BALADA: When My Eyes Are Weighed With Sleep I Quench The Evening Candle's Glow

by Solea Razvan

  No, its purpose was transportation and among its cargo where two very important passengers.

  A surge of energy, which was called since ancient times a gust of warp wind shook the space train, not enough to cause any damage or deviate it from its course, but enough to wake up one of the occupants of its VIP room from his nap.

  For a few brief moments confusion and disorientation dominated his person, that was generally what happened when you traverse the realm of reality and the realm of dreams and no more so than when you are inside the warp which existed outside both of them.

  For it was a very mysterious and unnerving place and even veteran sailors and soldiers where not to comfortable with passing through this plane which seemed to be nowhere yet everywhere at the same time.

  As for the drivers of this train the feeling of dread caused by venturing in a place outside of what you considered your ‘normal reality’ was present to them as well. Even though they’ve learned to overcome it and even partially control it, its presence remained an eerie reminder that they didn’t belong here.

  So you should now be able to understand the temporary confusion of the aforementioned passenger, but that quickly gave away to remembrance, as he now reacquainted himself with this plane of existence and thus the confusion disappeared as his mind recovered from the daze and remembered everything and realized that he was on a galactic train, souring in the limitless heavens of space towards its stop.

  It was an Imperial Fleet supply train, carrying essential food, medicine, clothing, and ammunition for the 378th Corps that was stationed on planet Volun 4. The train slithered its way through the warp like some great celestial dragon towards its destination with those supplies, along with the aforementioned corps’s new commander and his knight and chief of staff.

  Namely the newly minted Commodore First Class Metternich per Pelasgiamus and his knight Commodore third class Adrian de Morowetz.

  Metternich was a unique creature amongst the Empire, his hair was black as night and shortly trimmed, but not in a military stile, more like a summer style.

  His skin was dark blue, which was not unheard of in the Empire but not entirely common and finally his eyes where perhaps the most unique thing about him, for their retina was a blue one, but his sclera was of a bright glowing red, which combined with his skin and his voice which was low and a bit gruff made him a very imposing visual figure.

  His uniform consisted of black leather boots, black pants that were secured to his waist by a belt, along with as sheathed sword on his left side, a dagger on the back side of his belt, and a one handed crossbow on his right, his chest was covered in a black tunic, on his shoulder pads where three golden bars that symbolized his rank of Commodore First Class.

  On his chest where it curbed to his sides was two lines of gold buttons united by a series of golden ropes that traversed his chest, they where for both decorative and practical purposes, since the real buttons where on the inner side of the left flap of the tunic.

  He looked like someone who was born for war, who belonged on the battlefield, who would stand when others would fall, that was something no one could deny! Too bad he was a coward.

  “Did you sleep well my liege?” Adrian asked him, he was dressed in the exact same uniform as Metternich but there was one bar on each shoulder to display his rank of Third Class.

  Adrian was an Avian, his race was humanoid in its appearance, he had white feathers encompassing his entire skin, a great golden beak for a mouth and two black eyes that looked like they were constantly zoning into space, also his aforementioned feathers where ruffled and his beak had a slight dent in it, giving poor Adrian the appearance more aching to a crazed half dead chicken than that of a professional soldier. But he was anything but weak, as his past foes or rather the absence of past foes, or any foes for that matter was a very good testament to his skill.

  “About as well as one can, given the current circumstances.” Metternich replied and Adrian gave a nod of agreement and said nothing else, he too felt uncomfortable traveling through hyperspace, but he was more unnerved by being on a train instead of a ship than the fact that he was in the warp.

  “I’ve been meaning to ask Adrian, why when we are about to meet new people do you always stop grooming yourself?” Metternich enquired.

  “People don’t take you seriously when they first meet you if you don’t look pretty, their true nature comes out easier that way, good thing wouldn’t you say?” Adrian asked and gave a slight smile to his commander, one which Metternich returned in kind.

  Ever since they first met, Metternich had always treated him with the upmost respect and professionalism you’d come to expect an officer of his rank to give and receive, that had made an impression on Adrian, which was what eventually convinced him to become Metternich’s follower, a fact that the Commodore would be secretly grateful for but also secretly resentful for the rest of his life, but generally more times he would be the former rather than the latter.

  The seconds ticked away in silence and seeing that the conversation had died down for the moment, Metternich decided to once more go over the briefing papers he had been given for his new command.

  He was using a farview screen to review them and after that was done he started to once more research the culture of the opposing nation.

  The farview or rather this variant of it, was a rectangular shaped mass of crystals with magic runes embedded on its surface, that when activated a mist like gas would emerge from its screen and take the shape and color of whatever the farview’s user desired, or if he preferred it could only project 2d images on its surface, it was very flexible device!

  It was also a very useful tool, one which Metternich regularly used since he could have hundreds or thousands of books stored on it, making it easier to carry and ideal for alleviating boredom.

  But as they got closer and closer to their destination, he silently wished for eternal boredom.

