LEGEND

1.

Battered and bruised, the Defiant slowed on its approach to Starbase 6.

Commander Jessica King occupied the captain’s chair. She’d hoped that one day she would get to sit in such a chair as Captain of her own vessel. She never once thought that the privilege of doing so would come at such a cost. It filled her with no joy to carry out her role as Acting-Captain in Andrew Singh’s absence, especially so considering he was lying on a mortuary slab two decks under her feet.

“Starbase has made contact, sir,” Ensign Boi reported from the comm. station.

King nodded. “Okay Ensign. Patch me through.”

She waited a few seconds for the connection to be made. “This is Commander Jessica King, Acting-Captain of the Union Starship Defiant.”

“Please state your prefix number,” a mechanical-sounding voice said on the other end.

“T.U. zero-one-one-three-eight,” she said.

There was a brief delay, and then the voice announced that they were cleared to dock. “Docking bay three. Please do not exceed standard thruster speed.”

“Close channel,” King said.

She looked ahead at the large circular space station. It was a tall centrifuge at the centre, with spokes extending to a wide outer ring. Along the ring were enough docking bays to accommodate up to twenty vessels. There were several ships already docked, all much larger than the Defiant. That wasn’t to say the Defiant was a small ship.

But she was old.

At one time the Archon Class vessels had been the backbone of the fleet. Now they were relics twenty years past their sell-by date. If the system-wide war between the Union and the Draxx didn’t still rage on, they’d have been decommissioned and retired already.

Still didn’t stop us holding our own in a fight, did it? King thought. She might be old, but she’s got it where it counts.

“Banks, I think I can leave the parking in your capable hands?” King asked as she got up from the captain’s chair.

Lieutenant Kyle Banks swiftly worked the controls across the front helm console.

“I’ve got it covered,” he said.

“Good. Then I will be below decks,” she said.

The bridge crew looked up from their stations, but when she looked around at them they hurried back to their assigned duties.

King walked toward the exit. Insulation and wiring had erupted from the ceiling during the battle and hung like copper intestines in places. She ducked beneath it on her way out, her feet crunching on bits of broken plastic and glass.

On her way to her quarters she passed the scorched carcasses of burned-out conduits, pipes that were still dripping onto the deck plating from leaks that hadn’t yet been attended to.

The ship had taken a beating, it was true. She was proud of the crew, and of the ship itself, for pulling through. They hadn’t run away from the battle like cowards. They faced the danger and hit back with what they had.

Several crew saluted as she strode past them. She quickly saluted back.

It lifted her spirits, despite all that had happened, to see the crew still going about their duty as they were meant to. The men and women she passed looked tired, dirty, some of them injured. But they carried on with grim determination and a sense of duty. King walked with a determined gait, showing the pride she felt for her crew.

When Jess got to her quarters she headed straight for the shower to freshen up quickly before her debriefing. She knew that Admiral Grimshaw would want to hear the full account of what had gone on despite having a copy of her report already on his desk. He would demand to hear it first-hand from someone who was knee deep in it all. The fleet had lost a brilliant Captain, and there were questions that must be answered.

In her quarters, she got out of her dirty uniform. Standing in front of the mirror in her tiny bathroom she looked tired, beaten.

Her temple carried a long cut from when a Draxx missile had hit the side of the Defiant, sending her flying against a bulkhead. Dr. Clayton had yet to treat it properly.

Her eyes were red, ringed with dark, puffy circles. During the journey to Starbase 6 King had done her fair share of grieving for Captain Singh. But she knew there would be more to come at some point. That loss was an open wound. Over time it might heal a bit, but never enough so you didn’t know it was there.

She stepped into the shower and tried to wash the difficulties of the last week away. But they were in there with her. She stood under the stream of the water, bowed her head, her hands up against the tiles. She started to sob. In the shower no-one could see her. No-one could hear her. In the shower she had privacy to give freedom to the grief.

King could still see him lying there on the deck, dying in her arms. She could still hear his final words …

The mangled mess of his legs. The blood pooling from his mid-section. His face grey, washed-out. Tears streamed down her face.

Her voice cracked as she spoke. “Please don’t go, please.”

Captain Singh shook his head slowly. Smiled. “Jess … We each have our time. My own is at an end …”

“No …” she managed to say.

Singh reached up, stroked the side of her face. “Now it is your turn to do as much as you can with the time you have …”

He smiled again, then his eyes seemed focus on something far away. The light in them faded. Singh’s hand fell away from hers and the sound of his last breath issued slowly from between his lips.

“No …”

She felt the thud of the ship as it jutted up against the docking bay. She came back to reality, regained her composure and set about washing herself, then got out of the shower.

She walked to the comm. unit on the wall, pressed the button that opened a direct line to the bridge.

“Bridge,” she said. “Equalise the pressure seals and reduce all systems to idle status. I’ll meet all senior crew members at airlock four in fifteen minutes, so be sure to have your stations locked down. Please inform Chief Gunn and Dr. Clayton to be there also.”

“Aye aye sir,” a voice reported back to her. It was Lieutenant Banks.

Jessica closed the channel. Again she stood in front of the mirror.

Now she looked better. Not great, but better. Less tired and dishevelled. More like a woman. It felt good to be washed, wearing a clean uniform.

“Let’s get this over with,” she told her reflection.

2.

Non-essential crew filed through the airlock. Her command team arrived quickly. First Lieutenant Kyle Banks, followed by Ensign Jack Boi and Lieutenant Lisa Chang. Then Ensign Olivia Rayne, and Dr. Clayton. Chief Gunn took a while to make it up from the medical bay, but Jess knew it was chaos down there. When she saw the dried blood on his hands she wondered whether she had made the wrong decision in pulling him away from his work.

“I just wanted to say a few words,” she said. “Who knows what might happen in the next few days? I might not get a chance to tell you just how proud I am of you. All of the crew. The whole ship. I really mean it, from the bottom of my heart.”

“I think I can speak for us all when I say how proud we are of you, too,” Lieutenant Chang said.

“Thanks,” King said. “I’m heading for a de-brief with Admiral Grimshaw. I want you all to know that I’m putting in a good word for you all. You’ve earned it. No ship has ever had a finer crew … no ship I’ve served on at least.”

They each nodded their appreciation.

“Okay, you’re dismissed now,” she said. They stood to attention, and she matched their salute.

Dr. Clayton turned and headed back to medical. Chief Gunn left in the same direction, as did Lieutenant Chang. Rayne, Boi, and Banks thanked her before they stepped through the airlock. She watched them go, then turned in time to see two orderlies approach carrying a stretcher between them. King recognised the patient immediately. She found her spirits lift at the sight of Lieutenant-Commander Del Greene conscious and aware.

“You’re back in the land of the living then?” she said with a smile.

Greene lay flat out on the stretcher, his head wrapped in pressure bandages.

“Nearly didn’t make it out of the land of the dead, I can tell yuh,” he said in his thick London accent. “They’re taking me to the infirmary now. Our medical bay’s a bit wrecked. Dr. Clayton’s got his work cut out down there …”

Clayton had warned her of the possibility of Greene never waking. And they’d advised of possible side effects from his head injury, such as trouble speaking, walking, eating on his own. He was his usual sarcastic self, and in good spirits.

“You’ll be all right,” she said.

“What about the Captain?” Greene asked.

King looked down momentarily. Any mention of Captain Singh came as a blow, each one tinged with sadness and loss.

“They know,” she said simply. “I’ve already filed my report.”

Two crew members squeezed past on their way off the ship.

“Yeah … and what about the Captain?” Greene said in a low voice.

Jessica stiffened. She knew he meant the funeral arrangements. “There’ll be a service tomorrow morning. As you know, he didn’t have any actual family.”

Greene considered this. “No, he was a lonely type. A damn fine man. A generous human being … and a great Captain,” he said, choked.

“My de-brief is in a half hour. Grimshaw wants all the gory details I suppose,” she said, a look of disdain on her face.

“Now it’s my turn to say ‘You’ll be all right,’ yeah?” Greene said. He reached out, held her forearm. “We’ve been through a lot. Don’t sweat it.”

“That’s the same as saying all right,” she said. “Now get going, I’ll see you on the other side.”

King gave the two orderlies a sharp nod and they made short business of taking the Lieutenant-Commander through the airlock.

She waited a moment before going through herself. She straightened the tunic of her uniform, took a deep breath and headed through it. The decontamination jets blasted her from all sides. On the other side, she walked to the nearest buggy that would ferry her to the central command deck. She passed row after row of observation ports that showed the exterior of the Defiant against the exterior of the station. It was too close to make out the smooth shape of its main hull, the hammerhead shaped secondary hull at the bow or the rear fin that allowed for communications and reactor cooling at the stern.

But from what she could see, the damage to the Defiant was dramatic. Large black scorch marks like Godzilla-sized scratches ran along its hull. In the places the Draxx weapons had penetrated they’d left gaping holes like punches through the metal sheeting. Those decks had been evacuated and sealed after the fact, though that hadn’t stopped many lives from being lost. Repair teams had found the bodies of crew members in their quarters, killed instantly by exposure to the void.

She arrived at a buggy with a half dozen other passengers on it. She stepped on board and went to the back. Nobody looked at her. The buggy started to move, racing along a specially laid track that allowed fast and convenient travel of goods and personnel around the station. King glanced behind her at the view of the Defiant through the view ports. She turned back around, took a deep breath. The buggy continued on. She arrived at the centrifuge in no time at all.

*

Admiral Grimshaw’s office door was already open. She knocked anyway to announce her presence. He looked up from his desk. King saluted him.

“Ah. Commander King. Please, come in and take a seat,” he said with a sloppy salute back.

There was an older woman there with a data pad, presumably to record the minutes of the de-brief. She got up and shut the door.

“You’re feeling well?” Grimshaw asked King.

“As well as can be, Admiral. Considering,” she said.

His face grew serious. “Yes. Well, Captain Singh was a very good friend of mine. And it’s a terrible blow not only to this fleet, but to me personally. I believe there is a service tomorrow?”

King nodded. “Yes. In the morning. In the conference centre.”

“I’ll make sure that I’m there, Commander. He was a good man, and a fine officer. I might say a few words, too. I trust you will be …”

She hadn’t thought that far ahead. Everything was such a blur. But she said “Yes,” anyway. There was no doubt she would.

The Admiral nodded to the older woman in the corner for her to start taking notes, then he proceeded to get down to business.

“I’ve had time to read your report, Commander. And I have a few things to say. But first of all, I want you to tell me what happened in your own words. From the horse’s mouth, so to speak. I want to be entirely clear on all of the details,” he said.

“I understand,” Jess said.

“Would you like a coffee or something before we get on?” Grimshaw asked her.

She shook her head. “No thank you sir.”

Grimshaw smiled. “I understand completely, Commander. I’ve been in your shoes more times than I can count. I don’t envy you in the slightest. Now. The Defiant was tasked with protecting a convoy of ships through the neutral zone between Draxx space and ours, correct?”

Jess nodded.

“Everything was proceeding without incident. But at 1600 hours, there was a problem,” the Admiral stated. “Why don’t we start there?”

She cast her mind back, swallowed.

“We detected several unknown craft approaching the border. The Captain ordered Lieutenant Chang to monitor them and report on their progress. After a while we lost sensor contact.”

“But they came back,” Grimshaw said.

King nodded. “Yes sir. We held a tight formation behind the convoy when the Draxx re-appeared on the long range sensors. The Captain ordered that we go to red alert. We polarised the hull plating, charged the main batteries.”

“Normal procedure, in other words,” Grimshaw said.

“Yes,” Jess said. Already her mind shot back to that day. As she spoke about it, she began to relive it all as fresh and vivid as though it were happening all over again. “Normal procedure.”

“I understand this is difficult for you, Commander. Especially given the losses sustained. Please press on.”

King swallowed.

“There were three of them …”

3.

“Lieutenant! Time until they are within firing range,” Captain Singh snapped.

Lieutenant Chang did a quick calculation in her head before answering. “Forty seconds and counting.”

Singh nodded. He strapped himself into the captain chair, pulled the restraint tight around his waist. “Everyone buckle up.”

“Twenty-nine seconds,” Chang reported.

“Ensign Boi, instruct the convoy to maintain a tight formation. Follow our vector. Stay close at hand so that we can protect them if this is an attack,” Singh ordered.

“Aye,” Ensign Boi answered.

He turned to King. “Commander, we have birds in the tubes?”

King nodded. “Yes, Captain. Tubes one to four are ready to go.”

She strapped herself in at the secondary tactical station below Lieutenant Chang then set about monitoring the bogies progress into their close-range sensor sweeps.

“Eighteen seconds,” Chang said from behind King.

“Let’s see them on the main display,” said Singh.

A second later the front viewscreen switched from the convoy ahead of them to a data readout. The imaging processors showed the blips on their sensors to be ships Draxx ships. There was one in lead ahead of the others. It was immense.

“The first ship. How big is that? What are the dimensions?” Singh asked, cocking his head to one side.

King peered over at Chang’s readouts. “Three … thousand metres!”

“My God …” Singh said. At that length, it was more than ten times the size of the Defiant. At that size it was several times larger than even the biggest Union dreadnought classes.

“Eleven seconds,” Chang said, her voice a little constricted.

“Red alert,” King said, throwing a switch. The lighting dimmed to a dull red, and power was instantly diverted away from non-essential systems to give priority to combat and defensive operations.

“The bogies are slowing sir,” Chang reported. “They’re holding off at two thousand clicks.”

“Hail the lead vessel, Ensign. Open a channel,” Singh said to Ensign Boi. The display went blank for a moment before it was replaced with the face of a Draxx unlike any she’d seen before. It was a male, and he didn’t have the huge snout and cold dark eyes of a common Draxx. He was more humanoid, with a flat, almost featureless face. His eyes were yellow, and his skin more like wet leather than scales.

Not your average reptile.

King looked first at the screen, then at Singh. He had a frown on his face. She knew how he felt, but there were many Draxx variants. This was evidently one they hadn’t seen before.

“I am Captain Andrew Singh, of the Union Starship Defiant. To whom am I speaking?” he said.

The Draxx on the screen shifted visibly from one foot to the other. King imagined it standing with its hands clasped behind its back.

It spoke perfect, fluent Terran Standard.

“Prince Sepix, first-heir to the throne of the Draxx Dominion. The name of my vessel is not important. Neither are the names of the two vessels that accompany me,” it said.

Singh glanced sideways at King before he said “Then what is important?”

“The terms of your surrender, of course,” Sepix said plainly, a note of humour in his voice.

“We are in neutral space. We are not encroaching on Draxx territory. You cannot ask that we surrender to you, when there is not just cause. Now -“

“You are wrong, Captain,” Sepix broke in. “I do not ask. I demand. You, and the convoy you protect, will surrender immediately to the Dominion or face the consequences. From my standpoint, you do not have any choice but to obey.”

Singh looked down for a moment, quickly weighing his options. “I will need a moment to inform my crew,” he said.

Some of the bridge crew looked at him with horror etched onto their faces. King knew better than to think he’d turn them in.

“I will allow it. A courtesy from one leader of men to another. You have your moment, Captain,” Sepix said. The screen switched back to a view of the convoy.

Singh quickly unstrapped himself and started to pace back and forth.

“Okay listen up. Lieutenant Banks, you will manoeuvre us over the convoy. Put us between it and that Draxx ship. We will take the brunt of any enemy fire until they’re safely away. It’s imperative they reach Carridian VI,” he ordered.

He spun on his heel and jabbed a finger in the direction of Ensign Rayne. “Ensign, you will plot a course out of here. Fire up the Jump Drive and be ready to go at a moment’s notice. As soon as the convoy has left the party, so too will we.”

“Are we to open fire?” Lieutenant-Commander Greene asked him.

Singh smirked. “I wouldn’t have it any other way. I want you to co-ordinate the batteries with Lieutenant Chang. The Draxx favour projectiles over energy weapons. I want the batteries’ focus to be on detonating their warheads before they can reach us.”

“Understood,” Greene said with a nod.

The batteries were located at multiple points all over the hull, and once fully-powered could fire a continuous stream of energy bolts to protect the ship from attack in all directions. They operated under computer control, but could be guided manually to focus on a specific objective. In this case, shooting down Draxx warheads.

“Ensign Boi, signal the convoy on the emergency channel. Tell them to Jump,” Singh said. He walked to the front of the bridge, rested his hands against Banks’s chair back and watched as the first ship made the Jump.

Sepix reappeared on screen. “We see that you are moving between us and the convoy. I expected such deception,” Sepix said.

“I won’t let you have them,” Singh said. “And neither will I allow you to have this ship or its crew.”

Sepix laughed. It was an awful sound. A crocodile’s cackle.

“Then there is nothing further to discuss,” Sepix said.

The screen went dead.

Singh spun about. “Action stations!”

*

King explained how the Defiant had held off against the enemy fire that rained down on them as the convoy Jumped away.

“Of course, they didn’t all Jump at once. Their drives fired up at different times,” she explained.

Admiral Grimshaw shifted in his seat. He looked across at the note-taker, to make sure she was following the conversation.

“And this led to several of the ships in the convoy being destroyed,” he said.

King nodded. “Yes. We couldn’t cover them all. The hull plating destabilised early on. As we held off against the lead ship, the two at its flank started to pick off the ships that hadn’t made the Jump …”

*

On the front viewscreen, another ship from the convoy burst into flame. It listed to one side, rolled slightly then exploded. The Defiant shuddered from the shockwave of the blast.

“Another one lost, sir,” Lieutenant Chang reported.

“I can see, Lieutenant,” Singh snapped, irritated.

King monitored the department reports flashing up on her own display.

“Captain, decks eight and ten have lost pressure,” she said. “Crews are sealing those decks off. Nine reported killed.”

Singh’s jaw tightened at the news. “How many more ships until they’re all away?”

King looked toward Chang’s station. “Another six.”

He shook his head. “This won’t do.”

The Defiant took another hit. The ship rocked from the impact. The lights flickered on and off several times.

King checked the ships diagnostics. “Stress on the hull now at seventy percent. If we keep taking hits like that, we’re going to lose more decks.”

“I know,” Singh said. Up ahead the two smaller Draxx ships pummelled the convoy. So far all of the Defiant’s efforts had gone toward fighting the lead ship. He turned to Lieutenant-Commander Greene. “Del, target the smaller Draxx ships. Prime tubes one and two.”

Greene nodded and set about targeting the two Draxx ships.

Singh turned to King, his face a mixture of emotions. Duty versus morality. He had only ever had occasion to fire a Duotonic Missile a handful of times in his career, King knew. But if they were to survive, they had to get the two smaller ships out of the way. Then they could deal with the behemoth that pummelled them from above. The Duotonic Missiles were so powerful, they almost guaranteed instant destruction. But one of the prime directives of the fleet was to cripple an enemy vessel and take it prisoner rather than outright destroy it.

“Tubes locked,” Greene said. He had his hand braced on the firing trigger.

Still looking King dead in the eye, Singh said, “Fire.”

Lieutenant-Commander Greene depressed the trigger. Two bolts of sparkling blue burst free from the front of the Defiant. The crew watched them split, each heading for a Draxx ship. Seconds later they both hit. The ship on the left broke in two before exploding. The second ship spun out of control as several explosions burst from its torn underbelly.

“Direct hit. Both ships,” Chang reported.

“Lieutenant Banks, ninety-degree roll. Bring us to bear on the lead ship,” Singh ordered.

“Captain, at that vector we won’t be able to stop every warhead getting through,” King advised. They couldn’t use all of the batteries to their benefit if they were face on.

“I’m aware of that, Commander. However they will have less ship to shoot at. I plan on ending this now,” he said. “Del, target the lead ship. Tubes three and four.”

“Aye,” Greene said.

The Defiant lurched to one side, its nose veering away from the convoy to face the giant Draxx ship.

“Locked,” Greene reported.

“Fire both birds!” Singh ordered.

The viewscreen showed the two sparkling balls rush into the irregular hull of the Draxx ship. There was a shimmer of light as they exploded against the ship’s energy shielding. Small explosions bloomed along its outer hull but the ship stood whole.

And still firing.

“Minor damage,” Chang reported.

Singh’s face went white with shock. “Banks, get us out of here!”

At the helm, Lieutenant Kyle Banks’s hands flew across the controls. The Defiant turned.

King became aware that the batteries were still.

“The enemy vessel has stopped firing,” Chang said, studying her readouts in confusion.

“Maybe we did more damage than we thought,” Greene offered, standing from his station.

Singh cocked his head to one side. “I don’t know …” he said.

Kyle took the Defiant above the last of the convoy as they Jumped away.

“Firing up the Jump Drive,” Ensign Boi reported.

“On my count,” Jessica said.

“Incoming bird!” Chang yelled. All of the bridge crew turned to face her. “It’s some kind of stealth torpedo. Our sensors can’t get a proper lock. Five seconds!”

“All hands, brace for impact. Banks, evasive -” Singh started to order.

The Draxx weapon hit. Singh was knocked back into his chair.

King flinched but looked up in time to see Lieutenant-Commander Greene fly across the bridge and strike the far wall.

He’s dead, she thought. We’re all dead.

Circuits blew all over the bridge. Sparks rained down. The Defiant rode an earthquake. The emergency klaxons sounded.

Jessica hit the comm. panel at her station, “Emergency. Medical team to the bridge. Medical team to the bridge.”

A fire erupted by the side of the helm. Lieutenant Banks sprang from his seat to grab an extinguisher.

“Damage report!” Singh shouted over the din.

King got up and ran to Greene’s side. A gash in the side of his head pumped blood that formed a thick, red puddle on the floor. She removed her uniform jacket, bunched it up, and held it hard against the cut.

“Multiple hull breaches decks thirteen through to sixteen. Teams are working on them. Power down to thirty percent. Damage to the fin. Coolant from the Jump Drive leaking into space,” Chang said. The last was a blow to them all. There was no way the Drive would work without the proper coolant. She looked up at her Captain in need of direction, reassurance.

King could see that Singh wasn’t sure he could give it.

“I want all repair teams to make the Jump Drive their number one priority!”

A medical team rushed onto the bridge. King handed over to them as they worked on the floor to stop Greene bleeding out. Despite herself, she could feel her eyes fill with hot tears. She bit them back.

Now is not the time.

“Sir! They’re firing again!” Chang said.

King ran to the now-vacant weapons station and quickly targeted the incoming warhead with the batteries. They fired a hail of energy against the warhead, successfully detonating it before it could hit. The Defiant shook.

“Fire reported in munitions tubes,” Chang called.

King shot Singh a look. “Captain, if that fire reaches the Missiles …”

Singh got up. “Commander, you have the bridge. See to it we don’t let any of their birds through. Buy us some time.”

“Captain, I’ll go,” King said. She walked toward him. Singh smiled and placed a hand on her shoulder.

“No. This is my ship. I’ll go,” he said, his voice strong and sure. “Keep her together for me.”

He turned and left the bridge. Jessica looked about. Every eye on the bridge watched her as she sat down in the captain’s chair.

“Ensign Rayne, take the weapons station. Co-ordinate with Lieutenant Chang and try not to let any of their birds through,” she ordered. “Banks, try and get us some distance. We need to give the repair team time to fix the Drive.”

“Aye ma’am!” they reported in unison as they followed her orders.

*

“I’ve seen the data from the sensors, and the visual logs. That was a big ship, Commander. The biggest I’ve ever seen that’s not one of ours. And you say the Duotonic Missiles had very little effect?” Grimshaw asked.

“No. They had a very powerful energy shield around their hull, unlike any I’ve ever encountered. It seemed to absorb the hit. The damage was minor at best,” King said.

Grimshaw nodded slowly, in thought. “I see.”

“I think that if this is the new class of Draxx ship, then they’ve upped their game sir,” King said.

“Yes, well, I will be sure to pass on the data from the Defiant to Central Command. I’m sure it will assist them in their analysis of the new Draxx starship classes.”

King frowned. “Sir?”

“We’ve known for some time that they’ve been focusing their efforts on building bigger, better ships. Several months ago we came into possession of intel pointing to a ship of the size you encountered,” Grimshaw explained. “But we weren’t sure if they had the capability, or the resources, to build it. Evidently they have.”

“How many of these things are there?” King asked.

“We think just the one at the minute. They call it the Inflictor. The first of a new class,” Grimshaw said. He shook his head. “I don’t know … just when you think the conflict has abated, it goes a stage further. This is just the beginning of something bigger I feel. The next stage in the conflict.”

King let that sink in.

“Where were we?” Grimshaw asked.

King looked up at the ceiling as she found the words.

“The fire …” she said.

*

“Fire team, report!” King snapped into the comm.

The speakers issued a loud roar, filled with clicks and static. The voice of a male officer broke through it.

“Lieutenant Morris here, sir. The fire has breached sections two, three and four. We’re trying to fight it back and stop it spreading further.”

“What’s causing it to take hold like that?” King asked.

“Propellant leak, sir.”

“Okay, Lieutenant. Do what you can. Is the Captain with you?”

“Yes sir. The Captain is assisting the crew trying to control the fire in section three.”

“Keep me informed,” King said, closing the channel.

The Defiant was rocked by a direct hit. She gripped the sides of the captain’s chair despite being strapped in.

“Load whatever tubes we have left at our disposal and return fire,” King told Ensign Rayne.

Another hit made the Defiant skew to one side. The bridge tilted and all hands took hold of something to keep from spilling out of their seats.

“Re-stabilizing,” Banks shouted as he fought with the controls to bring the Defiant level again.

“We can’t take much more of this. Are the tubes ready?” King asked Rayne.

“Yes sir, ready to launch,” Rayne said.

“Fire starboard tubes.”

The front display changed to a view of their starboard side. The huge Draxx battleship loomed to the side of them, the jagged, almost haphazard design of it like some deformed mythological sea monster. Eight Duotonic Missiles spiralled away from the Defiant on a direct collision course. The Draxx ship made no attempt to stop them hitting. They struck with full force. The energy shield on the Draxx ship erupted in white light as it took on the full brunt of their explosive power and absorbed the majority of its energy. The shockwaves rocked the Defiant as if it were fighting a rough sea, but the Draxx ship remained unscathed.

Union starships only ever carried twenty or so missiles at any one time, due to their power.

“Jesus …” Olivia Rayne said in disbelief.

“Right. Lieutenant Banks, full power to the engines. Drain every system if you have to,” King ordered. “Chang, I want you to -“

An explosive scream tore through the Defiant. Bits of hull and particles blasted out from the bow of the ship. The secondary tactical console to the left of Chang’s station burst into flame and spat white sparks. Chang took a fire extinguisher from the wall and smothered the console with it. The ventilation systems whined as they sucked toxic fumes from the bridge and out into space.

Before the bridge crew could say that it came from inside the ship, King knew it was the Missile bay.

She unbuckled herself, got out of the chair and ran to her own station below Chang’s. She saw the flashing red sections of the ship illuminated on her screen and swallowed, hard.

She jabbed a finger at the comm. panel. “Captain Singh. Come in please.”

Silence.

“Captain Singh?” King repeated.

Silence.

She looked at Lieutenant Banks. She tried not to let the distress register on her face.

King stood.

“Lieutenant Banks, you have the con,” she said on her way off the bridge. “Keep her flying until I get back.”

She caught a few looks of bewilderment as she left, but they were background noise to her need to see that Captain Singh was still alive.

I shouldn’t be leaving the bridge. This isn’t the time to have a personal crisis, she told herself.

But it was no use. She’d already reached the end of the corridor and slid down the ladder to the deck below. Then she ran.

*

Immediately following the explosion, the fire team had dragged the bodies of the wounded and deceased out behind the nearest blast door. The tear in the hull made short work of sucking the atmosphere into the vacuum of space, along with the fire. The blast door separated them from the severe pull of the void through the broken hull. If the fire team had wasted any time they would have been sucked out as well.

King spotted Singh straight away. He lay on the floor, his helmet off. Two medics worked to keep him alive. They looked up as King approached.

Doctor Clayton stood. Jessica went to fall at Singh’s side, but the doctor stopped her. He placed his hands on her shoulders, held her at arm’s length.

“Commander, look at me. Look at me,” he said.

Her eyes locked onto his.

Dr. Clayton’s eyes were full of regret, his voice firm but tinged with sadness.“He’s dying. The explosion tore him apart. There’s too much … there’s nothing I can do for him now …”

Jessica looked over his shoulder. She saw the blood that covered the Captain and coated the floor around him. Her hand went to her mouth.

“I’m sorry,” Dr. Clayton said. “He doesn’t have long.”

He let go of her, dug his hands into his jacket pockets.

She walked past him and knelt by Singh’s side. He looked up at her and smiled. He was burnt all over. She fought to hide her horror. Jessica knew the Captain needed to see all the strength she could muster.

The mangled mess of his legs. The blood pooling from his mid-section. His face grey, washed-out. Tears streamed down her face.

