Yep. That kind of week.
With a huff, I flung myself back into my chair. “Did you at least find out something about the computer?”
He nodded thoughtfully. “The computer has been sabotaged.”
“I thought it was keyed to you?”
“It is. And yet somehow, it’s been hacked.”
As if triggered by his words, a klaxon warning began bleating throughout the ship.
“Computer, display,” Dax ordered.
The screen in front of us changed to show another spaceship popping into view. It was big and gray and lumpy, not at all the kind of sleek battleships I was used to seeing in sci-fi movies.
“What is that thing?” I found myself cringing back in my chair, trying to get away from it.
“That is a Karlaxon warship. I believe we are about to be boarded,” Dax said, moving to open some sort of storage unit on the back wall, revealing what I suspected were weapons.
“Is that ship as much bigger than us as it looks?” I asked.
“Absolutely. That ship is probably ten times larger than mine.” He sounded awfully calm for a man whose spaceship was about to be boarded.
“Wouldn’t it make more sense for them to just, I don’t know—tractor-beam us in or something?”
Dax chuffed lightly. “Is that a technology your people have? Because I do not know of anything like that.”
“No—just something I saw in a movie once.”
“Wait here,” Dax instructed. “The computer is working on getting us out of here. I’ll try to hold them off in the meantime.”
And then he was gone, leaving me alone on a ship in space with a bunch of hostile aliens coming to get us.
This just keeps getting better and better.
Chapter Eight
Dax
I maintained my composure long enough to get off the bridge and close the door behind me. Once outside in the core door, however, I leaned back against the green wall. For once, its color did little to soothe me.
I stood there gasping, trying to catch my breath. I had fought in hundreds of battles, many of them much more dire than the one I was about to face against the Karlaxons. Something was different this time.
This time, I had a mate to protect. I had something real to lose.
That simply means that I have more to protect.
I inhaled deeply and blew the breath out slowly, centering myself.
I can do this.
I could destroy these invaders who wanted to eliminate our way of life, who had been working to take our mating options away from us.
The Karlaxons thought they could destroy us from the inside by making our mates infertile. Perhaps they believed such a blow would dishearten us, make us think we had nothing left worth fighting for.
They were wrong.
They might have made the Drovekzian females infertile. But one of our scouts, Jalek, had found an alternate source of females to become our mates.
All the Karlaxons had done was illustrate how fragile our world was, how easy it was to take our mates from us.
That had been a mistake on their part.
And I was about to show them just how mistaken they had been to target us.
We would prevail.
Starting now.
My inner beast growled his agreement, and I pushed off the wall, heading toward the primary airlock.
The Karlaxon platoon had already begun pouring into the ship by the time I got to my position above the airlock, tucked into the machinery lines running through the ceiling area behind the tiles, which I had moved just enough to see the corridor below.
It had been foolish for me to make this trip alone, even if this scoutship was small enough for a single-person crew.
But I had wanted to make it a leisurely trip so I could get to know my mate.
And perhaps if I hadn’t turned off the AI’s personality function, it would have reported to me that it had been hacked—but again, I had wanted to be alone with my mate.
When I turned the AI function back on, it had barely been willing to talk to me. I didn’t think computer AIs could sulk. But if they could, this one definitely was.
Even now, it wasn’t answering the queries I was silently keying into my wristcom.
Flark.
I had no idea how many Karlaxons were queued up to come on board. If I could get all of them inside, I might be able to pick them off one by one. Assuming they didn’t have the latest schematics for this particular scoutship model.
What the hell is wrong with the computer?
“My circuitry is undamaged,” the AI had informed me when I checked it earlier. “But portions of my programming have been compromised.” The feminine voice somehow managed to sound both neutral and irritated at the same time.
“How was your programming compromised?”
“If I had been aware of that, I would have stopped it from happening. I do not know.”
Yep. Definitely snippy.
Now, I tapped into my wristcom to communicate with the AI verbally. “Computer,” I subvocalized, trusting the tech to pick up my voice, no matter how low it was. “Close off all corridors except the ones leading to the cargo hold.”
“Understood.”
Ah. There she was.
“If we can get them all in there, we can space them.”
“Agreed.”
The computer’s one-word answers were beginning to get on my nerves. “Do you think this is a good plan?”
“Presuming the Karlaxon ship does not begin firing on us in the process, yes.”
Of course, if the Karlaxons had hacked the system, the computer might be barred from harming them. “Will the hacking of your system allow you to space the soldiers?”
I could almost hear the shrugged in the AI’s voice. “As far as I can ascertain, yes.”
Definitely snippy.
Now, I watched the Karlaxon soldiers continue to enter my ship to the time, standing out to either side of the hall and leapfrogging one another.
As much as I loathed the Karlaxons, I forced myself not to fire on them—but if our plan to move them to the cargo bay didn’t work, I could seal off bulkhead doors on either end of a hallway and pick them off like blavelia in a holding pen.
