The Voyages Of The Seven (The Star Agency Chronicles Book 2)

by R. E. Weber

  ‘When we were attacked on the station – when we were captured by him. You were amazing.’

  ‘No I wasn’t, I…’

  ‘Theo,’ said Larissa sharply, ‘stop interrupting me.’

  Theo looked back at Larissa and mimed zipping up his mouth.

  ‘When we were on the station and we came under attack, you didn’t panic. You seemed to know exactly what to do. You saved us. If it’d been anybody else, we’d be dead. Then, when we were captured, you knew exactly how to handle him – Mulha Ran, I mean. And when we came under attack on the planet, you led us to safety. It wasn’t him that saved us, it was you. You took control, Theo. I’ve never seen anything like it.’

  ‘Did I?’

  ‘Yes, Theo. You’re a natural leader. You were cool and calm. You saved us all.’

  ‘But I put you at risk by trying to save him. When I wanted to cut him free, you told me to stop. But I didn’t listen to you, I…’

  ‘But Theo, I only told you to stop because I didn’t want you to get killed. When they were bombing us, the tunnel could have decompressed at any time. I was worried that if you took time to save him, you’d be risking your own life.’

  ‘So you weren’t angry that I saved him?’

  ‘Angry? Theo, I was proud of you. You’re not a killer, you’re better than that – better than him. You’re a kind person, I know that. That’s why I’m with you.’

  ‘With me?’

  ‘You know, us two, together.’

  ‘A…are you saying what I think you’re saying?’

  Larissa strolled slowly towards him and placed her hands gently on his cheeks.

  ‘If you want us to be, yes.’

  As Theo stared back at Larissa, his heart was beating so fast he was certain that she could hear it. As he opened his mouth to speak, she gently placed a finger on his lips to let him know that she understood. Then she took his face in her hands, closed her eyes and pressed her lips gently against his. Without even realising it, Theo’s eyes had closed too, and his arms had snaked around her back. And as they kissed, every inch of Theo burned with a feeling so powerful, he knew that he would never be the same again.

  *

  ‘I told you, Theo, they’re fine. They can’t wait to see you,’ said Larissa insistently.

  Theo stared at the doorway to Weng’s quarters and took a deep breath. Then he looked at Larissa and took her hand.

  ‘Together?’ he said nervously.

  ‘Together,’ said Larissa smiling back at him.

  Theo looked back at the door, selected the context point and requested entry. Moments later, the door vaporised to reveal Weng grinning back at them.

  ‘Heeeyyyy buddy, you’re back.’

  Weng threw his arms around Theo and lifted him clean off the floor. Then he dropped him back down, slapped his back and grasped him firmly by the shoulders.

  ‘So how’s it feel to be a hero?’

  ‘Oh, I’m not a hero. I…’

  ‘The hell you’re not. You took on that old bastard and won. He’s run away with his tail between his legs and you’re back here. Hell of a show old buddy.’

  As Theo opened his mouth to speak, he felt Larissa squeeze his hand, and he paused for a moment to re-think his answer.

  ‘Well, I did what I could.’

  ‘Anyway, come in, sit down. You’ll never guess what we’re having tonight?’

  ‘Would it be hotdogs by any chance?’

  ‘Oh, hell, you got me there. Didn’t know I was so predictable.’

  ‘Oh, don’t worry about it, I’m not complaining. I love ‘em.’

  ‘What, even with that weird lab grown meat stuff they have here?’

  ‘Especially with that,’ said Theo grinning now that his initial panic had subsided.

  Larissa led Theo into the room, and as the door closed behind them, Cristos and Abubakar approached. Cristos wrapped his arms around Theo and squeezed hard, so much so that he could barely breathe. Then he did the same to Larissa. Abs just put his hands on both their shoulders and smiled warmly.

  ‘It’s so good to have you back,’ said Abs.

  ‘Yes, I can’t believe it,’ said Cristos. ‘When we heard you’d disappeared, we thought you’d been…well, you know.’

  ‘It takes more than a wrinkly old He’tal to get the better of me.’

  At that moment, the doorway opened again to reveal Lara staring into the room. Without a word, she entered and approached Theo.

  ‘Lara,’ said Theo smiling, ‘you OK?’

