Titan Fleet: The Invictus

by Jason J Black

“Megan, the bridge is yours. Keep doing a deep scan as far out as you can. I need to check on a few things and I’ll be back.” Pace leaves the ship in Megan’s good hands and with a little peace of mind he makes his way to medbay where he interrupts Padley on her rounds.

  “How’s things, Padley, all ok?” Padley puts down her litepad and walks over to Pace, the small wheels on her feet now gone, because the emergency is over.

  “Captain, Nova will be waking up soon and has done very well, although she will still need bed rest. Rusty will still need to be kept sedated, until he heals some more, just to be sure, and with the security team, all members just need to be roused. I have kept them all in an induced coma, as I did not know the situation regarding the brig and current orders, so thought I would consult you first, before I woke them.” Padley waits for confirmation on what to do next.

  “Wake them, Padley. They helped us a lot; it could have been a lot worse.” Pace tells her, and he turns back to Nova.

  With a deep breath and a jolt Nova wakes up, grateful she is alive. She is scared, as the last thing she saw was that horrid beast. She takes a few moments to focus around the room, but then peering over her, a happy face looks down on her.

  “How ya doing kid? It was a rough night, but you made it through.” Pace hugs Nova the best he can, almost getting tangled in the wires around her.

  “Tell me it’s dead and gone, it won’t come back again.” Nova still looks scared and is now gripping Pace’s arm with vice like fingers. Pace pulls up the chair and explains what happened, and reassures Nova that all will be ok and she will be safe from now on. Nova asks him to promise, but he tells her that is something he can’t do, but he will try to avoid them as much as he can. Nova starts to try to get up, she wants to be back in the pilots chair, but she is too weak from the surgery and still woozy from the meds, so decides not to try to be a hero and rest for a while, and still feeling so tired she drifts off to sleep. The next voice to be heard is Tom’s. He, like the others, is now awake also and is grateful everyone is alive and relativity in one piece. He sits up on the edge of his bed, all glassy eyed and feeling a little sick.

  “Captain, is it gone and is everyone ok?” Pace walks over to Tom after covering Nova with a blanket.

  “We are all ok, and all thanks to you and your men for doing your job. We were lucky this time. How are you?” Tom tells Pace that his men will be ready to fight again in 15 minutes if needed and that he was cooking dinner tonight and maybe they should have a small celebration that they all survived. Pace agrees and dinner plans are made for 1700 hours. The security team now have access to their rooms once more and make their way to freshen up and prepare for the next fight should there be one. Pace does not keep their gauntlets this time, as that would be just stupid. Pace thanks Padley once more and enters the bio lab to check in on Sam.

  “Hey, Sam, what you got for me?” Pace walks over to Sam and leans on the work top next to him.

  “Well, Sir, I have been busy. I have worked out that the creature has the ability to turn off pain in combat, a bit like in the way we use adrenaline in our system. It’s similar to us in many ways, but also has things I cannot even begin to understand about it. The problem is, its toxin will knock us out like we have experienced, but if we can lace this gas it spews out with something nasty, it would have to breath it in and then perhaps it will pass out too, but that would be too tricky and not work out in space. However, we could weaponise it and put our toxin straight into its blood stream by using edged weapons, say like this knife I have designed, which has a built in injector which can carry say 50 doses. Maybe use gauntlet blasters to open up a wound, because we know its skin is so thick, and then boom! Have a bit of metal in ya! Just an idea, the knife would need to be made to this design and I still need to run more tests on our toxin, but it could work. One question remains though, are the security chaps gonna want to face up to that again, all up close and personal?” Sam hands Pace a litepad with the knife schematics on, and he is glad that all the years he put into Biomimetic research was worth it, but he would never tell anyone what things he did for the government, because they were top secret after all.

  “This is amazing, Sam, how did you come up with so much in such a short time? I’ll get to work on the knives straight away and we may have a better chance next time we face a blue. Give them something to worry about.” Pace thinks to himself that Sam was an amazing asset to his crew and well selected by Megan.

  Sam replies and jokes with Pace. “I guess it’s just in my genes, Captain, that’s all. Wait until I have to solve a real problem.”

