"We can take it. That cargo's gotta' be worth at least twenty-thousand credits."
"Taking it ain't the issue but the Fed ship eight clicks out and closing, is."
"But it's so pretty, and unmanned... Well, unless you count the eight dead crew."
"Dead men don't tell tales. They don't fight back, either... OK that onetime, but they weren't exactly dead, if I recall."
"You're not seriously considering this, Cap'n? We might as well put up a beacon and let the Fed ship know exactly where we are."
Bennet smirked at his second in command. He knew she was right; Hell, she was always right, but that never stopped him doing anything he knew was completely and totally bloody stupid. Besides, twenty-thousand credits was a whole lotta' cash and he had a crew who hadn't been paid in months, food to put on the table and a ship in dire need of a out-and-out overhaul, or a couple of new parts at any rate.
Thing is, however much she might protest, Eva was well up for anything slightly crazy and he knew it. He'd fought at her side during the Colonisation Wars, after all, and as such he knew damn well that her apparent caution was nought more than a smoke-screen... Eva was the craziest soldier he knew, which is why she was his second in command.
"Do you even have to ask?" he said with the same smirk upon his face, noting the fact that Eva bit her bottom lip as he spoke. He doubted she'd go toe-to-toe with him in front of the rest of the crew, not unless he genuinely deserved such treatment, but that was not to say she didn't want to.
"Take us in, Harvey," he said without turning to the helm.
"Aye Cap'n," the young pilot replied. A fearless eighteen year old kid, he'd follow Bennet to the edge of the Universe and back.
"The ship's yours, Eva," said Bennet with a wink. "Morgan, we'd best suit up... I'll bet my left nut there's no life support on that boat."
"What gives it away?" Morgan asked. "The fact that everyone on board is dead, or the huge gaping hole on the starboard side?"
"A little of both," he replied with a shrug. "Now, let's go."
As he was making his way off the bridge, Eva grabbed Bennet's arm firmly.
"I don't need to say it, do I?"
"Don't worry, Eva," he replied, kindly. "Ain't gonna' let any harm come to your wee bairn of a sister."
"I heard that," Morgan yelled over her shoulder as she made her way down the corridor towards the airlock. "I'm twenty years old, for fuck's sake!"
Eva rolled her eyes, shaking her head as Bennet set off after her younger sister. If she had her way Morgan wouldn't be part of a crew, let alone one that made most of its money from illegal salvage. No, if Eva had any say at all in the matter, her sister would have a nice, respectable job on Earth.
She didn't have any say in it though. Before her death, her mother had made her promise never to let Morgan out of her sight. That meant she'd had to sweet-talk Bennet – not that it was a difficult task; a little cleavage was all it took – into allowing her to join the crew of the Spartacus.
She could have remained on Earth herself, of course, but there weren't many 'respectable,' jobs suitable for women with a penchant for slitting throats and sabotaging the occasional core reactor with a flat head screwdriver, a packet of liquorice allsorts and a bottle of tequila.
"Spartacus is in play," said Harvey with a grin as he flicked the comms switch. "Y'gotta' three foot jump, Cap'n. I'd have got you closer but that bitch is pitched more awkward than a camp site at a rock festival."
"That'll do, Harvey." Bennet's voice came back tinnily over the comm. "What's the status of that Fed ship?"
"Four clicks, Cap'n," Eva replied. "Gives you eight minutes."
"More'n enough," he said with a chuckle. "Bennet out."
The seconds passed in silence as together, Eva and Harvey watched two heat signatures move from one vessel to the other, and set about exploring the vessel.
"So what d'you reckon, Eva? We've got about six minutes..."
"Ain't gonna' happen, Harvey, so cut it out."
"Don't say I didn't offer," the young man replied with a chuckle.
"No offence, Harv, but I reckon I'll forget that you did..."
"Your loss," he muttered, although he was almost certain he did so quietly enough that Eva failed to hear.
"Fed ship's a click and a half out, what's their status?"
"Looks like they're making their way back to the hole. Should be a' knockin' any second."
Sure enough, several seconds later a light on the console indicated the airlock had been activated from the outside.
"As soon as they're in get us outta' here, Harvey," she said, flicking the comm to communicate with the engine room. "Acer... we're gonna' need full burn without the light show. Capisce?"
"Gotcha', Eva," Acer's voice came back, and Eva smiled. There were few in Sol better acquainted with engines than he. Bennet was lucky his mechanic had spent most of his life stoned out of his tree on whatever he could find to smoke, else it's quite likely he would have been fast-tracked through the Federation Academy.
"What the actual fuck?" Bennet demanded as he and Morgan, still fully suited less their helmets, stormed onto the bridge. "When I leave you in command that don't mean you get to ignore my bloody communications!"
