Star Guild Episodes 10 - 18 (Star Guild Saga)

by Brandon Ellis

  “As in, the Brigger from Starship Brigantia?” Eden chimed in. “My bridge-mate on Brigantia?”

  “Yes,” replied Shanraing. “He is the one.”

  Eden rubbed her temples. “Dear Guild, can this get any stranger?”

  Kien responded, “Truth is stranger than fiction.”

  “You can say that again,” grimaced Crystal. “Now, regarding this new mission. Do we get to pick our crew, or is it already assigned?” She gave a wanting look at Jerrod.

  “If you need a doctor,” responded Kien, “Jerrod has volunteered to be on your crew.”

  “I see.” She thought for a moment. At least I'll get a perk. “And when do we leave?”

  “In a few hours.”

  “No rest?” complained Crystal.

  Kien chuckled. “Do you accept this mission?”

  Crystal glanced at Jerrod again. He was slightly bouncing his knee, impatiently waiting for her answer.

  “Guild dammit.” She wanted to stomp out, throw something at somebody. This wasn't her idea of relaxing. She took a deep breath and nodded. “I'll accept.”

  ∞

  “Egads, I'm stressed.” Crystal fell back against the captain's chair, closing her eyes, wishing this dream would end sooner rather than later and she'd wake up back in her dome, happy.

  Shan walked around the bridge, as if in thought. Thun sat in the chair next to her, and Harak, for some odd reason, was somewhere else on the ship, perhaps in the Engine's Quarters. She didn't care as long as he kept his distance.

  “Daf,” called Crystal, “are we ready to leave planet Aurora yet? Might as well get this show started.”

  Daf was sitting at a station, working on an HDC, and wondering what her role would be on this ship. She nodded in agreement. “We're the last ones to leave, so they're waiting on us.” She glanced at her HDC. “It looks like our coordinates are 1-1-3-7.”

  “Thun, set coordinates to 1-1-3-7.”

  “Aye, Cap'n.” He hesitated. “How do I do that?”

  “I don't know.” Crystal pressed her fingers against her lips. “Let's ask Tranquil.”

  Just tell me the coordinates and I'll get us there, Crystal.

  “Okay, that's easy,” Crystal replied. “Coordinates 1-1-3-7.”

  Set, and ready to go when you are.

  “Bilrak?” asked Crystal.

  The bridge became silent when there was no reply and they all looked around for Bilrak.

  “Where is our mighty King?” quipped Crystal.

  Shan spoke up, remembering. “He's taken over Oberum support. He'll be piloting them. In fact, he is squad leader. He happens to like that job. If you were with us in briefing you'd know this.”

  “I didn't know about this mission until a couple of hours ago!” snapped Crystal. “Anyone else gonna tell me something I need to know?”

  The Dwarves on deck shrugged, looking bored. One was drinking mead from a mug, slugging it down as fast as he could. He burped.

  “You done?” asked Crystal.

  “Yes'm.” He wiped his mouth with his sleeve. “I'm ready!”

  “Take us up, Ascension, and out of here,” ordered Crystal. “I'm ready to be on the move.”

  The starship rose, turning 180 degrees, then slowly traveled toward the reaches of the darkness beyond. They flew diagonally through the atmosphere, into the thermosphere, and finally into the touch of space just outside Aurora's exosphere.

  “What Galaxy are we going to?” asked Crystal.

  “The Ulas Galaxy.” Daf tapped her screen. “It's far way. Our first coordinates will take us to Virgo Stellar.”

  “Is that where the other two starships went?”

  “Hold on,” Daf held up a finger, pressing something on her HDC. “Swift went to the Andromeda Galaxy and Ascension went to the Hoag Galaxy.”

  That meant nothing to Crystal so she merely shrugged. “How long is it going to take for us to get to Ulas Galaxy?”

  “Kinda a long time. We'll be doing some minor research on the way, stopping at this planet and that planet, observing other civilizations, stopping Lien-L's starbases if we can. You know,” Daf gave a smirk, “normal stuff.”

  Crystal gave her an odd look. “How the hell long was this briefing that I missed?”

  We are ready to jump. Buckle up, said Tranquil.

  The starship revved, then everything on the ship suddenly seemed to slow down, as the vid screen filled with stars streaking across space—white stars, to yellow, to purple, and back to white again, until the starship slowed down, entering a new galaxy and a new life of worlds to be explored.

  Before them was a light-purple planet with large starships encircling it and a starbase, the same size and appearance as Starbase Matrona, though this was not Starbase Matrona.

  Thun cracked his knuckles and sat straighter. “I'm ready for whatever comes our way.”

  “It looks so peaceful,” said Daf dreamily.

  The furthest starship from them rocked and swayed as fire erupted all over its back.

  “Looks like peace is over,” said Crystal. She pointed to the starship amassing major hits, about to give an order to intercept the ships attacking it. Before her mouth opened, the starship erupted in a ball of fire, extinguishing in space in a matter of seconds. A cloud of debris filled its place.

  “Incoming,” Daf reported, pressing several buttons on her HDC. “The pyramid ships are closing in on the starbase and Drag starfighters are all over my radar.” She glanced up at Crystal with trepidation in her eyes, “What do we do?”

  “We don't let what happened to us, happen to them.” Crystal opened a com line to the launch bay. “Bilrak, get your pilots in the Oberums. We are launching a full strike. Attack all Drag starfighters.”

  “Uh, Crystal?” came Bilrak. “Are you drunk on mead? We just got here.”

  “Bilrak, look at your HDC and you tell me if I'm drunk or not. I'd rather be drunk.”

  After a long pause, Bilrak linked back in. “I see. We're on it. And we're excited to blow some Nankuani sun lovers to space dust!” There was an intermittent break in transmission and then Bilrak pleasantly added, “Sorry Shan. Didn't mean to call your race sun lovers.”

  Shan smiled. “Yes you did—and no worries my friend.”

  Crystal eyed the vid screen. “Full thrusters ahead, and when we get in range, we show them what us Star Guild rookies have learned from being their slaves for so long.”

  Crystal, I hope it was compassion that you learned, replied Starship Tranquil.

  Yeah, well, maybe next time, said Crystal.

  Author’s Note

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