I sit here, taking in Tion’s story. Such a gifted engineer tossed aside for Transcendence’s gain. You would think the truth would prevail, but that’s never the case. “Did you miss it?” I ask. “More than anything.” Tion’s words resonate with me, even after all he’s gone through, he still has a love for this.
I bid Tion farewell before heading to the elevator. “This is your captain speaking, everybody man your positions, we are answering a distress call coming from the planet Naveen. There has been an attack. This is not a drill; I repeat this is not a drill.” I hear the Admiral’s words and just freeze for a moment, snap out of it Stella. I need to get to the bridge.
Chapter 8
I run through the Elevator doors faster than they can open. Duron and Amelia are flying the ship, Admiral Richards stands behind them, we’re just about to enter warp. “What’s going on!?” I ask, approaching the bridge. Admiral Richards looks at me for a moment before deciding to speak, he’s not happy with me right now. “There’s been an attack on Naveen. The transmission was from a Harca commander, stating that the Essari have infiltrated their defenses.” The Admiral Explains. “Did you inform the council? They need to send their fleet.” I ask, almost demanding.
“The council informed me that they are sending a small fleet to push back the enemy.” He responds. “That’s not enough! You saw what they can do, a small fleet isn’t going to stop the Essari, they’re gonna get themselves killed.” I try to reason with the Admiral but there’s no point, he has no control over this. “All we can do right now is focus on our mission. Whatever we do, we cannot engage the enemy, the Endeavor is a good ship, but she’s no match for the Essari fleet.” Admiral Richards tells everyone on the bridge. “So what’s the plan?” I ask. “Our mission is to search and rescue any survivors on the surface of Naveen.” The Admiral speaks to me with a bit of a nervous tick.
“Exiting hyperspace now.” Duron says. I look in the direction of the windshield, cringing at the thought of seeing the Essari fleet again. There’s nothing, no battle, no Essari, nothing. The Admiral walks up to Duron and Aura, completely dumbfounded. “Descend onto Naveen.” The Admiral commands. We break the planet’s atmosphere, a vast, icy landscape with buildings sculpted from former glaciers. The sun reflects off the buildings, gleaming through the battle less sky.
We fly a bit closer to the ground, but not below the tallest skyscrapers. Everything is so modern, just as modern as Nandina. The windows on the endeavor fog up a bit, it’s extremely cold out there. It makes me wonder why the Harca can stand living here, let alone calling this place their home world. “Nothing. The transmission…” “It was a trap.” Amelia, Duron, and Admiral Richards look at me for a moment before the skies go from sunny and pleasant, to near complete darkness.
A massive ship, even bigger than the ones that attacked the Academy emerges from behind the clouds. It’s nearly twice the size of the Endeavor, and if I had to guess, I’d say it’s significantly stronger. “Get us out of here!” The Admiral shouts the command like it’s the last one he’ll ever make. God I hope this ship is the mothership, because if it isn’t, I don’t know how you can get any meaner than that. But why would the Essari reveal their mothership when their fleet could have easily wiped us out?
We enter warp speed as we exit Naveen’s atmosphere. An earth shattering blast collides with the stern of the Endeavor. The Admiral is in complete shock. “Impossible, we’re mid warp.” Admiral Richards says in a low key manner. “Shields are at 50%” Amelia reads from the VI in front of her. The Essari ship has a horrifyingly impressive amount of firepower, we’re not going to last at this rate. “Stop the ship.” I tell Amelia and Duron.
“Are you fucking insane!? We’ll be killed.” Amelia responds. “Trust me, just do it.” I’m deadly serious, this is a moment where I just have to trust my gut. “You don’t call the orders here Stella, you’re not the captain.” Admiral Richards argues. “Have you noticed that the enemy hasn’t fired anymore shots? The last blast was a warning, to show how easy it would be for them to destroy the Endeavor. Just trust me.” I hope I’m right on this.
