Assessing Survival

by Viola Grace

  They all spoke together. “We will finish this.”

  Winning wasn’t an option. There was no win. So many lives lost, humanity torn apart, this wasn’t a chance to win, it was a chance to finish the predation.

  Unable to leave it on a sombre note, Stitch piped up. “Oh, the Alguth are looking for queens, and the best of their species will fight for the honour to be at your side, so if you have any guys sniffing around and you are going to meet one of the aliens, tell your fellas that they will have some competition.”

  The ladies were laughing as Stitch disconnected her com and let the sound of feminine laughter warm the cold parts of her mind.

  She checked the manufacturing centre, and it was, indeed, working on something small and complex with a huge backlog of copies.

  The run would finish in two hours. Until then, it was time to check on the coding.

  Lucky was a master. She had produced a code that would not only download all the Splice data, but would also cripple their ship.

  Stitch was smiling, and she was almost hoping that the guys were delayed but fine. She really wanted to set foot on a Splice ship with this stuff on her.

  She went to the clothing designer and used the specs for the spikes to create a bandolier.

  The delivery system was humming with case after case of the spikes.

  Time was passing, and the Alguth were beginning to enter the repair machine. There was still no notification from the outgoing ships.

  Stitch kept an eye on the processing of the Alguth, and eight hours after her conversation with Liakon, it was time to get into a ship and go in search of the men of Alpha Base.

  Every spike that she was wearing was charged with invasive nanites that would do her bidding when it came to taking out a Splice ship. Now, she just had to find the men to help her fly. Her own skills would only take her so far.

  She returned to her office with her weapons and cases of spares.

  The messages had another encoded line, and it stated, Look here. She stared at the text, and a bright flash hit her.

  “Ow! Fuckin’ Lucky!” She blinked rapidly and held onto the edge of her desk until her vision cleared.

  She pinched the bridge of her nose and read the line hidden in the text in front of her. I know you are a crappy flier. This should help.

  There was information trickling into her mind, and it had to do with piloting spacecraft.

  Stitch got to her feet, brought her equipment with her and headed to medical, where the last of the Alguth were coming out of sedation.

  Wings were everywhere in different phases of growth.

  Liakon came to her and grinned. “We will never be able to thank you.”

  Stitch pulled him away from the nearest ears. “I believe you will. Will your men freeze in the face of the Splice?”

  “No. Now that we are whole, we are ready for a fight.”

  “Good. I am going to check the ship options, and when I come back, have every man who is ready lined up, dressed and prepared to raid a Splice ship. I want to get my men back.”

  He nodded. “I will have them ready. Will Captain Blue assist?”

  “He had better, or I will have to come back and have a talk with him, and he really doesn’t want that today.”

  Liakon pressed his hand over his heart and bowed.

  Stitch took that as agreement and headed to part of the base she hadn’t been in before. The hangar.

  With wounded in mind, she dialled up the specs on the vehicles still in the hangar. The ship that she selected was the size of a small town, but it would definitely suit her purpose. The guns on it would help her to get where she wanted to go.

  She pressed her palm to the authorization plate, and machines went to her choice of vessel to begin the prep for launch. The countdown was on.

  Her natural palm was sweating with nerves, but she headed across the hangar on a short-range vehicle until she was next to the huge bulk of the ship. A ladder descended, and she climbed it, entering into the vehicle that would take her into unfamiliar territory.

  She stowed the spikes near the cockpit and sat at the controls, running through how to taxi out onto the foreign soil before the ship lifted off.

  The weapons array was complicated, but she would have to use her training as best she could.

  Stitch swallowed and looked around her, memorizing her territory so that she wouldn’t look like she wanted to puke when the Alguth got onboard.

  The rear of the ship was set up to carry men, gurneys, outfitted with breathers and weapons. She would be flying an arsenal.

  Deep breaths kept her calm as she climbed down the ladder and headed back to the base. She was really going to do this.

  Her heart pounded with every step toward medical. She had to hand the base over to Blue. He was next in command.

  Captain Blue nodded. “Right. Of course. There is no purpose to this base without what is left of our army. Go and get them, but take Tao. He is an excellent gunner.”

  Medic Tao was dressed in the light armour and boots of their military. “I was considered to be more valuable as a medic than as a fighter.”

  Stitch smiled. “I will take all the help I can get.”

  The Alguth had been kitted out with light armour and breastplates.

  “There are projectile weapons on the ship, so you can arm yourselves before we dock or crash or whatever.”

  The men looked at each other with slight unease. It made Stitch feel a bit smug as she turned and led her tiny army to the enormous ship.

  The Argon was ready, and everyone was settled as best they could be, the Alguth standing and holding loops that descended from the ceiling.

  Their wings were nearly grown in, but the most recent renovations couldn’t be used yet. When they got going, they might just have enough time to get all the guys into full function. Might.

  Chapter Thirteen

  The hangar was clear of all living personnel when she opened the doors. She moved the ship until it squared up with the opening, and then, the rails they were on helped them trundle ahead.

