Altered Destiny

by Trevor Gregg

  “Yes, well, let’s have it you others, what’re you here for?” prompted Geri.

  After a brief pause, the female crew member spoke up, although hesitantly, “I’m good with calculations and astronavigation.”

  The flabby creature chortled incoherently and looked as if it were about to wet itself. The lobster man remained silent, showing no reaction whatsoever, unblinking black eyeballs staring back at her.

  The comm panel in the door squawked and an urgent voice cried out, “sir, we’re being boarded!”

  The officer spun but it was already too late. Geri’s foot connected with his head. The man went flying, crashing against the wall and landing in a heap. Her next strike caught the woman square in the face, snapping her head back and rendering her unconscious.

  It was too little, too late though. The lobster man and flabbyface were making a break for the airlock. Flabbyface hit the panel and the door slid open. As Geri began to lunge, Tharox barreled past her, shoulder checking the lobster man, who was flung back against the wall. He continued into the flabby skinned creature. The force of the impact sent the creature flying.

  Tharox grabbed his foot and heaved, hurling the alien out of the ship and down the corridor. Geri dashed inside and motioned to Tharox, who then darted aboard. She secured the hatch and listened to the sound of gunfire from somewhere aboard.

  This plan had gone to hell in a hand basket, she thought. Time to improvise, she would just have to… Tharox’s metallic hand clamped down on her shoulder and shoved her across the corridor into the opposite hall, just as a trio of shots echoed after her.

  “We’ve got boarders at both airlocks! Stay frosty marines, let’s take out those Crevak spies,” a grizzled, confident voice called out from somewhere down the hall.

  Footsteps echoed as the marines advanced on their position. She was unarmed and they were shooting to kill. Geri realized she had made a tremendous miscalculation. They had failed.

  61

  Sonic Emitter

  Alis reached out and touched the panel, triggering the airlock door to open. Directly across from them was the sleek, gleaming Ashari and her airlock door. The anticipation was unbearable. They were about to get her ship back. There was no more waiting. She kicked off and drifted out into space, heading for the Ashari’s airlock.

  She caught herself on the frame of the door and settled in front of the access panel. Glancing up she saw Kyren and Elarra arriving. Kyren was bearing a large sack of their equipment on his back. Extracting her wrench, she transformed it into a maglock decrypter and attached it to the access panel.

  The wrench began to run through its decrypting routines, attempting to hack the door control system. Lights flashed indicating progress. Anticipation turned her stomach into a tight knot.

  And then the lights went solid green, and the airlock door slid open. Her heart surging with joy she scrambled in, Kyren and Elarra following closely behind. Once in, she sealed the airlock behind them and began to equalize atmosphere with the ship.

  Kyren popped his helmet off and set it down along with their gear then drew the stun pistol Geri had given him. Alis followed suit with her helmet, as did Elarra.

  “Ready?” she asked.

  Kyren raised the pistol and replied “go!”

  She hit the controls on the inner door and it slid open. A startled saurian crew member turned and dropped the toolbox he had been holding. Thankfully Kyren reacted quickly, squeezing off a shot that took the crewman in the shoulder. Blue electricity crackled and arced over the saurian’s body and he went rigid, falling to the floor and beginning to twitch.

  “Let’s get to the engine room,” Alis cried, transforming her wrench into its new sonic emitter form.

  They made their way down to the junction where the saurian lay, unmoving. Breaking right they made for the end of the passage. They were almost there, she almost had her ship back.

  “Hey, stop! Stop right there!” someone cried from behind.

  Whirling, she didn’t hesitate, squeezing the trigger even as she brought the emitter up. A wave of compressed air and sonic energy traveled down the corridor. In the confined space the waves of force were intensified. The blast hit the poor rillian full on, sending him flying into the wall. He fell in a heap and did not rise. Unfortunately, it struck with the noise of a thunder-crack. The whole ship knows we’re here now, she thought.

