Star Clusters: New Arrivals

by Dalo Lorn

  “WHAT!?”

  “YOUR WALL OPENER!”

  “Oh, that! Well, ideally, I’d take a small power crystal, as that’s what these things are designed to draw power from, but I don’t have any, so I’ll have to-- No, wait, I can use the one in my shield generator; it’ll just take me a couple of minutes. Why?”

  “Because we need a way out - or a way to get rid of these guys!”

  “Oh, I get it! You’re going to--”

  “Please, focus on repairing your equipment!” Zeshaira interrupted, firing another volley towards a Petran in the left corridor. “We can’t hold them off much longer!”

  “Almost... got it... Hold on to something!” As Kaa’nt said that, three things happened: The drone shut off the shield it was projecting, the boarding party magnetized their boots (or legs, as drones clearly don’t need footwear), and she pressed a button on the device she was holding in her hand, opening a large gap in the wall, which turned out to be a segment of the outer hull. Consequently, the air started rushing out of a large portion of the station, pulling a good deal of the defenders out past the team and into space before majority of the station was completely depressurized - along with the shocked Petran scientist and her device, as she forgot to take her own advice.

  “Kaa’nt!” Lanis yelled as she flew out of the breach; and she was gone. “How long will her life support last?”

  Herrun shrugged. “Long enough, I guess. I’m more worried about the sun, though; we’ll be out of the shade within minutes, and once that happens, the station’s shields’ll be the only thing keeping her from getting fried - and we have to shut them off to get back.”

  “Yeah, I think I’ve got a more immediate issue,” Fanra said, “five of them, actually. Remember those drones that were helping the crew? I don’t think these guys like me very much...” Indeed, five of the drones that had been sucked out of the station were still quite active, and about to start shooting.

  “We can send our drone out through the breach to fight the remaining enemy forces - it won’t be severely affected by the sun, and it might even be able to shield her somehow,” Zeshaira suggested. Without waiting for an answer from the others, the drone walked to the edge of the breach, onto the station’s exterior, demagnetized its legs, and pushed off - firing towards some of the more safely targetable drones to attract their attention.

  “Alright, let’s get to work. Kaa’nt, now that we know just where in the station we are, can you guide us towards the control room?”

  “Sure; just give me a second. Outer hull, section 3D... Go all the way down the corridor to the left until it turns right, second corridor to the right’ll lead you right into the control room. I think.”

  “You think?” Lanis asked.

  “Hey, going from memory and being shot at here!” she snapped back. Meanwhile, the drone had attracted the attention of most of the attacking group - one had been destroyed, two were still attacking their defenseless victim, while two were defending themselves.

  “Right. Alright, let’s go - schedule’s tighter than ever...”

  By the time they got to the control room, one more drone had been wiped out trying to defend against the Tarhedian warbot, and the shield generator in Fanra’s suit had lost power. “I just lost one of my shields! And, uhh... I think we’re coming out of the shade... It’s beautiful...”

  “Wonderful. Just wonderful,” Lanis said, trying to decipher the glyphs sticking out of the main control console. “How do we shut this thing off?”

  “There should be a bunch of switches controlling some of the less significant systems, like the jamming device keeping us from communicating with the fleet. You’ll probably need the commander’s access codes to access more critical systems like the shields or the actual disruptor - but I think I can hack past that.” She paused. “Of course, that idea depended on me being... well, there.”

  Lanis flipped the switch controlling the jamming device. “Is there any way we can bypass it? We really don’t have the time for this.”

  “You could try blowing up the control room, but I’m not really sure that’ll work.” Another Petran drone melted, losing cohesion in its weightless state and dispersing away from its position.

  “We’re out of options anyway. I’ll place a charge here. Zeshaira, get to the shield generator, plant a couple of charges. Herrun, you take the disruptor down. Uh... drone, see what you can do about that sun; there’s a chance the detonation’ll shut down the shields, so...” The drone beeped in acknowledgement, emitting a controlled graviton beam - more commonly known as a tractor beam - towards Fanra, trying to pull her in between its legs.

