Space is nothing but a graveyard.
How true those words rang now. As the crimson pool beneath Lieutenant Joshua Knight’s now lifeless body began to expand and drip down the edge of the deck plate, Admiral Harry Ransome clenched his fists so tightly that they almost glowed under the ominous hue of the red emergency lights on the bridge.
“I won’t do it,” he growled. “You’re not having my ship.”
A small sigh came from the figure looming behind him as they slowly lowered the disruptor, the tip still glowing from the burst of energy that had moments before carved a hole through his communications officer.
“Harry, Harry, Harry. Surely you have figured this out by now? You cannot win here. You have lost. Perhaps your people should have remained in their solar system where they belong. It’s not safe out here.”
The voice, once calm and soothing in any situation to Harry Ransome, now bled with venom and toxicity. A fool. He had been nothing but a fool. He glanced at the pre-prepared speech still displayed in front of him, written by his captors. He was to deliver this message to the people of Earth urging them not to come looking for the Odyssey and her crew. It would effectively be a death sentence for humanity, but the violence on display before the Admiral was undeniable. Four officers lay dead in various points around the bridge. Each refusal had been met with an execution. Not that he had many crew members left. Of the one thousand souls who had left Earth almost a decade ago, only fifty-two now remained. He still heard their screams in his nightmares. She had made sure of that.
“Why do you need the Odyssey?” he asked as he tilted his head slightly to try and get a better view of the threat he was facing. “You were able to infiltrate my crew without a vast ship, no shots were fired. So it can’t be for warfare. Although I doubt you’ve enough lackeys to commit the genocide you asked me to complete.”
The associate of the leader had an itchy trigger finger, seemingly only a whisper away from burning a hole through someone else. Seemingly sensing his anxiety, the leader gestured to him to lower his weapon. Whatever happened here, they needed Harry alive. And preferably as many of his crew as possible. Although if he didn’t cooperate soon, that number would dwindle rapidly.
“You have something we need,” came the reply. “Something we can’t replicate.”
Harry found that extremely hard to believe. These people were clearly in possession of technology far in advance of their own, not to mention their telepathic abilities. And so he asked the question, he immediately regretted the answer to.
“And just what would that be?”
Stepping forward out of the shadows and lowering her hood, the leader simply smiled, the red lights creating a purple glow around her bright blue hair.
“Humanity.”