by C. S. Harte
Meomi fought in several battles on the Commonwealth side, killing a great many Alliance soldiers. While not going so far as to speak her mind on the subject, Meomi partly blamed the Katoks for revealing themselves to humanity. She believed them to be the catalyst for over a billion human deaths and privately wondered how her life would have been different if they never existed.
Her parents might still be alive today. Alliance sympathizers bombed her parent’s asteroid mining business hoping to cripple Commonwealth supply chains. Meomi might not have joined the space marines if the war never started. She certainly would not be on a stealth ship with two strangers on her way to meet with a Katok before infiltrating a possible Mimic base.
“We’ll be landing in ten minutes,” Thorne said.
Meomi switched to a feed of the ship’s external camera which streamed into her visor. Her mouth fell open at the visuals presented to her. The trees, the twin moons, the active volcano in the background — she’d been here before. “So it was real…” she whispered to herself. “It can’t be…” Her heart raced. “It simply can’t…”
“I take it this place looks familiar to you, Captain Hana? Is it exactly like you recall?”
Nocia was several star systems away. It would have taken the Cerberus an entire day at Warp 9 to reach Dressa from there. Yet, somehow, she was falling toward the bottom of a canyon on the frozen planet, then standing next to vine-covered jungle trees, then back on Nocia. “There has to be an explanation…”
“That’s what we’re here to find,” Thorne said with a reassuring voice.
An image of Laurine’s frozen corpse popped into her mind. “Captain Thorne.”
“Yes, Captain Hana?”
“If possible, I want to recover the body of one of my officers who might be on this planet.”
“Laurine Remy,” Thorne said. “Of course. Like you, I believe in leaving no one behind.” Centrifugal forces pinned Meomi to the wall. “Hang on tight. We’re landing in ten seconds.”
9
Captain Thorne landed his stealth ship twenty meters from Valric’s shuttle. “No signs of a welcoming party according to sensors. Skies are clear of enemies. I think we made it undetected.”
Meomi exited from the rear ramp after nudging Rayfin awake. She saw a humanoid figure, three meters tall, almost the same height as his shuttle, standing completely still with its arms hanging by its sides. The Katok. Unlike everyone else, he was not wearing a combat suit, only a white and yellow Fleet uniform designating him as a scientist or researcher.
Rayfin unloaded the Centurias droids when he looked at Valric. He stopped and stood next to Meomi. “Is that what I think it is?”
“It has a name,” Thorne said over suit comm. “Valric.”
Rayfin waved at Valric, “Hi?”
The Katok remained still, not acknowledging Rayfin.
Meomi checked her HUD for the atmospheric readings. 19% oxygen, 80% nitrogen, with the rest a mix of inert gases. “Dressa was designated as uninhabitable as recently as 20 sol-years ago during the last orbital scan. Oxygen levels were less than 12% back then. Someone terraformed this planet, and they did it quick.”
Thorne exited the ship with Inoke behind him. “The questions are who and why.”
As soon as Inoke peeked his head behind Thorne, his eyes grew wide as he ran toward Valric, slamming himself into the Katok’s thigh.
Valric placed his gangly blue fingers on top of the Entrent’s head.
Inoke closed his eyes and showed an ear-to-ear smile.
“That’s the most amount of emotion I’ve ever seen out of the kid. I take it they know each other,” Meomi said to Thorne.
“They do. In a way, Valric is like a parent to Inoke.” Thorne typed into his forearm console. “He was there during his transformation and helped trained his Entrent abilities.” His ship’s camouflage system activated, blending it with the jungle scenery.
“It didn’t occur to me that Entrents needed training, but that makes sense.” Meomi studied the Katok, noticing his lack of emotions. “I can see where Inoke gets his poker face from.”
“If they were a little more friendly looking, maybe the Colony Wars would have never started,” Rayfin said.
“Perhaps, Ensign Manalo,” Thorne said. “But I disagree. Humans have long been divided when it comes to religion. Coupled with our taste for violence, humans would eventually find a cause for war.”
