Rebel Fleet (22 page)

=36=

When the heavy cruiser loomed near, I wondered what they were waiting for. We were running on nothing but suit power. Surely, we had to be in easy range now. We were sitting ducks.

Like a lion prodding prey that plays dead, the big ship circled around. They were scanning us. My sym showed me lavender waves crisscrossing our hull.

I thought of various plans. Perhaps we could get close enough and magnetically adhere to her hull. Then, her crew would have a choice. If they came out to pry us out of the fighter, we could blow up the ship in a final act of defiance.

On the other hand, there was a remote chance that they’d ignore us and simply create a new rift. We’d tag along, and take our chances wherever we ended up.

Impatiently, I waited for an opportunity to make such a maneuver. But the enemy pilot was cagey, and he never got close enough for me to try it.

Finally, I grew irritated. “Samson, turn on our com system,” I ordered.

“You’re going to talk shit to them, aren’t you?” Mia purred.

She loved it when I spat at defeat. No wonder we’d gotten along so well. She’d never heard of the concept of diplomacy. It wasn’t in her genes.

“Yeah,” I said. “Something like that.”

Samson lit up the com system, and a funny thing happened. A repeating message came booming over the speakers.

“…trying our patience, pilot,” said a voice. It was a commanding feminine voice. “This is your last opportunity to—”

“Hello?” I said. “This is Ensign Leo Blake, Earth crew.”

“Blake…” she said. “I don’t know you. A pity. I thought I knew all the brave ones that remained. You disappoint me greatly. This kill will bring no honor.”

My mind raced. This had to be an Imperial. What would they be like? I’d talked to the officers aboard
Killer
, and my impression was that they were quite similar in mindset to Wild Kher. Except that they were infinitely more arrogant.

But I’d learned how the status-based civilization of the Rebels worked. If the Imperials worked the same way, I had at least an inkling as to how to proceed.

“Not so,” I said. “Your kill has brought you great honor. My ship personally destroyed one of your carriers.”

There was a moment of silence.

“Your claims are incredible,” she said. “But I’ve checked, and according to reports that came in during the… ‘battle’, if you wish to call it that, a few carriers were destroyed.”

“Exactly. By heavy fighters.
My
heavy fighter in fact, supported by
my
squadron, did the deed.”

“Hmmm…” she said. “This does change matters. If you are truly—”

“I am,” I snapped. “I would have destroyed your vessel, if I’d had a dozen wingmen to help.”

She laughed then. “Such boasting! I like it. You will be fun to destroy and not as worthless to my records as I’d thought. Thank you for this—”

“Thanks are not good enough,” I interrupted. “Neither is your limited understanding of your own interests.”

“What? Insults now? On top of—?”

“Hardly. I’m trying to help. I’ll speak slowly, so as to make sure you understand. I’ve been told Imperials are slow to grasp unfamiliar concepts.”

I was getting urgent cautioning gestures from my crew by now, except for Dr. Chang, who watched with thoughtfulness, and Mia, who watched with glee.

Turning away from them so I couldn’t see their frantic waving, I stared at the big ship that stood off at a safe distance, watching us.

“You will pay for your insults,” the voice warned dangerously. “Enjoy your final moments—”

“How can I pay further?” I laughed. “You’re going to blast me out of space, right? How unimaginative. How wasteful. I hadn’t believed my officers, but now you’re proving their points one after another.”

“What points?” the voice demanded loudly. “What might be gained by doing anything other than destroying you instantly, you insect?”

“First off,” I said calmly, a grin spreading over my face. I knew when a mark was taking the bait. This captain was mean, but she reminded me of petty bureaucrats everywhere. “You’re missing a grand opportunity. I’m not just a fighter pilot, I’m a Rebel hero. You could capture me and parade me at your base. You could—”

“Ah!” the voice said suddenly. “I get it. Public dismemberment! The acid baths! The genital mutilation! You crave treatment beyond your station, insect.”

