by F. E. Arliss
“Ooookaay,” Violet said on a long exhale. “That doesn’t sound good.”
“There’s an addendum file,” Capp said suddenly, tapping fingers over the console in a flurry of activity. “It appears to be several millennia after this, so a more recent file. Let’s see what it says!”
A video file popped into action on the screen. “I am Queen Altum Vis,” stated the palely beautiful Idolum woman on the console. “This addendum to the original Jun file is added in the Intergalactic Year 7.81537B, roughly 4 millenia after the original file was recorded by my mother, Queen Jeunau A’kaa. The Jun appear to have had a tremendous civil war. No hails have been answered and a life sign sweep has registered no humanoid signals. We presume they have killed each other to extinction. Probes have recorded a series of mines and other precautions that make approaching the planet extremely dangerous. We are launching a warning beacon and will forbid our vessels to enter this pit of death. This is what believing in absolute superiority will get us,” the Queen actually rolled her eyes as she said this, then the vid faded to black. It would not be long after that her own General would kill her for her ‘less than rigorous ideals on the superiority of the Idolum empire’.
“Wow!” Ruby breathed. “The Jun killed each other off because they weren’t ‘perfect’. How sad and unbelievably stupid.”
General Behr murmured, “Our own empire almost fell due to the exact same belief.”
“I wonder if all those mines and other defenses are still in place?” Violet added. “If so, our mission could be a flaming ball of self-destruction. We could get there just to be blown up by people who have been dead for thousands of years. That would be soooo wrong,” she added, holding Jack’s gaze for a few minutes. “I guess we won’t know until we go.”
Jack nodded agreement. “We got coordinates now. Might as well check it out.” Turning to General Behr, he grinned at the big warrior and said, “Any in’erest in seein’ whether the little bastards are still tryin’ to kill us all?”
Behr grinned back, the whiteness of his teeth in his ebony face gleaming. “An empty world of highly evolved technology? I’d say it's worth looking into.”
Within days a fully loaded Idolum battle cruiser eased out of the bay of the Behr nest ship and fold-jumped towards the coordinates they’d found in the file. The Bat rested snuggly in the cruiser’s bay. Lieutenant Trupe was at the helm, while Ruby, Violet, and Jack manned the bridge’s other stations. A battalion of Idolum fighters and engineers, along with Ben and Capp, worked feverishly on projects that advanced scenarios had said might be useful.
They were on their way to Jun. Violet was about to either fulfill her assignment from the Intergalactic Guard, or die trying.
It would take them several fold-space jumps to get to the Jun system. In the meantime, they would jump into three unknown and uncharted galaxies along the way. They needed to be prepared. Rotations of training, sleep and duties were implemented and routines established.
The first few weeks went by smoothly and without incident. At the end of the first, long, fold-space jump, Violet dragged herself upright as the ship’s ‘end jump’ alert finally silenced itself. She always felt like crap when they left fold-space. Before she could even brush her purple hair from her eyes, another alert sounded. This time it was battle stations. Red alert.
Sprinting towards the bridge, she met Ruby in the corridor. Shoulder to shoulder they burst onto the bridge and skidded to a halt, mouths hanging open at the sight on the viewer. What the hell was that?
One thing they could identify. An Idolum battle cruiser, similar in size to their own, but of a different color, floated to one side of the what looked like a gigantic glowing wooly-worm. In front of that was a jagged gaping void.
“Is that a tear in space?” Ruby asked tremulously, voicing what the others had only thought and been unable to put into words.
Lieutenant Trupe’s long-fingered pale hands flew over the consoles. Ben mimicked his movements at the engineering station. “Yes,” Trupe said, his whirring voice sounded even more jagged than usual. “Yes, it is,” he added more firmly.
“Oh, Holy Mother, those are warajel in the tear! What’s happening to them, Ben?” Violet asked, her voice louder than usual with urgency. She could feel the fear and anxiety of the armada of warajel. Some appeared to be dying and others were trying to push the group away from the glowing ghost worm and out of the ragged opening and into the space of this galaxy.
