Chapter 23

Ray had his head in his hands and his elbows were resting on his console. He had begun the report he was going to send to John. The numbers he would have to report, were not good. It didn’t matter, though, the report had to be made. Ray forced himself into a sitting position, and began recording his interrupted report.

Ray sat in front of the screens he would be using to monitor what was happening. He really hated this part. It always made his sphinctometer (how tightly his sphincter was clenched) top the scale. It was bad when he was a member of the entry team. Now he was sitting on his ass, watching things. He was unable actually participate. This torqued his screws and maxed his sphinctometer. On a scale of one to ten, it was at eleven point six.

When sensors indicated an ambush on Three of the ships, he relayed the information to the proper teams. With that being all he could do for the moment, he listened.

He heard, “Gorgon Leader this is Red One proceeding into the target ship.” To which he didn’t need to respond, and didn’t. This was followed by: “Blue team, moving in”, “Yellow squad, entering the ship”, “This is Green One, we’re going in”, “Orange team, making the breach.”

He was going to have to think about standardizing their radio communications. Not that they were all that dissimilar, but he thought they should all respond in a like manner. Then he noticed that though Yellow team had met little resistance so far, there was a large Hruth presence on the ship. Sensors told him that they were laying in wait in the area of the cargo hold, where the prisoners were being held.

After receiving the data dump from Ray, Thomas Young (Yellow One) brought his unit together. In his opinion, it would be better to have them act as a single unit, rather than split them up, as other teams were doing. The other teams didn’t have three hundred plus Hruth to deal with, either!

Tor knew something was wrong.

It was more than the presence of the other minds that he felt come on board the ship. The masters brought new slaves on board all the time, or transferred them from ship to ship. Who could know the minds of the Hruth masters? To Tor and his kind, their minds were closed.

Tor was certain that there was something different, this time. Two things made him believe this. The first was the Hruth reaction. They had handed out what weapons they had and were very tense, as though awaiting something. The second, was the flavor of the minds of these newcomers who had come onboard. They lacked the fear, self-loathing, confusion and helplessness that new slaves normally had.

Whoever these newcomers were, they were calm, focused, determined, and confident. For the first time since his ship had been captured, Tor felt hope. This wasn’t something he felt from anyone else. It was his own.

Tor immediately decided on a course of action, and heard a collective gasp from his brethren. Though emotions and feelings were all they could discern from others, the connection between Kyflen was palpable. He felt them converging on his position.

“You cannot,” Lieutenant Quib insisted in a low voice, once all the remaining Kyflen had gathered.

She was the only officer that remained, which put her in a command position. Still, Tor was determined, and would not let himself be swayed.

“You would become an outcast! You know our laws. Yet you force me to remind you that; ‘we cannot, through any action, cause the loss of life.’ To do so...” a shiver ran through her body and before she regained control. “To do so would mean that one could never return to the Kyf, again. Furthermore, the few of us that remain would sever the tie we share with you. You would be truly alone.”

“Which is worse, Lieutenant Quib? To cause loss of life through our actions, or to cause loss of life through our inaction? We have stood to the side, and done nothing. Hundreds have died, including our own command crew. That blood is on our hands! It is there to be seen as clearly as any blood might be seen. The same as if it had been caused by our actions, see you not. I feel that my hands have become so stained that they will never be clean again.”

“Our laws state clearly...” she begun before Tor turned and faced her fully.

“You can take ‘OUR LAWS’, and shove them up you’re ass! I intend to do this, and nothing you say will stop me. You can either join me in my efforts, or move off to your ‘safety bubble’, and stay away from anything that might happen. I care not!”

Lt. Quib took a step back from Tor, as did all of the remaining Kyflen from their ship. It wasn’t the venom in his words, it was the anger she felt rolling off of him in waves.