“You must be extremely fun at parties, Captain Thorne.” Rayfin snorted.
Meomi sighed, wanting no part of the debate. “We should probably get moving.”
“Agreed.” Thorne nodded. “Dressa is on a 46-hour day cycle. Based on the position of the sun, we have about 20 hours left of daylight which should be ample time to complete the mission. We head out in five.” He headed toward Inoke.
Rayfin walked to the closest tree and rubbed his gloved hand against its bark. “Captain, does it feel weird we’re here, on this planet? The one we somehow teleported to and then back to Nocia?”
“It’s an alien planet, it’s supposed to feel weird,” she answered trying to steer his thoughts away from the unexplainable experience. Meomi could not do the same for her own mind as it revisited the Centrich Canyon on Nocia. Every moment after the avalanche had a surreal quality to it, like walking through a dream. She remembered the constant fear chasing her — that in an instant, the dream could become a nightmare.
Meomi panned her head looking for the cube. She hadn't seen it since Nocia but half-expected to find it. Just the thought of the cube on this planet made her arms itch underneath her suit.
“At least one good thing came from the weirdness on Nocia,” Rayfin said.
“And that would be?” Meomi asked.
“I have a great story to tell girls on a first date.” Rayfin grinned.
All of a sudden, Meomi regretted not bringing her first officer instead of Rayfin.
“If you two are done reminiscing, I would like to get moving,” Thorne said after finishing his conversation with Inoke and Valric.
“Hey, not all of us has a telepath as a wingman to pick up girls,” Rayfin said, sounding defensive.
“I wasn’t implying… and I would never…” Thorne coughed. “It is rather important we finish our mission before the sun sets on this planet. Our survivability will drop drastically should we find ourselves out at night on an enemy planet.”
“We’re ready,” Meomi said.
Thorne took the lead through a small clearing with Inoke tailing close behind.
“Valric isn’t coming?” Meomi asked.
“He will stay behind in his shuttle to provide logistical support,” Thorne said.
At their current pace, they would reach the volcano base in less than two hours.
“Keep your eyes open and stay focused, Ensign,” Meomi said.
“No need to worry about me, Captain. I have a laser focus when it comes to missions.” Rayfin and the three Centurias droids took up the rear.
They traveled most of their march in silence. The jungle had little plant variety and even fewer animal diversity.
Meomi used her suit’s sensors to scan for Laurine’s locator beacon, coming up empty. If Dressa was the planet they teleported to from Nocia, Laurine had to be somewhere within range of the locator beacon. Her mind raced through possible explanations. Perhaps Laurine’s body was still too far away. Maybe Dressa wasn’t the planet they visited. She scoffed at the notion. There was a strange energy here. The same one she felt before that made her sick to her stomach. Her instincts told her this was the same planet.
External temperatures reached 316 Kelvins, hotter than most places on Earth. Humidity held steady at 70%.
Meomi heard the whirling of her suit fans, drowning out most of the sounds from her external mics. She glanced at her battery levels. Already at 62%. “Our Tempest suits won’t have enough juice to make it to the volcano and back if the temperature doesn’t go down.”
“As long as we have d
aylight, we should be fine, Captain Hana,” Thorne said in an unconcerned voice.
The scenery changed. Replacing long, slim, vine-wrapped trees were massive broad-leafed plants that stretched far into the sky, some as high as the trees themselves. Attached to these plants were bright orange flowers, each the size of Centurias droids. The petals seemed delicate in texture but also large and heavy enough to crush a person should one fall on top of them.
“I would really hate to see what insects pollinate these monsters,” Rayfin approached one of the blossoms.
Thorne steered him away. “I strongly discourage anyone from getting too close to the vegetation here. I’ve been on some exoplanets where the plants were carnivorous. In my experience, the most beautiful flowers are also the most dangerous.”
“You know, that’s true of a lot of things, not just flowers,” Rayfin said with a grin.
They stopped at a shallow stream.
