Strange New World

I – David Matheson, Science-Kid

 David winced as the full-to-the-brim teacup struck the metal flooring and shattered into tiny pieces. The brown tea dribbled between the grates, coating the cables below. He looked up at the captain with a half-smile, trying to disarm the situation.

 Captain Bates backhanded David, sending the boy sprawling to the ground. “Yeoman, I expect better of you.” His harsh voice rung in David’s ears, along with just plain ringing. “We’re hardly out of drydock. There’s no excuse.”

 David stood up, rubbing where Bates had hit him. “Yes sir,” he muttered.

 “What was that?”

 “Yes, sir,” he repeated, louder.

 Bates nodded. “I thought so. Walk with me, Matheson.”

 He started down the hallway, and David followed. Their footsteps echoed in the empty corridor. Soon the crew would fill the halls, once they left their safe cabins after the FTL jump. But for now, they stuck to their gel-seats to avoid the pressure caused by faster-than-light movement.

 But not David, or Captain Leonard Bates. No sir. They were big fishes in the little pond of the Starship Yamato, a Science-Kid and a Confederation soldier respectively.

 To his credit, David went through the paces of Science-Kid well. A Science-Kid’s job was to learn about running a ship properly, and he had been doing that ever since Yamato was under construction. Now that it was going on its maiden exploratory voyage, he could learn even more under the wing of Captain Bates.

 David was optimistic about his apprenticeship until he met Bates. After the initial meeting, those hopes plummeted like a sub-orbital parachutist. In the short time they had when they first met, Bates had proven himself to be a bigoted, opinionated man with little thought for his fellow man. He had spent more time complaining about the small shuttle he had to live on for a few weeks as he travelled from Earth to the Alpha Centauri shipyards where Yamato had been built.

 The Science-Kid paused at a porthole to gaze out at Alpha Centauri, which was rapidly shrinking. The planet’s surface still burned from the Androsi sneak attack on it fifty years ago. Despite his title, David actually knew very little about science. It was beyond him how the fires on the planet still raged, but he guessed it had to do with Androsi plasma weapons, which were extremely temperamental. David suppressed a shudder as he remembered an old teacher of his burning to death after a captured Androsi plasma pistol misfired.

“Three minutes to FTL jump. All non-essential personnel please strap yourselves in. All essential personnel please refrain from strapping yourselves in, as most chairs in your designated work zones lack safety straps.” That was the voice of Adria, an android who was directly linked to the computer and handled the automated portions of the ship. David had yet to meet her, but her voice was kind and beautiful-sounding. He’d heard it a lot over the last few days, and truth be told… he had developed something of a crush on her because of it. He hoped she was as pretty as her voice.

 “That reminds me,” Bates said as David caught up to him. “Adria is a generation five humanoid frame. Never refer to a Mercury sunrise in her presence in anyway. That’s her killswitch.”

 David nodded. A killswitch was built into all androids – or humanoid frames, as the military called them – so they could be shut down in case they went berserk.

 A faint shout made David’s ears prick up, and Bates increased his speed, forcing David to run to catch up to him.

 As the two rounded a corner, David saw a tanned human male wearing a royal blue cape struggling with two blue-clad security guards. Bates stopped, and adjusted his hat as he watched the man, who stopped struggling at the sight of the captain.

 “And what do we have here?” Bates asked.

 “Sir, we found him stuck in a crate while performing a security sweep of cargo bay epsilon.”

 “Epsilon?” Bates’ voice sharpened. “You, what’s your name?”

 With a quick shrug and a keen smile, the man slid out of the security guards’ grip, and took a step forward. David noted that the man was barely taller than he was. “I am Mafune Katagiri, space samurai, and I am here to take the fight to the bastard Androsi on this fine warship of yours!” He whipped his cloak, revealing a sheathed sword hanging from his back.

 The security guards reached for their stun guns as Bates took a few steps back, bumping into David. “You do realise you’re in violation of about twenty stellar laws? I could have you spaced for sneaking onboard an Enterprise-class cruiser. Not to mention this is an exploratory vessel – we won’t be running into Androsi, not if I have anything to do with it.”

 Mafune frowned. “You mean I got on the wrong ship? Going to the Roddenberry Frontier? Travelling the Asimov Cluster?”

 “You’re damn right you got the wrong ship – you’re on mine. Men, restrain this ass and take him to the brig.”

 Before the self-proclaimed “space-samurai” could do anything, one of the guards rammed the point of his stun gun into Mafune’s neck. An arc of electricity shot through his body, and he fell backwards into the guard’s waiting arms.

 “Jesus, what an idiot,” Bates muttered.

“Thirty seconds to FTL jump.”

 “And we can’t just turn around and drop him back off.” The captain took off his cap and ran his hand on his bare scalp. “What a mess. How the hell did he get past security?”

 “Well, there must be a flaw somewhere in the grid,” suggested David. “Maybe if you were to give Adria a command to investigate we could find out where.”

