Carinae Sector: 02 - Admiral's Fury - Part 2 - Hidden Menace (29 page)

‘Speak softly for the Traders and their language are hated by the un-named ones of the Black Claw brigade. The overseer is no longer controlling your imprisonment and has been shackled in the brig for punishment. I expect him to be condemned as meat for killing one of your breeding females.’

Freya looked at Rebecca as she briefly replied in the same language, and she was again grateful they had a sprinkling of Barede colonists with them. The Fenshilla slave spoke hurriedly now as she looked sideways at the bored guards nearby.

‘The chief surgeon has taken control and has instructed us to tend to you as best we can. Note that the forced mating process is likely to continue as he is aware of your species’ short life spans. I would recommend against bringing any offspring into existence for he is also a beast without mercy.’

Rebecca thanked the Fenshilla in Trader language and translated the news for Freya. The rest of the survivors joined the two women, and under the cover of the bustle for the meal, the halting conversation continued on. Freya soon learned that their new ally was named Millene, and she was a pilot lieutenant in the Silver Guards who had been captured with her crew. The males had been slaughtered for meat and the females enslaved as both forced labour and concubines. She also learnt that the Silver Guards were sometime allies of both the Traders and the Cephrit.

Freya asked two brief questions bothering her about the whole process that Millene endured after being captured.

‘So if you give birth to a child then you are still a slave? And is your child also a slave?’

Millene looked patiently and with resignation at both human females, as she replied and Rebecca translated.

‘We remain slaves and produce their young, and we are meat when we are broken or old. The male offspring become Black Claw brigade warriors, with the female offspring restricted with their own females to their main bases as engineers and workers. Note that all in our race become meat when we die.’

Freya was pondering the meaning of the last part of the statement, before she took in the food being served out to the survivors. She urgently gave an order and blanched as she worried about what was being offered to them.

‘Stop eating everyone as you are possible eating either human or Fenshilla flesh.’

Several of the survivors threw away their food bowls as if they were dirty, and Millene looked confused as she asked them a question.

‘Does our food disagree with your race? It is only vegetable and ryal based, for red meat is not given to slaves.’

Rebecca translated and quickly explained for she knew that ryal was a type of Trader world fish. Freya now noted with relief that the white flesh of the ryal in a nearby discarded bowl was indeed like that of a fish. The commander corrected her last order and the survivors began to eat again in a subdued manner. She went around to the other officers in the group of survivors and quickly advised them of what she had learnt. Rebecca was talking again with Millene when the door opened, and the chief surgeon was followed in by several Fenshilla guards.

Freya walked slowly up to join Rebecca and they both gave nervous bows towards the chief surgeon as Millene slowly backed away towards the meal tables. The chief surgeon sneered at them in disgust and motioned the guards forward towards the meal tables. Freya looked around for a moment, and witnessed Paul and Phil slowly moving the now standing prisoners back to the far wall. She watched as the guards impatiently cleared the meal tables, before she then slowly led Rebecca back to their own group of prisoners.

A commotion came though from the doorway, and the shackled and bound former Fenshilla overseer was now dragged into large room. A large portable gas burner two metres across was wheeled into the room next followed by two large covered trolleys. Freya felt rising nausea as she recognised that the two bodies on the trolleys were human. The burner was lit and a large metal grate was placed across the top, as another dozen Fenshilla guards arrived with a third trolley laden with drinks.

The Fenshilla overseer was dragged towards the large flames of the burner, and he was promptly thrown onto the metal grate with considerable force. Several of the guards grabbed either end of his body to restrain him, and they snarled at the overseer in derision as he burnt to death in howls of pain and rage. Freya was conscious of several of the survivors vomiting noisily behind them as the Fenshilla cooked their former overseer. The guards only waited an hour before they pulled the half raw body from the cooking grate and it landed on the floor. The Fenshilla argued noisily as they pulled the body apart, and Freya vomited several times as the masses of Fenshilla guards began to eat with enthusiasm.

