The Force Paradox- Maodun

by F. E. Arliss

  Chapter Thirteen

  Not Gonna Happen

  The crew of the Bat had sailed peacefully through an enormous colony of Warajel. That was the name of the jellyfish looking things they’d heard about on Zabados 9. Really, Violet thought, they were beautiful. Even grumpy Jack had marveled at their grace as they’d floated effortlessly away from Bat’s slowed path, dancing and swaying easily in an intricate ballet.

  Several of the Warajel had tapped out brief messages on the translator chips. “Hello! We go. Softly move,’ were a few of the bits of translatable babble. The Warajel were definitely not aggressive, no matter the old men's ravings about them being acid spewing tanglers of death. Violet had swayed gently to the rhythms of the first group they’d spotted, mimicking their liquid-like movements and smiling serenely at their elegance.

  Little would she know that her movements and her first communication on the translation chip, “Oh, you are so beautiful and graceful,” had been so full of emotion and joy that she had won a piece of the Warajel’s hearts. Usually they were met with trepidation and aggression, or simply bombarded as a ship plowed through, not even trying to avoid damaging the colony of softly swaying lifeforms. Appreciating them and Jack slowing the Raptor to allow them to move out of the way, changed the course of Violet’s life, she just didn’t know it yet.

  When they were clear of the Warajel armada, Violet sank into her bunk and dreamed of them for hours, still connected mentally to the group. What she thought a dream was really a communication about their life and purpose. She woke knowing more about the Warajel than she realized. Their beauty left her in a peaceful mood for days. They could be extremely dangerous, she knew that now. Like her, they only attacked when threatened. Fair enough.

  Several weeks passed and Ben got closer and closer to having his fold-space drive operational. He’d run a few diagnostics but didn’t have it completely online yet. The excitement among the crew was growing though and he was frequently seen rubbing his hands together in thoughtful excitement.

  After a bumpy, nerve-wracking ride through an uncharted asteroid belt, the Bat emerged into a shockingly explosive, mad-cap, upside down galaxy of jungle planets and three suns. None of the crew had ever heard of anything like it. Drawing in close to a barren moon that seemed to be the only thing in the system that wasn’t covered with green slime-looking vegetation, the crew set to discover what, if anything, inhabited this system.

  It only took a few minutes for the database, the one up-to-date piece of equipment that the Guard had given them, to spit out the analysis: Home system of the Dreasing.

  “Ah, shite!” Jack exploded. “How ‘n hell did we end up here? These scaly bastards are like the worst of the worst when it comes to killin’ folks and stealin’ everything they can. Let’s get out of here,” he exploded as he began plotting a jump out of the area. “You’d think the Guard coulda told us that this was on the route they’ve given us. Bastards were probably tryin’ to kill us off.”

  Wheeling the Bat to make the jump, Violet gasped, “Crap! Crap! Crap!” As three small vessels lined with bronze-colored scaled armor and bristling with strange hook-like growths, lined up to block their departure. “Jack...I think those are Dreasing patrol ships!”

  “Yep, I reckon so too. No way in hell they're gonna let us leave. They’ll just kill us to get the sloop. I think we’d best strike first and ask questions later, girl!” Jack rapped out. “Bill! Ben! Man the cannons!” he barked over the comms.

  “Armor to full capacity!” Violet stated calmly. “I say let’s just blaze right through the sons of bitches and make the jump. Worst that can happen is we take a half of one of those ships with us. But half doesn’t get them anywhere with damaging or boarding us unless it explodes.”

  “Do it!” Jack gritted out, agreeing.

  Violet’s voice rang over the intercom, “I’m jumping! Blow a hole for me guys!” Then she proceeded to fire frontal laser, as the canons began barking above and below. Slowly, but steadily, Violet drove the power generator controls to full, then punched the jump drive control. Bat bucked as he rammed forward towards the jump point, all weapons firing.

