1.20.1

Enemy On Deck

Boots thundered down the stairs to the cargo hold and raced to the lockers and workbenches.

Tilly shut herself inside the engine room, and the Bridge staff immediately reported to the captain.

Astrid, dazed, followed the lead of her fellows. She stripped and slid into her underarmor even while she shook herself awake.

The others did the same at her side while Officer Shaely’s voice rang, uncharacteristically terse, over the ship-wide comm.

“Alert: Aldebaran crew. Attempting evasive maneuvers. Bogey seeks to disable, not to destroy. I repeat. Prepare for boarding. Report to stations!”

“Shit,” Anders uttered under his breath. He lashed on his calf shields one at a time. “Attacking a Military ship? Who would be that stupid?!”

“I have some ideas.” Karth combed his hair out of his face between his fingers, then moved to help Anders center his plates.

Romo and Dell aided each other. Tenya took turns between Astrid and Rue, then Astrid helped her.

They geared up like the ship was on fire, but still, it didn’t feel fast enough. Finally, hair pulled back, weapons at the ready, they regrouped.

“Astrid, Dell, get to the Bridge to see what’s happening and defend the captain. Relay any useful info through the personal comms and we’ll do the same,” Karth ordered.

Dell hastened to provide comm pieces from his kit.

“Anders, Tenya, Rue, Romo, you’re with me. If they want to board, they’ll have to go through the airlock.”

“Aye, aye.” Anders shoved a radio device in his ear.

“This is our turf,” the commander reminded them. “We have the homefield advantage. Now go!”

The team split in two groups up the twin staircases, each to do their part.

Astrid kept on Dell’s tail, vigilant as adrenaline pumped through her.

Dell took the stairs two at a time and she double-timed her steps to keep up.

They arrived at the Bridge just in time to see Navigator Hammond strap Captain London into his own officer’s armor while the man passed orders to Pilot Ricks.

“Can you keep them off us?”

“I’ll dance us as much as I can, Captain.”

“Officer Shaely, any registration? Can we identify them?”

“No, sir, they’ve made no contact.”

“How do we even know they’re attacking?” Dell asked when he and Astrid joined the captain.

“They’ve been chasing us and not responding to our hails,” Captain London explained.

“They’re trying to get under us, not over us,” Ricks added.

“What does that mean?” Astrid asked.

Dell elaborated, “It means they’re trying to get a bead on the engine, not the Bridge. It’s a disabling maneuver, not a strike.”

Stars and sky spun as the Aldebaran twirled in the starlit sea to gain some distance.

“I guess the inertia dampeners are going to earn their money’s worth today,” Dell muttered. Astrid diverted her eyes from the spinning sky.

“Ejection Team in position,” Karth’s voice chimed through the comm to Shaely’s station.

“Ricks,” the captain addressed, “can you get us a look at our pursuers?”

“Yeah, but it’ll give up some ground.”

“I trust you can get it back. Do it. Shaely. Hail them again.”

The Communications Officer nodded.

“XV-Aldebaran to unmarked vessel. You are engaged with the Earthen Military Service, please respond.”

Still, nothing.

But when Ricks deftly flipped them over, he did so just in time for a dark hull to sweep against the inky sky. If not for the bronze banner lines of its detail, Astrid wouldn’t have seen it at all.

“Graves!”

She pointed, but the ship already sailed from view as Ricks once more returned them to their game of cat and mouse.

“How do you know?” the captain demanded.

“It’s the same ship that escaped Thedes!” Astrid was certain. She’d tumbled from that shadowy metal herself.

“How did they find us? They left first…” Dell scowled.

Captain London’s jaw set, rigid, and his face hardened.

“Officer Shaely. Relay that we will cease evasion and agree to parley.”

“Sir?” Dell immediately shifted in his armor, anxious.

“One does not meet his enemies by running from them, Mister Davis.” The captain’s whole demeanor stiffened. “We will not protract our duty. This must be dealt with. Or they will only find us again.”

“How?!” Dell implored.

With grim resolve, the captain turned to his soldier. “The same way they found us now. One more thing we won't find out by shooting first and asking questions later.”

Shaely transmitted the captain’s offer while London delegated orders to his team through Dell.

“Ejection team,” Dell relayed, “we have offered a Parley. Stand down. I repeat, we have identified bogey vessel as an agent of the Static Opposition. Do not engage until they are completely aboard.”

“A trap?” Dell queried after.

“For what good it will do.” Captain London frowned. “They’ll be expecting as much. But the fact they haven’t yet tried blasting us out of the sky means they want something.”

Dread oiled its way into Astrid’s stomach. She and Dell shared a nervous expression between them, for their friends remained on the deck below to meet the invaders.

The enemy ship, again, did not respond. But when Ricks slowed, so did, it seemed, the vessel of their foe.

“Bogey is pulling to port side.” Shaely looked up from the screen at her station. “Looking to engage with our airlock.”

Under a few strained minutes, finally the Aldebaran listed as the secondary ship made physical contact and locked into place.

Astrid could hear her heartbeat pound in her ears.

Beside her, Dell drew his weapon and listened intently as if he could hear the airlock chambers sealing together to grant entry.

As time ticked by, Astrid felt as though she might be sick. Something, somewhere, felt very wrong. Suddenly, being on the Bridge did not satisfy her. She needed to know what was happening. She needed to face it with the team.

“Airlock engaged and lighting up. Unknowns are boarding,” Shaely announced.

Apprehension suffocated the Bridge. But no gunfire sounded. No clamor of a scuffle. Until finally, the commander’s voice broke the smothering silence.

“It’s Graves,” Karth told them. “He wants Astrid.”

The Channeler twitched to hear their names so close together.

“You’re not going anywhere.” The captain headed off her questioning glance.

“Captain…” Tenya’s voice came as a soft whisper through the radio. “They’re equipped with the rogue weapons. Energy arms.”

Again, Astrid and Dell’s eyes met, this time racked with concern.

"We're just going to let them onboard with weapons?" Dell grew increasingly anxious.

"If they wanted this to end in a fight they wouldn't have bothered with the disabling tactic," Captain answered. But it seemed to the Channeler he spoke more to himself than to his crew. "If they start something onboard, it's the point of no return for them. I'm going to make them own it. No more half-measures."

“I have to go down there…” Astrid realized.

“That’s not your call to make. I’m not giving him what he wants,” Captain London immediately rejected. “It solves nothing. This is about forcing their hand. Demanding they make themselves clear, on EMS record, so they can't hide anymore.”

“I am the only one that can do anything about those weapons!” Astrid argued. “Our people are exposed down there, protecting me. Please, Captain!”

His face wrinkled all the way to his peppered temples, perplexed.

“Captain, this whole experience has been about what I can and can't live with, right?” she pleaded. “That’s how you got me here. You can’t ask me to sit here and use them as a human shield while there’s something I can do about it. I can’t live with that!”

Captain London’s dark eyes weighed her words, until finally he spoke.

“Dell. Have Commander Kendall escort the boarding team to the War Room. We, and Specialist Hale, will meet him there…”

Dell did as he was told, and Karth responded with a heavy, “Aye, aye.”

“Captain, are you sure getting us all in the same room is a good idea? We’ll make ourselves easy targets,” Dell cautioned.

In agreement, the captain turned to Hammond.

“Be prepared. You know what do if you have to execute contingency.”

Soberly, the navigator nodded from his station.

Then, Captain London accompanied Dell and Astrid from the Bridge, to the War Room.