Star Resistance

by D. R. Rosier

  Could this get any worse?

  Boom!

  The door slammed open, and four men in suits came in with guns out.

  “Freeze! FBI!”

  Fuck, I guess it could get worse.

  “On the ground, now!”

  I slowly raised my hands as I slid off the chair onto my knees. Of course, it was the perfect posture for law enforcement to make sure the suspect didn’t have a weapon in their hands, and their hands nowhere close to a weapon.

  In my case, it was an act of aiming, since my empty palm was the weapon. Four quick pulses later, and directed sound waves knocked them all out. I stood up and sighed, and grinned sheepishly at my companions.

  “This could have gone better, don’t you think?”

  I turned and rounded the desk.

  “What are you?”

  I sighed, “I’m human, with alien technology. They’re aliens, and the report on your computer is mostly lies.”

  He asked, “Mostly?” as I put pressure on the wound.

  I said, “I was an asset, black ops. I imagine when the Stolavii kidnapped me some of my old bosses got nervous, and decided to burn me. Most of that evidence was probably fabricated, at least the parts that led to the real evidence.”

  He laughed, “So what is that made of that bullets bounce off, and why are you here, since I’m still alive. What did you do to the FBI.”

  I said, “Slow down. They’re just knocked out. I came here for the reasons I already said, we want to recruit people. I figured the road to getting the authorization to loan two thousand sailors to an alien fleet, would start with you and end with the president. It’s not the suit that made the bullets bounce, but a shield.”

  Vik said, “Ask him if he wants to see the ship, we can fix his arm up there as well, and get him an assistant for translation.”

  The admiral’s eyes widened at the alien tongue, and he stared at the three-blue people for a long moment.

  I said, “He wants to know if you want to see the ship. We can fix your arm, and give you a translator of sorts.”

  He said, “I don’t think I believe you yet, but I can’t explain the change of uniform, or that blue skin, which could just be another trick like the clothes. But… you also haven’t killed me yet. What the hell, take me to your ship. Where is it?”

  I smirked, “In orbit.”

  Jillintara said, “I think I can get a shuttle down unseen. I should be able to create a shield formation that will disperse radar, I just can’t do anything about a visual sighting.”

  I passed that on.

  Janson said, “UFO sightings are common.”

  I snorted, “He has a point. Millions of people report UFOs all the time, and people either don’t believe it, or think it’s just a government secret or experimental craft. Of course, in truth, it’s probably the Stolavii.”

  Vik said, “Alright, bring a shuttle down, and make him a ship suit, the old kind.”

  I reiterated, “The shuttle is on its way, we should head outside. There will also be a ship suit for you, if you’re staying any length of time it’s best to be protected from vacuum, even if the chances are almost nil that could happen outside of combat.”

  Janson said, “So in return for manpower, you’re going to give us ships of our own to defend Earth?”

  I replied, “With some limitations, yes.”

  Janson asked, “Limitations?”

  I led him toward the door, “The ships are intelligent, and moral. You’ll be able to defend the Sol system, and reverse engineer to your heart’s content. But you won’t be taking over the world, or conquering other worlds.”

  Janson said, “But you’ll let us figure them out and build our own?”

  “Humans fear what they don’t understand, and attack what they fear. It’s my hope, that by the time the Earth’s scientists figure out the principles and how to build a fleet of ships for Earth and by Earth, humanity will be well accustomed to not being alone, and having neighbors. I’ll admit it’s a risk, but we’re trading today’s problem for tomorrow’s hopefully not a problem. After all, once they’re used to it, and can relate to other species, humanity can also be noble and compassionate.”

  Janson sighed, “Getting shot hurts more than I remember.”

  I laughed. He gasped as a shuttle barreled out of the sky, and stopped on a dime two inches above his lawn. The outer door opened, and I helped him inside. Jillintara grabbed something out of a compartment, and shot him in the arm with it.

