Authors: Ken Pence
Direct the Captain here. Tell him we have one Allung prisoner that we need to keep alive if possible.
“Your ship is now under our command. What is your name and rank?” Robert asked.
“I will tell you nothing scum. The Allung have never been defea…” it suddenly screamed as Robert held down the shocking button for the dog collar. “I asked you your name and rank. You Phlemm were defeated at Gralon 3 and here. I understand how you expect a great fleet to sweep in here and erase the people who defeated you but that’s not how it’s happening anymore. What is your name and rank?”
“I will not…” he said before he was thrashing on the floor with his weak arms going to his collar.
“Hey guys – this is fun. You want to try it. Here you go,” he said and handed the control to the soldier next to him.
“Sir. You are really twisted. I’d love a go,” he said and took the control and would let the creature stand up and then shock him – then he’d do it again. That soldier handed it to another who was enjoyed the thrashing prisoner when Captain Ummand came into the room and watched the little byplay.
Ummand turned to the soldier with the control and held out his hand. The soldier gave him the control and he examined the interface. He said, “Normally I would not condone what you are doing to this prisoner but as he is a slaver – nothing is too much for him. I lost a good man today.” He held out his arm and held down the button on the control until the prisoner had wet and soiled himself. “Has he started his – the Allung have never been defeated routine yet?”
Robert laughed. “Yes Captain. First thing out of his mouth.”
“I would like to suggest something. You have scanned his body for the skin pouches already I see. We have found the hidden compartments on this ship and disarmed a self-destruct device. Your
Cassandra
is decoding all the computer codes and communications on this ship. I suggest we put him in a good solid room with no internal controls – monitor him for the weeks and weeks and weeks he will be in here. We can transfer him to a 30-to-1 room when we get ashore,” said Captain Ummand.
“Good idea Captain. We’ll keep him in a relative time field and never take him out. I’d like to see how they age anyway.”
The Earth fleet of fifty ships had performed well so far in formation. The Hall drives were quite stable and the fusion power plants were producing plenty of power. The grav plate technology made the trip comfortable and the shield protecting the ships allowed communication while cutting off dangerous radiation. They had already rotated orientation 180 degrees to begin deceleration. The trip normally would have taken six months could now be done in six weeks. They still could not travel the distance in an hour like Robert Kobe but they had a few surprises with them this time that would cut him down a peg or two. They intended to get his bias drive one way or another even if it was obtaining it from the debris of his ships.
****
“You’re sure about this?” Twlise asked.
“I really can’t think of another way. They are not going to believe anything I tell them without proof and it will be hard to obtain that. Captain Ummand is willing to work with us. He figured out pretty quickly we were not the Earth Regulatory Force but we were reliable allies just the same. He knew we were his friends when we went into battle with him against the Allung – risking our own troops,” Robert said.
“I don’t like you risking your life all the time and I am coming with you,” she stated flatly.
“Is senior tech Uhmbub on board. Do we have the spare bias drive and robots?” Robert asked Nemesis.
[Ready and waiting for you Admiral,] Nemesis said. [The explosive pumped microwave weapons could harm me if enough got close enough and their lasers are very powerful.]
“Enough of this prep. Let’s get this over with,” Robert said. “Prepare to jump to their rear at their maximum range.” He paused. “Jump.”
****
“Captain. We have had a ship appear to our rear. It is attempting to hail us on our private frequency,” replied the comm officer.
“Okay Ensign. Advise the ship to come closer,” replied the Captain. “Weapons – prepare to fire the moment that ship comes closer. Use a full spread of the microwave missiles and fire slaved groups of lasers from all ships as soon as the ship comes closer. Do not wait for my command.”
There was no arguing with the Captain – they all knew that the previous crew had been subverted by Kobe and they had specific orders not to get into a discussion with anyone.
****
Do you think you can be that accurate Nemesis? Spreading our field that far could make us lose coherence. You sure you interpreted their signals that they would fire the moment we got closer? Okay – its really rhetorical. Go with it.
“On my mark…” Nemesis said. “Three, two, one, mark.”
The ship jumped.
****
“Captain. The ship disappeared and it is alongside,” There was a clang as the hulls touched and the Flanders violently jerked.
“Prepare to repel boarders,” yelled the Captain over all-ship comm. He had heard that before and thought he should tell the crew what to do. The crew had never heard that command, never trained for that command, and had not a clue what to do but they were brave, hardy individuals and grabbed handguns, knives, or anything heavy. The ship lurched again and everyone felt a little queasy.
“Sir. That ship is gone sir and I cannot find the rest of the fleet. Wait sir. I have that ship at our maximum range,” said the sensor tech. “It is hailing us sir.”
“Try to find the rest of the fleet and find out where we are,” ordered the captain. “Put that hail through.”
****
[Admiral Kobe. We successfully made the jump and are in position.]
Thank you Nemesis. Beautiful job. That was some hop there…wow.
Nemesis answered over their internal communicators with what sounded like a single microphone click of old. Robert smiled and hailed the Flanders.
“Frigg. This is Sol Force ship Nemesis. Wish only to talk. We are now located 361 light years from Earth near 47 Tau. You shoot and I will leave you right here.”
“Do not threaten me or…” Captain. “That ship is gone. We are where that ship said – approximately 360 odd light years toward 47 Tau. It is a M4III star and its ten light years from here. We do not have food or air capability of making it there.”
“Captain. The ship is back and hailing us.”
“Okay. Stand down missiles and lasers. Crew - prepare assault teams in full pressure suits.”
“They say there is a crewman with a package by our airlock. Forward starboard lock sir…Crew is signaling they hear someone knocking on the hull.”
“Allow them in. Search them thoroughly. Full pressure suits,” bellowed the Captain.
