Dark Stars- Firelight

by Matthew Tonks

  He leaps up, sweat pouring from his body. His eyes search his quarters in a panic, he feels his heart racing a million miles an hour, and quickly places a hand on his stomach, feeling her movements below his skin.

  “You’ve got to stop doing that,” he says softly as he feels it move underneath his hand, like a fish trying to frantically flip itself back into the water. Suddenly the lights flick on and alarm bells sound out.

  “Sir. We have intruders aboard Betha,” Sin’s voice declares through his interlink, a device burrowed in behind Zander’s left ear.

  He leaps from his bed, grabbing his blaster. “Where?”

  “Directly outside your quarters Sir,” Sin replies as Zander slams his hand against the doors palm reader. He freezes in place as the door springs open, and a dozen or more Federation Soldiers spill in knocking him to the ground. His blaster tumbles from his grasp and he finds himself pinned, with blasters pointed towards him.

  “High Lord Quinn sends his regards,” one of them says.

  “I’m touched,” Zander says as they pull him to his feet.

  “You’ll lose the attitude soon enough slim.”

  “So will you,” Zander says. “SIN, GRAV LEFT!” The gravity settings suddenly shift and the room tilts, Zander crashes into the wall with a thud followed quickly by The Federation Soldiers who land on top of him. “MY LEFT YOU IDIOT!” He screams out from beneath the soldiers. Once more everything suddenly flips, and they crash violently into the opposite side of the room. Quickly Zander takes charge of the situation, wrestling a blaster from a disorientated soldier, and fires it into the struggling pile of soldiers beneath him until there is no movement. “Reset the gravity points, and unlock the doors,” he says as the doors hiss open, and everyone crashes to the floor, including Zander.

  “Are you okay Sir?” Sin asks.

  “I’d be better if you waited a couple of seconds before resetting the gravity,” he replies as he picks himself up from the floor, holding his throbbing head.

  “I’m sorry Sir. You did request the gravity points to be reset, I assumed you would be in the required positio...”

  “Save it for later, and instead tell me how the hell a group of Federation Soldiers managed to get on board Betha?” He says as he quickly makes his way through the corridor and comes out into the cockpit where Sin sits.

  “Neither I nor Betha can give you an answer to that question at this point in time. We have verified that there is no vessel within the immediate vicinity, and there has been no forced entry on any of Betha’s external doors.”

  “So, you're telling me they just appeared?” Zander says as he collapses into the pilot’s seat.

  “That is the only explanation we have at this point in time, until we have….”

  Zander places a hand in the air, “Bring up the first footage we have of them aboard Betha. When she first detected their presence,” Zander says. A screen appears in front of him, showing The Federation Soldiers slowly working their way along one of Betha’s corridors. “This is the first point of reference we have?”

  “That is correct Sir. That is what you requested, that is what I have shown you. If you had asked for something different, I would have shown you something else, but….”

  “Yeah, yeah, you can stop with the over explaining. Just tell me, is that the corridor that leads to the crew sleeping quarters?”

  “Yes Sir, that is correct.”

  “So, how come there isn’t any footage of the quarters themselves?”

  “General Salidazar ordered them removed when he came aboard. He cited that surveillance equipment in those areas was in breach of privacy,” Sin replies.

  Zander slowly swivels around in his chair and turns to Sin. “When the hell was Salidazar on Betha?”

  “General Saladizar came aboard while you were receiving the desired medical attention needed when we arrived at Galder Seven, and as he is your senior officer in The Dark Collective, he ordered me not to discuss the changes with anyone, including you,” Sin replies.

  “Was there anything else you were asked not to discuss with me?”

  “No Sir. That was all,” Sin replies.

  “Right, SO next time something like this happens, you tell me, understood? Even if I’m on my deathbed, you tell me!”

  “Of course Sir. Unless they outrank you and direct me not to,” Sin replies.

  “NO! Next time you tell me regardless of who it is, okay?” Zander says as he gets to his feet, clenching his hands into fists.

