“Stealth technology,” Charyd mimicked her own words back at her. Alice said nothing, but a low tide of emotional curiosity came at Ilise. As his head and the rest of his body shrunk back into the Pirate Charyd she knew, he finally caught up to what she was talking about. “Ooooh! Alice, you are going to find this hilarious. The reason the military sent such a high-power ship to the prison was-”
“I know. She told me in the interview that you interrupted.” Alice smiled, recalling the day. Ilise locked her face in place, but it was pointless to hide her annoyance from the Nereus. “This means the so-called planet dooming weapon they took was only a pretty cloaking devise. We have no right to take it from the Execs.”
“You do.” Ilise pointed to the dark lightbulb in the hall. “You want your siblings on Aegean to get an unsurprised attack like this? To be raided.”
Alice crossed her arms, her skin dancing from opaque and contrasting clear spots around her body, an anxiety attack splotching on her skin. “Stop saying that. Bob would not have gotten into a fight if you had kept your mouth shut.”
“Why would they want to see the ship?”
Charyd put a hand on her shoulder. “Most people are curious to see someone’s new home or ride.”
She shrugged his hand off her. “Felt like a house showing and they were trying to outbid you with their armory.”
“That’s a fair point, but Bob at least left his gun behind.”
“Ilise took it,” Alice stated casually, then put her open palm out to Ilise.
Ilise would not give up the gun. This conversation was going off the plotted course. “Before the stunned Execs wake up, we need to get them all in the shuttle and flying to the moon for at least our own protection so that we don’t get shot again—or worse. You need to declaw the beast that hurt you if you don’t want it hunting you again.”
The fire-agate-colored eyes of Charyd never left her face. The military trained her to deal with interrogation. His stunning eyes would do nothing to win her over. This simple plan would at least put all the stolen technology into the hands of one very near, and pleasantly smelling of whipped cream, pirate.
“It's, unfortunately, the correct idea, but no clear method of how to do it. They have maybe five people left on their ship.”
Ilise held up eight fingers. “We outnumber them easily. Put their crew on the clocked shuttle. Let me talk to Tony, and Saar and I will head over.”
Finally, his eyes shifted from her face as he looked at his co-captain for advice. Alice blinked slowly, her fingers keeping a beat. “She has a plan, but I go with her as a backup.”
He clicked his tongue, “Having to take this technology isn't settling well with me. This whole fight was over a misunderstanding. If you apologize-”
“No.” There was a bedroom nearby with pillows available if he asked again.
“Captain, look at your comm.” Tony’s voice came in clear over the speaker as both Charyd’s and Ilise’s comm pinged at the same time. Tony needed another reminder of who an actual captain was and to ignore all pirates.
On the comm was a video, she clicked the start button to watch the inside of a very cramped shuttle, four people were standing holding makeshift handrails in the ceiling like it was a public transport system, while five others were intensely interested in what Bob had to say, who took the only comfortable seat in the cabin. The cobalt rings shined on their heads while orange hats sat on their laps. Others were checking their guns one last time and tucking them under their coats. “Plans simple, eat the cake, drink the tea, then we raid that military ship for everything it's worth. Scorz nabs the AI technology. I’ll cause a distraction with Charyd, I’ve got a beef to settle.”
The video ended and Charyd laughed, Alice chuckled slightly shortly after. Telepathy talking, the whole crew was on it.
Tony’s standard hologram appeared dressed in a clean uniform, hands pointed out to reveal a handcuff around his wrists. “The shrimp is good. She used me to hack the shuttle video logs. The Execs are packed back into their shuttle. They stacked the unconscious ones like sardines in a can. You were polite in putting Bob on the bottom.”
“Mhe serves them right. That’s how they do any delivery. Overpack their ship, late shipments, and damaged goods.” It was the second time she brought it up. Something in her past must have been late because of the Execs.
“Alice.” Chided Charyd, for once he was about to lecture his subordinates. “You know we don’t bad mouth our competition.”
Seriously, they had to be the universe’s most polite pirates. They even left a note after stealing the Darkstorm months ago saying,
“Thanks for the ship.
-Captain Charyd.”
It was not sarcastic, but actually in the same tone as saying, “So long, and thanks for all the fish.”
That was in the past, she needed to save the ship again from the pirates now. “Tony, can you still access the Exec shuttle?”
“Yes, sir!” He saluted at her, one arm doing it properly, the other being dragged against its will because of the handcuff.
