Transmission Lost

by Stefan Mazzara

  -Looks pristine...,- Aria said to herself. She walked around the ship, examining it closely. The vessel seemed to be in working order, with no panels out of place or pieces missing. Coming to the entry hatch, she placed her palm on the sensor meant to open the door. Nothing happened. -Well, that was expected.-

  Rolling her eyes, Aria pried a claw into a small recessed panel near the entry hatch and pulled it away. She got to work fiddling with the wiring behind the panel, seeing what she could do with it. After so long piloting this class of ship, she had a keen understanding of the wiring inside of it. Concentrating as she was, she almost dismissed a quiet sound behind her out of hand, but then she paused.

  -What was that?- she thought, turning her head. Looking over her shoulder, all Aria could see was the clutter of ships awaiting repair. Her pointed feline ears pricked up, listening for the sound again. She could have sworn that she had heard it, like something skittering along the floor. But whatever the sound had been, it did not repeat itself. -I need to get this ship up and running quick.- The Ailian turned back to the door controls, continuing her work with the under-panel wiring.

  The sound returned, louder this time, just as she was putting on the finishing touches, and Aria whipped around. Before she could even register the object swinging in her direction, she was struck squarely in the face by something that felt as hard as steel. The blow threw her against the side of the patrol ship, and the back of her head smacked against the armor with enough force to make her vision go black for a split second.

  Her eyes cleared just as she felt cold, strong fingers wrapping around her neck. What she saw sent a shock of terror through her body. The Pteryd that had her by the throat was much different from the representative, Seirin-143. This one had designs scrawled on its carapace in black dye, and its razor-sharp mandibles were blackened as well. Aria had only heard stories from older soldiers who had fought in the border conflicts, but even so she knew that she was facing a Pteryd warrior. One that looked like it wasn't too interested in taking her back to her cell.

  -Let...me...go!- Aria managed to choke out, swinging one arm down to reach for the pistol she'd stowed in her belt. The Pteryd was too quick, swinging up one of its middle legs to pin her arm to her side. Quickly running out of air and desperate, Aria kicked out with her own leg, swinging for the soft underbelly of the insectoid alien. Her foot connected, and the Pteryd gave a sharp buzzing squawk from its mouth. Its grip loosened slightly on her neck, giving Aria the chance to draw a deep breath.

  Bringing up her free arm, the Ailian grabbed the back of the Pteryd's head. Snarling, she bared her fangs and headbutted the creature mercilessly. The impact set her ears ringing, but more importantly she heard a sharp crackling sound and another squawk of pain. The pain she felt in her own head set her blood boiling, and she smashed her skull into the Pteryd's a second time. This time the insect let her go, stumbling backwards and buzzing angrily.

  ~You'll regret that, Ailian,~ the Pteryd said. Its monotone psychic voice sounded strained. Aria saw that her headbutts had cracked the shell on its head. Black blood was streaming from the spiderwebbed cracks, dripping down its face. As Aria watched, the Pteryd clacked its mandibles menacingly, taking a shaky step back towards her.

  -I've regretted a few things in my life, but this will not be one of them,- Aria said in a low, dangerous growl. She drew the heavy pistol from her belt, leveling it at the Pteryd. -You would have done well to bring something more to this fight.-

  ~My death will be of no consequence,~ the Pteryd said. Aria found its voice to be maddening with the lack of emotion it betrayed. ~We are legion. And you will never make it away from this base. It is too well secured, Ailian.~

  -Noted.- Aria fired once, the sound of the shot from the heavy pistol echoing around the hangar as the round transited the Pteryd's head. She watched the insectoid wobble once on its feet, then crumple to the floor, one of its legs twitching jerkily in its final death throes.

  Aria brought a hand to her aching throat, feeling where the creature had choked her. She was fired up enough to feel the disappointment of not having been able to test the enemy more fully in combat, but she was in a hurry. Tucking the pistol away again, she turned back to the panel. Connecting the final wire, she replaced the access panel and then hit the door switch. The entryway slid open, and Aria rushed inside the ship, sealing the hatch behind her and re-scrambling the lock. If anyone tried to come into the ship, they would have to take at least as long as Aria had needed to get inside.