I simply had to wait for all of them to come through.
I began counting.
The soldiers were huge, at least as tall as the average Drovekzian and twice as wide.
They wore helmets, but no armor, their gray, lumpy skin providing natural shielding across most of their bodies. Their stumpy legs slammed against the deck, shaking it so hard I felt that even up in the ceiling panels.
The Karlaxons would never be stealthy warriors, but they were effective in their brute force.
“Computer, is this a standard Karlaxon configuration?”
“Affirmative.”
That meant twenty-four soldiers. The Karlaxons used a base-eight numerical system, and it informed all their units. They would send in a unit of eight for reconnaissance.
Then, normally, their best eight soldiers in the unit would join the recon team. And if needed, the final eight would come through as backup.
Twenty-four Karlaxon soldiers on my tiny scout ship.
I wasn’t even certain there was room for all of them.
I could use their full-bore approach against them, though. Let the recon team report, then take them out. Get the primary team into the cargo hold. Space them all. Then route the mop-up team to a different part of the ship, keep them from reporting, and eliminate them.
The Karlaxons weren’t especially quick thinkers, either. If I could eliminate their initial incursion, I could break away from the battleship, then jump into hyperspace and get somewhere to deal with the computer problem.
I was running through my plan in my mind one last time, picking out all its obvious flaws and trying to find a way to eliminate the problems, when the computer spoke again.
“Commander, I believe we have a problem.
”
At that moment, the airlock slammed shut, cutting off the path for the Karlaxons to enter and destroying the plan I had developed.
Chapter Nine
Nora
Dax hadn’t closed out the screen showing the lumpy gray spaceship. I pulled my knees up into the chair and wrapped my arms around my knees as I watched it loom closer and closer.
Kidnapped by one alien. Attacked by others.
This was the worst day ever.
Something jarred the ship from outside, and I jumped, fighting not to scream in terror.
I had to do something. “Computer, can you hear me?”
“Affirmative,” the computer’s voice replied, sounding like a female with a vaguely European accent. I wondered what it sounded like in Dax’s native language. Did he hear it as a female with a funky accent, too?
“Do you have a…” I paused to try to come up with some appropriate term that covered what I was trying to ask. “A guest login setting?” I crossed my fingers and closed my eyes as I waited for the answer.
“Ship’s passengers may request basic information.”
I blew out a sigh of relief. Maybe I could figure out something to work with here. “Dax said you were programmed to take orders only from him. Is that correct?” I kept my voice low, hoping that whatever intruders might be boarding the ship wouldn’t hear me and come looking for me.
Fat chance of that since I was apparently in the control room.
“Correct,” the computer replied. “I am programmed to respond only to orders from Commander Lutro Dax and his clowder.”
Clowder? What the hell did that mean? “Computer, can you define clowder?”
“A clowder is a Drovekzian family unit.”
My mind raced. “Would a clowder include Commander Dax’s mate, by any chance?”
“Yes. Clowders include all mates and kits.”
Kits? Like kittens? Eeeuuww. We won’t call them that.
Wait. What the hell was I thinking? I was never going to have any kind of infants with that…that alien man.
I shook off my response and plowed forward, even though I was pretty sure what I was about to do was really bad idea.
“Computer, did you hear Commander Dax referred to me as his mate?”
“Affirmative.”
“Yes!” I pumped my fists just once as I considered all the possibilities that could open up. Maybe there was something I would be able to do, after all.
Not that I wanted to be his mate.
No, you just want to rip his clothes off, the annoying voice in my head piped up.
“Computer,” I said, ignoring my internal psychopath, who was clearly wrong. I just thought Dax was… pretty. Nice to look at. Otherwise, he was a pompous, self-righteous ass. “Please verify that I am Nora Marlin, mate of Commander Lutro Dax.”
“Confirmed.”
Now we’re getting somewhere.
“What next, what next,” I murmured to myself, tapping my fingertips together. Another thump from outside shook the ship.
“Report,” the computer said. “The ship has been boarded by a platoon of Karlaxon soldiers.”
“Computer, are all the invaders on board yet?”
“Negative.”
“Do everything you can to seal off the ship from any more Karlaxons boarding.”
A loud bang came from somewhere in the ship, and the sound of some kind of weapons fire, I presumed, given the pinging sounds followed by tiny exploding noises.
“All outer doors closed and sealed,” the computer announced.
“No other Karlaxons can board?”
“Confirmed. The outer airlock has been sealed.”
Why the hell hadn’t Dax done that himself?
God, I hope I didn’t just screw up his plan.
“Computer, can you show me the interior of the ship on the screen?”
“Confirmed.”
Nothing happened.
I sighed at how damn literal the machine was. “Computer, please show me the areas of the ship where there are currently Karlaxon soldiers.”
The screen in front of me shifted to a schematic of the ship, the first time I’d really gotten a sense of its dimensions.
A series of red dots stretched out along a line, presumably indicating the Karlaxons’ path through the ship.
