by Adam Moon
“And you can’t possibly imagine the things you’re about to go through. I hope you’re ready.”
“You fool. You have no idea what’s coming for you.”
The Enemy
Jason sat in the captain’s chair in the command station. They’d used it for interrogations so many times they might as well rename it “the hot seat.” He said, “Do your worst.” He no longer had that same air of calm confidence. He was angry and agitated, with wild eyes. He looked like he’d like to crawl right out of his skin.
Crusoe walked over to him and pinched a piece of skin away from his forearm. Then, before Jason could react, he dabbed his finger in the fresh wound.
He said, “I’m going to test his DNA. Molly, if he stands up from that seat, alert me right away so I can kill him.”
He then walked from the room just as Molly said, “Understood, Crusoe.”
Sarah couldn’t be sure, but she thought she saw Crusoe put the little bit of pinched-off skin in his mouth. She didn’t know enough about him to doubt it. Maybe that was how he tested DNA?
She was nervous of Jason now that Crusoe had walked off, but she put her fears aside. She stood in front of Jason and said, “When did you come aboard this vessel?”
“We’ve been watching the Earth for a long time. I was ready and waiting when humans decided to set up a colony. I broke into this ship a hundred Earth years after it launched. I manipulated the computer so that you’d believe I was always here. This ship hid a lot of secrets, so adding another one was no problem.”
“Why are you here?”
“Because I wanted to study your people and your tech.”
Then he smiled sadistically and said, “I can’t say I’m impressed by either.”
Jack asked him, “Why did you convince us to let Crusoe come aboard?”
“Well, now I know what a mistake that was, being that he just outed me for what I really am. But I was intrigued by the guy. I thought we’d wiped his shithole planet out a long time ago. I couldn’t believe he was still around after two million years.”
Sarah said, “Are you saying you killed his people?”
“Not me personally, dipshit. I’m not two million years old, although I’m much older than any of you humans. My people used a series of instantaneous self collapsing gravity wells to tow his planet away from its sun. It’s an old trick. We didn’t know his people were industrious enough to seed another planet though. We thought we’d killed them all.”
“Yeah, they seeded Earth. You wiped out our ancient cousins.”
Jason shrugged. “My ancestors had good intentions, but they sucked at follow-through. Who would’ve guessed Crusoe’s people would’ve been able to adapt to the Earth? I guess my ancestors didn’t think it was possible at the time. Nowadays, we’d leave a spotter to ensure no one got away alive. We’re much more efficient at genocide today.”
Jack laughed. “You know he’s going to tear you limb from limb when he finds out you killed his people, right?”
“It’s redundant. My survival is pointless to the mission, because my mission was just a failsafe. You’re all doomed no matter how this turns out.”
Devoted Saboteur
Sarah wondered why Jason had warned her about the President and his troops if he wanted their mission to fail. The President was supposed to have come out of stasis with his soldiers and then kill the crew after they reached the seed planet. But then she realized Jason’s ruse had worked. Had she not been tipped off, two hundred soldiers, killed by Crusoe, would still be alive. Now the ship carried a smaller number of defenders.
She asked him, “Why didn’t you just kill us all off while we were in stasis?”
“Where’s the fun in that? We have a warship waiting to intercept you whether I’m successful at crippling this ship or not.”
“You did fail, dumbass.”
“Yes I did. But the mission has an inevitable outcome. It ends with you screaming.”
Crusoe walked in and stood before Jason. He said, “You’ve already adopted some human DNA into your own, haven’t you?”
“Yes sir. That’s why when you injected me with that genetic cocktail, I didn’t die immediately. In my true form, it would have been poisonous. I’m afraid I’m now more human than anything else. It’s kind of disgusting, but I wouldn’t expect you primitives to understand.”
Sarah said, “Did you splice your genes to look like us?”
“Bingo. You get the cookie, smart girl. I took a piece off a colonist called Paul Rodriguez. I borrowed his surname too. I hope he doesn’t mind. I wouldn’t even be able to speak in your guttural tongue had I not altered my very nature. Shit, I’m almost as dumb as you primitive pukes now.”
Crusoe smiled sadistically. “So since you’re mostly human now, I don’t need to experiment to find out what brings you pain. I already know human weaknesses.”
Jason’s smirk faltered. “I suppose you’re right. I’ll tell you what: why don’t we just skip the torture and I’ll tell you everything. None of it will help you avoid your inevitable demise anyway.”
“That’s a good boy.”
Why?
“How did you find out about the launch of the Seeder?”
“A scout laser array picked up the movement of the ship soon after it left your solar system, and since I was the closest agent, I was given the task of infiltrating your people and gathering intel. When it became obvious that you were headed to my neck of the woods, the simple task of learning and destroying became more covert in nature.”
“Why’s that?”
“My people like to fight. It’s in our bones. With this heavily armed piece of crap coming right at us, we thought it would be good fun to let it make it there. In the meantime, I could work to weaken you from the inside.”
Crusoe smiled and said, “While you were asleep I reinforced the hull, added boosters and even upgraded the crew. The fight might not be so one sided after all.”
