3,489 light-years from Earth
June 9th, 2176 A.D.
A low growl of pleasure issued from the sub-chieftain's throat as the ship exited behind the small planetoid within the icy ring surrounding the system and went lifeless. A few moments later an underling hissed quietly to let him know they were now death-feigning, and he issued a single, guttural click in praise.
The underling’s face scales turned dark blue from the approval, and he bowed obsequiously before returning his full attention back to his tasks.
The sub-chieftain's nose twitched as he smelled a new scent in the air, and his forked tongue instinctively flicked out to taste it, vibrating rapidly before retracting beyond the second row of fangs lining his jaws.
The forked tip rubbed along the roof of the mouth, the small nodules lining the soft palate coated by the oily residue of the new pheromones the tongue had tasted. It was pleasure/happiness pheromones released by the underling he had praised, and he felt his own hormones responding to the presence of the chemical signals.
Any other sub-chieftain would have severely punished or killed an underling for such a weakness, but not him. He noticed improved efficiency and loyalty from his underlings many cycles ago when he did not abuse them, as was his right as Sub-Chieftain, and he learned how to judiciously praise them to encourage their loyalty-bonding to him.
Not too much, not too little. Just enough at the right times was all it took to keep the peace and prevent his own assassination by underlings that sought his position. Ever since he had learned how to appropriately manipulate them four cycles ago, there had not been a single attempt by an underling to liquidate him and seize his position and harem.
The same underling he had just praised softly hooted before activating the main viewer and putting up the results of their tastings from the passive systems lining their hull. Balrikan ideograms and glyphs appeared, as well as a map of the system from a Sslha-Hawk perspective.
For 2.7 lunar phases, they had been fruitlessly hunting for a scent trail to the main nesting grounds of the foul insects after cleansing their polluting presence from the star cluster some 3,000 light cycles distant.
He zeroed in on one of the fleeing insect cruisers and hounded it after they had split up, hoping it would lead them to the main nesting grounds. System after system it led them, none of them showing any signs of the filth they were looking for.
To his everlasting and secret shame, he finally realized they were leading him away from what they were hunting for, and he finally ordered for the insect ship to be disabled and penetrated.
He allowed his underlings to claim their spoils and meat, though he himself found the taste of the abominations to be vile and not worth the trouble of digging out the sharp pieces of their hard skins from between his fangs.
Even now, there was a tiny shard he still couldn’t get out, and the surrounding gum was getting inflamed from it. He could feel his tooth becoming sensitive, and he will have to remove it soon before it becomes infected and prevents him from enjoying his meat from the pain.
The disgusting creatures also had no worthy trophies that would induce estrus from the females of the harem, not even a spinal column or skull to proudly display in their nests for other holy warriors to see and appreciate.
Even torturing them was devoid of pleasure as they made no noises to indicate the level of their suffering in relation to the varied instruments being used to harm them. All they would do is twitch their legs and stare with their lifeless, unblinking black eyes.
After they killed them all and took what pitiful spoils were available, he had the ship return to the initial location where the insect ships had first split up and restarted from there, hunting for any new scents.
It was maddening, as the insects did not have any scents that could be tasted on the electromagnetic spectrum as most other filth did. Most prey were easily located by the scents they released from their planets, and their tasters could track the origin points with little effort.
Even species that lacked the wisdom to reach the heavens gave off scents, and those were his favorite type of prey, as they were much easier to subdue. Hunting the old way by going to every sun and tasting every planet would take too long, and he began to doubt the success of their efforts.
One of the other lowly underlings had shown a rare initiative and begged for an audience with him, which he granted after suppressing his initial desire to kill the low-caste orphan for such impudence.
The underling's idea greatly intrigued him, and he cut himself on the chest as a reminder of his arrogance after almost killing the impudent one out of hand and depriving them of the chance to find the very thing they were hunting for.
The underling was mechanically skilled and had constructed a device that could detect nearby oscillations of the semi-fluidic properties of strange space. The sub-chieftain found the concepts of the underling difficult to comprehend, but he did understand one thing: the orphan had made something that only the wise ones were supposed to have the wisdom to make.
He decided to listen to the underling, and they entered strange space with the device attached to the hull. After many solar hours of nothing, he began to doubt his decision and became angry with the underling for tricking him into a foolish effort that set them back even further.
