by Jacen Aster
Suddenly, the admiral's body language changed as Keral pointed back towards the ship. No, not towards the ship, towards Henry. The silky lady of the evening was abruptly gone and a hard-eyed admiral took her place, commanding and dangerous, even in that dress. Her voice was still a near purr and her walk still a saunter as she approached Henry with Keral now trailing. “Oh, a Human, Keral? So this is your secret, hmmm?”
Keral's voice was tinted with amusement as he watched Mayala switch targets, gliding around Henry with an enthralling, feral grace that screamed apex predator. “He is indeed, Admiral. May I introduce Mr. Henry Harper, engineer extraordinaire. He's made some truly amazing modifications to the Sunny Victory. Without which, we'd never have dared to try for a frigate, even from ambush.”
Mayala's voice positively purred as she cozied up to Henry, capturing his arm much as she had the captain's. Suddenly, Henry didn't think that was quite as funny as he had before. “Perhaps Mr. Harper would be interested in working on upgrades for my ships? I've heard much about the upgrades Human engineers can offer, and if you took on a frigate and won, they must be quite something.”
Henry cleared his throat, not having to fake a bit of his discomfort. This woman was a terrifying combination of sultry sin and raw command presence. The two should not go hand-in-hand, Henry thought fervently, and he wondered if this was, perhaps, why she had been relegated to the ass-end of nowhere, as Sair'ah had so colorfully called this place.
Marshalling his thoughts, he finally managed an answer. “Ah, I suppose I might be interested in that. Not all systems are worth upgrading though, and I have no idea what kind of hardware a cruiser like this has. I've been on bigger ships, of course, but not pure military ones like this.”
She smirked at his slight delay and apparent discomfort. She ran a clawed finger under his chin as she stepped away from him. Looking over her shoulder, she made a motion to her guards that started the group moving deeper into the ship. “Well, Mr. Harper, it wasn't in the original plan to give a tour, but then I didn't know such a rare jewel was going to be aboard my ship. Since I am the one in charge, I do think we can stop for a short while in engineering, don't you? After we stop by the weapons bays, of course.”
Her aura of command only increased, though to the slight decrease in her raw sexuality, when they left the docking bay. As she shifted gears somewhat and showed off the technical specs of not only the weapons and engines, but also the shields, jump drive, and sensors, it quickly became obvious that it was by pure merit, rather than her “other” skills, that she had achieved her rank. Still, it was just as obvious that she was not herself an engineer, and with a timely distraction from Captain Keral, Henry managed to upload the new EW/ECM package.
As they left engineering, the admiral ceased her discussion with Keral on the capture of the Albazan and addressed Henry again. “So, Henry, I'm sure you've found our ship more than adequate, no? No offense to the good captain, but I'm sure you could be of far more use here. Just what would it take to...entice you away from the good captain? I'm certain we can more than match any monetary or material concerns, as well as offer other...incentives.”
Henry mentally patted himself on the back as he managed a very convincing laugh despite his nerves. “You've already convinced me, Admiral. This is a fine ship. Moreover, I believe it will fare even better with the upgrades than the Sunny has. I do feel, however, that I must finish my current contract with Captain Keral. A reputation is important after all.”
Keral jumped in. “The original contract is almost up, actually, just a few weeks left. I'd hoped to negotiate another with him, but of course, I could never match your offer. I'll even let him go early, Admiral, as soon as he finishes the system he's working on now. We can even stay in system, I think. So long as it isn't more than a few days?”
This last was clearly directed Henry's way, so he nodded, bluffing with a smattering of technobabble. “Aye, sir. If I work a couple of long shifts, I can have the shield conduits’ retrotrace matrix finished in three days. Maybe two if I get lucky. Being able to go right into a new contract would make it worth a few extra hours.”
