Alien Honor (A Fenris Novel) (19 page)

Finally, after what seemed like a tour of the entire Teleship, they reached a red line and a written warning: UNAUTHORIZED PERSONNEL KEEP OUT.

“We are entering the command area of the ship,” Argon said.

They crawled over the red line and continued to a hatch in the floor.

“Do you know the entrance code?” Cyrus asked.

Argon didn’t bother answering, but tapped the code in. A moment later, the hatch dialed open.

Cyrus peered down into the bridge module. He saw Nagasaki soundly asleep in the Captain’s Chair. Below him, three officers in their chairs were also sleep.

“Looks like a tight fit for you,” Cyrus said.

Argon slid his feet through the hatch and eased down. As soon as his head disappeared, Cyrus followed.

“Are you familiar with bridge controls?” Argon asked.

“I don’t have a clue.”

“Go to the weapon officer’s chair.”

“Which one is that?”

“The one to your left,” Argon said.

Cyrus crawled past the giant as Argon unbuckled Nagasaki. The officer in the middle seat, a man with a weird set of tattoos on his bald head, snored.

Unbuckling the officer Argon had pointed at, Cyrus stood up and pushed the man out. He tried to ease the sleeping officer’s fall, but the man thudded onto the floor and rolled away, his head repeatedly bumping against the deck plates.

“Try to be careful,” Argon said.

Cyrus gratefully slid into the vacated chair. It was cushioned and helped absorb the crushing Gs.

Argon buckled himself in and began explaining the weapons screens to Cyrus. Argon turned on his screens as he continued to explain.

Cyrus had played video games that were harder to understand. He brought up the screens, experimented, and quickly familiarized himself with the controls.

“That must be it,” Argon said, sounding as if he spoke to himself.

Cyrus checked his third screen. It was linked with one of Argon’s screen. It showed a silvery ball in space with many antennae. “How about we cut power to our engines?” Cyrus suggested. “I’m sick of these Gs.”

“No!” Argon said sternly.

“What did I say wrong?”

“We have the element of surprise,” Argon said. “The aliens must believe
Discovery
is under their control. It we cut power to the engines, they will know someone has regained control. Ah, here it is.”

Cyrus listened and watched as Argon played back Nagasaki’s latest log. Some of the video of what had occurred showed the silvery habitat and it showed a sequence of the aliens in the flesh.

“You were right,” Argon said. “They are humanoid as you described.”

“You don’t think they’re from Earth?”

Argon raised his eyebrows. “That is an interesting idea. I hadn’t thought that far.”

“It’s time we attacked,” Cyrus said.

Argon was silent.

Cyrus twisted around, looking up. An enemy mind hit him then, almost catching him by surprise.

The chief monitor’s eyelids fluttered. Two muscled balls at the corner of his jaws bulged. He must be fighting the enemy. His eyelids fluttered faster, drooping more. Slowly, the NKV officer slid into unconsciousness.

Fear welled in Cyrus. He was alone again, the last man standing against the aliens. It was up to him. He silently vowed to fight until blood leaked out of his ears, until he was dead.

He groaned as he fought the alien psi-dominance. It felt as if hammers beat against his skull. His eyesight blurred and he crouched in his seat. Still the enemy attacked. Still Cyrus Gant from Level 40 Milan blocked.

I have to take the fight to them. I have to attack or we’re all lost
.

Cyrus began tapping the weapons screen. Behind his mental shield, he tried to remember what Argon had just told him a few moments ago.

Cyrus adjusted controls. An external cam showed him a main laser dome opening. The aiming apparatus rose into view.

He calculated distances. The enemy habitat was nearly six hundred thousand kilometers away. That was practically next door in interstellar terms. The aliens must have done something to Jasper so he’d shifted to this location.

The hammering beat against his mind shield. Cyrus found it harder to think. He pinched his inner thigh, but he hardly felt the pain. He used every trick. He was like a fish in a net, thrashing to keep free.

The main laser had a range of one million kilometers. He could reach the enemy habitat. Working quickly, he engaged the targeting computer. It took over most of the functions as he watched.

Human
.

It was a single thought, but it was coherent and it came from an alien mind.

Who are you?
Cyrus asked.

We are… friends
.

The cynical side of Cyrus laughed dryly.

We wish to avoid any mistakes,
the alien told him.
You must not harm the Illustrious Ones.

Who are they?

They are the ones who guide, who bring… value to existence.

Cyrus shook his head. The screen to his left beeped with a red color. It was the targeting computer asking if he wanted to engage. Cyrus tapped the screen.

He heard the mighty fusion engines thrum with greater power. The strength of the engines mandated the strength of the laser. The one-million kilometer range came about because of the size of the fusion engines.

We are friends,
the alien told Cyrus.
We are agents of the Illustrious Ones. You are making an error against reality.

Quit trying to put me to sleep.

Listen as I explain existence.

Explain it to your mother!
Cyrus thought heatedly.

Your unreasonableness is beyond the pale of acceptance. Therefore, you must die
.

Cyrus hunched his head. The screen showed him what he needed to know. The computer had locked on target. The fusion engines were at full power and the laser system was engaged.

He gave a ragged laugh. Then the alien psi-bolt struck. He roared at the throbbing pain. It felt as if his head expanded and was about to burst. Maybe it was.

Surrender to reconditioning so you can accept reality.

“I bring you greetings from Earth, you lousy mind bender.” Cyrus tapped the screen.

