Unexpected Demon

by Layla Stone

  The impact was big, bright, and orange.

  Vivra’s Minky pinged again. The two ships that looked like battlecruisers were closing in. And they were much closer. She had no idea how they’d gotten so close without her detection, but that was the least of their problems.

  Clalls whispered to her over the video call as Rannn continued bellowing at the freighter captain. “Do you think they can take this bertha out?”

  Take them out? No way were they going to fire on them. No way.

  “No way are they going to fire on us,” Vivra whispered into the screen.

  Clalls smirked. “I know, but do you think they could if they did.”

  Her Minky pad pinged, it was Pax: Don’t leave your office, it’s safer in there, away from the hull of the ship.

  She closed the message. Answering Clalls’ stupid question, she said, “No. We have more firepower.”

  He tilted his head back and forth. “Care to wager on that.”

  Then she saw a green hand punch Clalls in the arm. Sol.

  “Not the time to joke, Clalls. Seriously. I need to focus here. And you’re supposed to be communicating with the other two ships,” Sol said sharply.

  Clalls narrowed his eyes at the Bolark next to him. “I already have. They’re ignoring me. Thank you very much. Now, punch yourself for doubting me.”

  Sol held up his hands. “Oh, you contacted them, and they didn’t respond. You are the most annoying, intrusive, persistent bastard on this ship, and that’s all you’re going to do? That’s it? Why aren’t you hacking into their system? That’s what you do? Right? It’s all about weaseling your way into other people’s private lives.”

  Wow…someone was pissed at Clalls. Vivra assumed that Clalls had hacked into Sol’s private life. She knew what that felt like.

  Clalls eye lids lowered as his chin lifted. “I don’t like your tone. Rannn didn’t tell me to hack them.”

  Vivra wanted to punch Clalls too. “We’re being attacked. Act like it.”

  Clalls glanced her way with a frown. “I am. Why is being calm a bad thing all of a sudden.”

  He was too calm. Clalls would have hacked the incoming ship’s system regardless. That’s what Clalls did. Then it occurred to her. “You’re already in the system, aren’t you?”

  “Still trying to get past the firewall.” Then… the screen pinged. His lips pulled back in a toothy smirk. “Oh, here we are.” Vivra watched his hands flying across the touch screen. It was not a familiar program, and it was somewhat fascinating to watch. Until his white eyebrows lowered. “Uh, Captain.”

  She saw Rannn tap his Minky screen and turn to Clalls.

  Clalls turned in his seat and told Rannn, “They are here to clean up. As in supernova the Brica slaves back to their basic elements.”

  Was that even possible?

  Rannn cursed. “Everyone at their battle stations. Fire on my command.”

  Clalls turned around and smiled at Vivra as if he hadn’t just revealed their death order. “Want a front-row seat to the action?”

  No. But what came out was, “Yes.”

  A bright smile. “Great. Can you bring Sol and me a few Niffy drinks?” His tone was way too perky.

  “Sure,” she said before terminating the call. That’s when she noticed that Sassen and Ekhav were watching her. She wondered if they were shocked at her or at Clalls. Deciding quickly that it was Clalls’ inappropriate behavior, she said, “Demon 101, downplay every serious situation.”

  Both opened their mouths as if that concept was new.

  Walking to her small refrigerator, she grabbed a four-pack of Niffy, hooked it under her arm, and headed to the elevator.

  The doors opened, and the ship jerked to the right. Vivra cursed, stepped onto the car, and pressed the button for the bridge. In the elevator, the ship jolted to the right again.

  She hated ship fights.

  The ride felt like it took extra time, but that might have been because every second felt as if her heart were trying to break through her ribs. Slow and steady breaths didn’t do anything to calm her down.

  Stepping off the elevator onto the bridge, Rannn was still yelling, but this time at a Minky screen with a green rim around the edges. “I told you he would do this! I told you to look out for his orders!”

  “Yes, but it’s not a valid order! It’s nowhere in the system. And I was not in any meeting where he was given permission to attack and nebulize a planet or the Garna,” Admiral Orin shouted back.

