by Andur
A closer look at the reason for the alarm leads me to a system wide message which is flagged as critical. Something like this can be only sent out when a catastrophe happened. Is a ship in need of rescue?
In the next moment I receive a live feed from Oibras. The station is a ruin and its AI is screaming a warning through the whole system. I hastily gather the received information to puzzle a picture of the events together.
Four unknown ships with strange configurations appeared out of nothing on the station's radar, heading directly towards Jupiter and into the restricted flight zone around the station.
Three ships were taking the lead with the fourth following them closely.
I hold my breath while I watch the events from a few seconds ago. While ignoring all warnings the three ships enter the restricted flight zone. It's like they don't even notice the station's existence until the very last moment. Then they open fire. Laser beams so powerful, that they are freely visible lash out at a spherical transporter, wiping it out of existence. Another beam tears a huge scar into the station, overloading barriers and shields. The station is a living habitat. It isn't designed to be attacked like this.
Other big freighters fall under the random attacks of the unknown ships while the first ship passes the station and leaves the engagement area. The ships tore a path of destruction through the waiting vessels.
A second strange ship tries to avoid the area around the station and I notice that it actually produces something like an exhaust jet! The ships are roughly shaped and look a little like claws.
One of the transporters around the station suddenly finds itself in the attacker's path as the powerful laser beams lance out again.
I don't know what went through the head of the transporter's pilot, but being faced with the decision of running away and dying, or taking the unknown attacker with him he does the latter.
He probably noticed the strangely lacking engines of the new ships. There was no way that he could have run away from such powerful lasers. If the first hit doesn't destroy him, then the second or third will finish the job.
A laser beam takes a huge bite out of the freighter, but doesn't destroy it outright. In the next moment the freighter is kicked towards the strange ship like being kicked by an angry god. The pilot must have overloaded his gravity field and killed himself in the process. The other ship has no chance to evade and both ships disappear in a flash of light.
Before the third alien ship gets even close to the station and the surrounding fleet of commercial vessels the station's anti asteroid lasers activate.
The third strange ship lights up as several of the station's laser beams intersect at its position. The huge, over-engineered lasers of the station stay for a whole second on the ship before its energy barrier flickers out of existence. The ship lights up like a matchbox and is reduced to its atomic state.
The fourth ship which was following the other ships starts accelerating away from the station, but it's already clear that its puny engines can't get it to safety as the sky is filled with the station's energy beams. Many of the commercial vessels in engagement range join the station's weapons.
Lasting even longer, the fourth ship takes out a small private ship and one of the merchant vessels. A spread of ten small objects leaves the fourth ship before it is consumed by a huge explosion. I register that one of the mass drivers for smashing asteroids was turned into a weapon by its mining crew.
The small objects wink out of existence as they are picked out of the sky one by one. Luckily they don't turn out to be some kind of warheads. They fly past the station and two manage to get out of engagement range while making slow evasive manoeuvres.
Unfortunately that doesn't save the station. The first attack must have hit something vital and I watch as a huge explosion tears a large hole into the station. Then the lights go out and the station is torn apart by its own artificial gravity and the angular momentum of the station's spin.
I switch my attention to my instruments in order to find the escaped attacker. A moment later I curse myself upon noticing that I am still thirteen light seconds away from Oibras. The light which could inform me of the events hasn't even reached me out here.
The information feed from Oibras is continuing though. Apparently one of the ships around the station took over when the station went to pieces.
An incoming high speed call shakes me out of my observations, so I answer it. The needed level of acceleration to take the call surprises me. There aren't many techno-mages who can accelerate to such speeds. The avatar of a person whom I didn't expect at all appears in front of me. It's Sanguin, the techno-mage elder.
“We have to be fast. You are in a perfect position to intercept the alien intruder. Accellerate now and follow him. You are hereby enlisted as a vessel of the Solar Defence Force.”
What? “Hell! No!” I try to break the connection, but it doesn't work. “Shit!” My next impulse is to activate the manual override. But Sanguin stays where he is, totally unimpressed by my actions.
“It seems like this isn't going to get any easier, even if I took over the mainframe of the quantum net. There are still people who refuse to cooperate. Young one. We are currently being attacked by an alien race and according to the law I am taking responsibility for defending our people, so the least you could do is hear me out.” The old man growls.
“Okay. I listen. There doesn't seem to be a choice.” I want to punch my armrest, but I can't do so while my mind is accelerated to this speed. Sanguin is known to me by watching him over the news. I also got to talk to him in person once or twice in my short life, but I never saw him angry.
Sanguin places both his hands together in a praying gesture. “I'll make this as short as possible since you seem to be one of the problematic cases. It helps that you are a fast one though, so I won't lose too much time while talking to you.”
He continues like he already held this speech a few thousand times since the attack. “Yes, the government hid information about long range teleportation from the public. I am currently uploading a complete explanation to your data core. Everything about our first encounter with them, plus the instructions to modify your teleportation circuit to long range transition.”
