Faster Than Light: Dobhriathar

by Malcolm Pierce

  Alena tapped a few more buttons on the security console. Caitlin held her breath as she heard the generators whirr in the background. Sparks flicked from the cables that stretched across the room and Alena held up her hand, as if to tell Caitlin that everything was fine.

  The lights on the security panel flickered and flashed, then dimly came to life.

  “It is working!” Caitlin exclaimed.

  Alena smiled. “I knew it would. Now, I just need to unseal the airlock and remove the docking clamps from the Fenghuang before anything else goes wrong.” She quickly went to work on the console, furiously tapping the flickering buttons.

  Caitlin watched her intently. Even though she’d never used this particular interface, Alena was able to navigate it with ease. She found the command for releasing the docking clamps first, and freed the Fenghuang from the grasp of the mining platform. Then she got to work on disabling the airlock seal.

  Suddenly, a loud, guttural noise filled the air. Caitlin turned just in time to see Commander Hathaway hurtling towards her, arms outstretched. His eyes were still glazed over, his skin was still as pale as death, and blood still poured from his mouth...but he was alive.

  Before she could react, Hathaway grabbed her by the shoulder and threw her towards the ground. Beads of sweat flew from her face and blinded her as he twisted in the air and struck the floor. Pain throbbed in her arm and she looked up, readying herself for another blow.

  But Commander Hathaway didn’t care about her. He was headed for Alena and the now-functional security console. Caitlin struggled to right herself as she floated upwards. She was still adjusting to moving in zero gravity, but she was able to push herself off the ground and chase after the commander.

  Just as Hathaway was about to reach Alena, Caitlin thrust her arm out and wrapped her fingers around his ankle. He let out another deep groan, finally pulling Alena’s attention away from the console. She looked back and her eyes went wide.

  “I have this!” Caitlin yelled and pulled on Hathaway’s ankle. “Just get those doors open.”

  Hathaway tumbled backwards, towards the front of the generator bay. Caitlin let go of him and circled towards the security console, trying to put herself between the mad commander and Alena. He steadied himself on the far wall and looked at Caitlin with dead eyes. Then he opened his mouth and let out a furious roar, the only noise he could make. Blood poured from his throat, into the air, and he pushed himself towards her.

  His forehead struck the bubbling crimson liquid and it covered his face and eyes. He didn’t even seem to notice. All of his attention was fixed on Caitlin. He was going to do whatever he could to prevent them, and the Fenghuang, from leaving the station before it was destroyed.

  Caitlin caught Hathaway by the shoulders as he struck her, and they grappled, spinning in midair. His blood splashed across Caitlin and she felt her stomach wretch. But she could not let her grip falter. Her resolve had to be as strong as his if they were to survive.

  Hathaway’s fingers dug into her flesh as he grabbed at her neck. She tried to pull away, to throw him towards the front of the room again, but he was too strong. There was only one thing she could do. She wrapped her own hands around his throat and pressed as hard as she could.

  He was stronger than her, but his strength was fading as he continued to bleed out. The remaining color drained from his face and his grip on Caitlin’s neck started to falter. But she didn’t let go. Even though her hands were slippery with sweat and blood, she continued to squeeze his throat with all of her might.

  Caitlin had never hurt anyone before. She’d never fired a gun or even thrown a punch. She tried to tell herself that this was justified. Hathaway was already dead at his own hands. He’d sent the station hurtling into the star below. She was only speeding up the process a little. And she was doing it to survive. As she watched his life slip away, she realized that it wasn’t enough. The agony in his face was seared into her brain. She was just about to close her eyes, as if not seeing it would make it better, when the room lit up with a bright flash.

  Suddenly, Hathaway’s hands fell from Caitlin’s shoulders. His entire body gave way and Caitlin let go of his neck. He started to float away, towards the side of the room, when she saw Alena Heilmann standing behind him. She pointed her laser pistol at Hathaway’s body and fired again. Red energy arched from the weapon and struck him straight in the chest.

  Caitlin was dumbfounded. She didn’t even know what to say, though that didn’t stop her from speaking. “I had him,” she said. Even though she was grateful that Alena stepped in and took the killing blow, it still somehow felt wrong. “Why did you do that?”

  “Because it was easy for me,” Alena replied. “And because I was afraid you would have to dwell on it. We don’t have time for that.” She holstered her laser pistol inside her jacket. “Come on. The airlock is open. We need to go.”

