The Emperor's Daughter (Sentinel Series Book 1)

by Richard Flunker

  The loss to the station would be measured in wealth. The lives would be replaced and the chief was smart enough to know when to let something go that wasn’t worth it. The problem he faced, however, was facing the Theor. In a large gathering, the priest demanded retribution tenfold. The chief laughed about it later and asked Cruxe how one could kill a man ten times. Conversely, when the chief was in the presence of the dark priest, he had to maintain seriousness. The religious movement that was sweeping through the outer fringes of known frontier was having a drastic effect on his popularity. He had to remain true to this new religion or face the wrath of the populace that supported it, sanctioned it.

  The chief set up a task force, a posse. A group of three ships would attempt to track this heathen through space and destroy him in the name of God. He knew that they would end up flying around the galaxy for a few months, return to Tempura Station, and claim that they had killed him. He would become the new frontier hero. This was very promising for his legacy.

  Just then, in that moment, Cruxe volunteered to go. At first the chief had nodded him down but the Theor jumped in immediately. The priest stated that having the chief’s son out on the crusade would bring glory to him and to God. The chief relented and allowed his son to go. Still, he did send some of his most capable and reliable men with him. In a week, Cruxe set off to find his bride.

  What the men hadn’t realized was that Cruxe actually knew where to look. He talked enough with Ayia about where she was from before he kidnapped her to know precisely where her father ruled. He failed to understand the concept of a corporation and assumed her father was a chief like his father before him. This was essentially correct, just on a far larger scale. When Cruxe instructed the men to jump to Ayethti they went along with his request. It wasn’t until they had nearly completed the jump, and only after he explained what he knew, that they realized they were actually tracking her and the ship, for real. Cruxe’s exhibition of intelligence and determination earned him the respect of his father’s most loyal men.

  Finding her in Mondla or even Antan was impossible. They were outsiders there.

  They spent the better part of the first two days, in Antan, coping with the catastrophe that took place on Quator 2 just a couple days prior to their arrival. It then took them three more days to locate the Midnight Oil only to find it was no longer on the planet. They hacked into the local network and tracked the signatures of all the ships that departed the system in the previous days. The hack job was simple considering the chaos that ruled the planet below. They jumped to all of the navigation points. They were not able to find the ship at either of the points. However, they were able to link into the network of NAV points and track all the ship signatures, successfully. Once they found the NAV point that the Midnight Oil reached, they began scanning all the jump holes.

  When a ship engaged its hook and pierced through space matter, a small residue was left behind, a hole, for lack of a better description. This hole remained at the site of the jump until the ship reached the other side. With the right equipment, the hole could show the size of the ship that created the jump and a direction. When lined up with stellar maps, those directions usually pointed straight at a system. It didn’t take long to find the jump point that led to Earth.

  Earth was a highly monitored system. Every single ship that entered or left the home system of mankind was tracked and recorded. This information was public knowledge, and once again it didn’t take Cruxe and his men long to find the ship on Mars. The group stalked Kale and Ayia, attempting to determine what they were doing. Any kind of attack on Mars was suicide, so they waited. When the Midnight Oil left Mars, they followed closely. They had to wait until the ship was out of Commonwealth space before they attempted an attack, but this time they were on their tails.

  They followed them to Alioth and planned an attack at Oganno’s house before they left and headed to Devil’s Den. They remained in orbit, waiting around the planet, constantly scanning the area where the ship disappeared from.

  It was on the fifth day, after waiting in fervent desperation, that the alarm was triggered.

  “They’re off. It’s them,” the pilot shouted.

