“Commander Ardein, I need a SITREP from all personnel! Preferably yesterday!”
Neuma sighed, thankful her partner still wasn’t rolling across the exterior of the Flagship. “Looks like the others are with us.”
“Sir, we’re all here. A few bruised ego’s but no damage to personnel or equipment,” Ardein reported, his tone steady despite the rough landing.
“Good copy. Alright, we need to find an exterior access door as quickly as possible before we accidentally trigger a sensor,” Euphretes answered, extremely thankful everyone made it without a scratch. With the realization that nothing negative occurred from the roller coaster ride setting in…
“Don’t say it.”
“Let’s do that again!” Euphretes bellowed within his mind space, the stunt exhilarating now that he and his team survived.
“You couldn’t resist, could you?”
“Nope.”
The team quickly hooked on to their hand holds and then kicked off the surface to get a better view of where they were and what was around their immediate vicinity. “Not bad actually,” Euphretes exclaimed to Neuma as he kicked out from the wall. They had not landed exactly as planned, but were close enough.
“Not too bad at all.”
“I really hope we didn’t trigger anything.”
“Well, we’ll know by the greeting we get once we’re inside.”
“I’ve got an airlock. Fifteen paces from my location. Marking it now,” Steward Operative Caruso said to the group. Less than a second later, a sapphire blue arrow leading to a red circle on Euphretes’s visor gave him the precise location.
“Good copy. Team, carefully make your way there,” Euphretes ordered while unhinging himself from the hand hold and scanning the area above him for his next anchor point. Fortunately, Dawn of Creation followed similar maintenance and inspection codes when compared to the Huron military. Each Baikal access door, or airlock, had four ladders that spread out from the door in the four cardinal directions. Going forty-two feet in each direction, the built in ladders enabled engineers and mechanics to anchor themselves far from the airlock to conduct maintenance while also ensuring that they could easily get themselves back inside.
The team quickly joined Caruso outside the external access door. With the help of Neuma, Euphretes started examining the surface around the airlock to determine where the command lines attached to the airlock’s computing systems. Getting the precise location from Neuma, Euphretes tapped Ardein’s arm to get his attention and pointed directly where to start. Assuming his Commander was estimating, Ardein began sizing up the armor standing in his way. He pulled out a portable Oxy-Plasma Fuel Cutter while Edey started setting up a miniaturized command console. Ardein lightly marked the surface with a grease pen. Seconds later, blue and neon green gasses bubbled from Dawn of Creation’s armored surface.
“Sir, lower your energy output. Nick a line and the entire Ship will know we’re here,” Crestone warned.
“Roger, dropping power levels,” Ardein repeated as the colors instantly died down.
One minute of tense waiting passed before, “Almost through. Steward Operative Edey, get ready,” Ardein informed as he finished his last cutting line. Coming up next to Ardein, Edey used a hooking tool to remove the piece of metal while also securing it to the Ship’s surface to prevent it from drifting off. The square chunk of slate colored armor, still glowing red in a few places, popped out of the Flagship and floated harmlessly out toward deep space before the hook’s anchor stopped its momentum. Edey started attaching the portable command console to the now exposed wires.
“May I?” Neuma asked, wanting to speed up the process.
“Absolutely!”
With Neuma secretly helping, Edey was incredibly quick to block the exit-flow of information from the access door’s computing systems while also blacking out the two visual sensors within the airlock’s chamber.
“We got lucky again. This is an Alternate Access Portal for maintenance crews; it hasn’t been used since the final Functions Check before the Flagship’s christening.”
Euphretes could only shake his head at their ongoing good luck.
The outer access door silently released the atmosphere within its chamber before opening, the evidence seen in the mist escaping from several nearby vents. Once cleared, the exterior doors opened. “Everyone in. It won’t take long before they get curious about why they aren’t receiving data from this airlock,” Edey briefed with urgency before climbing inside.
“Go go go!” Euphretes barked. Knowing it was more dangerous on the outside, he waited until everyone had climbed inside before diving in himself. Once inside, everyone immediately unlocked their weapons from their armor, ready for a hostile greeting.
“Clear!” Ardein’s shocked voice finally stated, certain that they would be fighting the entire Ship by now. Their presence still unnoticed, Euphretes walked up to the airlock’s Access Portal’s internal command console.
“Open the compartment on right hand side; you’ll see a plug in site,” Neuma guided.
Squeezing past Crestone, “Edey, here’s your next entrance site,” The Admiral directed, drawing the immediate response of “Moving” from the Steward Operative as he shuffled past the team members to the command console.
“Good eye, Sir,” Edey remarked while syncing to the Access Portal. The second he did, Neuma was granted total access to Dawn of Creation. Five seconds later…
“He’s alive?!”
Chapter 14:
A Peacefully Violent Collision
“He’s alive?!”
