Scrapyard Ship 3 Space Vengeance Read online

  “What’s happened?”

  “The Craing fleet has reached the outskirts of Allied space. They’re now systematically annihilating every planet in their path. Probably those they suspect are part of the Alliance. They’ll reach Trumach within the next three days and Jhardon a day after that.”

  Jason’s heart sank. He remembered that Trumach was the rhinos’s home world and had been attacked several times over the last few years, subjugating its populace. And Jhardon, of course, was Dira’s home planet.

  Jason knew that confronting the Craing fleet before they were fully prepared would result in their own decisive defeat. Every new battle scenario, such as those including their own operational Dreadnaught, now offered them some semblance of hope.

  “I know your strategic plans, your logistics, rely on The Lilly’s presence as an integral part of the fleet when we attack.”

  “Most definitely. Jason, we can’t break up our forces to accommodate two alien worlds when the Allied forces’ very existence is at stake. You do realize that, I hope,” the admiral stated.

  Jason didn’t answer for several moments. “There’s no way I’m letting those two planets be discounted as mere collateral damage.”

  “It’s really not up to you, I want you to—”

  “Let me propose something else then,” Jason interrupted his father.

  “Like what?”

  “That I agree The Lilly will be in formation when the Allied forces make their stand, just as you have planned.”

  “And?”

  “But until the fleet arrives, we’ll be there stalling their progress and making their life miserable ahead of time.”

  “The problem with that is there’s a very good chance you’ll be destroyed long before we get there. The risks are too great.”

  Jason’s temper flared. “Fine, then I’ll let you be the one to tell Dira that aiding her home planet doesn’t fit into your strategic plan!”

  Now it was the admiral who didn’t speak for several beats. “I need your word you’ll not go head to head against the Craing fleet. Perhaps playing cat and mouse, causing enough havoc to slow them down could work. But everything changes. Hell, the location of the battle could be thirty light years away, in a completely different sector.”

  The admiral looked away—he was thinking it through. Jason could see he was considering all options. Then he looked up again and frowned. “Come up with a plan and submit it to me by the end of the day. And wipe that smile off your face, Captain.”

  “Aye, sir,” Jason replied.

  * * *

  Jason had several stops to make this morning, and first was Medical. He didn’t want Dira to hear about the approach of the Craing fleet and the jeopardy Jhardon would be in from anyone other than himself. He entered Medical and found a group formed around the new MediPod. He joined Chief Horris, at the back of the group, who jostled his ample frame over a few steps to let the captain get in closer. Dira was helping someone out of the new MediPod.

  “What do we have here, Chief?”

  But Dira’s voice interrupted the chief’s response. “It is my great honor to present to you the new, recognizable, Lieutenant Commander Perkins.”

  Surprised to see the XO back in human form, Jason joined in the round of applause as

  Perkins, now all smiles, stood and casually waved a hand to his friends. When he noticed Jason, he stood up straight, saluted, and said, “Everything’s back to normal, sir.”

  “Good. Good to have the old you back again, XO. You all right to handle your next watch?”

  With a quick glance and a nod back from Dira, Perkins said, “Aye, sir. Ready for duty.”

  Chief Horris leaned in: “Um, Captain?”

  “Chief?”

  “Would you come by Engineering sometime this morning? Have something I wanted to ask you. Actually show you.”

  “No problem, give me a few minutes,” Jason replied, and he made his way over to Dira.

  “Why hello, Captain,” Dira said, stepping in close enough for him to smell the light fragrance of her shampoo.

  “What brings you to this part of the ship today?”

  “First of all, good work with Perkins,” Jason said.

  “Thank you. So, what’s with the sour face?”

  Jason placed a hand on her shoulder. “Let’s go in here,” he said, gently guiding her into the hospital section of Medical.

  Once one the other side of the bulkhead, Jason turned to Dira. “It’s no secret the Craing fleet is headed for Allied space, but they’re not taking a direct route.”

  Dira’s face lost all color. Eyes opening wide she said, “No, not Jhardon! Please tell me they haven’t attacked Jhardon.” She brought both hands up to her face, covering her mouth.

  “No, they haven’t. Not yet. But you need to be prepared that it’s a distinct possibility. I didn’t want you to hear about this from someone else.”

  “Oh God, Jason, we have to protect them. My planet has virtually no defenses; they’re not a warring society. They hate violence.”

  Dira leaned back against a bulkhead, her hands still up to her face. Jason rushed forward and put his arms around her. She buried her face in his chest. “Just tell me you’ll do something.”

  There were guarded stares from other crewmembers in the area, but Jason didn’t care. He hated seeing her like this. He wanted to protect her, keep her from ever feeling sad again. And then he realized the truth. His heart belonged to Dira. He replayed making love to Nan just days before, and guilt and remorse flooded his mind.

