by Sam Coulson
I opened my eyes, I hadn’t slept.
Ju-lin proudly handed me a cup of over-brewed tea. It was bitter but I smiled and thanked her. I noticed that she wasn’t drinking one herself.
“Did you get any sleep?” I asked.
“Sleep?” she scoffed as she used one of the bulkhead handholds to stretch, my eyes lingered on her bare stomach. “About an hour maybe.”
Again I couldn’t help but be amazed at Ju-lin’s surge of energy now that we were about to get moving again. When I had left her in the cabin some hours ago she looked exhausted and worn. But now, with a perilous path in front of us, she was chipper and even cheerful.
“I optimized a route,” she turned away as she switched positions to stretch her other leg, I stole a lingering look at her backside. “It should take us a total of 27 hours flying time to get back to the colony. Nine jumps total. I figured we could take shifts on watch so the other can get some sleep as we go, I have a schedule worked out. Oh, I found these protein bars, they taste more or less like cardboard, but it’s breakfast.”
“Looks like you thought of everything,” I said as I tore off the edge of the wrapper and took a bite of the protein bar. I’d never tasted cardboard, I knew then that I never wanted to.
“More or less,” she grinned. “I also found all of the ship’s gunnery schematics and a simulation system. I have it wired into the consoles if you want to give it a run through and check it out. I have to say, Loid has this bird rigged up to fight. When we ran into those pirates he made it sound like we wouldn’t have had a chance against those Drakes, but we have enough firepower on this thing to—”
The ship’s lights flickered off for a half-second and then came back on, brighter than before. Deeper in the ship I heard a deep whirl followed by the soft reverberations of the engines powering up.
Ju-lin smiled.
“Looks like it’s time to go,” I said as I pulled myself up out of the chair.
“So it does,” she responded.
I gestured grandly toward the cockpit and made a small bow. “After you, captain.”
Her smile broadened as she stepped past me and through the hatch.
The fighters that had followed Cwaylyn out into the black were nowhere to be seen. They were replaced with a steady flow of cargo ships and couriers coming and going from the station. The local NewsNet was broadcasting a warning looking for an unidentified modified racing vessel that had stolen technical design schematics.
“Design schematics?” I asked.
“The Collegiate must be covering it up,” Ju-lin answered. “Interesting.”
“At least it means we’re safe,” I answered.
“Relatively,” she replied as she turned up the throttle and set us on course to the first flux point.
After two hours we made our first flux into a well patrolled Celestrial system. We were hailed by Celestrial patrol ships three times, each time we sent our credentials, they scanned us, and sent us on our way. After seven hours we made another flux into a system called Gateway. Positioned on the edge of the Celestrial Empire, Gateway serves as the main trading hub between the Celestrial Empire, Earthborn Protectorate, and Domari Collective. I watched out the viewport in awe as dozens upon dozens of huge cargo vessels and swarms of Celestrial patrol fighters slid through the darkness between the flux points. We were stopped and scanned once on our flight through Gateway. Between our empty cargo hold and Loid’s flight credentials, we were allowed through to the flux point to the Earthborn system of Nexus.
As we fluxed into Nexus my jaw dropped in awe at the sight of the twin blazing blue stars in the distance.
“Yeah, it always gets me too,” Ju-lin said quietly from the pilot’s seat. “Binary star systems are something else. Welcome to Nexus.”
“I read about Nexus,” I answered. “It has two terraformed super-earths, right?”
“Yeah, and about a dozen orbital trading platforms.” Ju-lin answered. “Dad always says that if Earth is the heart of the Protectorate, Nexus is the stomach. There are seven flux points in system, two lead to the Domari Collective, that one behind us back to the Celestrial Empire, and the other four take us back deeper into Protectorate territory. If it’s legal, and it’s traded, it comes through Nexus.”
“And the illegal?”
“You saw all the security back on Gateway, look over there,” she pointed to the distance.