Anger was an unnatural state for one of the Kyf. Two millennia before, the people of the core system had been at war amongst themselves. It was determined that anger was one of the major contributing factors to their continuous warfare. Therefore, they had fought to suppress that emotion. For the most part, they had succeeded, though it required many generations. Each person from the core system was now extensively scanned and tested before they were allowed to join the Kyf. To feel such an emotion coming from one of their own, had not happened in ... Well, she had not heard of it happening since the beginning of the Kyf.

Tor didn’t care about the unfamiliar emotion was welling up in him. He was just tired of standing by and doing nothing, while those around him died. Though he missed the members of ‘his’ ship’s crew the most, everyone in this bay was in the same situation. Everyone in this cargo bay, this prison, was now his extended family. He would not allow any more of them die, if he could prevent it.

Still focused on Lt. Quib he said, “You can help me, or leave me alone. I care not. I will not stand by and do nothing, any longer.”

Lt. Quib wanted to say or do something that would ‘save’ Tor. He was dooming himself to a lifetime of loneliness. But she felt his determination, and knew that no mere words could save him.

Her thoughts were interrupted when Tor spat, “I do not need saving Lieutenant. It is you and others like you that need saving. You think that your control over your emotions makes you better than others around you. What you don’t realize is it makes you less and your arrogance diminishes you even further.

Quib was stunned by his outburst. She was going to do the only thing that their law allowed her to do. She would sever the empathic connection she had with Tor. She chose not to experience his insanity with him. Though his words were now imbedded deeply within her, even if she didn’t realize it.

One by one the others severed their own connections, and walked away. Lt. Quib was the last. He felt her cut her connection to him, and watched as she moved away.

Strangely, though he had felt each connection terminate, he did not feel alone. He had, after all, accepted the others in the bay as his new family.

He felt confusion coming from his former brethren. They could not understand why he had not been devastated by his loss of their empathic contact.

Tor began moving among the other prisoners. Many weren’t in very good shape. Oh, physically they were healthy. They had access to replicators, so that there was always healthy food to eat. No, it was inside of their minds. They were retreating within themselves, in an attempt to protect themselves from the pain and suffering.

As Tor moved among them, passing words of encouragement and comfort to them. When they heard that others were coming to help, many of these slaves responded and fought their way back. For the first time since they had been placed there, they had a ray of hope.

The Hruth were focused on the doors. Tor heard several updates as he had passed close to the Hruth. He had been a captive long enough that he had picked up the Hruth language, so he knew that four people were getting close to the cargo bay.

He could only hope the confidence that these newcomers had in their own abilities, wasn’t misplaced. If it was, then he was going to be responsible for many deaths, today. He had just lost his brethren, and he would have no one to share his grief. Grief and mourning were some of the few emotions the Kyf allowed themselves. The tension in the room was thick. It was not coming from the Hruth alone.

‘Odd how easy it is to stop following or finishing ‘Hruth’, with ‘master’,’ Tor thought to himself

Tor shook himself from his personal reverie, because the four newcomers were now outside the cargo bay.

Thomas Young used hand signals to position his team. Yellow Two moved to the bay door controls, expecting to be forced to override the locking codes. What he found, disturbed him. The door was not locked, which meant they were walking into a trap. This was not new information to them, because all of the scanner data had pointed to this being a trap. However, this was an obvious confirmation of that data. He turned his head to Yellow One, and furrowed his brow. They had been training together long enough for Yellow One to know what Two’s furrowed brow meant.

With a nod from Yellow One, and a thought from each team member, their visors became reflective. It didn’t add to the actual defensive capabilities of the bio-mech suits, it was simply a psychological factor. The Hruth would not see anything except the bio-mech suit. They wouldn’t know whom they were actually facing. Then the secondary shields snapped into place. These were a new addition called a battle shield. Now it was time.

Tor was watching the huge bay doors waiting for them to cycle open. It was, after all, the entrance the Hruth used to enter or exit the bay. Weapons fire drew his attention to the right as the small access hatch was thrown open and four humanoid shapes came in. The Kyf ra’ (a name that not only referred to the core system counsel that governed space travel, but those aboard the ships) had an atmospheric suit that allowed them to do external repairs. It was the only thing his mind could produce that came close to what he was seeing.

