Legacy of the Argus

by E. R. Torre

  Catherine Holland violently kicking the charred remains of Chief Muses away from her companion before reaching down to him.

  “Lionel!” she called out. Tears filled her eyes.

  The burly man moved, if barely. His arms were charred into small stumps. The rest of his body was black ash. Chief Muses fared much worse. His blackened body crumbled into dust.

  “Easy,” Catherine Holland said.

  She touched Sergeant Delmont gingerly and gripped what was left of his shoulders.

  “Delmont, can you hear me?” she said.

  Sergeant Delmont’s eyes opened. They were blood red and his pupils were gone.

  “Is Muses…?”

  “Dead,” Catherine Holland said.

  “The… Cygnusa?”

  “We got the Displacer working. We’ll make it out.”

  “Go… good…”

  Inquisitor Raven approached Catherine Holland’s side. He stared at his Chief Engineer’s remains.

  “He was… he was one of the Prototype’s robots?” Inquisitor Raven muttered. “How long have you known?”

  “We knew the Prototype had an agent inside this ship.”

  “How?”

  “We examined the battle around Helios and noticed the Prototype’s ships fiercely attacked all vessels—”

  “—but ours,” Inquisitor Raven said. “By the Gods, I noticed that too! I thought it was because we were farther from the fighting but even here, in The Fields, the Prototype’s ships attacked the Wake but left us relatively intact!”

  So many things now made sense to Inquisitor Raven. Lieutenant Sanders said:

  “Chief Muses wasn’t with us when we were on the Longshore Shipping Lanes.”

  Inquisitor Raven’s jaw tightened and he felt a building anger.

  “He was to be transferred to the Reverie, Inquisitor Raven said. “He was going to the most powerful ship in the Phaecian armada. But… but why did Chief Muses act like he did while fighting Sergeant Delmont? It was as if he didn’t know he was one of those things.”

  “He might not have known his true nature,” Catherine Holland said. “The best spy is one that doesn’t know they are one.”

  “How many more Chief Muses are out there?”

  “I don’t know,” Catherine Holland said. “We have to assume both Empires have their share. Hopefully, they were all brought in to The Fields for this fight.”

  “And Sergeant Delmont? Was he one of them too?”

  “Paul Spradlin created Sergeant Delmont. It was his only such creation.”

  “It’s not… polite… to talk about someone… sitting… before you,” Sergeant Delmont said.

  Though it pained him, he faced the Inquisitor.

  “You’re angry,” he said. “You should be… but… but the Prototype was counting on you using your emotions… instead of… instead of your head. Don’t… don’t let him blind you to… to…”

  “Easy,” Catherine Holland told the burly man.

  More tears fell down her eyes.

  “Thank you for your company,” he said.

  “I should thank you, for every…”

  She didn’t finish her thought.

  Lionel Delmont’s body shook one last time before it was still, never to move again.

  69

  “We’re five minutes from the Displacer,” Lieutenant Sanders said.

  “The Prototype’s ships are still holding back,” Catherine Holland said. “They don’t know Muses is gone. Once they find out…”

  Inquisitor Raven’s attention turned from the fallen soldier and his Chief of Engineering to the main view-screen and the Displacer. It was nearing full power. Strange energy patterns emanated from her hollow core.

  “Where are we going?” Inquisitor Raven asked Catherine Holland.

  “I don’t know,” she said. “I suppose where it all ends.”

  “Sir, we’ve got a new energy source!” Lieutenant Sanders said.

  Another, even more massive burst of light filled a spherical area in the distance.

  “It’s on an order of magnitude hundreds of times larger than…”

  The light flashed throughout the sector and, in its center, appeared an incredibly large black mass. For a moment, the Cygnusa went dark.

  Lieutenant Sanders furiously worked her controls and managed to restore emergency power.

  “What in Hades was that?” Inquisitor Raven said.

  “Another vessel,” Lieutenant Sanders said. Her eyes opened wide. “By the Gods, it’s larger than a juggernaut! It’s the size and shape of a planetoid!”

