Stellar Flash

by Neil A. Hogan

  If he got back.

  He looked along the floor, at all the walls, along the ceiling and even behind the door to the hangar, pointing his arm around like a secret agent searching for hidden spies.

  There was no gold alien Mushbug Queens hiding anywhere.

  Was she going to take the bait?

  Was she setting her own trap?

  “Hey, queenie, queenie, queenie. You know, I’ve got pilot training too. You can’t be a captain without it.”

  Suddenly he felt something drip onto his suit back, the sensation being translated directly to his skin.

  Then, what sounded like a rattling, clicking, gurgling growl came from all around him, getting louder.

  He looked up and to his horror, saw the Queen fully phase shift into his reality, its six sharp, blue, green and yellow bloodied pincers reaching for him.

  Legs?

  He cried out as the pincers yanked him up into the air.

  Since when did the mushbugs have legs?

  "Spiney, Torus. I need you!" Hogart yelled, struggling against the fearsome pincers.

  His two crewmembers ran into the hangar and took aim, but the queen was throwing him around so fast, that they couldn't get a clear shot.

  Hogart realized she was trying to pull his arms and legs apart. "I said I come in peace," he yelled. "Not pieces!"

  The queen had now got a grip on both his arms and legs, and he was spread-eagled underneath her.

  "This one does not have ridges," said Torus.

  "Yes, I can see that, Torus."

  "Your plan for the nanite suit to resist being torn apart by her glue body, appears to have become unstuck."

  "Oh, a joke. Very funny, Torus," gasped Hogart. "I think you've been hanging around Puppy too much."

  "Sir, the flashband. Give it to her," said Spiney, as Hogart continued to fight against the pincers.

  "What do you think I'm trying to do?"

  Suddenly his suit began making a scratching noise, and five antenna grew out the top of it. The Queen stopped moving.

  "Cuddly!" acknowledged Hogart. "Tell her I mean her no harm, and want to give her her missing piece."

  The Queen's antennae flicked in response. "We together."

  "I think she means she wants to merge with you Captain."

  "What? No! I mean, I'm flattered and I respect your life choice, but I'm really not that way inclined."

  "No, captain, she wants to put your pieces into her pieces."

  "I know what she wants!" Hogart finally got one arm free. He pulled the flashband out of the bag and threw it at the queen.

  The wristband turned, the gold piece on the inside glinting as it spun through the air. It struck the edge of the queen’s shell and…

  …bounced off and crashed to the floor.

  Hogart looked down at it in dismay. Well, that didn’t work.

  "Queen. Your other piece, it's on the ground. Grab it and you'll be complete again.”

  "You complete me," said the Queen’s antennae.

  "Yes, I will, sure, just reach down and get that flashband and put it on."

  The Queen ignored him and pulled him further into herself. He could see her exterior shell flickering at its edges, and then it began to grow. The shell began stretching and surrounding him.

  "Guys, shoot now. Otherwise she'll cocoon me inside and I don't want to think about what will happen next. And no head jokes please!"

  Spiney and Torus began firing at the Queen, but their bolts reflected off her hard exoskeleton.

  Hogart felt the pull of the queen’s legs stretching him against her body, saw the shell almost completely envelope him, and heard her make a gurgling, rasping noise, almost triumphant.

  As even his nanite suit couldn’t cut through the encroaching blackness, his last thought was how was he going to get out of this one?

  Was this the end?

  Chapter 14

  We Come in Pieces

  Just as the last gold chitinous piece locked in place, and Hogart felt his nanite suit struggling against the talons of the queen, a bright energy began to filter through the shell.

  He looked in wonder as the hexagonal pieces of the bug became brighter, the pulling of his arms and legs stopped, and the section near him seemed to be dissolving.

  Were they cutting through with laser torches?

  Suddenly, he was freefalling. The shell, then the pincers, then the body of the creature collapsed into so many hexagonal bricks around Hogart as he crashed onto the hangar floor, the remaining pieces of the queen showering around him.

