Reaper Inc. (8 page)

"Please
your highness, do not kill my family. I am so sorry they did not tell me who
you were." Onak was on his knees bowing up and down, talking fervently on
the verge of a break down. "Kill me instead, please, but do not hurt my
family."

The two females
looked back to see their shuttle departing and one started to run for it. Grubb
ran out and intercepted her, carrying her kicking back towards the group.

"What did
you say to him?" she screamed at Ben. "Get up you idiot and stand
where I told you!" She screamed at Onak. Grubb and Buddy where doing their
best to keep the two females from spacing themselves. The Prime Minister walked
over to them and calmed them down. She also told them she would stand with them
while they reported.

The Prime
Minister looked at Onak. "What did he say to you?"

"He told
me she is the Princess E’Aria and she would have her father, our king, find my
family and cut off their heads." She tried to hide a smile with her hand.
"That is true. . ." He didn’t let her finish before he dropped to his
knees and started pleading again.

"Onak, let
me finish. It is true she is who he said but she will not have your family
harmed. Now stand up." He looked up at her and got up slowly. The two
females were in awe now, but calm. The Prime Minister said, "Let us
continue. Address her as Captain."

Both looked at
E’Aria. The older of the two spoke first. "Captain, I am Third Engineer,
Elanac Selba." She saluted in the same manner Onak had.

"What is
your skill level, Third Engineer Selba?" E’Aria asked.

"I am
skill level twenty-six, captain," she answered.

"So high
and only a Third Engineer." She held out her hand. "Go ahead,
Elanac," she said, as she saw the engineer looking at her hand. Elanac
shook it so gently, like it was fragile and it would break. E’Aria smiled at
her and said, "Stand next to Onak, please." She turned to the
remaining female.

"Highness,
I am Third Tactical officer, Menah Gam." She smiled and put out her hand
before E’Aria did. E’Aria returned the smile and took her hand shaking it.
"Stand with the others, Menah." E’Aria took a couple quick steps and
punched Ben right in the chest.

"You keep
your mouth shut and do not say a thing." The punch made a loud noise but
didn’t hurt him. The newcomers were wide-eyed and tried not to show any facial
expression. The third and final shuttle landed. A male and female exited.
E’Aria took a couple of steps towards them and said. "I am Captain Aok,
welcome aboard." The female was middle-aged and confident. She did the
intro for them both.

"Captain,
I am Binda Tazon, First Steward and this is Third Technician, Shan Emon."

"First
Steward, why would the captain send you?"

"It is
simple, the captain, he does not like me. For most of my career, I worked for
the Supreme Commander, Naval Affairs. He was a good man and loved our people in
the fleet. When he passed, his replacement transferred me. The transfer was
understandable but it was to whom I was transferred that I do not understand.
That Captain is a
aukjunk omferas
." The translation bots didn’t
know how to handle that phrase. The words were from a royal dialect and not
Trillond common. The Prime Minister and E’Aria both laughed. E’Aria looked at
Ben.

"You are
going to like Binda. She just called her Captain a pig fucker. At least that is
as close as I can get to the meaning, having sex with fat animals."
Senator Sims, who had been quiet and observing most of the time, laughed out
loud.

"During
your stay on the Claymore, you will have no rank. This is not a military
warship. You are all equal and will perform your duties accordingly. You now
know who I am and I believe you know the Prime Minister. This gentleman is Senator
Thurmond Sims of the Planet Athena in the Colonial Alliance. That is Grubb and
Buddy, who have been working all your jobs and spelling us on the bridge. The
officers of the ship are on the bridge and we will meet them next. You will get
your orders from me or them. Are we clear so far?"

"Yes
Captain," five voices in unison rang out. Ben noticed, as did the newbies,
that he wasn’t getting an introduction from the captain. He laughed and headed
for the door but not before wadding up the napkin with the hamburger grease and
bouncing it off E’Aria’s head. He heard a few people intake a deep breath. When
nothing looked like it was going to happen, they breathed out. E’Aria bent down
and picked up the napkin. Binda stepped forward and took it from her.

"Now that
he is gone," E’Aria said, "You need to know that he owns this ship
and is part of four others that make up our company, Reaper Inc. His name is
Ben or Benjamin and you might hear someone call him Reaper. He is a good man,
right now he is very bored and may play what the humans call jokes. What you
need to remember most is don’t make him angry. Now follow me and I will
introduce the other officers."

