Through the Abyss

by Daniel Litchfield

  From the start of the inspection to the DSST being tied down inside a Transport, the entire process took the average team seventy-five minutes. Due to the large number of DSSTs needed to ensure an accurate search grid, each three man team could expect to complete five to seven DSSTs per mission.

  By the end of day seventeen, training was progressing ahead of schedule across the Armada. Units were coming together as the rusty joints were worked out among the individual crew members who were coming together for the first time. With only a few days until his Armada exited at the marshaling site, Euphretes called for a day of non-scheduled training to let the soldiers and crew relax.

  Euphretes found the Bridge mostly empty on day eighteen, except for the volunteer skeleton crew required to meet Huron Military Regulations. Normally he would go to the Command Center, but on days like this, when the pace was slower, he decided to go to the Bridge instead. The Empirical Admiral enjoyed Fleet Vessels the most on the non-training days, when things were quiet and still. The lull in the action allowed him the time to sit and talk to his soldiers on a personal level, apart from the intimidating rank plastered on his chest. There wasn’t much that Euphretes loved more than spending time with soldiers talking about the most random subjects and hearing their unique personal stories. It was during the calm before the storm that Euphretes often found himself diving deep into memories as he swapped stories with his crew.

  “I’m not joking Sir. The guy full on lost it!” Steward Operative Caruso managed to say in between fits of laughter.

  “What do you mean he lost it?” The group of seven crew members all stopped their side conversations to hear the NCO tell the tale.

  “We had this soldier, Laynce, who worked in the Company Headquarters during Ground Combat Training Exercises. Well, this guy ended up bringing extra food and drinks for himself and the lower enlisted working in the Headquarters to enjoy. I mean, the guy must’ve spent a cycles worth of pay on snacks and drinks. So, the Commander, who wasn’t on our good side to begin with, acted as if they were his and started handing out Laynce’s stuff to Senior Officers as they visited the Headquarters. Obviously, that’s a no go at this station. So, after some egging on by yours truly, our fearless soldier confronted the Commander about it. Oh, and can’t forget, Lieutenant Adderston just happened to have one of Laynce’s drinks in his hand at the time.”

  “And this is just another reason why we left the Mainline side of the Military,” Neuma laughed as Caruso continued his story.

  “Safe to say, Adderston snapped Sir. I’m talking he literally threw Laynce’s drink right in his face and stormed off to the Company Headquarters.”

  “No way!”

  “Oh yeah Sir, but it gets better. So obviously I had to follow the Commander to see what would happen next; and I was not disappointed. Lieutenant Adderston legitimately starting tossing out Laynce’s drinks and snacks from the Company Headquarters. I’m talking cans and bottles flying everywhere! I actually caught one! Most glorious sight I’ve ever seen!”

  Euphretes and the rest of the group erupted into laughter. “Sir, you got any others for us?” A bright eyed young aviator asked, not wanting to return to work. After a few moments of blankness, Neuma threw the image of a tent in the middle of a torrential downpour through his mind space.

  “This one is always a classic.”

  Euphretes started chuckling before he said a word. “Alright, one more and then we’ve wasted enough time.” The group all nodded in agreement, as if their opinion would’ve swayed the Empirical Admiral.

  “So, this was about four Custos years after I received my first Commission, before my Special Operations days. You know, I’m still naive and stupid but have enough under my belt to know when and when not to step in and help my soldiers. Oh, for those of you who don’t know, I entered as a Logistics Officer, so when we conducted Ground Combat Training Exercises, my guys weren’t roughing it compared to the front line boys like you.”

  “You were Logistics Sir?” Caruso interrupted.

  “I was. Big Military must’ve wanted me to see the dark side before entering a combat arms branch. To be honest, probably the best thing that could’ve happened to me, but I digress,” The Admiral said.

  “Where was I?” Euphretes asked Neuma, his thought process interrupted by the memories of his first Platoon.

  “Just about to explain why the tent was so messed up.”

  “Thanks.”

  “At the time, a deployment and larger war games occurring on the other side of the Empire stripped my Platoon of the experienced lower enlisted soldiers. With mostly brand new soldiers and very young NCO’s, my Platoon Sergeant and I were fighting an uphill battle. Well, because Staff Operative Motez and I slept in the Platoon Headquarters, we let the rest of the Platoon pack their own sleep tent as a test for the young NCOs. To be fair though, Motez and I didn’t micromanage these guys. We didn’t fully check to see what they’d packed for their sleep tent.”

  “Rookie mistake Sir, rookie mistake!” Caruso laughed.

  “Oh I know, right?” Euphretes chuckled. “Anyway, when we get to the Logistical Supply Point, my Company starts setting up security while a small group of my Platoon sets up their sleep tent before it got dark. To give them credit, that small group fought that tent for two hours in some decent wind before finally managing to get it standing.”

  “Two hours?!” Caruso scoffed.

  “Yup. Turns out, they forgot to pack the grounding rods.”

  “Ha!” The Steward Operative scoffed, “They forgot the one thing that they couldn’t forget! How did they even get it standing in the first place?!”

