Under construction
Hello! My name is TinyBard (not really). I am an amateur writer among other things. Below is a sample story (while I work on making my site actually look like something, you can also find me on reddit at https://www.reddit.com/user/TinyBard
For a very long time, many races have looked down on humanity. the reason for this prejudice has been a matter of some debate. It is usually attributed to the fact that the Humans lost their own homeworld due to war and pollution.
M-C N. Voran - Peoples of the Galaxy
Narii sighed to herself as she stared morosely at the message on her Tabb:
“Narii-Chtel nov Rethan,
The admissions committee has carefully reviewed your application to the Centarum Institute of Exo-planetary studies. We receive millions of applications each year, unfortunately we are unable to offer you a position here…”
The form letter went on for a while after that, something about wishing her success in her future endeavors, but she couldn’t really register the hollow words. She had spent most of her school career working toward the goal of studying at CIEP, and now it looked like she wouldn’t get the chance. She had spent the last of her savings purchasing a berth on a ship headed for the inner planets where the institute was located in the hope that she would have a place when she arrived. Now she was stuck, no destination, no place to return to, nothing but a one-way trip on a cargo hauler to a planet where she couldn’t possibly afford to live. What was she going to do? No money, no family, no meaningful education. The entirety of her possessions could fit into a single beat up bag. It wasn’t even halfway full either.
Narii sighed again and glanced around. She was surprised at how luxurious the furnishings in her cabin where compared to how much she paid for this ticket, only a couple thousand credits rather than the usual millions. The cabin was small enough for even the diminutive Reshiir to feel cramped, but it was clean and comfortable with a small viewport set into the wall. That alone should have cost extra but the check-in system had automatically upgraded her accommodations because the trip was under booked. The bed was small, but the mattress was soft and the blankets were warm. There was an air to the room that made it feel more homey by far than the dingy apartment she had been living in for the last year.
A crackling voice cut through her morose contemplation. “Attention passengers, I’d like to welcome you aboard the New York. My name is Todd Grey and I am your captain. We should be getting clearance to depart Coreward station here in a couple of minutes and then we will be on our way to the Centari system.”
Narii frowned, between the odd name and strange accent she was having a hard time placing the species of the captain. Only two names meant that it couldn't be a Reshiir like her. The Zchell tended to have two names, but their insectoid mandibles tended to make their voices much harsher than the voice she had just heard. Bruune? No, the voice was too high pitched to be a bovine. Guth? Sidthe? Mruh-jah?
She sighed and shook her head, there was no way to know for sure. Especially not with the crackling from the speakers. Once again the captain’s voice cut through her musings. “We have just received clearance to leave and will be on our way shortly. We are about ten minutes from warp, our passengers are welcome to watch from the forward observation deck; crew, please secure for transit”
Narii felt a jolt of excitement, she had never been to warp before. Indeed, she had never been off-world before a few hours ago. She pulled up a map of the ship on her Tabb and hurried to find the forward observation deck.
…
It is a known fact that nothing can travel faster than the speed of light. It is known as the universal speed limit. As fast as light travels, traveling at only that speed would make interstellar travel unfeasible as hundreds of years would pass in transit to even visit the closest stars.
Warp, or Transit as it was sometimes called, is an elegant solution to this problem. It was discovered that space could be bent using small artificial black holes.
By bending space into a tunnel, transit distance could be reduced from hundreds of light-years to a matter of light-days or light-minutes. This bending of space also had the added benefit of reducing the relativistic effects of near-light speeds from years to only a couple of lost hours.
Knnk Shrrhsk’mpp - Superluminal Mechanics 6th Ed.
…
Hoff wiped sweat from his brow and tried to look natural. He cursed himself for his nerves. He wasn't even doing anything that would get him in trouble. He wouldn't be doing anything incriminating for a couple of days. His job was to get onboard the ship and sabotage the singularity core so that the warp tunnel would fail so that his client could attack. He had already transmitted the intended course the ship would take and the timing of his sabotage so that the crew who hired him could have their ship waiting when the New York fell out of warp.
He wasn’t technically part of the group of pirates who paid him, and he preferred it that way. He could go where he liked and work the jobs he liked. Plus, galactic law tended to spread blame of the crimes a group committed to every member of that group. He didn’t much care for that, he sabotaged the ships but he didn’t sell the people or steal the cargo so he shouldn’t be tried for anything like that if he got caught.
He glanced around at the handful of other people in the observation deck. He looked to be the only other human passenger. He wasn't really surprised. Humans tended to keep to themselves, they weren't very well liked. It looked like there were a pair of insectoid Zchell, a handful of Guth and a single Reshiir. Hoff tried not to stare at her, he wasn't often attracted to aliens, but Reshiir were an exception. Diminutive, with pinkish skin and pointed ears, Reshiir were often described as pixie-like. Hoff quickly looked out the front viewport as she glanced over at him. He suppressed a smile, perhaps he would claim her as part of his cut.
…
Narii glanced over at the strange man in the corner of the observation deck. He almost looked like a Reshiir, but she was certain that no Reshiir had ever been as large or...greasy as that man. She was pretty sure that he was a human. She had never actually seen one before, but judging from descriptions she had heard, there wasn't really another species that he could be. Whatever he was, he made her uncomfortable.
The voice of the captain once more cut through her thoughts. “We have cleared the spatial envelope of Resh and have begun spooling our singularity core. We will achieve warp in thirty seconds…” Narii gasped and turned to look out the viewport, putting the unpleasant human out of her mind as she let her excitement bubble up, she was about to travel faster than light!
“Twenty seconds”
Narii leaned forward, pressing up against the inner surface of the viewport.
“Ten seconds”
What does it feel like? Would she be able to tell when they crossed the threshold?
“Five”
Narii braced herself, should she sit down? What if the acceleration knocked her over?
“Three…. Two… one, engaging spatial warp, firing superluminal boosters. Entering transit”
The stars in front of the ship seemed to bend outward away from a point off the nose of the ship. There was a high pitched hum from the bowels of the ship as the stars stretched back towards the center of the distortion and formed into a swirling vortex of light. There was a boom, more felt than heard, and the vortex seemed to jump forward and swallow Narii whole.
…
Todd Grey was one of only a handful of human captains to operate legally outside of human space. Most of the rest were pirates and smugglers. The type of people who had no problem reinforcing the stereotype that humans were greedy amoral thugs.
Todd didn’t let the racism or lost business bother him. He had a good, mostly non-human, crew that respected and liked him. He made decent money moving people and cargo around the galaxy, but most of all, he got to fly. Even when he was a child in the homefleet he always loved to fly and had taken any chance he got to pilot his homeship. Unfortunately, due to the large population of the Homefleet and the importance of a pilot’s skills, Todd had never been quite good enough to become a permanent pilot. So he had jumped at the chance to captain the New York when one of the Fleet Admirals had come to him with the offer.
Todd smiled as he strolled along the corridor leading to the observation deck. The ironic thing was, he still wasn’t the best pilot on his ship. The actual pilot was a Zchell named Bokk Kkkcti’tchh’phua. Bokk was every bit as possessive of his station as any of the other pilots that Todd had met in the Homefleet.
Todd was headed to the observation deck, just to watch space fly by without the bustle of the bridge to distract him. The observation deck tended to be empty after the initial jump as warp always looked pretty much the same no matter where you went. Todd was slightly surprised then to find a young Reshiir still watching. She was standing with her face pressed against the observation window, and even though he couldn’t see it, he could guess from her stance that her expression was one of amazement.
Todd smiled again, here was someone who wasn’t yet jaded by the commonplace nature of space travel. Those types of people were few and far between. Todd guessed that she probably hadn’t traveled by warp before, it was possible that she hadn’t ever been off of her homeworld before. He cleared his throat and said “I’ve always loved to watch the Warp go by, there’s always something soothing about the swirling color and light.”
