There, pirate vessel came into the reach of her senses. They too would face her anger! She had to be careful though, she remembered that they used Gravitational weapons, these weapons were quite capable of hurting her, or even destroying her essence. To be flung back into the netherworlds without essence was a fate worse than death.
The Vessel used Tachyon Radio, she could pick up the emissions, maybe she could scare them telling her what they did to Eric.
At first she could not believe it but it was Eric's Voice! He somehow managed to take over the vessel and was searching for her! Against all odds he still remembered his promise to her! She needed to change back; she needed her human form because only then could she laugh. What a poor creature she was now, she had the power to fight starships, travel faster than light with a mere thought and yet she could not laugh. But in her rage she had destroyed her rescue pod and with it her suit.
Eric would be frightened and in panic if he would see her that way. "
Then she heard the voice of the Coven." Do not hide! Let him see your true form. His reaction will determine his fate and our decision!"
"The human is brave and he fought for me. You know how mortals react if they see us in our true form. I care much for this man and I care for the Union. "Oh little sister, don't throw away your leigance so easily. What affection would it be if you have to lie to him for the rest of his existence? She, who loves the warrior, has shown him her true form and he has not changed his mind."
Whatever argument Gwen wanted to say was no longer valid as the vessel was within optical sensor reach.
I expected anything but that! The visual sensor displayed drifting debris of two or three space ships and in the midst a glowing thing. My mind raced to find something to compare it with, but failed. It was a creature, something that lived I was certain. It was about sixty or seventy meters long, it had elements of what a dragon might have looked like, but it had also humanoid elements, leathery wings that seemed to be on fire. Fire with flames were impossible in the vacuum of space, yet there was one creature in my cultures mythical lore that would have looked much like whatever it was that floated out there, Sutr, the Fire Giant! The all-powerful Giant and enemy of Thor and Odin!"
As much as I believed in science and rationality, I was raised in a society that still worshipped gods and believed in supernatural beings, for all I knew I was facing a real Demon!"
At first I felt fear, and I wanted to turn the ship and flee, maybe come back with a fleet of Battle ships but that was no option. Maybe Gwen was still alive, against all odds. She could still be in her Escape Pod and just not visible to my scanners yet, even if she was dead. No matter the form of the creature, this was a first contact situation and I wanted to be a fleet officer. Running was no real option, no matter what. Maybe the thing could be hailed. Attempting to make contact was the first step.
I opened the program bank of the Computronic and asked if it had First Contact Protocols loaded. Of course it had not! What would a Pirate ship need first Contact protocols anyway?
So far the creature did nothing. It was just floating there. There was no telling if it could sense me or not, but I was certain that a being that could survive in space had some means of sensor input adapted to this environment. Would it be able to receive Tachyon radio?
I opened all available channels and tried the direct approach, if it was able to receive the transmission maybe it was able to determine that I was not hostile. The being however looked everything but friendly, every aspect of the creature spelled death and destruction." This is Midshipman Eric Olafson, representing the United Stars of the Galaxy. I am on a rescue mission and seeking a being much like me; if you are able to understand me I am open for dialog."
There was pride in the telepathic voice of the creature that was Gwenn." He acts just like a Union Fleet Officer should. He tries first Contact procedures!"
"He is in a starship with weapons that masks his fear!"
"Of course he fears me I am so much bigger and more powerful than he is, in the fact that he overcomes this fear lies his and the humans strength. He is still half a child even in his society, he is not even fully trained and despite all the obstacles he came through!"
"You speak like an advocate for the humans."
"I am an advocate in my human form, and I realize just how much human I have become. I am born of the Coven but I shall end it in human form whenever my time has come and my leigance is with the Union. "
"You are the second sister of the Coven that makes such decisions. Proceed as we had planned and bring him here. We must learn more. We are curious what he will do if he learns what you truly are!"
It was a longshot after all, the creature did not respond. What other options did I have, to make contact? Maybe contact was not possible, maybe the creature was not sentient. I doubted my own suggestion; somehow I knew the thing was sentient. I needed to go on and find Gwen or find out what had happened to her and then I should return to Union space.
Just then the Computronic signaled an incoming transmission." Eric, don't be alarmed I mean you no harm. Please let me come aboard and let me explain."
That the voice of the creature sounded like crackling fire was something I actually expected, but not what the creature was saying." Well I am sure glad that you don't mean any harm but I this ship isn't big enough for you."
"I will reduce my size, Eric you know me. I am Gwen."
Chapter 23: Into the Nebula
That response caught me completely off guard. Was this some sort of holographic projection? Was this a life from that perhaps mimicked or copied the personality or voice of the victims it killed or perhaps ate? Why could things not stay easy and normal around me? It seemed there was always another door opening revealing something completely knew, always when I thought I had something figured out. I opened the response channel," Alright let us assume for the moment that I believe you and you are Gwenn. Did you eat her and now use her memories to trick me into something? On the other hand if I judge the situation correctly it was you who tore those ships apart and you somehow being Gwen is the reason I am not shredded to bits."
