Chapter 268: (PThok Smokes a Pack) (1/2)
The small trader only weighed a handful of megatons, with the standard sextant of jump-drives in the rear section, vast cargo holds (for its size), and a bridge and crew quarters jammed into the nose. It was of Terran make, its transponder squeaking a Terran code, and its drive signatures were on file as being from an older space trading corporation. While it was unusual to see civilian vessels this close to Treana'ad Space, it wasn't unheard of, since war zones could bring profit to the daring. The vessel looked a little weird, and the computer control was hard to understand, but the station chalked it up to the vessel's age and upkeep.
The space station control gave permission for the small craft to dock at one of the main umbilicals and relaxed. There wasn't anything to worry about. It did pause for a moment, the computer system claiming it had to reorient, that a hiccup made it slightly confused on the precise maneuvering required to dock.
That wasn't unusual, traders, even Terran traders, weren't exactly known for their upkeep, so the station wasn't worried as the trader paused, slowly rolling then turning in space to reorient itself on the stellar mass at the center of the system.
P'Thok was a warrior caste Treana'ad of some experience. He had infiltrated Terra-Sol itself and pulled off a daring daylight heist of an armored transport on a Terran rim world, even taken part in two successful military campaigns against the Terrans.
Which is why he had no fear as he engaged the thrusters of his exo-pack, oriented himself, and jetted toward the space station. He had practiced in virtual reality until he no longer felt fear at the idea of drifting across nearly ten miles of vacuum, aiming for a small point on the space station.
It helped that the Matron aboard the craft, who was overseeing the delicate military operation, code named 'I'll Take That', had flooded the warrior's senses with pheromones to instill courage and remove fear.
Still, P'Thok was the only Treana'ad warrior of the ten man assault force not to feel fear. After all, he had escaped a pursuit by literally dozens of Terran larvae during his daring heist two years before, why would he fear a space-walk.
Time moved slowly as P'Thok, clad in stealth armor, coasted toward the station. His bladearms were sharp and honed, his hands gripped a well maintained plasma rifle, and his armored vac-suit was capable of shrugging all but military grade Terran weapons. He had faith in his stealth equipment, after all, it had worked for him to land on Terra itself.
Eventually he reached the space station, throwing out a magnetic grapple on a plas cable. IT only took two tries for him to latch it and he reeled himself in, his squad mates following him. When they landed they activated the magnetic boots and moves slowly across the surface of the station toward their goal. While graviton boots would have been more reliable and easier to use they might have been detected by the stations graviton sensors, the same reason the exo-packs had used compressed atmosphere rather than graviton.
P'Thok reached the target first. A hyper-comm relay, which could be used to alert any nearby military forces to the fact the Treana'ad had arrived to take control of the station. P'Thok carefully opened the relay's control panel and moved aside for D'Rok to disable the hypercom's output mechanism while still allowing incoming transmissions.
Once that was done, the group moved through the silence of space to the next target. Although they all felt nervous, keeping an eye on their atmosphere, they quickly disabled all eight of the automated weapons emplacements, simply cutting the command lines, that way they would react to diagnostic requests and show green but were unable to actually be used for defending the station.
That left one target.
The most important.
Once they had arrived at the target, P'Thok faced the ship and flashed his suit lights four times, letting the ship know that it could stop with the masquerade and dock. The ship flashed its lights once and reoriented to make dock at the docking spindle.
P'Thok entered the airlock with his squad and cycled it, the system already disabled so that the main computer would have no idea the airlock was being used.
The nitrogen was low, almost non-existent, and P'Thok shook his head. His men would have to remain suited, but that was expected. He made motioned, reminding his men not to use radio, and led his two subordinates toward his goal while the other two leaders led their teams toward their objectives.
The station had no idea that P'Thok was even on board. The first hint that Harry Dendles had was when the door opened and the huge armored insectiod stepped into the control office and threw a stun grenade. The Treana'ad didn't move through executing everyone, instead used heavy cargo straps to tie the humans down.
”Which one of you is the station commander?” P'Thok asked, trusting his translator.
”Me,” Harry said from the floor, where he'd been virtually mummy wrapped by the Treana'ad, who were taking no chances with the legendary primate strength.
