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Chapter 4 - The Worldkiller

Allison reached the source of the energy readings. She flipped on the antigrav system and hovered over what appeared to be a ship, though the smooth brown and green hull appeared to be made out of some form of organic matter. It was three hundred meters long. It didn’t match any configuration known to the System’s Alliance. The ship hung precariously on a ledge above an ocean of boiling rock. Bit spoke.

“Ensign the liquid beneath is superheated. Looks like it was a result of the meteorite hit. If the fighter, or that ship fall into that lake they will be destroyed. I am picking up faint life signs and the ship itself is alive.”

Allison sighed and lowered the starfighter closer to the ship. She double checked her armor’s environmental controls and the outside temperature.

“I sure hope this armor is as good as they say it is.”

She opened the canopy and lowered herself down on the ladder that formed. She landed on the ship but it was far more slick then she expected. She started sliding down it. Handholds started to form for her but she missed several. Finally grabbing one as she fell over the edge of one of the ship’s winglike sides. She dangled there looking down at the superheated rock a thousand feet below. She closed her eyes then struggled to get her fingers into another handhold and pulled herself up. Once Allison caught her breath and the adrenaline that had flooded her system with her near death experience had faded, she realized she should be documenting everything this was a first contact situation.

“Ship seems to have some form of intelligence. It attempted to make the surface navigable as I was falling.”

She looked over the edge of the ship at the superheated fluid below and muttered to herself.

“They said, first rule in the military is to never volunteer for anything, should have listened. Looking for an airlock or something.”

The ship formed foot and hand holds for her, so she followed them and found an air lock. The ship appeared to be listing to the starboard side so when she opened the air lock she fell downwards and slammed into a wall. The interior appeared more like that of a conventional ship.

“Interior appears to be metal. More like a ship we’d be using. Bit? Can you hear me?”

She sighed when she received no response. The same communications issues she was having with her fighter appeared to be interfering with comms to the AI. The exterior door closed, and the internal door opened. Once that happened, she fell on her face again as gravity shifted so the ship’s deck plates became the relative ground.

“Ship seems to have antigravity to negate planetary gravity and gravity generators to create deck plates as new ground level. HUD is showing it as near standard. Interior seems to be shielded. My suit’s scanners are working. I’m heading to life signs.”

She heard Bit’s voice suddenly but not through her comms, it was through the alien ship’s interior speakers.

“I apologize, the ship’s firewalls were difficult to breach. I am now in control of minor systems and can direct you to the life signs. I’m also translating the displays real time via comm link to your HUD.”

Allison released a sigh of relief when she heard her AI’s voice.

“Thank the Dark Mother. I’m making my way to those life signs. What is the status of the ship.”

“I am trying to ascertain the status. The virtual intelligence in control of it is somewhat confusing. It is adamant that nothing else matters besides the female subject, however it is also resisting my attempts to determine her identity. They are stasis pods. The one containing the male subject is stable but not responding to wake up commands, the other has been damaged. The VI indicates that biological damage has already occurred. It has also advised if she does not receive immediate medical attention she will die. However, the medical bay has been destroyed by weapon’s fire.”

Allison sighed.

“What kind of FTL velocity are we talking here?”

“Primary drive is offline. It has a secondary drive, but it is slower than mine. At least three hours to Eden Prime, which has the nearest medical crisis center.”

Allison shook her head, there was no help for it.

“Fine, does this thing have a landing bay? Fighter Bay or anything like that?”

Bit took several moments to respond once again.

“Yes Ensign, it does.”

“Land there please and give me a map to the stasis chambers and the hangar bay. You’re going to have to fly her to Eden Prime. I’ll get the ship out of here and use it. It can fly right? The engines are operational?”

“Yes, Ensign. I will relay your intent to the VI.”

Allison started running towards the stasis chambers. Five minutes into her journey she was tossed at the wall as the ship heaved beneath her. She picked herself up and thanked System’s Alliance R&D and Aurelius Corp for the armor.

“What was that Bit?”

“Another meteorite strike. There is another large asteroid incoming. We have approximately fifteen minutes to complete the rescue and evacuate this hemisphere. I have landed. The VI has powered up the engines and initiated a system’s check on the FTL drive.”

Allison started running again. The doors to the stasis bay swished open. She rushed in and was knocked against a stasis chamber when the ship lurched again. The clear chamber was smashed and she was face to face with the desiccated remains of a humanoid. She screamed and stumbled backwards into another chamber which contained more desiccated remains. She focused straight ahead not looking at any of the other pods.