  Dreasing guns fired into the Raptor’s armor full-frontal. Violet didn’t swerve or try to avoid them. The jump point was smack in the middle of the two rightmost patrol vessels. With laser guns on full-auto, Violet simply concentrated on hitting the mark and accelerating as fast as Bat could build power. One minute they were taking fire, the next they’d made the jump and were rocketing through an extremely rough jump to the onward coordinates.

  When they dropped out of the jump, an enormous buck of the Raptor pushed a large piece of debris from the nose of their vessel. It was a piece of one of the Dreasing ships. It broke loose and swirled lazily in space. Bill and Ben burst onto the bridge, straining to see if there was any movement from the Dreasing vessel.

  “Scanning for life signs,” Violet said. “None appearing on sensors.”

  Ben and Capp looked at Jack, “Ahhh, come on! Say we can reel it in and have a poke around,” Ben said, excitement edging his voice. “That’ll be the first piece of Dreasing tech I’ve ever seen,” he added, rubbing his hands together. “Might have something I need for my fold-space drive.”

  Jack sighed, “Go get it then. But hurry. They may not be far behind us. In the meantime, let’s find some cover, Vi,” he added, gesturing to a clump of asteroids floating along like an armada of whales to their starboard. “Get in there and match their speed.”

  “Ben, if you can’t grapple that thing on the first pass, you’re screwed. We’re heading for cover. Get it on the way, or leave it,” Jack barked. Ben and Capp scampered for the cargo bay.

  As Violet made the turn towards the flotilla of asteroids, she swung wide towards the drifting Dreasing ship remnant. “Makin’ it easy for ‘em, are ya?” Jack queried, a rough rumble of amusement in his voice.

  “Well, I hate to ruin the boys fun,” Violet said, grinning at him. “Plus, I’m curious too. I know you are too. You’re just worried about keeping us safe. If we can do both at the same time, I’m swinging wide.”

  Ben hooked in on the first firing of the grappling line. Violet had set him up with a clear shot of the drifting ship, so if he’d missed, she’d have had ribbing rights for months. “I’ll put us in among the rocks,” Violet stated. “Best go make sure there aren’t any live Dreasing in that thing before Ben pops the door with nothing more than a scanner for company!”

  Jack raised his eyebrows at her and grinned. “Tis’ a likely possibility,” he agreed. Then hustled from the bridge in clear eagerness to see the wreckage as well. Violet smiled to herself. For a bunch of old guys, they were incredibly boy-like!

  Two hours later the twisted remnants of the Dreasing vessel were booted back out into space. Ben and Capp had dragged out most of the usable components and had them spread across the only empty part of the bay. There’d been a partial body in one the engine rooms, Violet went down and looked at it carefully, one hand over her nose and mouth. They smelled absolutely horrible. As did the mechanical and digital parts they’d recovered. “What is this stuff made of?” She asked Capp. “It stinks so bad!”

  “Don’t know yet. My nose died after the first ten minutes. Took samples of the dead Dreasing. Ben’s putting them in the lab freezer for later. Right now we’re focusing on that,” Capp said, as he pointed to a sharply spiked piece of alien tech. “We think it might be a type of manifold that we can use to finish the space-fold drive.”

  “If it’s a manifold, why is it covered with spikes?” Violet asked, confused. It didn’t look like any manifold she’d ever seen.

  “It seems to just be a Dreasing thing. Like all those weird fish-hook things on the skin of their vessel. Didn’t have any use when we tested them. Just a bit of design or something,” Bill added, thoughtfully.

  Or not! Violet thought to herself. “We’ll probably find out later on that they do have a use, we just didn’t know what it was,” she said
firmly. “It’s all an exploratory adventure for now. Don’t throw anything away until we’ve tested the hell out of it! Make sure none of this stuff had homing beacons or signatures they can trace. I don’t want a whole armada of those things on our trail because we didn’t know what we were doing!” Violet said, relieved when Capp nodded thoughtfully.

  “Aye, aye, Captain,” he said with a grin, then rammed a lever upwards on a small work console and raised a force field around the remnants they’d salvaged. “Just to be sure,” he added with a wink. “Don’t want anything coming to life an’ all that.”

