by A. K. DuBoff
“That’s true, the form of the creator often does transfer into design,” Toran agreed while we hurried toward the hanger. “Like, our bipedal robots.”
Kaiden frowned. “Let’s hope that they didn’t make those shadowcats to be cute little pets in the way we’d breed hamsters.”
“Yeah, nope.” I shook my head. “Not going to think about it.” I knew from experience that I could have an active imagination and assume the worst, so there was no way I could let myself start thinking about what a guard dog might look like if the shadowcats were the equivalent of little fuzzballs that liked to munch on carrots.
We entered the hangar to find it more crowded than it ever had been since our arrival on the Evangiel. Crew members were busy inspecting all the fighters lined up on the far side of the hangar deck, and two of the remaining three shuttles were being prepped. I tried to pick Tami out of the forty or more people darting around the cavernous room. After thirty seconds of observation, I spotted her at a control station near the port bulkhead.
“Let’s find out where to get our stuff,” I said, jogging toward her.
We slowed to a walk as we neared the control station.
Tami was absorbed in her monitor, but as we walked up, she pivoted to one of her techs. “Have you completed the initialization sequence?”
“Yes, the P-85s are idling. Awaiting the launch order.”
“How about—” Tami cut off when she saw us, her face flushing. “What are you doing here?”
“We came to get our gear,” I replied.
“Your—” She sighed and it turned into a swear under her breath. “All right, fine. The decontamination cycle should be finished. It’s over there in the tent.”
“Thank you.” Toran paused. “Is there anything we can do to help you?”
She laughed. “Tell me what kind of loadout I should give to our fighters? Stars, we may as well be staring into a blank black box.”
“What’s going on out there?” I asked her.
“All I know is that the engagement protocol Colren issued is for the highest risk scenarios with likely loss of life.”
Maris sucked in a sharp breath next to me.
“We need to find out what the commander knows,” I said.
“Whatever it is, I don’t want to know. I just keep the ships flying,” Tami muttered.
“It will all work out,” I told her. I hated generic platitudes, but it was all I could think to say in the moment.
She nodded. “Thanks. We’ll do what we can.”
“Incendiary rounds,” Kaiden said as he headed toward the decontamination tent.
“Hmm?”
“The loadout for the fighters. Incendiary rounds,” he repeated to Tami. “The creatures in the Darkness don’t like fire.”
11
Getting my sword and other gear hadn’t set me at ease the way I’d hoped it would. We were still on a ship, reliant on the craft and crew.
“I want to see what’s going on,” I stated.
“Didn’t we agree to go back to the lounge and wait this out?” Toran protested.
I smiled. “Since when do we stick to the plan?”
“And things have gone so well for us whenever we improvise.” Maris rolled her eyes.
“I think we’d all like to understand what’s happening. It’s not like we’re reinterpreting orders this time,” I replied.
“I’m not confident they will let us on the bridge, but I’d like to try,” Kaiden agreed.
“Only one way to find out.” Hand on my sword’s hilt, I strode toward the hangar exit.
“Colren is totally going to yell at us,” Kaiden murmured, walking abreast.
“Yeah, but maybe we can learn something in the process.”
“You know,” Toran said behind me, “we might be able to tap into the feed from the front viewport and the general sensor suite. Given the directory I accessed earlier, I’m pretty sure I have the right permissions.”
I smiled back at him. “But what’s the fun in that?”
“For the record, I have no problem observing from a distance,” Maris interjected.
“Noted. Now, let’s go find the middle of the action.” I continued forward with renewed purpose.
As much as I pretended to be the reluctant hero, I loved being in the thick of it. I’d dreamed of being a Ranger on the Space Force, and this was my chance to skip Tactical School and live out my fantasies. Granted, the mortal danger wasn’t ideal, but I couldn’t imagine sitting back and watching from afar while more worlds were consumed by Darkness. As we stood on the precipice of direct contact with the aliens behind the attack, I wanted to see it firsthand.
Kaiden and I led the way up the lift to the command deck. The corridors had cleared out while we retrieved our gear, giving us a straight shot to our destination. At the entry door to the bridge, Kaiden pressed the buzzer. We were normally buzzed in almost instantaneously, but this time, no response came.
“I don’t think they want to talk to us,” Maris said.
Toran nodded. “Let’s go back to the lounge room.”
“Not yet.” I tapped the comm activation point behind my left ear. “Commander, we’re here to help.”
“Elle, I’d expected your team to remain in your quarters.”
“Well, you didn’t say that, and we’re here now, so…”
The comm cut out for a few seconds. “Honestly, we could use another set of eyes on this.” The door buzzed open.
I disconnected the comm link and smiled at my team. “See?”
Toran shook his head. “I can’t believe that worked.”
Kaiden eyed me. “Have you always been this assertive?”