The Kyf ra’s suits wouldn’t have deflected and/or absorbed fire as these newcomers’ suits were doing. He watched as the four newcomers reached over their shoulders and seemingly from nowhere produced strange looking weapons. The Hruth were so focused on the newcomers that they were no longer paying attention to the human slaves. The slaves chose that moment to surge forward to attack the rear of the Hruth ranks.

Tor watched in horror. For every Hruth they managed to take down, ten slaves died, many in a painful and grotesque manner. It would probably be worse if the Hruth weren’t so focused on the newcomers. All four of them were still standing in fact, the rebound of the Hruth fire was taking down as many Hruth as was the fire from the newcomer’s weapons. Nearly a hundred were down in the front and at least fifty had gone down in the back.

It was then that Tor saw a problem. The Hruth were bunching together to make it more difficult to take them down individually. It worked well for the Hruth in the back as the slaves were having trouble taking one down, but it had the opposite effect in the front as the weapons fire did not have to be aimed to take down at least one.

Two things happened in rapid succession. The rear battle line had drawn far enough past the initial confrontation that Tor could see the bodies of Hruth mingled with the human bodies.

However, Tor saw that several of the Hruth were stirring. Whether they had been knocked unconscious and were now recovering, or had pretended to go down, so as to launch their own attack he didn’t know. As he saw these five regaining their feet and trying to recover their weapons, one of the newcomers went down as five Hruth launched themselves at the individual at the same time.

Thomas was glad that the inertial dampeners kicked in before the five Hruth bore him to the floor, as that meant he sustained no damage from the fall. Still, he was under a lot of extra weight and was in a prone position. Although he wasn’t sustaining any damage, he couldn’t get his arms under himself to begin wedging himself up.

He also couldn’t get to his weapon. He did the only thing available to him. He triggered the suit’s emergency enhancement. It meant that the strength that the suit normally gave him was doubled. It was a short-term thing that lasted for thirty seconds, but that was all he needed to throw his attackers off and regain his feet.

When Tor saw one of the newcomers go down, he felt as if his hope was slipping away and something snapped within him. He no longer cared that he had never been involved in combat he launched himself at the five Hruth working their way toward the rear of the slave’s battle line. As he ran forward he snatched up a weapon off the floor. Pointing it at the Hruth closest to him he tried to fire it. Realizing only a moment before he reached the Hruth that he didn’t have a clue as to how to trigger the weapon.

Taking the weapon in both hand he thrust it barrel first into the back of the head of the first Hruth he got to. The barrel sunk in deeply into the Hruth’s skull, shattering bone and scrambling the gray brain matter, before coming out cleanly. Well not cleanly, it was covered with gore, but it came out without much effort.

Tor changed his grip on the weapon, and swung it like a club as he approached the next Hruth. The Hruth’s head disappeared in a spray of blood, bone and gun pieces. Without pausing Tor launched himself into the air and struck the next Hruth in the back with his feet at neck height. This snapped its spinal column, and Tor’s weight took it to the floor. It wasn’t moving so he didn’t take the time to be certain if it was dead or just paralyzed.

However, that was the last one he took down easily before the remaining two were now aware that he was there and was a huge threat. At least to the two of them. The closest one was swinging around with its weapon in its hand. Tor grabbed it, yanked it free and cast it aside. Then like lightening he struck out grabbed the Hruth’s head and spun it around backwards. The final Hruth almost had his weapon leveled on Tor. Tor grabbed it and forced the barrel upward. This Hruth had a better grip on his weapon thwarting Tor’s efforts to rip it free from his hands. However, this actually worked against the Hruth. One of its fingers triggered the weapon, and the top of its head was replaced by a red mist before its body collapsed to the floor.

