Daring

24

Back on board, Kris found that the very air of the Wasp seemed full of depression. The word of what the ground team found quickly spread to all hands. But helplessness and hopelessness quickly made way for grim determination as the boffins squeezed more information from their findings.

“We were able to extract DNA from the teeth of those skulls we found,” Professor mFumbo reported to Kris and her team after supper. They were meeting in a corner of the Forward Lounge. There, Ron could join them.

Jack, Abby, and the colonel were also there, availing themselves of what the bar had to offer.

Everyone turned toward the professor. When he didn’t go on immediately, Kris said “And?”

“All three are female, and they appear to share the same complex DNA of those folks who tried to laser us when we disturbed their mining operation a few weeks back.”

“Women?” said Penny. “So dating can be dangerous anywhere in the galaxy.”

“They are the same species?” Jack said.

“Yes and yes,” said the professor, unusually direct with his answer. “They are all females. It’s impossible to use a rape kit at this late date, but you are free to speculate as to how women ended up with their skulls bashed in, Lieutenant.

“As for you, Captain, I would add that there is significant genetic drift in this set of DNA. Those others were so alike they had to be a family; though some of the women showed sufficiently different DNA from the main family root, the others were quite close. The three women here are quite distant from that family grouping and show much diversity among themselves. I’d say they come from a much larger population.”

“How distant and how much larger?” Kris asked.

“Specifically, quite a bit. If you mean how long has it been since they shared an ancestor, I can’t say for sure. Not enough information to develop a timescale for genetic drift. Sorry, Your Highness. Several of my people are very intrigued by these findings. I assure you much work is going into this, but there is little to base a conclusion on.”

Kris leaned back in her chair. “So, let’s see what we have here. Nelly, open a small window on the forward screen and record this.”

“Yes, Kris.”

“What have we got?” Kris asked herself. “One, a homicidal maniac who charged out to kill us even though he had no idea who we were and what our strength was.”

“And he did it,” Abby added, “with a boatload of his kith and kin.”

“A very crammed boatload of kith and kin,” the colonel said.

Behind Kris, a first point appeared on the screen with additional points appearing below it as the team added their thoughts.

“Second,” Kris went on, “we’ve got a huge bunch of homicidal maniacs who slaughtered a planetwide civilization, then plundered that planet of its water, air, and anything else they could walk off with.”

“Including their own dead,” Abby said, “except for the three women that some homicidal maniacs actually committed homicide on.”

“Does anyone else find it interesting,” Penny said thoughtfully, “that they had no sanitation facilities for their camp on that planet?”

“Ew, to use Cara’s word,” Abby said. “Disgusting but hardly interesting.”

“Professor, that boatload of people who attacked us,” Penny went on quickly, “did they have the normal sanitation facilities?”

“It would be impossible to run a spaceship otherwise,” the professor said. “Yes, we did find what looked like bathrooms. Not at all private. One of our engineers was very interested in finding their recycling and water-reclamation system, but we could not identify it in the wreckage.”

“I see what you’re getting at,” the colonel said. “They have shipboard sanitation, if only by rote, but they so rarely go dirt-side that they’ve forgotten how to do it there.”

“Yes,” Penny said.

“Space raiders who only make landfall to pillage and don’t do that often enough to remember the basics,” Ron the Iteeche said in conclusion.

“It’s not like they gave the locals a fighting chance,” the colonel went on. “Flatten them with nukes or rocks, then gas those that are still raising objections. Viciously effective, though.”

“I think there’s one more thing we need to highlight,” Kris said. Her team waited as she took a deep breath. “We’ve called them homicidal maniacs, because, from our perspective, that’s what they look like. However, to them, I suspect their actions are quite logical. The question is, logical to what?”

“We’ll only be guessing,” the professor said.

“But I think we need to have some guesses,” Ron said. “I certainly will need to put some in my report.”

“The individual doesn’t seem to matter much,” Kris went on. “They cram themselves into ships far beyond what we would put up with. Even when they get a chance to go dirtside, their huts are small and they load six people into a tiny room.”

“That worries me,” the colonel said. “Quantity has a quality all its own, someone brilliant once observed.”

“Yes,” Kris said. “They attack without warning. Without reflection. They come in large numbers, and they can strip a planet and even a solar system.”

“Ladies and gentlemen,” Kris said, “I don’t think humanity has much of a choice. We have met the enemy, and it’s going to be a bitch.”

Kris tapped her commlink. “Captain, set course for where we left the battleships. I think we’ve got enough to make our report to the king.”