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Tallie boarded the shuttle on the Ganymede along with 12 marines. She settled into a seat next to the lieutenant who was the squadron leader. “Lieutenant Blake, Captain,” the young man said.
She nodded at him distractedly, still gathering her thoughts. She’d already briefed them before boarding about what they would be doing, what they should expect to see, what not to touch and what not to shoot.
Then the name sank in. Blake? Could it be?
“Was your father in the service, Lieutenant?”
“Yes, Captain.”
“Did he...?”
“Yes,” he said, before she could finish her question. “He was serving on board the Ambassador when he was killed.”
“Oh, I’m so sorry.”
“It was a long time ago.”
“Yes, but I knew him well. He was an excellent officer. He gave his life so that we could find a way to make peaceful contact with the Restans.”
“Yes, Captain, I know. I am very proud to be his son.”
She nodded at him. Blake had been assigned to a transport ship to keep an eye on a civilian captain Hooker had feared might try to start a war with any aliens he met. In fact, it had happened, and Blake was killed when the Restans on the Tandew had destroyed the transport ship in retaliation for leading them into an ambush.
She hoped this young Blake had forgiven the Restans? Or did he blame them? She didn’t insult him with the question. He was a professional, after all.
“Don’t worry, Captain. I have actually spent some time cross-training with Restans. I like them.”
She smiled. “As have I. And, so do I.”
The shuttle began moving, though they could barely feel it. They were to enter a breach in the enemy ship which the Restans had widened after the battle to accommodate their own shuttle.
Tallie picked up her communicator. “Captain Tropo. We are approaching the alien ship. Any updates?”
Tropo’s face appeared on her little screen. “Nothing found yet, Captain. Some dead devils, as you call them. They should make for interesting study.”
He said it just as if he were discussing the weather. The idea of dissecting these aliens was something already discussed and agreed upon at levels much higher than theirs. They were to be accorded not the slightest deference as an enemy combatant.
They weren’t regarded as just an enemy. They were exterminators. And they had seen the work they had done in the past, on other races.
Tallie switched settings and was watching the approach to the alien ship from the viewpoint of the shuttle pilots.
“Here we go,” she told Blake.
He was already fingering his assault rifle. His side arm was a particle-beam weapon like hers, but humans still hadn’t found anything more effective than good old, high-velocity lead projectiles. The old-school marines still called them bullets.
“Captain?” Blake said as she was about to stand.
“Yes?”
“Did you think we should have gone down to that planet and saved those humans?”
She was surprised, but shouldn’t have been, at how everyone knew about those humans already!
“Well, our orders, our mission, didn’t call for a ground assault. I can imagine we would have been badly outnumbered even if we’d committed all the marines from every Star-Guardian.
“I know, Captain. But, it is hard for us to leave them there.”
“Yes, Captain. For all of us.”
“We have arrived!” the pilot called out, and they all stood up and activated their life-auras.
They stepped onto the deck of the alien ship, and fanned out. The Restans had searched and secured about 40% of the ship, and they headed in the other direction. Working together, they could all be on their way home in just a few more hours.
Tallie’s communicator buzzed. “How is it going, Captain?” Halsey’s voice asked her.
“We have just entered the ship and are beginning to search and secure our sections,” she said.
“Take your time and don’t miss anything. But no unnecessary site-seeing either!” Halsey said.
“Yes, Admiral!”
“She’s a tough one,” Blake said. “Just what we need to win this war.”
Tallie didn’t look at him, concentrated on the corridor ahead. “Yes, just what we...”
She was interrupted by all hell breaking loose.
A few moments, or hours, she didn’t know, later, Tallie was lying on the floor of the alien ship, stunned. She blinked through the smoke, feeling for and finding her weapon. All hell really had broken loose, literally, with little devil aliens everywhere. They’d been hiding in a compartment somehow shielded from their sensors.
She wasn’t sure how many had ambushed them.
