Francescan War Chronicles 1: Space Knight Denxeiter

by C. K. Pershing

  For the crews on the warships, this time was mostly seen as the height of boredom. But for many, it was usually an assignment given after a particularly arduous operation or battle. In Feln’s case, he had been given the assignment because he had just finished a tour fighting the Aldonis Federation on the 304th Frontier. That war was still going, and Feln had been embroiled in the conflict for three years. He was given a month of R & R, and then sent on this mission as a way of getting some downtime from fighting.

  Unlike the rest of his fighting compatriots in the fleet, his time here would be much shorter. Only three months. The Empire couldn’t afford to keep a Space Knight off the front lines for long. To Feln, the time seemed just right. Feln was actually born on Smithsworld, a planet that had been colonized about 100 years ago. He was curious to see how the process that would provide the Empire with a new world would play out, as it did on his own planet a century ago. Not only would he receive a break from combat, but his curiosity could be satisfied, and he’d be back in action before the assignment had a chance to get too boring. After his three months with this fleet, he’d be transferred out, and another Space Knight and Hyper Battle Machine brought in for another three months. And so it would continue until the aforementioned defense system and bunkers were complete.

  The jump to travel the 700 light years to System #1609-00080 would take eleven days. Only nine days had passed since the fleet had gone into jump-space, so when the entire fleet was suddenly pulled out of jump, it was very clear that something was wrong.

  Feln and Aaltskog arrived at Denxeiter’s hangar. The Tannhauser had two hangar decks. The bottom was for the smaller combat robots and fighter planes, while the top was built to service a Hyper Battle Machine. Depending on the size of the Machines, it could service two in a pinch. While all of the artificial gravity on the Tannhauser was at a standard g running vertical to the ship’s length, the Hyper Battle Machine Hangar was different.

  Because of Denxeiter’s massive size, it had to be stored in a prone position parallel to the ship’s length, and launched from the hangar head-first. Its feet were locked against a giant linear-accelerator catapult that would release the clamps on the fleet milliseconds before launch. In order to keep from having to worry about it falling down face-first on to the hangar floor (or up for that matter), the gravity in the hangar ran parallel to the ship’ length. So to someone entering the hangar, the Tannhauser’s gravity would have seemed to have pitched 90 degrees and what would have been the floor on the rest of the ship was now a wall.

  Since the crew would have to be able to cover what to them was the height of Denxeiter’s body at 232 feet vertically, the gravity was cut down to one-third g to make it easier to jump or use hand rails to quickly cover the distance. It was also safer as a fall that would be deadly in one g held less danger and more chance to recover at one-third of that. Francescan engineers discovered early on that some gravity was better than none, even at such heights. There was less dangers from accidents with liquids, dropped tools, and other pitfalls, when they would still ultimately come to rest on the floor instead of floating around in weightlessness waiting to become a hazard to an unsuspecting crew member. The hangar was disorienting at first, but the crew got used to it, and the pros of this system outweighed the cons.

  The maintenance staff were rushing back and forth like a well-oiled machine preparing Denxeiter for combat. Although Aaltskog was needed to bring Denxeiter’s main engine and computer online, there was still plenty to do charging the batteries, arming the weapons, and removing safety seals. Feln walked over to the crew chief, who stopped and saluted.

  “Status?” Feln asked.

  “Some minor injuries when we fell out of jump, and some equipment damage, but nothing too bad.” The chief jerked his thumb over his shoulder at Denxeiter. “The big guy’s fine though and ready for Little Miss to wake him up.” Aaltskog beamed at the nickname the hangar crew had given her. She spent so much time here that they had adopted her as a sort of mascot.

  Feln wondered just how many Space Knights and Companions the maintenance crew had seen through the years. Aaltskog’s appearance may have been downright normal compared to some of the other forms a Companion could take. Nobody here seemed fazed by Aaltskog’s body or clothing choices, so it was hard to say. On one hand, they were professionals, but on the other hand, the deck crew was a pretty hard-living bunch who often blew their money at the pleasure palaces while they were on leave. Aaltskog was likely pretty tame compared to some of the stuff these guys had experienced.