  ‘Yes, I am well, Theo. Were you injured during your capture and interrogation?’

  ‘No Lara, I’m fine. Not a scratch on me.’

  ‘I am pleased that you are safe and uninjured.’

  To Theo’s shock, Lara took hold of his hand and squeezed it gently, before releasing it. Then she turned and sat on the floor.

  Theo stared at his hand, then back at Lara, who was staring forwards blankly, her eyes flicking around as she became lost in her companion once more. In all the time he had known her, she had never initiated any form of physical contact with any of them, except for Abs. Yet here and now, for the first time, she had held Theo’s hand. And that told him all that he needed to know. Every single last one of them, including Lara, was pleased to see him. Theo was back where he belonged, with his friends.

  ‘So we’re all here then?’ said Weng.

  ‘Everybody except Ruby,’ said Cristos solemnly.

  ‘Oh yeah, about that,’ said Weng. ‘Well I’ve got a surprise for you.’

  Weng then turned towards the centre of the room and a shimmering image materialised out of thin air. Within moments, the translucent ghost of Ruby was looking back at them. Immediately, a wide smile lit up Theo’s face. As he stared at the image, Larissa’s hand slipped into his once more and squeezed tightly.

  ‘Hello everybody,’ said Ruby smiling. ‘I thought I’d drop you all a line rather than sending you individual messages right now. I know you still meet as often as you can, so I’m hoping you’re all together, watching this.’

  ‘She’s had her hair cut,’ said Cristos frowning. ‘I preferred it long.’

  ‘Oh I don’t know, I think it looks rather, how do you say, chic,’ said Larissa.

  ‘…anyway,’ continued Ruby, ‘first of all, I want to say welcome back, Theo and Larissa. I heard all about your adventures, and I’m glad you’re back safe and sound. Really glad.’

  As a flicker of happiness flashed across his face, Theo looked coyly at the floor. Then he looked back at Ruby. He had missed her.

  ‘So anyway, I suppose you’ve heard all about me and what’s happening here. If you haven’t, well the long and short of it is that I’m staying put, at least for now. I know it’s weird with the H’th’hka not being part of the Affinity, but that’s the way it is. For some reason, they think it’ll be good for them. They’re a broken people and I want to try and help.’

  ‘Broken ain’t the word,’ mumbled Weng.

  ‘But the good news is,’ continued Ruby, ‘that I’ve managed to negotiate a bit more freedom, so I can talk to you all more often. So any time you wanna get in touch, do it. Any time, day or night, just drop me a line. It’ll be great to hear from you. I might even be able to arrange for you to visit sometime, but I’m still working on that one. So as you would say, Theo, watch this space.’

  Theo grinned as he stared at the translucent ghost in front of him. His best friend was back.

  ‘Anyway, I’m not going to bore you all to death right now. I’ll get in touch with you individually to do that. But all I wanted to say was this. I know I’m not there and I know I can’t talk to you in real-time, but I like to think of myself as with you in spirit. I know it’s corny, but I hope it’s true. And I hope you all feel the same about me too.’

  ‘Always,’ said Theo.

  ‘Hell, yeah,’ said Weng enthusiastically.

  The rest nodded and murmured in agreement.

  ‘So if you don’t mi
nd, can you all stand in a circle with me? I’ll give you a moment.’

  Smiling, Weng ushered everybody into position until they had formed a circle.

  ‘Right,’ said Ruby, ‘let’s do it.’

  Ruby lifted her arm and reached out towards the centre of the circle. ‘We are the seven,’ she said warmly.

  Each of them touched Ruby’s ghostly, insubstantial hand. Then they chanted back in unison, as they had so often done. ‘We are the seven.’

  As Theo glanced around at his friends, he caught Cristos looking back at Ruby with a tear in his eye. And as he looked at the rest of them, he saw that they were all feeling the same. He then touched his own eyes and discovered that they were also wet.

  ‘We are the seven,’ they all chanted once more.

  As they dropped their hands, the image of Ruby flickered and disappeared, and they sat down on the cushions that had been scattered around the floor. Weng walked over to the wall, accessed a context point and produced a tray of hotdogs. He then picked up the tray and put it in the centre of the group.

