by J. N. Chaney
"Almost done with the repairs," Carrie Decker answered for him.
"Good," Locke said.
"Yes, we are almost done sealing the hull," Horvath muttered, his voice affected by the labor he was performing. "No cannibals will die today."
I watched as Carrie screamed when an air leak blasted between her hands, knocking her free of the surface. Horvath jumped after her, his safety line spooling out behind him. My heart pounded as I watched him grab hold of the Specialist, 4th Level. Soon they were towing themselves back to the surface to finish repairing the hull breach, both of them laughing nervously.
"Do you need more hands?" I asked. "Elise looks like she’s dying to help with your little space walk."
Elise shot me a look. "I’m searching for Union ships trying to kill us. No time for that nonsense."
"We don’t need her," Horvath said, oblivious to our banter. "Someone is coming from one of the scavenger light vessels. Please shoot him if he tries to eat my face."
Jelly and X continued to locate and organize other calls for help. I watched the scene unfolding with the newcomer.
"He’s not even using a safety line," Elise breathed. "That’s crazy."
"Focus on your job," I said.
"For once, I’ll be glad to do what you tell me," Elise responded.
I watched and listened for about three seconds before I stood and headed for the door.
"Where are you going?" Locke asked.
"I’m gearing up in case something goes wrong. This scavenger is more than he, or she, seems," I explained. "X, keep me in the audio feed."
"Certainly, Reaper Cain," X-37 said.
"How can you know that?" Locke asked.
"I don’t know anything. I just want to be ready. The scavenger looks too confident. Can’t explain it. Instinct," I said.
"Would you like to communicate with this person?" Jelly said. "I have been able to monitor some of their radio communications and believe you can speak with them if you are patient and use simple words."
"Let me get my EVA gear on, then patch me through. I want to be ready to kick some ass if needed," I said.
"Violence isn’t always the answer, Reaper Cain," X-37 said.
"But it is sometimes," I countered.
Before long, I was in the airlock wearing everything but my EVA helmet. "All right, Jelly. Let me have a word with this hero character."
Static hissed and popped in my ear.
"Damn, Jelly, I said patch me through, not blow out my eardrums." I put a hand to my ears like that would help, or maybe like I thought I would need to hold my brains in.
"That is the best connection we are able to make. Their technology is more advanced than ours in many ways, but shows signs of excessive repair and modification. Not the best communication gear, I’m afraid."
"I pretend… uh, imagine… you are another of the angelic saviors," the scavenger said. "If you are not, I will kill you for my people."
"No need to pretend. I’m one of the good guys. Who the hell are you?" I demanded.
"I am number one," the man said, his voice an interesting amalgamation of dignified and—for lack of a better term—street savvy. "Or maybe you would say I am The Number One."
"You’re an officer, a leader?" I asked.
"Yes," the man said. "The name of my parents is Rejon. My friends call me Brion Rejon, The Number One."
"Your friends need to work on a nickname for you, maybe something that suggests you’re too stupid to use a safety line or work with a team," I said. "Let’s get this ship fixed and get on with helping everyone else."
He ignored my casual, completely inappropriate banter and focused on the last part of my statement. His body language was the first clue—two starts and stops as though he was reconsidering coming here, then his voice confirmed his indecision, his words sounding skeptical. "You think you can help everyone?"
"No, but I'm going to try," I said.
A pause followed.
Horvath and Carrie Decker reported they were making progress and would soon be en route to the ship, but there was a problem.
"Is the scavenger giving you trouble?" I asked, still watching from the airlock viewscreen but ready to rush to their aid. "What’s he saying? I can’t hear your conversation."
"He insists on meeting you in person," Carrie said.
Brion Rejon ducked through the airlock door, unclasping his helmet the second it was safe. This was a man accustomed to operating in the void.
"Complacency kills," I said.
He held my gaze, swaggering toward me without fear. "Is that how you greet everyone or are you disrespecting me in particular?"
"I’m a Reaper," I said.
"I don’t know what that means," he answered.
I clipped my EVA helmet to my belt, deciding I probably wouldn't need it and it would be better to have my hands free. "It means I kill people."
"Am I supposed to be afraid?" he asked.
"Either you are or you aren't," I said. "It doesn't matter to me. The Union is trying to eliminate both of us. So maybe we should at least act like we're on the same side for now."
"I appreciate your help," Rejon said. "The strange warships are murderous void monsters."
The way he spoke, that sounded like a serious insult.
"You must understand," he continued. "My people have been here a long time and have been raided many times. You are as likely to be pirates as saviors."
"What do you think, X?" I asked.
Again, I was forced to scrutinize the man's body language and behavior. He wasn't forthcoming with explanations, but it was clear that a man talking to himself made him cautious. Meanwhile, my limited artificial intelligence answered me.
"I have insufficient data," X-37 responded. "I've taken the liberty of contacting Max Slipdriver-Slandonsky of the Bold Freedom. He is quite concerned with your situation."
"What can you tell me about the scavengers? Does Rejon know who their leader is?" I asked.
