“Are you sure this is such a good idea, Shakti?” Lashmi asked her. Shakti could see she was not pleased with the decision she’d reached. “Could we get someone here from the ship’s medical corps to examine these women? Is there something we could do to help them?”
“I would like to think so too,” Dharma joined in. “Why leave them on our conscious?”
Shakti realized she had a problem. She couldn’t leave these women here to be eaten from the inside out by the wasp larva, yet she couldn’t take them back with the warbrides. The captain would refuse to bring them into the ship. Besides, they were almost dead anyway. From what she could see, there was nothing left to keep them alive once the larvae were finished with their hosts. As with many parasites, the host was there for one purpose: to get the young to maturity. After that, the host would die. Then the ship would be full of young wasps. Shakti had no idea how the wasps took care of their young, but somehow she didn’t think they had to do much to train them. She had a bad feeling the wasps existed in complex castes.
The caste structure of wasp society was later debated by the prefects on Terra and in the imperial war college. No one could understand how a society so rigid could advance. The only thing they could figure out was that the wasps had some castes capable of rational thought, while others carried out the work and war aspects of the wasp society. If the wasps killed their hosts to create new wasps, they would be in constant need of new ones, which explained the rapid expansion from one star system to the next. Shakti didn’t care much for those implications.
“We’ll blow up the ship,” Shakti repeated. “I’m sorry; it’s the only humane thing to do. Perhaps we can find their relatives someday. I don’t like it any more than anyone else, but if any of you have a better idea, let me know.”
“What about flash freezing them?” Chimata asked. “That way the medical corps could someday come out here and see if they could be saved.”
“How are we going to flash freeze them in this ship?” Shakti asked. “Even if there is a way to do it which won’t destroy them, I would have no way of knowing where to find what we need to do it. As you may have noted, this is a wasp ship and they don’t even use much in the way of written language to convey information.”
“Blow the hold,” Chimata said. “Instead of destroying the ship. If it rapidly depressurizes, the cold from space might be enough to freeze the victims. Keep in mind we’re in between star systems. It’s just about absolute zero as you can get out there.”
Shakti though for a minute and ran her hand through her hair. She’d cut it short after the last mission. It might be one way they could avoid the guilt. No one felt humans should be killed simply because they were prisoners of the wasps. Yes, it was worth a try.
“Okay,” she told the other women. “I’m willing to try it. We’ll have to forget about going through this ship to see if anything worthwhile can be found. Bravi, show the women where we can plant the charges to freeze the interior as quickly as possible. I want you to take Dharma and Lashmi with you. Everyone else, we’re headed back to the entrance point where we came into the ship.”
Bravi went off in search for the strategic point to plant her explosive devices. She was the best demolition woman Shakti had and she would be the one to select the locations. Shakti knew she was up to the task.
They moved through the hulk of the wasp ship desperate to get back to the port. Once there, Shakti signaled their location to the corvette and waited for a response. It came very soon. She told the captain what they planned to do when prompted.
“If you wish,” he told her, “but I can’t see why. When the ship depressurizes, they’ll be frozen instantly. I don’t think it will make much difference in the end how they die. The human body can’t survive the rapid drop in temperature and pressure.”
“Maybe it will this time,” Shakti told them. “Haven’t there been cases of people who survived the cold of space when they had to be transferred from one spacecraft to another without the use of an airlock?”
“You’re talking about a few rare situations. I don’t think what you’re trying to do has ever been attempted before.”
“It won’t hurt to try.”
“I suppose.”
A few minutes later Kamala joined them in the airlock with the two women who had gone with her to set the charges. At the same time, Shakti was notified the shuttle was on its way back. When it was directly outside the port, Shakti opened the hatch and allowed the warbrides to leave the wasp ship. It only took a few minutes to transfer.
“When did you want me to blow the charges?” Bravi asked Shakti as they headed back to the corvette. They had their suits helmets still on, although the shuttle was pressurized.
“Are we in the safety perimeter yet?” Shakti asked the pilot of the shuttle. “We’re ready to detonate the charges whenever you tell me it’s safe.”
“Go ahead,” the shuttle pilot told them. “We’re in the zone.”
Shakti nodded and Bravi flipped a switch on a box she held. They turned and looked at the form of the wasp ship.
There was no sound in the void of space, but they could tell something happened. A dark spot appeared on one side of the wasp ship and it began to pitch in a different manner than before. From the distance, they could see the shuttle vent air from the side where the charge had exploded. In ten minutes, the entire atmosphere inside the wasp ship was gone.
“Looks to be shutting down,” Shakti told Kamala. “I hope some of those women in there survived.”
“I’m just glad we kept two dozen wasps from joining their friends,” Lashmi said aloud over the joint audio. “We won’t have to contend with them again.”
“I hope we saved those women,” Chimata said along with her. “I can’t imagine what they must have suffered. It makes me want to exterminate every last wasp I can find.”
