by Boris Mosso
—Your Excellency, if the son’s life is at risk and in exchange to saving him, the father should give up seeing him, feeling his kisses and caresses forever… What would that father do?
—Even if the son is totally different than his father?
—First Councilor tell me… Even if the son never knew about the father’s existence, would the father care for his son to live a full life, in exchange of that sacrifice?
—The father would only care for him to live in an extreme case like that; for him to breathe and find his own happiness, despite nothing reminding him of his origin and his past. It would be enough for him to live, because he loves him and would sacrifice everything else, although it destroys the rest of the father’s life.
—It is so, Councilor De Kraun, you understand it perfectly.
—You are much more than one of the great geniuses that our civilization has produced, you’re also a huge knowledge and kindness symbol. But it’s too much responsibility for only one man. The burden upon your shoulders… All these centuries working anonymously.
The secret of the device found in space four hundred years ago, followed by the vain search of the object in the distant space during decades; your genetic cylinder afterwards; the handling of the old age cell in the last two hundred years… That incredible achievement that will change everything if we survive this nightmare.
—I’m very tired and, however, I have chosen it that way; I don’t regret anything after giving my whole life to these causes; after giving up so many things, so many… Very few people know about Isa Delarian. You…
—Nothing about my past matters anymore, I’ll do my best in the pursuit of complying with this commitment.
Trivian was about to break down upon thinking that not even De Kraun knew the real extent of his sacrifices. For a moment, the memory of the little three-year-old boy walking by his side, came to him as a blow on his face. His smile, his gaze. Everything came back to his mind in an unstoppable sadness frenzy.
—We’ll see each other again, Trivian.
—I doubt it; my time should have ended long ago. Something kept me alive up until now, and it’s without a doubt, this journey to the cosmos’ depths which will begin in a matter of minutes.
—Trivian, my bitterness is now total, I’m devastated. A while ago, I bid farewell, maybe forever, to my other great friend who I found during my entire life… Admiral Tronius, our adventure and old experiences’ buddy. And now I must bid farewell to you and maybe forever.
—I didn’t speak to him, I didn’t have the courage to tell him goodbye, knowing what I know…
—I understand.
—Everything revolves and moves. Our friend Tronius has had a passionate and lonesome life at the same time. Without doubt, the impact of his actions will echo for millennia in our destiny.
—Yes, a twisted and torn existence caused by the mysterious course of his life. Dear friend, it’s true that everything revolves and moves… and returns to its end. Your action will also echo in the future, even when all memory of anything else, completely disappeared in the Astral Galaxy. Goodbye, Trivian, my great friend. You’ll always be the best Espacian ever.
5 - The Journey Begins
The individual compact transport machine levitated amongst a cluster of similar levitators, rushing in between hundreds of medium and light attack spaceships, resting together in hangar eight. Lena remained calm and standing tall in the conduit.
She looked behind occasionally, somewhat desperate, waiting naively to be rescued from her fate’s claws. For the first time ever since her childhood, she felt dizzy upon watching the ground from fifty meters high.
Therein, the beautiful Vector spaceship emerged in its horizon, at the end of the hangar. Upon seeing it, she released her grim concerns and anxieties.
The self-programmed levitator went across the energy curtain and stopped exactly in front of the imposing spaceship, promptly descending to the ground; at the same time, the upcoming departure announcement was heard.
The Vector was already covered by an atmosphere energy holder curtain. Watching it carefully, she noticed that it looked like any other common Vector from the outside.
These machines complied with different fleet’s strategic purposes, by being efficient and functional war and transport machines; although with the peaceful centuries sequentially prevailing in the Solarian System, many of them were adapted for civilian purposes. From scientific investigation journeys to touristic voyages within the known portion and civilized Astral Galaxy.
The Systemic Council’s Boreal guard also had, amongst its countless squads, a considerable group of these spaceships.
The legendary and disciplined governmental guard was called such, since the distant times of the Systemic Council’s formation, since their trusted, loyal and generally stocky members came from generation after generation, from the far latitudes close to Espacia’s north pole. That’s why they wore light green and purple for their daily outfits, and an intense dull violet color for their combat armors and in their spaceships; shades which unmistakably recalled Espacia’s Northern Lights.
These guards protected and secured the compliance of the new planetary laws with fire and superhuman sacrifices, in the distant times in which the Espacian Council should have hidden, so they wouldn’t be wiped out by the powerful rebel splinter groups; the ones they sought in those days to divide the planet again into independent Continental governance, during the horrible and bloody Continental war.
After leaving the First Councilor’s rooms, Lena had been escorted by four of those guards to the levitator, which now crossed the atmosphere’s holding curtain which surrounded the spaceship.
The Vector was rounded at the end of the bow and exposed a beautiful elongated shape from the middle onwards; then it was straight on the sides, from there, its screens came down, widening to a seventy-degree angle. The upper bow was occupied by the control and command bridge from the first to the third level which spread three times higher in that area, leaving thus, the huge control room at twelve meters high inside.
