Broken Horizon

by Charles Nall

The bridge was rectangular with curves around the edges. In the corners sat the different command consoles to control the corvette. Each console had an accompanying chair connected to it. A news program was playing on the holographic projector toward the front of the bridge. Another chair with a smaller console next to it was located next to the projection.

  Knave grabbed Teresa’s coat and threw it off of her. “Wakey-wakey! It’s 3:30 in the afternoon! Time to wake up!”

  Teresa grumbled, “Eff you. I was having a... Mad Cat nap...”

  “Very funny,” Knave said. “You’ve been asleep up here for the past five hours. I’ve checked.”

  “You’ve watched me sleep?” groaned Teresa.

  “Yes. You also snore,” Knave said.

  “Why the eff are you watching me sleep?”

  Knave smiled.

  Teresa squinted at the holographic display. “What’s on?”

  “Confederation bullshit. Always the same with Zeta Volantis III and Epsilon. They riot, rebel, Confederation smashes it, sometimes with assistance from other factions, and then they leave it alone again. Then some other freedom fighter has the bright idea to start a revolution again. It will happen again after this. History repeats itself.”

  Teresa yawned. “No. History doesn’t repeat itself. History tends to repeat itself because we, as humans, find patterns in everything. We choose the events that reinforce our belief that history repeats itself. The sad truth is that things aren’t getting better or staying the same—it’s getting worse.”

  “You may have a point.” Knave pointed at the holographic display.

  “Breaking news,” said the news reporter on the broadcast. “Orion Confederation forces have withdrawn from Epsilon and Zeta Volantis III. Those planets are now independent. Orion is still dealing with riots that have spread to other planets. It is unknown at this time if Orion will allow any more planets to secede from their confederation.”

  Teresa yawned. “Wow. Quite the victory for the rebels.”

  “Like you said, without the support of the Confederation, things might get much worse,” Knave said.

  “Why would they abandon those planets?”

  “Not worth the trouble to keep them in line when more important planets are also revolting.”

  “Epsilon is fairly important. It has a large amount of farm land. One of the few green worlds the Confederation has.”

  “Sometimes you gotta make tough calls, I suppose. I’m sure they didn’t want to abandon it to the wolves.”

  “The wolves?”

  “Oh... You just wait.”

  April 24, 0271 AC – 15:25

  Lounge, Madcat-2

  Silver Cove, Neutral Space

  “You were right... The wolves attacked. We’re going into the shit-storm.” Teresa crunched up her personal computer and tossed it to Knave on the other side of the table. “I don’t want to do this, honestly.”

  Knave caught it and spread it back out. Knave eyed Teresa. “Epsilon...”

  Knave Gunner, Edwin White, and Teresa Day sat around a small table. Five folding chairs crowded around the table. The room was illuminated by a single, flickering bulb hanging over the table.

  Teresa sighed. “This Interstellar Federation isn’t a good thing for the galaxy at all. Absolutely pointless bloodshed. Zeta Volantis forces refused to surrender and couldn’t hold against the invasion. The barbaric Union effing bombed the cities from orbit. And to make matters worse, the effing Dynasty is marching against the Star Republic. Unreal.”

  After the death of Eridanys, the Galactic Union, Blood Dynasty, and Commonwealth of Perseus joined forces. They called their new galactic alliance the “Interstellar Federation.” The same name as the once glorious superpower that spread across the entire galaxy before the Cataclysm. This new faction wasn’t nearly as peaceful as the “ISF” of old.

  “Maybe Zeta Volantis III should have surrendered,” Edwin White said.

  Teresa shook her head. “Nah. They just fought off the Feds... well, the other Feds, the Confederates, and they thought they’d be able to fight off the ISF too. Zeta Volantis had no idea what they were getting into.”

  “So...” Knave said. “We’re being hired to bolster the defense network of Epsilon. Yeah. That sounds shitty.”

  “They are paying good money,” Teresa replied. “Epsilon apparently has some backers with some deep pockets.”

  Edwin gasped. “Wait, we’re going to be in a starfight against the Union?”

