Allison left the kitchen. The door was probably never closed, but because it was a spaceship and space sucked, every door was a door that could be closed and sealed. She closed the door. She hoped Zebra and Bit had propagated the code she gave them through the ship by now. The pad flashed green then the light behind it turned red indicating it had been locked down. Without the code it would take some effort to get to her mother. She turned around and was face to face with two of the Syndicate’s men. Of course, they couldn’t see her because of her cloaking field. They had turned the dining room lighting to full luminescence. This covered any manner of flickering that might have been seen from Allison’s personal cloaking field. She stepped to the side as the pair tried to figure out what happened to the door. He spoke on their comms. Allison heard it through her translator and in person.

“One of you guys, ask a crewmember what the code to the kitchen is.”

He received a response and tried it. As expected by Allison, it did not work. He punched the panel and than the door. He shouted.

“Wes? Tammy?”

He was trying to see through the window in the door but it lacked a viewing angle to where Wes had been torturing her mother. Allison waited, she didn’t want to randomly cut off a conversation mid-sentence and alert anyone listening. Her chance came a few moments later when they gave up on that door.

“We’re going to try and get there through the cargo bay.”

Once he’d closed communication, she shot them both. Her tactics weren’t exactly honorable but in the immortal words of someone that wasn’t her, she was a special forces soldier, not a saint. Though calling her a special forces soldier at this point was a bit like calling a first aid station attendant a doctor. She shot them both again for good measure. As with Wes and Tammy, this pair were chromed up, which made it easy to lock them down. She removed their weapons and electronics. She had no wish to carry their belongings, so she dumped them in the trash. Not a perfect solution but it would take them time to find should her stun wear off and they somehow got mobile.

She checked her comms. Internal comms were working but Bit was still jamming external comms as she’d requested. The timer she’d set was getting low and she was starting to wonder if she could manage to deal with the rest of the Syndicate’s men before Bit and the drone wing would be engaging the other ships soon. She had to hurry. She’d wasted too much time being, well, nice. She re-engaged her cloaking field and started moving towards the cockpit. Even without scanners they would see the flashes when Bit fired her weapons, the ships orbit would have progressed to the dark side of Saturn by now. Making any extra light fairly obvious.

Her path took her between the main observation lounge and the gift shop. She moved swiftly until she reached one of the doors to the lounge. While the cloaking field generated by her holo-web was more advanced than the ones her biological mother would have been using twenty years ago, it still had flaws. In any environment with an atmosphere, there was no perfect cloak, or at least not yet anyway. Moving too quickly disturbed the air particles and because it was part shield, hence why her fighter could never have a cloak and shields up at the same time, they used the same projectors, those particles could in some rare instances cause small flashes. There was also a very remote chance that a shimmer effect would be visible. Bending light to cover an unpredictable human was apparently very hard. The corridor she was in was dark. The lounge was light and so was the gift shop. This is where the shimmer silhouette might occur. This meant she had to be cautious when transiting the hallway. She pressed herself against the wall and peeked into the lounge.

Allison saw four of the Syndicate’s people standing around the hostages, who were all on the ground. Their holo-phones were in a pile on one of the tables that littered the lounge. The hostages seemed to be in good health save a few crewmembers who looked like they tried to resist and paid the price with some bruises. The hostage-takers were facing away from her and watching their charges. Luck was with her, they had the window guards down. They were an emergency feature on many ships that would slam down and prevent atmospheric loss if the windows broke. Though she realized it wasn’t so much luck, just that the Syndicate people were smart and didn’t want to risk being shot by snipers.

If someone were to have learned about space travel from old media, they could be forgiven for thinking that shooting through an exterior window would result in explosive decompression would instantly kill everyone in the room. They would also be wrong. No one would be sucked out and turned into a window sized flesh blob, unless they were right against the window. Now, if the ship’s side were torn open, they would be sucked into space, but a bullet hole would be a slow leak. Allison knew all of this because one of her training courses had been on scenarios similar to this. Though she hadn’t even considered shooting them from outside the ship. Whatever the case, the window guards being down meant they would not see the space battle that was inching closer to being reality.

