Though he completed it, it was not nearly as graceful as Shira’s.
Unfortunately, Shira had caught his attempt and was busy trying to hide a smirk.
“What?” Blake whispered indignantly. “Gymnastics is a girl’s sport.”
Shira just shook her head and raised her rifle to cover the corridor.
She hugged the left corridor wall,
and Blake hugged the right,
both making sure not to enter the other’s field of fire.
Bodies lay strewn about, victims of Davi’s flash grenades.
They would wake up later with a headache, but for now, they were no threat.
As they made their way down towards the bridge, they encountered a few of the crew who were summarily taken down with a gas-powered dart attachment that Davi had added to the rifle’s lower receiver prior to them leaving.
Blake didn’t know what was in the darts, but Davi had intimated it was a home brewed concoction inspired by the criminally insane wing of the hospital.
These guys would not be getting up for a while.
As they moved down the hall,
Blake looked the aliens over.
He didn’t know what he was expecting,
but he didn’t think it was this.
They had two legs and two arms but were a mere four feet tall.
Their faces looked like a cross between a walrus and a kangaroo with small tusks at either end of their mouth and black eyes.
Their skin was covered with various colors of a beautiful, oily fur.
He was amazed to be standing here,
looking at another life form.
This was the first time he knew of that someone from the human race stood before another intelligent creature of the universe,
and here he was robbing them.
If the thought of that didn’t irritate him so much,
he would have laughed.
Part of him just wanted to sit and talk to these… people to find out how different or similar they were to humans,
but there was no time for that now.
Blake snapped out of his thoughts and continued scanning the hall with his rifle.
Looking at Shira, he could see she was having similar thoughts as well.
This moment would affect them profoundly.
He wasn’t sure in what way yet,
but he knew it would.
A schematic of the ship with real-time updates monitored both Shira’s and Blake’s position aboard the ship on the upper left surface of their left eyes. “Shit,” Blake spoke softly.
“What I wouldn’t have given for half this tech in the sandbox.” Shira agreed with a nod.
“This could have saved a lot of lives.”
Just then, a burly crewman came around the corner on Shira’s side and almost walked right into her. Within a millisecond,
Shira’s metal hand had side chopped his neck while her other arm caught him and lowered him to the deck.
She checked his pulse, then nodded at Blake to signify the crewman was still alive.
“That was damn close,” he said sweeping his gun along the corridor.
“The bridge looks to be just ahead. Let’s see if we can still maintain the element of surprise.”
Blake swung over to the right side of the door and produced two more orange balls from his trench coat as Shira swung to the left and mimicked his action, coming up with two orange balls of her own.
Blake looked at the door,
puzzled for a moment,
as there seemed to be no handle or alternative way to open it.
So, he shrugged and knocked three times.
What his ears first heard sounded like short barks and grunts,
but then it changed into English as a gruff voice came over his translator nanites saying
“Damn Korvh, did you forget some…,”
and that was as far as he got.
As soon as the door opened,
Blake hit the man with the palm of his metal hand, letting his gun slip down on the tactical harness.
At the same time, he threw the orange balls towards the left while Shira tossed hers to the right.
It only took half a second for shouts of alarm to start emanating from the room,
but before anyone could react,
the orange stunners went off.
On the Nismel Davi sat tensely in the bridge chair,
watching the freighters for any sign of the freighters coming back to life.
He saw the Specter attached to the hull and had all of Blake and Shira’s biometric data.
What would happen if they died out here if they left Davi alone on the ship?
He liked his solitude at times, but he needed people around him to remain grounded in reality.
It was an odd dichotomy,
but he had grown very attached to these two in a short amount of time.
For the first time,
people didn’t dismiss him off-hand and actually valued his ideas and gadgets.
Blake had even complimented him on his work!
He didn’t know what he would do if they didn’t make it,
and that agitated him.
“Morgan, what’s the situation in there?
I know darts were fired and stun grenades were used. Has the freighter crew used any of their weapons?” He asked, keeping his emotions in check.
“No, Davi,” Morgan replied.
“No return fire has been recorded. In fact, there don’t seem to be any alarms or indications that they even know Blake and Shira are there.”
Davi checked the readings and the weapon status to ensure he had a direct line of sight on the ships, just in case they came online quicker than expected. As they had discussed,
Davi would not target anything except for the engine and communication systems.
The freighters could not be allowed to escape or call for help.
