The Raygin War

by Larry S. Gerovac

  The plan seemed to be going well as the colonists and crew worked together. The captain felt a strong vibration. The rumbling shook deep inside his body. He would never get used to the low frequency sonic wave. It was the bugs calling them to eat. Two separate troughs slid out from the wall near where the guard stood watch. One trough contained some kind of creamy substance for solid food. The other one contained what appeared to be water. The captain couldn’t help but picture pigs at a trough. Could humans be no more than cattle to our captors?

  The captain walked over to the bathroom area and began to formulate the rest of his plan. The room had ventilation and was auto cleaning. The facility had one way in, and one way out. Upon exiting, users received a spray of fast drying disinfectant. It kept their bodies disease free. The engineers found two hidden ventilation shafts in the bathroom facility. One supplied fresh air and the other sucked it out. This, he hoped, was the jackpot.

  The crew set up a work area for Ruth. She worked squatting near the ground so the guards couldn’t see her. There were several colonists assigned to assist Ruth. Their job was to prevent her from being seen by the bugs.

  When the captain walked up to Ruth, she was so intent on her work she didn’t notice him. After a few minutes, he used a soft voice and said, “Ruth.” She still didn’t notice him. This time he added a little more volume, “Oh Ruth, we need to talk.”

  She looked up, saw the captain, and tried to stand up, but couldn’t. The captain had to help her up. She had been squatting so long, her legs wouldn’t extend.

  “Ruth, you need to take better care of yourself. I can smell your success in making the ammonia, but if we don’t do something the bugs will know it too. Is there any way to mask the ammonia smell?”

  She wiped the hair from her face as she looked at the captain. “Yes. I should have thought of the smell.”

  “I’m glad we caught it before the guards noticed. What can I get you?” asked the captain.

  “Bring me a few of our fattest people.”

  The captain laughed. “You’re kidding me right? You don’t need fat people? Do you?”

  “Yes, I need fat people. I noticed the gruel provided by our captors is salty. We can solve our problem if our heavy weights will volunteer to exercise and sweat. Their sweat contains salt I can recover from their clothing. The salt is all it will take to mask the ammonia smell.” Ruth smiled at the captain. “After twenty years as a top level chemist, here I am using pee, bad breath, and sweat to make chemicals.”

  “The captain reached over and hugged Ruth. I thank God you are here. You may be our salvation.”

  Ruth smiled and buried herself in her work once again. Creating a strong pesticide in this environment was no simple task. Nothing about their plan was simple. The captain had everyone involved in preparing for the escape. Not one person said trying to take control of the ship was a crazy idea. Everyone knew it was this, or nothing.

  The engineers developed a simple mouth sprayer. They used the Venturi effect to create a low-pressure delivery system for the poison. The user needed to blow into a hollow tube connected to the container of insecticide. Care had to be taken not to suck in while their mouth was on the hollow tube or they would get a mouth full of chemicals. The captain marveled at what the human mind was capable of in a pinch.

  The captives wanted explore the ship by to using the air ducts while Ruth completed her work. The captain said no. Not until the poison was ready. If they were discovered, the captives had to do as much damage as possible. After some heated discussion, the crew and colonists agreed with the captain. Being prepared for the worst while hoping for the best was the most prudent approach.

  Since it would be helpful for the person spaying the bug to understand bug physiology, the captain decided to talk to Tews. The idea was to dilute the original spray in the hopes of getting a reaction from the bug. They did not want to kill it and ruin any future chances they may have had of taking over the ship.

  As the captain walked up to Tews he asked him, “Do you still want to volunteer to help take out the bugs?”

  “More than ever, captain.”

  He looked at Tews, “I’m a little worried you won’t be able to jump on the guard’s platform. Or to spray the insecticide into the bug’s face.”

