Alastair (Ghosts of Ophidian Book 2)

by Scott McElhaney

  “The Aft Insanity is the first round of defense and oftentimes, even if the hull is thicker, it will shatter the pilot shield or other vulnerable areas. Remember, each round explodes heavy triangular shards in all directions. Something is bound to hit a vulnerable spot,” he said, climbing down the ladder, “But I’ll play your game. I tried Aft Insanity and the guy is still on my tail. I still have five Aft Proximity Mines at my disposal, so I will conserve that limited supply for guys like this. Prior to launching an APM, I have to target the enemy on my tail. Once I do that, I release the mine. Nine times out of ten, the enemy cannot evade this targeting explosive. It will detonate once it is within ten feet of the target. It is a mini-nuke and it’s doubtful anything can survive that. And with luck, it will be far enough behind me to not cause me any damage.”

  Theo walked around the craft, running his hand along the smooth surface. He touched one of the forward guns and examined the width of the tube.

  “How big are these Railgun rounds?” Theo asked.

  “The two top Railguns are firing 25 millimeter solid titanium rounds at a rate of ten per second and the bottom two are firing 35 millimeter titanium-tipped exploding plasma rounds at a rate of seven per second. When I am going after my target, I’ve got four guns firing from the front in a rectangular box-shape covering thirty square feet. And that’s not to mention the rapid-fire missile system I have in the nose should I decide to use it,” he said, proudly running his hands across the side of his ship, “And as if that weren’t enough, we’ve got three full-yield nukes in the belly of each ship. There’s a reason these are called ‘heavy artillery’ fighters.”

  “I’d hate to be on the receiving end,” Jill said.

  Mac nodded, just as Theo returned from the front of the Fighter.

  “I don’t want you two to get your hopes up. We could really do some damage to any Earth enemy that we’re currently aware of. If the Ophidians decided to come after us, ignoring for a moment their very peaceful attributes, we could destroy them. If the Legacians ever came after us, we could destroy them,” he said, glancing over at Theo, “But I worry that our fighting methods may be archaic to a race such as the Pli.”

  “Then why even try? If you don’t think we can win, why even try?” Theo asked.

  “Because hope can be found in many things. Where do I find it? I find it in two areas. I find hope hidden in the element of surprise. After all, we not only bypassed the wormhole, we are just a boring freighter delivering supplies. I also find hope hidden in the fact that we ultimately don’t know this enemy. We are fearful of this race only based on the fact that they have dominated multiple planets. We don’t know how they’ve done it and we don’t know anything for sure of their technology. We fear them out of common sense and not out of actual facts.”

  “Is there anything I can do?” Theo asked.

  Mac walked over to Theo and put an arm around him. He then stuck his foot out and kicked the Fighter gently.

  “You were a gatherer, Theo. You did nothing more than target ice and draw it in to the claws of your craft. Then once the pilot brought your craft to the station’s ice intake, you probably lowered the ice and released it,” Mac said, “An Ice Monkey who did the same thing over and over again without confirmation that he served a purpose. When the time comes, Theo, fifty HArts are going to leave this freighter and try to inflict some serious damage. Do you know how that is possible?”

  “I assume you are going to say ‘because Theo and Jill washed dishes’,” Theo replied.

  “Laugh if you want, but the support crew is as important as the Fighter. At the end of the battle, the entire MF Truman will all be hailed as heroes no matter what position we held and that is exactly how it should be. But, that isn’t really what I was going to say. You assumed wrong,” Mac said, “I was going to ask you who worked to get us the water we are drinking? Who is responsible for the water I showered with this morning? Who is responsible for the absolute lifeblood of this ship? Who, Theo, made sure that water was available for us to purchase?”

  Theo looked at him. Mac winked at him, then patted him on the back before gesturing they move on. Theo turned to Jill who was simply smiling at him.

  Seventeen

  Cleaning up after three hundred merchant sailors and undercover military was quickly proving itself to be a mind-numbing job. From the viewpoint of a dishwasher, every meal shift was identical to the previous shift.

