Obsidian Ressurection

by T J Bryan

  After perhaps fifteen minutes of shouting, drum rolling, and horns blaring, a single chariot entered the shallows of the river. The chariot had a driver who guided what Farn assumed was two horses, a passenger, and a bowman. The river was a bit too deep for the chariot and the driver of the chariot struggled and for a moment Farn thought the chariot might be upended and sent down river by the currents, but the driver maintained control and the chariot and its' passengers arrived on the sand spit. They paused perhaps 100 meters from Farn and her campfire. The archer stood tall and unleashed a bolt. The arrow fell not more than half a meter from Farn's foot. Nice shooting thought Farn. But she understood that the shot was not meant to harm but to intimidate. She thought about simply shooting the archer with a plasma bolt, but decided against such action. Instead she simply leaned back in her chair and feigned a yawn.

  After a few minutes a single man approached the campfire. He was tall and his body covered by many scars, some of which were recent. Across his forehead was the remains of a deadly slash that should have killed him long ago. His hair was long and fell well to his shoulders and little ribbons or ornaments tied braids into his hair. His skin was bronzed from years spent in the sun and Farn could see black spots and patches across his chest that she interpreted as the early signs of skin cancer. He was a warrior, thought Farn, who simply had spent way to much time in the sun. From his belt hung a dagger and a short sword.

  Farn remained seated as the man approached. His eyes never left Farn and he did not glance or look at the representative from Alathon who stood not more than three meters from him. The man did not bow, or prostrate himself before Farn. He simply approached within three meters, adopted a stance with his feet apart, and his head held high. He said nothing, but the snarl on his face told Farn everything. Here was a man accustomed to victory, a hard man, and clearly a leader who was intimidated by no one. Yet as Farn could see a man destined to die within the year from melanoma cancer. Around his waist Farn noticed bunches of what she assumed were dead flowers, but as she looked closer she saw that they were the ears of his fallen enemies. The man or leader of the charioteers was a barbarian. He was a murderer.

  Farn made a decision that would haunt her for the rest of her life. She realized that to bring peace to this land was probably hopeless, and that she could simply not remain as the god of the skies to enforce a peace. Farn rose and walked toward the barbarian leader. He stood taller and ground his feet deeper into the sand. This was a man Farn realized who would understand no reason, no argument for peace, no compassion. As Farn approached he spat into the ground before her feet and reached for his dagger. Then with a sudden move he lunged at Farn.

  Farn drew her pistola and shot the barbarian through the skill. His head vaporized in a flash. The headless body fell onto the sand as blood spilled on the sand from a still beating heart. Farn who found herself shocked by her own actions, turned, walked back to her plastic chair and sat down.

  "Now let us begin to talk of peace," she said.

  ...

  Hsi System - Ragnarök - Year 3246. October 10 ET: 14:33

  Silvi sat in her jump seat behind Captain Arast's captain's chair for almost an hour watching the freighter launch a single heavy lift transport to the landing pad on Feranon. The heavy lift vehicle made a round trip every two hours, but Silvi's attention was not on the freighter but upon the warship which stationed itself in high orbit above Hsi. With each orbital pass Rozel Eldjárn, Ragnarök's defense specialist, gathered data and an assessment of what they had labeled as H1; the warship.

  Rozel had estimated that the capacity of the freighter was perhaps 200,000 gross weight metric tons in cargo capacity given her length and girth. Silvi thought to herself that was a lot of fish.

  The warship remained something of an enigma. Fusion engines with reaction mass jectors were a very old design and one proven reliable over almost a five centuries. But not suitable in a modern warship. Silvi caught herself laughing at the idea of 'modern.' Her own ship, the Destructor Ragnarök, had been commissioned and built well over three hundred years ago, yet she was still state of the art in warship design and construction. With the descent of The Dark nothing had advanced and everything seems to have fallen apart.

  Silvi's conclusion was that the warship was a very old design and that it had somehow survived the Great War, perhaps on an outer colony, or a forgotten or unimportant system. The ship was not of Greayson or Unity design. Perhaps it was a left over from one of the smaller confederations that had tried to remain neutral or simply hunkered down and tried to offended no one. However she did note that the freighter was accompanied by a warship. Commerce and trade in peaceful times never required a warship to guard a freighter, and Silvi's conclusion was that the freighter and its' load of fish was somehow in jeopardy without an escort. Once again she realized that there were dangers out here she could not yet fathom.

