by Thomas Fay
‘There’s something I’m missing, isn’t there?’ Izikiel asked.
Cassandra smiled but didn’t reply.
‘Wait. The technology is obsolete because there isn’t anyone left to build it anymore. But where are all the people?’
‘Now that, disciple, is the real question,’ Cassandra said.
Izikiel fell silent as he considered the human-form Elemental’s words. Where are all the people? He had seen several hundred people on Vesta. But then most of them had been wiped out by the Void Lord citadels. Aurora had been a ghost planet with only a solitary human-form Elemental as its final Guardian. Da’Amo had told him that the Void Lords had swept through the colony worlds and decimated humanity. A deep seeded feeling of unease began to well up within Izikiel as realisation slowly dawned on him.
‘How many people are actually living on the colony worlds?’ he asked.
A strange silence descended throughout the ship as everyone appeared to consider the question. Jonas was the first to answer.
‘Vesta had a population of about thirty thousand, predominantly living in and around the New Babylon star port. Most of them made it off world. It’s unlikely that those living along the deep desert trade routes would have survived.’
‘What about the other colony worlds? We know Aurora is lifeless.’
‘Tellus is undoubtedly the most heavily populated of the seven colony worlds. Its vast skyscrapers stretch well into the planet’s atmosphere,’ Vorn said.
Izikiel recalled his vision of Vorn as a child, standing on a landing platform with his parents, silhouetted against a backdrop of futuristic buildings.
‘You were born on Tellus, weren’t you?’ he asked.
Vorn nodded.
‘Yes. But I moved to Ceres as a child. It was a strange contrast to the endless cityscapes of Tellus. It was essentially a primitive technology world, full of lush greenery and wooden buildings. It would have barely had a hundred thousand people living on it.’
‘What about the other worlds?’
‘Well, Pomona and Vertumnus were heaviest hit during the Void Lord attacks. Their cities were reduced to little more than small trading outposts. Pomona has flourished more over the years, mainly thanks to its abundance of natural resources,’ Vorn explained. ‘That leaves only Fortuna. Last time I was there it had two reasonably sized cities of about two hundred thousand people.’
‘That’s it? That’s everyone?’ Izikiel asked.
‘Apart from a few scattered asteroid bases and space stations, yes. That makes about five million people altogether, by my count.’
Five million people. But Earth had over six billion people living on it during my time, how could this have happened? Izikiel felt a sense of extreme isolation and partial despair set in as he finally understood the full extent of what he was fighting for. He felt the weight of his calling on his shoulders. Moving towards the couch, he sat down. His hands found the photograph in his pocket. Pulling it out, he stared at the blue eyed woman for a while. Somehow it made him feel better as her smile chased away the feelings of despair.
‘No wonder we haven’t seen any other ships out there,’ Te’Anne said.
‘That’s for sure. Less than a thousand ships remaining and not enough people to really fly them. I never realised that things were this bad,’ Jonas said.
‘I guess living on Vesta we were slightly isolated from what had happened everywhere else. I suspect that this wasn’t exactly a fact that the magistrate of New Babylon wanted widely publicized either,’ Xavier said.
‘But why hide the truth from us?’ Jonas asked.
‘Because they needed us to believe that everything was alright. I’m sure most people knew on some level of the devastation caused by the Void Lords. But if you don’t hear about it all the time and don’t know the details then it’s easy enough to get on with normal life.’
‘I guess.’
Cassandra’s smooth tone cut through the conversation.
‘I hate to interrupt but the ship’s sensors have just detected something approaching us.’
‘Another asteroid?’ Vorn asked, already moving towards the control room.
‘No,’ Cassandra replied, shaking her head. ‘It’s another ship.’
