Chapter 166: Human Ingenuity
The Sisalik commander stared at me for a moment, his double eyelids blinking at me slowly. If I wasn’t on a spaceship under the control of an AI, I would have thought that my video feed had frozen.
"Well, Commander?" I said after a moment had passed. "Do you have an explanation?"
"We sent out the distress call. I have no control over who receives it or who answers it," came the answer that was not an answer.
I cracked my neck, trying to figure out how I could reach through the screen and strangle someone.
"We are on our way," I said with a dismissive wave of my hand. It was more than clear that he would not respond to my questions, and I was well aware of what I was getting into.
"We?" hissed the Sisalik commander.
"Yes, me and my ship. Who else were you expecting?" I asked, raising an eyebrow.
"That being behind you," answered the alien quickly, his eyes going to Midnight and then back to me.
"That would be Zeus. He is the unfortunate byproduct of a government science project. Sad it is," I responded, nodding sagely. "I found him on a space station. He can’t really speak, but he looked hot, so I took him home with me."
"Hot? Was the temperature inside the space station not regulated? It is not advisable to take home a species that you are not familiar with based on their internal temperature," advised the commander.
"Thanks for your advice. He won’t leave me, so there is no way to get rid of him now, but I will keep your words in mind the next time I go onto a space station." I understood what the commander was saying, and it was not because he had my best interests at heart. He didn’t want me to have the protection of another species, especially one that looked like Midnight.
No, the Alliance needed me to be separated with only an AI for support. That was the best way to ensure my cooperation and that no one notices or cares when I go missing.
"It is best that you do," replied Commander Xalax. I saw him looking off-screen for a split second before turning his attention back to me. "When can we expect you? It seems like the Uugazts are becoming restless."
"Well, good help is hard to find," I muttered under my breath before looking at the commander. "We’ll be there in five minutes. Tell them to keep their pants on."
Now it was my turn to look off screen and Jun Li quickly cut off the transmission and looked at me from where his body was sitting beside me. "Are you in?" I asked, not bothering with all the small talk. I didn’t have much time and a lot of things to do.
But the question was, which plan was I going to go with?
"I am in. They have one deceased human female in their medical hold and have orders to take you next," answered Jun Li, never taking his eyes off of me. "I am sorry."
"There is no medicine for regret," I answered. "Now we have to just push forward and try to find a way to get out of this situation without getting me killed and you imprisoned."
I tapped my fingers on the armrest of my chair and stared at the screen in front of me. There was a single ship surrounded by about four or five much smaller ones. I could only assume that the rectangular ship in the middle was the Sisalik, while the four smaller ones were the pirates.
It was a smart formation. Anyone stumbling on the scene would have automatically assumed that the one in the middle was being threatened. However, that was not the way my brain worked.
"They are protecting it," growled Midnight as he saw the same thing that I did.
"But why?" growled Da’kea, removing his camouflage so that I could see him.
"Because the pirates are part of the Alliance army," I answered with a shrug. They were not the first government to use pirates to their advantage. However, this was never a quick or easy decision to make. The British used pirates because they were running out of men and money to fight the Spanish in the waters of the New World.
So why would the Alliance make an alliance with the Uugazts? Were they running out of men or money?
No, that was not possible. They had too much power to really care about something as simple as that. Not to mention, there were no active wars going on right now in this part of the universe.
So, if the pirates weren’t privateers, what could they be?
"Why would they be willing to risk their own lives like this?" asked Jun Li, cocking his head and studying the same formation that the rest of us were.
That was it... "Because they are the suicide squad," I answered, chuckling over just how innovative the alliance was. "They are expendable because they are well-known pirates. They don’t have anything proving that their actions were sanctioned by the Alliance, so if they die... it is no big deal."
"Really ingenious," nodded Ye’tab. "I wonder how they were able to come up with a plan like that. No other species would have thought to use the Uugazts in that capacity."
"Are you serious?" I asked, turning to the male in surprise. "This is one of the most well-known strategies on Earth. It is mostly used in times of war, but that doesn’t mean that there isn’t always a war brewing that a government needs cannon fodder for. But none of you guys have thought to use your criminals like this?"
"For the most part, any criminals are sent to a prison planet," answered Da’kea. "But that is not the same as this. Uugazts are an entire species of pirates. They have no planet to call their own, no alliances to anyone, and the only way they can get their hands on supplies is to steal them."
I nodded my head in understanding, but I think he failed to take his thinking further. "So, you think that they can’t be working for the Alliance because they are a species of pirates and not just criminals looking for a pardon."
"Exactly," grunted GA as he turned around to look at me. "But I am going to assume that you are seeing something that the rest of us are not."
"I am seeing things from a human perspective," I answered with a smile. "And I am beginning to think that maybe Pippa isn’t as dumb as I thought she was. Or one of the other humans is a lot smarter. I will have to look into that."
"Could you please explain your thinking?" asked Da’kea as Jun Li slowed to a stop.
"You cannot have an entire species happy to do the exact same thing. While I will concede the idea that many Uugazts might be happy to continue with the time-honored tradition of pirates, I don’t think that all of them are."
"You think those that aren’t happy with their current place made a deal? But what would they want?" asked Ye’tab, starting to follow my line of thinking.
"A planet to call their own. And who has access to the most number of planets?" I responded.
"The Alliance," answered Midnight.
"Exactly. I think that someone put a bug in the Alliance’s ear that they should offer the pirates a permanent place to call home."
"It could be possible. But why would someone put a bug in someone else’s ear?" asked Da’kea.
"They didn’t actually put a bug in their ear. It is an Earth expression, meaning that they gave someone in power the idea to use this tactic in order to get the pirates under their control and do what they want. And if the pirates end up dying... oh well... they were pirates, right?" I explained.
"Fucking smart," growled Midnight. "But how did you see through it so easily?"
"Because I was going to offer the Hive the same thing to get them to work for me against the Alliance," I said before turning to Jun Li.
"I need you in all of their systems. Not just the Sisalik ship, but every last one," I commanded. I was hoping to just blow everyone up after getting the needed information. Still, I needed Jun Li in their system to be able to do it.
There was a moment of silence before the communication link started to chime again. But just like before, I ignored it.
"I can’t get into the Sisalik system," came Jun Li through the speakers, and I could hear the frustration in his voice. "They have designed their systems to prevent AIs from taking over."
"Smart of them," I said, nodding my head. And it was. They were the ones that kept the AIs in the first place, so they would need a contingency plan for if they went rogue. "Then how do we get into their systems?"
"You need to be on the ship and plug me in... just like what you did when you went after the X96."
