by Gary Caplan
The front section of the Phoenix lit up as the particle streams from a hundred fusion generators released part of their fuel into the spinal-mounted weapon that ran two-thirds the length of the Phoenix. They watched as the Talcon disruptors weakened the Varlon defense screens. Wilder used the nova cannon to punch a hole in a section of an approaching Varlon H-class dreadnaught, causing severe damage and twisting the huge Varlon ship off course toward one of the areas of space the Ceyloom had collapsed.
Sheppard sensed a familiar brief, supportive mental link: Brace yourself for something unusual; today we will remind them of the old treaty.
“Sir, it’s the Zeloc. It’s returned from hyperspace,” said York, “and it’s moving closer to us.”
The Phoenix took a Varlon plasma torpedo to its defense shields and shook violently as some force penetrated and sheared into the hull, ripping some trans-titanium-alloy armor away. Sheppard watched the Zeloc micro jump and seem to catch or shift the singularity torpedo elsewhere before it was able to cause more damage to the oncoming Sixth Fleet. As Sheppard had seen in the past, the Zeloc seemed to phase in and out of space, and Varlon torpedoes sent to strike it missed and were destroyed by intense Karratin particle cannons when the torpedoes that missed reoriented and began coming back to try again. The Orgnar and some of the few other Hegemony ships also began intercepting some of the Varlon or Ceyloom torpedoes that got past the Alliance ships’ anti-torpedo defenses.
Calyx ships moved to geometric points in ten different areas and then linked in what appeared to be two linked but shifted forty-five degree, five-sided figures. Lines of energy pulsed between the ships. Five other ships of unknown design, but surely Elderships, also just appeared with no hyperspace ripple and joined the Calyx. It appeared as if the Elderships were going to intercept something. After a few more pulses from the Elderships, something began to exit slowly from an unusual hyperspace rift. From the report he saw earlier, Sheppard knew it must be the Nahalion. As he watched Sheppard thought he heard in his telepathically sensitive mind a bellowing wail come from the Nahalion entity. It gave him a sense that the creature had been surprised by some kind of trap.
It was the size of a planet. It also looked to be damaged or attenuated in some way.
Messages from the Calyx and from the Thurians were being received, and as Sheppard looked, Sherman was reading the message, and Wilder and most of the bridge crew looked in horror at the hulking thing on the main view screen.
Sterling moaned, “That’s like something out of a nightmare.”
Sheppard said, “Those other new ships are Calyx and Thurian, and I think they’re here to help in some way,”
Sherman said, “A message from the Calyx and Thurians states that they have driven the Nahalion to this area to remind others of ‘what lurks beyond.’ It looks as if they’re sending a notice to all groups present here.”
Meanwhile, several of the Talcon ships had linked together, extending some winglike projections; they generated and then released a huge, cross-linked disruption wave at a section of the ships attacking them. The damage was talking its toll on the Varlon and Accad starships and even the Ceyloom. One of the relatively nearby Accadian Kadath dreadnaughts and the Jiyharr Kad’jiah super-dreadnaught had almost charged up their antiparticle cannons before the Phoenix could recharge its nova cannon. They were about to fire when the last portions and tentacles finished moving slowly out from the entities hyperspace exit tunnel, and the Nahalion released a massive energy burst and reached out its tentacles towards the nearby starships.
The Nahalion was damaged. Its power had been attenuated. Its color, not as dark. Its surface was pitted and had small, split-open areas. It had been pushed in certain directions a few times. Only once as it traveled was it close enough to a world to draw forth more energy with its tentacles before its pressures struck at it again. Somehow along the hyperspace way it had absorbed some energy and had grown a few new tentacles that it initially dragged out behind. Now it fully materialized and it sensed more energy was scattered in multiple places. It thrust tentacles out to absorb residual energies from the surrounding conflict. It sensed favorable energy residues and began to grow new absorptive projections and tentacles. Then, in a daring attempt, the Nahalion tried to open a gateway.
