Chapter 3

It had been a long five weeks, most of which Kyle had viewed through an oversexed fog, but they were finally close to their new home. The AI announced that they were coming out of hyperspace and would be arriving planet-side in eight hours. As much fun as the trip had been, scanning into the replicators all the items they had brought, having sex, planning and getting modified, having sex, learning new things and teaching classes, having sex, training to adjust to their new bodies, more sex, and in their free time, a ton of sex, they were all looking forward to seeing an alien world.

However, within moments of coming out of hyperspace, the lights in the ship suddenly became tinted blue and the ship's AI calmly and quietly announced that presence of Sa'arm ships in the vicinity. On a warship or a vessel that had been under human control for a longer period of time, there would have been strobing lights, alarms and loud emergency announcements. Apparently, the ship's AI was still set to Darjee mind-set crisis response. In other words, its alarms and shocking announcement were about as hysterical and frantic as a loving lullaby crooned by someone stoned on downers. It took the first impact rocking the ship before people really took the AI seriously. Humans tend to respond faster to red alarm lights and loud sirens, and just cannot believe there is a real crisis without some hullabaloo.

"AI, status report please," Kyle asked as calmly as possible, trying to appear cool and composed to his concubines instead of scared shitless like he really was.

The length of time before the response was given gave him a fair idea of how serious the situation was and how low priority a question by a nearly civilian sponsor was.

"The current situation... ," the AI's voice was suddenly cut off by an announcement from the captain.

"This is Captain Holzetti speaking. We jumped out of hyperspace right on top of a Volumina-class Sa'arm scout sphere and its Vacuna-class companion ships. We are totally outclassed and are trying to make a run for the planet. I need all pods in the Red section evacuated RIGHT NOW! In sixty seconds they will be launched as cover to try and buy us a few more seconds lead. Anyone remaining in the pods will not survive. You have sixty seconds."

Thankfully, they were in the blue section. Kyle gathered his concubines together in a big group and held them tight. All they could do was just hunker down and pray. A few minutes later, the door to his pod opened unexpectedly and a crew member ushered almost two dozen confused and scared people into the pod. They shuffled in and started sitting in corners and against the walls, casting apologetic glances at him.

"Sorry to override your lock, but this is a ship emergency. These are some of the people from the pods we launched to try and cover our escape," the accompanying crewman explained. "They will be staying here until we reach the planet." Despite his calm tone, the terror in the crewman's eyes made it very clear he doubted they would reach the planet.

Kyle decided there was nothing more terrifying then waiting helplessly for outside forces to either save them or snuff them out. There was no information coming to them, which meant they were not in the clear yet. Every second that ticked by wound their nerves tighter and tighter. Nothing in the militia training had prepared him for this, and the fact he had to be strong for the others made it even harder to endure.

Honestly, the ship lasted far longer than Kyle would have guessed possible. It felt like hours as time seemed to crawl to a halt, but in reality must have only been about ten minutes before the ship was rocked by a series of explosions. Just when everyone breathed a sigh of relief that they had survived, the wall of the pod exploded inward, shrapnel and flames blasting through the crowded room. A missile or something had impacted on the next pod over and the explosion had ripped through the neighboring walls. A few emergency force fields flickered to life, but compared to the amount of space showing through the rents in the walls, they were just the proverbial fingers in the dike.

Pain ripped through Kyle as he looked around. His eyes filled with tears as he saw people and pieces of people strewn around like broken toys, including the women he loved.

Meanwhile, aboard the Persephone, alarms shrilled loudly. This ship had been in human hands longer and its alarms reset to human standards. As the crew frantically tried to understand the situation, the captain stood tall, a rock the tides of fear and confusion crashed into but could not move. The small bridge crew quickly grew calm under his steadying influence.

"Report," he commanded calmly.

"Captain, the Heracles is under attack! When we came out of hyperspace, they were almost on top of a Sa'arm scout sphere and its pack of Vacunas. Since they were between us and the Sa'arm, the Sa'arm ships have concentrated on them," the ensign said, obviously fighting his panic at being so close to Sa'arm ships.

