“Got it.” Kira placed it in her bag next to the module. “Anything else?”
“Don’t die,” Ari advised.
“My number one checklist item,” she said, miming the action of marking an imaginary list in front of her.
“Then we’re all set,” Kyle said with a smile, but she could see the worry in his eyes—in everyone’s eyes.
“I’ll be fine,” she assured them. “Back before you know it.”
Nia ran over and gave her a hug. “Good luck.”
“Thanks. Let’s head out.”
They gathered their equipment and climbed aboard the shuttle to head back to the Raven. Once they docked on the other ship, Kira remained in the shuttle while the others went to their stations.
From the shuttle’s cockpit, she watched Kyle, Nia, and Ari set up a workstation in the Raven’s bay using equipment appropriated from the Conquest. Meanwhile, Sandren went to observe the activities from the bridge with Rodrick and Aleya.
Kira tapped into the video feed from the Raven’s helm on a holographic overlay of the shuttle’s front viewport.
< Ah, ‘the mission’! How far you’ve come in just a few weeks. Before, you were all about your science labs.>
The view depicted on the holographic overlay in front of the shuttle’s viewport shifted as the Raven swung around to face the alien ship.
They sped toward it. At first, the alien sphere didn’t appear to be getting much larger. As they neared, however, it rapidly grew. Horizontal and vertical bands became more distinct. Though it had appeared to be relatively dull from a distance, there were actually tiny lights dotting the structure.
Jasmine replied.
Jasmine uncharacteristically faded out.
When the alien ship took up the entire viewport, the Raven dipped toward the alien ship’s southern pole, relative to their approach vector.
“Comm check?” Kyle said in Kira’s earpiece.
“Loud and clear,” she replied.
“Confirmed,” Jasmine added. she added as a non-spoken communication over the link.
Kira checked with her.
The Raven neared the southern pole, closing in on the location of one of the massive cylinders embedded in the alien ship.
“Thirty seconds until departure,” Sandren said over the comm. “May the stars be with you.”
“See you soon, sir.”
Jasmine set a countdown clock on the shuttle’s HUD, and Kira took several slow, deep breaths.
At zero, the shuttle dropped from the Raven’s belly through the force field. Once in the vacuum, the shuttle’s engines kicked in, and it sped toward the narrow entry to the alien ship at the top of the target cylinder.
Rather, it had appeared narrow from a distance. As the shuttle approached, the scale of the alien ship hit her full force. Tiny specks on holographic models were now two-kilometer chasms, and the larger features were the size of continents.
Jasmine replied.
The end of the cylinder was a cap suspended two kilometers above the main surface of the ship. It had appeared dark inside from a distance, but Kira now saw a subtle blue glow coming from within.
Voices washed over her—the same cacophony she had experienced in her first telepathic attempt. Only, the song had changed. Curious and ethereal before, it was now dark and bent on destruction. The Trols were hunting, and the Elvar Trinary was their prey.
As the shuttle entered the ship, millions of minds turned their attention to Kira.
“You cannot hide from us,” they said. “Your ship is masked, but we see you.”
A chill gripped her chest.
“Such a waste of a mind. You think you can stop us, but there is nothing you can do,” they sneered.
“Nice try, but I know exactly what I’m doing.”
The chorus continued to pester the back of her consciousness, but she blocked out the voices and did her best to focus on the shuttle’s progress.
The diameter of the cylinder spanned ten kilometers. Kira wouldn’t have been able to see the sides if it wasn’t for the distinctive blue glow that looked almost like polka dots in the dark. As they got deeper inside, she realized that each of those dots was actually the top of one of the rock core ‘pits’ they had observed on the planets, which were slotted into racks on a forty-five degree angle. The racks around the cylinder weren’t all filled, but there were at least two dozen of the pits so far in the structure.
Though the Trols didn’t have physical eyes, she felt like they were watching her as the shuttle descended past each.
At the bottom of the massive cylinder, the HUD displayed the presence of an oxygen and nitrogen atmosphere, now thick enough to be within breathable tolerances. Noticing that more of the pits were slotted into the racks where the atmosphere was thicker, she speculated that perhaps the Trols thrived on that mixture themselves.
Twenty kilometers down, the shuttle came to rest on the deck of the cylinder, sinking slightly into the groundcover.
she asked Jasmine.
Kira rose from the pilot’s chair and headed to the back hatch of the shuttle.
Kira took one final, calming breath.
She hit the release on the back hatch.
The door lowered to the soft ground. Kira descended it, scoping out her surroundings. Jasmine fed a mental overlay to her, functioning like a HUD without the need for a helmet.
Kira observed.
Jasmine assured her.
Kira
spotted the opening seventy meters away.
She took a moment to look upward at the expansive cylinder around her. She was but a tiny speck in the mammoth enclosure. Space was twenty kilometers above her, and the Raven was four minutes away at maximum thrust. She was alone.
Not alone. There’s Jasmine, and I have my mission.
Kira transformed into her Robus state while she dashed toward the passageway.
The practice on the Conquest had honed her understanding of her new body. As her legs pumped her across the spongy ground, she knew precisely how far and how fast she could run without needing to rest. She could go a long way, and she’d need all of that stamina to make it through the mission.
The passage appeared to be made of stone, like the corridors from Gaelon. The dull, dark material was smooth, yet had a rippled pattern running its length.
As she neared it, the stone began to disintegrate into a cloud.
Kira headed straight into the swarm.
The particles looped around her, trying to latch on, but they were knocked back each time. A one-centimeter-thick air pocket surrounded her entire body. The particles were so close to her eyes that she had to resist the urge to keep swatting them away, but they couldn’t come any closer. She was protected.
