by Alex Guerra
I would never be numb to the sight, but she was lucky she wasn’t awake to experience being severely wounded and drowning. The medic and I heaved sighs of relief, knowing the issue was out of our hands and safely with the ship.
“Gods, the medical pods are being put through its paces lately,” said Ellar, looking haggard.
Seya entered the medical bay with the others, leading Vira in.
“Thanks for havin’ me aboard,” said Vira. “Is that Lena?” She pointed to the tank as her eyes grew to the size of dinner plates.
“It is,” I said with a nod. “And you’re welcome. But first, Ellar, will you administer the serum to Vira as well, please?” I asked. The animal-like, Tychon woman gave me a confused look as Ellar approached her. “It’s just a precaution. It won’t hurt.”
She reluctantly stuck out her arm and received the injection, rubbing the spot when it was over.
“I’m glad you made it out of there safely,” said Seya, placing a hand on the woman’s shoulder.
“I’m sorry ta’ intrude on your space, everyone,” said Vira.
“Think nothing of it. The ship is certainly big enough,” I said. Taking a deep breath, I realized the medical bay was getting a little crowded at this point. “You all did well today. Take some time to yourselves while I figure out what to do next and get Vira oriented.”
The team congratulated themselves quietly and dispersed. I scooped up Lena’s dataslate and showed it to Seya. “You think you can get into this?” I asked.
“I can,” said Vira. “The locks on those things are laughable at best.”
“I wouldn’t normally go through someone else’s thing, but we cannot wait for Lena to come out of the pod before accessing it. She said that she was working on opening a line of communication with the Vael Empire, and that’s what I am looking for,” I said.
“I’ll get it done, by the honor of my family,” she said.
“Very well, let’s get you set up,” I said, handing the Tychon the dataslate.
TWENTY-ONE
Entosh approached me with concern shortly after we arrived back on the ship. “How was it?” he asked, half-expecting the answer I’d give him.
“Not good, in fact, much worse than we originally imagined. The empire struck using hidden agents, and most of the city is in chaos, but I expect the conglomerate will recover soon enough,” I admitted. “It was a precarious situation, and it’s a good thing you were not down there with us.”
“I see. It was foolish to hope that the fighting ended, and it appears we were safer in the tunnels where you found us,” he said, tapping a hardened fingertip against his chitin plated temple. “Not that we aren’t thankful for your team getting us out of there,” he added quickly.
I knew how he felt and what he meant. I certainly didn’t expect to find the Yau on that planet—not alive anyway. There was conflict in the decision, but it was in the past. They were here with us now with no opportunity to go back.
“Don’t worry about it, and for what it’s worth, I am sorry to have brought you into this mess,” I said, placing a hand on his shoulder.
“Not at all! For you to rescue us and set us down on a perfect world would be a fantasy. Risk is a natural part of life after all.” he shrugged
“Arty, would ya’ be able ta’—hello.” Vira came out of her room and saw Entosh and me speaking, stopping her in her tracks. “Who is this? I’ve never seen your species before,” she said with renewed curiosity.
“Vira this is Entosh—Entosh this is Vira Olmos,” I said, introducing the two.
“Hello, Vira Olmos. To answer your question, I am of the Yau people,” he said with a curt nod of his head.
“The Yau? Gods! I thought your people vanished for good. It’s a pleasure ta’ meet ya’. I-I don’t know what ta’ say. Your people had such magnificent technology, I mean, with the wormhole manipulators, the ship designs…” she went on and on listing the Yau’s accomplishments.
Entosh occasionally gave me a glance between the long-winded and breathless way Vira spoke.
“I…gotta work on a few more things. I’ll check back with you later,” I said to Vira, who ignored me and kept asking him questions rapidly. I felt bad for Entosh, as it was a lot to take in for the uninitiated.
I went to my room and changed out of the formal top.
A video call is waiting for you on the bridge, Arthur. It’s from the Outer Circle.
The Outer Circle? I’m on my way.
Seya was waiting outside my room, leaning against the wall of the corridor.
“Seya, I’m glad you’re here. Dotty says we have a call from the Outer Circle. Walk with me,” I said, walking towards the bridge. She quickly fell in step beside me. “Is there something you needed?”
“Just wanting to know what the plan was from here,” she said.
“Well, today did not go as planned. I was hoping there would only be a few potential agents, maybe even capture one of them and give them over to the inquisitor. I’m sorry that I underestimated the threat,” I said.
“There was no way to know that Fengar was crawling with imperial agents. I’m furious that we couldn’t protect Lena or the civilians around us,” she said.
“That was also my fault, I should have known she was being targeted as well.” I shook my head.
“Nonsense. I’m sure if they killed us, they would have just turned their guns on the civilians afterward,” she shook her head.
“I try not to think about that,” I said. We passed the day room, where most of the troopers were watching a screen with the news reports of the attacks in the city.
“Look, that’s us,” said Bon pointing to the screen.
Sure enough, one of the civilians took a video of the chaos while they were in the thick of it. The news showed the raw footage. I didn’t want to watch any of it, since there was no point in reliving something that was already so fresh in my memory. I doubt it would be going away anytime soon.