He ordered them to leave strange space and pulled out his blade to kill the trickster when another underling hissed with glee, halting his advance towards the cowering orphan. The device was tasting many faint oscillations, and they were put up on the viewer at his command.
There were dozens of them, all coming from an area they had yet to reach in their hunting, and he ordered them to head towards it while remaining in strange space. Sometime later, they reached the main source of the oscillations, easy to triangulate because there were so many of them.
They left strange space and waited outside the boundary of the system, death-feigning as they tasted with their passive systems. Soon, they tasted the light of the many insect ships that had been here and entered into strange space many solar hours ago.
The ships were no longer there, but that did not matter. What mattered was the light they tasted had confirmed that they had found what they were hunting for, and he had them enter strange space again.
They went in the same direction as the insects and hunted the scent trails they had left in strange space as the device continued to taste the oscillations. As they hunted along the trail, they began to taste many more oscillations from many different directions that all pointed to a nearby binary system.
Now, they were death-feigning in one of the two systems, and he waited impatiently for them to taste the light as it traveled to their location. They did not have to wait long, and he shrieked with unbridled joy as they tasted the light of many insect ships currently congregating in the system.
The others joined in, and he allowed them to revel in the success of their hunt. Looking around as the ecstatic underlings began to mock fight with each other, he spotted the subdued orphan off in the corner by himself, furtively watching the others but not partaking.
The orphan saw him looking and averted his gaze before cowering submissively as his face scales turned a pale yellow. The sub-chieftain ignored the disgust he felt at the sight and leapt off his nesting bench, heading directly for the reason for their successful hunt.
The other underlings parted before him and stopped mock fighting as the chamber fell silent, all of them thinking he was going to kill the underling. The orphan went to his knees and bared his throat in proper submission when the sub-chieftain stopped in front of him, his pale-yellow face scales turning almost white from fear.
He could smell and taste the stink of fear emanating from the terrified underling, and he felt a wave of pleasure inside of him as his hormones responded positively to the confirmation of his supremacy over the orphan.
He stared at the bare throat, imagining the salty warmth of the blood that would enter his mouth if he tore it open, as was his right. Instead, he crouched down and used his two primary arms to lift the orphan to his feet, feeling the violent trembling of the malnourished underling in his clawed hands.
“You are no longer an orphan of the low-caste clan. Your name is no longer yours, for you are dead and do not exist. You are now part of mine, and I shall mark you as one of the Shr’Kssk Clan. You will take your new name I gift to you: Kri’lisshka, the wise hunter. Do you accept this great honor I bestow upon you?”
The almost white face scales turned dark blue, and Kri’lisshka fell to his knees and bowed his head on the ground before answering. “I accept the great honor you do me, Sub-Chieftain. I will shed my blood to protect you and defend the honor of the clan I am now part of.”
Hearing the proper words having been spoken by the underling, he snatched his blade from his chest harness. Leaning down and grasping the underling's head with a clawed hand, he marked him with the glyph of the Shr’Kssk Clan above his eyes for all to see.
He felt a flash of respect as the underling did not squirm or flinch in the slightest from the pain of the blade digging into his skin. He is worthy of this honor after all. How many others are such as this one, and none know it because of their status? He thought to himself as he finished and inspected his bladework to ensure it was done correctly.
Pleased with the results, he spoke to the newest addition to the clan as he fingered the painful gash he had made on his chest before, reminding himself of how close he came to succumbing to his arrogance.
“Rise, Kri’lisshka. You will go to my nest and pick out a female from my harem. Only the first and second of my favorites are not yours to claim. You will then go to the butcher and claim your fresh meat reward from my personal stock.
Any filth you wish to taste is yours. I recommend you try the hairless ape of the garden world from Sector Issh’lak; they have been fattened up, and their flesh is tender and sweet. If you take special care to stop the bleeding, you can eat off the arms and legs first and enjoy their pain sounds; the vocalizations they make are unique.
Give some to the female you choose to make her go into heat, and eat the rest to fatten yourself up. You will now receive a tenth of my portion of meat as your daily ration. This I gift you for your part in the success of the hunt, as is my right. Go and claim your prize.”
Kri’lisshka rose up, his black eyes wide with gratitude and loyalty before he bowed submissively again and uttered his thanks. When he lifted his face, the scales were a dark crimson red, and the sub-chieftain clicked with laughter at the sight of the young one entering his first rut.
