Alien Mine Ch. 09

Return fire was immediate as Sandy maneuvered to keep the central part of the wreckage between them and the Om. "Incoming Amancia said while she and Kiania began laying down defensive fire. Four Om missiles were curving around the remains of the Om cruiser, seeking their targets. Sandy accelerated, weaving in between the large debris pieces while throwing the ship into evasive maneuvers to give their defensive fire a few more seconds to acquire incoming rounds.

Kiania launched two more missiles. Amancia fired the disrupter into the Om ship's shields while keeping the defensive fire steady. Countermeasures sent two of the incoming missiles off course; Amancia nailed one with the disrupter while the other was intercepted by an antimissile.

Rhys projected the course he wanted, and Sandy brought them back around through the wreckage toward the Om ship. As they passed through the destruction, a beam reached out, tearing through their shields and into the shuttle itself. Leslie jumped as she saw a searing flash of light and heard the others scream in anguish as the ship lurched.

Sandy reeled from the pain as the beam went into the forward part of the ship, just behind the bow. It was like a knife slicing into her vitals, Stabbing into her muscles, and ripping out her organs. Reacting despite the pain, she threw the ship into a crazy corkscrew motion at full power. The combined mind immediately reformed, and the pain was gone, but not the memory. Kiania and Amancia turned their weapons with a vengeance on the remains of the Om wreckage.

The disrupter struck boring straight through, followed by two missiles that vaporized a significant portion of the remaining section of the wrecked Om ship. There must have been no energy shields left functional as that portion of the wreckage ceased to exist. But it had been a dangerous blow, even if not fatal. It had distracted them at a critical moment, and the Om ship was attacking with everything it had. Missiles were incoming even as beam weapons struck their damaged shields.

The beam had torn through their shields and like a knife through warm butter and speared into the ship. Despite being hurt, Rhys could feel the shuttle healing itself as the hull reformed to cover the breach, circuits reestablishing themselves. Thea was terrified but focused on the hologram in front of her, accessing damage and repairs.

"Dodge back through the wreckage," Rhys commanded. It was dangerous, but the shields needed time to regenerate before they failed again.

Sandys maneuvers took them back through at a dangerous speed; collision with anything larger than a basketball would probably kill them at this speed despite the ship's armor.

The Om ship was continuing to press its attack, but it was apparent it was also damaged. Their first missile strike must have been more effective than they realized. However, the Om continued to fire missiles that tracked them on their evasive course through the now expanding debris field, tracking them despite everything Sandy could do. Close in defenses got two, but one exploded close to the hull, and the combined minds felt the pain again as the ship lurched heavily to the side. The armor absorbed the blast, but Rhys also felt the shuttle slow as Sandy noted damage to the drive system.

The shuttle was damaged, but so were the Om, and Sandy arched them around the remains of the Om dead cruiser in a tight turn. Another missile was intercepted behind them as she pulled the shuttle into a tighter turn, actually passing under one of the vine-like structures. As they came around, That brought them to the rear of the damaged Om ship.

"Hit them NOW!" Rhys ordered mentally to Kiania and Amancia. The disrupter punched through their screens, taking out a part of their propulsion followed by two missiles. "Got it!!" Rhys shouted out. There was only a small cloud of debris left.

****

Rhys breathed a sigh of relief as Sandy took them on a course away from the Om wreckage. "Watch for other weapons from the remains of the Om cruiser," Rhys warned, is there anything else active, Bob?

Not according to the scans, but the AI did not pick that one up either. They must have kept the power off until they fired it. Probably whatever was left in the capacitors, I do not think it was operating at maximum strength.

"The ship is healing itself!" Thea said in amazement while looking at the hologram in front of her. The beam took out the staterooms, and there is engine damage that I do not understand from the near hit. Speed is down to about half. The ship seems to be affecting repairs, but if I understand this data, she said mentally, pointing at a display in front of her, "it will take about two weeks in space, three days back at the base."

Breathing a sigh of relief, Rhys examined the wreckage in the display. "Can we board the remains of the Om ship Bob?"

