by A. K. DuBoff
“I don’t want anyone relying on it—it’s too new,” I insisted.
He held up his hands. “Fine, suit yourself.” I could tell he wasn’t happy about that arrangement, but I appreciated that he respected my wishes on the matter.
Frankly, I didn’t know why I was so reticent, either. The best explanation I had in the moment was that I didn’t want anyone to look at me like I was different or special. Right now, we needed to be a unified team. If I was called out as having alignment to multiple disciplines, I’d be set apart. The bonds with my teammates were what would get us through the coming trial, not showing off. I’d use my new abilities to help if the circumstances demanded it, but otherwise, unity was paramount.
And, more than that, the nature of my magic scared me. The ability to crush and rend—that wasn’t strength I took lightly, and I vowed that I would only use it when there was no other choice.
Kaiden and I returned to the landing site to find Toran and Maris staring at the portable display screen for the crystal interface equipment.
“Find what you need?” Kaiden asked the other man.
Toran nodded. “I believe so. Once I got over the initial shock, I located the signal a half-memory hinted I should be able to identify.” He went on to explain something about segmenting the signal and pairs of fragments across different worlds. I only partially listened, knowing it wasn’t relevant to anything I had to do.
He finished what he needed to gather the necessary data, and then we returned to the shuttle.
“This might take hours to analyze,” Toran said as we strapped into our seats.
“Don’t have that long,” I replied. “We need to beat that first alien ship. And, we have no idea how long it takes them to mobilize.”
“Wanting things to go faster doesn’t change reality,” he replied.
I slouched in my seat. “Do what you can.”
The ensuing hours were torture while I tried to be patient for Toran to finish the analysis. His initial projection was eight hours, but after two and a half, the pairs were well enough established for us to load the data into a spatial model.
“Should be right… here,” Toran said as he made the requisite entries.
The holographic interstellar model above our work table refreshed to show color-coded highlighted worlds with lines linking each pair. The lines intersected to converge on single location outside any known system.
“I guess that’s where we need to go,” Maris said.
Kaiden nodded. “I’ll alert the commander.”
Within minutes, we were in our pod room stripping down to prepare for the jump. I still hadn’t quite wrapped my head around what we were about to do—taking a shuttle to board an alien vessel that contained tech capable of disintegrating a ship. Even if our bodies were resistant to the Darkness, our suits would be slowly eaten away. Granted, the enemy ship would have formed and the aliens would have taken us out well before the suits failed, but still. I liked living, and the odds weren’t in our favor for making it out of this next encounter unscathed.
“Have a good jump,” Kaiden said as he climbed into his pod.
“Jumping to our doom!” Maris exclaimed with even more melodrama than usual.
Toran sighed. “I choose to believe we’ll prevail.”
“Of course we will.” I dropped onto the ergonomic couch within my pod. “See you soon.”
However, as I strapped into the harness, my private worries and doubts continued to multiply in my mind. I did my best to propose counterpoints about the capabilities of my team and my own skills—both those familiar and still being discovered—but the isolation and disorientation of the jump through hyperspace left me running through contrary arguments. One part of me wanted to take what we knew and go back to the Capital to regroup with whatever experts the Hegemony could locate, while the other part of me was convinced we needed to forge ahead with our insane plan. However, the closer we got to our destination, the more I wondered if a more conservative strategy was a better move. Though only a few hours had passed, the alien ships could have already traveled through the anomaly. We very well may be walking into another trap, only this time, alone.
When the Evangiel began its transition back into normal space, I tried to refocus on the task at hand. The decision had already been made. We were doing this, last-minute reservations or not.
As soon as our pods opened, we sat up to stretch while our senses normalized.
I smoothed my hair away from my face. “When do—”
The central alarm sounded, and Colren came over the intercom. “Battle stations! Dark Sentinel team to the hangar immediately.”
We vaulted out of the pods and started to dress as quickly as possible.
“Shit!” Kaiden exclaimed. “Did they beat us here?”
I shook my head. “Must be.”
Toran groaned. “I thought we would be fast enough.”
“They didn’t need to find the coordinates like us,” Maris pointed out unhelpfully.
With my pants and boots donned, I grabbed my coat and sword to carry with me; I’d just have to take them off again when I put on the EVA suit. “Come on, let’s get to the hangar.”
The others gathered their remaining gear and followed me at a jog out of the pod room. We hurried to the lift and took it down to the hangar level.
Tami was waiting for us next to one of the shuttles—a different craft than the one we’d used on previous missions. “There might still be time,” she said by way of greeting. “We loaded the bomb and your other equipment before the jump. I’ll explain the activation on your way over.”
“Are the alien ships here?” Kaiden asked while we were ushered up the shuttle’s entry ramp.
“The anomaly is forming,” Tami replied. “Hopefully you can make it to the site before the first ship.”
At least we still had a chance. “See you when we get back,” I said.
The engineer nodded. “Good luck.”
In a flurry of activity, the shuttle’s outer door was sealed and we set down our handheld gear in the common area. A black crate and four EVA suits were spread out on the deck.
“Should we get dressed now?” Maris asked.
“Need to get underway first.” Kaiden directed us toward the bridge to get situated.
