Reality's Veil

by Damon Alan

  “Can you fix it?” Sarah asked.

  “The Fyurigan can fix it. I’m just patching it with tape and foam. We probably have a few hours of engine operation before the plumbing on number two gives out.”

  “Understood,” Sarah said, pushing calm into her response. “We’ll pull out of combat and see to the damage without more shots coming our way.”

  “I advise we keep the bulkhead doors closed,” Heinrich said. “The air down here is pretty toxic. We might need to vent engineering. There are eight survivors in here, we’re going to need some vacuum suits.”

  Of all the bad… more dead on my ship.

  That was random chance, no fault of yours, Salphan said. Bad luck.

  “We’re retreating to a safe spot, Inez, hang in there,” Sarah replied to Heinrich.

  She glanced at Kuo. He looked worried, although when he saw her looking, he wiped the emotion from his face. As soon as the retreat was complete, she’d send him to assist with the engineering problems, but for the moment she needed him here.

  “Take us out of here, Mister Algiss,” she ordered. “To the Hyaku. We need to survey our damage. Let our grapplers have their kills, and there is no way Bannick can say this ship didn’t do its share.”

  “Transferring,” Algiss reported.

  The Hyaku appeared before her, and she felt the sense of relief nearby help provided.

  “Use some of that remaining engine time to match speeds with the carrier, Mister Algiss,” she ordered.

  She realized she was shaking even as the gravcouch tried to hold her still.

  It had been many years since she’d faced direct fire in a small ship.

  She’d forgotten how terrifying it could be.

  Chapter 25 - Allies

  10 Ors 15332

  “That’s Admiral Dayson’s ship again,” Miko informed Bannick. “She’s right in the thick of it, you have to give her credit for that.”

  “I give her full credit. She’s upholding her end of our deal at this point. If she can get my father, she’s met my expectations and more.”

  “The destruction of your brother’s ship has leveled the odds slightly,” Miko said, “but it’s still going to be a close call. We have larger ships overall, but they have many more. Even with Dayson’s grapplers… and whatever those other ships are. They look like atmospheric fighters.”

  “They may well be. When you can appear and disappear at will, the complexities of a modern spacecraft aren’t as important,” Bannick added. “I really want that drive system.”

  “Me too, Lord Komi,” Miko added. “We’d be unstoppable.”

  The battle raged for some time. The sensor crew was overwhelmed trying to track and identify all of Dayson’s ships so as not to shoot them. Their unwillingness to remain in one location made that more difficult.

  Another anti-ship round struck the Palidragon. He hated each one. This ship was the second greatest love of his life.

  “The home system battlecruiser Velox just exploded,” the sensor officer reported to Miko. “Dayson’s doing, sir.”

  “Where’s she going next?” the Captain asked.

  “Debris indicates her ship was hit,” the officer said. “She’s vanished, and not reappeared.”

  “And her grapplers?” Bannick demanded to know.

  “Still fighting, Lord Komi.”

  That was a relief. Those grapplers, with their ability to move as they did, had already killed more of the enemy fleet than Bannick’s own ship had. Despite the aid, his losses were staggering. Fully one half of his cruisers were gone, some utterly destroyed, some so crippled as to be out of the battle. Andina’s fleet wasn’t faring much better, and her dreadnought was even more damaged than the Palidragon.

  Whatever the outcome of this battle, if they survived, both he and Andina would need to retreat to a shipyard for repairs. Fortunately, he had a place for just such an occasion, because he never trusted his father not to turn on him at some point.

  “Sir, the ship we saw conversing with Sarah Dayson before it intercepted one of the enemy fleets is back,” Miko reported. “It’s destroying the enemy cruisers almost as fast as we can tally them… and two of our ships.”

  “Well, that is interesting,” Bannick said, studying the blurry images of the mysterious friendly ship. “Have all vessels transmit the same friend or foe code that Dayson’s vessels are using.”

  “At your command, Lord Komi.”