  After five days the loading seemed to be complete and the freighter set off for a portal in the distance.

  "Mr. Milford," asked Arast of her astrogator, "Where is that freighter headed? What portal is that?"

  Niles Milford seemed startled by the question, but soon was hammering away at the keyboard of his astrogation station. Moments later her spoke, "I see an entry portal to a system called Old Stones. It's fifteen days tunnel time and the EG has very little to say about the Old Stones system, except that it is linked to three other systems and one returns to Wu. That's about all I know."

  Silvi thought a moment. Nothing ventured nothing gained she remembered her father saying long ago. "Captain Arast, let's follow those two ships to Old Stones. Let's give them a fair head start, but not one that allows us to loose them if they jump beyond Old Stones to another linked system."

  "Yes Commodore," Replied Anna Arast.

  Moment later Silvi could feel the deck of the Ragnarök pitch slightly as they began a slow run toward the distant portal to Old Stones.

  Sixteen hours later they entered the tunnel for Old Stones. Silvi took the time to consult the EG about the system but there was little to be found. Old Stones was an unformed system. The system lacked sufficient mass for form a star or even large bodies. It was as its' name implied, simply a wide expanse of rocks and stones meandering through the void. Since the travel time in tunnel was fifteen days Silvi decided to spend the first three days resting the crew and studying. The remainder of tunnel time was spent in endless drills and preparation for potential battle.

  "Entry into Old Stones in five," Pilot Paris said.

  Silvi looked around her bridge and green crew. They seemed to have come together and the many drills had tightened both their sense of crew but also their skills at fighting a warship. Silvi found Captain Arast solid and clearly would make a fine full captain.

  Moments later they entered Old Stones and a brief scan of the system revealed a jumble of rocks, stones, and dust. Silvi could see that some of the larger rocks were almost planetoid in size but most of the space was dominated by rocks no larger than the Ragnarök herself. Silvi's first reaction was that a lot of ships, warships, could hide here and no one would be the wiser until they were attacked.

  "Mr. Eldjárn can you give me a fix on H1 and H2?" Captain Arast asked.

  Rozel Eldjárn was already working his station well before Arast asked for a fix. Moments later he responded. "This is a really dense system. I'm having trouble locating them. If they entered only eight hours before us, and given the slow speed of the freighter, they cannot be far. It's just all this junk out there."

  "Astrogator Milford, can you determine where the portals are? Old Stones is a most unlikely destination for a boat load of fish. They must be headed elsewhere."

  Niles Milford had launched a number of algorithms and sub-routines in his astrogation system all searching for the known portals. "I'm not seeing any portals at this time. There is so much junk out there that at any distance beyond 90,000 kilometres my systems are blind. Too much rock and dust."

  Silvi c
ould see Captain Arast think for a moment. The captain asked, "Pilot Paris? How clustered is the rock garden here at Old Stones. Is it compact and with an edge, or just an undifferentiated wide spread jumble?"

  Sal Paris responded, "Well, it is an unformed system but it wanted to form once in the past so the center is definitely more dense than the edges. In fact I would venture to say there is an edge or border where there will be more open space."

  "And if you were piloting that freighter Mr. Paris, what would you do to cross this system?"

  Paris thought for a while before responding. "I'd head for the less dense space. To travel through all this stuff will take months, even if you had a map. No, I'd definitely say they would go around and not through this pile."

  "Well then Pilot Paris, take us to the edge of the jumble and let's see if we can find H1 and H2."

  Two hours later of dodging and jinking around rocks and dust Ragnarök emerged into far less crowded space. Immediately Rozel Eldjárn spoke, "Captain. I have ships here. Here at the edge. With energy signatures. More than two." Rozel was working his station hard and was so intensely concentrating he seemed to forget his responsibilities.

  "Mr. Eldjárn, what do you mean by more than two. Two of what? Ships?"