I turned my head and saw the hulking shapes of two Protectorate Dreadnaughts floating nearby.
“Smugglers are too smart to try to run through this mess,” Ju-lin continued. “They take the long way around and go through the Furies instead. It’s a dozen more fluxes to go through the Furies, but you have a helluva lot better odds dodging patrols or bribing customs officers out there like Loid does than you do here.”
I nodded in agreement.
We talked for a while longer about Nexus, and the twin-terraformed super-earths, Artemis and Apollo, that were silent spinning in distant orbit around the binary stars. Though she had never been to Artemis, Ju-lin told me about a class trip she had once taken to Apollo. She talked about buildings two hundred stories high that shot up from the ground like shards of mirrored glass, she described the Earthborn Protectorate’s Grand Stock Market, and a performance hall where she had slept through some rendition of an ancient-earth opera.
As she spoke I could see her relaxing slightly. Though she had tried not to let it show, I realized that being in Celestrial space had made her nervous. Now that we were in the shadows of the familiar shapes of the Protectorate Dreadnaughts, she allowed herself to relax. After a few minutes she began to yawn, and grudgingly slipped back into her bunk to sleep as we began the seven-hour trek across Nexus to our next flux point.
Our trip across the system was the first time I had access to the Protectorate’s NewsNets. I quickly realized that it more than a localized news network. It was a federation of networks that connected humanity from system to system. News traveled slowly. The latest news from the border worlds was still days old. Though ships could travel from system to system through flux points, information didn’t have it quite so easy and had to be carried rather than transmitted. I recalled the communication drone that MineWorks had sent and figured that the NewsNets had to operate using some sort of distributed delivery system.
Time passed quickly. To keep myself awake I browsed the net. There were stories of a few Draugari attacks on unprotected shipping lanes, an in-depth look at a contested element of a trade agreement between the Protectorate and the loosely controlled Domari Collective, and extensive coverage of the conflicts between the Prime Minister and the Senate on everything from military spending to licensing and registration fees for hovers. Intermixed between articles were flash commercials for new starships, gourmet freeze-dried treats, exotic getaways, and localized planetary alerts for wanted criminals or suspected smugglers.
I found myself fascinated by the endless complexity of the Protectorate. The colonists had spoken of the Protectorate as a distant and foreboding thing: like the cloud of an expanding storm that they were trying to avoid. But despite their distaste, the colonists still devoured any vids that made their way out to the colony. They didn’t want to be part of the corruption and waste of the Protectorate itself, but they wanted to be close to it. I began to realize that most people wanted both freedom and stability, but in a dangerous universe, you could not have both. Those who ventured out beyond the border worlds suffered through the harsh realities of space and the untamed wilds. Draugari raiders, Domari smugglers, Earthborn pirates, Celestrial reformists, and Osterian scavengers were out waiting in the black.
So I realized that each man and woman struck a bargain: sacrifice some of their freedoms for the safety and prosperity of the Earthborn Protectorate. Some were true believers, like Ju-lin’s brother Marin, who sought to become part of the system to shape it from within. Others, like the colonists, treated the central government of the Protectorate as a necessary evil, and stil
l others saw the vastness of the federated worlds as an opportunity for profit.
Again I thought of the small slice of the human universe that I had come to know. I thought of Lee. I was pretty certain that, like his son, he had once believed in the Protectorate. He had joined the Protectorate Fleet and excelled, but then, somewhere along the way, something happened. I wondered if it was the death of his wife, or something else he had seen. But he had lost his faith.
My thoughts drifted back to Ju-lin, who was sleeping silently in the cabin behind me. Call it whatever you want, a void soul or just restlessness, she would never resign herself to embracing the Protectorate like Marin. I wanted to think that I was like her, but I wasn’t sure. As I thought about it, shades of memories swept through me. I felt Lor’ten’s loyalty to his clan, a deep sense of unflinching and undying devotion to the betterment of the whole. I also recalled my teacher’s lessons and lectures: “Community is submission to your own weakness to the greater strength of the whole.”
