by S. V. Brown
The checklist began.
Chen said, “Boomerang report.”
First Officer said, “No new updates. All check.”
Chen flicked a switch to activate the ship “Announcement,” knowing a recorded voice would be heard throughout the vessel. The bridge was quiet, and only the rotating blue light above the table indicated that Verging had begun. Each Joiran knew that the attite armor would automatically protect them but they still made a conscious effort to activate it. Even after thousands of years since the first attites had been introduced to humans they still liked the attribution to their ancient cellular protection.
At a nod from Arran the Captain continued.
Chen said, “We are on the Verge.”
Ross said, “Triggering the Verger to UNLOCK.”
Arran nodded. “Decoding has begun.”
Ross said, “Beginning dematerialization. We are unsynchronized with home dimension.”
Jade studied her station and touched the keypad. “Inputting dimensional signature, s-str-m-04.”
Chen glanced around the room. “Transform.”
Arran said, “Activating coding sequence.”
Ross announced, “We are materializing. We are synchronized with wend dimension.”
Jade said, “Dimension signature is confirmed.”
Ross said, “Triggering the Verger to LOCK.”
Chen nodded. “We have crossed the bridge.”
Jade ran through her list. “Confirm all systems are operational.”
Ross said, “Verger check, Converter check.”
Arran continued, saying, “Erge check, Coder check, Programs check.”
Jade said, “Fusion Reactor check, Toroids check, CGD check. Initializing Flight Procedures. Coordinates.”
First Officer nodded. “Do : G5 : Us : VA.”
Jade nodded. “Check.”
A Meta-Shield officer stepped up to the table and put in her card. “Drepanaspis shielding has been activated, Captain.”
Chen smiled. “All go.”
Jade touched a button. “Activating Acceleration Sequence. We are on route for Vespa. Time of arrival will be 1.5 years.”
“Good work, people. See you at dinner.” Chen left for the pipe, much like a lift, knowing that each member would be busy making final preparations. A small secondary bridge team would be rostered to ensure everything was operational. He strode through to the galley, hoping for a snack before dinner. They had made the transition many times to this string dimension but they always felt the tension before each procedure. Only matter could travel without hindrance through this dimension but to receive information they had to access another dimension via Boomerang. The pipe made the twelfth floor smoothly and the door slid silently across, allowing him access to the three-way corridor. He turned to the right, nodding at those passing him.
He entered the galley and strode through the room empty of bodies. He called out into the galley and was awarded a friendly smile by Chen’s favorite chef, Chef Pierre.
“Ah, Captain, I heard you missed your lunch. Here …” he passed over a covered plate, “… your favorite.
“Perfect timing, Simon, a little bird told you, hey?”
“Of course, Captain. But not so little keh? But you must eat before your dinner gets cold.”
Chen went to sit at one of the many empty tables. Simon Pierre joined him with a glass of wine. “So what’s the plan, Captain? What do you plan to do with yourself for the next one and a half years?”
Chen knew his ex-lover too well. Simon was determined to stay with him through thick and thin. “Well …”
Forcing the Truth with Lies
{[VESPA] [Trimador] [Mador] [Wasps Nest]
[358701/1276/145 /spring]}
Admiral Ryad, head of the kidnapping mission, held the message in his hand. The plan was on track and he could now dispatch phase two. EuroWasp was finally going to be very popular with the Nest. They were sick of being left out of the loop. The Genetic Council had hoped to hide their Wolf project from the Joiran Coalition. He stood facing the albino Commander Tzand. His commander, he knew, while having no desire to let his leaders in the Nest down, hoped they had made the right decision. Ryad couldn’t understand his subordinate’s reticence over the matter. Tzand had once again been quite vocal about the wisdom of such maneuvers.
The admiral was now trying to convince Tzand that he had made the correct decision. They didn’t want to control the experiment, only to force the coalition to come out and announce to everyone what their plans were.
Their spy had informed them that the general opinion of the council maintained that there had been too many failures to find a solution to the Hostility Prevention Program. That the Genetic Council knew too little. This angered the Nest. Were they not all in the cluster together? One group, fighting a common enemy, the Sharith. It had always been that way, until Project Wolf.
Tzand drew in a deep breath. The second message was overdue and he was nervous. It didn’t matter what the Admiral said; he was secure in his knowledge that a bad decision had been made. This was exactly why the founding scientists had set up a new system from Earth and didn’t leave decisions to insular and autonomous organizations. He paced back and forth, looking out over the space port. The admiral repeated himself, saying again that Tzand had no reason to worry.
Tzand was determined to visit Erus, where the package was going to be safely hidden. He’d miss the space port; it was based on the actual specifications of a Nest made by a wasp, but much larger. The many internal sections were confusing to visitors but home to those who lived on Trimador.
“Commander, commander.” A panicked voice sounded from outside his office, and the dark-patterned door was flung open. “Sorry, Admiral, didn’t see you there.” To the admiral’s annoyance the sub didn’t seem to know who to give the package to. Tzand nodded over to the admiral. The sub reached out a shaky hand to give the admiral a Blazer, “You need to see this, Admiral.”
