The Phoenix and the Pelican - A Full Night's Sleepphoenixandthepelican.blogspot.comChris Evo-1236 years after impact-829 years after launch---Direct continuation of Two Ships in the Night, please refer to that short firstFrom nowhere, heat. Carpathia Adams, captain of the small colony ship Anowara Telamon,flailed around the tiny capsule for the release button, not yet conscious enough to rememberwhere he was. The front swung open and the cryo chamber blasted its drowsy, naked occupantonto the ground in the middle of the claustrophobic room.Adams heard the computer say something, but decided it wasn't very important since hecouldn't understand words yet anyway. He wobbled slowly to his feet, taking a couple of minutes to check that the lights on the rest of the cryo pods in the room were still green. Thispart of his crew was still alive."Warning. Intruders." Oh, that's what the computer had been blaring at him. He shuffledback to his cryo pod and pulled the uniform out of the bottom of it, taking several long minutesto puzzle over the complexities of fitting his legs into pants before finally getting everythingsmoothed out."Warning. Intruders." He cocked his head to listen to the occasional warning. The AnowaraTelamon went through the void between the stars at less then half the speed of light, and noone else had faster then light travel, so intruders were impossible. There just wasn't anyoneelse out there. Except the derelict Chinese ship full of warring huts-and-spears types they'dpicked up the last time he'd woken up."Warning. Intruders." Captain Adams was suddenly very much awake."Computer! How many of them?""Unknown." He'd never liked the emotionless tone of the woman they'd based thecomputer's voice on. He'd always wished the shipbuilders would start watching old episodes of Knight Rider instead of Star Trek. At least they weren't Arthur Clarke dorks."What IS known?""Forty minutes ago an assailant forced the locks on airlock 4, then repressurized the room.They are currently exploring deck two.""Is anyone else awake?""Negative. All doors on ship are locked, per regulation. Only the captain has been awakened,per regulation.""How long have I been asleep this time?""One hundred and thirteen years." It'd taken them over a century to finally climb out of theROCS Long and into the Telamon for revenge."Wake up Sergeant Eliza Benton.""Affirmative." He drew his gun, set it to OFF, and pointed at a door. The barrel swerveddreamily back and forth between two sleeping crewmembers."Hmm, better not aim at anything for a while. Computer? Location of Eliza Benton?""Cryogenics room seventeen.""Any intruders between here and there?""Negative. Access is restricted to decks one and two.""Excellent." He found her wearing only the lower half of her full combat uniform and a tank top, rubbinga recent shoulder wound. She snapped to attention as soon as she saw him enter.

"Good morning, sir.""At ease, sergeant." She reverted to staring at the puckered scar, occasionally moving herleft arm back and forth, testing where it still hurt. "That doc smith is amazing.""Two weeks ago I thought I was gonna die." Two fingers of her right hand ran across theoutside of the flaking skin. "Why am I awake?""There's an unknown number of intruders.""Why am -I- awake, captain? There are two thousand cold bodies on this ship, and at leasthalf of them held a gun during the war.""That's privileged information, sergeant." She nodded, satisfied. A commanding officeralways knew what to do. That's why they were commanding officers."Standing orders?""You are to put on your full uniform and proceed ahead of me. Contact is to be peaceful if atall possible. We will be accompanied by two nonlethal sentrybots." Letting an AI kill a personwas considered as taboo as raping children in Anowaran culture. An AI who knows how toorganize other AIs and how to effectively infiltrate and kill humans can get out of hand very,very quickly, and she still wondered who'd approved of the design of these sentry bots, letalone put them on security out here."Yes sir." She pulled her jacket on quickly, fumbling with the left sleeve then speeding upthe buttons one-handed. She drew a shotgun of some sort from a niche next to her cryopod."Would this be considered appropriate for the situation?" Carpathia's eyes ran back and forthalong the barrel of the gun, taking in the classical design of a non-energy weapon."It's a very pretty gun. As long as you take out those explosive rounds, I say go for it.""Thank you sir." It cocked loudly, rusty from eight centuries of disuse. Two short chinese men in patchy uniforms stood against a door to one of the cryo chamberson deck two, alternatively arguing and smashing their guns against the door. Two boxy, dog-sized robots wheeled around a corner and pointed their prominent cameras and 'deterrents' atthe intruders."HALT. YOU ARE VIOLATING ANOWARA LAW. PLEASE SURRENDER FOR YOUR OWNSAFETY." They froze, unsure how to handle these machines, so unlike anything they'd everseen before."We don't want trouble." Twenty meters back, in a locked room, Benton and Adams lookedat each other."They speak english, sir. Very well.""So did Xiang Bao, the coward. They were watching us the whole time we were on their ship,so they must have seen us doing the repairs to hook the Long to the Telamon. I'd be surprisedif they hadn't all started using English." Benton nodded. Adams pushed the speaker button on asmall screen on his wrist and cleared his throat."Attention intruders. This is captain Adams of the Anowara Telamon. You are ordered toexplain yourselves." The man closer to the robots stuttered, trying to find the right words in hisnon-native language. He turned frantically to the second Chinese man, who used the delay towhip a machine gun out of his uniform and destroy one of the robots. Bullets and shrapnelbounced off the metal walls deafeningly.The surviving robot flashed the microwave beam at both of the assailants. The gunmanyanked his partner in front of him to block most of the searing pain and continued to fireblindly, ignoring the screams until he heard an explosion."This isn't just an information gathering mission," said Adams."They want to steal our computers." They ran to the corner, and she fired a few warningshots."THIS IS CARPATHIA ADAMS. I AM WILLING TO DISCUSS YOUR NEEDS ON PEACEFULTERMS. IF YOU ARE NOT, THEN I AM WILLING TO SHOOT YOU ON SIGHT." Two bulletsbounced off of the hallway in front of the captain. "I warned them, didn't I?""Yes sir." She muttered agreeably.

