by Trevor Gregg
“Right, I did promise to drop you wherever you wish. But Tharox may be waiting for you again, are you sure you want to go it alone?” Elarra said, desperately hoping to sway him.
“Heh, I find myself in somewhat of a predicament, it would seem,” Benjam groused.
“So you’ll help us?” Alis asked eagerly.
“I don’t suppose I have much choice, since the option of running away is off the table,” he said, letting out a nervous little chuckle.
“So Oracle, what’s the next move?” Kyren asked, fixing Elarra with a piercing stare.
“My visions provide no guidance in this situation,” was her enigmatic reply, not willing to reveal any more than she already had.
“Well, we know little of this enemy,” Benjam began. “So we need to find out more about this Tharox, if we are to stand a chance, right?” The others nodded.
“I know of a place where we may be able to learn more. The Qurian society, which I am a member of, is an organization of knowledge seekers. We have a Knowledge Archive on the planet Darlos. Perhaps we could visit it,” Benjam suggested.
“That sounds like a good idea to me. We’ll need to be ready to run, though. The system has warp gates, I take it?” Kyren asked.
“Yes, there are several gates orbiting Darlos,” Benjam replied.
“If Tharox is using the warp gates, he could be waiting,” Elarra said.
“I will plot us a course and send it to your console, Alis,” Benjam advised.
41
Sky Jump
After several intermediate hops, they warped into the system MX199, just beyond the orbit of the most distant moon of the planet Darlos. Taking time to scan the system, Alis picked up no sign of the triangular ships, nor any unusual comm traffic. Nudging the engines to maximum, the ship rocketed toward Darlos. She had no idea if Tharox would show up here, but she was harboring no illusions. If he could see the future, he would know they were coming here.
She glanced at the fuel gauge, dismayed by the readings. The ship was running out of gas, there weren’t many warp jumps left in the tank. She would have to tell her companions sooner or later, but for now she didn’t want to burden them unnecessarily.
As they approached the planet, she tuned in to the traffic control comm channels, noting the approach protocols and the landing vector provided. The planet soon came into view on the main screen, the brown and blue orb growing larger by the moment.
Alis gasped when the sensors picked up a single triangular craft orbiting around from the far side of the planet.
“Shit, he’s here already!” Alis cried.
“Make for the surface, I will call ahead and get us a window through their ion shield and arrange a landing zone,” Benjam said before turning his attention back to his communications panel.
“Weapons and shields coming online,” Kyren said while hastily bringing up his control panels.
Alis was surprised at how adaptable Kyren was. He had taken to the ship’s systems quite well, she noted. Must’ve been his prior experience programming the fighting bots he had told her about, once long ago, it seemed, when they were aboard the Searcher.
The ship was moving fast, and based on the vectors she knew they would be intercepted before they reached the surface of Darlos. Suddenly, Alis had an idea. It was crazy, but it might work, she thought. But for her idea to work, they needed to reduce their speed dramatically. And that meant turning into a great big target.
“Kyren, put everything we’ve got into the forward shield, we’re gonna be taking some fire,” she said confidently.
Turning to Benjam, Alis continued, “Benjam, do you think you could calculate another warp vector? One just inside the planet’s atmosphere?”
“I don’t know, I’m not experienced in warp vectors.”
“Can you try?”
“If I am off by even a little bit, we could end up warping into the planet’s interior,” Benjam replied, quailing.
“It’s gonna be our only shot. We can barely hurt those ships, we can’t take them head on,” Alis’ voice was grave.
“Okay, let me see…” he trailed off, and began mumbling to himself. “Velocity vector, spatial dynamic compressor, yes, carry the sigma, drop the phi… then calculate the acceleration needed…”
“C’mon Benjam, we’re getting in range,” Alis urged.
“Just a few more moments,” he squeaked back in annoyance, sending her ears flat in exasperation.