For just a second, I was at a loss as to what to say. I’d been envisioning the life of a beaten hero. A prize to be shown off in a sumptuously appointed prison cell, perhaps.

“Uh… right,” I said. “Perhaps not that, although—”

“You’ve convinced me,” she said. “Stand-to as we lock onto your vessel. If you attempt to escape the gravity beams, or even power up your ship, you’ll be instantly destroyed.”

The channel fell silent, and a liquid-looking beam of sickly green reached out, enveloping our tiny ship. Only I could see it with the aid of my improved perception.

“
This
was your plan?” Gwen demanded. “Genital mutilation?”

“She’s just trying to scare us,” I assured her.

“Well, it’s working.”

I looked around the group. “Who votes we blow ourselves up when we’re sucked into their hull?” I asked.

They looked trapped and indecisive.

“I do,” Mia said, going first.

Gwen shook her head, breathing hard.

“No,” she said. “Let’s take our chances. Perhaps imprisonment won’t be as awful as she said. Maybe we’ll get lucky. We’ve come so far…”

“Yeah,” Samson said. “Maybe they’ll only mutilate Leo.”

“You really want to surrender?” I asked him.

He looked at me for a second and shook his head. “Nah, I’m with Mia. Blow us up. Blow this ship’s guts out.”

Already, beyond our thin hull, I could see the yawning portal we were being drawn into. It looked small from where we were, but it was rapidly growing in size.

“Dr. Chang?” I asked.

He squinted at me thoughtfully. “I’ll go with your instincts, Leo,” he said. “So far, they’ve been exceptional. Besides, you’ll do whatever you want in the final instant, anyway.”’

I smiled at him. Perhaps, in the end, he knew me better than the rest of them.

“We’ll die then,” I said, “the moment they suck us up inside their ship.”

Samson and I worked on rigging it up. The plan was to power up the core briefly, overload it, and set it off. The process would take no more than a millisecond. We wouldn’t feel a thing.

With one finger on a pressure-switch, I watched as we drifted closer and closer. The moment was almost upon us.

I discovered then that blowing yourself up is much harder to do than it sounds. Your mind fights against it. You come up with a thousand excuses to avoid going through with it.

I’d always wondered, when watching vids of people wait for their executions, why they weren’t struggling, howling, fighting to the last.

Now, I knew. It was a sense of unreality. A moment of futile hope that wouldn’t recede. I was mesmerized, trading obedience for one last second of life, one final lungful of air…

=37=

When we passed through the shimmering shields and into the armored hull, I pressed the self-destruct button—then I did it again.

Nothing happened. I sat back, defeated.

“They drained our power somehow,” Samson said. “The core is empty. There isn’t enough left to light a candle.”

Nodding, I knew the truth of his words. It made perfect sense. The Imperials weren’t stupid, no matter what I’d implied. They would never snuggle with a viper without being certain its fangs had been pulled first.

“Assault weapons,” I said, “get your thumpers out!”

My crew looked startled for a moment. Then they scrambled to obey. We pulled out the graviton thumpers we’d won back aboard our carrier and checked them. They were loaded and ready to go.

The sickly green beam pulled us into the guts of the cruiser and set us on the deck. We had gravity again—it was artificial, but it felt good to be on steady feet.

Everyone was locked and loaded. We aimed at the hatch.

Outside
Hammerhead
, we saw a delegation approach. Six hulking brutes in body armor clanked in the lead. Behind them walked a very different figure.

She was tall, fine-boned, and lovely. Her clothing was spare, but what she wore was regal and flowing. There was a hard cast to her features, however. A stern, unsmiling look that I knew instantly was capable of evil deeds. To me, she looked like a devilish queen.

Could this be the captain?

“Do we fight?” Samson said, gripping and regripping his thumper.

“Yeah,” I said. “Might as well. Take out the tin cans in front. If we can capture the captain, maybe we can—”

The hatch blew off and clanged down onto the deck at that moment. One of the metal-encased guards had done it.