  “I’ll do what I can, Dira. But I need you to be strong right now. The coming days will be hard on all of us. All our home planets are in jeopardy.”

  Jason felt Dira nod as she stood back, tears falling down her cheeks. “You’re right, I’m sorry. But know this: even though violence is not the Jhardonian way, I want to destroy those little fuckers. You put a weapon in my hand and I’ll kill every last one of them.”

  Jason gently wiped the tears from beneath her eyes with his thumbs. “It may come to that. But in the meantime, I promise we’ll do everything we can to save Jhardon.” He kissed her and enveloped her in his arms.

  A long moment later she pushed him away and looked into his eyes. “I’m okay. Thank you, Jason.” With a self-conscious smile, she looked around Medical. “Oh god, everyone’s looking at us.”

  He shrugged and smiled. Jason left Medical wondering if he could actually keep that promise. He made his way over to the DeckPort, remembering Chief Horris wanted to show him something.

  During his last visit to Engineering, it had been undergoing retrofitting by the Caldurians. The first thing Jason noticed was the addition of several new consoles, but there was something else different. Engineering seemed substantially smaller.

  “Captain, thank you for coming by,” the chief yelled down from a catwalk above. “It’s up here, sir.”

  Jason climbed the steps and met the chief on the catwalk.

  “What do you have for me, Chief?”

  Chief Horris pointed in the aft direction of the ship, toward the two massive drive systems, across the open four floors of Engineering.

  “What the hell is that?” Jason asked, leaning forward over the railing.

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 16

  Bristol sat on the bridge of the command ship next to his brother with nothing to do. He hated being there. He felt awkward and out of place and would have much preferred to be tinkering on his latest invention back in his makeshift laboratory. Just like his brother’s pretentious castle, his latest vessel was another extravagant, flamboyant testament to his ever-growing ego.

  Once an interstellar luxury liner, where only the wealthiest could afford her premium price tag, he had renamed the ginormous vessel Her Majesty. She had been commandeered into Captain Stalls’ fleet. With literally a shipload of wealthy hostages, and all too willing family members agreeing to pay outrageous ransoms, the pirate clan sat pretty, their coffers bri
mming at higher-than-ever levels. Now, meticulously retrofitted with defensive shields and the latest armaments money could buy, Her Majesty dominated virtually any ship with which it came into contact.

  “Why do I need to be here?”

  “Because you’re an officer on Her Majesty. How are you going to learn anything hidden away in some dark hole in the middle of the ship?”

  “Um, first of all, what’s this about me being an officer? You know we’re just pirates, right? I certainly didn’t sign up for any kind of military position.”

  “You’ll show proper respect while you’re on my bridge. Don’t expect differential treatment just because you are my brother,” Stalls said in a lowered tone.

  Bristol rolled his eyes, but held his tongue.

  “The last fourteen vessels have joined the fleet, sir,” one of Stalls’ newly appointed officers announced.

  Bristol looked over at Pike, the grey-bearded elderly pirate manning the Comms station. Bristol shook his head; the guy had to be seventy-five years old, if he was a day.

  “The Leister Clan,” Stalls said with a smile. “And that brings our armada to three hundred and twenty vessels, if I’m not mistaken.”

  “Three hundred and four,” Bristol corrected.

  “Whatever! There’s not a fleet in this sector that can touch us.” Stalls stood and walked over to the ornate casino table that now supported a large logistics display. He waved his brother over to join him. Yellow icons representing the pirate armada, with Her Majesty leading the pack, dominated the left side of the display. Stalls changed the zoom level and concentrated on a planetary system three sectors over. He leaned in on his elbows and stared at a bright blue solitary planet.

  “Earth. I’ve heard good things about this planet. Three days from now, she’ll be mine.”

  Bristol looked down at the display and shrugged. “Let me guess … that woman. Nan something or other is there. There’s better quarry right here in our own backyard. You’re making a mistake. You’re thinking with your cock again, big brother.”

  “Watch your tongue. Vengeance will be mine.”

  “Just saying. Next time it may be more than a few toes you lose.”

  * * *

  Freed from his bindings and the tall wooden pole, still naked, Brian shivered against the chilly sea air. The hopper, for some unknown reason, continued to help him.

  “I’ll need clothes. I’m going to freeze to death if I can’t get warm.”

  The hopper, which was also naked, turned its head sideways and appraised the small human. “You are truly a weak being. How has your kind survived this long?”

  “We wear clothes. It’s not that big a deal.” He turned and looked down the beach toward the figure still secured to a pole. He figured it was about a hundred yards and started walking in that direction.

  The hopper watched and made a series of clicking sounds. “You move slower than a shell. Get on.”

  It made a series of small hops and positioned itself in front of Brian. “Seriously, like a piggyback?”

