The Raygin War

  “What a great story. I can’t wait to sit down and hear…”

  A young ensign walked up and said, “Admiral, forgive me for interrupting. We received an emergency communication via the experimental tachyon transmitter.”

  “Well don’t stand there, what did they say?”

  The young com officer fidgeted, and looked at Mahpee.

  “You can speak in front of our new friend. His name is Mahpee. Let’s hear it ensign.”

  “Aye, sir. The new com transmitter still has some issues to work out. We deciphered the following partial communication from Imperial Station. The junior officer read the paper: Under attack. Six unknown ships...”

  “Is there more to the message?”

  “Yes sir. There was more, but the data got corrupted during transmission. We can’t raise them on the tachyon or by using the com probe link.”

  “If Imperial Station is under attack, it may be the new threat Mahpee informed us about, an alien race called the Raygin. No one else is out this far except for colonists and the military. Navigation, set course for Imperial Station.”

  “Aye Admiral. Setting course for Imperial Station,” said the senior lieutenant at navigation controls.

  “Com, relay the message to the convoy and inform them of our change in plans. Continue attempting to contact Imperial Station. Let me know if you are successful.”

  “Aye sir.”

  “Helm, how long will it take us to get to Imperial?”

  “Twenty-seven point four standard days sir.”

  “Damn, I hate operating at these distances. When you broadcast to Imperial Station give them our estimated day of arrival too.”

  “Aye sir, making blind broadcasts to Imperial Station.”

  “I apologize Mahpee. We have to change our plans. Looks like you were right, these damn Raygin are after a fight. We can let you and your ship off before we change course.”

  “If you don’t mind a little help, the Wasp may be small but she has tremendous fire power. We also have some new tracking technology. We may be able to help once we get to Imperial Station.”

  “It’s a big commitment, Mahpee. Over the years, I have learned to accept help whenever it’s offered. Thank you.”

  Before the convoy began its sequence of jumps, Mahpee fired off a probe. It contained information about the attack on Imperial Station. He also let his people know he was going to assist the People of the Stars. Updates would follow.

  CHAPTER FIVE: Survival

  The Nomad survivors, except for the children, were herded into a large holding area. It was deep inside the alien ship. The passageways were dark, but the aliens seemed to navigate with little effort. The Nomad’s captain, Jahra Cutter estimated they were about mid ship. The aliens entered and exited the holding pen constantly. Every time the door opened he could see the bugs carrying dead human bodies. He feared Lieutenant Muween was right. Why else go through the trouble of carrying the ripped up human bodies onto their ship? The aliens took extra effort to capture the humans alive. The captain’s best guess was they would become slaves. Still, the aliens taking the children didn’t make sense. What good would they be?

  The alien ship contained a labyrinth of dark hallways. Ribbed surfaces lined all the passageways. It looked the walkways were hewn out of a block of lava. Aboard the ship, the captain noted most aliens did not wear armor. They seemed unafraid of their weaker human captives. As a precaution, the bugs brought armed guards when workers entered the pen.

  Without body armor everyone could see the bugs’ black exoskeleton. It seemed stiff and not flexible at all. Captain Cutter speculated even without body armor, it would still be hard for an unarmed human to kill a bug. There must be a weakness we can exploit. I hope we have a bug expert among the survivors.

  The enemy’s plan all along must have been to capture humans. Look at the pens. They were designed for human prisoners. Not good news for us. It means the aliens planned this years ago. An invasion of human space must imminent. Hell, this might even be the beginning. Intelligence about the enemy is critical. We have to gather every piece of info we can about our captors. I have to get us the hell out of here.

  Once things settled down the aliens placed two bugs armed with plasma rifles on elevated platforms in the pen. They hadn’t gone out of their way to bother anyone, yet. The humans were free to move anywhere within the pen except near the guard platforms. The captain watched as the crew and the colonists each formed clusters of their own people. He knew if they were going to survive, he had to change this behavior.

  During the trip the captain made sure the colonists knew they could count on him for help. He established a good rapport while walking through their spaces to check on their needs. He also removed barriers to their preparations for colonization. It is time to capitalize on the bond he had created. He walked over to the colonists.

  “Hi, I remember some of you. I’m Captain Cutter. I’m looking for the governor?”

  A muscular looking young man stomped to the group’s forefront. “The fucking bugs killed him when he tried to reason with the butchers as they took the children. They killed everyone trying to stop them. Are the rumors true? These bastards see us as a food source.”

  Still looking them in the eye the captain said, “It’s too soon to tell, but I’ll be honest with you, it doesn’t look good for us.”

  A woman with tear tracks in her eyes and wet cheeks said, “What are we going to do captain? Can we even do anything at all?”

  “I’m here now to talk about our options. I need to talk with your biologists and engineers.”

  The muscular looking man said, “I’ll get them, but first tell me what you’re thinking?”

  “I was a pilot in the mining wars. My fighter got shot down behind enemy lines and I got captured. I learned to never give up hope, and always have a plan. Every living creature has a weakness. We need the biologists to speculate on what the bug vulnerability is and figure out how to exploit it. The engineers may be able to identify something within the ship’s design we can use to our advantage. For instance, our bodies are more flexible. The bug ship designers may not have considered the human anatomy when they built their ships.”