A low-caste orphan such as he would never have been able to mate with a female, but now he will thanks to the Sub-Chieftain elevating him and bringing him into the vaunted Shr’Kssk Clan.
He hissed and flicked his head, dismissing Kri’lisshka. The newest member of the clan bowed one more time and then headed out of the chamber to claim his prize. All the other underlings could now see his crimson rutting colors, and they began to hoot and shriek, offering crude and unsolicited mating advice to their new clan kin as he strutted out to claim his first female.
Returning to his nest bench, the sub-chieftain settled into the soft bedding and continued to watch his underlings celebrate the success of the hunt. He will allow them to experience this rare joy for a little longer, and then he will command them to enter strange space.
They will journey back to the now cleansed star cluster where the others were waiting, and he will inform the Chief Cleric of the success of their hunt. They have found the main nesting grounds of the insect empire, and he felt his own face scales flushing as he thought of the many fresh and unspoiled females he would be gifted by the Chief Cleric as a reward.
Queen World of the Insectoid Empire
Brood Chamber of the Hive Mother
Fourth Cycle, 384.94 years, Insectoid solar calendar
June 9th, 2176 A.D.
Luna entered the brood chamber, the sight of Bandit-Friend lifting her essence and making her weariness depart as she skittered over to him and held up two claws in salutations to him.
He returned it, and she began to make claw signs when she realized the grave error she had just made. In her happiness, she had not shown the proper respect to the Hive Mother, who had commanded her to come.
She turned to face the Hive Mother and bowed deeply, fear and anxiety coursing through her as she sent panicked thoughts begging for pardon.
You, who serve another Hive Mother, did the thing I needed most without waiting for me to ask such of you. If not for you and your machine animals, the Nexus would have fallen, and I think Bandit-Friend and I would have been culled. You have my eternal thanks and gratitude, Luna.>
We obey because we want to live, and the threat of being culled weighs down heavily on our essence, a burden we carry silently within us for our entire time in the world of the living. From the time we first emerge from our pupa to the time when we enter our eternal rest, the threat is there, and the fear is part of our essence and our thoughts, always.
My Hive mother showed me something different: love. She gave me this gift without asking for anything in return, and because of that, I obey her in all things, not because I must, but because I want to. I want to serve her, I want to protect her, and I want to give my life to save hers if I need to; I do all this happily because I do it out of love, not fear.>
Luna turned and skittered back to Bandit-Friend, who lifted the face covering and grimaced at her with happiness before they began to share thoughts. He told her about what had been happening with the battle in space and how the animals had defeated the rebel ships and captured the traitor queen.
She felt relief when he told her that none of the animal ships had been destroyed, though many were heavily damaged. They had formed their own swarm and were now nearing the Queen World to enter orbit, being followed by many loyal ships that would now protect them as they made what repairs they could.
Bandit-Friend then activated his personal viewer to show her the strange animal vessel that had come, and she could scarcely believe a single ship could harbor such raw power for destruction as what she was seeing being projected from his thorax.
She watched in shock as it destroyed an entire swarm and the remnants of another without suffering any damage. When she saw the animal ship get hit by the traitor cruiser, she was sure it had been destroyed from the impact and the incredibly powerful explosion of the core breach.
The ship was still there after the tremendous energy of the breach finally dissipated, and she felt the old fear of the animals she thought had gone away returning as she found herself wondering how many ships such ships the animals had built.
With ships like this, they would be unstoppable, and she hoped the animals would never forget that they were friends and allies and use such ships against them in the future.
After informing Bandit-Friend of the Hive mother’s wish for her to return to the Hive, she lifted two claws in salutation once more before departing the brood chamber and heading back to the Nexus.
Once there, she commanded the machine animals to connect to Bandit-Friend and accept only his orders from now on before sharing thoughts with the two queens and informing them of her departure.
She could sense their reluctance for her to depart, and she was surprised by the respect and appreciation they clearly had for her in their thoughts. As she headed to the tunnel that would take her outside the Hive and back to the lander that brought them down to the surface, she found herself being hopeful for the future of the empire.
The way of the Hives seemed to be slowly changing, and for the better. Now all they needed to do was survive the coming of the Persecutors with their new animal friends fighting at their side. If they defeated them, then the empire would go into a future of peace and prosperity even greater than the one they once knew, and this time they would not be going alone.
Their animal friends would go with them, and they would make a new future together. It will take a long time for them to earn pardon for all they have done to the animals. The Hives have a long memory and will never forget what they had done, and they will never stop trying to prove they have changed until the animals truly pardon them.
