... and they are us

by Patrick McClafferty

  CHAPTER 8

  Princess Nerina:

  Zed put his own now shaking hands on the coffee table. “Who?”

  The admiral shrugged. “We have no idea. The High Command assumes the Chamdar took it, but they have no proof.”

  “Are you still fighting that stupid war?”

  The admiral’s chest puffed up. “Yes.”

  “After twenty five thousand years?”

  “Ahhh, yes.”

  “Isn’t that a little excessive?”

  “The Chamdar are unprincipled dogs and deserve to die.”

  “Why?”

  “Ahhhhh…” Bentax looked upset at the new and disturbingly original thought. “I will talk with my crews and tell them what really happened. Can you address them tomorrow?”

  Yates nodded. “That will be soon enough. Plan for noonish, just before lunch.”

  “It will be as you say.” The admiral gave a stiff little bow, which Zed returned.

  “Lola, please show the Admiral back to the hangar.” The familiar glowing ball appeared in the air before the admiral. “Thank you.”

  Acid from the coffee was burning in his stomach, and his head was pounding.

  “Zed, you need to get something to eat.” There was actually concern in the computer’s voice. “You can’t keep running on coffee.”

  “I’m fine, Lola, but thanks for the concern. I think I need to see her imperial brattyness now. Maybe afterward I’ll get something to eat.”

  “See to it you do, or I’ll have to take measures.”

  “Yes mother.” Zed was grinning as he left the room.

  The princess and her three retainers were dressed in clean clothes and appeared to be playing cards when he arrived. The beds were made, empty dinner trays stacked neatly in a corner.

  “Who’s winning?” Nerina looked up from her hand with something close to disgust on her makeup free face.

  “He is.” She pointed to her remaining guard. “I figure that I owe him close to a million Dramul Crowns.”

  “A sizeable amount.” Zed returned dryly. “Not worth much, but sizeable.”

  “Tad has always been good with cards, as are Beth and Dara.”

  “Tad, Beth and Dara?” Zed raised his eyebrows.

  Nerina gave him a crooked smile. “We decided to use our correct names. No more Fufi.” She gave him a direct look. “How are Jen and Liz and Bran?”

  He chuckled. “Very well. Jen is a Medical Corpsman, Liz is working out quite well in Hydroponics, and Bran is doing a good job in Security.”

  “Are there any jobs that we could do?” Her voice sounded sincere, but Zed remembered that it hadn’t been too long in the past when she was first wakened. Underneath it all she was still an Imperial Princess.

  “For your retainers we could always use help in Hydroponics and Engineering. Security is shorthanded also, even with Bran, and Physical Sciences always needs apprentices.”

  “What about me?” Nerina blinked her golden eyes, trying and failing to look coy.

  “I really don’t know, Nerina. If you will give me your parole, for you and your people not to cause trouble, I could fix you all up with uniforms and let you wander the ship. Sensitive areas would be off-limits, of course.”

  She gave him a thin smile. “Of course. I give you my parole.”

 

  < Of course, Zed. Is there trouble?>

 

  There was a sparkle on the nearest bed and four uniforms appeared. “Those might be a bit better than your robes. By the time you have all changed we can proceed to the Dining Hall and get you some decent food.”

  Nerina picked up the nearest gray uniform and wrinkled her nose slightly. “Marvelous.” Her voice was flat.

  The four changed quickly, and Zed moved to the door. Dimitri was standing calmly on the other side. “We’re going to the Dining Hall today, Dimitri. They’ve given parole.”

  The Security Officer’s face was blank. “Whatever you say.”

  Zed stepped into the hallway first, followed by Nerina, the two silver-eyed women, and finally her guard. As the boy passed Dimitri, Nerina shouted “KILL HIM!!”

  Tad jerked Dimitri’s gun from its holster and fired in one motion, the heavy slug ricocheting off a structural member, striking Zed low in the left shoulder and slamming him against the wall. Before the young assassin could get off another shot the hard edge of Dimitri’s hand had crushed his windpipe. He lost all interest in assassination after that. One of the two silver eyed women stared on with wide glazed eyes, and then dived for the dropped gun. The shot from Zed’s small gun caught her in the left eye, blowing out the back of her head and spattering Nerina with gore. The last girl remained standing, trembling while Nerina screamed the vilest curses she could think of at the fallen Zed. Dimitri’s fist brought silence to the corridor.

  “Medical Emergency!” Dimitri shouted into the air. “Zed’s been shot, in front of the Princesses’ holding area.”

  “Help is already on the way, Dimitri.” Lola’s voice was calm. “Put direct pressure on the wound to prevent bleeding until help arrives.” Dimitri made a curt motion with his gun and the remaining girl dragged the unconscious princess back into their room. The door closed and locked.

  “I’m so sorry, Captain. I should have been more careful.” His voice was horse with emotion as he pressed down on Zed’s shoulder. The injured man groaned. “I resign my position as Security Officer. When we get to Dramul I’ll take the first shuttle down and…”

  “Resignation NOT accepted, Dimitri. You’re not going anywhere.” Zed shut his eyes as a wave of pain rolled over him. Small silver robots were just sliding him onto the floating stretcher. “We all make mistakes. You made a mistake today, and so did I. I shouldn’t have trusted them at all. We learn. I need you, Dimitri. I want you with me.” The big Russian stood in silence watching the stretcher disappear down the long corridor. The recycled air held the coppery smell of blood.

