Flux Runners

by William Joseph Roberts

  Younglings joined the gathering of females. They latched onto their mother’s legs or attempted to clamber into loving arms.

  “He...he...he...he…” Fubar sang a laugh from his pallet along the back wall. “Insurrection is upon us, my brothers. The same as you started when we were barely grown ourselves,” the malformed Chinchassan said in a hoarse whisper.

  “Enough! Lilhanya, tend to your charges or you’ll be the one to pay for this,” Ceiwo ordered, seething with rage.

  Lilhanya exploded with laughter. “Why should I? What if what Casraownan and Jouqon have said is true? What if there is a threat to us, to the younglings? Should we not prepare?”

  Gabhothi spat. “Ha! If it were true, we would be exposing ourselves if we went looking for him. They could follow us back to our home.”

  “You do believe,” Olne said. She stepped forward and stared into her father's eyes. “You’re afraid, aren’t you, Father?”

  “Nonsense,” Gabhothi said dismissively. Looking away he shuffled over to a stone and sat down.

  “Then what is it that you fear, Father,” Olne asked. “Do you fear for our safety?”

  Gabhothi grumbled under his breath. His jaw muscles flexed as he chewed on the words that he did not want to speak.

  “Then what? What is it that keeps you from sending someone to check on one of our own? What is it that you fear so badly that it paralyzes you,” Lilhanya demanded.

  “He fears change,” Casraownan said. His deep voice boomed through the chamber.

  All turned in surprise toward his voice. Casraownan stood tall and proud at the chamber entrance. Behind him stood three tailless and nearly furless creatures.

  “Call the rest of the clan,” Casraownan demanded. “We have much to discuss.”

  cHAPTER 24

  Unknown Red Giant System

  2nd planet / Alien Starport

  July 2nd, 2176 / Afternoon (Betty Time)

  “H

  o...Ly...Shit Cap,” Wes said with a gasp. “It’s a monkey cat boobie farm!”

  Doug and Lizz glanced back at Wes with confused looks, then back to the chamber full of alien cat creatures. The cavern was both wide and tall, and opened to least twice as tall as a man and illuminated by the blue glow of bioluminescent moss. Each of the creatures wore a leathery kilt like garment around their waist, similar to what Casraownan wore. Save for the fur that covered every inch of their bodies, they were all otherwise nude. The distinction between male and female of their species easily stood out in the gathered crowd of aliens. The females of their species proudly displayed their very human-looking breasts. Both large and small breasts protruded from their very human-like, though fur-covered chests.

  “What?” Doug turned back to Wes.

  “I know why Cass looked so damned familiar!” Wes’s eyes bulged with excitement. “There was this old-world series called Destroyermen that had these kilt-wearing cat creatures who had evolved on this parallel earth instead of humans. Oh my god, they look exactly how I had pictured them!”

  “Oookay then.” Doug turned his attention back to the group of cats as the old, hunched gray one began shouting at Cass.

  Lizz leaned over toward Doug and whispered. “What do you suppose that he’s going on about?”

  “Dunno,” Doug said with a huff. “Let’s just hope that it doesn’t involve eradicating the invading aliens.”

  Wes leaned forward between Doug and Lizz. “What? Are you serious? You don’t really think they would do that do you? We’re the good guys.”

  “Think about it,” Doug said, keeping his eyes on the cat creatures. “An alien species, unlike anything that you have ever seen before in your life has just shown up on your doorstep and you have no idea what they want. Wouldn’t you get a little paranoid?”

  “True, that’s a good point,” Wes said. “But Cass wouldn’t let them hurt us. He seems interested in helping us.”

  Lizz laughed out loud. “What if he’s the aluminum foil hat wearing conspiracy theorist that everyone ostracizes?”

  “Oh crap,” Wes blurted. “I didn’t think about that.”

  “Yeah, that’s it, exactly,” Doug said turning to Wes. Movement in the corner of his eye caught his attention. A smaller, child-sized version of the cat aliens slinked about the edge of the chamber toward them. “Looks like someone might be coming to say hi.” Doug nodded in the small creature’s direction.

