Chapter 2
The Segura Solar System
As the Bentusi destroyer came hurtling through space towards the Invincible, a small contingent of frigates, 5 Ion Frigates and 3 Assault Frigates, started firing on the abandoned destroyer. The Invincible had no time to enter Hyperspace. The frigates weren't doing enough damage and the destroyers and the heavy cruiser had no time to aim at it. And then the head engineer of the Invincible had a stunning idea. She came rushing to the bridge as this came to her mind.
"Commander, I just got an idea that could stop this! We could just do some slight change in programming on the hyperdrive module and then we could simply make a stationary hyperspace window. We could put this right in the destroyer's path! It would make it head into hyperspace, wherever it goes it won't be going into us. What we need to do is fire off the module and it should make the destroyer either use it's own hyperspace module or be stranded in hyperspace!"
"Are you serious? Why haven't we done something like this before?"
"Well, sir, it was used as a shielding system before but it was deemed to much of a power hog to keep a window open for a long enough time to be effective. I already have my team working on the reprogramming now."
"Good. Once it is ready activate it. We can't have that thing hit our ship!"
"Yes sir."
With that Lieutenant Sarah LiirHra left the bridge heading back for the engineering section.
Interrogation Room of the HDE Assault Carrier Invincible:
The room was bare except for three chairs, a table, and a bright light. All three chairs were filled. One of these chairs was different, however. There was a strange-looking biped creature on it that resembled a Kushan but with gold eyes and hair. On this creature there was a strange headset and some strange brace lets and anklets. There was a strange lever on one wall.
"Now, Mister Gabon Harka, we want some information. Like why you are helping the Taiidan's, where is their main base, and what do you know about their plans for attack?"
"Do you really think that I would tell you these things? I would rather die!"
"All right. Lets do this the old-fashioned way. You tell me what I want to know and I leave you alone. You don't, I pull this lever. You decide."
"Do you really think that that scares me? I've had fuller threats from a baby!"
"Really, Mister Harka? Do you really think I was bluffing? Tell me what I need to know! Tell me why you helped these, these THINGS!"
"If you are referring to the Taiidans that is our business. If---"
"YOUR BUSINESS IS MY BUSINESS! If you think that you can get away with withholding information from me, you are sorely mistaken. Tell me what I want to know!"
"You threats are more hollow than that empty skull of yours! You don't scare me and I will NOT give you classified information!"
"This is IT! I will not take this from one who helps the murderer of my parents! You will regret your decision!"
As Artus Somtaaw walks up to the lever on the wall the guard walks out the door. Artus pulls the lever up to about half way. The Bentusi in the chair suddenly is lit up as four thousand volts of electricity flows through his body. Artus holds the lever there for ten seconds and then lowers it to about a centimeter from the off position.
"Now do you think that my threats are hollow? Tell me why you are helping the Taiidan scum!"
"You, you are hurting me! I will tell you if you just stop the pain! It courses through my veins! It hurts, it maims. Stop it and I will tell!"
Artus walks over to the lever and puts it in the off position.
"Now tell me what I want to know! Why are you helping the Taiidan scum?
"We are only helping them because it is you that they are fighting. We are only allies with them because we too are being killed and maimed by your people! You come in your warships, kill all the people in the guarding fleet, and then scorch the skies on all of the planets in the system! You kill all, even civilians! I am sure you know this but I tell you all the same because you ask for what I know and that is it! Your people attack us without warning, without a message of war! You simply appear in one of our civilian systems and launch your atmosphere deprivation devices, just as the Taiidans used on Kharak! You are just as bad, no, worse, than them. You kill everything in the system with no regrets. You kill everything on the planets without a second thought. You kill hole worlds as if it was just a game. You have no respect for people. You have no respect for life. You only have respect for yourselves. You claim it is to reclaim your empire but an empire cannot live on dead worlds. You claim the worlds you destroy have a virus on them. In fact, your ship is probably launching your planet killing bombs now. You simply maim, kill, and move on, killing the next thing you meet up with. I cannot understand why my own race, the Bentusi, helped you reclaim Hiigara. This was one of the reasons your race was exiled. You killed all you encountered unless they offered help and then you kill them after they give you help. Your entire race should have been destroyed. Why do you think the Hiigarans at the Great Nebula, the ones that call themselves the Kadeshi, attack all that enters? Did you think it was for the protection of their race? No. It's for the pleasure of killing those they don't need. Their speech 'Will you join or will you die' was your races main motto for the entire time your race started forming an empire. Now you do the same thing except you just kill, you don't give them an option. The Unbound Bentusi were foolish. They had thought that after three thousand years of isolation you would have changed. They even talked the council into making a law that states that we can't tell any Hiigarans the truth. Most races thought that it would harm you if you knew the real truth about your 'empire', that it was actually just a large killing ground? You didn't even kill the people honorably. You dragged them out from their systems with your salvage corvettes and took them to Karos. Do you have any idea why it is called the Graveyard? Most say it is because a large battle was fought there. That isn't true. You dragged your victims to Karos and bled the air from their ship slowly, letting them slowly suffocate to death. You even went to such lengths as to give them enough food and water for them to last for three weeks as the air slowly leaked out. You even recorded most of them and played them for your people as a form of entertainment. I am most grateful that you have evolved to not do that anymore. The Taiidan Empire was. but at least they didn't kill people for the fun of it. The only reason you were allowed to come back was an agreement in the inner Council that was kept secret from the rest of the galaxy. They would let you come back if you were not helped in any way unless you paid a specified fee for a service. If you were helped by anyone without a fee then the council would exile you again. If they had known you were to do this again they would have burned your planet a long time ago."
It took Artus a long time to absorb this. It was the complete opposite of what the Bentusi had said before. But that would make sense as they were just trying to get rid of the Taiidan Empire. But he couldn't think these blasphemous thoughts. It had to be a lie. It had to...