This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
She tried to imagine such a possible future, and in her mind's eye, she envisioned animal sky Hives reaching for the clouds like Bandit-Friend had shown her they do, and beneath them, their Hives mirrored them but underground, the tendrils of the Hives reaching for the warmth of the core.
Many different animals scurried among the bases of the Sky Hives, as did many command and worker drones, all working and living together peacefully in a way that touched her essence deeply and made it weep with joy. It was beautiful, and it felt right to her.
She found herself hoping such a place would become real, and she hoped it came before she left the world of the living. If she could see this before her end, she would be happy and content, and she would not feel fear when the time to enter her eternal rest came.
Privateer ???? ?????? - The Star Marauder
Transiting null space, 3,578 light years from Earth
June 10th, 2176 A.D.
Hunching over and gripping his pounding head in his hands, Khan felt the bloodlust surging through his being and threatening to overwhelm him again as he stared at the deck plating, his vision tinted crimson by pure rage.
“Jameson, I don’t care where we are; flash us out right now, or I WILL FUCKING SLAUGHTER YOU LIKE I DID TO CHIN! FLASH US OUT NOW!” Khan screamed, still staring down at the deck plating as he felt his knife hand moving towards the dirk on his left hip.
Jameson spun around and bared his teeth as he tried to leap from his chair and kill the man who dared threaten him like he was a bitch. His chair harness was deployed, preventing him from acting on his impulsive and uncontrollable rage.
His forehead veins bulged out as he strained against the harness and struggled to deactivate the center buckle, his fury working against him as his hands failed to properly unlatch it.
There was a whine, followed by an orb of energy that shot across the bridge and slammed into Jameson, enveloping him with tendrils of energy that made him arch his back and scream incoherently before he was stunned into a drooling stupor.
He leaned forward against his harness, his head hanging limply as a long string of thick drool stretched from his mouth and hit the deck in a wet splat.
Khan’s head snapped up at the sound of the stunner being fired, and he became enraged at the sight of Jameson’s unconscious body before leaping out of his chair and looking for the dead man who dared to fire a weapon on his bridge.
He turned around and saw the mutinous asshole standing behind him with the stunner now pointed directly at his face from six meters away. It was Sheila, and a feral snarl erupted from his mouth as his hand yanked the dirk from its scabbard.
He saw the traitorous bitch thumbing the power button to increase the stun charge as she began to yell at him. “Don’t fucking do it, Captain! I will stun your ass, and both you and Jameson can drool together like a couple of morons. Put the knife on the deck and sit your ass back down!”
He stared at her, wanting nothing more than to make her pay for her defiance. He felt an uncontrollable lust flooding his crotch area, and he envisioned disarming her and taking her right there on the deck, relishing the whimpering cries he imagined her making as he dominated her.
A part of him recoiled at the evilness of his thoughts, and it was enough to make him freeze in place as his moral center tried to reassert itself. It only lasted for a couple of seconds before his uncontrollable rage and lust returned, and he drew his arm back in a flash and threw the blade at her, aiming for her right shoulder to disable the arm holding the stunner.
His anger threw his aim off, and the dirk buried itself to the right of her shoulder joint, right under her collarbone. She cried out in pain and fell back against the bank of panels behind her, her mouth wide open in shock at what had just happened.
He leapt forward, his vision tunneling into a red haze as an evil smile formed on his face. He was almost upon her when there was a bright flash of light, followed by the worst pain he had ever felt in his life lighting every nerve cluster on fire.
He fell face forward, feeling his nose and teeth breaking on the edge of a panel as he smashed his face into it before everything went black.
* * *
Sheila stared at the captain, his mouth and nose bleeding profusely as she heard the wet gurgling sounds of his blood pooling in his airways. Pushing herself off the panel she was leaning on, she gasped from the excruciating pain radiating out from where the knife was sticking out of her.
“You fucking asshole!” She screamed at him, her left hand trembling slightly from the adrenaline and the awkward weight of the stunner as she kept it pointed at his torso. He sounded like he was starting to choke on his own blood, and she carefully approached him, her left hand shaking harder as it struggled to bear a weight it was not used to.
She stopped just out of his arm’s reach and fumbled with the stunner and her almost useless right hand, trying not to move her arm too much as she shifted the lever selector to the taser setting.
