Battleship Destroyer (84 page)

"I think that was a question Captain. If it
was, the Greenfoots have breathers for moving heavy equipment and stores in vacuum. That is for the adults. We can make bags for the very young children that have not grown a thick, hard enough skin if you show us one of your air bags if your decision depends on that Captain."

"No my
decision does not depend on that though I will take you up on it for their safety later when we have time." Shaking his head as he looked up then closed his eyes and whispered something. Looking back at the translator Pan. "Open your boat lock bay. We do not have much time." Turning away he tapped his wrist comm. "Number One. You will be seeing a hatch opening in a few seconds someplace around the deck I am on now. I want an empty shuttle backed into it ASAP. A ah, include a few marines for security. We are picking up a few refugee slaves." Hesitating for just a second." Jack turned to the Pan. "How many are we talking about Pan?"

"The exact count is One Thousand Two Hundred and Seventy Four Captain."

Jack turned white. That many. Ok Well Number One. We are going to have our hands full. It may take more than a couple of boats if there are a lot of Greenfoots. Ah... You probably should lock the bridge hatches on the boats as well as the boat bays and isolate the troop decks by welding most of the side hatches closed for now just to be on the safe side. We will keep them there for now Number One. Captain out." Though the troop decks was where he was going to birth half the crew with the bow of the ship destroyed. He would have to come up with a different plan later. Tapping his wrist again as he studied the upper decks. "Commander I don't see that many enemy troops or Apes, coming down ship yet. Hold as long as you safely can then start dropping down ship with delaying actions as long as you can.  It looks like we are going to need as much time as you can give us. We have a bunch of refugees to evacuate now. Captain out."

"Come Captain." Pan said as it
looked down at a pad. "Let me show you the boat lock. One of your boats approaches now."

Jack and The Ensign followed with the marines spread out behind them. Their weapons across their chests at the ready instead of to their shoulders.

They walked down a passageway and Pan stopped at a hatch. "Just one minute Captain Turner. Please, since we had to pass this way anyway. The Gods punishment for failure is death. The punishment for their troops that do not maintain proficiency or fail a task is reassignment with the maintenance slaves as workers. If they fail proficiency at the maintenance they are assigned they are then recycled as food as are we. We have well over a hundred of what you are calling Lizard Apes working as slaves." Pan pushed open the hatch. "Please do not be alarmed. You do not need to fight these though if you wish to kill them they will put up no resistance." Pan's face twisted a little into what Jack would learn later was its smile as it made the statement.

Jack walked
through the hatch into a compartment with lizard apes lined up along the far bulkhead just standing without armor or suits or weapons. The translator Pan stepped to one side leaving a clear shot for Jack and the marines at the Lizard Apes. "Many have been wounded and did not heal properly but most simply got tired of the killing or did not carry out some order properly of fast enough or questioned an order.  Often after a long period of none combat they will be tasked with providing targets for the troops rotating out of storage to fight against. This last is particularly annoying if we have spent a lot of time and effort training them for specific jobs."

Jack lowered his assault gun from his shoulder after none of the lizard apes moved or showed any
sign of aggression. "Do they have a leader?"

"They are not allowed a leader. They must do as anyone tells them, even kill themselves
if told to. They are the walking dead. Though we would never think of it. The God Officers do enough of that already."

Jack turned to Pan. "Tell them to pick a leader to speak for them."

Pan looked at Jack as if he had insulted the alien. "You do not understand Captain. They are forbidden a leader. They have only gathered here because I told them to, so you could kill them."

Turning to look at Pan. "Have any of them ever hurt any of you? Gone berserk or ran around killing any of you?
Disobeyed orders or followed orders to kill slaves in the past? Or anything to make you hate them so much you want them dead?"

The
tight lipped translator Pan looked over to the line of Lizard Apes. "No. They have never hurt or killed any of us for any reason. The God Officers would not even bother ordering any of them to kill us. They are not worthy of a God Officer's orders."

"Then why do you ha
te them so much you want us to kill them?"

Pan turned back to Jack. "They get a second chance to live when they fail. We are killed immediately for the least mistake."

"That I understand but we do not kill innocent unarmed people even if they are our enemies. Oh and we do not kill anyone for the least mistake. Mistakes are normal and human."

The Ensign to
ok the assault gun out of a nearby marine's hands and gave it to Pan. "Here, if you want them dead. You kill them. We will not. Nor will we kill any of you for making mistakes unless that mistake is deliberate and kills someone else."

The translator
Pam looked down at the weapon it held in its hands for several seconds. Then raised it to its shoulder as the marines had done without using the sight or putting its finger on the trigger. "My mate made a minor mistake and was hacked down by one of those monsters. But it was not one of these. Though even if it was, killing it would not bring him back."

Jack suddenly realized that pan` was a she
, a female, complete with small breasts of sorts now that he looked. She turned and gave the gun back to the marine and started talking the Gutter language.

After Pan was done, the whole line of Lizard Apes looked at each other up and down the line without any of them coming forward.

"Ok. Tell them that they each have to make a decision. They can come with us or they can stay. The ones that want to come with us need to move over to the left side of the compartment." Jack pointed off to his right. "If they want to stay here simply do not move.

The Lizard Apes just stood there looking across the Compartment
at Jack and the marines with their weapons.

"Ok,
that settles that."  Jack turned around to leave as the Ensign spoke up.

"Are you sure
you told them they had a choice?”