SIXTY FIVE
The atmosphere in the control room was one of heightened anticipation. Following Cassandra’s announcement, they had all crowded around the forward view screen. Even the little girl had re-appeared and stood next to Xavier. Leaning over, the powerful scavenger scooped her up in his massive arms and hoisted her up onto his shoulders. Izikiel was becoming accustomed to seeing the two of them together. He was glad that Xavier was looking after her. On some level, Cassandra’s words still lingered at the back of his mind but he found it difficult to believe that the little girl could be a powerful true believer and even more so that she could be a disciple. Her display of power with the waterfall back on Vesta did cast some credence to the human-form Elemental’s theory though.
‘So what are we looking at?’ Jonas asked.
Craning his neck forward, he stared at the view screen. It was showing the amethyst gas giant directly ahead of them, partially obscuring the Tellus sun. The effect created a strange purple haze as the light from the distant sun refracted through the gas giant’s halo.
‘There, bottom right hand corner of the screen. It looks like a small freighter ship,’ Cassandra said.
She adjusted the controls. A section of the screen expanded and magnified, showing a dark metallic ship. Its bulky design was similar to that of the Valiant Crusader but it appeared smaller. It also appeared to be damaged as plumes of gas slowly vented from its sides. A series of small metallic panels floated around its mid-section.
‘Are they broadcasting anything?’ Vorn asked.
‘No,’ Cassandra replied.
‘Alright, hail them.’
Cassandra pressed a switch on the console in front of her and said, ‘Unidentified vessel, this is the Valiant Crusader ID-77445-TDD. We have you in our sights, do you require assistance?’
Silence filled the cabin as everyone held their breath. Cassandra repeated her communication. After a long silence, a heavily distorted voice resounded throughout the control room.
‘Thanks...to Serafine...travelling for...hit by...require immediate...’
The message faded into static. Cassandra turned to Vorn.
‘What do you want to do?’ she asked.
Vorn seemed to consider his options for a moment before replying.
‘This could be a ruse. It’s not the first time that I’ve seen something like this, a seemingly damaged ship in an isolated region of space. When another ship approaches to assist, it’s attacked and boarded.’
‘But what if they’re really in trouble? Surely you wouldn’t turn your back on them?’ Te’Anne asked.
‘No, but we need to be careful. I’ll need to take us in closer so that we can scan them properly.’
‘Leave that to me,’ Izikiel said.
‘You mean you can…?’
Izikiel smiled. Then he was gone. He floated up through the purple haze created by the Tellus sun’s rays refracting through the amethyst gas giant’s corona. He felt the touch of the Eternal Flame flow through him as the distant sun’s rays washed over him. His thoughts turned to their upcoming arrival on Tellus and what that would bring. The fact that a human-form Elemental had been unable to tell him what had happened on Tellus concerned him greatly. He took small comfort in his growing ability to command the power of the Eternal Flame.
Approaching the other ship, Izikiel saw straight away that the damage they had seen was real. A series of deep gashes marred its metallic surface. White vapour was escaping slowly from a damaged side panel and a darker gas was venting from underneath the ship. Several metallic panels interwoven with complex circuitry spun harmlessly past him.
Moving around the ship, he saw that one of its rear engines had also sustained severe damage. Its fuselage was bent inw
ards and a sizeable piece was missing. The ship was adrift.
Floating through the outer hull, Izikiel entered the ship. He found himself in a narrow corridor. Moving along its darkened interior, he reached a large compartment similar to the one on board the Valiant Crusader. Except that this one was filled with people.
Men, women and children of all ages sat and stood huddled throughout the compartment. Their faces clearly denoted their predicament as they clung to each other. Izikiel had seen enough.
‘We need to help them now,’ Izikiel said, back aboard the Valiant Crusader.
‘You’re sure?’ Vorn asked.
‘Yes. The ship appears to have sustained heavy damage, probably from that asteroid field we passed through earlier. There are about fifty people of all ages on board and it looks like they’re slowly running out of air.’
‘Fifty?’ Vorn asked as he cast a guarded glance at Cassandra.
‘Yes. Surely we can accommodate that many, this is a freighter ship after all. I’ve seen it from the outside, there’s a large cargo bay at the rear that could hold four times that many people.’
