The Last Flight of the Argus

by E. R. Torre

  “The Monnel Displacer has activated, sir,” said Elliot Parker. He was Stephenson’s chief intelligence officer. His equipment was wired throughout the Virtuous’ computer room and was tasked solely to pick up and decipher stray signals emanating from the Titus Displacer, now over six weeks away. Though they could not link up to the Erebus Military Prime Displacer, they were able to intercept signals from Titus and these often provided sufficient information about all the Displacer activities in this solar system.

  “So?” Doctor Stephenson said. His voice was so low Parker barely heard him.

  “The incoming ship’s status is classified.”

  Doctor Stephenson’s dull expression perked up.

  “Secret military vessel?”

  “Most likely.”

  Stephenson rubbed his chin. “If it were a civilian or hospital craft they would give some kind of advanced word, just in case.”

  “It’s the fifteenth such craft sent into Erebus in the past two days. Maybe the war isn’t going too well for them?”

  Stephenson shrugged.

  “Wishful thinking. More likely it means the war is bogging down.” From where the Virtuous sailed, it took days, sometimes weeks, to receive accurate data from the other side, his side, of Erebus. “I’m sure our boys are loading the solar system with as many ships as the Epsillon are.”

  “If we are to assume that's the case, the backbone of both Empires' fleets is parked out there. It’s like a kid’s game of Grover. Line up all the big boys and dash forward. Whoever breaks through will have their enemy’s home worlds ripe for the picking.”

  “It begins and ends here,” Stephenson said. “Keep a close eye on what’s coming out of the Erebus Military Prime Displacer. The boys upstream love it when we give them hard data that isn’t more than a half hour old.”

  Stephenson flipped a button before him and his monitor displayed the information on Parker’s computer.

  “Arrival at Erebus Military Prime is imminent.”

  “Prepare a coded transmission to Phaecian command.”

  “Yes sir. Power levels are rising. Twenty percent. Thirty percent. Arrival of craft in two minutes, maximum.”

  “Are the lines open?”

  “Yes sir. I’m sending data to home base as we receive it.” Parker pressed another series of buttons and smiled. “We’ll have the exact information on this space craft in a moment.”

  “Eighty percent”

  “Starting to get a trace on the craft,” Parker said. “Mass is... by the Gods!”

  Parker double-checked his readings.

  “It’s a juggernaut–no, even larger class craft!”

  “Ninety percent.”

  “She’s coming through. Gods, can this reading be accurate? What the—”

  “Ninety five.”

  “I’m getting a—”

  Parker rose. “I’ve lost the signal!”

  “So have I. What?”

  All the monitors before them went dead.

  “Energy readings are at zero.”

  “That’s not possible.”

  “Unless...unless the Displacer was somehow destroyed,” Dr. Stephenson said. “Could we have gotten that lucky?”

  “No. All transmissions in the vicinity of the Erebus Military Prime Displacer are gone. I’m going wider.”

  Doctor Stephenson grabbed his juice and took a deep sip. He turned away from Parker and looked out the window and at the Erebus sun. For a moment he thought he saw a flicker of light in its lower corner. Whatever he was seeing happened at least two hours ago, the time it took for light to travel this far. The flicker disappeared but soon returned. With a start, Dr. Stephenson realized it was growing. It originated from behind the sun. From the Phaecian side.

  His side.

  Parker slammed his fist on the counter.

  “I’m not getting anything! No communication signals, no emergency traffic, nothing.” His voice quivered with fear. “How is that possible?

  Doctor Stephenson didn’t answer. His eyes remained on the distant Erebus sun. The flicker grew even more pronounced. The sun appeared to first bend, then wobble and turn, eventually becoming a flattened sphere. The light shining from her dimmed and Doctor Stephenson felt an involuntary shiver. What the hell had happened on the Phaecian side of Erebus?

  Incredibly, the sun rippled even more. This time, her light increased. Her shape became even more compressed, smaller and smaller, until, as if it were a candle, it simply went out.

