Disclaimer: I do not own Voltron/Go Lion or any of their characters. They are the property of WEP and Devil's Due Comic and Toei Animation. All other characters are mine. This is written purely for entertainment purposes and I am not monetarily compensated in any way.
Chapter 3
For a moment I ignore the captain. I order my demo crew to run a scan of the room to check for explosives before we enter.
"It's clear. I'm alone and unarmed." She seems almost amused. I wouldn't believe her if I could read her mind.
"All clear." The demo says. My second and I enter the room with our weapons drawn and pointed at the captain. The others come in behind me the same way and do a manual sweep of the bridge looking for any surprises.
As I approach I take a good look at the captain. She is a very petite, small boned woman with dark hair. I'm confused because at first I think she is a child. It is sometimes hard for us to gage the age of humans because of their smaller physical size and lack of facial ridging. Except for the very old, most appear highly neotenous to our eyes. As I get closer I see that she is not young at all. She has piercing grey blue eyes and the strong well defined bone structure and high cheek bones of women who carry their age well. But her skin is lined around her eyes and forehead and her dark hair is threaded with grey and has shocks of white at both temples. Her face is set like a stone from the rigors of command, but I am sure that she is still lovely when she smiles.
As my second and I draw near her with our weapons drawn and pointed I begin to feel a bit ridiculous. I am in full body armor and armed with a blaster-rifle, two side arms and my lazon sword and I'm tip-toeing up to an old woman seated primly in a chair. My chagrin is made worse by the nonchalance with which she regards us. She begins to stand up to give formal greeting and my entire team swings around and takes aim at her. I groan inwardly. This is ridiculous!
"I see my reputation precedes me." She says glibly as she takes her feet, her eyes sparkle with something akin to satisfaction. She is even smaller than I thought. The top of her head barely reaches the middle of my chest. I am suddenly very claustrophobic in my helmet and embarrassed by my caution. I stand down my weapon snap up my visor and pull off my headgear. The filtered cool air of the bridge smells clean and feels refreshing on my perspiring face.
"Sir?" my second cautions. I silence him with a look. I am sure that I'm in no physical danger from the little old lady. Even if she does leap up on a chair and punch me in the nose.
"You are…young." She eyes me with the evaluative stare of a senior officer and I become acutely aware of my disheveled braid and the pieces of hair plastered to my forehead with sweat.
"And you are not." I retort defensively. She arches an eyebrow in annoyance. Women are the same everywhere I note.
"And who are you? To whom do I have the honor of surrendering to?" She asks.
"I am Commander Lotor Sincline of the Supremacy's Fourth Fleet, Crown Prince of Korrinoth." I answer her proudly.
"Never heard of you." She says frankly. Her candor is unexpected for someone in her situation. She is feisty and betrays no hint of fear at the danger we present to her person. I find a grudging measure of respect for her.
"You will surrender this vessel, the GA-HMS Highlander and all her crew and cargo to the Supremacy or suffer complete annihilation." I say in my most commanding voice.
"Of course, of course….I don't want to be completely annihilated." She mocks me a little and then clears her throat and comes to attention.
"I, Captain Cynthia McAllister of the British Royal Navy of Earth in service to the Galaxy Alliance, do surrender the ship GA-HMS Highlander, all her crew and cargo to Commander Sincline of the Drule Supremacy's Fourth Fleet, Crown Prince of Korrinoth." She concludes and presents me with her officer's sword.
I reach out and take the sword from her hands and we bow to each other slightly.
"You have the bridge, Commander Sincline." She says honoring the tradition of a senior officer turning over command to a junior. It is so easy that it is almost anti-climactic. I don't know what to feel. Then it begins to sink in…I have won! I have taken the ship…The Highlander is mine…her captain has surrendered…to me! I want to jump in the air and shout in triumph!
I order two of my men to take her into custody and bring her aboard my ship. I watch as they snap the restraints on her wrists with a click. Her expression is guarded but I swear it is as triumphant as mine. For a split second my feeling of unease returns. She executes a flawless about face and they escort her off the bridge.
I walk over to the command chair and stroke my hand across the back of it and along the neck rest and sit down. So this is how it feels, I think. My first. It is thrilling, satisfying and wonderful. I already want more.
The chair is small for me and a little uncomfortable but I don't mind. I remove the comm from my ear now that the grunt portion of the mission is over. I look over at my second with a smile twitching my lips and say "First Sergeant Gar'ein call all hands and hail the bridge of the Rihan Annsu."
A moment later I see my First Officer on the screen and his face registers his initial astonishment at seeing my face on his visual.
"This is Commander Sincline from the bridge of the Highlander. She is ours." I say and an enormous grin splits my face. "Her commander, Captain McAllister, is in custody. Make ready to take her aboard."