  Hogart groaned, got up slowly, checked he was still in one piece, then dusted himself off. He looked at Spiney and Torus. "That was amazing! How did you do that?"

  "Ahem," came a voice. Hogart recognized it and spun around to see a black triangular scout craft, and Admiral Victoria Heartness holding some kind of forcefield weapon.

  "Admiral! I'm so glad to see you!"

  "I heard you were having some problems with a leggy blonde again. Thought I'd drop by to help out."

  Hogart raised his eyes at the joke but was definitely happy she appeared at the right time.

  "It's not what it looks like," he said with a grin.

  Heartness laughed. "Well, you better fill me in."

  #

  After they had headed back to the Center, and Heartness had been brought up-to-date, she informed them of the Queen's appearance on Enceladus.

  “The only thing I can’t figure out,” she said, “is why time had been reversed for it. That’s never happened before with a frequency shift.”

  "The flash address didn't send her to a vibrational resonance cavity to create a perfect connection to Zero, but it shouldn't have reversed time for her," said Hogart.

  "The only thing I can think of is that the binary suns are having random effects on just about anything," said Amy. "We were affected by them last time. Perhaps they are creating temporal anomalies as well."

  "But we shouldn’t’ be affected by them at all," said Heartness. "There are thousands of binary star systems. We've been to many of them in Frequency Zero and One. Why is this one so different?"

  Hogart nodded. They needed to figure this out. If there were temporal anomalies being created, their mission might be at considerable risk. He didn’t want to suddenly put his hand in the air somewhere and have it age ten years.

  "AI, prepare a couple of probes and send them to the stars' coronas," said Hogart. "Let's see if there really is something special about these suns that our remote sensors can’t detect."

  The AI set her production systems to work and two more probes flashed away.

  "One more thing," said Heartness, turning to the crew to get all their attention. "We're heading to the most populated planet, we're investigating the stars, we're probably going to put the queen back together, with either the potential of war or first contact success, and all these things are happening without any proper record being made. Not to mention the loss of three crew members."

  Hogart raised an eyebrow. "Do we have to?"

  "The people at home need to know."

  Hogart frowned. He knew what this meant. It was time to get a new Storyteller. He suddenly realized how freer he’d felt since his thoughts were no longer being monitored. He had hoped he could wait until the mission was over.

  He sighed. “So be it. Admiral, I’ve never resurrected a Storyteller. You can show me.”

  Just as they were about to leave the Center, Spiney called to them.

  “Sir, ma’am, we need to delay a Storyteller for the moment. There is a much more serious situation that you’re both needed for. On screen.”

  Hogart and Heartness rushed back to look at the screens while Spiney continued speaking. “I believe the queen wasn’t just searching for pilot’s brains. I think she was trying to keep us occupied.”

  Hogart rubbed his face when he saw them.

  Heartness just looked incredulous. “I don’t believe it.

  “Believe it,
” said Hogart. “It looks like the black and brown mushbugs have telekinetic abilities after all.”

  On the surround screen, a cloud of shapes were speeding towards the ship, and were almost upon them.

  “AI. Evasive maneuvers. Get us out of here.”

  “Negative,” said the AI, just as the first mushbug landed on the ship. They could hear the slight thump, thump, thump, as more mushbugs hit the surface and stuck fast. These did not break up like the queen. They remained intact, and began to cover the surface of the sphere.

  “Negative?” asked Hogart.

  “Ship maneuverability compromised by telekinetic abilities of the mushbugs,” reported the AI.

  The image around them quickly showed the mushroom bugs covering the ship on the top, bottom and sides.

  “Analysis confirms that while we were chasing the queen around the ship, the volcanoes launched platforms of mushroom bugs into orbit,” said Torus.

