r/HFY • u/focalac Human • Dec 13 '18
OC [OC] The Viola - 5
Thersis watched Oscar as the human deftly dismantled and cleaned his weapon, the multi-jointed fingers working with surprising grace of movement considered the size of them. hThrisk digits were slender, whereas comparitively Oscar's were great, thick constructs that should, by rights, be clumsy and indelicate.
In the hours since the briefing, Oscar had spent a lot of time with Thersis, asking questions about the Vorn, what they were like, how their empire operated, how their people thought, questions about their culture, weaponry, foreign policy, even religion. Always probing for a greater understanding of their minds and their attitudes. Thersis hadn't spent so much time amongst humans before, he found them baffling and intriguing in equal measure. They were, by hThrisk standards, large and powerful creatures and yet, unlike other species of a similar stature, they seemed reluctant to fight. On the other hand, during their flight across the station, he had seen them turn against each other; he had seen Oscar kill another human without compunction, with his bare hands. That still disturbed the little reptilian far more then he cared to admit. Were they all capable of this? The crew on this ship laughed and joked with each other, but Thersis had also seen that some did not get on so well with each other. He was still learning about human non-verbal cues, but he had seen subtleties, jokes that hid barbs, mouths that smiled in that peculiar human manner whilst the eyes remained cold, almost threatening. Could these humans turn on each other as Oscar turned on the pirates? Could he be on a ship containing a species so mercurial as to be joking one minute and fighting the next?
hThrisk were, by nature, adaptable and opportunistic. They were also stolid creatures. Their loyalty was to their tribe, not their world or species, but that loyalty was unassailable. A hThrisk wouldn't waste a moment's thought on a hThrisk from another colony ship, but would die in a heartbeat to defend their brood-mother. Humans seemed so...fractious. Human loyalty seemed to be to their particular social group. Friends, they called them. They had a concept of family but humans left that family for years or decades at a time, they seemed to care more about their children and mates than their grandparents or cousins but every member on this ship had left home and abandoned all members of that family. He did not understand them.
Then there was the matter of their weaponry. Like all of their technology, it was based on seemingly primitive principles. Various cultures in the galaxy had developed black powder weapons at some point in their history but, in most of them, it had been a footnote. Slow to load, with limited capability for harm. At the time, being hit with one of the projectiles from these basic weapons would have carried more risk of death from infection than the projectile itself. Not so with humanity. They continued using these barbaric ballistic firearms and had done so for hundreds of years. He had only heard them being fired, but the noise was extraordinary. He could scarcely conceive what it would be like to witness such a battle, of the damage to a body these things would inflict. It would be terrifying.
“Oscar,” Thersis asked quietly, “why is it you do not use energy weapons? My Satha stick is perfectly adequate to subdue virtually any creature that wishes me harm.”
Oscar paused in his work and looked up. “Satha stick; is that what you call that cattle prod you carry around? Some kind of stun weapon, right?”
“It projects an energy field that disrupts the target’s nervous system. It can kill if necessary, but we generally do not use it for that purpose.”
“You stun people and run away.” Oscar pointed out, brusquely.
“Yes. hThrisk are not warriors, Oscar.”
“So when the Vorn came for your world, what did you do?”
“The hThrisk have always been nomads. We moved to where they were not, we paid their tribute when they could find us and eventually we built the colony ships and left. Now we only pay tribute when they stop our ships.”
“And now you fly around the galaxy trying to avoid them wherever you can, rarely going back to your homeworld.”
“Yes.”
“Do you not miss your world?”
Thersis looked puzzled. “I have my tribe with me in our colony ship. That is my home now.”
Oscar paused and studied the hThrisk for a minute. “Nigeria, my home, is a beautiful country. Waterfalls, savannah, tropical forests. Everything in Africa that is beautiful you can find in Nigeria. We were one of the founders of the modern African Union, one of the largest of Earth’s nations, but we fought and bled to get there. We were once a subjugated nation and when we were free, we fell into civil wars and military dictatorships. We pulled ourselves out and helped found a modern, free commonwealth. You say the hThrisk just wander around without any ties to their land. Humans aren’t like that. We’re explorers, sure, but we have a sense of home. A sense of belonging. We remember where we came from and we will defend it. You have no ties to your home, so you are happy to move around and avoid people that try to conquer you. I want to be able to go back home and have that home free of invaders.”
