Star Clusters: New Arrivals (4 page)

“I don’t think there’s anybody aboard other than us and Zeshaira - and I think the lockdown’s her fault. Looks like she also broke the intercom; I lost contact with her just as the doors closed.”

“Zeshaira’s in the control room? And she’s alone? Interesting...” Hatos said, then ordered one of the ‘rescued’ crewmembers to transport him, Lanis, and two of the more combat-ready crewmembers to the control room.

What they saw when they got there surprised Lanis considerably, though Hatos seemed to have been expecting something of the sort; a relatively uninjured Zeshaira telekinetically fighting what appeared to be an exact duplicate of herself, with no victor in sight. “Stop this, both of you!” Hatos commanded; and the battle was over.

Both Zeshairas turned to him, simultaneously pointing at the other and saying: “She’s a Xargan spy!”

“What now?” Lanis asked.

“Now,” Hatos simply stated, “we test the quality of the disguise. Turn on your wristblades and point them towards me.”

Both of them turned on the energy blades on their wrists and pointed them at Hatos, who activated his own blade and quickly sliced across the first Zeshaira’s blade. Instead of blocking the blow, the blade was cut apart, and the Xargan shrieked in pain; before it could do anything, Lanis shot it repeatedly, and it collapsed to the floor, transforming into the same goo-like blob he had seen before.

The second Zeshaira switched her blade off, but Hatos said: “I wish to test you as well. Turn on your blade.”

“Why? We’ve already determined that I’m not the shapeshifter,” she asked.

“We have determined no such thing. All we know is that we have killed a shapeshifter; but that does not rule out the possibility that you are one as well. Turn on your blade.”

Lanis’ pistol flew out of his hand towards the second Zeshaira, but before it reached its destination, she found that she was on the receiving end of a volley of yellow bursts of energy from Hatos’ wrist - and collapsed to the floor into a pile of goo.

“That was new,” Lanis said.

For a moment, Hatos laughed. “You did not really believe we would be foolish enough to fight only with melee weapons, did you? Even with personal shielding, such an attack would achieve very little. No, as you just observed, these bracers can
almost
instantly switch between firing as a ranged weapon and emitting a blade capable of blocking other energy weapons; a defensive ability which our dead infiltrators clearly did not anticipate, or I suspect they would have taken some from our armory.”

“What’d you have done then?”

“I’m not entirely certain. I suppose we could extract a blood sample and leave it lying around somewhere; it is possible that any tissue removed from such a creature would revert to its natural state. However, we have a more important issue to deal with, and I fear we may have preciously few options left. First of all, we must make sure there are no more of these shapeshifters among us, something the Petrans may be unwilling to wait for, based on my experiences so far.” After saying this, Hatos ordered one of the guards to end the lockdown. “I have instructed the transporter operator to transport the rest of the crew aboard. This will undoubtedly alarm the Petrans further, but if they have interpreted the situation as I suspect they have, the alternative would be far worse,” he said a few seconds later.

It was only a couple of minutes before the crew had been notified of their imminent return and transported to their stations. Once that was finished, Hatos gave the order to depart.

A small group of Tarhedians transported into the hangar control room, and within moments the massive arms formed specifically - like the hangar itself - to hold the Tarhedia in place detached from its vast hull while the hangar doors began opening; the team was transported back aboard as the ship’s shields and engines slowly powered up, the city dome coming to life as five yellow beams came out of the curving shield arms, connecting at the dome’s highest point to each other and a similar, larger beam from the power core - which proceeded to the highest point of the main shield - and both shields simultaneously started expanded from those points to encompass their respective areas. Once this process was completed, the beams faded away, leaving nothing but the yellowish, transparent watery surface of the shield; and the ship’s natural rotation began as its engines propelled it out of the hangar. Minutes later, the ship had left Petra’s atmosphere.

As Hatos had feared, the Petrans were not at all satisfied by this turn of events, so by the time the Tarhedia had entered a stable orbit, a small fleet was waiting for it, fully prepared for combat.

