Dark Space

by Stephen A. Fender

  “Yes, but it is only minimal.”

  “What if we took the ship into the upper atmosphere?”

  Fralok stood up from his post on the far side of the bridge. “You’re mad!” the translator barked.

  “Mind your place, Major,” Ralath shot at the first officer, then turned back to Shawn.

  “This is a warship, isn’t it?” Shawn asked. “You must have some form of shielding.”

  Ralath looked down at him with uncertainty. “It’s not designed to take the kind of punishment one of Tevis’s electrical storms can easily put out. If we’re struck by an electrical discharge, the hull could become polarized.”

  “Meaning?” Melissa asked.

  “We’d be fried like an egg from the inside out,” Shawn replied, then turned back to the captain. ‘”But that’s only if we get hit. We’d only need to remain clouded long enough for the Meltranians to pass by.”

  Ralath was wavering, but there was still caution in his tone. “That is a very large opportunity for disaster, Commander.”

  “How large?”

  Ralath changed the view on the holotable, bringing Tevis back into full view. On the far side of the gas giant, and getting closer by the minute, were the two Meltranian warships. “Half a cycle until we are within visual range. If the Meltranians continue on their present course around the planet, it will be a full cycle until we are out of range. That’s about three-quarters of a Terran hour.”

  Melissa looked out to the planetoid beyond. As she did, a spiderweb of blue lightning spread across the equator. “I may have to agree with Major Fralok on this one, Shawn.”

  Shawn looked out at the planet below, begging the storms to give him an answer. “But what if we go to a more stable region of the planet? Say, into one of the poles.”

  Ralath brought up an expanded image of the northern section of the planet. “There is far less activity there. The danger would be reduced, but not negated.”

  “If we went through the clouds and into the upper atmosphere … how long could we remain there?”

  “Through them?” Fralok balked in utter disbelief.

  Ralath requested a more detailed scan of what lay below the storms. “Assuming we survive the initial entry, several full cycles at least. While electrical damage would be unlikely, the pressure would begin to take its toll on the outer structure of the ship.”

  “A crushed egg versus a fried one,” Melissa tittered sarcastically. “Good times.”

  “We just need to remain in there long enough for the Meltranians to pass,” Shawn said as he studied the planet beyond the forward view port, then turned back to Ralath. “What do you think?”

  “It is either that, Commander, or we take our chances and escape this system while we still can.”

  “Not an option,” Melissa snapped before she realized which choices remained.

  “Very well,” Ralath grumbled. “We will need to move quickly.” He nodded to a vacant console in the corner of the command deck. “Strap yourself into the chairs there. The transit will not be pleasant.” He then turned to Fralok. “Major Fralok, take control of the ship. Lay in a course for the northern pole and engage at maximum speed.”

  %%%

  Melissa found herself gripping the armrests of the chair tightly as the Tangled Web began its shaky descent toward Tevis. The planet had filled the view port, and with the mass of gasses swirling in ever-changing shapes, it was visually impossible to tell how far they were from their final objective. Beside her, Doctor Uudon had buried his face in his hands, mumbling and swearing in three different languages about having come on this mission in the first place.

  Shawn was the only one relatively calm. Without a chair, he’d positioned himself behind Melissa’s seat and gripped onto the headrest tightly. His gaze was steady on the looming planet as he tried to mentally guide the craft through the turbulent winds.

  Fralok, to his credit, was doing an admirable job of keeping the craft true to its course. However, a flash of lightning on the port side of the ship had unnerved him, and he overcompensated by sending the warship into a hard port bank. The rapid shift in momentum had tossed Captain Ralath and his communication officer from their seats, and Melissa closed her eyes tightly as she gripped her chair harder, recalling how much she truly hated planetary entries.

  When the captain had regained his seat, he began howling orders to the crew. “Sensor report!”

  “We have descended twenty measures into the planet’s mesosphere, Captain,” the officer at that station replied. “There are severe atmospheric fluctuations ahead.”