Meomi followed the source of the water flow with her eyes back to a gently sloping waterfall. Thus far, nothing on this planet displayed signs of a Mimic infestation. Her mind drifted back to Gosi Prime where the Mimics leveled the entire city to rubble and turned everything they touched into the color of death and despair.
“Something is following us.” Inoke’s voice startled Meomi as she wasn’t used to hearing it over suit comm.
Thorne immediately reached for his rifle.
“Who?” Meomi checked her mini-map and found no hostiles.
“Something close. Something hungry. So very hungry…” Inoke hid behind Throne.
Rayfin armed the Centurias droids.
“Heads up! Be ready for anything!” Thorne shouted.
The Centurias formed a protective perimeter around the team.
Minutes passed with no attacks.
“You think it could be a Mimic?” Rayfin asked, breaking the silence. "What if the Mimics were disguised as the trees and plants this whole time?" He gasped.
“No, our suits’ life sign detector can spot Mimics and warn us.” Meomi released the death grip on her rifle.
“Are they gone?” Rayfin eyed Inoke.
“There are more. Too many to count,” Inoke said with his eyes closed.
“Maybe they’re camouflaged.” Meomi switched her visor camera to the ultraviolet spectrum.
Dozens of insect-like creatures with scaly skin suddenly appeared on her helmet screen. Their flesh glowed a bright neon purple reflecting the ultraviolet light. The life forms had twelve legs, six on each side with hundreds of tiny black dots where eyes should be. Some were on the ground, less than a few meters away from the group. Others hung from the broad-leafed plants. Each monster was over a meter in size with the largest at two meters in length.
“Everyone! Switch to ultraviolet!” Meomi yelled.
“Don’t shoot them!” Thorne commanded.
“I don’t want to alarm anyone, but I think we’re outnumbered…” Rayfin added.
“If we fire our weapons, we might give away our position to the Mimics,” Thorne said.
“If these things eat us, does it matter?” Rayfin asked.
“I’m with Rayfin. We might not have a choice,” Meomi said.
“We do.” Thorne turned to his travel companion. “Inoke.”
“You want us to feed them Inoke?” Rayfin asked in a surprised voice. “He’s a quiet kid, but I don’t think we should feed him to alien lizard-insects…”
“No!” Thorne snarled. “Inoke. Can you tell them we mean no harm?”
“Too many.” Inoke shook his head. “Too many are hungry.”
“If they’re like any other pack animal, all we have to do is get the leader to back down,” Meomi said.
“Um, lizards are pack animals?” Rayfin asked.
“Inoke, see if you can direct your thoughts to the largest one. Concentrate on getting it to leave,” Thorne ordered.
“I’ll try.” Inoke closed his eyes and concentrated.
BOOM!
A giant explosion went off near the volcano behind them.
All but Meomi spun around to look. Her eyes stayed fixed on the largest lizard.
BOOM!
A massive blue fireball shot out of the volcano.
BOOM!
A second blue fireball blasted into the sky.
“What is that? Is the volcano erupting?” Rayfin yelled.
The creatures scampered away, running at surprising speeds given their size.
BOOM!
A third fireball. All three flaming spheres headed into space.
“No…” Thorne breathed.
“What’s wrong?” Meomi asked.
“Those are weapons.”
“Weapons? Heading to space...” Her face turned ashen. “The Cerberus…” As quickly as she could, Meomi switched to the comm frequency of the Cerberus. “SHIELDS! SHIELDS! This is Captain Hana. Activate shields!"
10
A dazed Meomi stared at the cloudless sky. Jumbled voices tugged at her senses. Her mind felt light as if it was floating away from her body. Then the buzzing in her ears abruptly faded, re-introducing her back to reality.
Thorne stood in front of Meomi and held onto her shoulders. “Captain Hana… Hey…” He shook her. “Meomi…”
Rayfin sat on the ground with his head buried in his hands. “No… No… No… No way the Cerberus is gone… There could be hundreds of reasons why they aren’t responding to our comms…”
“You’re right Ensign,” Thorne said. “There could be some sort of interference now we’re closer to the volcano.”
