Scrapyard Ship (17 page)

Jason studied the display and activated his NanoCom. “Captain to Billy.”

“Go for Billy. What’s up Captain?”

“I hope you and your men are still suited up. Prepare to board and take that ship.” Jason said, wondering if he was about to condemn The Lilly and her crew to a terrible fate. “And scrounge me up one of your new full-body combat suits.” Jason looked over to his XO: “Prepare to phase-shift in exactly two minutes.”

“To where?” The XO said, bewildered.

Jason hurried over, close to the forward display, and pointed: “To right here—we’ll only get one chance at this so don’t screw it up.” Jason turned to leave the bridge, “And the bridge is yours. I’ll stay on coms.”

“Yes, sir” Perkins replied, at first a bit confused. Then nodded his head in appreciation. Jason left the bridge and headed for the nearest DeckPort.

* * *

Billy, holding his own helmet under his arm and dressed in a dark red hardened combat suit, was waiting for Jason in front of the aft airlock. The embers of his cigar flared and a cloud of white smoke filled the air. Jason shook his head, but now was not the time to lecture his friend about smoking onboard.

“These suits are a little tricky getting into the first time,” Billy said, standing next to a second opened combat suit. “You have to step into them feet first, one at a time—doing things in the right order. Billy proceeded to show Jason exactly how to fit himself into the suit and latch each section shut as he went. Over his NanoCom he heard the XO’s nervous voice, “Thirty seconds to phase-shift.” A nearby SEAL handed Billy a helmet.

“This will adjust to your own physiology. You’ll discover that you pretty much know how to operate everything already. Your previous HyperLearning tests took care of that. Well, mostly.” Billy placed the helmet over Jason’s head and secured the airtight latch mechanism.

“Your helmet’s Heads Up Display is configured to work with your nano-devices as well as react to eye movement,” Billy said. “All very intuitive, it just takes some getting used to.”

Another SEAL handed Jason a high-powered pulse assault weapon.

“That’s set to burn through flesh and blood but not the hull.” Billy said, with his typical smile. Jason just nodded. The countdown in his head was at three, two, one…

“Phase-shift completed,” came the voice of the XO in Jason’s ear. Jason was extremely relieved the comms still worked, now that The Lilly was sitting in the belly of the Craing vessel, three miles from their previous location. The forward and aft gangways were being deployed and SEALs were scurrying out with weapons held high.

Billy’s voice came over Jason’s comms, “Kinda brings new meaning to the old saying
if you can’t beat em, join em,
don’t it?”

“Let’s keep the chatter down, boys,” Jason said, as he took in his new surroundings. The Craing vessel’s enormous cargo hold had fortunately been almost empty, although several large crates in one corner had been obliterated by The Lilly’s shift. So large was the hold, two of The Lillys could fit together, side by side. Dark and lurid colors were muted to dreary shades of grey. Jason and his team of SEALs moved forward, taking short, tentative, steps as they investigated the hold. His visibility was limited. The air was thick and moist and caused condensation to form on his visor. He wiped at the front of his helmet. It was as if a stagnant, putrid, cloud hung suspended throughout the ship.

“Nice, cheery place you brought us to, Cap,” Billy’s voice stated over his NanoCom.

They broke into five teams: Lion, Bear, Zebra, Tiger and Cougar. The latter stayed put to watch the perimeter of The Lilly. Lion and Bear teams headed forward, while Tiger and Zebra headed aft. Jason and his Lion team headed off down the port corridor of the ship. Billy, and team Bear, moved forward on the starboard side corridor. Jason quickly realized he needed to change his HUD settings to display life signs. Immediately, over one hundred orange symbols came into view laid on top of a virtual representation of the Craing ship.

Apparently, The Lilly and the SEAL teams were still undetected. Jason and his four team members were a formidable sight in their oversized protective combat suits, streamlined helmets, amber-colored backlit visors, and large plasma pulse rifles. They moved forward and took up the full width of the corridor. Jason and his Lion team passed multiple small, about five-foot high, closed hatchway doors along the corridor. Two life signs approached from a perpendicular corridor ahead. Jason signaled his team to hold back and they watched as two Craing crew members emerged in front of them, at the point where the corridors intersected. These three- to four-foot high beings looked remarkably similar to Ricket: their grayish skin, thick and creased, hide-like, with short stubby arms and legs, and the same triangular-shaped heads and large eyes.