Admiral Mayala looked genuinely delighted. Enough so that Henry almost felt bad about what her fate might be when their plan went off. “Excellent! Now we have an even better reason to celebrate. On to the festivities.” She switched gears again and began to focus once more on Captain Keral, beginning to pour on her not inconsiderable charms.
The ‘festivities’ proved lavish indeed. Possibly even more so than had originally been intended, given the unexpected presence of several human dishes. Heaps of choice foods were offered, much of it exotic, from far beyond their immediate trade zones. Dancers of both genders, suspiciously consisting primarily of uncollared Eletheen with only a few Rashanta in the mix, fine wine, and lush decor filled the evening. When all heads, save perhaps the admiral's, were moderately muddled by excellent and potent vintage, Mayala made her move. She leaned into Keral, pressing herself against him and whispering in his ear. Henry was quite startled when the normally controlled captain actually blushed. Wait until Naylara hears about that.
Keral abruptly stood, dragging the admiral up with him, clearing his throat and looking masterfully sheepish as he addressed his officers. “Ah, the admiral has a bit more to discuss with me about our latest capture. Sair'ah, why don't you and Henry take the shuttle back so Henry can get to work on those upgrades. I'm sure the admiral can arrange a lift for me when we are done.”
Mayala gave a Cheshire grin, clearly not caring nearly so much for appearances. “Of course. Though you ought not expect your captain to return for a while. Perhaps in time for Mr. Harper's transfer.”
Sair'ah's eyes bugged out a bit at that, but she managed to compose herself. “Of course, sir. Admiral.” She stood and a gesture from Mayala set a pair of guards escorting her and Henry back to their shuttle.
Sair'ah only just made it aboard before most uncharacteristically bursting into a fit of giggles. Clawing the air for breath, she finally managed to address a gaping Henry through another series of giggle fits. “S-Sorry Henry! I just can't…can't even imagine…what Naylara's reaction to the idea…the idea of Keral having three days of sex with….” Obviously picturing what that reaction could be, she collapsed into another giggle fit.
Henry chuckled ruefully. “Record that reaction for me, will you? I'm not planning on being anywhere close to ground zero.” Shaking his head when this comment sent her from giggles to gasping guffaws of laugher Henry added, “I think that wine got to you a bit more than I imagined. I guess I'm flying us home.” Putting words into action, Henry quickly had them spaceborne, with Sair'ah only managing to join him, still sporadically giggling, when they were halfway to the Sunny.
Voice ever so slightly raspy from an unaccustomed use, she admitted, “I do seem a bit less than sober at the moment. I'll have to have the doc do something about that before we get the real party started.”
Henry nodded. “Yeah. I'm slightly foggy myself. I'll probably need something too.”
That seemed to penetrate her giggles and she looked at him piercingly. “You're flying drunk?”
Henry waved a negative. “Nope. Set it on auto after we took off, landing might be interesting though.”
She sagged. “Yeah, we might not have thought that one through.” She perked up slightly. “Though, in our defense, whatever the hell that wine was could have knocked out a raging Naylara!” She grinned as if it was a great joke.
Henry shook his head. “Somehow, I didn't picture you as a happy drunk, Sair'ah.”
She just giggled.
♦♦♦♦♦♦♦
Thankfully, Resala Wril apparently had some psychic in him somewhere, as he met them in the docking bay with a metabolizing agent that flushed most of their intoxication. Of course, it could also be that their landing was a bit wobbly, and witnessing it had warned the doctor. Either way, Henry was willing not to mention it if no one else did.
As for Naylara, Sair'ah would have to wait for her pictured reaction, as she was in all business mode, barking orders to the ground teams. When they joined her, she frowned heavily. “Finally. You're later than we thought, and we can't exactly change our timetable.”
Sair'ah, serious again, addressed her. “No communication with the frigate?”
“No, it's as we thought. Too much risk for any comm signal. Which means going with the pre-arranged attack in just under twenty minutes. All our people are in place. We should have central control within five minutes of the operation start. From there, we can lock down the station and take it block by block. We also got lucky with the Albazan. They are thinking of stripping her for research purposes, so they took her in deep. The crew hiding aboard shouldn't have any trouble reaching engineering.”
