Date point: 4y 11m 2w 0d AV
Robert sat on the floor of his room, staring at his bed.
Going between focusing on his hands and back to his bed, he sat there.
Images of blood covering his hands tormented him.
A small nose with a slashed nostril, and a missing ear, stared him in the face as the images surfaced.
A confused and sad looking face watched him as the axe came down.
Another face, amphibious and hated, gazed at Robert without seeing as his body slid to the floor in two halves.
Robert’s hands dropped to the ground; numb to the feeling of cold steel.
Unable to escape his thoughts, he looked at the blank wall, afraid to see the blood on his hands again.
Not knowing how long he had been there, a knock at the door startled him.
“Kid, you alright in here? You’ve been in your room for hours.”
Jason walked inside, sitting on Robert’s bed.
Speaking for the first time in a while, his voice came out as a croak.
“I’m fine, Jason. Everything is done. Frank did an alright job at repairs, but he’s fucking terrible at working on non-mission critical stuff. There were little things to do all over the ship.”
Giving a nod, Jason continued looking at Robert, not saying anything.
Pretending he wasn’t there, Robert continued to look at the wall.
“What happened down there, kid?”
“Nothing.”
The word came out as a great sigh, and Robert’s fists unclenched as he spoke. He didn’t know that they’d been balled up.
“Bullshit. You looked in a mirror lately? You look like an abstract painting. A fucking bad one.”
Jason wasn’t smiling as he spoke.
Silence filled the room as the Captain’s gaze bored into Robert, who avoided the attention entirely, focusing on his wall.
“Kid, if you never talk about it, it will never go away.” Jason whispered.
“And if I talk about it, I’ll have to relive it again. All that blood and regret.”
Another silence stretched between them.
“You’re seeing it now, Robert.”
Eyes snapping together for the first time, the two men stared at each other; one pair of eyes angry, the other, sad.
As he cast his eyes to the floor, Robert said, “It won’t go away. It’s even worse than the shit Isaac did to me. I thought I was tough enough to deal with shit like this again. But, I’m not.”
“No one is. If you ever meet someone who went through anything like what you did, and they say it didn’t fuck with them, don’t trust them to be alone in a room with you, because they’re lying.”
For the first time, Robert laughed.
“If no one is strong enough for this, why is there always so much war and death? I mean, we came out here to avoid being seen and to save people. Instead, I’ve killed, butchered and slaughtered more people than I could have ever imagined.”
Tears formed in Robert’s eyes as Jason looked at him. He was glad that the kid had finally admitted some of the things he’d done to survive.
“It’s not your fault, Robert; none of this. You even managed to save a lot of them. Tricko told me about how it was your influence that made the revolt possible.”
Robert snorted, replying, “My influence involved me cutting someone’s head open with an axe, then tearing Chehnasho apart until they hit me with a pulse canno-”
“It didn’t involve any of that, kid.”
Surprised by the contradiction, Robert again raised his eyes to Jason’s.
“What? Of course it did. It’s the biggest thing I did the entire time I was there.”
Jason smiled, saying, “Bullshit. It wasn’t about the killing. It was about you being the first one to stand and take up the fight. You gave them hope, which gave them the strength to save themselves.”
Shaking his head, Robert could only say, “Then why do I only see blood?”
A great sigh escaped Jason now.
“Because, that’s the price of being called a hero, kid. The people who know what you did don’t know the real cost of the action; the damage it does to the piece of you that makes you human. It’s been that way forever.”
Robert stared at his hands, only seeing blood dripping from them.
“How do I make it stop?”
“It’s not about stopping it. It’s about learning to live with it.” whispered Jason.
Anger burning in Robert again, he glared at Jason, asking, “So, what? Fake it? Just act like nothing is wrong, until I don’t want to tear my own hands off for what they’ve done?”
The two men were silent, apart from the heavy breathing that had begun in Robert.
“…Talking with someone who’s been through something similar helps.” Jason replied, unable to hold Robert’s blazing look.
