“Sir, sensors say they just killed two of our people in their brig!” exclaimed Helmsman Masm. “And another one!”
“Why are they killing our people?” I wondered. We were in hot pursuit of the unknown ship that had kidnapped a hundred of our spacers.
“One more,” he continued. “And another one. Two more! And another two!”
Realization dawned. Could it be? “They’ll kill two more, one at a time.”
“Madam–they did! How’d you know?”
“They aren’t being killed. Eleven spacers committed suicide to send a message in Morse Code.” I sighed. Our old adversaries had returned. “It’s the Nimi.”
Larry Hodges is an active member of SFWA with over 120 short story sales and four novels. He’s a graduate of the six-week 2006 Odyssey Writers Workshop and a member of Codexwriters. In non-fiction, he has 17 books and 2000+ published articles in over 170 publications. Visit him at larryhodges.com.
themartianmagazine.com 