"What're you talking about, Bennet?" Eva asked, peering around the man to see that her sister's face wore a similarly annoyed expression. "You didn't make contact."
"She's right," said Harvey, pulling up the Spartacus' communications log on the screen beside him as he guided the vessel single-handedly. "Not a bean, Cap'n."
"Well didn't you think to make contact after, oh I dunno, the eight minutes that we had was up?"
"Still got thirty seconds, Cap'n, according to that time frame."
"Don't talk shit!" Morgan yelled, all thoughts of the precious cargo left by the wayside. "We were on that hell-hole of a ship for almost three hours!"
"Ship time's 1521," said Harvey with a shrug, pointing the Spartacus towards Charon. As the nearest stellar body, it was the logical choice when it came to searching for something to hide behind.
"What the fuck does my watch say, Harvey?" Bennet asked, irritably, as he struggled out of his suit and held his forearm out for the pilot to see.
"1832, clear as day," he replied.
"Some kind of time dilation?" Eva asked, as Bennet slapped his hand to his forehead in a semi-comedic fashion.
"Particle accelerator, for fuck's sake..." he muttered.
"Come again?"
"That ship's powered by a particle accelerator," said Morgan, picking up where the Captain left off because apparently, he was far too busy berating himself for not realising it sooner. "The hole in the hull leads straight to the drive room; the damn thing must've sprung a leak."
"That's not all," said Bennet, pausing as he lit a cigarette. "There's something alive on board."
"Isn't there a huge gaping hole in the hull?" Harvey asked. "I mean, thatis how you got on board."
"Something that can survive in pretty extreme conditions then, but something none the less."
"You're sure, Cap'n?"
"Yeah, and so am I," said Morgan. "Couldn't tell you what it is, but I can sure as fuck tell you what it said."
"Well," said Eva after a few seconds worth of silence. "Spit it out!"
"We're going to pay."
***
Alone on board its vessel once more, the entity cast its mind across the vastness of space, beyond the Galactic Void and through the Omega Sector and through the maze of thousands of black holes that made up the minefield protecting its home system.
Life exists here. Intelligent life.
Does it pose a threat?
It does not. Our armies will crush it.
Pleasing news. Hold station. We will send a fleet one million strong to ensure that is the case.
As you wish.
***
High above Earth, the enormous docking station loomed large, glimmering in the light cast by the distant Sun. More chrome than anything else, it was tantamount to blinding without a protective coating over the reinforced plexiglass windows of the Spartacus.
"Gotta' be honest, I didn't think I'd be back here again before my hanging," said Bennet, quietly.
"You're sure this is the right call, Cap'n?" Eva asked.
"I'm sure... They're coming to Earth, an' it might be a shithole but it's our bloody shithole."
"And besides, once they've destroyed Earth they'll take out the rest of Sol, too," said Morgan, grimly. "It's not the planet itself they want to wipe out; it's humanity."
"We're gonna' have to go in on the offensive," said Eva. "We're all wanted fugitives... If we're not careful we'll wind up locked up before we've had chance to raise the alarm."
"Or how about this..?" Acer mumbled, and paused for an inordinate amount of time his eyes glazed, before he spoke again. "Jus' send 'em a message..."
"Works in theory," replied Bennet. "If we could breach their firewall, that is."
"Then... Use one of their systems..." From behind his ear, Acer produced a shoddily rolled joint. Placing it between his lips he put a light to it before he continued. "How many abandoned Fed facilities are down there?"
"Hundreds," said Bennet as it dawned upon him what the stoner was getting at. "Harvey, there's an old relay station just north of Fairbanks – or what used to be Fairbanks. An old crew of mine used to use it as a storage facility and safe house. Well off the radar, reckon you can get us there undetected?"
"Shouldn't be too much hassle," the young pilot replied. "Morgan, you wanna' sit up here with me?"
"Like fuck," she replied with a chuckle. "'Fraid you're gonna' have to get your jollies later on, Harv."
***
Harvey set the Spartacus down in the midst of a thick forest. All around, trees grew to astronomical heights, an effect of the residual radiation present on Earth everywhere apart from the shielded cities.
"Weapons hot," said Bennet as he, Eva and Morgan alighted the vessel leaving Harvey and Acer on board so that should the need arise, the Spartacus could take off at less than a moment's notice.
"Twelve minutes before y'all start feeling the effects," said Harvey, his tones tinny and distant over their comms devices. "I'm picking up Growler signatures in the area, too."
"Growlers?" said Eva, curling her lip as she spoke. "Lovely."
Finding cover was not an issue, if they needed it there was plenty, however the Growlers had long ago developed ridiculously powerful senses of taste and smell. It was said that they could taste you on the air whilst you were still in orbit. They were the twisted, mutated remnants of those unlucky enough to have been forced to stay on Earth after the Fall.
