Eric Olafson: Space Pirate

by Vanessa Ravencroft

  Har-Hi no longer wore his Union uniform but was back in dark red Dai leather and said, “You sure look hot, saying it in human terms.”

  Mao agreed, “Yeah, and look at Wetmouth! We got three dead gorgeous chicks now. If the pirate business isn’t working out, we could open a Bikini Skimmer Wash on a corporate planet and make a killing!”

  Narth looked under the table and said, “I do not see any fowl. Are you sure chicks can perform such labor?”

  I sent him my thoughts and explained what Mao meant.

  Narth nodded. “I comprehend. So one assumes the term hot does not refer to temperature either?” Narth wore a brown dust mantle with an attached cowl, just like the ones worn on Alvor’s Cove, and Mao explained to him what hot meant in relation to females.

  Krabbel shrugged with four of his eight legs. “I don’t see a real difference. The fur on Eric’s head is longer and then he has those swellings on his upper torso, like Elfi and Wetmouth. Other than that, he looks the same to me.”

  Cirruit said, “I agree. I thought you would look totally different.”

  Muhammad scratched his chin with a side-glance to Krabbel. “It’s those swellings, my eight-legged friend, that make all the difference to us humans!”

  Elfi said to Krabbel, “How do you identify a female Archa?”

  Krabbel said, “Archa females are bigger and the stinger is longer. The body hair is softer and then they have this glow in their eight eyes we males simply can’t resist.”

  Cirruit said, “Sentmacs have no sex drive or gender differentiation, and, of course, no functional sex organs. While Mothermachine has started to adjust the outer form of some X101s since the 712 series to resemble human female forms, we don’t have the concept of gender and it is quite difficult to understand.”

  Cherubim had said little so far and was leaning back, but now she was laughing. “What would I give to actually be part of your group and go along with you. Sadly, the man in the kilt decided to make me the leader of Taskforce FISH in addition to my already full plate.”

  She asked us to settle down and then she begun the briefing by saying, “The first one hundred crew members will arrive shortly. And so will the Marines assigned to you. You need to get to know your ship and for this, you are authorized to leave the system but no more than five light years. You are under no circumstance to make contact with anyone or use your comm equipment. When you leave, you are to do so under full sensor shields. So, fly your ship, but let no one see you do it. The base crew is informed and are all picked for this assignment by us personally. You all have received your new identities, but inside the ship you are still Union officers, so we expect you to behave professionally; not that this was a point I needed to tell you but it was on the list. Later today, there will be two unusual crew additions and both won’t be strangers to you, Captain Olafson.”

  She took a breather and then went on, “This ship is equipped with a special communications device directly linked to me and Admiral McElligott. We expect a written report daily transmitted via that special comm device and, of course, you should use it if there are any problems.”

  Cherubim got up, looked at Shea, and sighed, “You are a dream girl. I am glad you chose a mate so you do not have to hide anymore. It would be a sin to hide such exquisite beauty forever behind a mask.”

  Shea touched her face. “I am glad, but I must admit I miss my mask after so long wearing it this feels strange to me, and I will wear it again simply out of habit!”

  The UNB director said, “I haven’t seen my own real face for so long. I can understand that very well.”

  Chapter 14: Tigershark

  I was on the bridge with the others, going over the technical specs of our ship. Cirruit said, “The reason we do not have ISAH Pods is that this ship uses TransDim Gravitonics as propulsion. Energy is tapped directly from Quasi-Space, and we have no need for fuel. This ship could fly to the end of the known universe without refueling. We do have a set of extendable Isah pods and fuel tanks as backup. Even with them, we are fuel independent, as we have an integrated molecular gas refinery aboard and can turn any common matter into fuel. The theoretical top speed of this bird is 25,000 times the speed of light but not safely achievable due to material and damper limitations. Safe cruise speed is still 10,000 times LS and that is quite fast! Our acceleration to Quasi-Space Threshold is 1500 km/sec2, making this bird faster than the latest Wolfcraft; of course, we lack the maneuverability of a fighter craft.”

