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The original was posted on /r/hfy by /u/daecrist on 2025-05-12 19:34:59+00:00.

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“You know. Calling me a bucket of bolts isn’t terribly nice. And that’s a gross understatement of exactly what goes into creating a Combat Intelligence in the Livisk Ascendancy.”

“That’s so nice for you,” I said, doing another circuit of the room.

This time I was looking at the gold and silver lines inlaid all around the room. I figured there was a chance that gold and silver created a pattern. If I followed it then maybe I could tap something and it would be like an old episode of Scooby Doo where it opened a secret passage.

Hopefully there wouldn’t be an old asshole in a fright mask on the other side of that. Though given everything else that’d happened to me lately, I’d hardly be surprised if that happened as well.

Also? I could tell myself I’d been in worse situations than this before, but I knew I was lying. I’d never been in a situation like this before. This was the Kobayashi Maru, and I didn’t have a way to reprogram the simulation to create new conditions for victory.

Hell. I didn’t even have an apple to chew on while I smugly informed the world that I didn’t believe in the no-win scenario.

I was putting on a show for the sapient listening device watching everything I did. Sequel trilogy. It could even read my vital signs, and it picked up on things that were outside of Terran standard in those bio signs.

I wondered how many people had been put through torture and experimentation over the years for the livisk to get that kind of information. Or maybe the source was something more benign. Maybe they’d just stolen a medical textbook at some point along the way.

I shivered. I’d heard rumors of places where humanity did experiments on the livisk, and I’m not talking about the kind of experiments you saw on galactic net videos coming out of some of the border regions where the conflict wasn’t quite as hot. Places where humanity and livisk had come together so they could come together on screen.

Literally.

Giggity.

The point was, I didn’t want to let the sparkly blue bastards know I was past the event horizon without a working FTL drive to get my ass out of this.

I sat down on the bed again. It was the only thing in the room, so why the sequel trilogy not?

No way out. Varis wasn’t even in here gloating about how she was going to kill me for daring to defy her or shoot her.

I suppose that was a good thing. Sort of. I was still amazed I was alive after shooting her. I figured I would’ve been shot right there. Or I would’ve gone to sleep bathed in that warmth and never woken up.

I knew a few commanders who would’ve done the same thing. I might’ve considered doing the same thing if I’d been the one getting shot by an enemy combatant on my ship.

But again, there was that link protecting me. Sort of. Maybe. I didn’t know enough about it to know how far that protection extended.

I knew her compadres hadn’t looked happy about me shooting her. Not one bit.

“So are you going to tell me what exactly I’m supposed to be doing here?“ I asked.

Again there was a momentary pause.

“I believe you are expected to dine.”

I blinked. “Excuse me? I’m expected to dine? Did I hear that right?”

“Yes. General Varis would like you to join her for dinner.”

“Exactly what time is it?”

“It is evening,” Arvie said.

“You’re not going to give me a more exact time?”

“It’s my understanding that humanity has trouble adjusting to the thirty-hour day/night cycle on Livisqa,” Arvie said. “I’m trying to ease you into this without you having a nervous breakdown.”

“Honestly? If I’m not having a nervous breakdown as a result of everything else that’s happening? I don’t think having a few more hours added to my day is going to bother me too much,” I said, looking up and around with a grin.

I couldn’t even see the camera the thing was using to keep an eye on me, but if it was a sufficiently advanced Combat Intelligence then it didn’t hatter that I couldn’t see where it was seeing me.

I suppose it could’ve been worse. Having dinner with her. I could do that. I’d heard stories about other ways livisk used their captives. Stories of brothels where humans were put to work.

I shivered as I thought of being put to work similarly with the alien general holding me captive. I wasn’t sure whether that thought was terrifying or exciting, and I hated how my body was betraying my duty to humanity at some of the thoughts suddenly running through my head.

Even if humanity had turned its back on me by posting me in a place where I cold get caught like this in the first place. Honestly. Why couldn’t the CCF mount a rapid response at the edge of their fucking home system to save one picket ship?

