Starship Defender: Beyond Human Space

by Michael Keats

  Once we got close enough to each other, I shouted, “Now!”

  We switched targets and shot at the other ship’s escort. I hit its wing, and Hightower hit my persecutor’s engines. Both ships became crippled, and one of them exploded.

  Two gone. A bunch of them left.

  But at least we could destroy them.

  We kept distracting some fighters while we shot them with the other ships. Some of our own fighters were hit, but the rest of us continued shooting down the enemy.

  A hostile fighter came out of nowhere and shot at me. I saw the missile in slow motion, flying out of the ship and towards me. My hands didn’t move the joystick on time. I braced myself for the impact.

  My fighter shook sideways and dodged the missile by inches.

  “And that’s why you need to bring me along to your missions,” Harry said with a cocky tone. He’d overridden my controls to dodge enemy fire. “Still think you can do this alone?”

  Okay, okay. He wasn’t just a nuisance, and having an intelligent and insubordinate ship avatar wasn’t full of disadvantages.

  “I’m the best,” Harry sang, doing a dumb dance with his arms. “The best, the best, the best.”

  We still had enemy fighters around. This wasn’t the time to dance.

  “Can you stop distracting me?” I told him.

  Then, to my right, an enormous projectile was heading straight for us. It was too large, too quick, and too close.

  As soon as it hit me, I was dead.

  The missile hit the outside of my ship, but dissipated into space.

  Why was I still alive, and why was my ship still standing?

  “That’s another of my tricks,” Harry said. “I’ve extended the Defender’s shields around you. Can’t protect many other ships and it’s draining a whole lot of energy from me, but it works.”

  “Thanks,” I said. “Mind extending the shields to the others and flying us into Hostile Alpha?”

  “Sorry, mate. Don’t have enough energy for that. Just don’t let them shoot you too much, or you’re dead. And so am I.”

  It had been too good to be true anyway. At least I was starting to understand Harry’s peculiar and insubordinate personality. He was headstrong, but he sometimes had useful ideas.

  “I’ll demand a raise after this,” Harry said. “I’m doing all the significant fighting.”

  Though perhaps his personality was too much even when his ideas were useful. At this rate, I was going to end up without any wages and without my officers’ share of the loot.

  Chapter 31

  Harry took control of the ship, made me dodge a few ships, and looped in space as if we didn’t have any enemies nearby.

  “You weren’t this awesome when you worked as an exhibition pilot, were you?” he said.

  “Mind letting me control my own fighter?” I said.

  “Oh, sorry, Your Majesty,” he said. “You want to take control of the fighter because you want to get yourself killed. Yeah, sure. Why don’t you pilot for a while?”

  He was a bloody good pilot, but I was in charge. I preferred to fly myself.

  Harry fell silent for a few seconds. Very strange in him.

  “Everything all right back there?” I asked. “Still alive?”

  “Shut up,” he said. “I’m getting something from the flimsy shuttle behind enemy lines.”

  Something? What kind of something could we get from an enemy shuttle?

  “Don’t open it,” I said. “Might be a virus or a trap from the aliens. We aren’t interested.”

  “Oh, I’d say you are,” Harry sang. “Look at this!” He overrode my HUD and showed a clip of Dr. Thompson aboard a shuttle, manually controlling her movement.

  My heart accelerated as soon as I saw her. I’d hoped to see her alive again, but I hadn’t hoped to see her so soon.

  It was impossible. What was she doing aboard an enemy shuttle, and how had she managed to escape Hostile Alpha? They were much more advanced than any of us. She was supposed to be inside, waiting to be rescued.

  Don’t take me wrong; my self-esteem isn’t low enough to need me to save a damsel in distress every once in a while. I save damsels whenever they need my help, but I’m fine even if I don’t.

  But if we’d boarded fighters and I’d joined the rescue mission, the least everyone could do was wait for me inside the enemy ship and celebrate their rescue. It diminishes the accomplishment if hostages can roam around the enemy ship and steal shuttles during their captivity. Makes it less formal, you know?

