Captain Verakoska stood at the observation window of her medical bay staring in at her crew inside. She was responsible for These men and women, and she'd led them into this. One of her four boots tapped the floor of the hull incessantly. She was a Vajran female in her prime over six feet and covered in rough pale golden skin with dark pigment spots. Her four legs shifted her weight evenly between them in a nervous fashion causing the tapping of her boots as each foot settled. Her three Veridian eyes never looked away from her injured crewmates. They were all sitting in bunks but their various injured states were offset by their relieved smiles.
As she stood there her ship's Physician Dr. Kiritan came out of the room and looked at her. He was a Geodian male that could only be described as a living boulder. His skin was craggy and grey. With a height nearly equal to hers he was taller than most of his species each of his shoulders was topped with a spike of stone a trait shared by all adult Geodian males. His smooth crystal eyes moved to look at her before he spoke in a voice like a small avalanche. "They will all make a full recovery Captain." Verakoska nodded.
"Two crewmembers dead the rest injured." She said shaking her head. "I know I should be relieved and think of the ones that came back alive, but Goros and Ocarina will stay with me." She said shaking her large head. Her physician shook his head.
"This wasn't your fault Captain. These things happen, and bad luck is something every captain has to come to terms with. You did the best you could given the situation. No one can say otherwise."
She turned away from the Physician as she fished a keycard from around her neck. "Thanks Kiritan." She said before walking off. Her four feet carried her steadily away as she made her way to the bowels of her ship; The Starscream as she thought about what had brought her here.
72 hours ago, GST (Galaxy Standard Time)
Captain Verakoska had been chartered for a month-long expedition by a team of Xenobiologists. They had hired her to ferry them to a distant galaxy that had only recently begun to be mapped. It seemed simple enough to take a bunch of big brains out to gather new species and such before bringing them back. Easy as Verufian pie in her opinion. Boy had she been wrong. She had shepherded the six Biologists and collected the first half of her payment. The Biologist who hired her was a female Tsunian by the name of Mixu. Like most of her species, she was beautiful. She possessed a vulpine-like face covered in cream-colored scales that covered her entire body underneath thick luscious purple fur. She had four ears two on each side of her head that were mottled in purple, yellow and a deep orange they were all swiveling in every direction no doubt a sign of her eagerness to disembark. Verakoska looked her over as she approached noticing the bobbing of her thick purple tuft of fur on her chest between her breasts. She possessed an elongated serpentine-like body supported by a pair of long lith legs and a thick tail with a line of fur running down into a tuft at its tip.
"Thank you once again for taking on this expedition Captain," Mixu said as she stood before the Verkoska. It was rare that Verakoska had to look up at someone but Mixu had a sinuous frame that topped her frame by a good foot. She looked into a pair of solid pale blue eyes.
"Of course Professor happy to have you and your team aboard." If she knew then what she knew now Verkoska would have cursed every step the Professor had taken to have wound up before her, but she didn't and well it was a lot of money for what she thought had been an easy job. Mixu stepped aboard her ship with an eager smile followed by the rest of her team. Verakoska had followed behind them just as eager to get this job started so she could get it done all the faster and collect her full payment.
The journey had been uneventful almost boring in Verakoska's opinion. She had set up the biology team in the cargo hold in the lower portion of her ship where they could store their lab equipment and many, many sample containers. She'd hardly heard a peep out of them since, which was fine by her. Their journey would take approximately a week. It would take them about a week to reach the planet in question then two weeks spent there gathering samples of flora and fauna followed by a final week spent on the journey home. The hardest part of this journey would be those days on the planet. This was no simple planet they were visiting.
This planet was unnamed simply designated XP-9 and it was a category nine world. For several thousand years planets had been given a designation of habitability from one to nine. A designation of one meant the world was teeming with life and that any species from any part of any galaxy could settle there with little to no issue. Her home planet was a category five planet. Her planet was harsh but not uninhabitable the biggest contributors to her planet's score were the high gravity of five meters per second and lack of water sources. There were several worlds higher than hers such as Physician Kiritani's world which was given a rating of seven.
