“The only way we have found to modify Krall behavior toward us is to appeal to their obsession for speed and efficiency. My promise of a higher percentage of whole ships and live prisoners per raid has made this recording possible. If I'm proven wrong by their standards, I'm dead, along with those few who backed my assertions.
“I don't want to appear to help the Krall but they will get what they need anyway. I'm trying to stop the bloody slaughters witnessed by so many of us. Alive you have some hope of rescue, release, or at least life. Death at their hands or your own is an available option at any time. Listen to me, and chose life!”
In a sudden move, Mirikami activated the voice Link. Speaking fast and low, he instructed Jake to start playing the second message from its beginning, for the entire ship. He realized if the recording were much longer, there might not be time to pass the warning to the passengers and crew.
The enveloping ships, now joined by the two original attackers, had arranged themselves in a spherical shell about the Flight of Fancy. The shell had begun to contract.
Doushan described the boarding process. “They will board you by burning a body sized opening in your hull. They avoid hatches and airlocks until the target ship is secured. The holes remain largely airtight, sealed even when the single ships pull away. Later, if your ship is capable of a Jump, you might be allowed stay on board with a sort of prize crew. If not, every able-bodied person will be moved onto a Krall transport. Those left behind, the dead and injured, along with the ship and equipment, will be dumped down a Jump Hole to remove any trace of the raid. I'm sorry, but that has been the pattern reported by nearly all the survivors here.
“Your personal risk,” the voice became strident again, “is in giving a Krall reason to believe that you are offering a challenge or threat. An innocent action can get you killed. Keep your hands in sight, very still, and out of your clothing at all times, or else hidden weapons are suspected. If anyone near you, even a family member, is struck or threatened, don't make the slightest move to defend them or your own death is assured, as is probably theirs!
“Carry nothing in your hands other than infants, and if practical, small children should be stripped naked and held away from your own body with your hands visible. Hold the hands of larger preteen children, one adult on each hand. A Krall absolutely will not hesitate to kill a child, including infants.
“When a Krall indicates that you are to go anywhere or to do anything, you must obey them instantly, even if that order forces friends or family to separate. You will be reunited here later. Discard any weapons now, either makeshift or actual, since they will be essentially useless. Please believe me in this! You rarely can do enough damage quickly enough to kill a Krall before it kills you anyway, and then every other Krall around will accept your challenge! It has been tried many times, with the same fatal result every time.”
They heard an indistinct low-pitched growling voice in the recording's background. Doushan's words became very rushed. “I'm out of time, I’m sure they’ll move in fast once you receive this. Good luck.”
The transmission cut off. There was a deathly stillness on the Bridge.
Mirikami broke the silence. He spoke in a near whisper. “They seem to be following the described pattern. Those should be the boarding parties closing on us.” He indicated the external screens.
The twenty-two surrounding ships appeared as glittering pinpricks against the backdrop of stars. Eight ships had left the symmetrical formation and were moving toward them. They had apparently been waiting only for the transmission to end.
He queried Jake, knowing the AI could multi task. “Jake. Do you have any news record of this Doushan person; I forgot his first name, being reported as killed or missing in recent years? He was apparently a minor diplomat.”
The AI didn’t display a moment’s hesitation. “Yes Sir. A person by the name of Mavray Vilinkin Doushan was reported lost, along with a small diplomatic courier ship, on or about August 12, 2547. There were reported to be twenty six people aboard, three diplomats, and their families, with...” Mirikami cut him off from a sure-to-be longer reply.
“Thanks Jake, that’s enough. I’ll make a ship wide announcement directly, when that warning message finishes.”
“Yes Sir.”
Mirikami keyed on the ship's intercom and listened until the last of Doushan's warning was played. He began speaking the instant it ended. “This is Captain Mirikami. Eight boarding craft are approaching us now. I want everyone to do exactly what the man named Doushan advised. If you are in a hull side compartment I want you to move quickly toward the center of your deck area and discard anything an alien might consider a weapon. There are a couple of teenaged children among you, so watch after them carefully.