  Feln turned to Aaltskog, “Okay, do your thing.”

  Aaltskog nodded and launched herself up toward Denxeiter’s head. She expertly grabbed small handholds on his body and propelled herself farther and farther up, taking advantage of the lower gravity in the area. When she reached the area of Denxeiter’s chest in front of his head, she stood and closed her eyes. The hangar crew all stood back and watched expectantly.

  “In the name of His August Majesty, Gaius Imperius Siegfried Francesca III, Emperor of the just and noble Francescan Star Empire, and Protector of the Solemn Seal of the Promise of The Ancients; blessed be his name; I call upon thee, the 34th Hyper Battle Machine of His Imperial Space Knight Arsenal, Denxeiter! Thou art needed in this hour, and so I say unto thee… awake!”

  Aaltskog clapped her hands once and a warm glow emitted from her hands. She slammed her open palms against the chin of Denxeiter’s mask, and a jolt shook her body. At the same instant, Denxeiter’s eyes suddenly flashed red from behind the mask, casting Aaltskog and everything else in the path of his gaze in a searing blaze of light. Denxeiter’s fists clenched tightly and a deep rumble sounded from deep inside the robot’s chest as his main engine fired up. The rumble soon subsided and Denxeiter’s fists relaxed again. His eyes were still glowing, but at a more subdued intensity that no longer lit up the area in front of him.

  Denxeiter’s eyes swung down and fixed on Aaltskog. Her voice called out, “I thank thee for heeding my call, oh mighty weapon of the Emperor’s wrath. This humble Companion welcomes thee to the field of battle and will do her utmost to facilitate your righteous victory in partnership with the Space Knight in the fight to come!” She bowed deeply and Denxeiter’s eyes shifted forward again. His eyes dimmed to a faint glow, awake, but at rest until Feln launched.

  Aaltskog jumped off Denxeiter’s chest and made her way back down by zigzagging between Denxeiter and the wall. She landed next to Feln. Her palms were smoking lightly and she waved them around. “Hot hot hot hot! This is one part of the job I don’t enjoy…”

  The crew chief gave Aaltskog a sympathetic look and said, “Y’know I’ve seen five of these guys wake up, but this is the first time I got the distinct impression he was none too pleased… The way his eyes lit up like that and clenching his fists… I was getting kinda worried he was gonna break loose and tear the ship up.”

  Aaltskog nodded. “Yeah…yeah, it was kinda scary up there. But I think… Hmm, well I think he’s just angry he got woken up early. He knows it’s two days too soon and he’s not happy about it.”

  “Huh… Well, fair enough. I sure don’t like to be woken up, so I get where he’s coming from.” The chief walked away and went back to his work.

  Feln, who was soon going to be piloting this robot that was apparently cranky from waking up asked, “Are you sure it’s just that? I mean, we’ve seen a lot of action together and it’s never done this…”

  Aaltskog looked around to make sure no one was in earshot and pulled Feln aside. “Actually, I don’t know. There’s that proverb, ‘The mind of the Machine is inscrutable’. Well, I’m here to tell you it’s true. The feelings I got from him were anger and… danger. Like, he knows something’s wrong.” She hugged herself, “Yeah. Something is wrong. I keep saying I have a bad feeling and now Big Brother’s got one too.”

  Feln hugged her. She was actually shivering and he knew it wasn't from her lack of warm clothing. “Don’t worry, it’ll be okay. I
promise.” He looked up at Denxeiter, “And if something does go wrong, we’ll fix it.”

  Aaltskog was still forlorn but she took a step back. “I know. Well, you’d better get in.”

  Feln nodded, “Okay, but really. It will be okay.”

  He kissed her forehead and leapt into the air to climb up into Denxeiter’s cockpit. He clambered up the handholds on the wall facing Denxeiter and when he was at the robot’s upper torso, leapt across. He grabbed a handhold with his left hand and touched Denxeiter’s chest with his right. A hatch in Denxeiter’s chest opened and Feln went in feet first. He went down a ten-foot shaft as the hatch closed behind him and lights lit his way. Another hatch opened below his feet and Feln took hold of a handhold just outside the hatch to break his fall. He lowered himself into Denxeiter’s cockpit, adjusting himself to Denxeiter’s own gravity. Feeling it too restrictive, Feln had stopped putting on a spacesuit early on in his career and he wasn’t about to start now.

