by Trevor Gregg
Kyren panned the sensors back to the dome and could see the triangular craft break off its assault on the dome and immediately fly after them.
“Big surprise, we’re being followed,” Kyren stated.
“Well, here goes nothing” Alis said and gritted her teeth, urging more speed from the Ashari.
The enemy craft was keeping pace at first, but soon it was gaining on them. Alis struggled at her console, desperately trying to find a way to coax more power out of the engines. They rocketed upward, the ship dogging the Ashari’s every move. Tharox’s craft opened fire and the blasts slammed into the shields. Alarms sounded on Kyren’s panel as the shields began to fail.
“Shit, there’s not enough power for the shields,” Kyren exclaimed.
“I know, I’ve got it all routed to the engines, she’s going as fast as I can push her without stealing all the power,” Alis cried, as she juked the ship back and forth in an attempt to avoid fire.
“Okay, how about we shoot back?” Benjam remarked.
“Already working on it,” Kyren replied.
Kyren hit the initiator and fired the torpedoes. He watched his viewscreen as the missiles shot out of the back of the ship, leaving a fine trail of smoke and dust in their wake. They corkscrewed toward the black craft as it opened fire, attempting to shoot down the projectiles. One torpedo exploded into a shower of green flame, but the second sped inexorably closer and closer.
Kyren’s heart leapt as the torpedo impacted with the triangular ship and exploded with such power the viewscreen was overwhelmed for a moment. Kyren’s cheer was choked off mid-squeal as the ship reappeared in the viewscreen, apparently undamaged by the massive blast.
“Just keep him off of us for the next few moments, we’re almost into orbit. Benjam, do we have a destination?” Alis grunted, dodging several more volleys of fire.
“Destination ready, I’ve calculated the required vector and sent to your console,” Benjam squeaked promptly.
Kyren switched weapons and targeted the ship with the DS cannon they had used back on the station Regalis. He let loose several bursts, but the ship dodged them all. He lined up a shot, but fired only a quick burst. The black ship dodged, but Kyren anticipated it and had already lined up the sights. He activated the weapon and a stream of non-ferrous composite polymer slugs harder than tungsten spat forth, bathing the metallic craft in a hail of projectiles.
Tiny sparks blossomed where the slugs impacted, but the ship seemed unimpressed. A volley of white blasts of light burst from the tip of the craft and slammed into the Ashari’s shields. With a great flash of light the shield fragmented and was gone.
“Almost… there…” Alis grunted, deep in concentration.
“We can’t take another shot, shield’s gone!” Kyren cried.
“Jump!” Alis replied as she punched the button.
44
Energy Signature
The ship popped into existence in orbit around an an unnamed, ancient white dwarf only seventeen light years from Darlos. “It was the best I could manage given the conditions,” Benjam said, shrugging with his tentacles when Alis disclosed their location.
“At least there’s no warp gate here, we should be safe enough for now, right?” Kyren said.
“We must discover what is on that data core,” Elarra said quietly.
Kyren produced the core and tossed it to Alis, who slotted it into the ship’s computer. Kyren took over the data feed to the main screen and began to sift through the core’s contents. Images and text flew by, records from a thousand races, translated on the fly into readable output and intelligible audio.
There was so much data, Kyren needed to cut down on the noise. He started to code the data core’s structure, introducing sorting and categorizing algorithms, selecting only the most pertinent bits of data. A short while later, he felt he had enough information, so he sent it to the main screen for all to see.
“I’ve found an entry from an expedition to an unnamed alien world from the Bureau of Cultural Reclamation. The expedition was led by a Dr. Christopher Fox. It seems he found a world abandoned by a race he dubbed the Azorians, because they had blue skin,” Kyren began to explain.
“So the report shows they’re known as reapers, the deathbots are. The ships are called dragoons. It seems they are the weapons of war from a long-dead alien race. One whose ruins supposedly dot the galaxy. This research shows their remains have been encountered before.” Kyren continued, displaying a series of incomprehensible blueprints of the reapers and dragoons.
