by Kord Stone
Jason said, “Well, let’s see what happens.”
He removed his gloves, tucked them into his waistband and began to focus on pushing as much energy as he could into the engine. He pushed as hard as he could and felt energy arcing to the ship’s engine but it wasn’t enough to jump-start it. He looked to Justin and said, “It may require both of us to provide enough energy.”
Justin nodded, removed his gloves as well and they both placed their hands on the engine. Still nothing.
Jason let out a sigh and a thought came to him. He grabbed his brother’s left hand with his right and placed his left hand on the engine. “Justin, put your right hand on the engine and focus as hard as you can.” They did and this time it looked as if a few lights were about to flicker then they faded away.
Jason’s life monitor chirped and Jerren’s voice came over it slightly distorted. “Whatever you just did almost worked.”
Jason thought about it and figured he might be on to something. He activated his life monitor. “Okay we’re going to try it again. Let us know if anything changes.”
Jason said to Justin, “You know that feeling you get when you wave your hands really fast back and forth and you get that gravity feeling?”
Justin nodded.
“The energy we need feels kind of like that. You need to tense up and push. I’ll do the same and with any luck it’ll work this time. Are you ready?”
Justin nodded and they proceeded again. Jason focused hard and began pouring his energy into the engine. He began to feel the same fuzziness he’d felt during the attacks on his ship. He was being suppressed but he could still feel his surroundings. He could almost feel it take when a massive explosion rocked the ship and threw him like a rag doll. Jason and Justin collided with the far wall, the fuzziness in his mind lifted and Jason saw the debris that had been floating was now hurling in their direction. Jason dodged a piece and the ship stopped moving suddenly, as if it had hit a barrier. Before he could yell for his brother to look out, a large chunk of flying debris crashed into Justin’s head.
Time seemed to slow down as Jason made his way to Justin’s side. He moved the debris from his brother and surveyed the damage. It was not good. His head had taken most of the impact and he was bleeding from his eyes, ears, nose and mouth. Jason could hear a faint gurgling in Justin’s throat and his eyes had a glazed look.
Jason cupped his hands around his brother’s head and focused on healing him, but he was drained from the attempt to start the engine. It was all his fault. He must have done something wrong and caused the ship to explode. Now his brother was going to die. He tried again as hard as he could, and another blast rocked the ship. This time the blast coursed through him, and he reached out with his mind to see what was going on. He felt them.
The Toralins were back again and in about the same numbers as he had seen before. It was they who had caused this. Fury began to build deep within him. He found it hard to breathe, and his chest was constricting as he felt the remainder of the energy in his body pour out to create an energy shield around the ship. The Toralin ships were firing energy weapons at them, but as each blast hit the energy barrier, it dissipated. He looked down at his dying brother and he heard a familiar voice say, “Use them!” All of a sudden he knew what he needed to do. He stripped off his environmental shirt and leaned his bare back against the freezing wall, then let his energy shield down as he cupped his brother’s head in his hands and pushed. One blast after the other hit the ship, and he felt the energy course into his back and down through his arms into his brother’s convulsing body. He could see the effects almost immediately. Justin was healing. A few blasts later, Justin opened his still-bloodied eyes and asked with a gurgle, “What happened?” He coughed up a little blood.
Jason growled in irritation. “We’re under attack!” He barely got the words out before another volley of blasts hit the hull and coursed through both of their bodies.
This time they both heard the familiar voice saying, “Use them!” if Justin’s shocked expression was any indication. Somehow Jason knew exactly what he was meant to do. He stood and helped Justin to his feet. Trying not to stare at his brother’s condition, he said, “Justin, I need you to place one hand on the Engine,” Justin did as he requested, and Jason did the same, “When I get to one, Reach over and press your other hand to the wall.” Justin nodded and he counted it down, “Three…Two…One.”
With a shocking jolt Jason felt the connection get established, and his body was seizing with the enormity of the power. The energy blasts hitting the hull, along with Justin’s and his energy, coursed directly into the engine. The lights lit up the room, then began to fade out. there was a pause in weapons fire. He and Justin broke contact and dropped to their knees. Jason was despondent. He was thinking this had failed as well and they would have to retreat to the master control room, but Jerren’s distorted voice came out of his life monitor. “Whatever you just did worked. The ship is powering up. It should be functional in a few minutes your time and fully restarted in an hour or two.”
Jason didn’t hesitate. He extended the energy from deep within him and surrounded the ship again. He closed his eyes. Now that he wasn’t in a blind panic, he could feel the ships. More than a hundred ships large and small surrounded them. He could feel the beings on them and the hatred directed toward him and his brother. The Toralins were not going to give up and were willing to die in order to destroy another of these ships. Rage the likes of which he had never known possible began building within him, then a sense of calm washed over Jason as he felt his consciousness get pushed aside once again. The enormity of the rage he felt was overwhelming, and a moment later he was out.
Chapter Thirty
Jason awoke to an aching body, splitting headache and ringing in his ears. He could hear Alise badgering his brother for more details, and Justin just kept repeating that he didn’t know what was happening any more than she did. At that moment he was short on details and wanted to know why he was in bed again with no recollection of getting there. He opened his eyes slightly, and the bright lights surrounding him threatened to send him back to sweet oblivion. He grimaced in pain and with a gravelly voice said, “Reduce lighting seventy-five percent.”
