Quantum

by K A Carter

  Each of mercs had their doubts. One after another he’d have to assure them that what they were being paid for was well worth the risk. Tonight, was no different. Before the bulk of his new-found army would follow him out to save whatever was left of the Vega Tori system. A slab of hard fabric took up the space in the back of the cantina in the form of a booth. A dark area that Pyx reserved for S’tiri and his crew. He didn’t ask for it but welcomed a moment to drink and think about how he would approach battle. It was definitive once they reached Mulaya

  Illa slowly motioned to the back, holding a mug that carried a concoction as unknown as the materials used to make it. “Here,” she said as she sat down next to him. In the dark, her bioluminescent tattoos brightened in a blue tint. Even the points of her horns. S’tiri scanned them with his eyes. Markings from her language that scripted over her arms. None of them translated like her speech. Ancient dialects were nearly impossible to program if no one spoke them.

  S’tiri held the drink up for a moment and examined it. Whatever it was, he wanted to have it. He wanted to drown his thoughts. And It was well deserved, he thought. He took a sip and felt a hard-sour taste and a thick glazy texture. He took another sip and said, “What do those mean?”

  Illa gulped down half the mug she was holding and held her left arm up in the dimness of the only light keeping it from total darkness. “These? Every Hetoo has the words of the ancient language written on them before their second life period.”

  “Is it tradition?” he responded, taking another sip after. He’d known minor facts about the Hetoo. Only that there were multiple factions rooted from conflicting ancient practices.

  “More a tactic, Pursale is a very conflicted world.” She gulped down the rest of her drink. “If ever in a place of danger, the markings can be used so that no one can translate it.”

  S’tiri pondered on how such a practice would work in theory. From what he knew, Hetoo were a precautious people. In all the data he had sifted through as a cadet. Learning about the other species of the quadrants stuck the most. It was interesting. Especially having been a young newly enlisted recruit.

  A race of trustworthy, matriarchal, elder worshippers. Hetoo were similar to Irinans in appearance in ways and even practiced similar cultural aspects. Elder worship, for example. With small minute differences.

  “You don’t associate yourself with the Caluad any longer?” It was a personal question S’tiri asked. The Caluad was the sect of elders that profoundly ruled. Four other elder factions had power only not as prevalent. Younger Hetoo women had a propensity to openly renounce the elders. Often due to the old traditional ways of secularity from other civilizations and an abstinence rooted in the proliferation of the matriarch. S’tiri knew the answer. It wasn’t as if she was in a merc den on the orders of the Caluad.

  “You really know your stuff,” she said, with a keen look. “No, I don’t. It wasn’t for me. Doing whatever some demented elder tells me too,”

  The answer was rather childish. S’tiri weighed the fact of her defiance to the irony of her being nearly ten years old. It was safe to say that Hetoo biology was quite the unique one outside of other species that S’tiri encountered over his years of service. At this point it felt so long ago.

  She waved at the blob of a being behind the root counter where drinks were being served. A smaller blob slid over to them; the mugs encased in the blob. Slowly it muscled them out onto the flat surface in front of them. An interesting cantina waiting bot. A product of Seheron’s black market prototype scientists. Those too risky to try their work elsewhere.

  ∆∆∆

  The Cas La’ule looked like a completely different ship. A decent slap of maroon and yellow paint made it look more like a merc vessel. Continuously looking at the midnight black death machine that had been given to him, grew difficult. Nuri and Nilus had spent the day on it. When asked for input on what he wanted to change the name to, S’tiri couldn’t think of anything at first. He didn’t want to be the one to breathe life into it. There was no explanation why.

  Nilus had come up with the name Zeylon. It meant Avenger in Mar Mar, Nilus was insistent with the rest of the crew. It sounded good enough that no one argued against it. That, and the rest of them didn’t really care about a name.

  In the wake of leaving Seheron, S’tiri was hoping for the best outcome. That upon receiving somewhat of a reinforcement, it would prompt an open an avenue to his reunification into Irinan Citizenship. As far as anyone knew, S’tiri was long dead. Captured by a being he believed to be one of the most dangerous he ever encountered; and ever will. What was scarier was that this being was working for and even more sinister force.

  Thalus wasn’t some super powerful individual, though he said he worshipped one. He was someone with a cause. In some ways, he still respected the Draul he had met. But the end game to their crusade was clear. All of the species that inhabited the known galaxy were in jeopardy. Those that posed any actual resistance were in even more danger.

  He had seen data that insinuated there were civilizations untouched closer to the outer rim. Places like Zoza, Moranth, Terrondia, and others were basically passed up. It only meant one of two things. Either all of them aligned with the Draul in some way, or neither of them posed threats enough to be dealt with.

  It was too late to dwell on the past. His acts of evil he couldn’t help to commit blanketed over his efforts to redeem himself in his own eyes. It didn’t matter now. Not with his kind at stake. He had single handedly witnessed the balance tip in a rogue species’ favor. It was actually the one scenario he couldn’t see himself being on the winning side of. He was before, but not by choice.

  The Gaultian ships were odd. S’tiri didn’t notice it until he saw them jump into warp. Well, not warp but something else.

