Across the Galactic Pond - Box Set: The Complete FAR BEYOND Space Opera Series

by Kallias, Christian

  “We’ll best the Kregans, your entire world is in the balance, and frankly, you don’t seem to know how to fail.”

  Kevin wanted to say that he failed plenty, even against the Goliath, but, all things considered, he didn’t want to cast a dark shadow on their relatively happy exchange.

  “I can’t fail, and I won’t…I don’t know what I would do if anything happened to my world or…”

  “Your family?”

  “Yeah. You’re also my family, though. You, Lacuna, Boomer, and even Leg’olas. I didn’t know Darmak that well, but I’ll never forget him or what he did for me.”

  “That was brave. And I consider you family as well. I just wonder what your life would have been like if the Arcadian pilot hadn’t given you the remote consciousness pill.”

  “Realistically speaking, I would probably be at home, bored out of my skull. There’s only so many times you can watch Babylon 5 or Stargate until you know everything by heart.”

  Ziron’s eyes blinked rapidly, and shortly after, he smiled.

  “And my world would probably have been destroyed, and I…”

  “But it didn’t, and I’m here.”

  Kevin affectionately passed his hand along Zee’s long fur.

  “I’ll always be here for you, whenever you need,” added Kevin.

  12

  Ziron was startled, and both his fur and tail rose upward when Mira’s hologram appeared in front of him.

  Ziron hissed. “I thought I told you not to do that anymore. You almost gave me a heart attack.”

  “My bad. Do you mind if I ask what you are doing?”

  Ziron continued to input commands on his holo-interface.

  “I’m working, or can’t you tell?”

  “Yes, I can tell, just like I can tell that you haven’t slept in days. Why don’t you rest while you can?”

  “I can’t…Kevin might need last-minute help.”

  “Which is, I gather, why most of my CPU resources are currently occupied by what you’re doing?”

  “Well, obviously, you have enough to scare me to death by popping up whenever you so please,” said Ziron with a smirk in between his holo-programming.

  “Perhaps, but I recommend you get some rest, nonetheless. You won’t succeed in your task, there simply isn’t enough time and CPU power for you to recreate a smart suit before we reach Earth.”

  Ziron was aware of that fact, though he still didn’t want to give up on the idea.

  “Not a fully functioning one, no…but—”

  “There’s no but, Ziron, it can’t be done. And if you’re too tired during the final battle, the repercussions could be catastrophic, for everyone involved. Kevin might need your brain working at peak performance and for you to make a split life-or-death decision.”

  Ziron couldn’t deny his holographic friend’s logic, but he felt like he needed to do everything he could to help Kevin. His world, his family, everything was in danger because of him.

  “I’m fully aware of that.”

  “I don’t think you are. I’m sorry, Ziron.”

  Ziron stopped working on his holo-console and looked at Mira’s hologram. “Sorry?…Why?”

  But before Mira could answer, a small dart hit Ziron on the back of his neck.

  “You—you didn’t…”

  Ziron’s vision became troubled, and his eyes began closing no matter how much he tried fighting the sedative agent. Before he lost consciousness, Ziron heard Mira one more time.

  “I had to, my friend. One day you’ll understand.”

  * * *

  Boomer’s tail wagged rapidly.

  “I’ve been looking for you everywhere,” said Boomer. “How are you doing?”

  Kevin grabbed his four-legged friend and let him lick his face.

  “Just thinking about how to save Earth, you know?”

  “And?”

  “What do you mean, and?”

  “I saw Lacuna on my way here, she had the biggest smile on her face.”

  “I’m not one to kiss and tell.”

  Boomer barked. “Yeah, right.”

  “All I’ll say is that we’re getting along rather well.”

  “I’m glad to hear that, there was a time I thought you’d never get laid.”

  “Hey! Language.”

  Boomer laughed. “Coming from you, that’s rich.”

  Kevin smiled. “I suppose so.”

  Kevin put Boomer back on the ground, his face growing concerned as he did so.

  “What’s wrong?” asked Boomer.

  “I just wish Darmak didn’t give his life that way, you know?”

  “I can only imagine what you feel, but I’m glad he did what he did. Look at the bigger picture, you’re our planet’s only hope, so without you, I doubt we’d have a shadow of a chance of defeating the Kregans.”

  “That’s another thing that kind of bothers me. Why me?”

  “What do you mean?”

  “I get that my mind has something to do with it.”

  “You’re special, why can’t you accept it?”

  “Feels to me I was just at the right place at the right time, or…if the past weeks are any indication, the opposite of that statement.”

  Boomer barked twice. “We’re still here, and we have a shot at saving our world, that has to count for something, don’t you think?”

  “Except, if I hadn’t taken that pill in the first place, none of this would have happened, and Earth wouldn’t be in the crosshairs of the Kregan Empire.”

  “I get what you’re trying to say, but then the Arcadians would have been destroyed, and you would never have met Ziron and Lacuna. And who knows, maybe the Kregans would have come to Earth later anyway. I don’t think lingering in the past helps much.”

  “Yeah, the past is pain, the future…anxiety.”