“I was turned into a slave, Jason! Neither you, nor anyone else I’m ever going to meet has been through something like that!”
A razor thin smile crossed the Captain’s lips.
“There are three on the ship right now, kid.”
Date point: 4y 11m 2w 1d AV
A grouchy, and mostly recovered, Frank sat up and rubbed the sleep from his eyes.
Waking up to find the massacre in the cargo bay had been cleaned up caused him some slight guilt, but the fact that everyone was still alive and mostly intact had dampened any negative feelings.
Well…most of the negative feelings.
Coming to terms with his mortality at the hands of his diabetes, as opposed to an enraged slaver, had been quite humbling, especially considering that he’d not been expecting to confront either.
Sitting on his bed, shoes still by the door, Frank contemplated the fact that, the second before Robert had magically appeared, he hadn’t cared that he was about to die.
I made a promise.
Thinking of his daughter Kendra, Frank was secretly happy that his little escapade into space was going to remain a secret, as he shuddered to think what she would say.
Standing in his low gravity cabin, Frank got dressed and put his shoes on, intent on breakfast.
Moving in the direction of the cargo bay, smiling as he felt that the ship had been set to galactic standard, he came to the sad little picnic table that was the mess hall; now much more crowded and lively, given the new guests.
Three Rocket Raccoons. All we need is one of them to ride on top of Ted’s shoulders and we can call Ted, Groot.
Chuckling at his own bad joke, Frank began to pick through the boxes of MRE’s.
At the table, Ryst, Chanuck and Tricko were having an argument.
Having less of an appetite than humans, they had first split one of the human military style meals between the three of them, just after the battle and clean-up.
Taking all three of them to finish off one meal and all of the extras, they had been left feeling lethargic and satisfied, however, according to Ryst, stopped up from the cheese.
Eating so much less than the humans, they ate two MRE’s a day between the three of them, and this had caused contention between them the day before, as it was now.
“Cheese Tortellini is the obvious choice!” Chanuck .
“Chanuck, you idiot, the last thing I want is more cheese. I’m still recovering from the cheese and bacon bits cheese spread.”
Tricko, standing impressively above his two counterparts on the bench declared, “Your ideas are both stupid. We should be trying new meals, not getting the same ones over and over. The sloppy joe was good, but it had terrible extras. The Cheese Tortellini was excellent, and had good extras, but Ryst is right, no more cheese.”
Sitting and enjoying their own meals, Jason and Robert had made sure to eat specifically at this time in order to watch the argument, which had repeated itself every time.
At the start of the mission, both Ted and Robert had been excited about the preserved food, though eating it for every meal got old quickly, and it was likely to be the same for the Gaoians.
Turning to Jason, Tricko held up a package and asked, “Captain, describe to me the Veggie Omelet. Is it considered a good choice?”
Frank sat down at the table, food in hand, and laughed at the question before Jason could answer.
“Tricko, our first couple days out, Ted ate one of those without asking about it. He said it tasted like sulphur and dirt that had been sent through a Chinese Buffet restaurant’s dishwasher at the end of the shift.” he chuckled.
Staring, Tricko asked, “So…that’s a no to Veggie Omelet?”
“Airlock it.” Jason said.
Ryst stood, holding up a Chili Mac, motioning for advice.
“Don’t eat the red pepper powder in the little packet. It might literally kill you. Otherwise, go ahead.” Jason replied.
Taking his words to heart, the three Gaoians used a knife to open the bag, as it was nearly impossible for them to open it otherwise, and spilled the contents.
Muttering about the presence of cheese spread, they began to tuck in.
“So, Tricko, I’ve been meaning to ask you about something.” Robert said, speaking for the first time.
“Yes, Rob?”
After a slight glance at Jason, who nodded, Robert continued, “It’s about you guys being on our ship. You know how you were planning on leaving to the station we’re headed to?”
Sensing where this was going, Tricko set down his portion of the meal, listening intently.
“Did you have other plans, Rob?”
