by Charles Nall
Exodus exploded.
“NO!” yelled Sharon. “DAD!”
Exodus was shattered to myriads of pieces of various sizes. A dandelion of carnage against the blackness of space. A broken section of the stern launched out from the explosion toward Freedom.
Devereaux stood dumbfounded.
“Evasive maneuvers! There's a chunk of metal heading straight for us!” Akeldamas yelled.
“There's no time to-” Lieutenant Knight was interrupted as the chunk of metal impacted the bow of Freedom.
Lights flickered as the ship rocked from the impact.
“Damage report!” Devereaux exclaimed.
“Minor damage across the fore hull,” Lieutenant Knight said. “Some systems offline due to the EM pulse.”
Akeldamas jumped to action. “I want as many search and rescue craft out there NOW!”
“The hyper-drive went critical, there's not—”
“Do not give me that, Commander Freeman! If there's even a chance–tell all of our ships in the area to assist in any way,” ordered Akeldamas. “Launch SAR and launch salvage ships. Get everyone out there that needs to be out there! NOW! And tell me what the hell went wrong.”
Riko started to cry. “There's no way. Please. No.”
The news reporter tried to continue the report, “We'll get you as much information as possible as it comes in, a tragedy has befallen the crew of Exodus. I know many people are watching this, just, please, pray for those souls. They may not make the journey to Andromeda, but pray for their journey to the afterlife. I don't know what to say. Again, a tragedy has just unfolded. It is too early to know what happened, but we will bring you the information as soon as we get it.”
Sharon was crying so hard it appeared that she had run out of tears. She wailed.
“I'm sorry, Sharon. I'm sorry, I wish I could walk over there and hold you,” Jacob said.
She didn't reply, she just kept howling in pain.
“Arnold, those fighters are still asking for us to open a link with them. And in case you missed it, there was just a huge explosion. Those people want answers. Oh hey, a mysterious ship appeared shortly before Exodus was destroyed. I bet they will just leave us alone!”
“Your sarcasm doesn't help, Trevor,” said Arnold, “I can't think straight right now. Jerry just died. Over four thousand people just died.”
“Let's not get added onto that tally, shall we?” Trevor said.
“Admiral?” asked Lieutenant Knight aboard Freedom.
“Yes?”
“There's a corvette requesting jumpgate access. They were denied obviously. Two fighters are following it.”
“Why do I care about some random corvette? Just keep tailing it and get the fighters to link with them. They flew into a tragedy.”
“Sir. It's not random. It was registered under Jerry Turner,” replied the lieutenant.
“Turner? Tell those fighters to not let that corvette out of their sights,” the admiral commanded.
Captain Devereaux read from a console panel on the wall. “Admiral. I searched through the list of passengers on Exodus. Sharon Turner and Jacob Carpenter did not make their shuttle.”
Admiral Akeldamas approached the captain. “What?”
“I think they are trying to get away.”
“We can't let that happen. They are connected to the tragedy. Lieutenant, get me linked to that corvette. Now.”
“Oh great,” said Trevor, “now USS Freedom is requesting a link with us. I've got a text message, uh, Admiral Akeldamas wishes to speak to us.”
Jacob called out, “No! He's part of the conspiracy. Do not open that link. We have to get out of here.”
Trevor chuckled as he looked over his instruments. “I'm not sure where you think we'll be going. We're not going to outrun these fighters.”
Sharon tried to compose herself. “We–we need to... jump to hyperspace.”
“No, Sharon, no, we have no idea if it will work and what do we know about jumping anyways? When we installed the hyper-drive we nearly blew ourselves up, let's not tempt fate here,” Arnold said.
Sharon screeched at Arnold, “If Jacob is right, and he has been right thus far, we can't stay here. We have a hyper-drive, we have to use it. We have enough base charge for a small jump. Trevor, do you know how to read hyperspace dimensional maps?”
Trevor stammered, “Uh. A little.”
