The Ocoda Chronicles Book 3 Ronin

by Daniel OConnell

  Mohammed responds, “Yes Captain, it is, but I have already thought of what you are thinking.”

  Frasier replies, “Cloak the ship as soon as we get alongside Commander. We will phase-shift at the same time you cloak. Hopefully they will think you have shifted with us.”

  Mohammed sighs and says, “We will have to have faith Captain that your plan will work. The Williams cannot survive if we are hit again.”

  Frasier looks over his ship as he realizes it will be lost and replies, “It’s a good ship Commander. She’ll hold together. We need just ten more minutes till you’re in shift range of the Celesta.”

  Mohammed bows his head and says, “May Allah guide us.”

  The Fighters all pull alongside the Williams and shift. While the Williams cloaks itself and shuts down everything.

  Mohammed and the crew remain completely silent as the T-Challa fleet closes in. The T-Challa fleet slows down for a brief moment, as they quickly scan the area, and just as quickly, they jump back into hyperspace to intercept Ronin.

  After a brief twelve minutes, Benton comes over the com and says, “Mohammed we’re in range now. Start to shift your people out and scuttle that ship.”

  Mohammed replies, “Brother, we have locked the Williams on a collision course with the nearby gas giant. We will start shifting over now.”

  Just at that exact moment, a cloaked Heavy T-Challa Cruiser is able to lock on to the transmission and opens fire on the defenseless Williams. The blast rips through the hull, ripping the ship in two. The entire crew immediately makes the shift to the Celesta.

  Benton stands from his command chair in utter shock as he watches the Williams explode. He yells out, “Mohammed!” After several long, agonizing moments, which seem to go on for hours Celesta finally reports, “We have one hundred and seventy-six of the Williams crew onboard, including Commander Shi Reis.”

  Benton sits back down and takes a deep breath, saying, “Ok, let’s get back to Ronin, and pray we did enough to slow them down.”

  Several hours later, back on board Ronin, crewmembers rush throughout the ship, as systems are restored and the ship is once again put back into working order. Carla is about to be woken. Her wounds are all healed, as all hope that she can re-power the ship once more.

  Currently in med bay, Mohammed, Benton, Kitanna, and Abe all sit around Carla’s bed as Doctor Cabral injects her with the stimulant to revive her.

  Kitanna looks over at Abe, who is holding the device left behind by Caleb. She asks, “Abe, will that device work now?”

  Abe replies, “Yes Kitanna, it will work, but unless this thing has a fast forward to shove its training program down her throat the moment she wakes we may never get the engines powered up in time, and Carla is the only one that can accelerate the process.”

  For several minutes, the group sits quietly waiting for Carla to wake. Then Carla begins to open her eyes and sees Mohammed leaning over her. She immediately notices Benton, who is hovering behind him. Groggy and confused Carla asks, “Am I dead?”

  Mohammed laughs, saying, “No Little Flower, you are very much alive.”

  Ronin interjects, saying, “Power core is now reactivating. Time to power up is eleven hours and eighteen minutes.”

  Kitanna looks over to Abe, who knows what her next question will be just by her glance, says to her, “No Kitanna, there’s nothing more I can do.”

  Carla overwhelmed asks Ronin telepathically, “Ronnie what is going on?”

  Ronin responds, “Mistress we were severely damaged in the battle. Thankfully, General Benton and his ship the Celesta made a miraculous rescue, preventing our destruction.”

  Carla now very confused asks, “Ronnie, how did they get here? Where have they been? I’m so confused.”

  Then another voice speaks to Carla in her mind, the voice is the voice of the younger version of herself. She says, “You really like doing this the hard way. You can simply access it directly if you want, but you don’t want to understand.”

  Carla annoyed, says to everyone, “I’m sorry, I was trying to figure out what’s going on, but it’s so difficult.”

  Benton says, “That's because you haven’t joined with your symbiot darling.”