  “Of course Sir, unless...”

  “NO UNLESS!” He yells, slamming his fists into a control board that sits before Sin. “I’m commander of this ship! Screw it! This is my SHIP! Not The Federation’s, NOT The Dark Collective’s, MINE! Zander BLOODY Kane’s. And no one outranks me aboard here, NO ONE! So next time something happens, you tell me, or you’re dust in the wind, understood?”

  “I’m afraid I do not follow Sir,” Sin replies.

  “Betha, explain it to him so he understands,” Zander says.

  Several seconds pass before Sin becomes rigid and looks slowly over to Zander. “I completely understand Sir. Nothing will happen aboard Betha again without first informing you.”

  “Good, now unhook yourself and come with me.”

  “Where are we going Sir? I have not kept anything from you, please don’t turn me to dust!” Sin says quickly.

  “No you sack of nuts and bolts. We’re going to see what problems Saladizar left for us down in the quarters,” Zander says pulling his blaster from its holster as he steps from the cockpit, and heads quickly down towards the crew sleeping quarters.

  “Sir, if you don’t mind me asking. Do you think General Saladizar brought something on board Betha?”

  “I haven’t a clue. But if you hadn’t let him disable Betha’s surveillance, we’d know instead of having to go in blind,” he says as he comes to a stop outside of the crew quarters. He places a hand on the door and pulls it away quickly, grimacing in pain.

  “Sir, are you okay?”

  “It’s cold,” he says as he looks at the doors unusual lock. “Did he have this put in place?”

  “That would be correct.”

  “Great. Can Betha override it?”

  “Unfortunately not Sir. Saladizar encoded it with his own locking mechanism,” Sin replies, Zander looks at him, his brow furrowed.

  “Seriously, no one does anything to Betha without my say so ever again! Can she at least shut power down to this area of the ship?”

  The hallway goes dark almost instantaneously. “It has been done Sir,” Sin announces.

  “I can see that,” he says as he takes a step back, raises his blaster towards the lock, and fires. The lock hisses as it de-couples, then the door slowly slides open. Zander casts a concerned glance towards Sin, then back to the doorway as it gradually opens, revealing a spiralling vortex inside the room. Before either of them can act they are both sucked inside, and the darkness of the void swallows them both. Zander feels his body stiffen and pain envelops him, and then he crashes to the ground somewhere in the darkness of an unknown place.

  “S-S-Sin?” He says weakly.

  “I am here Sir,” Sin replies quickly.

  “Where the god damn hell is here?”

  “That would be a difficult question to answer, as we seem to be nowhere.”

  “Nowhere?” Zander says, as he slowly pulls himself to his feet. He searches the darkness for any sign of movement or Sin, but all he is greeted by is blackness. He holds his hands up towards his face and squints his eyes as he tries to make out his hand’s features. But the non-existence of light makes it impossible to see anything, he could be surrounded by a million enemies right now and not know it.

  “Can you see anything?” He asks, as he lightly reaches out towards the darkness, twisting his mouth and biting gently down on his tongue as he does.

  “Oddly enough Sir, I can see nothing,” Sin replies.

  Zander raises an eyebrow, and he
turns quickly on the spot. “Nothing?”

  “That is correct Sir. Nothing is registering on any of my displays. I cannot even locate myself, even though I know I am all in one piece.”

  “Ideas?”

  “Only one Sir, but you will not like the answer.”

  “Try me,” Zander says as he reaches out once again, tightly closing his eyes as he takes a step forward. “Don’t keep me in suspense, what do you think it is?”

  “Halligans Box Sir,” Sin replies quickly. Zander freezes on the spot, his foot still in mid-air, and he feels a cold shiver run down his back.

  “Halligans Box is just a legend, left over from a race that disappeared a long time ago. Can’t you come up with something a little more believable?”

