by Geoff North
“Does it matter?” Agle looked up at the CS with crazed, bloodshot eyes. “Even holed up in here I’ve heard the ship chatter. I know about the meeting Sulafat’s arranged with the Pegans. They can’t be trusted. We’ll all be dead soon enough.”
Boo held a hand out. “The pills.”
Agle stuffed the bottle back into his pocket. “You ever visit this section of the ship, CS?”
“Rarely.”
“I started coming here when I was a little kid. I’d sneak away from home at night after my father was done beating me.” The chair groaned as Agle sat back. “The farther away from that bastard I could get, the better. And there’s no place farther away from anywhere onboard than this. I kept coming here long after he died. It’s a good place to think… It’s safe.”
Seginus nodded slowly. He knew of the drug abuse, and he knew where the General went to ‘think’. The closer Ambition traveled to the Pegan star system, the more frequent Agle’s visits to the ass-end of the ship had become. It was the main reason so many of his responsibilities as Military Commander had been neglected, and placed on the shoulders of Boo and others. “I’m aware, sir.”
“Sulafat knew, too. He’d warned me months ago to clean up… said he’d relieve me of my command if I couldn’t pull it together.”
“And now it’s happened,” Boo stated bluntly. “But he went easy on you, Shain. He told the crew it was due to poor fighter maintenance and shoddy preparedness. You can’t act like any of this came as a surprise. Do as he says now… clean up, and get your command back.”
“It’s too late for all of that… I see it now. My life has no more meaning.” Tears had begun spilling down the middle-aged man’s fat cheeks. “When the moment comes… if I call on you again one last time…”
CS Boo nodded after a second of hesitation. He’d been obeying the General’s orders for too long not to grant him this final request. No more words were said as the door slid back open and Seginus walked out.
Agle reached again for the little bottle in his breast pocket.
Chapter 37
Vin pounded with both fists against the cabin door. “I know you’re in there, Ras! I’m not going anywhere until you talk to me!”
A door slid open behind her. Rastaban’s neighbor, Enka Ep, an older lady that worked in Education section stepped out into the corridor carrying a stack of files and a com-pad under her arm. “You’re right, he’s in there, but probably not in any condition for visitors.”
“What’s wrong with him, is he sick?”
“Self-induced,” Enka said, as she started away for wherever it was she was headed. “I saw him stagger home a few hours ago.”
Vin watched the woman disappear around the corridor corner. Rastaban drunk? He never has more than one or two drinks with me. She hammered on the door again. “Get your ass out of bed and come talk to me! I’m meeting up with the Captain in twenty minutes. The Pegans are coming onboard!” She started kicking the bottom of the door. “They’re holding Hadar captive!”
She heard a thump from within. The door slid open a few moments later. Rastaban was leaning up against the interior frame looking like death warmed over. “Hadar? Hadar Cen is still alive?”
“So the Pegans claim. Sulafat’s agreed to talk with them here on Ambition.”
Rastaban ran a hand down the scarred side of his face. “The aliens… they’re coming here.”
“That’s what I said. I’ve been trying to get a hold of you for half an hour. You wouldn’t answer over the comm. I was starting to worry.” Vin pushed by him and entered the messy quarters. “And now I find out you were drinking. At a time like this, Ras?” She winced. “It smells awful in here.”
“Yeah, the smell… I’ll get to that later.” He collapsed heavily into an armchair by the open door.
Vin saw a puddle of brown liquid next to his bed. Some of it was still dripping down off the sheets. “Is that vomit?”
“Couldn’t make it to the toilet in time.”
“Doesn’t look like you even tried.”
Rastaban could feel more of it working up from his stomach. The last thing he wanted to talk about was puking. “Is Kraz still alive too? What about Kella and Hail?”
“No word on them. Hopefully the Captain can get more out of the Pegans once the negotiations are underway.”
“Negotiations?” More color drained from Rastaban’s face. “He can’t be seriously considering coming to terms with those bastards, can he? We have them on the run, we should destroy them completely.”
Vin stood in front of him, hands planted on her hips. “Look at you—hung over and talking about wiping an entire civilization out. I know you’ve suffered, but this isn’t the Rastaban Drac I know. Your face can be repaired, the trauma you went through out there can be treated with therapy. Quit feeling sorry for yourself.”
“You don’t understand… you don’t understand a damn thing. I can’t talk to Hal Gulum or any of his staff about this.”
“Then talk to me about it.” Vin looked at the clock on the wall behind him. She needed to be in that garage in less than fifteen minutes. “As soon as the meeting’s over, I’ll come back here. I’ll even get drunk with you if that’s what it takes.”
“Sol, no… No more alcohol.” Rastaban got to his feet and leaned back against the door frame. He motioned her to leave with one hand. “Go to your negotiations.”
She stopped halfway through. “You’ll clean this place up before I get back?”
He pushed her gently out into the corridor. “I think it would be best if you didn’t come back at all. Thanks for the effort, Vin, but I want to be left alone… permanently.”
The door slid shut. Vin stood there for a few seconds longer in stunned silence. She raised a fist, preparing to pound on it again. She lowered it instead and started walking away. “To hell with you too, Rastaban Drac.”
