Eleven Unveiled (Imortum)

by Kord Stone

  Jerren looked worried and asked, “How bad would the blast be if those went off?”

  Calia shook her head. “I do not know for sure. I have never seen weaponized dark matter. I have only seen accidental incidents with single particles… These are large capacity weaponized dark matter bombs.”

  Alise spoke up. “Elgon and I ran into an incident I told Jason about on Earth about six linear years ago. To put it in perspective, there was a chain reaction on Earth involving one nanoparticle that escaped containment. The resulting explosion caused a thermionic reaction that destroyed Earth. It scorched your solar system and sent the galaxy spiraling on an eventual collision course with the Andromeda Galaxy. Each one of those has a thousand nanoparticles of dark matter in it… I estimate they would vaporize a galaxy. Would you agree?” She looked to Calia for confirmation.

  “Yes, and in my opinion, any civilization in possession of such weapons needs to be dealt with… Alise can you perform a chrono scan on the bomb casing? I want to see how old they are.”

  Alise nodded and a moment later, the results were in. “The oldest is 2.1 million chron, the next is 1.3 million chron and the last is just over three hundred thousand chron.”

  Jerren asked, “How old is that in Earth time?”

  “A Chron is very close to an earth minute. So the oldest is just over four years old, the next is two years, and the last is only six months old in Earth time,” Alise explained.

  They looked up to the monitor, pondering what steps to take next when Justin asked, “Where did the one on the far left go?”

  They all desperately looked around, and Alise replayed the past few minutes on her probe. “There it is. They put it in that ship, and there are a hundred ships escorting it out of the solar system.” She began frantically inputting commands, and then she closed her eyes a second. A moment later, Alise’s probe took off at high speed to catch up with the ship that had just left with the dark matter bomb.

  Alise looked at the group. “We have to follow those ships and take care of the bomb before we go back to reset Serqalin.”

  “Why can’t we just go back to before they shipped it off and find a way to destroy the weapons?” Justin asked.

  Calia shook her head. “If we were to go back in time and reset Serqalin, it will not affect that ship or any others in proximity to them. You see, dark matter exists across all time dilations, and I am afraid that the only way to unmake a dark matter bomb is to detonate it.”

  Jerren looked as puzzled as Justin felt, and Justin asked, “How do you know this? I thought you only ever had dealings with accidental incidents.”

  Calia shook her head and appeared to shiver. “I have no idea how I know it. I just do. I am getting an ominous feeling about those bombs and I am unable to shake it. I have estimated the blast’s radius, and it is going to be significant. Alise, we need to attach tracking probes to the remaining dark matter bombs and then find a safe place to detonate the dark matter bomb that is aboard that ship. I will be right back.” She hurried into the engine room.

  Calia entered the master control room, and set TDS 3 on the same course as the ship with the dark matter bomb, then headed back to TDS 1.

  “What was that about?” Justin asked when she was back in the control room.

  “I had to get to the master control room so I could change course to follow those ships and the bomb.” She said to Alise, “I would suggest you change course as well.”

  Alise grinned back at her. “I already have. When you left I figured out what you were doing and I followed suit.”

  Calia smiled at her. “I like how you think.” She walked over to the control console. “Would you bring up their heading? I sent our ship in the same general heading, but I want to see exactly where they could be going.”

  Jason brought up the map of the galaxy then overlaid the telemetry from the probe.

  Calia studied their path and looked at the potential targets. “This does not bode well for any galaxies past the Asharan void. I think our best bet is to detonate the bomb when they are closest to the void and equally distanced between galaxies.” She pointed to a spot on the map. “This will probably be the safest location. What do you think?” She directed her question to Alise, who nodded in agreement.

  Jerren looked uneasy then asked, “Just how are we going to detonate it?”

  Alise answered him, “I will set our probe on a collision course with the dark matter bomb. It will be out of phase and will pass through the casing. The moment the matter from the probe comes into contact with the dark matter, it will be done… I am not sure how large the blast will be or how it will affect the ship, so I will maintain maximum distance from the bomb. Since it is our probe, I think it will be best if your ship moves to a safe distance. I will keep our ship just in range to control the probe and when I send it in, I will move us away as fast as possible.”

  “Is it possible to force the ship into the void before detonating the bomb?” Jerren asked.

  Calia answered him, “No, the void is literally devoid of anything, absolutely no matter or dark matter. It is like a hole in space and any ships that hit it go no farther than a foot past the border and are frozen there. I think my plan is going to be our best shot.”

  The rest of the group agreed, though reluctantly. They tried working out other plans, but hers was the only one that didn’t include sending one of them aboard the ship carrying the dark matter bomb, which both Alise and Calia were adamantly opposed to. In the end and with time closing in on them, Justin and Jason relented, then Justin and Calia went to their ship and Jerren followed as far as the master control room, where he returned to monitor TDS 5 and the others during the blast.

