by Frank Carey
“Well that explains the lack of men,” he said calmly.
“That's it? No threats? No storming out and contacting your HQ for orders?” Athena said in shock.
“We don't work that way anymore, Admiral,” he said as he turned and looked at her. “What can our two fleets do together to protect Earth from Annihilator?”
Their conversation was interrupted by the communications officer. “Captain, Admirals, incoming communication from Station One for Adm. Fenstrom. They are rerouting a call from the Hippolyta.”
“On screen,” the captain ordered.
The view of Annihilator was replaced with a split-screen showing Adm. Washington on one side and the Bridge of the Hippolyta on the other. Sitting in the ship's command chair was Fiona Hisakawa, while standing next to her was her husband, Akira. Walking into view was a tall woman wearing a Hippolyta work uniform.
Athena stared at the young woman and marveled at how she had grown. Only half-listening to the introductions, she was overcome by waves of emotions at the sight of her first-born, a woman she hadn't spoken to for almost two decades. “Andie?” she said in almost a whisper.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
The Hippolyta hung in the air above the deck, held aloft by its ventral thrusters while its captain decided where to park. “Damn this thing is big,” she said as she read the numbers from the preliminary scans. If the sensors were correct, they were hovering over a platform a quarter mile wide by an eighth in depth. As they watched, lights came on, illuminating the vast interior of the bay.
John lowered the ship gently to the deck. Once down, he killed the engines and set all systems to their in-dock configuration. “We have arrived.”
“Natasha, Joanie, set scanners for a full hi-res spherical scan of the interior,” Akira said. “We need a map.”
“Aye, Sir,” they said as they got to work.
“Liz, contact the Earth Defense Force Commander on Station One,” Fiona said as she steepled her fingers in front of her. “The EDF may not be happy with where Hippolyta is currently sitting.”
“Captain, I have Adm. Trisha White aboard Station One and FAdm. Joshua Fenstrom aboard... Ma'am, he's aboard the Olympian Republic Flagship Penthesileia.
The Bridge crew immediately turned and looked at Andromeda who was already straightening her uniform. Finishing quickly, she walked over and joined the Hisakawas at the Command Chair. “Go ahead, Liz,” Fiona said.
The view screen shimmered as two images formed on the screen in split screen. The left image was of an African-American woman in her forties wearing the Earth Defense Fleet uniform while the right was of a Nordic man in the same uniform flanked by a Middle-Eastern woman wearing a uniform of unknown origin.
“Fiona, Akira, you seem to be having an interesting day,” Joshua said with a smile.
“Adm. Fenstrom, it's good to see you,” Fiona said.
“Admiral,” Akira said while giving a small bow.
“I think you know my number two, Adm. Washington. Beside me is Adm. Galactus of the Olympian Republic Space Navy. I assume the young woman standing next to you is...”
“Andie?” Athena asked.
“Admiral,” Andromeda replied in a voice that could freeze hydrogen.
“Andie, listen. We think Romy is alive and piloting Annihilator,” Athena said, unable to take her eyes off her daughter.
“Romy? Alive? How?” was all Andie could say.
“Yes, you all must be careful,” Athena said as the screen filled with static. “We think the other pilot is an Oracle assassin bent on destroying Earth...” The message dissolved into static.
“Mother!” Andie yelled as the screen went blank. “Dammit, no!”
“Liz?” Akira said while Fiona tried to calm Andie.
“Got it. I'm forwarding it to your day cabin,” she said as she pressed a button.
“John, take the Conn. I want sentries and perimeter defense set on the double.”
“Aye, Captain!”
“Andie, with us. The rest of you prepare for an excursion.”
###
Akira closed the door behind them as Fiona and Andie sat down around a small conference room table. “We realize this can't be easy, but we need to know everything you can tell us about your brother.”
“Like I told you, he was ten when he died. I was there. I saw the displays go flat line. The last time I saw him was when his body was consumed by a funeral pyre.”
“I really hate to pry, but where was your mother?”