Her voice cracked as she spoke. “Please don’t go, please.”

Captain Singh shook his head slowly. Smiled. “Jess … We each have our time. My own is at an end …”

“No …” she managed to say.

Singh reached up, stroked the side of her face. “Now it is your turn to do as much as you can with the time you have …”

He smiled again, then his eyes seemed focus on something far away. The light in them faded. Singh’s hand fell away from hers and the sound of his last breath issued slowly from between his lips.

“No …”

She cradled him in her arms.

*

“Water, Commander?”

“Yes please,” King said.

Admiral Grimshaw handed her a glass. She thanked him and took several mouthfuls of it before setting it in front of her on the desk.

“Why do you think he insisted on going down there and helping to fight that fire?” Grimshaw asked her.

King shrugged. “He was like that. He was hands-on. I remember one morning the cook fell ill so he got behind the kitchen counter and made the breakfast himself. That’s just how he was. It’s what made him such a good Captain, in my opinion. He was involved in all aspects of the ship. It’s one of the reasons the crew loved him so much.”

“Noted,” Grimshaw said as the slightest evidence of a smile touched his lips.

King closed her eyes, took a deep breath. She felt the weight of her own heart in her chest, fit to burst.

“I know it’s hard, Commander. But please continue,” Grimshaw said softly.

King looked down at her hands …

*

She took a minute to compose herself, to take her grief, put it in a box and lock it away inside until later. She looked on as medical orderlies zipped Singh into a blue body bag.

“Are you okay?” Dr. Clayton asked her. He looked upset himself.

“I’ve got to go,” she said. “But … thanks.”

He watched her go.

As she ran back to the bridge, she happened to look down at herself. Her hands were covered in a mixture of Lieutenant-Commander Greene and Captain Singh’s blood. It was dry and turning brown on her skin.

“I’m back,” she said confidently as she strode onto the bridge. Inside her heart was broken. To all outward appearances she gave the impression that she had nerves of granite. The mask of composure would have worked, too, if it weren’t for the redness of her eyes and the tracks her tears had made down her dirty cheeks.

Later she would inform the crew of Captain Singh’s death, and she would note the recognition in their faces. The understanding as they realised what had gone on in her absence from the bridge.

She took the captain’s chair.

They’d been running from the Draxx ship for close to thirty minutes in the hope that at any moment the Jump Drive would be fixed. Jessica opened a channel to Engineering.

“Chief, where are we?”

The line hissed and crackled. Severed connections throughout the ship sparked up against one another like blood flying from one open vein to another.

Chief Engineer Meryl Gunn came on. “You’re gonna have to be patient sir. We’re doing everything we can.”

Patient? You didn’t just witness the final moments of the Captain’s life, King thought bitterly.

“ETA?” King asked.

“A few minutes, Commander. Just give us a few minutes …” Gunn said.

King looked up at the crew. They watched her intently, looking for a reaction. She made a conscious decision not give them one that would cause them to fear any more than they were.

“As soon as you can, Chief,” she said coolly.

“Aye sir.”

“Ensign Boi, are our co-ordinates set?” King asked.

Boi turned to face her. “We’re just waiting on the Drive.”

“As soon as it’s ready, let me know,” she said.

The viewscreen showed a backwards view of the Draxx battleship coming up on their rear.

Lieutenant Chang studied her readouts. “The enemy vessel has ceased fire.”

“I know,” King said, her jaw going tight. “They’re not content with destroying us. They want to capture us and take us for a trophy.”

“Incoming communication,” Boi reported.

King shot Chang a look. “See?”

The display changed to the face of the Draxx commander again.

“Within moments you will be my prisoner, human,” Prince Sepix said with relish. The leathery skin at the sides of his narrow mouth lifted in a narrow grin. “You will all be my prisoners. Why not give up the chase now?”

“The Terran Union does not give in to demands, your highness. Not to anybody,” King said.

“Yes that’s right, Commander. Your race is as stubborn as it is stupid …” Sepix said. “Your biggest fault.”

“We may be stubborn, as you say, and we may be stupid. But we are not as weak as you seem to think,” King said, her eyes narrowing. “I think you underestimate us.”

Sepix laughed. It was a horrible, shrill sound. The hairs on the back of King’s neck stood on end.

“I underestimate your talent for humour,” Sepix cackled.

King looked to the side. Boi moved aside so that she could see the flashing green light on his panel. The Jump Drive was active. She held up a finger for him to wait for her signal.

“That’s not the only thing you have wrong about us,” she said.

“Prey tell,” Sepix said, still chuckling with amusement.

“We’ll always beat you in a race,” King said. She nodded at Ensign Boi. He threw the switch. The Jump Drive activated and in the space of a millisecond they were millions of miles away. Sepix disappeared from the front display.

The bridge crew cheered. King hung her head in her lap, heartbroken as much as she was relieved.

4.

Admiral Grimshaw sat with his arms folded across his chest. He let the air sit for a moment before he spoke. He turned to the note-taker.

“You may leave now. Thank you. I believe we have everything we need,” he told her. She nodded silently, got up and left without a word.

When the door closed, and it was only King and himself, he let out a sigh and eased back into his chair.

“I know this is a difficult time for you. I know from reading your file that Captain Singh was a great influence on you, in terms of joining the fleet and making a career for yourself,” he said.

King nodded, her eyes fixed on the Admiral.

“Yes,” she said.

“And I know the weight bearing down on your shoulders right now,” he said. King looked at him. “It’s the weight of men and women. The crew of the Defiant … of those ships that were lost from the convoy before they could get away. I’ve felt that weight myself before.”

King nodded. “Yes.”

“I feel it even now …” Grimshaw said. “And if you think it will go away, it won’t. You just get used to it is all. The weight. But it stays there.”

“I understand,” King said. “Or I’m starting to.”

Grimshaw cleared his throat. “King, I had time to talk to the Commander-in-chief and Rear Admiral Scholte beforehand. In light of recent circumstances my colleagues and I are in agreement that your actions were not only justifiable and correctly impassioned, but in the finest tradition. We are impressed with how you dealt with the situation, and moreover we are impressed with how you have taken the responsibility and consequences of command in your stride. We feel it is only right that you be promoted to the rank of Captain, with immediate effect. We feel it is the natural next step for you. A step you have already taken.”

King looked at him in shock. “I couldn’t -” she started to say.

Grimshaw stood, straightened out his uniform jacket. “It’s done. Please stand.”

King stood.

She felt her whole body shake. “I don’t know if I’m ready – ’ she said.

Grimshaw fixed a gold pin to her breast pocket.

“That doesn’t matter. You’ve proven that you are. Report to the Station Master in two days to oversee the repairs to Defiant,” Grimshaw said.

King looked down at the gold pin.

“Congratulations, and good luck Captain Jessica King,” Grimshaw said, his voice filled with pride.

King remained silent and saluted.

*

On her way back to her quarters aboard Defiant, Jessica felt numb. If the circumstances were different, she’d have been elated.

The command of her own starship.

Something she’d always wanted. Her dream. But coming so soon on the back of everything else … it was too much to take in. Her thoughts raced from her fear to her pride, to her sorrow at losing her mentor and friend.

She managed to slip into her quarters without having to speak to any of the crew who were still on board working on repairs.

Jessica kept the lights low and stripped to her underwear. There was half of a bottle of vodka under her desk. She poured herself a glass of it, drank it straight then poured another. She collapsed into her chair.

His words came back to her, in the shadowed quiet of her quarters.

“Don’t be so impulsive,” he said.

She was just a girl. No ambition. No prospects. No direction. A cadet who tried to make it in the Academy but dropped out.

“You know nothing about me,” Jess said.

Singh laughed. “I know more than you think. I know you have no family. No parents. I know that if you continue the way you are, you’re going to end up either dead or imprisoned. And I know that you agree with me. I can see it on your face.”

She looked down at the ground, felt the blood rush to her cheeks.

He was right. Everything he said was right.

“And what?” she said.

“I’m saying we can be your family. The fleet. If you’ll let us. We can give you a life, give you a purpose,” Singh said.

Jess shook her head. “I’m not good enough. I’ve tried already. I don’t have what it takes.”

Singh tilted her head up, his hand under her chin. “With my help you will have. If you’ll trust me …”

She knew that when Singh had said, “We can be your family. We can give you a life,” he’d meant “I can be your family. I can give you a life.”

And the sentiment was genuine. Singh became the father figure she’d been sorely lacking. He guided her, supported her. She progressed in rank, but not through any involvement from his end. Purely on her own merit, off the back of her own hard work.

Singh was the Father she never had. And now he was gone.

The view port in her quarters offered a view not of the station, but of the stars. Endless and mysterious. She stood and leaned against it, her forehead on the cold glass. She closed her eyes. Tears rolled down her cheeks.

“I miss you already,” she said.

It was then that she realised, finally, she was alone again.

5.

“I’m not looking forward to this,” Lisa Chang said as she buttoned the tunic of her dress uniform and looked at herself in the mirror.

Her roommate, Selena Walker, looked at her in the mirror. “Well, you look the part to me. Very prim and proper.”

Chang sighed. “I just wish it was for something else. A graduation ceremony. An Ambassadorial function. Anything but this. You know, something not so … upsetting.”

Selena went the bathroom they shared and filled the sink with warm water.

“What can you do though, eh?” she said as she cupped her hands into the water and proceeded to wash her face.

Chang looked at herself again, then checked her watch.

One hour till the memorial service for Captain Singh, she thought. I’m not looking forward to this.

*

The orderly helped Lieutenant-Commander Del Greene into his dress uniform. Under the guidance of Dr. Martinez, the chief medical officer of Station 6, the medics had treated the wound on his head with a fast-acting repair agent. Although there was no longer a hole in his head – not even a scar to show he’d ever been injured – his head hurt worse than any bender he’d ever been on.

“I still can’t coordinate my arms and legs properly. It’s like the wiring’s all screwed up,” Greene said.

“I’m going to liaise with Dr. Clayton myself, see to it he gives you the appropriate after care. Sometimes these ship-bound practitioners play it a little fast and loose with the quality of their bedside manner,” Dr. Martinez said.

“Not Clayton, doc. He’s a good man,” Greene said. “Now what about my arms and legs? They -“

Dr. Martinez chuckled as he shook his head. “Don’t worry. You’ll be okay. We predict full recovery in the next couple of days. Minimal lasting after effects. You should be dead, you know. Sustaining a head injury like that, it’s amazing you’re still with us …”

Now it was Greene’s turn to laugh. “That’s the advantage of having a thick skull, doc.”

*

Although it was only nine in the morning, Kyle Banks was already dressed and walking the Station’s promenade. There were a few people wandering about. Most of the stores, bars and restaurants were closed. But at the end of the promenade he could see the flashing blue neon sign of Mickey’s. Its proprietor, Mickey Robbins, insisted on keeping his place open all day and all night. He knew his market. When Banks had been a green cadet stationed at number 6, he spent a lot of his down time in Mickey’s.

He grinned as he neared the entrance. Ensigns Olivia Rayne and Jack Boi waited for him outside.

“Lads and Ladettes!” he said in his thick Scottish accent. “Ye come.”

“We said we would,” Boi said.

“Who are you calling a Ladette?” Rayne asked him. She had her blonde hair pulled back tight. Only once had Kyle seen her with it down. It fell in curls down to her shoulders when she let it. But most of the time she was very much the tomboy.

It was something he found incredibly attractive about her. She was strong, plucky. Feminine when she wanted to be.

He shook his head theatrically. “I meant Jackie boy here. He’s definitely the Ladette out of you two.”

Rayne shook her head with a sigh. She was used to his ribbing.

“Do you think it’s a good idea having a skin full before a funeral?” Boi asked.

Banks looked shocked. “What is this? Mutiny? Where I come from we see the departed off in style. And that starts with a drink.”

He slapped them both on the shoulder and led them inside. They stood at the bar. There were no other patrons in there. Popsynth music played low, without any bass. Everything was awash with neon light, exactly as Banks remembered it from his cadet days. Mickey’s had a robotic barman. It whirred toward them.

“What is your order gentlemen?” it said in a flat, artificial voice.

Banks turned to the other two. “So? What’ll it be?”

They looked at each other. “Something not too strong,” Rayne said.

Banks turned to the barman. “Don’t listen to him. We’ll have three Blazing Saddles with whiskey chasers. And keep ‘em coming pal, okay?”

The barman set about fetching their drinks. In a moment they were on the bar top. Banks lifted his glass.

“Comrades, a toast.”

They reluctantly lifted theirs as well.

“To Captain Singh.”

The three of them clinked glasses and then downed their drinks. Boi and Rayne fell against the bar, choking. Banks wiped his mouth and slammed his glass down.

“Barman, another,” he said.

*

Meryl Gunn was clean for once. It made a change for her to walk into the mess hall not covered in grease and dirt from the engineering section. The galley cooks were cooking breakfast. Meryl put in her order and sat down at an empty table.

“Not good enough to sit with am I?”

Meryl looked up. It was Del Greene holding a tray of food.

“Oh, sorry. I didn’t see you sitting over there,” she said, using her foot to push out the opposite chair. Greene sat down in front of her.

“How are you?” he asked her.

“Okay I suppose. You?”

Greene carefully slid a forkful of eggs into his mouth. She noticed he did so slowly and with some degree of concentration. She also noticed the bruising to his forehead from the knock he sustained in the attack. He shrugged. “You know …”

Meryl nodded. “I do.”

The silence hung between them. A tray of food appeared in front of her, followed by a black coffee. She thanked the cook then set about sprinkling salt and pepper onto her breakfast.

“I thought I’d come in here, have breakfast before the service. I could have had it on the Station, but I like how they do it here,” Greene said.

Meryl knew what he meant. “You get used to it.”

“Yeah, that’s it. Institutionalised,” Greene said. “How are the repairs coming along?”

“Teams are working around the clock. Good at the moment. She took quite a beating, though,” Meryl said. “There’s some major work to be done.”

She bit into a slice of buttered toast.

Greene sat back in his chair and regarded her for a moment, a smug look on his face.

“What?” she asked him, miffed.

“Do you know, that’s the first time I’ve seen you like that?”

Meryl frowned. “Like what? Clean?”

Greene chuckled, shaking his head. “No, no. I mean, looking like a lady.”

Meryl blushed. She couldn’t help it. She sipped her coffee. “You mean I don’t look like a lady the rest of the time?”

Now it was Greene’s turn to look embarrassed. “You know I don’t mean that.”

“Well I guess those overalls aren’t very flattering …” Meryl admitted.

“You should dress like that more often,” he said.

“What? In a full dress uniform? No thanks. Too official for me I’m afraid,” Meryl said.

“No, I meant dress like a woman,” Greene said.

“Cheeky sod,” Meryl shot back with a grin.

*

Captain Jessica King didn’t have a drink. She didn’t have breakfast. A quarter of an hour before the service was due to begin she found herself sitting by the side of Singh’s casket, her hands in her lap and her head bowed down.

It was silent in there. It seemed odd to her that she could only hear herself breathing, despite there being two people in the same room. She looked in on him.

His hair had gone grey at the sides, and he’d gained a little weight around his face, but he was still the same man who found her all those years ago and offered a second chance. A shot at redemption.

She heard the door open behind her. She turned around to see Admiral Grimshaw standing in the doorway.

“Thought I’d find you here,” he said. “Hope I’m not intruding.”

Jessica stood, gave a quick salute. “Of course not, Admiral. I was just, uh -“

Grimshaw waved her down. “At ease, Captain.”

He stood next to the casket and looked in. Jessica noticed the glassy sheen of Grimshaw’s eyes, the slightly pale complexion. “Are you okay sir?”

Grimshaw looked at her and managed a smile. “When I got my first command, he was my very first number one. Did you know that?”

She shook her head.

“The finest officer I’ve ever had the fortune to serve with. I say that a lot. But in this case I really do mean it,” Grimshaw said.

“I second that, Admiral.”

She looked down into the casket too, took Singh’s hand in her own. His felt cold and heavy.

“He was like a Father to me,” she said.

Grimshaw did something unexpected then. He reached out and put his arm around her. He hugged her in close to him. “I’m sorry,” he said. “I really am.”

“It’s okay,” Jessica said, a little taken aback by his show of affection.

Grimshaw let go of her and stepped around the casket. He held out his hand to her. “Here, give me your pin.”

She didn’t know what he meant. She took off her pin and handed it over. Grimshaw removed Singh’s Captain pin and replaced it with Jessica’s.

He stepped around the casket and pinned Singh’s pin on her. “There.”

She looked down at it. Scratched and worn, it had weathered decades of service. Her eyes filled with tears. “I don’t know what to say,” she said.

“You don’t have to say anything, Captain. Just remember where it came from. Remember what it stands for. Remember whose pin it was. And always wear it with pride, because you deserve it,” Grimshaw said.

“Yes sir,” King said.

*

The entire crew of the Defiant were present at Singh’s memorial service. With the addition of several Station crew who’d either worked with Singh at one time or another, or known him personally, there were close to a thousand people gathered in the reception hall.

Admiral Grimshaw spoke first, talking of his early experiences with Singh, how they became friends. After making the attendees laugh and cry, he welcomed King up on stage to speak. She hadn’t prepared anything. Nerves fluttered like errant moths in her stomach. When she took the podium, however, the words just came.

She thanked everyone for coming. She gave a little insight into what he’d been like as a Captain, and then a little of Andrew Singh as a man, separate from his rank and responsibilities.

“He was a friend of everyone. He was my friend. It will take me a long time to get used to the fact that he is never going to come back,” she said, her voice cracking. “But of course I will never forget him. He’ll always be here, with all of us.”

There wasn’t a dry eye in the house. The lid was placed atop of Andrew Singh’s casket and sealed tight. The flag of the Union was draped across it.

The assembled officers and crew stood either side of the casket as it was lowered into one of the Station’s firing tubes.

Admiral Grimshaw faced the giant view ports and held a formal salute. Everyone followed suit.

There were no words, no music. Just the sound of the firing tube closing around the casket. Then seconds later it was fired from the side of the Station.

Through her tears, King tried to watch it travel away from them as long as she could. But it was just a blur, eventually swallowed by the infinite blackness of space.

6.

There were drinks afterward, and King didn’t get a chance to turn one down. Grimshaw handed her a glass of ice suspended in yellow liquid and told her to drink it. She wiped her eyes.

“Is that an order, Admiral?”

Grimshaw’s face grew serious. “You’d better believe it.”

King wandered amongst everyone. She found Del Greene in a far corner of the room, chatting with Chief Gunn.

“Ah Jess,” Greene said. He leaned forward an unexpectedly planted a kiss on King’s cheek. She was taken aback. “Sorry.”

She grinned, straightened out her tunic. “A little out of the blue, but -“

“He’s had a few,” Gunn said. “And he’s been getting bit melancholy.”

“I have not. Commander, I’m so sorry about Andrew. I really am. I haven’t had chance to tell you that yet,” Greene said.

King shook her head. “It’s okay, Del. I know you’ll miss him, all of you.”

“Here here,” he said. He took a large swallow of his drink.

“Oh, and it’s Captain now,” King said, offhandedly.

Greene looked at her in surprise. Then he saw the pin. “Captain!”

She nodded.

“Congratulations,” Gunn said.

“Thanks,” King said. She looked at Greene. “That’s kind of why I wanted to see you, Del.”

“Yeah?” he asked.

Jessica took the drink out of his hand and gave it to the Chief. “Well, now there’s going to be a vacancy. You know, my old position as second-in-command. I was wondering if you’d -“

“Don’t even have to ask. I’m not going anywhere,” Greene said.

King smiled. She offered him her hand. “Then congratulations, Commander.”

Greene stiffened, straight back and chest puffed out.

He shook her hand firmly, as a huge smile lit up his face.

Gunn wiped her eyes. “Oh it’s all getting a bit too emotional for me,” she said. “So much happening in one day.”

“You know, it’s -” King started to say.

The emergency klaxons sounded throughout the Station.

Everyone stopped what they were doing and looked around, the pulsating red glow on their faces like a highlight of concern.

“All hands, battle stations. Repeat. All hands battle stations. This is not a drill,” an echoing voice announced over the comm. system. Chaos broke out as people ran in all directions to get to their departments, the wake forgotten for now.

“What do we do?” Chief Gunn asked.

King looked at them both. She drained the last of her drink with a grimace and set the glass down on a nearby table. Gunn did the same with her drink and Greene’s.

“Come with me,” King said as she started to move.

7.

“Admiral!” King called across the hall. Grimshaw was talking to a member of the Station’s senior command crew.

He finished up then sent the man away. He turned to King. “Captain. You might want to get your people aboard the Defiant now.”

“What do you mean? What’s the situation?” King asked.

Grimshaw looked about at the people rushing to get out of the reception hall.

“Several Draxx ships. One of them … the same ship you detail in your report, apparently,” Grimshaw said.

His words fell like stones. “My god …” King managed to say.

Grimshaw nodded. “Indeed. Walk with me. Quickly.”

*

King, Chief Gunn and Commander Greene followed Admiral Grimshaw out of the reception room. The Station tremored from a direct hit.

“I felt that,” Grimshaw said. “Whatever they’re firing, it must have got past the energy shielding.”

“That thing sure does land some heavy punches,” Greene said.

“Yes, but I’m afraid these are only warning shots,” Grimshaw told him. “Captain, the commander of the lead ship has demanded that we hand over the Defiant and her crew as prisoners of war.”

King turned to him as they walked the eastern promenade. At the end were the buggy bays. Several were already speeding off. “And what did you say?”

“I said we’d think about it. Now there isn’t time to waste. This Sepix or whatever the hell he calls himself will realise soon enough that we’re leading him up the garden path. You need to get the Defiant away from here post haste.”

“Yes sir,” King said. They arrived at the buggies. She moved aside for Greene and Gunn to climb aboard. “I’ll need access to the station PA systems, to alert my crews.”

“I’ll have someone take care of that. Your crew should have enough time to get on board before you get the hell out of here. We will fire back with what we have, cover you and buy you some time,” Grimshaw said.

“And what will you do?” King asked.

Another hit rocked the entire station. Grimshaw glanced around, as though he expected the roof to cave in. “Don’t worry about that. Get going, Captain, that’s an order.”

King saluted him before stepping onto the buggy. “Thanks Admiral … for everything. Until we meet again.”

Grimshaw saluted back. “Best of luck, Captain,” he said as it carried them away.

*

They heard the order issue from the overheads as they sped away from the centrifuge to the Defiant. It echoed in the large spaces of the Station.

“All crew of the Defiant are to report back to ship for immediate evacuation. Repeat, all crew of the Defiant are to report back to ship for immediate evacuation.”

“Do you think we’ll get out of here in time?” Gunn asked.

King stared dead ahead. “We’ll have to do a cold start on the reactor if we’re gonna make it in time.”

Gunn shook her head. “It’s risky, sir. I advise against it. If the reactor chambers crack …”

King turned on her. “Risk? Risk is our business, Chief. There’s no other choice,” she snapped.

Gunn nodded. “Aye aye.”

*

Jack Boi and Olivia Rayne were already going through the airlock when King, Greene and Gunn climbed out of the buggy. Banks ran through behind Boi and Rayne. Lieutenant Banks had looked pretty intoxicated at Singh’s memorial service. But then so had Commander Greene. She spoke into her wrist communicator as she ran through the ship to the bridge.

“Engineering, this is the Captain. Fire up the reactor. We need to get out of here now. The Chief is on her way,” she said. “Bridge, anyone there?”

A familiar voice answered her straight away. “Chang, Captain. I got here a minute ago.”

“Good. Lieutenant, as soon as I reach the bridge I want you ready to disengage the airlocks. We can’t afford to wait for stragglers,” King said.

“Aye Captain,” Chang said.

King glanced behind her. Gunn had already run the other way, to the engineering section at the heart of the ship. Commander Greene was close behind, his feet dragging a bit from his accident but otherwise following best he could.

“Keep up Del,” she said.

*

Lieutenant Kyle Banks slid into the pilot’s chair and immediately accessed the helm controls. The fog of the drink seemed to have lifted; the bubbling fury of the adrenaline and panic boiling away inside him pushed it away for now. His hands flew across the different functions like those of a concert pianist.

“Thrusters online. Gravitational axis stable. The reactor is coming online,” he reported to nobody in particular. The bridge had been in darkness. Now the lights came on. Boi and Rayne sat at their stations, Rayne covering weapons as he had before.

King strode onto the bridge, Commander Greene close behind.

“Do we have everyone?” King asked Chang.

“Trackers show crew making their way to the airlock, sir. I estimate a couple more minutes at least,” Chang said.

King grimaced.

Greene relieved Rayne from covering his station, and sat back in his old seat. He turned to King. “Captain, we should give them a chance to get here.”

King folded her arms across her chest. “Okay. They’ve got as long as it takes to polarize the hull plating then we’re off. We can’t sit and wait.”

Greene nodded appreciatively. “Aye.”

“Commander, ready the batteries to repel enemy fire. Try to shoot down anything targeting us,” King said. “Lieutenant Chang, go to red alert. Ensign Boi, advise all crew that we are going to be taking enemy fire.”

She gripped the side of the chair, where the leather was worn at the ends of the armrests. Then she looked at the pin on her jacket. Andrew’s pin.

The lighting changed to a deep red around her.

*

Chief Meryl Gunn monitored the reactor core as it reached 100% output. She walked to the nearest comm. unit and spoke into it.

“Bridge, this is the Chief. Reactor is at one hundred percent. You’re good to go.”

The entire engineering section vibrated and rattled with the amount of power being produced in the core.

“Thank you Chief,” Captain King’s voice replied. “What about the Jump Drive?”

“A couple of minutes. Standby.”

She closed the channel and turned to her crew who looked at her, waiting for instructions. “Come on boys and girls, what’re you waiting for? Get the Drive online!”

*

On the viewscreen they watched the Inflictor fire a stream of warheads at Station 6. The artillery guns aboard the Station stopped less than half of them before they struck. The Defiant was rocked by the resultant explosions.

“Chang, detach from airlocks. Equalise the pressure,” King ordered.

“Aye,” Chang reported back.

“Ensign Boi, patch me through to Admiral Grimshaw,” King said. “Banks, uncouple us from the dock. We can’t wait any longer.”

She waited as Boi made the connection. Her mind flashed to the men and women she was leaving behind on the Station. A lump of regret rose in her throat. She swallowed it down, fought it away. That was for later. Along with a lot of other things.

“You’re on Ma’am,” Boi said. “Audio only.”

“Admiral?”

There was a lot of static.

“Admiral?” she asked again. “Are you there?”

More static and then, “Captain, get the Defiant away. We’re evacuating. We can’t hold up to this kind of attack.”

“Admiral -“

There was a loud hiss of static and then the channel was closed. Ensign Boi looked baffled.

“We are equalised,” Chang reported.

There was a large jolt as the Defiant separated from the station.

“Uncoupled,” Banks said.

“Then get us the hell out of here,” she said.

8.

The Defiant pulled away from the Station. Explosions along the outer edges of Station 6 buffeted her as she veered away.

“Status on the evac of the station,” King requested, wincing from a bright fireball to their left.

“In progress,” Chang reported. “I’m monitoring it.”

“Noted. Full power, Mr. Banks. All thrusters,” King ordered.

“Aye sir,” Banks replied. The Defiant trembled as she reached full speed.

“Rear view,” King ordered.

The front viewscreen changed to an aft camera. The Station receded as they sped away from it. She could make out the huge Draxx ship, accompanied by several smaller ships. She watched as the Inflictor began to turn in their direction and move away from Station 6.

“The Inflictor is making pursuit,” Chang reported.

“I see it. Ensign Rayne, time on the Jump Drive?” King asked, not taking her eyes away from the front display.

“Drive currently inactive, sir,” Rayne said.

“Liaise with engineering. I want to know the minute it’s ready,” she said.

A second later she spotted the Inflictor fire something that spiralled away behind it in the direction of the Station. She turned to Chang to say “What was that?” when an immense white light filled the bridge. It lasted a full three seconds before fading, and when it did she couldn’t believe what she saw. Or didn’t see.

The Station was no longer there. It was a rapidly dissipating cloud of debris and flame.

Chang looked up from her readouts, horror etched onto her face. “Station 6, sir … it’s gone.”

Again King put everything to the back of her mind. She’d process it all later. Everything. She gripped the sides of the chair and looked dead ahead at the Draxx behemoth closing the gap behind them, her jaw set, her lips a thin white line.

9.

The first warhead that got through the battery fire brushed past their starboard engine mount and detonated just aft of the ship. Everyone was knocked forward.

“Where’s that Drive Chief?” King shouted into the comm.

“Give me a few minutes. We just need to -“

“We don’t have a few minutes Chief. I need it working now!”

Chief Gunn said, “Aye sir,” and closed the channel.

Another warhead blew itself out, this time much closer. Banks swerved the Defiant as best he could to avoid the shockwave. His face a tight fist of concentration as he battled to keep them alive.