  Whatever the faction that owned that vessel, Dayson or some other unknown force, Bannick needed to make sure they remained friendly.

  His ship shuddered again from another impact.

  “Status?” Miko asked the damage control officer.

  “Engines at forty-two percent,” the woman reported. “We’re losing fuel as well, Captain. The armor in the fuel storage area is riddled with holes.”

  “We don’t want to take a strike in an exposed fuel tank,” Miko said. He stroked his short beard and glanced at Bannick. “Pilots, adjust the aspect of the ship to put fresh armor toward the enemy.”

  “Aye, Captain.”

  Bannick had to ask. “Admiral Cothis, is it your professional opinion we should retreat?”

  “It’s my professional opinion we shouldn’t have engaged such superior numbers, Lord Komi, but other factors are at stake here. We can’t sustain a fleet like this without our home ports. And if we run, we will have no home.”

  Bannick nodded. “Well said, although I’m not certain what you say is entirely correct. Dayson will aid us because she wants access to ships. Retreat if that is your call.”

  “Sound the retreat to the fleet,” Cothis ordered. “All ships align with the Palidragon for FTL jump. Spin up the singularity.”

  Bannick sighed. He hadn’t even made it close to Komi IV.

  “The enemy fleet is retreating,” sensors announced. “The unknown ship that is ramming them is too much.”

  “Really?” Bannick commented, straightening up with renewed interest. “Do they still have FTL ships?”

  “Yes, Lord Komi. The unknown friendly seems to be avoiding them. He’s skipped over two when selecting targets.”

  “Interesting…” Bannick observed. He turned to Miko. “Let our enemy retreat. I have no desire to push them into desperation. They might turn and bring more damage our way. The unknown friendly seems to think the same, by appearances.”

  Miko began a slurry of orders. “Stand down the singularity. Weapons, cease offensive fire. Prepare emergency damage control for the ships we can save, including our own.”

  Several stations acknowledged, and the ship burst into a new phase of activity. Putting out fires, patching leaks, emergency wiring, and transferring crew to medbay or the morgue as appropriate.

  “Any sign of Admiral Dayson?” Bannick asked the sensor officer.

  “No, sir, but her grapplers are still pursuing the enemy ships.”

  “And the unknown friendly?”

  “Gone, sir. It has broken off its attack.”

  More evidence that the ship was not Oasian, but an Oasian ally.

  Interesting.

  Chapter 26 - Unfortunate Events

  Khala exited the last cloud of debris, stunned by the level of devastation around him. He’d not been part of the cleaning of many universes, but those he’d been part of didn’t have anything as violent as humanity was to itself.

  The machines must be incredibly resilient and pervasive if they were defeating these organics.

  The humans, despite their limited and fragile lifespans, embraced the concept of death seemingly almost as a friend. Every other intelligent creature Khala had met considered death the sad result of entropy. A fate to be forestalled, not rushed madly into.

  Around him bodies floated in space amid the steel, plastic, and volatile gasses. In their moment of death, Khala sensed their quantum energies falling into dissolution, and back to the baseline level of the universe around them.

  More alarmingly, he realized how fully he was p
ulled into the human frenzy. How quickly he’d embraced the conflict between the sides the adept Emille had told him were manifestations of good and evil.

  What a fractious and confusing thing humanity was.

  His presence, however, had turned the tide in favor of the humans the adepts fought with, which meant that Khala had chosen right. No conscious universe would allow hostile beings access to the building blocks of creation. The faction Khala now sided with was that which stood against the Hive, as they called the machines. It was a good name, once Khala had accessed the meaning.

  While the machines did have some autonomy, they were in general one mind, with one goal.

  Eradicate their creators to secure the machines as the only existing power.

  Unfortunately, if successful, that would not be the result the machines obtained. The humans were the only chance this universe had to reach fruition, and to spawn into eternity. It was the ageless path every universe followed, including the long since faded home of the Obedi. Only organics could possess the consciousness that provided stability at a quantum level through the mere act of observation. Something consistent across all realities and the oververse itself.

