by Tony Healey
Then, when he began to wonder whether it would ever notice him, the vessel fired a grappler in his direction. He eased back in his chair as the larger ship reeled him in.
* * *
Sepix stood in the hangar bay with his hands behind his huge back. He watched patiently as the Draxx fighter was lifted inside. It was of an older design, and the sight of the craft struck a chord, as though he should remember it for being important somehow.
It made a loud clang as it settled heavily upon the deck. A legion of troops stood by with their weapons raised, lest the occupant prove hostile. Sepix strode forward until he stood six feet from the cockpit.
The hatch opened slowly, and as it did, the air from the hangar rushed into the ship. It threw him a moment before he realised it was rushing to fill a vacuum. There had been no air inside the fighter.
But how —
The pilot stepped out, onto the deck. Sepix watched in disbelief as Carn looked around the hangar. He got down on one knee in front of Sepix and lowered his head.
“My lord. We are not yet met,” the pilot said. “But you are clearly of pure blood. The oath I gave your predecessors still stands now. I am your loyal servant, and at your command.”
The pilot looked up.
Sepix saw nothing through that mirrored mask but his own face staring down. “Accepted. Rise, General,” he said, the words alien on his lips.
Carn stood. Sepix turned and walked slowly across the hangar bay. Carn fell in step with him.
“You’re right, I do not know you. Only of you. You were once a great a hero to our people,” Sepix said.
After a moment, Carn said “Forgive me, I can tell that time has passed, but not how much. How long has it been?”
“Fifty years,” Sepix said.
Another long silence. “And the war to quell the Human plague?”
Sepix nodded. “Yes, the purge continues.”
“Excellent . . .” Carn said, pleased to find that though time might have moved on, other things hadn’t. There was still a place for him. And a job to do…
* * *
The General moved past that memory to where he needed to be, to where the pyramid had allowed him to travel. Back in time, back to his own galaxy.
Now the light faded around him as he reached his destination. He materialized at the centre of the Inflictor‘s bridge and several Draxx foot soldiers rushed at him, weapons drawn.
Prince Sepix turned in surprise at the sudden ruckus on his bridge.
Carn looked up. “My lord,” he said and dropped to one knee.
Prince Sepix told his men to back off a bit. He stepped toward the stranger.
“Are you who I believe you to be?” Sepix asked him.
Carn nodded slowly. “And I have brought proof to justify my claims.”
He handed the Prince the Royal egg. Sepix took it carefully from him. He glanced around at the bridge crew, aware of them watching this exchange with keen interest.
“Then you know who is aboard . . .” Sepix said.
“Yes, my lord.”
“Come,” Sepix said, and left the bridge with the General in tow.
2.
As General Carn bowed to the Draxx Queen, he could still vividly remember when he had fled this very same ship and taken her with him. She’d proved essential in gaining the trust of the Naxors and the use of their military. It turned out the Naxors weren’t so different to the Draxx, in many ways. Leaving her to die on the Inflictor along with Prince Sepix had been an unthinkable notion and he was glad to have not entertained it for even a second.
Afterall, the Queen was the key to his eventual goal, even if she was not the entire impetus for his actions…
Now he bore her a gift.
The Queen took the egg from him, her head tilted to one side in a pose of curiosity.
“General . . . where did you get this?”
Prince Sepix stood nearby, clawed hands behind his back, his face impassive as he watched the scene unfold. Carn spared him a look, then began to relate his tale. When he was finished, the Queen looked to the Prince.
“Sepix, you believe the General?” she asked him, her tongue flicking in and out between her fangs. The whole time, she cradled the egg.
“I believe the General to be telling the truth,” Sepix said. “In the past he never gave us cause to doubt his loyalty. I don’t see why we should now. And there is the proof he has brought us . . .”
The Queen looked down at the egg. The royal baby within rocked the egg slightly, and the Queen steadied it, clutching it to her chest.
“Proof,” she said, looking down at it.
Carn rose from the floor. “Then you will act on what I have told you?”
The Queen nodded slowly. “Yes, General.”
Good, Carn thought. Because I can’t have the Defiant going through that black hole. Even without dragging us in there with them, they could still discover the artefacts. That must not happen.
“We are en route now,” Prince Sepix said.
“I cannot emphasize enough the importance we destroy the Defiant as soon as we can,” Carn said. “The future of our people relies upon it.”
Sepix looked to the Queen.
“Then it will be done,” she said.
3.
Captain King focused her mind on where they needed to be, and the light enveloped the three of them and transported them away, through time and space. The monolith read her mind, understood her intentions, and granted her request.
The light was warm, like an embrace. Each of them had their own minor recall of past events as they were shifted in time. The recollection seemed to last forever, but just like a dream, it was over within seconds . . .
* * *
Jessica:
Admiral Grimshaw welcomed her up on stage to speak. She hadn’t prepared anything. Nerves fluttered like errant moths in her stomach. When she took the podium, however, the words just came.