Two Craing were stunned and left lying on the floor, even before they had a chance to react. The majority of the Craing crew seemed to be concentrated in one section of the ship, about sixty meters from Jason’s current corridor position. More signs of life began to show up in this section of the ship along with noises, like soft murmuring sounds, emanating from down the corridor. Off to the right was a wide entranceway. According to Jason’s HUD it led to another chamber. Actually, to the largest area of the ship, even larger than the hold where The Lilly was parked. The chamber, taking up much of the deck they were on, was opened to ten decks above. Flashing over the entrance was a series of symbols. Although Jason had no idea what they meant, the HUD had figured it out and displayed the translated text:
Meal-Time.

“Billy to Captain.”

“Go for Captain—you seeing what I’m seeing, Billy?”

“Yeah, we’re just outside the other entrance. I’m seeing close to a hundred life signs here and another hundred humans up above.”

“Another hundred humans?” Annoyed with himself, Jason realized he had his HUD set to ignore other human life signs.

“Crap, you’re right.” Once changed, the HUD filled with close to one hundred bright blue symbols.

“Ricket to Captain,” came the mechanical voice in Jason’s ear.

“Can’t talk right now, Ricket. I’ll get back to you.” Jason disconnected, while he edged closer to the entrance and peered inside.

Scattered about the room were ten stone-like tables, each big enough to sit fifteen to twenty Craing comfortably. Ornate woodcarvings, some as large as automobiles, encircled the room. Hanging down from the walls were long, intricately painted banners. Scenes of early Craing warriors holding spears and riding elaborate carts, perhaps chariots into battle—much like the early Egyptians—although much of the effect was lost due to their short stature. A golden statue of a large lizard-like creature dominated the center of the room. Here, the smoky haze filling the air was the worst Jason had experienced yet—dark and foreboding, where the only light came from flames flickering upward from ten round caldrons. Each table was open in the middle where a Craing,
Benihana-style
, chef stood serving his guests. Back and forth, he’d turn to the caldron and then back to those around the table, serving each in turn.

Jason now realized that these cauldrons were actually more like giant cooking grills. He scanned the room. Obviously, these
meal times
were part of some kind of religious ceremony. A repeating mantra had begun and droned in the background. Each of the Craing stopped and lowered his head, as if in reverence or submission. Jason watched and wondered if they were praying to the lizard statue in the center of the room.

"Captain, you seeing this shit?" Billy hissed, over his comms.

"Yeah, I'm seeing it," Jason replied, still mesmerized by the scene.

“So these are the aliens that are terrorizing the universe? I just don’t get it, Cap.”

A loud cracking noise, what sounded like snapping twigs or small bones being broken, echoed around the large chamber. The Craing suddenly turned and faced the forward bulkhead in unison, and bowed several times in rapid succession. When the sound came again, in unison they all turned forty-five degrees to face another bulkhead and bowed again. They did this a total of four times—north, south, east, and west—giving homage to whatever or whomever. Eventually, the strange sounds stopped and the Craing returned to their meals.

The caldrons around the chamber hissed and splattered as pieces of meat were thrown onto the grills. One of these flashes illuminated the open areas above. Looking up, Jason saw what looked like little fenced-in alcoves. Jason looked down at the eating area and then back up at the surrounding four vertical walls, filled with alcoves and long encircling catwalks. Somewhere at the back of his mind, he’d already put the pieces together. That the alcoves above were actually cages and that the pieces of meat on the cauldron grills were human arms, legs, and even a side of human ribs. Moans and screams had been filtering down from above all along. But that was nothing compared to his most recent realization. Somewhere, way off in the distance, high up above, he could hear the familiar
Boom Boom Pow
ringtone. Nan’s cell phone.

Ricket must have configured the Craing AI to forward cell calls. Jason took a slow deep breath. It was all he could do to keep himself from shooting every one of these barbaric Craing right here and now. Jason looked back to his team; four dimly lit faces stared back, with gaping jaws and wide eyes. They had each set their HUD displays to piggyback onto Jason’s. They’d seen exactly what he had seen.