He takes a deep breath despite having no need to do so as an avatar. Time is almost standing still while we are both accelerated. “I've also drafted a complete mission plan for your deployment. The instructions should be detailed enough. Let me just inform you of the benefits of taking this assignment.
First you'll get a military rank and influence, depending on your performance. Second, I'll take measures to ensure that you are rewarded properly. If not with money, then with power. The only thing you have to do is to fulfil the mission and find out the intentions and motivations of the attackers.”
My thoughts race as I try to reason myself through the situation. “My ship isn't configured for the-” I stop before Sanguin can rebuke me. His unwavering gaze tells me that he knows the little secret of my ship. “I don't have the resources for such a task.”
Sanguin nods. “That at least is true. That's why I took over the long range teleporter of Oibras Station.”
“It's still working?” I ask. Who would have thought that. Though it's possible. Teleporters have so many fail-safes and all of them have redundant circuits with their own power supplies. If the teleporter was inside one of the bigger fragments of the station then it could still be functioning.
“Yes. Luckily your ship is very close to Oibras. I am currently using the teleporter to fill your ship's cargo bay with resources and war materials. You also got a few blueprints for new weapons which were previously a secret-”
I interrupt Sanguin. “What!? That's dangerous! How do you know where to teleport the stuff? You could destroy my ship!” I've made so many changes to the Coeus that the old plans are completely wrong by now. “Wait a moment! Why don't you use the teleporter to kill that fleeing ship?”
“Calm down. I've access to
your quantum computer. I am using it to triangulate your position and it has a complete log of the changes to your ship. The teleports won't fail. For the same reason I can't hit the enemy ship. It's not linked to our quantum-network and I can't get a good resolution of its position.”
I decide upon a course of action. It's not like I want to get involved, but I can't ignore aliens who seem to kill without reason. And it looks like they already killed a person whom I knew personally. Even if it was just one night. “I accept, just promise me one thing.”
“What?” Saguin asks.
“See to it that my family isn't anywhere dangerous when the shit hits the fan.” I've read enough bad SciFi novels to know what aliens mean.
“Okay. I'll order Aether to relocate to the Forge. That's where the new warships are being built. I guess that's the safest place in the solar system.” He nods to himself. “I almost forgot it. Your ship is so highly automated that you are able to fly the ship alone. You'll need at least one co-pilot on this mission. You can't stay always awake. I'll need a very skilled one for that purpose.”
“No, I don't need an annoying crew-member!” I manipulate my ship's gravity field and accelerate towards the fleeing enemy. Maybe he can't teleport any more stuff to my ship if I am travelling fast enough.
His eyes flick left and right, then he answers. “I am afraid that you won't get around your company. She's already briefed on her new deployment and in a similar situation to yours, so try not to kill each other.” Sanguin cuts the connection and an ass appears in my field of vision.
He teleported my co-pilot directly into my cockpit! That old fart! I contemplate several possibilities to get rid of the uninvited intrusion into my private sphere.
But I don't find a solution that doesn't resort to murder or violates my agreement with Sanguin. I sigh inwardly and deactivate my ability to let the events take their course.
The inviting ass drops into my lap and the impact drives the air out of my lungs while unbearable pain wanders through my entire being. I've made a mistake. I've made a grave mistake! This is worse than anything that ever happened to me.
“Where am I? Why is it so dark in here?” A shivering female voice echoes through the cockpit.
“Geh- ouh...” I breath my death rattle into her ear.
“Kya!” She jumps out of my lap, maybe crushing the last remains of a very important organ while doing so.
I get out of my chair and crouch down, lying on the ground. “Tell my family that I love them.”
“So, sorry! It's that stupid elder's fault. I am Cyla Estene. C- can you make some lights in here? The lights are too dim.” The voice stutters and a pair of hands tries to get me up.
“Gih- Gideon.”
24. ~Meetings.~
“[05:34]-Radiation burst detected, Location: Jupiter orbit”
-Earth, Russian Observation Radio Array
En route to system 34.244-56-7802, Starcruiser Rai
Captain Njel
“I have to repeat my objection against continuing the pursuit. We are violating the restricted sector.” The XO dares to speak yet another annoying rebuke in front of the crew, not realizing that he is undermining my authority. “Captain Njel, you realize that we are violating the senate’s orders.”
I turn my chair to face him. “And do you realize that we can't always stop our pursuit when the Drazi accelerate towards the forbidden sector.” I grab the armrest of my chair tighter and try to ignore the man's stench. He is reeking of fear.
The Drazi are an annoying species of pirates and multiply like a virus if left unchecked. They frequently attack our shipping routes along the border. But if you let them be for too long, they tend to become more aggressive. There are records of them attacking whole planets.
