by Trevor Gregg
“Now liadi, show me what we came here for,” he demanded.
His anticipation was nearly palpable, a predator about to consume prey. Darius led him to a door on the far side of the room and keyed in more strange symbols. This door whooshed open as well, revealing an observation deck with a large window covering one entire wall.
“There is your weapon,” the boy said, pointing through the window at the massive swirling red sphere he had seen from his ship. Nestled amongst gantries and support structures in the center of the station, the sphere lurked, calling to him as if alive.
1
Out of Gas
“Elarra, what did you see?” Kyren asked as Elarra’s brown irises and black pupils faded back into view.
Kyren had never seen her have a vision before, and was unsure what he should do. She gasped and grabbed his arm, steadying herself.
“I’m not ready,” she panted, shaking her head and looking down. “Can’t yet.”
They made their way back to the Ashari in silence, striding through the lush green grass, the tips reaching Kyren’s thighs. As they approached, Alis sprinted ahead and began to run down the length of the craft. She crossed the large furrow their crash landing had created and disappeared around the other side, emerging again at the front.
“She’s undamaged! It’s as if our run-ins with the dragoons never happened,” Alis exclaimed, ears quivering with obvious excitement.
“We’ve got her back!” she cried as they boarded, sprinting ahead for the bridge while running her hand along the Ashari’s walls.
“Benjam, are you able to explain what happened to us?” Elarra questioned in her tiny child’s voice as she entered the bridge and sat down at one of the Ashari’s control consoles. “It seems that Epsilon Computer is gone.”
“Yeah, what the hell happened? Elarra, I saw you die!” Kyren exclaimed, a pained look crossing his face. “And you Benjam, you too. How can this be?”
He felt it all rushing out, the pain, the anguish, the despair. And the joy, unmistakable joy at seeing Elarra and Benjam alive again.
“I don’t fully know what happened, but I have a theory,” Benjam replied as he squiggled over to a console.
Kyren glanced at Alis, she seemed engrossed in the system checks she was running. He decided not to distract her and turned his attention back to Benjam. After drawing a diagram on the holoscreen, he began to explain.
“First, you must understand the way a time singularity works. A gravitational singularity bends time, whereas a time singularity warps space. It warps it in such a way as to allow you to see through time. The Epsilon Computer must have used this method to plot Tharox’s future,” Benjam elucidated, his illustrations animating as he spoke.
“Then that is what I saw, the time singularity. I saw my future in it,” Kyren said in amazement. “I saw how to kill Tharox. I knew what to do as if it were a memory that had always been there.”
“Ah, then that is a most fortuitous event. However,” Benjam said, steering the conversation, “it seems that my time bomb had some unexpected consequences.”
“Unexpected would be an understatement,” Elarra remarked.
He could see she was back to the unflappable Oracle. Kyren was relieved to see her mood had improved. Maybe her vision hadn’t been so bad after all.
“Yes, it seems to not just have destroyed The Epsilon Computer, but to have removed it from the timeline entirely. Anything the Computer did has been undone, it would seem,” Benjam continued.
“Alis, how does the Ashari look? Can we fly?” Kyren asked, bored with Benjam’s sciency-talk and hopeful she had good news.
As she turned, he saw her face bore a look of consternation.
She replied curtly, “something’s just not right. Oh, yeah, we should be able to fly. Everything checks out, but something seems off. I can’t find a problem though. The systems just seem different than I remember them.”
“Okay, well in that case, shall we get airborne and back to civilized space?” Kyren suggested. “I’ve got no idea what to do with myself, now that Tharox is gone. Perhaps we stop somewhere that I can get a cold beer?”
Benjam guffawed and Elarra chuckled. Alis turned back to the controls and began the power up sequence. Alarms flashed and nothing happened. Alis stared for a moment at the readouts, then immediately went to work, her hands flying over the holopanel. Symbols on her screen began to turn green, one after another. Kyren felt the rumble as the engines ignited.
“There! That’s weird, though. Kind of like when…” she trailed off as she began her flight check routine.
