by Jerome Kelly
SHADOW
OF THE
BLUE RING
JEROME KELLY
AuthorHouse™ UK Ltd.
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© 2014 by Jerome Kelly. All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means without the written permission of the author.
Published by AuthorHouse 12/19/2013
ISBN: 978-1-4918-8764-6 (sc)
ISBN: 978-1-4918-8765-3 (e)
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CONTENTS
Chapter 1 Many Days Past
Chapter 2 The Grand Farewell
Chapter 3 The Will of the Council
Chapter 4 The Reunion
Chapter 5 The Evening Star
Chapter 6 The Ghost Ships
Chapter 7 The Blue Ring
Chapter 8 An Unknown War
Chapter 9 The Twilight City
Chapter 10 The Hunters and the Hunted
Chapter 11 An Unlikely Alliance
Chapter 12 Return to Raylia
Chapter 13 Old Tricks and New Enemies
Chapter 14 The Ambush
Chapter 15 The Forgotten Homeworld
Chapter 16 The Prodigal Son
Chapter 17 The Heart of the Blue Ring
Chapter 18 The Final Piece of the Puzzle
Chapter 19 The Supernova
Chapter 20 A Favour Repaid
About the Author
Chapter One
Many Days Past
The journey had not been a short one. Almost three days had passed since the Churian exploration flotilla had left the docks at their homeworld and begun their trip into the darkness of an unknown region of space. There were very few among the crew knew the true nature of this mission. For them it was just another assignment but for captain Arion Carmona, the very thought of the mission made his hair stand on end and sent chills up his spine. In just a few minutes time, he and his crew would arrive in a derelict and uncharted system, the location of which was known only to a few very high ranking officials within the Churian government and the newly reformed Alliance council. As far as missions went, this one was about as top secret as it could get.
With all senior officers onboard being called back to the bridge, captain Carmona left his quarters and made his way to his ship’s command deck. As he passed through the corridors of his ship, he observed the faces of his crew. They seemed calm, unafraid, as if this mission was simply another routine exploration within the borders of the Galante sector. If only they had known what he and his command crew had known, perhaps they may have felt very differently about their presence in this region of space.
“Captain on the bridge!” Came the usual call from one of his officers, a formality common to every ship in each of the alliance fleets.
“As you were,” Carmona gave his usual response to send the crew back to work, taking his seat in the captain’s chair as he did so. He had arrived just in time for the blue waves of hyperspace surrounding the ship to begin to dissipate and for the stars to become visible once more through the forward windows of the ship. The small flotilla, five exploration vessels and one protector-class warship in total, was now in orbit around a grey-black and barren looking planet. It was difficult to believe that he and his crew had been sent all this way, far away from explored regions of space, for a place such as this. It wouldn’t even have appeared any different to the known regions of space had it not been for the great nebula, visible to them from half way across the sector. The nebula’s real name was unknown, the races of the alliance simply referred to it as ‘the Blue Ring’ mainly due to it’s colour and shape.
“We’ve arrived at the designated co-ordinates, sir,” the ship’s helmsman announced to the bridge, “the fleet is out of warp and awaiting your orders.”
“Do a full sensor sweep of the system,” said Carmona, “if we can locate the target, prepare the research teams for deployment to the surface. If not, we move to the second set of co-ordinates.”
“Yes sir, beginning sensor sweep now.”
Whether they would find what they were searching for in this system was anyone’s guess. Since the downfall of the Antalaea empire five centuries ago, the Blue Ring sector had not yet been explored by the races of the old alliance. It was too far out from the known areas of space to be a priority and as such, no one had yet seen fit to send an exploration team into the region. Carmona and his team were the first ones to make their way out here since the end of the Jaiytid-Xerion war.
“We’ve detected signs of a Jaiytid ruin on the planet below,” the ship’s science officer informed him, breaking the uncomfortable silence that had fallen on the bridge
“Any indications that our target is present at the ruin?”
“We’re not picking up any distinctive signals from the planet’s surface so it’s impossible to tell for certain. What can confirm is that there is indeed a Jaiytid ruin on the surface of the planet.”
“Very well, we’ll have to take a look,” said Carmona, “have the science ships prepare to land on the surface and begin a survey of the area down there. We will remain in orbit and keep watch over the system in case we have any unwanted visitors stumbling across us here. While we’re out here, I want long range sensor sweeps in all directions. We should probably try to get a better idea of our surroundings.”