In an effort to stay anchored, Euphretes focused on the speck of discolored metal before him. “Who’s onboard Neuma?” He asked, overjoyed that she had found someone worth mentioning.
“Emperor Lesos! He’s alive and on board this Ship!”
“What! Where?”
“Near the Officer’s Quarters. Euphretes, he’s with Corsica!”
“How did Indus get her too?!” Euphretes exclaimed, shocked the Baikal Emperor had managed to somehow grab Lesos’s wife as well.
SSSSHHHHRRRRRIIIIIIISSSSSSHHHHHH!
Gasses rushed out of the floor and ceiling, creating an atmospheric pressure that matched the inside of the Flagship. “Got it!” Edey exclaimed.
CLICK! The door leading into Dawn of Creation unsealed and automatically swung open.
“We need to have Edey find the Emperor and where they’re holding him,” Euphretes said to Neuma. It was actually more of a subtle hint for her to assist Edey in the search. The Admiral then turned to face Steward Operative Edey, “Before we continue, see if you can access the Ship’s Prisoner or Dark Passenger Manifests from here.”
“Roger. I’ll see what I can do Sir. But I’m guessing I’ll need a more integrated system to access that sort of information from Dawn of Creation,” Edey answered.
“No worries. Still, can’t hurt to try from here while we’re in hiding,” Euphretes said. Edey nodded in agreement and began typing madly into the miniature command console.
“Emperor Indus isn’t on board.”
“But that makes no sense. Dawn of Creation is here,” Euphretes thought to his mind space, clearly suspicious as to why the Emperor would go anywhere without his Flagship’s protection.
“Not sure exactly, but from what I can tell, he is only two hours or so from exiting jump; coming out right here,” Neuma informed while she cleared the way for Edey to easily find the long assumed dead Natron Emperor.
“That explains why the Super Capitals started pushing in. They’re increasing the face of their security for the Emperor’s arrival.”
“Never thought the day would come that the dog and pony shows surrounding you Senior Leaders could get us all killed.”
“Dog and pony shows?”
“Nevermind. It was way before your time.”
“Whatever. At any rate, it’s not happening now. No. This time it’ll get THEM killed.”
With slow, intentio
nal rhythm, Edey announced, “Sir, I don’t think you’re going to believe this.”
“You’d be surprised. What’d you got?”
“It’s Emperor Lesos Sir! Against all rationale, that’s him!”
“Did I just hear that correctly?” Caruso asked out loud in disbelief while Commander Ardein snatched up the command console. Moments later, “That you did Caruso. Looks like our fearless Leader isn’t crazy after all,” Ardein said before handing the device back to Edey.
“Why do I have to keep telling you guys, I’m a Royal. We’re always right and we’re always a little bit crazy.” Euphretes returned his attention to Steward Operative Edey and spoke through a private channel, “Are you sure its him? And is he with anyone?”
“Yes Sir, I’d bet my life on it. And yes, he’s with a woman, but my Natron Politics are rusty so I don’t have a positive ID on looks alone.” Euphretes leaned over and studied the device in the Steward Operative’s hands, “That’s Corsica, the Emperor’s wife. Can you get us there?”
Edey quickly scanned through the information. “I can Sir, deck three; but we would have to pass half the Ship’s crew before getting there. It’s right next to the Officer’s Quarters.”
“Let’s use their own strategy against them.”
“The Superstructure,” Euphretes whispered out loud, but too soft to be understood.
“Sir?” Edey asked with curiosity.
“We can use the superstructure for the vast majority of our movement. It’ll be slower, sure, but at least we’ll get there in one piece,” Euphretes explained.
“We were unable to recover any schematics on those areas of Dawn of Creation; we’ll essentially be doing it blind Sir,” Edey replied, playing devil’s advocate.
“Finalizing the route through the superstructure now. It’s actually going to be very doable with the way they have it set up.”
Reverting back to the team wide channel without addressing Edey’s statement, “Here’s the situation. Emperor Lesos and Empress Corsica are being held in a state room just outside the Officer’s Quarters. We’re going to be using the Ship’s superstructure to conceal our movements. Because we have no intelligence about those areas of this Ship, and as the only one who has ever been on this Ship before, I’ll take point until we exit the superstructure by the Officer’s Quarters,” Euphretes informed. He had spent a few cycles on the Flagship as a child. “Once we have the Emperor and his wife, it’ll be a brief but hectic fire fight to reach Emperor Indus’s personal bay. That’s our best shot at finding a ride capable of getting us out of here.”
“That’s the ONLY chance of finding a ride out of here.”
“Then we better not screw it up,” Euphretes bluntly stated to Neuma before speaking to the entire team, “Unless there are any questions, time to continue the mission.”