Kayton saw Seya and me walking towards the bridge. I waved a hand for her to follow us.
“What’s going on?” she asked.
“Call from the Outer Circle,” I said.
None of us said anything the rest of the way.
The door closed behind us once we entered the bridge. “Put the message through on the main screen,” I said, and the video appeared instantly. A group of alien representatives filled the screen wearing red outfits like Lena, with the golden emblem of the Outer Circle pinned to their chest.
“This is Captain Holland of The Pillar, along with Seya Aranis and Commander Kayton Kol,” I said.
“Hello everyone, I am Damari Jutai, representative of the Somok system and its people. Along with me are several other representatives of the Outer Circle. We were calling you about today’s incident in the capital. We suspect that you met with Lena Marscos, but she—along with a few others—are yet to be accounted for. Is she with you?” the man with a long, gray face and what looked like horns or ears coming out of the top of his head, asked. While I had seen a few of his kind throughout the city and on Gwei-yon before, the species’ name eluded me.
Farnon. The A.I. beamed to me.
“She’s with us, but she has sustained a severe injury. It will take time to heal, but she will make a full recovery in a few days,” I explained, although I wanted to make sure to put them at ease.
“That is a relief to hear. Other members of the Outer Circle were not so lucky. Today’s failure of security will remain a stain in our history for many centuries to come,” said Damari.
“What is the situation like on the planet?” asked Seya.
“Troopers have neutralized or captured the attackers. The city is in lockdown now as the Fengar guard search for those wishing to evade capture” said Damari. “Unfortunately, it looks as if that’s the end of the good news.”
“That was the good news?” asked Kayton.
“Yes, word has come that the empire has struck another system,” he said, sol
emnly.
The words struck me like lightning.
“Gods, no…” said Kayton. The images of Vallus shot through me.
“We ask that you go to the Kenadus system and aid our forces there, along with additional fleets outfitted with the wormhole technology. We need your help,” he said.
I crossed my arms and let my head hang. I couldn’t believe the luck I had today.
“Please, Captain, we know your team has been through a lot lately, but we could really use your help,” said another of the representatives.
“How long ago did the attack start?” I asked.
“Two hours,” replied Damari. “With everything going on here at the capital, news of the report came late.”
I looked to Seya and Kayton for their input. Both nodded in approval.
“Very well then. Since time is of the essence, how long will your fleets take to jump into the Kenadus system?” I asked.
“With the combined effort from several systems and sending out a message for the coordinates, I suspect within the hour,” said Damari.
“Dotty bring up a map of the Kenadus system and share it with the representatives,” I said. The map split the screen in two, with the representatives on the right and the map on the left. “Based on your reports, can you tell us where the enemy is?”
Damari sent the report over, superimposing fleet movements onto the map. The system had four habitable planets closer to the star and seven gas giants lingering in the outer rim of the system. The enemy was drawing closer to the nearest habitable world, Lumarus. The scattered local fleet moved to engage the enemy, but their numbers paled in comparison to the Darkkon fleet, slowly approaching. I knew that they would be sacrificing themselves for time, in hopes for the conglomerate to come to the rescue.
“That’s the bulk of their forces, although it is uncertain if the report has displayed all the enemy fleet’s ships,” said Damari.
“Dotty, please tell me if my logic is wrong,” I requested, walking closer to the screen. “If the local conglomerate fleet is engaging the enemy as we speak, I suggest we warp in behind and among the enemy ships, striking hard and fast.”
“While your logic is sound,” said Dotty, “need I remind you that this report is two hours old?”
“Can you make a prediction on the most likely route the enemy will take over the three hours?” I asked.
“Calculating,” said the A.I., taking a moment. “This is what I have produced based on friendly and enemy ship design and count. Very few of the conglomerate ships will remain in another hour,” explained Dotty.
The main obstacle was coordinating a jump together with the conglomerate forces from other systems. I didn’t want us trickling in one at a time. All the ships needed to arrive within a minute of each other to give us the initiative.
Seya placed a hand on my back. “It’s okay, go with intuition,” she said. “We will follow you the entire way.”
“Don’t you have fleet admirals for this?” I asked.
“We do, but you possess something they do not—an advanced A.I. to assist in your calculations. The local fleet’s commanding officers are listening in as we speak,” said Damari. “So far, none of them have objected to this plan.”
Geeze, I was on the channel with even more people, I thought.
“How many system fleets will be making the jump, including Fengar?” I asked.
“Four,” said Damari.
“Alright then, here’s the plan: in exactly fifty minutes, every fleet should jump to these coordinates,” I said, touching the map in four points around where the enemy would be. “Fengar will jump to this one. Send three skip drones out with each one having one of the remaining coordinates in its messages. Dotty, put a persistent timer for fifty minutes and synchronize all messages with its countdown. The other fleets need to cross the wormhole exactly when the timer reaches zero, or we will have a lesser chance of success. Is that doable?” I asked.
“Yes,” said Damari. “Fengar fleet command has no objections to the plan.”
“Send the drones out right away. We’ll see you in Kenadus,” I said.
“Good luck to you all,” replied Damari and a few of the other representatives.