“Well…yeah. Jason mentioned that with only four people on the ship we’re always working long shifts. After being through the mine with you guys, I figure we can trust you. Would you maybe want to stay on here, as crew?” he replied.
All present humans paused in their eating, waiting to see how the discussion unfolded.
Deliberating for a moment, Tricko turned to his two clan brothers.
“What do you think? Both of you can fly, and could probably figure out how to do maintenance. I’m sure I can find a use for myself. Do you guys want to stay in space?” he asked.
Ryst was looking pensive, considering his options.
“It’s not like we’ve got much waiting for us elsewhere. We’ve been missing for a long time. Everyone I knew before this is either sitting at this table, or dead.” he said.
Chanuck was colder to the idea, however, saying, “I’m done with space and frontier worlds. I want to stand on Gao again, even if I have to do it poor.”
Sparking a line of thought at these words, Tricko turned to Jason.
“Will you pay us?”
It was Jason’s turn to deliberate; he’d not been given any instructions concerning picking up new crew members.
“I…I can bring the idea of payment up to Mr. Byron. If that’s what your decision is hung up on, then we’ll have to wait until we get to the station and get a response from him.”
Frank felt that something important was being left out.
“You guys haven’t been told what we’re up to, have you?” he asked.
Ryst turned his gaze to Frank.
“No, actually. I’d been wondering what a human ship was doing this deep into the Far Reaches.”
Jason cleared his throat, glaring at Frank.
“We were going to discuss that after they’d made a decision, old man.”
“Oh, shit. Never mind then. That can come later.” muttered an abashed Frank.
Tricko looked from Chanuck to Ryst, wondering about their feelings on the matter; noting that Ryst looked put out that Chanuck had no intention of coming.
“I’ve got no jobs lined up otherwise. But, I won’t speak for these two.” said Tricko.
Beginning to mutter at each other, Ryst and Chanuck were arguing quietly.
“It’s odd watching alien expressions.” Frank muttered, much more to himself than to anyone else.
Interrupting Chanuck and Ryst’s argument, Jason smiled and said, “I’ve noticed that. Talking to those Locayl pirates, it wasn’t a big deal. But, talking in depth with aliens is weird. Body language is ninety percent of language, and it’s totally absent with you guys.”
“Talking may be weird for you, but it’s terrifying for us. Your expression of happiness looks like a death threat, and it appears to me that the tall one is literally in love with his bed.” Ryst grunted.
Laughing, Robert said, “You may be right about that one.”
Turning to his crew mates, Robert pointed near his temple, and continued, “If you think not getting body language is bad, wait until you don’t have a translator at all. It was complete madness before they shoved one into my head.”
Frank went completely still.
A crease furrowed Jason’s brow as he said, “You never mentioned that, kid. You let them stick something into your brain?”
Sharp tingling crawled across Robert’s wrists; memories of pain best forgotten darkening his thoughts.
“I wasn’t exactly in a position to object, Captain.” Robert replied, clenching his fists under the table.
None of the Gaoians were speaking now. Tricko had told them about Robert getting his implant, and its cost.
Flinching with his own stupidity, Jason fumbled out an apology.
“It’s fine, Jason. I don’t want to talk about it.”
Clearing his throat and feeling like an idiot, Jason tried to repair the conversation.
“Alright, kid. Do you want that thing taken out? We should be able to do that at the station we’re headed to. Might even be able to do it here. I haven’t checked what that medical robot we have can do.”
Going back to his food and burying himself in the task of eating, Robert grunted, “No. I’ll keep it.”
Frank stood.
“I’m going to check the flight deck. See what Ted is up to.”
Putting his half eaten food into a trash bin, Frank moved to exit the room.
“Frank, wait a second, I gotta talk to you for a second.”
Jason had stood, moving to catch up.
“…uhhh, alright.”
Frank, struggling to balance his racing thoughts, barely noticed as Jason steered him into the Captain’s own bedroom.
“Jason, what are w-”
“Where’d you get the shotgun, Frank?”
