9 Years, 6 Months, 28 Days After Eridani Landing
Deep Space
The Russia shuddered again as the engines slowly powered down and the ship slid out of the red blue haze that was the tachyon FTL corridor. James blinked several times trying to clear the haze from his eyes as the regular black background of space and stars returned.
“Report!” chirped Alpha.
“Running scans!” said Megan from her engineering console.
The bridge was silent for a moment, “No contacts!” said Tom from his weapons console.
“We’ve got something though, on an odd channel,” said Red as he manipulated his controls angling the ship towards wherever the transmission was.
“Odd?” asked James.
“I’ve seen this somewhere before,” grumbled Red as he stared at his own readouts.
“It’s an old Martian channel,” answered Megan as she quickly looked over a copy of the data.
“Martian?” asked James surprised.
“It’s weak, I’m cleaning it up give me one second.”
The bridge of the ship was silent for a moment as Megan worked. James glanced down at the ship wide report as different sections quickly checked in after the Jump. Besides a small power spike in the mess hall and a fuzzy display in one of the corridors everything was reporting green. A relief considering, they could no longer duck back into a dry-dock for repairs.
“A gift from Artemis to Humanity, Have fun with it!” The voice was garbled and sounded almost completely artificial as it came pouring out of the speakers on the bridge. The message quickly repeated.
“Artemis?” asked Alpha as once of his bodies drifted forwards towards the main display legs spread wide as he lightly landed on it. The Tanuin stared at the wave form of the sound as the message repeated again.
“Diana,” breathed Megan.
“Your daughter?” asked James.
“My adopted daughter,”
James blinked, “Her mother was Janus right?”
“Yeah.”
“Never really imagined that woman having kids.”
“She didn’t”
James frowned, “Then how…” he trailed off.
Megan glanced back at him, “2224.”
James was silent for a moment absorbing that bit of information, “Localize the signal. Take us to it.”
“Yes sir!”
“2224?” asked Alpha his voice low as he leaned in to James’s ear.
“Humans stopped experimenting with, and banned most genetic modification after that year.”
“Why?”
“Unintended consequences. Genetic breakdown was causing many of the children who were modified to literally fall apart after several years. The cause was never determined. A few dozen survived out of the few million who were engineered.”
Alpha absorbed this information as the Russia slowly twisted in space and James along with the rest of the crew glanced at their monitors watching as the ship slowly moved towards the weak signal.
“Found the source!” said Megan.
Pushing an image to the main display James let out a low whistle, “That thing’s seen better days.”
The alien craft was pockmarked and scored, different pieces of metal were holding it together and only small patches had any paint left. It was unmistakably built for mass transport of materials given the large hatch prominent on it’s surface and the lack of anything else but engines and a small cabin in the front looking like it was an after thought.
“Nothing close to a human heat signature, something is being held in magnetic containment though.”
“Magnetic containment?” asked James.
Megan nodded and the image on the main display flickered over to a thermal false color display.
Most of the alien craft was bathed in dark blues and blacks, only three things showed any significant amount of heat. One large pillar of heat near the cockpit, which James guessed was whatever was powering the ship. In the large cavernous cargo bay which was now exposed on the thermal two very hot objects were right next to one another.
“That’s a magnetic bottle?” asked James.
“Yep, although I’ve only ever seen Martian and Terran ones on thermal scans I’d bet this is one as well. It’s almost exactly the same which makes sense from an engineering perspective.”
“Correct me if I’m wrong but the only things that need to be kept in magnetic containment are strange matter and antimatter.”
Megan nodded, “Right.”
“So any guess at what’s in this magnetic bottle?”
Megan was silent for a moment, “I can’t tell from a distance. My guess would be antimatter.”
“A little hopeful thinking wouldn’t you say?”
“If this is from Diana, well she wouldn’t bother sending us strange matter. We can produce that easily enough on the ship’s linear accelerator. Antimatter though?” Megan shook her head, “We’ve still not got that.”
James turned back to look at the main display, “Red, get us close enough for a shuttle to make a hop over to that thing, I don’t want to get too close.”
“We’re in range now.”
“How much antimatter could be in that field?” asked James.
Megan thought for a moment as she moved out of her seat, “Max? Three kilograms.”
“Are we far enough away in case that detonates?”
“Should be,” said Red.
James looked at Megan, “This could be a trap.”
