When the Gods Aren't Gods: Book Two of The Theogony (28 page)

Bridge, TSS
Vella Gulf
, Gliese 221 System, August 21, 2020

“There are three planets that orbit
Gliese 221,” said Steropes, looking at the orange-red dwarf star on the view screen, “but none of them are livable. The only planet in the habitable zone is a Saturn-like gas giant. There are no other stargates into the system and no signs of life on any of the planets.” After they departed Keppler-22, the Terrans had gone through the other unknown stargate in the WASP-18 system to find Gliese 221 devoid of habitation. At least it gave his men time to heal, Calvin thought.

“Thanks,” said the CO. She turned to the front of the bridge. “Helmsman, let’s head for the stargate. We’re done here!”

Bridge, TSS
Vella Gulf
, Ross 248 System, August 24, 2020

“System entry,” announced
Sara.

Before
she could say anything, the defensive systems officer jumped up from his console. “Sir!” he called, “I’ve got signs of a battle going on. There are already a number of destroyed ships in the vicinity of the star!”

“Correction,” Steropes
disagreed, looking over Sara’s shoulder. “While I agree that there was a battle in this system, it occurred 200 million miles from here. What the sensor operator is seeing actually happened 18 minutes ago. Whether that battle is still ongoing remains to be determined.” He looked back at the screen and then added, “Captain Griffin! One of the ships is a Mrowry vessel!”

“Is that good or bad?” asked the CO. “And in a related question, when are we going to get all of the galactic information downloaded to our implants so that I don’t have to ask this all of the time?”

“The Mrowry are felinoids,” answered Steropes, “and one of the founding civilizations of the Alliance of Civilizations. They are one of the most honor-bound of any of the races in the galaxy.”

“Got it,” replied Griffin, “they’re
some of the good guys.”

“
Do you want me to hail the Mrowry vessel?” asked the communications officer. As they had just entered the system, the Mrowry wouldn’t be aware of their presence for another 18 minutes, the time that it would take for their appearance to cross the system to the ship at the speed of light.

“Yes,” the CO ordered.
“Put it on screen.”

The main view screen lit up with the face of a Bengal tiger,
although it was a Bengal tiger that was predominantly black with small stripes of red. The helmsman and the engineer both flinched back unconsciously from the giant image of the predator in front of them. The other Mrowry that could be seen in the background had more red in their coloring. Long-time members of the alliance, the
Vella Gulf’s
computer was more than up to the task of translating for them.

The Mrowry took a second to look around the bridge.
“Who are you?” it asked. “We do not recognize you.” His gaze stopped on Steropes. “
You
, we recognize,” he added, his voice full of menace. “It is because of you that we are in this situation.” He looked back to Captain Griffin, seated in the commanding officer’s chair. “We can discuss why you are with
him
at another time, but if you are a member of an honorable race, we request your assistance.”

“
I am Captain Lorena Griffin of the Terran Spaceship
Vella Gulf
,” stated the CO. “If we can be of assistance, we certainly will. What aid do you require?”

“
I am Captain Yerrow of the Mrowry cruiser
Emperor’s Paw.
We were transiting the system next to this one as part of a battle group when we were attacked by a Ssselipsssiss force that came out of the stargate,” replied the Mrowry officer. It didn’t appear that feline mouths were made for lizard words, and the officer had a hard time pronouncing the name of the other race, but Griffin was able to figure it out.

“We have had our own dealings with the lizards,” replied the CO. “They destroyed one of our fighters without provocation or warning. We will assist you however we can.”

“My ship provided a delaying action while our main force escaped through the stargate,” said the Mrowry, “but they were pursued by another lizard force. We fought the lizard battlecruiser that is near us to a standstill with our fighters, but the fighters have now all been destroyed. Both of our ships are shells that are operating only on emergency power. Additionally, we’ve both been captured by the star’s gravitational field, and we are being drawn in. We could probably get our ship fixed in time to avoid being pulled into the star, but the lizards have sent several shuttle loads of troops over, and we are being forced to fight them, rather than see to our repairs. Anything you could do to help us fix our ship, fight off the lizards, or keep any more from shuttling over would be helpful. The sooner, the better.”

“We’re on our way,” said Captain Griffin. “We’ll call with details momentarily. Screen off!”
Her eyes traveled down from the screen to the helmsman. “Helm, set a course for their ship, max speed.” She turned to look at Calvin. “Recommendations?” she asked.

“We still have fighters on standby
,” replied Calvin. “We could launch some of them now at max speed, and they’d get there a lot faster than the
Gulf
. They could intercept the battlecruiser and prevent any more shuttles from going over. We just need to make sure they stay outside of the ship’s self-destruct range.”

“Good idea,” noted the CO, remembering how they had lost two fighters on the previous cruise when a
Ssselipsssiss commanding officer had blown up his ship to avoid being captured.

“Once we get within range,” continued Calvin, “I would recommend blowing up the lizard ship. You can give them a chance to surrender, but we really don’t want them to know we exist
, and they’re probably going to self-destruct again, anyway. We can launch fighter strikes on it whenever you’d like, or you can destroy it with the
Gulf
. On second thought, we probably want to blow it up, regardless, rather than risk them getting a lucky shot off that destroys our one remaining shuttle.”

“
Good point,” said the CO. “What are you going to be doing?”

“I’m going to be getting the platoon ready for combat,” replied Calvin. “As soon as we are
ready, we’re going to launch so that we can get there to help as soon as possible. The shuttle may only have 25 G more acceleration than the
Gulf
, but that extra little bit might make a difference.”