"Yes, Sir." He replies smiling as well. "Uh, Sir?"
"Yes?"
"Congratulations, Sir!" He compliments me and braces at attention and crosses his fist across his chest in salute.
"Noted. Sincline, Out." I terminate the transmission for now. I have to get the Highlander back online. My work to bring this prize home to the Supremacy has only just begun.
"Can you get into the system?" I ask my NSOE. Undoubtedly the ship's computers have had the drives wiped clean and locked down. If there is a way to retrieve the information, Yoi will know it.
"Absolutely, Sir," he says and unzips his field pack and pulls out the tools of his trade and gets down to business. I can tell by the look on his face he lives for this work.
"Propulsion to Bridge." The crew assembled from Black Sky and HammerHand hails.
"This is Commander Sincline. Go ahead." I respond.
"Uh, Sir…we're trying to get the auxiliaries back up but there's something draining all the juice to life support."
"Get your NSOE to trace it and reroute it." Why are they bothering me with this? It's basic procedure.
"Yes, Sir. We tried that and it requires an executive over-ride code." They reply.
That's odd. And aggravating since my NSOE is not done hacking into the system. I look at the officer's sword that McAllister gave me. She still has her card with all of the command over-ride codes. In my excitement I forgot to take it from her. I recall her escort and order her returned to the bridge.
"Stand Ready. Execute to follow. " I say.
"Yoi, did you hear that?" I ask my NSOE.
"Yes, Sir. Uh, I'm noticing something here too. The systems are running slow, like the tubes are cooking or something. Power is being diverted from the coolers and they're starting to overheat." He says without his fingers missing a keystroke.
"Where to?" I ask. I remember the secret look on McAllister's face when she surrendered.
"Life support. Looks like to the g-cylinder. Nnhg!" he says and finishes with a curse as something in the system frustrates him.
The sinking feeling in my stomach returns. Propulsion and cooling both the jump drive coils and the massive computer network systems are the most energy hungry of any shipboard mechanisms. There is no reason to send power to the g-cylinder. A power surge could destabilize it and collapse the containment field. I call back to propulsion.
"Bridge to propulsion. Check the jump drive coils. Out."
"Yes, Sir."
"Uh, Sir?" Yoi calls me.
"Nhg?" I grunt back.
"Sir, it's, uh, it's all going to life support. Definitely the g-cylinder. We got a problem."
Just then there is a something like a low pressure wave that washes through the ship. I feel heavier. Clumsier. Like I do when I come off a long float and step planet-side for the first time. My boarding crews notice it too and they call the bridge in alarm.
"Bridge this is Seven Cloud Six. We just had a change in polarity down here. Advise."
Shit. A shift in polarity only means one thing. The g-cylinder has had a power surge.
"Seven Cloud this Commander Sincline. We're coming online here. Stand Ready. Execute to Follow." I say back.
The truth is I have no idea what order to give right now. G-cylinder containment failures are theoretical problems and the stuff of nightmares. The phrase "sup-atomic disintegration" sticks in my mind. As do "inter-dimensional worm-hole" and "event horizon." If the g-cylinder destabilizes and the containment field fails the resulting explosion will be visible throughout the galaxy. There will be nothing left of us except traces of radiation.
"Yoi! Are you online yet? I need these systems up so I can power down that g-cylinder that's going to shit. And where the fuck is McAllister?" I growl.
Just then there's another pressure wave and this one sets off the alarms and a monotone 'whoop-whoop' resonates throughout the ship. Teams from all over the ship start hailing the bridge. I delegate the responsibility of answering them to my second.
"I'm in Sir, but I keep going blue and getting kicked out. I need the executive over-ride or some more time to shim the codes." he answers tensely.
I don't need to tell him that we don't have more time and the situation is going critical, but I do anyway.
"Hurry the fuck up."
"Yes, Sir."
I am about to call my prisoner escort when I hear a voice behind me.
"Miss me already?" It's Captain McAllister.
"No. I need your XO card." I say without turning around. All of my previous civility is gone.
"Oh, that. Are you sure I didn't leave it up here?" she asks with an innocence that she has never known.
I turn on her at the end of my patience. "Old woman, give me that card now."
"I think it's in my pocket." She says and holds up her shackled hands. I nod to the guard to unlock her. She pats around her uniform tunic taking far longer than she needs. "Ah, here it is!" she produces the card with a flourish. I reach around and snatch it out of her hand and slide it into the slot at the command console and I try to access the command screen. Nothing happens. I glare at her.
"You need the password." She tells me.
"Give it to me." I demand.
"No. I'm afraid I won't do that."
"Yes, you will!" I shout at her. Normally this would be enough to send even one of mine shaking. But she remains calm, almost bored. I can sense her lack of reaction undermining my authority. I stalk over to her and grab her by the upper arm haul her up on her toes.
