Probe Predators (18 page)

“Claw, we still have fifty one shuttles that haven’t bordered!”

The Claw still clung to his chair arms and bellowed, “SEND THEM A SYMPATHY MESSAGE! Get us back to our station and send a recording of what just happened to the Command Claw.”

• • •

Space battles, like cat fights, can happen faster than anyone can imagine and the damage done in an incredibly short time can be unimaginable. More than two thousand M87 Warships were blasted into vapor and another four hundred were hanging in space burning. And still, thousands of M87 warships continued jumping in. They arrived in time to assist the efforts at pulling survivors from the burning hulks floating in space. For the vast majority of the ships that arrived first, there was nothing left to offer help to.

• • •

“Your Majesty, we were able to get a jump track when it retreated.”

“Why didn’t we get one the first time it jumped?”

“The jump track only lasts for two seconds. They will have to be actively scanned for us to record their destination.”

“Please tell me you scanned that ship’s weapons.”

“We did. I’m processing that information now but will need some time to organize what we have.”

“Connect me with the Sovereign.”

• • •

The Sovereign appeared on Angela’s panel, “Tell me what’s going on.”

“The Thresher Ship has jumped out and left fifty shuttles behind.”

“Shoot the thrusters off them and see if we can’t board and capture some of those creatures.”

The Sovereign turned and spoke to someone to his left. He stared away from Angela’s panel for a minute and then nodded. He turned back to Angela, “We’ve disabled their shuttles. However, I don’t know if we can force our way on board without killing everyone, including the inhabitants.”

“Stand by!” Angela pressed a button and Kragon appeared, “How many penetration ships do you have manned and ready to jump?”

“Eighty seven, Your Majesty.”

“Get fifty five of them to the coordinates Moe is going to send you in a moment and make sure our crews know that we want to capture some of the Threshers. We also want to save their captives if it’s possible.”

Kragon looked at his panel and saw the coordinates appear, “I’ll get them on the way!”

“Sovereign, I have fifty five Penetrator Ships jumping to the site of the battle in a few moments. Please assist them in doing their job.”

“I will; what do you want to do with any prisoners, if we’re able to take any?”

“Do you have anywhere you could incarcerate them”

“We do.”

“Your ships paid the price for collecting them. I’d appreciate it if you would tell us what you learn.”

“Send a representative to listen in. I suspect we can use your help.”

“I think I have someone who might be able to get them to communicate; I’ll say in advance that it might get messy.”

The Sovereign’s expression hardened, “Do whatever you want; they’ll receive no sympathy from anyone here.”

Angela nodded and pressed her board, “Admiral Kemper.”

“Yes, Your Majesty.”

“If we’re able to capture some prisoners, I need someone from your ranks to question some of the Threshers.” Katy stared at the Queen and she said, “I don’t care what they have to do.”

“I have someone in mind that might be able to get them to talk.”

“Why do you say, ‘Might?’”

“They’ll talk or they’ll die.”

“Send them to report to Admiral Tollervar. I’m sending him to head up this effort. You’ll receive the coordinates in a moment.”

Katy lowered her head, “Yes, Your Majesty.”

• • •

“WHERE DID THE SHIP GO!?!”

“The force field failed and it had to escape.”

The Shuttle Leader felt his ship rock violently and looked at his Second Pilot, “Our thrusters have just been blasted; we’re dead in space.”

“Stun the meals again and get the crew ready to repel borders.”

The Second rushed out of the ship’s bow room and began issuing orders. The twenty five Threshers on board lifted their stunners and shot the piles of bodies lying haphazard in the landing bay. They then changed their hand weapons from stun to blaster. They moved behind huge stacks of stunned inhabitants and waited for borders to try and take their shuttle.

• • •

“YOU LEFT FIFTY SHUTTLES BEHIND!?!”

“Commander, one third of my hull had the force field demolished and thousands of ships were coming in to fire on the unprotected side of my hull. Would you have preferred I lose all of them?”

The Group Claw stared at the Claw on his panel and lowered his eyes, “Why didn’t you go back for them when your field came back online?”