  Rushing up to the cockpit of the patrol ship, Aria sat in the pilot's chair. -Alright, let's see here...,- she muttered. The controls were identical to her old ship, and her hands knew what to do by muscle memory. With a few flicks, she felt the familiar hum and vibration of the ships engines starting up, and the heads-up display initialized on the front viewport. Keeping an eye on the readouts, Aria waited for the ship to power up fully.

  Before Aria was ready for take-off, she heard the comm system chirp. She ignored it, continuing to wait for the patrol ship to come to full power. As the power levels climbed, the Ailian flipped the proper switches to power up the shields, navigation computer, weapons, and hyperspace engines. All the while, the comm system kept chirping incessantly. Finally, Aria reached over and pressed the switch to answer the call.

  -Go ahead, whoever you are,- she said. Aria wrapped her hands around the controls, flexing them and hearing the subtle changes in pitch as the maneuvering thrusters fired off. They seemed to be in working order.

  -You know who it is, Aria,- growled the voice of Ara'lana. -Power down that ship and walk out, unarmed. You have no hope of escaping. Even if you manage to get airborne, my fleet and that of my human allies is above the planet. You'll be destroyed before you can get a kilometer outside of the atmosphere.- There was a brief pause, and then Ara'lana continued to speak. -My people have the ship surrounded, and they'll override the door lock before long. If you surrender before they have to come get you, I'll let you live.-

  Aria actually allowed a laugh to escape her muzzle. -I am far past believing anything you say.- She goosed the engines, hearing a low roar rumble through the ship. -You might want to have your people get away from me, now, unless they'd like to hitch a ride on the hull through vacuum.- She switched off the communication system before Ara'lana could respond. Moments later she heard a smattering of thuds against the outside of the ship as whoever was outside in the hangar opened fire with small arms. Aria smirked at their futility, knowing that even the heaviest of Ailian infantry weapons could do little to the armor of the ship.

  Pulling up on the controls, Aria lifted off from the hangar floor. She spun the ship around to face the hangar doors. They were closed, of course, and Aria knew that she probably had no way to get them open. By the conventional method, anyway. Fortunately, she wasn't even dreaming of trying the conventional method. Calling up the patrol vessel's targeting computer, she focused the crosshairs on the doors. Selecting the proper weapons setting, Aria fired. Four low-yield missiles streaked out from their pod and connected with the doors. The explosions buffeted the ship and scattered debris across the hangar, but her shields protected her. Without allowing the smoke from the missile strikes to clear, Aria punched her accelerator and streaked forward. After a brief screech of metal on metal as she scraped the jagged hole through the hangar door, Aria was free.

  What she saw outside was a completely unfamiliar landscape. Aria had been correct in some of her thoughts from before. She was not on Lirna, but just which planet she was on she had no idea. Her patrol ship was skimming over a snow-covered base, numerous buildings rising here and there. From the looks of things, the majority of the base was underground. Startled Ailians on the ground below looked up at her as she flew overhead. A few of them raised weapons and even managed to get shots off at her, but they missed hopelessly as she raised her speed and pointed her ship's nose at the sky. As her altitude increased the color of the sky darkened from light to deep blue.
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br />   -Gods...,- Aria breathed, looking at the radar image on her heads-up display. According to what she was seeing, space above whatever planet she was fleeing contained at least seventeen ships of Ailian and human design. Twelve of those ships were battleship-sized or larger. Gritting her teeth, she increased power to her shields and considered her options.