“Captain! You okay?” Blake was now beside her. She sat up, but he pushed her back down. “We haven’t got them all yet,” he said.
She rolled onto her stomach. Except for her ears ringing and a numbness in one leg, she seemed to be okay.
“How many were there?”
“I’m not sure, but there are fewer than there were when they came out, I guarantee you that,” he said.
She looked around as the smoke was clearing. Now she could see there were fewer marines, too. At least five bodies were in sight, unmoving.
“Reinforcements are on the way,” Blake told her.
Some type of reddish beams began walking back and forth across the compartment they’d taken sanctuary in. She’d never seen a beam weapon like that, and it was cutting through everything as it made its way toward them.
Blake rose and fired his assault rifle. It was a full-on burst, concentrated. Whatever he was aiming at must be pulverized by now, she thought, as she also rose to try to find the source of the deadly red beam before it found them.
Suddenly a whooshing sound started, and grew stronger. She recognized it for what it was, a hull breech. Blake hadn’t been firing at an individual, he was making a hole which would hopefully expose the aliens to space and deprive them of their atmosphere.
The red beam stopped its methodical march toward them, started zig zagging instead, then went out. She clearly heard screaming agony coming from un-Earthly throats, like little banshees.
She didn’t feel sorry for them.
Looking now, she could see at least ten of the little alien devils flattened against the hull where the breech was, and as the atmosphere fully depleted, watched them pop one by one from the vacuum.
“That was a smart move,” she said to Blake.
He didn’t look at her. “More desperation than smart. Did you see that red beam?”
“I’ll be seeing it in my nightmares for the rest of my life,” she said.
More marines, and more Restans, soon arrived, and all was secure. Or at least so they hoped, again.
They gathered at the shuttle, preparing to board. After the wounded and dead were taken aboard, the walking wounded and unscathed began boarding also. As senior officer, Tallie was hanging back, making sure all were accounted for.
Blake stepped into the shuttle and turned back to look at her when she didn’t follow immediately. She was looking back down the corridor where the ambush had taken place.
“Captain? Ready?”
Just then Halsey was on her communicator. “Captain Talbot? Why aren’t you on your way back?”
“Wait,” she said. She looked down the corridor again, then back at Blake.
“Admiral, give us 10 more minutes, please? I have to check something.”
“Check what? All is secure. I understand all compartments have been searched?” Halsey said, patience long gone from her voice.
“Please, Admiral. Trust me. Something isn’t right. They were making a last stand, a suicidal charge, and for what? There must be something important we’ve missed. Something they didn’t want us to find.”
“Very well, five minutes!” Halsey said.
“Thank you, Admiral!”
She didn’t have to look back as she headed down the corridor to know Blake and some others were following behind.
“What are we looking for?” he said as they arrived at the scene of the battle.
“I don’t know. No, I do know. That compartment they were in was masked from us, our sensors couldn’t see in. So, we are looking for another blind spot, another masked compartment.”
Blake massaged his assault rifle. “That could mean more of those little devils...”
“Yes, be ready. Start scanning!” she told the other marines, of which there were only four able-bodied left.
“Over here,” a marine called out almost immediately.
She and Blake examined the spot. “There is something here, something we can’t see inside,” Blake agreed.
“Open it!” Tallie said. “We are running out of time!”
She drew her weapon and the others assumed defensive positions.
Suddenly the doors gave way and they could see inside. All fingers were on all triggers as they peered into the previously searched compartment.
“Wait!” Tallie shouted. “Stand down!”
Huddled in the far corner were three very human-looking women. They cowered in fear.
“Get them up! Get the emergency life-aura around them!” She hoped they could breathe Earth-type oxygen.
“Let’s go! Bring them and let’s get the hell out of here!” she said.
The marines shouldered their weapons and helped the women. Tallie could see clearly now what the aliens were so desperate to hide from them.
“Admiral,” Tallie called as they hurried back to the shuttle.
“Go ahead, Captain.”
“We are bringing back three human females. And, Admiral, they are all very pregnant!”