She moved on towards the cockpit, if the numbers she had from Alliance Intel were right, and she sure hoped they’d done a better job with that then checking on the health of the passengers, there would only be two in the cockpit. When she arrived, she found the cockpit door sealed. She used the override code, and it slid open. This caused both of them to look back. What they saw was a five-foot nine-inch-tall black body suit clad Allison with a helmet, her face concealed by a tinted face plate. She had both her pistols out and pointed at one each.

“Don’t touch anything, or call your friends, I’ve already broken into your internal comm net. These are disintegration pistols and they really hurt as they burn you up. I would dearly love to shoot you both, say there were only eight of you, to avoid the extra paperwork, but as it is, I’m supposed to at least to try and take you lot alive. The operative word in that sentence being try.”

The men who had been reaching for their weapons put up their hands. Allison motioned at the pilot with her pistol.

“Now that I’ve made my position clear on how meaningful your lives are to me, here is what you’re going to do, you, pilot, are going to leave the ring. And you, co-pilot are going to tell your friends that you figured out it’s the rings causing your external sensor and communication problems. Magnetic anomaly. Any failure to comply with my instructions and I will happily save your respective family’s the funeral costs.”

Allison was bluffing, there was no way she’d just disintegrate two defenseless people. She hoped her demeanor, menacing black armor and the fact they didn’t know they were being held at gunpoint by a sixteen-year-old girl would dissuade any resistance. She motioned with her Qual’sa pistols.

“Well, come on. Get to it boys.”

They looked at each other and both tried to lunge at her. She shot the pilot. He was extraneous to her plan. The co-pilot who had less cybernetics than his beefier friends could not budge Allison who dropped the pistol in her right hand and punched him in the gut with all of her combined dhampir and armor powered strength. He doubled over in pain. She kicked him hard in the back and bent down to pick up her gun. Now he had both pointing at him. She turned her pistol to max and unleashed a bolt of energy from it near his head. It turned the deck into slag. Thankfully the hull was armored enough it couldn’t make it through it.

“Now, that you tried to be a hero, lets get on with the message to your friends. Call your friends, I shoot you with the right pistol, you have a nap like your friend. Don’t call your friends, it’s the left pistol. You saw how well the deck did against it.”

He held his hand up in actual surrender this time and spoke on their comms.

“Hey guys, I figured out what’s going on, we’re going to pull out of the rings. There some magnetic anomaly causing interference.”

Allison shot him with the stun setting four times. She only needed to do it once, but she was really annoyed that they tried to grab her. She sat down in the pilot’s seat and carefully maneuvered the ship out of the ring. It shook and several pieces of debris bounced off of its heavily armored hull. She cut the straps off of the copilot’s seat, disarmed the pair and tied them up. Their lack of heavy cybernetic use would mean shutting down what they had would be insufficient to the task of paralyzing them.

Bit spoke through her translator. The AI had apparently used a tight beam point to point transmission to pierce her own jamming.

“Allison, we were about to start our attack. The ship just came out of the ring, are you alright? Should we proceed.”

Allison sighed with relief; She had made it in time.

“Yep, I’m down to the four guarding the hostages.”

Bit had concern in her voice when she asked her next question.

“Your mother, is she…”

“She’s alive, she’s pretty hurt so once you initiate your attack, please inform the Ark Royal there are some injuries amongst the hostages. Ten hostiles were here, six have been disabled. I’ll need someone to secure them. Once you can stop active jamming, please link my comms to the Ark Royal.”

The relief in Bit’s voice was palpable.

“I will. Please be careful Allison.”

