by Jay Toney
"Don't make me sick." Demeter vanished, taking Demi with her.
I knew the truth since I first shared her spirit. Now it was out in the open for everyone. I thought Jewel and Amber might get upset again. They both hugged and held Persephone. Like it or not, she was a part of our family.
"Your mother is spending so much time with your daughter, and you get so little. We will gladly share our babies with you. There are four more children you can experience their firsts with."
"Thank you, all of you."
It was a Saturday night. That meant Persephone, and I were scheduled to sleep alone with each other, but not tonight. Both Amber and Jewel crowded onto the bed with us.
****
The space station came into view and grew larger as we decelerated into orbit with it. The Persephone, the Vengeance, and the Sequoia were much too large to dock with the space station. Instead, we anchored our ships a short distance away from the space station at mooring stations. Support craft approached our ships and began servicing them, filling their water tanks and providing other essential services.
Our people started rotating to the space station for a much-needed shore leave. They were happy to find out that our credit chips traded for twice their value. For those of us who had 1000 credit chips, they were worth even more, they exchanged for five times their value.
Mike was working with the local technicians. We needed more replicators and vats for producing meat. They agreed to help us in exchange for sharing the technology. I ordered all of the food we needed to fill our storage lockers. Nugget and I each had replicators for our private use and could replicate whatever we needed. The rest of the crew didn't. Their use of the replicators was limited by long lines of people waiting to use them.
****
Rewadda was a peaceful planet, or so I thought. We had been here for nearly a month and found ourselves under attack.
"Jewel, sound a recall. Get our people back to our ships. All hands to battle stations."
The Persephone was not a warship. She was a cruise liner, but she had defensive weapons and shields to defend against pirate attacks. She also had two squadrons of fighters aboard her, replacing half of her original transport shuttles. The Sequoia was an agricultural ship with minimal shields and weapons. The rest of our fleet included a battleship, a cruiser, two destroyers, and two scout ships. They were a match for most of the enemy fleets we encountered, and their crews were made up of veteran fighters and mercenaries.
"Captain, Rewadda wants us to stand down. They say that the Aramani ships will not attack unless provoked. They only want a tithe of 10% of our valuables. Apparently, they have been attacking for generations without conflict."
"Today isn't one of those days. Inform Red that we attack as soon as our people are safely aboard. Persephone set an intercept course. Disconnect umbilicals and docking clamps. Switch to internal power."
Our Marauder pilots helped transport our people back to the fleet. Between our Marauders and transport shuttles, we had over a hundred ships ferrying people to the Sequoia, the Vengeance, and the Persephone. The crews for the Valkyrie, Trident, Victory, Falcon, and the Griffon were already accounted for. The ships were already undocking and moving to a rendezvous point.
As soon as our people and our shuttles were back on board, I ordered the fleet to flank speed. I ignored the pleas from Rewadda and the warnings from the navigation satellites. I wasn't going to wait a full day to intercept the enemy fleet. I was going to do it in less than an hour. Our fleet was moving to attack at .4c.
The enemy fleet changed course to flee. We matched their course and began decelerating to them. We would be in range, in minutes.
"All Marauder pilots to their ships. Launch when ready," Jewel announced.
Fighters launched from my ship, the Valkyrie, and the Vengeance. The rest of our warships engaged the enemy fleet with their energy weapons. Red was in command of the battle. All I could do was watch our ships attack the enemy fleet. I felt helpless with nothing to do.
"Persephone, do you have their probable destination?"
"The fleets trajectory has them on course for the Librae Constellation. Their most likely destination is Eta Librae."
"Your talents are wasted here. You belong on the Vengeance, leading the battle," Ares said.
"My place is at Persephone's side. Red is doing a good job."
"Take her with you."
"I can do that now, but I would lose her when we entered hyperspace."
"Perhaps, perhaps not. No victory is without its price. I came here to warn you not to travel to Eta Librae. Their fleet waits there for any who are foolish enough to follow their raiders. You would be better served going to Beta Librae. That is where their homeworld is. It is currently unprotected. From there you should make your next stop Beta Leporis. The Lepus Constellation will bring you more opportunities."
"Why are you helping us?"
"Be careful with what you ask. I am not allowed to choose sides in a war. Let us say that I am returning a favor to the ones who have made my life so interesting lately." Ares vanished.
I didn't know whether that was good or bad news for us, but I didn't see any better alternatives to his advice.
"You still want to fly, don't you? I can share what I am experiencing with you."
"I'm afraid I would try to take over and put our crew at risk."
"We can fly in your Marauder. I promised that you could fly and there is little that you can do here. All you have to do is teleport us to the shuttle bay."
I hadn't tried teleporting since the last failure. Persephone was still force feeding power into me, anymore and my head might explode. If she thought I had enough energy stored within me and I was ready, I would give it a try. I took her hand, her consciousness touched with mine. I imagined the shuttle bay and my Marauder. I could smell the slight smell of lubricants, see flashes of blue-white light from mechanics welding, and hear their laughter at someone's joke.
