Part 20

Aliens POV


I was so bored, my examinations were complete, she was the descendant of the one who had destroyed our world, albeit unintentionally and we would probably have done so anyway for we could no longer live there, but still, he had committed genocide by doing so, and someone had to pay. We had discovered his body floating in space in a shroud of some sort; he had been dead for almost a decade, now, almost 40 years after the act, we would finally have justice; or so it seemed. Through our sources we learned of his offspring, a son we could not locate, and a daughter, first officer of the high guard flagship, now anyway, she had been a freighter pilot, so many freighter pilots had lay where she now did while I attempted to compare her DNA with the sample we had, so many, I was glad we had finally found her, this would soon be over; although, the ending would not be happy.

I walked over to the accused, the descendant on Ignaishious Valentine, her trial would definitely find her guilty, the sentence would be death, the method would be nova injection, a method so painful and slow it would make her plead for mercy. I cringed just thinking about it, the injection of liquefied voltarium into the bloodstream, it would send her temperature soaring, her heart would explode followed by every other organ until the brain, then, her body would melt away to nothing, it really was quite unpleasant.

I notice her stirring and I walk over, I notice she is crying.
"Why are you crying?"
She seems to take offence to that.
"Why am I crying? Maybe because I don't enjoy being cut up and having unknown procedures done to me. Maybe because I don't know why I'm here. I've never seen your kind before in my life. I've never done anything to you so why are you out to hurt me? I don't understand. I miss my friends and my home. I just want to get the hell out of here. I'm crying because you killed a friend of mine who was only trying to save me. I just want out"

I spy a loaded hypo and walk away to get it. I turn back to her ready to inject her but just as I do, the General comes in.
"I have sent for the body of the other one it is being brought to you as we speak, she is of a race we have never seen before, find out everything you can about her."
"May I sedate her?" I point to my patient. "I believe the trauma of seeing her friend may be too much for her, the trial would go much better if she were actually awake during it."
"Very well. Learn as much as you can of this golden woman, but learn quickly, the trial shall begin soon."
I walk back over to her and inject her. She struggled, thrashing about, making it difficult to insert the injector, but once it was in, she fell asleep instantly.
"It may not be much, but this will ease your suffering. I truly am sorry."
*****************
While I waited for the guards to deliver the corpse of her companion I studied the blonde woman some more, she really was as tough as she acted, I could see it on her face, she had seen more than her fair share of death and pain, I really did feel sorry for her.

That's when it happened. The alert sirens began blaring.
"INTRUDER ALERT, INTRUDER ALERT. All personnel be on the look out for the Gold skinned woman, she has killed General Kell'vak, she is to be considered armed and dangerous, be cautious."

At that moment I knew it would have been best to have been anywhere else, but I just could not leave, I was responsible for my patient, I was responsible for all the pain I had caused her, I was responsible for the pain I had caused them all, I had finally found my sweet release; death. So I waited for her companion.

I did not have to wait long, I heard the gunfire outside in the corridor, all two seconds of it. When the door opened to admit the golden warrior before me I saw the path of destruction she had left behind her, literally dozens of bodies littered the hallway she had come down and she held no weapons in her hands other than a pair of elbow spikes, I cringed at the sight of them, and she had not a scratch on her, I prayed she would kill me quickly. It was not to happen, she just stood there staring at me, the fury in her eyes more terrifying than anything I had ever seen, a new smell suddenly entered the room.
'Perfect. Just perfect.' I thought, 'Of all the danger I've ever been in, it's a woman who makes me shit myself.'

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I looked around the now darkened command deck of the Andromeda Ascendant - Pride of the High Guard fleet indeed, I had seen more impressive Garbage Scows, but everything was going perfectly.

"That's it Dylan, she's gone." Harper muttered as he made his way towards the nearest console. "Holy shit, we forgot to make a backup!"

Everything and everyone froze. "Ok, not as funny as I thought."

The Captain scowled at him, but the Nietzschean looked as if he was going to tear the little human limb from limb, 'These two would be great in the arena's' I thought.

The rest of the crew stepped up to consoles and assumed manual control over the ships systems as I stood in wait, waiting for my opportunity, my chance to strike.

"You go in now, fix, follow." I was sick of talking like this, this was a reason I had learned common in the first place, but now, being forced to speak as if I was a child, I was a Major in the Gorgonyte Military for crying out loud, this was beneath me.

I watched as the one called Harper sat down and jacked in to the now dead VR MATRIX.

