by SF Edwards
“Can we raise shields?” he bellowed.
Another barrage struck. Lights flared on the display next to him—three new hull breaches.
At his console, the duty-engineering officer pounded away at the controls in despair. He cursed the attackers as he worked to reroute what power he could before another blast interrupted his response. “We’re barely getting emergency power out of engineering.”
“Have we been able to contact main engineering at all?”
The Admiral gritted his teeth and watched the engineer shake his head in frustration. That movement told him all he needed to know. Everyone in main engineering is dead.
“Negative, main engineering is completely dark to us. I’m working through the secondary and tertiary circuits as it is.”
“Can we divert emergency power to the ion projectors? Try and thicken the shields?”
“No, sir, we don’t have enough power. What power we do have is being diverted, and I can’t tell where. My console is barely functional.”
All the consoles around the bridge flickered in and out as if to drive home the point. Where is all our power going?
As if in response, a spirit orb burst through the floor onto the bridge and raced to the engineer. It flared and shuddered before him as the engineer interpreted the images presented to him. “You’re not making any sense.”
“What is it saying?” the Admiral asked.
“Something about the Stream Drive.” The engineer turned back to the orb. “What do you mean the Stream Drive is active? Who in their right mind would activate a Stream Drive during an attack?”
Admiral Sadrick stared in disbelief as well. “See if you can shut it down and divert the power to the shields.”
The engineer had already set to work when a light came on in the Admiral’s eyes.
“Wait. Stop!”
The engineer looked at him, perplexed. The orb still hovered at his side. His son-in-law’s latest report as they entered the Caslar System had explained in detail the problems with the shields. “Half the ion projectors are offline. Even if we could get them working at full efficiency we would never be able to repel that kind of firepower. Dump everything except emergency life support into the Stream Drive.”
“Sir, we’re practically sensor blind as it is. We’re not even close enough to the planet to get a good grav fix in order to calibrate the Stream Drive.”
“We don’t need to. Just get that Stream Drive active. Chief Engineer Vaughnt had the right idea spinning it up. I just hope I can thank him for it.”
The Admiral could feel the bridge tense as the engineer and helmsman initiated the drive. He turned to the screen and watched the image distort under the gravitational lensing effect caused by the gathered dark fluid state changing into dark energy.
Another flash lit up the Caleb’s cannons and the Admiral smiled when he heard the amazed gasp of the helmsman. The sensors showed the Caleb slowing its advance. Another blast rocked the ship and the distance to their enemy increased as if they backed away.
“What the devil?” the sensor tech breathed as she watched her screen. The Caleb was not moving away, they were.
“It’s an old trick,” the Admiral explained. “Now, order all personnel to the escape pods.”
“Say again, sir?” his executive officer asked from the navigation station--the crew’s first real hope to save their ship vanishing.
“All Vaughnt’s trick did was buy us some time. We need to abandon ship before that cruiser catches on and closes in for the final kill.”
“I don’t understand, sir.”
The Admiral looked at the helmsman with pitying eyes. He didn’t want to take time to explain, but knew he had to. “Son, Chief Engineer Vaughnt killed the safety cutoffs so that the enemy ship’s guns are pushing us away. That dark fluid shell out there will not stand up to this attack for long. If it fails to protect us, the acceleration will crush the ship once our acceleration comps go offline. That is, assuming we don’t burn up in the atmosphere first. Now, get everyone to the escape pods. At least those are designed to make planetfall.”
Admiral Sadrick studied the screens before him, disheartened, while the alert went out and the crew began to abandon their stations. The initial attack destroyed fully a third of their escape craft, and the Admiral wondered if there would be enough room for what remained of his crew and their families.
UCSBS-Vaurnel, Core Shelter
Blazer and Jell huddled in a corner of the shelter deep within the armored core of the ship away from the others. Panic swept the chamber after the alert sounds changed without warning. The notification to retreat to the shelter reverted to orders to abandon ship and everyone else ran for the doors.
Blazer refused to leave and held Jell tight against him. He knew that the shelter was the safest place to be and his father had repeatedly enforced the idea. The thick, armored serried-carbon walls and self-contained life support systems would protect him even if someone destroyed the rest of the ship.
Blazer waited, terrified, for his mother. She was a botanist, a non-combatant. She should have joined them in the shelter a long time ago. Blazer felt Jell’s grip on him tighten and wondered what his little four annura-old sister must make of the all the confusion and turmoil around them.
Despair and anger filled Blazer as he saw two orbs rush towards him and his sister. “No!” he yelled as he recognized them and saw that neither of his parents accompanied them. “No!”
They’re not coming. The orbs wouldn’t have raced to him and his sister by themselves unless his mother and father were…no! He refused to believe it. They can’t be dead? His mind reeled. This can’t be happening! Someone please wake me up from this nightmare! “No! No! Go away! Get Mommy and Daddy! Get them!”