"We have many leaders," Rejon commented. "Are you consulting with a neural implant?"
"Is that a problem?" I asked.
Rejon shrugged. "No problem."
"I resent being called an implant," X-37 declared.
"Forget about it, X. He doesn't even know what an LAI is. We're wasting time with small talk. I just need to confirm that Rejon is a decision maker I can negotiate with."
Slipdriver joined the conversation, but his voice was scratchy and out of sync. The delay was distracting.
"I don't know if you caught everything I said, but the man you are speaking with is their leader or at least a primary leader," Slipdriver said. "If that's all you need, I need to get back to my own rescue operations."
Rejon crossed his arms and stared at me, unable to hear half of my conversation. "Who are you talking to and what are they saying?"
"I'm being told that you are the leader of the scavengers, more or less, and that we need to work together to defeat our common enemy," I said.
"We are not mere scavengers," Rejon said. "This is not the first time we have faced annihilation. We will work with you for now and possibly kill you in the morning."
I took a cigar from inside my gear but held it in my right hand, not sure if I had anything to light it with. Staring at him, I wasn’t sure if he was screwing up the language, threatening me, or making a joke.
"Seriously?" I asked.
"I don’t understand the question," Rejon said, not backing down despite my significant size advantage.
"You’re going to kill me in the morning?"
He frowned. "You did not find this comforting?"
"No, Rejon, I didn’t," I said.
"It is a very common phrase among my people, but no one really knows why," he admitted.
"Okay, fine. What the fuck ever. Maybe I will kill you in the morning," I said.
"When you say it, the words sound much more threatening," he said.
"That’s because I’m a Reaper. When I talk abou
t death, it means something," I said. X-37 chattered in my ear telling me to drop it, so I did. "Let’s save some lives."
"This is something I would also like to do," Rejon said.
12
The ship lurched sideways as something exploded against the shields.
"Jelly, what's going on?" I shouted, already running for the bridge. Rejon followed.
Another series of explosions rocked the ship and this time I thought the shield might've been breached. Warning lights flashed. Fire retardant chemicals filled one of the side hallways.
My feet left the floor. The wall reached out and slapped me sideways. Stars filled my vision and I blacked out for at least a few seconds.
"You should put on your helmet," Rejon advised, snapping the latches to his own head protection.
I grabbed him by the back of his EVA armor and steered him toward the bridge. "Once we get inside, we can strap into safety chairs."
The door to the bridge opened and I pointed to where I wanted him to sit. It took him awhile to figure out the restraints, but I didn't have time to help him. I went to the captain's seat.
"More saturation bombing, but a lot of it is directed in our vicinity—like they’re looking for us," Elise said, her hands flying over her control terminals at the sensor station. Locke and Tom consulted over another display, discussing something in animated tones but not including me in their conversation.
"Can we fire back?" I asked.
"Our weapons are underpowered and lack sufficient range to do much good,” Jelly responded. “Against a few of the micro-fighters, we would have a chance. We can't go head-to-head with this type of onslaught."
"Get us back in stealth mode if we're not already," I ordered. "Then let's get out of this area. Look for someplace with an escape route, maybe behind one of these planets or near a slip tunnel in case we have to leave the system altogether."
Rejon and Locke looked at me sharply.
"I'm not abandoning anyone, but we’ve got to have options," I said. My friends needed to learn how to be merciless. There were hard decisions that had to be made. Since I was already going to hell, I might as will be the one to make them.
We flew the Jellybird between a barrage of rockets and kinetic weapons that made Nebs’s first attack look like what it was, a series of ranging shots. The only thing in our favor was that most of the debris field was already in motion and couldn't get any worse.
From a distance, it looked impossible to navigate through the area without being struck by the ruined hull of a ship or asteroid, but there was actually space to maneuver if the ship and its crew had the skill to do it.
Nearly an hour passed before the bombing abated.
"Jelly, what's the damage?" I asked.
"Our shields maintained their integrity. We will need repairs and recharging, but nothing fatal. If they had known exactly where we were, we would not have survived," Jelly said. "As for the other bystanders in this system, several need our assistance. I recommend picking up wounded from the coordinates I just displayed on your HUD."
I read over the figures. "What are we going to do with that many wounded civilians?"
"You could ignore them and continue on your mission," X-37 said to me privately. "Saving innocent lives will be worthless if they're only going to be killed later by Nebs. I have made significant progress since the last time we contacted the vice admiral’s ship. Give me another chance to access their communications network. I can implant further code strings that will help us when we are finally prepared to move against them."
"X, we can't wait that long," I said.
"I suspected you would say that," X-37 said, not sounding amused.
"In the meantime, we need to do something about the civilians. Maybe we can't make them comfortable, but we can at least keep them alive."
Locke studied me. "How can we do that, Reaper?"
I could see there was nothing more he wanted than to save innocent lives if we could.
"Jelly, contact Slipdriver. See if they have a med bay large enough to handle this many casualties. In the meantime, let's round them up. We can worry about what to do with them later," I said.
"We have enough space," Novasdaughter advised from the Nightmare. "But we are on the opposite side of the system and well hidden. We avoided most of the collateral damage from the bombing runs."