  “The Prototype’s command ship,” Catherine Holland said. “He sent his armada in first. Now that it looks like he’s won, he’s arrived!”

  The new vessel moved into the battlefield like a battering ram. It discharged massive bursts of energy in all directions. In seconds the planetoid took out almost all remaining Saint Vulcan ships while her vessels converged.

  “She’s turning toward us!” Lieutenant Sanders said.

  The massive ship slowly spun in place, its scarred surface exposed to the Cygnusa.

  “How far from the Displacer are we?” Inquisitor Raven said.

  “Three minutes.”

  It was madness.

  The Cygnusa, Wake, and the Displacer were nothing more than ants compared to the Prototype’s planetoid. Throughout The Fields, the few remains of Saint Vulcan’s fleet fought on but the Prototype’s command ship and fire power were simply too much.

  The planetoid continued advancing while energy bolts flared from its surface.

  “Sir, the planetoid will be upon us before we get to the Displacer,” Lieutenant Sanders said.

  Even as she said this, the shadow of the command ship covered the Cygnusa and her bridge was bathed in darkness.

  At her current distance, she could have launched any number of her weapons against the Phaecian and Epsillon battleships.

  Instead, the vessel intended to run the ships over, squashing them like bugs.

  “Keep moving,” Inquisitor Raven said. “It’s all we can do.”

  He activated his communicator.

  “Wake, this is Inquisitor Raven.”

  “We’re working on our engines,” Lieutenant Daniels said. “We may be able to get some more thrust.”

  “Anything you can give us.”

  “Acknowledged.”

  “And Lieutenant Daniels?”

  “Yes?”

  “Thanks for your advice,” Inquisitor Raven said.

  Inquisitor Raven addressed Weapons OP Hamilton.

  “Keep firing at the planetoid. Keep firing even if it melts the fusion cannons. Maybe we’ll get lucky. Maybe one of those shots just might—”

  “Sir!” Lieutenant Sanders said. “The planetoid is slowing! She’s… she’s changing course.”

  Lieutenant Sanders frowned.

  “Sir, I’m detecting a new energy reading,” she continued. “It’s coming from .5 light years out. In the middle of the wastes.”

  “On screen,” Inquisitor Raven said.

  In a section of The Fields thick with the Empire’s waste, a single bright light came on and lit up the garbage surrounding it.

  “Sir, the waste!” Lieutenant Sanders said.

  Large portions of the toxic garbage were in motion. Discarded refuse, some pieces larger than battleships, came together as if parts of an intricate puzzle.

  The Prototype’s command ship sped up and moved toward the swirling refuse. In seconds the garbage acquired a new and familiar shape.

  “It’s a super-juggernaut!” Lieutenant Sanders said. She looked down at her computer’s monitor. “Sir, we’re getting a message! It’s coming from—”

  “Put it on,” Inquisitor Raven said.

  The main view-screen lit up with a by now familiar face, that of Saint Vulcan.

  “You’ve done well, Inquisitor Raven and Lieutenant Daniels,” she said. “Get to safety. I will take care of this.”

  The me
ssage was over and the main view-screen reverted to a view of the Prototype’s planetoid and, in the far distance, the freshly created super-juggernaut.

  “I’m detecting another energy build up,” Lieutenant Sanders said. “It’s coming from Vulcan’s super-juggernaut!”

  The Prototype’s planetoid abruptly stopped. Her body shimmered.

  “The Prototype’s ship is creating a new interdimensional corridor,” Lieutenant Sanders said. “She’s trying to get away!”

  Saint Vulcan’s super-juggernaut suddenly erupted and the garbage fields nearest to it were instantly vaporized. The shock wave was incredibly large, larger than anything anyone within the bridge of the Cygnusa had ever seen.

  “It’s a… a solar system killer,” Inquisitor Raven muttered.

  “Just like the one that took out Erebus two hundred years ago,” Catherine Holland said. “The Fields was the perfect place for Saint Vulcan to assemble such a weapon without the Prototype’s knowledge.”