  “What happened?” Parker asked.

  “By the Gods,” Doctor Stephenson whispered. His voice was filled with awe and intense fear.

  Even as the words left his mouth, he spotted a burst of unimaginable energy approaching their ship like a nightmarishly large tidal wave. In the fraction of a second it took to see it, the Virtuous and its crew were torn to pieces.

  PHAECIAN INTELLIGENCE CENTER, PLANET HELIOS - Four days later.

  The conference room was in turmoil. High level researchers and decorated Generals shouted at each other. A pair of Territorial Cardinals, the third highest ranking members of the Holy Empire, sat in a corner, watching the near anarchy before them. They kept their calm despite the harsh words. Twenty Security Guards spread at the fringes of the room and watched them and wondered what, if anything, they should do. They felt more like bouncers at a low class bar than security for the Phaecian Empire’s top military and scientific minds.

  So loud were the shouts that no one heard the outer door slide open. The man who entered the room wore a plain white robe. Over his chest lay the crescent of the Holy Empire. He was known as Dante, although this was his chosen, and not actual, name. His real name, if indeed he even had one, was unknown. He was one of the twelve Overlords that, along with the Grand Overlord, ruled the Phaecian Empire.

  The researcher closest to the door noted the Overlord’s presence and approached. The heightened emotions of the moment took control of him, and he approached dangerously close to the Overlord. Instead of offering a bow, the man tapped at a line of data among the documents he carried with such ferocity that it was a wonder his finger didn’t snap.

  “What do you make of this?” the researcher yelled. “The whole of Erebus is gone! And with it our entire fleet!”

  For the first time since being approached by the researcher, Overlord Dante eyed the scientist. His look froze the man. The scientist stumbled back several steps.

  “My apologies, Overlord,” he said and bowed.

  The Overlord motioned to the Security Guards closest to him and said:

  “I want this room cleared out. Everyone is to leave. All but Cardinals Lazarus and Beck.”

  The room instantly grew quiet. Within that silence, the Security Guards performed their job.

  “Where would you like them escorted to, sir?” one asked the Overlord.

  “Far away from here. Otherwise, I don’t care.”

  “By your command.”

  In a matter of seconds the room was cleared and the exit doors closed. Overlord Dante was alone with Cardinals Lazarus and Beck.

  “It’s good to communicate without shouting,” the Overlord said. “Please, Cardinals, have a seat.”

  Both Cardinal Beck and Lazarus waited for the Overlord to sit before they did the same. The strain of the past few days was evident on their faces.

  “Care to offer a briefing?”

  The Cardinals eyed each other. Cardinal Beck was the first to talk.

  “It’s true what they say. Erebus is gone. We lost contact with our Displacer four days ago. At that same time, Erebus’ sun evaporated. High range telescopes and sensors show her five planets were reduced to a large and highly radioactive asteroid field.”

  “And our fleet?”

  “With all due respect, most holy, the Solar System was destroyed. What chance do you think our ships had?” Cardinal Lazarus replied. Realizing his response bordered on insulting, he bowed his head. “I’m sorry sir, I’m—”

  “Don’t a
pologize. How many ships were there?”

  “Just about all of them.”

  “How many?”

  “Sixty-three, including the Founder, the Pastor, the Light, and the Miraglo. The Luxor, too. I could go on…”

  Overlord Dante shook his head.

  “No need, for now. How many vessels did the Epsillon fleet lose?”

  “According to intelligence they had no less than sixty-five battle class ships stationed there. They matched our fleet tit-for-tat.”

  “Bottom line?”

  “The bottom line is we both lost our armadas.”

  Overlord Dante took a few moments to digest that information. He pointed to Cardinal Beck and said, “What about outgoing messages? What did the people caught in the blast say, before...before they were taken?”

