The Token by Kevin Bird (the little red hen ebook .TXT) 📖

his accomplishment, “Yes, Bern. It actually went easier than I could have imagined and everything is waiting for us. We can do a little trading of our own now. Let’s go.”
“Not too fast though; my engines were hit pretty bad so I’ll need to take it easy till we get…”
“Captain, look!” A panicked voice pierced the reverie and as one the two captains and bridge crews turned to their screens.

---------------------------------------

“Sir, there it is again,” the man was hunched over a console staring at his screen and deciphering a series of symbols.
“Plot the co-ordinates to the disturbance, and get us there now!” The captain of the Supplier vessel was angry. He and his crew had been on shore leave when this emergency had caused them to be called up prematurely to help with the search. They had been given all the information available, which wasn’t much and had shifted along with several other fighters to the last known location of the Cargo 1. From there, they had all gone in different directions in the hope of picking up something that might indicate where it was.
They had traveled for several hours at high speed before their sensors had detected the first energy wave. It was very distant, and the sensors, stretched to the maximum range, couldn’t give a clear indication what the flash had been. The only thing the Supplier captain was assured of was that it was not a natural event. They had moved in the general direction, and now had just sensed another wave.
As they moved closer the sensors gathered more data. “Sir, the energy wave is definitely from weaponry. There are two different signature types, but I can’t tell how many vessels there are.”
“Very well. Everyone go to battle ready. I don’t know who these people are, but we must assume they’re who we’re looking for to be on the safe side. As soon as we come out of shift I want whoever’s there to be taken alive at all costs. But I don’t want them to get away so we have to shoot first and do some talking later. Aim for their engines to cripple them only. Clear?” The appropriate heads nodded their understanding.
As they appeared in real space they were hit by a small shock wave as a ship was blown apart before their eyes. Nearby were two ships that were obviously damaged too, but not enough to stop them beginning to move in preparation for a shift.
“Fire!” The captain’s crew was well trained, and at the command shot at the engine of the first ship as the second was turning around to join its comrades shift direction. The shot hit its target precisely and, under normal conditions, it would have done exactly as the captain had expected and just crippled the ship. Unfortunately, these were not normal conditions, and the already damaged engines did not just shut down, but instead they exploded causing a chain reaction destroying the vessel immediately.
“Hold your fire!” The Supplier captain yelled.

-----------------------------------

Drake’s screen showed a fighter closing on them but knew they’d be able to shift before it could do anything. After all, it wouldn’t just begin firing on ships it didn’t know. Their captain would try to talk to them first, thus giving them the seconds they needed to get away.
“Swing around and align with Bern’s vessel.”
As the ship began to turn an explosion of light erupted from the Supplier; and before he had time to truly digest what was happening Bern’s ship was hit. It staggered under the blow and in an instant it blew apart filling Drake’s screen with blinding light. The Harpy was now swinging around, and its side was fully exposed to the blast. Being so close to the other ship in preparation to shift, the blast was enough to penetrate the shields. As Drake gave the order to shift, the weakened shields gave way and the hull was opened. The ship de-pressurized too quickly for compartments to be automatically closed, and the ship blew apart. The Harpy was gone in a flash of light.
The Supplier captain saw all this happen within just a few short seconds, and knew that there was nothing he could do about it. Whoever they were they’d be of no use to him now. Since the Cargo 1 was nowhere within sensor range anyway, he’d no reason to suspect these ships as having anything to do with its disappearance. He added to his log that he was disappointed they had not been stopped without loss of life, but that he did not feel it was any great loss. It seemed to be just a group of pirates squabbling amongst themselves anyway.
“Let’s get back to searching for our ship.”


Twenty Nine


The animals thrashed about screaming but there was nowhere to run, and no way to escape the inevitable fate destiny had for them. Blood and gore fell to the metal plated floor followed by the remaining bulk of the dying or dead animal it had come from. Over and over this happened till as many as half the green and blue creatures in the hold were dead. Those left alive were cowering, some screaming, in panic over in one corner. Instinctively they knew that it was only a matter of time before the dead would be consumed and then it would be their turn.