The stunner mode light along the barrel switched from yellow to blue, and she pointed it at him again and depressed the trigger after aiming it below his chest armor to ensure skin contact.
The two probes shot out and pierced through his skinsuit, wirelessly connected to the stunner and primed to discharge. If he so much as made a noise, she would stun him again through the probes.
She reached out with her foot and nudged him with it before quickly stepping back. There was no response, and she leaned down and grabbed him by his belt on his left side and pulled on him to flip him off his back and onto his stomach.
Ignoring the pain, she finally got him onto his stomach and got out of range of his arms and legs. Looking around, she spotted what she was looking for and headed towards it, keeping an eye on the captain as she walked to the wall and opened the white and red medkit panel.
Placing the stunner on the ground, she quickly yanked out the triage pack and turned to face the captain and Jameson to keep an eye on them as she struggled to pull out what she needed.
It was incredibly frustrating to do with just her left hand and her teeth, but she finally got all the things she was looking for, and she put the clotting injector into her mouth, biting down on it with her teeth to hold it before grabbing the hilt with her left hand.
Taking quick, sharp breaths, she psyched herself up for what she was about to do and then yanked the blade out before she allowed her fear of the pain to prevent her from doing it.
A primal groan of pain escaped from her lips as her breath was taken from her, and she stared at the blood bubbling out of the wound for what seemed like an eternity as she held the crimson-coated dirk in her left hand.
Her training took over, having been hammered into her by the many years in the military, and she didn’t even remember dropping the blade and stabbing the clotting agent into the wound channel. The burning pain brought her back into the moment, and she screamed in agony as the clotting agent cauterized the wound and sealed off the ruptured blood vessels.
The vial dropped out of her fingers, and she fumbled for the medbot injection and pressed it right under the jagged hole that was no longer bleeding. There was immediate relief as the coolness spread into the wound and the painkillers took effect.
The vial joined the other on the floor, clattering loudly in the silent bridge as she grasped the last injector and pressed it against her neck, the stim making all her mental fogginess and exhaustion dissipate almost immediately.
She let that fall from her fingers as well and sat down heavily on the auxiliary sensor panel as she waited for everything to take effect. Her eyes flicked between the two stunned men, and after counting out a hundred and eighty seconds in her head, she carefully tried to use her right arm.
It responded to her, moving just as she wanted it to as she ignored the dull throbbing ache and thought about her next move. She was the last conscious crew member on the bridge, and she needed to make a decision and deal with the consequences later.
Her last neuro injection was going to wear off soon, and she would succumb to the same madness afflicting the rest of the crew if she did not flash the ship out. They would die in null space, the worst possible death imaginable to those who lived among the stars, and she wasn’t going to go out like that.
Pushing herself off the panel, she quickly strode over to Jameson’s station and looked at the star map being displayed on one of the screens. The Star was way off course after the null drive capacitor navigational array was sabotaged, and they were currently located in the void between the galactic arms.
Before she could talk herself out of it, she slammed her hand down on the emergency flashout button and grabbed onto the panel for dear life as the capacitors whined with an unusual sound before she was blinded by the bright flash of the transition into normal space.
She barely managed to hold on as the abrupt transition bucked the ship and alarms went off, piercing her ears with the horribly strident chiming. The shaking subsided, and the bridge AI came online and began to loudly list the damage sustained by the emergency flashout without her asking it to.
Not wanting to hear all that right now, she ordered it to mute itself and display the information on the main viewer. The AI complied and began to populate the viewer with damaged assessments, and her eyes roamed over the list, starting with the critical systems first.
She heard a moaning sound and snapped her head around to see who it was coming from. It was Jameson, and she saw his hands opening and closing spasmodically, his eyes still closed as he leaned against his harness.
“Shit, shit, shit!” she murmured to herself before she ran to the nearest medkit panel located along the port bulkhead and rooted around in it until she found the subdermal injector she was looking for.
Hurrying back to Jameson, she activated the injector's mini holo screen and selected the sedative she was looking for before pressing it against his neck. She spun around and then jogged over to the captain, crouching down before pressing it against his neck until she heard the hissing stop.
Standing back up, she tossed the injector into a nearby seat and went back to Jameson’s station, grunting as she pushed him and his chair to the side along its track before resuming looking at the displays.
They would both be knocked out for at least 3 hours, according to the description of the sedative she selected, and she would not have to worry about them until then. As she looked at the star map of local space, she realized she was out of her depth and called out to the AI.