"I would never risk displeasing you or the dishonor for failing to translate accurately."
As she turned to follow Jack and the marines.

A loud voice echoed across the compartment in Gutter speak. The
translator Pan turned with Jack, the Ensign and marines to face a solid line without being able to tell who had talked as Pan translated what had been said. "Why should I come with you? Do you offer me an honorable death?"

Taken back by the question Jack shook his head. "That is up to you. What is an honorable death?"

After Pan translated, several Apes talked at once until the translator shouted at them then turned around to Jack. "An honorable death is to die fighting ones enemy."

"Ok. Who is their enemy?"

"Most do not care or know." Said the translator after several had spoken. "But some say the Gods are their enemy now."

"Very well. Tell them that in time they may be able to earn their right to fight with us against the Gods or they could do some other honorable profession that does not require them to fight and die if they so choose."

The translator had barely finished the sentence when some started crossing the Compartment. Then a lone voice spoke and the translator turned to Jack. "This one says he likes to build things with his hands. Can he build things until he makes a mistake? It would be worth dying to him if he had a chance to build things."

"Tell them all that we do not kill for making a mistake. Everyone makes mistakes once in
a while and as long as you learn from your mistake, the worst that can happen is that you get…" Jack started to say terminated but realized that was the wrong word. "Transferred to something you are better at and make fewer mistakes."

The Ape that had spoken started across the compartment and was followed by most of the rest. Jack was satisfied until he noticed tha
t about a dozen remained against the bulkhead. "Ok. Ask them what their problem is? Why do they not want to leave?"

Translator Pam
finally turned to Jack after much discussion with the ones that remained. "They say that they have killed and enslaved many humans on the planets that they have conquered over the last two years and feel that they will not be wanted amongst you humans."

"Ok. Are they sorry
? No they were just following orders. Tell you what. If they promise not to kill humans ever again and even promise to help humans and other races live, we will forgive them as long as they never kill or harm another human. But if they do break their word, they will receive the most un-honorable death possible. Ah. That goes for the other races as well.”

"I am sorry Captain but I do not really understand the concept of forgive."

"Well. How about we will forget it happened as long as they behave themselves and do their best from now on to make amends. It is the same principle concerning mistakes. Forgive, learn and go on with your life doing the best you can."

"Best
? Why would anyone do less?" Pan shook her head as she turned around to speak to the remaining Lizard Apes. A minute later the dozen joined the rest.

Walking into the boat bay Jack could not believe the mass of aliens and freight
already going into the shuttle. Pallets large and small seemed to come out of every connecting passageway into the bay. Jack could see some thirty Greenfoots hauling large equipment into the shuttle by themselves and in cooperation with several on the big pieces. Walking over to look up the shuttles long cargo hold he realized that there was little room left for any of the aliens. The last pallets where shoved in and the translator turned to Jack. "The boat is ready to go. We have included all our teaching and technology training equipment as well as examples of most ships smaller equipment. We will start shipping larger equipment and ourselves over with the next boat."

Raising his hand up in front of the Translator. "Pilot. Have your cargo
chief drop as many of the mid deck grates down as possible for personnel." He listened for a second then. "Yes we have a lot of refugees. A lot of strange alien refugees. Now be quick about it. We don't have much time." Then turned back to the translator. "Start putting your families and wounded up on the grated deck above the cargo and be quick about it, we do not have much time." Jack looked up to see deck grates being dropped down from the overhead of the boats cargo compartment far to the front and working their way back.

The Translator pulled out her
pad and started talking into it as she scribbled on its face. A few seconds later a line of big and small aliens with packs on their backs and arms full of boxes or bundles or kids, came running out of a side hatch not fare from the back of the shuttle. Many small copies of the larger aliens ran around the line with their own bundles or packs including toys in the arms of some. Turning to Jack the translator said. "We can get over 400 on the boat without crowding. We are not comfortable sending our families ahead of ourselves but every able body is needed to finish stripping the ship of what is needed."

Jack smiled at Pan
. "Don't worry they will be fine. As for crowding. Pack them in translator until no more will fit."

Pam looked at Jack then turned to her pad and started scribbling again. "Most are small and take up less room. We will put over 500 in
. Most of the young and caregivers."

The ship shook knocking many off their feet.
The Lizard Apes did not even slow down and seemed used to the shaking. Jack was on the comm immediately. "What the hell was that?"

"First Officer here Captain.
The alien fleet is 12 hours away and has evidentially been firing torpedoes at our fleet from extreme range hours ago. Evidentially one of their torpedoes has gone astray and scored a hit on their own ship's armored hull that is hard to miss. They have not come near us yet but then I am hiding behind their hulks. I don't think they know we are even here at the moment."

"Very good Number One.
How are our engines looking?" Jack said as he looked at the rock steady Apes and Greenfoots as they continued to run cargo to the end of the lock in preparation for loading on the next boat.

"Sorry sir
but we only have engine number 1 up to specks finally.  The Chief did a number on engine 2 and it will be a while before it is ready."

"We need to
have started decelerating hours ago to out run them on only one engine. We are well past that. We are going to need at least another engine going if we stand a chance of out running the enemy fleet now."

"Ah, it is going to take a
lot of work yet to get the other engine going. Besides Captain, we are still unloading boats with most of the maintenance crews. We are running out of room for all the cargo you have been sending over as it is. Not to mention all the time it is taking to haul it up the pipe chase to the catwalk decks. It will be another 10 minutes before we can empty another boat to make another trip."