XP-9 was on the verge of being uninhabitable only the hardiest of species would survive on it, which is no doubt what drew Professor Mixu to it. There were of course worlds beyond category nine. Worlds that were rated as ten or even eleven. These worlds were utterly devoid of life of any kind, barren rocks floating through the universe. Even on the rare occasions that life did adorn the planet they were creatures ripped straight from your worst nightmares. The Lunarians of planet Lunitik were one such species, or as they were more commonly called The Skin Thieves. They had no culture to speak of and only seemed to think of skinning, killing, and eating. The creature had ten blades on each of its forelimbs which it used to skin its victims alive. Their claws were sharper than any manufactured blades so sharp that it's said they could skin a person so expertly that if they were blindfolded the person wouldn't know they'd been skinned at least not until they felt the Lunarian's teeth in their exposed muscle.
Lunitik was a class ten Deathworld which was the moniker for planets rated ten or above. It was as Verakoska was thinking this that things went wrong. They'd been in hyperspace for two days when alarms started blaring. "What is it?" Verkoska demanded as her bridge personnel began clicking away on their monitors. After several moments she was given her answer.
"It's a Hyper Storm Captain." One of them answered. Verkoska felt her legs clench.
"A Hyper Storm," Verkoska said clicking her flat teeth. "Can we avoid it?" She said as her personnel began to click away once again only for their ship to be buffeted by the solar winds crashing over them. I guess that answers my question. She thought to herself. "Take us out of Hyperspace now, and get those shields shut!" She shouted as she slammed herself into the captain's chair buckling herself in as her ship continued to be rocked about like dice in the hands of a giant. The rest of her crew followed her example bracing themselves against the continued rocking and shaking as she spoke into the announcement system of her ship. "Everyone stop what you're doing and secure yourselves. We're in a Hyperstorm. I repeated stop what you're doing and secure yourselves." As Verakoska issued her orders the shields at the front of the ship were brought down and the display system came alone transmitting the view outside on the Vid screen.
"Get us out of here!" She shouted. A Solar storm was one thing, but a hyperstorm would rip their ship to pieces if they stayed any longer. They were extremely rare so rare it was nearly impossible to predict when one would appear before it began to blast your ship. A massive impact was felt on the side of the ship knocking it nearly on its side before there was a hard lurch forward signaling, that they had left HyperSpace. Verkoska shook her head a little as she spoke. "Status report." She commanded. It took a moment before said report was given.
"All life signs aboard the ship are stable and accounted for Captain, but that last blast of Solar energy did a number on the ship's hull and the unprepared drop from Hyperspace has damaged the Faster than Light Drive. We won't be able to enter Hyperspace again without a thorough diagnostic and some repairs." One of her two engineers answered. Verkoska nodded.
"Well If it's all the same to the rest of you I'm in no rush to get back into Hyperspace anyway. Find the nearest habitable planet we can make repairs on. Where are we anyway?" Verkoska asked as Professor Mixu stepped onto the bridge shaking slightly as she walked toward Verkoska. Taking a moment to steady herself before speaking Mixu asked.
"Captain Verkoska has the storm passed? My team and I are unharmed but several pieces of our equipment were damaged." To Verkoska's ears, Mixu sounded more concerned by the damage to her equipment than was warranted for an inanimate object, but that was a scientist for you she thought.
"You have my apologies professor, but we came under the scope of a Hyperspace Storm. Drastic times and all that you understand." Verkoska said knowing that Mixu was probably going to take the cost of her equipment out of Verkoska's pay, but to her surprise, Mixu ignored her statement and stared at the display at the front of the ship.
"What system is this?" She asked looking at the star map. Verkoska looked toward the screen as well to answer her question only to find that she could not. The Map in front of her revealed a small Solar system consisting of a yellow sun with eight proper planets and a dwarf planet at the very edge of the system. She'd never seen a system like this.
