Chapter 10

Elizabeth had calculated how to get the Mistral aboard, and directed the crew on how to move the shuttles in order to make enough room to enable the small mining ship to place itself aboard. When Chong Sul parked the small ship in the shuttle bay, Jeffrey brought the crew together to introduce the family to the crew. He told them that the family of Chong Sul were his personal employees, and were to be treated with the utmost respect.

And until further notice, the family was not to be exposed to anything classified as secret or higher, as they were not military. Jeffrey decided that the family would use the Mistral as their cabin; power and communication lines were connected so the family had pretty much everything they needed.

And Jeffrey introduced the family to Elizabeth, much to the delight of Kim.

Heinz asked to see Jeffrey in private. They went to his cabin and sat. Heinz told him that he pretty well completed the development of the gravity plates he would use for artificial gravity, and aside from testing while using the golden drives, he was confident he could easily make enough plates to entirely cover all the decks of the ship with resources on board.Jeffrey told him to begin the fabrication, and the remote robots would begin installation.

The cluster of alien ships had worked itself down to just a couple, Jeffrey was given leave to carry out their orders. He took Elizabeth out of the traffic lanes, and began to head towards the asteroid belt and where Lagrange 3A would be when they arrived. They started out at .025 light. This was not fast considering what they were capable of, but far outclassed anything they could have done only a few months ago.

On the way Elizabeth's robots installed gravity plates on the decks throughout the ship. They had not been powered on until they were well away from Earth, but not yet at the orbit of Mars. When they decided to test the gravity plates, they stopped the rotation of the ship, letting everybody float in free-fall. Everyone who has been to space has been exposed to zero gravity, even though mostly they would use the rotational artificial gravity. Still, it was enough of a unique experience that several cohabiting couples used the opportunity to discover another aspect of their lives. Canoodling couples in zero g found both challenges and new sources of pleasure, while most decided that, while fun, the work to get to the fun was too much trouble to repeat often.

Powering on the gravity plates was a simple process and took very little electricity. Heinz designed the plates so they could be controlled in several ways, individually, in sections, or the entire ship. The first power-on was at ten percent Earth gravity. This was increased until they reached twice the gravity of Earth. Heinz held it at one G, and the robots then completed the installation because some of the cabins did not have the gravity plates installed yet.

Jeffrey then began increasing Elizabeth's speed, at first to .1 light, then .5, then 1, then 4 light, the fastest that this ship had ever gone. There were no negative effects of the gravitic plating while using the golden drive, which was a relief, because Jeffrey liked the idea of not having to rotate the ship. The only concern now was how long the plating would last – what was its mean time before failure, something impossible to calculate until you actually had some failures. And what would be the cause of those failures?

So now began the task of dismantling the rotating infrastructure of the old ship. They had brought the speed down to a more comfortable half-light. Which gave them a few more hours to the spot they calculated the Lagrange 3A station would be. Since the miscalculation with the Earth Station arrival based on their FTL travels, Elizabeth was more meticulous in her calculations. And it paid. They dropped to a less robust speed, .01 light, which again, was more than she would normally have traveled under her ion drives, but was a more reasonable speed in light of the traffic they would encounter around the station. As they neared the station's orbit, they decreased to a mere crawl, around twelve thousand kilometers per hour, with a visible deceleration to match the velocity of the station.

Elizabeth arranged for a berth for the Mistral, and had the family disembark from the shuttle bay andmake their way to the dock, where they came up against a good deal of red tape. The family smiled through it all, but as The Administrator saw to the arrangements himself, they found themselves more and more deeply entangled in the red tape.

At the same time, the two shuttles also disembarked carrying a squad of Marines and a supply of foodstuffs for the alien distribution. The two shuttles docked alongside the Mistral, their Marines taking up station around the palettes of foodstuffs. The station security officers approached the Marines, jovially volunteered to take the palettes off the marines hands,but the Marines declined. One of the sargents asked for Lieutenant Omotunde, but the station security officers were evasive about the location of the Marine officer.

They reported this back up the chain of command to Lieutenant Bianca, who reported it to Jeffrey. Jeffrey had little love for Omotunde, but he was appointed to the station by the admiral, so he had little choice but to track down the Marine officer. Jeffrey asked Elizabeth to activate her clone on the station to see what she could find, but as soon as she did, the station security discovered the intrusion, so she shut herself down to avoid further detection.

Jeffrey was unsure how to address himself, as a Navy officer or as a miner. He decided for the first part to go undercover as a miner, rather than as the presence of the Navy in the region. He brought Elizabeth to dock on one of the external docks, instead of the more convenient internal wharfs as they had on the last visit. As it was, they were only a short distance from the Mistral's location. Upon their locking down, they found themselves accosted by station security, under the direct supervision of Security Lieutenant Andrado and a team of security officers, demanding to inspect Elizabeth for contraband.

Jeffrey appeared at the head of the gangway, and told Andrado by short distance radio that he was welcome to come aboard. The security team under the newly-made security lieutenant trooped aboard, all ten of them. Jeffrey provided him with his manifest of Naval food stuffs for the alien distribution, to be coordinated by Marine Lieutenant Omotunde.