  Pyx decided to room aboard the Zeylon. She took the liberty of explaining how they worked in the most elementary of ways. “Not warp ships,” she said. Her crude lingo budging through her hisses.

  S’tiri sat in what was now a mess deck combined with an armory and med bay. There was enough space in the former prayer room to fit it all. He sat down in front of her and said. “Then what is it?”

  “Pallion Drive,” she seemed proud about it. “Very rare element.”

  S’tiri had never heard of it.

  She handed him a holo-tablet with data on Pallion. A rare galactic element that had many forms. In a plasmatic form it was the perfect source for an energy. It was something that many people hadn’t explored. Or at the very least, understood. Pallion was rich in tachyon matter. It meant that the Gaultian’s were one of the few to perfect the use of faster than light travel to an extent.

  Although it was efficient enough to keep up with the likes of traditional warp drives. The use of technology in order for FTL travel was illegal in terms of the Irinan government’s standards, so it would have likely never gotten put to good use.

  As he saw the ships dart off into a full powered FTL jump, he wondered what he was flying into. The coordinates he had provided would put them in the midst of everything. His only hope was that it wasn’t too late.

  It was a frontline, and he would surely need to be ready. Thalus and his horde would be the hardest thing he had ever faced. It scared him to know that this was it. This was the fight that would decide his fate, his family’s, and his friends.

  Chapter 27: Jericho

  “It looks like a worm,” Keon said. His panting made it hard to understand what he said.

  The jumper wavered as Jericho struggled to keep it steady. Vibrations picked up more and more with each amount of space cleared. It was clear to him; they were caught in the path of some sort of space worm. It was so massive that it swelled gravity. The idea seemed a bit to imaginative but judging by the events they had already been through, it wasn’t too farfetched.

  “It’s on your tail guys,” Freya said, her voice scratchy. The crew of the Icarus were watching the destruction from afar. “I’m swinging around to s
coop you,” Freya said in a panic.

  Jericho gritted through a rough maneuver and then said, “Don’t! I don’t want to risk the crew,”

  It had only been a brief minute of trying to get the jumper to full drive away from the worm-like creature. At the left edge of the cabin window, Jericho could see the Icarus swooping down towards them at an alarming rate.

  From out of the com Freya could be heard letting out deep breaths on the verge of dyspnea. It was common for her when she was in a state of total focus, flying a ship. “Coming in,” Freya weaved through hurling rocks. Most of them twice the size of the Icarus, others even bigger.

  Freya angled the ships hangar airlock on the dorsal side towards them. It was a big risk considering, whatever the creature was, stirred up an asteroid field and was only a couple hundred thousand kilometers away.

  It was an unorthodox way of attempting a rescue swoop, but it was too late to back out now. Jericho keyed in a boost. The jumper rattled like it was about to rip apart. “Shit,” Jericho said. The jumper was pushing the limits of its cold fusion drive.

  In the seconds that followed, he would have to stop and pivot into the hangar airlock. The Icarus grew in size the closer the jumper flew toward it. Just before it looked as though it would be a head on collision. Jericho quickly switched off the core, and immediately switched the retrograde thrusters at the front of the jumper. Even with the dampeners, a heavy g force could be felt. Almost forcing Jericho to black out.

  Suddenly, a loud crash sound came. Fully knocking Jericho back, the jumper slammed against the inside of the Icarus’ bay.

  The airlock slowly closed behind them. A few supply crates that the Vennokians had given them were knocked over as well. A small dent in the backside of the hangar where the jumper slid into. It gave definition to the otherwise glossy metallic hull plating.

  Jericho didn’t waste time telling Freya to jump to warp, but after using impulse to get a little farther away, his better judgement had kicked in. Whatever the creature was it hadn’t followed them out of the confines of the asteroid belts reach.

  “It’s likely that the vibrations from the jumper’s drive core rattled the field enough that the worm gravitated to you,” Gideon said. “Even the gentlest of rattles to the asteroids, stirred up a space beast.”

  Jericho didn’t show any signs that he was shaken by the brush with death by space worm consumption, but it did prove a growing trend. Every jump the crew took only proved to have something potentially dangerous waiting for them on the other end. He sat with his arm slid into an automator. The diagnosis and dosage machine a pearly white with blinking green and red lights, with a black screen perched on the left side displaying Jericho’s vitals. Right back in the med bay was, getting a dose of morphine.

  “Well I don’t see why the nav had this place marked. Nothing but a giant worm waiting to eat us. Why isn’t there any info on why this ship has been here before,” he said rhetorically.

  “Well actually, I found something.”

  Gideon scurried to his bedside with a datapad. It had appeared the navigation console contained more detailed than Gideon had first discovered. In its encrypted data stream, it contained certain details about each jump location. As Jericho scrolled down the long list of future destinations, he could see how endless they truly were. It didn’t make any sense. It only prompted Jericho to explore further into it.

  Jericho toggled the next location. The interface flickered in the hologram, it wasn’t made to show visuals. It had appeared at some point Gideon, or maybe Freya, had tweaked with the software.

