by M J Dees
Sevan thought long and hard about this prospect for the rest of the journey to Atlas and was still thinking about it as he followed Ozli off the Mastery of the Stars and through the presidential palace to meet Ozli's uncle, President Man.
Ay-ttho stayed on the Mastery of the Stars to be with Tori when the Republic's medical staff arrived and, as a result, Sevan was feeling alone and vulnerable when he followed Ozli into the presidential chambers and smelt the most important cloud of sentient gas in the region, the president himself.
CHAPTER 15: ATLAS ATTACKED!
Sevan was not happy as he stood up and looked at the cloud of gas which seemed huge next to Ozli, who was tiny by comparison.
Not that long ago, Sevan had felt jealous when Tori had sat in the weapons chair instead of him. He wished Tori were with him in front of the president to help him feel less vulnerable.
He wondered how long they had before Barnes and his alliance arrived. Perhaps he would bring the huge space station Tomorrow which had enough firepower to destroy a planet the size of Atlas. Or maybe Ozli was right and Barnes would fold space and move them to a remote part of the universe where they would be stranded forever.
Sevan had lost the desire for revenge. Barnes and President Man could do whatever they wanted to each other as long as they left him alone. He wished he knew how to fly a ship, then he could take a ship, steal one if he had to, and return to the Doomed Planet and visit his aunt.
He did not understand how Ozli intended to broker some kind of peace deal between President Man and Barnes and wondered why he hadn't already spoken to his uncle until he realised that Ozli and his uncle had been communicating for some time.
"I'm sorry," Ozli addressed Sevan. "It might have been better for you to have waited on the Mastery of the Stars. Would you like me to ask someone to take you back there?"
"It's fine. I'll find my way back," said Sevan, turning to leave the room.
He wandered back along the palatial corridors and stopped at a window. It was raining outside. It was the first rain he had seen since Pandoria and he thought the ostentatious architecture of the Atlas capital couldn't be more different from the ramshackle constructions they had seen on Pandoria.
As he entered the freighter hangar and saw the bustle of activity around the ships, he realised that there was just the same variety of species on Atlas as there was on Pandoria, if not more.
Sevan saw a tentacled fungus similar to the one they had thrown off the Mastery of the Stars in Pandoria for trying to betray them to the Republic. He was not surprised to find his species on Atlas, a stronghold of the Republic.
When he entered Mastery of the Stars, Ay-ttho was nowhere to be found.
“They have taken Tori to the medical centre. Ay-ttho went with them,” Ron informed him.
“I think that Atlas is very similar to Pandoria,” Sevan confided in Ron. “With all these strange creatures wandering round. I think the only real difference is that there is less mud here, they all still look like they would kill each other rather than look at each other.”
“You might be right there,” said Ron. “I’ve seen a few of them eyeing up some of the ship’s external components.”
A commotion on the hangar floor disturbed their chat. Many of the creatures had stopped what they were doing and most were looking up to the sky. Sevan followed their gazes and saw a bright ring which appeared to be growing. There were light trails leading into the rings, giving the impression that it was sucking matter and light into it.
The occupants of the hangar began running for their crafts.
“Barnes!” said Ron. “He’s started folding space.”
“Tori!” said Sevan. “I have to warn Ay-ttho. Which way is the medical centre?”
“Do you have your communicator?”
“Yes.”
“Head for the main building and I will guide you.”
Sevan ran off the Mastery of the Stars and back the way he had come. In the first corridor, he met Ozli coming from the opposite direction.
“My uncle has invited us to join his escape convoy,” said Ozli. “They will head for Future. It’s our only chance unless we want to end up in the middle of nowhere.”
“I have to get Tori and Ay-ttho from the medical centre,” Sevan explained. “Go with him.”
“No, I’ll wait for you. Get your friends, I’ll meet you on the Mastery of the Stars.”
Sevan rushed away, following the directions Ron gave him over the communicator. At least it had stopped raining.
When he arrived at the medical centre, he had a struggle to enter because everyone else was going the other way. He found Ay-ttho supporting the limp body of Tori in a corridor.
“Help me,” she said on seeing Sevan. “Everyone just left suddenly.”
“Barnes has started folding space,” Sevan explained.
He tried to help Ay-ttho support Tori, but it was difficult and progress was slow. When they left the medical centre, they could see the giant ring in the sky around which a giant cloud had formed.
“How much time do we have?” asked Ay-ttho.
“No idea,” said Sevan.
“Stay where you are,” came Ozli's voice over the communicator. “We are coming to get you.”
They laid Tori down to rest by an ornamental fountain and alternated their gaze between the growing ring and the column of ships which stretched up into the atmosphere in the opposite direction to the ring.
