Imprint of Blood

by Phil Huddleston

  Cassian turned and resumed his sitting position on the floor of the crew bay, as he had spent the last two weeks when he wasn't up pacing around or doing exercise in the limited space in the engine room. A few minutes later, he was just about to doze off when the Copilot came back and touched his shoulder.

  "Sir?"

  Cassian snapped awake. "Yes?"

  "Sir, better come up front."

  Cassian glanced up at him. His face showed a worried look.

  "OK," he grunted, and unfolding once again from the deck, walked stiffly down the passageway to the cockpit again.

  When he got there, the Copilot resumed his seat, while the Pilot turned to him.

  "We've got company, sir." he said, as Cassian sat down in the jump seat.

  "What?"

  "Two rather large ships. Right behind us."

  Cassian focused on the holo. Sure enough, there were two ships running close behind them, not more than a hundred miles in trail. The sensors rendered the ships as black wedges. They were easily ten times the size of the corvette.

  "Are they broadcasting?"

  "No, sir," said the Pilot. "We haven't tried contact yet."

  Cassian thought hard. "Those are not Bat ships."

  "No, sir," said the Pilot. "No, sir, they are not."

  "If they wanted to harm us, they would have already..." Cassian continued.

  He glanced at the Pilot. "...and I doubt very seriously if we could out-run them."

  The Pilot nodded. Cassian gestured with his hand. "Stop all accel."

  Reaching for the controls, the Pilot pulled the throttles. The black ships matched them, staying exactly in place. The three ships coasted through space in formation.

  "Now what," thought Cassian. He waved a hand at the Pilot. "Send a contact signal."

  "Contact signal?" The Copilot looked puzzled. "What does that mean?"

  Cassian sighed. "I don't know. Try...ah...try the first one hundred prime numbers."

  ***

  Three hours later, Cassian grunted in frustration. All their attempts to communicate with the two black, wedge-shaped ships following them had come to naught. The two ships simply hung in space, one on either side of their rear, in perfect firing position. Cassian and the pilots had started by transmitting the first one hundred prime numbers, then moved on to simple words and sentences, trying to elicit any kind of response from the others. Finally, in frustration, he had ordered the Pilot to just start transmitting historical videos. Either the ships did not receive their signals, did not understand them, or simply did not want to talk. Now, after hours of trying, he was at his wit's end.

  "I'm going to go out there," he said.

  "Sir? No, sir! Don't do it!" said the Copilot.

  "Have to," said Cassian. "We have to get this resolved."

  Cassian stepped back into the main cabin and pulled a spacesuit out of a locker. He started putting it on when the Pilot stuck his head through the bridge hatchway.

  "Sir...they've responded."

  Cassian, stunned, dropped the spacesuit on the floor and ran back to the bridge. The video screen between the Pilot and CoPilot had come to life. It showed a creature from the other ships. The creature had the same general physical arrangement as his own people - a similar head, eyes, nose, mouth, ears, neck...and what he could see of the upper body looked similar. It seemed to be taller, larger overall, but not that different from him. And it wasn’t a Bat!

  The creature looked at him out of the video and smiled - a gesture Cassian recognized, as it was like that of his own people. It spoke in a strange language, then paused.

  "Hello, Daneki corvette," said an artificial voice, clearly an AI, in passable Daneki. "Sorry for the delay. It took our AI a while to parse your language. You appear to have come a long way. Can we talk?"

  ***

  Many hours later, Cassian sat across from the alien creature, which called itself 'human'. The human AI had translated that into Daneki with words that came out as 'monkey men', which Cassian thought was hilarious. He bit his tongue to hide his smile, thinking about the little monkey creatures of his home planet. Clearly their AI had not yet fully mastered his language. They had exchanged data to determine that human environmental conditions were adequate to support Daneki life; biological tests showed that pathogens were unlikely to be an issue between the two life forms, at least in the short term; with that information in hand, Cassian had consented to journey over to the human ship for a conference.

  The human spoke at length, and Cassian waited patiently for the AI to translate. Finally, the human stopped, and the AI began.

