Date Point: 3Y 9M 2D AV
Aboard Spot, Vicinity of Hravin IV
Adrian Saunders
Adrian returned to the bridge after shoving the Abrogator shell out of the airlock. It was as sad end for the robot that had served as Trix’s body, but today it would serve a more important function as a basic sensor satellite that would let them know what was about to hit them before it became a problem.
”I have just detected an object near the projected location of the enemy vessel,” Trix reported. “Accelerating very fast. My guess is it was an escape pod, but it’s not going our way.”
That was good news at least, if they were fleeing their massively overpowered vessel then it meant they hadn’t been able to move it fast enough and had accepted it as a loss. It was a big loss, too, and whoever that enemy had been would no longer be so much of a threat. At least not for a while.
”Their gravity spike is still engaged as well,” Askit added. “It looks like they want to make this as hard as possible for us.”
”Trajectory puts us to pass the research moon in (two minutes),” Trix informed them. “I am adjusting our flight path to ensure we are in its shadow once the bomb goes off.”
Adrian flicked the display to show the rear view, still filled by the vast gas giant. Two shining dots stood out against its deep green; missiles, or something else? “There’s something following us.”
”Nothing to worry about, they’re far behind and they’re not catching up,” Trix assured him. “It seems that Keffa was incorrect when she wondered if you were compensating for something with all this power.”
Adrian stared at the console, and not for the first time found himself reflecting that glaring at an inanimate object just wasn’t the same. He cleared his throat. “A: I’m not fucking compensating for anything. B: Even if I was, it still saved our arses.”
Shadows fell away from the planet as the whole thing began to light up, a brilliant green glow that spread across the surface while a halo of white light surrounded it. The view was mesmerising, something that Adrian doubted he’d ever forget, but lasted only a moment before the atmosphere sheared away to be replaced by an inferno.
The whole ship jolted, tipping forward and to the left and sending everyone scrambling for the nearest thing to hold on to. In Adrian’s case that was nothing, and he slammed into the nearest wall. He coughed as the wind was knocked out of him. “Fucking hell!”
”What in the void was that?!” Askit cried out, demanding it of anyone able to provide an answer.
”That was a gravity wave,” Trix replied. “Kinetic systems are compensating heavily. The good news is that I am no longer detecting a gravity spike that will prevent us from generating a warp field.”
”The bad news being that the gravitational flux will handle it instead,” Xayn surmised, shaking his head. “How much mass has been generated?”
Trix sighed. “Hard to say, the atomic, sub-atomic, and annihilatory reactions are still happening. We’d all be dead if this ship wasn’t so heavily over-engineered. As it stands, we have a short window to do something before we’re consumed by the heart of a new star.”
”Thank you for this experience,” Askit said dryly.
”You’re fucking welcome,” Adrian replied, looking at the group. “But how about some kind of rough idea?”
”A rough idea? Mass equivalent to a millionth of the galactic core is currently swirling around the insides of that planet.” Trix explained. “It is fluctuating, however, with a downward trend.”
They all looked at the viewscreen, now showing a sputtering orb of brilliant light. It was slowly expanding, but only slowly. As far as Adrian could recall, a galactic core was pretty fucking enormous and even a millionth of it should be a lot more than he was seeing here. “Shouldn’t it be bigger?”
”I’ve made you a picture just for this,” Trix replied, and put a colourful image of various circles on the screen. A thick, brilliant green circle was clearly the planet, but some distance inside of it there was a small black dot.
No need for further explanation than that, as far as Adrian was concerned, and every reason to get out of there as quickly as possible. “There’s a black hole in the middle of it.”
”And it is preventing the near light-speed explosion that might otherwise take place,” Trix continued, “But there still is an explosion, and once it frees itself of the gravity well it will hit us within moments. What would you like to do about that?”
Adrian ran a hand through his hair, desperately trying to come up with an idea. He had no desire to encounter another singularity, especially not one that had a giant explosion. “Alright, what’s the go with generating a warp field in this mess?”
”Impossible,” replied Trix, her response immediate. “The gravitational ripples are too extreme.”
”And we will not be able to outrun the shockwave,” Xayn chimed in, adding his own two cents. “There is no way to survive such raw power! Adrian, I am in awe of this incredible explosion, but you now see the reason my people employed regulators.”
”Well, this has all turned out well,” Askit complained. “I’m glad we blew up a whole planet just to stop a gravity spike. At least we’ll die in a really interesting way.”
”Gravity spike…” Adrian repeated, an idea coming to him in a flash. “Maybe that’s it! Trix, are the gravity waves predictable, and can the spike be used to counter them?”
Trix was silent for a long moment, but when she answered the relief in her voice was clear. “Close enough for our purposes. I’m recalibrating it now.”
”And how long before the explosion hits us?” Askit asked. “Oh wait, I have it here… about (half a second) longer than the recalibration process.”
Starting as a low grunt, Xayn began to laugh. “Fantastic! This is even better than the stories my father told me, and we have even defeated a false god! When we get out of here, we will celebrate with a feast, and perhaps I will finish the story of my people!”
Askit looked between the two of them. “I can hardly wait.”
”Look, it’s starting to expand,” Adrian noted, pointing out the changes in the brilliant orb. The research moon which had presumably provided some measure of protection against the energies in play now disappeared into the light. “And there goes the research station.”
