A Dark Oceans Descent: (Heridian Saga, Book 1)

by Darryl J. W. Temple

'So what we are seeing here is how this ship can travel through space time?'

  It does, in a way. What you are seeing is a glimpse into the Tether, its power.

  Draethus backed away from the manifestation and shut the door.

  'What you are sensing, scientist Spectalin,' Draethus began, 'is what links this ship with space-time but not in the same way as translocation. The ship called it the Tether Source and it not only powers but gives us the ability to travel by it.'

  'The Tether Source? I like how that sounds, but why does it have to be so frightening? And how if I scanned the ship back on Echelon, did I get the plans for the device instead of this manifestation?'

  Tremon interrupted, 'I'd imagine this ship gave you the plans you needed to start this mess.'

  The scientist rubbed his chin in thought, 'I guess that makes sense.'

  The Commander turned and walked away. 'Maybe this ship started our path, but we will finish it.'

  *

  The floor was cold against Xain Raeson's face. His vision blurred and his head pounded. Rel was sitting up next to him talking, saying something that he couldn't understand as pain overtook his senses. He struggled to his feet whilst being helped by the small mechanic.

  'Xain!' she yelled, 'Xain, what's wrong?'

  He fell back against the wall of the Commander's room on the Arvernus and grabbed his head. 'What happened?' he asked through gritted teeth.

  'We were having dinner, talking about your mother and how you don't really talk, the nicest dinner I've ever made you by the way. You just screamed and collapsed.' she frowned. 'Not that bad, was it?'

  'No, not that I remember.'

  'Not that you remember!' Rel's eyes flared. 'What do you mean, not that you remember? It was excellent!'

  'Help me up, will you?' Xain wasn't in a fit state. Each set of visions seemed to be more intense, and he thought they may become deadly.

  'I've been getting these visions from time to time and they knock me out.'

  'Visions?' she said. 'What are you seeing and why?'

  Raeson stumbled over to the table and sat on the small padded silver chair. 'I don't know why I get them, it started a couple of months ago and they are getting worse, more painful.'

  'Have you seen anyone about them? Actually, go to the infirmary, there is a doctor on the Arvernus at the moment, and he's been helping Slin with his cybernetics.'

  'I'll be fine, I've been told that Draethus has been receiving visions as well since he boarded the Eclipse, so I think it may have something to do with that. I'm not sure why I would get them though.' He took a sip of his wine before knocking the whole thing back.

  'So Draethus has this pain too?' the girl asked as she put her hand to her lips.

  Raeson looked at her strangely for a moment, 'Yea he does, why would that make a difference?'

  Rel looked away and changed the subject, 'So what do you see when it happens?'

  'I see red, oceans of red and the flood of pain. I see creatures that claw and slash at me, cutting away my flesh. Sometimes there are storms, acid rain melting my skin and other times a world on fire, burning my body into ash.'

  The look on Rel's face was one of terror mixed with sorrow, 'How can you stand that, how can you sleep with those memories?'

  Raeson smiled, 'If it wasn't for the headache, I don't think they would be all that bad.'

  Rel got out of her chair and punched him, 'You shouldn't joke about these things, and it's not funny.'

  'No, I guess it isn't.' He got up and walked to the door. 'Thank you for taking the time to make this for me and sharing it Rel, as always.'

  She collected her things and made her way out of the commander's quarters, turned and gave him a harsh stare. 'You should take more care of yourself because no one else will. That doctor could do something for you, I know he could.'

  Raeson smiled, leaned up against the door, and he saw something move at the end of the corridor.

  'What is it?' Rel asked.

  'I'm not sure; I swear something just walked through that wall. Stay here.'

  The pirate Commander reached into his quarters, grabbed a sidearm from its holster near the door and proceeded quickly after whatever he saw. He approached with weapon at the ready and opened the door to the room he thought the shadow moved into.

  Just a storage room, he thought, nothing here.

  He walked back to Rel, now hiding behind the door, 'All clear,' he assured her.