“Banks, on my order I want you to brake, tip the nose, take us up and over the Inflictor. We’ll dip beneath them from behind, then make the Jump,” King said.

Banks turned around, surprised at her request. “Are you serious?”

“Can’t you pull off a Corellian turn, Lieutenant?” King said.

Banks broke into a grin. “Of course I can. I’ve just never done it in a ship of this size before.”

“Well, there’s a first time for everything,” King said.

“Sir, we have an incoming transmission,” Ensign Boi reported.

King grew serious again. “Put it on.”

The reptilian face of Prince Sepix filled the viewscreen once more.

“Greetings,” Sepix said. “Once again, you run from us human.”

“We’re not on the run. We’re making you chase us for sport,” King hit back. “Our sport.”

Sepix chuckled, happy as a lizard stumbling upon a nest of bird eggs. “And what happens when I catch you, human?” he asked her.

“You realise we don’t taste that good?” King said with a cocky shrug.

She looked to the left. Rayne was conversing with engineering. Please hurry up, she thought. Come on Chief …

“I’ll tell you, Commander, I have sampled human flesh before and I must say, I found it quite appealing,” Sepix said with relish. “I look forward to a second helping.”

“I’m pleased for you,” King said.

Rayne turned to face her, both thumbs up.

King broke into a smirk. “Now Banks! Hit it!”

Sepix looked away in confusion, then disappeared from the viewscreen. Lieutenant Banks broke hard, then sent the Defiant up and over the Inflictor in a big loop. He arced back around to the ship’s rear, then took the Defiant under.

“Ensign Rayne, Jump!”

“But sir I don’t have co-ordinates set yet -” Rayne started to say.

King snapped her fingers. “Now!”

Rayne did as he was told. The Defiant shot out from under the Inflictor. The Draxx ship brought its weapons to bear. It fired. Space shrank back from the Defiant for a split second before it entered the Jump and blasted away.

*

Prince Sepix looked at the patch of space where the Defiant had been only seconds before. He turned to his crew.

“Follow their last trajectory, then pursue. And I warn you, don’t lose them if you all want to live past today,” he growled.

Two minutes later, the Inflictor made the Jump after the Defiant.

10.

She relaxed, but for only a breath.

“This is a risky move,” Commander Greene said anxiously. “We could be heading anywhere. Or into anything …”

King felt suddenly weary. “You’re right. Miss Rayne, exit the Jump now.”

Ensign Rayne eased a lever back slowly but with some relief, and the Defiant slowed before it slipped out of the Jump.

In her naivety, King had imagined they would emerge into empty space. She’d taken a gamble in making the Jump without having coordinates to actually Jump to. But the gamble was all they had. The Defiant would have been destroyed otherwise.

When they broke free from the Star Jump, the crew found themselves staring directly into the gaping maw of something horrifying; a system-wide maelstrom of gas, particles, planetary matter, debris, and energy swirling toward a central point like water in a bath rushing down a plug hole.

Making an unscheduled Jump, with no predetermined course was virtual suicide. You could tear right through the heart of a sun, or worse … you could find yourself in the iron grip of one of the strongest black holes ever recorded.

The Defiant groaned as if every bulkhead and structural support was a muscle being stretched in all directions at once.

“Full reverse! Lock in auxiliary and emergency power!” King yelled.

Banks worked the controls. “No effect!”

Chang clutched the edge of her console. There was a distinct sense of something trying to pull them all free from their seats, a huge well of gravity from directly ahead independent from the artificial forces keeping their feet to the deck.

King jabbed a button. “Engineering. Chief, how far can you stretch the reactor?”

“I can take her to one fifty, but it’s pushing it,” Gunn said.

“Take her to one sixty.”

“Captain, I don’t think she’ll -“ Gunn started to protest.

“Do it, Chief. That’s an order,” King snapped, closing the channel. “Banks, when you have that extra power, pump it into the engines. Try and get us away from this thing.”

A cloud of debris, islands of rock and ice hurtled past the Defiant on their way toward the centre of the black hole, as if the singularity plucked them from the cosmos to devour.

Ensign Rayne frowned at her monitor. “I think we’ve come out in the Koenig-Prime system …”

“The what? Koenig-Prime? But that’s half-way across the sector …” King said in disbelief.

The Koenig-Prime singularity was a huge black hole, and King was even more aware of the grievous error in judgement she’d made. But it was either that or let them be destroyed. She’d rolled the dice, and somehow they were still alive. For the minute.

“We shouldn’t have jumped … we shouldn’t have jumped,” Rayne said over and over, slipping into panic.

Commander Greene turned around and fixed her with a stare. “Now is not the time, Ensign. Get a grip.”

“I’m diverting the additional power from the reactor to the engines,” Banks said.

“Conduits struggling to cope with the additional charge,” Chang reported. “But holding.”

King tensed. The Defiant showed no change in its journey toward the black hole.

Banks shook his head. “Nothing.”

“Okay. Cut power. There’s no point in wasting precious energy in fighting what we can’t fight,” King said. “We need to think of something.”

“This shouldn’t have happened …” Rayne muttered.

Commander Greene fixed her with a stare. “Stop! Put a lid on it, you understand me? This stops now,” Greene said, the vein at the side of his neck pulsing. “She’s your Captain. Don’t you forget it.”

Rayne looked suddenly ashamed. Her face was red. “Yeah, yeah, sorry,” she stuttered as she came to her senses.

“It’s okay to feel the panic, Ensign,” King said. “But you have to control it.”

“I know sir. Sorry sir,” Rayne said.

“Okay …” King said. “We need to figure this out. Rayne, how long until we hit the event horizon?”

Rayne looked flustered. She quickly studied her readouts. “Minutes, sir. Minutes,” she said.

King nodded. “Right. And from there, how long until we hit the centre?”

She knew that it meant certain death. Not even light could escape the dead void at the centre of a black hole. The ship would be crushed like a tin can.

“Again, a matter of minutes. We arrived at such a velocity; the singularity is only accelerating that. We won’t have long,” Rayne said, seeming to calm down now that the inevitable implications of their current situation were making themselves clear.

“Thank you Ensign. And for the record? I am sorry I made the decision to Jump. We all make mistakes. But I was trying to keep us alive. Given the choice of killing the whole crew or putting a gun to my own head, it would be the latter any day,” she said, then looked from one to the other. “I would give my life over and over again to save you all.”

“We know sir,” Chang said, her eyes wet with tears.

“Thank you Lieutenant. Now, is there any way -“

She was cut off by the sound of the proximity alert. Chang spun in her chair, quickly checked her display.

“Enemy vessel directly behind us,” she said. “It’s the Draxx.”

11.

“What?” Prince Sepix snapped.

The helmsman studied his readouts then stared in disbelief at the forward viewscreen.

“As I said my Lord, we are caught in the pull of a black hole,” he said.

Sepix scowled. “Unacceptable! Reverse engines!”

The Inflictor screamed from the forces at work, one pulling it forward the other pulling it back as the mighty engines produced as much thrust as the engineering crew could draw from them.

“No use! Port engines going into overload!” the helmsman reported.

Sepix growled in frustration. “Shut it down you fool!”

The helmsman’s claws clattered against the metal of the helm as he scrambled to reduce the engines to nominal thrust.

Sepix glared at the forward screen, at the Defiant. His whole body shook with rage. “Lock on weapons and fire at that ship! I’ll be damned if I’ll follow a pink skin down to hell!”

*

“They’re locking weapons,” Chang reported.

“Transfer all power to the hull plating. Concentrate it to the rear, where we’re exposed,” King ordered. “All hands brace for impact.”

They waited for what seemed an age. King shot Chang a look. “I thought you said they were locking weapons?” she asked.

Chang looked baffled. “They were. I don’t understand it …”

Ensign Boi spoke up. King knew he was a highly educated science officer in his own right, as well as being a fine communications specialist. He’d gone from Cadet to Ensign in no time at all. “If I may, Captain, they might not be able to fire. The intense gravity from the black hole could be affecting their weapons. If it’s having an effect on ours then it will be doing the same to theirs,” he said.

“Commander, test our weapons systems. Try to fire,” King said.

Greene tried the different systems. Nothing worked. “He’s right. Dead as a door-post.”

King grinned. “Well that gives me something to smile about. They’re stuck in this mess with us, and there’s literally nothing they can do. It’s going to upset his lordship no end to think he can’t even shoot us out of the way.”

A few of them laughed, more from nerves than amusement.

“Well spotted Ensign,” King said to Boi. “Please open a line to the Inflictor.”

Boi nodded and within seconds the swirling chaos of the Koenig-Prime singularity was replaced by the fierce face of Prince Sepix.

“Hello again,” King said. “It’s been a little while.”

“Luckily for you, Captain, we are unable to blast you to smithereens or we would not be having this conversation,” Sepix said.

“How sad,” King said. “Well, have a good trip won’t you? I believe we’re going the same direction?”

Sepix turned to one of his bridge crew, swiped a hand across his throat. The communications cut dead.

King laughed. She couldn’t help it. The others joined her. It was hilarious, in it’s own way.

However, one look at the black hole before them sobered any laughter. The bridge fell eerily silent again as they all regarded their fate.

Commander Greene broke the silence. “Any ideas?”

King stared ahead. He face became hard, serious. “Nothing, Commander. That’s the point. There isn’t anything we can do.”

12.

“What’s going to happen once we cross the event horizon, Ensign?” King asked Ensign Boi as they neared closer and closer to the black hole.

“We should experience no real change in time. However to witnesses away from the black hole it would appear we are taking forever to reach travel across it, when in fact it might already be over and done with. Time has a tendency to slow down, sir,” Boi explained. “But not for us.”

“Will we be destroyed before we reach the centre of that thing?” Lisa Chang asked him.

“Maybe,” was all that Boi could say.

“There’s no way of surviving a black hole, is there?” King asked Boi.

He shook his head but didn’t voice the obvious. That they were going to die. They’d be crushed by the extreme gravity, pulverised to nothing.

“So what do we do?” Greene asked.

King shrugged. “Sit and wait.”

“Do we tell the crew?”

“No,” King said with a shake of her head. “No, we leave it. Why panic them? It’s going to happen. Why should we make their final moments one of suffering?”

Greene admitted that she was right.

“Crossing the point of no return,” Chang reported, her voice shaky.

“Banks, shut down the engines. Shut down all manoeuvring systems. Everything apart from the hull plating and the forward repulsor array.”

The repulsors were located beneath the nose of the ship. They nudged particle matter and debris out of the Defiant’s way when travelling at substantial speeds, as they were now.

“What’re you thinking?” Greene asked her.

“I don’t know. Something. Anything that might give us a chance of some kind. I’m thinking pump every ounce of power to the hull and the repulsors, see if it helps us survive a few seconds longer.”

“I’ll take those extra seconds sir,” Banks said as he shut down every non-essential function across the ship. The lighting dimmed to next to nothing around them.

“I thought you would Lieutenant,” King said.

Up ahead there was a huge flash of light. They all looked up in time to see a small planetoid tumbling over the rim at the black hole’s centre. It seemed to happen in slow motion, though King was aware it was happening quickly. The atmosphere and surface matter was stripped away first as the planetoid fell. Then it broke apart like a ball of dry dirt, down into the nothingness. There was an explosion from the crushing of its core, but it lasted a mere second before the energy of that, too, was swallowed by the singularity.

“My god,” Greene said.

“Not even he can help us now,” King quipped.

*

The Defiant slid sideways as the black hole pulled it in, as if it were reeling in a catch on a line. They could make out the centre of the black hole in detail now. The ship seemed to rattle around them with the forces pulling on it.

“Hold together baby,” King said, looking around.

“Hull is holding,” Chang said. “For now.”

“If I could get up from this chair, I’d get a wee stiff drink but I can’t move,” Lieutenant Banks said.

“I could use one too,” King admitted. “How long do you think, Ensign Rayne?”

Rayne did a quick calculation in her head. “About fifteen minutes until we arrive at the centre.”

His voice trembled with fear.

King swallowed. “Everyone, I’d like to say a few words, if I may.”

The bridge crew listened.

“It’s been a mad few days. A lot has happened. The death of Captain Singh, now this … but you know, even now we stand together. And that’s the important thing. We’ve pulled through. It may not mean much to you all now, but I am so proud of you all. I’m grateful for having the opportunity to serve alongside you.”

She looked from one crewman to the next.

“And I’ll miss you all.”

The black hole seemed impossibly close now. King’s body felt like it was weighed down with lead. She knew that if it weren’t for the artificial gravity on board the Defiant, they’d all be dead by now. The force of the black hole would have torn them free from their seats and crushed them against the far wall.

She had never been so frightened in her life. Or disappointed. After everything they’d survived, it had come to this. A slow and excruciating death. She feared the darkness at the black hole’s centre. She imagined it to be cold, empty. A nothingness that stretched on forever. She absently wondered what it would feel like to be crushed to death like that. Would she feel pain? Would it be so quick that she didn’t even know it was happening?

Her heart pounded in her chest. Jessica gripped the chair. She thought of Andrew. She thought of everyone she’d ever served with. She thought about the mystery regarding her own origins, the lack of parents in her life to guide her through her early years.

Andrew had been there for her. Had seen to it she followed the right path. Had seen the potential within her. Had been a Father to her.

“This is it people,” she said.

Nobody said anything. They were each concealed within their own cocoon of fear.

The Defiant went into a nosedive, down into the black hole. She saw Commander Greene clamp his eyes shut, his body braced for whatever was coming. She did the same. She covered her head with her arms, clutched herself, closed her eyes, and held her breath.

The Defiant was consumed by the singularity.

King felt herself get pulled in all directions at once. She would have screamed, but she had no mouth. No voice. She was nothing and everything all at once.

“We can give you a life, give you a purpose,” Singh was saying.

Jess shook her head. “I’m not good enough. I’ve tried already. I don’t have what it takes.”

Singh tilted her head up, his hand under her chin. “With my help you will have. If you’ll trust me …”

She was by his side as he perished.

Tears streamed down her face.

Her voice cracked as she spoke. “Please don’t go, please.”

Captain Singh shook his head slowly. Smiled. “Jess … We each have our time. My own is at an end …”

“No …” she managed to say.

Singh reached up, stroked the side of her face. “Now it is your turn to do as much as you can with the time you have …”

He smiled again, then his eyes seemed focus on something far away. The light in them faded. Singh’s hand fell away from hers and the sound of his last breath issued slowly from between his lips.

“No …”

Everyone was around her, even Singh, then she was alone.

Floating in a sea of black. A never-ending night, devoid of stars. She saw the Defiant, no more than a foot long, and hundreds of little tiny people falling from it like confetti. She reached out to try and catch them. They fell through her fingers like grains of sand. She cried out, and everything split apart … then there was nothing at all, not even thought.

13.

Everything had been scattered. Blown apart like dust on the wind. Now it came back together. She felt herself becoming whole once more. Becoming herself.

A lot of different puzzle pieces that when whole made something called JESSICA KING moved toward one another. They connected. They became one thing, one being, one mind.

“Now it is your turn to do as much as you can with the time you have …”

His words, again, in the darkness.

” … with the time you have …”

She opened her eyes. “With the time you have,” she said.

14.

The bridge lay in darkness save for sparse pools of emergency lighting that fell in misty bars from the ceiling. Every console was dark. The front viewscreen dead. But the Defiant was in one piece. That much she was sure of.

Jessica tried to move. Her whole body felt as though it’d been beaten with a very hard stick. She groaned as she shifted in the captain’s chair. The rest of the crew were stirring now too. Lieutenant Banks lifted his head from the helm console, wiped drool from the side of his mouth. They all looked about, dazed and wide-eyed with disbelief. Jessica cleared her throat. “Everyone okay?”

They each reported back to her in turn, mostly in grunts and murmurs to let her know they were all still alive.

“Chang … patch into the emergency power grid. Get a status report from all departments. Injuries, death toll, damage to critical systems, the works,” King said groggily.

Chang nodded, said “Aye” and set to work, albeit slowly. She got down from her chair, and removed the panel beneath her console. It would take her a little bit of time to locate the emergency power, but once she had her station rerouted they’d at least know how the rest of the ship was feeling.

“What the bloody hell happened?” Commander Greene asked aloud. He rubbed the ball of his hand into his forehead, as if it were going to cave in.

“Did we go through the black hole, sir?” Ensign Rayne asked her.

King shrugged. “Olivia, your guess is as good as mine. Whatever happened, we’re obviously still alive.” She unclipped the safety harness around her waist and got up, stretched. She walked around the bridge slowly, easing the knots from her legs and the bottom of her back. “Ensign Boi, contact engineering,” she said.

Boi tried his panel. “No power, sir. Shall I access emergency power too?”

“No. I don’t want to overload it,” she said. She turned to Greene, “Commander, get to engineering for me and assist the Chief in getting us some power. Tell her that control and thrust are her priorities. Other functions will have to wait. We need to be able to move about and see where we’re going.”

He nodded, got up and left the bridge. The deck plating in the corridor clanged under his feet. That was how quiet and lifeless the Defiant was at that moment. A seemingly hollow shell with ants scurrying under its skin.

“I’ve made contact. It’s going to take a few minutes for department heads to assess, sir,” Chang said. She held an earpiece up to her ear with one hand and worked the controls at her station with the other.

“Okay. Everyone else, in the meantime let’s huddle together and try to come up with a game plan,” King said.

Ensign Boi, Ensign Rayne and Lieutenant Banks formed a group around the Captain. She leaned back against a lifeless console, her arms crossed and looked from one to the other. “It’s been a hell of a day, hasn’t it?”

“Could say that,” Banks said.

“But we’re still here. We’re still alive and kicking. We’re survivors, and we will survive this I promise you all.”

“What about the Draxx ship? What about Sepix? He has to be out here too …” Rayne said.

King nodded in agreement. “True. All the more reason to give this ship her heartbeat back, as quickly as possible.”

“You say here,” Ensign Boi said to Rayne, “But we don’t even know where here is.”

“Good point,” King said. “As soon as we have power, we must stabilise the ship. She’s no doubt adrift. Then I want you two to work together to ascertain our position. Our last location was the Koenig-Prime system … perhaps work from there.”

They both nodded.

“And if Sepix is floating around nearby?” Banks asked her.

King blew a puff of air. It made her fringe fluff up momentarily.

“I can’t answer that. I hope he’s not. I hope he was destroyed. But I can’t go on hope alone. Chances are he pulled through with us. So I think once we have the ship back under some degree of control, we must work on our weapons system. They’ll be down from the power outage, and I have a feeling we’ll need them,” King said.

The notion suddenly struck her of the Defiant, utterly defenceless and vulnerable to Draxx attack. The Defiant, afloat, with Sepix aiming his guns at her.

She didn’t share her fears with the crew. She knew they were probably thinking the same thing. With the power out for who-knew-how-long, the battery guns would take time to charge enough to fire. The firing tubes were damaged anyway from the fire and resultant explosion beforehand. There were only a handful of them still functioning.

The Defiant was pretty much a sitting duck.

This day goes from bad to worse, King thought.

*

Prince Sepix drank green fluid from a flask on his hip. The swamp water dribbled down the sides of his mouth and he wiped it away.

“Report!” he shouted. The Inflictor was without power. All systems were down apart from the photovoltaic cells embedded in the walls and ceilings, and the organic rebreathers that recycled the atmosphere, albeit with a sulphur taint.

His first officer looked about in confusion. “I do not know …”

Sepix strode forward, grabbed him by the throat, and lifted him from his seat. He pinned him up against the wall and squeezed until the officer gasped for breath.

“Then find out before I make you an entree for my Grivnak!” he shouted. He threw him to one side.

The Prince stood several feet higher than the other Draxx on board the Inflictor. It was his royal stock. His purity. He was superior in strength and intelligence, attributes that had served him well in convincing the Queen to grant him control of the entire Draxx fleet.

The crew scurried to get the ship operational again.

“He will be the entree and the rest of you the main course!” he yelled at them all.

Sepix formed a fist. It closed around an imaginary Defiant. In his mind’s eye he saw the other ship spinning on its axis in space like a revolving target.

He broke into a wide grin, full of pointy teeth. “We will crush them …”

*

Commander Greene helped Chief Gunn organise the repair teams. Something had happened to the ship when it went through the black hole. Whatever that something was, it had deactivated the reactor entirely. Even a cold start was out of the question.

“We don’t have anything to cold start the bloody thing with!” Gunn answered Greene when he asked.

He held up his hands in defence. “Don’t shoot the messenger,” Greene said.

Gunn wasted little time in ordering him about, and he was happy to help.

Now, with his assistance, they were making headway.

“Bypass that system, we don’t need it,” the Chief ordered a young Ensign, who nodded and did as she was told. She turned to another member of engineering. “You! Don’t put that there. Like I said, divert that to section G.”

“Yes Chief,” he said.

Greene watched what was going on with a look of mild amusement on his face. He couldn’t help it. The Chief caught him looking. “What are you smiling about?”

He shook his head. “Nothing.”

She huffed, irritated as she worked to reroute the auxiliary power controllers to the engine buffers. “Don’t mess me about, Del.”

“Just the way you organise things down here,” Commander Greene said. “It’s like a regime …”

“It has to be. It’s my regime,” she said defensively. “It’s why it works.”

All of a sudden there was the unmistakable sound of the engines humming into life, power finally flowing through them. The reactor started to tick over. “Aaaah,” Greene said.

“Method to the madness, Commander. Method to the madness,” Chief Gunn said with a wink.

*

Every station came back to life around her. King heard the comm. unit crackle into life followed by the sound of the Chief’s proud voice.

“Nominal power to engines, sir. Twenty-five percent,” Chief Gunn said. “And you should find that life support, inter-ship comms and short-range sensors should now be operational.”

King couldn’t stop herself from breaking into a big grin. “Thanks Chief. You’ve all done great. Please continue to make your repairs.”

“Aye Captain,” Gunn said.

“There she is,” Chang said, nodding toward the viewscreen as the camera cycled to show the surrounding space in all directions. It was an aft view, from the stern. The first thing they’d seen when the screen reappeared was empty space, followed by a huge blue nebula to the right hand side of them. King had hoped, naively, that the Inflictor hadn’t made it through. But it had. It was there, on the aft camera.

“Lieutenant Banks, please stabilise the Defiant. Fire up the engines, twenty-percent thrust. Get us away from that Draxx ship,” she ordered. She sat in the captain’s chair. On the front viewscreen the Inflictor spun, a darkened goliath.

“Aye sir,” Banks said. He keyed the controls, piloted them out into open space.

“Chang, monitor that ship for any activity,” King said. She looked across at Rayne and Boi, hard at work trying to figure out where in the hell they were.

“Reports are coming back in, Captain,” Chang said. “Three hundred confirmed from our crew of five hundred. I can only assume that …”

“It’s okay, Lieutenant. I’ll see the full report later for myself,” King said.

Chang nodded and got back on with her work. King looked after her sympathetically but decided that it wouldn’t do to have the others see her concern.

Sure, they’d left people behind. And the ship had suffered heavy losses. But there was nothing she could do about it now.

King was starting to realise the curse of the Captain’s pin she wore on her breast pocket. “Do we have enough power for the hull plating?” she asked aloud.

Banks turned around. “Not by the looks of it. Not yet.”

Helpless. No way of defending itself apart from running away. It went against everything Singh had ever taught her. He’d always said, “Never back down because you feel you have to. Only do so because you’re unable to do anything else. There’s always an answer to any impossible problem, even if it means bruising your own pride.” In this situation there really was nothing else they could do but run. Or try to run. Do something to gain an upper hand on the inevitable. King knew that the Inflictor would probably regain power shortly. And she knew they wouldn’t be too far away when it did.

But I’m buying us time, she thought. And we need every second.

15.

“Any luck you two in figuring out where the hell we are?” King asked Ensign Boi and Ensign Rayne.

“Not at present sir,” Ensign Rayne said. “Nothing matches any of the star charts on file.”

King swallowed. “Okay. So now what?”

They both looked at each other. “We’ll try a few different things, see what we come up with,” Boi said.

King nodded, looked away in thought. If nothing matched the star charts then they really were lost. When they had time, she would have the ships logs checked so that they could get a feel for what had happened exactly when they went through the black hole. It went against every scientific principle to survive such a thing. But here they were. Lost.

She turned back to them. “You’re not detecting any signs of a singularity nearby?”

Ensign Boi shook his head. “Negative.”

King looked ahead. The Draxx ship was receding into the distance, although she knew that meant diddlysquat. When the dragon woke they’d soon feel its fire at their tail.

“Captain, I am detecting sensor pings. If I’m not mistaken, the Inflictor is getting a bearing on us,” Chang said.

Banks shook his head. “But it’s dead in the water …”

King buckled herself in, her face a frozen slab of ice. “Everybody, battle stations.”

“Captain -” Banks went to say.

“Don’t you get it, Lieutenant? They want you to believe they’re still without power. Hence the stealth pings,” she explained.

“Right,” Banks said in agreement.

The dragon’s sleeping with its eyes half-open, King thought.

She jabbed the comm. panel. “Chief, we need that hull plating …”

“We’re going as fast as we can, Captain,” Gunn said.

*

Sepix smiled. The Defiant limped away like a wounded Grivnak. It gave him pleasure to see the human scum try to run for their lives. That was all they had done since their first meeting. Run.

Now he would bring an end to the chase. His crew had no idea where the singularity had spat them out, but it was of no matter. The Draxx Dominion would do what it did best, wherever it was.

Dominate.

He, Prince Sepix, heir to the throne of the Draxx Dominion, would see to it that his people had a foothold wherever they found themselves. “Lock on weapons,” he ordered.

He was reminded of his people’s motto: Dominate the Weak. Destroy the Strong.

“Maintain stealth status,” he said. “And when I give the word, open fire.”

*

“They are locking weapons,” Lieutenant Chang said.

“Banks, I want you to push the engines to fifty percent,” King ordered with a grimace.

“I’ll try,” Banks said. He brought the Defiant’s engines to thirty-five percent power but could take them no further. “That’s it. All I can get out of her. Thirty-five percent.”

“Keep your heading. Don’t try to out-manoeuvre. Show no sign we’ve detected their lock-on,” King ordered.

“What are we going to do?” Rayne asked her.

The Captain found herself unable to answer.

*

“The enemy has increased speed.”

Sepix slammed his fists down on the front console. “Fire!”

The helmsman let loose a burst of warheads. They flared away from the Inflictor on a direct collision course with the Defiant.

Sepix watched in anticipation of the coming explosion, salivating.

*

King saw the warheads tear away from the Inflictor. She unbuckled herself and stood, arms straight at her sides in defiance. She didn’t need to tell them all to brace for impact. When the warheads hit they’d blow the Defiant out of the sky. They wouldn’t feel a thing before death swept them away.

Everything would be for nothing …

Bogie on the screen!” Chang reported in shock.

A small fighter appeared on screen, firing streams of energy at the incoming warheads. They erupted like fireworks. Not a single one of them hit. The bridge crew cheered.

King turned on her heel. “Ensign Boi, open a channel.” She sat back down.

“Open, sir,” Boi reported.

She could hear the relief in the boy’s voice.

“This is the Union starship Defiant,” King said.

The line crackled. The pilot of the fighter came in weak and almost inaudible. “Wow am I glad to see you!”

His voice had a distinctly Texan flavour to it. Southern. Jessica’s jaw dropped before she caught herself. “Chang, is that fighter one of ours?” she asked as the fighter shot down another swarm of Draxx warheads. As she watched it on the viewscreen, Jessica realised she knew that ship. It was a variant of the old Zenith-class fighter.

It can’t be, she thought, her stomach churning. It can’t be …

“Head for the nebula,” the pilot said over the comm. “I’ll hold ‘em off ‘til y’all get there.”

Now she was sure. There could be no doubt. “Lieutenant Banks, you heard the man. Head for that nebula and give it everything you’ve got,” she ordered.

*

Sepix watched as the little ship picked off the last warhead with a burst of fire.

“Target that little ship! NOW!” he roared, furious. A few heartbeats later a single warhead shot toward the fighter. It was set to track and follow it until it caught up.

The small craft ducked and dove, but the warhead stayed on its tail, inching closer and closer.

At first Sepix chuckled.

His expression changed to one of confusion, then surprise as the fighter headed straight for the Inflictor. He cocked his head to one side.

“What is he doing – ?”

The little ship waited till the last minute, then ducked sharp beneath the Inflictor. The warhead slammed directly into the front of her. The huge hull took the full force of the hit. Sepix was thrown backward. The bridge burst into flame. The Inflictor shook as if riding a tectonic plate.

Sepix had time to look up at the viewscreen and see the fighter heading away. Then the viewscreen went blank, overloaded.

He scrambled to his feet, looked around him at the destruction the warhead had done. Now the Inflictor was crippled. The Defiant would be long gone by the time they were operational again. His rage boiled over. He lifted his arms into the air and screamed.

