Celestial Incursion

by Eddie R. Hicks

  Multiple pairs of red glowing eyes were seen in the darkened areas of the bridge, gene therapy at work. The eye color of Hashmedai changed from red, to orange, then yellow the older they got, the last two colors being a rarity, especially in the military. The Hashmedai people embraced holding their age at their prime, when raging hormones made you want to find and copulate with as many partners as you could. These hormones also turned even the timidest Hashmedai into a brave fighter when the time came, the sole reason the Imperial forces required all members to pause or rollback their age to this point.

  The bridge crew were frantically trying to restore some form of order to the mess and chaos that had gripped it. The main viewer gave Peiun the remaining answers to his questions. The Imperial fleet defending Paryo had been nearly obliterated by a fleet of warships. Meanwhile, their ship, the Rezeki’s Rage, an anti-capital ship plasma frigate, was aimlessly adrift.

  They were ambushed.

  “So, Radiance has finally done it,” Peiun said. “They used the ceasefire as a means to trick us into lowering our guard.”

  “These aren’t Radiance ships,” Alesyna said from her psionic workstation.

  “Then who is it?” Peiun asked.

  “Humans perhaps?” The helmsman, Louik, chimed in.

  “The last transmission we received was that these ships materialized within the system,” said the communication officer, Manzo. “Radiance and humans do not have such technology, save for the human wormhole network.”

  Peiun stepped closer to the viewer allowing medical personnel to remove bodies off the bridge. He watched the invader ships fire their energy-based weapons upon the surface of Paryo. The ships looked organic, made of flesh rather than exotic metallic alloys. “I take it these ships did not travel through it?” he said.

  Humans were cunning. They built hundreds of wormholes and used them to establish a network which linked their home star system, and every star system they controlled, together. To facilitate the idea of galactic peace between the UNE, Empire, and Radiance, humans also built a wormhole in the Uemaesce system that connected to an UNE-controlled system, thus giving the Hashmedai a quick means to conduct business and trade with humans, the Qirak, and the Morutrin system, which also was added to the network. The humans also constructed a wormhole in the system that held the Radiance capital world, allowing Radiance access to the same perks.

  “No, they did not,” Manzo replied. “Nothing has travelled through the wormhole within the last two days.”

  Psionic wormholes like the one the great Archmage Noylarlie once used were out of the question. She lost those abilities in the months following the battle of Barnard’s Star. Besides, with a wormhole, human-built or psionic-created, one could see what was on the other end via a scan or psionic ESP. Light and gravity waves were also capable of bleeding through a wormhole, which a skilled psionic or working ship scanner would be able to detect. What they were facing was something entirely new.

  Peiun didn’t recognize any of the glowing eyes on the bridge as the captain’s. This prompted him to ask. “Where is the captain?”

  He got his answer as two medical personnel dragged his unmoving body away past him. He used his HNI to locate the status of the captain within the manifest of the ship. The icon next to his name displayed the status of his vitals. It was dark.

  “Ugh, well tell the first officer congratulations on the promotion,” said Peiun. The bridge became silent and watched him as he flicked the hologram away. “What?”

  “She’s dead too, along with eleven other officers,” said Alesyna.

  Peiun crossed his arms. “Then, who’s in command?”

  “You are . . .” muttered Louik. “Sir.”

  Peiun realized he had flicked the hologram away too fast. Had he continued to search through the list, he would have seen the names of the first officer and the eleven other officers all with dark vital icons adjacent to their names. He was the captain now, and he was not ready to sit on the ice-cold chair and take command of the situation.

  He did it anyways.

  “Right, so . . .” Peiun said, looking closely at the holographic screens the captain was using prior to his sudden end. “What is the status of the fleet and Paryo?”

  As if he couldn’t tell by the fires burning from the surface. In truth, he was buying himself time to think of something smart to get the crew to safety, and not incur the rage of the empress and emperor if he failed miserably. He liked having his head attached to his body.

