Tales from the Void: A Space Fantasy Anthology

by Chris Fox

  “I watched my arm being built before my very eyes. But the sedation was too strong, and soon my consciousness lapsed. I woke in a small, dimly lit room, resting on a raised pedestal. My arm felt almost as if it had never been torn off. Almost. There is something off about it, though. Like I agreed to something with a catch.”

  “Possibly, we don’t know the motivation. This Arbiter seems to be untrustworthy, and we don’t know the octo-bots’ true purpose,” Reese advised.

  “Hey, I think I can get us out from here,” Dr. Fox interjected, feeling confident.

  “Great, lead on, Chris!” Reese exclaimed, shooting Hubbell a grin. “So happy to see you, sis.”

  He led them into a hallway, the lights flickering on at each illuminator as they approached. Suddenly, the walls began to reconfigure themselves, sealing the corridor at either end. There was a rushing sound and the walls scrolled past vertically. It seemed they were moving downward. The motion stopped a short time later, and one end of the corridor split open.

  Tentatively stepping out, Dr. Fox followed Hubbell and Reese, afraid they were walking into the Arbiter’s trap. That thing wanted him dead, he knew it. But for some reason it seemed unable to do so. Perhaps law or some other restriction?

  It didn’t matter. What mattered was getting out. This was the only way they were being given, so they had no choice. Reluctantly he trotted after them.

  Hubbell seemed to be coping well, then he noticed her pupils. She was drugged, no doubt to dull the negative effects of the cybernetic surgery she had undergone. She would have one helluva bill to pay when the drugs wore off, he guessed.

  The lights flickered on at the end of the corridor, illuminating a large room ahead. Reaching the room, Hubbell motioned for them to stop as she crept forward, drawing her pistol and peering around the corner. Straightening, she motioned for them to follow as she stepped in.

  As he entered, he recognized its configuration immediately. It was some sort of control room. His eyes traveled to the center of the room, where a great massive column of circuitry towered over them. Sitting at the pinnacle was a massive green crystal, a bright glow pulsating in time.

  Then he saw it, hanging from the ceiling in a transparent pod. The body of a strange alien creature. Its hairless skin was the same deep blue color as the walls and it was roughly humanoid in shape. Although it was much larger than a human, it appeared more frail. The legs also bent awkwardly several times. He could only wonder what it would look like walking.

  “You have come to the control room, Navigator. Behold I am the Arbiter. Now you must prepare us for the journey,” the Arbiter’s voice came through his mind.

  The Arbiter’s hands began to glow green and a green palm-sized button lit up on the central console at the base of the central tower. A cylindrical section of the tower slid upward, revealing a transparent tank containing what must be his blood, resting just above the green crystal.

  “All you must do…” the voice began to echo, reverberating in Dr. Fox’s very brain. “Do, do, do, do…” was all he heard.

  “Push the button,” came next.

  His vision had dimmed to a tiny gray tunnel, the button at the end of it.

  “What are you doing, Chris?” Reese screamed as he stepped forward.

  “Push, push, push, push…” he raised his hand but hesitated, resisting, a tremendous pressure bearing down on his skull.

  He stood motionless, hand hovering over the button, a look of determination on his face. Reese dove at him but it was too late. Before she could reach him, Hubbell’s bionic arm began to glow green and then snaked out, seizing his wrist and slamming his hand down on the button. A fraction of a breath later Reese collided with him and they went down in a heap.

  The lighting went from blue to red and a yowling, screechy alarm rang out. There was a grisly crunching sound as he hit the deck. It took him a moment to realize he had landed on his QET.

  As they disentangled themselves and stood, Hubbell tapped commands into the console with her bionic arm. The look on her face was sheer horror. Her other arm flew up and wrapped flesh and blood fingers around hard metal machinery. She appeared to be straining against the motions, to no avail.

  Looking up, he realized that his blood was flowing down over the crystal. Traces of blue energy began to illuminate paths through the circuitry, and the crystal began to glow brighter. Then the crystal absorbed his blood and took on an amber hue.