16.

They navigated slowly through the dense blue mist of the nebula. King slapped a hand on Banks’s shoulder.

“You’ve done well today, Lieutenant. I want you to get someone to relieve you and go get some rest. You’ve more than earned it,” she said.

“Thanks Captain,” Banks said. “I’ve got a splitting headache.”

“From the booze or the black hole?” King asked with a wink.

Banks laughed. Rubbed his eye. “Both I think.”

“The pilot of the small fighter is requesting permission to come aboard,” Ensign Boi reported.

King had expected it … and dreaded it. If she was right about the owner of the little ship, then there was a lot of explaining to do. A lot of questions to be asked.

It gave her goosebumps.

“Granted. Tell him to land in the main hangar,” she said. She turned to the bridge crew. “Everybody find relief for your stations. I want you all to come with me.”

She hit the comm. panel. “Chief, Commander … I’ll meet you both in the hangar. There’s something you need to see.”

*

Ten minutes later, they stood together behind the glass separating the observation lounge from the main hangar. Her command crew all looking worse for wear but, like the Defiant herself, still in one piece.

They watched as the hangar bay doors opened to admit to the small ship. It was angular, a triangle shape with a smooth dome covering the cockpit. It had huge engines on either side, at the ends of it airfoils. Its landing gear appeared from hatches under its hull and it settled gently down to the deck.

The doors shut and the hangar filled with breathable air. The light above the airlock from the lounge to the hangar changed to green.

“Come on,” King said to them all.

They formed a line in front of the ship. As the dome of the cockpit slid back, they could make out the pilot in his body suit and helmet, all of it black.

Exactly as she remembered.

Commander Greene turned to her. “Captain -“

She put a finger against her lips. “Shhh.”

The pilot climbed down from the ship, removed his gloves.

“Attention!” King barked. They all formed a rigid salute.

Chang looked around. “I don’t know what’s going on here,” she whispered to Ensign Boi.

King heard her, made eye contact. “Something historic,” she said.

The pilot removed his helmet. He looked just like the snapshot of him in the history books. Blonde hair, blue eyes, a scar down his right cheek like the dark trail of a tear.

They all drew in a breath and held it in awe. Captain Gerard “Hawk” Nowlan looked about at them all, then slowly returned the salute.

King cleared her throat. “Gerard Nowlan?”

He nodded, bemused at the way they were acting. “Yeah, that’s me.”

“The Captain Nowlan?” she asked again. To make sure. To make it perfectly clear, for herself as much as the others. Because she didn’t believe it. Not even with him stood there, alive and healthy in front of her. It couldn’t be true.

The pilot broke into a cheeky grin. It was exactly as she remembered the photo of him on Knapfor VI. “Yeah … why d’you look so surprised? You’re the rescue party, ain’t yuh?”

Jessica shook her head. “No, sir. I’m afraid we’re not.”

“I don’t follow,” Nowlan said.

Jessica looked down at the deck, as if it held all the answers for her. She looked back up. “We’re not here to rescue you, sir, because you’ve been missing in action fifty years. Technically sir … you’re dead.”

Nowlan looked from one to the other, to see if it was all some kind of joke. Then he looked about at the ship. It was an old ship from King’s standpoint, but to Nowlan it looked state of the art. New. Advanced. Jessica saw his eyes widen.

“Fifty years? But …” he looked away, lost in thought. Whatever he’d been about to say faded away for the moment. “Anyway, I ain’t got a clue where in the blazes I am. I’m lost here.”

She smiled, despite the weight in her heart.

“And so too are we, it seems.” she said.

PART TWO

COMMANDER

1.

The legend was back from the dead.

Captain Jessica King watched Gerard “Hawk” Nowlan chat with Lieutenant Chang and instantly recognised his toothy grin from the plethora of material available on him when she was in the Academy. It made her head hurt to think about how he could be here, right now, alive and kicking. She doubted he’d been on this side of the black hole more than a few days. If that was the case, then in that short space of time half a century had passed.

A one-way street, she thought. It doesn’t matter whether you can go back or not because if you do there might not be anything left to go back to …

“Everyone?” King said suddenly. “I’d like your attention for a moment.”

They all stopped talking and looked at her.

“I know you’re all as stunned and excited as I am by having Captain Nowlan among us, but it’s been a long day,” she said. “I think it best we resume this after we’ve all got some rest.”

Commander Greene nodded his approval. “Agreed.”

“There will be a meeting of all department heads in the conference room in eight hours time,” she said. “So get your heads down. Dismissed.”

They filed out of the hangar, leaving her and Greene with Nowlan.

“That’s gonna be some meeting,” Greene said with a low whistle.

King rubbed her temple. “Yeah I know.”

Nowlan stood with his hands on his hips. “So, uh …”

“Sorry, Captain Nowlan, I’ve neglected you -” she started to say.

Nowlan put his hands up. “It’s okay, Ma’am, no apology necessary. To tell yuh the truth, it’s all kinda strange. They’re treatin’ me like I’m some kind of … hero or somethin’. I’ve only been missin’ a day.”

King looked at Greene. His eyes warned caution.

“Well, you know … you saved our lives,” she said.

Nowlan shrugged. “All in a day’s work,” he said with a grin.

King shook her head and laughed. “Yeah.”

“Captain, I could show Captain Nowlan -” Greene said.

“Just Hawk,” Nowlan cut in. “If y’all don’t mind.”

“- noted. I could show Hawk to the Ambassador’s quarters,” Green continued.

Jessica nodded. “Good idea. Captain Nowlan, if that’s agreeable with you, then my first officer will show you to your quarters. You could probably do with some rack time yourself I imagine.”

Hawk smiled. “Yuh. Not a bad idea.”

Greene indicated the hangar bay door. “This way sir.”

King watched them go, and then when she was finally alone she turned to Nowlan’s ship. She gazed at the sight before her. As a girl, Jessica had spent hours staring at the poster on her bedroom wall; a photograph of this very ship which had fuelled her inclination to enter the Academy in the first place.

She ran her hand across its pitted surface, where it was inscribed with Speedy above a thunderbolt in yellow. The hangar was practically empty save for a few deckhands going about their duties. Jessica climbed up the side of the ship and stood above the cockpit. She couldn’t allow herself to step down into it.

“This is too strange,” she said aloud.

She didn’t think there was anyone close enough to hear but a voice piped up from the deck. “Sounds strange when you put it that way, sir,” a deckhand said.

Jessica climbed down. He gave her a salute.

“Lieutenant Renfro, Captain,” he said.

She returned the gesture. “Lieutenant, you have the watch right now?”

He nodded. “Yes sir.”

“I want you to make sure nobody comes near this ship. Run your standard routines, but you’re the only one to touch it, you understand?” King told him.

“Yes Captain,” Renfro said.

Satisfied, Jessica headed for the door.

*

Jessica set her glass of vodka down when she heard the door chime.

What now? she thought. She’d just started to unwind, finally. She was looking forward to a few precious hours of rest.

“Come,” she said. The door slid open and Commander Greene stood outside with a bottle in his hand.

“Can I come in? I brought a drink,” Greene said. He stepped inside and the door closed behind him.

Jessica picked up her glass and shook it. The vodka sloshed back and forth. “I’ve already got a drink, Commander.”

He waved her away. “Down it will you? I’ve got a real one for you here.”

She managed a smile and made room for him on the sofa. Greene looked around for another glass and then sat next to her.

“Come on,” he pushed her.

Jessica rolled her eyes then knocked the vodka back in one go.

Greene looked surprised. “I’m impressed,” he said, taking the empty glass from her.

He poured them each a double. It was a silky pink liquid. She sniffed it disapprovingly.

“Don’t turn your nose up, sir. This stuff costs a lot of money,” Greene said.

“What is it?” Jessica said, making a face.

“It’s pink,” Greene said. He clinked his glass against hers and downed it in one. Jessica did the same. It was oily, and had a medicinal aftertaste. But it was strong. Already she could feel it hit up against the vodka.

“It’s got a bite,” she said with a grimace. “So is this what you came here for, Commander? To get me drunk?”

Greene laughed. “No ma’am. Just to see if a friend of mine is okay. You might know her. She’d hard-headed and stubborn.”

“Cheeky sod,” Jessica said.

“Only joking. But really, you okay? It’s been a long couple of days,” Greene said.

Jessica sighed. “Yes it has.”

She became aware of him looking at her, trying to gauge whether or not she was showing signs of stress.

“Del, I’m all right. Really. I just need to grab some shut eye,” she said.

Greene nodded his approval. He poured them both another measure of the pink stuff. “Right then. Well, drink that and I’ll be on my way.”

They downed their drinks together. Greene got up.

“Thanks for dropping by, Del. I appreciate it.”

He shrugged. “It’s nothing.”

“Del, I meant to say earlier. As soon as you’re able I’d like you to compile a list of the missing in action, and killed in action. That way we’ll know the sort of losses we’re looking at,” King said.

Del nodded. “Yes Captain. Good night.”

Jessica watched Greene leave, then sat back down. To her right the blue gas of the nebula floated past. She sat looking at it for a while, then leaned back against the sofa and closed her eyes.

I’ll rest them for a minute, she thought.

Then she fell asleep.

2.

Once more, the singularity consumed the Defiant. She felt herself get pulled in all directions at once. Everything torn apart. Ripped away from her. She would have screamed, but she had no mouth. No voice. Even in the dream, she was nothing and everything all at once.

“We can give you a life, give you a purpose,” Singh said.

Jess shook her head. “I’m not good enough. I’ve tried already. I don’t have what it takes.”

Singh tilted her head up, his hand under her chin. “With my help you will have. If you’ll trust me …”

Jessica by his side as he perished.

Tears streamed down her face.

Her voice cracked as she spoke. “Please don’t go, please.”

Captain Singh shook his head slowly. Smiled. “Jess … We each have our time. My own is at an end …”

“No …” she managed to say.

Singh reached up, stroked the side of her face. “Now it is your turn to do as much as you can with the time you have …”

He smiled again, then his eyes seemed focus on something far away. The light in them faded. Singh’s hand fell away from hers and the sound of his last breath issued slowly from between his lips.

“No …”

Everyone was around her, even Singh, then she was alone.

Floating in a sea of black. A never-ending night, devoid of stars. A miniature Starbase 6 hung suspended in front of her like a child’s mobile, spinning as if on a string. Then, seconds later it exploded. She shielded her eyes.

Then she saw the Defiant, no more than a foot long, and hundreds of tiny people falling from it like confetti. “My people,” she said.

She reached out to try and catch them. They fell through her fingers like grains of sand. She cried out. “Come back!”

There was an emergency klaxon, an alarm.

She turned toward the sound. Tears ran down her cheeks. Hot, like the heart of suns. They were everything she felt, everything she held contained within. Something she couldn’t share with anyone but herself, in the ruin of her own nightmare.

The sound grew louder.

BLEEP BLEEP BLEEP –

3.

- BLEEP BLEEP BLEEP

She woke to find herself still on the sofa, the computer alarm buzzing from somewhere in her quarters.

BLEEP BLEEP BLEEP

“All right, all right. I’m up.”

The noise stopped. She got up slowly and stretched. The used glasses were still on the side, and her head ached a little from the drink. Whatever the pink liquid was, it was strong. She’d not fallen asleep on the sofa for a long time.

She went to the bathroom and showered. Freshly scrubbed, with clean hair and a crisp uniform, Jess imagined the past two days washed down the drain. She checked the time and decided to walk the ship before her meeting. A first-hand look at the damage and progress of the repairs would help her plot her next move. She checked the time and saw she had plenty of time to get around the ship and see what sort of shape they were in.

King left her quarters and as she walked along the corridor outside, she thought about how critical the next couple of days would be, not only to her, but to the crew. They needed a leader, and whether some of them agreed or disagreed, she was the designated replacement of Captain Singh. Regardless of what anyone else might think, she knew she’d earned it. Singh would’ve agreed with her. He’d trained her for it.

To get through this, they will need to accept that I’m in charge, and that I’ll do my very best to keep them safe and well.

Secretly her decision to Jump without coordinates dogged her.

There was no other choice, she told herself. You can’t second-guess something you had no control over. It was either Jump or die. We jumped.

King knew there’d be crew who’d resent her for making such a decision. Regardless of the fact that in her shoes they would have been forced to make the same choices.

The joy of making the right choice … and the guilt of making the wrong one. They’re both yours, she thought.

“Talk about the short end of the straw,” she said aloud as she climbed the ladder to the deck above. She was thankful there was nobody about to hear her.

*

Regardless of everything that had happened, and was happening, the repair teams aboard the Defiant were doing their very best to get the old girl back in shape.

The decks exposed to the vacuum remained sealed off for the time being, but when King visited munitions she found it looked vastly different to before. All of the debris had been removed, and the hull breaches dealt with. The fire-damage was isolated and repaired, and she could see where whole new panels had been installed in the place of old burned-out ones.

“How we doing?” she asked as she surveyed the repair teams efforts. An Ensign shot her a quick salute.

“Yeah, fine Captain. In another six hours we should have all tubes operational again,” he said.

“Good,” King said. “You must have worked around the clock.”

“Can’t leave the old girl defenceless,” he said.

“Well, you should be proud of yourselves. Where is Lieutenant Swogger? Is he around?” she asked, looking about.

“The Lieutenant has gone for some rack time,” the Ensign said. “To be honest, sir, I don’t think he’s stopped since the explosion.”

King nodded. “Understandable. Very good. I’ll catch up with him later.”

She walked away and passed the spot where Singh had died in her arms. A tightness wrapped its arms about her chest, but the sensation passed the minute she walked into the corridor outside. She’d allow herself time to grieve, but not now.

*

Some of the ship’s corridors were in worse shape than others. She passed through several that were virtually untouched by the battles they’d been through. Others were still littered with debris, fallen circuitry, broken piping. She stepped over a pool of dried blood on the deck of one corridor, her mind instantly flashing back to Singh and then to Del when he’d been thrown across the bridge during the initial battle with Sepix.

Several crew saluted her as she made her way to the engineering section. She wasn’t surprised to find Chief Gunn there. “Have you even slept, Chief?”

Gunn turned around, gave a sloppy salute. Jessica didn’t mind.

“I got a few hours,” she said.

King rolled her eyes. “Yeah right.”

The Chief directed two crewmen as they replaced a section of piping.

“Easy fellas. Remember, we don’t have spares,” she said.

“How’s it going down here?” King asked.

“Oh, okay. We’re getting there. The damage looks worse than it is. I’d say that we’re in worse shape structurally than we are internally. You’ve seen the decks that have been sealed off?” Gunn said.

King nodded.

“They’re the big jobs. We’re not going to be able to save all of those decks, Captain. There isn’t the replacement material for it. It might be a case of us repairing the hull plating to half of them and leaving the rest open to space,” Gunn said.

“Wow, that bad?” King asked.

“If we were in dock, I wouldn’t even worry about it. But we just don’t have the material to go around,” Gunn said.

“Okay, noted. Listen, Chief, I wanted to say that I know it got a little heated at times. Don’t take it personally,” King said.

“Not a problem,” Gunn said.

“Well, thanks for all your hard work, Chief,” King said. She looked around. “You’re doing a fine job.”

The two crewmen fumbled with the replacement, and the Chief snapped.

“I said be careful! Don’t you two listen? I could do that repair on my own!”

Jessica laughed. “Chief, I’ll leave you to it. See you at the meeting.”

The Chief waved her off, now too engrossed in making sure the two men didn’t make a mess of a repair a woman could do single-handed.

*

She went to the mess hall and grabbed a coffee. The room was empty save for one other and as Jessica filled her cup she tried to place the woman’s name.

“Morning,” Jessica said as she sat down at the other end of the table.

Her head still hummed from the drink the night before. She’d have to chase Del up on exactly what it was.

Something alien, she thought.

The young woman looked up and smiled. “Morning, Captain.”

She held a data tablet in one hand, and a forkful of scrambled eggs in the other.

Now Jessica remembered who she was. “You’re Selena Walker, aren’t you? Lisa’s roommate?”

“Yes sir,” Selena said. “I mean, Ma’am.”

King held up a hand. “Honestly, either is fine.”

She took note of the absence of a uniform. She knew that although Selena held the rank of Yeoman, it was a formality. She was one of only a handful of civilians allowed on board. You had to have specialised expertise to be granted a position of study aboard a Union starship.

“I’m sorry, I can’t remember your area,” Jessica said.

“History and life sciences, sir,” she said. She leaned forward, looked around to make sure they really were alone in the mess hall. “Forgive me for asking, but is it true we have Hawk Nowlan aboard? The Hawk Nowlan? How is that even possible?”

Jessica sipped her coffee. “Yes, we do. We’re not yet entirely clear on how or why, but it’s him all right.”

“Wow,” Selena said.

Jessica put her cup down. “As a matter of fact, you could help me with something.”

“Go on,” Selena said.

“I’m going to be tied up for quite a while today, as you can imagine. I need someone to chaperone Nowlan, show him around. Get him acquainted with the ship, that sort of thing. Would you be interested?”

“Sure!” Selena said.

“I mean, you’re into history. He’s a legend. Living, breathing history. I was just thinking it would be a good fit,” Jessica explained.

“No, totally. Thanks,” Selena said. “Where is he staying?”

“In the Ambassadors’ quarters for the time being. You could go there when you’ve finished breakfast if you like,” Jessica said.

Selena rushed a forkful of eggs into her mouth, wiped her lips with a napkin and got up. “No time like the present.”

She grabbed her data tablet and with that she was off. Jessica shook her head and laughed.

As she sipped her coffee she thought about the meeting. Her stomach tied itself in a knot with dread because she knew the kind of truths that would be revealed, and in a way she had no desire to hear them.

Before heading to the conference room, she found the nearest comm. unit and flipped a switch.

“Bridge, this is the Captain,” she said.

“Captain, Lieutenant Haller. Night watch.”

“Morning Lieutenant. I’m about to go into my meeting with the senior staff. Unless it’s an emergency I don’t want to be interrupted for anything. You have the ship,” Jessica said.

“Aye sir.”

“Maintain a constant vigil for Draxx ships, Lieutenant. Don’t let your guard down.”

“I won’t, Captain.”

She closed the channel and continued on to the conference room.

Here we go, she thought.

4.

Captain King cleared her throat as she took her place at the head of the oval conference table in the middle of the room. The design of the room left the Captain slightly elevated above the others, so that wherever they sat they could still see her.

“Good morning. I realize some of you haven’t slept, so we’ll try to keep this brief,” she said. She looked down the table, suddenly aware of the empty seat that should’ve had Lieutenant Swogger in it. Obviously he had no plans to make an appearance. She decided to question Greene about the matter afterward.

“In either case I promise you all extra bunk time afterward,” she quipped.

A few tired chuckles rose from the group, then silence again.

Jessica turned to the enormous display screen behind her. At the flick of a switch the lights in the room dimmed slightly to accommodate the holographic projection behind her. It didn’t offer immersive 3D, but it did allow her to show a bit more detail. She called up a model of the Defiant, and used the movement of her hands to manipulate it as she spoke.

“This is our most current model of the Defiant, showing the areas of damage and stress. Let’s start with the skin.”

She zoomed in, displaying a close-up of the outer hull. There were holes all over, parts where the metal was blackened and tortured from the fire fights recently. Some of the hull damage was critical, as if ripped wide open by monster claws.

The department heads jotted notes onto tablets for future reference.

She moved onto areas inside the ship. ” … and that takes us to Engineering. I believe we’re now up to speed with the majority of repairs, aren’t we Chief?”

Gunn shifted in her seat. “Sort of. Yeah. I need a little more time to fully test some of the systems, but we should be back to normal. There’s been a lot to fix.”

King nodded. “Great. And where do we stand on spares and materials needed for repairs?”

“Okay at the minute, for the minor stuff. But we don’t have an inexhaustible supply. If we’re going to be away from base for a long stretch then we may have to bypass certain systems in the event that they malfunction. It’ll simply be a case of not being able to fix them. That’s my biggest concern.”

“Noted,” King said. “Apart from what I’ve mentioned here already, are there any other issues in your departments?”

Everyone shook their heads.

“Then I think we’re agreed that our next priority is to get these other decks repaired and opened up, and the bodies of the deceased dealt with. The longer we leave it, the worse it will be for all of us,” Jessica said. “Commander, anything to add?”

Greene spoke up. “Yes Captain. I’m done making my list of the missing in action, and the deceased. Having cross-referenced what we have now with what we had prior to arriving at Starbase 6, we’ve lost a total of one hundred and ninety-six men and women. Most of those missing in action.”

“Left on the Starbase before it blew …” Gunn said quietly.

Jessica swallowed. The thought of so many men and women losing their lives in the course of duty sickened her in some deep-rooted way she’d have never willingly revealed to the rest of the crew. It made her think of that time in the Academy. The accident …

“I’ll talk with you about it after the meeting, Commander. We’ll make the necessary arrangements for a memorial service,” she said. Her throat felt suddenly dry. She turned back to the screen behind her, and the display changed to show an inventory of supplies. “Now for our next item of business. You’ll see here a complete listing of everything we have on board, from fresh foods, water, and medical supplies, to weaponry and some of the replacement parts and components the Chief mentioned earlier. Commander, I believe you’re more informed about this than I.”

Greene nodded and swapped places with her.

“The, uh, supply situation,” Greene said. “Well, I think that we have enough fresh food and water for another three months before relying solely on the replication systems.”

That was a relief to all in attendance, Jessica knew. The replicators were a vital part of the ship in that they could keep the crew fed and watered almost indefinitely. But they weren’t capable of creating more than basic meals, and no matter how you calibrated them, there was always an artificial aftertaste. It was old tech now, from the first years of the Human-Draxx war, and it still hadn’t been perfected.

“With any luck, we will either be back in known space, or we will locate a suitable source of food and water here … wherever we are. We’ve got about three months breathing room to get this sorted so I’m confident we’ll be all right,” Greene said.

“I’d like to add here, if I may, that medical supplies seem fine, all things considered,” Dr. Clayton offered. “I see very little need to worry in that regard.”

“Excellent. Thank you Doctor,” King said. “Commander, how about our weapons?”

“Well, I think we should be cautious and conservative where possible because once we run out, it’s gone for good. Especially if we’re stuck here for a long time.”

“Agreed,” Jessica said. “Thank you Commander.”

They swapped places again. This time she didn’t take the floor as before, but stood to the side. She nodded at the two quiet individuals lurking at the back. Ensigns Rayne and Boi made their way forward.

“Ensign Jack Boi, and Ensign Olivia Rayne,” King introduced them to the rest. “I’ve brought them along because they tell me they have something to share with everyone.”

They both looked nervous. Rayne took over the controls of the screen, and changed the display to show a huge star map.

“This was us prior to making the Jump,” Rayne explained. A bright red dot appeared on the map, moving slowly to the right. A purple dot followed close behind. “That’s the Draxx ship in purple.”

She waved her hands around and adjusted the screen to crop the image and show a 3D display of the two ships travelling through space. It was as if a camera had been there the whole time, filming it all. However, the sensor telemetry did just as good a job.

“This is where we ended up following the Jump. You can clearly see the erratic course of the Defiant in red,” Rayne said.

The image pulled back to show the two little dots and the vast expanse of the galaxy again. Then the red dot shot off, on a varying course spanning several star systems in moments. The purple dot followed close behind. They arrived at a large circular turbulence on the map that had a sign flashing next to it: SINGULARITY.

“This is when we arrived at the black hole. We were trapped the moment we got there. Now you can see us slipping into the centre …”

The assembled officers watched in silence as the Defiant was reeled into the eye of the black hole as if caught on a fishing line. The Draxx ship wasn’t far behind.

“So how did we get from there to here?” Greene asked her.

Rayne held up a hand. “Sorry sir, but I’m just getting to that.”

“I stand corrected,” Greene said with a cheeky smirk. King shot him a look, and he sobered instantly.

“Believe it or not, the Defiant did actually record astrological data after entering the black hole. But it shut down after a few seconds when the ship lost all power. However, from that, and using some complex algorithms, we don’t have time to go into right now, we have managed to unravel the mystery of our journey here. It took us a while to sort out, because a journey of trillions and trillions of light years happened in less than a handful of seconds.”

They all gasped at the sound of trillions and trillions. Now, without Rayne or Boi continuing their presentation, they all knew the truth. They truly were far from home.

Very far.

Rayne manipulated the display once again to show their lightning fast journey through not just space, but entire galaxies. Even though King showed a steel reserve in front of the others, she felt her stomach pop and a butterfly begin to flutter in her chest.

“My God …” Meryl Gunn exclaimed.

The little red dot slowed to a stop just beyond a vast nebula, the same cloud of ionised gases in which they drifted now. Then, moments later, the purple indicator of the Draxx ship appeared to the left of them.

“Strangely enough, we lost power within a second of leaving the singularity,” Rayne said.

King held up her hand. “Let’s just slow down there a minute, Ensign. Explain how we could go into a singularity one side, and emerge the other. And see if you can explain how it can send us so far out.”

“Well, nobody knows for sure. But if we’re reading the data correctly, the singularity acted as a kind of tunnel through the fabric of space-time. So we literally entered one end of the tunnel, and were spat out the other,” Rayne said.

“So our exit vector … is it still there?” King asked.

Rayne shook her head. “No. It must have closed the minute we came through. I don’t think it’s the sort of thing that will reopen at a later date, either.”

King looked at the others. Their faces told her they were just as shell-shocked by this information as she was.

“Ensign … just how far out are we?” she asked her.

Rayne looked at Boi, who urged her on. She swallowed.

“At maximum cruising speed it would take us several million years to go home,” she said. “I’m sorry Captain, but we’re stranded for good.”

*

After, King thanked Boi and Rayne for their hard work and told them to go and get some shuteye. However she wasn’t sure how easy that was going to be, considering what they’d learned.

Commander Greene waited for everyone else to file out. When the door finally slid closed and he had her to himself he let out a deep sigh.

“Penny for your thoughts, Del?” Jessica asked him. She sat down opposite and looked at him intently.

“Yeah …” he said, then shook his head. He looked down at his hands, clasped together on the desktop, as if they held within them the immensity of their situation. “Damn.”

“I know,” King said.

Greene looked up. “Do you think we’ll be okay?”

Jessica looked away. On the far wall, facing opposite the display screen, a large bay window offered a stunning view of the nebula. An alien place in alien space.

Inside her chest she felt a pang of loneliness that surprised her. “I hope so,” she said. “I hope so.”

5.

Ensign Ken Dunham handed over the reins to Ensign Yamato at the end of his shift, and explained the progress that had been made so far in getting them back up to speed. The munitions section looked totally different to how it had days before.

“Where’s Swogger?” Yamato asked him before he could walk away.

“You know, you’re not the first person who’s asked me that today,” Dunham said.

Understanding dawned in Yamato’s face. “Ah. Well, he looked like he was in a bad way, you know … when it happened.”

Dunham nodded. He knew what he meant by ‘when it happened.’ Of course he was referring to the explosion, and the death of Captain Singh.

“Have you seen him about recently?” Dunham asked him.

“Nope. Only the day after the accident. He was in the service tunnels, drunk as a skunk. I thought I’d leave him to it,” Yamato explained.

“Yeah, well. I guess I better check in on him. He can’t stay like this forever. We could do with the help down here. I can’t keep covering for him,” Dunham said. He thanked Yamato and left.

First he tried Swogger’s quarters, but there was no answer. Then he went to the service tunnels that ran through the ship, between decks. They were really no more than a crawl space but when you reached a junction they were about three metres across. Enough space to sit on your own and get drunk without anyone noticing.

It didn’t take him long to find Swogger. He crawled from the tunnel closest Swogger’s quarters, towards the front of the ship. As he approached the first junction, he heard Swogger’s mumbled voice echoing down the tunnel.

Right, he thought.

“Lieutenant,” he called.

There was no answer, but the mumbling stopped.

“Lieutenant?” he called again. He kept crawling forward. “Are you okay?”

“Get lost!” Swogger yelled down at him. Now when Dunham looked up, he could see the Lieutenant staring at him. He looked a state. “Don’t come up here!”

Dunham stopped. “Sir, you can’t stay up here. If we have an overload somewhere -“

“Gah!” Swogger spat. “Leave me be!”

“Sir -” Dunham said.

“I’ll come out when I’m good and ready, boy. Now get lost!”

Dunham shook his head. There was no way Swogger was going to let him through to the junction. It might end up in some kind of fight, given the way he was shouting at him. He started to crawl backwards, reversing back down the tunnel.

Now what do I do? he thought, frustrated. I can’t call security. It’d be bad for Swogger. They guy is just in a bad way.

They’d lost a lot of people. And Swogger had been there when the Captain died with them. Now he struggled to cope.

