by Tony Healey
*
"Brace for impact!" Commander Greene yelled. The Namar bursts ploughed into the Defiant, impacting against the hull in multiple locations. The cacophony of explosions shook the ship from bow to stern. An alarm whined and died somewhere nearby, but Jessica barely registered it.
"Damage to hull plating," Chang reported.
"Return fire," King ordered, barely missing a beat. "All tubes."
Jackson's hand went to the firing lever. "Ready."
"Fire."
"Aye," Jackson said and unleashed the Defiant's arsenal of deadly warheads. They burst free from the Defiant and headed directly for the Jandala. The bridge crew watched expectantly as the Defiant's warheads struck the Namarian vessel's side in flashes of light. But as the intense brightness of the impacts faded, it was clear they'd barely touched the other ship's defences.
"I'm not registering damage," Chang said.
"Rayne, attempt contact again. We have to try and reason with them," King said.
We can't exchange blows like this . . .
Olivia tried, face tight with concentration, hand to her ear as she tried to hail them on every available channel. She looked up, perplexed. "They're not answering . . . however I have found a channel that seems to receive what we send. So I do believe they hear us, Captain."
King looked at Commander Greene, who silently agreed with her. "Put it on audio, Ensign. Translate."
On the viewscreen, the horn-shaped vessel swung about. The Defiant continued to back off, twisting gradually off to one side. Ordinarily Jessica would have ordered a full offensive manoeuvre to close the gap between them. But there was doubt there. She truly wanted to end it before it even got started, despite what Cessqa had done to her people. Killing them like that, as if they were nothing . . .
Even with that, she still felt compelled to give her a chance to talk it over. Was it all just an unfortunate misunderstanding?
Afterall, we did just break in, Jessica thought. And there's the issue of the hibernation pods that were empty when we got there. Who got to the Amarax before us? Who stole that crew away and vanished without a trace?
Perhaps there was a chance, even a slim one, of pulling it back somehow.
Did Cessqa have justification for being hostile toward them? Why, yes she did. But that did not condone the senseless murder of the Defiant's crew . . .
"This is Captain Jessica King of the starship Defiant. Respond."
A faint crackle of static hummed over the speakers, but no answer to her message.
"I know you receive. I know you can hear me," Jessica said.
*
Gelvin turned to look at Cessqa as the human's voice echoed around the room, translated into Namarian.
"Shall I continue to fire?" he asked her.
The humanoids had shot back and though it had barely made a dent in their energy shields, it demonstrated to Cessqa the humanoid's willingness to exchange blows. When hit, they'd hit right back.
"No," Cessqa said.
"I know you hear me. Please, let us meet and discuss this. I am sure our two people's can find even ground . . ." the humanoid female said on the other end.
Cessqa accessed the Jandala's communication relays.
"I am Cessqa, commander of the Jandala. Do I address Captain King herself?"
"You do."
Cessqa remembered the woman from before, by her bedside. Strong, confident. She would not bend easily.
"I have a proposal," she said. "For Captain King, the invader of the Namarian's territory."
"I am listening," obviously bristling at her mention of being an 'invader.'
"Surrender now, and I may spare your lives. You have committed an act of war against the Namar, one I do not take lightly. However, on this occasion I will be lenient."
"Utterly unacceptable," Captain King said. "We have committed no such act. We were exploring an ancient artefact to determine its purpose."
"So you deny. And you lie to cover your imposition on my people. Your race breached the Amarax before. This was not the first time. This conversation is as dead as your crew will be, Captain," Cessqa said and closed the channel.
She looked across at Gelvin. "Ready the weapons. Indulge yourself. Obliterate them."
8.
The Jandala hit again and again. Banks took them forward, full thrust while Jackson attempted to fire back. There seemed no pause in the Jandala's weapon fire. It came in a steady stream, smashing into the hull plating. The Defiant reeled.
"Evasive!" King yelled. "Get us some room. Jackson, load all tubes."
"Yes Ma'am," he said. "Ready."
"Fire!"
The warheads veered away from the Defiant, pummelled the Jandala's aft section, where her hull came to a point around her engine exhaust.
"Minor damage to their defences," Chang reported.
"Jeez," King said as the Defiant swooped past the Jandala. There was a break in the enemy fire.
"Chang, the status of our probe?" Greene asked her.
The Commander checked on her screen. "As expected. Riding shotgun with the Amarax, gaining distance from us and holding steady."
With that, Greene turned to Jessica. "I think we should get out of the open. We're at a disadvantage here. That thing can run rings around us, all the while hitting with everything they've got. All we can do right now is try and keep up. We need to level the playing field."
It made sense. In order to ensure the safety of the Amarax, Cessqa would follow them wherever they went. Perhaps in the hope of destroying them. Or, for that matter, to merely keep them occupied long enough so that the Amarax could disappear.
And he was right. The whole time they stuck around in open space, they were a sitting target. Whatever Jessica lacked in terms of firepower she made up for in terms of her experience and gifts as a commanding officer – if given the chance to use them. Cessqa, from the looks of things, relied on the advancements of her tech.
