by Frank Carey
TABLE OF CONTENTS
TABLE OF CONTENTS
COPYRIGHT
CHAPTER ONE
CHAPTER TWO
CHAPTER THREE
CHAPTER FOUR
CHAPTER FIVE
CHAPTER SIX
CHAPTER SEVEN
CHAPTER EIGHT
CHAPTER NINE
CHAPTER TEN
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Captain Tanoh Ohnat
Adventures of the League Space Patrol Book 5
By Frank Carey
COPYRIGHT
Copyright © 2018 by Frank Carey
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the author except by a reviewer who may quote brief passages in a review.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.
League Tale #61
CHAPTER ONE
Captain Tanoh Ohnat was standing in a large, ornate audience room surrounded by beings that could only be described as blue-black-brown, steroid-addicted werewolves with huge elf-like ears, retractable claws, each one heavily-armed and wearing composite armor. Off to one side was a mirror. He could see himself in it and what he saw was shocking, for he too was a werewolf, but unlike the others in the room, he wore no armor and held no weapons. Instead he wore bloody rags and chains--lots of chains. He looked around and saw a throne in front of him. At that moment, he realized he wasn't a human captain in the League Space Patrol. No, he was Kalock Stor, ex-prince of the Lysan Commonwealth and soon-to-be corpse.
A larger Lysan--this one looked to be at least seven feet tall with enough muscles to make a Goranthi run in fear--walked in and sat down in the chair. It was King Stelgar Stor, ruler of the Commonwealth and Kalock's father. Still looking good, Pops, Kalock thought to himself, kill any sons this morning, or am I the first? The king sat down and glared at Kalock.
"Leave us!" the king barked.
"Sir?" the captain of the guards asked. "Are you sure?"
"Get out!"
The captain saluted, then motioned for everyone to leave except for Kalock. In seconds, the two were alone. Stelgar sat back in his chair while continuing to stare at Kalock.
"Hey, Dad, how's tricks?" Kalock asked.
Stelgar said nothing. Instead, he snapped his fingers. Instantly, a young female Lysan appeared and stood at attention. Stelgar nodded to her. Kalock watched with interest as she walked over to where he stood and unlocked his shackles. Freed, Kalock went from slumped over to standing at attention. If he was going to die, it would be as a proud Lysan and not a chained animal.
"Do you have anything to say before I pronounce sentence?" Stelgar asked.
"I am still totally unqualified to run the commonwealth and, if given the choice, I would not kill you. I swore to protect the people of the commonwealth. If that means having to die at the hands of the very Lysan I saved the life of, then so be it."
Stelgar stood up and walked over to where Kalock stood. "You are the first heir to ever decline the throne due to his or her belief they were ill-suited for the position of king, assuming that was your only reason."
"If you mean I find patricide to be abhorrent both emotionally and morally, then you are correct. I know how this shit works. I get loaded with stimulants, then I am thrown into the ring with my father, whose been tranked. Not going to happen... Ever! You want to retire and raise petunias? Then I'll stay on and run things until we find a suitable replacement, but I will not put you to the sword in a contrived death match."
"It is tradition...!"
"It is bovine excrement! The Lysan people are better than that! We have become morally corrupt and only a strong leader can fix that. I can't fill that role, and if you're unwilling to do so, then find someone who can, which by the way, you'll have to do anyway after putting me to the sword."
The king crossed his arms and glared at his son. "When did you suddenly grow a spine?"
"When you lost yours... Sire."
The young lady took a step away from the two males.
Kalock began to laugh.
"Do you find your impending death funny?" Stelgar asked.
"No, I find you trying to bait me into battle funny. You are persistent."
Stelgar stifled a smile. "Was I that obvious?"
Kalock looked over to the young lady and the look of relief in her eyes. "Only to me, sire."
The king looked at her. "Perhaps you are right, my son, but there are still the charges you have been convicted of. Are you ready for sentencing?"
"I've been ready since the guard finished the last round of beatings. I find being pummeled by your finest boring at best."
The king nodded. "You are to be banished from the commonwealth for the rest of your natural life. Return, and you will be put to death."
Kalock raised an eyebrow. "I thought the commonwealth extended to the edge of the universe."
"No, it’s actually only a few hundred light-years across at its widest. We tell people that to keep them from going out beyond our borders and returning with trouble."
"Right. So, what's my new home going to be like?"
"It's called the League of Planetary Systems, and they don't know we exist. I would like to keep it that way, so I want you not to mention us. Do you agree?"
"Yes, but won't they notice I'm not from around there?"
"No, they won't. You'll see when you get there. Captain Ransom will explain everything en route." They shook hands one last time. "I am sorry about having to throw you to the barbarians, my son."
"At least I'll still be breathing, father."
The captain took him by the arm and led him out of the room. Once he was alone, Stelgar walked to a small closet behind the throne. He returned with the body of a dead Lysan about Kalock's size. After saying a prayer for the decedent's soul, he took out his sidearm and fired it at the body, disintegrating it, leaving only a smoking shadow. When the guards returned, they found the king sitting on his throne with a smoking weapon at his side, staring at what was left of his son.
