Galaxy of Empires- Merchant Wars Episode #1 (4 page)

Eve remarks, “Oops, looks like your blaster’s
warranty is up.” With her blue eyes flaring, she grabs him and
slams him into the wall.

“You did not think it was going to be that
easy, did you? I am not an idiot. Are you wondering why your
blaster doesn’t work or your sonic inhibitor for that matter? It is
called an EMP, an electromagnetic pulse. I carry a device around
with me that generates a small EMP. My office is equipped with one,
too. I have them set to the same frequency that sonic inhibitors
use. Therefore, when a sonic inhibitor goes off, it triggers an EMP
that kills all the electronics within 50 feet of me or my office.
You seriously must be stupid to think I did not have a defense
against sonic inhibitors. People try to kill me all the time. Thus,
I have defenses in place.”

“While you are struggling on the floor to
breathe for air, I am trying to decide whether I want to choke you
to death, burn you, or kill you in some other fashion.” She presses
a button and a panel opens. Her collection of heads gleams as the
power reactivates in the room. She probes his mind to see who he is
working for.

“So they offered you my ship in return for
assassinating me. Once I take out the Apel Merchant Group, I will
show them your head that will be filling that empty spot right
there on the end of row 2.” She takes a huge cleaver out of her
desk and walks over to her first officer and lifts him off the
ground with telekinesis as he gags for air. She heats up the
cleaver with her mind until it glows red-hot and takes a sudden but
swift swing, removing Meto’s head. She then walks over and places
it on the empty peg on row 2 of her heads.
My
taxidermist is going to appreciate my business this month for
sure
, she thought to herself with a slight giggle.

She presses the intercom button, “42, you are
now First Officer. Congratulations. Also, have a custodian come
down here in the clean up what is left of our former First Officer.
I will be up on the bridge in a few minutes so have a status report
ready. Out.”

Eve walks down a corridor to get to the
bridge when she hears someone behind her chanting, and just as she
turns around, she sees a flash of lightning in the corner of her
eye. She ducks and rolls to the left with blinding speed as the
lightning bolt barely misses her right shoulder and slams into the
corridor wall. “Shield,” she says as her personal shield activates
just in time to intercept another lightning bolt. In front of her
is a human female sorcerer wearing a red dress in a black cloak
with black hair and green eyes. The sorcerer begins casting through
what appeared to be some sort of magical shield. At the same time,
another sorcerer from behind her, a human male dressed in black
leather, begins casting a spell. Eve realizes she has been caught
in an ambush. Both of them are wearing metallic telepathic
protection helmets.

“Disintegrate,” the female sorcerer says,
completing her spell as a red beam shoots out of the hand of the
sorcerer and hits Eve’s force field. Eve becomes defenseless as her
shield drops.

“Lightning,” the male sorcerer says as a bolt
roars through the air and catches Eve on the left side of her rib
cage and she rolls to the right of the hallway. Severely wounded,
she knows she is doomed, boxed in like an animal on safari. She
hears the sorceress began casting again. She turns her fear into
anger stands up slowly holding her left side, which was bleeding
out. She focuses her mind, grabs both assassins at the same time,
and hoists them up in the air while choking them.

“Hard to cast spells when you can’t talk,
witches,” Eve says in pain. “You like lightning so much, let me
give you some of mine.” Both her hands began to glow as a huge arc
of lightning slams into both airborne figures sending them flying
down the hall into the wall. She hits them again, this time
maintaining lightning streaks until nothing is left of the bodies
except charred remains. As the smoldering corpses release the smoky
whispers of burning flesh, Eve walks down the corridor toward the
bodies.

“I guess only skulls are left from these two
for my collection, heh.” She coughs and limps off toward the
infirmary.

Over the intercom, an automated message
begins playing, “Intruder alert on Deck 13, Section 8, intruder
alert on Deck 13, Section 8.” Security comes down the hall about
the time Eve starts limping toward the infirmary, and she collapses
in the hallway just as they arrive.