The young Reshiir’s reaction was unexpected, Todd hadn’t been particularly stealthy or quiet when he entered the room, indeed, the door to the observation deck was fairly loud due to a slightly bent track that made a scraping noise when it opened. Apparently her attention had been so focused that she hadn’t noticed even the grinding of the door, for she gasped and spun around with her hand to her heart. Todd raised his hands and took a half step back in apology, even though he was still most of the way across the room from her. “I’m sorry”, he said “I didn’t mean to startle you”. There was an awkward pause, by the Old World, Todd thought, She looks like she’s going to faint.
Todd opened his mouth to say… something to put her at ease. He was used to fearful and racist reactions, but he had never met someone who looked so genuinely terrified to speak to him before. Before Todd could think of anything to say, she let out a squeak that might have been an apology, or maybe an impression of the observation deck’s door opening, and ducked past him out of the room.
Todd watched her go with a bemused expression on his face. First time in space indeed he thought. He had just turned back to his contemplation of the Warp outside, when the door to the observation deck ground open again. Todd turned to see his first mate enter. “Wow” he said in a deep voice, “You, a real lady-killer are” Nmnunuuu was a Bruune, a bovine race that looked remarkably like the old earth myth of the Minotaur. Nmnunuuu grinned, showing large flat teeth “You, I think has a fan. Her, perhaps you should ask on one of your human dates.”
Todd threw one of the cushions from the chair beside him at his friend. It bounced ineffectually off of the Bruune’s broad chest. Bruune were often thought of as brutes, due mainly to the warriors popularized in movies and books. But there were a large number of them who were more valuable for their minds than for their muscles. Todd’s first mate, Nmnunuuu was one of these. He had a good mind for figures and was a wizard with computers. Even if his name was nigh unpronounceable.
“The twins, they report that systems are nominal” Nmnunuuu rumbled “My own diagnostics, they show that there are no problems. To Centari Four, we should arrive in two weeks.” The first mate pulled a Tabb from a pocket in his jumpsuit “Our berths, they are again not full. Our profit margin for this trip, it is not large.” Todd sighed and sank into the chair that he had just used as an ammunition source. “I know Numu” he said wearily “we need to work on our PR, if Kaleb or I speak to the clients they don’t trust us, if you speak to the clients they try to take advantage of us.”
“Bokk, nearly incomprehensible he is” Nmnunuuu added “The Mruh-jah twins, very bad with people they are.” The Mruh-jah twins where what they called the last two members of the crew. It wasn’t clear if they were really related, but their names were very similar sounding and they were inseparable. Quite literally, they tended to become extremely distressed if they were ever apart for more than a couple of minutes. A trait, as far as Todd knew, that was not shared with the rest of their species. But their oddities were put up with due to the fact that Ho-ma and No-Ja were the best mechanics that Todd had ever seen, including the geniuses who kept the Homefleet flying.
Nmnunuuu sank carefully into the chair next to Todd’s, moving carefully despite his size. “Everything, it will get better” he rumbled “Misfortune, it cannot follow us forever” then he grinned again “The luck of our captain, it improves faster than the luck of our ship.” Todd glanced at his friend in confusion “What are you talking about Numu.” Nmnunuuu’s grin widened, and Todd could see a mischievous glint in his eye “The Reshiir, she likes you says I.” Todd punched the first mate on the arm, it felt like hitting a metal bulkhead. “I think you need to re-read that self help book on relationships again” Todd said, shaking his now throbbing hand “I don’t think running screaming from the room is a sign of affection among the Resh.”
Nmnunuuu just threw his head back and laughed.
…
CLANG!! The small metal desk in her cabin made a satisfying sound as Narii banged her head down on it. “Stupid.” she said “Stupid. Stupid. Stupid.” Bringing her head back down with another satisfying bang with each repetition. How had she convinced herself that it was a good idea to study interspecies relations if she couldn’t even hold a conversation with a friendly alien who had started the conversation in the first place?
She groaned and sat with her face pressed against the cool metal of the desk for a while, wallowing in her misery. She had forgotten the difficult situation she was in for a time while watching the warp fly by, but it all came back to her again as she sat there. Nothing where she was going, nowhere to go back to…
Finally, Narii sat up and flipped on her Tabb, looking for something to take her mind off her predicament. On a whim, she opened the files that had been downloaded to her Tabb when she boarded. She flicked idly through the listings for food service times and the selections of movies, books and other entertainments available on the ship’s network. She finally opened up a document marked “ship and crew”, Here we go she thought to herself now I can figure out what species this Todd Grey belongs to. She skimmed the description of the ship, it was a mid sized cargo vessel named for some city on some planet, she really didn’t pay it much mind. Instead searching for... there. She stopped at the section that described the crew. It began with the engineers, a pair of Mruh-jah, then went on to introduce the pilot and first mate. Finally, she found the entry on the captain, Todd Grey. She immediately groaned and banged her head down onto her desk once more. There smiling up at her from her Tabb, was the human she had just fled from on the observation deck. “I hate my life…” she mumbled softly.
…
The inhabitants of the ship soon settled into a fairly comfortable routine. Meals were prepared and served in the mess hall by the ship’s robotic chef, which was programmed with enough different dishes to make sure the food wasn’t ever more than mildly boring. Narii had found that like most artificial beings, the Chef could only really speak intelligently on its designed subject matter. That made it an excellent listener and, sadly, the only friend she had made since she came aboard five days ago.
Her disastrous first conversation with a member of a different species had made her nervous to try again, this when combined with her own natural timidity crippled her attempts to get to know the other passengers on the ship.
She had discovered that there were eleven passengers aside from herself on the ship, she had tried to approach all but one of them at mealtimes over the last handful of days. The pair of zchell were indifferent to her presence and the small guth family was friendly but distracted. She was far too nervous to approach the lone human passenger, and indeed, he seemed to want no company.
She had hoped to be welcomed by the other Reshiir on the ship but they were, disappointingly, downright rude to her. They were all on their way to CIEP and would have been her classmates, but they somehow seemed to sense or at least assume that she hadn’t been accepted. They ridiculed everything from her manner of speech to the clothes she was wearing. Their mocking almost made Narii glad that she wouldn’t be sharing a school with them.
So she found herself sitting near the robotic chef late in the ship’s night so as to avoid the other Reshiir, complaining at length of the cruelty of the universe. The Chef, trying to be helpful as far as its programming allowed, offered her different dishes that, according to its database, helped with depression. She had briefly considered trying to befriend the crew, but her embarrassing encounter with the captain kept flashing through her mind whenever she contemplated approaching them. She eventually fell silent and glanced up from her food at the empty mess hall. It was getting late, she turned back to her cooling food and started to eat.
The Chef turned its processors to other matters, silently relieved that the customer had stopped talking to it about matters that it couldn’t understand
…
Hoff slipped quietly past the door to the mess hall, he could hear the Reshiir jabbering away inside at the robot Chef. He shook his head, she talked too much, he’d have to train her better once he got his payment. He continued on down the corridor, he had spent the past several days studying plans and blueprints for this type of ship. It was human made, which meant a utilitarian, blocky design without the smooth curves or hidden engineering areas of something like a Reshiir or Guth ship. The corridors that lead to engineering were very easy to locate, and only slightly less easy to open. The crew of this ship had obviously become lax with security, but few would try to rob from a human captain anyway due to their reputation, so it could perhaps be forgiven.
Hoff had slipped into the compartment that housed the singularity core twice now. So he was confident that the odd pair of alien engineers would not be there. They would be sleeping in their quarters by now. He smiled as he peeked into the room at the core. By necessity, the singularity core and hyperspace radio had to be close together as the radio used the miniature wormhole contained in the core to send messages at superluminal speeds. This meant that they could both be sabotaged together very easily.