"Okay, now gather and spool your energy."
It felt like my head was going to explode already. There was no way I could pull more energy into my head. I needed an alternate way to hold it. I gathered power, pulling it to me. Instead of cramming it into my imaginary power cell I did something different. I became the power cell and fed my body with a lot more power, more than I thought it could possibly hold. Then I willed us to the shuttle bay.
We appeared directly in front of my Marauder. My body was still charged with energy. I let the power cell in my mind drain enough to fill my body. My headache faded away.
"If you had done that in the first place you would have saved us a lot of trouble expanding the power cell you visioned."
I didn't just have a single location to store energy, now I had two. I could use the smaller one as a reserve, in case of an emergency. I wondered how many gods thought of doing that.
Persephone and I boarded my Marauder. I sat in the pilot's seat and willed a connection with my Marauder. I felt its connection, and I felt Persephone presence, still with me. I started the engines. The diagnostic checks showed everything in the green. I could feel the ship's power, barely restrained. We taxied to position and took off. I felt free and spread my wings. I turned towards the battle and accelerated feeding every bit of power I could into the engines. Feedback from the engines showed they were operating at 117%. It wasn't enough for me, I wanted more. I fed some of my own energy into them. I wasn't sure it would work, but the output increased another 5%.
"Be careful, your ships were not designed to operate with this much power."
I trusted that my Cybernetics would warn me of any failure. The ship was flying faster than it had ever flown before. It felt great. The targeting and navigation computers were struggling to keep up with the rapid changes in data. They would function properly when we slowed down.
It only took a few minutes to reach the combat zone, with our speed. I decelerated hard, feeding extra energy into the inertia dampers. The targeting and nav
igation computers started working properly again. I selected my first raider. He had no time to react before my missile detonated, turning his ship into an expanding orange blossom of fire.
I turned and selected another target.
"Who fired that missile. That was my target," Jewel's voice said in my headset.
I laughed and fired another missile.
"Nathaniel, I thought you were still on the Persephone."
"Persephone gave me a special treat today. She's letting me fly."
"Don't hog all the targets, Amber and I want to have fun too."
My second target exploded, and I turned to one of the larger ships. It was a carrier of some sort. The smaller raiders didn't have hyperspace capabilities and needed a way of getting here. They came attached to these carriers with docking clamps.
Weapons fire was being exchanged between this ship and the Vengeance. Its shields were slowly failing. I decided to speed things up a little. I circled the carrier mapping its features and looking for a weak point. It didn't carry ship to ship missiles but was covered with gun turrets and PDC.
I locked onto a weapon's turret and fired, then turned to evade its fire. The gun turret was blown free of the deck. They were weaker than I expected. Smaller defense cannons concentrated on my ship. I had to fight to evade their weapons fire. Unlike the Alliance and Crimson Tide ships that I was accustomed to fighting, these ships were designed and their crews trained to attack fighters.
I climbed, then reversed in a dive lining up on another turret and fired. I banked away to evade their fire. Several loud banging noises filled the cabin, followed by thick black smoke. We were hit. Fire warning lights came on, and my number one engine failed. Half of my hydraulics were out. I turned to head back to the Persephone.
More warning lights and sirens sounded. I frantically fought to save my ship. This time it was the ship's reactor. The weapons fire ruptured the reactor's coolant lines. There was nothing I could do. My Marauder was lost. Its reactor was going to go supercritical and explode. All we could do was eject. I hated to do it. This was the first time I couldn't bring my ship back and the first time I ejected. Doc was going to have a lot of fun with that.
I turned a knob selecting dual ejection, grabbed the ejection seat handle located on the seat between my legs, and pulled. Explosive bolts fired separating the cockpit canopy from the ship. Small rockets mounted under our seats ignited and we were free of the ship, seconds later my Marauder exploded.
At least I wasn't alone. Persephone and I drifted side by side, holding each others hands. All we could do was wait for the search and rescue teams that would come looking for us after the battle was over. I wasn't worried. We could teleport back if needed but that would ruin the fun. At least, I didn't need to consider cutting my emergency oxygen hose.
We had oxygen for one hour. My lungs were more efficient, and I could probably stretch it to last ten hours if needed. Persephone was a goddess. She could breathe or not breathe as she chose. I wasn't sure what I was. I was more than a man, even without my cybernetic enhancements. When I underwent my change becoming a cyborg, my spirit made several leaps in evolution. I became what the gods were hoping for in humanity. According to Persephone, I was more than a demigod but not quite a god. I was unique.
I was still exploring my bodies capabilities, and Persephone was helping me by teaching me the things I would have learned, during the course of normal evolution.
"I'm sorry your flight was cut short. I know you wanted a lot more."
"It's okay. I'll fly again another day."
Until I got another fighter, my flying would be limited to transport shuttles or my launch. I had no idea where I would get a ship equivalent to our Marauders, Vipers, or Keshian fighters.
