A New Threat

by Aaron DeMott

  A chorus of “Aye, sir!” rang out from around the bridge.

  “Pirate transport is moving behind the other ship, sir,” Ensign Smith said.

  “All stop. Bring up the bogey on the MHD.”

  Tomed swore under his breath as he slowly rose out of his chair.

  The von Braun hung in space before them.

  Chapter 8

  “Well, that wasn’t quite what I expected.” Bast lowered one ear as Ambassador Fluke took one more back flip and disappeared under the water’s surface.

  “That’s what most people say when they first meet him.” Nilre turned and waded out of the water.

  “Do you think he’ll make it to the SeQish village in time to warn them?” Rrrark asked.

  “He’s probably halfway there already.” Nilre bent down to roll her pant legs back down and brushed the water off them before she put her shoes back on. She smiled as she stood. “Well, there’s our good deed for the day. Let’s go see if our pirates have been up to anything in our absence.”

  Bast followed Nilre back toward the compound and noticed something odd about the psygen’s pants. She stared at them as she walked and tried to figure out what bothered her—then it hit her, they were dry. Excess water still clung to Bast’s legs, even though she’d licked them.

  She was about to ask Nilre how she had managed to dry them so fast when a rustle in the grass ahead of them caught her ear. The sound repeated itself a moment later. Rrrark must have heard it too as he stopped behind her. The sand made it hard to feel vibrations in the ground, and the slight breeze from the sea made it impossible to smell whatever lay ahead.

  A few seconds later Nilre stopped in the middle of the trail. What is it?

  I don’t know. Bast swiveled her ears around, listening. Something’s ahead of us. I’m not sure what. Rrrark?

  Hard to say. Can’t do anything but hear it. I’m guessing either a small animal, or something trying to be sneaky. You two go on ahead but be careful. I’ll try to circle around behind it.

  Rrrark slipped off the trail into the tall grass. Bast crept up beside Nilre, and the two of them resumed their way.

  Bast listened closely as they walked, but the noise did not repeat itself. She could almost feel Rrrark as he made his way behind them and to their left, but she couldn’t hear him.

  She suddenly heard a puff of air from her right and felt a prick in her side as she turned to investigate. Dizziness overtook her. She tried to warn Nilre when a dark form rose from the grass. Her vision blurred and she slumped over before she could form the words.

  The last thing she saw was Nilre’s hair arc through her field of vision as the psygen woman also fell.

  Tomed clenched his jaw and stared at the image of the von Braun on the viewer.

  “Battle stations!” Captain Trenton bellowed.

  The alarm klaxon whined to life as the red emergency lighting flashed. The captain glanced over at Tomed. From the grim look on the captain’s face, he hadn’t expected to see the von Braun, either. Tomed had expected to find an enemy ship or two scrapped together from a few freighters and possibly a few small attack craft—a challenge, but not a big enough threat to avoid completing the mission. The von Braun was the same class as the Goddard, but several improvements had been made in the newer ship’s design and capabilities—enough to worry him.

  “Helm, lay in a course out of here, maximum speed.” The captain frowned and leaned back in his chair. “Do not engage until my order. Weapons Station, lock all plasma cannons and torpedoes on that ship and fire at my order. Comm, hail them and let’s hope they’re in a mood to talk.”

  There was a pause as Lieutenant Strouse cleared her throat. “Hailing them.... we’re receiving a reply, sir.”

  “Put it on the MHD.”

  “Aye, sir.”

  A bridge almost identical to the Goddard’s appeared on the viewer. A man in a brown leather coat and a dirty white shirt lounged in the command chair. He had his legs crossed and propped up his head with his left arm. He picked some dirt out of his boot with his right hand and didn’t seem to pay any attention to the Goddard.

  Trenton cleared his throat. The man looked up.

  “Ah, sorry. Max Loker here. What can I do for you, gentlemen?”

  Trenton glanced at Tomed. He raised an eyebrow at him and nodded to the viewer. Trenton nodded back to him.

  “Well, a few things actually.” Tomed stood and took a step toward the viewer. “You can turn that pirate ship you’re covering over to us, and if you please, you could explain how you’re aboard a ship that should be in orbit of SeQish.”

