Chapter 605

...”The alien ship is turning away,” Selina said while practically jumping up and down as she stared at her console screen.

“Destroy it, Ship,” Jeff ordered. “They will just do to another civilization what they tried to do to us if we let them escape.”

Ship released a bolt that was comprised of energy and a particle beam. When the beam struck, it passed through the alien ship’s shields as if they weren’t there, and continued diagonally through the monster ship and on out the other side. The beam narrowly missed breaking the ship’s back as it passed within inches of the keel. Several compartments were suddenly in vacuum as the giant staggered from the impact.

Just before Ship fired again, several things were ejected from the alien ship. Whatever they were, one was quite large and had several very bright flashing lights on the exterior. Two smaller objects were also ejected, all with strobes illuminating their presence.

Suddenly, the alien ship, trailing escaping air and debris, went to warp.

“Shall I follow and finish it?” Ship asked.

“As slow as that thing is, we can always do that later. What are those things that were ejected?”

“I am reading life forms from within each of them. I assume that they are escape pods,” Ship concluded.

“Could it be a trap? Mines or something similar?” the Prime wondered aloud.

“I am not reading any large energy weapons, and there are numerous beings in the larger pod. There are several beings in the smaller pods as well. Orders?” she asked.

“Retrieve my interceptors first. Then we’ll decide what to do about the pods.”

A little later.

“What did you do?” Arlene and Ann asked in unison as Ship deposited them on the bridge.

“I got tired of playing with the aliens and gave Ship permission to do as she pleased. Probably what I should have done to start with, although destroying it would have resulted in the deaths of the beings that are now in those pods.”

Arlene stared at her husband, “The Paladins and the drones just ... disappeared with a gigantic flash.”

“Ship used the diversion fields that she uses to keep from running into space debris while under her inertialess drive to... move them out of the way. At a half-light, they basically just became energy and a few stray atoms. Now I have to figure out what I’m going to do with the enemy prisoners, I suppose.”

“One of the escape pods is transmitting,” Ship advised.

“Can you understand what they are saying?”

“Oh, yes. It is in English and I think it is an alien AI that is speaking. It is saying that its pod contains noncombatants, and they surrender while asking for mercy.” Ship paused for a second before going on, “Another of the pods is also transmitting, but this one is not an AI. According to what he is saying, he is the being, the First Officer, who spoke to you about trade before the Captain took over the ship.”

“Can you put him on the big screen?”

“Yes, but the clarity is not the best, although I am working to rectify that.”

A wavering, static-filled picture came onto the big screen, then abruptly cleared as Ship and the pod’s AI synced.

The being on the screen motioned for the others around him to stop talking. “I am the First Officer of the Raider. I presume that you are the being I was talking to when the Captain took us prisoner.”

Jeff almost chuckled, but responded with, “We were talking when another of your people started screaming and, I presume, cut you off.”

“That was my Captain. I apologize for his actions; although, I will confess that force is the method that we, the Miadax, usually use when approaching a new civilization. I insisted that trade was a better way, but the Captain locked the bridge crew and me on the Primary Bridge after deactivating our controls. We finally managed to get free in time to board escape pods. However, the Chief Engineer in the other smaller pod just told me that he set the warp coils on a timer to go to warp 5, and my instruments concur that this has happened. According to him, the drive is locked in and will continue until it hits an object too big for the diversion fields to move aside, or the ship depletes all its energy reserves. Should the Captain – somehow – manage to bypass the lockout, the coils are set to blow, which will scatter the ship over several dimensions. We will never see the Raider again.”

“That’s ... a little hard to believe,” Jeff said with a frown.

“Yes, I am aware that I have no proof to give you, nonetheless, none of us who were locked on the bridge, nor the Chief Engineer and his people in the other smaller pod, were involved in the attack on your planet. We were part of the crew, though, so I realize that we can be considered as combatants, but the larger pod contains females who have nothing to do with combat, and never have been involved with any type of aggression. They are used only for pleasure and procreation, although I have recently discovered that their intellects have been repressed throughout their lives without any of our knowledge. They have been given foods designed for females, which I have recently discovered contain chemicals to reduce their intellect. I have been giving two of them food that we eat, and they have begun to learn to read.

“I understand that you probably have to consider all of us males as combatants, but please realize that our females have never had anything to do with force on your planet or any other.”

Jeff motioned for Ship to mute his audio. “Well, shit,” he grumped. “Just what in the hell am I supposed to do with a bunch of alien prisoners?”

