Cries of the Wolf

by C. S. Harte

  Meomi rushed to join him and steered into the heart of a towering jungle. An entire grove of trees, hundreds of meters tall, fifty meters thick with vines draping every branch stretched deep into the horizon. Past the forest, a volcano overlooked the jungle with smoke billowing from its peak. Ten meters in front, a shallow stream encrusted with round, smooth stones calmly flowed. A light mist sprayed from a nearby waterfall.

  The external sensor readings updated on Meomi’s HUD. 307.6 Kelvins, 25% oxygen, 70% nitrogen.

  “This is better air quality than Earth.” She breathed.

  “We can probably take our helmets off and save battery life.” Rayfin reached for his helmet clips.

  She smacked his hands away and followed with a disapproving stare. “We have no idea what’s going on, Ensign. Let’s wait until we learn more. None of this should be possible.” Meomi glanced at her suit's battery life and frowned. 32 minutes remaining. But her suit was slowly charging as sunlight filtered through the dense vegetation.

  “Captain, our eyes or our equipment could be wrong, but not both. Right?” Rayfin dropped his hand into the clear stream. "It's like we're on a different planet now…”

  “I… I don’t know…” Meomi turned around and stared into the cave system, half considering a return to their starting point. Her mind flickered through hundreds of possibilities, trying to connect the ice planet of Nocia to this new jungle environment. She was at a lost how they could have arrived here. “We need to get back to the Cerberus.”

  “That sounds good, Captain.” Rayfin craned his neck looking up. “Why do I get the feeling we’re not anywhere near our ship?”

  Meomi switched comm frequencies. “Cerberus. Respond.”

  No answer.

  “Cerberus, this is Captain Hana. Please respond.” She nodded at Rayfin.

  “Ensign Manalo to Cerberus.” He shook his head. “No reply. Not even static.”

  Meomi stepped to the closest tree and rubbed the bark with her hand. “Not a hologram,” she muttered while shaking her head. “Think! What could be going on?”

  Her suit speakers played the sound of someone singing. The voice was faint — quiet enough for Meomi to wonder if she was hearing voices. She focused on the song and recognized French words in the lyrics. Then her mini-map updated. A third blue dot. “Laurine!”

  “Where?” Rayfin’s eyes darted inside his helmet looking for his shipmate. “I don’t see…”

  “Check your mini-map. 300 meters. Two o’clock.”

  They sprinted to Laurine’s position.

  Rayfin cycled his speed neuromod, getting there faster. “There she is!” He pointed to a pair of jet black leggings matching those of a Tempest suit, peeking from behind a tree. “Laurine!” His voice wavered. “No...”

  “No? What’s wrong” Meomi called out. She arrived to see Rayfin laying on top of her with his chest heaving up and down.

  Laurine's visor had broken and her skin appeared crystal blue. It was as if she froze to death and stayed that way even through the humid, jungle heat. Her Tempest suit turned on and off intermittently broadcasting her position.

  “Laurine… Laurine… Laurine…” Rayfin cried between heaving breaths.

  “I don’t understand.” Meomi knelt next to Laurine. “How did she get here if she died and with her body still frozen?” Her confusion was soon met by the blooming sadness in her heart. “Laurine isn’t dead. I heard her singing…” Disbelief prevented Meomi from accepting the reality portrayed by her eyes. “I don’t understand. None of this is making sense…” She thought back to the moments when they were at the top of the cliff on Nocia. She should’ve postponed the mission given the weather conditions. She wasn’t sure if it was her pride, overconfidence, or sense of duty which prompted her to keep moving forward with the mission.

  Rayfin wrapped his arms around his captain. “This can’t be real…”

  Laurine’s suit cycled on. Her singing replayed.

  “It’s a recording,” Rayfin murmured.

  “I… Doesn’t make sense…” Grief drowned Meomi’s mind, not allowing it to surface with rational thoughts. She never lost anyone under her command before.

  The humming sound came roaring back.

  In the peripheral of Meomi’s vision, there was a pitch-black object — a cube roughly half a meter in size. Her first reaction was to reach for her pistol.

  Rayfin immediately reached for his pistol sensing Meomi’s tension. “What is it, Captain?”

