Star Warrior: A SciFi Alien Romance (5 page)

I smiled. “So they know we’re out here but they don’t know where we are. Odd, that, but I’m not going to pass up an opportunity like this. Spool up the FTL and take us into hyperspace. Prepare for battle soldiers!”

I gripped my command chair and felt the familiar hum as the ship purred underneath me. The hum was palpable and everyone around me tensed. The screens around us went blank and then we were operating on scanners alone. I still hated how we were blinded in hyperspace, but then again I suppose it was difficult to see anything when there wasn’t actually anything to see in the space between real space.

At least that’s what the science types told me. I’d never been one for understanding all that unless it could be used to wage war.

The faster than light trip was much shorter this time around than on the flight out here to the human home system. Instruments came back on and I saw a human cruiser out there slicing between the stars with its lights running. Sloppy, that. The human star was still far enough out that it didn’t look much brighter than the other stars, and there certainly wouldn’t be enough light for us to see the ship visually.

Then again none of that mattered. We had the ship in sight in our scanners, and that was all that was really needed.

“Status report ELINT,” I barked out, the rush of battle pumping through my veins. This was when you knew you were truly alive, out here in the space between the stars proving yourself and risking certain death in the cold of the void.

“They’ve ceased active scanning while we were in hyperspace,” he said, sounding incredulous. “It’s like they stopped looking for us the moment we disappeared.”

I frowned. That was sloppy. Very sloppy. Any good commander would know that a ship could go faster than light and leave instruments for a moment. Any good commander would know that didn’t mean they were in the clear. If I didn’t know any better I’d almost say they didn’t know we were out here, but that was impossible. It didn’t fit the information at hand.

“Any reaction from the ship? Are they powering up weapons?”

“Nothing of the sort sir,” the communications officer said. “They’re moving around a chunk of ice, but there are no signs they’ve seen us or are preparing for battle.”

“They don’t know we’re here,” I said, incredulous. “Even now when we’re right on top of them they don’t know we’re here.”

“Sir?” the weapons officer called out. “That’s impossible. How could they not know we’re here?”

I shook my head. It seemed impossible, but it was the only explanation. “I don’t know how that’s possible, but we may be able to take this ship without even alerting the humans in the system that we’re out here. A nice sampler before we dig into the true meal!”

There was laughter and cheering all around the command center. I smiled. This truly was an opportunity handed down from the gods. It was proof that this mission was being smiled upon by the emperors long past who’d ascended to the heavens to do battle against our enemies for eternity.

I sighed. It was a pity they hadn’t realized we were here. If that was the case then I could attack them with a clean conscience and my honor intact. Since they had no idea we were here, though…

“Communications, open a channel to the human ship.”

“General?”

I turned to look at the communications officer. I didn’t recognize him, but I knew he had to have something to prove if he was out here. Most of the warriors on this trip with me felt the disgrace of our failure at the Orivus Colony, but there were others who’d come along for the ride because of their own disgrace. I could see the hunger in his eyes. The desire to have his shame wiped away by a daring mission to the human home system.

A hunger that might be enough to make him forget his obligation to the warrior’s code, but I wasn’t going to forget that. I would never forget that, no matter how deep my shame and disgrace.

“Did I say something wrong, son?” I said, my voice quiet. I found that quiet could be far more threatening than the loudest bellow.

“I just thought…”

I held up a hand to stop him. “I want you to carefully think through what you’re about to say before you say it. Before I have to do something about it. We are going to give them the standard warning that is required of an enemy caught unawares. We will fight with honor.”

I stopped. Looked around the command center at all of my men. Men I’d served with for decades. Men I would trust with my life. Men who’d entrusted their lives and their honor to me after I unwittingly stripped it away with my own personal failing.

“Of course that doesn’t mean we’re going to just give them the battle,” I said with a grin. “ELINT, I want you to jam their communications. We don’t want them getting word back to the home system that we’re out here.”

The men around the command center cheered again. I sniffed. As though I would just give up the battle before it started. There was keeping to the codes, and then there was just being plain stupid. I didn’t get to be a General by being stupid. We’d warn this captain, still catch them unawares and blast them out of the sky, and move farther into their system to create more havoc.

This would just be the opening act.

“Ready to punch through their communications systems,” the comms officer said.

“Very good. Bring them up. I want them to know exactly who is about to disable them and take them captive.”

A holographic projection leapt up from my chair and showed an image of a combat center not entirely unlike our own. Again, sloppy of this commander to leave their communications open like that so that we could just burst in on them, but I wasn’t above taking advantage of the opposition’s mistakes.

As I got my first look at the humans I found myself disappointed. This didn’t look like the vaunted human Combined Galactic Fleet that had caused so many headaches for my people. Then I got a good look at the human at the center of it all and my breath caught.

This human might not be very good, tactically speaking, but the look on her face spoke of a fire burning in there, and she was breathtaking. It was a fire I recognized all too well because this was the very human who had been the architect of so much of my misery.

I was aware of pleasure houses where captured human females were put to work, but I’d never partaken because I found the practice distasteful and I never saw why some desired to lay with our enemies like that. Only with this creature I could suddenly understand that urge. It was a pity I was going to have to destroy her ship out from under her and likely kill her in the process, but I couldn’t let a moment’s lust prevent me from doing what needed to be done.