  His head was clear now, and he was sure that damn Arbiter had tried to do something to him. With horror he realized it had done something, just to Hubbell.

  “Hubbell, what the hell?” Reese exclaimed.

  She looked aghast, “I… I don’t know…. It’s not my arm.”

  Suddenly her arm stopped moving and went limp. Then it tentatively reached out into the air and flexed fingers.

  “I think I’ve got control back,” Hubbell replied, the look of horror undiminished.

  There was a rumble and several clunks that accompanied a restructuring within the city. They felt the whole chamber begin to rise. Windows opened around the room in a three hundred and sixty degree view of their surroundings. They were at the center of the city. They had risen from the central pyramid, its top peeled back like petals.

  The room reached a height of several hundred meters and then stopped. From here they had a view of the entire city in all directions, including the courtyard below, strewn with their gear. They could even see the Falcon, and several plazas over, the squat black form of the pirate vessel.

  “Prepare for warp,” the Arbiter croaked out.

  “What!? Warp!? No, stop it. As the Navigator I order you to stop,” Dr. Fox said emphatically.

  “It is too late, the process has already been initiated,” the Arbiter retorted gleefully.

  A star chart bloomed into existence in a great holoscreen above them. The stars of the galaxy swirled and whirled, the view panning to their current location. Then it streaked to a location clear on the other side of the galaxy.

  “Oh god, that’s the other side of the galaxy. We’ve got no contact there, it’s unknown territory,” Reese cried.

  The destination began to flash red. Then it was flashing faster. And faster and faster. Until it went solid, and Dr. Fox’s world turned upside down, literally. The warp had done a number on him. He found himself upside down, legs over his own head.

  Unfolding himself, he stood, his brain trying to puzzle through the changes. Looking out the windows, he could still see the city, although it was shrouded in darkness, massive shadows from the bright moonlight streaking the jungle and weathered stone structures. Except that the planet Serath had no moon.

  Then he joined Hubbell and Reese at the window. It seemed they were still in the city, still on the jungle planet. His eyes followed theirs to the sky. And then he realized it, and was truly awed. The amount of power would have to be astronomical, literally.

  “Moons? How can moons just appear?” Hubbell choked out.

  “They didn’t just appear. We did. The whole planet warped,” Dr. Fox exclaimed.

  “And they’re not moons. They’re other planets,” Reese clarified.

  Hanging low in the sky was an orange-brown world with faint white clouds. In the distance a purple-hazed world hung at juxtaposition to the first. Higher in the sky was a lush, green world, but nearly next to it was a blackened charred world.

  “Where are we, Arbiter?” Dr. Fox asked sharply.

  “Gaze upon the glory of the Tevari empire! You have done well to deliver me home. Now we may begin my conquest.”

  Rapidly the dark began to fade, the night giving way to dawn at an accelerated pace, as a trio of suns rose above the horizon.

  Liked The Navigator? Want to read more? Go to my website www.TrevorAmesGregg.com and sign up for my mailing list. You’ll be awarded with a copy of the next installment of The Navigator when it’s complete (December 2017).

  Void Defenders

  Saul Roberts

&n
bsp; Void Defenders File Θ1123

  Memories extracted from one Jigen gādian Cailyn Safira:

  Extractor was one Oprosnogo Ignatiy Berhtoald, of House Sapiunt

  The Theft and Annihilation of the PSS Carolina:

  Cailyn felt sick. Her legs were weak as if her knees would buckle at any second and she’d go sprawling across the troop deck for all to see. Her guts turned inside themselves, threatening to upheave her bland breakfast of protein bars and nutrient broth into her helmet. No matter how hard she tried, she couldn’t get her hands to stop shaking or her blood to stop pounding inside her ears.