Shakti understood the hatred. But she also knew the wasps were acting according to their own logic. She shivered at what kind of morality allowed one being to eat out another one from the inside as a matter of survival. Why couldn’t evolution on their home planet gone in a different direction?
The corvette docked with the shuttle soon after the wasp ship was vented. They were met by some medical corps people inside the corvette and escorted to the quarantine ward once again. This time they did not have the kind of room as before. The ward was sectioned off into three areas for the two groups of people found on the wasp ship and the warbrides.
The corvette stayed in the position it held for a good fifteen days while the captain did everything he could to survey the outside of the deflated wasp ship. He made his final observations and asked the ship medial corps doctor to keep a close watch on the humans they’d taken from the wasp ship.
The condition of the turncoats, as they termed the humans who were working for the wasps, was not bad. They seem to have been treated with care, although they refused to interact with anyone who came to interview them. The turncoats spoke no recognizable language and tried to smell everyone who came close. The medical corps eventually concluded they were trying to sense pheromones as a way to gauge where they were and what they should be doing. The captain decided to keep them locked up until they could return to the nearest star base and try to figure out what to do.
As for the other humans, the ones who’d been held captive, they were of special interest. No one had ever survived captivity from the wasps. The group asked for the lights to be kept in their quarters and the captain made sure they were assigned someone from the medical corps with a good background in human behavior. It would not be until the Vindicator returned to the nearest imperial base that they could investigate the condition of the survivors. In the meantime, they would do their best to keep in touch with them and try to find out something about what they had endured.
The warbrides were confined to the isolation unit again, which they were starting to get accustomed. This time they had less room and couldn’t train for any new combat roles
. The women spent their time talking about their experiences before meeting on the prison world.
It turned out Lashmi was far more educated than anyone had expected. How she came to be there was interesting and she didn’t mind sharing her background. This led to the other women talking about theirs too and soon the group was bound together more than before. The training had brought them together, but not like this. Shakti enjoyed her down time with the girls, as she called them, although each one was a capable adult in their own way. Kamala would spend long days reading whatever Lashmi suggested. Their overall education improved the longer they stayed in isolation.
At last, the medical corps took them back into the general population of the corvette. For a small attack ship, it had plenty of room. The original designers wanted something which could be sent anywhere in the realm of the emperor and brought back swiftly. Its space-folding generators occupied the middle section, but the nuclear thrusters and electrostatic propulsion units took up plenty of room to maneuver around planets. The corvette could not make planet fall, but some of its shuttles were capable of reaching the surface.
Two standard days after their release to the general population, the captain summoned Shakti to his command center. She took a speed ramp to it where and was met by one of his aides. The command center was a series of lights and screens. It showed the corvette’s position and vital signs. Most of the screens showed their location in relation to the other imperial ships in the vicinity. Even the drifting wasp ship they’d secured was tracked. The captain got out of his chair and floated over to her. This section had no spin to create artificial gravity. Shakti noted the handholds all over the ship.
“I needed you to come and see the results of the interviews we’ve done with those survivors we pulled off that wasp ship.” He turned to an officer on the deck and told her to bring up the older man who was rescued.
The face on the screen facing her was a person who was still terrified of something. She could see the terror in his face from the way he glanced around the room. He jerked from any noise around him.
“They’re planning a move into the heart of the empire,” he told the interviewer, who was not visible on the screen. “You have to do something or they’ll destroy every human until we’re used up.”
“How do you know this?” the medical corps interviewer asked the older man.
“They told me,” he said. “The pilots on the ship are intelligent, not like the ones they were growing in that chamber of horrors. You have to believe me.”
“Why would they tell you these things?” the medical corps officer continued to probe him.
“I don’t know. They were trying to find out things about humans before using us. Only the pilots were asking questions. They had some sort of machine that could interpret their speech into human language. They also had some people who helped them.”
“The turncoats,” Shakti seethed under her breath.
“Where did they get these humans who were helping them?” the medical corpsman asked the old man.
“I don’t know. They were there when our town was captured. The wasps just showed up out of nowhere. They took us, they divided the men from the women, and…I don’t want to talk anymore. But they’re coming for humanity, you have to believe me!”
The captain killed the feed to the screen and turned to Shakti. “What do you make of it?” he asked her. “A man driven out of his mind by fear or someone with deadly knowledge? We still don’t know how the wasps organize their society.”
“What concerns me,” Shakti said to him, “is the way he claimed the wasp ship appeared out of nowhere. If that is the case, they may have figured out how to fold space.”
“Or they might have captured a human ship and had the Schrodinger generators reconfigured,” the captain said to her. “Either way we have something to worry about. If they can fold space, the wasps can strike anywhere.”
“And there would be nothing we could do about it,” Shakti told him. “The wasps could appear anywhere at any time. Can you imagine trying to defend against that? Folding space brought humanity together. The wasps could use it to finish humanity off.”