 Bates nodded, and pointed a finger at David as he started to walk again. “Good idea, kid. You’re in charge of that.”

 David mentally pumped his fist. Now he had an excuse to meet Adria.

 He glanced back at Mafune, whose senseless body was being dragged away by the two security guards. There was something oddly magnetic about the wannabe samurai. He had felt completely earnest in his quest to fight the Androsi. David personally couldn’t understand the hate for the Androsi, having not been born during the war against them. Now, the Androsi were little more than a boogeyman. They hadn’t been seen for fifteen years – exactly the timeframe David had been alive.

 As they entered the lift, Adria’s silky voice rang out in the speaker above them: “Brace for FTL jump.”

 Bates grabbed onto a handhold on the side of the lift, and nodded at David, who followed lead. It felt like his stomach dropped for a moment, like he was on a roller coaster back home about to go down a hill. Bates seemed to separate into threes – one Bates for each primary colour. And then they all coalesced together into one mega-Bates. With a flash, the vision was over, and David’s stomach came roaring back up. He choked back some stomach juices with a cough.

 “The thrill of an FTL jump never gets old,” Bates said to himself with a smile.

 David, still feeling a little ill, took a quick glance at himself in the mirror that was on the side opposite the door. He was about five and a half feet. Shaggy black hair – Science-Kids had very few guidelines about hair, unlike the military – blue eyes, and nothing else too memorable about him with the exception of the goggles that were cutting into his mane. He used to use them while doing experiments on plasma weapons, but he kept them always in memory of that one teacher who died on her job.

 The lift slid smoothly to a halt and the door opened, breaking David’s reverie. He turned and followed Bates into the CIC, or Combat Information Centre, an outdated name that the military still clung to.

 The CIC was bustling with business. Cadets and officers milled about, exchanging memo chips and discussing things amongst themselves. They all fell silent and looked up of one accord as Bates stepped inside.

 “Captain on deck!” A tall man stood up from his slouched position in front of a holographic map of the known Milky Way. His right arm was an obvious replacement – you could see the metal and wires. He obviously didn’t care about what people thought of his synthetics.

 “At ease. Commander.” Bates walked over to the commander and the two started talking. David turned away from them, scanning for Adria.

 There. That had to be her. She was sitting at a station far away from everyone else, clad in a black jumpsuit. Her movements were slightly off, to put it simply. They all bore the hallmarks of a current-gen android.

 David walked up to her, balling his hand up in a fist to control its shaking. What would he say to her when he got up there? “I’ve masturbated to your voice”? No, that would give off the wrong impression. “I’m a fan of your work”? Yeah, right. Her work was occasionally making an announcement. Maybe he would just be himself.

 Lost in thought, he bumped straight into her chair, rocking it. Adria looked up, and swiveled the chair. David was in full flop sweat mode, and he offered a feeble smile and wave at Adria.

 “Is there a reason for this behaviour?” she asked, voice slightly stilted. It was still pretty, though. She was pretty. Her skin was pale, almost white, and her hair was cut in a bob and was a pleasant shade of copper. “You appear to be having an adrenalin spike. Should I call the medic?”

“N-no, no, I’m fine. It’s fine. Uh, Captain Bates sent me over. We have a stowaway onboard, he snuck in aboard a, uh, crate. He wants you to run a diagnostic of the cargo scanner to make sure it doesn’t happen again.”

 Adria blinked, black eyes flicking to Bates, then back to David. “I understand. I will carry this out immediately.” She turned back to her station.

 David spun on his feet. Well, that couldhave gone way worse. Way, way worse.

“Excuse me.” David stopped and turned back towards Adria. She was looking over her shoulder, still bearing the poker face exclusive to androids. “What is your name?”

 “David. David Matheson. I’m a Science-Kid working under the Captain.”

 “David Matheson. That is a nice name.” Adria looked like she had the slightest of smiles. “I hope to work with you more.”

“ Y-you too,” David said, instantly regretting not saying something wittier or memorable. “I mean, yeah, so do I. You seem like a nice robot…lady…thing. Sorry.”

 “There is nothing you can say to upset me.” Now she definitely looked like she was smiling. “I am an android.” With that, she returned to her duty.

II – Mafune Katagiri, Space Samurai

 Mafune Katagiri sat in the brig, nursing both a headache and his wounded pride. He rubbed the back of his neck where the stun gun had zapped him. It still hurt a little. He could have sworn those things didn’t use to hurt as much. Then again, he’d never had many encounters with military police. Maybe their stun guns were tuned to a higher setting.

 Looking up, he saw a girl standing outside his cell with her hands on her hips. Her long strawberry-blonde hair was done up in a ponytail, and her green eyes glared at him disapprovingly. Her arms were bare, as she wore a simple black tank top and military issue pants.

 “What an idiot,” she said. “I’m almost ashamed to call you a fellow Centauri.”

