by Charles Nall
“Tonight’s maintenance shift can look over the pipeline. I’d rather not have the captain breathing down my neck in case there’s a minor flickering of the lights. Let’s retry the load process, sometimes these things are ornery,” Thunder said.
Sharon spoke up. “Sir, do you think that’s wise?”
“It should be alright. Do you have another suggestion?” Thunder asked.
“Well,” Sharon hesitantly replied. “Do we have any idea what the obstruction is?”
The worker shrugged. “Probably just a chunk of crystallized tritium that wasn’t caught in the filters. Reloading the fuel should break up the crystal.”
“If there’s non-tritium debris that could mean a problem with our filters, our tanks, or even the manifolds. If there’s a problem further down the line, it could cause havoc with both of our fusion reactors eventually. We should probably investigate now.” Sharon hesitated. “In my opinion, sir.”
Thunder thought a moment and then nodded in agreement. “Yes, I suppose you are right. Shut down the reactor,” he said to a nearby worker.
The lights flickered in the engine room. The reactor let out of a groaning sound as it went offline.
Thunder walked over to a grate on the wall near the reactor and removed it. “Ms. Turner, would you like to do the honors of checking the pipeline? It was your idea.” He grinned.
“I suppose,” Sharon said.
Sharon entered into the dark, cramped area and squeezed through. After a few meters of cramped space, the space opened up to a slightly more open area. A series of large pipes ran toward the reactor. Sharon grabbed a hold of a handle on one of the lower pipes and pulled it. This revealed a small window into the pipe itself.
She pressed a button on the wall and a light shined down onto the pipe area.
She screamed.
Sharon stumbled out of the cramped space.
Thunder rushed to Sharon’s side. “What’s wrong?”
Sharon took a deep breath. “There’s a human skeleton in there.”
“What? Okay, let’s not start that reactor back up,” Thunder said. “We need to get the captain.”
Workers surrounded the fusion reactor system where the body was found. Sharon kept her distance from the commotion and watched from a catwalk.
“Ms. Turner found a body?” Captain Devereaux asked the chief engineer.
Thunder nodded. “Yes sir. Most of the flesh was dissolved in the tritium tank during the initialization process. From what I understand, it was a female’s body.”
“So that bastard strikes again,” Devereaux snarled.
“The serial killer? I’ve heard reports of that. People are getting scared.”
“For good reason. Any idea on the identity of the victim?”
“One of our workers did not show up for her shift today. We’re not positive but we think it’s her.”
“Could it have been an accident?”
“Accessing the tritium tank takes high level access that she didn’t have. Someone dumped her body in there when they were done with her.”
“Disgusting.”
“Tell me about it. I’m thankful Sharon found it, though. If the reload actually went through the reactor could have been quite damaged. Sharon’s been a great addition to the crew.”
Devereaux glanced at Sharon above him on the catwalk and smiled. “Yes, she has.”
December 22, 0270 AC – 21:10
Hotshot’s Bar, USS Empyrean
Edge of Galactic Union Space
Jaxon Knight and Trevor Reynolds were visiting in Hotshot’s. It was a slow night, there was only one other group inside the bar at the moment.
“Are you enjoying your time on Empy? I know you like searching for alien artifacts,” Jaxon said.
Trevor took a sip from his drink. “Well, I do enjoy working here. I was a bit hesitant at first, but I wanted to stay with my friends. And there’s this girl...”
Jaxon laughed.
“Eventually, I’ll continue my efforts to find the aliens,” Trevor said.
“You think they are out there?”
“Well, yes. I had an experience. Also, the ship that destroyed Earth was probably a hostile alien race. Just where are they though?”
“We may never know what happened there. I don’t think they were aliens.”
“Really?”
Jaxon shrugged. “Life on Earth was a freak occurrence. Even though there are a handful of Earth-like planets in the galaxy, they never seem to generate any sort of meaningful life. Earth was special, and it was taken away. It’s depressing. Are we completely alone?”
“No, we’re not. I saw a ship of crystals. I know it happened.”
“If it was a ship made of crystals, that doesn’t sound like the Double-Crescent at all.”
“Perhaps they are two different alien races.”
“Maybe so. Then again, they could just be two different ship designs. A Cerberus-class and a Judgment-class cruiser look completely different, even though they are both made my humans.”
“That’s true. Although, I wouldn’t expect you to consider vampires humans.”
“That’s a fair point,” Jaxon said. “They lost their humanity long ago.”
Trevor nodded and took a sip from his drink.
“A ship made of crystal.” Jaxon smiled. “That must have been something to see.”
“Well, yes.” Trevor sighed. “Beautiful, but at the same time, I was terrified. I saw something my brain couldn’t quite grasp. I learned something about the universe that the masses do not know. It’s not a privilege. I kind of wish it never happened.”
“You do?”
“The aliens might have had a good reason, but they didn’t ask me ahead of time. It was a violation. Sometimes I wish I was just oblivious.”
“Have you talked to anybody about this? Some sort of therapist or something?”
