The Ocoda Chronicles Book 4 Present Future Past

by Daniel OConnell

  Caleb smiles at Rachel, saying to her, “Carla was somehow corrupted by an outside source, I just don’t know how. However, that’s not as important as what I was able to learn during our time with Carla s symbiot, she is fighting a war on three fronts, and she may even be losing.”

  Paladin telepathically asks Caleb, “Cale, I have only analyzed five percent of the information her symbiot gave us. How did you discover that part?”

  Caleb replies in kind, “I’m a military guy Pal. I glanced over the information and noted her war with these different races, the Dorsa, the Halimag and the rebellion within her own people.”

  White curious, asks, “Cale, how did you speak to her symbiot? Isn’t that part of her?”

  Paladin responds, “Yes Commander White, but for some unknown reason Carla has split her symbiot in to two separate parts and this is troubling on many levels. Thankfully for us, it does limit her access to her full potential.”

  Caleb sighs adding to the conversation, “But even with half her power still in play she is near unstoppable.”

  Onatof finally gets through over the com, yelling, “Hello up there! Can you hear me? What the hell are you doing up there, I’ve barely got main power up and you’re pushing us to our limits.”

  Caleb lowers his head, feeling the strain the ship is under, as he pushes the ship beyond its current limits. He sits up and says, “Reggie you have the bridge, just get us as far away from those ships as you can.”

  Caleb heads to the engine room, as Paladin confers privately with Cale, “Cale, I’m aware what you are thinking, and he is very weak and old. This may cause irreparable damage to his mind, and it may even kill him.”

  Caleb takes in a deep breath, responding, “I know Pal, but I have very few options left to me.”

  Caleb arrives in the engine room as he sees Onatof racing around the engine room trying to keep everything functioning. Caleb walks over to him, asking, “Anything I can do to help Doc?”

  Onatof extremely annoyed states, “Cale my son I figured you were awake. Especially, since we have Paladin talking again.” Onatof very annoyed pauses, as he looks directly into Caleb’s eyes, stating, “Cale, I’m way out of my league here.”

  Caleb takes in a deep breath, responding, “I know Doc, and I know what you’re going to ask of me.” Caleb lowers his head reluctantly, saying, “And I have been considering it also, I’m just not sure it’s the right thing to do.”

  Onatof looks up and asks, “Cale, I saw what you did to Val before we left. You gave him all your knowledge didn’t you?”

  Caleb sighs heavily and looks up at the power conduits coursing through the engine room. He stares at all of them for a moment, saying, “Doc, I’m a man of war, not science, I understand everything in here only because of Paladin. Unfortunately, I really don’t know how to apply it, or maximize its full potential.” Caleb turns his gaze to Onatof, saying, “Yes, I can share this knowledge with you, but you must understand that what I did to Val put him in a coma.” Cale pauses yet again, as he reflects on just what he did to Val. He then says to Onatof, “With your advanced age Doc, I might do a lot more harm than good.”

  Onatof stares directly into Caleb’s eyes once again, saying, “It’s my risk to take.”

  Caleb bites his bottom lip countering, “Doc, we are so far out of our comfort zone its unreal and we are all alone, so normally I would disagree. However, I need every advantage I can get.” Caleb pauses for a moment as he contemplates his options, saying, “I’ll share my knowledge with you. However, I’ll have to do it in small increments. I don’t want to hurt you.”

  Onatof smiles, impatiently he says, “Well, what are you waiting for.”

  Caleb ever so slightly touches Onatof head, transferring as much knowledge about the engines as he dares. Regrettably, even that brief moment is too much for Onatof’s aged body to handle. Inadvertently, Onatof collapses, impacting his head on the deck plating, hard.

  Caleb reacts quickly. He places his hands on him, healing the Doctor. Onatof is disoriented as he wakes and is in a daze with so much information coursing through his mind. So overwhelmed with the entire experience, he is even unaware that he was even injured.

  Caleb angered at what he has to do says, “Doc, I’m sorry, but we will have to wait several hours before we try again.”

  Onatof, amazed, asks, “Cale, all this knowledge, it is flowing through me, I understand so much more, but some of your surface thoughts were also transferred. What is this about three thousand years?”