A cry of anguish went up from the humans as the two covered trolleys were now uncovered and the two smaller human bodies thrown onto the metal grate. Freya noted in shock that the bodies looked smaller in death, especially Emma’s, and they both bore the scars of obvious dissection. The Fenshilla guards snarled in reply at the sounds now coming from the humans, as Freya gave an urgent order.

‘We will have our moment and we will not aggravate the guards. Everyone is to remain silent and avert your gaze if you can do so.’

The humans seethed in anger and shock as the bodies of Emma Fiddich and Ben Takayima were quickly cooked and eaten. Later the now intoxicated Fenshilla guards selected several of the Fenshilla females, including Millene, and noisily took turns mating with them. Freya steeled herself to the Fenshilla ordering the human survivors to mate again, but this did not happen. After the guards had left, Millene and the other female slaves cleared up the remains of the vile meal, before removing the burner and trolleys.

Freya took Rebecca’s arm and the two of them slowly walked up to Millene, who was now hosing down the whole deck of the cargo hold. The commander squared her shoulders as she spoke a couple of quick sentences.

‘Millene, we will not accept our captivity and we will revolt. We are planning a response and we want you to aid us.’

Millene looked sadly at both humans as Rebecca translated, and noted the slave bracelets around their ankles as she replied at length.

‘I understand and you should know that neither of our two main factions is as bestial as the Black Claw brigade. We eat meat but the bodies of even our enemies deserve respect, for we are not sadists. In my culture, the Silver Guards, the overseer would have been electrocuted before being eaten. Also the bodies of other races are forbidden to us as food as they are unclean. I will aid you in your revolt against the authority of the commandant.’

Freya took in the information, and realised that the recent actions of their captors had offended the Fenshilla slaves. The three of them began the first of a series of furtive discussions behind the backs of their guards. Much later, as the cargo hold was dimmed for sleep, Freya spoke quietly to both Paul and Phil.

‘Gentlemen, you are definitely on with your plans….’

                                                                     ***

Chapter 14

Narindestat watched silently as the Sspol cruiser took a diverging course away from his ship, and headed for the outer planet in the Arranen system. The large Maveen gateway had first taken them all to the Hydros marshalling point in remote interstellar space. The large Maveen battle cruisers had left them at that point and the Traders had spent several hours repairing their ship.

The Maveen sector delegate had eventually sent a voice message, and within two hours both the Traders and the Sspol had been taken by gateway to the Arranen system. Narindestat was relieved that they were nearly home, however the losses of so many of his crew and the damage to the Resuria weighed heavily on his mind. He knew that the rest of the crew felt the same way as they quietly went about their duties.

The view screen crackled for a few seconds before the voice of the Sspol commander came across clearly in the Barus language.

‘Farewell Captain Narindestat and we will seek you out at a later stage; we will come to the Barede system within one standard human year. Know that we value highly your courage and integrity; for this is a new start for both our races. We wish you every success in founding your new colonies.’

Captain Narindestat was careful to stand and offer a bow, for he was sure the Sspol commander could see him even if the incoming signal was audio only. Apparently the Sspol could see sound waves and he left no possibility of offending the hydrogen breather as he replied.

‘Farewell and best wishes to the Sspol; we also value our new-found understanding and we will assist you in the future when we can do so.’

Narindestat kept it brief as he was aware that the Sspol did not converse at the informal level with other races like the humans. He also now knew that their compound sentence syntax had led to unfortunate misunderstandings in the past and he would not risk that now. The Trader Captain ensured that the Resuria was on the latest course set by the Maveen, before his son Lieutenant Garendestat made a report.

‘Captain, four human tankers owned by Grant Stoneham’s partnership are also heading towards the next hyper jump location. Several Maveen gate ships are already present and they await our arrival.’