  “Awww, would you look at it. It’s so cute.” Wes knelt down and motioned for the creature, “It’s ok little guy, we’re not going to hurt you.”

  Lizz smacked Wes in the back of the head. “Are you bloody stupid or something Wesley? You want to pet one of their children like it’s a kitten?”

  Wes thought for a quick moment. “Probably a bad idea, isn’t it?”

  “Yeah,” Doug said. “It’s probably the worst idea that you could come up with at this particular moment.”

  The small alien nimbly rounded the adults. It stopped in mid slink at the sound of a hissing growl that came from the older, gray furred creature.

  “Oh shit,” Wes said, pushing himself upward.

  “Get up you bloody bogan.” Liz’s gaze darted from one cat creature to another around the room. “This could turn bad quickly if we aren’t careful. We may need to run.”

  Casraownan bellowed a deep yowl that echoed throughout the chamber then turned his attention back to the old gray cat-creature. The old one straightened and said something in their native tongue to Cass. The small cat bounded toward Casraownan and leapt into his arms.

  Doug leaned toward Lizz, “One of his children possibly?”

  “It’s possible. Did you see that gray and white female reach out like she was worried?” Doug asked. “Do you suppose that’s his wife or mate or whatever they use?”

  Cass approached the small group of humans, the child held close in his arms. He repeated the earlier exercise, hand on his chest, “Casraownan.” He then pointed to the child he held in his arms, “Jouqon.”

  “He’s introducing us.” Lizz smiled with amazement. Cautiously, she held up a hand and reached for the child. “Jouqon?” She tickled the child’s belly. It squirmed and laughed a laugh that sounded like it was hacking up a hairball. It curled over onto Lizz’s hand and latched on, its claws lightly dug into the skin as a warning. “It’s alright little one, I’m not going to hurt you,” she cooed.

  Cass eased each of the child's claws from Lizz’s hand.

  Doug rummaged in the cargo pocket of his pants and produced a ration pack snack bar. “Wes, do you think that they can eat our food, or do you think it might make them sick?” He removed the bar and tucked the packaging back into his cargo pocket.

  “No telling for sure. But Cass here had one of those bars earlier and it didn’t mess with him that I could tell.”

  Cass whispered something to the child, then its tiny arms sprung out, reaching for the bar.

  “I don’t think there’s any worry over the food,” Lizz said.

  Jouqon took the bar, sniffed at it then immediately shoved it into its mouth. It open mouth chewed, cooing over the new delicacy.

  Murmurs and bits of conversation flitted about from the other cat creatures in the room.

  Doug’s comm unit suddenly beeped. He growled with a nervous grin aimed toward Casraownan and the others. The device beeped again. Doug held up a finger then stepping away he keyed the mic.

  “I’m kinda busy here, what’s up,” he whispered into the device.

  “Cap, we’ve got a slight problem up here.” Worry laced Rachel's voice. “Something big just appeared out of nowhere while we were in orbit. The boys figured out how to tap into the satellite system using the one we snagged. The thing is massive and it’s moving closer to us.”

  “Alright, just hang tight Cheezy,” Doug said, glancing back at the gathering of alien creatures. “We’ll be back up there in a few. Have the boy’s prep for a fight and get everyone ready to bug out if we have to.”

  “C
opy that Cap, Cheezy out.”

  Doug turned back to Lizz and Wes. “Looks like we’ve got company.”

  cHAPTER 25

  Unknown Red Giant System

  2nd planet / Alien Starport

  The Hans Landa / Bridge

  July 2nd, 2176 / Afternoon (Betty Time)

  “T

  hat thing has got to be nearly a klick in length,” Trae said as he scanned over the data readout. “Ferg, can you get an accurate measurement with the satellites?”

  “Give me just a sec,” Fergus said. “The computer is moving a bit slow. It’s having a little trouble translating the signal from the satellites.” Fergus tapped at the control console.

  Rachel pulled Big Willy’s pipe wrench from beneath her seat. “Does it need an adjustment?”

  “Dammit, Cheezy!” Willy let out a frustrated huff. He reached over and snatched the wrench from her hands. “Didn’t I tell you to leave my tools alone.”