  “How’re you doing, my friend? Sorry we had to wake you,” Feln said as he strapped himself into the pilot seat. “Whatever this is, I know we can take care of it.”

  He flipped the switches on his console and the view screen lit up as the ambient lighting in the rest of the cockpit dimmed to black. The interior of the hangar filled his view and the heads up display came on. He looked around and Denxeiter’s head moved accordingly. As he saw the various personnel in the hangar they were outlined on his screen in green with a little title above each of heir heads showing their name and rank. While the green color meant that they were all friends, he looked at Aaltskog and saw her glowing gold. Not just a gold outline, her entire body was engulfed in a glow like she was a being of light. Feln had always found it fascinating that this is how Denxeiter saw her. He wondered if Denxeiter saw all Companions this way, or just Aaltskog.

  When everybody else had left the hangar deck and he received the all clear, he switched on his communications gear to the Tannhauser’s bridge. “Captain Feln Koenig, #34 Denxeiter, ready to launch,” he said.

  The gold rimmed window reserved for Admiral Kesh appeared on his screen. Usually, the launch coordinator would have appeared, but considering the odd circumstances of this early launch, Feln wasn’t too surprised. Feln saluted the Admiral.

  After returning Feln’s salute, Kesh said, “Roger, Captain. You and the rest of the Tannhauser’s flight complement will be flying combat air patrol. But be careful, the area of space we’ve appeared in seems to be thick with debris and gas. Our navigation deflectors are almost to their limits keeping material from hitting our ships. There’s also a high degree of both navigational and communications interference, so be careful. Thankfully we haven’t lost any ships, but we’ve already had a few narrow misses, and we’ve had to launch drones to create a picket line of communications boosters between ships.”

  “How bad is it?” Feln asked.

  “We can’t see any stars and the interference is so bad we can’t use any other sensors either. So without being able to see the stars and compare to our star charts, we have no idea where we are.”

  “Wow. What’s the usable distance for communications?”

  “Anywhere from 20 to 50 feet.”

  “Damn, I’ve never been in anything like that!”

  “Nor have I Captain,” Kesh said slowly. That was worrisome. Kesh’s race were long-lived and Kesh had been on frontline active duty for at least 50 years. If this was new to him…

  Feln could hear the star fighter planes and medium combat robots launching from the hangar located under his own, but before he launched, he had to ask one more question. “Admiral, what happened? How did we get pulled from our jump?”

  “I don’t know. It happened to the entire fleet at once, so whatever the phenomenon was that caused this was very powerful.” Kesh looked offscreen for a moment as someone out of view said something to him. He hissed in quiet disapproval (or perhaps anger? Feln couldn’t be sure). “I’ve just been told that all jump drives are dead. And perhaps even more troubling, so are the replacement coils.”

  Feln couldn't help but snort at how quickly this was all going sideways. “So we’re stuck here, huh?”

  “Until we can figure out some kind of way to recharge the drives, yes. At least with the drives, we could have always jumped blindly as a last ditch effort despite the danger. Now we can’t even do that.”

  Feln laughed, “Well, Aaltskog warned me.”

  “She did? A Companion’s premonitions can be powerful harbingers.” The Ssalss weren’t really known to be superstitious, but they had an odd sort of pragmatism that said if something happened enough times, it was worth considering. Kesh’s response seemed to confirm this.

  “Yes, but this wasn’t so much a premonition as a bad feeling,” Feln said. He thought of Aaltskog’s actual premonition about dying if she tried a transfer. Her eyes had glazed and she spoke in a voice not quite her own, as if she were some kind of oracle. Feln would never forget it, and so never forced her to transfer. “It’s different when she has a premonition. She’ll sometimes get a thought in her head and think it’s bad luck, but just as often she’ll see things that she thinks are good luck with neither turning out to be conclusive.”