Moments later, the Mastery of the Stars appeared over the buildings and landed in the square next to the fountains. Sevan and Ay-ttho helped Tori into the freighter and it lifted into the sky in the direction of the column of escaping ships.
Once they had left Tori in the medical bay, they joined Ozli on the bridge.
“How long do we have to get to the portal?” asked Ay-ttho.
“I’m not sure, I’ve never seen space fold before.”
“Ron?”
“What Ozli said,” said Ron.
Hundreds of ships racing to escape the expanding rings was not without danger and several ships collided with each other. Ay-ttho needed not only to fly the freighter as fast as possible to escape the pull of the expanding rings but also had to avoid the accumulation of debris that had been knocked off colliding spacecraft and the colliding spacecraft themselves. Many of the craft were slower than the Mastery of the Stars and getting around them all was no small task.
“Why didn’t you go with your uncle?” Sevan asked Ozli to distract him from the expanding rings which were now the size of Atlas itself.
“I wanted to make sure you and your friends were okay,” said Ozli. “If you come to Future with us, you’ll be able to meet my mother.”
“That’s nice,” said Sevan, but he was thinking about how far Future was from The Doomed Planet and about the fact they were now heading away from his home and that, if the rings destroyed the portal, he could only return by going the long way around.
“There’s the presidential cruiser,” said Ozli.
It was clear he was talking about the largest ship in the column, some distance ahead.
“There’s the portal!” Sevan said, sitting upright. He could see ships disappearing in the distance and wondered whether the Mastery of the Stars could reach it before space folded completely.
Sevan moved to a position on the bridge where the observation window gave him a rear view and he realised the expanding light was not a ring but curved in many ways and was now enveloping the planet but it was still expanding and perhaps soon it would envelop them, too.
He glanced backwards and forwards, trying to guess which would happen first, their arrival at the portal or being swallowed by the rings. The difference was too small and trying to work it out was hurting his marbles so he gave up trying to guess and went back to his seat resigned to accept whatever fate befell them.
“What will happen if we the rings swallow us?” he asked Ozli.
“I’m not sure,” Ozli admitted. “From what Barn
es said it would locate us in another place in space, but I’m not convinced that it wouldn’t also locate us in a different moment in time.”
“But he has already moved the Doomed Planet and Daphnis.”
“Yes, but you weren’t able to see enough of either planet to know if it affected their place in time.”
“What would that mean?”
“It’s not something that has been done before. The only way would be to return there and observe.”
Sevan liked that idea but it wasn’t the most pressing issue as the rings were gaining on them and the portal was still some distance away.
“If it folded time and space then you could go back in time to discover what happened to your father?”
“But there are many paradoxes with this concept. It might be dangerous to bend time if to do so created alternative futures.”
“And if it didn’t?”
“If it didn’t, then we are predetermined to make every decision and there is no free will. A bleak prospect I am sure you’ll agree.”
“Do you not want to know what happened to him?”
“I do. I hope that following my uncle to Future will help me find some of those answers.”
“Be quiet,” said Ay-ttho. “I’m trying to fly.”
The Mastery of the Stars negotiated the burning hulls of another two collided ships, which had collided.
Ahead, Sevan could see that the presidential cruiser had almost reached the portal. The ships ahead of it were disappearing but Sevan no longer had to look behind to see the rings of light, they were almost alongside.
“Ron? Can we get any more power?” Ay-ttho asked.
“Sorry, the gravity manipulator is at full strength. We are being held back by the pull of the folding space.”
The presidential cruiser was entering the portal and, within a moment it had disappeared altogether.
Sevan felt they were losing the race and yet the portal was just up ahead, not much further and they would be there.
“It looks like this portal might be refolded into the new fold,” said Ozli, the light of the rings reflecting off his vehicle.
The light started to fade.
“Is it going away?”
“No, the rings are passing light speed, the fold is almost complete.”
Sevan watched the ships in front disappear into the portal. Just a little longer. They were so close.
Sevan fainted.
*
When Sevan opened his eyes, his vision was blurred and only slowly revealed his surroundings, he realised he was still on the bridge of the Mastery of the Stars. He saw Ay-ttho and Ozli. They had survived, but where were they? Another place in space? Another place in time? Looking out of the observation window, he saw, stretching out ahead of him, a column of spacecraft, including the presidential cruiser.
Sevan leapt out of his seat, they had made it through the portal. He ran over to the window and looked behind, the portal had gone.
“We are going to Future then,” said Ay-ttho.
“I’ve been,” said Sevan. “It’s nothing special.”
“You can all meet my mother,” said Ozli.
Sevan sensed a little excitement.
“So, we go to Future,” said Sevan. “And then what?”
“And then we go home,” said Ay-ttho.