“At the front fighting one of our enemies. She returned weeks later and I had to watch the funeral again because she hadn't been able to. It was too much. I went and lived with my aunt until I was old enough to join the military. The Navy was not my first choice, but you go where you're assigned.”
“Adm. Galactus seems to be convinced your brother--her son--is alive. Is that possible?” Fiona asked.
“Romy was a genius. Some say he was the smartest Olympian, male or female, born since our arrival on Olympia. Dammit, I hate telling this,” she said as she closed her eyes.
“Take your time,” Fiona said.
“Something is wrong with the planet Olympia. Something in the soil, perhaps the air or water, is slowly killing our males. In the last three thousand years, we've dropped from a one to one ratio of males to females to twenty-five to one,” Andromeda said.
“Don't you have any colony planets?” Akira asked.
“Several splinter groups left and established themselves on other planets in the system and nearby systems, but they did so after being exposed to the mutagen. They all have the same problem. Most of the population doesn't know this, but the Olympian race is dying. That's why we are at war with the colonies.”
“Oh my God, you're taking males in raids,” Fiona exclaimed.
“Yes, but it's only a short-term solution. Some of our religious sects are saying its punishment by the gods, so we shouldn't interfere.”
“I hate zealots,” Fiona growled.”
“Andromeda, have your people ever heard of Earth before this incident?”
“I don't think so. I know I haven't.”
“What about your brother? I assume he was sick with the ailment?”
“Yes. In his case, it was fatal. There have been stories about a cure being found over the years, but they were just stories.”
Akira sat next to Andromeda and took her hand. “It is conceivable they found a possible cure which they gave to your brother, saving him, but no one else. It explains why this huge ship, possibly bent on destroying Earth, stopped and watched over you, drawing us in with a false beacon to save you,” he said. He stopped for a moment. “Natasha, can you scan for computer network activity?”
“Sure, Boss. Give me a moment...” she said as she fired up some less than legal software they used for the occasional salvage job. “Yeah, there's a lot of activity, much more than one would expect on an empty ship... Damn weird stuff. It looks like commands are being given then immediately rescinded. My God, the translation routines must be wrong! I'm detecting denial of service attacks, spoofing, and multiple pieces of malware running around. It's a damn war going on out there.”
“Two minds battling over a single ship and the fate of two worlds lie in the balance. I wonder if Adm. Fenstrom knows all this.” Akira asked.
“Way ahead of you, husband,” Fiona said as she typed something on her terminal. “Liz, I just sent you an e-mail I want forwarded to Adm. Fenstrom ASAP. CC it to Adm. Washington as well. Mark it: Urgent Priority.”
“Aye, Captain. It's in the queue and will go out the moment a link is made to the InterWeb.”
“Very good. Let me know if anything changes,” she said before killing the link.
“If I may make a suggestion,” Andie said as she returned to commander mode. The moment she accepted her brother being alive, she knew what had to be done.
“Please do,” Fiona said, amazed at the transformation. A moment ago, Andie was lost. Now, she wa
s an officer.
“We have to assume Annihilator's other pilot is bent on destroying Earth to prevent it from helping my people. We must stop it. To do that, we need to disable weapons, engines, and control. If that fails, we need to destroy the ship. What weapons of mass destruction are aboard the Hippolyta?”
“None,” Fiona replied. “Do your freighters normally carry WMDs?”
“Yes, as self-destruct devices,” Andromeda said. Fiona found herself missing the other Andromeda.
“Oh. Wait, does that mean Annihilator has a self-destruct?”
“Yes, yes, she does, as a defense against this scenario occurring. But that means...”
“Nobody pressed the button, yet. Where is the self-destruct?” Akira asked.
“It's mounted below the deck at the control core, where the pilots live.”
“If I give you help and tools, can you rewire it so we can remotely detonate it from Hippolyta?”
Andromeda thought for a moment. “Yes, I think so.”
“Okay, then I think we have a plan of action,” Fiona said while she got out of her chair. “Bridge, set the auto sentries and have everyone meet in the lounge.”