  “Well, well. Psygen Tomed Nor.” Loker drew the name out. He uncrossed his legs and stretched. “This must be important for you to be nosing into it. I’m afraid I can’t turn over the ship. You see, it’s got supplies I need to get to my employer in order to get paid. As for your second question, I’d be right glad to answer that for you. I was paid to steal the von Braun here. Seems someone with a lot of money didn’t want it going to the SeQish. Sorry about that, nothing personal, but there was rather a lot of money involved.”

  “On behalf of UGAL, I order you to stand down and turn over command of the ship.”

  Max laughed and slapped his knee. “Oh, that’s a good one. Afraid I’m going to have to disappoint you again, boys.”

  The screen went blank, and the ship shook as several torpedoes and plasma blasts struck the shields.

  “Sir, permission to return fire?” Lieutenant Roshen’s fingers twitched over the controls.

  “Negative, we’re no match for them!” Captain Trenton turned to the helm. “Get us out of here!”

  Ensign Smith punched in the final command. The Goddard turned, accelerated, and then lurched into hyperspace.

  “’He will win who knows when to fight, and when not to fight.’ Eh, Psygen?” The captain muttered.

  Tomed opened his mouth to reply, and then suddenly looked down and to his right.

  “Set a course for SeQish please. Maximum speed.”

  Trenton opened his mouth, paused, and then shut it. He nodded. “Helm, set a course for SeQish at Hyper-plus five.”

  “Aye, sir.”

  Tomed looked back up at the captain. “Nilre’s run into some trouble. We’ll need Major Hood and his team.”

  “I’ll have them prepped and ready in the shuttle bay.”

  “Thanks. I’ll be in engineering—prepare the ship for emergency acceleration.”

  Trenton raised an eyebrow but merely nodded as Tomed ran out the door at the rear of the bridge.

  Bast woke to a splitting headache. Her eyes felt as heavy as a tree when she tried to open them. Everything was blurry. She blinked a few times and the world started to come into focus. The first thing she noticed was the lack of trees—then she noticed the bars in front of her. As her vision cleared, she remembered where she was and searched for Rrrark and Nilre.

  Rrrark was about a meter away in a cage similar to the one she was in. They were placed a half-meter off the ground on top of a large shipping crate. Bast reached out to try to open the cage. It sparked, and she quickly withdrew her paw.

  A bald man in an orange shirt and brown jacket laughed. “Heh, bet you won’t try that again.”

  Bast glared at him as he walked around a larger crate in the middle of the room. Just before he disappeared around the other end of the crate, he picked up a long metal tube with two prongs on the end. Bast heard the snap of an electrical discharge and heard a muffled cry from behind the crate. She wasn’t sure, but it sounded like Nilre. Another voice came from the dark—Bast couldn’t see the speaker.

  “Careful. Too much and she’ll be able to focus on the pain enough to use her abilities.”

  “I know,” the voice of the bald man snarled. “How long do we have to keep this up anyway?”

  “Until the next supply ship comes for us. Unless you just want to let her go so she can kill us, that is.”

  The bald man grunted in reply.


  Bast searched for something she could use to get out of the cage. There wasn’t anything. Her eyes met Rrrark’s.

  Any ideas?

  Nothing comes to mind. He blinked and glanced away. I’ve tried to contact Tomed, but I can’t reach him.

  Isn’t he too far away?

  Rrrark groaned mentally. I can’t believe I forgot to tell you that.

  Bast flicked an ear in confusion. Tell me what?

  As far as we know, mind-speak doesn’t have a distance limit.

  Oh.

  Bast blinked a few times and then lay down and thought about that for a moment. She had always assumed someone had to be somewhat close to talk to them with mind-speak. One of these days, she was going to have to find time to learn all these advanced techniques she kept hearing about. How many more of them were there?

  I could have—probably should have—been checking in with Master SarrOw all along. Bast flattened her ears. Huh. I suppose I should worry about that later. Do you know why you can’t contact Tomed?