Kira ran full speed down the passageway, jumping over obstacles as the floor and walls shifted around her. It was too dark to see clearly as she followed Jasmine’s map in her mind, so she activated a light that was affixed to the front of her armor. The light cast a blue halo in front of her, illuminating the particle swarm that kept following her, undeterred by the field that kept them at bay. They made it almost impossible to see, so she relied on sensor data from Jasmine.
Two hundred meters down the passage, Kira reached an intersection.
Jasmine floundered.
CHAPTER 16
Kira demanded.
Kira thought for a moment.
Jasmine pointed out.
Kira’s heart dropped.
Kira looked down the two potential paths. Either one was likely to lead them to a dead end. They’d need to find a way to make forward progress somehow.
She tried to open up a mental comm link. Nothing.
Kira turned around.
The passageway she had just come through was gone.
Kira took a calming breath, wishing the particles would stop buzzing around her face for two seconds so she could think in peace.
Jasmine objected.
Jasmine smirked in her mind.
Kira focused on the passageway ahead. Get to the sensors. Alert the Raven. Destroy the enemy ship. One step at a time.
— — —
“Any word from the Raven or Kira?” Kaen asked the comm tech seated at a station along the left curvature of the Conquest’s Command Center.
“No, sir.”
No news is good news, I suppose. He settled back into his chair at the center of the room.
“There is something else,” Jason spoke up from the seat next to him. “The alien vessel is almost within range of the Elvar Trinary’s in-system sensor array.”
Kaen closed his eyes. Fok.
The issue was twofold.
Foremost, the system’s residents would be able to see an approaching planet-sized object. Best-case scenario was they’d be curious and want to know more; worst-case, there’d be widespread panic that they were about to die.
A secondary issue was the Conquest and its capabilities. While the TK weapon was infamous in military circles, the public narrative in recent years had been that the TSS was demilitarizing. If the residents of the Elvar Trinary witnessed the engagement with the Trols and saw that the TSS was still in control of a super-weapon, it would create a PR nightmare—especially since Mysar and Valta weren’t yet officially member worlds of the Empire.
Kaen didn’t want to answer to the TSS and High Dynasties about how such news got out. He needed a solution that would keep the Elvar Trinary safe and would also prevent anyone seeing something they weren’t supposed to.
“May I use your office?” Kaen asked Jason.
“Of course. May I ask for what purpose?”
“To call my contact on Elusia. I have an idea for how to address our problem, but I need to get a status update first.”
“Understood. We’ll be standing by.” Jason directed him to the office accessible via the Command Center.
Kaen initiated a call to President Joris as soon as he got settled behind the captain’s desk.
The president’s face appeared on the viewscreen, looking slightly confused. He relaxed when he saw Kaen. “Colonel, hello! I didn’t recognize the credentials on the call.”
“Yes, apologies. I’m borrowing office space on a TSS ship. I wanted to check in on the status of the shield installations.”
Joris nodded. “It’s coming along. We’ve had some technical barriers to overcome. I believe we’re finished with all but one station on Elusia. Valta was delayed due to some… political issues, but we worked through that, and the installation is underway. I believe Mysar is almost complete, as well.”
“Do you have a timeline for when it will all be done?”
“Probably twenty minutes for Elusia. I’m not sure about the other worlds. You’d have to ask Ellen.”
“I will. Could you forward me her direct contact details on Mysar?”
Momentary surprise flitted across the president’s face, but he leaned forward to swipe his hand across his desktop. “Sent.”
A notification window popped up on Kaen’s screen with the requested information. “Thank you. Now, what was the issue with Valta?”
“There were reportedly some trust concerns regarding the Empire. Again, Ellen was a part of those conversations, not me.”
“You’ve put an awful lot of faith in her.”
“She’s risen to the occasion. Shocking that she’s in this position now, con
sidering she was originally sent to Elusia to kill me, but I’ve always believed everyone deserves a second chance. The founders of our system came to seek a fresh start, and it’s important we honor that legacy.”
Now we need to make sure they have a future to build upon. Kaen nodded. “A touching sentiment, and one I agree is important we all remember. Now I need to check in with Ellen.”
“Of course. Thank you again for sending the shields. It’s set my mind at ease knowing we have an extra layer of protection.”
If only he knew how little protection they’ll offer against what’s headed their way. But that was the power of hope.
“The Empire will gladly protect our own. I’ll be in touch if I have any updates.” Kaen ended the call.
The last part was a lie. If Kira’s mission failed, it was unlikely the Conquest would be able to do anything to stop the Trol ship before it reached the system. Is it better to give warning or to let them live their last moments in peace? He didn’t know the answer.
Setting the dire thought from his mind, he called Ellen on Mysar.
It took thirty seconds for her to pick up. Though he’d never spoken with her before, there was no mistaking the violet-eyed woman as Leon’s sister.
“Ellen, I’m Colonel Kaen with the Tararian Guard.”
“Oh!” Recognition passed across her face.
“I wanted to check in on the status of your shield upgrades.”
“Right, yes.” She sighed. “It’s been a challenge. First, this one station manager somehow got it in his mind that it was his sole purpose in life to prevent us from installing any Empire tech. We eventually convinced him, but it was a delay. And then we had to solve the interface problem, which set us back again—”
“By how much?”
“No serious delays. We’ll be finished with everything in about two hours. So, almost there.” She gave a weary smile.
Two hours? The Trol ship will be in visual range before then. Kaen tried not to let his concern show. “Are any of the installations complete?”
“Seven will be within the next half-hour. It’s just that north polar one that got pushed back.”
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