by C. S. Harte
The egg-shaped object on the screen looked more like an asteroid than a ship. Craters pockmarked the textured surface. Veins of copper, gold, and silver swirled across the entire outer shell. In the center of the egg, an eerie red glow pulsated from a scarlet ring.
What could that possibly be? Barick turned toward Voight who stared at the screen with her mouth opened.
“Lieutenant Voight, initialize long-range sensor scan. Cross-reference all ships in our database.”
She took a moment to process the order before replying, “Yes, Captain.”
“Sensors report zero power signatures,” Tien said.
“What? That’s not possible.” Barick moved to Tien’s station, unintentionally pushing him to the side. “So you’re saying it’s just an inert rock?”
Tien gritted his teeth as he answered his Captain. “What I’m saying, Captain,” he harshly emphasized the word, “is that sensors is showing the ship as a crystalline silicate structure.”
Barick ignored Tien’s tone. He continued tapping commands into Tien’s console. “Fascinating. Whatever that thing is, it’s unique to the universe.”
“But if that thing isn’t responsible for abducting our crew members, then where are they?” Voight asked.
“I can’t answer that, Lieutenant. Our priority right now is to survive. We can’t solve mysteries if we’re dead.”
Another solar flare erupted next to the eggship.
“Did you see that?” Barick asked his crew.
“Yes,” said Voight and Tien.
“It looked like the eggship absorbed the solar flare,” Voight said.
“How is that even possible?” Tien asked.
“That’s the million credit question, one of many at the moment,” Barick said. He turned toward Tien. “Can we warp out of here?”
Tien shook his head. “Not for another 23 hours and 30 minutes until our warp engines recharge.”
“Lieutenant Voight, run another scan on that ship.”
“Do you want me to look for anything in particular, Captain?”
“Yes, new energy signatures and dimensions. Did it grow after absorbing the solar flare?”
Voight began executing her orders. “Wow!“ She gasped. “Sensors says it grew by 7%.”
“Is it… feeding off the star?” Tien asked. “What kind of alien species could do something like that?”
Barick shook his head. “I don’t know. Still no energy signature, Voight?”
Alert sirens blasted throughout the ship.
“Captain, the expansion event is imminent!” shouted Voight over the alarms.
Barick tapped his ear comm. “All hands, this is Acting Captain Barick. Brace for impact.”
“Tien, turn our backs to the star. Voight, transfer all shield strength to the aft shields.”
“Sir!” Tien yelled. “I just registered a power signature from the eggship. It’s… it’s powering up… something.”
The eggship starting to spin on the screen, faster and faster. Blue light shot out like waves in a 360° circle around the alien ship, like a pulse, becoming lighter and lighter until pure white.
“Shields. Shields. SHIELDS!” Barick barked.
“All power diverted to aft shields as instructed, Captain,” Voight said.
The star’s corona collapsed.
“No…” Barick breathed.
“Tien. Ions, thrusters, anything? Get us out of the way…”
The Telmun star imploded on itself then exploded with savage ferocity. Like a tsunami of molten fury, the eruption of heat and energy threatened to vaporized the Endurance, removing every trace of its existence.
Speeding past the fiery crimson wave was a blue and white light, which sped past the coronal expansion, crashing into the ship before the solar tide.
Slam.
The Endurance began tumbling end over end.
6
“Shields at 60% and dropping,” Voight yelled through the turbulence. Her voice sounded distorted, as if underwater.
Barick gripped his chair as the ship began spinning like a centrifuge.
The Endurance rode the wave of blue and white energy for over a minute.
“Shields at 40%.”
The roar of the chaos grew louder, drowning the human voices in a desperate undercurrent. A groan echoed from above as the ship’s frame started to twist and distort.
Barick stared at the ceiling of the bridge as he spoke, “C’mon old girl, just hang in there.”
“Shields at 20%. Structural integrity at 70%.”
“Tien, anything you can do to ease the strain on the ship?”
