Tales of Reign
Page 30
“That is beautiful.” Brigs stood mouth agape. “It looks like the Mor’h weren’t always pussies!” He joked then straightened up. “Present company excluded. No offense.”
“None taken.” I stepped into the vault. Stun rifles lined the walls. There were at least fifty to sixty on each side. In the center of the room was a desk and some tablets on different shelves. Brigs went for the weapons and I for the tablets; we each have our vices!
The tablets lit up and worked great for their age. Mor’h tech like Brigs said was built to last if that was the intention. I toggled through one or two, “these are plans, Brigs!” A loud zap and the smell of smoke came from Brigs direction. I had ducked quickly behind cover and was raising to see what had happened. Brigs stood still with large eyes and a big smile on his face. “Would you look at that!” He balked humorously. We both stared through a hole he had blown though the doors we just came in from. “I want one. Maybe two.” He laughed.
“Again,” I collected myself, “these are plans. One though is of great note.” I tapped the tablet to create a holo projection above it. A large wedge shaped craft with two hollow fins filled the air. “Judging from the size of the specs it could easily carry opal craft. And given that this is Mor’h, I would be willing to bet Ben something ridiculous that it has a phase matrix.”
“We need to acquire that ship.” Brigs looked elated. “We have packing to do!”
With the new information and the fortunate discoveries, I had made with Brigs; Dae, myself and her Ladies had begun the archival search for a ship that met the description from the military tablet. Dalia and Wan Sah were shocked to see such a time period existed on Mor’h. “Weeded Sori,” they would chime at each other when they found something resembling an ability to inflict destruction. I knew their history held more violence than that though. We all did.
Class war was one of the leading causes in the decline of the species. They may not have put as much effort into recording that history but it is the winner’s that record the victory. “If you lost it wouldn’t make much sense to keep that ugly truth around without a decent paint job;” Dae would say. The Sori provided a nice glossy cover to unify much of the history here on Mor’h. I fear if the Kog had their way, mankind would become their next scourge; the Sori of a new age.
“That facility you discovered Reign, was a research area. It was somewhat militaristic but not how we would perceive it in Earth terms.” Dae read from a tablet. “The Fyte’Fyt you saw was for lack of a better translation, best defense! I’m guessing they designed and sold these ideas. Not that the Mor’h ever put much value into currency but that is what I gather.”
“Other castes create. Their seasons were defined by their needs.” Wan Sah filled in. “The Blume still manufactures most things on Mor’h.” Dalia also added. They nodded in agreement.
“So maybe that hasn’t changed much. We should be looking into builds produced historically by the Blume.” I said while linking with a local panel. The codex scrolls quickly on screen as I add more and more detailed descriptions of the vessel I am looking for. “Got it!” I yelled out loud and celebrated. I broke the link and transferred the vessels description on the larger holo in our area. “Weeded Sori!” Said Wan Sah and Dalia in near unison.
“Where is it? Did they even build it?” Dae jumped in with excitement. “They did. Two from the looks of this file. One never made full completion; another is…” I paused and clicked at some holo buttons and slid for the location on the file, “located on one of the twin moons?” I again paused. “Vo’Luma to be exact.”
“We should take the Aries and Brigs to be sure.” Dae requesting Brigs was odd. She held a long standing grudge against him from the sparring sessions we held. “We should also let Ben come along, salvage is his area of expertise.” She made her way to the elevator in haste.
“Something wrong?” I asked while I joined her. “Not at all. We may finally have some upper hand. That’s a worthy venture outside of sitting here toiling over genetic profiles for some cure I can’t manage. This is productive.” She said staring forward. “I need this too, Reign. A break.” She looked over, her eyes full and sincere. I took her in close and gave her a reassuring hug.
At the basin we made through the bustle and exchanging groups. “Ben!” I called loudly. His head popped up and his eyebrows lifted high. “Are you available for a lucrative run?” His thumb extended on his left hand and rose high above the group he was dealing with. Dae proceeded down the path to the edge of Little Tengoku toward Brigs’ glass tower. Ben followed and I was close behind. “Looks like we have something to do!” Brigs growled with a smile.
“We’ve found it.” Dae said before I could form the words. Brigs seemed momentarily taken back. Dae walked forward and slapped him in the chest. “Mark my words, you inflated jarhead! If you stab one of us in the back; two will be enough to finish you. We’re a team, got that?” Dae assaulted Brigs with demands. “Got that soldier!”
“Yes ma’am!” Answered Brigs with a smirk.
“Dae!” I intervened. She waved me off. “Ben, is the Aries fitted for space?” Ben looked first at me then directly answered Dae. “Yes ma’am?” He said questioningly. “Good. Let’s be on our ways boys!” She marched off toward the Aries on the flight deck still on the basin.
We all shrugged and followed her lead.
The cold of space was a welcome to the stinging summer below. Ben and Brigs sat in the cockpit station and Dae and I had a moment to talk in the spare cabin. “What was all that about?” I asked in a stressed whisper!