  “Very well,” Zeshaira said.

  Herrun seemed almost satisfied upon hearing that. “No problem.”

  Placing his bomb, Lanis tried to contact the Tarhedia. “Tarhedia, are you receiving this? Please respond.”

  Meanwhile, on the Tarhedia, things were not going well. Several ships had lost shields and made a hasty retreat into the Tarhedia’s faltering shield bubble, some of the smaller ones had been destroyed altogether, and even the desperately launched fighters were having no effect against the superior enemy force. “Lanis,” Hatos quickly answered, “what’s going on? We thought something had gone wrong when we lost contact and couldn’t send in reinforcements. We’re losing badly.”

  “Too many things have gone wrong, but we’re alive - for the moment. Listen, one of us is in space; we’re going to try and disable the shield, but you have to beam her out the instant the shield’s down or she might not make it out.”

  “We will try - but please, hurry!”

  The assault drone wrapped its slender legs around Fanra’s suit, still shooting at the remaining Petran drones, and emitted a shield in the direction of the Petran sun, similar to the one it used earlier during the firefight. “Fire in the hole!” Lanis said, detonating the charge he placed.

  Outside, the shield protecting the station - having become visible when the sun came out - had disappeared. “Uh, guys...?” Fanra said before being transported out along with the drone.

  “The disruptor’s still active,” Poteran said. “We can’t jump to hyperspace until you disable it!”

  “We’re working on it, Captain!” Lanis answered; and as he said that, the station shook violently as multiple charges went off near the power core. “What was that?”

  “Tarhedia, get us out of here,” Herrun said. “Don’t worry, sir; the disruptor’s about to blow.” Once he said that, he and the rest of the team were beamed aboard the Tarhedia, and the station was consumed in a large explosion. “Couldn’t find the disruptor, but I found the power core,” he explained as the fleet entered the Tarhedia’s shield and the ship jumped to hyperspace along with the rest of the fleet.

  “I don’t want to rain on your parade, but... I’m kind of stuck here,” Fanra said; the drone had arrived in a pose that made it impossible for it to unfold its legs and release her. Before anybody could say anything, Herrun kicked the drone, causing it to roll over and release her. Then the four of them spent the next five minutes trying - unsuccessfully, for the most part - to put the drone in a position where it could get up and walk.

  Once they had finally done that, she tried to remove the still-active Tarhedian shield generator on her left wrist - but it pushed her hand away. “Hey, how do I turn this thing off?”

  “Just think something along the lines of ‘shield generator, shut down’ or ‘off’,” Zeshaira answered.

  After a brief pause, Kaa’nt tried to remove the generator from her wrist again. “Nope, not working.”

  “Interesting. It activated the moment I put it on you, but it does not appear to be willing to deactivate.”

  “I can still eat and drink through it, right?” she asked worriedly.

  “I do not know - we have never had to do so until now. Remove your visor.” After saying that, she ordered the transporter operator to get some water. When the water arrived, she handed the glass to Fanra, wh
o was unable to force the glass - or the water within - through the gap where the visor had been, as it just slid down the yellow surface of the shield and onto the floor. Everyone looked at her and at each other.

  “Oh boy...” she said, fully aware of the meaning of this failure. “I’m going to die.”

  Two hours later, Hatos was talking to Zeshaira and Lanis in the park about this peculiar development. “Have you tried draining the shield’s power supply?” he inquired.

  “Everything we could think of. We even threw her off a building when Zeshaira told me it had an inertial dampener installed - but that didn’t do us any good. It must be taking more power from her suit or the Tarhedia’s systems or something - it should have failed ages ago.”

  “You say she only feels safe on Petra?”

  “That is what she told us; she even has her own shield generator, which she apparently only takes off when she absolutely needs to or when she’s on her homeworld,” Zeshaira said.

  “And the generator activated immediately upon placement?”

  “Yes.”

  “Then I fear the issue is not with the neural interface, but with the mind it is interfacing with. She knows how dangerous her environment can be, so even though she consciously wants to take it off, her subconscious mind is overriding that command. Fear is what prompted her to ask for the generator... and fear is what is keeping her from removing it.”