  Harry clapped his hands and waved at his holographic screen even though he hadn’t opened a communications channel. He kissed the tips of his fingers and touched the holographic screen with them. “Don’t worry, darling,” he said. “We’re about to rescue you.”

  And this situation was too good to be real. We were fighting enemy ships and not having any problems with them, and now one of our own scientists with no military training had managed to escape. Either the enemy was very unintelligent or this was all a trap to lure us out of the Defender.

  “Are you sure it’s her?” I asked. “You’ve impersonated my aunt before. It might be someone like you impersonating her.”

  “Of course I am!” Harry said. “This isn’t just about taking someone’s image, but about imitating their movements and gestures. Holographic impersonation needs good acting as well as intelligence, charm, and perfected holographic skills. I’m the first of my kind. I doubt that anyone can match my skills.”

  There was only one way to know. I opened a directional comm channel with the shuttle. Harry overrode my controls and contacted her himself.

  “Dr. Kate Thompson?” he asked with a deeper than usual voice. “Welcome to half-friendly, half-hostile space. It’s the cavalry speaking. Need someone to lend you a hand?”

  “Harry?” she asked, relieved. “Yes, yes. I’ve stolen a shuttle. I don’t know if they’ll shoot me down.”

  “Commander O’Donnell has considered it too,” Harry said. “Lucky that you have me aboard his fighter, or you’d already be dead.”

  “Hey, I hadn’t planned to kill her!” I tapped on the screen to join the conversation. “I wasn’t going to shoot you down, Doctor. I just wanted to know if this was you or if it was a trap. It was too good to be true.”

  She blushed and avoided looking at the camera.

  “Oh, I didn’t mean…” I began. Actually, I did, but not in a desperate way. God, I sounded like a loser.

  “Keep going, Casanova,” Harry said off-mic. “You’re doing awesome on your own. Give yourself a couple more minutes and the girl will jump into my arms and ignore you.”

  Dr. Thompson kept glancing back in case someone followed her. She wasn’t in the mood to play or to flirt through the comm channels. Instead, she told me about the other civilian contractors held captive aboard the vessel. She’d managed to flee, but the others were at the hands of…

  Aliens? Had I heard it right?

  She talked about a race called the Fraterans, who wanted to declare war on humanity. She claimed that they had a common ancestor with us, but they didn’t consider us their equals. She might’ve been under some form of hallucination.

  “It’s a long story,” she said, “but we can’t leave them there.”

  This wasn’t the time to question her view of reality. Our men and women were held hostage aboard an unidentified ship, and we were going for them.

  “We’ll take care of it,” I said. “And I’ve opened the little box you gave me. It’s safe.”

  “Thanks,” she said. “The Fraterans will be looking for it. If the general gets his hands on it and reverse engineers it, Earth will lose all hope.”

  My hand went to the device that hung from my neck and I pressed it. Perhaps I should’ve left it aboard the Defender, but I didn’t know whom to trust aboard my own ship. One of our scientists had gone rogue and abducted Dr. Thompson. We couldn’t risk such an important device.

  “Don’t even think o
f telling her,” Harry told me off-mic. “She won’t forgive you.”

  I turned off my mic too to speak to Harry. “Shut up and stop spying on me,” I said.

  Dr. Thompson wasn’t satisfied with our responses and insisted that her tale of alien invasion was there. “This is vital, Commander,” she said. “Fraterans have been after this device for years.”

  “Yeah, yeah,” Harry said, rolling his eyes. “Sure. We’re fighting aliens.” He was about to continue his silly discourse when he fell silent and tapped a couple of things in his holographic screen. “Whoops…” he mumbled to himself with the tone kids use whenever they’ve broken something while playing ball.

  “What is it?” I almost feared to ask him.

  “They must’ve intercepted our communications,” Harry said. “Didn’t like it at all.”

  Dr. Thompson looked back and her face contorted into an expression of absolute fear. This was no longer a scientist, but a prey who knows herself hunted. Hostile Alpha aimed several of its weapons at her.

