and suddenly they were no longer theory.
They were here among her,
the wondrous technologies of The Ancients.
Yet she had to admit to herself she was scared.
She knew that when she got back, the council would request that she pair,
this is why the religion existed to find beings in the galaxy and prepare them for pairing.
She didn’t know if she wanted to pair,
but how do you tell the people who raised you and taught you that you no longer believed in those teachings. Not enough to put your sentience on the line. She would have to talk to the Captain.
Of all the beings she had met there was no one who was as straight as the Captain,
even with the pairing.
Xera had gone to the bridge and seen Rom running the simulations. She could see how they worried and watched the simulation,
she saw failure after failure,
they would not be victorious.
She could not allow that, he wasn’t allowing Shira to go, she had to be with the ship as commander while he was away.
Kree also was staying as computer support,
and Davi was more a scientist than a warrior.
They would not stand a chance on their own,
she thought. She was a warrior.
She resolved herself to a course of action and left for the medical ward.
When she got there, she spoke to the AI and spec’d out what she wanted, and as the AI doctor began the first injection of nanites, she was resolved,
there would be three on that planet surface.
She would not leave Rom and the Captain to die alone.
She might not have a box,
but she had training, and with the augments,
she would be as lethal as the two of them.
Shira was covered in sweat, she had been in the training room for four hours fighting against the bots in match after match,
these things were indestructible,
even for an enhanced human.
Shira was military she understood someone had to remain with the ship,
someone had to remain in charge should the captain fall.
But she didn’t have to like it,
she should be on the planet during the fight not on a ship.
She had never had a problem being a pilot,
being removed from the ground troops.
The crew had grown on her, even the aliens.
Once the shell shock of realizing they weren’t alone in the galaxy she got to know the amazing beings she now called friends.
She felt she was being left to ensure some survived, she wanted to be in the battle,
but the captain had other ideas,
and she would honor them,
this was the burden of command.
Davi walked into the training room with a bottle of water and a towel “
thought you could use this” he said tossing it to her. She caught it and smiled at him.
“Thank you” she said smiling.
Davi sat down next to her,
he looked at her and caught her gaze.
“I know you are not happy with your assignment,
I know you want to fight with the captain on the planet, but understand this, every job we do no matter how small is important,
even if it seems like you are on the sideline,
there is a reason for it, you will have your moment. Remember that the captain trusts you enough to leave you the ship and the crew and knows that if anything happens you can handle it” Davi explained never letting his gaze leave hers.
Shira just shook her head
“Who are you, I mean you are crazier than shit most of the time, and then you just come out with these amazing insights”
she let her hands fly up,
“I just don’t know how to read you sometimes my friend” Shira finished shaking her head and looking at her friend, Davi just smiled.
“Oh XO, I am crazy, but even a crazy person can see you are warring with yourself and needed some guidance, I was just happy to be here to help.” Shira hugged him fiercely like a brother.
“Thank you, Davi” Davi just wheezed
“You're crushing me…” he whispered through short breaths,
Shira let him go but still held his shoulders.
“You have any new toys to help the captain out this time?” She asked.
Davi’s smile broadened
“About time someone asked.”
At Davi’s request, everyone gathered in the training area. Blake and Rom looked around Blake leaning over
“Any idea what this is about?” Rom shrugged
“No idea boss, but I am guessing he has some new toys.” Blake thought about it and nodded,
Davi did like the dramatic reveal.
“Let’s hope there is something we can use against oh two hundred and fifty bloodthirsty space marines” and stepped up with everyone else.
Davi came into the training room wheeling a cart. “Hello everyone, I just wanted to introduce you to the new toys that I have been working on and I thought now would be a good time.”
Davi stepped around the cart and whipped off the cover with a flourish,
causing some eye-rolling from the gathered crew. Three large rifles, complete with drums attached to them sat upon the cart,
Blake could see the barrels were massive.
“I would like to introduce you to the automatic, drum fed plasma shotgun.” Davi picked it up and aimed it at a piece of metal he had set up.
Davi pulled the trigger,
and an enormous red plume erupted from the barrel as Davi held down the trigger showing that the shotguns were not only powerful
but could be fired in fully automatic mode.
As they watched in awe a stream of red death erupted and continued to push down range at the metal sheet,
the sheet was ripped apart in an instant,
and Davi let go of the trigger.
Blake stood in awe
“Damn, you always make the best toys” he whooped as he grabbed one off the cart and Rom grabbed the other one.
Blake then noticed the third one on the cart.
“Why the extra?” Blake asked Davi a bit confused. “Not extra, captain just outfitting the third member of the ground team.”