“Life signs and readings say they are dying. There is some type of poison in the atmosphere of the void they’re in. They’re trying to leave that system and enter this one. That worm thing is closing the void, preventing their escape. Or at least that is what I’m surmising from my readouts. It’s all just a guess,” he added reluctantly.
Just then an incoming transmission pinged on the comms. “Battle cruiser of Nest of Behr, please leave this location. We have the situation under control. Viceroy Winter of the Idolum Empire, out.”
Ruby laughed a bit, “That is so Winter. Always confident she’s doing the right thing.” Turning to Violet, she added, “I’m assuming you’re going to want to save those warajel? That thing that is glowing and eating the void opening is what Winter thinks is the Mother. It’s called the Chrysalis and it isn’t the Mother,” she stated firmly.
“You bet!” Violet exclaimed, the indignation she felt at the coolly icy demand from the Idolum Empire’s Viceroy, shaking in her voice.
Without asking, Lieutenant Trupe opened a channel, “Idolum Viceroy, this is independent vessel of Nest of Behr. We do not answer to your authority and request that you stop your closure of the void long enough for us to rescue the warajel population. Chrysalis may be bade to halt.”
“Whoa, that will get up her nose,” Ruby said with a snort. “She thinks she’s the only one that can contact the Chrysalis and will be shocked that we even know what it is. You’re playing with fire, Trupe.”
Trupe looked at Ruby and said, “Can you get that thing to stop?”
“Maybe,” Ruby answered, clearly thinking deeply. “I may be able to contact it. If I can’t, maybe I can shield the opening while Violet gets the warajel.”
Jack sprinted towards the door of the bridge, “Come on Ben, we gotta get an oxygen and silica chamber rigged up again, in case there ‘r wounded.” Ben hurried after him.
Violet turned to Ruby, “I’m going out to the warajel. Let’s hope your crazy Viceroy friend won’t fire on me.” Ruby simply nodded, deep in thought.
Minutes later, as Ruby tried to contact the Chyrsalis, Violet leapt from the cargo bay airlock, clad in nothing but a sleek pair of Idolum ion thrusters.
Jetting quickly towards the warajel in the void, she began singing out the electrical song they communicated with.
Ruby had been able to dimly communicate with the Chrysalis, asking it to momentarily stop consuming the void and allow them to rescue the fleeing warajel. She may or may not have communicated properly with the being, but it had stopped its consumption for the time being.
Nodding to Trupe, she indicated he should open a channel to the Idolum Viceroy’s ship. Before he could make the movements necessary an angry comm burst onto their viewer. “Idolum cruiser, stop your interference or face the wrath of the Viceroy!”
Grinning, Ruby turned to face the viewer as Trupe opened their comms too. “Hi Winter. Cool down girl. We’ve got to get those warajel out of there, then you can let Chrysalis eat that void. I’ve asked Chrysalis to halt for a moment so that my friend Violet can get her kin out of danger,” Ruby said with easy familiarity.
She wasn’t going to acknowledge Winter as anything more than she’d been to Ruby...her roommate at school. Afterall, Ruby was the daughter of the Mother. Winter was just the Idolum Viceroy. Nest of Behr didn’t belong to the Idolum Alliance so, technically, Winter couldn’t tell her what to do.
Over the view screen the two young women stared at each other. A tall, pale Idolum warrior stood at Winter’s side. �
��Hi, you must be Tate,” Ruby said to the warrior, “Pleased to meet you. Winter had a lot of great things to say about you.” Even if the friend card didn’t play well, she was at least buying time for Violet to move her armada.
“Ruby,” Winter said calmly, “What are you doing out here?” The pale warrior stepped closer to Winter’s side, as though to shield her.
“Oh, it’s weird how the universe works, isn’t it?” Ruby said easily. “I made my journey to Unity, as the Temple asked. “There I found the lost Temple of the Mother, met Uma the incarnation of the Mother and trained as her Daughter. I am now Princess to the Nest of Behr. As a Daughter, I can communicate with Chrysalis. Sorry to interfere, but we just need a few minutes to get the warajel armada free of the void.”