Narindestat took in the information with mixed reactions, for despite his earlier promise to locate suitable colonies; he knew that the Resuria had been badly damaged and would require extensive repairs. The captain was already writing up a recommendation that the Resuria also be upgraded to the standard of his own ship the Illuria. His thoughts were interrupted as he received another voice transmission from the Maveen sector delegate.

‘Captain Narindestat, we will soon leave on a jump of twelve hundred light years to a Huopheen sanctuary world. Upon arrival you will continue the preliminary negotiations with the Huopheen that Grant Stoneham recently performed.’

Narindestat looked at Garendestat and the rest of the bridge crew in total amazement. The captain was speechless as he took in this latest development, for he knew that the Huopheen had been wiped out by the Tilmud many thousands of years ago. He now called up all the old data his race had of the Huopheen, and began to research what he could of a race the Traders had literally given up for dead.

                                                                     ***

Mary Neilson watched critically as the first Jerecab frigates arrived in the Tau Ceti system. A series of urgent reports came across her console as thirty enemy ships appeared in space nearby, with two other sections of thirty ships appearing several hundred kilometres distant. The admiral quickly noted that several of the local corvettes were too close to the recently arrived enemy frigates. She was still relieved that the Jerecab had been thrown off by her fleet’s presence at the hyper drive points, and the admiral gave her first orders of the engagement.

‘Attention all ships, remain in section positions and you are to target the closest thirty frigates with spinal mount weapons. You will open fire using section protocols on consecutive frigates. All nuclear missiles are to be retained until my command and the turreted guns are to fire as they acquire targets.’

Terse conversations occurred as each of her six section leaders assigning themselves targets, even as the forward turrets on the destroyers opened fire. The closest section of Jerecab ships changed formation as they approached in an attempt to get through the Earth destroyers. A series of powerful electronic charges raced harmlessly around the shields of her ships as the enemy frigates fired their active scanning technology. Mary was well aware of what this unknown technology could do to either badly damaged destroyers or lighter shielded supply ships, and she was hopeful of obtaining this technology providing humanity survived the invasion attempt.

Suddenly thirty two spinal mount weapons lashed out at their selected targets and Lieutenant Commander Griggs quickly provided his first report.

‘Admiral, the first six frigates are heavily damaged in their engineering modules and are slowing down. We are switching targets to the secondary targets and the Jerecab will be within their own weapons range in three minutes. Unfortunately the outer Jerecab frigates have destroyed eight of our closest corvettes.’

Three minutes of waiting saw the recharge timers for the spinal mount particle cannon creep to sixty five percent. Mary noted that several of her destroyers were already opening fire with their turrets as well, when the space around them suddenly erupted as the Jerecab ships now returned fire. Lieutenant Commander Griggs now began to call out the shield status of their leading destroyers over the next two fraught minutes.

‘The Cairo is at ninety percent, the Memphis is at eighty percent, and the Berlin and the Exeter are at eighty five percent….’

The lieutenant commander paused for several more seconds before he spoke again, even as Mary nervously eyed the new data on her console.

‘Admiral, the surviving Jerecab frigates have each launched four missiles and they are inbound. Estimated impact in four minutes…’

Mary noted that their own earlier scenarios had not been as difficult as they had factored in a larger number of Jerecab frigates being present. The recharge timers chimed, the large particle cannons fired, and six more Jerecab ships tumbled in ruin in nearby space.

One hundred missiles raced towards her destroyers and the admiral noted that the point defences of the destroyers were taking a savage toll on the Jerecab missiles. Mary was relieved that her commanders were concentrating their defences on their own lead ships. A series of powerful explosions rocked several of her own ships and Mary felt anxious for several moments, before an updated shields report showed that none of the destroyers were badly damaged.

The admiral then noted that the sixty other Jerecab frigates were now closing quickly and gave another series of orders.

‘All destroyers are to turn for the hyper jump point and each launch six nuclear missiles only at the undamaged nearby ships, each under section leader control. The reload operation will occur immediately afterwards and the second launching will be sabot fragmentation missiles. Our turrets are to attack the forward sections of each frigate.’