Jennifer Delaney. Early twenties, reasonably attractive, and with good prospects for a career in IT. Had a house in south Belfast, a cat and a dog as well, and some fish – intermittently anyway.
Naturally she’d followed all the news about the thing that happened in Vancouver where a bunch of aliens got themselves all beat up by a crowd of sports thugs. It had been the kind of thing that it was difficult to get away from, unless, ironically, you actually did get abducted which was actually rather scary but at least it got your mind off the weather and you didn’t have to look at those terrible News Limited front pages anymore. So there’s a silver lining right there.
Jennifer Delaney was also afraid of heights, but it was funny how you didn’t think ‘Oh I’m very high up what if I fall?’ when you’re looking down from orbit.
She just wished that this particular planet looked anything like Earth. Unlike the lush blues and greens of her beautiful homeworld, this one had a more ‘barren desert’ appearance. That would certainly be preferable if you suffered from allergies, but Jennifer Delaney rather liked flowers and didn’t like dust. This much would probably clog the vacuum cleaner.
Then you’d either need to either pay someone to repair it or shop around for a new one, but it’d never be quite the same as just having the old one back.
“Oh yes,” she said to herself, now speaking aloud. “One last thing. Jennifer Delaney has probably gone a bit mental.”
Nobody answered her. There wasn’t anybody left aboard the Blue Encounter.
“Well,” she corrected herself, “I suppose there are bodies, just not necessarily living ones, which is really what you’re after when you’ve starved for conversation for a while.”
The Blue Encounter had been manned, and she used the term loosely, but some extremely kind and understanding blue giraffe aliens. They had been a lot better than the one little grey alien who had kept her locked up in a cage.
He certainly hadn’t been worth saving, she told herself. She had accidentally beaten him to death while trying to convince him to simply take her home. That had been an ‘oops’ moment if there had ever been one.
The next oops moment had come when all of the Giraffes had got sick and died before a week had passed. Jennifer had worried then, that she would catch whatever the Giraffes had caught, and she had been extremely careful about heaping all of the bodies in a single room to prevent the germs from spreading.
In the end she just had some mild flu symptoms and that was all. She had felt a bit silly afterwards, but had made no attempt to go anywhere near the bodies.
“I suppose that makes me the captain of this ship,” she said to the small floating camera she had following her around. One of the Giraffes had set it to track her, before they’d all died, and she hadn’t yet figured out a way to stop it.
She didn’t even want to stop it anymore, it had become so much like another companion. Like a little bird in a Disney film. Or a little bug in a Disney film.
Or- she stopped that line of thinking. “No need to go crazier faster than you have to, Jen.” she admonished herself. “You need to keep it together, keep studying. You’re not a Disney princess and no Prince is going to come and rescue you!”
She wished one would, though. Being rescued by a Prince would be really great instead of trying to learn an alien language in order to learn to fly an alien spaceship so that she could go find some more food before it all ran out.
“I wonder if they have Princes out in space?” she said, distracted again. “I can’t imagine any of those grey guys being very Royal, but those Giraffes were big at least.”
She sighed. Back to figuring out the alien language. Back to staring out the window when any understanding failed to present itself.
Back to watching the barren world below do absolutely nothing. Back to tracing the path of the object that just appeared-
Wait. That was a new thing!
“New things are good!” she told herself, getting up from her extremely comfortable seat and pressing her face to the window. “Unless it’s being abducted by aliens I suppose. Although can I still be abducted if I’m technically in the middle of an abduction?”
She shook her head. “Focus, Jen! Alien spacecraft, getting closer! Might be scary! Might be a prince!”
This possibility seemed increasingly dubious as the vessel grew closer. It was fierce looking with sharp angles and a paint-job that said ‘be afraid’.
Not literally, of course, unless it said it somewhere in alien and Jennifer was fairly sure there weren’t any letters written anywhere.
That had been one thing she’d noticed early on: spaceships did not have names written on the outside, and for some reason that felt wrong.
“It’s going to dock…” she said, suddenly so afraid that she thought it might be a good idea to hide. That seemed, in fact, such a very good idea that that is exactly what she did.
