He sighed and shook his head. He had sent Eden to pilot her Thunderbird to help Star Guild during the invasion. It was her request to do so and he had granted it, going against his gut instinct and paying the price for his decision. Nonetheless, Eden had saved a lot of lives. If he hadn't let her fly, he was certain more of his pilots would’ve been killed, and more than likely Matrona would’ve been blasted into space dust to hang as a ghost amongst the stars.
He looked back at the holovid he'd been studying for hours.
“Play.” The vid bleeped on, displaying a holographic imaging of the battle.
“Stop.” The vid paused and he grabbed a pillow, slipping it under his head. His mouth tightened as he studied the vid, his breathing slow and sharp. He had stopped the vid just as the pyramid-shaped starships erupted into an explosion of light and debris.
“Reverse.”
The vid slowly reversed as the admiral scratched his head and blew spent air out of his mouth. He'd been at this too long, trying to determine how the pyramids were destroyed and especially who had destroyed them.
“Play.”
A purple torpedo entered the screen followed by another, both coming from behind an asteroid to destroy the enemy pyramids, the explosions erupting outwardly and forming clouds of debris and shrapnel, covering everything in view.
“Stop.”
“Zoom in.”
He squinted to make sure what he was seeing was correct. He shook his head. It couldn't be.
“Zoom in two more nodes.”
He sat up and scratched his chin, looking intently at the vid.
What IS that? He bent forward, studying it some more. He puffed out his lower lip. It couldn't be, but it was, no doubt about it.
He slapped a knee and stood up. He walked over to his desk and turned on the com link. “Captain Louise Stripe, please report to the admiral's office.” He walked back over and sat down on the couch, crossing one ankle over the other and folding his arms across his chest. He stared at the vid.
He definitely wasn't seeing things. On the paused holovid, there were two silver egg-shaped orbs flying on each side of a Thunderbird passing behind the exploding pyramids.
He pinched his upper lip, studying the vid some more. Who are they and how did they get a Thunderbird? However, they had saved Star Guild's ass. He probably wouldn't be alive if not for those orbs—assuming they were the ones who shot the purple torpedoes at the pyramids. For a moment, he wondered if Eden was in the Thunderbird, then shook his head. In his mind, all hope for Eden was lost. There was no way she could have survived that blast.
He rewound the vid and played it forward, watched and reversed it again. He did this over and over again, trying to piece everything together. Part of him wondered if there was a malfunction involved. This holovid had come from the bow of his starship, near the bridge. Maybe it had been grazed by enemy fire? Part of him hoped that his distress call was answered by the mystical Knights Templar. Then he felt silly. They were the magical heroes out of children’s fables, mystic warriors sworn to protect the universe. He chuckled. He shouldn't let his imagination get carried away, especially during combat.
Then the admiral frowned, remembering The Prime Director's response to his distress call. It was strange, as if he’d been hiding something from the admiral—from everyone. Why did Zim hesitate when he mentioned the Knights Templar? Zim's jaw had twitched and his eyes lied, but what about? Perhaps it was true that the Knights Templar were mythical, a legend told to children to bring their imaginations to life, to let them wonder if there truly were space knights combing the universe righting the wrong, using long forgotten magic. Perhaps that was the falter he had seen in Zim, that he was embarrassed that his fleet admiral would even mention the Knights Templar during a serious discussion, let alone send out a distress call summoning a spiritual knighthood.
Magic. Was he kidding himself? But, magic could sometimes be a simple illusion. The myths could be just that, a hoax or an illusion to deceive everyone.
Then he remembered his grandfather, the one who had given him the Knights Templar pendant. His grandfather swore that the Templars were real, claiming they had once saved his grandfather’s starship after being struck by a rogue asteroid. The story went that mythical knights arrived, appearing out of nowhere, repaired his grandfather's ship, thus saving everyone on-board from a grizzly death. Once the ship was repaired, the knights vanished as if they had never appeared, allowing his grandfather and crew to return safely to their home. The only evidence left behind had been the amazing repairs themselves, and the pendant that one of the knights had gifted to his grandfather.