“As soon as I know where we have been boarded, I will attempt to contact a Krall translator. If permitted, I will keep you informed of their demands. Please, always think before you act, and remember the warnings. Don't give them the slightest reason to harm you. An alien might think any unfamiliar object is a potential weapon, so throw anything like that away now. I order every crewmember to do the same. If others have gone through this ordeal and survived, then we can. Good luck.”
He switched from intercom to voice Link. “Jake, did you understand from the message that we will be boarded by having holes cut in the ship's hull?”
“Yes Sir, by burning openings.”
“Correct, Jake. Do not activate the Sealer System unless there is an explosive decompression, and do not activate the foam units unless a serious fire is detected. The Krall might think we are using some sort of chemical defense and start shooting. Understood, Jake?”
“Yes Sir.”
“Also Jake, segment the forward main view screen into eight equal squares and show me the closest view of each anticipated entry point as any video monitors might permit. Adjust the views if the entry points shift. Do you understand?”
“Yes Sir.”
The forward screen immediately divided into eight views of large compartments and corridors, private cabins did not have cameras. Five hull side compartments and one small cargo area appeared empty of people, but two outer ring corridor views showed a press of confused and frightened people pouring from staterooms, streaming toward the centrally located lounges on each deck. Jake hadn't been asked to furnish audio so the two scenes of pandemonium were silent.
A loud metallic sounding clang came from somewhere well below the Bridge deck. Mirikami jabbed his seat release. “Up! Get away from the controls” he ordered. He unsnapped and dropped his previously retrieved utility belt as he stood, emptying small uniform pockets as well. Noreen and Dillon hurriedly followed suit, moving away from the control consoles.
“Tet”, cried Noreen, as a though flashed through her mind. “Jake's still on audio, do we want to let them know about him?”
“No. Good thinking”, he agreed.
“Jake, restrict your communications to crew transducer units or internal intercom calls off speakers until either I or the highest-ranking crewperson remaining on board tells you any different. Advise the rest of the crew of these instructions, and give them a brief summary, approximately one minute or less long, of what is happening on the ship every five minutes. Understand?” Both officers heard Jake’s acknowledgement through their embedded transducers. Dillon did not via the speakers.
A muffled whoosh was heard from below, followed instantly by a slight, ear-popping drop in air pressure. Dillon, his eyes glued to the segmented view screen, saw several compartments and the cargo hold silently and rapidly fill with some sort of black smoke or gas. One of the views was apparently from the galley area directly under them; the gas was coming up the axial stairs. The two corridor scenes were unchanged except for the rush of people. There was no sign of any smoke there.
Suddenly two hull-side stateroom doors, one along each of the two crowded corridors exploded outward, smashing through the throng, striking the opposite bulkhead in a splatter of red.
Those unfortunate to be passing directly by the doors were battered aside, their crushed and broken bodies rebounding from the opposite bulkhead with sickening force. Billowing black clouds poured through the shattered doorways, and moving along the gray edges was a dimly seen figure on each screen.
Those nearest the explosions in the two corridors began clawing at one another, trying to stay ahead of the advancing darkness. The unheard cries of terror were clearly evident on their faces. The unreasoned panic was answered with gruesome finality.
The back of a woman's head exploded in a spray of red, as the man running next to her spun wildly and struck the bulkhead, his left shoulder and arm dangling by connective tissue as he slid to the deck, blood smearing in a wide red streak. Others, also forgetting the warnings ran harder, and they too began twisting in violent contortions, as what appeared to be explosive projectiles tore out of the advancing darkness into their limbs and bodies. The black clouds swept along over the dead and dying in each corridor, obscuring gore spattered bulkheads and decks, where men and women, limbs missing or entrails exposed, were obviously screaming on the quiet screens.
