Gladiatrix of the Galaxy

by Tristan Vick

  “When the shuttle brought me here, I thought you would be the one to collect me when I arrived. But it was that cold-hearted witch Azra’il Nun and a full squad of soldiers. After she had me shackled, she informed me that you had been attacked and severely wounded. I felt terrible, but only half as terrible when she informed me that I was to blame for it all.”

  “Oh, honey,” Jegra said, embracing Cassera. “It wasn’t your fault.”

  “But, in a way, it was. I didn’t listen to you when you asked me to come to you. I thought that by being loyal to the emperor, I was being loyal to the cause. I had no idea that Dakroth had sent an assassin to kill you until they informed me of it. I swear to you, Jegra. If I’d have known, I would have tried to warn you somehow.”

  “I know,” Jegra said, stroking Cassera’s hair. “I know.”

  Her hands found the sides of Cassera’s beautiful blue face and she pulled her face close, leaned in, and kissed the Dagon’s incredible Prussian blue lips.

  A comm alert bleeped, signaling an incoming call, and a voice came on Jegra’s personal intercom.

  “Sorry for the early wake up call, commander,” the voice on the other end said. She recognized the voice as one of the officer’s, but couldn’t put a face to him. “We’re picking up a distress signal from the Light Bringer. I thought you might like to know.”

  Jegra shot out of bed, tossing her blankets and pillows aside, and immediately replied, “It’s no problem. I was already awake. I’ll be up shortly.”

  The comm chimed a melodic yet distinctly lower tone, signaling the end of the call, and cut out. Jegra quickly dressed and rushed to the exit to leave. Before heading out, however, she looked back at Cassera.

  She sat up in bed, her arms outstretched above her head as she let out a dreary yawn. This brought a smile to Jegra’s face. When she caught Jegra watching her, she blushed and smiled. “Be careful.”

  “I will. Now, go back to bed and get some rest. I’ll be back as soon as I can. The food synthesizer will provide you with anything you might need. I think you’ll find the Earth dish called a ‘deluxe cheeseburger and a Coke’ quite interesting.” With that Jegra spun on her heel and raced to the bridge.

  When she arrived on the bridge Anaïs Nin and Azra’il Nun were nowhere to be found. She was the only senior officer. “Where’s the Administratrix and High Commander?”

  “The Administratrix is off duty. But the High Commander will be here shortly,” a handsome young ensign replied. Jegra gave him the good ole double take because she was surprised at how chiseled his jawline was. He was like the Henry Cavill of the Nyctan Empire.

  Shaking her head and clearing her mind, she turned to the viewscreen. “Show me the Light Bringer.”

  The picture came on to the monitor and Jegra squinted. “Is that a giant, gold glowing space squid?”

  “We believe it’s Project Zeta, commander,” the officer answered.

  “That’s Project Zeta?” Jegra hadn’t had any idea of what to expect but she didn’t expect this. Whatever this was.

  The monster squid, which, shockingly enough, rivaled even the size of the Omikran, the flagship of the Nyctan Empire, already had two of Dakroth’s own ships wrapped up in its tentacles. The third ship hung back a safe distance, so as not to meet the same fate as its comrades.

  Something about it didn’t sit right with her. Why would Dakroth’s own top-secret project be attacking his ships? Jegra had the nagging suspicion that, somehow, this wasn’t Project Zeta. This was something else entirely.

  The creature’s tentacles pulsed with waves of energy as it coiled its appendages around the ships. It seemed to be somehow syphoning energy from the vessels.

  A giant explosion erupted as one of the ships’ fusion cores went critical. But instead of the typical supernova-styled explosion that accompanies a starship when its core breaches, the energy blast was quickly absorbed by the giant glowing squid-thing.

  Not waiting around to become the monstrosity’s next victim, the last remaining Dagon ship jumped out of the system with a crack of thunder.

  Jegra watched in awe as the squid grew even larger before her very eyes. Obviously, it fed on energy, and starships were just little delicious nuclear treats to it.

  If Dakroth was behind this, he’d succeeded in creating the ultimate weapon. A starship killer. And as fascinating as that may be, she knew this was no time to study it. She had to kill it before it headed off into space, wreaking havoc and destruction everywhere it went.