  It was the ultimate in nerve-wracking moments. She had the last point that satellites had sighted the other ship.

  The key point was lifting off and setting the computer to follow the path of the sister ship. It was like taking her driver’s test to get her skimmer license back home, only way worse.

  The ship trundled forward, and she kept her eyes on the clearance of the hangar. The urge was to take off the moment the cockpit cleared, but that would be extremely bad.

  Tao was next to her, and he nodded to calm her. “You are doing great, Stitch.”

  “Thanks. Driving a straight line is my true talent. I have been neglecting it lately.”

  He chuckled. “This is a brave thing that you are doing, Stitch. Don’t let that freak you out.”

  She snorted. “I wasn’t, until now. Thanks for that.”

  He laughed, and they cleared the hangar. The huge doors shut, and it was now or never. She released the docking clamps that held the ship down and got ready.

  Stitch powered the jets up and took a stabilizing breath before she hit the elevation controls, and the jets pushed them upward. The ship shuddered until she got a handle on it, and then, it was a smooth pull upward.

  The blackness of space was a huge relief. She had been afraid that she forgot to pull the landing gear in.

  A quick check of the controls told her that they were up and out of the atmosphere.

  “You did it, Stitch.”

  His voice was familiar. “Tao, you had a central core injury. You got scorched.”

  He chuckled. “You remember! I thought that you only recognized the fighters.”

  “No, I recognize voices, and this is the first time we have spoken. If I can’t see your wounds, your voice is the only way I would recognize you as one of the men I met.”

  She programmed in the coordinates she had been given, lett
ing the computer do the calculations to compensate for orbital motion.

  With a sigh of relief, she sat back as the ship’s controls took over.

  Her hands were trembling, both silver and natural. “And now, we are on our way, and I need a cup of coffee.”

  She walked down the steps, waved at the Alguth and informed them, “We are cruising and should be at the attack point in four hours. Time for a snack and a cup of coffee.”

  They followed her down to the galley, and everyone lined up at the dispensers. It was nice to see that they had settled in.

  She got a solid lunch and a cup of coffee along with a few bags of water. She remembered breather training; she was going to need to brush her teeth before she put it on.

  When she sat at a table, the Alguth surrounded her.

  Liakon asked, “What are we supposed to do?”

  She blinked. They were all looking at her for guidance. Fuck.

  “I need you to go in, find our men and any of yours that are penned up or caged. Even those that are being used for parts. You know what we can do. Bring them home, and we will try to get them back in time to insure their survival.”

  Liakon nodded and sighed in relief.

  “Kill any Splice that you come across. We are not here for negotiations; we are not here for hostages; we are here to get our men back.”

  Liakon nodded, and his grin was feral. “We can do that.”

  “Good. While you do that, I am going to find every data port I can find and jam a spike into it. With luck, I can get at least half a dozen of them, which is what we need to crack their system.”

  Solouk scowled. “You are doing this alone?”

  “I am a crappy fighter. I can’t hit anything with a weapon. My skills lie in analysis. I have to be here, because there isn’t another person at the base that can be spared. If I die, it won’t be the end of the project. The guys can fly this beast home.”

  The men were shocked.

  She ate her food and tried not to think about it as it went down. Travel rations were not the best.

  The coffee washed her food down, and the Alguth were speaking in their language as they ate their own meals.

  Aluak took her tray when she was done and left her with the water.

  The men continued to talk around her, and she sighed, took her water and headed up to the command deck.

  Tao left and took his own turn at his break.

  Stitch watched the stars around them and the speed increasing as they continued to accelerate toward their destination.

  She sipped at her water and watched the data links to satellites flare as they cruised through space.

  It was an hour before Tao returned, and he was shaking his head. “The Alguth have assigned you a bodyguard. Aluak will be at your side during the attack on the ship.”

  “Oh. Goody. Did they give you a reason as to why?”

  “They don’t want their queen dying in battle.”

  She groaned. “I am not their queen, and I don’t intend to die.”

  “Tell them, not me. They are planning the fastest hit they can manage to get you back to the ship with the utmost speed.”

  “Lovely. I look forward to it.” She chuckled.

  Time went by quickly, and she spent her time trying to decide if she wanted to go left or right.

  When the scanners caught the ships at long distance, she had to decide fast.

  “Let’s look for life signs.” Tao ran the scanner with practice, and she sighed in relief. Finally, she could leave one decision to someone else.

  “I have them. They are on the ship on the left. The one further away. If we pass the one on the right, we are going to have a fight on our hands.”

  “That is why you are here, Tao.”

  He grinned. “I will try and take out their command deck.”

  “Good. If you manage it, I will try and think of a suitable reward.”

  “I will settle for a kiss from you.”

  “That I can deliver. It isn’t regulation, but then, neither am I.”

  “Wonderful. It’s a deal.” He winked and pulled the gunner’s rig toward him.