  He needed to find the Dayson human and secure an alliance between his people and hers. With the machines possessing the ability to kill Obedi, his clan needed every advantage they could get. After Shosgawa’s dying wish, there was no possibility Sylange would abandon this reality to find another.

  Maybe the humans would give a fighting edge to the Obedi, with the knowledge and focus needed to kill the Hive and save this place.

  Sensor appendages extended and threaded, Khala searched for the human adepts. They would be where Dayson was, and their presence was easily detectable by someone as sensitive as Khala was to consciousness.

  There. Out beyond all the planets of this system, in a section of space far from any battle.

  Khala sensed concern, a twinge of fear. Death, which the humans embraced on one level, was something they feared when they had time to think about it in a non-violent setting.

  Interesting. It was almost as if they set their awareness of their own mortality aside to engage in their conflicts.

  He phased to his potential allies.

  Two large ships were present, the ship he’d encountered before, and now another ship that was even larger than him. It was circled by many tens of the smaller ships he’d seen in combat. Those small vessels were the killers with the adepts on board, phasing from place to place.

  He felt a bit of revulsion thinking back once again to the battle that just happened, and the thousands of beings that had lost their lives.

  He needed to set such feelings aside. Only the end of the machine entities mattered in the greater picture.

  Reaching out to the smaller of the two ships that he knew to be Dayson’s, he connected and initiated conversation.

  “I am Khala. I am.”

  “Khala, this is the Sheffaris, I’m Sergeant Stornbeck, I was told to expect your communication. Admiral Dayson is off the bridge seeing to the damage we’ve sustained.”

  “You have fatalities? The dead?”

  “Yes, sadly.”

  “It is a hard time we Obedi have. Understanding death as humans do. You are cavalier, you have no continuation regard or intent,” he said. “Casual life loss.”

  Silence followed, and for long enough he knew he’d breeched a point of etiquette.

  “I’m sor—” he began.

  “It’s not casual,” Sergeant Stornbeck finally answered, interrupting him. “Dying for a cause greater than ourselves is, to us, a mark of personal integrity as well as a way to permanently give our time as living beings value. We are fighting the Hive, and because the Komi leadership is standing in our way, we fight the Komi leadership as well. The cause is greater than any one of us, and if the resolution is the end of the Hive, any or all of our lives is a worthy price.”

  It was Khala’s turn to be silent as he considered the words of this individual human he’d just met. “Impressive, Sergeant Stornbeck. Your species. Matriarch Shosgawa did not say why. Why? Why was so adamant that we save you, and was correct.”

  “We are resilient, Khala, and we will win this fight. It is something we must believe to make it worth dying for.”

  “I understand,” he offered, although he wasn’t sure yet that they’d win the fight against the Komi leadership, let alone the Hive. It was enough that Sergeant Stornbeck believed it, because the conflict could not be avoided. She might as well think her victory to be inevitable, even if it wasn’t.

  “Admiral Dayson will speak to you now, sir.”

  “Khala, this is Sarah Dayson. Call me Sarah.”

  “Sarah, I am Khala. Khalamanthus. It is honor as the matriarch of faction adept that I speak to you.”

  The human’s voice sounded… well, delighted to speak to him. While he understood the general concept of that emotional response, he didn’t understand why his words resulted in that response.

  “The honor is mine,” Sarah said. “I have never met an alien before, Khala. This is a monumental moment for my species. We thought ourselves alone in the universe.”

  “This Universe. Not my parent,” he told her. “Your species, as is the case in all universes, is sole conscious species. To arise here.”

  “What?!” she exclaimed.

  He was guessing the rise in volume and tone of her voice indicated she was surprised by his revelation.

  “Infinite universes. Each that is able within physics gives rise to a single consciousness. Caretaker species. Those universes that are unable to do so because physical properties become unstable after several billion years, and dissolve back into the oververse as a failure.”