"I do not recommend it, you do not have the equipment to fight the Om in a boarding action, nor are you trained for that. As tempting as it is, you should not confront the Om in hand-to-hand combat as you call it."

"I agree," said Sandy; we have no experience at something like that. "I suggest we just blast it or leave it alone for now."

"It seems unlikely that the Om will risk another ship if, in fact, they have one," Bob noted. "If they are not aware the ships were destroyed, they will realize it when they do not return. This will make them suspect the Drans are still here and capable of destroying them."

"Sandy, where will the Om ship end up if we leave it," Rhys asked, not comfortable leaving even a badly damaged ship to drift in the solar system.

"It is moving at .001% light speed, which is still pretty fast; it should approach Pluto's orbit in about six months," she said after a brief calculation with the AI.

Hhmm, Rhys thought for a second as he and the girls, Bob, and the ship's AI all interacted, sorting through options at the speed of thought until they came to an answer they thought best.

Rhys turned to Leslie and Thea. "We are going to leave it alone for the time being. Salvage attempts can wait until we are better prepared, but I do want to look over the Drans wreckage while we are here."

Rhys could feel Thea and Leslie's emotions. Their symbionts were not developed, and the sudden battle had taken a toll. Both had handled it better than he expected. It was probably worse for Leslie as she was a bystander. He walked over to her while motioning to Thea. She quickly jumped up and moved into his arms. Rhys pulled Leslie to him, putting his arms around both of them. Both the girls sighed as they felt the fear reside, replaced by a feeling of calm. Other arms enveloped them as the other girls joined the hug, surrounding the newest members with a sense of warmth and belonging.

"That feels amazing," Thea said.

'It does," added Leslie burying her head in Rhys' chest, enjoying the combination of his strength and the smell of male. She could feel Sandy pressed against her from behind, her mind and nascent symbiont reveling in the signals it received. Her brain felt like soft erotic silk was smoothing it. Thea moaned, and she guessed she was feeling the same thing.

"Better now?" Rhys asked, pulling back so he could look at both of them.

"Yes, thank you," Thea said with a smile before turning and hugging Sandy.

Kiania pulled Leslie in for a hug, then Amancia. Amancia held her close, looking into Leslie's eyes. Don't worry, soon your symbiont will be mature, and you will be able to interface with us. It's much easier when you know what's going on."

Leslie was surprised when Amancia pulled her in for a kiss. It was not a long one, but not a short one either. Amancia let her go and turned to Thea, leaving Leslie confused. She had responded as if on automatic and returned the kiss, enjoying the small intimacy. She felt eyes on her and looked up to see a kind smile on Sandy's face.

"Amancia likes you," she said, "we all do."

Leslie blushed and turned back toward Rhys to hide her embarrassment, but he was busy studying the hologram showing the space surrounding them and didn't notice. A curved line appeared from their current position to the central part of the Drans ship's remains. The cruiser was also broken into many pieces, but a chunk of the center seemed to be intact. "Sandy, take us there. I want to see if I can get inside to see what's left."

"Do you think there are any survivors?" Kiania asked.

"There were on the Om vessel, so it's possible."

"No," Bob interrupted. "Drans go to great lengths to deny the Om prisoners they can use to study or samples of the symbiont. They are programmed to self-destruct to avoid capture. It is unlikely any Drans surviving the battle would still be alive. The symbionts are also programed to self-destruct even if the Drans are already dead or if in danger of capture," Bob said through the speakers so that Leslie and Thea could hear.

"Are you programmed to do that?" Kiania asked with a frown, not sure how she felt about it.

"Yes, it is part of each symbiont's core programming. The Drans have done their best to keep the technology used to develop the symbionts secret. Should one of you be captured alive, the symbiont would self-destruct. Since I reside in all of your cells, your body would cease to exist as well."

"Good to know," Rhys said, not sure how he felt about that. "Any more surprises you haven't told us about?"

"Not that I am aware of," Bob replied.

Sandy shuddered at the thought of being taken prisoner by an alien race such as the Om. They had no regard for any life but their own. She did not imagine it would be a pleasant experience; instant death was probably preferable but scary to think about just the same.