Blake looked up to see Xera decked in all black, complete with the body armor and trench coat.
She had traded her staff for a full set of guns,
Xera’s black fur glistened in the light,
and her yellow eyes had a twinge of metal in them. Blake recognized it,
Xera had been augmented with nanites.
“Xera, you don’t have to do this” he started,
but she held up her hand.
“Captain, am I part of this crew?” Xera asked.
Blake nodded
“Yes Xera, you are,” he said looking at her in the eyes.
“Good,” she said continuing into the room
“then I am going down with you to the surface
my friends need me, I will be there and do my duty.” Xera grabbed the extra shotgun and looked around the room. No one objected to her statement. Blake looked at her
“I want you in the training room every extra second you get, Rom will go in with you and ensure you are ready.” He said severely to her and looked at Rom who nodded at him
“If Rom says you’re not ready, you don’t go is that understood?” he asked.
Xera shook her head excitedly and grabbed Rom by the arm. “Let’s go, you Big Lug,”
she said pulling him out of the room.
CHAPTER
THIRTY-EIGHT
THIRTYEIGHT
Home Sweet Home
The Revenant emerged from Slip-space on the edge of the Kilgar system.
Like a magnificent beast,
she came slipping out of the crimson lights into real space. Her plasma engines began to growl as the ship tur
ned into the system heading for the fourth planet.
Blake, Shira, and Rom stood on the bridge along with a sundry of support staff,
Rom reviewed the tactical and sensor data since Davi was still down in his engineering room working.
“All Clear Captain,” Rom said confirming his statement with the data he was seeing.
“Alright, Shira take us in at best possible speed,” Blake stated looking as the sensor data began to populate on the viewers.
It was a medium-sized system with Six planets most clustered around a sun roughly the size of Earth’s.
Two had more than one moon,
the fourth and the fifth planet fell within the human habitable “Goldilocks zone.”
As the sensor data populated, he noticed only the former of the two worlds had any sizable life readings, and curiously he thought as to why the fifth planet remained mostly bare.
Then the planetary spin brought the side of the fifth planet he had not seen into sensor view.
In the center, was a giant asteroid crater that seemed to have killed over half the planet on that side,
oddly enough it was still considered habitable, though only barely.
Mystery solved he thought as he reviewed the data. Blake hit the com and sent out a general announcement.
“We have entered the system, let’s check the ship and get geared up,
we will be there in 18 hours.
Shira, can we bring the ship onto the far side of the third planet? We will take the Specter down,
I don’t want this ship noticeable when the Empire gets here. If things go south,
you will have an easier escape from there.
You should be able to keep the planet between you and the Empire by keeping the planet between you and the fleet.” Shira nodded changing the trajectory of the ship and spinning up the drives on an intercept course for the third planet.
“Do we have any communications with the fourth planet?” Blake asked Rom
“Like ‘hello,’ ‘piss off,’ or ‘hey thanks for coming to save our ass?’” Rom looked over his data
“I see residual communications over the planet surface, but nothing actually aimed at us.
The language though is … odd”
he said looking at the Captain.
Blake cocked his head as Rom put the language on the speaker for all to listen to.
Shira listened, and then her eyes went wide. “Captain, that’s not being translated those people are speaking English, like the Queen’s English,”
she said in a tone rich with confusion and awe. Blake listened and damn if Shira wasn’t right.
He shot up from his chair,
this was not possible
“Rom do we have a video of the inhabitants, any video?” Rom looked over his console and after a few minutes put up what looked like a news report on the screen.
The written language on the bottom was readable as standard English but slightly different than what he was used to.
But what caused him to almost stop breathing was the person.
The Actual human in the center of the screen.
He could be American or English or from any European country.
This was not possible, but just to be sure Blake took another look at the system to ensure they weren’t in Sol.
“Someone want to tell me how this is even fucking possible?” he said to the bridge.
Shira and Rom were both a bit rattled.
Shira for obvious reasons,
they had just found humans, not on Earth.
Both Blake and Shira seemed a bit disturbed by the sight.
“Captain, what’s wrong?” One of the junior offices asked, confusion evident on more than one of the new faces on the bridge.
Blake stepped forward to listen to the report after a moment Blake turned to the bridge crew.
“Because those are our people,
or at least they look and sound like it,
but here is the problem if the Universe was a city then our big accomplishment in space was reaching the porch. “
Blake finished turning back to the screen,
“So, someone want to tell me what in the wide world of fuck, is a human doing down there?”
he jabbed towards the screen.
