Free Beyond Mars Crimson Fleet by RG Risch Page B
Authors: RG Risch
Tags: Science-Fiction, Star Wars, Star Trek, Military, SciFi, Marines, Future, space, mars, battlestar galactica, David Weber, Universe, space battles, Space Station, honor, war of the worlds, shock, cosmos, foreigner, darth vader, babylon 5, skywalker, mariner, deep space 9, beyond mars, battles fighting, battlestar, harrington, battles and war, honor harrington
technology and newly passed laws. Legally
adjudicated as “a resource for the common-good” by a corrupt and
politically motivated Supreme Court, they were made up of men and
women condemned for any serious crime on Earth, sentenced to
become—this.
As the officer continued
to stroll around the deck, he wondered how many of them actually
committed any crimes. Commander Vincent Trager paused by one in
particular. Her grayish-white face revealed that she was once
beautiful and in the spring of her life when she was taken to this
fate.
Trager froze momentarily
and wanted to touch in sympathy the glass that covered her face.
However, he knew that this was unwise act, and so decided against
it. Seeing her reminded him of his last planetary leave of no more
than four months ago. There he met a young waitress at a restaurant
in the wee hours of the morning. Business was slow and the night’s
air cold. Yet, it was a good time for chance encounter.
Trager
smiled for a moment and thought back to the deep conversation they
had: of life as college coed and a soldier, their troubles, and
their dreams. He wished himself younger that night as the
possibility of a romance beckoned. But the cold reality of being so
much older and a military man bound to his duty stood in the way.
So they parted with a tender farewell, him to his new ship:
the ESS Quinton .
Although
life aboard the Quinton was a little unusual, Trager quickly settled into it. Three
months later into his posting aboard his new ship, the first of the
HD's arrived and were installed. With little thought, he paid these
“condemned criminals” no mind. But then on one of his daily tours
on the bridge, this one caught his eye. He paused to carefully
study the woman's face in detail. Finally after a few unsure
moments, he found himself recoiling in utter horror, for he
recognized the face as being that of Julie Morris: waitress, coed,
idealist—and now huma-droid.
The eyes that were once
filled with the joy of life now glared unblinkingly at a pseudo,
holographic viewer that was a part of her case. A mind that once
hoped and dreamed now only calculated and analyzed. And every time
he looked upon her, his stomach grew queasy while his eyes soften
with the moisture of compassion. He hoped and prayed that her
family thought her dead.
As Commander Trager
continued his routine inspection of this “ship of the damned” he
was assigned to, a cyborg walked past him. Trager's eyes locked on
and followed the hybrid to its duty station. He restrained the
emotions of the man within him once more. However, his pity for
Julie abruptly turned to total hatred and revulsion for the “thing”
that had just walked past him.
Trager regarded cyborgs as
nothing more than traitors to the human race. They consciously
forsook humanity for a machine's life, and power over what was once
their own kind. To the officer, they were embodiment of a
computer-dominated world, and the impersonality and cruelty that it
brought.
Taking a deep breath,
Trager turned away completely agitated and feeling the need for
diversion. He marched to the controls of the main viewer and
powered it on. He hoped to focus his mind on one of the few things
that gave him solace: the eternity of space.
The air crackled for a
moment with static electricity, and then a patch of stars, dust,
gases, and void appeared before him in a swatch of tapestry. Trager
took another deep breath and began to relax.
Suddenly, an electronic
voice imbedded into a wall panel near the hatchway began to
broadcast in naval protocol, "ATTENTION! ADMIRAL ON
DECK!"
With those words, the
rounded hatchway parted open. Trager looked up as he stood at
attention, his stomach tightening with more tension. Within a
moment, the figure of Admiral Selena Darius stepped onto the bridge
with her two android bodyguards.
Selena’s
body was clad in a black shinny leather-like material that covered
most of her machine parts well and gave her the guise of
adjudicated as “a resource for the common-good” by a corrupt and
politically motivated Supreme Court, they were made up of men and
women condemned for any serious crime on Earth, sentenced to
become—this.
As the officer continued
to stroll around the deck, he wondered how many of them actually
committed any crimes. Commander Vincent Trager paused by one in
particular. Her grayish-white face revealed that she was once
beautiful and in the spring of her life when she was taken to this
fate.
Trager froze momentarily
and wanted to touch in sympathy the glass that covered her face.
However, he knew that this was unwise act, and so decided against
it. Seeing her reminded him of his last planetary leave of no more
than four months ago. There he met a young waitress at a restaurant
in the wee hours of the morning. Business was slow and the night’s
air cold. Yet, it was a good time for chance encounter.
Trager
smiled for a moment and thought back to the deep conversation they
had: of life as college coed and a soldier, their troubles, and
their dreams. He wished himself younger that night as the
possibility of a romance beckoned. But the cold reality of being so
much older and a military man bound to his duty stood in the way.
So they parted with a tender farewell, him to his new ship:
the ESS Quinton .
Although
life aboard the Quinton was a little unusual, Trager quickly settled into it. Three
months later into his posting aboard his new ship, the first of the
HD's arrived and were installed. With little thought, he paid these
“condemned criminals” no mind. But then on one of his daily tours
on the bridge, this one caught his eye. He paused to carefully
study the woman's face in detail. Finally after a few unsure
moments, he found himself recoiling in utter horror, for he
recognized the face as being that of Julie Morris: waitress, coed,
idealist—and now huma-droid.
The eyes that were once
filled with the joy of life now glared unblinkingly at a pseudo,
holographic viewer that was a part of her case. A mind that once
hoped and dreamed now only calculated and analyzed. And every time
he looked upon her, his stomach grew queasy while his eyes soften
with the moisture of compassion. He hoped and prayed that her
family thought her dead.
As Commander Trager
continued his routine inspection of this “ship of the damned” he
was assigned to, a cyborg walked past him. Trager's eyes locked on
and followed the hybrid to its duty station. He restrained the
emotions of the man within him once more. However, his pity for
Julie abruptly turned to total hatred and revulsion for the “thing”
that had just walked past him.
Trager regarded cyborgs as
nothing more than traitors to the human race. They consciously
forsook humanity for a machine's life, and power over what was once
their own kind. To the officer, they were embodiment of a
computer-dominated world, and the impersonality and cruelty that it
brought.
Taking a deep breath,
Trager turned away completely agitated and feeling the need for
diversion. He marched to the controls of the main viewer and
powered it on. He hoped to focus his mind on one of the few things
that gave him solace: the eternity of space.
The air crackled for a
moment with static electricity, and then a patch of stars, dust,
gases, and void appeared before him in a swatch of tapestry. Trager
took another deep breath and began to relax.
Suddenly, an electronic
voice imbedded into a wall panel near the hatchway began to
broadcast in naval protocol, "ATTENTION! ADMIRAL ON
DECK!"
With those words, the
rounded hatchway parted open. Trager looked up as he stood at
attention, his stomach tightening with more tension. Within a
moment, the figure of Admiral Selena Darius stepped onto the bridge
with her two android bodyguards.
Selena’s
body was clad in a black shinny leather-like material that covered
most of her machine parts well and gave her the guise of