She thanked everyone for coming. She gave a little insight into what he’d been like as a Captain, and then a little of Andrew Singh as a man, separate from his rank and responsibilities.
“He was a friend of everyone. He was my friend. It will take me a long time to get used to the fact that he is never going to come back,” she said, her voice cracking. “But of course I will never forget him. He’ll always be here, with all of us.”
There wasn’t a dry eye in the house. The lid was placed atop of Andrew Singh’s casket and sealed tight. The flag of the Union was draped across it.
The assembled officers and crew stood on either side of the casket as it was lowered into one of the Station’s firing tubes.
Admiral Grimshaw faced the giant viewports and held a formal salute. Everyone present followed suit.
There were no words, no music. Just the sound of the firing tube closing around the casket. Then, seconds later, it was fired from the side of the Station.
Through her tears, King tried to watch it travel away from them as long as she could. But it was just a blur, eventually swallowed by the infinite blackness of space . . .
* * *
Hawk:
“Gerard…” the voice said. It was gruff, slurred. It was the same ruined voice he heard every time he dreamt of his Father.
The man had tattoos interlaced across his entire scalp, which was bald and scarred. His face was a ruin, and one of his eyes was milky white. By all standards, a monster, but knowing what he did, Nowlan could not feel repulsion at the sight of him. Even though it was only a dream, he still felt a pang of something he didn’t truly understand.
Love.
“Gerard listen to me,” he said. “Yuh think yuh dreaming. And yuh are. In a way. But I’m here to tell yuh that this time it’s a little more than a dream.”
Nowlan looked down at himself. He was a young boy.
“Hear me!” his Father said. He took him by the arms, and Nowlan looked straight into his eyes. They were filled with wisdom, with the life and death of the st
ars themselves. Eyes that had seen, perhaps, too much.
“Dad,” Nowlan whispered.
His Father’s face grew slack, tired. Defeated. He pulled little Gerard Nowlan in for a hug. Held him tight.
“In a moment you’ll be on the other side,” his Father told him softly. “And you’ll wonder if this was a dream.”
Nowlan said nothing. Over their heads, planets zoomed past. Black outlined against whiteness. Space itself inverted. There was a rumble building from somewhere behind him. He didn’t dare turn around. He clung to his Father.
“I’m not really gone, son. And one day you’ll see me again. But for now, you have to stop the evil that’s passed through that thing with you. Try your best to stop it. The galaxy you’re going to isn’t ready for it, I know that much.”
Everything started to shake. It grew hazy around the edges.
Little Gerard looked up at his Father, placed his small hands on his ragged face.
“Dad,” he said. “Who were you?”
Then the lights went out, and everything sank to darkness…
* * *
Greene:
Chief Gunn took over from Commander Greene at the pilot’s station. As they passed each other, their eyes caught and they lingered there for the briefest of moments.
“You’ll do fine,” he said to her.
They kissed, and as he pulled himself away, she grabbed his belt and yanked him back in. “Be safe.”
“I will.”
What he didn’t say was “I love you,” and now he regretted it. If only he’d uttered the words one last time, before she was taken away from him. Before their history was wiped from existence. Before they were erased, the two of them, and with it, all they’d ever felt for one another. In his delirium, during his transit through time, Commander Del Greene sobbed like a baby.
But as he came around, and their travel slowed, he found himself a determined man. There was no way he would go on living with someone like General Carn free to roam the galaxy and do as he wished.
He’d die first…
* * *
The light faded around them and the three materialized, still holding hands, on the deck of Station 6. Thankfully it was empty, save for several cleaning bots who didn’t so much as notice their presence as they busily cleansed the floors and walls.
The huge bay windows lining the corridor showed the darkness of space.
“Oh…” Jessica said, looking up at one of the windows.
The other two followed her gaze.
Out there, coasting toward the station was the Defiant.
“We’re back,” Greene said, his voice barely a whisper.
4.
“Come on, quick, before we’re spotted,” King said. She led the way through the empty corridors of the station’s upper levels.
“Where are we going?” Greene asked her.
“Hold on, I’m trying to remember,” she said, her voice clipped as she tried her best to recall details from the last time they’d been here.
Hawk looked for signs of life. “Gotta be a night shift or somethin,’ eh?” he asked.
“Yeah,” Commander Greene said.
It came back to her. Jessica shot to her left, the other two jogging to keep up.
“There’s a ship docked around here somewhere,” she said. “I’m trying to remember the name. The Sarabano?”
Greene shook his head. “You must mean the Saratoga.”
“Yes!” she said with a grin. “How d’you remember that?”
The Commander just shrugged.
They reached the dock and, as expected, it was deserted. Repair crews had finished patching up the Saratoga, from what she could recall, and the ship was good to go. However there weren’t any crewmen aboard her. The ship was awaiting a fresh crew, due to arrive four days after the Defiant had docked.
Jessica tapped her access code into the airlock and watched with satisfaction as the doors slid open.
“Easy as that, yeah?” Greene asked.