The comm link closed. She saw flashes in the distance as Bit and the drone wing started their attack run. She picked up her pistols and activated her cloaking field again. Now she just had to figure out how to take out four people at once before they could turn their weapons on the hostages, and of course avoid the hostages getting caught in the crossfire. She didn’t want to shoot some old lady and stop her heart by accident. She crept back to the lounge. She peaked around the door again. Things had changed for the worse. The hijackers were looking ill at ease, twitchy even. One spoke over comms asking for an update on whether communications had been restored with their transport or fighters. They received no answer. This seemed to agitate the group more.

“Damn it, what is going on, no one is answering me.”

One of the others sounded less concerned.

“It’s probably just the same problem, just, got worse or something. There is no way anyone got on the ship, and we confirmed these were the only life signs. Just relax. I’m sure Wes just wanted a break and got them to take over.”

Unauthorized usage: this tale is on Amazon without the author's consent. Report any sightings.

Allison looked across at the gift shop. She shrugged and decided it couldn’t hurt. It was just as absurd as she assumed it would be when she’d seen the Saturn stuffies. Saturn mugs, Saturn t-shirts. ‘Authentic’ ring debris. Saturn quiz games…

She lifted one up and looked at it. It reminded her of a toy she used to have. A ball with a button she could press and a VI would quiz her on the game/series/toys for the holo-cartoon series. These were identical, except instead of white plastic it was yellow plastic with flimsy rings attached to it. She also remembered how buggy the VI was. She grinned.

She started turning the volume to maximum on each and every one of them. Finally, she pressed the button on the front of one of them, then a few seconds later pressed several more, and then a few seconds later pressed the rest. She quickly retreated as the quizzing balls started a cacophony of questions, then responded to each other with I didn’t quite get that, let me ask again. Over and over again. When she’d done it at the store, they were still doing it when she returned two days later. She assumed they would keep going until their charge wore out. Apparently, they hadn’t fixed the bug. The voices for these ones were loud bubbly kids voices and the racket was deafening.

Two of the hijackers rushed in. They held their hands over their ears. They frantically tried to turn them off. This amused Allison because the toys had no off switch. The two men were too flustered to look for the volume control, even if they could find it, it wouldn’t do much good, even on low it was obnoxiously loud. Allison took pity on the pair and stunned them. She quickly disarmed them before moving to deal with the last two men.

She rushed into the lounge and took a shot at both of them. She hit them both but only one collapsed. Her pistols beeped at her. Her cloak shimmered, giving away her position. He aimed his pistol at her. Allison closed the gap in a leap. Her knee caught him in the gut. He went down his pistol went flying. The collision created too many random moving parts for her holo-phone’s quantum processor and the program controlling holo-web hard crashed. The field turned into a rapidly alternating ball of static covering her form then vanished entirely. They wrestled but Allison was using every inch of the strength her blood could provide to flip and pin the man who was for all intents and purposes almost a full conversion borg. Whatever he’d done to himself it made him immune to her pistol’s stun setting. She managed to pin him and jam the liquid metal wire from her holo-phone into his data jack. She kept her knee pressed against the middle of his back and one of his arms pushed up far enough she risked tearing the hydraulics apart. Once the security forces override was sent he stopped all struggling and lay there paralyzed save for autonomic functions and very limited access to his optic and audio sensors. Unfortunately, he could still talk.

“What did you do bitch?”

Allison kneeled down and patted his cheek.

“I turned you off, too bad there was no volume control, huh?”

She stood up and while the man she’d just disabled uttered escalating threats in his impotent rage she addressed the hostages.

“Hello, I’m with the System’s Alliance, please remain calm and right here. I need to lock down the rest of these guys before you can move about freely.”

Aryna looked up. She started saying Allison’s name. Allison interrupted her swiftly.

“Highness, it is nice to see you in good health.”

Aryna stood up and smiled at the group.

“She is with the System’s Alliance. We’re safe now. Just listen to her please.”

Aryna’s natural charisma had apparently won over their group during their shared captivity so the few that were moving to ignore Allison’s request just readjusted themselves and settled down. Aryna rushed up to Allison and spoke quietly.

“I knew you would come.”

Allison motioned to the aft of the ship.