The captain paused for a moment, trying to think of any way his unarmored, unarmed ship full of civilians could possibly help the Heracles or even defend against Sa'arm attack. Unfortunately, there was nothing he could do except warn Frigia. It was a wrenching decision to abandon the other ship, but he had no choice.

"Download all sensor data into a hyperspace drone and launch it immediately toward Frigia, it can make a short hyperspace jump and come out far closer to the planet then we can. AI, do they have any naval assets assigned to them?"

"Frigia has one Mercury-class assault frigate, the Ares, assigned there to help protect an experimental military outpost," the AI replied. "It will take them approximately four hours to reach us after they receive the drone's distress call. If the ship does engage the Sa'arm, I predict a 93% chance it will be destroyed within five minutes of engagement. I do not predict it will do significant enough damage to the Sa'arm to prevent them from destroying this vessel. Also, the Sa'arm ships have now detected us. Two of the Vacunas pursuing the Heracles have turned toward us."

"Damn! All right then, for the sake of the civilians onboard, we have no choice but to make a run for it," the captain said, hiding his sadness and dismay. "Sound general quarters for all decks. Helm, I want a new course 145 degrees hard to port and 80 degrees vertical ascension to our current path."

"Aye, aye, captain."

The internal inertial dampeners strained to compensate as the ship arced away at its best speed. "Comm, launch the drone the moment we have our new vector downloaded into it. Navigator, calculate a short hyperspace jump for us for when we reach the solar jump boundary. People, we WILL outrun them!"

With renewed hope, the crew turned back to their tasks.

"Captain, sensors detect Sa'arm ships coming out of hyperspace," her sensors officer, Ensign Ramirez, reported.

"Acknowledged, please sound general quarters. Apparently they decided to throw a curve ball at us and added new elements to the war game," she commented, slightly puzzled.

"Negative, Captain," the AI broke in unexpectedly, "The Sa'arm ships are real and not sensor ghosts used as part of the scenario."

The atmosphere on the bridge changed completely when the sensor data was read and the AI overrode the game scenario to report that it was an actual incursion. There was a moment of shocked silence on the bridge as all eyes swung toward the captain and pulses skyrocketed. This was completely unexpected. The system had been reported as being over a decade away from the Sa'arm advance. Apparently, someone had fucked up badly.

Struggling to take in the magnitude of the threat, the captain ordered, "Sensors, I want to know what exactly is out there. Comm, send a tight burst transmission to the task force informing them of the situation and request new orders. Tactical, reconfigure weapons from training mode to live-fire."

"Sir, there are one Volumina-class sphere and four Vacuna-class escorts out there," Ramirez reported.

'Strange, ' the captain thought, 'Vacunas usually come in groups of three not two. I wonder where the others are or if these are new tactics they developed.'

"Sensors, sweep the area again, we seem to be short two Vacunas," she ordered.

After a brief wait, the ensign replied, "Nothing, Sir. I've checked three times now."

Captain Akuna sat back in her chair while her orders were carried out, thinking furiously of tactics she could use to take on the small fleet of Sa'arm ships. The brief data transmission was sent to Admiral Chow informing him of the new situation. Being the farthest ship from the task force, she was also the closest one to the Sa'arm ships. The only other ship even remotely close was an unarmed hospital ship that had been doing its own training drills.

The time it took for the admiral's response was nerve-wracking and seemed to stretch on forever. When they received the admiral's response, it was very clear: avoid detection and wait. Being told to sit tight and wait for the fleet chafed a bit, but she was a realist and did not want to risk her command.

It had been pure luck they had been conducting war games in the system when the Sa'arm arrived, but it was a damn good thing they were here. The single, ancient, Mercury-class assault frigate that for some unknown reason had been assigned to Frigia would have been a sitting duck and the Sa'arm would have been able to wipe out the colony easily. Thinking of the malamute puppy keeping her concubine happy back in her quarters, she understood what a tragedy it would have been.

The plan to wait for the fleet was ruined the moment her tactical officer reported that two unarmed, Aurora-class colony transports had just jumped out of hyperspace close enough to the Sa'arm to shake hands. Unable to wait and watch the civilians get slaughtered, she gave the command to move in. It would be easier to apologize for disobeying orders then wasting time waiting for permission to act.

