Starship Defender: Beyond Human Space

by Michael Keats

  “Shut up,” I told him. I turned to the communications officer. “Ensign, do we have any response?”

  She tried several other channels, calibrated the communications sensors and even attempted to decrypt the white noise. She shook her head. “Nothing, sir.”

  Harry paced around the bridge slowly with a broad smile on his face, but he didn’t look at me. He was excited about the prospect of testing the weapons systems and he didn’t care that this could start a war.

  “Let’s contact them again,” I told the communications officer.

  “Again?” Harry approached me to speak quietly without contradicting me in front of the crew. “You’ve contacted them. They haven’t replied. What other hints do you need to see that they aren’t friendly at all? Shoot, test the weapons, and see if we’re really aboard the most powerful ship in the world. Come on, you want to test them too. And so does the admiral.”

  I did want to test the weapons systems, but a war was no simple matter. Many men, women, and children died in wars. Stupid conflicts obliterated cities. The Navy was in charge of the most powerful ship in the world, but the Defender couldn’t protect all our cities at once.

  “Come on,” Harry insisted. “We want some fireworks.”

  I ignored Harry and reopened the communications channel. “This is Commander O’Donnell speaking. Reply at once and change direction to abandon the safety sphere around our ship, or we shall consider this a hostile act.”

  No response.

  I rolled my eyes. Harry was going to be insufferable now that he’d achieved what he was after.

  “All men to battle stations,” I said.

  “Yes, sir! I knew you had the guts to act like an officer.” Harry clapped his hands twice. The whole ship turned to battle-red lighting, and several alarms sounded in the bunk rooms and corridors. He pointed at screens to change to conflict HUDs and theatrically lowered other holographic screens to give me an overview of the situation.

  Several of the bridge officers smiled at each other and glanced at Harry. At least they felt reassured to have such an enthusiastic hologram running around. He was a non-standard AI with ego problems, but he did know how to put on a show to lead an attack.

  Hooke, the captain of marines, arrived with several of her men almost instantly. They’d either run to the bridge or they were standing just outside in case we needed something. Marines are the kind of people who can sprint a dozen miles without even getting tired. I found them somewhat intimidating, especially their captain. She was a no-nonsense woman and I pitied whomever made her angry.

  “Marines ready for action, sir!” Hook shouted. She was loud. No wonder that Graff didn’t want to talk to any marines for a while.

  “Man the cannons and the bombs,” I told her. “Set a couple of men to the fryers in case the unidentified ship doesn’t reason. The rest of you can man the fighters and take a squad of drones with you.”

  “Yes, sir!” she replied. She turned to her men and waved at one of the screens to contact the rest of the marines. Her voice turned powerful, ready to bark orders. She’d have intimidated me if I’d worked for her. Lucky that the marine chain of command is independent to the naval one. “Hightower! Take a squad of trained monkeys and man the cannons. Robertson! Take care of the bombs. Alsop! You man the fryers. The rest of you, I want you with me. We’re taking care of the fighters and teaching a lesson to everyone who gets too close to us. We’re kicking asses today. Understood?”

  “Yes, Captain!” the marines shouted at once.

  “What are you waiting for, you lazy excuses for a marine?” she shouted. “Do you have any guts left?”

  “Yes, ma’am!” they shouted.

  “Well run to your posts and stop making me waste my breath. You aren’t worth the oxygen I use to talk to you!”

  The marines nodded at her and smiled. They enjoyed to be barked at, insulted, and shouted at. It was part of their training, part of their lives. Lucky that I’d picked the Navy instead; so much shouting can’t be good for your ears.

  “Impressive woman.” Harry whistled admiringly as she left. She turned around for an instant and glared at us. Harry hid behind me. She trotted out of the bridge and Harry sighed in relief. “And scary.”

  I turned to the rest of my officers and to the marines who had remained on the bridge. “Ready, ladies and gents?” I said. “We have a willing target and a bunch of new weapons to test.”

  “Can we shoot them down at once?” Harry said.