A buzz at the door startled the admiral out of his thoughts. “Come on in, Louise.”
The door slid open and Captain Louise Stripe stepped through, her long blond hair bouncing with each step. She was a sight to see and she never seemed to age. Even though she was in her sixties, the Suficell Pods kept her young. She looked no older than a strong, elegant thirty year old woman, although being seen as a great beauty was not how she wanted to be perceived. She was a hard military leader, with the brains to match.
Louise stood next to the door as it closed, folding her hands in front of her. “The defenses are prepared, sir. If there’s another attack, we'll be ready.” Then she made an odd face. “Why won't Prime Director Zim come to his senses by allowing all of us to jump out of here? We’re in jeopardy by staying. Does he think the danger is over simply because he thinks he's outing you?” She sighed. “James, you know he's not leaving this sector because of you.”
“So be it, Louise.” He waved her over, wanting her to sit next to him. “I want you to see something.”
She sighed again, not because of him but because of her long day and she wondered if there’d be longer days ahead. She plopped down on the couch. “I heard what Zim did to you at the meeting. That asshole.”
The admiral nodded, dismissing her comment and pointing to the holovid. “What do you see?”
First, she closed her eyes and rolled them around to clear her tired vision. Then she looked at the holovid. “Doesn't Zim realize we need to find a source of water since we're so far away from Lumus? Matrona's reserves will only last us—” She pulled her hand across her mouth and gasped. “What the hell is that, James!?” She was looking at a still frame of the two orbs and Thunderbird behind the exploding pyramids.
“You see it? Good. Then I'm not crazy.”
She pointed at the vid with her index finger. “The Thunderbird and those orbs? Is that what you're wanting me to see?”
“Yes. So, you do see it?”
“How could I miss it?!” She looked confused. “Those orbs must be the ships we caught on sonar just before Eden was hit. Who the hell are they? They jumped in for a second, and then went off our sonar a second later.”
“Look at this.” He cleared his throat. “Reverse.” The vid reversed and he said, “Play”.
The torpedoes shot out from behind the asteroid, hitting the pyramids one-by-one, blasting them into a show of fireworks. Louise jumped back, grabbing the admiral's leg just above the knee to release it a second later, wild eyed. “Those aren't our torpedoes! Those orbs, whoever they are, were the ones who blew up those pyramids!”
“I know.”
“Do you know who they are?” asked Louise.
The admiral shook his head. “Not a clue.”
She tilted her head, seeing something in his eyes—his tell. “Don't play with me, James. You do have an idea.”
He nodded, staring at the holovid. “Yes, I have an idea. They may be the Knights Templar.”
Startled, Louise sank into the couch, carefully choosing her words before speaking to a superior officer and a dear friend. “You know how unpopular that explanation would be? You're telling everyone that our race existed more than 800 years ago. The Prime Director is adamantly opposed to that idea, James. It’s a career ender. The Templar myth suggests that we came from other worlds and that the Grand Maste
r, Thomas Berard, or whatever the hell his name was, brought us here and then vanished? Let alone taking a starship full of military personnel with him? Do you know how crazy that sounds? Oh, yeah, and they could perform magic tricks, too.” She frowned, waving both hands above her head. “Don't get me started…!”
Admiral Byrd replied. “The Prime is setting me up. How he explains history is the least of my concerns, nor do I care if he believes me about the Templars.”
Louise didn't reply. She was thinking.
“He's hiding something,” said the admiral.
“You're all over the vids, James.”
The admiral stood up and walked to his desk, tapping his chin as he thought.
“Did you hear me? You and this lie Prime Director Zim is pinning on you is all over the vids, broadcasting throughout Star Guild. He said he suspects you're the head of a coup attempt. That you set up this attack and that he means to prove it.”
Starships. The Admiral tapped his forehead, ignoring Louise and staring at his desk. Starship Taranis. In a sudden panic, he shuffled through some papers on his desk until he found what he was looking for and lifted it to the light, squinting. “Right here.” Then he stomped over to Louise and dropped a piece of paper on her lap. “Take a gander.”