If Blake and Shira managed to get through all four ships, they would have to send out one of the beacons they were planning to take from the freighters and launch it, allowing someone to know they were out here and could be rescued.
However, if they didn’t, then that could bring up the ugly possibility of either disabling or destroying those freighters that might try to escape.
He didn’t want to think about that now,
but the ship was his.
He would have to make that decision when the time came.
Davi shook off the thought and tried to concentrate on the task at hand.
He had checked and rechecked the gear before presenting it to Blake and Shira.
He knew everything worked and nothing would fail them because he had watched them train endlessly,
both in martial combat and on the weaponry.
They were competent to a frightening point.
They would be okay,
but he still had a bad feeling.
This was just too easy.
Back on the Freighter Shira swept her weapon over the room with Blake trailing closely behind her.
She also had noticed the people who looked like strange walruses and felt awe at having seen an alien race for the first time.
She began checking their vitals by touching the creatures.
Her suit had sensors that would identify the person or creature and then register their regular bio rates to ensure they were stable.
All of them came back green,
meaning they were still alive.
She touched the collar of her coat and said,
“Shira to Davi… bridge of freighter three is secure. We will begin interfacing the remotes,
then move on to engineering.
How does it look out there?”
While she spoke, she cast a look over at Blake who was examining various consoles and data after having checked on the crew as she had just done.
He looked up at her,
waiting for the answer to come over the team channel.
Davi came
back with almost no delay.
“Everything is quiet. We are alone here, and nothing has booted up. If you find something blue, could you bring it back? I think I want something blue from that ship.”
Shira rolled her eyes,
and she bet Blake was probably doing the same. Blake touched his collar,
“We’ll see what we can do, Davi. Boarding team out.”
Shira watched for a second as Blake went from one console to another,
knowing that even though the language was unknown to him, the nanites in his eyes were translating the writing into English.
“Hey Morgan, how the hell are these consoles showing data after we hit them with an EMP?” Blake asked into the team channel.
“Their emergency systems are shielded.
This ensures that things like life support can’t be taken out by something like an EMP. You will see minimal data on the consoles, but you will not see the full picture and have access to all of the ship’s
information on the memory cores until the ships come back online.”
That answer seemed to satisfy Blake.
As he continued walking around,
he kept looking at the creatures laying on the deck. He shook his head and walked over to them to triple check their vitals.
Shira let him do this for another minute before interrupting.
“Sir, I get it this is the first time we have met another species and it is humbling, but we are on a clock. We have to get this mission done, and I kind of need your head back in the game.”
Blake looked at her for a moment and then something in his gaze hardened in resolved. “You’re right. Let’s get these remotes hooked up and make our way to engineering.”
Shira grabbed a few black objects the size of hockey pucks and began sticking them to various dashboards.
As she got close to where the small object needed to be placed, it would start to blink green.
That green remained constant once she had affixed the item to its indicated location.
Once the remotes were attached,
small strands of nanites, like fine fibers, emerged from the devices and wormed their way into the consoles.
It was hypnotic to watch, and more than once, Shira had to snap herself back to reality mentally.
On the ship, Davi began to see data scrolling onto the main screen as the remotes integrated and started using the metal of the freighters hull as an antenna to transmit the low frequency signal so the Nismel could receive it.
The data he was seeing was pretty routine,
except it was showing emergency failures in systems and their progress as they began their rebooting process.
Davi hit his commlink.
“Guys, I am not sure, but it looks like the ship is starting to come back online. I don’t think we have as much time as we’d thought so you might want to get moving.”
He studied the data for another minute as both Shira and Blake acknowledged the transmission.
The processing speed of the freighter’s computers, like that of this ship, was so astounding as to make Earth’s best systems seem like vacuum tube calculators in comparison.
“We still don’t have the ships manifest or crew counts yet, but as soon as the memory core comes back online, I will try and get you that information. Don’t forget my blue thing,” Davi said.
He cut the line and went back to studying the data in front of him.
Something didn’t seem right.
He didn’t know much about the species,
or hell, even the Empire.
He couldn’t put his finger on it,
but there were references to a lot of security items that seemed odd,
even for a freighter carrying munitions.
Then, Davi stopped,
and his breath caught,
instantly his hand shot out and slammed the communication button.
“Guys, we have a big problem!
I am not sure why, but for some reason before the freighters left,
they doubled their security contingent from standard space patrol to actual Empire Marines. Keep your eyes open out there!
Morgan, can you make sense of why they would have done something like this?” Davi asked hand still on the communications button so all could hear.