 “Good thing I’m not a Centauri,” Katagiri said. “I’m from the Astarte colony of Jupiter. Or at least, I was.”

 The girl’s face fell a little, look of disapproval fading to one of sympathy. “I’m sorry then.”

 Katagiri made a noncommittal noise, and ran his eyes down her body. She was tall, close to six feet, and had a willowy build. “You’re from the low-grav cities on the orbital colonies, aren’t you?”

 She nodded. “I was born there. Never went to the surface, though. I was too young when they glassed it.”

 “Too young? How old are you?”

 “Sixteen.”

 Katagiri could only emit a low whistle at that. “They poach ’em young, don’t they. Well I’m only a year older than you, so I know how it is. I was just almost too young to remember when Astarte was destroyed.”

 He opened his mouth to continue when a beeping interrupted his thoughts. The girl looked down to her waist, at a blinking red light.

 “They must want me down in the armoury,” she said. “You seem like an interesting guy, even if you are an idiot.”

 She started towards the door. As it slid open, Katagiri called out, “Hey, wait!” She paused. “What’s your name?”

 The girl turned back to him with a smile. “Mercedes. Mercedes Hemsworth.” With that, she slipped through the door and out of sight.

 Katagiri nodded to himself. She was cute.

 Any thoughts he had about her were broken when the door slid open again, and two new people entered. One was a tall man, serious-looking, with a pointed beard. His dark eyes glittered in the pale light of the brig, and his right arm was synthetic. The other was a kid hardly into the teens, with goggles perched on his head for no apparent reason. He looked a little pale and sick. The kid also held a cloth or something in his hands.

 “So this is the stowaway,” the man with the bionic arm said, his voice faintly accented. “I thought you’d be taller.”

 “Lots’a people say that.” Katagiri stood to his full, imposing 5’6” height. “I am Mafune Katagiri, space samurai and dogged butcher of the Androsi.”

 “So I’ve heard,” the man said, clipping off the word “Androsi”. “According to records you were two years old when your home colony was destroyed and you’ve never left the Confederacy of Humanity to actually butcher any Androsi.”

 “That doesn’t change my dreams,” Katagiri replied. “If I believe, I can accomplish anything!”

 “Why don’t you accomplish your way down to the mess hall with science officer Matheson here, and believe some food into existence. Since you stowed away, we’re putting you to work. From now on you’ll be moving cargo and scrubbing toilets.” The man shoved the boy forward.

 Katagiri could only blink in reply. He thought for sure they were going to space him, but now they were going to let him stay? The military was a confusing entity. “Thank you, captain sir! You won’t regret it. My toilet-cleaning skills are second to no–”

 “I’m Commander Stein, not Captain Bates, idiot. You ran into him earlier.” With that the man – Commander Stein, one could suppose – left the room, leaving Katagiri and the boy alone. The boy tapped a few buttons, and the crackling force field separating the two fizzled out of existence.

 He handed Katagiri the cloth, and the man unfolded it to find it was an argyle sweater.

“It’s cold here and you don’t have a shirt, so…”

 “Thanks, kid,” Katagiri said, putting the sweater on. “What’s your name?”

 “David Matheson. I’m a Science-Kid.” The kid adjusted his goggles.

 “I’ll pretend I know what that means. I’m Mafune Kata- oh, right; you were there the first time, weren’t you? You know that. Eh, just call me Kat. Most people do. Lead me to the food.”

***

 They walked most of the way in silence. Kat would pause occasionally to look out at the shifting colours of the warp. Each time, he would make a grunt and then continue walking. It’s not that he wasn’t impressed by the beauty of FTL travel, it was just that he couldn’t exactly see it. He was colourblind.

 David slowed to a halt, and Kat did likewise. The kid turned, walking through a door into the mess hall. Kat followed him inside, glancing around at the room. It was a very wide room, filled with silver tables and benches. Lining the walls were receptacles to get food from, painted a garish orange that hurt to look at.

 The kid walked over to one, and opened it. Turning, he said, “There’s fake spaghetti and meatballs, reconstituted chicken and fake steak. What do you want?”

 Kat mulled this choice over. He wasn’t a big fan of Italian food, and the idea of fake steak didn’t sit well. That left the chicken.

 David nodded, and pulled the chicken out after Kat had made his decision. He handed it over and said, “Just set it on the table and tap the right bottom corner twice. It’ll cook pretty quickly.”

 Once it cooked, Kat sat down and ripped the cover off. The chicken looked slimy. He poked at it with the provided fork and picked up a piece. It looked like shiny rubber. Putting into his mouth, he confirmed it. It tasted like rubber. In fact, it smelled like rubber too.

 Sitting down across from him, David spoke up again. “What’s your deal with being the ‘butcher of Androsi’?”