Upon realizing Jason had awakened, Alise, Justin and Jerren rushed to his side with a litany of questions.
Jason held his hand up to signal for silence and cautiously reopened his eyes to a less severe throbbing in his head. He croaked out, “O…ne…” He cleared his parched and burning throat. “One second…what happened? I remember going on the other ship, the blast and Inola’s voice telling me to use them and then energy pulsing through me into your wounds. After that her voice said to use them again and I knew it meant to power the ship up, but after Jerren said it worked, all I remember is waking up here.” Jason took in Justin’s appearance, and was relieved to find that the damage he had sustained during the attack was able to be healed.
Justin nodded at him. “After Jerren informed us it had worked. You kind of went …apeshit.”
Jason didn’t quite know how to take that, and Justin must have seen his confusion because he continued.
“Well it is the best way to describe it. You began convulsing and breathing in short, rapid breaths that turned into deep, rapid breaths. With each one you turned a deeper shade of red and you were beginning to pulsate with energy. I tried to get you to calm down.” He paused a second then continued. “Then you kind of growled words out, you said, ‘I have had enough of this.’ Then you got a glazed look over your face. An energy wave passed through me and I could hear your voice, not aloud but with every fiber of my being as you bellowed, ‘YOU HAVE ALL BEEN WARNED AND YOUR LIVES ARE NOW FORFEIT!’
“I can honestly tell you those words in that voice scared the living hell out of me. It felt like a death sentence. About a minute later you raised your hands as if to catch something, closed your right hand into a fist, muttered something I couldn’t make out then flicked your lef
t hand, and then you reached out as if you were hugging something then thrust your arms out, kind of like passing a basketball. After that you fell unconscious,” Justin said with a shrug. “I got you to the master control room and Jerren helped me get you through to your ship where you’ve been for almost three days just lying unresponsive.”
At that point Alise said, “I performed a medical scan on you. Aside from a serious electrolyte imbalance and severe subconjunctival hemorrhaging, you were fine. Although your clothes were a mess again. Your shirt must have been vaporized because I could not find any trace of it.” She gave him a knowing look and a raised eyebrow.
Jason let out a chuckle that almost made him vomit. “Ahhh, that would be because I wasn’t wearing it. I removed it to get more skin contact with the ship when I healed Justin. The energy from the weapons passed through my back and into him through my hands,” he finished to her un-amused gaze.
“Although I am happy that you saved your brother’s life, I think it was unwise to use yourself as a lightning rod of sorts. It could have killed you; it could have killed both of you,” she said.
Jason sighed and slowly made his way to his feet, fighting to stay conscious. He took her in his arms. “I know you’re probably getting tired of hearing this, but I am sorry I cause you to worry. I don’t do it out of recklessness or a disregard for your feelings, but because I love my brothers. I’d do it again if it meant saving their lives.”
He took her cheeks in his hands and forced her to look into his eyes. “And I would do the same for you. You mean the world to me, as much as…no, more than them even.” He looked at his brothers. “I’m sorry but she’s everything to me. You should know what that means, given my love for both of you.”
They both nodded, then Justin patted him on the shoulder and spoke up. “Well I hate to break up this lovefest, but I need to get back to my ship. The last commander was a hoarding slob and it’s taking forever to clean up all the crap. The entire second level is packed and I’m running out of room to put stuff.”
Alise and Jason laughed and he felt as if he would pass out.
“What? What are you not telling me?” Justin asked.
Jason regained himself and shook his head. “Just instruct the ship to move the offending items to void storage. The same way you call for the archway. It’s as easy as that. And if you have the required base materials and instructions, you can make any items or food you need.”
“Your ALISE should have told you that,” Alise said.
Justin turned with a growl and marched to the lift, muttering something about smart-ass, uncaring, slave-driving AIs.
Once he left, Jerren and Alise burst into laughter, which prompted Jason to ask, “What’s so funny?”
“Apparently Justin’s ALISE is giving him a hard time. He told me it went banshee on him for calling it Alise. He did say he refuses to call it by whatever name it was going by. I may have dodged a bullet there.” Jerren chuckled.
Jason said, “Not that it was your choice in the matter.”
A second later Justin’s voice sounded over the life monitor. “Jason, could you open the archway to the master control room? Now that you are awake, I can’t open it.”
Jason closed his eyes and called the archway and a moment later Justin’s voice called out, “Thank you.”
Jerren said to Jason, “You’re right about that… I did offer to help him clean up, but he doesn’t want anyone to see it in the condition it’s in and I didn’t know about that trick to clean it up anyway.”
“I knew the AI was not cooperating much and is unwilling to bond, but I didn’t know it was making him do manual labor to clean up. Kind of a twisted sense of humor I think,” Alise said.
Jason just raised an eyebrow at her quizzically. “Kind of like not telling someone to just remove the non-biological from a sample and letting him do it manually?”
Alise said, “Huh…I may get to like that AI after all.”
