by Richard Fox
The ship veered off course, changing course 30 degrees.
Oh, I've got you now, Hale thought, estimating where the phantom's next course change would take him. He juked to port, dodging the phantom's return fire, and rolled back starboard, firing the plasma cannons.
The bolts of energy missed and almost immediately the phantom altered course again, 30 degrees. It rolled almost directly to where Hale had calculated, slicing the distance between the two ships almost in half.
Hale smiled.
As he rolled again, avoiding another incoming barrage of fire, Kenzie seemed to regain her senses and took control of the cannons. She let loose with a constant barrage of fire, shifting her angles of attack every few rounds.
"They are opening a path," Yesarin said.
Hale cursed as a brilliant flash of energy ripped through the blackness ahead of the phantom. The rift spread, bands of energy slashing out against the void. Franny's sensors overloaded from the amount of raw energy surging through space around them, and for a moment Hale feared he was going to lose control as systems blinked on and off.
"Yesarin, what's happening?" Hale shouted.
"The temporal distortion created by the path is more powerful than anything I've encountered."
Hale watched helplessly as the phantom slipped through the tear in space-time. "Can we make it?"
"What the hell are you talking about?" Kenzie shouted.
Sparks shot out from somewhere behind them and Ears screeched.
Hale ignored the commotion. "Yesarin? Can we make it?"
"I believe so, however, I do not recommend this course of action."
Kenzie leaned over, putting a hand on Hale's arm. "Hale!"
"Being Hale, if you do not alter course within the next ten seconds, you will not be able to avoid the spacial rift."
Hale held his course. "We're going through."
Nine
Hale felt the invasion before he heard the voice, though he didn't quite hear the voice as much as the voice was a part of him. It was as if some part of his soul was speaking to him. The presence in his mind was all-consuming and there was no avoiding it. No escaping it.
The ship began to fade around him, becoming nothing more than a distant memory. The presence grew, becoming Hale's only perception, his only reality, forcing itself into Hale's entire being, becoming everything and nothing at the same time.
"UNWORTHY. UNCLEAN. DISEASE."
The voice reverberated inside Hale's mind. Pain flared and took over all his senses. Fingers clawed at his head, trying to get at the presence inside him, trying to silence the voice.
The Presence seemed amused by this.
"YOU CAN NOT SILENCE ME. PUNY BEING. YOU ARE NOTHING. YOU ARE DISEASE."
Hale opened his eyes, trying to understand his surroundings through blurred vision. Confusion overwhelmed him as the Presence continued to speak.
"I WILL CLEANSE. I AM PURITY. I AM GOD."
Hale's vision cleared slightly as he felt another presence begin to filter through. He was in a ship. His ship.
"Kenzie?" Hale's voice was weak, barely more than a whisper.
"YOU ARE NOTHING."
The second presence spoke to him. "Being Hale, I require you to release manual control of the ship."
Hale blinked, head spinning. The Presence faded, but was still powerful in his mind. A headache grew behind his eyes, spreading back to his ears. He groaned, leaning over, pressing his fingers into his temples.
"Hale," the second presence said. Yesarin, it was Yesarin, Hale remembered. "Please… "
"YOU WILL DIE."
He blinked again, trying to clear his vision. He looked over the displays in front of him, trying to remember what he was supposed to be doing. Nothing made sense.
"I don't… I don't understand," Hale said.
Something touched his shoulder. It was soft, whatever it was. It brushed against his check and moved down his chest into his lap. Two wide pointy ears wiggled back and forth, silver fur, lined with purple stripes.
"Ears," Hale said, moaning.
The chattermonkey turned, eyes gleaming, and considered Hale.
"UNWORTHY!"
"What's wrong with them?" Ears asked.
"I believe they are experiencing an adverse reaction to some kind of powerful telepathic presence in this system. It is unlike anything I have ever encountered."
"There seems to be a lot of that going on." Ears put two soft, tiny hands on Hale's cheeks. "Hale, you got to snap out of it, buddy."
