Seeder Saga (19 page)

The
Benefits of Torture

Begrudgingly, she made her way back to the command station. She wasn’t prepared for what awaited her there.

Jason was writhing on the floor in front of the captain’s chair. There were bloody chunks of him strewn all around. It was a gory, gruesome mess straight out of her worst nightmares.

She arrived just in time to hear Jason wheeze, “Okay, I’ll tell you where my home is. Just stop.”

Crusoe snarled, “You’re a weak people. The Velors are sissies and cowards.

“I’m only weak because I integrated human DNA. Don’t be fooled.”

Jack kicked a severed arm out of the way to reach Jason. He picked him up and plopped him back in the chair. “Tell Molly where the planet is in relation to our present position and also in relation to the seed planet.”

“Okay.”

Future
Troopers

Despite his vehement protests and angry diatribes, Crusoe was able to force Jason into his stolen stasis pod right after he entered his home world’s coordinates into the ship’s computer. He wasn’t fully healed yet, but he’d freeze just the same. He could finish healing after the next thaw.

Jack and Sarah both raised objections to keeping him alive
, but Crusoe would hear none of it.

As soon as the lid to the stasis pod was closed and Jason froze solid
, he turned to them and explained, “He’s our only window into the minds of our enemy. We need to keep him around.”

Jack nodded and then said, “Molly, wake up the troops.”

Crusoe and Sarah both stared at him as though he’d finally lost his senses, but he said, “We need a super army for what awaits us. You can turn these soldiers into gods with your DNA, right, Crusoe?”

Crusoe mulled it over and finally agreed. “You guys need to help me administer it. And you’d better hope the new and improved army is on our side or we’ll have a hell of a fight on our hands.”

Sarah shot Crusoe a pained look and said, “That’s why we’re going to give them a choice.”

Call to Action

As soon as the soldiers were dressed and fully awake, Jack made a speech. He wasn’t much for public speaking but this was a special occasion
. The very survival of the human race depended upon what actions they took from this moment onwards.

“Listen up
, troops. We already know why you’re here. You’re here because the mission controllers knew that the region of space we were headed to might be engulfed in some sort of alien warfare. But the idea was that by the time we got there, the fighting would be over and done with. You were sent as a precaution, one that no one actually thought would be necessary. I’m here to tell you that you are necessary for the survival of our race. The warriors that await us have lured us in. The seed planet is bait. We don’t know much about these people. They call themselves Velors and one of them infiltrated the ship.”

There was some murmuring among the troops about that
, but Jack held up his hands and said, “We’ve taken care of him. But we also got invaluable intel from our interrogation. There is a warship waiting for us when we reach the seed planet. We are to be a kind of ritual sacrifice for this twisted race of Velors. But we don’t need to let that be our fate. I say we fight the bastards.”

A lady at the back of the crowd yelled, “How?”

“You’ve all seen what this guy can do.” He pointed at Crusoe over his shoulder. “He’s indestructible, and we can give each of you a watered down version of his strength and speed if you’ll let us.”

A guy at the front said, “He killed my fellow soldiers and my
President. Why would I trust him, or you for that matter?”

“That was in the past.” He didn’t tell them that it had actually happened just hours earlier
; there was no way they would know the difference, since they’d all been in stasis for those couple of hours. “We need to put our differences aside and solidify as one if we’re to defeat the most terrible enemy we’ve ever come across, an enemy bent on our destruction.”

A lone voice said, “I’m in,” and then another said, “Me too
… I guess.” Then a general hum of affirmatives started to come forth as they all agreed.

“Good,” said Jack. “You’ll each get a shot. It stings a bit but the pain is fleeting. Those who don’t wish to be a part of this can go ahead and go back into stasis right now. Your presence is no longer required.”

No one made a move to get to their pod.

“With warriors like you guys, we stand a real chance.”

A Plan

Molly said, “The last of the soldiers are now in stasis.”

Sarah turned to Crusoe and asked, “Should we do the same to the colonists?”

"You told me once that if I ever interfered with the colonists you'd throw me off the ship."

"Well
, things have changed. Our survival hinges on the decisions we make. If we can't make the tough choices we have to suffer the consequences. I think we should do it."

“Not just yet. Let’s find a nice rocky planet to set course for first.”

“Why?”

“I need to build us a fleet of warships.”

Fleet

Sarah’s eyes shot open and she sat up abruptly. Crusoe’s odd, hairless, mostly humanoid face stared back at her.

He waited until she unhooked her IV’s and crawled out of her stasis pod before saying, “I’m done
, Captain.”

“How long did it take you?” she asked as she dressed. She no longer needed the heating blanket to help her thaw out now that her DNA had been modified by Crusoe. None of the crew did. Stasis didn’t affect them adversely at all since he’d altered them.

“It’s been three hundred and twenty-two years. But trust me, when you see what I’ve built for you, you’ll be overjoyed.” Crusoe didn’t age, and for all any of them knew, he was immortal, engineered to adapt to anything by his long dead people two million years ago.

When she was fully dressed
, she said to the ship’s computer, “Molly, wake up Jack Mayberry and Jane Hotchkiss from stasis.”

“
Yes, Captain.”

Jane was going to be pissed when she found out how far they’d been forced to deviate from the mission. She was the only member of the crew to sleep through the mutiny and through finding
an alien on a rogue planet. She probably had a vague memory of a strange man — Crusoe — waking her briefly to alter her DNA.

