Through the Abyss

by Daniel Litchfield

  Appearing behind Euphretes with his arms crossed in defeat, “I couldn’t even get close to Demon’s Reckoning Sir. It completely rejected me from its systems before I could identify myself. Made no sense,” SR6 explained.

  Euphretes didn’t turn around or even respond, the inevitable had arrived. The Empirical Admiral helplessly watched as the countdown next to Demon’s Reckoning hit one. Suddenly, the entire display was wiped clean as Steadfast and Loyal exited its jump sequence.

  Two seconds later, the data display came back to life. The object had disappeared, as had Demon’s Reckoning from the Armada’s formation. The smothering weight of guilt sent Euphretes into a very dark cavern within Depression’s dungeons. If only he had waited the twenty-four hours that Neuma had suggested, countless lives could have been saved.

  “Not now. You can wallow in self-doubt later, but now is not the time. Your crew is watching.”

  No one spoke a word as the realization that they had just lost an entire Predator swept through the Bridge. “Lieutenant Tropar, when was the last time you had any form of communication with Demon’s Reckoning?” Euphretes asked, trying to remain as calm as possible while the doubt fought for his attention. Tropar walked over and stood at attention, ready for the worst.

  “Sir, my team has been unable to reach them for the last hour. They assumed, as I would have, that it was due to the day off and communication malfunctions during jump. When I found out ten minutes ago, I decided to give Demon’s Reckoning another thirty minutes before bringing the issue up the Chain of Command.”

  Now openly frustrated but understanding that his Lieutenant did what he would have done if he was in his shoes, “So, let me get this straight. You’re telling me that the mandatory communications checks were missed three times and no one in your team saw fit to tell anyone else about it?”

  Tropar could only stand there, taking the wrath of the Empirical Admiral. “Yes Sir.”

  “He actually feels responsible,” Euphretes remarked to Neuma after feeling Tropar’s guilt ridden aura, his tone sounding concerned for the young leader.

  “Then fix it.”

  Without publicly tearing further into the Lieutenant, Euphretes leaned in to speak to Tropar on an individual level. “Lieutenant Tropar. First, please relax,” Euphretes directed, commanding Tropar to stop standing at attention with a less threatening tone. Once he was in a more comfortable stance, the Admiral continued. “That question was directed more to the Bridge than you. But regardless, you made a Command Decision, one I would have made myself had I been in your position. So please listen very carefully; this wasn’t your fault nor do you bear any culpability. And more importantly, you still have my complete trust.”

  Tropar nodded his head and whispered in response, “Roger Sir, thank you.”

  “Dismissed,” Euphretes replied before he turned around and immediately started looking for Crestone; who happened to be standing right behind him the entire time. Beating Euphretes to the punch, “Sir, we have a lot to do and no time to do it,” The Senior NCO said as soon as he locked eyes with Euphretes.

  Thankful for Crestone’s many years of experience, Euphretes very much wanted the NCO to offer his advice, “What do you have for me?”

  “We need to organize a Search and Rescue effort, time now. Demon’s Reckoning could’ve missed the object and instead been thrown off course by the object’s gravity, but we won’t know until we can inspect the surface. Also, I need you to assign an Investigative Officer to start gathering evidence as to what truly happened on that Ship and to our soldiers.”

  Euphretes nodded his head as Crestone spoke, “I fully agree. Go ahead and grab Through the Abyss’s Command Team and get over to Through the Abyss. I want you to race ahead and help Captain Astoria start heading the Search and Recovery operations. I’ll start handling things on this end and will follow shortly after, ready to provide immediate assistance with the rest of the Armada should it be needed.”

  “Too easy Sir,” Crestone responded as he turned to leave the Bridge.

  Euphretes desperately wanted to disappear. The guilt, brought on by failure, was building at a remarkable rate.

  “You’re letting those doubts dictate your thoughts again.” Neuma warned.

