The Star Hammer, one of the newest and latest ships off the line, was in shambles. Repair crews hustled about trying to make repairs. The devastating cyber attack had hit them out of nowhere, completely disabling the ship. Weapons and communications had been first, then the intercom system, and then every system had gone offline when the computers were hit. He still had no idea how they had done it. There weren’t even fragments in the hard drive to retrieve, they were completely wiped.

They had managed to link to the network and download software to repair the damage to those systems, but countless malfunctions had occurred as the systems went haywire and nothing had shut down properly. Then the follow-up attack hit them.

Every weapon had been completely trashed, either stripped off the haul or melted to slag. From their biggest guns, right down to the smallest point defense system. It wouldn’t have been so bad if the engines hadn’t been torn into a mangled mess of scrap metal.

They couldn't even request assistance from the locals, not that he could have if he was inclined to. Despite being the Captain, his ship had essentially been commandeered by that idiotic Commander and he refused to accept help from inferior beings. Idiot. Nothing had gone wrong until he’d arrived.

Everything was still a mess even now that the computers were back online. The hanger bay hadn’t escaped their queries notice. Fires still burned down there.

“Captain! If you don’t get this ship underway in the next hour, I’ll have your head!”

The Captain looked around the bridge at his cowering officers. They had been subject to insults and berated for no reason as the imbecile tried to tell them how to do their jobs, inadvertently lowering their efficiency and slowing everything down.

“Commander, I’ll remind you, you relieved me of command some time ago. I’m just an observer until the hearing and Fleet Headquarters rules otherwise.”

The veins in the Commander's neck pulsed dangerously. “This is an emergency!”

The Captain caught the communications officer's eye and signaled him out of sight behind his back to cut the feed. Then met the Commander’s face squarely. “Yes. This is an emergency. One you flew us into with glee if I recall. Almost makes me wonder if you’re not intentionally sabotaging the ship.”

“What did you say?” he demanded.

The Captain saw his chance and took it. It was a dangerous gamble, but he was sick of dealing with this good-for-nothing windbag. It wouldn’t take much, the Commander was already close to snapping.

“If you need a hint on how to solve this situation, Commander, it's simple. Just demand what you need to repair the ship from the locals.”

“Do it,” The Commander snapped.

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As the order went out the Captain lit the tinder. “Even an infant could have figured that out.”

The commander snapped. “I’ll kill you, you insubordinate little—” The Commander drew his sidearm. The Captain moved. He jumped forward and grabbed hold of the Commander’s wrist, the sidearm fired, drowning out the rest of his insult. Before the Commander knew what was happening, the blade concealed in the Captain’s sleeve pierced his side. The Captain thrust the blade in and out like a piston venting his rage.

He released his hold on the Commander and his dead body crumbled to the ground. The Commanders' two aides by the door were similarly stabbed from behind by the guards stationed by the bridge, who followed their Captain’s lead.

“Now,” he cleared his throat and straightened his uniform. “Let's be about things. Are the bridge cameras still offline?”

“Yes, Captain.”

“We’ll have to see about getting those fixed when we have a moment won’t we?”

His crew chuckled nervously but they were smiling.

“Captain, the locals are refusing to give us the aid we demanded.”

“No matter, that’s fine. We don’t need it.” He chuckled. That had only been a ploy to mess with the Commander. “Now—” He was cut off as an explosion rocked the ship. “What was that?”

“Sir we are under fire!”

“What! Who is attacking us?” His mind raced. Had that demon returned with her ship?

“Shields at thirteen percent!”

“Who is attacking us?” he demanded.

“The local station sir, they declared us pirates and opened fire,” the young technician said in a small voice.

The Captain felt his blood run cold, then the ship bucked violently and he was thrown from his feet. He slammed into the deck plates and everything went dark. When he woke up, everything was a haze. Smoke pooled around the ceiling and explosions sounded in the distance drowning out the small arms fire.

“Captain! Boarders have taken the engine room,” one of his young ensigns informed him even as he helped him to his feet.

“What’s our status?”

The lights flickered and then died. “They just shut down the power plants, sir. We can’t win.”

That was true, most of their boarding forces had been wiped out by that demon girl. Emergency backup generators kicked in, casting a ruby glow around the ship as the red lighting came alive. He thought about it for a long moment. His murder of a superior would be investigated if they survived. Even with the bridge cameras offline, there was a high chance he’d get caught. The bridge was full of witnesses. They were loyal, but it only took one to spill the secret, and the Enforcers could be very persuasive.

The ship was overrun and they were declared pirates. It was like some twisted joke. He composed himself and turned to his young ensign. “Get me a shipwide channel.”

He ordered all hands to lay down their weapons and made a statement to the borders declaring that the ship had been under the command of a lunatic, who had given the order to demand supplies. He told them he’d orchestrated a coup and then surrendered the ship to them. It was his only hope to save his neck.

He compiled a different report and sent it to his superiors over the quantum link blaming the Commander for everything. It was frowned upon to accuse a superior and you had to have evidence. The loss of a brand-new dreadnought would be all the evidence they needed.

The Commander didn’t even protest. The Captain snorted. That would be a feat seeing as how the Commander was dead.

Little did he know what the humans would do with his stricken ship or the secrets they would learn from the advanced Triv technology contained within. He was far more concerned with worries about his own neck.

The End of Book One.