  Carla confused even more asks, “I’m sorry Uncle Gabe, but seeing you alive is really confusing the hell out me, even more than my powers are. How are you here? Wait; forget that, do you know where my father is?”

  Benton smiles and says, “No Darling, I have no idea where he is, but you know your dads always looking out for you. I’m sure he has his reasons for what he’s doing, but as for how I got here. Well, I have been hiding out in null space for about a thousand years, and that’s how I found your uncle Mohammed and Raphael.”

  Carla, still confused, and definitely overwhelmed starts to cry, trying to take everything in. She suddenly hears her inner voice teasing her, saying, “What a cry baby you are a big cowardly scaredy cat.”

  Carla angry yells out aloud, “Leave me alone.”

  Benton understanding what is happening looks to Abe and asks, “Do you have the device?”

  Abe pulls it up from the floor and places it on the bed, where it touches Carla and immediately activates.

  The image of Caleb appears seeing the room filled with everyone it says, “Well, this is a situation I doubt I planned for.”

  CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

  SCHOOLS IN

  The image of Caleb surveys the room says, “This unit has been offline for three months, three weeks, and six days. I currently register that the program has been moved to another portable drive unit. The last record was of Ismail, son of Mohammed, using the previously mentioned drive unit’s power source to shock Carla back to life.”

  Carla overwhelmed, says, “This is getting to be way too much to take in.”

  The image looks over to Carla smiles and says, “You’re fighting with your symbiot Little Flower.”

  Carla looks up and says, “No, I’m not, Ronnie doesn’t fight with me.”

  The image smiling as Benton says, “Ronnie, as you call him Little Flower is only part of the symbiot. You broke Ronin into two separate parts and this device is going to show you how to put it back together.”

  Carla confused asks, “How?”

  The device starts to glow bright blue, the room is enveloped in a blinding light, and Carla is rendered unconscious yet again. The image of Caleb also vanishes. Yet the device still glows blue.

  Kitanna more than just a little confused asks, “What just happened?”

  Benton smiles answering, “Caleb is teaching her.”

  Inside Carla’s mind, Carla sees the image of her father Caleb, and the younger version of herself, confused by it all she asks, “Where are we?”

  The image of Caleb responds, “Carla this is part of you.” The image points to the younger version of her and continues, “This is your doing. Your mind is so powerful that you split your symbiot into two separate beings, one that is obedient to a fault the other. Well, that one is a little disobedient and perhaps a bit childish, just as you were when you fractured your symbiot, and now you must put these two halves back together again.”

  Carla still confused asks, “I don’t know how to do it.”

  The younger version laughs, saying, “Ha you can’t do anything. You’re such a wimp.”

  Carla, still overwhelmed by Mohammed, Benton, and everything happening at once just sits down in a ball and cries, saying, “I don’t know what to do. I don’t understand. I’m so alone, so freaking lost. I wish I was just dead.”

  With that statement, the image of Caleb changes to a much older, more weathered image of Caleb, which states, “Hello Little Flower. This is your father talking, and this is one of my last prerecorded entries. Each entry is preset to key words that you could possibly say, and this one is set for the more difficult decisions that you may deal with. Carla, you are the reason for everything I have done in my long life. It is for you that I changed the past. I did this to ensur
e your survival, and now you must live on. Live to ensure the human race lives, and unfortunately, no one can take that burden away. Not even me. So you may pray for death now, but you will only cheat the universe out of its greatest gift and that is you.”

  The image changes back and starts up again, saying, “Carla you have the ability to directly interact with your symbiot. It cannot refuse your commands. You must learn to understand it and work with it. This is part of you and not something, which is against you. Make it part of you. Don’t fear it.”

  The younger version of Carla yells out, “I’m not an ‘IT’, and you know better.”

  The image responds to the younger child, “You are nothing as long as you reject her. You are less than whole, only a small piece of a much larger puzzle, and you need to help her.”

  The younger version angry acts out yelling, “Well, she made me what I am! She pushed me out. This is her doing, not mine! She created me!”

