A prolonged string of static-infected expletives punctured the Esprit.
“Force, what's going on?”
“Some. . .zzzzzz. . . happening! Can't disengage!” His voice wavered in and out over the static.
“Seriously?” She shot a look over to Venturion. He nodded back confirmation. There was a moment's silence as they digested the news.
“Talk to me,” Force's strained voice called. “Thing's . . . got me!”
“Stand by, we're trying,” was all Kellis could come up with. Plan B was out the window. So were plans C, D and everything else, too.
Venturion spun up a holographic image of their location, T'Non'Za and the red dot that was Force. A faint veil of energy enveloped Force from the planetoid.
“What the hell is that now?” Paolo gasped.
“Gravity,” replied Venturion. “Gravitons being absorbed from Force and redirected at him?” He was uncertain, guessing. He looked at Kellis for her interpretation.
“Gravity? But shouldn't Force be able to counteract his own power?” Bright asked. Her expressionless face still relayed her concern.
An explosion of pain erupted from comms.
“Hnnnn. . . being crushed. . . hope done expositionin'. . . help me!”
“Dammit, Venturion, what's happening?” Kellis tried to stare out the port, but she could barely make out T'Non'Za in the darkness and it was only a few kilometers behind them. She'd have no way of seeing Force.
“Increasing gravity. . .” Force's voice spluttered over comms. “Try and batter. . . thing!”
“Be careful!” Kellis said.
His reply arrived a few seconds later than expected. “Hey. . . survived. . . end. . . universe. . . . survive this!”
“Mom!” Bright was by her side, almost excited with an idea. “What about the Astrals or super-assed Great Races helping us? Where are they?”
Great question, thought Kellis. Here was a temporal catastrophe heading for Home and no one was coming to their rescue.
“It seems it's just us, honey,” she replied. She wouldn't even know how to contact any of them, even Aristedes and Starshina. They hadn't left so much as a forwarding address or emergency contact. “It's just us!” she repeated.
That thought gave her confidence. “Look,” she addressed the others. “This could only mean the powers-that-be out there have faith that we'll save ourselves so have left us to it. It's already history for them.” She didn't want to think of the alternative. But others did.
“Or that we're not worth saving,” Venturion stated.
“Or what has happened has happened badly and they won't change time for us!” Paolo jumped in straight after.
Kellis regretted telling him about the Astrals. She stared him down.
“Okay, stop it! We're not going to think that way,” she fumed.
Venturion laughed. “You always told us Home was cursed!”
Only Kellis didn't laugh. She had always thought that. And for good reason.
“Update, Force,” she snapped out.
It was a while before his reply.
“. . .'date? Crystalator almost shot, too much data. . . crash. . . hold on. . . hold on!” he gasped in pain.
He was gone for so long, Kellis thought comms had indeed crashed.
Then Venturion yelled: “Force, look out, it's doing it again!”
Kellis didn't have to ask what had happened. She could see for herself both outside the Esprit and on the holo display. The dark shadowy form of T'Non'Za had changed velocity again. And not in a sedate manner. It had shot off into the distance, impossibly fast.
“That has gotta be a spaceship!” Venturion stood up and whistled. He sat and stared vacantly in awe.
“Chase it then!” shouted Kellis, clicking her fingers, angry at Venturion's distractedness.
Venturion snapped out of his wonderment. Fingers flew over control consoles. Esprit responded instantly lunging into lightdrive, thrusting space behind it in great warped waves.
Paolo, the erstwhile ship's science officer was calculating. “Shit, Kellis, at this velocity we'll be at Home in less than five days. We'll have to stop T'Non'Za, even if that means shooting it out of the sky!” He turned in horror to her knowing what that would mean for Force. For all of them.
“Five days? But we were a year out! How?” Bright asked.
Paolo tied in his station to the holo display. Data began spewing out. He shrugged, not sure what he was seeing.
“Is that . . .?” Venturion began.