  Theo and Jill spent the break between lunch and dinner at the arcade, although since they got so involved in Combat Zone 4, they didn’t have any time to visit with Tiny as intended. The dinner shift mirrored the lunch and breakfast shift prior. They finished up the evening with showers like the previous night, then spent some time performing a cunning search of the storeroom for any snacks to purloin.

  It was Jill who discovered the buried stack of barbecue potato chips. They unstacked the boxes, then removed a large bag from the bottom case. They restacked them as they originally were, relying on the fact that the missing bag wouldn’t be discovered for quite some time. While Jill brought the bag back to their little “living space”, Theo procured a couple bottles of water from the cases of emergency rations they discovered in the corner.

  Their “living space” was created near their bunk beds by using three bales of hay to form a sofa and a box of dry pasta for a table. Why there were bales of hay on a freighter in the first place was a mystery they would save for discussion later.

  Jill opened the portable entertainment panel she’d brought with her and placed it on the cardboard table. She switched it on, then brought up the selection display.

  “What all do you have on that thing?” Theo asked, setting their unopen waters on the table, “I thought about bringing mine, but I’ve only got three games and about ten films.”

  “Well, I don’t have any games on this, but I do have nearly three hundred films to choose from,” she said, “I just wish the screen wasn’t so small.”

  “Hello? Theo? Jill?” a female voice called from the distance.

  “In here,” Jill said, tossing the bag of chips onto one of the shelves nearby.

  Theo looked to Jill, then mouthed the word “Strong”. The woman made her way through the storage room and finally found their little cubby. Jill rose from the straw couch.

  “Nice little home you two have made here,” Rebecca said, brushing some dust off her slender midsection.

  “What brings you to the third class suite?” Theo joked.

  “Trust me, my place isn’t much better,” she said, walking over to their makeshift bunk beds, “Sorry I haven’t had much time to get to know the two of you. Being the chief cook takes up a lot of my time. I just wanted to get with you two before you showed up to work tomorrow. You’ll need to report to the starboard meeting lounge after breakfast.”

  The chief cook seemed almost distracted as she inspected their beds. She was tall enough to get a good view of Theo’s bed. It concerned Theo most that she didn’t make any attempt to hide her curiosity.

  “What’s going on, Mrs. Strong?” Theo asked, leaning against a stack of crates.

  Her attention was now focused on the inner wall of Jill’s bed. Theo’s question appeared to startle her as she quickly returned her attention to the two of them.

  “Huh? Oh, yeah. We took on four passengers from one of the orbital stations before we left Earth and then we picked you two up at the Oort Station. The six of you haven’t been briefed as thoroughly as the rest of the ship had. The Armament Commander requested a meeting to bring you all up to speed before we arrive at the black hole,” she said, turning her focus to Theo, “And by the way, it’s Miss. Not Mrs.”

  Theo inhaled suddenly, catching the way she looked at him. As beautiful and poised as she was, she couldn’t conceal the fact that she was old enough to be his mother. Now he realized why she had been looking at the beds and the stacks of folded clothing near the wall. She wanted to size up the relationship between Jill and Theo.
>
  Theo looked over at Jill, who now had her eyes closed and her arms crossed. He couldn’t tell if she was trying to ignore it all or if she was mad and refused to look at either of them.

  “After the meeting, and after lunch, I’d like very much if you would join me, Theo, at the Staff Lounge on deck one,” she said, “I might have another job that would better fit a man of your qualifications and I’m confident you’d enjoy it more than washing dishes.”

  “I really don’t-”

  “He’ll be there, Miss Strong,” Jill blurted.

  “But, I…”

  Jill shook her only slightly as she mouthed the word “no”. Rebecca didn’t see this, but she had to be aware of some broken communication going on.

  “I’d be glad to join you, Miss Strong.”

  “Splendid,” she said, stepping over the table and patting Theo gently on the cheek, “You won’t regret it.”