“What would that be Reign?” She played coy. “You know what I mean!” I challenged carefully.
She looked to me and stood up to meet my eyes. “Love and war is eternal Reign!” She choked on the words. “Life is not. For everything we know; that one little hang-up causes more derision and debate than anything ever known. Why?” She jested a question. “Because no one knows! Many claimed to and even warred over the idea. Not the truth or any truth they could prove-just the idea!” She paced across the cabin.
“In my native Ireland; people still kill and maim each other over politics but not near as often as they had and do over religion. Because death scares the shit out of everyone!” Her steely resolve began to falter. “I want us to live. I want to be selfish as hell and live and make love! I want to live and grow old. I want to live and make babies damn it! Cute little half and half’s if necessary!”
“I don’t want to die, Dae.” I reached for her arm and she pulled away. “You don’t?” She mocked. “Do you think I want them to bring you home mangled and near dead again? Let’s just stick you in the tank before and after shall we! Make sure you are good and ready to meet whatever comes your way. I’ll be ready to flush the water!” Her chin wavered and tears flowed down. “I’ll be there. There in that fucking tower waiting!”
“I’m so sorry, Dae.” She relented with a smack to my embrace. “We escaped from all that nonsense Reign. I wandered that Flagship with your tortured body so we could trade sunset for sunset.” She sniffled. “I knew I wanted out of there. Away from men like Brigs! And I know he is one of the good guys now! But I still see that fight in his eyes and sometimes I see it in yours.”
“I want what you want Dae. I want a safe future. One for everyone. Maybe I am not being selfish about my own but I do want what you want.” I said sincerely. “But maybe you are being the most selfish. Did you ever think of that? What you want for everyone may not be what everyone wants.” She challenged.
“I know you are upset babe. But you contradict everything we have worked for here. Our life here is every bit as connected to the life everywhere. We may not have chosen it but we can at least make the effort to help it along.” I backed away from her. “I have so much guilt inside of me for what is happening to so many! I live each day as if I am the lucky recipient of all of their suffering and I cannot rest until that is satisfied.”
“Hey love birds!” Ben called over the COM. “Vo’Luma looms!” He made spooky noises as we circle to see a distinct and familiar group of arrays in Mor’h design. The Mor’h were anything if not consistent with their space designs. Their last great age. Hopefully we gain some ground here. Or at the very least an edge.
Reign Eternal Chapter 3
The Vo’Luma Sentinel
The air was stale and the heating systems had long since quit their age old job of maintaining warmth no one needed. “And why didn’t we bring Hermes?” Ben asked out of the blue for the tenth time since we docked. “It’s an issue his perspectives may not agree with. Do you remember how his matrix went haywire when we ventured into the Cresche!” Dae answered him curtly. Ben stared at her daftly. “Oh. I guess you wouldn’t remember that.” There wasn’t enough apologetic gymnastics to avoid the mistaken statement.
“I was dead.” Ben cut through the tension like always. “But we have been wandering from air lock to air lock, gravity to limited gravity for nearly an hour. What are we even looking for? A ship the size of what you presume to find would have been readily seen.” Ben whined.
“Can we stop with the, are we there yet, routine? Please.” Dae asked forcefully and politely with a grin lit up by her geometric hood.
“Oh bro! Tell your wifey not to smile so creepily. She’s a flashlight away from campsite horror stories!” Ben rustled away as Dae motioned a threat.
“If we could find a working link panel I will try and pull up the area map. These systems have been down for a very long time.” I suggested while investigating a nearby inert panel. Brigs signaled to a unique separation in the floor panels. “Maybe it’s a way down? To a lower section?” Dae supported his find.
The array was apparently connected by tiny tunnels on the surface, laced together for smaller personnel; Lo’Mor’h would be the reason. Some of these crawl spaces had us backtracking to find airlocks to proceed further. It would seem they had built some facilities into the side of a crater here. Trying to find a way inside has proven difficult. Ben and Brigs try to force the panels apart to no avail. “Should I blow it, burn it or shoot it.” Brigs asked straight faced.
“Not yet.” I answered flatly. “Let’s see about restoring power to some of these local systems and then take more drastic measures.” Brigs signaled concurrence. “Ben do you have any power sources? Batteries you can use to rig this panel to function with?” Ben smiled wide, “Always sold separately!” I stared at him blankly. He proceeded to work on the panel.
Dae turned her attentions outward. The layout of these array always appear close in design. Even stations like this and the one on De Braga have a similar feel and flow to them. The solar shields all have the same style and shape. The floors have the same patterns, the walls seamless, impassable but for small lights or patterns in shades just out of common observation, revealing an opening. “Maybe we are looking at this all wrong.” She said longingly staring into the glow of To’Lumo, Vo’Luma’s twin.
“Son of a…!” Ben yelled. “Every time. Every freaking time!” He nursed a cut on his thumb as his vacuum suit clinched the finger to seal itself and patch the hole. The orbs of his blood drifted shortly and then fell. We lost gravity with whatever had just occurred. “I’m on it!” He said. “You know, every time I work with a battery now, I think of that puke Big Jim.” Ben’s eyes cut to Brigs for a moment. Brigs didn’t return the look.