  “Hmm... that gives me an idea,” Lanis said, and ran off to find Fanra. The two Tarhedians looked at each other inquisitively and shrugged.

  He found her sitting near the pond in the park. “Fanra,” he gently started. “I just talked to Hatos. He thinks you can’t get rid of this thing because you’re more afraid of getting killed by your surroundings than you are of starvation, and... he’s not going to wait.”

  “Not going to wait? For what?”

  “He’s decided to drop out of hyperspace at a nearby star and transport you in close enough to get killed by it so they can retrieve the generator.”

  The combination of shock and panic was obvious on her face. “He wouldn’t! Would he?”

  “I guess he would. I tried to talk him out of it, but all he let me do was go tell you about it.” It took a few moments, but in the end, the shield shut off and Lanis quickly pulled it off her hand, then smiled. “Okay, I need to remember that in case we have another situation like this.”

  Fanra felt relieved and slightly confused. “So... this was just a trick? To make me shut it down?”

  “Yeah, I thought giving you something concrete to be afraid of - something caused by wearing it - might work a lot better and faster than hoping you’ll feel hungry enough to take it off.”

  “Thanks, I guess. I should, uh, probably get out of this suit and get something to eat now...” After she said that, she went to find the transporter.

  “Yeah...” Lanis silently said to himself, then slipped and fell into the pond again.

  Two more hours later, the ship rocked violently as it was torn out of hyperspace near the Terran-Petran border. When Lanis looked up beyond the dome, he saw several Terran fighters fly by - they weren’t in any immediate danger, but if word of their hasty withdrawal from Petra had gotten across the border, which it almost certainly had, then there was a chance that they would find themselves in yet another battle soon enough. He rushed towards the control room.

  When he arrived, he saw that Hatos was talking to a Terran admiral on the holoviewer. “And you expect us to believe that you have peaceful intentions when you’re hauling around a Petran fleet without prior authorization?” the heavily decorated officer asked Hatos.

  “I expect you,” the Tarhedian simply stated, “to be kind enough as to listen to the explanation I have been trying to give before coming to a conclusion.” He noticed Lanis come in behind him, though the surprised looks the two Terrans gave each other eluded him. “Ah, Lanis, this is Rear Admiral Eugene Jackson of the United Systems Navy--”

  “We’ve met,” Lanis interrupted him. “Good to see you’re still in one piece, Admiral.”

  “The feeling’s mutual, Baltor. Just what have you gotten yourself into?”

  “It’s... complicated. I think you should give me a few minutes to explain everything to Hatos before his head spins off his shoulders, though.”

  “Alright, but don’t move,” the admiral warned. “I’d hate to have to blast you to bits without a damn good reason.”

  “Will do, sir. Tarhedia out.” After a brief pause, Jackson still hadn’t disappeared. “End the transmission, please?” Lanis said to the baffled communications officer. Hatos nodded, and the holoviewer deactivated; Lanis turned towards him.

  “Right,” he started, “I’m guessing you’re wondering how I know Jackson and why he’s so worried about the Petrans. Both are long stories, but I’ll try to keep this short. First of all, the Petrans. About a hundred years ago, humanity was as ignorant of the Petrans as the Petrans were of humanity - neither side knew the other existed. They were basically alone in their little fragment of the galaxy. We’d been out there for around 50 years, they had two centuries of experience. Seeing as, thanks to the wormhole, our homeworlds are basically only 144 light years apart, we were bound to run into each other eventually; odds are the only reason we hadn’t done it sooner was because of the unstable nature of hyperspace along the border. Anyway, eventually, 98 and a half years ago, we managed to safely enter the region and colonized the Carthan system. I think that’s where we are right now - somewhere in the neighbourhood, anyway,” he answered Hatos’ unspoken question. “Six months later, the Petrans showed up. It turned out several of the planets in the system were rich in the various minerals the Petrans’ crystalline technology is based on. Of course, since they didn’t really want us around - and they didn’t want to bother with learning our language, either, let alone trade for the minerals - they tried to force us out of the system. Earth retaliated, and we spent the better part of the following ninety years fighting for these border worlds; our historians call the period the ‘Carthan Wars’ - I guess that’s just proof of how unimaginative they can be at times.”

