Catastrophe 17 (Patreon)

Felt like doing another one this month. Still not sure how all this mess can be ironed out in the end! Can it?

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“Let me get this straight,” Kai’to huffed with crossed arms, “if the lio call back, you want me to take the call?”

“Yes!” Captain Ishe hissed.

“And you want me to lie to them?”

“You have to!” insisted Commissioner Taigen. “You have to keep going along with the plans as they suggest them, or they’ll know that we’re on to them! We need that advantage.”

Kai’to scowled. How did she keep getting roped into these things? Her job was cleaning air filters! “Can’t someone else do it?” She tried offering her strand to the captain, but Ishe refused to take it.

“No. Any change in how we’ve been doing things will be a clear sign that we know too much,” she sighed. “You have to keep going as if nothing’s wrong.”

“And report back to me immediately,” the commissioner insisted, “so I’m kept up to date.”

“You’ll report back to me,” corrected Ishe. “That’s the chain of command. I will be responsible for keeping the commissioner updated.”

The gigantic krakun looked unhappy about that but said nothing.

“Just keep going along with them?” Kai’to whined. “You want me to gather sixteen cubs and what? Hand over a bunch of hostages to the lio?”

“No!” Ishe shouted. The commissioner had opened his mouth to speak but closed it immediately after the captain shouted. “Just keep saying that the plan is moving ahead. We won’t actually give them anyone.”

The trio stared at one another a long moment, each set of eyes glancing between the other two individuals for what seemed like an eternity before Kai’to finally dared to break the silence, “And when they show up, and there’s no cubs at airlock 9A?”

The captain and commissioner shared a look for a moment before Ishe turned back to Kai’to. “We’ll pass through that gate when we get it,” she assured the engineer. “For now, just keep saying ‘yes’. Reassure the lio that everything is going according to plan, no matter what you hear or see. Then report back.”

Silence. Then the krakun hissed a low sound, “And if we can’t keep the lio from taking control?”

Kai’to’s stomach tightened, and Captain Ishe stared at the krakun’s huge eye for a moment. “We will, Commissioner.”

“And if we can’t?” he repeated, louder this time. “We need to prepare our contingencies. We have to be able to sabotage the trinity elsewhere. Cut power from the reactor, disconnect cables to the gate … something the lio won’t be able to find and fix at the last moment.”

The captain’s ears looked severe. “And just let a hundred million tons of rock hit us?”

Kai’to tried to swallow, and the commissioner tilted his head ever so slightly. “If we can’t stop the lio, we’re dead anyhow. But between the krakun of Krakuntec Prime and all their slaves, I can’t even guess how many lives would be in jeopardy if we let AP7739 through. If we can’t get out of the way, we have to keep take any measure possible to keep the lio from shooting that rock through the gate.”

The captain held the commissioner’s gaze for a moment before looking away. “Agreed,” she said at last, sending a chill down Kai’to’s spine that was colder than space. Then, she turned to Kai’to. “These plans do not concern you. Get as much done as you can, but stay close. If you take another call from the lio, I expect a report the moment you hang up.”

“Understood,” Kai’to sighed before leaving the meeting.

She’d almost made it back to the job board before her strand beeped.

“Oh jeez, oh jeez, oh jeez,” Kai’to muttered. She pulled the device from its holster and glared at it, wishing the incoming call alert would go away. When it didn’t, she ducked into a narrow, darkened corridor before tapping “Accept”.

“Kai’to? There you?” Vaagai hissed, her nose so close to the camera that it looked huge and disproportionate. “Why pick up no?”

“I’m here,” Kai’to sighed. “The network is still down. I couldn’t let anyone see me taking a call.”

Vaagai bit her lip a moment, struggling to choose words in Geroo. “Trouble. Emergency we have. Very bad.”

“Tell me about it,” Kai’to sighed with a roll of her eyes. “At least your ship can move out of the way before AP7739 gets here!”

“No!” the lio huffed. “Need help. Very trouble big.”

“I’m trying, Vaagai,” said Kai’to. “I’m trying to get the trinity back up in time, so we won’t get smashed to pieces.”