  He said, “What was that, and how many ships.”

  “Nanites, to heal you. I’m not sure, it will be open for discussion. Perhaps we should agree first in principle, that your willing to put our service men in harm’s way for a common enemy in exchange for the technology to meet the Stolavii and prevent them from preying on Earth any longer. Thousands of humans are taken every year and enslaved.”

  Janson said, “Why haven’t they helped before now?”

  I shrugged, “Why does the United States allow genocidal dictators to run third world countries and kill whoever they want? Same reasons, it isn’t their responsibility. The Isythians are very much free enterprise type of people, they’re doing it now because you can offer them something in return. They’re not bad people, no more than Americans are, but they mind their own business and take care of their own.”

  Janson nodded, “That’s a relief actually.”

  I laughed, “It is?”

  Janson explained, “I’d be a lot more suspicious if they came with smiles, messages of good will, and miracles of tempting technology. We help them with their civil war, they help us with protecting Earth, a fair enough trade and made in need. I’ll require more information though, for all I know the other side being in charge is better for Earth.”

  Wow, I can’t believe he said that out loud, even if it was true. The gunshot wound must have made him a bit more open than usual. Pain could do that.

  The shuttle took off for the ship, and the wound was already mostly healed by the time we got there. I wondered what he’d say when he found out he’d live another two to six centuries after that shot, depending on what his normal lifespan would have been…

  Chapter Fifteen

  The rest of the initial process was mostly Janson, Vic, and Sylara. After a couple of days of talking, Janson had agreed to take the deal to one of the joint chiefs who would finally pass it on to the president. After that, if it got approved, we’d need to start things rolling. Things like food, implants and nanites for the ones chosen, and training downloads.

  As far as it being better for Earth if Denik stayed in power, Janson had decided that wasn’t true once he learned the facts. Denik was a power hungry homicidal control freak at the very least, and if anything, Earth would be in more danger. Sure, Denik would almost be protecting Earth in a way going after all the Stolavii ships, but…

  I could see Denik going after Earth, Gionus, and Suatera after he took care of the Stolavii. He didn’t want to protect his people, he wanted power and control. Having three independent planets in his empire’s space was sure to chap his ass. Hopefully we’d be ready before anything like that could happen.

  Tentatively, the United States would offer two thousand military personal to run the ships, and risk their lives in battle to restore the empire and get Denik off the throne. In return, we’d let them keep fifty of the ships to guard their solar system, and we’d have as many ships as we had left to protect the five worlds of the empire. Hopefully, recruiting crews from the five planets of the empire would go quickly when it was time to replace the humans. More ships would come as well, but initially we were hoping we’d have at least sixty percent of the ships remaining, which would put fifty around all six planets including Earth.

  How many more would be made was dependent on the need, and how much a threat the Stolavii were once they were no longer being hunted.

  As discussed earlier, the ships would defend Sol, any other offensive function relating to other species
or controlling of the Earth itself would be denied by the assistants. The assistants wouldn’t help the humans reverse engineer anything, but they wouldn’t stop them from poking around either, unless it was a safety issue and they were about to do something really stupid, like blow up the ship accidentally. The only other thing he asked for was a few extra nanite packs, just in case the wheels needed to be greased somewhere along the line.

  It was disgusting, but that’s politics.

  There was more of course, a lot of little details. Like the fact they’d have to purchase and pay for reactor upkeep after a set time. We’d give them twenty replacement cores for each ship, which should cover about five years, after that they had to pay for it themselves.

  One other curious detail was that the admiral was going to be our new operations officer on the bridge, when Rilok temporarily transferred to Sylara’s ship. It would put him in a place to review our tactics, and be the one to transmit them out so the human soldiers could maintain their chain of command. I was fairly sure the unspoken reason Janson demanded that option in the deal, was so he could assure himself we weren’t just using humans as fodder and shock troops to make gains.

