by Z Gottlieb
“Pilot who?” Shinny asked in surprise tone.
“I wasn’t ready to give up our names, yet.”
A female voice responded immediately, “Pilot who? Repeat—we did not hear transmission. All Swarm Defenders and Attack Vipers were ordered to destroy enemy assets, claim territory, and capture Major N’Klaftin. You will return to your assigned duties.”
Brad quickly cut communications and turned to Shinny. “Who knew that you left the ship?”
“I don’t know. I had no idea I would be leaving the ship until the orders came through. Other than Colonel T’Lentic, I’m not sure who would know. It’s disturbing knowing that not only am I being directly targeted but they’re killing my shipmates looking for me.”
Brad glanced at his wife’s face and ran through a number of alternatives in his head. Not many people knew the details of their side trip. He couldn’t worry about that now. They needed to focus on surviving their boarding of the Kisskalu. “I can’t go back there shooting the pods while looking for you. It looks like the sneaking on plan isn’t possible, if they think we’re abandoning the hunt.”
“I know,” Shinny whispered, resigned to becoming prisoners. Shinny shuddered briefly, remembering her mother’s fate in an Aneplé prison. She closed her eyes for a moment and reviewed the information on file concerning Aneplé imprisonment. The information was sparse but it was a start. “As long as they don’t learn who I am or that I’m a Special Combat Officer, they may leave us alone or quarantine us until we are indoctrinated.”
“Indoctrinated?” The communication button flashing indicated a response was required from him.
“I’m not entirely sure what indoctrination means, but there are planet systems that choose to remain with the Aneplé when given a choice. Every five to ten years, CIG Fleet sends Special Combat troops into Aneplé territory. The majority never return. The few people we have rescued wiped their chips and committed suicide. The only item recovered were their blank chips.”
Sighing heavily, Brad raked his hair with his hand. “Why is it that after close to two centuries of fighting these people, there’s almost no information about them? I don’t understand the logic of CIG’s losses, either. The Aneplé don’t have a technology advantage, they fight with whatever they manage to scavenge or steal from CIG Fleet. And, looking around, they don’t seem to have a cultural advantage either.” Brad turned toward Shinny. “I’m sorry. I’m scared as hell at this moment. I admit I don’t have a plan, but we will find a way back home.”
Shinny nodded. “I believe you.” She wasn’t convinced he would find a way off the Kisskalu, but she believed he would explore every option with her to find a way off the ship. Hopefully, if they did find a way off the battle cruiser, they wouldn’t find themselves in the center of Aneplé space. She pointed to the indicator. “I think it’s time to let them know they have a couple of CIG Fleet Officers onboard before they decide they are dealing with cowards and shoot us.”
Brad reluctantly gestured over the controls. “I repeat, this is Pilot Johnson from Zuonopy’s Swarm Defender Squadron 262 requesting a platform to dock Swarm Defender Vehicle 769.”
The voice responded, rapidly firing questions at them. “Zuonopy? What are you doing on Aneplé Capital Ship Kisskalu? Are you defecting?”
Brad turned to Shinny with a quizzical look. “Don’t think I can answer any of the questions. Can you? Why are they keeping the ship’s name? It seems to me they would have given it an Aneplé name.”
Shinny shrugged.
“Land now,” a new graveled voice ordered. “My security team and I will meet you on the platform.”
“Negative, the platform is currently occupied by personnel,” Brad responded while he increased the vehicle’s vertical hovering to see if any of the platforms at the higher levels had space for him to land.
“I’m ordering you to land. The squatters will move away or will be recycled if they interfere with operations or are injured,” the graveled voice demanded.
Brad cut the coms transmission and looked at Shinny. “Nice. They have their own personal junkyard dog barking orders at us now. I can’t bring myself to just land on anyone. I’ll take my chances we’ll find something less crowded.”
“Agreed. I’m not going to compromise myself just to get a few brownie points with this crew. We should push as much as possible staying on the side of annoying them and avoid enraging them,” Shinny advised. She had just managed to connect her tablet to the Kisskalu’s central computer system and began searching the platforms for open space. “It looks like a there are a number of better maintained platforms if you go forward.” Shinny sent the platform numbers to the windshield display.
Brad looked at the list of platforms and moved the vehicle toward the front of the battle cruiser. “How did you get the information?”
“I went through the back door using my trainer on my tablet. It’s a little secret from—”
“Let me guess,” Brad interrupted, “One of the original programmers, who programmed the original safety parameters on the Swarm Defender.”
Shinny laughed. “I can understand why you would jump to that conclusion, but Connor doesn’t get credit for everything. A friend of my parents developed the back door encryption keys. While Connor wasn’t always open in sharing everything with me, I spent much of my childhood in the background listening and learning from my parents and their friends when it was possible. They would probably faint if they knew I picked this trick up as early as I did.”
“It may not have been Connor, but I knew he was involved somehow.” Brad chuckled. “Good to know the guy has some imperfections, otherwise it could give family and friends complexes. But I’d feel better if I knew he’d save the day.” He looked at Shinny rapid gestures over the dashboard and tablet. “What are you doing, now?”