  Doctor Sienna Culchett was a tall thin woman of more than middle years, with shoulder length gray hair held back in a simple ponytail. She looked up with teal colored eyes as the door to Medical Bay slid open, straightening her white doctor’s jacket.

  “My first patient!” There was almost glee in her voice as she turned a professional look on Zed. “That looks like a gunshot wound.” Her gentle fingers began to peel the blood crusted uniform away. “Yup. Looks like a round from a Dramul slug thrower. Chamdar use a bigger caliber to do more damage. Good thing it wasn’t an energy weapon, or you would be dead.” She began cleaning the wound. “What’s your job around here?”

  Zed couldn’t help grinning. “I run this tub.”

  She patted his cheek gently, smiling. “And I’m the Queen of the Dramul moons. Nice try.”

  The door to sick bay slid open and Dimitri Galygin stepped in, face pale. “I wanted to see how you were doing, Captain.” Doctor Culchett’s eyes opened very wide.

  “I’m doing fine, Dimitri. Thank you for asking.”

  His smile was embarrassed. “I’m glad you didn’t accept my resignation, Captain.” With that he took a quick step forward and touched Zed’s good shoulder, before he spun and left.

  Zed looked up, smiling. “Nice to meet you, queenie.” He held out his right hand.

  Sienna Culchett frowned at first, then with a matching grin took his hand in a firm shake. “Good to meet you too, Captain. Please call me Sienna.”

  “My friends call me Zed. I expected to see Doctor Sutherland here.”

  “She’s still in the hangar. She’ll be sorry she missed all the excitement.”

  The door slid open again. “The young woman with the fire in her eyes is my First Officer, Katherine Johansen. Kat, this is our new Doctor, Sienna Culchett.”

  Kat’s ic
y green eyes never left his face. “You had better give me one damn good reason I should stay with you.” She opened her mouth to say something else.

  “I guess that I want you in my life, Kat. I love you, and I’m willing to wait for you to get a little older before we move on to the physical stage of our relationship.” Kat’s gasp was clearly audible.

  Doctor Culchett looked more than slightly embarrassed. “Who shot you? One of our crew?”

  Zed sighed, and lay back down. “No. We found some royalty suspended in cold sleep on a distant planet. Some of them have come around and joined us willingly. It was my mistake thinking, hoping they all had. The guard stole Dimitri’s gun and shot me. Then a young female attendant tried to kill me.”

  The doctor looked at him intently. “High royalty?”

  “Imperial Princess.”

  “That explains it then. Royalty used to condition their servants with post hypnotic commands, for just this sort of nonsense. You had better send the rest of her retainers down. I can remove those post hypnotic commands for you.”

  “Thank you doctor.” Zed gave her a curious look. “You seem to be a truly exceptional physician. Why did Bentax ever let you go?”

  Sienna’s look was sour. “He is my ex-husband, that’s why. I never hesitated in telling him what I thought. He didn’t like it.”

  “Well I do.” Zed chuckled. “You should get along well with Helen Sutherland, our resident Physician. Her former husband was the commander of a small scientific research group of which she was a member. Lola, please schedule Doctor Culchett for the full range of medical enhancements at her earliest convenience.”

  “Recorded, Captain. Do you wish her to get full command level package?”

  Zed caught Sienna’s stunned eyes. “We’ll wait a week on that, Lola.”

  “Confirmed, Captain.”

  “I read about those enhancements once, in medical school. The technology was lost millennia ago. No disease, no cancer, wounds heal quicker, limbs regrow. And the biggest miracle of all is that no crewman with imperial physique enhancement has ever died of old age or infirmity. The oldest recorded crewman died at fifteen hundred years from a gunshot fired by a jealous husband. It makes you think.”

  “I suspect that it will certainly make YOU think, doctor. I suggest waiting until we are underway for Dramul before beginning the procedure. It will take a while.”

  “Ten days to be exact, Zed.”

  “Thank you Lola.”

  “You’re welcome, Captain.”

  “And that was?” Sienna was looking curiously at the walls of the Medical Bay.

  “The Loquacious Octuplex Loyalty Adaptable Algorithm. We call her Lola for short, and she is the ship’s guiding spirit.” He chuckled. “And our guardian angel.”

 

  Kat cleared her throat, pointedly. “I suppose we should go now.” He swung his legs off the bed and winced as Sienna fitted him with a sling for his wounded arm.

  “Try to take it easy for a few days.”

  He sighed. “Yes Doctor.” The door slid shut behind them. “Lola, can we please get dinner in the Captain’s cabin?”

  “Yes, Zed. I was going to suggest that.”

  It was three o’clock in the morning. He and Katherine had sat up and talked for hours, before they each went to their respective cabins to sleep. He was glad the brilliant young woman was still a part of his life. He didn’t realize how much she meant to him until she threatened to leave.

