by Joe Crouch
It didn’t take long to find their way back to the shuttle, sensing their approach a set of stairs folded out and pushed down gently into the muddy surface. They climbed aboard and got seated quickly, with Sean taking the helm.
“Stay with her, Taris,” shouted Sean as he fiddled with the ship’s controls, “Do whatever you can to cauterise those wounds… or something,” he pulled his medical expertise in part from his extensive knowledge of daytime television, he was never taught this when he was a fleet member. He craned his head around the cockpit as energy rushed towards the engines, Taris laid Remulus out a stable medical bedding which stuck to the floor with its own grav plating. With both hands, she ripped the Veterum’s suit open to expose her fleshy injuries underneath, he diverted his eyes away to not stare at her finer features in a mark of respect as noises bleeped in front of him.
“Ensure everything is stable and locked away,” said Fez as he heard the faint draw of power rushing through the walls, “We do not need people and objects bouncing around within a tight space such as this.”
“No dramas,” Sean replied, focused on getting bac to the Mar’Ell as soon as possible. With his neural interface connected and his seat straps securely fastened, he pushed the ship off the ground and watched as detritus lashed about outside with their disturbance. He pointed the nose upwards for an immediate atmospheric exit, he knew it would be rockier and come with more dangers, but it was the quickest way back into space and the quickest way to reactivate their cloak. With a push on the accelerator they snapped away from their stationary location at immense speeds, they travelled so fast that the grav plating had trouble compensating for a moment as they were all pushed down into their seats with the G-forces.
They were rocked side-to-side as the burning plasma of the atmosphere licked against their hull, flames rushed passed the forward window as his cheeks wobbled at the sheer forces trying to keep them within the planet’s sphere. He held on tight to the controls as he fought against the ship veering off in a random direction, sweat poured down his face as his muscles spasmed as he wrestled harder and harder.
The dark blue skies soon faded to the dark abyss he wished for as he regained complete control of the ship. With a single thought, he activated the cloaking system aboard, his view momentarily wobbled as the stealth field enveloped the ship, coughing and spluttering as it did as its automated repairs hadn’t fully been completed. He breathed a sigh of relief as Fez leant around the bulkhead and patted him on the shoulder, congratulating him on his good piloting. But their woes weren’t over. Remulus coughed and spluttered as her eyes opened for a moment, they were blood red as she stared up at Taris with an intense look. She gripped on tightly to the Ioution’s arm before she slumped back down and let out a single, long breath.
“Sean…” Taris sobbed quietly, “We need to get to the ship NOW.” He looked back to see the worried looks on everyone’s faces as tears rolled down Taris’ face. Without hesitation, he pushed their speed to the maximum, he wasn’t sure the cloak would last, but it was something that had to be done. But he was right. As they increased their speed, the ship’s energy signature became harder to suppress. They weaved between the huge Xuron ships which floated in stationary orbit until an alarm began to ring out from his console.
“We’re being scanned,” shouted Sean as he flicked another countermeasure into operation, but it was no use, they had invoked the full ire of the Xuron fleet as every ship began to turn in unison. Bringing up a radar-type display on his HUD he watched as small signatures darted out from the bowels of larger ships, they sped away from their parent vessels and came straight for them. “Fighters!” he declared, panicked, “Lots and lots and lots of fighters.” He dropped all pretexts of their stealthy escape and deactivated their cloaking system, instead deciding to divert all available power to the shields and engines.
Bolts of plasma streaked past the window as he threw the ship from one side to the other trying to avoid the swarm of death which sat waiting patiently, following them to their real target. A list of armaments scrolled across his vision as he searched for a way to push them back, the missile bank installed recently caught his attention so he thought about its activation.
The top of the shuttle split in two as a battery rose out from the dinky ship, it swivelled in place to face their pursuers, he locked onto as many targets as was possible and opened fire. A sea of miniature missiles rocketed out from the battery in a cloud of flame, they danced through the night sky like fireflies buzzing about as they raced towards their targets. Scattered, the Xuron throng split apart to avoid the oncoming danger but not all were successful as they detonated into nothing more than floating piles of organic matter as a green liquid sprayed out through space.