 “My dad fought the Androsi during the war,” Kat said in-between bites of the not-chicken. “Then he and my mom had me, and shortly after that Astarte was destroyed. We went to the orbital colonies back on Alpha Centauri. Then, he just left one day on a ship he bought with a loan he couldn’t afford and set out for who-knows-where. He said to me before he left, ‘Kat, never stop believing in yourself. You can do anything if you put your mind to it.’ Then he gave me that cloak and sword.

 “I was too young to understand at the time, but I figured out now what he was doing. He couldn’t take not fighting the guys who took our home anymore. So he left to do it. I dunno if I’ll ever find him again, alive or dead.”

 David was silent for a bit, watching Kat choke down the vile food. “I never knew my parents. I was left at the orphanage on Mars. After a while, I decided to join the military after I learned about what the Androsi had done. I was too weak for anything else other than Science-Kid. Man, I really hate that name.”

 “What about frame pilot?” Kat spat out a piece of chicken that vaguely resembled a bone. He poked at it with his fork.

 “Minimum age,” David mumbled. “I have to be at least 25 before I can even take the test for it. I don’t think I’d pass anyway.”

 “Hey, bro, don’t give up that easy. Remember what I just said – Never stop believing in yourself. I bet you could do it.”

 “Maybe…” David looked away for a moment, gaze following a girl with long, strawberry-blonde hair walking towards them.

 “Hey, it’s the idiot,” the girl said, stopping behind Kat, a steaming hot meal of fake spaghetti on her tray. “They let you out because you’re so dense?”

 “I am dense in body only,” Kat said, stabbing the air with his fork. “My mind is a steel vise, full of knowledge and also terror.”

 “Oh yeah? Terror at what?” Mercedes asked.

“Terror that I’ll never be good in the eyes of sharpshooter Mercedes Hemsworth.”

 Mercedes narrowed her eyes. “How do you know I’m a sharpshooter?”

 Kat jabbed the fork at a tattoo on her upper arm of a crosshair.

 “Oh. Guess I’m the idiot right now.” Flashing a smile at David, she added, “And you’re the Science-Kid right? Nice to meet ya. I can’t say I’m happy about your company, but hey. We’re all kids someday.”

 Kat made a pfft sound and Mercedes jabbed her sharp elbow into his neck where the stun gun had hit him, turning the pfft into a whimper of pain. She trotted off with a bounce in her step. David’s eyes flickered to her rather nice rump, which sashayed as she walked.

 Kat’s gaze was fixated on that too, and it took a stab of the fork in his cheek to realise he wasn’t paying attention to his food. He snapped his gaze away from the tantalizing up-and-down motion of girl ass and started eating again.

 “Man, girls out here sure are cute, aren’t they?” he asked. “Way better than back at Saturn or Uranus.”

 “Yeah,” David said idly, looking like he was thinking of something else.

 Kat pushed away the food, having had his fill of rubber and wimpy green stalks that really could have been anything. “I guess I have to go back to the cell, huh?”

 The kid only nodded.

 With a sigh, Kat stood up. “I guess we better get going then.”

III – Mercedes Hemsworth, Hot Shot

 Mercedes closed one eye, focusing on her target. Centering the crosshairs on the midsection of a feral-looking Androsi male, she took in a breath. Releasing it, she proceeded to take in another half-breath, and lightly pressed the trigger.

 The Androsi exploded in half, cardboard shrapnel flying everywhere. With a smug smile, she set her rifle down and stood up, looking over at Sergeant Ames to see his reaction.

 “Good shooting, Hemsworth. You forgot one thing though,” he said through a mouthful of lukewarm spaghetti.

 Mercedes frowned, her pretty face creasing.

 Ames tapped the rifle with his pointer. “You didn’t eject.”

 Her face flushed as embarrassment swept over her, and she leaned over to eject the empty casing from the gun. She caught it as it ejected, producing it to Ames. He nodded with a slight smile. “Good job, Hemsworth. Just remember to do that in the field.”

 She nodded, still blushing a little. The door behind her hissed open, and she swiveled to see who was entering. Puzzled, she frowned as Commander Stein entered the room, hands clasped behind his back. His hawkish nose extended almost to the tip of his low cap.

 “Commander! To what do we owe the pleasure?” Ames asked.

 “I heard the prisoner’s effects were sent here after his capture. I wanted to inspect them in the captain’s stead.”

 Ames nodded, and walked over to a steel locker set in the wall of the armoury. He tapped in a code. Mercedes snuck a peek at the number pad. She could make out a four, an eight and a one, but nothing beyond that. There was still one number left unaccounted for. It wouldn’t hurt to know the code, she thought.

 The sergeant withdrew two articles – a dark blue cloth and a sheathed sword of some kind. He handed them to Stein, who set the sword down and flung the cloth out. It opened to its full size with a whoosh.

 “A thermal cape,” Stein murmured. “This isn’t cheap.” He rolled the cape up, and handed it back to Ames. Bending down, he picked up the sword.