After a moment, he punched up some data on his chair screen and shook his head,
“And the plot sickens folks, welcome to Croatoan” he said shaking his head.
Shira had heard that somewhere,
“Captain, why do I know that?” She asked.
Blake with no actual emotion looked at her and said “Roanoke.” Suddenly she got it
“Wait, Virginia, what the hell Cap?”
Blake punched up more information.
“There is not a lot of info on the planet except it used to be a slave colony until a revolt about 50 years ago. Let’s get this ship situated and get down there,
I want to have a meaningful conversation about where the hell they come from.”
Blake stalked off the bridge and down towards the equipment room, his mind a flurry of questions.
A planet named for a word found carved in a tree in Virginia after a whole colony went missing.
So, this was what? The descendants?
How is it they are out here? But hey was that any weirder then them being out here?
This was something he wanted to find out,
and if there were any more out there.
Humans in space, this would blow the minds of people back home, Blake thought with a smile.
Xera was already in the equipment area getting suited up,
Blake began putting on his gear on.
“Xera, you going to be okay down there, this is not going to be a cakewalk, if you want to remain on the ship I will understand,”
Blake said, trying to give the young feline girl an out. He didn’t want her on the planet with them,
it was going to be a suicide run and damn if he wanted to get any more people killed,
it was bad enough Rom would be down there.
Xera looked at him with a very feline side glance, similar to what a cat would do to a mouse,
it made Blake shiver.
“Captain, as I have said, I have friends down there, and friends up here,
I will not leave you and Rom to face that alone,
I could not live with myself knowing I could have helped.” Blake looked at her and then nodded.
Fuck he thought, I would do the same thing, how can I tell her she can’t go, it would have killed him if the roles were reversed. He would try to get her and Rom out before it got bad,
he still had some tricks up his sleeve,
and he prayed they would be enough.
“I get it” Blake finally said.
He put on his shirt and pants,
layered on his vest and jacket,
then checked both his handguns and his carbine, finally the grenades and the new shotgun.
When he was done, he headed out to Davi’s engineering area,
he had to check on their little project before he headed out.
The ship settled into a stationary orbit on the far side of the third planet,
outside of the view of ships coming into the system. Shira set the autopilot and her and Rom headed down to the equipment area.
“I still don’t know why you’re getting geared up, you have to stay and fly the ship,” Rom said as they walked through the large corridor to the shuttle bay.
“Because if shit goes south, I am coming to get you guys, mark my words, I will not leave the three of you to die.” Rom shook his head
“The captain was specific in his orders” Rom admonished her.
“And the captain can kiss my ass, I will not leave people to die in battle when I could help,”
Shira said. Leveling a challenging gaze at Rom. “You going to stop me?” Rom held up his hands in a surrendering gesture
“Not me” he said as he continued walking
to the equipment area. Blake caught up to them in the hallway leading down to the bay.
“Shira, I need to chat with you,” Blake said motioning her to him.
Shira rolled her eyes and then told Rom to go on. She walked back to the captain and before he could say anything, she held up a finger to quiet him “Before you give me any shit about getting geared, know that I will not, I repeat will not leave you guys down there to die. I don’t care what you order. If I can save anyone, I will”
she kept her eyes on his and refused to back down. “Well, fuck yeah,” he said exasperated,
“What the hell did you think I wanted to talk to you about. I got a plan, and it needs a pilot…” Blake finished up with Shira who seemed to like his plan, not a great one but at least it was something.
He headed down to the mess area to find the last person he needed to talk to, there was still one more plan to set into motion before heading to the planet. He found Kree at a table with three plates of something green.
Blake couldn’t for the life of him identify it by site, but when the smell hit him,
he had no interest in finding out more
“Jesus man that smells like ass and old gym shorts” he said while cupping his hand over his mouth and nose. Kree looked up at the captain with string of green stuff hanging out the side of his mouth “What?” he said, “Its nutritious” he defended.
The captain just shook his head
“Listen I have a job for you, and you are the only person I know who can pull this off.”
Kree swelled a little with pride
“Of course, I am” he said confidently,
“What do you need me to do?” Blake smiled an evil grin
“How good are you at hacking Empire ships?”
The Specter leapt from the Revenant and soared over the third planet towards its landing point on the fourth.
It still seemed the human inhabitants had not noticed either ship in their system.
As the Specter swooped into the stratosphere of the fourth planet, a message finally reached them from the surface.
“Unknown vessel, you will state your intentions or be shot down” was all the message said,
in English again.
The captain shook his head, humans everywhere, balls bigger than their brains he thought.
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