  He was petting the engineering console the entire time he spoke. “You should see her engines... Oh, a more beautiful sight does not exist in the Universe.”

  “All right, Mao, what do we have in terms of weapons?”

  “Enough to take on an Ultra and make some serious dents into the Devi if we have to. One Exo Load TL, twelve Kilo Load TL Gatlings, and eight Maxi Range Kilo Load Sniper TLs. Instead of the common FTL forced-energy projectors, we got the latest in Terran weapon development; twelve Quark-Gluon plasma casters firing through a trans-space tunnel field, making them true FTL weapons, as they can hit any target within twelve light minutes instantly. QGP generates temperatures exceeding a trillion degrees. There isn’t a star that hot in the known universe. There are six Loki IV Torpedo tubes, mine laying chutes and orbital bomb shafts with the complete arsenal of bombs including six P-Bombs. Notably, we got a new Saresii Para Dim wave generator gun in the nose cone and Nul-Nul Graviton Rippers. As well as the usual techstop and paralysator cannons. There is room for twelve Wolfcraft fighters, four Gazelle Long-range Scouts, two Thor Gunboats, and six Goliath Landing Tanks. Sad part is that except for one Gazelle and the tanks, the rest has not been delivered yet. Shield wise, we got triple-layered TransDim Shields, normal battle shields, and a new Narth device that is supposed to put a zero time bubble around us but the final components are still on Narth and are supposed to be delivered when we get our first upgrade in a year or so.”

  I turned to Elfi and said, “Can you call the base and see if we can’t get a few of those fighters they have there in boxes?”

  She nodded. “Aye, Captain, I will do that right away.”

  Hans came on the bridge with a look of shock on his face. “Captain, there are two beings below asking to come aboard. One of them I know, but the other is a Y’All! He claims he knows you and wears Fleet uniform!”

  I got up from my chair. “I guess we better check that out. Shea, you got the Conn.”

  A few seconds and an IST ride later, I stood underneath my ship next to the Marine guards and looked upon a full-sized four-armed Y’All warrior, and it was true he did wear Fleet uniform. Next to him stood a woman and yes, I recognized her. She was the Celtest/Seenian Commander we had fought and captured while we were on our way to Newport. Cateria was wearing ensign rank, just as the Y’All. Both saluted and she said, “Ensign Cateria and Ensign TheOther, reporting for duty, ma’am.”

  She handed me an Order chip, and the Marine next to me scanned it. “ID verified. They are citizens and Fleet members, ma’am.”

  I gestured toward the IST shaft and said, “Welcome aboard then. Follow me to the conference room so we can talk.”

  The Celtest woman said, “Yes, ma’am.”

  The briefing room behind the bridge was almost too small to handle beings like Krabbel, Hans, and the giant Y’All at the same time, and it felt really crowded.

  I said, “Welcome once again aboard the Tigershark and since you here and know about this ship, I am certain you were sent here by the highest authority. Please excuse my curiosity as to why you are here. The last time we met you, Ensign Cateria, you were a Celtest or, should I say Seenian Commander, and quite hostile toward us. I must also confess that meeting a live Y’All is truly unusual.”

  That I had done so before was classified, and I could not say it.

  The Y’All gestured for Cateria to make the start. She said, “Most of you, I remember, but I can’t recall seeing you, ma’am.”

  “I was there, Ensign. I was
the one who crushed that mental thing in your head and gave you a chance. As you can see, I have changed somewhat.”

  She looked at me and then nodded. “Yes, I recognize the eyes. Now, as you can imagine, after I was captured by you and transferred to a special prison and lab facility, I was probed, scanned, interrogated, and scanned and probed again for weeks on end. I was treated worse than a criminal. While I intellectually understood why they did that, I was not willing to cooperate under such degrading conditions. I didn’t want to live like that and considered suicide. Then I met a woman, General Alycia Lichfangh, and later learned that I could not lie or withhold any information from her. She was the first to believe me that I was only a medical technician and not a soldier. I was used as a courier to carry a message because all those who were trained to fight could not be spared. General Lichfangh also learned about me and my shock to realize I had slept a million years and that nothing I knew remained. She asked me what I wanted to do, and I asked her to give me a chance to take my own life. She was very sympathetic to my cause and transferred me from that ghastly prison lab complex to a much better place and told me that, due to my nature, they could not really let me go and that she would not help me to commit suicide. She knew that she was bending the rules as she educated me in the ways and laws of this Union and told me that if I requested citizenship as a legal immigrant, I could not be denied if I passed the citizen’s test. The political system the Union represents appeals greatly to me as it allows any individual to achieve.