  “You don’t hear the humming? It’s so loud now.” Meomi spoke in a voice just below a yell.

  “Are you OK, Captain?” Rayfin tilted his head.

  “The black cube! To my right! It’s so loud! Do you see it too?” Her eyes begged him to agree.

  Rayfin stood and craned his neck as he searched for the cube. “Um… What cube, Captain? I don’t see anything like that here…” He looked away as he spoke. “You’re reminding me of a story — I used to have a girlfriend that claimed to see weird patterns in the stars. I thought she had a brain tumor. We took her for some tests, turns out she was just crazy.”

  “Not helpful and also not the time, Ensign.” Meomi slowly approached the shiny cube floating above her thighs. It had no discernible markings on it. The surface was polished and clean like it was a recent addition to the jungle.

  Rayfin spun around in circles as if looking for help. “Captain… This is already strange enough without you acting like this…”

  “Ensign, I need you to shut up for a moment.” Anxiety knotted Meomi’s stomach as she inched closer. She had dual voices screaming in her head — one shouting to run from the cube while the other begged her to touch it. The latter grew stronger with each breath. Her hand seemed to have a mind of its own. With her eyes closed, she inched her fingertips toward the floating black cube.

  3

  Sparks of multi-colored light erupted from the jet-black cube after Meomi grazed her fingers against the surface, quickly engulfing the two Fleet sailors and freezing them in time. The jungle scenery faded, replaced by an illuminated all-encompassing bubble.

  Meomi struggled to move inside the sphere, but her limbs remained frozen. In her mind, she called out to Rayfin. Her lips ignored her wishes.

  In a flash, the orb of light disappeared, taking with it all proof of the jungle. Meomi and Rayfin found themselves on top of Centrich Canyon, back on Nocia where their journey started.

  The raging snowstorm from earlier vanished with no trace of itself. Night had fallen on the planet. The cloudless skies provided a perfect canvas for portraying the twin Nocian moons against a backdrop of the Milky Way stars.

  Captain Hana exhaled a deep breath. “I don’t know what just happened…” She surveyed the landscape for her security officer, Lieutenant Laurine Remy. Only Rayfin accompanied Meomi in her voyage of light.

  “We need to go back! Lieutenant Remy...” Rayfin grabbed his captain’s forearms. “We have to find her body….”

  Meomi checked her suit’s internal chronometer. Only seconds elapsed since they were in the jungle. However, they arrived back on Nocia, the travel was near instantaneous, like they were teleported to their current location.

  Rayfin released Meomi’s arm and stumbled away before collapsing into the powdered snow.

  “This is the CMS Cerberus calling out to any member of Captain Meomi Hana’s team. Please respond,” said a familiar voice through her suit comm.

  Meomi recognized the voice of her First Officer, Commander Keven Rhyne. “Captain Hana here. Keven, it’s good to hear your voice again.”

  “Captain! You had the entire ship worried. Did you capture the traitor?”

  “Unfortunately, no…” She paused as images of Laurine’s frozen face slid into her mind. “Send a shuttle to my coordinates.”

  “Already dispatched, Captain.”

  “Thank you, Hana out.” Meomi plopped down next to Rayfin.

  He tilted his head toward her. “How do we explain what happened here
?”

  Meomi gazed into the starry night sky before answering. “We tell the truth, Lieutenant. Always. Simple as that.”

  “Who would believe us?” Rayfin sighed. “I’m not sure I would believe my story…”

  The polished black cube appeared next to Meomi before disappearing again in a blink. She narrowed her eyes as she stared at the now vacated spot above the snow — a mystery on a planet abundant with secrets. “Ensign, you never saw a black, cube-shaped object back in the jungle?”

  “No, Captain.” He scrunched his face.

  “And now, do you see anything like that?”

  “I…” Rayfin panned his head. “Is this a trick question? I see nothing but snow and ice, Captain.”

  “I guess the stress of things is getting to me. It seems I was mistaken.” She furrowed her brow.

  “Don’t worry about it, Captain. A lot of weird things have been happening with no explanations.”