Dillon, watching the carnage in stunned horror, drew in a sharp breath as one petite figure caught his attention. A woman was standing along one of the ravaged body strewn corridors, facing the approaching wall of black. She was standing still, her arms up over her head, palms forward, facing what was coming. Despite others dying violently around her and behind her, blood splashing her clothes, she appeared unharmed. Doctor Fisher’s grim face glanced at the camera’s bubbled dome, and then gazed into the approaching blackness as the cloud swept over her.
Mirikami, at the first shots, had also leaped toward his console, uttering a strangled cry. “My God, don't...”, then he choked off the emotional reaction and watched both scenes with an agonizing intensity. He knew they wouldn’t hear any calming words he might shout over the din.
Doctor Fisher’s example gave him the thread of salvation he was seeking. He gave an order. “Jake, repeat the following message on ship wide intercom, high volume. Start! `People, don’t panic if you see black smoke, the Krall are hiding in it for their own protection. Stand absolutely still with your hands over your head. They are shooting anyone that runs. If you surrender with hands high, they don’t shoot. For your very life, don't panic or run or you'll be killed!’ End! Jake, repeat it three times, loud!” He could only hope that warning was a fact.
Jake's voice, sounding incongruously calm, boomed throughout the ship, repeating the warning as ordered.
It was then that Dillon saw a few tendrils of gray rising to the Bridge from the axial stairwell. “We've got company of our own,” and nodded toward the stairs.
They were still raising their arms when a blurred figure erupted from the opening to strike the high ceiling feet first, rebound and flip upright to land almost silently, by the side of the adjacent two elevator columns, partially using one for cover. The Krall had two deadly looking pistol shaped weapons trained steadily on them. It uttered no sounds, and made no other threatening move, but its head was on a rapid pivot, and large black eyes were rapidly scanning the area. There appeared to be small red pupils set against obsidian black. They burned with an inner fire as they flashed about the Bridge, seeking something to kill.
Dillon viewed the alien with what he felt was surprisingly clinical detachment, considering what he had seen on screen, and might be about to happen to them. It was an exercise he had actually imagined often enough, dreaming of First Contact with the response team someday. It was more a nightmare now.
The creature was large, an upright bipedal humanoid form, much as Doushan had described, with hairless looking, faintly scaly skin that seemed stretched tightly on an over muscled frame. It wore a close fitting black V-necked body suit that did not fully cover the arms and legs.
Where visible, the skin was grayish red in coloration, except for a black outlined oval shape, blank inside, visible because of the uniform’s V-neck. Two utility belts were slung in an X across its broad chest. There were a number of sealed pockets, and many various attached devices, such as small and medium bladed weapons under straps. There were two holster-like devices at the hips for the pistols it held.
Standing over two meters tall, even with the leg crouch it was maintaining, it alertly watched them. The eyes were set wide apart under a heavy eyebrow ridge. The head, smallish for that big body, was on a thick elongated neck, and had a slight bony crest running from just above its brow to disappear over the top. The eyes were constantly flicking rapidly about the room, the head pivoting to cover every side. On a barely pronounced muzzle, a lipless slash of a mouth remained closed, though four vertical slits, in what would be a nasal location on a human face, flared open and closed as it breathed steadily and slowly. Its torso, particularly the chest and shoulders, was wider and thicker than a large man’s was, and tapered to a waist narrow only in proportion to that massive chest. Relatively short, stocky, and slightly bowed looking legs supported it all.
The arms and legs were jointed similar to a human’s limbs. Dillon noticed with surprise that its feet were bare, displaying four long, possibly prehensile toes, each tipped with a short talon.
The arms were thick as well, and actually longer than the legs. There were short sharp looking spikes on the backside of each elbow joint. It had large hands gripping the weapons, with three relatively slender looking fingers and a shorter opposable thumb, all tipped with short talons. Dillon couldn’t tell its gender, if it had one, though the skintight black garment showed no genital bulge where it would have on a man.