But getting others involved won’t help the situation. It’ll just make it worse for him, Dunham thought. Maybe if I leave him to it, he’ll snap out of it eventually. Catch him when he’s back in his quarters, sober. Have a chat.

As he exited the tunnel and was back on one of the corridors, he decided that was the best course of action. He was confident it’d all blow over eventually. The guy was just traumatised, and drowning his sorrows a bit.

In the meantime, Dunham would hold the fort. He was sure they could keep Swogger’s problem from drawing the attention of the senior officers. By the time he pulled himself out of it, nobody would know it ever happened.

*

Lieutenant Lisa Chang was tired but happily so. The training of the newbie’s on the bridge had gone exceptionally well, on all accounts. She’d selected them herself, and they took to the training like they were raised for it.

“How’s it going?” a voice asked her.

Chang turned around to find Captain King stood on the bridge, observing. How long King had been there, Chang wasn’t sure. She stood up and saluted. King returned the gesture.

“Exactly as planned, Captain. We’ve got a good team here,” she said.

King shot Chang a sly wink that made her smile. “Good to hear, Lieutenant,” she said. “I expect no less.”

Chang watched as King made a brief tour of the individual stations, and the respective trainees sat at each one. She spoke to each for a few minutes before moving onto the next. When she’d finished making the rounds, she came to stand next to Chang.

“They seem okay,” she whispered.

Chang nodded. “A good bunch, Captain.”

King looked her over. “You look tired, Lieutenant. When do you hand over?”

“Another hour, sir,” Chang said. “Looking forward to some rack time.”

King nodded. “Well, be sure you get it. You’ve earned it.”

The Captain straightened her tunic, shot Chang a salute. “Carry on, Lieutenant.”

“Aye Captain,” Chang said.

She watched the Captain leave the bridge, and felt the atmosphere around her relax a bit. The trainees’ shoulders all seemed to curve at the same time.

“Don’t slouch about you lot, sit up straight,” she ordered with obvious relish. And then to the sound of multiple groans: “Let’s go back through the basics one more time …”

*

King spent the rest of the day assisting with repairs, then in the evening found her way to the mess hall to grab a long-overdue coffee and perhaps something to eat. She bumped into Commander Greene again, also taking a break. He had Chief Gunn with him.

“All right?” she asked them both, taking a seat at the same table.

“Yeah. Keeping myself busy. How’s the repairs on deck five?” Greene asked her.

Jessica took a swallow of coffee to wash down her bite of sandwich.

“Okay. They’re getting there,” she said.

Greene nodded. “Good. The secondary shift are getting by all right up on the bridge.”

“I know, I popped up there a little while ago,” King said with a shrug. “Chang is supervising. We just can’t spare anyone else. We need them all on the repairs.”

“I know. It’s good experience for them though,” Greene said. “Keeps ‘em on their toes. A bit of graft won’t do ‘em any harm.”

Jessica remembered something. “Oh, Commander. I meant to ask you about Lieutenant Swogger.”

Greene frowned. “Munitions?”

“Yeah. He was absent from the meeting, and I’ve forgot to mention it afterward.”

“I’ll track him down,” Greene said.

“How about you Chief? Everything okay?” Jessica asked her.

Gunn blew over her hot chocolate before taking a sip from it.

“Much as before. I think we’re in good shape, considering the state of the Defiant when we arrived here. All credit to the crew, they’ve put the work in,” Gunn said.

“If I didn’t know any better, I’d say you sound proud …” Jessica said with a sly grin.

Gunn elbowed Greene in the side. “Of course, I’ve had this big lummox helping me all day. I’d like to say he’s been useful, but it’s been like babysitting, I tell ya.”

Greene cut a wedge of cake with a fork, popped it in his mouth then proceeded to talk with his mouth full. “Next time I won’t offer my services.”

Gunn rolled her eyes and then shot Jessica a wink.

“You know, we’re gonna have to deal with Captain Nowlan,” Greene cut in.

“What do you mean?” King asked. “His debrief?”

“We need him to bring us up to scratch as much as he needs to be, you know?” Greene said.

King agreed with him. The meeting had been so depressing; she’d just wanted to lose herself in some physical work. Something meaningful. But she knew all too well that she’d intentionally put off the imminent conversation with Hawk.

“And there’s something else,” Greene said. He forked himself another load of cake. “We need to figure out where he’s gonna fit in.”

Jessica absorbed this. “Yes I see what you’re getting at. Well, I’m sure we can cross that bridge when we come to it. In the meantime, I’ll go and have a talk with Nowlan tomorrow morning. See what he has to say.”

“I can do it if you want,” Greene offered.

King got up, patted him on the shoulder. “Nope you’re doing enough. I’ll deal with this. Besides, I think the Chief has some sewage pipes need a good cleaning, and I’ve just promoted you to Top Scrubber.”

She got up and left before he could say anything in retaliation, and as she left the mess hall she could hear Meryl Gunn’s deep laughter.

6.

The next morning King went to the Ambassador’s quarters. She waited for Nowlan to come to the door and greeted him with a smile. He didn’t look half as awake and lively as she did.

“Morning,” he said, rubbing his eyes with the heel of his palm. “Sorry.”

“Rough night?” King asked him.

Nowlan stepped aside to allow her into the quarters. The door slid shut behind her.

“Got a bit drunk,” he said. “Celebratin’ my celebrity status with some of the crew.”

Jessica grinned. “Well if I’m being truthful, I can’t say I blame you. It seems the whole ship is talking about you right now.”

She wondered how Selena Walker had got on with him. Perhaps she’d been part of the ‘celebrations’ the night before …

“Thank yuh kindly,” Nowlan said. “So, uh, what do I owe the pleasure of such an early visit?”

King sat down. “We need to have a chat. I think it’s safe to say, given our present status, that you’re not going to get an official de-brief from anyone else,” she said.

“Gotta agree with you there,” Nowlan said. “I heard about what came up in the meetin’. To tell yuh the truth, that’s when I grabbed the nearest bottle and started drinkin’.”

King didn’t tell him that she, too, felt like she had sorrows to drown.

“We’re far from home, Captain Nowlan. And I want us to get any preliminary information out of the way,” she said.

“Well, yeah, ‘cause I gotta few questions of my own,” he said.

King nodded. “All in good time. So … why don’t we fix up some coffee, and get this out of the way?”

She got up, walked to a unit in the far wall and conjured up two hot coffees with cream and sugar. Nowlan accepted his gratefully and took a sip off the top straight away. “Ah, thanks.”

“I know it’s early but I have a pretty full day, and I wanted to be able to give you my undivided attention. That and I’m burning to find out how you got here.”

“All the juicy details of the Hawk’s famous last mission, eh?” Nowlan asked her with a cheeky grin.

“Yes, something like that,” Jessica said. “I think you’ll find most of the crew on board want to know too.”

Nowlan sat back, took a deep breath. “I was heading a mission to destroy a Draxx repo facility. You know, they commandeered several of our own facilities following the civil war.”

King knew it. The Metal Marquis, a band of revolutionaries made up of disillusioned military personnel and liberated replicants, had used guerrilla warfare and acts of terrorism to force the Union’s hand into outlawing the production of replicants about eighty years before. Public opinion had a little something to do with their change of heart also. The simple fact was that not many people knew the Union army was mostly made up of replicants; human slaves made and raised in the lab. Cannon fodder for the Union’s never ending campaign against the Draxx Dominion and its allies. When they found out, the Union was surprised to find opinion on the side of The Metal Marquis.

But not every facility had been dismantled in time. A dozen or so had fallen into Draxx hands, and with them the technology to create an endless supply of soldiers. It wasn’t long before reptilian replicants started to show up on the battlefield, created with one purpose in mind. To slaughter.

Admiral Schaffer was the first to suggest a galaxy-wide search for the missing facilities and destroy them. Of course, Hawk was his first choice to lead the way.

Jessica shook her head in disbelief. “Admiral Schaffer. Wow.”

“He’s a good man. I mean, uh, was,” Nowlan said uneasily. “Wow. That’s a bit strange. To me, he was alive and kickin’ a few days ago. Now I s’pose he’s long dead …”

Jessica didn’t want to tell him that the Admiral had died in a blaze of glory at the battle of the Membaii Pass shortly after Hawk’s own disappearance. After that the pass had been duly renamed the Schaffer Pass. She decided she’d save that little revelation for another time.

“Go on,” she urged him carefully.

Nowlan cleared his throat. “So anyway, we hit four and were making our way to a fifth when we were ambushed,” he said.

“Sounds a familiar tactic,” King spat.

Hawk nodded. “I was flyin’ lead in a group of four. I didn’t even know they were there till Lucky, off my starboard side, blew up. Guess he wasn’t so lucky after all. I swung my ship around and down, to avoid their fire and get a good look at ‘em.”

Jessica imagined Hawk’s ship Speedy tearing through space, ducking out of the way of incoming Draxx fire. It reminded her of some of the fictional versions of his adventures she’d read. Many writers had tried their hands at writing Hawk adventure stories since his disappearance, and the public had an appetite for them too. But she had to wonder how much of his fame and notoriety had been fostered by such things. How much did the Legend differ from the Reality?

“I bring her around, and Tango breaks to follow my lead,” Nowlan said, becoming more animated as he told the story. He’d woken up now, and he was reliving what was, to him, the events of only days before. “But Bowlin’ Ball Head, at the rear, he didn’t move quick enough. Enemy fire hit him an’ he was blown apart …”

7.

Hawk glanced about for a sign of Draxx ships. His vision was obstructed by debris and material from his wing mates until he saw a flash of red hull paint above him. He angled Speedy up and pushed hard on the throttle.

“Tango, follow my lead. Hang tight,” he ordered into his headset.

“Roger,” Tango answered.

Hawk spun the little ship on its axis, and as he came up behind the Draxx vessel he let loose the front cannons. He fired in rapid succession, and within seconds the Draxx ship was no more. Another momentary occupier of the cosmos sent to a cold, airless grave.

“Got ‘er!” he yelled.

“They’re not showing up on our sensors,” Tango reported.

Hawk looked about. “No, they’re probably some kind of stealth fighter. Forget the sensors, use yuh eyes.”

“Roger. How many do you think there are, sir?” Tango asked him.

“Dunno, buddy. Just keep yuh eyes peeled.”

Hawk veered off to the right, to do a wide sweep of the immediate area. That was when he saw it. A glimmer of light from a stationary object nearby. He instinctively opened fire on it, without hesitation. The bolts of energy struck it. His hunch proved correct when a Draxx ship materialised in front of him and moved away. Far bigger and sinister than any regular Draxx fighter, he recognised it instantly.

“General Carn …” Hawk said.

“What!?” Tango said in shock. “Carn? Here?”

He’d obviously hit the right spot to destabilise its cloaking shield.

“Gotta be. Cool it Tango. Keep your head in the game. You go looking for any more ships and try an’ cover my back. I’ll take this one on myself,” Hawk said.

The exposed Draxx ship fired.

He ducked Speedy out of the way of several incoming warheads. Tango was just quick enough to follow his manoeuvre, as a warhead went hurtling through the pocket of space he’d occupied a second before.

They broke apart, Tango executing his orders to hunt for other fighters. Hawk opened fire on Carn’s ship, and watched with awe as its pilot hurled it into an impossible barrel roll that evaded every one of his bolts.

“Damn!” Hawk said. He tried to close the gap as the Draxx ship sped away. “Tango, where you at?”

He had just time to look at his readouts to see where Tango was when he heard a cry over his comm. and then the resultant flash of an explosion to his right.

His jaw clamped tight, and he threw Speedy full ahead in hot pursuit.

*

King knew the next part, and she surprised Nowlan in cutting in with the details.

“You left a message, and you said “I don’t know if anyone is ever gonna hear this, but I’m in pursuit of a Draxx fighter. Suspect pilot is General Carn himself.” Then you left your position, and your trajectory,” she said.

Nowlan nodded. “That’s it. Yeah. That’s how it happened.”

Jessica shrugged. “I was a bit of a Hawk nut back in the Academy.”

“Is that true?”

“I’m afraid to say it is,” Jessica said. “So anyway, please continue.”

Nowlan’s face grew serious again as slipped back into retelling what had happened to him.

“He led me deeper and deeper into uncharted space. Kept just enough ahead of me to stay out of my way, if you know what I mean …”

*

Just when he was starting to wonder what would happen next, his comm. beeped with an incoming transmission.

He opened a channel. “General,” Hawk said.

“How did you know?” Carn said in his trademark silvery voice.

“It looked like your type of ship, to be honest,” Hawk said.

There was a chuckle. The last time he’d heard it was when the good General himself had Hawk on a slab torturing him. It made him alert, ready for anything. Such a sadistic figure didn’t have cause for laughter unless something was going his way.

Am I being led into a trap? Hawk thought.

“Well, I have to say, your own ship suits you the best,” Carn said.

“Oh yeah? And how’s that?”

There was a pause and then Carn said, “It’s small.”

Hawk knew he was out of range, but he’d had enough. Either he was being led into some kind of trap or he wasn’t. Carn’s ship was faster, and that extra speed kept him just out of reach.

A warning shot won’t hurt, Hawk decided.

He fired a warhead straight at the other ship. It fell short although the explosion visibly rocked the Draxx vessel.

“I’d have thought you’d know better than to waste your precious ammunition,” Carn said through the comm.

“Just a taster for you, General. Now how’s about we stop this charade and get you under arrest,” Hawk said.

Again, that laugh. It made the hairs at the back of his neck stand on end.

“You are confident, human. I’ll give you that. Anyway, it’s been pleasant enough but I grow tired of your company.”

Suddenly Carn’s ship accelerated into a Jump and was gone.

“Damn!” Hawk said again. He still had a faint lock on the other ship. If he locked in now he might –

“Got it!” he yelled and hit the control for the Jump Drive. The stars shrank back and then accelerated on either side of him as Speedy entered the Jump.

*

“But you didn’t know where you were going?” King said.

“I had no idea,” Nowlan said. He sipped his coffee. “I suppose you don’t know any of this, do you?”

Jessica shook her head. “Our last data from you was that recording. That’s it. As far as the rest of the galaxy was concerned, you disappeared into thin air.”

“It must’ve looked that way,” Nowlan said.

“So do I take it you ended up at the black hole like we did?” King asked him.

Nowlan nodded. “Yuh. The most I can figure is he must’ve Jumped blind. And like an idiot, I came in right behind him. Before I knew it there was nothing I could do but sit and wait to die.”

“We went through the same thing,” King said. And she thought: you must be regretting it as much as I do.

“It sure wasn’t the blaze of glory I foresaw for myself,” Nowlan said.

“What do you mean?”

“Well, yuh know. I didn’t want to die in no old folks home or nothing. I’d rather have gone out saving a planet or something. Big stuff. Being pulled into a black hole and waiting for whatever was in there to finish me off ain’t what I imagined for myself.”

King thought it totally fitting to what she’d learned of Nowlan in the Academy. His bravado, his heroism, his brass balls in the face of adversity. If anyone else had sat there and told her they wanted to die saving a planet, she would have laughed. But with Nowlan, she knew it to be true. And that he was apparently capable of doing so, too. “I get you,” she said.

“So anyway, there I was thinking that it was all over. I couldn’t see Carn. I tried to look for his ship, but to be honest it was so hard to tell. And I almost got the idea of just poppin’ the cockpit open and lettin’ the vacuum take me,” Nowlan said. “But I’ve never been one for suicides. Easy exits. So I decided to sit it out.”

“And that’s how you ended up here,” Jessica said.

Nowlan nodded. He seemed troubled, and it took a few seconds for him to say what he wanted to say. “Did you, uh … when you went through … Did you … ?”

“Have an experience?” Jessica asked him. “Is that what you mean?”

Nowlan’s face told her he did.

“Do you mind me asking what you saw?” she asked. “You don’t have to if -“

“My Father …” Nowlan said abruptly.

*

“Gerard …” the voice said. It was gruff, slurred. It was the same ruined voice he heard every time he dreamt of his Father.

The man had tattoos interlaced across his entire skull, which was bald and scarred. His face was a ruin, and one of his eyes was milky white. By all standards a monster, but knowing what he did, Nowlan could not feel repulsion at the sight of him. Even though it was only a dream, he still felt a pang of something he didn’t truly understand.

Love.

“Gerard listen to me,” he said. “Yuh think yuh dreaming. And yuh are. In a way. But I’m here to tell yuh that this time it’s a little more than a dream.”

Nowlan looked down at himself. He was a young boy.

“Hear me!” his Father said. He took him by the arms, and Nowlan looked straight into the oddity of his eyes. They were filled with wisdom, with the life and death of the stars themselves. Eyes that had seen, perhaps, too much.

“Dad,” Nowlan whispered.

His Father’s face grew slack, tired. Defeated. He pulled little Gerard Nowlan in for a hug. Held him tight.

“In a moment you’ll be on the other side,” his Father told him softly. “And you’ll wonder if this was a dream.”

He said nothing. Over their heads planets tore past. Black outlined against whiteness. Space itself inverted. There was a rumble building from somewhere behind him. He didn’t dare turn around. He clung to his Father.

“I’m not really gone, son. And one day you’ll see me again. But for now, you have to stop the evil that’s passed through that thing with you. Try your best to stop it. The galaxy you’re going to isn’t ready for it, I know that much.”

Everything started to shake. It grew hazy around the edges.

Nowlan looked up at his Father, placed his small hands on his ragged face.

“Dad,” he said. “Who were you?”

Then the lights went out, and everything sank to darkness.

*

There was a stretch of time that might’ve been seconds, or minutes. Neither could be sure. They just sat and contemplated what he’d said.

Jessica was sure that she’d simply hallucinated in the journey through the black hole … or into the black hole. And she was sure it’d been the same for Nowlan, but she didn’t tell him that.

“I learned the truth about him shortly before the mission,” Nowlan said with a shake of his head. He finished his coffee and set the empty cup down. “You know, him being my Father. And everything else.”

Jessica knew the whole story. It was something that added to Hawk’s fame, that his Father was such a notorious outlaw, and that he’d never met him.

“It was in all of the books,” King said. “They called him The Tattooed Man. The most wanted man in the galaxy. They say he even tried to assassinate the President of Earth one time, though I question that one.”

“I’ve read about it,” Nowlan said. “I think there’s more to it than they’re telling us. From what I know, my Father didn’t make many mistakes. And the President died an old man, so …”

Jessica thought back to what she’d read on The Tattooed Man. Apparently a Union vessel had followed him to a far corner of the galaxy, where he’d fallen in with a band of renegade replicants. They convinced him to change his ways, and in turn he inspired them to lead the fight against the Union. After they fled the planet on which they’d been hiding, they formed The Metal Marquis. Several years later, not only were the production facilities closed down, but the replicants were declared a free people. Public opinion on the war and the dominance of the Union shifted back in the Union’s favour following that. In many ways, they had the Marquis to thank.

But nobody knew what had become of The Tattooed Man. Some said he still lived out there, somewhere, wreaking havoc. Others said he died shortly after leaving the ice planet with the replicants. Apparently he gave his life to save them, an assumption Jessica found hard to believe, given the man’s track record. She felt sorry for Nowlan, knowing his Father was such a monster.

“Do you think he’s alive?” Jessica asked Nowlan to see where his own beliefs lay.

He shrugged. “Don’t know. I don’t think so. Even if he was in my time, he’d be long-dead now. I asked my Mother about him after I found out.”

“She was … Lorna, wasn’t she? Am I right?”

Nowlan nodded.

“A former member of the elite. He left her on a backwater planet, didn’t he?”

“He didn’t know she was pregnant. She managed to get back to Union space by the time I was due,” Nowlan said. “I wish I could’ve met my Father.”

There was a silence, and then King realised that now was probably the best time to leave him on his own. He’d revealed perhaps a little more than he’d wanted to. He had also re-lived several traumas.

She made her excuses, and told him she’d see him later in the day. He didn’t object to her going, and as the door slid shut behind her she had to resist the urge to turn around and go back in there. It was strange to see the man behind the historical records. The real human being within the Legend. He was just as vulnerable and fragile as everyone else.

In a way it was like having your bubble burst. She’d gone through the Academy thinking he was one thing, never giving any thought at all as to whether he suffered the same turmoils and entanglements we all do in our daily lives.

Even Legends have baggage, Jessica thought.

8.

Chief Meryl Gunn was quietly contented. To have almost the entire crew engaged in repairing the Defiant, and to have all departments liaising with her alone on what should be done, where and when, was empowering. It made her feel less like a disregarded grease monkey toiling away in the bowels of the ship, and more like an important cog in the machine.

“You know, for a cocky little sod, you’re all right,” Gunn said with a grin.

Lieutenant Kyle Banks looked up from what he was doing and rolled his eyes.

“I’m not averse to a bit of manual labour,” Banks said.

Gunn laughed. She was leant against a massive pipe that carried coolant from one end of the Defiant to the other. With her hands in the front pockets of her overalls, and dirt smeared across one cheek she looked like something out of Oliver Twist.

“You fly boys don’t know what labour is,” she said.

Banks set his tools down on the floor in a huff and shot her a look. “Eh, I’m down here helping ain’t I? Don’t look a gift horse in the mouth.”

“All right, all right, calm down. I’m only teasing you. I know it means a lot to ruin your manicure like that,” Gunn said with her hands up in the air.

Banks couldn’t help but laugh. “Shut up.”

Gunn looked around. Pools of people were dotted through the engineering section, working together to fix their ship. Her bosom swelled with pride at the thought of the crew working as one, doing the work of a specialised repair team. Giving the Defiant the attention she should’ve got at Starbase 6 …

“No, in all seriousness. You’ve done well. Everyone has,” Gunn said.

Banks got up, wiped his hands on a rag tucked into his waistband.

“It’s coming together,” he said. “Everyone’s coming together.”

“Feels that way doesn’t it?” Gunn asked.

*

In another part of the ship, however, there was one crewmember who didn’t share Meryl Gunn’s sentiments.

Lieutenant Swogger had been asked by Commander Greene for a full list of the dead and missing from his department, and he had delivered it. But seeing it in its entirety had hit a nerve with Swogger, and he found the names of those taken so soon from their lives and duties dogged him. He couldn’t shake them.

He’d been there when the explosion rocked the ship. When it killed half of his team in one foul swoop. He’d stood to one side and watched as the Captain died in King’s arms …

But the losses hadn’t stopped there. They’d departed Station 6 without giving some of the crew a chance to get aboard. And some had died in the fire fights that followed. Now he was meant to be in charge of repairs in that section, and the basic training of crew re-assigned to duty under him.

However he’d now locked himself in his quarters with a couple of bottles of Taknari brandy, oblivious to Ensign Dunham’s efforts to keep his absence from the attention of the senior Officers.

Now starting on his second bottle of the day, his thoughts turned once again to Jessica King. He’d been at the briefing, had heard the news. They were stuck so far from home there wasn’t a rat’s chance in hell of getting back, marooned in a sea of stars.

A lot of it was King’s fault. She should never have taken command. Or rather, been given command by people who didn’t know better. Her command of the ship was questionable and uninformed.

“Don’t know what she’s doing,” Swogger mumbled to himself as he finished the dregs of one glass and immediately poured another.

His thoughts swam, mostly due to the booze. Every bitter thought that had bubbled away beneath the surface since Singh’s death started to break through and corrode his judgement. Everything that had gone wrong, was because of her. The woman Captain who managed to get his men killed. The woman Captain who gave the wrong order and stranded them a gazillion light years from nowhere.

“You’re the one,” he said, his voice slurred.

Presently he stood up, the deck made of jelly beneath his feet. He necked the bottle and drank half in one go. It set his throat and insides ablaze, but he was numb to it too. As if he’d severed his arm, but could only feel that it was missing. Not that it had been cut.

He wiped his mouth, set the bottle down, then changed his mind and picked it back up. Another long swallow of the amber fire. His vision swam. It blurred, then cleared, then blurred again.

“She’ll get hers one day,” Swogger said. He stumbled out of his quarters and staggered through the ship.

I shouldn’t drink like that, he thought. Eat something, soak it all up.

He found his way into the mess hall, and the cook knocked him up a strong black coffee and a plate of sandwiches. He told him to sit in the corner and sober up.

“Gah!” Lieutenant Swogger snapped, waved his hand and took the plate and coffee to the far corner anyway. There he sat, quietly brooding as he ate.

Until Meryl Gunn and Kyle Banks walked through the door.

9.

The mess hall was half full by the time Gunn and Banks arrived to grab their lunch. They took a seat not too far away from the darkened hulk of Lieutenant Swogger. Neither of them noticed him staring into their backs as he listened to their conversation.

“You get along well with Del, don’t you Chief?” Banks asked her.

Gunn slapped him on the arm. “Oit you. Less of that. Don’t forget you’re talking about your superior officers.”

Banks shrugged. Sipped his tea. “Keep your secrets to yourself then.”

“You boys … you know the trouble with you lot? You all moan about women, but when you get together you’re bloody worse than a bunch of teenage girls,” Gunn said.

“What do you mean by that?” Banks asked.

“Oh I can see it now. All you boys sat in a circle, sharing the ship’s gossip amongst yourselves, discussing who’s with who. Like a little knitting circle.”

Banks dismissed her remarks. “Eh, Chief. What do you think about the Captain then?”

“In what way?” Gunn asked.

“Well, you think she’s into anyone on board? You know, you being a woman and all, I thought you might’ve heard -“

“Jonah,” a gruff voice said behind them. A frown crossed Gunn’s face. She turned around in her seat.

Swogger was staring right at her, his eyes red and puffy, his face a mass of dark shadow and mysterious thoughts.

“Sorry?” Gunn asked him.

Swogger glared at her. “I said Jonah.”

“Call me ignorant, but what the hell’s a Jonah?” Banks asked her.

“An old sailor superstition. Someone on board bringing bad luck and endangering the ship. That’s what he thinks the Captain is.”

“He’s crazy. Just ignore him,” Banks said.

But the voice was not to be ignored. It spoke again.

“She’ll kill us all, eventually. The Jonah,” Swogger said.

Gunn shot up out of her seat. Everyone stopped what they were doing and watched intently what was going on.

“Who are you talking about?” Gunn demanded.

“Our so-called leader, that’s who,” Swogger said. “The Jonah with the Captain’s blood on her hands.”

Gunn jabbed a finger in his direction. “I’m going to ask you politely. Take that back. For your own sake. Take it back and keep it to yourself.”

Swogger chuckled. “You think I’m scared of her? Who put her in charge?”

Gunn started moving forward, but Banks sprang forward to hold her back by the arm.

“Don’t. He’s not worth it,” Banks said.

“You know it’s the truth,” Swogger said. Gunn turned back to him, despite everything telling her not to. “If she wasn’t in command, we would not be here in this situation. She led us out here.”

“You are bang out of line there,” Banks told him.

“Oh really?”

Banks nodded, and this time he was the one to advance. Swogger shoved his table out of the way and leapt to his feet.

“Stand down Banks. And you, Chief,” a loud but controlled voice split the room in two. They all turned in the direction of Commander Del Greene, framed by the entrance of the mess hall. His gaze settled on Swogger, standing with his fists clenched.

“And if it ain’t the woman’s right hand man!” Swogger yelled.

“You’re drunk, Lieutenant,” Greene said. “And out of line.”

Swogger lifted his plate and launched it across the room where it hit a wall and shattered. “I’ll show you who’s out of line!” he roared.

Greene didn’t wait for another show of anger. He advanced into the room like a leopard pacing into the bush, his eyes set, his movements fluid and deadly. In seconds he was in Swogger’s face, standing him down. Chest puffed out, hands at his sides ready for anything.

“You wanna go? Let’s go,” Greene demanded.

Swogger seemed to boil over, then simmer back down. His body relaxed, he became subdued. He looked away from Greene, unable to maintain the eye contact.

“Just as I thought,” Greene said. He took a step back, turned to the room. “The rest of you, just go back to what -“

Swogger saw his chance and took it. He swung for the Commander’s jaw with everything he had, and when his fist connected there was an audible crunch. Greene had time only to register the pain that had shot off inside his head like a firework before a second blow hit his back, winding him. He fell forward, landed up against a table.

Banks flung himself at Swogger, pummelled him with his fists. He pushed Swogger back, but the other man was stronger and easily shoved him back off of him. As Banks regained his balance, Swogger was there with his fists. Banks doubled over as Swogger slugged him in the gut, and then felt a boot shove him out of the way.

Swogger stared about for another challenger. He didn’t see Meryl Gunn come of nowhere with a metal pan from the kitchen. Didn’t even know she had it until there was an incredibly painful clang to the back of his head. He put a hand there, pivoted on his heel to see Gunn standing there with the pan in her hand. His face registered his confusion, and then he was out cold on the floor.

“Lights out,” Gunn said.

She looked up in time to see a security detail rush into the mess hall. Thankful for their presence, she didn’t question who’d called them.

“Boys, get Swogger to the brig. Then get Banks and Greene to the infirmary.”