  Pace chuckles and leaves the room with a purpose and heads across the scrap bay into the workshop. Now he will be able to get to work on something and get to play with the nice new tools, he was excited. He reaches for some metal alloy and other components and begins to follow the diagrams Sam had given him. A few hours tinkering and building and Pace has the first knife built ready to be tested. It is 1645 hours and so remembering the promise Tom made, Pace heads to the canteen for food. His neck is a little stiff from all the bending over the workbench. Rubbing his neck and stretching his chin to the sky, Pace enters the canteen to a pleasant smell of steak and all the trimmings to go with it. Pace had stopped off along the way to get a couple of bottles of wine to go as a treat with the meal.

  “I know there is a rule of no alcohol on the ship, but today we will celebrate life and how lucky we all are to be here this day.” Pace pours wine out for everyone. Even Nova is sat at the table in a robotic support chair, this evening looking a lot better.

  “I know Rusty would have loved a good drink today, so I will pour him a glass as he is still in medbay and may I make a toast. To today and tomorrow and each other!” They all stand and toast, clashing glasses into glasses and it is a feel good moment and they sit down to a great meal. Pace finishes his last mouthful of food and compliments the chef. It was something his mum always did after a meal. He remembers back to when he was just six years old. His parents took him to a posh restaurant for a meal. He, along with his parents, had steak in red wine sauce with potatoes and peas, washed down with some lemonade. It was his first time to say ‘compliments to the chef’ and Pace called the chef over and said thank you to him, and the chef gave him a free dish of ice-cream with strawberries. This memory was a great time in his life.

  “I would like to compliment the chef on a fantastic plate of food and I look forward to more of his fine cooking soon.” Pace is happy that Tom kept his word, as a man’s word is his bond.

  Nova has already finished her food; she was so hungry but did not want to overfill her tummy. “Cap, seeing as I am up and about and feeling better, can I return to my post, please? I will take it easy, I promise.” Nova gives Pace her sweet little sister look and he wonders how he can say no to her. She has been through so much and he thinks it would do her good to take her mind off recent events.

  “Granted, but I don’t want you over doing it, ok.” Pace takes his plate and a few other things over to be washed up and Talia joins him.

  “Let me do that, sir, it’s your night off, I believe.”

  “Creep.” Briggs mutters to himself under his breath, but Shanks overhears it and turns to him and whispers in his ear.

  “Yeah, those two may have compromised our mission. They seem all too comfortable with the others now.” Briggs just nods and gets up to leave the table, along with Shanks.

  “Security sweep, sir.” The two men leave the room quickly, to talk more in private while the others laugh and joke around in the canteen.

  Chapter Thirty-Five

  Briggs and Shanks make their way down to the loading bay and go to check if the missile is ok, but upon opening the container they find nothing and the missile is gone.

  “What the heck is going on here? What have they done with it? I bet they are all in on it together. We need to contact Captain Miles and warn him of the situation.” Briggs slams the lid in anger. “They think they can make fo
ols of us, eh.”

  Shanks, who is normally a quiet man pipes up. “We need off this ship and let them fend for themselves. We are almost at our destination and it will be soon time to fire. Can we do the same job with just the one missile?”

  Briggs smiles and nods, a crafty evil look in his eyes appears. “Without a doubt, Shanks, now let’s get organised here shall we.” The two men carry on looking for the missile for a while, before giving up and finding a quiet corner to open a secure comms with the Robur and patching through to its captain.

  Chapter Thirty-Six

  Nova leaves eagerly for the bridge, and Talia and Megan begin the washing up together, while Pace shows Sam and Tom the newly made knife.

  “Here it is. This is the prototype knife that will bring the pain to the blues.” They all stand around the table examining the knife and they are all in agreement, that it is a fine piece of engineering and plus it’s a man thing to like knives.

  Megan peers over her shoulder and rolls her eyes. “Boys and their toys.” Talia sniggers and agrees with Megan. The end of her nose now has bubbles on it from her rubbing it with her back of her wrist. “So tell me, Talia, why the military, why did you join up?” Megan wanting to get to know her more, as it is always great to have female friends.