“Annika, compile a star chart of local space and compare it to known astronomical markers. I want to know exactly where we are.”
~ Working. ~
“While you are doing that, tell me what the status of the capacitors are. I know the null drive navigational array is screwed up, but will we be able to enter null space again if we get that repaired?”
~ Based on my calculations, we have enough argonium to travel 434.7 light years via null space drive. My scans indicate we are in a low-density area for argonium extraction; it will require 32 days of harvesting to extract enough argonium to increase the current range by 100 light years. I recommend we send out scout drones to search for higher density areas within range. ~
“Do it, Annika. Initiate the search pattern as you see fit based on your calculations and scans of the region. Are there signals or indications of any nearby civilizations within scanning range?”
~ Negative. I have successfully extrapolated our current position. Displaying it on the main viewer now. ~
On the screen, a galaxy map appeared and zoomed in to their current location, a blue dot representing the Star before zooming back out slightly to show a bird’s-eye view of space for 5,000 light years all around them.
They were located almost in the middle of the void between the arms, and the very sparse number of suns in the region made her sick to her stomach. There were only twelve stars within range of the charge still left in the capacitors, and most likely, only some of them actually had planets.
The chances of one of them having a habitable world, even a marginal one, were practically zero, and she did not need to ask Annika to tell her what the probabilities of that were. As the direness of their situation weighed down on her, she struggled to think of a way to increase their chances of survival.
After the ploy to escape the Republic null ships succeeded, they resumed scouting for a Balrikan ship to capture and return to Republic space. After almost a week of searching, they finally found another lone Balrikan scout ship and started following it as they waited for an opportune moment to attack and disable it.
Either the son of a bitch knew it was being followed, or they just drew the short stick of the shitty luck draw because it led them right into an ambush with over fifteen Balrikan cruisers and heavy destroyers after they flashed out to disable the scout when it exited null space.
They barely managed to escape, but one of the bastards managed to stick them with a tracking device during the confusion of the ambush and their escape without them realizing it, and they flashed back into null space thinking they had gotten away.
For the following two days, every time they flashed out of null space, Balrikan ships would flash out within twenty minutes and surround them, like they knew where they were each time. That was when they realized they were being tracked somehow, and the captain had repair drones scour the hull while they were in null space.
After losing more than half the repair drones as they got fried by the null space radiation, one of them finally found and disabled the tiny, four-inch tracking device and pulled it off the hull before its unshielded neural net was destroyed.
By this time, the crew was suffering from the severe psychological effects of not having enough time to rest and recover in normal space as they were constantly forced to flash back into null space to escape their pursuers.
The cumulative exposure to the null space radiation wreaked havoc on the crew, and they began to violently attack each other and damage equipment, unable to control their aggression and think rationally.
Almost a quarter of the crew had slaughtered each other, while most of the others were darted with sedatives and locked in their quarters. The humans of the crew had slightly more resistance to the effects, and they hunted down and put the others in medically induced comas before they could kill any more of each other.
One of the Xenxin engineers lost his goddamn mind when they came to sedate him, and he sabotaged the null drive navigational array in a fit of rage before they managed to breach the compartment and knock his ass out. It took three darts before he finally went down, and they only made a cursory inspection of the array, which was a big mistake.
They did not realize the extent of the damage he had done until after the Balrikans had found them again, and they were forced to enter null space to get away. The null drive navigational array was sending false signals as to their true course to Jameson’s station, and they were actually heading into the void instead of towards Republic space.
When they flashed back out, they only realized then just how off course they were, and the null drive navigational array finally gave out. For the last day and a half, they had been basically traveling in circles since they had no way to plot a course in null space, and the null drive would take them in random directions.
What little null space neuroinjections they had finally ran out yesterday, the captain insisting that she and Yuri take the last dose and keep an eye on them while Yuri tried to fix the array.
They had finally been able to shake off the large task force of Balrikan ships that had been hunting them for days, only to now be exiled and probably die in the void after all they had done to get away.
She and Yuri were the only ones still conscious, and she needed to figure out a way to save them and get the ship home.
“Annika, connect me to the quartermaster.”
~ Affirmative. ~
She heard the chime as the connection was made, and Yuri’s voice came over the intercom, sounding enraged as he cursed in Russian. She heard what sounded like metal on metal striking, and her heart leapt into her throat. Was he destroying the array?