She went to the kitchen and handed the cook back his pot.

“You got any drink in here?” Gunn asked him.

“Only rum for cooking,” the cook said.

“That’ll do.”

10.

“So once again, I find my First Officer in the infirmary,” Captain King said with a theatrical shake of her head.

Greene went to sit up, but King pushed him back.

“Just rest, Del. They tell me you should rest for a bit.”

He felt his jaw, and winced.

“Swogger broke it. They’ve used Vita clamps and Stem grips to hold it, but it’s going to smart for a while I’m afraid. At least until it sets. That’s some punch he had on him …” King said.

“You’re telling me,” Greene said. “What about Banks?”

“Better shape than you. I’ve told him to rest up in his quarters. Swogger knocked him up a bit too.”

Greene shook his head. “I don’t know what was up with him. How did they get him under control? I take it security arrived just in time.”

Now it was King’s turn to shake her head. “Not security. A one-woman army called Meryl Gunn. She whacked him over the head with a pot. Knocked him spark out,” she said.

“I don’t believe it!” Greene said, a little embarrassed.

Jessica looked about. Apart from the two of them, the infirmary was empty.

“Listen, Del. I heard what Swogger was saying.”

Greene waved a hand at her.

“Don’t listen to that. Just the ravings of a drunk.”

“No, I do listen. Because maybe he’s right. You know?”

Greene frowned. “No, I don’t know. How can he be right? I thought I was the one took a little knock to the head today.”

Jessica sat on the edge of his bed, facing him.

“I feel kinda responsible for him being like that,” she said.

“I don’t see how you can,” Greene said.

“I don’t know,” King said. She looked away. Now Greene saw that her eyes were glassy. “I just think that everything’s happened a little too fast. For everyone.”

Greene reached out, found her hand. He squeezed it.

“Listen to me, sir. You’re not to blame for us being stranded here. You made a decision to keep us alive. And we’re alive, right?” Greene said.

“I see what you’re saying. I … uh … I never told you about the time I went to leave the Academy, did I?” she asked him.

Greene shook his head. “No, I don’t think you did.”

“I couldn’t take it. The amount of expectation. I thought the easy way out was to leave. But Andrew came to see me. I owe him so much, Del. I can’t even begin to tell you,” Jessica said.

Once again he squeezed her hand. “Hey …”

Jessica looked up. She fought back tears. “I feel like I’ve let people down,” she said. “And it’s not the first time.”

“What do you mean?”

Jessica thought back to her Academy days, to her basic command training.

“We were training in zero gee and I had command of the group. But something went wrong, and the orbital platform became unstable. I saved most of them, but … a few tumbled away. I called for assistance. I was helpless. Hanging onto the platform whilst I watched them fall into the atmosphere.”

Greene swallowed.

Jessica’s gaze was far away. “The balls of fire lasted longer than you’d think. The Earth was dark beneath them, and you know sometimes when I think about it, I wonder if anybody looked up and saw them falling. I wonder if they thought they were comets …”

After a moment of quiet, in which Greene watched his Captain wipe her eyes and pull herself together, he said “And what happened next?”

“I went to leave again. For the final time. I realised I couldn’t take it. I wasn’t cut out for it.”

“But Singh stopped you again?”

She looked up at him, a smile now on her face. “Yes. Yes he did.”

11.

“Can I come in?” a voice asked her. She didn’t have to look up to see who it was.

Jessica continued to throw her things into the duffel bag. She had her head turned so that he couldn’t see her face properly, couldn’t see the way her eyes were wet and misty.

He stepped into the room, turned the lights on.

“You don’t have to do this. Giving up isn’t the answer,” he said.

That was the spark to her fuel. She spun about, her face a tortured mix of anger and hurt.

“Yeah? Well I think I do. It’s not something I can just wash my hands of, is it?” Jessica said bitterly.

Andrew Singh laid a hand on her shoulder. She knocked it away.

“Don’t,” she snapped.

“I didn’t say anything about washing your hands of it. In fact you have to do the opposite. You have to remember the mistake that led to their deaths. Honour it by never allowing it to happen again,” Singh told her.

“And how do I do that exactly, eh?”

“By doing the best you can,” he said. “These things happen Jessica. Mistakes are made. Things go wrong. You’re not to blame …”

Jessica shook her head. In her minds eye she saw those men and women burning up in the atmosphere. Blazing lights in the dark of night.

“But you know that’s not true. You know I am to blame. That’s why I can’t stay.”

“You can’t run away,” Singh said. “It won’t solve anything.”

Jessica stopped what she was doing, stopped piling her belongings into the bag and stared off into nothingness. “I can’t sleep. I can’t shake their faces … the terror …”

Again, Singh put his hand on her, and this time she didn’t shake him off.

“I know. Believe me, I know,” he said. He pulled her in toward him, held her against his chest. She started to sob. “I don’t get this luxury anymore. To grieve for the men and women who’ve died at my command. Or died through my failings. Too many people rely upon me, for me to fall down like that.”

Jessica pulled away from him, wiped her eyes.

“Do you think I’m being a coward?” she asked him.

Singh shook his head. “No. You’re going through things we all do. The leaders of men and women more than others. Sometimes people die because of the choices we make, Jessica. It’s a part of duty, and it’s a part of life. You can’t go packing your bags and running every time it happens because eventually you find there’s nowhere left to run.”

Jessica nodded. Singh turned and walked to the door, stopped in the threshold with his back to her. He turned his head to the side slightly.

“Report to Captain Romero’s ship oh-nine-hundred tomorrow morning for duty.”

Jessica watched him go. She put the duffel bag on the floor, but not to leave altogether. This time it was packed for her next assignment.

That night she sat up for hours writing her condolences to the families of those who’d died. She didn’t go to bed until she was finished.

Only then was she able to sleep.

*

“You still have that support, Jessica. Even without Captain Singh around. Let us take his place. We’ll stand by you. We won’t judge you,” Greene said.

“I know you won’t, Commander. And you know what? I shouldn’t be in here putting this on you. I should keep it private,” she said.

“Well that’s up to you,” Greene said. “But never for a second think we’re not right behind you. You’ll always have a small percentage of the crew who don’t agree with your way of doing things. Your methodology. But that’s a way of life. For every nine people answering your orders, there’s one questioning them. Don’t pay much heed to people like Swogger.”

“But I sort of feel for him. He’s watched his crew die in front of his eyes. I know how that feels.”

Greene managed to sit up, and this time she didn’t stop him.

“Then maybe you should go talk to him,” he said.

“And what about you? He broke your jaw, Del. I can’t let that go.”

Greene waved her away. “I’ll take the broken jaw if you can get him back on track. If he’s committed to this ship and her Captain. It’s a package deal. If he can do that, then I’ll forget about it.”

“Well, I’ll let him cool down for a bit. We’ve got a memorial service anyway. You’re still coming?” Jessica asked him.

Greene shot her a look. “Who said I wasn’t?”

12.

Following the memorial service, there were some drinks and time for the crew to mingle and talk. The rest of the ship was set to automatic, with some departments operating on a skeleton crew where they couldn’t quite get away with outright automation.

Sipping a coffee, Jessica made her way through the crewmen and women, listening to snippets of their conversations. Eventually she bumped into Gerard Nowlan at the back of the room, fending off several women after his attention.

“I think Captain Nowlan wants to have a quiet drink, ladies,” King announced.

They hadn’t realised she was about, and dissipated at the sound of her voice behind them.

“Thanks,” Nowlan said with a sigh of relief. Jessica noticed that he, too, was drinking a coffee.

“No booze, Captain?” she asked.

“Not quite yet. The head’s still humming.”

King nodded. “I don’t know how you deal with that.”

“What? The hangover?” Nowlan asked, cocking his head to one side.

“No!” Jessica said with a chuckle. “The celebrity.”

Nowlan shook his head. “It’s new to me, I tell yuh. It’s all a bit of shock.”

King nodded. “I think I know what you mean.”

“People have this expectation of yuh …” Nowlan said with a shake of his head, then took several swallows of coffee. “But, I always have been good with the ladies.”

Jessica started to laugh. There was a pat on her shoulder. She turned to find a medical orderly waiting to talk.

“Yes?”

“Dr. Clayton said he’d like to talk to you,” the orderly said. “He’s been trying to flag you down.”

Jessica looked past her. About forty feet away, she saw Clayton chatting away with several crewmen. He glanced up at her. Something about it made her not want to talk to him. She sensed that he had news, something that perhaps she didn’t want to hear.

“I think he wants to talk in private,” the orderly told her.

“Okay, thanks,” Jessica said. “Tell him I’ll meet him later in sickbay.”

She turned back to Nowlan.

“A nice memorial, by the way,” Nowlan said. “Classy.”

Jessica shrugged. “The least they deserve.”

“Will you excuse me?” she asked Hawk. She went around the back of the room, avoiding Dr. Clayton as she walked out and headed for the brig.

*

The brig had three cells. Swogger was in the one at the far end.

“You can leave me to it,” Jessica told the guard. He acknowledged and left. She walked to the end of the holding cells and at the sound of her boots on the shiny floor Swogger looked up. He looked dishevelled and tired. He looked hung over.

“Lieutenant,” she said.

Swogger looked away.

“Lieutenant!” she snapped.

Swogger looked back at her, then sat up.

“That’s better,” she said. “Are we more sober now?”

“A little. It wasn’t just the booze though, so it don’t really matter,” Swogger said.

“I hear you made some remarks. That’s fair enough. I have no problem with my crew questioning things. My orders. My decisions that have gotten people in harm’s way. I accept that. Everyone is entitled to their opinion,” King said. “But you bring your problems with the way I do things to me. You don’t shout about it in the mess hall in front of God-knows-how-many crew. Got it?”

Swogger didn’t say anything. This time Jessica ignored his rudeness.

“That I can put aside, but to physically assault your fellow crewmen is unforgivable.”

“I had my reasons.”

“I don’t care for your reasons. There is no excuse. None whatsoever, and you know it. I am very ashamed of you, Lieutenant.”

“I was angry,” Swogger said. “I was so angry.”

Jessica leaned up against the horizontal bars of the cell with a sigh.

“Go on,” she said.

“Seeing the members of my team die in that explosion. The Captain …” Swogger’s voice cracked, and he swallowed something back.

“I know how you feel …” she said.

“How? Whilst you’re up there making all the decisions, having all the bright ideas, we’re the ones feeling it. How can you know, eh?”

“I’ve known that feeling, and I still do. It doesn’t leave you. It gets worse, in fact. Every man or woman that dies leaves a hole that never closes, a scar that doesn’t heal,” she said. “I know that pain you feel when you watch someone you know die.”

Swogger was silent. She didn’t let it dissuade her.

“Years ago, at the Academy,” she said, repeating the same story she’d told Greene earlier. Only this time her mind went right back to the accident, as if she were back there experiencing it all over again. Really, she wondered if she’d ever left that moment. If it had ever ended for her. “There was an accident …”

*

Jessica gripped the platform as it struggled to maintain altitude. The others clung to the opposite side for dear life. Jessica peered down at the men and women in Academy training suits tumbling through the void against the dark blue of Earth’s nightside. They waved their arms and legs in panic. Their cries for help filled her helmet, and she struggled to keep her eyes open from the sheer volume of it. But she didn’t close her eyes, didn’t look away.

Even when the first one struck the upper atmosphere and began to burn up. Right up until the others joined the first by becoming a formation of falling stars over Earth. With one hand still on the platform, she reached out as if to save them, to pull them back. But before her eyes they faded away, though they would never leave her. She would dream about them falling for years to come. And sometimes she fell with them.

*

Lieutenant Swogger hung his head in his hands. “I’m sorry,” he mumbled after several moments had passed.

That was enough for her. Captain King walked to the nearby security panel. In seconds the bars receded into the wall.

“So that’s it?” Swogger asked, looking up. “I’m free to go?”

“Not quite,” King said. “You will be on probation for the time being. One more act of aggression against the crew, and you’ll be stripped of rank.”

Swogger nodded slowly. “I understand.”

“You’re a good man, Lieutenant. I need you to work with me, not against me. If we’re going to get through this – whatever this is – then we all need to pull together.”

“Yes Captain,” Swogger said. He stood and saluted.

“And for what it’s worth, Lieutenant, I do feel responsibility for us ending up here. And I was starting to think that what I was feeling was guilt, but it wasn’t,” she said.

“What was it?” Swogger asked her with a frown.

“Regret,” Jessica said. “Regret, because I wasn’t able to make any other choice. Because given the chance, I’d make that choice ten times over if it meant keeping my crew alive. Regret because as the commander of this vessel, and her crew, I alone must make those kind of decisions.”

“I’m sorry I doubted your ability and your intentions, Captain,” Swogger said.

Jessica smiled. She extended her hand, and they both shook. “And I accept your apology. Boy, do I accept it,” she said with relief.

13.

King threw back her head with a sigh. She had just walked into her quarters and unbuttoned her tunic when her bell rang.

God, there’s never a break, she thought.

“Come,” she said.

She turned to see Dr. Clayton stood in the open doorway.

“Oh. Doctor,” she said. She buttoned herself back up, and welcomed him in. “Please, come in and sit down.”

Clayton nodded, perched himself on the edge of the sofa. Jessica sat down next to him.

“So what can I do for you, Doc?” she asked him.

Clayton studied her face before continuing. “Captain …”

Jessica looked at him with a frown. “What is it? Something serious?”

Clayton looked up, as if the words were on the ceiling waiting for him to pull them down like errant balloons. “What I’m going to say won’t be easy.”

“Doc, what is it?” she asked.

Clayton reached out and took her hands in his. They were old, but warm and smooth. Well cared-for hands of a man who relied on them to save people’s lives.

“Jessica, some months ago I had a visit from Captain Singh. He was concerned by a sudden numbness in his legs. He asked me to check it out,” Clayton said.

“Oh?” King said, taken aback. “He didn’t say anything to me about it.”

“Well, he wanted it kept private. I was the only person he could tell because I’m ethically unable to say anything and he knew his secret would be safe with me. Normally this code of conduct would extend to the patient even when they’re deceased … but in this case I’m making an exception.”

King urged him on.

“The numbness was only slight, but it was noticeable. Bothered him enough to have me check it out. We ran some tests …” Clayton said.

He looked down at their hands.

“What were the results, Doctor? Don’t close up on me now. You’ve started this.”

Clayton’s eyes met with hers.

“The tests revealed the early stages of Multiple Sclerosis. MS. One of the few ailments of the human body we do not have a cure for,” he said.

Jessica was stunned. Singh hadn’t said anything to her.

“My God … how did he take it?”

Clayton shook his head. “Well enough, I suppose. We agreed there was no reason to tell anyone until it became more pronounced. And as I told him, that could take months or even years. There was time. But there was something else …”

“Yes?” Jessica asked. She felt saddened by what Clayton had revealed to her. That Andrew had never revealed his illness to her broke her heart in a way that losing him altogether hadn’t. A new pain. She couldn’t imagine how he’d felt, alone in the knowledge of his own limits.

“I told the Captain that it was hereditary. But I said ‘You don’t have any children, so that won’t be a problem will it?’ to which he said ‘That’s what I wanted to ask you about.’”

Jessica searched Clayton’s face for what was to come next. For the truth that lurked behind his sad eyes.

“He told me he had a daughter. But it was a secret. She didn’t know. He asked me to run a check on her, see if she might be susceptible to contracting the disease at some stage. I told him I needed a name,” Clayton said. He squeezed her hands. “He told me it was you, Jessica. You were his daughter.”

She looked away, suddenly unable to process what he was telling her.

We can be your family …

I don’t have what it takes …

With my help you will have. If you’ll trust me …

Now she understood. He wasn’t trying to be her Father – he was her Father. And that was why it had pained him so to see her careening off into chaos. That was why he’d pulled her back. Her own singularity, making sure she didn’t stray too far so that he could keep a close and careful watch on her.

My Dad …

Clayton patted her hand. “I’m sorry. I couldn’t say. He made me swear not to tell you.”

Jessica looked at him. “Doc, did you -” she started to ask, but then the loud scream of the emergency klaxons filled her quarters, followed by a panicked announcement from the bridge.

“Captain! Red alert! Enemy vessel off the port bow and closing fast!”

Everything else fell aside. King got up and dashed for the door. Within seconds she was running down the corridor, headed straight for the bridge.

14.

“Report!” Captain King ordered as she strode onto the bridge.

On the viewscreen the image showed the swirling maelstrom of the nebula, and coming up on their left the huge bulk of the Inflictor.

“We are at red alert, hull plating polarised,” Change reported.

“Very good,” King said. “Boi, open a channel. Try to hail them.”

She sat down and strapped herself in. There was the sound of boots on deck plating, and she turned her head in time to see Commander Greene walk onto the bridge followed closely by Gerard Nowlan.

Before she could say anything, Boi reported that a connection had been made.

“Put it up, Ensign,” she said.

The front viewscreen changed to a familiar face. Prince Sepix.

“We meet again,” Sepix said with obvious relish. He looked dishevelled but very much alive.

“Your highness. What a pleasure. I thought you were dead,” King said.

“Reports of my demise were greatly exaggerated, to say the least,” Sepix said.

“I can see that,” King said. “Although the ship looks a little different this time around …”

Sepix made a show of looking around. “She is a little worse for wear following our previous encounter, Captain. But otherwise none the weaker. And now, allow me to introduce a long-lost hero of the Dominion. You may know him from your history books!”

He stepped to the side to allow the newcomer to the conversation. The sleek form appeared beside him, his face nothing but a curve of mirrored armour. Of course Jessica remembered who this figure was. The most famous adversary of the Union and a renowned warlord of the Draxx Dominion. No-one had ever seen the face behind that mirror mask.

Jessica heard Nowlan gasp next to her at the sight of him.

“General Carn,” Sepix said with a smile.

The General nodded slowly. “Deactivate your defences. You are now the prisoners of the Draxx Dominion. Prepare to be boarded. Failure to comply would be futile.”

The line was cut. The viewscreen changed back to show the enemy vessel.

King looked from Captain Nowlan to Commander Greene.

“What do we do?” Greene asked. “We’ve only just got this tub back together.”

Jessica nodded. Her jaw tightened.

“What choice do we have?” she said. She stood up, resolute. “All hands … battle stations!”

PART THREE

HERO

1.

General Carn targeted the group of craft in his scanners and sent his orders through the stealth communication circuits. The two ships following his lead acknowledged with similarly silent signals.

He increased his speed. Once he closed the distance to the enemy, he would spring the trap.

So, their intel had been correct after all: a Union task force led by Captain Gerard “Hawk” Nowlan was systematically destroying their replicant production facilities, a strategy he respected if not appreciated.

But he couldn’t allow that to happen. They’d lost too many foot soldiers to unending battlefields like Massa E Kym. There was no way they could afford to lose the ability to quickly produce more. A ready-made battle force of unthinkable possibilities was an extremely valuable asset.

He locked onto the craft at the rear of the group as he came up behind it, and signalled his own ships to fan out. Under no circumstances were they to open fire until he’d already done so.

The General considered himself a true man of war; though man was the loosest possible term. In another life he’d once been like a man, it was true. But like the blacksmiths of a bygone age, he’d been reforged by the fires of chaos into something new entirely; a deadly weapon, tempered for war.

And now, like an arrowhead formed from molten steel, he was headed for his target. Carn’s hand braced against the firing trigger. Wait … wait … wait …

He fired.

Red energy bolts tore free from the front of his fighter. His stream of fire struck the back of the small Union craft. “Yes …” he whispered with pleasure as it exploded.

Now the two Draxx ships would perform a pincer movement to pick the other ships off. However, unlike the custom design of his own ship, fitted with the latest in stealth camouflage technology, the other two could not fire while cloaked. Their energy banks could not handle the vast amount of energy required for both acts, leaving them open to attack.

He watched from the side of his cockpit as the lead Union ship climbed away. The little ship spun on its axis. As it came up behind the Draxx vessel it let loose the cannons at its front, firing in rapid succession.

The Draxx ship was no more.

Carn brought himself to a standstill, to see what would happen next. However he hadn’t counted on two things. The first was that the stealth technology was not entirely without flaws. It reflected a fraction of the ambient starlight. Perhaps not noticeable to the average observer. But at the right angle …

The second was that his enemy would have the eyes of his namesake. And those hawk-like eyes spotted the subtle shift in light as Carn’s ship drifted on the currents of space.

Hawk’s fighter swung to the right. Then, without warning, it fired on him. The powerful bolts struck him dead on.

Circuits blew as the cloak failed. Carn ignored it. He threw the ship into overdrive and rocketed forward. Immediately he fired two warheads at Hawk’s ship. Hawk ducked out of their way, and they went hurtling through the pocket of space he’d occupied a second before.

Carn hurled his ship into a seemingly impossible barrel roll that evaded every one of the bolts Hawk fired his way. The swift response of his limbs was unnatural in its cool fluidity.

The other Union ship took out his last wing mate, burst the ship like a metal balloon.

That’s enough. Time to leave.

As Carn turned, he unleashed a single warhead on the small Union ship. It didn’t have time to react, and its radio chatter over his comm. system was immediately silenced.

He sped away. Immediately Hawk tried to close the gap.

Carn hailed the pursuing vessel through the comm. He didn’t need to identify himself. As the saying went, they were well met.

“General,” Hawk said.

“How did you know?” Carn said with mock innocence in his trademark silvery voice.

“It looked like your type of ship, to be honest,” Hawk said.

Carn chuckled. The last time he’d had cause to laugh was when he had Hawk on a slab torturing him, back on Mephisto Mara. But that was months ago. Nowlan had obviously regained his strength and confidence since then. Of course, the purpose of the torture had not been to kill him. That would have been swift and clean.

Uninteresting.

The key had been to find his weakness, find his pain threshold and slowly break through it. Tease it open wide enough to exploit it. If that Union rescue force hadn’t arrived to free him, the General might have succeeded in finally breaking him in two …

“Well, I have to say, your own ship suits you the best,” Carn said.

“Oh yeah? And how’s that?”

Carn checked his readout. “It’s small.”

Hawk fired a warhead. It fell short of Carn’s ship, although the explosion behind rocked the Draxx vessel from side to side.

“I’d have thought you’d know better than to waste your precious ammunition,” Carn said.

“Just a taster for you, General. Now how’s about we stop this charade and get you under arrest,” Hawk said.

Again, Carn laughed. He keyed several controls. There was no time to plot an exact course. If he waited any longer, he knew Hawk would close the distance between them and blow him out of the sky. What Hawk had probably guessed was that in disabling the stealth systems of the enemy ship, the battle had also damaged the ship’s energy shielding. Carn was a sitting target without it.

Well, not for much longer.

“You are confident, human. I’ll give you that. Anyway, it’s been pleasant enough but I grow tired of your company.”

General Carn pushed the Jump Drive lever forward. The stars burst forth around him and he was gone.

*

He exited in the path of a black hole. With the immense speed of his mighty ship, Carn failed to brake in time to slow down. He tore straight toward the eye of the swirling singularity. There was no wait. No slow tumble into the prospect of nothingness at its centre.

If the General believed in a God, he’d have sworn by one as his ship got sucked in like flotsam down a plughole. There was no panic. No fear. The methods taught to him so long ago to control his emotions kicked in again.

He was still. At peace.

The edges of the black hole slipped past, and he descended into the eye.

Into the void.

He expected the crush of unthinkable forces, but it didn’t come. Instead he found his mind opened like a flower, and every thought he’d ever had was released like dandelion seeds on a breeze.

He wandered.

Worlds and systems he’d seen. The star he’d called Sun in another life. A planet, small and covered in water. Blue skies. Dusk and dawn through blankets of cloud.

He remembered what it was like to have hands – real ones. And to touch with them. To really feel, with natural, biological skin.

A battle raged below his feet, and when he looked down he saw a war zone. Fire, blood, screams of agony. Explosions. Misery.

It was in this battle that he had ended. That he’d been pushed away. But war, a force of nature in itself, was not yet ready to let go. It pulled him back, breathed new life into his body. Made him return from death; reborn with hatred to fulfil the bitter and twisted torments of his masters.

And now, he felt himself come back together. The darkness fell to the side. He opened his eyes, expecting the blazes of hell that surely awaited him. But there were only stars. And a bright blue nebula.

Perhaps next time, he thought.

*

His ship tumbled through space, powerless. Every circuit blown, life support failing.

That’s fine, he thought. I don’t need it anyway.

He reached under his seat and activated the emergency beacon that would signal his presence to any Draxx forces within twenty light years.

Carn caught movement from the side of his cockpit. He looked in time to see Hawk’s fighter zoom past. For whatever reason the human’s ship still had minimal power, at least. He tensed, wondered if Hawk would do an about face and make a visual reconnaissance of the area. With his own ship dead in the water, it wouldn’t show up on any immediate scans, but if he was seen …

His fears were rendered moot when Hawk’s fighter limped away toward the nebula.

He doesn’t realise I’m already here, Carn thought.

He watched Hawk go, then settled in for a long wait. The temperature in his cockpit dropped dramatically, the air grew thin, but it was of no matter. The General could stand exposure to the void itself for several days before it would have any real effect on him.

He closed his eyes and drifted away, deep in meditation.

*

The ship rocked from side to side. It broke his state of mental tranquillity. Carn opened his eyes to find himself staring at the back end of an enormous vessel. He could tell straight away that it was Draxx in design. His ship bucked in the eddy from the vessel’s engines.

They’re here to collect me, he thought. And then he saw Hawk’s fighter fly underneath and away. Seconds later an enormous explosion blasted from the front of the gigantic ship, and it visibly lost power. The engines and lights died and it listed to port.

He knew straight away that the passage through the black hole had knocked out the larger ship’s power and obviously its shields. For Union weapons to render such a critical blow, with one hit, they’d picked their moment well.

Once more, he waited.

An hour later, there were signs of power again on the gigantic ship. It righted itself and seemed to have recovered from the hit that Hawk had delivered to it.

Then, when he began to wonder whether it would ever notice him, the vessel fired a grappler at his ship. He eased back in his chair as the larger ship reeled him in.

2.

BEFORE …

Sepix smiled.

The Defiant limped away like a wounded Grivnak. It gave Prince Sepix pleasure to see the human scum try to run for their lives. That was all they had done since their first meeting. Run.

Now he would bring an end to the chase. His crew had no idea where the singularity had spat them out, but it was of no matter. The Draxx Dominion would do what it did best, wherever it was.

Dominate.

“Lock on weapons,” he ordered. “Maintain stealth status, and when I give the word, open fire.”

Minutes ticked by, and then “The enemy has increased speed.”

Now was the time.

Sepix slammed his fists down on the front console. “Fire!”

The helmsman let loose a burst of warheads. They flared away from the Inflictor on a direct collision course with the Defiant.

Sepix watched in anticipation of the coming explosion, salivating.

Out of nowhere a small starfighter appeared, firing streams of energy at their warheads. They erupted like fireworks. Not a single one of them hit the Defiant.

The fighter shot down another swarm of Draxx warheads.

“What!?” Sepix yelled.

He watched as the little ship picked off the last projectile with a swift burst of fire.

“Target that little ship! NOW!” he roared, furious. A few heartbeats later a single warhead shot toward the fighter. It was set to track and follow it until it caught up.

The small craft ducked and dove, but the Draxx weapon stayed on its tail, inching closer and closer.

At first Sepix chuckled.

His expression changed to one of confusion then surprise as the fighter headed straight for the Inflictor. He cocked his head to one side.

“What is he doing – ?”

The little ship waited till the last minute, then ducked sharp beneath the Inflictor. The warhead slammed directly into the front of her. The huge hull took the full force of the hit. Sepix was thrown backward. The bridge burst into flame. The Inflictor shook as if riding a tectonic plate.

Sepix had time to look up at the viewscreen and see the fighter heading away. Then the screen went blank, overloaded.

He scrambled to his feet, looked around him at the destruction the warhead had done. Now the Inflictor was crippled. The Defiant would be long gone by the time they were operational again. His rage boiled over. He lifted his arms into the air and screamed.

*

The Inflictor was in chaos, and Sepix worked hard to ensure it was a controlled bedlam. While Carn floated undetected nearby in a state of meditation, the ship’s crew scrambled to fight the multiple fires across the ship. The old Union vessel had dealt a lucky blow, and probably bought themselves some time. Sepix knew that the minute they restored full power again, he’d resume his hunt. And this time he would not let the Defiant slip through his fingers.

“Report!” he yelled.

His senior command crew reported the situation of the various sections of the ship to him in tandem. They were making good progress so far, but it wasn’t quick enough. It was never quick enough.

They’d suffered a temporary leak of reactor coolant following the explosion. It required someone to enter the chamber and redirect the coolant flow. But the assignment meant certain death. Sepix sent seventeen Draxx to their deaths, one by one, in order to get the job done.

He was reminded of an old Draxx proverb: The needs of the Dominion outweigh the needs of all.