  “Alycia helped me under one condition: I would need to join the Union Military, so my true heritage could be kept secret. She made me a member of the PSI Corps. Not that my psionic talents were anywhere near their requirements but that kept me out of the public eye, so to speak, and she could help me with my immigration and integration.”

  Har-Hi asked her, “How did you end up here with us?”

  She stapled her fingers and said, “I am no psionic talent and I am not a soldier, but I was and I am a Medical Specialist, and I expressed my wish to join the Union medical service. She made it possible and I went to Union med school after a crash course in Union military basics. The general visited me a few weeks ago and asked me if I would be willing to be the CMO of a very special ship with an unusual mission. When she told me who I would serve under, I gladly agreed and was made Acting Ensign, and I am here to be your CMO.”

  I shook her hand. “Welcome to the family then. I will show you to your sickbay as soon as I hear the story of your friend.”

  The Y’All sounded as if someone dragged a steel girder over metal scaffolding as he spoke. “I am one of the Y’All you have fought, Captain Olafson. You see, the other Y’All warrior and I were alive because we were rejected by the source, the Y’All command authority that attacked this galaxy so long ago. He and I were considered malfunctioning, and we were put in suspended animation and shipped to wherever they made us. There we faced the fate to be dissected so the reason for our malfunctions could be determined. The malfunction was that he and I questioned our orders to eradicate the inhabitants of a defenseless colony planet.

  “How our stasis chambers ended on that asteroid and were finally found by you, I cannot say, but after you bested us, we were put in a high-security facility and, just like the Celtest woman, we were probed and analyzed. The Union scientists examining and experimenting on us called my colleague simply Specimen One and me they called The Other Specimen.

  “Specimen One was simply killed and dissected; they did not look at us as sentient beings at all. A man called Admiral Stahl visited the facility, and I recognized he was not a scientist but a soldier. I asked him if he and his race had no honor and if he had a spark of respect for his enemy then he should allow that I was killed, too, and not kept alive like that. He did not leave but stayed and listened to me and then he said that I was right and even though I was the most terrible enemy he had ever faced, I should be treated like a prisoner of war and sentient being. He also said that the war was over for a long time and should be released, but he also told me about a recent return of a different species of Y’All and the possibility that my kind of Y’all could return as well as we had done before. So, it would be difficult even for him to simply set me free.

  “I sensed he was a being of great honor, and I respected him and told him I would be bound by honor and respect and expressed my wish to serve him as a slave. He rejected that, but he had me tested by General Lichfangh, and he got me a special commission to the Fleet. He said he knew just the right ship where I would fit in. When I heard that it was commanded by the human who fought me in hand to hand combat, I eagerly accepted, as I am honorbound to you with your victory over two Y’all warriors. You have proven to be the greatest warrior of all, and I will serve you until my life ends.”

  Har-hi gasped with open mouth, “You have fought two of those and won?”

  I said, “I didn’t really win and was pretty much done for if it hadn’t been for Marines showing up.”

  The Y’All said, “It is the hallmark of greatness to reject praise, but we Y’All are genetically engineered by an advanced species to be the ultimate warriors and killing machines. No two-armed carbon-based featherweight should be able to almost kill one, wound two of us, and stay alive for that long. If you had faced only one of us, you would have won for certain.”

  Har-Hi kept shaking his head. “Two; he fought two of those in hand to hand combat!”

  Hans grinned. “You know what happens if he gets angry. I am not at all convinced I had a chance.”

  I threw my hands in the air. “You make me sound like some sort of raging monster. I most certainly would not want to try my luck in this way again. There was a lot of luck involved back then, I assure you.”

