Primal Darkness

by Ryan Kirk

  “Good. Let’s get moving. The faster we can be ready, the better off we will be.”

  Eleta and Alston stood up, but Derreck grabbed Kindra’s arm, keeping her seated. She nodded at the others to go on without her, and she looked into Derreck’s eyes.

  “Yes?”

  “Given our conversation earlier, I need to know what you’re thinking. If you’re still thinking about leaving Fleet, I won’t have you on this mission.”

  Kindra shook her head. “I can’t leave. Not now. I will see this through. After, though, who knows?”

  Derreck held her eyes with his own, trying to find something there. Whatever he was looking for, he must have been satisfied. “Good. It would have been a shame to leave without you.”

  As their transport lifted off from Haven, Tev took the time to look down on the world he was leaving. It was the second world he had ever been on, and it couldn’t have been more different from the first. Tev was torn about his departure.

  On one hand, he was glad. Haven was far too crowded, full of right angles and people who weren’t aware, who weren’t even capable of good movement. It was so far from what he was used to, and although he had spent months on the surface, he had never truly gotten used to it. More than once he had decided he wasn’t made for space exploration. The universe was too strange.

  On his home planet, Tev had known who he was. He was a hunter in a clan, one of the best, in his own opinion. He had been respected, at least before Kindra and her clan arrived. But out here, in the vastness of space and on another planet, he didn’t know who he was. He had heard the term alien plenty of times, but that didn’t seem like him. Kindra said he was human, just like they were.

  Tev longed for his home. He wanted to be back in a place he understood. In his previous life, before Kindra had landed, he had always wanted more, always wanted to explore a little farther. But now, he was thinking he had explored far enough.

  Still, there was a small, insistent part of him that wouldn’t let him settle for the easy answer. He didn’t know how many times he had remembered the dream he once had, but in it Lys had told him that he needed to hunt farther than anyone had before. His rational mind told him he had already fulfilled the requirements of the vision, but the same insistent voice in his mind reminded him that judgment wasn’t for him to decide.

  Exploring hadn’t always been fun, but he had to admit he had opened himself up to far more experiences and sensations than he had ever believed possible. There were benefits to everything he was doing. Perhaps he just needed to keep a more positive mindset.

  Tev’s thoughts were interrupted by Kindra’s entrance onto the observation deck. They stood side by side for a while without saying anything, but it was Kindra who broke first, as it always was.

  “So, now that you’ve been on our home world, what do you think?”

  “Many things. This world is so different from my own. I can't believe that two places can be so unalike. The people are very different, too. I know you say we are all human, but even if we share the same bodies, our souls seem hardly recognizable to each other.”

  Kindra considered Tev’s words. “I don’t know if I agree. I think that really, all of us are far more alike than we care to admit. Almost all of us want the same things, it just takes a lot of work to get others to be sympathetic.”

  Tev dismissed the subject. He had never been one to take such debates too seriously. There were more pressing concerns on his mind. “Kindra, what can we do to protect my people?”

  Kindra’s mood changed in an instant. Tev could easily see how distraught the most recent turn of events had been for her. But Tev wouldn’t let her escape the question. He had come into space hoping that somehow his presence would help him protect his people back on his home planet. Now that belief was being called into question. He wanted to do something, but he didn’t understand everything that was happening. If there was one person who would not lie to him, it would be Kindra.

  “I’m not sure what we can do. I want your people to be safe as well, but I worry that there are very powerful people who want to use your people to serve them.”

  Tev contained his anger. Rage did no one any good. His intentions were already set. He would do anything, include sacrificing his own life, if it meant that he could protect his people.

  Tev awoke from the jump meds, and his body struggled to keep up, as it always did. The first two months of travel had been dull and routine, and Tev had a hard time containing his energy. He wanted to do something, to take some action that would protect his people, but there was nothing to do. For the moment, he was nothing more than a glorified passenger.

  This jump was different. As Tev was finally finding his balance on his feet again, the lights in his room dimmed and turned orange. He sank lower in case the gravity on the jumper fluctuated again. He still refused to return to his bunk.

  There were no shifts in gravity, and soon the orange flashing lights turned off. Tev debated his course of action, but decided to continue normally until someone gave him further instructions. It only took a few minutes for Derreck’s voice to come through the translator Tev wore. “Tev, could you come up to the bridge, please?”

  Derreck’s voice was calm, but that didn’t mean anything. Tev knew Derreck well enough to know that he wouldn’t betray any of his emotions in a stressful situation. The more chaos a man like Derreck found himself in, the calmer he would get. It was one of his most powerful traits.

  Tev followed his memory, only taking two wrong turns on the path to the bridge. It was a windowless room in the center of the jumper. Captain Absalon was there, as was Derreck.

  Derreck looked up from a display he was staring at when Tev entered the bridge. “Tev. Thanks for coming. There’s something I wanted to show you.” He handed Tev a computer pad, and Tev looked at the image on it. He saw another ship, but it looked about as different from the Destiny as one could. The Destiny looked like it had been built by a group of children, a blocky structure with attachments and additions growing out of it from all directions.