  Manzo read data that was fed to him via his HNI. “There’s chaos in the Imperial Capital, at least one thousand warriors have been slain battling the invaders. The empress and emperor were still in the palace when the attack broke out, their status is unknown.”

  “And the fleet?” Peiun asked him, again trying to buy more time.

  “The fleet is disorganized; most capital ships have been destroyed or are on fire. The rest are trying to regroup and defend the space bridge.”

  Peiun brought up a holo window and put in a request for the computers to transfer all command operations to him. The request was granted after it confirmed the vitals of the crew above him were fatal, therefore making him the captain. His HNI UI was updated and data that only senior level officers would be able to easily access projected to him.

  One of them being the current trajectory of the ship.

  “We’re adrift,” Peiun said.

  “We were attacked first,” Alesyna said.

  Peiun smiled at their random luck. “Of all the ships that were struck first, we’re the only one that survived.”

  “We should be able to come about soon,” said Louik.

  “No, let’s use this opportunity,” Peiun said, analyzing the estimated drift path of their ship.

  From what he was able to tell, the only Imperial ships under direct fire were the ones that had been directly engaging the invader ships. The Rezeki’s Rage was being ignored while it continued to drift amidst the burning wreckages of lost Imperial ships. Peiun’s stalling for time had paid off.

  “Keep us adrift,” Peiun said. “Let them think we’re dead.”

  Manzo faced him, frowning. “With all due respect, but should we not take the fight to them?”

  “Indeed, avenge the captain, first officer, and those that were slain,” Louik said.

  “I’d rather not die fighting a battle we can’t win,” Peiun said.

  “This battle is lost!” Louik yelled. “Let’s take as many of them down with us and make the empress and emperor smile at our bravery!”

  “My mother was a non-psionic assassin,” Peiun said. “She knew life was about picking your fights carefully, this is one of those fights.” You pick the right fight, you get to keep going. If you pick the wrong one, and there was no picking again. “Continue to drift.”

  “But—”

  “You said so yourself,” Alesyna’s frustrated voice jumped in. “He’s the captain, do as he says.”

  Peiun looked at Alesyna feeling calmer, her stepping in prevented a possible mutiny. He had an ally, one capable of killing anyone that tried to overthrow him just by thinking about it. He nodded to her, a nonvocal thank you, she nodded back.

  The Rezeki’s Rage sustained its drift and tumbled and rolled within the debris field. The red dwarf star Paryo orbited began to rise and shone its dim light across the horizon of the glacial planet and across the sparking and somewhat melted hull of the Rezeki’s Rage. A larger invader ship appeared from the opposite end of Paryo under escort with five other enemy capital ships and a swarm of winged serpents. The serpents were reminiscent of mythological beings from human society.

  Dragons.

  The larger invader ship that caught his attention was organic like the rest but had no visible weapons on it. The central section of the ship held a green bubble-like sack which protruded from the top and bottom of the ship. The sack pulsed slowly as thin veins stretched across it. Peiun double-checked his implants and confirmed, from what little
battle data they had received, the ship in question was not present during the first assault. Whatever it was, it was new to the battlefield, or at least had stayed far away from the attack until now.

  Peiun interacted with the projection his HNI created and molded it into a three-dimensional hologram that clearly illustrated the estimated trajectory of the Rezeki’s Rage and the trajectory of this newcomer to the battle.

  They were due to cross paths with the Rezeki’s Rage drifting directly under it, provided neither changed course. Peiun pushed the hologram away and said to the bridge crew. “You all want to fight? Well, here’s our chance.”

  Peiun gave the crew his plan of attack, drift and play dead until the ship was above them. Then power the maneuvering thrusters to face and shoot a quick salvo of plasma at the ship. It would have to be their forward cannons, however, as his implants reported those were the only weapons they had that were operational. It was a risky move given the fact that their shields were still down, and Alesyna’s psionic mind was still recovering. They’d have to pull the Rezeki’s Rage to face it, fire, then pull away to escape. Precious seconds would be lost during the maneuver to turn and flee.