  The Y’All tried to bow and said, “You bested me and, by our sacred code, I am your servant till I die. I have purpose again.”

  Mao looked at me. “Two of them against you, wow!”

  I got up. “Enough of this Olafson admiration session. Ensign Cateria, find your sickbay and prepare a report about what is there, what is not there, and what you still need.”

  “Aye, Captain!”

  “Hans, you got yourself an assistant. Mr. TheOther, you are Security Assistant to Lt. Kleinschmitt.”

  Hans clapped his big hand on the same-sized Y’All. “Let’s find you some adequate quarters and a bed that will hold you, and then we’ll customize one of the Gilgamesh suits for you.”

  The frightening giant said, “I appreciate that, sir!”

  Narth said, “And I hoped I could share an anecdote how my friend and captain fought 12.6-ton carnivore lizards with an ax. The raging part of your self-assessment I do not find quite accurate, but I do not think of you as a monster. However, the definition of a mons—”

  I looked at him. “Of all people, I expected some support from you.” That I wasn’t mad at him, he, of course, knew by seeing my mind. I slammed my fists on the table. “Mr. Chitauli, what are your plans for the next few hours?”

  Shaka responded, “I wanted to go through the repair specs for the Virtu System in case I need to fix it.”

  “Well, you can do that a little later. It’s time we take this baby for a spin around the system!”

  Shaka’s eyes went wide. “We are going to... I am going to fly my ship!” I had never seen him smile that wide, and he was gone in a flash.

  “Be careful, Captain,” said Har-Hi. “If you do that again, he might get facial cramps and have to go to sickbay!”

  “Oh, I think you’re going to join him in sickbay then. My Dai Than XO, I want you to take her out and now!”

  “You give me the honor for the first take off?” Har-Hi now grinned, too, and said, “You are right. I will need to make an appointment with our new MO to get this silly grin off my face. It’s so un-Dai.”

  He turned to the rest and said, “You heard the captain. Cirruit, get your engines hot. Krabbel, plot a course around the system. Ms. Elfiatra, inform Richter Statio
n. Mr. Narth, I believe sensors need to be manned. Mr. Mao, we might need shields.”

  He looked at Shea. “How do I call you now? I mean, Wetmouth is no longer appropriate, right?”

  “My last name is Schwartz.”

  “Well, Ms. Schwartz, it is customary science is on standby and on the bridge!”

  Everyone scrambled with eager anticipation to their stations. I was suddenly alone in the briefing room and looked out the viewing port.

  Then there was a slight humming sound a deep, barely noticeable tone that penetrated everything. Through the padded vibration-absorbing deck plates and my boot soles, I could feel a faint harmonic. The ship’s main power had been turned on, no longer running on energies fed to us by umbilicals.

  Its brain, the computronic, had already been with us since we came aboard, but to me, the ship’s heart was beating and it became alive to me. No longer was it just a fancy-looking building but a vehicle with unimaginable powers harnessed, ready to leave the gravitation well behind and enter its true domain—the endless darkness of space.

  Time flew, and we were busy getting to know our ship. Every day, new personnel and crew arrived. I made a point to welcome each of them personally and walk them through the ship. That way I would get to know my ship and my crew at the same time. Every day, I found areas I had never been before. The Tigershark was no small ship and had twenty decks. Cavernous cargo holds, most of them empty. Crew quarters, Marine country, one deck completely dedicated to science with labs for various disciplines.

  The ship had modern and extensive recreation facilities and, to my great joy, a big and deep swimming pool.

  Being the captain had its privileges and one was to keep the pool temperature on Thursdays at three degrees or, in other words, just cold and perfect. Wanting to be a woman and actually living as one every day turned out to be a challenge. Not only did it take much longer in the morning to get ready, despite my hygiene center and Auto-Dresser, it also was more work to get to bed, and every step and everything I did was under the watchful eyes of Elfi and Shea. The girls really enjoyed their teaching roles and were able to giggle a lot and point out everything I did oh-so-wrong.