“She’s in the kitchen. Could you go check on her? She’s pretty hurt so I had to leave her behind.”

Allison provided the code to open the door and moved to disable the other hijacker’s cybernetics. She was in the middle of dragging one of the pilots to the lounge when she saw the Ark Royal’s captain show up on her armor’s HUD.

“Shadow One.”

Allison dropped the man’s shoulders and stood up straight.

“Ma’am.”

The captain looked like she’d won some prize as she spoke.

“I understand your op did not go well, that hostages were hurt. Are there any fatalities?”

Allison was disgusted, since when did gloating about being right trump being a caring human being and sending medical assistance.

“No, ma’am, there are no fatalities. The injuries occurred before my arrival. They were torturing one of the hostages. Their reason for doing so is classified. That is why they were stringing your negotiator along. The hostage will need immediate medical attention. The ship is secure, and all hostiles have been disabled. Please send security and medical teams. I have re-enabled the port and starboard docking rings.”

The captain looked impressed and she issued the orders to send the requested teams over. She turned her attention back to Allison.

“Going in alone was still reckless, Shadow One. We are all on the same team. Which hostage is injured? Command is asking for an update.”

Allison kept things professional. It was one of her go to coping mechanisms. Also Shadow One was her call sign. They were used on communications for a reason. That reason being, it kept actual names and identities out of live military communications.

“Governor Apiyo Wanjala, ma’am.”

The captain’s face immediately softened.

“We will have an emergency medical evac team there as soon as possible. Will you be joining her Shadow One?”

Allison shook her head.

“No, ma’am. I need to brief your security team and assist in securing any evidence. May my fighter land on your carrier, ma’am.”

“Permission granted, Shadow One. I’ll have a hanger berth assigned. Ark Royal out.”

The communication ended. Allison continued gathering up the hijackers. She had them all leaned up against the interior wall of the main observation lounge. The one she’d been forced to leave conscious but with disabled cybernetics still hadn’t stopped threatening her with all manner of terrible fates. Allison got tired of it and dragged him into the hall. The cacophony of Saturn Quiz toys was ear-piercing even here.

“I don’t believe in torture but if you keep talking, I might just change my opinion on it and put you in the gift shop with those things.”

He shut his mouth and not another word came out of it while they were waiting for the Ark Royal’s security teams to dock. She still had her helmet on when the security team arrived. They were all non-commissioned members, which meant Allison outranked all of them. As per regulations, none of them saluted her, or called her ma’am.

“Shadow One, where do you need us?”

Allison pointed at the disabled attackers.

“I need your team to secure the ship and prisoners. You’ll have to wait for command to decide what to do with them.”

Allison looked at the medical team who had arrived just after the security team.

“There are a few minor injuries over there, the woman who needs immediate attention is aft, in the kitchen.”

Allison motioned to Vaedrick, he walked over to her. She spoke.

“Highness, please accept the System’s Alliance’s apology, for this terrible experience. Come with us.”

An older man stood up. He was wearing a get up Allison just knew was from the expensive Pleasure Dome 3 stores on the VIP side. Obviously, he was a high-ranking corporate executive.

“You, the one in charge, what about us? I have calls to make, we’ve been stuck on this ship for hours. You’re just going to keep us here?”

Allison reminded herself to be professional.

“I apologize sir, please just a little more patience. The System’s Alliance is arranging evacuation.”

He got in her face, or tried to, he was a couple inches shorter than her. He started poking her shoulder with his finger. She was sure it would have hurt, if she hadn’t been in armor as it was, he just ended up hurting himself.

“Do you know who I am?”

Allison kept her voice level.

“I do not sir. All I know is that I have no orders directly concerning you, so please, have a seat until we have guidance on how to get you to where you want to go. Due to this incident the System’s Alliance has locked down all ship traffic in the Saturn sector. This group had starfighters and an armed transport. We are unsure if that was their only support. We’re only evacuating medical emergencies and their immediate family. If anyone from your group is in medical distress, I will be happy to have you assessed for evacuation.”

