Nepenthe Rising

by John Triptych

  Hauk clenched his jaw. His voice was a tiny croak. “Yes, Commander.”

  Creull turned her attention back to the holographic display on her wrist. “Get out of my sight.”

  Puteri took the boy by his wrist and led him out into the corridor. Using the nearby handhold, she bent her knees and pushed off, gesturing at him to follow. “Come on.”

  Hauk remained silent as they made a turn into the junction and floated up towards the habitat wheel. Gravity had steadily increased as they got to a spoke corridor, and they were soon walking alongside each other.

  Puteri sensed his despondency. She glanced at him and smiled. “Don’t feel so bad; a lot of spacers get killed on the simulators for the first few months or so. I was never good at it, so that’s why they assigned me to do other tasks.”

  “You’ve got other talents,” Hauk said glumly. “You’re pretty good at intel analysis. All I’m supposed to know is how to kill things.”

  She giggled. “Oh, you’ll get better. Just give it some time and keep working at it. The commander likes you.”

  The boy gave her a look of incredulity. “She likes me? Didn’t you hear what the commander said? She said I’d get airlocked the next time I screw up.”

  Puteri kept laughing. “Oh, that’s just how she is. You’re actually lucky the commander isn’t going through her estrous cycle, she gets even more testy when that happens.”

  “What’s that?”

  “Her species has a mating season. I remember the one time when Keo needed to tell her something, so he went to her quarters, found her sleeping, and tried to wake the commander up by tugging at her shoulder.”

  “What happened?”

  “The commander’s instincts are like those big cats from Earth. She instantly woke up, turned and bit him in the neck. Poor Keo had blood gushing out of his throat when she rushed him into the medbay.”

  Hauk exhaled. “Wow. I don’t know if I should feel any better or worse after hearing this.”

  “I’m just saying, Commander Creull may seem like she’s totally harsh, but trust me, she’s doing her best to keep her temper and instincts under control. I read about the history of her race, and the riwwr went to war with just about every other species they encountered during their early age of space exploration.”

  “You’re saying the commander likes me because she’s harsh to me?”

  Puteri winked at him. “She’s giving you a lot of attention—it means she thinks you can be better. More so than that other recruit you came in with, anyway.”

  “Benno? I didn’t see him in the simulators today. Where’s he?”

  Puteri stood in front of the entrance to the security module. “He’s in here, doing monitor duty of the prisoners. Benno couldn’t even master the basic controls of the Armatus, so you’re way ahead of him. You’re currently the youngest on the advance tactical simulators, you know.”

  Hauk had begun to feel better about himself. Maybe he wasn’t doing so bad after all. “Oh, okay.”

  “Do you want to go back to your quarters and rest up for a bit? I know from experience that spending hours on the simulators can make you really tired because it feels so realistic.”

  Hauk shook his head. “No thanks. Every time I close my eyes Sappho starts injecting my brain with learning apps. I wake up with a headache all the time.”

  Puteri smiled. “Happens to all of us. Sappho’s subliminal learning modules are designed to give you an education while you sleep. Since nearly the entire crew has never had any formal schooling, it works as a sort of accelerated substitute program.”

  “Has anyone here actually graduated from a real school?”

  “I know Lieutenant Strand did—he’s a former officer in the Star Force,” Puteri said. “He received top marks in their military academy, from what I’ve heard. Maybe the captain too, but nobody knows too much about him.”

  Hauk raised an eyebrow. “The lieutenant used to be with the Star Force? How did he end up here?”

  Puteri bit her lip. “I don’t want to be a gossip. Better to ask him yourself.”

  Hauk rolled his eyes. “Come on.”

  “From what I heard, he was having one heck of a career until his superiors ordered him to attack a friendly ship,” Puteri said. “It’s not confirmed, but I think someone in the high command set him up in order to get rid of a rival or something. Anyway, after it happened there was a court martial and the lieutenant became the scapegoat. They were going to execute him but Strand somehow escaped and made it here.”

