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Squee stared at the bloody form of the pirate he had just killed. He held her limp body against the wall; her head cocked at an unnatural angle. The blood fury still surged through him, but it had begun to subside. His mind could now objectively identify the sight before him as horrifying. Though, as of yet, he still didn’t care.
The big Rokma turned toward where Javi and Noah were arguing. He reminded himself of their status as allies several times before speaking, unable to keep a hopeful tone from his voice, “Are there more?”
“No,” Javi said.
“You didn’t detect him,” Noah said with a bitter note as he gestured to the dead Slu at his feet.
“Because of his proximity to these others. I registered several unknown lifeforms, and he was able to hide in that. But now, I only detect familiar senses aboard the ship.”
“If you say so,” Noah said, his voice trailing off. His mouth hanging open, he stared at Squee. Javi also turned his eyestalks toward him.
Squee again looked down at the body he still held in his hands. He could not understand what about it had drawn the others attention. The pirate was most definitely dead and therefore no threat.
He looked closer, and then he noticed the device on the pirate’s belt, “Ah, I see. An excellent idea.”
Squee removed the teleporter recall device from the pirate and dropped the body to the deck with a thud. He held the device up and tried to give a sinister smile to indicate his agreement with the idea, but he felt it only came off as goofy.
“Umm...right.” Noah said, “Good idea. Let’s board them. Their ship is about the same size as ours so they can’t have a much bigger crew than we do. And we’ve already taken care of four of them. Probably two or three left, but let’s assume four to five.”
“Recall devices won’t work for anyone except those they are tuned for,” Javi said.
“Then how do you think Squee got aboard this ship?” Noah asked, “We don’t have a military porter, and I think it’s safe to assume neither do these guys. Those’ll work for anybody.”
Noah bent down and picked up a recall device from one of the pirates and secured it to his belt. He then went over to the dead Slu. After taking that creature’s device, he handed it to Javi.
“Still ready to defend the ship?”
Javi turned his eyestalks to glance between Squee, Noah and the recall device. After a long pause, he took the device and said, “Okay.”
Noah then turned to Squee, “Come on big guy.”
The three of them went to the cargo bay and put on gun belts. Now they were all armed and equipped with their own recall devices, which would allow them to return to Seraph. Noah held up his captured device in a sign of being ready.
“Should we not inform the captain of our intentions?” Squee asked. His sense of duty had become more evident as the blood fury receded, though he kept a partial hold on it. The physical spasms and self-doubt that came after it completely faded would need to wait.
“Meh. I suppose. Wouldn’t want her to jump away without us.” Noah said with a reluctant shrug. He reconnected his handheld and then said, “Captain, we’ve subdued the boarding party. We’re about to go return the favor.”
Noah’s face paled for a second, and his eyes glanced at the ground. Squee could not interpret the gesture, so remained patient. He considered getting his earpiece out but decided to wait. Doing so now would give the appearance of eavesdropping.
“No, I...” Noah said haltingly. Another few moments passed until the man finally looked up again, “She says it’s cool. Thought it was a great idea.”
“Ari reamed you for being an idiot, didn’t she?” Javi asked with a chuckle.
“No. Maybe...”
No longer interested in the discussion now that the decision had been made, Squee intoned, “Together we will fight and crush them before us.”
He pushed his thumb down on the pirate’s recall device. Seraph’s cargo bay vanished, replaced immediately by a similar room. Crates filled the space, scattered about in a very disorganized fashion. On the walls, two flags hung prominently.
Squee held his gun ready, keeping his blood fury tempered for the moment. Nothing moved, and no alarms sounded. Moving quickly, he stepped to the closest door and triggered the switch. The door slid open revealing a poorly lit corridor. Again, he saw no signs of movement.
A flash caught his attention, and Squee turned to see Noah and Javi teleport in behind him. They stood in the teleport chamber. Both men surveyed the room quickly before their eyes fell on the flags. They stared at them for a long moment before glancing uncomfortably at each other.
“What is it?” Squee asked, “Do you recognize those?”
“Umm...” Noah said and then gestured at one, “No, I’ve never seen that before.”
“Yeah...” Javi said with a wave at the other, “Nope, never seen it.”
“That is too bad.” Squee said feeling disappointed, “It would have been good to know something about our adversary. But no matter, we will still crush them.”
Behind him, he heard Noah whisper, “How literal do you think he’s being when he says ‘crush’?”
Squee ignored the question, as it was not directed at him, and proceeded down the corridor toward the only door. It too opened without difficulty to reveal an engineering control room. One human stood at the controls, and she glanced up when the door opened.