Sair'ah nodded and moved off to give last minute orders. Henry tried to stay out of the way as he watched the crates of weapons being prepped for distribution and the two small assault craft taken from the Albazan start up. He wouldn't take part in combat unless something went wrong. He was an engineer, not a soldier, thank you very much. Instead, he would be coming in behind Naylara's primary strike team to try to get them access to the station's sensors after they seized central control.
Sair'ah joined him, armed to the teeth, just as the final warning buzzer sounded. With startling suddenness, the bay doors screeched open at max speed and chaos was unleashed on the docking ring. Henry had seen his share of fights, but this was on another scale entirely. The assault vehicles slammed through the dock and breached the inner doors, only partly closed, with a terrible shriek of buckling metal. The dock was cleared in a few moments of death and the battle, for this was far more a battle than a fight, moved past Henry's sight, though not his hearing. Sair'ah pulled him forward in the wake of the destruction, and just three minutes and forty-five seconds later they stood amongst smoldering corpses in the command center. They were down one assault vehicle, destroyed by a lucky shot, but now had control of a critical point on the station. Though they were still locked out of the systems.
“Henry! Get me sensors. We need to see those cruisers,” Sair'ah snapped, shoving him forward.
Henry tried to ignore the dead officer slumped next to him as he began hacking his way into the sensor console. Ah, an older model, good. “Five minutes.”
So focused was Henry that he caught only snippets of the reports coming in. “Reached primary holding…engineering taken…main batteries…casualties forward…Dr. Wril to bay seventeen.” Even what he heard, he mostly ignored, and just over five minutes later he announced, “Main sensors online! Routing them to the primary display.”
Sair'ah snapped around. She and Naylara quickly joined him as the displays lit up. A choked gasp of dismay was wrenched from Naylara as they took in what the sensors were telling them. Not only was the second cruiser still active, it was delivering a withering sheet of fire against the command cruiser. The command cruiser was returning fire, but was locked stationary as Keral couldn't maneuver it and fire at the same time. A second glance showed that the assailing cruiser was heavily damaged, but the damage done obviously hadn't been enough.
Sair'ah cursed in the native Rashanta tongue. She slammed her hands down, then began pacing. A minute passed with Henry and Naylara staring at the displays. The former trying to find some solution, the latter simply despairing for her lover's life.
Sair'ah stopped beside them and smacked Naylara in the back of the head. “Pull yourself together! Can the Albazan get out there?”
Naylara snarled. “Of course not! They are still trying to get online. Not to mention being a staging area for the prisoners who can't fight.”
Sair'ah ignored her snarl and turned her focus to Henry. “Henry, how much control do you have? Can you fire the station’s weapons?”
Henry shook his head. “Not a chance. They locked down main systems. I'd need hours. I only got the sensors working because they didn't consider them dangerous. I was able to bypass the main sensor suite for local control.”
“Damn it!” She slammed her hands down again. “We have to do something!”
Henry's thoughts were racing. Local control.... “Wait! I can't get anything active from here, but if you can get me to a weapons bay, I might be able to get a main gun into local control. It's not much but—”
Sair'ah seized on it. “It'll be enough,” she barked. “Those main guns have three times the power of anything on either cruiser. One of them can turn the tide. Naylara!”
But Naylara was already moving. She had grabbed Henry and was dragging him towards the surviving assault vehicle. She leapt on the back, physically pulling Henry with her, and shouted to the driver, “To weapons bay eight! Now!”
The startled driver floored it and they careened off a bulkhead when he couldn't quite make the first corner. Minutes flashed by and a small firefight slowed them for what seemed an eternity. In truth, they were at weapons bay eight in less than four minutes, with Naylara's troops fanning out, covering the area.
