Blockade

by Craig Martelle

  Terry watched him go, before asking the serious questions. With little prompting, the men explained what Christina and Yanmei had learned on the other ship.

  Char finally decided to let the men stand. They bunched together as they paid rapt attention to Char and Cory. Terry stood between the men and his family to pull their attention away.

  Ted appeared in his shipsuit carrying the box with the AI’s consciousness. The crewmen didn’t notice.

  “You’re human,” Terry stated as he looked from one face to the next. “Where do you come from?”

  “The home world,” one man willingly offered.

  “Coordinates or a name, maybe?”

  The men shook their heads as they craned their necks to get a better look at the women. Char waggled her fingers at them over Terry’s shoulder. The men smiled in return.

  “Stop it,” Terry said out the side of his mouth.

  “I wonder what it’s like to maintain a harem,” Char said.

  “Have we been chosen for breeding?” one man asked hopefully.

  Terry coughed and snorted.

  “No. No breeding. They both have mates and none of that matters. We need to get to your AI. You can help us, or you get zip-tied and stuffed in a closet. Your choice. You have three seconds to decide. Three. Two. One. Zip tie it is,” Terry said, never giving the men a chance to answer.

  He pushed them toward the opening. Ted inched away. Plato knew where the AI was.

  Cory made each man turn around so she could secure their hands. One by one, they entered the storeroom. Terry followed them in to cuff their feet and then link their hands to their feet.

  “Oww!” one of the men complained.

  “Stop your whining. You could have a punched face, but instead, you get zipped up. Relax, it’ll be easier on your joints. You’ll be freed soon enough,” Terry told them before returning to the corridor. He paused to lean his head back in before shutting the hatch. “Bye, bye, now. Miss you already.”

  He cycled the hatch, securing it.

  “Really?” Char said as they hustled after Ted, whose patience had run out.

  “Sorry about that,” Terry apologized. “We’re on an alien ship that’s not alien at all, crewed by human males who aren’t allowed to see women in person. I’m not sure this could be any more fucked up, but they don’t seem to know how to fight, and they’re unarmed, so our chances of surviving this have improved a whole lot. I hope the others are finding the same thing.”

  They jogged through empty corridors behind Ted, who was communing with his AI through some means that Terry and Char didn’t know about. Cory kept pace, staying close to Ted to keep him from running headlong into trouble.

  “We have women with each team except for Kaeden’s…” Char let the thought drift.

  Terry wondered whether that was good or bad.

  The War Axe

  “All hands, battle stations. I say again, all hands to battle stations,” the captain said over the ship-wide broadcast. He could feel the energy of the crew.

  Not in any direct way, but he knew how they were responding, hurrying to their damage control stations, checking systems, and battening down the hatches.

  “The tactical team led by Timmons was supposed to board that particular vessel,” Smedley reported.

  Micky watched the icon grow larger as it held its course. “Maybe they’ve been compromised or somehow never made it aboard,” he reasoned.

  When Smedley showed green, he dropped the final bulkheads, sealing sections of the ship to maximize the survivability of both ship and crew.

  “Bringing the mains to bear,” K’Thrall reported.

  “Wait for my command,” Micky ordered. The bridge crew fidgeted as the alien battleship accelerated toward them. “Smedley, what is the optimal firing range?”

  “Within the range of the EMP weapon,” Smedley answered the unasked question.

  “And if we fire before they enter the optimal envelope?”

  “Our chances of hitting the target are reduced by up to ninety percent.”

  “Thank you, Smedley. K’Thrall, prepare to fire warning shots in a pattern in front of the enemy ship. Slow fire to warn them off,” the captain ordered.

  “Offset angle of one degree to approach, rate of fire is two plasma charges per second. Ready to fire.”

  “Fire,” Micky said calmly.

  Alien Battleship #2

  The light reached them before the plasma round. Timmons watched helplessly as the undulating mass rolled toward them. He stopped and braced himself.

  “We need to keep moving,” Sue said softly.

  Timmons realized the futility of his effort. He gritted his teeth and returned to plodding forward.

  The first round skipped past the battleship, then the next and the next. Timmons expected that the War Axe would walk the plasma into the alien ship, but instead it was creating a barrier between the alien spaceship and the cargo fleet.

  The battleship started to slowly turn away, beginning a new arc. Timmons breathed a sigh of relief as he carefully forced his way ahead, one magnetic boot after the other.

  Merrit had wrapped himself around Shonna’s front, letting the ship’s motion pin him to his mate, while she pulled herself forward along an invisible line from aft to stern.

  Timmons couldn’t turn, he could only cycle his cameras back and forth. He felt like he was within a hurricane, even though there was no resistance in space. The ship threatened to fly out from beneath him at any moment. He wondered if he would be able to fly back to the War Axe if he let go.

  But they hadn’t accomplished their mission and the alpha was counting on the werewolves to take care of the battleship. He put the thoughts of jumping out of his mind and searched for the way inside. There had to be a hatch somewhere.

