Pirates of Aldebaran

“Move her in gently, Okomo.”

“Aye, Commander.”

From the cockpit, there wasn’t all that much to see in the infinite void apart from the asteroids only briefly in view for a second as ‘The Gunnery’ shot past each at its rapid pace. Through the skilled, almost graceful and artistic piloting of Okomo, The Gunnery’s pilot, a young muscular man of New Guinean descent, fresh out of the academy. Commanding him was CDR Finley-Carson, A woman in her mid-forties with neck length hair. She was athletic for her age, years of serving The Union of Sol has helped keep her body in shape. In the cockpit were three others. Navigator Kohli, a woman in her mid-thirties, responsible for directing The Gunnery between coordinates during sub-light travel and FTL jumps. Sitting opposite Kohli was Shimizu, who was in their early thirties and kept a modest buzzcut, he was in charge of communications, intercepting incoming transmissions as well as sending communications when needed. Finally, on a desk next to Okomo, near the front of the cockpit was Lieberman, a sour looking man in his fifties, bald and lanky. He oversaw the weapons and took great pride in his work. At the centre of all this The Commander sat in her chair, ever vigilant.

Right now The Gunnery and her crew were in the Aldebaran system, having been dispatched from the nearest Union outpost in the Hades system, about five light years away. Before departure, in briefing, the crew were told that a ship carrying ore from a mining satellite in Aldebaran’s asteroid belt went missing, its transponder going silent near The Gunnery’s location. As a Union scout vessel, 

The Gunnery was selected to check on the civilian ship’s status and report back to Hades after its status had been confirmed.

“Our ETA in ten minutes Commander” Kohli repeated from the letters on her screen.

“Good. Be on guard” The Commander responded. “Aldebaran is a hub for pirate activity.”

Okomo, still focused like a hawk on piloting the ship chimed in. “Pirates?”.

Lieberman chuckled. “Yeah kid. You ever heard of the Ämden Vï?”

“Don’t distract him Lieberman” The Commander rolled her eyes.

“I remember we covered them briefly at the academy, but I don’t remember much. Honestly I was asleep that whole lecture.”

Kohli chuckled, The Commander sighed. Shimizu did not take their eyes off their work. Lieberman continued.

“Ämden Vï, space pirates, like out of the old stories. ‘cept these fuckers are the real deal. They get their name cos the Ny’kulha were the first to encounter them. Means something like ‘One who plunders’ in their language. Anyway they raid ships, stations… hell even colonies. They’re like Vikings but without the sex appeal.”

“Lieberman!” The Commander was growing weary of Lieberman’s language. She was greeted with little more than a side eye in response.

“Anyway, Aldebaran is The Union’s border with Ämden Vï space. If they cared about any treaties they’d leave this system alone. But they raid anywhere within jump range of their ships.”

Still keeping his now wide eyes forward, Okomo responded.

“Why do they raid others? Surely if they have space flight they have the technology to manufacture their own resources.”

“Nobody’s stopped to ask ‘em. In fact nobody has seen one and lived to tell the tale. Probably cos they’re from a part of the galaxy low on resources. We’ll never know.”

Okomo gulped. “So could an Ämden Vï have taken the missing ship’s crew? Or…”

Before Okomo could finish or Lieberman respond, The Commander hurriedly stepped in.

“Aldebaran is a dangerous system. Asteroids, radiation flairs. Hell, space travel has its risks. A hull puncture, Interface malfunction could’ve just meant the ship is inoperable for a while. We’ll know soon enough.”

Before Lieberman could give his own take The Commander shot him a look and continued. “Yes the Ämden Vï are real and their ships have been sighted in and around Aldebaran. But these sightings are rare. Most know better than to pick on Union ships.”

Eventually a slender grey ship came into view among the brown and silver asteroids. Okomo brought the ship to a steady halt. The Commander briefly inspected the derelict vessel from the cockpit's screen. It had a utilitarian design, not like the sleek ships built by The Union. It also looked older too. Despite some scorch marks and puncture holes on the side of its hull, it still had some signs of wear and tear. Some parts of the vessel appeared newer than the rest, suggesting they had been replaced. The model too appeared to be older. It wouldn’t surprise The Commander if this ship had passed through several owners before its latest. It was then that on the bow The Commander noticed the ship’s name and ID code, written in faded and blocky script: “Vayu”.

“From the looks of it I’d say this ship sustained some of that damage recently” The Commander noted. “Scorch Marks from plasma weapons maybe? And some damage to the hull, nothing too extensive.”

“Pirates.” Lieberman muttered. The Commander ignored him.

“Could be an attack. Slight collision with some debris caused her to run aground. See if you can establish communications, Shimizu.”

They nodded. Pressing some buttons on their screen, a few seconds of pinging. No response. Shimizu tried a second time. And a third. No response either time. The Commander pinched the top of her nose.

“We’ll send a boarding party. Make sure the crew are in a good condition. If they need repairs, supplies or direction to the nearby mining colony.”

Kohli chimed in “Respectfully Commander, our mission was to check on the status of the ship.”

The Commander turned to face the navigations officer. “Yes, but also check the status of the crew. A small away team and quick reconnaissance. Nothing more.”

Kohli looked down at her screen. The Commander turned to address Lieberman.

“Lieberman, I want you to lead a three man team onto The Vayu, conduct a life-scan and investigate the status of the ship. Okomo, prepare to dock with The Vayu.”