“We have main power, my lord!” the Engineer reported through the comm. system.

Sepix grinned. The Inflictor shuddered as power was restored to the engines. The deck levelled out as she righted herself.

“Excellent,” he said.

The weapons master spun about in his seat. “Lord, I have detected an emergency beacon directly aft.”

Sepix cocked his head to one side, surprised.

“What shall we do?” the officer asked him.

“Scan it. Make sure it isn’t a Union ploy,” Sepix said. He was well aware that it could be a warhead fitted with an emergency beacon. “Then fire the grappling hook and bring it on board.”

“Yes sir!” the officer replied.

Sepix pointed a claw at him. “And you’d better be sure it isn’t a ploy, or you will join your comrades in the coolant chamber. Your remains will liquefy just as well as theirs, I assure you.”

*

Sepix stood in the hangar bay with his hands behind his huge back. He watched patiently as the Draxx fighter was lifted inside. It was of an older design, and the sight of the craft struck a chord, as though he should remember it for being important somehow.

It made a loud clang as it settled heavily upon the deck. A legion of troops stood by with their weapons raised, lest the occupant prove hostile. Sepix strode forward until he stood six feet from the cockpit.

The hatch opened slowly, and as it did the air from the hangar rushed into the ship. It threw him a moment before he realised it was rushing to fill a vacuum. There had been no air inside the fighter.

But how –

The pilot stepped out, onto the deck. Sepix watched in disbelief as the pilot looked about at the hangar. He got down on one knee in front of Sepix and lowered his head.

“My lord. We are not yet met,” the pilot said. “But you are clearly of pure blood. The oath I gave your predecessors still stands now. I am your loyal servant, and at your command.”

The pilot looked up.

Sepix saw nothing through that mirrored mask but his own face staring down. “Accepted. Rise, General,” he said, the words alien on his lips.

Carn stood. Sepix turned and walked slowly across the hangar bay. Carn fell in step with him.

“You’re right, I do not know you. Only of you. You were once a great a hero to our people,” Sepix said.

After a moment, Carn said “Forgive me, I can tell that time has passed, but not how much. How long has it been?”

“Fifty years,” Sepix said.

Another long silence. “And the war to quell the Human plague?”

Sepix nodded. “Yes, the purge continues.”

“Excellent …” Carn said, pleased to find that though time might have moved on, other things hadn’t. There was still a place for him. And a job to do.

3.

“Report!” Captain King ordered as she strode onto the bridge.

On the viewscreen the image showed the swirling maelstrom of the nebula, and coming up on their left the huge bulk of the Inflictor.

“We are at red alert, hull plating polarised,” Change reported.

“Very good,” King said. “Boi, open a channel. Try to hail them.”

She sat down and strapped herself in. There was the sound of boots on deck plating, and she turned her head in time to see Commander Greene walk onto the bridge followed closely by Gerard Nowlan.

Before she could say anything, Boi reported that a connection had been made.

“Put it up, Ensign,” she said.

The front viewscreen changed to a familiar face. Prince Sepix.

“We meet again,” Sepix said with obvious relish. He looked dishevelled but very much alive.

“Your highness. What a pleasure. I thought you were dead,” King said.

“Reports of my demise were greatly exaggerated, to say the least,” Sepix said.

“I can see that,” King said. “Although the ship looks a little different this time around …”

Sepix made a show of looking around. “She is a little worse for wear following our previous encounter, Captain. But otherwise none the weaker. And now, allow me to introduce a long, lost hero of the Dominion. You may know him from your history books!”

He stepped to the side to allow the newcomer to the conversation. The sleek form appeared beside him, his face nothing but a curve of mirrored armour. Of course Jessica remembered who this figure was. The most famous adversary of the Union and a renowned warlord of the Draxx Dominion. No one had ever seen the face behind that mirror mask.

Jessica heard Nowlan gasp next to her at the sight of him.

“General Carn,” Sepix said with a smile.

The General nodded slowly. “Deactivate your defences. You are now the prisoners of the Draxx Dominion. Prepare to be boarded. Failure to comply would be futile.”

The line was cut. The viewscreen changed back to show the enemy vessel.

King looked from Captain Nowlan to Commander Greene.

“What do we do?” Greene asked. “We’ve only just got this tub back together.”

Jessica nodded. Her jaw tightened.

“What choice do we have?” she said. She stood up, resolute. “All hands … battle stations!”

4.

Hawk shook his head. “He wasn’t there. When I came through he wasn’t there.”

“That doesn’t matter now. He’s here. Let’s deal,” King said. “The Inflictor isn’t shooting yet, but it will be. They’re only gonna give us a small window of time before they start pushing so we’ve got to come up with something now.”

“If we head further into the nebula, I’ve detected a dense asteroid field. We could use that to our advantage to evade them,” Chang offered.

“Good,” King said. “Our smaller size could work to our advantage. Give Banks the helm, the coordinates ready to go. Commander, what do you think?”

Greene crossed his arms. “That’s a good starting point for our defensive, but what about the offensive? We can’t keep taking punches without landing a few ourselves …”

“He’s right. Y’all gotta have a plan of attack,” Hawk said.

“Any suggestions, Captain?” King asked him. She glanced at the viewscreen. The Inflictor was getting closer and closer.

Hawk bit his lip as he thought for a moment. “I don’t know what yuh got in terms of fighters, but we’d never hold our own against a ship that size. Sounds crazy but we could take the fight to them. Get on board and set some explosives. Might be tricky, but -“

“It’s all we’ve got,” Jessica said.

“Captain, they have power but their energy shields are still out,” Chang said.

Jessica nodded. “Good. It’s the bit of luck we’ve been waiting for. Captain Nowlan, will you lead a team to that thing?”

Hawk threw a lopsided grin. “‘Course.”

“Commander, I’d like you to go with him. Assemble a strike team.”

“Aye,” Greene said.

“Ensign Boi, please notify Munitions we’ll be borrowing a nuke,” King said.

There was an intake of breath from those present on the bridge.

“A nuke? You’re not pulling any punches are you?” Greene said.

She shook her head. “If we only get to deliver one punch, it’d better be the hardest we’ve got.”

“Then I’m going to need someone from Munitions to help me set it,” Greene said.

“Well, get down there now and grab someone. Captain Nowlan, you’ll find the transports in hangar two. Weapons and armour in the storage lockers outside. Master at Arms will sort you out.”

Hawk nodded and was already on his way off the bridge when Greene turned to Jessica and said “You know the real nuke expert in Munitions is Swogger, right?”

Jessica levelled at him. “I’m well aware. Get a move on, Commander.”

Greene turned around with a sigh then sprinted off the bridge.

“Coordinates locked into helm, Captain,” Chang reported.

Jessica watched Lieutenant Banks arrive on the bridge to relieve the trainee of the helm console. She was silently thankful for his swift takeover of the ship’s controls.

“Full power to hull plating and engines. We have to time this just right,” she said. “Mr. Banks, be ready to initiate the run to the debris field on my word.”

5.

The Master at Arms aboard Defiant was a portly gentleman by the name of Clifford Eisenhower. Although he’d worked on dozens of ships throughout his decades of service, Defiant was his longest tour of duty on a single boat. At the age of sixty-six, he’d hoped to make it his last before a comfortable retirement.

He waited for Hawk outside the hangar bay. There was a room there lined with suits and helmets, and at the end lockers filled with weapons for which only Eisenhower and the Commanding Officers had clearance.

Hawk shook his head.

“This way, Mr. Hawk,” Eisenhower said formally. He waddled to the lockers and Hawk followed behind. He looked about at the suits; so different from his own time. Neater, lighter, more mobile.

Whenever he had a moment of forgetfulness, he had only to take in his surroundings to be reminded of how out of place he really was. It was going to take a long time for him to grow acclimated to being on the Defiant. To existing in the future, so to speak.

He watched Eisenhower place his palm against the wall next to the lockers, and an instant later they all popped open.

“Wow,” Hawk said of the weaponry on show.

Eisenhower ran him through it. “All this’ll be a crash course, for you at least Mr. Hawk.”

He handed him a small firearm. Hawk turned it over.

“Oberon? Still making them, huh?”

Eisenhower’s bushy white eyebrows rose. “Haven’t they always? That there is a Oberon Rimfire. Latest model.”

Hawk said he’d take it. Eisenhower handed him a hip holster.

“That should do you,” he said.

As Hawk fastened the holster and slipped the hand cannon into the side, he couldn’t help but smirk. “Just like the old musketeering days …”

Eisenhower nodded with a lop-sided grin. “Will you need a rifle? I’ll be kitting the others in standard issue. Rifles, firearms, grenades, etc.”

Hawk shook his head. He turned to the side a little, patted the kataan on his other hip. “Nope. I got my best weapon right here.”

Now Eisenhower seemed to change. His face lit up as he looked at it.

“Well I’ll be …” he said with a smile. “You know, I remember reading about your kataan. They were standard issue for a short time, weren’t they?”

“Yuh, for some of us.”

Eisenhower shook his head in disbelief. “Well, I must say I’m impressed. The whole thing extends from that little handle doesn’t it?”

“Yuh. Although this isn’t the standard issue model. I had this one made,” Hawk said.

Eisenhower whistled, turned to the lockers and grabbed enough weaponry to start a small scale war. “I was a teenager when you went missing,” he explained as he gathered the items together.

“Is that so?” Hawk said awkwardly.

“Makes a man feel very old, lemme tell you,” Eisenhower said.

As Hawk took some of the weaponry from him to carry into the hangar, he said “Yuh pal, I think I know what y’all mean.”

*

“So, let’s run through this again,” Hawk said as the three members of the tactical team – Hunter, Kaminsky and White – helped him load the transport with everything they needed.

“Yes sir,” Kaminsky said.

“We get over there, and head toward the nearest energy signature. If we go for the biggest one nearest us, we should hit one of their reactors. And we should only have to hit one of them to bring that sucker down.”

“What sort of explosives are we using for this mission?” White asked him.

“A nuke. Commander Greene’s fixing it up right now. Should be down here with it in a minute,” Hawk said.

“Timer?” White asked.

Hawk nodded. “Yuh. We’ll give ourselves just enough time to get back to the transport and make our escape. It’ll be a narrow margin of error, though. If the slightest thing goes wrong -“

Kaminsky held up a hand. He looked to the others then back at Hawk. “We know the risks, sir. Whatever happens.”

A surge of pride crackled against his heart. Since coming on board, Hawk had noticed several differences to this Union fleet and the fleet of his own time. Things were more relaxed. More … informal. The emphasis was more on a family atmosphere than a strictly professional one. And in a way, he liked it. But he also missed the old formalities in a way he couldn’t quite understand.

I’m just an old dog, he thought to himself.

But the way his team acted, their sense of duty was a bridge across the temporal divide between them. Beneath all his bravado, that was how he felt.

Hawk handed them their guns. “Whatever happens,” he said.

6.

Commander Greene found Swogger on his hands and knees beneath a dismantled console. He didn’t have time to fully appreciate the improvement in Munitions since he’d last been down there, when it was a burned out mess.

Swogger peered up at him as he approached.

“Commander,” he said formally.

Greene looked about. They were alone.

“Doing a bit of surgery, Lieutenant?” Greene asked. He rubbed his jaw, winced at the flash of pain it produced.

Swogger looked down at the mess of cables and circuit boards on the floor.

“That’s one way of looking at it,” he said.

“Listen,” Greene said. “We have a situation.”

Swogger got up, dusted off his knees. “I heard. Something about you wanting a nuke? I didn’t have time to reconfigure this station so I was doing a quick reroute until it’s all over -“

“Swogger listen to me,” Green broke in. “The Captain wants us to go over there and plant the nuke from the inside.”

Swogger nodded slowly as Greene continued.

“Since you’re the real expert around here on nukes, we need you to come across to assist with setting it,” Greene said.

“Are you asking me, Commander?”

Greene blew the air out of his mouth in frustration. “I’m giving you the choice. I’m sure we can take somebody else. But you’re the one with the know-how. And you have to know it’s gonna be a hairy one, going over there and doing this. We might not come back.”

Swogger considered for a second. It seemed to stretch out for whole long minutes, an interminable amount of time.

“You know, when the Captain came down to the cells, we spoke about choices. I realised I was wrong to blame everything on hers. She was just trying to keep us alive,” Swogger said.

“So …” Greene asked, unsure where Swogger was going with it.

“I’m saying I’ll do it. Because I have the power of choice this time around, and hopefully I’m making the right one.”

Greene managed a brief grin before his jaw played him up again. He slapped Swogger on the arm. “Good stuff. Now we don’t have much time. Let’s get ourselves a nuke.”

7.

“Captain, the Draxx ship is hailing,” Ensign Boi reported.

King sighed. We still need more time.

“Open a channel,” she ordered.

The viewscreen changed once again to show Prince Sepix, but General Carn was now absent from his side.

“At last you choose to answer, Captain,” Sepix said.

“I have been in conference with my crew,” she said.

Sepix opened his arms with a flourish. “And?”

Jessica took a deep breath. “We have decided to stand down and surrender.”

The bridge crew all turned to look at her, shocked to hear the words although they were aware of the plan in place.

“Excellent,” Sepix said with obvious relish. “It would be unfortunate to have to blow you out of the sky. I look forward to having you as my guest aboard the Inflictor, Captain.”

Yes, so you can interrogate and torture me until I die, Jessica thought.

“I’d like some time to prepare my crew, if I may,” she said.

Sepix bowed his head slightly. “You may.”

“And, I wish to deliver our surrender in person. As is our custom,” she said.

Sepix cocked his head to one side. “That would be most … agreeable. Most agreeable indeed.”

King felt the hatred for her Draxx counterpart bubble away inside.

“Thank you,” she said convincingly enough.

“The pleasure is mine,” Sepix said. “You have thirty minutes, human. And then if you don’t come to us, we’ll come to you …”

The viewscreen changed abruptly to the view of the Inflictor floating before them.

“The clock is ticking,” King said.

8.

“I’m sorry about that jaw,” Swogger said. He had the back end of the nuke in his hands, and Greene carried the top end walking backwards. The Commander glared at him.

“Shut up,” Greene snapped.

The nuke was heavy, and there was no time to get something to transport it on so they’d had no choice but to handball it all the way to the hangar bay.

“Sorry,” Swogger said.

“Anyway,” Greene said. “You got lucky with that hit.”

Swogger looked up at him, then started to laugh. Greene couldn’t help himself from joining in.

The overhead comm. system crackled to life.

“Commander, this is the Captain. We’ve got fourteen minutes to get over there. You better shake your tail feather and get a move on before they suspect something.”

Greene rolled his eyes at the ceiling as they carried the nuke through the entrance of the hangar bay, both panting from the struggle.

“She doesn’t realise how much this weighs …” he said.

*

Nowlan waited by the side of the transport as Kaminsky, Hunter and White filed on board. They each carried the armour and weapons they needed.

“Take yuh time boys,” he said as he watched Greene and Swogger working up a sweat to lug the nuke through the hangar bay toward the ship. They both glared at him. “Hope y’all aren’t gonna be too tired for the big show now yuh done that.”

“We’ll … be … fine …” Greene said. He settled the nuke on the floor and flopped back against the transport. Swogger stood with his hands against the small of his back.

“Really?” Hawk asked them. He looked from one to the other. “I just don’t get it boys, why didn’t yuh use one of those?”

They both followed his line of sight to an anti-grav platform a few feet away.

Hawk shrugged. “Well, come on then. Time’s wastin’.” He walked over to the anti-grav, and pushed it toward them. “Better get it on here, boys. We don’t wanna be luggin’ this thing inside that ship. Not at your speed. I’ll meet you inside.”

He patted them both on the back and walked up the ramp of the transport.

Greene went to say something.

Swogger shook his head. “I don’t think that’s a good idea, Commander. Come on.”

*

“Time,” King said.

Chang glanced at her readout. “Five minutes.”

King shook her head. Too close. They’re cutting this too close.

“As soon as the transport is within one hundred metres of their hangar, open fire. Aim directly for the bridge. Knock out their control of the situation if we can,” she ordered.

Olivia Rayne had the weapons station. “I have the main guns locked on target, Captain. As soon as you’re ready, we’ll unleash everything we’ve got.”

Jessica nodded with satisfaction. “Excellent. We need to get our punches in fast, hit them before they know what we’re doing. And when they do, we’ll be on our way.”

*

The emergency lights flashed on and off as the hangar bay doors slowly opened to the cold vacuum of space.

“Got your suits on, fellas?” Hawk asked them as the ramp to the transport slid shut behind them.

“All but the helmets,” Swogger said. They’d slip them on at the last minute.

“You did bring all the weapons, didn’t you?” Greene asked Nowlan.

Hawk nodded. “Yessir. Everything you need.”

“And what about you?”

“I sorted myself out, pal,” Hawk said with a chuckle.

The legendary star pilot keyed the controls and brought the transport to a smooth hover above the hangar bay deck.

“I may be a little out of date, but I still got the goods,” he said.

“Just don’t do anything fancy. We’re meant to be flying over there to surrender, not show how many loops you can execute in less than sixty seconds,” Greene remarked.

Hawk turned to look at him. “Commander, you’re talking to the Galaxy’s best here. Just sit back and hang tight, will yuh? Nobody likes a goddamn backseat driver.”

With a shake of his head, Hawk moved the craft forward. They edged out through the hangar bay doors, and he brought them smoothly alongside the Defiant.

The transport moved so slowly, it was almost as though they were flying an inspection of the outer hull before a shakedown. Whilst Hawk took them across the Defiant’s bow, Hunter, Kaminsky and White double-checked the weapons and ammo. They handed armour and side-arms to Greene and Swogger.

“You okay?” Greene asked him.

Swogger looked up at the instant he jammed a clip into his pistol. It contained enough charge for eighteen hours of constant fire. “Don’t worry about me, Commander. I know what you want me to do.”

Greene shook his head. “I didn’t exactly mean that.”

“Look, it’s over with. I got drunk, I got silly, I was eaten up over the death of my men. Still am.”

“Yeah, I know, but -” Greene started to say but Swogger held up both hands for him to stop.

“I didn’t have a right to do what I did. But I can’t take that back. I can only try to show you I’m not really a bad guy,” Swogger said.

Greene nodded. “Good. Just try not to blow it up before we’re off that thing.”

“You know, I wouldn’t worry about that,” Swogger said with a chuckle. “I’d worry about them shooting us down before we get there.”

I hadn’t considered that, Greene thought. Thanks a bunch.

They left the Defiant behind and headed straight for the Inflictor.

“Ugly isn’t it?” Swogger said, peering across the pilot’s chair at the immensity of the Draxx vessel.

Hawk laughed. “They’re all ugly as hell, fella, lemme tell yuh. I ain’t ever seen anythin’ to do with that cursed race worth a damn. That reminds me, I meant to ask, either of you boys seen much action?”

Swogger shook his head. “Nope. Not on the ground. Sorry.”

Hawk looked across at Greene. “And you Commander?”

Greene looked down at the floor. “You could say so, yeah …”

Nowlan regarded him for a moment with eyes that had seen far too much, enough to fill several lifetimes. He saw the same mark of experience in Greene’s as he did his own whenever he caught them looking back at him in the mirror.

The ghosts of war.

“Fair enough,” Hawk said softly. He cleared his throat, threw several switches. “Okay boys, hold on tight. I ‘spect in a minute it’s gonna get pretty hairy ‘round here.”

*

“Three hundred metres, Captain,” Chang reported.

Jessica told everyone to buckle themselves up. She did the same.

“This is it people,” she said. “Time to show these cold-blooded brutes what we’re really made of.”

“Two fifty,” Chang said.

“I’m ready,” Kyle Banks said from the helm. His hands were literally poised over the console controls.

“Take us in close; buy us some seconds to pack a few hits in. Then get us the hell out of here,” Jessica said. She turned to Jack Boi. “Ensign, be sure to maintain contact with the team. I want to know the minute that nuke is set.”

She watched as the transport shrank from view, swamped by the enormous Draxx warship in front of them.

“Two hundred metres,” Chang said.

And into the dragon’s den they go … Jessica thought.

*

The Inflictor swamped them on all sides. It was huge, an ugly brute of pure strength. Built to wreak havoc.

Commander Greene was reminded of the Draxx creed: Dominate the Weak, Destroy the Strong and how it was in direct opposition with the Union’s own idealistic motto of Defend the Weak and Destroy Tyranny.

It was said that the Union came up with their own after hearing the Draxx version first, and he could well believe it.

At one time, as it faced the insurmountable pressure of fighting a war without end, the Union had taken shortcuts. Replicants created for the battlefield. Planets lain to waste using both weapons of mass destruction and biological agents capable of destroying everything on a planet within hours. The Union hit back at the Draxx in the only way it knew how; when they brought a knife, the Union turned up to the next battle with a gun. When they brought an automatic rifle, the Union turned up with a precision missile. And so it went.

But eventually they learned that in doing so, in fighting evil with necessary evil, they had become the very thing they were attempting to stop. The Draxx were a deadly cancer infecting the Galaxy one system at a time.

The civil unrest initiated by The Metal Marquis set about a chain reaction of events that led to the Union seeing the error of its ways.

Defend the Weak. Destroy Tyranny.

A flashing light appeared atop Nowlan’s flight console. He spun about.

“That’s it. That’s the signal!” he said. He turned back to his controls, and threw the transport into a tight burst of thrust that sent it rocketing toward an awaiting hangar. “Yeeeeeeeeeeeeha!”

The others were thrown back against their seats, pinned by the sudden inertia.

They tore into the hangar, and he kicked the reverse thrusters into full gear to stop them crashing into the far wall. The assembled Draxx foot soldiers stumbled back in shock as Hawk brought the transport to hover just a foot off the deck. He then did the unexpected.

He steered the transport fast and loose about the hangar, knocking the Draxx over, crushing them between the underneath of the craft and the deck. A group of them he pushed straight out of the hangar bay opening, and they went tumbling into space.

In no time at all, the hangar was clear.

Before Hawk had her settled down on the deck, the others were out of their seats and putting on their helmets. Nowlan unstrapped himself from the pilot seat and saw to his own helmet, so much more streamlined than what he was used to.

“Never seen that before,” White said.

Hawk shot her a wink. “I know a few tricks.”

Hunter hit the control panel by the ramp, and it opened away from the transport. The atmosphere in the cabin rushed out into the empty vacuum of the hangar bay. There was no time to equalise pressure accurately.

Swogger took the handles of the anti-grav and pulled it down the ramp, with Greene in tow. Kaminsky, Hunter and White took up defensive positions in front and to the side, with Hawk in the rear. Greene moved to the front.

There were two doors. He indicated the one on the left. From what he knew of Draxx design, that way should lead to the reactor rooms. Although there were many throughout the ship, they only had to detonate the nuke next to one of them to make the Inflictor blossom into a new sun.

A check of one of the scanners confirmed his suspicions. It showed a large energy signature.

“That way!” he yelled. “Hustle!”

*

Captain King watched as Olivia Rayne showed true mastery of the weapons console. Like a pianist her hands flew across the controls, unleashing hell upon the Draxx behemoth.

“Ten degrees port, Lieutenant,” she ordered. Lieutenant Banks acknowledged by turning the Defiant away to the left. Draxx warheads pirouetted past the ships nose.

“Hull plating is taking significant damage,” Chang reported.

King nodded. “Okay, have we heard from our boys yet?”

Boi turned in his seat. “Just now. They’re making their way through the ship.”

“Any resistance?”

“No more than we expected,” Boi said.

“Okay, let’s get this going. Lieutenant Banks, execute the coordinates. Full speed,” King said. “Roll across our axis, and Olivia try to score a few hits as we pass.”

The Defiant shifted vector, angled to port. At the same time, Banks rolled her over on her side, like a whale about to poke its right fin out of the water. The deck seemed to lift and tilt, and Jessica gripped the sides of her chair despite being strapped in.

Ensign Rayne retargeted the battery guns to fire a wide spray at the Inflictor.

The hits blossomed like tiny yellow flowers along the ship’s hull. In seconds they shot past the Draxx vessel and sped toward the heart of the nebula.

“Inflictor is turning to follow,” Chang reported.

King clenched her jaw tight.

“Incoming communication!” Ensign Boi reported.

“Put it up,” she said.

Prince Sepix looked amused. “You have made your play then.”

“You really thought I’d allow you to take our lives?” Captain King asked him.

The Defiant rocked from a hit to aft. The lights flickered momentarily then came back to full strength.

“Farewell then Captain,” Sepix said.

The viewscreen changed back to the view of the nebula rushing before them, a dense blue fog.

“Banks, give it all she’s got. This ship better move faster than she ever has before,” King said.

Now it’s make or break.

*

Carn arrived on the command deck. The Defiant shrank from view on the forward screen as it descended into the nebula. The Inflictor moved to pursue.

“Their forces are making their way through the ship,” he reported.

Sepix grinned. Humanity’s gift for deception surprised and even delighted him sometimes. If it weren’t for their warm blood …

“As I thought. They have something planned,” Sepix said. “I’ll send some soldiers to deal with them. There can’t be many in a shuttle that size.”

Carn shook his head. “I will go with them. I’ll see to it personally that they are exterminated.”

To illustrate his point, Carn reached down to the long-shafted blade at his side. Sepix remembered the tales of the General and his affection for such arcane combat techniques. There were stories of him executing Union top brass by decapitating them with swings of his sword.

“Excellent, General,” Sepix said. “Take whatever action necessary.”

He watched Carn leave, then turned back to the task at hand. Running down the prey then closing in for the kill.

9.

The corridors that led from the hangar were tall but narrow, and they went single file with Kaminsky and White in lead and Hawk, Greene, and Hunter making up the rear. The Inflictor groaned and ticked around them, like the gurgles of some strange beast. The dim lighting came and went, and there was a strong smell of sulphur that made the team thankful for their masks.

“Keep yuh eyes peeled,” Hawk warned.

Swogger pushed the nuke on the anti-grav unit, and looked the most nervous of them all. None of this was his sort of gig normally. Nobody ever sent him to the field of battle. The weapon holster at his side seemed out of place.

“Creepy ship,” he said.

“I know what you mean,” Commander Greene said. He held his rifle at waist height, ready to fire at a moment’s notice. Unlike Swogger, he’d seen plenty of action before. Not that he relished it. The scars he held from those experiences were as much within himself as they were skin deep.

His ears picked up something ahead. The sound of boots on deck plating.

“Up ahead,” he barked.

They stopped moving and dropped to defensive positions on either side of the corridor. The footfalls ahead grew steadily louder.

“Easy Commander,” Hawk said. He’d noticed how tightly Greene clutched the barrel of the rifle. “The boys will shoot when they need to shoot. We just gotta cover.”

“I know that Captain, I’m not a rookie,” Greene snapped.

Hawk shot him a look.

Shouts from farther up the passage. The team braced themselves. A second later energy bolts split the air. Kaminsky and White fired back. With the density of the air both sides were shooting blind.

“It’s like a smog,” Greene said, squinting to see.

“Uh, boys? Roll some stunners,” Hawk said.

Kaminsky and White nodded. They unclipped stun grenades from their belts and primed them before tossing them ahead. There was a bright flash followed by the sound of bodies thudding to the floor.

“Let’s move!” Hawk ordered.

They pressed on. The Draxx foot soldiers lay in a heap, unconscious. The team hastily stepped over them. Swogger pushed the platform and it rose over their bodies.

“Bloody hell,” he muttered.

“Don’t drag yuh feet, pal,” Hawk said. “There’ll be more. Once they know where we are that is.”

The corridor forked off to either side. White studied a handheld scanner. It showed the location of a reactor as a bright white blob. “This way.”

They turned left. Hunter trailed behind to hold point for a moment.

Kaminsky held up a fist. They stopped.

“Movement up ahead. I’m gonna check it out,” he said.

He left the front and sprinted on. Moments later the report of his rifle echoed off the walls. He ran back so they could see him give the all clear gesture.

The corridor led to a large chamber with a large power core glowing through the centre. There were several Draxx working at stations around the edge of the room. Kaminsky and White ran straight inside and fired. Greene rushed two Draxx opposite. They whirled about in surprise as he riddled them with rifle blasts. Hunter protected Swogger.

Within seconds they had the chamber.

Swogger hurriedly pushed the nuke up to the side of the reactor core.

“Seal the exits,” Hawk ordered.

Another voice boomed across from them.

“A good idea,” it said. “If late.”

Hawk turned to see General Carn framed in a doorway with several Draxx on either side.

“Carn!”

The General tilted his head in greeting.

Commander Greene let loose and opened fire. Kaminsky, White, and Hunter followed. The Draxx scrambled to fire back. They let loose a few rounds before dropping like flies.

With all the hellfire going on around him, Carn didn’t even flinch. He stared dead at Hawk. As his men fell, he gave Hawk one last look before retreating from the room.