“Hell yeah,” Sean yelled, almost bouncing with excitement in his seat as he began to pull away from the fighters which were in disarray. His mouth grew dry as he pushed the ship to its limits, once they were back to the Mar’Ell they were safe, secure in the knowledge her shields would protect them. But as he was daydreaming of being home, a bolt of plasma the size of the shuttle slowly arced past. He watched on as it lumbered away and a second flew by, but this time further away and posed no threat. The Xuron cruisers fired down upon them, he knew they had almost zero chance of hitting such a small target, but seeing the scale of the projectiles up close was an intimidating sight.
Boom! Came a loud noise from the rear of the ship. He wrestled with the controls for a moment as their propulsion systems flickered offline. They began to lose propulsion and came to a coast as they drifted at their previous speed.
“I’ll see to it,” Fez yelled from the rear of the ship as he unfastened himself and rushed into the engineering bay. A thick, black plume of smoke rushed out as he cracked open the door, the sound of broken mechanical engineering was obvious as it crunched and squealed, begging to be repaired. Sean watched as a single Xuron fighter kept pace, it hung behind them watching how they responded to its successful attack. A moment of silence occupied everyone as they listened to the clatters, bangs, and foul Ioution language coming from the rear of the ship. But fix it he did. Energy once again coursed through the shuttle and he didn’t wait, he sparked the engines back into life and pushed on as they limped home.
“Mar’Ell command this is Sean Maguire, we have sustained damage to the ship and have wounded aboard, we request immediate assistance,” he barked over the comms as a sea of Xuron fighters approached. He waited for a reply but none came, did the Xuron find them? He thought as he worriedly activated the local active scanners and swept the system for Ioution debris.
While his scanners did their job the radar was offline, a fact he couldn’t believe made it past engineers back on Desciea, the Ioution capital world. In the distance six small, blinking dots raced towards them, well, this is it, the Xuron have us boxed in he sighed inwardly. His concerns were put to rest as six Ioution fighters screeched overhead, almost blasting off his cockpit window. They opened fire on the Xuron horde behind turning the region of space in a blinding light show of dark greens and bright reds as they exchanged plasma and energy fire between them.
Scanners came back with results a second later showing no Ioution debris so he switched to the radar and watched as Xuron contacts flashed out of existence one by one. In the distance, the Mar’Ell crested out from behind the planet and stormed towards them at incredible speeds. He weaved between the stray plasma fire which headed in their direction, but he noticed the main bulk of the Xuron fleet turn to face the incoming Ioution vessel, each letting off bursts of plasma. The massive bolts raced towards the large cruiser, her shields sparked and lit up a bright blue honeycomb shape as the projectiles crashed into them. With slight adjustments to the shuttle, he angled them in for landing and let the computer take control. They were rocked violently as a fighter ripped some rounds across their hull, but the AI curved them about and slowly brought them in for landing, passing through the exterior shielding with ease.
As t
hey passed into the hangar he noticed that it was bathed in red as alarms rang out across the vessel. With a punch of the door control, the sounds of the ship rushed in and deafened everyone as a fighter came in with its nose raised and landed beside them.
“I’m going to the bridge,” shouted Fez, trying to project his voice over the loud alarms, “I’ll meet you there, sort her out first.” A pair of Ioution medics rolled up to the shuttle with a gurney, Taris placed the Veterum down expecting to never see her again. She turned and slumped into Sean’s arms, bawling her eyes out as they watched their friend being dragged away.
They followed the trail of blood up the stairs as Zarid hung back, uncomfortable with the whole situation. Sean held Taris in his arms as she shook violently, in shock from everything that had happened, he pushed her head up with a single finger so she looked up at him. He wiped away the stream of tears which trickled down her face and kissed her gently on the lips as they began their mourning process.
