Seeder Saga (20 page)

Orbit

They felt the natural gravity of the planet shift as their artificial gravity adjusted.

Jack asked Crusoe, “How’s the timetable? Will we be able to arrive when the Velors expect us? I’d hate to be late.”

“We’re going to be a little early, but not by much. Hopefully that will give us time to get set for an ambush, giving us the tactical advantage.”

Jane asked, “How can we be early? Didn’t we veer off course and waste hundred
s years or something?”

“I’ve added boosters to all the ships. We’ll make good time.” Then he waved an arm towards the monitors and said, “There’s your new fleet
, Admiral.”

Sarah’s gasp caught in her throat. Even under the poor searchlights of the
Seeder
, it was clear Crusoe had outdone himself. The lead ship was obvious. It was huge, easily four times as large as the others. Sarah hated to admit to herself that she was jealous she wouldn’t get to captain it.

Crusoe must have read her mind. He pointed at the lead ship and said, “That one’s mine because it has no life support and minimal defenses.”

Jack said incredulously, “Why didn’t you fit it with defenses?”

“That would’ve taken another hundred years
. We’d end up being late for the ambush.” Then he added, “It doesn’t need life support, for obvious reasons, and it’s only meant as a diversion, so I just need to fire off a few shots to get the Velors’ attention. When all their guns are trained on me, that’s when you attack them.”

Sarah sighed. “You’ve done an amazing thing here
, Crusoe. I sure wish we could use that big bastard in the fight though.”

“We don’t have the manpower to staff it. It was designed to be a red herring. Trust me
, you don’t want to be on that thing when it comes under fire. It’ll cave in like a tin can if it gets hit in the wrong places.”

“Well
, I don’t want you on it either then.”

“I’ll be fine. Let’s fire the systems up and I’ll give you the grand tour.”

Crusoe was a driven creature. Ever since he’d discovered his people had been exterminated by the Velors, he’d been on a straight path to vengeance. Sarah and her crew felt almost as strongly. The Velors had lured them to their region of space with the seed planet as bait just to destroy them for sport. They’d also sent a kill team to make sure humanity was good and extinct on Earth, albeit, probably a couple hundred years too late. The Velors made a game of extinguishing other races, but this time their ambush had been discovered ahead of time. This time, the poor defenseless victims weren’t quite so defenseless.

Pods

Crusoe said, “Molly, wake the troops. I have some training for them.”

Molly said, “Yes, Crusoe. They’ll be out of stasis shortly.”

Crusoe had a bit of hatred
for the ship’s computer, since it had disobeyed him an occasion or two. Now that he knew its defiance was partly because of the subroutines the saboteur Jason had installed in the computer, he’d softened his approach. “Thank you, Molly.”

Crusoe went below deck with Sarah in tow to greet the thirteen hundred troops. They all feared him so he’d be sure to use that fear to his advantage.

Sarah said, “Did you upgrade the colonists the same way you did with the crew and the troopers?”

“No. I decided they’d just get in the way. They have little to no military training and I just can’t be bothered trying to bring even more people up to speed.”

Sarah didn’t know how to feel about that. A part of her wished he had injected the colonists with his DNA cocktail because there’s strength in numbers, but another part of her was devoted to the mission of continuing the human race when or if a suitable planet was found to colonize, and that part of her was a bigot. She resisted the idea of transplanting a human colony that was no longer fully human. But she also realized how idiotic it was to follow such a demented ideal if it meant they didn’t have enough fighters to win the battle and get to a colony in the first place.

She was a leader
, but in this instance she was glad Crusoe had made the decision for her.

They had Molly open
Pod Bay Two and then they waited for the soldiers to mobilize.

As soon as the bay was thrumming with the newly awakened troops, Crusoe said, “I hope you are all ready to train. I know I have made you all stronger and faster. But I don’t know all the ways you’ve been changed
, so we’re about to test your new limits and find out. I have created a fleet of warships to take on the alien race, the Velors, and I need to make sure you can all do your part. But before we get to training, I want two thirds of these pods moved, to be dispersed equally amongst the two additional warships. I have drawn up a roster. Two thirds of you will be reassigned to those ships. This is non-negotiable. Check the roster to find out where you’ll be placed.”