She was hiding in a cupboard when the ships clanged together and interlocked. She barely allowed herself to breathe, closed her eyes, and put all her effort into listening.
She could hear something moving on the ship, its weight indicating something big, and probably something dangerous. Jennifer Delaney gripped the broom handle as tightly as she could, enough to whiten her knuckles.
She could hear it moving towards her, and she wondered if its weird alien senses could tell it exactly where she was. Maybe it could smell her, she hadn’t exactly had a good wash in months, or perhaps it could feel the vibrations of her trembling…
I’ll give you some vibrations to feel! she thought fiercely. She was ready now, for whatever might come, but she still hoped these aliens were as ridiculously fragile as all the rest had been.
She stepped from the closet as she brought up the broom handle in a blind swing. “YAAAAAHHH!”
Something firm and rough grabbed her wrist and flipped her in a single fluid movement. She exhaled sharply as she hit the decking, her eyes flying open and seeing the face of the human man who had subdued her.
His eyes were as wide in shock as hers must have been, and he released her as he seemed to suddenly realise where exactly he had been holding her.
“Bloody hell,” he said, clearly flustered but obviously Australian, “you’re a human woman!”
“Bloody hell,” she repeated, too stunned to do anything else, in her own heavily Irish accent, “so are you.”
Three months ago
“What makes you think I care?” Bekmer demanded. “Why in all of the stars would I give any kind of damn about your poor choices, human? In fact, I should be laughing! Ha ha ha… HA!” Adrian leaned back against the brig’s door, with nowhere better to be than right here. It had been two months now since Chir, Kermit and Trix had collectively decided to give up on the Zhadersil, and with rather more sorrow had given up on Adrian as well.
He couldn’t blame them, he could now see that his behaviour had become increasingly erratic after the Zhadersil’s reactors failed to power the ship. It hadn’t been made any better by gaining access to the news feeds about humans being dumped into space, or set upon by Hunter patrols who were coming properly armed.
That was the situation that Adrian had created. Not a future of hope by any means, just one of worse fear and greater tragedy.
Story of his life, really.
“I thought maybe you’d like a visitor,” Adrian replied. “It must have been a while since your last one.”
“Treoffa came at times to gloat,” Bekmer said. “But I don’t think that counts. And if you are my only option for conversation, well… please vent me now!”
“You’re all talk,” Adrian told him. “If you wanted to die you’d stop eating. I don’t care enough about you to start force feeding your sorry arse.”
Bekmer winced. “I would not be able to process nutrients inserted in that manner.”
Adrian laughed. “If only I thought you were actually making a joke, Bekmer, I might have planned a second visit.”
“Don’t worry about me, human,” Bekmer replied irritably. “I will somehow manage to survive without being graced by your company. Just remember to keep feeding me and make sure we don’t get invaded by any more Hunters.”
+++++
Blue Encounter: Present Day
“Uh,” Adrian said, looking at the pretty, blue-eyed redhead he’d just slammed into the floor. “Human man. And you’re Irish!”
She blinked, confused for a moment before realising what she said. “Oh, right… sorry.”
He helped her back to her feet. “You’re alone here,” he said. “I saw the bodies.”
She froze, wide-eyed like a deer in the headlights. That had clearly been the wrong thing to say, but it seemed that the time he’d spent with no human contact had not improved his ability to speak to women. “That may have come out wrong,” he admitted. “Obviously you’ve been through some rough times.”
“They just died,” she said, her voice wavering. “They all got sick a while after I got here.”
“What about you?” he asked, glancing in the direction of the room with the corpses in it. They’d been similar to the technicians that Bekmer had had on his crew, but their bodies were swollen and covered with bulbous growths. It hadn’t looked like a good way to go.
“I had a bit of a fever,” she said. “But I got better! I’m fine now!”
“Yeah,” he said, “yeah of course.” That was clearly important to her; Adrian had seen enough people in fucked up situations to know when they weren’t dealing with it. Being the lone survivor of a plague, stuck in space for who knew how long… well, that’d mess with anyone’s head.
