StarFlight: The Prism Baronies (Beyond the Outer Rim Book 2)

by Reiter

  “As for what I want, look back in your mind,” Entropy said, holding up his right hand as images filled one of the four walls. “Let’s venture beyond the statue of our daughters and see our last view of the throne room.” The statue was of both Persephone and Jocasta, fused together writhing in agony. The view did indeed move beyond that point and into the throne room of Gexxur-Hahni. The Tonnogard that had been decimated were still burning in the elemental flames the berserk Dungias had released. “Now that is a work of art! But I’m not happy about the scope. Why stop at one chamber when you can burn so much more?!”

  “That would be more to your liking?” Dungias asked, walking over to the wall to examine the picture more closely. He touched the picture, changing it to a view of the Pearl Barony.

  “It is… and that is exactly what I shall one day have!” Entropy claimed.

  “I see,” Dungias said, turning to a blank wall. “Thank you for your time. I shall address you in the future.” Dungias walked through the wall hearing Entropy screaming after him, demanding that he return and do battle. “I do not have the time, dark son. If Jocasta is indeed my daughter, you are also a creation of mine. Go and scream in your corner, I have work to do!”

  Dungias opened his eyes and breathed deeply. Despite how he might have looked in the chamber his body was nowhere near the same measure, but he knew that he could stand, and he lowered his feet to the ground.

  ** b *** t *** o *** r **

  The Xara-Mansura had come around and under the Pearl Barony, speeding its way under the attacking fleet. Satithe had been able to hide most of the gravimetric wake and what little of it that had been left had gone unnoticed. Three minutes after the ship had escaped the gravitational pull of the planet, the robot warships punched through the shields, beginning their invasion. Jocasta smiled at the explosion that occurred seconds after the breach; scores of robot fighters were caught in a blue fireball. Jocasta looked at her instrumentation and clapped her hands at the spiking measure of MannA in the area. The barony might not have possessed an impressive militia without the Star-Wing Corps at their side, but they were hardly without defenses.

  “But there are so damn many robots!” Jocasta thought as she watched another wave of ships rush toward the breach. Two large signals registered on her instruments; a wave that scrambled directed ThoughtWill and one that scrambled MannA. It was not as potent as the technology Dungias had developed, but there would be no more gigantic blue fireballs.

  “Satithe, I don’t suppose you could–”

  “I have already considered the proposition, Captain,” Satithe interrupted.

  “Okay,” the woman whispered, waving her hands for Satithe to conduct the explanation.

  “The Field Marshal has had what seems to be a very long and challenging history with Jockeys. The system aboard the control ship is massive, and it is not on the Grid! It only has the ability to send commands, and each line of transmission is encrypted to that sole recipient machine and nothing else. I would have to hack them each one at a time and while most of the pulses being sent are indeed instructions, part of the data package allows the master control to recognize that its transmission reached the intended target. I cannot say if a hacking attempt would somehow alter the receiving machine.”

  “But if it can only send, how does it know the message went through?” Jocasta asked.

  “I do not know for certain, Captain, but each robot ship and soldier is sending back data packets to the master control ship. They just aren’t going to the main system, but I can piggyback on to the signal and read where it goes.” Jocasta checked her headings and her speed while she waited. “As I feared, each robot is sending to a control station… a manned control station. They verify the data received and then load the information on a data rod.”

  “And once the rod is removed, you’re stuck at the console,” Jocasta hissed, pounding her fist down on her console.

  “Normally I would suggest I download a mobile version of myself, but I can already see the hardware for the transferring of data. I doubt seriously my piggyback would go undetected without having more time to engineer a suitable chameleon program.”

  “And time is something we don’t have,” Jocasta said as Dungias appeared on the Bridge. “Talk about not having any time left!” she barked, getting up from her seat.

  “It is good to see you too, Captain,” Dungias said as he turned to leave.