Okomo swiftly responded with a salute and began directing The Gunnery into position. Lieberman just nodded and got up from his station to gather a small team. Docking took no time. Once Okomo had given the all-clear that the procedure was successful The Commander activated the com system.

“Lieberman. Report in.”

“Aye commander.”

“Are you ready to board?”

A brief pause.

“Aye Commander.”

Having just slipped into his enviro-suit and made sure his helmet was comfortable, Lieberman stashed his plasma rifle to his back and gestured to the three other members of the away team to join him in the airlock. Noticeably fidgeting as the decontamination cycle started. Lieberman wanted to get this over and done with.

In his fifties, Lieberman had been with The Union long before some of its newest recruits were even born. He had seen action all across Union Space, in more ships than he could count. The only thing really stopping him from becoming a Commander or even an Admiral was his nasty habit to say what he meant and mean what he said. On The Gunnery as the weapons officer he was at home. In charge of weapons and often leading many of The Gunnery’s boarding and surface missions the constant action always kept him on his toes, as well as spry for a man who was ready to retire from The Union’s Navy. Once decontamination was complete the airlock opened and Lieberman led his squad aboard.

After two minutes of no update from the away party The Commander opened up a channel to Lieberman.

“Away team, report in.” The Commander said with authority. No response.

“Report in, away team.” Still, nothing.

“Away team, report.” Some panic crept through.

Suddenly the comm from the away team opened. It was Liberman, he was breathing heavily and gagging.

“Away team, what’s your status?”

Lieberman only manged to utter one word before the cockpit could hear the sounds of violent retching and spewing: “Fuck.”

In his time, Lieberman believed he had seen it all. When he first enlisted back when he was only nineteen, to fight in the Sol Union – Polarian Alliance war, he saw his comrades die from excruciating burns, or be lost to the diseases and deadly megafauna of Polaria’s moon. Later when he joined the Navy he saw the lifeless bodies of his comrades float in the vacuum, many of his crewmates succumbed to sickness and died in action. He was a man who had looked death in the eye on several occasions. Yet nothing could prepare him for the sight inside this derelict ship.

Hung across the walls near The Vayu’s airlock was one of its crew. Ripped in half so that their guts were hanging loose, their intestines around their neck and their hands stuck to the wall with combat knives, almost as if they were crucified. According to the logs the crew of this ship was fifteen. Ten bodies could be found by Lieberman and his men. The captain’s body had his chest ripped open. His lungs shoved in his mouth and his heart was nowhere to be seen. The rest of the bodies were mutilated in a similar fashion. Organs torn from their place. Bones used as weapons on their former bodies. Eyes gouged out and limbs meters away from their owners. These kills were fresh too. But one body was not like the others. Near the airlock was another body, not of this crew and not even human. It was about the size of an adult man, lean yet muscular. Draped in red leathers that left the biceps exposed to show off their musculature. Each hand had six long fingers ending in sharp talons, the feet were similar if the toes were stubbier but also possessed dagger-like talons. The head was obscured by a crudely made metal mask that left the eyes exposed and above the mouth was a jagged arrangement of fangs. The mask looked like it couldn’t withstand much in the way of plasma fire and was clearly not suited as an environment suit, so it must’ve been meant for ornamentation. Collecting himself, Lieberman carefully removed the mask from the body and saw that it possessed dark brown lizard-like skin. Its head possessed some slight spikes made from hardened scales. Its eyes were vertical slits that were still open despite death, it made this cadaver look even more cold. It had no nose but four nostril slits above its lipless mouth. Inside the mouth were several needle-like teeth, bared in their owner’s final expression.

“The Ämden Vï” Lieberman muttered “They really did this.”

Collecting his wits and gathering his team, they hurriedly made it back onto The Gunnery’s sick bay. Later when reporting back to The Commander Lieberman was short on breath and pale as ice. With the Commander was The Gunnery’s medic. A woman in her late twenties named Dr Dobrev. She diagnosed Lieberman with shock, although The Commander thought you wouldn’t need a medical degree to figure that out.

Back on the deck The Commander, unnerved by Lieberman’s accounts, addressed Kohli. “Take us back to Hades base.” The Commander spoke quietly but with authority. “We’ll report what happened and recommend The Union send a larger investigation and response team.”

Okomo began to navigate out of the asteroid field as Kohli inputted the coordinates of Hades base into the computer. But something on her display caught her eye, then her concern.

“Commander, picking up another ship approaching.”

“Shimizu, patch them through and tell them to vacate the area-”

Before she could finish that command, the ship came into view from behind a large, brown asteroid. It looked like it was cobbled together from the parts of different ships, from different models and species designs. The Gunnery was small by Union vessel standards and this ship was around the same size.

“Okomo! Get us out of here!” The Commander yelled, worry took over.

The Gunnery began to change its course but two other ships appeared from behind different debris, throwing Okomo off and almost causing The Gunnery to collide into an asteroid.

Three more ships, also looking like patchworks of other vessels, revealed themselves from cover. There were too many for The Gunnery to take head on, they were blocking all available escape paths where The Gunnery could minimise damage. The first ship to appear was inching closer and closer. Just then a notice appeared on Shimizu’s screen.

“Commander, I'm getting a com from one of the ships.” They said shakily.

The Commander nodded to Shimizu who put the comm through on the screen. Greeted by a being wearing a welded metal mask with exaggerated needle teeth blocking his mouth filled with needle teeth. Dark green snake-like eyes piercing behind the helmet. What the being said was not in any language the Union officers knew. But they knew what sound it was making. A deep, monstrous laugh before the comm cut and the cockpit was filled with the silence of the void.