  “And no dear,” Fergus added, “We don’t need you to make any adjustments to this ship. We’re on the Martian ship instead of the Betty because you made adjustments to the viewscreen over there. How about you just sit back and relax for the moment. It’s okay. We’ve got this.”

  “Yeah,” Trae said with a laugh. “Let’s not make any unnecessary adjustments to this ship. It’s still in mint condition. It even has the plastic still on the seats. Hell, if it weren’t for the extra mileage, I’d bet the warranty would still be valid.”

  “Hey now,” Rachel shouted. “All I was trying to do was to get the thing to stop glitching. Technically it did work. It stopped glitching out.”

  “Only because you threw Willy’s wrench through the damn screen.” Trae glared at Rachel as he shimmied out from under the control console of the port side auxiliary station.”

  Rachel scowled. “Don’t you look at me in that tone of voice or I’ll adjust your face the next time.”

  “Hey!” Krista shouted. “Shut it! Both of you!”

  Amanda stormed off of the bridge amid an explosion of sobbing tears.

  “Shit.” Kara followed Amanda off the bridge. “Oh baby, she wasn’t yelling at you.”

  Maggie furiously huffed. “See what you did? You made her cry again. Why do you always do that?” Maggie stomped her foot and followed after Amanda.

  “Oh my God people!” Krista said, throwing her arms up in frustration. “Just stop with the bullshit arguing and let them get this figured out.” She breathed deep, then continued. “It shouldn’t be too much longer before Doug gets back.”

  “What did you do to Amanda this time?” Doug asked Krista as he entered the bridge of the Hans Landa. Wes, Lizz followed closely behind with Casraownan, and Jouqon bringing up the awestruck rear. Both cat creatures glanced about with looks of wonderous amazement.

  “Praise the Lord!” Krista pushed her way past Doug and the others and rushed for the exit. “I am so fucking over it. The chaos is all yours big boy. It’s your turn to babysit for a while. I’m going to bed.”

  “What the hell was that all about,” Doug asked as he watched Krista stomp off of the bridge.

  “Don’t ask,” Trae replied. “Wes, can you give us a hand? The integration code that we came up with for the satellite communication just isn’t able to keep up with the translation.”

  “Gladly,” Wes said with a chuckle. He stretched his arms, popped his knuckles, then took a seat at the operations station. He immediately began rearranging lines of code and moving files at a blinding pace. “And, that should do the trick.” He stabbed his index finger against the control console. The viewscreen flashed to life with the image of a long red, cylindrical object that loomed over the nearby asteroids.

  “Woah,” everyone said with a unanimous gasp.

  “How far away is that thing?” Doug cautiously walked forward without taking his eyes off of the screen and sat in the captain's chair.

  “Fifty thousand klicks if the readings are right. Wait,” Wes tapped at the control console. “Fifty thousand klicks from this particular satellite that we’re tapped into. Looks like it’s one of the guidance beacons out in the asteroid field.”

  “That doesn’t tell me much.” Doug impatiently drummed his fingers on the armrest of the captain’s chair. “How far away is that beacon in relation to us?”

  “Hold on, I’m working on it,” Wes said.

  Trae stepped forward in front of the viewscreen. He stared at the image of the massive alien vessel on the screen. “What’s it doing? Are those cables or arms coming out of the nose of the thing?”

  “Make sure that you’re recording all of this, Wesley,” Lizz said, nudging him in the shoulder. “I’m sure that someone will want the footage of mankind's first encounter with an alien spaceship.”

  “All sensor data and video feeds are being recorded.” Wes grinned over his shoulder toward Lizz. “Okay, so that beacon is on the far side of the system.” He tapped at the control console and brought up an overhead layout of the system that appeared in the lower right corner of the screen over the image of the ship. “Right now, it’s about one AU from our current position, smack dab in the middle of the debris field and upspin of the ecliptic.”

  Doug scratched at the stubble on his chin. “Can you get a better view of it? Maybe it has some kind of markings on the hull or something that we can use to identify it at least.”

