Star Glory (Empire Series Book 1) Read online

  “Sir, that’s my tablet.”

  “So it is. My XO was unable to access its contents. Seems you have a password code not listed in your personnel files. Please unlock it.”

  Oh damn. Had I done something wrong? “Tablet, passcode Castle Rock 439677 Sink Or Swim.”

  The captain lifted his brown eyebrows. “An interesting passcode. Someday you might share with me the reason you chose the second half of the code.” He lifted the tablet, thumbed through its icons, tapped on one, then pointed it aside to the middle of the room. Which was empty of anything except air. “Sergeant First Class Matsumoto documented the site of the attack on you. He and his platoon mates recovered the body of the cockroach alien you shot. After punching it hard enough to fracture its thorax. The other two attackers were in fragments by the time the Marines found them. Seems there were some hungry aliens in the vicinity.” The captain looked away from me to the tablet. “Tablet, project audiovisuals from 1203 and subsequent.”

  “Projecting,” said the basic AI that occupied every tablet used by anyone on the ship. A person high hologram took form.

  I watched as the oncoming flow of aliens moved down the Mainstream concourse toward me. The standing shapes of the three red and black striped cockroaches were visible. Their agitation was clear. Their wing pairs swung out. They rose up in the air. Then they flew toward me. Or rather me and my recorder tablet.

  “There!” cried one of them in a hissing voice.

  The attacks followed. The topside flying cockroach appeared. My right fist hit its thorax, clearly denting the chitin skin. The cockroach fell to the floor nearby. The body of the upper cockroach showed its four lower feet reaching for my chest as I held its head. Gray brain stuff rained down into the viewfield of the tablet. The third cockroach’s carapace now showed. Its blocky head with two black horns and black compound eyes seemed to be looking directly at the tablet. Then the horns thrust forward. Red blood spurted out from either side of the tablet’s viewfield. The contact of my right boot with the abdomen of that cockroach was satisfying though. As was watching its flying form disappear far down the Mainstream, where it hit a wall hard, then fell down, unmoving. In front of me there moved the topside cockroach as it half scrabbled, half walked on four legs, moving away from me. Then came the sound of three shots from my .45. The cockroach’s head grew three black holes. It stopped moving, falling to the metal floor. The view from my waist was different than what I recalled from my visual and auditory memories. But it showed what mattered. Three aliens had suddenly attacked me with intent to kill.

  “Interesting,” the captain said, sounding thoughtful. “PO Stewart, did any of the attackers indicate why they attacked you?”

  “No sir. I was heading back to our new warehouse entry, to finish my shift on Engineering Deck. Everything around me was normal. Until those three flying cockroaches rose up, flew to me and attacked. Sir.”

  My boss nodded slowly. He turned and faced a vidscreen on the other side of my treatment room. It held a soundless repeat of some kind of nature show.

  “Heidi, shut off nature video on vidscreen in this room of Medical.”

  “Going off.”

  The screen went gray. Live and able to display but not connected to any of the ship’s hundred plus entertainment channels.

  “Heidi, connect me via this vidscreen with Decider Tik-long. Advise him it is urgent he speak with me.”

  “Signaling Decider Tik-long,” the AI said brightly, her feminine tone a familiar voice. I liked hearing friendly familiar voices, after rewatching the attack. “Decider responds. Image transmitted.”

  The shape of the red lobster-centipede filled the vidscreen. Behind it were the green and red-leafed trees of its dome habitat. Its four blue eyestalks stared ahead. Its chitin-toothed mouth opened. Its green tongue moved.

  “Captain Neil Skorzeny of the heavy cruiser Star Glory. You contact me urgently. Why?”

  “Decider, my antimatter engineer Petty Officer Stewart was recently attacked on the Mainstream by three red and black-striped arthropods who took flight and attacked him with the intent to kill.” The captain held up my tablet. “This device recorded the attack. Heidi, transmit the entire audiovisual record of what we just watched to the Decider.”

  “Transmitted.”

  Two of the eyestalks looked down at a black square held in the Decider’s stick-fingers. “The attackers are of the species Dugongo. The species is known to sell drugs and illicit software to agitate the minds of customers. The attack is surprising. The Dugongo do nothing without advance compensation. Or to avenge an injury done to a species member. Has your Stewart ever met a Dugongo? Did he harm one?”