Ben made his
way back to the mess and sat down. Adam was busy working on the evening meal.
Grubb and Buddy arrived a few seconds later and went back to help.

"Cook,
there will be seven Trillond at dinner, just a heads up." Ben had been
calling him ‘Cook’ for almost a year. Adam didn’t care and Ben figured if someone
wanted him to know their name, they would tell him. "There is a female who
is a steward. You may want to get her to help you. Her name is Binda. She
sounds like good people."

"Will do.
Is someone going to bring them around for intros?"

"Captain
has them right now but I would think so. Hey Grubb, bring me a beer!" Ben
yelled.

"Coming
up, you trouble maker," Grubb yelled back. He brought the beer and went
back to helping Adam.

"What did
he do?" Adam asked.

"Scared the bejesus out of
three of the new crew just by saying some shit to one of them. He was on his
knees beggin’ and the others had just arrived and saw and got scared. Buddy and
me grabbed them, looked like they would have just run through the force
field." Grubb heard Buddy laugh, then all three of them were laughing. Ben
sat with his eyes closed thinking and sipping his beer. They would be at Hyson
soon and those damn beacons were on his mind.

E’Aria led the
new crewmembers on a tour through the ship. They poked their head into the mess
for a second. They saw Ben and moved on quickly. E’Aria yelled to Adam to tell
him to add more Trillond fare to the menu. He never looked up from his work.

"I
already informed him,"
Ben thought.

"Good
for you, why are you drinking a beer?"

"Because
I wanted one, just get us to Hyson."
Ben felt the connection cut with
a pop. That was new. She really must be pissed. Dinner came and went. The new
crewmembers all thanked Adam. They told him it was better than what they were
eating on the Trillond ships. He cracked a brief smile at the praise and went
on prepping things for future meals. The captain decided since they had eaten
late and were trying to get oriented to the ship that they would stay in place
for a shift. She would rest with the new crew for four hours, then let the
others rest for four hours. Everyone would then work together for the trip to
Hyson and spend a shift together. It would be another week to Allond and they
would get their shifts straight then.

She hoped there
were no survivors on Hyson because they would have to leave them and she would
have to fight with him about leaving them. Just another cluster, in a universe
full of clusters. Just not the same kind…

The next day,
so to speak, they arrived at the planet Hyson. Almost everyone was on the
bridge. Onak had the helm for most of the trip. Binda was working with Adam.
Andrea and Menah sat at tactical going through some simulations on the board.
Elan was in engineering and E’Aria was keeping tabs on her. Once they were
close enough, the scans set off a number of alarms.

There were
still pieces of battle damaged ships floating in various orbits all around
Hyson. The Allith, Cjittan, Colonial and Trillond were all represented in the
space junk competition. Although they most likely would not show up on any
scan, there were bodies of all races, frozen and floating amongst the wreckage.
There seemed to be a lot more than what Ben could recall before they departed.
Andrea's rescue, saving the others, had been his priority, so maybe he didn’t
notice just how many damaged and destroyed starships there were.

"E'Aria,
we are receiving two signals from rescue beacons down on the planet,"
Andrea reported. "They are weak and there is no ship identifier attached
to the signal." They knew that info already, but it was repeated for the
new crew.

"We should
at least check them out for a couple hours," Ben added, dying to get off
the ship for a while.

"I am not
picking up any ships in the area and we are still too far out to pick up signs
of any life forms on the planet," Andrea continued, ignoring the
interruption.

"I want to
go," Natalia added. She felt about the same way and Ben did. She sat at
the coms station looking bored.

E'Aria looked
at everyone before speaking. "There could be survivors but they would have
to be very tough and very stupid to have active rescue beacons transmitting. My
people are not known for cunning, skill in combat or surviving a two species
invasion. Thousands of years of peace have made them soft. It could be the
dying signal from crashed starships with no one around to turn them off."
The new Trillond crew members looked at her.

"That may
be true and if the invaders have departed the system and they did survive, they
do need our assistance." Ben wasn’t going to give up. "We have the
time. You could stay in orbit while I take the gunboat down to check it
out."

"I want to
go!" Natalia said again, with a little more force.

"I am ok
with you going, but the captain has to agree," Ben said.