###
The dream was suddenly ended when Tanoh's alarm went off. He rolled out of bed and sat on the edge while shaking off sleep. "Damn, I hate that dream," he muttered.
"Maybe that's why you keep having it." Tanoh looked up and saw his copilot, Lieutenant Treena Salat standing nearby with a cup of hot coffee in her hands. He looked over at the alarm display and saw the numeral "3" in the upper-right corner. He had slept through three alarm retries. "Sorry," he said.
"Not to worry, Cap. The Space Patrol Ship Rougarou is prepped and waiting," the young Martok said as she handed him the steaming cup.
"Thanks. Maybe I should visit the doc when we get back. I feel more tired now than when I went to bed last night."
"Martok don't remember their dreams; something about being too deep in REM sleep. What was yours about?"
"Same thing it’s always about: a rehash of when I left home after a falling out with my father."
"Maybe if you call him..."
Tan shook head. "He refuses to take my calls," he said, which wasn't too much off the mark. "So, where are we heading this trip?"
Treena plopped down on the bed next to him and showed him their flight plan. "Ah, yes, two asteroid mines, pirates, and a nova patrol. Nothing out of the ordinary. LT, did I ever mention that I crave boring?"
"Many times, Captain!"
"Good. You're paying
attention." He got up and headed to the bathroom. "Let me take a quick shower and we can get to work."
"Not to worry, sir. We launch in two hours, so you have plenty of time." She stood and walked around the room, noting some of the new knick-knacks which had made homes on Tan's shelves. She stopped at one she didn't recognize. "Sir?"
"Yes, LT?" he replied through the open bathroom door.
"What's a werewolf? It looks vaguely Erdexi."
"That is a wolfman model from Earth's 21st century. Humans loved to build models based on movie characters, and the wolfman is one of the most iconic, like vampires and zombies.”
"You humans have weird beliefs."
"Some are; some are based on fact. Vampires are based on Venlantens, and little gray aliens are based on the Alue."
"What about zombies?"
"College students cramming for exams while using coffee and pizza to stay awake."
She shook her head. "What about werewolves?"
"No one is sure. Several human societies have werewolf myths--stories about people turning into wolves." Tan stepped out of the shower in a towel and headed to the bedroom. "Do Martok have transformation legends?"
"Our insect ancestors went through a four-stage life-cycle, one of which we abandoned millennia ago. Since then, our legends consist of morality plays starring heroes and monsters." She looked at the creatures and monsters which bedecked his quarters. "What do you believe in, Captain?"
He came out of the bedroom wearing his Space Patrol uniform, his tan hair and darker beard perfectly coiffed while his green eyes crinkled as he smiled. "I believe in second chances. Shall we get to work?"
"Aye, aye, sir," she said as she led the way out of the room and into the crowded corridors of the Cube.
CHAPTER TWO
Thirty years ago. Ten years after Tan arrived in the League of Planetary Systems...
Tanoh walked off the shuttle and stood to wait for directions with a crowd of pilot wannabes. He looked down at his human hands and smiled. The work done by the Coran doctors was incredible. In two days, they had changed his DNA, transforming him from a Lysan named Kalock Stor into a human named Tanoh Ohnat, his true heritage undetectable by any but the most powerful scanners. Even after ten years, the body felt strange, even though he retained all his physical skills including flying and martial arts. Today, he would see if those skills could get him an honest job.
For the last decade, Tan had worked for smugglers first as a loader, then crew, and finally a ship's captain for what amounted to a rum runner working the route between Earth and Ventos Prime. Humans paid top dollar for ingredients needed to make the dangerous elf drink known as the Unicorn Fart, and Tan's employers were more than happy to supply them.
Two weeks ago, a call went out for pilots interested in working for the Cube Research Station, the jewel of the League's Office of Security. Tan jumped at the chance at working for the people who had been trying to arrest him for the last ten years.
A Storen woman walked up and addressed the group, interrupting Tan's trip down memory lane. "Listen up! Welcome to the Cube Center for Research. My name is Chief Pilot Lyscka. You will address me as Chief Pilot. You are all here because you passed a battery of written tests designed to see if you are mentally fit to be part of the Cube Space Patrol. The CSP's mission is to protect the Cube, its staff, and its visitors." A hand raised from the back of the group. "Yes?"
An elf asked, "From what, Chief Pilot?"
Lyscka looked directly at Tanoh. "Mr. Ohnat, would you care to answer the question?"
Tan looked at the elf. "Harm," he said.
Lyscka nodded. "Exactly. No harm shall befall the Cube, its occupants, or its visitors. We work with stuff that makes nasty look tame. Those of you who don't wash out will become part of an elite security force. I promise you, the number of slots is small, and you will earn the right to fill one. Now, follow me. Your journey begins now."
###
Tanoh was assigned a lightly-armed patrol ship which resembled ones he had trained in during his previous life. Unlike the Lysan ships of his past which were armed with everything from multi-barreled slug throwers to nuclear-tipped missiles, this one had a single barreled gun which fired small, polymer shells filled with brightly-colored paint. Calling the ship armed was a stretch. His current mission was to follow his training wing commander through a holographic obstacle course which fired repulser pulses when an obstacle wasn't avoided correctly.
