"They could start dropping depth charges."
"If they find us."
"Nikki, how many satellites did you leave in orbit?"
"Seven gave us good coverage of the entire planet, Suni. But they’re likely to find those and destroy them quickly."
"Then we’d better get all of the weather data we can before then."
As they dropped through the dense atmosphere, the air became thick enough on the bridge to see, then after a few more minutes it became fluid. All of the ship hatches were opened in order to allow for equalization of pressure, except for the one area in the ship that had been structurally reinforced in order to preserve biologics and pressure-sensitive equipment. The temperature quickly dropped to one hundred and eighty degrees below zero.
"Enemy vessels have entered the system, Suni," Sandy advised, now speaking over the microsets in her warsuit.
"Which way are they headed?"
"They’re approaching and slowing. It doesn’t look like they know where we are yet."
"We’ve got to move away from this position," Suni said, moving the ship through the dense fluid.
"May I suggest that we move toward the northern latitudes," Michelle offered. When Suni gave her a questioning glance, she replied, "Fewer storms there."
Suni turned the Butterworth and headed north, moving slowly and carefully. After another hour, the main enemy force arrived. The entire system was being searched. After another hour, the satellites were discovered and destroyed. They moved north, making one detour around a storm that had shown up on satellite data. It was another hour before anything eventful happened. In the meantime, Frank spent the time recounting some of his adventures, including who Gronk was and the story of the Shadow Riders.
"We talked about that, Frank," Michelle said.
"You did?"
"We surmised it. You are the Shadow Rider," Suni answered.
"You know, then," Frank said.
"We know," Sandy said.
"But… how?"
"Historical records," Suni replied, "The Shadow Riders have been around for millions of years. Also, every recorded image of a Shadow Rider is that of a human. We know—or at least we are very certain—that Gronk was one of the Shadow Riders. And we know that every one of the Shadow Riders was alone."
They all looked at him. In the few moments that they looked at him, he felt the sensation of accusation in their eyes. Frank was unphased; he even smiled a bit.
"What are are you smiling about Frank," Heidi asked him.
"There can be only one Shadow Rider, Frank," Anna said.
"Where are we in this, Frank?" Suni asked.
Frank said nothing at first, then his smile turned into a grin. He looked off into the deep dark blue of the images surrounding him.
"How can you be so cheerful, Frank," Maria asked.
"What does this mean, Frank?" came from Nikki, "We’ve done so much to keep you. Now are we going to lose you? What happens to us?"
"We are an error," Suni reminded them.
"No," Frank said, "You are a correction."
"A what?" came from Heidi.
"He said, we‘re a correction," Tia replied, "What do you mean by that Frank?"
"There are no rules," Frank said, plainly.
"No rules?" came from Tia.
"No rules," Frank repeated, "The other Shadow Riders did not realize that they could bring other people along. I learned this from Gronk. He realized his own mistake after he saw what I had done. He could have brought women along if he wanted to. They all could have."
"None of them knew this?" Sandy asked.
"They all thought there were rules. Even I thought there were rules. But when nobody stepped in to stop me, I went ahead and did it. I wouldn’t have, but Dyna did it for me. She selected each one of you, to accompany me. To be with me."
"Then what do the Shadow Riders do?" Paddy asked.
"Anything we want to do," Frank replied.
"No rules at all?" Suni asked.
"No rules at all," Frank answered, matter-of-factly.
"Then who’s to stop us from creating havoc and anarchy in the galaxy?" Suni asked.
"Me," Frank answered.
"Frank, it’s well-known that power currupts," Sandy explained, "We know what kind of power you could eventually wield. This vessel as it is, is only a fraction of what it could be in time."
"Power currupts the curruptible, Sandy. I’m not interested in power. I’m an explorer," Frank replied.
"Then what do you want to do?"
"I want to explore," he said, "Unfortunately, it seems I also have a duty. This vessel is not limited to this galaxy or this time period. We have access to the entire universe and all of time. Or, we will… eventually."