“No, Sir.” He pointed at his terminal. “My navigational terminal is dark.”
Another crash, the ship began spinning on three axises, out of control, like a swimmer caught in a riptide.
“Shields 10%, structural integrity at 50%.” Voight’s voice barely made it through the rumble.
The groaning grew louder. Plates of metal appeared on the viewscreen in front of the fiery blue backdrop of the energy wave.
“Are we… is that the hull plating?” Barick asked his remaining bridge crew.
“SHIELDS DOWN! SHIELDS DOWN!” Voight screamed at the top of her lungs.
The ceiling of the bridge collapsed on top of Barick and his crew, knocking him out immediately.
* * *
The smell of acrid smoke bit at Barick's nostrils. Burning pain shot through his left shoulder. He tried to sit up, but an overwhelming sense of vertigo pushed him back down. There was another feeling of wetness behind his neck.
Barick turned to his right to see the still body of Lieutenant Voight. No movement, no signs of chest expansion or contraction. “Voight…” his voice came out as a hoarse whisper. As painful as it was, he took a deep breath, forcing more smoke than oxygen into his lungs. “Lieutenant!”
No response.
He rolled onto his stomach. No… She can’t be dead… His shoulders flared in pain as he pushed himself up. “Lieutenant Tien!”
No response.
A whirlwind of competing thoughts spun in his mind as the direness of the situation became more present. He had to help his crew. He had to put out the fire. He had to stabilize his ship. He had to defend against further attacks. Was it an attack? What actually happened? He began coughing violently. Why isn’t fire suppression activating?
Barick scanned the bridge looking for any active terminals. He hobbled through sparking wires and burning flames to reach a station on the opposite side of the bridge. He swiped to reach the ship status screen. “Main processors are offline. Dammit!” He opened a command console and began scripting a routine to activate the fire suppression system.
It worked. The vents throughout the ship began sucking the smoke away. Breathable air circulated again.
His lungs were no longer on fire from the lack of oxygen. Barick took a minute and leaned against the terminal, waiting for the dizziness to relieve itself.
As the chaos settled, Barick heard a voice calling out. “Tien!” He hobbled to the front of the bridge and saw a bulkhead on top of his Lieutenant. “Hang in there!”
“I’m OK, Sir. Help Lieutenant Voight,” Tien said in between coughs.
“Voight… The Lieutenant didn’t make it. She’s…” Barick had trouble completing his thought.
Tears started streaming from Tien’s eyes, creating streaks on his soot-covered face.
Barick heard the wheezing in Tien’s breath. “Relax. You have a bulkhead on top of your chest.” He turned his right wrist over, activating his BIP, allowing him access to his neuromods. Unlike most sailors in Fleet who typically install two or three, Barick opted to install only one neuromod, strength enhancement. With a tap on his skin, the strength neuromod engaged, sending specially engineered, concentrated adrenaline coursing through his veins. Blue light spider-webbed across his body as his heart pumped the designer chemical into every muscle cell.
Barick stood tall over Lieutenant Tien, the pain
in his shoulder and legs washed out by the neuromod. “Push when I lift.” He took three deep breaths, squatted, and with a massive roar, Barick lifted the metal bulkhead off Tien’s chest.
“Thank you, Sir.”
“Can you walk?”
“I… I think so.”
Barick helped Tien to his feet.
Tien went over to Voight’s body and knelt down. He whispered something to her and bowed to kiss her forehead. Then he closed her eyelids and rested his head on her chest.
“Tien…”
“I’m fine, Sir. What do we do now?”
“We need to repair the ship, get crucial systems back online. Take inventory of our people. Send out a distress call to Fleet. And… say goodbye to the dead.” He pointed to the lone working terminal on the bridge.
Tien nodded. “Yes, Sir. I’ll deploy the repair drones.”
“Primary computers are offline. You’ll have to deploy the drones manually.” He wiped away the soot and debris from the Captain’s chair as he spoke.
“Understood, Sir.” Tien began working on his assignment list.