  “I wanted to prove I was just as tough as my brother to my parents. He was amazing and could do no wrong, but my parents had to put up with the two of us, not just one, and never wanted a daughter only a son, we were twins. So I grew up just in the shadow of my brother, never doing anything great enough to shine against him. I wanted them to love me but what I wanted did not count. Anyway, a long story short, my brother became a rich business man and now lives with my parents in a massive mansion somewhere nice. I joined the military when I was 17 and that was seven years ago now.” Talia passes a plate to Megan to dry, only to see a sad look on her face.

  “I’m sorry to hear that, Talia, but how does it prove you are tougher?” questions Megan.

  Talia laughs, “Because my brother wanted to join too, but was rejected at the second stage of training, whereas I passed with distinction. He always hated that, but it kinda made up for all the bruises he gave me as a kid. He would not try it now, as I am a champion class fighter in the ring now too.” Talia pulls the plug out of the sink to let the water drain away and as it makes a sucking noise beyond imagination, she dries her hands and turns to Megan just as she finishes her plate and puts it away in the cupboard.

  Megan laughs with Talia. “I bet hun, I bet and good for you I say. Men can be pigs sometimes. It’s nice to finally get a chance to talk to you, Talia. Perhaps we should finish off the wine while the men dance around that knife.” The two women take their leave and slip out of the room unnoticed by the men, and head for the comfy couches in the living room.

  Sam picks up the knife. The blade is so sharp he imagines it could cut a blue in two, no problem. “I will take this to my lab and work my little bit of magic, but it’s perfect, Captain, it really is, just need more of them, sir.” With a wink Sam leaves the room. Tom and Pace stand facing each other for the first time without shouting. After a few minutes of awkward silence, Tom decides to break the silence.

  “Captain, we need to talk in private, it is important. Away from my men, if you don’t mind.” Pace agrees and they move just outside the canteen where it is quiet.

  “What’s on your mind, Tom?” Tom looks worried and is still thinking things over in his head. How does he tell Pace that the prime lady wants to rid the planet of its people and take the resources left and move to this new planet to start again, and they were the ones with the missiles to do the job, and he is still wondering why he has changed his mind to stand against Eve instead of with her. Wonderings aside, he needed to speak now.

  “Captain, it is like this. You could say I have had a change of heart, and what I am about to tell you may get me executed, but hay-ho, never mind.” He begins to ramble a little bit before realising he needs to get back to what he needs to say. “Well, we are not out here just to get scrap. We have been sent on a mission by the prime lady to launch missiles to destroy our home world, so she can take the remaining resources to start again on a new planet, just a few hours away from here, and sitting with you all and feeling a part of a good crew, I just had to say, I don’t want to have their blood on my hands. Now, the Robur also has a missile and a captain who will use it and ...” Buzz, buzz. Pace’s gauntlet lights up again. It is Nova.

  “Sir, you need to come, a.s.a.p.” yells Nova on the bridge. Pace and Tom rush to Nova so quickly, they appear as if by magic next to her.

  “One thing, Tom, before we go on, are you on board with us?” Pace is looking into Tom’s eyes earnestly, and he needs him to say yes.

  “It will be an honour to do the right thing for a change, sir. I’m with you, but not sure all my men will be.” Nova interrupts quickly. The loud speaker has been switched on and voices can be made out to be Captain Miles and Briggs talking.

  “Yes, Tom, we tapped into your comms, just to be safe. Sorry.”

  Tom pats Pace on the back. “It’s what I would have done, Captain.” The speaker crackles a little while the two men discuss a plan to get the security team off the Invictus and onto the Robur, and once that happened, they would destroy the Invictus and carry on the mission with just one missile.

  “Yes, we hid your missile and your friend Briggs must have found out we moved it. So they plan on loading up a runner and blasting us, eh. Mmm, I have a feeling your men won’t be mentioning the plan to you, Tom, but see if they do tell you about the plan and if not we will let them run, but have a plan of our own. We have to stop them launching that missile.” Tom is impressed with the cunning of Pace and his crew and heads down to the loading bay to interrupt the call, leaving his comms on his gauntlet open, so Pace and Nova can hear what transpires. Tom exits the lift but is heard by Shanks, who walks quickly over to Tom buying a little bit of time for Briggs to end his call.