  Another woman stepped up. She had several open wounds on her arm. “They took my daughter, captain. I want to help too.”

  “Okay, I want you to find the colonist doctors and nurses. I suspect the bugs won’t be helping us so we need to start helping ourselves.”

  Everyone in the group started to ask the captain how they could help. In time, he came up with a task for each person. This wasn’t going to be easy, but he needed to give them hope. Everyone scrambled to complete his or her assignments. The captain walked back to his crew and told them what he had done. They were glad to hear the resistance against the bugs had begun.

  The next several days would be crucial if they were to survive. As the crew discussed their options the bugs turned down the lighting to simulate nighttime. The captain didn’t want to draw attention to groups of humans roaming around at night. He put the word out to sleep and not be active at night. The captives would work during the simulated daylight hours so as not to draw attention.

  As soon as the lights came on, a group of five people walked up to the captain. An older woman stepped forward and held out her hand. “Hello captain, I’m Nihna. I have a doctorate in biology. I am the lead biologist and back-up entomologist for the Rayne colonists. We heard you wanted to talk to us.”

  The captain took Nihna’s hand and shook it. She didn’t realize it yet, but her people would play a major roll in saving all their lives. “Hello Nihna. I’ll get right to the point, I want to create a plan to break us free. Tell me, what are the strengths and weaknesses of these human abducting cockroaches?”

  Nihna gave a small smile and said, “Well captain, these bugs not being cockroaches is a plus for us. If they were we would be in big trouble. You can cut the head off a cockroach and they will still put up a fight. It is difficu
lt for us to understand how this evolution could have occurred. Our best guess is we think our captors evolved from Carrion beetles.”

  “Okay, tell me about Carrion beetles.”

  “There are five hundred thousand types of beetles found in the universe. These bugs and Carrion beetles have many similar characteristics. To begin with, Carrion beetles evolved with black bodies and different colored heads, as did our captors. Many other species of beetles have colored shells. We have seen nothing but black exoskeletons. The Carrion emits chemicals to irritate other bugs and animals. Some entomologists believe the chemical smells are also a form of nonverbal communication. The mandibles, antennae, and atrophied wings are also indicators of characteristics shared with the Carrion beetle. We can’t be positive without DNA testing, but it’s our best guess.”

  “Do they have weaknesses we can exploit?”

  “If they stayed true to their ancestors, they may have a few weaknesses. They love to eat decaying flesh, ripe fruits, and rotten vegetables. If given a choice, they prefer the decayed meat. These types of beetles have an aversion to feathers, organs, sun baked skin, or fresh blood.”

  The captain recalled catching glimpses of beetles carrying human corpses in the passageways. Each bug wore protective covers and weird looking hand gloves.

  “In a lab environment we use porcelain or resin coating to contain them. Colonies like damp underground dwellings and large water sources. They cannot survive when exposed to extreme heat. Compounds containing formaldehyde, pyrethroids, or carbamates, are poison to them. They will not eat anything covered in mold. The temperature most ideal for them is 15 degrees Celsius.” Doctor Nihna looked at her team and said, “Anyone have something else to add?”

  “I do,” said a thin, young adult, wearing thick-lensed glasses. He stepped forward. “They have a hive mentality. They like to lay their eggs in decaying organisms. The Carrion beetle has four stages: egg, larva, pupa, and adult. The nest is always tended around the clock. The young would be easy to kill, as it takes time for the exoskeleton to form and harden.”

  “That’s more information than I hoped to learn about our captors, nice job,” said the captain. “Do you have any chemists among the colonists?”

  “We had two, a husband and wife team. We lost the husband during the attack. Ruth Bernardo is the surviving chemist.”

  “Great. I know I’ll need more input from your team, but for now that’s enough information to start planning a way to get us out of here. Do me a favor. Without drawing attention to yourselves, watch the bug guards. Make note of anything you think might help us. I’ll spread the word we are making a plan to get us out of this mess. One final request before you go, could someone find Ruth for me?”

  Doctor Nihna nodded her head in the affirmative, and the team started to walk away. The thin young man that spoke up earlier turned around to face the captain. “They took my younger brother, captain. My older brother died trying to stop the aliens. If you need a volunteer with knowledge about insects, I’m your man. My name is Tews. I’m the colonist’s primary entomologist.”

  “Thank you Tews. I know we’re going to need your help in the future. I’ll keep it in mind as we make our plans.”

  As the captain watched Tews shuffle away he wondered if the young man could handle what was coming. He remembered his own captivity during the war and recalled to never judge a person by their looks. Many average looking people went on to become heroes.

  The captain spotted several colonists picking their way through the mass of people. They strolled in a meandering path, so as not to draw attention to themselves. He wondered if they were more volunteers. One by one the colonists showed up next to the captain.

  “I figured you could use some of their help,” said Smitty, the Nomad’s chief engineer. “There’s several more engineers, but we didn’t want too large of a group moving through the colonists and crew.” Smitty looked at the newcomers. “This is Captain Cutter, he needs our help to get us out of here.”