Cutting through all his musings, the question turned the old man’s insides to ice.
Jason moved to his own dresser and drew the shotgun out of the top drawer, throwing it to Frank.
As he caught it numbly, he said, “I…I can’t tell you that, Jason. I’m sorry.”
“No. No, don’t give me that bullshit. Every single one of you bastards has been hiding something from me since the moment we walked onto this ship. The kid’s got anger issues, Ted’s for damn sure hiding something about his family, and you’re smuggling a fucking close-quarters combat shotgun in your room.”
Jason poked Frank in the chest, hard enough that he sat down on Jason’s bed.
“I want some god damn answers, Frank. I gave you time to recover from the fight, but now you’re going to tell me why Byron put a seventy year old diabetic with a shotgun on my ship.”
Wide-eyed, Frank began to splutter.
“Byron told me I ca-”
“FUCK BYRON! Tell me what the fuck is really going on, Frank!”
Silence rang throughout the ship. The mess hall had gone silent again, having heard the outburst.
“…Do you know any Latin, Jason?”
Jason’s brow furrowed.
“What the fuck does that have to do with anything?”
Deflated, Frank sighed, “Nothing, forget I mentioned it.”
“Whatever. Stop stalling, old man.”
Frank stood from the bed and checked the hallway outside the room, then leaned against the wall.
“It’s about one of the reasons the ships might have gone missing. Jason, no one else on the ship can know about this, and I still don’t think I can tell you everything.”
Glad to finally have Frank talking, Jason said nothing.
“Byron had a dozen different ideas about what might have happened, all thought out, and all unlikely. But, he had another idea, just as unlikely. He needed to have someone, someone completely outside of the system, in place to act if it turned out to be true.”
Uncomfortable with how easy it was to betray Byron’s confidence, Frank felt slightly relieved and slightly ashamed.
“What was the other idea?”
Jason’s expression was chiseled stone.
When shot-callers kept subordinates in the dark about important information, people died.
“I can’t give you all the details, but he said that someone else, someone outside the normal scope of things that we know about, might have their fingers in this.” Frank said.
“Are you talking about alien influence? Like the Alliance or the Dominion?”
Throwing his hands up into the air, Frank replied, “I have no fucking idea, kid. But, it’s possible that one or even a few of the people on those ships made this happen. It was my job to keep an eye on them if we find them; and to act if I needed to. That’s everything I can tell you, Jason.”
Leaning back onto his dresser, Jason’s gaze bored into Frank.
“And that’s everything? Byron thinks that someone sabotaged the ships, and sent you in to deal with it, leaving us unaware of anything?”
Feeling sheepish, Frank answered, “Yeah.”
Sighing heavily, Jason sat on his bunk and put his head into his hands.
Frank continued, “I’m sorry, kid. It’s not my style to play things close to the chest like this.”
“Rich people are fucking stupid.” Jason said, ignoring Frank’s apology.
“Pardon?”
“Why the fuck would he keep that a secret, Frank? That doesn’t make any sense. He may as well have been trying to get us all killed.”
Frank hesitated to tell Jason about the implants, but decided that here, so far away from the safety of a corporate building with a big desk, he knew better than Byron did right now.
“Robert needs to get that implant taken out of his head, Jason. As soon as possible.”
Jason stared.
“It has something to do with implants? What about them?” he asked, puzzled.
“I don’t really know. But, in our situation right now, implants are bad. He needs to get it taken out. Immediately.”
“…alright Frank. I’ll talk to the kid about it. That still doesn’t answer why Byron would want to keep this quiet. It doesn’t make any sense.” Jason said.
Thinking back to the conversation he’d had with Byron, Frank had a thought.
“It’s possible that he’s scared, Jason. Whatever he thinks is going on is something that he doesn’t understand. He doesn’t want it to get out and is trying to compartmentalize everything.”
Standing up and moving to the door, Jason said, “Well, he’s going to get people killed that way. Alright, Frank, I won’t dig at you anymore, but is there anything else that I need to know?”
