Titan Fleet: The Invictus

by Jason J Black

  Moments later Padley arrives to find the wounded. She is calm and collected and so was the best choice Pace had ever made, especially when two probes shot out of Padley’s arm and with an electric charge she gets Nova’s heart beating again. Next she stabilises Nova and keeps her sedated while temporary sealing her gaping wound. Then she quickly examines the now unconscious security team who all lay in a pile on the floor on top of Briggs. They were stupid to take their helmets off when they came back on board the Invictus, because then the gas would have not affected them. They were all breathing, all be it shallow. Padley spun over to Rusty and his head wound was analysed, before being sealed up with a small laser. Next Briggs’s leg was also sealed, and one by one everyone is taken to medbay, where Padley assesses the condition of her patients. Pace is stood at the side of the bed, next to Nova, stroking her hair. Megan is watching him and realises how much Nova means to him, so she walks over to Pace and comforts him.

  “She is a tough one. She will be fine, Pace, honestly. She will be back on her feet in no time, you’ll see.” Megan puts her arm around his waist and stands quietly.

  Sam has collected samples of the creature’s blood, and an air sample of the green gas, and is busy analysing in his lab. Padley, after what seems to be hours, approaches Pace and Megan with her findings.

  “Captain, the situation is this. We have four people unconscious, one with a serious leg wound, and we have no way of waking them, so we will have to wait until the gas wears off. Rusty has a nasty head wound and I am keeping him sedated, due to some swelling on the brain he has suffered, and Nova here, will need surgery to fix the damage in her stomach. I can do this, sir, but it will be a few days, maybe longer, until they are back on their feet.

  “All this from just one of those blue things. It was far different to the other ones I fought. This green gas is new to me too. No wonder there are bits of ship everywhere. Megan, I want you to contact the Robur and fill them in on the situation.”

  Megan goes to leave, but half of her wants to stay. “You sure you’re ok?” Nodding, Pace tells Megan he is fine and then sits in the chair at the side of Nova’s bed. His whole crew had been affected by just one creature. What would they do with five or ten or even more. They needed to find the weak point on these things and be ready for them next time. Pace is still stroking Nova’s blond bob shaped hair. She looks so peaceful and he begins to remember when she was younger. She loved to dance and was always training to be a ballet dancer. She had stared in a few shows, before breaking her ankle in a show stopping performance which ended her career. He was so proud of her and she was his little sister as far as anyone was concerned, but he often wondered if his real sister ever made it alive to any other planet, or did she perish along with so many other people in that life changing meteor storm. Whispering in a gentle voice over Nova’s head, Paces eyes filled with salty water.

  “Come on kid, you can do this. You have been through too much to let this stop you now, and I need you here, you are my family.” Pace kisses her forehead softly before composing himself. “Padley, you better save her, she is my little sister. Let me know, after the operation, how she is.”

  Padley nods and returns to Rusty in the next bed, to examine his stats. “Yes, sir, now if you don’t mind, I am very busy.” After checking Rusty’s pulse, she hot wheels it to Briggs and begins treatment on his torn leg. Pace walks out of the medbay and begins to examine where the creature had breached his ship. There was a burn mark on the hull and it looked like the whole area had been melted and reformed in an instant, technology that he had heard rumour of once but never knew actually existed. The creature had entered the ship through the scrap bay, which was at the top most part of the ship, without triggering the security system and no hull breach was sounded, very scary stuff indeed.

  On the other side of medbay in a separate room, Sam was still working on the samples he had taken from the creature’s tissue and gas samples. “Clever, very clever.” Sam is talking to himself, excited because he may have found a link to how the creature breathed their air. The gas he is working on is so toxic to humans, but seems to be linked to the blood of the alien creature. Like oxygen in our blood, this toxic gas is what the alien breaths into his system, and the fact that something was generating this gas around it so it could breathe was a good place to start. “Mmm, must have a generator or tank on him somewhere, to produce this stuff.” Sam, still muttering to himself, walks out leaving his work for a moment so he can catch the captain.

  “Captain, a moment please.” Pace turns around still mulling things over in his brain and clearing new space in his head, ready to receive new information. “Did you say you had fought one of these before, Sir?” Pace nods, but explains to Sam that it was a different sort of creature with different strengths. “Did you see a gas like this creature had; only it’s quite important?” Catching up with the captain, Sam is searching for answers to help him and the others.

  “No, there was no gas, however, there was a small oval container on its back with a tube going into its body, but apart from being bigger and having some sort of armour on, it seemed the same in many ways too. Why do you ask?” Sam explains that he thinks the gas is the way the creature breaths, so like our oxygen tanks in our spacesuits, if we took away the creatures ability to breath, we could fight it better. “We should check out the security tapes and see what we can see and how this thing is so dangerous, its movements, tactics and strengths, and now hopefully a weakness, thanks to you, Sam.” Sam smiles at Pace.

  “Let’s just keep our fingers crossed, perhaps we could put our toxin into their blood stream and create an oxygen generator and give them a taste of their own medicine.” The two men travel together, discussing a few more things, before checking the security feedback on the bridge.