  Caleb smirks and says, “Long story Doc, but we seemed to have been kicked through time. I’ll explain it as I help you get things in order down here.”

  Caleb spends the next few hours with Onatof working with him as they get the engine room back into full working order.

  Back on the bridge, White concerned with Cooley asks, “Rachel, how did you know those ships were about to appear like that?”

  Cooley smiles, as she jokes, “Just a woman’s intuition luv.”

  Benton not seeing any humor in Cooley statement replies, “Rachel, I don’t know what's going on with ya, but you’ve been acting odd since we ended up here.”

  White, who doesn’t hide his feelings well says, “Gabe mind your own business, Rachel will tell us when she wants to.”

  Benton annoyed responds, “Yes sir, Captain, sir. Oh, wait. You ain’t the Captain.”

  White stands, as Cooley yells, “Both of you knock it off!” She pauses for a moment as she once again sees the possible future of their argument. Overwhelmed by it all, she speaks, “I don’t know what's going on, but I’ve been getting some odd sense of déjà vu ever since we arrived. It’s scaring me a little.”

  Benton concerned asks, “When did it start?

  Cooley hesitantly replies, “Just as soon as we got here. It’s as if I’m reliving everything, like I’ve done all this before.”

  White also concerned asks, “So you can see our future?”

  Rachel sighs heavily, saying, “I don’t know Reggie, I can see some things just before it happens, but not everything. There really isn’t any rhyme or reason to how it works. I seem to be able to see some of the more dangerous situations clearer than just random actions. However, sometimes it hits me so hard I can barely stand.”

  Down in the engine room Paladin alerts Caleb, “Cale, I’m detecting energy fluctuations against our shields. I suggest you return to the bridge at once.”

  Caleb rushes out of the engine room, heading to the bridge, moving as quickly as his wounded body will allow.

  An alarm on one of the bridge panels goes off, as Benton races to the weapons panel. He sees red lights popping up all over his boards and yells, “What's going on!”

  Paladin quickly announces, “We have multiple shield breaches. We may be too badly damaged to maintain travel in hyperspace.”

  Benton jumps over to the helm, and quickly deactivates the hyperdrive. Paladin comes to a complete stop.

  Caleb, having just arrived, asks, “Pal, how long till those ships can reach us?”

  Paladin responds quickly, “Cale, we are well within their shifting range. However, I’m now scanning four more incoming ships on the edge of my sensors. They are on a direct intercept course.”

  Cooley suddenly senses another overwhelming sensation of déjà vu, becoming dizzy and begins to collapse. White perceiving Cooley condition immediately rushes to her side. She strains herself yelling out, “Cale, they’re on board!”

  Suddenly multiple soldiers appear all over the ship with weapons drawn pointing them directly at the crew. Caleb reacts with blinding speed. He does not allow the boarders on the bridge a chance to react, as Cale moves at near blinding speed. He jumps at the six men, crushing or snapping their weapons while slamming them to the ground.

  One of the invaders suddenly jumps right back up with equally blinding speed. He touches a pad on his suit's forearm, and charges at Caleb.

  Caleb dodges the attack yelling, “Pal, set gravity a
t five times Earths!”

  The other five men get to their feet just as quickly, touching the same pad on their suit's forearm. They charge at Caleb in unison, as the increased gravity has virtually no effect on them.

  Paladin telepathically tells Caleb, “Cale, these suits that they are wearing seem to have increased their stamina, speed, and strength.”

  The six men all rush Caleb, as Benton and White try their best to move under the increased gravity. Caleb grabs the first of the men to reach him and tosses him directly into two others. The other three piles on top of Caleb trying to pin him down. Caleb weakened by the damage to Paladin still possess far superior strength. He reaches out with both arms, grabbing two of the invaders. He tosses them off of him, as the final one attempts to use his suit's power to send a large electrical pulse through Caleb. The attack has no effect on Caleb. Caleb then reaches around and rips the man off him, tossing him to the ground, and tearing his suit.

  Finally, one of the six invaders jumps over to Cooley, who is struggling to get to her feet. He yells, “Yield now Caleb, or I will break her neck!”