Hoff sniffed at the chemical smell of the room as he pulled a small device from the pocket of his jacket. The size of a large coin, it had no screen, only one button and was mostly plug. It was designed to attach to the computer jack of the singularity core. Once the button was pressed it would begin a pre-programmed countdown, when the countdown ended it would force the singularity core to overload for a brief moment, burning out the attached hyperspace radio, before collapsing the containment of the singularity and destroying it. The overload would also fry the control lines leading into the engineering compartment. It was an excellent way to stop a ship, since it did no permanent damage to the core, but the loss of the singularity meant that the ship was dead in the water until a new singularity was created in a particle accelerator and that could take more than a week with the types of accelerators that most ships carried.
Hoff quickly plugged the device into the core and pressed the button. He smiled, it had just enough time for him to get back to the public areas of the ship before it pulled the ship from hyperspace and rendered it mute.
…
The Sidthe empire enjoyed nearly a thousand years of galactic dominion, it spanned hundreds of colonies and uplifted several of the current spacefaring races. The Sidthe are a proud race, more known for their intelligence and cunning than for their physical strength. This was the main reason for their uplifting of other races, The Bruune in particular were very useful to the empire. The Sidthe are somewhat weaker politically since the recent so-called revolution, but the effects of their influence can still be felt as Sidthian is still the most popular galactic trade language to this day.
M-C N. Voran - Peoples of the Galaxy
Narii was on her way back to her quarters, lost in thought about what she was going to do with her life, when she turned a corner and ran straight into a wall. She bounced back, stumbling, and would have fallen if a pair of massive hands had not shot out and grabbed her shoulders in a surprisingly gentle grip. What she had initially taken for a wall was actually a huge person with a bovine head and brown fur. “My friend, she should not look only at her toes.” he said in a voice so deep that she felt it rumbling through the hands steadying her. “Many obstacles, she might find that are less friendly than Nmnunuuu Ummnooor”
The large bruune released her shoulders and she took a step back, looking up into eyes that were at least twice as high off the ground as her own “N-nnuu-… er-” she stammered uncertainly. His lips parted in what she sincerely hoped was a friendly smile, “My name, most small ones find difficult to say” he said in a kindly tone “A nickname, is used by my friends for me. Numu, you can call me.”
Narii quickly ran through everything she had read about the Bruune. They were obviously descended from bovines, they had had a tribal way of life for most of their history before being uplifted by the Sidthe to be used as cheap labor. They had gained independence from the Sidthe just fifty years before when the revolution had changed the militaristic and expansionist Sidthe empire into a republic. The traditional greeting of friends among the Bruune was… She straightened herself up to her full height, noting as she did that she could still have a staring contest with the large man’s navel, and crossed her arms over her chest. She raised her head to bare her throat and recited the traditional greeting as best she could from memory “My herd, it greets yours. Peace, I wish upon our meeting”
Numu stared at her for a moment, before throwing his head back and laughing. He returned the gesture, crossing his arms and raising his head, grinning broadly. “The Murnnomestr, I have not heard it in a long time. '' He reached down, his palm flat towards Narii in a gesture she recognized as a very formal greeting among Reshiir nobility. She flushed in embarrassment, and placed the palm of her hand against his for a brief moment before lowering her hand again. She guessed from his use of the gesture that the Bruune greeting she had performed was either extremely formal or terribly out of date. She silently cursed the old book she had gotten from the library in her hometown. Numu didn’t seem offended by the gesture however, indeed he seemed to find it amusing. Perhaps she could find a friend in the large man, it would certainly help pass the time. She cast her mind around for anything she could say to keep the conversation going. Unfortunately, her skills in small talk were, perhaps, even worse than her knowledge of Bruune etiquette.
She was saved from further embarrassment when Nmnunuuu spoke “Your reason for flying with us, may I ask what it is?” he asked. Narii grimaced, “it’s kind of a long story” she said uncertainly. “On duty, I am not” Numu said cheerfully “Long stories, they are the best kind” he added with another smile. Narii smiled back at him, she found herself liking this large happy bovine. There was a cheerful manner about him that belied his beastly appearance. “Alright,” she said “but I warn you, it’s not a very good story”
“Nonsense” Numu replied, “A person’s stories, they are all good” he gestured down the passageway towards the guest quarters. “To your quarters, we should walk as we talk. One’s story, it is best told while moving forward.”
And so Narii spoke, she talked about her life in a small town on the smallest continent of her homeworld. She talked about her parents, who worked hard in the small shop that they ran. She talked about the stories of other races she heard from the old man who lived next door to the shop. She spoke of the sudden accident that had claimed the life of both her parents little more than a year ago. She talked about her desire to see the stars up close, to study at the same university where her mother had attended. How she had used most of her savings to pay for the entrance exam, how she had used the rest to buy transport to Centari four. How she had gotten the rejection letter just before they left Resh. She felt like a great weight had lifted off of her shoulders as she poured out her life to the understanding Bruune. For his part, Nmnunuuu didn’t speak or interrupt her. He simply watched her with eyes that held more depth than anyone she had ever met. When she finished speaking, she blinked away tears to realize that they were standing outside the door of her quarters.
Nmnunuuu placed a massive, comforting hand on her shoulder. “The night, it is darkest just before the light of dawn.” he paused, considering her with an inscrutable expression. “Your problems, I-” Nmnunuuu’s sentence was interrupted by a massive jolt that ran through the ship and would have thrown Narii to the ground if Numu’s hand had not tightened on her shoulder to steady her. “Wha-” Narii began, but Numu shushed her with a raised hand. He seemed to be listening for something. Narii strained her ears to try to hear what Numu was sensing. She did not have to strain for long as a piercing whine began growing louder and louder until Narii could feel her teeth rattling from the vibrations. Then, with an abruptness that was somehow more terrible than the sound had been, it cut off. The lights flickered briefly with the end of the sound.
Everything fell still.
Narii and Nmnunuuu stood in the corridor in complete silence for a moment before Narii realized what was so wrong. The omnipresent rumbling that had filled the ship since she first came aboard was gone. The silence was unnerving and Narii looked up at Nmnunuuu to ask him what was going on but the look on his face stopped her short. His ears were flat against his head and his eyes were wide enough to let her clearly see their whites. He looked terrified. A pit seemed to open up in Narii’s stomach, if Numu was scared the situation must be so much worse than she originally thought.
Nmnunuuu charged over to a panel on the wall, ramming one of his fingers onto a button so hard that Narii could actually hear the plastic crack. There was a click and a faint hiss of static as the intercom came to life. Nmnunuuu began to shout as soon as the static cleared “BOKK! REPORT! HAPPENING, WHAT IS!” The response was a series of clicks and insectile noises that Narii thought sounded vaguely like Sidthian if spoken by someone with a terrible lisp in the middle of a hailstorm. Numu, however, nodded to himself, apparently able to understand the odd speech. Once the speaker stopped clicking and hissing, Narii assumed that it was probably someone on the ship’s bridge, Numu spoke again, no longer shouting but obviously still anxious. “The Captain, wake him. To the Bridge, I am coming.” With that, Nmnunuuu charged off back the way they had come.
Narii hesitated for a moment before following; she noted with apprehension that the severity of the situation had intensified Numu’s odd accent and speech patterns. She decided that she would much rather see what was going on on the bridge than sit and wait in her quarters. There was no way she was going to be able to sleep now.
…
Todd arrived on the bridge still buttoning up the shirt he had grabbed as he sprinted from his room. He had been woken from a very restful sleep by the unmistakable sound of the singularity core overloading. He had been in the middle of buckling his gun belt over his pajama pants when Bokk had called from the bridge with a report.
Todd was pleased to see that Numu was already there, typing away furiously at his larger than normal workstation. The large bruune glanced up at Todd before returning to his typing. “The singularity, it is dead” He reported quickly. “This thing, it is sabotage.”