  Dashing through the bulkhead door at the end of the hall, she sprinted to the engine room, Kyren and Elarra hot on her heels. A man was emerging from the compartment bearing a shotgun. The man began to raise the shotgun but Kyren was faster by a hair. Several rounds tore past Alis and impacted the door frame, forcing the crewman back into the chamber.

  “Cover me, Kyren,” Alis whispered, creeping forward.

  She poked just her wrench around the corner and fired the emitter blindly. But in the confined space, it was enough. She waited a second and then dashed into the engine room. The crewman was in a heap in the corner. She could see blood coming from his ears, but he lay still.

  Kyren and Elarra followed her in and she closed the door behind them.

  “Geri, do you copy? The goose has reached the nest,” Kyren said into a small communicator attached to his ear.

  Alis heard more shots ringing out somewhere on the ship. They weren’t designator stun pistols, either. Those were the real thing. And her mom was probably out there! Shit! She better get to work.

  “Geri do you copy?” Kyren said again.

  Why wasn’t she replying? Was she shot? Had they captured her? Frantic thoughts raced through her head as she struggled to transform her wrench into the form needed to hack a ship’s inhibitor. All she could do was work fast.

  “I copy Kyren. They’ve got Tharox and I cornered, and they’re shooting to kill. The mission is lost, get out and take my shuttle and flee. Get Alis to safety!” she replied gravely.

  “No!” Alis replied to her mom, and clamped her wrench to the ship’s main data conduit.

  “C’mon Alis, she said we should go,” Kyren urged, “the ship is lost, but we can still get away. It’s what she wants.”

  Alis completely ignored him, focusing on the root of the problem. Time, they didn’t have enough time. She needed to get the Consortium goons off her ship so she could locate and disable the inhibitor. She initiated the scan for the inhibitor’s location, but knew it could take a while.

  Then a flash of inspiration struck. She went to the ship’s console located along the wall and brought up an interface. She typed some commands and the system responded. Incredible! They hadn’t found the back door she had constructed for herself.

  Within moments she was in the ship’s systems. She couldn’t access piloting controls this way, or any of the other main functions of the ship, those were restricted by the inhibitor. But life support wasn’t off limits. In fact she had full control. So she grinned wickedly and initiated the decompression alarm.

  62

  The Veteran

  “Geri, what’s your location?” Kyren’s voice squawked from Geri’s comm.

  Her ears hurt as the alarm klaxon sounded shrilly. But she had to ignore the pain, she and Tharox needed to find safety. If it really was a decompression alarm, they needed to reach the escape pods. They could seal themselves inside to survive.

  Unfortunately, they were in the aft of the ship. The pods were in the bow.

  “Kyren, do you copy? Please tell me that alarm is a ruse,” Geri yelled into her comm.

  She could hear Kyren yelling but couldn’t make out what he was saying. He must be talking to Alis.

  Kyren became intelligible again as he spoke, “roger, it’s a ruse, Alis knows you’re out there. Just hang tight until we give you the all clear, then come back to the engine room.”

  “Looks like they sealed the station’s airlock. I think they’re all off the vessel,” Kyren relayed.

  The alarm cut off a moment later. Geri was grateful for the silence but her ears continued to ring.


  “Geri, are you okay?” Kyren queried from the comm.

  “My ears are ringing, but Tharox and I are…” Geri was trying to say, when she was suddenly interrupted by a bellowing voice.

  “Drop it now! Hands on your head now! Or I will terminate you!” a grizzled, angry voice boomed. The same grizzled voice that had been leading the others just a short time ago.

  Dropping the communicator she turned, hands slowly rising to her head. She didn’t dare glance at Tharox, she needed to keep her eyes on this one. She knew he was exceedingly dangerous, obviously a battle hardened veteran.

  “Step back, now!” the veteran boomed again, motioning with his small but powerful pistol.

  She took a step back and caught Tharox doing the same out of the corner of her eye.

  The veteran scooped up the comm and said, “your only hope of living is immediate surrender. Even as we speak a commando team is massing outside the airlock. And even if you can hijack the ship, there will be a destroyer on station any moment now. You’re caught, surrender and you will be accorded humane treatment as our prisoners.”

