Starsnatcher - Trapped In An Alien World [COMPLETE]

Chapter 7.8

Our fighters launched out into the louring dark. A camera screen showed swarms of twinkling, starlike crafts that left the Firefly's pressurized hangar bay in droves. They started as a clumped cluster, only to disperse in the blink of an eye. Most fighters brought purple spider drones with them. They didn't carry singularity stones and couldn't be trusted to carry a mission on their own, but they provided valuable backup.

Our autopilot flew towards Starsnatcher. As Layla said, the thickest section was our target. I saw its crevices from afar. They showed how even the mightiest starships were not immune to entropy and decay.

While the autopilot piloted, I played with the computer Layla had planted here. It displayed blueprints of Starsnatcher with fun buttons I could press like "the location of your alien bud" (probably Crick).

"Tesla," I transmitted. "How about we save Crick while Kira and Layla go for the magnets?"

"And Mustafa?" they asked.

"If we meet him along the way, good for us, bad for him."

Unless Iris was right and he could really copy other people's singularity stones, but I left that part unsaid.

"I'm not so sure," Tesla suggested. "Maybe we should talk to him. Remember what you said on that planet? That you thought the world sucked so much that you sympathized with him?"

"That was just me being in a low point. Why do you bring that up now?"

"Maybe Mustafa is in a low point he can't get out of anymore?"

I gave them a funny look. "Are you sure that we can beat him like this? That sounds so cheesy."

"No, but you can only beat your enemy if you understand him. He is doing what he does because he thinks its right. You said you didn't think you were strong enough to beat him. If you can rebuke him and if you can do so with confidence, maybe you are."

Maybe. Iris told me of his backstory. Speaking of her, I still didn't get what she meant by having me transcend my humanity or anything. She said she sent me on this adventure so that I could learn what it meant to be human. So that I could experience isolation, alien beings, artificial intelligences, and alien moralities. If I came up with my own values - independent of culture, self-interest, or plain guilt - did I then succeed?

Our fighters closed in and faced Starsnatcher's point defenses. We had entered striking range. Lasers shot down unmanned crafts that flew between ours to take the hits. As long as the autopilot was on, I didn't have to worry. My fighter always had an unmanned shield before it. Layla learned from the tactics we used against her before.

Moving up its ring's curvature made me realize how titanic Starsnatcher was. Its ring diameter measured half a mile at least, making it hard to see the edges. If one ignored the occasional crack, the sight resembled a white ocean. A white ocean where a point defense laser could kill you without warning.

A radio signal from Layla reached us. "We found a hangar bay! And not just one, but a whole nest of 'em. So, better find one on your map and then bomb the hull open!"

This was something I had to do manually. I spotted the white ocean below me and then glanced at my display. It showed the hull with dots that became larger the more suitable the place was for entry. When we reached a large dot, I pushed the display as hard as I could.

Particle beams and missiles tore apart the white hull as if it was paper. Drones buzzed out of the bay like hornets protecting their nest. Soon, friendly and enemy drones flooded our camera screen. We had so many crafts side-by-side that the sight reminded me more of a video game than a real-life space battle.