  The image of Caleb replies to the younger part, “Yes she did. Because her power is without limit, but only so long as you are together. Now you’re apart, and people are dying, so long as you remain apart many more will die.”

  Carla confused asks, “How did I split my symbiot?”

  The image of Caleb replies, “Over the years Carla you became more and more afraid of being trapped on a ship like your father. Secretly you always thought you could distance yourself from the responsibility of your powers. With that fear, you buried your symbiot deep within your mind. You unknowingly forced your symbiot to split itself apart from you. With your fear, you created this part of your symbiot. Now only you can bring the two parts together.”

  Back out in the med bay, Benton sighs, asking, “Hey kid, can you get those little bot things to go fix up Celesta so I can try and buy us some more time?”

  Abe nonchalantly replies, “General Benton, with the current rate of mixture we are looking at eleven hours till Ronin is back to full power, and the T-Challa will be here in eight hours. You have no chance of holding them off for three hours. All you’ll succeed in doing is getting yourself killed. I’m sorry General, but our only chance lies in Carla.”

  Mohammed curious, asks, “How can you be so sure?”

  Ismail, who now enters the room hears his father’s question and answers, “Because he is probably one of the smartest individuals in galaxy father.”

  Mohammed smiles, as he sees his son, saying, “No my son, that’s not what I meant. I meant that perhaps there are other forces looking out for us.”

  Ismail sighs, as he realizes his father’s true meaning and says, “I’m sorry father, but I don’t share your faith anymore father, for if Allah truly existed, then why is it he only shared himself with us? Why did the Christian god only share himself with our world as well? I’m sorry father, but the religions of the old world are dying off with all these new discoveries of the universe, and the knowledge of our very small place within it.”

  Mohammed lowers his head, and raises it back up with a tear in his eye. He says, “Son, we do not know why Allah chose our world to be the seed of his faith, or why the Christian god chose our world either. Perhaps they knew our destiny amongst the stars, and realized it was with us that the faith of humankind would spread through the universe. That it must be we who hold onto our faith as they look out for us.”

  Ismail lowers his head, annoyed by his father’s persistence replying, “No father, I think not. I will not mock or disrespect you, but yours is a dying faith, one which you hold onto and one that I can no longer share in.”

  Mohammed, saddened, says, “Then I will pray that Allah will find you and guide you back to him, for I have faith in him, and in you my son.”

  Benton smiles, as he says, “Faith like Mohammed. I use to say it every day to the Paladonian’s.”

  Mohammed smiles, saying, “Yes, I have heard that you did my brother.”

  Kitanna says, “Well, there’s nothing more we can do here, I suggest we head back to our stations until Carla regains conscious.”

  Ismail focused on his duty says, “I will stay here and wait.”

  Mohammed says, “So too will I.”

  Back within Carla’s mind, Carla stares at the younger self and asks, “Why are you so mean to me if you’re part of me? And why doesn’t the other part have a form?”

  The image of Caleb answers, “Because that part is within you Little Flower. This is the part that you rejected, the part you manifested. You made this part, you gave it shape, and within your creation is all your fears and your doubts. However, within this part is the full extent of all your powers, and until you accept what this piece is, and what you are, people will continue to die.”

  Carla, feeling the stress starts to become upset again, while the younger version begins to taunt her, “You’re going to cry again aren’t you?”

  Carla annoyed, says, “Please stop it, I'm just so confused. I don’t know what to do, and you're not helping.”

  The younger image lashes out, “Why should I help you. I already tried and still you rejected me. Why should I help anymore?”

  Carla realizes something within herself, she immediately says, “Because we are both alone in the universe, and maybe together we will no longer be alone. Maybe together we can find our family, and maybe we can do right for them.”

  The younger image now fuming yells out, as she starts to create a wall of energy around herself, yelling, “Alone, alone! What do you know about being alone? I was trapped in here forever. Always alone, never once did you talk to me. You made me stay in here all alone, while you had everyone to keep you company.”