  “You’re serious?”

  “Would I not be?” he asked. “Do I not seem?”

  “I don’t know. I don’t know your ways yet.”

  “I am serious. A meeting to arrange. A meeting. Matriarch to Matriarch, between you and my mate.”

  “She is your leader?”

  “She leads all Obedi. Ascend to throne of Matriarch with death of mother, Shosgawa. Last leader killed by entities you call Hive.”

  “I’m sorry for your loss,” Sarah said. Her voice seemed halting and hesitant when she added, “I was unaware, judging by your behavior at the battle we were just in, that you could be killed.”

  “Not immortal,” Khala assured her. “As mortal as you, but my life no predetermined length for me. It will end when task worth ending it for comes or an accident.”

  “Not so different than us, other than we do have a maximum length.”

  “Entropy,” Khala observed. “You are subject.”

  Sarah exhaled in an audible manner. “You’re telling me.”

  “Yes, I am telling you.”

  Laughter. Khala sensed the laughter had a strained disposition to it. Was that due to the damage her ship had received in battle? Perplexing. Humans had a depth of emotional communication that he would need to research more. The Obedi were the same but communicated their emotion with carapace lighting. Surely there would be analogues between the emotional states of the two species.

  She altered her communication to linguistics once again. “That’s a phrase we use, Khala, ‘You’re telling me’ simply means that I emphatically agree with you.”

  “As you should.”

  She made a noise he did not recognize, but he continued. “Receptive to a meeting? I take you. You express your emotion regarding loss. My mate’s loss to her. She is larger than me. More intelligent. She may understand phrases better than I do.”

  A long pause followed.

  “Where would we meet?” Sarah asked.

  “In oververse,” Khala replied. “It is customary. Customary to my people have our mates at important events. The adept Emille indicated your mate is an adept. I extend invitation to him, and Emille, as his direct Matriarch, has approved it.”

  “Salphan?” she asked. “He’ll be interested t
o hear Emille’s words. It will be his decision to come or not. But I accept your invite. How do we travel to such a place?”

  “Enter small vessel. Fly to me. I will take us.”

  Chapter 27 - Admiral’s Personal Log

  11 Ors 15332

  AI Lucy82A recording, Admiral's personal log, personal archive: Galactic Standard Date 08:09:23 11 ORS 15332

  Personal log entry #1977, Admiral Sarah Dayson, origin Korvand, Pallus Sector.

  Current Location: Deep Space, OSV Sheffaris, Komi System

  As we sit here licking our wounds from the battle, I’ve spent much of the last several hours thinking about my options.

  Lucy, record the following orders to be given to Captain Hanada Kuo should I not return from my engagement with the entity called Khala.

  “I always record your log, Admiral.”

  [A sigh]

  I mean specifically this part I’m about to share with you are my orders to Captain Kuo in the event of my demise or if I become missing.

  “Understood.”

  Hanada, if you’re getting this, you’ll get no chance to share your ‘I told you so’ with me. You are Captain of the Sheffaris now, and your orders are to assist Heinrich and continue the fight until the destruction of the Hive is complete. Once back at Refuge, Fleet Captain Heinrich will assume command of the fleet and execute a plan to kill Bannick’s father and secure ships for the cause. You, however, will retain command of this ship until your return to Refuge. You’ll need Heinrich in engineering.

  Tell Thea these are my final orders. She is not to interfere with fleet activities. The price is too high. If we don’t stop the Hive within the next few years, we never will.

  [A one hundred and nineteen second pause]

  I’m going to meet the aliens, to discuss an alliance. I guess that’s all for now.

  [A thirty-eight second pause]

  End the log, Lucy.

  Chapter 28 - Trip Beyond

  11 Ors 15332

  “This is not safe!” Kuo said, anger in his voice. “Are you trying to kill yourself, sir? Because first you fly to Bannick’s ship, and now you’re going to fly off with this Obedi creature that we just met?”