Moving to leave the cramped room as well, Frank’s thoughts went to the .45 stashed in his room, still hidden and unknown.
“No. That’s everything.”
Ted sat on the flight deck staring, without really seeing, at what the screens were telling him.
He’d been burying himself in the data, having nothing else to occupy his mind.
Anytime he closed his eyes, images of severed limbs and gutted Locayls dominated his thoughts.
Understanding that violence was a necessary evil in survival situations, what dug at Ted’s conscience was that he’d been so happy to find himself hurting others. More than happy; real enjoyment.
Ted liked being in a lab, staring through a microscope at soil samples, or calculating the gravitational pull that Jupiter imposed on its moons; not killing.
Remembering Tricko calling to him in Gaoian to break him out of his bloodthirsty mindset, and finding himself surrounded by bodies, had been about the worst thing he could imagine.
Jason had spoken to him about it, after telling him that he’d done the same for Robert, telling him that the rush of battle was something that most everybody experienced in the thick of it, and that he shouldn’t be too hard on himself.
Still, Ted tried to keep himself busy with the data, letting the algorithms do their work, but, also going through it manually in order to have a task to accomplish.
He’d not turned up anything of any value yet, only a few places where the refined platinum had been sent and a list of lucrative shipping lanes to plunder.
Still nothing about their ships.
Sitting in one of the two pilot chairs, he continued to sift aimlessly through files as Frank walked onto the deck, wearing a troubled expression.
“Hey, Frank! Looking better than yesterday, I see.”
Grunting, Frank answered, “Yesterday, I felt like shit. Now it’s a new day, and I just feel less shitty.”
Chuckling with amusement that he didn’t feel, Ted replied, “What brings you up here then? Your shift at the wheel doesn’t start for a while.”
“No one’s at the wheel anyway. I just kinda wanted to find some privacy, outside of my little room.”
“You came to the wrong place then.” Ted said.
Grunting and turning to the screens that Ted was poring over, Frank said, “I’ve noticed. Found anything?”
Ted turned to his screens, looking annoyed at his lack of success.
“Not a damn thing. I can’t believe how much shit they recorded.”
A soft chime sounded as he spoke, causing both men to stare at the screen.
Notifications had popped up, announcing a discovery from one of the search algorithms.
Frank leaned forward eagerly, asking, “What’s it say?”
Opening the file, Ted read the gist of it, his face going pale and slumping back into his seat.
“It’s an order from the second in command of the Rising Plague, Commander Bilgrath. It’s not good news, Frank. This is bad.”
“Don’t beat around the bush.” Frank growled.
“It’s an attack order. They sent twelve ships after the two they were following. But, they didn’t want to capture them. Their orders were to drive them into a nebula.”
Eyebrows rising at these words, Frank spluttered, “A nebula!? Like one of those big clouds of dust?”
“An arm of a stellar nursery, to be exact. I’m looking for which one he was talking about. The ships were clear on the opposite side of the Far Reaches.”
“Well, that can’t be so bad, right? It’s just a bunch of gasses, with some stars mixed in, isn’t it?” Frank asked.
“Fuck no, Frank. The magnetic energies, asteroids, insane stellar radiation and stars exploding and forming everywhere make it fucking awful in there. It would be like flying into a blender.”
“Jason needs to know about this, kid. I’ll go get him, you keep looking into this.”
Frank hurried from the room, finding Jason back in the mess hall, having a conversation with Robert, Chanuck and Ryst.
Interrupting a story, he said, “Jason, you need to see what Ted has for you. Now.”
Face snapping to professionalism, Jason rose and left the room without speaking.
Robert stared at Frank.
“Anything good, old man?”
Frank stared at the kid, afraid to divulge information to a possibly compromised crew member, and two others with implants.
Deciding on caution, he said, “Jason will let you know when he has all the info, kid.”
As Frank left the room, a pair of eyes followed him, especially interested in the new development.