After a brief moment of hesitation, Duron stops the Endeavor completely. A moment of silence between us all, the Essari vessel moves out in front of us, slowly, I can’t even see the whole thing because it’s so massive. The VI begins to beep, one after another. “They’re hailing us.” Duron says. We all turn our attention toward Admiral Richards. “Put them through.” He says hesitantly. A Holo of an Essari appears atop the VI. His skin is rough, jagged like bones are popping out. Or at least I think it’s a he? I can’t really tell; all I know right now is that this Essari does not look happy.
“My commander wishes to speak with your captain.” The Essari speaks, his voice is deep so I can tell he’s a male. It doesn’t sound that far off of a human’s voice. “If he wanted to speak to me, why am I talking to you right now?” Asks Admiral Richards, who in fact is standing his ground like a true captain would. “His majesty wishes to converse in private.” The Essari sounds like a lackey to me, and a king or queen? I don’t think there’s ever been a monarchy in these galaxies. “And what’s to stop him from killing me on sight? How do I know your commander is even on that ship?” Admiral Richards says with suspicion.
“We have no intentions of deceiving you Admiral, but our patience is wearing thin.” The Essari says. Suddenly a flash of light circles Admiral Richards. And in a snap, he completely vanishes. “Admiral!?” I scream worriedly. “No worries, your commander is safely on our ship as we speak. “What the hell did you do!?” I raise my voice to the hologram. “A simple teleportation device brought him from your ship to ours.” I don’t know what to say, I’ve never seen technology this advanced before, what the hell are they planning?
“What are you going to do to the Admiral?” I ask. “That is information that shall remain with us.” The Essari disappears, not bothering to speak with me, or anyone else. This isn’t a good sign. Amelia and Duron turn to me, knowing I’m first officer and technically the acting captain now. I did not expect this to happen this way. A few moments later a giant laser builds up in front of the Essari vessel just like on Alpha, only this time it’s much, much bigger. “Evasive maneuvers. Get us the hell out of here!” I command, well more like scream. Duron kicks it into high gear and manages to nearly dodge the laser blast. I feel a giant thud; the ship shakes continuously.
Duron and Amelia are doing all they can to save the Endeavor, but it seems like an impossible task. “We’re losing her!” Yells Duron. “Take us down at the nearest planet, I doubt the Essari will follow. Just get us out of firing range!” I say this as another laser charges, I’ve noticed their strongest attacks need to charge first, I’ll need to remember that next time we encounter the fleet. “We can’t land the fucking thing if we’re dead, our shields are completely down, and I don’t think we can take another hit from that laser.” Amelia shouts with urgency.
Duron puts all his might into steering the Endeavor downward toward a planet, the Essari vessel launches a massive blast, which makes contact with the endeavor and launches us toward the planet at an extremely high rate of speed. I’m holding on for dear life as we plummet into the planet’s atmosphere. “Hold on. This is gonna be one hell of a landing!” Amelia says almost like she’s anticipating this. “What do you think I’m doing!?” I ask, still holding onto a pole sticking out of one of the walls, which is probably what it’s there for in the first place.
We hit the ground with a large, painful thud. After sliding along the ground for a good mile we finally come to a stop. “Everyone alright?” Duron asks. I managed to stay on my feet during the crash. “Yeah.” I say. “I’m fine.” Amelia responds as well. A massive pile of dirt has compiled in front of the starship, it’s partially buried. The planet is completely silent; I can hear the breeze quietly blowing. I’m surrounded by nothing but old battle wounded starships that look like they haven’t been flown in years. The more I look around, the more I
realize where we are. The planet Atlas.
Did the Essari really chase us all the way to the Atlantica galaxy? We must have been in warp longer than I thought. It’s like a museum of starships past. It’s hard to believe these ships haven’t decomposed much yet, I mean it’s been a lot of years since the galactic war. Even the buildings that were destroyed due to the war haven’t rotted away. They’re in worse shape than the ships though.