****

Rhys turned on the propulsion unit for his armor, grinning as the thrusters kicked in, sending him toward the Drans ship. It was a first for him and Kiania, and he decided he loved the feeling as he fell toward the ship. As the suit's thrusters came on, an abrupt jolt took him from drifting outside the shuttle to moving through space. Testing his control, he quickly dodged the larger pieces of debris and, looking back at Kiania, saw her doing the same. She did not have his grin, though, as she followed him to the broken piece of a spaceship.

Looking back, Rhys could see the shuttle about 100 meters away, just outside the debris field.

"I don't like this," Sandy groused. If something goes wrong, we can't get in there to help you.

"We will be okay, Kiania is with me, and there won't be any survivors to worry about."

"No, but there is no telling what other traps the Drans may have left, even Bob doesn't know."

"We will be careful; I should be able to interact with any active Drans AI left aboard."

Sandy just nodded while bringing her thumbnail up to her mouth, chewing on the nail nervously; she didn't like Rhys and Kiania out there alone. "Amancia, get your armor on; I want you ready in case they run into trouble."

Yes, ma'am," she replied, putting her helmet on and taking up her weapon. Firing a rifle in space was not something any of them had trained on, but she would do her best if necessary.

Kiania bit her lip inside her suit, nervously drifting through the void, a few thin layers between her and the vacuum. She maneuvered around another set of junk the size of a door, the metal twisted and darkened as if it had been seared by the sun.

"We are approaching the main part," Rhys said as he slowed his approach to a slow walk.

"What do you see?" Sandy said sharply, wishing again Rhys was not out there.

"This part looks fairly good despite the holes in it. I can see what appears to be weapons exposed where the armor is damaged or missing. Missile launchers, beam weapons of some kind, I guess. According to the plans, the main control room would have been in the upper middle part of the ship. I think we are seeing part of it." Bob overlaid the ship's structure in his vision, the areas of interest were highlighted. The Drans ship had broken into three large pieces, with much debris still floating around. The ship's AI is the most important thing we can recover, for now, Rhys said. The rest will have to wait for later.

The AI's primary nexus would be located near the engines in the most heavily armored part of the ship, at least the core would be. Much of the AI was distributed throughout the Dead cruiser.

The Drans vessel was midsized, the equivalent of a cruiser perhaps thought Rhys. Its defensive, and offensive capabilities were among the best the Drans had. It seemed massive to him, but according to the AI, it would have had a crew of a hundred aboard when it was destroyed. A hundred of the Drans symbiont soldiers were eliminated in an instant.

Built from smart metal, it was black, more than black - almost like a hole in the blackness of space. Ominous looking, the ship's lines were full of rounded edges and had bristled with weapons.

"Are any of the weapons salvageable?" Thea asked, dying to get her hand on the alien technology.

Rhys magnified the ship in his view. "It's difficult to tell, some are torn to bits, but others appear to be undamaged. No telling what we will find when we get inside. All right, we are beginning our approach.

"Your trajectory is good. You should reach the ship in five minutes."

Rhys maneuvered closer, the surface of the ship in front of him was smooth, but a few meters to the side, a large object had torn the hull.

"Stop! We are being probed," Bob said.

He and Kiania fired their thrusters, stopping their approach. Rhys's heart rate increased as he floated there less than a meter from the ship, thinking about his short time onboard when he had first been taken, then attacked by the Om. If his captors hadn't acted quickly, he would have died here, and he was lucky the Om had been too busy with their own damage to fire on the shuttle as it returned him to earth.

"I have established communications; the ship's defenses recognize you and has accepted me as your symbiont. It has agreed to accept Kiania provisionally."

"I thought the ship was dead," Rhys said as he moved into the torn hull. He couldn't imagine the forces involved that could rip something this big apart.

"The crew are dead, of course, but parts of the AI remain intact in each part of the hull. If it did not recognize you, it would activate any defenses or self-destruct mechanisms still intact.