  Peiun and the bridge crew watched with anticipation as the main viewer showed them make their last roll through space, which put the enemy above them. Louik input the complex command to fire multiple maneuvering thrusters to push the sizeable frigate in the desired direction. Had this ship been equipped with MRF technology, shamelessly stolen from the humans, the task would have been quicker as the ship would have had its mass altered. Sadly, only command, flag, and large-scale colonization ships were equipped with the technology as the Empire had a 60 percent failure rate when it came to manufacturing.

  “Fire on my mark,” Peiun said as the underside of the invader ship dominated the sights on the main viewer, shining a slight greenish hue upon the bridge from the light emitting from the green sack.

  The tactical feed on his HNI gave him the estimated time for their plasma cannons to hit as well as the accuracy rate percentage. Given how close they were, they had a 100 percent chance to hit, though he didn’t need the HNI to inform him of that.

  Peiun gave the command to fire.

  Emerald spheres of plasma fire erupted from the two forward plasma cannons of the Rezeki’s Rage, adding to the green hue of light that blanketed the bridge crew and their light sensitive eyes that momentarily lost their red glow. Peiun hoped the green sack on the ship wasn’t full of plasma, for the resulting explosion could consume both ships. He was, however, confident that Alesyna and her ESP would have detected that, despite her weakened mind.

  The plasma hit the sack in wave after wave, destroying it and triggering a chain reaction of smaller detonations from within the invader ship.

  Peiun grinned at the results. “Helm, get us out of here.”

  Louik carried out Peiun’s order and, once again, utilized the maneuvering thrusters to point the Rezeki’s Rage to a clearing in space and a trajectory that would be safe for them to enter sub light speeds. As Peiun feared, the action would take at least six seconds to complete, leaving the ship in its current position.

  The explosions from above intensified as the final thruster finished its job. Globs of the green substance that was inside the sack rained down upon the Rezeki’s Rage thanks to the last and major explosion. The substance coated the hulls of the Rezeki’s Rage, upstaging its paint job and the flag of the Empire on its sides.

  The Rezeki’s Rage jumped into sub light speeds, the green substance, however, clung onto the ship, unmoving, despite it traveling at half the speed of light. Adding to their woes, the escort of invader ships noticed their deception and began pursuit.

  Evidently, the invader ships, much like human and Radiance ones, were FTL capable. The Empire was lagging behind in the ship speed department. Peiun hissed and bared his fangs, venting his frustration.

  His HNI received new data, the ship they attacked exploded for the last time, sending its fiery remains into the atmosphere of Paryo to burn up. Five seconds later, Alesyna’s glowing eyes shut briefly then opened along with a comforting smile across her face.

  “Captain,” she called to him. “You’ll want to see this.”

  Alesyna waved her hands, summoning a holographic projection to appear in her hands. She threw it to Peiun, and it stopped in front of his face. The projection showed a tactical map of the system in real time. It was information her ESP captured, then her HNI converted into data for him to see.

  And what Peiun saw was a great change in the battlefield. The invader ships had broken off their attack the moment the larger invader ship was destroyed. Hundreds of tiny red dots representing enemy ships slithered away from Paryo toward . . . something, something Alesyna’s ESP hadn’t touched yet.

  “Whatever we did, it worked,” said Alesyna.

  “Contact the fleet,” Peiun said to Manzo. “Let them know we are ready to assist.”

  Manzo winced while juggling multiple holographic windows at his post. “I’m unable to do so, communications are down.”

  Peiun checked the damage report logs with his implants and confirmed. In fact, there were a lot of areas of the ship damaged that he’d been unaware of. He made a note with his HNI to remind him to check the extent of the damage and repair status.

  “Alesyna, can you reach the minds of any psionics?” Peiun asked.