Though I wanted to be more like Ju-lin, I realized I had too many other lives in my head. It was like I had to constantly contend with the memories of two other minds within my own. The community of the living, no matter who they were, was far too important. And I could not just walk away. I recalled Loid’s parting words about going to get Ju-lin’s family off planet and running. I knew I couldn’t do it. There were too many lives at stake, and too many unanswered questions.
“My shift,” Ju-lin’s voice made me jump.
“You’re up early,” I fumbled an answer.
“Ah, reading up on the local news,” she asked as she looked over my shoulder. “Anything interesting?”
“Everything actually,” I answered honestly.
“Oh yeah, you’re new to the NewsNets,” she answered as she sipped on a cup of tea. “Don’t worry, it will get old after a while. It’s always the same old stories, a war breaking out here, Draugari raiding there, a dispute with the Celestrials, and some new fancy piece of unnecessary tech that the Domari Traders are trying to sell. Did I get it all?”
“Pretty much,” I smiled as I pulled myself out of the pilot’s seat. “I guess it’s my turn to get some sleep.”
“I’ll wake you up when we’re getting close,” Ju-lin smiled as she slipped happily into the chair and flipped the controls to activate some additional scanners. “Sleep well.”
Chapter 28.
“No,” I said. “We wait.”
“Yes, of course,” Jen’tak nodded heartily. “Make sure that they cannot run back and hide in the flux point, close in around them and feast on the glory of battle.”
“No,” I repeated, “We wait. Maintain minimal energy signatures. See where they are going, if they continue to the target system, we follow them.”
“And if not?” Tren raised his arms as his voice thundered. “What? We let them go? Blast that, we go now, the Skins are there for the taking.”
“We wait,” I stood up out of my chair and stepped toward Tren. “I am in command of this Cadre, my orders will be followed.”
Tren stepped up to me, pulling off his helmet. I did the same. The human air was stifling. But I ignored it.
“Your orders?” Tren echoed as he raised his lips, bearing his teeth.
“Yes,” I snapped back, parting my lips. “I follow the commands handed to me by the Chieftain, sent directly from the Conclave. Do you question their authority?”
“Their authority was never in question,” Jen’tak stood and drew off his helmet.
“We are a long way from our migration Lor’ten,” Tren responded. “We will not be denied our hunt because you do not have the stomach for it.”
Tren’s hand slid to the hilt of his knife.
“You know what I have the stomach for,” I answered as I drew my knife.
“Course change,” Kal called, breaking the tension of the moment. “The Skins are breaking off, heading toward the flux point. They are heading toward the target system.”
“We follow them at a distance. Keep power signatures low,” I ordered.
“And then?” Tren asked.
“If they go near the planet, we destroy them.”
Tren made a clicking sound with his lips and pulled his helmet back on.
I heard a woman scream, and I raced forward. I was in a dark corridor lit by faint flashes of light. The walls were rusted steel. The scream came again, echoing down the hall. The scream was no longer the thin voice of a woman, it was the low howl of a dying beast. I kept running toward the sound, and the walls changed. Instead of steel and rust, there was stone and wood, I was in a cave. The flickering chemical lights were replaced with thin flickering flames from hanging candles. Somewhere, someone started to scream my name, but the sound was cut short as they began to choke. I heard thin gurgling. They were drowning. I felt my own throat fill up and I tasted blood, I coughed and spat to try to clear my throat, but I still couldn’t breathe. Horror gripped me as I panicked as I looked for help. Faces emerged in the dark. Some were Draugari, some were Thar’esh, others were human, and all were pale, cold, and dead. The scream came again—
“Eli!”
I continued to shake as the darkness raced around me.
“Dammit Eli! Wake up!”
The voice wasn’t faint or distant. It wasn’t monstrous or dying.