  Cruxe ran up to the pilot’s cabin. He took the largest ship as his flagship, a Panther-class explorer ship, one of the thousands made in the 2400s for deep space exploration. These ships were the mainstay of the frontier now. They were retrofitted easily and were famously hardy. They were about three times the size of the Midnight Oil. It was ungainly to look at, shaped like a wood chopping wedge with a v shape cut out of the rear. His ship was well-armed and accompanied by two much smaller, faster, attack ships. Neither of the smaller vessels were of any notable class and, furthermore, were likely built by hand, as many of the smaller ships were. They depended on the Panther for jumping and fuel, since it was much larger, but worked together with devastating effect against smaller targets.

  Cruxe identified the Midnight Oil as it crested over the horizon of the red planet. They began following it immediately, quickly identifying the nav point it was slinging to. They would sling to that location, attack the ship, and jump back to Quator space before any of the local authorities could react. Their intent was to record everything and return as heroes.

  Deep down, though, Cruxe wanted her back, Ayia. He would give her a chance. He wasn’t sure how the men would react but he thought he earned their respect enough to give it a try. That meant possibly exchanging her for the lives of the others on the ship. He had plans for that as well.

  When they slowed down around the nav point, he was surprised at the amount of traffic waiting to jump. The attack would certainly be recorded and they would most likely have to scrap their ship, rebuild it possibly, to erase all record of them on the news. He knew that it would be worth it. There were also no ships that could possibly be considered a threat to the large Panther-class that they manned.

  Cruxe and his crew quickly found the Midnight Oil and began speeding towards them. They were a bit further out of range than they had hoped to be. They had to get to the Oil quickly before Kale realized who they were. They also needed to reach them before the Oil jumped away. But Cruxe had broken the radio silence and hailed the Midnight Oil. When her face displayed on the screen just behind the pilot’s, he cried out for her.

  “Shit, we’re not close enough,” the pilot said, but Cruxe’s heart was pounding so loudly he didn’t hear a word.

  3124 – Alioth system, Nav Point EA

  “Jump, now.”

  Kale waited for the swirled aesthetic of folded space coupled with the smooth transition into threaded vectors, but nothing happened.

  “FEI?”

  “Sir, we have yet to complete the linkup between the hook and the new attachment.”

  “Yeah, of course do. Why would we complete that? Who needs to jump? What have you been doing back there this whole time? Playing with your virtual self?” Kale shut off the communication video transmission. The audio was still on, one way.

  “Ayia, I know you're there. Please come back. I will let the rest of them live if you come back,” Cruxe’s voice pleaded over the audio feed.

  Kale didn’t look back at her.

  “How long FEI?”

  “Nineteen minutes, sir.”

  “NINETEEN!!” he stammered. Kale stood up and began rushing down into the ship, “What do I need to do?”

  “Nothing. I am already rerouting and linking everything together,” replied the AI.

  “Nothing. Of course. How long until they reach us?”

  “Nineteen…”

  “NINETEEN!! Yes of course. It had to be. Otherwise it wouldn’t be funny.”

  “Why is that funny?”

  “It’s not! Just get that thing online.”

  Kale stormed back into the pilot’s cabin, nearly running Gheno over.

  “Kale, maybe I should…” Ayia began.

  “Like hell. I’m not gonna lose to that kid,” he spat, visibly angry.

&nb
sp; A red light began blinking, immediately followed by an alarm.

  “What’s that?” Gheno asked.

  “Torpedo sir,” the AI answered.

  “That’s a missile kid, headed right to us,” Kale started, sitting right back down and strapping himself into the chair. “Kid, get back to a chair and strap in.” He pointed at Ayia who was already buckling herself in.

  “Two minutes I’m guessing FEI?” Kale stated.

  “Yes sir.”

  From under the dash, Kale pulled out a keyboard and began typing furiously on it.

  “FEI, put us on a course away from the,” he paused, “right along the jump line. Jump the moment we can if we’re still in one piece. Do we have enough power feeding to the sensors?”

  “We do, sir. I am already attempting to hack into the torpedo’s system.”

  “Don’t do anything until I tell you to,” as he continued pounding commands on the keyboard.

  “What are you doing,” Ayia asked.