“Sokolov, I'm placing you under arrest for violations of the Smuggling Act, for activities contrary to the peace of the public, and for piracy. You ship is forfeit and is now owned by the corporation.”

“What corporation is that?” Jeffrey inquired.

“Never you mind” said the former security officer, now lieutenant. “Now get your hands up, come down that gangway with these officers, and surrender your ship.”

“I don't think so,” said Jeffrey.

“Take him!” Andrado yelled to his security detail. Two burly guards took Jeffrey by the arms. They placed an emergency bag over his head so they could take him out through the vacuum of space for a very short time.

Three accompanied Jeffrey into the airlock, the other seven stayed with Andrado in the suit room. They looked all around for defensive lasers, because Andrado had briefed them on the method of his finger removal the last time he had attacked this ship.

Andrado then radioed the team to get back in the ship, his voice was very strained as if he was under agreat amount of weight. When the three security officers that accompanied Jeffrey out the airlock went back in, they dragged him in as well. They saw the other eight people staggered on the deck. Two quickly went to help their comrades and rapidly discovered their error – their mass increased by six times their normal weights. They fell directly to the floor as if sucked in by a small black hole. The officer that remained with Jeffrey stared incomprehensibly at the mess on the floor. Jeffrey shoved the remaining officer into the gravity field, then leaned on the wall while awaiting his own security team.

Ojo Torres and Audrey Svoboda showed up in their combat armor, armed with their pistols and a whole container of restraint bands. Elizabeth let up on one tile at a time so Torres could drag one of the security officers away from the gaggle and Sneaky could disarm and secure that officer. When one of the officers attacked Torres – always a mistake – he quickly knocked him out, but Audrey came up with an idea. “Elizabeth,” she said, “Can you give us a few robots to help with this?” Torres immediately recognized the utility of this. They removed the unconscious officer from the plate, cuffed him, and made room for the robots to pull the rest of the officers from the gravitic plates.

The two spider-like robots, the size of a Galapagos Tortoises clamped on the armored arms and legs of the officers, one at a time, under the direction of Elizabeth. Then they would drag the officer over the still-activated heavy gravitic plates, for Torres or Sneaky to cuff and put away.

Once all the officers were bound, their helmets removed, and disarmed, they were escorted to the now frequently used brig, and attached to the wall rings. One or more of the officers was likely to have nightmares about spiders or robots or robot spiders for a long time to come.

Torres, aware of the benefits of positive reinforcement said to Elizabeth, “That was good thinking, Elizabeth. Holding them down without killing them. Good work.”

“THANK YOU, Sargent TORRES. YOU MAKE A GIRL BLUSH.”

“Please monitor the prisoners, and let us know if there is anything we need to know.”

“YES Sargent.”

One of the radios in the collected effects of the officers started speaking – with the voice of the Administrator. “Well, report! Do you have him in custody? Report, damn you!”

“Well, I think that goes to show who is behind all this.” said Jeffrey to no one in particular. He assured that Elizabeth cut the gravitic plate back to Earth normal, then walked into the brig with the radio that was broadcasting the increasingly desperate calls from the Administrator.

“Mister Andrado, it seems someone is looking for an update. Would you like to clue the Administrator in with a sitrep?” asked Jeffrey. Andrado just shook his head. He seemed to have some difficulty getting his breath. “Elizabeth, would you increase the oxygen in here, Mr. Andrado seems to be having difficulty with his breathing.”

Jeffrey left the prisoners to stew in the brig, went into the corridor outside the brig and asked, “Elizabeth, do you think you can find Lieutenant Omotunde?”

“I WILL SEE WHAT I CAN FIND. ALSO, CAPTAIN, IT SEEMS THAT THERE ARE PROBLEMS WITH THEMISTRAL. DOCKING AUTHORITY HAS BEEN REVOKED AND ACCORDING TO RADIO REPORTS, MISTRAL WAS IMPOUNDED.”

“That sounds ominous.” said Jeffrey. “Okay, have one of the squads of Marines investigate.”

“VERY WELL, CAPTAIN.”

The Marines guarding the shuttles and palettes of foodstuffs for the aliens split up, the group that stayed, A squad, redeployed and raised their alert status. The pilot of their shuttle strapped on his pistol, jacked a round into the chamber, and closed the shuttle bay for security. B squad loaded themselves into their own shuttle, which took them to the location of the berth Mistral was docked at. Before disembarking onto the wharf, the Marines readied their weapons. The Sargent made sure they would not look particularly menacing unless and until they received resistance. They then exited from the shuttle, only to find themselves surrounded by a dozen security officers.

Marine gunnery Sargent McCalum walked over to the leader of the security officers, another Sargent, switched his radio to the frequency used by station security, and inquired of the problem with the little mining ship.

“What's that to you, Sargent?” asked the security police Sargent.

“We know this ship. What's going on Sarge?”

“We were told to impound the ship and search for contraband.”

Gunnery Sargent McCalum triggered the switch that rebroadcast his conversation securely to Elizabeth.

“In that order? Sounds backwards to me. Where did your orders come from?” McCalum asked taking a slightly more aggressive pose. His squad took the cue and brought their weapons to a relaxed position that didn't look like they were really pointing at the security officers.