  “Don’t act like you can’t hear me, Cabin Boy!” Jocasta yelled. “I gave you an order! What happened to your oath?!”

  Dungias stopped, sighed, and turned to face Jocasta. She had never looked more beautiful, but he would not allow that sentiment to register on his face. “Forgive me, Captain, perhaps I am confused. Did you or did you not ground me from any away-missions?” Jocasta took in air to scream at the man, but stopped when she realized where she was and where she had left him. She was furious, and the fire in her eyes did not go unseen. She shook her head as he fought back the forming tears.

  “I can’t lose you,” she whispered. “The last time was the last time. You read me?!”

  “Clean and green, Captain,” Dungias replied. “Now, if you will excuse me, I am going to do what I can to insure I do not lose you.”

  “Then get moving,” Jocasta ushered him to the door as she returned to her console. “So,” she stated on an open com channel. “… this is what it feels like when all the kids are gone and we’re home alone. We can run around naked if we want to!”

  “At last, I have you to myself,” Dungias replied over the intercom.

  “A subject for the day after tomorrow,” Jocasta said calmly. “We can also talk about what happened back there at the Dragon Nest.”

  “If you bring the tea, I will bring the sad story and the tissues. The day after tomorrow then.”

  “Sounds like a date,” Jocasta said as the ship began to rock. “What the hell was that?!”

  “A gravimetric field, and not one this ship generated,” Dungias reported. “It seems the Field Marshal has found a way around our stealth field.”

  “Kot!”

  “A simple solution would be to pass through slowly, but we do not have time for that. Alter course, up or down, now!”

  Jocasta quickly entered the course change, opting to go up. Her instruments then registered another gravimetric disturbance, but more powerful than the one the Xara-Mansura had experienced. “Man, things are getting live up here.”

  “That was one of the three probes the drones had prepared,” Dungias notified as Jocasta heard the engines increase their output. “It carried with it a small stealth field generator and a parcel of scrap metal.”

  “Scrap metal?”

  “I have found that most military defense programs written in The Territories allow for processes to be interrupted when instances of larger and more significant numbers present themselves,” Dungias said as the Xara-Mansura increased its velocity. “I suppose they have fallen one time too many for distractions.”

  “So you counted on that and turned us into the distraction!” Jocasta smiled as she shook her head and muttered, “Damn glad he’s on my side!”

  “It will only buy us a few moments,” Dungias stated. “… but at this speed, a few moments could spell the difference between failure and success.”

  “Amen to that! By the way, what do the two probes do?”

  “One is moving at the necessary speed to remain cloaked,” Dungias reported. “It is on a Seek and Destroy mission. Having studied some of the maneuvers this Field Marshal has employed in the past, I felt it necessary to take certain precautions.”

  “Looks like you’re not the only one thinking along those lines,” Jocasta said as she looked at the monitor. “If you’re close to a monitor, I’m sending you a very ugly view.” The number of warships that were lined up in front of the master control vessel had increased. Instead of five, it was now twelve, and they had created a rather intimidating wall of weaponry. “I’m getting an energy fluct
uation in front of that wall, Z. Can you confirm?” Jocasta waited a few moments, but she did not receive a response. “Z?!” she called out.

  “What is your wish, Captain?” he asked. “We can either leave this place or we can bid farewell to the Xara-Mansura.

  “That bad, eh?” Jocasta snorted as she made another course correction. “Z, I think we both know what the answer to that question is. I made arrangements to have the Field Marshal put down… gotta do the same with what’s left of him!”

  “Understood, Captain,” Dungias replied. “All unnecessary systems will soon be falling offline… including the stealth field.”

  “Whoa! We need that!”

  “No, Captain, we do not. I am deactivating hull locks and pulling back extensions. Engaging plating motors.”

  “Engaging what?” Jocasta whispered as she could hear small explosions, sounding like the release of mooring lines during an emergency launch. “What is he doing?”