  Paladin telepathically tells Caleb, “Cale, while that man wears that suit you will not be able to reach her before he hurts her. With so many attackers around you may not be able to heal her in time to save her.”

  Caleb lowers his head and says, “You harm any of my crew and there is no place in this universe you can hide from me.”

  The man stands, stepping away from Cooley, saying, “We are not your enemy Caleb. We came to help, but we had to be sure that you and your crew were not under the influence of the Demon Queen.”

  Caleb, cautious of these intruders asks, “Who are you?”

  The man steps back from Cooley and replies, “My name is Commander Michael Rooke. I am the squad leader of Noskcaj elite strike force.”

  Caleb now confused asks, “How do you know who I am?”

  Rooke explains, “You may not be aware Caleb, but you have traveled over three thousand years into your future, every person in this time knows about you, and your crew. Admiral Caleb Ocoda, Commander Reginald White, Lieutenant Colonel Gabriel Benton, and Lieutenant Rachel Cooley, we were alerted to your presence several days ago. Unfortunately, we were unable to get her before the Demon Queens forces arrived. We feared your ship might have been compromised by the Demon Queen so we boarded expecting to have to save you from her forces. We had no intention to do battle with you.”

  Paladin says telepathically to Caleb, “Cale, his suit prevents me from analyzing his heartbeat or perspiration. However, from my time with you I can sense he is being deceptive.”

  Caleb aware of Rooke’s possible ruse asks, “Ok Michael, just what is your plan to help us?”

  Rooke replies, “My mission was to get you and your crew back to our base as quickly as possible. We have brought a device that will link to your ship's power core. This device will pull you through a dimensional rift called null space, bringing you to our base. Caleb, we have very little time they’re four more ships you may have detected and they will be able to shift here in eight hours.”

  Caleb, still suspicious of Rooke’s true motivation states, “Ok Paladin, restore normal gravity to the ship, tell our crew to stand down. Mister Rooke, I will not hide the fact that I have my doubts about you, but I really don’t see a lot of options. Just what is this device, and where do you plan on hooking it up?”

  Rooke holds up his forearm and activates a holoscreen that shows the quadrant, detailing Paladin, the three ships that they had just encountered, as well as the four additional ships closing rapidly onto their position. He waits for everyone to study the images and says, “As you can see, all our options are limited. We need to hook up a special portable phase shift generator to your hyperdrive engines. This specific device has been specially modified to allow us to travel great distances through null space, and back to our base.”

  Caleb takes pause as he confers with Paladin telepathically, “Pal, just what are the risks of this ship being pulled through null space, and can we trust them?”

  Paladin responds, “Cale, phase shifting is extremely dangerous. X’ena science discontinued the use of it when they had perfected gateway travel. Phase shifting is very taxing and disorienting on the human body, these men must have spent month’s adjusting to the effects. However, while on this ship, the crew will be quite safe. Nonetheless, they are many substantial dangers in null space, such as time rifts and space distortions that can take us trillions of light years off course, or move us years ahead in time, apparently many of the ships of this era use this technology, as for trusting him Cale. We both know that we are a target of opportunity in this timeline. However, if his intent was to destroy us, he could have simply transported a bomb on board.”

  Caleb looks to Michael Rooke and asks, “How is it you were able to board my ship, and did you phase shift from your base?”

  Rooke reluctantly replies, “Noskcaj has no large battleships Caleb, we used a small transport ship, but were forced to push our engines beyond their limits in order to get ourselves into phase shift range. Our ship had to be sacrificed.”

  Caleb still cautious of Rooke asks, “How did you get passed my shields?”

  Rooke, seemingly unconcerned responds, “Noskcaj uses technology similar to that of your boarding pods. We sent automated drones ahead that attached to your shields, and they created an opening for us to board.”

  Benton also cautious asks, “So why the big rush to get here?”

  Rooke turns to Benton and says, “We became aware of your arrival to our time by our leader Noskcaj. We knew we only had a small amount of time to rescue you before the Demon Queen’s forces would try to capture you.”

  White, who is helping Rachel back to her feet, angrily voices his mistrust, “So you expect us to trust you after you come in here guns at the ready, and then you attempted to kill Lieutenant Cooley.”