"Captain, the first Aurora just jettisoned some of the habitat pods as cover and is making a run for the planet, the other one is heading for the solar jump boundary," Ensign Ramirez reported as he continued watching the monitor. "Two of the Vacuna are maneuvering to intercept each ship. The Aurora heading out-system will probably make the hyperspace jump in time; the other one has no chance."

"Jacobs," Captain Akuna called to her navigator, making her decision quickly, "Plot us a speed course that will keep the asteroid belt between us and the Vacuna pursuing the inward-bound Aurora. We will need two minutes to get a clean shot; I would prefer to have them silhouetted against each other."

"Should we contact the Auroras, sir?" The communication officer inquired.

"Based on reports from Fleet, the Sa'arm may be able to detect our transmissions. Keep us silent."

"Sir, course plotted and entered," the navigator said with a touch of excitement.

"All ahead flank," Akuna ordered, also feeling the excitement of impending battle. She flipped a switch on her console. "Power up the disruptors, firing pattern Baker, I repeat pattern Baker."

"Aye, aye sir," was the reply.

"Captain, intercept in seven minutes." Jacobs interpreted the screens he watched. "When we engage, we will have two minutes before the Vacunas have a firing solution."

The Namibia powered along her circular course. Twenty seconds before she cleared the iron rich asteroid belt, Captain Akuna snapped the order, "Cut engines." The Africa-class destroyer flew like a sprung arrow. The enemy ignored them; focusing on the ship they were almost upon. The Namibia coiled to strike.

"Sir, the Aurora has been hit! Multiple strikes down the starboard side."

"Understood," Akuna spoke calmly, hiding the sorrow of being a few seconds too late. "Turret one, target closest ship's main engines ... fire."

Ribbons of energy struck the Vacuna. The disruptors tore one of the engines away from its mountings and the fuel supplies ignited. A brief flash marked her end.

The sister Vacuna turned away from the explosion.

"Ahead flank, pursuit course," Akuna ordered, sounded vicious. The Namibia responded, jumping forward eagerly. "Turret two, main engines ... fire."

The second ship only lasted several seconds longer.

"The Volumina's remaining squadron has altered course toward us," Ramirez reported calmly.

"Plot us an escape course that takes us away from the task force and the Aurora. Then execute." Akuna ordered. "AI, prepare an efficiency report on our last action."

The Namibia turned to starboard then downward and powered away. They were playing 'fox' to the Sa'arm 'hounds' and would lead them on a merry chase until the rest of the task force was in position to ambush the Sa'arm near the asteroid belt.

"Sir, the second Aurora just entered hyperspace," Ramirez said.

"Did they escape clean?" Captain Akuna asked.

"They appear to have ... no wait, sensors detect some debris. They were definitely hit before they jumped."

"Comm, brief the admiral on our engagement and ask him to have the hospital ship readied for causalities from the Aurora," the captain ordered, angered that she had been too late. As an afterthought, she smiled and added, "Oh, inform Engineering they will need to add two more silhouettes to our kills on the bow." Her smile widened to a grin as the cheers erupted from the bridge crew.

Lieutenant Abbis had decided he hated space. It was one thing to sit there on Earth, in a nice safe testing station and say he wanted to join the Confederacy Navy. It was quite another to be confronted with the reality that was space. It was unbelievably vast, lonely and did not give a rat's ass about you. It was pretty spooky as well. Too many horror movies had given him an overactive imagination. You were just a tiny speck in the most hostile environment imaginable and just a whisper away from death. Hell, just being on the ship could be hazardous. Although he had to admit, what had happened to the captain was pretty damn funny, and she would never, ever, live it down.

To trip over your own dildo in the middle of the night on your way to the bathroom and fall hard enough to break your neck was just pure hysterical irony. Of course, her loyal crew, as soon as they had heard the story from the medtech, immediately gold-plated the dildo and mounted it on a plaque with the motto, 'Beware the Dildo of Doom'. They were already planning the feast they would throw when she got out of medical. It would be entirely composed of long, thin food like hot dogs, sausages, kielbasa, carrots, cucumbers, corn dogs, pigs-in-a-blanket, corn on the cob, cheese logs, éclairs, cannolis, and everything else the inventive crew could come up with that even remotely resembled a dildo.