He handed a piece of paper out for them to pass around. There were three ships, all numbered, with the
Seeder
being the number one ship. The lead ship wasn't included, as no one would survive without life support systems besides Crusoe.

There was some initial complaining until Crusoe yelled, “Get to work
, you mutts! This is the easy part.”

Sarah was pleasantly surprised as she watched them unhook the pods one at a time. When one of the soldiers asked sheepishly how they were going to get the pods to the ships, Crusoe smiled devilishly and said, “We’re going to float them. It’ll be good experience.”

As soon as all the pods were disconnected, Crusoe told the troops to follow him. He led them to the storage rooms and said, “Everyone gets a suit. Strap them on and then grab a pod.”

Some of the soldiers were visibly shaking
, but none of them dared tell Crusoe to go screw himself, so they dutifully, albeit reluctantly, suited up and awaited further orders.

To Molly, Crusoe said, “I want Jack and Jane down here.” To Sarah he said, “You’ll need to suit up too
, Admiral.”

Sarah thought she was nervous before but now she was petrified.

Jack and Jane suited up at Crusoe’s insistence, but neither of them looked happy about it.

Crusoe said to everyone, “I will show the crew what to do
, then I’ll lead parties to each of the ships with the pods. The crew will do this one time. After that, I expect each of you to know exactly what to do. There’s no room for error here, so pay attention.”

Sarah didn’t know if any of her crew had any experience with spacewalking
, but she sure as hell didn’t.

Crusoe led the crew to the airlock and stopped. He turned to the soldiers and said, “We’ll be back shortly. If anyone tries to
stage a coup, I suggest the rest of you kill him or her immediately, because if I come back here and find mutineers, I’ll kill you all.”

The soldiers at the front nodded vigorously. They all knew what happened when Crusoe wanted you dead.

The soldiers were more than a little surprised when Crusoe entered the airlock without a suit or even a helmet. The crew followed him in and then he shut the inner doors.

Sarah felt like she might wet herself
, so she was comforted when Jane said, “I just peed my suit.”

A
nd Jack said, “That’s okay, I think I’m about to shit myself.”

Crusoe laughed. “Your suits have limited maneuverability
, but it’s more than sufficient to do what we’re about to do. Trust me, you’re all going to survive this.”

Crusoe opened the outer doors and they felt the atmosphere rush past them, even through the suits. The new ships were surprisingly close
, which gave them all a sigh of relief. One of the ships was a mere twenty feet from them.

Crusoe looked at each of them, and then he launched himself out of the airlock. He floated for only a couple of seconds and then fell inside the open airlock of the ship next to them. He waved his arm in a beckoning motion for them to follow.

Being the newly minted admiral, Sarah felt like it was her responsibility to lead the way, so she fought the urge to pass out and launched herself towards Crusoe. In her peripheral vision, she saw just how formidable these new ships really were.

S
uddenly she felt a hand grasp her wrist and pull her forward. She allowed Crusoe to maneuver her inside the airlock and saw him beckon the others to follow suit.

Jack took Jane’s hand and they both came rushing towards Crusoe and Sarah. Crusoe reached out lightning fast and grabbed Jack by the suit. Once he’d pulled them inside the airlock, he shut the doors and told them to remove their helmets.

“Time for a quick tour. The warships are each slightly different so that the Velors will have a harder time finding our weaknesses, but they’re pretty close in design to the
Seeder
.” He opened the inner doors and they followed him inside. The ship was remarkably similar to the
Seeder
except that it was brand new and had a few alien flairs, courtesy of its alien designer.

The
ship’s voice called out over the loudspeakers, “Welcome back, Crusoe, and welcome aboard, Captain Jane Hotchkiss.”

Jane’s mouth fell open. “This is my ship?”

“Yep. Once we get the pods aboard I’ll need you to move it to make way for Jack's ship.”

“I’ve never flown a real ship before.”

“And you probably won’t need to fly this one either until we start fighting. The navigation programming is impeccable. But if something unexpected occurs, you’ll need to make the necessary adjustments.”

He led them to the command station
, which looked identical to the one on the
Seeder
. Sarah’s jealousy reared its ugly head again. Crusoe had a knack for anticipating this. He assured her, “Sarah, you’re flying the
Seeder
because it’s not as space-worthy as the ships I built. Do you understand?”