  “He wants you alive. That bird isn’t going to blow us up, just knock us out. FEI can take it out before it hits us but I don’t want him to do that until the last moment so they don’t just launch more at us.”

  The Midnight Oil began speeding away from the other ships. At any point beyond the jump area the veil of space was at its weakest and could be pierced. Unfortunately, the moment they engaged the hook their ship would come to a complete stop. There would be a brief moment where they would become a sitting target right before jumping.

  On the Panther, Cruxe had disabled communications. Their missile was on its way to the Midnight Oil. The bomb would explode just outside of the ship, knocking its power out without destroying it. This would allow them to approach and withhold them from jumping. The pilot inquired as to why they hadn’t jumped already. Cruxe was curious as well.

  They watched the missile burning rapidly as it sped towards the ship. He counted down the time until it was approximately ten seconds out when it started veering off to the right. He looked down at the pilot then at the gunner who had fired the missile. His shoulders slumped.

  “Boy, they can hack‘em. We have to take them out now. We can’t just capture them.”

  The pilot turned around, “It was a very good attempt, you almost got her. Gotta finish it now.”

  Cruxe sat back down. He knew they had to. Their ship was now marked for piracy. If they attempted to follow them to their next destination they would be attacked upon arrival. They needed to finish it here and jump back to Tempura Station, well out of range of the big powers.

  “Can we fire anything from here?” he asked.

  “Nothing they can’t hack,” replied the gunner, “We have to get in close and hit them with dummies.”

  Dumbfire missiles were not configured for remote navigation from the captain’s deck. They were made to just point and shoot. These weapons had very short range but were devastating on impact.

  “Do it. Get us close,” he ordered.

  He still couldn’t understand why they had not yet jumped.

  Kale initiated a countdown on the main screen display. The countdown would end with them either escaping or dying. He was tracking them closely and realized they were closing in for the attack.

  “FEI?”

  “Sir?”

  “Dummies?”

  “Very likely, sir.”

  “It’s going to be close.”

  There was nothing else to be done. They both sat there watching the countdown. A small display in front of Kale was showing the distance closing between the two ships, with the smaller vessels trailing behind the Panther.

  “Kale, I'm sorry, I…” Ayia began.

  “You need to stop that. You're sorry or you're thankful. Right now you're just sitting there,” he snapped.

  Ayia didn’t respond.

  “Yeah. Not my best moment,” he apologized, turning to face her.

  “We will have to work on your people skills,” she said. She wasn’t smiling though.

  The clock counted down until 00:32 showed on the screen and a new set of alarms shot off. The Panther had fired off a widespread onslaught of dumbfire missiles at them. The attack was so wide-ranging that there was no way for Kale to maneuver away from the cloud of missiles. The weapons would burst just outside of the hull, ripping it clean off the ship.

  A new set of images appeared on the screen, a number of small vessels headed in their direction. Some of them began bursting, as they drew closer, and then the image froze.

  Kale looked up at the clock; it was stopped at 00:09. He looked out of the window and all he could see was black, pure darkness. This was not the black of outer space, which always exhibited random, little bursts of light where star systems and planets were located. This was simply solid black nothingness.

  “Um,” Ayia wasn’t sure what to say.

  “Sir, the hook is engaged,” the AI stated.

  “Are we jumping? Did we?” Kale asked.

  “I am not sure, sir. Our ship’s gravity field is gone.”

  “What?”

  “I have located it though. It’s directly in front of us.”

  Kale peered out into the darkness. There was nothing to see until he looked just above the window. There, he some sparks begin to float by.

  “Is that…” Ayia couldn’t finish.

  “The bombs. I think,” Kale finished, “The field is in front of us?”

  Gheno shouted, “What’s going on?” from down the hallway.

  “I think we’re dead and, if so, heaven sucks,” Kale muttered.

  “Sir, the gravity field is in front of us in a stream that is pointed out far beyond my sensors.”

