'I see, so we're associated with the unpopular pirates,' Tremon laughed. 'I'm in the right place then. Who is Tektar?'
A frown crossed both pirates' faces.
'Tektar,' Slin started, 'was the craziest, ever drunken, most degenerate of all, but he was one of us, one of Reaper Squadron.'
They both raised their glasses in salute and took a drink before a random man, wearing a standard pirate uniform walked up to the group. 'I know that name, Tektar. Was he assigned to you lot?'
'That's right, he was one of us,' Nash replied. 'What of it?'
The man put his hands in the air, as if to say he wasn't a threat and continued, 'I was the pilot who picked him and another up after some mission went horribly wrong a few years ago.'
'Before he joined Reaper Squadron, you mean?' Slin asked.
'That's right,' the man replied. 'I got information that two fighters were drifting away from a Heridian unmanned trap and they needed rescuing.' He put his arms down and motioned the Tender to pour him a drink. 'When I got there, all I saw was carnage, seen nothing like it. The Rids had placed six gravity devices in such a way that created a sphere, a bubble, so to speak. The design worked to repulse any ship into the center and then crushed by the shear mass.'
'A Rid made black hole?' Tremon asked in surprise.
'That's right,' the man replied, 'and they placed it in the fleet's path. Tektar and his squad were the forward scouts, charged with flying ahead and making sure the path was safe. Our forces would have been easy pickings for the Rid fleet had we fallen into it, the survivors anyway.'
'So how did Tek escape?' asked Nash as tears started welling up in her eyes.
'Tek worked out a way to disable the trap by setting six of their eight fighter's engines to critical. Timed right, the blast created a feedback loop that would overload and destroy the gravity generators, or at least disable them. The only problem was his men weren't willing to sacrifice themselves to fulfil the plan and instead turned on him.' The man looked down at the floor as he relived the visions of twisted craft in his mind. 'Tek won the fight and killed all but one of his squad, who then agreed to position the cores of the wrecks and set them to detonate.'
'By the creator, he saved thousands of lives,' Slin said, astonished.
'All our lives. He was a hero, and his story barely even told. I think leadership wanted to keep silent the fact one of our own had to murder his own squad. But yes, he saved us all.'
The man raised his glass, along with everyone else in the bar who had tuned in to listen to his story. 'Tektar Shahath… Shahath!'
As the night progressed, Spect eventually regained consciousness, although still inebriated, and came to his senses long enough to hold some decent conversation with his new friends. Slin and Nash were happy knowing they had crewed with a hero such as Tek. Tremon was finally feeling like he belonged somewhere that was making a difference, more than even the Paladins could offer.
*
The Khan sat down in his ornate wooden chair and ran his fingers along the base of the thick drinking glass in front of him. The condensation from the cold blue liquid inside it formed droplets that slowly ran down and caused an icy sensation on his pale gray skin.
'The Heridians are close on our tail, not enough to be of a concern,' the pirate leader said as he ran his eyes over the long light blue hair of his guest.
Zelene Raeson, experienced in the art of knowledge and manipulation, as the Khan was in warfare, sat at the other end of the glass table and smiled.
'There's too many to fight head on, isn't there?' she replied, wondering how she could finish the last of her drink without looking the alcoholic.
'Far too many, but we may have found the break we need. Do you remember the reason your husband abandoned us all those years ago?'
Zelene snapped into focus as the pain of betrayal filled her heart and replied, 'How can I forget?'
The Khan shifted in his seat. 'Well, another opportunity has surfaced that might give us the location of the Rid home-world. It means risking an asset the Rids could use against us, if we fail.'
Zelene's focus drifted off to the large viewing window they dined next to in the Khans quarters. The stars outside blurred and distorted because of the shear speed the fleet was travelling at. One cruiser in the fleet stretched and contracted as it neared the Vidar, but kept enough distance as to not cause any alarm. Space travel was dangerous, so the capital vessels kept to a generic formation where collisions were almost unheard of.
'How well do you remember my husband?' she asked softly.
'The Associate? I think about him from time to time, wish things could have gone differently.'
'I don't like when you call him that,' she said with a frown, 'you both were close once.'
The Khan stood; his dinner finished and walked over to the window. 'Once yes, but he chose his path, and that didn't include our way of life, despite his motives.'
'You know his motives were true Alexon, it's not fair that the fleet think him the traitor when you and I both know what he did was for a greater good.' A tear fell from Zelene's cheek. 'I just wish he was back with us.' She got out of her chair, glass in hand, and walked up the small stairs to the viewing window next to the great Khan.
The stars streaked across her view, a field of bright lasers glistening amongst a dark nothingness.
'You didn't have to send out an assassination team, you could have just exiled him,' she continued.
'And look weak to the rest of the fleet? What example would that have set, that one of our own could sacrifice so many with no consequence? Where would the fleet be now if I had done so?' His tone was harsh but he held his composure knowing she was talking from a place of sadness, not logic.
'Part of me always wondered if you did that for selfish reasons,' Zelene said, unable to make eye contact with the pirate leader.