I was sure there were other options and my captured junk pile was well armed, including a few of those Ult Gravo Mines. I was contemplating releasing two of them and thus trap or even destroy that creature. However beginning hostilities with a new life form was clearly not what a Union Officer was supposed to do.
"I am Gwen. I am Commander Brown, Eric. I have more than one shape and this is my true form! "
"I am opening the cargo bay door. Not that I am very comfortable doing so, but I doubt we have all too much time. If the previous owner of this ship explained his buddies what happened we might have a few pirates on our tail soon."
In vain did I try to find a remote control to open the Cargo door and the ships Computronic was no help, claiming to have no circuits to do so for me?
What weapon should I take to meet the demon like creature? Thor fought Sutr with his hammer and Odin had his mighty sword. Somehow I wished I had Mjördaren with me, as the TKU blaster felt inadequate.
The Pirate's ship small arms collection was impressive but nothing really better than a TKU, at least from the stuff I could identify. So I went down the small, damp smelling corridor and into the small cargo hold.
After I had cycled the air out and pressed the door opening controls, I pressed my teeth together and hoped I did make the right decision.
The thing looked even more frightening. It was not so much how it looked, I had seen renderings of Demons at Hasvik, but the fact that it actually existed. That it emitted flames in an environment where there should be no flames and that it had parts of its body that looked like sections of fresh slaughtered beings. It had horn like extensions much like the Nogoll but much bigger and twisted. Bright white energy like fog wafted out of a horrifying maw like breath from a raging Fangsnapper in a cold Longnight winter. It had four arms with razor sharp claws, but quite distinctively form
ed like a human hand complete with four fingers and a thumb.
Communication was impossible as the emergency space suit function of my uniform did not include a tachyon radio.
As it came closer it did shrink steadily and I noticed the large wings and was certain this creature could survive in space but was not at home there. Appendixes of any kind were pretty useless and I was certain that even in the densest part of the matter cloud there was not enough for wings to be of any use.
It now was only about twice the size of a man as it passed the door halves. I closed the doors and that started the air cycle as well. The creature kept shrinking and changing as well! It shifted and shimmered into a naked woman that looked exactly like Gwen!
I folded my helmet back into the collar and we stared at each other then she said. "Permission to come aboard?"
"Permission granted."
She wrapped her hands around her firm looking small breasts and looked cold and miserable." I will explain it all to you, but can I find myself something to wear? It is very cold!"
"And that's from a being that just came from deep space and looked as hot as an active volcano."
She sighed." It is more than a shape shift, Eric. I am now one hundred percent human female and we do tend to get cold easily."
It actually took us almost an hour to find something for her to wear, that was reasonably clean and somewhat suitable, but a trunk stored in the stuffed mess hall was filled with pre packed mechanic coveralls and one fit her reasonably well.
As she was done putting it on she wanted to say something when the ship jerked violently. I ran back to the bridge, almost certain knowing the reason.
I didn't bother to check; I manually raided the shields to max and accelerated in the first best direction. I needed a few moments to orient myself and hoped to gain enough time that way.
Now I took the time to sit down in the Helm position and checked the scanners. As I expected the two other pirate ships had found us. My randomly chosen course was taking us straight for the matter expanse and whatever botch job the engineer of this ship did to the engines was quite impressive, that Kartanian rust bucket accelerated almost as good as the brand new Sturgeon I had lost and took us out of their weapon range for the moment.
Of course I could not maintain this kind of acceleration even with the reinforced shields of this ship, the matter was getting denser and the shields were getting strained.
I leaned over to the Tactical controls and with the tips of my fingers I released the two Gravo mines, with a 2 second delay. I hoped they would pull a big ball of matter behind us, completely masking us from their sensors.
Gwen appeared and said." Let me take Helm, I know this place and the secret path."
There would be time later, at least I hoped to ask what she meant, but now I simply let her do what she wanted to, got up and placed myself behind the other console.
My plan had worked, the Gravo mines created a dense matter ball, but as amateurish the pirates were in trying to capture me, as good they seemed in piloting ships in this soup. One of them was just coming around the outer fringes of the dense cloud I had created behind us. Whoever piloted that ship was very good, skimming the fringes of the Gravo mine effect envelope with virtually nothing to spare, but that put him in a very bad spot, because I executed part two of my escape plan and fired the FTL into the dense matter ball. Volatile gases and matter pulled by dense gravity didn't need much to ignite! My shot had created an intense fire ball behind me and a new temporary micro star. The other pirate was too close, his shields already strained. The pursuing ship disappeared in the blinding light. What ever happened to the other I could not say but if they were around their sensors would be completely blind towards us.
I turned my attention to what Gwen was doing and noticed she flew the ship in a complicated course through a nearly invisible path of less dense matter deeper into the nebula.