Startled, my crew didn’t need any more urging after that. They fired their weapons. Five gravity grenades flew out, thumping and clanging on the deck like ball bearings. They went off a second later, surprising the enemy.

All six of the armored hulks crumpled, crushed inward by the sudden intense weight of the very armor they wore.

We leapt out of the ship, spraying disruptor fire at those of the enemy who were still struggling to rise or lift a weapon. They shuddered in agony.

The captain’s fine hand twitched then, and we all fell onto our faces.

I couldn’t move. My body felt as if it had gone to sleep. Every limb tingled with numbness, even my cheeks were numb. My eyes were locked open and unable to blink.

The captain walked near to stand over me. My eyes couldn’t even close to shut out her image. They were beginning to sting, but I was helpless.

She examined me closely.

“Allow me to introduce myself,” she said calmly. “I’m Captain Lael, Rebel. Welcome aboard my ship
Splendor
.”

She looked at me expectantly, but of course I couldn’t move or speak.

“Ah, not in talkative mood? We’ll fix that soon enough.”

My eyes shifted to a wand-like device she was holding. I could swivel my eyeballs now, but not blink. Tears ran down my face.

She put held her wand close to my face. I wanted to shy away, or even just to close my eyes, but I couldn’t.

“This is a neural paralyzer,” she said, holding the thin metal rod an inch from my left eye. “I considered using it the moment you came aboard, but I wanted to gauge your responses first. I’m impressed. You attacked without hesitation. It’s the same vicious behavior pattern you exhibited when you shot-up my ship’s stern.”

I looked up at her, and she stared back curiously. I felt some of the numbness wear off, allowing me to blink. That was a relief.

Captain Lael was lovely, in an ethereal way. She didn’t look quite human. She looked…
beyond
human. Her limbs were all shapely, though slightly elongated. Her cheekbones were high, her chin narrow, her ears small and perfectly shaped.

Her eyes were the most enchanting part. I’d met a thousand women who spent time in front of a mirror every day to make their eyes look like that—but she wasn’t wearing any makeup at all.

“You’re an interesting specimen,” she said. “I don’t think I’ve encountered your type before. Very much like an Imperial, but squatty and built with dense bones... there’s so much body hair...”

Captain Lael spread her long fingers over my scalp. They were cool to the touch.

“The cranium appears to be small,” she said, “but not so small as to suggest impairment.”

More armored soldiers had appeared by this time. I could see them as I could now move my eyes freely. The paralysis effect was slowly wearing off.

“I’m intrigued,” the captain said, standing again on her long legs. “Bring this one to my private chambers. Put the rest into the algae tanks.”

They lifted me and my crewmates up, taking us away as if we were children riding upon the backs of athletic fathers. This level of strength surprised me because the Imperials appeared to be slight—even frail. It occurred to me that their strength had to come from their armored suits. Inside them marched long-armed Imperials like the captain, aided by the powered constructs they wore.

I was placed inside a cube of force. There was no escape—I couldn’t even touch the walls without a stinging sensation burning my fingers.

The Imperials seemed to be physically weak as individuals, but their technology made them powerful. I thought that over while I waited inside my shimmering cage for the captain. Perhaps I could use my superior strength to my advantage.

It seemed like a long time before she showed up.

“You will now answer my questions,” she told me when she finally did.

“Where’s my crew?” I demanded immediately, glaring at her.

I stood as tall as I could inside the force cube, but I couldn’t straighten my back fully without zapping the top of my head. Perhaps that was by design.

“You demand punishment already?” she asked. “I thought you were capable of understanding your situation. Perhaps I was wrong.”

Her steel wand-like device came out again. She’d used it as a neural-paralyzer before. She made a motion with it, and I found myself falling into a crumpled heap on the deck.