  “Any guess as to how far?”

  “Infinity,” the computer replied.

  “That’s not a guess,” Kale started, “That just a…”

  The cabin filled with blinding light and all three passengers passed out.

  Cruxe sat and idly followed the countdown displayed on his screen from inside the Panther. When the missiles were released he watched, with baited breath, in anticipation of their destruction. Then, just as the first couple of bombs started exploding, a giant vortex formed in front of them. The Midnight Oil, the missiles, and all of space seemed to swirl into it, spinning faster and faster. The pilot executed the drive, in reverse. The gunner stood up and stared out of the window.

  It was a storm in space unlike any they had ever seen.

  Then it all vanished. The Midnight Oil and most of the missiles were gone, as well.

  Cruxe was in awe.

  “We need to get out of here now,” the pilot started the jump sequence.

  “Tell me you recorded all of that,” Cruxe said.

  The gunner nodded his head.

  “Sensors too?”

  “Yeah,” he replied.

  “Any idea what that was?” Cruxe asked.

  An alarm started blaring in the cabin.

  “Gotta jump now. Our ship is being broadcast as a pirate vessel,” the pilot stated.

  Cruxe looked at the gunner.

  “No idea,” he shook his head.

  The two smaller ships latched on to their larger partner and signaled they had done so to the pilot.

  The cabin filled with the haze of threaded space and they were on their way to Quator.

  Cruxe sat back down. The Midnight Oil jumped away. However, the manner of their jump was unlike anything he had ever seen before and he had it all on record with sensor readings. He may have lost his bride but he found something far more valuable.

  “This may work for me after all,” he thought as he sat back down on his seat.

  3124 - Unknown

  Kale tried opening his eyes. The last thing he remembered was the bright light followed by darkness. He was never much of a drinker because he did not hold his liquor very well. His first thought that crossed his mind when he came to was whether or not he drank the night before. Then, the memories started coming back. He sat up in his chair and fel
t very uncomfortable, stiff, as if he had fallen asleep in his pilot’s chair. He had done that in the past, many times. On those occasions he reclined the chair for comfort. The nature of this stiffness came from falling asleep crumpled over into it. He tried rubbing his eyes and opening them again. The cabin was dark but he could make out one blinking light. It was the emergency flare guard light. If the ship suddenly turned to face a bright light the windows on the craft would transition their tint, almost immediately, and that light indicated that the light shield was still engaged.

  Kale undid his straps and tried to get a sense of what was going on. He took a step and felt something slimy under his feet. He looked at the bottom of his foot but it was too dark to see what liquid was on the floor. He looked back and saw silhouette of Ayia slumped over in her chair. Further back behind her he saw the emergency lighting in the ‘Hall’, where it was pitch black.

  “FEI?”

  There was no response.

  “Where are the lights?”

  Nothing was happening.

  Kale reached forward, tapped the main screen and only one display illuminated. The screen read ‘backup support’. The main power was out but the reactor was on. That’s when he remembered the jump. They should be in proximity of Earth, floating around. That crazy kid wouldn’t likely follow them there but he had to get things up and running, just in case they did. Kale rubbed his temples, then stood up. He would have to make his way to the reactor to reboot the power routing. It was simple enough, just harder in the dark.

  As he stood up he was struck by a strong stench. It was an acidic smell of rotten food mixed with something else he couldn’t place. He took a step towards Ayia when he felt his shirt. It was damp, with crusty bits all over the front. He couldn’t tell if he hurt himself and was bleeding, or what. He stepped past Ayia and out of the pilot’s cabin. He fumbled around trying to locate the first aid kit. He squinted in the very dim light until he found the familiar hatch. Once it was opened he removed the first aid kit and reached behind it where he kept one of his emergency flashlights. He looked pressed one button that lit up green. It was still charged. He tapped the button twice and the light began to glow. Kale turned away from the light until his eyes could adjust to its brightness.