  I shook my head. “Never,” the captain said. “The attack happened at 3235 base time. I wish you to make available all audiovisual records of the Dugongo group. From the time of the attack backward. My AI Heidi will survey the records faster than you or I can view them.”

  “Raiders value visual privacy,” the Decider clacked. “Is your Stewart specialist intact?”

  “He is alive and well,” the captain said. “Decider, I wish you to choose cooperation with my AI. If you refuse, she will penetrate your AI’s memory banks and recover the records herself. Without your cooperation.”

  “You believe your AI can defeat my AI?”

  “I know it can,” the captain said. “Before we docked with your base I ordered her to penetrate your base systems at all levels. She did so, moving around the seal-outs created by your AI. I was not about to expose my people to a base and aliens we had never met. Not until I could see exactly how your base operated. What is your choice?”

  All four eyestalks leaned forward. “AI Cool Waters, make linkage with the AI Heidi on the human vessel Star Glory. Cooperate with that AI to recover all records relating to an event that occurred at timemark 3235, in the Ventral section of the Mainstream concourse.”

  “Contacting,” came the mechanical voice we had heard when we entered the Decider’s dome. “Linked. Access permitted. Observing.”

  “Heidi? Do you have access?” the captain said, his manner casual.

  “I do. Reviewing. A few moments please.”

  I tried to sit up to better watch the vidscreen. Khatri saw that, came over, touched the side of the bed and watched as the upper portion of the bed rose. She looked down to where the plasma tube entered my inner elbow. Then she looked to the bag. Which was now empty. With a nod, she pulled on her blue mask, reached down, pulled out the tube and its injector needle, stuck the needle into the empty plasma bag, then applied an elastic bandage to my elbow. She glanced aside at the monitoring machine. Then she plucked off the six silvery sensors that had been stuck to my chest. Some chest hair went with them. I kept silent. I looked to where the captain stood. As usual he was immaculate in his service khakis. He was even wearing his brim hat, which was not the usual when he was on the Bridge. His broad hands were clasped behind his back. His attention was on the vidscreen. From the doorway came the sound of other people moving and talking. The medtech at the end of the room was still focused on what he was doing. Whatever that was. Doctor Khatri, finished with me, had turned and was watching the captain.

  “Review completed,” Heidi said. “Movements of three arthropod aliens have been tracked back in time. Imagery going up on vidscreen. Imagery accelerated until critical moment reached.”

  We all watched the attack in reverse. The cockroaches flew backward. They landed. They walked backward. They walked and walked. Then they entered from a side hallway. Walking in reverse up the hallway their forms stepped back through an open slidedoor. Above the slidedoor blinked garish lighting and writing that resembled criss-crossing slashmarks. Some pictures also showed above the entry. The pictures depicted six different aliens spreading arms or tentacles or pincers wide. While I could not decipher the expressions, I guessed they were happy customers. The cockroaches backed into a large room with a high ceiling. Forty-two other aliens moved about the room floor, with some fl
ying, some lying on the floor and most in front of a long counter. Other cockroaches behind the counter handed out silvery circles that the aliens put on their heads, their carapace or whatever served to hold their brains. Some of the alien customers accepted small bowls of white powder. They inhaled the powder, some directly into soft mouths, some using extendable noses and some putting powder on fingers and pushing the powder into a body orifice.

  “This is the entertainment facility Purple Haze, run by the Dugongo,” the Decider said as it watched the imagery on its black square.

  “Correct,” Heidi said. “Observe actions of three subjects.”

  The three Dugongo cockroaches backed through the crowd, angled to a side wall, then walked in reverse through a slidedoor. The imagery changed, coming from an overhead angle. The room was mostly empty. Except for a lone human. To whom the Dugongo backed up to, turned and faced. The imagery sped up, stopped, then resumed. Movements were now forward in time. The human held out a silvery-white bar.

  “Here is the titanium you demanded,” said Mehta Nehru. “Will you remove my enemy?”

  “We will,” said one of the Dugongo insects. “Provide imagery of your enemy.”

  Nehru held up his tablet. He pressed on it. An image of me walking through the Mess Hall appeared. “This is the human who needs to die. Kill him and I will pay you another bar.”

  “One bar is sufficient,” the lead cockroach hissed. “Two bars motivate immediate action. Agreed?”

  “Agreed,” Nehru said.

  “We leave. Your enemy will be removed.”

  The three walking cockroaches turned and headed for the room exit. The imagery froze.

  “Captain Skorzeny,” Heidi said. “Do you wish me to repeat the sequences?”