Hale white-knuckled the armrests, trying desperately to stop the bridge from spinning. The silvery face seemed to float in front of him, making his stomach turn and the ball in his throat grow. He fought back against the rising nausea, squeezing his eyes shut.
“I WILL DESTROY YOU!”
Ten
"For shit sake," Ears said as Hale closed his eyes. He turned, hopping off Hale's chest to his knees, and looked over the displays. They flickered on and off, warning panels appearing and disappearing as the ship's systems struggled to maintain.
Kenzie moaned, her head bobbing, eyes half-open. Uncoordinated fingers reached out, trying to work her controls, but only swiped air.
"Looks like it falls to the superior intellect to save all our asses again." Ears muttered. "All right, you trumped-up bunch of circuits, they aren't going to be any help, what do I need to do?"
"I am working on mapping our current interstellar location; however, it is difficult without knowing exactly where we are."
There was a flash outside as three ships appeared in the void ahead of the Franny. More alarms blared as foreign targeting systems began to lock on.
"Son of a bitch," Ears said, tapping the message panels, clearing them from the screen. He'd never actually flown the ship, but sitting behind the captain of the Franny for the last six years he'd picked up the basics. After all, if a human could do it, how hard could it be?
"Missiles incoming," Yesarin said, his voice calm and collected as always.
Ears ignored the alerts, instead working his way through the navigation panel. "Come on, you piece of shit. There!"
He slammed his fist down on the display and the engines fired, throwing him back into Hale's chest. He grunted, kicked himself upright and lunged for the controls. They were big in his small hands but he was able to work them without much effort. He turned away from the incoming fire.
"Why don't you make yourself useful and take care of those missiles!"
"Being Ears, if you just—"
He jerked the controls back to port, putting the ship into a corkscrew. Hale's legs spasmed underneath him and both humans cried out in pain. Out of the corner of his eye, Ears saw Kenzie grabbing her head and shaking it back and forth, screaming.
"Find us a way out of here!" Ears yelled.
Ears barely registered the plasma cannon firing, but a moment later Yesarin informed him that two of the missiles had been eliminated. At least the AI was good for something.
Hale groaned again, his body spasming.
Ears adjusted his footing as the human moved about, keeping his hands locked on the controls. “Damn it, Hale, shut up and hold still. What’s going on with him?”
“There appears to be a very powerful entity in this system that is communicating with the humans about our ship, but I cannot determine what is being communicated. I have only managed intermittent communication with Being Hale through his i3 chip, but it appears as though he and Kenzie both are in quite a bit of discomfort.”
“Always with the understatement.”
“I am 95% percent complete with my navigational survey of the local space and I believe I can plot a course home. However, it will take some time to complete the calculations for a jump of that magnitude.”
The ship shook as one of the missiles exploded, destroyed by Yesarin’s cannon fire. They weren’t going to last much longer if they stayed here, no matter how good they were.
Ten alert icons appeared, warning of te
n additional missile launches, then twenty, then forty. Ten seconds later there were over 100 missiles tearing through the void, all intent on destroying Franny and her crew. The plasma cannon roared, trying desperately to keep up, but the sheer volume of fire rendered the effort useless.
“I don’t give a shit if you take us to Neverland, but get us the fuck out of this system and do it five minutes ago!”
A second later a blue and red circle of energy appeared in front of the Franny, keeping station off the bow as they raced through the void. It grew exponentially, brilliant bands of coherent energy snapping out from the center at random intervals.
A command panel appeared on the holodisplay in front of Ears. The chattermonkey didn’t hesitate. The Franny shot through the rift in space-time and disappeared.
Eleven
Hale groaned, rubbing both temples, squeezing his eyes shut against one of the worst headaches he’d ever experienced. The alert warnings and alarms had finally subsided and his understanding of where he was, and what he was supposed to be doing, was slowly returning to him.