  Chapter Fourteen

  Live to Fight Another Day

  After the close call in the Dreasing system, Violet made sure they took several erratic jumps with no rhyme nor reason. Each member of the crew put in a place they’d like to see from the space chart and she drew the destinations out of a random sequence. The next few weeks were a fun adventure as Jack stared enraptured at the nebula called the Pillars of Creation. Ben practically pressed his nose to the observation screen when they approached the Sombrero galaxy. Capp wanted to see the remnants of a supernova that had been recorded by an earlier probe and Violet decided on something called a butterfly nebula.

  Each journey took several weeks to a couple of months. Violet figured why not? It wasn’t like they had to be anywhere at a certain time. If the Guard wanted them to find the planet Jun. They would. But when they got around to it.

  Finally, Ben was ready to give his fold-space drive a test run. Programming in a very small fold-space jump, they all strapped in preparing for the violent dissonance that was supposed to hit in the first few and final moments of a fold-space event. Jack had solicitously handed out poly-membrane barf-bags. “Hope we don’t need ‘em,” he said, but winked at Violet as he shook his open.

  Ben counted down, “Three, two, one…” Bat seemed to stretch out before them, then disappear into blackness. Violet was aware of nothing but the pain that gripped her head and a spinning darkness edged with a kaleidoscope of lights. Suddenly her head slammed back against her neck brace and the spinning stopped. Was she dead? What the hell had happened?

  Managing to pry her eyes open, pain sliced through her skull. “Awh shiiii!” Violet tried to grunt. Then, trying to move one hand to massage her head, it didn’t move. Starting to panic that she’d broken her neck or had damaged herself in some permanent way, Violet screamed out a garbled, “Jaackk!”

  “Keep yer shir’ on girl! I’ ‘el come back in a min’e. Gotta le’ yer s’napsis decompress. Calm yerself!” Ben whispered back. “Mine ‘r comin’ online. Just a min’e,” he urged.

  Violet went limp, letting her body stop struggling and allowing her senses to settle back into awareness. “Shiiiii! Tha’ hur’,” she mumbled out. Everything came out sounding like she was drunk. “Es it suppos’ a feel like ha’?” She asked.

  “Don’ ‘hink so,” Jack rasped. “Prolly ha’ Dreasing crap.”

  “Can’ say my zzz’s,” Violet giggled. “No, nahh zzz’s bu’ eeees.” She giggled harder. “Shi’, shi’, shi’. Can’ say ‘em no maa’er wha’.”

  Jack glared at her. “S’op! S’op! Relax, i’ll come back in a minu’e.”

  “Oh, s’op, s’op, s’op!” Violet clumsily unlatched her seat harness and slid to the floor laughing helplessly. “Don’ ‘alk ‘a me. Yer making me laugh ‘oo hard!” she gasped out.

  Five minutes later, when Ben and Capp managed to stumble through the door to the bridge, both Jack and Violet were still giggling in periodic fits and snorts.

  “What the hell is the matter with you two?” Ben demanded, staring at the uncharacteristically merry Jack. “Capp, help Vi up for Pete’s sake! Jack! Man, get a grip! What is so darn funny?” he demanded.

  Violet gasped out, “We couldn’t say our ttttttss.” This statement made her break into giggles again. Jack put a grizzled hand over his mouth and appeared to be pressing down until his knuckles were white.

  Clearing his throat, he added, “Yep. Sure was a rough ride, Ben. What the hell caused the speech malfunction?” A muffled guffaw tried to emerge from the back of his throat, only to be stifled by one clamped-down weather hand.

  “It was probably just a small miscalculation,” Ben explained. “Our speech was a little off, too,” he added in an apologetic tone. “We’ll get that kink worked out.”

  “Better,” Violet grumbled, then giggled as she tried to stand. Clutching her head, she gasped, “My head is killin’ me.” Stumbling from the room, a barely perceptible, “Aspirin!” sounded out as she disappeared.

  Jack rose, turned to Ben and said, “Good job. Tho’ I’m hopin’ ta live ta fight another day. Next time, try not ta give us all a brain hemorrhage.”

