Beyond the Shroud of the Universe

by Chris Kennedy

  “Did it leave or did it cloak? What type of ship was it?”

  “I’m not sure, sir,” the technician replied. “The ship was destroyer-sized, so it could have cloaked. We didn’t get a second stargate activation, so it must still be here.”

  “General Quarters! Activate the minefield!” the admiral ordered. “Send a message back to Golirion advising them we have intruders, and get me the ship’s captains on screen.”

  Within moments, the grim visages of Captain Lyra Caelerian and Captain Klaern Edernil appeared on the front screen. Admiral Valendil’s ‘fleet’ consisted of the battle station and just two battleships. Not enough to stop a determined invasion force…but the two ships were all he had available. “Did you also pick up the gate activation?” the admiral asked.

  Both nodded their heads. “Aye,” Captain Caelerian said. “Are you worried our new enemy has finally made its appearance?”

  “I am,” the admiral replied. “It is either a cloaked destroyer here to spy on us or one of the Efreeti ships that has gone to the other universe. I find it more likely this is an Efreeti ship. It probably saw where you were; move your ships and be ready for it to pop back up at any moment. By shifting out of our universe upon entering our system, they have already announced their attentions are other than honorable. If you see them, destroy them on sight.”

  “Yes sir,” the two captains replied.

  “Additionally,” the admiral said, “I expect this is the first indication of a larger, impending attack. The minefield will stay active until further notice. Anything coming through the stargate is assumed hostile and will be destroyed on sight. We must hold this system until reinforcements arrive.”

  Chateau de Arges, Beckenried, Switzerland, October 9, 2021

  Night flowed down the stairs, Yokaze a shadow behind him. They had eliminated the oncoming guards, but now they were on the clock; it wouldn’t be long before someone noticed the new guards weren’t responding, or that part of the off-going watch hadn’t arrived in their quarters.

  They reached the second floor landing and checked for guards, but the hallway was empty.

  “Check here or go down to the main floor?” Yokaze whispered.

  “The Psiclopes don’t normally sleep much, so I doubt he’s up here,” Night replied. “I’m guessing he’s down in his office.”

  They didn’t see anyone as they continued down the stairs to the first floor. There was no one visible in the first floor hallway, either.

  “I don’t like this,” Night said under his breath. “It’s too easy.”

  Yokaze nodded his head while his eyes stayed in motion. “I don’t often get uncomfortable,” he said, “but I have a bad feeling…”

  The two men crept down the hallway to the door into Arges’ office. The door was different from the other doors they passed; Arges’ door was massive and ornate. Intended to cow visitors into submission, it had the opposite effect on Night; it just pissed him off.

  Night tried the door and found it unlocked. “Ready?” he asked.

  Yokaze nodded.

  “Here we go.” Night slowly pushed open the door, and found himself looking into the wrong end of three laser rifles, held by the security force’s three officers.

  “Come in, Mr. Diederich,” Arges called from behind the desk on the other side of the room. “You too, Mr. Haywood.” One of the men motioned with his rifle at Yokaze. Both soldiers entered the room. There were three more of the security force waiting inside; all had weapons drawn and aimed. Arges’ wife, Brontes, was standing behind him at the desk.

  “I guess you’ve never heard of these things called ‘security cameras,’” Arges said, as two of the guards came forward to take the soldiers’ weapons. “Oh, your little box didn’t find them? That’s because it’s not supposed to.” He pushed a button on his desk, and a large monitor came to life behind him. The picture was from the roof, showing a number of bodies in the foreground. “I spare no expense when it comes to my own safety.”

  “You are a hard man to kill, Captain Train,” Arges continued. “I thought you were dead when I had to abruptly leave during your last visit; I won’t make the same mistake twice. I believe you brought along Sergeant Hanzo, is that correct?”

  Yokaze nodded crisply once. “Hai!”

  “I thought I recognized you before you changed into Mr. Haywood. I can see you’ve been spending too much time with the Aesir.” He motioned for the men to come closer. “Come, come,” he said. “I want to try this again.”