"I...don't know," Verkoska admitted. "Navigation what system are we in?" She asked. The response was not immediate, but right before she was going to ask again her navigator responded.
"Unknown space captain." Verkoska turned to the Navigator with wide eyes.
"Unknown Space are you telling me there are no records of this system, that no one has explored or even documented this region?" She asked almost accusatory and immediately felt remorse for her turn. She didn't know why she sounded so shocked there were innumerable pockets of space in the universe it was just shocking that she had found herself in one.
"Not quite Captain." Her navigator went on to clarify. "It's not that this space hasn't been documented it's that this space is restricted for Classified reasons. No one is supposed to be here." Verkoska felt like she was about to crack. Entering restricted space was a capital offense. She turned to the rest of her bridge.
"You heard the man let's turn around and get out of here. If we hurry it'll be like we were never here." She said only to get hit with more bad news this one literally. Their ship rocked as they were fired upon from behind. "What just hit us?!" Verakoska shouted only for her ship to be rocked again.
"The main thrusters have been destroyed, Captain! We're dead in the water." Her engineer informed her through the Comms system.
"What happened, was there a malfunction?" But Verakoska knew that wasn't the case. They'd been fired upon by some unknown assailant. The best-case scenario was that it was Galactic enforcement who'd fired upon them thinking they were some kinds of criminals entering restricted space for nefarious means, and had fired upon them to prevent them from escaping before they noticed the Enforcers were there. That was a long shot though Galactic protocol required at least an attempt at communication before firing weapons. As if the thought had summoned it a communication alert sounded. "Put it on screen," Verakoska ordered. Shortly after a face filled the display on her Viewport.
The face before her was reptilian with dark green scales interspersed with patches of bright red. The person before her had a sharp beak for a mouth and the sides were serrated. At the back of their head was a large boney frill and protruding from their forehead was a single wicked horn adorned in gold rings. Their eyes were a dark red the color of iron-rich blood. This was without a doubt a Ceratops an extremely hardy and violent race. Verakoska didn't know much about their species other than what could be found with a minimal archive search. Ceratops hailed from the planet Tyrrannos. A harsh category seven world. It was populated by vicious predators which had almost entirely shaped the Ceratops' biology, culture, and mentality.
"Hello there my fresh new product!" The Ceratops said in an overly joyful voice. "It's not often that merchandise comes to me so unexpectedly, but don't worry you're in good hands now. I Captain Saurin assure you that none of you will be harmed as long as you follow the orders I give you and don't cause any trouble for my crew. Now I assume the Vajran there is the captain of this vessel and a female one. Boy, how the times have changed. Anyway, former Vajran Captain I and my crew will be boarding you shortly I suggest you and your people don't put up a fight or else I can't make good on my previous assurances. Do I have your word that you won't kick up a fuss?" He asked in what seemed an almost genuine tone.
"Pirate scum." Verakoska hissed through her toothplates. "Hear me well Captain Saurin I and my crew are on official Galactic Council business. An attack on my vessel will be seen as a capital offense. We have already missed our designated check-in time so there will be a team coming to our last known location. I'd suggest if you value your lives and freedom you leave my ship and my crew unmolested." Of course, every word she'd just said was a pile of Kirin shit, but she needed to do something to give her people time to transmit an SOS beacon.