'I have always acted in the best interest of the fleet, never myself. The Associate…' he cut off mid-word to correct himself. 'Your husband won your affection instead of I. That I will always regret, but I would never have given the order based on that. His actions caused the death of hundreds of civilians on the vessel he was escorting, because he abandoned it. If he had followed his orders, his mission, the Rids would never have captured it and slaughtered everyone on board. It was his negligence that lead to my order and therefore his sacrifice. Even if his reasons were true, I would imagine the people lost would disagree and be of the opinion there could have been another way.'
The Khan had reviewed his orders many times over the years and still believed his decision was the correct one. There was no other way to deal with it without further and more severe repercussions to the pirate fleet. Zelene and her son, Xain, are the ones that had suffered the most, but that still didn't make the Khan feel any better about it.
'I wish I could see him again and maybe there could have been another way,' Zelene whispered. 'But that still doesn't make it any easier. Tell me something,' she placed her hand on the viewing glass, 'why have you never tried for my affections since that day?'
The Khan felt pain in his chest, the type of ache with no release. 'I ordered his death and by doing so killed a part of you as well. Whether it was the right call, I'm still responsible for that and can never forgive myself. I could never dishonor you or Xain in that way.'
She wiped a tear from her eye and gave a small smile, 'My son looks up to you, respects you more than anyone else.'
'That he does,' said the Khan, 'and he reminds me a lot of his father, sometimes too much. He's hot-headed, stubborn, and feels he always has something to prove. A darkness follows him everywhere. He's a better pilot than his father I'll give him that much, a better ship commander though, we will have to see.'
'I'm glad you have looked after him,' she said, 'though I wish we could tell him what really happened.'
'It's the least I can do considering, though I haven't needed to do very much,' he replied. 'Xain can never find out the events of what r
eally happened that day, for his sake and the rest of the fleet.'
Zelene gave the Khan a hug and a kiss on the cheek, 'You're right of course and it hasn't been easy keeping that from him. Thank you for dinner. It was enjoyable as always.'
The Khan gave a bow of the head, escorted his guest to the door and said, 'It was good to see you again, Ms. Raeson.'
*
Xain Raeson stood aboard the Arvernus and noted his surroundings. His crew busied themselves with their tasks, running commands over holographic displays from flight chairs positioned at a level just below him. The command deck stretched in an oval shape with his command chair at the center, surrounded by visual equipment to give him spatial awareness of the environment around the ship. Even though it was technically his ship, for the next mission Slin, his best pilot, would command it.
'Going to miss her already?' Slin asked as he walked up from behind him.
'Who would have thought it, me missing a cursed ship?'
'And now I get to command it,' Slin said with a laugh. 'Maybe you will find my cybernetics left over the day when I go missing.'
Raeson slapped his hand on Slin's' shoulder as he walked off the bridge laughing.
A short time later, Xain was at the docks in front of the golden vessel and marvelled at the sheer size of the golden vessel. So much unlike the rest of the pirate fleet, it stood out as a gold coin would against a backdrop of dark metal. The large door phased open to reveal its Commander, Draethus, in full dark gray armor, complete with sheathed sword.
'Permission to board,' Raeson said in a formal tone.
'Permission granted, Xain Raeson.'
Raeson walked up the ramp and stopped as the Soldier held up his palm and said, 'Know this, if you cause any trouble on my ship, pirate, I will space you the first chance I get. Is that understood?'
Raeson smiled with darkness behind his eyes, 'I will respect the chain of command, Commander Draethus. We are all on the same side, right?'
The pirate stepped into the portal opening before pain ripped through his mind. He fell to the ground screaming as a thousand voices screamed into his mind, clawing at his sanity. His vision flashed red, clouded as he rolled over to see Draethus suffering the same fate.
'What are these visions?' the pirate screamed, 'and why are you getting them as well?'
CHAPTER 15.
The Whispering Invasion of Guilt.
'Coming up on the vessel,' Nash reported from the back of the bridge on the Arvernus.
Earlier both vessels, the pirate corvette flying in formation with the Dawn Eclipse before translocation, picked up the signature of a Heridian craft. The sensors determined it to be drifting under low power and in the path to Tiberous, so Draethus decided upon investigation.
From inside the liquid lake on the lower section command deck of his ship, Draethus, now recovered from the visions, gave the command. 'Both ships drop out of translocate and get a bearing on that Rid vessel,' he ordered as he ran his fingers down the scar on his face. It always seemed to hurt him more after the visions tore at his mind.
With an ejection of sparks, the two ships dropped out of translocation, hoping to get a fix on the enemy ship's location. The Heridian vessel, roughly the size of the Dawn Eclipse itself, spun slowly from bow to stern and tumbled through the empty. The golden ship lit its engines in a haze of glow and headed for the stricken vessel with the Arvernus not far behind.
'Spect, what's the status of that vessel?' the Commander asked.
Tremon, sitting at his gunnery station, gave the update. 'Spect is down in that room again, not on the command deck.' He swallowed the tense lump in his throat. 'From the forward display I can see the Rid ship shows signs of physical damage and its systems are offline. Could this be a trap?'
Not at his station? We could fly into a trap and Spect is off exploring again. I must have a chat with him later, Draethus thought.