  The ship Derreck had him looking at was something different. It had smooth, sleek lines, and although Tev could see that it had plenty evidence of damage, it was a design that radiated a sense of danger.

  “Is this why the lights turned orange?”

  Derreck nodded. “Yes. The ship is currently on the other side of the sun. It’s about fifteen light-minutes away.”

  Tev shook his head. He didn’t understand. He knew there was a difference between a light-minute and a minute, but his mind wasn’t able to process just how different they were. Fifteen minutes away didn’t seem like very far, especially considering how fast ships moved out here.

  “Are we in danger?”

  Derreck looked over at Captain Absalon, who shook his head. “Apparently the other ship isn’t too worried about us. They haven’t done anything to attack us yet, and we are a long way away from each other. We should be safe for now.”

  “Why did you call me up here?”

  Derreck grinned at Tev’s direct line of questioning. “I wanted to show you the ship. I’ve fought against her before, actually. She’s named Hellbringer, and she’s one of the most advanced jumpers in the galaxy, although that’s not saying as much these days. I heard rumors she had been destroyed, but apparently the rumors of her death have been greatly exaggerated. But, there is a problem that I wanted to make you aware of.”

  Tev followed Derreck as he walked to another screen in the bridge. Derreck entered some commands using his neural interface, and the screen in front of them changed to a handful of points scattered across the entire screen.

  “Here’s the problem. We thought we would have a head start on the other ship, but if it’s here, either it started far closer than we expected, or that ship can somehow jump more than twice without recharging. If that’s the case, we’re screwed one way or the other. We’ll never be able to keep up.

  “But that seems unlikely. We don’t have kno
wledge of any technology that would allow for that to happen, so we need to assume the ship started from a different place than we were expecting.”

  Derreck pointed to a place on the board. One of the points lit up. “This is where we are.” Another point lit up. “And this is where your home planet is. Now, do me a favor and draw the fastest way to get from one place to another.”

  Tev studied the points. From their location, there was only one route that made sense. There were plenty of paths they could choose, but if they wanted to go as fast as possible, there was really only one way. Tev traced it with his finger, and Derreck nodded. “You already get it. Unless they are willing to jump into the void of space, which I don’t believe they are, they will be following the same path we are. It will be a race to your planet, unless we can figure out a way to slow them down.”

  Tev slipped into the suit like it had become his second skin, which it felt like, in a way. He remembered his first experiences, stumbling around as though he had had far too much to drink. Now he could move with a grace his old opponent Kenan would have been jealous of.

  Derreck noticed it, too, as Tev took a few steps. “Damn, Tev. You’ve gotten really good. I’ve been watching most of your training feeds from a first-person perspective, but when I look at what you’re able to do now, in person, well, damn.”

  Tev smiled at the compliment. Derreck was no slouch with the exosuits either, so the comment meant a lot to him. Derreck wasn’t the type of person who gave a compliment unless he meant it.

  As soon as they were ready, Derreck led them out the airlock into space. Tev, as he almost always did, took a moment to look out at the stars in all their vastness. He looked for the other ship, but couldn’t see any sign of it.

  “Where’s the Hellbringer?”

  Derreck laughed, and an arrow showed up on Tev’s display. He followed it, but couldn’t see that it was pointing to anything.

  “You can’t see it. We’re too far away for us to see it with our eyes. I don’t even think the magnification on our suits would do the trick.”

  Derreck detached from the hull of the Destiny, instructing Tev to do the same. With some very gentle thrusts, they pulled away from the jumper until they could see all of it at once. Derreck started his lecture.

  “The most important thing I can teach you is this: when it comes to space combat, we don’t destroy jumpers.”

  Tev frowned. That didn’t make any sense to him. If you destroyed the jumper, then it would solve all of their problems. Why would you not? He didn’t hesitate to ask.

  Derreck, to his credit, didn’t laugh at Tev’s question. “It’s because jumpers are too valuable. They take forever to build and to test, and the expense is incredible. Fleet has only built one in the past ten years. They’re just too expensive and too important to destroy. You need to remember, if the jumpers get destroyed, we have no other way of connecting to each other across the galaxy.”

  “But why does that matter? You still have an entire planet.”

  “True, but remember that the vast majority of planets aren’t like yours. Even Haven doesn’t have the resources necessary to support all the people who live there. If the jumpers disappeared, so would much of humanity. It’s too much of a risk, and so, for now, we never attack jumpers.”

  Tev still wasn’t convinced. If the jumper was the problem, destroying it still seemed the most straightforward solution. If he could destroy the Hellbringer, he wouldn’t hesitate.

  Derreck interjected. “I know what you’re thinking, and I understand how you might feel, and how, from your perspective, it might even make sense. Let me put it another way. I would happily sacrifice myself, the Vigilance, and all her crew if it would save your people from harm.”

  Tev heard the truth in Derreck’s voice. The warrior was an ally, and a strong one.

  Derreck continued, “But, if you did anything to destroy that jumper, I would kill you myself.”

  The statement rocked Tev to his core. Over the past couple of months, he had come to trust Derreck deeply, and there was no doubting that Derreck believed in what he was saying. Tev didn’t understand why, but he understood he couldn’t lose the captain's support.