Just then there's another wave, this one strong enough to jolt us off balance. The change in the ship's artificial gravity is markedly stronger and I can feel it push-pulling on me with random pulses. The warning alarms increase to critical and a ships emergency system starts issuing contra-alto evacuation orders in Trade.
"This is my ship now and you will do as I command! Or I will-!"
"You will what?" she cuts me off. "Have me flogged for insubordination?" She asks as the sultry voiced emergency system repeats the order to evacuate.
"Nnhg!" I growl and drop her back to her feet in exasperation
"Sir, I'm in." It's Yoi and he sounds grim. "Sir, power is being diverted from all systems and rerouted to the g-cylinder. It's reached critical and the containment field is collapsing." He puts the schematic on the side screen and I see the numbers. This was deliberate.
"You did this!" I accuse her.
Her steely eyes meet mine. She nods and I see that she is indeed lovely when she smiles.
"Why?" I ask as if it matters.
"I wouldn't have if some hnafir'rau commander hadn't destroyed to jump port." She answers sharply. I set my jaw at the Drule insult. The soft spoken lady is gone and now I meet the woman with the mettle to rise up the ranks of the Alliance command.
"There are four lifeboats left. I suggest you use them. Oh, and you might want to order your crew on the Rihan Annsu to evacuate as well. That is if they don't mutiny and do it themselves once they figure out that you've led them to slaughter." She continues.
"What?" I ask. Then I see what she has done. Conniving old bitch! She had lured us on board with her supposed helplessness. I was right! It was too easy! Now half of my crew is onboard this potential 'black hole' and the other half is tethered to it along with my ship! All the while her crew is well out of harm's way awaiting rescue.
The alarms increase in urgency and the computer now begins a count-down. We have an estimated 15 minutes left before the g-cylinder collapses and rips a hole into space-time. Unless the old bitch can be convinced to shut it down. Which I know she won't be since this is what she had planned all along. She will go down with her ship and the Alliance will honor her. Probably by naming a warship after her! And I can either run like a coward or go down with mine. But either way and my crew and I will be ridiculed from one end of the Fleet to the other. Hnafir'rau they too will call me and laugh. I feel my face grow hot just thinking about the shame.
I can hear my father's scathing voice in my head as clearly as if he were here. Lotor! You fool! You failure! You worthless weakling! I should have had you thrown in the Pit when you were born!
I cannot fail. I cannot run because there is nowhere to hide. I have no option but to succeed. If I abandon ship and live it will prove my father right. If I die here he will still be right. No! The idea is unthinkable….Unbearable! And I will risk everything and do anything to prove the miserable bastard wrong!
"Sir? Should I call to abandon ship?" My second asks. I am outraged! He should listen to me! Not her! This is my bridge! I command here! I glance around at my men and I see their eyes now hold apprehension instead of the admiration of moments ago. They have heard the word mutiny and I see the idea twisting around their minds.
"No!" I draw my sword and the lazon hums dangerously. "Nngh!" I growl at all of them and dare them to act on their thoughts. One by one they look away, ashamed of their disloyalty and cowardice.
I notice McAllister studying the main visual intensely. On screen are the escape pods that she has sacrificed herself for. They are in formation in lines four across and five deep making a cube shape. They have been slowly and steadily jetting away all this time, moving safely out of range. She has a peculiar expression on her face. It is at once anxious and hopeful. There is more in this for her than a hero's death, something for which she will gladly suffer an indescribable hell. Suddenly it becomes clear why she stayed aboard to see her mission completed. I see the chink in her armor and I set straight for it.
I hail the bridge of the Rihan Annsu.
Glossary:
Hnafir'rau: noun, adj. Insult literally meaning wet-nose.
Rihan annsu: Name of Lotor's ship. "Shadow-Cast". Referencing the shadow the victor casts over the fallen when they stand over him/her to deliver the killing blow.
Authors Note: The g-cylinder is the device that creates artificial gravity on board the ship.
The concept of artificial gravity was explored as early 1930 in science fiction stories. Over the years these ideas from speculative/science fiction have been experimented with by scientists with varying degrees of success. Finally, March 21, 2006 research supported by the European Space Agency (ESA) reported the first non-Newtonian gravitational fields of a measurable magnitude. The successful model of the artificial gravity device was in fact a cylinder with a vacuum chamber which was derisively dismissed as "science fantasy" when first written about in 1931. Thought this was really a cool factoid so I just thought I'd share.
Oh, one more thing. I feel the need to reference where I'm getting my Drule vocabulary from. It is actually a bastardized cross of Romulan and Vulcan which I found online at:
Tshala "dot" tripod "dot" com "backslash" rom "dash" dict "dot" html