Barick tapped his ear comm. “Engineering. Are you there?”
No response.
Barick sat and turned off his neuromod. The pain and ache in his body returned in a burst, causing him to lose his breath. He closed his eyes. Pictures of Captain Weyer and the other crew members of the CMS Endurance streamed in his mind like a slideshow. What just happened?
“Sir, I’ve launched the repair drones and prioritized the repair of primary systems.”
The navigation terminal lit up.
Barick forced himself to stand and walk to the terminal. “Star alignment suggests we traveled 2.5 light years away from our last coordinate. That was one hell of a wave.” He glossed over the limited sensor data. “Telmun did expand into a red giant. How many people can say they were there to survive the expansion of a star?” Barick tried to laugh, but the pain in his chest quickly halted the attempt.
“Sir, damage and casualty reports are coming in from the other decks. We are venting atmosphere on decks one through eight as well as 14 to 16. Only 30 people have checked in thus far.”
“Get me sensors. I need eyes on what’s going on around us.”
“On it, Sir.”
Barick looked at the logs from when they were inside the energy wave. What was that light and where did it come from? He scrolled back to the beginning of the sensor data. It looked like it came from within the star? How is that possible?
“Limited sensors back online, Sir.”
Alarms blared.
“Proximity Alert,” said a computer voice.
“Sir, we have company. Wait…”
Barick tapped his console and turned on the viewscreen.
Tien moved to stand next to Barick. His finger pointed to a pink, egg-shaped object orbiting the newly transformed red giant star. “Is that a planet? Orbiting the star?”
Barick looked at his console. “It’s roughly 20,000 km in radius. That’s ten times larger than Earth’s moon.” He rapped his chin with his fingers. “I wonder…”
“You don’t think it could be the eggship from before?” Tien rubbed his eyes.
Barick ran a sensor sweep. “If it is, we’ve just discovered one of the most interesting alien phenomena to ever exist in this universe. It would have had to survive the expansion event of a star while also growing exponentially in size in a very brief amount of time. That’s just…"
"Impossible," Tien finished the thought.
An urgent notification flashed on the terminal.
Barick read a quick summary of the message. “We have a distress call from the CMS Venture. That’s the colony ship in the adjacent star system.”
“I guess the repair droids fixed short-range comm systems. Long-range is still offline.” Tien sat in the adjacent terminal. “But what can we do? We’re not in a position to help anyone.”
“That ship has an Entrent on board…” Barick's voice trailed as he processed the new information.
“OK, but you’re not thinking of helping them, are you, Sir? Our priority should be finding the missing crew. My friends. My family.” Tien’s voice hardened as he spoke.
“Before Captain Weyer disappeared, he told me Fleet Command gave us a secondary directive, to assist the Venture and protect the Entrent.”
“But… but, Sir! The Captain, I mean the missing Captain and the rest of our crew. We can’t just leave them without figuring out where they are.”
“Let’s keep working on repairing the ship and decide from there. Maybe we’ll find a clue in the sensor information. We’ll need to go over it line by line.“
Tien huffed. “Yes, Sir.”
Barick tapped his ear comm. “Engineering. This is Captain Jonas Barick. Respond.”
“This is Assistant Chief Engineer, Edra Jadin. I’m afraid the Chief Engineer is no longer with us.”
“Understood, Engineer Jadin. I’m on my way down. Please have a situational assessment ready.” Barick placed a hand on Tien’s shoulders. "Monitor the drone repairs and keep scanners on that eggship or whatever that thing is out there. It can't keep surprising us.”
“Yes, Sir.” Tien looked away as he answered.
“We’ll find our friends. I know I’m relatively new to this ship, but they’re my friends too." He nodded at Tien. "Forward together.”
“Forward together.”