“Emergency slip incoming, report all injuries to sickbay once we are secure,” came a gruff voice over the shipwide comms, and with a jolt, they were thrown into the relative security of slip space…
Chapter 20
The ensuing hours were dreadful. Sean and Taris found themselves sat in silence in the mess hall, watching as the crew buzzed about to fix the light damage the Mar’Ell took escaping Chaon. They hadn’t said a word to each other since Remulus had been carted off to the med bay, they were still none-the-wiser as to her condition, but they feared the worst. Sean played with the stodgy bowl of porridge in front of him, he swirled the spoon about the within the thick sludge and watched as it sloped back into the bowl as he held the spoon aloft. Taris sat with a thousand-yard stare in her eyes, he had gotten nothing more than grunts out of her as she fixated on the smooth bulkhead across the room.
Cestos waddled up and took the seat beside Sean, the Theran didn’t know what to say so instead joined them in their silence as he slurped on his soup-like meal. The noises the alien made bugged Sean, he slowly turned his head and watched as he chowed down without any concerns in the world. Thoughts of what he overhead flashed back to him and made him sick to his stomach, how can everyone aboard not share our pain he wondered as his eyes turned to daggers. He kept his anger and emotions in check as he clenched his fists and turned back to Taris.
“How you doing?” he asked serenely, not wanting to speak.
She turned to look at him, her eyes glistened with the fresh tears which rolled down her cheeks, “I’m…” she muttered as her head dropped, “… Bad.” Sean put a comforting arm around the Ioution and rubbed her back, he understood how she felt and wanted nothing more than to storm the med bay even for the briefest of updates.
“I’m not sure what the fuss is all about,” Cestos smiled, spooning soup into his mouth, “It’s not like anyone knew her more than a month ago.” Without a moment of hesitation, Taris leapt up from her seat and lashed out with a flurry of blows to the otherwise kind being. She pushed him to the floor and slammed her clenched fist down into his face over and over as she cried out in pain. Sean sat paralysed at seeing her like that until eventually two guards rushed over and pulled her off.
“Don’t you dare speak about her like that!” Taris screamed at the top of her lungs as she flailed about, trying to free herself from the guards, “She’s a better person that you will ever be.” She kicked and screamed as she was dragged away and put in restraints.
“I am taking her to the brig to cool off, come and see her in an hour,” one of the large, stocky guards barked at Sean before disappearing. He looked around at the stunned crowd, everyone aboard the ship knew Taris as the fun-loving creature she was so to see her so emotionally distraught was a captivating sight. With a single movement of the hand, he waved away the onlookers as he stood and help the Theran to his four feet. The alien had a dark look on his face as he wiped away the blood which trickled down from his forehead.
“Well, that was unexpected!” Cestos chuckled, dabbing the blood away with a once white cloth, “Was it something I said?” Sean took a deep breath before he replied.
“Don’t think I forgot what I heard you talking about,” he whispered, deciding to escalate the tension further, “I’ve got an eye on you, Cestos, don’t do anything funny,” and with that, he circled away and headed for the exit.
He wandered the hallways of the ship, lost in his own mind as he tried to come to terms with the potential loss of a friend and the cracking of his significant other. War is a plain where the hellish children of doom and pestilence made their beds, twisting, contorting, and manipulating the souls of all those involved. To save the soul of one was to save the souls of many, but the loss of life was so often underplayed as ‘just another act of war’ that it almost became a caricature to him.
Thoughts of dread and misery soon took hold as he remembered all the lives lost in the initial attack on Earth. Friends and colleagues alike perished at the hands of an unknown power at the time, but how far had they come in the months since it happened? Earth was embroiled in a tense situation where the population blamed the government for interfering in outsider’s business with the initial drone launch, and to jump from first contact to a galactic alliance against a single race was unnerving.
The ceiling to his quarters was oddly comforting as he laid back on his bed and let out a loud sigh of dejection. Their mission had been a success, they retrieved the weapon part, saved the Veterum man, and were on their way back to Caladrius, but the whole thing still didn’t sit right with him. With his eyes closed, he slipped off into a deep sleep, the only place he was safe from the pain and suffering which seemed to follow him at every step.
