Blockade

by Craig Martelle

  “I’ll go first,” Christina said. She gripped the hatch handle, and stopped. “Which way do we go, Ankh?”

  The Crenellian looked up at her. His big, bald head clear in the nearly total darkness of the hangar bay. “I have no idea.”

  “I was worried you were going to say that. Eenie, meenie, miney, mo…” Christina took a deep breath. “We go right. Be ready.”

  She opened the hatch and stuck her head out, looking left and then quickly to the right. She froze when she saw two faces look back at her from a meter away.

  Alien Destroyer #1

  Marcie and Kelly stood perfectly still as they leaned against an outcropping on the smaller ship. Fitzroy and Praeter hung onto the mechs, trying to remain still. The four willed themselves to be invisible.

  Electronically they were, but they stood out, should anyone look at that part of the ship.

  “What do we do now?” Fitzroy grunted as the nanocytes continued to repair his leg.

  “We wait,” Marcie said impatiently. She fidgeted within her suit, but none of the movements manifested themselves externally. Her suit remained perfectly still as she imagined she was nothing but a black hole, from which no light would escape.

  Kelly shook her head and settled in to wait. Praeter checked the air in his shipsuit. He had some time before things became grim.

  CHAPTER TWELVE

  Alien Battleship #1

  Joseph and Kim walked slowly across the ship’s outer hull. Weapons turrets bristled all around them as they continued toward the circle of light that Joseph assumed was an airlock.

  The light went out and Joseph froze.

  “What the hell?” Kim muttered. Bundin paid no attention to the loss of light. He strolled across the outside of the battleship as if he owned it.

  What’s your hurry? Joseph asked.

  Can’t hold my breath much longer, Bundin replied.

  Oh, crap! Joseph berated himself for not realizing his friend’s limitation.

  Bundin reached the hatch and looked at it, but his tentacles were ill-suited for work beneath his feet. He stood aside and waited. Joseph hurried up, then he and Petricia studied the panel beside the hatch. The picture showing to pull the lever was all they needed. Joseph took hold and gently pulled the lever. Kim joined them, unhappy that Joseph had pulled the access before she arrived.

  She moved to the opposite side of the hatch and looked in, her railgun at the ready. Auburn cringed, not wanting to be next to the weapon if Kim had to unleash its power. Bundin walked toward the hatch and went inside. The others followed. Even with two mechs, a Podder, and two people, there was plenty of room.

  Auburn pushed off Kimber, dropping to the deck immediately. He walked to the interior hatch and looked through the small window at an empty corridor.

  He turned to the others and shook his head, then looked back through the window, hoping that the space beyond would remain empty. The atmosphere within the chamber did not change.

  “Punch the button beside the door,” Kimber suggested. Auburn looked at it. There was a green light with an image of the inside hatch. There was a red light next to a picture of the external hatch. Auburn pressed the green button, which initiated the exchange. The sound of air rushing into the chamber came through clearly.

  The button flashed green until it turned a solid green. Auburn tried to activate the hatch, and it opened with ease. He looked into the corridor before stepping through. Bundin’s mouth opened and he inhaled deeply. He wheezed and coughed before settling in to breathing normally.

  “The air is fine,” he said softly.

  He ambled through the hatch. Petricia followed, with the two mechs close behind. Auburn turned left. No one had a better idea, so they continued in that direction. At the first corner, Auburn ran head-first into a crewman.

  “Watch out!” the man called, before stepping back in shock.

  Auburn smiled broadly, his white teeth gleaming behind his dark skin. “Hi, there,” he said in his deep voice. He waved his hand behind him, signaling for the others to stop before they were seen.

  “Who are you?” the man asked, slowly pulling a wrench from a small tool bag he was carrying. Auburn had a railgun in a combat sling over his shoulder, but had no intention of pulling the barrel upward to threaten the man.

  Bundin turned the corner and bumped into Auburn’s back.

  “What the hell is that thing?” the man shouted, before changing to a high-pitched scream. “EMERGENCY!”

