Symbiosis: Chapter 45

Jackson realized quickly from the sounds and sights around him that the mystery door led to the engineering and propulsion section of Dukvita’s ship. Lights pulsed and a familiar throbbing that he felt in his chest confirmed his fears. He wasn’t trapped in a brig, but a flying Pegasi ship’s engine room.

He looked around to see if he was alone. It wasn’t a huge ship; the shuttle, and most engine functions would be automated like on Maria Mitchell’s Osprey. The crew complement would be six at most. One of them was his longtime foe Commander Dukvita. The propulsion room seemed empty but for himself. In the dim light, he slipped around a bulkhead and took a hard look at the readouts on the wall panels.

Data readouts for nuclear reactors weren’t so different that he couldn’t figure out the anti-matter injection nozzles from the plasma conduits. Pegasi, however, were at least half a millennium more advanced technologically than humans despite their social inequalities, planet wide civil wars, and political escapades that rivaled Earth’s early space years.

Jackson spotted a panel of intriguing buttons. He touched the cold metal squares and let their energy run under the tips of his fingers. He pressed a button backlit in blue with a curious character. A bell rang out and he quickly touched it again.

He tried another button. The panel buzzed briefly and the sounds of the bridge immediately met his ears. A fiendish grin of victory played across his face. The words, however, were Pegasi. He heard a laugh, more words, then the tone turned serious.

“Useless conversation,” he mumbled, but continued to listen while he looked for a way to interrupt the plasma flow to the injectors. A panel of touch slide bars looked promising.

“Będziemy atakować Maria Mitchell jeśli nie opuszczają orbity.”

Tom’s attention snapped back to the intercom system. Whatever in hell Dukvita just said affected him directly. Pegasi, what words did he remember in Pegasi? Damn! No windows, no pilot house, it was all business back here with propulsion and nothing else. At what speed were they traveling? He scanned the machinery until he could find a familiar figure. Numbers were easy to figure out because their shapes often resembled digits – such as a three would appear as a trident, three dots closely spaced, or a three-fingered fork.

And there it was: Ŋ Ж I ЮЮ which would mean 34 kilometers per second, virtually Mach 100, a common speed used for traveling between moons or asteroids, rather slow for planet to planet within star systems. The ship was traveling to one of Cinco’s moons or into orbit, not Cuatro, and not to Pegasi twenty light years away.

“Jest za księżycem,” he heard more gibberish on the intercom. At least he had an inkling of what Dukvita had in mind. He was most likely going to meet up with the Maria Mitchell which was supposed to be hiding behind the large moon. Tom had a couple of hours to set up his trap.

~~~

“Commander Quixote, sir, please respond,” Mr. Rougeau’s voice clipped over the intercom.

“Stop the recordings, please,” Quixote said as he stepped to the intercom in sickbay. “Yes, Mr. Watson?”

“Sir, we need you on the bridge. A Pegasi ship is approaching.”

“ETA?”

“Less than 30 minutes.”

“I’m on my way.” Quixote turned to the doctors and crew in sickbay. “I have another pressing matter, obviously. Please work with each other and coordinate a comprehensive report on what we’ve discovered here. It’s truly extraordinary. I’ll be on the bridge.”

Quixote double timed up the stairs. They certainly didn’t need this complication of the Pegasi ship showing up.

“Status?” he asked as he stepped off the elevator.

“Sir, the ship is on the monitor, approaching at M100.”

“Mr. Rougeau, that’s not the Pegasi mother ship. It’s too small. Have they hailed?”

“No, sir,” he answered. Quixote whacked the intercom.

“All hands, battle stations, secure all quarters, security teams to the airlock, stand by armory, medical personnel stand by.” Xe stepped down to the helm in the bow and aimed his vision out the windows. In the icy vacuum of space it wasn’t difficult to see the radiation of the shuttle, a tiny speck of red growing larger against the background of the white streaked planet.

“She’s on our screen, sir,” Mr. Watson said, tapping a button that lit a yellow circle on the monitor precisely where Quixote had seen it. Inside the blinking yellow circle a red dot glowed steady and steadfastly grew larger by the minute.

“It’s their shuttle. Hail it, please, Mr. Watson. It’s time to play our hand.”

“This is shuttle Dukvita of Pegasi Commerce Faction. Your presence here is a violation.”  

“Don’t talk to us about violations, Dukvita.”

“You agreed to allow us a week to conduct our--”

“Indeed not, Dukvita,” Quixote insisted. “You know that we have people on the surface and we agreed only to a thirty hour hiatus from orbit. We are in compliance with the agreement.”

“If you don’t leave this system I’ll be forced to fire upon your vessel.”

“I don’t recommend that course of action, Dukvita. You’re probably not aware that we are capable of defending ourselves against your assault and I feel it’s only fair to warn you of such.” He looked at the monitor and saw the red dot growing within the yellow circle blinking around it. He waited for Dukvita to respond, tapping a claw on Mr. Rougeau’s helm.

“Quixote, Earth science vessels are not equipped for battle. We both know that.”

“I didn’t say we would engage you in battle, Dukvita. I said we can defend ourselves.” The ship to ship communication was deadly silent; Quixote glanced around the bridge at the two officers.

“He’s still advancing,” Mr. Rougeau said calmly. Quixote nodded.

“And so what is this defense you want to warn me of?”

“I’m not exactly authorized to disclose this classified information, Dukvita, but I know of Captain Jackson’s fondness for you and I’m sure he would do the same.” Mr. Watson and Mr. Rougeau both turned in their seats to stare at Quixote. He raised his claw and waved it slightly to ensure their silence.

“Go on.”

“Hmm. Confidentially, it’s a bio-weapon, Dukvita. Is that enough information?”

“A bio-weapon? Against Pegasi?” Quixote could hear faint chuckles behind the silence. “Quixote?”

“It’s the same disease you’re fighting on the planet,” Quixote told the pirates.

“Surely you know we’re immune to that!”

“Yes, well, our doctors have isolated a strain that has mutated rather quickly,” he told them. “Captain Jackson had something, I don’t remember what now, from your recent visit, and as a precaution our science team decided we ought to have a defense, just in case, of course, you understand. Now the captain may not have disclosed such data but I thought you should be duly warned, and it’s my command style, if you will, to offer my adversary an opportunity to retreat with dignity. This would be that opportunity.”

Once again, Watson and Rougeau turned to look at Quixote playing poker. The old reptile was a statue while the Pegasi digested the information. Quixote didn’t move a muscle, frozen as a chunk of ice, but for a single blink.

“Sir,” Watson hissed – “they’re about to dock at our airlock!” Quixote still didn’t flinch.

“Understood. Maintain lunar orbit, Mr. Rougeau. Mr. Watson, seal the airlock,” was his final reply. Quixote tapped the Com Off icon himself then opened the ship wide.

“All hands to battle stations, we are about to be boarded.”