Aboard the Jiyharr starship Ka’lou, Governor Mor’ag watched the viewers as the huge planet-sized object exited hyperspace into the midst of the battle. There were several new starships that had arrived about the same time the object did. He had never seen such a strange thing.
Mor’ag said to Admiral Kegnol, “Is that an enemy superweapon?”
Kegnol responded, “Sir, the sensors indicate it is a life form of some kind. It’s over twelve thousand selkecks across, and it’s drawing energy from the spent plasma or other types of charged ions left in space.”
One of the tactical officers said, “Sir, the object is hurling debris and using some kind of energy weapon on several of the surrounding enemy ships.”
After linking in and looking at the scans for a moment, Mor’ag said, “Then it’s not here as their weapon; we can use this opportunity to strike them while they are distracted.”
One of the science-tactical officers said, “Sir, there was a historical reference warning from the central computer about the object when it appeared.”
The bridge main entry door opened, and Trilglar, the senior Jiyharr officer aboard, entered. The Jiyharr didn’t usually deal with ordinary tasks. They had the Accad for those, but there were only five of the makers aboard. The Jiyharr were slimmer, with longer necks than an Accad, and they were clearly reptilian.
“No, it cannot be not here,” Trilglar hissed.
Out of respect, most Jiyharr were called “maker.” Kegnol said, “Maker, can I help you?”
Trilglar said, “This thing must be destroyed! Change targets now.”
Mor’ag said, “But Maker, we are in the middle of a battle.”
Trilglar said, “Mor’ag, these things are insidious. Do you see the sensor readings?” Trilglar showed Mor’ag and Kegnol the readings. “It is attempting to breach the dimensional barrier and call more of its kind, and it’s likely to succeed, by using the residual energy built up over the past hour of this battle.”
Kegnol asked, “Maker, what is it?”
Trilglar said, almost hissing, “Dark things that feed off energy and ruin worlds. I thought them legend. Lord Solg will need to hear of this. If there are more here in this galaxy, they will need to be purged before we can take control.”
Kegnol said, “It appears as if some of the other starcraft are moving on various intercept vectors to attack the entity.”
Mor’ag said, “Do as Maker Trilglar says. Target and destroy it!”
The Nahalion probed and siphoned some energy that had been scattered from weapons explosions or from debris that got caught in its local gravity. It began an effort to open a rift even as it was starting to be bombarded. Dust and debris exploded from its massive form.
Around the Phoenix’s bridge, there was great activity although some occasionally looked up in awe or fright at what was happening. Lieutenant Pelori’s pretty eyes showed fear as she watched the view screen and looked at the planet-sized horror. Commander York had to stand by her station and place his hand on her shoulder to break her attention.
Sheppard watched the bridge monitor as the huge entity seemed to be generating some form of hyperspace window—a massive rift of some kind. The sheer size of it drew some weapons fire that passed near to it.
The Talcon, after scanning and seeing the Hegemony working with the new arrivals the Calyx and Thurians, also began to attack the massive multitendril planetoid. The Talcon starcraft had linked together again and extended their winglike projections to generate a huge disruption wave at the Nahalion. It seemed that a few of the Thurian ships stopped using some kind of core drill beams and began to counter the rift as it formed.
Sharon had moved over to Sheppard and touched his back,
then held him for a moment on the waist. He could see a bit of fear or maybe uncertainty in her eyes—the uncertainty of not knowing what strange things lurked in the depths of space. Sheppard gave her a hug back. One of the tentacles seemed to be reaching near the Phoenix, and some power levels dropped. Sharon went back to her station, curiosity on her face. “Let me see what that was,” she said.
The Zeloc and the Orgnar blasted the Nahalion’s extended tentacles, as did the other Hegemony ships once they began to extend toward any unwary starships. The Zeloc released an antimatter blast of its own, mostly positrons that seemed to cause a rather large crater after the particles annihilated on the entity.
Sheppard moved to look at some recent tactical information to determine the likelihood of the Varlon or Accad deciding to sneak an attack in on his task forces. Sheppard watched as weapons of the Jiyharr and Accadian ships sent bolts of antiprotons or torpedoes and particle-beam weapons against the Nahalion. Chunks of its mass were exploded and blasted off every time the antiproton beams struck.
