Tempest Rising

by Eric Warren

  Page bared his teeth and tightened his hand on the pistol. For the first time in Box’s life he felt himself involuntarily flinch. It was a strange sensation, but he was grateful at the last moments of his life he was able to experience something completely new.

  “Page! Drop the weapon now.” Box turned his optical circuits to see Commander Diazal standing behind Page with her own weapon trained on his back. Page didn’t relax his grip or stop looking at Box. He only seemed to get angrier.

  “Don’t make me ask twice,” the commander said, a steadiness in her voice Box rarely heard. It was the same as it had been back down in those caves on D’jattan. The commander was good under pressure, while Page was visibly shaken. Sweat poured down his face and the hand holding the pistol trembled.

  “He’s up to something, Evelyn, I know it. You know it too you’re just not willing to admit it. If you stop me, whatever he does will be on your conscience,” he said.

  “I’d rather his actions be on my conscience than yours. You’re the one who is trying to influence junior officers to assist you in your conspiracy. I don’t care about your problems with the Sargans. This machine is not your enemy.”

  Box kept his attention focused on Page. He still hadn’t moved, and he had Box right in his crosshairs. Page had to know no matter what he decided to do his career in the Coalition was over. There was no recourse after this. Not because of his actions toward Box, but because he disobeyed a direct order to stay in his quarters. There was a very good chance he could see himself as a man with no other options.

  “Commander, he’s going to shoot me,” Box said.

  “We don’t know that yet,” she replied. Her arm was still steady.

  “I’m pretty sure he is,” Box replied. “He’s got no other choice. His career is over, he’ll be thrown—”

  “Box, shut up!” she yelled.

  Page’s eyes flickered. He shifted them to the side then back to Box. His breathing had also increased as his chest heaved up and down with the fury of a man out of options. “Prove me wrong,” Box said to Page. “Or prove me right. It’s your choice.”

  Page creased his brow, as if studying Box. “What are you?” he asked, seemingly with genuine interest. His attention was so focused on Box he didn’t realize Commander Diazal had come up right behind him. With one fluid motion she plucked the gun from his hand and drove the heel of her foot into the back of his knee, causing him to cry out as he crumpled to the ground.

  “Grab him,” she said and Box leaned down, pulling Page’s hands behind him.

  The commander studied Page’s weapon. “Highest setting,” she said. “He would have blown a hole straight through you.”

  “I was afraid of that,” Box said.

  “Then why did you goad him?”

  Box shrugged, causing Page to wince as his own arms were lifted up. “I wanted to be as unpredictable as possible. Why didn’t you bring your sword?”

  “It’s not exactly Coalition issue.” She smirked.

  The comm system came on over the room. “All hands, prepare for assault. Full alert!”

  “Shit,” Evie said, pocketing both weapons. “Get him down to the brig and make sure you set up the encryption yourself.” She stared at Page who avoided her gaze. “Until we know who helped him, I don’t know who on the security team we can trust. Get him stowed then get yourself to sickbay.”

  “Sickbay?” Box asked as she made her way to the door.

  “If this goes badly, we’re going to have a lot more wounded and we need all the medical professionals we can get. Now get moving.” She left them there alone together. Wow. He could actually go back to sickbay. This was like a dream.

  “I suppose now you have me in your clutches you’re going to finally kill me,” Page said, his voice distant. “Just tell me one thing before you do. What is your plan here?”

  Box didn’t even look at the man, instead he led him to the doors, a certain burst of pride filling him. “I’m not going to kill you. I’m going to be a doctor.”

  ***

  Evie stumbled down the hall as the ship lurched. In response to what she didn’t know. She didn’t think they’d been hit but she couldn’t be sure. She tapped her comm back to the bridge. “Report,” she said, making her way back to the hypervator.

  “There is a Sil ship in sight, Commander. The captain believes it is the same one we encountered before. We are performing maneuvering abilities to keep them from locking on to us with their weapons,” Zaal said.

