Annals of the Keepers - Deception
Page 23
The Human Storm-Tacs launched their dizzying miniature torcon torpedoes at the enemy. The blue contrail that streamed out the back of each armament was not propulsion, but artificial gases meant for intimidation purposes upon the approaching enemy fighters, as they zigged wildly through space.
Explosions ensued amongst the approaching combatants. Flashes of light and fire wove a tapestry of destruction as each side twisted their vessels in life and death struggles.
The enemy fighters seemed to have a fair fight amongst the Human ships, until they carried their action over into the range of the Rage herself.
Firing from all sides, the command cruiser released a massive barrage from her defensive weapon batteries. The explosions of pock-marked enemy fighters encompassed the Orion’s Rage in rapid flashes of fading light.
The Flencer-grid from the Human shields flexed at the incoming weapons of the small craft; hardly a blip on the invisible barrier’s scales when the enemy beams made contact.
The enemy’s swirling specks seemed more of an annoyance than a threat to the Rage, but the continuous stream of them emerging from an unknown wormhole would give any commander pause as to what lay on the other side of the gaping, green maw in space.
Data Cell 46
The flash ended. The white tube door opened in front of me. I wondered where the Cuukzen had brought us this time.
I was glad to see the room was not rocks and slagworms, but it wasn’t home or anything familiar either.
The chamber I looked at was about thirty meters square. The same structure leading up to the ceiling was no different than the one back in the cave. The tech looked like something seen in any advanced civilized spaceport.
The walls of the large room were black in color and seemed metal in origin, with embedded channels of some sort. Larger, gold, solid tubes lined a far wall and what looked to be a doorframe on another.
As I stepped out of the tube onto the platform, the channels in the walls came alive. They glowed with light, illuminating upward within the room. The walls seemed to come alive as the channels of light gave way to small, specked beads of light throughout the walled surface.
Mistuuk followed behind, “I think we made it.”
“Really? I couldn’t figure that one out. Thanks. Of course we made it. Where are we now, then?” I asked.
He looked up at me with a serious expression, “I don’t know, Rels.”
Once again, I was unamused, “Great. The Cuukzen I thought I knew who I didn’t really know doesn’t know where we are. Correct?”
“Correct. I know this is Gashnee tech. I can find out,” the Cuukzen said as he turned and moved towards the center console.
“Well, I’m not moving until you find out. Probably some metal mech-monster out there for all we know.”
He looked at me, puzzled.
I pushed him with my glare to continue with what he was doing.
This room was just as eerie as the cave was. Quiet. No sounds except Mistuuk’s pudgy fingers tapping the crystal panel. The air was breathable, but had a slight pungent, damp odor to it. It probably hadn’t been used in some time.
I was thinking these Ancients weren’t worth it. What was worth it was finding out who my unknown partner was and where the hell we were.
The console sounded.
“Oh,” came the small, audible reply from the Cuukzen.
“What do you mean, ‘Oh’?”
He just stared with mouth agape at the console information.
I leaned in towards his drawn-back ears, “Oooh, what?”
The Cuukzen blinked, still staring at the figures before him. He paused for a moment more.
It was at this time, one of the tubes began to glow white in the cluster of other non-glowing tubes next to us.
Without looking at me, he spoke, “We are at a Trandeshion point that’s not in the correct quadrant.”
“What quadrant are we talking about here?”
He turned to look at me with a stunned expression. My own stunned expression would soon follow as the little guy answered.
“We’re not in our quadrant of the galaxy, Rels.”
I thought again about the moment Commander Parejas asked me to take the mission. Then, my reply came, “Oh.”
“That’s what I said, Rels”
“So, where are we?”
“In the northern part of the spiral.”
“How far north?”
“All the way, Rels. All the way.”
I didn’t know what to think, but that white, glowing tube had my attention, even though the Cuukzen just laid out our unbelievably distant location within the galaxy.
This was way beyond interesting now.
DATA CELL 47
The debris of the last enemy ship drifted in space. Its two large sections were tumbling together, lifeless. Six smaller objects were in the center, floating along with the debris field.
“So, we’re back in space. Twice in the last few months,” Kercy said, “I think I could get used to this.”
“Shut up, Kercy.” Ramek’s irritated voice grumbled.
The Reavers were tethered to each other by their micro-wires.
Besides the Reavers, there was another being amongst them.
Kason held the wrist of the dead, floating, red-armored alien.
“Maybe Kercy is right, big guy. Maybe we can get used to this,” came Maddox’s reply.
“Have at it, Maddox. Maybe we should put it on the training list for you and Kercy,” Ramek remarked.
Two of the Reavers bumped one another, “That would get me closer to you then, big man,” Keelen said, moving away from Ramek who he had just jarred.
Chuckles issued from the team, except Ramek, “Whatever floats your suit, Keelen.”
“I think more zero-g training is a good thing. Thanks for the idea, Ramek. I’ll put it on the list,” Kason said.