  “Where do the Xargans fit into your story?” Hatos asked, taking advantage of the pause.

  “Some twelve years ago, the Petrans held Cartha and most of our worlds along the Petran border, when a large fleet of ‘space monsters’, as they called them - they hadn’t identified themselves as Xargans yet - wiped out Petran outposts near Cartha Six, Daserus Two, Holsen Prime, and a few other worlds along the ‘southern’ edge of the border, closer to where you found me in the Anlaran system. Now, because they only hit the Petrans, they thought we were using some new bioweapon against them, so they fought back even harder. But, eventually the Xargans hit us, too - ripped through our forces in the Lieproi system, which, funnily enough, happened to be the only Petran system we held at that time. Somebody figured out what was going on, so the Terran and Petran forces united to push them back. We’ve managed to take back most of the systems we lost to them since then, but as I explained to you back at Anlara, they’re not exactly losing steam - and if the Petrans pull their forces out of this, we may very well be overrun.”

  “And what about Jackson? How do the two of you know each other?”

  “I was getting to that part. Some officers on both sides will sometimes ask for help from nearby civilians. Eugene Jackson’s the one who’s had more luck with it than others; he’s a good tactician, good negotiator, and he isn’t unwilling to bend his orders - or the rules - if it means saving lives. I’ve run into him a few times, and it’s mostly been good. Honestly, if I were making a list of people I’d trust with my life, he’d be pretty high on it. The problem is, Jackson won’t outright disobey orders, and because he’s a veteran of the Carthan Wars, he’s a bit distrustful of Petrans. Still, if he hasn’t been explicitly ordered to stop us, and if he hasn’t been compromised, we might be able to get out of this without a fight.”

  “Perhaps you should explain t
he situation to him - he may be more willing to accept it coming from someone he knows than if he heard it from a Tarhedian.”

  “Yeah, you’re probably right.” Lanis turned to the comm officer. “Hail them,” he said, turning towards the holoviewer.

  Jackson appeared on the screen a few seconds later. “So, is one of you going to explain what that ship of yours is, who your friends are, or why you’ve got all those Petran ships with you?” he asked.

  “Well, sir, it’s quite a long story. It started about a week ago, when I took on a job to transport some supplies to… somebody… in the Anlaran asteroid belt. Aside from the part where I had to sneak behind Xargan lines and back again, it looked like a routine cargo run.”

  *** Five days ago, Anlaran system ***

  The Ivory Eagle dropped out of hyperspace and entered the asteroid belt, maneuvering to the coordinates Lanis’ employer had given him. The dense nature of that particular asteroid belt meant that reaching his destination would not be easy, and there would probably be some Xargans in the area.

  Lanis opened a communications channel. “This is the Ivory Eagle. I’ve got your cargo,” he said, “but I can’t see you on my sensors. Please respond.” After about ten seconds had passed, he spoke again. “Repeat, this is the freighter Ivory Eagle. I have your cargo, but I do not see you on my sensors. Please respond.” The response was not at all what he was hoping for; the ship shook as Xargan projectiles impacted its unshielded hull and a small group of Xargans emerged from the asteroid field. “Damn it!” He powered up the shields and weapons and took evasive action. “This is the Terran freighter Ivory Eagle to any ships in the area; I am under attack from Xargan forces and need immediate assistance. I repeat, the Terran freighter Ivory Eagle is being attacked by Xargans!”

  *** Present day, Tarhedia ***

  “How did you get out of there?” Jackson inquired.

  “Well, the Xargan ambush definitely damaged the ship, but all the fights I’ve been in against them made it a lot easier for me to figure out what I was up against - and once that was done, I could try to use the asteroids and the Xargans’ own weapons against them. Besides, the Eagle’s got a few surprises in it; let’s just say dropping explosives in a dense asteroid field is bound to cause problems even for things as small and maneuverable as Xargan swarmers.”