"What
about me? Don’t I get some say in whether she goes or not?" Andrea was a
little put out with Ben not asking her first if it was ok.

"It is the
captain’s decision first, then ours. I spoke out of turn myself," Ben
replied looking at her. "I would like to work in some vac suit training
with her as a part of the trip down to the planet," he added, "If the
captain says it ok."

"If the
scans stay clear, then you have one hour to have a look around and come
back."

"E'Aria,
permission to accompany those two and make sure they can tell time?" Andrea
asked.

"Yes, go
ahead. Lorelei and I can handle everything."

Andrea replied,
"You know you do have some new crew members. Menah can handle it while I’m
gone."

"What's
going on?" Emily asked from the door to the bridge.

"We are
going to check on two rescue beacons and then return. Natalia is going to
further her training on starship procedures, practicing using a vac suit."

"I want to
go," Emily said.

"Damn,"
Ben mumbled. "You know, we probably won’t even leave the ship. It is a fly
by, nothing more."

"Please, I
am so inundated with Colonial and Trillond politics, I can’t absorb any
more."

"Ask the
captain if she says yes, then fine. Let’s go, Natalia." Ben walked off at
brisk pace, hoping no one else would want to join them. Natalia was right on
his heels. Andrea got up next and walked to her quarters. She found Ben
explaining to Natalia the different types of vac suits and the use of thermal
underwear as she entered the room.

"There are
two types of thermals; the civilian and the military version. Basically, they
serve the same purpose. You will find on a civilian-operated starship they wear
them as needed, whereas in the military, we wore them constantly. The military
issues are made to take more time in service. Take this set I bought for you
and go change. Just leave your clothes. You won’t need them for this."

Natalia went to
change. Andrea took off her clothes and took her black armor out of the wall
locker. Ben did the same, watching her change.

"Still
like what you see?" she asked, punching him the arm.

"The lint
stuck to your thermals? No, I should give you demerits for that," he
deadpanned.

She took a
quick look. "There is no lint where you were staring, liar!"

"There is
and I think when we return, I should inspect every inch of you just to make
sure you're in compliance." Andrea's smiled as she played along.

"Ok,
Inspector General, but you must be very thorough in your inspection. Some
things have been neglected lately."

"What are
you two talking about?" Natalia asked entering their room.

"Nothing!"
They answered in unison, finishing.

They walked to
the hold. Ben retrieved a small vac suit from a locker along with a pair of
boots. Natalia sat down on the metal bench, slipping her legs in the suit then
putting on the boots. She stood to zip up the inside liner. The belt was
attached with its power pack and initialized. Once the helmet was in place and
locked down, the suit would evacuate any air from between the layers around the
enclosure of the sealing mechanisms.

Andrea and
Ben's combat armor had the same characteristics. A touch of a button told the
suit the wearer was preparing for EVA. Ben liked to call it an Extra Vehicular
Adventure. The drawback of most of their suits was that oxygen packs were not
built in. In combat, that would make the soldier a walking bomb. The only suits
with built in O2 tanks were the suits the miners wore. They were similar to the
big mechs that Ben had operated in the marines except tools replaced the
weapons and the armor wasn’t as heavy.

"Take it
all off and put it back on," Ben told Natalia. "This time, do it as
fast as you can, like your life depends on it."

"Get
Emily, so we can get moving," he asked Andrea. He opened the gunboat and
made his way to the bridge. He started the pre-flight checks while he waited. Natalia
walked on the bridge. When Ben turned to look at her, she twirled in a circle
like she was wearing a new Sunday dress. The belt indicated a green light for a
good seal.

"Very
good. Do it again, then find me and I will show you were you will sit when we
make entry through the atmosphere. After that, you can get up and move around
if I tell you it’s ok."

Andrea returned
with Emily in tow in a set of thermals. A quick decision, looking away was the
smartest thing when faced with a tight-fitting body suit on a body like hers
and with his significant other looking straight at him.

"I thought
it would be a good idea to take a refresher while you were teaching
Natalia," Emily said.

Ben took an
oxygen pack from the storage locker and set on the floor at his feet. They were
flat, with foam on the side that rested against the back of the wearer. Natalia
picked it up and slid her arms into the straps, cinching it tight to her body.
Ben indicated where to hook it up even if it was obvious to her already. A
second green light indicated another good seal and the rest was automatic. The
helmet had a small built-in display for the wearer, whereas the lights on the
belt were for observers. The age-old green, yellow and red told an observer
what they needed to know to initiate a rescue action or just remind the wearer
to change tanks. Emily was next and Andrea checked her out.