  The chief cook made her way out of the storage room, followed by Jill. Jill only went far enough to verify that the woman had indeed left them. She turned back around and found Theo right behind her.

  “What was that all about?” he nearly shouted.

  “That was about survival, you idiot! If you said no to her, she’d realize the reason immediately. Can you guess what kind of accident would befall me tomorrow?” she asked, pushing him to urge him back to their cubby.

  Theo laughed, then turned to her again.

  “She would kill you – yeah, I can just see it now,” he chuckled.

  “Theo! Hermes told me she has eyes for you and he warned me to step out of the way if she made a pass,” Jill said, “He said that nothing stops the woman from getting what she wants. He made sure I understood when he said the word ‘nothing’.”

  “Hermes threatened you?” Theo asked, “The baker?”

  “Don’t you get it? Hermes didn’t threaten me. He warned me because he didn’t seem to like her or her methods of manipulating people.”

  “So you are okay with me being manipulated? What if she wants me to… you know,” he asked.

  Jill laughed at Theo’s innocence, “Are you really that ignorant? Yes, I did use the word ‘ignorant’ this time. Of course she wants you to take care of her needs and you will do it or both of us might be in for a world of hurt.”

  “I can’t!” he blared.

  “You will, Theo! And it will mean nothing just like the job I once had. It will mean nothing and I will still be here waiting for you at the end of the day,” she said, “I’ve been there, Theo. I know whom your heart belongs to and I know you will only be performing a deed just to earn our passage. It’s just a job.”

  “It’s not just a job,” he took her by the shoulders, trying to force her attention to him, “I’ve never given myself to anyone before, Jill. Don’t you get it? And I never intend to give myself to anyone besides you.”

  She deflated in his grasp. She frowned, looking down at his chest.

  “I love you, Theo. I’ve made some mistakes in my past and none of it ever meant anything to me. The first time it ever means anything to me, it will be with you. This is no different than what you’re telling me,” she said, reaching up and cupping his face in her hands, “You and I will be the same pretty soon. We will both have been used and violated in the worst way and it will have meant nothing. If you refuse, things could get very bad for both of us.”

  “How can you be so nonchalant about such a horrible thing?” he asked.

  She sighed, then leaned in and kissed him lightly on the lips.

  “Because I don’t want you to see that I’m dying inside.”

  Eighteen

  Theo and Jill were the last to show up in the starboard meeting lounge because they got lost twice in the confusing corridors. The other four people seated at the table appeared equally as young as Jill and Theo. All four were Asian – three male and one female. Theo offered them a friendly smile, then pulled out a chair for Jill.

  “Looks like we’re all here,” the man standing before a viewing panel stated.

  Theo sat down next to Jill, then looked at the tall man wearing an unusual uniform.

  “I’m Armament Commander Lane Hutchins and I’m here to prepare you for what lies ahead. In order to help you immediately understand the significance of this meeting and the seriousness of our future, I’m here to tell you that each of you will be issued a firearm before you leave this room today. And yes, I’m aware that you all have a variety of jobs and some of you are very young. It doesn’t matter to me and it doesn’t matter to the rest of this crew. We are all being called upon to defend this ship.

  “To save us from any unnecessary preamble, I’ll make the introductions starting over here,” he said, pointing to the Asian girl, “Here, we’ve got Mai, Hotaru, Misaki, Yoshiko, Theophilus, and Jill.”

  The names instantly identified the Asians as Japanese. Theo’s knowledge of the Japanese came through the trade reports his mother sometimes read aloud. He knew that they were a very generous people who traded more than was required of them. They also were known for not purposely going for the cheap tonnage as was often seen with United States trades. A ton of salt, after all, cost a lot less than a ton of coffee or a ton of bourbon. It was the Japanese that ultimately provided the MRI scanner they had been waiting for.

  “It’s nice to meet you,” Jill said, reaching across the table to shake the other’s hands, “Theo and I are just here to find out what the sheol weed is all about and to hopefully locate his brother.”