  “Until now apparently…” Kesh said. There was another soft hiss that Feln could swear was a rueful laugh from the reptilian.

  Feln smiled briefly and said, “That’s all from me, Admiral. Ready to go.”

  “Roger, prepare to launch.” Kesh’s window closed from Feln’s screen.

  The hangar doors at the prow of the Tannhauser rumbled open above Denxeiter’s head. The atmosphere was cleared from the hangar putting it into a vacuum to match the one outside before the protective field was deactivated. After Denxeiter launched, the field and atmosphere would be restored as the deck crew prepared for his return.

  A countdown appeared on the screen counting down from five. Feln grasped the sticks tightly and braced himself. The countdown reached zero and the catapult beneath Denxeiter’s feet accelerated from 0 to 700 miles per hour in a little over half a second. The gravity in Denxeiter’s cockpit instantaneously adapted to this so that Feln only experienced an acceleration of three g’s. His body could survive much more, but Aaltskog had tuned Denxeiter’s gravity to adapt to situations that wouldn’t tax Feln’s stamina over the duration of a mission.

  The hangar had a one way shield at its end that would allow Denxeiter to launch but kept foreign matter from entering the hangar while the doors would open. Denxeiter cleared the hangar doors and shot into space.

  Chapter Three

  Feln was immersed in a light pink-purple haze that was eerie and yet beautiful. Just as Kesh had said, Denxeiter’s navigation deflector immediately had to work almost at capacity to move various materials out of the way to keep the robot from being exposed to a constant barrage of objects. The gasses and debris swirled around him and Feln had the visual impression of moving through water and leaving a wake rather than traveling through space. He could see the gas swirling in lazy patterns in the distance, likely being pushed around by solar winds. A faint light, probably a nearby star, made one area of the gas light up more brightly than anywhere else and through diffusion, seemed to be what was making all of space illuminated in this system.

  Feln could make out the forms of the other ships in the fleet and circled around to check on everybody. The fleet was heading toward the direction of the light source, and with it, this system’s sun; Feln figured that was about as good a place for the fleet to get its bearings as any. He saw the massive form of the colony to his right and swooped down along its surface, coming to a stop relative to the command deck at the colony’s front.

  He tried to open up a comm link with the colony but only received static. The interference really was bad. He brought Denxeiter close up to the right of the deck and could see the crew inside doing their duties. Some gaped as he drew near. As he got closer, a transmission started to make its way through.

  “�
��respond. I repeat this is—“ A window suddenly popped open of an older man with a jaunty air with the title: Francescan Imperial Construction Colony #198 Gov. Fleigel Zalk. “Ah, there we are! Hello Captain, it’s good to see you! When I saw you coming near I tried to make contact.”

  Feln looked over and after a brief search could see Zalk standing on the colony’s bridge looking out the large viewing port.

  “Yes, I was attempting the same before I got close enough to finally pick up your signal,” Feln said. “Just checking to make sure everything’s alright on the colony.”

  “Yes, Admiral Kesh made sure to check on us the moment this incident occurred by sending a shuttle with an emergency crew straight away. As I relayed to the Admiral, we’re all fine here and thanks so much for looking after us.” Despite the situation, Governor Zalk maintained a cheerful demeanor.

  In his younger years, Zalk was a corvette captain known for pulling some crazy stunts while fighting against the Vandag, and never quite lost the aura of a corsair, even after he retired and transitioned into this job. He seemed like the type who would one day die in a blaze of glory, but his old friends from his academy days begged him to take it easy and accept a quieter job, maybe finally get married and settle down. He eventually gave in and took this assignment after receiving a promise from those same friends that they would retire to his planet and join him. Feln had a feeling that planet was going to be a pretty wild place if it was any reflection on its governor, no matter how old he was.

  Satisfied by Zalk’s answer, Feln said, “Excellent. You and your colony are the reason why we’re here, after all.”

  Zalk bowed with a flourish and signed off. Feln throttled up and away from the colony and pulled into formation with the main squadron of Alden combat robots. The Heissenar Arms SCR-572J Alden was a proven design that had gone through two major upgrades since its introduction nine years ago and was now the mainstay of the Imperial Star Navy.