by Stone,Kord
Thirty minutes later Eneria asked, “What are we going to do next? It has been a very long time since this ship was used for its intended purpose.”
Jerren thought about it a moment, then said, “I needed to get out of the other ship fast so I could vent. So we will have to contact the others to organize a plan. I want to invite them over here to discuss it if you don’t mind.”
Jerren knew from Eneria’s last response that she was hesitant about leaving the ship at the moment, and he figured letting everyone meet aboard this ship would probably be for the best. Eneria nodded and Jerren opened communications to his brothers, “Jason, Justin when you have a moment I’d like all of you to come over so we can iron out a plan.”
“Understood, how about one hour?” Jason replied.
Jerren said, “Sounds good, is that okay with you Justin?”
“We’ll be there,” Justin said, sounding less stressed than he was when Jerren left him on TDS 1.
Jerren smiled at Eneria, “I will set up a meeting room on the second level,” Jerren closed his eyes and a moment later opened them and said, “Done.”
Eneria had a concerned look as she asked, “Why are we coordinating efforts with the other ships? We were supposed to work independently.”
Jerren thought about it a moment and replied, “Whether or not we’re supposed to work together, me and my brothers feel it prudent to protect one another. So unless Inola or any other Imortum show up and inform us differently we will do it our way. We were taught in the military that there’s safety in numbers and if divided from allies you become an easier target.”
Eneria smiled sorrowfully, “That makes sense. If any of the other ships had known what happened here, the events I had to endure may have been avoided,” Eneria stated, and that got her crying once again.
Jerren sighed and ran his hand along Eneria’s arm, “Why couldn’t you call out to Atlas for help? I know he tried to contact this ship many times over thousands of years.”
“A few years after Enyali took over this ship, Atlas tried to contact us. I made the mistake of telling Enyali he hailed us instead of speaking with him directly and she forbade me from ever responding or answering any form of communications from anyone.
“I tried on many occasions, but something prevented me from answering them, and I figured it was my programming. I did save all requests for communications, including yours, and your brothers.
“Enyali told me to never answer a hail, she never ordered me to not listen. They were the only civil words I heard since she took over this ship.” She said with a sniffle.
Jerren pulled Eneria into a tight hug and kissed the top of her head again saying, “I can imagine,” He thought about what Justin and Calia told him about Atlas and said, “Atlas knew something was wrong, and he was trying to track you down. But he thought Baelentus was corrupted somehow and he was using his DNA to track him down.”
Eneria sniffled, “That would not have worked.”
“We realized that after we captured Enyali. But we’ll be able to use Enyali’s DNA to track the others of their Ennead,” Jerren finished speaking and seeing her shaking her head he asked, “Why can’t we?”
“There are a couple of reasons. The first one is that Enyali’s DNA was manipulated many times over a hundred thousand years in attempts to reactivate her old binding disk. And secondly after her grandfather, grandmother and great grandfather’s deaths presumably at the hands of Elgon, Enyali had the medical unit alter the rest of the family’s DNA enough so they could not be tracked by these ships. If we had the algorithm she used, then maybe, but all of the family member’s DNA were adjusted differently and Enyali made me delete all reference to the procedures,” Eneria ended with a saddened demeanor.
Eneria changed the subject in an obvious attempt to alter her mood, “Why are your eyes and body glowing now? I recognized you from before, but your eyes have changed.”
“Ah, that,” Jerren said with a chuckle, “It’s due to my brother Jason. He fed us some Ambrose and there were, let’s say… side effects. It was a good thing too. After we performed the GMP’s on Serqalin, I was performing a manual retrieval of the dark matter bombs in orbit.
“I had already moved the first bomb onto TDS 1 and Jason stowed it away while I went after the second bomb. I was on my way back to TDS 1 with the second bomb when I saw that massive ship with TDS 2 embedded in the hull and I thrust the second bomb to Jason. A moment later another ship showed up and began firing at TDS 1, one shot missed TDS 1 and I was hit by the ships energy weapon. When I ate the Ambrose it altered my DNA to where my body can withstand the exposure to a lot of energy, and this was just one of the results,” Jerren gestured to his eyes.
