by Trevor Gregg
After several tries, she knocked the screen loose and slid out into the darkened passageway, emergency lighting clicking on as she entered the compartment. Kyren realized they had entered some sort of service area, a space between decks. The low ceilings didn’t impede Kyren, but would have had he been much taller. They exited the alcove and entered a long corridor, Elarra choosing their direction seemingly at random.
“Here,” she said, after they had walked for a bit, and stopped in front of a staircase leading up to a heavy service door. She climbed the stairs and took up position by the door’s control panel. “Get ready to catch her.”
Kyren scrambled up the steps, just reaching the top at the same time the Oracle triggered the door. It retracted into the ceiling with a swish, sending Alis tumbling into the passageway and into Kyren’s outstretched arms. He did his best to catch her, but her momentum carried them off the top step and they tumbled heavily down the stairs.
He heard the door whoosh shut, and then the echoing clang of metal fist on heavily reinforced service hatch. Alis held him tight for a moment. “Thank you,” was all she said.
The Oracle dashed back down the stairs. “Come, we need to get to the bridge if we are to save the ship.”
24
The Bridge
After some wandering, they discovered a service elevator that delivered them to the same deck as the bridge.
“Who the hell was that guy?” Alis said, turning toward Elarra as they stepped off the elevator. She stopped and reached out, grasping her arm. “You know, don’t you? Tell me!”
Elarra turned, glancing down at Alis’ hand, but remained impassive.
Kyren reached out and put his hand on Alis’ shoulder, “There will be a time for explanations…”
“Right Elarra?” He looked at her pointedly, “But now we need to get to the bridge, it’s the only place we’ll be safe.”
“Alis, I will explain once we are no longer in danger. For now, all I can say is that he is threat to the Consortium and the galaxy alike. I will reveal what details I know, when it is time.” Elarra placated, as Alis huffed.
Elarra turned and led them down the service passage until it ended at another service door. She touched the panel and the door retracted into the ceiling. They stepped out of the service passage into the main hallway leading to the bridge, only to be greeted by the business end of the Consortium Marines’ weapons.
“Hold fire, it’s the civvies,” a bear-like doss in combat armor called.
The soldiers quickly cleared them from the hallway, hustling them behind the makeshift barriers that had been recently constructed.
The doss, obviously in charge, punched in the override code on the door to the bridge and motioned for them to go in. As Kyren stepped through the door behind Alis and Elarra, he heard the sound of gunfire echoing down the corridor. The door slammed behind him and locked into place. Hopefully the strength of the door wouldn’t be tested, he thought.
They had stepped into controlled chaos. The room was forty feet square, lined along three walls with a giant curving viewscreen. Command stations were arrayed out from the central seat, where Captain Kahele was perched. His brow was furrowed and his dark skin flushed with anger as he bellowed out commands to the various crew members stationed around the room.
Kyren watched the viewscreen as the triangular ship detached from the side of the Guardian.
“Sir, the cyborg intruder is no longer on the ship,” a grizzled looking gray haired Rillian, with notched ears called out.
The Captain immediately instructed “Helm, evasive maneuvers. Get us moving, right borking now!”
The viewscreens lurched as the ship went into a roll, attempting to bring the weapons on her starboard side into alignment with the smaller craft. It was too fast, it was already on attack, bursts of energy slamming into the ship. Warning lights flashed on holopanels and as Kyren looked, he saw a diagram of the ship showing more red than green.
“Dammit, status report engineering!” Captain Kahele barked, beads of sweat forming on his razor smooth scalp.
“Shiznaps! I’ve got no thrust, captain,” the strange-looking crab-faced helmsman said in a brogue accent.
“The last shot took out our engines, sir,” an elkar scarab-man screeched through his black mandibles. The creature’s multi-faceted eyes glittered in the light of the holopanel. His insect limbs ended in strange four-fingered hands, which flew over the controls with practiced ease. This crew was definitely top notch. And they were getting their asses handed to them, he realized.
Without warning Kyren felt his stomach lurch as he began floating free. Alis flailed, grabbing Kyren’s arm as the ship’s gravity plate network failed.
“Sir, we’ve lost the g-plate relay,” the Elkar chittered.
“Shit!” he said, clinging to the arms of his chair. “Security, where are we at with those fucking boarders?” the Captain queried the grizzled old rillian, whose ears were scarred and notched, gray hair worn in dreadlocks. There was a large energy rifle leaning against the security officer’s control station.
“They’re still aboard the ship, sir. We’ve had contact on decks A3 through C7, we estimate fifteen or more attackers. They appear to be impervious to projectile weapons and lasers,” the rillian security officer replied grimly.
The ship groaned as more compartments vented into space. The monitor above the security station showed a grim scene going on outside the bridge. The doss Sergeant was covered in blood, firing his weapon down the hall. Bodies of Marines littered the corridor, and only a few defenders remained.
“Navigation, can we jump at our current velocity?” the Captain asked the saurian officer seated nearest the entrance to the bridge, where Kyren, Alis, and Elarra were apprehensively waiting.
“Sir, I don’t have grakking a solution yet, I’m still trying to lock in the destination.” He pleaded, turning to face the Captain.