“So,” she said, “are you here to rescue me?”
+++++
Three months ago
If there was anything good to be said for hard vacuum, it was that it was quiet, and the view was amazing. He had to admit that as far as planets went, Affrag had an extremely Earth-like appearance.
Adrian had spent about ten minutes admiring that view, drifting next to the Zhadersil’s outer hull. He’d come out here to inspect the damage that had been covered over by space debris until it had all been ejected by the Zhadersil’s shields turning on. Now the whole ship was clean and visible, and he could see the long gash torn in its starboard side.
“Not sure I’m going to be able to fix that,” he’d determined pretty early on, but he’d set about investigating the damaged areas anyway – it had seemed like the thing to do, and he wasn’t ready to give up on the old ship just yet.
There was every sign of something big having hit the ship, and since there had been nothing in the ship logs about having been damaged before Xagh had abandoned it, he guessed it had been an unfortunate collision with space rocks.
“Zhadersil,” he said, speaking directly to the ship computer. It was still active, along with basic life support, but that was about it. “What was this section?”
“Shiplord Adrian Saunders,” the ship responded, “external damage is detected in secondary engine module and habitation section 4.”
“So the primary engine module is undamaged?” he asked.
“Shiplord Adrian Saunders,” the ship responded, “primary engine module is undamaged and unpowered. There is insufficient power to activate the primary engine module. There is insufficient power to activate the secondary engine module. Warning: Damage detected in secondary engine module.”
“Fucking reactor again,” he muttered. It all came down to power, it had always come down to power. They had spent two months trying to fix that problem – the Quantum Reactor was a total fucking mess – and in the end the others had decided that it was hopeless, and they had left.
Adrian wasn’t ready to give up on it quite yet, though, and every news report he heard of humans being killed or exiled just furthered his resolve. He couldn’t give up, not when he alone had command of such a powerful vessel. Not when the Hunters had declared war on humanity, and on him. Not as long as there was hope.
They’d originally intended to try re-routing power from the Hunter ships through the secondary conduits. That had ended with an electrical fire on the flight deck and half the flight-deck relays burning out, a situation which Adrian had personally assessed as ‘not particularly ideal’.
Trix had determined that the only real way to channel enough power into the ancient ship would have been to inject the power across a wide distribution of nodes. Good in theory, she’d said, but impossible in practice.
Seeing all that empty space in the damaged section, though… Adrian couldn’t help but wonder if she’d been too quick to give up on that plan. Maybe if he parked a couple of the Hunter ships in there, he’d be able to hook up enough relays…
Maybe. It was a big maybe.
Blue Encounter: Present Day
“There’s not much worth taking,” the man said as he busily rifled through the cargo bay. “This all the food you got left?”
“Y-yes,” Jen answered, worried suddenly that this was a raid and not a rescue. “They don’t taste very good.”
“Just needs some tomato sauce,” the man said. “But they’re alright for a quick snack, and I know a guy who can’t get enough. I’d say you had about a week left before you started going hungry.”
“I figured out how to put out a message,” she said. “But I didn’t know their language. I was hoping someone would come…”
“Nobody was going to come, at least nobody you’ll ever want to meet,” he said flatly, looking at her with his cool eyes. “Nobody out there’s going to help a human.”
“Why?” she asked. The way he said the word ‘human’ clearly carried some deep meaning. The blue giraffes hadn’t seemed to have any particular issue with her, unless they simply didn’t know what she was.
“Because the guys they’re all scared of are scared of us,” he explained. “They’re called ‘Hunters’, and I’m running around in one of their ships.”
+++++
Two months ago
“You’re very optimistic, human,” Bekmer said. “Another visitation so soon? People will begin to talk!”
“Fuck you, baldy,” Adrian replied wearily. “I’ve got questions.”
“Oh dear,” Bekmer said, pacing his cell. “What’s the matter? Nobody else to answer them? Oh that’s right… you said you killed Treoffa, and everyone else abandoned you. How unfortunate.”
