“I can’t raise Jolly. We’ll have to manually close this hatch,” Rastor told Gaven, who had picked up his wrench and now couldn’t tear his eyes away from his friend, one of the other legacy crew members of the Cygnus-12. Rastor threw himself into pulling the hatch closed, his skin suit absorbing some but not all of the random hits from the blasters. Gaven joined him, slowly at first, but then put his shoulder into it. The hatch finally closed and they spun the actuator. Gaven’s last act was to wedge his wrench into it and slow their ingress. In the interim, he hoped they’d be able to get Jolly to flush the corridor beyond, removing the air and killing the intruders.
“Jolly? Jolly, can you hear me?” Rastor continued to plead with the AI.
“Something happened and Jolly’s gone. It’s only us. So how do we manually vent the corridor on the other side of that hatch?” Rastor asked the other crewman. A loud clang answered them as one of the Concordians hit the hatch with something big and heavy. It sounded like a wrench, the one that his fellow crewman must have dropped into the corridor when he was shot.
The garden deck Rabbits were nowhere to be seen. ‘Briz? Are you there, Briz?’ Rastor called using his neural implant. ‘Briz?’
“Jolly isn’t answering and neither is Briz. What happened to that first shuttle? If Briz didn’t take care of it, we’re going to be trapped,” Rastor said, wincing from the pain of his wounds. His skin suit hung in shreds, melted in places, ripped in others.
Take No Prisoners
“HOLD!” Master Daksha yelled with all the volume his vocalization device could muster. A couple more shots, and the men stopped firing. “We could have killed you easily, but chose not to. That’s not our way. Why do you follow us, carrying weapons?”
The older Concordian walked toward the hillside. Not seeing anyone, he shrugged and yelled at the general area. “You scared our livestock with your landing in our valley. Then you ran carrying your weapons. We can only conclude that you are criminals who’ve stolen a ship or you are the start of an invasion of our area. In either case, we must defend ourselves. We’ve paid our tithes! We only ask to be left alone!”
“I think there’s something that you haven’t considered,” the commander offered. “We are travelers, from a long ways away, and the people from the big city have misled us and are trying to steal our ship. We are like you. We only want to be left alone in peace. Put your weapons down and we will show ourselves so you can see that we aren’t what you think we are,” Master Daksha finished.
The old man argued with some of his people, then they put down their rifles, bows, and blasters. Pace stepped forward first, a brave act, if they had other weapons secreted away. Then Pickles joined him and the men shuffled their feet, looking frightened as the Lizard Man approached. They’d clearly never seen one of his kind before. Master Daksha floated over the rise and swam through the air toward them. Pace had holstered his blaster, but Cain and Ellie kept theirs trained on the backs of the shocked and unsuspecting men. The ‘cats had climbed down the tree and now sat very close to the men, who hadn’t noticed their approach. Chirit swooped close by them, and back-winged to a landing on a branch over their heads. Leaper joined them too, walking upright and showing his full height, equal with the Lizard Man.
“I am Commander Daksha of the spaceship Cygnus-12. We came here in peace from the Cygnus star system, exactly twelve hundred, thirty-five light years away. We are looking for a route back to Earth, as we all came from there. You see my crew and my friends, a Lizard Man, a Wolfoid, a Hawkoid, Hillcats, and I’m a Tortoid. We all have human DNA because of what the ancients did to help us better adapt to our home planet of Cygnus VII.” Daksha waited for them to internalize his message.
Senior Lieutenant Pace walked toward them with his hand out. The men were human and shaking hands was universal, he hoped. “I’m Pace, Senior Lieutenant,” he said simply. The older man hesitated briefly, then took the offered hand, gripping it firmly as he looked Pace in the eye.
‘Are you two sensing anything?’ Cain asked the ‘cats using the mindlink.
‘No. They are only herdsman, ranchers, and farmers. They are as angry with the authorities as you are.’
Cain shared the ‘cats’ insights with Master Daksha.
