by Trevor Gregg
She spent at least a day locked up, if not more. She knew because she had received three meals, all through a slot in the bottom of the door. The food was the usual for spacefarers, re-hydrated soy protein patties and nutri-gelatin. Terrible, really. Damn did she miss her Pygars and their food.
She had no visitors, not even Yiu. She had expected the tenacious agent to refuse to give up, but Alis’ mother must have been able to hold her off. Perhaps they would be able to straighten this all out and be on their way. Surely they must have reached Regalis by now. They had made several warp jumps, but hadn’t had one in the last few hours. She suspected the Starhammer had reached her destination.
The lights began to flicker and then went out. Red emergency lighting came on short moments later. The door clunked and creaked open a crack. Elarra tentatively pushed it open and leaned out into the hall. Kyren, Alis, and Benjam were emerging from their cells as well, looking just as puzzled as she was. Alarm klaxons began to sound and the door at one end of the corridor sealed with a whoosh, the control panel going red.
“What is going on? I mean, what does all this mean?” Benjam said as he slithered into the corridor.
“Yeah, Alis, what’s up?” Kyren said over the din of the alarms.
“SELF DESTRUCT SEQUENCE INITIATED. T-MINUS FIVE MINUTES TO DETONATION. EVACUATE… EVACUATE…” a disembodied mechanical voice blared over the intercom before Alis could respond.
“Self destruct?! Oh dear, we’ve got to get out of here,” Benjam cried.
“Shit!” Alis yelled. “Kyren, do you think you can get us back to the hangar and the Ashari?”
“Yeah, I should be able to,” he replied, and set off rapidly toward the unlocked door at the other end of the hall.
Elarra and the others followed him. They reached the door and Kyren was about to palm the panel when the door slid back into the wall. Startled he stepped back, tripping over Benjam’s tentacles and spilling to the floor. Elarra watched his face turn red as he looked up and saw Alis’ mom, offering her hand to him.
“Sorry to have startled you, Kyren. We’ve got to move, now,” she said as she helped him to his feet.
Not hesitating, they dashed through the corridors, while Benjam squiggled and squirmed at top speed, all the way to the hangar bay. By the time they reached it, panting and out of breath, the mechanical voice was now counting down from fifty-nine… fifty-eight… fifty-seven…
“Nooooooooooo! Where is she?!?” Alis cried in agony.
Elarra stared at the empty bay, where the Ashari had once been parked.
7
He’s Back
“Oh no! What are we gonna do! Aaaaaah!” Benjam screamed.
This situation was going from bad to worse with a rapidity that left Benjam spinning. He began to anxiously wave his tentacles, fear knotting his insides.
“We’ll take my shuttle, over there,” Geri said, pointing at a large white swept-wing craft, roughly a quarter the size of the Ashari.
At least the ship looked space-worthy, and capable of great speed. If his mental calculations were correct they would need all the acceleration they could muster to escape the nova that would be created when the ship’s singularity core blew.
Not waiting a second longer, Geri keyed the panel and the door hissed upward in a gull-wing fashion. Benjam was about to scramble aboard when shots rang out. He quailed as he saw Yiu advancing on them from across the hangar, pistol out and firing a steady stream of rounds.
The rounds stitched along the ship’s hull, heading right for Geri. Benjam grimaced, he knew this was going to hurt, he almost couldn’t do it. But she had saved them, and was their only means of escape. He threw himself bodily in front of her.
“Ow!” he screamed as bullets tore into his body, spraying blackish blood all over his companions.
Yiu’s firing ceased as she scrambled to reload, not slowing her advance. The others scrambled aboard, but Benjam was still wounded, his regeneration had not completed. He tried to climb aboard but fell over. Kyren turned and grabbed him by a tentacle and heaved.
He slid into the shuttle, leaving a slick of black blood behind. The door closed just as Yiu began unloading another clip. He heard Geri and Alis at the controls, powering up the shuttle.
“What the hell is going on? Why is the ship self-destructing?” Kyren asked, finally voicing Benjam’s sentiment.