  Euphretes crossed his arms in defense of his soldiers but maintained a devilish grin, “They were mechanics! They found some scrap metal and with the help of the welding guys, they were able to create a few.”

  “Impressive!” Caruso exclaimed.

  “Oh, but there’s more,” Euphretes said. “Later that evening, out of nowhere, a storm shows up and starts dumping on us. All it took was a really strong gust of wind and half the tent collapsed. Everyone’s gear was soaked.” Euphretes paused to laugh.

  “Like angry insects, a bunch of my soldiers come running out of the tent and started fighting against the wind to get the tent to stand back up. Fortunately for Motez and me, our Headquarters’s door opened to face our soldiers’s tent. We had ringside seats to watch the show. We could see they were more than equipped to handle things for themselves,” Euphretes laughed sarcastically. “It was a beautiful sight!”

  “They won’t learn any other way,” Caruso commented.

  “Exactly. But the best part by far was when our other soldiers came running from the chow line to save their own gear from getting wet. One passed right by my Platoon’s Headquarters and as he turned his head, he saw Motez and me laughing as we watched them all run around in the rain. I’m telling you, the evolution from sheer hatred to jealously on the guy’s face made the whole training exercise worth it.” Euphretes smiled broadly as he remembered the ridiculous moment. “I swear they fought that tent for like thirty minutes, in a state of total chaos, before the Junior NCOs finally woke up and started directing traffic.” Another round of laughter erupted as the group pictured the event unfold in their heads.

  “But you know what?” Euphretes turned serious, reigning the group in before having to send them back to work. “They say that experience is the best teacher, and it’s true. My platoon never forgot to fully inspect their equipment ever again. And more importantly if you ask me, the next day, the Platoon was a whole different animal. Everyone had embraced the suck as a team out in the rain and came out the other side a cohesive group. It was definitely one of those moments where you couldn’t have scripted it any better.”

  “Good stuff Sir. Now we know you like to watch your soldiers suffer in the rain. Comforting!” Caruso said laughing.

  “Beginning to wonder why I pulled you from your driving duties,” Euphretes shot back, referring
to the fact that Caruso would’ve stayed on Ozark if Euphretes hadn’t requested him.

  “Sounds more like a personal problem to me, Sir.” The remark drew more laughter from the group.

  “I keep telling you Caruso, we Royals are really messed up. We just can’t help it. But seriously, we can’t just stand here and do nothing all shift. The Armada Commander might show up and see us shirking our duties,” Euphretes said as he moved to the center of the Bridge and away from the group before he could get drawn back down memory lane. He could hear an eruption of moans as he stepped off.

  Euphretes decided to play around with the Bridge’s data display to kill some time before going back to his private quarters to get some rest. Sitting down in a command chair, he clicked through the different projection options. He stopped on the holographic image of Steadfast and Loyal with the rest of his Armada in jump formation. The Flagship was in the front with the four Predators behind making a “V” shape, with two on each side. The Armada’s Cruisers formed an eight pointed diamond in between the “V” to create a three dimensional shape. Finally, Through the Abyss was placed just behind the Cruisers to seal off the formation.

  Euphretes sat in the chair lost in his thoughts, thinking about all the different lives and stories across his group of Fleet Vessels. While he tried not to think about it, he wondered what the holographic image would look like on the way home. The questions of how many mothers, wives, husbands, and families would receive the dreaded knock on the door at the end of this gruesome War plagued his subconscious. Despite being one of the best soldiers in the history of the Galactic Group, Euphretes hated war. He hated the gut wrenching effect on his soul when he had to end another human’s life. War, to Euphretes, was the most disgusting necessary evil born out of original sin.

  Sensing Euphretes’s train of thought and wanting to add her insight, Neuma spoke, “Because power in an environment of few consequences has a corruptive effect on the human mind, war has become Man’s only answer to stem the billowing darkness that’s always off in the horizon.”

  “Yeah? Well guess what? We’re at the horizon. Now what?” Euphretes asked, afraid of the truth he was about to hear.

  “Now we finally get to see just how brightly we shine in mankind’s cloud of death and decay.”

  “But for how long? Even stars run out of energy at some point,” He answered, filled with self-doubt.

  Euphretes could feel Neuma’s spirit soften within, “But that’s the beauty of it Euphretes. Stars don’t just drift off into nothingness. No, they go out in the brightest of displays; and in that brief moment in time, they capture the entire universe’s attention. So just as those stars, we will shine for as long as it takes, or go out like a supernova. However it turns out, we will get their attention, even if for the briefest of moments.”

  BWEEU! BWEEU! BWEEU! BWEEU!

  Euphretes had just gotten out of the chair to head for the exit when the entire room exploded into chaos. Every available surface inside the Bridge started flashing red as piercing alarms shattered the quiet.

  “Sir, we are in an Imminent Collision Warning! Attempting evasive actions now!” SR6, Steadfast and Loyal’s primary RAI, informed as his image appeared next to Euphretes. The spitting image of Colonel Sanders, SR6 had a wise face with snow white facial hair. His voice was deep and masculine.

  “Collision course?! I double checked the route myself!”