Louise snatched the paper, skimmed through it and glared up at the Admiral. “This is a travel log.”
“Yes. Though short, it shows two peculiar things that I find a bit disturbing.”
She shrugged. There was no point in reading the log. It showed the comings and goings on Matrona. There were starfighter reports, Starhawk Mech transport reports, starjumper and other space vehicle reports logged earlier in the day. Who cares about that? She stopped and moved the paper away from her, but then pulled it back as if making sure her eyes were working correctly. There was something.
“You see it, don't you?” asked Admiral Byrd.
“Plain as the bright sun I do.” She stood up, cheeks reddening. “He left Matrona on a starjumper before the attack, and then came back to Matrona, just before Matrona jumped to our coordinates! Where did the son-of-a-bitch go?!” She paused and composed herself, embarrassed by her sudden lack of self-control. “Or, he could just be plain lucky, leaving just before the attack began…‘a mere coincidence’.”
“Keep looking, Louise.”
She let out a huff and shot him a look. She didn't want to get involved. But…unable to resist, she cocked her head to one side and scrunched her nose as she read. “Well, it says he wasn't on the starjumper when it returned to Matrona.” Then she bit the side of her lip. “Uh... where was he?”
The admiral gave a shrug. “That's a question that I want him to answer.” He crossed his arms. “How did he get back on Matrona, especially after it had jumped into our new sector? It never shows him coming back to the starbase. We know he did, but there is no record of it. Why is that?”
Holding the papers close to her face, she started to re-read them as she paced back and forth. “Maybe he went to Starship Taranis?”
“Taranis jumped back into our coordinates an hour before we were to rendezvous with her. You heard me on the bridge give Admiral Jenkyns a direct order to wait five hours...” he splayed his open hand, showing five fingers. “After five hours, if we didn't make it, he was to jump to a new set of coordinates somewhere in the outer periphery. I never told him to jump back here.”
Louise stopped pacing. “Jenkyns said he came back to fight…to help us.”
Admiral Byrd became quiet and his shoulders relaxed. “He is a noble man, I give him that.” He sighed, shaking his head. “I don't know. It's all confusing. Nonetheless, I doubt Zim went to Taranis since he wouldn't have known where Taranis had jumped. Plus, I don't see any log entries of Zim entering Starship Taranis, anywhere.”
“Just like you don't see him entering Starbase Matrona,” added Louise. “Why is Zim covering his trail? Or better yet, what trail is he covering?”
The admiral walked back to his desk and sat in his chair. “I need someone close to Zim to give me some answers, because Zim sure as hell won't.”
Indignantly, Louise placed her hands on her hips. “You want a spy?” She shook her head. “Not me. I refuse.”
“I wasn't asking you, Louise. You've never spoken but two words to Zim. I need someone inside the governance.”
“Who?” questioned Louise, sitting down on the couch and gazing at the paused explosions on the vid.
“I'll figure it out, but until then I need you—”
“Admiral!” Louise shot both hands into the air, pointing at the holographic display in front of her. “It's erasing!”
The admiral dashed over to the holovid to see the still frame of the explosions, the Thunderbird and one orb. His brow furrowed. “Only one orb? Where's the other one?” The remaining orb started to fade and then erased a second later. The Thunderbird disappeared next.
“Reverse!” blurted Admiral Byrd.
The vid reversed, but when it played back he saw only the exploding pyramids, nothing else. The purple torpedoes, the orbs, the Thunderbird and the asteroid were missing, somehow completely wiped from the holovid.
∞
Chief Petty Officer Crystal McCoy had been watching the world turn pale blue for the last several hours. Planet Lumus' daylight had dimmed considerably, although the sun didn't fall much lower than the horizon this time of year.