“Yuri! What are you doing? Stop it!” She screamed as the sounds of destruction continued unabated. The sounds stopped, and then she heard Yuri screaming in Russian again, and she knew it was directed at her.
Idi syuda, schas po ebalu poluchish, suka, blyad! The clanging sounds of the metallic banging returned again, and she yelled at Annika to be heard over the din from the speakers.
“Annika, translate his words to Republic standard for me, and what I say into Russian. I am going to use the hardline phone, direct it to only the intercom where he is, and silence the intercoms everywhere else.”
She heard the chime of acknowledgement from Annika and pulled the ancient-style hardline receiver off the station and put it to her ear, now hearing Yuri’s ranting and the destruction directly through the phone as the overhead intercom went silent.
She began speaking in a soft and soothing voice, hoping it would trigger the real Yuri and bring him back. “Yuri, it’s Sheila. Please stop cursing Yuri; don’t you remember what you said to me? Only stupid men curse, and only bad men curse in front of women. Don’t you remember telling me that when I first joined the crew?”
The banging stopped, and she heard the real Yuri responding, the pain in his voice making her heart break for the old man as he responded in a pleading voice.
Shiela, is that you? Please come here and put me out of my misery; I can't stop it. Please, I can’t fight it anymore.
“Yuri, it’s me. You are stronger than this, Yuri. I have returned us to real space; please stop breaking stuff. I will come down and help you go to sleep. Aren’t you tired, Yuri?”
You bitch! I will kill you! I will strangle you if you come near me!
Sheila yanked the phone away from her ear and stared at the receiver, her eyes welling up with tears at what was happening to Yuri. He sounded possessed, and she could hear the banging sounds resume as he continued to threaten to kill her.
Placing the receiver back against her ear, she spoke again in the same soft voice. “Yuri, what would Amelia think if she heard you right now? Do you think she would still want to marry you and cook for you after hearing the vile things you are saying to me?”
The banging stopped again, and she heard Yuri sobbing as he began to murmur Amelia’s name and beg for her to forgive him, that he loved her and wanted to marry her. A second later, the possessed demon came back, and he began to scream the terrible things he would do as the banging noises returned.
Realizing he was too far gone, she slammed the receiver back into its cradle as hot tears streamed down her face. She had no choice in the matter, and he needed to be stopped.
“Annika, flood the compartment with a knockout gas that will render the quartermaster unconscious immediately. Confirmation code Sheila-Echo-2-Gamma-3-Alpha-7. Let me know when it has taken effect and send in a repair bot with a sedative and inject him with it; I want a four-hour minimum sedation time.”
~ Affirmative. ~
“How many comm drones do we have available? Can any of them reach Republic space?”
~ There are five comm drones available with a 500 light-year radius. The two Republic spy drones have the range necessary to reach Republic space, but you do not have authorization to activate and launch them. They will only accept commands from Captain Rahul Khan with his voiceprint and the proper authorization codes. ~
“Launch the five comm drones and have them broadcast a distress signal in all known languages and frequencies. Just a general distress call, no information about the ship status or coordinates, okay? Figure out a pattern of deployment that gives us the greatest chance of being heard by any nearby ships or solar systems within their range.
Annika, this is very important. I want those drones to fully scan the local space before they begin to transmit the distress signal. They are not to broadcast if there are any signs of Balrikan ships in the vicinity, and each drone is to broadcast in such a way as to prevent triangulation of their location.
If there are any replies to the distress signal from any ships or civilizations that are not Balrikan, the drones are not to return to the ship. They are to locate and notify the others and then form a relay back to the ship to prevent the exposure of our location. Do you understand?
~ Affirmative. The quartermaster has been rendered unconscious, and a repair bot is entering the compartment now to administer the sedative I have selected. Do you wish to deploy the comm drones? I have created a pattern based on your instructions. ~
“Yes, Annika. Dump the heat sinks and radiators and then set a course that will take us 500,000 kilometers from our current location and coast the rest of the way once we have reached a velocity that would get us there in ten hours.
Deploy the comm drones and then activate cold running protocols and stealth systems and notify the drones of our new coordinates before they flash out. I am going down to the engine bay; have two repair bots meet me there, okay?”
~ Affirmative. ~
Looking at her wristcom, she saw that she had another 2.5 hours before the sedatives she gave the captain and Jameson would begin to wear off.