“It’s still not back online. The field emitters were damaged in the last barrage that hit my ship. We’re working on them as we speak; however, I suspect those shuttles were eliminated as soon as I was forced to jump away.”

“I want you to contact our scientists and tell me what happened to your ship. I believe you’re right and it would be wasted effort to go back for our shuttles. I will have to inform the Major Claw of what happened and I want a full report on what you did before I contact him. Do you understand?”

“I do, Group Claw.” The panel went dark and the Claw wondered just how many warships were in the galaxy they were scanning. He still remembered them appearing by the thousands.

C
ommodore Kresen arrived with ten Penetrator Ships and moved his ship to the closest Shuttle. He knew the shuttle’s crew could see his ship move over it and attach to their hull. There was nothing that could prevent them from seeing a ship three times their size moving toward them. Kresen smiled; let them. He activated his communicator and ordered the other ships, as they arrived to attack to a shuttle and await further instructions.

Kresen looked at his Scanning Officer, “Get the video going.”

Ten String Threads were pushed into the Thresher’s hull and they moved between the molecules of the surrounding material. They stopped at the surface of the interior hull and began sending videos of what was happening inside the shuttle. String Threads were as small as a fine hair and were virtually invisible to the naked eye. Kresen sat in his command chair and waited for his crew to send him data.

“Sir, there are two on the bridge and twenty five scattered around the landing bay. They are using the captured inhabitants to shield themselves from us.”

Kresen thought about the situation and saw Admiral Tollervar’s ship appear in at the edge of the drifting shuttles. He waited a moment and heard, “Commodore, have you made any determinations of how you want to go about doing this?”

“How many prisoners do we want?”

“How many are there?”

“Thirteen hundred and seventy seven, Sir.”

“That many!?!”

“There are two manning the bridge and twenty five in the landing bay. I suspect the ones in the landing bay were used to gather the inhabitants and move them on board.”

“Is it possible to get all of them?”

“Not without endangering the inhabitants. I suspect they now have their weapons set to blaster and won’t hesitate to fire them indiscriminately.”

“They’ll blowout their hull and die from explosive decompression.”

“I’ve got to believe they already think they’re dead anyway.”

Jinx thought for a moment and said, “Hold on just a moment.” He contacted the M87 Commander at the scene and explained what Kresen had told him. He answered the Commander’s questions and finally said, “I suspect the Threshers in the landing bay are lower rank sailors and probably won’t possess much of any value. I think we need to remove them and try to stun the officers on the shuttle’s bridge.”

“Can you do that without harming the inhabitants?”

“There will be some loss of life; I think it’s unavoidable. However, the numbers killed will be much higher if we try to capture them.”

“You’re saying we’ll take a hundred prisoners if we only go after the Threshers on the bridges?”

“Actually, a hundred and two; but even there we may lose some of them.”

“Do what you have to do to protect the inhabitants.”

“I’ll get back to you.” Jinx went back to Commodore Kresen, “Do what you need to do to protect the inhabitants in the landing bay. I want you to attempt to stun the two on the bridge.”

Kresen nodded, “Yes Sir. We’ll begin operations in a few minutes.”

Jinx nodded and the display went dark.

• • •

Commodore Kresen hit his general frequency and waited until all his ships were on the channel. “We are going to attempt to take out the Threshers in the shuttle’s landing bays. The bridge crews will be stunned. I want you to start with a medium charge on the stunners for one second and then raise the power if it doesn’t knock them out. Get the Strings into the hulls and notify me when they’re targeted. We’ll do this simultaneously so don’t waste time making it happen.”

Kresen leaned back in his chair, looked at his panel, and saw the number of strings going into the shuttle below his ship increase to twenty seven. He kept his eye on the locked on number in the right, upper corner of his display and saw the number quickly move from three to twenty seven. He looked at his Wing Panel and saw forty of his ships had reported ready. Three minutes later, all fifty reported locked and ready. He lifted his communicator and said, “On my mark we will initiate Crew Removal Protocols; in four, three, two, one, and Mark!”

