Starshipping

Chapter One: Protector Keats

Captain Lia Swanright of the Federal Navy gripped the armrest of her seat on the command bridge of the starship Protector Keats. She, and her crew of three hundred, had come across a vessel running in the dark behind Sonoma in the Khrysa border space. 

“Captain,” said her first officer, Xander Vanherman, “with the trio of Khrysa hives present, my advice is not to engage.”

Lia’s eyes wanted to rest on him, a tall man, whose upright posture filled his uniform perfectly, but her opinion about the topic allowed no rest. “Per article 1205.2, we have a duty to inspect suspect vessels.”

“Yes, Captain, but we are out of our jurisdiction here—”

“Correct, but it is a Human ship, and if they ever wish to return, they have to submit to our inspection.” 

The suspect ship looked like an old cargo hauler, and while it returned no match from the database, one could easily notice major modifications, including weapons which wouldn’t have been part of the original design. It was headed deep within the asteroid field, where there was little of interest. 

“They’re still unresponsive to our pings for contact,” said Jesse Ruby, the communications officer.

“Continue pinging them. They must know we can see them, and they can’t run away.” 

“Captain,” the navigator, Padre Faustini, called, “the dense metallic meteor cloud surrounding the ship confuses our sensors.”

“Proceed with caution.”

Remnants of what could have been a planetary collision filled the space with chunks of rock and metal, some small, and some massive, with a few as big as the moons of Halydaris. 

As the navigator took the ship expertly through the asteroid field, Lia eased back in her chair. With resolve, she brushed her blonde locks behind her shoulders.

The Protector Keats, a large ship with more than a hundred bergs of power, was still but a tiny speck relative to the massive asteroids of metal and rock. The asteroid field was situated right in the middle of border space—an area loosely defined as being between the territories of the Human and Khrysa civilisations. 

With Khrysa, the federation was in an equilibrium. It had been years since shots had last been exchanged. As long as both sides remained on their territories, and only visited the border space, there hadn’t been any troubles. 

It was rare for the Khrysa to be within visual range.

“Ready all weapons, and direct seventy percent of the shields to the stern.” She wanted to make sure there were no surprises.

“We have a connection to the suspect vessel,” Jesse said.

“On screen.”

The comms officer swiped on his console, and an image appeared on the screen. The captain of the suspect vessel was a burly, bald man with a black line tattoo going down the centre of his face. “Yes?”

“I am Captain Swanright of the Protector Keats. You are required to stop for inspection.”

“I am Captain Sowbent of the Poondance. Of course we will stop,” the man said, and the ship eased its speed.

“Prepare to be boarded,” Lia said, and glanced at Xander, who remained frowning at the man on the screen. “Keats, out.”

“Just a moment,” Captain Sowbent said, before the comms officer closed the line. The Poondance slowed down near a big metallic asteroid. “But I’m afraid you can’t board us today.”

Lia leaned forward in the captain’s chair. “We have the authority to—”

“No, not here, you don’t. May I offer a suggestion?”

Lia kept a straight face even though inside she was on fire, ignited by the man’s condescending demeanour towards the captain of a federal Protector-class ship. “Yes…?”

“We are Prana. You would do well to tell your people to enter the evacuation shuttles and leave your ship before we destroy you.”

Prana was a criminal organisation that hid on the outskirts of federation space, randomly attacking outposts and cargo ships. They engaged in acts of terror against civilians to gain visibility for their agenda of overthrowing the federal government, or, as they called it, the Rotten Cronies. The Prana had eluded the navy for a long time, striking surgically when no-one was looking, and disappearing without a sight. Never before had they become in direct contact with the navy. This was Lia’s chance: a single makeshift pirate ship was an easy target. 

“The navy does not respond well to threats,” she said, and to confirm the pirate knew what they were dealing with, added, “this is a Protector-class ship.”

“We know. Your engine cores and weapons would be ample upgrades for us. You have two minutes to leave your ship.” They closed the comms line, and the screen went momentarily black before taking on the image of the pirate ship.

“Shields up. Prepare for battle,” Lia commanded the bridge crew. The navigator swiped a countdown clock to the corner of the main screen.

“What do you think?” she said, turning to her first officer. 

“We should aim to negotiate,” Xander said. 

Lia raised a brow. “I was ninety-nine percent certain you would say take them out before two minutes had passed. You hate pirates.”

“As a hot-headed young officer, I might have—”

“No, I’m talking about yesterday, when you wanted to ‘blast the vermin,’ didn’t you?”

“Perhaps,” he said with a shrug. “You think we should just shoot them out?”

“Unless they yield.”

It was his turn to raise a brow at Lia (and in so doing, he looked particularly handsome). “Since when did you become the sabre-rattler?”

Lia humphed. She wasn’t the aggressor. They were facing threat-spitting pirates, and she would do what needed to be done.

The sensor view on the main screen showed weird readings from a spot not too far from them. Lia drew the local coordinates to her private screen, remarking on their symmetry: 333000444, 444000333, 333444000. The anomaly was invisible to the eye, but for the sensors, it was like a nuclear reaction.

“You see this?”

Xander brushed his beard with his thumb and index finger. “Looks like a faulty sensor to me.” 

“To me,” Lia said, “it appears as if a piece of space is missing. I don’t believe a single sensor error can do that.”

“I think it’s just what a sensor error would do. Of course, we may entertain the fantasy that it’s some sort of Khrysa ploy.” 

“I find that difficult to believe,” Lia said, basing her interpretation of the situation on the historical behaviour of the Khrysa ships.

Looking at the Khrysa hive on the screen, she felt a sudden urge to get away, as if something were agitating her subconscious to scream at her. She turned back to Xander, and it was gone. 

“Lia, we can study it afterwards all you like,” he said, as the countdown was down to thirty seconds. “But now I’d recommend we connect—”

He was interrupted by the sudden appearance of multiple dots on the screen and the accompanying proximity alert. The lights on the bridge turned orange.

“Report,” Lia said. “What happened?”

“Another ship. Two ships. No… we have at least five large vessels.”

“Who?”

“Two 818-type assault ships, and two modified haulers similar to the one we have. They’re powering for a battle.”

Where the fuck did they come from? “Maximum shields to the fore, prepare for battle.”

END OF PREVIEW

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