  Alien Battleship #1

  The klaxons and flashing red lights helped hurry Joseph’s pace. Having removed their suits in one of many empty spaces that lined the corridor, they were free to breathe the alien air. Free to move without the clump-clump of the armored boots on the deck.

  Joseph reached out with his mind to touch other minds in the area. Now that he knew they were human, it made it easier. The initial contact with the Podder had been difficult, but at least the creature had been subdued. He refused to contact alien minds that were free to retaliate.

  Joseph knew his way around human minds.

  Petricia held his arm as they walked. She knew where his mind had gone and in times like those, she protected him. Theirs was a partnership of souls. Sometimes, they didn’t need to speak. They just knew.

  Bundin ambled down the corridor, seemingly immune to the emergency condition within the ship. Auburn was behind the Podder and Kim assumed the role of tail end Charlie. She had her Jean Dukes Special out and walked backward, watching the team’s six o’clock. She dialed it up from the lowest setting to number two.

  She wasn’t taking any chances.

  Joseph stopped and reached out to steady himself against the wall. Bundin almost ran into him. Petricia’s brow furled in concern.

  “They are human, but different. They don’t think like we do as they were raised on an alien world with alien masters. There is a consciousness on board that is unlike anything I’ve ever seen, but we are new out here. Maybe this is common. I don’t know,” Joseph said softly.

  “Bundin?” Petricia asked.

  “I can’t answer Joseph’s concerns. Aren’t we here to find the intelligence within? Find that which drives these ships and remove their ability to cause further harm to the people of Alchon Prime?”

  Before anyone could answer, Joseph motioned toward a door. “In there, quick!”

  They hurried through, as much as they could with an over-sized creature like Bundin. Kim pushed the door shut, although she wanted to see what was coming. She didn’t cycle the lock. She held it just in case she needed to throw it open and race into the fray. Joseph held a finger to his lips.

  Kim stroked the side
of her JDS. She had yet to fire it. Immediately after her dad had given it to her, they boarded the War Axe and left on this mission. That was three days ago.

  The people of Alchon Prime were starving.

  Her lip curled in a sneer. If she had to start killing people, she was ready. If she had to blow the ship, she was ready for that, too. As Colonel Terry Henry Walton preached: No one was more important than the mission, so the leader’s job was make sure that the mission was worth dying for.

  She slowly opened the hatch even though Joseph was shaking his head. She peered out, seeing no one. She opened it further, leading with the barrel of her pistol as she looked over the top of it.

  Walking away from her were two men wearing workers’ coveralls. They appeared to be talking like friends, while ignoring the emergency klaxons and flashing lights. They continued on their way until turning a corner farther down the corridor.

  Kim assumed a firing position to the right of the door while the others left the space and resumed heading in their original direction.

  “Are we going in the right direction?” Auburn asked.

  “I think so,” Joseph said, stumbling as he tried to touch the crews’ minds to give the team a warning.

  “How many crew on board?” Auburn asked, always thinking logistically. Kimber heard the question and wondered why she hadn’t asked it. For this mission, Joseph was the team leader, but she was still a major and well-trained in tactics. She cursed herself for not taking a more active role. Joseph did not think tactically. He reacted.

  He needed her for the tactical execution of the mission. More importantly, she needed to be there for him.

  “Maybe one hundred,” Joseph muttered as he worked to find the minds throughout the ship.

  “On a ship this size? Only one hundred?” Kim couldn’t believe it. “Are they scattered? No big concentration of them? As long as we know, we can easily deal with either.”

  “Scattered. No more than four in any one place.”

  “What are we waiting for? It’s time to find that intelligence and introduce ourselves.”

  Joseph and Petricia led the way with Bundin following close behind.

  “Keep an eye on Joseph. Don’t let that alien consciousness, or whatever the hell he called it, get to him,” Kim implored her husband.

  Auburn nodded to his wife.

  She winked at him before resuming walking backward, watching for anyone approaching from behind.

  Kimber expected the challenge for control of the battleship would come from something other than the human crew.

  Alien Destroyer #2

  Kaeden marched toward the rear of the tin can with grim determination on his face. He had no idea how the others were doing.

  For his part of the mission, it didn’t matter. Create a diversion, and if he could take the destroyer out of the fight at the same time, that was his idea of a win-win.

  A human face appeared in the corridor before them.

  “Hey!” Gomez called out. The man started to run. “Don’t run. We’re your friends!”

  The man pulled at the air as he tried to run faster.

  No one had a stun gun, but Gomez had his knife. He pulled it and threw in a single motion, adding a little extra twist. The butt of the knife hit the man in the back of the head. He careened into a wall, stumbled, and fell. Gomez ran after him.

  The warrior picked up his knife and put it back in its sheath before lifting the man to his feet. His eyes rolled around in his head as he tottered.

  “Sorry about that, boss. I think I hit him a little harder than I meant. Don’t know my own strength.”

  Kae shook his head. They all knew how strong they were. They’d been practicing with their enhancements for a couple months.

  “Sure,” Kae replied evenly. “Truss him up and dump him so we can keep moving.”

  Gomez made short work of the man, tossing him into an empty room.

  “Check these other spaces,” Kae ordered, nodding to Capples and Ramses.