  She was too far away for me to do anything, but I shot at the enemy hull anyway. My shots didn’t even hit Hostile Alpha. I tried to accelerate, but fighters have limited acceleration, even in space. I could only look at her as they destroyed her before me.

  I couldn’t save her no matter what I tried.

  “Be right back,” Harry said, and he disabled the Defender’s shields around my own ship to activate them around her.

  The enemy shot at her shuttle, but the Defender’s shields protected her and wrapped her in an invisible sphere. I sighed in relief and headed towards them to escort her back behind our own lines.

  My fighter shook violently, and I grabbed the controls to avoid losing control. Something had hit one of my engines and destabilized the other. I turned both off and activated the reverse thrusters.

  They didn’t work.

  I couldn’t change speed, I couldn’t change direction, and I couldn’t land anywhere safely. Newton’s Laws suck. Hate flying in space and not having air resistance to stop my fall.

  I was headed onto the enemy ship.

  I wasn’t flying fast, but I’d crash onto Hostile Alpha within minutes unless I did something.

  “Sorry, mate,” Harry said with a solemn tone. “Can’t do anything for you now. I’d have saved you, but I’d rather save the girl.”

  I muted him. That’s what I got for ever trusting a robot. He could’ve extended his shields over both of us, I was sure of it. But he preferred to get rid of the competition.

  I took a deep breath and tried to think of something, but modern fighters didn’t have many options in space. If both the engines and reverse thrusters stopped working, then I could only wait for the unavoidable. It sucked. And if I survived the impact, I was going to have a long chat with whomever had decided to remove the ejection systems from fighters.

  The DNA melder hung from my neck. Dr. Thompson had asked me not to let anyone get hold of it. If I crashed, I wouldn’t be able to protect it.

  She’d told me that it only worked when applying intellectually inferior DNA to another species, and it was lethal if the DNA in the device was superior.

  I didn’t understand the procedure and didn’t really care about it: the aliens were better than humans, so applying the melder was going to end my life.

  This was the kind of stupid heroic move that dumb people feel forced to make.

  I was going to die anyway as soon as I crashed onto Hostile Alpha. I wasn’t losing too much, was I?

  I took the DNA melder. It was rectangular, with an adhesive sticker on one side and a button in the middle of the other. I stuck the adhesive onto my arm and pressed the button. A wave of electricity flowed through my body. It felt like a million needles pressed against me at once. The pain didn’t subside. I was condemned to die painfully for being inferior to whatever DNA sample the melder had brought with it.

  Hostile Alpha came closer. I closed my eyes and braced myself for the impact.

  Chapter 32: Kate

  Kate landed in the hangar and stumbled out of the escape shuttle. Her body hurt with the stress she’d made; her fingers had tightened with the tension of dodging enemy fire. But she was still alive, and that’s what counted.

  She looked around at the fighters that had landed with her. Several marines had left their fighters and were talking to each other. One of them, a tall and handsome man with a stern expression despite his young years, noticed her and walked towards her.

  “Dr. Thompson?” the man said. “Hightower at your service. Why don’t you walk away from that shuttle and we send some lads to check if it comes with concealed viruses, destructive drones, or anything that might hurt the Defender?”

  Kate stared at her shuttle and jumped back. She hadn’t considered the possibility of bringing a trap to the Defender. Perhaps she should’ve waited patiently aboard the general’s ship, but then she’d still be held captive.

  “Nothing to worry about, ma’am,” Hightower continued. “Just a usual check-up. We rarely find anything useful or dangerous aboard enemy shuttles, but it makes us sound cool and makes us look like we’re earning our wages.” He smiled at her, but she knew the smile. He’d lost too much in life to give honest and open smiles, so his lips were forced into an expression that no longer suited his face. She knew nothing about this man, but he’d gone through more than most people are fit to stand.

  She appreciated the effort, though. She smiled back and thanked him. He nodded curtly and guided her towards the hangar door.