  Tews started to laugh. “You have proven why you need me to do this. Carrion beetles do not have lungs or breathe through their mouths, captain. They have tiny holes in their bodies called spiracles. The air moves into them, it travels into tiny tubes called trachea, which act like lungs. While spying on our bug hosts I noticed they are capable of expanding and contracting their exoskeletons. This pumping action causes more air to flow into their spiracles. Once the air gets to the tracheal system a simple diffusion occurs…”

  “Okay, okay, you can stop, you win. You’ve proved you’re the right person for the job.”

  “Thank you captain.”

  “Don’t thank me for putting you into danger. If you get caught, the bugs will kill you. I had other plans for your expertise, so do me a favor and stay alive.”

  “I’ll do my best. Do you think you could create a distraction for me?”

  “I’ll do one better. At feeding time, I’ll have a fight break out. The two opponents will bump into you, knocking you onto the guard platform by the food trough. One antagonist will climb onto the stand to jump on his opponent. We will have people yelling and screaming at the two fighters to get the guard’s attention. You should be able to approach undetected and spray it with the insecticide.”

  “Sounds like a plan, captain.”

  Everyone felt the ship lurch, as if they had hit a speed bump. The captain knew right away what caused the bump. There was another, followed by a third. The ship was in a fight. Hits to the ship’s shields had caused the lurches they felt. The shields must have held. The captain wished he could see what was happening. The lights dimmed and the humans could feel the ventilation stop. A rumble moved throughout the ship. It happened four more times, each no further than a minute apart.

  Smitty ran over to the captain. “Did you feel that, sir? I’d bet all my credits the drain of power was some kind of weapon system.”

  “You’re right Smitty. It can’t be a laser, it’s got to be something else.”

  “This ship took three direct hits. No busted lines, loss of power, or breached bulkheads. We gotta stop these butchers. Whatever they did after their weapon fired, we didn’t get hit again. I’m guessing they took out whatever was firing at them. I hope it’s not more humans.”

  The colonists and crew began to speculate on what had happened. Everyone seemed to agree, their ship had been in some kind of firefight. A little while later everyone heard the sound of metallic clanking. You could feel the vibration through the deck. After about fifteen minutes the pen doors opened up. Eight armed bugs wearing body armor entered the compound. Two worked a portable scanning device as the other six stood at the ready. A body hydro of human captives was forced to walk though a portable electronic scanning device.

  A stream of hundreds of humans started shuffling into the pen. The firing of plasma rifles reverberated through the passageway. In shock, anger, and with tears running down their faces, the new captives moved like livestock into the large pen area. A scuffle broke out when a captive wearing a military uniform walked by an armed bug. In an act of defiance, he spun around, grabbed its gun, and moved backward through the detector.

  Alarms sounded as the courageous sergeant tried in vane to fire the rifle at the guards. When he pulled the trigger, nothing happened. The bugs started clicking and hissing. One used its exoskeleton forearm like a club and bashed the human on the head, knocking him out. It took back the stolen gun. A few colonists from the Nomad dragged the unconscious man away. They moved into the mass of human bodies and disappeared from view.

  The people from the Nomad descended on the new prisoners in an effort to glean information. The captain understood the new prisoners would have a thousand q
uestions. As he made his way to the new arrivals, the old captives parted giving him a clear path. It meant a lot to him because it conveyed an acceptance of his leadership. Everyone stopped talking when he walked up to the group.

  “Hello, I’m Captain Cutter from the Nomad.” The captain held his arms open, “Everyone here is from our ship. We were carrying colonists in an unarmed ship to the planet Rayne. These bugs attacked us and took us prisoner. We have been here for months, and still don’t know what the aliens want with us.”

  The young black haired man stuck his hand out toward the captain. The two shook hands. “Captain Cutter, I’m Gus. I am from the maintenance staff on Imperial. I know most everyone on the station. You know how it goes. A new space hub means lots of problems to fix. Everyone needs a maintenance worker sooner or later.”