  “How long do we have?” Caitlin was still frozen in place, floating in the center of the generator bay where she’d fought with Hathaway.

  Alena reached towards the bulkhead and pressed her hand against the wall. She immediately pulled away as the metal seared her palm. “Minutes. If that. Let’s go.” She spun around in the air and kicked the bulkhead, propelling her towards the generator bay door. Caitlin pushed off from the floor, following her into the hallway.

  Almost as soon as they were out of the generator bay, they could hear a muffled cacophony echo through the halls. It sounded like yelling and screaming, coupled with the sound of fists pounding on metal walls. The crew was still locked in the forge, trapped within the falling station.

  “We can’t help them,” Alena said as they approached the door to the forge.

  Caitlin could see the walls shaking as they struggled to get out. “Because they are already lost?”

  “Because we don’t have time.”

  Caitlin wanted to object, but she could feel that Alena was right. The heat was almost unbearable now. Her clothes were soaked with the same sweat that stung her eyes. The air shimmered with heat from every surface. She singed her fingertips every time she touched a wall to push herself towards the airlock.

  The comm link on Alena’s wrist crackled to life. “What’s your status?” Captain Garland’s voice echoed through the static. “We’re starting to boil over here.”

  “I’ve unsealed the docking clamps,” Alena replied. “Begin take-off. If we’re not there in one minute, leap without us. Save the ship at all costs.”

  Those words made Caitlin’s heart skip a beat. She remembered how long it took her to run from the forge to the airlock. A minute didn’t seem like nearly enough time, especially in zero gravity. That could only mean one thing. “Did you just tell him to leave us behind?”

  Alena looked back at her and smiled. “Don’t worry. We’ll make it,” she said and reached towards Caitlin. “Just trust me.”

  Caitlin took her hand. The second their fingers touched, Alena grabbed her and pulled her forward. She wrapped her right arm around Caitlin’s waist and kicked off with her feet.

  Beads of sweat flew off of them as they soared through the simmering hallway. Alena withdrew her laser pistol with her left hand and fired it behind them, striking the searing walls, propelling them faster and faster. Caitlin dared to look back and see that the plastic on the wall panels was beginning to melt. The station was collapsing. This time it was no delusion, it was no product of madness. They were falling into the star.

  Suddenly, Alena thrust her left arm out. She thrust the barrel of her laser pistol against the wall. Sparks flew as metal struck searing metal. Caitlin could feel the Alena’s muscles tense as she held on, letting the friction slow them down. Then, with a mighty heave, Alena shoved Caitlin into a nearby door.

  At first, Caitlin panicked. She thought Alena was abandoning her. Then she realized that they were already at the air
lock. The walls around her were not the dull gray of the mining station. She was back on board the Fenghuang.

  Alena remained in the hallway outside, aboard the Antigone. “What are you doing?” Caitlin asked. “Get in here!”

  “I have to make sure this closes when we separate. Otherwise...”

  The ground beneath Caitlin shook. It was too late. The Fenghuang was already breaking away from the mining station.

  Caitlin leapt forward, towards the door, and seized Alena’s hand. Before she could even object, Caitlin pulled her into the airlock.

  The walls of the Antigone, just yards from the airlock, began to glow. They were white hot. Caitlin could almost see them melting in front of her face. . She wrapped her arms around Alena and grabbed the comm link on her wrist.

  “We are on board!” Caitlin yelled. “Get us out of here! Close the airlock and leap!”

  A loud grinding noise filled the air as the airlock doors began to close. The interior of the Antigone lit up, becoming nothing more than a blinding white as it was slowly consumed by the star below. For just a second, as the doors were sliding shut, Caitlin felt something speak to her.

  The Dobhriathar must be broken.

  “Don’t listen to it,” Alena started to say. But Caitlin could barely hear her. All the sound was pulled from the room as the Fenghuang began its leap. Caitlin felt her stomach wretch inside her. For the first time, it was actually comforting.

  In the blink of an eye, they were gone. They were transported lightyears away from the burning wreckage of the Antigone and the seductive corona of Epsilon Andrii. As soon as the ship settled, finishing its leap, Caitlin could finally take a deep breath. The cool, clean air of the Fenghuang filled her lungs. They were safe.

