Flux Runners

by William Joseph Roberts

  “Arrg! Yo ho ho,” Wes shouted.

  “You aren’t helping,” Doug said.

  “See, Wes is on my side,” Tiff said as she pointed toward Wes. “That means we get to be pirates again.” She clapped and happily bounced a happy dance in place.

  A sudden repetitive beeping drew everyone’s attention. Wes tapped at his console. “We have a new contact. Downspin and hauling ass. It just appeared out of nowhere.” He brought up a new readout on the main viewscreen that overlaid the live feed, then looked back toward Doug in surprise. “The new contact is making a B-line for Big Red.”

  Doug scootched forward to the edge of his seat. “Can you get a visual on it?”

  “Hold on.” Wes swiped through a myriad of screens, tapped one and expanded the feed of the new wedge-shaped ship on the main viewscreen with the image of the red mining vessel. “Okay, cool, recorders are still running. I’m picking up transmissions from both ships, but I’ll be damned if any of it makes sense to me.” He flicked the readout of the transmissions onto the main view screen from his console. “Each of them are transmitting on different frequencies.”

  “Any idea what they are?”

  “My guess would be communications, but that’s just a guess,” Wes said. “I’ll have to analyze the data later to know for sure.”

  The hull of the new craft looked as if it were covered in mismatched, pieced together sections of hull plating. Two tubular sections protruded slightly to either side of the ship’s underbelly. The mining vessels main engines powered up, propelling it forward. Its grappling arms retracted into the forward hull as it began its retreat.

  “The new contact is on a collision course with the first ship,” Wes said. “They are adjusting their trajectory to match Big Red’s course change.”

  “Oh sweet, we get to watch a space battle.” Fergus sat cross-legged on the deck in front of the viewscreen. “Someone tell Mel to make some popcorn.

  “There’s a massive power build-up coming from the new ship,” Wes shouted. “The new contact is still holding course.”

  Trae laughed. “Are they seriously going to ram them? All of this fancy alien tech and no pew pews?”

  Wes chuckled and looked over to Trae. “Seriously? No pew pews?”

  “This is really starting to be a bit disappointing,” Tiff said. “I expected an alien space battle to have pew pews. So far there aren’t any.”

  “I’m not sure what this energy signature is, but it’s radiating out from the nose of the wedge-shaped ship,” Wes said. It’s like a blanket. It’s not focused or anything.”

  “Shields! They have freaking shields!” Trae disbelievingly shook his head.

  The wedge-shaped ship became a sudden blur of multihued light. The red alien mining ship split into two nearly equal halves.

  Trae snorted a laugh. “God, I hate it when I’m right.” He laced his fingers together behind his head and wrapped his arms around the sides of his head. “They just seriously used their ship as a freaking battering ram,” he shouted in astonished disbelief.

  “I have the second ship back on the scope.” The viewscreen panned upward. The two halves of Big Red listed aimlessly away from each other among an expanding field of debris and escaping gasses. “They are upspin, off to the port of Big Red and changing course to intercept the debris field. Looks like they are heading for the aft end of the ship.”

  “What the hell kind of drive system could move a ship that fast and not kill everyone aboard.” Doug stared slack-jawed at the screen.

  “Something with a lot better compensators than we have, to start with,” Big Willy said.

  “Are you kidding me?” Wes turned to look at Doug. “What we just witnessed was a classic science fiction warp drive in action. If I had to guess from what Trae and Fergus said about how Big Red showed up,” he said as he thumbed behind himself toward the viewscreen, “I’d say they are using some sort of dimensional FTL jump system.”

  “Um… Okay,” Tiff stammered, then clapped her hands together. “English, please. Not all of us non-nerd-geeks understand your native language.”

  “F...T...L…,” Wes said deliberately slow. “Faster than light.”

  “I’m not stupid Wes,” Tiff said crossing her arms she glared at him.

  “What he means, Tiff,” Trae said with a groan of frustration, “is that the ship passed into a higher dimension in which it was able to travel at an insane velocity and reappear at a chosen point at a fraction of the travel time or fuel involved.”