  “I’m on my way back. Zaal, make a note. Page is guilty of treason and is being held in the brig.”

  “Aye, Commander,” he said, then cut the comm.

  She made her way to the nearest hypervator, desperate to get back to the bridge. If they could see the Sil ship it meant they had come out of the undercurrent already. Which also meant the Sil hadn’t attacked yet. That had to be a good sign. Maybe Cas made it after all.

  The hypervator doors opened on the bridge and Evie made her way back to her station, unlocking it and checking all the incoming reports from all the ship’s sections. Everyone was ready.

  “Report,” Greene said, keeping his attention on the screen in front of him. In the distance, barely visible against the field of stars, was a ship very similar to the one that had attacked them in the undercurrent.

  “Lieutenant Page is guilty of treason, he’s in the brig now.” She caught Ronde glance back at her. “And Box is fine. I got there just in time.”

  “Fantastic,” Greene said, his voice deadpan. “Perhaps now we can focus on our primary problem?”

  “Yes, sir,” she said. Ronde continued to perform complex maneuvers while the Sil ship sat in the distance unmoving.

  “They’ve been doing this ever since we came out of the undercurrent. At first they were closer, but they’ve backed off, as if they’re luring us deeper into their territory.”

  “You think it’s a trap?” she asked.

  He shook his head. “There’s no telling what it is.”

  “What about the shuttle? Any sign?”

  “Nothing on scanners,” Zaal said.

  “Should I try the greeting again, Captain?” Lieutenant Uuma asked. She stood in Page’s place at tactical and Evie had to admit she felt a lot better with her there.

  “Hold for now, Lieutenant. They haven’t answered a damn thing,” he told Evie.

  “Do you want me to get Negotiator Laska up here? She might—”

  He shook his head. “Not until they respond. I’m not confident about this. If they pull back again I’m going to order we break off pursuit and retreat back to the system.”

  “But what do we do once we’re there?” she asked. “Are we supposed to keep trying until they stop humoring us and finally blow us out of the sky?”

  “Captain, the helm is being sluggish,” Ronde reported. “I can’t get her to respond. It’s like she’s stuck in a swamp.”

  Evie narrowed her eyes, checking her inputs again. “Zaal?”

  “I detect nothing,” he said. “We should be moving at a normal velocity.”

  “Ensign River, anything on your end?”

  “No, ma’am,” she replied.

  Evie glanced over the captain’s shoulder to the Engineering station. “Anything?”

  “Propulsion is working fine, we’ve got no idea,” Blohm replied.

  “We’re losing velocity,” Ronde said, his voice a pitch higher and tinged with a dash of panic. “We’ll be at a full stop in a few minutes if this continues.”

  “Reverse, back us out of here, whatever this is,” Greene ordered.

  Ronde nodded and input the proper commands, though the ship only continued to slow. “Whatever we’re in I think it’s got us,” he said as the ship drew closer to a halt.

  Greene addressed River. “Did the Sil ship cross this boundary when they began baiting us?” he asked.

  “I don’t believe so, sir,” she replied. “They must have been on the other side of it.”

>   “Invisible net,” Greene muttered. “Now what?”

  Evie stared out at the dark ship slowly approaching them. “I have no idea.” Then she felt a low rumble through the room.

  35

  “Consul, they are trapped. The gravity net has them immobilized.”

  Zenfor continued to “stare” at Cas, while behind her in the expanse of space the Tempest continued to slow down until it stopped completely. She hadn’t said another word since the ship had come out of the undercurrent, only waiting and watching Cas. What was she waiting for? Even her own crew seemed confused. Kayfor stood off to the side, his attention focused on his consul.

  “Consul?” one of the Sil on the bridge asked. “Shall we proceed?”

  “Don’t let your pride blind you, Consul,” Cas said. “That was my captain’s mistake. He thought he was the only one who could save my people by eliminating a non-existent threat. When he approved the mission to go after your ship we didn’t know about the aliens. He was only doing it to strengthen Coalition armaments. And now, because of his hubris he’ll rot in jail forever.”