“It must be Crevak spies, they must have infiltrated the ship,” Geri replied.
“Um, actually, uh… I think I know what it is,” Alis interjected as her hands flew over the control panel.
“What?” her mom asked.
“Yeah, uh, the Ashari… she picked up a few Garloks,” she said embarrassedly.
“Oh hell, Alis!” Geri said as she lifted the shuttle off and began to hover toward the exit and the open space beyond.
The open space that Benjam could now see was full of weapons fire. Plasma beams lanced by, streams of metallic projectiles from turbo railgun turrets filled the space like a rain of death. They were going to fly straight into it! This had gone from worse to awful. He grabbed ahold of the row of seats behind the piloting consoles and anchored himself.
Which had been quite fortuitous, as moments later the shuttle lurched and jolted as something impacted with it. A second later he saw the fighter craft that had sideswiped them race ahead and spin a one-eighty, lining up the barrels of the twin railguns for a kill shot on the shuttle. Yiu grinned menacingly from the cockpit.
“Aaaaaaaaaahhhhh!” he couldn’t help himself and let out a wail.
Thankfully Geri was primed and reacted with surprising speed, juking the ship to the side and kicking the thrusters into full burn. She managed to dodge Yiu’s barrage and rocket past, blasting out of the hangar at full throttle.
And right into the maelstrom. All Benjam could do was hang on and hope for the best, even though their situation seemed inescapable. He watched the Starhammer as escape pods blew out the sides of the ship, dozens after dozens after dozens. The weapons were tracking them, destroying most before they could get out of range, he realized in horror.
Yiu blew past the cockpit window in the fighter craft and circled for another attack run. The cannons unloaded and the rounds tore into Geri’s shuttle, generating a shower of sparks and smoke from an access panel in the cockpit. He heard the air filtration system begin working overtime to try to clear the smoke. The shuttle lurched as one of the engines blew out under Yiu’s withering fire.
“Alis we need to jump, now. We’ll never get free of the blast zone in time, and we can’t fend off Yiu forever,” Geri said.
“Okay, give me a minute to find the destination and calculate the jump vector,” Alis replied.
“We don’t have time!” Geri exclaimed. “Just jump us!”
Alis worked frantically at the controls and then cried, “I can’t, mom! I can’t calculate it.”
Benjam heaved himself over to the terminal and quickly analyzed the destination. Alis had chosen the nearest star, unidentified, as their destination. He only had microseconds to make the calculation, but his advanced brontian mental capacity allowed him to find the solution, to predict the vector necessary.
“There, jump!” Benjam squeaked triumphantly as he punched in the jump vector he had just solved for.
Millisecond before she hit the jump button, Yiu unloaded another barrage, the rounds tearing into the ship and knocking it off course from their jump vector. And then jump sickness hit, briefly incapacitating Benjam. Of course his brontian constitution allowed him to shake it off far quicker than his companions.
“Aaaaah! Alis!! Geri!!” he cried as he realized the ship was filled with smoke and alarm klaxons were wailing.
Hissing sounds accompanied the alarms, as the craft began to vent to space.
Alis shook her head groggily and said, “Hrrrmph… Yiu must’ve knocked us off our jump vector. We passed through the wormhole off-center! The ship’s sustained major damage.”
Geri finally
came around and confirmed Alis’ fears, “we’ve got hull breaches all over. The engines are down and life support is failing. Where are we Alis?”
Benjam quailed. This had gone from awful to appalling, and he knew it would get worse. Much worse. He knew as a brontian he could survive the vacuum of space. It wouldn’t be pleasant but it wouldn’t kill him. Unfortunately his fleshy companions would not be so fortunate.
“I couldn’t find a target so I selected the nearest star,” Alis explained through the din.
“I’m attempting to seal the bulkheads, maybe we can stop the decompression,” Geri said, her hands flying over the flickering holopanel. “Alis, hit the emergency beacon.”
No sooner had the beacon activated when a call came through the comm channel. “Unidentified vessel, are you in distress?” a gruff male voice came through the audio system.