Jessica, on the other hand, relied on her people first and foremost. The one advantage Cessqa had was a more powerful gun. They needed to lead her somewhere she'd have difficulty using it.
"What's sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander," Dr. Gentry said. King and Greene turned to look at him. The doctor managed half a grin. "The odds will be even."
Chang stifled a chuckle, her eyes still focused on her data readouts. "Nice."
The Defiant took another round of hits from the Jandala, breaking the momentary reverie of Gentry's humour.
"Where do you suggest, Del?" she asked Commander Greene.
Greene was about to answer when Lieutenant Jackson piped up. "Captain, might I make a suggestion?"
Both King and Greene exchanged looks before she said, "By all means."
"There is the Mobius Formation, not far away. A short Jump. The probe works, we can afford to allow the Amarax to fall out of immediate sensor range and leave it to track their progress," Jackson said.
"What do you think, Doctor?" Jessica asked Dr. Gentry.
"The Formation could be just what you're looking for," he said. "Indeed, both ships will be impaired to a fashion."
"You can't get fairer than that. How far to the Formation?" Greene asked.
"A half hour Jump."
Greene raised an eyebrow. "It'd be the perfect place to conceal the Defiant."
"Agreed. And I see your point of fairness. As much as it'll screw with their sensors, it'll do the same to ours."
"A word of warning," Gentry chimed in. "The sheer amount of radiation in the Formation is immense, from what I remember reading about it . . ."
The Commander nodded. "Yet, I get a gut feeling we'll somehow use that to our advantage. Knowing the Captain."
Jessica smirked. "Del, you read me like a book."
She gave the go-ahead for Banks to plot them a course directly to the Mobius Formation.
"Aye," he said. "Spooling the Drive."
"Good call on that, Jackson. The Formation is just the right mix of stormy w
eather we need," King said. The Defiant shook violently from another series of hits. "Now get ready to fire those weapons. We've gotta keep them interested, after all."
9.
Cessqa monitored the Amarax's progress away from the conflict with satisfaction. She'd managed to hold Captain King's attention completely. The last of the Namar were headed for the Chimera Cluster. There they'd wait for her return before continuing with their mission . . . with what needed to be done.
The Third Quarter would also be waiting.
"Direct hits," Gelvin said.
"The humans are strong," Cessqa said. "But those who stand strongest, fall with more noise. They can't last forever."
"Bringing us back around," Gelvin said, turning the sphere to the right. The Jandala leaned to starboard in response.
*
"They're coming about for another pass!" Banks yelled.
"Captain this is the Chief," Gunn's brusque voice bellowed out of the overheads. "We can't take a constant barrage like this."
"I'm aware of that Chief."
Banks glanced down at his readouts. "Jump Drive spooled. Ready to go on your command, Captain."
"Chief, just hold onto something down there. We're Jumping. Bridge out."
On the viewscreen, the grey dagger of the Jandala finished its turn and headed straight for them.
"Fire all guns at the Jandala," King ordered. "Hold off on our warheads. Just batteries for now."
"Aye," Jackson said. He manned the controls with vigour, the Defiant rumbling beneath them as their guns vibrated. Streams of artillery flew from the Defiant's exteriour, fizzling against the oncoming Jandala's shield.
"That'll hold their attention. Mister Banks, take us to Jump," King said.
"Yes Ma'am," Banks said with relief. He threw the Jump controls. The bridge seemed to stretch out momentarily before snapping back as they leapt away.
*
"Our shield weakens," Cessqa said with surprise close to disbelief.
It wasn't what the Defiant fired at them, but the sheer volume of it. More a case of bombardment, than the extent to which the human's weaponry packed a punch.
"Firing –" Gelvin said, just as the Defiant disappeared from view.
The last of the Union ship's fire peppered the front of their energy shield, then all was still. Their quarry gone, unexpected silence engulfed them.
Cessqa hurriedly accessed the ship's scanners to determine the Defiant's course. It took a mere handful of seconds.
"Pursuit course," Cessqa said.
It flashed up in front of Gelvin. He re-oriented the Jandala to suit, then activated the Jump.
The stars opened up, expanded to become long streaks of light. And past the wall of darkness into which the Jandala rushed, their prey raced ahead of them.
*
"Might I have a word?" Dr. Gentry asked her. Jessica turned to look up at him.
"Of course, doctor," she said. "Let's go to my quarters."
Gentry went on ahead of her. Jessica turned to Commander Greene and gave him instructions to inform her as soon as they neared the Formation.
"Aye," Greene said. He took the captain's chair.
"I won't be long," King said. She joined Dr. Gentry and left the bridge.
*
She showed him to a seat. "Drink, Doctor?"
He shook his head. "No thank you."
Jessica sat opposite him and unbuttoned the top of her uniform tunic so she could relax for a moment.
"You're not about to strip off, are you Captain?" Gentry asked nervously.
The man's fruity as a nut cake, Jessica thought. What must go through his mind? How can he seem so normal and on the level one minute, but act like a complete freak the next?
"Unfortunately not, Doctor. No possibility of that in here, I'm afraid," she said.
He visibly breathed a sigh of relief. "Ah. That's good."