  'You are acting weird tonight, Xain, I don't like it and I'm worried.'

  He put the gun back into its holster and said, 'You should worry more about yourself than other people, that always was your weakness Rel. Pirates are cold-hearted, ruthless survivors and look after themselves. Maybe you should be more like that and less dependent on other people?'

  Tears welled up in her eyes as she pointed her finger up into Raeson's face angrily. 'And if I was like that, where would you be? Someone around here needs to think of others instead of themselves. As for being depended, well, we can't all be Mr Commander of Darkness, can we Xain?'

  A smile crept into the corner of his mouth as he realised he'd hit a nerve; Raeson always liked to keep his childhood friend on edge.

  'You're fooling with me again, aren't you? Seriously, one of these days I'm going to cut the life support on your fighter and then we'll see who's smirking.'

  She turned in a huff and stormed off down the corridor.

  'See you again,' Raeson yelled after her.

  He shut the door, walked over to the table and poured himself another wine.

  I wonder what type of person I would be if Rel wasn't in my life, even darker maybe? He thought.

  *

  The three Widowmaker class pirate fighters streaked across the endless night towards the co-ordinates found earlier, marked on the metal shard alongside the name, Draethus. They had deviated from their path to Tiberous, as it would not take them long to explore and discover what lay there. As Commander Draethus was the leader in command of the mission, it was his responsibility to make the tough calls.

  The Dawn Eclipse and the Arvernus lay in anchor on the edge of visual and sensor range, a distance away from the point of interest so they would stay hidden in case of a trap. The pirate fighters, led by Stark, raced ahead to scout the area and discover what lay ahead.

  'All fighters, full burn for twenty seconds in three, two, one, burn now.' Stark commanded over the coms.

  The engines flared an impressive blue fire that joined like a small comets ice trail. The blast flaps attached to the rear of each fighter heated and sparked with the sustained action.

  Stark looked over each shoulder to make sure both wingmen had complied, counted down from twenty in his head and gave the order.

  'Cut all engines and power down, keep current trajectory and speed so we can go in with minimal to no signature. Clear coms.'

  The men on each wing gave their reply by visual salute and went dark.

  I've seen many things in my time but never something like that, Stark thought to himself as he shielded his eyes from the intense rays of the star to his front. The three fighters were approaching a sun like no other, not round like most, but oval and tilted on a thirty-degree angle. Purple flames spun like wildfire across the star's surface and coated the fighters in an eerie glow. Every now and again solar flares would stretch out like tentacles searching for prey.

  As the fighters got closer, Stark could make out a reflection glinting in the distance and deduced it must be something metallic. He activated the zoom function on his heads up display connected with his eyes and targeted the area in question, without turning on the rest of his systems.

  At first he could see nothing, just purple flames emanating from the star, until he panned right and found what they were looking for.

  An orbital station, how interesting. Stark thought. What would some random platform be doing way out here, I wonder? Studying the star, maybe? Refuel point?

  He reached into the side comp
artment, grabbed a small hand held light and signalled his wingman to keep watch on him. He knew they waited for his command to power up and, if needed, engage an enemy contact.

  Just a little further, Stark thought as he felt a pulse of nervousness. Because he had been in combat for most of his life, he rarely got nervous before a battle. This situation though was different, something wasn't right.

  Stark flicked the red switch above him and lit his systems up. For a moment they glowed as bright as the sun ahead. His engine roared back to life as the micro reactor injected power into the buffers. Weapons and navigation systems activated and his joysticks became responsive.

  'Full burn at that station for five, maximum throttle let's go!' Stark commanded after giving the signal for start up with his light.

  It didn't take long for the orbital station to fill his view. It was long, roughly three kilometres and stood on its end. The top comprised a cluster of viewing windows the pirate thought may be a control section where people could get visual recognition of any incoming ships. From the middle of the station, on a right angle, protruded an enormous platform that stretched out two-thirds of the stations' entire length. Covered in markings, it was large enough to land a frigate squadron, or an army of fighters.