  “This isn’t a friend-making session, Jill,” Hutchins said firmly, “So I’d appreciate it if the chit chat be postponed until later. Our first order of business is the visual identification of the Gods of Pli.”

  Hutchins turned around and pointed to the panel behind him. A sketch suddenly appeared of a masked alien face.

  “Here is what we know of our enemy. Keep in mind that we’ve never seen these creatures, so we are relying on the sketches done by multiple Ophidians as well as our own experience with the plugs they’ve inserted into our own people,” he said, pointing to the metal that covered the lower portion of the face, “We can assume from the fact that they always have something covering their mouths and noses that they most likely do not breathe oxygen, nitrogen, argon, or carbon dioxide. Ophidians and humans have essentially the same biological make-up and requirements for survival, so it’s safe to assume that this species is different from anything we know.”

  He changed the screen to show a closer view of the creature’s upper face. The creature had a baldhead with dark eyes that in the sketch appeared to be black and shiny.

  “According to many witnesses, they don’t cover their eyes and they have no gadgets or electronics attached to their upper cranium. This is important because the Pli seem to enjoy enhancing anything they can as we will discuss later. It’s safe to assume that their eyesight is perfect if not better than perfect. Here is what I mean.”

  He changed the screen to show a humanoid creature wrapped in a tight-fitting suit of gridded dark clothing. If there were any biological arms beneath the robotic exterior, it wasn’t discernible from the drawing. The legs didn’t seem to be enhanced with any robotic accessories.

  “A few witnesses claim to have seen Pli without robotic arms. If these testimonies are true, then the Pli have natural arms that are very thin and weak. Since each hand has six digits, two of which are opposable thumbs, it’s completely understandable that they were able to evolve into a technological race. Mankind did the same thing as did the Ophidians,” he said, moving from the hands to the metal arms, “Their natural arms are either amputated to permit the attachment of these improved limbs, or these robotics are constructed overtop of the thin arms. We’re not sure which is true, but we do know that these arms are strong, fast, and rumored to be indestructible. There are Ophidians who claim they heard of some Pli that were killed with an IED and the only thing that remained were the arms and the breather mask.

  “I don’t say these t
hings to scare you and I don’t know for sure that this information is one-hundred percent accurate. I say all this to inform you and to reduce the amount of surprise when we come in contact with the Pli sometime tomorrow.”

  Misaki whispered something to Yoshiko, who in turn raised his hand.

  “Tomorrow?” Yoshiko asked before Hutchins even had a chance to acknowledge him.

  “Yes, tomorrow. We will enter hyperspace tonight around 9:00pm and we will exit at an unknown time. It will be assumed that we are exiting around a week after we left the Oort Station and our exit will be somewhere near the galactic center. We haven’t perfected this mode of transit yet, as it is so new, but I have perfect faith in the ones handling this new technology.”

  “What will it be like for us inside this ship while we go through hyperspace?” Misaki asked.

  “Listen, I don’t want to get off-topic as we have a lot to cover. As with any mode of transportation, we will be one with the ship, so we won’t notice anything unusual. Just the same as we don’t notice any sort of time dilation when we travel at excessive speeds,” he said, turning his attention back to the panel again, “The Gods of Pli have an uncanny ability to take over whole races and whole planets no matter what the technological capabilities are of those races. And how they do this is a secret even the Ophidians don’t know. Since we are going into all this somewhat blind, you need to understand that you are all being given a freedom that comes with vigilance. If you have any ideas, share them. If you have any theories, share them. If you need to step in, now or in the future, you do it.”

  He changed the screen to show a picture of the small arm they will all be receiving. It was the typical twenty-round plasma pistol seen in the holsters of security forces everywhere.

  “We will break away for a half hour to train on this sidearm and to practice targeting vulnerable areas of the Pli. Then we will go through this ship and learn some of the smaller emergency functions you will need to know in order to assist in our survival. Whether you like it or not, or whether you feel capable or not, you are part of this crew and you may be called upon in the coming days to fill an important function. Will I find any trouble calling on anyone in this room when the time comes?”