  “No. But store them in your memory.” The captain reached up and tapped a comlink tab on his right shoulder. “Major Owanju, respond.”

  “Responding, captain,” came the deep voice of the Marine boss. “Is PO Stewart okay?”

  “He is healed and sitting up. Where are you?”

  “In the ship on Armories and Weapons Deck.”

  “Good.” The captain looked up. “Heidi, where is Lieutenant Command Nehru?”

  “He is in the ship, in his cabin on Residential Deck.”

  The captain’s clean-shaven face went stern. Muscles tensed along his jaw. “Major, you heard. Go to Nehru’s cabin. Arrest him for the attempted murder of PO Stewart. Remove him from his cabin. Separate his tablet and any other devices from him. Take him to the Brig. Lock him in there. Put in a pitcher of water, a paper cup and a copy of Star Navy Operational Regulations. Close the hatch and lock it. Then assign one of your Marines to guard that door. Rotate the guard among your platoon as you see fit. Move!”

  “Moving, captain. Do I tell anyone we meet why I have him in custody?”

  “Say he is going to the Brig. That’s it. Leave the announcement to me. Which I will do after I join Lieutenant Commander Bjorn on the Bridge.”

  “Sir, understood. I’m in the gravshaft and heading down to Residential.”

  “Good. Send my tablet a text message when Nehru is confined.” The captain looked to the image of the Decider. “Decider Tik-long, the three attacking Dugongo died in the attack on PO Stewart. He survived. It is clear this attack was caused by a human. I am taking care of the problem.”

  The blue eyestalks waved from side to side. “So I perceive. I will converse with the Dugongo who manages the Purple Haze. That being will be advised why three of its species are dead. It will also be advised against any violence toward any human, upon pain of exposure to vacuum for all Dugongo. Do you require further assistance?”

  “I do not. Thank you for your AI’s cooperation. Heidi, close the comlink.”

  “Connection to the Decider ended.”

  Satisfaction filled me. That Nehru had been resentful enough of me to hire assassins to kill me was a big surprise. That he had done it using base aliens fit his covert behavior. The Decider’s threat to feed every Dugongo to vacuum unless they left alone all humans was both a surprise and encouraging. Clearly alien greed was as strong as human greed. And the Decider had received highly valuable properties in the three trades with the captain.

  “Heidi, vidlink me with Lieutenant JG Matterling,” the captain said, looking over to the wall vidscreen.

  The face and upper body of Matterling appeared on the vidscreen. She was nearly as charcoal black as Owanju. Tight black curls covered her head. She was sitting in the XO seat below Second Shift’s Swedish boss. Her service khaki uniform appeared fresh, ironed and held multiple ribbons and pins from her former spaceship assignments before joining Star Glory. Her brown eyes blinked.

  “Captain?” She looked past him to where I sat upright, only a sheet covering my lower parts. “It is good to see PO Stewart recovered and healthy.”

  “It is indeed,” the captain said, unlocking his hands from behind him and letting them drop to his sides. “Lieutenant, I have just put Lieutenant Commander Nehru in the Brig. You and Lieutenant Commander Bjorn will hear the details of why that is so when I join you on the Bridge. Shortly. But that leaves Third Shift without a commander. I hereby promote you to Lieutenant Senior Grade. You will assume command of Third Shift in a bit less than six hours. Would you like to get a meal and some sleep before assuming your new duties?”

  Surprise showed on the woman’s face. But then she nodded quickly. “Captain, thank you. And yes, I will go to Mess Hall for a meal before assuming this new post. However, I would like to stay here until your arrival. So I can hear the reason for this sudden change of command structure.”

  “And so you shall,” the captain said. “In the meantime, think of a good candidate from Second or Third shifts who could replace you on Second Shift. The choice will be up to Lieutenant Commander Bjorn. But I suspect she is busy right now. Carry out my orders.”

  Matterling saluted. “Sir, I will come up with some candidates. And thank you, sir, for the promotion and the new assignment!”

  The captain smiled. It was the first time I had seen him smile since our arrival at the base. “You earned it. See you both soon. Heidi, close comlink.”

  The image vanished. “Connection closed,” the AI said softly.

  “Wow,” murmured the medtech.

  I recognized him as he turned around. He was Henry Warmstone, a Brit who I often saw playing checkers with Bill, during shift break. His skin above his blue and gray camos was pinky white like Cassie. While his hair was colored green, he wore a crewcut. A serpent tattoo showed on his left arm, below his short sleeve.

