent and intuitive.

  The factory was churning out nanites and more complex equipment at full blast, but it was running low on critical supplies. Kwon and his marines were on this deck, wearing their battlesuits for extra strength. Adrienne had them carrying the last pieces of dead Macros and other junk to the maw, like a line of worker ants. I was happy to see everyone pitching in.

  I walked up to her, and she looked me over coolly.

  “Everything okay?” I asked. I could have meant with Marvin or with the general situation, but I figured I’d let her answer in her own way.

  “Sure. Everything’s perfect, Captain Riggs, sir.”

  “Excellent. Here are your personal effects,” I said. I handed her the sack of undies I’d retrieved from Greyhound. She looked into the sack then closed it again suddenly. Maybe there was something embarrassing on top.

  “Give Marvin whatever he needs from the factory, within reason, to get Greyhound in shape,” I told her. “I have a new mission for his ship.”

  “Aye, aye, Captain, sir,” she said, still not looking at me.

  “Thank you, Warrant Officer Turnbull,” I countered.

  I thought I saw an eyebrow twitch. When Olivia had done that, she was trying not to laugh. That was good. If Adrienne finally decided the situation was amusing, maybe it meant she was getting tired of our little spat or whatever it was we were having. Quitting while I was ahead seemed like the best idea so I nodded at the technicians and left them to their manufacturing.

  Back on the bridge, Hansen lounged at the helm with just one other noncom on watch. I nodded to him, and he nodded back warily.

  “Fine job yesterday,” I told him, and it was an honest compliment. The man was a crack pilot, and I was happy to have him. “I’ve never seen a better hand at the helm.” That was true too, though possibly just because I had so little experience aboard warships until now. Still, it sounded good.

  “Thanks,” he replied, relaxing.

  I stared at the holotank. “They’re still chasing us,” I said, looking at the forty-odd Litho ships that trailed us in slow motion. I wasn’t sure what to call them. The size of small dreadnoughts, these flying mountains only had the firepower of cruisers or even destroyers. With their thick crystalline armor, however, I bet they could absorb an enormous pounding. Simply blowing one of them apart, even with fusion warheads, would take forever.

  “Yes,” Hansen agreed. “Once we land on the comet, we’ll have about three days before they catch up, assuming they keep coming.”

  “I’m hoping they don’t like the cold. They seem to prefer sunlight. Maybe part of their energy needs come from stellar radiation. It’s clear to me they operate more effectively when they’re warm. Maybe they’ll reach
some kind of limit and stop, like hunters who don’t want to chase their prey too high into the snowy mountains.”

  “Very poetic, sir. I hope you’re right.” Hansen seemed to think for a moment, then he spoke again. “What’s the plan, if you don’t mind my asking?”

  I looked at him in surprise. “Of course I don’t mind. You’re my XO. You can ask me anything you need to.” Turning back to the holotank, I went on, “We’re going to take as much time as we can to repair and prepare. If they let us, we’ll use the factory and the comet materials to build more ships—a bigger force. We need to optimize our weapons against the Lithos.”

  “That could take months,” Hansen objected.

  “That’s right. It might take quite a while.”

  His face darkened, but he said nothing. I wondered if the man had been hoping to be home for Christmas. I just wanted to see home at some point in the future. I still didn’t know who had killed Olivia, and that was a driving force for me.

  That thought gave me a pang of regret. I’d been so busy worrying about staying alive I hadn’t had much time to think about my recent loss or how we’d gotten here. It was still possible there was a traitor aboard this ship. If so, they seemed to be lying low. But I hadn’t forgotten the past. In time, I was sure I’d figure out how this whole “adventure” had started.

  “While we build up,” I said, “Marvin is going to go scouting for us. We haven’t found the ring yet. We have to know how to escape this system if things go badly. It might be anywhere—even inside one of the Litho planets. We need to find it and eventually figure out a way to pass through it.”

  “Why?” Hansen asked. “We could build up and go back to the Panda system with big enough ships to clobber them. Then we can take all the time we need to figure out how to activate the first ring we came through to go home. As I see it, every move we make is taking us farther away into the unknown.”

  “Marvin said the ring only went one direction.”

  “And you trust the robot? I read up on it today. That ring did originally operate in both directions. Macros came through it and invaded the Crustacean world.”

  I thought about that for a moment. “I don’t entirely trust Marvin,” I admitted, “but the other scientists haven’t contradicted him to my knowledge. I don’t think we can beat the Lithos either, not head to head. How are we going to fight our way through that planet-sized defensive structure of theirs? The Pandas haven’t been able to do it.”

  “Maybe they don’t want to,” Hansen said darkly.

  “Why not?”

  “You think the Pandas made the Lithos, right? And once they lost control of them, they turtled-up in their own system. If humans were in that situation we’d never rest until we were able to break out and explore, but maybe the Pandas are different. Maybe they’re content to stay in their own little corner and let the Lithos form an impassible barrier keeping them safe. Maybe they don’t care about what they unleashed down on the other side of their ring. They’re beasts anyway, creatures that eat each other just to say hello.”

  I rubbed my neck, realizing I could use a haircut. “You may be right. But, we might have tried to hide if we had a way to beat the Macros without losing ships. Right now it’s all speculation. Maybe once Marvin cracks their language, we’ll find out more.”

  Hansen eyed me, until I found myself frowning at him.

  “What is it now, Chief?” I asked, him.

  “Do you even want to get back to Earth, Riggs? Maybe you and the robot want to stay out here and have a good time.”

  I almost laughed but realized he was serious. “Of course I want to get home.”

  “Are you sure? Maybe you like command so much you don’t want to give it up just yet.”

  It was my turn to frown. “That’s an unreasonable accusation, Hansen.”

