A Fine Mess
Chapter 8 – A Long Day
Kh'aan awoke five hours later to an alarm sounding throughout the ship. He sat up rubbing the side of his face, now numb from being mashed against the regeneration module. He took a moment to shake the fog from his brain and then headed for the control room. The beeping alarm came from the communications array; an encrypted message had been received and required his blood key to access. Kh'aan pressed the pad of his thumb to the panel, feeling the prick of a needle, and downloaded the message:
Arbitrator sent. Kh'val. Retrieve you. Kill ooman. Good luck.
Kh'aan swore and exited the message. He knew from previous dealings with his brother that Kh'val could track him easily by simply scanning the frequencies Kh'aan used for incoming messages. It had been a safety feature the two brothers had set up when they were on more friendly terms, but now Shr'nal's warning could lead Kh'val right to him. He made a mental note to change the comm. frequencies and then brought up external sensors and scanned the star system, cursing his bad luck when they picked up Kh'val's ship approaching on an intercept course.
The agitated hunter swiftly altered course and pushed the engines to maximum in order to outrun the Arbitrator, who matched his course and increased speed. Kh'aan's ship was the faster and more agile of the two, but Kh'val had much more experience chasing down bad bloods and his piloting skills enabled him to keep up with Kh'aan's abrupt course changes.
The communications system beeped again. "Why do you run, brother? You can not escape me. Or are you truly a coward?"
Kh'aan growled and deactivated the comm., switching navigation fully to manual. He took a moment to scan the vicinity, having been asleep when his ship entered this star system, and noted eight planets and at least fifteen moons. The system was ringed by a small asteroid belt that the hunter thought might come in handy if he could get to it in one piece. A three-hour game of tag ensued between the brothers. Kh'val's ship remained close on Kh'aan's tail as the hunter spun figure-eights around the various moons in an effort to lose his brother, or at the least avoid a weapons lock. He banked closely into the atmosphere of a gas giant, sending up a plume of activated vapor that slowed down the Arbitrator, though not for long as Kh'val once again locked on to his course. He veered around a ringed planet and nearly collided with a large asteroid on the edge of the belt. Swiftly changing course, Kh'aan dove directly into the belt, dodging asteroids and attempting to make Kh'val hit one. His hopes were achieved when the larger ship grazed a spinning meteoroid and veered off out of control. Kh'aan took the opportunity and raced away.
Once safely out of the asteroid belt he brought up the Masking Field protocol. Unlike a typical cloak, the field served to mimic the ships surroundings whether empty space or a planet's surface, effectively fooling any sensors looking for a cloaked ship. Kh'val didn't know of this new addition to the hunter's ship, and Kh'aan hoped it would finally be put to good use. He was about to activate the field when another alarm sounded, a wailing siren that meant only one thing – the fuel cells were nearly depleted. He checked the gauge to see that he had barely enough power remaining to find a suitable spot to recharge the cells. Though thankful for the unique power system, Kh'aan's one dilemma resided in finding the proper catalyst. A simple mineral was required to facilitate the process, and it was usually in reserve on the clan ship. The frustrated hunter scanned for a planet containing the mineral and found a small moon not far from his location with an abundant deposit in the surface crust.
An hour later, Kh'aan set down on a dead moon that closely resembled the one that orbited the human planet. He shut down all systems except the medical bay and regeneration pod. The vessel needed to be completely powered down for the cells to recharge, and he hoped that keeping the bay active would not inhibit the process. Once all systems had been deactivated he rerouted the main computer to a panel in the medical bay and locked down the control room. He headed down the corridor, paused at the juncture to medical, and turned back a few paces to the armory. With Kh'val on the loose he wanted to be prepared for anything. Returning to the bay he sealed the door and activated the recharge process; almost immediately he heard the rush of air being sucked out of the rest of the ship. After a few more moments a low hum rumbled through the bulkheads, signaling that the recharge had begun.
Kh'aan had just settled down for a long wait when another warning sounded – the intruder alarm. The frustrated hunter snarled and punched up internal sensors. Sure enough a large humanoid had hacked into the access hatch and was now sneaking around in engineering. Kh'aan reinforced the lock on the med bay door before grabbing his weapons and an atmospheric mask for breathing in the vacuum of space that now permeated the rest of the ship. He slipped through the deck plating in medical into a crawlspace that lead to the engineering deck. It did not take long for him to spot Kh'val by the main drive attempting to disable the engines.
Kh'aan paused. This would cross the final line. If I do not kill him now, he will try all in his power to either kill us or return to Kh'alik with an elaborate story of my disgrace as a bad blood. This mess was getting bigger than he could handle but his choices were minimal: dump the human and return with his brother, kill him and attempt to escape, or try to make Kh'val see reason. None seemed very promising and the more he thought about it, the more he rejected the first option. The human was at the center of the entire issue – disposing of her to save his own hide would not change anything and would be an even greater dishonor than leaving her to freeze. The more he thought about it the more certain he became that he would never be able to return, nor was he capable of allowing the Arbitrator to kill the human. Fine brother, it is time for you to regret taking this assignment.
Kh'val had just given up on trying to hack into the deactivated engine systems and was heading for the access stairs when Kh'aan ambushed him, blocking his way to the upper deck. The Arbitrator sneered.
"Good to see you, brother. You don't look as insane as our sire implied. Perhaps you've seen reason and are willing to come home quietly."