  “Then why do I have a black death freighter and two battleships crowding me?” Rannn shot back. He looked at her and saw what she was carrying. “Oh, I’ll have one.”

  Her fingers shook as she opened the pack and handed the captain a Niffy juice. He popped the top and took a drink.

  The ship jerked to the left. The captain didn’t say anything.

  Behind the captain, Vivra saw Sol monitoring the navigation screens, touching it and then directing counter-measures. It almost looked like he was playing a game. One of the missiles got close, and the counter-missile exploded it close to the ship, jerking them to the right.

  So, they weren’t being hit, they were just taking backlash.

  Clalls waved her over and patted the empty seat next to him. He took a Niffy from her, handed one to Sol, and opened his own. He began tapping the side of the juice container. “So, want to hear something weird?”

  Assuming this was his way to downplay the moment, she said, “Yep.”

  “I can’t find these Federation ship tags anywhere. According to our IFF, they are Federation, but I can’t verify it.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “I mean, the ship numbers. They aren’t registered.” He took another drink, looked at her, then said, “Weird, right?”

  She had a thought. If she were Jaccy and had paid a captain to deliver a shipment of bodies, and those bodies died along the way… What would she do?

  Get someone else to get the goods. And if the only goods were on a star carrier…

  “Did you check the captain’s name?”

  Clalls shook his head. Vivra turned and interrupted Rannn’s conversation with the admiral. “I’m sorry to interrupt. What’s the captain’s name who threatened you, sir?”

  Rannn peered over. “Gaarku.”

  Vivra tapped the Minky screen in front of her, ran a quick search, and smiled. “He’s not with the Federation. He’s impersonating a captain.”

  On the screen, she heard Admiral Orin say, “What did she say?”

  Rannn touched the screen and terminated the call without answering. He stepped to her and leaned over her seat, looking at her screen to verify what she’d said. Then she felt his hand on her shoulder. “You’re forgiven.”

  Beside her, she heard Clalls scoff. And in a fake female voice, he said, “Thank you, Clalls, for figuring out those ships weren’t registered and giving the bright green star all the ideas.”

  “And thank you for thinking of bringing refreshments,” Rannn said as he patted her shoulder again.

  Clalls looked dead.

  When Rannn was back in his chair, he said, “Clalls, send all the ships the following recording.”

  Clalls griped as he set up the recording.

  “This is Captain Rannn of the Garna star carrier. You are trespassing on Federation-controlled space. You have fired on a Federation-protected planet, and you have fired on a Federation ship. I order you to power down and prepare to have your ship and crew taken into custody.”

  The ships all started firing at once.

  Rannn cut off the recording.

  Vivra heard Rannn’s comment to himself, “You were warned.” Pointing to Sol, he said, “Lock up their power systems. Take out their gravity controls, and, Clalls, shut down their communication. Now.”

  Vivra watched as the Garna fired on all three ships at the same time. It took about three minutes of continuous shooting for their shields to g
ive way, and then Sol sent each ship a dedicated EMP burst missile.

  “Sir, the ships have been locked down,” Sol affirmed. “Would you like me to send W&T to board the ship?”

  “Nope. I want you to magnetically bring them closer to our ship,” Rannn said. Then he sent a voice message, “Sci, get up here. I need your assistance.”

  Sci arrived five minutes later. As soon as he walked in, Rannn asked Sol, “How much farther are the ships?”

  “One hundred miles and closing, sir.”

  Rannn pointed to a free chair. “Take a seat.”

  Sasha walked in next, smiled, and waved at Rannn as she passed by, then took a seat next to her husband and opened a bag of some smelly, white, puffy substance. “It’s not fair that you always get invited to the fun stuff.”

  Sci didn’t make a facial expression, but he did say, “Hardly fun when I’m probably going to end up unconscious after this.”

  “Oh,” she said while shaking the bag. “I know, that’s why I brought this.”

  His face hardened, and suddenly, Vivra liked Sasha a little bit more.

  “I am not eating popcorn. And if you put that in my mouth while I’m unconscious, I will get you back.”