Winter’s eyes narrowed. “A Daughter to the Mother? You? Princess to the Nest of Behr? Really?” It was clear that Winter was either disbelieving or delivering an insult. Or maybe both.
“Yep! Weird how things work out, huh?” Ruby grinned at the other girl, hoping to disarm the haughty Winter. “You’re a diplomat! I know you never thought you’d be that when you left Earth! I sure didn’t think I’d meet the Mother or become a Daughter and Princess. Let alone become part of a prophesied paradox of legend,” Ruby continued chattily.
Winter simply glared. “I’ve got no idea what you’re on about,” she said firmly. However, it is imperative we close the void now!” Winter demanded. “There is poisonous vapor edging near to the rip. We must close it before that vapor reaches us! Chrysalis! Close the void!”
Ruby heaved a sigh of resignation, closed their comms and said to Violet, over the internal channel, “How much time do you need? Winter’s not wanting to cooperate.”
“We’re mostly out, but I need to go back for the wounded Queen. She’s ushered the rest through, but she’s lagging. Please see if you can hold her off for another few minutes. I’m going in,” Violet’s voice trailed off, as her form disappeared into the jagged void.
Ruby once again tried to contact Chrysalis, but its bond with Winter was too strong and the glowing worm was once again feeding on the edges of the ragged void, rapidly sucking the edges of the gaping wound closed.
“Winter, I need you to let my friend have a few more minutes. As you can see, she’s not a normal human. She is a warajel hybrid and can not leave her armada in the void. She’s bringing out the warajel Queen who is exhausted. Please let her through,” Ruby asked calmly.
“I don’t care what she is. We must preserve this system. It is too late. We must protect ourselves,” Winter stated, her voice hard with anger at the interference.
Ruby put a gentle hand on Trupe’s shoulder. “Bring us up close to the void’s opening, but match its speed. I don’t want us getting sucked in. In the meantime, I’m going to shield Violet and the Queen from the vapor and prevent Chrysalis from closing the void entirely. Keep us close. Let’s hope they don’t fire on us. If they do, you know what to do,” she added, squeezing the knotted shoulder beneath her hand. With that, Ruby turned and hauled ass to the cargo bay doors.
Closing the pressure bay doors behind her, Ruby slid to the floor, back supported against the wall and began to pull on all her power and concentration. She would never know who, but somebody let Harley in with her and he curled his massive body around her and added his energy to hers. Slowly, she created the shield of the Paradox. It rose around her. Ruby nodded hazily at Jack’s shadowy figure behind the window panel of the bay, then braced herself as the outer doors slowly slid open.
Unmoving, Harley supported Ruby as she extended the energy shield beyond the ship and into the jagged opening of the void.
Trupe had slipped the battlecruiser up against the furthest side of the tear and was hovering just far enough from the suction of the void to keep them from becoming tethered. Slowly Ruby shoved the shield into the opening and sought the forms of Violet and the warajel Queen. Finding them, she extended the shield around them. Barely having completed the barrier around them, she could sense the poisonous vapor just beginning to touch the outer rim of her shield.
“Hurry, Violet. I don’t know how long I can hold this. I haven’t really tried anything this big before.” Ruby whispered into her friend’s mind. “Hurry!”
Violet had wrapped both arms around the huge mass of the warajel Queen and with thrusters at maximum was shooting towards the fluctuating hole Ruby held at bay.
Within thirty seconds she was closing in on the hole. An enormous percussive blast battered her just as she began to pull the Queen through the rip. The shield fluctuated wildly, squeezing the two bodies battling to slip through its protective canal. Violet strained with all her strength as the tube of the shield narrowed, but held. Three more volley’s buffered the tube before Violet had the Queen through the shield and into the pressure lock.