  “Our Kamikaze friend has come to a stop just above the drive section of the Red,” Wes said. Everyone's attention turned back to the viewscreen. Tentacle like appendages exploded from the wedge-shaped ship and captured the wreckage. Torches at the ends of the tentacles began cutting away sections of the Red alien’s hull.

  Willy stood and shifted his weight. “I’d bet they are going after the fuel core.”

  “Why do you say that?” Andy plopped down on the deck next to Fergus and leaned back on his elbows, stretching his legs out in front of him.

  “That’s what I’d go after first,” Willy said. “It would be the most valuable and volatile thing on board any ship. Especially if they’re using antimatter.” Willy stepped forward in front of Andy and Fergus. “Ya see, once the containment bottles loose power, or the magnets get out of sequence or any other number of things that can possibly go wrong on a starship,” Willy said then took a deep breath. “Boom! You lose everything that you were possibly about to salvage.”

  “What sort of power source would you need to pull off either of those types of drive systems?” Doug asked Willy.

  “Not the slightest clue, Cap,” Willy admitted. “If I knew, I’d tell ya. Now If I were to take a guess, I’d probably be wrong and just be blowing smoke up your ass. Once we have time to look over those derelicts in the hanger, we might have a better idea of what is possible versus what we only know as theory.”

  Trae took a seat at one of the port auxiliary stations. “There are so many theories that I have to agree with Willy. Until we can look at it, I wouldn’t want to take a guess.”

  “Can you get us a better view, Wes? That’s not the best of angles,” Doug commented. “Most of the ship is in shadow in this view.”

  “Let me see what I can’t do,” Wes said.

  “Now that they are sitting still, maybe we can learn something else about these new arrivals,” Lizz said.

  Tiff let out a frustrated growl. “Since you tied into those satellites can’t you just lock on and fire a nuke or something from one of them? I mean, it’s like the perfect opportunity man. They are just sitting ducks right now and we don’t know if they are friendly or if they are face sucking rapist aliens or whatever.”

  “Tiff,” Trae said, glaring at her.

  “Just saying is all.” She loudly popped a bubble with her chewing gum. “I’m sure that I’m not the only one thinking about it. I mean, really, what have we gotten ourselves into here?” She turned her gaze toward the deck and started to nervously pick at her nails.

  The view on the screen suddenly exploded in an array of video feeds, each trained on the alien vessels. Everyone stared at a myriad of video feeds. Gaping at the scene unfolding before them.

  “I’ve got something, Cap.” Wes expanded a view from the bottom left of the screen to the full extent of the screen. It showed the vessel from a forward port profile, just above the central axis.

  “Can you zoom in anymore?”

  “Yeah, one sec,” Wes said as he tapped at the control console.

  The screen jumped again to a close up of the vessel. Missing sections of hull plating along her sides and top exposed inner bulkheads and the ship's superstructure to the vacuum of space. Multi-colored chunks of plating covered the nose section. Odd bits and pieces that didn’t fit with the main lines of the vessel protruded from different points along the hull. One of the ship’s tentacle-like appendages maneuvered a cut section from the remains of Big Red over one of i
ts own open holes while two other appendages began to attach the section of hull plating.

  “Would you look at that, Cap,” Trae awed.

  “Wow,” Willy gasped. “She looks like a patchwork quilt of ship parts.”

  “So…,” Andy started. “Are we dealing with pirates or just scavengers? Maybe it’s a territorial dispute? I mean, they could even be on a galactic quest to rid the universe of the red menace,” he said, accentuating his words with air quotes.

  Trae glared at Andy. “Well how about we just hail them and see what their intentions are. I’m sure that they’ll welcome us with open arms and invite us to join their blessed galactic union or empire or whatever fucking communist agenda that they are pushing on to the citizens of the galaxy.”

  “Fucking face-huggers, man, I’m telling you,” Tiff muttered under her breath. “Ooo, or maybe they’re body snatchers or black-market organ thieves.”

  “Shut up! Every damn one of you,” Lizz said.

  “Pan the view back out, Wes,” Doug ordered. “Are there any markings on the original hull anywhere?”

