Space Relations Pt. 13

"I don't see anything wrong." Thor said.

"Just wait."

A second later, Mary was running back toward the hatch. Some huge creature that looked like a grasshopper with spidery legs came bounding after her. It toppled her over, pummeling at her head and shoulders with half of its eight legs until the blonde was left unconscious. Morbidly, the monster began dragging her back and out of sight. Other similar creatures appeared, perhaps half a dozen of them. As Thor and Braxton watched the video, some of the creatures folded their huge legs straight and entered the ship. The remainder waited outside.

"That happened eight minutes ago." Braxton checked the readout on the screen.

The strange creatures exited a few moments later. Their long and spindly legs hauled out one unconscious body after another, while their counterparts outside relieved them of the cargo. The unconscious forms of Cummings, Margo and Willow were being taken away before their eyes.

"What the hell are those things?"

"Hold on." Braxton mentally rewound the video. She peered very closely at the screen as the scene played out again. "Four of those things went into the ship and four of them came out. Let me scan forward and make sure none of them came back inside after that." She leaned against the hatch wall a moment later. "Mary screamed. The people still inside the ship probably ran over to the hatch, just as these things started barreling into them. They got caught with their pants down. The whole crew was knocked out and carried away, just like that."

Braxton stood up and went over to her side of their closet.

"What are we going to do?" Thor asked.

"What kind of personal weapons does this ship have?"

"None." Thor answered. "The ship itself is outfitted with a decent arsenal, but they never issued us any side-arms. We're a diplomatic vessel, not a warship."

"Well, we're going to have to rectify that right away." Braxton tore off her maid costume and started putting on her uniform. "We'll raid the kitchen for weapons right before we head out. Can you activate a distress beacon and beam out an emergency message telling the nearest starships what's happening here?"

"Yes." Thor stepped before the computer.

"Not here." Braxton halted him. "Go into the next bunk and do it. I'm going to try to hack into this space station's computer to get their schematics, and whatever other information I can find on what they were doing out here."

"You can do all that?"

"I was a commander once, remember? You've got five minutes, then you come right back here."

"Yes, ma'am." He hurried out.

Five minutes later, Thor nearly ran into Braxton as she exited the bunk. In quick sequence, they hurried down the ladder to the main floor.

"Secure the dining room door for a minute." Braxton called out, as she hurried into Margo's kitchen space. "Are you any good with a knife?"

"I can handle myself with one." Thor nodded.

"Good." She pulled out several sharp instruments. "Oh, this is nice. Remind me to kiss Margo later."

"Why?"

"She's got two heat knives and they're both fully charged. Here's one for you." She tossed one over. "Do you know how to use it?"

"Not as a weapon, but I've handled one before." Thor said.

The device was fairly simple to operate; just turn the thing on at high heat and make sure you didn't touch your self with it. Anything the hot blade came in contact with was not going to be happy.

"Anything else we can use?" The big man asked.

"Not unless you want to fight with a corkscrew." Braxton shook her head. "Actually, I'd better take one. I may need to poke something's eye out with it in a minute or two, if I end up losing my knife." She looked around the dining room. "Put those chairs back in place, all the way up to the table."

"Why?"

"In case we end up fighting inside this room." Braxton replied. "That way we won't end up tripping all over them. Aren't you a combat technician?"

"Emphasis on the technician." Thor took care of the chairs. "I'm good at fighting in space, and I did wrestle in college back on Earth. I've never been trained to fight an alien species face to face."

"Well, neither have I." Braxton went to the locked door. "But I have been trained in physical combat against other human beings, so that's a start." She set her ear to the door. "I don't hear anything in the hallway, but I know how thick the soundproofing is here. There could be a horde waiting out there, but we'd never know it until we're out there shaking hands with them. Okay, we're going to head out and directly to the bridge. Once we secure that, we'll head into the lounge."

They ran over to the bridge, finding nothing out of place.

"That was very sloppy of the captain." Braxton reprimanded the man's ghost, as she took a seat on the command chair. "If he'd left somebody on the bridge, the bridge would have been locked down and a distress call could have been made right away. The entire crew should not have been put out of action so quickly."

The thoughtful woman grunted and went on. "Here's what I found out about the satellite. Their main purpose is to send probes out to the Kuiper belt. The probes filter out the asteroids that are composed mainly of metallic ore from the ones that are made of ice and plain rock. The asteroids are brought here and the metals are analyzed. If it's feasible enough, a starship comes by later and takes the asteroid to an appropriate mining facility at another location. Apparently, the probes located one peculiar asteroid that had a lot of usable metal on it. Another probe was sent out to place booster rockets on it and to aim it toward this place, the Edgeworth Platform."

