Author: Rick Tobin
“Sir, shouldn’t we turn about? Maybe hide in the asteroid belt?” Ensign Murphy stood to the Captain’s side, expecting an immediate order to retreat as a fleet of hostile aliens approached at maximum speed.
“Hardly, Murphy. You were brought on this mission to learn. This challenge should be a major boost in your understanding of field operations and a captain’s prerogatives in crisis.” Melosis sat back in his high-backed chair, ignoring the furtive tone in his young officer’s voice.
“But, Captain,” Murphy continued, “we have no idea what the Tsosis are capable of outside of myths and stories from unreliable sources. We’re in open space, but what if they’ve already claimed it?”
“You mean survivors, Ensign? The migrants from Lemayo called them the Tentacles. No human has ever seen one and lived, but the stories of their omnivorous consumption of other life forms is documented. Those few Lemayians were survivors…lucky victims. No, we aren’t running from this fight. They’ll be in our quadrant soon enough if we don’t send a message. Ernst, call up our inventory logs for the Everything Hold.” Melosis turned to his tactical officer for critical research.
“I have it, sir,” Ernst replied, as a flush of red from excitement rushed to fill his male Moon-based countenance.
“I must advise, Captain, that scanners indicate advanced weaponry on their armada. We wouldn’t have a chance if…”
“That’s enough, Ensign. Don’t interrupt me again. Ernst, do we have a displacement barrage package still in storage?”
“Yes, still in its original wrapping. I’m sure it’s functional.” Ernst smirked while staring at Ensign Murphy’s sudden flapping arms.
“Captain!!” Murphy’s voice rose. “You can’t be serious. That weapon is forbidden by every race, including our own. How did you get it? You can’t use it. You know what…”
“What it will do, Ensign?” Melosis interrupted. “Of course. But, they won’t. Our little secret warehouse onboard holds many surprises. Now, Ernst, is it illegal to buy such a weapon?”
“Absolutely,” replied the officer as he directed the weapon to be removed and placed for activation at the spaceship’s bow.
“Did we order it from Earth and have it shipped to us?” Melosis asked Ernst, sarcastically.
Ernst laughed. “No, sir. Two missions ago, we found an ancient Baroozian battleship adrift in the Pleiades. It was a leftover hulk from the Razonic Wars of the twenty-third century. You have the authority to remove anything from abandoned wreckage.”
“You see, Murphy, back home we had this drawer in our kitchen where my mother threw every kind of gadget and cooking tool she might use only once a year, or maybe only once ever. It was our Everything Drawer. We have one on this ship. The Tentacles were never within a parsec of that conflagration. They have never seen what a displacement tool can do. They’ll soon find themselves separating into cellular goo as their bodies forget to hold their forms together. Their fleet will be full of jelly before they can fire a single weapon. So, if I could never have such a weapon, how could I have ever used it to stop an invasion by a ruthless horde?”
Murphy stood still, wide-eyed, as he felt an unusual vibration ripple through the ship’s hull following the deployment from the ship’s Everything Drawer.