Alien Honor (A Fenris Novel)

by Heppner, Vaughn

  JONES: I’m not arguing with the NKV. I’ve said all I need to and I stand by it.

  ARGON: What do you believe, Cyrus? Since the others have given their opinion, I would like to hear yours.

  CYRUS: I don’t want to self-destruct. I’m in agreement with Dr. Wexx there. But there is a time to stand and die fighting if you have to.

  WEXX: What advanced course of study taught you this wisdom?

  CYRUS: Street wisdom. Okay, I’m not as educated as the rest of you. But I’ve been doing a lot of reading since joining Psi Force, a lot of reading of military history of the old world. What about the ancient Spartans in their fight against Persia? Sometimes you have to make a stand for your side and die if that’s what is called for. As I said, I don’t want to self-destruct. We don’t know if the techs will fix the tele-ring and tele-chamber in time. If they do, we can shift out of here and the problem is solved.

  ARGON: Your solution is obvious and we’re attempting it. The question is what we should do if we cannot shift out of danger. Now, in a moment of quiet contemplation, we should make the critical decision.

  CYRUS: In that case, I’m with Dr. Wexx. We should wake Jasper and see what he knows. Like me, Jasper wanted freedom. I believe the aliens tricked him. Let him see what happened once we reached the system and I bet he would bend his psi-talents to getting us the heck out of here.

  ARGON: There is merit in your reasoning.

  WEXX: Chief Monitor, Premier Lang believes in the separation of authority on such ventures as this. You have taken full command of the Teleship. That is clearly against Premier Lang’s desires. Will you continue to flaunt his rules?

  ARGON: You are a sophist, Doctor, a lawyer. I have read you my emergency powers given me by Premier Lang.

  WEXX: For the moment, the emergency is over. I think Premier Lang would want us to go back to the formal structure of authority.

  ARGON: Would you have me revive Captain Nagasaki?

  WEXX: No one is saying that. Either Jasper or the aliens have contorted Nagasaki’s thinking too much for me to trust him now.

  ARGON: I am open to suggestions.

  WEXX: (Pointing at Lieutenant Jones) Why not put him in charge of day-to-day ship duties?

  JONES: Hey, leave me out of this. I never asked to be captain of a Teleship.

  ARGON: Your points are sound, Doctor, and Premier Lang indeed believes in a division of power. Lieutenant Jones, will you accept authority as captain of the ship?

  JONES: Is this legal?

  WEXX: Accept the post, Lieutenant. We need somebody running the ship who knows what to do in detail.

  JONES: What’s wrong with Lieutenant Tanaka? He’s higher on the chart than me.

  ARGON: Tanaka has the same problem as Nagasaki. The aliens warped Tanaka’s thinking once. Maybe it is a permanent situation. Now is not the time to gamble on it.

  JONES: In that case, I’ll do it.

  ARGON: For the sake of form, you are now Captain Jones.

  JONES: This is crazy.

  ARGON: You will be in charge of repairs. I will continue to watch everyone, particularly for alien possession. Doctor Wexx, you must consider how to contain Special Jasper if we decide to wake him.

  WEXX: When would we do that and how would we decide is the right time?

  ARGON: It would be a last resort.

  WEXX: By then it might be too late.

  ARGON: This is a delicate situation. Special Cyrus, can you contain Jasper?

  CYRUS: My mind shield is better than it used to be. I can withstand his mind bolts if he hurls them at me.

  ARGON: Can you protect others with your talent?

  CYRUS: Nope. I never learned to do that.

  ARGON: Can you attempt to learn it now?

  CYRUS: If you can explain to me how to do something like that, maybe.

  ARGON: Dr. Wexx, are you familiar with advanced psi-training techniques?

  WEXX: He’s not talented enough or strong enough to do as you suggest.

  ARGON: Do not be so sure. He resisted alien domination when others more powerful than him couldn’t.

  WEXX: Yes. He has more internal fortitude than the others do. Why this is the case, I don’t pretend to know. If I could test him with other psi-talent…

  CYRUS: What about Roxie? She’s in stasis. If we’re going to wake Jasper, why don’t we wake her, too?

