Never Surrender

by Michael Anderle

  “That was a shame the ship was destroyed,” Gyrm commented, “I would rather have liked to look it over, and perhaps getting a chance to enslave the uppity alien at the same time.”

  “Well, we did lose four missiles,” Weapons added.

  “Which, against the cost of the Gothwick, is a fraction of the value. Although, it sure obliterated the target,” Gyrm added, pleased with their results so far. “Now, let’s make sure we have a good ship before we finish our time here in Eubos and then we need to grab the rest of our group and head out. We are going to have to swing back through command and update them what we have learned in Eubos.”

  Gyrm stood up, “Tell the boarding party to go ahead when they feel it is safe. Then, have Jilleck bring up the protocol to refresh the computer system. I don’t want any unexpected files messing up our efforts. Once we have all of that done, we will separate, and they can follow us.” Gyrm walked towards the bridge exit. “I’ll be right back, I need to…”

  That was when the screaming started.

  Skaine Ship Gothwick

  Hirotoshi’s eyes opened. Getting up, he moved silently out of the small enclosed space he had been resting inside, his eyes flaming red as he ignored Skaine after Skaine, his feet propelling him forward as fast as he could run.

  He could hear the screams starting behind him, as Ryu, probably him anyway, sliced open a few members of the crew as he followed Hirotoshi out of the Gothwick, through the airlock connection between the two Skaine ships and into the slaver ship he needed to attack.

  Well, he sure hoped it was the right ship. Provided Tabitha hadn’t been killed, she would have notified the men if this was the wrong ship in the first place.

  Skaine Slaver Ship Kalifo

  First Gunner’s mate Menok climbed down from his laser turret, dropped to the floor and stretched. He scratched under his arm where it always itched when he finished a shift up there. Something inside the chair of the turret poked and irritated him, but it wasn’t big enough to see so he couldn’t cut it out.

  Or he would have.

  He nodded to one of the officers as he headed towards the food that would be available for those coming off ship’s duties. With the Captain worried that the Gothwick was a trap, he’d been sitting in that damn turret for half the morning.

  Doing nothing.

  If the Captain had asked him, he would have been able to tell him it didn’t feel like there was anything alive on that ship. As a gunner, you get a feeling for some things, and it didn’t feel like anyone was piloting the ship. He had watched when the four external riggers left their ship to place a few counter engines on the ship to slow down the slight wobble and allow their ship to connect.

  That had been the extent of his fun this morning. Thril, next to him, had gotten in trouble for targeting one of the four riggers out of boredom. He would be on cleanout duty for the mess in the slave’s bay on the next trip.

  He arrived at the food room when his sixth sense kicked into overdrive.

  Menok turned back to the direction of the connection deck and started running, thanking his ability to wear real pants instead of those damned robes the officers had to wear. Yanking out his pistol, he hoped he wasn’t being stupid for no apparent reason.

  Then, he heard the screams. Flipping the pistol’s safety off he ran around a corner, grabbed a rail as he raced down the stairs. At the bottom of the stairs, he ran forward, heading towards the yells, screams, and occasional firing of a pistol.

  It had to be bad if there was this much shooting on their own ship.

  Two more crew members joined him. Together the three of them rushed into the ship’s dock area. The man’s head to his right exploded, showering him with bits of bone fragments. Menok dodged, crossing behind the falling body to slam into the back of a large crate of something he was sure they stole from someone.

  “AAAIIIHEE,” cried the other crewmate, Menok thought his name was F’ehlex.

  F’ehlex’s head came bounding back down the way the three of them had just come.

  What was going on? Menok lifted his pistol and breathed in three times before darting both his head and arm around the corner to see what was happening.

  —

  Hirotoshi made it into the other ship. The first Skaine he found seemed to be working the controls for the connection to the Gothwick, so Hirotoshi leveled his sword and cut forward.

  The blood of the alien sprayed across the controls, its body jerking up and down before falling behind him. Hirotoshi didn’t care, he was already past.

  The next two reacted a bit faster, pulling their weapons. Hirotoshi swept the blade down, cutting off one of their arms, the hand and gun clattering to the floor. He twisted backward, counter-clockwise to swing behind the Skaine with the missing hand, using the spasming body to block his partner. Hirotoshi stabbed the second Skaine in the neck, then pushed the blade out, taking the head halfway off.

  He heard the rushing of more Skaine coming from behind him. Reaching down, he grabbed the Jean Dukes’ special and swung around, to see three more slavers rushing through a pair of doors some twenty paces away.