  “It’s really hard to make out anything that’s original,” Fergus said. “I think it’s more patches than original.”

  “Hey, what about that section, port aft just off from center,” Rachel pointed. “No dummy, to your left a little more, zoom it in right there,” she said pointing with an impatient finger.

  The view zoomed in closer and paned to the left slowly.

  “There?”

  “Yeah, stop it right there.” Rachel got up from her station and approached the view screen. “Can you get it in any tighter right here,” she said as she motioned at an area with wide circular arm movements.

  “Hold on,” Wes said as he adjusted the view. “That’s the best that this camera can get. Let me see what else we have available.” He brought up the array of other views and quickly tabbed through them. “Here. This one is upspin of the ship.”

  The view shifted to an overhead view of the alien vessel. The camera zoomed in and refocused, revealing an hourglass-shaped profile. On either side of the waist section of the ship was a white emblem that stood out from the gray of the main hull. It looked like a massive white upper case I, rounded on the top and the bottom with a downturn on each leg.

  “Bi ömnö ni üüniig katabümruu kharj baisan. Ene ni manai khümüüsiin dür törkhiin ard khana deer baina. Aguu khanan deer baigaa ene burkhad ni belgedliin khanand naaldaj,” Casraownan chittered loudly. He rushed over and shook Lizz by the shoulder, pointing at the viewscreen.

  Lizz looked at Cass, half scared. “What? Have you seen this symbol before?” She pointed to the image on the screen.

  “Oh no,” Fergus blurted out with a laugh. “What’s that girl? Did little Jimmy fall down the well? Oh my gosh, golly gee willikers, what will we ever do.” He laughed.

  cHAPTER 26

  Unknown Red Giant System

  2nd planet / Alien Starport

  Catacombs

  July 2nd, 2176 / Late Afternoon (Betty Time)

  “I

  t’s a bloody cruise liner advertisement,” Lizz said with an exasperated huff. “At least we know what it looked like before the patchwork repairs.”

  “Sure looks like it to me,” Doug said as he brushed away dust from the painted wall. “I’m not really all that surprised, honestly. I mean, we did set up shop in an abandoned starport, after all.” He took a step back and adjusted the beam of his flashlight to a wider spread. A large, faded mural stretched across the wall of the terminal transport tunnel. What must have once been a fully functional moving sidewalk quietly stood sentry over the starport’s lower catacombs. One of the cat creatures stood tall and proud in a dark blue flight suit. Pins and gold trim decorated the uniform. Behind the figure loomed a large gray wedge-shaped ship shown orbiting over a blue-green planet on a blue-black star-filled background. The same odd-looking upper case I symbol decorated the lower right of the mural.

  “Why do you suppose these guys attacked the other ship?” Lizz asked as she gently touched the ancient mural.

  “Bi chamd yuu gej khelev? Ene bol khanan deer baigaa züil deer belgeddeg shig.” Casraownan pointed at the mural, then mimicked the stance of the cat creature painted on the wall. Jouqon let out a slight giggle and duplicated his father’s stance.

  Doug and Lizz both let out a laugh at the pair.

  “Maybe you should make learning their language a top priority, Lizz,” Doug suggested. “If that cruise liner is crewed by Cass’s people, it would be extremely helpful if we could communicate with them, especially if they are going to be lurking around the system. If we can’t communicate with them, then any time that we go into orbit, we could be a potential target until we can find out what it is that they want.”

  “Here’s a thought, Doug,” Lizz said. “Do you think the planet was originally attacked by the Reds? Possibly that’s why the other ship attacked?”

  “I wouldn’t think so,” Doug said. “All of the damage that we’ve seen so far looks like it is from weather and age. We haven’t found any massive areas of radiation or signs that the planet was nuked or bombarded from orbit.”

  “It would be nice if we had some kind of timeline to work with. Maybe we should hire a few scientists when we get back to Earth,” she suggested.

  “Agreed,” Doug said with a nod.

  “Cap, come in Cap,” Rachel said over the comms.