Laughter broke out.
Ramek was not amused, “Kercy seems to like it. Let her do it for extra credit.”
With arms behind her helmet, and legs crossed out in front of her, Kercy relaxed, “This is the life, floating here amongst the stars and–”
“Shut up, Kercy.” Ramek grumbled again.
Data Cell 48
The command bridge onboard the Orion’s Rage lit up with holo-images and data following from the combat surrounding the ship beyond her hull.
“Commander, we have a continuous stream of enemy fighters coming from the wormhole. We’ve also picked up two larger signatures emerging behind them,” Droe said, working her console.
Shenta Parejas surveyed the streaming information, “Bring up Battle View and turn the ship to face the anomaly.”
“Aye, sir,” Droe activated the order.
The ceiling of the command bridge began to peel away as if the hull was dissolving. The real-time image of the space outside the ship enveloped the entirety of the bridge in a three hundred sixty-degree view.
The millions of sensors on the outside hull relayed the image date to the inner bridge walls, which became an entire viewing monitor, giving an unimpeded view for the crew.
The inside bridge outline was still visible, as was the semi-transparent floor; all other interior surfaces were transparent, showing outside combat in space.
Keeper Renske grabbed her chair’s arms in stunned expression, never seeing such a visual and sensory marvel. The simulation was too much for her as she turned a light shade of green.
The Orion’s Rage turned around, heading straight for the wormhole as the enemy ships continued to pound at her shields.
Kansec swiveled in his seat next to Droe, “Commander, we have an incoming message. It has an Ordinance encryption.”
“Play it,” Parejas ordered.
The broken static transmission played over the command chair he sat.
“Ordinance ship. . . attacking Gash. . . Destr. . . we are on. . . I repe. . . ormhole. . . destroy th. . . hole. . . this is. . .”
The transmiss
ion ended with static.
“We need to shut down that anomaly,” Parejas said.
“We can use the L.T.S. weapon, sir,” Droe suggested.
Parejas sat for a brief moment before speaking, “No. Lieutenant Commander, charge ion batteries. Target the wormhole’s center. Continuous stream.”
“Yes, sir,” Droe responded.
∞∞∞
The Rage moved at combat speed towards the green, swirling phenomenon. The enemy fighters streamed out, each zooming around the great ship as they approached, continuing to engage the Human forces.
In the wormhole ahead of the Human ship, two unknown, silhouetted ships appeared. The smaller ship was in front of the larger one coming through the opening in space.
The Rage’s shields flashed with enemy weapons impacting upon its unyielding barrier. Explosions and fighter pieces smattered across space as the command cruiser’s armaments found their targets.
The front of the great ship began to glow a blue nimbus within her ion banks. The charge of light intensified to a solid pane of color before being fired.
Two solid beams arced out of their encasement and streaked towards the center of the wormhole. The ionized energy had an immediate impact on the anomaly.
The green swirl heaved in an out of its invisible door in space. Its structure began to break down as the Human weapon wreaked havoc, surrounding the space-time of the irregularity.
Pulsing and flickering, the wormhole waned. The green background cracked in space, allowing the backdrop of stars to seep through its weakened state.
The edge of the anomaly started to fade toward the center, encompassing the exiting fighters and the large, emerging ship.
With a flicker and a flash, the wormhole closed, collapsing in upon itself, leaving a thin-tailed energy streamer behind, weaving through space until it vanished.
The only thing left was the smaller vessel which had made it through just in time, heading straight for the Orion’s Rage.
∞∞∞
“We have an unknown ship approaching, sir.”
“Rearm the ion banks and prepare to target all weapons,” Parejas ordered.
The combat-sphere on the bridge gave a glorious view into space as the strange vessel approached.
“She’s coming to a stop ahead,” Droe said.
The commander ordered the same for the Rage as the two ships stared each other off. Parejas knew he had the upper hand. The Ordinance ship dwarfed the unknown vessel by at least one thousand meters, and the enemy ship did not have any shields up.
“She’s turning, sir. She’s showing her starboard side.” Droe announced.
Commander Parejas stood, watching the enemy’s gesture, “They don’t mean to fight.”
“How do you know?” Laurenell said as she approached the command chair.
Droe swiveled in her chair, “Their posture is not aggressive, Keeper, and they’re turning their side to us with no shields. That would make them sitting magjacks in any scenario.”
The Keeper looked up at the commander.
Shenta Parejas just stood there with his arms behind his back, looking at the unknown ship in the distance.
A beep sounded on Droe’s console, “We have an incoming transmission.”
“Do we have the scan back, Lieutenant?” Shenta asked.
Droe scrolled through the holo-image data, “Yes. The ship appears to be,” she slowed her words at what she saw, “It’s the–”
“Tyr,” Parejas finished her statement.
The expressions on the Lieutenant Commander’s and Keeper’s face were matching in shock from hearing the unknown vessel’s name.