  Yet despite all this, she didn’t feel scared. Not like she had during training, when her blood had howled itself through her veins, making her jittery with excitement as they’d all thrown themselves out of the troop hull and into the black void beyond. It was the same excitement that she had during weapons drills, when every blast from her gauntlet would send a thrill running up and down her arm. Or during armored combat, when enchanted steel would clash against enchanted armor. Where each blow would send sparks of primal power flashing up into the air between her and her opponent and a terrified thrill up and down her spine.

  She didn’t even feel helpless, like she had as a child, when a pack of Barghest had rampaged up from the lower streets and she’d had to hide, huddled beneath her bed, with nothing but her toy Lillend and a blanket to protect her.

  She was a fully trained 'Jigen gādian’, which stood for 'Dimensional Guardian' in the old Nihonjin tongue. She could fold space upon a whim, crush her opponents to the ground with increased gravity, or just cut gravity’s hold altogether and let them ‘fall’ helplessly into the void.

  She wasn’t a coward. She had told herself that a hundred times, a thousand times, and always she’d believed it. Always she’d been the first to volunteer, the first to step forward in training, to be the example of what a true Dimensional Guardian should be. And was.

  Right up until the moment when she’d boarded the troop carrier, helmet in hand, gauntlets fully charged, sword expertly sharpened and armor gleaming as if it had just been polished. Which it had been. It was right at that moment that it hit her.

  This was real.

  This was not a simulation. It wasn’t simply a particularly dangerous training mission, where the healers were going to be on standby to fix any bruise or broken arm that she might acquire due to some cadet’s misstep.

  This was real. With real gauntlets, charged with real plasma bolts, which they would have to use against real enemies who were really going to try and kill her.

  “Helmets on!” the deck Sergeant screamed and Cailyn felt herself mechanically put hers on, as if someone else had taken control of her and was moving her limbs on their own.

  The instant her helmet clicked into place on her armor, cantrip-style images began to appear before her eyes, most of them listing the status and functionality of the various enchantments that had been inscribed into the under armor of her suit. The steel plate before her face faded away until it was as translucent as glass and she could see the troop deck clearly once more. She was grateful that this transparency was only one way so that no one could see the fear in her eyes or listen to the sudden chattering of her teeth.

  “Venting chamber!” the Sergeant screamed at them through the communication link in his own helmet, hitting a particular glyph along the far wall toward the pilot’s chambers. There was a sudden rapid hissing sound and for a moment, just a moment, Cailyn wished that hissing would continue and come from her own helmet, making her equipment non-mission ready and absolving her from having to jump with the rest of her squad.

  But then the hissing stopped and all sound within the carrier seemed to vanish or become so muffled it was only perceivable because everything else had gone silent.

  “All right, Guardian,” their lieutenant began over their mutual communication link. “At oh-nine hundred hours a radical group of Fey boarded a galleon class Void ship, the Carolina, and killed or captured the crew before running off with the entire ship,” the lieutenant briefed them. He was a solidly built man, not much older than Cailyn herself, but he was a pureblood, the fourth son of Baron Peregrini herself. “At oh-ten hundred, our diviners were able to get a lock on the Carolina headed toward Pangea’s sixth moon, Enetol, though why is currently unknown.”

  “Sir?” a guardian further down the armored line asked with his hand raised. “Do we know what type of Fey captured the ship?”

  “We do and we don’t,” their lieutenant said with a frustrated tone. “According to the witness on the dock, it was a company-sized group of Gol.” A stunned silence followed for just a moment before someone closer to the front spoke up.

  “Gol?” the feminine sounding voice asked in disbelief. “Those things are like four feet tall and weigh less then a boot.” The Gol, more commonly known as ‘goblins’ back on Pangea, stood on average between three to three and a half feet tall and weighed around 40 to 45 pounds. Their eyes had a dull and glazed appearance and varied in color from red to yellow. Their skin colors tended to vary by tribe, but ranged from dark green to deep yellow and through multiple shades of orange all the way to dark crimson red.