  -I can fight, flee, or surrender,- Aria thought. -Surrender is not an option, and if I fight, I'm going to die for certain. That leaves only fleeing, but those ships are certain to have tractor beams. They'll grab me before I can get very far.- Not to mention the fact that Aria needed time for her navigation computer to calculate the proper hyperspace route back to Lirna, and of course she would need to remain stationary for the calculation to be most effective. She watched the radar image carefully, seeing the ships starting to react to her presence. -Unless...This is crazy, but it might be all I have.- Reaching for the hyperspace controls, Aria took a breath. -I can't believe I'm about to do this again...-

  Aiming her ship for a free spot in the mixed fleet, Aria pressed the control that would activate her hyperspace engines. The ship's computer sounded the alarm that she was about to head through hyperspace blind, which she ignored. Holding her finger on the control, the alarm stopped a moment later and she was pressed back into the pilot's seat as the patrol ship accelerated to faster-than-light speeds, breaking through into hyperspace. She held the jump for just three seconds, long enough that she could be sure that was far enough away to be able to sit for her computer to do a navigation calculation.

  When she emerged from hyperspace, she was holding steady near a star. The fur on the back of her neck raised up as she realized just how close she had come to colliding with it. Letting out a breath that she hadn't realized she'd been holding, she switched on the navigation computer, keeping her proximity sensors turned up to their maximum settings. If any ships got within five thousand kilometers of her while she was divining the course to take, she wanted to know about it. Sitting back to wait, Aria felt a wave of exhaustion wash over her.

  -I hope the computer works quickly,- she thought tiredly. -If this ship is anything like the Cha'la'fa, the crew quarters should be quite comfortable. I could use a good, long sleep on the ride home...-

  ******

  Ara'lana was in the foulest mood she could remember experiencing in a very long time when Admiral Kris arrived in her office. She was poring over the initial reports from her daughter's escape. Besides the damage to the doors of Auxiliary Bay Four, there was minor damage to the air circulation system, not to mention the loss of several experienced soldiers who hadn't survived the missile blasts in the hangar. And that was on top of the death of a member of the Pteryd entourage, which had been less than pleasing to Seirin-143. If only the damned bug guard had stayed put inside its ship!

  -Admiral Me'lia,- Admiral Kris said. -I have that update you wanted. We were able to track the route she took through the base to get out. We're working on updating our security so a similar incident won't occur again...-

  -Selina, with all due respect, I don't really give a damn about that now,- Ara'lana snarled. She looked up at Admiral Kris. -I don't suppose our human friends have been able to determine where she might have gone? Hyperspace tracking is one of those things they are so troublesomely better at, after all.-

  Kris shook her head. -They haven't. She took a blind jump. Extrapolating it would put her ship moving into an uninhabited sector of space, so I think we can assume she took a short jump and then stopped to make a proper one.- The younger admiral bit her lip. -It wouldn't take a large leap of imagination to say that she's probably heading for Lirna, though.-

  -Of course.- Ara'lana put the reports down, tapping her desk top thoughtfully. -The computer on the Kre'la'ris...Were we able to wipe it remotely before she escaped?-

  Admiral Kris hesitated. Her friend wasn't going to like this answer. -We're not certain.-

  -Not certain?-

  -No. We initiated the wipe, but we can't be sure how much we were able to erase. The Kre'la'ris might have some intelligence value to the Ascendancy.-

  For all that, Ara'lana took it better than she thought. -I thought as much,- she said. She flicked her snowy white tail thoughtfully, glancing up at the ceiling for a few minutes. Finally she looked back at Admiral Kris. -We may have to accelerate our operations somewhat. Get all the fleet commanders on a channel to me, Selina. We have some planning to do.-

  -Yes, Admiral.-

  - 4 -

  Admiral Jin Te'rou was finding himself very bored. Aboard his flagship, the Ascendancy heavy battlecruiser Krisa'la, in high orbit above Lirna, he didn't have a whole lot to do. His orders from the Empress were to see to the defense of the homeworld, but apart from ensuring that the fleets were properly placed that didn't entail much action on his part. Most of his time was spent either on the ship or on the surface of the planet, in meetings with the Empress and the senior admirals under his command. The time spent on his flagship was taken up by tedious monitoring of the shipborne radar and tracking systems, although most of this was not done personally by him. He left the majority of that task to the officers and enlisted personnel under his command, but he did like to sit down at the monitors every now and then just to have something to do. Te'rou had begun his career in the Ascendancy Navy as a radar officer, so he was very familiar with the job. Doing so made his soldiers feel that he was one of them instead of a pompous bureaucrat, which was a valuable effect in itself.