Tor looked about looking for the next Hruth and found none. He looked further and saw seven Hruth standing near the cargo bay doors with their hands behind their head. The four newcomers were standing between them and the slaves that were still trying to get to them. Tor began wading through them fully intent on getting to the remaining Hruth. He didn’t even notice the people he was knocking to the side as he approached.

Thomas watched as one of the slaves worked his way through the pressing crowd. Though ‘plowed’ may have been a better term. People went flying as he pushed his way through. After he was through the man carefully scrutinized the Yellow Team before approaching Yellow Three. It looked as though he was attempting to push Three aside. When he discovered he was unable the rage on his face was clear. The man intertwined his fingers into a single fist and swung with all his might striking Yellow Three square in the chest. Three’s shield flared, but what was surprising, was that Three had slid backwards across the floor several inches.

Thomas only had enough time to take this all in before the man struck Three with a second and then third blow. Yellow Three, seeing the danger if they weren’t able to hold ranks stepped forward forcing his attacker backwards. The blows continued to rain down on Three and Three would step forward every time he began to lose ground.

Finally the man attacking drew back as though to strike another blow and hesitated. Then he collapsed to his knees, and then to his side. Thomas passed instructions for the others to keep an eye on the crowd and knelt beside the man. After keying the touch-pad on his forearm, he moved his forearm over the prone body. Hoping that he was okay, knowing that none of his men had taken action against him. While he was focused on the body a group had made their way to the front of the former slaves.

“He is well,” a feminine voice said, causing Thomas to look up. “He has merely exhausted his body’s reserves, and needs time to rest.”

“Who are you?” Thomas asked the newcomer, scrutinizing the small group closely.

“You have no need to fear us,” the one that had spoken earlier replied, “my name is Quib, the only remaining officer of our group. The man on the floor is Tor, formerly of the Kyf ra’. He went terf’ru.”

Thomas continued to look at her figuring there had to be more to her explanation. His brow furrowed when it wasn’t forthcoming.

Lieutenant Quib saw the confusion on the man’s face in the strange atmospheric suit.

Thomas watched as the woman seemed to be searching her mind for something.

“He had allowed himself to become ruled by his emotions,” she elaborated

“Is that the reason why he was acting so strangely?” Thomas asked.

Quib could tell that this man didn’t understand and was earnestly interested.

“There are three planets in our home system that could and did sustain life. The life forms that evolved on those planets were so similar we all could have had the same origin. However, in our system’s past; we, as a people, were ruled by our emotions. Not just acting emotionally, but our emotions would overwhelm us and control our actions, especially the emotion of anger. When angry our race would become what we call terf’ru. When terf’ru, one of our kind has increased strength, stamina, agility, but that person sacrifices the ability to think rationally.”

To Thomas it sounded a bit like the ‘berserkers’, written about in Norse mythology.

“It was bad enough when the people of our system were planet bound and fighting among ourselves,” Quib continued. “Somehow, even with all the in-fighting, we developed space travel. You can imagine our surprise when we found other planets in our own system that were populated with people just like us. For the first time our people of my birth planet united. The same happened on the other planets, as well. However, this unity wasn’t in an attempt to cooperate with the other populated planets, but to attempt to conquer them. It was dark days for us all and we nearly destroyed the entire system before we realized we had to do something.

“Somehow, the three planets negotiated a treaty and decided to see what could be done to gain control of the emotions that ruled the people. It took practice, experimentation, and time; but after centuries, the Kyf was formed. The Kyflen consists of those of us able to reach the level of control needed to master our emotions. It has been over a millennium since someone who has reached Kyf has reverted to terf’ru.”

Thomas let this sink in for a moment before asking, “By the way you said that I have to ask. Are there those of your system who do not, or cannot reach Kyf? If so, what happens to those that do not?”

“There are those of our race that cannot reach Kyf. When it is determined that an individual lacks the discipline or determination to be trained, they are exiled to a distant system that will sustain our life form.”

To Thomas is sounded like a very cruel solution. His expressions must have betrayed his thoughts because Quib answered as though she had heard them.