"Trainer One to all trainees, I have just received an emergency hold on channel six. Form-up behind me and come to a full stop, over."
Tan did as he was told. When he came to a stop, he switched his secondary receiver to channel six to listen in.
"This is range control to Cube control. You have an inbound bark-borer missile on an intercept course." They reeled-off as set of coordinates. "No joy on control. No joy on self-destruct. Over."
Tan looked and saw the missile coming in on a heading which intersected with the Cube at the VIP level. Tan knew that there was an emergency meeting of the League council going on. Using information from his scanners, he saw that an intercept was impossible for any of the normal patrol ships in the area. The only group that had a chance were the trainees. He had seconds to figure out a course of action, so he brought up a diagram of the bark-borer on his displays. That's when he saw the solution. Slamming his throttles forward while pulling back on his stick, he shot out of formation and headed to a point directly in front of the missile.
"Trainee six! What the hell are you doing?" the trainer yelled over the radio.
"Ma'am, the bark borer is a dual-channel hunter-seeker missile which relies primarily on radar for guidance. If radar goes out, it defaults to infrared. My ammo is hollow plastic spheres filled with metal-based paint for maximum radar reflectivity. If I hit the missile's nose with a paint round, it will scram the radar, forcing the missile to go to IR. If I time it right, I can show it my engine exhaust which will cause it to lock onto my engine. Once locked, I can lead it away from the station and give the patrol time to take it out.”
"And if they don't get to you in time?"
"Then I save you the trouble of having to cashier me out of the program for disobeying orders and recklessly endangering my ship. Now, excuse me while I figure out a firing solution. He flipped off the comm to give him some quiet time. It took him a moment to figure where and when. Ready, he aimed his ship at a point a hundred-feet from the missile and fired a barrage of paint rounds at the missile before turning so that his ship was between the weapon and the cube. He watched his sensors and when the radar from the missile cut off, he jinked to starboard while watching to see if the bark-borer followed. Seeing it turning with him, he banked hard to starboard and took the errant missile away from the Cube. Moments later, the patrol arrived and destroyed it.
###
Tan stood at attention while the volcano known as Chief Pilot Lyscka raged before him. Near the door stood two Space Marines Tan had ever seen. They were there to keep Lyscka from killing the trainee. That fact that someone felt it necessary to have not one, but two Marines keeping him safe spoke volumes.
"What the hell were you thinking? You don't know your ass from a hole in the ground, yet you felt the need to break protocol by flying your ship in front of a bark-borer missile with only a paintball gun as a weapon?"
"Permission to speak freely, Chief Pilot."
"Sure, why not?"
"I ran the calculations. The Cube was about to die. You were about to die. The League council was about to die. I had a shot, so I took it. If I had stopped to tell the trainer my plan and get permission to execute it, this plarking station would be a plarking ball of plasma with her, me, and the other trainees along with it. It was either let us all die or risk me getting killed. I chose me, so, with all due respect, why don't you order one of those unbelievably large Marines by the door to take his or her weapon and shoot me with it!"
The Marines stepped away from the two of them. T
he trainer pilot, who had been standing silently off to the side, also stepped away. Tan just stood there, still at attention, while staring at the Chief Pilot.
"Lyscka, why don't you go outside and have a breath, and take everyone with you. I'd like to talk to Mr. Ohnat alone."
Tanoh looked at the speaker and saw a dark-haired, human woman about five-foot-six with a gymnast's build. She nodded toward the door. "Go."
Everyone quickly exited the room, leaving the woman standing there while Tan remained at attention.
"At ease, trainee. My name is Ciara Devlin and I'm Director of the Cube. You can call me Ciara."
Tan went to a relaxed stand.
"So, tell me Tanoh, how did you run those calculations without using your computer. We know you didn't use it because we monitor those sorts of things."
"I... I ran the calculations in my head, Director."
"Let me tell you a story. We ran those calculations through one of our mainframes. We started right when you heard the broadcast and we had a solution right when you lit off into space with the missile hot on your ass. You know what the computer told us?"
"No, ma'am."
"It told us that we were all dead. Even if we had tried to split the Cube in half, the missile would hit one, but the explosion would destroy both halves. Your actions saved approximately 50,000 lives. How do you feel about that?"
"I shouldn't have yelled at the Chief Pilot. It is not my place to yell at the Chief Pilot, ma'am."
Ciara shook her head. "You risked your own life to save 50,000 souls, yet you're worried about the Chief Pilot's feelings?"
"Director, I could no more not do what I did than stop my own heart. Yelling at the Chief Pilot I did deliberately."
"You are very odd. Not bad, just odd. Though they won't admit it, most of my pilots work here for reasons other than duty."
"Am I fired?"
"God, no. You will continue with the training program. Meanwhile, I will have a talk with Lyscka. Tomorrow will be a new day. Oh, one more thing: any suggestions on how we can prevent this in the future?"