“Radio?” Todd asked. “Dead” came Numu’s reply “The control lines, they are cut” he added.
“Which passenger?” Todd said with deadly seriousness.
“Unknown, The security footage, it cannot be accessed” Numu seemed just as agitated as Todd felt, There was only one reason for a singularity core to fail in warp, someone would have had to purposefully mess with it. There was only one group who would be interested in doing that to a cargo ship. Pirates.
“What do we have?” Todd said, fearing that he knew the answer already. “Not much” came the reply from behind him. Kaleb, the ship’s medic, occasional chef, and perpetual pessimist had just entered the bridge. “With the core dead we are running on batteries” Kaleb continued, “Given about three days we could get the core started with our particle accelerator, but I doubt we have that much time.”
Kaleb wasn’t one to sugarcoat things either.
“Bokk,” Todd turned to his insectoid pilot “What do we have by way of sensors?” Bokk looked over at Todd and twitched his mandibles in the Zchell equivalent of a frown. “Kkk-w kkk-ha-kkk-v kkk-sssss-kkk-ho-kkk-t kkk-ra-kkk-n-kkk-g kkk-sssse-kkk-n-kkk-sssso-kkk-r o-kkk-nl kkka-kkk-ppptn”
Kaleb rubbed his temples and sighed, he and the pilot got along fine, but he had more trouble than the rest of the crew understanding him. Todd translated as best he could for the medic’s benefit. “Short range sensors only, so we won’t have any warning until they are right on top of us.” Todd thought that he should have known, long range sensors took too much power to run consistently or accurately on batteries. There was also no way that any of the weapons would work without power either. Todd frowned, running through options in his head, Pirates would surely be upon them soon, they were probably already there just beyond sensor range.
“Alright,” Todd said, clapping his hands together “Numu, you and I will go and get the twins down to the engine room, have them start on repairs and look into the backups.” The large Bruune nodded his head and stood from his station. “Kaleb,” Todd continued, “You go and get the passengers, all of them mind, and round them up in cargo bay two.” Kaleb nodded with a serious expression “What if they don’t want to come?”
Todd’s expression darkened “This is not a democracy. One of them sabotaged my ship and endangered my crew. They are going to cargo bay two or they are going out an airlock.” his face softened slightly, “but I expect that everyone but the traitor will be reasonable.” Todd turned back to the pilot “Bokk, once we are gone, seal the bridge. Don’t open that door for anyone except Numu, Kaleb, or myself. Got it?” Bokk approximated a human nod and gave a series of whistles and clicks that Todd recognized as a Zchelli phrase that roughly translated to “By my life.” “Let’s do it then.” Todd said “Good luck, and Godspeed.”
…
Narii was lost. Nmnunuuu had charged off to the bridge so fast that she quickly lost track of him. She silently cursed again the time she had spent holed up in her room. If she had done a bit more exploring she might not have gotten so turned around. She poked her head through a hatchway and spotted the Bruune’s broad back walking away from her. “There you are Numu!” she cried, “What’s going on? You looked terrified back-” she cut off as Numu spun and she saw that he was not alone.
Beside him was the kind faced human that she had fled from on the first day of the trip. He was pointing a gun at her and looked deadly serious. Narii made a very undignified squeak and backed into the wall behind her. She opened and closed her mouth in a desperate attempt to think of something to say. She was once again saved by Numu. The Bruune reached out and pushed the captain’s gun down towards the deck. “The one who did this,” he rumbled “it could not have been her. A lovely conversation, the two of us were having before the core overloaded. This one, she did not have enough time to do this thing.”
The human glanced sideways at his large friend and then back at Narii. He seemed to be considering. Then he nodded and beckoned her over. “The ship has been sabotaged” he said quickly “We are sure it was one of the passengers, so trust is something a bit thin on the ground at the moment.” Narii nodded and quickly crossed the distance over to them. As she walked she considered what she knew of the passengers. Her mind fell on the greasy human who had made her so uncomfortable. “It was probably that other human, Hoff.” She said. And immediately blushed, what an unbelievably racist thing to say to the man who had just decided to trust her. The captain, for his part, didn’t look offended at all. Instead he nodded, looking thoughtful as he turned to continue walking. “I suppose that the people traveling alone would have been the most suspicious. With Numu vouching for you that does leave Hoff as the most likely candidate.”
Narii blinked, surprised at the ease with which Todd would accept that one of his own people had sold him out. But, as she considered, her fellow Resh on the trip had been the most cruel towards her out of all the passengers. I suppose that the galaxy is a lot meaner than I first believed. A naive assumption no doubt brought about by her small-town upbringing.
She started as she realized that the captain was speaking to her. “I’m sorry” she said embarrassed again, “What was that?” The human, again, didn’t seem offended by her awkwardness. He simply started over again, “I said, since the crew isn’t very big and we can’t really trust most of the passengers, we are going to probably need your help in getting out of this mess.”
“My help?!” she exclaimed. “But why? what’s going on? … sir?” she said uncertainty. The human actually cracked a smile at her. “Just call me Todd” he said, his smile faded as he continued “There are only a couple of reasons to sabotage a ship mid-transit. First, is if you want to assassinate someone onboard, so unless you’re secretly a princess then I don’t think that likely to be the reason.” Narii gave a rueful half-chuckle at that, she was about as far as possible from nobility.
Todd glanced around the next corner before continuing, “The only other reason for someone to stop a ship like this is piracy.” “Pirates!” Narii cried. “But that’s...” “Incredibly illegal?” Todd finished, looking very grim. It was fairly common knowledge that piracy laws tended to be very harsh throughout the galaxy. That meant death for anyone found guilty of piracy, no matter their station or species. The harshness of the law, in addition to the impracticality of intercepting a ship in transit made true pirates very rare. Most unscrupulous types, instead, tended to make money smuggling contraband. Even the truly violent didn’t usually waylay ships, they usually threatened some small colony to divert part of its earnings to bribes under the guise of security. These situations combined to make the pirates one did encounter even more dangerous. No survivors was a very common policy among those lawless bands.
Narii’s terrified contemplations were interrupted when they arrived at a cabin in the crew’s section of the ship. Numu pressed his hand to the control panel and the door slid open. The interior of the cabin was… odd. Wires and cables criss-crossed the room and most of the panels had been pulled off the walls, exposing the bulkheads beneath. Pieces and parts from a myriad of unknown machines littered the floors and the three tables crammed into the room.
Amid the baffling chaos were two green and scaly Mruh-jah. The pair were nearly identical, both in bearing and appearance. As soon as the door opened, the pair of them began to gibber in high pitched voices at Todd. The captain, for his part, waded bravely into the mess and began to explain the situation to the reptilian crew members. Numu, who had remained outside of the cabin due to his bulk spoke softly to Narii “These two, they are the mechanics of the ship. Machines, they are very good with. People, not so much.”
Narii nodded, then spoke “So… what are we doing? I mean, what are we going to do about the pirates?” “The five of us are going to the engine room.” Todd said, emerging into the corridor with the pair of mechanics in tow. “We are going to try to repair our control circuits and get the ship functional again. Kaleb is taking the passengers to one of the cargo bays to try to keep them safe and Bokk, our pilot, has sealed off the bridge to keep control of the main systems out of the pirates’ hands.”
Narii nodded again, quietly wishing that she could be anywhere else.
…
Firing projectile weapons while on a spaceship is widely acknowledged as one of the stupidest things one can do while actually in space. Right after sticking one’s head in an active singularity core and right before slapping a sleeping Bruune crewmate. The holes the projectiles tend to make in the hull of the ship lead to something called Explosive Decompression which is not fun in an aircraft, and even less so in a spacecraft. To avoid having the ship around oneself pop like a balloon, most spacefarers utilize directed energy weapons, which safely disperse against the hull of the ship, rather than punching a hole in it.