“No one has ever encountered an active dragoon fleet,” he stated, cycling the next report onto the screen. “But…”
“Here is the compiled archaeological report of an excavated dragoon base,” Kyren explained while displaying the photographs of the ruins and models of the underground passages on screen. “It was believed each base was controlled by a central supercomputer, according to these notes. It would have been networked with all the ships and bots.”
“It looks like there was a biological interface,” Alis said while panning through some schematics.
“Maybe that’s how Tharox controls the dragoons and reapers,” Benjam interjected.
“Perhaps we should visit these ruins?” Elarra proposed.
“I don’t think it would help, there is nothing left, no energy signature. The place is dead,” Kyren responded.
“What about you, Benjam, do you see anything of interest?” Alis asked as she watched him studying his terminal.
“Yes, interesting… that is a unique energy signature. It could mean… no, that’s not possible, it would require near infinite processing power. But maybe it would just be possible, if…” Benjam rattled on while examining telemetry.
“What?” Kyren asked.
“Well, such a signature is evidence of time manipulation.” He replied.
“Okay, I still don’t get it,” Kyren said embarrassedly.
“So you know how space and time are inexorably linked, right? Change one and the other responds. You curve space so much and you get a black hole, which affects time. You curve time so much and you get a time-singularity. Couple that with a massive energy source and a quantum computer, and voila!” Benjam said proudly.
Kyren stared blankly.
“The computer can see the future,” Elarra said quietly.
Silence descended over the Ashari’s bridge.
“Well,” Kyren said breaking the silence, “what do we do now? I mean, if Tharox has one of these computers, he’ll be able to see us coming.”
“Not entirely,” Elarra’s voice wavered ever so slightly. “It appears that our interference has altered his perception of the future. His foreknowledge is not infallible, or we would not have survived.”
“So what, we just hop around the galaxy hoping to find this guy’s base? And even if we do, what then?” Alis asked dramatically.
“It might be possible to create an alpha wave feedback loop that could destroy the computer,” Benjam said. “We would need to interface with it directly, though.”
“So if we take out his computer, we take out his army, eh?” Kyren wondered aloud.
He had an idea, so he accessed Theophax’s database. He pulled up the interface and began to construct a data search. He fed in the recovered information from Darlos and waited. Moments later he had a response, his terminal dinged and displayed a green circle. He opened the display and poured over the results. Satisfied, he sent the data to the main screen.
“There is an entry in Theophax’s data core matching that energy signature, albeit a very weak one,” Kyren posited, bringing up an orbital picture of some ruins amidst a great swath of green jungle.
“From the looks of the place, it has been long destroyed, so I doubt this is Tharox’s base,” Benjam proposed.
“That could well be true, but I don’t see anywhere else to go. Maybe we’ll learn something there,” Kyren countered.
Alis looked up from her console and said, �
�The system does not appear to have a warp gate. We’ll need to make our way around the galactic core’s supermassive black hole.”
“Why can’t we just jump through?” Kyren asked sheepishly.
“When you target a warp jump, you need to locate a source of gravity like a star to anchor your jump point, otherwise you could end up anywhere in the universe. The closer we get to the core, the harder it’ll be to find a jump target that isn’t the supermassive black hole. Its gravitational signal dominates. So we’ll need to take a wide path as we star-hop around it. See? Simple,” Alis explained.
“What do you need to create your feedback loop, Benjam?” Elarra questioned.
“Well, I would need a quantum transducer, a lepton inhibitor and some small grav plates, and a number of other specialized parts. Oh, and a micro-singularity engine to power it all.” He explained.
“Oh is that all? An MSE is insanely expensive, and nearly impossible to come by. But I do know a scavenger’s yard where we might be able to get some of the other parts. I don’t know if they’ll have what you are looking for but it might be worth a try.” Alis supplied.