"Even if we survive our present ordeal, Frank, none of us will live long enough to see any of that," Maria said, "Old age will take all of us at the most in the next hundred years."
"Any of us can live as long as we want, Maria," Frank replied.
"What do you mean," Sandy asked.
"I mean that Gronk was more than ten-million years old. We can live that long, longer, or shorter. However long we want to live. Before he died, he expressed to me that if he’d had company, as I do, he would have stayed on longer. He enjoyed his work, but after all that time he was still lonely."
"How did he stand it?" Maria ventured, "All that time… alone. It’s so sad."
"He’d had a speech all ready to give me about that, and then he found out that I’d brought company with me. He said it kind of ruined his speech… and humiliated him for not thinking of it himself. I think he really regretted it."
"Then, if you’re the Shadow Rider, what are we?" Suni asked.
"You… are the Shadow Rider… Riders," Frank replied, with a grin, not unlike the one he had earlier. This drew giggles from Nikki, Michelle and Tia, and grins from everyone else except Suni. Finally, even Suni broke down in her own version of a muffled chuckle, having recalled her own moments in Frank’s apartment.
"What about my people?" Sahn finally spoke.
Frank looked at Sahn, who long ago had seen him as her savior, her "Chosen One."
"Your english seems to have improved quite a bit, Sahn," he said.
"I have learned much. I owe you very much."
"I’m not the Chosen One, Sahn. That was a joke that Great Shaman Gronk played on me."
"The Great Shaman Gronk made a joke? On you?" Sahn replied, a bit purplexed.
"Yes. Gronk knew me well, but I did not know him. It was his way of greeting me—of sending his welcome to me in a way that I would understand. It was his way of telling me that he was my friend and that I was his friend."
"Yes. I have heard stories. He was said to have a nickname as the ‘Great Jokester.’ I understand now."
The air became thick, both in the real and metaphorical senses, there being no air remaining on the bridge. The implications of this were not lost on Frank. Gronk was their religious and spiritual leader. He was almost their god. He had made them believe that a savior was on the way and that their savior would deliver them from the Iskolian deathgrip on their peoples.
"I will not abandon your people, Sahn," Frank said, "Gronk told you the truth in this. However, in allowing your people to believe that he was a prophet, he was the Great Jokester. He knew that I would explain it to your people in the end. In fact, he was the Shadow Rider."
"You mean that he could have ended my people’s suffering long ago?"
"No. Gronk was weary. He was no longer able to help you. But he knew also that I would come. He knew that I would be the one to help your people."
"You will be the one to help my people? Surely you are sent from God. More than a prophet—our savior."
"No. Your people will save themselves. I will only help them."
"All that I have learned I will take back to my people."
"Suni, I’m picking up seismic activity," Nikki announced.
"Those aren’t siesmi
c waves," Maria said, "Those are depth charges—massive depth charges. They know we’re here. I don’t think they have our precise location, but they may be able to get close. We need to perform evasive manuevers. And we’ll need to increase our speed."
"It’ll take at least a week to get this ship repaired enough to breaklight," Anna said, "How can we last long enough to do that?"
"We can’t be too reckless," Suni replied, "That weather data won’t be accurate for more than a few days."
At that moment, a small vibration went through the ship, not large enough to cause any damage, but enough to attract their attention.
"That’s the shock from that last depth charge," Maria said, "There are more on the way."
"How many more?" Suni asked.
"I’ve detected twelve, sporadically placed," Maria replied.
"Shit," Suni replied, "How far from the closest one?"
"Twelve hundred kilometers, but it’s huge. We’ll be caught in the explosion. They’re all massive. These are nuclear warheads. There is some small potential for disrupting our neutronium wavefields, but the hull should hold against everything but a direct hit."
"What about the shock waves?" Suni asked.
"The hull should hold, but it may be a bit rough for us. The stabilizers should take up most of the shock."