When she reached the destination Bit had indicated on her HUD she saw two stasis pods still powered. In the one on the right there was a tall, bulky man with a shaved head, his skin was pale with the slightest of blue tinges. His ears were pointed. On the left was what appeared to be a teenage girl her skin tone matched the large males. Flowing silver hair graced her head it appeared to go far past her shoulders, her long silver bangs were tucked behind slender pointed ears. She was several inches shorter than Allison.

Allison knelt down and quickly started looking over the control panel. Her HUD overlayed Alliance standard, she found the option she was looking for. Emergency waking protocol. There was a hiss and an alarm. The teenager fell out of the pod and into her arms when the glass tube opened. The teenager’s violet eyes blinked open as she looked up at Allison.

“Do you have their language in the translation matrix?”

“No, Ensign, but if you remove your glove and touch her you can communicate they are telepathic, touch enhances it.”

Allison pulled her armor’s gauntlet off and touched the Qual’sa’s hand skin to skin. She could feel panic. Rapid thoughts raced through their shared link, Who are you? What do you want? Am I going to die? Then images of war and death. Dark-skinned multi-limbed aliens shredding and tearing their way through Qual’sa. Smoldering planets. Razed cities. Allison had no idea how to communicate effectively in this medium. She tried to meditate, the same way she did when she mentally linked with Bit. When she wanted to become one with her starfighter and its AI. It worked. She managed to push through the panicked rush of words and images. She thought of Eden Prime, and how safe she felt there, of the Medical Center and how good they were when she crashed her bike and broke her arm. She also gave an image of what was going on outside the ship. The Qual’sa teenager nodded. Allison picked up her gauntlet and put it back on. She scooped the girl into her arms and started rushing towards the hangar bay where Bit waited for them. The Qual’sa girl spoke.

“Synthlin?”

Allison shook her head.

“System’s Alliance, Humans.”

Allison put the girl in her cockpit and hopped off. She patted the particle intake of the fighter.

“Send everything you have about these guys to my holo-phone. Slave the drones to my holo-phone.”

“I will wait until you launch, or the large meteorite hits to go to FTL.”

Allison gave one last wave before turning around and starting out on a dead run to the ship’s bridge. She started to notice damage to the interior. Doors and walls ripped open. Claw marks. She could see the bridge at the end of a long corridor. Then a black shape popped out of one of the side passages. It had two arms that ended in talons, two legs with talons then four extra limbs that ended in spikes. It had what looked like a chitin-like exterior. The limbs on it’s left side hung limply. It had mandibles and a ring of spiked teeth for a mouth. Allison skidded to a halt.

Organic spikes started flying towards her. She had been standing staring at the creature in shock when the first spike collided with her armor. The armor was apparently tough enough and it deflected the first few hits. They took gouges out of the super-hard metal. She realized quickly if they hit the more flexible parts instead of the plates they would go right through the armor. She pulled out her service side arm and started firing. Her bullets bounced off the hard exterior of the alien. It squealed and started tearing up the hallway towards her. Literally tearing it up the spikes were shredding the passageway’s metal floor. She turned and ran. The timer on her HUD was steadily counting down.

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Allison pulled a flashbang off her belt. She had a wish that standard weapon compliment for fighter pilots included actual explosives. One of those handy micro-fusion grenades with the scalable yield would be real handy right about now. She set the timer and tossed the flashbang and turned away. Even through her visor that had built in flash suppression tech it was near blinding. Even the audible component made her ears ring. The good news was it had a far stronger impact on the alien than her. It was slashing around blindly and running in circles when its claws and spikes hit the hallway’s walls. She rushed forward towards it shooting. Her pistol ran out of ammo. She reloaded and continued firing. Sickly green blood sprayed out of it in spots but none of the rounds seemed to have any other visible effect.

She was growing desperate. Suddenly time seemed to stop. It was like the bug-thing was moving in slow motion then she spotted it, was that a soft spot under its mandibles? She pulled out her combat vibroknife out of her boot and weaved inside madly flailing limbs. She stabbed upwards under its jaw hoping it was like every other living creature and had its brain in its head. It squealed again. It was ear piercing this close up. It collapsed, the limbs were still twitching and one of the spiked limbs pierced her abdomen, thankfully it was towards the edge so it didn’t damage anything vital. She cried out and clutched her side. Her HUD was showing less than seven minutes until impact. Adrenaline pumped through her veins as she rushed towards the bridge. There were skeletons in ornate armor sitting at the various stations. She identified the helm with the help of the translation matrix Bit had sent her. She shoved the skeleton out of the seat.

“Sorry…”

She slid into the seat and started pounding on the various buttons. They were physical rather than holographic. A male voice spoke as she started the antigrav systems she couldn’t understand a word of it, but it didn’t matter. The ship was responding. Then it ground to a halt. She tried the side thrustors, but the ship creaked and shuddered but would not move. She was having trouble speaking because she was in so much pain. Her breath was ragged.