  He aimed and blew apart the slaver on his left. The slaver in the middle dove behind the falling body, so Hirotoshi shot the next slaver in the shoulder, the slaver’s weapon arm dropping down lifeless by his side. Taking three steps forward he met the running slaver head on, slicing through his neck, then kicking the head back towards the doors the Skaine had used to enter the area.

  “Hai!” Ryu called out behind him, but Hirotoshi ignored him.

  Moments later, he could hear the fast breathing of the third pirate.

  Hirotoshi lifted his pistol, waiting.

  The final pirate stuck his head around the corner, and his head exploded in a violent mist of blood and skull parts that painted the floor and up the wall behind him, the body slumping over to the floor.

  Behind him, Ryu grabbed Katsu, and the two of them headed off to the right, in the expected direction of the engines and possibly the secondary computer systems.

  Hirotoshi headed towards where this ship would have their slaveholding area if it was laid out similarly to the last ship. He had just entered the hallway leading towards the cells when an explosion occurred in the bay. The ship’s doors sealed shut behind him, alarms and lights flashing up and down the hall of the ship.

  Shin hadn’t made it out of the cargo bay, Hirotoshi was certain of it.

  —

  “DISCONNECT FROM THAT SHIP!” Gyrm commanded.

  “Sir, we’ve lost communication with the dock area, we don’t know,” started his ship’s officer.

  “Blow it!” he commanded. Almost instantly, he heard the soft ‘whump’ as the explosives were used to disconnect from the other ship.

  Gyrm might lose a few people with this effort, but it was damned obvious the ship HAD been a ruse, and right now he needed to keep attackers off of his ship.

  The docks would lock down, but not before most of his people, or the aliens inside would die. If not from lack of air, then they might get pummeled to death by the boxes, tools, and other items not tied down when the explosion of decompression and loss of gravity for a few moments occurred.

  It would be a significant pain to clean up that area on the ship, now.

  Cleanup wasn’t his responsibility, having a ship to clean up was.

  —

  Shin followed Katsu and Ryu into the alien ship and watched the two of them split off to the right and head out of the docks. He saw Hirotoshi and headed in his direction. He had almost made it to the same set of doors to follow him out of the docks when an explosion jolted him from behind.

  His eyes opened in alarm as he reached for the door’s handle, but failed to grab it in time. His body lost any sense of weight. His back exploded in pain when he slammed into a large box that was locked down to the floor. His body turned violently, his view of the dock spun, as he and everything not secured headed toward the opening into space.

  S
hin used his Wakizashi to stab out towards another box, but all it did was push him in the other direction when it failed to embed itself in the container.

  He bounced off something behind him. Flailing around, his hand grabbed a rope of some sort, and he held on.

  For about three incredibly long seconds as the roar of the decompression continued.

  Then, he lost his grip.

  The docks airlock slammed shut in time for Shin to slam into it. He looked over his shoulder, to see a huge container heading in his direction.

  “Forgive me, my Empress!” he yelled out.

  Then, the container slammed into his chest and head.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

  QBS Achronyx

  Tabitha bit on her fingernail, as she watched the video intake. She had Achronyx maintain a safe distance from the Skaines, ensuring they could not detect her cloaked ship

  “I sense vibrations on the outer skin of the Skaine ship Kalifo. I am surmising the raid has started, Tabitha.” Achronyx stated.

  “Thanks,” she mumbled, only half hearing her EI, while she focused on the two ships hanging with a backdrop of the stars outlining them both.

  She received a quick click over the comms, Hirotoshi’s confirmation that the raid had started in earnest.

  She was staring at the scene in front of her when she suddenly bucked back in her chair, body going rigid as she screamed as loudly as she possibly could. Her hands gripping the chair rests, indenting them slightly as her pain, given voice, reverberated throughout the ship.

  “NOOOOOOOOO!” she cried out, tears coming unbidden to her face as she sought to clamp down on her emotions to allow her time to process and think…

  Think…

  FUCK THINKING!

  “Achronyx,” she hissed out, “Take me right in front of that fucking ship, right fucking now!”

  “Cloaked or uncloaked?”

  “Cloaked, until I say otherwise,” she told him as she unbuckled and headed towards the back, “I’ve got a message to deliver.”

  —

  Hirotoshi could feel the loss as he ran through the hallway.

  Shin was gone.

