“Barithia is the headquarters for this sector. We were told it would be a high honor to serve in his bath. He has many wives and we will… were to be their personal slaves. We were working in a factory that assembled environmental systems. My sisters and I were on a team that achieved the highest output at the factory. From that, we were selected for this position.”
Missa continued, “Our sister Mira? Will we be able to see her body? There are traditions on our world that we would like to keep. The Milgari have not allowed them for the 12 years of occupation. We would like to grieve in our own way if possible.”
I turned to the guard with a request that Mira’s body be brought aboard and that one of our med techs should do their best to clean her wounds. When ready she would be placed in a room where her sisters could perform their ritual. The guard nodded and then turned and left.
I spoke, “We are sorry for your loss. Sometimes the innocent are casualties of war. We make every effort to minimize those casualties but we are only Human… err… well, we are prone to the same errors as everyone.”
I pursed my lips to show my solemn concern.
The sisters thanked me for my kindness and for our sacrifices to win their freedom. We were unsure of what to do with them as their world was under control of the Milgari. They could not go back. I made the offer of freedom and citizenship with the Nation of Defiant. Each would have a job, a place to stay and wages. If at some future time their world was freed from the domination of the Milgari, we would make every effort to return them to their home.
I asked the sisters to be patient as we cleared the freighter and told the guard to see to their needs. I returned to see Meyer in engineering where the room had just been cleared.
Meyer spoke, “We ran into heavy resistance on this one. That’s 14 crewmen in this area alone. I’m wondering if this barge is going to be loaded with them. It’s a big boat, but most of these systems are automated. If you follow me we are now headed to the Bridge. They have yet to breach the door. Crewmen keep showing up in the main hall at the worst times. We will be securing that hall and all the rooms along it.”
I followed Meyer towards our new mission.
Meyer gave her orders, “Dell! You Grange and Henning take the left side, we’ll go right. Check every possible place for hiders… vents, boxes… every possible place. And keep tight with your formation, I don’t want to be dragging your sorry carcasses out of there later.”
The first three rooms were cleared in short order. The fourth room was a bloody mess of Milgari bodies. Those who had been killed in the hallway had been dragged in and stacked in a pile.
As I turned to leave the room I thought I saw movement. “Dell. I’ll catch you in the next one. I’m going to check this pile. I thought I saw one of them move.”
Dell and Henning moved on to the next room. I stepped over to the pile and began to poke. The blood soaked floor made for a slippery base.
I poked the body on top of the pile with the barrel of my AK. It was dead as one of the three lobes on its head had been blown open and the brains inside scattered. I took a step towards the next and my right boot slipped across the floor. Before I could catch myself I had fallen and was lying in the Milgari blood. It had a foul stench to it, something akin to garlic and onions from back on the Grid.
I stood looking at my side in disgust as the Milgari blood dripped down the side of my combat suit. I then proceeded to prod the stack of bodies. When I came to the last body on the stack I looked for wounds, none were evident. I poked at the body with the barrel of my AK. It did not move.
As I started to turn towards the door, something in my head told me that something was not right with the last body. I stopped and again poked at it with my AK. In an instant the creature sprang to life and grabbed the barrel of my gun.
Ak-ak-ak-ak-ak!
I pulled the trigger, but the rounds did not find their mark.
The Milgari then grabbed me at the hip and pulled me onto the stack with him, screeching as he pulled me close. In the blood I had no footing and soon found myself wresting for my gun. The Milgari pounded his fist against my helmet and then against my ribs. I winced in pain as I tried to maintain my grip.
In a single writhing move the AK was ripped from my hands and I was thrown onto the floor face down. As I rolled over the Milgari sat upright with my AK and pulled the trigger.
Ak-ak!
A round grazed my inner thigh. I shuddered as the next rounds were fired.
Ak-ak-ak-ak-ak!
The Milgari fell silent. Dell stood in the doorway with a smoking barrel.
“You OK Sir? Not sure what I was thinking. Meyer is gonna be pissed that we left you back here. I’ll be taking some lumps for this one.”
I stood, my combat suit dripping with Milgari blood. “Geez Sir, looks like you went through a meat grinder!”
I attempted to brush the blood from my arm with my glove. “I’m fine, almost took a round in the thigh, but it’s just a scratch. And don’t worry about Meyer, she owes me one and I’ll be happy to cash it in.”
We continued on to the next room as Meyer came from down the hall. “Grange! You are killing me here! Every time I turn around you are in trouble! Take a break and go clean yourself up. We can handle this hallway.”
I pulled a Milgari uniform from a rack and used it to wipe off my boots. “If it’s all the same Sergeant, I would just as soon continue to clear this hall. If it’s not me standing here it will be someone else and I don’t want that on my conscience.”
Meyer looked me up and down. “You are one odd bird Grange. You have me baffled as to how you got where you are, but I’ll give credit where it’s due. You keep coming out on the high end of these bad situations. There has to be a reason for that. I’m just not sure what that is exactly.”
Meyer turned and barked orders at her men as she proceeded back down the hall. Another nine rooms were cleared before we had an encounter in the tenth. As Dell rounded the corner an alien attacked him with a knife. Before he could react the half meter long blade was thrust through his heart.