J Marks - Traveling the Universe, an Autobiography
…
The Demon. That was what people called her. She knew that members of her crew had a pool on what her real name was,but she didn't care. Her old name wasn't important, she was queen and scourge of the space ways. She was the strongest, the smartest, and the quickest so everything by rights belonged to her. She swept onto the bridge of her ship and the low buzz of conversation that had filled the air died at once. Good. That was how it should be.
She peered out the front viewport at the ship she had captured. It was an obviously human ship. Large and blocky, it was rectangular, remaining mostly the same size from the stem to the stern. The Demon could see the small projection of the bridge on the front of the ship, she could just imagine the crew scrambling in panic, unable to control their ship anymore. “Prepare for boarding!” she barked. “We will see who is worthy to live.”
…
Narii was pretty sure that they were close to the engine room when everything exploded. They had passed the mess hall and turned down a corridor that she hadn't ever been down before when a blinding flash and deafening sound erupted from seemingly everywhere. She clutched her head and fell to the ground, tears streaming from her eyes.
She lay there dazed for several painful moments before her vision began to swim back into focus. She blinked at the fuzziness blocking her sight and looked around. Her gaze first fell on Todd, the human captain was down on one knee, bracing himself against the wall with one hand and rubbing at his eyes with the other. Next she saw Numu. The friendly first mate had apparently not fallen down, he had one hand against the wall as well and looked relatively steady. Finally, her eyes turned to the odd pair of mechanics. They seemed completely unaffected by whatever had just happened and were growling at something further down the corridor.
Narii turned her head to look in that direction, still blinking away tears. She saw a number of figures in that direction, but everything was still slightly out of focus so she couldn't identify anyone. She heard a muffled sound from beside her. She turned back towards Todd. He seemed to be saying something, but she couldn't hear him properly either. A flash of movement brought her attention back to the unknown people. One of the Mruh-jah twins has darted towards the Intruders, Narii didn't know much about the lizard-like people but she was pretty sure that the small engineer was moving to attack. There was a muffled crack and a flash of light and the twin was thrown back against the wall. It slumped down and lay still. The other Mruh-jah scrambled over to it’s friend and Narii could just barely hear it’s terrified jibbering. She slowly turned her eyes back to the attackers. Her vision had returned enough that she could differentiate six humans lead by a seventh, larger human. All of them were holding weapons and none of them looked friendly.
Movement from beside her drew her attention back to Numu. The Bruune charged past her at the Invaders. He bellowed as he ran, a loud, bestial, angry sound that she could definitely hear. The Bruune crossed the distance with a speed that belied his massive size. Narii watched in horror as her large friend fell upon the pirates. He struck the first one with so much force that Narii actually felt the vibration through the deck beneath her. The leader of the group, now right next to a very angry wall of death, tried to bring his gun to bear on the Bruune. The weapon was nearly in line when Numu grabbed the man's arm and pulled. Narii once again averted her gaze, but she couldn't avert her returning hearing. The grizzly sound of tearing flesh filled the corridor. She heard the scream of the leader of the band cut off with a meaty thump. More screams and thuds filled the air, interspersed with the crack of plasma shots. And then… nothing. She forced herself to turn and look. She saw Numu standing over the group of bandits, still holding the arm of the leader in one hand. The front of his shirt had several large holes burned into it though he didn’t seem to notice. He dropped the arm onto the pile of bodies and started back towards Narii and the captain.
“The Mechanic, he must be taken to Kaleb.” He rumbled, “His wound, it-” Numu cut off as his eyes focused on something behind Narii. He took a step forwards in the beginnings of another charge that was brought up short as a crack sounded from behind her. Narii felt something hot brush past her and saw a plasma bolt catch Numu in the stomach. Another one flashed down the corridor and clipped his left shoulder while a third impacted the center of his chest. Numu was thrown to the ground and lay quite still. Narii didn’t even have time to scream as rough hands grabbed her from behind and yanked her to her feet. An arm wrapped around her neck and she felt the cold circle of a pistol pressed to the side of her head. A female voice spoke from behind her “Drop your weapon, unless you want some pretty Reshiir brains all over the corridor.”
…
Todd grit his teeth as he was divested of his gun. The pirates even thought to check him for a backup pistol, which they also confiscated. He glanced over at Numu’s large form where he lay a number of meters down the corridor. Todd could see the Bruune’s chest rise and fall, he was still breathing at least.
His gaze traveled over the pair of Mruh-jah. Ho-ma was cradling No-ja in his arms, speaking comfortingly in their native language. Both Numu and No-ja would need medical attention soon, otherwise the incredible luck that had kept the pair of them alive would run out and part of the family would be lost.
Next, Todd glanced over at Narii. She was still being held with a gun against her head, she looked like she might faint dead away, her normally pink skin was so pale that she could have passed for human if one ignored the pointy ears. Todd wanted to catch her eye, to give some sort of reassuring sign to her, but her wide eyed gaze was fixed on Numu. She was even breathing in time with him, as if by matching his breathing she could force it to continue. Finally, Todd turned to the one who had spoken to him. She was unmistakably the leader of the entire band of pirates. He also recognized her face, despite the horrible scars that covered most of the right side of her head. Amylise Carbinall. Luckily, she seemed to not recognize Todd, which suited him just fine as the last time they had met she had tried to kill him, and then Todd had succeeded in blowing her up.
She was speaking to one of her thugs, apparently they had cornered the rest of the crew in the cargo hold, but were unable to get in at them. Todd felt a flash of pride in Kaleb. With a defensible position like bay 2, he could hold off the pirates all by himself. Carbinall turned back to Todd, “You!” she barked, “Drag the cow-man, you will be joining your crew in the cargo hold.” Todd blinked in surprise but hurried to obey, if that carbine she was holding was powerful enough to put Numu down, he did not want to give her an excuse to use it on him.
He bent over Numu and found that his friend’s eyes were open, he seemed to be having trouble focusing, but he was conscious. “Come on Numu.” Todd said quietly “Let’s get you to Kaleb.” The Bruune mumbled something in his own tongue but allowed Todd to hoist him to his feet. Luckily, Numu was awake enough that only about half of his weight was on Todd, so Todd only had to strain slightly to keep upright rather than being flattened entirely.
They set off, Todd in the lead with Numu, followed by Ho-ma carrying his brother, with Narii and her captor right behind them. The rest of the pirates took up the rear, ready to shoot if they should try anything. They made slow progress, but they hadn’t been that far from the cargo hold to begin with. After only a couple of corridors they arrived at the hallway leading into the hold. The pirates stopped before turning the final corridor, and Todd knew exactly why. There were automatic guns set up in that hall, and the flat featureless walls made it a killing funnel. He could even see a few pirate corpses from where he stood.
Carbinall gestured with her carbine, “Move straight down that corridor, no funny business” Todd spared her one final glance and began shuffling down the corridor with Numu, Narii and the others quickly followed after.
…
Kaleb cursed whatever insanity had possessed him to accompany Todd out of human space. After he left the military he could have had any job he wanted. He could have even scored a place in one of the big hospitals planetside on Mars. But noooo. Todd had to fly off on an adventure. “It’ll be fun.” Todd had said “I need your help.” he had said. Kaleb grumbled as he tied a bandage around his upper arm.
His cursing switched targets to that worthless sack of scum: Hoff. The greasy man had opened fire as soon as he saw Kaleb coming towards his quarters. More by luck than any sort of skill he had managed to graze Kaleb with one of his shots as he fled.
“Mr. Kaleb, sir?” an eager voice cut through his foul contemplations. “There’s someone comin’ down the corridor and those au-to-ma-tic guns ain’t shootin’ ‘em.” Kaleb jumped up and ran over to the viewscreen that the young Guth had been watching for him. Sure enough, there were several people coming down the corridor lead by Todd, who was supporting a barely conscious Nmnunuuu.