  Hundreds of scenes ran through his mind as he tore through each section. The times Shin and he would sit and talk about their past. The times they would tease the sun together before their Queen had accepted their allegiance and allowed them to go out in the sun once more.

  Before Tabitha had made them a permanent team together.

  The hundreds of years of friendship ran through Hirotoshi’s mind as he found each Skaine.

  Some were decapitated, some were run through, a sword, made on Earth so many light-years away, taking their lives in Hirotoshi’s silent sending of a down payment for Shin’s death.

  They had come into this system to stop the slave trade. There would be no better way, than making sure the slavers were eradicated.

  Permanently.

  —

  “WHO THE HELL ARE THESE ALIENS?” Gyrm shouted as he viewed the video of just three aliens ripping through his ship, killing his people with a determination that bordered on fanatical. More than once his people had set up traps to overwhelm the aliens, only to have the traps taken apart with violence that caused the lead Skaine to sweat.

  If just a little.

  “Engineering!” He yelled into his comms, “You have two coming in your direction, shut down all entrances…”

  “SIR!” Weapons called out.

  “Right now,” Gyrm finished his conversation with engineering and looked over to the one responsible for interrupting him. “WHAT?”

  The weapons specialist didn’t say anything, just pointed to the large screen at the front of the bridge. Gyrm turned to see an alien’s face, eyes glowing red, staring back at everyone on the Bridge.

  “My name…is Ranger Tabitha of the Etheric Empire. You are condemned as slavers, there is no escape, there is no reprieve, you have been JUDGED!”

  “Didn’t we blow you up once already?” Gyrm spat out, “Why won’t you just go away?”

  “Because, motherfucker, JUSTICE DOES NOT DIE!”

  Gyrm pointed to the screen, “Where is that alien ship?”

  “Oh…Frixelballocks,” Weapons whispered when he saw the alien ship uncloak. He hit the button to show the front facing video and more than one of those on the bridge pushed back in their chairs, thinking the ship in front was about to crash right into their ship.

  The alien on the screen stared at the Skaines, her voice full of anger, “I will take my men, any slaves you have, and your Captain will stand trial. Or I will kill you all, and not rest until every Skaine I ever meet dies.”

  “That is impossible,” Gyrm told the woman. Trying to stay calm in this situation, doing anything to keep her talking as everyone on the bridge continued to stare at the screen. “You are talking about genocide.”

  “I’ll consider it a new challenge for my long life, Skaine.” She spat out, “I’ll consider it a fucking stretch goal.”

  “What would your precious leader think about this?” Gyrm asked.

  The alien’s smile as she leaned away from the camera did nothing to alleviate his concern

  The screen blanked for just a second, and a new alien face replaced the first. This one, however, was older. She looked around the bridge of the ship as if she could see everything and everyone.

  Her eyes turned the same glowing red as the first aliens, but this time lines of energy seemed to reach out, like bolts. Her voice was harsh but unmistakable.

  “My name,” the alien spoke, her red eyes flicking to all of those on the bridge, “is Bethany Anne. I am the leader, the Empress of the Etheric Empire. The Skaine WILL stop slaving, not only in my Empire but everywhere my people go. You think the Skaine are a worry to me?”

  Her laugh chilled Gyrm’s blood.

  “You cockroaches need to know I’m already at war with the Kurtherians. I just personally killed one with my hands. If you think I give a Gott Verdammt rat’s ASS about you or any people who enslave others?” She chuckled, but there was no mirth to it. “Give me a fucking break.”

  Gyrm swallowed. His people’s power had been enough to scare most groups into at least leaving them alone. But if this alien was already fighting the Kurtherians?

  Just how crazy WAS this alien whore?

  “Gyrm, your life is fucking forfeit for slaving, you have been judged by my Ranger, your people are already dying by my Ranger’s men.”

  “So, it is time for you to accept your punishment of death!” She commanded.

  Gyrm, smiled for a microsecond before blood exploded out, a metal sword erupted from his chest, his blood soaking his robes as he tried to choke out a sound.

  Hirotoshi, pistol in his left hand, his right still holding the sword’s hilt looked around the bridge. Those on the bridge, paying attention to the alien on the screen never saw the alien kill those protecting the bridge and stab their Captain.

  He had their attention now, however.

  Hirotoshi slowly pulled out the sword, allowing Gyrm to choke twice more before the sword released him to fall forward, slowly sliding off the captain’s chair to hit the floor.