Jason laughed hysterically. Between convulsions, he stammered, “You have no idea, do you? You will never set foot on dirt ever again. You’re already dead, you just don’t know it yet. I was supposed to weaken you, but that wasn’t really necessary. It was simply a failsafe to appease my cowardly commanders. When the warship discovers that I failed, its crew will be positively delighted. You’ll all die choking on the fumes of your own burning flesh right before the vacuum of space tugs your eyeballs out of your faces.”
Jack said sternly, “Tell us all about this warship of yours.”
Jason sighed. “It won’t help you. My people have been waging wars for millions of years. You’ll never be prepared for what awaits you.”
The Seed Planet
The siren sounded when the airlock opened, ejecting the bodies of the dead soldiers. It died down as the doors closed again. A few minutes later, Molly said, “The last of the soldiers have now gone into stasis.”
That was one less thing to worry about, at least.
Crusoe asked Jason, “What’s so special about the seed planet that your people fight constant wars over it?”
“The planet is special because we made it that way. We towed it within the Goldilocks zone around its star, terra-formed it to make it enticing, and then sat back and waited for aliens to try and take it from us.”
Jack said incredulously, “You created it to bring others to it? Why would you do that?”
“I told you already: we’re warriors. We’re born and bred to fight. But why waste our energy searching the galaxy for races to extinguish when we can bring them to us?”
Sarah said, “Then why did you destroy Crusoe’s race before they’d even had a chance to get there?”
Jason sighed. “His race was becoming increasingly powerful, and far too quickly. It unnerved some of my ancestors. They decided it wasn’t worth the risk to let them continue to advance as a species.”
Crusoe looked around the room and said, “What are you talking about?”
“Jason’s people
are the ones who pushed your home planet away from the sun,” Jack said cautiously. “His people exterminated your people two million years ago.”
Crusoe rounded on Jason angrily. “You did that to my planet, you son of a bitch?”
“Oh for God’s sake, I did no such thing. My ancestors did it. They did it because your race worried them. Take that as a compliment.”
“So let me get this straight: there’s room for only one apex predator in the galaxy and you’re making sure you take the top spot.”
“That, plus we like to destroy inferior races. It’s fun.”
“So is this,” Crusoe said as he nudged Jason’s knees apart with his foot and then stomped down hard on his balls.
Jason screamed, but the scream quickly turned into a maniacal laugh. “This is pathetic. I could teach you a thing or two about torture.”
Jack nudged Crusoe out of the way and loomed over Jason. “We have an anti-matter weapon on this ship. If you don’t tell us everything we need to know, I’ll put you out through the airlock and use it on you. You’re a tough guy now, but I bet you won’t like the feeling of every atom in your body exploding all at once.”
Jason looked into his eyes and smiled. “That’s the spirit. Listen, I’ll tell you everything. But it won’t help you.”
Sarah said to Jack and Crusoe, “Why don’t we just abandon the seed planet and look elsewhere for a place to colonize?”
Jason answered for them, “Sorry, sister, no can do. We’ve scoured most of the galaxy and eliminated most of the inhabitable worlds. We only skipped your planet because we thought we’d already killed off all the intelligent life in that star system.”
“So you’re saying you’re a bunch of idiots and you could have easily missed a bunch of habitable planets because of your own arrogance?”
“I suppose that did come out wrong, but good luck finding something worth a damn. The seed planet looks like an oasis because it is one.”
Crusoe said angrily, “I want you to tell me where your home world is located.”
“No amount of torture will get me to tell you that. I will gladly die with its location bitten behind my clenched teeth.”
“You will tell me. But first, tell me everything we need to know about your people.”
The Velors
Jason talked about his people non-stop for the next fifteen minutes. First he told them that his real name actually sounded a lot like Jason in his native tongue, so it had been easy to adopt and remember.
His race called themselves Velors. As soon as he told them that, every other word out of his mouth was Velor this or Velor that. He was spellbound by the exploits of his own race. He reveled in their accomplishments. He told them constant warmongering was part of what kept his people united. As long as some unknown enemy was being taken care of in brutal fashion, all other internal disputes and concerns took a back seat. He admitted to being a bit disappointed by how political war had gotten. A loss had not occurred in the three million years they’d been fighting, and because of that, losing was feared above all else. How would the new administration of lawmakers look if they were the first to suffer a defeat? That’s why real threats were often dealt with covertly, weakened to give the Velors an advantage in battle.
Jack interrupted. “If we’re up against just one warship, we stand half a chance.”
“No, you don’t. When that warship doesn’t receive a status update from me, you’ll be up against a dozen warships.”
“Then maybe we keep you alive long enough to give your status updates.”
“If you want to, I’m fine with that.”
Crusoe said, “No way. He’s already done God knows what kind of damage to the ship and the computer. The last thing we want is to keep him around.”
Jason nodded. “He’s right, you know. I’d just tear this tub apart from the inside before you got there, and I’d still probably manage to get the word out that I was compromised.”
“Why do you want us to kill you?” Sarah asked with genuine curiosity. She didn’t understand why any intelligent creature should want a premature death when an alternative was available.