  Chapter 9

  The unidentified ship didn’t contact us. Instead, they released their own fighters and drones, turning nearby areas into a mist. She had so many drones that we could barely see ours in our HUDs, and we had to filter out the smaller ones because they otherwise covered our entire screens.

  The ship’s fighters and drones didn’t follow any known design patterns. They weren’t Russian, Chinese, or European. And they definitely weren’t ours, either. They did remind me of the concealed shuttles in the Defender’s lowest deck, but the design had been secret all along. We either had leaks that had given our stolen alien tech blueprints to someone else, or we were facing the owners of the tech. In either case, it stank of problems.

  And I hate problems.

  We got ready for action. The admiral insisted that I had to take care of the battle in his stead, and Harry was eager to launch all missiles, lasers, and unmanned ships at the enemy. He didn’t care about the cost or about the possibilities of running out of resources; he simply wanted to see everything he could do.

  “Aim for the larger ships,” I told the weapons officers. “I don’t want any manned shuttles reaching us.”

  “I’ve never seen so many ships before, sir!” one of the marines at the weapons systems said. “Makes me feel alive.”

  “Stop bragging and do something useful,” another marine replied. He was Hightower, a broad-shouldered man with a constant expression of dislike. I hadn’t read his file, but some marines came from fairly dark pasts. I was sure that he was one of them.

  Hightower flew the unmanned drones expertly and without hesitation. Most men who flew unmanned drones lost their concentration frequently and ended up losing more ships than they’d have lost if they’d flown naturally. Hightower flew a whole squad with several smaller drones swarming around his formation. Whenever he hit one of the hostile ships and it exploded, his face showed a hint of satisfaction. He got rather scary when fighting, but he was one of our best.

  Other men lost ships and didn’t concentrate enough, just as expected when using unmanned drones. There’s something in the human mind that triggers survival instincts. One can trick one’s survival instincts to fly remotely for a while, but it doesn’t last forever. The human mind doesn’t work as well when the stakes don’t involve death, so drones are never as accurate as manned ships. It’s something that we’d learned in the previous century, and it had almost cost us a war. I didn’t like to risk the crew, but unmanned ships couldn’t do everything that manned ships could do.

  And I wanted to join the manned ships. Once a pilot, always a pilot. It’s hard to let others do the flying while staying safely indoors.

  “Laser 4 gone, sir!” one of the marines said.

  Shit. I’d lost focus on the fight again. I kept trailing off, didn’t I?

  “Aim the plasma cannons at them,” I said. “Shoot at everything that flies.”

  “Yes, sir!” the marine said.

  They fought and defeated some ships, missed others, and the plasma cannons eventually became too difficult to aim without hitting our own drones. The unmanned drones got between the enemy lines, making us choose between risking our ships and letting the enemy hit us.

  I opened a channel to Hooke. “Captain,” I told her. “Launch those fighters of yours and show me what you’re made of.”

  “Yes, sir!” she shouted back.

  Curse the shouting. I needed to get a noise limit in my earphones. I kept the channel open to know how things were
going. I’d always fought in the front lines, and I couldn’t let everything go by without experiencing it from a pilot’s viewpoint.

  “All right, boys and girls,” Hooke said. “Time for us to show these bastards what we’re made of. They’ve run into our space and haven’t even greeted us. And now they’re attacking our fighters and drones. Every loss stings. I hate bees.”

  A few of the pilots laughed.

  “Let’s fly towards them and teach them a lesson,” she continued. “Whoever kills the least baddies does everyone’s laundry for a week!”

  The men laughed, exchanged cheers, and took off. My HUD glasses showed their formation approaching the enemy directly. They shot down many drones and fighters. It was hardly surprising: our weapons had been designed using stolen tech that shot better and more efficiently than anything we’d ever seen before.

  The hostile ship was probably just a bunch of tech thieves who’d expected to steal our tech and use it to build their own imitation starship. I was sure that they’d used lower-quality materials too, because they were falling very easily.