A long time ago the senate forbade the establishment of new colonies in the direction away from the galactic centre. Something frightened them so much that they even stopped all attempts to explore that region.
This wasn't a problem for a long time. The Drazi operated only in a small region so far. But they seem to be wandering along the galactic arm. The Empire is raiding their bases in a hundred light year radius around its borders. It's a gigantic effort to keep them away from our worlds, but it's worth the price.
The real trouble arose when they realized that we don't follow them into the forbidden sector. I don't think that they have a big base there. At least not until recently. In the last few circles they began attacking the colonies along the border to the forbidden sector. After a successful raid they retreat into the void before we can stop them.
I face the crewmen who are on the bridge. “We've followed them already a long way, stopping now would be a waste. We are just a few seconds behind them and all our calculations are saying that we'll get them in the next system. So once we have freed the universe of them we can go back home and tell the senate that we destroyed the menace.” And that their fear of the forbidden sector is absolutely unreasonable. So far every system we passed consisted only out of dead rocks.
“Their drives will run out of power in a few minutes. I recommend that everyone goes to their battle stations.” The officer at the navigation informs me of our status and I nod. He turns back to his station and gives the necessary commands.
The others also return to their tasks. Once our trans-light drive runs out of energy we'll have to try our best to catch the three fleeing ships. We wait in silent anticipation as the time passes until an alarm signals that we are arriving in the next system.
“Falling back to real space!” The navigation officer announces and the ship bucks under me. For a moment I experience the feeling of free fall and then I am pressed into my seat as the ion engines start accelerating us towards the Drazi ships.
“The system seems to be empty, though I get weak electromagnetic signals from the third planet. The Drazi are accelerating towards a planet, probably a gas giant.” The man at the sensor station starts rattling down his results as he gets them.
I tighten my grip on the armrest. “Electromagnetic signals? A civilisation?”
“If it is one, then they aren't very advanced. The energy levels are very low.” The officer replies and I relax a little.
Then he leans closer to his screen and starts mashing buttons. “There are some strange gravimetric distortions around the planet. The Drazi are heading directly towards them, probably they intend to use them in order to hide from us.”
I wince, a look on the central screen tells me that there is no chance of catching them before they arrive there. The Drazi are just a few seconds ahead of us, but that's enough to render our weapons ineffective at these speeds.
“Weapons fire! The Drazi are shooting at something, but not at us!” The officer at the sensors screams and calls a magnified picture onto the screen. Tiny explosions flash up in the darkness around the planet. “One of the Drazi ships was destroyed!”
“Turn the ship around! Decelerate!” The Drazi must have run into something unpleasant. “Set the weapons to defensive fire.”
“A second Drazi ship is gone! There was definitive laser fire, not our or the Drazi's frequency!”
Suddenly the screen lights up in pure white and all the tactical information disappears. “What happened?”
“Laser attack, low energy, but many beams! The energy shields can't take it. We are overloading!” The man at the weapon station screams.
“We can't reverse! We're too fast!” Another voice screams as the bridge dissolves into chaos.
I exhale slowly as I realize that I've led us to our doom. There is no thought in my mind as I flip a cover on my armrest away. Then I push the panic button which launches all the ship's message drones. If we die here, then the empire will at least know what happened.
A second later the ship's shields break.
En route out of the System
Gideon
I place two cups of coffee on the table and muster the woman who introduced herself as Cyla Estene.
&nbs
p; Her eyes are transfixed on the news report which is projected onto the living room's free wall.
Cyla has a slender face with green eyes and long black hair which is bound to a pony tail. I would call her beautiful if it wasn't for her eccentric choice to use silver lipstick and eye make-up. She looks like she was on a man-hunt when Sanguin practically abducted her from Oibras Station.
According to her story she was the station's commander and owner up until its demise. I looked up her career to find out with whom I'll be sharing my ship.
She started her career with buying up tritium supplies from Jupiter. Then she managed her own small company while trading tritium for fusion reactors. While doing so she took an education as a pilot, which helped her in understanding the needs of the market.
Once she established her company on Oibras, she slowly took over the station until the entire thing practically belonged to her. I highly doubt that she did all this legally since her career path is simply too steep. It's highly likely that she used her position to manipulate the market prices once she was able to.
But I don't judge her since she wasn't caught. All her references make her seem very competent. My grandfather always said that everything is allowed as long as you aren't caught. The not getting caught part is the important piece of this advice. Getting caught only shows that you are too stupid to cheat.
My eyes wander down her nice figure and I lean back, taking a sip from my coffee. “Having your company crushed from one moment to the next must suck.”
En route out of the System
Cyla
I try to ignore Gideon's cold and measuring gaze. He isn't even trying to hide it, which speaks volumes in regards to his character. After my forced relocation to his cockpit I landed in a very unfortunate place. I even had to use healing magic to get him back to his feet. It's exhausting if you don't have an aptitude for it.
