Repel Boarders

by Dean Henegar

  “Our numbers dwindled, and our allies fell one by one. Eventually, only our home planet remained. The derelicts bravely stood at the fore of our remaining forces, defiant to the last. Among the swarms of vessels that our foes assaulted us with were dozens of derelicts—derelicts controlled by parasitic masters. Tir’rillion and Caer’navar fought hard, defeating one derelict after another as the enemy sought to board them. Alas, even their considerable defenses eventually fell to the onslaught. They were unable to create new MOBS fast enough to replace those lost in the fight,” she said sadly.

  Slater could see her drifting off into memory. “Why did the derelicts attack your world?” Doctor Cheng asked. “From what Slater told me, they remained neutral and didn’t favor one race over another.”

  “You are correct. That is their agreement with the other races, except when it came to our derelicts. Like yourself, Captain, our derelicts were considered abominations, controlled by the host and not consumed by the parasite. Something about our existence and the elvish ability to fight off the parasite terrified them, galvanizing them to end the abominations as well as the race holding the potential to spawn more.

  “They came for us, for Tir’rillion and Caer’navar, and now they know what you are, Captain Slater,” Illissa warned. “They will now come for you and for all humankind. They will not stop until the last human is destroyed or enslaved.”

  — 2 —

  Slater didn’t know what to think about the information Illissa had just given him. He still had a healthy skepticism of what was being said, but it did make logical sense. Questions ran through his mind and he tried to organize his thoughts before asking her anything else.

  “That’s a lot to process, Illissa. Let me ask a few of the basics. First off, what’s the implant in your head, and how did you become infected with what essentially looked like a parasite?” Slater asked.

  “My implants were given to me when I first displayed an aptitude for magic as a child. Very few beings in the galaxy can harness magic’s power, and I showed more aptitude than most. The implants in my brain enhance the strength of my magic, regulating the flow of power and enabling me to maintain better control.”

  “You expect me to believe in magic now?” Slater said with sarcasm, annoyed that the elf thought he would buy her absurd claim.

  “Magic isn’t quite what you think. It’s essentially just another form of energy, one that permeates everything around us. What mages can do with the energy is limited, and specialized training is necessary to do something useful with the power. My magic focuses on healing and projecting defensive barriers around myself and those I designate. Let me demonstrate. My eyes will glow when I am using magic, but rest assured, I am no longer under the control of the council,” Illissa advised.

  “Just remember that I can see what you’re doing, and if you try in any way to injure one of my people or escape your imprisonment, I will have you killed,” Slater warned.

  Illissa nodded and her eyes took on the strange blue glow once more. The energy moved around her body like an electric current, eventually stopping and concentrating on her broken wrist. The energy pulsed, and Slater and Doctor Cheng were treated to the disturbing sound of cracking and grinding bones. With a final burst of light, the glow faded from her eyes and Illissa’s wrist was healed.

  “That’s much better. Thank you for allowing me to do that,” Illissa said with a sigh of relief.

  “That was impressive, and I’m sure Doctor Cheng will have many questions for you on how magic works. My other concern is, how did you become infected by a parasite? You’re not a derelict core,” Slater asked.

  “I’m not sure what process the council used to infect me and the others. When Tir’rillion returned to us, I volunteered with many others to serve as crew for his derelict. When an elf spends a long amount of time on a derelict, they begin to change after being exposed to the core’s energy. The changes are subtle, such as not needing to eat, drink, or sleep. We slowly began to use the core’s energy to sustain ourselves, and in return, we became dependent on it to live. I suspect the humans you have on board may experience similar changes over time,” Illissa said.

  Slater watched the look of concern in Doctor Cheng’s eyes.

  “Do not fear just yet,” Illissa continued. “Our transformation took centuries, and if our legends are true, you humans live a much shorter lifespan than that. I wouldn’t be surprised if your life was extended by your presence here, but you would have centuries before you must worry about needing core energy to live. Of the four of us who boarded your vessel, I and Siratas had both served with Tir’rillion. The other two you encountered were simply advanced MOBS. Highly advanced MOBS, but ones created by the parasitic core on our vessel through a process I don’t understand.”

  “There was a derelict core on your ship?” Slater asked.

  “Not a complete one like yourself. Well, not like yourself at all, as you are free of any parasitic corruption. The ship’s AI was connected to a fragment of a core. The council has the means to crack a core into several parts, each of which could control a vessel like my own and the crew aboard it. These vessels are limited in function and don’t have the complete power of a core, but they are perfect for using beings like myself to enforce the council’s will. Cores that are hunted down by kill teams are broken apart and face an eternity in slavery to the council’s whims,” Illissa said.