  “Their drones can’t stand our fire, sir!” Hooke shouted. “We’re going for the ship. We’re going to burn our names onto her hull.”

  This had been easy.

  Too easy.

  Why would anyone create a ship using stolen tech and not arm her using our same weapons? Were they trying to lure us into a trap to eliminate our ships? I’d used the same strategy myself a thousand times, both in simulators and in real life. Pilots got overconfident when winning, and that made them easier targets. Marines liked to finish things off too fast, but that’s why naval officers work with them. We’re cautious. Sometimes too cautious.

  “Negative, Hooke,” I said. “Fly around her but don’t get too close. Keep working on the drones and fighters for now.” I turned to Hightower. “Send some of your drones closer to the enemy hull. Fly around her, shoot her, and count her weapons. I don’t want her to knock our pilots down.”

  Hightower nodded and lowered a second pair of HUD glasses over his first pair. “Piece of pie, sir,” he said. “Want me to do anything else on my way back? Or should I board the ship with my drones?”

  “Stop bragging and get me their cannon count, Hightower,” I said.

  Hightower nodded and moved his squad towards the enemy ship.

  Something clanked on the outer hull. We all looked up.

  “What was that?” I asked one of the radar officers. I had a bad feeling about this. They enemy had lured our ships out, our marines and pilots were out there, and now we’d heard something on the hull.

  “No idea, sir,” the officer replied. “We don’t have any ships or asteroids nearby.”

  Harry and I exchanged glances. We’d been tricked into something.

  I changed to the pilots’ channel. “All pilots retreat to the Defender,” I said. “Retreat at once and have your weapons ready as soon as you board.”

  They rogered and turned around, but it was too late. Harry stared up and didn’t look happy about whatever he was seeing.

  “What is it?” I asked.

  Harry shook his head. “Someone’s boarded us.”

  He waved in the air and changed several displays to show the top deck.

  Huge human-sized armors, dark and with reinforced plating, had boarded the ship and patrolled through the corridors, looking for something. Their armored gloves carried large guns that didn’t look like any of our designs. They weren’t from our fellow nations. They’d stolen more alien tech than us, and they were at an advantage because they’d clearly used it before.

  They entered rooms, searched for computers, and shot at them, blowing everything up with a single shot. They mostly ignored our men unless they got in their way. If someone stepped in their path, they shot them mercilessly. Our men shot back, but they only had a single chance at shooting, and our weapons weren’t effective against them.

  “Shut the deck accesses,” I told Harry. “Close all doors and disable them. I don’t want anyone opening any doors unless I say so.”

  Harry snapped his fingers lazily in the air and several doors shut on the screens. He raised a defiant eyebrow at me. “Afraid of the boogeyman, are we, Decaf?”

  I wasn’t. This was just the first step to stop the enemy. They were aboard our ship, and if we locked them in one of the decks, they’d eventually find a way out. I was guessing that their guns were efficient against our doors.

  “Hightower!” I said. “Get your men and follow me. Let’s kick these stowaways back into space.”

  “Yes, sir!” Hightower stood up, straightened his double-breasted jacket and dusted off the rank badge on its neck. “All right, boys and gals. Get ready for some ass-kicking. We’ll stop by the armory, take our favorite guns, and go for the baddies.” He nodded at me with approval. He had expected me to send the marines and hide on the bridge instead of jumping into action. Hiding wasn’t my style. “Ready when you are, sir.”

  “The bridge is yours,” I said to the subcommander. I waved at the intercom in my ear and connected with sick bay to contact the admiral. “We’ve been boarded, sir. I’m leaving the bridge and facing them.” And it would be awesome if you took the lead from here.

  Admiral Graff laughed on the other side of the channel. “You people know how to make me feel alive,” he said. “I’ll take the bridge as soon as I get there.”

  Whew. At least a battle-worn officer would take charge of the bridge and make sure that our pilots were safe. I was more hands-on than that; I wasn’t going to let anyone board the Defender without fighting myself.