  “You bet your ass.” Teresa smiled.

  “Bandits and raiders here and there... but—the Union?” Edwin stammered.

  “You’ll do fine, we’re not gonna die out there.” Knave said. He looked at Teresa. “Right?”

  “Not planning on it,” Teresa replied.

  “What if there are other Silver Cove mercenaries out there... on the Union’s side?” Edwin asked.

  “It happens,” Teresa said. “The Cove get lots of contracts through the NEP. You can see the ones being taken and can plan around the contracts you accept. There’s an unwritten rule that you don’t engage your brother out there in space. In the end, though, no one will judge you for what you had to do out there. In the darkness, there are no rules.”

  May 1, 0271 AC – 23:05

  Cargo Bay, Madcat-2

  Silver Cove, Neutral Space

  “You still up?” Knave walked over to Teresa.

  Teresa leaned against the railing overlooking the relatively empty cargo bay. Chains from the ceiling slowly rocked back and forth. Knave and Teresa were standing on a catwalk that surrounded the bay. Occasional ladders went up to the second level of the cargo bay.

  Teresa chugged some liquid down from a whiskey bottle. “Hey, Knave.”

  “What are you doing?” Knave asked.

  “Drownin’ my shorrows,” Teresa slurred. “Thinking ‘bout jumping, but I’ll be dead shoon enough. If the Union doesn’t kill me, some shtupid Double-Creshent will. Might as well just get it over with and jump. ‘Course, that fall prolly won’t kill me.”

  “You aren’t going to die any time soon. You are too tenacious for that.”

  Teresa laughed.

  Knave knew he was ordered to kill her. He didn’t want to, but the creature inside of him urged him to. He wondered the easiest way to end her life.

  Teresa took another swig from the bottle. “You know, when you shtand on the edge of a cliff, sometimes you are compelled to jump. Your brain can’t process why you would be at the edge of a cliff if you aren’t going to jump to begin with. Sometimes we just have to take a leap, I suppose.” She smiled and turned to Knave.

  “Don’t take a leap off the cliff, Teresa.”

  She laughed. “I won’t. Maybe a differen’ sort of leap.”

  This thing inside of Knave wanted to murder Teresa and complete the mission. The imp did not want to assist in the defense of Epsilon. The imp wanted to kill her now. Knave had to buy some time... somehow.

  Teresa was drunk. She looked at him differently. Knave could feel what she wanted.

  He gulped. “So, planning on any leaps?”

  “Look, yer an asshole.” Teresa laughed. “But an attractive asshole.” Teresa laughed even harder after she realized what she just said. “We may be dead pretty soon. So... I’m shorry. I just don’t want to die. I should not have accepted that contract. I’m scared. I’m so scared.”

  Knave hugged her. “It’s okay. You’ll be okay.”

  He always respected Teresa and the thought of any sort of relationship was far from his mind. She was a mercenary sister.

  But the creature was curious. It had never experienced the touch of a woman. The creature was interested in what the human body was capable of. Knave didn’t want to, but the creature insisted. Teresa was in a vulnerable state and Knave didn’t want to exploit it. But a night of passion would sit better on his mind than her murder.

  Knave kissed Teresa.

  They stumbled down the corvette’s corridors until they reac
hed Teresa’s quarters.

  June 1, 0271 AC – 16:45

  Bridge, Eclipse

  Orbit of Euphrates, Commonwealth of Perseus Space

  For the past several months, off and on, Switch Austrinus would closely look over the hyperspace maps of Sol from the Ceres listening post. She was looking for a hyperspace disruption. She looked between two overlays, hyperspace and standard space. Switching back and forth, looking for something.

  She had easily found where Madcat-2 was during the escape from Iriguchi. However, the Ceres listening post’s scan of hyperspace missed the exact time that Riko was lost. There was a wide area of space where Riko could have been ejected. Her fighter entered standard space anywhere from the star of the system all the way to Saturn. A needle in a haystack. A very big haystack.

  She had given up hope.

  This was first day in months she checked back up on the map data.