The station security officers noticed the shift in position of the Marines, but while they didn't see a real threat from the Marines, they felt a touch more fear, they felt that the Marines were now a slight bit more alert, and while not obviously threatening, they appeared as if they could take command of the entire wharf in a second.

The security police Sargent said, “My orders came directly from the top. Looks like something big is going on, they have had us impound one out of ten ships on the wharf.” Then the police Sargent asked, “What ship are you from? We didn't see any Navy boats coming in.”

“We cane in under the radar. Big things happening.”

“Don't I know it! Now get out of our way, we need to take control of this ship.” The station security police Sargent then motioned for his officers to get more aggressive in crowding the Marines. The Marines already had moved the slight distance from 'alert' to 'ready'.

“Sargent, you do not want to take on the Marines. Your weapons will have minimal effect on our armor. Ours, on the other hand will shatter your armor and kill you quick. Now drop your weapons, DROP YOUR WEAPONS NOW! DROP THEM!” His voice got louder and louder as he moved more aggressively toward the Sargent. He drew his pistol and pointed it directly in the faceplate of the Sargent's suit helmet. The aggressive moves had the desired effect – none of the security police reacted against the Marines, they allowed their weapons to fall to the ends of the lanyards that connected them to their suits and put their hands in the air.

Two of the Marines shouldered their projectile rifles and aimed them at the entire gaggle of police. The other two went to each of the officers, removed the weapons, and had them kneel on the dock. The security police kept their hands on their helmets.

Elizabeth notified the Marine Sargent that the police officer's radios had been blocked so they couldn't call for help. The pilot of the shuttle, armed with a pistol stood guard inside the shuttle's passenger bay as one of the Marines escorted security officers, one at a time to the bay and secured him or her to the bench. After all the officers were secured, the Marines came aboard except for McCalum and one of the Marine privates, who stood guard at the Mistral. The Navy shuttle took off, delivered three of the Marines to re-join the A squad guarding the food cache for the aliens, then took their prisoners to Elizabeth to join their fellow prisoners in the brig.

As McCalum and the private took up positions outside the Mistral, Chong Sul appeared at the head of the gangway tube and radioed the Marines to come aboard. McCalum didn't see why not, so entered the little ship. Before going aboard, McCalum notified Elizabeth that he and the private were going aboard the Mistral on the invitation of Chong Sul. They entered the airlock, entered the main cabin – the combination living quarters and bridge of the small family ship – and saw both Chong Lee and Chong Kim sitting primly at a built-in bench against the bulkhead. Their mouths were tightly closed, but their eyes expressed fear. They did not show recognition or any emotion but fear.

The private removed his helmet, and expressed greeting, but was interrupted by a neural disruptor gun barrel put against his head. Sargent McCalum called out “Mayday. Mistral under attack,” on the open channel. He then described the scene as he saw it.

Elizabeth replied to the Sargent in quiet tones, “Sargent, HELP IS ON THE WAY. YOUR SUIT CAMERAS ARE NOW BROADCASTING. LOOK AROUND.”

McCalum turned his head so the helmet camera could pick up the scene. Elizabeth displayed the images for Janet on the bridge.

The man holding the neural disruptor against the head of the private told McCalum to surrender his weapons. As McCalum was finishing his video sweep of the cabin, he saw another man had just appeared and was pointing another neural disruptor at the woman and the girl. The audio input of the armored suit picked up a whimper from Chong Kim. He saw tears in her eyes, Her mother was shaking, trembling in fear. Her eyes looked up at Sargent McCalum – he read fear, hope, embarrassment and a whole slew of other emotions in her inaudible plea.

He heard another voice, the voice of one not already in the cabin, say, “Marine, have you ever seen what a neural disruptor does to a person at close range? If you don't want to see it again, you will remove your helmet and drop your weapons.” He paused a moment, then removed the helmet – pressed the unlock button and gave it a clockwise twist – and pulled it up over his head. The air inside the cabin smelled of fish and soya and onions and garlic and ginger and fear.

“Whoever you are, you are playing with fire,” said McCalum.

“Oh, I don't know,” said a voice with an old English or South African White or Australian accent. McCalum couldn't quite place it. “We've been doing this for some time now. We took yourMarine buddies real easy like. Didn't need to kill one of them. Y'see, that's what happens when you have a plan. And don't really care who gets hurt.” The man with the voice stepped out from the aft hatch, which lead to the engine compartment and holds, pointed a small flachette needler at the Marine private, and emptied a clip into his head. The stunned look on everybody's faces etched into McCalum's mind. He knew there was nothing he could do for his man, his brain had been sliced into hundreds of pieces by the razor-sharp flat needles which cut through the bone of his skull on the way in, but stuck on the bone on the opposite side of his head. That same stunned look was like applause to the killer. He beamed with pride at his audience reaction.

“Who are you guys?” asked McCalum, his voice shaky but strong. “Why are you doing this?”

“We're members of the Corporation,” said the English or South African or Australian pirate. We've taken over this space. It's about time too, 'cause there's nothing I crave more than power, and the way it was there was no way I could have any. Now look at me!”