Kaleb swore aloud this time. “Kump!” he barked, “Watch for anyone following them, shoot on manual like I showed you if anyone else enters the corridor! But whatever you do, don’t shoot the captain!” The teddy bear like youth straightened his three foot frame into an admirable approximation of attention and threw a very impressive salute at Kaleb. “Yes sir Mr.Kaleb sir!” he said quickly “Ain’t no one gettin’ past me. No sir ain’t no one!” Kaleb shook his head as he ran over to the only door into the hold. The boy was certainly eager to help. “By the old world!” Kaleb exclaimed when he saw Numu as Todd half dragged him through the door. “Did the pirates bring back the firing squad or something?!” Nmnunuuu was in bad shape, bleeding from several wounds on his chest, it seemed to be taking a supreme effort for him to remain even partially upright. “Over there in the corner, I’ve set up some medical supplies. We should be able to-” Todd interrupted him, “No-ja too, I think he’s got the worst of it.” Kaleb cursed again as he saw the uninjured mechanic carrying his brother and looking pleadingly at Kaleb. “Kump!” he shouted again “Come over here! I’m going to need your help.”
Todd stepped back as Kaleb and his young friend began to fuss over the two injured crewmembers. Now that they were here, there was a good chance that Kaleb could work a miracle and save them. Especially with the help of that Guth boy, who had taken to hanging out in the medbay whenever he could. He turned to look at Narii, the poor girl was sitting alone in the furthest corner away from Kaleb’s bustling with her knees up to her chest. She looked a little bit calmer than when she had been held at gunpoint, but her face was streaked with tears and she was staring at the toes of her shoes. Before he could think of anything to say to comfort her, the intercom crackled to life. “Attention, former crew and passengers of this ship” said Carbinall’s voice. “You are now the property of the Demon and her crew. Only the strongest are allowed to survive in my world. As such, those of you still alive after twelve hours will be allowed to live. I have vented most of your atmosphere to space. You currently have enough air to last all of you for only six hours. You may do the math yourselves.”
Todd stood in thought for a moment following Carbinall’s announcement. There weren’t that many options now. With most of the ship open to vacuum there would be little chance of them reaching the engine room now… He walked over to the intercom, then thought better of it and pulled out his personal communicator. “Bokk?” he asked, “You there man?” He was relieved to hear the pilot’s response a moment later.
“Alright Bokk,” Todd said “Give me a rundown, what do we have?” the Zchell launched into a barely comprehensible report of the ship’s status and what the pirates were doing. Todd tried to keep up to the best of his ability. Apparently, the pirates had returned to their ship after venting the atmosphere and disabling the air scrubbers. That left them with the emergency air supply, which was insufficient to pressurize a path to the engine room and would barely last them a half dozen hours. The pilot had some control over the air supply, but not much of anything else. “Alright Bokk” Todd repeated, the beginnings of a plan forming in his head “Can you pressurize the engine compartment and the air ducts leading from here to there?” The response came back in the affirmative. “Ok, stand by” Todd put the communicator back in his belt and considered his options. His gaze once again fell upon a figure, huddled in a corner as far as she could get from anyone else.
Narii stared at her feet and tried not to think. She tried not to think about how the doom of an uncertain future had been replaced with the doom of certain death. She tried not to think about how the only friend she had made on the entire trip was now hanging somewhere near death, how even if that human doctor, Kaleb, did save his life it would only end when they suffocated. No, much simpler to simply sit and wait. It wasn’t like she could do anything anyways.
Someone sat down beside her. She forced herself not to look over at them. It didn’t matter, they would all be dead soon so she shouldn’t care if someone was being friendly to her now. “For what it’s worth” said a familiar voice “I’m sorry that this happened to you on your first trip off-world. Space travel is usually a lot safer than this.”
It was Todd, the friendly human captain. Narii didn’t say anything, if she didn’t say anything she couldn’t screw things up again. Everything seemed to go wrong around her, even Todd’s words seemed to confirm that. Things didn’t go wrong when she wasn’t around. Todd seemed to somehow sense her bitter mood, for he said, in a much more soothing tone than before; “Hey, it’s alright. We’ll get through this. Me and Kaleb have been in worse spots than this.”
Narii finally glanced over at him, incredulous. “Really?” she asked. “No.” he replied simply “But we’ve come close.” Narii wanted to look back down at her feet, but something in Todd’s eyes caught her and held her fast. There was a fire in them. She could see a determination to remain the master of his own fate in his gaze. He would not go quietly into the dark. Seeing his determination brought a spark back to Narii’s heart. She wanted to be master of her own fate too. Todd seemed to be able to tell what she was feeling again, for he spoke once more, “I’m going to need your help. I need to ask you to do something difficult and dangerous. Something that will save all our lives.”
…
Hoff woke up to the sound of hissing air. That was good, as the compartment outside the closet he was hiding in had been completely depressurized. He had run afoul of that human medic while on his way back to his quarters. Hoff really hadn’t wanted to deal with the human, who looked very angry, so he had opened fire and ran. His shoulder itched and burned where the medic’s return fire had grazed him. Afraid that the man would call reinforcements, Hoff had ducked into the first room with a lock he could find. Why a broom closet was airtight was beyond him, but he was glad that it was for he had only been hiding in the closet for about fifteen minutes before the room outside had depressurised, trapping him on this ship with the miserable crew. Hoff had known exactly what was going on, the Demon always tested the survivors of ships she captured like this.
She believed that only the strongest deserved to survive. It made him angry, but not really surprised, that she hadn’t waited to pick him up before venting the atmosphere. If he hadn’t been strong enough to meet up with her, then he deserved to die here. It surprised him, then, that the room outside seemed to be repressurizing. It had only been about an hour since the air had been vented, nowhere near the usual twelve that the Demon tended to wait. The crew must have found a way to access the life support systems and were going to try to reach the engine room. Hoff began to rummage around in the supplies that were in the closet with him looking for something he could use as a weapon. He eventually found a large wrench that he could use as a club. He grinned, if they were pumping air into this room that meant that someone would be passing through soon. He would be ready for them when they came.
…
“Let me get this straight” Narii said slowly “You want me to climb through there to the engine room? What am I supposed to do if I get there?”
She and Todd were standing next to one of the vents along the cargo bay wall. The cover was off and it looked very small. “Singularity cores are supposed to be infallible” Todd began “But I don’t ever believe the marketing. If it works, it will probably break at some point. So I have made sure that every ship I have ever served on has a backup distress beacon. It was supposed to go off when the core failed, but it didn’t. I think that when the core overloaded and fried the control lines it also knocked out the backup’s control system. I need you to get in there and manually activate the beacon.”
“I don’t get it,” Narii replied “if the beacon’s controls are broken, how am I supposed to turn it on?” Todd shook his head, “The control system is just an interface that hooks the beacon into the ship. The main functionality is burned into the CPU of the thing. All you have to do is press the button.”
Narii wasn’t convinced, “And how is this going to help?” she said, “Even I know that a hyperspace message would take at least a day to get anywhere. We’d be dead before anyone even heard the call.” Todd shrugged slightly “I can’t even pretend to understand the physics of it, but this beacon uses something called quantum entanglement rather than radio waves. We can’t send very complicated messages, only our coordinates and an SOS, but the message will arrive at the destination almost instantly.”
Narii nodded, looking back at the hole she was supposed to crawl through. She had surprised herself by agreeing to help without even really knowing what she was going to do. She fidgeted with the earpiece that Todd had given her, it fit in her ear really well. Apparently human and Reshiir ears were fairly similar, pointed tips notwithstanding.