  "Yes captain. I see H1 and H2 and then dozens of smaller ships. The small ships are perhaps two or three times larger than a Commonwealth runabout. Very small, by warship standards, but they seem to be attacking H1. H2 seems to making a run for perhaps a portal in the distance. It's quite a fight and it seems restricted to energy weapons, like small scale plasma cannons or really big plasma rifles."

  "And the distance to this dust up?"

  "About 1,200,000 kilometers," replied Pilot Paris. Before Captain Arast could ask her next question Paris continued, "At our best time we could be on station in about four hours on reaction engines. It's out there about 4 light seconds or so."

  Captain Anna Arast turned and looked to Slivi for instructions. Silvi just nodded. They both knew what needed to be done.

  Arast responded, "Best time Mr. Paris. Bring us to the fight. But let's hold back by 200,000 kilometers just in case. I'd hate to discover too late that someone in that nasty tangle had an anti-matter weapon."

  "Now Mr. Eldjárn I want to know about those attacking ships? Quantity, speed, arms?"

  "I have some data now, but we need to get a lot closer. Those ships are small. If human their crews cannot be more than two or three and still support a weapons system. The energy signatures for the propulsion systems seem muffled or obscured somehow. Perhaps its' shielding of some kind. We need to get a lot closer."

  "And the number you can detect? How many are there against H1?"

  "Perhaps thirty give or take. They are moving quickly and there is still rock here which obscures their movement."

  "All right Mr. Eldjárn I want a status every five minutes regardless of whether you have new information or not." Arast stood from her chair and stared at the vid screen. Two small dots surrounded by a green circle was all she could see from this distance on the screen. One dot labeled H1 and the other H2. Even at this distance it was clear that H2, the freighter, was making a run for what Silvi and Anna Arast assumed must be an exit portal. The warship H1 seemed to be taking all the heat of the attack. Curious thought Silvi. Commerce raiders or pirates might attack an escort ship, but only to enable them to take the prize freighter. Yet none of the attacking forces were anywhere near the freighter. This was not piracy or commerce raiding Silvi thought. This was blind aggression.

  Three and a half hours later Pilot Paris decelerated the Ragnarök in order to maintain a safe distance from the fight. As they approached Rozel Eldjárn had kept up a steady stream of information on the attackers and H1. The attacking force was made up of 28 small ships each no larger than 25 meters in length and perhaps 8 meters wide. They seemed of uniform construction and were powered by fission engines with large reaction jectors. The engines and the necessity for keeping reaction mass would indicate that the majority of the internal structure of the small ships was taken by engines and reaction fuel. The crew quarters must indeed be very tight. The attackers, which Silvi had named 'Shorts', seemed to be getting the best of the old warship. Rozel had detected atmosphere leaking from one side of the ship, and a sudden decrease in her energy signature. Both Silvi and Anna realized that one of H1's engines must be damaged and soon the speed of H1 declined.

  Silvi knew that she should not get involved in someone else's war. And she was determine to hold to that principal. She had no idea who was in the right and who was in the wrong. Not that it mattered in war. Both sides by definition in Silvi's mind were wrong. Silvi realized that she was a police force and that if the opportunity arrived she might well try to separate the two sides to prevent further violence, but Silvi lacked information and intelligence to allow her to intervene. Out here in The Dark one needed to be very careful. Peacemakers were often seen as the enemy by both sides in war.

  "I have incoming. Five of those 'Shorts' just broke off from the fight and are heading our way. Intercept in 34 minutes."

  Silvi realized she had been standing for almost an hour so she returned to her jump seat behind the captains chair.

  Captain Arast spoke, "Hail those incoming ships Mr. Eldjárn. Tell them to stay away by 80,000 kilometers or be destroyed. Ask them also to state their intentions."

  Silvi now examined the greatly magnified vid screen and the approaching 'Shorts.' Five tiny dots surrounded by red circles were on the display. Next to each was a countdown clock indicating time to interception.

  "No response captain. Nothing is coming back."

  Arast continued. "Confirm Mr. Eldjárn that the weapons on those shorts are simple plasma cannons of small bore. Do you see any tubes.?"

  "Negative captain. If they have launch tubes for missiles they will have to be small. But I don't think they have anything but plasma cannons. Their mass is just too small."