  I’m not sure. He’s probably asleep or unconscious. Which means we shouldn’t count on any help getting out of here, Rrrark said.

  Right. Besides being scared silly, is there anything else I can do?

  Rrrark looked away again and didn’t say anything else. He was probably thinking. Bast heard another muffled cry from Nilre come from the other side of the crate. She stretched her neck into the upper right corner of the cage to try and see around the crate between her and Nilre. A painful shock coursed through her ear as it brushed against the charged bar. Bast let out a mew and shrank away from the bars. She carefully curled her tail around her and tucked it under her front paws.

  The bald man came around the crate. He grinned and grunted with satisfaction when he saw Bast huddled in the center of the cage. Bast eyed him warily as he strode past her toward Rrrark.

  Rrrark lunged against the electrified wall of his cage as the bald man passed. The cage fell to the floor in a shower of sparks and knocked over the man as it fell. Rrrark kicked the door open and jumped out as the other man ran around the crate in the center of the room and aimed a weapon at Rrrark.

  Bast roared as the blaster discharged. To her surprise the man stumbled and then fell to the ground in front of Rrrark. She looked behind her and found a man in the dark red UGAL marine uniform lowering his blaster. He stepped in the doorway and waved the rest of his squad in.

  The other marines entered and fanned out to check the perimeter of the room. The first marine walked up and pressed a button on the top of her cage. The door flew open.

  “Bast?” he asked.

  “Yes?”

  “I’m Major Hood with the Goddard. Tomed heard Nilre call for help. Do you know where she is?”

  Before Bast could answer, one of the marines called out from the other side of the room. “Major! The Psygen’s over here!”

  Bast jumped down and ran after Major Hood. Nilre was strapped to a table on the other side of the large crate. Most of her clothes had been cut away and wires attached to needles protruded from various parts of her body. Nilre’s muscles spasmed every few seconds. Bast’s whiskers twitched along with the current.

  “We have to turn this off! It’s shocking her!” she cried.

  The major grimaced and followed the wires back to a control panel. He studied it for a moment, then shrugged, pulled the knife from his belt, and cut the bundle of wires where they exited the machine. He turned back to Nilre and reached for the closest wire.

  “Sir, wait!” One of the other marines rushed up to the major. “Some of those look like they’re in pretty deep. We should probably have Doctor Zoet take a look at her first.”

  “Good idea.” He turned back to Bast as the other marine raised his belt-comp. “Can you fill me in on what happened?”

  Bast recounted the events since the ambassador was kidnapped, and Rrrark added details here and there. A man with a white coat over his blue UGAL uniform entered the building. Major Hood pointed to Nilre, and the man walked over to attend to her.

  The major finished with his questions and Bast darted over to check on Nilre. By then the doctor—Bast assumed it was the doctor anyway—was in the process of removing the last needle.

  “Doctor Zoet?” she asked.

  “Yes?” The man in the white coat answered without looking up.

  “Is Nilre going to be all right?”

  “Oh, yes. She will be just fine. Do not worry about her.”

  The doctor’s voice had a different accent to it that was melodic. Bast found it calming.

  Nilre groaned and tried to sit up. Doctor Zoet laid a hand gently on her shoulder.

  “Easy now, Psygen Nilre. Please lie still for a moment.”

  Nilre nodded and laid her head back on the table, closed her eyes and took a deep breath. Bast licked her cheek gently in encouragement.

  Nilre rolled her head over to face Bast and gave her a weak smile. “Don’t worry about me. I’ll be fine in a few moments. We have to get back to the ship and tell Tomed and the captain everything we’ve learned.”

  “Oh!” Bast looked away for a moment and then turned back to face Nilre. “I wanted to stay and help the marines find any other pirates.”

  Nilre took another breath before she answered Bast. “I know, but we have to hurry. UGAL has to be informed about the supplies the pirates have. We have to find out what they’re doing with them, and we need to get to Alkask before the pirates.”

  A marine walked up and laid a spare shipsuit on the table next to Nilre then saluted the major and left. Major Hood turned to face the doctor.

  “Is she ready to travel?”