“The strongest gravity drive I have ever seen or heard of,” Kellis finished. “The power T'Non'Za must have to do that. . .” she tried to think of some words, but failed.
“Unimaginable,” Venturion supplied his own.
It reminded Kellis of something but she couldn't think what.
“Well Force better think of something quick out there,” Paolo said. His lined face then creased more. “Oh, no, we have incoming.” He placed the image on holo.
The outlines of the twenty approaching vessels were unmistakeable. And more were on the way. They lay in the path of T'Non'Za, the Esprit trailing the planetoid.
“Constitutionate destroyers,” Paolo added needlessly.
“But Force?” Bright protested.”He's still out there!” She looked between her three elders for any plan.
Before Kellis could contact the advancing fleet, an incoming signal arrived. The Esprit's screen came to life with the image of a young Axalan warrior. His blue face was unmarked from war, but was handsome, his dark blue hair cut almost to the scalp. His stern features belayed the hunger in his dark eyes. Kellis shook her head. The new generation of Axalan warriory were so eager to prove themselves. This one would be no different. And it could cost them more than just Force's life.
“Esprit de Corps, Captain Lynn Kellis commanding, I am Tier-Commander Eklogar of the Constitutionate Fleet, commanding the Claw Semblance of Vengeance for the Home Forces Battalion. As per Constitutionate orders, T'Non'Za has substantially exceeded the perimeter threshold deemed safe to for diversion.”
Kellis listened with horror, knowing what his orders were.
“We have orders to destroy it!”
“With what?”
“You can't”
“No, no, no!”
Everyone spoke at the same time.
“Shush!” Kellis demanded. The Esprit went quiet. She turned back to the screen. “Tier-Commander, we have an asset, a crew member, out there on T'Non'Za. You cannot fire!”
Tier-Commander Eklogar nodded. “Standby.”
The screen went dark reminding Kellis of an old-fashion screen-saver. She quelled another reminiscence of the past. It never helped.
Silence followed for a full two minutes.
They're going to fire, Kellis knew. They were just getting final orders from Relentus, whether Force was on the rock or even Kellis herself. One person was not worth a planet full of people.
“Mom?” Bright was at her side. If she was afraid, she didn't show it. “What can we do?”
Kellis shook her head just as comms suddenly returned, Tier-Commander Eklogar's youthful face almost filling the screen. Behind him, Kellis could see his crew readying for action on the bridge.
“Captain Kellis,” he spoke, his Axalan-accented English startlingly compassionate, “With regret. . .”
Kellis cut him off immediately. “Force! Force, get off that godforsaken rock now! The bastard Constitutionate fleet is going fire. You will be destroyed. Move it! That's an order!”
No reply. No Static. No sign of life.
“Force!” screamed Kellis closer into the comms as if volume would make a difference.
“Dammit!” cursed Venturion, who then laughed out loud. “I bet that joker is already on his way back and is keeping radio silent to surprise us!” he continued to chuckle. “Idiot.”
Everyone instinctively looked out the portals and at the rear compartment door for his arrival.
“They're firing
!” Paolo leaped from his seat from looking at the holo display to stare in disbelief outside through the port. Bright sparks were thrust into the night from the fleet.
“Forty seconds to impact,” Venturion counted down.
“Take us out of range,” Kellis ordered. Venturion navigated them out the way. “Force respond. . . respond. . .” Kellis sweated, pleading for his voice, a joke, anything.
“Twenty seconds!”
“FORCE!” screamed Kellis again.
She tried to reach out telepathically. But nothing could be sensed.
“Ten, nine, eight. . .”
“Please, please. . .!”
Unbearable silence.
“Six, five, four. . .”
“Force?” A whisper.
“Three, two, one...”
“J.J.”
Incandescent fury erupted in the distance. Upgraded plasma torpedoes and thanium missiles, had detonated in blinding explosions.