  “I do not know,” Satithe stated.

  “You don’t know?!” Jocasta barked before she started to look around the room. Motors were engaging and she could hear metal creaking. The pirate was forced to get up out of her seat and walk outside the Bridge. “Good gracious alive!” she sighed, taking hold of the doorway. The walls of the ship – the hull of the Xara-Mansura – were beginning to spin. She could feel a breeze starting to churn up around her body. Jocasta decided to go back to her seat and secure her position. “Uh, Z, exactly what are we doing right now?”

  “The second of our two self-destruct options, Captain,” Dungias replied. “You and Satithe knew of one; the function that would destroy the ship but not do much harm to the surrounding area. With the other option, however, it would be simpler to say that the entire side of the surrounding baronies now facing this sector will be able to see what we’re about to do.”

  “Kot!”

  “Dropping the stealth field now,” Dungias notified.

  “Peak-a-boo,” Jocasta whispered as she took hold of the manual controls. She chuckled, flashing a bright smile. “I can see the poor techs now.” Jocasta leaned to her right, but looked to her left. “What the hell?! Sir, she just dropped her cloaking field!” Leaning to the other side of her chair, Jocasta took a frowning face before looking shocked. “She what?! Good gods what the hell is she thinking? She’s nowhere near close enough!” She then leaned back in her chair, squinted her eyes and pressed her lips together, looking thoroughly disgusted. “That’s what happens when you let a woman take a command. She’s use to dropping her panties whenever she wants. Trouble is, she’s up against a robot now, and it’s about to give her a lesson in basic warship warfare.”

  “Is that what normally goes through your mind at times like these?” Satithe asked.

  “Not normally that clean, Satithe. You need to download yourself to a portable device and get it attached to Talon.”

  “I’ve already made arrangements with Shotgun, Captain,” Satithe stated. “I may not have the next few moments in my database, but I will look to you to fill in the blanks.”

  “Nice hint, Satithe,” Jocasta said as the ship rocked again, but she could not determine the origin. She started receiving alarms of weapons systems locking on to her ship. “Get out of here, Satithe! Kot’s about to get rough.”

  “Aye, my Captain.”

  “Z, does the spinning plating still have shield capability?”

  “The connectors needed to feed power to the emitters are no longer in place, Captain,” Dungias said.

  “Then we’re about to find out what kind of pounding this baby can take!”

  “Indeed we are, Captain.”

  From his place in Main Engineering, Dungias looked up as the first barrage struck the ship. A slight smile formed on his face. “Energy cannons,” he whispered. “Good!” The ship shuddered slightly as one, then three, then ten massive laser bolts exploded against the spinning hull, and the energy it carried was absorbed into the hull as Dungias pressed a button. Large arcs of energy fired inside the ship to collection ports that fed into the three decks of batteries that had been created to feed on energy. The ship continued to shake, but only slightly; the feed of energy became a smooth process. The first deck was only at twenty-nine percent when Dungias could hear his Captain cackling madly. A bright smile broke across his face and Dungias laughed, accessing a console he had placed Alpha into.

  “Now, Alpha,” Dungias commanded. The Osamu took on a very slight glow as it accessed the power that Nugar had provided. Using the power the ship was collecting, the Osamu created and projected an image of the Xara-Mansura with slowly depleting shields. An energy field was erected around the ship, again using the power that had just been delivered to the ship via laser fire. The robots would not be able to discern whether they were actual shields, not without investigation. It would be easier to conclude since the field was losing strength that it was shields and that their firepower would have to be intensified if they were going to destroy the ship before it reached their position. Dungias knew he could not count on fear, but he could take advantage of faulty programming.

  “You beautiful white-haired, mad scientist, evil bastard!” Jocasta screamed in joy. “Holy Kot, we’re walking right through it. Three minutes to the first ship.”