 Examining it, Stein ran a metallic finger down its curved sheath. His other hand found something on the handle. “A trigger. He modified it to be able to be fired out into his hand.”

 Drawing the sword from its sheath, Stein twirled it in the air a few times. Mercedes heard a distinct humming sound as it swung. “And it’s a high frequency blade. Pretty expensive. Probably an heirloom, or he stole it.”

 Returning the sword to Ames, Stein looked over at Mercedes. “You’ve met the prisoner, haven’t you?” Before she could respond, he continued. “Odd sort, isn’t he?”

 “Certainly. He wants everyone to be friends with him it seems.”

 “Any other thoughts, cadet?” Stein’s gaze was making her uncomfortable. It lingered in all the wrong places.

 “He’s an idiot.”

 That made Stein crack a smile, and more importantly, it made his gaze snap back up to her face. “Just as I thought too, cadet. We seem to have many of the same opinions.” He nodded at Ames, and left the armoury.

 Mercedes blew a sigh of relief after he was gone. Ames glanced over at her. “You alright, cadet?”

 “No,” she said. “The commander’s a creep.”

 “He got kicked off the last ship he served on for unseemly conduct towards another cadet around your age. He really is. I don’t know who we offended to get him assigned here.” Ames sounded disgusted. He shook his head. “Listen, if he ever tries anything, just call me. I’ll kick his ass for you. I don’t care if I get court-martialed. You’re the best damn sniper I’ve seen and I don’t want you hurt in anyway.”

 Mercedes smiled at that. “Thanks, sarge.”

 Ames started towards the door, and motioned for her to follow. “Walk with me, cadet. Unless you want to miss seeing us come out of warp for the first time.”

 Mercedes hurried after him. This was her first time on a ship of any kind, much less an FTL-capable vessel. Her stomach hadn’t agreed with the start of the jump, but she heard that the end of a jump was a breathtaking sight that was less taxing on the human body.

 It took only a few minutes for the two to reach the nearest observation pit. By that time, there had been several announcements over the loudspeakers about imminent deceleration by Adria, and the thrum of the engines beneath their feet had slowed.

 The pit was almost one solid bubble of transparency. The exact materials involved went over Mercedes’ head, so she would be unable to accurately say what the windows were made of. Or window, in this case.

 Right now, all they could see was the blinding whitish vortex of warped space around them. Ames leaned against a guardrail and pointed at the warp.

 “The first time I saw the warp, I threw up. It’s not very pleasant at first but you warm up to it eventually. Or maybe you don’t. I’ve seen soldiers on the last year of a three-year battle mission like this one still get green at the sight of the warp.”

 “But we aren’t on a battle mission,” Mercedes pointed out. “This is an exploratory mission.”

 Ames nodded. “True. I’m just so used to war that it’s hard for me to think of anything else. Young people have no idea what it was like to live with the threat of an Androsi invasion hanging over your head. You’ve only known peace. And… well, I’m jealous of that.”

“Ninety seconds to deceleration.”

 “I wouldn’t know about only knowing peace,” Mercedes said, still gazing upon the intricate, otherworldly beauty of the warp. “I grew up in the slums of Capricorn Station. It… wasn’t the greatest.”

 “It at least explains how you’re such a good shot,” Ames said with a laugh. When Mercedes didn’t reply, he stopped laughing and turned back to the viewport.

“Brace for deceleration.”

 The warp just seemed to stop, in exchange for stars with a hazy film over them. Within a few seconds, the film disappeared, leaving the stars. They did not twinkle, and neither did Mercedes expect them to twinkle. She had been born and raised in space after all. The sound of the engines stopped, a purr replacing the sound of their steady thrum.

 Mercedes saw a planet underneath her feet. Its colours were vibrant – a shade of blue for the oceans she thought was impossible, the lands were greener than any pictures she had seen of Earth. The clouds too seemed strange, like they were made out of cotton candy.

 “That’s a pretty world,” she said.

 “It sure is.” Ames walked over and knelt to look at the planet better. “It doesn’t look like it’s inhabited – or if it is, we’re talking low-tech. Look at the dividing line between light and dark.”

 Mercedes bent down to peer closer. There were no lights on the dark side of the planet. At least none that she could see.

 “Do you think we’ll be stopping off here to explore?”

 “We wouldn’t have stopped unless the captain found this system interesting. Right now I’m more worried about that.”

 Mercedes followed his pointing finger to a speck of light that had appeared on the horizon of the planet. It was moving rapidly and growing larger every second. “It looks like it could be a ship. Is there a way to zoom in?”

 “It’s transparent flexisteel, not a monitor,” Ames said, standing up and rushing over to the door. Thumbing the intercom, he began speaking into it. “This is Sergeant Ames. I’m down in Observation Pit – oh, Three-Ten. There’s a UFO approaching from the dark side of the planet.”

“Noted,” came Adria’s voice. “We are scanning it currently. Please standby.”