  Doctor Zoet scratched his chin for a moment before he answered. “Ordinarily, I would say no—however, Psygens are resilient and her color is improving. I believe it will be safe for her to take the shuttle up to the ship. I would prefer to conduct a more thorough examination in the med bay.”

  “Um, would everyone mind leaving while I change?” Nilre asked.

  “Psygen, I really don’t think it’d be a good idea to leave you in here alone,” Major Hood said.

  “I’ll stay with her.” Bast turned around and sat on her haunches between Nilre and the others. “Now all of you men get out of here and let her change.”

  The major started to speak but stopped and waved his men out when Bast hissed at him.

  “I will be right outside if you require my assistance.” Doctor Zoet turned and followed the Major out the door.

  Rrrark didn’t say anything, but he did give Bast and Nilre each a quick lick on the shoulder before he left.

  “Thank you.” Nilre smiled down at Bast.

  Bast smiled back. “You’re welcome. Nudity isn’t an issue with Meskka, but I’d imagine that you’d feel more exposed when you’re not always wearing a fur coat.”

  “Ow.” Nilre groaned as she struggled to sit up.

  “Anything I can help with?” Bast asked.

  “Yes. Can you unfold that shipsuit for me? I need to just sit here and not move for a moment.”

  Bast picked up the garment and struggled with it awhile until she figured out how it was folded. When she had finished, Nilre sighed and started to remove what little remained of her clothes.

  There was a pause and then Nilre gasped in pain again.

  “Um, I need a little help. I can’t bend down.”

  Bast turned around and took the shipsuit from Nilre and then looked back up at her.

  “What do you need me to do?”

  “If you could, please slide that over my legs and pull it up far enough for me to grab. Then I need you to lend a shoulder for me to lean on when I attempt to stand.”

  Nilre pulled the suit on the rest of the way and ran a finger over the seams to close them. She smiled at Bast as the suit adjusted itself to fit.

  “Thanks for the help. Let’s get out of here.”

  Bast followed Nilre to the door where Doctor Zoet waited outside.

  “Are
you ready to depart?” he asked.

  Nilre nodded.

  “The shuttle is this way. Rrrark is already aboard waiting for us.”

  Bast stepped off the shuttle into the shuttle bay of the Goddard and looked around for Tomed. She didn’t see him anywhere, so she followed Nilre to the med bay. She walked in the door and stood off to the side as Nilre sat on one of the beds and waited for Doctor Zoet to finish setting up what Bast guessed to be a medical scanner.

  There was only one other patient in the bay, and he was asleep in a bed at the far end of the room. Bast looked back to the door and wondered where Rrrark was—she thought he was right behind her.

  Rrrark, where’d you go? She asked.

  There was a brief pause before he answered her. I’m with the captain, filling him in on everything that’s happened to us. Is Nilre okay?

  I’m not sure, hang on…

  Doctor Zoet had finished with the medical scanner and briefly touched a small metal tube to Nilre’s neck.

  “There, now! A short rest and perhaps a bowl of soup, and you will be just fine.”

  The Doctor says she’ll be fine after some food and rest, Bast told Rrrark.

  Doctor Zoet waved to Bast and then returned to his office.

  Bast placed her front paws on the foot of the bed and lifted herself up to an almost vertical position so she could look Nilre in the eyes. “Is there anything I can do for you?”

  “Yes, actually. Do you know where Rrrark went?”

  “He’s informing the captain of everything that’s happened.”

  “Good.” Nilre looked relieved. “We need to act on what we’ve learned from the pirates right away. As long as Rrrark is handling that, you can help me wake Tomed.”

  Nilre stood and walked over to the sleeping figure at the opposite end of the med bay. As she approached, Bast gasped.

  Nilre stopped mid-stride and glanced over at her. “What’s wrong?”

  “Nothing.” Bast glanced down at the carpet. “I’m just embarrassed. He’s been here the whole time, and I just now noticed it was Tomed.”

  Nilre smiled as she sat on the edge of the bed and then looked down at Tomed. After a moment, she frowned and pressed her index finger lightly against his forehead. Tomed blinked and yawned as he sat up.