Vivian

  <>------------------------------------------------<>------------------------------------------------<>

  “I’m sorry, but isn’t Duncan sending a team out there?” Bradford asked with a shocked tone of voice.

  “The plan was to wait for the Ancient to come back. There was no plan that I heard with us going after him. It was more to open the shield for him when he gets back,” Tatrina said with a hard stare at Bradford. “Hence why I wanted to talk to him about him helping us! It was all on the condition that he could survive to get back here!”

  “Oh, a trial by combat. If he could do that, then use our minds to get him to work for us. Smart my dear, very smart! It’s a shame you went to work for the company that owns that ship. You might have had a wonderful future in my company!” Bradford praised Tatrina who giggled like a schoolgirl.

  “Oh, you flatterer! It was just a little thought. If he dies, maybe the explosion will scare off the beasts out there for a while,” Tatrina said with a chuckle.

  Bradford only looked at her and chuckled lightly.

  As she listened to these two slimes talk, V1 barely kept calm. The fact was they were talking about using a person. Said person had just been freed from a fate almost worse than death was terrible. They were saying they could use the fact that they found the man’s prison as a way to have him fight to the death for them! She had rarely ever heard of such filth, such slime!

  “That depends on if he comes back,” V1 interjected with a complexly calm voice. As they looked at her, she only raised an eyebrow and sighed. “We have no idea if he will survive his battle. For all we know, the robot has something like the Power that the Ancients use.”

  As they looked at her, she kept hold on her emotions and kept speaking. “And if that robot did have something like that, then other robots could have it as well. This little fool hopes that the Ancient survived, then our people inside the wreck have a chance to live.”

  Bradford looked at her and his mouth dropped open.

  Vivian could tell that he was thinking about a horde of those robots attacking the capsule, and how that would look. If Dam’ien was able to hold off the robot and kill it, then that was good. That meant that he was stronger than they were. Then that meant that he was too strong for their power plays. And that if they pushed him, then he might push back. And Bradford wouldn’t want to be in the blast radius of that.

  But the real problem would be Tatrina. A person that Duncan knew from the war, who might have lost people to the Ancients. And the chance to get one over on someone who might not even have been a part of their military? Vivian knew hunters who wouldn’t have been able to resist strike as hard as they could in the name of vengeance.

  She looked at them and smiled lightly. “But what do I know?”

  <>------------------------------------------------<>------------------------------------------------<>

  Tatrina

  <>------------------------------------------------<>------------------------------------------------<>

  As she looked at Vivian, Tatrina forced herself to be calm. The woman before her was a veteran like her, but she had been in signals. They never saw the chaos of the battlefields or the butcher’s bill from those ‘battles’. Or had to bring parts of people that were your friends to the furnaces to burn the bodies. And that was the only reason that Tatrina didn’t slap the little traitorous fool before her now.

  “But shouldn’t this be a choice that Duncan has to make? I mean you’re not trying to take over in a coup are you?” Vivian asked as she looked right at Tatrina.

  Tatrina felt the ground swallow her as she looked at Vivian’s eyes. There was something about them, something that should be in a beast’s eyes. It was like Vivian was looking not at Tatrina, but something that she had to kill. For a moment she felt her hand shake before Vivian looked away.

  The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

  “But the chief only ordered us to tell you, Sir Bradford, what happened. What do you want him to know?” Vivian asked with a kind voice.

  Bradford swallowed loudly and then chuckled. “My dear! Miss Tatrina and I were just talking about the possibilities that will keep us alive! Now I’m not saying to do any of what we were talking about, only that we had to think about it! The position of command means to kill one's heart to do what they must to save lives. So please, don’t tell the Chief about our debate!”

  Tatrina watched Vivian nod and then look at Tatrina again before she spoke. “Miss, I’m heading back up there. Will you be joining me or do you want to be a rearguard here?”

  It was all Tatrina could do to shake her head as Vivian nodded.

  “Very well then,” Vivian said as she turned and walked out of the room.

  Once she was gone, Bradford looked at the door and swallowed hard. “She was in signals? Did she mean signal interrogation?”

  “Yeah!” Tatrina said as she panted. She honestly thought she was going to die for a moment there. And that person was retired? “I guess some old lessons just stay with you!”

  “Yes. And what will Duncan do now?” Bradford asked, a note of panic in his voice.

  Tatrina looked at Bradford and scowled. “Nothing. That woman might be someone to watch, but he won’t do anything. The Ancients aren’t members of the Federation, and there are no laws against talking. But perhaps we should word the talk we have with our new friend about surviving together.”

  “Of course, that was what we meant! But I remember some old rumors about some Ancients that were glory hounds! Perhaps this one is like them? And the chance for that one to gain personal glory would be a good way to get him to stay here. I mean those types are easy to handle if you do it right,” Bradford said with a small grin.