  "We understand you are running from the Bats. I am sorry to hear that they have destroyed your civilization. You may be sure that we will help you in any way that we can. But also, please understand, we cannot take any chances that you might, in fact, be spies for the Bat empire. We do not know very much about the Bat Empire, and thus we must be careful. For that reason, we are going to ask you to come with us. We will escort you to another location, where we can communicate at length in comfort and safety. It will take about three weeks to reach our destination. We will re-provision your ship and provide you with vectors. We will be happy to transfer some or all of your passengers to our larger ships for the journey. Will this be satisfactory to you?"

  Cassian thought for a moment. These creatures were very leery of the Bats, he could tell. And in his mind, that made them potential allies. And he had to admit, if the tables were turned, he would probably act in the same cautious manner. He was sure that, wherever they were going, it wouldn't be anywhere close to the home planet of these creatures. Not unless they were completely stupid, and they didn't strike him in that vein.

  So, they would take him to a neutral location, far from their own space, and then there would be an interrogation - they might call it something else, but that's what it would be. And they would pick his brain for anything they could use against the Bats. Cassian could see the gleam in the eye of the human officer across the table from him. When the human realized that Cassian and his people were refugees from the Bat Empire, he nearly salivated at the thought of obtaining intelligence from them.

  But Cassian didn't care. He would tell them anything they wanted to know, if they gave him just one thing. Just one thing he wanted from these humans, after he saved his people in the corvette. Just one thing...

  A chance to kill Bats...

  22 April 2185

  Beehive Cluster - Near Pestilence Port

  "Out of six-space, Captain." said the Tac Officer.

  "Very good, Reah," said Hecate. "Set a course for Pestilence Port and keep us stealthed. If anybody is going to be surprised out here, I want it to be the other guys."

  "Roger, Mum," confirmed Reah.

  Andrea grinned. "Like a lion lurking among the sheep."

  "A small lion," said Hecate. "Let's not pick on anybody bigger than us."

  Turning back to the Tac Officer, Hecate asked, "What do we have in the system, Reah?"

  "Well," said Reah, "We have the A5-class star, two small rocky planets in close that are too hot for habitation, three gas giants out in the edge of the system with a lot of moons, and a ton of junk all around. It's a really cluttered-up system. Pestilence Port is on the largest moon of the innermost gas giant, basically a mining colony, low population. We have about a twelve-hour run-in to the port."

  "OK. Any threat areas I should be aware of, maybe a good place for an ambush?"

  "Oh, tons of them," said Reah. "Just take your pick. Like I said, a very cluttered up, junky system. Rocks everywhere."

  Hecate sighed. "OK. Keep your eyes peeled. This could very well be an ambush scenario. Let's don't get caught with our knickers down."

  "Roger, Skipper." agreed the Tactical Officer.

  As the Nemesis moved into the system, Hecate sat loosely in her command chair, while Andrea paced the bridge from console to console, looking over shoulders, cocked for action. Hecate smiled. That is why they were su
ch a good team. She was the relaxed, thoughtful one, Andrea was the tightly wound spring. But if anything happened, both knew exactly how the other would react and how to use that to their advantage.

  Hecate was no protected, cosseted Princess of the Blood. Princess Deinomache, her mother, had also been a Fleet Navy Officer, and had worked her way up to Frigate Captain. Throughout Hecate's childhood, it had been understood she would serve in the Navy, and she had been prepared accordingly. Like all members of the Imperial family, she had trained in hand-to-hand combat from the age of six, mastered hand weapons and armor by ten, started flying her own flitter at thirteen, and flew her first space shuttle at fourteen. By the age of eighteen she had graduated from the Imperial Naval College at Aronte and entered the Fleet. And she had worked her way up the hard way - never once using her blood or her title for advancement. Now, at twenty-seven, she was a destroyer Captain, and would soon be in line for a frigate.

  "Contact!" yelled the Tac Officer. "I have a stealthed destroyer, barely visible, coming out from that big asteroid behind us, vectoring for our six, I designate DD1"

  "Battle Stations!" yelled Andrea. She turned to Hecate. "It's an ambush, all right,"

  As the klaxon sounded both overhead and in their internal comms, Hecate assessed the picture in the holo.

