Captain Geh!aoa stepped onto the bridge and approached the helm. "Pilot Yulliksu."
"Yes, Captain?" The horned Goldaskian looked at her with curiosity.
"We will move the ship."
"Where?"
"Petra, please give Pilot Yulliksu the position."
"Yes, Captain," Petra replied.
The pilot turned and examined his glowing screens. "I have the position. How high?"
"Most close, but stay over the air. When we go there, we will turn the ship." Geh!aoa gestured with her hands. Then she explained why, which took a few tries. The pilot grew still.
"Captain, are you certain?"
Geh!aoa nodded. "Yes. I did ask Captain Telnik two tis, and I did ask Nik!eh."
Finally, Yulliksu nodded. "Understood, Captain. I (sothing)..." He took a breath and pointed repeatedly at a map of Earth. "I ask we move here, and here, and here."
"Yes. Good. Smart. We will. Thank you." Yulliksu nodded, then Geh!aoa moved to her Captain's chair and sat. "Petra, tell the movent crew to prepare to move the ship in eight zegs. Then tell Zaa!nu to report to her station as well."
"Yes, Captain," the golem replied.
Yulliksu got on the radio. "Mission Control Houston, this is the New Hope. Mission Control Houston, this is the New Hope."
"New Hope, this is Mission Control in Houston. Go ahead."
"We will again move the ship. We will stay outside the atmosphere. We will not hit your satellites. You do not need to act." As always, Geh!aoa was frustrated at the limited translations available. Ooafans were the only ones still struggling with a significant communication barrier.
"Understood, New Hope. Thank you for telling us. Good luck."
"Thank you. We will need it."
Geh!aoa sighed. "Petra, let speak to everyone on board."
The word READY appeared in her vision, written in Kthufu. "All hands, this is the Captain. We will move the ship soon. Crew report when ready." She used the gesture to tell Petra she was done talking.
She resisted the temptation to fold her ears forward and sat up straight. I hope we get it right this ti. This is important.She watched the row of orange lights co on one by one, reporting readiness. Rembering what had happened last ti, she waited another quarter zeg after the last one lit before giving the order. "Move the ship."
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No alarming sounds ca from the ship's structure this ti, only the expected rumble of the engines. Geh!aoa watched on the screens as the New Hope turned and moved in the correct direction for the first leg. Likewise the second leg, with a rise in altitude. The third leg brought them to the desired position, and the image rotated as Yulliksu rolled the ship a quarter turn.
"In position, Captain."
Geh!aoa blinked and tried not to show how pleasantly surprised and relieved she was. She had begun to second-guess herself, wondering whether complicating the course increased the risk too much. "Thank you, Pilot. Zaa!nu, do you have your target?"
A few monts later, she heard the other Ooafan's voice. "Just a zeg, Captain...almost done..."
Geh!aoa took a deep breath and flared her ears back. There was no reason to delay, and good reason not to. Still, her next words felt very heavy.
"You may fire when ready."
There was a long pause, and then an unfamiliar noise, a whine rising in pitch, started to make the whole ship rattle slightly.
"Fi—"
Zaa!nu's voice was drowned out by a chanical crescendo. The ship jerked, ever so slightly, as a very loud bang sounded for a fraction of a heartbeat. Just as Geh!aoa realized that it was over, a second, much louder sound sent her ears forward in a hurry, and this one was a deafening whine that seed to shake her very bones, until it finally ended five heartbeats later.
After waiting a few breaths longer to convince herself that the enormous noises had stopped, she unfolded her ears and hit the control she had practiced with. "Captain Telnik?"
"Stand by, New Hope." Her tension grew while she waited. Do we need to fire again?
Finally, the fazzab's voice ca through again. "Success, Captain Geh!aoa. Well done. Now, I must go and work fast. Thank you."
Geh!aoa sighed heavily. I did not want to do this, especially after I promised the people of Earth that I would not. I only hope that they can understand that we targeted the smallest number of humans possible. I hope they can understand that we are not at war with the human race.
I fear they will see it differently, and I worry what the consequences will be for Nik!eh. At least we did not fire upon the United States.
"Pilot, please move us back to where we were before."
"Yes, Captain."
Geh!aoa frowned and thought about her earlier discussion with Captain Telnik. The ruler of the Russia Province, Yevgenei Ivanovich, had been an extrely evil man, and would have tried to take the whole human race with him if he knew that he was about to die. Now, the alien Captain was telling his teams to kill a list of other rulers in the sa province as quickly as possible.
And this is the path of least bloodshed? How many humans did we just kill? How many more will die this day? And then still more humans will slaughter each other.
She cleared her throat and searched for a distraction. "Petra, can you tell why there were two sounds, when the weapon fired?"
"The first sound was when we made a hole in the air. The second sound was we shoot in the hole."
A weapon that has to push the air aside, from the ground up to space, just to make room to fire. Kazz. What a frightening place the universe turns out to be.
"Captain, you have multiple calls," Petra reported.
"I will ignore all of the ones from Earth for now."
"Understood."
"Thank you, Petra."
I know it was my ship, and my order to fire, but let Captain Telnik deal with the humans for now. It felt cowardly, but she really really didn't want to talk to humans until she had a bit more ti to process her own reaction and theirs.
By the sun and the sea...what have I done?
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