  “I’ll take a lifetime of boredom over any war or battle, at least boredom doesn’t come running towards you with a big sharp magical weapon with the intent to play squash with your head!” he thought to himself, hoping that this tranquility would last forever, but like all good things it had to eventually come to an end, for a beeping sound was heard from the ships internal speakers signaling that they were getting near the exit of the warp and that soon they would be arriving at they’re destination.

  “It is a good thing that they decided to use a warp portal train instead of a ship to get us there, last thing we need is some bloody raid ambushing us before we arrive at our new command.” Adrian said to his liege.

  “Well, despite the best attempts of the seemingly universal and unstoppable power of stupidly to make a wrong decision, the vile forces of logic and reasoning have seemingly prevailed and vanquished this oh, so great foe!” Metternich said in a hammy tone which clearly indicated he was joking and Adrian showed his appreciation with a good chuckle.

  A warp portal was as its name suggests, a portal that is situated on a planet or in outer space which allows faster travel trough the warp if a ship is not using a portal, making it at least twice as fast if not more depending on the state of the warp between two points, the size of the gate and the amount of power it had access too.

  Also, when in hyperspace there was the danger of being ripped apart by gravity fields or energy nexuses if a ship was not in peak condition or low on power and if it was traversing a less than ideal hyperspace route, well you get the general idea.

  Why a wandering comet, a small dust field, of even the remains of a small passing solar flare could tear a ship apart!

  A warp portal along with the great power provided by either the sun or a planet’s energy nexus engulfed a ship or in this case a train in a protective field as it traversed the warp, protecting it to a certain degree from such perils and shredding whatever was in its way, as long as it was not too great an obstacle.

  Also ships who did not use jump gates had to ha
ve a build in warp sanctuary and plenty of power crystals to make the jump, a ship using a jump gate would not require an expensive warp sanctuary or power storage crystals in order to jump, all the ship needed was it to be was airtight, also the energy required to enter and exit the warp was provided by the starting gate and the destination gate, thus the gates where faster and cheaper and that was always the way to go.

  But for all its advantages the aforementioned warp train had no means of its own to enter and exit warp without a gate.

  It was also impossible for trains to change and adjust their route when using one, this was one area where they where outclassed by ships.

  Also if you’re enemies manage to find just the right conditions along you’re potential route with the train, they could pull you out of the warp and ambush you, a train of course could be retrieved with a special support ship designed just for that purpose and be back on its way, but until then it was vulnerable to attack.

  But that was a moot point since military trains where armed to the teeth, that combined with their long bodies gave them excellent options for defense, they could form a protective sphere or dodecahedron, which unlike ships had no vulnerable point and had excellent anti-light ships defenses, it truly was the safest way to travel when confronted with pirates or enemy space raiders.

  Fully fledged warships where an entirely different matter and when it came to that a ship was the way to go if you wanted to outmaneuver and outrun them.

  So it was a constant debate between the advantages of rigidness but high security against greater flexibility with freedom but also the presence of an unknown danger and many supporters of both sides argued day and night over which was best.

  For both means of transportation had their pros and cons, but for the current route which took the train trough friendly territory and lands in which the Empire was the dominant power (at least for now) the train was best suited for such a purpose, also many would think that a fleet corps commander would never ‘lower’ himself to ride a simple train instead of a battleship and that was also the reason Metty chose this, since it also gave him the element of surprise over his potential enemies.

  And for the young Commodore First Class that thought brought him some piece of mind from his troubles.

  “Though I am grateful that I will not have to worry about being torn to shreds by some small space pebble or flying into a mine field and being ambushed while traversing or entering a new system, the idea that I have to face death sooner rather than latter is not a very appealing one.”

  Metternich thought to himself as he lamented the sad state of affairs he currently found himself in and within his mind he briefly looked back on how he had arrived to his current predicament, thoughts that he would eventually write down in his posthumous memoirs.

  Extract from the book “Confessions, an Admirals tale volume I”

  For the past three years I had been a sailor in the Imperial navy, since that was what the state wanted of its citizens whether they were willing or not and despite my titanic efforts to avoid the whole war, fate had other plans for me!

  Before the war I was running a medical transport business and one day my ship was boarded by a pirate raiding party from the Republic and like any sane sentient with half a brain I immediately surrendered and asked for parole, which was a fancy way of saying: ‘If I do not fight you and surrender all my goods, you will do me the honor of not introducing my brain to your axe’.

  It worked out for the most part, the aforementioned Republicans seemed alright ,about as alright as killers and thieves and God knows what other kind of madmen and women from one of the most savage dictatorship know to the galaxy could be.

  It was only myself and Akanthos that day and I am grateful for the fact that none of the women who sometimes served on my ship where present.

  Thrust me, those Republicans may look like pleasant fellows, with they’re silky long hair, pointy ears, shiny skin, and deep beautiful eyes and absolutely gorgeous humanoid anatomy( just because I don’t like them, doesn’t mean I can’t admit they’re pretty!) but that’s the only good thing about them.