“Can you help us?” the Tortoid asked as he swam close and looked at the group of men before him. “We only need to buy time for our ship to refuel itself. Then we can return to our spaceship and continue on our way.”
This started an argument among the men. Cain and Ellie stood, being sure to make plenty of noise as they climbed down the shallow slope. They holstered their blasters, trusting the ‘cats’ instincts and insight. The men continued to argue, claiming that anyone found helping the strangers would be punished. None of them wanted that.
Pace finally held up a hand and asked for quiet.
“We don’t want to put you at risk, so return to your homes and forget that you ever saw us. We came in peace, and we’ll leave in peace. That’s all we wanted. It’s too bad that we have to be afraid. I think there is much we could share, learn from each other,” Pace said, sadness tingeing his voice.
“I’ve met my first aliens!” the small device around Black Leaper’s neck projected loudly. The Wolfoid held a paw over his muzzle as he realized he’d blurted his thoughts out loud. His crewmates looked shocked, but the older man started to laugh and the others joined him as they looked at the creature, covered in rough black fur, standing upright on two back legs, and carrying a spear. The whites of his eyes showed beneath furry ears, above his long muzzle. Cain snickered first at his team leader, then he and Ellie joined the others standing in front of the Concordians. After a slap on the Wolfoid’s back, Cain took the time to shake each of the men’s hands. Ellie followed, and the looks that the men were giving his wife made him uncomfortable. She could handle herself, although he waited for her to join him and made a show of holding her hand as they started walking back toward their shuttle.
Then they stopped to let the others pass. Trust was earned and they weren’t yet at that point with these Concordians. Cain and Ellie had blasters and suggested they’d bring up the rear, keeping the ‘cats close to watch for any duplicity. Pace nodded as he and Master Daksha led the older man down the cut and through the woods. The other members of the crew mixed in with the men, who started to talk freely, once they learned that they could readily communicate with the crew members from Vii.
The conversations varied, but were all based on learning about Cygnus VII. What was it like? They countered by asking what was it like on Concordia and what were the tithes that the villagers had paid.
“Daksha, you can call me Albert, of the village Fairsky. We manage the cattle herds, providing both milk and beef for the people of Concord, the capital city that you saw to the north.”
“Cattle? From Earth? I suspect your ancestors settled here with fully intact spaceships then,” Daksha said as he thought about the words that the man in the video shared.
“Yes, of course. Our ancestors arrived only a few hundred years ago. A colonization ship stopped here, woke half the passengers from their cryogenic sleep, put them on the planet with all the resources needed to establish a colony, and then the ship moved on. They left us with a couple shuttles, but that was it. You say you have a spaceship in orbit and you’ve traveled some twelve hundred light years to get here?”
Pace nodded and Albert continued, “They want your ship. Not this one, but the one that’s in orbit. It’s probably bigger, isn’t it?”
“Yes, it is much bigger, as interstellar spaceships need to be. The power required for travel is rather extensive. We assumed the Concordians wanted the ship when we saw the two shuttles break out of the atmosphere after we were too far committed on our approach to the planet. We have a pretty spunky crew, though. I think the people on those ships won’t be getting a warm welcome,” Master Daksha said hopefully.
Kill them, kill them all.
Rastor gave up trying to contact an
yone. “It’s just us,” he told the other man. “We don’t have time to weld this hatch shut. Use the blaster and see if there’s enough power to fuse the steel.” The blaster lay on the floor next to the body of their crewmate. He picked it up, took aim at the mechanism, and fired. A small beam reached out, licked the steel, then died.
“I hope that was enough,” Gaven said tentatively, still reeling from the loss of his friend. “Next deck up. Beneath the plates, we’ll find atmospheric controls there. We might be able to vent the section.”
“What are we waiting for?” Rastor said and grabbed a handful of the man’s spacesuit as he leapt for the stairs, taking them two at a time heading upward, panting heavily as he left a trail of green blood behind him.