  Warning klaxons started blaring and red lights flashed. He threw his wrench at Auburn, who easily ducked it. The man turned to run, but Auburn was enhanced and a trained warrior. He caught the man in two steps and slung him sideways into the wall. Auburn pulled the man’s arm up behind him and redirected him back toward the others.

  Petricia removed a pair of zip ties from a zippered pouch on the outside of her leg. They tied his hands behind his back, then his legs, and finished by zipping his hands to his ankles. Kim carried him like a suitcase until she deposited him into the airlock chamber. She closed the hatch as they went the opposite direction from where they were headed before.

  The klaxons continued while the lights flashed.

  “We need to find cover and ditch these suits,” Kimber said as they started to run down the empty corridor.

  Alien Battleship #2

  Timmons held Sue tightly as he walked carefully down the outside hull of the alien spaceship that they had designated a battleship. It sported numerous gun turrets on its bulk.

  Shonna teetered as the ship lurched beneath her.

  Timmons stopped and crouched. The battleship began to move, slowly at first, but it quickly picked up speed. The artificial gravity within the ship helped, but they were still on the outside of a moving starship. What if it sailed out of the system? What if it gated? Could they survive being outside as the ship passed over the event horizon?

  Questions flashed through the engineers’ minds as the ship moved out of the blockade and started running from one of the string of ships to the other. It banked and began a long arc as it turned toward the flashes of light that were the cargo fleet parked at the edge of the heliosphere.

  “Well now,” Shonna started. “Ain’t this a shit sandwich.”

  “Deep-fried with extra shit,” Merrit replied.

  “We need to get inside, maybe stop this pig before it goes into battle with the good guys. That’s our new mission. No one will know if this thing gets destroyed from the inside or the outside as it closes with the War Axe. We have to make sure that it’s dead before the Axe kills it.”

  “And us,” Sue added needlessly.

  Timmons stepped carefully forward, making sure to always have one boot locked onto the hull before moving the other. “There,” he said, pointing.

  Shonna didn’t reply, keeping her focus on walking across the battleship as it accelerated toward the stars.

  Alien Destroyer #2

  Kae spotted the airlock as they approached. He guided them in to where they landed beside the hatch. He kneeled down, studied the panel for five seconds, then pulled the handle. Capples and Gomez watched.

  “That’s it?” Capples wondered aloud.

  “The more evolved a species becomes, the more likely their instructions will be easy to follow,” Kae replied philosophically.

  “Or they are used to dealing with knuckle-draggers like us,” Capples said, watching the hatch and smiling as it started to retract into the hull. The light within came on and he jumped through, landing softly. He put Gomez down and waited for Kaeden.

  Kae caught movement out of the corner of his eye. His instincts kicked in and he brought his railgun up to fire, stopping himself when he saw the battleship accelerate past and turn away from the blockade on a vector toward the War Axe.

  “Was that the pack’s target?” Kae asked.

  “I believe so,” Ramses answered. “Sonofabitch.”

  “I hope they made it inside.” Kae turned his attention back to en
tering the enemy ship. He pushed Ramses through and followed him in.

  Capples punched the green button, closing the exterior hatch and pumping atmosphere into the space. When the light turned solid green, the interior hatch popped. Capples counted down using his fingers. On one, he pulled the door inward and jumped through, with Gomez diving to the right as Cap dove left.

  The corridor was empty. Ramses walked through and stopped, trying to decide which way would be best. He shrugged and held his hands up. Kae ducked as he went through the hatch. Using the suit’s systems, he determined that the hotter section of the tin can was toward the rear. Their mission, just like Marcie’s, was to create a diversion. Nothing like blowing the engines to get everyone’s attention.

  “Aft, my good man.” Kae pointed to the right. Gomez took the lead with Kae close behind. Ramses followed while Cap brought up the rear. Gomez and Ramses pulled their hoods back and sucked in lungs full of the ship air. Kae and Cap remained in their suits.

