Nebula Nights: Love Among The Stars

by Melisse Aires

  The room broke the silence with cheering and excitement. Henessa and Merx dressed again in the white cloth, and spoke briefly to their guests before ducking out for the night.

  As they left, Sira commented softly, “I’m happy for them.”

  Zaren stood just inches behind her as softly he said, “As many of us are.” He noticed Sira stand up a little straighter as he spoke. This struck him with a silent curiosity.

  The evening continued for another several hours while the senior staff celebrated the union that took place. When they finally cleaned up the room and left, the ceremonial items were carefully brought together, and taken back to Kala’s quarters until morning. No one had the hearts to interrupt Henessa and Merx Sar on their first evening as a married couple.

  ~*~

  Instead of returning to her room directly, Kei felt compelled to stop by the shuttle bay to run some tests on her shuttle designs. She sat down behind the console. After a moment, she integrated the shuttle’s communication system with the Enpassant’s primary scanning array, and activated her modifications. The power shared would serve to expand the range slightly and provide additional backup to her results. Running an initial long range scan, she found she was able to push past the expected range. This made her smile.

  “Alright you delightful machine, let’s push it one more time.”

  She set her upgraded program, and equipment to seek out the Reverence’s subspace signature. When it was located, it proved her new system could scan further than any previous or currently active design was able to. Her designed moved them into superior technology, bringing her great pride. Before she shut everything down, she reviewed the input gathered from the scan. When she started to translate what she was seeing into visual impulses she felt a touch of anxiety wash over her.

  “I hope I’m wrong about this,” she muttered.

  Kei reran the scan for the Reverence. The results were the same. The activity and speeds of the ship were widely varied. It wasn’t alone in the movement, as every other Xenonian ship she identified in that area was also moving in similar random patterns. She turned on the shuttle’s communication channel, and connected to the Enpassant’s intra comm system. Quickly, she located the captain. “Commander Salin, to Captain Palrion. We have a situation.”

  Groggily, Dak Palrion answered the incoming communication. “What kind of situation?”

  “Captain, I’m in the shuttle bay checking on the new scanning upgrades I added before the Cybernetic mission. I was able to pick up the Reverence’s subspace signature. They and the entire fleet are in battle maneuvers. We’re still twelve hours out at top speed.”

  Dak ran a hand through his hair, and frustrated he responded, “No, we’re twelve hours out at top permissible speed. You and I both know this ship was designed for much higher rates, and has a completely different skill set than most are aware of.”

  “So you’ll use that now? Those were supposed to be reserved until better tested.”

  “Kei, can you tell me a better time to test it than aiding our fleet?” Palrion shrugged his tunic off, and went to his closet for a new uniform. “Can you continue to monitor it, and report back if anything changes? Can you identify who they are in combat with?”

  “From what I’m seeing, I’d guess Xentue but to be honest sir, the readings are a mix of Ven and what I believe to be outdated Dentonian vessels.” Kei ran the scan again. “It appears as if the ships are operating in swarms, which is a typical Xentue approach to combat. Overwhelm a single target, and hope to dominate.” She looked at the results, and shook her head. “The first fleet has some reinforcements coming in. Likely they are the last of the ships called in to replace the damage done before we left a couple of months ago. I’m not sure, but they seem to be holding it together for now.”

  “Okay, I’m going to try to get some rest and let the rest of the team do the same, for now. I know most are sleeping right now, let’s not raise the alarm. I’m going to order the ship to cloak, even though we’re in Xenonian space.” Dak started to let his mind dissect the problem at hand. “If you don’t mind monitoring things, I’ll start working out our plan of attack.”

  “Certainly sir. I’ll alert you and, when needed, the rest of the senior staff, should things change.”

  She closed the connection, and began to program the computer. She initiated regular long range scans for the first fleet, and the activities there of. She then created a bi-level alert system. One that would sound if there were major changes from one scan to the next, and a second that would sound if it couldn’t pick up the fleet at all. Then Kei closed her eyes, and waited.