  “The source of Erebus’ destruction traveled at speeds approaching light. The energy wave was massive. For the most part, we were getting standard communications and then nothing at all.”

  “What do our researchers feel happened?”

  “Would you like me to bring them back in?”

  Despite the seriousness of the moment, Overlord Dante let out a soft chuckle.

  “Given their current state, I’d rather hear your summaries.”

  “There are two camps of opinions. The first is that Erebus was destroyed by some kind of unknown natural phenomena. Some think the system was swallowed by a black hole. Others think the sun somehow went supernova. Still others think we witnessed a release of antimatter.”

  “And the second camp’s opinion?”

  “They’re open to the natural phenomena theory, but are hesitant to fully accept it. They wonder...”

  “Yes?”

  “They wonder if the explosion was man made.”

  “Really?”

  “Yes sir. They are in a minority. Even those willing to consider that possibility can’t fully accept it. If the Epsillon fleet had a weapon capable of destroying an entire solar system, why set if off while their fleet was standing in the way?”

  “Given that fact, do you think they will eventually accept the idea that the explosion was the result of natural phenomenon?”

  “Perhaps. In time.”

  Overlord Dante nodded. He flipped through one of the many folders the researchers left behind on the conference room table. A mass of numbers and symbols filled the folder's pages, as other numbers and symbols surely filled the others. Off to the side were stacks of disks and several small personal computers.

  “Then everything proceeds as we planned.”

  “What about the confirmation?” Cardinal Lazarus inquired.

  “Yes, your holiness,” Cardinal Beck said. “Did you get the proof?”

  Overlord Dante turned to the monitor on the wall behind him.

  “Computer, security code alpha alpha three one three. Identification: Overlord Dante.”

  The computer’s monitor came on.

  “Acknowledged,” a computerized voice replied. “Please proceed.”

  “Play message code 455-233.”

  The monitor replayed the last minutes of the space merchant craft Virtuous. The Cardinals and Overlord watched as Dr. Mark Stephenson and his intelligence officer worked on discovering the identity of the ship exiting the Erebus Military Prime Displacer. They watched in mounting horror as the two Phaecian agents puzzled over the Displacer’s loss of signal. The image went black a split second after Dr. Stephenson looked out the window of his craft.

  “The ship coming out of the Displacer…was it the Argus?”

  “Yes. It arrived roughly at the same moment as the energy wave passed.”

  “Do we know if they set off their device?”

  Overlord Dante shrugged.

  “She was there when the explosion occurred. At this point, it doesn’t make much of a difference, does it?”

  “I suppose not,” Cardinal Beck acknowledged.

  The Overlord walked to the window at the opposite end of the conference room. It was dark outside, and stars littered the sky. Overlord Dante took a few seconds to find the Erebus star. From Helios’ vantage point two thousand light years away, it was still full of life. In two thousand years, the people of Helios would see that light die.

  “What do we do now?” Cardinal Lazarus inquired.

  “The Epsillon Empire is in exactly the same position as we are, toothless and clawless. Just as we planned.”

  “Do you think…?” Cardinal Beck said.

  “They’ve lost their big sticks,” Overlord Dante said. “As have we.”

  The Overlord let out a sigh. It was going to be a very long series of days and weeks, what with sorting through the intelligence documents and debriefing all the government officials over and over again about the theories as to what happened at Erebus. Studies would proceed but if all went as planned, results would be very slow in coming.

  If they come at all.

  Overlord Dante noticed the bewildered and scared look on Cardinals Lazarus and Beck’s faces. He smiled.

  “The Gods be praised, gentlemen,” he said. “The war is over.”

  CHAPTER ONE

  AZUL NEBULA – 233 years later

  The Red Pelican, a decrepit freighter running the route between Salvation and Orion, spotted the aberrant sensor blip purely by accident on the fifth week of its long trip.