Alis commenced decelerating and began to estimate the trajectory needed for what she was planning. The ship sped ever closer, range reading on the instrument panel rapidly counting down. If this was going to work it would require split-second timing, and most likely it was going to be while under heavy fire.
The ship’s triangular points began to glow, and white-hot bolts of energy arced out, streaming toward the Ashari. Alis held course, even in the face of the oncoming barrage. The bursts of energy slammed into their forward shield, whiting out their sensors for a brief moment, but the shields held.
Several more bursts impacted with their shields and Kyren shouted “Alis, what are you doing? Playing chicken with it?”
“There! Vector sent to your console, Captain Alis!” Benjam squeaked triumphantly.
She gave no response, working furiously to align to the new vector. Alarms began to sound as Kyren’s panels flashed, but she payed it no attention. The shields would hold, or they wouldn’t, she couldn’t change that. But if this worked, they may yet evade the enemy again, if only for a short time.
“Shields are failing, I can’t dump any more power!” Kyren exclaimed.
“Everyone hold on!” Alis shouted, and then keyed in the jump vector Benjam had just calculated.
Then Alis’ world turned upside-down as jump sickness set in. Her vision faded back in, flashing lights and alarm panels at her control station blinked furiously. She knew she should know what the lights meant, she just couldn’t seem to comprehend their significance. Then her hearing returned, ringing like a bell, but not loud enough to drown out the alarm klaxons that were sounding, in time with the blinking lights. She knew the number that was rapidly counting down on the panel was important, yet her jump-addled mind just couldn’t grasp the significance.
Someone was yelling at her, somewhere in a fuzzy, far away place. The voice sounded familiar, but she couldn’t place it. Then Alis remembered… Shit, that was the altitude alarm! She snapped back to consciousness and immediately grasped the Ashari’s control orbs, trying to pull the ship out of its steep dive.
As she wrestled the controls the readout dropped below one thousand feet, the ship plummeting to the planet’s surface like a stone. Alis struggled to arrest their descent, applying maximum power to the engines. She thought it would be close, she just hadn’t anticipated it would be this close.
With herculean effort Alis fought to regain control as the ship plummeted toward a barren plain. The silver ship pulled up at the last moment, rocketing along no more than ten feet from the arid ground. Alis arced the ship back into the sky and keyed the sensors, locating the Knowledge Archive and making a course for it.
“What the heck did you just do, Alis?” Kyren asked dazedly.
“She jumped us into the planet’s atmosphere, effectively bypassing the enemy ship,” Benjam said informatively, having recovered quickly from jump sickness. “I’ve arranged for an approach path, on your console now, Alis.”
42
The Search
Alis guided the ship down the path and threaded them through the small window in the great domed ion barrier, it’s blue energy crackling in their viewscreens as they passed through. Kyren wondered what would’ve happened had the Darlosians closed the shield on them as they were passing through. Alis touched the Ashari down on the roof of a great skyscraper near the center of the large city.
“Benjam, how nice to see you!” an aged human with a long gray beard exclaimed as they disembarked.
“I see you’ve been in
some trouble,” the old man said while pointing to the pale blue tentacles Benjam had regrown in a matter of minutes, back on Regalis.
“Yes, we have, and I’m afraid we may be bringing that trouble with us,” he replied.
“We’ve detected an unidentified craft entering our atmosphere. No matter, we are a peaceful planet, we have nothing to offer but knowledge, which we share freely with all. Besides, our ion dome is near-impregnable,” the old man said.
“I hope you speak the truth, my friend. But for now, we need your help,” Benjam pleaded.
“Ah, yes, help I can provide. But I’ve neglected your companions,” the old man crooned while stepping toward the rest of the group. “Hello, I am Milos the Lorekeeper.”
“I’m Kyren, this is Alis, and Elarra,” Kyren said as he stepped forward and offered a hand to Milos.
The Lorekeeper led them off the roof and into the massive structure, escorting them to the elevator down to the ground floor.