************
A few silent minutes later he appeared on the main screen.
"Ok Dylan, I'm in." He looked to be in some pain. "This is a lot more taxing than I thought it would be but I've got control of sensors, I can use a lot of the smaller peripheral programs too…but not at the same time, sensors are just too much to try and use anything else, you want me use something else I'll have to…I'll have to switch…switch sensors off."
"Harper, are you alright?"
"I'll be fine Tyr, just eh, when we get outta this, I want a month on Infinity Atoll, no questions asked."
"Deal, I think we could all do with some time off, can you find that ship?" Dylan's hope was showing through now that Harper was ok; he was one step closer to getting Beka back.
"Yeah, I've got the trail, sending it…sending it to the helm now." Dylan stepped up and took the helm. He activated the Slipstream Drive and flowed the ships trail.

***********
Things were going much better than I thought; I would soon get my chance.

The Andromeda exited Slipstream into the Tellemyte system.
"Harper, can you launch sensor drones?"
"I…I don't think so, the extra feed would be a little too much. Dylan, they might not even be in the system."
"Yeah I know. Alright, passive systems only, see what you can find, but try not be discovered."
"That not help. Our ships, no detect, passive useless." Ok, so it was a lie, but they didn't know that.

I hoped that they would believe me; after all, they had bought everything else, hook, line and sinker. I was not disappointed.
"Explain."
"Our ships, parts alive, skin, interfere with sensors." It was all true in some way; but it was also false, this innocent child act really was a good idea, I'd have to make sure I told the General when I got back.

Unfortunately, their Captain Hunt was not quite as foolish as I had first hoped, he rejected my recommendation and continued with passive sensors, no matter, our ship would have detected the slipstream event by now, the final stage of this part of the plan would soon come to a close.

Soon we would rid ourselves of this commonwealth menace and take their ship as our own, the things we could do with a ship like this, why it was simply unimaginable.

I had not realised it, but they had been talking while I had been dreaming.
"Are you sure its another signature?"
"Abso–friggin-lutely, bearing 090 by –67 at 7 light minutes out, looks like its running."
"Where would it go?" He asked me expectantly.
I simply shrugged; I think my excitement was so high right now that had I actually answered, I would have screamed in glee.
"Alright Tyr, ready a full spread of missiles, but disable them ONLY, is that clear?"
He grunted and acknowledgment. I found it rather funny how Captain Hunt could allow someone so treacherous and scheming and untrustworthy to roam his decks as a member of his crew, then again, he had allowed me to live.
"Does that ship have even a slight weakness we can use to our advantage?" He actually thought I was going to help, like I was really going to tell him.
'Their primary sensor grid is exposed to space, a single direct hit will disable it, their engines are internal, only the exhaust ports are accessible, but you can disable their slipstream drive, the regulator runs along the outer hull.' Or at least that's what I was thinking, what I said was very different.
"Sensors exposed, ventral hull. Engines hidden. Slipstream regulators, easy hit, disable ship good."

I watched as he looked over at the Nietzschean, he nodded his agreement and targeted the two sensor pallets and the regulator, in actuality redundant systems. Even at their current speed, we would not catch up to the fleeing ship before they entered slipstream anyway, after that, it came down to who was the better pilot; that was what worried me.

I was becoming very tense, something which did not go unnoticed by the Captain and the Nietzschean, both were eyeing me suspiciously as I stood in the corner out of the way, we were only a few seconds behind the ship we were chasing, not far enough, it would be close.
We jumped back into normal space only to be surrounded by an armada of ships, cruisers, corvettes, destroyers, transports, everything, our entire fleet was assembled for this, we wanted the Andromeda, I want the Andromeda as my flagship, as the new General and commander of the Fleet, I would make sure of it.

I lost my balance as the first missiles impacted the hull and was thrown to the ground, as I regained my composure and stood I failed to notice the charged Gauss Gun pointed at my head as I spoke.
"I am Major Rak'han of the Gorgonyte Military, you have two choices, stay and be killed, or leave your ship and forget about us and live. What will it be?"
"I prefer choice number three, if I may Captain."
"And what would that be Tyr?"
"That we kill it, and kill all of them, and that we take Beka back by force, and get rid of this scum, I believe the universe would be eternally grateful if we did." My eyes went wide with fear at this statement, all four of them, I had not expected that.

Suddenly Harper makes his presence known, the distraction is enough for me to make a move towards a conduit, I hear the shots impact on the bulkhead above me, but I am safe now.
"Guys, I just got a coded comm. From Trance, she and Beka are still alive, well, she was killed but Beka's still alive, I'm trying to triangulate but, well, I suck at math, its goinna take some time."
"Well, that's good, at least we know they're out there, the question is, where. What I would do for a Battle Group right about now. Tyr, defensive fire only, take out any missiles they fire, I'll take offensive, Harper, take the helm, duck and weave. Lets bring it."
"What about the sensors?" Tyr was concerned, for once.
"Different circuit, Targeting Sensors are liked to fire control." Rommie said as she strode into command, her 'wound' patched up by one of the techs on Harper's engineering squad.
"Harper, get out of my matrix, its payback time." He happily obliged and Rommie immediately took control of her ship self.