We watched the battle and waited for our rescue. We had drifted far enough away that all we could see was the flashes of light from weapons fire and the occasional drive plume. I was surprised by the bright searchlights that suddenly shown on us. The rescue shuttle was here already. I looked at my watch, 2½ hours had passed. It didn't seem like it. We should be long dead.
We were brought aboard the shuttle and the cabin was pressurized. Our helmets were removed.
"Quit trying to fake your own death! I know you and Persephone are still alive." Doc's voice said. "Your oxygen is still ¾ full, and Persephone's is nearly full. Your suits are still fully charged. You weren't in space for more than 15 minutes."
"I'll have you know that we ejected over 2½ hours ago. We should be frozen solid."
"Well, you aren't. I see you finally got over your fear of ejecting."
"I haven't. It was only temporarily replaced by the fear of being reduced to subatomic particles when my ship exploded."
"Are there any injuries I need to be aware of."
"Only my pride and the loss of my Marauder. I'm grounded until I can get a replacement."
"You can use one of the cargo shuttles to do your flying in."
"It's not the same."
****
When we landed, all of our pilots surrounded us. Keshian, Vorg, and Human all cheered me. I wasn't expecting it. After all, I lost my Marauder. They were all happy to see me alive, and they had a surprise for me.
There were three new fighters on the flight deck. They weren't exactly new, they used to belong to the sirens. They were sleek, deadly, and fast. I didn't know what their capabilities were. All I knew was that they were a lot more advanced than our fighters. There was a note on one of the fighters:
"Persephone,
I hope you and your consort find these trinkets useful. Their previous owners no longer have any need for them. Hades is taking great pleasure in their care.
Love,
Z."
"We will have to send a note to father thanking him for his gift."
****
"Persephone set course for Beta Librae. Our database had another name for the star, Zubeneschamali. It's time to teach the Aramani a lesson." We defeated the raiders in Rewadda space. Now it was time to finish the job. The Aramani would think twice about attacking their neighbors after I was done with them.
Our fleet entered hyperspace. We had only fifteen hours to get ready for the next battle.
"I see you have taken my advice." It was Ares again.
"We can't take out a whole planet, we have a limited supply of nuclear warheads for our missiles."
"All you did is throw rocks at Avalon and look what happened."
He was right. We spent three days loading shuttles with rocks and sending the rocks on a course to intercept the planet. It rained rocks for three days and three nights destroying their civilization. We didn't fire even a single weapon. I would think of something when we got to the system.
"You have a game that you play, Planets and Galaxies. I find it interesting how you can take an object, such as a rogue planet, and use it to destroy an entire solar system." Ares vanished again, leaving me to ponder the meaning of his message.
Our fleet wasn't powerful enough to move even the smallest of dwarf planets. It took a lot of power to overcome the planets inertia and change its orbit. The best we could manage was asteroids.
****
Demeter was spending less time with Demi. She still came for her every Sunday, or more often but she kept her in dimensions where time passed similar to our own. I guess she was happy with Demi at six years old.
There were no other children aboard that were close to her age for her to play with. The Nymphs spent a lot of their time taking her to the holosimulator where she could interact with simulations of other children. She figured out the program's responses to her and quickly became bored with the simulations.
Persephone, or at least one aspect of her, started Demi's education. Most of the educational material I grew up with was tossed out, considered worthless. She spent most of her time teaching Demi reading, writing, mathematics, and the history of the gods. She also spent a lot of time teaching her about what I thought of as mythological
creatures and everything that had to do with nature.
I got to teach her how to fly. We spent a lot of time in simulated flight together. She loved it and was a natural at the controls. Even at six, she could fly nearly as good as I could.
Doc did what he could to spoil her, making all of his and her favorite desserts. Her favorite, like mine, was Death by Chocolate. Miranda and Doc also spent time teaching her about medicine and medical equipment. She absorbed everything that was taught to her. Remembering every single lesson.
I was proud to say that she was as smart as her mother.
****
We came out of hyperspace in the Zubeneschamali System. It was another system with a blue dwarf sun. We shut our drives down and coasted. Our transponders and external lights were turned off. Detecting our presence would be difficult. I had to assume that any active scans might give us away, so we used only our passive sensors.
I needed to find something, anything, that we could use to stop the Aramani from attacking their neighbors. The third planet had a space station orbiting it. It was too large, and heavily shielded for our small fleet to destroy. Even if we could, we still had the planet to deal with.
Maybe rocks were the answer. We scanned for asteroids. This system was devoid of an asteroid belt. Any asteroids large enough to show up on our sensors were long gone, mined for their material. Still, there had to be something we could use. Ares hinted at using a celestial body to destroy the Aramani.
The system has eight planets, no asteroid belt, and no dwarf planets small enough to use. I started focusing my attention on the planets, using the ship's telescopes. I was unable to find anything useful, looking at the planets.
Persephone was in the ship's astrometrics lab using its telescopes to give Demi an astronomy lesson, while I was doing my search and getting frustrated over the results.
"Daddy, what are you looking for?"
"I'm looking for a rock to use that is small enough for our ships to tow." She didn't ask why and I didn't volunteer the answer.