He is very interested in the workings of your ship, Commander, the Eclipse said into his mind, mainly with the section he once scanned to create a displacement device.
Displacement Device… I was glad to see an end to that.
He waved his arm across the area in front of him to create a viewing screen of the ship outside. Although he hadn't been in command of the ship for long, Draethus had worked out several physical commands thanks to the help of the Eclipse itself. He could see the enemy ship, cart-wheeling through space slowly, and every instinct in his body felt it wrong.
'Raeson, where on the ship are you right now?' he asked into the coms.
'I'm in the corridors on the way to the fighter bay, that's if I am going in the right direction. I plan on boarding that Rid vessel, see what secrets it might hold.'
'Understood. Slin, do you copy?' replied Draethus.
'I copy Commander; I'm sending a fighter wing out as escort. A couple of them will join Commander Raeson on the enemy ship as back up.
'Make this quick people, we don't want to be here longer than necessary.' The order was stern from Draethus, the pirates needed to know who was in charge.
*
Raeson, after stumbling in the right direction, found the fighter bay of the Dawn Eclipse and with it, his Widowmaker pirate fighter. Under permission from Draethus, the pirates equipped the ship with a small contingent of fighters for any emergency situations. An enemy vessel drifting through space was one such situation Raeson couldn't ignore, especially after the last incident.
He activated the cockpit canopy by placing his palm on the reader and climbed in. The leather seat felt cold through the cloth of his black uniform and the grips of the dual flight sticks icy to the touch. The canopy lowered as his systems came online and lit up the small area around him. Raeson flicked some switches above him for pre-start and entered his personal code on the holographic control panel. His personal profile loaded, the engine fired to life and vibrations coursed through the dark warbird and begged to be let loose. As the anti-gravity activated, the landing gear retracted into the fighter's body, the wings swept forward and down, ready for flight.
Weapons check out fine, he thought to himself.
'Commander Draethus, please open docking bay doors, Reaper is ready,' Raeson said over the coms, his voice echoing in the small cockpit.
The docking doors phased out of existence, making Raeson wonder if they existed to begin with. Putting the thought aside, he throttled forward, grabbed hold of both flight sticks and shot out of the larger ship like a large missile. It had been a long time since the pilot had flown the pirate fighter, and it gave him an incredible sense of freedom. Rolling on his back, Raeson headed for the enemy vessel and joined the three other fighters.
'It's been a while since we have flown together,' said a familiar voice.
Raeson, knowing exactly who had spoken, felt raging fire and anger. 'Stark, what are you doing here?'
Stark flew up beside his wing leader and looked at him through his cockpit. 'You are my Talon Commander after all Raeson, why would I not be here?' he smiled knowing how much he infuriated his leader.
'And the other two fighters?' Raeson asked.
Stark's fighter dropped back into formation, 'New grunts assigned personally by the Khan, still to earn their wings.'
'I see. Well Stark, you can run guard duty once we reach the Rid vessel. You other two are to tether your fighters to the Rid and board with me. Is that understood?'
Stark, along with the two new pilots, gave their confirmation of orders and fell in line.
*
Spectalin's curiosity enveloped the scientist into obsession. His fascination with the locked room since boarding the Eclipse had stolen all his attention. For what seemed the hundredth time, he ran his hand over the smooth white metal door and again hoped for it to open. His coms unit, embedded in his ear, crackled.
'Spect, where are you?' his Commander asked.
By his tone, Spect knew he was angry with him, but a scientist must do what a scientist does. Spect considered not answering
, but thought against it.
'I'm at that place in the ship Commander, there must be a way in, and I know it.'
'We are about to board a Heridian vessel that's adrift, I need you on the bridge, is that clear?'
The scientist put his hands on his head, still aching from drinking the previous night and replied, 'Yes, Sir, but can you please get into this room?'
Draethus paused, which confirmed the Commander was angry. 'Very well,' Draethus replied bitterly. 'Eclipse, can you open the door in question please so my scientist can fulfil his curiosity and return to his post?' The coms crackled offline.
Spect stood for a moment and watched his reflection in the door.
'He was joking, there is no way into this room, is there?' he said to himself out loud.
As the frustrated scientist turned, the white door phased out of existence and he frantically raced into the room. It was hexagonal; white floor lights illuminated the walls and lit up the space in the center. The ceiling was high, as if built to hold something tall and a blank white, like the door.
'It's empty?' Spect screamed. 'I've been trying to get entrance to this massive room, and it's empty! How could this be?' He slumped to the ground and held his head again, which now pulsed with anger alongside the hangover. 'This isn't possible. I scanned this room from the Sky-Station, which is how I got the plans for the displacement device. None of this makes any sense… what was that?' he said, startled as he heard a whisper from the corner of the room. 'Is someone there?'
For a moment there was silence before the whisper returned, louder and closer. The now spooked scientist shuffled in retreat on his back-side towards the door and stared at the corner.
'If something is there, show yourself!' he yelled.
Again something whispered, followed by another from a different direction, closer and louder still. More voices followed; a room of whispers that grew louder, stronger and most frighteningly closer.
A Dark Oceans Descent: (Heridian Saga, Book 1) Page 20