  “How can I not have doubts? The guilt seems to be pounding down the door to my very soul! I should’ve listened to you,” he said despondently while walking over to the Primary Staff members who had made it to the Bridge by then.

  “You have to stop finding things that you’ve gotten wrong in the past; that is never going to help you. Take captive the guilt, Euphretes, and cast it into the universe. There is no single point of failure here,” Neuma did her best to reassure him.

  Thankful to see that his Executive Officer had made it back and was typing fervently into a command console, “I need a Sit Rep, who has it for me?” The Admiral asked the group with a sense of urgency.

  “Again Neuma, how can I?! I knew you were right about waiting for the update, but I went against your advice anyway. And for what, a measly twelve to twenty-four hours?! Then I cleared extremely thin skeleton screws to man the stations out of kindness, without giving safety any real consideration. So tell me how this isn’t my fault!” Euphretes fired back as he listened to the Armada’s Executive Officer answer his Sit Rep inquiry.

  Captain Blanchard Tables Huron was relatively young for a Senior Officer, having joined the Military early on in his life. Born to a rural family who distrusted nothing more than the government, Blanchard had to trick his parents into signing an early release document for him to go to the Huron Military’s formal Officer School several years early. Instead of enlisting and then going to Officer Candidate School, which was an abbreviated training program, the formal schooling compiled everything into five years. Receiving his Commission at the same time his peers were just starting to enlist, Blanchard returned to his family in an attempt to make things right but left heartbroken after they wanted nothing to do with his new life.

  “Sir, I am working it as we speak,” The Executive Office explained. “But what I do know is that SR6 is reporting that all Ships have one hundred percent accountability of personnel and equipment. We’re just waiting on verbal confirmation from the Command Teams. We also have a confirmed identity on the object that crossed our jump path. As for Demon’s Reckoning, still no word from them I’m afraid.”

  “I almost shouldn’t justify your last remark with a response,” Neuma scolded. “But since when have we ever planned for a scenario in which a Fleet Vessel’s Primary RAI ignores every fail safe protocol and doesn’t assume control of its Ship?” Met by a sinister silence within his mind space, Neuma quickly softened her tone to reflect her word’s intentions.

  “Euphretes, look. Never in the history of the Huron Military has one of our RAIs abandoned its post or neglected to perform its duties. So if you ask me, small skeleton crew or not, that thing would’ve crashed regardless.”

  Neuma could feel the burden lifting slightly with her words, but she could also feel Euphretes stubbornly reach up and pull the guilt back over his mind space like naked shoulders yearning for the warmth of a blanket on a winter day. “Still should’ve listened to you and waited. At least then I would have a clear conscious,” he solemnly replied.

  After receiving a blank stare from the Empirical Admiral, Captain Blanchard continued explaining the situation. “The object that intercepted us was a rogue planet, and one our Deep Space Weather analysts were tracking. While it was close to our original jump path, its angle and trajectory were taking it far away from us and we were well within jump regulations, Sir.”

  Blanchard paused momentarily, thinking, “Something caused it to dramatically alter its course; and as far as we can tell, nothing natural caused the deviation.” The Armada’s XO again paused briefly to give Euphretes room to interject.

  Meanwhile, Neuma wanted to scream, “Stop playing the victim and let me help you!” but she knew Euphretes’s fragile ego could sn
ap at any moment. Instead, she softened her voice even more, forcing him to struggle to hear her and therefore force him to pay attention.

  “Trust me, if I thought we were in any actual danger by jumping before the update, then I would’ve voiced my opinion in a much stronger way or stopped you. As for that shroud of shame that you like to hide behind when you’re too afraid to get back on your feet, its shadow is death Euphretes, not emotional safety. Stop finding refuge in something that’s going to kill you, please.”

  Knowing that his silence could be construed as blatant disregard for what his Second in Command was saying, Euphretes spoke up during Captain Blanchard’s intentional pause. “So a rogue planet, that we were tracking by the way, was somehow shoved off its course in deep space with enough precision to nearly kill us?” Euphretes asked with purposeful skepticism in order to get Blanchard to support his words with evidence.