With any luck, they would be in and out in as little time as possible. If they were really lucky, they would find what they needed and be back en route to the Valoran sector within just a few hours. People within the old alliance had been full of superstitions about the unexplored region of the galaxy outside of the core sectors. There were stories of ghosts, phantoms and all kinds of unexplained phenomena surrounding every unexplored region of space all the way from the Blue Ring sector to the Silkhen veil on the far side of the Varduran sector. Carmona himself dismissed these rumours as nothing more than traveller’s tales and superstitions though. He did not believe in any such things even if the continuous speculation was enough to unsettle one or two members of his team, not least his first officer, commander Luquen Velez. He had looked particularly uncomfortable ever since the fleet had left Churo.
“You look troubled commander,” Carmona said to him, “you still have your doubts about this mission?”
“I do, sir,” Velez replied, “I still stand by what I said to you before we set out. The council had no right to get involved with something like this and no right to send us out here in these circumstances.”
“I will admit that this is an unusual move by the council,” Carmona agreed, “but regardless, we have our orders, we have to see the mission through. I trust you will not have any difficulty carrying out your orders.”
“No sir, none at all,” Velez said irritably, “I simply wish that it be noted in any logs or mission reports that both myself and the rest of the command crew are opposed to the council’s decision to send us out here.”
“Cons
ider it noted, commander,” said Carmona, “but until there is some reason otherwise, we will remain here and finish the mission, as per our instructions.”
As much as he would have loved to stay at home on Churo, he had a duty to the fleet and to the council. He could not refuse a direct order from one of his superiors in the fleet, never mind a direct order from the leader of the council himself. They would complete the mission, regardless of their opinions of the council’s decision and regardless of the mass hysteria regarding this uncharted and unknown region.
The rather chilly atmosphere continued to pervade the bridge over the next hour as the crew monitored the progress of the science ships that had now landed on the planet’s surface. The research teams had disembarked and had begun their surveys of the of the Jaiytid ruin, sweeping the area for any sign of the thing that they had been sent out there to find. No one spoke much, the crew simply observed as the first pictures of the ruin on the surface were beamed back to the ship.
“Anything to report?” Carmona eventually asked, joining his team at the monitoring station on the bridge, “have our teams found anything in the ruins tot suggest that our target is here?”
“Nothing yet sir,” his science officer replied, “from what we can see, it’s no more than rubble and dust down there. Anything valuable in this place looks like it was destroyed along with the rest of the settlements or was looted soon afterwards.”
The pictures they were receiving of the ruin seemed to suggest as much. It was as if what had once been maybe a small settlement or outpost on the surface had been wiped off the face of the planet, most likely by the ancient Xerions during their war with the Jaiytids.
“We’ll give the team a chance to do a full sweep of the ruin,” said Carmona, “if the search doesn’t turn up any results, have them return to the ships and we’ll have the fleet move to the next location. What about our long range scans? Have we detected signs of any other possible sites in the region?”
“No sir, this is the only potential site within sensor range, our scans haven’t shown up any interesting results for the surrounding systems. There is not one other life-bearing world for many light years in any direction and no sign of any Jaiytid signatures.”
“The reports that I read indicated that there was at least one major Jaiytid world in this sector,” said Velez, “perhaps we should have begun our search there instead?”
“We’ll get to each location in time,” said Carmona, “I don’t like being here any more than you do but we still need to be patient and search each potential world as we come to it. We’ll all be back home before you know it.”
If only commander Velez and the rest of his crew had shared his optimism, they were becoming more and more unsettled by the minute. As much as Carmona would have understood the council’s wish to keep the rest of his team in the dark about the true nature of the mission, he had requested that they be filled in on the details, even if it had gone on to make his life a little more difficult in dealing with their hysteria. Regardless, he would have hated to have dragged them out here without them having a clue what was going on.
Another hour passed and the research teams on the surface had still not turned up any interesting results. Their report seemed to indicated that the entire ruin had been stripped of anything valuable and was now completely empty. Whoever or whatever had done it had clearly left no trace behind, only a dead and empty ruin.
“Have all the research teams return to their ships,” Carmona said to his men on the surface, “we’ll conclude our business here and move onto the next set of co-ordinates.”
“For all we know, the other sites could be just as barren and empty as this one,” said Velez, “if someone has got here before us, then its likely they have done the same thing that we plan to do, search every possible world until they find the thing we’re looking for.”
“We don’t know that it was taken, not yet,” said Carmona, “besides, who would have been able to clean out these ruins anyway? No other alliance race has ever sent a team out here before, we’re the first ones here since the downfall of the old empires.”
“My money is on the Vulians,” said Velez, “they had some pretty impressive tech on their side during the war, who’s to say they didn’t…”
Velez had been cut off there. The crew was immediately distracted by a wave of static that had quickly passed over them and disrupted the ship’s instruments for a few moments.