“Okay, then it’s solved. We go to Alis’ junkyard, then on to the ruins,” Kyren said decidedly.
45
Renmo Graza
It took them several intermediate jumps to reach the system of Nyloth, which gave Alis time to think, even though she didn’t want to. The Consortium’s 47th fleet was likely destroyed, she didn’t think the fleet could have survived the assault. That left the fate of her parents and brother in limbo. Had they survived Tharox’s destruction? Had their ship escaped? With despair, she knew it was unlikely. She hoped Elarra was right, that they really could stop him. She wanted payback.
They popped into existence just outside the planet Karda’s orbit. Alis kicked the engines up, reaching full burn and rocketing them off toward the space station in the distance.
“Kyren, Benjam, stay on those sensors. Keep an eye out for dragoons,” Alis ordered as she plotted a course for the station on the opposite side of the planet, thankful to have her mind now occupied.
“So you think Tharox won’t know this is where we’re going?” Kyren asked the Oracle.
“We will see, won’t we” she replied.
Alis guided the craft around the planet, ever vigilant for signs of Tharox’s ships. As the massive station came into view, it was silhouetted by the system’s two suns. Four massive arms led out from a central cylindrical structure dotted with windows. Arrayed off of each arm were space docks and shipyards of varying sizes. Clumps of junk and other equipment she couldn’t immediately identify littered the space around the station.
The void surrounding the station was buzzing with activity. Alis had to juke the ship to avoid shuttles several times as they zoomed past. As they got closer, Alis dropped their speed. The space docks they drifted by were all occupied with ships in various stages of repair or dismantling. Pinpoints of light burned in the darkness around one ship’s hull as space-suited workers wielded laser torches, cutting a derelict into pieces.
She guided the Ashari towards a spoke sticking out from the station’s great arm, and lined up the tip of the spoke with their craft’s airlock. The Ashari linked up with the station and the locking clamps secured with a clank. Alis spun down the engines and began securing the ship for disembarking. She slid her wrench into her belt and keyed the airlock open.
The blast of fetid air coming from within the station overwhelmed her heightened rillian senses for a moment, and she gagged. She had always hated the main corridors. Choking back her revulsion, she put on a confident air, even though she was shaken having to come back here.
“Gah, what is that smell?” Kyren choked.
“That is the natural odor of the vindels. Plus, they have poor air filtration technology, it would seem,” Benjam replied.
“Right on both counts, doc,” she said, trying not to breath through her nose.
“Are you sure you want to spend time aboard this rattle-trap station? There could be a catastrophic failure at any time,” Benjam worried.
“The vindels run the station, so they are in charge of maintenance. You know how industrious they are. You’ve got nothing to worry about,” Alis replied. The lights in the corridor flickered and Benjam noticeably flinched.
She let out a restrained chuckle, then keyed the Ashari shut and locked her up tight. Trotting after Kyren as he strode purposefully into the station, she noted how little had changed. Traversing several minor corridors, they reached a broad passageway that appeared to run the length of the station’s arm. As before, the passageway was lined with small stalls.
As they passed, Alis looked into the first stall. Ew! She thought as she watched a giant green gelatinous glob with eyes secreting pink orbs from an orifice on what passed for its face, and plopping them into a bowl on the counter. She was further repulsed as a slender, brown-skinned humanoid with a yellow-scaled face purchased one of the orbs and popped it into its mouth, smacking loudly as it chewed.
“There’s some equipment,” Kyren said, pointing to one of the stalls full of junky gear and random parts. “Maybe they’ll know where to get what you need.”
“Not likely,” Alis said, steering them past.
“We’ll need a broker of some sort, I suppose,” Benjam offered.
“I’ve got one in mind already,” she replied enigmatically as she pushed on through the thickening crowd, a mix of vindels and other aliens.
“Has she been here before?” Benjam asked Kyren.
“I have no idea, but it sure seems like it, huh?” Kyren shrugged.