  "Bring us about forty-five degrees to the left, Helm, and make for that big moon over there by the outermost gas giant. Up to max standard. Let's get some protection behind that moon. Get our weapons hot, Guns. Comm, hail this bitch and see if she wants to talk."

  "Aye, Mum," said the Weapons Officer and Comm Officer simultaneously.

  "No response, ma'am. Still coming on, still stealthed. If we didn't have the new Mark II detectors, we wouldn't even know she was there."

  "Thank God’s thumb for that," said Andrea. She glanced at Hecate briefly. "I wonder if Auntie knows we have those..."

  Hecate shushed her. "Not now, Andrea. What's it looking like, Tac?"

  "Still coming hard, ma'am. She's gonna have us right about the time we get to that moon. Whoever she is, she's got a Mark II also. She's right on us."

  "OK, let's plan on a tight perigee with a vector change as we go around that moon, I want to scrape dirt off the tops of the mountains and come around it with enough vector change to make exit a good 20 degrees off from our inbound track. Let's see if we can fox this lady. Prepare for excess g's."

  The klaxon, which had stopped, sounded again with the singsong of the excess g warning, letting crew members know they were about to exceed the limits of the compensators.

  "Contact!" yelled the Tac Officer. "I have another stealthed destroyer, coming from behind the moon we're making for, designate DD2. It's a setup!"

  "Damn!" yelled Hecate. "I walked right into it!"

  Andrea yelled at the Helm, "Roll our belly armor to the bitch in front of us, she's closer, and get us the hell out of here!"

  "Aye, Mum!"

  "Guns, open fire with everything!" yelled Andrea.

  “Too close for missiles, Mum,” yelled the Weapons Officer. “They won’t arm before they hit!”

  "We're gonna get pounded," observed Hecate. "Hang on, everybody."

  The Nemesis’ railgun cannon let loose their first shots with deep thumps that shook the whole ship. At the same time, the Tac Officer yelled, "Incoming!" and then the sharp, metallic clang of a cannon round striking the armored belly of the destroyer nearly knocked everyone off their feet.

  "This bitch can shoot," yelled Andrea. "Waggle and Wobble, Helm. Guns, anything?"

  "Aye, mum, we hit her once. No obvious damage, but she knows we're here."

  "Let's do a little better than that. Keep firing!"

  Deep thumps from the aft cannons showed that the Weapons Officer had already decided that. But that was immediately followed by two more incoming cannon rounds striking their belly, in quick succession.

  "They’ve both got our range, now." said Tac. "We're bracketed."

  "Max Emergency, Helm!" yelled Andrea, diving for her command chair, and immediately got knocked to the floor as the Helm rather enthusiastically firewalled the engines to full emergency power, the initial 202g thrust exceeding the limits of the compensators by 2gs, then rising quickly as the AI piled on as much as it thought the humans inside the tin can could tolerate. With the destroyer on a random walk course away from the two enemy ships, the g-forces pushed Hecate deep into her seat while the random walk from the AI jerked her back and forth against her straps. As the g-force built to the destroyer's max of 207g - 7 g over the limit of the compensators, crushing them into their seats - Andrea managed to finish crawling into her combat chair and strap herself in, blood oozing from her nose but otherwise seemingly OK. Hecate wondered how many broken bones this battle would cost the crew; but there was no choice. She was in a crossfire between two ships of equal size and firepower to hers, and both had her range. She had to change the equation. "Be ready, Guns!" she grunted.

  "Aye, ma'am" groaned Guns under the g-force. As their relative angle to the pursuers behind them opened a bit, Hecate heard her own aft cannons blazing away, alternating between the two pursuers. All three ships pounded each other for several seconds as Hecate rushed away from the battle line and the other ships twisted toward her.

  "Contact!" groaned the Tac Officer. "Another one, right in front of us, in stealth, just waiting for us, DD3!"

  "Crap!" spat Andrea.

  Hecate smiled grimly, shaking her head. "They've really got us in a box, Andy. Our only choice is to go right through this one. Helm - ram that bitch in front of us!"