  “Trust me sir, I didn’t believe it at first either; but it has been verified three different ways. There is nothing on our Deep Space Weather systems that would indicate a natural reason for the planet to be shoved off course so violently. You also know that I am a firm believer in “trust and verify,” and I fully verified it; there is nothing natural about what just happened,” Blanchard answered, not skipping a beat.

  Out of excuses but not ready to relinquish his current state of mind, “I get it, alright. Can we please drop this for now?” Euphretes asked Neuma, his words now a cocktail of mixed emotions. The same poison he had previously been drinking still filled his voice’s cup; but now it was further diluted with a shot of mounting embarrassment as he began to recognize his immature behavior.

  Knowing that her seeds of comfort had been sown and that it was only a matter of time before he would call on her to lift him out of the darkness. “Absolutely we can,” Neuma calmly answered, disappointed in Euphretes for choosing to stay where he was but satisfied enough with the positive changes.

  “Alright, so what could’ve altered its course?” Euphretes asked, more of a question to the entire group than directly to his XO.

  SR6 pulled up an image of a random rogue planet on the data display.

  “Best bet is a Shadow Matter Bomb threw it off course.” Neuma advised.

  “Sir, right now we have only two possibilities,” SR6 began. “It could be that our Deep Space Weather Analysts somehow missed a black hole that threw that the planet off of its course. While we are looking for evidence of that now, I highly doubt we’ll find anything considering we are deep within the Natron Empire; and they know where all of their black holes are. Which brings me to the only true possibility, a very precise and very large Collider Bomb detonation.” As the RAI spoke, he used the data display to illustrate the two possibilities playing out.

  “Good call,” Euphretes said coldly within his mind space to Neuma before responding to the RAI’s analysis. “Well, if it was a Collider Bomb, then we have to regain control of the situation before things escalate. Commander Remming, grab three personnel of your choosing and start digging into everything you can about what happened inside Demon’s Reckoning; and what prevented it from maneuvering away from the rogue planet.” Euphretes ordered to the Advanced Technology’s Section’s Officer in Charge.

  “On it Sir,” Remming answered as he left the Admiral’s presence.

  “Captain Blanchard,” Euphretes picked back up. “I need you carefully to look at everything with a broader lens, specifically if there are additional threats within the Armada.” Blanchard nodded before being dismissed by the Admiral. “Roger Sir.”

  “Everyone else, man your stations and get Steadfast and Loyal ready to take over search and rescue efforts once we reach the rogue planet,” Euphretes directed to the group of gathered Staff members.

  With everyone having received their marching orders, Euphretes exited the Bridge to inform Emperor Carpathian, in a private setting, of what had just happened. Finding his way back to his private quarters, he closed the door behind him and crumbled to the ground in defeat. Euphretes knew that Carpathian needed to be briefed immediately, but he just couldn’t come to terms with what had just happened.

  “Euphretes, didn’t you hear yourself speak back there? No update is going to stop a Shadow Matter Bomb. And that black hole would’ve still been there had we waited like I suggested. You have to let this go. Just ask, please, so we can move on from this.”

  Euphretes still clung to the cancerous storm of self-doubt and self-loathing, now almost too stubborn to let go.

  “The time is coming when the result of your decision will truly be your fault. You will be devastated. How do you expect me to pull you out of despair at that time, when you won’t accept my help now? This was not your fault, Euphretes. Not. Your. Fault.” Neuma’s tone was sounding like a mother rebuking her son after he pushed the limit too far.

  “I still didn’t listen to you, and I should have,” Euphretes responded, trying to find any excuse to remain in the darkness.

  “You’re right. You didn’t. There have been plenty of times you haven’t listened to my counsel. It’s called being human and having a mind of your own. You’re just lucky that I love you enough to keep forgiving you,” Neuma’s loving tone had returned.