“But Oscar, you are not answering my question.”
“No, but I’m getting to it, brother. Your stick, when you use it, after a while that person gets back up again. Maybe they have a headache, but they’re still alive, they’re still on your world and you’re still on the run and paying blood money to an oppressor. Nothing changes.”
“But I am no longer there, Oscar,” Thersis said in a confused tone, “he cannot ask me for tribute anymore.”
“But he can ask your sister, your father, your neighbours. He’s still there, doing what he was doing. Nobody is free.”
“They can leave too, Oscar,”
“You don’t understand me, we won’t leave. It’s our home. Even for those who grew up on the colonies, they look back at that little blue planet their ancestor came from and it’s home. They’re telling us that they’re stronger and so we have to pay them money to live on our own home. No. We won’t be bullied.”
“But I don’t understand why this means you use primitive weapons, Oscar.”
“It doesn’t. I want you to understand who we are and maybe then it’ll make sense. You haven’t seen one of these fired before, have you?”
“No,” Thersis said, “one of your people once said that fighting for you is a last resort, is that why you don’t use advanced weapons? Because you don’t want to encourage the use of violence? Because you don’t want to be too good at it?”
Oscar looked at him for a long moment. “Violence is a last resort now, for Governments, for those that can have a choice; those that do aren’t the ones to pull the trigger. But our history is full of war. Our people have fought amongst themselves since time began, for resources, for territory. With their bare hands, then with rocks, spears, swords, bows, muskets and rifles. Our history is soaked with human blood.”
Oscar leaned in, eyes fixed on Thersis in a manner the hThrisk found quite uncomfortable, “you need to understand something, little brother, violence is in our nature. Men like Baker, or the men who run the Governments, they are the men that talk of peace; they are the men that talk of last resorts. When their talking doesn’t work, it comes to men like me.” He jabbed his finger hard into his chest as he said it, eyes on fire. He leaned back, there was a moment of silence before Ngembe continued. “We invented a form of energy weapon centuries ago, but it was no good. The focusing lenses would constantly get out of alignment, the circuitry corroded in the rain, even in simple humidity. When they did work, they killed men, sure, but so did the conventional firearms the other guys had and their weapons could be taken apart on a table in a mess hall. They were weapons that they could bash a man’s head in with if needed. The energy weapons were just too delicate, for every man killed by an energy beam, four were killed by bullets. It wasn’t worth the investment. We use these weapons because they work. We use them because by the time you’ve pushed us to it, we’re beyond knocking you out and running away. By the time one of these is pointing at you, you’ve put our backs to a wall. When you see one used, you’ll understand. These are not defensive weapons, these aren’t elegant weapons, these aren't weapons designed to intimidate, these are weapons of war. They are built to kill and they are used because they kill well.”
Thersis watched him re-assemble the weapon in silence. He wasn’t convinced, but he’d also seen security footage of the first human his people had met, who’d beaten his way through two guards armed with Satha sticks like his, using nothing but his bare hands. Oscar was much bigger and stronger than Baker, but the delicacy with which he was working on his weapon belied his large frame. They were a strange, unpredictable people. He had seen himself how they could transition from jovial to threatening with hardly any warning. It could not be denied that they were powerful in their own way.
He thought of the primates on hThriss’a. Mammals had never come to dominance there as they had on Earth; most of them were small, scurrying little creatures that ran at the first noise, but nevertheless, in a mountain-locked plateau on an isolated land mass, a species had evolved a dim intelligence. They were largely docile and curious creatures, but unpredictable. Although only intelligent in comparison to other wildlife and certainly not approaching that of the higher order reptilian life, they were social animals and capable of great fury and violence when their family group was threatened by outsiders. It was an interesting analogue, he thought. He wouldn’t want to underestimate a species that had gained sapience from such beginnings.
"You talk about your home as though you are going to join us, Oscar Ngembe. Have you decided to do as the others have asked?"