  ARGON: I am not as sanguine concerning Roxie. She succumbed more completely to the aliens. With Jasper, there is a question of his mental submission to them or not.

  WEXX: Roxie might have succumbed to Jasper. We still don’t know why she did what she did.

  ARGON: There are too many mysteries. It is a grave danger to wake Jasper. I am against it.

  WEXX: I agree with you there are mysteries and our plan is dangerous. But waking him is better than blowing the Teleship and surrendering our lives. It’s a chance to live and escape and I’m for doing that while we can.

  JONES: I’ll tell you how I see things. We have to repair the tele-ring and tele-chamber. That’s the best way for survival in that everything rests on us. Regarding these aliens, I’m with the chief monitor. I don’t trust them. I’d rather try something, though, than just self-destructing. But if it comes to that, I don’t see we have any choice in the matter. I mean dying with dignity is better than being captured. Cyrus told me about Venice’s clairvoyant dream. I don’t want to end my days on some alien torture table. I’d rather kill one more of their ships and go out in a blaze of glory.

  WEXX: There is no glory in dying.

  CYRUS: I don’t want to self-destruct, but sometimes there is glory in death, depending on how you go. Let’s decide here and now to go in a blaze of fighting. I’m with Lieutenant… with Captain Jones.

  WEXX: Bah. Those supposedly big words mean nothing more than ending our existence. I have this one life and I don’t intend to throw it away so easily.

  ARGON: We will not throw away our lives easily, this I assure you; we will sell them dearly. We have our tasks. I suggest we each gather a supply of stims and begin working around the clock until we’re either free or dead.

  WEXX: We still haven’t answered the question about Jasper. Who decides whether we do it or not?

  ARGON: I am against waking him. What do you others say?

  JONES: We ought to try it at least.

  CYRUS: Let’s do it.

  WEXX: You know my position.

  ARGON: Doctor Wexx, I suggest you look into the means of waking and keeping him under control.

  WEXX: I’ll begin right away. Now the question is when do we try?

  ARGON: We should wait at least forty-eight hours and assess the repairs then.

  WEXX: And if the repairs are lagging?

  ARGON: There is no need to vote on this, as I understand each of you would attempt this sooner rather than later. But this is a matter of ship security, which is my area of authority. The meeting is adjourned.

  End of Transcript #14

  9

  The damage to the Teleship proved worse than first estimated, particularly with the fusion engines. That made one decision easy for the new captain.

  Cyrus watched as Captain Jones launched the remaining fourteen Prometheus missiles. Each of them lofted from a dome and sped off into the void, with a tongue of fire propelling them. Each quickly became a mote of light.

  “The approaching warship is bigger than the first one,” Jones said. “We’ll never outfight it, but we might trick them.”

  “If you mean the missiles,” Cyrus said, “won’t the aliens seem them accelerating?”

  “Of course, but I’ve timed the missiles’ approach to their dreadnought.” Jones had taken to calling the bigger warship a dreadnought. “The missiles won’t be in the dreadnought’s range until we’re firing the primary laser. By that time, their psi-masters should be busy fending off our beam and hopefully that will focus their captain on us and not the missiles.”

  “I thought you said we couldn’t outfight the
dreadnought. It’s bigger, probably has thicker armor, and we’re weaker than before.”

  “We won’t win a toe-to-toe match like we did against the first alien battleship. But it’s good to remember that you have to consider everything in a space battle. The dreadnought’s velocity is half what the battleship possessed. That means our primary laser will be hitting them twice as long this time before they can fire back at us.”

  “But the dreadnought is bigger,” Cyrus said. “Bigger ships on our side mean larger lasers because there’s more engine power. Won’t the alien have longer-ranged lasers this time?”

  “Hmm, they might. Well, if the dreadnought has longer-ranged lasers it will cut down our chances, but we still have to use what we have. Fourteen Prometheus missiles—we’re placing everything on this next bet. If we win, we should be home free—if the tele-ring and Chamber are fixable. If we lose this fight, well, we won’t have to worry about anything then.”