  The shock wave moved with incredible speed, coming closer and closer to both the Prototype’s planetoid and the Cygnusa and Wake.

  “The Prototype’s planetoid is shifting out,” Catherine Holland said.

  The energy wave was almost upon the planetoid. The massive ship seemed to be in the process of fading away when the wave hit it.

  The energy wave continued forward, approaching the Epsillon and Phaecian vessels.

  “Lieutenant?” Inquisitor Raven said.

  “Almost at the Displacer,” Lieutenant Sanders replied.

  “Will we make it?”

  Lieutenant Sanders turned to face the Inquisitor. She didn’t say anything.

  There was nothing to say.

  The massive wave’s momentum was too fast and the Cygnusa and Wake were traveling far too slow.

  70

  A sudden burst of speed took everyone within the Cygnusa’s bridge by surprise.

  “What was that?” Inquisitor Raven asked.

  “Cygnusa, this is Lieutenant Daniels,” came his voice over the communicator. “We’ve got that extra power for you!”

  “Your timing couldn’t be better,” Inquisitor Raven said. “Pour it on! Every ounce you’ve got!”

  The tension within the bridge grew as the destructive wave rushed at them and continued vaporizing everything in its path.

  “Twenty seconds,” Lieutenant Sanders said.

  The forward view-screen, still darkened by the incredible light from the solar system killing blast, moved ever closer.

  “Fifteen.”

  It was nearly upon them.

  “Ten.”

  The wave was closer still.

  “Five.”

  The bridge was dead silent. No one dared breathe. The outer edges of the blast were only a few miles away.

  Suddenly, the lights within the Cygnusa darkened and everyone on the bridge was quiet as they mentally counted down.

  And then they all let out a relieved breath.

  “We’re in the interdimensional corridor!” Lieutenant Sanders said.

  A loud cheer erupted.

  “What about the Prototype’s planetoid?” Catherine Holland asked. “Did it escape?”

  Lieutenant Sanders checked her records.

  When she was done, she faced the now very quiet bridge staff.

  “I can’t tell,” Lieutenant Sanders said.

  Despite the elation everyone felt a moment before, a somber silence settled over the crew.

  “Check all equipment and initiate repairs,” Inquisitor Raven said.

  He approached Catherine Holland. She still sat next to the remains of her companion.

  Catherine Holland looked away from Sergeant Delmont and at Inquisitor Raven.

  In a low voice she said:

  “We still have a very angry God after us.”

  Lights from the interdimensional corridor filled the bridge of the Cygnusa.

  They were far brighter and flashed around the vessels like lightning.

  “Energy readings are all over the place,” Lieutenant Sanders said. “I’ve never seen anything like this… even in our trip here.”

  “Have you figured out our destination?” Inquisitor Raven asked.

  “No sir.”

  “Any ideas?” Inquisitor Raven asked Catherine Holland.

  “No,” she said. “When Lemner’s Passkey overrode Chief Muses’ virus and activated the Displacer, it must have set our course. Had… had Sergeant Delmont survived, he might have known. He spoke to Saint Vulcan last week. He… he told me to have faith in her actions.”

  “Faith,” Inquisitor Raven repeated. “A word Inquisitors do not take lightly. We’ve done what Saint Vulcan asked and we’ve saved many lives. Now what?”

  Inquisitor Raven felt the pull of exhaustion. He returned to his chair and sat down.

  “Close your eyes and let the dreams take you, my son,” he whispered, recalling one of his favorite passages from The Holy Book. “For the universe is full of wonders and your dreams can never, ever, end.”

  FINALE

  71

  Elicia Quadrant – Unexplored Phaecian Space

  He sat in one of the navigator chairs within the Xendos’ bridge.

  His hair was ghost-white and his eyes completely black. They were half-closed and he breathed heavily.

  His name was B’taav and in the Epsillon Empire, he was one of its most feared –and mysterious- Independents. Corporations hired him to engage in or stop espionage and find and take out threats to industry. His last mission took him to a place he thought was a legend: the planet Earth.