Mind racing about all the things that were about to happen, Frank sought the solitude of his room, trying to think in peace.
Closing the door, and sitting heavily upon his bed, he stared at the wall without seeing it.
They now had a heading, and there were four people on board with implants.
Still needing to transmit the events of the last few days, and drop off at least one Gaoian, they would likely still go to the station they were headed towards.
But, Robert was still a problem.
A great sigh escaped him as he contemplated what he had to do.
Every bit of work Robert did, as well as the Gaoians did, would have to be checked by him.
He would have to check everything for sabotage.
Also, if the worst should happen, the kid would mop the floor with Frank in a fight.
Resigning himself to being armed at all times, and the thankless job of crawling through the systems of the ship, checking for sabotage, Frank had an idea.
A younger man would have succumbed to the safe feeling of telling a superior about something, and trusting them to take care of it, while they sat back and released themselves of responsibility.
Frank had been around too long, and seen too much, to fall prey to that trap.
Paranoia wasn’t a bad thing when you were right.
“Computer?”
Answering immediately, an electronic voice said, “Standing by.”
Standing, and beginning to pace in his small room, Frank replied, “I’d like to create a private subroutine, which can only be accessed by myself. Is that possible?”
“Yes. You have administrator level access. Standing by to record.”
Staring into the space of his room, Frank began to formulate a backup plan.
“So, Ted. What are you telling me? They drove them into a nebula, to do what? Hope that they died?”
Ted was looking at a long tendril extending out from a massive molecular cloud, and pointed at the very tip of it.
“They weren’t hoping that they died; they were damn sure of it. From everything we have in the database of the ship, that nebula right there is a fucking cosmic Bermuda triangle. No drone, survey ship or pirate vessel has ever made it out of that nebula.”
Staring at the picture, dots weren’t connecting for Jason.
“That’s idiotic. If they wanted to capture them, and take their ships and cargo, why would they force them to go somewhere that they couldn’t follow? It also doesn’t explain what happened to the two other ships.”
Ted stared at Jason.
“That’s obvious isn’t it? At least your first point is.”
Glaring balefully, he replied, “Elaborate, Ted.”
Grim faced, Ted answered, “They didn’t want to capture them. They just wanted them to die.”
++0154++: Sixty-four, there has been a development. I believe that the humans know where we sent their ships.
++0064++: We anticipated this. Have you made progress in keeping them quiet?
++0154++: That is going to be more difficult than I first anticipated.
++0064++: Explain.
++0154++: I had planned to overload their reactor as soon as I made my first investigation of their ship, but they don’t seem to have a reactor. They’re using super capacitors and a charging array to power their ship, and they do not have any weapons on board capable of destroying the ship.
++0064++: Do you have any alternatives?
++0154++: Yes. I should be able to kill all of them before they reach the FTL relay, and have a chance to delete the information.
++0127++: You had better. The last thing I need is more humans on this world. It was a mistake for you to send the ships here hoping that the defenses would kill all of them, One-Fifty-Four.
++0154++: It isn’t my fault that you didn’t complete your own job quickly.
++0127++: Do not blame me for this! If your own forces had been more effective, my intervention would not have been necessary in the first place.
++0064++: Enough! This solves nothing. One-Two-Seven, how are you progressing with your task?
++0127++: It is…difficult. They are intelligent and desperate. It is not possible to kill all of them simultaneously, and they seem to have figured out that implants are the issue, though they think it is only one type of implant. I have had to become much more discreet in order to stay alive among them. Luckily, they have been unsuccessful in their attempts to penetrate further into the structure.
++0064++: Make sure it stays that way, and continue picking them off.
++0127++: I understand.
++0064++: One-Five-Four, your task remains the same. Kill the humans and Gaoians and delete all information from their database. If possible, send their ship to one of our facilities so that we can further understand the technology being used to hide their ships and how they are powering them.
++0154++: I understand.
++0064++: No more mistakes on this. If the humans find that planet, and escape from it, they will learn everything.