  “I’m told they’ve somehow gotten ahold some very advanced enchantments,” the lieutenant said in response. “And they struck the skeleton crew of the Carolina without warning.” He sighed. “But all that tells me is that command doesn’t have clue how they did it, so I want all of you to expect the unexpected when we make our drop onto the ship.”

  “I take it just teleporting onto the bridge is not an option?” another guardian asked, this one also a woman, though her voice had a gravely tone to it, as if she’d smoked too many fire sticks. For the life of her, Cailyn couldn’t remember her name.

  “That’s the other thing that makes me think that the Gol are getting help,” the lieutenant said. “They’ve repurposed their gravity drive into some kind of shield that’s preventing anyone from just popping in.” Confused looks stared back at the lieutenant before the same guardian asked, “I thought that was impossible?”

  “No,” the lieutenant said simply. “It’s just so dangerous that doing so usually ends up transforming the drive into a miniature blackhole,” he told them all with a sigh. “And before you ask, no, we haven’t a clue how they’re doing it or how they’re moving the ship itself without a fully functioning drive.”

  “We’re walking into the unknown here, guardians,” the lieutenant said seriously. “Our job is to jump off into the void, hit our boosters and aim for the bridge of the ship. With luck, the Gol’s own gravity drive will help pull us all in. Once on the deck we are to shut down the drive, neutralize any and all hostiles, and rescue any surviving crew.” Then he added, “In that order. Though I expect the Gol will be too impatient and want us to take care of them first.” The deck Sergeant tapped the lieutenant upon the shoulder, before wordlessly gesturing something to him.

  “Alright, Guardians!” the lieutenant said loudly into their Commlink. “It’s time.” Cailyn felt herself rise, as if someone else was controlling her, and joined her fellow guardians already standing in their queues before the massive cargo bay doors. There was no sound as they opened onto what appeared to be a great wall of black.

  “Non stabit!” the lieutenant cried out as he ran toward the darkness. It meant ‘We stand’ in the old Romae tongue.

  Nearly instantly afterward, every guardian around her cried out, “Contra vacui!” which meant ‘against the void’ in the same language. As one, the entire squad charged forward after their lieutenant.

  Carried by the crowd, Cailyn ran forward with the rest and before could think about it, she stepped, unconsciously hitting her thrusters as she’d done so many times before. Her mind felt blank and as empty as the darkness that engulfed her.

  As her armor’s thrusters propelled her away, she made a quick glance over her shoulder to see the troop carrier shrink rapidly as its pilot ignited the ship’s gravity d
rive, propelling it even faster away from her until it was swallowed by the blackness.

  Absently, some part of her mind began analyzing everything that she was seeing as if it was some bizarre mathematics problem.

  The cantrips before her eyes told her that she was right on course for the Carolina, but the blackness around her seemed to have swallowed all of her squad mates and she was still too far away to see the stolen galleon yet.

  It was utterly silent. Even the sound of her thrusters kicking off were so quiet that if she hadn’t felt the suit press against her as it accelerated or decelerated as needs demanded, she would have thought herself motionless. Inside her helmet, she was without the sound of her rapid breath and the roaring of her heart in her ears.

  Panic seized ahold of her heart and squeezed the muscles of her chest so tightly together that she felt like she couldn’t breathe.

  What if she was off course? What if the armor’s enchantments where malfunctioning? What if the Gol had managed to get the Carolina’s guns working? They’d all be shot and left to hurtle through the never-ending nothingness that was the void.

  “Guardians, check in.” The lieutenant’s voice was like a lifeline thrown to her at just the right second.

  “Guardian Shiv. All systems go.” His dark tanned face flashed before her eyes, that strange blue dot that he always painted on his forehead strangely prominent in her memories.

  “Guardian Davit. Everything’s a-okay on my systems.” The Hayer Mage had big blue eyes and sleek black hair, and was also perhaps one the cleverest Magi Cailyn had ever gotten a chance to meet.

  “Guardian Emel. Getting a bit of pull to the left on my thruster, but it’s manageable.” Emel was slim and full chested with an oddly hooked noise that did little to distract from her beauty.