McCalum held his tongue. He knew Elizabeth was recording all this, and he knew help was on the way.If he could just hold on long enough to aid however he could. He counted three of the pirates on the ship, three non-combatants (the Chong family,) and himself. Elizabeth was to be the ace card. “Tell me about your 'Corporation.' Is that like the old Earth 'Syndicate' – shorthand for Mafia?” He asked.

“Got it in one. The boss of the 'Corporation' has been running pirate ships for hundreds of years. We only moved to space in the last fifty.”

“Something we discovered,” said McCalum, “is that most pirate activity around here is controlled by aliens.” The English or South African or Australian burst out laughing.

“I haven't heard that one before! With all these ships out here, how come I haven't seen one that didn't come from Earth? No flying saucers out here in space!”

Just then, a crackling was heard on the pirate's radio. He picked it up off the table, keyed in his own code, and began speaking. “This is Macci.”

The radio seemed a little garbled, but McCalum heard a voice speaking. Macci said, “Andrado, that you?” The voice mumbled in affirmation.

Then it said, “We're sending reinforcement. There were some Marines outside your ship.”

“Don't bother, we already got them, killed one of them, about to kill the other.”

“Hold him there. We need that one for a technical” then something unintelligible, “on his ship. We'll send an escort to pick,” something else unintelligible, “up.”

The oddly accented person then called out to one of the other pirates, “Go ahead and get this bucket started, we're taking off soon as they come for this...gentleman.”

A moment later, there was a chime from outside the airlock. He told the non-combatant Chong Sul, to put his helmet back on, let the escort in, and remember his wife and daughter with neural disruptors pointed at their heads.

As Torres, Sneaky and Bianca entered the small ship's cabin from the airlock, they heard one of the pirates call out, “Damn thing won't start.”

“Oh yeah?” said Bianca, “I used to drive these things. I know some secrets.” She nodded to the oddly accented villain,and went forward to the pilot's cockpit. She saw that the pirate didn't have a spacesuit on, she thought about removing her helmet to ease the concern of the pirate at the controls, but instead said, “I've got this, flipped a couple innocuous switches on then off, and the engine compartment began

generating a loud humming noise. While getting up, she applied an adhesive patch to the back of the neck of the pirate, then walked back into the cabin, where Torres was putting the helmet back on McCalum. He picked up McCalum's weapons from the floor, made sure the plastic ties were secure on both his gauntlets, (while doing nothing to attach the two ties together,) and turned him around to take him through the airlock.

Janet then knelt down in front of the two Korean females, placed a round orange sticker, about ten centimeters across, on their chests. Placed another one on Chong Sul, then turned to the South African, English and/or Australian pirate, and explained, “In order to get off this boat without getting killed, everybody's got to have an ID patch. The orange ones are for...civilians. These silver ones are for us. Wear it on your skin, here,” and she placed the patch on the back of his neck. She then turned to the last pirate, had him turn around and slapped it on his neck. She then joined Torres and McCalum in the airlock. Before the airlock was cycled, there was a buzzing sound from inside the cabin. Janet went back to find the two pirates on the floor twitching as if from a massive electric shock or a grand mal seizure.

She drew her pistol and looked into the pilot's area, only to be shot in the helmet by a flachette needler. The flachettes ricocheted off her helmet's face plate, although a couple embedded themselves into the hard carbon-plastic spot above her forehead. The pirate looked with amazement at the damage that hadn't been done, and at the pistol in her gauntleted hand. Janet wasted no time, just aimed at center mass, pulled the trigger, and watched the look of amazement on the face of the pirate, then pain, then terror, then death.

Janet grabbed the dead would-be pilot out into the cabin, to see Torres, McCalum looking on at the Chong family as they shared a group hug over the twitching pirates. Sneaky brought out another person that had been in the engineering part of the ship. He swore he knew nothing. But when prodded by Audry's index finger pressing down on a pressure point behind his collar bone, he became much more knowledgeable.

He told them that the still-twitching man with the odd accent was from New Zealand a small place near Australia. That they worked for the Corporation, that the Corporation's president was the Administrator, and that they were all in a heap of trouble.

They bundled the pirates up in emergency pressure bags, with pressurized oxygen canisters inside, then took them back to Elizabeth, and put them in her brig, which was now getting rather crowded.

Janet stayed behind to debrief the Chong family. But they had questions of their own. Chong Lee asked “What was that noise when they thought the engine started?”

Janet explained, “Elizabeth knew your engine, and could communicate with your computer, so she had the computer generate that hum as soon as I flipped those switches. I almost blew it – I forget which switches to flip, so I did both of them!” They all laughed at that.

Chong Kim asked, “What are these patches?”

“A little subterfuge,” replied Janet. “We assumed that they were holding people as work slaves or sex slaves or something, so we told them that you needed these to be identified. It made it easier to convince them they needed to be identified too. These orange ones are just plastic patches, but those held a powerful charge, they work like neural disruptors.The guy in the cockpit took his off, so I had to kill him.”

Chong Sul asked, “How did you know about the one in the engineering section?”

“We didn't. That's why we sent Sneaky in. She was trained as a Ninja, so she could go most anywhere and discover things that needed discovering.”

At this Chong Kim's eyes opened wide. “Really? A real Ninja?”

“Yep.”

“Oh wow!” Her parents looked on their daughter in a not-quite disapproving way, but then accepted that, oh well, fourteen-year-olds loved Ninjas, and that was that.