Finishing, Alis called out, “Okay people, take your seats, we’re ready for liftoff.”
The ship lifted free from the rut in the ground where it was resting and began to hover, the grass flattening in a large circle around the craft as the thrusters maintained orientation.
“Benjam, do one last scan with the sensors, see if we left anything behind,” Alis instructed as she worked the controls, the ship lifting into the sky.
“Negative, Captain Alis. No signals,” Benjam replied after completing his scans. “Epsilon Computer is gone, no sign of it.”
Short moments later the Ashari’s main engines fired and she streaked into the sky. Kyren watched on the monitors as the blue of the sky faded away to black, soon revealing a dense speckling of stars everywhere he panned.
“Hmmm that’s odd. It’s as if… no, it couldn’t be,” Kyren heard Alis whisper to herself.
He watched as she responded to several alerts on her screen, delicate fingers dancing over the controls, returning the red symbols to green.
“Okay, so where to, people?” Kyren prompted as soon as they had reached orbit and he saw Alis relax.
“I say we go to Regalis. I’d appreciate the opportunity to return to my lab,” Benjam requested. “If everything is reset as it would seem, then Regalis has never been attacked, and I may continue my work.”
“If Regalis was never attacked, then the Forty-Seventh fleet was never destroyed,” Alis said. “My family…”
As Alis finished quietly, an unmistakable smile played across her lips.
“Sounds good to me. Elarra, do you have anything, um, recent to add?” Kyren asked pointedly.
“I too agree on Regalis. We can return you to your lab, Benjam. Then we can discuss our next course of action,” was her reply, her face an unreadable mask.
“Fantastic! I’ll plot a jump course home,” Benjam said exuberantly. “Ooh, I can take you all to my favorite skellian roasting pit. You’ll love it, the best skellian goulash this side of Betelgeuse.”
“Um, we have one small problem, folks,” Alis interjected, her dour tone immediately spoiling the jubilant mood. “We’re out of gas, I’m afraid.”
“Wait, what?” Kyren asked.
“The warp drive. The antimatter core that powers the warp generator, it’s depleted. We can’t jump. Engines and other systems run off of the ship’s main powerplant, but the warp generator is powered by antimatter cores. So unless we can find a replacement, we can only use warp gates to get around.”
“Since Tharox was only able to use warp gates to come after us, that suggests there exists one in this system,” Benjam posited.
“There is a carrier signal used by all gates that allows for traffic control, preventing ships from colliding while traversing the portal from opposite directions. Search for a z-band signal,” Alis instructed.
He worked at his controls, calibrating the ship’s sensors, “There! Tracing source. Got it, sending location to your viewscreen, Alis.”
Alis locked the ship onto the gate’s signal and brought the autopilot on line. Then all hell broke loose. Sirens blared as the lights went out. Emergency lighting failed to come on, leaving them bathed in the flickering glow from their screens. The stars spun and whirled in the main viewscreen, as Alis struggled at the manual controls, attempting to arrest the violent spin they had been thrown into.
The grav plate
s kept the g-forces dampened to survivable levels, so they felt no motion. Physically, anyway. Kyren’s mind was reeling as he watched the stars spinning around at such speed. He knew they hadn’t left the planet’s gravity behind entirely. He pictured them falling back toward the planet, ending in a meteoric impact with the featureless green plains.
“Oh dear, we’ve lost control!” Benjam cried.
Spinning less and less as the moments wore on, Kyren could see Alis had regained control. Soon they were back on course, and she had noticeably relaxed. Lights came back on and alarms ceased.
“Okay, so don’t use autopilot, it is definitely not working,” Alis proclaimed to no one in specific.
“What was that?” Benjam squeaked, fear obvious in his voice.
“I’m not sure,” Alis replied. “It seems like the ion coupler is inverted. But it isn’t. And there are a dozen other things that aren’t right, either. It’s like I’m learning the systems all over again, like it’s a whole new ship. I’m afraid to say it…” she trailed off as a green circle highlighted their destination in the viewscreen.