“Affirmative, we are in need of rescue, our ship is damaged beyond repair and rapidly decompressing,” Geri replied.
“Prepare your airlock for docking,” the voice replied.
Alis and Geri spent several moments working at their respective control stations and then stood. “C’mon, let’s go, quickly,” Geri said leading them through the billowing smoke and steam from the bridge and to the airlock.
There was a loud clunk that was heard over the din of alarms and the rushing of atmosphere rapidly leaving their craft. The airlock cycled and the door hissed open. Standing menacingly in the doorway, cradling a large plasma rifle in his robotic arms, stood Tharox.
8
Primary Interlude
The communication arrived on Darius’ private channel, his console chirping softly. He walked to his door and engaged the lock, then returned to his console and hit the play key on the small holopanel.
“The Warrrmassssterrr demandsss yourrr presssence forrr the firssst tessst,” Battlehand Grimlok hissed through his bat-like muzzle, ears quivering and black oily skin glistening in the harsh lighting. The recording of Grimlok’s countenance then listed the coordinates for the test, along with a galactic coordinated time.
The journey to the test site had been long, many jumps and gate-hops to reach the outskirts of the galactic plane from his home world of Duniya. He jumped into orbit around the star Kitor and began to burn for the nearest planet. The Crevak battleship in the distance grew in size as he approached, continuing to enlarge until it nearly filled his viewscreens. By the rho’kar this ship was massive! It was probably the largest ship in the galaxy, he thought to himself.
Alone, the ship would have wreaked devastation on the Consortium in a matched battle. With the aid of the spies Warmaster Vlanchek had implanted within the Consortium, he would also be granted tactical advantage. Even so, the Crevak were not indestructible. The Consortium would still find victory, no matter how small the chance. This new weapon would guarantee that victory went to Vlanchek.
He commanded his ship’s biomechanical independent intelligence, or BII, to circle the craft and land in the hangar bay. As the ship banked, he caught his first look of the red sphere. It had been mounted near the bow of the ship, anchored between two massive pylons. It’s red surface swirled and ate up the light.
Darius truly had no idea what it was, just that it was a weapon. He had learned of its existence years ago, in a vision. He had foreseen that it would be the only way to stop the swarm that was coming, the only weapon capable of defeating the Sky Strider. Without it, the galaxy would surely fall to the swarm that would accompany the great beast. Unfortunately, the Consortium had to fall too.
The BII landed his small corsair gracefully in the hangar bay. Vlanchek was waiting for him, his bony plated face an unreadable mask. He stood six and a half feet tall, with broad shoulders and a powerful build. His body was covered in dull rust-brown armored plating, capable of deflecting most small arms fire. Intentionally evolved for war, the xalorn had been bio engineered by a long-forgotten alien race.
“Darius, come. The first test is nearly underway,” Vlanchek growled, turning on his heel, his entourage following.
They reached the bridge and Vlanchek gave the order. The communications officer began broadcasting, and then they waited.
“Soon the fools will investigate the emergency SOS beacon we have activated. They will believe it to be a large starliner under attack by pirates. The Consortium will send several ships to defend the liner,” Vlanchek rumbled.
Darius watched as two shining white Consortium vessels warped into view. They immediately began evasive maneuvers and opened fire when they saw the massive Crevak battleship.
“Fire the weapon!” Vlanchek bellowed.
A dull red beam emanated from the sphere and lanced into the first Consortium vessel, completely ignoring it’s shields. It swept down the ship’s length, sending up a small shower of sparks and smoke. By the time the beam reached the end of the craft, it had all but gone dark. Weapons no longer fired, yet the hull was still intact. The ship just drifted in space, as if dead.
The second Consortium vessel broke off and began to line up on a jump vector.
“Don’t let them escape! Fire again!”
“Ssssirrrr, the weapon isss rrrrecharging, we can’t firrrre yet,” Grimlok responded bleakly.
“Conventional weapons, fire now!”