  We’d sent him back to Earth a while ago, and remained in orbit waiting to hear back. I figured it wouldn’t be easy to convince his boss, or the president, that it was all true. It didn’t help, that he probably had some explaining to do with the FBI, after all, we’d knocked out four agents and then absconded with the admiral for a couple of days. All that wouldn’t make his job any easier.

  More than likely, if the president did tentatively approve, we’d probably be in for more rounds of negotiation on the surface.

  I’d had a few satisfying fantasies about tracking down my handlers and ending them, but on balance I decided to just let it go. I was beyond them now, and new rats would just take their place anyway. Black-ops, wet work, assassination, and the seedier side of government was a necessary evil at times, though sometimes they went too far.

  It was my fault for not taking that into consideration, I knew they’d burn me if I ever figured out the drug formulae and took off, I just hadn’t been thinking about it with everything else going on. Was I getting sloppy? Arrogant? I didn’t think so, but time would tell.

  Several weeks passed while we waited for him to contact us. He had an implant, so all it would take is a thought on his part, it wasn’t like he could lose our number. But… governments worked at two speeds, slow and slower, there was no getting around that.

  During that time, I continued to improve in the simulations, and started back in on the reactor problem, which I was obsessed with and at the same time doubted I’d ever figure it out. The strangest thing about it, was the damage to the reactor was mostly up, I mean the direction up, where the converter was positioned above the core. But… the converter shouldn’t affect the dark energy, attract it, or cause small bursts of damage. On the older reactors, it was more spread out, to the sides as well as up, which meant the higher the power the more some radiation escaped containment, and how random that radiation was. It was strange, but nothing in my knowledge, the math, or the course explained why the damage occurred in that direction.

  “Hello?”

  I looked up from the reactor in my test lab, and felt really annoyed, but I put on a smile for Vik’s youngest sister. It wasn’t her fault the reactor was evil, and I actually liked Solyra. Sylara and Dessia were alright I supposed, but it was obvious they didn’t approve of my affair with Vik, and they never lightened up and relaxed in my presence. They hid their disapproval and judgement of our cross-species relationship behind formality. Solyra was different, and seemed more curious than anything else.

  “Solyra, come on in.”

  She smiled, “What are you working on?”

  “Wow, you can’t be that bored, can you?”

  She laughed, “Maybe?”

  I explained the reactor conundrum. I’d found a workaround that worked, but was hardly a fix. I wanted to fix it. I had a feeling I’d still be doing this a thousand years from now, maybe I lacked a truly creative spark. Finding new ways to adapt and use current technology was easy for me, but figuring out new stuff or making a real scientific breakthrough? That wasn’t my strength, obviously. That didn’t stop me from trying though. If I could figure out the problem, I was sure I could fix it, but the reason for the instability at higher power levels was a damned mystery. It just was.

  She smirked, “Our scientists have been trying to figure that out for a long time. Good luck. Though, isn’t it fixed now? You’re already saving my government far more credits than we’ll have to pay out to you in royalties for using your designs.”

  “Resources are cheap, with the exception of the element. So yes, the new setup saves on the element, but it’s still a waste of resources. Cheap and plentiful in thousands of star systems or not, they are still finite and shouldn’t be wasted. One of the small reactors should be able to power this ship or a destroyer, maybe even a battleship. Two reactors for sure, and most ships should have two just for backup. It shouldn’t need twenty reactors, or fifteen in a destroyer plus five more in a power plant.”

  She looked politely interested, which is to say not at all. That prompted me to change the subject.

  “So, what have you been up to?”

  She said, “My mother had me download the ops station controls and responsibilities. She’s going to captain, I’ll be on Ops, and we’ll have two humans on board to pilot and control the weapons. Our assistant will take care of engineering. I’ve been doing simulations.”

  I replied, “I can relate to that.”

  She shrugged, “I’m hiding.”

  I laughed, “That too.”

  She grinned, “So what do you do when you get bored?”