  The shipsuits started automatically refilling each suit’s air supply.

  They had no intention of leaving their armored suits behind as long as they could fit inside the corridors and were able to get through hatches.

  “Peace through superior firepower,” Kae said softly.

  Alien Ship of the Line #2

  Christina looked at the two human men as they stared back at her suit’s helmet. She launched through the opening and reached out in a lightning quick movement, grabbing both men by their necks. They grabbed her wrists and struggled, but neither was able to sound the alarm. Aaron hurried around her and pulled his zip ties.

  The men continued to struggle.

  “Humans?” she asked.

  The men stopped at the sound of the human tongue coming through the suit’s speakers.

  “Who are you?” one managed to ask.

  “Christina. Who are you?” she replied, releasing some of the pressure on his throat as the others surrounded them.

  “I’m Twee-a-Dil,” he replied without further elaboration.

  “Nice to meet you, Twee. And you, what’s your name?” Christina pressed. She let go of the first man as Aaron pulled his arms back and secured the zip tie. Yanmei gripped him by the arm as Aaron secured the second man’s arms. Christina stepped back. “I asked you a question.”

  “I am For-a-Doo.”

  She wanted to make fun of the names, but thought better of it. “We need to find the computer mainframe. You will take us there.”

  “Like hell I will!” the first man retorted. Christina didn’t remember telling her hand to slap the man, but an instant later, she saw him lying on the ground. Aaron looked questioningly at her before hauling the man back to his feet.

  “You had best watch your mouth,” Aaron advised while shaking his head in Christina’s direction.

  “We don’t need your help. We’ll get there by ourselves.” Christina turned to head left down the corridor. She activated her rear cameras to watch their expressions. The quick look of relief told her what she wanted to know.

  She turned back and pointed over their heads. “It’s that way.”

  “What do we do with these two?” Aaron asked.

  “We’ll dump the suits in the airlock and take these fine gentlemen with us.”

  Aaron and Ankh remained in the corridor with the men while Christina and Yanmei returned to the airlock. They parked the suits where they wouldn’t be readily seen through the small window and climbed out.

  They returned to the corridor and the men’s breath caught as they saw the striking women.

  “Give it a rest or I will beat you senseless,” Christina snarled.

  The two men could not tear their eyes away from the women. Everyone grew uncomfortable. “Come on, you two. Let’s find us a mainframe so we can say, ‘hi!’,” Aaron told them, bodily dragging them around in a circle and pushing them down the corridor.

  “What are you?” the second man asked after being forced to look away from the women.

  “I’m a Crenellian. My name is Ankh’Po’Turn,” he said proudly, tipping his chin back to look up at the much taller human. “Why the strange reaction to the females? You act as if you have not seen one before.”

  “We haven’t,” the man admitted, trying to turn around, but Aaron kept them looking forward. “Very few get selected for breeding on our planet. The others serve in the fleet.”

  “Stop!” Christina called from the rear. She walked around to get in front of the men. “The second-class citizens have to serve in the military? And the non-military are the ones who get to have children?”

  The men nodded while looking at her with wide eyes.

  “That’s fucked up thirty-seven different ways from Sunday. You come from a fucked-up culture, which is probably why you are so fucked up.”

  “Not everyone reveres women as we do. Some of the soldiers despise them, thinking them too elitist. No women serve in the fleet. They remain on the home world living in pampered luxury.”

  “So the men chosen to breed worship at the altar of Princess Love Chunks?” Christina mocked. “Or they carry fire and brimstone to purge the evil that is women. Is there no middle ground?”

  The men still stared wide-eyed.

  “That’s enough, you’re starting to creep me out,” Aaron told them. “Let’s go. Onward we venture to the mainframe!”

  “To the mainframe,” Ankh repeated. He struck out ahead of the men. Christina stepped back to allow Aaron to push them forward, keeping one hand on each of their heads to keep them from turning around.

  “Who’s Princess Love Chunks? Would your mother approve of your snark?” Aaron whispered over his shoulder.