 Ames swore violently as he released the intercom button. Running over to where Mercedes stood, he knelt again and looked at the rapidly approaching ship. “Hell’s bells. I’d recognise that silhouette anywhere. It’s an Androsi light cruiser.”

IV –To Battle Stations!

 As the door to the brig swished shut, the klaxon began to go off, and the lights dimmed from their standard fluorescent white to emergency red. Kat looked around with a confused look on his face and David’s eyes widened.

“Enemy cruiser approaching from stellar below. All hands to battle stations. Repeat, enemy cruiser approaching from stellar below. All hands to battle stations.”

 David bolted out the door. Kat followed, not wanting to be left behind. The Science-Kid kept good pace, but he couldn’t outrun Mafune Katagiri! At least not over short distances. Kat was great at sprinting, terrible at long distances.

 “Hey, bro, what’s goin’ on?” Kat asked.

 “What do you think? We’re under attack!”

 Kat ran faster, and grabbed David by the shoulders, both of them skidding to a stop. “By the Androsi?”

 “Who else?!”

 Kat squeezed David’s shoulders tightly and the boy winced. “Get me to a turret. I don’t care what you have to do. Just get me somewhere where I can hurt them.”

 David wiggled his way out of Kat’s grip. “Alright. I think there’s a control port by the armoury.”

 The ship rocked, and the klaxons were thrown off-balance for a moment, skipping a few beats. The Androsi had opened fire! David stumbled as the ship rocked again. The Androsi ship flew by the porthole silently, its guns flashing with green lights of death. With each barrage, Yamato shook more.

 “Come on, Dave! To the guns!” yelled Kat, running down the corridors at full speed.

***

 “They have launched a small skiff,” reported Adria, turning towards Captain Bates.

 Bates swore. “Shoot it out of the sky. Surely we can do that?”

 “Negative. Their first strike damaged the autoturret subsystems. I am unable to access them. Our guns are effectively silent until crewmembers can reach gun control ports.”

 Another swear from Bates. He slammed his fist onto the galaxy map, which had transformed into a sketchy impression of the star system. “Can we at least scramble the goddamn stellar frames?”

 “Again, negative,” Adria said, remaining in her seat despite the shaking of the ship. “Their second attack was pinpointed directly on the hangar. Currently it is on fire, and the operators have no way of reaching their frames.”

 “Show me a damage report.” The system map shimmered, giving way to a detailed schematic of Yamato. Glowing red spots on the ship designated where it had been hit by enemy fire, and orange spots denoted where fires had broken out. Bates sketched a line in the ship with his finger. “Those bastards knew exactly where to hit us.”

 “Impossible!” Commander Stein leaned over the command desk, soaking in the details of the schematics. “This ship is of a brand-new line. There’s no way the Androsi could have details on its operation.”

 “Obviously they do.” Bates straightened his back, turning quickly towards Adria. He jabbed a shaky finger at her, and his voice was strangled. “Order all gunners to make sure they don’t hit any of the cargo bays.”

 “You wish to ignore the skiff?”Adria sounded confused for the first time. She was used to those in command making logical decisions.

 “What did I just say? Keep them away from the frakking cargo bays.”

 A frown crossed the normally placid face of the android. She turned back to her post and mentally thumbed the switch to broadcast her voice to the entire ship. “Gunnery crews please take note: Avoid enemy from firing on cargo bays. Repeat, provide covering fire for cargo bays.”

 “Stein, we need to jettison the cargo bays, make sure they land on the planet’s surface.” Bates sounded panicky. Adria took this too as a sign that her commander was behaving in an erratic fashion. There was no reason to obsess over the cargo bays. They were only full of supplies to aid colonies far out on the galactic rim.

 “I have my key,” said Stein, holding up a small key that hung from his neck. “Where’s yours, captain?”

 Bates fumbled in his pockets, finally producing a key of his own right as the ship rocked from another barrage of enemy fire. The key went bouncing out of his hands. The captain let out a strangled swear and ducked under the table, trying to find it.

 He emerged a few seconds later, key triumphantly held in one hand. “Prepare for emergency jettison.”

*** 

“Enemies have boarded. Repeat, enemy boarding party has landed. Deck Three-ten.”

 “That’s us,” panted Ames as he ran down the hall to the armoury. Mercedes was just ahead of him, her lesser weight and longer legs giving her the edge in the dash. “We gotta hurry. If those furballs reach the armoury first–”

 “I know, idiot!” snapped Mercedes. “That’s why we’re running!”

 Since her head turned towards Ames, she didn’t notice the figures running down the same corridor. She slammed into someone, sending both of them sprawling to the floor. Shoving the guy off her, Mercedes saw to her disgust that it was Mafune and the Science-Kid.

 “The idiot and the kid? What are you two doing?”

 “Getting to a turret control panel,” Mafune said. “What are you doing?”

 “Getting to the armoury. Didn’t you hear the broadcast? The Androsi have boarded.”