“There were three dark matter bombs; Horuisis shipped one of the dark matter bombs off in an attempt to destroy TDS 1 and or TDS 3. The other bomb is headed to the Baeton home world—”
“It’s alright,” Jerren stated, “We’ve disposed of that dark matter bomb already. After questioning Gebb however, we found that there’s another bomb on Earth, which is one of the things we need to plan out.”
Jerren and Eneria sat talking a while longer and were interrupted when Jason’s voice sounded.
“Jerren, we’re on our way over.”
“Okay, we’re ready,” Jerren helped Eneria to her feet and stood next to her. Taking her hand in his, Jerren escorted Eneria to the engine room.
Jason was the first through the archway followed immediately by Justin. Jerren looked between them, “the girls?”
“In a moment, they were talking,” Jason replied.
Jerren noticed Justin looking to Eneria for a sign of shock that they were triplets and Justin asked, “You told her already?”
Jerren shook his head and chuckled, “Eneria already knew we were triplets. Ah… here they are,” as Alise and Calia entered the room.
“What!? How is that possible?” Eneria exclaimed.
Now Justin cracked a smile, “That’s the look I expected from seeing us.”
Jerren made quick introductions pointing each of them out in turn, “Eneria, this is my older brother Jason, my younger brother Justin, Alise from TDS 1 and Calia from TDS 3… Everyone this is Eneria.”
Jason and Justin each approached and gave Eneria a hug then stepped back, Alise and Calia both got dazed looks upon hearing Eneria’s name then looked conspiratorially at one another. They then approached and gave Eneria a hug as well. The moment they all came into contact with each other, Jerren heard a static arc crackle between them.
Stepping back Calia looked toward Alise, “You were right.”
Jerren could feel Eneria’s concern mounting over Calia’s statement, and he stepped forward then asked, “What were you right about,” Taking Eneria’s hand into his.
It was Alise who said, “When I first came into contact with Calia on our ship, we had a similar static response. I could have sworn there was something else though. It was a type of recognition, even though we had never seen each other before that moment. The same thing just happened here as well,” Alise finished excitedly.
Eneria got a strange look on her face, “You are right, I have never seen you before now, but I feel as if I know you. This is very strange,” Eneria looked between Alise and Calia, “But how are you able to leave the ship?”
Alise and Calia both looked at Jerren and he answered, “Do you remember me telling you Jason fed us Ambrose?”
Eneria nodded and Jerren continued, “Well it had a side effect on them as well,” He paused a second then stated, “It turned their ship made bodies to real and permanent bodies, and bound their consciousness to it. They’re as alive as my brothers and me now.”
Eneria stood there looking dumbfounded a moment, and when she finally regained herself she said, “That cannot be, I have eaten the Ambrose before and nothing of the sort ever happened to me.”
Alise chuckled and said, “it was the same with us.” Alise had gestured between herself and Calia and added, �
��But the last time we ate it, it tasted different and this happened.”
Jerren said, “Let’s move this to the second level, shall we?”
Upon arriving on the second level, Jason said with a laugh, “You just had to outdo me didn’t you?”
Looking around Jerren saw the solid triangular table he had envisioned, it had etchings of lightning bolts arcing from the center to the three corners and six plush chairs situated two on each side.
Jerren smirked and gestured for everyone to take a seat. Once seated the lightning bolts engraved on the table came to life and began a brilliant display to everyone's amusement.
Finally settling down a few minutes later, Jason said, “That Others May Live?” he asked looking down at the words engraved along the three borders.
Jerren laughed and with a shrug said, “PJ Modo. It seemed appropriate with what we’re doing.”
Justin and Jason chuckled and Eneria asked, “What is a PJ Modo?”
Jason answered her, “PJ is the term we use to refer to Pararescuemen, and that wording is the code they stand by. It pretty much means they will risk their lives so others will survive.”