  Today, though, he was sitting in his command chair on the expansive bridge, looking down over the rows of consoles that composed the impressive suite of instruments which kept a two-kilometer warship operating. Not a whole lot seemed to be going on. They were on high alert for the first time since the war with the humans had begun, since Lirna had never been in any serious danger from the humans, but now that civil war seemed to have officially begun the homeworld could conceivably be attacked. Being on high alert meant little in the way of change except that more personnel were on duty at once than normally would have been. Every station was manned instead of the bridge bearing the minimum complement required for safe operation. Te'rou needed as many eyes on the instruments as possible to keep the fleet from being taken by surprise. However, apart from the normal civilian and military traffic that could always be found in the space above Lirna, the “skies” were empty.

  -Another quiet day.-

  Te'rou turned his head, looking at Admiral Grelen, the commander of the First Fleet. While Te'rou led the fleet from the bridge of the Krisa'la, she was the official captain of the ship. Grelen was older than he, and so would have properly been considered a more fitting candidate for Chief Admiral, but she had never expressed much ambition for the top job and so Te'rou had been selected over her by the Empress. She was a good officer and a seasoned veteran of battles with the Pteryd and humans, and definitely would have been Te'rou's choice to lead the First Fleet if she hadn't already been in the job. They had worked together for years now, and were as close friends as two soldiers could be.

  -Quiet, yes,- Te'rou agreed. -But let's not allow our attention to waver, Admiral. There is a war on, after all.-

  -Two wars, you mean. But you make a fair point. Don't worry, Jin. My soldiers are primed and ready.- She gestured to the multitude of Ailians sitting at their stations. -I don't think anyone is going to attack Lirna while we're here, at least not without our knowing about it. You can relax just a little.-

  -Well...I suppose so,- Te'rou allowed. -The reports I keep getting from the Inner Colonies have me a bit on edge. We're slowing the rebels down out there, but they're still creeping along, little by little. I think the war is going to make it here sooner rather than later.-

  Te'rou turned his attention back to the forward viewscreens. While smaller ships had physical windows, larger warships instead had electronic screens which projected the view of outside from cameras installed on the outer hull. The view right now was of the blackness of space, dotted with stars. To th
e right, he could just see one of the other ships in his fleet, another heavy battlecruiser called the Neran'la. They formed only a fraction of the vessels arrayed in the defense of Lirna. The stars were always a beautiful sight to Te'rou. He had spent much of his life in space, and found a certain sense of home there.

  A small flurry of activity from the crew deck caught Te'rou's eye. He stood up from his chair and stepped forward to the railing separating the raised command platform from the stations below, looking down. -Report!-

  One of the radar officers, a lieutenant, turned his chair to address the admiral. -Sir, we're detecting a vessel emerging from hyperspace. Unscheduled. Its shields are active but the weapons seem to be powered down.-

  Admiral Te'rou felt his pulse quicken. -Class?-

  -Looks like a patrol ship. Could be a reconnaissance craft on a probing mission. It's in visual range now, sir, I'll put it up on the screen.- The lieutenant turned to his console and input a command. Up on the viewscreens, the image of space zoomed in. The screen was filled with the picture of a craft which was familiar to Te'rou, with the exception that it was painted blood red instead of black. The colors flown by the rebel forces.

  Admiral Grelen stood up from her chair, hissing softly. -That's a fast-attack craft,- she growled. -It could be a scout, leading the way for a larger fleet.-

  -Agreed,- Te'rou said. -Lock weapons onto the patrol ship, then open a communications channel. See if the pilot will respond to our hails.-