 “Androsi?” Mafune seemed to prick up at that. “Armoury? Is my stuff there?”

 “Damn right it’s there, along with the weapons for a third of the ship. We’ve gotta defend it.” Ames brushed past the motley gang and stamped over to the door to the armoury. Finding the door stuck in a half-open state, he started shoving it open. “Hey, argyle. Help me get this thing open.”

 “Argyle? Oh, the sweater.” Mafune picked himself up, and helped shove the door open.

 The gang piled into the armoury. At Mafune’s behest, Ames opened the security locker, and returned his stuff. Mafune flung the cloak over his shoulder, and hung the samurai sword on his hip. He looked like a parody of a space samurai instead of the real thing.

 “What?” he asked, seeing Mercedes fighting off laughter.

 “That sweater and cape look ridiculous on you.” Mercedes took the rifle that Ames offered her. Slinging it over her shoulder, she also accepted the several magazines he handed her as well.

 A loud boom nearby caused everyone to spin around. The sound of guttural screaming followed the explosion – the sound of Androsi speech. Mercedes scampered out of the room, shouldering the rifle into a firing position. As soon as the first white-armoured Androsi rounded the corner, she fired. The noise of the rifle discharge was deafening. The Androsi she shot at didn’t think so, but then again he would have had trouble hearing with no head.

 She smirked to herself as the other Androsi leapt back around the corner, one of them staying behind to lay suppressing fire. She ducked to the side and took quick aim at its midsection. She feathered the trigger.

 Nothing happened. Swearing, she ejected the casing and tried again. The shot went through the wall and missed the Androsi completely. As she ejected the next casing, the Androsi leapt towards her, his short sword coming out of its sheath. She had no time to react; it was going to kill her–

 –And then Mafune came out of nowhere, his samurai sword neatly severing the Androsi in two. With a loud cackle, he sprinted off for the rest of the Androsi, who had already ran off in search of easier prey. He skidded to a stop when he saw they had escaped him, and turned back to Mercedes.

 “What do you think?” he shouted.

 “You’re good with a sword,” Ames said, tossing him a sidearm. “But how’s your aim?”

 Mafune caught the gun with his free hand. “Good enough. Let’s kill some Androsi!”

***

 “Ready for ejection,” said Adria tonelessly.

 “Jettison the pods,” Bates said, his voice unsteady. He caught the eye of Stein, who nodded in approval.

 “Jettisoning cargo pods.” Adria sent the command, and the ship rocked as they launched into space towards the planet below. She felt a strange emotion, as though she had lost a part of herself. It was silly, though. Her emotions were not programmed to include loss. She could only feel certain happy emotions and occasional sadness. Perhaps it was a strange type of sadness. After this was over, she would have to consult her digest.

 The ship shook more violently than before as the Androsi got a lucky shot off. Adria confirmed it with a quick chat with the computer brain. “They have struck the engine room hard enough to damage a reactor strut. I recommend immediate evacuation.”

 Bates slammed his fist into the ops table hard enough to crack the glass. “Dammit! Sound the evacuation alarms, Adria. It shouldn’t have had to come to this.”

 As the crew began to flee the bridge, Adria saw that the captain was remaining behind. She took a few steps toward him. “Captain, will you not evacuate the ship?”

 He laughed. “I may be the galaxy’s premier asshole, but I’m a captain first and foremost. I’m staying behind with my ship. You’re more important than I am – you’ve got the whole computer in your head. Get out of here!”

 Adria complied.

***

 A shriller klaxon replaced the earlier one, and the flashing red lights stopped flashing, remaining motionless.

 “What’s going on?” Mafune asked, looking around in puzzlement.

 “They’ve sounded the evacuation alarms,” Ames said. “They must’ve hurt us harder than we thought.”

 The sound of gunfire down the hall started to drown out the klaxons. Ames took out the assault rifle he had procured from the armoury. “I’ll stay here and make sure the magnetic seals on the armoury activate. You guys go to the escape pods. I’ll meet you on the planet!”

 As the first Androsi soldier rounded the corner, Ames let out a spray of bullets. It ducked back behind the corner with a yep while the rest of the human gang ran down the opposite way.

 “There should be an escape pod nearby,” Mercedes said in-between pants. “Hopefully no-one’s launched it yet.”

 The featureless corridors, broken only by occasional portholes, went by quickly as they ran. After a scant few minutes, they came across the first escape pod, and an unexpected guest.

 An Androsi soldier stood over it, his plasma rifle aimed at the occupant. He was ordering whoever was in the pod to exit, speaking in his own language. The translator nanites made some sense of his garble.

 “That’s right. Hands up.” The Androsi took a step back to allow the occupant to exit.

 It was a girl with short red hair in a black jumpsuit.

 “Adria!” said David under his breath. Mercedes shot him a glare. There was no point to being sneaky if the Androsi heard that little outburst.