The Pirate Saurin stared at her for several moments before there was a solid thunk to the side of her ship. If Ceratops were capable of smiling she was sure Saurin was doing so now. "Nice story Vajran it gave my crew enough time to link our umbilical with yours. Now we both know you're not on Council business. I've seen the Galactic Enforcers make their rounds in this space and they don't come any closer than the outer belt. There's no way one of them would be this far inside this region. "Now open the door Vajran don't make this any harder than I-." Verakoska shut off the communications. "Seal the doors, seal everything now!" Verkoska shouted as her four legs began moving to the back of the bridge. She punched in a code at a heavy locker. There was a click before Verakoska wrenched it open and withdrew several blasters taking a laser rifle for herself and passed one to her second in command Willan. Willan was a Gorian from the planet Goros. He was taller than her at seven feet with a pair of massive horns that swept down from the sides of his head framing his face. His skin was a light beige color the same shade as desert earth. She handed another laser rifle to him. He quickly gave it a look over his three-digit fingers sweeping back and forth over it alongside his two bright green eyes before engaging it. The blaster hummed with energy. "Get the crew and the Professors down to the cargo hold and seal yourselves in." She ordered.
She could see the objection in his eyes, but Willan was a good soldier. They had both served alongside one another in the military him staying for another tour after her honorable discharge before coming aboard her ship. "Yes, Captain." He said before ushering the rest of the bridge crew along with Professor Mixu down to the cargo hold. She followed after them before breaking off to the corridor containing the entryway the Pirates would be breaching. She opened the Comms.
"Seras, Ocarina do you hear me?" She asked. There was a single beat before two responses hit her.
"Loud and clear Captain," Seras responded.
"Clear as a bell Captain." Ocarina echoed her agreement. Verakoska nodded.
"You two meet me at the breaching area. We'll set up a kill box me at one end of the corridor and you two at the other end. We'll shred them as they enter. Remember to keep your blasters on low we can't risk punching holes in my ship." Once more there was no hesitation in their responses.
"On our way Captain," Seras responded.
"We've got your back," Ocarina called back. Verakoska ran hard before skidding to a stop placing her feet on the wall and climbing up to the ceiling. The corridor that the Ceratops would breach was long she would be at one end and Seras and Ocarina would be at the other. Her people possessed the ability to walk on nearly any surface at any angle which allowed them to fire from unexpected angles. It was just as she got into position that a large boom echoed down the hall toward her. They'd blown through the door guess they weren't going to be delicate about this. Verakoska aimed down the sight of her gun as the first Ceratopsian stepped onto the ship. She counted several seconds letting more enter her ship before opening fire.
Her first shot took a Ceratopsian in the throat if she was closer she could probably see through the seared hole to the other side. She wasted no time in firing off another shot. She wasn't some great Marksman, but at this range, she could perform a kill shot. Her next shot took a Ceratopsian in the chest and the last was meant to go through the forehead of one, but instead shattered their horn and knocked them on their ass. Verakoska took cover as shots were fired at her in return. "Ocarina, Seras how are you doing?" She asked over the comms.
"Took a hit in the shoulder captain, but I'm still good to fire." Was Ocarina's reply.
"I haven't been hit so far Captain, but on my last count, there were more of those horned fuckers flooding into the ship. "We won't be able to hold much longer at this rate," Seras informed her. Verakoska ground her toothplates before peeking around the corner. She counted at least seven dead Ceratops on the floor of her ship. The rest must have fled back down the Umbilicus. "I'm going to secure the hatch and cut off their umbilicus. Cover me!" Verakoska said and before either Seras or Ocarina could object she began rushing down the hall toward the blown hatch.
As she neared the hatch there were several loud clicks any Captain worth their wait in cosmic dust knew those sounds. "They're detaching!?" She shouted confused right before the Umbilicus was ripped away and alarms started blaring as the pressure of the ship plummeted. Verakoska dug all sixteen of her foot phalanges into the metal floor of her ship as she hunkered down where she could reduce as much drag as possible. Even in this position, it was a struggle to keep from being torn into the vacuum of space. After what felt like hours hanging on for dear life the port finally sealed itself with a hard thud of the emergency shutters.
Verakoska relaxes immediately her muscles shaking. It was at times like this she wished she could sweat. She heard the eight pairs of footsteps signaling that Seras and Ocarina were approaching her. Like Verakoska Seras and Ocarina are Vajran as well. "They just retreated?" Ocarina said nursing her right shoulder. "That doesn't seem right does it?" She continued only for a hard thud to rock their ship and thrust them into pitch blackness.