  “I see. What about the captain? What’s his story?”

  Puteri shrugged. “Nobody I talked to really knows. Carruthers was the oldest guy in this crew before he retired on some backwater planet, but I was able to talk to him when I first got here. He told me the captain and this ship just appeared in orbit one day over his homeworld when he was a kid. Carruthers joined up and they served together for decades until he got too old, but he could never find out about the captain’s past.”

  Hauk scowled. “Wait a minute, something’s not right. If the captain recruited this guy and they fought for years, then shouldn’t the captain be older than him by now? Captain Dangard doesn’t look that old to me.”

  “I don’t know,” Puteri said wistfully. “Carruthers was a bit of a liar too, so I’m not sure if the story he told me is even true.”

  “Okay,” Hauk said. “I guess I’d better do some work before Sappho reports me to the commander for just standing here all day. What can I do?”

  “You want to help out the chief engineer? I know he’s doing design work on the mass drivers, so he could use a tester or something.”

  “Like a test dummy? No thanks,” Hauk said. “I thought we were going to a space station to pick up the mass drivers or something.”

  Puteri shook her head. “We mostly cruise along the uninhabited systems to get some raw materials. Since we’re being hunted by both the Union and the Concordance, we have to build our own.”

  “Build our own? How?”

  Puteri realized the boy had not yet been to the ship’s engineering decks. “This vessel isn’t just built for combat. The Nepenthe is also like a factory. We have huge three-dimensional printers that can build almost anything, provided we have the raw materials.”

  “So this ship doesn’t need to go to a station to refuel?”

  “Nope,” Puteri said. “The Nepenthe is mostly self-sufficient. Carbon and hydrogen are two of the most common elements in the galaxy—you can find a lot of them anywhere. When we’re not in combat, this ship regularly processes hydrogen into deuterium pellets to fuel the fusion engines—so our range is pretty much unlimited. With carbon we can fashion almost anything solid.”

  “What about food and stuff?”

  “We grow most of our plants in vats, and we produce lab-grown meat too,” Puteri said. “There are a few rare elements that we need, so we occasionally link up with another ship for trade. The captain’s got extensive contacts in the black market.”

  “Like what?”

  “Tungsten for one,” Puteri said. “Rare metal, but very useful—especially for our gauss weapons.”

  Hauk couldn’t help but be impressed. “Seems the captain and the others have thought of everything.”

  “They did,” Puteri said. “Like I told you, this ship is family. If you can earn your place here then there’s no point in going anywhere else.”

  “Sappho’s learning curriculum hasn’t gotten me to the engineering part yet, so maybe it’s better if I just stick to tasks I’m familiar with for now.”

  Puteri turned around and placed her hand on the biometric scanner by the secure bulkhead. “Good point. You can join up with Benno for security duty.” When the heavy doors opened she stepped inside. “Follow me.”

  Hauk followed her into the security zone and pressed the button on his wrist smartcom to close the doors behind him.

  Sappho’s voice came over the intercom circuit. “Attention, there appears to be an o
ngoing incident in the containment area.”

  Puteri’s eyes opened wide as she started running down the corridor. “What? What’s happening, Sappho?”

  Hauk ran after her.

  “Cadet Spacer Benno Holmes is in conflict with one of the prisoners.”

  Puteri headed towards the security room while gesturing at the boy to keep on going. “I’ll monitor what’s happening from here. Get over to where Benno is and see what you can do to help.”

  “Got it,” Hauk said as he dashed towards the end of the corridor.

  It took him less than a minute to reach the high security bulkhead. Using his wrist smartcom for biometric identification, the boy easily got past the active warbot and ran into the next block containing the holding cells.

  He could see the door leading into Dhara Hayer’s cell had been left open, screams and cursing emanating from it, along with the sounds of fighting. Hauk quickly ducked inside.