  “Report, Shanks.” Tom commands in a stern voice.

  “Oh, nothing to report, sir, everything is how it should be, sir.” Tom notices Shanks trying to block line of sight of Briggs.

  “Briggs, what are you up to over there?” shouts Tom, throwing his voice across the room.

  “Just checked the missile, sir, and all is good.”

  Lying toe rag, thinks Tom, as he knows Briggs knows about the missing missile.

  “I see. Well, we are nearing the deadline men, the plan will go ahead as scheduled and we will be counting the money soon enough boys.” Briggs sits on a crate, all cocky and Shanks has now got behind Tom. Briggs stares Tom in the face.

  “Sir, I think you know us well enough by now to know we have a plan B, and I’m sick of following you around while you make mistake after mistake, time and time again. I say it’s time for a change around here and it starts today. I am taking command of the Robur as captain and by orders of the prime lady herself, Shanks and I will be leaving to relieve Captain Miles of his command, due to space sickness. Probably why we have not heard anything in a while from them, we are just waiting to get comms up. You, sir, are to take command of this ship. Come on, Tom, aren’t you happy that I finally got a command after all these years?” Tom looks around at Shanks and back to Briggs, who has now stood back up and walked closer to Tom.

  “You know what, Briggs, you’re nothing but a low-life, lying, sly piece of crap. I heard your plans with Miles and it’s obvious you and Shanks were not going to tell me or Talia the plans and were aiming to blast us all as soon as you could.” Before Tom can say anything else, an attack is launched towards him and from behind too. Tom grabs Shanks by the arm and throws him over his shoulder, just as Briggs swings with an iron bar that he had concealed behind him. Shanks crashes into a crate and is back on his feet in seconds.

  Tom parries the blow coming in from Briggs. “You will have to try harder than that, boy.” Briggs does a backflip and catches Tom on the chin with his steel toe-cap
ped boot and Tom is flung backwards, blood oozing from his split lip. Arms reach around Tom’s neck as Shanks is once more on the attack, while Briggs hits Tom in the body with the iron bar, each blow causing blood to flow. Briggs then picks up a large crate and hits home with it on top of Tom’s head, knocking him out.

  “Finish him!” shouts Shank. “This fight is won already and soon they will all be dust. Come on; let’s go before the others get here.” The two blood stained men load the ship with a few supplies, before blasting off out into the darkness of space, the glowing engines just going out of view as Pace gets out of the lift and rushes over to Tom, checking his vital signs.

  “Padley, I need you here now, it’s Tom.” Supporting his head, which is flowing with enough blood to fill a bath, Pace wishes for a speedy Padley, only to see a speeding Talia instead enter the room.

  “Sir! No, no! Those scum bags, where are they?” Cries out Talia, moving in for a closer inspection of Tom and clutching on to Tom’s arm. Pace looks at Tom’s face as his eyes open, looking up, his eyes trying to focus on the fearful faces above him.

  “Talia, you’re the big cheese now and I expect nothing but guts and determination from you. You are my best and most trusted friend. Look after these good people and don’t follow orders from the prime lady, she is corrupt and evil beyond words or thought, and do me a favour.”

  Talia senses Tom slipping away. “Anything, sir, just say the word.” Smiling down on Tom with love in her green eyes.

  Tom reaches up and pulls Talia down closer to him. He whispers to her with his final breath. “Make the best of each moment and do the right thing.” The strength from his arm disappears and it flops to the floor with a thud.

  “No!” shouts Talia with rage and anger, slamming her fist to the floor, splashing blood with an explosion of red. She was very close to Tom, as he treated her like a sister on the quiet. Padley charges into the room, her sensors scanning the room for the injured, and she glides over to Tom. She picks up a failing pulse as she shoots two tendrils out of her chest, piercing Tom’s chest flesh in an instant.