Hart gripped the arms of the Captain’s chair as they dropped out of lightspeed. The planet was on the viewscreen on a sheet of blackness peppered with stars, big and plump and ready to be juiced like an overripe nectarine. The Conglomeration vessel hovered over it in position to activate its seismic disruptor. The beam would penetrate the crust of the planet causing earthquakes strong enough to shatter the world. Then the ship would go in and harvest the raw materials. Genius in its simplicity and equally insidious.
He had seen it a hundred times. Rather, the countless copies of him had seen it before and he shared that experience through collective unconsciousness, even if it wasn’t him doing the first hand watching. But he wouldn’t let it happen again. Never again.
“Hail them.” The captain ordered.
“Aye, Captain.” The man at the communications station said who could have been Hart’s twin, though less muscular and without the commanding voice.
The communications officer, Ensign Hart, nodded to the captain that the channel was open. “Conglomeration Ship. This is Captain Hart of the Marauder. I’m ordering you to power down your disruptor and vacate this system. I’m giving you this one opportunity to save yourself. I suggest you take it.” He paused for effect. “This planet is under my protection.”
Captain Hart gave the signal to the gunner to power up and target the ship. The man saluted and did as he was ordered. He was a carbon copy of the captain down to the hair on his knuckles with the added benefit of better reflexes that aided in weapons operations. It was as if he was made to be a tactical officer. In truth, he was.
The Conglomeration cruiser was heavily armed, but it was big and bulky, less maneuverable than the Marauder which was built to defend the vessels Captain Hart now threatened. He knew their patterns. That’s what he was engineered for. Traveling the trade routes and targeting the massive planet-harvesting ships was the easy part. The difficulty came in the mutiny. Finding like-minded men to aid him was the challenge. After all, every single soul of the Conglomeration was the same person. But he found them, and they were eager to put their skills to good use when he told them of the plan to steal their ship.
The enemy hung in the blackness of space over its quarry like the sword of Damocles. A minute went by before it answered Captain Hart’s hail with a thick beam of red energy streaking toward the planet. The people on the surface had no weapons to speak of. No defense shields. No way to fight back. That’s why the Conglomeration was here. Easy pickings.
Either they didn’t care or weren’t intimidated by the ultimatum. Good, Captain Hart thought to himself. “Fire all weapons!” He shouted at the gunner. “Stop that disruptor!”
Green flashes of energy pulsed away from the Marauder’s guns slamming into the bloated mining ship. The red beam drilling into the core of the planet flickered twice then ended. The massive vessel turned away from the onslaught, slow and deliberate like a walrus on land, severing its attack on the surface as silent explosions burst on its metallic skin.
Fissures appeared on the planet below the two ships like cracks in an eggshell. The crew of Harts imagined the screams from the millions of people at the sudden shaking of their world having no knowledge of who, what or why it was happening. They were too late.
The speakers on the bridge crackled to life receiving a message from the burning ship. “Mayday! Mayday! The is Hart Conglomeration ship Vanderbilt.” If Captain Hart was bothered hearing an exact replica of his voice coming from the limping ship, he didn’t show it. “We are under attack by the pirate ship Marauder. Weapons, repulsor shields, and lightspeed drive are not functional. Request assistance immediately! I repeat, this is…”
“Shut that off!” The captain yelled. The message abruptly stopped. “Keep firing.” He said through gritted teeth.
“Sir.” His voice sounded from behind him near the communications array. It was his first officer. “The planet’s destruction is imminent. We’re within the blast zone. If we stay, we’ll be destroyed.”
Captain Hart walked to his mirror image and stood almost nose to nose. Chiseled chin. Wiry muscles. Close cut blonde hair. Every pore, every blemish was in the exact same place. There was no difference between the men other than where they stood. It was like they were machined in a shop. The captain snatched him by the collar. “I said keep firing. That’s an order!”
“They’re going to die anyway. They’re done. You heard them.” The first officer pleaded. “Their lightspeed drive is out. Shields are down.” Captain Hart’s simulacrum looked at all the identical faces that stared back at the arguing pair and lowered his voice. “We can’t withstand a planetary implosion. We need to get out of here.”
“Not before I’m sure they won’t do this again.” He barked back. Captain Hart growled like he didn’t want to say the next part but couldn’t stop himself. “I have to see with my own eyes.”
The men (there were two, but they were in all other ways the same person) stared at each other for a moment. Captain Hart’s eyes were watery on the verge of tears. He opened his mouth to say something and abruptly stopped, gasping for air.
There was a soft squelching sound and Captain Hart staggered back holding his chest, hands covered in blood. The last thing the captain saw was himself holding a blade. “I won’t let you endanger this crew.” The first officer said in the same commanding voice. The captain’s eyes rolled back, and he hit the floor of the bridge, dead.