“So what have you come here for, my old friend?” Milos asked bluntly.
“Are you aware that the Consortium battles for its very survival?” Benjam questioned.
“I only know that they are facing a serious threat, a new Crevak weapon of some sort that is laying waste to their fleets. The news has even reported that colonies have been destroyed. Is it true, Benjam?”
“I wish I could contradict your understanding of the situation, but unfortunately I have seen it firsthand.” Benjam said seriously. “There is indeed a threat to the Consortium and likely the entire galaxy. We need your help to find out more about the enemy.”
“What aid I can provide is yours,” Milos stated somberly, ushering them toward the doors and out on to the street. “I assume you are here for archive access, yes?”
“Correct,” Benjam said. “We will need to be as fast as possible, so please open us a full data channel to the mainframe.”
The Lorekeeper led them across the street to a low building ringed by massive stone columns. They descended a long staircase down into the bowels of the building. Kyren’s eyes took a moment to adjust to the dim interior. The large space was ringed by data terminals, many in use by a variety of beings. Milos led them to one of the terminals and held his hand to the panel. It flared to life, the borders of the holoscreen flashing green as access was granted.
“Now, if you don’t mind, I’ll be off to see about that trouble you’ve brought with you,” Milos informed them while exiting.
“I’ll program the search routine,” Kyren began as he started to swipe through the panel.
“You’ll want source footage,” Alis interjected. “I’ve downloaded the sensor data from the Ashari into my wrench. Just let me interface it.”
She keyed in commands and a data link to Kyren’s terminal appeared. He grabbed the data she provided and incorporated it into his routine. Feeling the pressure, Kyren built the algorithm as fast as he could, without sacrificing accuracy. They were sure to get only one chance at this before Tharox showed up, so he wanted to make it count. He indexed the images from the Ashari’s sensors, adding energy signatures and shield telemetry data into the mix.
“There,” Kyren exclaimed after several minutes, “search is executing.”
“Now we just wait,” Benjam said, twiddling his tentacles.
A long moment later the console chimed and Kyren jumped, not expecting results this soon. Only it wasn’t the search, it was a call coming through. Milos the Lorekeeper’s visage flickered into view on the holopanel.
“The unidentified craft has entered the atmosphere and is heading toward the city. It has failed to respond to our queries. We have sealed the ion dome in response. I just wanted you to be aware.”
“Thanks for the warning, my friend,” Benjam returned.
“Don’t worry, they won’t be able to breach the ion dome.” Milos comforted.
“You haven’t seen what this guy can do!” Alis exclaimed over Benjam’s head.
“Don’t worry young one, the shield is powered by a zero-point generator, it has near limitless power available to it,” Milos attempted to reassure her.
“Sorry Mr. Milos, but I’m with Alis, that guy’s tenacious, if nothing else,” Kyren said.
“I understand. You folks sit tight and I will keep you informed,” he said as his image faded.
Kyren returned to watching the search proceeding, the minutes ticking by like hours, when the console chimed again. Everyone jumped, as Milos’ face reappeared.
“The craft has focused it weapons on the ion dome. It is holding but the dome is heating up, which will in turn heat the city, so be prepared.” Milos said, his image disappearing almost immediately.
A chime sounded on the terminal and Kyren jumped in to take a look. The search was requesting additional parameters. Kyren quickly coded in the necessary changes and restarted the process. Dammit, that would cost them precious time, he thought.
“So does anyone have a plan for getting back out of here? I mean, we still have to leave this place sometime,” Benjam said broaching the topic that had been on Kyren’s mind as well.
“I’ve already been thinking about that,” Alis said. “And we haven’t got a chance. To jump, you need to keep a perfectly straight vector, while accelerating through the center of the wormhole. There is a shearing effect around the fringes of the wormhole that will tear a ship apart if you run through it. Atmospheric effects will prevent us from maintaining a steady bearing, we’ll likely sustain damage if we try to jump before reaching orbit.” She explained.