“It is not as cruel as you may think. We at least give them a chance for life. The alternative would be execution, and the Kyflen refuse to take the life of another living being. We give the terf’ru the skills they will need before leaving them in their exile.”

Thomas used his com unit and had the others escort the Hruth that had surrendered out of the cargo bay, while everyone was focused on him, Tor and the Kyf.

“How long before he will regain consciousness?” Thomas asked not wanting to leave the man defenseless.

“He will regain consciousness in a very brief time, but it will be at least a day before he can become terf’ru again.”

“So, will you look after him until he regains consciousness?”

“We Kyf cannot, he has gone rogue and become terf’ru. We will see to the other wounded slaves, but we can no longer have any contact with Tor.”

A woman that was wearing filthy rags that might have once been a uniform stepped forward. “I will care for him if you permit it.”

Thomas nodded and said, “Yes please do, for the moment I have to leave you, my team and I now need to take the bridge.”

The he looked at the entire crowd and said, “Gather the weapons of the Hruth so that you can protect yourselves. I don’t foresee any problems, but I want to be sure you can protect yourselves in case any Hruth slip past my team.”

“Then why did you let seven of the murderous bastards live and protect them from those of us who had a righteous reason for wanting them dead for the crimes they committed against us?” Came a vehement voice from the crowd.

It was time to stop this before it had a chance to get started. Thomas turned back and address the crowd.

“Those seven surrendered to us, and regardless of what they might have done, I was under orders to protect them should any surrender. I will do so even if it is to protect them from you. Now, I must head toward the bridge so that you will truly be free. Please stay here until after my team and I have control of the ship.”

They didn’t look happy to be left out of the fray or able to enact their revenge on the captured Hruth, but they appeared to be listening.

Ray saw that there was a major problem on the ship that Green team had boarded. The team was headed for the bridge, but scans showed human life signs being extinguished in the cargo hold where the slaves were being held. Ray got on the comm.

“Green one, this is Gorgon Leader. Your presence is known. Prisoners are being executed, proceed immediately to the cargo hold, the route is being displayed on your HUD.”

“Affirmative, Gorgon Leader.”

Though he was watching the other monitors, he was watching Green teams progress more closely. Then he saw that their path to the cargo hold led them past a room that had ten Hruth in it. They were going to have to stop and eliminate the possibility of those ten ambushing the team after they had passed.

“Green One, This is Gorgon Leader, I’m sorry to do this, but your path leads you past a room with ten Hruth in it. You will need to dispatch them before continuing.”

“Acknowledged, Gorgon Leader.”

Kevin Long (Green one) was not happy, sure he knew things could turn ugly, but there were people dying in the cargo hold and he had to eliminate a possible threat. He wouldn’t disobey and order, but there was a part of him that wanted to. He could tell that his team was anxious to try and save as many survivors as they could as well. He pushed the thought aside and continued following the path displayed on his heads up display.

“Gorgon Leader to all teams. Red One has reported that there are Hruth willing to surrender. If any should fall to the floor and put their hands behind their heads, this is a sign that they are a part of the group willing to cooperate with us. Do not harm them and protect them if necessary against those who would do them harm.”

Kevin was used to these kinds of orders. It wouldn’t be the first time he had ended up protecting the enemy. That didn’t mean he wasn’t going to take safety precautions to keep his team safe. When they reached the room indicated on his HUD, a surprise was awaiting them. All ten Hruth were lying on the floor, their weapons were tossed into the corner it was clear they had been broken before hand. Better safe than sorry. Kevin posted Green Three to guard them. He wasn’t going to risk an attack from the rear while he was focused on saving the prisoners.

The Three remaining team members worked their way to the cargo hold. They didn’t need their HUD to tell them they were in the right place. The screams and weapons fire did that. The three of them entered unnoticed through the secondary door and the carnage was horrific. There was gore and body parts lying everywhere. A line of Hruth stood blocking the path to the only escape, laughing while they chose a target and shot off piece by piece until the person died of blood loss.