‘Yes, but it doesn’t have any padding or amenities,’ Vorn said.
‘These people will die soon if we don’t help them. I’m sure they won’t mind sitting on a metal floor for a few days,’ Izikiel said.
Vorn shook his head.
‘I’m sorry, I can’t.’
Izikiel looked at the ship captain. There was clearly something that he wasn’t telling him, something that was in the cargo hold that he didn’t want anyone to know about.
‘What are you hiding, Vorn?’
‘Nothing, I -’
‘You know I can get in there just as easily as you can take a breath of air. Now tell me; what is worth sacrificing fifty people for?’
Vorn looked at Cassandra and then at the others. Finally, he turned to Izikiel.
‘As I told you before, this ship was constructed by the Tellus Defence Department. When I borrowed the ship, they weren’t too happy and pursued me for several years. They finally caught up with me on Fortuna. That’s when they gave me a choice; either they execute me for my crime or I secure for them a dangerous cargo and bring it back to Tellus. Clearly, I chose the latter.’
‘What was the cargo?’ Izikiel asked.
Vorn hesitated.
‘Vorn?’
‘Alright,’ the ship captain said. ‘This ship is carrying twenty five high yield nuclear flare bombs. They are the most powerful weapons ever built by mankind.’
SIXTY SIX
The control room descended into chaos as Xavier and Jonas drew their weapons and aimed them at Vorn. He in turn drew his weapon and pointed it at them. Cassandra sprang up and stood with her hands poised as Te’Anne shielded the little girl. No one moved as each waited to see what the other would do. That left only Izikiel.
Some part of him was surprised at how calm he was. In another life, at another time, the sight of heavily armed people facing off against each other would have made him cower in fright. But that was another person and they were no more. He knew who he was now, where he had come from and, most importantly, he knew where he had to go.
‘Xavier, Jonas what are you doing?’ Izikiel asked.
‘Nuclear flare bombs are illegal on all the colonised worlds. Possession alone is punishable by death. He’s put all of our lives at risk,’ Xavier said.
‘Is this true?’ Izikiel asked.
‘Yes,’ Vorn replied. The reluctance was evident in his voice as he continued. ‘I had no choice; they would have killed me on the spot. This was the only way that I could save myself and this ship.’
‘Damn you, Vorn, how could you do this to us? We trusted you with our lives,’ Te’Anne said as she put her arms around the little girl.
‘If I hadn’t taken you off Vesta then you’d all be dead by now. What I carry in the cargo hold of my ship is none of your business,’ Vorn said.
‘It is when it’s nuclear flare bombs. Do you have any idea of the devastation that those things are capable of? No? I didn’t think so. I saw one of them used once out in the deserts of Vesta. The explosion could be seen from space as it scorched an area ten times the size of New Babylon,’ Te’Anne said.
‘I was never going to use them. My task was simply to deliver them to the authorities on Tellus.’
‘Men,’ Te’Anne said. ‘You never consider the consequences of your actions. You are perfectly happy to deliver twenty five of the most powerful weapons in the Universe and as long as you don’t know what happens with them, you don’t care.’
‘That’s not true, I -’
‘No? Then what were you going to do with them?’
‘I -’
‘Enough,’ Izikiel said.
Stepping forward, he looked at each of them in turn. Xavier and Jonas lowered their weapons. Even Cassandra seemed to relax as she saw him taking control of the situation.
‘This is not going to solve anything and the people on board that ship are going to die unless we help them,’ Izikiel said. ‘Vorn, can we still fit those people into the ship without losing the nuclear flare bombs?’
Vorn considered the question as he lowered his weapon. Turning to his console, he input a series of instructions. The main view screen changed. Instead of showing them the purple gas giant, it now displayed a schematic of the Valiant Crusader. A large section was highlighted in yellow.
‘We should be able to, provided there are only fifty of them,’ Vorn said. He pointed at the screen. ‘The nuclear flare bombs are located in the aft section of the cargo hold. They’re sealed, so they’re perfectly safe. That means we can use these other areas to transport those people to Tellus.’