The call cut off, and only the timer remained with just over forty-seven minutes left.
“Well shit…” I said to the two women with me.
“We won’t let another planet suffer the same fate as Vallus,” said Seya.
Kayton tensed up, steeling herself for what lay ahead. “We Vallus Troopers fight for the fallen, and we will not fail!” She struck her chest with a hard salute, the dull thud resonating the pride and pain within.
“I don’t know if there will be a ground engagement,” I said. “We may just be on the ship the entire time. You are free to hang back on Dagger in Fengar’s orbit if you want to. I won’t blame you. It would be wasteful to die on the ship where you have no control.
“And if you do need us on the ground, what then?” asked Kayton, crossing her arms. “Even if you don’t, we’re not going to let you go on this mission alone.”
“I agree with Kayton,” said Seya.
“And what of the rest of the team?” I asked. “They should get the option to stay.”
“Art, trust me on this,” said Kayton. “The team will not stay if we three are going.”
“What about the Yau?” I asked.
“That would be up to them as well,” said the Codari woman. “Although I can see the logic behind them staying. If this ship goes down, it could very well mean their extinction.”
I nodded. “Let’s go talk to the team,” I said.
*****
Most of the team was still in the main room watching the news about the attacks in the capital. I called the rest in to inform them of the situation.
“Word came from the Outer Circle just now. The Kenadus system is under attack by the Darkkon Fleet,” I said, getting straight to the point. I let the words sink in as the bridge went silent, save for the news playing in the background from the hallway.
“The circles have tasked us with fighting off the enemy in the Kenadus system with the help of the Fengar fleet and three others from different systems. We will be making the jump in about forty minutes. Despite the commander’s assurance, I would still like to give you all the chance to stay behind in orbit while we engage the enemy with The Pillar.” I rested my eyes on Entosh, Piki, and Vira, who stood together off to the side.
“Another attack?” asked Habi. “I can’t believe it.”
“It’s true,” said Seya, narrowing her eyes.
“Are they going to try and destroy the planet again like they did on Vallus?” asked Bon.
“That is currently unknown,” I admitted. “We don’t know what weapon the Darkkon used to destroy Vallus. A secret weapon may be aboard one of the ships, but that is only speculation at this point.”
“I’m going with you,” said Tal.
“There may not be any ground fighting,” I warned.
“Doesn’t matter. We’re a team, and we stick together,” she replied.
“Well, I’m not going to hang back,” said Garvo, standing up. “I’d like to see some enemy ships burn.”
“Same here,” said Nadu.
“For Vallus!” said Bon, throwing up a fist.
“Entosh, Vira,” I said. “I believe it would be best if you stay in orbit in one of the Fengar guard ships for the duration. Risking your lives for something like this is unnecessary. Entosh…you, Piki and Feylan are the last of your kind. Staying with us would be unwise. And Vira, the conglomerate still needs your expertise. Assuming we come back alive, you are welcome back on The Pillar, but I cannot guarantee anyone’s safety.”
“I agree with you, Arthur,” said Entosh. “Piki and Feylan are my top priorities. I need to make sure they stay safe.”
I nodded, turning my attention to the Tychon woman. “Vira?” I asked.
“As much as I dislike violence, I’ve been wor
king on a weapon I believe will give us an edge. It’s best to see a prototype’s performance in person for future adjustments after all,” she said with a shrug.
“What sort of weapon?” asked Seya.
“Something that will drain the enemy’s shields fairly quick,” she replied.
“You have something that can actually do that?” I asked, raising an eyebrow at the Tychon.
“Sure do,” said Vira, as she leaned over the back of one of the bridge’s seats. “After I completed the skip drone project, and we incorporated the wormhole tech, I had ta’ keep myself occupied.”
“Is this weapon ready?” I asked.
“Yeah, for the most part,” she said. “I have two of them ready ta’ go, they just need some minor tweaks. Unfortunately, I don’t believe this ship has the missile capability that I used for the delivery system.”
“Correct,” said Dotty. “The Pillar does not have a missile system.”
“Figured as much,” said Vira with a grin. “If ya’ can get me onta’ the biggest ship in the Fengar fleet, I can outfit the devices in time, before the jump. It’s all on my ship ready to go.”
“Entosh, get your daughter and Feylan ready to go with anything important,” I said.
“Y-yes, right away,” he said, ushering Piki toward their rooms to gather their things.
“Dotty, hail the Fengar fleet admiral and ask for permission to get Vira over there ASAP. Also, ask which ship is staying in orbit so we can drop off the Yau,” I said.
“Right away,” replied the A.I.
“Last chance, people,” I said. “If you don’t want to go, just say so, and I can send you off with the Yau.”
“No way,” said Ornay.
“Yeah, right,” said Tal.
No one changed their minds, and I was happier for it. At least I wouldn’t be braving hell itself alone.
“Arthur,” said Dotty. “Admiral Rannek has allowed Vira to come aboard his ship, Nemetor, and the Yau may board Dawn’s Horizon. It is a heavy destroyer, but not yet outfitted with the wormhole technology. It will remain in defense of Fengar for the duration of the battle.”