  “TH is a bad influence, I tell you. No, my mother would slap those words right out of my mouth. I better be careful when I go home for a visit.”

  One of the men managed to turn around and look wistfully at Christina. Aaron squeezed the man’s neck until he turned back.

  Yanmei raised one eyebrow as she made eye contact with Christina. “That was weird,” Yanmei whispered with her slight Chinese accent.

  “I’ll second that, sister,” Christina agreed.

  Alien Destroyer #1

  “My patience is at the breaking point,” Marcie complained. Fitzroy nodded slowly as he tried to control his breathing and use less oxygen.

  “Time to find a way in?” Kelly asked.

  “I think it’s time. I wonder how the others are doing.” Marcie picked up the sergeant and slowly walked onto the open hull of the tin can. Her head ratcheted back and forth as she looked for any movement, any hint that they’d been spotted.

  She wasn’t sure what that would look like, but she expected it would include some kind of gunfire, whether railguns or plasma rounds or other alien weapons of war.

  Bathe the shell in fire to cleanse the impurities, she thought. Might as well go out loud and proud.

  Marcie picked up her pace, striding boldly across the open hull, past a weapons turret and a railgun mount. Standard weaponry. She used the suit’s enhanced sensors to look more closely at the ship’s construction. Welds. Metal that didn’t look exotic. It dented, as she remembered too clearly. Protrusions with wires, boxes, and handholds.

  “You notice anything peculiar about this ship?” Marcie asked.

  Fitzroy had been studying it, too. “It’s odd in how familiar it is. They’re not very alien, for being aliens.”

  “My thoughts exactly, Fitz. It’s different from what’s in the Federation fleet, but it’s the same, too.”

  “Up ahead,” Kelly said, brushing past Marcie and Fitzroy. “I think I see a hatch set into the hull.”

  Just like the others, they saw the panel with the graphic and the handle. Kelly pulled on it and activated the airlock’s outer hatch. It retracted into the hull and they climbed in. As if they had planned for it to be that easy.

  Marcie had hoped, but she carried explosives, too. She knew that she would get into that ship and didn’t care if they k
new she was coming.

  Only Ted had been confident that it would be easy to get into the ships. He understood that they had not been designed to repel individual boarders.

  He had no idea what they would find inside, but he wasn’t concerned about that. He counted on the others to protect him while he did what he needed to do. For Marcie, the real work was about to begin.

  CHAPTER THIRTEEN

  Alien Ship of the Line #1

  As soon as the storeroom hatch started to open, Cory yanked on it, ripping it from the crewmember’s hands. Terry and Char rushed into the corridor followed by a shaggy gray werewolf.

  Terry pulled his punch because the men were unarmed, holding his fist a hair from the man’s shocked face. He reached around and put him into a one-armed headlock instead. The others stumbled backward when they saw the purple-eyed Char bear down on them.

  When the man in the back fell, the other two tripped over him and went down. The three lay in a jumble as Ted growled at them.

  “We didn’t know!” one of those in the man-pile declared.

  “Didn’t know what?” Char asked.

  “That a woman was on board.”

  Terry let the man out of the headlock and pinned him against the bulkhead with one arm. Cory walked into the corridor.

  “Two of them!” another exclaimed.

  “I don’t think they get out much,” Terry suggested before turning his attention back to the men. “Although we’re more than happy to agree that the striking beauty of these two is incomparable, we don’t have time for such a distraction. We need to get to your ship’s AI. And that needs to happen sooner rather than later, if you get my drift. I also notice that you seem completely unintimidated by a werewolf. Do you have them where you come from?”

  “We have dogs. They are our best friend. This one is probably hungry. He looks skinny. A good meal and he’ll settle down,” the man explained matter-of-factly.

  “You’ve lost your mojo, Ted. I think Felicity will enjoy this story. Might as well get dressed,” Char said. Ted harrumphed as much as a werewolf could, then trotted through the storeroom hatch.