Meomi shoved Thorne away. “Don’t touch me!” She turned her back to him.
Thorne tapped Inoke. “Can you sense anyone on the Cerberus?”
He shook his head and dropped his chin to his chest.
“That doesn’t mean anything, right?” Rayfin shouted at Inoke. “They could still be alive?”
Inoke shrugged his shoulders and looked away.
“No… It’s impossible for the Cerberus to be targeted.” Rayfin’s voice squeaked. “The ship is on the other side of the planet!”
“Ask Valric if he can detect the Cerberus in orbit,” Thorne said to Inoke.
“I already did.”
“And?” Meomi approached the Entrent who was hiding his face behind Thorne.
Inoke hesitated as he looked into Meomi’s eyes. “Valric says the Cerberus does not show up on scanners and there is no trace of debris around the planet.”
“That means… the ship is fine? No debris means no explosion, right?” Rayfin’s voice perked up. “Then what were those giant blue balls of energy and where were they going?”
In the two years since Meomi took command of the Cerberus, she never lost a single crewmate. “We should head back to the shuttle.” In the past two weeks, starting with the loss of Lieutenant Remy, she may have lost her entire crew. Everyone but Rayfin. “We need to make sure the Cerberus is still up there.” Meomi thought back to the last conversation with Commander Rhyne. Usually, the First Officer lead the away missions. If the Cerberus was destroyed, she should have been on it, not him. Meomi felt like she cheated death once again.
“Captain Hana. We can’t turn back,” Thorne said coolly.
“Why not?” Meomi flared her nostrils.
“We have a mission to complete.”
“That’s our friends and family!” Rayfin said nearly screaming. “I’m with Captain Hana. If she wants to go back, we’re going back.”
“Everyone, please take a breath,” Thorne gestured for the team to lower their voices.
“There is no mission without the Cerberus.” Meomi could feel a twitching underneath her eye. There was a callousness in Thorne’s voice that bothered her immensely.
“We have to keep going, Captain Hana,” Thorne switched to a pleading voice. “There is more to this mission besides finding the Mimic base.”
“What else is there? What aren’t you telling us?” Bubbles of anger began surfacing inside. Meomi stood an arm�
��s length away from Thorne with her fingers curled into a fist.
“I have reason to believe there are many answers here.” Thorne took a step back as if recognizing Meomi’s near-boiling point. “Answers revealing the conspiracy that has secretly usurped control of Fleet High Command.”
“If I find out you risked the lives of my entire crew on some idiotic hunch…” Meomi’s fists shook.
“Choose your next words carefully, Captain.” Thorne dug his heels.
Meomi gritted her teeth while the pounding in her ears intensified. Her chest felt hollow and heavy all at once. It pained her to breathe. She believed she had been lied to by Thorne, and even if he wasn’t, she didn’t care. Her crew and her ship were gone — all because she trusted him when a part of her screamed not to.
Thorne held up his hands. “Cap…”
With the slight movement of his lips, the anger inside Meomi flashed to ignition. She charged at Thorne, lunging at him.
“Captain!” Rayfin yelled.
Meomi ignored the voices around her calling for reason and civility.
Thorne sidestepped to his left, trying to avoid her takedown, but she was faster this time, anticipating his counter. They both tumbled to the ground.
“ENOUGH!” screamed the Entrent. He placed his gloved hands on both of their helmets.
A flash of white light blinded Meomi for a moment. She squinted her eyes closed. Upon opening them again, Meomi found herself alone in a jungle. “Where… Where did everyone go?”
Soft murmurs sprouted from a tall, fern-like plant to her left.
Meomi trod lightly as she approached the voices. Tentatively, she cleared away the leaves to see the deck of the Cerberus before her. Alarms sounded across the ship.
Commander Rhyne’s voice rang over the intercom. “Abandon ship! All hands, abandon ship!”