“I’m downloading as much information as possible before they figure out I have access to their systems. I’m also adding another layer of encryption to the sensor systems on this vehicle.”
“Good thinking,” Brad said, as he navigated through the platforms.
“Pilot, halt. You were ordered to drop where you are. We will take action if you do not comply.”
“Great, it looks like I need to throw the junkyard dog a bone to calm her down.” Brad gestured over the communications link to unmute it. “I am filing a plan to dock at Platform 186, closer to the bridge, to be more convenient for your senior officers. This vehicle is unarmed and will not cause harm to anyone on this battle cruiser. We have one handheld praser and will leave it in this vehicle for your security officers to impound.” He cut the comms off and turned to Shinny, “Sorry, I feel bad surrendering our only weapon so early, but realistically having one praser was more of a threat to our survival at this point than not having one.”
She nodded in agreement, “I’m not happy about losing my praser but I understand why you offered it. It may be a small article of good faith, but I also believe we really have no other option. I don’t know how it will be received by the Aneplé, but at least it will give them one less reason to shoot us.”
“Landing platform request approved. Do not leave the platform without a Security review. All future infractions will result in notifying Security for appropriate action,” the gravelly voice warned.
Brad appreciated the seriousness of their situation, but the sudden need to ratchet down the tension had him wiggling his eyebrows at Shinny. “Are the security guys the really bad guys on this ship?” Shinny nodded and chuckled at his antics. “Guess we have to take this warning seriously.” He waved a hand over the communications control pad. “Message received.” Brad hoped they would figure something out soon. At least they had each other, he reminded himself.
“I have over 88% of the ship’s codes downloaded and 79% of the ship’s database compressed, encrypted, and hidden in my tablet. I may be able to acquire two more prasers at a later time if I’m able to analyze the information that I downloaded”.”
Brad watched Shinny drain her praser’s energy cell from a side vent and put the weapon down. “Equally smart moves on your part. We’ll be fine.”
Shinny snorted at his comment, “I’m not sure I want to know your definition of fine.” She began removing all of her insignias from her uniform and then pulled off Brad’s insignias while he was focused on landing. “Why are you pulling our insignia’s off?” Brad asked.
“You know they will pick up lies from their sensors, but we don’t need them to know everything up front. They are not known for being friendly to Special Combat Officers. It would definitely result in imprisonment for me. I don’t intend to make it easy for them to figure out my position in the Fleet.” Shinny threw the insignias into the vehicle’s small recycle bin. She waited thirty seconds and pulled out a small cube. “This will definitely make it harder for them to figure out. Would you like a souvenir of our insignias?” Shinny held up the small cube.
“Sure. Could you pull a small pocket near my heart?” He lowered the vehicle as he approached Platform 186.
Smiling, Shinny pulled a pocket on Brad’s chest and dropped the small cube within. Even when the odds seemed insurmountable, her husband remained the romantic. She leaned back in her seat and stared at the Transportation Room, “Do you remember the conversation we had before Griken dropped into our lives about getting away? We had discussed leaving Dane with Connor and Nan to get away. Here we are in the middle of the Universe, just the two of us and 30,000 Aneplé. It wasn’t on my bucket list, but it is high on the adventure meter.”
“Just trying to show you a good time.”
“It will definitely be memorable.” Shinny laughed. She sighed heavily, “ No wonder there were people living on the platform. The cruiser was carrying three times more people than it was built to handle and many looked like they were starving. The ship probably wasn’t carrying enough supplies for a crew of this size.”
“One crisis at a time.”
Shinny swiped through her tablet, “Agree. The food situation is unclear because there are hydroponic gardens throughout the ship. It’s unlikely they will feed us as well as the people on the platforms, if we are prisoners.”
Brad shrugged, “I’m not exactly a fan of space food as it is.” Brad landed his vehicle on the platform and stared at the heavy green dust floating around. “Is there any information on the green dust? None of the information that I read on the Aneplé addressed the dust.”
“The dust is new to me also. I don’t remember reading about it in any of the intelligence reports.”
“Just another data point for us to put on our to do list. I wonder whether or not it would affect the vehicle’s engine, once we figure a way off the ship.” He saw Shinny’s questioning face, “I know, what was I thinking? I’m worried about getting off; when my first priority should be just surviving.” Shinny looked as shell shocked as he felt. He took a deep breath. “Mrs. Johnson, I see the junkyard dog and her minions heading our way. Shall we greet them halfway on the platform?”
“Mr. Johnson, I believe halfway would be the polite thing to do.” She reached for her armor and personal shield in a pouch behind them and attached the pouch and shield to her uniform at her waist.
Brad gestured for the canopy to lift. As the shield rose, queasiness arose as an avalanche of rotting meat stench went straight to his stomach. “Oh god, Shinny can you smell it?” He leaned over, gagged and threw up onto the side of the vehicle and the platform. Gasping, he tried to control the gagging. “Shinny, I need your help. It’s the dust.” The gagging caused him to throw up again. He felt worthless, unable to control his retching. The Aneplé didn’t need weapons, he thought; the green dust was taking him down. It was too late to close the canopy and even if he did, they would still need to leave the vehicle if they were going to survive, although at this moment he didn’t care.