“Ask them what they want to eat for lunch,” Diana said with a grin.

The Prime turned to stare at his Clan Queen, almost pissed that she would joke at a time like this – when he suddenly realized that she seemed to be serious.

“He said that he and his bridge crew, and the Chief Engineer and his people were locked away from the action. You have to start somewhere. Why not over a meal?” she reasoned.

“But...” he stammered, “they’re...”

“Aliens. Yeah, I know, but isn’t Ship equipped to test for anything harmful from the smallest virus to explosives?”

“I am,” Ship inserted before Jeff could answer. “Nothing harmful will survive passing through my hatch.”

On the split-screen view of the two smaller pods, the First Officer in one pod and the Chief Engineer in the second pod, had put their weapons in the airlock and closed it.

Jeff motioned for ship to resume his audio. “What are you doing?” he asked.

“We are prisoners, so we are disarming ourselves. We can override the lockout and open the outer hatch, which will expel our sidearms into space. I hate to lose that much air, but...”

“Don’t do that,” Jeff ordered. “We will remove the weapons, but they had better not be rigged...”

“It would be foolish for us to do that,” the First responded. “We were simply complying with what we assumed you would want, since we are prisoners. We realize that we have no rights, but we ask for mercy, which was something that our Captain was not going to allow your race, should he have succeeded. If you cannot allow mercy for the males, we implore you to extend mercy to the females. They have done nothing.”

While Jeff and the First had been talking, Ship and the pods’ AI had also been communicating. “Prime, there are seven beings from the Bridge staff in the pod the First is transmitting from, and seven who claim to be Engineers in the second pod. There are twenty-five females in the larger pod ... and they are all nude,” she finished with an almost giggle.

“Nude?” Jeff mumbled.

“Jeff,” his Clan Queen said as she turned to her husband, “If they are telling the truth, then these ... people had nothing to do with the attacks. And we know that Ship will be able to confirm that as soon as they are here. Right Ship?”

“Yes,” Ship quietly answered.

“So, do we start out treating them as prisoners, or as friends?”

“Di, even if these ... uh, guys didn’t have anything to do with the attack, they probably were part of attacking other civilizations in the past...”

“We treat them as equals until they prove they aren’t deserving of it, or we treat them as prisoners. If they are telling the truth, do you wish to turn them over to the authorities on Earth? They would be torn to pieces whether they had anything to do with the attack or not. And ... if he is telling the truth, the females didn’t have anything to do with any of this.”

“Uh, My Prime?” Ship asked.

“What?” he mumbled as he tried to think.

“The females. None of them are wearing clothes, and well, they are a bit different from Earth women.”

Ship split the screen with the third pod’s transmission.

“Well, sure,” Jeff began as he focused on the screen. “They’re faces are a bit flatter and they ... have three vertically spaced breasts,” he mumbled out as he stared at the screen, “and they are, indeed, all nude,” he got out. “Oh, shit. Now, what do I do?”

Jeff turned to his Clan Queen. “I think that the First Officer and I need to talk.”

Diana, barely holding back her giggles, said, “I think that would be a fine idea.”

“Ship, I need you to prep a shuttle...” Jeff began.

“No need. I have an airlock that will adapt to theirs,” Ship offered.

The Prime started to object, but then realized that nothing harmful from the smallest microbe to a full-sized weapon would come through Ship’s airlock unless she wanted it to.

“The alien First Officer has placed their weapons in the airlock. I will bring the pod alongside, and when the locks are mated, I will remove the weapons. You might tell the First Officer that there will be a delay while he is scanned for anything in his body that could harm human beings. He needs to understand that it will be a full scan to the cellular level, and he will receive ... adjustments in his body so that human pathogens will not harm him, or his will not harm humans. It will not be a full enhancement, but it will, nevertheless, take several minutes. He will suffer no harmful effects.”

Ten minutes later, Jeff stopped at the airlock Ship had chosen. When it opened, the alien stepped out and stood staring at Jeff. “I don’t suppose that you can understand me without your computer to translate,” Jeff began.

The alien touched a dark maroon disk about an inch in diameter that was attached to his collar. In an odd accent, he responded, “This will translate the language of any of the races we have ever encountered. Our AI has long since completed translating most of the languages of your planet. When I decided to offer trade, I had the translator map English into my brain. The others will have to rely on their translators until they take the time to have the language permanently mapped. With what has happened, I am glad that I took the opportunity.”