  A tiny child’s voice answered, full of venom and vitriol “how about you go fuck yourself.”

  The veteran’s face darkened and he took his eyes off Geri for just a moment. But it was all she needed, gliding forward and closing the gap, she lashed out with a knife-hand strike, slapping the gun away just before it discharged.

  Her other hand balled into a fist and drove forward, aimed for his throat. His instincts were good, unfortunately. Instead of focusing on his gun, he was paying attention to her strikes. He pivoted his body and took the brunt of her blow on the side of his neck, avoiding his windpipe.

  Left open, she couldn’t block the retaliatory strike, his fist connecting with her solar plexus. She dropped to the ground, gasping for breath, as Tharox rushed past her. Watching in horror, she realized Tharox was too slow, the veteran’s gun was coming back into line.

  A series of rapid cracks echoed down the corridor from behind the veteran. Suddenly, the pistol dropped from his hand as blue electricity crackled all over him and he went rigid. Tharox bowled into him, lifting him off the ground and slamming him into the deck.

  Geri crawled forward, her breath finally returning, and grabbed the veteran’s fallen pistol. Staggering to her feet she saw Kyren dashing toward them from down the hall behind the veteran.

  “You will need to hurry, they appear to be hacking the Ashari’s door. They’ll be through shortly, no doubt,” Elarra said through the comm.

  She tucked the pistol in her belt and spoke into the comm, “Elarra, how is it coming with bypassing the inhibitor?”

  “Alis is still working, but hasn’t located it yet,” Elarra paused briefly. “Wait, she just found it. She’s working on the bypass now.”

  “Excellent, let me know when you’ve got it,” Geri replied, overjoyed.

  Maybe they’d pull it off after all, thanks to her resourceful daughter and companions. It’s not over yet, better stay vigilant, she thought.

  “Kyren, Tharox, get this guy and anyone else still aboard into escape pods,” she instructed.

  Now she needed to get to the piloting console and wait for Alis to work her magic. Pistol drawn, she warily made her way to the bridge and jumped into the pilot’s seat. Flipping several switches and hitting some buttons, the console lit up and the holopanel sprang to life before her.

  She brought up the startup routine and tapped initiate. Nothing. Not surprising, the inhibitor was still in place. Now it was just a matter of waiting, which was excruciating. She knew there was no point in asking Elarra for status, she knew the tenacious liadi would inform her the moment there was a development.

  She wasn’t sure how long had passed, but her comm finally buzzed.

  “Alis believes the inhibitor should be bypassed now,” Elarra informed her.

  Geri’s hand shot out and hit initiate, and the ship flared to life. She immediately disconnected the airlock, cutting off the hacking attempt, insulating them from the boarding attempt by the OSO security forces. Next she brought up sensors, immediately identifying the heavy cruiser making its way around the station and bearing directly for them.

  The ship’s communications channel chirped, an incoming message from the approaching cruiser. She ignored it, pushing the Ashari into motion.

  She switched control of her personal comm to the ship as she maneuvered it around an antenna spire.

  “Kyren, launch the pods with minimal velocity, targeting the station, as soon as you’ve loaded the crew. Then they’ll be able to be scooped up safely,” Geri instructed.

  “Will be done in a few seconds,” he replied.

  Scrambling to bring up other systems while still attempting to pilot, she heard the screech of a weapons lock. Dammit, she had to quit working on the shields and instead take evasive maneuvers. She rolled the ship around the edge of the shipyard, placing it between them and the cruiser.

  “Benjam, do you copy?” she called out.

  “Yes, I’m here. I’m nearly done,” he replied timidly.

  “You are done, Benjam. We’re out of time,” she replied vehemently. “We’re gonna have to make a running pickup. Get to the barrier at the entrance to the engineering bay.”

  “Um, I can do better. I can wait for you outside,” Benjam squawked back. “We brontians can survive for some time in space.”

  “Excellent! Get moving!”

