Dimension

by Shay Zana

  Mazayus morphs his helmet down next, revealing his dark skin and dark eyes, all cast at Deo. "You should get your own wound tended to, Deo. You're no good to us if you bleed out."

  "I'll be fine," Deo snaps, continuing to examine the cracked walls.

  "Deo."

  One of their intense staredowns ensues, leaving the others to always wonder if they communicate with telepathy in these moments. Eventually, Deo fills his usual role and submits to Mazayus, leaving for the medical clinic, keeping his thoughts to himself.

  Mazayus now turns to Kitera, who is watching after Deo. "You too," he demands.

  She bows her head slowly.

  AFTERMATH

  Back on the Marauding Exile, Commander Rockland bottles his anger and paces along the command deck, keeping his eyes away from the strewn bodies and blood. "Clean this place up, get as many systems back online as you can, and close the airlock. When we're out of the exosphere, jump to SSV and take us out of the Messiah System. Plot a course home."

  “Commander, we can’t access the airlock controls, or the quantum drive. The ikamanu has taken over basically all controls,” chimes an officer.

  Rockland scratches at the back of his head, dumbfounded. He knew that, but thought he would try his luck. They are sitting ducks, completely at the whim of these Serenity bastards. “Alright, just do what you can for now,” he orders at length. He notices Zee spread-eagled on the ground, unconscious, blood weeping from his head. Gently, the commander pulls his body off the ground and places him back into the helmsman chair, checking the wound and now his pulse. "Get the doctor up here, and if he's not fit to fly, get another pilot up here to take over."

  The crew all scurry about, contacting needed personnel, trying to gain access to the systems from the virus, and shaking off the shock that clutches them.

  Rockland feels at his own forehead, knowing there will be a fully matured bruise there in the morning. Just another thing for Lander to point out. Heading back across the deck, he steps on the lift-platform, taking it down to the cargo and engineering deck to find Chief Lander. The smell of light energy penetrates his nose and sticks with him like a heavy wax, and he can see the many capsules and V-22 Daggers still emitting energy as they rest immobile.

  Stepping off the platform, he takes a moment to look at the white barrier over the cargo bay entrance, thankful that the guardian virus had not taken that offline. The whole deck would have been decompressed, but at least the Paragons would have been sucked out with the air. Outside he can see Olympus disappearing in the distance, growing smaller as the ikamanu carries the Marauding Exile with it.

  He can see a portion of the creature from a narrow view point. Its size can be comparable to a blue whale. With its four horizontal fins, two protruding on each side of its width, the vessel appears somewhat sea-capable, though its fins do not move in a manner to that of Earthen whales or similar sea creatures. It owns main thrusters at its stern, auxiliary thrusters on each fin that enable it to have movement within low or non-gravity, and atmospheric thrusters that enable it to power through any atmospheric condition at a more efficient rate than that of any craft created by humanity. Although its thrusters and propulsion systems are similarly operated to that of human vessels, the ikamanu release pure star energy with a biologically enhanced stamina, almost like a waste disposal system pushed out through light veins which serve a similar purpose to the blood veins in a human body, but their absorption and endurance is far more advanced than that of a human body or vessel. Their outer hulls are covered in a leathery hide, dark grey and matte, and flecked in their symbols like alien freckles. Their stern is blunt, owning openings for escape pods added by humanity, and their prow owns an angular slope, with no forward view point. Its only purpose is for increasing speed by reducing aerial friction. Its underside is smooth and flat, but its upper hull owns grooves and ridges beneath a top section that slopes down from the bow, keeping the aero-dynamic design above the jutting engravings.

  Rockland had accepted death, and had certainly not expected an ikamanu to appear out of nowhere and save them at the very last second. Though still in shock, he is grateful, despite himself. Damn space whales and their soft spots for humans in distress, always lurking around traffic routes looking for company. Would it still have saved them if the Serenity crew were not aboard? Maybe he should be thankful to them, too.

  Bullshit.

  "Lander!" he begins to call, cupping his hands around his mouth to amplify his voice. "You down here!?"