  Though I am not saying that their particular brand of savagery was worst that the one practiced by the Empire or Federation oh no, we all had an equal timeshare in that, theirs was just of a different flavor, that’s all.

  And to be hones as individuals they were pretty decent fellows.

  That is if you’re not they’re rivals, of which the Imperium or Empire as it was called back then (and is still used in battle cries) found itself at that particular moment in time.

  As they looted our ship taking anything they could: pills, syrup, cushions, fabric and fabric samples for footstools (seriously what kind of pirates steals stool samples?) at one point they opened the crates that contained bottles filled with medicinal alcohol.

  Alcohol that was to be specifically used externally and only externally!

  And pirates being pirates they immediately opened the bottles and started drinking it, granted the alcohol was put into recycled wine bottles, but unlike what the press would want you to believe, we did not intentionally put them in those bottles in the faint hope that pirates would pop out of nowhere and start consuming them, but rather the fact that the bottles were cheap, at the ready and reliable for our purposes and since our venture was a small one we needed every penny we could skim!

  So I tried frantically to warn them, because honestly who deserves a slow and painful death? But my pleas fell on deaf ears, mostly from the fact that they did not speak Imperial Standard and I was not familiar with their language, that and the fact that at that point in time the two of us where both tied and gagged in a corner of the room, made my chivalrous intentions doomed to failure.

  Well not a total failure, the by then half drunken pirates where having a good laugh at how the two of us where moaning and struggling with the ropes and gags as we tried to stop them and one of our viewers liked out impromptu mime show so much that he decided to reward me with a good kick in the chest that made me collapse to the ground and elicit a bout of laughter from his comrades.

  A moment later the rest of our adoring audience joined in to let me know just how much they ‘appreciated’ me and they appreciated me a lot!

  It only lasted a few moments but it was like hell, but even so I wanted to stop them from consuming the alcohol.

  And to those of you who did not spent their youth studying medicine, the reason medicinal alcohol is not used for consumption is that there is the danger of it containing methanol, which is a very poisonous type of alcohol, why just 10 ml of the stuff can render you permanently blind and 30 ml can kill you!

  Now don’t misunderstand, every bottle of medicinal alcohol is purified before being released to the general public, but the main problem with our stock was that we where transporting it to a purifying facility! And with those idiots chugging it down their throats like it was ice tea on a beach you can guess what followed immediately after.

  Now, I was not to fond of them back then and my opinion over the years has not changed by much, but even if they where a cutthroat band of thieves and murderers, who if they could they would have sold both me and Akanthos to be some plantation owner’s slaves or worst playthings, but as I said before a slow and painful death in which you become blind, you’re insides burned, every muscle in your body spasmed and intense pain jolted throughout your body was not something I would wish on anyone, not even them!

  So I laid there on the floor waiting for the inevitable and when it came it was truly horrible, a great scream of agony erupted from every pirate, forming a hellish choir that could be heard from all over the ship, as one by one the poor souls had their fates sealed.

  As the grotesque scene unfolded around me, a sudden flash of light and a great boom came from my left, I turned my head to see what had just happened. Much to my horror, I discovered that one of the pirates in his pain induced frenzy had fired an arrow into one of his comrades, incinera
ting the poor or fortunate taffer in an instant.

  This made all hell break loose or rather more of it, as the pirates started firing their bows and swinging their sword and maces around causing an inferno of fire, water, ice, wind, earth to engulf the corridors, of my ship and the pirate’s ship.

  Akanthos managed to get hold of a broken bottle and cut his bonds free and bless his souls he dragged my beaten and bloodied body to the sleeping quarters, where we locked the doors and waited for the carnage to end.

  After a few minutes of what can only be describe as a wall of horrid sounds, silence fell and after untying me and waiting what seemed like an eternity, we armed ourselves with the axes that our ship had in case of fire outbreaks, opened the doors and cautiously peered out to have a look.

  What we saw was something out off a horror movie, bodies laid everywhere, blood, excrement, and piss pouring out from them, the walls where filled with scars from the weapons discharge and a foul smell of death permeated the entire hull.

  We continued our little journey throughout the ship, driven by a curiosity, which when you stop to think about it was borderline suicidal, but to our luck every pirate had consumed the alcohol.

  After a few minutes we located the captain of this pirate crew and after a few gentle prods from my axe, we could finally relax.

  I thought that the worst was over and gave out a breath of relief, when all of a sudden the ship shook violently. Akanthos and myself gave each other a look of worry, we both hoped that the warp sanctuary had not been damaged, when all of a sudden the sound of footsteps echoed throughout the ship as the door before us was blasted open and armed warrior poured in.

  Much to our relief it was the Imperial Fleet who had boarded our vessel, the cavalry had arrived! A little late for my taste, but that’s big government for you!

  And I must say the look on their faces was priceless, behind me there was a corridor filled with battle scars, dead pirates all about and there I was bruised and bloodied, standing atop of the pirate captain with a bloody axe in hand( courtesy of my prodding of the corpse a moment ago to ensure that he had expired).