Humanity Endures

Part 7 - Last Stand | Chapter 10

Velan sighed, disappointed.

"I don't mean that she's going to evade their fire, I mean that because she's on the station, the Kalithiharians won't fire at all. It's a hunch of mine."

This time it was Dentor's time to sigh.

"You place a lot of faith in hunches."

"And I'm still in one piece, am I not?" was the reply.

Dentor, argued into a corner, shrugged as if to concede, before stating, "As for timing, I must say, this task is remarkably easy, despite its outlandishness; I'll have it done in half, or maybe even a quarter, of an hour. We'll see then whether or not your hunch is right."

Velan turned to face Dentor, and half-forced a smile.

"Thank you, Dentor," he said, "for delivering the first good news I've heard in too long."

"No problem, sir," Dentor replied, saluting. Velan quickly returned the salute, and walked off to his own duties.

***

Within a quarter of an hour, Terxah had pacified the remaining human strongholds throughout the station. Uneasily, those rescued — a group that included a number of civilians — all rendezvoused with Velan's war-weary crew by the station's bridge, where Dentor was laboring with inhuman speed and tenacity in his attempts to transform the space station into a spacecraft. Moments after his chat with Velan, Dentor had, using the station's limited weaponry, severed the station's elevator link with the planet below, with the stated intent of preventing any aliens from coming up the way that Velan's enforcer had earlier — the station was now kept from falling into the planet below by its maneuvering thrusters, and the emphatic, desperate hopes of those within it.

For each second that passed, on the Cesspit below, more and more swathes of cityscape succumbed to the alien corruption, despite the efforts of the human fleet; Velan could only be thankful that he had escaped the place, and be regretful for the countless others who had not. Though more than half of the survivors aboard the space station were civilian rather than military, they could still hold a gun, and they swelled Velan's ranks regardless; this was good indeed, for the threat of alien infiltration had not entirely passed, and as the ancient idiom went, there is safety in numbers.

Another ten minutes, and Dentor, working from the bridge, while a veritable horde of subordinate engineers and volunteers slaved away under his enlightened direction in various places across the space station, completed his daunting task in impressive time. Piping up with a hint of pride in his voice, Dentor announced to all those on the bridge — amongst whom were all of Velan's senior officers, the remaining Kalithiharian captains, and Korthekar — "Captain, this station is now a ship, and it is yours; I believe this mighty vessel needs a name befitting its fine construction."

Velan would have rather not indulged in such wasteful, frivolous activities such as naming something when his life hung in the balance, especially after he had been irreparably shaken by such a gruesome ordeal as the tragic misunderstanding earlier. However, already having a perfect name for the vessel, and knowing that declining would simply take more, valuable time, Velan immediately replied, "This vessel will be named the 'Placeholder' — a fitting name that reflects the temporary nature of the ship; the moment we arrive at Ihndrastar, we're ditching this wretched thing, and the horrors that have transpired within its walls."

"As you wish, captain," was the partly annoyed, partly insulted, and yet partly entertained reply. Velan was, for his part, rather stunned: he had seen Dentor function quickly and efficiently before, but, much to his pleasure, what he had seen that day was so inhumanly brilliant that he could only stand in awe of the accomplishment. Some collapsed under pressure; others, like Dentor, worked wonders.