  The captain ignored the medtech. He looked to Khatri. “Is PO Stewart ready to be released?”

  She sighed, then pulled off her blue mask. She gave a shrug. “Yes, according to all my sensors and readouts. He should be in recovery for another two days, in view of the surgery, the wounds and the blood loss. But my sensors say he is back to normal. Leastwise the normal level recorded for him during his last physical.” She looked to me. “Once he gets new camos, he can leave.”

  “Well, I think he will stay there for a few more moments.” The captain turned around and called loudly. “You five can come in now.”

  The low voices I had been hearing, voices I had told my mind to ignore, now stopped. Footsteps sounded. They were familiar footsteps, my memory told me.

  Evelyn was first through the door. Her worried look changed to bright happiness as she saw me sitting up. She ran to me, stopped suddenly, looked down at my sides, then slowly reached out to grip my shoulders.

  “Wow, you look a lot better than you did when Osashi brought you in here.”

  Behind her came my buddy Warren, redhead Bill, tall Oksana and brown-eyed Cassandra. They all grinned at seeing me up and awake.

  “Hey!” murmured Evelyn as she leaned closer, her long red curls brushing my face. “Give me a hug!”

  I hugged her. I winked at my friends. I gave a nod to the captain as he smiled a second time. Doctor Khatri f
ollowed the captain out, as did Henry. That left me alone with my girlfriend and the friends who had been at my side ever since I’d boarded the Star Glory. With a deep sigh I realized something. Super abilities I might have. But no one can be a solo hero. Anything I had managed to do so far, had been thanks to these friends. And thanks to their caring and acceptance of me, a country guy from Colorado who liked to play around with antimatter. Putting aside thoughts about the final hookups of the antimatter beamer and my work station, I looked back to Evelyn’s freckled face. Under the freckles her milky white skin was smooth and young and smiling. She gave me a wink.

  “You know, you’re hot-looking, lying there in bed half naked.”

  I opened my mouth to argue. Then I thought better. Leaning forward I kissed her warm pink lips, pulling her closer in an embrace of love and caring. I had survived an assassination attempt. My ship was now outfitted with better weapons and better speed. My friends were here, around me, showing how much the near loss of me meant to them.

  Evelyn kissed me back, firmly. Then she pulled away a little. “Do you want me with you tonight?”

  “Yes.”

  We resumed kissing. For a moment, a few moments, I did not feel homeless in the galaxy.

  CHAPTER FIFTEEN

  My ship pulled away from the raider base. Sitting strapped into my seat and surrounded by the rainbow shimmers of the antimatter injector tubes, I looked at the nearby bulkhead vidscreen and watched the view from our scope. The giant planet that held people and children, albeit alien folks, it grew smaller. The ten kilometer length of Decider’s base sparkled in the blackness of space. Lights of all colors showed on its varied surfaces. Nine other ships of various shapes were attached to the base, just as we had been. Until our departure from the drydock. The two days since the attack on me had been busy.

  Lieutenant Morales had brought on board a variety of alien fruits and veggies, along with cuttings from the trees and shrubs in the Decider’s dome. She had said it was a fair trade, in view of the herbs, roots and medicinal biologicals she had traded to the lobster-centipede. My friends were at their stations. Cassie working at her study cube on Science Deck. Oksana pouring through loads of recorded intel traded to us by the Decider, at her retreat on Astrogation and Intelligence Deck. Warren had to be with the other Marines on Armories and Weapons Deck. No doubt boasting about how he’d outboozed Wick-lo when the two of them began sucking down beers. And Bill, tough proton laser gunner Bill, now sat above me. Or rather to one side, inside the antimatter beamer block. The wall next to the vidscreen had a new hatch which gave access to the tunnel that linked with the block. The captain had promoted Bill to petty officer second class, then told him to get his ass inside the block and be prepared to shoot antimatter at any target picked by the captain. During our last group lunch my dairyman friend had told me he was bored with being the bow proton laser gunner and liked being in control of a weapon with twice the range of his old laser. As for dear Evelyn, she hung out in a different part of Science Deck, focusing deeply on the evolutionary histories of the fifty-three alien species who were resident on the raider base. Which thought brought me back to what I was watching. The planet and base became too small to watch. So I looked to the other half of the vidscreen, which held the usual overhead view of the Bridge.