Since Commander Ferriter was out of commission for the next few days, he had the dubious honor of being acting captain. Thankfully, the ship's assignment was mostly just ceremonial. The Mercury-class light assault frigate, Ares, had been assigned to protect the planet Frigia and the experimental dog-breeding base for some unknown reason. It was quiet, boring duty and the Marines aboard were incredibly restless. The Swarm were a decade away, there was no chance of the concubines on the planet attacking the military base, every asteroid, comet and meteor in the system had had their trajectories triple checked to ensure none would hit the planet, hell the base and colony even had a complete backup electrical grid that was shielded. Having them sitting there was a waste of time. They were not even allowed to join in the war games the task force was holding just in case 'something' came up. It was painfully boring.

"Lieutenant Abbis, a hyperspace message drone just appeared. Wait one second while we download the information," the equally bored communications officer said.

Her sudden shocked gasp got the entire bridge crew's attention. "Sir, the drone is from the Aurora-class transport Persephone. It's one of the two vessels that are due in today. They are reporting a Sa'arm fleet at the edge of the solar system!"

"WHAT?!" he yelled, shocked and dismayed. Before his panic could fully set in, he was distracted by the comm officer again.

"Sir, Admiral Chow on the line for you," the now panicky-sounding comm officer reported.

"That was quick. Put him through please," the lieutenant said, trying to stay calm.

"Captain, we just got a preliminary report of a Sa'arm incursion from one of our Africas out by the edge of the system," the admiral said. "A Volumina-class scout sphere and its Vacuna-class escort ships. We are moving to engage."

"Admiral, just to let you know, we just got a message drone from an Aurora-class colony ship confirming the Sa'arm vessels and telling us that it and another Aurora came out of hyperspace right on top of Swarm ships. One is making a run for the solar jump boundary while the other one is inbound, being pursued and taking fire. We are relaying all the data from the drone to you now."

Abbis gestured to the comm officer, who immediately turned back his console to transmit the data.

After a few seconds, Admiral Chow said, "Data received. For now, I want you to remain on station in case any ships get past us. Please alert Governor Char and Commander Rose of the situation just to be on the safe side," he ordered.

The lieutenant was very happy with those orders. He had absolutely no interest in rushing out to engage the Swarm ships. His rookie enthusiasm to fight the Swarm had long since given way to his fears of space and dying, although he tried to keep it a secret from the other officers. He was not, however, looking forward to talking to the governor. She was pretty paranoid and tended to overact. Of course, the story of the disaster on Quay was so legendary even he had heard it, so her fears were completely understandable considering what she had gone through.

The conversation went as badly as he expected, with the volatile governor going into full emergency/crisis mode. After a long and tense wait, new orders came through to the Ares from Admiral Chow. The Swarm ships had been destroyed, but they had taken enough damage that the fleet would be regrouping around Frigia for repairs and to get the wounded off-loaded and treated. Lieutenant Abbis was ordered to follow the course information of the damaged Aurora that had jumped to hyperspace and was to try and locate them. The communications officer relaying their orders wished them good luck trying to find the missing Aurora, the Persephone. It would be a long search, doing a micro-hyperspace jump and scanning for the ship, then jumping again, over and over until they were ordered to break off the search or they found the ship.

Giving the order to break orbit, Abbis suddenly had a cold knot form in his stomach. While not psychic, he was convinced something was going to go wrong. He wished more than ever that the captain was there to take over.

It took a couple of days and over a dozen jumps before the AI reported contact with the missing ship. The Persephone was rotating slowly in space, tumbling like a broken toy. The damage was evident and fairly severe. Apparently, the Swarm had hit the ship hard before it escaped. Once again, he got that cold, scared feeling in his stomach as he watched the ship tumbling aimlessly in space.

"AI, please contact the Persephone and get a status update from them," he ordered.