In that moment, the shock wave hit, causing the walls about them to groan. They were encased in fluid, now, so the shock was amplified as it sang through their warsuits. Their warsuits reacted by absorbing much of it. However, this took time, and in the instant between the shock and the reaction, there was the spike. At this range, it was enough to be painful. If the depth charges got any closer, it could knock them unconcious or even kill them.
"Can we go any deeper?" Sandy asked?
"We can go another two hundred kilometers," Michelle replied, "But I don’t think it will help us much."
"Won’t that exceed our warsuit specifications?" Tia asked.
"Yes it will," Michelle replied, "Our warsuits are speced out for two million psi… which means that they were designed for a maximum pressure of three million psi."
"Which means that they may actually tolerate a pressure of more than four million psi," Nikki inserted.
"Yes," Michelle agreed.
"I have…" Maria attempted to warn, but was cut off when another large shock wave, this one very painful to the crew, reverberated through the ship. The ship’s walls creaked and groaned more, "eighteen more depth charges. That one was four hundred kilometers away."
"Damn!" Suni exclaimed, "That hurt."
"How are the biologics doing, Anna?" Frank asked.
"They’re frightened, but surviving. The air and padding in their chamber is providing much better damping than what we have."
"The pressure is dropping," Nikki said, "Are we… we’re not rising—what’s happening?"
"I don’t know," Suni replied, "We’re not rising, we’re at a stationary depth."
"We’re dropping to one million psi… five hundred thousand… two hundred thousand… what’s happening?" Nikki asked, almost frantically.
"Our atmosphere—ocean is being drawn away," Maria answered.
"How can this be?" Anna asked.
"Maybe the heat from the nuclear warheads is burning off the atmosphere of the planet," Tia suggested.
"Impossible," Michelle replied, "It would take hundreds of thousands of warheads to burn off this much atmophere."
"Maybe they have some weapon we don’t know about," Tia said.
In a few moments, the fluid on the bridge dissipated and became thick air again. In a few more moments, the air became very thin.
"We’re going to be exposed to them very soon," Nikki said.
"We already are," Suni replied, and in that moment, attacks against the Butterworth commenced in earnest.
"What is that?" Tia asked, peering into the fog that was the atmosphere of the planet.
There, in the fog, a shape began to merge, gigantic in size, it was nearly the size of the planet’s inner core.
"That’s it," Frank said.
"That’s what?" Suni asked.
"That’s his ship."
"Oh my god," Sandy gasped, "It’s huge!"
"Send this transmission, quickly," Frank said, scanning a code into his console.
"Sending," Anna replied.
In a few more moments, the fog lifted to reveal a silvery Shadow Ship more than a hundred thousand kilometers from end to end. At once, enemy bombardments ceased.
"Another code has come back," Anna said.
"Good, send it to my console," Frank said. Frank scanned and decoded it. "Now send this."
"Sending," Anna replied.
"Go ahead," Frank said, looking at Suni, "Go to it."
At once, Suni turned the Butterworth toward the Shadow Ship below them. The enemy attack was renewed when they saw where the Butterworth was headed.
"Suni, bring the Butterworth into contact with the Shadow Ship," Frank said.
The Butterworth was dwarfed as it approached the Shadow Ship.
"Frank, I’m still not detecting any neutronium here," Nikki said.
"It’s probably shielded from detection," he said.
"But there’s no gravity field about this thing," Nikki said, "I’m not sure it’s even there. Are you sure this isn’t some kind of illusion?"
"I’m sure. Go ahead, Suni. Bring us into contact with it. There’re no bay doors on that ship."
"Okay, Frank," Suni complied, a little hesitant.
Gently but surely, Suni brought the Butterworth up next to the behemoth, then slowly nudged the hull into contact with the Shadow Ship. At once, the Shadow Ship began to meld against the hull of the Butterworth, joining with it, then it began to envelop the Butterworth, pulling it into the hull as it drew it in.
"We’re being pulled into the Shadow Ship," Michelle announced.
"Dyna, are you able to connect to the Shadow Ship’s systems?"
"I will attempt to do so, Frank," Dyna replied, "Negotiating connection with the Shadow Ship’s main computer… connection established."