  Comms are either fluctuating or offline, making the task of finding anyone in this ship difficult. But as he heads to engineering, a small blood trail on the floor beckons him to follow.

  At first he is confused, boots planted to the deck in contemplation, but now worry flashes into his blue eyes and he quickens his pace, stepping into the blood and leaving bloody footprints behind him, mind absent in concern.

  The trail eventually leads him to a group of engineers, carrying something heavy between them. Without thinking, the commander pushes one of them aside, forcing the group to drop the body.

  As they gasp and give him respectful salutes, he stares down at Lander, the man's face cold and his skin bloodless. A shard wound infests his chest. Blood has soaked his uniform. A transparent layer of blue heal-elixir has been plastered over the wound.

  "Oh no..." Rockland breathes, slumping down beside Lander. He carefully supports his head up with his arm.

  "Sir, we managed to stop the bleeding," one of the engineers informs, her voice purposefully soft as she kneels next to Rockland.

  "How long has he been out?" Rockland asks her, examining Lander’s wound.

  "He collapsed just a few minutes ago, Commander. He didn't tell anyone how injured he was..."

  "He's covered in his own blood! How could nobody have noticed?" Rockland cries out, failing at containing his instant fury.

  The engineer hangs her head, ashamed. "He was working alone, sir, he insisted-"

  "Damn it!"

  "I’m sorry, Commander. Maybe Colton can fix this."

  “How did he get himself shot? He was right there, in the facility.”

  She hesitates a moment, eyes passing a fleeting glance to her fellow engineers. “Friendly fire, sir. Everything just... happened so fast.” Her voice cracks, hands shaking as she wrings them together.

  Rockland does not look at her, working his jaw, face stale. "Get the ship back to green status.” He heaves Lander up in his arms, mildly struggling.

  The engineers stand forlorn, hands wrapped in Lander's blood, and as Rockland turns with the chief, they quickly rush to their posts, not wanting to chance the commander's temper any further.

  Quickly, Rockland carries Lander up to the crew deck, where the medical infirmary is located. Many stare at him as he passes, his uniform now covered in the redness of Lander's blood, and his face grim and weary, like ten years have just been added to his body. His legs tremble under the weight, or is it the shock? His vision is a haze of movement, his brain wired on survival tasks, limbs doing as they are ordered.

  The med-bay is modest but adequate. When he enters, everything is white, a stark contrast from the rest of the ship, and his eyes take their time to adjust.

  He places Lander down onto a free medical cot and waves the doctor over. The infirmary is lacking patients, just a few who managed to make it back, more with injuries from the native wildlife than Paragons. Not many made it back at all.

  "Rockland... Is this all there is?” Doctor Aspen Colton stammers as she approaches the cot and examines Lander before hurriedly tending to his condition.

  Rockland grumbles an affirmation. “The rest didn’t make it.”

  Aspen opens her mouth in a silent moan. Her ginger hair is tangled in blood, usually kept tightly in a bun. Her eyes are a dark brown and meld well with her tanned skin, and her figure is slender, making her look sharp in her navy medical uniform, though right now, she looks anything but sharp, just tired and depressed. "W
e will try to make them as comfortable as possible," she assures, looking to each of the mortally wounded men and women in the medical bay.

  He nods his head absently, not really listening to her. "Do what you can, Doctor Colton, for all of them."

  "What happened to him?" Aspen asks gently, knowing Rockland is close with Lander.

  "Friendly fire. Apparently he was still running around the engineering deck for a good while before collapsing not long ago, blood loss I presume.”

  The doctor lightly touches his shoulder, squeezing momentarily. “He’ll be alright, Commander. My people know what they’re doing.” And now with a sympathetic look, she paces away from him and continues to flick through her datapad, leaving a few members of her medical team to tend to the unconscious Lander.

  "How's Zee doing?" Rockland suddenly turns and asks her, managing to pull himself from Lander’s side.

  Aspen turns to him swiftly. "He sustained a concussion. Nothing serious. You sure you don't want to get checked out quickly? It'll only take a second to scan you."

  "No, thank you. I'm fine and there's too much to do right now."