Sheppard said, “Captain Wilder, I don’t think we have to worry about enemy weapons fire right now. Fire nova cannon at the Nahalion.”
Andor said, “I concur, sir. The Accad attack patterns at least indicate they are now focusing on the Nahalion. There are a few Varlon, Ceyloom, and Talcon still engaging in battles farther from this area, but the majority seem focused on the entity.”
Sharon added, “That tentacle had some ability to absorb certain energies. It was trying to do that, I think, for a time.”
The nova cannon flared and fired at the Nahalion, the impacting particles blasting out a huge crater in its surface and causing cracks to spread along its surface for a few miles from the crater.
The Calyx and Thurian ships seemed to wait to see that the others had joined the battle. Then they linked somehow, forming a crystalline gateway. The connection flared, and it seemed the light of a star burst forth and the heat of a solar surface streamed out right at the Nahalion. Another aperture about a quarter the size of the Nahalion flared near the Thurian ships, a connection to a neutron star. Its intense X-ray pulse directed at the Nahalion. The star’s power was so intense the Alliance ships veered off and away. They watched as the Nahalion melted from the two different solar gateways. The instruments on the Phoenix registered the pulsar’s radiation directed to blast into the Nahalion.
Sheppard and the crew watched as the Nahalion broke apart and the parts blasted into dust.
Garfield had walked up from behind Sheppard. He said, “The gateways and the intense solar exposures have overwhelmed this Nahalion. And I think that this unusual encounter will take care of more than this problem.”
Sherman came over and said, “Sir, we have confirmation from Fleet Admiral Peregrine that the Ceyloom are accepting cease fire.”
They watched as the Accad ships all exited the area after the main Jiyharr dreadnaught approached the Nahalion’s charred debris and began some intense sensor scans.
Lieutenant Pelori, who had regained her composure, said, “Sir, we are receiving messages. They seem to be from a few of the Elderships.”
The bridge audio stated, “We could have dealt with this Nahalion ourselves, but we wanted to remind the others…”
Sheppard glanced over and saw Garfield nod and murmur, “But for how long and how many?”
Ares said, “I traced the message, sir. The message originated from the Thurian and Calyx ships that originally appeared.”
Shortly afterward, another message was sent out by the Ceyloom, a general bulletin that indicated that further hostile or occupying incursions into their space would be dealt with harshly. It wasn’t long after that a message was received in which Fleet Admiral Peregrine ordered the Alliance of Worlds fleets to leave this region as soon as possible.
Epilogue
The Phoenix had stayed long enough to see that those starships that were damaged and unable to enter hyperspace had their crews transferred and the most severely damaged ships were turned over to the Alliance salvage service.
Before the Phoenix left for Alliance space, Sheppard was surprised by a special visitor. Ambassador Renjir Felkestaar had come on board the Phoenix. Sheppard called Natarris, Ares, Taylor, and O’Brien to a meeting. Dr. Grey showed up as well to say hello to Renjir, who had made some friends while aboard the Phoenix over a year ago.
“It’s so good of you to visit us,” said Sheppard.
“It has been a while since I was aboard the Phoenix,” said Felkestaar. “Actually, Prince Kyr’s chief of staff asked me to find out what was happening with the specimen location project. So of course I came to get a firsthand report.”
Sheppard said, “With everything happening I wasn’t able to send you more than the first notice that we headed out to search through about fifty light years of space. Senior Master Star Knight Natarris, as well as another Star Knight whom we met later, had been sent on a similar mission to locate lost specimens from other worlds.”
Natarris said, “The officers here were instrumental in helping gather information and narrow down the location of the probable system. I would like to thank everyone who helped.”
“Sir, you provided us with a good deal of information to begin with,” said Commander Taylor.
Sheppard said, “We wouldn’t have made it back to Ceyloom space in time if not aboard the Zeloc. Admiral Garfield located the specific system from the narrowed set of systems, and over the course of a few days, we arrived at an impressive facility run by the Calyx.”