I look back, my entire crew followed me out. “I’d ask for a status report, but it’s obvious this thing isn’t going anywhere.” I say, trying to shine a light on a dark situation. “Cracking jokes after the commander was taken from our ship? Real classy.” Amelia tells me. “I know what happened, you don’t need to remind me. What we need to do is contact the council. Tion, how far from flight is the Endeavor?” I ask, he instantly begins to crunch numbers in his head. “The Core drive is damaged, we’d need to replace the thermal emitter, and repair the thrusters which were near split in half after the first hit. So we’re looking at a few days at least.” This just won’t do.
“No, that’s far too long, we need to find the Admiral As soon as possible.” I say. “First off, where are we going to find parts to even fix the ship?” Amelia asks. “Look around, we’re surrounded by starships that could be used for parts.” Aura tells her, Amelia is unimpressed. “Are you trying to be funny? These ships are outdated, there’s no parts of use to us.” Aura is caught off guard by Amelia’s come back. “Oh what a surprise, you completed a sentence without the word fuck in it.” Aura comes back with sarcasm. “Oh, fuck off.” Amelia responds. “There it is.” Aura replies.
I think for a moment; it seems like everyone is waiting on my response like it’s our only option. “The only thing we can do right now is contact the council, they should be able to send a ship to get us out of here.” It’s the only way, not that I don’t mind the help, I just hope they don’t have some kind of excuse like they usually do. Who am I kidding? They’ll find some way to keep us on this planet for longer than we have to be.
You gotta be kidding me. The electrical system in the Endeavor is shot. There’s always something. I’m leaning against the wall near the cockpit of the endeavor. It’s dark, but the light from the outside shining through the windshield is more than enough. Now what? I take a moment to debate with myself about our next move. I don’t know what will come of it, but it won’t hurt to search through some of these ship parts that basically cover the entire planet. There has to be something around here that can get this scrap heap running again.
I informed my crew of the bad news, they took it with a grain of salt when I told them of my plan. “The technology is outdated.” Amelia says. “Do any of these ships even have the right technology in the first place?” Duron asks. “If any of you have a better idea, speak up because I’d love to hear it.” I say to them. Tion is lost in thought. “It’s worth a try, we can probably convert the old technology and possibly use it.” He tells us. T gives his input. “I know we can’t stay here T. You’ve been hanging with Aura too much lately; you’re starting to develop her bland sarcasm.” Duron tells him.
We split up, Duron stays in the same general area as me, Aura and Amelia remain close by on top of another pile of junk. Nothing. Most of these starships’ parts are either unneeded or too rusted and aren’t even worth trying to salvage. I hop down from the pile and make my way through a small clearing with two massive piles of scrap on each side. There’s a small stream of water through the center, it’s not deep enough to worry about falling in.
The water is a light yellow color, and to top it off it smells terrible. “All these years of pollution pretty much killed this planet’s chances of being inhabitable again.” Duron tells me, he’s staring directly at the polluted water. “And to think this planet used to be one of the most beautiful in the known galaxies.” Duron stops suddenly, catching me off guard in the process. “Did you here that?” Duron asks while continuing to listen for whatever it is he heard. “What is it?” I ask. “Look!” Duron points toward the top of one of the scrap piles. Whatever it was disappeared before I could catch a glimpse of it.
A large group of mutants appear atop both piles. They let out a large, ear piercing screech in sync with one another before disappearing behind the scrap piles again. The mountains of scrap begin to shake, and suddenly come crashing down. I make a run for it, without a second of doubt. Duron isn’t far behind. I can hear the scrap metal crashing into the ground behind me, it’s loud enough to here for miles. I hope the others aren’t caught in the middle of this. Duron and I make it to a clearing, narrowly escaping the crashing scrap metal.
The mutants surround us, they are giant, their fur is in patches and is pale white. They look like some kind of animal morphed with a human. A standoff, Duron and I stand shoulder to shoulder, our hands on our weapons ready to fire if necessary. There’s so many of them, I don’t think it would be very smart to set them off. We both slowly back away, the mutants continue to stare us down. I don’t know what set them off, but suddenly they approach, and quickly grab us. I struggle for a brief moment until I feel a needle pierce my arm.