"You.. must... be... lying. This can't be true. It goes against all that I was taught..."
"Yes, it does. But you were taught that by people that were taught the way you were. Wrongly. Most races either forgot your past or chose not to interfere with you. They had thought that you wouldn't revert to your old ways. But they were wrong. They were all wrong."
"I DON'T BELEIVE YOU! SHUT UP YOUR BLASPHEMOUS TALKS! SHUT UP!"
Artus ran to the lever and flipped it again, this time all the way. He held it there for over two minutes as Gabon screamed in pain. He stopped screaming thirty seconds after he flipped it. After this time Artus fell to the floor, crying.
"Oh, Sajuuk, what have I done... What have I done."
He cried for seemingly an eternity longer.
Bridge of HDE Invincible:
As the interrogation went on the Bentusi destroyer moved forward, faster and faster, towards the Invincible. When it reached three hundred meters from the ship a large hyperspace window opened in front of it. Unlike a normal one, which moves up and around the ship, this one stayed still as the destroyer moved into it. As it moved into it, it disappeared to cries of joy from the crew of the battle group. Interestingly, nobody could ever pull this off again without the ship coming out of hyperspace a second later. Some believe this is because the Bentusi ship was unmanned or it didn't have enough energy to power the module. Most accept this theory. Forty minutes after Artus Somtaaw entered the bridge.
"Ah, good. How did the interrogation go?"
"The stupid Bentusi wouldn't tell me anything. He just kept repeating that he wouldn't tell me anything. In the end the interrogation killed him.
"This is too bad. We might have gotten some information out of him."
"Yes, but he refused. He was very stubborn."
"Yes, I understand. It must have been a hard time for you."
"Yes, it was. Do you have a need for me now?"
"No, we already fired off the Atmosphere Deprivation Devices on the planets. The virus will be no more."
"What virus, Commander? I had thought our mission was to take over this system in the name of Hiigara."
"Yes, that is our objective but our primary one was to destroy the source of a virus that can travel through space and metal. It is causing many deaths in our trade ships. This battle group is one of the few that has been armored against this threat."
Artus was struck back by this. How could the Bentusi have known that this would happen?
"Huh, I can understand why I wasn't told of this. Now, Commander, could I have some leave to visit the Lucky Shot to see my girlfriend? I haven't seen her this entire patrol and we have been on essential comms. only so i couldn't talk to her."
"Yes, of course. Just take the shuttle that is heading there to give them some more ammo. It should be leaving in ten minutes."
"Thanks sir!"
With that Artus leaves the bridge in a happier mood than earlier.
Captain Jane Manaan's Quarters, the Luck Shot:
In the middle of their love making Artus suddenly starts thinking about what the Bentusi had said. He suddenly lost the mood that he was in and stopped.
"Hey, what's wrong? You never just quit before and you look pale."
"I'm just thinking about what the Bentusi said when I interrogated him. It was scary."
"What do you mean? I thought that he didn't say anything."
"Well, that's not exactly true. In fact, it isn't the truth at all. He told me that we aren't taking over systems. He said we are just killing them, scorching the planets. He told me that in our races past we did the same thing, only worse, and that's the reason we were exiled. It was never the Taiidans trying to take over our empire. It was them trying to stop us from killing them. He told me we did all these evil things. And I didn't believe him. Then he told me we were scorching the planets here. We weren't taking them over to better the empire. We were just killing them. And I got mad and I killed him. I murdered him in cold blood. I fried him on the top setting for two minutes. I can't believe I did that, but I didn't believe him and I didn't want to keep hearing that. So I killed him. Then I went to the bridge and told the Commander he didn't say anything. And he told me that we scorched the planets in the system. We killed all those non-combatants. It just isn't right..."
"Are you serious, Artus? Your talking blasphemy! Do you have any idea what the laws are against traitorous thoughts? If you tell ANYONE these things your thinking you'll be killed along with who you tell! If you keep saying these things I'm going to have to leave you!"
"I'm sorry, but I can't just forget what I've been told! Everything that he told me makes sense! He couldn't have just made that up on the spot! He just couldn't have!"
"SHUT UP! I told you, I can't have you saying these things. Get out of my room if you're going to say them. Get away from me. I don't want to go down with you!"
"Please, I can't help it. It was just so convincing. I really shouldn't have erased the recording..."
"Oh, Sajuuk, help him! He needs to be cleansed of these foul thoughts! We can't have these thoughts in his head or he will surely get himself killed!"
"Please, stop. I will try to stop these thoughts but it is hard. What he said was so convincing now that I think about it, yet it goes against all that I have been taught. I don't know what to believe!"
"Then don't believe any of it! Keep it out of your mind and just do your job! We can't have our pilots thinking like this!"
"Oh, Sajuuk, I can't. I just can't."
"If you continue like this then I suggest you leave. Leave and don't come back."
"I just can't help it, Jane. It just keeps flowing through my mind I can't get it off of it now. I don't know what I'm going to do..."
"Then you're going to leave, and you're going to leave now. And don't come back because I'm not going to be here for you."
"Then I will go. I can't clear my head from these thoughts."
Artus then gets dressed and leaves, taking one last look at the naked Jane Manaan.
The Invincible's hanger control room: The sensors in the hanger detect unauthorized movement near one of the crew's personal fighters. The warning light turns on and a beeping sound starts emerging from the console. As the movement gets closer and closer to the fighter the sound gets louder. Eventually a different warning light turns on as one of the fighters' doors is opened and shut. Upon closer inspection it was the same one. A short time later another warning light turned on, this time that of an unauthorized movement of one of the fighters. And lastly a loud blare sounded across the entire ship as an unauthorized fighter launch occurs.