“Can you guide Arnold through any gravity storms or large gravity wells coming up? You have to let him know, we don't have time to plot a path through the dangerous stuff. You have to guide him.”
“You are putting this task onto me?”
Sharon pulled up information on the hyper-drive on her console. “You have a sensor screen. You know more about that screen than anyone else in here. Arnold is piloting the ship and I have to make sure she is running perfectly.”
Arnold vehemently disagreed. “No! You are not in an appropriate mental state for this, Sharon. We can't jump to hyperspace.”
Sharon yelled at Arnold, “Get this through your thick skull, Arnold: we're going to hyperspace and if you don't want to end up like Exodus, you will pilot this eff'n ship through hyperspace! Understand? We cannot stay here!”
“She's right,” said Jacob, “we have to go. It will be dangerous but if we stay here–”
“The fighters are going to begin firing if we don't respond. Guys? That's kind of a big deal,” Trevor said.
“Don't link with any of those ships out there. Leave them in our dust,” Jacob said.
“Admiral,” Commander Freeman said. “The corvette is still refusing all link requests.”
“Take shots across her bow,” Devereaux commanded. “They're up to something. If they don't accept a link, destroy them.”
Akeldamas nodded his approval.
Lieutenant Jaxon Knight tapped buttons on his console. “Sirs, we're detecting hyperspace fluctuations.”
Akeldamas sneered, “What? Confederate ships?! Assume Con– ”
“No, sir,” Knight stated. “The corvette. I didn't even know that type of corvette even had a hyper-drive. Custom installed, maybe?”
“Spinning the drive up. Locking the spacial disturbance relative to our moving position and not galactic coordinates. The hyper-drive isn’t going to like this,” groaned Sharon.
“Why is that?” Jacob asked.
“Let’s just say we’re not doing this with very much finesse,” replied Sharon as the ship began to vibrate.
Knight continued, “Sir, it appears to be a blind speed-jump, their sails are furled and have very little charge. There’s a leading spatial disturbance in front of the craft.”
Devereaux was perplexed. “Speed-jumping a small ship without much charge? They are amateurs. They're gonna burn up in hyperspace.”
“Captain,” said Freeman as she examined her instruments. “They did it. The corvette just jumped to hyperspace. The fighters couldn't enter the wake, not that they wanted to. They aren't going to get far.”
Akeldamas growled, “Get our hyper-drive ready. We're jumping after them. Tell me where they are going and let's find them and bring them to justice.”
“Respectfully, sir,” Freeman said. “We still have crews working on the wreckage of Exodus. Beyond that, there's no telling where they will end up with that jump. It's highly dangerous. They probably won't make it out alive.”
“Fine. Let's investigate this tragedy to the fullest. Work with the other warships here and the people of Artemis.”
The captain looked at the viewscreen showing the debris of Exodus floating above Artemis. He turned to Akeldamas and locked eyes with him, “We will find out who is responsible. They will be brought to justice.”
Akeldamas uneasily nodded. “Of course.”
8
February 8, 0270 AC – 13:37 Local Time
Rapture, Kappa Velorum
Galactic Union Space
Rapture drifted in a field of ice chunks. The ship's plating was bruised with impact marks. Smoke b
illowed from the starboard thruster. Inside the bridge of the ship, sparks flew from one of consoles and bits of charred metal floated in the zero gravity. Sharon's hair was a mess and she was struggling to maintain her composure. She was determined to get the ship back in working order. Arnold placed his head in the back of his chair. Jacob was still shaking after the hyperspace trip. Trevor was nervously laughing. The entire crew was still strapped into their seats.
“Holy shit, don't make me do that again.” Trevor said.
Arnold tapped on his malfunctioning console. “It's fine. You did fine. How are we, Sharon?”
Sparks flared out of Sharon's console. She shielded her eyes. “Ugh. She's beat up, Arnie. I think we hit something. I'm disabling one of the engines, it will need repairs.”
“Well, we had to drop out of hyperspace, we would have been torn apart,” Arnold replied. “That's the risk we took when we speed-jumped.”
