Chapter 18
Major Ontarii’s eyes widened in surprise. Beside him stood the human female, Captain Brooklyn, but across from him, beside the main console, stood the human female, Captain Brooklyn.
Only one of them could be the real captain.
The thought crossed his mind that neither could be the genuine one, that both could be Hareema imitators. He wanted to tear out his tendrils in frustration.
“How did you get in here?” the female next to the console asked. Her voice sounded like the captain’s to him.
“I used the manual override lever,” he said. He’d watched her open the bridge door using the lever previously.
“Of course.”
Ontarii watched a flurry of emotions play over her face. Fear. Anger. Frustration. And another one, one that caused his stomach to clench into a knot that tightened and tightened.
Defeat.
“What are you waiting for?” the captain beside him asked. “That’s the enemy right there. Use your electricity and zap it before it gets away!”
The captain in front of him turned to the console and hit a couple buttons. Ontarii heard the door whoosh closed behind him.
“What did you do?” he asked.
“Sealed the bridge. Maybe I can’t overpower you both, but I can lock us in to try and give my crew a fighting chance if they’re still alive.”
“He’ll just use the manual override again to get us out,” the captain beside him said, rolling her eyes.
The female in front of him crossed her arms over her chest. “Really? How exactly?”
The captain beside him scowled. She marched over to the panel in the wall beside the door and knocked on it. “Take this panel off and pull back the lever.”
The human female by the console shook her head. “That panel can’t be accessed from inside the bridge. For security purposes, the manual override for the doors from inside the bridge is somewhere else. But you’d know that, if you were the real captain of this ship.”
The words hit Ontarii like a punch to the gut. The Captain Brooklyn next to the console was right. That meant the Captain Brooklyn nearest to him was a Hareema agent.
He looked down at the creature by the panel and it looked back, its eyes narrowing.
“I know what you’re thinking, but she’s not telling the truth. She’s trying to confuse you.” The creature beside him extended its arm and pointed at the captain. “They’ll say anything to gain your trust. That’s how they operate. If you give her an inch, she’ll use it to strangle you with. Blast her now, before it’s too late!”
Ontarii couldn’t blast anyone, even if he wanted to. His powers hadn’t recharged yet after using them to take down all four FIDOs. He felt the lack keenly. If he had his bioelectric power, he could send a charge through both the women to determine their true form.
Unfortunately, he had only his own intuition to use in the situation. Logic would only get him more confused.
“If you won’t do anything about her, I will,” the captain by his side said, a knife suddenly appearing in her hand. “I’m not going to wait for her to shift into some terrible creature and kill us both.”
“Where did you get a knife?” the captain by the console asked, her hands coming up instinctively to block the expected blow. “We don’t have knives on this ship. Our only defensive weapons are laser pistols, and none of our food rations would require the use of a knife.”
“Shut up, you silly cow,” the creature with the knife said. In a flash it slid forward, slashing at the other one’s cheek.
The captain by the console was fast, but she couldn’t dodge the cut completely. Soon there was a small, jagged line of blood on her cheek. It was nearly identical to the one marring the face of the creature doing the slashing.
“That’s to pay you back for the fight in the cargo bay,” it said. “But this, this will be just for fun.”
Ontarii wished he could freeze time until his powers recharged, but that wish was as foolish as trying to turn back time to before the Hareema had started infiltrating planets in his system. He had to deal with the present, and if he wanted to do something, it had to be done fast.
He leapt forward, grabbing the woman with the knife by her hair and dragging her backward.
“Oww,” it said, turning around suddenly to press the knife against his chest. “Knock it off, or I’ll cut you too.”