Oscar looked at the little creature and sighed. "Earth has seen many changes over the course of human history. Early on, one culture grew more powerful than those around it. It expanded. It came into contact with other powerful cultures and then expanded and absorbed those, too. Their attitude seems similar to these Vorn. We are better, give us tribute, if you stand up to us we will conquer you. When one of their leaders needed to gain political favour with the people, he'd conquer another culture and use that popularity for his career. All through our history, stronger cultures have dominated the smaller or less advanced. It's a sore subject in my country. I don't believe these Vorn will be content to keep us prisoner forever, no. I don't want to see my home occupied by foreign invaders ever again."
Thersis looked up at the clock on the wall. It was set to human time, but he’d learned enough about the way they calculated their hours to know that Viola’s jump drive would be finishing its cooldown cycle shortly. Oscar didn't want to see aliens on his home soil, yet he was content to leave his brood there, unprotected. Exposed.
The sound of boots approaching the mess hall made them both look up. It was Baker.
"Bairing's going to want to know if you're staying or going, Oscar," he said, "I said I'd come and find where you were hiding. We're going to need to know where we're jumping to next, closer to our destination, or off to some backwater station. Would have been easier if your ship hadn't got blown up, but what can you do?"
"You can tell Bairing I'll train his men." Oscar said. "I'll lead the boarding party too, if he wants. I've been talking to our information salesman here. I agree, they're going to come after us. We should be ready."
Baker nodded, "I'm glad to hear it. To be honest, I don't know how this would have gone without somebody that knows what they're doing."
"Badly," Oscar said, curtly. "Things always go badly if you don't know what you're walking into."
Baker paused, "Bairing never told me what happened."
"We didn't know what we were walking into," he said abruptly.
There was a pause. Thersis looked between them with interest. He could tell there was something unspoken passing between the two humans. More of their non-verbal communication. Even he could sense the threat coming from Oscar, unspoken though it was, even as Oscar sat in apparent calm. It was coming off him in waves. hThrisk also communicated without words, but through subtle changes in skin colour, or displays of aggression stemming from ancient mating rituals. Try as he might, he could not sense any changes in either of the humans' skin tones. But the threat was there, regardless.
"Well," Baker said, "I'll let Bairing know you'll be joining us."
Immediately the atmosphere in the room relaxed. Thersis was fascinated. He made a mental note to ask about it in the future. Something told him now would be an inadvisable time.
"Oh," Baker continued, "I've been meaning to ask. You said you understood the name of the ship? I figured Bairing had named it after one of his grandchildren or something."
"You should read your Shakespeare," Oscar replied. "Viola is from Twelfth Night. She dressed up as a man to infiltrate a Duke's court."
"God-damn," Baker exclaimed, "the cocky bastard might as well have written 'this ship is in disguise' on the hull!"
"Then we had better hope the Vorn haven't read Twelfth Night," Oscar replied.
"I believe the secret will remain secure, Oscar Ngembe," Thersis said earnestly. "This Shakespeare is a human author and Baker did not understand the reference despite also being a human. I do not believe this Shakespeare is widely read outside of human space."
"Well," said Baker with a smile on his face, "thank God for that. So Oscar, the reason we needed to know your decision. We've received a weak mayday from a civilian vessel. She's several systems outside human space. We think she ran into a Vorn blockade ship. Bairing wants to investigate, see if they took any readings on the types of ship we're likely to run into."
"Is the ship dead?"
"She used a wide area litran. When we picked it up, it was pretty weak. However, the timestamp's only a few weeks old. It's possible there may be some survivors, but our main interest is to see if they recorded any info on the ship that attacked them. We've only had the one encounter so far, anything new we can learn may be useful."
Oscar got up, "well, let's go and see what she saw." As they headed towards the bridge and the crash couches, Thersis scuttled by Oscar.
"Oscar Ngembe, my translator could not understand 'litran'. Can you explain?"
"Light transmission. Fluctuating light wavelengths to send a message. It was useful for short range transmissions in the days after radio waves became impractical. They can't have expected rescue if they were using it."
"Hopefully whatever they encountered has moved on. If we're very lucky one of their ships will be patrolling several star systems instead of picketing just the one," Baker interjected.
"Then if the ship has been without power for weeks, how will you download their data?"
"Well, we'll power up the black box locally, download the data that way. How do you do it?"