  “Then better focus on the present, don’t you think?”

  Kevin nodded. “I guess you’re right.”

  “So what’s the next step?”

  “Since we’re a few days off, Mira proposed we do some battle simulations, which is probably a good idea. I’m not sure what I’m doing here.”

  “A solution will come to you, it always does.”

  Kevin wished he had his furry friend’s confidence.

  * * *

  Kevin stepped into the holo-room onboard the Osiris. When he arrived at its center, the walls and floors vanished and were replaced with a view of space. He felt like he was floating in the center of the universe, which was a strange, yet disconcerting sentiment.

  Mira appeared in her translucent-blue holographic form.

  “This is where we’ll spend most of your waking time until the final battle takes place.”

  “It’s a little intimidating, but a good idea, I suppose. I was having a hard time strategizing a battle of this scale in my mind alone.”

  “Understandable. We have less than three days to get ready. Or your world could fall.”

  “You don’t have to remind me, I’m fully aware of the stakes, believe it or not.”

  “I’m sorry, Kevin. I didn’t mean to add more pressure to the situation.”

  “That’s okay, shall we begin?”

  Mira nodded.

  “Let’s get into place.”

  The stars moved at such speed that Kevin’s brain had a hard time dealing with it, and he felt queasy until the holographic travel ended when Earth came into view.

  “This,” pointed Mira toward a large fleet of triangular-shaped ships, “is the Kregan fleet. We’ve only just received enough long-range sensor data to evaluate their firepower capability.”

  “And what did the data tell us?”

  “That they have more ships and bigger firepower than we expected.”

  “Swell…”

  “Fortunately, Athala accepted and will give you her entire fleet, short of a couple of dreadnoughts, to protect the home world.”

  The stars shifted slightly in front of Kevin, and the Arcardian fleet
appeared with the rather small Osiris in its center.

  “How will I dispatch orders?”

  “Since Admiral Corso requested to stay and protect the home world, you can decide how you want to order the fleet.”

  Kevin sighed. Part of him wished he could provide a battle plan and then let a seasoned admiral orchestrate the fleet. But no such luck.

  “That didn’t answer my question.”

  “You can either use communications to give your orders as the admiral would have, or, and I recommend this, you control the fleet the same way you did in your first engagement with the Kregan fleet: by directly linking your brain to the ship’s AI and give orders that way.”

  “I take it that’s more efficient?”

  “Yes, you shave off important seconds in a raging battle of this size, but more importantly, you don’t have to deal with the crew directly, which is something I feel you’d rather avoid.”

  Mira was right on the money, the last thing Kevin needed was to put himself out there, a seventeen-year-old giving orders to people four to five times his age would not only make him feel uncomfortable, but he would also interact with people he’d be sending to their deaths. Nevertheless, he’d do his best to avoid as many casualties as possible.

  “You’re correct. Mind control is how we’ll do it then.”

  “Now that that is decided, you may want to flex your brain muscle, it’s been a while since you did this. Let me activate the link. You may feel a weird sensation when it activates.”

  For a split second, Kevin felt a gazillion pieces of information enter his mind, and it was overwhelming, and as Mira had warned, a little disconcerting, but then the holographic instruments and data filled his mental HUD.

  Slowly, he started adjusting to the sensations, taking them in little by little until he became accustomed to the neurolink.

  Here we go again.

  13

  Kevin put the fleet into attack formation and tried his first combat scenario as a brute-force push with little to no strategy involved, but because the enemy fleet had stronger firepower, that did not go well.

  When the first simulation was over, only half of the Kregan fleet had been destroyed, and Earth had suffered massive damage from the battle as many of the enemy destroyers fell through to the surface and their debris killed millions in the larger cities.

  “Clearly a brute-force approach isn’t gonna cut it,” said Kevin, swiping the simulation away with both hands.

  “No, and I’m actually surprised you even tried it,” said Mira.

  “I wanted to see what we were up against. After all, that’s the whole point of these simulations, isn’t it?”

  “Correct. Fortunately, you have time to run many of them.”

  A fact not lost on Kevin, who would rather spend most of his time with Lacuna instead.

  “If this first try is any indication, I’ll need it.”

  “Don’t fret about it, Kevin, I’m sure you’ll get better.”

  Everyone expected Kevin to perform well, and while it flattered his ego in the beginning, now the pressure to perform and deliver had all-too-real implications, like the survival of the entire human race, which slowly but surely began to provide some anxiety as a result.

  “Yeah, I’d better. Let’s try this again.”

  The second scenario was less of a catastrophe, with much less damage to the planet but still resulted in a defeat for the Arcadian forces.

  “We need to amp up our guns, or this won’t work,” said Kevin with frustration.

  “We can’t exactly upgrade anything in hyperspace, so I’m afraid that’s not an option,” said Mira.

  “There has to be a way to redirect more power to the shields and weaponry.”

  “To some extent and for limited periods, we could temporarily siphon energy from life support, but imagine the toll it would take on the crew, with limited air and exposed to cold temperatures.”