Chapter 38
“So nice of you to join us,” Sulafat said as Vin jogged through the open door into the observation deck overlooking fighter garage 2. “Finally.”
“Sorry, sir, I had an important personal matter to attend to.”
“I can’t think of many things more important than meeting with an alien civilization for the very first time.” She squeezed between the Captain and Nash in front of the window overlooking the cavernous bay. “How is Rastaban by the way?” He asked quietly.
“Self-centered, a pain in the neck.” She glanced up at him. “He’s Rastaban Drac, sir.”
“Pegan shuttle craft approaching at fifteen-hundred KPH and decelerating,” Nash announced. “Arrival time in one minute, twenty seconds.”
“Activate atmosphere shield and open the front door, Nash,” Sulafat commanded. “Let’s prepare to receive our guests.”
The green shield flickered into place. The giant bay door began lifting seconds later. Nash changed the exterior view on the small screen in front of them from the approaching craft to one of the bay’s exterior. “No alien explosives detected on the hull… The Pegan vessel has powered down completely and is continuing its approach on forward momentum only. There appear to be no weapons capabilities built into it.”
“So far, so good,” Sulafat said with an audible sigh of relief. He clapped Nash on the shoulder. “First contact will be your honor alone, old friend. You will see the Pegans from their craft and guarantee they mean us no harm before the rest of us join you.”
“Understood, Captain.”
“Shut it down if you detect—if you even sense any sign of deception. We’ll disengage the atmosphere shield and depressurize the bay immediately. You’ll be able to withstand the sudden vacuum conditions, our visitors will not.”
“Understood, Captain.”
Sulafat grinned up at him solemnly. “Is that all you have to say?”
Nash’s head tilted slightly to one side as it always did when he wasn’t quite certain how to respond. “Catch you on the flip side.”
“What does that mean?”
/> “An ancient Earth expression. It means that I will see you again.” The robot clomped off to the service lift. The glass doors closed behind him, and he was lowered forty feet to the main bay floor.
Sulafat, Vin, and half a dozen officers watched as he walked to intercept the alien ship that had just slipped noiselessly through the atmosphere shield. “That robot can think, can’t he?” Tor said. “He can actually feel emotions to a certain degree, right?”
“That’s correct, General,” Sulafat answered. “What’s your point?”
“He has a lot of guts for a machine.”
The Pegan shuttle was a smaller version of the larger craft it had set out from; streamlined, smooth silver metallic hull, with sharp front and rear ends. There were no discernible windows or weapons turrets, but Sulafat knew they could see the android approaching. Nash had said the ship had no built in weaponry, but the beings inside could be armed. Perhaps they were strapped with explosives—waiting for their ship to touch down before blowing themselves and Ambition’s second fighter bay to bits.
The craft set down.
“This doesn’t feel right, Captain,” Tor warned from behind his left shoulder.
“No… It feels different. Don’t let your fears get the best of you, General, and for the love of Sol, don’t let those snipers you have out there do anything without me ordering it first, understand?”
Tor looked down at the two rows of empty Ambition fighter ships parked on either side of the alien craft. There were more than a hundred of them, but he took particular interest in the four that were closest to the Pegan shuttle. The gunner turrets of these were occupied, and the miluns positioned inside were prepared to open fire as soon as Tor gave the word.
A square section near the front of the alien ship lifted upwards. A metal platform slid out from the bottom and came to a rest on the bay floor less than thirty feet from Nash. A long grey leg appeared. The alien stepped out and slowly worked its way down the steep incline.
Vin stated the obvious. “It’s not wearing any clothes.”
Sulafat nodded. It wasn’t wearing any explosive devices either. “Turn up Nash’s audio feed. I don’t want to miss a single word the Pegan has to say.”
Argus Cor had accompanied the Captain and Nash directly from the bridge. She adjusted the controls on the console in front of her. “Audio at maximum.”
A second alien descended the ramp and stood next to the first. Nash called out to them in a deep, mechanical tone. “You shall abide by the laws of the Sol star system during your stay onboard this vessel. Any hostile actions, or threat of hostile action will be dealt with swiftly by Ambition’s security forces.”
The aliens nodded simultaneously. Sulafat wondered how their skinny necks managed to keep those massive skulls balanced. He imagined Hal Gulum dissecting one of them in his medical center and shuddered. The doctor would likely be performing the autopsy for real if this didn’t go well.
Nash continued. “You will permit me immediate access to the interior of your ship for the purpose of inspection. Once the inspection has been completed, and I am able to ensure the safety of everyone on this vessel, you will be allowed to meet with our Captain.”
They nodded again and Nash approached. The Pegans stepped to one side as he started up the ramp. The robot disappeared inside the alien ship and everyone waited. A minute passed. Two.
“I don’t like this, Captain,” Tor said. “Not one little bit. I’m going to have one of the miluns power up a missile. Acamar’s fighter has a direct line of fire into that thing. We can make whatever nasty surprise they have waiting inside go away in one shot.”
“Nash is inside that thing.” Sulafat stared up into the bigger man’s face. “Did I make a mistake promoting you over Seginus Boo, General?”