  "Aye, mum!" yelled the Helm, her voice quavering.

  The Weapons officer launched all four of the Nemesis’ missiles at the destroyer in front of them, but they were so close that only one of them armed before reaching the target. It exploded near the other destroyer, but somewhat behind it, not doing any real damage.

  With her aft cannons alternating between the two pursuers now boxing her in from behind, the Nemesis charged toward the new enemy, firing both forward cannons as fast as possible at the ship before her, alarms flashing across the board.

  "Overheat on all cannon, Captain!" yelled Guns, her face shiny with sweat.

  "Keep firing, keep firing!" yelled Hecate as the ships rushed together.

  "Mum..." called the Helm, as they were a few seconds from collision.

  "Do! Not! Flinch!" yelled Hecate. At that moment, a tremendous explosion struck their ship, as the destroyer closest behind them scored a direct hit on their engines. The blast spun them to the side, an instant before they flicked by the ship in front, missing by less than a hundred meters. The lights went out, and every screen on the bridge went dark.

  The force of the explosion had knocked Hecate hard against the side of the command chair; she thought a rib was probably broken. Overhead, the emergency battle lights came on, building slowly to full intensity. The holotank flickered and resumed operation on battery power. But the picture it painted was not good.

  Andrea grunted in pain beside her, then whispered bitterly, "They've got us."

  Hecate nodded. "Yep. We're dead in the water. Guns are disabled, main engines are out, and we're just coasting along like so much junk. They'll come in and finish us off."

  Minutes later, smoke covered the bridge, drifting in the light of the emergency battle lamps. They had managed to get the spin of the ship under control using docking thrusters, but everything else was out. Andrea stood behind the auxiliary command console and laid two rifles on top, facing the bridge entry. She shook her head. "Hecate, think what you are saying."

  Hecate paused from stacking extra ammo charges behind her own console and stared at Andrea. "Andrea, think about it. We get ambushed by three destroyers. All three of them have Mark II detectors. A perfect setup. This is Navy."

  In the holotank, the three enemy destroyers approached cautiously, a few minutes from boarding them.

  Andrea shuddered. "Hecate, no...it can't be..."

&n
bsp; Hecate glared at her. "Let's be realistic. You know Auntie. You know she's capable of anything. And now...I think we know who set up the ambush for my father, too."

  Andrea put her hands over her ears, as if to block out the sound. Then, taking her hands away, Andrea went on. "Why? Why would Auntie want to kill you? Or your father? He was no threat to her - why would she do that? He was about as disinterested in Palace business as anyone I've ever known. All he wanted to do was to pursue his stupid Earther theories. And you - you're what, fourth in line?"

  Hecate sighed. "Actually, third. I know. A long way from first or second. But this is a crazy world we live in. This is a setup, and it’s Navy, and that means it's Auntie."

  Andrea thought out loud. "I take it that means, there'll be no survivors."

  Hecate grimaced. "You got it. That’s why they’re boarding us, to make sure."

  Commander Andrea Iona Satra gave a big smile. She hefted her pulse rifle, checking the charge for the second time since they had passed out weapons for their last-ditch stand.

  "Good - then I don't have to worry about accidentally killing any good guys!"

  Selected Entries of the Early Days of the Rim

  (distributed RimWiki of 2165, Orion Edition)

  Aeolian Empire

  The Aeolian Empire is a star nation centered on the Planet Aeolis, in the Beehive Cluster (M44), 580 light years from Earth. Aeolis was originally populated by approximately 200 humans abducted from Earth by the Machine Ship Darwin around 750 BC and transported to Aeolis, where they were abandoned after Darwin lost interest in his bottleneck experiment. The small population survived and prospered, and has grown to a star nation of some 42 colonized planets (as of 2180).

  The original founding population originated in the Greek city-state of Aeolis, on the western coast of Turkey. However, 12 Amazonian females among the abductees took over leadership of the small group on the new planet and established a matriarchal society based on a blend of Amazonian and Greek culture and beliefs. The descendants of the original Amazon warriors are known as the House Aronte.