  When the first alarm went off, Kei opened her eyes, and reviewed at the results. She acknowledged and reset the alarm. She took a moment to update the captain through a text based interface since nothing about the battle had changed significantly. She closed her eyes again and waited until the next scan went out.

  Twenty minutes passed and the alarm went off again. Her eyes opened. She examined the results in great detail. After she acknowledged and reset the alarm, she notified the captain this time by verbal communication, waking him with the effort.

  “Captain the battle isn’t faring well for the first fleet. Sir the Xentue have additional reinforcements. There are likely multiple clans involved … or… Well, they haven’t been in battle like this for years so we’re not going to assume what I was thinking. “

  Exhaustion in his voice. “Understood. I’ll contact Kala and the rest of the senior staff that way.” He paused for a brief moment. “If you could keep monitoring things, I’ll patch you in through conference in about twenty.”

  “Understood, Captain. Kei out.” She shut down the connection and manually initiated the next scan for the first fleet.

  ~*~

  Dak Palrion, having been awake since lights up the previous morning, before the mission, made his way to the ship wide comm panel in his quarters, exhausted. “All Senior staff report to the strategy room on deck one in twenty minutes. Uniform not required.” He slid back into the nearest chair and found himself dozing off again quickly. Thirty minutes later he was woke from the sound of his intra ship communications alert. Shocked awake, he stood, and moved into the strategy room, a deck above his quarters, through a stair well built into this section of the ship. When he entered the room, everyone could see both the stress on his face and the exhaustion in his body.

  “Captain, have you slept at all?” Kala’s voice was soft and concerned.

  Palrion grumbled, “I’ll be fine, Commander. This is what we train for.” He walked to his chair, and contemplated sitting down, but opted against it. “We have a situation.”After two tries, he initiated a conference line and pulled a visual of both Kei in the shuttle and her scan results. Each image was halved on the screen. “Would you please share your findings with the rest of the senior staff?”

  Over the conference screen, Kei Salin responded, “Yes, Captain.” She paused a moment, and the scanner readings refreshed. “That is the most current scan I have. What you are seeing in front of you is a long range scan of the First Xenonian Fleet. Before all of you get your technical minds stuck on limitations, I’ve been working on improving the range of the scans since before we came on the Enpassant as a team. I was finally successful, and that is an actual representation of the first fleet. I’m sure Commander Maddux can explain the movements better than I can, but from what I can tell they are in a battle. With the varied signatures, and unified fighting strategy, I’d guess they are fighting Xentue.”

  Maddux took the moment to speak up. “As most of you know, the Xentue are scavengers. They aren’t interested in taking lives, only disabling ships long enough to retrieve the supplies their clan, or…” he looked at the number of enemy ships represented on the screen, “clans need. In this case they are likely thinking they have hit the jackpot… or gotten themselves in more trouble than they realize. Keep in mind, they will kill as they see the need.”

  “The
Xentue are trying to survive this war, like the rest of us. They have no home and they have no solid resources. I understand the need to do what they do, but there has to be a better way.” Kala asserted herself into the conversation as the screen refreshed. She could sense a change in Maddux when it displayed the new data. “What’s the change, Commander?”

  “It looks like the Xenonian fleet has lost three ships.” Maddux stood, and walked to the screen to better understand what he was looking at. “Kei can you confirm that?”

  “Yes, Commander Maddux, that is correct. The fleet has been at this for hours. The Xentue are wearing them down and have successfully taken three ships, from what I can tell and have seen.” Kei’s voice was confident, and certain as she spoke. The expression on her face clearly indicated she wished she wasn’t correct.

  Merx looked around the table and then back to Kei on the screen, “You’ve known for hours, and you’ve not told us?”

  “No. We’ve known for about an hour. Everyone had a long day yesterday, and we didn’t want to disrupt all of you if we didn’t have to. I believe the Captain was wise in his choice.” Kei gestured to her console. “We need to make some decisions.”