The deep and dark blue spaceship, measured four hundred meters long in total, showing a wide variable, which reached the maximum of three hundred meters at the end of the stern and thirty in depth in the first fourth part, whose width was eighty meters there reaching the bow.
The bow area seemed to be hanging at some twenty meters from the floor; from there on backwards, the depth increased to fifty meters, decreasing until almost touching the ground.
It was a lot wider in the last two hundred and fifty meters, being the spaceship’s multipurpose and general cargo transport. The robotics hangars and the huge Terrestrial Forces hangars were there too. It was a place where the three RMOD’S tubular transport spaceships rested, being fifty meters long times ten in diameter, with a capacity to transfer one hundred artificial soldiers each.
She moved forwards until she reached the backside and closer to the ground. The Vector rose at a meter high there, without moving a millimeter.
She placed one of her hands over the mirror-like smooth cold surface. The hangar lights reflected on her like sparkling spots, giving her a heavenly look. Once in space, the nano-particles micro-deflectors in the molecular alienation, would change its configuration generating different grades of microscopic pellets, which wouldn’t reflect any light at all, camouflaging the structure against darkness from outer space.
Suddenly, an invisible hatch opened first at a couple of meters from where she was standing, and a levitating stairway unfolded by her feet.
These hatches were rarely used by the spaceship’s crew. A command bridge services’ Officer appeared there, called Rastias.
She looked around, noticing the absence of levitator elevators in the entire perimeter near the spaceship.
—Captain Lena, we’re waiting for you, please come up now. We’ve orders to leave the hangar as soon as possible. The escort Vector is waiting outside at one thousand kilometers away from h
ere. The Flantart’s ion rotors were spinning too fast, and the quantum impellers will soon activate.
Another voice startled her from behind.
—What’s wrong Captain Lena? Would you rather wait for the antimatter to do its magic at take off? We would fry in a second.
He was about thirty years old, about a meter eighty tall and medium built, he wasn’t wearing a uniform. His face was clean, white skin, straight and simple features, green eyes and black hair, whose intense crystal clear and sad gaze contrasted with a beautiful and sincere smile. He carried a bag over his shoulders instead of using the usual loading luggage levitators.
—Who are you? And how do you know my name?
—I’ll explain it to you in the spaceship. We’ll have plenty of time to know each other in the journey.
—Where do you think you’re going?
—I’m going on your excursion, Captain, I’m your archaeological astronomer.
—My what…? What excursion?
Young Rastias moved his head desperately following the scene from the lower hatch.
—Captain Lena, please, climb on board; we have thirty seconds to be at least fifty kilometers away from here.
Lena evaluated and decided in a second.
—Come up immediately —the archaeological astronomer told her—. Officer take off!
They were already inside the spaceship within five seconds, which crossed the holding energy curtain’s inner atmosphere neatly; once outside, the gravitational modulators were applied.
Lena observed the Espacian Systemic Council’s spaceship’s structure, with a fatigued look, wondering in what uncertain moment of her life she would see such a splendid spaceship like that one again. The huge and beautifully designed spacial structure, moved away at full speed from her visual field. It was just a dark spot instantly, cropped against the gaseous giant behind her back.
The space in front of the spaceship, curved amongst an intense luminosity of different colors, then it was sucked towards the middle of the intense glow, as if it was a grain of sand dragged by the wind and not a heavy five kilometers long structure. The Flantart’s hyperspace leap’s glare, fleetingly lit the beautiful fuselage’s outlines, showing its delicate bombast for the last time. Lena’s face also shone and the viewing lounge where she was, did too.
At one thousand kilometers away, towards the Solarian System’s outside, a small black spaceship also reflected in the light to then get lost in the space’s darkness.
Afterwards, the twin and escort spaceship, positioned at one side of hers. Both accelerated, moving away from the middle of the Solarian and Cratias System.
The gaseous giant with its big and multicolored rings, distanced itself in its perspective. On the surface, the storm wind flowed at more than five hundred kilometers an hour; storm winds which would shake the atmosphere for many more long years still to come, before stopping.
She distanced herself from the screens crossing a long transparent side hallway, but she stopped to watch her beloved sun’s system for the last time, when she was halfway in the wide corridor. It was a faraway red sphere in the middle of nothingness.
Both Vectors flashed briefly and jumped into hyperspace one right after the other. The other small spaceship also followed them after.
6 - Trivian
Both Vectors repeatedly leaped through the Astral Galaxy’s inner space and each time Lena felt that they remained in the same position; however, both spaceships followed speedily their own galaxy’s edge at full.
They were at sixty thousand light years away from the Spiral Arch spot, through where they would surface into the deep space; once outside the Astral, they would map out the most possible direct course to Lumina.
Already at the command bridge, Lena confirmed that the coordinates indeed were programmed since before their arrival. Thus, before each maneuver, the crew verified the following destination and the automatic navigators reconfirmed it. She ensured satisfactorily, the unrestricted compliance from the standard procedure of sending an automated decoy to the chosen coordinates, intending to confirm the next maneuver’s performance into hyperspace.