  “Hey.” Harry trotted to catch up with me. “I was kidding. You know that, don’t you? You’re the second in command. You’re supposed to stay safely on the bridge, not jump into a fight.”

  “It’s my ship,” I said, “and I’m fighting.”

  “Technically, it’s Admiral Graff’s…” Harry said.

  “Shut up, Harry,” I said. “We’re about to join a fight.”

  “That’s exactly why I’m not shutting up,” he said. “This is reckless. You don’t have to pay attention to me whenever I taunt you; that’s the fun of it.”

  “Want me to shoot at his control panels, sir?” Hightower offered, referring to Harry. “I’m sure he’ll be quiet then.” He presented his large double-cannon machine gun. It didn’t look standard or authorized by the Navy, but we were about to face enemies beyond our tech level.

  “Don’t you dare―” Harry began.

  I raised my hand in the air to get them to shut up. We were a few yards away from two armored soldiers. Their helmets didn’t let us see their appearances, but they were clearly human, with several inches of armor between their bodies and us. I don’t know where we’d stolen our tech from, but we could’ve stolen some of those impressive armors.

  We followed them into one of the computer rooms and emptied our magazines. We didn’t miss our shots; they were simply absorbed by the armors or reflected back with equal force. The soldiers inspected some computers and broke them as soon as they were satisfied with their findings. They were looking for something.

  I took a plasma gun, entered the room, and shot at them, but the ray was refracted, burning a hole between our deck and the lower one. One of the robotic soldiers raised his gaze and zeroed in on me. He aimed his gun.

  “Shit.” I ran out of the door, and a large plasma-like beam shot straight through it. It blew up the nearby storeroom.

  Hightower helped me up and dug his hand into concealed pockets in his double-breasted jacket. His hands came out of them with two grenade prototypes based on some of the untested alien tech. I don’t know where he’d stolen them from, but I wasn’t going to ask him.

  He ran past the door and threw both grenades into the room. We all ran away to dodge the expansion wave. The explosion blew up some of the walls but didn’t affect the outer hull.

  “What the hell are you doing to my ship?” Harry complained. He walked to the broken walls
and glared at Hightower. “Do you know how much the Navy will have to pay to repair this? You can’t use grenades indoors!”

  Nobody paid attention to him. We all walked towards the room. My hand tightened around my plasma gun as we walked closer. The men and I feared that the armors had absorbed everything, even these grenades.

  Nothing moved inside the room. The two armors lay listlessly on the floor.

  I slowly walked in, fearful that any noise could disturb them and bring them back to life. Nothing made them move. They were dead. I lowered myself, took their guns and gave one of them to Hightower. I sighed in relief as soon as I got a few feet away from them.

  We could inspect the armors and learn about their tech later on. For now, we had many other armors to face.

  “Have any other grenades?” I asked Hightower.

  “More grenades?” Harry asked, outraged. “Don’t you see what his grenades have done? We don’t want more grenades, at least not to use aboard the Defender.”

  Hightower stared at Harry with that intimidating look of his. Harry maintained the gaze for a few seconds, but eventually got scared. Hightower had that effect in men. And AIs. “Only had those two, sir,” he said.

  “We’ll have to do with these.” I gestured at my stolen weapon.

  “Lucky you,” Harry said, “because if you keep breaking my ship, I’ll get angry. And I can do a lot of annoying things if you get on my wrong side.”

  “O’Donnell,” Graff said through the intercom. “What are you breaking down there?”

  “Nothing,” I said.

  “Of course he’s breaking things,” Harry said. “He’s breaking walls and destroying the Navy’s property. O’Donnell and his team of vandals are breaking everything on the way to the enemy.”

  “Shut up,” I told Harry.

  The admiral ignored Harry. “Are you planning to kick the armored idiots out of my ship anytime soon?” he asked. “Or are you going to make an old, tired, and obese man do the fighting? I don’t want to walk down there.”

  “We’ll take care of it,” I said.