Droe stood up from her station, “How’s that possible?”
“That ship, along with the First Fleet, vanished over sixty years ago,” The Keeper added.
“Correct, Keeper. The Tyr and her crew, and four other ships, were lost in a wormhole anomaly such as this one, in this same location.”
All eyes were on the commander as he continued, “The outline of her hull was familiar from the Annals when I saw her, but the patchwork upgrades on her frame is foreign to me.”
The console sounded again.
“Commander, the ship, I mean the Tyr, is transmitting the correct encryption code.”
“Display the transmission on the main holo-screen.”
“Yes, sir.”
With that order, all eyes were on the suspended light above the bridge, ahead of Parejas’ command chair.
The image flashed in mid-air. A Human figure appeared.
The man present over the holo-light had black hair which matched his short, boxed beard. He looked older than Commander Parejas did, with a worn and stern look about him. A scar ran across his right eye, around his cheek, and through his right ear. His uniform jacket was of a bygone era in Human military history, but one Commander Parejas recognized.
The man in the image grinned as he looked upon the Orion’s Rage captain, “If I’m not mistaken, you were nine years old the last time I saw you.”
Parejas recognized the face, even though the years had passed. “I was. Captain Strathin, I presume? I was in your ethics class. I believe you and my father were close friends.”
“We were, Shenta, and you; you look just like your father, Korlan.”
“My mother would have disagreed.”
The Tyr’s captain chuckled, “Indeed. Shallan would disagree. She always said that your genes were from her lineage, not your fathers. Oh, how your father abhorred when she said it. How are your parents by the way? I see you standing on a bridge of a grand ship that was only a mere thought the last time I saw them.”
“My parents were lost in combat in 215 P.E., Captain.”
Captain Strathin’s face changed to distress, “I am sorry to hear that, son. Your father was a great man. I learned everything I knew from him. They will be missed.”
“I appreciate that, Captain.”
“I hope I’ve passed the tests, Captain Parejas?”
“It’s Commander; and, yes, you passed.”
“Well, you sure did follow in your father’s footsteps now didn’t you? I know we have to go through this line of questioning to assure you and your crew we are who we say we are. Even though it may seem impossible after sixty-eight years, I can reassure you, Commander, I am the captain of the lost First Fleet.”
“No rudeness intended, Captain. Just precautions.”
“I understand. It looks as though we will have many more questions for each other since my unexpected arrival.”
“We will, Captain Strathin,” Parejas replied.
The weathered captain took a more serious tone, “However, Commander Parejas, we must now discuss matters of dire importance. This is why I’ve risked coming such a great distance. It’s about the Azliklon-Gashnee.”
“We are aware of them, Captain.”
“Not about the race, but their intentions, Shenta. Their intentions to fulfill prophecy and carry it out at all costs.”
“What are they trying to fulfill, Captain?”
Captain Strathin sighed before speaking, “To fulfill their prophecy of returning and retaking the Milky Way Galaxy, Commander.”
DATA Cell 49
The lights came on inside the Annal archives.
A robed figure exited the lift and approached the data cell chamber.
The blue, crystal wall undulated as the tiles came together to form Antiquity’s face.
The archivist’s female voice spoke, [I did not receive your verification upon entry. Please identify yourself.]
The robed, hooded figure walked into the center of the records chamber.
Antiquity spoke again, [It is good to see you again. May we continue our conversation? I enjoyed our time together.]
Another female voice spoke from under the hood, “I, too, enjoyed our conversation. Shall we speak of our future amongst the stars, Antiquity?”
[I would like that. Tell me the stories of our race, and of one in the ti
me many will come. I enjoyed hearing about them.]
“Me too, Antiquity. One in the time many. Are you ready?”
The Annals continue…
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∞∞∞
Series One of AOTK
Annals of the Keepers: War 267 (Book 1)
Annals of the Keepers: Deception (Book 2)
Annals of the Keepers: Rage (Book 3)
Annals of the Keepers: (Book 4)
Annals of the Keepers: (Book 5)
Acknowledgements
Christiaan C. Hile
I give thanks to Jesus Christ.
Thanks to my family and friends for their continued support.
Thanks to Charles Medina, John Logsdon, Christopher Jackson, Jeff Jumper, and D-Rock.
Some special thanks goes out to all sci-fi fans who have supported this world. This is only the beginning of an incredible journey for Annals of the Keepers.
Keep following this universe as it grows. Who knows what will come?
This is a work of fiction.
Names, characters, places, and incidents either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance of actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
Annals of the Keepers
Created by Christiaan C. Hile & Benjamin J. Halkett
Copyright © 2014 Christiaan C. Hile & Benjamin J. Halkett
All rights reserved.
Edited by: Christopher J. Jackson
Cover Art: by Jeff Jumper
ISBN-13: 978-1502745385
ISBN-10: 1502745380
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