I opened my eyes, I was on my bunk, covered in sweat. Ju-lin was leaning over me, concern on her face.
“It’s alright,” she said softly. “You were having a nightmare, I heard you screaming from the cockpit.”
“Screaming?” I asked as I propped myself up. “What was I saying?”
“Hell if I know,” Ju-lin answered. “You weren’t speaking any language I’d ever heard. What did you see?”
“Shadows,” I replied as I tried to shake the images from my memories. “The dead, the dying, I don’t want to talk about it. Where are we?”
“On route,” she sat down on my bunk, and put her hand briefly on my shoulder. “It’s quiet, well, it was quiet, except for you.”
“Yeah,” I replied. “Sorry.”
“You have a lot going in your head apparently,” she said with a grin.
I chuckled.
“Here, I’ll get up and let you take a rest,” I said. “I won’t get any sleep anyway.”
I shifted, waiting for her to get up so I could slide out of the bunk.
She didn’t.
“Slide over,” she said as she kicked off her shoes.
I shifted with my back against the bulkhead as she leaned toward me and kissed me lightly on the cheek and looked at me with her lips still parted. I could feel my heart thumping in my chest as I looked back at her. Then she flashed her wicked grin, and rolled over, and nestled her back against me, I put my arm around her and held her. Her warmth and smell chased away the shadows from my nightmare, and eventually, I slept.
When I woke up, she was gone, but the feeling of comfort remained.
“After this jump we only have two more and we will be there,” Ju-lin said hopefully as I stepped into the cockpit, still shaking off my sleep.
“Still no sign of trouble?” I asked.
For hours now, Ju-lin had been quietly scanning the local Protectorate Fleet channels listening for any hint that the Collegiate were on the move. So far, we hadn’t heard anything.
“The next two systems are undeveloped no-man’s land, it should be nice and quiet,” she added as she initiated the flux sequence. “If the Collegiate was going to attack, they would have to cut through the Furies I’ve been listening to traders and Protectorate alerts, but there’s been nothing about a flight of Celestrial ships. It looks like we were just worried for nothing. A few more hours and we’ll be back home, we can get Dad and Marin, and tell the colonists to evacuate.”
The ship’s power surged as it slipped into the flux point, sliding into the narrow void that stitched the solar systems together. In order to fight off my churning stomach, I thought back to the Domari myth th
at Loid had told us about the god jumping from system to system, poking holes in the universe. Ridiculous as it was on the face, I wondered if there was some truth buried in it. If somewhere out there, there was another alien race who had created the network of flux points that allowed us to travel from system to system. After all, the Domari Collective had been the first humanoids to make it into space, perhaps there was a seed of truth in the stories. Like the Celestrials telling stories about the void souls. I knew well enough that the Thar’esh were not some mystical, ethereal beasts. But, over time, they had become symbols of things that the Celestrials didn’t understand. Like the humans and their gods.
As we sat I quietly pondered if the flux points were created by some long-forgotten race. What if that technology once existed to burrow these holes through the vastness of space? What if that technology could be found again?
My head stopped spinning as we slid back into normal space. I realized that I had been holding my breath. The scopes were clear. I settled into the jump seat as we continued to slip through the black.
Chapter 29.
“They fluxed,” Jen’tek said as he licked his lips hungrily. “Follow!”
“Follow them, but keep our distance,” I said. “We don’t act until they reach the planet.”
Jen’tek clicked his tongue in disapproval, Kal shifted in his seat.
“We will attack them in the atmosphere,” I continued. “We can use the world to mask our approach. The lizards will not know what hit them.”
Tren and Kel voiced their approval, even Jen’tek seemed placated. He would soon have blood.
But, I thought to myself, I have another motive. The Chieftain did not know why we were sent out here. We did not know what we were sent to protect. The Conclave was keeping it from us. If they would not tell us, we will have to fly in and find out for ourselves.
“Tren, tell the pilots to detach the Slires and prepare to flux,” I ordered.