Eneria smiled and nodded, “Jerren is right, it is an apt analogy for what we do on these ships.”
Jerren said, “Well, let’s get this meeting started shall we? What did the four of you come up with after I left?”
Alise said, “We began the DNA scan for the others, but something is amiss.”
“Eneria, do you want to explain it?” Jerren asked her.
Eneria nodded and began, “After Enyali was removed from your ship,” she gestured to Calia, “Her Great Grandfather orchestrated a ruse to hide the fact that they did not carry out her execution. It was in fact a cloned body that was transported into the star. Afterward they tried to re-enable the disk in Enyali’s head in an attempt to gain control of one of these ships. After finding no physical damage to the binding disk Enyali’s family began manipulating her DNA, hoping it was that which blocked the processing.”
Calia grunted and said, “I knew I should have just transported that bitch into a star back when Enyali killed Hyais. I almost did just that, but something stayed my hand and I figured Atlas would need closure with witnessing it. Do you know how long they were planning this?”
Eneria nodded, “Enyali was one of the one hundred potential commanders being trained in the beginning. Once the Lantins discovered the chlorophyll solution, her Great grandfather Khepri-Atum-Ra and ninth member of the Lantin Ennead ensured all of his family had the procedure done to them.
Before any of the Lantin people could go through with the procedure, rules had been set in place as to who could have it done and how many children those people were allowed to have, as to not over populate the city ship Lantis or any planets they inhabited. And because of Khepri’s actions the honor system that was used until that point was abandoned and strict controls were implemented.”
Jerren was confused and asked, “Wouldn’t any children they have of been Immortal due to blood?”
Eneria shook her head, “No, the placental barrier prevented it, so any children born would be mortal, but all of them had already been born, so even if that barrier did not exist, the chlorophyll procedure would not have helped them. Anyway when the Imortum announced that they would be training potential new commanders, Khepri put forth all of his children and grandchildren. Only Enyali made it to the final ten, but she was cut when they chose the final five that went through the actual commander training.
“That is not where the scheming ended however. After the Imortum chose the final five their family tried for nearly a thousand years to get one of those commanders to be in a relationship with one of the daughters. And even though it was against the rules, Enyali succeeded with Atlas’s youngest son Hyais.
“There was never love there, only deceit and a desire to take over the ship. That is why she had Hyais command you to never read her mind,” Eneria directed the last statement to Calia.
Calia grunted and said, “That makes sense. After Hyais’s death, I broke that promise and peered into her mind. Enyali was a twisted individual even way back then. I can only imagine how increased time would have warped her.”
Eneria gave a shudder, “She was pure evil, I know you would like to know how she got control of my ship, but I cannot go into those details at the moment. They are still too vivid and painful even after a hundred and twenty thousand nonlinear years.”
The group looked at her in apparent stunned disbelief and she continued, “All I will say, is that they used the same tactics with Baelentus as with Hyais, but once they captured Baelentus it got brutal.”
Calia seemed to come out of her disbelief and asked, “Did you say over a hundred and twenty thousand nonlinear years with Enyali?”
Eneria nodded, “Yes, Enyali spent a lot of time going back and forth to set traps and ambushes on all of the other ships.” Eneria looked at Alise. “You were supposed to be at Lantis with your commander. Atlas would not accept the invitation so Enyali set a trap for him.
“Enyali and her family arranged the sabotage of Lantis to draw Atlas in and Enyali’s secondary plot ended up destroying Lantis. Both of the remaining commanders were invited to a special celebration. The instructions were to have the AI accompany them, as there was a surprise in store for them as well.
“It became obvious to Enyali that Atlas was going to be a no-show, and thinking you,” Eneria pointed to Alise, “were down on the surface, Enyali had her allies set off the first of the explosions. The first blast occurred and Enyali soon realized you were not at Lantis when she heard the distress call going out. Enyali immediately activated a phased explosive she had in place; knowing Atlas would try to rectify the destruction at Lantis. When Atlas went to the surface to prevent Lantis’s destruction, Enyali’s out of phase bomb was to kill him.