“Do you think we can outrun that ship?” Kyren asked her.
“I don’t know, I’m not sure I’ve mastered the Ashari’s secrets yet. She might have the speed. Then again, have we seen the full extent of Tharox’s craft yet? I don’t know.” She replied uncertainly.
“Well my vote is to run for it. After the way you flew that shuttle, Alis, I’ll trust in your piloting.” Benjam threw in.
“Oracle, you have been quite silent, what’s your take?” Kyren said turning to Elarra.
“It seems you all have everything well in hand. What more can I offer?” she replied quietly, a smile playing across her lips.
“So I guess we try to run for it? Benjam, why don’t you get your Lorekeeper buddy to clear an exit for us when we need it. We’re gonna have to get out of here in a hurry once that search finishes.” Kyren directed.
Benjam returned from his conversation with Milos and said “It’s arranged, we just contact traffic control to request an exit. I assured him that the craft would resume pursuit of us if we were to leave. He was quick to arrange our departure, it would seem.”
The search dinged complete, and they all jumped. Kyren raced back to the terminal and extracted Theo’s data core from his bag. He slotted the core into the station and initiated the transfer. Seconds later he extracted the device from the socket and they sprinted for the staircase.
43
Hades
Kyren marched up the staircase and out onto the street, straight into Hades. The air scorched his lungs, and the wind whipped at his clothes and hair. His eyes dried out and felt like they were full of sand, exposed skin began to scald. The sky was filled with a wan red light, seeming like dusk or dawn.
And there was fire raining down from the sky. Fist sized droplets of sizzling plasma dripped down from the ion dome above. People ran screaming down the streets, or huddled in doorways. The bodies of those unlucky enough to be hit by falling death still littered the streets. Kyren could smell smoke, a fire burning somewhere, and disturbingly, the odor of burnt flesh.
“We’ve gotta make a run for it. There’s no other way back to the Ashari,” Kyren insisted.
Benjam squiggled past, making for the street at top speed. Kyren shrugged at Alis and took off after him. Alis took a second to reconfigure her wrench, fashioning an umbrella of sorts, before darting out into the street, Elarra in tow. Kyren overtook Benjam, bolting across the street as fast as he could manage, his lun
gs protesting over the scorching hot air. He reached the other side of the street and darted under the overhang above the door.
As he spun around, he had no room to react. There was nothing he could do to stop the glob of plasma streaming down from above, heading straight for Alis and Elarra. The plasma impacted with Alis’ wrench, splattering in all directions. Alis pulled the Oracle tight to her as they ran, sparks showering down as her wrench overloaded from the heat. With a final burst of speed they reached the other side, just as Benjam was entering shelter.
The elevator ride to the roof felt like an eternity to Kyren. They returned to the inferno once more, and made their way to their ship. They reached the airlock and Alis went to key in the access code, but recoiled from the panel. With a look of determination, she keyed in the code, pain crossing her face each time her fingers touched the panel. The ramp whooshed down as the door slid up. Kyren would have cheered had he been able to spare a ragged breath. They scrambled up the ramp, Alis closing the door behind them.
Alis immediately began to bring the engines online, “Alright people, look alive, we’ve got a wild ride ahead of us. So Kyren, shields and weapons. Oracle, get on the comms and line up our exit. Benjam, can you put together a jump solution?”
They jumped to their dictated tasks. Kyren brought the shields up and began scrolling through weapons, queuing the ones that sounded the most lethal.
“We’re clear for departure, there will be a window opening on the western face in thirty seconds. They’ll keep it open for ten seconds.” Elarra informed Alis.
Alis hit the thrusters and lifted off, streams of white-hot plasma raining down from above, coursing over the Ashari’s shields and dripping down off the sides of the ship. Kicking in the main engines, the craft surged forward, plowing through the fiery rain making for the west. She wasted no time threading the ship through the small opening and rocketing into the sky.