  “Sorry sir. Please accept my apologies.”

  I could tell he didn’t mean it, but I accepted his apologies anyway. I took a deep breath and told myself everyone was under a great deal of stress and that I couldn’t expect them all to be happy with someone who was practically a kid in command.

  Hansen lapsed into silence again, staring at his board. Space travel could be tedious in the great gulfs between planets, though less so than it used to be, with our upgraded engines and stabilizers. Valiant was five times as fast as one of my dad’s old ships.

  I kept quiet as well, playing with the holotank, examining everything the sensors had picked up and the brainbox had collated into one common picture. Data poured continuously into the ship, with everything represented in three dimensions.

  The next few days dragged. We landed on the comet and began mining it. This wasn’t as exciting as it sounded. The surface of a comet when far, far out in space, doesn’t even have a tail. There was very little stellar wind out here to damage its icy surface in any way.

  The comet was cold, dark and forbidding. The sounds of drilling vibrated through the ship night and day as drones worked with marines to chew up chunks of ice and minerals and then transport them into the battlecruiser’s belly. During these days, which quickly stretched into weeks, we managed to make a lot of repairs and replenish our munitions.

  Adrienne didn’t seem to want to talk to me anymore except about work even though I’d made a few overtures to test the waters between us. She was all snap and pop, a veritable caricature of a military officer when near me, and it seemed obvious she was rubbing it in. I had no idea what to do except wait for her to get over it. Or maybe she never would. My heart, already heavily scarred, gained a few more stripes, but I couldn’t allow myself to care. I had people depending on me for their lives.

  Beer helped, fortunately. I’d brought over a sizeable ration from Greyhound, and I was hoarding them in my cabin. I shared a few with Kwon—no one else. It was different with him. He didn’t care about protocol, and he’d known me all of my life. But I couldn’t do that too often, especially not in front of the others. He was a subordinate too, after all. He seemed to be spending his off time with the largest woman in the crew, a petty officer by the name of Steiner who overtopped me by at least two inches. Well, more power to him.

  I was returning to my cabin after drinking with the big man when a feminine figure rounded a corner and bumped into me. It was Doctor Kalu, one of the civilian scientists. She was West African with exotic eyes and dusky skin. I grabbed her to keep from falling over. I was more than a little “bevved up” as Adrienne liked to say.

  Her arms went around me to hold herself up, and I suddenly became aware of her body pressed up against me. In one of those weird moments that only happen late at night when tired, drunk or both. We didn’t let go of each other right away, so we just stood there.

  “Mmm. Hello, Captain Riggs,” she said, looking into my face.

  Dr. Kalu was sleek and tall. She had curves I found unusual and…interesting. More than once I’d caught her staring at me—but then again, lots of women had done that throughout my life. I was semi-famous, after all. I’d gotten used to it.

  She was so close and warm, and I’d denied myself so long... Without thinking, I kissed her—or maybe she kissed me. Soon we were full-blown making out, until a crewman crossed the end of the passageway. Fortunately he seemed not to notice us in the dimness of the night cycle. I broke the clinch.

  “We can’t do this out here,” I said.

  “Then let’s go to your cabin.” She ran her hand up under my tunic onto my naked back, surging my blood to all sorts of interesting places.

  “Yeah, lets.” Befuddled, I stumbled down the corridor toward my cabin holding the woman close to me. Unfortunately, as we passed Adrienne’s door I guess our bumping along the wall was too loud.

  The portal opened, and I heard Adrienne gasp. She stepped into the passage, staring at us.

  Kalu smirked and kissed my ear.

  “Come on, Cody,” she said, tugging me toward my cabin.

  Adrienne’s face went white. I could see it even in the dim l
ight. Abruptly, my higher functions took over and I pushed the sexy scientist away. “That will be all, Dr. Kalu. Thank you for your assistance.” I straightened my uniform as Adrienne continued to stare at me. “Sorry. A bit tipsy. Bumped into her…” I said lamely. Hell, that excuse had gotten me out of some jams before.

  Kalu looked from me to Adrienne and back again, snorted with disdain, and then turned to stalk away.

  “You’re piss-drunk again,” Adrienne accused.

  “It’s not a crime. Neither is socializing with civilians. What do you care anyway, Miss ‘yes, sir, no, sir’?”

  “Socializing? Is that what you call it?” Her expression could have frozen fire.

  “Whatever. I’m going to bed. Alone!” I turned my back on her, not wanting to deal with any more crap. It wasn’t like she was my girlfriend or anything. She wasn’t Olivia. When I reached my cabin, I fell into my bunk and slept.

  From then on Adrienne took great pains to avoid me, and I didn’t bother to force the issue. She’d have to learn to deal with me as I was, not as she wished me to be. I wasn’t some plaster saint. If I wanted to knock back a few and have some fun with a civilian, what business was it of hers? She’d wanted to be in Star Force after all. It wasn’t my fault that meant she had to follow the rules.

  Only later when I had thought about it, did I realize it wasn’t luck that Kalu had just happened to run into me there. The woman had been stalking me like prey. That realization cooled my desire for her. She made it clear on several later occasions that she would like to pick up where we’d left off, but my interest had soured. I didn’t want to be anyone’s trophy, the alpha male prize in a small sexual pool. I guess ol’ Cody Riggs was destined to never get any. There just weren’t many other civilian women aboard, and I’d declared that the Star Force females were out of bounds.

  The crew repaired Greyhound and upgraded her more or less as Marvin wanted. I’d had most of the food and drink brought aboard Valiant. The liquor was well-packed in boxes and locked in the former captain’s cabin with only me allowed inside. Then I sent the robot and his ship to find the other ring. He took the long way around, avoiding the inner planets.