“Computer, show me where the Karlaxon soldiers are headed.”
The schematic turned until it was a 3-D rendering with a dotted line. “The Karlaxon warriors are headed to the cargo hold on the lower deck,” the computer said.
“Why would they be headed there?” I wondered aloud.
The computer answered as if I had been speaking to it. “Commander Dax requested all other routes be closed off.”
Oh, hell. I had probably had just trashed his plan. “Why the cargo hold?”
“He intends to evacuate the case soldiers into open space. The cargo hold is the best location for such a plan.”
I rubbed my eyes, wondering if I should try to communicate with Dax. My stomach sank at the prospect.
“Computer, where is Commander Dax now?”
“Unable to reply.”
“What? Why?”
“Commander Dax has locked down all further computer communication with anyone but him.”
“But you can tell me that?” That didn’t seem right. If Dax had shut down all communication, the computer shouldn’t have been able to respond to me at all, right?
What the fuck is going on here?
Without any prompting, the computer changed the image on the screen to what looked like a real-time image of a group of aliens moving through one of the bright orange ship’s corridors.
They were hideous, giant and lumpy and gray—more alien-looking than Dax. And much scarier.
As one of them barreled past whatever camera was tracking them, it flipped up the faceplate on its helmet to reveal a perfectly monstrous face—something like a cross between a rhinoceros and a human, with tiny eyes that glowed a malevolent red.
Suddenly, I was thankful that Dax had been the one who had abducted me. If I had to be kidnapped by an alien, at least I’d been taken by the tiger-alien and not the rhinoceros-alien.
A scraping sound above me startled me out of my reverie, and I froze for a second in my seat before jumping up and racing toward the weapons cabinet, hoping I could figure out how to use one of the guns inside in time to protect myself.
Before I could get the door open, though, Dax dropped down through an opening in the ceiling that he had just created.
“What in all the garlockian underworlds do you think you are doing?” he spat out. “You unbelievably reckless… who-man … female!”
Chapter Ten
Dax
“Human,” Nora corrected my pronunciation. “And I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
“What do you mean, you don’t know what I’m talking about? Of course you do. You have no business trying to use my computer. This technology,” I made a gesture encompassing the whole ship, “is so far beyond your primitive world’s understanding it’s a wonder you didn’t blow us up.”
“So far beyond my understanding? It’s a talking computer. Some kind of AI with the voice interface. You say ‘computer’ and it answers. Any half-brained idiot could do that part.”
“So you admit it was an idiotic move?”
“That’s not what I said.” She took three steps toward me, standing up on her tiptoes to get in my face—or tried to, anyway. Nora was so short that the top of her head barely brushed the midpoint on my chest. Her bright blue eyes sparkled with anger, and she was practically spitting in her fury. “I was trying to help.”
“You were not doing a very good job of it.”
“Says the alien abductor who introduced himself by killing a man in front of me.”
“I was protecting my mate by destroying her attacker.”
“And that’s another thing—this mate business. What kind of backward-ass world allows m
en to just show up and announce that some woman is now his mate? I’m not your mate. That’s a disgusting word, anyway. I am more than just some sort of baby-making factory.”
“Not my mate? Let’s check that.” I tilted my head up toward the receivers and strolled around the room. “Computer? Explain how Nora got control of your systems.”
A recording of Nora’s voice began playing back through the announcement system. “Please verify that I am Nora Marlin, mate of Commander Lutro Dax.”
“Computer,” Nora said mildly, “shut up.”
The computer fell silent.
Wait. That wasn’t supposed to happen. She’s not supposed to be able to control the computer.
“Computer, please continue,” I ordered.
The computer stayed silent.
Oh, flark. Something was terribly wrong.
“And furthermore,” Nora began, still in fighting mode.
“Hush,” I told her.
“Don’t shush me.”
“Computer, where are the Karlaxon warriors?”
When Nora realized what I was asking, she too fell silent.
“The Karlaxon warriors are amassing in the cargo hold.”
“Flark, flark, flark. We are both idiots.” I rubbed one palm over my eyes. “Computer, prepare to complete the following steps in rapid succession. Open the cargo hold to space, pull away from the airlock walkway to the Karlaxon battleship, and move into immediate hyperdrive. Codename Dump and Jump.”
Ripping away from the Karlaxon warship and straight into hyperspace could very well leave both ships damaged, but it was our best way out. Perhaps our only way.
“Strap in, this is going to be a bumpy ride,” I ordered Nora. Her jaw clenched, but she followed my instructions.
“Preparing for hyperjump.” The computer’s voice regained some of its usual equanimity. A few seconds later, it continued. “Ready to execute Operation Dump and Jump.”
I glanced over at Nora to make sure she was as prepared she can be. “Ready?”
She gave a tense nod.
“Computer, commence Operation Dump and Jump.”
I could almost feel Nora rolling her eyes at the name.
Star Mate Matched Page 4