  “Gus, we need to gather all the intel we can about our bug captors. Can you tell me what happened from the beginning?”

  “Sure. Anything you need. It started when I got a call from engineering. Some military personnel on leave were having problems with our view screens. They were in the central gravitational ring. When I got there, sure enough, the screens were down. I got my equipment out and tried to scope the signal, but it was gone. We have a back up transmitter, so I switched to it. I saw the signal appear on my scope.”

  “I heard a military guy say, ‘What the hell are those’. By the time I looked up, the screen was blank again. I performed a scan for the signal but it was gone. Like the first one, it disappeared.”

  “Did you find out what caused the signal loss?” asked the captain.

  “No, but that’s when I remembered we had hardwired the cameras when we built the station. The manufacturer forgot to send the transmitters to us. Later, we installed the remote transmitters and left the wires in place. I switched to the old low voltage analog signal created using a galvanic gel. This time the screens came on, and the signal didn’t disappear.”

  A man walked up to the captain. “When the aliens attacked us, we lost all communication too. They must have a harmonic frequency generator. It dampens the wave function of any wireless transmission. It’s high tech electronics. Our engineers are working on it, but we don’t have any yet. I can’t believe these dumb ass bugs are capable of designing something so complex.”

  Gus tilted his head and blinked at the newcomer.

  “Gus, this is Smitty, the Nomads Chief Engineer,” said the captain. He turned to Smitty. “You’re right. The bugs seem to use high tech gadgets, but I have not seen proof of a greater intelligence.” Turning back to Gus the captain said, “Sorry Gus. What happened next?”

  “We couldn’t believe our eyes. We saw six alien ships. They looked like big bugs and they were firing at the military war ships docked at the station. Our ships were sitting ducks.”

  “Was anyone able to fire on the alien ships?” asked the captain.

  “Yeah. The aliens were so busy taking out the docked ships they didn’t realize they gave us time to activate our big defensive guns. The alien ships took hit after hit, but their shields held. They wasted no time in neutralizing the station’s weapon system. When they boarded us it was total chaos. It became a game of hide and seek inside the station,” Gus shook his head and said, “I lost.”

  “Anything else you remember, Gus?” asked the captain.

  “Hey, come on. Someone give me a hand down here.” It was the young sergeant who snatched the bug’s gun. He managed to get himself upright into a sitting position. A few colonists helped him up. He looked at the people around him, smiled, and said, “Thanks for getting me out of there. I was counting on you helping me. I’m Sergeant Frank Spazinok. My friends call me Spaz.”

  “What do you mean?” asked the Captain. “You were counting on people helping you?”

  “Well, it’s like this: I already knew their gun wouldn’t fire. A few ground pounders and me ambushed some of their search teams and tried using the alien weapons. We never got their rifles to work. My guess is they have some kind of DNA coded safety mechanism. I moved backwards through the scanner while holding the rifle at my right side on purpose.” Spaz pulled out an old-fashioned synthetic needle gun from a sleek holster in his waist. It was an outlawed weapon used to circumvent carbon-based scanners. “I wanted to make sure I got this past them. I thought it might come in handy.”

  “Spaz, that was pure genus,” said Smitty. “Captain, we could use Spaz to help us plan. He’s a nontraditional thinker. We could use his talent.”

  Spaz grinned. “I’m willing if it will get us off this death trap.”

  “Okay, Spaz. You’ve earned a spot, if you’re interested,” said the captain.

  “Hell yeah. Sign me up.”

  “The bugs you took the rifles from, did you kill them?” asked the captain.

  “Yep, we killed a few of them. Our hand held weapons were useless against their armor. We found a woodcraft shop that sold wood framing tools to colonists. The tools we took had points, sharp edges, and were about eighteen inches long. After a few attempts we learned if we jammed the blades in through top opening of their armor, the bugs died.”

  “That would be the thorax,” said a thin, anorexic looking man. “Located near the top and below the thorax is where the all the bug’s main organs are situated. You couldn’t find a better place to stick a long sharp object.”