  “Ensign,” she said in a commanding tone. “Lock disrupters on that … thing. And fire.”

  “Yes, commander,” he replied. Before he could target it and fire, however, Azra’il Nun stormed onto the bridge.

  “Belay that order!” she huffed. Stepping up alongside Jegra, she gazed out at the entity along with her.

  “We need to destroy it,” Jegra insisted. “Before it gets too powerful and threatens to destroy all of us, if not half the system.”

  “I have orders to try and communicate with it.”

  “Communicate with it?” Jegra gasped. “Are you out of your mind? That thing just ate an entire starship. It’s a weapon of mass destruction, plain and simple!”

  “Weapon or not, we won’t know if it’s sentient until we try to communicate with it. And if it is, opening a dialog with the creature may serve us far better than pissing it off.”

  Although Jegra agreed with the impulse to try and communicate with it, she knew that monsters that size rarely ever had the kind of intelligence one saw in other advanced beings. Monsters were usually just monsters. And, like Ahab’s great white whale, they rarely cared about what stood in their path of destruction.

  Azra’il Nun ordered the officer to hail the Light Bringer. The viewscreen came on and Galahad was standing aboard the bridge, his gaze fixed offscreen as golden light fell onto his face.

  “Update,” Azra’il said.

  “This thing is pure energy,” he replied. “It’s like nothing we’ve ever encountered before.”

  “What does it seem to want?”

  “Only to feed, High Commander,” he answered.

  “Is there any way you can communicate with it?”

  “It hasn’t responded to any hails in any of the thirty-seven thousand known languages in the universal translator. We tried light patterns and sound waves. It was unresponsive to all.”

  “Have you tried low-yield disruptor bursts?”

  “The ship it just crushed had tried that to no effect. The creature merely absorbed the blasts as though it were a sponge soaking up water. Our only resort may be to fire a missile at it, but even then, it may not do any good.”

  Azra’il turned to Jegra. “It seems we will be doing it your way, after all.” Turning back toward the viewscreen, she addressed Galahad.

  “Fire when ready. But keep your distance. Should you anger it, I don’t want to lose the Light Bringer.”

  Galahad bowed and then strode offscreen. Once he had disappeared from view, Azra’il swiped the screen away with a flick of her wrist and then swiped again to bring up the current view. Holding her hand up, she spread her fingers, fanning them wide, and the motion sensor read her subtle gesture and zoomed in on the scene.

  The giant squid was wrapping its glowing tentacles around the second ship. Each snake-like appendage slowly coiled around the ship like a boa constrictor wrapping up its prey and tightening.

  After a while, the celestial space-squid tightened its grip and the tangled-up ship bent as its hull buckled. This was followed by a concussive explosion which burst from the crumpled section of the hull. The fiery blast began to plume outward but then quickly reversed course and was sucked back as the creature’s body absorbed every ounce of energy.

  With the final Dagon ship destroyed, only the Nyctan fleet remained; seven ships in total after the battle with the Dagons. Now, Jegra’s worries turned to the Nyctan fleet. With the Dagons out of the way, they were next on the menu. And squidy looked hungry
.

  The creature began to radiate bright, golden light and the residual effects of consuming so much nuclear energy caused it to grow exponentially. Now it was large enough to arrest the Omikran, the largest ship in the fleet, if it so chose.

  Jegra took a step forward and studied the creature closely. Its tentacles slowly uncoiled and spread open. They swayed and rippled as if they were in a vast ocean as they unfurled themselves. It was beautiful, she thought. But, at the same time, she knew it was the most dangerous thing she’d encountered in her brief time in space.

  A barrage of missiles fired from the Light Bringer as it flew toward the creature. The warheads began pelting the space-squid in quick succession, setting off a daisy chain of a dozen neutron explosions.

  Squidy jolted back but immediately course-corrected itself and moved into the radiation field. Absorbing the energy of the high yield explosions, it basked in the afterglow of the nuclear assault. It glowed softly and looked peaceful, as though it were enjoying a nice salt bath.