“Yep,” she said. “This way gentlemen, we’re stealing a starship.”
* * *
“Not the biggest girl on the block,” the Commander said after he had a look around.
The Saratoga was slightly smaller than the Warrior, though not as old. Runabout craft like that were employed en mass by the Union to perform chores and small items of business, often travelling from one remote star system to another.
Station 6 – like any deep space station – had been assigned the task of repairing her and seeing to her crew’s replacement.
“Well, what do you think, Hawk? Did you see the shuttle bay?” King asked him, taking a seat at the helm. It seemed strange to be on a ship when it was docked like that. Dead quiet, the darkened interior giving a sense of a ship asleep.
“I saw that shuttle. Nice,” he said. “Should work out fine.”
“Good.”
“So what now?” Commander Greene asked.
She grinned at the other two. “We get to work.”
* * *
Down in the engineering section, Commander Greene surveyed the reactor.
Jessica stood in the doorway. “So, do you think you can get her up and running in a flash?”
“I don’t see why not,” Greene said. “Trouble is, if I fire it up too early, the station control might detect it.”
“Yes I had that concern. But I think we can get away with firing everything up a half hour before. I’ll have the airlock sealed off by then anyway. There’s no way they’ll get on board to stop us,” King said.
“That’s good,” Greene said. He seemed distant, a little quiet down there in the bowels of the Saratoga.
“What’s up, Del?” she asked but didn’t have to wait for an answer, or even to see if one had been forthcoming. “You’re thinking about the Chief.”
The Commander nodded. “Yeah…” he said quietly and looked down at his feet.
“You’ll see her again,” Jessica said.
The Commander nodded but didn’t say anything.
“Hey! No time for sadness, Del. We’re thieves. Fugitives. We’re about to steal a starship,” she said in an attempt to cheer him up. “Don’t flake out on me now. I need my closest friend more than ever.”
He looked up. “Thanks.”
She stepped inside the room, took him in her arms and embraced him in a big bear hug. They stood like that for a long moment, two best friends who’d seen a lot and been through a lot.
“Come on, that’s enough,” Del said, breaking it. “I’ll start crying.”
“For real?” Jessica asked, a big smile on her face.
The Commander turned away. “Now I need to see about this unit here. If I can calibrate it just right…”
5.
With Commander Greene busying himself in engineering, preparing the Saratoga for a quick start-up, and Hawk getting an hour or so of rack time, Jessica found the Captain’s quarters and shut the door behind her.
The room was bare, stripped of any personality or sign of habitation. However, when she checked the closet she did find a standard issue uniform still in the shrink wrap, and attached to that a little bag of metal insignia.
She ripped the bag open, removed a pin and stuck it to her lapel to replace the one she’d given Chang before. Then she left without telling the others where she was going. If her memory still served, she had plenty of time before Captain Singh’s memorial service.
She snuck off the Saratoga, using her code to seal the airlock behind her.
* * *
Captain Andrew Singh lay there in the chapel, exactly as he had done when she’d last seen him.
Jessica locked the door from the inside and took several deep breaths. Suddenly she felt so tight chested, her heart seeming to beat that much heavier and louder in her ears.
Her father lay in the casket before her, as if he were asleep.
“Dad . . .” she started to say. Her voice cracked with emotion. “I don’t even know what I�
��m doing here.”
The room was too quiet, though it didn’t feel as though she was alone. She’d found it never does when you view a person’s body. It’s as if their presence lingers around, letting itself be known.
The tears came hot and fast, rolling down her cheeks, hanging off her chin. She couldn’t help them, she couldn’t stop them and she didn’t attempt to, either. It felt like her heart was open, leaking salty tears in place of blood. Grief, bottled up for all that time, flowed freely from her and she found herself sobbing like a child, her nose streaming.
“Dad . . . I miss you so much,” she said. “I love you.”
There were tissues in the far corner for precisely this reason, and she made use of them to wipe her face as she fought to regain her composure.
Jessica stood over him for a while, studying his peaceful face and trying to see her own features in his. Then she removed the shiny new pin from her uniform and exchanged it for his.
“The big wheel turns,” she whispered. Then she leaned down and planted a kiss on his forehead. She straightened up and patted the pin on her lapel. “Whatever happens, I deserve to have this at least. I’ve earned it at last.”
She left before she could get caught there, and was back on the Saratoga before either Hawk or the Commander knew she’d gone.
And that was exactly as she’d wanted it.
6.
Alone in the spare Captain’s quarters, Jessica accessed the terminal and started to record a video message.
“Jess, I know you must be surprised to see me. Believe me, if this were as strange as it was going to get, you’d be lucky. I have a lot to tell you, and I’ll be brief as possible…” she began, talking directly into the camera.
An hour later, she was finished. She’d not covered everything, but she realized while relating their adventures that she had no need to. Only the important stuff, and a general overview, were needed. Enough to clue her in.
Enough so her counterpart would understand why what was about to happen had to happen. She finished things on a good note, almost an act of whimsy on her part.