“Seginus is a sycophant,” Tor shot back. “Maybe Colonel Cules would’ve been a better choice over me, but he can’t command anything anymore. Geth and half of Ambition’s fighting forces have already been wiped out. If you want the other half to survive, you’d better start letting me do my job.”
“Shut up, Emin,” Vin snapped. She had never liked him. She’d grown to despise him more when Rastaban’s training for the scouting mission began. Vin had even started to blame him inwardly for what happened to her best friend. It was unjustified—Tor had tried to save her when the Captain’s quarters had come under attack—but there was something about that whole scouting mission disaster that still didn’t sit right with her. She just couldn’t bring herself to accept the man. Rastaban’s behavior earlier had only made it worse. “The Captain’s in charge here, not you.”
Sulafat was staring at her with one eyebrow raised.
Tor was practically shaking with rage. “Are you going to let her get away with talking to me like that?”
“Yes, I am.”
Nash exited the alien vessel and spoke over the comm system before Tor could object further. “The Pegan ship is clean, Captain. It is safe for you to come down now.”
Sulafat and Tor entered the lift. Vin tried to step in after them but the Captain shook his head. “Two of them, two of us. The rest of you will remain here and monitor the situation from a safe distance.”
Vin was mortified. “You and Tor are Ambition’s highest ranking officers. The two of you shouldn’t be going down there alone.” She tried forcing her way in but Tor held an arm out to block her.
“We’ll hardly be alone,” Sulafat said. “Tor’s men are in the fighters, and Nash will see to our safety.” The lift door started to close. “I knew I saw something in you I liked.” She caught the sideways glance he gave Tor before the service lift carried them out of sight.
Nash stepped aside as the Captain and General approached. The Pegans slinked back slowly a few steps. Both were half a foot shorter than Sulafat, Tor and Nash towered over them. The alien they’d seen on the bridge view screen had seemed much larger. Perhaps they had intended to try and give that impression.
They’re physically intimidated of us, Sulafat noted. It’s a barbaric advantage, but an advantage nevertheless.
Sulafat closed in until the Pegans’ backs were almost pressed up against the hull of their vessel. “We require proof that you are holding our crew member, and that he has not been harmed in any way.”
Nash spoke. “Hadar Cen is in adequate condition… He is being held in a city on Pega. He is being cared for.”
Sulafat looked at Nash. “Is that information you found on their ship?”
“We are speaking directly through your bipedal mechanism,” the android said.
“Nash… are you still in there?”
“I am here, Captain. The Pegans are somehow using me as a conduit to communicate with you.”
Tor started to reach for his side cannon. “If they can talk through him, maybe they’ll try and control his movements as well—use Nash against us.”
Sulafat slapped his arm back down. “Wait, he has control… You do have control, Nash?”
“I do. I can see their thoughts… Hadar Cen is indeed safe and being held in a city called Sharell. The coordinates of its location are now available to me.”
An interior bay door opened forty meters behind them. A dozen armed men began approaching.
“What the hell is this, Emin?” Sulafat demanded. “I never authorized the use of any additional force.”
“You no longer have any authority at all, sir.” The General leveled the barrel of his side cannon at Sulafat’s chest. “You’re being relieved of command.”
Nash sprung forward and knocked Tor to the floor. The weapon left his hand and clattered against the metal deck plating. Sulafat started for it but was stopped cold in his tracks. “Step away from that side cannon!” One of the armed men shouted. “Hands out to the sides, Captain.”
Ten of them were carrying heavy rifles. One was at aimed at Sulafat, the rest were trained on Nash and the two aliens. Chort Leo appeared from the back of the group with another man Sulafat knew all too well, but h
ad never met. Impossible. It can’t be him.
“Tell your android to stand down, Sulafat,” Chort ordered. The men surrounded them in a half-circle formation. “Don’t force us to do something we’ll all regret.”
Sulafat recognized each one of the armed men’s faces; four security guards, three miluns, and a platoon chief. “You’ve already done that, Chort. It’s called mutiny. All of you! Lower your weapons this instant.”
“I’ll be giving the orders again from here on in.” The man next to Chort stood in front of Nash. “An automaton unit. I wasn’t aware there were any still active onboard. What number are you?”
“Three,” Nash answered.
“Aaah, yes. I recognize your voice. Do you remember me, Three?”
“Yes, sir.” Nash retrieved the fallen side cannon from the floor and handed it to him.
“Nash!” The Captain shouted. “What are you doing?”
“Unit Three is responding to his original programming,” the man said. “He’s being dutiful. Allow me to introduce myself, Captain. I’m Admiral Neil Lennix. This ship is mine.” He pointed the side cannon at one of the Pegans and shot it dead. The second alien tried running into the open shuttle. “Grab that thing and lock it up in the brig. Chort, have the rest of these men take Captain Sulafat into custody.”
Sulafat was forced to his knees. Metal cuffs were placed on his wrists. “Nash, stop this madness. That’s a direct order.”
“Admiral Lennix was my original commander centuries before you were born, Captain. It was my duty to follow him then, and it is my duty to follow him now.”
Sulafat didn’t say another word as the men dragged him forcibly from the bay.