  “Why didn’t you kill him?” Zenfor said.

  “Death was too easy. He deserves a long life thinking about how he could have done things differently. How if he hadn’t been so foolish he wouldn’t have ruined his life and how his actions wouldn’t have led to the death of over seventy people, your people included. No, death is a gift for Rutledge. He’s going to suffer.”

  “Will your people ever release him?” she asked.

  “No. He has a life sentence for every soul that died. He would have to live over seven millennia before he was eligible.”

  “Consul, your orders?” the Sil asked again.

  Zenfor cocked her head back behind her. “Hold.”

  “If there is one thing I can respect, it is a fair justice system,” Zenfor said. “Present your evidence.”

  Cas straightened. “Using my calendar on Dekaton sixty-fifth, twenty-five-ninety-three, the USCS Achlys, registry FCE-1201 attacked your scout ship in the Quaval system. The attack occurred at thirteen-forty-five hours and I sent the distress signal at thirteen-forty-nine. The signal read as follows: ‘To any Sil vessel in range, one of your ships is under attack by a Coalition ship. Respond immediately.’ Less than four minutes later, you showed up. And when I say you I don’t mean a general Sil ship. I mean you personally. You were there that day, Zenfor. As was I.

  “I had hoped you being there would be enough to convince my captain to leave, but he decided to test his luck as he didn’t want to let go of the ship. He opened fire on you, which I now understand was the volley that gave you permission to fire back, which you did, killing twenty-four members of my crew. My captain had no choice and ordered a retreat. That was the last time I was in your space.”

  “And what of the second encounter? Where you succeeded?” she asked.

  “By then I was on the run and no longer part of the Coalition. But I spoke to my old captain. The new captain of the Achlys drew your scout ship into the Atrax system, where she had mined one of the planets. As soon as your ship was in range she detonated the explosives, destabilizing the precious balance in the system and allowing her to get a drop on your ship as they fought against the change in gravitational currents. She ejected them into space and towed the ship back into non-aligned space. It was a terrible tragedy that never should have happened.”

  “And the one in charge of the mission is being punished?”

  Cas nodded. If he told her about the other admirals authorizing the mission he had the distinct feeling she’d kill him where he stood. But if he could limit it to Rutledge he might have a chance. And technically it wasn’t a lie.

  “Consul, the gravity net is beginning to crush the other ship. Do we allow it to continue?” one of the other Sil asked.

  Cas glanced past Zenfor at the Tempest, locked out there in some invisible trap. He’d never heard of a gravity net before but it didn’t sound good.

  “Release the ship from the net,” Zenfor said. As Cas took a breath, she stepped closer. It was as if he were being swallowed up by something terrible. Even Kayfor had never been this close to him. “Understand I am reserving a final decision until after I see this information you wish to present.”

  “I can accept that,” Cas said, craning his neck to look at her “face”. “Will you be able to…see a recording? I don’t understand how your—”

  “I see just fine. Better than you do.” She grabbed him by the arm, pulling him to the center of the raised portion of the bridge where she’d been standing when they arrived. “Speak to your ship.”

  Cas scanned the area. He couldn’t tell where to look. “Right here? Do I—”

  “Straight ahead,” Zenfor said, impatience in her voice.

  “Tempest? Do you read me?” he called out.

  A screen appeared as if it were plastered on the inside of the bubble, showing Tempest’s bridge. “Robeaux?” Greene asked, his harried face staring at Cas from his seat on the bridge. Evie sat beside him though they both looked rough. Debris littered the rest bridge behind them, had they been in another fight while he’d been gone?

  “Is everyone alright? What happened over there?” Cas asked.

  “As soon as we stopped our inertial dampeners went offline,” Greene replied. “The ship nearly shook itself to pieces. What is your status? Have you been successful?”

  “I need you to transmit the telescope logs back over. Someone deleted my copies as I was leaving.”