Brad’s sudden transformation from hero to zero with his gagging and violent vomiting spurred Shinny to move fast. At his cry for help, she jumped out of the vehicle, ran to pull the door out and then lifted him out of the Defender. Although Brad was hunched over from the violent retching and heaving, she was able to support him as they walked toward the Aneplé party marching toward them. She had no idea what Brad was talking about or what caused his sudden urge to vomit. She wasn’t bothered by the smell of the dust; to her the dust had a somewhat pleasant, light lemony-mint fragrance. However, she became concerned Brad may have a possible chip failure. She had heard it was extraordinarily rare and thought she was witnessing it with Brad’s sudden reaction. Seeing him this ill had shaken her. This seemed worse than when he had a stomach virus on Earth. They were almost at the center when Brad struggled to be released. She continued to hold onto him even with him thrashing in her arms. “Brad, I’ve got you.”
“Shinny, you need to let go. I’m going to throw up again. Our situation is bad enough without me puking on you. Not a good way to stand up to the enemy.” He jerked away from her grasp. He staggered a few steps away, gagging again, and fell toward the floor.
Shinny grabbed Brad as he started to fall and gently guided him to lie on the floor, where he proceeded to vomit again. She stood and turned to face the group that had approached them. It was odd seeing them in Fleet uniforms with the strange insignias. The woman leading the group was a few inches shorter than her and excruciatingly thin and haggard looking. The crewmembers standing behind her weren’t much different. Shinny approached them as if there was nothing wrong. She felt vulnerable and unnatural standing in front of them without wearing her armor and her praser in her hand. She preferred to outthink her opponents, but at this moment, she found herself fighting her instinct to disarm the group even though she did not see any weapons. Even if she was able to overcome them, she had no backup and what would she do on a ship teaming with Aneplé and Brad lying down in a curled fetal position? She needed to hold herself back from doing anything stupid. Keep it simple and don’t commit to anything, she told herself. “Thank you for allowing us to land. I am Shinny Johnson, and my crew mate is Brad Johnson.”
The graveled voice woman pointed toward Brad, who was trying to stand, screeching, “He looks damaged and should be recycled.”
Shinny, alarmed over the junkyard dog’s assessment, moved quickly to help Brad stand and held onto his waist ensuring that he didn’t fall. “He is fine. He had an allergic reaction to the dust. He will be better.”
“That is not natural. Only Neslins are allergic to the dust.” She inhaled deeply. “The dust is from our Zorchkrisck plants in hydroponics. When it’s in the air all the time it makes everything easier.” The woman suspiciously eyed Shinny. “Don’t you like the smell?”
Shinny did not understand the fascination with the dust, but if it changed the woman’s focus and gave them more time, she would go with it. “It’s a pleasant smell, but there seems to be too much of it.”
“You will become accustomed to it. It’ll make you feel good and you will learn to appreciate it and want more.” Junkyard Dog pulled her tablet. “Your name is not showing in our records. What type of name is Johnson? she asked as she inhaled deeply and searched the name on her tablet. “There must be a gap in intelligence.”
“It’s from my home planet. It’s located on the outermost edge of CIG space. Johnson is one of the more common names,” Brad volunteered in a raspy voice resulting from his vomiting, as he stood next to Shinny.
The officer gave a whatever humph to Brad’s explanation. “We have a report that Major N’Klaftin left the Zuonopy. Do you know where she is? My security officers are watching your responses on their tools. If you lie during this interrogation you will be recycled.”
Shinny stood silently, knowing they would immediately detect a lie from her. Distracted by the obvious Intelligence leak in CIG’s operations, she was having trouble focusing on a non-answer answer that would not register as a lie when Brad answered for them.
“Major N’Klaftin is in my heart,” Brad whispered.
> The Aneplé officer furrowed her brows. “What did you say?”
“I said, Major N’Klaftin is in my heart.” Shinny’s face froze in shock when he made the statement. It was one of the earlier cultural expressions Connor and Shinny had learned. He was taking a chance that while it would register as a truth, it would have no meaning to these people.
A crewman walked over to the officer and whispered something to the Security Officer. The crewman crossed to Brad. “You are hiding something,” she challenged as she ripped opened the pocket on his chest and pulled out a small cube. “What’s this?”
“We recycled what was left of Major N’Klaftin,” Brad explained. “Can I have it back?”
The crewman threw the cube into Brad’s face. Brad grabbed it as it bounced off his face and returned it to his pocket. The crewman turned to the officer in charge. “Commander Nerunder, I don’t know what this means. He may be deranged or the dust is having an odd effect on him.” The crewman walked back to the group staring at the sensor readings on her tablet, as if she was wondering if she missed something.
“Who is senior?” Nerunder barked.
“I am,” Shinny responded.
“Are you a pilot?” the woman asked.
Brad jumped in, answering weakly, “I am certified to fly a few vehicles.”
“I didn’t ask you. If you don’t get better, you are worthless and will be recycled,” the Junkyard dog barked at Brad. She focused her stare on Shinny. “If you are senior, why do you let him respond for you? Are you defective too?”