Every shuttle had twenty seven String Threads hanging from their overhead hulls. Each of them were assigned to one Thresher each and had moved around the ship until they were in striking position. The activation command was issued and every one of them shot out into the bodies of the Threshers.

Kresen could see the strings on his monitor and he watched them as they appeared to be blowing around by the ship’s ventilation. When the threads received their charges, they went into their assigned Thresher and entered their bodies without being felt. They entered without making contact with any of the molecules or atoms that made up the Thresher’s bodies. Once inside, they charged the Thresher’s body and rotated their atoms one quarter, changing them into another substance. Most of them were converted to oxygen, but some of them became other elements and fell apart into small clumps on the landing bay’s floor.

The Threads inserted into the Thresher Pilots moved quickly to their brains and released a medium charge. The charge wasn’t strong enough to knock them unconscious, so they continued to increase in power until they collapsed. The threads kept a constant reading of their brainwaves and shocked them enough to render them unconscious.

• • •

Kresen saw that one of the Thresher Pilots swung his hands over his head and pushed the Thread out of his body. He managed to hit the self-destruct button before the Thread could reenter and the shuttle and the Penetrator Ship above it exploded. Kresen hit the arm of his chair and shook his head. He knew nothing was fool proof but he hated the loss of a ship.

Kresen activated his communicator, “Take the shuttles down to the planet and go to different cities. Land at the largest hospital and get help to the inhabitants on board. Keep the two pilots unconscious until they can be picked up.”

• • •

“Good Job, Commodore.”

Kresen looked at Jinx on his panel, “I lost one of my ships and all the inhabitants on the shuttle.”

“This is a dangerous activity you do; I expected much worse. I’ll get back to you later.”

“Yes Sir.”

• • •

Five hours later, Drey contacted Jinx, “How are the captured inhabitants you freed doing?”

“Fifty percent of them were already dead, Sir. Most of them had bled out from loss of limbs being moved to the shuttles. Of the remaining fifty percent, only half of them will lead a normal life. The others have been damaged in one way or another.”

Drey lowered his eyes, “This species is rather blood thirsty.”

“That really doesn’t describe how bad they are; some of the colonists were being consumed while we were getting ready to board the shuttles.”

“Has Admiral Kemper’s team arrived?”

“They’ll be here shortly.”

“Perhaps the Thresher will get some of what they give.”

• • •

Rolf Ericson and Glenda Parks arrived at the asteroid prison where the captured Thresher Pilots were being held. Jinx met them outside the holding cells and saw they were unemotional about what was being asked of them, “We need to know what the Thresher’s are planning and what their time frames are.”

Rolf shrugged, “I’ll see what I can do. Do you know if we have their language translated?”

“We do.”

If you will send us a download it will help a lot.”

“What do you intend to do?”

“Take an anatomy class.”

Jinx stared at Rolf for a long moment and said, “Do what?”

“Take an anatomy class and let the others watch. I suspect they might be more willing to discuss things with us afterwards.”

“Here’s your table.”

Rolf and Jinx turned around and Jinx saw an operating table with various surgical instruments. He turned to Rolf and he said, “At least these are sterile; many of the inhabitants they chewed up died from infections contracted by the filth in their claws.”

Jinx stared at the two Pilots from Katy’s Fleet and watched them roll their table into the holding room. Every Thresher Pilot was being held in a cell with a hardened force field over the entrance. The cells were in a circle and every Thresher prisoner stood up and watched the two strange creatures roll a table into the center of the room where all of them could see. Rolf and Glenda stepped out of the room briefly, donned a learning helmet, and had the Thresher language downloaded into their brains. They went back in the room and said, “Before we can really get to know you, we have to get to know you.” Rolf went up to a cell and pressed a green button on the outside wall. The Thresher inside was stunned unconscious and the two lifted it and placed it on the table where it was strapped down with energy bonds. They sat and waited for the Thresher to regain consciousness and passed time by discussing their ships and how much they were learning during fleet trials. The Threshers wondered what was going on. When the Thresher returned to consciousness, they found out.