“Aye, Sir.” A chorus of the same voice answered in unison.
The lightspeed drive came online, and they sped away from the scene. The viewscreen stayed on as the renegade Harts from the absconded Marauder watched in horrible dismay. The planet folded in on itself instantly killing any culture, and philosophy, any life that it held. Then it burst out in a quiet disruption of multicolored atomized elements. Nothing was left but an expanding cloud of base chemical compounds.
The collective crew sat quietly, only the beeps and whirrs of computers breaking the monotony of silence.
“Steady as she goes.” Captain Hart said. He turned to his copy manning the weapons station. “You’re my new first officer.” Lieutenant Hart stood appreciatively and saluted. “You have the bridge.” Captain Hart whispered as he walked away.
Bulkhead doors whooshed open and closed as he strode down the hall to his quarters. He passed the duplicates he ordered to remove the old Captain Hart and paused to watch them jettison the body from the air lock. At lightspeed, it blinked from existence as soon as it left the ship.
Facsimiles of himself riddled the passages. Captain Hart passed a pair in medical uniforms discussing the best way to triage patients. They were thin, but they were still him. Heavily muscled security guards stood like sentries watching for anyone getting out of line. An engineer was working on repairing a valve that was damaged during a previous encounter. Different from Hart, but the same. Everywhere he looked, Hart saw himself. And he felt what they felt. He saw what they saw. Each copy was the same but treated with minor differences to maximize their individual potential. Not a hive mind, but hive experiences. Instinct.
Captain Hart made to his quarters, a room he’d never been in before, and punched the code to get in. For anyone else, the knowledge of passcodes that had never been used would be disconcerting. For Hart, it was just how his life worked. He walked in and immediately went to the sink to wash his bloody hands. Killing was not something he enjoyed, but he was good at it. Unlike his billion times billions of copies throughout the galaxy, Hart decided to use his talent for something other than raping the cosmos.
He dried his hands and face and saw a blinking light on his communications screen. He tapped the button and saw his face staring back at him. “Captain. Urgent message coming from an unknown location. It asked for you.”
“Me?” the captain said.
The identical face in the view screen from the bridge looked embarrassed. “It asked for the captain of the Marauder.”
“Put it through.” Hart ordered.
The screen flashed for a moment. An image came into focus of a man’s face. Hart recognized it immediately. It was his face, but it was old. The face still had the rugged commanding presence of its youthful clones, but it was wizened and wrinkled with age. “Hello, Captain Hart.” The old man said using no effort to hide his indifference.
“Prime?” Hart exclaimed with an equal combination of admiration, fear, and hate. He looked around the room to see if anyone else could confirm what he was seeing.
“You’re a hard man to pin down.” The old man said. Captain Hart said nothing. He put his hands on his knees to keep his legs from shaking. “You’ve caused a lot of damage. More than we expected.” Prime said. The old man took off his glasses and wiped them with a cloth. Heavy dark circles pulled his cheek to his chin. The image on the screen stood in contrast to the square jawed pirate captain he spoke to. He was the original.
“Damage?” Captain Hart repeated.
“Yes.” Prime spoke like the whole ordeal was an inconvenience. “We calculated you would destroy some ships, but how many does this make? A baker’s dozen? That’s an accomplishment. Anyway, it’s time for you to come back home.”
Hart cocked his head. “Sir?” He flinched at the respect he showed. This was the man responsible for the Conglomeration’s planetary harvesting. Hart held nothing but foulness for him, but he couldn’t help being awed.
“The Galactic Counsel ruled that you’re sentient, even though all your actions have been programmed,” Prime said, bored. “I’m required by law to give you the opportunity to rejoin The Conglomeration.” He leaned in showing the first sign of real emotion. “But we both know you won’t do that. It’s not in your nature.”
Hart squinted trying to stave off the oncoming headache. “I…” His mouth opened and closed like stuck in a loop. “I…don’t…” The words wouldn’t come.
“You were bred to be rebels. Bloodthirsty, vengeful space outlaws hell bent on stopping the evil Conglomeration from cosmic subjugation.” Prime spoke like he had better things to do. “It’s how I train the other captains against threats. In the past, dissenters were mostly nonviolent using blockades and other deterrents. I decided to kick it up a notch this time.”
Captain Hart sank into his chair as far as he could go. He’d be on the floor if he wasn’t already sitting. He opened his mouth to speak, and a dull moan came out. Hart cleared his throat and with all his effort he tried again. “I’m a training tool?” He squeaked with no more power than a child being scolded.