The data flickered on the screen as Morgan analyzed it.
“Until the data cores are back online,
I cannot surmise the reason, or even which ships are affected by this.
We will have to wait and get our answers as they come.” She responded
Davi slumped in his chair.
It was starting to look like his fear of being alone might just come true, and that scared him.
On the freighter Blake and Shira looked at each other as Davi’s transmission ended.
Blake rescanned the bridge.
None of these guys looked like hardened soldiers. Then again, what would an alien space soldier look like?
Blake hit the team channel and gave the order he dreaded giving,
“We go full lethal from here on.
We’re not taking any chances!”
Blake switched out the dart shooter for a small grenade launcher and rechecked his pistols.
Shira did the same.
She didn’t like it, but she understood the reason.
If there were soldiers on board,
then they were likely hardened killers instead of crewmen,
and they would not hesitate to take her and Blake out.
Blake took the lead and used his eye map to lead the way out of the bridge and towards engineering. His gun was kept up by his cheek,
always using the reticle to scan the hall as he moved forward.
When they reached a door,
one of them would turn and cover the opening while the other moved forward,
causing a leapfrog effect as they quickly moved through the ship.
Luckily, they didn’t run into any more crew members along the way.
Once at the hatch to engineering,
Blake pulled out a small black disk the size of a silver dollar and magnetically set it against the door.
It began to hum, then the door suddenly opened, and Blake was staring in the face of a very startled crewman.
It took him a moment to assess that there were four more behind him.
In a split-second decision, Blake said,
“Fuck it,” and let his carbine drop by the tactical harness.
He reached behind him and flicked open his two ASPs. Moving with the lightning speed made possible by his enhancements,
Blake hit the crewman in the knee with one and across the side of the neck with the other in an almost scissor like motion.
The electric shock and force of the hit dropped the crewman.
Blake was in the room in an instant with Shira following suit,
her own ASPs out and open.
Blake moved to the next crewman who was reaching for something in his belt.
He pushed the ASP against his chest and slammed the other one into its knee causing it to buckle.
As he began to fall,
Shira passed Blake like a cheetah going in for the kill.
She swung both her ASPs,
aiming for the necks of the last two crewmen.
The first made perfect contact and he went down with a grunt,
but the second glanced off the other’s crewman’s shoulder.
The crewman left standing pulled a weapon out from his belt.
Time seemed to slow down as Shira realized she would not have time to get to him before he could fire.
As his gun raised to level on Shira,
she felt the breeze of an object flying past her left cheek and saw Blake’s ASP flipping end over end until it hit the crewman square in the face.
His gun dropped, and a moment later,
so did he.
“Clear,” Blake called.
Shira echoed the response, still a bit shake
n from what had just happened.
As fast as they could, the two began putting their magnetic pucks on the consoles,
always watching the door for additional threats.
It took only thirty seconds to put the eight pucks in their place.
Blake moved toward the door and hit his team channel.
“Davi, you should have more data coming through. We’re making our way to the cargo bay.
Based on the data you have;
will the plan still work?
Did we choose the correct freighter?” he asked. There was silence for several moments before Davi responded.
“Based on the limited readings I am getting, this is the primary freighter, and we will have control of the other freighters once they come back online.
I am utilizing the secure internal network to take over the systems in the other freighters as they boot up.
It’s the same slave system they use when freighters enter a system,
which allows one tug pilot to convoy many freighters for docking.” Davi answered
“Whatever, as long as it works,”
Blake said, shaking his head.
“I don’t need a lesson in freighter flight right now, man.”
Back on the Nismel Davi was sweating now.
This was the part of his plan that was more guesswork than anything else.
He had read about the slaving of freighters to one another, but he had never done it.
Using this method,
he should be able to get into the life support systems and lower the air enough to knock out the crew before they knew what hit them.
This was all theoretical, of course.
The one wild card was the soldiers.
If they were really on the convoy, then they would be on that ship with Blake and Shira.
Why is it then they had not yet run into them? What was their objective,
and why were they holding back?
Davi wiped his hands on his jumpsuit and ran his forearm across his head.
“Morgan, how long until the ships come back online? Do we have control?” he barked at her and then winced, he was letting the fear get to him.
“Roughly three Earth minutes, and we should have full control.
Based on the readings I am getting from the bridge and engineering, I believe you were correct in your assessment of the convoy. This seems to be the primary cargo vessel.” Morgan answered, seeming not to notice his tone.
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