Walking over to the security locker, she pulled out a bunch of ties and hogtied the both of them before returning to the security locker and pulling out two small surveillance bots and setting them up to keep an eye on the two unconscious men. If they moved at all, they will notify her on her wristcom.
After checking the ties once more, she decided to increase her chances of preventing them from escaping and added a second layer of ties to the first ones before moving them close to the base of two workstations and connecting the ties to the bases.
Now they would not be able to move at all, and she grabbed a plasma pistol to supplement the stunner, just in case. She left the bridge and headed for the engine bay, a chill giving her goosebumps as she headed deeper into the eerie, deathly silent ship.
She never felt so alone as she did right now, and she prayed fervently for there to be a savior within range of the comm drones.
Ma’lit Scout Ship - Discerner of Ril-nir
8,478 light-years from Earth
“Pad-Lon Qilth’nir, flash us out five billion likals from the primary and activate the cloaking generators.”
“As you wish, Honored elder.”
The bridge flashed bright white as they transitioned into normal space, and Shil’dir’s ocular implants automatically dimmed the severity of the transition flash as it stared at the large holo tank in the center of the oval-shaped bridge that was rapidly being populated with red icons.
The rest of the Ma’lit on the bridge worked silently at their stations as they coordinated among each other, using their neural implants to exchange information between them.
Dozens of stealth drones that had been launched two solar hours prior returned to the ship and began to download their scans into the main computer within ten solar minutes of their arrival, and the AI began to parse through the data and put it on the holo tank as it built a picture of what was in the system.
The red icons on the holo tank soon became several massive and distinct blobs, and Shil’dir felt the atavistic fear organ of his brain activating as it saw the number of Balrikan ships being displayed by the AI.
678,234 vessels detected. 1,254 mobile shipyards detected.
The other Ma’lit on the bridge all stopped what they were doing and stared at the holo tank with their ocular implants, Shil’dir easily able to feel their shared fear and shock through the bridge neural network.
“Companion, including all the ships we have already catalogued, how many total Balrikan ships have we counted since we started scouting?” Shil’dir queried the AI as it hung its head down, deathly afraid of the answer.
~ 2,327,983 Balrikan ships, Honored elder. 1,187,692 are confirmed to be warships of varying classes. The rest are population transports, troop carriers, supply/support ships, and fabrication/ship repair vessels. ~
“Companion, download the entire repository of our databanks into four emergency courier drones and send them to the home world immediately.”
~ As you command, Honored elder. ~
“Companion, are there any other systems with signals to indicate a Balrikan presence beyond this point, or indications of any civilizations and sapient life?”
~ Negative, Honored elder. This is the furthest known extent of the Balrikan presence. All scouting drones have reported back and indicated there are no signs of sapient life forms beyond this point within 10,000 light years. 2,487 habitable worlds that once hosted civilizations of varying technological advancement have been entirely cleansed of their inhabitants and any fauna weighing over seven dralats. ~
“Companion, based on the scans of the drones, what is the combined estimated death toll of those worlds with sapient lifeforms?”
~ Based on estimated carrying capacity and technology level determined by the traces left behind, 3.4 trillion to 3.8 trillion sapient life forms. Viral traces indicate 37% of the estimated population has been targeted and exterminated by Balrikan bioweapons. ~
“Companion, extrapolate the total population of the Balrikans based on the scans we took of all the ships and planets with known Balrikan presence and display it on the holo tank.”
A few solar seconds later, flashing Ma’lit runes and numerals appeared on the holo tank, and Shil’dir felt the cold hand of fear gripping its throat and cutting off the air as it saw the number.
Estimated Balrikan population: 103-110 billion - margin of error: 3.7% +/-
Shil’dir stared at the number for several moments, realizing that the end was coming for everything they knew. This is far more than what the ancestors and their allies ever faced, and they barely defeated them, it thought to itself as the holo tank rotated the viewing angles of the system.
They needed to warn the Council of Elders, as well as every other species within the quadrant.
“Pad-Lon Qilth’nir, get us out of here now! Notify engineering I want to use the fold space engine and chart a course for the home world. Flash us into null space and take us 100 light years away from here, and then activate the fold space engines.”
It didn’t hear the acknowledgment of the Pad-Lon as it continued to stare at the holo tank, nor did it register the transition flash a few moments later as they entered null space. All Shil'dir could think about and feel right now were the chills of fear coursing through its body as it continued to stare blankly at the death coming for them all.