My vision blurs and my limbs become weak. One of the mutants is carrying me over its shoulder. I look around the best I can but I don’t see Duron among the dozens of these monsters that surround me. I black out multiple times but wake up a few moments after each one. I’m fighting to stay awake now, it’s getting harder and harder with each passing minute. Eventually we arrive at some kind of camp, I can’t make it all out but it looks like these mutants created some kind of village out of the scrap and debris around the planet.
I’m thrown into a cage, the mutant that carried me here slams the door and locks it. I sit here, my vision is getting worse. I just want to close my eyes but I know that would be a huge mistake. I look over and spot Duron in the cage next to me. “Duron!?” I try to scream but I can barely get the words out. He doesn’t say a word, he’s in the same position as me. I can’t think of what to do. I feel for my weapon but it’s gone, they took it. These things are smarter than they look. Come on Stella, how are you going to get out of this one? I’ve gotten out of tough situations before right?
My vision is slowly turning to darkness; I don’t know how much longer I can stay awake. A mutant approaches Duron’s cage, it rips open the door and grabs him. He has no fighting chance; he doesn’t even attempt to resist. The mutant carries Duron over to a stake. What are they going to do? Two Mutants assist in tying Duron to the stake. I’m fear stricken. He’s going to be killed and I’m here unable to do anything about it. I try my best to move but I fail. I’m helpless to do anything right now.
I hear a smooth beeping sound coming from behind me. T-814? How did he manage to find us? Oh who gives a damn, this must mean the others have found us to. I hope they’re not too late, the mutants are ready to burn Duron at the stake. T gives me a shot directly into the vein of my arm. I can already feel the poison, or whatever it was these things injected me with wear off. My vision slowly clears, and my muscles are in my control again.
A large blast strikes the ground around the mutants. They are pushed in multiple directions. I watch from within my prison cage, the mutants scatter, but continue to be gunned down with ease. I see Tion running through the smoke, his weapon readied. He quickly begins to untie Duron. Amelia watches his back; she takes out two mutants who were running toward them. Tion manages to get Duron off the stake and onto his shoulder, he aids Duron in getting to a ship that I’ve never seen before. It’s a Transcendence ship, it’s not big, more like a medium sized personal vessel.
Aura breaks open my cage door. She doesn’t waste any time grabbing me, and hoisting my arm around her shoulder. “Can you walk?” She asks quickly. “A little.” I respond. “Whatever you do, don’t stop moving.” Aura tells me. She helps me through the smoke, her weapon is aimed in front of her. She shoots down a mutant that is running toward us. T remains as close to us as possible. We make our way to th
e ship, Tion hoists Duron onto the hatch leading to the back of the vessel.
Everything is still a blur. The next thing I see are a pair of hands grabbing me. These hands likely belong to a transcendence officer, but right now I can barely see ten feet in front of me so I’m not fully sure. I’m hoisted up with the help of Aura and eventually I’m brought onto the ship. She follows behind me, and T behind her. A mutant quickly approaches us but Aura is quick handed and shoots it right between the eyes. The hatch begins to close as a large group of mutants run toward the ship. They almost reach us right before the hatch closes completely. My eyes are heavy; I’m handed off to a medical officer. My eyes are becoming heavier, and heavier until finally…. they close.
When I open my eyes, I’m in some kind of medical facility. I lay here for a moment; the bright lights are flashing in my face partially blinding me. Aura appears over me; she blocks the bright lights. “Before you ask, no I’m not an angel, and yes you’re still alive. Even though you shouldn’t be. Ah, modern medicine. Helping people cheat death for years to come.” Aura says to me with a grin widely across her face. “You know me. Cheating death is what I’m best at.” I respond with a slight grin of my own.
“Where are we anyways?” I ask as I sit up on the bed. The medical facility is twice the size of the endeavors and has twice the equipment. It’s the most modern medical facility I’ve ever seen. With about a dozen beds scattered about, and different machines neatly placed against the walls. I’m not too focused on that right now though, I need answers and I know Aura has them. “We’re on Haven. I don’t know how much you remember but the council was able to track down the endeavor through its tracking device. Which came as news to me, I didn’t know they even had those on all the Transcendence ships.” Aura explains.
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