Tzand was about to reprimand the flustered sub but hesitated at the expression on Ryad’s face.
“It’s emergency data from the EuroWasp Commander.” The sub left to stand and await orders just outside the now-closed door.
The admiral read the message out loud from the Blazer’s small monitor.
“Under attack. 2IC sent with package. Help. Attackers, unknown.” The last known coordinates were given along with a route. Tzand’s heart thumped away in his chest but there was no time to lose. They had to attempt a rescue. The Nest had to be told. The shocked admiral followed Tzand out.
They worked together to call a meeting. All Nest members currently residing on Trimador either came or hooked in to the 2D. A young man named Ard entered the circular tiered room wearing a space engineering uniform and calmly answered the questions fired at him gaining respect from all Nest members.
Nest member: “How long will it take to get to those coordinates?”
Ard: “Officially seven years at standard speed.”
Nest member: “How fast have the crates been tested at?”
Ard: “The last test was a year ago and the speed was four times as fast.”
Admiral: “Hmmm. That would reduce the time by well over half.”
Ard: “Begging the Admiral’s pardon but the acceleration and deceleration rates would have to be recalculated to be included in that figure.”
Nest member: “And?”
Ard: “Two years.”
Nest member: “Better than seven.”
Ard: “Admiral?”
“Yes?”
Ard: “Theory suggests we could go a lot faster than four times.”
Admiral: “Really?”
Ard: “We could reduce the time to one year. Maybe even shorter.”
Astounded looks stared at the young face.
Nest member: “Why don’t we do this now?”
Ard: “We’ve never had the need.”
Nest member: “Will you be willing to try to go at an unprove
n speed?”
A hesitation.
Nest member: “I thought so.”
“Sorry, sir, it’s not me but a crew would have to be assembled and I cannot speak for all of them.”
Admiral: “Quite so. Well spoken. This is of the utmost urgency. Everyone here has been cleared for full disclosure. The Nest agreed to kidnap a girl who is the key to unlocking the mystery to the Hostilities and a link to communicate with the Elysians on our terms. The Genetic Council for their own reasons had decided to take unilateral decisions and create this girl without anyone’s knowledge. Their purpose had been hidden until our operative became part of the project; a minor role, but important. The operative reported the project to the Nest. The Nest decided to take action and take the girl with them to the next Coalition meeting being held at Darcerus in the Spithra galaxy. We meant no harm and only wanted to draw attention to the deceit and alert those also in ignorance. Our point was to ensure secrets of this magnitude did not happen again. However, it seems a new rot has developed in our beloved cluster and attacked the EuroWasp. We have to be careful but we need to notify the Cluster immediately.”
Tzand, who had remained to the back of the room, stepped in to reject that action.
Nods of support came from those who listened carefully to his summary of the Project Wolf report. If they owned up now, then they would not be able to help remedy their error effectively. He stepped back.
The admiral sighed, agreed and continued, “Nothing like this has happened before and we initiated a string of events that will go down in history. Unfortunately, like humans of old, we cannot die of convenient old age and be covered with a blissful blanket of sleep. We’ll always be living with the knowledge that we caused a catastrophe and, what is worse, we’ll know it’s all sitting in the Archives on EO waiting for a new set of uncluttered minds to learn of our demise.”
No one at the meeting seemed to like that thought at all. The admiral continued and then stopped. He suddenly looked at the young man. “Officially?” The hawk gaze continued to pierce Ard’s young face.
Ard hesitated and then came to a decision. “The EuroWasp can travel forty times the standard speed.”
Gasps came from around the room.
The admiral leaned forward in his big, comfortable chair, “How did we not know this?”
Ard: “Err, begging the Admiral’s indulgence, every division is taught that Secrecy is the ...”
Admiral: “Key to power. Yes, yes don’t preach to me, young man.”
Ard: “No, sir.”
The admiral frowned at that ambiguous answer.
Admiral: “So your hesitation was to protect your knowledge?”
Ard: “Yes, sir.”
Admiral: “How would you like to become my attaché?”
Ard: “Thank you, sir.”
The admiral laughed at the again ambiguous answer. He had to have this fellow on his team. He moved on to outlaying the salvage arrangement; he’d press for an answer later. “Send out news about our tested speeds, and we’ll offer our help in sending mock reports. The speeds are safe?”
“Yes, sir. There was only some problem with acceleration and deceleration procedures. We are currently working on a solution. We may have to …”
“Yes, yes, keep the details for the reports. We’ll offer some ships as well, but under our control.”
“Excuse me, Admiral?” another person asked.
“Yes?”
“What shall we do with the team on Erus?”
“Notify them to pack up and leave in six months or so. We don’t want to raise any suspicions.”
“Yes, sir.”
After everyone left the admiral looked at his commander.
They spoke for a while before Tzand turned to leave. “I’ll do everything I can to help, Admiral.”
“I know that, Tzand. I’ll need you to help boost up the confidence of the younger members.”
