Big time.
“There must be some reasonable explanation as to why we all find ourselves here,” I said, walking toward the dream room door. I was about to reach for the biometric scanner to open the door when I noticed that the scanner had a red light above it. As the captain, I knew that only meant one thing; We were locked inside. But I wasn’t going to divulge that information to my crew. Not just yet, anyway. But before I could turn around and face them head on, Jess had sidled up beside me, looking over my shoulder at the fingerprint scanner. And judging by her facial expression, I could see that she also knew what the deal was. Being my second-in-command, I would expect her to keep the fact that we were all locked in the dream room to herself, to avoid a panic. But then again, I should have known better.
“I cannot believe this,” Jess exclaimed as she turned her back to me and faced the rest of our crew, Dale Dykstra and Raj Habish. We usually have more of a crew, but they consist of troops mainly. Well, security. And they don’t tend to sleep in the same dream room as us. The Alpha Ship One had five dream rooms. Dream room one, where we were, was reserved for top ranking crew members. Basically, the four of us. There’s room for four more, but unfortunately, we lost the other four high-ranking crewmates over the years. So only the four of us remain. As for the other dream rooms, they’re reserved for whoever tags along on our missions. We usually hire twenty to thirty expendables as we call them. Men and women who protect us on our missions. And our missions usually consist of three elements.
Money, minerals and power.
The three cornerstones of the Alpha Ship One mission statement. People hired us to acquire those things for them. And we hired people to fill in those roles. The only recurring crew members were standing in front of me. And they looked pissed.
“The damn door is locked,” second-in-command Jess said.
“It’s just a glitch. I have an override code to unlock the the door,” I said, trying to reassure the others that I knew what I was doing. But I could see that they’d more or less lost faith in me. And as the Captain, that was the end of your career. Faith and trust in a Captain was not only paramount to a ship, but it was paramount to any mission. Not that I actually knew whether or not we were on a mission, seeing that I had no recollection of previous events. The last thing I remembered was being back at Sector Omega, in bed, winding down, like the rest of my crew.
“How the hell do we end up in hyper sleep without knowing how we got here? It just doesn’t make sense. People don’t just wake up in a dream room, now do they?” Raj, our doctor said, who looked a little green around the gills. It was normal to feel woozy after waking up from stasis, but then again, it was also normal to feel sick when you didn’t have an inkling of a clue as to what the hell was going on.
“Don’t worry guys, there must be an explanation,” I said as I turned back around and reached out for the fingerprint scanner. I put my index finger on it and waited for the thing to recognize who I was.
“An explanation? We have no idea where we are, or how we got here! Surely that’s cause enough for alarm?” Dykstra said, I could hear him still pacing in the background. His large frame echoing off the dream rooms walls.
I ignored the gum flapping behind me and watched the LED screen under my finger as I waited for it to go green. But it didn’t. Instead, an alarm went of. Two buzzing sounds, followed by ACCESS DENIED from the small speakers next to the fingerprint scanner. I expected it to not recognize me anyway. The little red LED light on the top of the scanner gave that little nugget away. I feared that the ship’s computers were down and there was no way of me being able to either get control of the ship or right whatever course we were on before. At this rate, the ship could collide with a manner of things. Space, after all, isn’t as empty as people think. So I had to resort to plan B. I started pulling on the scanner, which looked a little bit like a computer tablet that was stuck to the wall. As I did so, I zoned into what the three of my crew behind me were saying.
“It’s not the first time a crew funded by Pilgrim Tech woke up on a ship, not knowing how they got there, only to find out they were drugged, piled onto a ship and sent off on a dangerous mission,” Dale said, the sound of his feet thumping as he paced.
“That’s horseshit. Why the hell would Pilgrim Tech send a crew out, without their consent, may I add, only for the crew to wake up and be able to regain control of the ship and turn back around?” Jess said. She was closest to me. So close in fact, I could feel her warmth radiating against my naked back.
“It happens. Covert, black ops stuff. They send them out and once they regain control of the ship, it’s too late. They’re landing on some godforsaken planet, a message popping up on the heads up display of the ship, telling them that they were chosen for the mission and will be paid out of the ass for the completion of it.”
I could feel Jess’s disapproval. She had the habit of shaking her head a lot when she was angry or unconvinced by something. I could feel a breeze hit my neck, so I imagined that she was in the middle of one of her violent head shakes.
“There’s no way in hell that WE were chosen for such a mission. You do know who we are right? Alpha Ship One, the worst of the worst, fighting for scraps around the universe. Getting paid half our worth for double the work!”
I smiled. It made a tingle of happiness run through my core. I was proud of who we were, even if my crew weren’t.
“I’m telling you, they did it once, so there’s no reason they won’t do it again,” Dykstra sounded off as he continued to pace. The combination of him talking and walking was putting me off. I needed complete silence if I was going to be able to override the scanner. I put my hand up and turned it into a fist, signaling my crew to shut up. They did as they were told. Another smile crept across my face. A smile that was nicely concealed by the shadows. Which was a good thing, I didn’t want them to see that I enjoyed bossing them around.