Gartooth commands, “Secure the corridor door,
men. I don’t want anyone coming down here unless they are medical
personnel.” He clicks a button on his com badge, “Farshe, get a
medical team down to Deck 13, Section 8 because the boss has been
hit really bad. Also, fire crew get your butts down here fast and
contain this fire.” A few moments later, the medical crew arrives
with Dr. Farshe.

“Get her on the gurney and get to the medical
bay. Start scans and tests as soon as we get there. I need to prep
for surgery. Do it now!” Dr. Farshe barks loudly. They load Eve on
the gurney and rush down the hall with the security team following
them looking for unknown assassins who may potentially jump out
along the way.

Gartooth says on the ship-wide intercom, “The
ship is on lockdown; all personnel who are not on duty report to
your quarters and stay there. I don’t want anybody roaming around
while there might be unknown assassins lurking about. If you are
not in your room, you will be shot on sight and we will ask
questions later if you are still alive. This lockdown is in effect
until further notice, Gartooth out.” When it comes to security,
Gartooth takes his job very seriously and this is one of the
reasons Eve recruited him. This is not the first time someone has
taken a shot at the Captain, and it will not be the last.

“The trauma team is ready to operate,
Doctor.”

“Very well, let me see the chart pads for the
test results. Okay, looks like some broken ribs and third-degree
burns on the left side. Let us get all these clothes off and remove
the burnt material from the skin first and disinfect the area.”

After about three hours, the doctor completes
the surgery. The command staff had been waiting in the sitting area
outside the surgery room. The doctor walks outside the hall and
notices the twins, Hemla and Semla, pacing back and forth. Gartooth
is standing at the doorway along with some security guards placed
all around the hallway as well as the waiting room. He had ordered
a ship-wide search for any other intruders who were not listed on
the ship’s manifest of employees. Rulu, the chief engineer, and
Pura, the ship’s cook and cargo supervisor, were sitting in the
chairs waiting for news.

“The surgery was successful. She is not out
of the woods yet, but she is stable and very lucky. If she makes it
through the night, she should be okay. But you know the Captain—she
is stubborn and relentless,” the doctor concludes.

“Thank you Dr. Farshe,” Hemla says with
gratitude.

“Get some rest, guys, and I will inform you
if there is any change. There are plenty of security personnel
here.”

***

The next morning, 42 goes to check on Eve
after his shift on the bridge. He arrives in the infirmary and sees
Helma and Nelma sitting on both sides of Eve’s bed. Eve is sitting
up with some pillows sporting her back and she is talking to the
twins. 42 walks up to Eve.

“Boss, you gave us a real scare there,” 42
says.

“I will survive. Just got caught with my
pants down so to speak. I am more embarrassed they caught me in an
ambush unprepared. Any idea who the assassins were or should I say
which one of my enemies sent them?”

“From what we can tell, they came aboard one
of the shuttles from
Endure
that was
picking up the supplies that you were sending to them. They
pretended to be members of the Endure’s crew. Nobody noticed them
not getting back on the shuttles when they left. Unfortunately,
there was not much left of their bodies after you are finished with
them, Boss. New abilities I presume? Not that I mind, it just means
that my favorite boss will be sticking around a lot longer than my
previous bosses because they were weaker. Did find metal tags on
them, and it looks like they were possibly spies for the telepathic
police from the Elemental Empire. My guess is they thought you were
part of the telepathic underground movement and were trying to take
you out.”

“Makes sense. I guess I am on their hit list
now. I was not expecting an assassination attempt a few minutes
after another assassination attempt. I mean they don’t usually come
that close together from two different parties. Our former First
Officer was working for the merchant group Apel. They promised him
my ship if he took me out, and unfortunately for him, his attempt
failed.”

“The Apel group is one of our current
challengers. Yes, we need to start taking out some of these
challengers to show them who is on top, right Boss?” 42
responds.

“Yes, that is one thing we need to attend to
soon as we get back. Ship status and how long before you get to the
coordinates I gave you?” Eve inquires.

“All systems go, cleaned up the fires, and
repaired the damaged halls where you were ambushed. Should be at
the coordinates in about two hours.”