  “I do not know what piggyback refers to. You will get on my back.”

  Feeling a bit silly, Brian did as the scaly green hopper asked. At first he didn’t know what to do with his arms: should he wrap them around its shoulders? Or its neck? Either way it felt peculiar and overly intimate. In the end he held on to its neck and said, “Okay, let’s go.”

  In three hops they reached the pole and the corpse affixed to it. The smell alone caused Brian to turn away and retch. Taking in a deep breath, Brian looked over at the hopper’s confused face.

  “You don’t smell that?”

  It shrugged. “The ripe smell of the dead, so what?”

  “Nothing. Just help me get these clothes off him.”

  The dead human wore pants, shoes, a thick sweater and, most importantly of all to Brian, a jacket. But none of the clothing items were retrievable as the body’s hands and legs were secured around the thick wooden pole.

  “Just like you helped me, can you hop up to the top there? Pull this guy off the pole?” Brian asked.

  Without hesitation, the hopper leapt ten feet to the top of the pole and pulled on the corpse by his arms. Brian watched as the limp body jerked and flailed about like a rag doll. Once freed, the body fell and landed on the sand several feet away. Now, under closer inspection, Brian could see the body had started to decompose. There was a wet glossiness to the guy’s skin. And that smell! Holding his breath, Brian got busy undressing the body.

  The shoes weren’t a perfect fit—but close enough. He figured in time, hopefully, the smell would fade, or he’d get used to it. Brian found several things in the man’s pockets; the most curious was a small cylindrical electronic device about the size of an automobile key fob. A series of colored buttons populated the circumference, with a small circular display screen integrated into the top. He pressed a few buttons to see what would happen and eventually a menu appeared on the screen. Brian accessed his own internal nano-devices and brought up the visual translation settings. Seeming bored, the hopper wandered off to find shells to eat closer to the shoreline. Thirty seconds later Brian could move up and down the device’s menus and various input prompts with relative ease. The screen that caught his interest most was something called Retrieval.

  That sounds promising, Brian thought. He pressed the corresponding key combinations, but nothing happened. The hopper was back, its mouth full of shell meat. It handed Brian a wet handful. Brian took the offering, again curious why the creature would help him. The hopper’s head jerked up with a start. Brian followed its gaze and in the distance saw a small speck of something in the air approaching them in the distance. As it neared, it was visibly a transport shuttle. It slowed and paused in midair. Then, quietly, it landed on the beach within twenty yards. A small gangway extended from the aft part of the shuttle, but no one disembarked. Wavering from a rising fever, cold, and not liking the way the other hoppers were looking at him, Brian stumbled into the awaiting vessel where he fell to the deck, unconscious.

  He awoke sometime later and found himself sprawled on the deck within a large compartment on board a different vessel. With the hopper still along side of him, he spun around to assess their situation.

  Brian counted six humanoids, each one pointing some kind of energy weapon in their direction. One of them stepped forward, but then dropped back again.

  “What the hell is that smell?”

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 17

  By the time Jason entered the habitat and made his way into the rhinos’ encampment, the sun was already setting. Two rhinos, both dressed for battle, intersected his progress.

  “Is that you, Captain Reynolds?” the taller of the two rhinos asked.

  “It’s okay,” Jason answered. “It’s just me, Rustling Leaves. Looks like you’ve added a bit more security.”

  “It’s not for you, Captain.”

  “Then who?” Jason asked, bewildered that anyone would even consider attacking a camp full of several hundred seven-foot-tall rhino-warriors.

  “Our new leader, Traveler, has had a vision. We will be attacked.”

  Jason didn’t reply to that, but gestured toward the largest of the mud domes. “Is he there?”

  “I will see if he can be disturbed.” Rustling Leaves hurried off and disappeared into the dome. Several seconds later, Traveler appeared in the doorway, then quickly walked toward Jason. Rustling Leaves attempted to keep up but only managed to stay several strides behind.

  “Captain Reynolds, it is good to see you.”

  “Good to see you, too. You certainly look to be in better shape than the last time I saw you.”

  “I am strong with nanites. And I am smarter with this nano-tech in my skull.”

  “I understand you had a vision?” Jason asked.

  “As clear as I am talking to you now. They will come from the heavens. We will be prepared.”

  “That is why I’ve come here, Traveler. It is not h
ere that you will be attacked. It’s Trumach. What remains of the Craing fleet has returned. They’ll reach your planet within several days.”

  “Yes. The vision makes more sense now. We must return and defend our mates and offspring.” As if expecting resistance, Traveler expanded his chest and stood taller.

  “I will take you directly to Trumach, if that is what you wish. You certainly deserve that much and a lot more. But please, hear me out first.”

  A burst of steamy snot blew from the rhino’s snout. It was obvious Traveler didn’t like the direction Jason was taking.