"But it wasn't just any old chunk of metal, was it?" Thor asked.

"My guess is that it wasn't." Braxton concurred. "It was whatever ship those creatures were flying around in. They figured out that their asteroid was being moved out from under them, and they must have jumped off the asteroid and come straight here to investigate."

Thor went over to his station. He started punching in the views for the outside cameras. Soon, the combat technician found what he was looking for. He put the alien vessel on the main screen. "There it is."

In a corner of the dock sat a long craft, bulb-shaped on one end and tapering gradually into a sharp tip on the other, like an ice cream cone on its side. It was smooth and had landing gear that looked like the spidery legs the creatures themselves had.

"So, either the people here towed that thing in or it drove itself. Then boom, we have an alien invasion." Braxton theorized. "I don't recognize the make of that ship."

Due to the immensity of the universe, it was not uncommon for human beings to discover strange things populating their backyards, even when humans had been living in certain areas of space for centuries. Back on Earth, it was said that only twenty percent of the oceans had ever been explored. Even to the present day, new and exotic species were still being discovered deep within the water, and sometimes even on land, too. How much greater were the chances of running into something new in outer space?

"The question is; what do you want to do next?" Braxton asked. "We have the ship secure now, as I've shut the main hatch by remote. I ran every scan I could think of to find out if there are any alien life forms on board, but I don't believe there are. The prudent choice, of course, is to simply sit pat and wait for the cavalry to show up."

"I think the captain would try to rescue us, if the situation were reversed." Thor theorized.

"I was thinking the same thing." Braxton nodded. "The problem is that the captain would have done it in a bullheaded way. He would have stormed into the satellite right through the front door. The last thing I want is to get pounded down by alien creatures like the others did."

"You have a plan?"

"Of course I do!" Braxton nearly snapped. "I didn't become a starship commander by kissing somebody's ass. I worked hard for that post. I know what I'm capable of, but I've never seen you in action. Do you have what it takes to take on an alien horde, with a weapon that is normally used to separate the beef from the bone?"

It was a tall assignment, Thor realized. "The captain would do it for me. I'm sure of it. I can at least try to do it for him."

"Follow me." Braxton stood up and imperiously left the bridge. "The main hatch is coded now, as are all the other doors in the ship. I've programmed the computer to only open doors when it recognizes a human being standing in front of it. If one of us is captured, the other is to return to this ship immediately, and to wait until another starship arrives with better qualified security personnel."

Instead of heading toward the main hatch, as Thor had expected, Braxton went into the dining room. They were going to use the service ramp next to the kitchen, where supplies and food in bulk were usually brought up. The functionality of the service door was such that it was as wide as an average door at first. Unlike the hatch, the panels of the ship could be opened up to either side, making it three times as wide, to accommodate whatever larger items or pallets being brought on board. Each door and wall panel had a telescoping ramp below it. When the service entrance was fully open, three or four people could walk abreast of one another simultaneously.

"We'll have to hop out a couple of feet, because I'm not extending the entire ramp." Braxton informed. "It will make less noise that way."

Braxton unbolted the door and started inching the ramp open. Surprising even himself, the mighty Thor reached out and slid his hand over the older woman's tight and shapely butt. He squeezed it once before drawing his hand away.

Braxton's head turned around slowly to eye him. "This is hardly the time and place for you to be doing that."

"I should have done that an hour ago." Thor lamented.

"I don't think either of us was ready for that, an hour ago." Braxton admitted. "I am a cold bitch and I know that. Your crew reminds me of that very thing several times each day. I can't simply jump in the sack with any of you, not on a whim like you all do with each other. I have to be properly seduced first."

"I'll have to work on that last part, the seduction part."

"I may even allow you to, once we get out of this situation we're in." Braxton smirked, and this time it was a real smirk. "You have to be focused here. Are you ready for what we're about to do?"

Thor nodded back. "I'm focused now. I want my friends back."

At that point, Braxton realized that even though she could not count a single member of the crew as being a friend, she also wanted them back. This was because there was a very real possibility that some of them might actually become her friends. The stern woman realized that she even wanted Barbie back. She'd hated the woman at first for betraying her to her arrogant nemesis, Admiral Cocksander. She'd hated Captain Washington as well, for being the upstart that had her dethroned. None of that was important now.

If Braxton were back on the Neptune and in a similar crisis, she would have simply stood back and let her security people handle the matter. In this case, and contrary to her own nature, she wanted to be proactive. She truly did want the crew back, she realized, as much as Thor did.