Laying the limp Queen alongside Harley and Ruby, Violet tapped her comm and said, “Is that bitch firing on us?”
“Yep,” Jack said. “Doesn’t matter now. We got the jellies and we can get out of here.”
“It does matter,” Violet muttered. “She fired on my armada and she fired on the independent Nest of Behr. She fired on Ruby’s shield. We got the void closed in time. She just needed to give us time. But she couldn’t. Because her word is law. Well, her word is not law to us!”
Ruby sat up, rubbed her forehead and said, “So what? You want us to fire on her? Just to make a point?”
“Yes,” Violet said, a grim line to her mouth, “I do. I want you to shield the ship, now that you’re done shielding me. Do you have the strength? We are not under Idolum Alliance rule and we will not be dictated to. We are Nest of Behr and we are the finest fighting nest in the known galaxies. We will not be ruled.”
“Jaysus, girl! You’ve drunk the Kool-aid!” Jack exclaimed from the far side of the door. Over the comms they could all hear Lieutenant Trupe whooping in a Nest of Behr battle cry. “Well, I reckon Trupe’s in,” Jack added dryly. “Ya could be startin’ a war, girl.”
Violet turned to him, “Well, aren’t you in, too?” She demanded.
Jack shrugged, “More ‘r less, I reckon,” he’d added.
Ruby giggled, “I must be tired, because I want to do it.”
“Ok, then. You ready?” Violet asked her.
Straightening her shoulder, Ruby closed her eyes. “Yes,” she added firmly, “I’m ready. But let me speak to her a moment before we lay down the law.” A few seconds later she said, “Winter, what were you thinking firing on my friend and her family? I was shielding them and preventing the vapor from entering this side of the tear.”
The Viceroy’s pale face showed on the viewer, chin jutted forward. “I have the authority to make this decision, Ruby. I am the Viceroy of the Idolum Empire and I was acting as I thought best.”
“I understand that, Winter,” Ruby stated evenly. “The truth of the matter is that you do not have the right to make decisions for an independent nest. Nor do you have the right to make that decision for my friend and her armada. As part of the Paradox of Force, Maodun, I asked you politely at the beginning. You chose to ignore my words and decry my position as a Daughter of the Mother, as a Princess to the Nest of Behr and as the Shield. Whether you want to believe or not, those are simply facts,” she added.
“You have fired upon an entity that means you no harm and chose to have no respect for us or our designations. In order to show you that decision should not be one you repeat, we will demonstrate why you should respect us. You should respect the Mother and her Daughter. You should respect a clan and a family. You should respect the Nest of Behr. You should respect the Maodun. Please don’t let it happen again,” Ruby asked gently.
Winter’s visage appeared even paler, as the tall Idolum beside her placed a supportive hand on her shoulder.
Ruby added, “I’m shielded.” Another pause, “The ship is shielded.” Seconds ticked by. “Violet, you’re shielded.”
“Let me out, Jack,” Violet ordered.
Violet floated out into space. The Chrysalis was retreating behind the Idolum Alliance cruiser, now just a faint glow in the dark.
Rising gracefully until she hovered in front of the Alliance ship, she spoke, “We house a Daughter of the Mother. We are the Paradox Maodun. We are Nest of Behr. We do not answer to the Idolum Alliance. We do not take orders from you. We are autonomous.”
Through the diatitanium viewer she could see Viceroy Winter and her aide, Tate Quirke, firing off a rapid series of questions at their crew. She supposed it was something like, ‘how is this possible’, or ‘why is she not dead while hovering in space’, or some such shit. It didn’t matter. She needed to get a point across.
Lifting both arms she shot out the energy she called ‘deep impact’. It zapped into the Viceroy’s ship and a glimmer washed over the vessel’s body as their shields collapsed in a cascade wave of ionic failure. A flurry of activity on the opposing vessel’s bridge had Winter wheeling to face Violet’s floating figure. “Go ahead. Shoot me. You’ve already done it several times already,” Violet added gently. She could see Winter’s eyes narrow at the challenge.