  “Sir, to you Halligans Box may just be a story, but to my database it is very real. The Halgree built the box to vanquish their enemies the Lorikaa, a millennia or more ago. It is told that they placed the box inside a cargo freighter and headed towards the border of their system, knowing full well the Lorikaa would attack them. In the struggle the box was opened, and what was once sector twelve-nine-five, ceased to be. The box somehow eventually closed, many believe it became sentient from all the life it devoured, then closed its own lid and slept, never to be seen again.”

  “Don’t you think it would be a little-le-le….” Zander’s lip quivers, as he feels something slimy slowly begin to wrap itself around one of his legs. Frantically he reaches down and pulls at the grotesque thing that has latched itself around him, he begins screaming in fear, then it suddenly falls still, and its grip relaxes. “WHAT THE H….” He doesn’t get to finish his sentence as an unseen hand covers his mouth, followed by the feeling of warm breath on the back of his neck.

  “Quiet,” a voice whispers. “They hear everything, the quieter you are the longer you live. Do you understand?” Zander nods his head, and the hand releases him.

  “Where is, here? and who are you?”

  “We don’t have time for me to answer any of those questions. They’re coming, and we need to move!” the voice hisses in the darkness.

  “Move where? I can’t see anything!”

  “Here,” the voice says. He feels a hand touch his, handing him something. “Put it on. It’ll enable you to see here, not that you’ll want to once you do,” he says.

  Zander slowly raises the object to his face and sucks in a deep breath as he looks through it and sees a desolate wasteland before him. A graveyard of ships, bodies, planets, and darkness. Then beyond that, the movements of something coming towards them. He looks over to the man who stands in front of him, his haggard clothes torn revealing a hardened body covered in scars, his dirty face covered mostly by hair, but even under all that he recognises the man instantly.

  “T-T-This can’t be happening, you can’t be who I think you are,” Zander says.

  “I am. But let’s get somewhere safe first, there’ll be more Reapers here soon, and we won’t stand a chance. So, if you want to know what the hell is happening, you need to come with me, now. Bring Sin, he might just be our ticket out of here,” the man says, as he quickly makes his way through the ruins. Zander grabs Sin by the arm and drags him forward as ear piercing screams fill the air. He guides them deeper into the graveyard. Zander focuses on following the strange man in front of him and keeps his eyes away from the bodies that litter the landscape before him. Finally, they come to a stop as the man opens a hatch way, and quickly they climb inside the once mighty ship that Zander recognises all too well.

  “Betha,” Zander says softly.

  “She was, a long time ago,” the man says. “Before this place. Before Halligans Box.”

  “S-S-So it’s true. This, this is Halligans Box?”

  “No, this is where Halligans Box dumps you. The nexus point, the end and the beginning. The tomorrow and the yesterday. The was, and the never will be. This is The Infinity Trap.”

  “The Infinity Trap?”

  “Yeah. It’s my little pet name for this place,” he says, smiling a nervous smile. “Anyway, it’s been a while since I’ve seen someone new. How did it happen? Saladizar?”

  “How did you know?” Zander asks.

  “Same thing happened to me. Once they found out I was carrying Gadamrie’s seed, I became a threat to The Federation and The Dark Collective. So, they removed me from the playing field the only way they could, by sending me here.”

  “That doesn’t make sense. Why would The Dark Collective work with The Federation?”

  “Because you’re carrying a new species inside you, one that could ruin both The Federation and The Collective’s plans for the universe. That and they won’t let some lowly human get in the way of the power stone. Not when they’re so close.”

  “Power stone?”

  “Sin. Tell him what the power stone is,” the man says.

  “Tell who Sir? Besides yourself, who I might add, you are having a conversation with. There is no one else here. I can and will happily tell you what you wish to know about the power stone, but there is….”

  “Just tell me, I forgot how irritating you could be,” he says quickly.

  “Of course. The power stone, if I go by the information I have in my database, is a group of gems that are said to have split from one stone, that if reunited will give the holder the power of the first. The first being the maker of all that is and was,” Sin replies.

  “Are we actually all being serious? I mean first Halligan's Box, and now a story about some stone that controls everything. Am I the only one who thinks maybe I’m still unconscious, and this is all some weird dream?” Zander says.

