Star Runner

by Mark McDonough

  Chapter Twenty-Four – The Making of a Captain

  Pete leant against the back wall, his chest heaving, as Zheen slowly stood up and turned to face her father.

  “Zheen, what is going on here?” Holas asked in a much quieter voice than he’d just used.

  “Take the Captain’s chair, Father. We need you there. Pete, the engines are going to need watching,” Zheen continued, her eyes flicking to him.

  He straightened himself, eyes flipping between the two purple Aranians. Holas seemed rooted to the spot. Carefully, Pete stepped around him and made his way to the engineering station beside Zheen.

  “What is going on?” Holas asked again, much more slowly than before. “Why have we left the planet’s surface?”

  “Brenog, Father,” Zheen answered simply.

  Pete saw Holas’ face shift. He seemed to soften towards his daughter, while at the same time hardening at the name. Brenog. The name stirred in Pete’s mind and he remembered that they were the aliens who had forced Holas and Zheen into the Bubble in the first place.

  Holas took a single step forward. “What happened?”

  “Three of them went after Tran. We managed to escape, but it won’t be long until they come after us,” Zheen replied.

  Pete lifted his gaze from his console long enough to glance at Tran. He was standing near Alex, defiantly facing down Holas who advanced on him.

  “Why were there three Brenog after you?” Holas asked in a soft voice.

  “Let’s just say that we had a difference of opinion,” Tran answered off-handedly.

  The silence that hung in the air between them was almost stifling the longer it was left to stretch out.

  “They were looking for some cargo that they’d left in my care,” Tran eventually volunteered.

  “Brenog don’t leave things that belong to them in the care of out-worlders,” Holas pointed out.

  “This lot did,” Tran sighed. “They wanted me to make a delivery for them. Unfortunately, I got a little, shall we say, distracted?”

  “You didn’t make the delivery and now you have a bounty on your head,” Holas interpreted.

  Tran shrugged. “I guess you could put it that way.”

  “Give me one reason not to just turn this ship around and deliver you to them,” Holas threatened.

  “This ship and everyone on her, including you and your daughter, has been marked by the Brenog. If they haven’t launched after us already, I assure you that they’re only minutes from doing so,” Tran said quietly.

  “Holas, we needed to get out of there as quickly as we could,” Alexander said calmly. “I’m the one who sent the emergency recall and I ordered Nick to take off as soon as you were on board.”

  “It’s true, Father. They got a good look at all of us. It won’t take them long to find out which ship we were from,” Zheen put in.

  “And you, what’s your role in all of this?” Holas asked as he turned and crossed the deck.

  “Sfolan Yan’dris,” the gangly blue alien introduced himself meekly, a hand on his chest. “I helped Tran escape. Alexander and Zheen insisted that I come with them after the Brenog saw me as well.”

  Pete watched intently as Holas seemed to come to a decision.

  “Very well,” he said somewhat reluctantly, “it seems that you may have done the right thing. Move over, Nick, I’ll take her now,”

  Nick looked up, startled.

  “No, Ace, stay where you are,” Alexander said urgently. “Holas, we need him at the helm. You we need in the Captain’s chair.”

  Holas stared at him.

  “Alex’s right, Father,” said Zheen as she crossed the deck to stand beside him. “If we’re going to have any chance of surviving this, then we need everyone doing what they do best.”

  “And that means Nick on helm; Pete and Zheen in Engineering; Tran at tactical; Sfolan with me on science and ops and you being the Captain and telling us what to do,” Alexander said forcefully.

  Holas stared at them, then at each of the others scattered around the room. Slowly, he nodded. For the first time since they’d boarded the Star Runner, her Captain’s chair was used. A collective sigh seemed to escape around the bridge as Holas lowered himself slowly into the chair.

  “Very well, then, if I am to be the Captain, then Captain I shall be,” he said. “Reports. Helm?”

  “We’ve achieved orbit and holding on the far side of the planet,” Ace replied.

  “Engineering?”

  “Much the same as before. We’re limited in both sub-light and hyper-light engines. Hull breach to Cargo Pod Five which we’ll need to be careful of as well,” Pete reported.

  “You and Zheen get back to Engineering and get ready,” Holas ordered. “Tactical?”

  “Shields are barely worth mentioning,” Tran grumbled. “We might get half a dozen shots out of the forward pulse cannons; one or two from the aft cannon.”

  “Hopefully we won’t need them,” Holas replied. “Science?”

  “Sfolan and I are attempting to tie us in to the planetary net,” Alexander replied. “We’re hoping that it’ll give us some advance warning.”

  “Good thinking.”

  ---

  Alexander hit controls and buttons, murmuring with Sfolan as they worked to use the planet’s own satellites to gather intelligence, focussing on the space port. Abruptly, he sat back, the text scrolling across his visor.

  “Brenog vessel Predator launched two minutes ago,” he announced.

  “Very well, then,” said Captain Lornicaan. “Give me some options.”

  “Hiding somewhere in the system?” Sfolan suggested.

  Tran snorted. “That’s just putting off the inevitable. There’s nowhere that we could hide where they wouldn’t find us. Better that we go and hit them before they hit us.”

  “What about the black hole that we passed on our way here?” Nick asked cautiously. “Could we use it for cover?”

  “I do not like the idea of getting anywhere near a black hole. Too many unknowns,” Holas stated.

  “Not for us,” Nick insisted. “Our parents have studied one for years. So’s Alex.”

  “You have actually studied a black hole?” Holas asked in disbelief. “I have never met anyone who would do such a thing.”

  “The Brenog don’t care about science. Unless someone else does the work, then they’re just not interested,” Tran added thoughtfully.

  Alexander swung his chair around to face the captain. “Yes, I have. And if the Brenog are as cautious of black holes as you are, then that’s one big advantage. I know enough about them to keep us safe.”

  “Hmm, very well, then. Nick, set a course for the black hole. Best possible speed,” Captain Lornicaan ordered decisively.