Titan Encounter (10 page)

Explosive flashes
and searing beams of light illuminated what, minutes ago,
had
been a tranquil scene.

Naomi eased the
skiff out of the bay. Her eyes darted from the sensor console to the cockpit
window. “Where is Surfeit?”

Quickly Justin
scanned from port to starboard. He cursed and grabbed the
commlink
.

Hiding.

With Mara’s single
word echoing somehow in his head he knew the location of Surfeit as if he had
moved the skiff. He turned to Naomi. 

She nodded. “I heard
her,” and threw the craft into a high-speed 90-degree turn over the central
portion of the frigate. 

Justin struggled to
clip his belt as Naomi, hugging the Titan ship, passed through a dip in the
superstructure to the port side.  Surfeit, illuminated by the reflected
light of the planet, hovered close alongside. 

As they approached,
Surfeit rolled over, revealing the open docking bay.

Deftly, Naomi
aligned the skiff with the mother ship.

A loud clank told
Justin the docking clamps had locked in place.
Go!
Through
the gate—now.

Thrusters roared.

Inertia flung Justin
hard against the seat. Within moments came the flash and familiar sickness that
signaled the event horizon.

Without a word,
Naomi stood and hurried out. 

He guessed why she
rushed out and followed, hoping the queasiness in his stomach would soon pass.

Stepping onto the
bridge Naomi shouted, “You communicated with us.
You
are telepathic.”
She stepped closer. “
You are one of them—a Titan.
”

Mara pulled a knife
and pointed it at her. “So are you,” she sneered.

“What are you doing,
Mara! Put that away.”

She lowered the
knife, but kept it out. 

Justin stepped
between them and lifted his arms to fend them off.  “Apparently we have a
Titan family reunion on this ship.”

“It makes sense
now.” Naomi smirked. “You were both on that ship as children. It must have been
a Titan ship.”

“You told her about
that?”

“Sort
of.”
Quickly he mulled Naomi’s assertion. It seemed logical. If he were a Titan,
Mara would probably be also. What use would the Titans have for norms? 
Facing her he asked, “How long have you known?”

She blinked and
wiped her eyes, but the knife remained pointed in their direction. “I didn’t
know—for sure. Occasionally something strange would happen.  I’d hear
someone’s thought…feel what they felt. But I dismissed it—until that night.”

“What night?”

“When
Ferren
tried to take us. I called to you.”

He remembered waking
up with her voice shouting in his head. “Why didn’t you tell me?”

A single tear rolled
down her cheek. “Tell you I’ve become a freak and a murderer?”

Naomi shook her
head. “You are not changing. You are what you have always been.”

“The night I called
you, the night I knew for sure that I was a Titan,” she took a ragged breath,
“only seconds later I murdered someone and then another and another.” Tears
welled in her eyes.

“You defended
yourself. We all did what we had to do,” Justin stepped toward her. “I tried to
kill
Ferren
. I shot….”

“You didn’t kill
anyone,” she flashed the knife at him.

“Sis, what are you
doing? Drop the knife.”

Haltingly, between
gasping breaths and tearful sobs, her words came.  “Titans
are…savages…test tube creations…heartless monsters…they killed millions.”

Naomi shook her
head. “That is what they were, but it is not what we are.”

Justin nodded in
agreement.

She took a deep
breath and
a calmness
came to her face. “I’ll never be
a Titan.” She placed the knifepoint against her chest and thrust.

*              
*              
*

“How is she?” he
asked.

“The external
bleeding has stopped, but she punctured a lung and I am sure there is internal
bleeding.” Naomi shook her head. “I feel helpless. Any clinic could treat her
wound.” She sank into a chair. “It may be fatal.”

He sighed deeply and
wiped his eyes.
Hang on Sis.
“I’m hoping the Titans will help one of
their own.”

She frowned. “We are
seeking safety and medical care amongst the worst mass murders in human
history.” She paused. Her eyes drifted down. “I can guess how Mara must have
felt.”

“And we have another
problem.
Surfeit, main screen on.
Aft
view.”

Naomi approached and
scrutinized the display.
“A ship?
There is another
vessel in the wormhole?”

 “The Acheron,”
he said with a nod. “They must have followed us in.”

“Look here.” She
pointed to the pirate vessel’s bow. “He was hit, but not bad enough to stop
him. What do you think
Ferren
will do?”

“I don’t believe
he’ll fire on us now, too risky. He could destabilize the wormhole and kill
himself. He’s greedy. If he captures us alive we’d probably fetch a much better
price. He’ll get as close as possible so when we return to normal space, he’ll
fire on our engines and thrusters.”

“What is your plan?”

“When we exit the
wormhole, we’ll zigzag like crazy and hope the Titans don’t like pirates.”

With a frown, Naomi
moved to the helm. “He is less than three kilometers behind us.” She turned to
face Justin. “It will be nearly impossible to evade his weapons.”

Yeah, I know, it
isn’t much of a plan.
“When the time comes, do your best.”
He stared at
Ferren’s
ship. “Speaking of time, when will we return to
normal space?”

She looked at the
navigation and FTL controls. “Without knowing our destination, I can only
estimate, but it won’t be long—six hours maybe. You should get some sleep.”

He nodded. “I’ll
check on Mara.”