Megan smiled slightly, “Maybe, but this is Diana’s style. She got her flare for drama from her real mother. Sending it like this would be her thing. Why isn’t the Canada using this though is the bigger question. IF they got even a small amount of antimatter they would have been able to make a jump back to Bellona, and why isn’t this alien ship transmitting Canada authentication codes? It’s transmitting vague references instead of military codes?”
James frowned, “Maybe they got to much of it?”
“They had too much of the most valuable substance in the universe, so much that they just decided to leave it floating in space hoping we would find it in another year when the Russia was supposed to launch officially?”
“I see your point.”
Megan grunted, “Meaning Diana is in some sort of trouble. Typical.”
James raised his eyebrows at that bust decided not to say anything on that particular front, “How long will it take to determine if this is safe or not?”
“Two hours.”
“Then I think it’s worth it, go!”
Megan turned and dove out of the bridge of the ship.
Red spun around in his chair, “Should we try and get into the alien communication network? That beacon’s making wide transmissions. I’m going to guess it’s their version of the public net.”
James nodded, “See what you can get, the Canada specially took Arik to sort through this alien chatter though. If we’re getting gifts from members of her crew they might have left translation software as well as antimatter.”
“That’s two hours though and we have the basic translation software from the fighter.”
“Run it, see if we can catch up with the times.”
“Aye!”
He turned back to his console and James turned to Alpha, “Well how’s it feel?”
Alpha blinked several of his eyes, “What do you mean?”
“How does it feel to be back in the galaxy? You were trapped on that rock for how long?”
“Several thousand years. It is, odd. I never thought we would be exploring it with another species, or at least not one like the Dorvakians.”
Alpha collected himself, “I am looking forwards to seeing it.”
9 Years, 6 Months, 28 Days After Eridani Landing
Earth
The [Singer] shuddered as she dropped out of FTL and [Vann] looked out at the star system for a moment, this was where so much of the current strife originated, where [Charles] had been broken and perhaps remade. It was the star system that C1764 called home.
It looked like any other star system to his eyes, somehow he had been expecting something more grand than the simply blue green planet and average sequence star.
“Incoming transmission from the Admiral’s ship [Defender],” said [Sam] from her console.
“Put it up.”
[Vann] quickly got to his feet and as the transmission flickered on. [Vann] quickly raised his hand and put it over his eye saluting the admiral.
“Emperor [Vann],” drawled the older Dorvakian. The man was a career military officer and like [Reece]’s family and [Vann]’s own the lineage and tradition of military service that his family had rendered over the centuries was well documented and lauded.
As a consequence, he was also one of the more political military officers. [Vann] knew for a fact that he and [Marcus] regularly communicated with one another, and while [Marcus] played the politics Admiral [Meral] held control over the fleet which was almost always in a constant state of secret military operation under the direct purview of [Marcus] and the security council of the Senate.
“Admiral [Meral]. It’s an honor to meet you.”
“I believe we had the pleasure of meeting some time ago Emperor, although you might have been too young to remember it. I would like to think your father considered me a friend.”
[Vann] lowered his hand and the salute, breaking protocol somewhat without the dismissal, realizing the man technically lower in rank was not going to recognize the show of good faith by setting him at ease.
“He did sir, several of his log entries speak very highly of you.”
“I’m glad to hear that.”
The two were silent for several moments.
“Emperor may I be candid with you?”
“I appreciate candor.”
“I don’t like being given the task of watching over you. The 4th fleet operations are dangerous enough as it is, and dedicating ships and resources to your protection in combat operations is not something I wish to do. It will compromise the missions which we are assigned.”
[Vann] held up a hand keeping his own features carefully neutral, “I do not wish for special treatment Admiral. Given recent events the Consul suggested I be placed on this ship and under your command to,” [Vann] paused for a moment, “Learn.”
The Admiral’s eyes went wider slightly, “Is that so.”
[Meral] turned away from the transmission for a moment, waving his hand at someone off screen.
“Well, your first lesson will be perhaps your most embarrassing given recent events.”
“Oh?”
“Scouting forces for our latest class C extermination are reporting anomalous readings. Apparently the class C ship you encountered and lost a battle to has parked itself over the planet set to be cleansed. They have even given the more primitive class C’s our communication channels. The things are attempting to open negotiations if you can believe it.”
[Vann] frowned, “Lost?”
The Admiral smiled and leaned forwards, “Yes lost. You had every advantage, yet you didn’t even raise your shields, due to that failure you lost souls under your command.”