The ship opened up with its’ lasers and plasma turrets, but was a second too late. The Consortium vessel disappeared with a flash.
“Gaaaah!” Vlanchek cried in anger. “Grimlok, prepare the boarding party, five squads with heavy weapons.”
“Aye sssirrr.”
Darius knew he had to accompany Vlanchek, but was unconcerned. He had foreseen it. The Consortium ship would be intact, allowing the Crevak to claim her as a prize. The entire ship would be as a tomb, though. Almost all of the crew would be dead, killed by invisible but deadly radiation, cooked from the inside out.
9
Meet Isa
Kyren froze in fear, unable to respond. How had Tharox returned? They were doomed for sure. Apparently Benjam felt similar terror and it must’ve been too much for him to bear. He toppled to the deck with a squishy thud. He noticed Alis assuming a defensive stance, her wrench transforming into a large hammer.
Short moments passed and he shrugged off his fear, finally reacting. He stepped in front of his companions and raised his fists. Tharox cocked his head and then slung the rifle over his shoulder.
“Sorry, didn’t know if you were pirates, luring me in. Now quickly, before your ship decompresses,” Tharox motioned them to board his craft.
Righting himself, Benjam returned to vertical, an embarrassed look somehow appearing on his alien face. Kyren was puzzled. He hesitated, and then lowered his fists. Tharox motioned again, but Kyren was still doubtful.
“Perhaps we should board his craft,” Elarra spoke up, her child’s voice, nearly drowned out by the alarms.
Kyren took several tentative steps, then walked into the belly of the beast. The others followed. The airlock door hissed shut behind them and the airlock cycled, revealing the dim interior of Tharox’s ship, the corridor lit by faint emergency lights lining the bottom of the walls.
He led them aboard and then spoke aloud, “disengage docking clamp, retract airlock.”
A disembodied female voice spoke from hidden speakers, “affirmative, big daddy.”
“Welcome aboard my ship, the Radiant Star. Isa, introduce yourself,” Tharox rumbled.
The female voice began to speak, “Welcome to the Radiant Star. I am a biomechanical independent intelligence, or BII. You may address me as Isa.”
Still stunned, none of them spoke until Kyren mustered the courage, “What are you doing in this system?”
“My name is Tharox, and I have been searching for a hidden Crevak outpost. What happened to you? I picked up your incoming warp signature and came to investigate. Looks like your ship was in a serious battle, what with all those holes punched in it.”
He seemed to notice Geri’s uniform for the first time and
his face darkened ominously, “Consortium, eh?”
“I am,” Geri said while stepping forward. “The others are civilians.”
Tharox frowned and glared at her. Kyren watched her jaw tense and her eyes focus, and he knew she was preparing for violence. A look of conflict passed across Tharox’s face, and then his glare softened. Kyren watched Geri noticeably relax, and his own pounding heart slowed.
“And what is the Consortium doing here?” Tharox asked, a hard edge to his voice.
“We were escaping a battle, and were severely damaged, so we jumped to get away. But we passed through the wormhole off-center, sustaining terminal damage,” Geri explained.
“And who were you battling?” he pressed.
Kyren considered lying but decided it would be too risky. And he remembered that Tharox harbored a hatred of the Consortium. At least he had when they had met him before.
Preempting Geri, he spoke up. “We were trying to escape from a Consortium vessel.”
She threw him a sidelong glance, but he disregarded the warning. Tharox appeared to consider Kyren’s words for a moment.
“So you’re fugitives from the Consortium?” Tharox queried.
“Yes, we’ve been wrongfully accused of crimes against the Consortium,” Kyren explained.
This seemed to satisfy Tharox because Kyren noticed his posture relax.
“Well then, let me welcome you aboard again. I’ve no love for the Consortium, so you’re safe here.”
“Thank you. Perhaps I could convince you to deliver us to Duniya,” Elarra cut in, producing her chipscan from a pocket. “I can make it worthwhile.”
Tharox chuckled, “You’re mighty direct, young one, but there’s no need for that. Isa, how far is the Duniya system?”