  Her business wasn’t doing well at the moment. Apparently the Mad Cats were doing okay, though. She wondered if she would ever have a spot back on the Madcat-2. She felt dumb, like a kid that ran away from her parents with nothing but a change of clothes and some food on their back in a knapsack. She would come crawling back one day soon.

  And then Switch saw it. She didn’t believe herself at first. She did a double-take.

  There was activity over Mars. A flare of energy appeared over the red planet.

  She studied the information and pulled up more data on the console. She switched from standard space to hyperspace. Something had fell out of hyperspace onto Mars.

  “Chryse Planitia.” Switch smiled. “Well, Eclipse, girl, we’re heading to Mars.”

  Switch glanced over to the holographic display in the middle of the bridge. The forward camera was pointing at the Tigris Shipyards. A huge ship was being built. It made Switch uneasy to look at it. She knew through some investigations that this was the first in a line of heavy cruisers. The ship was code named “Black” but it was no secret, they wanted the galaxy to know they were building a warship with the power to destroy an entire planet.

  The Commonwealth of Perseus was part of the alliance of the reborn Interstellar Federation. This new alliance only shared the name with the Interstellar Federation of old. The former ISF had fallen apart after the destruction of Earth. Just like Earth, there was no bringing back the real ISF. The real ISF would never build weapons of planetary devastation.

  Staring at the warship made Switch sick.

  “A trip to Mars will do me some good. I don’t want to look at that ship anymore.”

  6

  February 3, 0271 AC – 03:35 Local Time

  Jacob and Sharon’s Quarters, USS Empyrean

  Edge of Galactic Union Space

  Jacob opened his eyes. He yawned.

  He looked next to him at Sharon’s side of the bed. She wasn’t there.

  He looked around their quarters. “Sharon? Babe?”

  Where is she?

  Jacob yawned and threw on some clothes.

  Jacob walked out of his cabin and into the corridor running down the ship. He wondered where Sharon was. He wasn’t sure where he would check. He could try to link with one of his friends, but he didn’t want to wake them. He decided to just take a walk. Sharon was probably fine.

  Jacob came to one of the large monitors along the hallway. It served as a window to the outside of Empyrean, even though the actual hull of the ship wasn’t anywhere close to this location.

  The ship was moving extremely fast, faster than he had ever seen it go before. Jacob just stared outside.

  He heard a voice. “Jacob...”

  Jacob turned to see Ryn. She was wearing a revealing night gown.

  Jacob stammered, “Oh, uh. Hi. What are you doing awake?”

  Ryn looked at Jacob seductively. “I’ve been bad...”

  “Do what?”

  She grinned. “What do you want to do to me?”

  “What... uh, What do you mean?”

  Ryn bit her lip. “Oh, you know what I mean.”

  “Where’s Trevor? Is this one of his pranks? I’m not falling for it.” Jacob nervously laughed.

  “Trevor...” Ryn sighed. “It was all your fault, Jacob.”

  “Huh?”

  “Everything.”

  “I’m not following you, Ryn.”

  Blood started to stream out of her nose and mouth. “It was all your fault,” she gurgled. “Everything will wither and die around you.”

  Ryn collapsed onto the floor. Her nightgown was stained with blood.

  Jacob had the urge to look back through the window.

  Earth.

  He saw Earth.

  He just knew it was Earth. He had seen pictures. It was beautiful. No other planet compared to her beauty.

  How could this be? This was obviously a dream. It seemed so real. Even though he knew this was a dream, he kept watching the strange dream unfold.

  Empyrean fell apart around him.

  Earth’s surface started to boil. Molten destruction spread across the planet.

  “It was all your fault,” he heard Ryn say again.

  Earth exploded.

  Jacob’s eyes shot open. He was drenched in sweat. He looked over at Sharon. She was sound asleep.

  Jacob cuddled closer to her.

  Sharon let out a sleepy moan.

  Jacob drifted back to sleep.

  February 5, 0271 AC – 20:21

  Hotshot’s Bar, USS Empyrean

  Edge of Galactic Union Space

  Jacob, Sharon, Arnold, Elijah, and Jaxon were visiting in the civilian sector of the ship. They were telling jokes and enjoying drinks and having a good time. They were trying to ignore the current events.

