Free Ep.#14 - "The Weak and the Innocent" (The Frontiers Saga) by Ryk Brown

said nothing, matching his gaze without backing down. Nathan knew she understood, despite the fact that her pleading look turned to anger and frustration, most of which was undoubtedly focused on him at the moment.
    “Comm-drone has jumped away,” Mister Navashee reported.
    “Estimated time to KKV launch?”
    “All things considered, three to five minutes,” Luis replied from the tactical console behind Nathan.
    Nathan looked away, unable to bear the look in Jessica’s eyes any longer. “Very well.”
    * * *
    “Both field generators are intact,” Commander Eckert reported.
    “And their energy buffers?”
    Commander Eckert tapped buttons on his data pad as he searched for the answer. “Maybe ten percent, but they’re falling… Something is draining them. It just dropped to nine percent.”
    “Why?”
    “I don’t know. I’m kind of limited with what I can do here.”
    “How long until they’re dead?”
    “Hard to say,” the commander replied. “Five minutes, ten minutes. I’m just guessing, really.”
    “Why did they go offline to begin with?” Captain Nash wondered.
    “Maybe a bad connection? We were taking damage at the time.”
    “Or too many failed emitters,” Nash said, concerned. He looked at Eckert. “I don’t suppose you can check the emitters with that thing?”
    “No way.”
    “ Attention to the Earth vessel, ” a heavily accented voice called over both their comm-sets. “ I am Major Goya of the Jar-Benakh. Those alive must respond. ”
    “The Jar what?” Captain Nash said.
    “Jar means battleship in Jung,” Commander Eckert clarified.
    “How the hell did they tap into our internal comms?” the captain wondered.
    “ We are aware of you… ”
    “Damn right he is,” Nash muttered as he listened.
    “ …and we offer you to surrender to us now. ”
    “I’m pretty sure this clown didn’t score too high in his English classes,” Captain Nash said as he tapped his comm-set. “This is Captain Robert Nash, of the gunship…uh…Pequod. I can’t understand what you are saying.”
    “Pequod?” Commander Eckert wondered.
    Nash turned in surprise. “You never read Moby Dick?”
    “Moby what?”
    “ You to sur-rend-dur to me, on now, to here … Or to you is death of pain. ”
    “Not to be rude, Major, but your English sucks,” Nash replied over his comm-set. “If you want to discuss the terms of your surrender, you’re going to have to find someone that can speak English a whole lot better than you. No disrespect intended, of course.” Nash addressed Eckert. “How long until we can jump?”
    Eckert stared blankly, unable to respond.
    “How long?” Nash repeated, smacking the commander on the shoulder so he’d snap back into focus.
    “I don’t know, a few minutes, I guess. I just have to find the commands in the database, load them, and then send an execute command, but…”
    “ Sur-rend-doer on this moment, or pain will be coming to you into the best… Ack! Worst of places… Ja! Pain to the worst! ”
    “Please, get someone who can speak English properly, or I’m gonna open fire and blow your dumb ass to pieces just to shut you up! You’re getting on my nerves!”
    Commander Eckert stared at his captain. “Sir, is it really necessary to antagonize them like that? I mean…”
    “Fuck’em,” Nash scoffed. “Get that thing ready to jump us out of here.”
    “Sir, if all the emitters fire…”
    “I know, we’ll tear the ship apart and we’ll be dead. We’re pretty much dead no matter what we do here, Skeech. With any luck, the breakup will ignite our propellant tanks and blow us to hell, maybe even set off the charges on the field generators.”
    Commander Eckert turned his attention back to his data pad as he began preparing the starboard jump field generator for the jump. “And if by some miracle, we happen to survive the jump, then what? All the EVA gear is forward, in the unpressurized areas.”
    “There’s a maintenance crawler aft,