The man finally found his voice. “We have to avenge Bendall!” he cried
Rastor didn’t slow down. He pushed forward, through the hatch and into the next level. Engineering was located there, along with secondary power generation. They didn’t have far to run down the corridor before reaching the panel that Gaven indicated. He popped the quick connects and it up. A bank of lines and valves greeted him, along with a series of power conduits.
“It’s pretty simple, actually. All we have to do is stop the flow of air into the corridor by closing this valve here,” he said to himself as he cycled the handle and watched the indicator turn red. “Then we close this circuit, which is the failsafe to keep us from doing what we’re about to do.” Gaven ripped two wires out of a panel and spliced them, rolling the ends together.
“Then, we cycle this valve and there we have it!” The last valve flashed red, indicating that the section had been opened to space. He heard the whistling sound. “Wait, we shouldn’t hear anything.”
He turned to find Rastor, lying on the deck in a pool of his own blood. Beyond him, two men pointed blasters. He raised one hand while he tried to cycle the valve shut with the other. They shot him for his efforts to seal the ship, blasting him away from the open panel. The two Concordians approached, found both Cygnus crewmen to be dead, then checked the panel. Seeing only two valves that showed red, they cycled one, then the other. The whistling stopped and their ears popped as the air pressure balanced.
“Thank God. It’s universal–green is good, red is wrong. What do you think this thing is?” The man nudged Rastor with his toe.
“I couldn’t tell you, but it’s dead now. I’d like to take that spear as a trophy, but I won’t be able to sneak it back on the shuttle.” He looked around to make sure no one was watching him as he tucked it into a nook in the corridor. “Let’s clean out the rest of these freaks and take this ship!” he said to his partner, who smiled back and nodded.
They never saw the laser beams coming. One was shot through the neck, the other through the side of his head. They dropped, bloodlessly as their wounds were instantly cauterized by the power of the Rabbit’s small laser pistols. Allard hopped to the hatchway and aimed inside, watching for more intruders. Beauchene checked on their crewmates, ears drooping when he found that neither was alive. They both ran toward engineering. They needed Briz’s help.
The Concordians, They Come
Master Daksha and Albert were first from the woods, looking appreciatively at the shuttle from Cygnus-12.
“We’re not alone,” Pace whispered, seeing two men on the other side of the ship, studying it intently. Beyond those two was a small craft, with a bladed rotor on top of a bubble containing four seats. The engine was behind the bubble and there was a boom tail with a small, vertically oriented blade.
Where were the other two? Pace looked around frantically, sending Cain and Stinky one way, Ellie and Pickles the other. Pace pulled his blaster and got in front of the commander. The two men spotted them, positioned themselves behind the landing gear of the shuttle, and pointed weapons at the group.
“Put down your weapons!” one of them yelled. Pace looked back and watched the Concordians in the group meekly put their weapons on the ground and get on their knees. Albert shrugged and did the same, leaving Pace standing by himself. Chirit flew from the woods with Lutheann carefully balanced across his back. The Hawkoid struggled to rise above the trees, circling back over the forest to gain altitude.
Daksha asked Pace to put his blaster down and surrender as the others had. Cain, Stinky, Ellie, and Pickles had disappeared back into the woods.
The two men moved forward. Two other men appeared from behind their craft where’d they’d been unloading equipment of some sort. They joined their fellows, brandishing their blasters as they looked at the group in front of them.
“Aliens and traitors,” one man spat, waving his blaster at the men on their knees. “And what the hell is this thing?” he snarled at the Tortoid.
“I am Commander Daksha,” he answered. “Of the Space Exploration Service. We come in peace.”
“Then you come as idiots,” he shot back, scowling, carefully aiming his blaster at the Tortoid’s head.
Chirit circled far to the side of the valley and glided in behind the Concordian aerial vehicle. Lutheann jumped to the ground when she could and Chirit rapidly gained altitude, reveling in the freedom of flight, knowing that on this world, his abilities were more unique than anything he could do aboard the ship.