She did. She actually knew how to pilot a ship. The
Seeder
was flawed, so a seasoned captain would be needed to fly it straight, and she was the only one who had that kind of extensive training and on the job experience. She nodded as though she wasn’t bothered getting stuck with the tub of the fleet. It made sense.

“Captain Hotchkiss will remain here. I’m sending the troops over first. Once they’re aboard, we’ll launch the pods over and then you’ll need to move out of the way. Do you understand?”

Jane looked worried even though she had trained to captain a ship before.

Crusoe reassured her
: “If you need anything at all, just tell Molly here and she’ll patch you through to all the other ships.”

Sarah snorted. “You called this
ship’s computer Molly too?”

“For consistency, yes.”

Jane’s demeanor changed. “My own ship? I can’t tell you how happy this makes me.”

“You won’t be thanking me when we’re in the midst of battle.”

They left her as she got comfortable in the command station.

They got in the airlock, suited up, and launched themselves back towards the
Seeder
with renewed confidence.

Preparation

It took them eleven hours of backbreaking work to offload the pods to each of the ships, but they did it with only minor mishaps. Three of the soldiers missed their mark and tumbled off into space
, but that was kept secret from the others so as not to worry them. Sarah wasn’t upset that they’d died out in the void, she was upset that they might’ve survived. They had some of Crusoe’s DNA inside their cells and Crusoe couldn’t die from oxygen deprivation or starvation, or old age. What if those soldiers just kept on tumbling forever, awake the whole time? That thought scared the shit out of her. They’d also lost about a dozen pods, but they had extras so that wasn’t a big deal. All told, it was a success.

Jack was aboard his very own ship now too
, so they each had a contingent of several hundred hybrid superhuman soldiers but no crew. Sarah rectified that immediately after scouring the rosters for rank.

She appointed a man named Robert Smith as her second in command since he was the highest ranking soldier. He didn’t like the idea that he’d been promoted
, but screw him. They had a mission and it superceded his loyalty to the military. When she told him he’d get to retain his rank, he seemed to come around.

There was a need for a technician too
, just in case of malfunctions on board the
Seeder
during the long trip. She brought a young, attractive redhead into the fold to take on those duties. Her name was Becky Gibson. Becky accepted the role happily. Sarah already liked her. Redheads were even rarer than blondes, so she really stood out against the sea of brunettes, especially where she was also a gear-head grease monkey.

Sarah hoped Jack and Jane had the foresight to promote their own crews
, but she knew they would. It would be stupid not to.

Crusoe paired jobs to personnel for all of the ships. Some would be gunners, others would be involved in flight control and systems operations.

The job that terrified them all was
infiltrator
. These poor bastards were expected, if necessary, to jump from their ship and try to get inside enemy vessels.

Crusoe had taken some time with a small group of soldiers and showed them how to infiltrate under most circumstances
, but no one was comfortable even after dozens of trial runs from the
Seeder
to one of the other ships and then back again. They all seemed capable in the semi-controlled environment, but none of them were dumb enough to think the battle to come would be quite so organized.

They knew they were to be sacrifices
, but once again, none of them had the guts to tell Crusoe no.

As soon as the last of the soldiers went back into stasis, Crusoe bid Sarah farewell and set off for his own ship.

She missed him the moment he left. He alone seemed to know what to do under any circumstance. He was brilliant, infinitely strong, resourceful, and his hatred of the Velors was infectious. She needed that hatred to help propel her forward; otherwise she might stop and wonder:
Why not just go around them and find another planet to colonize?
But she knew the answer to that. There was nowhere else in the galaxy to go, at least nowhere that any of them knew of. The seed planet was an oasis in the desert. All the other observed planets would kill them within minutes, and some in mere seconds, either from poisonous atmosphere, total lack of atmosphere, temperature, or crushing gravity. Crusoe’s hatred helped to kindle the hatred in her own heart too. The Velors had laid a deadly trap. Hopefully it was about to backfire.

Sarah did a quick systems check, walked the ship to make sure everyone was locked up in stasis, then stripped naked and crawled inside her pod.

She told Molly to alert Crusoe that she was going to sleep and then closed the lid to the pod. The IV’s pumped their liquids into her veins and the air was evacuated. The oily mist filled her pod and the freeze took her instantly.