“We are being hailed,” the communications officer said.

“Put it through,” Hatos ordered, “Hopefully, we can keep this from escalating...”

The holographic screen overlaid over the wall in front of Hatos changed to display an image of the Petran fleet’s commander; from his facial expression, it was clear to everyone that this would be nothing more than a request for surrender.

“Tarhedian vessel, this is Captain Kellas Poteran of the Petran battlecruiser Hippasrus. Stand down immediately or you will be fired upon,” the Petran commander said.

“And return, no doubt, into your hands to be punished for the mistakes of some among us? I should think we are free to come and go as we please, so long as we do not come unannounced or with hostile intentions,” Hatos answered in a criticizing - albeit diplomatic - tone. “Besides, we seem to have lost an important member of our crew, and I sincerely doubt we can--” a somewhat battered Zeshaira came into the control room, ruining his attempt to provide a reasonable explanation for their departure, “Never mind. However, as you may already know, we have a Terran guest aboard, and I had promised him we would take him to Earth ourselves.”

“Stand by; I will consult my superiors.” The transmission ended.

“You never said anything of the sort,” Lanis noted.

“Indeed; but the Petrans do not know that, and a small, harmless lie like that could dampen the effect our abrupt departure could have on relations between our two peoples. Now,” he turned to Zeshaira, “what happened to you?”

“I was...“ She sighed. “Caught in my sleep after the ship was secured,” she finally told them, visibly embarrassed - and more than a little annoyed - by the nature of her incapacitation.

Neither Hatos nor Lanis could resist the urge to smile. “Really?” Hatos commented, pausing, “I’m not sure if you should be infuriated or flattered by the fact that they chose to attack you then of all times; though what you have chosen is clear.”

“The Hippasrus is hailing us again.”

Hatos and Lanis turned away from Zeshaira and back towards the screen. “On screen,” Hatos ordered, and the captain of the Hippasrus appeared yet again - and just as confident and persistent as before.

“The Terran in question attacked several loyal Petran soldiers with the help of one of your crew. Stand down; this is your final warning.”

Lanis couldn’t stand back and listen any longer. “First of all, I’m pretty sure we didn’t kill any of them - though I think we might have broken that first guard’s nose. Secondly, I was tricked. In fact, I was tricked not just by the Xargan impersonating the Tarhedian in question, but also by some of your people. They told me the Tarhedia and its crew were lost; that I was the only survivor,” he paused, “Tell me, Captain Poteran, what would you have done if you were assured that your crew died in an accident, and suddenly one of them came along and told you the others had been captured?”

He seemed to have hit a nerve, as Poteran’s expression grew uneasy. After a few moments, he admitted: “I would probably have done the same thing. Nevertheless, I have my orders. If you do not power down your engines and shields, I will have no choice but to open fire.”

“Honestly,” Lanis told him, “I think that’d be a really bad idea. You might not have seen what this ship’s capable of, but I have; and I’m pretty sure it’d turn any ship in your task force into dust without much trouble.”

“You’re bluffing,” Poteran said, looking towards Hatos.

“I do not know enough about your technology to say for certain, but I cannot deny that it may be possible,” Hatos answered his unspoken thought.

“Look, right now it doesn’t matter whether or not we’re bluffing. What matters is that nobody’s dead or in any way permanently injured
yet.
That’s a fact. But if you attack, that’s going to change; it’s going to change a lot faster and a lot more drastically than either one of us wants, and odds are you’ll end up in a war not just against the Tarhedians, but against Earth as well.”

The Petran was clearly wavering; he knew what that would mean, but how could he stop this? “I may be allowed to let your ship leave if you and your accomplice turn yourself over to me - but that’s all I can do,” he reluctantly stated.

“I just said it was a Xargan, we killed--“ Lanis sighed. “Are your superiors listening to this? Admirals, the High Council, somebody with enough authority to stop this?”