“You’ll answer,” Adrian said, his eyes narrowing.
Bekmer scoffed. “And what? You’ll torture me if I don’t? Kill me? Savage!”
“Let’s say you don’t answer,” Adrian posited, his eyes narrowing. “I’ll deduct one meal for every answer you don’t give. You like being hungry, fuckface?”
Bekmer stared daggers at him, but finally relented. “Fine. Ask your questions.”
“There’s a big fucking hole in the hull,” he said. “I thought I could use the exposed relays to supply the Zhadersil with enough power, but they’re shut down. I can’t get the ship to activate them.”
“Hm,” Bekmer said, considering the matter. “Still haven’t got the reactor working I see?”
“The reactor is close to dead,” Adrian told him. “Totally fucking useless except for keeping the lights on.”
“And your plan is to inject power across multiple sections by parking other ships in the hole in the hull,” Bekmer said, understanding. “Intelligent. Was it your idea?”
“No,” Adrian said, “and that doesn’t matter. Tell me how to keep the relays active.”
“I don’t know,” Bekmer said with a sigh, then put his hands up defensively. “No, that isn’t unwillingness on my behalf, simply ignorance. If you want me to help on this, well… I want to stretch my legs.”
Adrian was silent. He stared at the small grey alien as if he could read the underhanded plan the creature was hatching, but the Corti’s face was only sneering arrogance. “Fine,” he grated through clenched teeth. “I’ll think about it! But if you’re fucking with me, I’ll break one of those stretchy legs.”
Liberated Hunter Ship: Present Day
“Here,” Adrian told the Irish girl, passing her a wrapped package. “I made lunch, but you look like you need it more than I do.”
She took it hesitantly, unwrapping it slowly until she saw the meat and salad ‘sandwich’ he’d managed to assemble. Then she unwrapped it quickly and jammed it into her mouth unceremoniously.
He grinned, double checking the flight console to make sure everything was in order and waiting for her to finish before continuing the conversation any further.
She breathed heavily as she finished the last bite, and he wordlessly handed her the canteen of fresh water. He’d been lucky, really, to have had access to the hunting grounds of Affrag. With the weapons that Trycrur had made for him, and the hover pack to give him air superiority, he had easily managed to keep his larder stocked with plenty of meat. Recently he had begun trying various plant-life, testing at first to determine taste and toxicity, and had discovered several plants that had suited his needs.
“Thanks,” she said, burping gently into her fist. “I… never got your name?”
“Adrian Saunders,” he told her, checking off the last of the settings. “Captain in the ADF, but more recently Shiplord of the Zhadersil. You?”
“Jenny Delaney,” she replied. “I work in IT. Where did you get that food?”
“Straight from the source,” he said, “one hundred percent natural. Some kind of crocodile creature in that one, but I’ve got other sorts in the meat locker.”
“We’re not going home?” she asked, clearly disappointed.
“We can’t,” he said. “They’ve put a barrier up around the whole fucking system, pardon my French. You know, when I was a boy the shows always had space full of beautiful green women who’d throw themselves at the Captain of a starship. Turns out it’s just full of fucking arseholes. Pardon again.”
“What!?” she asked in surprise, clearly not uncomfortable by the casual swearing he was having so much difficulty in avoiding. “Why would they do that?”
“They’re afraid of us,” he told her.
“You said they were afraid of these ‘Hunters’!” she replied accusingly. “What are you doing with their ship, anyway?”
“I actually have several,” he admitted a little uncomfortably. These were the kinds of details he’d hoped she wouldn’t pick up on before getting back to the Zhadersil. “I, uh… well, that is to say there was a bit of a sortie and I won.”
“Against how many?!” she asked, looking around. “This ship is easily big enough to fit a hundred!”
“Yeah…” he said, stretching out the word. “I’d say there were a thousand maybe.”
The look she gave him then was one of profound doubt. “Now Adrian, I don’t want to suggest you’re not a capable soldier, but I doubt one man could hold out against a thousand aliens! What about their technological superiority?! They must have had lasers to shoot straight through you! They could have blown you up with bombs!”