  They started pulling open the hatches, using the two-person methodology for room clearing with one person opening the door and the second heading in, looking over the barrel of his railgun.

  “Empty?” Kae said knowingly.

  “All empty,” Cap reported.

  Kae waved them off, checking more of the spaces. His suit’s microphones were picking up the hum of machinery.

  “Let’s go make some noise,” Kae said in a low voice, leading the way toward the sound.

  Two of the human crew appeared in the corridor. He motioned for them to go away and they ran.

  “What’s up, boss?” Capples asked using the suit’s internal comm system.

  “Those guys are nothing. They aren’t armed. They aren’t dangerous. And the closer we get to the engines, the shorter their life expectancy gets, so we might as well let them hide in fear,” Kaeden replied.

  “Makes sense,” Cap answered. Ramses and Gomez had their railguns ready as they jogged to keep up with Kaeden’s mech.

  The corridor ended with a large hatch to their left, toward the interior of the ship. Kae put his hand on the door, feeling the power within. Not a vibration, as starship engines didn’t rotate like physical propulsion systems.

  Kae’s armored hand gripped the circular wheel in the middle and spun it. He pushed the hatch inward and plowed through the opening, bringing his railgun to bear in one smooth motion.

  He froze when he saw what was before him. Gomez and Ramses squeezed past, stopping at Kae’s side. Cap was blocked in the corridor.

  The human crew were lined up between the mechs and a metal bank with blue flashing lights that raced from one end to the other, then started over again, giving the impression of forward movement. There was other equipment in the space, but the men stood, arms stretched out, holding hands.

  “So you are willing to make a stand,” Kaeden said coldly. “But standing between us and the people of Alchon Prime will not make your sacrifice any less worthless. You had the chance to remove your blockade, now you’re making us do it. So there you are.”

  Kaeden picked a spot on the equipment and prepared to fire.

  “You might not want to be here for this,” he told the two men in shipsuits. “Meet us at the airlock.”

  Gomez and Ramses backed into the corridor and started to run.

  “Make some room,” Cap requested.

  “Stay out there, just in case blowing this thing turns out badly.” Kaeden started to laugh. His life had been long, but he wasn’t ready to end it. “Maybe it’s better if we just blow it remotely?”

  “I like that idea,” Capples replied, nodding his helmeted head. “You know how much they need us.”

  Kae reached over his back and pulled the shaped explosives from the thin pack. He looked at the two shape charges, verified that the suit could communicate with them, and then turned back to the alien technology.

  “I’d love to know more about this stuff, but that’s not my mission. Sorry, gentlemen. Time to pack it in. If you have lifeboats, I suggest you go find a spot and launch yourselves into space. Standoff distance is a great survival concept,” Kaeden suggested.

  “Now that you have your human bravado out of the way, let’s talk,” a disembodied voice said, filling the space around them.

  CHAPTER FOURTEEN

  Alien Battleship #2

  Timmons bent over ninety degrees to better see the panel. He reached down and pulled the lever, disappointed that nothing happened.

  Shonna and Merrit caught up with him and watched. Even with the armored suits, the effort of walking along the hull of a speeding starship was extreme.

  The hatch popped and retracted slowly into the hull. Timmons pushed Sue inside the space, using his body as a backstop until he could follow her in. Shonna followed suit. When the four were inside, Sue tapped the green light on the panel and the external hatch secured, atmosphere was pumped in, and the interior hatch popped.

  By the time the door opened, both
Timmons and Shonna had already climbed out of their armor. They breathed heavily. Both had sweat running down their heads.

  Sue pulled the hatch toward her and walked into the corridor beyond. Timmons jumped out after her, looking left and right.

  “Please be more careful!” he cautioned.

  “While you were disrobing, I took a quick walk within the Etheric, looking for anyone pulling energy from it. I knew there was nothing out here or anywhere close,” she replied with a half-smile. He rubbed her shoulder.

  “Sorry. I’m still on edge after that little bit where I thought the War Axe was going to kill us. That would not have been our finest moment.” Timmons went pale, briefly, as he thought about how close he’d come to dying. There had been a few occasions in the past one hundred and fifty years, but this was foremost in his mind.

  Clinging to the outside of the alien battleship and watching a string of plasma rounds approach. The helplessness he felt. Maybe someone else would have seen beauty in the stars. Timmons only saw death by fire in the cold and dark of space with his mate in his arms, unable to touch her one last time.

  He shivered and looked away. Sue had been with him for a long time.

  She knew. None of the seemingly immortal took brushes with death well.

  Timmons snarled, forcing himself to be angry so he could focus. Terry had taught him that trick. The werewolf clenched his fists, digging his fingernails into his palms.

  He brought the oversized railgun up and pointed it down the corridor. He took one step, then hesitated. Sue shook her head.

  “I don’t know which way,” she said softly.

  Timmons gritted his teeth. “Then it doesn’t matter which way we go. Let’s find the brains of this outfit and give it a lobotomy.”

  He turned around and headed forward, for absolutely no reason at all besides the fact that he was angry.

  The War Axe