  Harry, the Defender’s AI, interrupted their moment. He arrived, exchanged possessive glares with Hightower, and smiled at Kate. She sometimes wondered if Harry realized that he was an AI, but he acted so human and so mentally unstable that he probably believed his own story of being real.

  “Everything fine over here?” Harry asked.

  “I’m fine, thanks,” Kate said.

  She wanted to ask about the commander. She’d seen him get hit and head towards the general’s ship, but he’d disappeared mid-flight. She didn’t remember adding disappearing tech to the Defender, so he’d either flown a secretly upgraded ship, or General Dovrik had made him vanish. The latter was likelier.

  “Have you enjoyed my reflexes?” Harry asked eagerly. “I’ve extended my shields to protect your shuttle just in time before you were hit. You’d be dead and turned into space dust if I hadn’t reacted so quickly.”

  And perhaps he could’ve protected the commander instead. Kate hated to think that the commander could be dead only because she was alive. She would’ve gladly changed herself with him.

  There was no point in blaming Harry; he’d tried to help her out, and he deserved her gratefulness.

  “Thanks,” she said.

  “You could’ve done the same for O’Donnell,” Hightower told him.

  “And I could’ve won the lottery and become a millionaire,” Harry said. “But everyone has limits. O’Donnell was supposed to be a good pilot, but he’s turned out to be much worse than everyone thought. Perhaps he wasn’t fit for action.” He tried to get Kate’s complicity and smiled at her, but she didn’t smile back.

  “It’s cruel to say such things from someone who’s fallen,” Kate said.

  “And rude,” Hightower said.

  “Yes, yes, yes.” Harry rolled his eyes. “I’m rude, selfish, cruel, and the worst AI that has ever been created. And yet both of you are alive because I’ve saved you. You’re welcome.” He gave them one final challenging stare and turned his back to them.

  Hightower looked at him for a few seconds, suspecting that he’d turn around and keep talking. He didn’t.

  Hooke, the captain of marines, gathered her men on the hangar. “All right, lads and lasses!” she shouted with a very intense tone. She wasn’t the kind of woman to speak softly and wait for people to pay attention to her. Instead, she shouted at everyone until they listened. And everyone did listen. Her bright red hair suited her burning personality.

 
; “I know that you’re very glad to have returned,” Hooke said sarcastically to the marines. “You’ve boarded fighters, fought a swarm of drones, defeated quite a few enemy fighters, and turned around and returned to the Defender as soon as the enemy ship’s opened fire. Well done.”

  The more simple-minded men smiled and nodded at each other, congratulating themselves. The others remained still and with scared expressions: scared of their officer in command, of their future mission, and of having to go out there again. The captain of marines continued with her speech. She liked to listen to her own voice.

  Hightower remained tense. Not tense for his mission, but tense for his officer. He looked at Hooke through judging eyes, almost as if they didn’t trust each other and he considered her inadequate to lead him. This was all because Commander O’Donnell was gone.

  Kate didn’t know the commander’s fate. She would’ve gladly changed herself with him, but she couldn’t do anything aside from praying that he’d somehow escaped his ship before crashing.

  “He’s alive,” Hightower mumbled to her. “I’ve seen a bright light inside his cabin, then he’s disappeared. I’ve seen enough science fiction films to know that he’s been teleported or something.”

  A bright light? The DNA melder caused bright lights whenever it was used. He must’ve carried it on him, and he must’ve used it to stop it from falling into the wrong hands. It was all Kate’s fault. She shouldn’t have given him something so precious for him to protect. It was too much responsibility for one man.

  If he’d used the DNA melder, it didn’t matter if he’d been teleported or saved. The human brain wasn’t designed to adapt itself to Frateran standards. The commander’s death must’ve been instant and painful. She lowered her head.

  “I know him,” Hightower insisted. “He’s the kind of stubborn idiot who never lets anyone decide when he’s supposed to die. I know he isn’t dead.”

  Harry’s face turned pale, and he avoided eye contact with either of them. He looked down and turned around slightly to act as if he listened to Hooke’s speech.