This time, I hadn’t gone limp. She’d done something with my muscles, however, making them spastically contract. Struggling against the effect, I lifted my head and my body, pushing up off the deck. My throat made an angry gargling sound of effort.

She threw me back down again and laughed.

“You don’t learn quickly,” she said. “We usually eliminate slaves of such poor quality immediately. But I’ve held back so far because you amuse me.”

I began to rise again, slowly. This time I was ready to catch myself in case I was thrown down again.

“I’m not a slave,” I said, “I’m a prisoner of war.”

She laughed. “Such wild claims! You’re no such thing. You’re a beast of the field. An insect that apes its betters. A mongrel in the shadow of an Imperial.”

“We’re at war. I’m your prisoner. Therefore, I’m a prisoner of war.”

Captain Lael shook her head. “I see you don’t understand. In order for two creatures to be at war, there must be an opportunity for both creatures to harm the other. If you catch a fish, are you at war with all fish? If you shoot down an air-swimmer, are you at war with the entire species?”

Before I could respond, she went on to answer the question herself.

“No,” she said firmly, “no one says the huntress makes war upon the rodent in her sights. War requires equal participants.”

“Agreed,” I said. “But by your own definition, we’re at war.”

“How so?”

“I destroyed one of your carriers personally. If my full squadron of fighters had been here, I could have taken out your ship. You’re talented and well-equipped, but your ship is nothing I couldn’t handle under the right circumstances.”

She tilted her head in a manner I found enchanting, despite my discomfort. I warned myself not to go easy on her if I was to get the upper hand somehow. Just because she was pretty didn’t mean she wasn’t a deadly enemy.

“You’ve made that claim before,” she said. “There
was
a carrier knocked out at the rear of our formation…”

“Now that we’ve settled our definitions,” I said, “I require that you treat me—”

“And what about physical combat?” she asked, as if she hadn’t heard me. “Do you think you could defeat my warriors?”

I shrugged. “Of course,” I said with certainty. “I’d love to have the chance to prove it.”

“I’d enjoy watching that. Whip-blades would flay that attitude off your face.”

“No weapons,” I said quickly. “No false skins of exoskeletal armor, either. Just two people in a fight to the finish.”

“No weapons?” she asked, scandalized. “Why should I honor any of your requests?”

“Because, your way would prove nothing. Your weapons are as unknown to me as mine are to you. Send out your champion—or would you dare to take up my challenge yourself?”

My speech had made her increasingly unhappy with every word. It seemed that suggesting I could beat her in a fight had thrown her into a rage.

She stood with her hands on her hips, staring at me through the force-walls of my cube prison. She was tall, almost as tall as I was—even taller when I was left hunching inside her glowing cage.

“This talk of duels is a fantasy,” she said. “Let’s get to business. I’m not interested in your bravado. I’m here to gain answers from a captive. You’ll be coerced with pain until I hear what I want to know.”

“So this is an interrogation?” I asked. “Why me? Why not some admiral or other?”

“I don’t have an admiral on hand, but I do have a wild-thing that attacks without warning or hesitation. I want to know what you know. Will you answer my questions, or shall we begin with a session of unpleasantness?”

She tapped on the force-walls with her wand. Each time the handheld device made contact, a buzzing sound came to my ears, and my body tingled. Her slightest movement created nausea and pain.

“I’ll answer every question I can,” I said, “if you’ll accept my formal challenge to—”

She lost patience and zapped me. My balls shriveled into my body, and my knees came together. A feeling of intense electrical shock ran through me.

There were no visible wires, but I was being electrocuted, nonetheless.

Summoning what little self-control I had left, as soon as the pulse let up I showed my teeth in a savage grin. “Sitting safely outside a cage, tormenting people? Does this sort of thing get you off?”

She made an exasperated sound and cranked up the power. I fell to the floor of my cage and lost consciousness.

I felt heat spreading throughout my body as I lost consciousness. I hoped my bladder hadn’t let go, but I thought that it might have.