  She pushed the controls and sped off toward the far orb, heading for the engineering bays. She maneuvered the ship to keep the base between her and the less nimble heavy cruiser.

  Kyren and Tharox entered the bridge, followed a brief moment later by Elarra and Alis. They all dashed to consoles, Kyren immediately bringing shields on line. Elarra began to calculate a jump target.

  “Banuh, right Geri?” Elarra questioned.

  “Yes, we’ll need to jump the moment we have Benjam aboard.”

  The weapons lock screeched again and Kyren cried, “missiles inbound. I’m going to deploy countermeasures.”

  A burst of particles blew out the back of the ship, leaving behind a dense cloud. Several missiles entered the cloud, but emerged traveling in random orientation, all evidence of a guidance system erased.

  Geri could see the gaping entrance of the engineering bay approaching, the blue membrane stretching across the opening keeping the atmosphere inside, but still allowing ships to pass through. She magnified the view and spotted a small, squiggly figure clinging to the outside of the base, tentacles wrapped around an antenna.

  Suddenly, Benjam leapt out into space. She realized he was on a trajectory to intercept the ship. She rolled the Ashari to the port side, opening the outer airlock and attempting to line it up. Benjam approached and passed within the Ashari’s sensor radius, disappearing from sight.

  She could only hope he had hit the airlock. When she didn’t spot him flying past on the other side of the ship, she sighed in relief. A short time later, Benjam squiggled into the bridge, bearing a strange looking contraption, a little like an industrial coffee maker crossed with a satellite antenna.

  “Elarra, where’s that jump vector before that cruiser fires again,” Geri demanded.

  “Still working,” Elarra replied, voice strained.

  “Let me, Elarra,” Benjam squeaked confidently, heading for the terminal.

  Elarra slid aside, and moments later, Benjam cried triumphantly, “Flight path to Banuh, set and done!”

  Geri lined up the vector and hit engage, and the Ashari warped away, destined for whatever lay in wait at Banuh.

  63

  Time to Launch

  Elarra was unsurprised that they wound up in the midst of a battle. Geri was an exceptional pilot, but Elarra could tell she was struggling, keeping up but just barely. Alis would have made it look effortless. No matter, she was keeping them alive, and there was no doubt she would continue to do so.

  “Have you located their flagship?” Ger
i grunted.

  “Not yet, there is a huge cluster of Crevak ships, I’m guessing it’s at the center but my scans haven’t picked up the weapon yet…” Alis began. “Wait, there it is. Locked on.”

  “The escape pods, they are covered in a stealth coating, I assume,” Elarra asked Geri.

  “Yes,” she grunted in response, dodging several swarming fighters.

  “Kyren, can we get some weapons?” Geri asked crossly.

  “Yes, coming on line now.”

  “I’ll be a gunner, too,” Tharox rumbled, claiming a console and waiting for Kyren to pass some controls to him before grabbing the targeting joystick.

  “Here’s the DS turret, it’ll deal some pain to those bastards,” Kyren replied, swiping the controls over to Tharox’s console.

  They began to fire the Ashari’s weapons. Enemies fell. Elarra had no love of the Crevak, but neither did she hate them. They were simply animals needing to be put down. Besides, they were ultimately inconsequential. The Kirugi was the true threat.

  But they could not deal with it until the Consortium was safe. Their ships would be needed if they were to stop the creature’s spawn. The viewscreens whited out as they took a hit, shields absorbing the destructive energy but much diminished.

  “Gah!” Geri screamed, attempting to dodge a flurry of fighters.

  They lit into the Ashari as Geri dodged and juked, shield absorbing the fire that she couldn’t dodge. A fighter screamed straight at them, strafing with it’s particle beam cannons. Shots tore into the shields, and they began to flicker.

  The ship exploded before them as Tharox squeezed his trigger. They flew through the debris and sped around a massive battleship, dodging fire from its many turrets.

  “We should prepare ourselves,” Elarra said calmly. “Let’s make our way to the escape pods. Kyren, Tharox, Alis, you shall come. Benjam, you’re needed here.”