  “Relay the information to the helm. Major Fralok, make note and attempt to compensate!”

  Before Fralok could answer, the ship lurched down violently, causing Shawn’s stomach to try and eject through his mouth. Just as quickly, the warship pitched up and to port.

  “Trying!” Fralok yelled. “The changes in pressure are too rapid. We must slow our descent!”

  “Not until after we’ve passed into the troposphere,” Ralath countered. “Only then will we be fully obscured to the enemy’s sensors.”

  “Distance?” the major yelled from the helm control console.

  “Forty more units,” the sensor officer shouted back.

  “Commander Kestrel,” Ralath shouted over his shoulder. “The Meltranians will be at our previous position within seconds of us reaching our destination. If they detect us in any way, the structure of this ship will not withstand the forces required to make a quick escape. If you have a particular deity you wish to make amends with, I suggest you do so now!”

  Before Shawn could respond, the Tangled Web slammed headlong into a wall of overpressure. Melissa and Uudon, strapped into their respective chairs, were thrown forward into the uncomfortable harnesses. Shawn, lacking the same protection, slid across the floor to end up in a heap near the helm console.

  Fralok risked a surprised glance down to the commander. “This position is occupied.”

  Gripping the back of Fralok’s chair, Shawn hefted himself to his feet. “I just came by to say a quick hello.”

  The major twisted the ship to starboard, and Shawn had to pull himself tightly against the chair to stop from spinning across the deck again.

  “I have no time for your foolishness!” the major screamed.

  Shawn had no intention of remaining at the station, and quickly surveyed how far it was back to his own position. However, he knew there was no way of denying the opportunity his current predicament afforded. “You know,” he said, smirking and leaning as casually as possible toward the Kafaran. “If you’d like me to take over, I’m sure I can help—”

  A guttural growl came from deep within the major. Satisfied, Shawn patted the back of the chair and rushed back to his seat.

  “Tropospheric insertion in one cycle,” the sensor officer yelled.

  “Stand by for full thrust reversal,” Ralath shouted. “We cannot afford to engage the engines until we are hidden!”

  The forward view was a haze of purple and yellow gasses. All around them, the ship was shuddering and bucking under the pressure of reentry. Occasionally a loud moan could be heard from the superstructure, and Shawn wondered how much more stress the craft could take. As the vibrations became more pronounced, a console on the far side of the control center erupted into a shower of sparks, startling Melissa into a yelp and drawing Shawn’s attention away from the planetoid beyond. Seeing that she was all right, he reached down and gripped her hand tightly. She smiled up at him warmly, and despite the chaos around them, he returned the gesture. Turning forward again, he watched as the layers of clouds all but vanished in an instant as the Tangled Web broke through the clouds and into a large pocket of clear sky.

  “Full reverse!” Ralath shouted, although the cacophony of noise and vibrations had all but abated.

  Everyone on the bridge lurched forward as the large warship ground itself to a halt just below the layer of tumultuous clouds. As soon as the engines were th
rottled back, Shawn was sure he could hear a pin drop on the deck. Swallowing hard, and with his ears still ringing, he turned to survey the scene.

  More than one console had exploded. In fact, several of the computer stations were either burnt out completely or their monitors were flickering waves of static. A Kafaran bridge officer was lying on the deck beside one of the wasted terminals—unconscious or dead, Shawn couldn’t tell which. Ralath and Fralok were still at their posts, poised for action despite the respite from the storm churning behind the ship. Turning, Shawn saw Doctor Uudon curled in a fetal position under Melissa’s chair.

  “Doctor,” he said, calmly putting a hand on Uudon’s shoulder.

  “Is it over?” the doctor’s voice trembled.

  Checking out his surroundings once more, Shawn nodded slowly. “For now. I need you to get up. We’ve got a man down here.”

  Relaxing his muscles, Uudon rolled to a sitting position. “What?”

  Shawn waved his head in the direction of the fallen Kafaran. “We’ve had an injury. See what you can do.”