  The Captain of the freighter, who normally killed time inspecting his cargo or drinking himself into one long sleep after another, happened to be at the controls of his craft the day the blip appeared on his proximity sensors. He was familiar with this particularly desolate sector of space, and there was nothing in the outskirts of the Azul Nebula that should have triggered any alert.

  The Captain, neither curious nor particularly interested in examining the source of this alert, nonetheless reported his findings as a warning to incoming merchant traffic and moved on. He eventually delivered his cargo to the planet Salvation.

  Word of his find made its way to Merrick Enterprise’s corporate headquarters. They sent a scout ship to investigate the unidentified mass and the crew were shocked to discover a dark, lifeless luxury cruise ship drifting in the Nebula. The ship was identified as the DeCarlo, the crown jewel of Merrick Enterprise’s Cruise Lines. She was lost with all hands nearly a full year before and over ten light years away. It was presumed her engines malfunctioned and the craft burned up in the Persepolis’ red sun, one of the five stops on her usual voyage.

  A salvage and rescue operation was quietly initiated.

  What the Merrick officers found inside the cruise ship would give them nightmares for the rest of their lives.

  CRUISE SHIP “MERRICK”, on the fringes of the Orion System – Two months later

  Anyone fortunate enough to see her could not help but be mesmerized by her opulence. The Merrick’s yellow surface looked like gold. The arches along her sides resembled flowing water. Her engines were among the most modern, and efficient, in the Epsillon Empire.

  Like her owner and namesake, the Merrick was born to cruise the heavens.

  The small cargo craft approaching her port side, on the other hand, was quite the opposite. Her bow bore the scars of considerable travel. Her lights flickered like weak candles against the darkness of space. She slowed to a crawl as she came alongside the mighty cruise ship, then eased her way into the first of the larger ship’s twenty docking births.

  Jonah Merrick sat behind an enormous oak desk and stared at a handful of financial reports. He was an elderly man with very thin and very gray hair. His face was stern; his eyes the color of charcoal. Now in his eighties, he was a small, frail man. The ravages of age masked the young and sturdy explorer he once was. The one whose fearlessness in exploring distant worlds bordered on reckless...and heroic.

  With the passage of time, Merrick’s wanderlust faded. But he used the prestige of his name to gain valuable loans which he parlayed into a cruise line empire. His clients represented the Empire’s very rich; his ships’ destina
tions were exotic. Thanks to the runaway success of his cruise line, his personal wealth was incalculable.

  Jonah Merrick put aside the last of the financial reports and stared out his cabin’s window. Like everything else on his personal cruise ship, the window was made to Merrick’s specifications and, thus, was enormous. Staring at the quiet star field offered Merrick an escape from the drudgery of the business world.

  At this moment, however, the Epsillon magnate found the view distracting. His guest was due and Merrick needed to stay sharp. He pressed a button on the right side of his desk and the enormous window turned opaque. He then activated his intercom system.

  “Is he on his way yet?” Merrick inquired. Impatience hung heavy in his voice.

  “I’m here.”

  The voice came from the far side of the room. The man who uttered the words stood at the office door. He was tall and muscular and had short, platinum blonde hair. His eyes were sunken deep within their sockets. To the casual observer, it appeared he had no eyes at all. Standing beside the man was Merrick’s personal secretary. She had escorted the man to this point.

  “You may leave,” Merrick told her.

  She did so without saying a word. The office door slid closed behind her.

  “Please, have a seat,” Merrick told the man with the sunken eyes.

  He sat in the chair opposite Merrick’s desk.

  “How may I help you, Mr. Merrick?” the man asked. His voice was low and controlled and cold as ice.

  Merrick laid a black diskette on the table.

  “That’s a report on the recent… troubles…we’ve had with our cruise ships,” Merrick said. He pushed the disk forward, toward the platinum haired man. “I don’t like to waste time, so I’ll leave it to you to acquaint yourself with the details.”

  The man did not reach for the diskette. He kept his hands folded.

  “I’ve spent considerable resources getting in touch with you, Mr. B’taav.”