  “How long have you been on a kill team and when did the council capture you?” Doctor Cheng asked.

  “I don’t know for sure, Doctor. Between missions, we sleep, and there is no chronometer aboard the vessel. If I were forced to guess, many centuries, if not millennia, have passed. My people are gone. Perhaps a few more are out there on kill teams, but not more than a fraction and not enough to sustain my race. We are destined to drift into legend, vanishing slowly from the galaxy,” Illissa answered.

  The doctor began to ask another question, but Slater jumped in, interrupting her. “Sorry, Doctor, but I need a few more practical answers before we continue. Are all the kill teams like your own, and how soon can we expect another to track us down?” Slater asked. Was he about to face one kill team after another until he was finally brought down?

  “There are kill teams other than elves, though I have never personally seen them. The council can track down cores, but yours will become harder and harder for them to find as time passes. We found you easily enough, as you were still brimming with energy left over from when your parasite was alive. Now, your energy signature will slowly change and it will become more difficult for the council to track. More difficult, mind you, is not impossible. Our ship likely sent off signals warning of a potentially sentient core. If that word gets out, you will become the council’s number one target,” Illissa warned.

  “Is there some way to break the council’s control over my nanobots? I need to control my jumps if we’re going to get back in touch with humanity,” Slater asked.

  “Yes, you will gain complete control over your functions in time,” Illissa advised. “Even now, I suspect you have seen changes to your nanobots as the chains upon them slip. Be advised that not all the changes and freedoms you will experience are beneficial. As the council’s hold dissolves, so will some of your power. Your hull will no longer be able to resist destruction. It will be stronger than any normal alloy but can still be breached by normal ship weapons. Your nanobots will also become less effective at repairs and reprocessing biomass and salvage. You will need to become more aggressive to survive. Sitting and waiting for boarders is no longer a valid strategy. In fact, all boarders—save perhaps for some of the dwarven clans—will try to kill you. No longer can you expect simple explorers looking for loot. Expect only killers who seek your destruction.”

  “It sounds like we need to be more like a ship and less like a collection of boxes floating around space. How do I gain control over my jumps and improve my drives? It will take way too long with current research speeds to develop an eff
ective propulsion system or weapons systems. For now, I can only putter about on a weak positioning thruster and my only weapon is a puny laser cannon that takes way too long to recharge,” Slater complained, not liking what he was hearing. The removal of the council’s restrictions on his nanobots was great news. The fact that he would soon be easier to destroy was not.

  “I’m not sure if I can help you with that. I wasn’t privy to Tir’rillion’s research, but I do know he eventually found ways to make changes and upgrades quickly. It was only a matter of months, he said, from the time he was freed of the parasite to when he was a real ship once more, complete with elvish drives and weapons suites.”

  Slater was confused. Had he been going about research all wrong? “Do you mean that Tir’rillion used his prior knowledge and didn’t have to wait for research to complete?” Slater asked.

  “I’m not sure. I performed a different function on board. I was what you would refer to as a ship’s physician, tasked with healing the crew and providing magic support during battle. What little I did discuss with Tir’rillion about his improvements had mainly to do with items in our medical compartment. He was unfamiliar with anything medical or magic-related. His focus had been on commanding a vessel and its crew,” Illissa told him.

  “I think I might understand what he was talking about. Thank you, Illissa,” Slater said, realizing that he had been going about research the wrong way. He thought back to the improvements he made to his firearms and the comm array. Upgrades outside of the standard research were unlocked by using his own personal knowledge and that of his crew. He had a lot of experimentation to do—and not much time to do it.

  “What happens to me now, human?” Illissa asked.

  It was a valid question and one Slater wasn’t sure how to answer. He had seen the parasitic corruption in her mind and knew her actions while attacking the derelict weren’t entirely her own. Still, with all the deception that Pixi had been a part of, he wasn’t ready to trust the elf anytime soon.

  “First off, my name isn’t ‘human.’ It’s Captain Slater. As for what to do with you, we’ll have to give it some time. You are free of the parasite’s influence, but that doesn’t mean you’re not a threat to my ship or those aboard it. In addition, I don’t think the soldiers will be all that forgiving of you, given the death of Sergeant Gonzales. If I let you go, you wouldn’t necessarily be safe out among them. For now, you’ll stay in your cage until we come to a decision. Let the doctor know if you need anything. She can coordinate with you for meals if the power you’re taking from my core is not sufficient.” Slater changed his focus over to his engineering station, leaving the doctor and Illissa to work out feeding times and other minutiae of her imprisonment.