  The cell was a mess. A spilled tray of food lay by the side of the room, its multicolored contents staining the gray flooring. Benno Holmes was leaning over the fixed bed, holding down Dhara by the throat while the prisoner kept trying to claw at his face.

  Hauk reached over to try and gently pry the bigger youth’s grip from the prisoner’s throat. “Benno, enough.”

  Benno twisted his torso and swung his leg out, trying to kick the smaller boy in the stomach, but Hauk was faster and he easily backed away, with Benno’s foot touching nothing but empty air.

  Dhara sensed her chance when the viselike grip on her throat slackened a little. She coiled her right leg and thrust it into the bigger youth’s upper stomach, just beneath the ribcage. With his wind knocked out from his lungs, Benno staggered back, yet he somehow remained standing. Dhara’s second kick landed on his chin, and Benno finally fell backwards, momentarily stunned.

  With the open doorway just ahead of her, Dhara figured it would be her best chance to escape. She made for the opening while taking a swing at the smaller boy, hoping to knock him out as well in order to get past the door.

  Hauk sensed her attack coming before her fist connected with his cheekbone. Blocking her wild punch with both hands, he pivoted sideways as he used the woman’s own momentum to throw her onto the ground.

  A surprised Dhara landed on her face, her nose and forehead violently colliding with the floor. Hauk still held onto her arm as he twisted it, making her scream out in pain. Placing his knee on her back for leverage, the boy pulled out a restraint cord from his skinsuit pocket and placed it over the woman’s hands, locking them tightly behind her back.

  Hauk stood fully upright and walked over to where Benno was. The bigger boy had gotten back up, but his knees were still wobbly. Hauk took Benno’s right arm over his shoulder and led him out of the cell before he closed the door behind him.

  Benno had recovered somewhat, and he pushed the shorter boy away before leaning against the side of the corridor.

  Hauk placed his hands on his hips as the adrenaline rush began to seep away. “What happened?”

  Benno looked away. The memory of being bested by a woman filled him with shame. “She didn’t eat her food when the bots came by with the meal, so I just went inside to take a look. The bitch pretended to be sick and she tried to attack me when I got too close.”

  “You were choking the life out of her,” Hauk said. “Our orders are to keep them alive.”

  In a flash, Benno rushed at him and pinned the boy to the wall, his broad hands around Hauk’s neck in a painful chokehold. “You took her side, you little worm.”

  Hauk hadn’t expected him to do it, so he was completely surprised. The pain in his throat made him wheeze. “I had … to get you … off her.”

  Just as he was about to fight back, Benno loosened his hold and backed away. The bigger boy pointed a thick finger at him. “Only one of us is gonna make it in this crew, and it’s gonna be me, not you.”

  Hauk stood by the cell as he caught his breath, silently watching Benno make his way out of the holding block. Was Benno going to try and kill him?

  The boy clenched his fists before relaxing them. I will be part of this crew, Benno. You can be damned sure of it.

  10 The Interlopers

  The Union science vessel Amerigo possessed a fuel refinery module, and the ship had just begun to replenish her fusion reactor when a distress call was suddenly received through her optical com-link channels. Her four-member crew was both puzzled and instantly suspicious. Their ship had just begun a stopover at an uninhabited system at the spinward end of the Rift Region, an area where no commercial ships traveled.

  Both the chief pilot and the communications officer looked at each other in confusion before turning their attention towards the captain sitting in the command chair. The engineer sat in his station at the far end of the small bridge; the rest of the crew consisted of science specialists, who were resting in their quarters in the rearward gravity module, completely unaware of what had just occurred.

  Chief Pilot Guo Hsu spoke up first. “Captain, what do we do?”

  Captain Protagoras Five Thousand One Hundred Eighty-Six didn’t betray any emotions. His orange skin never changed hue no matter what the situation. The synthetic ship’s captain turned his smooth, hairless head to look at the com officer. “Forward the distress call to any Star Force vessel in range.”

  “I’ve done that already, Captain,” Lola Chaudhary said. “I can hear a baby crying in the background noise of the escape pod.”