‘What about life support?’ Cassandra asked as she studied the display.
‘We’ll have enough. The air might get a bit stale but there’s sufficient capacity to keep us alive. Don’t forget that this ship was built for the Tellus Defence Department and it’s the best they ever made.’
‘Alright, let’s go and get those people,’ Izikiel said.
‘Surely you’re not suggesting that we keep the nukes?’ Te’Anne asked.
‘That’s exactly what I’m suggesting.’
‘Why?’
‘Because I intend to use them against the Void Lords.’
More static filled the cabin as the other ship attempted to broadcast another message.
‘...this is...Rising Phoenix freighter...we are almost...our life support...failing...’
The message faded into static as Izikiel looked at Vorn. The merchant captain nodded his head as he spun around and took control of his ship.
‘Hang on. I’m going to bring us alongside that ship. While we’re joined through the airlock, we’ll effectively be losing our atmosphere inside their ship so we’ll need to work quickly to get them all aboard,’ Vorn said.
‘Jonas and I are on it,’ Xavier said.
‘Good. Cassandra will show you how to use the magna-locks. Izikiel, can you keep an eye out for any debris that may be heading towards us? If anything hits the docking corridor then we could lose both ships.’
‘No problem,’ Izikiel replied.
In the space between heartbeats he was back outside the ship. He hovered among the thin wisps of purple gas as the Valiant Crusader approached the stricken ship, Rising Phoenix. It looked like the other ship was losing less atmosphere now as the gases were escaping at a slower rate. Izikiel realised that meant they had very little time left.
(‘Vorn, you’ve got to hurry. They’re almost out of air,’) he said.
‘Rising Phoenix, this is the Valiant Crusader. We are moving to assist you. Get everyone ready and standby the magna-locks.’
The crackle of static filled the control room as a voice aboard the other ship responded.
‘...Valiant Crusader...is captain...the ship Rising Phoenix. We are...to open the...-locks.’
‘Acknowledged, Rising Phoenix. Countdown in ten-nine-eight...’
>
The Valiant Crusader manoeuvred alongside the Rising Phoenix. Despite its squat shape and size, the Valiant Crusader manoeuvred with effortless grace. Several short bursts from smaller thrusters lined up the two ships parallel to each other. Once they had established a stable holding pattern, a series of docking clamps extruded from the Valiant Crusader. Latching onto the sides of the Rising Phoenix, they locked the two ships in place. A transparent airlock corridor then extended and the two ships breathed the same air.
‘Cassandra, we’re stable. Open the airlock and get those people on board,’ Vorn said.
Izikiel’s attention turned to a piece of metallic hull heading directly for the airlock corridor. It was at least five metres in diameter, with jagged, razor sharp edges. Focusing his thoughts, he spoke the ancient language.
‘Repulso’
The shattered hull piece was cast aside like it was little more than a child’s toy. Spiralling backwards, it disappeared into the amethyst cloud. Looking around, Izikiel spotted several other pieces of debris which he easily deflected. Satisfied that there was no more immediate danger to either of the ships, he returned to the Valiant Crusader. Opening his eyes, he looked at Vorn. The freighter captain had a strange expression on his face.
‘What is it?’ Izikiel asked.
Instead of replying, Vorn simply pointed at the view screen. Izikiel was about to ask what had shaken the ship captain so much, when he stopped. Looking at the view screen, he was unable to understand what he was seeing. The amethyst gas giant rotated slowly, surrounded by its purple mist. The distant light from Tellus’ sun shone brightly as before. But there was one thing missing.
‘What happened to the other ship?’ Izikiel asked.
SIXTY SEVEN
Alarms sounded throughout the Valiant Crusader as the entire ship shuddered and rolled to the side. Izikiel was thrown of balance. He landed hard on one of the acceleration couches. Grimacing, he stood up and watched as Vorn frantically fought to stabilise the ship. It lurched again and finally levelled out. The alarms stopped.