“You’ll see I’m right,” I heard Dykstra say, but before I could tell him to shut up, I heard an earth-shattering scream. I turned around, frantically looking for the source of the scream. But then I heard it again, and realized that it wasn’t coming from inside the dream room. It was coming from outside it.
“What the hell was that?” Jess said, turning to me, her eyes wide with fear. I tried to remain calm and attempted to puff my chest out, showing my strength and authority. But what I heard next quickly deflated both myself and my crew.
“HELP! THEY’RE EVERYWHERE!” I heard somebody shout from the other side of the big metal door. More screams could be heard, followed by banging on the dream room door. I took a few steps back, as did Jess. Our shoulders brushed against each other. Usually, I’d be transfixed by her touch, but the only thing I was fixing to do was shit myself.
“What in the holy heck is going on out there?” Raj asked, still looking green.
“I don’t know, but I think we have company,” I said, staring at the dream room door. The door was solid metal and had pipes crisscrossing through the middle of it. The door, just like the room, was oval. It weighed two tons and was reinforced with titanium in the middle. It could withstand a hull breach or fire. But the sturdy structure also meant that we were entombed in the dream room with no way out. And judging by the screaming outside, the dream room was the best place to be. But that didn’t last long.
“Good God,” I said under my breath, as I watched two massive dents appear in the big oval metal door. The dents were followed by more banging. And the banging was followed by more dents, until the door finally came off its hinges. We all ducked for cover as the big oval door came flying at us. The room was immediately filled with dust and debris, plus the sound of screaming was now louder, and nearer. I tried to see through the dust but it was nearly impossible. I called out for my team, but didn’t get a reply.
I was just about to call for them again when I felt the steel grated floor beneath me shake. The shaking was followed by the sound of thumping footsteps. Heavy footsteps. A
nd those footsteps were coming toward us.
Chapter Two
Thump. Thump. Thump. Thump.
The footsteps were getting closer. They sounded like footsteps belonging to some sort of robot. With every step taken, the sound of it’s heavy, metallic sounding foot, not only got closer, but I grew more frightened. There was no hiding it. I was terrified. I had no idea what was going on. My crew were lost in the haze and dust that engulfed the dream room. I started to panic. My breathing became labored. I imagined what horrendous fate lay in wait for me. I attempted to close my eyes, fearing the worst, but curiosity was keeping them wide open.
“Do not be frightened. We are here for you,” a booming voice said. The voice sounded like it was coming from some sort of speaker. As if the words were being put through a text-to-speech converter. I stood up. Feeling like I should act like a captain and less like a coward. It was hard, especially with the continuous screaming I could hear. But thankfully, none of the screams were coming from my crew in the dream room. I didn’t have a clue who else was on board the ship, or if we were even on a ship. My mind was muggy. I could have sworn that the room we were in belonged to my ship, Alpha Ship One, yet the more I looked around, the more uncertain I became.
“Don’t be afraid,” the robotic, text-to-speech voice said, this time it was clearer. Closer. As I stood there, staring into the dust, I could see a crude outline of something approaching. It was larger. Tall. Wide. Looked like some sort of exoskeleton. But as it got closer, my ignorance of what it looked like evaporated. The dust cleared and so did the uncertainty of what I was up against. In front of me, standing nearly ten foot tall, was a Berserka Ursine. A rather large alien species known for its tremendous aptitude for fighting. Gifted with giant frames and razor-sharp teeth, these aliens were fierce, yet domestic. They were known to associate with human beings. That being said, this one in particular didn’t look like a regular Berserka Ursine. This one had some sort of metal suit on. It covered its body in a metallic shell, enclosing the Ursine’s furry exterior. The Berserka Ursine looked like a cross between a bear and a cyborg. Massive in stature, yet graceful on their feet. But this was the first time that I’d actually seen one in the flesh. And the very fact that one was now standing in front of me was not only confusing the hell out of me, it was worrying me. Ursines weren’t known to frequent the Milky Way. So that meant we were in deep space. And in even deeper trouble.
“You will come with us. All of you will come with us,” the robotic voice said, as the huge bear-like creature towered over me. Its claws were yellow and long. I swear I actually saw meat hanging off its paws, but I wasn’t close enough to be sure and wasn’t planning on getting any closer.
Standing there naked and afraid, I looked the creature in the eye and shook my head.
“What’s going on? Why the hell are we here? And how the hell did you get on our ship?” I asked. I heard footsteps behind me. I quickly turned my head and saw my crew standing around me. I could see that they were just as frightened as me, but were willing to make one last stand. They had their fists up, as if they were willing to take these things on.
But I think we all thought we were going to die. There was no denying that.
“This is not your ship. This is our ship. We take ship. We own ship. Own you, also,” the robotic voice said. I could feel my heart pounding in my chest. My ears were turning hot and my face was flushing. A sudden pang of disbelief flushed through my system. From that very moment, I realized what was going on, even if I refused to believed it.