 

 

 

 

 

  Zed lay there silently, staring at the ceiling, listening to the low hum of the life support system.

 

 

 

 

  ~~~

  First Officer Katherine Johansen looked at Zed over her hot cup of coffee, and frowned. The plate in front of him was still mostly full. “You have to eat, Zed.”

  His gray eyes held a haunted look. “Not today I don’t.”

  “What’s so special about today?”

  “Today I have to execute the Imperial Princess Nerina Foy. I’m not looking forward to it.”

  “But why you?” She looked at her own food and put her fork down.

  “I am the Captain. The duty and the responsibility is mine.”

  “When?”

  His look was tired. “Right now, I suppose.” He threw her a sad look. “I hate to wreck your breakfast, but you have to come too. Lola, if you could have Dimitri with his security detail bring Nerina Foy, and along with Alina DeThomaso, Mike Flaherty and Helen Sutherland, meet me at airlock D two.”

  “Aye, aye, Captain.” There was no laughter in Lola’s voice now.

  The small airlock antechamber was crowded when he got there, Nerina’s vituperative curses filling the air with her anger. She stopped when she saw Zed. “Lola, please play this on general ship-wide broadcast. Dimitri, if she begins to curse again, gag her.” Nerina’s golden eyes were getting larger and larger.

  “You can’t do this. I’m an Imperial Princess. You can’t…” The gag cut off further speech.

  “Nerina Foy.” Zed’s voice was low and rough. He swallowed and it tasted of ashes. “You have attempted the murder of the Captain of this ship during wartime conditions utilizing your conditioned retainers. I gave you every chance to become a part of our crew, Nerina, and you threw our offer back in our faces. You purposely broke the parole you gave me. For your crimes there is only one possible punishment. Dimitri and Larisa, please place her in the airlock.” Her struggles and kicks did nothing against the Russian man’s thick arms. “Please remove her gag.” The screaming curses coming out of the airlock were cut short when the heavy door clanged shut. A small thick window showed the princess pounding futilely at the walls. “By the power vested in me as the duly appointed Captain of this vessel, I, Fernandez Edwardo Raphael Daniel Yates, Captain of the Terran Heavy Destroyer 7651 Rose of the Dawn, do hereby carry out the sentence of death on the Imperial Princess Nerina Foy for the crime of attempted murder. May god have mercy on your soul.” Zed pushed the red manual airlock open button, and the entire ship rang slightly as the heavy hatch slapped open and the air blasted into space, carrying one unwilling passenger with it. Through the small window Zed watched the body of Nerina Foy disappear into the black starfield. He pushed a green button and the outer hatch slammed shut. “That’s all, Lola. Cease broadcast.”

  “Yes Captain.”

  “I’ll walk to the main hangar now. I need to address the crew of the Dramul ships. How is salvage coming?”

  “Very well, Zed. We have accumulated enough to accomplish repairs on the Chesapeake, plus put away a stockpile sufficient for future needs. I have not begun construction of any new auxiliaries, as you directed.”

  “Thank you.” He felt Kat slip her hand under his right arm, and for that he was grateful.

&nb
sp; Eighteen hundred men and women of the Dramul fleet were standing in the hangar, awaiting his arrival. A few more were sitting up in their beds in the impromptu hospital. There was very little talking. They had all seen the broadcast of the execution, and they were all shaken. Zed didn’t want to let them know, but so was he. Standing on a case of rations, he looked over the crowd.

  “Would any of you like my job?” His tired voice carried over the crowd. There were a few titters, but no takers. “Damn. I was hoping I could find at least one sucker.” That brought more laughter and he felt the tension ease. “I will be taking you all home. Back to Dramul. Safe and well fed. Very well fed if I can believe the figures my quartermaster has been giving me about food consumption.” More open laughter this time and a few nods. “I said that I would bring you home safe and sound, and I will — but not the ships of your fleet.” There was a massed gasp, a buzz that threatened to turn into a roar. Zed smiled at a cluster of angry looking officers. “Your fleet has been pounded into scrap by one frigate, manned by two solitary people.” More gasps. Zed heard the word impossible. “You say impossible. I was there and my Weapons Systems Operator was there. Oh, yeah. And then there was Lola. She’s the spirit behind the ship, our guardian angel. Those of you without the poet in your soul might call her simply a computer. To me she is a friend. He sent over the private neural link to Katherine as he held her arm firmly. The sparkling blue form of Lola appeared at Zed’s left side, laying a spectral hand on his shoulder.

  “I am the Loquacious Octuplex Loyalty Adaptable Algorithm, also called Lola by my friends.” Her voice echoed through the hangar.

  “As I was saying, our one frigate defeated your entire fleet. I can bring you all home to Dramul and turn you lose, or…” He looked out over the crowd of expectant faces. “I can offer you jobs in the ship you see around you, the frigate you saw in action or several more like her, or an armed and armored space station.”

  “Are you going to conquer Dramul?” Someone called from the crowd.

  “Why?” There was another buzz in the mass of people. “All I need on Dramul is information, and then we will be gone. We have bigger fish to fry.”