  “This isn’t logical,” Protagoras said. “We’ve detected no other ship in the system, yes?”

  “None,” Lola said.

  “And the sensor readings say it’s an escape pod, yes?”

  Lola nodded. “Yes. They said they’ve been drifting for days now after their freighter got waylaid by a pirate vessel. The raiders must have taken their ship and left them to die out here.”

  “It could be a trap. Pirates normally send out distress beacons to lure in civilian ships so they can board them,” Protagoras said.

  “But there are no other ships we’ve detected out here,” Guo said.

  “A pirate vessel could have shut down their engines and radiators to go stealthy,” the captain said. “They might just be using heatsinks and lying in wait for us.”

  Lola turned and stared at her console readouts. “If there’s a dormant pirate ship out here it would have to be pretty small. I can’t find any other artificial heat sources in my active and passive scanners aside from the pod.”

  “By law we have to respond to distress signals, Captain,” Guo added.

  Protagoras’s outward appearance remained impassive, but his quantum processing core was in turmoil. He continued to analyze every single possible outcome, and checked the percentages over and over again. “Mathematical probabilities are telling me there’s an eighty-five percent chance this is a ruse of some sort.”

  Lola bit her lip. “Even when there’s no other ship in the system, Captain? If they’re pirates, how could they hope to get away?”

  “Sixty-eight percent probability they will use this ship as their getaway vessel,” Protagoras said.

  “We’re a research ship,” Guo said. “What would pirates want us for?”

  Lola pursed her lips. “Yup, we’re not carrying anything valuable. We just spent the last four months recording local space phenomena and cataloging star charts. None of this stuff is worth anything on the black markets.”

  “Ransom demands is another probable possibility,” Protagoras said.

  Engineer Bronek Gomolka had been listening silently for a bit before clearing his throat to get their attention. “If I may make a suggestion, Captain. We could dock with the drifting pod but keep them sealed until we run a full biometric and atmospheric scan on it.”

  Protagoras continued to look straight ahead. “Are you sure there will be no chance of them hacking open the docking hatch?”

  Bronek shook his head. “Nope, none. We seal off all the interface ports
in the airlock. I can cut off that entire module from the ship’s network and treat it like a separate container. No exploit can be used against us.”

  Even though it was against his better judgment, space ethics did compel the captain to finally acquiesce. He gave a positive nod to the crew. “Alright. Guo, match headings and velocity with the escape pod. Prepare for a docking maneuver.”

  A cheer erupted from the three humans. Lola clapped her hands in exhilaration.

  Bronek began to loosen the restraints of his chair. “I’ll head over to the main airlock and begin my modifications, Captain.”

  “Very well,” Protagoras said before turning his attention to the communications officer. “Lola, keep scanning that pod. If you detect anything suspicious at all, we pull back.”

  Lola had a wide smile on her face as she kept her eyes on the display. In all her years of working in space, this was going to be her first rescue ever. This exciting break in an otherwise monotonous voyage filled her with glee. “Yes, sir.”

  The escape pod continued its slow drift in the outer darkness. Two hours had passed since the Amerigo began her deceleration maneuver. Judging from the com-link messages the science vessel was receiving, there were three civilians and one baby on board. The parent ship of the escapees was a freighter named the Dunston. Their ship had been refueling when a pirate vessel attacked, and the two crewmembers were joined by the captain’s wife and baby daughter as they got into the escape pod, just as the freighter was being boarded.

  From their conversations over the com-link, it seemed the pirate ship had either missed the escape pod or decided to leave them behind after commandeering the freighter and jumping out of the system. They had apparently been drifting for weeks, hoping someone would pick up their distress beacon.

  The Amerigo continued its relentless scanning on the pod as the vessel got closer, while the rest of her bridge crew checked the sensors for any other anomalous readings in the area. With no other suspicious activity detected, the synthetic captain of the Amerigo finally gave the order to dock with the escape pod.