  “This battle doesn’t have to be ours, crew.” Palrion stood a little straighter, “We could let the battle continue between the larger first fleet and the Xentue. The other option would be to use some more of the experimental technology on this ship, and get in there to help them.”

  “Top speed we are still eleven hours from the first fleet, Captain. I don’t see how we can help them. We’ll arrive long after it’s over, regardless of who wins.” Sira was accurate in her numbers, and she knew it.

  “No. Sira, that’s not necessarily true.” Merx spoke up. “The Enpassant can go passed what is termed permissible speeds. It was designed to surpass most Xenonian light ride speeds by almost double what is currently permitted. This specific engine has not been properly tested yet. “

  Sira leaned across the table toward the newlyweds and scowled. “You knew of more designs than just the weapons, scanning, filtration, hydroponic supply, and similar operating systems, and you held them back from me?”

  “You have a habit of studying voraciously. I kept much of the major system information contained to avoid taking your focus from the missions.” Merx’s voice was firm, causing Sira to look away.

  “Look, this isn’t the issue. We need to choose if we’re going to test those engines now or not.” Palrion spoke with a certain frustration in his tone. “We can potentially arrive within four hours. That’s hours earlier than we are expected, and in enough time for us to be of assistance in some manner.”

  “If we do this, we’re taxing our people significantly. We underwent a full mission just yesterday, and a wedding celebration last night. We are ill-equipped to complete a rescue.” Cyrin was frank about her thoughts, but withheld her frustration. “We can’t move in to help them until we are able to help ourselves.”

  “We can’t let our people suffer over this. We need to do something. This is the kind of thing we’ve been training for. We can help.” Kala kept her tone calm.

  “We can’t let the crew on this ship suffer because Tangl can’t keep herself out of trouble.” Cyrin was sharp in her response to Kala, but calmed before she looked at Palrion. “Look, if we had more time between one mission and the next, I’d be all for it. We don’t even have a full day here.”

  “No, we don’t, but do we have the right to forget our people?” Kala spoke with concern evident, and attempted to hide her rising frustration.

  “Ladies, we need to make a choice. Bickering won’t help us.” Captain Palrion allowed his eyes to linger on the pair, before seeking every set of eyes at the table. “We need to bring the new engines online if we’re going to be able to help them.”

  “That means we don’t have time to sit here and argue. We should either take a vote or let the three at the top do so.” Maddux was disappointed by his last thought.

  Henessa finally contributed, “Most of my team can be ready in fifteen minutes. Since we won’t arrive for another four hours, I can allow alpha team to rest a full shift, and take a nap myself. I will be ready if we arrive in four hours.”

  “Sira and I can have Engineering secured, and prepped in under an hour.” As Merx spoke his eyes met Sira’s, who nodded in agreement.

  Kei spoke through her communication connection. “I know that I’ll have the shuttles all set up for the interconnective orders we discussed. I need roughly an hour for eight of the shuttles to be ready to fly, from this one.”

  “The hydroponics lab and subsequent stations will be locked down and prepared as required prior to battle. It can be completed in under thirty minutes, as needed.” Zaren spoke with clear authority.

  Keydra added, “My stations and teams will be prepared as well, sir.”

  “I know the medical staff is ready. We’re at full team capacity and our equipment is as it should be. I can order the night shift down to must needs only, so the others can rest a little until they are needed.” Kala sat up in her chair as she gave report, and then all eyes fell on Cyrin.

  Clearly annoyed and obviously uncomfortable, even to those who weren’t empathic, she grudgingly relented, “I guess the choice has been made. We run on little to no sleep, and hope no one dies. I’ll have my teams appraised, and prepped in time.”

  “So it’s been decided.” Palrion turned to Maddux. “Can you handle the bridge arrangements, and set up wakeup alarms for each of the senior staff, myself included. three hours from now should work out well.”

  “Aye sir. I’ll get on the speed increase as well.”

