War Angel: part eleven

2142- In Orbit Around Pluto

The War Angel crew sat in silent shock on the bridge, as comm. traffic flared back to life through a single channel.

“To all ships, this is EAD Command. You are hereby ordered to stand down on authority of EUG. Conditions of surrender are now in effect.” The haunting message was repeating over and over on the superfrequencies.

“Conditions of surrender are now in effect.”

Morrison began to pace around the bridge. The eight of them were a long way from home, a home once again under the boot heels of the Omegans. An invasion that they could have warned Earth about had they arrived in Pluto’s orbit only one day sooner, because they would have seen its launch. The question now was what to do.

Fighting was out of the question, Richard thought. Orders were clear: stand down. There had obviously been severe casualties already, or the signal would not have gone out. Hide and survive another day. It made good sense. And this ship could pull it off. It was tough enough now to go extra-solar, leave the system for good.

“Maybe,” he let his mind wander, “we would find someone else out there, someone that hates the Omegans as much or even more than us, and they could help us.”

It was a happy idea. One of the last Richard would have for a while.

Fight. Take back what was theirs. Kate’s thoughts were a jumble of rage and hatred and shame. Rage at the return of the Omegans, especially after the agreement of 2110 in which they had promised not to return. Hatred. Hatred for a race that lived only to conquer, and hatred for herself and her comrades on the ship. The Omegans had left Pluto perhaps only a day before the War Angel had arrived. A day earlier, and the Earth crew would have spotted the aliens’ departure vector and warned home about the impending attack. Shame. Her emotions had completely overcome her logic and she was unable to find anything resembling a peaceful center. Her chi had gone blood red, all of her lessons and work completely gone out of the airlock as far as she was concerned.

“I have completely lost control,” she admitted to herself, anguished. “I have no idea what to do or how to act.”

Therefore, she took action.

Walking briskly across the bridge to the comm. station, Kate stopped and towered over Ben. Startled from his own inner turmoil, he looked up slowly, blinking as his eyes adjusted to the lights on the ceiling. “What, Kate?”

Her right arm flashed quickly, catching Drake with a right cross to his jaw, staggering him and nearly knocking him out of his seat. Before he could gather himself, her hands were around his throat and constricting. Ben began trying to pry her arms off of him, and the rest of the crew raced to try and pull her away, but she was locked in and no one had the strength or willpower to break her hold on his throat.

Sarah tugged as hard on Kate’s right arm as she could, gaining no ground in stopping her shipmate, and as she did, she noticed something that terrified her. Kate had begun to smile.

A blissful, peaceful smile.

“Kate, stop!” Sarah pleaded as she and the others tried to save Drake’s life. He had begun to go limp, his eyes starting to roll back into his head.

Stinson turned slowly to look at Sarah as she felt her hands beginning to finalize what she had set out to do. “Don’t you understand, Sarah? I feel better now.”

The pinprick she suddenly felt in her left arm didn’t feel quite so nice. Whipping her head around, she saw Wilma holding an empty syringe. Her nostrils flared, her arms releasing from Ben’s throat and she lunged at Dr. Gray. Fortunately for Wilma, she came up short, passing out on the deck thanks to the sedative injection.

“What,” Captain Morrison said, “the hell was that?” The students said nothing, each one eyeing the floor quietly. Morrison fumed. “Really? No one wants to explain why one of you just tried to murder the other?” Silence reigned for a moment that felt longer than it actually was.

Jack coughed lightly into his fist. “Sir. No sir, Captain.”

Morrison slammed his fist into a console. “I should run every last one of your asses out of here for this crap.” He paused. “If there is an EAD to run you out of anymore.” Morrison spun around on his heels and began pacing again.

Wilma realized she needed to defuse the situation before it escalated. “Captain?” He paused his movements and locked eyes with her. “When the world comes to an end, do you want to go out with unfinished business or with a clean slate?”

“A clean slate,” he nodded. He looked at the two students laying unconscious on his bridge and thought for a moment about what Gray had said. Suddenly he understood that there was a bit more to the dynamic on this ship than he had realized when it left Earth. “Wilma… Dr. Gray. You had better get Mr. Drake to the medlab.” Turning his gaze, he added “Ms. Matto, Ms. Almond, get Ms. Stinson to her quarters. When you do, notify me, and I’ll lock her in.”

The room was deathly still. “What are you waiting for, people? You have your orders! Move!”

Jack and Richard remained, waiting and wondering. Morrison paced a bit more, then finally eased himself down into the Captain’s chair. “You two,” he gestured at the duo, “I have work for you.”

“Yes sir?” Richard asked.

The elder officer felt the heavy burden of command. “I want you two to start working on finding us an optimal spot where we can scan Earthspace from here. How many Omegan ships are there? Can we see what sort of damage has been done to planetary defenses on the first strike? Is there any part of our infrastructure still intact so we can find others like us?”

Jack and Richard gave a nod of understanding and began walking off the bridge. “Oh, and gentlemen?”

“Aye Captain?”

“Best speed. We need to know precisely what we’re dealing with, and soon.”