Something struck Jason. “By the way, why do you say AI all the time?”
“It is just what I was always called, why?”
Jason explained that the master control console referred to them as an AL or advanced lifeform designation.
Alise thought about it a second. “It really does not make a difference. I guess the Imortum must have considered us alive once we became self-aware. The Lantins never really considered us more than the computer programming we were composed of, so they only ever referred to us as AI. With our database wiped before the handover, we never would have known the difference.”
Jason looked deep into her eyes and said, “I don’t care how you came to be here. I love you all the same.” He punctuated his statement with a passionate kiss.
Jerren chimed in a moment later. “Okay enough with this sappy lovey-dovey stuff. I need to get back to the master control room.”
Jason and Alise looked at him at the same time. “Why?” they asked in unison.
Jerren must have rehearsed his plea because he replied immediately. “When you and Justin were on the other ship I did a little poking around and noticed an anomaly. It seems the TDS 5 ship was nearby when the Toralins attacked. When TDS 3 powered up it caused alarms to go off.”
Jason shrugged. “It doesn’t surprise me. The ship was resetting.”
Jerren said, “Well, yes that did happen but the alarms that were going off the loudest were on the TDS 5 wall. When TDS 3 powered up, TDS 5’s systems went haywire, this ship’s wall alarmed a little as well. TDS 3 and TDS 1’s walls silenced a moment later, but the TDS 5 wall was still alarming for another minute before it stabilized. I want to look into that. I can’t think of a good reason that ship would be there unless its commander was helping the Toralins in the attack.”
Jason said, “Like I told you before, the other ship like this is the one hunting us. It’s TDS 5 and after the last attack on our ship we figured its commander was collaborating with the Toralins.
“We had hoped that the last display of power from this ship during the prior attacks would have dissuaded them from attacking us again, but as you know it didn’t. We’ve tried and tried to contact TDS 5 ever since we found out that they were responsible for the attacks on our family, to see why they were after us, but they wouldn’t respond. I even tried while I was in the master control room, but all I could do was check the system status and send data messages. They ignored them. I was locked out of the other functions.”
Jerren asked, “Do we even know who he is?”
Alise shook her head. “There is no way of knowing. We had nobody to report our ship’s status to. The original commanders were trained to have a replacement commander selected in the event of their deaths, and if that were to happen, we, the AIs, were to collect and install the new commander.”
Jerren looked discouraged and said, “I would still like to go to the master control room for a while and poke around.”
Alise nodded and said, “We are not in the same phased time dilation as the master control room anymore, so time will move a lot faster for us than it will for you. Do you have any idea how long you’re going to spend in there?”
Jerren said, “I think anywhere between twelve and twenty-four hours should do it. If I can’t find anything in that amount of time, I’ll probably be unable to at all.”
“If you need to get back here sooner, you’ll have to contact us using the life monitor,” Alise said.
Jerren looked puzzled. “What life monitor? I heard you say it a couple of times before but forgot to ask.”
Jason pointed to Jerren’s wrist. “The watch is a life monitor, and it notifies Alise if there’s a problem.”
Jerren laughed. “I thought it was just one of your super-secret spy gadgets.”
Jason chuckled and said, “We never had anything this good on Earth. Just use it like you did when you were in the master control room before and I can open the archway for you. How long until you’ll be ready to go?”
“It should only take a few m
inutes for me to clean up. If you could get me an MRE or what passes for one on this ship, and some water I’ll be ready to go in ten.”
Jason accompanied his brother to the second level and returned to Alise and asked, “So what are we doing about Justin’s ship?”
“TDS 3’s power reserves were depleted, so Justin is headed directly to Daregon to recharge. Justin, Jerren and I discussed it, and I informed them that you and I need to prevent the event horizon that forms between Antilles and Earth. Afterward you and I will meet Justin at Daregon and, to use one of Jerren’s military terms, we will be on overwatch while he charges his ship. Then we’ll discuss our next step.”
Jason nodded in understanding. “That sounds good to me. By the way, I was meaning to ask you, if the life monitors are there to help in case of an emergency, what happened when Justin was injured?”
“That is where things get interesting. The second the alarm went off I had to disengage the time dilation. Time was moving way too fast for me to help, so I went to .25 PTD to be just out of phase of TDS 3. Apparently the first blast that hit TDS 3 was a TPE and it knocked the ship into regular space time. I moved our ship into the solar system and showed up at the same time as the attack was happening. I knew I could not get too close to the other ship with the bounce back we experienced before. I got as close as I could and was just inside transport range when the monitor showed stable life signs. I figured you must have healed him so I had just backed off and was about to engage the Toralins when the engine of TDS 3 restarted.
“I got bounced around a little but I did not think much of it at the time, thinking I was probably still too close to TDS 3. I performed a diagnostic just after Jerren told us about TDS 5 being there and now I know why that ship’s alarms went off. TDS 5 was very close to TDS 3 and when the engine restarted its energy field repelled TDS 5 directly into our ship’s field. TDS 5 got bounced between the two fields quite a few times before they were finally expelled. Needless to say they did not stick around to see the carnage that followed.”