  “Believe what you want, but it’s the only logical answer I have. The stone as far as I can tell, is what they’re after. You see each universe has an infinite sea of realities, realities created by the choices we make, a billion realities sitting on top of each other, growing every second. And in each of these realities, two things seem to be the same, well in the ones I’ve had contact with anyway. Everyone wants the stone, and….” he says, pausing for a moment as he lets his shoulders drop.

  “And?” Zander asks.

  “And we’re always a problem that’s removed. Banished to this place to die.”

  “T-T-There, there has to be some way out of this place, some w….”

  “There isn’t I’ve tried. Hundreds, maybe even thousands before me have tried, and none have made it. Everyone who comes here, dies here, end of story. There’s no way home. But…”

  “But what?” Zander asks.

  “But, I’ve been working on an idea, and now, with a fully functional Syin-To unit, we should be able to send out a low wave signal that could jumper through the box, splintering the signal throughout dimensions, that other versions of the Syin-To unit could receive and….” He doesn’t get to finish his sentence as something smashes viciously against the outside of Betha. “They’ve found us. Quickly, we have to send the signal before it’s too late,” he says as the ships carcass shifts violently from the powerful attack.

  “How the hell do we do that, you’re talking crazy talk!” Zander yells.

  “Just listen to me, re-loop his internal communication ports. Set them to an infinite loop, the Reaper’s won’t want Sin. They only ever want us, because he’s not carrying what they crave!”

  “You mean the child?” Zander says as he clutches his stomach.

  “It’s like a drug. When they take in the energy, they act like they’re on some sort of high.”

  “What? You’ve seen this happen before?”

  “Plenty of times. So many versions of us, so many opportunities lost. But this time, this time I know how to stop it all from happening. This time, I know how to save us.”

  “You’ve done this before?”

  “Never with a fully functional Syin-To unit though. Normally they’re damaged, or the model is slightly different. But yours is as close to mine as I’ve ever seen. So it’s got to work. I mean it has to, right?”

  �
��What has to? The signal? How the hell is that going to help us? Those things….” He doesn’t get to finish his sentence as the ship’s hull tears open, and the Reapers make their way aboard Betha, quickly making their way through her corridors towards them.

  “I’m sorry,” the man says as Zander feels something slice across the back of his heel. He falls to his knees and feels a fist crash into the side of his head, dislodging the device from his face leaving him in darkness.

  “What the hell are you doing?”

  “Someone has to be bait. If this works, we’ll stop them all. We’ll be heroes.”

  “WE’LL BE DEAD!”

  “We already are you idiot. The Collective, they’ve been hiving worlds, galaxies, realities, everything for the gems to remake the stone. Halligans Box is her weapon, don’t you see that? The Priestess exists across all realities, she’s a maker, one of the first, striving for the ultimate power. She wants all the realities to become one, she wants to merge all things together like she is, and she’ll stop everyone in her path.”

  “BUT WHAT THE HELL DOES THAT HAVE TO DO WITH ME?” He yells, but receives no reply, and he knows he is alone. He feels his eyes well up with tears as he sits in the darkness, hearing the Reaper’s coming through the corridors towards him. “What does it have to do with me?” He says softly to himself once more.

  “It has to do with me,” her voice says inside his head.

  “Gadamrie?”

  “Hush my love, these things you do, you do for the greater good. One day I hope you understand,” she says as he feels a coldness enter the room. He can hear their saliva dripping from their talons, and then they are upon him. He tries to scream but nothing comes out, then a bright light blinds him, and she is standing there smiling, her arms out towards him.

  “Sir. I fail to understand what is taking place?” Sin asks as he is forced down a corridor.

  “Be thankful for that. Just keep moving, those things’ll be quiet for a little while, but not forever,” he says, as he slams a porthole behind them and seals it shut. “Is there any way you could bring some of Betha’s systems online if she’d suffered a core meltdown?”