  'What does that say, I wonder?' one of the wingman asked as the pirate fighters flew past the main body section. Letters in an unknown language displayed from head to bottom.

  'No idea,' said Stark, 'the station name I would imagine. This place looks old though, abandoned.'

  'Agreed,' the other wingman said. 'Should we land and inspect? I'd love to see what's inside it.'

  'I've run a sound echo scan on the interior and there doesn't seem to be anything there, but yes, we need a closer look,' said Stark.

  *

  Draethus smiled at Raeson, who was on the command deck of the Dawn Eclipse, staring out over the ledge of the liquid lake.

  'What's it like inside that stuff,' the pirate Commander asked.

  Draethus joined him on the rail, 'Hard to explain really, it's like being under water, but not at the same time. It gives you a good tactical view of everything around the ship. Once you get over the panic of drowning under a lake of liquid metal, that is.'

  Raeson smiled, 'Maybe I could try it one day.'

  'For my sake I hope you don't have to,' Draethus laughed. 'So are you curious about what's under there or is there more to it?'

  'The visions, Draethus, it's the visions that I'm wondering about. I know you get them as well and I want to know why that is?'

  Draethus turned to look at his crew, who were busy manning their consoles behind the pair of commanders. 'I overheard you were getting the visions, but tell me, what do you see when it happens?'

  'I see Death. I see the death of me, of thousands of others on a world of fire. Acid melts my skin and evil creatures consume all the surrounding people, feeding.'

  'Then they are the same visions,' Draethus replied. He thought for a moment, before deciding to let the pirate know of what he learned earlier. 'The visions originate from this ship and what powers it.'

  'The Eclipse?' Raeson said, surprised. 'How could a ship cause me to have crippling visions?'

  'Earlier we discovered this vessel taps into power using the Tether Source. It's a link to whatever enables the ship to jump through spacetime.' A flash of uneasiness crossed Draethus' face. 'When I looked into the source, I saw the same visions but without the pain.'

  'That doesn't explain why I would receive the same visions though.'

  'No, it doesn't, but maybe I can show you this source later and we can get some answers.'

  'Agreed, I'd like to understand what it is. The headaches are a killer.'

  Both men laughed before Tremon called out, 'The scout team has missed their scheduled communication.'

  Draethus called for the platform to lower him into the liquid lake before Raeson interrupted. 'Commander, I recommend leaving them we cannot risk this ship and the mission.'

  'Leave them?' replied Draethus. 'You would leave your own men to die out there? What if they are just delayed and there is no risk?'

  'Can you justify this ship falling into the hands of the Rids for the sake of three men, one of which I would gladly sacrifice either way?'

  Anger crossed the face of the soldier, 'I will leave no one behind, even if they are just pirates.'

  The platform lowered the Commander into the liquid metal and Spect opened a communication to the Arvernus.

  'This is Commander Draethus to Slin; we are going in at full speed, adjust heading to suit, and we will investigate what's happened to the scouts.'

  'Is that wise Commander? What does Raeson say?' Slin replied before being cut off.

  'Raeson has his own opinion, however I am in command of this mission so you will fall into formation, is that clear?'

  There was a pause for a moment as Slin gave the matter some thought before replying, 'Yes commander.'

  Both the Dawn Eclipse and the Arvernus engaged their engines and sped towards the co-ordinates. It took a few minutes for the pirate corvette to fall into the formation Draethus desired, but considering the size and velocity of the vessels, he let it slide. The purple star came up quickly as the warships went into a battle readiness, their nanite plated armor primed and weapons online. Tremon, a little trigger-happy as he had shot nothing for a while, was leaning into the hologram of his console and looked for any reason to unleash havoc.

  'We are inside scanning range of the co-ordinates,' Spect announced. 'I'm detecting a large signature orbiting the star, but no sign of the fighters.'

  'Enemy activity?' Draethus questioned.

  'None, Sir. The signature however will be in visual range within the next few minutes,' Spect replied.

