Read No Man's Space 1: Starship Encounter Online
Authors: Nate Duke
The flying saucers became larger and larger as we approached their formation. The men remained silent and observant of the enemy as we slowly approached them. Nobody dared to breathe too loudly in case we were shot dead. The enemy could’ve crushed us with one of their bright energy beams, but they didn’t.
“And this is when we die,” Flanagan said flatly. “I would’ve expected my heart to fail for not keeping up with my affairs.”
“He means in bed,” Kozinski murmured at York.
“I know what he means,” York murmured back. “I’m not stupid.”
“I was sayin’ it just in case,” Kozinski said.
“Sir, we have a transmission!” Gupta said. He turned it on. Hopefully, the enemy would give us their terms and offer us a peaceful option that didn’t involve killing us.
Instead, we received a high-pitched squeaky sound. It wasn’t regular nor random; it seemed to follow a pattern. It sounded almost familiar to Earthen sounds, but it had a very rare pitch to it. Or perhaps it had strange undertones, similar to a constant hum.
“I’ve heard the song before,” Kozinski said. “Back in India.”
“India? India?” York said. “When have you been to India?”
Kozinski stared ahead meditatively. “About twenty years ago. Met a pretty lass and ended up aboard a shuttle to India with no money to go back.”
York chuckled to himself. “It explains your disappearance. Thought you’d been drunk for a year.”
The high-pitched sounds continued. It was no song, or at least no human song. It sounded closer to scratching vinyls, but it sounded like a message of some sort. Whoever was aboard the gigantic flying saucer wanted to say something.
“Is it a warning?” Banner said. He’d assumed the same as me.
Flanagan shook his head slowly. “We’ve hit something we don’t understand. This ain’t no human message or interferences, I’m telling you.” His face turned pale and he stepped back with trembling hands.
“Come on, Flanagan,” I said. “You can’t seriously think that aliens are attacking one of our ports.”
Flanagan shook his head. “If you’d heard the space tales I’ve heard, you’d think like me. You can’t judge unless you’ve seen men with blank eyes after encountering something. This is just the beginning.”
Honestly, I didn’t care if it was the beginning or not; we were still screwed. We had a bunch of explosives and we could take a couple of flying saucers with us as we fell, but we wouldn’t free the port from the attackers.
The lights flickered, but we hadn’t been shot. Seconds later, all the screens on the bridge turned off simultaneously, and the holographic image of a man appeared in the center of the room and in our HUD glasses. He was taller than average and with a three-day beard. He wore a Navy captain’s uniform, but I’d never seen him before.
The holographic man didn’t speak. He simply gave us a naval salute and disappeared. With his disappearance, the lights returned and the screens turned back on. The flying saucers gathered their fighters and bombers and left immediately.
What the hell? They’d saluted us after trying to kill everyone on board. And they had way better technology than us. Why was the man dressed like a naval captain and didn’t even bother to introduce himself?
“Were they on our side?” Kozinski asked.
For the first time, York was as speechless as the rest of us.
I’d heard of similar feats before, although from honorable warrior cultures. Once they realized their superiority over the enemy, they sometimes allowed defeated enemies to live if they showed enough courage. We were ready to die, but we were the only ones who knew it. And how had they hacked into our systems? No country had deciphered our inner communications or gone through our frequency shields.
Their disappearance had spurred more questions than answers. We wouldn’t get more answers for a while, and the Admiralty was going to ask us many more questions.
Flanagan sneaked away to pick the lock to our wardroom liquor cabinets, and York and Kozinski followed suit. Everyone else dispersed, but Banner remained meditative looking out of the faux windows on the bridge. They were actually screens, but I always ended up forgetting that the bridge rotated at a constant speed and that we would’ve ended up very dizzy when looking out.
“They’re gone again.” Banner’s voice was so quiet that I could barely hear him. “Think they’ll come back?”
“They can come back if they want,” I said, “but they weren’t eager to destroy us.”
Banner nodded to himself, but his eyes remained fixed on the screens. This had been his first command experience, and probably his first flight aboard a Navy starship. Not a bad way to start, eh?
A message from the Admiralty arrived almost immediately after the enemy left. They wanted to see me… and they extended their congratulations for my behavior in combat. At least they weren’t going to court-martial me for not letting Banner take command. I know I was in my right to lead, but the Admiralty’s whims and wishes don’t always go by the book.
“What do you plan to do once we go back to Earth?” I asked Banner.
“I might study to become a proper officer,” Banner said. “Maybe engineering. What about you? Father suspects that you might be given your own ship to command.”
Me? Captain? I hadn’t thought of it. Well, actually, I had. I liked the idea of captaining my own vessel.
“Then I’ll need a posh officer or two,” I said. “Someone who gets along with the gentry. Know anyone for the job?”
“I’m not calling you sir,” Banner said, “or risking my life for silly governor’s daughters. And next time we end up stranded in space, we’re going the other way, never to the outskirts.”
The brief silence that ensued reminded me of the recent attacks. We were going to face many dangers in the coming months, and this was only the beginning. The Navy needed to get better weapons, or we’d all be crushed.
And if I ended up being a captain, I wouldn’t be able to blame the captain for anything. I wasn’t going to like command…
Okay, okay. I was very excited to command, but I didn’t want to acknowledge it until I got the promotion. Happy now?
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Books by Nate Duke
No Man’s Space Series:
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Broken Starships Series:
Copyright
Copyright © 2016 Nate Duke.
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This is a work of fiction. All names, characters, places, and events are either a product of the author’s imagination or used fictitiously. Any resemblance to real persons, events or places is purely coincidental.
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