  “I can, but they are . . .” Alesyna shut her eyes, and her cybernetically enhanced body glistened with blue light momentarily. The trance and light show her body produced ended as she revealed. “Their minds are busy with the battle at hand.”

  It was no surprise to him. The enemy was fleeing, putting forth little effort to defend themselves. There had to have been hundreds of angry Imperial ships looking to eradicate as many of the invader ships as they could before they were out of range.

  “Let’s not distract them,” Peiun said. “Too many Hashmedai lives have been lost already.”

  “Your orders, Captain?” Louik asked him.

  Peiun analyzed Alesyna’s ESP report, though the hologram was slowly fading away, meaning she’d have to perform another ESP scan to update it. The dots of invader ships that had been harassing the fleet and Paryo were vanishing one after another and entering a region of the system Alesyna’s mind was out of range to touch. The invader ships in pursuit of them had also changed course, like the rest, once the green sack ship had been destroyed.

  There was a good chance that group had altered course to reunite with their forces, and a good chance they’d slip away into Alesyna’s blind spot with the speeds they were traveling at.

  “Whatever these invaders are up to, it isn’t good,” Peiun said. “Follow them but keep our distance. Alesyna keep trying to communicate with the fleet psionics, the fleet will want to know if we learn anything of value.”

  “Yes, Captain.”

  The Rezeki’s Rage altered course, to follow the invader ships that, minutes earlier, were ready to shoot them down. A course that made Peiun feel uneasy. They were, after all, fleeing the battle and acting of their own accord rather than following the direction of the fleet admirals. Said admirals were more than likely to give him a hard time for his decision.

  He remembered reading about the deserters from the invasion of the human homeworld a century ago, and how the empress at the time beheaded them after apprehending them. Those that evaded capture had assassins dispatched to track them down and perform the beheading on behalf of Imperial executioners. His mother was one of those assassins.

  But what other choice do we have? He thought. The ship is damaged, vital crew members are dead, only forward weapons working and no shields. We’re an easy kill for the invaders.

  The Rezeki’s Rage’s pursuit of the invader ships was a losing race of sub light speeds versus FTL. They were not gaining on them. Alesyna refreshed the ESP projection for Peiun to keep track. The fleeing ships were due to slip out of her ESP range within minutes, vanishing entirely f
rom the hologram unless they slowed after reaching their destination, much like the rest of the invader fleet in the system.

  Which they did.

  The Rezeki’s Rage exited their sub light jump, coming to a full stop, several thousand kilometers away from a gathering of the invader ships that had recently fled from Paryo. One by one they all appeared, ending their FTL journey and rallied around another weaponless ship with a large green sack slinking out from its top and bottom.

  The green sacks began to flounder, as if blustering winds were passing by. Bolts of lightning danced around them as swirls of colorful gases expanded and consumed the ship, growing larger and larger. The mysterious ship turned the region into what looked like a colossal-sized storm cloud in space, complete with lightning strikes.

  Once the expansion of the storm ceased, the remaining invader ships adjusted their course and flew into the vortex of the storm.

  Peiun couldn’t believe what he saw. “A storm . . . in space? This can’t be right.”

  “I’m not sure what to make of this,” Louik said after receiving the first sensor scan two minutes later.

  Peiun spun in his chair and faced Alesyna. “What do you sense?’

  Alesyna finished a brief ESP scan of the anomaly before them. “My thoughts are being pulled into it . . .” she reported. “It’s like a maelstrom in the ocean, only in space.”

  “Helm, take us in closer.” Most of the invader ships had slipped into the maelstrom during their study of it. It presented a chance for them to make more detailed scans and allow Alesyna to perhaps bypass whatever it was causing her thoughts to be pulled in.

  The Rezeki’s Rage propelled closer to the maelstrom and its swirling vortex of clouds swallowing the organic invader ships whole as they entered. “What’s happening to those ships?” Peiun asked her.

  “I don’t know,” said Alesyna. “It’s as if they cease to exist once they enter.”