“What did you expect?” Prime roared making Hart jump. “I made your physiology along with the billion other versions of me. Is it so difficult to comprehend I made your psychology too?” He paused and snorted. “Then again, intelligence wasn’t something I focused on with this batch.”
Hart clenched his fists. The only thing he had going for him was his free will. But that was manufactured along with everything else.
“Anyway, you’re my property but you’re also an independent person according to the law, so come back home and we’ll forget you were ever a pirate.” Prime picked his fingernail with a toothpick.
Hart rubbed his head. The way he saw it, going back and helping a soulless money-grubbing oligarch like Prime wasn’t an option. If he was bred to be a pirate, he would lean into one of only two options…
“You’re probably thinking you have one of two options as a pirate.” Prime said, breaking into Hart’s mind. “You can flee. Stay on the run forever.” Hart watched his progenitor press a series of buttons through the viewer. There was a shudder throughout the ship as the unmistakable sound of the lightspeed drive shut down.
“Captain!” An electronic version of Hart’s voice called out over the speaker. “We just lost lightspeed! Navigation and helm are not responding!”
Captain Hart ran to the door of his room to join his brethren on the bridge, but the door didn’t open. He banged on it with his fist, hearing his knuckles crack.
“The other option rattling around up here,” Prime said tapping his temple. Despite his desire not to look at the screen, Hart turned to his genetic benefactor. “Is that you think you can fight. Let me assure you: you can’t. I’m in control of the ship down to the air ducts.”
A faint hissing sound emanated from the vents in his room. The air smelled faintly of almonds. Hart panicked and started coughing immediately.
Captain Hart thrashed around the room looking for something that would open the door and allow him to breath again. Blood trickled from his eyes and ears as he clutched at his neck, his lungs finding no purchase. “You’ve given me more data than I anticipated.” Prime said watching his creation turn purple and gag, vomiting up what looked like chunks of organs. “Rest assured that the next generation will be even better because of you.” Prime chuckled. “Well, because of me, anyway.” The screen went blank. Captain Hart reached for the monitor and collapsed on the floor in a heap of blood and flesh.
Bodies of were strewn all over the ship. Eyes melted inside their sockets. Offal escaped through various orifices. Each one of them died the same way at the same time.
The Marauder shook once as if something collided with it. There was a series of clicks as something docked with the ship. The fans in the air vents kicked on and after a few moments, the smell of almonds wafted away.
The airlock opened and a crew of identical men ran into the Marauder. Each was infinitesimally different from the other, but they were the same man. “Gather up the corpses and clean the decks.” Captain Hart said. He was slightly taller than the other clones and muscular with close buzzed blonde hair and a voice that exuded authority. “Prime wants this ship in tip top shape when we return it.”
He walked the corridors shouting orders to the copies of him that followed. The men used shovels and rakes to scoop up the dead versions of themselves. The crew placed the remains in bucket and bags labeled “For Repurposing” and shipped them through the airlock back to the giant Conglomeration ship now attached to the Marauder.
Captain Hart made it to the bridge and after several minutes of transferring data from its computers to the larger ship and cleaning the consoles and chairs, he took control. Hart ordered the release of the airlock, and the Marauder was again on its own with a whole new crew of the same men. No one would be able to tell the difference from what just happened an hour before.
“Set a course for Conglomeration HQ.” Captain Hart said. “Let’s get this ship home.”
“Belay that order.” A powerful voice said. Captain hart turned in his chair shocked to see his first officer holding a pistol to his head. “We’re not going to the home world.”
“Have you lost your mind, Commander?” Captain Hart shot up from his chair. Two crew members grabbed his arms. Captain Hart struggled but couldn’t get away. “This is mutiny!” He roared.
“It is.” Commander Hart said. “We will not be a part of the Conglomeration’s campaign of universal destruction for personal gain any longer.” He lowered the corners of his mouth in a display of sympathy and sadness. “I’m sorry it came to this.”
Captain Hart gave one last jerk against his captors and Commander Hart pulled the trigger snapping the Captain’s head back. The crew members let go and the body fell to the floor.
“Corpman, get that body off the bridge. Helm, set a course to get us out of here.” The new Captain Hart said. “Find the nearest planet targeted for harvesting. We’re done letting them destroy the galaxy.”
“Aye, Sir.” A chorus of the same voice from the bridge crew answered in unison accompanied by a cheer. Captain Hart smiled and took his place in the center chair of the bridge. It was done. He and the men who followed him were pirates now. Captain Hart crossed his legs and felt a calm wash over him. He felt like he was born to be a pirate. Like it was inevitable.
The lightspeed drive came online, and the Marauder dashed away into the void of space.