“How long is it going to take to get into position?” I asked while strapping into the co-pilot’s seat.
“Should only be a few minutes. Looks like Tami got it warmed up for us,” Kaiden said as he looked over the controls. “I guess we’re doing this.”
I nodded. “Yeah, let’s get it over with.”
Kaiden activated the auto-pilot to guide our shuttle to pre-programmed coordinates near the anomaly. “I’ll take over once we’re near the alien ship and know what we’re working with.”
Maris sighed. “So much for a briefing… or a plan.”
“The plan is that we wing it,” I replied. The truth, though, was that I hadn’t pictured the moments before our mission being anything like this. I thought we’d complete the jump, have an opportunity to scout out the anomaly before it opened, and be able to get into an ideal position to board the enemy ship. Now, we’d be lucky if we made it close enough before the enemy ship’s weapons were functional.
The shuttle taxied from the hangar and glided through the electrostatic field. The moment we were clear, a chime sounded in my left ear.
“Sorry for the abrupt departure,” Colren said. “We observed an energy spike as soon as we came out of the pods.”
“You’re right—can’t risk it,” Kaiden responded.
“I’ll be standing by here to reset using the shard if anything goes wrong,” Colren said.
The promise of nearby backup should have been reassuring, but I knew better. “We need to treat it like this is a one-shot deal, because it is,” I replied. “After this, they’ll know this strategy. We can only catch them by surprise this way once.”
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“That’s true,” the commander acknowledged.
Toran unstrapped from his seat. “We need instructions about how to deploy the disruptor.”
“Yes, Tami will be on in a moment with her technician,” Colren stated.
“Let’s get dressed in the meantime,” I suggested, unbuckling my own harness.
Kaiden glanced between me and the controls. “All right.”
The four of us hurried single-file into the common area to claim our EVA suits. The form-fitting suit felt constrictive once I tugged it on, but I suspected that was more in my head than reality. A vague memory tickled the back of my mind about wearing the suit another time and things not ending well. I could only hope this scenario would play out better.
“Placing the disruptor will be the most challenging part,” Tami said, joining the comm link. “Brian, one of the weapons techs, is here to explain.”
“The disruptor will work best if attached to a large physical mass, ideally the hull of the alien ship,” an unfamiliar male voice said over the comm. “The goal is to destroy the anomaly-portal, so you’ll want to place it on the ship as close to the spatial event as possible.”
“Great, but how are we supposed to accomplish that in… what, two minutes?” I asked.
“That’s why I said, ‘as possible’,” Brian replied. “You can only do so much. Just flip the red switch once you have it in place—that will activate the remote trigger.”
“And then you wait for us to get clear?” Kaiden said.
Brian paused for much longer than I would have liked. “Yes,” he responded eventually.
“While setting the disruptor, observe anything you can,” Colren instructed. “This may be our only chance to get close and learn about these beings… whatever they are. Feeds from your EVA suits will report in real-time. And, Toran, you’ll find a device sitting on top of the disruptor that might assist in interfacing with the alien ship’s system.”
“I see it,” Toran acknowledged.
I exchanged glances with my team, now even more concerned than before that this was a suicide run. “We’ll do our best, Commander.”
A rapid beep sounded from the bridge. “That’s our cue!” Kaiden said, running back to the front of the vessel.
I followed close behind him. Out the viewport above the nose, the spatial anomaly had taken on a white glow, and an ethereal sparkle was rippling across the space that had appeared matte black moments before. “Stars, what…?”
“It’s beautiful,” Maris murmured.
Before I could wonder too much, a dark form began to emerge. My breath caught in my throat. “The ship is coming through.”
24
The alien vessel was more menacing up close. Even with only a few dozen meters exposed at the horizon of the anomaly, it already looked sinister. Inky tendrils intertwined to form the support structure, and a fine mesh with a fibrous appearance spanned the beams. There were no viewports or other openings, just blackness inside and out.
I stared at the ship with distaste. “We’re going in… there?”
“Assuming we can find a way in.” Kaiden took over manual control of our shuttle and directed it toward the spatial anomaly.
“Don’t get too close,” Toran cautioned.
Kaiden cracked a wry smile. “Sorry to break this to you, but the entire point is to get close.”
“Why did I agree to this?” Maris moaned. She waved her hand in the back seat and a shimmering purple wave of light extended outward, encasing all but the shuttle’s engines.
I nodded back at her. “Thanks. Good thinking.”
Kaiden accelerated toward the outer edge of the spatial disturbance until we were twenty meters from it.
From so close, the sparkling light had the nuance of a cloud, swirling with highlights and shadows. The alien ship really did seem to appear from nothing—dark particles appeared against the white background moments before they joined together in their proper places to form the ship. Of all the amazing things I’d witnessed over the past week, this was one of the most incredible based purely on the scale. The ship rose at least two hundred meters tall, and here it was, apparently being 3D-printed from a glowing cloud.
“Stars, we need to find a place to get inside,” Kaiden muttered under his breath, eyes darting across the uneven surface of the ship.
“There’s no time to search,” Toran said. “We need to make an opening.”
“Helmets on,” I announced.