“Get me the goddamn solution, Corporal!” he roared, causing the officer to quail.
Suddenly Elarra scrunched her legs against the wall and exploded forward, zipping toward the Navigation console with surprising speed. She sailed over the shoulder of the crewman, and swiped her hand through the big green button on the holopanel labeled ‘engage.’ The jump alarm sounded and the white lights flashed, and then Kyren was spinning around in his own head.
It took him a surprisingly short time to recover from jump sickness this time, maybe he was getting used to it, he mused. Becoming a real spacer, he was thinking, before he remembered the Oracle had just done something quite unexpected.
The ship had shaken quite violently when they had passed through the portal. Likely due to the engines being out and therefore no acceleration. Alarms were going off at nearly every console, and an audible alarm began blaring over the loudspeakers as well.
“Damage report, people! Observation, any sign of the enemy?” the Captain queried as he shook his head to regain his composure.
“No sir,” was the sensor operator’s prompt reply.
“Navigation, where are we?” Kahele followed up.
“Sir, the system targeted the largest source of gravity nearby to anchor the jump points,” he said abashedly. “We’ve jumped into stable orbit around black hole XR88C.”
The main screen lit up, showing the black hole surrounded by a great accretion disk, the matter left over after ripping apart and consuming it’s stellar partner.
“Security, restrain that damn girl,” the Captain commanded, pointing at Elarra floating above the command station. A crewman moved to intercept the Oracle, clamping his meaty hand around her wrist, towing her back to where Kyren and Alis were floating.
“What about that damn damage report?” Kahele bellowed.
“Damage across ninety percent of the ship, we’re majorly venting atmosphere. Bulkheads are being sealed now, sir,” an officer replied.
“Sir we have one functioning engine now,” the engineer cut in.
“Nav, can we jump
again, even like this?” he said urgently.
“Yessir, we can manage it. The nearest base is Station Fifty-one, Zoralian Cluster,” the saurian navigations officer replied.
“Very well, jump us to Station Fifty-one in the Zoralian Cluster,” was the Captain’s order. The warp generator constructed the wormhole in space and the ship limped through.
25
Consortium Station 51
As the ship emerged from the wormhole and entered orbit around Raenos, proximity alarms sounded as alerts flashed on the helmsman’s holopanel. The viewscreens filled with huge hunks of debris. The ship shuddered and groaned as it impacted with the larger pieces of wreckage. They had jumped into a massive junk field.
Kyren watched the helmsman struggling to avoid the largest pieces of detritus. The ship shuddered again as it plowed through another. Several viewscreens went dark as cameras and sensors were destroyed by impacts.
“Damage report, people,” Kahele demanded.
The stations began rattling off their status. When it came to engineering, the elkar chittered “grav plates will be operational in three… two…”
Kyren braced himself against the wall, trying to anticipate the return of gravity.
“…One,” the officer finished.
Kyren managed to remain standing, but just barely. Alis made a much more graceful landing, dropping smoothly into a low crouch. Elarra was still restrained by the officer, who kept her on her feet.
More secondary explosions rocked the ship again, as it rumbled and let out a great groan. Kyren watched the viewscreen as the Guardian plowed through dense debris field. Damage alarms flashed red again over a large portion of the ship schematic displayed on one of the monitors.
“Helm, get us out of this junk field. And comms, get Station 51 on the line,” he said to his officers.
“Sir, scanners can’t penetrate the debris field, so we can’t ascertain the status of the station. But there’s no comm traffic, from the planet or otherwise. The system is quiet,” the red skinned, strange looking humanoid observations officer said. Kyren had no idea what he was, he had never seen one of his kind, in vids or otherwise.
“What do you mean?” Kahele questioned, a look of concern suddenly crossing his face.
“It’s quiet sir, no communications of any form. It’s like we’re the only thing alive out here.”
“Security, what is the status of the damn invaders?”
“My forces have dispatched the last one on deck seventeen with plasma weapons, and only the one outside remains… The fucker’ll be dispatched shortly,” he said with a growl, standing and picking up his rifle. The grizzled old rillian shouldered it and ordered the junior officer to open the door. He yelled a battle cry and charged into the chaos that was revealed as the door slid into the wall, his rifle sending bursts of white hot plasma down the corridor.
Several moments later the chaos ended, the staccato bursts of high velocity projectiles dying out but leaving their ears ringing. The security officer reeled out of the smoke and back into the bridge, his rifle clattering to the deck. Kyren could see him bleeding profusely from several holes punched in his chest. He staggered and fell into Kyren, who tried to hold him up but lost his grip as his hands slicked with the officer’s blood.
The crewman holding Elarra released her and ran to the side of his chief, dropping to his knees and attempting to stem the bleeding with a torn off sleeve, but his life flowed out before Kyren’s eyes. His heart was wrenched both for the security officer and for the memory that it stirred.
“Helm, get us clear of this damn debris field so we can get a scan of the system,” Kahele directed.
It took many slow minutes to plow their way free of the debris field. The ship limped out into empty space and established a stable orbit around the planet Raenos. The picture in the viewscreen was horrifying. Kyren heard Alis gasp, while Elarra just stared impassively.