  * * * * *

  The blast was immense, far greater than any of them had anticipated. The moment Jason and Alise set the probe in motion they had reversed course at full speed, but it still wasn’t enough to outrun the expanding energy wave. Justin and Calia had been monitoring via a probe they had attached to Jason’s ship. The moment the wave hit the probe it was gone. The lights flashed brightly in the room and Justin looked in shock to Calia and shouted, “Get us the hell out of here FAST!” He moved to her side and noticed she had already gotten them moving, “I am going over to TDS 1. Let me know when we are clear of the wave.”

  Calia was about to protest, but he was already in the engine room. She turned to the console and launched another probe. She began recording what data she could before the probe was destroyed. With how fast the probes were being destroyed, she decided to configure the console to keep dropping probes as fast as it could, and was about to join Justin when he called out.

  Justin entered the master control room and found Jerren flat on the floor. “Jerren!” He shouted and rushed to his side to check his vitals. The moment Justin touched Jerren a massive jolt of energy shot up his arm. Taking in a shocked breath, he checked Jerren’s pulse. It was strong so he called to Calia, “Jerren is down in the master control room… As soon as it’s safe I need you to come check on him.” He looked at the TDS 1 console. Life support was normal so he continued, “I am heading into TDS 1.” Then he stepped through the archway.

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Justin entered the TDS 1 control room and found that Alise and Jason had collided with the wall when the blast wave hit their ship. There was blood all over and in a panic he rushed to their sides and checked their vital signs. They were weak and fading fast. It looked as if their upper torsos and heads had taken the brunt of the impact with the wall. He reached down with a hand touching each of their heads and tried to force energy into them. He had only healed a minor lump on Jason’s head before, but his brother had healed him in this fashion, however he wasn’t sure how to go about doing it.

  He tried to force more energy from himself to them, but it didn’t seem to be doing any good. He started to panic when Inola’s voice rang out in his head, “USE THE SHIP!” The moment she said it, he remembered his brother explaining how he had used energ
y that had been absorbed during an attack to heal him, and how he had used the attacking ships’ weapons fire to charge his weapons. He stripped his shirt off, placed his hands back on their heads and just as he leaned back to make contact with the ship he heard a harmonic hum and Calia yell, “WHAT ARE YOU—” The moment he made contact with the ship he felt an immense amount of power be drawn into his body then explode from within and it was lights out for him.

  Calia had managed to keep TDS 3 just ahead of the blast and subsequent EM wave that was following them. The moment she knew they were safely ahead of it, she ran to the master control room to take care of Jerren. She found him unresponsive, and with a shock of electrical current coursing through her body, she picked Jerren up, which was saying something about her strength—he weighed well over two hundred pounds—and not considering the oddity any further she rushed him into TDS 3. The moment they were in the ship she transported him directly to the medical unit and activated it, then she headed for TDS 1.

  Calia arrived in the TDS 1 control room just as Justin was leaning back bare-chested against the wall. Confusion washed over her and she shouted, “WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!” The moment he made contact with the ship, he began convulsing as electrical discharges arced throughout the room and Alise and Jason as well. Calia had jumped back to avoid the discharges, and a second later, the trio began to glow brightly, then all of a sudden, everyone went limp and Justin flopped to his side. She ran over to them, afraid they had all just died, and frantically checked for signs of life. First with Justin then Jason followed by Alise. With each touch, energy surged between them. Jason and Alise were physically disfigured and battered. Their life-threatening wounds however appeared to be mended, and their pulses were steady and strong.

  She picked Justin up and decided to put him into the second medical unit on TDS 3 first, as his condition was gravest at the moment.

  Once she activated the medical unit, she headed back to TDS 1. She picked up Jason and carried him to one of TDS 1’s medical units, then she did the same for Alise. After activating Alise’s unit, she just stood there with trembling hands and stared at her.

  Calia shook her head in frustration. She was not sure being a biological being was going to be a good thing. As an AI, Alise never would have been in any danger. If something happened to an AI’s body, the ship would just create another and everything would be fine. Now they were vulnerable and she did not like that one bit.

  The medical unit began repairing the physical damage done to Jason and Alise’s bodies by the impact. Their scans did not show any significant internal damage to either Alise or Jason, which surprised Calia to no end after seeing the condition of the control room. Once the medical unit completed healing them she moved them to their bedchamber to recover, and headed for her ship to check on Jerren and Justin.

  On TDS 3, she checked on Justin first. His condition was the same as when he had almost died before. His electrolytes had been extremely low when she activated the medical unit, but now his condition was stabilized again. She took him to the bedroom to sleep it off like before, and then headed back to medical. She looked down at Jerren and was perplexed.

  Jerren had been in the master control room when all of this transpired and she had no idea how any of it could have affected him. His condition was quite the opposite of Justin’s however. Unlike Justin, who was almost like a depleted power cell, Jerren seemed to be overflowing with energy. So much so that whenever she approached his side, electrical arcs would shoot out from his body. She went to the monitor and found he was stable, and peering over at him she figured it would be best to make a room up for him on the second level until he awoke.