"Computer: depressurize the deck two hallways.""Authorization required.""Computer: command code alpha hydroxide omega one.""Accepted. Warning: depressurization in progress." The Anowaran soldiers both wordlesslytapped their fingertips to the necks on their uniforms. A soft bubble flipped up over their heads,protecting their suit air supplies from the sudden vacuum around them."What's that hissing?" they heard one of the men yell; not the one who'd been an unwillingmeat shield, judging by the loud panting."That, my gracious guest, is your air being pumped away. You have thirty seconds to slideyour guns around the corner and put your faces on the floor." Frantic scratching echoed aroundthe corner, quickly fading in the diminishing air. Suddenly, silence. Benton and Adams switchedtheir radios on."Sergeant, hold position, and try to keep them here. I'm coming around back." She shotaround the corner, blind cover fire, while he dashed off in the opposite direction.Less then a minute later the captain found himself sprinting towards the two intruders frombehind. The taller one appeared to be lecturing the shorter one, who held his head in his handsthrough the thick glass helmet. They both had an eye on the corner where Benton waited forthem to make a false move, daring them to step out of the shelter of the projecting doorframes."Now!" She started firing wildly a meter ahead of the gunman. Adams swung a pistol fromhis belt and pointed it at the further invader, all while he kept his eyes locked on the closertarget, the man who'd used his partner as a shield. The man turned away from the obviousthreat just in time to see the butt of Adams' rifle sail through his cheap helmet, exposing hisface to zero atmosphere and breaking his nose. The captain didn't have time to watch theblood spray out of the helmet, instead choosing to step away from the body while focusing onthe other intruder, who was suddenly aware that he'd lost the battle.The man's face flooded with hopelessness, so slack that the skin almost seemed to havetried flowing away with all of his hopes and dreams. He dropped his gun, which went off onefinal time and bounced a bullet harmlessly off of a far wall. His hands hung limply above him."Computer: repressurize deck two.""Acknowledged." The hiss started suddenly, lasting only a few seconds. "It is now safe toremove your helmets." This statement came over the loudspeakers rather then the radio. Theintruder looked around himself, then questioningly at Adams. The captain nodded, holstered hisrifle and took off his helmet one-handed."Go ahead, take it off. I've got some questions for you." He fumbled furiously with somelatches around his neck, finally removing the giant fishbowl-type helmet obscuring his face. "I'dlike a name, age, and rank, soldier.""I'm not a soldier, sir. I'm just a volunteer. My name is Tsang Yao.""Nice to meet you, Volunteer Tsang. Is anyone else from your people on the ship?" Tsangshook his head."No, nothing.""Good, good. Let's find some more comfortable accommodations to continue our discussion." Benton filled the doorway- body armor, riot helmet (sans visor, at Adams' request), and hervintage rifle, which seemed more practical then the shotgun anyway. Adams took the head of the long dining room table, keeping his attention mostly focused on the chandalier above them.Tsang Yao sat in the middle, staring into his plate of steamed rice with pork. He tried not toturn around, preferring to keep Benton completely out of sight."I couldn't find very many chinese recipes on the computer. I'm sorry." said Adams. Tsangshrugged. "Let's get down to work, my esteemed guest." He moved the food around his platehelplessly. "When I visited your ship a hundred years ago, we only found one man who couldspeak english. Who could I talk to if I were to go down there right now?""Everyone. When Xiang escaped your massacre, he told us about your plans to take us