Lutheann slinked to the landing struts of the shuttle, then padded silently forward toward the backs of the men with weapons, as Cain had asked her to, to stop the man threatening the commander. Blasters were trained on the other hostile Concordians from the forest, while Carnesto crouched between the villagers, trying to look inconspicuous, but one of the Concordians was eyeing him, unsure of what he was looking at.
‘When Lutheann attacks, fire. Please do not miss. Master Daksha, please float lower to the ground. Lutheann. You’re up,’ Cain instructed over the mindlink. The Tortoid descended until his thick feet touched the ground. The Hillcat, without a sound, leapt and landed on the scowling man’s back, one claw ripping into his arm, making him drop his blaster. He screamed like a little girl as claws dug into his flesh, shredding his back, while seeking his throat for a killing blow. Narrow blaster beams licked out from the tree line, taking the other three men unaware. As the hostiles fell, the blaster fire stopped.
Carnesto pounced on the nearest man who had fallen, but was uninjured. The ‘cat kicked the man’s blaster away, then snarled in his face, showing his fangs and holding one paw high, claws ready to slash. The man froze. Pace was on him in an instant, twisting the man’s arm savagely behind his back.
The man Lutheann had attacked whined and pleaded for his life while blood readily flowed from his wounds. The four crew members ran from the trees to take up positions around the Concordians.
“Why did you make us do that?” Daksha ‘yelled’ at the dying man. “We came in peace. Why wouldn’t you just talk with us?” The Tortoid hovered over the man and watched as his eyes fluttered, before he collapsed.
The commander swam through the air until he was close to the man that Senior Lieutenant Pace held. He hovered for a few seconds, then turned to Albert. “Take your men and go. Forget you ever saw us. It looks like these men hate everyone, no matter who you are. How did they ever get to be in charge?”
“That’s a long story, my friend, and I hope it’s okay that I call you that. You’ve shown more care for our well-being than our own people.” He waved his arm at his men, who were more than happy to go. They gathered their weapons and set off at a run, trying to put as much distance as possible between themselves and the dead men. They knew that there would be hell to pay, and they didn’t want to be on the receiving end of it. Albert had been around long enough to know that when hell came, it wouldn’t matter what they claimed. The government’s men were dead in their valley. No one would come out of this unscathed.
Master Daksha turned toward the man who was still struggling within Pace’s grasp. Cain offered a helping hand by taking the man’s other arm and bending it backward against the elbow. He held his head high as he grunted in pain. C
arnesto put his claws against the man’s throat.
“Hold,” Master Daksha said. “Is this really who we are?” Cain and Pace were angry, but pulled back, securing the man’s arms without forcing him to be in pain.
The ‘cat had never drawn the blood of a human before and found it to be a guilty pleasure. Lutheann sat idly by, licking the blood from her paws, close enough to her kill to be energized by it, but not close enough to get any more on her fur. Carnesto retracted his claw and before the man’s eyes, licked the human’s blood from the tip of his razor-sharp claw.
“Tell us, why did you come after us?” Master Daksha asked, beginning the interrogation of their prisoner.
“Because you didn’t land where you were supposed to. Everything would have been clean if you had,” he answered.
“Yes, I suppose so, clean for you, anyway. I suspect we would have been taken prisoner and judging by your reaction to the variety of people who arrived here from Cygnus VII, we probably would have been treated like animals, not equal to humans.” The Tortoid hovered close, looking at the man’s eyes without blinking, which the other found unnerving. He wouldn’t look at the Tortoid.
‘Lutheann? Carnesto? Can you give us any insight?’ Cain asked over the mindlink. The Hillcats could see into any human mind and know what they thought. They generally avoided that, for their own sanity as they considered human minds too chaotic, human emotions too strong.
‘Yes. He’s afraid that he’ll be punished for failure. He’s afraid of us, how quickly we dispatched the others in his group, especially with my, we’ll call it an intervention of his leader. They are not used to being challenged. He doesn’t know what to do,’ Lutheann answered.
Cygnus Rising: Humanity Returns to Space (Cygnus Space Opera Book 1) Page 20