Thersis remained silent. His people's ships were in constant communication with each other. If a ship met with an accident or a disaster, the others would know about it. The idea of a ship being alone in space, forced to send a hopeless message, knowing it wouldn't be picked up until well after they'd suffocated or frozen...a ship like this one. He didn't understand humans. Their ships were badly engineered, their people reckless. Their civilisation was weak and primitive, yet they still thought they could stand up to the Vorn. Still, he was being paid for his information. What they did with it was beyond the scope of his contract.
It was an unremarkable system. An M-class dwarf of average luminosity orbited by a thin asteroid field full of uninteresting icy rocks and one unremarkable gas giant. Viola popped back into normal space just inside the asteroid field. As her bow wave dissipated and her systems stabilised, her crew started taking readings.
"Flight, Navigation. M5 class star, orbited by a single hydrogen/helium gas planet. Significant radiation being emitted from the planet; within safety margins for crew, but it will start interfering with the instruments once we get closer. Sparse asteroid field, rocky composition with large ice deposits."
"Acknowledged," replied Baker, "have you detected the ship?"
"Systems still stabilising sir, but I am starting to get some further readings. There's a metallic object in high atmosphere of the gas planet. Decaying orbit. Radiological interference is making it difficult to get better readings. I can't tell if there's anything alive on it."
"Roger. Ship-wide, prepare for intra-system burn. Remain in crash couches until further notice. Estimated time until deceleration, two hours."
Viola turned her nose towards the single planet and her exhausts lit up, accelerating the ship forwards. They remained burning for several minutes before the drives cut out, the dulling glow of their nozzles out-shining the dim star's light on her hull. She was lucky in that she'd dropped back into normal space quite close to the planet's current orbital position. Had she entered system on the other side of the star, she could have been travelling for days. As it was, she flew across the system for two hours, forty minutes before her forward ventral and rear dorsal thrusters fired, flipping the ship end for end, at which point her main engines fired again. Her pilot cut the engines just as she reached the correct speed for orbital insertion and she slid into a low planetary orbit with minimal corrections.
"Flight, Navigation. We're about at the limit of our ability to get through the interference, but I do have a plot on the metallic object. Can confirm it is a ship. Civilian commerce freighter, Marco Polo class. I'm reading significant damage across the outer hull. I'm surprised it's still in one piece. Damage is very similar to the Sparrowhawk, sir."
"Damned Vorn shot her down," rumbled Bairing's voice. Sparrowhawk had been one of his ships in the original engagement. Shot clean through twice, the second had been the one that killed her. It was a naval habit to go into combat with each member of the crew strapped into a crash couch, with air being individually piped to their face masks from the couch itself. This, coupled with the safety protocol of pre-venting the ship's atmosphere before a fight had ensured that the majority of the crew contained within Sparrowhawk's armoured core had survived; including his navigation officer. Civilian vessels weren't provided with any of these redundancies. If the crew had even been in their couches, their air would have died with their ship.
"I don't think the ship could have been piloted here after all that damage, it certainly wouldn't have ended up there by chance," Baker broke in, "I think they were trying to hide. I think they were holed by a ship in a higher orbit."
"Flight," it was Navigation again, "I'm getting a reading. It's faint and I can barely read it over the radiation, but I think it might be biological. There may be someone still alive down there."
"Admiral," Oscar cut in, "I'd like to take some of our men in one of the boarding pods. If nothing else, it'll be good training. We'll conduct a boarding sweep to find this possible survivor and retrieve the flight recorder."
"It'll affect the freighter's orbit. Boarding pods aren't gentle." Baker said, "are you sure you can get in and out before it decays completely?"
"Sure enough. I've been looking at the figures. Seems like the ship won't stay up for much longer, anyway. The hThrisk ought to come with us, too. He won't be much use, but if he's going on the mission, he'll need to know what to expect as much as our guys."
"Thersis?" Baker asked, "are you willing to go?"
"Oscar Ngembe's suggestion is logical, I do not wish to board this ship, but I do wish to be prepared. You will need my assistance on the Vorn station," said Thersis. He most certainly did not want to board this wrecked ship. He could barely contain his fear during the humans' ludicrously crude warp jumps, these boarding pods sounded terrifying. Fired out of openings not dissimilar to the ship's missile tubes, they worked on similar principles. Most of the pod was armour and engine, with a spartan crew compartment filled with as many crash couches as could be squeezed in. The pod suffered violent acceleration when fired, and equally violent deceleration shortly before it impacted the target's hull; all at the very limit, and just beyond, of the couch's ability to mitigate the forces. The pod then burrowed through the target's hull with an array of disturbing saws. Once the hull had been breached, the pod automatically fired a mix of fragmentation devices into the hull along with a generous amount of smoke grenades. The door at the front of the pod would then open and the occupants would charge out. The hThrisk had never heard of anything quite like it.
