Chapter 34: The capture and repairs

Aboard the cruiser Starburst, fires raged throughout the ship. With the internal force fields on, the fires had air to burn, but with the damage to the ship, they knew if they lowered them they would lose many warriors trapped in damaged compartments. Lieutenant Vak watched as his squad of firefighters battled a fire near the number one magazine. With temperatures reaching up to the eighteen hundred degree mark, support beams were becoming weakened and the storage room was an inferno. The three--thousand stasis chambers were mostly slag now.

"Get me the captain, now!" shouted Vak into the com unit on his wrist.

"Kran, here. Go ahead, Vak. How bad is it?"

"Sir, if we don't get this fire out, I am afraid we will lose the Number One Missile Magazine. I suggest we withdraw back behind compartment fifty-six and shut the door. Then you must shut the fields down."

"You're condemning the trapped warriors to death."

"And you, Sir, condemn all of us to death, if that magazine blows!"

"Can't we just open the loading tubes?"

"I tried that, sir. It's a no go. They are damaged."

"How long do I have?"

"No more then five to ten minutes, Sir. After that, it will be too late."

"Very well, Lieutenant Vak. Thank you."

On the bridge, Captain Thran looked out at the glowing hull. Opening a ship wide com channel, he started speaking.

"This is the Captain. I want all hands in front of frame fifty-six to move towards the stern. Take as many wounded with you as you can. You have only five minutes. I must lower the internal shields to put the fire out. Otherwise, Missile Magazine One will explode when the flames get to the room, and we all will die! Hurry my warriors! Get to the stern!"

Throughout the ship, hundreds of warriors stopped what they were doing and started moving. Grabbing the wounded as they went, more than four hundred get to their destination before the compartment doors snapped closed on all the bulkheads for section fifty-six. The inner shields went down. The air rushed out of the hull, extinguishing the flames and dragging the wounded and dead out as well.

Aboard the transport shuttles, the marines suited up and prepared for combat. Their powered armor was fully charged and their grenade launchers had been loaded with stun and CS gas grenades. Each marine carried extra stun cuffs and batons, along with their standard military weapons: an M-15 laser carbine, a sixteen-inch fighting knife, a plasma pistol, and ten 'force disks'.

Standing at the front of the shuttle, Lieutenant Aimee Sanders shouted to her squad, "Ok, listen up, Marines!"

Not getting their attention, she slammed her armored hand against the wall making a ringing sound throughout the hold. She stood there and looked at the marines, her piercing blue eyes resembled chips of glacial ice.

"I said listen up! Let's act like Marines, not school kids!"

Seeing she had their attention, she continued, saying, "Now the Captain wants all the Crytherian officers separated and brought over to the ship. We have orders to take the cruiser to the Moon orbit and park her above the base. Once there, we will transfer the remaining crew to the Lunar Detention Facility. The LDF barracks are presently under construction by spiders, and should be completed by the time we get there." Looking at the marines, she continued, "If any of the Crytherians personnel are wounded, we will administer aid to them. The Captain wants as few casualties as possible. The Captain plans on setting up a prison planet in the Alpha Centauri system. Later on, the Crytherians will be transferred there."

Looking around, she watched her information sink into their heads as she continued, "Now, we will not kill or harm them. I know you're all aware of what they have been doing to our planet for the last thirty-plus years. We cannot help but be upset and want revenge, but we will not become like them. I want you to treat them, as you would like to be treated, if you yourself were a prisoner. Any acts of terrorism used on them, and the responsible person and I mean anyone will be brought up on charges under the articles of war."

"But, Ma'am, shouldn't we just put them out of the airlocks? They don't deserve to live!"

"Knock that talk off, Private Helms. I know your sister and her date were taken, just as you know my brother was. However, we will be better than they are. Do I make myself clear?"

"MA'AM! YES, MA'AM!" echoed through the hull of the shuttle, as the twenty marines shouted out.