With an unnaturally swift, yet smoothly graceful motion, it suddenly slid both guns into the holsters. The Krall still made no sound and remained in a slight crouch, arms akimbo, clearly poised to spring. There was no sign that it wanted them to do anything. It seemed to be waiting.
Mirikami, wondering if this could be a translator, decided to risk communication. “I am Cap....” He instantly froze in mid word as the Krall, in a veritable blur of motion, drew the left gun and held it rock steady on a point between the Captain's eyes.
It parted its lips, displaying numerous interlocking dagger shaped teeth, and snarled a string of low-pitched unintelligible words. Then in broken but understandable Standard, the words “You are to wait for Harzax Kopandi” was uttered in deep base notes, almost a growl. “Speak or move, you challenge me to fight!” The thin lips rippled in an odd fashion as it spoke, and was that a hint of an eager smile at the end?
Dillon was certain it was risky to anthropomorphize these creatures, but it seemed to be rather hopeful they would try to resist. It seemed rather lizard-like in some respects, so assigning human meanings to his expression was a wasted exercise at this point.
The Krall then holstered the weapon, in that same incredibly fast smooth motion, and continued its watchful stance.
The three humans continued to stand still, their arms raised. As several minutes dragged by, Mirikami risked a glance to his right to see the view screens. He desperately wanted to ask Jake what was happening beyond the eight views he had available. Unsure what he could do about it, he needed to know if the killing continued. He could see a lighter shade of gray smoke in the two corridors, so it seemed to be clearing. No more wisps came up to the Bridge.
He wasn't certain how the Krall would react if he moved, or even spoke to Jake. A dead Captain was not going to be able to help his passengers, though he had no idea what he could do for them in any case. Waiting for Jake's first summary report seemed like an eternity.
When it came, Mirikami and Noreen were sickened. The black smoke had largely dissipated, and Jake could count for certain forty-four bodies within sight of video pickups. He noted most were clearly dead, but others were alive and wounded, and said some were calling for help and trying to move. Six more passengers, outside the view of the eight selected cameras, were confirmed dead, two via biometrics because they were still on their couches, the others observed visua
lly from cameras.
The initial flurry of shooting had slowed considerably, with only four shots recorded throughout the ship in the last minute. It was chilling to hear Jake’s calm steady voice report that four injured people, pleading for mercy, had been killed by the Krall.
The only good news was that the majority of passengers were alive and the killing had been curtailed. Their lack of even an appearance of opposition had perhaps saved many passengers. The Krall were herding the living into the eating and lounge areas, and their docility and submission may have tempered the aggression of most of the Krall. Jake volunteered no specific mention of dead or injured crewmembers because Mirikami had not asked him to do so.
The three on the Bridge waited in a helpless agony of frustration, wanting to do something to end the killing and terror for their companions, and to know what the Krall wanted with them.
Their upheld arms aching, the Krall still in its silent but alert stance, a long second five minutes passed. In the next summary, the situation remained grim, but not as horrible as feared. Jake reported only three more deaths. He described calmly how the fatalities had occurred. There had been no shots fired, and one killing was by a quick decapitating slash of a blade, for a woman who apparently had stared at a warrior. The other two were by a simpler and less messy expedient; a quick one-handed snap of a hysterical woman’s neck, followed by a fist’s crushing blow to the skull of the man who had dared move to catch her falling body.
They had sixteen “intruders” now, as Jake referred to them. Eight additional single ships had arrived, docking apparently with the original eight, and hadn’t needed to cut their own separate entryways. Ten Krall were now with the crew and passengers, bunched near the centers of the five passenger decks, apparently two Krall per passenger group. It was a casual display of confidence in their ability to control so many people with so few warriors.
Jake told them that individual “intruders” were on various decks, swiftly moving from compartment to compartment, collecting any additional crewmembers or passengers where they found them. If they found a door locked, a single powerful kick smashed them in, or were sometimes blasted apart with a single pistol shot. Made of a strong carbon fiber material, the kicking feats were proof of the alien’s strength.
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