Maris frowned. “What—”
“Kaiden, bring us around so the side door is facing the ship. Get as close as you can,” I instructed.
He nodded and then did as I’d instructed.
We clicked our helmets into place and switched to the suit comms.
“Toran, with me,” I said. “Secure the disruptor. We need to open the side hatch.”
Fortunately, he didn’t protest; seconds might make all the difference.
“Maris, keep that shield active,” I continued while I strapped my sword to my waist around the outside of my EVA suit. “I’m going to see what I can do about making us an opening. Everyone hold on to something!”
As soon as Toran had secured the disruptor, I released the emergency seal on the side hatch. The door flew open, and I held on for dear life as the compartment vented. The purple shield around me swelled as I moved away, flickering for a moment during the decompression and then stabilizing again.
“The shield keeps wanting to expand,” Maris said with a frown. “Something feels different.”
“Might be the anomaly,” Kaiden said over the comm. “I remember something about that from another timeline.”
“Hold it as steady as you can.” I grabbed a length of emergency cord from the supply locker next to the door and hurriedly tied it around my waist. The action was so familiar to me, but I couldn’t think of why. I just knew I needed to get outside of the shuttle and make us an opening.
Ninety seconds. We’d barely have any time inside.
Without hesitation, I gripped my sword in my left hand and pushed off from the doorframe, launching myself toward the side of the ship five meters away. As I approached the alien hull, I angled my sword to pierce it.
The blade embedded. I could sense resistance for the first two-thirds of the length of the blade, then an open cavity beyond. With all my strength, I wedged my feet into the uneven covering on the ship to get enough leverage to pull down. I ripped a meter-long gash. It wasn’t nearly enough. I’d maybe be able to create a person-sized opening in time, but there was no way we’d be able to get the shuttle inside, and the alien vessel was far too large for us to have a chance to make it anywhere into its depths on foot. But, I’d take getting inside at all over complete failure. Even so, I’d need help.
“Kaiden, fireball now!” I yelled into my comm.
“Maris, get the disrupter,” Toran instructed. I could just make out the telltale signs of him running back to the bridge to take the flight controls.
A moment later, Kaiden came onto the comm, “Elle, get clear!”
I shoved off the hull of the alien vessel and swung back toward our shuttle using the tautness of the cord. When I was mid-arc, a bright flash of blue overpowered the white light cast by the anomaly, and in the corner of my vision the largest plume of flames I’d ever seen Kaiden cast erupted from the end of his staff. As I reached the side of our shuttle, the flames were dying back, leaving a charred tunnel into the alien ship. If the anomaly was enhancing our magic, at least we could use that to our advantage.
Kaiden’s staff illuminated with a light orb on its tip. “I’ve got the interface device. Come on!” Gripping his staff in one hand and the equipment pack in the other, he launched himself from the hatch toward the new opening into the alien ship.
“You’re all crazy!” With the half-meter-long disruptor box in her hands, Maris followed him in the mad flight across the void.
I needed to get to the
ir position, but my own entry angle was way off. I untied the cord from around my waist and hoped for the best. Steadying myself with a handhold, I squatted against the hull. I leaped toward the opening.
Mid-flight, I realized I was going to overshoot my mark by at least two meters. “I need something to grab!” I shouted. The section of hull was full of the spongy substance that seemed to writhe in interlocking layers, reminding me of tentacles that echoed deep in my memory. I feared if I embedded in it, I might not be able to claw my way out.
Just in time, Kaiden’s staff shot out into my flight path. I managed to grab it in my right hand and hang on. He pulled me inside.
“Hurry!” He began scrambling inward as soon as I was safe.
The interior was much like the outside—black structural fibers that looked more grown than manufactured. The open cavity that I thought I’d detected inside when I jabbed my sword through the hull was actually just a pocket of the moss-type material forming a connective mesh between the structural beams. As far as I could tell, the vessel wouldn’t be able to hold an atmosphere, unless there were other containment systems not readily visible. There also didn’t appear to be conventional corridors or interior components. Frankly, I wasn’t sure how the ship could even operate.
“Let’s get in there,” Maris said. An orange wave overlaid on the purple, and the subtle pulsing of the ship’s walls around me slowed as my own movements and perception accelerated.
The haste spell would get us extra seconds, but not enough to make up for the other delays. We needed to move. Fast.
Kaiden took the lead, shooting occasional bursts of blue flame to clear the path ahead, the apparent influence of the anomaly enhancing the flames.
The gravity inside the ship left us midway between weightlessness and normal. Gentle pushes sent us rocketing forward, and we soon found we could run along the walls and floor through the cylindrical opening left by Kaiden’s flames. He angled us backward in the direction of the anomaly while tunneling deeper into the ship.
We’d gone nearly one hundred meters when we entered a chamber that appeared to be a natural structure within the ship rather than simply the tunnel Kaiden had bored. It wasn’t large—approximately four meters on each side—but it felt spacious after the tight confines of the flame-forged path. At the center of the space, a bulbous mound protruded approximately two meters from the floor, layered with a tighter weave of fibers than the surroundings. I was inexplicably drawn to it, sensing a power within.