"Good, now let's go do our duty. Touch down in sixty seconds. First squad, you are with me. Second squad, you have engineering. Third squad, you have their weapons bays and armory. Use your force disks on the access points, and seal them down tight. Fourth squad, you have shuttle security. If you see anything that looks important, slap a disk on it and we will check it out. The marines on the other shuttles will round up the crew that we want separated."

As she was talking, the shuttle slammed down on the flight deck of the cruiser's shuttle bay. The doors opened and the twenty-one marines rushed out into the ship, spreading out to gather up any Crytherians in sight. Standing twenty feet away from the open ramp, four Crytherians waited for the marines to finish unloading. Then the leader stepped up to the first human who looked to be in charge.

Captain Kran watched as the human's shuttle slammed onto his flight deck and he winced a little from the further abuse his poor ship was taking.

Lieutenant Gramies looked at the shuttle with anger in his eyes, "Captain, I don't like it, we should fight them here on the ship, or blow her up. We still have my heavy assault troops. I say we take their shuttle and fly it back to their ship, and take her. She would be a fine prize for the fleet. Her new weapons alone could bring us victory over the T'Lari and the Tralcans and then we would rule the universe."

Captain Kran looked at his surviving assault officer with disgust, "Those weapons you so fondly want killed over a third of the crew in less the twenty seconds. Another took down our entire rear shield with one hit. If they had wanted to, they could have blown us away and just cruised through the dust." Shaking his head at the incompetence of some officers, he continued. "No! I will not sacrifice anymore of my crew that way, and that includes you." Hearing another slam, he looked up as the shuttle ramp descended and humans in some kind of battle armor descended to the flight deck. They spread out and gathered up the few ground crews that were in the bay, while another group came towards him.

Hearing a noise, he turned and looked as a one of the Crytherians swung a three-foot section of three-centimeter steel pipe at one of the humans. The human jumped out of the way, grabbed the pipe, and twisted it out of the warrior's hands. Then he did something no human should be able to do! He bent the pipe in half, and then in half again several more times, until it was simply a ball of metal.

"You wanted to fight them, look at what that human just did to that piece of pipe. They shouldn't be able to do that."

Gramies stared in shock as the human twisted and bent the thick pipe.

"I agree, Sir, and I apologize. I think we are going to be hurt in this new war."

"I agree. Now shut up, and follow my orders."

Lieutenant Sanders watched the altercation between one of the Crytherian warriors and one of her marines. The marine bent the pipe in half several times. He leaned over and said something to the Crytherian, which made it nod its head almost frantically. The marine led the defeated warrior over to the rest of the gathered deck hands.

Sanders then turned and saw the four Crytherians standing together. She walked over to them. She started talking to them and her suit translated her voice into their language.

"I am Lieutenant Aimee Sanders, Terran Marines. Captain, your ship is now captured property of the Terran Federation.

"As for yourself and your crew, once every human that you have kidnapped from Earth has been returned or accounted for, you will be returned to your home.

"For now, you are all being sent off to a temporary 'prisoner of war' camp. Later on, you will be transferred to a more permanent camp. If anyone tries to escape, the escapee will be shot. If anyone of you does escape, three of your fellow crew will be shot. For every hour an escapee is on the run, we will shoot another one of you. If you behave and follow our orders, we will make you as comfortable as we can. Do I make myself clear?"

Kran looked at the human in horror, and responded to her statement, "Yes, we understand. The crew may not like it, but they will follow my orders. We have been together a long time and they are well disciplined to obeying orders."

Lieutenant Sanders listened to the captain of the ship and responded to his comments, "Good, now summon all your officers, excepting your medical doctor, to this bay. We will be transporting all of you over to our ship to be held. Later, we will have your personal effects sent over to each of you, but for now we wish to separate you so you cannot cause any problems."

Kran nodded his head in defeat and said, "Can I use the com unit on the wall?" When she nodded her head at him, he walked over to the wall and activated the unit.