  Anna Arast knew that a small plasma cannon at short range could damage the Ragnarök and she was determined to keep the Shorts at a distance.

  Megan Jónsson was her weapons specialist and Anna called out. "Mr. Jónsson, dial down a 'K' please to its' lowest power but bright enough to be seen and put one out there at 40,000 kilometers. Well ahead of those incoming shorts. Lets call it a stand off warning."

  Moments later a 'K' class missile shot from one of the 24 launch tubes of the Ragnarök followed by a very bright flash and a vid screen that blinked to attenuate the light for a moment.

  "Mr. Eldjárn do we have any change of course with those Shorts?"

  "No Sir," replied Rozel. They are still coming. Intercept in thirty nine minutes."

  "How close until those plasma cannons might cause us damage Mr. Eldjárn?"

  "Hard to say Captain. But given what we have observed so far, no further than 100 kilometers. I'd hate to have them 50 kilometers in. Closer than that distance hits could be nasty. Our ship could easily take many of those hits, but you never know. They might get lucky had hit something important."

  "Thank you Mr. Eldjárn. Mr. Jónsson give me a full dialed up 'K' please in the center of that gaggle of Shorts. On second thought give me two, and on my mark."

  Megan Jónsson replied, "All ready. Two dialed up 'K's ready for launch on your mark."

  Silvi leaned back in her chair and watched Captain Arast intently. She thought that those incoming Shorts must know the Destructor was a powerful warship that could easily destroy them. The warning shot should have told them all they needed to know, but still they came on. Either their human crews were foolish or they lacked scanning equipment. Then Silvi realized, they might not be human at all. Aliens? Droids? Human Fanatics?

  Captain Arast spoke, "Mr. Eldjárn give me a countdown on S1 through 5 please. By 1000's."

  As Rozel Eldjárn began a count down from 18,000 kilometers out Silvi pondered their options. She could run. If Abel were here now he would probably advise that action but without por
tal information she had nowhere to run. They could sit here and take whatever those five Shorts had to offer and therefore demonstrate the superiority of her ship and armor. Or Ragnarök could destroy all the incoming Shorts and simply watch what happened to the battle in the distance.

  When Rozell hit the countdown mark of 1,000 kilometers Captain Arast turned again to Silvi. "Go ahead Captain," Silvi said.

  "On my mark Mr. Jónsson fire two 'K's. Load all batteries just in case. Missiles only, we do not need sand casters at this time. Prepare our plasma cannons for defense."

  Silvi could see Ana was waiting for the last moment. Perhaps the Shorts might realize their error and turn away.

  Six minutes later Rozell hit 1,000 kilometers. Anna Arast stood and called out "Mark. Fire Mr. Jónsson." Silvi felt the slight bump under the deck as two 'K' class multi-gigaton missiles sped toward the incoming shorts. Ana had fired at the last moment. Waiting any longer might place her ship in danger from the 'K's explosive force.

  "Time to impact?" Arast asked.

  "Five seconds," replied Megan. "Four, three, two, one."

  Megan need not have called out impact as the vid screen flashed with intense light. Attenuation lasted a few seconds and then the vid screen restored itself. All five shorts were gone. Like fish in a barrel thought Silvi. Like fish in a barrel.

  "Incoming Captain. All the remaining Shorts attacking H1 have veered off and are heading out way. Intercept in 46 minutes."

  Anna sighed at the thought of killing them all, but if they would not stand off she had no other option. "Mr. Eldjárn what is the status of H1 and H2?"

  "H2 just made a jump through a portal and out system. H1, the warship, seems damaged but is still under power and headed to the same portal."

  "Mr. Milford track that exit portal. I want a backwash analysis. We will follow H1 and H2 to wherever they are headed."

  At 1,000 kilometres out Anna launched four 'K's at 19 incoming shorts. They were all that was left of the battle against H1. Moments later they were dust and gas destined to join the debris of Old Stones for eternity. Silvi wished she could have captured one of those Shorts or even been able to examine the wreckage, but dialed up 'K's were simply too nasty to allow any part of those small apparently thin skinned ships to survive even as flakes of metal.