Kh'aan simply snarled and raised his weapons. He knew that Kh'val could not be trusted to keep any oath he might promise – even returning "quietly". Being third-born had made the Arbitrator bitter and he would stop at nothing to make Kh'aan's suffering as agonizing as possible. His brother sneered again, trying to make Kh'aan move away from the stairs.
"Why are you protecting that thing? Are you so curious about oomans that you need a specimen to play with? Or perhaps you simply want to know what it is like to mate with one?" Kh'val chuckled darkly. "That is quite disgusting Kh'aan…I should kill you for such treason, but it might be more satisfying to eviscerate your pet and give you its polished bones."
Kh'aan had heard enough. He leapt forward and met the Arbitrator with weapons drawn. Kh'val blocked the charge and brought his own blades to bear, feeling them sink into Kh'aan's flesh. The hunter snarled and backhanded his brother into a cooling unit, spraying fluid on the Arbitrator and blinding him momentarily. Kh'val roared, charging Kh'aan and slamming him into the starboard engine. The brothers were almost perfectly matched in their battle – Kh'aan's superior agility from years of hunting various creatures was countered equally by Kh'val's rage-fueled strength and slight disregard for standard rules of combat. The Arbitrator had adopted some unorthodox habits having spent years hunting bad bloods. Kh'aan's only saving grace was that he knew the inside of his ship with his eyes closed. He was much more prepared for a fight in the cramped spaces of engineering, and eventually managed to trap the Arbitrator in a tight channel between two fuel cells. He grasped Kh'val's arm from in between two pipes and pulled, dislocating his shoulder. His brother staggered backwards and collided with the access hatch, snarling in defiance of his defeat.
"Our sire wants the head of your pet. I intend to deliver it."
Kh'aan brought up his foot and kicked Kh'val squarely in his facemask, breaking his two lower mandibles and causing the Arbitrator to stumble back into the release lever for the hatch. It opened with a hiss to the dead air of the moon and Kh'aan shoved his brother out to land in the dust. He swiftly shut the hatch and ran to the control room. Activating the emergency shutdown of the recharge process, the ship powered up in minutes and he quickly prepped for take off. The fuel cells were only half recharged but he needed to get as far from the Arbitrator as possible. Kh'aan looked through the forward viewport and saw that Kh'val had landed directly in his flight path; the vengeful hunter rammed the larger ship and disabled one of the navigational sensor arrays before racing away from the moon.
Several tense minutes later a new alarm sounded. Kh'aan banged his head on the console a few times. Alarms...more alarms, always alarms…stop the alarms! He scanned over the readouts and swore; he had damaged the Masking Field array when he rammed the other ship, and was now leaking discharge that would be easily traceable once Kh'val repaired his vessel. Kh'aan quickly altered course and for the next hour flew a haphazard course around the planets. He hoped to leave a useless trail for his brother to follow while he escaped, somehow. His prayers were answered when his sensors detected a rogue comet passing close by. He piloted into the tail and held a tense course while trying to dodge the comet's debris, which he hoped would mask his ship and the leak.
After a few more hours, Kh'aan found another suitable moon in the next star system, this one around a small blue sun with an unstable gravitational field that was dangerous to larger ships like Kh'vals. He set down and repeated the charge process, locking himself in the medical bay – this time fully armed. He did not want to be incapacitated if his brother returned so instead of getting comfortable, he sat down on the hard floor by the module, bit back the pain from his wounds, and studied the human female for the first time. He noted her slightly darker skin, somewhere in the middle of the spectrum of human colors. The female had short hair on her head and strange piercings in the skin above her eyes – two metal posts over her left eye, one metal ring over her right. His eyes traced down her form, noting a scar across her throat that appeared to have been made by a blade; he made a mental note to ask about it if given the chance. The bulky coverings that she wore hid her body, but he did take note of her hands. They appeared strong and rough from use, and he noted many small marks and scars on them as though she had fought in hand to hand combat many times.
His musings were interrupted by a beep from the computer – the recharge process was complete. The weary hunter left medical and returned to the control room, powering up the ship and initiating the repair diagnostic. More systems were damaged than he thought, and they had completely mangled the cooling system. It would take a while for the auto-repair sequence to make the ship fully operational, and Kh'aan shuffled back to the medical bay to finally tend to his wounds. He glanced down the access stairs to see the robotic arms of the repair drones going to work on the mess he and Kh'val had made; he shook his head and sighed at the damage to his beloved ship.
Kh'aan entered the bay and grabbed a med kit. He hated the blue solvent with a passion, but for all of the technological advancements his species achieved they had never improved their medical techniques, except for the elite modules. Kh'aan bit back a roar as he smeared on the gel. Kh'val's wrist blades had left a nasty gash across his left wrist and he had yet another wound in his left thigh in almost the same place as the injury he had received from the human. His disappointment that he would retain a scar from his brother and not from the female made him laugh. Well, if she awakens defiant perhaps I can entice another battle out of her.
The exhausted hunter, tired of being tired, walked back to the control room and scanned the system readout. Repairs were nowhere near being complete, but Kh'val's ship had not been detected. Kh'aan pondered the situation as he rolled his damaged wrist. The female would live, but how would they survive together? Would she even accept an alliance? Was he really considering one? We are both stuck now. She must see reason or we will kill each other. He sat back in the command chair and closed his eyes while pressing a fist against his thigh wound to stay awake; the pain shot sparks off behind his eyelids. He was about to give in to the fatigue after his obnoxiously long day when yet another alarm sounded. Kh'aan growled and a leaned forward to read the panel – this one came from the medical bay. He rose and shuffled down the corridor, entering the bay to see that the module was draining…
And the human inside was banging on the glass.