Trevor nodded. “Yeah. It didn’t help. I do feel like I was chosen for a reason. It gives me some solace.”
Jaxon sipped on his drink.“Well then, I wonder why they chose you.”
Trevor shrugged. “I have terrible luck. I’m just unlucky!”
Trevor gulped down the rest of his drink and then glanced to the side. He grinned.
Jaxon followed his gaze to a smiling woman.
“Oh, that’s Ryn,” Trevor said. “I’ll talk to you later, man. I should go say hi.”
Jaxon smiled. “Of course.”
Trevor waved and walked over to Ryn.
Jaxon smirked. Actually, friend, looks like you are very lucky.
February 3, 0271 AC – 11:11
Manticore Space Station, Orbit of Khamsin Prime
Badiya District, Galactic Union Space
The space station worker slammed a box down next to another worker.
“What are these?” He opened the box. “These circular glazed things?”
“I’m told they are called... doughnuts.”
“Dough... nuts?”
“Yes.”
“I’m allergic to nuts, you know that.”
“They aren’t nuts.”
He stared at the other man. “Then why are they called that?”
“Who knows? Apparently they are an ancient delicacy from Earth. I got them from the new shop down on 6.”
The man tried the tasty treat. “Hmmm.” He grabbed another bite. “They taste fantastic,” he said with his mouth full. “Oh! Jumpgate coming online.” He examined the readings on his panel with a doughnut perilously hanging out of his mouth.
A viewscreen spanned the majority of the control station the two men were working at. Many computers hummed and beeped in the control center.
Both men watched the Khamsin Prime jumpgate spin to life.
“President Eridanys is here.”
“I always liked him. Did you vote for him?”
“Yeah. I don’t trust Vice President Trachis at all, though.”
A Judgment-class heavy cruiser appeared over Khamsin Pri
me. Agamemnon, the sole warship survivor of the Battle of Artemis. Agamemnon glowed a light shade of blue for several seconds.
The other man grabbed a doughnut of his own. “What are they doing here? Why are they visiting our neck of the woods?”
“Just stopping by for some maintenance. They encountered a mean gravity storm a few days ago that messed with some of the displacement units. They didn’t have all the necessary supplies to fix them. So, they will be here for a little while.”
“Well, a Presidential visit is pretty massive.”
“Yeah, I hope... That’s odd. Look at your readings.”
“Okay.”
“You detecting anything?”
“Nope.”
“Look. There is spacial warping just off to the side of—”
Before he could finish what he was saying, a Double-Crescent materialized into standard space. It hovered close to Agamemnon.
Both space station workers were horrified.
“That’s—that’s–”
“Get on the link! Warn everybody.”
“I am, I am. I’m also... attempting to open a link with the Double-Crescent.”
“Are you insane?”
“Maybe they’ll talk this time!”
“Eff that!”
“Come on, why would they destroy this planet? It means nothing! Are they going to destroy it? Oh god, I don’t want to die.”
“Agamemnon will protect us.”
“I can’t find an access node. I’m sending a radio transmission as well.”
The Double-Crescent was much smaller than Agamemnon. The Double-Crescent remained still.
The worker groaned. “They aren’t replying. I don’t even know if they can understand me, though.”
The Double-Crescent was as black as the void of space. It would be almost impossible to see if it wasn’t for the beautiful nebula of the Khamsin system behind the craft. The ship consisted of two crescent-shaped edges that were connected by a thin bridge of dark metal. This bridge went directly from the bottom of the top crescent to the lower one. However, the bridge structure jutted out an angle so that one crescent was not directly above the other. The hull of the Double-Crescent was covered with strange tendrils, spikes, and other black growths.
The Double-Crescent fired a green beam from the lower crescent into the planet below.
Agamemnon began to attack the ship.
The emerald beam increased in intensity. The area around the impact point of the beam began to churn into molten lava.
Agamemnon fired a coil cannon shot. The slug ceased all forward momentum when it got close to impacting the hull of the Double-Crescent and floated harmlessly away. Agamemnon fired another shot. Same effect. The warship unloaded weaponry onto the strange ship. Some of the weaponry actually struck the hull of the Double-Crescent, as if Agamemnon was overwhelming the strange force that was protecting the ship by the sheer amount of firepower.
The melting of the upper crust spread, unleashing lava from the depths of the planet.
Agamemnon fired another coil cannot shot. This slug broke through the central bridge structure, shattering it to pieces and breaking the two crescents apart.
The beam abruptly stopped carving the planet as the two crescents began to drift away from each other. More weapon fire impacted the mysterious visitor.
“Yeah! They got it!” yelled one of the space station attendants.
“Eff yeah! Wait...”
Strange, black, oozing tentacles began to sprout out from both crescents where the damaged structure used to be. The oozing tendrils undulated and curled. Other tendrils appeared and branched out of the tentacles. The ooze was picking up the different shattered remains of the support bridge structure. The tendrils from one crescent met the tentacle of the other and formed one writhing mass between the two ships. The ooze began to rebuild the structure that was destroyed. In a matter of moments, the support structure was completely restored. As soon as the majority of the structure was back in place, the beam returned to full intensity and blasted across the surface once more. A pulse of energy went down the beam toward the planet.