She’d be shocked to find out that mission control had a sneaking suspicion that the seed planet was right in the middle of an alien combat zone and that was why fifteen hundred troops were hidden
on board the
Seeder
and the
Seeder
was armed to the teeth. And she didn’t know that Crusoe had convinced the troops to allow them to alter their DNA to turn them into super soldiers. These new and improved soldiers would give them a fighting chance against the race of people who had wiped out Crusoe’s people — a race who called themselves Velors.

In a way, Sarah was envious of Jane. She’d give anything to wipe most of those memories clean.

She went to Jack’s pod first. They’d been through everything together and she felt a sort of kinship to the man.

He woke from stasis quickly and said, “It’s amazing how easy the thaw is nowadays,” as he got dressed.

Two pods over, Jane dragged herself out of her pod. She saw them and said, “Did someone drug me or something? Maybe it was a dream…”

Sarah went to her and said, “A lot has happened since you last went to sleep.”

“Are we at the seed planet yet?”

“No we’re not. I’ll try my best to fill you in on the details, but you’re not going to like what’s happened so far.”

Jack eagerly interjected, “We met two different types of alien. One is awesome and one is an asshole.”

“Huh?”

Sarah smiled and nodded. “It’s true. Let’s get you off your feet and then I’ll explain everything.”

“I don’t really feel so bad. I don’t need to sit down.”

Jack said, “That’s because of the alien DNA that’s been merged with your own.”

Sarah sighed. “Knock it off
, Mr. Mayberry. Jane will need some time to acclimate to our new crappy situation.”

“Where are we anyway?”

“We had to make a pit-stop to a rocky planet for supplies.”

“For what?”

“To build an armada.”

“Maybe I do need to sit down.”

“Thought you might.”

New Digs

Crusoe walked into the command station just as Jane was getting comfortable in the captain
’s chair. “I’m so sorry for altering your DNA without asking first.” He said it because the other members of the crew had expressed their outrage at what he’d done and he was hoping to stave it off from Jane.

She just shook her head and said, “I hear you’re an alien.”

“Yep. Good to meet you.”

Jack said, “He’s the good one. Your boyfriend Jason, the weapons specialist
, is the bad one. Crusoe ripped him to shreds. He’s on ice right now.”

“He didn’t look alien.”

“He incorporated human DNA into his own to mimic us.”

Jane just shook her head in confusion and sorrow.

Crusoe changed the subject. “Captain Miller, I present your new command station.” With that, he pulled down a large hanging sheet that had been splitting the room in half. All the controls were different, more user friendly, with real interfaces to handle manually. There were three additional modules with floating helmets, suspended by cables and consoles that contained an array of buttons and triggers. The seats in front of each swiveled left and right but also up and down. “Those are your manual turrets,” he said when all eyes fell on the additional modules.

Jack asked, “Isn’t it more efficient to let the ship handle the fighting? I mean
, it’s cool and all, just probably not as accurate.”

Jason Rodriguez has more than likely sent schematics of this ship to his race. They probably know more about the
ship’s capabilities than any of you do. They’d be able to predict exactly what the
Seeder
would throw at them. But with manual controls, all that predictability goes flying out the window.”

Jack nodded. “I love the new monitor too.” The new monitor was as large as the entire front wall of the command station. “How’s the picture?”

Crusoe said to the ship’s computer, “Molly, flip it on for them.”

The monitor came to life, showing the landscape of the rocky planet they were on in crystal clarity. There were solidly built structures in front of them
. The rocky ground had been worn down by Crusoe’s activity over the past few hundred years of work.

Then Crusoe said, “Bring up the infrared and ultraviolet views. The views flickered between all
spectrums. “Those extra sensors could save our lives in a fight.”

Jack asked, “Can I be in charge of one of the turrets? They look fun as hell.”

Crusoe said, “I’m sorry, Jack, but no.”

Jack tried his best to hide his disappointment.

Crusoe smiled broadly. “I built you your own ship that you will captain. You can run the guns on it if you like, but you’ll probably be too busy kicking ass to worry about a silly gun.”

“Shut up. Really?”

“Absolutely, Captain Mayberry. Are you guys ready to see your new fleet?”

Sarah was beyond eager. “Sure.”

The thrusters rumbled to life. They didn’t feel the G’s because of the artificial gravity, but they could see on the monitor that the ground was receding from them. An immense quarry, dug out by Crusoe as he mined for ore, came into view and then receded.

Jack said, “What about the fleet you promised?”

“I’m taking you to it. The ships were too large to build on land and then launch so I was forced to build them in geostationary orbit. I only came back to terra firma to fetch the
Seeder
. Wait until you guys see the lead ship. It’s something else.”

Sarah asked, “Who’s going to captain the lead ship then?”
Surely he’d say she would remain in command.

“I’ll be in charge of that one.”

Sarah’s forehead crinkled in agitation, and Crusoe added, “You’ll see why I have to fly it when we get there. Don’t worry, Mrs. Miller, you’re the admiral of the entire fleet.”

Sarah tried to relax
, only it wasn’t in her nature. But the immortal alien had just promoted her so that was pretty cool.

It was too bad she’d only get to lead her new fleet to their almost certain doom.