  BWEEU! BWEEU! BWEEU! BWEEU!

  “Good copy!” Euphretes acknowledged before racing back to the data display’s command console. Typing quickly, the holographic image of the Flagship started zooming out until the entire Armada was only a tiny dot.

  “Lieutenant Tropar, get me confirmation on the change of course from all Fleet Vessels. Time: yesterday!” Euphretes shouted over to the Armada’s Communication’s Officer in Charge. Despite Tropar primarily working in the Command Center, he had to be glued to the Admiral’s hip whenever the Armada was in a jump sequence because of the sensitive nature of faster than light travel.

  Suddenly, an object appeared on the data display, allowing Euphretes to stop zooming out. No data or information was portrayed to the left of the ominous black sphere. An abysmal mystery. Lieutenant Tropar could be heard in the background as Euphretes’s eyes were glued to the data display, “ABORT JUMP PATH! I SAY AGAIN, ALL FLEET VESSELS, ABORT JUMP PATH IMMEDIATELY.”

  BWEEU! BWEEU! BWEEU! BWEEU!

  “Only a few possible scenarios are in play here,” Neuma said calmly, doing her best to give Euphretes the right amount of information to assess what the object was and react accordingly. “The black sphere is an enemy craft capable of intercepting jump paths, something theoretically possible to achieve but insanely unlikely. It can be a black hole that managed to get swallowed by a worm hole and just so happened to pop out on the other side; directly in our flight path. Another unlikely scenario. Which gets us to the only two plausible scenarios. Steadfast and Loyal’s mid-jump sensors are malfunctioning, picking up an object that doesn’t exist; or, the pitch black ball is a rogue planet that was somehow missed by thousands of Deep Space Weather Analysts.”

  “Sounds like we can only play this one way,” Euphretes replied.

  BWEEU! BWEEU! BWEEU! BWEEU!

  “We somehow missed a rogue planet. Yeah, I know,” Neuma answered, her polite way of telling Euphretes that his Armada needed to clear the jump path before it was wiped off the stained fabric of existence.

  BWEEU! BWEEU! BWEEU! BWEEU!

  “SR6, why aren’t my Ships turning away from that thing!” Euphretes yelled as the once tiny dots on the data display were now recognizable as individual Fleet Vessels. To everyone’s relief, the sirens kicked off as SR6 began taking control of the Flagship. However, the Bridge continued flashing yellow and blue lights as the words “IMMEDIATE DANGER, ALTER COURSE, IMMEDIATE DANGER, ALTER COURSE” scrolled across monitors. “Sir, all Ships will be out of jump in forty-five seconds and are maneuvering as fast as they can. Any sharper angled turns or exiting jump faster puts us at risk of ripping ourselves apart.”

  “That gives us a half second window,” Neuma’s words came out with genuine dismay as SR6 spoke, the first time she felt fear’s clutches since the desert oasis on Esam.

  “Awaiting confirmation from SR28, SR27, and SR66!” Lieutenant Tropar informed, once SR6 finished speaking.

  CCCRRREEEEAAAAAKKKK

  Steadfast and Loyal strained against the gravitational effects of maneuvering mid-jump, placing enormous amounts of pressure on the superstructure. Making drastic turns during a jump created different gravitational fields on the bubble of negative mass. The space bending around the bubble generated greater force on the rear of the Fleet Vessel than the front, forcing the Fleet Vessel to continuously compensate to prevent the bubble from collapsing. Without enough time to equalize the pressure during a turn however, the bubble could collapse and rip the Fleet Vessel into multiple pieces.

  “Confirmation on the two Cruisers! Just waiting for SR66 Sir!” Tropar shouted again.

  “Demon’s Reckoning.” The tone foreboding.

  Studying the intricate hologram, Euphretes held his breath and prayed. With little time left, all Fleet Vessels had taken evasive actions, except for one.

  “Why isn’t SR66 taking over controls?! SR6, go over there and make them turn that Ship, NOW!” Euphretes’s order was a last desperate act to keep the armies of guilt at bay. SR6 disappeared to try and manually override Demon’s Reckoning’s navigation system, but with thirty seconds left, it would be impossible. The Predator kept maintaining its trajectory, as if the crew had a death wish.

  Tropar could again be heard screaming in the background, “Demon’s Reckoning, take immediate evasive action. I say again, take immediate evasive action. Change heading immediately! Please respond, please for the love of God RESPOND!”

  CRASH!

  Lieutenant Tropar flung his headset at the opposite wall out of frustration, shattering it upon impact. Time slowed inside
Euphretes’s mind space, his body’s combat response mechanisms kicking in. He felt utterly helpless and useless just sitting and watching one of his Ships speeding toward an enormous, planet sized death. Neuma responded by lowering his heart rate and started controlling the amount of cortisol his body was producing to keep him level headed.

  Euphretes lifted his gaze from the data display to see Crestone rushing into the room and begin spouting commands left and right. The unnerving realization of vulnerability intertwined with the lack of having any control over the moment struck Euphretes harder than any projectile ever could. “Sir, ten seconds to impact!” A random voice bellowed.