Ak-ak!
The alien fell backwards onto the floor; two 7.62mm rounds had penetrated his chest.
I stepped in with my AK trained on him. “We are Humans! We are here to liberate you from the Milgari. Why did you attack!” The male breathed heavily. “I’m… I’m sorry… I didn’t know. I was only trying to protect myself. All the fighting… I was confused.”
The alien sat up and then folded over in pain on top of Dell’s body. I reached for his shoulder to offer a hand. He then spun around violently, slashing at me with the long knife as he pulled it from Dell’s chest.
Ak!
A round to his shoulder put a stop to the attempted attack. I placed a boot on his forearm and the barrel of my AK to his forehead. “Why did you do that? We came to help you!”
The alien smiled in a hateful way. “Help us? You attack our ship and try to steal the wealth of our empire and you call it help? You humans are a foul species and one day our galaxy will be rid of you.
I pressed harder with my gun. “Are you saying you are part of the Milgari Empire?”
The alien spat blood and then laughed. “The Milgari Empire? Hahahaha! I am Torrian!”
He then winced and fell silent. Meyer was standing behind me. “Geez… not Dell, what happened?”
I turned towards her. “Looks like the Torrian here was hiding in that storage locker. He jumped Dell before he had a chance. I shot him twice in reaction. He feigned that his attack was a mistake and that he was sorry and confused.”
“Then he grabbed the knife and tried to attack me. But none of that’s what’s important. It’s what he said there at the end that has me worried. He made it sound like the Torrians were willing partners with the Milgari. And then the strange part. He laughed when I referenced th
e Milgari Empire. It was as if the Milgari were some kind of a joke and someone else was pulling the strings. I don’t think that rumor has ever made it into the mill. If that is so we…”
I jumped up and pushed Meyer out of the doorway. I sprinted back down the hall and then through the breach tube and onto the Helix. When I entered the conference room the guard lay dead on the floor, a steel chair leg jammed through his skull. I sprinted to the officer of the deck and put out the alarm. Three Torrians were on the loose on the Helix and they should be considered armed and dangerous.
We moved from room to room looking for the enemy who were now loose on our ship. The Marine in front of me opened a door and received a blaster bolt to his chest. I took position just around a corner and waited for the Torrians to come out, my blaster now in my hand.
When the first Torrian entered the hallway I sent a bolt into her back. Her ribcage exploded in a violent rage. Missa and the remaining Torrian darted back into the room. We secured the hallway, effectively cutting off any exit. I moved up close to the door.
I spoke, “Hey, Missa, I know you can hear me. You are now our prisoners. I’m going to give you two options. Number one, you throw out your weapons and come out with your hands where we can see them. You will be treated fairly as a prisoner of war. Number two, we seal that door and pump a nerve agent in. Now I can’t guarantee your safety with that one as I have no way of knowing what it will do to a Torrian, and frankly at this point I don’t really care.”
I then turned to one of the Marines behind me. “Bring that jar of bugs that Daniels likes to use.”
He hurried off and returned in less than a minute. “I do have a third option.”
I rolled the jar in front of the door. “Our little critters here like to eat, and they will eat anything, including live flesh. We have a large bin down on the lower decks that we use for waste disposal. Drop anything in there and it eventually comes out through a tube as a black slime after the bugs in there are done with it.”
I continued, “I’m really leaning towards the slime option myself.”
The room was full of whispers for nearly a minute. “OK, we are coming out. Here is my weapon!”
A blaster slid out into the hallway. I waited several seconds before I replied. “There are a dozen of us out here. That other blaster that you are holding, it’s not going to do you any good. Toss it out and we can talk!”
The whispering once again ensued. Shortly thereafter, a second blaster slid out into the hallway. The two Torrians then slowly emerged.
A Marine yelled, “Down on your knees! Hands on the wall!”
The Marines quickly had them cuffed and headed for a makeshift brig. Daniels then walked down the hall. What’s the commotion?” He then spotted the jar. “Awe, and who had my babies?”
He was soon filled in about what had transpired. I asked if he had seen Meyers. He had. She was with a team doing a continued sweep of the freighter. The Bridge had been secured and as soon as the ship was deemed clean she would be sent to the Delta collection point. Much of the day had passed before the freighter was on its way.
With the main struggles under control I made my way back to the Swift for a shower and a change. Frig was waiting. “Sir! What happened? Is that dried Milgari blood? You are completely covered in it.”
I looked down and then back at Frig. Just bumped into a few unfriendlies that’s all. I’ll fill you in after I clean up.”
Chapter 17
With the casualties encountered from the freighter raid and with the significant haul that it was, I ordered the Hunter and the Helix to return to base. Several weeks of rest and recuperation were in order before crews would be refreshed, resupplied and once again sent out to harass the Milgari. Two new Raiders were now at the ready.
The decision had been made to divert the freighter loaded with gemstones to Jarhead where it would be placed in orbit. Daily shuttle flights were then made to slowly transfer the cargo to the planet’s surface. A bunker complex was dug into the rocky surface where the gemstones would be stored until sold.
