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* * *
“It’s a distress call from the Ge. They’re being attacked. There was another ship.”
“Take us there at maximum speed,” I reply, watching as my helmsman puts in the coordinates. “How long?” I ask impatiently.
“Seventeen minutes.”
I bring up the Ge on my sensors. I can see the other ship. They’ve fired on the Ge but have not managed to disable her completely. Of course, they won’t want to destroy the ship. They want the humans and their embryos. I should have known that this was too easy. I was too distracted by the thought of Ivy. I must push her from my mind to save those human women and the other officers from the Alliance Force.
As we close in on the other Octopod ship and the Ge, I stand in front of my chair. I always think better when I’m standing. “Open comms.” When I know the other ships can hear me, I say, “This is the Des of the Alliance Force from the Alliance Empire. You are in violation of GC and Alliance law. The Alliance protects Earth’s Solar System. Stand down, or we will fire to kill.”
“You have stolen our embryos. Return them, and we will leave.”
“Embryos you put inside human hosts against their will. You can claim the embryos at GC HQ. Alliance Force will send them…”
The Des shakes.
“Direct hit,” my officer says.
“Target their weapons,” I reply. “Fire.”
We are getting in some good hits against them, but it’s not enough.
“They’re sending over transports to the Ge, and she has nothing left.”
“Fire on the transports. Destroy them.”
“Their deflectors are too strong. Where did they get those?” my officer asks.
“And why aren’t they using them on their ship? They must be prototypes or too high energy.” I say, trying to think. Now I need to make a decision. Can we disable the larger ship before they get away with the humans? I honestly don’t know. But if we don’t board the Ge, every officer on the ship will die, and the humans might be taken. “Alpha group with me. We are going to take the stealth shuttle and board the Ge.” I give my second-in-command orders: "Keep firing on the Octopod ship. Don’t try to cover us. If we’re lucky, they won’t even notice us until we are onboard.”
My Alpha group is only made up of seven men, including myself. We can barely squeeze into the stealth shuttle, but this transport is fast and invisible to all sensors. The only thing that will alert the Octopods is that our door will be open for a few seconds for us to leave. Before we open the doors, I tell the bridge crew, “Fire now and keep firing to distract them as we disembark.”
My crew does as I command, and we get out and over to the Ge in seconds. It seems as if the Octopods didn’t notice us. We dock on the lower side of the Ge out of anyone’s sight just in case they could see us. We use a scrambling device to make communication between the Octopod transports and their main ship difficult, but it’ll only last about ten minutes. Taking a deep breath, I give the order to proceed. We make a hole in the ship and send out a warning bell. It’s the seven bells recording from the Grand City Temple. It’s the sign to all Alliance officers that we are here and ready to meet again in the Afterlife if necessary. But in reality, it should give our men hope.
We move inside and quickly find the ship is in disarray. We pass a dead Alliance officer, and it reminds me of how dangerous the Octopods are. If we’re still alive by the end of this, we’ll give him a proper memorial. I motion for my men to move on. Emergency lighting is on. I can hear human women screaming. We follow the sounds. I also hear gunfire.
We approach the guest area and hear more screams outside the door. I hear my name behind me and turn before the doors open.
“Sem, it’s a trap,” Ash falls to the floor. He’s been cut so many times he’s more slippery red blood than the man I’d recognize.
I have to use all of my strength not to run to him and pick him up. Instead, I must think about this information. Is it a trap to go into this room where I hear humans screaming? Probably.
Using all my self-control to stay calm, I motion to move my men back away from this door, and as I go, I pick up my best friend in my arms. As I do and we’re moving away from the passenger area, an explosion throws us back to the end of the corridor. Ash is in my arms, and I don’t let go of him. My men in front of me are calling to me, and I hear Octopod weapons firing. I try to get up, but I can’t. Darkness takes me. I feel nothing.
* * *
“Where is Ash?” I ask. I’m in the familiar medical center on the base. I have no idea how I got here. The last thing I remember was fighting Octopods on the Ge.
The doctor comes over and tells me frankly, “Your first officer managed to destroy the other Octopod ship, and what’s left of your Alpha team secured the humans and managed to repair the Ge fast enough to get you all here. Unfortunately, Ash is dead. He died two days before you returned to base.”
I can’t believe this. “Ash is dead?”
“Yes. And we almost lost you too. You’ve been recovering for five days. You actually died too, Sem, but who’s to say how long you were really dead,” the doctor tells me solemnly.
I don’t care about myself. My heart is breaking for my friend. “I want to see him,” I say, trying to get out of the medical bed, which is impossible because there’s a force field holding me in. “Let me see him.”
“Sem,” the doctor says. “We moved his body to storage. Commander Fox said if you survived, you’d want to perform his Afterlife ceremony. Go and eat something. I’m giving you special permission. You’ll need to eat, then you’ll see your friend.”