  “We’ve come full circle, I bang my head in frustration while I try and figure out the reactor. I do read, and watch entertainment shows. Isyth as well as Earth stuff.”

  She asked, “Any chance we can get down to the planet?”

  I said, “You mean like a tourist, go out to eat and dance? See the sights?”

  She grinned, “What a wonderful idea. I love the ship, but I feel trapped.”

  I laughed, “That sounds like fun to me.”

  I had just the disguise in mind, no point in taking chances…

  I looked in the mirror satisfied, my hair was a much darker brown, almost black, with hints of red in it. My eyes appeared to be green-blue, instead of doe, and to take care of the ID scans, my cheekbones were a bit different. I also looked like I was wearing a black dress that clung to my curves. It was sleeveless, and showed a lot of skin, though that was an illusion, since I most definitely had sleeves and the ship suit went up to my neck.

  When I got to the airlock, there were a few people waiting. Sylara had insisted we have guards, not that I minded having everyone else along. Literally, except for Dessia and Sylara everyone was going for a night in NY city, starting with a steakhouse, and ending up at a club where we could dance. We’d have to be careful with that, since if any strangers got free with their hands, they’d feel cloth instead of flesh.

  Jillintara looked excited, and both her and Solyra were dressed to kill as well, and looked amazing. It felt a bit strange at first, since I was going on a date with three of my lovers, a princess, and Rilok. But that wore off quickly.

  I won’t go into great detail, nothing significant happened, but we had a good night, and it was my first time really going out to have fun since this all started. That night was also the beginning of my friendship with Solyra. Not one with benefits, since I was already her brother’s lover, but more like a sister-in-law and friend relationship. The younger princess was a lot of fun, and not only seemed more open minded about me and Vik’s relationship, but she got along well with Jillintara as well, which was a pleasant surprise. I knew most Isyth weren’t mean to the artificial assistants, but they did view them as a lesser class and servants.

  Of course, Jillintara
was in a class all by herself. At least, she was until her and my artificial assistant children had developed and fully grown up. At the end of the night, I said goodnight, and went to the captain’s quarters with Vik. It was a very good night, overall…

  Chapter Sixteen

  The next morning when I checked ship’s status, the logs, and the probe network, I discovered a few things.

  We found three systems occupied and building ships which no one had known about. At least, not anyone but who was in them. Two of them we weren’t worried about, or at least not yet, those two systems belonged to the Stolavii and Suaterans. The third was Denik’s. There wasn’t much we could do about it yet, we still had just over seven months before we’d be ready, assuming Earth was willing to help, but we did discuss it.

  Jillintara said, “Based on this new system, and the ship building systems of the empire we know about, he’s producing twice as many ships as we are. Each of his four systems has half as many platforms as we built in ours.”

  Rilok said absently, “Four to one odds?”

  Yeah, four to one odds, when three to one would be even. Denik’s fleet would be back up to two thousand by the time we were ready with five hundred. Still, we had other advantages, which Vic pointed out.

  Vik said, “Yes, but we have some advantages as well. For one, we can run in stealth until the engagement starts. Two, thanks to the probe system we’ll know where their whole fleet is, and can engage and quickly destroy smaller numbers. Hit and run tactics so we can chew up his fleet slowly but surely over a week or two. All this really means, is the war won’t be fought in one battle. That might be a good thing. Half his fleet will be crewed by empire personnel. I can’t imagine they’re all happy with the policy changes.”

  Sylara shook her head, “We can’t depend on anyone changing sides. There have always been elements in the population that leaned toward us being harsher to the Stolavii, and taking a firmer hand in our claimed space. It wouldn’t have been hard for him to recruit those people. The ones you’re talking about wouldn’t have signed up under his regime. It won’t be easy fighting our own, nor should it be easy fighting and killing the innocent but dangerously brainwashed humans, but it’s what we have to do to restore our way of life.”