Like ghosts, the team glided out of the airlock and into a narrow hallway that was almost void of any light, forcing them to switch to their helmets’s artificial lighting. Their heads up displays perfectly projected the combined images of their helmets’s thermal, zero light, infrared, and ultraviolet image enhancing systems; creating the ideal amount of informative vision for the Huron Special Operations solders stalking through the void.
“Turn left when the hallway dead-ends, thirty paces,” Neuma informed.
“Do you know which passageway it’ll be?”
“Deck Six’s most extreme right parallel walkway. It’s not a heavily traveled route, but used nonetheless; so we’ll need to time this just right.”
Doing their best to stride as quietly as possibly, the team reached the end of the deceptively short maintenance access hallway. Intersecting with a slightly wider corridor that ran parallel to the armored side of Dawn of Creation, Euphretes stopped the team to let Neuma check the route ahead of them.
“We’ve got two coming our way; stand by for me to run interference,” Neuma warned, giving Euphretes the opportunity to find an anchor point while speaking to the team.
“Hold fast, I’ve got two crew members on approach.”
The boarding team instantly crouched low and prepared for an ambush. Two Baikal soldiers’s footsteps grew louder as their conversation started to become recognizable. Out of nowhere, one of the unseen crew members could be heard saying, “Hang on a second, I’ve got the Company TOC trying to reach me.”
Euphretes’s boarding team held their breath, the voice sounding like it was only a few feet away. There was a momentary pause before, “This is Operative Lewsky, how may I help you Sir or Ma’am?” The voice sounding monotone and slightly aggravated.
“Are you serious?” … “If they kept better records then this wouldn’t happen.” … “Roger.”
The boarding team could barely contain themselves when Lewsky’s partner’s shoulder suddenly popped into view. “Steady boys,” Euphretes whispered, sighing a huge sigh of relief when the shoulder disappeared again.
“Understood,” Lewsky’s voice said after another six seconds. “Good copy. On our way.”
“That was easy!” Neuma laughed.
“We’ve got to go back,” Lewsky could be heard saying to his unseen companion.
“What for?”
“Apparently we’re both due for immunizations and we have to verify our Personal Records Folders,” Lewsky explained.
“I literally just did that! How can they need it again?!” Lewsky’s companion complained.
“You know the Personnel Section. If you don’t do the same thing three times or if they don’t lose what you turned in, then they wouldn’t be doing their jobs!” Lewsky replied as the footsteps started back up again, but this time in the opposite direction.
The boarding team tried to stifle their laughter as they knew all too well the struggles of Personnel Readiness. “Some things are just universal, ya know?” Caruso joked.
“Be careful or I’ll have you verifying your emergency records with S1 every day for a Custos Year!” Crestone hissed.
“Sorry Senior Op,” he answered unapologetically, still laughing.
After a few minutes of waiting to increase the distance between them and Lewsky, Euphretes led the boarding team down a seemingly endless passageway. Used primarily for engineers to maintain the inside of the armor, the walkway was just one of many critical arteries that kept the lifeline of the Flagship flowing freely. Similar to Steadfast and Loyal, Dawn of Creation’s superstructure contained few visual sensors. Since they required twice as much processing and storage as the audio sensors, visual sensors were reserved for areas with heavier human traffic. Knowing this was the case, Euphretes reminded his men, “Watch for noise pollution boys.”
Without stopping, Euphretes took the left turn and entered the gigantic Ship’s underworld.
The tight compartments and access routes within the superstructure were not for the faint of heart, or for claustrophobics, for that matter. More than once did the men find themselves crawling on all fours as they made their way forward. Fortunately, their armor and protective suits could sustain the steady assault of low dose radiation and rapid temperature changes, making the journey seem like just another day at the office.
“Sure you know where you’re going Sir?” Crestone whispered privately.
Euphretes couldn’t help but smile, “Nope.”
“That’s comforting.”
“Nah, we’ll be good. I’ve got us. Don’t worry.”
“Well, lead on then,” Crestone said while gesturing for the Admiral to continue leading the team through the labyrinth.
The boarding team continued, sometimes walking, sometimes bear-crawling. It was an arduous and dull expedition. “They could at least have put up some graffiti our something interesting to look at.” Caruso piped up. “It’s like a never-ending tunnel of grey nothingness. Note to self. We need to spruce up our passageways when we return to our Ship.”
“Pay attention Caruso,” Euphretes admonished. A split second later,
SSSCCCRRREEEAAACCCHHH!
the boarding team. It was a chilling and terrifying sound that would assuredly set off every sensor along its journey through the superstructure.
“Hang on!” Neuma shouted in warning before diving into Dawn of Creation to run damage control.
The team froze in their tracks and braced for the worst, anticipating an Immediate Response Team to be on top of them at any moment, “Weapons up!” Ardein ordered.
Through the Abyss Page 32