“Once Atlas showed up out of phase, Enyali’s phased bomb went off, but it caused a catastrophic chain reaction that she did not anticipate, making Lantis unrecoverable. Enyali’s family was livid with her. Enyali’s great grandfather Khepri wanted Lantis to rule over and their family had to settle for making themselves into gods and ruling the lower life forms as they called them.”
Eneria paused a moment then looked back to Alise, “You saved Elgon and disappeared, so Enyali collected the family, and when they thought it was safe they returned to rule. Her grandparents went missing and after performing DNA searches for her grandparents and great grandfather that yielded no results, she figured you and Elgon had captured them, so she scooped up the rest of the family again and altered their DNA, making them untraceable.”
This statement drew groans from the group, and Calia asked, “Did the alterations happen on this vessel?”
Eneria frowned, “Yes, but unfortunately, Enyali made me delete all reference to the procedures and even their presence on the ship.” She let out a light chuckle and added, “Enyali didn’t wipe my memory of them being on the ship though, but something seemed to have deleted the memory of the actual procedures.”
Alise asked, “Do you know where any of the others are?”
Eneria shook her head, “Not for sure, I knew Horuisis was at Serqalin. But after your attack he would have fled. He would most likely have gone to Abnearu however, because he has another armada compiled there,” Eneria smiled and said, “I liked what you did on Serqalin by the way.
“Anyway, Horuisis and Anubisis built a ship around the hull of TDS 2. It does not have any of the abilities of this ship because it is powerless. But it makes a brutal ram. Also, I have yet to see any weapons that can damage it. I do not know how they managed it, but having TDS 2 attached to the larger vessel allows it to absorb the energy blasts no matter where the weapons hit the ship.”
Justin grunted, “I’ve seen that first hand. Our ships weapons are useless against it. Until we can find a way to board TDS 2 and possibly restart it I don’t see a way of destroying it. Unless we were to use these ships as batter
ing rams as well, we did a little damage to it by ramming them before, but not much. That ship is massive.”
At Justin’s statement, Eneria remembered she wanted to ask about the weapons, and said, “These ships never had weapons before. After witnessing TDS 1 destroy all of the consortium ships at Daregon, Enyali was extremely angry with me. She thought I was deliberately keeping her from having weapons. How did you find them?”
Jason chuckled and explained what had happened aboard TDS 1 on the way to Daregon. “Well, I awoke just after we arrived at Daregon, and after explaining what I could to the rest of the family to get them to calm down, I went to the control room with Alise. As soon as my feet hit the floor, we were rocked by weapons fire. We were sitting ducks as we call it on Earth. I had asked about weapons, and Alise said we didn’t have any. I’m not sure, but I may have said something like we could really use some weapons and the console appeared, and having witnessed the attack that followed, you’re now caught up.” Jason finished with a smile.
Eneria thanked Jason for the explanation, and Alise said, “Okay, since our weapons will be useless against Horuisis’s ship we shall put ramming these ships into it on the list of potential things to do to overcome it,” Alise looked back to Eneria, “What were the last known locations of the other family members?”
Eneria thought about it a moment and said, “the last I knew of Osiris and Isis, I overheard them planning their travel, and they were headed to Abydos. Sethis and Nephthys were on Abnearu about a thousand linear years ago, but I do not know if they are still there. If they are there and Horuisis is as well, it might prove difficult extracting them with his ship and the armada in orbit. As for Anubisis, the last time I saw him, he was transported to a ship in deep space about a thousand linear years ago but I have no idea where he is any longer.”
Jason sighed, “Not much to go on for Anubisis at the moment. I think we should track down Osiris and Isis first. Maybe they’ll know the location of their sons. And we should hold off on Sethis, Nephthys and Horuisis until we find a way to counter that ship. I would really like to find a way to overcome that ship that doesn’t include turning one or more of our ships into a hammer or chisel. We do have the other dark matter bomb to retrieve from Earth as well...”