by A. K. DuBoff
“Thank you for going over this with us,” Ryan added.
“Anytime.” Cris smiled warmly at them. “We’re on the right track. Stay the course.”
She nodded. “Talk soon.” She terminated the vidcall.
“Well, it wasn’t as bad as it could have been.” Despite his upbeat tone, Ryan still looked concerned.
“I suppose so.” If it wasn’t one thing, it was another. At least a crisis was averted today.
She was about to lock down her desk and suggest they head for bed when a message came in from her father’s handheld. The desk lit up with the urgent communication.
“Fok! Of course there would be something else,” Ryan muttered.
Raena answered. “Hey—”
“They’re heading for Tararia,” he cut in. “Dahl gave me a heads up. Nothing on scan yet. We’re headed your way on the Conquest.”
Ryan froze. “Oh, my stars…”
“I want you up here with us,” Wil continued. “Ryan, you’re welcome to come along.”
Raena’s heart pounded in her ears. “Okay.”
“We’ll be there in five hours. See you then.” The call ended.
Ryan swallowed. “By ‘they’, I take it he means the aliens?”
“I assume so.” Her stomach flopped. They’re coming here? How?
“I thought they came through the Rift? How are they getting all the way over here?”
“I have no idea.”
His brows furrowed. “Do we warn people?”
“What could we say? An invisible enemy is coming to vaporize our planet?”
“No… I don’t know.”
Their eyes met. Fear. Concern. But also determination.
“We’ll stop them,” Raena said. “I not sure how, but we’ll find a way.”
He gave a resolute nod. “Let’s get ready.”
— — —
The initial traces of spatial distortions had begun to form around Tararia by the time the Conquest dropped out from subspace. Two dozen other TSS warships were waiting for them, along with four times as many from the Guard.
Wil assessed the preliminary scan data with Saera. “Well, I guess this is it.”
“Time to find out what we’re really up against,” Raena said from behind him. She stood hand-in-hand with her husband, both looking worn. They’d only arrived on board a few minutes prior and had yet to settle in.
Wil, Saera, and Jason occupied the middle seats in the Command Center. They’d telepathically linked with the ship to get a real-time feed of the scan data so they could monitor the situation. It was feeling eerily similar to the conditions around Alkeer before the attack.
“Come on, join us up here,” Wil suggested, motioning to the two remaining seats on the central dais.
“Even though we’re not TSS officers?” Raena asked.
“You graduated from the TSS. That’s enough qualification for me.”
They obliged, though they didn’t seem entirely comfortable. Granted, the situation didn’t lend itself to feeling at ease.
“Any movement around the other Rift?” Wil asked.
Saera brought up a galactic map with status indicators of various incidents as well as locations of ships. No red was showing near the Rift in the Outer Colonies.
All the same, Wil wanted to confirm with Michael. He initiated a vidcall in a window at the base of the front viewscreen.
“We’re in position,” Wil reported as soon as the call connected. “The spatial distortions are growing.”
“We’ve been monitoring from here. What’s the plan?” Michael asked.
“We’re going to attempt to make contact. Still working out the ‘how’.”
“Okay. What about the fleet by the Rift?”
“Keep a quarter of the ships there. Have the rest disperse to the most populated colony worlds nearby.”
Michael nodded to acknowledge the order, thankfully not protesting to the unspoken subtext. Breaking up the fleet wouldn’t offer protection to those worlds, but it would make the people feel better. That was all they could do.
“We’ll be in touch,” Wil said.
“Good luck.”
The call ended.
“What is the plan?” Saera asked telepathically.
“We try to talk in terms they’ll understand.” Wil’s greatest regret from the last encounter at Alkeer was that he’d waited until the aliens had fully emerged before they’d tried to make contact. Under normal circumstances, that would have been the right move. But these aliens were different. This situation was different. ‘Wait and see’ wasn’t a viable approach.
They had no idea how to pronounce the alien language, or if it even could be spoken aloud, but they did have the tablet of the dialect in its written form.
“CACI,” he addressed the onboard AI, “can you generate a written translation program for the alien languages on the Treaty Tablet?”
“The tablet contains enough language to translate with eighty-two percent accuracy,” CACI replied.
“All right, ignore the Gatekeeper language for now, aside from using it as a reference point for translation accuracy. In the other unidentified language, please attempt to translate the following message from New Taran: ‘We come in peace. We wish to speak with you. What is the name of your race?’ End message.”
“Processing.”
A couple of seconds later, a text message in foreign characters appeared on the lower portion of the viewscreen.
“All right. Let’s get their attention.” Wil accessed the ship’s controls using the bioelectronic interface. “Ready to see how this new imager works?”
“Yes, let’s put a face to these guys,” Jason replied.
“Entering momentary communications blackout.”
Wil activated the imaging protocol, drawing enough simultaneous energy from the PEM to cut out all but life support systems. The front viewscreen refreshed as soon as the burst was complete.
“Well, they should know we’re onto their game now,” he said.