“I think that’s a good plan,” said the CO after a little consideration. “Ops, launch
two Asps and send them to shoot down any shuttles that the lizards try to send over to the Mrowry ship.”

“
Aye aye, skipper,” the operations officer replied.

The CO turned back to Calvin. “Why are you still here?” she asked.

Asp 01
, Ross 248 System, August 24, 2020

“Asp 01
, this is
Vella Gulf,” radioed the controller. “
You and
Asp 02
are cleared to launch. You are to take station 500,000 miles off of the lizard battlecruiser that is currently engaged with a friendly cruiser. Your mission to ensure that the lizards do not launch any more of their shuttles. If they launch any, you are to destroy them. Over.
”

“Asp 01
copies,
” replied Lieutenant Sasaki ‘Supidi’ Akio, the space fighter’s WSO.

“Asp 02
copies,
” replied its WSO, Lieutenant Zoe Brown.

“
Stand by to release,
” radioed the
Vella Gulf
. “
Three, two, one, release! Good hunting, Asps.
”

Supidi
looked at his pilot as their fighter detached and headed away from the
Vella Gulf
. “
Killing lizards?
” he asked. “
That’s a mission I could get used to.
”

“
No kidding,
” replied his pilot, Lieutenant Carl ‘Guns’ Simpson. “
The only good lizard is a dead lizard. Except for the ones in the skipper’s special forces platoon, I guess.
”

“
Those two are funny,
” said Supidi. “
One of them even thinks that the ship’s food tastes good.
”

“
He must have left his taste buds back on his home planet,
” laughed Guns.

Platoon
Briefing Room, TSS
Vella Gulf
, Ross 248 System, August  24, 2020

“OK, guys and gals, here’s the deal,” said Calvin to the assembled platoon. “There is a ship full of
good cat-people that is going to drift into this system’s star if we don’t get over there and help its crew kill a bunch of lizards that have gotten onboard. As the folks that made the first cruise know, the Ssselipsssiss are bipedal lizards that are seven feet tall and extremely aggressive. We know that they will attack on sight, so shoot them first. We expect them to have at least rifles and hand weapons; they may have heavier weapons and explosives, as well. If you have to go hand-to-hand with them, they also have very sharp teeth and claws and a tail with sharp spikes.”

“Our primary mission,” Calvin continued, “is to help the cat-people regain
control of their ship from the Ssselipsssiss. We will do so by going aboard and killing all of the lizards that we can find on it. I don’t have the schematics of the ship yet, so we will have to make this up as we go along. Unless otherwise noted, you are cleared to kill anything with scales on sight. They tend to thrash around once they are terminally wounded, so stay back if possible. Any questions?”

Not seeing any, he added, “Good. Gear up! The shuttle leaves in 10 minutes.”

Before Master Chief could get them in motion, a strange crashing sound was heard from the corridor.
SLAM!
Pause.
SLAM!
Pause.
SLAM!
The noise got closer, and then a giant metal figure walked through the door. Eight feet tall, it looked every bit the part of a giant combat robot from the movies, complete with a variety of guns mounted on it. Most of its chest was closed off, and its head was turning slowly side to side. It stopped when it saw Calvin and slowly marched over to him, passing the twins along the way.

“Du
uuuuude!” was all Good Twin could say in amazement.

“Damn, dude,” said Bad Twin
, quicker to regain his senses. “I didn’t know we had any Terminators.”

As the robot came to a stop in front of Calvin and saluted, the medibot came rolling into the briefing room. “This is not acceptable!” it squawked. “Not acceptable! Return to the sick bay immediately! You are not cleared for duty.”

Realizing what he was seeing, Calvin returned the salute. “Hi Staff Sergeant,” he said, with a smile. “You seem a little taller than the last time I saw you.”

“I...
want... to... come... with... you...” said Staff Sergeant Dantone in a flat, tinny voice.

“Unacceptable!” said the medibot. “He has only just recovered from
his final operation. He is not prepared for combat. He doesn’t even have all of his systems online yet! He is non-functional. He doesn’t have his combat skin on yet. He needs to return to sick bay!”

“Looks like the medibot doesn’t think that you are ready for duty yet
,” noted Calvin.

“I.. am.. not.. entirely.. functional.
..... yet,” replied Staff Sergeant Dantone, his reply seeming to come a little more normally. “But.. I.. am.. getting..... better.” The voice was still tinny and without inflection. “The.. medibot.. tells.. me.. that.. I.. will.. walk.. and.. talk.. better.. the.. more.. I.. do.. it.”

“I don’t think so,” replied Calvin. “I can tell that you are still trying to figure out how to use your systems. I think that you would probably be more of a hindrance than a help.”

“Please. let. me. go,” the cyborg said. “If. you. woke. up. like. this. you. would. want. something. to. take. your. mind. off. of. it..... for. a. while.”

Calvin looked at the medibot. If it had feet, Calvin could tell that it would be tapping one of them right about now. “How much experience do you have with converting humans to cyborgs?” he asked.

“This is my first,” replied the medibot. “His conversion is not complete, though. He still needs training. We still need to fix his voice.
There are many things that haven’t been completed on him yet!
”

“Even though there are things still left to complete,” Calvin said, “does he have enough complete to be able to function in combat?”

“He might be able to function in combat,” replied the medibot, “but he doesn’t have enough experience to be effective. For one thing,
he is still too slow for combat
.”