“Stars, no! But having a badass magic sword is a major confidence booster.” I was still somewhat surprised by the ongoing changes in myself. I’d done reckless things and always had a bit of a rebellious streak, but outright standing up to authority and making myself heard was a new attribute. At one time not long ago, I hadn’t even wanted to tell my parents that I wanted to attend Tactical School; now, I was expecting a Hegemony commander to include me in decision-making. The changes seemed to become more pronounced every time I tapped into my new abilities. Eventually, I wondered if I’d even recognize myself.
We entered the bridge, and the crew members didn’t even glance at us. Commander Colren’s attention was glued on the front viewport.
At the center of the starfield, an almost imperceptible distortion warped the appearance of the stars behind it. I squinted, trying to make it out. “What is that?” I whispered to Kaiden.
“Must be the ‘anomaly’.”
We slowly approached the back of the command chair, waiting for Colren to acknowledge us. He finally turned around, looking more openly distraught than I’d ever seen him in our two weeks on the Evangiel.
“We’ve never seen anything like it,” he murmured.
I gestured at the distortion. “Was it here when we arrived?”
The commander nodded. “We didn’t notice it at first, but when we scanned the area, it showed up on all of the non-visual displays. What you see on the screen is augmented with a holographic overlay; there’s nothing to see with the naked eye.”
“I knew this place felt wrong,” Kaiden said to me.
“Is it related to the Darkness?” Toran asked.
Colren stood up from his seat. “Considering we can’t see it against the void, in some ways it seems like pure Darkness. The anomaly is disturbing because it’s radiating gravity like a black hole, but there is no event horizon or debris field.”
My stomach flopped. “If it’s not a black hole, could this be the location of a system that was completely consumed by Darkness?”
“If it was, we’d have no way to verify it,” the commander replied.
“But we do know our tech came from another civilization. This may have all happened before,” I said.
Kaiden nodded. “We saw what looked like
weapons fire on Crystallis, remember.”
“Yes, remnants of past wars could be all around us,” Colren said. “But whatever this is, it’s not dormant. It’s emitting a signal that’s made up of components from the others we’ve observed.”
I tilted my head. “But not the same?”
“Not exactly, no. There’s another code segment we haven’t observed before.”
“May I see it?” Toran asked.
Colren accessed a panel next to his command chair, bringing up a hologram in the open area between the seat and the forward bulkhead. “Can you make any sense of this?”
Toran stepped forward toward the projection, his eyes flitting around the displayed data.
As usual, it was all nonsense to me, though I did pick out waveforms that I recognized as components of the signal emitted from the crystals, which we’d also observed coming through the infected crystal on Windau. “How is a signal coming from a thing that’s essentially nothing?” I asked.
“Probably a wormhole,” Kaiden replied.
“There’s a hyperdimensional connection between the crystals, which exists outside of our normal spatial perception; that much has been clear for a long time,” Colren stated. “Whatever that link is, we might be witnessing it here in its true form without a crystal to enclose its terminus.”
That concept stopped me cold. There was much we didn’t know about the technology we took for granted in our everyday lives, but I’d always associated the crystals with connections between the worlds. It hadn’t occurred to me that any connections might extend beyond the known crystalline network.
“I’m not sure what to suggest,” Toran said. He took a deep breath. “The signal we picked up on Windau was only detectable through a hard connection, and other signals can be picked up in the vicinity. I don’t know where this one would be coming from.”
“From whatever the anomaly is connected to.” I looked at him. “I mean, it has to be connected to someplace else, right?”
“That is the only explanation,” he agreed.
“How do we find out where that is?” Kaiden asked.
Colren placed his hands on the back of his command chair. “I was hoping you might have some suggestions.”
“I don’t—” Toran began.
“What I meant is that you developed the detection system using the crystal pendants. Could that be adapted for longer distances?” the commander clarified.
Toran shook his head. “It’s only a proximity indicator. I don’t see how we’d use it to trace the signal anywhere.”
“Maybe you don’t need that approach at all,” I said in the ensuing pause. “Why go after the aliens at all when we can have them come to us? Force the engagement to be on our home turf.”
“Preemptive strikes have an advantage,” Colren replied.
“But only if you know what you’re facing, right?” I countered. “Even if we did trace this signal back to somewhere, that probably wouldn’t give us any more details about the aliens who sent it out. We’re here to study and assess the potential enemies themselves, not just where they might be from. Right? So, let’s observe, find a weakness.”
“Wait for them to come to us?” Colren asked.
“For now. All signs point to this being a hub of some sort for them. My guess is they’ll show up here eventually—and probably soon. The Evangiel and whatever other ships you want can be waiting here.”
He considered my statement. “The only reason I’d shied away from that approach is we have no way to predict what kind of ships they’ll possess or how many they’ll send.”
“What I saw in my vision was an entire fleet,” Kaiden said. “Not that those visions necessarily reflect reality, but there’s at least potential for more than a hundred ships.”
“Topping those numbers would be a huge commitment for the Hegemony’s resources. Our fleet is stretched thin with evacuation efforts on the infected worlds,” the commander responded.
My heart skipped a beat. “Evacuations? You never said anything about that before.”