"EMP shot. Now we can't even communicate." Verakoska said as she stood up. "Let's get back to the bridge." She said leading her two security officers back to the bridge.
Once back at command, Verakoska spoke. "Let me guess no power anywhere?" She asked as one of the Engineers stood before her.
"That's correct ma'am." Verakoska nodded.
"Were we able to get a distress signal out before the power was cut?" Her communications operative nodded.
"Yes, Captain." It was just then that the ship lurched once more all of them jostled toward the front of the ship as it was dragged backward.
"Though it looks like it won't do us much good now." Her communications operative said. "The bastards are probably taking us back to their base wherever the hell that is." Verkoska nodded looking at what was once her viewport, but now could only see the back of her blastshields.
"The ship is locked down for the moment it will take time for them to get in." She said. "For now we take stock of all we have especially weapons or anything that could be used offensively. While that's being done we'll go around to every possible entryway and barricade it." Seras shook her head.
"I see the appeal of being as much of a pain in the ass as possible Captain, but in all honesty, once they take us to their base we're pretty much just a big vacuum-sealed pack of goodies. It doesn't matter how long it takes them to get in just that they will." Verakoska looked at Seras. The younger Vajran was right of course. Any opposition they offered would only prolong the inevitable, but dammit time was time and she wanted every second of it spent as a free woman.
"If you've got time to despair you've got energy to get to work. Those are my orders." She said not loudly, but firmly. Instantly Seras saluted the traditional Vajran salute fists to knees. Seras and Ocarina took the bridge crew to start work on that immediately. She was now alone on the bridge. She sighed before going to the Cargo hold. She stood before the door and then gave two quick knocks followed by four steady knocks with a two-second pause between each. After a moment her knock was repeated in reverse.
"What's the status captain?" Willan said through the door. With the power shut off, they'd have to pry the doors open or start cutting through them with torches. With what she had planned it was best to leave as many doors intact as possible.
"Is anyone at the door with you Willan?" She asked. She waited several moments hearing the muffled sound of several footsteps retreating.
"Not anymore." Was his response. "Is it that bad Captain?" Willan asked. She loved that about the man his voice didn't quaver with fear although she was sure he was more than mildly anxious about their situation. It was just a question simple as that his voice was as steady as ever.
"It's not great Willan. We have no power we're being taken further and further from where our distress beacon was sent off, and we've got a crew of nine, and only a third of that is trained in combat, plus an additional six noncombatants. Against a group of pirates and most likely slavers. I'd say it's a long way from good. I have the rest of the crew barricading the entrances to the ship as best I can, but that's only a stopgap. You and I both know what's coming next. Most of the crew will be taken and sold off as slaves, while any female will be lucky to be just a slave and not kept by those bastards and used in ways that I don't want to imagine. If I could I'd overload the engines and blow us to space dust, but I can't even do that."
Willan listened quietly to her rant and then took several more moments before speaking. She didn't know if he was just waiting to see if she had more to say or was processing her words.
"I'm going to fight captain. I won't be made a slave and if I have to die, I'd rather do so on my feet. I won't counsel you to do the same, after all, we all need to draw our lines in the sand. I will fight and most likely die that is my choice." He said as Verakoska nodded.
"Try to keep the Professor and her group safe make sure they don't fight it's less likely they'll die if they don't resist." She said a lump in her throat as she spoke her next words. "May The Great Horned one bless your horns and welcome you to his flock as an honored member." She said before walking away from the door.
Verakoska oversaw the barricades which took hardly any time to make, it seemed to take them even less time to feel the thud of solid ground beneath their ship. It seemed they had made it to the Pirates base. "Everyone into positions." She urged her two Security officers. She was once again at the airlock on the portside the pirates had blown open while Seras was at the starboard entryway. Ocarina was at the door leading from the storage bay where Willan and the Professors were. There was a series of crackling from the speaker near the airlock she was guarding.