Barick left Tien's side and walked toward the decktram. “Engineer deck.” A sound beeped to acknowledge the request. He closed his eyes, feeling the full onslaught of tiredness coursing through him and wished he had slept the night before. A part of him, a large part, was still in shock from all the events from the start of the day. It seemed like years had passed since he stared into the streaking lights of warp space on the observation deck, a deck that may no longer exist. He took a deep breath, trying to relieve the tension in his body. A memory resurfaced as he exhaled. Nolan's letter. When am I ever going to have time to read that?
With his eyes still closed, he heard the decktram doors open. He took another deep breath and opened his eyes. Barick was no longer on the CMS Endurance.
7
Jonas blinked his eyes rapidly and looked up. Daylight. Purple skies. Orange grass. Binary star system. He tapped his ear comm. “Lieutenant Tien?”
Silence.
“Engineering?”
Silence.
“This is Captain Barick requesting anyone on the CMS Endurance to respond.”
Silence.
A sharp pain flooded his head, bringing him to his knees. The ground started to spin until he placed his palms on the soft, velvet-textured orange grass.
Is this where the aliens took the missing crew? Jonas willed himself to stand and called out to his lost crew members. “Captain Weyer? Anyone from the Endurance?”
What kind of technology is this? Long-distance teleportation? Jonas scoffed. No one has that technology. He heard a young female voice laughing in the distance. Someone’s here. At least I’m not alone. There was a second voice. Male, older.
Jonas spun around and surveyed his new environment. He tentatively reached out in front of him, making sure there were no walls or optical projections. I must have hit my head harder than I thought. This could be a waking dream.
“We’re over here, Jonas!” The young voice yelled.
She… knows my name. He scrunched his forehead. Where have I heard that voice before?
“Let’s go, Jonas! No dillydallying!” yelled the male voice.
Jonas turned his head in the direction of the voices. He saw them now, though their faces were too far away to recognize. They were beckoning him. The headache still pounded inside his skull. This is a dream. There’s no way…
The little girl started running toward Jonas. It’s… it’s her… Tears began to well up inside his eyes. “Saera…” He stumbled toward his sister with arms wide open.
“C’mon Jonas! I want to see the mogies!” She sa
id in an excited pitch as she jumped into his embrace.
“Saera…” he whispered as he wrapped his arms around her slender waist, his eyes overflowing with tears. “I miss you so much.”
“Don’t cry, Jonas. We’re together again!” She snuggled her porcelain face into his chest. Her large, almond-shaped blue eyes sparkled as she looked up at her brother.
“Hey Jonas,” Nolan said, standing over the two, beaming a bright smile.
Jonas stared at the face looking down at him. He looked like Nolan, but much younger, liked he never aged. “Nolan… How…”
“Let’s not worry about the how or why, little brother. We’re together again, the Barick siblings.” Nolan rubbed Jonas’ hair.
“The mogies, the mogies!” Saera yelled as she tugged at Jonas to follow her into the Mogie sanctuary.
Jonas looked at Nolan. “Are we… Are we on Daxu?”
Nolan smiled. “You remembered. That’s good. We thought you might have forgotten about this day.”
“I could never forget. For the rest of my life, I could never forget…” Jonas frowned.
“Don’t be so gloomy. This day will be different. If you want it to be…” Nolan grinned his usual mischievous grin.
What does that mean? Jonas narrowed his eyes at his brother.
“Let’s go!” Saera said with a slight growl.
Jonas squeezed his sister’s hand. “OK, Saera. Stay close to me at all times. Promise?”
“Okayyyyyyyy,” she said, syrupy sweet and innocent.
They made their way to the Mogie Sanctuary, one of two reasons why tourists visited the planet. Mogies were puppy-sized, white, furry creatures native to Daxu. They had black or reddish-black eyes depending on the sex and large, floppy ears like extinct Earth elephants which could be flapped at will. Their faces were round and small, with kitten-like triangle noses and a thin streak of black for lips. Attached to their rear was a bushy tail used for balance. Diminutive hands and feet extended past their thick fur. Their most distinctive feature were two peach colored, tiny round nodes in the space between their eyes which secreted pheromones known to cause euphoria in humans.