by Will Crudge
“I’m very sorry you’ve waited ten years for a chance to recover your friend, only to get your hopes dashed at the first glimmer of hope….” Jimma said empathetically. She paused to reach down to Katherine, and then helped the grieving woman to here feet. Grinder came over and rubbed his monstrous neck against Katherine’s hip as his own form of consolation. Jimma noticed Marbles must have had some kind of protective instinct, and took a half step towards Katherine when the wolfdog made contact. It only took a quick flash of four inch long fang for the robotic drone to stop dead in its tracks.
Jimma wiped a tear from Katherine’s face, and Katherine smiled in appreciation. “Do you know any more about this Crimson Agent of yours?” Jimma asked.
Katherine’s lips were quivering as she struggled to compose herself. She niffed slightly, and took a deep soothing breath. “He had a small name plate on his chest armor.” She paused again to swallow. “His name is Peterson.”
Jimma’s facial expression went from empathetic to angry. Katherine seemed to pick up on the change immediately.
“What’s the matter?” Marbles asked Jimma.
“Dry those tears, War Master Candidate!” Jimma said firmly. She knew that Katherine would respond immediately. And she did. Katherine stood straight up and locked eyes with Jimma. “Peterson is who we are after!”
Katherine’s face drained of blood and went pale for a moment. Then she nodded. Jimma studied the former trainee, and then proceeded to speak. “He and his twin brother have kidnapped a Zodiac elder. That’s the beacon that led you here. There are no coincidences, remember?”
“Yes, War Master!” Katherine replied. Marbles had no facial expressions for Jimma to measure, but his exaggerated body language spoke volumes. He must never have seen Katherine behave like this before.
“Good!” Jimma finished, and then turned to Marbles. “Marbles, you are free to do as you will. However, you need to know, that you’re not going to be very welcomed by most humans in UAHC controlled space at the moment. The Crimson Alliance attempted a bold attack on the inner stars a few months ago. It failed, but the civilian death toll immense. You may not be a Crimson drone anymore, but nobody else will believe you. Help us, and I’ll make sure the Guild offers you sanctuary.”
“Hell yeah!” Marbles exclaimed. “Fight our enemy, and then go somewhere where I won’t get killed? Shit! You had me at Marbles.”
“I like this guy.” Grinder said casually.
Clandestine Encounter
Location: Redacted
Date Time: Redacted
System: Redacted
The Foehammer transitioned through the hyper gate with ease, as the visual displays on the fore bulkhead went black as a result. Kara occupied the command console with James was at the helm. The hyper gate seemed to be operating much like the ones Kara had encountered many times, but it was vastly different in design.
The lack of a power source was the main difference. Human-built hyper gate stations required a central hub of immense power reactors and generators. Not only was this particular gate without any detectible power source, but it lacked the gravitational protective energy funnel. Hyper gates were highly susceptible to sudden fluctuations of gravity, so they had to be constructed in open space. But this alien construct was an anomaly.
Kara and James were silent during the transition. Neither knew what to expect on the other side, and nobody but Kara knew exactly where they would end up. No protocol had given her authorization to share the details of the cryptic mission instructions, but nothing explicitly directed her not to. She decided that the entire crew would figure it out either way.
Then the third dimensional reality of physics snapped into existence all at once… And neither of them expected what they saw.
“It’s so… bright!” Kara exclaimed. James was too confounded to respond. They had expected to see blackness, new constellations, or even some nearby planetary bodies, but that wasn’t the case. The galactic core was brightly lit by the close proximity of billions of stars. The supermassive black hole at the center of the galaxy was trapping eons of photons, and swirling them around open space. Space time was literally being bent by gravity, and the two pairs of human eyes were taking in the epic light show before them.
“I’ve got beacon signal!” James reported eagerly. “It appears to be human made… likely UAHC spec.”
“Makes sense.” Kara nodded. “The gravity here is likely in a constant state of flux, so we’d need beacons to give us a safe route to follow.”
“Why human beacons?” James asked.
“Probably because our sensors wouldn’t register an alien beacon?” Kara said with a shrug. It was all the logic she could muster. They continued to follow the beacon until the signal branched off in a different vector. After several minutes, a new beacon began to beckon them to yet another beacon at another vector.
“Any idea how long this will take?” James asked.
“Not a damn clue, buddy.” Kara shook her head. Nothing was said for another half hour. They continued to follow several beacons, and make slight course corrections accordingly.
“The beacon is taking us directly for that weird cluster of rocks.” James said as he scratched his head.
“What’s weird about them?” Kara asked.
“They don’t appear to have any detectable orbit. It’s like they’re a fixed point in space, and the only thing holding them there is some field that stems from the black hole.” James explained
“Well, that is weird.” Kara said plainly. She studied the visual after James zoomed in. The rocks appeared to be magenta in color, and she could see tiny specs of unnatural structures.