  Greene glanced over to Evie. “Transmitting now,” she said, tapping some controls on her chair. “Are you okay?”

  “We have the information, Consul,” the Sil at the front of the bridge said.

  “Display it,” she replied.

  In place of Tempest’s bridge another image played. At first it showed nothing more than the long-range image of a starfield. The image clicked over to a zoomed-in image of a sector of space which seemed relatively empty. But when the image shifted to the left the entire field was taken up by a fleet of similarly-shaped ships. All dark gray in color they resembled a school of fish, with larger ones protected by the smaller versions. It was the exact same footage Cas had seen in the admiral’s office.

  The fleet of ships drifted as one, with none of them breaking off. The telescope flipped again to a wider view of the cloud of ships passing through a binary system. In the far corner two smaller ships red in color approached the cloud. Before they reached what Cas would consider weapons range the two smaller ships exploded. The entire cloud of ships made a turn, heading for one of the planets in the distant system. The telescope flipped again as the cloud of ships approached the planet’s atmosphere. A moment later a blue beam erupted from the cloud but Cas couldn’t tell where, and the planet began to collapse in on itself. Within a few minutes the planet was nothing but bits of rock floating in space. It looked like a disorganized asteroid field.

  The cloud then moved again, turning its attention on one of the two stars in the system. The blue beam erupted again, this time at the star, causing it to collapse in on itself as well. But due to the massive gravity well left behind the entire system began to fall apart; the second star disappearing beyond the first star’s event horizon. The cloud turned and resumed course. The telescope flipped again to a wide-angle image, extrapolating a course for the cloud based on current projections. It led to the center of Coalition space: Earth’s star, Horus. The feed closed, and the image of Greene and Evie appeared once more.

  Zenfor turned to her fellows on the bridge. “Can any of that information be confirmed?” she asked.

  “I’ve sent a message to the Sanctuary, asking them to review and confirm the data,” the Sil on the left said.

  “The star,” Kayfor said. Though he didn’t have any features Cas detected some awe in his voice. Despite their power, apparently the Sil hadn’t yet mastered the ability to destroy stars.

  “If this is true, I don’t know how to proceed,” Zenfor
said in a rare moment of vulnerability.

  “We’ll have no choice but to retreat to the space beneath,” Kayfor said. “Assuming the aliens cannot penetrate the dimensional barrier.”

  “Our entire species? That’s ludicrous. It is meant as an amendment, not a permanent home. If we were to leave this dimension for good…”

  “What?” Cas asked. “What would that mean?”

  Kayfor turned to him. “This dimension anchors the space beneath. It keeps us tethered. If our species were to let go and cut all connection with it, we could end up never finding another. Many dimensions are much more…chaotic…than this one. You should consider yourself lucky your species is native to it.”

  “That’s enough, Kayfor, he doesn’t need our society’s history,” the Consul said.

  “The Sanctuary has confirmed the footage as genuine evidence, Consul,” the Sil on the left said. Cas noticed his aura pulsed rapidly. “It hasn’t been tampered with and is considered trustworthy.”

  “What system is that?” Zenfor asked.

  “We don’t have a name for it,” Greene said over the screen. “It’s so far away no Coalition ship has ever been there. We don’t know anything about the species they just destroyed either, though it is out past Omicron Terminus. Ships have been on exploratory missions in that direction, but they never returned.”

  “How far are they from your borders?”

  “At their current speed two hundred and nineteen of our days,” Evie said.

  “Assuming they move through the Coalition at their current speed, how long until they reach our own borders?” Zenfor asked.

  “Sixteen thousand sqirms, Consul.”

  “What’s a sqirm?” Cas whispered.

  “Equivalent to three-fourths of one of your hours,” Kayfor replied. “We don’t measure days.”

  Right. No night cycle. He should have figured. “Which gives you a little over a year to prepare yourselves,” Cas said. “We don’t know they’ll be hostile when they arrive, but we must be prepared for the eventuality. And we can’t do it without you. It’s like I told you before, I doubt they’ll stop with us.”