  The energy begins to crackle as Carla lowers her defenses and approaches the younger version of herself.

  She falls down to her knees and puts out her arms, saying, “I didn’t know what I had done to you. I would never do so to harm anyone intentionally. Any more than you would harm me, please return to me. Please forgive me. Please help me to become complete, so that neither of us will ever be alone again.”

  The younger version of Carla approaches slowly, as the energy begins to swirl around becoming more vicious. Finally, it reaches out and asks, “Will you push me away again? How can I trust you?”

  Carla calmly says, “Because it’s no longer about me. It’s about us.”

  The younger version moves into Carla’s arms as she embraces it. It disappears as she hears in her head, “We are once again whole Mistress.”

  Carla smiles and says, “Ronnie are you ok?”

  Ronin replies, saying, “Yes Mistress, we are fine, and for the first time I can feel you inside me.”

  Carla now feels things around her and feels the energy about herself. She stands and sees the image of her father standing before her and she asks, “I’m starting to understand more now. It’s like part of me that was missing is back, and now I feel it.”

  The image says, “Carla this is only the first step of many different trials that you will need to undertake, and each one is more difficult than the last.”

  Carla returns to her body. She awakens to see Mohammed still leaning over her with his son, Ismail beside him, hearing them debating about faith. Carla smiles and says, “I missed you so much Tito Mohammed.”

  Mohammed turns to see Carla lying down, smiling at him. He says joyfully, “Child, I have missed so much of your life. It is so good to see you here now, but did the device help you correct what was wrong with you.”

  Ronin says, “We will be at peak efficiency in just under eight hours Commander Shi Ries.”

  Abe runs into the med bay room yelling, “She did it. She has us powering up like never before.”

  Carla smiles and says, “Yeah, I missed you too egg head.”

  Abe frowns as he plays down his joy and says, “Yeah whatever.”

  Ismail, knowing just how hard Abe pushed himself and everyone else laughs, saying, “Whatever he says. Little Flower, this young man has hardly slept or ate in days. He did this just to make sure you were better,
and I can’t even begin to tell you how much of a tyrant he was to all of us, pushing everyone on fixing the ship up. All to be sure you were well again.”

  Carla smiles and says telepathically to Abe, “I know why you did that too. Thank you Abe, you always will be the best part of me as long as I live.”

  Abe tries to play it off, responding telepathically, “Well, someone has to keep you out of trouble.”

  Abe hastily turns and walks out, as Carla starts to get up and Doctor Cabral says, “Oh no you don’t child. You’ll stay in bed till I finish checking you out.”

  Mohammed smiles and says, “So child, would you like me to tell you what has happened, and what is about to happen while you were healing?”

  Carla smiles and says, “No need Tito Mohammed. I know everything that you said. Ronin is finally part of me. I can recall every conversation said on this ship, even easier than my father could.”

  Ismail curious, asks, “Can you do anything about the approaching fleet?”

  Carla smiles and says, “Indirectly, I can confuse them, and try and slow them down, but Ronnie says we will be at full power long before they get close.”

  Cabral says, “Ok you two, I need my med bay back. So you both can wait for our Miss Ocoda up on the Bridge.”

  Four hours pass, as most of the ship’s systems are restored to full capacity. The repair bots work feverishly on repairing the Celesta, as Benton and his new crew prepare to shift ahead just to keep up with Ronin, who Abe reports will be almost twice as fast as previously recorded.

  Benton, sitting on his Bridge, reports into Kitanna, saying, “Kitty, we are going to do a max shift to scout ahead. It should put us at least eight hours ahead of you once we complete the shift, we will head into hyperspace until we can shift again.”

  Kitanna looks down at the data Benton has sent over, as does Sanchez, who says, “General Benton. I’m sorry, but even with that much lead we will overtake you in under twelve hours, and you will not be able to make another shift of that distance for two hours after we pass you, if I can make a suggestion sir. I would make your jump now.”