“Speed-jump? What do you mean?” inquired a shaking Jacob.
“Typically you plot a course, at least partially, through the mess of hyperspace before you jump,” Sharon said. “We didn't, we blindly jumped at full burn while being pursued. We didn't have time to plot a course from the starting point.”
“And they made me try to keep up with the upcoming turbulence in hyperspace,” Trevor said.
“We're still in one piece,” Arnold said as a groaning of metal and then an explosion echoed across the ship. “More or less.”
“Sensors say we have a minor coolant leak in the engine room. It's not that bad, I can take care of it,” Sharon said.
Jacob called out to Sharon, “No, it's not safe.”
Sharon smirked. “When did you become the ship expert? The only way to make this safe is to repair the damage. Luckily most of the damage is superficial but we have a coolant leak and a reactor that is running very hot right now. I need to go. I'll be fine.”
Sharon unlatched her restraints and pushed herself to the ladder and went down to the lower level.
Jacob glanced around the bridge. “Where are we? Are they still chasing us?”
Arnold slammed his hand against the console. “No, they aren't chasing us. I'm not sure if they would be able to detect our signature, we dropped out of hyperspace in this dense field of ice. I can't get a good reading, my console is busted. Trevor, you see anything?”
“You're right, Arnold. My sensors are going crazy in this field. It's not just the ice, we're close to a neutron star or something. It's really messing with the instruments. If this is right, it looks like we're in the Kappa Velorum system. This system is barren, nothing is here at all.”
“Well, there's ice. That's good, right? Water,” Jacob said.
“You wouldn't want to drink this. It's nitrogen ice. Still, this place actually is a good place to hide,” Trevor said.
Arnold unlatched his restraints and floated over to Sharon's former seat and started working on her console, “That makes sense, Trevor. Kappa Velorum is relatively close to the border of Galactic Union space. There are no systems or jumpgates nearby. We need to get that hyper-drive working again. Here, I'm going to unfurl the sails, lots of ice around but I think we can pick up some charge. The sails should remain in one piece. We need more charge before we jump again. We just used base charge for the jump, so that didn't help much in our journey.”
Trevor chuckled. “See? You can't blame me entirely.”
“I wasn't blaming you at all. You did good.”
“Damage is mostly on the bow plating. We didn't have any hull breaches. A coolant leak, an overheated reactor, one charred thruster, some busted computer equipment...” Arnold glanced at his former broken console. “And one fried console. It's not that bad, really.”
“I'm going to go check up on Sharon, I guess. I'm safe to get out of my chair, right?” Jacob asked as he unlatched his restraints.
“We're stable, I just need to make sure we don't run into a shard of ice out there,” Arnold said.
Jacob pushed himself down the ladder to the lower level.
“How long do you estimate before we're ready to fly again, Arnold?” Trevor asked.
“Assuming we get that leak patched up and our reactor cools down...” Arnold glanced over the console screen. “A few hours. Just have to charge those sails up.”
A crash resounded throughout the ship, followed by a slight metallic moaning.
“What was that?”
“Damn. Ran into a decent sized ice ball out there. I think we're okay. Not detecting a hull breach. Ugh, it's a mess out here. Can we get out of this field?”
“No way,” Trevor said. “This field goes on for kilos.”
“Looks like we’re stuck here for a while.”
An ice shard nearly double the size of Rapture grazed the side of the ship.
“Holy shit,” Trevor uttered in awe.
Jacob entered the engine room. He looked around for Sharon and couldn't see her. Finally, he turned his eyes upward to notice Sharon on the ceiling.
“Oh hey, Jacob, some of these leads were knocked out of place. Have to put them back in.”
“What about the coolant leak?”
“I work fast. It was pretty small. Running out of engineering materials, though. We can't keep doing this to poor Rapture. She's doing better now, though,” Sharon said as she snapped some metal rods back into place.
“I'm glad the ship is doing better, but how are you doing?” Jacob asked as he drifted up to her position at the top of the engine room.