The two orbs barely faltered in their approach and took up orbits around the two Vaughnt children. Blazer felt them urge him to take his sister and run to the escape modules, but he refused. He couldn’t believe it even when they showed him the images of the burnt out engineering area. They’re wrong and daddy wasn’t there. When they showed him the images of the Shock Troopers that killed his mother, he refused them. Mommy’s too smart for big dumb shock troops, she would have escaped. She has to have escaped. They did not show him how they died. Blazer closed his eyes and covered his ears in a vain attempt to try and block out the images the orbs were showing him. Nothing could stop them as he swung out in anger at the orbs. “No! It’s not true! Go away!”
Jell looked up, weakly, tears staining her cheeks. “Where are…,” she couldn’t even complete the question. The orbs just quavered. They did not want to scare the little girl any more than she already was and instead continued to urge Blazer into action.
“I want my mommy and daddy,” she wailed, and she curled up into a ball on the floor as other children urged them to go before they ran away.
Blazer fell to his knees, defeated, as the Admiral’s face appeared on the one working monitor he could see. “All personnel proceed to the escape modules! I repeat. All personnel proceed immediately to the nearest escape modules! We’ve only bought ourselves a little time before the Stream Drive collapses and once that enemy ship recommences its attack, they won’t take prisoners.”
“No! No! No! I don’t care what grandfather says! I’m not leaving without my parents, and they’re not dead!” Blazer watched one of the orbs speed away, zipping through the wall to find someone who would listen. The other orb, however, raced across the room to try to get one of the older children to try to pull the siblings along. Blazer felt disgusted as he watched the orb jump around frantically trying to find anyone who would listen.
Blazer fell onto his side and pulled his knees up, too scared to go on as another blast rocked the ship and the Stream Drive collapsed. “No! No!” he repeated. The Admiral’s right, we’re all going to die. Blazer began to shut down as a new, younger face appeared on the monitor, the ship’s executive officer.
“All personnel proceed immedia
tely to the escape modules!” he ordered.
Why is he on the screen now? Did Grandpa die too?
“I repeat. All personnel proceed to the nearest escape module! The Stream Drive has collapsed! I repeat, the Stream Drive has collapsed and is back feeding into the power plant! We cannot eject the core! Proceed immediately to the escape modules!”
Doesn’t matter now. The core could go boom, or the Geffers could kill us, it’s all over.
The emergency lights went dark a moment later. Jell went catatonic as she lay next to her brother. Blazer batted at the remaining orb to go away as it hovered near his head. He didn’t want to listen to its pleas to head to an escape module. A figure appeared in the darkness, bursting through the smoke filling the entryway. As the shape reached them, Blazer recognized his grandfather, the Admiral.
“Mommy and daddy?”
“I know,” the Admiral replied as the other orb peeked out from behind him. “He told me,” he explained jerking his shoulder towards the orb.
Blazer could only whimper as the Admiral picked him and his sister up. He slumped against his grandfather and felt the old man’s grip falter. Only the cycle before, this man was tossing him in the air. Now Grandfather was here to rescue them, not mother, not father. Blazer felt the weight of the universe come falling down upon him. His parents were gone. Grandfather was all that was left.
The Admiral spun about towards the hatch, and Blazer felt his grandfather’s pace quicken. Out in the passageway, someone intercepted them. Blazer looked back, hoping that it was one of his parents. Disappointment threatened to shred his heart. It was the executive officer scanning the shelter for any other stragglers.
Blazer felt the Admiral reassert his grip on him as he looked at the younger officer. “The shelter’s clear. How much time to do we have?”
“No way of knowing, sir. When I left the bridge, the readings we were getting from the core weren’t far from the breaching point.”
“Emergency vents?”
The executive officer shook his head. “One blue. No response on the rest.”
Blazer kept his face buried in the Admiral’s shoulder as his grandfather took off running through the darkened passageways of the ship towards the escape modules. Darkness and tears kept Blazer from seeing, but his grandfather had spent ten annura on this ship. Admiral Sadrick didn’t need to see, he never missed a step as they raced to the last escape module.
UCSB DATE: 1000.140
Star System: Classified, Transport MLD-562P, En Route to UCSBA-13
Blazer woke with a start, panting and sweating, reliving the nightmare of the Vaurnel’s final moments. Violent shakes ran through him when he sat up in his cot and looked around the small bunkroom of the transport taking him to the academy. Get a hold of yourself man. The Caleb destroyed the Vaurnel fifteen annura ago. He sat a moment longer to calm his breath and felt the spot on his chest where the escape pod harness had dug in when they’d escaped--the scar had long since faded.
Not daring to wake the three other occupants he shared the room with, he slipped from his cot and into his old jumpsuit before creeping out. His mind raced. Why am I having that dream again? Is the psychic block breaking down? A chill ran down his spine at that thought. An annura after the attack, his grandparents had directed his doctors to implant a psychic block to prevent any unintentional reminders of that fateful cycle. It has to be this transfer to the academy. The stress of it must have let the dream slip in.