“No. Here!” the tawny creature hissed. “Trouble here. Need help.”

Kai’to dropped her ears. “What?”

Vaagai growled in frustration before explaining, “When boarding, I thought too many engineers. So many. Dozens!”

The geroo squinted. “There’s too many engineers aboard your ship?”

“Thought maybe ship big,” said Vaagai. “Need many engineers to operate. No. Realize after we leave. Ship small. Cramped. Sleep three to bunk shifts!”

Kai’to snorted a frustrated breath but said nothing, waiting in silence. She hadn’t had a decent meal since the crisis began, and the lio was upset about them having to “hot bunk” and share each bed to three engineers when it was their turn to sleep? Of all the minor inconveniences—

“Was on lower deck now just. Saw one engineer…”—she turned her head each way looking around, but the room was dark behind her and Kai’to could see nothing else—“wearing jacket flak!”

The geroo shrugged. “Jacket flak? Is that a lio term? I don’t know what that means.”

The alien growled, shaking the video. “Is armor!” she explained. “Wear jacket flak so not die when shot.”

Kai’to’s lips squeezed together into a tight line. She couldn’t trust her voice.

“Lied to me. Not engineers. Soldiers. Many soldiers!”

The geroo looked away from the screen. Okay, that’s confirmation they’re planning an attack. Not surprising really, she thought, but it means Vaagai isn’t part of the plot. She’s being used too, just like we are.

She glanced back at the scientist. Or a test, perhaps? No, that’s stupid, it would risk revealing their plans. And now, she knows as well. That makes her an ally … or a liability! If her boss realizes that she knows, they might assume that she’s blabbed—which she did. They could scrap the plan we’re preparing for and storm the ship before we’re ready to repel them.

Kai’to covered her muzzle with her paw. She refused to confirm any of Vaagai’s suspicions. She’d let her talk but wouldn’t offer anything—a tall order for an engineer. Tech school trained engineers from the beginning to offer up their knowledge even when a superior officer was insisting on a poor course of action. “And you want me to do what, exactly?”

The lio stared at her, eyes wide. Was she surprised the Kai’to hadn’t been surprised? “I can’t let them do this!” the lio gasped.

Kai’to stared at the screen, cringing internally and trying not to blink.

Vaagai muttered something in the lio language that she couldn’t understand before finally managing, “We do something must!”

Kai’to just shrugged. “I don’t understand what you want from me. All I can do is try to get the trinity online in time. If I can, we can move out of the way and survive. I can’t do anything about soldiers in jacket flaks!”

Vaagai winced. “Yes, okay,” she whispered. “Problem mine, yes. Not help you war crime is. Help you treason is.”

Kai’to swallowed, thankful that she wasn’t walking in the lio’s pawprints. Although it could be helpful having Vaagai on the inside, feeding the geroo insight or maybe even helping to foil plans, the tawny feline was stuck in the middle. Doing her job and leaving the geroo as casualties of war would be an atrocity, and trying to stop them could get her executed. Not knowing what else to do, Kai’to nodded.

The lio moved even closer to the camera, staring at Kai’to without blinking. “Need asylum.”

Kai’to nodded. That seemed fair. If the lio could save them, the least they could do would be to help her escape to somewhere neutral. If they could get moving once more, they were only three weeks away from the space station Antigua. From there, she could flee Liotec on her own.

The brown engineer looked both ways, but the main corridor was empty, so she began walking briskly back to where she’d left the captain and commissioner to their planning.

“Asylum from lio and krakun,” the big alien clarified.

Kai’to froze and stared at the screen. That complicated things. She couldn’t tell the commissioner about a lio refugee. Even if Vaagai’s help saved Taigen’s life, the two were mortal enemies.

Could she even tell her captain? Could Kai’to trust Captain Ishe to keep a lio traitor safe from her own boss?

How in the hells am I always in the middle of this crap? she wondered before turning and heading the other way.

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Reviewer's link: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1DU55cDUYt6ODrq8HMdSmtYYMxHHKirLM1DeiZapxaOY/edit?usp=sharing

Thoughts?