  “Great. That’s just great,” said Hogart irritatedly. “So, the queen has been distracting us. She already had a plan in place for when we returned. She must have simply activated it the moment she first captured us on the planet. Even when I sent her to Enceladus, things kept moving. Keeping us distracted while everything came together.”

  “It looks that way,” said Amy.

  More thumps and, once again, the surround screens were obscured by mushbugs.

  “Oh, this is just terrific.” Hogart at the screen. “Now we can’t even see our next destination.”

  Just then the room lurched, the ship turned dramatically, then its angle shifted, momentarily disrupting the internal gravity. Hogart had to hang onto his console to stop from falling.

  “I don’t think we need to see,” said Puppy. “I’m sure we can all guess where they’re taking us.”

  Chapter 15

  Clouded

  “Report!” yelled Hogart, as he began to feel buffeting against the bottom of the Stellar Flash.

  “Re-entry within tolerances,” said the AI.

  “Re-entry? Hasn’t anyone the ability to control this ship?”

  Heartness went over to him. “YOU didn’t choose a pilot.” She poked him in the chest hard enough to hurt. “And now you have no control over the Stellar Flash.”

  “The AI can pilot it.” Hogart turned to the stone in the middle of the room. “AI, get us back into orbit.”

  “Negative,” said the AI. “Telekinesis override.”

  Hogart looked at Heartness and shrugged. “Even if I had a pilot they wouldn’t be able to override the telekinesis.”

  Heartness turned away from him, slightly annoyed, but she knew he was right. Even so, he was starting to make her angry. Was she getting possessive of her old ship and crew? She turned to Amy. “Any ideas?”

  Amy replaced one of the panels of the surround screen with her station’s connection. A white box image appeared. She swiped across her screen, leaving bubbles on the surface, and they went to work creating the image in her mind, before sliding back across the panel and rejoining her body.

  “What are we looking at?” asked Hogart as two sets of wave line images began to appear, one set wider than the other.

  “Telekinetic wavelength comparisons,” said Amy. I’ve analyzed the queen’s ability to pull you up in the hangar, and I’ve analyzed the mushbugs on the outside of the ship. Different telekinetic wavelengths.”

  “How different?”

  “The queen’s are much stronger. The other mushbugs need to operate as a group and be much closer to have any effect.”

  “So, hundreds of mushbugs equals one queen. Well, we have hundreds out there. So we’re still having the same problem.”

  The ship jerked as it hit an air current, and a whining noise filled the air.

  “Are they going to just let us fall?” asked Heartness.

  “It is likely they believe that they can simply put everything back together again,” said Geo.

  “We’re not Humpty Dumpty!” said Hogart. “And, as I recall, things didn’t work out well for him either.”

  “Captain, we barely have minutes left to get control of this ship before it’s too late to avoid the ground,” said Heartness. “Do something!”

  Hogart looked around the crew. “Come on, guys. Think of something.”

  Then he looked at his first officer. “You’ve been very quiet, Spiney. Any ideas?”

  “I’ve been monitoring the situation…,” began Spiney.

  “Yes…”

  “…and reviewed an idea from Amy. Geo and Torus had managed to get a sample of the glue, and Amy had instructed the chemistry department to reproduce the mushroom bugs’ alkaline secretions for future defensive purposes.”

  “Great. Not wanting to hurry you or anything but, hurry up!”

  The chemical has now been produced.”

  “So,” replied Hogart, slightly panicked. “If we survive the crash, we can fight them off with water pistols?”

  Spiney remained calm. “With your permission I would like to filter it through the nanite security systems, and out onto the surface of the Stellar Flash.”

  Hogart’s mouth opened in surprise, instantly working out what Spiney had in mind. He immediately turned to his security officer. “Puppy. Help Spiney.”

  “Yes, sir!”

  Puppy quickly activated the security protocols for the nanite ship surface, and rerouted the commands to Spiney’s station. Spiney transmitted the liquid to the nanite distribution system, activating the program that would send the liquid along various microshafts to the surface of the Stellar Flash.