“There’s the gate,” Kyren pointed out, zooming in and revealing the massive warp gate. The great metallic ring was smooth and unbroken, a shiny chrome surface, glowing green around the edges. “Is that green light our indicator to enter?”
“Look at the size of that thing,” Alis said, ignoring Kyren’s question. “It has to be ten times the size of any gate I’ve ever seen.”
“Where does it lead?” Kyren asked apprehensively.
“Um, that’s the kicker. We don’t know,” she answered.
“Wait, what? How do we get to Regalis, then?” gasped Benjam.
“Elarra, please tell me you have some guidance,” said Kyren as he turned to face her.
“I see no other way to leave the system,” Elarra remarked.
“If we’re going to do this, I want to make sure we go through ready for trouble. Kyren, get those shields and weapons ready. Benjam, get sensors ready to scan the astromech database, see if we can get our location after we warp,” Alis commanded.
“Give me a minute,” Kyren said, while scrambling through his list of routines he had created, running diagnostics and checking readings. Funny how similar programming a fighting bot was to running a ship’s weapon systems. Something did seem off, though he couldn’t pinpoint it. He didn’t feel like mentioning it to Alis, she had enough to deal with.
“I’ve got the scanners primed, Alis,” Benjam said, his voice still tinged with fear.
She lined up the ship and hit the thrust, rocketing the Ashari through the gate and into the unknown.
2
Repossessed
Alis knew what was at the root of the strangeness, but she was too afraid to admit it. Especially after having been reunited with her beloved Ashari. And even more, the terrible wounds suffered had all but disappeared. She knew there was only one thing that could account for the differences she had encountered though. The ship had been effectively rewired. The only explanation? Garloks.
Shit, she had a garlok infestation on her beloved ship. Those filthy buggers, she thought. They must not have removed them all back at Keppa station. Hopefully though there was only one. An uncontrolled breeding pair would doom the ship for certain.
At least they seemed to have left life support systems untouched, she mused. Let’s hope the other systems respond as expected. She hit the thrust and the ship surged forward, flying straight and true once she had re-calibrated the controls. The Ashari passed through the center of the massive warp gate, traversing thousands of light years in one small leap through the gate’s sustained wormhole.
She had experienced jump sickness plenty of times, and this was no different. And just as always, it seemed they kept jumping into a shit-show each time. Groggy and barely able to focus, she attempted evasive maneuvers. Thankfully the ship responded faster than her foggy mind, and she was able to dodge incoming fire.
Unable to focus on anything more than simple survival, Alis dodged and rolled the Ashari, barely avoiding the laser fire directed at them from the massive urnak frigate that was parked over the gate they had just exited. The black, oblong ship was festooned with large spines, each a laser emitter. The space around the gate was engulfed in fire, both from the pirate vessel and from the Consortium warship she now saw as she rolled and banked.
“Anybody awake back there?” her voice a low growl as she attempted to concentrate on flying the Ashari.
“Wha… yeah… shields look good,” Kyren said from behind.
“Too much interference from all the weapons fire for me to get a fix on our location at the moment, I’m afraid. I am however relaying the results of the sensor readings. We have three targets, the first is the Consortium Frigate Starhammer, the next is the pirate vessel Despot Scourge. The last vessel appears to be of urnak design but is unidentified in our database,” Benjam rattled on.
It seemed brontians were less affected by jump sickness than humans or rillians, she mused.
“We must turn the tide, let us do what we can to save the Consortium vessel,” Elarra proclaimed. “We will need them to fight what is coming, I’m sure.”
Alis could only grunt in response, focused on preserving their lives first and foremost.
“Okay, I’m bringing weapons online. Who do I shoot, Alis?” Kyren questioned.
Ignoring him for the moment, she maneuvered the Ashari under the Starhammer, placing its’ bulk between them and the pirate vessels. The Starhammer, however, continued to pour on the fire, railguns pumping out deadly streams of armor piercing projectiles.