Agamemnon continued fruitlessly firing upon the Double-Crescent. The attack was not doing any meaningful damage. Wounds were quickly being repaired by the oozing goo that seeped out from the crescents.
The planet, now a molten world, churned. The planet slowly collapsed into itself as it began to implode.
The Double-Crescent shifted out of standard space.
Khamsin Prime finally exploded violently outwards, spewing forth its planetary innards.
Myriads of molten rocks pierced through Agamemnon and any other ship or space station orbiting the world. Everything was devastated. President Kael Eridanys of the Galactic Union perished.
Cataclysm.
5
Dome 4, Chryse Planitia
Mars
Orion Confederation Space
Riko Maeda entered into one of the shacks under the dome. The broken remains of the Kitsune fighter were housed in this shack.
She heard something. Someone else was here.
Riko crept up to the main body of the fighter. The intruder was behind it. She grabbed a wrench that was lying on the floor and jumped out behind the fighter.
She sighed and dropped the wrench back to the floor. “Zebediah, what the hell are you doing here?”
An oil-covered Zebediah smiled. “Working on something.” He ripped a piece of plating off the side of the Kitsune.
“You know that bird won’t fly again. The wing is missing, the heat shields are damaged, and most of the internals are fried,” Riko pointed out.
Zebediah pulled out a small circuit board from the fighter and looked it over. “I’m not working on the fighter.”
He gestured over to the corner of the shack. The light mass driver that used to be attached to the wing of the fighter was removed and on a table. Myriads of wires escaped from the side of the weapon into a small device on the table. The ammo belt that fed the mass driver hung off the side of the table. The mass driver was powered by a solar panel. A large metal tripod sat nearby.
“What are you doing with that driver?” Riko asked.
“I’m repurposing it. This gun won’t do much good on the side of a broken fighter. We’ll have protection in case some of the other domes get violent or if the others here turn on us.” Zebediah opened up the device and slid the circuit board inside. He picked up a panel off the ground and hooked it up to the device. “With an ammo counter now.”
“Where’d you get the solar panel?”
Zebediah grinned. “I found it.” Riko wasn’t sure if he actually scavenged the panel or tampered with an anti-gravity system. “The battery is fully charged,” he said.
“You are pretty good with electronics,” Riko said.
“I picked up some stuff here and there from my sister back on Euphrates,” Zebediah explained. “Here, let’s try it out. I already told the boys there might be some noise. Help me with this.” He straightened the tripod out.
Riko and Zebediah picked up the weapon and placed it on the tripod. They dragged the weapon out of the shack.
Riko smiled. “We’re not gonna punch a hole in the side of the dome, right?”
Zebediah chuckled. “I hope not.”
They aimed the mass driver at a collection of rusted barrels. Zebediah pulled up the device and pressed a button on its side.
The mass driver launched a slug that pierced straight through the barrels. A booming thud also announced the fact that the slug had continued and smashed into a smaller shack behind the barrels. The shack collapsed.
“Well, shit,” Zebediah remarked.
Riko snickered. “Wasn’t that your house?”
February 12, 0271 AC – 03:20
Eclipse
Orbit of Euphrates, Commonwealth of Perseus Space
Switch looked out toward the fighter.
Riko called out over the communication system, “She’s not goin
g to make it!”
“You’ll be okay!” Switch yelled.
“No, no. One of the bullets hit the shield generator!”
“Oh god.”
“I–”
Riko’s ship disappeared out of the hyperspace conduit.
Switch looked forward through teary eyes.
Madcat-2 erupted into flames.
The cockpit glass of the fighter began to crack.
Switch snapped awake. She was sweating heavily.
She was having a nightmare.
She must have drifted off in the captain’s chair on the bridge.
She was lonely. What a mistake going out on her own had been. She had upgraded the communications systems on the corvette and turned it into a rather impressive broadcasting station. Switch started a rather profitable business using her hacking and cracking skills—usually legal.
She had dreamed about her friends dying for a while. It was almost like they were dead anyways.
Was Riko actually dead? She often wondered. There was probably no way to survive dropping out of hyperspace in a fragile Kitsune. If the shift to standard space didn’t tear the fighter apart by itself, there was no telling where the craft crashed.
“I wonder.”
Switch pulled up some interactive hyperspace maps on her console.
She studied the maps. She input the data from the date of the escape from Iriguchi.
Where were they? Near Sol, probably, right?
The hyperspace eddies near the Sol system were relatively calm on that day. These maps were an estimation of that day based on data from listening posts. They weren’t completely accurate. One would have to actually contact the closest listening post in that sector for an accurate reading of the hyperspace activity.
She kept reading over the maps. Perhaps there is a chance. But it’s been so long... is she still alive out there?
May 1, 0271 AC – 11:12
Lounge, Madcat-2
Hyperspace, Neutral Space