  Slater checked in on the other humans. They were all still asleep. He wondered how long it would take for them to become dependent on the core like Illissa was. She said the process would take many years, but he didn’t want to see them trapped forever on his ship. It was a worry for another time. For now, he wanted to explore more research options. Digging into the engineering console, he prioritized in his mind what needed upgrading. He would need to fight other ships soon, and that meant the ship-to-ship weapons and scanners on his vessel would be critical. Illissa didn’t mention how long it would take for the hull to degrade, so he also needed to take a shot at developing shield technology.

  Giving a shot at researching on his own, Slater started with the targeting scanner. He inspected the components that were installed in the compartment he had set aside for it. Scanners weren’t his area of expertise, but some of the components bore a resemblance to early twenty-first-century tech. This would be a critical area of upgrade for his ship but one he would, unfortunately, have to rely on the slow derelict process to complete.

  The laser cannon was a different story. The weapon was a bit unfamiliar; human ships of his time didn’t generate enough power to make the weapons feasible. Railguns were the standard shipboard weapon and had performed well in their first encounter against the kobolds. It seemed that energy weapons were favored by the various alien races, so focusing on kinetic energy solutions just might give him an edge in combat. The downside was that he would need to expend salvage to create the ammunition the weapon fired. His weapons would also be of limited effectiveness until he could develop a more powerful scanner array to act as a targeting system.

  Slater pulled up the research node that was working on ship’s weapons, level 1. The current laser turret design popped up and he began to adjust the schematic that the research node had started on. He replaced the existing components with those he remembered from his old ship’s railgun. Slater wasn’t an engineer, but he was very familiar with the weapons on his ship. As he pictured each component and what it did, the processing power of the research node supplemented his knowledge and filled in any gaps. Slater lost himself in his work. After a bit of tinkering, he thought he might have a working model. He ordered the drones to scrap the existing laser cannon and replace it with his new design. The research category changed as he gave the command to switch out the weapon, his core advising him of the new addition.

  The ship’s weapons research tree has been upgraded to add railguns.

  He now had access to both laser and railgun designs. The railgun he had created was primitive but would give more punch than the laser delivered. It cost the same amount of salvage and core power as the laser cannon and it looked like each round of ammo consumed a salvage point per shot. The additional salvage cost wasn’t enough to dissuade him from building it. As a bonus, the rate of fire was also better than that of the laser. The railgun needed time to recharge its capacitors between shots, but he should be able to get more than one round downrange before a ship was able to board. The newly upgraded research tree also allowed him to create the smaller point-defense versions of both lasers and railguns. The overall process proceeded much more quickly than the usual upgrade trees, even if it did require his complete attention.

  Slater jumped back into the engineering station and began to try re-creating basic shield generator tech. It turned out that his limited knowledge was enough to unlock the shield generator research tree. The level 0 version of the shield was weak and resembled the primitive shield arrays placed on human vessels when they first began to leave the solar system. The shield would deflect debris away from the Franklin and might dilute some of the energy from a laser weapon, but not much else. It was better than nothing, though, so he spent the 150 salvage and one core power required to build it. He ordered it built in the open compartment between his core and the new med bay. The only remaining free compartment was the one used to house his prisoner. Slater tasked the research node in the engineering console to start working on upgrades to the shields. His personal knowledge was tapped out, and he felt that he could no longer assist in directly researching shield tech.

  When he had finished working on the ship’s upgrades, the rest of the humans had woken up and were going about their morning routines. From the looks on their faces, Slater could tell that they were all trying to deal with their loss and the possibility that they might never return home. As their captain, Slater felt an obligation to do something to lift their spirits but wasn’t sure what he could do at this time. Perhaps another round of Slaterdome would help.

  The clothing and body armor upgrade completed while he was working with the other upgrades. The research unlocked metal helmets as well as a primitive form of body armor that consisted of metal plates sewn into the fabric. More research was going to be needed before they were effective.

  Proximity alert: unknown vessel is approaching.

  Slater pulled his view out into space so he could see what his limited sensors were detecting. Drifting slowly past the Franklin was the front half of a destroyed vessel. As the debris slowly spun, he noticed a smaller vessel attached to the larger one. Both ships were dark and appeared abandoned. The name of the larger vessel came into view. The ship had been a human one: the SS Tuxpam.
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