The stored power flowed through the laser coils and pumped into the focusing mirrors. In a continuous coherent beam, the laser shot out of the main dome on the Teleship
Discovery
. It flashed across the distance at the speed of light: three hundred thousand kilometers per second.

Those two seconds were the grimmest of Cyrus’s life. The aliens pounded on his mind, cracking his shield. He twitched in his seat, screamed, struggled to maintain a shred of protection—and then everything changed as the alien psi-assault stopped.

Struggling back to full awareness, Cyrus wasn’t sure he saw correctly on his number one screen. The laser had speared straight on target at the silvery habitat. The alien sphere structure was over a kilometer wide. The laser should have burned into the ball. Instead, the beam stopped several hundred meters before touching the skin of the silvery material.

The laser continued to burn, and it inched closer and closer to the alien habitat. Then, in his mind, Cyrus heard a last wail, perhaps of agony or maybe of despair.

Whatever had deflected the laser disappeared. The beam speared into the silvery ball. The hellish fury of the laser melted the outer skin, making it molten, liquid, and causing vapors to billow and dissipate. The laser punched through and stabbed within. It burned through levels as it ignited air and caused explosions.

With the targeting computer’s help, Cyrus adjusted the heavy laser, reaching out over six hundred thousand kilometers. He punched holes into the aliens’ ball bearing-like habitat in the asteroid belt of New Eden. Afterward, he used the laser as a saw, shearing off sections. Parts of the ball sliced off. Debris: bio-parts, metal objects, foodstuff, deuterium fuel, and water spilled out of the destroyed habitat. Soon, eleven sections of varying size drifted where the enclosed habitat had been.

The first battle in the New Eden system went to the Teleship from Sol.

3

Three and half hours after the habitat’s destruction, Chief Monitor Argon called a meeting in the officer’s lounge. He recorded it as “
Discovery
Meeting #13.” The roster included Wexx, Cyrus, and a chastened Captain Nagasaki.

ARGON:
Premier Lang, I am happy to report that your representatives are once again in control of the Teleship. Through his courageous action, Special Fourth Class Cyrus foiled the mutiny. After speaking with Dr. Wexx and Cyrus, I have concluded that Special Second Class Jasper plotted the mutiny and manipulated the minds of the major actors. As a precaution, I have put Colonel Konev of the marines and Jasper into temporary stasis.

Sir, we have found an astonishing situation. Aliens of close to human norm inhabit New Eden. A war appears to be in progress. I hesitate to give you the next point. Its improbability makes me doubt our senses. I prefer to let Captain Nagasaki report the first half of our experience.

NAGASAKI:
Premier Lang, I, ah, regret my part in the mutiny. I can only say—

ARGON:
Explanations are not important now. We must examine the situation as it is and come to a swift solution.

WEXX:
This is a waste of time. We must fix the tele-chamber and shift out of here.

ARGON:
Work proceeds, Doctor. The damage by your team—

WEXX:
The aliens must have induced the shift personnel to commit the damage.

ARGON:
We are wasting time on the obvious. Yes, the aliens are crafty. How they knew what to damage and then how they attained their goals is a mystery. If we can repair the tele-chamber in time, we will most certainly shift out of here. Until then, we must understand what is occurring. Captain Nagasaki, make your report. You two listen carefully and see if you can discover something new we haven’t thought of yet.

NAGASAKI:
Special Jasper controlled my mind, sir.

ARGON:
For the record, Premier Lang, Special Second Class Jasper appears to have manipulated the minds of the marines and Captain Nagasaki. The telepath inserted carefully thought out yet false memories into each person. They thereupon acted on the inserted memories and staged the mutiny. At this juncture, I believe Special Jasper is solely responsible for the sedition. Moreover, I do not believe it was politically motivated, but out a desire of selfish ambition and alien manipulation against him.

NAGASAKI:
Premier Lang, as we approached AS 412, the bridge officers and I carefully scanned the system. We renewed the scan after each shift and found the star system to be devoid of all signs of high technology. It appeared to be pristine, devoid of intelligent
life. These scans never varied in outcome until we entered the asteroid belt of AS 412. At that point, everything became visible.

ARGON:
Why did you think the Teleship’s sensors failed to pick up the telltale signs?

NAGASAKI:
I have no idea.

ARGON:
Premier Lang, we are puzzled and afraid. Yes, I admit to fear even though I am a chief monitor of the NKV. I do not understand by what agency the aliens were able to mask their presence in New Eden from us. I conclude it is either a technology unknown to us or some form of psi-power.

NAGASAKI:
An enemy warship accelerates toward us, but more importantly, it already has a tremendous velocity. It is something on the order of forty-two million kilometers an hour or seven hundred thousand kilometers a minute. It will be in our laser range approximately three days from now. Behind the first warship comes a bigger vessel. The larger vessel has a slower velocity, but it is still incredibly fast. The second craft will be in laser range seven or eight days from now.

ARGON:
New Eden swarms with spaceships and habitats. It is impossible at this point to calculate the population of the star system. But it must clearly be in the billions.

WEXX:
How long until the tele-chamber is usable?

ARGON:
The techs tell me ten days, no sooner.

WEXX:
Then we must outrun the enemy warships.

NAGASAKI:
Weren’t you listening? We have lost our tele-shifting ability. We must therefore work strictly within Einsteinian physics and the laws of motion. It would take weeks for us to decelerate enough to head in a different direction. Nor can we turn sharply due
to our present velocity, but turn only at a shallow curve. We are heading in-system and the enemy warships are heading out toward us at a fantastic velocity. We are on a collision course. Outrunning them is out of the question. We can only outfight them.