”Expansion is accelerating,” Askit replied. “We’ve also just lost the Abrogator-probe, but its readings indicate that the gravity well has significantly depleted the explosive force, so we shouldn’t destroy more than this star system.”
”I suppose that’s good to know,” Adrian replied. He already had enough of a reputation for vandalising starships and spacestations, and the more damage he caused here the more likely it was that the list of criminal charges would expand to include major celestial bodies. He doubted that he’d ever be safe again if that kind of story started getting around. “We probably shouldn’t tell anyone about this.”
”Yeah,” Askit agreed, “what’s the going price on a planet now? It’s got to be more than you can afford, especially considering you still don’t have any money.”
”By this point I think I’m just running some kind of shitty tab,” Adrian joked, forcing good humour as the white sphere began to fill the display. It was getting much, much closer, and they all started watching the count-down. It occurred to him that this was not looking like he’d count it amongst his best ideas.
A half-second before the explosion hit, the drive kicked in and… cut out again, but the glowing orb of death was much further away.
”We just gave ourselves some time,” Trix explained. “The gravity waves are different here, and I’ll need to recalibrate for each. We’re going to have to do this in stages.”
”So we’re going to bunny-hop our way to safety,” Adrian paraphrased. “Are we out of the woods, though?”
”Adrian, space is not typically forested,” Xayn advised him. “It is usually nothing at all. Hence the name: Space.”
”Oh yes,” Askit replied, “I’m sure he was talking about starting a lucrative space-timber industry, and not on getting out of here! Honestly, is it really that hard to guess what he’s saying from context?”
He sighed and shook his head. “To answer your question, Adrian, I think we’ll be fine. This is just going to take a little while, but we should still be able to beat Chir to the rendezvous.”
”Then it seems I have plenty of time to finish my story,” Xayn replied. “Allow me to start at the beginning.”
Adrian forced a yawn. “Sorry mate, I’m pretty tired from all this nearly-dying. Going to have to go into it another time. What do you reckon, Askit?”
Yawning as well, something that Corti did not naturally do, Askit made a great show of just how thoroughly exhausted he was. “Can barely keep my eyes open.”
Xayn nodded. “Yes, that is a good idea. We don’t know when the enemy may next strike, so we should be well-rested. I shall monitor the sensors in case of approaching enemies.”
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Date Point: 3Y 9M 4D AV
The Amber Radiance, Mercenary Vessel
Laphor Metmin
The loss of a research station was a small thing, but as far as Laphor could determine there had been no particular reason for it and that warranted a second look. There was nothing interesting about it, unless you were a scientist, and it was out of the way and rarely visited, so it was exactly the sort of place that someone would want to stop for a breather if they were being hunted down by everyone in the galaxy.
”Are you certain about this, Captain?” Six-Skulls Zripob had asked when they’d first set off. He hadn’t wanted them to waste time chasing after false leads, but had also been insistent about moving on a soon as possible.
”I’m not certain at all when it comes to the movements of Adrian Saunders and his group,” Laphor replied honestly. “But if I was wanting to hide somewhere, however briefly, I’d pick a place like this. There’s absolutely nothing in that system that should cause a research station to just stop providing telemetry.”
The Chehnasho warrior had been satisfied with the answer, or was at least satisfied enough to allow them to see where her hunch took them. They had gone in quietly, not wanting to reveal themselves before they were ready, intent on finding out the facts before anything else.
What they discovered was a star system in ruin.
Her crew reported the dire news. “Hravin Four is gone. Hravin itself is doomed. There’s a super-massive singularity drawing everything in. There are signs of an incredible explosion dissipating into the void, and the entire area is filled with nebulonic gasses.”
A cold knot of dread filled her belly. “How… how is that even possible? Are we trapped here?”
The crewman indicated that they were thankfully not. “Had we not been cautious, we would not be able to escape. At this distance the gravity well is shallow and stable, and we can leave.”
Even the normally indifferent Zripob seemed to be concerned by this news. “This… this has to be him. Who else would be so reckless?”
Laphor looked at him, wondering if he was so obsessed that he might attribute anything and everything to Adrian Saunders. “With all due respect, I don’t see how a human, even one as destructive as Adrian Saunders, could produce something like this.”
Zripob didn’t seem swayed. “Then who else? The Dominion would not test something like this in their own space, and if the Celzi were behind it then they could have easily chosen a more populated area to destroy. The Hunters would not do this, that is not how they think, and the… well, there’s nobody who would profit from the destruction of this place.”
”Then how did Adrian Saunders profit?” Laphor asked. As far as she could see there wasn’t any way to make money by destroying an entire star system unless you intended to use it as a display of absolutely overwhelming power. But at this level it was the sort of thing used to sway governments, to terrify species, or to utterly destroy them.
”I don’t know,” Zripob admitted. “But this kind of thing is too significant to overlook. He needs to be stopped, Captain Metmin.”
That was obvious, but Laphor didn’t see how her little ship could even begin to confront someone capable of turning a planet into a singularity. “And you imagine that he could even survive doing… that?”
”I don’t doubt that he could,” Zripob replied, his words very ominous. “But if we intend to face this threat, we need more information. Set a course back to Perfection, we’re going to pay another visit to our information broker.”
Laphor did so gladly; as far as she was concerned the sooner they were away from that ruined place the better.