They made it through the overgrown trees and shrubs without incident, Bennet leading the way towards a roller door to the right of the concrete building.
"They don't make shit like this any more," he muttered quietly, as he and Eva set about raising the door. The mechanism itself was ages old and beyond repair, but that did not mean access was impossible, just tricky.
"Ready, Morgan?" her elder sister asked. "I can hear shit inside so don't hesitate. If they were anything but human they'd have called out by now."
From within three creatures charged, their teeth barred as they growled incoherently.
"You can't help but feel sorry for the poor bastards," said Bennet as he opened fire with his semi-automatic machine pistol. "All 'cos their ancestors couldn't scrape together enough credits to get off this damned rock."
"I'd say we caught them during nap-time," said Eva as they picked their way around the Growler corpses. "Either that or they'd just fed. That's the only time I've ever known a Growler go down so easy."
"I reckon you're right," Bennet replied, nodding towards a wall completely full of rather out of date computer equipment. Despite the dark dankness of the room, it gleamed brilliantly in whatever light there was available. "You're up, Morgan."
She cracked her knuckles as she pulled a rickety wooden chair to the centre of the console. The computer system was not running, of course, however a swift and powerful kick to the outer casing appeared to do the trick and within seconds, the ancient tech was in the process of whirring itself into life.
"As soon as you make any attempt to access the server, the Feds are gonna' be all over us like space pirates over an antique haul."
"Don't think I'm stupid, do you Bennet?" she asked without turning. "Trust me, they're not even gonna' know we're..."
"Guys, I've got Fed activity," Harvey said over the comm. "Coming straight outta' Anchorage and heading our way pretty damn quick."
"How long, Harv?" asked Eva, standing guard at the open door, her blaster primed and ready.
"Under a minute," the pilot replied. "Listen, you guys have to get outta' there now, we need to make like trees and leave."
"Buy us some time!"
"No offence, Cap'n, but you know we can't do that. The Spartacus won't interface with Fed tech, and you can bet your arse that outgunned will soon prove to be the mother of all bloody understatements."
"They're here!" Eva yelled over the already incredibly loud fusion-propelled engines. "Ten seconds they're gonna' be on us!"
"Go, Harvey! Give it twenty-four hours and if we ain't dead you can pick us up!"
"You know he's gonna' engage the Feds, right?" Eva asked, turning to Bennet as outside, the Spartacus headed straight for the enemy.
"Ain't gonna' matter, he wouldn't have survived anyway, and nor will we," he replied, grimly.
"Whatever happens," Morgan began, her fingers moving deftly over the keys. "Whatever happens, you gotta' hold them off long enough for me to upload what I need to upload."
She smiled at her elder sister, plugged herself into the console by way of a connection port behind her right ear – a modification everyone had assuming they attended a top class institute of further education – and promptly blacked out as the sedatives took hold of her. They were necessary, as plugging in was an extremely painful process indeed.
"So, Cap'n," Eva said with a grin as the two of them stood beneath the raised roller door, both with their weapons ready. "We're agreed these bastards are gonna' kill us either way, yes?"
"Aye, no doubt about that."
"So what d'you reckon will give Morgan the longest time to do what she's gotta' do?"
"I don't think it's gonna' matter," he replied, nodding skywards. There were five enormous Fed cruisers hovering, all with their weapons trained upon the building and the two individuals stood before it. "Besides, it don't look to me like they're here to talk..."
"We should probably try and warn them though, don't you think?" asked Eva. "I mean, just in case Morgan doesn't manage to get her message through."
"Morgan will get through, in fact I wager she'll outlive you and I..." he paused upon hearing an inordinately loud explosion that sounded very much like the core drive of the Spartacus being destroyed. He had nothing on which to base that, of course, but the pain that suddenly arrived in his gut told him he was correct. "...and my damn ship! Fuck!"
In anger, Bennet raised his weapon to the sky. That act alone proved to be a rather fatal error as all five cruisers fired simultaneously, and completely lay waste to the building, those within, and the surrounding forest.
Four of the vessels turned on their heels and left as the remaining cruiser set down. A ramp lowered from the ship's belly and out walked two, heavily armoured individuals. Their battle armour was made entirely of chrome and clear, gleaming plexiglass. The visors of their helmets raised to reveal clean-shaven, almost youthful features.
"Report, Sir. Apparently a message was just received from this location, something about an alien fleet being on its way to destroy Sol."
"Is that right?" the General asked, chuckling heartily as at the dark side of the Moon, the alien fleet gathered. "Bloody idiots... Everyone knows there's no such thing as aliens!"