  “But why?” Euphretes asked.

  “Why what?”

  “Why do you keep forgiving me and acting like my failures never happened?”

  “That’s what love is Euphretes. I can forgive and forget because I LOVE YOU. Because I made a promise to you that I would see you to the finish, knowing full well that you would fail miserably along the way.”

  “Then why even make the promise?” Euphretes asked, loosening his grip on the blanket of shame but still ready to snatch it back at a moment’s notice.

  “Euphretes, I knew you before you even had a heartbeat. Before you even started taking on your human shape, I read your DNA, your Genes, and yes, your beautiful soul. It’s truly something you know, your tender soul. And that right there, that is why I made the promise; because who YOU ARE is worth fighting for. Because seeing you become the Man I saw before that first heart beat would mean that I’ve left the human race better than how I found it. Because who you are is something mankind absolutely cannot do without.”

  Tears streamed unhindered down Euphretes’s face. The dark memories fled his mind space while the scar along his spine burned momentarily. He had heard those words so many times, yet no matter how hard he tried to hold on to them, they always got lost and forgotten in the chaos. Finally giving in to the confidence trying to undermine the darkness, he admitted aloud, “I can’t do this on my own. I need your help.”

  Before Euphretes had even finished the thought, the anchor holding fast his massive frame to the ground, vanished like it had never even existed.

  “Alright, time to get up. You need to brief Carpathian,” Neuma said as she helped lift Euphretes to his feet by providing a surge of energy. “And then brief the Armada, they deserve to know what’s going on with their fellow soldiers on Demon’s Reckoning.”

  “Thanks. Can’t believe I let it get that far, sorry,” Euphretes said as he made the short walk to his work station, his tone reflecting embarrassment.

  “Don’t be. We’ll both do better next time.”

  Sitting down at his desk, feeling like a new man, Euphretes typed Carpathian’s name into the Huron Military’s Central Human Database. The highly secure network enabled Senior Leaders to communicate with each other as well as provide numerous ways to create a more efficient communications flow process. Before hitting the communications request icon, Euphretes thought about how he would explain what had happened.

  “Just tell him exactly what you know, nothing more, nothing less,” Neuma advised as she played the day’s events through his mind space as a quick reminder of the smaller details that may have been missed.

  Gathering his mental fortitude, Euphretes hit the Request Communication tab. “Got it, thanks,” He replied to Neuma, thankful to be away from the b
ottomless pit he had just come from.

  The screen remained black during the process of reaching Carpathian. Before it put Euphretes through, the holographic blank image returned to the Emperor’s Military Profile. The words, “Joint-Empirical Negotiations” as his status told Euphretes that Carpathian was deep into conversations involving all three Emperors.

  The Admiral sat puzzled thinking to himself, reopening his dialogue with Neuma. “They’re back in Negotiations? I didn’t get any messages from Carpathian though. What did we miss?”

  “I have no idea, but it doesn’t look good.”

  “Why’s that?”

  “Had things been going well, a message about a potential change of mission would have been waiting for us. Something tells me things have gotten bad enough to bring Carpathian to speak to Indus face to face.”

  After leaving a message requesting Carpathian get back to him as soon as possible, thirty long, tortuous minutes went by before Euphretes finally received a communications request from the Emperor. In the meantime, he sent some guidance to Captain Astoria on Through the Abyss about the upcoming search efforts while upgrading the Armada’s Security and Threat levels to Imminent. In doing so, he sent all available personnel to their battle stations in full Kit and on standby in case the rogue planet was just the beginning of the enemy’s activities. He then quickly donned his gear with the aid of a personal assistance droid before granting temporary Top Secret under Royal Commission Security Clearances to Captain Blanchard and Commander Remming to assist them in their investigations. The near pinnacle security clearance level granted them the same access Euphretes had, minus any private or sensitively protected information on the Royal Family Members themselves. From there, the anxious Empirical Admiral waited for his Emperor.