“Yes, the High Council and Admiral Jelon - my commanding officer - are listening. Why?”

“Great, that means I can say what I have to say to somebody who isn’t more worried about their careers than their lives.” After saying that, Lanis paused. Whether or not this madness was stopped before it was too late depended on him, and it didn’t feel good at all. “This is exactly what they want. Why do you think the Xargans would trick me like this if they didn’t know you’d do this? They’re trying to get us to turn on each other so they can come in and tear us all apart once we’ve softened ourselves up, and you’re playing right into their hands! It’s not too late to end this; we can still prevent an interstellar war that can and will destroy both sides, but the moment somebody dies, that last chance
will
be gone. I know I’m just a simple pilot, but the only reason I can possibly think of for you to be so eager to stop us is if you’ve completely lost your collective minds or if you’ve been replaced with Xargans too.”

After he said that, the Petrans closed the channel again. The silence that followed seemed like a good sign. Somebody down there had been paying attention. But when that silence had continued for thirty minutes, something had to be wrong. Suddenly, the holoviewer displayed the Hippasrus’ bridge again. “You need to leave,” Poteran hurriedly said, “
Now.
”

“What’s wrong?” Hatos asked.

As if to answer his question, some of the Petran ships, including the Hippasrus, started maneuvering into a defensive formation around the Tarhedia while another Petran task force dropped out of hyperspace, merging with the remainder of the Hippasrus’ group. “It’s the High Council; there’s been a coup. Admiral Jelon and a few of the more militant council members have taken over, and it looks like they’re out for blood,” he explained.

Even if it had not been directly caused by the Xargans, this could not have come at a worse time. “How come you’re on our side?” Lanis asked. Poteran didn’t strike him as the kind of person who would do what he seemed to be doing, and yet... there he was.

“Because I think you’re right,” the Petran officer stated; in the meantime, the Petrans activated an orbital hyperspace disruptor near the first planet - Hemreus - of the five-planet system in which Petra was the fourth world; escape had now become impossible. “You should have listened to me when you had the chance, though. We’re trapped.”

“Not necessarily,” Hatos observed, “but we
will
have to fight off a considerable force to escape. All allied ships, plot a course towards Hemreus. Fire all weapons - target their engines, hopefully we can disable them with minimal casualties. Use the Tarhedia for cover; its size and powerful shields may be key to minimizing our own casualties. Zeshaira, prepare your fighters for takeoff - we may need them soon, but I do not dare send such vulnerable craft into a battle if the Petrans’ targeting systems are too efficient.”

“I’ll go with them. I haven’t exactly mastered the controls yet, but I’m better than nothing,” Lanis said. “Oh, and you’ll need to configure your hyperdrive to operate according to the specs in the Eagle’s computer; look for ‘Petran Border Hyperspatial Instabilities’, I think that’s the name of the file. If you don’t, the unstable nature of hyperspace there’ll damage the hyperdrive and we’ll be stuck,” he added.

“Very well,” Hatos answered, then turned to the holoviewer, which had now switched to a three-dimensional tactical map of the system; in addition to the obvious hostile forces and stellar bodies, the map displayed the names of all identifiable allied forces - including the Petran defectors, who had linked into the Tarhedia’s tactical network - and any data that could be relevant, including sensor data on enemy and friendly ships alike, weapons fire, and other assorted data - in short, it was a tool capable of sorting and sifting through all the data the ship was capable of gathering and displaying it in an easy-to-view format.

Just what Hatos needed right now. “Hippasrus, Soscut, turn left and right, respectively, fire all weapons at the pursuing fleet, then move to these coordinates on the Tarhedia’s shield at full speed. All other ships, break formation, use your maneuverability to harass the enemy; but do
not
be overly aggressive. Zeshaira, are your fighters ready?”

“We are ready to launch,” she answered, “but I am uncertain as to whether we will be of any use. I am not entirely sure our neutron cannons have the penetrating power required to breach the Petrans’ armor, and the energy from the explosions should be easily absorbed.”