  The moment we have a visual on that signature, please display it on the bridge, Eclipse, Draethus asked the ship in his mind.

  As you wish, Commander. You should know I am detecting a source of power from the signature, nuclear energy to be exact.

  From above the bridge, the image of the orbital platform appeared and began rendering into a three-dimensional hologram. Once the digital bones of the structure completed, the real-time visual overlay activated to give the crew an in-depth look at the situation.

  'Zoom in on the platform, near where it joins the primary structure,' Draethus ordered.

  The cylindrical space station zoomed in to reveal the three fighters landed in formation on the platform.

  'They landed?' observed Spect, 'why would they land?'

  'So they can loot whatever is in that orbital station, that's why,' Raeson said in anger. 'We should have just left them behind.'

  'Seems to be the pirate way, doesn't it?' Draethus said over the coms.

  'Open communications, get them back here now,' Raeson ordered. 'Give them a time limit, if they exceed they're left behind.'

  A visual display appeared behind the hologram of a man's face and flickered with static. 'Crew of the Eclipse, do not approach, the station is a trap. I repeat, do not approach, the station is a trap,' said the man before gunfire blew him away from the screen. A splash of blood covered half of the video feed as the man slumped back onto the wall behind him. A creature, thin with a brownish yellow skin and ragged clothes, walked in front of him and fired again to make sure the pirate was dead.

  From the platform, two of the pirate fighters launched and headed toward the awaiting vessels.

  'Adjust trajectory down to our six, full burn, get us away from the station, now!' Draethus commanded. 'Tremon, target those fighters but hold fire until we can identify the pilots.'

  The two fighters were in full burn, screaming away from the station, flying erratically.

  'This is Stark to Eclipse, we are both wounded and request landing. You are in the middle of a minefield, I suggest halting engines.'

  'Confirmed, dock with the Arvernus, we will have a medic meet you at the dock,' Slin replied.

  With a quick wave of his hand,
Draethus cut engines and used the manoeuvring thrusters to begin deceleration.

  Can he be right Eclipse; are we in a minefield? He asked in his mind.

  It took a moment for the warmth of the voice to surface. It could be possible, however, I am not detecting any objects in our immediate vicinity.

  I see, he replied.

  'Stark, where exactly are these mines you speak of?' Raeson asked over the coms.

  'They are low level, long distance grapplers like the ones we used in the past, in our more pirate days,' Stark replied.

  'Spect, can you scan for any signatures on the edge of our range that are distorting the surrounding light?' Raeson inquired.

  'You think these mines would create a gravity effect?' the scientist asked, with an obvious expression of panic.

  'Correct. If Stark is right, they'll be at extreme range and,' Raeson stopped as the Eclipse performed an emergency stop, causing the crew to stagger as the artificial gravity compensated.

  'They've got us!' Spect yelled. 'Twenty-nine, no thirty-two mines have us snared.'

  From thousands of kilometres away, invisible against the black backdrop of the night, the mines surrounded both capital vessels and held them in place with a focussed beam of gravity. Unable to manoeuvre, both the ships, despite being at full power, could not escape such a force.

  'We're on board, Raeson,' Stark notified over the coms.

  'Good. I'm so glad you could make it even though you led us into a trap,' the pirate Commander replied bitterly. 'Why did you land and what could you have hoped to accomplish?'

  'First, know that I do not need to explain my actions to you,' Stark replied. 'But we explored the station, which is how we discovered the mines. We also disabled most of the mines as the station held the command point for them.'

  'There were more?' Draethus asked.

  'Correct, Commander. If we hadn't boarded the platform, there would also be the explosive type in the mix as well,' Stark said.

  'Well, we are thankful that you did. That doesn't solve our predicament, though. Also,' Draethus added, 'what was that creature that killed the pirate?'

  'We call them Scroungers. They are a poorly organised and nomadic race who sells their services to the highest bidder. Here I'm guessing it was the Rids, wouldn't be the first time either,' Raeson added in.