  “That’s what concerns me most, Ensign.” The low-battery warning sign returned on Meomi’s visor screen. 28 minutes of power left in her Tempest suit with the shuttle 15 minutes away. She closed her eyes as she exhaled. "We get to go home today..."

  “Captain, do you think Laurine is still down there?” Rayfin pointed to the canyon below.

  “I’m not sure about anything on this planet.” Meomi scoffed.

  The shuttle from the Cerberus arrived to ferry the wary sailors back to their ship.

  Rayfin unlatched his helmet as he leaned against the shuttle’s wall and promptly drifted to sleep. Sweat dripped down his face as he slumbered.

  Meomi removed her helmet. She wiped the sweat and grime from her fawn-colored face and released the knot holding her straight black hair in a bun. While Rayfin drifted deeper into sleep, snoring at a high octave, Meomi kept her honey-brown eyes on the unknown artifact hovering across from her.

  “Leaving the atmosphere of Nocia,” said the shuttle pilot. “Hang tight Captain, we're engaging ion engines.”

  Captain Hana knew she wasn’t crazy. She had a flawless psych eval less than one sol-year ago. Yet, there was a strange object appearing and vanishing randomly while floating around her body that somehow only she could see. This object teleported her from one planet to another. At least Meomi believed it did. She was at a loss to explain the events on Nocia otherwise. “I’m not crazy,” she whispered and closed her eyes. When she opened them again, she hoped the cube would not be present. It wasn’t. Meomi released a dramatic exhale.

  “Docking with the Cerberus in five, Captain,” said the shuttle pilot.

  Hundreds of questions peppered Meomi’s mind. She wondered where the mysterious cube came from, who created it, and what was its purpose. Meomi needed the artifact to have a meaning. Laurine’s death was inextricably linked to the cube. The Lieutenant died when it made its first appearance. If the object had a purpose, Laurine’s end would be a sacrifice instead of a senseless death.

  As the shuttle neared the Cerberus, Meomi’s eyes drifted toward the silhouette of her ship back-lit by the system’s sun. The 77-year-old, Rio-Grande class, heavy cruiser was named after the three-headed hound of Hades from ancient Greek mythology, Cerberus — the mythical monster guarding the gates of the Underworld, preventing the dead from escaping.

  Other Fleet captains enjoyed poking fun at Captain Hana’s expense, telling Meomi how closely matched her bulldog personality was to the name of the ship. When those captains took the analogy further, she would scoff at the notion of her role as gatekeeper of the Underworld. Secretly, Meomi viewed her duty as keeping the monsters out, not in. She avoided galas intended for high-ranking officers whenever possible. Such events were all politics and favors, a game Meomi neither enjoyed nor cared enough to participate. She missed being a grunt in the infantry. There was never any politics to play.

  At its christening, the Cerberus was one of the most powerful and largest warships of its time. 1500 meters in length. 16 decks. Four missile bays complimented with 24 laser banks. Twin hangers on both the bow and stern. Hull plating made of a titanium and durantinum composite — strong enough to survive ramming other ships.

  The shuttle flew into the Cerberus’ rear hanger.

  Commander Rhyne opened the passenger doors after docking and stuck his head inside. “Captain. Welcome back.”

  Meomi saw his lips silently counting the number of wayfarers, stopping at two. She shook her head at him. “We couldn’t retrieve Lieutenant Remy’s body.” Her voice came out softer than expected.

  If Commander Rhyne was saddened by the news, he didn’t show it. “Captain, there is a priority-one message from Fleet Command. It is marked Captains-only.”

  She raised her eyebrows. “What’s the nature of the message?”

  “I do not know, Captain. The message has a high classification.”

  Meomi sighed. “Make arrangements for Laurine’s funeral. I’ll take the message in my personal quarters.”

  “Of course, Captain.”

  “And Keven, wake our snoring Ensign from his nap. Have him cleaned up and meet me on the bridge in 30.” Meomi exited the hangar bay and headed for her quarters. Along the way, she passed the bronze nameplate of the ship. She stopped and traced her fingers around the edges. “If it were up to me, we would never decommission you.”