  Galahad came back onto the viewscreen. “High Commander,” he said, bowing his head. “The missiles had little effect. The creature seems able to absorb every form of energy thrown at it. Even the kinetic friction of the ship’s hull buckling was absorbed by it. Perhaps the only thing capable of taking it out is an anti-matter warhead.”

  “Anti-matter?” Jegra asked. “Do we even have any of those?”

  “No,” Azra’il replied tersely. “The technology is still only theoretical. Nobody has been able to stabilize anti-matter before it bonds with ordinary matter and erases itself.”

  “What about the black hole?” Jegra inquired.

  “What about it?” Azra’il Nun asked, looking over to the far right of the monitor at the black hole glowing in the distance with its split double-halo, a trail of debris from the space battle mingling with the asteroid belt that was forming around it.

  “If we could use the Omikran’s mega-thrusters, it might be enough to push the creature into the black hole.”

  Azra’il shot Jegra a surprised look. “That might just work. The only question is, where would the crew evacuate to?”

  “The remaining seven ships, including Light Bringer, could be modified to hold all the Omikran’s crew and personnel. Each ship’s cargo hold and shuttle bay would need to be refitted to house the Omikran’s crew, but it’s doable.”

  “It will take time. Something we may not have the luxury of. What’s to say that thing won’t attack us while we’re just floating out here making preparations?”

  “I don’t have any guarantees, but I’m betting on the fact that it has just fed so it won’t be requiring its next meal anytime soon.”

  “Sir, we’re reading an energy surge,” the handsome officer said.

  “From the creature?” Azra’il asked.

  An alert chimed and he double checked his console. “No, commander. It appears to be coming from hyperspace.”

  “Hyperspace?” she repeated, at a loss to explain the peculiar readings.

  The Omikran shuddered as an enormous ship jumped into the system just in front of its starboard bow. The thunderous boom caused everyone to cover their ears.

  The triangular, wedge-shaped ship was charcoal gray, and its many windows were lighted, causing it to blend in with the stars. It was Goliath, nearly three times larger than the Omikran. And by the stunned looks on the bridge crew’s face, nobody had ever seen anything like it.

  “What is that thing?”

  Jegra stared out at the giant triangular ship floating out in space. It reminded her of Dakroth’s old flagship, the Dreadnaught, and that’s when it sunk in. The sheer vanity of it. The absurd size of it trying to compensate for an ego of equal mass but which was as fragile as an egg shell. It was most definitely Emperor Dakroth’s.

  “I have a bad feeling about this,” Jegra said.

  Without warning, the massive destroyer trained its cannons on the Nyctan fleet and began firing at will. A relentless barrage of red laser blasts hailed down from the ugly vessel as it opened with a volley of fire power that rivaled all the remaining Nyctan ships combined.

  “Evasive action!” Azra’il shouted.

  Jegra stepped in, “Open a fleet wide communiqué,” she ordered. The officer nodded at her when she was live. “This is Sub Commander Jegra Alakandra. The fleet is under attack by an unknown enemy vessel. All ships, protect the Omikran at all costs.”

  “You heard the lady,” Azra’il growled while the crew looked to her to override Jegra’s orders. But to Jegra’s surprise, the high commander fully backed her strategy.

  The remaining seven ships repositioned themselves between the Omikran and the beast of a warship that had just appeared in front of them. Using their shields, they provided cover to protect the Omikran long enough for them to deal with the space-squid.

  “The blockade won’t hold that thing for long. Not at the rate that they’re getting bombarded by that disruptor fire,” Azra’il said.

  “I know,” Jegra sighed. She stood next to the high commander watching the onslaught.

  That infernal ship had enough fire power to decimate a fleet twice their size. It would eat all seven of the remaining Nyctan ships for breakfast and leave nothing but the carcasses of their burning hulls.

  She knew she’d need a new strategy if she hoped to go up against Dakroth’s juggernaut of a war ship. The only thing Jegra knew right now was that she wasn’t going to let Dakroth defeat her. Not this time. This time, she’d show him a thing or two. That was a promise.

  27

  The mammoth warship continued its relentless volley of firepower as it targeted the remaining Nyctan ships. Jegra frowned and turned to the handsome officer to her right. “Hail that ship,” she said.