[Vann] leveled his gaze at the man, “You did not read the reports Admiral, I made it very plain what happened above Jikse.”
“Yes, that the class C’s somehow managed to disable your shields. The shields of one of the most advanced ships in the fleet I might add.”
“Are you insinuating something Admiral?”
The man shook his head and quickly raised his hands, “Your lack of experience might have caused you to imagine things. Don’t feel bad, even the most experienced commanders must learn and train constantly. I am sure that under my tutelage you’ll become much more effective. Until that time however you are under my command, and I will treat you no differently than any other ship in the fleet. Is that understood Captain?”
[Vann] stared at the man, “Understood Admiral.”
[Meral] quickly cut the communication. [Vann] slowly sat back down in his seat.
“That could have gone better,” said [Syn] from her seat beside [Vann].
“Could have yes.”
“It’s going to be like this for awhile I think. Your public image is still that of a child prince, and not an Emperor. Until that changes you have only as much respect as your title provides, and not anything beyond that.”
[Vann] turned to her and rolled his eyes, “Well forgive me for not having done something dramatic. I’ve only been allowed to command ships for two years!”
“You’re doing better than most of your peers if I’m being honest. No images of you at parties, no scandals I’ve had to clean up.”
“Are you complaining?”
“No. I’ve heard what some of the other public relation assistants go through though.”
“I can imagine,” said [Vann] recalling several of the more exuberant parties that he had avoided on the home world. Composed mostly of the children of Senators and other higher politicians the decadence of such events was matched only by how much destruction they normally caused.
“We’re receiving the fleet command data and maneuvers now; we’re moving out in an [hour]!” said [Sam] from her computer console.
“Really, that quickly? Here I was hoping I might get to look around the system.”
Looking at the blue green planet below [Vann] looked at the small network of lights on the dark side. It was a familiar setup, showing that a military base had been set up on the planet and not much else.
“C1764 destroyed most of their larger cities right?” asked [Vann].
“They did. Still most of the infrastructure is undamaged. That’s being adapted,” said [Sam].
“What’s the planet being designated for?”
“It’s going to be the second Hygonix. The amount of damage to the planet and the technological development of the class C species in system has make it a dangerous for anything but weapons development.”
[Vann] looked over at [Sam].
“The debate for a second weapons testing planet has gone on for nearly 300 years! No one wants to waste a garden world.”
[Sam] shrugged, “It’s classified at the moment, but the Senate did approve the usage.”
[Vann] turned back to the planet, “So the planet will be well defended. [Marcus] must think that somewhere on the planet are schematics for the drive.”
“Or the precursor research for it,” said [Sam].
“What about the other planet? The one [Charles] was held captive on.”
“It’s not a garden world. From what I can see in the reports here it’s going to be used as the target for some of the weapons tests.”
[Vann] slowly nodded, and getting to his feet looked around the bridge.
“[Reece].”
The body guard stepped forwards, “sir?”
“Let’s run some drills. Whatever you haven’t used yet. If we’ve got an hour let’s not waste it.”
“Yes sir.”
9 Years, 6 Months, 14 Days After Eridani Landing
Jikse
The small creature let out a low hiss, and barring fangs at Diana reared up on it’s hind legs the forelimbs held out like a trained martial artist. In the faint light of the nighttime jungle Diana only just managed to make out the small barbs at the end of the limbs. Their was a small amount of liquid at the tips, glistening in the star light.
“Now?” she whispered at the creature.
It struck out at her and Diana casually dodged the limbs, and then smacked it over the head sending the small thing tumbling out of the tree to slam into the forest floor some five meters below. She winced as it made a louder noise than what she had been expecting.
Their was another rustling of leaves and the creature let out a low painful keen. Diana cursed, Sek’s people had horrible night vision but given the ears on their heads she had no doubts about their hearing being at least on par with or above the abilities of her own genetically enhanced ears.
More than likely better if they had evolved with them, the human brain was after all only designed to handle certain types of stimuli well. It was the same reason her ability to smell was only thrice that of a normal human instead of something on par with a canine. The genetic enhancements she had guaranteed her the best possible senses available in the human genome, but couldn’t go outside of those limits.
Meaning her eyesight was at the moment her most important sense. That was assuming Sek didn’t have night vision equipment.