“Can you see if you can signal their main ship?”
“With them docked to the Darkstorm, yes, I can. I won’t be able to manipulate their ship.”
Tony always kept up with what Ilise was thinking. Even in training with Tony in the early stages of the Darkstorm project, they could work quickly in tandem with just a basic bit of information. “You can, in a different sense.”
He wiggled his handcuffs, and two beeps played off, one quieter than the other. “I’m. Blocked. The. Shrimp.” His words echoed around the hallway to literally repeat himself.
Grinding her teeth, she glared at Charyd, he previously placed a smoke bomb in the lighting strike area, which meant he had clearance to get in it. It was terrible she had to depend on him to use the advanced weapon. “You have access to the Lighting Strike. Charge and shoot their ship. Tony, while it's charging, send a message to the main ship with a note saying the crew is safe — nothing more.” He would totally add more, but she at least tried to tell him no. “Let's get going, Alice.”
Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
“Hold it. I want Scooball and Polo on the shuttle with you. The rest of us can handle making a little static charge and flying Darkstorm for a short while.”
There was no appreciation for the advanced technology on the ship. Paring the Lighting Strike to shuffling your socks on the carpet was an insult. The agile style of a fish ship to deal with any gravity field, planet terrain, and space terrains and sharply turnabout in order to attack an enemy. They probably thought it was cute. Which was why Charyd did not use the Dark Matter Engine to fight or escape earlier.
“Fine.” Ilise locked eyes with Alice. “I had no plans of running away in an escape pod. Tony, on my command, start that clocked orbit mission for the moon. Make them bounce around orbit as long as you can.”
“But don’t let them die,” Charyd ordered. There he goes again with the whole saving lives of the people who tried to kill him. “Don’t glare at me like that. I don’t need Bob dying—he's not the only captain of that ship hive mess. There is a whole fleet of Execs and we don’t need them chasing after us.”
“I won’t let them die.” Tony nodded. I will make sure they only orbit the moon until they hit twenty-five percent left in their oxygen. It won’t be much time with them in obedience to fire codes.”
Ilise walked to the escape pod in the dorsal fin. Darkstorm was equipped with two escape pods, one here and the mess hall. Eight people could fit in one for a whole week. Though called a pod, the design was smaller and flatter, appearing as a cleaning symbiotic fish to the Darkstorm. The cabin was only tall enough for the average species. As a Shicor, Ilise was comfortable standing in it, though her hair tickled at the corners of the door. Polo twisted his head to the side to fit. The seats created that awkward faux leather sound as people adjusted into them and strapped in. Alice took the captain’s chair, and Polo and Scooball sat in the middle, armed with guns. Ilise and Saar equipped themselves with spacewalking gear. Saar spun the hat prize he stole around in order for it to fit in the helmet, not giving up his trophy from today’s battle. This spacewalk was her chance to talk to Saar finally. Ilise hated wearing a space helm for too long, it would flatten her hair. She delayed putting hers on and sat it down on her lap as she buckled into a seat.
“Shuttle launched to land on the moon and the launch again to orbit.” Tony’s voice chimed in. On the display hub in the bottom corner, a map popped up with the moon in the center. Darkstorm, the Exec ship, and the shuttle were all marked, and their own ship blinked red. The shuttle moved slowly away. “Message sent to the Execs.”
The marker for Darkstorm had tiny little electrical bolts dancing around it, growing bigger as the Lighting Strike charged up. It was unfair that Charyd for the second time, got to use the Lightning Strike. The first time Ilise saw it used, she was hiding behind a wall of shuttle ships waiting to board the Darkstorm when it was done. Thanks to Tony, they could get the ship back. At least this time the weapon was being aimed at pirates instead of the Cadoon military.
An old man with grey hair in a toga threw a lightning bolt out of the Darkstorm map marker. Crackling around the Exec ship. A tiny blue pixel Tony appeared in the bottom corner holding up a sign stating “GO!”
Alice hit the button to launch the pod off the Darkstorm. A loud clunk of sound vibrated as they dropped to the side and away from the powerful ship. Shortly after, all the passengers floated as gravity decreased to match the current space surroundings. Her opaque fingers danced around the cabin, confirming everything was in check. “I like this AI.” Ilise’s well-practiced grimace face hit the second-in-command pirate she saved for misbehaving insubordinate. “Don’t need to get jealous about a program.”