  “Oh wow,” Wes looked up at Fergus and Trae. “How did you guys tie these satellite things into the ship? This is crazy.” He scrolled through the readout on his console. “We have full access to,” he said, pausing for a moment, “over one thousand individual satellites along with the sensor packages on three different mining stations positioned throughout the system.”

  Fergus chuckled and smiled proudly. “Well ya see, I connected the…”

  “Wes,” Doug interrupted, “Can you get us a better view of the ship?”

  “It looks like it might be near one of the mining stations,” Wes said. He tapped at the controls and the image suddenly flashed to a close up of the alien craft along its starboard bow. The hull was almost seamless along its octagonal length. White markings that resembled Norse runes stood out in contrast to the dark reddish-gray of the hull.

  “Oh shit,” Trae gasped. “Those are grapplers coming out of the nose. See there at the articulation points,” he said, pointing at the nose of the ship.

  “Hang on. I think I can get a bit better view.” Wes adjusted the image on the screen, then switched the view to a sidelong perspective of the alien ship. “That should do the trick,” he said. A measurement icon appeared on the viewscreen that quickly tagged either end of the vessel. “If these measurements are right, that thing is over a thousand feet long.”

  Fergus joined Trae on the forward portion of the bridge near the viewscreen. They studied the ship in fascination as the nose of the craft separated into eight segments that spread out to twice the diameter of the hull. Eight grappling arms protruded from the forward section of the alien ship, angling to capture one of the large rocks. The arms maneuvered the rocks into the maw of the beast, like a Kraken devouring a ship. They watched as in minutes, dust and debris formed a cloud near the rear of the vessel as it was expelled, just forward of the propulsion system.

  Fergus looked up from his watch. “Okay, so that’s about five minutes from the time a rock entered into the crusher until it started to shit out the gravel.”

  “And that thing is radiating some serious heat along its midsection,” Wes said. “Thermo is picking up steady temps of around four thousand degrees Kelvin.”

  “Damn, that’s hot enough to boil plutonium,” Fergus said.

  “If that’s the case, then what the hell is that thing made out of?” Trae stared in awe at the image on the screen.

  Doug leaned forward in his seat. “It’s a mining vessel like the Betty. It’s just bigger and the layout is a little different. But it runs on the same process. Grind up rocks, smelt down the good stuff and then dump the slag.�
��

  “They must be running with a butt-ton of ceramic lining inside the smelter to run those kinds of temps,” Willy said. “Nearly everything on the interior of the Betty’s foundry system is coated in an inch or more of ceramic or refractory liner.” Willy half sat on the corner of the operations station. “That damned grappler must be some kind of special material as well to take the beating that it’s getting. I wonder what kind of propulsion system they are using to move that hulk that size? You said it just flashed into existence?”

  “Hell, for that matter, I don’t see any external turrets or gun ports,” Trae said. I wonder what kind of weapons they have aboard?”

  Fergus turned and looked between Big Willy and Trae. “Maybe they are all internal and only deployed when needed?”

  “Possibly, but how quickly could they deploy them if they needed too?” Willy scratched at his bushy beard. “Maybe they don’t even bother with deflecting stray rocks like we do on the Betty with the 480mm gauss turrets. Maybe they just rely on their armor plating to protect them from the rocks?”

  Fergus snorted. “Oh come on, Willy. No one in their right mind is going to go out, let alone into deep space without some sort of defensive system. You’re going to have pirates.”

  “Um, hey guys. I hate to interrupt your sausage fest,” Tiff said. “But does this mean that at some point we get to kick some alien ass?”

  Trae turned and gave Tiff his sidelong are you shitting me look. “That thing is at least three times our size. Do you really want to tangle with it?”

  Andy stepped forward, poking at the image on the main viewscreen as he examined the image of the alien vessel. “Ya know, I betcha if they are the sort that are penny-pinching cheapskates, the only armored part of that ship is the nose section where all the action is at. See the hull lines,” he said as he pointed at the difference in the hull. “It looks thicker on the front third of the ship.”

  “Wait,” Trae said turning his glare toward Andy. “Are you seriously siding with her?”