She had made the call for aide an hour ago, and had heard the transport that was no doubt carrying Sek and his people minutes afterwards. She had no idea of [Orin] and [Hal] had followed the plan and called for help themselves, she had ditched her own com equipment after serving as the bait and decided to hide.
Recalling survival combat Diana had moved up off of the ground, she hadn’t yet seen any of Sek’s people or the man himself. She might not see them given their ability to camouflage. Still she didn’t recall any of them having clothing that morphed along with them, so she was looking for that.
The creature on the ground let out another yowl and Diana winced as something moved in the underbrush quickly stifling the sound.
“Renai kewurt seli opinin.”
Diana heard the Comm device and instantly tried to still her heart, if she could hear the communication device and the alien’s had them turned to a lower volume they were no doubt close.
“Yin al Funfer.” muttered a voice beneath Diana.
Carefully turning to look at the underbrush below Diana strained to pick out the image of whatever was below her. A light flashed on and quickly swept along the ground. Wincing Diana quickly closed her left eye trying to retain some amount of night vision.
The alien was most definitely one of Sek’s men, he had the small creature in his hand now and it took Diana a moment to figure out that he had taken a clean bite out of it his teeth slicing through it’s skin and muscles. The man casually took another bite of the creature as she watched and continued to move his flashlight around. His ears twitched occasionally moving in different directions from one another a points, but usually both focusing on one particular location at any given time.
Taking another bite out of the small animal the man tossed it aside and casually moved the light up, looking around at the tree’s near Diana’s.
Diana watched, the man’s skin was casually shifting between several different colors blending in and out with his background. Moving the light up to the tree next to her Diana decided she had waited long enough.
Shifting, Diana levelled her weapon at him.
The man blinked and his ears snapped towards Diana.
“Wenhil!” shouted the man.
Diana fired, and the man grunted in pain as the shot clipped his shoulder. Diving from the tree Diana hit the man sending the both of them to the ground knocking both weapons away in the process. From past experience fighting them Diana knew she had the strength advantage, and she was going to use it.
The man let out a strangled cry and playing dirty Diana grabbed at his left ear. Panicking to try and get her off Diana brought her other hand down punching his throat.
The man let out a gasp but otherwise remained silent trying to breath.
Diana pulled the left ear off and grimacing as blood spurted over her hand brought her right hand down on his nose, a blow which in a human would have broken the cartilage and bone, sending both into his brain. Apparently these aliens did not have cartilage in their noses, as Diana felt a small sliver of bone go into her own hand as the mans nose broke.
The man’s eyes rolled up in his head, the pain from his ear and nose apparently enough to knock him out.
Pulling her hand free Diana quickly examined him, finding a small sidearm on his leg as well as a strap Diana took those and put them on, the rifle was too unwieldy to continue using. A knife was also on the man’s belt.
Taking that Diana considered him for a moment. Incapacitated he was most certainly out of the fight for now but would undoubtedly be an enemy in the future, on the other hand it was another matter entirely to slit his throat while he was unconscious. It didn’t seem fair in a way.
Weighing the blade in her hand for a moment Diana winced as the Comm he had been using buzzed, a voice filtering through it.
“Wenhil at uril halkek!”
It was silent for another moment.
“Halkek!”
Lights swept through the trees some twenty-five meters away and Diana cursed. Looking at the man again and steeling herself Diana quickly slit his throat. Twisting around in the darkness conscious that her foes were listening more than looking for her Diana sprinted back into the undergrowth and unclipping her rifle tossed it off to the side listening as it made a loud crash.
Smiling and turning in the opposite direction Diana quickly pulled herself up into the nearest tree. She wasn’t going to be able to outrun them now that they had some idea of her location, but Diana was confident she would be able to kill all of them.
Looking at the green blood on her hands Diana carefully wiped them on the moss like substance of the tree.
Pulling the knife out and wiping that as well Diana weighed it in her hands and smiling to herself settled onto the branch. She had riled them up, and from what she knew of them they were only going to get more and more reckless and sloppy the more she killed. That was until their were only a few left, and they were on longer confident in their ability to kill her.
Then she would get to play the Hunter.
9 Years, 6 Months, 28 Days After Eridani Landing
Vakurian Fleet
“What do you mean I’m only allowed two ships!?” shouted Edie looking as she stared at the older Vakurian, Tilurn through the communication hologram.
“The Admiral’s have made their decision Captain, and as much danger as your fellow Humans seem to be in we’re not going to risk more than two ships!”