“Bit, I am stuck, I need help.”

Her fighter’s AI spoke through the ship’s speakers once again.

“A rock fall is in the way. Brace for impact. Firing high yield particle beams.”

The ship shuddered and then suddenly ripped free of its grave. She cried out in pain as she reached over to power the shields on the science console. Bit addressed her again.

“Ensign, your life signs are fluctuating. What is your status?”

Allison gritted her teeth as the G’s from her rapid launch flooded her with more pain from her injury. The ship’s inertial dampeners kicked in and she was able to speak again.

“Uh… bug attack. Flesh wound. I’ll be fine. I just need to get out of here before I apply first aid.”

Allison watched on the view screen as the black ash gave way to clear space. Then she saw what most astrometrics experts would call a world-killer asteroid. She was forced to weave to the side. The cruiser’s shields flashed as it impacted against debris. There was no helping it. The debris field was dense. She cried out again as she reached over and hit the Qual’sa’s version of a phalanx defense system. Beams of purple energy lit up space around her ship as they auto-fired on debris clearing a path. Some still hit the forward shield which was flashing red on the science display by the time she managed to reach clear space. She saw a rear display on the view screen and enlarged it. The world killer collided with the planet. There was a massive release of energy which caused the cruiser to be buffeted by something. No debris flew upwards. She was confused but set focus to the forward view. Bit spoke again.

“Drones slaved to your holo-phone. Please begin first aid treatment before proceeding to Andromeda-1. Entering FTL, ETA 15 standard minutes to Eden Prime. I will warn Andromeda-1 you are arriving in a Qual’sa ship. Good luck, Ensign, and may the Ancients be with you.”

Allison’s HUD acknowledge the drones were slaved to her holo-phone and her contact’s built in targeting system. She was already reaching for her auto-seal injector. She pulled it out of its casing and slammed it into her wound. There was an initial jolt of pain, but then white foam started to form in the wound sealing it and spreading local anesthetic. Allison took a deep breath now that she could without stabbing pain. She sighed and looked down at the helm controls.

“Sorry dad. Looks like I’m not going to be home on time.”

Allison started tapping in the coordinates for an FTL jump to Andromeda-1. As much as her dad was her commanding officer, System’s Alliance military standard orders overrode him. All acquired alien tech was to be brought directly back to Pluto Station, Sol system and for that she would need the stargate at Andromeda-1. The ship transited into hyperspace after she sent the final command. She set it to maximum speed. As Bit had noted, it was substantially slower than it could be because of battle damage to the main engines. ETA was six hours.

She stood up and winced, but no pain came. The foam was doing its job. She looked over the various stations and finally identified the communications station. She managed to set it to send and receive on Alliance channels.

“Whew, at least now if the message doesn’t get through, I can avoid getting shot down by my own people.”

She stood up and looked around the bridge again. She hadn’t had a chance to appreciate the fluid design of the Qual’sa’s ship. Everything was smooth and rounded. Ornate even. They seemed to take pride in appearances, human design was definitely function over form. Blocky and angular. Except the Athena fighters. Those were streamlined and smooth. Flat even. She assumed they were based on the Synthlin design esthetic. Their fighters and ships were all designed to reduce cross-section profile targeting space. Humans had built their ships to be heavily armored for broadside toe to toe combat like the warships of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.

Allison started going over the various defensive and offensive systems of the ship. Apparently, the organic hull was adaptive and filled with an energy weave to absorb incoming energy weapon attacks. Lasers would be very ineffective against it. All they would do would be to feed energy to the ship. The shields were similar to System’s Alliance tech. The main weapons were particle beams and the defensive weapons were something called phasic arrays. She realized System’s Alliance R&D would love this.

She suddenly realized she was out of ammunition for her pistol and there could be more of the black bugs on the ship. She stood up swiftly and looked around frantically. She found the ship’s former captain was armed with a sword. The leather sheath had long ago turned to a rock-like texture. She hit the sword against the ship wall and the leather broke away. When she struck it again the sword sunk into the wall of the ship and got stuck. She started pulling it and stumbled backwards. She managed to keep her footing without falling on her butt. She pressed the sword against the back of her armor and the liquid metal formed a sheath for her. Two of the skeletons that were the most heavily armored and would have been standing guard by the bridge door were armed with what appeared to be long arms, assault rifles and pistols. She was surprised to see they still had a charge. She picked up one of the long arms. The strap for it was obviously some form of plastic and had not decayed over the millennia. She strapped it over her shoulder and picked up both pistols and placed them against the armor and holsters formed.