“Kellis!” called out Venturion. He was at the console monitoring the strikes and aftermath.
But she knew there was nothing she could do. She watched terrified with the rest of them, memories of the Christmas Day Massacre on Consention Base flashing through her mind as if it had been yesterday. Then she remembered something. It was the month of Legens on Home, Vag 19. The years, months, and days were different on Home with a combination of human, Axalan and Bion terms for dates. New traditions had began with old festival dates and religions only practiced locally. But Kellis had almost forgot. On Earth it was Boxing Day, December Twenty-Sixth. Her world was falling apart again. And outside the Esprit the fire works were dying down.
The glare started to dissipate. Paolo rubbed his temples and eyes. Bright sat silently in the cabin, stunned.
“Kellis!” Venturion shouted again, breaking the calm solemnity.
Kellis heard the summons in his voice this time. But she didn't care to see what had happened. Why should she see what she already knew? Force was dead.
But Venturion was pounding at the controls, venting his frustration. “Kellis, something's wrong!” he finally concluded. “The explosions. . .” he tailed off.
“They didn't hit T'Non'Za,” Paolo was already studying the holographic screens. “They were repelled and . . . the fleet's gone!” He pointed at the screens showing over twenty ships all afire in the depths of space.
“Hell, what!” Kellis examined the data herself. “Gravity again,” Kellis stated quietly.
Information buzzed at the back of her head still unable to coalesce into a valid concept.
“How come we weren't attacked?” asked Bright, eyes wide with more questions no one could answer.
“No idea, maybe because we didn't attack it. But let's not look a gift horse in the mouth. We have to figure out what to do next.”
They all jumped when their comms sparked back into life with enough feedback static to jolt the dead to life.
“Tell the fleet to leave, Lynn. They'll be destroyed.”
There were a few seconds of realisation over the familiar voice. They looked at each other in overwhelming relief.
“Force? Oh my God, you're alive. Thank God! What happened?” Kellis asked, a great smile lighting her face.
But Force continued. His words were a rush of data.
“Warn the fleet. Warn Home. They have to evacuate.”
“Tell me something I don't know. Didn't you see the explosions? Where are you? Get back aboard and we'll warn Home!” She started looking out the port for him.
“We've got this all wrong,” Force's voice continued in a chilling fashion. “This isn't a planetoid. It's not a ship. And it's not a rogue encounter. Lynn,” his voice was a forceful tone, “someone has thrown a chunk of solidified black hole at us.”
“What? A piece of black hole?” Suddenly it hit Kellis: Gravity. Dense gravity. It was the missing piece in her mind. Kellis looked at Venturion and Paolo who both shrugged even as Force continued.
“I'd never heard of such a thing! No wonder we couldn't get sensors on it!” Force's speech quickened as if out of breath. “There's no hawking radiation, no information coming from it. It's an impossible middle existing between quantum physics and general relativity. It's getting more. . . gravimetrically active, stronger, as it closes on Home. S'why comms were affected. Time dilation. The friggin' thing's ramping up with power. We are under attack!” he wheezed.. “Evacuate Home! Let them know!”
“Force, can you hear me?” Kellis asked. Fear started trickling down her spine.
There was a strained silence. Static pitched and wailed.
“Oh, by the way, Lynn,” he hesitated for a while; a hint of a pained smile in his voice. “I think you think we're having a conversation, but we're not. I'm. . . I'm already dead.”
Kellis looked in desperation at the others. She suppressed a gasp.
“Stop joking around, you ass!” she rasped. This had to be a joke. Kellis wanted to sit but couldn't move. Nobody moved.
A coarse laugh escaped over comms ending in a coughing fit. “By the time you hear this I've been dead for a good ten minutes. Crushed most likely. Hope I don't suffer,” he wheezed. “I'm sorry I let you down. My powers would never have defeated this gravity monster. It's sucked my powers right out of me. Wish I could have turned it into a giant fluffy marshmallow, but, you know.” He was silent for a while longer.