  #

  Down the back corridor from the Center and towards the edge of the Stellar Flash, a room lit up. Thousands of microbots, nanites and other tiny metallic systems went to work, straightening cables and sending liquid upward and downward, through the thick hull.

  Outside the ship, hundreds of black and brown mushroom bugs twitched their colored antennae as the binary stars shone behind them, and wisps of gas rushed past them. Below, the reddish-purple ground was slowly getting closer, conical buildings mere specks, but steadily getting larger.

  #

  “Alright, explain,” said Heartness to no one in particular.

  “The mushbugs are stuck to the outside using their own secretions, ma’am,” said Spiney. “Their telekinesis is not strong enough. They have two main secretions. One that sticks and one that releases. Well, this plan is going to cover the Stellar Flash in the release liquid.”

  “That’s brilliant!” said Heartness.

  “Right!” Hogart looked quite happy at this development. “AI. As soon as the mushbugs start sliding off, set course for the next planet. Maximum speed.”

  “Confirmed,” said the AI.

  #

  Suddenly, one of the mushbugs fell off the side, its antennae flicking widely as it flew away in the wind. The other mushbugs looked agitated, their antennae twitching at this unexpected situation. Then, almost as one, they pointed their antennae down to the surface of the craft, as though realizing something was wrong.

  Seconds later, having lost a grip on the situation, all the mushbugs flew off the falling ship and were carried away by the air currents and re-entry slipstream.

  #

  Heartness looked amazed at the surround screen as the mushbugs flew off the outside of the ship, falling away from them.

  “Control returned,” said the AI. “Setting most logical course.”

  “Spiney, that was an amazing solution. Thank you very much,” said Hogart. “Just don’t leave it too late next time.”

  “I’m very impressed,” said Heartness. “Are you sure you wouldn’t want to spend some time on X-1a as my PA?”

  “There is no need for your complimentary behavior,” said Spiney. “However, it is welcome.”

  “Captain?” called Cuddly. “I thought you wanted to go to another planet. We do not seem to be going in the right direction.”

  Hogart saw the screens and the rapidly approac
hing ground.

  They hadn’t changed course.

  “AI. What is going on? I thought I told you to go to the next planet.”

  “Yes, sir.”

  “Why are we heading towards the surface of this one?”

  “There is no planet there, sir.”

  “AI, yes there is. The brown and purple one. We can see it. You’re driving us straight towards it.” Hogart’s voice had an edge of fear to it.

  “Logical course set,” said the AI. “Do you wish to choose a different location?”

  Hogart knew there was no time. He gripped the stand as the side of a massive conical building on a collision course filled the screen.

  Chapter 16

  Released

  Hogart screwed his eyes tightly shut as the Stellar Flash fell towards the top of the building…

  …and passed through.

  When he felt nothing, he opened his eyes to see Heartness staring at him.

  She slapped his face.

  “Get a *#!%^*> pilot!” she yelled.

  Hogart fell back in shock as frequency-shifted rooms, tunnels, caves, underground rivers, then liquid carbon dioxide and magma rushed through him.

  The AI had taken the most logical course. Frequency shift the ship to be slightly outside the existence of the planet so that they could simply fall through it to the other side.

  Amazing.

  But now his face hurt.

  “Ow! Ma’am. I don’t believe your actions are suitable for the position of Admiral.”

  “Oh, *#!% my admiral position. You’re obviously an incompetent buffoon. I have no idea why Patel recommended you for this mission.”

  Suddenly angrier than he’d been for a while, Hogart stomped forward and thrust his face directly into Heartness’. “Ma’am. With all due respect, you can go back to your plushy little desk job while the real captains are out here completing their missions, risking their lives and limbs. I’m grateful you turned up when you did but, if you’re not willing to let me make some changes, then I politely request you to GET THE *#!% OFF MY SHIP. Of course, if it’s just your day of the month, I politely request you get your *#!%^*>