Jason hailed Billy. “Let’s get these…what ever the hell they are, rounded up and secured. They don’t seem to be armed. Have Cougar team prepare a mock brig back in the hold area.”

“You got it, Cap,” Billy replied.

Both Lion and Bear teams rushed in simultaneously, with weapons aimed at the Craing’s heads. The unarmed, near naked Craing turned this way and that. Astonished to see their vessel infiltrated, without warning, the small aliens scurried around frantically. Jason thought it strange—the act of raising one’s hands must be the universal sign of submission. Each of the startled Craing crew was ushered out into both side corridors. An alarm klaxon sounded. That same dreadful sound Jason had heard near the scrapyard.

“Captain to Ricket,” Jason said.

“Go for Ricket,” the mechanical man came back. “Captain! I’ve made cell phone connection to…”

Jason cut him off, “Yes, I know what you’ve done. I heard the phone ringing. Is she all right, is she hurt?”

“I do not know. She did not answer. But the phone is located on deck nine right above your current location,” Ricket said.

“I’m investigating. What’s going on with The Lilly?” Jason asked, finding it nearly impossible to concentrate.

“Shields are now operational. Orion says the weapons are still down, but she’s making good headway.”

Jason ran for the nearest of the four lifts, surprised by the archaic slide-up metal gate and exposed cables and its old-fashioned pulley system above. After several tries he figured out the control lever and the lift slowly began to rise. The lift itself was coated with a splattering of a sticky-syrupy mixture of congealed blood and God knew what else. The second deck came into view through the metal mesh gate. The cages here were empty; only an occasional piece of torn off flesh, an odd finger, or an errant tuft of hair remained, stuck fast in the rough metal flooring.

Decks three through seven were a repeat of the same: empty cages and just as disgusting. Jason tried to keep his mind from venturing too far toward hopelessness and the growing possibility that Nan had recently been dismembered, carved up, and grilled on an open flame below. His stomach turned, and he fought the urge to retch. The lift was coming up to floor eight and immediately things looked different. Complete bodies, stationary, some sprawled out on cage floors, obviously dead. Others stripped down and partially dismembered. In a cage off to the right Jason saw a familiar shape. An aluminum walker. Two florescent-green tennis balls still secured to its front legs. Jason’s mind flashed back to Nan helping an elderly man across the desert, as they were ushered into the alien ship. This ship. Rolling carts, similar to hotel maid’s carts, were positioned down the catwalk in front of several of the cages.

The closest had an assortment of tools and cutlery—a strange type of saw lay atop a bloody cutting board with congealed blood and tissue, still wet. The carnage was horrific. Jason wanted to pull his eyes away but couldn’t. The lift was coming up on the ninth floor. Again, more bodies. Movement now. At least some of the people on this floor were still alive. All hog-tied, with their hands and feet secured tightly behind their backs. Faces looked out from behind the bars of cages with fearful eyes. Louder now, it repeated,
Boom Boom Pow
. Jason turned his head from side to side to get a better fix on its location. The lift came to a stop and he rammed the lift gate open. He turned left and ran down the catwalk, listening for the phone. Surprised faces watched him run past.

“Hang on. You’re safe now. I’ll be back.” Jason repeated these heartening words over and over again as he ran down the catwalk, making sure he made eye contact and looked as reassuring as possible. The cell phone ringing got quieter. Jason backtracked, slowing to a walk. He looked in each of the cages, one-by-one, where terrified eyes stared back at him.

He found Nan’s cage. Back in the corner was a woman, not moving. Her hair covered her face. Jason pulled on the cage door. It was locked. He stepped back to assess the lock. Like the lift, it was a simple, old-fashioned mechanism. Positioned on the catwalk, out of arm’s reach, was a release lever. He pulled it and the door released with a loud clang. Jason flung the door open and rushed to the woman’s side. She stirred. Carefully, Jason moved the hair from her face and with both hands cradled Nan’s scratched and bruised face. Her eyes opened halfway and then went wide. Realizing he still had his helmet on, he used one hand to disengage its front latch and pulled the helmet over and off his head. Then, carefully, he pulled the gag away from her mouth. He kissed her forehead.