Jeffrey was livid. “How the Hell in the short time we've been gone could they have developed such a large and powerful organization?” The rest of the officers and non-coms sat quietly, not electing to say anything until Jeffrey calmed down. Finally Janet scooted her chair back, picked up her tea and sipped.

Then she said, “I think its obvious – the same kind of forces that we've been battling have been organizing out here. They have resources that the miners and station managers don't, and they do have those mind-numbing or mind-manipulating ray guns. The only reason we've been able to take them on is some foresight and good luck.”

Jeffrey considered what she said, replied, “Yeah, maybe you're right – organizing people by enhancing their avarice and greed, their ruthlessness. That makes sense. I think it's time we gave up looking like everyday miners, we now have got to be openly Navy. Thoughts?”

Torres said he thought they should have done that long before. Heinz agreed, thinking that they couldn't all be spies; just some of them. Janet concurred, Gunnery Sargent McCalum agreed. Nobody disagreed.So Jeffrey told Elizabeth to have the Marines guarding the food on the dock bring it back in their shuttles, and return to Elizabeth. He told McCalum to rest the Marines because they were likely to see more action soon. When the shuttles were back on board, they needed to unload the palettes before they knocked off, but Elizabeth reminded Jeffrey she had remotes and large robots that could do that.

Jeffrey dispatched Torres and Sneaky to escort the Chong family to the safe house complex, they were assigned to the suite called China, but the family requested that they rename it Korea, because that was their nationality of origin. They settled in easily, liking the furnishings that Janet had selected for the safe house. Torres showed them the hidden cache of guns and ammunition that they were absolutely never to touch unless someone was in serious peril.

Lee was shown the family credit – a significant amount – that could be used to acquire a space to open her Korean restaurant. Sul told Sneaky they would begin taking family walks every day, giving them the opportunity to look for likely locations, also establishing a pattern of behavior that would make them seem like less than they were.

The Elizabeth disengaged from the dock clamps and pulled away from the station without any problems. After moving a short distance into the cloud of ships surrounding the station, she pulled up and maintained her position about ten kilometers from the station. Elizabeth began a survey of all the ships in the region, then looked for anomalies that would signal aliens using their invisibility circuits.

Elizabeth reported to Jeffrey that she had found sixteen out of the nearly thousand ships in the cloud surrounding the station that had more then twice the mass they should have – as if they were concealing invisibility-protected vessels. Jeffrey began drawing up his own combat plans, but asked Elizabeth to do the same. When they were both finished (Elizabeth was finished shortly after Jeffrey stopped speaking,) they compared notes. Jeffrey and Elizabeth both came to the same conclusion on a first, then second, then third strategies. Then contingencies, then escape routes and destinations in case of serious trouble. Jeffrey reported his activities to Admiral Kutuzov via the book code, but also made a less explicit report via radio.

After twelve hours, with the crew mostly rested and ready, Jeffrey had them all don their under-suits (the special Elizabeth manufactured emergency jumpsuit that acted as a second layer of armor and could protect its wearer for short times in no pressure space conditions,) and their full hard-shell Navy suits. Every Marine was outfitted with its own communications circuits beyond the normal Marine issue, and everybody went around the ship armed with projectile weapons – both pistols and rifles for the Marines.

Jeffrey had Elizabeth illuminate the ship so it was unmistakable. The remotes had gone onto the hull and painted the word NAVY on the surface in four locations in large letters. All hands were sent to general quarters, all weapons manned, and Marine patrols were established for internal security. Jeffrey had Elizabeth broadcast a loud over-modulated foghorn-like tone on every radio frequency used in the standard communications spectrum.

Then she broadcast “THIS IS NAVY WARSHIP ELIZABETH. ALL VESSELS IN THE VACINITY OF Lagrange 3A YOU ARE WARNED THAT THERE IS A HOSTILE ALIEN PRESENCE AMONG YOURSELVES. ALL HUMAN VESSELS ARE TO LEAVE THIS AREA AT THE EARLIEST OPPORTUNITY. COMBAT OPERATIONS ARE ABOUT TO COMMENCE. ANY VESSEL MOVING AGAINST NAVY SHIPS AND OTHER RESOURCES WILL BE FIRED ON. ANY VESSEL FIRING ON NAVY VESSELS WILL BE DESTROYED.

“ALL ALIENS; THE USE OF YOUR INVISIBILITY CIRCUITS IS AGAINST THE LAW IN THE HUMAN-CONTROLLED SOLAR SYSTEM. YOU WILL NOT BE WARNED AGAIN.

“THE NAVY HAS ORDERED THAT ALL ALIENS MAY HAVE FREE FOOD AT ANY EARTH-BASED STATION.ALIENS NEED TO REGISTER WITH THE NAVY OR MARINES AT THAT FACILITY. THERE ARE NO OBLIGATIONS FOR THIS FOOD. WE OFFER PEACE, BUT WILL RESPOND WITH FINALITY TO ANY HOSTILE ACT.”

Then the Elizabeth moved to one of the ships that she identified as having anomalous characteristics, aimed her forward rail gun at the center of gravity of the vessel, which was ten meters off its hull, and opened fire with a half second burst.The effect was immediate; pieces began flying off the alien vessel that had attached itself to the miner's ship, then the alien ship un-disappeared.