  As Night and Yokaze approached the desk, he pushed another button and, once again, glass walls sprang from the floor to encase them in two glass boxes that ran from floor to ceiling.

  “Is this really necessary?” Brontes asked. “I understand the need to kill them, but can’t you just shoot them and be done with it? Why do you have to go through all this?”

  “Why?” Arges repeated. “Because the box was designed to kill Captain Train, and somehow he escaped it last time. I can’t have him beating my traps. This time, he’s going to die like a good little boy, aren’t you, captain?”

  Arges walked over to stand in front of Night’s box. “What? You aren’t so tough now that I have you again? No taunts or threats for me tonight?”

  “No,” Night said, “I think I’ll save them for when I’m standing over your rapidly cooling body.”

  “Too bad,” Arges replied; “I was so looking forward to hearing them.” He shrugged. “The last time you were here, I think I told you that it was time for you to die. Now, it really is.”

  He smiled and walked back to his desk. “Would you like to do the honors?” he asked Brontes.

  “No,” she replied. “You can do your own dirty work.”

  Arges pushed the red button on his desk and gas began billowing into the boxes.

  Bridge, Aesir Ship Shimmering Falls, Gliese 221, October 24, 2021

  “Pop-up target off the port bow!” the laser officer announced. “Range to enemy vessel 950,000 miles.”

  “Engines to flank!” Captain Lyra Caelerian ordered. “Fire all weapons as they come within range!”

  “Missiles firing,” the missile officer announced, pressing the button that launched the chase missile mounts on the bow.

  “We’re still outside of effective laser range,” the laser officer noted.

  “Understood,” replied Captain Caelerian. “In past engagements, missiles haven’t been effective, but lasers were. If we can get within laser range, we may have a chance against them. Unfortunately, they can shoot their torpedoes further than we can shoot our lasers. Every other ship they have fought has run from them, though. We’re not. Maybe it will surprise them.”

  “Stargate activation!” the sensor officer cried out. “Jotunn battleship! Another activation! More Jotunn!”

  “Ma’am, the Cerberus is calling,” the communications officer said, his voice more controlled than the sensor officer’s. “Admiral Valendil has ordered us to destroy the Efreeti vessel. He said the Cerberus and Western Aurora will deal with the Jotunn.”

  “Tell them we will comply,” Captain Caelerian replied.

  “Ma’am, I am getting the indications from the Efreeti ship that we were told precede torpedo launch,” the sensor officer said.

  “Understood,” Captain Caelerian said. “We may get hit going in.” She turned to the helmsman. “Helm, if the Efreeti ship starts moving, follow it, but do not overrun it. I want to turn this into a knife fight.” With 25 broadside lasers, she liked her chances in a laser duel with the much smaller vessel.

  “Yes ma’am,” the helmsman replied.

  The Captain could see her confidence was contagious. Although her crew had sounded nervous at the thought of going up against an unbeaten foe, they were all calming down nicely.

  “Missiles ineffective,” the missile officer noted. “When they would have hit, the ship blinked out. Once they were passed, the ship jumped back in again.”

  “As expected,” the captain said. �
�We knew they could do that.” She paused, considering. “Hold fire for now. We may need the missiles later against the Jotunn.”

  “Yes, ma’am.”

  “The Efreeti ship is firing,” the sensor operator noted.

  “Understood,” the captain said. “No one’s intercepted one before; let’s be the first. Retarget all weapons onto the torpedo and fire!”

  “AMMs launching,” the missile officer said. “AMMs missed,” he added shortly after.

  “Lasers firing,” the laser officer reported. “Lasers ineffective,” she said after a pause.

  “Five seconds to impact,” the defensive officer called. “Anti-missile lasers firing. Chaff launching.”

  “Torpedo hit on the bow,” the damage control officer said as the ship rocked. “Damage control crews are responding.”

  “We’ve lost the chase armament,” the missile officer announced. “We’ll have to swing broadside to fire at the enemy.”

  “Ma’am, the enemy ship is underway,” the sensor officer said. “It looks like they are trying to run.”