The entire planet was a charred cinder, still smoldering red-orange. Kyren heard murmuring among the crew as they took in the utter devastation. “It was a garden world,” he heard someone say. “Inhabited by billions,” another said, “even the oceans burned away,” someone quailed.
Kahele spoke, his voice quiet and quavering, “by the seven hells of Algaroth…”
Straightening, he regained his composure. “Comms, get on the subspace array and raise our forces. Put out a fleet-wide bulletin. Contact the nearest friendly non-Consortium ally and get their commander on the line.”
“Sir, we are only several hops away from Sargassus Prime. Jump solution is calculated,” the navigation officer spoke.
“What could do that, Oracle?” Kyren asked quietly. “What could kill a whole planet and lay waste to a Consortium fleet?”
“Not what, but who,” she replied enigmatically.
“Captain, I have Commander Nemoe from Sargassus Prime for you,” the comms officer informed the captain.
A frog-faced alien with wide nostrils filled the viewscreen. “Captain Kahele, what is going on?” the creature said worriedly.
“We’ve encountered an unknown force, likely a new Crevak weapon. We’re in desperate need of repairs, we are inbound in several hops. Mobilize your forces and go to your highest alert and wait for our arrival. Kahele out,” he finished, and the comms officer cut the feed.
“Nav, jump us to Sargassus,” Kahele ordered, then the Guardian jumped twice again, bringing the crippled ship into orbit around Sargassus Prime.
“This system is allied with the Consortium but not controlled by it,” Kyren heard an officer saying.
“We received distress beacons from our nearby bases, sir,” the communications officer said, “and then they just went dark. Sir, I think our bases have been destroyed.”
“Helm, dock us with Sargassus Station, we’ll offload the civvies and see what repairs we can make. Comms, get Sergeant Harris up here to escort the civilians off my ship,” Kahele barked, not masking the glare he threw at Elarra. “You aren’t human, you’re not a child,” he noted, finally recognizing her saturnine bearing.
“No I am not a human child, I am Liadi,” was all she said.
Harris arrived short minutes later, half of his face hidden behind a bandage, his uniform charred and pocked with tiny holes. If he was in pain he wasn’t showing it.
“Boy am I glad to see you three are okay!” Harris boomed. “Come, let’s get you to the station.”
They wound there way out of the damaged ship and entered the station.
“Well, here we are, this is where we say goodbye. Was nice to meet you folks, take care and good luck.” With that, he turned and made his way back into the ship.
As they left the ship and entered the station, Kyren pulled Elarra aside, “So that is the enemy you say we will defeat?”
“It is,” was her enigmatic answer.
“Who is that guy, anyway?” Alis questioned.
“So how do we do it? You’ve seen what the enemy can do, he wiped out an entire world. How are we going to defeat him? If you’ve seen it, why not share with us?” Kyren joined in.
“I will try to answer your questions as best I can. My visions are often snippets of what will come to pass. Their meaning doesn’t always come clear until I have the right context. I know you will defeat this enemy, and that is enough.”
“No, it isn’t enough,” Alis chimed in. “How did that guy know me? And why was he so intent on killing me? What the hell is going on?!” she said exasperatedly.
“Yeah, and this guy nearly wiped out a Consortium frigate, how do you think we’re gonna make a difference?” he said angrily.
She pleaded with them, “Kyren, Alis, I know you will stop this threat before it can menace the rest of the galaxy, I know it with certainty in every fiber of my being. It may seem daunting, but I do know of something that may even the score. We must travel to the planet of Marellan in the Bhator system to find a relic hunter named Theophax. He owes me, and will be willing to help us find a powerful
pre-millennium war relic.”
“That’s all nice and everything,” Alis replied. “But how the hell are we supposed to get there? Much less find our next meal,” she groused. “We’ve got no money, just the clothes on our backs.”
“I have some money,” the Oracle said, withdrawing a chipscan from her dress pocket. “It should be sufficient for transit to Marellan.”
26
Zauhaus
The shuttle touched down on the landing pad with a bump and a bang, startling Alis awake, her head snapping up from Kyren’s shoulder. He watched as her ears went opposite directions in frustration. The trip had been long and taxing and Kyren was ready to be back on solid ground, if only for a short while.
It had taken nearly a week to reach Marellan because there had been no direct transport. They were forced to take a circuitous route to reach the system. The closer they had gotten to their destination, the shabbier their transportation became. For the last leg of the journey, the only passage they could find was a cramped space lined with cots in a cargo hold aboard a freighter tug. The shuttle that delivered them to the surface wasn’t much of an improvement either; cramped quarters, poor ventilation, and maximum occupancy.
They disembarked the tram from the landing pad and exited the station into the hot afternoon sun. Kyren sucked in a breath of hot desert air and was immediately reminded of Pygar. He glanced at Elarra and swore he saw a smile curl her lips ever so slightly.
Kyren realized the city of Nasain bore some similarities to Magar’s Dust Quarter. The tall buildings were decaying and worn, the streets occupied by various types of wheeled vehicles. The sidewalks were full of people, some commuters and others occupying stoops.