  “Spaz, meet Tews.” At hearing himself give the introduction, the captain said, “That’s got a certain ring to it, doesn’t it? Tews is our resident bug expert. His knowledge is what’s going to help us all get out of here.”

  “Tews, huh? Yeah, I could see it. Spaz and Tews the gutsy duo. You could be the brains…” Spaz reached over and acted like he felt Tews bicep, “and I guess I could be everything else.”

  Everyone laughed, even the captain. The sergeant’s personality had a positive affect on everyone near him.

  With all the new information coming in, the captain said, “We need to regroup and discuss our plan of action. As far as we know, the humans from Imperial Station are the only ones to engage the bugs. We need to share our information with each other in the hopes we can use it to escape. Whatever happens we have to get word back to our government about these aliens.”

  The next few days there were many meetings. A sharing of every scrap of information about the bugs and their weapons occurred. The engineers learned the enemy ships used plasma canons on the station. The bug ship lowering its shields as the plasma cannons fired is what the captives felt during the battle. This was useful information.

  It was almost time to send a two-member team into the ventilation system. They would map out the ship and learn what they could. Spaz volunteered because of his military experience. Tews was the second team member because of his knowledge about bugs.

  The next day the plan to test Ruth’s poison was put into motion. Two rather large colonists started fighting at the food trough. One fighter slammed into Tews, knocking him onto the guard platform. Before the guard could react, the other fighter leapt onto the elevated platform and dove at the other human. The guard brought his rifle to the ready. Tews blew into the insecticide delivery system and slid off the platform in one smooth motion.

  The captain watched but nothing happened. The guard stood there with his weapon pointing at the two fighting humans. Tews decided he had to do something before the guard fired at them. He launched himself into the guard’s feet. The guard fell over, paralyzed stiff as a board. The commotion got the other guard’s attention. Everyone started screaming and running away.

  The guard on the floor began to move, as his partner approached with its rifle at the ready. It stunk like all hell. The fallen guard stood up, while the other guard clicked and hissed at it. Soon both of them were clicking and hissing at each other. It sounded like they were arguing. Tews watched the guard he had doused with insecticide. It forced its chest to heave, causing a larger flow of oxygen to enter the respiratory system. Tews could see the drug had already worn off. The b
ug was back to normal. The second guard pushed several humans over on its way back to the platform. You could tell the second bug was mad. It looked like it thought the other bug had fallen asleep and fell over.

  Tews went straight to Ruth. “Ruth, would it be possible to mix some kind of substance into your concoction to make it sticky. I need the insecticide to stick inside the bug’s body. If a bug heaves its chest the insecticide will resist being pushed out of the spiracles.”

  “Yeah, I can think of a few simple creations that will work. I’ll add it to the mix. How’d the insecticide and mouth aerator work?”

  “At current potency, it paralyzed the bug for about one minute. I can’t wait to see what full strength will do on these baby-eating bastards. The mouth aerator worked better than I could have imagined. Just be careful not to make the bug juice too thick.”

  “We’ll test it after I change the mix. I’ll have it ready by the end of day.”

  Next, Tews met with the captain and Spaz to discuss tomorrow’s foray into the air duct systems. The engineers developed a few simple tools for the two to use as they traversed the air vents inside the ship. They would have light tubes to hang around their necks so they could see and have both hands free to crawl. Ruth found a way to create dry, odorless, chalk, to mark on the vent system. She was sure it would get confusing as the turns and twists started adding up.

  The team agreed with the captain. It would be best to leave in the morning. The team would mix with the mad rush to use the bathroom facilities.

  “For once, my lack of height makes me a valued commodity,” said Spaz.

  Tews started laughing. “Spaz, I’m shorter than you and less muscular. Look at you! You have too many muscles and they will do nothing but bind you up. I think I’m a more valued commodity on this team!”