The technician's Fight, Draft 1, CH01

“Welcome to all the listeners out there. We, at Spreading Branch, are happy to have you again, and hope that you are all safe and with

“Welcome to all the listeners out there. We, at Spreading Branch, are happy to have you again, and hope that you are all safe and with people you care about. I am Julienne, and today, I have the privilege of having someone who matters to many of you out there. I interviewed his Heart, a few months ago, and now, I have with me the man many of you have been asking about. Welcome, Technician Jeremy Bradshaw. Let me start with the important question. How are you doing?”

He laughed. He couldn’t help it. That hadn’t been mentioned as part of the subjects that would be covered. He didn’t mind; he was just surprised.

“I’m good,” he finally said through the softening chuckles. “It’s taken time, but I’ve been good for a while now.”

“I’m glad to hear that. I know our listeners are glad to hear that as well. You are often who they ask about when they contact us, now that we can’t provide them with as much information as we used to.”

He chuckled again. “I’m sorry about that, but I like keeping some of my privacy. And being on so many people’s mind like this isn’t…something I’m really used to.”

“Really? As one of the younger anti-matter researchers taken under renowned physicist Doctor Armand Manuel, and with three anti-matter reactor designs to your name, I’d think you would be at least acquainted with people talking about you.”

“Within research circles, sure, but this is…different. And to be honest, I don’t really get it. I mean, I understand that falling in love with a man of a different species, being imprisoned because of it, rescued by my Heart. Kidnapped, tortured, made to feel he is the most horrible person in the galaxy, and overcoming that, makes for a story that people what to hear about. But for them to care? To wish for me to get better, and I do believe you when you say they want that. It’s just that this idea I’m an actual person to them…it’s intimidating.”

“Would you rather we never have told them about you?”

“No. I’m glad you did. I’m glad people who found their ways to escape their suffering, but did so in solitude, can know that they aren’t alone and that I won’t just fold and give into what the Earth government wants. What they did to them. The way so many people are denied the opportunity to find the person who’s right for them just because they happen to be the same gender. It’s wrong. If I had the power to change their mind, I would. But all I can do it stand up to them. So I will.”

“And we are all glad that a warrior like you does.”

He chuckled. “You’ve heard about that nickname, haven’t you?”

“It’s my understanding you have earned it.”

“I think there’s been exaggerations involved.”

“Really? So you did not step into a room with a reactor in the process of spiraling out of control?”

“How?”

*

“Alix,” Gralgiran sounded agitated, and Jeremy looked up from the power reports the Engineer had him going through. “I need you in the hangar now. These idiots have done something to their reactor, and I need you there before it blows up.”

The horrified expression on the Engineer’s face told Jeremy where this was going, so he took off.

“Technician! Where are you going?” the Engineer yelled.

To keep you from gutting your friend, he didn’t bother replying, running down the stairs and grabbing the first tool bag he found. “I’ll bring it back,” he told the technician. “It’s an emergency.”

“Coming through!” he yelled to get people to move out of his way. As wide as the halls were, he didn’t have the time to waste running around everyone. He was confident Gralgiran wouldn’t have wanted the Engineer on the pirate’s ship if there wasn’t the time to convince their friend this was more important than his desire to never step off the Viper’s Bane again, but he also knew that when it came to anti-matter reactor, having more time was better than having less.

The lift was agonizingly slow and his pacing caused the Kelsirians in it with him to watch in curiosity. He was known on the ship. He was the lone human among them, and the captain’s Heart, so they had all heard of him, and many had seen him. But he wasn’t usually in a rush. Or wishing someone would speed this cursed thing all—he squeezed through the opening gap as soon as he fit and ran.

As with any of the previous times he’d been in the hangar, it was hectic, with mechanical working on a shuttle, and Hunters moving about, ready to be sent to the front if they were needed. Which one pack would be now. His Heart would not send his friend, his Engineer, without a pack to protect him.

“Which shuttle’s going to the pirate ship!” he called to the technician pulling a refueling line. She pointed to the one closest to the outside access. The one with the angry-looking Kelsirian with his arms crossed over his chest, golden eyes narrowed in his direction.

So much for getting this done without this little argument.

“Can we do this once I’m back?” he asked, still running for the shuttle’s access, but the hand around his arm stopped him from moving. Gralgiran had mass over him as well as years of experience holding someone so they couldn’t escape.

“What do you think you’re doing?”

“Wishing I didn’t have to have this argument when they’re a reactor about to blow up.”

“Jer, you can—”

“Who the fuck’s going to go?”

“I have an Engineer who—”

“Has promised to show you your guts if you ever did this again after Bob’s derelict.”

His Heart ground his teeth. “You aren’t trained.”

“And Alix is? Put whatever pack was going to keep him safe with me. Gral, we don’t have time.”