  ‘Cheer up you lot and tuck in,’ said Weng, grinning. ‘It took me bloody ages to knock up this feast. Fake mustard anyone?’

  *

  Much to Theo’s relief, the evening had been very pleasurable and not at all the awkward experience he had imagined. Other than a few ‘pleased you’re back’ and ‘how are you feeling?’ moments, little had been discussed regarding his encounter with the Metah Dah beyond Weng’s enthusiastic and colourful welcome speech. Theo guessed that Larissa had already contacted the group prior to the meeting to dissuade them from asking Theo too much about what had happened, and that suited him just fine. Although he knew that the questions would one day come, tonight wasn’t the night for them.

  Although Larissa and First Mentor had done their best to persuade Theo that he’d done nothing wrong whatsoever, the nagging feeling that he could have changed the course of the war against the Metah Dah by one simple act, still made him feel as though he had failed in his duty. He had accepted the idea that he could not kill in cold blood, but the fact that he had put himself and Larissa at risk by taking the time to free Mulha Ran when he could have left him behind, still made Theo feel uneasy. And no amount of persuasion from his friends was likely to change that.

  ‘You OK, Theo?’ said Larissa tapping his hand to drag him out of his daydream.

  ‘I’m fine,’ said Theo forcing a smile.

  ‘Good,’ said Larissa before kissing him on the cheek.

  ‘So, you two,’ said Weng grinning and shoving Theo in the shoulder, ‘how long have you two been… well a thing, an item?’

  ‘Oh, not long. It just happened recently,’ said Theo.

  ‘Recently? Oh come on you guys, you’ve been waltzing around each other for months. Tell me the truth – come on.’

  ‘I have not seen you attempt to dance at any of our meetings,’ said Lara. ‘Have you been doing this in private?’

  Abs leant over and whispered in her ear. Lara turned and looked Theo and Larissa up and down.

  ‘They are mating?’ she said loudly, causing the entire room to stop and stare at her, then at Theo and Larissa.

  Within seconds, Theo had turned bright crimson.

  ‘No Lara,’ replied Larissa quickly, ‘it’s just that we’ve grown close lately – really close. When you’ve been through what we’ve been through, you see what people are really like. Theo is the strongest and bravest person I have ever met. He saved my life, many times. He…’

  ‘No, well they don’t need to hear about all this now, do they, Lari?’ said Theo.

  Weng leant over and slapped Theo hard on the leg. ‘This guy’s a proper bona fide hero and no mistake.’

  ‘So you are not mating?’ said Lara, once more causing everybody to stare at them.

  ‘No Lara, we’re not. It’s like Larissa said, we’re just close, that’s all.’

  Abs placed his hand gently on Lara’s forearm. She glanced back at him for a moment, irritated. Then she looked back at Theo sternly, in silence.

  Abs whispered to Lara for a moment. Then he unfolded his legs and jumped to his feet.

  ‘Well all, I am afraid that I must leave you now. I have an early start tomorrow and I don’t want to be late.’

  ‘By the way, how is life as a librarian?’ said Weng.

  ‘Abubakar is not a librarian,’ replied Lara sternly, ‘he is an archive consistency analyst. He is required to ensure that the central data archives are up to date and accurate. His role requires precision and concentration. He is held in very high regard by his superiors.’

  Weng put his hand over his mouth and leant towards Theo. ‘Looks like there’s more than one budding romance around here, doesn’t there?’ he mumbled.

  ‘You might be right there,’ whispered Theo.

  Lara looked at Theo, then Weng, and scowled. She had clearly heard enough to understand what they had said. She stood up, walked over to Abs, and to everybody’s surprise, kissed him on the cheek. Then without another word, she left the room with a rather sheepish looking Abs following.

  ‘I think they’ll be mating before anybody else,’ said Weng with raised eyebrows.

  ‘Yeah, she’s probably already drawn up a detailed itinerary. Step one, take your selected mate by the hand. Step two, kiss him on the cheek. Step 3, remove his…’

  ‘Theo, no,’ said an angry voice from the back of his mind. Ruby’s words had been almost as clear as if she’d been in the room. ‘Not everybody finds it easy, you know.’