He frowned. “I didn’t fight them personally!” he said. “I’m not a total fucking idiot. I just sort of… flushed them all out the airlock.”
“What… like in Alien?” she asked, eyebrow raised.
“Finally,” he said with a laugh. “Somebody gets it!”
+++++
Jennifer Delaney. Mid-twenties, reasonably attractive, and completely lost in space. Mortgage in default, dog and cat long gone, and fish… well, the less said there the better really.
She’d been rescued by a man – he wasn’t handsome like a Disney Prince, but he was definitely a man – and hadn’t starved to death, so today was better than yesterday so far, but if she was perfectly honest with herself the Zhadersil had not been what she was expecting. Instead of a super-high tech wonder, it was more like a broken down old race horse that had been put to pasture where it had inevitably died and now somebody was living inside its corpse while it drifted in the cold depths of deep space.
Jennifer Delaney may not be the best person for analogies, they tended to get away from her somewhat.
“I see what you mean, Captain,” she said, preferring for the time being to refer to him by the title that wasn’t stupid. “It really is completely fucking huge!”
They were standing on the Zhadersil’s flight deck, and there were several more Hunter ships present, as well as a smaller ship of another design with a big hole cut in the side. Dwarfing them all was a far larger vessel of similar design to the small vessel, and that was a ship that looked high-tech. Jenny privately wondered why he didn’t just live in that one, but since they’d only just met she was concerned that maybe that was a personal question and she didn’t want to insult the only human and sapient being she’d met in God knew how long.
“There doesn’t seem to be anyone else here, though,” she said, looking about the quiet deck. “I’d have thought that with all these ships…”
She went quiet when she saw his expression harden. This was clearly a topic that bothered him. “Sorry if that was the wrong thing to say.”
“There used to be some others,” he said. “They left by various means.”
“But you stayed,” she said before she could help with herself. It was just so damned curious to find someone else who had been living alone and didn’t seem to have a problem with it.
He nodded. “I stayed. Come on, I’ll show you to one of the better rooms.”
She thanked him, and let him help her with the few belongings she’d assembled over the course of her solitude. Most of it had been assembled from things the Blue Giraffes had had in their cargo hold, but it had become hers by right of being the only one to survive. Technically she supposed that meant that the whole ship should have been hers, but the surplus of dead aliens inside of it didn’t exactly make it prime property.
Adrian hadn’t had any problem with stripping out everything of value, however. How he’d learned to do that was anybody’s guess and frankly she had been a little too worried that he was some kind of thug to think about asking any questions like that, or really any questions at all.
Now that she did have time to think about asking questions, it seemed like it would be an awkward turn of conversation and really if Jenny had any serious conversational skills she wouldn’t have gotten into IT. Or lived alone.
“This is impressive,” she said as he ushered her into the room intended for her use. It was clearly ornamented with engravings in the metal walls, decorated with faded images and pictures of dinosaurs for some strange reason. “What’s with the dinosaurs?” she asked, pointing out a Triceratops in one engraving.
“Dinosaurs built this,” he said simply, and then when she looked at him with an expression of ‘that must be crap!’ he added: “Yeah, I know it’s nuts.”
“So this is home now, huh?” she asked him as she placed her belongings on one of the surfaces. “I guess that makes us neighbours?”
“If you want to stick around,” he said, “I’ll be happy to have you. I’m starting to have conversations with the computer.”
“With the computer? It’s voice activated?” she asked. “Is it intelligent?”
“I wouldn’t call it intelligent,” he said, “but it does understand basic commands.”
And then, to demonstrate his point, he spoke to the room. “Zhadersil, play some music in this room.”
The room responded with a harsh, hissing language and music began to play. It was a strange, electric-sounding instrument strummed in a manner that reminded her somewhat of the orient. There were soft lyrics of that same harsh, hissing language.
She screwed up her features at the unpleasantness of the sound. “It’s a pity about that awful singing,” she said.
“Oh, right,” he replied. “You don’t have a translator. We’re going to have to figure out what to do about that.”