  "If you're sure. It won’t be any trouble."

  "Aspen, I'm fine."

  Aspen examines him briefly with her weary brown eyes, and now gives up and nods, her lips pressed into a sympathetic line. She says no more, and looks back down to her datapad.

  Rockland tries to leave the med-bay looking as professional as possible, but his mood is practically carried on his sleeve. Livid, like he could kill someone with his bare hands, depressed, like his gut is tugging inward and dragging him under a dark cloud, and empty, like there is nothing left to fight for, yet he knows he still has everything to fight for.

  Flight Lieutenant Dylan Zee wakes with a pounding headache and a groggy feeling just about all over his entire body. He sees a light shining in his vision, making his headache worse. The light is brightest in the centre, and white rings surround it, dimming at the edges in a feathery blare. Now the light moves around, like a firefly fluttering in circles. He swears and mumbles incomprehensible words, his eyes straining open.

  "Do I need to go get that swear jar again, Zee?" comes the familiar voice of Junior Medical Officer Nadine Rivera, a close friend of his.

  Zee blinks erratically until he can see through the light in his eyes, and he can now see her, waving a small torch in his face with an amused grin.

  "No... Just some elixir and some painkillers," he grumbles in response, rubbing at his shaved head and now the large bump at the back.

  Nadine chuckles and switches the torch off, leaning forward and resting her elbows on the arm of his helmsman chair. She has perched herself on top of the forward consoles. "Doc says you've got a mild concussion. She told me to keep an eye on you and make sure you don't try to fly. I told her I wouldn't be able to stop you even if you were dying." She smiles roguishly, seeing the matching smile in his vivid blue eyes.

  Zee shifts himself in his chair, trying to get in a more comfortable position, but as soon as he moves, his headache attacks him. "Fuck this..." he grumbles again.

  Nadine bites back another cheeky grin. She and Zee have been friends since recruitment into the UEU navy. They had both requested to serve with each other on a warship in Oceanus Fleet, the dominant fleet in the galaxy and arguably the most powerful fleet in the universe. At first they were assigned to the Canberra, an Olympian warship.

  Olympian warships are the middleweight classes in both the UEU and Serenity. They are larger than a Spartan class warship, more heavily armoured, and with more firepower, but are slower, less nimble, and unable to enter atmosphere. The heavyweight flagships of both organisations are codenamed Titans, and they are larger again than Olympians, more heavily armoured, with more fire power, but very limited in the way of movement. Titans hang back behind the fleet in naval combat, providing heavy fire support and acting as a mobile base.

  The Olympian, the Canberra, was named after the capital city of Australia, Earth. It fought in the Battle Of Nuvi, a short war between Serenity and the UEU over possession of the Nuvi Nebula, instigated by an infiltration unit of Paragons who discovered shocking research of a paramilitary group who were using UEU resources. They were plotting to destroy the Serenity inhabited systems by consuming their stars with artificial singularities. Both Zee and Rivera served in this battle, with Zee piloting a Gladiator fighter vessel, and Rivera operating in the medical department as an Ensign.

  Rivera performed extremely well under the stressful circumstances, gaining her recognition, and Zee; after excelling in both training as a fighter pilot and a Spartan helmsman, fought well in his Gladiator. He managed to board a Serenity Olympian and single-handedly commandeer a Spartan warship, using it against Serenity forces and decimating their Gladiator numbers. Zee's talents for piloting were recognised, and he was immediately promoted and assigned to the Spartan warship, the Marauding Exile.

  Nadine was later assigned to the Exile too after her repeated requests, and she joined Doctor Colton's medical team, proving not only to benefit the wellbeing of Zee, but her exceptional medical wealth proved extremely useful in the capable teaching hands of Chief Medical Officer Aspen Colton.

  Zee pinches at his nose bridge, trying to dull the sickening thump of his headache. "What happened?" he groans.

  "Some ikamanu appeared out of nowhere and pulled our asses outta there just in time. It's docked and hacked nearly all systems, so we're basically prisoners of those Paragons right now. But at least we're alive, eh?"

  He hums. "Did one of those fuckheads knock me out?"