Rhys floated slowly to the torn hole, the edges jagged, torn apart by unimaginable forces. This hole was not smooth. It was not the result of an energy weapon; instead, it was as if a hand had punched through, then ripped out whatever was inside. Everything was torn apart, and Rhys and Kiania moved carefully as they entered the dead hull. Moving inside of the ship was as dark and oppressive as the outside. A tomb he supposed that would have floated for years before humans stumbled on it sometime in the future, if ever. Silence and solitude surrounded them.

"I am not sure I like this," Kiania whispered nervously as she moved into the dark passage. "Everything is strange, the dimensions off. It's like being at one of those houses in a carnival where the floors curve and the walls are angled."

Rhys agreed, not happy with the thought of what could be floating up ahead. Hopefully, no surprises were waiting for them. Rhys flicked his suit's headlamps on bright, pushing back the thick, oppressive darkness. The thin slices of light were helpful but not nearly enough. Rhys grimaced in distaste at the sight of the ship around him; floating through a dead ship touched something primal in him, almost like a nightmare come to life. Shaking off the feeling of invading a graveyard, they hurried on down a passage. Firing his thrusters in a small burst, he led Kiania slowly along the passage to an intersection. Checking the map, he turned left and 'up', propelling himself quickly along the long corridor. The ship was utterly unfamiliar to him; he had been unconscious most of the time he had been aboard.

He had been brought aboard unconscious and had only seen the room that he had been confined in. They had injected the symbiont into his head during the battle, and most of his memories of moving and escaping into the shuttle were a blur.

According to the plans, they were in the remains of the central core, the ship's nerve center that contained the warp drive and the AI. Rhys moved carefully now, warned by Bob that there may be more defenses active in this part of the ship.

"There is no power; how can these defenses still be active?"

Residual power from energy storage is distributed throughout the ship so that it still maintains critical function in case of power loss. The remaining sections will have minimal capacity for hundreds of years.

Some of this may be salvageable then for later use?

Yes, I have queried the remains, but I have not been allowed access to the AI. We must be cautious, as it may not allow you access.

You mean mental access; I will not be able to query it? Rhys asked.

Mental or physical, it will have its own defenses still active. The crew may be dead, but the ship's defenses will still be engaged to prevent enemies from doing what we are attempting.

Kiania and Rhys moved carefully as they headed for the engine room; the AI would be nearby. This ship's destruction had been swift but not unexpected. Kiania was following Rhys, but she felt uneasy. The alien ship's strangeness bothered her; the darkness lit only by their headlamps added to her feelings of unease. She jerked as a shape floated out of the dark, a body of an alien rotated toward her. Kiania stifled a scream. It's only armor, she said to herself. The shape was nothing she recognized, six appendages surrounding a beetle-like body. "Rhys, look, is this a Drans?"

"One of its forms," Bob answered." This form is meant for working in space and in areas where it might encounter low or no gravity."

Rhys let it go; they had no way of getting it back to the ship. It would have to wait for a later trip to retrieve the remains and study the technology.

A half an hour had gone by as they twisted their way through corridors, many of which were damaged. They passed several more armored corpses on their way. Rhys could not see anything behind what he presumed was the faceplate. The armor looked empty. This was their tomb, and it was best to leave the alien dead in peace.

"Just through here," Bob said with a mental finger pointing at a space ahead. The corridor was bent and twisted, but there was just enough room left to crawl through. Rhys was careful not to snag his armor as he carefully moved hunched over through the damaged sections. He turned back to help Kiania, but she flowed through with much more grace than he did. He turned back to the compartment, looking around, noting with a glance that it was mostly intact. It wasn't big, about 25 cubic meters with a structure in the middle. Rhys floated toward the back, carefully looking for defenses. He could see that parts of the space shimmered in the illumination of their lights.

"What is that?" Kiania asked as she moved carefully to float by Rhys. Something indistinct seemed to move, flowing around a central structure in waves, a strange silvery cloud.

"Death cloud, nanobits that will swarm and attack, don't approach any closer," Bob warned suddenly. "They are designed to defend the AI against a nano attack but will attack and destroy anything that approaches.

"What exactly do they do?" Rhys asked.