  “How’s flying those birds out there, Arnie?” Sharon asked.

  Arnold sipped his drink. “It’s massive. We’re getting worked hard out there, but I do enjoy it. How about you guys? I’ve heard you got actual shifts on the bridge!”

  Jacob nodded. “Yep! We’re learning a lot. Hands-on experience is great. There’s rumors we’ll all be promoted soon, too. It’s exciting.”

  Jaxon grinned. “You guys are doing fantastic. Much better than when I was green. You’ll be great additions to the crew.”

  “It’s a good thing, too,” Elijah said. “The darkness grows. It will blot out the stars, but it must be so.” He put his hand on his head. “Ouch. Oh, I haven’t done that in a while.”

  “The eff was that?” Jaxon asked.

  “It... happens occasionally,” Sharon said. “Don’t worry about it.”

  Jaxon nodded his head slowly. “Right.”

  “Where’s Trevor?” Elijah asked.

  “He’s with Ryn. She’s pretty torn up right now,” Sharon replied. “Her dad was on Agamemnon. She lost her father. I know how that feels.”

  Jacob glanced at a monitor on the wall. “Oh great.”

  “It just gets better!” Sharon said sarcastically.

  The group turned to watch the monitor. Instead of a sports program, the monitor was displaying a feed from GNN, the Galactic News Network. The network went live to King Drake Mabus making a speech. A bartender walked up to the monitor and pressed a button on the side of the monitor to raise the volume.

  Drake Mabus was a handsome man for a vampire. He had a well-groomed goatee and crystal blue eyes. He was pale due to the vampire disease. He was wearing a black uniform with a high collar.

  Mabus stared ahead with his piercing blue eyes. “...news of his death I was horrified. Have these... Double-Crescents returned? Are they alien? No one knows, but we cannot sit idly by while they kill our friends. Eridanys disagreed with me on a lot of things, but he was a friend, even if he was a normal.” It seemed to pain Mabus to say that word. “In the end, we are all still humans. We fight amongst ourselves when a true enemy is out there. We will not lose our humanity. Pax Galaxia is upon us! We must stand together against this universal threat. The Interstellar Federation has been reborn! We have formed an al
liance between the Dynasty, the Union, and the Commonwealth. We are pooling our resources to become what we lost after the Cataclysm. We are working on building a government structure to unify us completely. I want to thank President Trachis on his efforts to make this dream a reality.

  “We offer the other superpowers of the galaxy a place in the Federation. Do know that if you do not accept our gracious invitation... well, if we think you are going against the common goals of the Federation... you will be eliminated.” Mabus grinned. “If you aren’t with us... you are against us.”

  February 7, 0271 AC – 17:20

  Zeta Squadron Ready Room, USS Empyrean

  Edge of Galactic Union Space

  Arnold Lawrence, Marv Cooper, and Cane Venatici were done with their practice for today. They entered into the small Zeta Squadron ready room. The room consisted of a few folding chairs and tables. There were a few monitors on the wall and whiteboards with tactical information. Zeta Squadron didn’t get any nifty hologram projectors.

  However, today, there was something else going on in their ready room. The entirety of Beta Squadron was hanging out in the Zeta ready room. A keg was sitting on one of the tables. Everyone in the ready room were enjoying drinks in small cups. They were all grinning and welcoming the three recruits into the room.

  Arnold knew that this meant and groaned. The naming ceremony.

  All fighter pilots had to get through this day. A group of veteran pilots would decide on call signs for the nuggets. It looked like Beta Squadron were going to get their laughs in. Typically, these code names were jokes that were some play on the nugget’s name or something funny they did. Arnold was rather nervous to hear his new name.

  The two squadrons intermingled and became inebriated. Arnold paced himself and did not get too drunk. He made some small talk but mostly kept to himself. Arnold surveyed the ready room.

  Cane Venatici had a group from Beta around him. Cane was drunk and was telling a nonsensical story. The group around him laughed hysterically. The story wasn’t funny.