“Well… let’s see if more of those beasties are hiding here. I need to clear the ship before I can rest.”

She started making her way through the ship with the Qual’sa assault rifle in both hands. The ship had six decks. Most of deck six was missing or damage enough the bulkheads were sealed. The ship had seen better days. Her scanners showed the air in the ship was good and life support was good. The crew was dead save for the one passenger in stasis. She found several dead bugs. There was basically just a black exoskeleton left of each. No eggs, no live bugs. She found an empty cabin and peeled her armor off. She set an alarm for three and a half hours then collapsed on the nylon-like mattress and abruptly fell asleep. She had been so exhausted mentally and physically it felt like she had barely closed her eyes when the alarm woke her up.

Allison pulled her armor on and groggily made her way to the bridge. She decided to take a seat at the communications station so she could speak to Andromeda-1 before they decided to fire on her. Right on time the ship dropped out of FTL and came to a stop when the retro thrusters fired. Allison opened communications.

“This is Skull 10 out of Eden Prime. I am in command of an alien ship and request transit to Pluto station. Sending my security code.”

She sent her security code. It was basically a package that included a DNA scan from her holo-phone. Voice print and an alpha-numeric code word. Her holo-phone could only send it if she was wearing it and alive.

“You are authorized. You are injured. Do you need treatment?”

“No, sir. Standing orders are to deliver all alien tech to Pluto Station at maximum possible speed. I am physically able and I don’t think anyone else knows how to fly this thing at this point. I have one passenger in stasis. He will need medical treatment as soon as the pod is opened. He is in critical condition. Pod is fully functional at this time.”

“Acknowledged. You are clear for stargate transit in five minutes. Ensure you do not touch the edge of the vortex.”

Allison sighed in relief.

“Could you please open a comm link to Eden Prime? This ship does not have compatible communications.”

“You are linked. Good job Skull 10. Your first patrol is going to go down in history.”

Allison blushed and she saw the comm’s operator for Eden Prime appear on the main viewscreen. Allison spoke.

“This is Skull ten. Could I please speak to Eightball.”

The comms operator nodded.

“Patching you through.”

Her father appeared on the screen. Allison walked down to the middle of the bridge and looked up at her father. The large screen showed all the lines on his face. He looked tired but relieved. Allison folded her hands in front of her, using her elbow to cover the torn open armor and white foam.

“Hello, sir. I trust Bit was logged as landed by 2330?”

He seemed to struggle not to smile but failed and his lips popped up a bit at the corners.

“She was. Though her pilot was replaced by someone else. I trust her pilot is in one piece.”

Allison smiled.

“She is, she is about to transit to Sol system. She will be home as soon as she can be.”

He nodded.

“She better be.”

Allison nodded.

“Aye Sir.”

Another communication came in giving her thirty seconds until wormhole activation.

“I need to go. Skull 10 out.”

Allison closed communications and slid into the helmsman’s chair. She angled the ship and prepared for wormhole transit. The stargate looked like a starship dry dock. Allison watched as a pinprick of light started to form at the center. The ball of light got brighter and brighter. Then a silver vortex swirled into existence. She piloted the ship through being careful not to touch the edges. If one were to touch the edges the ship could disintegrate if you were unlucky. Though some might consider the alternative worse. Theoretically you could end up anywhere in time and space with no real way home unless you had a wormhole beacon. She blinked as she hit the event horizon and by the time she opened her eyes she was flying past dozens of drydocks and moored System’s Alliance capital ships. Pluto station was fleet headquarters.

“This is Pluto station to Skull 10. Sending telemetry to your holo-phone. Please dock in the indicated mooring.”

Allison piloted the ship into the drydock indicated. Tractor beams locked on once she was inside and held the ship fast. She had already decided how she was going to get off the Qual’sa ship. There was a fighter in the port hangar bay that still had power. She couldn’t resist trying it out. After getting clearance she launched. Pluto space control directed her to a hangar bay on the station which had been on the opposite side of Pluto. She gasped when the massive silvery station came into view. Spacecraft buzzed around it like busy bees. She followed the instructions provided and brought the Qual’sa fighter into land. The fighter was the same color as the cruiser, same organic hull. She found she preferred Bit, but the fighter itself was passable. No FTL though, also no fluidic metal ladder so she was forced to use a set of stairs provided by the hangar bay team.

Allison winced as she climbed down. The local anesthetic was wearing off. She was forced to grab the railing at the bottom of the stairs to steady herself. Someone must have warned them she was injured because a medical team was standing by and laid her on a stretcher. One pulled off her helmet and she felt an injector press against her neck and she blacked out.