Kellis didn't make it to a seat. Her knees buckled to her chest as she sank down the hull. She closed her eyes tightly trying to blank everything out.
“Don't worry about me, Lynn, you'll never retrieve my body in this denseness. Just warn Home!” He made a noise of pain as if fighting for breath. “Lynn, Lynn, I lo. . .”
Everybody listened for his next words which never came. The line was dead. The fleet was gone. Force was. . .
Kellis compelled herself to stand up. All eyes were on her, stunned, glazed, sad. Kellis didn't look into any them.
“What do we do now, mother?” Bright asked, her voice raised to break the grieving atmosphere rather than an emotional outburst.
Kellis looked at her daughter, thoughts rolling around her head. This was war.
“You heard him,” Kellis' own voice was quiet. “Warn Home, now!” She found herself shaking with anger. “We live to fight another day!”
Paolo reacted quicker than Venturion, contacting Home's Council headquarters in Relenta City.
“Venturion, cut us a wide berth around that fucker! We're running for Home,” Kellis ordered.
Venturion complied in silence.
It was a quiet flight back to Home.
On Legensvag 19, Home Year 32 (Earth year 2254), the Constitutionate world of Home was destroyed. Or was it? Experts from all over the Constitutionate did not know. T'Non'Za had slammed into home, but with no apparent destruction. Had T'Non'Za enveloped Home? Perhaps absorbed the planet? It just resembled a large black swirling storm in space. No one could elucidate the mysteries of T'Non'Za.
The planet had barely been evacuated in time with refugees heading to Earth and her colonies on Alphas Centuri and Proxima or to Axala and her worlds. The Bions only repatriated their own residents.
Home was now just a black mass, a seemingly planetary singularity at the heart of a black hole which didn't grow or emit any radiation. There was no way of piercing its dark heart for information. No way of saving Home.
The Constitutionate banned all travel to within a light year, but kept remote sensors in orbit to monitor the phenomenon.
Kellis had vowed one day to return and defeat the enemy who had visited this atrocity upon them.
From within the denseness of the black gravity storm, several tall dark figures emerged from portals. They surveyed the destroyed land before them; the air a seething mass of millions of black tornadoes.
Standing amongst the spiraling deathtraps, cold air coiling around him, Techmoses announced with throaty satisfaction:
“Threshold complete.”
APPENDIX A
/> FAMILY LINES
MILLENNIAR CELESTRA
| |
MILLENNIUS DESTINA
__________________|________________ ________|________
| | | | |
(LORD) AEON HELEXIUS TIMECHANTRESS ------ NETHERLORD ARCHRON
____|______ | |
| | | |
TIME WINDBURST LIGHTSTREAM CELESTRA
SPHERON ZATER JEN
| ______|______
| | |
SPHERON SYNTHER PHASIA (-- MILLENNIUS)
| | |
SOLA AZURE HELLENNIUS
NOVAN MECCUS
| |
ALPHATRONIUS ---------------------- ELYSIUS
_________ ______________|________________________
| | | | |
NOVAN DECION ALPHA RION ASTARA SOLANDUS
JERICHON SOLATIA ATTANIAN
____|____ ______|______ ____|______
| | | | | |
ACIRRIUS HYPHON ------ ULTRA ARI IRIA -- SOLA VENGA AURON (-- IRIA)
____|_____ | |
| | | |
CIRRIUS URANA AERL – THE SCEPTRE ALTAIR
CELESTIAN KNIGHT
STARGUARD
ASTRAL
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THE STARGUARDS
continues in
BOOK 5 – The Celestian Odyssey
TALES TO BEHOLD
PROLOGUE
CHAPTER ONE
CHAPTER TWO
INTERLUDE
CHAPTER THREE
CHAPTER FOUR
INTERLUDE 2
The Destinia Apocalypse (The Starguards - Of Humans, Heroes, and Demigods Book 4) Page 23