****
The outer airlock door cycled and shut. A person appeared out-of-nowhere as if by magic, carrying a small box. The pressure suit ‘she’ was wearing definitely showed this was a she. Whew, thought Chief Calligan. That suit looks like she’s not wearing anything underneath and it is so thin and…comfortable. The inner airlock door cycled open. The helmet, sort of, rolled back out of the way and revealed…Twlise…that alien model.
Twlise read the rank and suit name on the Chief’s pressure suit. “Hi Chief Calligan. My name is Twlise and I’m here to sort of surrender – at least to talk with you before everybody tries to kill us again. They sure do that a lot.”
Calligan decided to be polite. “May I see what is in the box? Would you turn around so we might check you for weapons? “
Twlise handed over the package and then slowly raised her hands over her head and turned around undulating her hips in a way that every male or female crewmember took a breath – whew.
“Thank you m’am. This looks like an insert for a 3D player. Is that it?” he asked.
“Yes it is chief. Robert recorded the details to construct the bias drive – he apologizes that it is one he had to record over. He said he had to make it quickly so you wouldn’t attack and kill thousands of people on Mars because your superiors are greedy when they could have just asked,” she said it so sweetly.
“This way m’am. I’ll take you to the Captain. He’ll want to talk with you.”
The entourage of pressure suited crew in bulky pressure suits and a slim, sleek, silvery slip of a woman in a stunningly tight suit made their way to the bridge.
The captain stood up as they entered. Twlise smiled and raised her hand and went forward before anyone thought to stop her. “Captain Purcell. Thank you so much for agreeing to see me. I brought the specifications for the bias drive with me and we have a spare unit aboard our ship. We’re sorry we had to bring you out here but we were afraid some of your other ships would try to kill us again before we could give you the plans.”
The captain reached up and took her hand before he could think of what to say. “Why here?” he said.
“Oh. Now that is an interesting story. Robert Kobe asked me to have you view the recording before hearing more. It is a bit involved. Where would you like to view it? Robert asked me to explain anything confusing. He recorded the information on the end of this disk,” Twlise said.
“I suppose he thought to send you because he was afraid to come. What’s to keep us from harming you or taking you hostage?” he said with a snarl.
Twlise sighed. “…Robert Kobe says, and I quote – if you harm me in any way or try to restrain me – he will drop an asteroid on every city of every member of your crew on this ship and the fleet. Here is a printed list of crew-members and cities where their families or parents live,” She said and handed him a folded sheet of paper listing names, locations, and relationships that Cassandra had pulled from the DoD database.
Captain Purcell sputtered. “How dare you threaten us?”
Twilise cocked her head to the side and played a recording on her Dex that Cassandra had intercepted and decrypted. A recording of Captain Purcell’s voice – “Advise the ship to come closer,” replied the Captain. “Weapons – prepare to fire the moment that ship comes closer. Use a full spread of the microwave missiles and fire slaved groups of lasers from all ships as soon as the ship comes closer. Do not wait for my command.” Twlise tilted her head down and said, “I’d say your commands indicate you were going to kill us before anyone could say anything…pretty standard Earth tactics of late.” Twlise looked around the room and saw many of the crew avert their eyes when she looked at them. “Is there somewhere we can view the information Robert sent?”
The first officer indicated a nearby conference room and escorted her into the room. The captain and two Marines followed her inside. The first officer inserted the disk into the 3D player. It started a presentation in Hllumff that showed an adult Allung. “What the hell is this?” he said. “What are you playing at?
“Sorry sir. Just select English. This disk was originally made for the Hllumff and Tros. It also has Trade, VicVic, Lemsa, and English. We can fast forward through the thirty minute presentation before we get to the bias drive.”
The first officer started to push fast forward when Captain Purcell reached and stayed his hand. “Just select English and hit play. I’d like to see what’s onthis thing.”
The video started with a discussion of the Allung. It showed the frog-like creature compared to a human and then zoomed in showing details of the poison sacs and the hidden skin pockets. The video explained their hierarchy and philosophy. It showed the best places to kill them with hand weapons. Then the video started showing their classes of known space vessels and their armament. The video showed scenes of space battles from Bellatrix. It showed boarding operations on Allung ships and personal recordings of corridor battles with disintegrating bodies. The audio was compelling to anyone who had ever experienced actual combat with screams of the dying. The part with the slaves attacking and the detonation of their collars was particularly…graphic.
The first officer stopped the video and stated, “Where did you get this fiction? I admit it’s quite realistic but…”
The captain put his hand on the lieutenant commander’s arm. “You’ve never been in actual combat have you son?”
“No sir, but…” the first officer started to protest.
“Commander. This shows actual combat…actual men dying. Did you see those slave collars?” asked the captain.
“Sir. Clever CGI,” argued the first officer.
“I don’t think so,” the captain said and turned to Twlise. “Thank you for coming here. You are very brave to have been dropped off in space so far from us and make it to our airlock.”
“Oh Captain. It was only two meters. We were right beside your ship.”
“You mean your ship was only two meters from our ship…we did not detect you…” he paused. “Mister Kobe could have destroyed our whole fleet couldn’t he?”
“Yes sir, but I’m told your explosive-pumped microwave missiles could have damaged a few of our ships,” she said demurely.
The captain laughed. “I knew we had no operational security when you gave us that list of every crew member on board the whole fleet. The real reason he wants to give us this bias drive is to protect us from these Allung isn’t it?”
“Yes sir…among others. We have a lot to discuss. Much of what we discuss is unbelieveable unless you see the proof before your eyes. We captured an Allung vessel two weeks ago in your Oort Cloud. We had the help of the Exploration Service – a destroyer manned by another race called the Hllumff.”