Justin awoke seated
at the end of Mara’s bed with his head resting against her foot. Slowly he
stood rubbing his sore back and neck. Mara looked ghostly, but her quiet
breathing assured him that she slept.
Stay with us, Sis. I’ll get you help
and find us a safe place.
With the promise firm in mind, he marched to the
bridge.

As he stepped into
the compartment,
Ferren
pointed his finger, “It’s
foolhardy to leave your bridge unattended.”

Justin gasped.

“If you want to kill
yourself, I can help, but I prefer to take you alive.” He laughed uproariously.

Suddenly Justin
noticed Naomi, eyes closed and motionless, standing out of the view of the
communications camera. 
How did you get on my ship?
He stepped
slowly forward and then noticed a slight distortion of the pirates face. He
sighed.
You’re a hologram
.

Ferren
seemed to read his
mind and laughed again. With a sweep of his arm he said, “Sit down. We should
talk.”

“What
about?”
Justin directed his thoughts to Naomi.
What’s going on?
But, there was
no reply. He moved to the captain’s chair and sat.

“I want you to
surrender, of course.”

“Why should I?”

“You’re a Titan, we
need to kill you.”

Justin glanced at
his shipmate, pressed mute on the console, and asked, “Naomi, what are you
doing?”

Keeping her eyes
closed, she shook her head. 

Pressing mute once
more, he caught the pirate in
mid sentence
.

“…talk about it. Oh,
and I must withdraw my offer of marriage to your sister. You do understand.”

Justin shook his
head in disbelief.
You married to her?
Never going to
happen.
She’d cut off body parts you haven’t seen in years thanks to
that fat belly.
“I’ve been thinking about that a lot lately.” His voice
dripped sarcasm. “I understand your situation, really I do. Why marry someone
you’re going to burn at the stake in a few days.”

 The pirate
smiled.
“Exactly.
  Now about your surrender,” A
pained expression crossed his face and he rubbed his bulbous chest. “I would
prefer you make this easy.”

“So, that’s your
terms? I surrender so you can kill me—and my sister?”

Ferren
frowned and rubbed
his left arm. “That slave you’re so fond of might live. So, yes those
are…” 

“No.” Justin ended
the transmission. His face felt warm.
Does everyone know how I feel about
Naomi?
Turning to her, he asked, “Is everything okay?”

For a moment, she
stood like a statue,
then
with a sigh her shoulders
slumped. “I was out of view when he called.” She smiled mischievously. “I tried
to give his overworked heart a good hard squeeze.”

“Give him a heart
attack?”

She grinned.

“You can do that?”

The grin slid away.
“Apparently not at this distance.”

Recalling
Ferren
rubbing his chest and arm he smiled. “I think he’s
lucky you stopped trying.” He glanced at the controls. “How soon will we return
to normal space?”

“Anytime
now.”

Minutes later Justin
bent over the captain’s console, straining against the seat harness. “I’ve
brought up sensor displays. When we exit the wormhole you pilot. I’ll watch
Ferren
.”

Naomi nodded. “I’ve
programmed in several evasive maneuvers.”

“Then we’ve done all
that we can.” Justin leaned back in the chair and together they waited.

Justin stared at the
chronometer before him and pondered the temporal qualities of the phrase,
“anytime now,” Then forced his eyes to return to the sensor displays. His slow
scan of the console halted over a slowly changing readout. “
Ferren
is closing on us.”

Naomi fastened her
seat harness. “I am certain his sensors are better than ours.  Most likely
we are about to return to normal space.”

As if to validate
her words, the sensors detected the wormhole event horizon. Stars appeared to
break out from a central luminous mass and slide to various positions. Light
flashed as Justin attempted to speak. The words choked in his mouth. Weightless
and disoriented he floated against the harness.

The ship shot from
the gate.  With a thud gravity forced him deep into the seat.

Justin squinted at
the screen. “What is that?”

The collision alarm
sounded.

Justin’s eyes
widened as waves of wreckage swept past.

Naomi swung Surfeit
hard to starboard as the aft section of a battleship rolled over them. Turning
back to port to avoid other random ship parts of various shapes and sizes, she
slid the vessel under the ruined superstructure of another ship. 

More alarms sounded.
A computer voice reported, “Hull breach, main deck, frame 52.
Autosealing
.
”

“We’ve been
hit.” 

“
Ferren
?”
Naomi shouted over the alarms.

“Hull breach, main
deck, frame 47.
Autosealing
.”

Justin silenced the
alarms. “No, I don’t see him. It’s the wreckage. We’ve flown into a debris
field. ” From the captain’s console, he sealed the airtight hatches. 
Again an alarm sounded.  Again, he silenced it. Rubble of all sizes shot
past them. “We’re getting pummeled by the smaller pieces.”

“Too
many…too small.”

“It’s coming from
the port side. Try to go with the flow to starboard. Match the speed and
direction.”

She swung Surfeit
starboard.

 “Hull breach,
main deck, frame 73.
Autosealant
failure.
Reactor coolant failure.”

Justin cursed and
unclipped his harness.  

“Shut down the
reactor,” Naomi called as she rolled their ship past a huge section of hull.

I know what to do.
He stood as the ship
veered violently. More falling than running, he landed with a thud on the
controls.  Rolling to the side he lifted the cover and yanked the Scram
lever.

The mechanical
computer voice declared, “Emergency reactor shutdown complete.”
Then, with equal calm declared, “Hull breach, Engineering, frame
77.
FTL drive failure.
Ship on emergency power.”