The pain, the fear in his Heart’s eyes was visible for a second. Jeremy understood it. Only a few weeks back together. He, too, was terrified this would separate them, permanently. But they had hunters on that ship who needed protecting and he was the only one qualified willing to go.

It went away, replaced by resolve. “Beta Asrani Durik Miatioraln, your pack is with my Heart. Treat him as your beta when it comes to dealing with the reactor.” Gralgiran narrowed his eyes at Jeremy. “Otherwise, you do what she says. Is that clear?”

“Yes, Alpha!” he replied with enthusiasm, then ran into the shuttle.

*

“How did I know you plunged your hand into an overloading reactor to keep Einstein research station from being destroyed?” Julienne asked with a chuckle. “I’m afraid that act of heroism is a poorly kept secret.”

Einstein, right. It wasn’t like she could know about the pirate ship they’d dealt with only days ago.

“Did you think it was a secret?” she asked, sounding concerned.

“No, I’m sorry. I’m just surprised that me, doing the work I’m tasked to do, is taken as heroism.” It wasn’t even a lie. He’d just done what was needed.

“I think many people within your field would argue that nearly killing yourself in the process of depowering a reactor goes well beyond your job description.”

How did she know?

*

“Go!” he yelled at the hunter by the small engineering section’s door. Further into the ship, someone was screaming in pain, and it didn’t sound like a Taournian, Kersosteran, and definitely not like a Shimbarian, which meant one of theirs was hurt.

“My orders are to keep you safe.”

Jeremy pulled himself out from within the reactor. “I’m fine. I’m almost done here.” He grabbed the tool.

“Then as soon as—”

“You’re supposed to listen to me when it comes to the reactor! You are fucking distraction right now. Go! Go rescue them!”

The gratitude flashed, and the hunter was gone.

Jeremy returned under the reactor. Who ever the idiot who had done these modifications was. Jeremy better never encounter them. He disconnected the…it might be Ridoshi, power coupler from the definitely human designed capacitor, then grabbed the—he had no idea which species had designed that, but his check of it told him it acted as a power dampener, and that was what he needed right now. Keep the ship alive, but make it impossible for the reactor to output enough power for it to blow up.

And as a nice aside, make is impossible to for the engine to reach any kind of speed that would give them a chance to escape.

He pulled himself out, pleased with the result, to the sound of combat boots heading in his direction.

“I told you I’d be fine!” he called, but instead of a Kelsirian entering, it was a Taournian, with another behind, and a larger shape behind that one.

It moved first, and Jeremy barely brought his arm up in time to block, then punched in the stomach before he even thought to fight back. He gritted his teeth at the scaled hand which tightened on his forearm painfully and kneed the Taournian in the stomach, then punched him across the face.

He threw himself away from the other and hit the wall painfully.

The room was too small. All his training had been on the mats and with Kelsirian’s love of wide spaces, he always had the room to move when he trained.

He blocked, dodged, had trouble breathing from the punch, and managed to land his own across this Taournian’s face hard enough he was confident he heard bones break. Then the large form entering the room caught his attention.

Massive chest, too long arms, too short legs, gray skin, where the uniform was ripped. He cursed. A Shimbarian.

Then something hit him in the head, and he was unconscious.

*

“Technician?” Julienne asked, and he forced a chuckle for the second he needed to pull himself back to the present.

“That is definitely an exaggeration. I only suffered radiation burn on my arm. Half a day in the infirmary, a few days taking it easy and I was good as new.” He saw in her eyes she’d picked up something else had happened.

“Still, I think I can confidently say that you are in the minority who would have run toward the danger, instead of away from it.”

“Not if you compare me to others within the anti-matter research field. I’m confident in saying that those who’d run away from the problem would be in the minority.”

“I suspect that unless the situation happens, we will be left to speculate about how special your actions were.” She smiled, and he thought she meant it to be reassurance she wouldn’t push. “How was it, being the lone human on a Kelsirian ship?”

“Until I was kidnapped, it was actually fun. There were issues. I knew about how my ‘sickness’ was nothing more than an excuse to keep me monitored, how ultrasonics were used to reinforce the physical discomfort anytime I felt attracted to a man, but it doesn’t mean the problem immediately went away. But I had the work and made friends to keep me from burying myself in it. I had my Heart who is the most understanding man I’ve ever met. I don’t know if I’d have had the patience he showed me through all that.”

“You are his heart.”

“I was also something of a pain, at times. Cultural differences on top of remnants of what had been done to me.”

“And after they took you. How was waking up?”

“Waking?”

*

He groaned, the pain in the side of his head really annoying. The voices around him wouldn’t resolve into something he understood. Concussion? Fuck, he hoped medical would be able to see to that. He did not look forward to a screwed up language center. He did make out what he thought was panic in one of the voice.

And he realized he was alive.