After a long minute of waiting, the AI responded, "Unable to establish contact. Negative on life signs as well." The AI actually sounded worried.

Lieutenant Abbis once more got that sinking feeling. He looked again at the damage, but it just did not look severe enough to cause the entire crew and all of the civilians to die. "AI, please scan again, the damage does not seem extensive enough to wipe out everyone."

After a pause, the AI responded, "Confirmed, no life signs aboard. However, you are correct about the damage as well; most areas of the ship are intact or have emergency forcefields sealing hull breaches. Also, I do not detect any missing habitat pods or craft that might have been used to leave the ship."

The lieutenant wasted several seconds cursing the captain's clumsiness, which put him in the position of making decisions. After a few more minutes of thought, he finally made up his mind. "AI, is the transporter nexus functional on the Persephone?"

"Yes, it can be activated on your orders," it replied.

"Comm, get me Lieutenant Morton. It's time for our Marines to go for a walk."

It only took a minute to get in contact with the Marine lieutenant. Morton had modified his face to look like he was in his late twenties and had strong features, making him look like a Hollywood tough-guy or villain. Abbis personally thought it was a little ridiculous for a nineteen year old pretty boy to do that to himself, but maybe he had thought he needed the change to get the Marines to follow him. The idiot. Like his face was what the Marines would respect or not. He hoped for the Marines' sake Morton would mature quickly and become a capable officer.

"Greetings Captain," he said, even though Abbis was only filling in. "The AI says you found the Persephone."

"Yes, and that's why I need you. The AI can detect no life signs aboard, but the damage is not extensive enough to have wiped out the crew. I need a boarding party to check out the ship and download any data from the systems. The Persephone's AI is not responding so I'm detailing a cyber-warfare specialist to join you after you verify that the ship is secure."

"Cyber-warfare? Do you think something deliberately took out the AI then? And where the hell did you get someone like that? Fleet Intelligence would have snapped them up in a hot minute," Lieutenant Morton asked, looking confused. It was not an expression that suited his new face.

"Actually, she is my concubine. She was a hacker that was 'volunteered' into the NSA when they caught her. She's too passive to become a sponsor. I just got lucky, right place at the right time and all that," Abbis said smugly. "Even if the AI was destroyed or sabotaged, she may be able to get something useful from its memory."

The lieutenant looked a little sour when he found out the 'specialist' was a concubine, but accepted his mission. He was too much of an insecure ass-kisser to buck orders. Even though Morton was the same rank as Abbis, the acting-captain looked down on the inexperienced, ass-kissing Marine lieutenant. As far as he could tell, the man's sole redeeming feature was that he had joined the Confederacy Marines instead of the Navy.

Sergeant Galko hated the 'helpful' arm-chair officers who tended to put them in harm's way and then micro-managed them from afar. Of course, the Kirk-type vainglorious officers who liked to get into the thick of things and get men killed were even worse. Give him a nice, smart officer who gave orders and then sat back and waited for a report any day. Sadly, the kid giving them orders was of the former type, not the latter. He was seriously wondering if it was possible to convince the AI to create some type of 'distortion' that made communication impossible. The idiot had even made two communication checks as they were mustering in the transporter room. COMM CHECKS! Like the AI would allow communications to go down without noticing.

The Lieutenant's pep talk was utterly forgettable. Their orders to search and secure a battle-damaged, but apparently abandoned, civilian colony vessel had been more than enough to get them revved up. Most of them had initially gone to the colonies on a similar vessel, so they knew just how many people were dead or missing. The sudden silence meant the lieutenant must have wound down finally. With a crisp salute, he gratefully led the squad into the transporter field.

On the Aurora, things were almost surreal. The tactical deployment out of the transporter field, fully ready to rock if needed, was utterly anticlimactic. The room was absolutely normal. The lights were on, artificial gravity was active, the air was clean without any traces of smoke, and even the floors were spotless. In a way, the very normalness was creepy. Only two things were off. One was an odd sound or vibration in the air. It was not a vibration like engine firing or metal vibrating; it was a sound you heard, not felt. It seemed to be everywhere and sourceless, an almost subliminal murmuring. The other thing was the lack of people. For some reason, scouting around in a deserted base was far less eerie then being on a ghost ship.

