Seraph’s Gambit- Episode 55

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Squee

“Well, they aren’t jumping again,” Noah said.

Squee nodded, “No, it will take them some time to rebuild their FTL.”

Before them, the FTL control computer smoked in ruins. Squee wasted no more thought on it, and he turned to the door. “We must move quickly.”

“Squee, missile control is on the other side of the ship. I’m not sure we can make it there in time.”

“We are not going to missile control. We are going to the bridge.”

Squee started running down the corridor. He did not look back to see if Noah and Javi followed. As he turned a corner, two of the ship’s crew appeared before him. They raised their weapons, but he didn’t slow. Several low caliber impacts bounced off of him, but still didn’t slow him. They would hurt, but right now he didn’t care. He let the blood fury take him.

Barreling forward, he grabbed both of the crew and smashed them into each other with a satisfying crunch. He dropped the bodies and continued running. The fury flowed through him, and he felt alive.

Reaching the hatch that led to the bridge, Squee finally stopped. He triggered the door, but it did not respond. He pulled the manual control, but it did not engage. The fury surged, and he slammed his fists against the door, feeling a reassuring vibration through the deck at his feet.

“It is sealed.” Noah said behind him, breathing heavy. “It can only be opened from the inside.”

“That is what they want you to think,” Squee said. He let a roar of frustration, joy, and every emotion in between echo out as he grabbed hold of the frame of the door. With every ounce of strength the fury afforded him, he pulled. Nothing happened at first, but as he continued to pull the metal strained and softened. The connection between the frame and the rest of the bulkhead groaned. After several more seconds of exertion, something finally snapped, and the entire doorframe ripped free of the rest of the bulkhead.

Letting out another roar, Squee tossed the piece of twisted metal to the side. He very nearly collapsed from exhaustion as soon as he let go. Fortunately, Noah and Javi pushed past him, their guns firing into the now open bridge. He staggered, gulping in greedy breaths of air. The fury almost slipped from his grasp, but he fought for control of it. If it faded now, he would be helpless.

Forcing his feet to move, Squee stomped onto the bridge. The weariness receded into the background as he sensed danger again. Noah and Javi exchanged fire with a combat drone. Behind them, one of the crew drew a pistol from his hip and aimed it at Noah. Squee grabbed the weapon and nearly took the man’s arm with it as he yanked it away.  He then used the pistol like a club, and caved the man’s head in.

When he turned to survey the rest of the bridge, he found the fighting over. The combat drone lay broken in a corner with the rest of the bridge crew standing with their hands up. A human stood in the center of the room, an amused expression on his face.

In one corner, Serene stood, also wearing an amused expression. He hadn’t noticed her at first, and the sight of her added a new spark to the fury. Traitors deserved a  particular kind of punishment. But he pushed that aside. He had to concentrate on saving his fellow Rokma.

“Call off your teams in the missile bay!” Squee bellowed.

“I’d listen to him, Mitchell,” Javi said, gesturing with his gun toward the human standing before him.

Mitchell glanced at Javi’s gun, and Squee. Squee made a point of crumbling the pistol he still held even further. He dropped it as a solid ball of metal onto the dead crewmember at his feet.

“Very well,” Mitchell said, and then gave the nod to one of the crew. They typed a command into their terminal.

Seconds later, Squee heard the Rokma team in his ear, “They’re pulling back!”

The relief evident in their voice jarred Squee from his fury. He slumped forward and only avoided crashing to the deck by catching himself on the computer terminal in front of him. Everything around him spun. Suddenly, he felt every bullet that had bruised him, every cut on his fingers from the metal of the doorframe. Nothing else existed for a moment.

When he finally regained enough of his senses, he managed to redraw his weapon. He looked up to see that his moment of vulnerability hadn’t cost him anything. Noah and Javi remained where they were, their guns trained on the crew.

“Very clever, Mitchell,” Javi was saying. “But getting rid of the raging Rokma isn’t going to save you.”

“Won’t it?” Mitchell said, “There are more of us than there are of you. And now that my drones are no longer busy fighting your other Rokma, they are free to return here. Your friend here may be an excellent shot, but we both know that if I step even two steps back, I’ll be safe from you.”

“Disparage my aim all you want. But right now, I couldn’t miss you if I tried,” Javi said. “It’s over, Mitchell. Call off your drones. End this pointless bloodshed.”

“Pointless? I am freeing the galaxy from tyranny! No longer will people be subjected to others.”

“Living together is not subjugation. We have to learn to work together.”

“I am done with the monster of “We,” the word of serfdom, of plunder, of misery, falsehood, and shame.  And now I see the face of god, and I raise this god over the earth. This god whom men have sought since man came into being. This god who will grant them joy and peace and pride. This god, this one word: “I.”

“What the fuck are you rambling about?” Noah asked.

“He’s quoting crazy,” Javi said. “Enough, Mitchell. We’re not going to let you destroy all of civilization because of your selfish delusions.”

“The question isn’t who is going to let me; it’s who is going to stop me,” Mitchel said, with a smug smile.

A gunshot echoed through the room. Mitchell’s smug look remained fixed on his face as blood flowed from the bullet hole in his forehead. His body collapsed to the deck. Javi and Noah exchanged glances, and both shook their heads. They then turned to Squee.

Squee, still struggling to hold himself up, shook his head too. He gestured to the side of the room. Serene stood there with a pistol held up.

“My god, he was boring,” Serene said, with a roll of her eyes.

Noah chuckled, but still turned his gun and aimed it at Serene. She winked at him, pursed her lips and blew a kiss, but did lower her pistol slightly before saying, “Now, who wants to join your illustrious leader? Or does someone want to stop those murder bots?”

The crew exchanged glances. Squee wondered if they would rise up, but instead, one of them turned to his station, “I am issuing the stand down order to the drone fleet and ordering them to shut down shields and weapons.”

Squee closed his eyes and took in a deep breath. He wanted to savor the moment of their victory. He had risked everything to fulfill the god’s quest. Many of his brethren had died for this. But they had won.

“The drones aren’t responding.” The crewman said, his tone frantic. He typed furiously at his terminal, “They won’t obey any commands!”

“Did the FTL jump disrupt your control?” Javi asked.

“No! We issued several commands after the jump. This is new. I have no control over any ship in the drone fleet. Or any of the combat drones onboard.”

A sudden hiss sounded in the room. The hiss increased in volume to a roar, and a breeze kicked up. A sharp wind rushed through the bridge toward the missing hatch.

“All exterior hatches and airlocks have just opened!” The crewman shouted, “All the air on the ship is being vented into space!”

Squee turned to look at the missing doorframe, and his shoulders slumped. Behind him, Noah said, “Well…fuck.”

Continue to Episode 56

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