  “I don’t understand, but if that is how you feel, I won’t destroy the jumper.”

  “Good. Now, instead of being so serious, let’s have some fun. Just because we can’t destroy the jumper doesn’t mean we can’t attack it.”

  For the next hour, Derreck gave Tev more information than he could take in. The reason exosuits were so popular was because they made for great weapons in all the different situations warriors found themselves in. They were most often used in ground combat, but with the unspoken rule that no jumper be destroyed, they made for great ship-to-ship combat tools as well.

  Derreck talked about attacking the access points of a ship to gain entry. He highlighted the parts of the jumper that warriors could strike, like the places that provided air for the ship, or the bridge. Everything that was important was usually located near the center of the ship, so most battles became about trying to reach the center of the jumper.

  Once they were done out in space and on the hull, Derreck took Tev inside the ship and demonstrated some of the basics of combat in corridors, how to use the different weaponry of the exosuits to their greatest advantage.

  When he was finished lecturing, Derreck smiled and looked at Tev. “Now, are you ready to practice?”

  Tev was, more than anything. Listening to Derreck was fascinating, and Derreck interrupted himself frequently to demonstrate techniques first-hand. He then had Tev practice them until he got them down. But it still wasn’t the same as going through the entire process.

  “Here’s the situation. You need to get to this room,” Derreck said, as a room highlighted itself on Tev’s display, “all in one piece. I’ve requested that this area be clear for the next hour or so, so it will just be the two of us. Your suit is set to training mode, as is mine, so you’ll be able to shoot at me and our suits will simulate hits. Good luck!”

  For the next hour, Tev “killed” Derreck far less often than Derreck killed him, but he learned fast, and he won the last three run-throughs. When he finally got out of the exosuit, he was exhausted, but he also knew he was ready to take on the opposing jumper. They just needed to give him the chance.

  Everything about this mission felt off to Kindra, as though she couldn’t quite awaken from her jump meds. She had joined Fleet after the end of the Rebellion Conflict, and she wasn’t prepared for what life was like when combat became part of the equation. Memories of her actions on Tev’s planet were never far away.

  Their lives had become a strange mixture of tension and boredom, a mix that ate away at a person’s rationality. Kindra remembered reading a history book when she was young, a book about seafaring navies back on Earth. She had been fascinated, because much of Fleet was based on the same principles. Now, the sea was space.

  Kindra had gone far beyond the scope of her required reading, learning about ships and submarines. She had always been interested in the submarines, using the abyss of the deep ocean as their cover. She had been on edge of her seat as she read about the earliest submarines, sitting quietly in the water, hoping the more powerful ships above would lose them.

  In her mind, what she was going through was almost identical to the challenges of those first submariners. They knew the enemy was out there. Sometimes the other jumper was close enough that if you pulled up the viewscreen on its maximum magnification, you could even see it. Other times it was on the other side of a star, or far enough away that no amount of onboard magnification would allow you to see it.

  Kindra also knew that like the submarines of old, facing surface ships, the other jumper was much stronger than the Destiny. She wasn’t an expert in interstellar combat, but the one time she had asked Derreck why they didn’t just attack, he scoffed as though she was suggesting that they try to build a jumpship using only a hammer and two nails.

&nb
sp; Kindra watched the way that Derreck trained with Tev. There was a newfound intensity to the training, an urgency that had never been there before. Derreck was trying to teach Tev everything he knew about space combat, and Tev was a sponge, soaking up everything Derreck offered. In the years they had been flying together, Kindra had never seen Derreck like this. He had always been cool and collected, never perturbed by any situation, no matter how out of hand it seemed to get. But the presence of the rebellion ship was rattling him on a deeper level.

  Not for the first time, Kindra wished she understood her captain better. Derreck was the reason she had remained with Fleet after her first tour, and to see him distractible and worried was difficult for her to swallow. She knew he had been a hero in the Rebellion Conflict, but there weren’t any records of his deeds. All she knew was that Fleet had given him pretty much every medal they had. He never spoke of his actions, and nothing he did had ever made it to the public record. All she could do was guess.

  Even though they didn’t attack Hellbringer, they weren’t being attacked by the other ship. The reasons why were an endless source of speculation among the crew. In theory, the Hellbringer could attack and disable the Destiny whenever it pleased. But they were left alone.

  When Kindra had asked Derreck, he developed a far-off look before he came back to himself.

  “I think there are two things happening. First, at the heart of it all, this is a race, and there’s a chance they might figure out a way to win the race before we even arrive. If that’s the case, they can achieve their objectives without risking any of their resources. Second, it comes down to the materials they carry on board. We don’t know how much they have on that ship. It’s capable of holding far more dropships and weaponry than we can, but that doesn’t mean it’s full. The rebellion has been largely defeated, so it could be an empty jumper. The only problem is, we won’t know unless we attack. Even if the ship is largely empty, what’s inside is still a huge proportion of everything the rebellion has left. Every suit and dropship they lose is a much bigger loss to them than it is to us. They’ll be searching for a way to attack us with minimal risk.”