He felt something step on his lap and a moment later realized what it was. “Ears?”
The chattermonkey’s deep, almost detached voice reassured Hale as Ears spoke. “Oh, now you want to be coherent and talk. It’s about time.”
Hale opened his eyes. Ears stood on his lap, arms crossed, head tilted to one side, the chattermonkey’s bright eyes considering him. Hale thought he saw concern hidden behind them. “What the hell happened?”
Before Ears could answer, Kenzie rolled out of her chair onto the floor and sat there, bracing herself about both couches. She hung her head low and moaned.
Despite his own pain, Hale reached out and touched her shoulder. “Kenzie, you okay?”
“A beach sounds really freaking nice right about now.”
Hale tried to access the ship’s comms through is i3, only to realize the implant wasn’t functioning. He tapped on the main panel in front of him. “Lincoln, you okay back there?”
“Jesus Christ, Cap, I need a damn beach.”
Ears hopped off Hale’s lap, to one of the offline side panels next to him. “For once I agree with him.”
“Yesarin, are you there?”
“Yes, Being Hale, I am here.”
“What the hell happened back there?”
“The system, which was not listed on any star chart I have in my extensive data base prior to the jump, is possessed by an extremely powerful race of ethereal beings. My scans included some of the highest energy readings I’ve ever encountered. Most of that energy seemed to be located around the star.”
“Empyrean,” Kenzie said. “He said his name was Empyrean.”
“I do not have any record of any communication between the ship and any other source.”
“Oh, it communicated all right,” Hale said. “I thought for sure my brain was going to turn to mush there for a second. Ears, I don’t know how you did it, but thank you. If it wasn’t for you, we’d probably be vegetables by now.”
Ears shifted uncomfortably. “Yeah, well, can’t very well expect vegetables to make good on their debts, now can I?”
It was the closest thing to a ‘you’re welcome’ that Hale would ever get, but he knew he, and the rest of his crew, owed their lives to Ears.
“Where are we now?”
“We are in a system designated LR-674,” Yesarin said. “Approximately seven thousand light years from Earth.”
“Seven thousand?” Kenzie repeated.
Hale couldn’t believe it either. “That’s incredible. That ship’s wormhole generating technology is centuries ahead of ours, even with your improvements, Yesarin.”
“A realistic assessment, Being Hale.”
“Can you get us home?” Kenzie asked.
“It will take several weeks and multiple long-range jumps, but yes, it is possible.”
“Well,” Hale said, “I say, let’s take some time to recoup, then start back. I have a feeling Skarsgaard is going to shit himself when we turn back up with this information.”
“You think anything we have will be able to stand up to the power of that thing?” Kenzie asked.
Hale shrugged. “I don’t know, but I’m willing to bet it’ll be a hell of a war.”
Josh Hayes Biography
Hi, there! I hope you liked “A Path to War.”
When Nathan invited me to write a story for WAR my first thought was, how could would it be to bring back my characters from my first Explorations short story, The Lost Colony. It took longer than I originally anticipated (tying it together with four other stories in the anthology proved a slightly daunting task) but I think it came out really well. I love these characters, especially Ears, and hope maybe someday I’ll be able to write a longer work featuring the crew of the Franny.
I have four other short stories published in three anthologies and one I’ve published on its own. I have two other books published, “Breaking Through” and “The Forgotten Prince” the first two books in my “Second Star” series, a sci-fi re-imagining of Peter Pan and Neverland. The third book “Shadows of Neverland” will hopefully be out sometime in 2017.
In addition to writing and having a full-time job, I also run a live interview show and podcast with fellow authors Scott Moon and Ralph Kern, Keystroke Medium. We talk with authors of all sorts, finding out what makes them tick, what excites them about their stories and connecting them with new readers. Please check us out at www.keystrokemedium.com.