“We’ve been boarded!” The pirate yelled and reached for a pistol at her side.
Squee fired his pistol and shot her. The first blast missed, blowing out a wall screen behind her, but his second shot hit her in the chest. She dropped, her pistol still only half drawn.
“They are alerted to our presence.” Squee declared. He moved to where the pirate had been working. After shoving the dead body away, he surveyed the control panel before him.
“Power down their weapons. We wouldn’t want them blowing up Seraph while we hunt for the rest of the crew.” Noah said, “Speaking of which, Javi, how many are there?”
“Two.”
“Unless there are more Slu,” Noah sneered.
“Unlikely. The two life forms are not close to each other and hiding our presence requires others to mask it. Unless there is a very skilled Slu, one other person should not be enough.”
“I’ll still assume there might be more from now on, okay?” Noah said, “Come on big guy, shut those guns down and let’s go.”
Squee shook his head, “I can not. Weapons can only be powered down from the weapon control room.”
“I know you can’t control them from here, but can’t you shut the reactor down and power them off?”
“Not without physically disabling it. This ship uses an inferior inorganic computer that requires safety precaution against AI infiltration. Those limit what you can do with any given control panel.”
“Right. Okay, well, shut the engines down at least. No sense in letting them try and run away.”
After Squee shut down the engines, the trio dashed back down the corridor. Rounding a bend, weapon fire cascaded out to greet them. Another bullet shattered against Squee’s hardened skin, and he grunted in pain.
Channeling the sharp throbbing pain from the impact, he flared his blood into another fury. The pain receded into the background so that he barely noticed the next two bullets that grazed him. His vision focused, and the pirate who had shot him became bright and clear in the dim corridor. Deep thinking became elusive, and he suddenly had an overriding need to run at his enemy.
Squee barreled into the pirate who had fired at him, an Echanic, and smashed him against the wall. The Echanic’s prosthetic arm shattered from the impact and his gun fell to the ground. Entirely taken by his fury, he did not hesitate to smash the figure again, shattering his plastic chest plate.
Behind him, Noah and Javi had followed. He turned to see them exchanging weapon fire with the last pirate further down the corridor. None of them had a good line of sight to shoot the other.
Unexpectedly, the final pirate tossed out his weapon. It skittered down the narrow corridor. Outstretched hands followed, and then a shout of surrender. Squee glanced down to ensure the Echanic was genuinely dead before turning his full attention to the surrendering pirate.
“You sure there are no more?” Noah asked.
“Yes. The only life forms are us and that one.” Javi said.
Noah looked unsure, but finally nodded. He stood up and aimed his weapon down the corridor at the outstretched hands. “Okay, you can come out. Don’t try anything funny.”
A tall human emerged and stood with his hands upraised. Squee immediately took several steps toward him. His vision started to focus on a new target, and he readied himself to charge again.
The pirate looked nervously to Squee, which made the Rokma smile. With a gulp, the pirate focused his attention on Noah and Javi. He gave them a calculating look and then smiled, “You may have taken my ship, but you’ll never get away from us. More will follow me. You won’t get away with what you’ve done.”
Almost at the same instance, Javi and Noah both fired their weapons at the pirate. Both shots hit him in the chest, and he dropped to the deck. Silence soon replaced the echoes of the weapon fire.
“Why did you do that?” Noah asked looking at Javi.
“Me? Why did you?”
The two stared at each other, and then glanced back at Squee. Unable to decipher their expressions, he remained silent. With no more threats, he let the blood fury begin to subside. His mind would be cloudy for a few minutes, and then the shaking would start. Guilt would come later.
“He was a worthy adversary.” Javi began, splitting his eyestalks between Noah and Squee, “He did not deserve the shame of imprisonment.”
“What...” Noah started, but stopped when Javi pointedly shifted an eyestalk toward him and back to Squee.
“Umm, yeah.” Noah said, “My thought too.”
Squee stood taller, feeling pleased with his companions, “It is good that I have found such honorable companions. The shame of defeat should not be felt for long by a worthy opponent. It cheapens the fight. These pirates fought well. They did not deserve the humiliation of imprisonment. Most non-Rokma do not understand this.”
“The captain understands this too, but is also human, so is conflicted about it.” Javi said quickly, “It is best to not mention the details to her. Let us just tell her the enemy was honorably crushed.”
“Right,” Noah said, his eyes fixed solidly on Javi. “We humans are conflicted about shooting unarmed prisoners. It takes a very good reason to overcome that predilection. I believe the same could be said for Slu.”
Javi stared back silently.
Ignoring the two, Squee declared proudly, “Then let us tell the captain of our victory. This ship is now ours by right.”