“Aye, Captain,” John replied.
The corridor quickly filled with crew heading to the lounge.
###
When she entered the lounge, Andromeda looked around and marveled at the diversity of people around her. She counted at least five species equally divided by gender. A cup of coffee appeared on the table in front of her. She looked up and saw it was John, their helmsman. “Thank you,” she said as she really saw him for the first time. He was tall, about her height, with dark red hair and green eyes. In many ways, he resembled the captain.
“No, the captain and I are not related,” he said as if reading her mind, “and, no, I'm not a telepath. People ask me that all the time,” he explained.
“Oh, I'm sorry for staring. You are human, though? From Earth?”
“I was born on Earth, but I'm only half-human. The other half is Venlanten,” he said.
“Venlanten?” she asked.
As if to answer, his eyes went jet black, as if his pupils had eaten the whites. His fingernails became claws while fangs emerged from upper and lower gums. “I am completely harmless,” he said as he bent down so she could see his eyes. She saw the irises were still there, but their color had gone from green to black, giving the impression of disappearing.
“Incredible,” she said as she looked closely at the fangs and claws. “A mutation?”
“No,” he said as he reverted to normal. “The Venlantens were refugees who crashed on Earth a long time ago and decided to stay. My father is Venlanten and my mother is human. Some say we can read souls?”
“Can you?” she asked, fascinated by this helmsman.
“Let's see,” he said as he eyes went black once more. He looked closely at her, tilting his head first one way, then the other. Finally, they went back to normal. “Very beautiful.”
“My soul is beautiful?” she asked.
“No, you're beautiful. I could never do that soul thing,” he said with a disarming smile which she returned.
“Thank you. You're very nice to say that.”
Before they could continue, Fiona walked up to the table and began the confab. “Listen up! For those of you who have slept through the last few hours, Hippolyta is sitting in a shuttle bay of a huge battleship called Annihilator. We've been in contact with the EDF, and they think this thing plans to turn Earth into another asteroid field.” Fiona turned to Andromeda. “This is Cmdr. Andromeda Clyemne of the Olympian Republic Space Navy. Her ship, along with two other warships, was destroyed by Annihilator when they attempted to stop it. Andromeda is helping us.”
Akira took over the briefing. “Natasha has been able to run precision scans of the ship's internal structure,” he said as he touched the surface of the holodisplay. A three-dimensional wire-frame of the Annihilator appeared above the table. A small silhouette representing the Hippolyta appeared in the portside shuttle bay. There were several gasps. “The scale is correct. Annihilator is twenty times our length. Andromeda?”
“This ship is what we call a mega battleship. It is designed to go up against an opponent's fleet and destroy it.”
“Commander, what enemies do you have which would require this kind of fire power?” John asked as he stared at the diagram.
Andromeda told them what she told Akira and Fiona. There was a hushed silence when she finished.
“Wow,” was all Streen could say.
“So, what's the plan, Captain?” John asked as he walked over to Andromeda and put a hand on her arm as if to say, “We’re here for you.”
“Either disable or destroy. We saw what it did to Andromeda's battle group and what it did to the Nova. Andromeda, what could it do to the planet below?”
“Flash-boil oceans, flatten mountains, lay waste to cities, the usual. And so you don't think to0 badly of my people, the other colonies have similar ships.”
“Well, I'm terrified,” Crewman Samosa said from the back of the crowd in an attempt at diffusing some of the tension.
“Saul, you're terrified of a mouse!” Cora said from the other side of the table. “Remember that one you saw when we docked in Hong Kong?”
“That was a rat. Twenty pounds if an ounce!”
Cora held two fingers an inch apart. “Right, a freakin monster,” she said with a small snort of derision.
“Enough, you two. I swear you have to be siblings,” Fiona said. “I have a plan.”
Everyone stopped to listened.