  He was sighting, and she realized that she had better get them in close while still aiming for the other ship.

  She took control of the ship and prepared for the manoeuvers.

  “The Splice command deck is on the top of the ship, in the rear. Bring us in.”

  She had the target, so she brought them in.

  The whir of the guns echoed in the ship as they drew closer. When the Splice weapons began to target them, Tao took aim and blasted the weapons first before aiming at the command deck.

  The Splice ship jerked and veered to one side.

  “Got it.”

  “Great, aim at the other one; we are coming in a little too fast.”

  She fired the braking engines carefully, and while Tao blasted the weapons on the ship, she locked the Argon to the side of the Splice ship and triggered the boring lock.

  “Honey, we’re home.” She smiled and got out of her seat, getting her bandolier and putting the rest on a belt. She had her data spikes loaded with nanites, and she was ready.

  She really hoped she was ready.

  She put the breather on and gestured for the Alguth to do the same. They all kept their breathers on, and when the filtered air hit them, they smiled. Splice ships stank.

  The boring lock was ready, and the initial Alguth warriors prepared to fire. They exited the lock, blew the boring lock in, and the explosive knocked back the Splice that had gathered in the hall.

  Gunfire began, and Aluak stuck to her side as they followed the other fifteen into the Splice ship.

  It wasn’t great that those men had been held captive, but they did know where to go.

  The first com node that she saw, she drove the spike in deep. It lit up and fired up.

  The bodies of the Splice lined the halls, their patchwork limbs made her gag. None of the pieces belonged to the same species, and it was disturbing.

  When she saw an Earth military tattoo, she gritted her teeth to stop her from sobbing. The next spike went into another node.

  Aluak was an excellent bodyguard. He kept a few steps ahead of her and cleared a path, recharging the projectiles and the charged weapons alike.

  They kept working toward the command deck, and she had punched eight of the spikes into the nodes when they found a lab.

  Stitch stumbled into the room, and she found Nikolai pinned to the wall, cut and bloody. The steel shafts pinned his adaptations to the wall.

  Stitch grabbed his arm next to the steel invader, and she pulled his arm away from the wall. She pulled his legs loose one by one, and then, she yanked his final arm free.

  He leaned heavily on her, and Aluak offered, “Give him to me. We have to get out of here.”

  She grunted and handed her unconscious man to Aluak.

  She couldn’t shoot their way out, but she could fight.

  With Aluak moving toward the borehole, she backed him up. When a Splice appeared, hissing and muttering in whatever language it was that they spoke, she drew back her fist and punched it through his skull.

  A second attacker tried to lunge for her, but he grabbed one of the spikes. He drove it into her arm, and she hissed as the communication nanites ran into her system.

  “Fuck.”

  She punched his skull into crushed and smashed pieces with her wounded arm.

  Her mind lit up with knowledge of the location of everything on the ship. She wrapped her thoughts in control and sent the ship on a trajectory that would take it into the sun.

  “We have to move, boys.”

  The crowd that was waiting for them on the Argon was full of unfamiliar faces, and many blissfully familiar ones.

  Aluak took Nikolai to the med bay, and the rest were settled in the transport seats.

  She asked Tao, “How bad are the wounds?”


  “Not too bad. They were more interested in torture for information. We only lost one man.”

  “Who?”

  “Elmer Theric. He didn’t speak much and was rather shy.”

  “Right, well we need to get away from this ship. It is on its way to its doom. Now, I need to get into the next one.”

  “Why? It is crippled.”

  “I can destroy it, and wouldn’t that be better?”

  Aluak returned and nodded. “I will accompany you again.”

  “Fine. Bring more guns. We won’t have to get in as far, but we still need six nodes.”

  Aluak nodded. “The best collection would be the command deck. Multiple nodes in one room.”

  “That sounds like a plan to me.”

  She smiled and ran back to the command deck to direct them into position.

  They bored into the hold, and everyone planted the spikes with only nine dead Splices to show for it. The data was removed and sent from the ship, and she used her control to aim it to the sun.

  Aluak looked up. “They have my people on board.”

  “Aw fuck. Let’s get them.”

  She picked up Splice weaponry with the knowledge of how to use it coming through the data linkage.

  “Now, Aluak.”

  They ran through the halls, shooting their way to the labs and holding pens full of Alguth.

  She guarded her collection of aliens as they were ushered through the hall, back to the breech point. Aluak kept them calm and kept them running. Several still had their original wings.

  When they were back on board the Argon, she was covered in blood, hers and the Splices’. She confirmed the locked-in programming that would send the large ship to the sun and released the lock before setting a course for home.

  Chapter Fourteen

  Flying home with a ship full of folks needing help was a nightmare. She sent a data burst and hoped Captain Blue was reading his mail.

  Her list was detailed as to what was needed for Earth military and the Alguth.

  She really needed a nap, but the ship had gone from being extremely empty to full capacity.

  “So, you sent both of those ships into the sun?”