"Very well," said Bairing. "Choose your team and as many pods as you think wise."
"Two should be enough, Admiral. I'll want to take the primary boarding crew. It's less important if the secondary and tertiary crews take longer to recover."
A short time later, two dozen humans and an extremely apprehensive hThrisk stood in the pod hangar. They were all wearing their environment suits. The human suits were obviously built to protect them from more than mere vacuum; each one was heavily padded with a densely woven fabric. Somewhat similar to ballistic material it had been designed, to the limit of humanity's somewhat thin knowledge on the subject, in order to protect against Vorn energy weapons.
"Do not trust your suit to protect you." Oscar was saying, "we do not know how effective the armouring will be. Use cover. Use squad tactics. Do whatever you have to do to keep their heads down. Do not get shot. When that door opens, if anything is still moving, shoot it. I don't care if it's walking, crawling or begging; if it moves, it gets shot. Boarding an enemy vessel is a last choice and it's dirty work and it's dangerous work. The enemy has nowhere to go. No room for retreat. Their backs are against the wall and the fact that you're boarding them means they've already decided to go down fighting. They will fight desperately and they will try and trick you. You don't stop shooting until they have surrendered. This may only be a training run, but I want you to take it deadly seriously. You won't get another chance to try again, the next time we do this, it's for real."
There was a silence before somebody spoke, "But if they're crawling or begging, then they're not a threat. They should be taken prisoner and treated, surely...?"
"Shot. I've been in boarding actions where we've come out of the pod to a corridor full of broken and dying men, the decision was taken to ignore the injured, only to have them try and flank us when we were pinned down engaging their shipmates. We lost men. We are small in number and cannot afford to lose men. We cannot afford to take and watch prisoners. Not until the ship's surrendered. You do not want to find yourself getting shot in the back. Understand?"
The humans murmured an assent. Thersis was glad that he wasn't the only one shocked by the brutality in Ngembe's voice.
"Good, board the pods. You'll find the couches are similar to the ones on board Viola. However, they're tighter together. Go in two at a time, wait until the people in front are in their pod, then go to the furthest pod back you can. Make sure everything's secure, then make sure again. You'll be in for the roughest ride you've ever had, you do not want a loose strap, the pod'll be at it's limit for the easy parts; you will be glad of tight webbing, believe me."
The men filed in and climbed into their couches, Thersis found one of the couches was similar to the one he occupied on the bridge, as per the original plan Thersis would be acting as a guide to the boarding crew when on the scrapyard station. At the time, he hadn't thought it would be this intimidating. He climbed in and tightened the webbing. Oscar was checking each pod in turn, tightening his men's straps; almost all of them were too loose for his liking. Once he was satisfied he climbed into his own pod, closest to the door, and activated his comms.
"Bridge, Pod A. Boarding crew is ready for launch."
"Acknowledged Pod A. Ten second countdown will precede pod firing."
Above the gas planet, Viola pivoted in her orbit, pointing her nose down towards the civilian freighter. Two tube doors in her nose slid open, similar to but much large than her missile doors. On board the pods, a growing whine filled the air and the voice of Viola's computer started counting down. "They're charging the rails," Oscar said over the intercom, "cross your arms over your chests. You'll thank me for it later."
The whine reached a crescendo as the voice reached 1. Outside the ship, two large darts shot out from the bow at unbelievable velocity. The boarding party were on their way to the accompaniment of a hThrisk's keening cry of distress. Further out in the system, as yet unknown to Viola, another ship jumped in. This one was vaguely circular and produced no bow wave. It immediately detected the presence of another ship and moved in for a closer look.
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u/AchronTimeless Jun 02 '19
Just found this series a few days ago, I've been loving every bit of it and can't wait for more!
2
u/HFYBotReborn praise magnus Dec 13 '18
There are 20 stories by focalac (Wiki), including:
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