"So, uh, what's it about?" she asked him.
Dr. Gentry shifted in his seat. "Have you ever heard of a writer from Earth's past called Isaac Asimov?"
She shook her head. "Sorry."
"It's quite all right. He and those of his time have since passed into the realm of myth. Their writings now would seem juvenile, compared with what we know about the galaxy. However, Asimov and his contemporaries were truly great minds. Unique for their time," he said.
"Is there a connection here, Doctor?"
"Yes. I am reminded of something Asimov said once. It's my favourite quote. It goes: 'It is change, continuing change, inevitable change, that is the dominant factor in society today. No sensible decision can be made without taking into account not only the world as it is, but the world as it will be.'"
The point of Gentry's reverie – if indeed there was one – was wasted on her.
Jessica rubbed her eyes. "I'm sorry, Doctor, again . . . I'm just not seeing the point."
"We are at a time of change, Captain. Do you not sense it? The war with the Draxx is ended. The Union is, for the first time in generations, without an ongoing conflict. It is lost," Gentry said.
"That's not true. We're going back to exploration. To charting the unknown," Jessica said. "Peacekeeping."
"No. You're wrong. With all due respect, Captain, the Terran Union finds itself with nothing to do. Twiddling its thumbs. And rightly so, eh? What else are we meant to do?"
"As I said –"
He waved his hands at her, agitated. "Whoever stole aboard the Enigma did so with the intention of furthering their own warmongering urges. Mark my words. There is a change coming, and I fear not for the better."
"You're going into the realms of conspiracy theories now," she said, getting worked up herself. Who was he to lecture her, his opinions based on wild assumptions as to what he viewed as the truth? "Frankly, I don't even see why we're having this conversation."
"Captain, listen to me. There's something much larger going on here. A high ranking official must have ordered the kidnap of those Namarian crew. Why? Where were they taken? For what purpose? What happened to them?"
"For now, that's beyond the scope of this mission," Jessica said.
"No! No! It is at the very heart of it!" Gentry yelled. He stood, fists clenched at his sides. He remained that way for a moment, then realized he had overreacted. His hands loosened, his face became less flushed and he calmed down. "Sorry."
Now it was Jessica's turn to stand up. "Finished?"
"Sorry," he said again. He licked his top lip. "Only, you must see reason. You must see sense. This is the start of something, I feel it. War is in the Union's best interests, Captain. Without one, you are lost. Just one big organisation, united against nothing. As a race, we have to have something to fight for. That means fighting against something."
"So what are you saying? This has been done to start a war?"
"That is precisely what I am saying. Whoever is behind this has, most likely, already decided on who will take the place of the Draxx," Gentry said.
Jessica nodded. "And that would be illegal."
"So the big question will be, Captain, whether you're on one side or the other."
10.
The Mobius Formation is a hurricane of pulsar winds. It is held together, contained – prevented from dispersing by the gravitational pull of the pulsars at its core; highly magnetized, rotating neutron stars that emit wave after wave of electromagnetic radiation.
They beat like multiple hearts, pulsing in turn, making the Formation shimmer. One of the most beautiful, yet deadly, nebulas in known space. From afar, the Mobius Formation looks like a stormy sea, the gases themselves shining like mercury. The pulsar wind, powered by injection of magnetic fields and particles from the central pulsars makes for a thing of beauty on nature's part.
But upon closer inspection, its true self is revealed. This is no ocean of silver. Lightning arcs from one side to the other, causing massive amounts of neutron radiation and eddies within the gases themselves and the pulsars at its centre strobe, making visua
l navigation of the Formation torture on the eyes of a wayward traveller.
In a way, the stars at its heart killed each other. Formed pulsars. Now they leak their poison into space, into the dense nebula by which they are smothered.
In the earliest days of humanity's star watching, such regions had announced their presence in the form of clicks detected by ground-based astronomers. But now, here it is: an immense obstruction in the pathways of space; a great, hulking cloud of almost fluidic material, powered by fallen suns.
And into this devastating brew of material fly two starships, one in pursuit of the other. The Mobius Formation is no longer confined to being the staging ground of nature's titanic conflicts . . . but humanity's, too.
PART II
The Mobius Formation
11.
"Exiting the Jump in five . . . four . . . three . . . two . . ." Banks decelerated from the Jump, easing them back into normal space. What they emerged into was no mere empty canvas of void and stars. The Mobius Formation dominated the immediate area, filling the viewscreen left to right. It had been described as both a silver ocean and a giant storm. Both could be seen as true.
"Wow," Rayne remarked. Then she scowled at the rush of noise in her earpiece. the screaming of stars among radio waves. She pulled it free from her ear. "That hurt."
"There is unprecedented radiation in there, just as the doctor said," Chang reported. "I've never had the chance to record so much in person before. It's deadly."
"You're telling me," Commander Greene said. "Nobody goes into the Mobius Formation without having to."
"Apart from us," King said.
*
"I see them already," Cessqa said as Gelvin prepared to exit the Jump directly behind the Defiant. "And I know where they're going."
"It's not advisable," Gelvin said. "It's not a rational plan."