I live in Kansas, with my beautiful wife Jamie, who supports my crazy ideas and ridiculous ambitions. When I’m not driving her crazy I’m chasing my four children around the house. You can check out my website for more on my books and writing at: www.joshhayeswriter.com
The Last Battle
By Jay Allan
Beck Daniels sat in his chair, utterly still, eyes fixed on the small screen of his workstation. Athena’s klaxons were sounding, the flashing red lamps on the walls signaling the call to war. No, more than war. A struggle of unmatched desperation, the final one. All the might Earth could muster was gathered here, hundreds of ships, crewed by the planet’s best and brightest. Admiral Daniels was ready to fight, to put all his strength and tactical ability into this last battle. Ready to die, if need be. In a moment. For this instant, his eyes were frozen on the image on his screen, a young girl, five years old, her blond hair tied back in a ponytail as she smiled and blew out the candles on her birthday cake.
There was a voice blaring from the PA, words he barely heard, his communications officer announcing the fleet’s approach toward Empyrean, the dwindling range between the Earth forces and the almost unimaginably vast fleets of the sentient star’s slave races. But Daniels tuned it all out, just for a few seconds more, a fleeting instant for the daughter he’d never met.
His mind flashed back to a gray day, standing on the hard tarmac as sheets of rain fell, his aides calling to him to board the shuttle. Five years…five years gone already…
There had been tears and pain that day, as he finally pulled away from the embrace with his pregnant wife to set out with the Grand Fleet, the massed might of Earth, to fight the greatest war in history. It was a crusade, nothing less, the only way to save humanity from extinction. No lesser crusade, no pursuit of mere glory, nor wealth, nor rank would have torn him from Ana’s side. He’d delayed there in the cold rain, for a few seconds, moments perhaps…but then he’d boarded the sleek craft and left for war, his last image of his wife one of tears streaming down her face as she stood and watched him go.
Five years since I’ve seen her, touched her. And a daughter who doesn’t know me. His thoughts fueled his rage, his hatred of the ancient star that threatened all mankind. He had left his family behind, fought dozens of battles since then, lost more comrades than he could easily count…but at last the fleet had pressed its way through Empyrean’s subject races, to the ancient and evil star itself. Not much remained of Earth’s power, not compared to th
at vast armada that had set forth those five years before. Ninety percent of the thousands of ships that had launched were gone now, along with their crews, consumed in the fires of black hole nukes, shattered as they closed relentlessly with the enemy in system after system, always moving forward, never retreating. Now, they had come to the final battle, the objective of their crusade, and Daniels knew in his heart they didn’t have the strength left to finish things. To destroy Empyrean. At least, not purely by force of arms.
To save Earth, all of mankind. For Ana…and my little Sarah. He’d heard the talk of the sun dying, seen the flares with his own eyes five years ago, but he believed they could salvage life still. And if the rumors were true, many were already gone on colony ships. He wondered where his family had landed.
“Admiral Daniels, we will enter engagement range in three minutes.” There was urgency in the tone on his comm unit, and the words cut through his remembrance and quiet ponderings. It was time. Five years of war, of endless battle. Five years away from home, from his family. All for this.
He stood up slowly, tapping the comm unit’s controls as he did. “On my way,” he said, his voice still partially distracted. He paused. One last look at the little girl on his screen. Then he turned and walked out, the doors to his office sliding to the side to reveal Athena’s sprawling flag bridge.
“Status report,” he snapped out as he moved to the command chair in the center of the control room.
“Forces Black, Red, and Yellow are deployed forward, sir. Force Blue is two million kilometers behind. All Blue ships report full readiness, Admiral.”
“Very well, Commander.” Daniels nodded once as he replied. Sophia Villars had been his aide since the fleet had left Earth; indeed, since that day she had been one of those standing in the rain, bidding him to board the shuttle and go off to war. Her loyalty and steadfastness had played no small role in keeping him going through the torment and brutality of the conflict. She had also left a family behind, as had so many of Earth’s warriors, but by mutual agreement, they’d never discussed any of it.