***
Beep! Beep! Beep! Came the alarm beside his bed as it shrieked for his attention. With a whack, he shut it up and sat bolt upright. He had slept in his atmospheric suit and felt disgusting, there wasn’t enough time for a quick shower so he raced out from his chambers and headed towards the brig.
The doors split open with a hiss to reveal a small compartment that had been sectioned off into minute individual rooms. A blue, translucent shield buzzed across the span from floor to ceiling as he saw the tall silhouette of Taris wandering around inside her cell. He pulled up a chair and nodded towards the nonchalant guard, with the flick of a switch the shield morphed until it became transparent. She stood with the look of a trapped animal on her face, he couldn’t help but chuckle at her situation, he knew she hated being indoors for too long, let alone trapped in a six by six cell.
“So,” he begun, stifling his own laughter, “Do you repent for your sins?”
“Shut up,” she boomed as she walked towards the shielding, “That piece of shit deserved everything he got, he’s lucky I only had a spoon and not a knife.” A fire burned within her that soon evaporated his will to tease, instead, he motioned for the guard to disable the shielding. She stomped out, picked up her things and waltzed out the brig in a flurry of fury. “I’ve had enough, I’m going to go see her NOW, the exclusions be damned.” There was no way he could stop her when she was on a warpath, so instead he stood alongside her as they trekked through the winding corridors.
“Where is she?” Taris roared as she stormed through the double doors to the med bay. The sight that greeted them was one of horror. Remulus laid naked on a table, tubes and wires snaked out from her as they pumped various fluids from the myriad of machines which sat around her. A large cut ran down her chest that exposed her innards, the doctor working on her looked up in disgust as the pair stood at the door, gobsmacked at the condition of their friend.
“Get out!” screamed the head physician off to their side, “This isn’t a viewing gallery! Your actions will be reported to the captain.” He rushed over and ushered them outside but took the time to follow them and give an update on her condition. “She isn’t great,” he admitted, pressing a button on his neck so the shielding which covered his face deactivated.
“But will she live?�
� Sean asked as Taris began to well up once more.
“It is an answer I cannot give at this moment, Earthling,” he said, almost ashamed of himself.
“Is there anything we can do?” asked Sean compassionately, he realistically knew there wasn’t, but he had to feel as if he had tried something.
“No,” the physician replied coldly, “It would be advisable for everyone to get some rest and leave us be, we have additional injured in a separate room from the emergency jump, too, so we are a bit busy.” The prospect of losing a friend was too much, so with a defeated nod they strolled away, Taris headed back to their quarters but Sean decided that the bridge would be a better place for him to take his mind off the whole thing.
The mood wasn’t much better there as every officer worked with little to no sleep, heads bobbed forwards as they drifted off for a split second only to catch themselves. Fez was slumped down into the captain’s chair, he flicked through a small, handheld terminal which displayed freshly taken images from Chaon. He looked over his shoulder and nodded towards Sean as he approached.
Sean knelt and leant on the captain’s chair, watching the images flick past in silence as they inspected any potential changes to the Xuron fleet. Their long tendrils still sent a chill down his spine as he remembered the Arrakis and how just one of them wrapped around the ship and crushed it like a tin can.
“Update,” huffed Fez as he struggled for energy.
“Fifty-seven minutes until Caladrius, Sir,” replied Yumie who seemed to be suffering the most, his skin had turned clammy and pale, he swayed in his seat as he tried to keep his eyes open. Sean had to wonder if it was the same person he had known before, he knew technically speaking it wasn’t, but this version of Yumie seemed distant, almost cold. He longed for when the days were simpler, the relative inactivity aboard the Terran fleet was a comforting thought, although one which no longer held true. One day he just wanted to up and leave everything, he had no real obligation to the Ioutions or the Terran, he could grab a small ship from one of the backwater planets they had visited and travel the stars with Taris.