The resulting image from the transdimensional scan appeared onscreen, showing not just the spatial distortions from the regular sensor data but something stirring within them. The initial image resembled shadow art, as if a figure was standing behind an opaque screen. Only, the figure in question was ten times the size of the Conquest itself.
Everyone stared with dismay at the image.
“How big are these things?” Raena asked.
“Remains to be seen,” Wil replied, not looking forward to the answer. “Let’s see what else we can learn.”
He took the text from the message CACI had translated and modified the next scan to be focused beams in the shape of the message characters. No idea if this will work, but worth a shot.
Saera looked over at him with surprise when she realized what he’d done. “Good thinking.”
“It’s a longshot, but you never know.”
Wil let the same modified burst cycle two more times, and then he switched back to the full protocol. The distortions were continuing to grow. If anything, the movement was accelerating.
On the next flash, the forms finally began to emerge. Unfolding in stop-motion in the transdimensional images, he watched inky tendrils unfurl from the micro-rifts, invisible to the naked eye. One of the tendrils was heading directly for the Conquest.
“Orders, sir?” Rianne asked from the tactical station, visibly inching back in her seat.
“Hold steady,” he instructed, hoping it was the right call. Not that they could do anything else but run. And that wasn’t an option.
The tendril made contact. As it did, the visualization system in the Command Center shuddered. Text in the alien language appeared on the screen.
“Oh, my stars!” Raena breathed.
“CACI, can you translate?” Wil requested.
“Negative.”
Saera scowled. “What is it?”
He smiled. “An answer. The name of their race—of course it wouldn’t
have a direct translation.” Now we’re making progress.
They stared at the string of nonsensical characters displayed on the screen.
“Uh... I don’t think I can pronounce that,” Jason said.
“Yeah, that’s not going to work,” Wil agreed. “We need another name.”
Raena thought for a moment. “What about ‘Erebus’, the Greek god of darkness.”
“I’m impressed you could pull that off the top of your head,” Saera commented.
“I went through a mythology phase.” She shrugged. “What do you think?”
“I can say it, so that one hundred percent gets my vote over,” Jason frowned at the screen, “whatever that is.”
Wil nodded. “Erebus, then.”
Saera smiled. “We have contact. That’s a good sign.”
“CACI, translate and send the following message: ‘We want to negotiate peace. Stop your invasion.”
“Isn’t that wording a little harsh?” Raena asked.
“Any other word than ‘invasion’ could have too many meanings. ‘Advance’, ‘approach’. Need to keep it simple,” he replied.
“Good point.”
This time, no response came from the Erebus. The dark tendrils continued to spread from the micro-rifts in the image snapshots, crackling with ethereal energy.
“Okay, we need to let them know we’re serious,” Wil suggested.
Saera nodded her agreement.
“Charge weapons. Hold,” Wil instructed the fleet over the comm. Stars, I hope they don’t take this as cause for an immediate assault.
The status indicators next to ships on the vicinity map switched to ‘offensive’, ready to take action.
“CACI, translate another message. ‘Withdraw, or we will attack’. Overlay on next image burst.”
The computer complied. Several seconds later, a reply came. A single character this time.
Wil frowned. “CACI, translate.”
The result on the screen chilled Wil to his core: ‘No’.
Raena paled. “What do they mean, ‘no’?”
“They’ve already decided our fate. They won’t back down.”
Everyone in the Command Center watched as Conquest kept taking snapshots of the Erebus as the being continued to emerge through the spatial rift. Each image was more horrifying than the last. What began as small tears had widened to kilometers-wide chasms through which tendrils were extending. The tendrils branched and thickened as they reached out toward everything in the vicinity. The sickening freeze-frame of the imaging chronicled their advance, enveloping ships and then the planet itself.
We can’t win. Everything across Wil’s TSS career had tuned his senses to approach every engagement as a potential life-and-death battle. Weighing the different engagement strategies, the probable injuries and loss of life, the enemy casualties. He ran through every possible scenario with the information at his disposal, and there was no conceivable way for the TSS to end a combative engagement intact. At best, a fifth of the fleet might escape. The loss was unacceptable.
He gave the only order he could. “Stand down!”
The command was met with expressions of confusion and shock from the crew, but they complied without hesitation.
“Why?” Jason asked in his mind.
“This is an unwinnable fight. Diplomacy is the only option. We must find a way.”
He saw Jason doing his own mental exercise of how things could play out. Having not been through a war himself, the process was slower, but his determination turned to somber stoicism as he reached the same conclusion.
Raena stood, unwavering, at the middle of the Command Center. “We need to reason with them.”
“No. Surrender.” The statement didn’t feel real, even as Wil said it. Everything they’d been through—the Bakzen War, the overthrow of the Priesthood, facing the Gatekeepers—it was all prelude to this moment. At this critical junction, he found himself helpless.
No, not helpless. We have power beyond physical might. He and his children had the most formidable Gifts of anyone in the Taran Empire, living or dead. They represented both the political and military strength of the Empire, condensed into three individuals at the center of their civilization. They were the first, and last, line of defense.