Edie sighed and slowly nodded, she knew exactly how desperate the fleet was for supplies and space, still it made the reality no less frustrating. The fact that she was an alien in command was more than likely also at the forefront of the Admiral’s minds as they debated over how many ships to send.
The weren’t overtly discriminatory, but since she had taken command of the Valiant the ship seemed to always be at the end of the line for resupply, and always the one sent into the more dangerous situations.
“Do I get to at least choose which ship comes with me?” asked Edie.
Tilurn’s ears went back and forth, “The Spite has been assigned to the mission.”
Edie’s eyes widened slightly, “Really?”
“Captain Jun volunteered.”
“So he’s getting antsy again is what you’re saying. Well this should be interesting.”
“That’s one way to put it. The two of you always seem to produce the,” the man paused, “The most interesting reports.”
Edie snickered, “I’ll take that as a compliment.”
“I’m not sure if I meant it to be one or not,” muttered Tilurn.
Edie shook her head, “I’ll send that bottle of Vodka I owe you in the next trade. Thank you for dealing with them Tilurn.”
Tilurn rolled his ears, “I’m not sure that one bottle’s enough I don’t have any more fun dealing with the Admirals than you do.”
“I’m not sending you more than one bottle, don’t even try to guilt me into another one. Besides, you know exactly how to sweat talk them.”
Tilurn let out a breath and smiled waving his hand at her, “Good luck Captain.” He cut the connection and Edie slowly let the smile on her face fall away.
“It’s better than going at it alone, you didn’t expect more did you?” asked Ranlin as she slowly got up from her chair in the corner of the room and walked over to the desk in the ready room of the ship.
“I was hoping for more. I get why they’re not allowing more, I really do. At the same time though, these are Humans! The ones who escaped!”
Ranlin sat on the desk, “Humans who are being very pigheaded and have put themselves in-between the Empire and a planet they plan to destroy. I can’t tell if it’s a good thing or not. The only reason we’ve survived this long is because we avoid the Empire. We don’t try and save every civilization they aim to destroy. If we did, we’d lose our own.”
Edie shook her head, “I understand that. You don’t think I do?”
“No, best to just say things out loud sometimes though.”
Edie stood and walking around the desk put a hand on Ranlin’s shoulder, “Humans who have tech that can go up against the Empire. They have to have set up somewhere away from the Tachyon network. If we can get the damn Admirals to trust Humanity well you might need to spend the rest of your life on this damn ship!”
Edie slammed her foot into the deck.
“I like my ship!” Protested Ranlin.
Edie laughed, “I do as well. I lived on Mars and Phobos, this place is heaven compared to those conditions. Actual gravity!”
Ranlin stood up moving away from the desk, “I’m going to try and cut through the Empire data jamming see if I can pull anything more from that transmission.”
“Right, I’m going to have to coordinate with Jun.”
“Have fun!”
Ranlin calmly strode out of the room wiggling her ears as she went. Following her out Edie strode onto the bridge of the alien ship that was her home and looked around.
“We’re bringing the last of the combat systems online now,” said Klyn from the Captain’s chair as he stood up.
Edie looked at the absolute mountain of a Vakurian who was her second in command and nodded, “Good. The dorsal shield emitter acting up again?”
“Yep. Replace the whole damn thing and I’d bet you it’ll still act up.”
“Probably. I do have good news though; Jun is going with us!”
Klyn’s ears drooped slightly, “He’s the last, and the first person I would want to take with me on a mission like this.”
“Tilurn said about the same.”
Klyn snorted, “How many bottles you sending him this time?”
“Just one. It’s nice having a monopoly on the stuff.”
The two were silent again, Klyn’s ears slowly going back up and down.
“What?” asked Edie.
“Nothing,”
“Not nothing, I’ve learned hot to read your ears by now. Talk.”
“What are you going to do assuming this all works out, we live, the humans live, and we meet up with your people? Which is a lot of if’s I grant but…” he trailed off.
“What am I going to do? What do you mean?”
“Are you going to be able to go back into the Human military?”
Edie blinked, “Oh.”
Edie looked around the bridge, most of the Vakurian ears were perked in her direction surreptitiously listening.
“I probably could, but I’m not going to.”
Klyn blinked, “You’re not going to go back to your own people?”
Edie looked at him for a moment and sat down in her chair. “I am with my people.”