  The CMS Cerberus had five captains in her lifetime, was nearly destroyed twice during the Colony Wars against the Alliance of Faith, and countless times kept the border colonies of Commonwealth space safe from pirates, smugglers, and Alliance raiders. In the next few weeks, the Cerberus was to be stripped for reusable parts, and her crew of 207 people reassigned to different ships.

  “You deserve better. And so did Laurine…” An ache crept up her chest at the thought of so much needless loss. Meomi continued to her quarters. Once there, she headed straight for her double malt scotch from 20th century Earth, a gift from her former marine general. She only poured from the bottle twice; the day he gave her the bottle and today.

  After undressing, Captain Hana stepped into the sonic shower and leaned against the wall. She closed her eyes and allowed the sonic pulses to break down the sweat, dirt, and grime on her body. There were moments on Nocia where Meomi wondered if she would ever make it back. Those thoughts disappeared as the aural vibrations from the shower released the tension embedded in her muscles. Meomi slid to the floor and sat quietly as memories of her time with Lieutenant Remy flowed through her mind.

  Roughly a year ago, the Cerberus docked at Vela Prime on a resupply run. She allowed the crew two days of shore leave. Laurine and Meomi strolled into a bar on an orbiting supply station. Within minutes, they had a dozen drunken colonist hitting on them. One of whom was more assertive than the others. Lieutenant Remy acted in the way all Chief Security Officers should respond when their captains were being harassed. She knocked him out with one punch, breaking his nose and dislodged two front teeth in the process. Quickly, five others swarmed Laurine. She told Meomi to continue with her night while she fought the entire mob by herself.

  Lieutenant Remy was younger than Meomi by a year, but Laurine was always protective of Meomi and treated her like a younger sister when off-duty.

  “That’s enough,” Meomi said to herself as she stood. She wiped away the lone tear trailing down her cheek. “That’s enough…” she repeated in a whisper. After shutting off the sonic showers, Meomi dressed in her red and white captain’s uniform, pinned her captain’s wing to her collar and played the priority-one coded message waiting on her desk terminal.

  The message originated from Fleet Marshall Matthias Klopp. Fleet Marshall was a designation given to someone commanding multiple Admirals, an event that occurred only when the Commonwealth began its wartime preparations.

  Matthias Klopp was an unfamiliar name to Meomi. Historically, only five-star admirals would be considered for the Fleet Marshall status and every sailor knew all the five-star admirals. Their names and faces hung as giant portraits over every Fleet base. This Mathi
as Klopp person was a complete unknown.

  Meomi played the attached video. A pale middle-aged man with slick black hair and eyes appeared on her screen. He wore the formal white and gold-trimmed Fleet Admiral uniform. Pinned to his chest was the distinctive five fleet stars surrounded by a wreath attached to a red and gold ribbon, a distinct badge of honor given only to Fleet Marshalls. He paused before speaking, long enough for Meomi to build up a sense of dread in her chest.

  Captains. I am Fleet Marshall Mathias Klopp. Effective immediately, your current missions have been suspended indefinitely as you and your ship are hereby reassigned to my command. Together, we are to form a new Navy, so designated as the 5th Navy.

  As you're aware, an aggressive, highly organized, and immensely formidable alien species have invaded our outer colonies. The Mimics, as we call them, will soon find out what it means to go to war with our great civilization, the most powerful civilization in the history of our galaxy.

  You fine and honorable Captains, have sworn an oath to defend the great citizens of the Commonwealth of Man. Today, I call on you to fulfill that promise. Together, we will destroy these invaders and send them back to whatever void of space whence they came.

  Meomi sat in silence with her mouth open as the video faded to black. She faced the Mimics once before, on Gosi Prime. Only three humans made it back alive that day. She hoped she would never have to face them again.

  More messages came in from other captains. The subject line from Captain Roman Harper of the CMS Thames read, “This is Lunacy!!!”

  4

  Captain Hana exited the decktram and entered the Cerberus' bridge. Her eyes darted toward the security station half-expecting Lieutenant Remy to be there. She bit her lip as a tightness weaved through her chest.

  “Captain on the bridge!” announced Commander Rhyne. “Sir, the Cerberus is in warp heading for the Jova system per your orders. We will arrive in exactly four hours, 32 minutes, and 27 seconds.”