“This beacon is giving me detailed docking instructions.” James said.
“Hand it off to Steve, and let him take our bucket in!” Kara replied.
“Already on it, dear.” Steve replied in a semi-sarcastic tone.
“I knew you would be, bud.” Kara sent a winking icon from her neural interface. Steve replied with a raspberry icon.
“I’ve sent a message to Captain David.” James said. “The ground team is staged and ready.”
“Very well, James.”
***
David watched the airlock cycle, and the gangway extend outward. He struggled to see what lay beyond the ship’s hull, but he couldn’t get a good viewing angle. He then looked to his team. The three FISTER’s were fully suited up, and had heavy battle rifles at the ready. Ives, and the father – daughter cop duo were right behind them, all in UAHC standard light armor. Kelley was standing directly to his left, and she was in her heavy infantry armor. Elizabeth was behind Kelley, and had elected to don a standard EV suit over her War Master armor. The only thing different was that her sword, and side arm were strapped to the outside of her suit.
Napo was nowhere to be seen, and David figured he was off napping somewhere. They didn’t have anything that could maintain atmosphere for the big cat to breathe off-ship, so he had to sit the mission out.
The airlock completed its initial cycle, and the team all piled in. It was a tight fit for all of them, even though the airlock was designed with UAHC armored suits in mind. The indicator above each end of the airlock flashed green, which meant the airlock was now devoid of atmosphere. The exterior airlock opened up, and David instantly had to activate the tint on his visor. They’d been expecting brightness, but it was soon apparent that the small windows were staring at the cliff face of a large rock, and was creating a false sense of darkness.
David motioned the team to follow him down the narrow ramp, and they shuffled out as if they expected combat. The old Soldier didn’t really know what to expect, so he was glad that Captain Ives planned the maneuver with extreme caution.
David focused forward, and let his sensors reach out to identify any potential threats. When he reached the end of the ramp, he abruptly slid to a halt, and Kelley nearly ran right into him. His trigger hand was balled up in fist to signal the ground team to halt.
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br /> The ramp seemed to stop on nothing at all. He cycled his visual filters, and realized there was a translucent platform that stretched out from the end of the ramp, and wrapped around the asteroid, as if it were a pinkish catwalk. He reached down with one hand and tested his theory. Now was not the time to rely on sensors or visual filters, he decided.
Sure enough, the platform was solid. It looked like it was an energy generated surface, but it felt like a smooth kitchen counter top. He looked back up at his team and realized they were taking in the exotic scenery. He couldn’t read their facial expressions, but their body language spoke volumes. Even while they were down on one knee, and had their rifles shouldered in each direction, their heads were all scanning slowly.
He turned forward and looked up and around himself. What the hell is this place? He thought to himself. He could see similar pinkish catwalks at different levels, and even off in the distance. Several ornate archways were carved into the asteroid, and David realized that the entire asteroid cluster was some form of facility. That’s one way to hide – whatever – this is!
The seconds dragged on like tedious minutes, but the five entities finally approached within a few meters.
They all did as ordered. Suits of armor took positions on either side of the ramp, and they formed a wall of bodies and armor. The stumpy black creatures seemed to track the humans’ movements with their featureless faces, but otherwise remained still.
Ives retracted her helmet, while simultaneously snapping her energy shield in place. The small dome-shaped atmospheric barrier originated from the base of her neck and covered her entire head. A moment later the other team members followed suit. David knew it was all in her plan. She figured that revealing their faces, as soon as soon as it was deemed safe to do so, would make them appear less aggressive… Well, less aggressive than a squad of rifle-carrying suits of combat armor would otherwise appear to be.
“Greetings!” The bulbous green-headed figure spoke. “I am Keltec!”
“Greetings, Keltec.” Ives replied. “I am Captain Ives, and this is Captain David.” She gestured to David.
“Nice to meet you, Keltec.” David said with an uneasy voice.
“I’ll be travelling with you, as requested.” Keltec said enthusiastically, before bowing theatrically. He straightened back up, and appeared to have some facsimile of a smile.
“We’re honored to have you.” Ives said with a smile of her own.
“What are these things?” Private Todd asked as he broke from his position, and stepped closer to one of the black creatures. The creature let out a sinister roar, as it reared up into a huge wall of black flesh. Its shoulders widened to three times their original width, and now the creature was at least four meters tall. Todd shouldered his rifle and stiffened his stance in response.
“Stand down!” Corporal Thomas shouted. He eased on over to Todd’s side, but Todd didn’t budge. The Corporal gently reached up, and pressed the top of the rifle downward, and gave a hand signal for Todd to step back.
“This thing was going to stomp the shit out of me, Corporal!” Todd protested.
“Not likely, my boy!” Keltec said with a light chuckle. “You scared him!” Keltec then gestured towards the creature, and the creature slowly retracted its form back to normal.