“Report!”
“Just a random fluctuation,” his tactical officer informed him, “probably just a random space anomaly of some sort. For all we know, the region is full of them.”
“Keep doing long range scans, I want to know what’s out there and if it’s harmful to our ships,” said Carmona, “send word to the ground team to hurry up and get off the surface, I think it’s time we got ourselves moving forward.”
“Will do now sir,” said the comm officer, “this is CES Narena calling ground teams, come in please… repeat, this is CES Narena calling ground teams, respond please…”
“What’s going on? Why aren’t they answering?”
“I don’t know sir,” the comm officer replied, “we seem to have lost contact with the survey and research teams… I can’t get a lock on their signal anywhere on the surface.”
Carmona was quick to join his officer at his station to review it for himself. The screens showed no sign of the ground teams or their ships anywhere on the surface. It was as if they had dropped off the grid entirely.
“That can’t be right!” Carmona exclaimed, “they were there just a minute ago, how can they have just vanished like that?”
“Captain, I respectfully suggest they we get ourselves out of here right now,” Velez insisted.
“Not without the ground teams,” Carmona shot back at him, “do a penetrating sensor sweep of the landing zone, find our people down there. I wont leave until we know what happened to them.”
“Sir, our sensors are not responding,” his science officer quickly piped up, “all I’m reading is static.”
“We’ve got no communications on any frequency either,” his comm officer hurriedly added, “all our systems are going dead!”
Every screen on the bridge was going blank, replaced by nothing but static. Carmona began to panic, whatever had hit them had crippled their systems and they were blind to everything going on around them. This was the last thing they needed while on their own and a long way from home. Perhaps Velez and the rest of the command crew had been right after all, this mission had been more dangerous that it had been made out to be.
“Helmsman, turn us around, get us out of the system. Get us to Tolis with with all possible haste!”
The ship began to move but no sooner had it done so, it was rocked violently, throwing most of the crew off their feet, Carmona forced to grab onto his chair just to stay upright.
“What was that?!” He exclaimed, “what just hit us?”
No one replied, everyone’s attention had been drawn to the front of the ship. A silhouette was covering the light from the system’s star, casting a shadow over them, a massive outline that was getting larger by the second. All Carmona could do was stop and stare out at the growing shadow before them.
“Mercy save us…” he gasped as the light in front of them faded completely.
* * * * *
James awoke with a start, cold, shaking and covered in sweat. It was the fourth time during the week that he had been plagued by an unusual dream, the meaning of which he still could not quite understand. Slowly, he sat up, rubbing his eyes as he went, trying to remove all of the sleep and clear his vision. Once again, he had been forced to relive the events of his final battle on Vulia during his sleep that night. Even though it had been almost six years since that fateful day on the homeworld of the great enemy of his people, he still remembered every moment of it as if it had happened yest
erday. While the events of that day had often haunted his dreams during the following months, the nightmares had eventually faded away and left him able to sleep peacefully most nights… at least until a few days ago. This time though, the events were twisting themselves, happening differently each time he dreamed them, as if his mind was playing tricks on him. He was seeing the face of his late friend, Amario Richards, calling out to him from the Morning Star as it went crashing to it’s doom over the Vulian capital, Serraha. James would reach out to him and try to pull him to safety from the crashing wreck but every time he tried, he just got further and further away. As the ship crashed, he would see Amario sucked into a ball of fire and soar across the sky like a shooting star. No matter what he tried, he just could not save him.
The noise inside his head had been deafening. The fear, the anxiety and the pain that he had felt that day were all so vivid, as if no time had passed at all and he was still trapped inside that fearful day. No more though… the sound had disappeared and was once more replaced by the peace and quiet of his quarters. The only sound within the room was the faint beeping of James’s desk console. It was likely that one of his superiors was attempting to contact him.
Time alone in the past years had been very hard to come by, therefore making it all the more welcome when it eventually did come around, however brief that it may be. Ever since his admission into the fleet, James had barely had a moments rest. With the races of the newly formed Freedom alliance committing most of their resources to the rebuilding effort, it was up to the few remaining captains in the alliance fleets to keep the peace. Much of his time aboard his new ship, the Centaur, had been spent either on patrol duty, raid protection or courier duty between alliance worlds. No matter how many tasks he completed for his superiors, they always seemed to be able to find just one more thing for him to have to do. It was thankless and unglamorous work, almost unworthy of a captain with such a reputation as James now had since his legendary crusade against the Vulian empire. Everywhere he went, his name was known to the people there, spoken as if he was one of the greatest heroes in the history of the alliance.