  Cyrus played combat simulations and listened to Jones’s critiques of his battle choices. The rest of the time, Jones left the bridge and inspected repairs, leaving Cyrus with little to do.

  Cyrus spent some of the time in an observatory studying holoimages. They’d left the burnt prismatic crystals and dissipated gels in front of the Teleship, deciding to wait before they added more. It meant Cyrus could focus some of the main teleoptics on the new star system. He aimed the scopes on the Earth-like planet in the Mars-like orbit.

  Sitting in the dark in order to observe the holoimage better, Cyrus examined the planet in detail. Nuclear fires raged. There were molten lakes, scarred mountain ranges, and too much debris in the air. That implied spewing volcanoes, with added dust and junk hurled spaceward by gigantic nuclear bombs. The second Earth-like planet had hundreds of armored satellites ringing it. From time to time, lasers fired down onto the planet.

  Cyrus studied the second world, AS 412 II. It had less cloud cover than AS 412 III did and it possessed amazingly thick vegetation. By what Cyrus observed, the entire planet was a hot jungle. He didn’t spy any cities, just the fantastic growth. After hours of checking the computer, he did discover huge, artificial mounds. Fused sand amid wide swaths of tree-destruction showed that’s where the satellite lasers had struck.

  Who fought whom and why did they battle each other? Did these Illustrious Ones have anything to do with their decisions?

  One Earth-like planet was a burnt cinder and the other one was under a space siege. The aliens were humanoid and fired at others who lived in gigantic dirt mounds.

  What have we stumbled onto in New Eden? How can we have been so wrong about it? Who is our real enemy here—the technologicals, the planetary people, or both?

  The hours passed and Cyrus awoke in his quarters after a fitful nap. He’d jammed a pillow over his head, keeping it there with an elbow. Someone hailed him on the intercom.

  He floated to the wall-comm and pressed the button. “Yeah?”

  “This is Argon. Meet me in medical.”

  “Is something wrong?”

  “It’s time we spoke with Jasper. I want you there.”

  “I’m on my way,” Cyrus said.

  He yanked on clothes and hurried down the empty corridors, swimming through the cool air. He smelled a burnt taint, and nothing the recyclers did could purify it. Jones had told him it was due to the damaged fusion engines.

  There was the grim possibility that they couldn’t shift all the way home again. That the engines would break down before they’d journeyed far enough. They needed Venice, as she had shifted so much farther than anyone else could each jump. She would have considerably shortened the travel time.

  Cyrus rubbed his eyes. He had to concentrate on the coming task. They were going to wake Jasper. Did that mean the tele-ring and chamber were ready, or did Argon think they could bargain with the aliens through Jasper?

  Poor Jasper thought he was a god, Zeus in the flesh. Yet the aliens had used him. Yeah, he bet Jasper would be more than willing to help them now.

  Cyrus listened as Wexx explained the procedure to Argon and him.

  They were in medical, with a cot occupied by a “thawing” Special Second Class Jasper. Wexx had already attached electrodes to the nearly naked, pudgy little man. Those were torture devices.

  “If during questioning you believe he’s attempting to telepathically dominate me,” Wexx said, “you press this switch. It will give him a painful jolt. The longer you press the switch, the more painful a jolt will pour through his body. That should do several things. One, it will disorient him. That should stop his ability at mind control. Two, it will teach him caution. Three, it will show him we mean to save ourselves no matter what we have to do to hurt him.”

  “Can these jolts cause permanent damage?” Argon asked.

  “If Cyrus continues to hold down the button, in time it will kill Jasper.”

  Cyrus shook his head. “I’m not a torturer.”

  Wexx turned to him. She wore her white lab coat and maintained an air of medical authority. “No one is calling you a torturer. You are the only one who can sense and intervene in time. This is to save ourselves and save Sol.”

  Cyrus scowled at Jasper. The fat man wore briefs around his loins but was otherwise naked. The telepath needed to work out sometimes—he was too flabby, his skin too splotchy. Tight straps crisscrossing over him ensured his immobility.

  “I’ve seen things like this in Milan,” Cyrus said. “I swore never to have any part of it.”