Henry practically dived at the control console and began furiously typing, before cursing as he realized this was a newer system and threw himself to the ground. He ripped open an access panel and started hacking into wiring, splicing, cutting, shifting, and soldering with his multi-tool.
“Hurry, Henry!” Naylara urged, sounding both angry and anxious.
“I'm not a miracle worker, woman. Keep your pants on! At least until we get the captain back.”
That got him a swift kick to the leg, nearly making him miswire something. He wisely shut up. A minute ticked by, then five. Finally, at seven, he scrambled out and booted the console again. It lit up with full access. “Yes!” he growled savagely. Tapping a targeting solution in, he fired the guns...and missed wide by a significant margin.
Naylara yelped. “What the hell are you doing?”
Henry tapped away again and sarcastically retorted, “Do I look like a weapons officer?”
She pushed him out of the way and modified his solution on the fly. Another shot, another miss, but much closer this time. Henry watched as she tapped again and a third shot flew out...and connected! A fourth, a fifth. The cruiser's shields failed. Four more and another broadside from the command cruiser and its assailant fell silent.
Naylara sank to her knees with a weary sigh of relief.
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As you modern galactic history buffs might know, we did in fact completely succeed. Using the surviving cruiser, the frigate, and a number of ships that had been docked at the Recise IV station, we liberated over seven thousand ‘laborers,’ including nearly two hundred of those who had been born into it. The crew of the Sunny fled with volunteers from those that were liberated, making their way to governments that would listen to their tales of woe.
The entire event received quite a fair bit of interstellar press in the surrounding territories, and the stories of those born into what was effectively slavery finally spurred several governments to act. Three years later, the decades long war between the two worlds was finally brought to an end. The laborers were freed and Rasine Lei is being forced, to this very day, to pay major reparations to Eleti.
In the end, the crew of the Sunny achieved so much but refused to be honored for it, instead choosing to fade into the background. Last I knew, the ship is still in service, acting as a deep space exploration vessel, searching for new worlds rich in resources. Just another sort of “pirate” behavior, I suppose. Searching for modern day treasure.
The biggest surprise, however, was Rear Admiral Mayala. It turned out she had been banished from prominence for speaking out against the laborer-born being enslaved, effectively committing career suicide by doing so. Were it not for an extremely loyal personal guard, she likely would have been quietly assassinated at her Recise IV posting. Perhaps even more shocking than that, apparently her promiscuous ways were nothing more than a cover for her acquisition of a large numb
er of laborer-born Eletheen, who she reeducated and deprogrammed aboard her ship. Many of those saved by her were the most effective volunteers in speaking out to the other governments, and her research and methods were eventually used to help tens of thousands of others. She herself received no more punishment than a black eye, courtesy of Naylara, and eventually accepted a commission as a Full Admiral in the Eletheen Navy, commanding her rebuilt and renamed cruiser, Freedom's Call. Ironically, as a final note, I actually fulfilled the promise of a contract with the admiral by working to rebuild the new cruiser with human-engineered systems for improvements all around.
Chapter 5 – The Colony of Shien
Well, I wasn’t going to write any more of these little forwards, but upon sending this in without one, it got sent right back. My agent raved and ranted about it being part of the “charm.” I do believe that’s the first time a man has referred to me, however indirectly, as charming. To be honest, I think I could have skipped that experience and died perfectly happy. At any rate, I suppose this counts as my revenge.
As for the story this time, after the overwhelming and shockingly positive response to my last little “chronicle,” I decided I’d stick with the idea that “variety is the spice of life” and diverge a bit further from my previous themes. Though, in this case, there are a few familiar faces, so perhaps it's not so great a divergence as that statement implies. More to the point, all my previous tales have been centered on my life aboard various ships and their voyages. I have, however, served in and on quite a few other sorts of places, aboard stations for example, and even once or twice on colonies. This is the story of one of those colonies, The Colony of Shien.