Sevan was so relieved. It hadn’t been so long ago that he was filled with the desire for revenge but now all those feelings had left him and he wanted nothing more than to be back on his home planet, the only place in the whole region where he felt he belonged. Of that, he was now sure. They would take Ozli to Future and then head back, the long way round. What could go wrong?
*
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Shipwrecked on Lysithea
Book Four in the Mastery of the Stars series
CHAPTER 1: THE SECRET ENEMY
Tori sat in the weapons chair, staring out the observation window. He was fiddling with a small piece of metal; it was a lump of shrapnel they had dug out of him after the accident. He placed it on the control panel and sighed.
It had been a long night, and it was time for Ayttho to relieve him. He thought Ayttho's obsession with security was unnecessary. They had followed the presidential convoy all the way to the planet Future without attempting to hide and the President had granted them permission to land, make repairs and take on supplies, so why the paranoia?
The unusual signals they had detected had spooked Ayttho. That could be the only explanation. There was nothing to fear from the President. They had to flee with him when Barnes obliterated Atlas so he was on their side, wasn't he?
“Who’s there?” said Ayttho, entering the bridge.
“Identify yourself,” said Tori, seeing a reddish purple figure approaching
“Identify yourself.”
“Ayttho?”
“The same.”
“You are very prompt,” Tori checked the instruments on the control panel. “It’s exactly time for your watch.”
“Get some rest, Tori,” Ayttho slumped into the pilot’s chair, her antennae flopping over the side of her face
“Great, I’m fed up of this stupid watch business,” Tori grimaced with all three sets of his teeth.
“Nothing happened then?”
“Nothing.”
“Get some rest then. If you see Sevan, tell him to hurry.”
“I can hear him now.”
Sevan sauntered onto the bridge.
“Morning Ron,” said Sevan, still half asleep.
“Good morning Sevan,” said Ron, the ship’s navigational computer.
“You’re not going to say good morning to us then?” asked Tori.
“Good morning Tori and Ayttho,” said Ron.
“Not you, Ron. Sevan.”
Sevan squinted at Tori, not understanding the point.
“Oh, I’m off to bed.” Tori stumped off the bridge.
“Sleep well,” said Ron cheerily.
Sevan slumped in the weapons chair that Tori had only recently vacated and stared out of the observation window at the towering buildings which seemed to cover every available space on Future, the planet which served as capital for the Republic.
“Don’t let Tori see you there,” Ayttho warned.
“He doesn’t frighten me,” Sevan retorted.
Tori stomped back onto the bridge, and Sevan leapt out of the chair. Tori marched towards him but stopped short, retrieving a small object from the control panel which he pocketed before turning about face and stomping off again.
Sevan breathed a sigh before going to sit in another chair.
“What’s up with him?” Asked Sevan gesturing in the direction Tori had just
left.
“I think he’s upset because I made him take the night watch.”
“I don’t blame him. I’m not entirely sure why you are so worried, Ayttho.”
“I told you, I don’t trust President Man,” Ayttho looked like she was fed-up of explaining herself. “I don’t want to spend any longer on this planet than we absolutely have to. Once we have finished the repairs and restocked, we can leave.”
Sevan liked the sound of this. He was very keen to get back to his home, The Doomed Planet, and visit his aunt. Now that Barnes had destroyed the jump point via Atlas, it meant they must travel the long way round and Sevan was keen to get started as soon as possible. In fact, Barnes, head of the Corporation and Sevan`s creator, had destroyed the entire planet of Atlas, or at least moved somewhere else.
“Then there’s the unusual signals that Ron has been detecting,” Ayttho continued. “I won’t be happy until I know what they are.”
“Couldn’t Ron have just woken Tori if the signal appeared again?”
Ayttho gave Sevan a look which suggested he was being stupid to assume that they could trust Ron with such an important task.
“So Tori detected nothing,” Sevan felt he was stating the obvious and knew how much that annoyed Ayttho. He shut up.
“Sevan thinks I am imagining things,” said Ron. “I’ve detected the signal twice and will show it to you when I find it again.”
“There is no signal,” Sevan taunted.
“Shut up, the pair of you, you’re making my marbles ache,” complained Ayttho, rubbing the ends of her antennae. “I was here the last time Ron detected it, remember? But he lost it.”
Ron was silent. Sevan imagined that if it was possible for a navigational computer to feel embarrassed, then this was it.
A light started flashing on one of the control panels and a screen crackled to life.
“I have detected the signal,” said Ron with pride.
“It’s the same signal,” said Ayttho. “A holographic message, but there is nothing there, just gas.”
“Gas?” Sevan looked carefully at the image. “It looks like the President, he’s made of gas.”
“It does look like the President,” said Ayttho, turning her head at an angle.