  "You hit your head on the ceiling."

  He opens his eyes and looks to her now, suddenly remembering, and slightly embarrassed. "Right... So, now what?"

  Nadine shrugs, not knowing anything. Nadine was born in Scattered Planet, in the Portal System on planet Courage. She is of African descent and has received extensive genetic manipulation, something common within the wealthy populations of UEU citizens. Compared with Zee’s augmentation, her therapy was extreme. Her skin is a caucasian tan, defying her descent, her hair a golden blonde, shoulder length, and her eyes are a vivid green, an unnatural result from her genetic rewrite. Originally her eyes were brown, hair black, skin dark, but her parents chose to change this before she could be born, for reasons they simply explained, ‘we wanted a white daughter.’ Her nose was also manipulated to be narrower, compared to the common wide and flat noses of people with darker skin tones, and her lips were made smaller to stay in proportion with her nose. Still, her eyes were kept their large and wide-set proportions. She is smarter than most, eyesight magnified, mental processing quicker, hands always steady and accurate. She is the perfect medical protégé. But apart from these enhancements, her genetic anatomical structure is no more synthetic than any other member of the UEU.

  All UEU citizens are given compulsory enhancements such as more resilient immune systems, denser muscle tissue, stronger skeletal structure, sharper reflexes and faster reaction times, improved eyesight and hearing, more durable fitness levels, and many more improvements. They are superior to any Serenity soldier, except of course the Paragons, who are trained from birth, given alien organisms, and receive cybernetic and bionic enhancements. Although the process is slower at developing and painful to adjust to, the symbiosis of machines with organic lifeforms is far more superior.

  Nadine Rivera is known aboard the Marauding Exile as the hard-ass medic, always willing to help people, but with an attitude that can ward off the types of people she likes to categorise as ‘whiners.’ She is in training to become a Field Medical Officer.

  Zee sees her as beautiful, despite the fact that her beauty is not natural. He lets his eyes wander past her, glaring out the bridge windows at the space outside. They appear to be enveloped in a cyan entity, travelling at who-knows-what speed and carried by the ikamanu. He looks to Nadine again. "Where's that space whale taking us?"

  Nadine shrugs again, her lips puckering. "Dunno
. We can't check the stargrid for our location because the virus has locked us out of it."

  "Probably just gonna drop us off inside a star and let us disintegrate..."

  "Shh, don’t give it ideas."

  He chuckles, leaning forward in his chair to stretch, forcing her to lean back or risk an intimate moment. His headache screams at him at the movement, but he just winces and deals with it. "What's Rockland up to?"

  "Nobody has seen him for a few hours. He's locked himself in his quarters. Probably just brooding... We lost a lot of good people, Zee."

  He sees the sadness in her eyes and alters his demeanour to supportive. "I know. This whole mission has nearly cost us the entire crew. How many people are left?"

  "A few, maybe five or six down in engineering. Most of the techs, engineers and nerds survived. We lost all the soldiers and guards on this deck, and there's only a couple guards that survived who are stationed on the crew deck."

  "So we're operating with a skeleton crew?"

  "Pretty much."

  Zee sighs and runs his hand over his face. "We're screwed."

  Nadine stands and gives him a firm pat on the shoulder, careful not to shake him too hard because of his concussion. "This is what we signed up for, right? A bit of adventure, excitement, the chance to save the day."

  Carefully, Zee stands too, but with the help of Nadine. Together they leave the bridge and walk down the wide hallway toward the many terminals and consoles.

  "Well I didn't plan on being a fucking P.O.W, but yeah, I suppose we only have ourselves to blame for being in this mess," Zee agrees weakly as they pass the command terminal in the centre of the deck.

  They head toward the circular dip in the centre of the floor behind the terminal, where the stargrid can be accessed. Nadine enters the circle first, turning and help Zee, making sure he does not develop a dizziness or fall. She accesses a small green terminal at the edge of the circle and the two watch as the stargrid comes online with a blinking flash. The translucent hologram fades and a loud beep sounds through the speakers surrounding the circle, indicating that the map cannot be accessed.