  “Just as I thought, sir, look there a small canister on its belt and a small one on its back, covered with something to protect it perhaps. Very clever.” They continue to watch the screen to learn more about the alien, while in the other chair and attempting to contact the Robur, Megan sits tapping her console and waits briefly before getting an answer from the Robur’s pilot.

  “Robur, this is First Officer Megan Frost of the Invictus. I need to speak to your captain. We have been attacked.” A pale faced pilot nods and patches Megan through to the Robur’s captain.

  “I hope there is a blumming good reason why you have woken me at this hour First Officer Frost!” Captain Miles sits up in his bed and rubs his eyes before concentrating on what Megan is saying.

  “Did you not see any of what has just happened, Captain? First we were pelted by chunks of space ship and then a small ship landed on our hull while we were aboard a part of the Titan ship, and an alien creature boarded our ship, injuring many of our crew. You did not even contact us to see if we were ok.” Megan is not happy at her welcome from the captain.

  “We did see you board the other ship and thought you were capable of handling things. We did not see the small ship though. I hope that your crew is ok. If you need anything, then just let me know, other than that, what can you tell me about this creature?” The captain is now wide awake and is all ears. Megan explains what happened, but does not tell him the latest developments as she does not know them. Listening in on what Captain Miles is saying, Pace and Sam have both stopped what they are doing to see what the other ship is doing. Captain Miles thanks Megan for the information and tells her that they will stop here for a while until they get the salvage on board and the first pods are sent home. Megan’s screen goes black and she turns to Pace and Sam in disgust.

  “Captain Miles seemed unconcerned about what we have just been through and did not offer to send help at all. He did say if we needed anything to ask, but something tells me help would be a long time coming.”

  Pace puts his hand on Megan’s shoulder. “Don’t worry, we have things under control and your friend here has worked a few things out, so we have plenty of avenues to explore before we beg those losers
for anything. Let’s get back to work and we all need to get some rest, we have a busy day tomorrow doing salvage work. I’ll get Anc started on some now to get a head start.” Pace thanks Megan and Sam for holding things together and goes in search of Anc.

  “So glad you are here, Sam, I’m sure things will be fine, Pace is a great captain.” Sam sits next to Megan for a moment.

  “He is not how I imagined at all.” Sam pauses for a second and looks at Megan. “If you don’t mind me saying, he seems a little bit soft in character to be a captain, but I like him and I can tell you do too.” Sam winks at Megan, wondering what answer she will come up with. Megan smiles and turns her head slightly away to compose her face so that Sam does not catch on to her feelings.

  “He may seem, as you say, a little soft and I think that is because this is his first command, and apart from that he likes to be fair with people even when they turn their backs on him. He does good to others, even when they do wrong to him and that is what makes him unique and that is why I like him.” Megan puts the ship into auto-pilot and continues to chat to Sam for a while longer.

  “Right, well we better be going to bed then, busy day tomorrow.” Megan yawns and gives Sam a hug and says goodnight, before heading up the spiral staircase to Pace’s room where she lets herself in and gets ready for bed.

  Chapter Thirty-Two

  Anc is on high alert and still patrolling the ship when Pace finally catches up with him.

  “Anc, I need you to get some salvage for me from the Titan ship. It has to be done tonight.” It is actually very early in the morning but in space there is no sunrise or sunset, so time seems continuous. “Now, the engine section that we came across needs to be taken apart in this section and scrap put in the scrap bay, and here and here we need to cut, this will make the engine small enough so we can use the crane arm at the rear of the ship to secure it to the ship as a smaller chunk.” Pace is showing Anc on a litepad what he needs doing. “But be careful handling the engine, we don’t need it to explode, ok?” Anc eyes wander over what he has been shown and computing the best way to do it agrees, but before going off to work, he has one question for the captain.

  “Sir, you still need protection if anything comes back.” Pace reassures Anc that they will deal with any boarders should they come back, before heading off up the stairs to his room.

  The door opens quietly and a slender figure lies on top of the bed. He is happy that Megan has taken him up on his offer, but this time she is dressed in a sexy nightgown and must have drifted off to sleep while waiting for him to return. She looks so beautiful and Pace thanks his lucky stars that he has met her. He undresses and pulls a cover over the both of them to keep them both warm. Megan turns and snuggles up to him, her hand on his chest murmuring something or another, before drifting swiftly back to sleep.

  Chapter Thirty-Three

  Anc is now aboard the large Titan ship, cutting metal away as requested and is cutting a large stubborn girder when two small lights appear down the hall way. “Who goes there?” Anc shouts, all of his lights coming on at once to illuminate the area ahead of him, and his combat system getting ready for contact. There is a response from a smaller robot down the hall.

  “T1tch of the Robur. Who goes?” it returns and it still walks on towards Anc.

  “I am Anc of the Invictus and I claim this salvage as mine.” Anc stands up and begins to walk towards T1tch trying to get a systems reading on it to see if weapons were armed. A small robot approaches Anc. It is blue in colour and looks like a small three-foot tall tech robot of some kind. Anc realises it is no match for him in a fight, so powers down his burst cannon and his shields lower so the other robot can tell he is not being aggressive. As T1tch draws close enough to Anc, he looks up and shows his palms to Anc. It was something between robots to show they had nothing to hide and at this gesture the two robots stood as friends.