  He and his companions barely escaped the planet with their lives.

  For a moment, his eyes shut and he slipped into sleep.

  Low, static noises emerged from a speaker near him.

  It was a distress signal, one which had repeated for at least a thousand years. The signal was a tantalizing mystery. No Empire vessel, certainly not so very long ago, ever was in this distant and extreme part of Phaecian space. Yet the signal was there and the Xendos moved in its general direction, her crew intent on finding its source.

  Sweat formed on B’taav’s forehead and rolled down his face. He coughed.

  The Independent stared at the Xendos’ instruments then past them and at the main view-screen. The stars seemed stationary and their destination, the area where the distress signal came from, lay four days and twelve hours away.

  It was a small bluish dot, brighter than the other celestial objects around it and at the dead center of the view-screen. It was the third planet in this solar system.

  B’taav rolled his chair a couple of feet over and near another computer panel. He checked the ship’s life support systems. The temperature hadn’t fluctuated yet B’taav continued sweating.

  Then she entered the bridge.

  The woman was tall and had a firm, athletic build. Her hair was almost as white as B’taav’s, though his lacked her light yellow hew. Her eyes, also unlike B’taav’s, were completely white. She wore a heavy leather outfit which identified her as an Inquisitor of the Phaecian Empire. Until very recently, she was part of that Empire’s elite forces and a bodyguard to one of the twelve Phaecian Overlords. Now she was a renegade without a home.

  She was also his lover.

  She walked to B’taav’s side and laid her hands on his shoulders.

  “Sleeping?” the woman, Inquisitor Cer, asked.

  “Guess so,” B’taav said. “Does it feel hot to you?”

  Inquisitor Cer pointed to her leather jacket and B’taav let out a tired laugh.

  “Unlike you, I can’t stop sweating,” he said.

  “Perhaps you’re catching something.”

  “No,” B’taav said. “Other than feeling hot and tired…”

  Inquisitor Cer didn’t let B’taav finish. She reached down and they kissed, passionately, before she sat in the chair beside his. She reviewed the various readouts and was quiet for several seconds.

  “What do you t
hink of them?” B’taav asked.

  He was talking about Nox and Becky Waters, the two women they rescued from Earth.

  “They’ve been through quite a bit and it’s a miracle –not a small one– that they’ve survived. If I went through what they did…”

  Inquisitor Cer pressed several buttons on her computer.

  “How are things up here?”

  “Fine as far as I can tell,” B’taav, said. “Did you get enough sleep?”

  Inquisitor Cer nodded. For the past couple of days and since initiating the journey into this solar system, B’taav and Inquisitor Cer took shifts in the bridge. Given the distress signal, it would be fool hearty to rely entirely on auto-pilot to take the ship all the way in-system.

  “Have you seen the latest data on the planet?” B’taav said. “The ship’s sensors are still having trouble picking up information.”

  “The planet is covered in a thick layer of ice and we won’t be able to tell what’s underneath it until we get much closer,” Inquisitor Cer said. “For now, we put up with a boring trip.”

  Inquisitor Cer gripped B’taav’s hand.

  “But at least I’ve got good company,” she added.

  Until now, the two lived solitary lives. After meeting, they couldn’t imagine themselves apart. Their similarities didn’t end there. Both carried genetic modifications which were created over an unknown series of generations. They had strong resistance, if not outright immunity, to nano-probes. This was the reason they were sent to Earth.

  “Does it bother you?” B’taav wondered.

  “What?”

  “That we were manipulated? That our ancestors were bred so that one day we could set foot on a poisoned planet and resist that poison? Does it bother you everything you’ve done your entire life amounted to that mission?”

  “Manipulated or not, at this moment we have each other and that means everything to me,” Cer countered. “I hope… I hope it does for you, too.”

  B’taav let out a gentle laugh. He pulled Inquisitor Cer closer to him.

  “I’m sorry,” he said. “I’m happy. Very happy to be with you. If you’ll let me.”