She remained in the command bridge since her boarding, nine hours ago. During that time, she barely left her Captain’s seat, trying to take control over her assignment as soon as possible.
At that moment, several crewmen entered approaching different two-dimensional holographic consoles spread out in the control and navigation area. They watched her persistently, some of them surprised and others simply with curiosity and skepticism badly shown.
She recognized some of the engineering’s and antimatter technician’s uniforms. She saw an elderly one among them, with somewhat grayish hair and stout, but well-shaped. He displayed the Chief Engineer Officer’s ranks. The Officer studied her curiously from his position at thirty meters away from Lena’s seat. At a distance, she perceived some hard features, showing a countenance that seemed younger than he was, alike almost every Espacian in that era. She concluded that she would have time to know her new crew in depth later.
She activated another devise mentally and the flight plan spread out completely in a holographic model, leaving the two galaxies exposed one in front of the other, on the fifteen meters long virtual screen. The Astral propped up enormously beside Lumina, displaying its two hundred and fifty thousand light years in diameter.
What left her out of breath, however, was the huge distance between both. Uneased, her gaze ran through the enigmatic and intimidating darkness that was between both galaxies.
A deep and mammoth darkness occasionally scattered with some shiny spots, revealing hot stars’ clusters lighting sections with space dust, in a colorful circlet. Only the small spirals, the Dark Galaxy, with its enormous quantities of dark matter and the Triangular Galaxy, outstanding with its millions of tiny bright spots, showed from distant latitudes, manifesting their existence also, although too distant from the unfathomable and eternal path between both giant spirals; thereby, forming part of the galaxies’ local group also.
She noticed that the crewmen present had stopped their tasks while they watched the model representation with certain bitterness and unbelief, reflected on their faces. She erased the image while she looked somewhere else. It was enough for that to soak up the atmosphere, with whom she began the expedition with.
Once the crewmen returned to their normal activities, she threw all her weight on the seat’s backrest, which adjusted instantly to her body shape.
Hours ago, the facts occurred rapidly once they flew out of the Solarian System. A few minutes from taking off, she already had her first Officer giving her orders about following a pattern of preestablished coordinates, beginning immediately, once released from the Systemic Council’s Flantart.
For hours, Lena had to face three holographic screens floating in the air, just in front of her face, showing her about the spaceship’s cargo, weapons, crewmen and passengers’ lists with their entire profiles, mapped routes with alternatives in tridimensional star plans, and secret files related to Trivian’s old expeditions.
She stirred up upon finding her First Officer very close to her, forcing her to refocus on him. The Officer was bald and with simple and inscrutable features, with kind blue eyes, a careful and formal body posture; he appeared to be fifty-five years old. He was calibrating something in the small holographic at some three meters away from Lena.
—Pranus, come closer.
—At your command, Captain.
—The longest leaps are now beginning, isn’t it so?
It is, partly, Captain Lena. We have moved away far enough from our galaxy’s center reducing thus, the space duplication or gravitational alterations’ risks. Upon leaving the Astral in a couple more days, we’ll follow our old explorers’ mapped route, despite the changes in space in the past centuries since such explorations.
—I’m surprised to see, that after leaving the Astral, the hyperspace leaps will be of some ten thousand light years each fr
om there on; I’ve never seen such big leaps ever in my life. Is this something new? Maybe experimental?
—It’s proven technology already. In any case, Captain, the ten thousand light years leaps can only be performed outside a galaxy. In miniscule star and planetary density’s broad spatial areas. Thus, when we reach the endless dark ocean, we will be able to perform some seven or eight of these star leaps maneuvers per day, at the most.
—It’s amazing. But from now on, I would rather call this space between galaxies, the dark area. The other name could well not be too adequate to motivate our crewmen, if you understand what I’m saying…
—I understand, Captain.
—You were telling me about our spaceship’s progress. Go ahead please.
—This Vector is part of the new fleet’s technology generation. It belongs to the Council’s and Admiralty’s secret program, who have been trying to generate a substantive advance, in our war and exploration spaceship’s abilities for a long time. When the war began, the implementation of these improvements, became a priority.
—It possesses other surprises which I assure you’ll like, besides the quantum leaps’ greatest lengths, which triple the actual maximum journey from the big traditional fleet’s spaceships. We possess a greater energy shield with a fifteen percent additional efficiency, besides being able to link more targets together simultaneously with the Supernova missiles, the thermonuclear and all the other ones. We also have a few modified weapons, high density plasma cannons and the latest technology thermic missiles. However, these Vectors are the forefront. It’s a shame that they couldn’t be produced in masses before the invasion. I hope Espacia’s automated plants, which have been evacuated along the evacuation fleet, continue their manufacturing.
Besides, the Black Star and the Nimide have been incorporated to this development program in a second phase. In fact, this Vector is one of the first-generation prototypes already operating one hundred percent; there are two hundred of them and the escort spaceship is another.