  Uudon looked to the fallen officer and then to Shawn incredulously. “What am I supposed to do with that? I’m not that kind of a doctor, Commander.”

  His patience with the man having finally run out, Shawn leaned down and took two handfuls of the doctor’s coat, then hefted him to his feet. “You’ve got a doctorate in something, which I’m pretty sure is more than anyone else presently assembled. I’m certain that, locked in that brain of yours, there are things about anatomy and physiology I’ll never begin to understand. Now stop complaining about your shortcomings and see what you can do to help him.” Without waiting for a rebuttal, Shawn released the doctor and pushed him toward the fallen officer.

  Unbuckling her harness, Melissa stood on unsteady legs. “I’ll see what I can do to help him.”

  Shawn placed two hands on her shoulders to steady her. “Are you sure? You look pretty rough, Angel.”

  She swept the loose strands of hair from her face and tucked them behind her ear. Removing one of his hands, she kissed the back of it lightly. “I’ll be fine,” she said softly, then moved to kneel beside Uudon.

  “The Meltranian ships should be directly above us, Captain,” the sensor officer said to Ralath from his console.

  Stepping beside the captain’s chair, Shawn unconsciously looked to the overhead. “Did they see us?”

  “I … do not know,” Ralath said, his translator turning the words into a whisper. “For the moment, our sensors cannot be allowed to penetrate the storm clouds above. To do so would invariably give away our location.”

  Shawn nodded. “Then the only way we’ll know for sure is if we get fired upon.”

  “I do not believe their weapons can penetrate the storm, Captain. However, I put nothing past those accursed creatures.”

  Looking out to the rim of the pocket they were in, Shawn watched a particular nasty bolt of electricity reach out for nearly a mile, then loop back into the storm front. “If that storm gets any closer, we’re going to be in for another rough ride.”

  Ralath grunted. “I hope to be long away from this maelstrom before then, Commander. But first, we must assess our damage.”

  “The Meltranians?”

  Ralath’s eyes scanned the overhead, mentally gazing far beyond into the space beyond. He was silent for several full minutes before speaking. “For the moment, I believe we have bought ourselves some time.”

  “Shawn,” Melissa said from the side of the fallen officer. “I think he’s dead.”

  Ralath’s eyes moved down to see the injured crewman for the first time. “His name was Ellanar, the ship’s lead engineer. A brave warrior … and a good friend.”

  “I’m sorry,” Melissa offered.

  Ralath looked at her with indifference. “It is but a shell, Agent Graves. The essence of what he was has moved on.” The captain then turned to Fralok. “You will see to it that the body is disposed of, Major. After all, he was your kin.”

  “Your kin,” Melissa stammered as she turned to the major. “You mean … he was—”

  “My elder brother,” Fralok replied with as little emotion as Ralath had a moment earlier. When he reached down, he grasped Ellanar by the wrists and began to drag him from the space.

  When Shawn noticed that Melissa was about to object to the treatment of the body, he reached out a hand and pulled her to her feet. “Just leave it, honey,” he said to her quietly as she continued to stare at the display until the doors to the bridge had firmly shut behind the major. “It’s their way. We’ve got no say in it.”

  “Indeed,” Ralath said from behind them, drawing stares from both of them. “I’ve heard of your human reverence for the dead. Quite a fascinating study, but little more than a minor footnote in what we’ve come to know of your people.”

  “It’s called compassion,” Melissa said, wresting her arm out of Shawn’s grasp, “and it’s more than just a minor footnote for our people. It’s one of the cornerstones of our existence.”

  Towering over her by nearly two feet, Ralath nodded slowly. “Perhaps, if we all manage to make it out of this encounter alive, you will have the opportunity to expound on that further. Until then, we have much preparation to do before the fleet arrives.”

  “And if your sensors can’t penetrate the clouds without being detected,” Shawn began.

  “We will not know if my people are here until after the battle has begun,” Ralath finished. “A force that large cannot possibly hope to be obscured by Tevis’s storms. Once our ships have entered the system, they will have already committed themselves to the fight.”