Sharon quickly floated by Jacob to the bottom of the room. “I just watched my father die. I'm on the run from the government. I have a ship that is falling apart. I have no idea what tomorrow will bring. How do you think I am?”
“Well, I'm here for you. Everyone is here for you. I know it's rough. I can't believe what just transpired. You are strong, you're able to keep working after that horrible thing happened.”
“Stop talking, Jacob. If I think about what just happened I will break down. I almost want to just open an airlock and end this pain,” Sharon said as she messed with a console.
“I understand the feeling but you have to keep going,” Jacob said. Jacob went to reach out to Sharon, but Sharon darted away.
“Please. Give me some space before I space myself. Leave me alone. I appreciate your concern, I really do, I just can't talk right now. I just have to try not to think about it.”
“You can't just run away from it.”
“Get out. Leave me alone. Keep the boys company. I'll get this reactor system purring. I really do appreciate it, Jacob. I just–just need some space.”
“Okay. I love you, you know?
Sharon sniffed. “I know, I know. I don't know if I have the capacity to love anything right now. I'm sorry. I’m filled with bitterness and rage.”
“Rage?”
Sharon connected some loose wires into a console. “The only thing keeping me from going out an airlock is my determination to find whoever did this to my dad and destroy them. Now get out of this engine room, I already said it once before, Jacob.”
“Alright, again, I love–”
Sharon snarled, “Get the eff out!”
Jacob left the engine room. He looked back toward her. He had no idea what to do. Jacob returned to the bridge.
“Hey, Jake, how's Sharon doing? I'm noticing our reactor levels are nominal. That's good.” Arnold’s eyes were focused on the console for incoming rocks of ice to dodge.
Jacob sat back in his chair and latched himself back in. “I don't know. She just went through a lot. We all did. Things aren't going to be the same now. It's like she said, I have no idea what tomorrow will bring. But we will all weather this storm together, right?”
“You bet,” Trevor said. “There's gotta be a light at the end of the tunnel. Things can't get any worse, right?”
February 8, 0270 AC - 14:11
USS Freedom, Orbiting Artemis
Galactic Union Space
Freedom, Callisto, an
d Apollo orbited Artemis. Artemis had never had this many warships watching over it.
Salvage ships were still making runs at picking up whatever was left of Exodus. Rescue ships searched in vain for any survivors. A large amount of wreckage still remained, floating in desolation.
Freedom drifted slowly in silence just out of range of the destruction. Freedom had no emotions, as it was just a mass of metal, but it seemed to mourn for its lost brother.
Captain Devereaux was staring at a large map that went across the back wall of the bridge. The map was showing the surrounding area of hyperspace. Some crew members worked on stations near him, but most of the command staff worked in a lower subsection of the bridge. A few stairs went up to the second level of the bridge. Marines serving as security watched over the area.
Admiral Akeldamas approached the captain. “Anything happening in hyperspace?”
“No, nothing. Traffic has been halted for now,” Devereaux said as he scanned the map.
“Have you or any of your crew located the corvette with those connected with Turner?” Akeldamas asked.
“No, but we haven't really been looking.”
“They are potentially responsible for a heinous crime and you don't even bother to look for them?” Akeldamas scolded.
“Listen, we both know it has nothing to do with them,” Devereaux said.
“Well, there's other reasons to deal with them. I hold onto my conviction that Jacob Carpenter should be dealt with.”
“I still don't understand that. You were told not to worry about him.”
“He needs to be brought to justice. So tell me, you have no idea at all where that corvette went?”
“The best my crew can come up with is that the ship, if it wasn't destroyed in hyperspace, probably ended up coming out of hyperspace near Kappa Velorum. There is significant interference at this location so we can't get a good reading. It would make sense from our current data that the ship is there. But in the end, it's just a hunch. It is not worth sending any ships out there just on a hunch. They're probably all dead. Let's just deal with this tragedy and forget about that corvette,” Devereaux said.