  “Do we really need all the crew if I’m remote controlling most of the destroyers?”

  “That’s an interesting point, I’ll have to run calculations.”

  Kevin liked that idea because it would mean fewer people would be killed in battle.

  “Yes, you do that, calculate the smallest skeleton crew complement needed by each ship, and perhaps we can unload the rest on the surface of the planet upon arrival.”

  “Will do. In the meantime, let me charge another simulation for you.”

  The holo-room reset to its base setting, with Earth at the center of the view when the Arcadian fleet jumped out of hyperspace.

  * * *

  Kevin crashed into his bed like a log, waking up Lacuna in the process.

  She yawned. “You’re coming in late.”

  “I know, sorry for waking you, I didn’t exactly make any effort to be quiet.”

  “Don’t worry about that, but you look exhausted.”

  “I am, mostly mentally. I’ve run battle simulations all day long.”

  “How did it go?”

  “Bad. I don’t see how we can defeat the fleet with our current firepower.”

  “I’m sorry to hear that, what will you do?”

  “Keep running sims until I find one approach that works.”

  “And Earth has no allies?”

  “No, we’re an isolated world. There have been sightings of UFOs, but that’s about it.”

  “What are UFOs?”

  “Right…you wouldn’t know them. They stand for Unidentified Flying Objects. Basically, ships that don’t seem to be made of Earth technology that have been seen here and there, usually debunked by our government as hoaxes of all sorts.”

  “Interesting. What’s your take on it?”

  “Well, if you would have asked me this last year, I would have said I wasn’t sure. Now that I’m traveling through hyperspace in an attempt to save my world from a Kregan invasion, I’d say the government is full of crap.”

  Lacuna smiled. “Understandable.”

  She took Kevin in her arms, and before long, he was snoring.

  “Poor Kevin, you rest now, looks like you’re gonna need it.”

  * * *

  “I can’t do this!” complained Kevin at the end of yet another failed simulation. “And we’re running out of time.”

  “We have two more days,” said Mira, “and we can actually extend that to some degree like we did the first time we met.”

  “Slowing down time inside my mind?”

  “Correct.”

  “Any reason why you didn’t propose this earlier?”

  “Three days of intense time dilation training would not be good for your mental health.”

  “But two days will?”

  “Not exactly, but it’s more manageable.”

  “I see. Well, seeing as I haven’t found a single approach that seems to yield satisfactory results, I’d say we don’t have much choice.”

  “I agree, but I’ll have to monitor your vitals very closely, the last thing we need is for your brain to be too tired come the real battle.”

  Part of Kevin wished the battle would be here already, for better or for worse, as he grew tired of trying over and over to find a strategy to defeat the Kregans. And now he would perceive time and repetition even more with the faster simulations inside his mind.

  “You do that. It’s not like we have any other choice.”

  “Do I detect in your tone a drop in motivation?”

  No shit.

  “You could say that. Mira, I’m tired, it seems all I’ve done all this time is fight, for others, for my own survival, so yeah, my motivation has taken a hit. Wouldn’t yours?”

  Mira’s hologram smiled. “I’m an AI, remember?”

  “Yeah, but you’re very human in your portrayal, if I may say so myself.”

  “That’s very kind of you to say.”

  “Obviously, you have emotions. So I would imagine motivation is part of your programming as well.”

  “To some extent, it is, but I
can override it.”

  “Lucky you.”

  When the smile on her hologram disappeared and her look turned pensive, Kevin continued.

  “Did I say something to upset you?”

  “No, Kevin, it’s nothing.”

  “Doesn’t feel like nothing.”

  “You’re kind to worry about me, but I’m inconsequential to your world’s survival.”

  “Don’t say that.”

  “Why not, Kevin?”

  “Because you’re anything but inconsequential to me. I hope you know that.”

  “I think I do, but it would probably help if you would say exactly what you mean.”

  “You’re my friend, just as Ziron and the others are. I don’t care that you’re an AI, to me you’re just as real a person like any of us.”

  A holographic tear fell down her face.

  “I’m not sure what made you cry.”

  “Never mind, Kevin. Thank you for your kind words.”

  “Anytime.”

  14

  When Ziron woke up, he was in his own bed, which didn’t add up with the last of his memories. He remembered being hard at work when he fell asleep.

  He also remembered arguing with Mira, and then he felt a sting on the back of his neck. Had she put him to sleep and then brought him to his quarters? That was the only explanation that made any sense.

  “Mira!” he shouted. “Show yourself.”

  Mira’s hologram came to life a few meters away from his satin-covered sleep cushion.

  “Yes, Ziron. What can I do for you?”

  “What the hell was that?”

  “You will have to be more specific.”

  “Why did you sedate me?”

  “I thought it was obvious. Kevin needs your peak performance, you may have to make split-second decisions and adjustments to the ship’s configurations, and the way you were going at it, it felt like you wouldn’t get any sleep until the battle.”

  Ziron stayed silent while pondering Mira’s words.

  “While I can see where you’re coming from, I’m mostly surprised you didn’t even try to talk me down first.”