  Rooke calmly turns, answering, “We are protected from the Demons Queen’s mental powers with these devices.” Rooke points to a device on his belt, continuing, “You must understand in our time much has changed since you left. The Demon Queen could have easily have taken over this crew. We were only prepared to stun you, and only if necessary. Amazingly, it would appear the Queen’s psychic powers are unable to affect you.”

  Paladin responds, “My shields are designed to deflect psychic assault or probes. It would appear to work on the same premise as your devices, but on this ship it works on a much larger scale.”

  Rooke seems surprised, stating, “It took Noskcaj decades to build these devices, yet the knowledge of this technology is as ancient as this ship.”

  Paladin insulted, replies, “This ancient ship as you have called me is still one of the most advanced ships within the galaxy. Doubtful that human science would have been able to exceed its technology.”

  Rooke grins and says, “Noskcaj has advanced Earth technology to its highest limits within his lifetime. Yet he has made it very clear to my men and me that we need your help to defeat the Demon Queen.”

  White looks over to Caleb, he walks over and whispers, “Cale this has set up written all over it. I don’t trust these guys one bit, but unless you have a rabbit up your sleeve I don’t see any other options.”

  Caleb smiles, and turns to White and says in kind, “Reg, I fully expect this to be some sort of trap. However, you’re one hundred percent correct, there are very few options open to us.”

  Caleb turns to Rooke, saying, “Well, Mister Rooke you seem to have me at a bit of a disadvantage.” Caleb stares intently at Rooke for a moment. Finally, he says, “Have your team install the shifting device.”

  Benton walks over to Cooley and quietly asks, “So you sensed they were on the ship?”

  Rachel confused by it herself says, “Just another feeling, but it was only a few seconds before they arrived.”

  Caleb turns to Benton and Cooley, saying, “Gabe, Rachel, please take these men down to engineering, and inform th
e good Doctor to help them hook up their device.”

  Caleb turns to White and Rooke and says, “I’d like for you, Mister Rooke, to accompany me and Commander White to my ready room, I want to hear all about this Noskcaj and everything else about this time.”

  Rooke shakes his head in agreement turns to one of his men, saying, “Uari, go with the men and get the device installed at once.”

  Uari shakes his head, saying, “Yes sir.”

  Rooke’s men hit a few buttons on their suits, as a dimensional door opens up on the bridge as a large device suddenly appears onto the bridge. The men lift it up and follow Benton and Cooley off the bridge.

  Caleb, Rooke, and White ascend the lift to Caleb’s ready room, above the bridge. They quickly settle around the conference table.

  Paladin alerts Caleb telepathically, “Cale, the device they are bringing to engineering is specifically shielded from me. The design was explicitly built to prevent me from being able to scan the device. Regardless of the dedicated shielding, the device's power source is still radiating energy beyond its shielding, and what energy I can detect, is far beyond anything I have ever perceived before.”

  Caleb concerned asks, “Do you think this could be some sort of bomb?

  Paladin responds, “It is a possibility. However, the energy is so potent I’m calculating it could destroy us a hundred times over.”

  Caleb keeps his head lowered, as he focuses his attention on Rooke, asking, “I want to know everything, and I want to know it now.”

  Rooke places his arm on the table and pushes a few buttons on his suit. A holoimage appears showing images, which Rooke begins to explain, saying, “Over three thousand years ago your ship was lost into an artificial black hole created by the T-Challa. It was originally believed that you and all your crew were destroyed. However, our leader Noskcaj came to a different conclusion. He believed that you might have inadvertently been thrown through time, a forgone conclusion at this point.”

  Rooke pauses, as he waits for the holorecording to reset itself. He continues, as the images of his tale appear from his suit, “After your disappearance the Earth forces were defeated on multiple fronts for many years. Humanity was on the verge of extinction, but your daughter, not even sixteen years old used her power to turn the battle to our favor. The T-Challa quickly retreated to their own space, and she gave them no quarter. She chased them down to their home planet, there she battled the Queen killing the vile creature, but something happened to your daughter after that battle. She became cruel and sadistic and after a few years, she turned her power back on humanity, enslaving most of the human race.