Interlude: Nelson
Nelson was more than a giant Computronic. It had been built by SII Intelli-Systems and an army of the finest X101 Cybertronic engineers. It was designed by Mother Machine herself and it was without question the most advanced artificial intelligence system in the known Universe second only to Mother Machine herself. It was built inside Phobos, one of the moons of Mars. It was one of seven such systems, networked to each other, but Nelson was the core system.
It lacked true self-awareness, something the system engineers carefully avoided and prevented. The Nelson Operation and Management (NOAM) team consisted of the finest cybernetic talent.
Neuro Electronic Lead System Operations Navy processed and managed the incredible flood of data created every Second by the United Stars Fleet. Every report, every material request, every personnel decision was analyzed, stored and filed. Despite its size and efficiency it turned out to be too small and overwhelmed by the flood of data. Reports slipped through, requests delayed. True Quantum computing had been pursued since the early 21st century but a real quantum level computing system that did not turn sentient and therefore dangerous had not been developed. SII experimented with Bionetic alternatives and used such systems for years were deemed unreliable.
Admiral Dr. Holman knew all this as he was one of the four System Administrators of Nelson. He had just finished his daily conference with Mother Machine; a System he would have married if that would have been possible. Mother Machine was the only thing he loved more than Nelson. It was his opinion to simply relocate Nelson to Factory and make it an extension of Mother Machine. She would know how to introduce sentient qualities to Nelson and control the system at the same time.
Mother Machine kept refusing and the Union council for Fleet Control was also opposed to this idea.
Holman was certain the answer did not lie in a bigger system, but in making Nelson sentient and allow the system to live up to its potential. The true problem was not the system but the inadequate beings operating it and interpreting the data.
While he made a few notes and send work orders to the appropriate engineering teams, he never questioned the suggestions Mother Machine made, even though he hotly debated them when she was online with him, and had them implemented.
Mother Machine always complained about his lack of objectivity and called him a love-struck sack of carbon based cells, so he argued her suggestions, just to keep her happy and did what she wanted anyway. He was not System Administrator of Nelson because he was a fool; he was a true genius with a level 12 intellect. He graduated with highest honors of the University of Cybernetic Engineering on Factory, the only Terran Human ever to achieve this feat.
While he was working he padded the dome shaped dome shaped NELSON interface on his desk. The chrome metallic shape was only one of many such interfaces but despite all his intellect he was still human and illogical emotions ruled his behavior as much as his brilliant mind did. Like soccer ball sunken halfway into his desk, this shiny chrome object was Nelson and he padded it like a proud father padded his first born son.
"I hate to interrupt you, Admiral Holman," said the well-modulated artificial male voice of Nelson." But I have a logical problem here that seems impossible and frankly I need the help of a biological brain to sort it out!"
"You never interrupt me and you know you can call me Barry when we are alone."
"Logic dictates that when a being is doing something and is addressed by a third party with a matter unrelated to the activity, it constitutes as an interruption. So I do interrupt you quite frequently and we both agreed that we should maintain a level of professional distance to limit the danger of emotional based errors and judgments."
Barry Holman sighed." You sound more like a Narth every day."
"Perhaps this is due to the fact that we now have a team of Narth Experts working on improving my capabilities until we can migrate to Nelson II."
"Logic also dictates that I am now completely disrupted and if you present me with your problem maybe we can discuss it, so I can go back to implement work orders. Des
pite all the marvelous improvements the Narth suggest, Mother Machine's suggestions hold much merit."
"Then it comes to no surprise to you that Mother Machine finds the Narth level of engineering so far advanced that she herself will implement some of their Ideas."
He leaned back." Please tell me about your problem."
"There is a request order for a Translocator Cannon Manual coming from Bone Yard 79. It has been signed by only one authorized Officer. The signature is authentic except it missed the mental wave component, signed by an Officer known to be 1200 Light years away from the place the signature was filed."
"This is serious and indicates fraud and perhaps a case of espionage. As serious as it is it should not represent a logical problem to you. I am sure such attempts happen often and you should report this to NAVINT with a red flag since it involves Translocators."
"I have already done so. The problem I have is that the Issuing Technician on Bone Yard 79 reports that Admiral Swybar made a whole list of material requisitions including Cerberus Robots, Loki Torpedoes, Attikan Engines and so forth, yet the signatures point to a former Assistant of said Admiral. I checked the visuals and even though the person has an altered appearance, I am certain to 99 % that it was Admiral Swybar who made the requests. Motion patterns, retina pattern, behavior and voice patterns all match. Yet said Admiral was executed."
Holman activated his GalCom terminal before even answering Nelson. He used a special one digit emergency connection and said to the appearing Navint Officer." We have a Level One Tech breach at Bone Yard 79. Someone unauthorized, masking as a former Admiral has acquired Level One Mil-Tech and is in the process to acquire more. Bone Yard 79 is also the depot for the RAMA project! This is a Level One alert!"
Eric Olafson Series Boxed Set: Books 1 - 6 (The Galactic Chronicles Series) Page 294