“We need some breathing room. Benjam, get on the comms and let the Starhammer know we’re friendly. Kyren, don’t shoot yet, we’ll need a plan first,” Alis commanded as she kept the Ashari juking and jiving.
Seconds after Benjam closed the comms channel, the Starhammer ceased it’s barrage of kinetic death. Alis gasped in relief, her heart thundering in her ears from the adrenaline.
“We’ve got some breathing room, at least for a moment. Both those pirate vessels outclass us by orders of magnitude. The Starhammer should be able to handle at least one of them, I believe, but these two seem to have the upper hand at the moment. If we’re gonna have a chance at changing the course of this battle, we’ll need to work fast,” Alis said, and began to explain her plan.
Satisfied everyone knew their part, Alis turned the Ashari back toward the fray.
“Scanning now, Alis,” Benjam remarked. “Although I don’t see how there could be a weak spot in a ship this lar… Wait! There it is, you’re right! Their shield is weakest at this point.”
Benjam marked the spot on the viewscreen for her.
“Elarra, relay that data now. Let’s hope the Starhammer takes us seriously.” Alis exclaimed, failing to dodge an incoming laser barrage. The shield flared and the viewscreen whited out for a moment.
“Shields holding, Alis,” Kyren called out.
As the screen cleared she saw that the Starhammer hadn’t responded. Shit, what now? Okay, on to plan B then.
“Kyren, remember what you did when we took on those dragoons defending the Epsilon Computer?” she asked amidst evasive maneuvers.
“Yeah, I’ve got the routines, I’ll bring them up,” he replied decisively.
“We’re gonna put one right up their tailpipe! Hang on people!” she cried.
The ship banked sharply and dove straight at the spiky black battleship, heading right for the large engine at the rear.
“Prepare for impact with their shields in three… two… one…” she counted down.
As usual the grav plates dampened the g-forces. But had they been able to feel it, they would have been torn apart by the rapid deceleration. As it was, the ship shook and thundered as if it were about to fall apart. The viewscreen went white as their shields disintegrated in a tremendous flash.
But that was good news. The fact that they were able to witness the effects of passing thro
ugh the battleship’s shield meant that they hadn’t been vaporized upon impact. Their shields had been strong enough to protect them. They were completely unprotected now, but so was the pirate vessel, since they were inside its shields.
“Our shields are gone, Alis!” Kyren exclaimed.
“Launch the strike now!” she cried back.
The Ashari’s main gun swiveled onto target and lanced out a bright red beam that punched through the armored cowling deep within the engine. Flame and sparks erupted as debris was blown free. Milliseconds later two bright green streaks shot down the hole created by the cannon. She grinned as the torpedoes penetrated deep into the ship’s engine.
Alis pulled up on the controls and banked, turning them away from the massive battleship. Laser fire lanced out from the many spines and a flurry of beams found their mark, leaving dark furrows in the Ashari’s silver skin. She knew the Ashari’s laser resistant armor was the only thing that had saved them from such a close range barrage.
Speeding away, she watched the pirate vessel’s engine detonate, crippling the ship and dropping its’ shields. The Starhammer capitalized on the turn of events by directing the bulk of its own fire into the now vulnerable battleship. Turning tail, the other pirate ship’s crew must have reasoned their odds had just changed, as they sped for another nearby warp gate. Alis watched them go and grinned.
Suddenly, the controls stopped responding, and the ship went into an approach course, heading toward the Starhammer. Shit! Garloks again?
“Alis, we may have a bit of a problem,” Benjam admitted.
“Yeah, I just lost control of the ship,” she replied, ears flat.
“I know, the Consortium agent I’m speaking with said we are in possession of stolen Consortium property. We are to prepare to be boarded,” he explained, turning from the comm station to face Alis.
Damn, they must’ve had master codes, Consortium overrides that allowed remote control of a ship’s systems. The Ashari was flying toward the massive hangar bay at the front of the Starhammer, and there was nothing she could do about it. A few tense moments later, the ship vibrated as they passed through the force field separating the vacuum of space from the nice atmosphere filled interior of the bay.