The haul from the freighter was estimated to contain enough wealth for the financing of almost any planet in the galaxy for several years. George would get his automated space docks and our terraforming of Jarhead would be accelerated. We would also increase our pace of building Raiders and hiring the crews to run them. The Grid had a large contingent of retired military personnel to draw from, but many were no longer fit for service.
Two months later the Colonel returned from the Grid with another load of 1,000 Defiant Marine recruits. With the new Marines in training he had a decision to make, did he want to capture and convert a new cruiser? Or, were ten new frigates in order. Capturing was our only method of obtaining such large ships as the automated space docks that George would be purchasing would be many months in the making.
In the following weeks the Hunter and the Helix returned to duty along with the newly commissioned Harrow and Harlot Raiders. With the loss of the Tantric ore and the massive gem ship the Milgari had pulled back their fleet to better protect their supply lines. Our newest Raiders would not be enjoying the same easy scores as had the early runs.
My efforts since returning had been to gather information about the Torrians. Our two captives had clammed up and refused to even discuss the time of day. I attempted to coerce them with Daniels creepy bug tactic, but they for whatever reason, were no longer in fear. George had been tasked with finding a drug that would loosen their tongues.
Torture was frowned upon by most civilized worlds, but each planet and their government made their own rules. We would not use any method that caused long term physical harm. All other methods were on the table as they were deemed a necessary step to prevent death or damage to our people and our assets. This was war and we were the victims.
While on Omrin, George procured a compound whose name effectively translated into Dutellium. I thought it a joke when I first was told of it, but I was also told that it was highly effective when used properly. We would need to do a blood test on our subjects to set up the proper dosage. I was eager to proceed, George was hesitant.
I stood and patted George on the shoulder, “Absolutely we want to proceed. I want to know if the Milgari are in charge or if they are just working for someone else. The ramifications of this could be mind-blowing. What if there is another species out there pulling all the strings?”
I continued, “For a thousand years these Milgari goons have been relentless in their pursuit of us. We have captured thousands, but we have not had any luck getting even a single one to talk. It is like they are just full of rage and it is a barrier we cannot get beyond. The data stores on their ships contain minimal information on any culture or really anything at all about them. We have yet to find any way of reasoning with them.”
“But here we have this new species. A species that we can communicate with and a species that acts, at least initially, like the Milgari are not in charge. If this drug works, we may have our first insight into why we are being chased around this galaxy. What if there is a species that can be reasoned with that could put an end to this war? What if they can be convinced to just leave us alone?”
George made his way over to the prisoners and drew the blood samples he needed. The following day he returned to my office. “I have the dosage for the Dutellium. Whenever you are ready we can administer it. It takes approximately six hours to saturate the brain and lower the barriers that a conscious mind constructs for protecting information.”
“There is one possible problem that I do not have the equipment to test. How will this affect the Torrian brain? And what other possible side effects will this compound have on them. On humans, and on a number of other species, it has tested out clean, but we are all different and sometimes even a subtle difference can have an impact that we cannot foresee.”
I pressed a comm button on my desk and asked that the Torrian named Bezith be brou
ght to my office. When a guard entered the room with Bezith in tow I had him cuff her to a chair and then leave. George administered the prescribed dose and we sat back and waited.
An hour after the injection the Torrian passed out in the chair. At two hours she was again awake, the normal scowl on her face was gone. At three hours she seemed euphoric, she stared endlessly at the patterns on the ceiling while she smiled.
At hour four she began to talk incoherently, George had a level of concern on his face. By the fifth hour the Torrian woman started to convulse, drool ran from her drooped open mouth, snot from her nose and her eyes were constantly rolled back into her head. Shortly thereafter she stopped breathing. We attempted to resuscitate her by the normal means, but nothing made a difference. The drug had overwhelmed her systems and George soon declared her dead.
George spoke, “Sorry Don, there is not much you can do when the brain shuts down like that. I would recommend we drop the dosage in half as between hours three and four she looked like she might just talk to us, that is, before she started babbling.”
I paced the floor as the body of the Torrian was removed. “We only have one of these prisoners left. I don’t want to risk losing them. Since we are not under any immediate need for this information, I think you should dial that dosage back to one tenth the strength. See where it takes us. If it’s not enough we can always try again with a slightly higher dose, you know, just work our way up until it works.”
George agreed and the second Torrian was brought in. Missa sat cuffed in the same chair where her cohort had just died. “I have some unfortunate news for you Missa. Bezith is dead. We attempted to give her a drug to loosen her up a bit and I’m afraid it turned out to be a bit too much. I’m telling you this to give you the opportunity to talk with me before we attempt to use the drug on you. No need to risk your life unnecessarily.”
Missa then looked up at me and grinned. She spoke her first words since arriving on the Suppressor. “Obviously your pitiful attempt at drugging her failed. We do not have your disgustingly weak Human physiology. And I can only reason that you brought me in here because you were unsuccessful in gaining any information. You are wasting your time. I have nothing to tell and if I did I would take it to the grave with me before telling it to you.”
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