I grinned. How fitting that the fates would deliver this one to me after I’d spent so long in misery as a result of her win over me. Well today’s tactical situation proved that was a fluke.

I opened my mouth to deliver my ultimatum. This would all be over very soon.

5: Surprise Attack

Talia:

No sooner had I gotten down to the rec center than a red light started flashing near the door. I suppressed another growl of frustration and walked over to flip the switch and activate the commlink to the command center.

“Whatever this is, it better be good,” I said.

“You’re needed in the command center immediately captain,” Commander Kehn’s voice piped through the speaker.

I very nearly turned the commlink off and went ahead with my workout routine. It wouldn’t be the first time I’d been called up for an “emergency” that turned out to be anything but. Only there was something that stopped me. There was something about the tone of his voice that made me hesitate for a moment.

“What is it?” I asked.

“We’re picking up a large object in our vicinity captain, and I think that…”

I fought back the growl once more before I opened the commlink again.

“Kehn, if this is another instance of you and the crew joking around about running drills then I promise you I’ll…”

“Captain, please. This is not a drill unless hunks of rock out here can drop out of FTL.”

My blood chilled at that. No, hunks of rock in the Oort cloud weren’t known for dropping out of FTL.

“It hasn’t broadcast any identifiers?” I asked.

“None so far,” Kehn said. “I’m still running as though we don’t see them, but it will only be a matter of moments before they’re in weapons range. If it’s a hostile we’re going to find out very quickly.”

“Right. On my way to the command center,” I said. “In the meantime make sure the shields are ready to go up at a moment’s notice. Have the crew down in the torpedo bays load but don’t arm. I don’t want any signature that’s going to give away the present we’re about to send our visitor.”

“Right, captain. On it,” Kehn said, his voice suddenly all business. It would be nice if he acted that way all the time. I felt a small flush of pride knowing that he could occasionally still do his job, even if he was counting down the months until he was done with this tour and could get out of the fleet entirely.

I wasn’t the only one on this ship whose career hadn’t gone as planned.

As I made my way through the corridors purple lights started flashing on all consoles letting the crew know there was one hell of an emergency in the works. I recalled watching ancient approximations of what our ancestors thought space combat would look like. Ridiculous situations where all the lights turned red so people wouldn’t be able to see what they were doing in an emergency. Ridiculous.

Real emergencies required an ability to see. Though I couldn’t bring myself to believe, or hope for that matter, that the ship moving in on us was actually Livisk. I wasn’t that lucky. It was probably a test sent out here by the higher ups in the Fleet to make sure we were ready to defend all the hunks of rock and ice out here against Livisk incursion.

Still. If there was even the possibility that the thing out there was Livisk then that meant we had to meet it with nothing short of our best effort. If it was someone from the Fleet then maybe a good response would finally get me out of this shithole of a detail.

A crewman ran out of a room and stopped short when he saw me. There was pure terror on his face. I couldn’t blame him much. It wasn’t like there was much chance of getting into a real combat situation on this detail. If he was the type who hoped a station like this would be nice and easy then he was probably soiling his pants right about now.

“Is this serious, captain?”

“I don’t know, but you need to get to your duty station soldier,” I said, reaching out to pat him on the shoulder.

He stood a little straighter at that and ran off down the corridor. Good. Maybe I could inspire someone on this ship to do their duty even if it seemed like I couldn’t get that same level of inspiration from my command crew.

Thankfully the command center wasn’t all that far from the rec room. I stepped into a room that was bathed in panic and more than a little incredulity.

“I’m telling you there’s not a chance this is real. She programmed something into that computer of hers before she left for the rec room and now we’re dealing with it,” Olsen said from his position at the navigation console.

“And I’m telling you I didn’t see her do anything of the sort. This is the real thing, and we’re in it pretty deep right now,” Kehn said.

I smiled as I stepped onto the command center deck. Maybe not everyone on this hunk of scrap metal had my back, but it was nice to know that Kehn believed this was the real thing. Especially considering I most certainly hadn’t programmed anything into the computer. This time.

“I can assure all of you that this is very much the real thing. It’s probably the Fleet sending someone out to check us for readiness, but that doesn’t mean we won’t react to it as the threat that it potentially is,” I said as I rounded the weapons station and took my now familiar command chair.

“I’ve plotted several firing solutions for the object, captain,” Smith said from behind me.

“This is ridiculous. Why are you all going along with this?” Olsen said. “She’s going to pull the same thing as always and we’re all going to look like idiots. Nothing ever happens out here. If my father knew…”

“Your father might be high enough in the government that he can get you a posting here where you’re out of danger, but your father is not here on this ship and you will act as an officer of this Fleet while you’re under my command or you’ll get an official reprimand on your record and a recommendation that you be sent to the front lines. Do I make myself clear, Olsen?” I snapped.

It was the most angry I’d ever gotten. Perhaps it was because I knew this was potentially the real thing. Olsen shot me an angry look, but he turned back to his console and presumably got to work. I could pull up what he was doing and check, but I had other things concerning me at the moment.

Either way, I knew one navigation officer who was likely going to get a reprimand regardless of how he performed in the next few minutes.

“Captain, the thing is moving faster. Closing distance,” Smith said from behind me. “Firing solution locked in.”

“Hold your fire,” I said. “The last thing we want to do is fire on a friendly because we’re on edge out here.”