“Yes, sir.” Tzand had to leave; he seriously doubted the admiral realized the gravity of their actions, the results from the attack and now the repercussions. He had read the original reports of Project Wolf, given to him too late. Had he guessed the implications, he would have instigated a Preventative Action Stage One against the admiral. It wasn’t personal but the PASO was made to stop stupid mistakes from happening. However, stupid mistakes were still made because someone wasn’t always around to first identify the stupidity and then fix it. Now there was this; a dangerous and possibly deadly mistake had been made.
Tzand broke his stride suddenly and realized he had stormed past his office. Agitated, he stalked back and almost bumped into Ard. The young man motioned him to precede him into the office.
“You’re very considerate, Ard.”
“Only obeying protocol, Tzand.”
Ard closed the door, indicating that he’d come to speak privately. Tzand activated the barre, a device that shielded them from eavesdroppers.
Tzand turned to look at the engineer. “I’m impressed.”
“With my performance at the meeting or the new update on speed?”
“At your audacity into letting me in my own office first.”
They laughed and then sobered, quickly turning more serious issues requiring their united efforts again. Many were put off by Tzand’s white skin, hair and pink eyes. Ard was one of the few who wasn’t overtly curious about him being an albino and that was curious in itself.
The Heroic Heroes
{[SPITHRA] [Erus] [Darcerus]
[149185/371/43/spring]}
By the time Ed and Erianna returned to the castle it was late. Ed waved to the Guardar and together they entered the main hallway which ran straight down the center of the castle. Large doors loomed left and right and opened to other corridors. In the main hall the stairwells on either side were slightly recessed and couldn’t be seen. Great pillars flanked the stairs but even they were dwarfed by the immense hallway.
Ed ran down the hallway, slid left and raced up the left stairwell. He could hear his mother following at a more sedate pace and when he heard her pace quicken, he increased speed, with a laugh. They were running by the time they reached his room. He could hear his mum breathing hard and laughing behind him. A hand tousled his sandy hair and her two arms went around him for a hug. They entered his room.
The fire was burning brightly, welcoming the tired pair. Mum tucked Ed into bed and, as he snuggled into his large pillows, his mother gave him a kiss on the brow and gently brushed the straying hair from his forehead. He could feel his eyes grow heavy as she continued to stroke his head but managed to stay awake long enough to make sure she had put his torch under his pillow.
The Eventus was released the next day headlining the little girl’s kidnapping. For some time the news was the highlight of everyone’s life. Ed would often dream of being a part of the Space Corpus and saving the little girl. He would imagine different scenes where he would fight huge wars or come up against the most appalling conditions to get to her. He discovered that his dark-haired buddy was also full of ideas for saving the girl. Ethas and Ed played together a lot on the mission, and the games they discovered were much more exciting when they were based on something real. Ed got to make exaggerated decisions, with Ethas encouraging the lavish use of resources to get the girl. For the first time Ed was quite happy to play the Top Supreme Sovereign and Ethas was the Grand Admiral of the Guard happy to follow his king into battle.
All the while, when he wasn’t dreaming or playing, he was still increasing his skills in carpentry or continuing with the general education for his age. He and Ethas shared some classes and continued to play together. Their friendship developed and Ed found someone he could trust. The boys’ adventures led them into many scrapes but neither betrayed the other and at times took the blame upon themselves. Ethas learnt a new side to Ed’s father and took the blame whenever the Sovereign was home.
Ed and Ethas stumbled into the small stone cottage, laughing their heads off. It was a hot and sunny
day. Ethas’s dad, Lyam, shushed them.
“Your sister is asleep.”
Ethas nodded solemnly and dragged Ed to the kitchen, where cookies were cooling on a rack. Since Ethas’s dad pinched one too, Ed happily accepted a stolen cookie. After the Captain of the Guard left the room Ed whispered, “Dad would kill me if I stole a cookie at home.”
“Did he use his belt again?”
Ed shrugged and lifted up his top to show Ethas his back. To his chagrin Ethas’s dad came back in and gave him a kindly smile. “Let me see that, Ed.”
“No, it’s okay. I was bad.”
A strange look crossed Lyam’s face, his black eyes showing concern. “I just want to make sure there’s no cuts.”
Ed glanced at Ethas, who nodded. Ed turned and accepted the administrations of healing ointment. To his relief Lyam said no more. “Now, what are you boys up to now?”
“Mmmmm, playing outside?”
“Good idea. Stay in the yard though.”
They both pinched another cookie each and ran outside. After some time they headed back inside, sweaty and thirsty. Just as Ed stepped up the last step he heard Ethas’s pretty mum, Jasmine, say something to Lyam. She was saying, “… offer some momentary, blissful peace, to ease the hearts of those who tread upon eggshells—”
“Shh, they are just outside.”
Ed opened the door, smiling, looking for eggs. Ethas grinned, pushing past him.
Jasmine glanced at Ed but turned away. “Just in time. A cold glass of milk to go with some of those cookies?”
Ed stammered but Lyam laughed as Ethas moaned, “Dad stole them first!”
“Did not!”
“Did too.” Ethas rolled his eyes at his father.
Lyam pulled out a couple of chairs. “Come on. Sit down.” As they sat Lyam glanced at his wife. “Ed, how would you like to spend some more time here? With us? Ethas is enrolling into some new classes and I’m sure your father would approve.”