“We're going to break up into three teams: Weapons, Engines, and Control. Akira, Nyla, Joanie, Cora, and Maddie will hit weapons. Streen and his crew will hit the Engine Room. I'll take Sheila, Resh, Saul, and Andromeda to the control center. The goal is to render this beast a toothless pussycat.”
“What about the rest of us?” John asked.
“You, Roberta, and Natasha will remain behind to protect the ship. John, you’re in charge. If Annihilator begins an attack on Earth and you don't hear from us or Earth, you are to detonate the FTL drive.”
“Excuse me...Captain?” he said in utter shock.
“Press button; go boom,” Natasha said with a tilt of her head.
“What she said, Boss,” Roberta added with another head tilt and a smile.
“Very funny. You expect me to incinerate all of you? How the hell do I do that?”
“Simple,” Streen said. “First, put this key in the safety box,” he said, taking a key from around his neck and handing it to the confused helmsman. “Turn the key to 'Off,' set course to 0 by 0, activate the drive, wait for a steady green light, and press the 'Initiate' button. The core dumps, causing a twenty-megaton explosion. Easy peasy.”
“John, you can do this,” Akira said. “Just remember, it's not about us. It's about the seven billion souls down on the planet.”
John looked at the key before putting it around his neck. He set his shoulders and said, “Yes, Sir. I won't let you down.”
“And if he does, I'll cut off his head and do the job myself,” Natasha said while taking a sip of coffee.
“And I'll help,” Roberta added, giving Natasha a fist bump.
“Good,” Fiona said while suppressing a smile. “Natasha and Andromeda will program a set of datapads with the maps. The rest of you, gear up. We leave in fifteen minutes.”
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
Adm. Trisha Washington paced the control room deck near the tactical holodisplay of the Earth Battleship Charybdis with a very unhappy look on her face. Around her officers and crew prepared for the worst while glancing out the window to sneak peeks at the behemoth ship hanging in space in front of them.
“Status!” she barked as she drank tea from her lucky mug. Once a merchant spacer, Trisha knew the value of luck.
“Annihilator is stationary, its weapons stored,” Capt. Kelly Brock reported. “The League fleet, our fleet, and the Olympi
an fleet have englobed Annihilator. Adm. Fenstrom has signaled all is well. He and his Olympian counterpart are formulating a plan. No word yet from the LTV Hippolyta.”
“Kelly, any word from the analysts?”
Capt. Brock remained silent, which further disturbed the admiral. “Kelly?”
“Sorry, Ma’am. The analysts suggest we evacuate Earth,” she said while handing the admiral a datapad.
“Evacuate Earth? How the hell do you move seven billion people?” she asked in shock. Capt. Brock knew the admiral, like her, had family on planet. What's the status of the Nova?”
“She's scrap. The initial reports of casualties were in error. Somehow, no one was killed. Any uninjured crew are being distributed amongst the other ships.”
“What about the Hisakawa wunderkind?”
“Uninjured and asking to see you.”
“They're aboard?”
“Yes, Ma’am. They are waiting in your Day Cabin.”
“Why wasn't I informed?”
“Capt. Brock looked at her and tilted her head slightly, her eyes going ever so slightly wide.
“Right, I shouldn't deal with people in my current state of mind. Kel, why aren't you an admiral?”
“I've been told the death toll would rise if I got promoted.”
“Who told you that?”
“You did, Admiral.”
“I guess I did,” she said as she put her cup down and shrugged into her jacket. “I'm going to go have a nice, calm talk with the dynamic duo. I want to be informed of any changes. If that thing passes wind, I want to know.”
“Aye, aye, Admiral,” Kelly replied as Trisha slowly walked over to her day cabin as if trying to give herself a chance to calm down. She knocked on the door, then entered, closing the door gently behind her. “I hope to hell I won't have to use my stunner on her,” Kelly said as she went back to studying the tactical display.
###
When the admiral entered her day cabin, she found Haruki and Katana standing at full attention. They both snapped sharp salutes when they saw her. She walked passed them to stand behind her desk before returning the salute. “At ease,” she said.