  He looked at her and shook his head, informing her that it was no good. They weren’t responding.

  “Send my dear idiot husband this message,” she replied. “Tell him, it’s not the size of the starship that matters, it’s how you use it. And signal the Light Bringer to pick me up,” she said turning toward the exit.

  The high commander nodded at Jegra, to inform her that she was free to go, and then shot the handsome officer a look that said get on it. He quickly set to his task and hailed the Light Bringer, calling them to pick up Jegra.

  She rushed to her quarters and quickly began gathering her things and whatever else she might need. After a moment she realized that Cassera wasn’t anywhere to be found. Then she heard a loud belch escape from the bathroom.

  “Are you okay in there?” Jegra asked aloud. She waited for a response and watched amusedly as the bathroom door abruptly slid open.

  Cassera, who was now dressed in a form fitting, light gray tank-top and matching yoga pants that accentuated her heavenly ass, held an empty Coke bottle in her hand and scowled at Jegra. “What in Dagon did you do to me?! This stuff is … *burp* … hideous. The bubbles, they … *burp* … are still going up into my nose. And I can’t … *burp*… stop belching like a flame breathing Tagarian lizard. *Burp!*”

  Jegra smothered a laugh. “I think you look cute when you’re helpless against the wiles of a fizzy beverage.”

  “How do your people…*burp*…stomach this stuff? I was … *burp* … trying to get myself to gag it back up. But it seems to have … *burp* … evaporated from … *burp* … my stomach!”

  Jegra sauntered over to Cassera, grabbed her waist, and pulled her in close. She kissed her on the lips long and hard and then the inevitable happened. Cassera burped into her mouth. Both women shot each other surprised glances and then, as if on cue, they burst out laughing.

  The laughter between them felt good. Wiping away tears of joy, Jegra said, “You should be glad it only makes you burp.”

  “Don’t think I’m not on to you,” Cassera said in an accusing tone, wagging a finger at Jegra. At a loss, all Jegra could do was blink and wait for her to finish. “You’re trying to make me more like you. Obnoxiously crude, bodily functions erupting all ove
r the place, foul odors emanating from who knows where twenty-four-seven,” she jested.

  “Admit it,” Jegra said. “You love it because you love me.”

  Cassera brushed her silver hair back behind her blue, pointy-tipped ear and squinted at Jegra with a faux menace. Then she laughed only to interrupt herself with another belch. “I’ll admit no such thing.”

  Jegra pulled her in again and kissed her once more. “Admit it. You can’t get enough of me,” she insisted.

  “Is that so?”

  “Yeah,” Jegra answered, playfully watching the minute movements of Cassera’s lovely mouth.

  Cassera bit her lower lip. “Jegra,” she replied, her voice turning sultry as her gaze fell to Jegra’s pink, fleshy, lips, “it seems you have that ‘thirsty’ look in your eyes.”

  “You know me, babe. Always thirsty. But that will have to wait,” she said, pulling away. “Right now, the Light Bringer is on its way to rendezvous with us.”

  “Why? What’s going on? *Hic*!”

  “Our dear little emperor’s pet project has escaped, and is now eating starships for breakfast.”

  “Eating?” Cassera asked, a confused look coming over her face. Jegra looked at her with a blank stare. Something wasn’t adding up here. “What are you talking about?” Cassera asked. “Dakroth’s top secret project was a new, super heavy battlecruiser. A feat of Dagon engineering like nothing the Galaxy has ever seen before.” Rolling her eyes, she added in a snarky tone, “He calls it the Subjugator.”

  “Right then,” Jegra replied. After all, that did sound more like Dakroth. “So, the glowing space squid-thing isn’t—?”

  “No,” Cassera said, placing her hands on her hips. “I’m afraid not. In fact, the entire blockade was a ruse. A diversion to allow him to launch the ship from his secret shipyard just beyond Cordova.”

  “So that’s the real reason we went to Cordova.”

  “I’m afraid so. I should have been up front with you, but I had no idea he was going to betray you. When the Nyctans showed up and that Knight chased you into the desert, my heart broke for you.”