"Hello Vajran captain it is I Captain Saurin. I know you or one of your crack-shot officers is near enough to hear this. You killed several of my men in there you know. Now I don't take that personally honestly you just made the rest of my crews cut bigger, so thanks for that which leaves us here. I allowed you to make this easy instead you killed my men which again thanks for that, but now I have to expend time and effort to open up your ship and pull you out of it. I had to use an EMP shot and those don't come cheap. You're costing me a lot of credits, Captain. Now I know you probably have some traps or barricades or a bunch of other inconvenient things for my men to stumble upon, but I'll let you know now. The only thing you're doing is running up my bill!"
Saurin seemed genuinely angry the thin veil of geniality was gone. "You cost me credits you're going to pay for it in blood Vajran, so this is your last chance. When my men get in there and they will get in there you will lay down your weapons and surrender, or my men will blast anyone they see because at this point you're costing me more than I'll get for one old Vajran, and a Goros and whatever else passes for the crew of a female captain! He hissed. "Do not mistake my threats for bluff Vajran." The speaker went dead after that.
Verkoska bit her tongue in frustration before rushing to the door speaker. "Saurin!" She shouted into it hating herself for what she was about to do. If it had simply been her and her crew she'd have fought to the end, but Professor Mixu and her team were not under her command and she couldn't risk their lives for her and her crew's pride. There was a moment where she feared he had gone or destroyed the outside wiring to prevent further communication but the speaker flared to life with his voice once again.
"Yes, Vajran Captain?" His voice practically oozed into her ears like vile slime. She swallowed hard before speaking.
"Saurin if you come in through this door and this door only I will tell my crew to stand down as long as you do not harm any of them." She said. "That is my condition otherwise me and my crew will make sure to bleed every credit we can out of you and make sure you only get pocket change in return!" She hissed. She may be surrendering, but Gods above she would not do it meekly. There was another pause before Saurin spoke.
"Very well Captain I'm glad you see sense. My men and I will come through this door and we better see every blaster laid in front of it and your crew with their appendages up." He cooed to her as if he were offering her a deal on some extravagant item.
"Deal is struck." She said before walking away from the speaker. It was now time to do the second-highest thing in her life.
"YOU DID WHAT!?" Ocarina shouted at the top of her lungs almost lunging for Verakoska. "You sold our lives to that scum!" She ranted as Seras held her back.
"I did what I had to do to keep those scientists alive!" Verakoska said. "If it was just us on this ship I'd fight tooth and nail and take as many of the bastards with us, but that's not what Mixu and her people signed up for." Ocarina threw off Seras as she stood inches from Verakoska.
"So you trade our lives for theirs, no, of course, not they're not leaving this place unless they have slave collars on their necks. You've sold us all into slavery rather than fight and have them die. Which is better?" She growled as Seras put a hand on her shoulder.
"This was going to happen either way Ocarina. The moment our ship crossed the threshold of this place our lives as free people were over. We were either going to die person by person and the rest be sold as slaves or all of us were going to be sold. Those are the only two options left to us. Maybe down the line, we'll have more, but right now those are it." Ocarina's eyes swelled with orange tears as she leaned against the wall. She knew all that, but dammit she'd thought maybe something would happen if they waited long enough. But this wasn't a child's story or some Vid show this was real life and in real life, you just had to deal.
"Sorry, Captain I lost my head," Ocarina said wiping the orange tears from her eyes. She would not let the bastards see her cry. Verakoska clapped Ocarina on the shoulder and shook her head.
"My last order as Captain is to forgive you." She said as she led her crew to the airlock. Sparks were being thrown as the final inch of metal was cut away. Verakoska set all their blasters in front of the soon-to-be-opened hatch. She took a final breath as the hatch fell outward and shielded her eyes from the blinding light that showed in.