  In the main cabin, it started to become clearer. Certain wall panels out of place and little gadgets lying around. He wasn’t opposed to it but it did make things a little less sleek. Whatever it was they were doing had to be in the best interests. Slowly chipping away at the mysteries of the ship and its contents.

  Anda was looking better each day. She limped over to him, her body showing signs of healing. A gray harness wrapped around her abdomen through to her back. She wore it over her wilted blue shirt. It prompted Jericho to say, “What is that?”

  “Mellor gave it to me,” she responded. “It’s supposed to alleviate most of the abdominal pain. Compliments of the Orcus med-bay.”

  “That’s what drugs are for.”

  Anda sat next to him by the central console, a sensation of calm sweeping over Jericho. He wouldn’t let it ware on his mind, but he was worried about what was to come. Even now with her sitting next to him.

  “This is what’s in store for us,” Jericho said. “I’m beginning to wonder if we’re ever getting home.” The central console scrolled through the countless navigation entries. He stopped at the entry with an orange rectangular bar indicator below it on the data pad.

  “I believe anything is possible at this point,” Anda said as she pressed her finger to the hologram of the star chart selection.

  “Entry 7,” voice interface read out.

  “Wow,” Jericho said. In the entry, the coordinates of the location he had almost died at displays and under it a surprisingly clear visual of what looked to be a planet. It was rocky with a stream of clouds over its landmasses. The visual was showing its rotation in real time. One that by the look of it, seemed to be excessively fast. Not that Jericho had ever been an expert in planetary science.

  “That asteroid field,” Anda said with a gasp. “It was a planet.”

  “Who knows how long it had been destroyed.”

  “You think there were people on it?”

  Aside from the large asteroids, Jericho didn’t see anything else that would give him reason to believe the planet was populated. Of course, he was flying for his life at that point. “I there was, they had to be gone for a long time now.

  Hard taps came from the corridors that connected engineering to the main cabin. Boots of a familiar texture. Gideon. As he always did, he gripped a datapad in one hand and a puzzled look in his eyes not masked by his adjustable holospec glasses. He wasn’t a fan of popular corrective eye surgeries and preferred

  “Cap, I. Well, Scud specifically, but I was there, found something peculiar in the engineering operating cabin.”

  Most of the engineering cabin was solid polycarbonate that surrounded the inner systems. A black mesh that’s purpose was unknown to Jericho, but it was pleasant to look at. Gideon lead him to an unsuspecting hub at the further back of the cabin it. “This,” he said, pointing his hand at the large panel that protruded amongst the others. It took up the wall it was embedded in.

  “What am I looking at?” said Jericho.

  “I don’t know exactly. It’s connected to every panel in this ship and even cockpit controls, and I can’t even get to its primary energy source.”

  “Wait what?” Jericho, shot a glance at Gideon that was more familiar than the red strain in his eyes that were being held back despite his restlessness.

  “Yeah, I know. It’s weird. Whatever this is has its own power source separate from the drive core. If I could access its backroot functions, I might be able to find out what it is.”

  “Don’t kill us.” Jericho said. He retreated back down the corridor, pondering what had just been told him. With whatever was to come at the next destination,

  It was no good plan continuing to hold off warping, but whatever lied ahead was unknown and no better. Freya had the destination locked in and ready. It had been for nearly three hours since. Jericho was stalling. As a result, a bit of the crew was getting agitated. Not so much that he was putting off the inevitable but coupled with the reality of their chances of getting back home, there was room to get agitated about anything.

  “Are we just gonna wait ‘til the sun burns out?” Freya said as she spoke through the com link.

  “Hit it,” Jericho said. He reached for a towel on the wall aside the shower. It was on the verge of lukewarm and cold. The recyclers had barely been used and Jericho had a feeling it was due to all the tinkering that went on down in the lower decks.
He could bare it, if it meant learning more about their new home. It had been weeks on end and none of them really knew anymore about the ship than when Volland had given it to him. All but a few breakthroughs here and there.

  As he dressed himself, Jericho could hear the smooth thrust into warp. The sound of warp initiated paralleled the hum of the drive. It could be heard from the cockpit down to the hangar. It was almost as a part of the ship as the

  streams of teal that lined the top of the bulkheads. Jericho always noticed them walking through most of the halls. He noticed them again on his way down to engineering.

  Gideon and Scud stood by the wide panel that took up most of the wall next to them, exchanging their hypotheses. Both of them crunched closer to the wall and turn back toward the captain. The panel pulsating streams of teal through the grooves that covered it.

  “Cap,” Scud started. “Take a look at this.” He made space for him in the corridor.

  “Figure out what it is?” Jericho asked stepping closer cautiously.

  Gideon had a smirk on his face he couldn’t hide. His techy interests had been intrigued by whatever it was. “I managed to find where its power source is held,” Gideon said, his arms quickly twitched while showing where he had been examining. “I could be pushing my luck here, but I think this is a dedicated intelligence capacity mainframe.”

  “So,”

  Gideon halted from his explanations. “It’s a brain.”

  “Okay,”

  “These things hold really complicated VIs or hell, maybe even an A.I.”

  “How do we know if we do?” Scud asked, he scrubbed his scruff while looking at it.