Heinz had been monitoring radio signals and caught hundreds of comments from many different ships that were pulling out of the area but still monitoring, essentially rubber-necking, the events going on around the station. The human ships were dumbfounded that there were aliens at all, let alone among them. The alien ship that had been attacked detached itself from the miner's ship and a pulse of energy, heat and light and radiation, was projected at Elizabeth, but fizzled once it reached her hull. Then both of Elizabeth's rail guns opened up, spraying projectiles up and down the vessel, cutting it in small pieces. A series of secondary then tertiary explosions rocked the alien ship, all its inside parts open to space. A cloud of gas escaping from the ship, it's atmosphere, dissipated readily.

Then, to make it obvious that the Navy ship knew the locations of the alien vessels, Elizabeth drove to the next nearest anomalous reading, aimed at the gravity well alongside the miner's ship, and fired a half-second burst. Like the first, pieces flew off this ship, it switched off its invisibility circuits, but the captain of this ship had the good sense to not challenge the Navy ship.

All the alien ships followed suit – each turned off their invisibility circuits, detached themselves from the miner's ships they had captured, and backed away without charging up their weapons.

Jeffrey broadcast a demand that the leader of the aliens contact him. One of the ships farther back broadcast on the same frequency, “I am in charge here.” The video image that accompanied the audio was of an alien biped with similar characteristics to the Vorsh, but were obviously not Vorsh.

“Is that so? What is your race? What do you call yourself?” asked Jeffrey.

“We are the Kang. We are in charge here. I am Chthliki, the leader of the leaders. Who are you?”

“I am Captain Jeffrey Sokolov. I represent the government of the Humans, I am captain of this ship, which is a Navy vessel. My authority comes from Admiral Kutuzov of Earth Navy, and this ship enforces my authority.”

Chthliki demanded, “What is your interest, here, Human?”

“I am creating and enforcing order. I am ensuring that all aliens within my solar system obeys our laws, and are aware of those laws. For instance, if we find any alien vessels with their invisibility circuits active, we are authorized to destroy those ships without warning. If we find aliens affecting Humans in hypnotic means or otherwise controlling them, we will stop that. In my last encounter, one of the Vorsh pretended he didn't understand English. We are aware that they do. I destroyed his ship.”

“What is this about food?”

“We found that the Vorsh and a few other races have been eating themselves. Cannibalism is against our laws here. Eating any sentient species is right out. Therefore we found if we offer food, the aliens don't have a lot of things to be cranky about.”

“We are aware that the Vorsh captains have special food that make them live according to their regimented way – including dying off. We are not interested in such food.”

“I can understand that. We are offering food without any psychoactive chemicals. Tell me, Chthliki, what do you call your ship?”

“I call it ship,” Chthliki responded in his gruff deep bass voice.

“And how do you differentiate this ship from others?”

“All ships the same. Ship I am in is my ship.”

“So what you are telling me is that you don't have individual names for ships. So the ship that gets blown up by my ship, or the ship that blows itself up because of a manufacturing defect or the ship that dies because the crew dies, you have no tracking?”

“Why would we want that? The captain that loses his ship doesn't deserve to be remembered. The ship that loses its crew only awaits a new crew and a new captain. The ship that was defective should be forgotten.”

“Ah,” said Jeffrey. “This explains why we are able to defeat your races so easily. Well I asked who is in charge here, you indicated yourself. I will correct you. I am in charge here. Attempts to do any of the things I told you not to do will result in your destruction. If any of your ships do what I said not to do, they too will be destroyed. If you and your ships persist, you will all be banned from Human space. If you wish this free food, we will register you and give you enough for your crew.”

Jeffrey told Janet to have a squad of Marines check out the miner ship that Chthliki's ship just vacated. Within a minute, a shuttle carried them to the vacated miner ship. The cameras on all the Marines' helmets and suit armor displayed in a separate window on the Bridge. Jeffrey saw it the same time the young Sargent did; piles of human bodies.Sargent McSweeny said over his radio, “Sir, there are some Marines among the dead here.”

“Get a body count, McSweeny. We'll bring over body bags. I want a lot of images for forensic examination and prosecution. Go carefully.”

“Aye, sir.” Jeffrey heard him pass on the order to his men. He ordered Torres to collect body bags and take them over to the ship in a runabout. He then turned to the commconsole and addressed Chthliki.

“Why are there dead people on that ship you just vacated?”

“Food.”

A leaden feeling dropped Jeffrey's stomach to the deck. “Are there any others you harvested for food still alive?”

“Yes.”

“Good. Keep them that way. We will collect all humans in your custody. There will be no further taking of any sentient being for food, dead or alive.”

“I do not understand your refusal to recycle humans.” The gruff Chthliki said.

“I realize you don't understand. That is less important than your compliance. Do you understand that non-compliance will result in your loss of your ship, your honor, your life, your crew?”

“Yes, I understand that.”

“Perhaps one of our Human spiritual people can explain to your satisfaction our ways, perhaps not. You may attempt to find out, but while learning, you will comply.” Jeffrey held his emotions in check, his voice was steady during his discussion. He felt like reaching through the comm and strangling the Kang leader.