“That thing could have gut stomped you into oblivion, because you decided to take it upon yourself to break ranks!” Ives chimed in with a lecturing scowl.
“Not even close.” Keltec shook his head. “These creatures may be one of only a handful of species in the galaxy capable of violence, but compared to a human, they’re still very delicate.”
“Delicate?” Ives tilted her head in confusion.
“I guess you don’t know much about anything beyond the reaches of humanity, do you?” Keltec supposed. “Humans may think of themselves as vulnerable from a physical standpoint. Many Earth creatures are larger, or more dangerous than you are, after all. But Earth-based biology is well known to be extremely durable. Humans, in particular, are the stuff of nightmares for most of your galactic neighbors.”
“Wow.” David said half-heartedly. “Go us.”
“Will your – companions – be coming with us?” Ives asked.
“No, just me. They’re simply my shadows of protection. The Galactic Council has been skittish as of late, and my friends here are providing security.” Keltec explained. “But there’s nothing they can do to protect me that a ship full of human warriors couldn’t do better.”
“Very well. Please come on board!” Ives gestured for Keltec to approach the ramp.
“One quick question first… Do you have the XT-80 food preparation unit on board?” The alien asked eagerly.
Everyone exchanged sarcastic glanced, and then Ives giggled for a moment. “Yes we do.” She replied.
“Excellent! I’ve been hoping you had one. Val let me try one once, and I’ve been craving it ever since!” Keltec said gleefully.
“Dinner will be served once we transition back into human space.” Ives added.
“I don’t care what the other species think! I really love humans, and all their wonderful gadgets!” Keltec exclaimed with a girlish squeal as he headed up the ramp. The ground team followed him up to the airlock, and the gangway began to retract once the hatch closed.
They were all huddled once more in the airlock, and then David took a long look at Keltec. Something was on the cusp of his mind, but he couldn’t quite bring it into his own awareness. Then it hit him. How does Keltec breathe?!
“Excuse me, Keltec.” David spoke.
“Yes?” The alien turned to answer him.
“I noticed you were adapted to breathing… whatever that was out there… but will you be alright in our atmosphere?” David asked.
“Certainly! Earth’s gravity is very close to what I’m adapted for, and I can adapt to a wide variety of chemical compositions as well. I breathe carbon dioxide, so I’ll be perfectly happy.” He replied.
“Good to know, because you’re about to be sucking on Earth-like fumes very shortly!” David laughed. Moments later, the airlock filled with human-friendly atmosphere, and the interior airlock hatch opened with a slight hissing noise. Everyone piled out into the corridor, and the sounds of energy shields snapping out of array filled the space.
“Very impressive interior! I don’t recall if ever I’ve seen the like!” Keltec said as he took stock in the freshly fitted wall coverings.
“I agree, but I should warn you… this is far from typical for a human warship of this size.” David answered.
“Well, I haven’t ever been on a human warship before, so I suppose I’ll have to take your word on that.” Keltec replied.
“How nice are your race’s warships?” Ives asked, with a light-hearted tone.
&n
bsp; Keltec paused for a moment. Ives and David shared a quick glance of concern, as if she said something that struck a nerve. “Let’s just say, I don’t think you’ll ever see one for yourself, I’m afraid.” He replied with a somber tone.
Death is not the End
Location: Docking Bay, Orbital Habitat, Titan Moon
Date Time: Post Interstellar 10/25/4201 1408HRS Local
System: Sol, Mid Region
Marbles crept through the shadows of the poorly lit docking structure. Katherine was thirty meters behind him, and she was trying to keep him in sight. The former Crimson drone could track the beacon with his internal sensors, so they had previously agreed that he would run point.
The drone slowly slipped behind some old dusty storage crates, and ducked down. Confident he was fully concealed, he triangulated the signal once more, and calculated the distance and bearing with as much precision as his sensors allowed for. The signal indicated that the beacon was seventy three meters from his position, and was 1653 mils in azimuth.
The drone rotated his head approximately one hundred eighty degrees - which would have been impossible for any human - and made eye contact with Katherine. He then proceeded to execute a series of hand signals that he knew she would be able to interoperate in short order. She nodded in acknowledgement, and then slipped back into the shadows.
Marbles’ robotic optical array was fully equipped to see what she was doing, but to an un-augmented human, she would have been hard to notice. He knew the plan down to the letter, and he knew that he would have to wait patiently for the next phase.
Patience wasn’t something that sentient technology-based entities were suited for. His advanced processors may have lacked the amazing quantum power of biological brain, but they operated at a higher rate of speed. He could constantly run the simulations of what lied ahead… and do it tens of thousands of times per second. But the only thing he couldn’t do, was quantify the x-factors that humans always brought to the table. He always admired the strange gut instincts of humans… even though he’d only encountered a few of them since he’d achieved sentience.
