Seraph’s Gambit- Episode 43

Back to Episode 42

Squee

Squee frowned. Before him, Serene and Olivia glared at him through the cell door. In a nearby cell, Javi sat with his eyestalks focused on him as well.  The intense stares made him uncomfortable.

“Are you going to let us out of here or what?” Olivia demanded.

“I am not authorized to do that.” Squee confessed, “Only the first shield or your section leader can do that.”

“Section leader? What the hell is that?”

“The ugly rock for brains who put us in here.” Serene said, with a pointed look at Squee. “Not to be confused with the stubborn rock for brains who won’t let us out.”

Squee felt his spine stiffen at Serene’s racial slur. Nevertheless, he forced himself to ignore it, and focus on Olivia, “Can you tell me what happened?”

“Honestly?” Olivia said, with a sigh, “I don’t really know. They had us slave away scrubbing this potato like thing. We were at it for hours. I decided I needed sleep. One of the Rokma started cursing at me. At least it sounded like cursing. It was in your language.

“Anyways, when he tried to stop us from leaving, I gave him a piece of my mind. He’s had us slaving away for days, and I was tired of it. Then, he physically assaulted us. Picked me up and dropped me back in place. But when he tried that with Serene, she tossed him across the room. It was really quite impressive. That guy was smaller than you, but damn, he still outweighed her by a lot.”

Squee turned to Serene, “You threw your section leader across the room?”

Serene wiggled her eyebrows and gave a mischievous smile. Something about it gave Squee an uneasy feeling. He told himself it was because of the way it looked behind her eye implants, but he wasn’t very convinced.

“Why do you keep calling him that?” Olivia interrupted.

“What?”

“Section leader. Doesn’t he have a name?”

“He does. But to you, he is just Section Leader.”

“That’s pretty stupid.”

“It is. I always hated that tradition. But that is also not for you to say. You are the lowest rank aboard this vessel. You have no status with which to question things.”

“I didn’t sign up with the military, Squee.”

“You pledged your service and obedience to this ship when you came aboard.”

“No, I didn’t.”

“You did, dear.” Serene said with a sigh, “Remember? ‘Oh just do it Serene, it’s just a tradition.’”

“That wasn’t just a tradition?’ Olivia asked, her voice growing quiet.

“No. It was a binding pledge of fealty.”

“Oh.”

Squee sighed. How could humans not understand such basic concepts? He berated himself for that thought. It wasn’t their fault they weren’t as civilized.

“I will speak on your behalf. You were not aware of the rules. That would be no excuse for a Rokma, but you were not raised in our culture. He should agree to reduce your sentence to extra duty.” Squee said, magnanimously.

“Oh, just extra duty? How kind.” Olivia quipped.

“And you all called me the slaver,” Serene said, with a roll of her head.

Before Squee could respond, an alarm sounded and echoed through the room. He stiffened up and turned to the door. Behind him, Olivia called out.

“What’s that?”

“Battle stations,” Squee answered, and then dashed away without looking back.

Squee arrived on the bridge just before Cru. While he had no formal position on the ship, as the Caleek, who had declared the quest, he would be expected to be present. That left him standing awkwardly in the middle of the action while everyone else had a

job to do.

“There is one AI drone scout ship approaching.” The Martoth’s sensor officer announced.

“Report ship status,” Cru ordered.

The crew responded reporting, in turn, each station and system powered and ready. Squee nodded in respect to the efficiency and professionalism. Cru ran a well-trained crew. As the reporting continued, he watched the sensor display that showed the drone ship continuing to close. By the time the crew had finished, both ships had entered effective weapon range.

“Let’s test their defenses. Many of these scouts never had shields. Beam weapon; cut a line across their weapon ports,” Cru ordered.

The Martoth’s massive energy beam streaked across the distance between the two ships. The beam moved at the speed of light, giving the drone ship no time to evade. Unfortunately, this drone had shields, and the beam flashed across them harmlessly.

Beside him, Cru grinned, “Now we have a real fight. First battery, scattershot centered to the targets port. Second battery, standby on bracket fire.”

Several energy pulses shot out in a cluster. The pulses were arrayed and timed to force the drone to move to starboard to avoid the incoming attack. As soon as the drone started to dodge, Cru ordered the second battery to fire. This collection of shots were more densely packed along the drone’s best escape vector.

Unexpectedly, the drone fired its retro thrusters, and instead of dodging into the incoming second battery, it reversed course. It took one of the energy bolts against its shields, but then started accelerating away from the Martoth.

“Trying to run. Unexpected. Helm, increase speed.” Cru ordered.

Squee frowned. He studied the sensor display, something nagging at his thoughts, “How long does it take a drone’s FTL to charge?”

One of the crew responded without looking away from their station, “Scout drones charge quickly, under ten minutes.”

“We passed that point some time ago,” Squee said, thinking out loud. “Why close on us if they are just going to run away? Why not jump?”

Cru cast a glance at him, “Probing us, perhaps. Studying how our weapons and tactics have changed since the AI War.”

“Maybe,” Squee said, unconvinced. “We should not play its game, whatever its reason. Our goal is to reach Triask, warn them of the coming attack and get them the schematic data for the control ship.”

“If we destroy their scout, it will delay that fleet. It is our duty to do what we can here.” Cru countered, “All batteries continue to fire. Destroy that ship.”

Squee frowned, but did not speak again. He had communicated the will of the gods in his role as Caleek. Cru and others had to interpret how to achieve their will. That meant he had to obey, lest he become banished yet again.

Minutes ticked by as the Martoth pursued the drone. The drone remained at the edge of weapon range, reducing the gunner’s accuracy. Cru continued to employ the tactic of trying to force the drone into shots from one battery with the other. Every time the drone took an unpredictable course, opting to suffer a single hit from the first scattershot.

After several repetitions of this pattern, Cru smiled, “Batteries, same pattern. Beam, standby, and target their engines.”

The energy blasts flashed out, and again the drone dodged into a single pulse which its shields had no trouble absorbing. However, this time when it took the hit, the powerful beam fired, penetrating the now depleted shields on the drone.  The beam tore through the fragile hull and disabled the engines. With the drone now unable to maneuver, the Martoth’s gunners concentrated their fire. Within a minute, the drone was a floating cloud of debris.

Squee started to turn to Cru to congratulate him on the kill, when the ship suddenly rocked. The lights flickered as the ship’s power drained to rebuild depleted shields. In the center of the bridge, the sensor display suddenly lit up with multiple new contacts.

“We’re surrounded!”

Continue to Episode 44

Vote on Top Web Fiction

Discuss on Discord