He glared at her.

“Typical, the military takes in all the morons who can’t make it in the corporate world. You’re worried about some nobody and her three alien pets. Over me. I’m an important man.”

Allison very patiently tapped her armor’s HUD interface and did a facial recognition search on the Alliance-Net. She tried not to laugh when she saw who it was. He was a VP at Aurelius Corp.

“You are, Tiberius Hall, born Oct 9th, 2792, Vice President of Client Services, Aurelius Corp. Your current residence is in the NAFTA dome. I will be happy to reach out to your corp to request they provide special dispensation to evacuate you as a priority. I will also mention that you feel you should have been given priority over the personal friend of your CEO who is in need of emergency medical assistance. So they can understand just how urgent this is.”

That seemed to catch his attention.

“What? No, no, nothing like that.”

“Three? There was another alien?”

He blinked a few times.

“Yes, the one with white fur. Now then, about that message to my corporation, after due consideration I see the wisdom in staying here. So, there is no need to send it right?”

She’d assumed Oozie was still in their suite. Now she was very concerned. Allison promptly tuned out, Mr. Hall. She looked in the direction of the security team. She pointed to a pair of corporals.

“You two, escort his highness to the medical transport. I will send further orders soon.”

She pointed to another pair of corporals.

“You two standby. I will send your search sectors after I finish with Mr. Hall.”

Allison turned back to Mr. Hall, who was looking slightly nervous.

“I will send the message for you, sir. Now, please excuse me. I have to deal with this search.”

She turned and walked away letting him stew. Part of her felt guilty. It was a small part and easily ignored, especially now that she was worried about Oozie’s safety. She set up a search grid and divided it into three sectors. She assigned the two teams to theirs and took one for herself. She also sent an image of Oozie, her name and a very clear warning not to appear aggressive. The ship wasn’t exactly large and there weren’t many places to hide a nargle. Though her white friend would explain the odd scratches and dent’s she’d seen on one of the hijacker’s cybernetic legs. She just hoped they hadn’t shot her.

She was nearing the end of her list of rooms when she received a communication from one of the teams. He sounded… scared. Allison sighed.

“Uh, Shadow One, we found it locked in a hallway near engineering. We opened the door and now I think it’s going to attack. Do we have permission to engage.”

Allison started running in that direction.

“Stand down corporal. You do not have permission to engage. She can sense aggressive thoughts.”

She arrived on the scene. The two corporals had their assault rifles leveled at Oozie. The nargle was crouched low and she was growl-hissing. Allison put her hands on the assault rifles and pushed them downwards.

“Oozie. Stop it. They’re on our side.”

The nargle’s demeanor changed quickly and she bounded towards Allison who kneeled down and rubbed behind Oozie’s front legs. She purred loudly at the attention.

“Sorry. I didn’t know you were here. Go find Aryna and stick with her.”

Oozie sat down. Allison sighed.

“You are the most stubborn nargle I’ve ever met.”

The two corporals looked at each other in confusion. Allison pointed towards the starboard docking link where the medical transport was docked.

“I’m fine. All the bad guys are taken care of, now go, find Aryna. I’ll see you soon.”

Oozie looked at the two corporals.

“I told you, they’re on our side, silly nargle, go before they leave without you. I’m fine, mom needs you, now go.”

Oozie tried her adorable puppy dog face. Allison groaned and kneeled down to give her a few more pets.

“You are so… there you got more pets, now go find Aryna and mom. They’re probably worried sick about you.”

Oozie pouted but dashed off. Allison stood up and swept the white fur off her armor. The two corporals still looked extremely confused by the whole encounter. Allison motioned in the direction Oozie went.

“She’s telepathic and smarter than the three of us put together. I disposed of weapons in several places. I’ll send the locations to you, please collect and secure them.”

They moved to follow her orders, but she called out.

“Remember to follow proper evidence handling procedures.”

They both gave her an affirmative response and vanished into the ship.