“Then you’ll be interested in some news I have just been handed from the war college,” the captain told her as he brought something else up on the screen.
Shakti looked at the face of a member of the Privy Council. This was a recording, something she was supposed to see right now. She watched the face with intensity as the man began to talk. Most of the message was addressed to her.
“I have a message from the emperor for Shakti, commander of his warbrides,” he began. “The emperor is very pleased his wives have seized two of the enemy ships for him. He was moved at their courage shown in the capture of both the alien destroyer and transportation vessel.”
“To that end,” the admiral continued. “He wishes it known his wives should operate on their own at maximum distance and with little or no interference from the command structure of his military. The emperor desires the warbrides be given a corvette of their own and sent out against the enemies of the empire. Until the last invader is vanquished, there will be no peace or security in the empire. We desire you to bring this war to a swift conclusion by destroying the wasps wherever they are located. The emperor trusts his wives for his assignment and has faith in you to carry it out.”
“The corvette Widowmaker will be delivered to your location in two standard days. It will give his brides the chance to accustom themselves to its operation. When they are ready, the corvette is to be taken out to attack the enemy deep inside wasp territory. This is the command and decision of His Imperial Majesty and there is to be no argument. He has spoken.”
“Appears you are getting some new equipment,” the captain said to her. “I’m sure you must be getting tired of that little room you and the women have on my ship.”
Shakti didn’t know what to say. Their own command ship? A corvette? It was the same class as the one she was in now. However, it would carry a lot more than just the women. They would need the extra room for supplies and fuel. This ship would be operating deep into enemy territory and they couldn’t expect much help from the imperial forces. It might be a hit and run operation, they might just find out information the emperor could use. It might even be another suicide mission. The emperor could claim that he’d sent his own wives into the jaws of hell to save the human race. No one would dare criticize him.
“We’re going to need someone to bring us up to speed on its operation,” Shakti told the captain. “I don’t think any of us have the training. We have one pilot, but she’s certified for shuttles only.”
“Don’t worry,” the captain told her. “This is an experienced ship. She’s seen plenty of fight against rebels, pirates and smugglers. You’ll love her. The Widowmaker has plenty of fire in her gut.
And how much life? Shakti thought. Were they handed a ship not fit for the kind of work they needed? It didn’t matter right now, but at least they were given their own war machine. This was not something to be taken lightly. She needed to inform the other warbrides.
“Thank you for giving me the news, Captain," she told him. “I need to go and let the other women know.”
“Of course.”
“A corvette?” It was Durga speaking. “He’s giving us a corvette to fight the wasps? Is there something else we should know about before we take off in it?” Her ice blue eyes flared with suspicion.
“I don’t know what kind of shape it’s in,” Shakti told her, “The captain of this corvette thinks it’s seen a little action, but what type he couldn’t say.”
“Great,” said Kamala. “We may be shipping out in a corvette ready to explode.” She ran an ebony finger over a gap in her teeth and tried not to show her anger.
“I’ll check it out thoroughly before we leave,” Shakti insisted.
They were all in the sauna reserved to them. It was a strange way to break the news, but Shakti felt a sauna might lessen the tens
ion. A room full of naked women wouldn’t be as angry should they hear news they didn’t like. It seemed to be the right thing to do.
“When do we ship out?” Lashmi asked her. She was reclining against Kamala in the sauna. Sweaty bodies made for a tense environment.
“Less than two weeks,” Shakti told her. “The corvette will be delivered in a few days. We should have enough time to learn how to operate it in the meantime.”
“Depends on the condition of it,” Chimata said. “We don’t know what we’re getting.” One of the smallest warbrides, she was wedged between two larger women.
“It will be fully outfitted and ready for service,” Shakti explained. “We’re going deep into wasp territory. We’re going to make it impossible for them to do what you saw the other day.”
There was silence in the sauna. Finally, it was Kamala who spoke. “Then when do we leave? I’m ready to do some wasp hunting.”
It took them a few weeks to get up to speed on the systems of the corvette. Soon, they were boarding it and ready to move out. There was no ceremony for them.
Shakti made sure to tell Captain Wu good-bye and thanked him for all the help he’d been to the warbrides.
“I wish I could’ve been more helpful,” he told her. “At least you’re headed in the direction I want to go.”
Chapter 8
The Widowmaker folded space and emerged four light years from where they had departed. The Schrodinger generator in the ship was in good working order. It had to be since any malfunction could send them to the other side of the galaxy or into the middle of some place never charted. There were stories of Schrodinger generators that malfunctioned and sent the crew to some place unknown on any star chart. In such cases, there was no way to navigate a return trip. A few tales were told of ships that ended up in the wrong place in a different galaxy and made their way home on sheer luck and ingenuity. Shakti thought such stories were made up to scare children.
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