Checking the time on her HDC, it was 9:36 pm. Right now she would normally be on Starbase Matrona, just like she was every night, in her living quarters sitting comfortably on her bed, watching an entertainment vid, eating an apple or some other late night fruit snack. That was her regular routine before she'd fall asleep, then wake up at 6:00 am, grab a shuttle by 7:00, in Mech Bay by 7:20 and readying her Mech for the 8:00 am stroll across the red stone plateau to the quarries. She rolled her eyes at the thought, having done the same routine for four years, over and over again. It could easily have turned into the rest of her life. If the death and destruction wasn’t so horrible, she could almost thank these sick bastards for attacking and breaking her out of the mundane, hellish life she’d been leading.
Then she realized she hadn't had a drink since she’d been in the Mech. For hours, the enemy had been flying around trying to find them, a constant distraction and invariant wonder as to whether or not they'd be seen, caught, and dragged off to their death. It'd been an hour, though, since she'd seen any enemy craft. No excuses now, pulling her away from what she needed to do to satisfy her dry mouth.
She grabbed the tube hanging from the cockpit’s ceiling with her lips and sucked. Nothing came out but air. The water tank was empty, not filled since its last outing—whenever that was.
“Dammit!”
Daf had been peering out of the Mech's window for as many hours as they’d been hiding at the base of the mountain. Her eyes were tired and her body was worn out. There was dried blood on the rims of her nostrils. She turned her head and looked at Crystal. “What?”
“You look terrible, Daf.”
Daf blinked a couple of times. “That's why you said dammit? I just want...I just need sleep.”
“Who's stopping you?”
Daf's mouth slackened. “Um, well, we have enemies trying to crawl up our butts, Crystal. Why else wouldn't I sleep?”
Crystal's stomach tightened. She was talking to an inferior rank that suddenly had a bad attitude. “It was just a question.”
Daf shot her a look. “I'm just stating the obvious.”
Crystal's eyes pierced Daf. “What's obvious is that you're tired and cranky. I can handle staring out of the window by myself. If anything happens, I’ll wake you. Do you understand? You’re endangering us by trying to stay awake. I need you fully aware.” Crystal was Chief. She was the one who gave the orders; she wasn't used to being addressed like this, especially by Daf.
Daf turned back to the window, continuing her survey of the darkened land laid out before her. She was quiet, quickly getting lost in t
he terrain. This world was strange and she much preferred her position on Starbase Matrona, working in the biosphere as a Quality Steward with Savanna Levens, the overseer of the biosphere. Daf had planted and managed nature, or rather; she let nature do its own thing and watched it grow. She drank from its waters and enjoyed its songs. It was beauty in its purest form.
Then this position showed up as a Mech Operator. The pay was outrageous and blew her pay grade out of the galaxy. She had jumped on the opportunity and regretted it ever since. It soon became a struggle just to get up in the mornings. It was less than a week ago that she had finally found the guts to ask Savanna Levens for her old job back. Savanna was supposed to get back to her with an answer by today. Instead, Daf was stuck on planet Lumus hoping that starbase had somehow survived the attack.
Planet Lumus. Daf exhaled loudly. It was beautiful in its own, lonely kind of way, even when the sun disappeared for the evening, changing the red, black, and brown rock filled terra firma into a shadowed, dark blue version of itself.
They were up on a hill that merged with the base of Mount Gabrielle, making it easy to observe the land laid out before them, seeing much further than they could from a lower location. Here, they were concealed under a strange rock formation with two large, thick rock slabs standing on each side of their Mech, with a large slab sitting vertically on top of the two, acting much like a roof. It was a nice hiding place, and with their Mech shut down they seemed to be invisible from the attackers.
Daf's stomach growled, so she rubbed her stomach. “We need food,” stated Daf, still peering out the window.
“And water,” was Crystal's reply.
Daf's shoulders slumped. “We don't have water? What else is going to go wrong?”
Your attitude, thought Crystal, although she kept her mouth shut. “Warehouse 12 and 13 are a few clicks west. In a couple of hours, when the shadows are at their darkest, we can sneak over there.”
Star Guild: Episodes 1, 2 & 3 Page 8
