Do I really want to do this?

Nick felt unsettled. After the frantic scramble of the past couple of hours, this was his first chance to think while not feeling on the verge of getting killed. I killed another person for the first time less than an hour ago. Am I ready to be a mass murderer? Am I OK with this?

He was distracted from his thoughts for a moment when the gas started entering Sickbay. The doctor realized what was happening, said something, held up her hands in surrender, then lay herself down on the deck before she succumbed to the gas. Sensible. He watched her for a minute, and she didn't move again. She could totally be faking and I wouldn't know. I wonder if Petra can tell? For the moment, Nick went back to thinking about his moral quandary.

They showed up and demanded surrender, then came down and slaughtered over half the fuakalas before we killed the landing party. I got injured—again—and they killed Kathy. Ktheg!lik.

Maybe we could just dump them on the planet, let them try to survive. Give them my base, since the fuakala base is now irradiated, apparently. Set the gadgets to function without Petra, and let the Goldaskians figure out what to do from there.

If the crew all passed out from the sleep gas, it would be doable. But some of them would get air masks or something, and they would try to wake up their comrades. They might also try to sabotage the ship, or retake control from Petra. Can we risk it? That's the real problem. If we don't slaughter them while we have the chance, we might all end up dead instead. If it's us or them, I pick us. But isn't there any other way?

"Petra, show me a summary of the crew of the Kalash-Quovo. Also show it to Jenkins and Xanadu."

"Yes, Nick."

He looked at the nearest display in Sickbay, which Petra reconfigured for his limited English. Then he sighed, taught Petra the words captain, officer, enlisted, sailor, and marine, and tried again:

Total crew: 204

Officers: 22

Enlisted: 182

Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

Sailors: 110

Marines: 94

"How many are alive now?" The number of Marines dropped from 94 to 70, and the officer count dropped by one.

"Petra, how many of the crew are still awake and moving?"

"Eight."

That's all? Maybe we can do this without a slaughter, then. "Show me where the awake ones are. Actually, show me everyone on board, and mark them as fuakala, human, crew, officers, and so on."

Petra put up a schematic of the ship, and marked the fuakalas in green and himself in pink again. Most of the Goldaskians were marked in red, but eight of them were lit up in blue. Blue means danger, for Petra. He looked at one blue dot moving on the bridge. "Petra, is the Captain still awake?"

"Yes, Nick."

Shit. I hope real ships don't have self-destruct systems like they do in the movies. "What is he doing?"

"He look at officers on bridge. He tell ship to turn off. I say no." Nick snorted when he heard that. "Captain talk to all on ship. I say no. Captain open hatch. I say no. Captain open hatch."

Shit, he's probably got his own weapons and armor in his quarters. He's going to tear right through us if he gets armed and loose. Even if we can spare the rest, the Captain's got to die.

"Geh!kin," Zaa!nu called, "I go shoot Captain. He is close. Say words for me."

Nick looked at the map of the ship, trying to figure out where the other awake crew were and what kind of trouble they could cause. Actually, which one is closest to here? Maybe I should be hunting them too. Come to think of it, the others are trapped in the shuttle. It's up to the two of us, he realized belatedly.

He was still picking a target when he heard a few words spoken, then gunfire over the comm. Shit, should I go help? The Captain might be a tough target, and if he kills Xanadu...

"The Captain is dead," Xanadu reported.

Well, I will be dipped in shit. Good job, Xanadu!

"Nik!eh," Jenkins said quickly, "help, please!"

Nick's eyes shot to the shuttle bay on the map, where one of the blue dots was approaching the shuttle holding the fuakalas. "Petra, move small ship, point at the awake bad guy and shoot him. Go fast!" A moment later, he realized how much damage that was going to do to the landing bay. He scrambled for words, and blurted, "half power! Use half power to shoot, Petra!"

"We are moving..." Geh!kin declared nervously.

"Petra, use small power, kill the bad guy!" Nick hoped that Petra would get the idea. Really loud weapon fire sounds came over the comm and he winced.

"I shooted and killed the bad guy, Nick," Petra reported.

Two down, six to go. Where are the others? Nick's eyes widened. "Oh, shit. Petra, where is Engineering?"

"I don't understand, Nick."

"'Engineering' is...room...where...crew...help...engines," Nick tried, flailing. It seemed to work; Petra highlighted a compartment near the center of the ship. Sure enough, four of the blue dots were inside. "Shit. Shit shit shit." They probably needed those people to keep the engines running, so he couldn't just shoot them.

Then the lights turned off and red emergency lighting lit up. The sounds of the ship grew quieter. Oh, shit.

Now what do we do?

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.