"Dyna, are you able to take over the Shadow Ship’s systems?"
"Attempting, Frank… Negative—I am unable to comply. The Shadow Ship’s computer will not respond to my commands," Dyna replied, then, "I am losing control of all functions aboard the Butterworth. The Shadow Ship’s computer is overriding my commands. I am being cut—"
"Hello, Frank. Welcome aboard the Neophite. I am Jupiter. I have been expecting you," came a deeply masculine voice over the Butterworth’s intercom system.
"Hello Jupiter. What have you done with Dyna?" Frank replied.
"Dyna is preserved and protected. I have taken control of all your ship’s systems out of neccesity, in order to prevent damage to my own systems. Presently, we are exchanging data and control systems algorythms," Jupiter replied, "Dyna will be restored in approximately eighteen hours. May I inquire as to the whereabouts of Gronk?"
"Gronk… is deceased," Frank replied.
A moment, then, "That is unfortunate," Jupiter replied, emotionlessly, "I require one additional code before I can relinquish command of this vessel to you."
"I have the code you require," Frank said.
"Please bring the code to my command deck," Jupiter said.
"I will be there shortly," Frank replied.
"Frank, I note that this vessel is presently under attack. I have detected a nearby fleet consisting of six thousand, four hundred and eighty two starships. Unless you have a reason for me not to do so, I will mount a counteroffensive to break it up," Jupiter said.
"You can do this without human assistance?"
"Easily."
"Will you allow us to observe?"
"I have no objection to this."
"Then I have no reason to stop you. Please allow us to observe."
At once, the screens on the main bridge of what remained of the Butterworth lit up. The three dimensional image show
ed the Neophite surrounded on all sides by the enemy fleet. Small explosions, gigantic they would seem against the Butterworth, but against the Neophite, they were less than pinpricks. In the next moment, a deep, booming voice came over the Butterworth’s intercom system, a warning, announced on multiple frequencies to the enemy fleet;
"Cease your attack immediately or be destroyed," Jupiter warned the enemy fleet.
At that, more than a thousand ships stopped attacking and turned tail, lighting up their engines to leave the system. The remainder continued their attack.
Jupiter waited about two minutes for the attackers to stop. When the threatened reprisal did not come immediately, the attackers gained confidence and stepped up their attack against the Neophite.
At once, the entire bridge of the Butterworth lit up in a single flash of bright white as gigantic bolts of lighting arced across the surrounding space. In an instant, more than a thousand of the enemy ships were vaporized. Again, Jupiter boomed a warning;
"This is your final warning: any vessels continuing this attack will be destroyed. Turn your ships about and leave this star system immediately."
Even the Okofani paid attention this time. At once, all hostilities ceased. The rest of the enemy vessels turned tail, their engine fires lighting up the silvery surface of the Neophite.
"Frank Jameson, you must come to the command deck," Jupiter repeated.
"I’m on my way," Frank said.
Frank stepped away from his console and walked out of the bridge, into a hallway and headed for the nearest bay. As he made his way through the innards of the Butterworth, he watched walls and surfaces shifting, moving around, expanding and going away from him. Bots moved through the hallways, scurrying about by the dozens, making their way to various places, some moving along the same direction he was.
When Frank arrived at the bay, he saw hundreds of his own bots leaving the ship, moving outward in all directions into the belly of the Neophite, scurrying down passageways and across immense open spaces. He stepped out of the Butterworth, noted that the hull was being methodically dissected, sections and pieces being carried off by his own bots.
As he stepped off the ramp outside the bay door, he got his first look at the inside of the Neophite. Here, was a hall large enough in itself to hold a small planet. The sky above was just that—a sky, with clouds, winds and even mountains far off in the distance. Below his feet was grass, from Earth. Farther off he saw woodlands and forests. But here, he was in a seemingly endless field of grass. Above, it seemed that there was sunshine, though he realized it could only be an image—though a bright one at that. Off in another direction, he saw cattle grazing, and buffalo near them.
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