“I never told you Reign, but it was him that turned on the Halfer’s. He is why Green Acres got ransacked and turned into a nice little enclosure, then destroyed.” Ben fought the panel a bit but the gravity returned. “Something about being jealous of my looks!” Ben beamed from his back, “that or his Discman died in the middle of My Heart Will Go On.” He held out a battery wrapped in wire and fashioned for quick use. He spliced some cables together. The panel flickered. “It won’t last long. Mor’h and Earth tech like to ignore each other.”
The panel emitted a powerful tone! I winced with the bitter sting of it. “Reign are you ok!” Dae looked startled. Ben rose quickly from under the panel. “You can’t hear it?” I questioned with my hands over my ears. Then I realized it wasn’t coming from outside but inside my head. “A sentinel tone. It’s a tone like the Cresche and the array. It’s new and strong.” I turned to the panel aligned with the solar shields. I placed my hand on the holo screen to engage it and sent the images to the solar shields for a theatre view. “I’ll be damned!” Dae mocked. “I was right. Women’s intuition boys!”
The screen hung two moons together and sent them apart and aligned. The array matched on each moon. Another station was hidden in the shadows of To’Lumo. “Closer and Closer still.” I said aloud. Ben scratched his head. “That’s what their names mean. Closer and Closer still.” Beyond the image in the distance sparkled a hint of light in the dark side of the moon. “They must have used separate stations to test the phase fields. Crafty little guys!” Ben congratulated his own similarities.
The panel opened the cavity in the floor revealing a short hall into a lab in the crater side. The Mor’h had definitely developed tech up here, far and away from their precious natural world. This facility was small but there was a map of the larger facility on the wall. It housed a hangar and the dreadnought we came to find. “We’re headed for To’Lumo.” I stated.
Approaching the station on To’Lumo increased the sentinel tone as had happened with the Cresche’s sentinel tone. It became nauseating but I endured. These tones would wear off as you come into closer proximity to their sources. Maybe something in my alien physiology caused a linking issue and the tone had to make a choice to accept me or not. A possible early warning device or deterrent could also answer the question. Either reason I am glad we were docking and the tone was receding in strength.
The array on Vo’Luma was above the crater lab. Here on To’Lumo the array station sat below the hangar. Old and decrepit bell craft pads were empty and space dust covered most of their recognizable traits. We landed the Aries on one and used a tether to make connection to the array station. “One small shot from a tether; one hopping trip for mankind!” Blurted Ben over the COM. “One uneventful bounce after another.” He said mockingly.
“I’m with Ben on this one.” Added Brigs. “This trip has been a mixed bag of boring.”
“We are on the verge of acquiring a craft that can rival warships in the Sol System, made entirely of alien design; yet you two are bored!” I voiced from the rear position in our line.
“You’re not bored staring into Dae’s butt Reign!” Ben delivered heartily. “I’m looking into a wall of Brigs the whole way.”
I took a good look at Dae’s snug fitting vacuum suit. “You could be right!” I said.
“Thank you, babe.” Dae joined the COM. “Making lock!” Barked Brigs ending our fun.
The first lock cleared quickly with some debris that came jetting out. “That’s strange. The Mor’h seem so tidy.” Ben balked. Brigs moved into the second airlock alone and proceeded with a motion he was going ahead. He returned quick enough with an all clear. “Something is odd about all of this.” Dae said out loud. “Women’s intuition?” I asked with a smile. She glanced with a smirk.
The station was little different from the other’s, only this open area had a rear door away from the solar shields. “An elevator to the hangar perhaps?” Ben noted. “We have to find something of value soon enough or my trip here will S-U-C-K!” We entered into the elevator and proceeded up a floor. The doors opened and Brigs stepped forward first. He groaned as he fell hard to the floor and thudded. Ben reached to aid him and too fell suddenly!
“Back up!” I pulled Dae in close. “What’s doing that Rei
gn? They aren’t dead.” She pointed to their wrist readouts on their vitals pad. They were only unconscious. “Wait right here.” She tugged on my arm not to leave. I forcefully motioned with a stern look to stay put. I stepped slowly and cautiously. I closed my eyes and let my senses search the room. Nothing returned any resonance that I could isolate. I looked to Dae and again motioned her to stay still.
I peeked around the corner and remained unharmed. “I think there is a defensive mechanism we armed when we entered.” I whispered. “Is it alive?” Dae whispered back. “I get no sense that it is alive.” I responded. “Then why are you whispering?” She asked wide-eyed. I grinned at her tenaciousness.
I looked into the larger hangar for some sign of an assailant. “I think I see something.” I moved forward. A light scanned me quickly and continued circling the room with dotted lights in all directions. “They must be link-proof drones.” I moved further out and they did not react to me at all. “I think they are looking for foreign persons. Aliens!” I chortled. “Not funny Reign.” Dae crossed her arms as I looked back.