He tested the gravity as he proceeded through the passageway towards the spiral staircase at the heart of the level. He felt a full standard gravity pushing down on his body with the telltale hum of the acceleration compensators telling him the ship was under thrust. He smiled at that. I bet we’re finally in system with the academy right now, but are we in our deceleration burn? He looked around for a window, but couldn’t find one. As much as he liked playing about in zero gravity, he didn’t look forward to another deceleration flip. This old transport was not equipped with gravity plating, the material cost prohibitive for a short duration transport like this one.
Blazer reached the spiral staircase and headed up the next two levels. He knew that even more cadets heading towards the academy were packed into each level. He and his bunkmates had gotten to know the transport well in the decacycle since their old Navigator’s Guild Ship had rendezvoused with it.
Blazer took a calming breath as he reached the galley level. He disliked the design of this place. It was too open for him with big windows that looked out into space and little compartmentalization—a disaster waiting to happen. It was the only place to eat, however, and his rumbling stomach pushed him on.
He was grateful for the near emptiness of the galley. He could be alone with his thoughts, save for the single woman over by the autocooks. Looking again at her, he felt his breath catch. She stood there like an angel. Her flowing, baby blue tunic accentuated her femininity. It served as a marked contrast to the baggy jump suits he’d gotten used to. He thought he’d met everyone when they’d come aboard, but this woman was a vision of the purest loveliness he’d yet beheld. He approached the auburn-haired beauty from behind, taking in every curve as she stood there. She was oblivious to his approach, wrapped up in thought, and he tried to imagine the face that belonged to the beautiful body.
He reached the autocook and found his imagination lacking. In spite of the scowl she wore, she was still angelic. He followed her gaze to the bowl before her and understood her displeasure. The grey-green mash the autocook dispensed was anything but appetizing in appearance or taste. For the last three annura, Nano-Assembler Autocooks, like these, were his primary source of sustenance.
A plan hatched in his mind. He gave a smile and a wave. “I can make it give you something better than the default if you like.” She smiled back at him and Blazer marveled at the depth and brilliance of her emerald eyes. Determined not to make a fool of himself, Blazer dug his father’s old macomm out of his pocket. He opened up the pitted and scorched case of the rectangular device and held it up to the autocook. A holographic menu coalesced above it in response. “Take your pick.”
He watched her as she examined the hologram and shrugged her shoulders. “I’m not sure, I only got on late last cycle and I’m not used to using autocooks. Can this thing make anything decent?”
Blazer remembered the liner that docked with the ship right before he and his friends went to bed the cycle before. No wonder I missed her boarding. He nodded and turned back to the menu. “Yeah. I’ve had plenty of time to experiment during the last decle.”
The woman’s eyes went wide in surprise. “You’ve been aboard for ten cycles? How have you kept from going nuts?”
Blazer chuckled. Others reacted the same way when he and his friends told them. “The transport met us in deep space and we got on early. At least we’ve had plenty to read and more than a few games on our macomms to keep us occupied.”
She looked back at the menu and he watched as she extended a smooth finger towards a selection. “Hmm, how well does it make pancakes?”
Blazer scrunched up his face in response. “Marginal at best. We found that it does make passable eggs.”
He watched her bite at her lip in thought. “I’ll take some oatmeal, real oatmeal,” she replied and pointed at the bowl before her, a look of disgust on her face.
They shared a good laugh and, nodding, Blazer held up a finger with an idea. “I know just the thing.” He made a pair of selections on the hologram. He folded up his macomm as the autocook accepted the order. Before he could finish zipping the pocket of his jumpsuit closed, the autocook dinged and pushed out two dishes. One was a pepper, steak, and cheese omelet for him and the other a bowl of oatmeal with Tava Berries and brown sugar.
He read the relief in her face when she looked down at the machine’s offerings. “Oh, that’s exactly what I wanted! How did you guess?”
Blazer just shrugged his shoulders. “I didn’t. I just figured who doesn’t love Tava Ber
ries?”
She smiled back at him. “Thank you,…?” She gestured, waiting for his name.
“Schan.”
“Thank you, Schan. I’m Marda,” she stated as she shook his hand in greeting. “Come and sit with me. It’s the least I could offer after all your help.”
They crossed the empty galley and Blazer followed her towards one of the picture windows. He did his best not to show his dislike of the big silicasteel opening. Taking a few steps ahead of her, he pulled out her chair. Marda smiled as she sat. Her loose fitted tunic opened just a bit. Enjoying the view, Blazer blushed and tried not to look. Hoping his reaction wasn’t obvious, he took his seat across from Marda.
The two of them sat in silence for a moment, staring at their food. Blazer watched in delight as she took her first spoonful of oatmeal and smiled. “So where are you from?” Blazer asked, sure she must be a planetsider.
“Well,” she said after she’d wiped her mouth, “I was born on Cathedral Eight. My family travelled a lot when I was a kid, ending up back on Anul when I was a teen. I used to love all the traveling. You?”
Blazer felt an instant connection with her. Too many of the cadets he’d met over the last decle had never been off-planet before. “Well I was a fleet brat until the war heated back up and then I moved back to Anul too. We settled in Capben.”
She gave him an odd look that melted away and left him wondering if she wanted, or worse, knew more. “Really? I lived in Midduwn. We used to go to Capben all the time.”