  ‘Anyway,’ said Theo rapidly changing the subject. ‘It’s probably about time we… I hit the sack as well.’

  ‘Yeah, OK, fair enough,’ replied Weng.

  Cristos stood up, walked over to Theo and Larissa and smiled.

  ‘I’m really glad you’re back. It wasn’t the same without you.’

  ‘It really is good to be back,’ replied Theo. ‘Hopefully next time, Ruby will get some leave and come over. It’ll be just like old times.’

  ‘The seven,’ said Cristos smiling.

  ‘The seven,’ said Larissa and Theo in unison.

  And although there had been only the six of them physically in the room that evening, it had felt like Ruby had also been present. The gang were back together and everything was right with the Universe. They were The Seven.

  25 – First Command

  With a blinding flash of light, the attack cruiser burst out of the quantum portal and shot into open space above the rocky, airless planetoid in the largely un-colonised Cultac system. Within a matter of minutes, it had rendezvoused with the remainder of the attack fleet, two hundred hotah above the planetoid’s surface, and positioned itself at the rear of the arrowhead formation.

  Once the final vessel had locked its position, the three leading vessels opened their drone ports and dispatched needle-shaped drones out in front of the fleet. When the drones had reached a distance of about half a hotah from the leading vessels, they locked themselves in position and began to fold out a series of rigid struts, which fanned out from the central shaft like an ever expanding umbrella.

  Once the struts had reached their maximum size, a series of thin, shimmering membranes unfolded along the struts, stretching and flexing until they had reached their full spread. Once the membranes had tightened and become rigid, the drones locked themselves in formation in front of the vessels, forming a one-way electromagnetic radiation shield, preventing any vessel in their flight path from detecting their approach. Then after a brief burst of communication activity to confirm their combat readiness, the fleet accelerated away in perfect formation.

  Once the fleet had rounded the planetoid and the distant sun had set behind the heavily cratered horizon, the lead vessel locked onto its target one point seven billion hotah distant and initiated a series of coded commands to take control of the arrowhead formation. It then set the engines of each vessel to maximum thrust, and with a remarkable burst of acceleration began to race towards the re
mote location at the outermost edge of the solar system.

  When the formation of attack vessels had closed in to within a million hotah of their target, the vessels’ energy weapon ports opened and began pulsing faintly with an eerie blue light, indicating that they were charging to full capacity. Within a matter of seconds, the ports were glowing steadily to indicate their battle readiness.

  For several long moments, the five vessels drifted silently and swiftly towards their targets, their weapons poised to strike. Then without warning, the three ships at the front of the fleet opened fire, spitting bolts of energy through the flimsy shield membranes that had been masking their approach, tearing them to pieces. As soon as the shield fragments had been cleared from their flight path, the two vessels at the back of the fleet broke formation and peeled away above and beneath the lead vessels, moving two hotah out from the central ships before locking onto their distant target.

  As the lead vessel continued to spit a stream of energy bolts towards its target, a single pinpoint of light formed several hotah behind the fleet. Then a column of pure blackness, darker than anything in the Universe, formed between the distant target – now visible as another attack cruiser – and the pinpoint of light. Then, like a gigantic sword wielded by an enormous god-like hand, the column of blackness swung upwards and through the lead vessel, slicing it clean in half like a knife through butter. As the remnants of the cruiser span outwards in a widening cloud of debris, a huge metallic strut tore into the nearest vessel’s massive engine housing, and with a flash of light brighter than the sun, the engines exploded, tearing the vessel into a million pieces.

  As the third vessel in the central formation peeled away to escape the devastating explosion, thousands of fragments of superheated debris smashed into it, tearing sheets of plating away from its outer hull. Out of the many punctures in the hull, glowing plasma began to vent into space. Then the vessel stopped manoeuvring and seemed to turn on its side, drifting helplessly now that its power grid and thrusters had failed.

  The outermost two vessels of the fleet, which were now five hotah apart, continued firing energy bolts at the enemy vessel, which was swinging around clumsily, wielding its gigantic black column of nothingness in a desperate attempt to make contact with the two cruisers. However, it wasn’t manoeuvrable enough to strike its targets. Then the enemy vessel started leaking plasma from its engine housing, and its guidance thrusters spluttered and died.