  Stumping over to his seat, he scanned the space map that had risen before them. “Interestin’,” he said grimly. “Looks like we’re in the Idolum alley between the Dreasing and Arachnian territories and the system that leads to Jun. Keep a sharp eye and get that fold-drive back online. If we have to scurry, I want ta be ready!” Jack grumped, then added, “Good work on the fold-space drive.”

  “Yes, Sir!” Ben said, grinning widely. He’d never had a compliment of such salubrious praise from Jack before. He snapped a salute and clambered down the ladder to the decks below whistling jauntily.

  Chapter Fifteen

  What Say You?

  Ruby emerged from her closet-like bunkroom and stumbled towards the tiny galley on their small sloop. She supposed she ought to find out from Trupe where they were headed and most importantly, if they were supposed to return the sloop to the Temple of the Mother on Gaiaca. She’d been so relieved to be going forward in her life that she hadn’t even asked very many questions. Uma had simply smiled, hugged her and said, “Enjoy the journey. I love you. Remember, you are perfect as you are.”

  Ruby had fallen onto Trupe’s stash of food proteins and made herself waffles and then a cup of fresh tea to wash it down. She hoped to never taste mush again. Harley had bedded down in the cargo bay alongside the two hippolites that sustained Trupe and mourned a long sigh of disappointment at not being able to climb the narrow ladder to the upper decks. Trupe had informed Ruby that Harley liked mush and that he had loaded a large portion for Harley’s diet before they left Unity. Ruby had simply shuddered, blown Harley a kiss, and raced off towards the galley. After that, her stomach had been so full she’d simply weaved like a drunk towards her bunk and slumped onto it, asleep in seconds.

  Trupe was on the bridge and Ruby greeted him happily as she slipped onto the bridge. “Hi Trupe! I was so happy to be headed out on an adventure that I didn’t even ask you where we were headed,” Ruby said, flashing him a grin. “What’s our first destination?”

  “We are headed to the Rayen System to see an old friend of mine. His nest has been settled on a new world out there and I would like to see what it’s like. I hope that meets with your approval, my Princess,” Trupe said, sneaking a sly look at her to see her reaction to the title he liked to use for her.

  Ruby decided to ignore it. Maybe he’d drop it if she simply decided to tune it out. “Who is your friend? Tell me about him and this new world,” she demanded, suddenly eager to know about their destination.

  “General Behr and I were born in the same batch of hatchlings,” Trupe said slowly. Ruby could tell he was picking through memories. “He was of royal stock and I was not. I was simply a warrior hatchling, though the two of us got along well and were raised together by Behr’s mother, Queen Sudile.”

  “Our nest has long been on the fringes of Idolum society,” he continued quietly. “Queen Sudile is not pale like most Idolum. She is an anomaly among our race and is a deep ebony color. This rare coloring has, instead of being revered as an unusual gift, caused her to be ostracized among the nests. Over the generations, as more and more dark Idolum were born to our nest, the prejudice became worse. It culminated in the assassination of Queen Sudile several centuries ago.”

  “General Behr
has been unable to lure a queen to our nest. The prejudice is simply too great. Since then our nest has slowly declined in stature and is without a home world. The General, being an Idolum of open mind and creative solutions, began inviting disavowed and other Queen-less nests to join with ours to consolidate strength and keep enough power to survive,” Trupe paused, clearly lost in thought.

  “It has proven to be a good strategy. Our nest is known for its fierceness in battle. We have nothing to lose. We are queenless and homeless. If we lose our fierceness, we have nothing left,” he related emphatically. “That fierceness has paid off. Queen Altum Juls, being a very forward thinking and fierce Queen herself, is consolidating as many nests as she can into her Alliance. She has offered a home world to General Behr. He accepted, but with no promises of undying loyalty or allegiance. He will fight for the Alliance if he agrees with the objective they present to him. This rather reserved acceptance earned our nest a planet, but not a very prime one. It is a frozen world on the edge of the Rayen and Calix systems. It has endless water and non-toxic air. That’s about it,” Trupe ended the narrative simply and with no inflection to his tone.