It was sound advice. Ilise took a deep breath and focused on the hub, a new icon showing their ship looking like a minnow swimming towards a multi-cubed purple and orange ship. The actual display port showed the dingy mashed together Exec ship like someone spliced the mid-tier features of multiple ships together and soldered them together with whatever they had on hand. The joint areas were just equally mismatched, shining in various metal alloys. The thing was not up to any code of regulation. Darkstorm was about to be gobbled up by these pirates if Ilise did not save their hides.
“Officer Saar, you understand what we have to do?”
“Of course, Captain.” He was looking over his gun, twisting the barrel about.
“We won’t be needing guns. We’ll use the saw to remove the prototype.”
“About that.” Alice interrupted but kept her large black eyes on the display hub getting closer to the Execs. The ship was locked-down, there was no way for the pirates to get out unless they manually opened the airlocks. “What are we looking for, exactly?”
Even though they did not have the clearance, these pirates were going to physically see and touch the device. There was no way for her to keep it a secret from them. Still, having it go on her record that she willingly showed the pirates what the prototype looked like was going to be an ugly mark. “Here it is. Smaller than Squilla, talking two by two by one tall at most. It will have a cylindrical shape that will flatten out to a cone at its top. For technical reasons, it should be near the underside of the ship.” Ilise pulled up the original lab photo the military supplied her and displayed it to Alice and Saar on the hub.
Saar barely glanced at it, but he at least put his gun down. Alice’s eyes drifted to the screen, slowly blinked, studied Saar, and then continued back to the display port. “Down we go then.” She adjusted the ship's direction. “So, Ilise, do you like eating whipped cream?”
“What?” Then her face heated purple at realizing that Alice had been intruding on her thoughts this whole day. “No, I don’t. It’s fattening and always goes sour smell later.”
“Oh,” she said softly, but had a sinister smile. “I’m certain a shower would do wonders in fixing that. You know he can even alter how he smells to some degree.”
That was a fact about the shapeshifter she had not known. “I’m not here to gossip about your captain. Focus on flying.”
Saar grumbled, but it filtered through the space helmet. Ilise put her own helmet over her face to hide the purple illumination appearing on her cheeks. She almost mirrored Saar in pulling out his gun and fidgeting with it, to focus on something else and to stop thinking if Charyd could smell like ash wood or elm, and what else of his could become similar to wood.
Brain, stop it. Charyd is a pirate.
Alice’s giggling only made Ilise’s space suit even hotter.
At long last, they were close, and everyone leaned forward as they entered underneath the giant Exec ship. It was three times the size of Darkstorm. The lighting coming off the moon showed the deep crevasses and burns that had happened in multiple places on the ship. Though they painted the side, they neglected to clean the underside, they probably had armies of dust bunnies under their furniture. Near the center middle, the light coming off the pod’s headlights reflected off in odd trapezoid shapes in an area. “There it is. Keep underneath steady. Officer Saar, let’s do this quick before they fly out of the ship like hornets ready to sting.”
The officer kept his mouth shut, stood up, and floated to the entrance of the ship. They were ready to go. Ilise grabbed the power saw off the wall, the motor tucked in a small box to counter propulsion. She punched the button to close the door, the airlock slid into place. Scooball waved to them while Polo gave a curt nod.
“Door opening in three. Two. One.” It was nice to get a proper countdown finally without Tony cutting it short.
Space greeted them. Ilise checked her cable to confirm she was secured to the pod and stepped out into space. Saar followed behind. The Exec hybrid ship loomed overhead, no sound or lights coming off it. They passed near the walking entrance of the ship. The position of the stealth prototype was within shooting range of that door. What a terrible location to put a high-tech device, at least try hiding it better.
“Let’s remove this fast and get back to the pod.” Ilise adjusted the saw so she could catch herself on the Exec ship.
“So you can go back to being alien comrades?” Officer Saar’s voice came in disgustingly raw with anger through the headset of the helmet.
“Officer, we’ve been under a lot of stress lately, so I will forgive you this once for using that slang.” Her hand pushed gently against the Exec ship, black suit covering the white glove instantly.
“I’m done with all your fuck-ups, Captain. It's about time someone else took over.”
Saar had landed himself near the entrance of the Exec ship, holding onto an overhang, his cord dangled freely in space. The idiot. “Officer, get back to the ship and we will talk about this later.”
“No.” His gun aimed at her, Ilise pushed off the wall, but the bright light of his ammo fired and came straight at her.