  “Why are you here, little one?” asks Anc now turning to continue his work.

  “I was sent aboard to scavenge a few parts for Captain Miles, but now you have claimed this scrap, I will have to search elsewhere.” The small robot is scanning the area for life forms.

  “What do you need?” replies Anc.

  “I am looking for polron capacitors and tissue samples from the blues.” Anc shines his lights into a corner where a blue is hunched over, still dripping blue blood everywhere.

  “Over there for your samples and I believe there are some polrons in that circuit hanging just over there. Take them, we don’t need them.” The little robot thanks Anc and goes about taking the samples and parts it needs alongside its giant counterpart, and the two robots work peacefully for a few hours without a sound until T1tch has finished his work.

  “Thank you, Anc. I must go.” The small robot whizzes off faster than it arrived before Anc can reply in kind. Anc’s work is almost done, so he returns to the Invictus and takes his place at the controls of the giant mechanical crane at the rear of the ship. He makes short work of securing the scrap in the hold and easily attaches the engine to the rear of the ship and clamps it to the hull with the crane.

  Chapter Thirty-Four

  Morning comes around quickly, and it seems Anc was not the only one who worked through the night. Padley had been busy operating on Nova for over six hours, which was a long time with all the latest technologies, but she was pleased with the results and wakes up Pace with a beep, beep of his gauntlet. Padley explains that all went well, but that Nova will need time to wake up and will need several days to recover properly.

  “Awe, that’s great news, Padley, you’re one in a million.” Pace’s heart is uplifted at the news. Megan wakes just after Pace’s screen goes dark and with a yawn she rubs Pace’s chest.

  “Morning, darling. What happened to you last night? I was waiting up for you with a surprise.” She kisses him, a slow lingering kiss and what a way to start a day, they both think.

  “I had to put Anc to work and a few other things, sweet. I’m sorry.” Megan throws back the covers and walks towards the shower turning back slightly and looking over her shoulder at him.

  “You can make it up to me, I’m sure.” She whispers, before slipping off her gown and entering the shower, with a beckoning finger enticing Pace to shower also. No second invite is needed and after a while they are both dry and dressed and heading to see what salvage Anc had sorted. They went up in the lift holding hands, but quickly letting go when the doors open. A huge pile of scrap from floor to ceiling towered before them and a busy Anc was cutting metal and loading it into the chutes, so it could fall into the salvage pods for dispatch.

  “Great work, Anc. How are things?” asks Megan, walking towards a laser cutter.

  “All goes well, First Officer. One pod is ready for dispatch and a second one is half full.” Anc continues to cut, and Megan and Pace join him for the next two hours cutting metal and sorting components that would be of use, and storing them in the large storage units nearby.

  “Almost done here. Shall we get breakfast and see what Sam is doing?” asks a hungry Pace.

  Sam pops his head around the door from the medbay, “Did someone say breakfast? I believe it’s my turn to cook.”

  The three of them ready themselves for a taste sensation, but before going down to have breakfast, Pace first checks in on Nova, who now has pipes and bandages on her body. She has more colour in her cheeks now and he can’t wait until she is back up causing trouble again, he has misses her cheekiness. The three friends all help to cook breakfast and sit talking things over.

  Things always seem better in the morning, Pace was thinking back to what his mum always said, and she always liked to have a good cup of tea before anything else in the morning. It would set her up for the day and she always had a smile on her face, so it must have been the tea. Pace would have given his left arm to just sit and chat with his mum over a cuppa again, but you can’t change the past, only look forward in life and make it the best you can, and despite yesterday’s eve
nts, they were all smiling and doing well all considered.

  Wiping his lips Sam gets up and takes his plate to the sink, and after doing the washing up he tells Pace and Megan that he will continue his work upstairs. Pace and Megan find their seats on the bridge and start to scan the new space around them. The engines of the Invictus burn once more, now that the salvage had been collected.

  “All normal, sir. No anomalies at all on my screen.” Megan’s eyes quickly wander over her data and systems. Pace notices the Robur slowing down, before two salvage pods blast off out of the side doors, like shells from a cannon on a ship. That’s odd, thought Pace; they seem to be heading in the wrong direction. Pace scans their destination, which appears not to be Foloss. In fact, it’s totally the opposite direction.

  “That’s strange. The Robur has sent its pods the wrong way. Try to get their captain for me, please; it could be a program error.” Megan taps her console in an attempt to raise the Robur’s captain, but receives no response back at all. She tries for a few more minutes before giving up.

  “Nothing, sir, it seems they are ignoring us.” Pace jumps up from his seat and goes off to check on their own pods. He arrives in the loading bay and takes a long look at the auto-destination programmed into the on board computer, and to his amazement these are also programmed for a different destination to Foloss, so he sets the computers on all pods to standby so they don’t launch automatically. The course set on the pods is a little further than the destination they are heading for, so he knows it is all about time, so all they can do is wait until tomorrow, but today was a new day and there was plenty to do and he wanted to get started early.