Jeffrey had Heinz take the human prisoners in the brig one at a time, out to an interrogation room, and begin learning what he could about how the prisoners got to doing the things they did. And what did they know about the aliens and what the aliens were doing to the people they turned over to the aliens.

When Heinz returned an interrogated prisoner, and after taking another out, the prisoners discussed among themselves what was being asked, and started concocting a story. Of course Elizabeth was monitoring those exchanges and transcribed the entire conversation.

Jeffrey ordered the other squad out to another of the ships the aliens had vacated, with a large supply of body bags and emergency suits. Between the two shuttles, they made fast work. There were less than a hundred live people among the ships, and a like number of dead.

The survivors were thoughtless, like zombies, they only did as they were told, which was a blessing, somewhat, because it made them easier to handle. Janet said she would find some way to address their mental problem.

The dead were laid on the hanger deck, row upon row. Heinz walked his interrogation subjects past the rows of body bags, then past the rows of 'zombies' to help focus the shame and guilt and remorse that he could draw out of them. The effect was actually significant on most of the detainees, but the leaders were hardened to what they saw.

Jeffrey then took the Elizabeth to the station again, but instead of docking, parked a thousand meters from the dock near the Mistral. He had the two shuttles busily going back and forth, first delivering the dead, lining them up in rows on the dock, then bringing the palettes of food back onto the dock. Jeffrey had Elizabeth request a baggage train to pick up the bodies and the food, but none was forthcoming. Jeffrey then asked Elizabeth how long it would take to make a simple and quick baggage train.

“CAPTAIN, I CAN HAVE A THREE-CAR TRAIN IN ONE HOUR.”

“Do it, please. Have I told you recently how much I appreciate you?”

“CAPTAIN! YOU MAKE ME BLUSH!”

“Blush away, old girl.”

The train finished, it was delivered in stacked parts on the two shuttles. Digger and Smitty came along to assemble it for the Marines, Digger would drive, Smitty would run shotgun with a real shotgun.

McCalum accompanied the two with the baggage train full of dead humans. The airlock was the first obstacle – it would not accept the long train – three meter long carts behind a small tractor. The three Marines disconnected the train and put each cart alongside the others. This allowed them to go through the airlock, barely, and on the far side, Mccalum and Digger began re-assembling the train, while Smitty went back through the airlock to get the tractor. Once they were all back together, they drove the baggage train to the dock level hospital to use the refrigerated morgue. When they arrived, the medical staff seemed nervous, which put the three military men on a higher level of alertness. McCalum notified Elizabeth that there was something going on, that she should monitor them.

After unloading the bodies, they told the pathologist that the Navy needed complete autopsies, including toxicology reports, and to spare no expense. If they needed to bring other physicians to do autopsies, then they were authorized.

Then they returned to the dock, again having to disconnect the train and reassemble it on the other side, both coming and going, with the stacks of palettes of food for the aliens. Elizabeth found a vacant warehouse, which Sargent McCalum commandeered for distribution of Alien food. They quickly delivered the food to the warehouse and left the baggage train inside it. Sargent McSweeny drew the short straw so his squad held the first watch in the warehouse. The A team set up defensive electronics, defensive explosives, and redundant brick and water bag barriers.

B squad returned to Elizabeth. Jeffrey had them rest for the next operation. Heinz reported to Jeffrey and Janet the findings of his various interrogations of the prisoners.Most of the security officers had been recruited over the previous three weeks, there were a total of around one hundred security officers, the population of the station was twenty thousand, so the number of security officers was not out of line. The odd thing was the series of orders that came from the administrator and his office. The first one was to ambush and arrest all of the Marines deployed on the station. None of the security officers admitted to knowing the disposition of those Marines. They were disgusted and ashamed when they learned what their attacks on the Marines had done.

Heinz had learned that there was an athletic gymnasium in the center of the station that was the gathering place for the people whom they had imprisoned. Where they went from there was a mystery to all of them. When asked about Lieutenant Omotunde, none of the security officers knew anything. Andrado said he was tasked to get Omotunde, but was unable to find him.

When told about the alien intrusions into Human space, all the security officers were skeptical. None would admit to ever having seen an alien or one of their ships. When Elizabeth displayed videos of the Kang, Vorsh and Ay-Yuyuyah, the only response among the security officers was some of them, particularly ones that had only recently been recruited, began a trance-like appearance, their eyelids fluttering, their breathing becoming shallow, their muscles becoming flaccid.

Their fellow, more experienced officers had no such reaction, and failed to acknowledge when seeing their brother and sister officers so react.

This gave Jeffrey an idea; if the aliens had conditioned the officers to not see them, perhaps they were moving around the station openly, not concerned about being seen. Jeffrey asked Elizabeth if she could tap into the station's security cameras, but Elizabeth reported that the security had been tightened on the station, that every attempt to tie into the network was thwarted. This reduced Jeffrey's options, but he began to make plans for the restoration of order in the station.

After the Marines had a good six hours of uneventful rest, he assembled the entire crew. The A squad still in the warehouse on the station, listened in on an open secure line. “We are going to be tied up in several operations. Our primary objective will be to arrest the administrator and take over his office. Following that, we will need to secure the network, and impose our own security on it. Elizabeth is working on finding a way to overcome the security they have placed on the network.