Narii took a step towards the vent but Todd stopped her by placing a hand on her shoulder. “Wait” he said, pulling something from his pocket “Take this, it may be dangerous to go by yourself.” Narii looked down at the object he was offering. It was a gun, small enough to fit in the palm of her hand. It was situated in a fitted plastic holster with a clip on one side. Narii stared at it, she had never even seen a real gun until today, then she had seen two people shot and was now being given one. She took it numbly and Todd told her how to clip it on the inside of her waistband. She swallowed hard, steeled her nerves and crawled into the air duct.
…
Hoff paused his search of the closet in the engine room antechamber. He had been looking for a vacuum suit that he could use to wait out the Demon’s twelve hour time limit, but so far his search had been unsuccessful. Apparently the suits were stored in another part of the ship or else the Demon’s crew had removed them. Now he could hear some noises coming from the air vent. For a brief moment he thought that the compartment might be depressurizing again, but it didn’t sound like rushing air. Indeed it sounded like someone crawling through the ducts. He heard a bang and a female sounding yelp from the vent in the wall. He grinned wickedly. There was only one girl within a thousand light years who could fit into those vents. He quickly slipped into a darkened corner of the room, gripping his wrench in both hands. This was going to be fun…
…
It turned out that crawling through the bowels of a ship wasn’t as daring as the movies would have led her to believe. Narii had banged her head more than once as she made her way slowly through the ductwork of the ship, following Todd’s instructions in her earpiece. She was hot, cramped, dirty, and very glad when she reached the grate that lead to the engine room antechamber. The grate was luckily not held into the wall very securely and a couple of awkward kicks were enough to send it crashing to the ground.
She gratefully slid out of the vent and walked towards the door into the engine room. She raised a hand to her ear “Todd, I’ve reached the engine room.” She said to the listening captain “is there a code to get in?”
Narii lost Todd’s reply as something struck her hard in the back of the head. It felt like the flashbang all over again, her vision went white and grey and she heard a ringing in her ears. She must have blacked out for a moment, for when her senses began to return she was lying on her back with someone standing over her. She blinked several times, trying to get her eyes to focus on her attacker. It was the greasy human, Hoff. The ugly man was grinning evilly, “‘ere I thought yu’d die afore I got m’ way wit’ ya.” Terror rose in Narii’s chest as Hoff kneeled over her. There was a manic gleam in the man’s eyes as he leaned down over her and put his hands around her throat. “Go ahead an’ try t’ scream.” he grunted “I loves tha’ sound.”
Narii clawed at his hands desperately, but his grip might as well have been made of iron. She couldn’t breathe! She couldn’t… her vision began to go black at the edges as the fear rose to an all consuming crescendo. Suddenly, she was a little girl back on Resh playing behind her parent’s shop. She was a little older, listening to the funny stories her neighbor told her while she watched the shop. She was of age, listening as a grim faced lawman told her that her parents had died in the fire that had consumed the family shop. She was reading the rejection letter from the university. The other Reshiir on the ship were laughing at the silly backwater girl who thought she could get into such a prestigious school. She was watching Numu fall in slow motion, holes burned into the front of his shirt. She was dying as a greasy sadistic madman strangled her.
The recent tragedies and pains from her life crowded her as her terror rose and rose until she felt like her chest would burst with it. She couldn’t see, she could feel herself fading as her brain starved for oxygen. Then, as her strength drained away, she saw one more memory. A kind faced human, looking at her with determination, a confidence in his eyes that said that even if he did die, he would spit in the face of death on the way down.
no
Narii grabbed weakly at the hands around her throat.
No
Narii grit her teeth and forced her eyes to focus on the man who was killing her.
NO!!
Narii reached down and snatched the gun Todd had given her from her waist. She raised it up and placed it against Hoff’s left temple. For the barest fraction of a moment, he knew what was happening. He stiffened and let out the softest “oh” of surprise.
Narii pulled the trigger.
…
Narii came to slowly. Her throat burned and her stomach rebelled. She rolled over and retched, coughing and spluttering. After her fit subsided, she crawled slowly to her knees carefully avoiding looking at the corpse beside her. She determinedly didn’t think about what had just happened.
She picked up the earpiece that she hadn’t even noticed come out of her ear. “Narii!” Todd exclaimed as soon as she put it back in “By the homeworld, are you alright?! You weren’t responding!”
“I’m ok” she replied softly “there was- it was Hoff, he’s dead now.” She very pointedly did not look at the corpse as she spoke.
There was a pause “Are you alright?” Todd asked, in a very different tone than he had used before. Narii could tell that he wasn’t asking after her physical health this time, but she answered as if he was anyway. “I’m fine, but talking hurts. What do I need to do here?” Todd didn’t press her for a more truthful answer. “The engine room shouldn’t be locked, the beacon is under the workbench directly to the right of the door. All you need to do is open the lid and press the button.”
Narii nodded but didn’t say anything. It really was painful to speak at the moment. She walked through the door and found the beacon just where Todd had said it would be. It was an unassuming grey box, with a lid on the top. She flipped open the lid and saw a large red button with some unknown script stenciled above it. She placed her palm on the button and pressed down. There was a click and a ding and a synthetic voice said something in a language she didn’t recognize. She walked back out of the room, giving Hoff’s body a wide berth, and climbed back into the vent. “Done” she said quietly “I’m on my way back.”
…
Todd could clearly see that Narii was in shock when she clambered back out of the vent. Her eyes were just a bit too wide and her skin was too pale, especially for a Reshiir. Kaleb could obviously see it as well but he pronounced her physically fine. He did, however, shoot Todd a meaningful look, just like the old days they still relied on Todd to be the heart of the group.
Todd followed Narii over to where she was sitting with her back to a crate, staring out the viewport. “I can see the pirates’ ship from here” she said quietly as he sat down, “They’re watching us.” Todd couldn’t really think of anything to say to that, so he just nodded. After a moment of silence he spoke, “I’m sorry that you had to go through that Narii. I wish that there had been another way.”
Narii nodded, and he could see that she was fighting back tears. He put a gentle hand on her shoulder and the flood of emotion she was fighting to hold back burst forth. She heaved great racking sobs and buried her face in his chest. Todd was taken aback slightly at this, but patted her comfortingly on the back all the same. He waited until her tears subsided before speaking again. “You have saved all our lives Narii. I hope you realize that.”
Her response was muffled slightly by his chest “How can you possibly know that? How can you know that anyone was even listening? We are still going to run out of air even if someone did hear us!” Todd considered for a moment before responding, “Because I am owed.” he said simply. To his slight surprise, she seemed to accept that. They sat like that for a time, Narii sitting in his arms with her face buried in his chest.
Finally, after an hour or two, once Narii had fallen asleep, someone spoke from behind him. “I can’t take it anymore!” Todd half turned, trying to see who was talking without disturbing Narii. The speaker was one of the other Reshiir passengers. “Are you just going to sit here and let us all suffocate?!” the young man shouted “I’m not going to let some filthy stinking human kill us all!” he continued. “You all heard her, we only have enough air for some of us to live, so some of us have to die!” he had produced a knife from somewhere and took a step towards where Nmnunuuu and No-ja where laying.
Todd lept to his feet and jumped between the young Reshiir and his crew. He grabbed for his sidearm before remembering that it had been taken by the pirates, and he had given his backup backup gun to Narii. He held his hands out in front of him, in a half-placating half-defensive gesture.
“Ok kid,” he said in a soothing sort of voice “I know you’re scared, but no one is going to die on my boat. Not while I’m captain.” The Reshiir brandished the knife, “Outta the way human!” he shouted. Todd could see that the kid had probably never held anything more dangerous than a pencil in his life, but even an unpracticed swing with a knife could be fatal. Todd sunk into a half-crouch, his hands raised in a defensive stance.
“HEY!” a voice shouted from off to the side. Both Todd and the scared Reshiir turned just in time for Narii to strike the young man across the face with the butt of the pistol Todd had given her. The heavy polymer of the pistol made a very satisfying thunk as it connected with the Reshiir’s jaw. He was spun partway around by the force of the blow and collapsed, obviously dazed.