“This ship is owned by Pilgrim Tech. We work for the human race. You do not own us,” second-in-command, Jess said, standing closer to me, as if she was planning on fighting the big Ursine in front of us. I could still hear the screaming outside. I also heard more approaching footsteps. The same sort of footsteps from earlier. Before the hulking bear creature had showed up. And sure enough, a few seconds later, we were joined by four more Berserker Ursines. They were just as big, and just as scary. But the one in the middle was the only one speaking.
“Pilgrim Tech gave us gift. You gift. You come with us,” the robotic voice said.
I could hardly believe it. What I feared the most was coming true. We were banished. No longer part of the Empire. No longer part of the human race. Sold off to the lowest bidder. And for what? What was the meaning of this?
“That cannot be true. I demand to see proof of what you’re saying,” Second-in-command, Jess said, getting as close as she could get to the Ursine in front of us. The sudden movement from Jess made the other Ursines that surrounded us a little on edge. I feared that they were about to swipe for us, but held my hands up in defeat.
“Relax. Everybody just relax. Let’s not get too ahead of ourselves,” I said, trying to defuse the situation. But it was no use. I could tell that my crew were at the point of no return. It was stupid of me to think that we could all be civilized. I should have remembered that we were Alpha Ship One, and Alpha Ship One were anything but civilized.
“We won’t say again. You come with us, or we kill you. No more waiting. Come now,” the Ursine in front of us said. Its fur was matted. I could tell that these things were wild. They weren’t civilized at all. Which made me think the fact that they were communicating with us at all was a miracle. I wondered where a crew like this, an alien crew at that, got the technology to communicate with us. How could they? The Ursines were millions of light years away from us. They are known as an un-technological specials. So the fact that they had a voice box with them meant that maybe their story was true. Maybe we’d been dumped by Pilgrim Tech, and now, the Ursines owned us.
“Look,” I said, my heart still thumping in my chest. “If we agree to go with you, will you promise not to hurt us?” I asked, pleading with the ten-foot-tall creature in front of me. I stared deep into its eyes, and noticed no sense of compassion in them. They were dead and wild. Like staring into the eyes of a wolf, or an actual grizzly bear.
“We no make promises we no keep. Not like human. Come with us, and we won’t kill you today. But tomorrow we might kill you,” the Ursine said.
Their broken up English just showed how primitive they were. I’d seen more advanced aliens use the voice box before, and come out sounding like a well-educated CEO of the Pilgrim Tech conglomerate. I sighed. There was no use fighting it. We were doomed. So I turned to my three crewmates and nodded my head.
“Looks like Alpha Ship One has been decommissioned.”
My crew stared at me and I turned back to the Ursine in front of me.
“We will come with you,” I said.
Suddenly, we were grabbed by the beasts. They obviously didn’t know their strength, which also proved how primitive they were. I had to tell them to ease up, showing them where one of their claws had left a graze on my shoulder.
“We sorry,” the leader said, pushing us through the broken dream door, the only thing remaining was the frame. I had no idea where the actual door was, but it was probably crumpled up in the dream room somewhere. We followed the big bear-like creatures through the frame and out into our east corridor. I immediately realized that we were indeed on Alpha Ship One. I saw dead bodies everywhere. The people on the floor, dead, weren’t crew members. I recognized their attire. They were prisoners. Tattoos on their faces gave that fact away. Back at Sector Omega, the station orbiting planet Earth, they would tattoo barcodes onto the prisoners’ faces, so they could distinguish them through the various scanners. But for some reason, my ship was full of dead human prisoners.
So far, the Ursines’ story was holding up. As we walked through the corridor, and onto the bridge, I saw through the computer screens that we were approaching a purple planet. It was the Ursines’ planet. A planet I recognized thanks to my interest in deep space. We suddenly stopped in front of the large computers and the Ursine in front, the leader, turned to me and held out his paw. In it was a shiny chip. A media chip.
“From your Earth. They give this to me. So they exp
lain better. Or you be too scared,” he said, handing me the chip. I turned to my crew and shrugged my shoulders. I was attempting to hold back the stomach-churning emotions that were running through me. I leaned forward and placed the chip into the reader. A few seconds went by and then a video began to play on the big screen. On it, a man wearing a Generals uniform sat on a chair, staring at the camera. I recognized the man. He was more or less the damn president of Earth. A sudden urge to curse rose through me, but I suppressed it, if only to hear what he was about to say.
“Alpha Ship One, for too long you have been a burden to Earth. You have cost us many relationships within the intergalactic community. For too long, you’ve gone about your business as if you would not be held accountable for the damage you have caused on a regular basis. That being said, today, you are being called to account. Today, you are answering for the many crimes, big and small, you have committed. For far too long, you have coasted on the coattails of Admiral Thisk. You have been able to do what you like because of your allegiance with the Admiral. But now that Thisk is dead, it is only fitting that his final stain on this glorious empire be gone too.
“You now find yourself in deep space. Over two million light-years away from Earth. You have been in hyper-sleep for six years. You will have no memory of how you got there. We wiped it. We also wiped you from our systems. Your families think you are dead. The rest, know that the four of you are no good for this new progressive empire. As you did not actually do anything you were not asked to do by Thisk, we saw it fit that you be banished. If we’d executed you instead, we could have faced a rebellion from the many other legions that hold you in high regard.
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