  “Someone once said that ‘if we continue to develop our technology without wisdom or prudence, our servant may prove to be our executioner.’ Much to the discredit of the human race, it’s never something you think about until it’s pushed right down your throat—and that’s exactly what happened at Hellnastor.”

  -Admiral William Graves (Ret.)

  Admirals and Generals: The Men Who Fought, the Men Who Won, 4th Edition

  Quoting General Omar N. Bradley (deceased, Old Earth 1981 AD)

  Chapter 17

  “Captain Ralath, all major systems have been repaired.”

  Shawn, who’d been standing idly by for the last hour, watched as Ralath acknowledged the ship’s interim commander of engineering.

  “Very good. When can we be underway?”

  The engineer handed a small data pad to the captain, one that Shawn noted was likely a manifest of the repair work done. “As soon as ordered, sir.” With a nod from the captain, the engineer turned and quickly left the command center.

  “Commander Kestrel?”

  Shawn gave the captain a surprised look. “Yes?”

  “We are ready to depart Tevis. Are you and your people ready?”

  Shawn turned to see Melissa give him a nod. Doctor Uudon, having strapped himself into another vacant seat, looked almost terrified at the thought of going through the turbulent atmosphere once again. “As ready as we’ll ever be. How sure are you that the Kafaran fleet is out there?”

  Ralath turned to the view port and the coming storm beyond. The brackish yellow cloud layer had become denser in the last twenty minutes, and flashes of light from within it signaled an electrical storm was imminent. “I give the odds at sixty percent probability, Commander.”

  “Sixty percent?” Shawn balked. “That’s not very reassuring.”

  “Then perhaps I should say ninety percent? Would that quell your uneasiness?”

  “Would it be a lie?”

  Ralath grunted. “Without question. Even sixty percent is … optimistic at best.”

  A flash of lightning shot out from the clouds in the direction of the ship. Although it was still too far away to pose a danger, the Tangled Web nonetheless shook as the thunder wave overtook the vessel.

  Staring at the clouds, Shawn wondered where the next bolt would come from, and if it would finally strike them. “We can’t s
tay here.”

  “Agreed,” the captain grunted, then turned to Major Fralok at the helm console. “Plot a course back into space. Try to keep us parallel to anything we might encounter out there.”

  “Yes, sir.”

  “Sensor officer, do not begin scanning until we are within five units of the upper edge of the mesosphere. I want to keep whoever is out there in the dark until the last possible moment.”

  “Yes, Captain.”

  Ralath then turned to Shawn. “Commander, take your seat. If the current weather patterns hold true, the ride back into space will be as eventful as the one leaving it.”

  %%%

  “Captain!” the science officer shouted over the roar of the ship’s engines. “We are within five units!”

  True to the captain’s word, the ride back through Tevis’s storm clouds had been a bumpy one. While all the crew had managed to keep their positions, the damage reports coming into the command center betrayed the stress the vessel was under. One of the main drive engines was on the verge of failure, and a half-dozen maneuvering thrusters had burned out completely. There had been a hull breach near the stern, but Shawn was too far away from the captain to hear how much damage the ship had taken—or if anyone had been injured.

  “Begin a full scan!” Ralath yelled as he gripped his chair tightly.

  “There is some interference from the storm. I’m attempting to isolate signatures.”

  “Quickly, Lieutenant! We are near the edge!”

  Shawn watched as the younger Kafaran worked at his controls with a fevered pace. “There are several ships in orbit, sir. I’m detecting at least three Meltranian warships.”

  Shawn eyes turned from the sensor officer just as the Tangled Web broke through the clouds into open space—directly in front of the gaping maw of a Meltranian isotonic cannon. “Down! Take us down!” he yelled.

  Major Fralok complied instantly. The Tangled Web lurched down, quickly sailing under the Meltranian warship with inches to spare. As it did, bolts of green weapons fire sprayed around the ship like heavy rain. Luckily, Shawn mused, every one of them appeared to have missed.