  “Understood,” Captain Caelerian replied. She looked at her tactical display. “Keep the power up, helm. We need to finish this one off and get back to the battle.” At least six Jotunn vessels were now in-system, and four were pounding on the battle station. At least one quadrant of the battle station was already out of the fight. It was bad…but might still be salvageable if she could get back quickly to help. The Jotunn ships had all been damaged by the minefield, and she could see two had been destroyed, but the minefield was spent. It was all on them now.

  “One minute to laser range,” the laser officer said.

  “Ma’am! Another Efreeti destroyer just came through the stargate and jumped out of our universe,” the sensor officer called. “Now another! Now a fourth! The last one was larger than the rest!”

  This made the situation exponentially worse. Captain Caelerian knew they had to hurry with the ship they were fighting; with so many ships able to jump back and forth to the other universe, they ran the risk of being surrounded. That many Efreeti ships made things dicey…if not unwinnable.

  “The Efreeti ship is preparing to launch more torpedoes,” the sensor operator said.

  “Coming up on laser range,” the laser officer said. “Batteries need to unmask!”

  “Kill the drive,” the captain ordered. “Spin the ship.”

  “Drive off,” the helmsman replied. “Rotating the ship.”

  The laser officer held her finger over the enable switch as the ship spun agonizingly slowly. “Stand by…firing!” She flipped the switch and 25 coherent beams of light lanced out, spearing into and sometimes through the enemy ship.

  “Oh my!” the sensor operator exclaimed. “We must have hit part of their torpedo system; there were at least three torpedo detonations onboard the destroyer. It’s hard to tell how many, exactly, as there were several sympathetic detonations that followed. The ship has been destroyed.”

  “Outstanding,” the captain said. “Helm, get us back to the fight. Head toward the Western Aurora; it looks like they could use some assistance.” The other battleship had a Jotunn battlecruiser on both sides. Like everything else with the Jotunn, though, their battlecruisers were oversized. Unlike Aesir battlecruisers, which would have been about three-fourths of a mile long and just over 900,000 tons, the Jotunn battlecruisers were each a mile and a half long, with a mass of nearly six million tons. The Western Aurora was just under 4.5 million tons, so each of the Jotunn vessels outclassed it; together, they were obliterating the Aurora.

  “Ma’am, I don’t get it,” the laser officer said. “The Efreeti ship didn’t have any shields. How could the Efreet have something like the time bomb and not have any sort of shields?”

  “I don’t know,” the captain replied. “We don’t know enough about what we’re facing. Maybe it’s because of their torpedo launcher. Maybe it fills all the space so there isn’t enough room for a shield generator. Maybe having a shield would interfere with the launch of their weapon. Maybe they just never thought of it. Who knows? I’m just happy they don’t.”

  She looked at her tactical display. Over half of the battle station was now unpowered, with most of it open to space. Two more Jotunn ships had been destroyed, but the battle station was taking far more damage from the remaining aggressors than it was returning. It wouldn’t last much longer.

  “Time to missile range on the Jotunn battlecruisers?” she asked.

  “Two minutes,” the missile officer replied. It was going to be close.

  “Pop-up target!” the laser and missile officers called simultaneously. “New target three million miles off the starboard beam,” added the missile officer.

  “How long to brake and turn to intercept?” Captain Caelerian asked.

  “10 minutes before we could begin an intercept,” the helmsman replied.

  “Continue toward the Jotunn vessels,” the captain ordered. “Spin the ship and fire missiles when in range.”

  “I have another pop-up target five million miles behind us,” the sensor operator noted. “It is the bigger of the Efreeti vessels. I’m classifying it as a cruiser. It is turning to follow us, as is the vessel on our starboard beam.”

  “When we turn to fire on the Jotunn, fire the other broadside at the larger Efreeti vessel.”

  “In range of the Jotunn battlecruisers!” the missile officer called.

  “Spinning the ship,” the helmsman said.

  “Both Efreeti vessels are preparing to fire,” the sensor operator said.

  “Port batteries firing on the Jotunn,” the missile officer said. “Starboard batteries firing at the Efreeti cruiser.”

  “Torpedo launch!” the sensor operator cried. “Multiple launches from both Efreeti vessels. At least 15 torpedoes inbound!”