They discussed the highlights of locating the origin system. Sheppard showed the scans of the triple-ringed Calyx Arkology construct, and a brief summary of the meeting with the Keeper and what they determined about the scope of his project.
Dr. Grey said, “Sounds like Garfield made some arrangement with the Calyx while you were headed to regroup with Ares and Natarris.”
Sheppard said, “That is essentially true. I unfortunately missed the actual conversation he must have had. Perhaps it was mind-to-mind to speed the process.”
Natarris added, “Back aboard the Zeloc before were arrived in Ceyloom space, Admiral Garfield indicated that the Keeper would not be taking any more creatures from facilities without prior arrangement, and would return selected specimens if requested.”
Felkestaar said, “Prince Kyr indicated that only a few of the specimens were personal pets. He would like those back. The others could be kept in the vast natural habitat the Keeper and the Calyx under him have made.”
They chatted about other events, and before Renjir left the Phoenix, Sheppard said he would send a copy of the report to Admiral Pendragon, who would later forward the final report to the ambassador.
A few days later, the Phoenix received an official communication from the Talcon high command. Awards would be presented by Prince Kyr for exemplary service to Talcon officers, and to some senior Alliance officers. On the list were Sheppard and Natarris, as well as a request for Admiral Garfield’s presence. The notification included that up to four guests could be invited to attend the ceremony and reception.
Sheppard and those of his guests, which included Commanders Taylor and O’Brien, and Lieutenant Commander Ares and Dr. Grey, boarded the tram from the docking section of the Starcity to the Talcon Palace. Sheppard and his guests were all in their dress uniforms.
Sheppard had seen the palace on his first visit, when he and his team were trying to drive off the Accad that had boarded the Starcity. He had not previously been inside the palace citadel.
There were several buildings of various geometric shapes and at the entrance, a security checkpoint. They were guided to a pavilion that was about a kilometer in size. The Talcon escorting them indicated it was used for ceremonies and speeches. Not too far away was Prince Kyr’s personal residence, which looked to Sheppard like several spheres, partial spheres, and crescent rings arranged in a beautiful and unique symmetry. He got the impression there was more to the hidden parts that may have co
ncealed something interesting.
After walking around the reception area, Sheppard noticed that Natarris had also arrived in his dress uniform, and he was talking with Quarran Grandmaster Tairic and Garfield, who wore their Star Knight uniforms. Even Fleet Admiral Peregrine was present. The awards schedule looked busy, as if the Talcon were receiving may awards and had included the Alliance and other allied alien staff as deserving of honorable mention. There was an initial snack and drinks reception, and then the main ceremony began.
There was a cool breeze as the music started. It reminded Sheppard of an orchestral suite complete with announcing horns. Several Talcon dignitaries and officials, including Renjir Felkestaar, headed out first, and then Prince Kyr’s chief of staff followed. Each stood near ceremonial podiums. Prince Kyr came out eventually to a great deal of whistling applause. He sat in an ornate, wide chair that accommodated his wings, which were decorated with ceremonial ribbons. An initial set of awards were presented to several individuals, including Fleet Admiral Peregrine.
A toast to the Alliance of Worlds was offered by the Talcon. Then the Talcon recognized the Hegemony and other elder representatives with a friendly toast. More uplifting military music played in the interval as the dignitaries changed and those of the Estrian, Quarran, Lyramenian, Karratin, Cynz, Thurian, and Calyx were presented with tokens of appreciation by Prince Kyr and his chief of staff. Sheppard was giving Sharon a hug when a Talcon came to get him.
The Talcon officer said, “Sir, it’s your group’s turn, if you and your officers would follow me.”
Sheppard said, “Yes, of course.”
As Sheppard got closer to the awards area, he was joined in line by Natarris and Garfield. As they approached the prince’s podium, Ambassador Felkestaar came over and greeted him and said, “Due to time constraints, we will only publicly present to the three higher officers; however, all of the individuals directly involved in the mission for Prince Kyr will receive honorable mention and a service award.”