  *

  Captain Seth Garland sat at the head of one of the lab tables in the makeshift conference room aboard his starship. He held his hands in front of his face and stared through his fingers at Caitlin and Alena, who were seated across from him.

  “Do you want me to believe that the star was speaking to people?”

  Caitlin gulped. While she hadn’t said those words, they were the underlying assumption behind everything that she’d come to believe about the fate of the mining platform Antigone. She wasn’t sure how to back up such a facially ridiculous theory. Fortunately, she didn’t have to. Alena did it for her.

  “Normally, I would write off what happened to the crew of the Antigone as some sort of mass delusion,” she said. “But I looked into the star myself and I saw something.”

  Seth smiled. “And you couldn’t be delusional, too?”

  “No,” Alena replied, without a hint of irony. “And I will back up what Caitlin saw. I believe that the star wanted us all dead.”

  Even though he tried to hide it, Caitlin saw Seth flinch. “Why do you think that is?” he asked as soon as he’d regained his composure. “Why would we even matter to...” His voice trailed off, as if he was unable to acknowledge that a star could have any inclinations whatsoever.

  “I don’t know,” Alena replied. “But if we assume that all of this was done to destroy this ship and to kill us, and that these visions began early enough to plant the idea that the station was falling into the star... Then it knew we were coming.”

  Caitlin could feel a cold sweat break out on her brow. She was suddenly hit with all the implications of everything that they were discussing. Seth and Alena were both very rational, scientific people and here they were, talking about something that seemed an awful lot like the demons of her childhood fairy tales. But no matter how much she wanted to, she couldn’t argue against them. She’d stared into the corona of Epsilon Andrii. She felt its will break through into her mind. She could still remember what it told her to do, how to destroy the Fenghuang. A very small part of her still wanted to go through with it, as if the star was still affecting her.

  “What do we do with all of this?” Caitlin asked.

  Seth stood up and clasped his hands behind his back. “First of all, we don’t leap anywhere near Epsilon Andrii again. I’m curious about this, as I’m sure you are, but it’s too big of a risk. When we’ve established more of a foothold in the galaxy, and produced more starships, we can send scientists to investigate the star and figure all of this out.”

  Caitlin thought long and hard about how to reply to him. He seemed to think that the threat was posed by Epsilon Andrii itself. But Caitlin knew better. The crew of the Antigone knew about the legend of the Dobhriathar. Somehow, the power of the star stretched from its corona all the way to the distant shores of Airlann. There was something bigger behind this. Something bigger than a star.

  But how could she explain that without sounding ridiculous? She remembered how her mother scolded her for believing that she could be part of a Dobhriathar and for taking such legends so seriously. Seth did not even believe in the power of the goddess, how could he even begin to understand?

  “I do not think it is so simple,” Caitlin said. “If there is some consciousness behind the star, it is unlike anything we have ever encountered before. We cannot assume that it is limited in the same way that we are.”

  A grave look settled across Alena’s face. “She’s right. If Epsilon Andrii is some sort of extraterrestrial life form—and that’s what we’re saying here—it may not experience space and time the same way that we do.”

  Seth nodded. “Then we have a much greater enemy then the People’s Interstellar Republic. All the more reason we have to move quickly to establish ourselves. And the first step is finding another source of solarium crystals. This ship is still unshielded.”

  Caitlin reached beneath her chair. “Do not worry about that, captain,” she said, pulling a small container from beneath her. “I took this as I was leaving the forge after Commander Hathaway tried to trap me and hid it in my jacket. I figured that we would not be back.”

  Alena quickly grabbed the container from Caitlin’s hands and opened it. The light in the conference room reflected off the solarium crystals inside, bright enough that all three of them could see it.

  Just like that, the tension and fear was momentarily broken. “We did it,” Alena said, a smile spreading across her face. “After all of that, we got what we came for.”

  “I figured it was time I pulled my weight around here,” Caitlin replied.

  They both looked at her with genuine gratitude and, for the first time since taking off from the surface of Airlann, Caitlin was glad she was on board the Fenghuang. She had what she’d always wanted, ever since she was a little girl. Along with the rest of the crew, she’d been chosen for some greater purpose. Whatever that purpose was, it was so grand that the stars themselves stirred to hinder them.

  This was where she was meant to be. She was part of a Dobhriathar, and a great destiny awaited her.