  A devilish little look. “Okay.”

  “I’m serious—” Sci’s eyes faded out, and he exhaled slowly.

  Vivra looked at the screen Sol was monitoring and saw that the ships had closed in on fifty miles. She watched as Sci spread his hands in the air and jerked them from side to side. Then his jaw hardened, and Vivra watched as another ship came within the fifty-mile mark. The Cerebral’s reach.

  “Captain,” was all he said before Sol called out that the third ship had entered into the fifty-mile radius.

  “I’m with you,” Rannn spoke out, staring at his screen, but Vivra could tell that he wasn’t really looking at it. “Focus on Gaarku’s mind.” The captain’s eyebrows furrowed as he slowly inhaled.

  “The other two are going to fire. They rerouted their power,” Sci said as he moved his hands.

  “Stop them, and don’t lose the connection to Gaarku. Can you prompt him with a picture or something so we can get a lock on Jaccy?”

  Clalls turned, ignoring his screen, but Vivra remembered Sci saying that the other ships were going to fire on them. She slapped his hand to get his attention.

  He turned, looking confused. “What? You hit me.”

  “Focus,” she hissed, pointing at the screen with the ships.

  His abnormal eyes looked her over. “Fine, but just know, I bite.”

  “No, you don’t,” Sol said from his chair without looking at either of them.

  Clalls, looking affronted, responded, “Um, I’m talking to my friend. This is how we talk to each other. And if you weren’t such a tarq, you’d know that.”

  Thinking about it, she wondered if he’d taken their entire time of knowing each other as a friendship. She had been mean to him at first because she didn’t like him. But now, she was fine with him, so long as he didn’t offer to do something for her. Making a deal with him would still make her leery.

  “Sci,” Rannn hissed. “Stop them,” he yelled.

  Clalls cursed. “Incoming.” Then he moved his arm over her torso to keep her in place as the ship took a sudden hit and jerked to the right.

  “Return fire,” Rannn said, and Sol touched the screen.

  “Firing torpedoes,” Sol called out.

  Vivra saw on Sol’s navigation screen that he’d sent three torpedoes to each ship.

  “There are too many people,” Sci said, shaking his head.

  Rannn hit the top of his armrest. “More. Give Gaaku more images of Jaccy and the Flourg. I need to know how to track him.”

  “They are going to nebulize the ship, Captain. I can’t…” Sci clasped his fist and jerked as if he were pulling an invisible rope.

  Sasha moved first, letting the bag of white fluff drop as she reached out to grab Sci when he fell backwards.

  Oddly, Rannn had not moved. All he did was sit there and blink. He wasn’t even looking at Sci.

  The bridge was silent. Sol moved his head, looking at the captain. Clalls was looking at Sci. Vivra pulled out her Minky and sent a message to Pax, letting him know what was going on in the bridge.

  You never listen. I said stay in logistics.

  She rolled her eyes at her mate and sent him a message back.

  Pax, I think you should get up here.

  He responded a second later.

  Headed up. Are you okay?

  I’m fine. But Sasha needs help. She left it vague for a reason. If anyone audited the messages, she didn’t want anyone to know what she’d seen. Not that she could prevent anyone else’s story, but she was convinced that Sci had singlehandedly stopped three ships from attacking and got inside their heads.

  She didn’t think she would ever feel the way she did now about a Cerebral, but after witnessing what he’d just done, she was pleased that he was on her ship and part of the Garna’s crew. Not only as a spouse, but as an actual team member that helped in ways no one else could.

  Rannn was lucky to have him, and Vivra believed he knew that. Because a half-second later, Rannn blinked a few times, coming back to himself. The first person he looked to was Sci. Rushing to the Cerebral, he pulled him from Sasha, who was struggling to hold him.

  “I got him.” He signaled with his chin for Sasha to lead through the door.

  To Clalls, Rannn called, “Clalls, I wanted you to be the first to know. Admiral Armsono didn’t send the nebula bomb to Eldon.”

