The Inception: The Augmented Human Rebellion - Book 1 by Terry Lefler Read Free Book Online Page B

with us. What are you going to do?”
    “Colonel Kax,” the Captain says, “you will have to give us some time to
work out the particulars, of the troop transfers. I will contact you when
the situation is closer to a resolution. Nemo out.”
    Captain Nemo addresses all entities aboard the two captured ships.
“Let me say, at the beginning, that there will be no POW’s, extrucians, or AI’s
killed. We will do what is right according to the Darinx Rules of
War. Next let me advise the augmented humans, aboard both vessels, that
disobedience of the Colonel’s orders will be considered treason and the only
possible judicial outcome is death.”
    “Sandra Guilles and I will be committing treason, and the probable
outcome of such an act is that we will be hunted down, by the Darinx forces,
and killed. Anyone who goes with us will share in our fate. I
admonish you to consider the consequences thoroughly before making a decision
to join in this desertion. This act will be considered ‘rebellion’ and
there can be no turning back.”
    ***

Chapter 3
    “Cade, everyone wants to come with us.”
    Lt. Sandra Guilles is onboard the command ship, with Captain Cade Nemo,
and they are having pillow talk following some much needed ‘together
time’. The Captain answers: “I feel responsible for your life and now I
am going to feel responsible for another 94.”
    “No Cade,” whispers Sandra, “not 94 lives. Some of the extrucians and all
of the Verm sailors want to go with us, also”.
    “What?” says the Captain (not in a whisper) . “This is
getting out of control. I can understand why the Verm sailors want to
go. They will be killed if we leave them behind. They will have to
go with us until we find a safe planet for them – and that might take a while,
since everyone hates them. But why do the extrucians want to go with us?”
    “You will have to ask them - I am just reporting the facts.”
    ***
    And the Captain does ask them – not the augmented humans, but everyone
else. He speaks with the extrucians individually, and with the Verm POW’s
as a group. All of the extrucians have valid reasons’ such as “seeking adventure”;
“seeing the galaxy”; “being in a starship crew”; etc. They have been good
crew members, and he knows from experience that they are good fighters.
His question to them is: “How are you going to feel without a
colony?” Their answer is that “the crew will be our colony.” That
is a good answer, so the Captain agrees to take them as crewmembers, but he
cautions them to reconsider because it might be a very long time, before they
come back this way.
    The meeting with the Verm sailors is more problematic. He is ‘up
front’ with them: “I understand why you would want to go with us.
It’s not safe for you here. As I told you before, we will treat you as
POW’s while you are onboard, and then when we find a safe planet for you, we
will drop you off there.”
    The spokesman for the Verm sailors raises his hand to be recognized, and
identifies himself as ‘Commander Farn’. “Captain, we do appreciate that
you will treat us much better than we would have treated you. And
dropping us off, on a safe planet, will be our second choice. Our first
choice is to join your crew, and to be a part of your organization.”
    “Tell me why, Commander Farn.”
    “Aye sir,” begins the commander. “It is because we want ‘out’ of
our military, the same way that you want ‘out’ of yours. We come from a
civilization that is ruled by military dictatorship, where there is little or
no regard for life – even for other verm life. We don’t want to ever go
back to Verm space.”
    “We will take the option of being dropped off, on a safe planet, if you
won’t accept us as crew, but our first choice is to go with you. We have
witnessed your cunning - as warriors - and your integrity - as ‘sentient
entities’ - and we want to be a part of that. We can’t change our
civilization, so we