  Captain Caelerian looked at her tactical display. Their missiles would hit the Jotunn before the torpedoes carved her ship up like a block of cheese. They had that going for them, at least.

  “Good hits on the Jotunn battlecruiser,” the missile officer said. “At least one hit on the magazine; I’m seeing sympathetic detonations. It’s out of the fight!”

  “No hits on the Efreeti cruiser,” the sensor operator said. “It blinked out when the missiles would have hit it and then blinked back in.”

  Captain Caelerian shook her head. The cruisers could do it too. Damn. “Understood,” she said aloud. “Concentrate our fire on the Jotunn vessels. We’ll deal with the Efreeti afterward.”

  “Five seconds to torpedo impact,” the sensor operator said.

  Captain Caelerian looked down at her tactical display again. An experienced officer, she knew there wasn’t going to be an afterward.

  Chateau de Arges, Beckenried, Switzerland, October 9, 2021

  Night crumpled to the floor, using the motion to reach inside a pocket. Finding the two-inch-wide puck, he thumbed off the safety and activated the device. Reaching up, he slapped it on the glass wall, as Yokaze did the same in his cell.

  Two of the guards took a step forward to see what the devices were; the officers and the third guard dove to the side. The dives saved their lives as the shaped charges exploded outward, shattering the glass and filleting the two guards with shards.

  The two Terran soldiers were in motion before the glass hit the ground, but the security force personnel were already rising as well. Yokaze vaulted into a forward somersault, and then pushed off to spring upward. His heels slapped together as they came over his head, and blades sprang forth from the toes of his boots. He took one step and spun, the blade in his right boot slicing across the throat of the remaining guard in an explosion of blood.

  Night also rolled forward and came up on one knee. Reaching into his sleeves, he pulled out heavy throwing knives in both hands. In one smooth motion, he brought them back and threw the knives at the two lieutenants, striking one of them in the chest. The other, the man known as Jackson, once again dove out of the way, and the kn
ife sailed over his back.

  Knowing he had a split second, Night spared a glance at the security force leader, and lunged out of the way as the man fired a laser pistol at him. Night continued rolling as the pistol tracked him, but then a throwing star slammed into the leader’s wrist.

  “Mother fucker!” the man yelled, switching the gun to his left hand. A throwing star appeared in that wrist as well. “Dammit!” screamed the man, turning to Yokaze. “How many of those fucking things—” He never got a chance to finish the question as a third star sliced into his throat.

  Night started to rise, but sensed motion and dove to the side. Jackson’s knife ripped through his right shoulder, narrowly missing his throat. Jackson followed the spinning Night and pounced on him, holding the knife point-down to stab Night. Rolling onto his back, Night grabbed Jackson’s wrist in both hands, stopping the blow. As Jackson fell forward onto Night, the special forces soldier forced his legs under Jackson’s body and kicked out, throwing the guard over Night’s head. The knife hand was pulled from his grasp, but not before he twisted it, wrenching the man’s arm out of the socket.

  Night rolled to his stomach, the pain in his shoulder threatening to blind him. Something gave in his shoulder as he got his legs underneath him, and he knew his arm was useless. Reaching down, he drew his boot knife with his left hand and waved away Yokaze, who had been moving to intercept Jackson. “Mine,” he grunted. “Get Arges.”

  Jackson was already up and moving to meet Night as he turned, and both men squared off against each other with knives in their left hands. The men slashed at each other, and both were quickly bleeding in a multitude of places. Night knew he wouldn’t last as long as Jackson. The wound on his shoulder was bleeding too heavily; he would have to do something to end the fight sooner rather than later.

  Getting Yokaze to kill the man never entered his mind.

  Night stumbled, hoping to draw the guard closer, but the man was too much of a veteran to fall for the trick, and he pulled back out of reach. Night had counted on that, and as he stumbled forward he threw himself into a headfirst dive that turned into a forward somersault. He came down heavily on his back and shoulders, and a wave of agony threatened to overwhelm him again. Blocking out as much of the pain as he could, he rolled onto his left shoulder and kicked out, sweeping Jackson’s feet out from under him.