  “Three minutes,” Dungias whispered. He could not help but think that three minutes was going to be too much time, serving the advantage of the robot fleet. His suspicions were confirmed when the output of the weapons was increased to their maximum delivery capacities. “This Field Marshal was not a very balanced individual,” Dungias said softly as he got up out of his chair. He opened a channel to the robot fleet and played back Jocasta when she was laughing… he wanted the machines to hear her laugh. “It is a good first stride,” he thought. “These addled machines will eventually make the decision to deploy missiles. They deliver more damage… hull-piercing damage! We must be ready when that happens.

  “Captain,” Dungias said as he verified the transmission was being received. “… in a few moments you will be jostled and slightly disoriented. Calling for your focus, you will be able to clear your head quickly enough to enter in your last course heading. Use everything you have available to chart that course, JoJo. After that, you will need to make your way to Talon as quickly as possible and execute an emergency launch.”

  “And what about you?!”

  “I will be with Talon,” he said quickly, “… though I cannot say what condition I will be in when you find me. And no, Captain, this is not a matter for debate. Now prepare yourself!”

  “Z!” Jocasta shouted, knowing she would not receive a response. “Don’t make me chart the Grey Realm to come after you, you overly-sane blue bitch!” The ship shook more violently and she looked to see massive waves of laser fire pouring in from all sides of the ship. Still, the Xara-Mansura maintained her heading… one minute and fifteen seconds from the wall. Jocasta did not close her eyes, but she took tight hold of the controls and gazed at the tactical chart, memorizing every nuance of the immediate area as she waited for the moment.

  Running into the hangar, Dungias put Alpha in its sleeve and looked around the chamber, for the very last time. It was not up for argument on whether he would see the room again; the only question was whether the Star Chaser would see anything else at all on this side of the Next Trek.

  “Size does not matter,” he whispered as he closed his eyes. “Distance does not matter. We are Travelers, and this is what we are given to do!” Concentrating on his senses, Dungias extended his senses to one particular place and the entirety of the Xara-Mansura. With both in mind, he imagined the location as being his right hand and the ship was his left. A slight glow of starlight escaped from between his closed eyes as the pull on his right hand increased.

  The Xara-Mansura rocked violently and alarms caught Jocasta’s attention as she looked at the console. The heading of Hull Integrity was flashing as it dropped from one hundred percent. Jocasta looked at the representation
of the ship only to remind herself that she would not find any further information on the impact. She had no sensors because they had been disconnected. She looked to the only visual she had, and she could tell the energy field around the ship was getting smaller. She could also see something else that allowed her to guess what had caused the impact. Inbound missiles! She counted five and when they hit the energy sheath, the blast from the missiles made it to the hull and she heard metal in a high-pitched whine.

  “Oh baby, hold together,” Jocasta said softly, taking hold of the console. “Hold together one last time for Momma!” Another volley of missiles hit the remains of the energy field and it collapsed. Had Jocasta not been strapped in, she would have been thrown to the floor.

  “Dammit, that was just jostled,” she hissed. “No disorientation. Come on, Z! I’m supposed to be the crazy one, remember?!

  “Oh my sweet maker!” Jocasta gasped as she looked into the monitor. The view was beginning to get snowy, but even with that she could see all of the ships in front of her launch no less than ten missiles each. The look of shock, however, soon melted into a smirk. “That all you got?!”

  Wind blew through the hangar as some thirty small points of light, shining like miniature stars, hovered around the Star Chaser who now floated centimeters over the floor as a violent wind blew through his hair. The Traveler lit up the room when he opened his eyes, his mind and soul focused on the task at hand. He looked at his left hand and then his right. He cried out as he clapped his hands together, giving birth to another star in the room.

  Jocasta kept her smirk and she stared at the missiles approaching. Three seconds before they could reach her, there was another burst of light that was blindingly bright but incredibly short-lived. For the pirate, it felt as if someone had reached into her body, grabbed onto her soul and pulled hard, forcing the woman to turn inside out.