“Our second objective is to find and rescue any of the Marines that have been either captured or have escaped and are in hiding. We are especially looking for Lt. Omotunde. If you find Lt. Omotunde, you are to take charge of him, we will determine his competence, you just bring him back to us. You do not follow his orders. Clear?” All the crew and Marines responded with “Clear!”

“While all of these objectives are being pursued, we are also on the lookout for evidence of aliens among us. We are all subject to some hypnotic message that makes us ignore their presence, we think that it relates to an earlier computer virus that affects humans as well as computers. We think your hard suits are immune to this virus, but you may not be. Therefore, you will all wear your armor, and look only through the video rather than directly through the faceplates. This is an order. Clear?” Again all hands responded, “Clear!”

Elizabeth is our go–between. She will monitor all of your suits, all of your communications, the video and audio images that appear in your cameras. If you lose communication with Elizabeth, a tone will trigger in your suit that sounds like this,” - Elizabeth played the tone for all to hear. “This is an indication that you need to contact the ship via secure radio. If you cannot contact the ship, contact your next superior, Marines, contact your Sargent, Sargents, contact Lieutenant Bianca. Navy, contact your Petty Officers. Petty officers, contact Lieutenant Bianca. Clear?”

“Clear!”

“I want all suits fully charged, a full array of weapons for Marines, especially your projectile weapons. The new carbines use the same ammunition that the pistols use. Carry enough cartridges. Carry enough charge for your charge and plasma weapons. Do not be distracted. If some cute chick flutters her eyes at you, don't even smile back. When we are done, you can retrace your steps and find her! Clear?”

“Clear!” followed by chuckling.

“Navy pilots, keep your shuttles at ready, you may have a quickly retreating squad to pick up. Cover them, protect yourselves and your boat. Clear?”

The two navy pilots reported in an underwhelming shout, “Clear!”

“The enemy has proven to be ruthless. We don't have that luxury. Yet. We need to be aware of the integrity of the station, so no poking holes in outer walls!” He got some chuckles. “The enemy has used civilians as shields – not to mention food – we do not wish to allow them to do that. Find the alien that is doing this sort of thing and take it out. Again, Elizabeth is working on methods of doing that very thing.

“As you discover new pertinent information, speak it into your suit, Elizabeth will note it and the context you were in when it occurred. This will help us in our intelligence estimates. Okay team, be careful! You take off in five!”

Janet stepped forward and yelled, “Marines! What do you say?”

The Marines responded with the statement picked up from an earlier, United States, Earth Marines from previous centuries - “Oo-Rah!”

Jeffrey called out, “Sargent, see me!”

Gunnery Sargent McCalum stepped up to Captain Sokolov, saluted and said, “Sir?”

“Elizabeth has put together some of her little spider robots. They are going to help us set up our own secondary network. I want everyone to carry at least one, and place it when they are told. You carry enough for A Squad.”

“Yes, sir.”

“Now if you need backup, I am arming everyone else on this ship. My crew, Torres, Mbaka, Smith, Svoboda are actually active duty Marines. This is not publicly known, and I want to keep it that way. But if you need help, call on 'C squad.'

“Understood, sir. Thanks.”

“Go get 'em.”

“Oo-Rah!”

Then Jeffrey walked over to the cook. “Chief, what combat training have you had?”

She said, “I have a black belt in Judo I got at the Kodokan in Tokyo. I also am a trained sniper with 96 percent accuracy.”

“Badass!”

“Indeed, sir. Not a Seal or other special forces, but you want a shot placed in a specific place at a specific time, I'm your man. Woman. Sir.”

“You have a sniper rifle here?” asked Jeffrey.

“No, I thought I left that part of my life behind when I took the life of a cook. Sorry.”

“CAPTAIN,” interrupted Elizabeth, “WE HAVE A SNIPER RIFLE YOU TRADED FOR SOMEONE'S FINGER.”

“Thanks! Good work, Elizabeth.” He told the Chief where the rifle was located, then told her to make sure it was fully charged, and grab a pistol and carbine and enough ammo to keep herself safe. He also ordered her out of her apron and into her Navy heavy armor.

“Elizabeth, please analyze the ship's vulnerabilities, and develop a few strategies for each, with the eye toward completing our mission.”

“EFFORTING”

“Torres, Heinz.”

The two came up to the Captain, and gave a relaxed salute, and Torres said, “Sir?”

“I want you to select the most reliable and knowledgeable prisoners, segregate them from the rest, and sit with them while showing several camera angles. Watch their reactions, ask them questions, and if they know something that will give us an edge, report it. Elizabeth will monitor.”

“Aye sir.” Heinz said. Torres saluted, then the two went to take several of the non-coms and the officer to the interrogation room. Elizabeth illuminated the walls of the interrogation room with video images from several locations, including the warehouse, several of the milling-about Marines and one of the shuttles.

Jeffrey then went to the shuttle that the Marines were boarding with their equipment, and told McCalum that he just learned that the chief – their cook – was a sniper and an expert martial artist. If he could place her to some advantage, just call.

Then the shuttle was off.