"This is the Captain speaking! All officers, except the doctor, report to Shuttle Bay One. To the rest of the crew follow the orders of your noncoms, but I will say this do not resist our captors. Do any jobs assigned to you. Make me proud to have served with you, and do not try to escape. I will explain more when I can, that is all."

Captain Kran stepped away from the wall unit, and came back to them. As he joined them, the door opened, and in walked five more of his officers.

Around the ship, the marines locked down the armory, missile rooms, and laser turrets of the cruiser. Slapping force field sealers on the doors, they thus prevented them from opening to anyone but Federation marines. The teacup saucer sized disks, sent a field over the door to cover the opening or even a passageway. They can be overwhelmed if enough energy was discharged against them. However, the shields would shrug off any normal hit.

Lieutenant Sanders watched the defeated Captain rejoin her, and she said, "Captain Kran, if they obey your orders, then you may all get to go home one day. Now, if you and your officers will board the shuttle, we will send you all over to the Washington. When you get there, you will be escorted to a secure holding area.

While this was going on, the Crytherian search and rescue crews continue to go about pulling the dead, dying and wounded out of trapped compartments, while spider bots brought over from the Washington went to work, restoring the ships hull integrity to a working condition. Within hours, the fourteen hundred foot ship was ready to continue her journey to the Moon. With the two hundred and nineteen officers removed to the Washington's brigs, the ship's command fell to a senior noncom officer.

Walking onto the bridge, Lieutenant Sanders looked around, and went to the command console. Looking at the Crytherian helmsman, she issued her orders, "Take us to the Moon, half speed."

The Crytherian warrior looked at the human with contempt, and replied, "Your orders are to be obeyed." He pressed the commands into the panel and the ship started moving slowly along. "Speed is half power; estimated time of arrival is two hours ten minutes in your time."

"Very good, helmsman, and thank you ... ahh..."

"I am a warrior second class, Askraki."

"Thank you, Askraki," she said. Looking at her panel, she added, "How do I open a ship wide com?"

The Crytherian sighed and answered, "Press the square with the word 'Icish' on it and it will activate it. Icish is the same as intercom in your language.

With a smile, she looked at the young Crytherian warrior, "Thank you, Askraki, I know it must be hard for you to work with us. However, we really do not want to kill any more of you than we can help. Our real enemy is still out there, but we will kill your people, to stop your slavery."

"We are not slavers, we had an agreement with your United Nations to take some of your people every month, to be used as we deemed fit. We took the people off the streets, the ones no one would have missed."

"Maybe they would not seem to be missed to you, but they were missed by us, their family members. One of those taken last year was my brother. I know for a fact because I found his picture on your base's computer files. I have carried a picture of him in my wallet since I was a little girl. I showed the picture to our ship's AI unit and she went through all the files of the people you took. The AI found him in less then ten minutes of searching. So, do not give me any crap that they would not be missed. Your records also show he was sent to a place called Karsakini. What is there I don't know, but from what I have seen in your base's computer logs, I fear for him."

Askraki looked at the human and turned back to his board muttering, "Kar slarin ka ki Korang myteaki soryiya."

Walking over, she grabbed his shoulder and spun him around so she was looking in his face. With a snarl, she asked, "What did you say? My suit sensors detected kar slarin ka and translated it as 'whatever human it.' What was the rest?"

Looking at the angry female, he replied, "I said, 'whatever human, it is a prison and slave mining planet.' That is what Karsakini is. It produces heavy metals for our industries, and if he is there, he is probably dead or dying from radiation poisoning. They have a high attrition rate of slaves there."

In shock, Lieutenant Sanders looked at the Crytherian and said, "Prison mining planet? What did my brother do to deserve to be sent there? What crime did he commit?"

Askraki shrugged his shoulder and replied, "It could be anything, maybe his crime was being homeless, or being in the wrong place at the wrong time." Looking at the human female, he continued, "Or maybe his procurement officer was low on processed humans and just grabbed him."

"Being homeless in the United States isn't against the law; it means we are just down on our luck." Walking back to her console she looked at the view screen and slammed her armored fist down on it. It sparked and went black.