the idea of taking these aliens aboard his ship, the idea now filled him with hope. Once he was back on his own turf, he’d have an advantage – he may be able to find some way to gain the upper hand, perhaps even escape. “When do we leave?”
“Now,” said Spreck.
Gray’s handlers guided him through a maze of dark corridors while Spreck pummeled him with questions about the Magellan. Gray tried to be as vague as possible with his answers, without being obviously evasive. Finally, they reached an airlock, and Gray could hear the air rushing through the seal as it was opened. As he was led aboard his ship, which was as dark as where he’d just come from, he smelled the familiar air and heard the welcome sound of the deck plates under his feet. The air was a little stale, the temperature a little cool, and atmosphere unusually silent, but Gray was home.
“Alright,” said Gray, “obviously everything is powered down right now. If you want to learn anything, I’m going to have to run some power through the systems.”
“Do what you must,” said Spreck.
Gray felt his way to a wall panel and input a series of numbers into the keypad. A low hum vibrated through the floor as the power grid came online. A few more keypunches and the main computer started its initiation sequence. Once the software ran its startup cycle, Gray entered his command login, turning on the lights at full illumination, hoping to blind the q’Chek.
Gray could hear the soft buzz of the lights, but it was still completely dark. They must’ve done something to the lighting system. He quickly changed tactics and tackled the two handlers, who he knew were standing immediately to his right. As they hit the floor, Gray jumped back to his feet and ran for where he knew the doors to the bridge were, awkwardly scooted through, and locked himself in. He felt his way to his command chair and quickly entered a series of commands by touch into his captain’s module, locking the airlock room’s outer door to bar the q’Chek’s escape, then flooded the compartment they were in with a sedative gas.
With the q’Chek knocked out, Gray tried to figure out what was wrong with the lights. He addressed the ship’s computer.
“System, run lighting diagnostic,” he said.
“Lighting operating at full capacity with no malfunctions,” said System.
Gray’s heart caught in his throat. “System, scan Joshua Gray for basic health parameters.”
After a few seconds, System replied, “Joshua Gray health summary – heart rate forty-seven percent above normal, temperature one point six degrees above normal, thirty-eight percent dehydration, several symptoms indicating malnutrition, grade two lacerations on wrists, contusions to forearms, contusions to neck, contusions to chest, visual cortex receiving no stimulation.”
Gray was blind.
Trembling, he said, “Explain reason for visual cortex malfunction.”
“Visual cortex undamaged. Foreign object lodged at base of skull acting as a shunt for all visual stimuli. Object must be removed to regain vision.”
“So they blindfolded me,” said Gray to himself.
“Please restate,” said System.
“I wasn’t talking to you,” said Gray. He reached up and felt the back of his neck. A thick scab covered the area just below his skull. He picked at it eagerly and pulled it off, trying to ignore the pain. He dug his fingers through the bloody flesh and pulled out the electronic shunt.
“Aaargh!” he yelled, both from the pain, and the sudden bright light that flooded his eyes, causing him to scrunch them shut.
He gradually opened his eyes, blinking and teary, and looked around at his empty bridge. He wiped away the tears and turned on the cameras that would show him the room in which the q’Chek lay unconscious.
For the first time, Gray saw his captors. The enemy. And he was stunned.
They looked exactly like humans, only with blue hair, pale blue skin and very large ears. No one had seen the q’Chek before, and in the days he’d been in the dark, Gray had imagined up a number of creepy possibilities for the way they looked. But rather than insectoid monsters or grotesque beasts, the two handlers and the leader Gray had dubbed “Spreck” lay there looking more or less like regular people.
Putting aside his shock for the time being, Gray moved on to the next step in his carefully planned escape scenario. Since he did not know if any of the rest of his crew were alive, or where they may be, and since he did know that the q’Chek would very soon be pursuing him, he initiated an automated distress call, then fired up the Magellan’s synchrostatic energy coils in preparation for flight.