Narii stood above him with anger burning in her eyes. When she spoke, however, her voice was surprisingly calm. “These people have risked their lives to try to protect us, and you want to repay them by murdering two of their crewmembers? You make me sick. I have been shown more empathy and kindness by a Bruune and a human than from you, a fellow Rashiir.” She raised the pistol and pointed it at the young man at her feet. “You will go over to that corner and sit there until rescue arrives. Clear?”
The dazed Rashiir stared at her dumbly for a moment before nodding and scrambling over to the indicated corner. Narii stared him down for another moment before bending down and retrieving the knife that had been left at her feet. She then walked over to Todd and offered both it and the pistol to him.
Todd took the weapons numbly and watched as Narii walked back over to the crate she had been leaning against before and resumed her contemplation of the stars. Todd glanced over at Kaleb, who raised his eyebrows and slid his own pistol back into its holster under his arm.
Todd waited for a moment before walking over to sit next to Narii again. “Thanks.” he said simply. Narii nodded, not looking at him and they lapsed into a thoughtful silence.
…
The Demon sat in her chair on the bridge of her ship and watched her prize. It looked much the same as before, even though most of the interior was now open to space. She reached up and idly stroked the scars along the side of her face. There had been something tugging at the edges of her memory, something in the fuzzy area from before… something about the captain of her prize… Thinking about the past was hard, back before, when she was beautiful. She had been betrayed, she was pretty sure of that. Even though the details were lost in the fuzziness.
But she had survived, she was strong so she deserved… she deserved… It came to her, she had seen that captain’s face before. It had been right before the explosion, he had been speaking to her from a viewscreen. And he had been wearing close fitting gray armor… an irrational terror gripped her heart as she remembered just what that gray armor meant. She stood, intending to give the order to blow that ship from the sky, when an alarmed voice from the crew pit shouted “Captain! Massive spatial distortion, right on top of us!” The woman who had been Amylise Carbinall knew mortal fear once more.
…
Narii had been staring at the pirate ship. She knew that if they decided to board before rescue arrived they would need to move away from their current position. She intended to be ready for anything. She no longer wanted to be pushed around by the whims of the universe or whatever, from here on out, she was going to push back.
So it was that she was the first one to notice the oddity. She had watched several ships pop out of transit while waiting to board the New York back in orbit around Resh. Right before they arrived, all of the light passing through a small sphere centered on the point of emergence seemed to pull together before expanding outward suddenly as the ship appeared. But this was on a scale that boggled her mind.
All the stars that she could see from the viewport seemed to pull together towards a point just to the side of the pirate ship. The sheer size of the distortion divorced itself from the image of a ship dropping out of transit in her mind. Until, that is, the ship emerged.
At first, Narii thought that the newly arrived ship had emerged from transit only a couple of meters away from the ship, she grabbed for support against the impact she was sure would come. After a moment of panic, she realized that she could still see the pirate ship. The new ship was on the opposite side of the pirate ship. It was massive! She had never before seen anything so enormous. She had to press her face right up against the viewport to see the entirety of it. It was shaped like a cylinder, with each end capped with a dome that looked to be made of some sort of transparent material. Each dome was clutched in between three spires, any one of which was longer than several New Yorks placed end to end. On the side of the ship were what looked like the same letters that had been stenciled on the emergency beacon. Only this time each letter could have fit the entirety of Narii’s hometown inside of it with room to spare.
The comm panel on the wall crackled to life with a voice speaking an unknown language. Narii glanced at Todd, who translated “‘This is Fleet Admiral Birch of the Fifth Homefleet. In the name of the Homefleets of Humanity and the Royal family of Mars, surrender and stand down or be destroyed.’”
Narii watched in a fascinated sort of horror as the pirate ship sprang into motion. Points of light shot out at the newly arrived ship and, to Narii’s great alarm, right towards the New York.
Narii barely had enough time to gasp as the space outside the ship exploded into brilliant light. The entire side of the gargantuan human ship blazed with brilliance and both the pirate ship and the missiles that it had launched were consumed in the roiling storm of energy. After a moment of shivering silence, Narii finally found her voice. “What… is that?” she asked. Todd smiled broadly “That,” he said with pride “is one of the Six Great Worldships of Humanity.”
…
About twelve hours later, Narii had been fed, bathed, and had a decent amount of sleep in the surprisingly luxurious quarters that she had been given to use. She was still somewhat awestruck by what the humans had accomplished. From what she had been told, each dome was a self-contained continent. To cope with the loss of their homeworld they had created mobile planets, complete with fields for farming and weather patterns.
As she stepped out of the door to her quarters it was hard to tell that she was even on a ship at all. The ceiling was so high that the air faded to blue just like a sky, to the point where she could only barely make out the triangular framework that held the transparent panels in place in the distance. Somehow, those spires that cupped the dome also simulated a day-night cycle.
Narii was supposed to meet Todd at someplace called the promenade, so she summoned an automated groundcar like she had been shown the night previous. The ride was smooth and uneventful, Narii spent most of it staring out the window at the city as it rolled by. She still found it hard to wrap her mind around it. A city in a spaceship. These worldships certainly earned their name.
When Narii arrived, Todd was speaking to an older human, if they aged at the same rate as Reshiir he would probably be in his sixties. Next to them was a man and woman who both looked to be about the same age as Todd, they looked like they were laughing at something Todd had said.
Todd caught sight of her and jogged over to her, grinning. “Narii!” he cried happily “There you are, how are you doing?”
Once again he seemed to be asking after more than her physical well being, and this time Narii felt like she could answer truthfully “I think I’m going to be ok.” she said. “I’m probably going to have some nightmares about what happened, but I’ll be alright.”
Todd gave a half smile at that, as though he had his own share of nightmares to deal with. He reached out and placed a hand on her shoulder. “I have something to give you” he paused, “Well, two things actually. Or a thing and an offer.”
He seemed uncharacteristically awkward, Narii found that comforting in a way. She had come to look up to this odd human, and seeing him feeling uncomfortable made her a bit less embarrassed to feel the same from time to time.
“Anyways” Todd continued, “The first thing is this,” he held something out to her. It was the pistol he had given her to use back on the ship. “It might be the source of some of your bad memories, but I think it can also be a reminder of your convictions.”
Once again, Todd was showing an alarming ability to tell what she was thinking and feeling. Narii took the pistol in slightly trembling hands. “Thank you.” She said after a moment, finally looking back into his eyes. Todd smiled again, but now he looked even more awkward than before.
He took his hand off her shoulder and began to fidget with his hands in front of him. “The second thing I wanted to give… well, offer to you…” he paused to collect his thoughts. “I spoke to Numu earlier today-”
“How is he?” Narii interrupted. “He’s fine” Todd replied, seeming to become more comfortable as he spoke “The doctors want to keep him and No-Ja for another couple of days, also, the New York is in to get repaired and have the security system upgraded. So the rest of the passengers have been booked on another ship on its way to Centari four. Anyways, that's what I wanted to talk to you about. Numu told me that you don’t have any reason to go to Centari and that you don’t have any place to go back to on Resh, so... “ he looked awkward again, “Would you like a place on my crew? We need a good PR person. And, well, it doesn’t pay super well, but room and board are included...” He trailed off, looking uncomfortable.
Goodness Narii thought They really do need a PR person. She smiled “I’d love to” Todd looked immensely relieved. “Oh good” he said smiling again “Come on, I want to introduce you to my friends.”
As they walked back to where the three people were standing, Narii finally asked the question that had been nagging at her. “On the beacon, and on the side of this ship, there were some letters in a language I don’t recognize. What do they say?”
Todd glanced at her before answering “The language is called English. It fills the same role for humans as Sidthian does for the rest of the galaxy. The word you’re asking about is the name of this worldship. Hope.”