  “Hello everyone. We need to gather as much information about these bugs, the ship, and their weapons as we can. I met Nihna, the colonist’s lead biologist, and Tews, the primary entomologist; they gave us some good info about the aliens. I have a plan in mind, but we are going to need as much information as our engineers can give us about the ship.”

  The engineers came looking for hope, and the captain had given it to them. It was going to take some time, but let them know he thought they had a chance. Their eyes glinted with new optimism and their slouched shoulders straightened. They agreed to start analyzing the ship from an engineer’s perspective.

  For his plan to work, he still needed a chemist. A woman from Nihna’s team found Ruth and brought the captain to her. She warned him ahead of time Ruth had a mental collapse and was not doing well. When the two of them came upon Ruth, she was sitting on the floor. She was oblivious to everything going on around her. Captain Cutter had seen this same behavior many times during the war. Ruth’s mind couldn’t make sense of anything that happened to her, so it shut down. She was in shock.

  The captain walked up to Ruth and sat on the ground next to her. She stared through him, as if he weren’t there. People looked at Ruth and shook their heads at the captain. They had already tried to get through to her, but were unsuccessful. They put her where they could keep an eye on her. Setting her near, but not talking to her was the wrong action to take even though the colonists meant well. She needed to talk, to be part of a conversation. If not, in time she would snap.

  “Ruth, I’m Captain Cutter. I need to talk to you about some important plans. First off, I want to tell you I’m sorry your Raphael died. I heard he tried to stop the aliens from taking the children. He was very brave.”

  Ruth started to shake. This was a good sign. She was remembering what happened. Cruel, but she needed to let her emotions out, not bottle them up. In the military the captain leaned a surviving friend needed support from others. Sometimes a few kind words were enough. He also had to show Ruth she was needed by the other survivors.

  “We need to stop these bugs from killing more of us. You have knowledge that can help us. Ruth, we need you. Can you do that Ruth? Can you help us?”

  The captain watched as tears began to roll down Ruth’s cheeks. It was more than he could take with everything else going on. He started to cry too. The captain who was still sitting on the floor had to look away from Ruth so he didn’t send her into a deeper depression. Oh great, I’m here making her feel worse. The captain felt an arm cradle his head. Ruth had reached out to comfort him. They both cried for a while. It felt good.

  In a shaky voice the captain said, “Ruth, we have to stop these bastards. I have a plan but I need your help.”

  “What do you need?” Ruth managed to sniffle out.

  She had snapped out of it. He knew what she wanted. He had to capitalize on her desire for revenge.

  “Ruth, I met with biologists and entomologists. They identified several weaknesses we may be able to exploit if we can create the chemicals.”

  “What chemicals?” asked Ruth.

  “They said we needed formaldehyde, pyrethroids, or carba, uh, let me think, it was carba something or other.”

  “Was it carbamates? They are a general class of synthetic organic insecticides.”

  “Yes, that’s what they called it. Carbamate. Can you make any them?”

  “Oh sure, I could make them all with the right chemicals and a lab.”

  “How about here, in this holding pen, with what is available?”

  “To create formaldehyde requires recovering gases made by burning certain materials. In this pen it would be impossible. To make pyrethroids requires access to large volumes of flowers, Chrysanthemums or Tanacetums. I don’t think it’s possible given our environment.”

  The captain got a sinking feeling. He had hoped they could create a chemical to kill the bugs.

  “Now, let me think. For carbamates I need ammonia, and carbon dioxide
…”

  The captain interrupted Ruth, “It was worth a try. I’ll come up with a plan B.”

  “Not so fast captain. Carbon dioxide and nitrogen are both in the air we exhale. The nitrogen will be irrelevant to the chemical reaction. I can come up with a way to capture our exhaled breath. The next problem is ammonia. Humans have small amounts of ammonia in their blood; it’s toxic and it gets filtered into the body’s waste. If we force people to dehydrate, their bodies will produce more urea than normal. It will come out in their urine.”

  “Won’t people forced to dehydrate to that level die?” asked the captain.

  “No, we can rotate volunteers. We will let the urine sit for a while to reclaim the ammonia – yes. I can do it. The problem is I won’t be able to identify the concentration levels. We could have a twenty percent or a ninety percent concentration. The best thing to do would be to test spray some on a guard and observe its reaction.”

  “Ruth, you’re a genius.”

  “No, it’s simple. I want to kill these bastards.”

  “How long will it take you to mix up a batch?”

  “It will take several months or so to get everything done. Even if we start today.”

  “Lets start now,” smiled the captain. “I haven’t had anything to drink since last night. I’ll be the first to pee for you.”

  “I have to make some preparations first. In the mean time, don’t you dare pee.”

  At hearing this, the captain smiled and hugged her.

  “I won’t.”

  In the next months the engineers located air ducts and electrical lines. They also found door control mechanisms, communication systems, and junction boxes. They speculated about the ship’s design, and what held the ship together. A team of engineers worked on fashioning weapons. They used the metal and super plastics found in belts, clothing and shoes. It turned out the alien scanners had missed a lot of items. They also planned to take whatever they could from the ship or guards when the time was right.