-----------------------------------

“OK, Let’s try it then.” Clayton didn’t sound overly impressed with the plan but he realized it was certainly worth the try. “I can’t think of anything better, so go for it.”
He handed the radio to Jacob and the farmer fiddled with the controls for a moment. “I don’t know that I remember the frequency exactly but I do remember seeing it on the front of Carlee’s radio. I know you say Marshall has cut off all his communications, but I just don’t see him cutting off his one way of contacting her. I think he’d leave that open.”
“I guess you might be right,” Clayton said. “I sincerely hope so.”
Jacob spoke as he continued to track down Carlee’s radio frequency, “Clayton, let’s get under way now. The longer we sit here the less time we have to try and cover some of the distance between Teldar and us. If I’m lucky enough to get hold of Marshall’s ship, and they come to get us we should already be on our way.”
“Since we don’t have much air or energy left I tend to agree with you. At least we’ll be trying something, I’m sick of just floating around aimlessly. I’ll get us under way at maximum speed as quickly as I can.” He spent a few minutes programming co-ordinates into the pods navigation system and then the vessel suddenly sped forward. Stellar objects close by moved from them quickly while those further away gave the impression that they were hardly moving at all.
“I’m turning down all life support to the bare minimum now, so let’s try to talk as little as possible,” Clayton gave a reassuring smile to Sean as the interior lights slowly faded to darkness.
Every few seconds Jacob would try a new frequency but only managed to find static noise as had Clayton before him. Not allowing any despair to build within him he kept trying and eventually, as he began to fear the radios small battery would fail before he contacted someone to help them, he found an open and clear channel. Both Sean and Clayton sat up straight, alert to the change in the sound coming from the radio. They looked expectantly at Jacob and finally he keyed the radio and spoke.
“Carlee, can you hear me? Come in, Carlee, please.” He knew he sounded a little desperate but he couldn’t help himself, as that was exactly how he felt. “Please, anyone.”
“Yes, I hear you,” came the reply. The three occupants in the tiny pod heard the female voice. Like a marooned sailor in rapture at the sight of an approaching ship, they thought her voice was that of an angel.
Something was wrong with the voice though. Even with the usual slight variation to a voice over the radio, Jacob didn’t really think it sounded like Carlee.
“Who is this?”
“This is….wait, is that you, dad?”


Thirty

“Captain, the stewards are reporting an emergency in the starboard holds.” The enlisted soldier felt intimidated to be passing on such a negative message to his superior but had no choice. He could only hope that the captain’s reputation for being rough and ready did not extend to harming the messenger.
The gruff looking captain turned in his bridge chair and gave the crewman a wilting look. “Soldier, we’re only moments from breaking out of shift, and we don’t know what to expect when we arrive that close to the front. I have a shipment on board and a delivery timetable I have to follow. I don’t have time for emergencies!” He turned to his second officer and nodded his head toward the visibly shaking man at the doorway. “Take care of this Mr. Laith.”
The officer pulled the young soldier to one side, out of the captain’s line-of-sight. “What’s this supposed emergency, and why didn’t the lead steward report directly to the bridge himself?” his voice was low; he understood the pressure the captain was under at this stage of his short trip from the Collector vessels.
“Sir, the lead steward is dead.” His words were the more horrific because they were spoken in a whisper and they were so far from being expected.
“How?” in shock, Laith’s voice rose unexpectedly and all on the bridge, including the captain, turned to stare at him. He raised his hands in mock surrender and said, “I’m sorry, captain, but I need to leave the bridge for a moment.” He walked out, taking the arm of the soldier with him, before the captain could ask for more details. When they were outside he nodded for the man to answer his last question.
“Sir, we don’t really know what’s going on. A few minutes ago someone went into the animal holds to find out why they were making so much noise. You know how quiet they usually are. He never came back so the lead steward went to see what was taking so long. A few seconds later he came running out with something on his back. Before anyone could do anything, the thing jumped away back into the hold and the steward fell to the floor dead.” He paused for a breath then continued. “They’ve sealed all the doors to the animal holds and are waiting for some orders.”
A pause and then Laith said, “Call security. Get an armed detail down to the main hold entry door, now! Tell them not to do anything till I get there.” The soldier left on his errand and the officer went to tell the captain the bad news.

---------------------------------------

Many shift hours away on a small blue-green planet, an early morning sun was rising over the horizon. As the pirates rose from their sleep, many hung over thanks to the previous night’s festivities, something strange was waiting to greet them. The holding pens that had so recently been built in anticipation of Drake's delivery of the blues and greens stolen from the Collectors, were now holding only about half the number of animals they had just hours before.
As the early morning risers went to feed the newly arrived animals, they noticed fewer heads peering over the fencing than they expected. On entering the pens some of the women began to scream and one of the men ran back to the small village shouting for help.
“What’s going on