“You are showing elevated levels of various biological markers again,” Arvie said. “Would you like me to give you a nice hot drink? Perhaps a little bit of alcohol? I’m told that soothes humans. Even though I don’t understand the biological impulse to poison yourself to the point of being senseless.”

“No, that won’t be necessary,” I said with a sigh.

There was no point in getting upset. Not at the livisk who’d captured me. Not at humanity who’d put me in this position in the first place.

I’d escape instead. I’d kill every livisk motherfucker I came in contact with. I’d make them regret the day they ever took me captive.

Just like I’d made General Varis regret the day she let me get into her kill box with her sidearm still strapped to her. I’d beat this woman twice. She got lucky once, sure, but I could do it again.

“Damn it.”

I fell back against the sheets. I guess this was better than a sterile medbay. Or a prison cell. Or down in one of their reclamation mines.

Again, my mind wandered to my crew. To that reclamation mine I’d seen off in the distance. The Combat Intelligence was sending me a message there, and I’d heard it loud and clear.

I didn’t yearn for the mines. My crew didn’t yearn for the mines. I needed to figure out a way to get them out of there.

“So when is this dinner, Arvie?” I asked.

“You are expected to be ready in an hour,” he said.

There was a sudden growl from my stomach. I looked down and blinked. Well okay then. Apparently my body could use some fuel.

I wondered what they fed me when I was stuck in that weird medbay thing. Not that it mattered. I was hungry now, and my body was making it known.

“A change of clothing will be provided in a moment. In the meantime, General Varis has provided an entertainment for you.”

“An entertainment?” I asked.

A massive screen winked to life on one of the black walls opposite my bed. It was set at the perfect viewing angle for me to relax in bed and enjoy a little bit of TV.

I grinned. I guess that was one bit of tech that was the same across species. I wondered if the ancient hominid precursor to all the humanoids wandering this branch of the galaxy these days had enjoyed television as much as their descendants did.

I recognized Toril Jak, anchor for the Interstellar News Network.

“And in other news, Fleet officials continue to state unequivocally that the mobilization of a massive amount of CCF and Terran Navy ships on the outer rim of the Sol system is nothing more than a Fleet readiness exercise that’s part of the extended rescue operation we’ve been reporting on.”

I frowned. I’d been on a ship that was tasked with escorting a carrier he was staying on to a war zone pretty early in my career. That was the one time I was disappointed the ship I was escorting hadn’t been blown up.

I’d heard rumors that an entire deck of that carrier had been given over to him and his entourage as a special privilege. Like he was considered well above VIP.

Which was odd. The CCF tended to keep reporters at a distance. There were rumors that ol’ Toril had a whole heap of stories about corruption and malfeasance at the highest level of the Fleet that he wasn’t sharing with the rest of the world as long as they bent over backwards to make him feel like the next best thing to an admiral on CCF ships.

Which was just a step below being treated like a god.

Funny how that worked out. I wished I had an interstellar audience of trillions to leverage when I lost my ship. Lose one lousy ship without that leverage and suddenly the admirals get all pissy.

I frowned at the unfolding story. Varis selected this for me, which meant she’d probably put it up there to gloat.

Sure enough, my picture appeared up there next to Toril. I leaned forward and started grinding my teeth. My picture up there couldn’t mean anything good.

“The admiralty hasn’t released many details of the picket ship that went missing on the outskirts of the Sol system, but they did indicate that the captain was one William Stewart. He was previously infamous for losing the CCFS Allameraine in an engagement on a border colony world of no consequence.”

I growled. I was aware the CI was recording everything going on here and no doubt Varis would be gloating about this later. Assuming she wasn’t gloating about it right now watching the live feed.

But I couldn’t help it. It was bad enough I got put in this situation by an uncaring CCF who didn’t send someone out to save our asses in a timely manner. Now it looked like they were throwing me ...

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