  After getting everyone settled, she made her way to the control room to analyze the data from the probes she had launched while they were fleeing the blast. The blast had been the most destructive force she had ever witnessed.

  Shaking her head, she thought, If it had gone off in or near a galaxy there would have been nothing left. She remembered wondering in the past how the voids came to be, and why there was nothing in them. After looking at the scans, she now knew the voids had to have been caused by dark matter weapons, and the thought made her shudder.

  There were millions upon millions of these voids throughout the universe, and many were far larger than this one had been. That small bomb had just doubled the size of the void in nanoseconds and then kept expanding. She tried to locate the origin of the blast but even though she knew how fast she was traveling and the duration, the computer could not localize it. The void was unable to be plotted. She knew they should have been nearly one and a half parsecs from the location they had begun traveling from. But they were now sitting on the edge of the newly expanded Asharan Void and she wondered how TDS 1 could have survived the impact from the blast. Shaking her head in bewilderment, she stood to check on Justin’s condition.

  * * * * *

  Jerren was the first to wake from his slumber. He had been out for twenty hours before he finally called out, “Jason! Justin!?”

  Calia called back to him over the communication system, “They are all still sleeping. I am on level three with Justin. You may come up if you wish.”

  When Jerren arrived on the third level he asked, “What happened to Justin? I thought you were out of range of the blast.”

  Calia sighed, not looking directly at him, and she signaled for him to take a seat next to her in the corner. Putting her head in her hands she explained. “I thought we were as well. We only just managed to outrun the blast.” She tried as hard as she could to keep her mind on the facts.

  “Then what happened to Justin?” He asked.

  “We were monitoring the situation from the probe we set on TDS 1, and after the blast, he went to check on Alise and Jason. She explained what she had found upon entering the master control room, and TDS 1 then what she had done for everyone. She was finding it extremely difficult to continue, and was relieved when she heard Justin speak.

  “Ah, that’s why my head is splitting?” Justin croaked out.

  Calia and Jerren both jumped to their feet and rushed to his side. “How are you feeling? Would you like something to drink?” Calia asked as she picked up a glass of water and handed it to him.

  Justin nodded and took a few cautious swallows. “Damn that hurts. Everything is a bit blurry and my throat feels scorched, but aside from that I feel fine.” Looking up at her he asked, “What happened to you?”

  Shaking her head, she said, “Not now.”

  Apparently Jerren thought Justin was asking him that question and he said, “I’m fine. Now you know what it’s like to be a human lightning rod.”

  “She said to do it… How are they doing?” Justin asked.

  Calia raised a brow at Justin. “Inola?” she asked, trying not to lose her composure.

  “Yes her. How are Jason and Alise?” He asked.

  “They are in stable condition. Whatever you did worked. They were in bad shape when I arrived over there. With that much blood loss, I thought they were dead for sure. A moment after you passed out, they were no longer bleeding and were stabilized enough to get to the medical unit.” She desperately tried to find a reason to leave, then looked to Jerren. “I am going to check up on Alise and Jason. Do you want to come along?”

  “Yes, do you need anything before I go?” Jerren asked of Justin.

  “No, wait a minute. I will go with you—” Justin said as he tried to get out of bed.

  “NO!” Calia snapped. “You will not! You are staying in bed until I get back!”

  “But—” he said, but she interrupted him.

  “NO!” she said even more firmly.

  Justin sighed. “Very well.” He looked at his brother. “If they’re awake, tell them I’ll see them when I’m allowed to leave my room.”

  Calia scowled at him and turned away.

  Jerren could be heard sniggering when he said, “Will do,” as he followed her to TDS 1.

  Calia and Jerren entered TDS
1 and Jerren must have finally gotten a good look at her because he asked, “What happened to you?”

  Sighing, she realized she could only go through this one time, so she said, “I will explain it when we are all together.” They made their way up to Jason and Alise’s room without another word.

  Calia and Jerren were only in the bedchamber a minute before Alise opened her eyes and bolted upright in bed.

  “What…what happened?” she asked.

  Calia had just finished checking Jason’s pulse. “Dark matter bomb…ring any bells?”

  “Yes, I get that, but what happened to us? Is Jason okay?” She reached over to check on him.

  Calia felt an enormous wave of emotions flood over her. She ignored Alise’s question and taking in a few calming breaths, she asked, “How are you feeling?”

  Jerren must have realized she was not going to tell Alise exactly what had happened yet, because he answered Alise’s question. “Justin pulled the Jason lightning rod thing and healed the two of you.”

  Calia was finding it harder to concentrate; her emotions were clouding her every thought. Alise appeared to be getting irritated and looked about to go off on her when she managed to croak out, “Jason should be awake soon. When you are all feeling better we can discuss what happened.”

  “But—”

  “Not now!” Calia snapped.

  Calia turned, took in a quick breath and walked to the corner then said over her shoulder. “Contact us when everyone is up and about, and we can meet in the master control room.” She could tell Alise was not going to let up and she was in no condition to continue, so she headed back to her ship.