“We need to go to them on their terms,” he told his children.
They instantly understood his meaning. They needed to approach the Erebus without their physical forms, in the same essence that the alien beings existed.
There was no need for Wil to spell out the danger of the act. The Erebus could strike while they were separated from their physical selves and sever the connection. Or they could attack the essence of their consciousness itself. But it was their only chance. That, or meet the same brutal end as those at the Alkeer Station.
“Okay,” Jason agreed aloud, and Raena nodded her assent.
“What are you doing?” Ryan asked.
Raena looked at him, and there was the buzz of a telepathic exchange.
One look in Saera’s direction, and she knew what Wil was planning. There was no protest in her eyes, only silent understanding.
“I love you always,” he told her.
“I love you, too. Come back to me.”
“I’ll try.”
Wil took the handholds at his command seat and linked with the ship, establishing it as an anchor for the astral projection to come. He sensed Raena and Jason establish their own links, and then they networked with each other. The joining was like grabbing hands to form a triad, only without the physical forms. Together, they left their physical selves behind and ventured into the void.
Normally, Wil found astral projection to be like a flight through space. He could roam freely, the immensity of the universe stretching around him as a pristine starscape in every direction. In the span of moments, he could soar across the galaxy. The part of himself that could journey in such a way extended beyond the limitations of spacetime. There was the energy of more, out of sight, but he’d never extended himself further than exploring the rifts.
This time, as he began venturing outward with Jason and Raena, there was more than the black starscape spread out before him. Invisible to the sensory perception of those existing solely within the confines of spacetime, he now saw the form of the being enveloping the Conquest and the rest of the TSS fleet. Its tendrils wrapped around each ship and connected to a central form reaching down through the cosmic veil from its native dimension. The entity dwarfed Tararia—what portion he could see of it through his extrasensory perception—and that wasn’t the extent of its essence. Energy crackled and swirled around it, as a tornado would break through a storm front, with a funnel extending to bring devastation on all it touched. Wil and his children were grains of sand on a beach compared to the star that was the being. And yet, they needed to get its attention and make it listen.
It was then he noticed that the being’s form was pitted and deformed in places. The entity kept the tendrils in those areas wrapped around itself, as a wounded animal might cradle a wounded paw.
“Are you injured?” he asked. The question was a risk, but he didn’t know what else to say. They were losing the discussion and needed to do something different to have any chance of staying in the conversation.
The Erebus’ energy aura shuddered. Wil wasn’t sure it was from surprise or anger, or perhaps a bit of both.
“You did this.”
The force of the statement in Wil’s mind struck like a physical blow. Never had he experienced a presence so powerful, so ancient. It enveloped him, as though he was not only hearing it in this present moment, but across time—becoming a part of his past, present, and future self. Like some forms of telepathy, he didn’t receive the message as words, but rather sensed the meaning of the statement, which was then interpreted into narrative in his own mind. There was such sadness in the mental tone, only spoken as a faint whisper despite landing on his perception like a deafening shout. The anguish from the bein
g flooded through him in the brief contact. In that moment, he knew that what the Erebus was doing wasn’t an unprovoked attack, but an act of self-preservation.
It took all of his strength not to fall back from the immense force of the being pressing against his mind. He held firm, knowing this open dialogue might be his one chance. “Please, explain what we did so that we may understand. We didn’t mean to hurt or offend you.”
“We had a treaty.”
“You made that agreement with our ancestors over one hundred thousand years ago.”
The being’s aura rippled again. “Has that long passed for you?”
“Yes. Our civilization has transformed since then, and we have few links to the past. We didn’t know there was a treaty.”
“That doesn’t absolve you from punishment for what you did to our kind.”
“Ignorance does not make us blameless, but it should not automatically condemn us to the same fate as those who would act with malice.”
The Erebus considered the position. “Your kind has always wielded too much power for how little you know.”
“Teach us, so we may learn,” Raena chimed in. Wil could feel her straining under the being’s presence, but she was resolute.
Jason joined the front. “You already destroyed one of our stations and killed thousands of innocents. For what? Killing those of us here and now won’t address the underlying issue. Explain what we did wrong so we may share the message.”
“Your kind are spread throughout this galaxy?” the Erebus asked.
“Yes, on many planets,” Wil confirmed.
The Erebus seemed to pull back for several moments. Were it a person sitting across a conference table from them, he would have taken the act to be a whispered side conversation with a colleague. “We will speak with you,” it said when its presence returned full force.
Tentative relief flooded through Wil. “How?”
“We will create a representative.”
The Erebus vanished from Wil’s mind.
He beckoned for Raena and Jason to follow him back to their bodies on the Conquest. The conversation was over, as far as he could tell. He had no idea what would come next.
— — —
Jason took a deep breath as he returned to his body. Every autonomic function was briefly at the forefront of his mind as his senses readjusted to the physical form.