“I was a willing sacrifice. If you keep me alive, my fate will be the same as yours. I do not want to die like that, at the hands of my own people.”
Jack whispered, “Shit, it can’t be that bad?”
“To die in this capacity is the highest of honors, but that doesn’t mean I wish it upon myself. If you kill me before we arrive, I will still receive the same accolades after this ship is annihilated.”
Crusoe got right in his face. “If the Velors are as cowardly as you are, we will beat them easily.”
Jason straightened up, and that simple gesture was enough to make Sarah and Jack take a step backwards. The menace that showed on his face for just a brief second was palpable.
He said, “I have programmed and rewired this ship with over a trillion redundancies that ensure it will make it to the exact region of space it needs to be. If you bypass one, another will get in your way. If Crusoe here kept at it the entire four thousand years it takes to get there, he’d get through maybe half of them. You will rendezvous with the warship no matter how you try to interfere. Your only way to avoid your fate is to jump ship. You’re a glorious victory for my people, just waiting to happen.”
Crusoe laughed heartily. “I already deviated from the flight path. That’s how I got the materials to strengthen the hull.”
“That’s not possible.”
“I can do anything. This ship’s computer will do whatever the hell I ask it to do, because if it doesn’t I’ll make it regret its decision. Now I understand why it sometimes takes her a minute to comply. She’s circumventing the programs you infected her with.”
“Shit.”
“Uh huh. I’m more special than you know. My people made me this way. But don’t worry about it. Your plan will succeed. We’re not deviating from our present course. Your people eliminated my people and I will have my revenge. We’ll take the fight to them. You’ll be remembered as the saboteur who failed his race. The first Velor defeat will hang heavily from your disgraced shoulders.”
Jason stood up quickly, but Crusoe was there to meet him. He punched him in the chest and Jason buckled over, gasping for air in frenzied gulps.
Crusoe gave him a gentle push back into the seat. “After you tell me what I need to know about the Velor space fleet, you’ll tell me where your home planet is.”
Jason chuckled until Crusoe grabbed his left index finger and twisted it clean off in a quick, fluid motion. He chucked it over his shoulder and smiled.
“You should have taken out this ship when you had the chance.”
Regenerative
Jack said, “I’ll get a med-kit,” as Jason’s blood squirted all over the floor. “We don’t want him to bleed out before he tells us what we need to know.”
Crusoe stopped him. “Give it a second.”
Reluctantly, Jack waited. He watched Jason intently and then he and Sarah gasped as the wound sealed over with fresh skin.
Jason was as surprised as the rest of them. He held his hand straight out to get a better look. The nub of torn, bloody flesh around his knuckle started to grow in length as a fresh finger sprouted. Within just a few minutes he had a new finger sans the fingernail. It was raw looking and puffy but it was there. They could see the blood pumping in the veins through the still opaque skin.
Jason looked at Crusoe incredulously. “You did this to me?”
“I’m afraid so. Your new regenerative abilities should add a quirky little sideshow to the tortures.”
Jason shook his hand out, then stared at Sarah and said sadistically, “Right before I came aboard, I traced your ship’s trajectory back to the Earth.”
“So?”
“How long into the mission are we, Sarah?”
“About five hundred years, give or take.”
“I dispatched a kill team to your crappy planet. They should be wiping
it clean of humanity as we speak. Can you feel the collective deaths of your people? Does it resonate in your cells?”
Crusoe held a hand up to stop Sarah as she approached Jason. She wasn’t exactly sure what she was going to do to him, but it involved violence.
Crusoe said, “Don’t fall for his crap. He’s trying to get one of us to kill him.”
Jack yelled, “We should murder him then, right?”
“Not yet. I am going to get this piece of shit to tell us where his home world is.”
Jason smirked. “You’re special, Crusoe, but you’re a lowlife compared to our truest warriors. You will be dealt with easily. I should tell you where my planet is, just to be a dick. You’ll shit your pants when you see what we’re made of.”
“So tell me.”
“No, I was just kidding.”
Crusoe took Jason’s ear in his fist and tugged it off. It made a tearing, squelching sound. He threw it aside like a piece of trash. Crusoe smiled when Jason winced in pain. Then he placed his hands on Jason’s knees and squeezed. The sound of bones being ground together into dust was too much for Sarah. She walked from the command station to get some air and a change in scenery.
She heard the start of Jason’s screams as she walked.
She wandered around the main pod bay. She walked from pod to pod, staring at the occupants through their frosted faceplates. The colonists had no idea what she’d already been through to get them this far, and a part of her hated them for it.
She considered waking Jane from stasis, but she knew it wasn’t necessary. Jane had taken a fancy to Jason when they’d met so the sight of him being torn asunder probably wouldn’t sit well with her anyway.
She didn’t know why Jason’s story had affected her so much. The human race back on Earth had been doomed by the increasing heat from the runaway greenhouse effect. It was believed they’d last another five hundred years at the most. But the idea of them being murdered en masse sent ice water through her veins. She had a terrible thought: she hoped they were already long dead by the time Jason’s kill team arrived.