 “You are an Androsi shocktrooper,” Adria said tonelessly. “Your armour can typically take up to five bullets, depending on calibre. However, there is a fatal flaw in its structure. Please take note.”

 Lightning-quick, she grabbed the Androsi by the shoulder and suplexed him into the wall. Turning faster than Mercedes though possible, she then began to slam the Androsi into the wall repeatedly. After about ten slams, she let the Androsi drop to the floor, pieces of his armour clattering to the floor.

 “As you can see, repeated blunt force trauma shatters the ceramic-steel inlays, rendering it useless.” Adria looked over at the gang. “David Matheson. Cadet Mercedes Hemsworth. I do not recognise you, though. It is no matter though. Reactor strut six has been damaged. We must evacuate the ship in an orderly fashion. Please follow me into the escape pod.”

 They piled into the escape pod in a very disorderly fashion, all trying to enter at the same time. Mercedes managed to shove David and Mafune out of the way and she slid in after Adria did. The two guys soon followed, tumbling inside. She shook her head. They were such idiots.

 “Please strap yourselves in. I will launch this pod and guide it to a safe landing zone on the planet below.” Adria had already seated herself at the “pilot” chair, and was tapping out commands already.

 Mercedes clipped on the straps, leaning out to see outside the pod. “We can’t leave without Sergeant Ames!”

 “There is no room, Cadet. We must launch immediately or risk being discovered by more Androsi.”

 The door shut, and after only a few seconds, there was the sound of jets, and the pod began to tumble. They had launched.

***

 Captain Leonard Bates held his pistol in one hand, waiting for the Androsi to come. The gun trembled in his grip, and he moved his other hand to hold it as well. The shaking went down, and he smiled grimly.

 Looking across the mess that had once been the CIC, Bates sighed. Then, a blinking light caught his attention. Lowering his gun, he walked over to it. The blinking light was connected to a very simple screen that had six words flashing on it.

 “MISSILE TUBE 5 READY FOR LAUNCH”

 Bates laughed. The computer had repaired part of itself already. He tapped a button, and the text vanished from the screen for a moment, replaced by “LOCKED ON TARGET”. He flicked a switch, and he heard a low boom from deep within the ship.

 “MISSILE LAUNCHED.”

 At that exact moment, the doors to the CIC blew open, and Androsi swarmed in. Bates spun and fired at them, bullets striking the shocktroopers’ armour to no avail. As the troopers got closer, Bates flipped the gun over and started swinging at any shocktrooper who got too close.

 One shocktrooper that was taller than the rest raised his hand, brushing aside his red scarf with an arm. The others backed away as he removed his helmet.

 The face beneath the helmet was surprisingly human. The eyes were off, more cat-like than anything else, and there was the faint fuzz of fur on his cheeks. With a sharp smile, he dropped the helmet and took a step forward.

 “I am Vulpes. And you are dead.” Vulpes drew a sword from a sheath on his back. It was thin and pointed. Bates, having little experience with swords, could not identify it.

 The Androsi lunged forward, point of the sword piercing Bates’ chest. Vulpes drove the sword in deeper, bringing his body close to Bates’. Bates gagged on his own blood, dimly seeing a holstered gun near his left hand. With a swift gesture that surprised even him, he ripped it out of the holster and fired it at Vulpes’ head. The Androsi stumbled backwards, hands leaving his sword as he batted the flames on his face out.

 Bates slumped to the ground, vision fading.

V – Twilight Sparkle

 Twilight Sparkle moved her head away from the telescope, a frown crossing her face. Over the last hour, she’d been seeing strange green lights in the night sky. And now there were meteors on the horizon. Her wings fluttered in distress as one very bright meteor flashed by. She heard a low boom in the distance, and smoke rose from beyond the Everfree Forest.

 “Spike! Spike! Spiiiiiiiiike!” she called out, trying to rouse the dragon from his increasingly deep slumber.

 After a few rather annoying minutes, Spike dragged himself into Twilight’s bedroom. “What is it, Twilight?” he asked with a yawn.

 “I need you to prepare for a trip,” she said quickly. “A meteor crashed down beyond the Everfree and I want to investigate.”

 “A meteor shower?” Spike’s face bore the same frown as Twilight. “I don’t remember there being a scheduled one for tonight.”

 “That’s exactly it, Spike. Something is going on and I want to find out what.” Twilight gasped as an idea floated up in her mind. “What if we’re dealing with extraterrestrial visitors?”

 “Wait,” Spike said. “You believe in aliens?”

 “It’s impossible not to. There are countless stars, who’s to say one of them doesn’t have sentient or even sapient life?”

 Spike flung his hands up in the air and backed out of the room slowly. Twilight sighed and shook her head. Spike sometimes…

 Twilight looked back at the rising smoke on the horizon. The sun was starting to come up, which meant the animals of the Everfree would be sleeping now. It was the perfect time to go investigate!

Or at least, it would be if Spike would get back out of bed and help her pack.