  Vivra watched as Clalls’ eyes narrowed. Vivra was just as stunned.

  “As soon as I get back, I want you to get Admiral Armsono on a quantum video call.”

  The door closed behind Rannn, and a second later, Pax walked in, pointing his thumb over his shoulder. “Was that what you called me up for?”

  “Always late to the party, Pax,” Clalls said with a sardonic tone.

  Pax moved his hand to point at the Night Demon. “Me and my guys were manning the railgun and defensive weapons. What were you doing? Oh, yeah, nothing, because I know if Sci was in here, he was the force-multiplier. Not you, smiley.”

  Vivra got up to stop the two from talking to each other. Walking up to her mate, she patted his chest. “Were you worried for me? That’s so cute.”

  He wrapped a hand around her lower back. “How about the next time the ship’s under attack, you come down to see me instead of going to the bridge? I’m more interesting than anyone up here anyway.”

  “Oh, are you a telepath now? You know the ships aren’t going to fire on us?” Clalls said.

  “I doubt the captain would have left the bridge if there was still danger,” Pax pointed out.

  Vivra agreed with Pax. But Sol was the one who said, “Pax is right.”

  “You’ve known him for like three seconds. You don’t get to join the conversation,” Clalls hissed.

  Sol rolled his eyes. “I’m a pretty good judge of character.”

  “Oh, yeah?” Clalls challenged.

  Sol looked at him and then at Vivra. “I checked the other ships, their weapons systems are offline. Whatever the Cerebral did, he cut them down. Rannn had some telepathic connection to everything so he would know if it’s safe.”

  Clalls was no longer listening. He was tapping the Minky screen at his area then shot up from his seat and walked over to the captain’s char. He sat down, reclined and hit the transmission button for the quantum video call.

  On the second ping, the admiral accepted. His frustrated expression narrowed into suspicion when he saw Clalls. Vivra watched as Clalls wiggled his fingers at the admiral.

  Admiral Armsono jerked back. “What is this?”

  “What? I can’t call to say hi?” Clalls replied.

  Armsono looked past the captain’s chair, directly at her then at Pax beside her.

  “Commander?”


  The door opened, and Rannn walked in. He saw Armsono on the screen and said, “Admiral.”

  Armsono sat back, his chin lifted. “Yes, Captain?”

  Rannn didn’t speak again until he was seated. “I wanted to apologize for accusing you of nebulizing Eldon. I now have evidence proving your innocence and someone else’s guilt. I presumed the evidence against you. I called you first, and I will make an official statement to the high-end admirals.”

  Armsono leaned slightly into the camera. “Are you serious?”

  “I am,” Rannn replied bluntly.

  Armsono sat there and stared. “Who nebulized the planet?”

  Rannn’s lips pursed slightly. “A Numan named Calum.”

  “Who?”

  Vivra watched as Rannn rubbed his index finger and thumb together. “I will put all of my intel in my report. One that I need to finish and then send to my fleet Admiral.”

  Armsono’s lips curled. “This must have been a hard call to make.”

  “Honor dictates that I admit when I’m wrong.”

  “Honor dictates I accept.”

  Rannn nodded and then terminated the call, silently looking at the ceiling for several minutes. No one spoke, and Vivra wasn’t sure she had ever seen anyone admit they were wrong like that before.

  The way the captain had apologized and still kept his unique and strong sense of being made her almost envious.

  Then she heard him say, “Where is the last Niffy drink?”

  Vivra quickly picked it up and handed it to him.

  Opening the juice, he stood up and addressed the four watching him. “As you all know, Sci showed me what he was seeing telepathically. From him, we were able to discern that Gaarku’s freighter is not a Federation ship, it’s a ship masquerading as one. And he works for Jaccy. He’s trying to get the Flourg we have on board. His orders are fake.”

  Vivra felt the truth tingle under her skin.

  “The other two were sent by the Numan, Veeda, to destroy the planet because she didn’t want any evidence of her…experiments coming back to her. They were told to take us out. Sci saw them try and nebulize us. That’s when he knocked them all out and maxed his conscious endurance.”