That was good, but why? Pirates weren’t known to keep prisoners, unless it was for labor. Maybe Taournians ate living flesh? He hoped not. And he really needed to get into learning about the other Federation species, so thoughts like that couldn’t horrify him.

Someone grabbed the front of his shirt and sat him.

Jeremy tried to bat the hand away, but both were behind his back, tied together. He opened his eyes, and darkness remained. Now that he paid attention, there was something over his head. The one before him said something. And of course Jeremy couldn’t understand them. They were speaking whatever language Taournians or Shimbarians spoke. Not English, Kelsirian, or Federalize.

There was the sense of a question in what they said.

“Well, if that is him,” a woman replied, in English. “You better space him.”

The one before him replied while Jeremy got over the surprise of hearing English, and not accented like he’d heard with other species speak it, because of the differences in voice box and mouth shapes. This was proper, well enunciated English.

“If you think they’re going to pay you anything for him, you’re in for a surprise. Those people would rather shoot anything that isn’t exactly like them than do business with them. I swear, if they could crack cloning, Earth would all be one singular people, the way they keep lying about us already being.”

“Who are you?” he asked, and regretted it. His mouth hurt.

“No one you need to worry about. Now, what did you do to this?”

“Made sure you weren’t going to blow us up.”

“What is he talking about? No one said anything about there being risks of—”

The explosion sounded close. As it ebbed, the fighting was audible.

The one before him gave orders as he stood and moved away.

Jeremy flexed his hand, and the glove responded. Was he ever glad he hadn’t taken to clawed fighting the way his instructor had hoped. The fighting moved inside engineering, and he contorted his wrist until he was able to touch his binding. He didn’t know what they’d used, but his claws were metal, not sharpened keratin. And he felt the indentation they made.

The fighting was tapering down by the time he cut himself free and he pulled the hood off and cursed at the form before him, slashing; only for his hand to be caught by the Kelsirian.

“Fuck, you scared me.”

The hunter looked at the clawed hand and smiled. “You reacted well, then. What is the danger to the ship?”

He forced his annoyance down. He’d had a job to do. “There aren’t any. The reactor can only provide enough power to keep the life support going and maybe get them to crawl away, if they’d tried that.”

“Report that the Alpha’s little warrior was successful in his part of the hunt,” he called. “Do not mention how we found him. For a civilian, he performed admirably.”

Jeremy narrowed his eyes. He might have just been insulted.

*

“Oh, after the torture. That was bad. If you’ve seen Elisier’s Descent, imagine that and make it worse.” At least what he remembered of the horror movie Lucy had talked them into seeing matched how his life had felt in the early days of the programming. “But they all helped me. It was excruciatingly slow, but I made it through and returned to where I belong.”

She chuckled. “That is an odd way of saying it.”

“It’s just something someone told me once. I think it was my mother.”

“Speaking of your mother. How do you feel about what your parents allowed to happen to you?”

“Made happen, you mean,” he replied without heat. “I’m not angry at them, anymore. If I feel anything, it’s disappointment. I wish…. I guess I wish they’d been better. The heroes a kid needs. That they’d have been able to overcome decades of government lies and understood there was nothing wrong with me. With any of us.”

“That we are how gods made us?”

“If you believe in that, yes. I know every species in the Federation has that belief, but I don’t.”

“Not even after living among them for almost a year now?”

“Is that how long it’s been? But while I respect that’s how Kelsirian view the world. I haven’t seen any evidence of any higher power intervening in our lives. I’m an engineer by training. I believe in what I can document. I believe in the evidence I find. I believe that me and Gral were lucky to find each other. That your listeners, wherever they are, were lucky to escape the Earth government’s persecution. I don’t begrudge anyone else’s view on how it happened. But that is what I believe.”

“Thank you Technician Jeremy Bradshaw. I am Julienne, and to everyone out there. Remember that the Spreading Branch is always there for you, no matter where its leaves fall.”

“And we’re done,” an unseen man said, then he fuzzed into view as he stepped next to Julienne. “Again, you have my thanks for agreeing to this, Technician Jeremy Bradshaw.”

“I’m glad I did, Thomas.”

“Please, call me Tom.”

Jeremy chuckled. “You’re going to have to be happy with Thomas, and only because you refuse to give me your last name.”

“It’s safer that way. All of us here have people back within human space. If the government was able to work out who we were, I don’t want to think of what they’d do to them to get to us.”

“Then are the names fake?”

“No. We pride ourselves on providing reporting as honest as we can. And that starts with being honest about who we are. We simply can’t afford to be entirely honest about it. But instead of lying about our family name, we simply don’t use them.” He looked concerned. “If you don’t mind me asking. Are you okay? You looked like you weren’t entirely there a time or two.”

“Yeah, sorry. I was on a mission a few days ago, a hunt and—”

“We just lost audio,” Thomas called to someone unseen. “Are we already moving out of field?”