The passageway began to widen, both horizontally and vertically. The size and relative quality of the stalls improved as well. Alis pushed on through the crowds bypassing the stalls and leading them toward the end of the large corridor and the great open space just visible beyond.
Alis led them out into the great central rotunda, pausing to give them the chance to marvel at the size of the station. Out of all the stations she had visited, this scale was rivaled only by Regalis. The central chamber was two thousand yards diameter, and two hundred or more stories tall, ringed by balconies and doorways, criss-crossed with tremendous catwalks.
The station was roughly the same diameter as Regalis’ city domes when you included the arms. And there were just as many people as on Regalis, but most of it was concentrated here in the center of the station.
“So, where we going?” Kyren asked her pointedly.
“Floor seventy-five,” was her reply, as she began toward a bank of elevators, the others struggling to keep up with her brisk pace.
Alis quickly pressed the call button and an elevator flashed into place, doors opening with a ding.
And she nearly passed out from fright, as Tharox stood before them. Only it wasn’t Tharox, she quickly realized, but another bathalian cyborg. But Kyren, his brain hadn’t made the distinction yet, and was reaching into his jacket for his blaster, a look of utter panic across his face.
As Alis reached over and placed her hand over Kyren’s arm, she heard Benjam fall to the floor with a squishy thud behind her. Kyren looked at her in surprise then back to the bathalian, unsure of himself. The bathalian stepped from the elevator, trailing a cyborg woman and two children, configured the same, with full cyborg arms, legs, and eyes.
“What the hell was that?” Kyren exclaimed.
“Bathalians. You don’t know about them?” Alis replied, unable to keep the amusement from her voice.
“Um, no. What’s a bathalian?” Kyren questioned while kneeling to check on Benjam.
Benjam’s tentacles wavered and he spoke weakly, “Did he get us? Are we dead now? Is this the afterlife?”
Unable to restrain a belly laugh, Alis held the elevator door and then explained, “That was a bathalian, they are one of the many member races that make up the Consortium.”
“So Tharox is a bathalian?” Kyren questioned, while helping Benjam return upright. �
��Do they all get cyborg enhancement? Weren’t there two children? Weren’t they modified too?”
“Yes, the children were cyborg, too,” Alis began, but was interrupted.
“That’s terrible, cyborg-ing out your children…” Kyren exclaimed in shock.
“Well, actually, the bathalians, they became so reliant upon cybernetics that they evolved to no longer need eyes and limbs, since they are “added-on” after birth,” Benjam squeaked, still bleary-eyed but firmly upright.
They finished boarding the elevator and Alis keyed in their destination. It whooshed them to their floor in seconds, the incredible acceleration of the elevator dampened by the grav plates to a tolerable level.
Alis was grateful for the quick trip, it prevented any awkward silences or even worse, any more questioning of her plans. She couldn’t risk being talked out of what she was about to do. It was likely their only chance at obtaining what Benjam needed to build his bomb. And truthfully, she wanted payback too. She caught Kyren glancing at her sidelong and she felt a touch of guilt for not revealing her plan.
Striding off the elevator before anyone spoke, she led them clockwise around the great ring. She kept up a brisk pace, hoping her companions would keep quiet.
“So where are we going, Alis?” Kyren asked again.
“I know somewhere we might be able to find Benjam’s parts. So just let me handle it, okay? Just follow my lead,” she replied hastily.
Good, she thought, she was nearly there. Up ahead was the Kalarian crystal stall, and after that, the alleyway. She led them past the stall of large oblong crystals, entered a narrow alleyway, and chose the third door on the left. She tentatively tried the handle. Finding it unlocked she opened the battered white door, hinges squealing. She cringed and quickly stepped inside.
“Be right with you…” a gruff voice called out.
Alis wasted no time. As the others were entering, she launched herself at the being who had spoken. She mercilessly delivered a kick to its back, sending the creature crashing into the shelves it had been working in front of. It rebounded, objects crashing to the floor, and landed heavily on its back.