“Very good, 42. You will make a fine First
Officer. Give yourself a 5% raise. Do you think I should hire
someone else to do the accounting or communications? I can or do
you think you can handle First Officer duties along with the duties
you already have?”

“It is okay, Boss. I am an Android and I can
handle it all, so you do not need extra personnel for those other
two jobs.”

“Very well. Inform me when we arrive at our
destination. It will take me two hours to convince the doctor to
let me out of this place.”

The doctor in the next room replies, “I heard
that. You need bed rest and time to heal, Captain. You do not need
to be out exploring, adventuring, and being shot up. Besides, you
never know when the next assassination attempt will be and so you
need to be at full strength.”

“I assure you, Doc, I am fine,” Eve
promises.

“I don’t tell you how to captain ships, do I?
When it comes to you and this crew’s health, my job is to make sure
that your well-being comes first. Now the rest of you clear on out
of here and let her go to sleep.”

The twins and 42 leave the room. Eve begins
to rest and falls asleep.

Chapter Four

Two hours pass by and the intercom activates
ship-wide. “Action stations! Action stations! Contact made!” 42
announces. Eve awakes and presses her com badge.

“Report!”

“Boss, we have a distress signal coming from
an area close to the coordinates that we have arrived at.”

“I am coming to the bridge.”

“You are so stubborn; it may open up your
wound again if you do not watch it,” the doctor sighs.

“Just put me on those floating med chairs and
I will be okay, Doc. I need to be on my bridge.”

“Very well, but I am coming with you to
monitor your condition. You do not need a lot of stress right
now.”

“Fine.”

Upon reaching the bridge, Helma and Nelma
were on duty along with 42 and Gartooth.

“Status?”

“Picking up a week distress signal coming
from the asteroid belt approximately five minutes from this
position,” 42 informs.

“Hmm…. Sounds like a pirate trap. They use
asteroid belts a lot to sucker people in,” Gartooth suggests.

“Yeah, that is what I was thinking. Get the
stasis net ready for deployment just in case we have any uninvited
guests. Also, load those mines up into the mine deployment
shuttle.” Eve commands. “Move in range of the asteroid belt and
launch a class A-probe.”

“Launching probe. Readings will begin in 60
seconds,” 42 says. “Looks like the asteroid belt is dense, but
there is an opening at 98.2 x 36.1 x 52.8 that can fit a ship of
our size. The asteroids in the belt consist mostly of non-valuable
minerals and ores. Picking up the distress signal, which appears to
be an Elemental Empire signal. Coming from within the asteroid belt
and the approximate location of the opening, I just mentioned.
Probe is too far away to scan for life signs; we need to get closer
to the mouth of the clearing of the asteroid belt and I’m not sure
from how deep the signals are coming.”

“Action stations, code yellow, shields up,
prime weapons,” Eve announces over the ship-wide intercom. “Move us
into the mouth of the opening and launch another probe. Deploy
mines on the right side of the opening and activate their cloaking
devices. Set the statis net trap to the left after we pass by it.
Open the net and have someone standing by to retract it if we have
to leave suddenly. That should be sufficient to prevent any
surprise visits from behind us.”

“Readings from the second probe are coming
in…. Appears to be a large asteroid about the size of a small moon
approximately five minutes in front of us at a current sub-light
speed. The asteroid has building structures on it as well as a
large war cruiser on the landing pad close to the structures.
Structures appear to be made by the Elemental Empire, but the
cruiser is a class 2 undead attack vessel. Coming closer in, there
are fighters that have been deployed just drifting in space not
moving, approximately 36 undead fighters of different kinds. All
ships are inactive and not moving. The facility seems to have no
power, no life, or undead activity. I am just picking up a distress
signal as far as I can tell,” 42 explains.

“What are the undead doing over here in this
part of space. This is a long way from Vampire space. Activate
condition red. Get a landing party ready with five squads of
security officers fully armed with biotech armor; we do not need
any of our own turning into the undead. Make sure you pack a lot of
flamethrowers and ultraviolet light explosives,” Eve orders.