  Tatrina looked at him and nodded. Yes, that was all they needed now. Something to keep Vivian calm and make sure that she didn’t spread the topic of this conversation wide. They could ‘explain’ their conversation to Duncan, and he would understand. Surely, as a Veteran who saw combat, he could see what they were thinking.

  People who didn’t fight the Ancients, wouldn’t even comprehend the reasons for making sure that their new friend was on their side. And there were the robots to think about. They had no idea how many of each model was below, and how fast remains could be repaired. If they were able to get the shield up and running, then there was a chance, a small one but a chance. They had no idea what kind of capabilities the robots had, and there was a chance that they could make another exit.

  If she had to be fair, the plan relayed on the hope that the robots had simple programming. Anything too complex would mean that what they were doing was a waste of time. But the sad thing was that she couldn’t see anything that they could do instead.

  <>------------------------------------------------<>------------------------------------------------<>

  Duncan

  <>------------------------------------------------<>------------------------------------------------<>

  As he looked over Dalila’s shoulder as she worked, Duncan had to admit that she was something else. Already she had found enough components from the robot scrap to make a complete ‘new body’ of the robot. And then she had used parts she judged as beyond use to see how deep the armor was. But that was where she hit a block.

  “I’m sorry, but what?” Duncan asked as he, Leonator, and Dalila all kneed down looking at the broken piece of an arm. “It’s what?”

  “Our blades can’t cut it. Maybe one of those modified weapons Jessie made, but all those are down there. I haven’t seen anything like this before in my life!” Dalila said, shaking her head in awe.

  “But our weapons, they can blast through them fine! Why aren’t the blades doing anything?” Leonator asked, an inquisitive look in his eyes.

  “I don’t know. Maybe the treatment to make this blade-proof made it weak to blaster fire? I mean that could be it. But that’s bad,” Dalila said with a scowl.

  “Yeah,” Duncan said softly, nodding as he looked down at the hole. “I know just what you mean.”

  “Wait, what? What’s wrong?” Leonator asked, his eyes wide.

  “It means that whatever built these things did this to keep blades from doing damage. Or even to protect them from sharp claws from damaging the robots. And what does that tell you?” Dalila asked as she looked at Leonator.

  Leonator looked at her and then he slowly looked down, but then he licked his lips. “Oh. Yes, I can see what you mean. That would be bad.”

  Duncan only held his head as he tried to think of anything that might be good about this. All they had done was make his decisions to send a party down there seem even worse. But how was he to know? From what he had been able to figure out before, the chances of them being in a thruster port were high! But instead, they were above something that must have kept the tree’s roots from living here. That was the only thing that made sense from what they knew now.

  “And that’s not counting if these things were made this way after it crashed here,” Duncan said with a scowl.

  “You couldn’t have known Chief. With what we did know, you made the right choice,” Dalila said softly.

  “Yeah! You needed to make sure it wasn’t what you thought it was! With everything that we found out, it made sense!” Leonator said as he looked at Duncan.

  “But instead of making sure that we were safe, I sent people down there into what might as well be hell!” Duncan snapped before he looked at Leonator. He sighed and then looked at the two captive natives. “What can you tell me about them? Have you made any progress in finding out what they’re saying?”

  “No. Whenever they talk it’s probably in some kind of code. The other choice is that they have a language unlike anything the Federation ever found. I think if I could talk at them, they might understand if I pantomime. But they might understand what I want and make a choice not to talk to me at all,” Leonator said, shaking his head.

  “What? Oh. Warrior pride and loyalty to their own?” Duncan said as he looked down, hiding his scowl.

  “If they think we want to know what they're saying to spy, yes. But if there are other tribes on this places that have survived the monsters, there might be a trade tongue. But again, I don’t know,” Leonator said with a scowl.

  It was all Duncan could do to keep calm. No matter where he turned, things seemed to be against them. But there had to be a way ahead.

  He just sighed as he looked down at the hole, letting his mind go over everything. Finally, after a few moments, he nodded. “Okay, Leonator, if you want you can go down. Dalila, see if you can get a wire into some of the openings in the holes in the broken things. Maybe you can get something from these scrapheaps that way. I’ll go and wait for our new friend. And the shield put it on hold for now. See if you can get it set up above the hole, Nova! I’d accept on top of it!”

  Duncan walked away, nodding at the deckhands on guard. Looking at the shield, he figured the best thing that he could do now was check on the watch stations. They were the ones who were putting themselves in danger, and he owed it to treat them with honor.

  “IT’S THE ANCIENT! HE’S BACK AND HE’S CARRYING THE HEAD OF THE THING HE TOOK OUT!” A roar of joy caused him to look up. As the others cheered, Duncan thought that they might have hope after all.