  “We could order you to do this,” Argon told him.

  Looking at Jasper hooked up like this made Cyrus think of Spartacus on the cross. “You can order,” he said, “but I’m not going to do it.”

  “Surely you understand that this is critical,” Wexx said.

  “So you do it,” Cyrus said.

  “That’s the point. I don’t have the ability to resist him. I cannot do it.”

  “He can do it,” Cyrus said, jerking his thumb at Argon. “That’s what monitors like to do anyway.”

  Argon turned a solemn face to him. “There are hard moments in life, hard choices. I do not approve of torture. But there is a time and place for everything.”

  “I ain’t going to do it,” Cyrus said.

  “Can’t you understand yet?” Wexx said. “You’re a Special. That means you have certain responsibilities to perform. No one else can do this. The chief monitor might be able to resist Jasper’s mental domination, but he won’t be able to feel what’s going on as well as you can.”

  Cyrus stared down at the deck plates.

  “This is a grim chore,” Argon said. “We must save the Teleship. We need to know what he knows. You will not harm him if he cooperates. You will only punish him if he attempts to help the aliens. How can you refuse to help us do this? It is not rational.”

  “Sure,” Cyrus said, staring at the weave on the deck plates. “You have good points. I don’t deny that. I’m not like the rest of you. I grew up in the slums. But I’ve seen torture before in order to get information out of someone. I’ll fight Jasper, if you want. But I’m going to only tell you this one more time.” He looked up at Wexx and then Argon. “I’m not going to press the button that shocks a helpless man. Trick him, sure. I’m for that. But there’s something too inhuman about doing as you suggest. Besides, it’s what they did to Spartacus.”

  “I can’t believe this,” Wexx said. “You were raised in the slums. Your kind does this to others all the time.”

  “My kind?” Cyrus asked.

  Wexx blushed. “It was a slip of the tongue.”

  “Just ’cause I was born and raised in the slums doesn’t make me any less human than you.”

  “I will take the control,” Argon said.

  “He needs to do it,” Wexx said.

  “No,” Argon said. “I don’t think so. The Specials need to help each other, or stick together. Cyrus, go in the other room. You can watch through the one-way mirror.”

  “You’re supposed to go
there,” Wexx said.

  “Doctor, you have a good idea,” Argon said. “Now how do you propose to force Cyrus to torture Jasper if he doesn’t want to?”

  “It isn’t torture,” she said.

  “Whatever you wish to call it,” Argon said, “how do you propose to force Cyrus do as you wish?”

  “You have to listen to reason,” she told Cyrus.

  “It’s your reason, not mine,” Cyrus said.

  “Don’t you want revenge against him?”

  “Not on your terms.”

  “I can’t believe this,” Wexx said.

  “Go,” Argon said quietly.

  Cyrus floated to the next room, catching the edge of the entrance and swinging himself inside. Had he made the right choice? Yeah, everything was at stake and Jasper was a prick. But there were some things he simply believed. You don’t torture someone. If a man was evil enough, you killed him. He’d seen tortured men before. It chilled him just thinking about it. It was horrible, and it not only hurt the tortured but it twisted the one who did it. He wanted to leave medical and let them play their cruel games without him. But Sol might be at stake, so he would watch and help mentally if he could. If they pressed the torture switch too much… well, he’d wait and see what happened then.

  Wexx still seethed, if one counted how she clenched her teeth. Argon continued to speak to her. Finally, she injected Jasper with something and stood to the side, waiting. Chief Monitor Argon towered on the other side of the cot, with the switch in his big hand.

  Time ticked by and Jasper began to groan.

  Cyrus had never been in stasis. He’d heard it could be a painful process waking up. He’d heard from one of his instructors that too much stasis sleep harmed psi-talents.

  I wonder why that is?

  Finally, Jasper opened his eyes. Wexx smiled down at him and she began to explain the situation.

  From his spot behind the one-way mirror, Cyrus could see everything. Jasper listened, glanced at Argon, looked at the leads attached to his flabby chest, and then turned carefully to Wexx.

  “You can probably guess what those do,” Wexx said.