  “Good.” Palrion turned to the room once more. “Dismissed.” He walked down the stairs, and flopped into the nearest chair and fell asleep quickly.

  The senior staff all prepared team lists, and orders before retiring to their quarters for rest.

  ~*~

  Kala sat in her quarters, meditating instead of sleeping. She wanted to be intently focused and rested for what was to come. As she enjoyed the moments of peaceful solitiude, she felt a gentle and welcomed connection.

  ~Hello, Konair. Are you well?~

  Yatrell sat in the newly acquired shuttle moments after it landed in the shuttle bay on his war ship. ~That… makes me uncomfortable. Yes, I’m well. You sound in better spirits. This is good to hear.~

  Curious, Kala projected back along their telepathic link. ~What makes you uncomfortable? And yes, I am in a better frame of mind. We completed the mission, and are preparing to engage in another battle to help the first fleet.~

  ~To help your first fleet? Well, if anyone is going to do it, it’ll be that little ship of yours.~ Yatrell projected as he sat back on his seat, and watched at the Xentue walk out of the cockpit again. ~How did your other mission go?~

  ~It was well. None died on either side of the obstacle.~ Kala’s tone was confident, and she felt a smile creep into the corners of her mouth. ~This little ship is still hours from our destination, with the bonding ceremony last night, there is still much that needs done and most of us require rest before we arrive. I am the most rested of the team, so I am seeking focus through meditation.~

  ~Well, then, don’t let me interrupt. I thought it was a good idea to check in on you.~ Yatrell watched Brax move something else around in the small shuttle and he followed, ~It looks like I’ll be playing the role of acting Captain until they find a replacement for mine, so I will be distracted for a time.~

  ~Acting captain? What happened to your Captain? Is he not well?~ Her hearts froze as she spoke, she knew from their years of conversations that this captain was someone Yatrell deeply respected..

  ~He…he killed himself, Kala. The Ven attacked his mind during the battle, and he committed suicide. He, um… He waited until he and I could talk to do it, but he’s gone.~

  Yatrell tried to keep his voice even, but found the fight difficult. His mind returned to the moments before the captain’s death and he leane
d against a wall for a support, surprised by the overwhelming emotions that threatened to consume him.

  Brax looked at him, but said nothing and continued to rearrange what he could in the shuttle.

  ~Yatrell, I’m so very sorry. I was so selfish when we spoke after Phil’s death… I’m … Please forgive my insensitivity.~

  Kala felt guilt over her emotions, and her lack of concern for him, the last in-depth conversation they had. They had spoken briefly a few times since, but nothing of significance. Now, all she knew is that when she should have been available to him, she’d remained wallowing in her own pain instead. He reached out to help her, and she didn’t return the favor.

  ~You were fine Kala. You had your own to deal with. I’m fine. This is war and it does strange things even to the best of us. I doubt anyone would know what to do if this war ever came to an end.~

  Yatrell looked to Brax. “I’m going to check in with the bridge and I’ll meet you back here for dinner. Make yourself comfortable and we’ll figure out where to go from here. I just need to be certain I know what’s going on with the ship.” Brax indicated he understood and finally, stretched out on the floor next to the bed. Before Yatrell was off the shuttle, he drifted off to sleep. As Yatrell walked out of the darkened shuttle bay, and into the lit corridor, his eyes endured a moment of light sensitivity.

  As he walked, she listened and calmly projected, ~Yatrell, I’d really like to see you. The first opportunity we can make time. I’ll have to report in as soon as we deal with the upcoming battle, but I haven’t taken even a day off since training began just over two years ago. I want to make the time to meet you.~

  ~That sounds nice, Kala but I don’t know when I’ll be able to take another day.~ He walked the four lengths from the shuttle door to the nearest lift, stepped on, and as he turned around he projected, ~If we can find a way, we should. We’ve been talking far too long now not to see each other already. It would be good to see the woman who saved my life.~