"Ok people, split into fire teams. Alpha team, head for the bridge, Bravo team check the pods aft, Charlie team head forward and check the pods in the bow. Delta team, you are with me, chow hall and medical. Just because the AI says no one is here doesn't mean it is safe, so keep your guard up and watch each other's backs. No going off exploring alone."

Wandering around a large ship that was completely empty was unnerving. It was absolutely silent other than that strange sound. Suddenly, the squad heard a skittering sound echoing down the corridor behind them. Spinning around, weapons up, they saw nothing. After a careful search revealed no source for the sound they moved on, pulses racing far faster than before. Two other teams reported hearing the same sounds, but again, no source was detected. The lieutenant checking in every few minutes for updates was extremely annoying, and added to the stressful situation.

Suddenly the sounds of gunfire echoed down the hall. Everyone dove flat and spun around, seeking the source. "All teams, report," Sergeant Galko barked.

"Bravo team, we spotted ... um, something unknown," Private Smith said, sounding nervous.

Before the sergeant could say anything, the damn lieutenant broke in, "Could you be a little more specific than 'something' to justify firing inside a civilian ship?"

"Sir, we just got a glimpse of it, but it was an unknown. It appeared to be a large crab- or spider-like creature about a foot long. We lost it before we got more than a glimpse of it though."

There was a very long pause while everyone digested this newest information. Suddenly it was a different game entirely. If there were unknown, presumably alien, creatures on the ship that the AI's sensors could not detect, they could be in very serious trouble. When the order came to continue searching, it was a vastly more wary group that moved out. It had instantly gone from a simple search mission to a possible combat mission. Sergeant Galko remembered all too vividly how bad close quarters combat was from his time in the desert before joining the Confederacy.

Deciding discretion was the better part of valor, he ordered, "Alpha and Bravo teams, join up and continue search, Charlie team meet us in the galley."

"Acknowledged," came the replies, sounding somewhat relieved. Larger groups would have better firepower if needed and honestly, the environment aboard the ship was unnerving all of them. There were too many unknowns.

On the way to the rendezvous point they came across a section of the hall that had been hit. A faintly shimmering forcefield revealed the black of space beyond it, much to everyone's consternation. If it dropped for even a minute, they would all probably be dead. The weird thing was the lack of debris. Presumably the AI would activate the field almost instantly when it detected the hull breech, but there was no debris in the hall. Either it had been sucked into space or cleaned up.

A sudden scream of agony caused everyone to clap their hands reflexively over their ears, even though the implants were subdermal. A confused babble broke out.

"QUIET!" yelled Sergeant Galko, "Somebody report! Who the fuck was that?"

"Sarge, Private Bowe just went down!" the raw fear in the Marine's voice made her sound like a young teen girl. She blurted out in horror, "He's bleeding from the eyes, nose, and mouth, and I see things like bloody patches growing under the skin. I-I touched him, and he was so hot!"

"Give your position to the medic. I want him in the Aurora's sickbay ASAP. For now, we keep moving," he ordered, his mind whirling. What the fuck was going on?

Almost instantly, the medic reported in, his usual unflappable demeanor gone, "Sarge, I don't know how, but it looks like Bowe has some type of incredibly fast acting hemorrhagic fever! Something like Ebola on steroids." When the medic starts sounding scared, thing are really, really, bad.

"Ebola? That's impossible right? Don't the transporters have filters that stop that?" the confused Marine lieutenant asked. The others could only shake their heads in disgust. The idiot had obviously slept through that class and had replaced real technology with silly, TV sci-fi stuff in his head.

"No sir," the medical officer explained patiently, "unlike the transporters from the popular television series, real transporters only move solid objects from one place to another. Sort of like the old tesseract theory, where the shortest distance between two points is NOT a straight line, but a folded line with the two points touching. In very basic terms, that's how ours work. There is no possible way someone could be broken down into an energy pulse, focused somewhere hundreds of miles away, and reconstructed remotely with no receiving device after having everything dangerous filtered out. Sorry.