"Start heading our way," I said. "We're going to need you one way or another."
Locke, Elise, and Tom worked together to bring the Jellybird close to a box freighter that had been camouflaged with randomly affixed bits of junk. Even in its heyday, the ship hadn't been much. But now it was struggling to move toward a distant planet as it vented atmosphere. I saw bodies shooting out of a hole before we got close enough to help.
"Can we dock with this thing?" I asked.
"Yes, Captain," Jelly said simply.
I gripped the sides of my chair as the maneuver was completed. Elise took over some of the remote controls. Locke asked Horvath and Carrie if they were ready to go out again in their suits.
"We need to recharge our air tanks," Carrie advised.
"Tell them to be ready but to standby," I said.
Jelly maneuvered alongside the damaged vessel and linked to it. Alarms went off in my head. If this was some sort of pirate ship, they could easily swarm aboard now and we would have a fight on our hands.
"I'm going down to meet them," I said. "Rejon, you better come with me. And Elise."
"Are you sure?" she asked. "There's a lot of work to do at the sensor station."
"I agree, but if there's a fight, I will need you," I said.
I wasn't trying to give her a compliment. But I knew she wouldn't let me forget this moment. I could already hear conversations about how she had saved my life.
Whatever. Like anyone needed that kind of mental abuse.
We rushed again to the airlock, and heard people banging on the outside of the door to get in.
"Jelly, let them in. I'll deal with the consequences," I said.
The door slid open. People streamed inside, falling over each other. Some were injured, holding broken arms. Some were bleeding from shrapnel. Others seem to be damaged by exposure to the void. Despite the chaos and their obvious distress, they moved with a sense of purpose. This wasn't the first time these people had faced a crisis like this.
There was lots of hugging and weeping when they realized they’d made it. Before long, the docking bay was overcrowded.
"Rejon, I'll need to put them in one of our storage bays. The conditions won't be ideal. Everything will probably stink like fuel containers," I said.
"My people will not complain," he assured me.
"Jelly, get us to the Bold Freedom. If we don't find some medical facilities, this is going to get a lot worse down here," I said.
"Of course, Captain," Jelly responded. "I will do my best."
I helped treat minor injuries and corralled people toward the storage bay, sometimes earning confused looks as I explained what was needed. Each frantic conversation was a chance to learn their dialect.
"X, are you getting all of this? I'm not sure my language skills are what they used to be," I said.
"The more you talk to them, the more data I will have to analyze and thus be better prepared to help you," X-37 said.
"I need to get back to the bridge, but I'll do what I can," I said. Looking around, I couldn't believe how many people we had crammed into this little ship. It made me think of what would've happened if the Jellybird had been overrun on the Dreadmax when people were desperate to escape.
"I'm telling you I saw them," a girl said to an older woman.
I took both of them by their arms. "Saw who?"
"The ones with the gold armor. I thought they had come to save us, but they pushed old-man Patterson through an airlock when they didn't like his answers to their questions." The girl was eleven or twelve, maybe older than she looked because she was half starved.
"What questions?"
I tried not to scare her.
The girl’s eyes darted around and she swallowed hard. "They wanted to know where the Reaver was."
"You mean Reaper?" I asked.
She nodded emphatically. "That is what they said!"
The woman interrupted, pulling the girl away from me. "There are no golden men. That was your imagination."
"You said they were wearing armor?" I asked.
The girl nodded but bowed her head when she received a stern look from the woman who was likely some type of relative.
"We'll get you to safety," I promised, already planning how I was going to deal with this new threat of the Archangels in their battle armor.
"I guess that confirms their gear can function as EVA gear," I said.
"I will make a note," X-37 replied.
"I know we don't stand a chance against them, X," I said. My limited artificial intelligence was getting on my nerves. "You said you had a solution for the Archangel problem."
"The situation has changed. I had hoped to subvert Necron and send out a message summoning all of the Archangels to the armory for a check of their gear, and then to lock them inside and throw away the key."
"Would that have worked?" I asked, distracted by the simplicity of X-37’s plan.
"It had a better than average chance of success," X-37 said. "But that option is now off the table because I don’t believe we can trick them into boarding the Nightmare."
"Why not just send them to their own armory?" I suggested.
“I don't have sufficient access to the Dark Lance," X-37 said.
I narrowed my eyes, impatient. "So what's the answer?"
"We must truly have Necron on our side," X-37 said.
"That'll be easy. Why didn't you just say so? I’ll ask Nebs to give us his other ships while we’re at it."
X-37 beeped twice. "I'm not sure if I detected sarcasm or a poor attempt at humor."
"Assuming subverting Necron is even possible, what would come next?" I asked. "How would we do it?"
"We need to reestablish contact with the Nightmare," X-37 said. "If the Dark Lance or the Black Wing have attempted to take control of the Nightmare remotely—which they probably have—the viruses I spread during our last communication with the vice admiral will have spread through all three ships. I don't know how far or how effectively they have been contaminated, but it will be something to work with," X-37 said.