Gray assumed the Magellan was still in the belly of the enormous q’Chek vessel, and he was willing to take the chance of blasting his way out, considering that was really his only option. As soon as the synchrostatic coils were charged, Gray engaged port thrusters and broke moorings. Running the Magellan single-handedly was a trick, but for the purposes of his escape, Gray managed the basics.
When the external viewer engaged, Gray could see that he was inside the vast internal docking chamber of the q’Chek mother ship. The image was an enhanced pseudo-visual, because the docking chamber was actually unlit. After a few moments, Gray saw the ghostly images of several q’Chek warships begin to move away from their docked positions and drift toward the Magellan.
Gray initialized the defense systems. A forcefield was raised around the ship, and the laser banks and fusion torpedo launchers came online. Without waiting for the enemy to engage, Gray simultaneously emitted a fan of powerful laser energy in all directions, strafing the q’Chek ships, and unloaded a fusillade of fusion torpedoes at the far wall of the chamber in an attempt to blast his way out into space.
When the dust from the explosions dissipated, Gray could see stars beyond the hole he’d bored in the q’Chek mother vessel. He quickly aimed the Magellan for the hole, and engaged the synchrostatic coils. In moments, he was flying through the hole and out into open space. As soon as the ship was clear, he powered up the quantum drive and disappeared into the depths.
With the q’Chek left in his wake, Gray reached into the console of his captain’s module and grabbed a field ration he knew he’d left there, broke into it and ravenously stuffed it into his now-bearded face. As he shoved the last bite into his mouth, he noticed movement out of the corner of his eye on the monitor. Spreck and his friends were starting to come to in the other room. Gray pressed a button and released more sedative gas into the room – he didn’t want to deal with the q’Chek right now. He also shut down all control interfaces in that room, just in case the q’Chek woke up again and tried to get free.
Next, Gray stopped the auto-distress call and got on the comm.
“Magellan to UEA Control. This is Captain Joshua Gray. Time index four four seven – slash - six three point two zero. I have escaped the q’Chek, but do not know where my crew is. When my ship was captured, we lost a number of officers. Commander Cho died in captivity. Present coordinates are -” he broke off to check the readings, then found himself speechless. He regained his composure and continued the message. “Present coordinates are nine-seven-six by three-two by eight-one-one.”
Gray switched off the comm and sat back in his chair. At this range from home, his comm would take three weeks just to arrive at UEA’s most distant listening post, and then another week to be relayed back to Control by the listening post’s powerful transmitter. Gray was astonished at how far the q’Chek vessel had traveled so fast. When the Magellan first encountered the q’Chek ship, they were patrolling the z-axis border, only a few days journey from the Oort cloud at the edge of the solar system. Now they were several weeks away from that location, at maximum stat.
Without UEA support, Gray would need to reevaluate his plan. He may have to go back alone to rescue the rest of his crew.
If they were even alive.
A proximity alert sounded, and System announced, “Vessel approaching aft, range two million kilometers.”
Gray checked his scopes and
determined the q’Chek mother ship was in pursuit and closing fast. That was to be expected, given how much faster the huge ship was. Gray quickly scanned the vicinity and found a relatively small, high-density nebula. He changed course, hoping to be able to reach it and hide among the camouflaging energy waves before the q’Chek caught up to him.
He made it to the nebula just as the q’Chek ship came within weapons range. Once inside, he was invisible.Unless they came within visual range – which in the thick nebula was about twenty kilometers - he’d be safe. He set up a rotating perimeter scan, then looked at one of the monitors to check on his prisoners.
Then it hit him: although the q’Chek were averse to any negotiations regarding their claim on Earth space, perhaps they would be willing to talk about a prisoner exchange. Spreck seemed like some sort of leader, so Gray assumed the q’Chek would value him enough to talk about a trade - Spreck and the two handlers for however many of the Magellan crew were left.
Gray set up a convex relay to mask the source location of his signal, then opened a hailing amplitude.
“q’Chek vessel, this is Captain Joshua Gray. I am holding three of your people aboard my ship. I propose an exchange: your people for mine.”
After a few minutes, the response came. “We will speak to our people.”
Gray pondered. Did they mean