”Bring him,” P'Thok ordered.
”Can I ask where?” Harry asked, visions of being roasted over a fire and eaten dancing in his mind.
”I have questions to ask you,” P'Thok asked. Personally, he was glad he was in armor. He could see the status of the other members of his squad and see that their stress pheromones were high.
The Matron's blessing must be wearing off. He changed channels to talk to his men. ”Flush your pheromones, I don't want you to become overly anxious or aggressive,” P'Thok ordered. Each one flashed an assent over their armor and he watched as their anxiety levels dropped.
Being trapped with one's own pheromones could cause problems.
His armor suddenly updated with a map of the station and P'Thok knew that D'Rok had managed to hack into the station's computer core. He led the human to his own office as his two men carried the properly trussed up human. Once inside he motioned at his two men to put the human in his chair.
At first the bindings posed a problem, as the human was stuck at full body extension. Since the straps were wound all around his body, unwinding the ones around his waist meant undoing some of the windings around his arms or legs. After a moment K'Lana'at looked up.
”Um, sir, we can't undo the straps,” the Treana'ad warrior said.
P'Thok sighed, filling his suit with the smell of frustration. Luckily, he'd learned a bit about humans when he had valiantly infiltrated Terra.
”If you give me your word not to 'be stupid', to use your phrase, I'll untie you,” P'Thok said. He saw the atmosphere was steadying out and opened his face shield.
The human nodded. ”You've got the plasma rifle, man. No problem, I'm just a station supervisor.”
”Excellent, human,” P'Thok looked at the desk. ”Harry Dendles,” he looked at his men. ”Untie the human, he has promised to behave.”
His two men nodded excitedly. Of course the human had agreed, he must have recognized P'Thok, Hero of Ice Cream. They untied the human, who sat in his chair, rubbing his arms.
”You aren't going to blow up the station, are you?” Harry asked. P'Thok could smell fear and anxiety pouring off the human and had to resist the urge to shoot the human before it could attack him.
P'Thok shook his head, another thing he had learned on Terra. ”No. That would run counter to my purpose and my mission.”
”Oh,” Harry said. He sighed and pointed at a rectangular package on his desk. ”Look, my nerves are shot. Do you mind if I smoke?”
The two warriors looked at P'Thok. Why would the human be asking if he could emit smoke or maybe even smoulder.
P'Thok remembered cigarettes, dimly, from his time on Terra. It was something humans did when stressed and trying to maintain their emotional comfort or attempting to relax. He nodded. ”Of course.”
Harry tapped the pack on the desk then opened it, pulling out one. He lit it with a lighter and looked at the big Treana'ad who had its face plate open. He held out the pack. ”Want one?”
P'Thok felt a surge of panic as he realized the two other warriors were staring at him. He tried to show no trace of the anxiety he could feel surging up and smell in his own pheromones as he nodded and reached out. He took one, put it in his mandibles, and then accepted a light. He inhaled the smoke and waited to die.
Instead, when he exhaled, the smell of anxiety in his armor faded away, replaced by the soothing smell of the 'smoke'. Standing up straighter, he took another long puff on it, exhaling some out of his mouth.
The smoke rushed down his secondary breathing system, into his big lungs in his abdomen, and filled his blood and ichor system with nicotine. He exhaled through his legs and some out of his mouth, feeling himself calm.
”Do you have another package of smokes?” P'Thok asked mildly. ”And a lighting device?”
”Um, sure?” Harry said. He dug an extra pack and lighter out of his desk and handed it to the big insect.
P'Thok's mind felt much clearer, much calmer, as he stood in the station commander's office. He could no longer smell the Terran's fear and anxiety, which made him calmer.
His men stared in shock. They knew P'Thok was a legend, but the fact he was standing there, a lit tube of some kind of plant wrapped in cellulose paper in his mouth, inhaling the smoke, and not dying was incredible.
They felt awed in being in his presence.
”What do you need?” Harry asked, realizing he might be able to get out of this with his skin intact. Not only that, he might even be able to convince the Treana'ad not to blow up the station and kill all fifty personnel aboard it.