Satisfied they
both knew what to do, Ben put the tank away. They removed their helmets and
gloves and sat them in the space next to their seats.

"Next
lesson will be mag boots and lanyards but we will do that tomorrow. There are
oxygen tanks located in lockers on all four of our ships. If anything ever
happens to cause a hull breach, you put your suit on first before you do
anything or help anyone else. You can assume there will be people panicking.
Drag their asses to the hold and put them in the gunboat or shuttle. That will
protect them until the situation is resolved. It takes a lot of practice and
will power. Your first instinct needs to be self preservation."

Natalia looked
at Ben. Seeing the weapons, he had remembering he always had something on his
person to defend himself with. "I will be right back." She walked
past everyone. She returned three minutes later with her pistol and combat knife
around her waist. Emily stared wide-eyed at her as she sat back down.
"Self preservation," she said and smiled. Ben nodded to her and went
to the pilot’s seat. Andrea took seat two and buckled in.

Ben messaged
the bridge. "E'Aria, we are ready for departure."

"Opening
the bay door now. You have an hour to check things out and get back here or I
leave you behind."

"Stop
trying to be a hard ass. We will keep you in the loop. If we find survivors, we
will have some decisions to make. They will probably be your people, princess.
Think about what you want to do if that happens."

"The
Trillond navy should still be in the area. I will contact them if you find
anyone. The scans are still showing negative for life forms." Ben had the
conversation over the speaker while he finalized his take off.
"Be
careful. This could be a trap."

"I
will. I don’t want to take any chances."

"It
shouldn’t take us long to get to you if something happens. Do you have the
widow maker onboard?"

"Oh
yes. it is in the locker. Why do you ask?"

"Because
I know you and you won’t listen."

The gunboat
took off out of the cargo bay a little faster than Grubb and Shan liked. Ben
flipped the screen to rear view and could see Grubb shaking his fist at the
ship. He saw the bay door closing as he started inputting the coordinates for
the first stop. He looked back over his shoulder at Natalia. He could see, but
Andrea couldn’t. She was buckled in and ready. A big smile was on her face.

"Natalia,
turn your boots on and unbuckle your harness. You can leave your helmet on the
seat till I tell you to hold it. I am going to seal the bridge and turn off the
artificial gravity. Watch your helmet now and grab it when it gets chest
high." Ben had explained all that through her personal com. He didn’t tell
Emily anything. She sat reading her data pad as if she was bored already.

Natalia touched
the button on her power pack and felt her boots pull down. Ben shut it down
quick. Natalia's helmet rose fast. Emily, who wasn’t buckled in and didn’t have
her mag boots energized, floated up fast and let go of her data pad. She put
her hands above her head so she didn’t bang it on the steel inner hull. Natalia
grabbed Emily's pad and put it inside her helmet. She grabbed Emily by the belt
and pulled her down till her feet could touch the steel deck and she energized
her boots. Emily was smiling. Natalia handed back her pad but not before
noticing the picture on the screen. It looked like younger versions of her and
Ben. Emily saw her and said, "It was a long time ago."

Ben brought the
gravity back up and opened the door to the bridge. "That was just a test
run. Go ahead and buckle in. We are going to drop dirt side now." Andrea
and Ben both had some time in the pilot’s seat since returning with the
gunboat. Then, if your coordinates are correct, there was no reason to not get
where you are going. The computer would do most everything. They practiced a
lot on manual to get the feel you didn’t get with the computer flying the
craft.

The ride in was
not smooth, but it wasn’t bad either. There was a slight rise in temperature as
the hull heated up. That was not bad at all either. He remembered some drops
that were bone-jarring, then they cooked in their armor, then the neck snapping
stop, that was the fun part. You had to run like hell off the shuttle because
it was a sitting duck and if you had good intel, you had a place to go for
cover. If not, well that was fun too.

"Whatcha
thinking about?" Andrea asked.

Ben answered,
"Just daydreaming about naked women. I do that about every twenty seconds.
My sensei used to remind us often to exercise our minds as well as our bodies.
That is my favorite exercise."