“That information was outside the scope of your responsibilities and activities,” Colren stated.
“Yeah, wait, you never mentioned any ships being around to get people offworld when we went to get Elle or Maris,” Kaiden said.
“There weren’t any there,” the commander said.
“Then who? Where?” I pressed.
“Certain high-asset individuals and their families have been taken to secure locations,” he said slowly.
“Meaning government and military personnel,” Toran filled in.
The commander nodded. “Those decisions are made well above my paygrade. Most evacuations have been from the Capital as a preemptive measure.”
“I hope they at least threw in a few scientists,” Toran said. “I’m out of my depth with all of this—I’ve just gotten lucky.”
“More than luck,” Colren replied. “But yes, there are scientists who’ve been briefed on our latest developments. We’d hoped to rendezvous with them after the investigation here, but it looks like we may be sticking around here longer than I’d anticipated.”
Toran tilted his head. “We don’t need to meet in person. A vid chat via hyperspace relay would allow us to share ideas.”
“Good thinking,” the commander agreed. “I’ll talk with the admiralty about making a stand at this location against a potential invasion force. In the meantime, I’ll put you in contact with the research team so you can compare notes.”
“Sounds like a reasonable approach to me,” I said.
“What are the rest of us supposed to do?” Maris asked.
“Stay vigilant, but you’re free to pass the time however you see fit,” Colren said. “We’ll be at Threat Imminent status until further notice.”
“And, when things go down, should we… wander up here?” I asked.
He sighed. “I have a feeling that even if I said you should remain in your quarters you’d show up here anyway.”
“Most likely.”
Colren shook his head. “Then we may as well just make it your standing instruction to report here if and when any alien craft appear.”
I cracked a smile. It looked like we’d get a front row seat to the next show after all.
12
The red warning lights had changed to yellow by the time we were back in the corridor outside the bridge. “Anyone else have an overwhelming feeling of impending doom?” I asked my team.
Kaiden chuckled. “That’s been a pretty constant state for the last few weeks.”
“It just doubled down,” Maris replied. “I don’t know how we’re supposed to relax.”
“I, for one, will be trying to learn everything I can about this anomaly and how it works,” Toran stated. “I suggest you find your own ways to contribute.”
I wanted to help, too. It was the reason I’d wanted to venture down to Windau and was the same reason I’d embraced my transformation rather than trying to run away. But I felt like I was backed against a wall with my hands tied in this moment. Everything I’d learned about my new abilities related to skills that I’d be unable to exercise on a spaceship. So long as we were here, I had no idea what kind of ‘contribution’ I might be able to make.
“I guess I’ll head back to the lounge,” I said at last.
Kaiden nodded. “I’ll join you, unless some space plants appear that you need analyzed.”
We reached the lift and stepped inside.
Maris eyed us. “Would it cramp your style if I joined in?”
“Of course not,” I replied on reflex, only afterward realizing that it would have been nice to get some more couple time with Kaiden. However, maybe it was for the best we slowed things down a bit, especially given the new complication related to the potential alien fleet.
Momentary disappointment flitted across Kaiden’s face, but when his gaze met mine there was understanding in his eyes. “I still f
eel awkward just sitting around waiting.”
“Me, too. But, we don’t have the right skills to bring to this one. We need to leave it to the scientists,” I said.
Maris nodded. “I’m definitely out.”
The lift doors opened, and we stepped out into the corridor on the level housing our cabins and lounge.
“Well, you three sort that out. Reach me on my comm if you need anything. I’ll be in my cabin.” Toran walked quickly towards his cabin.
I sighed, plodding behind him at a slower pace. “More waiting. I had enough of that last week.”
“You know, we don’t have to wait in the lounge,” Kaiden said after we’d only gone a few steps. “We could get in some combat practice.”
Maris crossed her arms. “I thought there was a ‘no magic on the ship’ rule?”
“In all fairness, that was self-imposed rather than any official ruling from Colren,” Kaiden clarified. “If we can find an interior storage room or something, it might be a good opportunity to keep working on our combat skills.”
“Toran would say that’s a terrible idea,” I replied.
Kaiden smiled. “Toran isn’t with us right now, is he?”
Maris evaluated us. “I get the impression it’s a bad idea to ever leave the two of you unsupervised.”
“Nonsense! We’re completely responsible one hundred percent of the time,” I lied.
“Right, like when you dove out the back of the shuttle earlier,” she countered, missing the irony in my statement.
“Hey, I saved us.” That was the truth. The move was dangerous, yes, but we hadn’t had a lot of options. If I was going to be berated, it should be for doing something genuinely reckless—like when I climbed up the rock titan’s arm without a plan.
“I promise to not use any of the strong magical attacks,” Kaiden stated. “Besides, we made that rule when we were just starting to learn about our abilities; we all have a lot more control now.”
Maris smirked, looking us up and down. “You two have lost control in other ways.” She sauntered back to the lift and pressed the call button. “Are we going to practice, or what?”