  Doug keyed his mic. “Go ahead Cheezy, what’s up?”

  “You’d better get back up here. That rat rod ship sent security codes to the SATNET and is now on the move. Looks like they are on a trajectory for orbit.”

  “Don’t do anything until we get back up there. Sending you an image.” Doug detached his comm unit from his belt and handed the flashlight to Lizz. “Hold this up for me please.” He snapped an image of the mural and sent it across their private network. “Image uploading to you now. Looks like that ship originally came from here. If Cass’s people are on board, we don’t want to do anything to provoke them.”

  “Copy that, Cap,” Rachel said. “Don’t do anything to piss off the space kitties.”

  cHAPTER 27

  Unknown Red Giant System

  2nd planet / Alien Starport

  The Hans Landa / Bridge

  July 2nd, 2176 / Evening (Betty Time)

  “S

  he’s a very old cruise liner, from what Cass just showed us,” Doug said as he took a seat in the Captain’s chair. “Wes, can you bring up the image I took and show it next to the video feed?”

  “Sure, Cap, just one sec,” Wes said.

  The image of the mural appeared beside the live video feed of the cruiseliner as three umbilicals extended below the vessel down into the planet’s atmosphere.

  Lizz curiously squinted at the screen. “What are they doing?”

  “Either they are refueling, which means they may have a power plant similar to ours,” Willy said, “or they are refilling their oxygen tanks. Either way, it means that they can’t run indefinitely, they have to stop and resupply.”

  A warning alert binged from the operations console. Wes quickly tapped at the controls. “We have a new contact, bearing 62.35 mark, 10.66 to our alignment axis from the star at a distance of 0.88 AU from our position. Oh shit, it’s another Red and they popped in near the wreckage of the other ship.”

  “Well shit,” Trae said. “That’s not good.”

  Fergus chuckled. “No, that’s just great. We get to watch another kick-ass space battle.” He hurried over and took his seat on the floor. “I just wished I had some popcorn to go with it. Hey hon...”

  “No,” Rachel barked. “You can get it your damn self!”

  “Okay, okay, I was just asking. You don’t have to bite my head off.”

  “Hey guys, shut up,” Wes interrupted. “The new Red is inbound on our position.” A new video feed suddenly appeared and slid to the upper left corner of the viewscreen.

  “That’s not a surpri
se,” Fergus grumbled. “It’s a classic set up. Don’t do it! You’re rushing right into their trap!”

  “Bad Fergus, bad. Down boy!” Rachel reached deep into her flight jacket and threw a rubber chicken at Fergus’s head. “Be quiet, the adults are talking.”

  “Hey now!” Fergus turned and scowled back at Rachel.

  “Cool it, all of you,” Doug said.

  “Looks like the cruise liner has spotted them too. They are reeling in their umbilical’s.” Trae took a seat at one of the gunner’s stations. “Hey Wes, did you get the SATNET tied into weapons yet?”

  Wes looked up from his console with a perturbed glance. “No, not yet. When the hell have I had the time to tie it in?”

  “Just checking, man,” Trae said defensively. “Are you picking up any odd energy signatures this time?”

  “I don’t know. Hold on.” Wes swiped right on his control screen and brought up two new displays. With an upward flick, the windows appeared on the main view screen. A chart of frequencies and magnitudes appeared.

  “There are all kinds of signals and energy readings,” Wes said, “but I have no idea what I’m looking for here.”

  Trae walked toward the front of the bridge and examined the readout. “Right there would be my guess. All of this up here and those couple of emissions in the lower band should be output from the star,” he pointed at a number of lines on the chart. “But that one right there, I’d be willing to bet would be cruiseliner. They are close enough for us to pick them up. Can you set a warning or something, so we know when a new emission appears?”

  “Yeah, that’s not a problem,” Wes said as he tapped away at the console. An odd warble warning began to sound.

  “What the hell is that alarm for?” Doug shouted.

  “That’s the SATNET warning system,” Wes shouted over his shoulder. “Looks like we have a new contact that broke off from the Red. It’s tiny in comparison.”

  “Missile,” Doug blurted.