Right. Hunts weren’t things to be discussed. Someone on his side had caught that and prevented them from hearing.

“It’s okay,” he said to the darkness around him. “I won’t talk about it. Sorry for the slip.”

“Oh, you’re back. I’m not sure what happened there.”

“It was on my side. Yes, I’m fine. Something has happened, but I’m not at liberty to talk about it.”

The two exchanged a look, and Jeremy thought they might press.

“I guess that’s as good of a thing to officially end this on,” Thomas said. “Thanks again for agreeing to this. Let your Heart know that if he ever wants to add information to what’s already available, we’ll be happy to listen.”

They vanished before he could ask what that might be talking about.

“Connection terminated, no traces of infiltration. Systems are clear to be reconnected to the ship.”

The lights slowly came up, revealing the pack busying themselves at their stations doing…whatever cover operation packs did when someone was interviewed by a secret human broadcast station? There was an efficiency in the work that made Jeremy think this wasn’t the first time they did this.

Was contacting hidden people that much a part of the Bane work in patrolling the edge of the disputed space between humans and Kelsirians?

“Are you well, Technician?” the Beta asked. She looked concerned.

“I’m fine, Beta Zorfiel Frasgormilan. I was just sent remembered what happened unexpectedly.”

“It was your first hunt. You should see a counselor and discuss it with them.”

He pushed himself out of the chair’s bowl. “I’ll be fine. It wasn’t that—”

She stepped before him. “If you were a hunter, speaking with one would be mandatory. To live so we can defend our people means ensuring no hunt remains with us so much it interferes with our living. Think of your Heart. Don’t put this burden on him.”

Her seriousness felt out of proportion. But she was right. Gralgiran shouldn’t have to be the one to eventually force him to see Leiha over this. “Thanks. I’ll make sure I speak with one of them.”

She smiled. “You performed well, Technician Jeremy Bradshaw. Be proud of your actions. Do not hold your missteps with more weight than they deserve. You do not have our training. Do not hold yourself to our standards.”

“That…. Thank you.” That actually sounded like a compliment, with a warning mixed in.

Outline section 

Scene begins with Jeremy under fire. Whose bright idea was it to send someone with only moderate close combat training into a battle where people had guns? Admittedly, Jeremy’s job was to get to the reactor and prevent it from exploding so the Viper’s Bane could tow it to port for salvage. The rest of the squad should be keeping these people off him.

Of course, Jeremy doesn’t know where the rest of the squad is, and they’re starting to not care about not hitting their own reactor. Jeremy needs to go on the offensive or they’re all going to die. So he does... and it doesn’t go as poorly as one might expect... but Jeremy is at best an early Crimson Alex at the moment, and he doesn’t have a berserk button to push just yet. So Jeremy only manages to take out three of seven people before he goes down.

###

When Jeremy comes to, he’s not dead... which is obvious, but he expected to be dead. Instead he’s restrained and blindfolded. Only some of the crew spook in kelsirian, but from what Jeremy could understand they were debating if he could be a hostage or if they could escape with him? Apparently there’s a bounty on him from the human government, for his “rescue of course.

To Jeremy’s surprise, a voice in English responds that that is out of the question. Better to space him than turn him over to the humans. Just dealing with them puts them all at risk of being captured and... the voice doesn’t get to finish before fighting breaks nearby and the pirates respond.

During the fight, Jeremy gets clearheaded enough to notice they didn’t remove his claws. Advantages to sticking to the closed fist style in his previous battle. He’ll deploy them and try and cut his bounds... only to find the battle is over by the time he can remove the blindfold. Thuruk is there, and he’s all business instead of his regular cheerful self. With good points, since the engine still might explode.

They get to the engine room, and shut down the engine, finally being able to give the bridge the all clear. There may also be a quip asking if this particular pirate ship was crowded, or are the other teams finding a ghost ship, because it feels like these guys sent everything towards their engine room.

Bridge will respond that most decks are now clear. They should start preparing any living pirates for transport to the brig. They do, including Jeremy since this is part of his job on this “hunt”, and this gives Jeremy a chance to inspect the source of the human voice: a human woman. Well, Gral always did say there would be an uptick in human pirates eventually...

Addition 

Start with the Interview

This outline was written with an expectation a decent amount of time would pass between books, that I decided not to have because one event stops being credible(if that’s not already happened.) if it’s expected to go on over the years needed for Jeremy to be trained as a hunter enough he is assigned to a mission.

I also wanted to start this in a similar way to book 1 from Jeremy’s PoV, something calling him to act when he really isn’t obligated to.

And I wanted to start the book with an interview since it was the simplest way to do a recap of sorts.

What I ended up doing was mix the interview and the mission.

What takes place in the mission is also not the same since if it’s Jeremy forcing himself into it, things can’t line up so well as to have his friends around him.