A scream of rage sounded in Kevin’s ear. He looked to see Green Four, Wallace Bacon, charging toward the Hruth. Wallace was the rookie among Kevin’s team and it seemed the sight of the carnage had caused him to forget his training. Without drawing his weapon he charged into the fray, and began a carnage of his own. There was only one thing he could do when attempts to call back Four had failed. He and Two took up flanking positions and used weapons fire to protect their teammate from being overwhelmed.

Whether the shock of the sudden violent attack or the cover fire that he and Two were providing, the cohesive ranks of the Hruth quickly broke. The Hruth that ran toward Kevin and Two, were quickly mowed down. None seemed to want to risk getting too close to Wallace. A group broke and ran for the remaining prisoners. Wallace picked up the nearest Hruth over his head and threw it at the group mowing them down like bowling pins.

Kevin didn’t think that any fire could have gotten through their shield, but after having tossed the Hruth, Wallace staggered away and was leaning against a wall. It only took a couple more minutes to finish the Hruth, but that made matters even worse. Once they were down the carnage was even more apparent. Kevin sent Green two to check on Wallace and he approached the group of survivors.

As he approached they began to huddle even closer together.

He activated the external speaker and spoke to them, “I’m not here to harm you. My team and I are attempting to free this ship. Do any of you know how to use weapons?” A few hands went up. “Would those of you that can, pick up some of the dropped weapons? My team is going to take the bridge.”

A woman with gray streaked hair stepped out of the crowd. Even in the filthy rags she wore there was an air of dignity about her.

“I don’t know who you are, but I believe you are here to help. Because of that I need to share something with you. The slaughter that you see was caused by a revolt. We overpowered and killed our guards and were attempting to take the bridge. What we didn’t know was that the corridor outside the bridge is booby-trapped. We made it to the corridor and somehow tripped the trap and some sort of laser began mowing us down. Then the Hruth showed up and slowly forced up back here. You interrupted what would have been the end of us.”

“May I ask who you are?”

“I was the first officer, my name is Yashra Fenna.”

“If we get you to the bridge, can you take control of the ship, if so what would you need?”

A change came over Yashra, she looked around and started barking orders and individuals came out of the crowd. While she was doing so another communication came in.

Green One this is Gorgon Leader. It seems that the Hruth are intolerant to an oxygen rich atmosphere. If you can ascertain who the cooperative Hruth are contact your pilot and give them the number. Drones are being prepared so that each of the surrendered Hruth will have a self-contained atmosphere and then by adjusting the atmosphere on the ship, you can eliminate any Hruth that are in hiding without the search and destroy tactics.”

Kevin turned his attention back to Yashra.

“I can man the bridge and engineering, with a skeleton crew,” Yashra offered without prompting. “However, if we run into any trouble were screwed. Those with knowledge of our ships weapons were the first to be tortured and killed.”

“As I understand it, even after our teams secure the ships, our teams will be staying with you and offering protection. Maybe once we have all the ships secured, we can shift crews around so that you have a better balance.”

She simply nodded and Kevin went to check on Wallace. He had caught part of the conversation between Two and Wallace. It seems that Wallace had kicked in the full enhancement and continued fighting even after exhaustion started setting in. His suit had provided him with a protein re-hydrant drink. As Kevin approached he pushed himself away from the wall and stood at attention.

“At ease, Green Four. We will discuss your actions after the mission, but for now, do you feel fit to continue?”

“Yes, Sir. I don’t know what was in that drink, but I feel much better already.”

Kevin turned to return to Yashra and found her and a group of others standing right there all of them were armed.

“We’re going with you,” she said in such a forceful way it was clear there was no talking her out of it.

“Gorgon Leader, this is Green One. I have found the first officer, and she insists on going to the bridge when we take it. What are your orders regarding her insistence?”

“Green One, as long as they will hang back a reasonable distance I don’t see a problem with it. Just make it clear they need to allow you to do your job.”