”When is the next Mantid transport due in?” P'Thok asked, exhaling smoke. His armor was whining a bit about having to push the smoke out of the leg atmospheric ejectors since it ID'd the smoke as an environmental hazard, but he overrode the armor to no longer produce an alarm and to use the ejectors around his footpads.
”I'll have to check the records,” Harry said. To be honest, the big Treana'ad warrior, with smoke wafting out around his feet from the cigarette, was a little intimidating. He didn't fidget like the other two, he held perfectly still, staring at him with his compound eyes from inside his helmet.
”No tricks, human Harry Dendles,” P'Thok warned, emulating removing the 'smoke' from his mouth and tapping the ashes into the small tray on the human's desk. To be honest, P'Thok was enjoying not having the mission jitters.
Harry just nodded, bringing up the data on his terminal and turning the screen so the big warrior could see it. ”Later today.”
”Excellent,” P'Thok said. ”I will be leaving men to guard the station. Once we accomplish our mission we will leave,” P'Thok felt a moment of confidence come over him. ”Cooperate with me and I will even leave without blowing up your station, sparing all of your lives.”
Harry nodded.
”I want you to run a search of your stores. I wish to know if you are in possession of this substance,” P'Thok said. He leaned forward and used one bladearm to tap out what he wanted.
Harry checked. They had plenty. It was easy to make and it improved morale. ”Yes, we have plenty.”
P'Thok nodded. He took another drag and realized he was getting close to the brown end. He tapped one entry on the screen. ”Have a container of that brought to the docking bay along with proper implements and some of...” P'Thok leaned closer. ”That. Bring a bottle of that.”
”Um, of course,” Harry said. ”I'll have a robot do it. No tricks.”
”Do not hurt the human, just guard him,” P'Thok ordered, stubbing out the 'smoke' like the human did. He closed his faceplate. ”I will be speaking to the Matron.”
The others signalled assent, still amazed at how calm P'Thok had been while dealing with the Terran, who still looked fearsome to them.
P'Thok moved through the station, arriving as the rest of the strike force boarded the station. He ordered them to ensure the humans could not interfere with the mission, but otherwise not to impede them in their tasks.
In the docking bay a robot was waiting and he ordered it to follow him.
He started to feel anxious as he moved through the ship, heading for the Matron's quarters. The pheromones didn't help so he opened his face plate and lite another 'smoke' from the pack. By the second drag he didn't feel as anxious and breathed a long inhalation and exhalation of relief. He tapped a control and his helmet folded up around his neck.
It was not permitted to enter the chambers of a matron with one's head shielded and armored.
He touched the signal pad and waited. The door opened up and immediately the rich thick smell of Matron pheromones filled his senses.
And withdrew when he took a drag off the smoke.
The Matron eyed P'Thok as the large male warrior entered. The sight of him, and his delicious looking head, made her quiver. Once the mission was over, she fully intended upon mating with him and eating his head. She let the pheromones of excitement flow from her, knowing that it would transmit to the big warrior caste Treana'ad.
Instead, he just stood there, some kind of white tube with a beige end in his mouth, the far end burning and wafting a thin stream of smoke.
”Your mission?” The Matron asked, puffing out more pheromones.
”Part One is complete, oh Matron,” P'Thok said, feeling smugness deep inside. Her pheromones were easy to ignore! The smoke leaking out of his collar and wafting up from the burning end masking the pheromones.
The Matron stared at P'Thok, sensing nothing but a deep calm form the warrior.
Perhaps the other Matrons are right. Perhaps there is something special about this one, she mused. After all, he planned this raid, promised us something we could never dream of.
P'Thok was keenly aware of the Matron's inspection of him but didn't feel the fear that most males felt in the presence of a Matron. He wasn't afraid that she would suddenly eat his head, and knew that if she moved toward him, he would calmly refuse and run away like any sensible male.
”What is that robot holding?” the Matron asked.
”Proof that what I claim is true,” P'Thok said. He turned to the robot, opening the container. He filled a bowl, added some sauce, and put a spoon in it. ”Do not eat the bowl or the metal eating implement. Just the soft stuff. Go slowly, it can cause pain if eaten too fast.”
He handed the bowl to the Matron, who looked at the small amount in the bottom. ”This is the miraculous substance you promise will change everything?”
P'Thok nodded. ”Yes, Matron.”