Hawk gripped the hilt of his kataan. He unbuckled it and held it out to his side. With a flick of a switch, the kataan unfolded itself to full length.

“Carn’s mine,” Hawk said and ran after him.

Greene threw his arms up in the air. “Great -” he started to say.

Swogger stood clutching his side. A bright red stain spread out from beneath his hand. He looked up at them all in shock.

“Swogger?” Greene asked. Before he could get to him, Swogger had already dropped to the deck. Greene rushed to his side. He glanced about at the other three.

“Get these doors sealed!” he yelled.

*

Hawk ran with the kataan in hand. Whilst he was extremely skilled in its use, he still had to be careful. The blade could pierce skin at just a touch.

He saw Carn cut to the right, through a dark doorway. Hawk followed.

It was some kind of maintenance section, full of pipes. Dull green light filtered through from above and gave limited illumination. Hot steam billowed up from grates in the floor.

Hawk proceeded with caution, his blade in front of him.

“I know you’re in here, General,” he said.

A sound to his right. He spun about, raised his blade in time to clash against Carn’s as it came striking down from above. The two different metals sparked against each other.

“Correct!” Carn quipped.

His blade squeaked against the edges of Hawk’s as he withdrew and struck lower. Hawk swung to block. Carn pushed against him. Hawk glared into his own reflection in Carn’s mask.

Hawk kicked out. Carn stepped back to avoid him. Hawk jabbed at empty air as Carn moved to the side and hacked down. Hawk bent out of the way of Carn’s sword just in time.

“You still move pretty quick for an eighty-year-old,” Carn said.

They circled each other, blades raised. The steam billowed up around them, hot against their backs. The General drew a defensive stance as Hawk moved in to attack again.

“You’ll find I’m full of surprises …” he said as metal exploded against metal in a burst of sparks.

*

The emergency lighting swamped the bridge in a sea of blood.

“Damage status!” King demanded.

“Multiple hits, forty percent damage to the outer hull. One engine down. Engineering is compensating by directing additional power to the remaining engines,” Chang reported.

That was good enough. They were flying.

Up ahead the nebula changed. They were entering the debris field. Massive chunks of battered rock drifted past at deceptively lazy speeds. But they weren’t to be underestimated. If any of them hit the Defiant it was game over.

“Cut back on it now, Lieutenant,” she said.

Banks nodded. He concentrated too hard to answer any other way. All of their lives literally rested in his hands, at the mercy of his fingertips. The Defiant braked, and its highly skilled helmsman rolled them out of the way of several jagged asteroids. He dipped the ship’s nose a little which allowed it to slide beneath a spinning peanut-shaped meteor that seemed certain to cleave the ship in two. They passed beneath it with mere feet to spare.

“Inflictor slowing,” Chang said.

“Is she still following?” Jessica asked.

Chang watched her sensor screens. She spun about in her seat. “Yes. But slowly.”

Captain King couldn’t keep the smirk from making its way to her lips.

“Okay. Let’s swing things in our favour for once,” she said. “Olivia, get ready to fire. Lieutenant Banks, bring us about and use the debris as cover.”

This time Banks answered with a loud “Aye, Cap!”

He brought the Defiant about. A sudden explosion below decks made the ship shake. Jessica turned to Chang. “Lieutenant?”

“Minor asteroid impact to our port side,” Chang said. “Repair team attending.”

“Well, it won’t be the last. We can’t get around all of them,” Jessica said. “Okay, ladies and gents. Let’s do some damage.”

The Defiant drew up behind an island that looked like a pulled-tooth; smooth on top, tapering down to a jagged end below. The Inflictor loomed into view on the other side of it. Banks dropped their speed to a near crawl, and they practically drifted behind the rock.

“We’re in position,” Banks reported.

“Very good. Ensign Rayne, prepare to fire on my command,” King said.

Rayne shifted in her seat. “I’m ready Captain,” she said.

Banks nudged the Defiant forward, and it coasted from the protection of the asteroid. The Inflictor was late to react to the Union vessel’s sudden appearance in front of them.

“Fire!” King bellowed.

Rayne let loose the main guns, and they peppered the face of the Inflictor with hit after hit. The Draxx vessel turned sluggishly to starboard and returned fire. Its warheads skimmed past the Defiant’s back end as it slid behind another giant rock.

“Very well done” King said. “Now let’s get ourselves around them again for another pass. Try and kick ‘em in the rear this time.”

“Aye Ma’am,” Banks and Rayne said in unison.

10.

Sepix grimaced as the Inflictor was dealt another series of blows. Even for a ship of her immense size, she couldn’t take hits like that forever. Already they were down to fifty percent power.

“We can’t move in this debris field!” his helmsman said.

Sepix strode forward and pulled the other out of his seat. He landed on the deck with his arms up to shield himself. Sepix stomped down on the Draxx’s head. With every ounce of force he could muster, the helmsman’s head popped beneath his boot. He kicked the reptile’s body across the bridge.

“Fill his position!” he screamed. He stood to the side with his arms crossed as another Draxx hurriedly sat down at the helm console. “Fire at the asteroids. Obliterate them. Give the human pests nowhere to hide!”

*

Carn backed him into a corner with the ferocity of his attacks. Hawk felt the sweat running in rivers down his back. He panted, his eyesight foggy.

The General, meanwhile, was as enthusiastic as ever, with no sign of flagging.

“You grow tired, Captain,” Carn hissed. He advanced with his blade outstretched as Hawk walked backwards. “Why not surrender to me? I will make your death clean.”

“An honourable death, General?” Hawk said. He glanced about, frantic for a way to regain the upper hand.

He spotted it.

Carn cocked his head to one side. “I still believe in honour on the battlefield.”

Hawk lifted his sword, swung to the side at a thin pipe. He hoped he’d hit the right one. A second later a jet of boiling hot steam burst free from it and hit Carn in the face. With his mask it did no damage, but it was enough of a distraction to allow Hawk to go back on the offensive. He swung at Carn who recovered from the steam just in time to parry the attacks and step out of the way. Hawk pursued him across the room.

The Inflictor rumbled beneath their feet.

King’s getting a few hits in, Hawk thought. Now it’s my turn.

“You talk of honour, General,” he said. He jabbed at him. Carn swept his blade to one side and backed out of the door. Hawk pressed him down the hallway, attacking the whole time. “Tell me: was there honour in your actions on Minich VI? Did an entire race have to die? Where was your so-called honour then?”

With unbelievable strength and conviction in his own swordsmanship, Carn whacked Hawk’s blade to the right, and pinned it there against the wall.

“There are always sacrifices,” he said.

Hawk stared into Carn’s mirrored mask. He hoped that behind it there were eyes, and that he was locked right on them.

The Inflictor rocked from a hit somewhere. The lights flickered out, and in that moment Hawk raised his boot and kicked his adversary in his centre. The General reeled backwards, caught unawares.

The lights came back to life.

“You’ll regret that,” Carn said.

*

The Inflictor fired another swarm of warheads their way. They sparkled like newborn suns before striking the other side of the rock they’d taken cover behind. The asteroid cracked open right down the middle. Banks did an about face and took them back behind a similarly large mountain of rock they’d only left minutes before. As he did, the Inflictor and the Defiant exchanged blows. Hits registered on both vessels.

The Defiant threatened to shake apart around her.

Hold it together old girl, Jessica thought.

“Any word from our team yet?” she asked.

“They’ve nearly secured the reactor chamber, but they’re still meeting some resistance,” Boi reported.

Good job they got some of those doors closed or they’d have been ripped apart by now, Jessica thought.

“And what about Captain Nowlan?” she asked.

Boi shook his head. “No word. Hawk is still AWOL.”

King looked dead ahead. Out there, on that other ship, her people were fighting an impossible fight.

“Banks, try to keep us as close to that thing as possible without getting blown up,” Jessica said. “I want us in a position to collect our people and get the hell out of here.”

Come on boys, she thought.

If they didn’t make contact, then she’d have no choice but the inevitable – launch several nukes the old fashioned way. Blow the Inflictor and its diabolical crew straight into the afterlife … if they even believed in such a thing.

11.

They fought their way along a walkway through a huge hydroponics section. Dense with vegetation and dripping with humidity. Large plants grew on either side, and on some Hawk noticed sticky egg sacks glued to the underside of the leaves.

He barely had time to dodge the carpet of bugs scattering their way across the walkway.

General Carn spun on the spot, whirling his sword. Hawk stopped in his tracks and lean back away from the deathly blade. It whooshed past his head.

As Carn regained his footing, Hawk went in and swung as hard as he could from the left. The General’s weapon flew out of his hand and clattered against the deck. Hawk held him under arrest with his blade levelled at what he still took to be Carn’s throat.

“Stay right there, General,” he ordered. He was out of breath, his heart hammering in his ears. But, God, did he feel alive.

“Fool,” Carn spat.

He did the unthinkable. He reached out with his gloved hand and took hold of the blade of the kataan. Hawk was too shocked to withdraw. Carn gripped the blade tight in his fist and yanked it out of Hawk’s hand. He launched it back over his shoulder.

“Now we are equal,” Carn said.

Hawk jumped back. At the same time he yanked the Oberon from its holster.

“Not quite!” he yelled.

Carn chuckled. “Even after all this time fighting each other, you don’t understand.”

Hawk frowned as Carn turned his back to him and walked away. He fired.

They struck him square in the back, knocked him forward several feet. Carn looked behind him, wagged his finger at him. “Bad form to shoot a man in the back.”

The General ran. Hawk fired after him, still in disbelief of the way his shots had little effect. Carn disappeared into the thick, soupy mists ahead.

The decking shuddered beneath his feet as Hawk collected his kataan off the floor along with Carn’s. “Next time, General,” he said to himself as he ran back to the reactor chamber.

12.

“Turn the top of the cone … careful …” Swogger said. He sat propped against a nearby bulkhead and instructed Greene in how to access the timer control on the nuclear warhead. “That’s it. Now pull her out … slowly, slowly, that’s it …”

Greene wiped the sweat running down his forehead with the back of his free hand. His hands were clammy and he blinked away the terror he felt in handling the device in this way.

Kaminsky, Hunter and White stood point at the entrances. One of the sealed doors had Draxx working on it. Soon they’d be through. Sparks flew at the bottom as they cut around the edges, working their way up.

Swogger craned forward to see the timer control. Greene looked up at him, took note of the change in his expression.

“What? What is it?” he asked frantically, looking from Swogger to the weapon of mass destruction in his hands.

“It’s damaged. The control board is blown. You see? It’s all black. Must’ve short-circuited somehow …” Swogger said.

Greene hung his head. “So where does that leave us?”

Swogger looked from one to the other then back to Greene. “High and dry.”

“Commander! Movement down the corridor!” Hunter shouted.

Hunter held his weapon at the ready, then when the approaching figure emerged from the atmospheric haze, he relaxed.

Hawk ran into the reactor chamber, dripping sweat. He looked about at them all.

“Where are we?”

“Sunk,” Greene said. He set the cone of the warhead back in place and sat back on the deck, defeated.

The Inflictor shuddered around them.

“What?” Hawk asked.

“The timer circuit is blown. Without it, we can’t set a countdown sequence,” Swogger explained.

Hawk noticed Swogger’s pale, ashen face. His eyes drifted down to the wound in the Lieutenant’s side from the Draxx fire. “Hey, are yuh okay fella?”

“At the minute,” Swogger winced.

Hawk looked to the other door, where the sparks rained down from the Draxx’s efforts to cut through.

Swogger said: “We could detonate it manually.”

Greene looked up.

“Just a minute -” he said.

“Commander, let the man speak,” Hawk said. “Go on.”

“The circuit is fried, but further down there is a detonation trigger. I could stay behind and fire it manually. Might give you enough time to get back to the transport and get away from this thing before she blows …” Swogger said.

“I won’t allow it,” Greene said, his temper up. “No way.”

“Commander, I want to,” Swogger said. He looked down at the wound in his side. Blood gushed through his fingers. “Besides, I’m done for anyway. Let’s face it.”

Green shook his head indignantly, got to his feet. Hawk rested a hand on his shoulder.

“Commander, listen to the man. He’s volunteering. And to be honest, I don’t see any other option. Unless yuh wanna stay and do it yuhself?”

Greene went to say something but Swogger beat him to it. “Commander, I’m doing this. I just need you to move me over there next to it.”

The seconds ticked on as Greene decided. The sounds on the other side of the far door were getting louder.

He turned to Hawk. “Give me a hand, will you?”

They moved Swogger across to the nuke, and Greene assisted him in getting to the detonation trigger.

“You don’t have to do this,” he said.

“Yes I do,” Swogger said. He offered Greene his hand. They shook.

“You’re a good man, Swogger. I just wish -“

Swogger waved him away. “Get away. You don’t have time. Go on, before I get up and break your jaw again.”

Greene couldn’t help but smile, despite how wrong it felt. “Goodbye Lieutenant.”

They hustled from the reactor chamber as fast as they could, headed straight for the hangar. None of them looked back to catch a last glimpse of Swogger sat nestling a nuclear weapon, with the power of Armageddon at the push of a button.

13.

A commander senses when the chips are down. When the ship is sunk. So, as the Defiant launched another volley from its battery guns, Sepix braced himself for the inevitable collision of explosives against hull. He clung to a console as the Inflictor shook from side to side.

“Auxiliary power failing,” one his command crew reported in a panicked voice. “Life support is critical.”

It was time to go. Sepix turned to the communications officer.

“I want my yacht ready to leave in five minutes,” he said.

Sepix left the command deck without another word. The ship shook once more as he walked through the labyrinthine corridors that criss-crossed through the huge vessel, and he had to hold the walls on either side to keep his footing.

Soon he was at his own private hangar, which housed the yacht and his personal fighter. The yacht had a dozen or so Draxx fussing over it. The ramp was down, and he started up it when he heard a sound behind him.

He turned.

“General,” Sepix said hurriedly. “Come, we must get away from the -“

Sepix stopped. He looked down. Carn held a blaster in his hand.

He looked up, realisation dawning on his face.

Carn fired once. It struck the Prince in the sternum and knocked him backwards up the ramp.

“What -” he managed to gasp. He held a clawed hand against the open hole in his chest, his vital fluids seeping through his fingers in spurts.

General Carn strode forward, the weapon still raised in front of him.

“There’s only room for one true leader,” he said. He stood directly over Prince Sepix. Carn aimed the blaster down at his face. “Goodbye, your majesty.”

Sepix waved his gore-soaked hands, pleading. “Please, General, you’re making a mistake!”

Again, Carn fired.

The Prince’s head exploded, splattering jellified head matter everywhere. Carn didn’t stay there long enough to admire his handiwork. Within seconds he was on board. Minutes after, the yacht was ready to go.

*

The transport thundered into the hangar and clattered down on the deck. The hangar bay doors slammed shut behind them, and the environmental systems worked double time to fill the large space with breathable air again.

“That was rough,” Greene said.

Hawk had already unstrapped himself from the pilot’s seat.

“You try it some time,” Hawk said back. He waited for the pressure lights to signal a go before he opened the hatch. Before Greene could say another word, Hawk was off.

Greene got up, looked over to where Swogger had ridden in the journey across.

“Good luck boy-o,” he said wistfully. He hurried down the ramp.

14.

Ensign Boi turned to face her. “Captain, we have them.”

“Okay you heard the man, Banks, let’s get the hell out of Dodge!” King ordered.

The Defiant turned, shaking as Banks brought her up to full thrust. Using the debris as cover, they cut across the front of the Inflictor.

Jessica expected enemy fire to come their way, but there was none.

Must be chaos inside that ship, she thought.

They left the debris field, and the viewscreen changed to show the view from the Defiant’s stern. The Inflictor shrank as they sped away from it, gaining much-needed distance.

She wondered how much longer they had on the timer before the nuke blew, unaware that as they made their escape, Lieutenant Swogger held all of their lives, literally, in his hands.

15.

The power waxed and waned inside the Inflictor. There was a small explosion and the Draxx soldiers bundled through, ready for action. They closed in on Swogger with weapons raised, though clearly surprised to find it was only him there and not an entire attack force.

They broke up. Some looked about the circumference of the chamber at the multiple corpses spread eagled on the floor in pools of sticky blood and slumped over their consoles. The others pressed in on him, cautiously.

Swogger tried to warn them off, but they didn’t understand a word. However, when they got closer and saw the detonation trigger he held in his hand, connected to the big nuke in his lap, they understood well enough. The lead Draxx warned them all back, barking orders in the guttural base language of their species. His subordinates fell behind, their visible aggression replaced by uncertainty.

“That’s it. Stay back,” Swogger said, his voice trembling. Only seconds before he was sure they’d rip him apart. In his minds eye he’d seen himself, still alive, his limbs ripped free from his body as he screamed in agony …

The leader watched him intently to see what he would do. Swogger realised that all the time he had the trigger, he had control of the situation.

The lead Draxx barked further orders to the others. To Swogger’s surprise they turned and left, fast. The reptile hunkered down in front of Swogger, laid his weapon down on the deck.

The sound of the other Draxx sprinting away outside receded. Swogger wondered if they were headed for escape pods, if the ship even had them.

“I don’t want to do this,” Swogger said. The immensity of what he had to do struck him.

This is where it ends for me, he thought.

The Draxx cocked his head to one side.

Swogger’s whole body dripped sweat. The wound on his side gushed blood, and he felt weak. Cold. Close to the edge.

His grip loosened about the detonation trigger.

“You don’t understand what I’m saying, do you? But you get what this is. You see what I’ve gotta do,” he said.

An explosion echoed elsewhere in the ship, and the aftershock of a tremor coursed through the deck.

Swogger felt a wave of desperation roll over him. He laughed to himself.

He was dying, his life draining away from the hole in his side. The approximate time of his death a factor that he alone had control of.

It was quiet in the chamber. Human and Draxx faced each other across centuries of war and destruction, united by a mutual understanding of their fate. The Draxx soldier hadn’t run with the others because he knew it was a futile effort.

Even if they did have escape pods, the explosion would take care of them either way.

“You know, we’re not as different as you think,” Swogger said. His voice was weak, fading. “We just wanna live … just like you …”

His grip relaxed. The Draxx remained still.

“I wish … I wish …” he started to say, but his words fell away, forgotten. Perhaps something of his hopes, of his dreams. Of everything he would not get a chance to see, touch, experience. Of a life lived and unlived. Whatever it was, it left him.

He was at peace.

He watched the Draxx soldier close his eyes, in anticipation of the inevitable, and then he did the same.

He wondered absently if he’d feel anything when the nuke blew. If he’d even know when it happened.

“Let’s end this,” he said. Then, before he let go of the trigger completely, with his last ounce of strength and resolve, he jammed his thumb against the trigger and the Inflictor went nova.

16.

Jessica held up her hand to shield her eyes.

“Whoa …”

The bridge was silent. Seconds later, with the intense brightness of the explosion starting to fade, the resultant shockwave rocked the Defiant from side to side as if she were an old ocean liner riding a rough sea.

Captain King breathed a sigh of relief and flopped back into the command chair.

Behind her, Commander Greene and Captain Hawk arrived on the bridge. They squinted at the bright light of the explosion.

It’s over, she thought.

*

“Activate the stealth system,” Carn ordered.

The Royal barge was to his liking. Spacious, and full to the brim with weaponry and the latest in energy shielding. There were about a hundred Draxx on board, although ideally it was only large enough for a crew of about a third that size.

But that was not a problem. As soon as they were able, they would find another ship to join their own. Even better if he could find allies in this part of the Universe.

Like-minded souls willing to trade their allegiance for the state-of-the-art technology he had at hand.

The helmsman turned in his seat. The lower ranks did not ask what had happened to Sepix. They were taught to accept whatever came their way in terms of changes in leadership. The Dominion remained robust and versatile by rolling with the changes. But now the Dominion was no longer a concern for Carn. There was a ship of obedient soldiers at his command, and his own will.

He was the Dominion now. Emperor of a one-man Empire.

“My lord … where will we go? What will we do?” the helmsman asked him.

Carn looked out at the stars. He could almost feel the coldness of space itself, seemingly devoid of anything to sustain life. And yet, life persisted to take a foothold in unlikely places. To exist.

And where there was life, there was opportunity. Although no living soul had ever seen such a thing, behind his mask Carn smiled.

“Conquer,” he said, his voice no more than a venomous hiss. “Conquer …”

17.

“Okay, I know we’re all tired but let’s get the preliminaries out of the way,” King said.

Jessica, Del Greene, Hawk, and Chief Gunn. She only intended for it to be a quick debrief. Of course they’d all be required to provide her with written reports of the last twenty-four hours, as she herself would write her own account.

“Damage. Chief, how we looking?” she asked.

Gunn shifted in her seat. She looked tired.

“Not too bad, considering,” Gunn said. “A bit gutting, seeing as we only just got this old girl back on her feet but … we should be back to normal by the end of tomorrow.”

“A lot of holes to fill?” Greene asked her.

“Yep,” Gunn said.

“Okay, well keep me informed Chief. Now as for you two, why don’t you give me a complete rundown of what happened inside that thing.”

They told her everything.

“And that’s how Swogger ended up staying behind,” King said.

Greene nodded. “Yeah …” he said and looked down at the desk.

I’ll leave that there for now, she thought.

“How about you, Captain Nowlan? What happened with you and General Carn? I didn’t know you took the kataan with you,” she said.

Greene looked up and quipped, “I didn’t even know he had one.”

“It’s a retractable blade, Commander. You obviously weren’t the Hawk Nowlan fan I was as a girl,” Jessica said.

“No, when I was a little girl -” Greene started to say.

Hawk laughed out loud.

“Okay that’s enough, Del,” Jessica butted in. She shot Gunn a look that pleaded Get him out of here for me will you?

“Come on Del, let’s go and get some coffee or something,” Gunn said.

“I was only joking about …” Greene said in protest but Gunn had already pulled him up by the elbow.

“Del,” Jessica called to him. He turned back around on his way out the door. “You did good today. Thanks.”

He winked then followed Gunn out the door.

Hawk took a deep breath before he started to tell Jessica about his battle with Carn. She crossed her arms in front of her chest and waited.

He explained how they’d ended up in a section assigned for hydroponics, and how he’d managed to better the General, but only just.

“You had a run in like that before with him, didn’t you? I read about it one time. I can’t believe they used to teach sword skills …” Jessica said.

“Carn is unnaturally good. I could barely hold my own,” Hawk said. He produced the General’s sword. “A gift, Captain.”

She took it from him. “A memento of war?”

“Something for yuh troubles,” Hawk said. “Hang it up somewhere. Put it this way, he won’t be gettin’ it back.”

Captain King looked down at the alien blade in her hand. It was heavy, but that was nothing to how heavy it felt to her, with all that came with it. There was a lot of history attached to its previous owner.

She just hoped the pain it had wrought wasn’t now bequeathed to her.

*

Commander Greene went straight to Munitions after a little chat with Gunn. A meteorite the size of a baseball had torn through the hull awfully close to the warhead storage and Dunham coordinated a repair team to deal with it.

“Wow. Looks like we had a lucky escape there,” Greene remarked.

“Oh hello Commander. Yes, we did. A foot to the left and the Defiant would have a pretty big hole at the front,” Dunham said.

“I can imagine,” Greene said.

Dunham studied him. “You’re not down here to talk about holes in this ship, are you sir?”

“I’m afraid not. I’ve come to talk about Lieutenant Swogger.”

Dunham hung his head. Looked down at his shoes. “I know what you’re going to say …”

Commander Greene rested a hand on the younger man’s shoulder.

“It’s all right, kid,” he said softly.

Dunham looked up. His eyes were wet, but he wasn’t crying. Not yet. Not in front of everyone. That would come later, Greene knew. As it may well come for him too.

“How did he die?” Dunham asked.

“A hero,” Greene said. “He gave his life so that we’d survive. I’ve never met a braver man.”

Dunham gave a silent nod.

“I need someone to fill the hole he’s left in his wake,” Greene said. “I thought you’d fit the bill perfectly. If you’re up for it.”

“I … uh … I don’t know what to …”

Greene laughed. “You don’t have to say anything, son, it’s taken care of. Just remember the big shoes you have to fill.”

“I will sir. Don’t sweat it. I won’t let you down.”

*

Captain Nowlan scratched the back of his head as he approached the door to the ambassador’s quarters. He nearly missed Selena Walker standing there.

“Oh. How yuh doin’?” he asked her.

“Fine. How’re you? I hear you saved all our lives,” she said.

Hawk shook his head. “No, Lieutenant Swogger was the hero today. I was just along for the ride.”

“Ah,” Walker said. She produced a bottle of something from behind her back.

“What’s that?” Hawk asked. He walked into his quarters. She followed behind.

“Whiskey. It’s from about twenty years ago. You might recognise the brand. Death’s Head,” she said.

Hawk couldn’t believe it. His favourite poison. “Where did you find it?” he asked her. He unloaded his things on the table in the middle of the room. He started to unzip his uniform. The door to his quarters whooshed shut.

Walker set the bottle down and stepped toward him. She unzipped him slowly, looking into his eyes.

“I got hold of it,” she said with a tap of her nose. “I have my methods.”

With a firm grasp she showed him that wasn’t all she had hold of.

Nowlan rolled his eyes. But he was smiling.

“I need a shower,” he said, almost doubtfully.

Selena fixed him with a devilish grin. Her hands went to his hips. “So do I …”

I could get used to this, Hawk thought seconds before her mouth met his in a deep, passionate kiss. He ran his fingers through her hair. Closed his eyes.

Yessir.

He pulled back from her. A brief expression of confusion passed over her face.

“Come on, darlin’,” he said. She smiled.

He led her by the hand into the bathroom.

18.

The ship was quiet. From where she stood in the observation lounge, Jessica watched the last blue tendrils of the nebula recede out of view as the Defiant cruised into open space. Now they sailed a black velvet sea studded with diamonds.

The lounge was empty save for herself, and she’d decided to keep the lights off.

There was a sound behind her, and she turned her head in time to see Commander Greene walk in. The open doorway allowed a bright oblong of light to invade the quiet space before it closed again, restoring the tranquillity of the darkness.

“Commander,” she said in a low voice.

“They said I’d find you here,” Greene said. He stood on the other side of the huge window to the stars and leaned against the frame. He looked wistfully out at the cosmic vista drifting past their window. “Beautiful, isn’t it?”

She nodded slowly. “Yes. Yes it is.”

He drew a breath. “I sometimes think we don’t give enough time to just watching everything go by, you know? We’re so busy racing from star to star we don’t look at them anymore. Like we did centuries ago.”

“The astronomers of the old days had it made, didn’t they?” King said.

“Yeah, well, they weren’t being shot at left, right, and centre,” Greene quipped.

She couldn’t help but laugh, despite her solemnity. “I guess you have a point.”

The faint purr of the Defiant’s engines was the only other noise to accompany them in the dark. The stars, as always, were cold and silent.

Jessica closed her eyes. “I’ve been waiting for this. This … bit of peace.”

“Do you want me to go?” Greene asked her.

She opened her eyes again, smiled. “No. Stay.”

They walked to one of the long sofas that faced each window and sat.

“I was thinking of Swogger earlier. The resolve it must’ve taken to stay there and set that thing off. We owe him everything,” Greene said. He looked down at the floor.

“Yes we do,” Jessica said. “And more. It was a shame he cracked like that, before … but I guess we’re all under a lot of pressure.”

Greene said nothing.

“I, uh, asked Chang to go back through the sensor records of the explosion. Just to make sure,” Jessica said. “Moments before she blew, a ship escaped from the Inflictor. It was a fair size. I’d say something like a yacht.”

“Sepix?” Greene asked.

She shrugged. “I really don’t know. But my money would be on Carn. Possibly Carn and Sepix together, but either way definitely Carn.”

Greene sighed. “It never ends, does it?”

“No. I’m afraid not.” She looked out at the stars. He’s out there … somewhere.

“So what are our plans now?” Greene asked her. “We can’t go home, that much is certain. Not unless we find a black hole that will take us back the way we came, and what’re the chances of that?”

Jessica had actually considered it. Although it probably wasn’t going to happen, they had to look for one anyway. There was a strong possibility there was something like that out there. And any chance – even one percent – was something. They’d have to keep their eyes peeled.

“We need to find our place out here. Who are the dominant powers in the galaxy? Where could we settle? If we encounter an advanced race, do they have star charts by which to locate another one of those black holes? These are the things we need to consider, Commander,” she said.

“And for now?”

Jessica looked up at the ceiling. It was hidden in the darkness.

“We keep going forward. It’s all we can do. Go forward until we come to something,” she said.

After a long pause, Greene said “Aye.”

*

Later, in her quarters, as she lay down to sleep Jessica’s thoughts turned to her conversation with Dr. Clayton.

“Doc, what is it?” she asked.

“Jessica, some months ago I had a visit from Captain Singh. He was concerned by a sudden numbness in his legs. He asked me to check it out,” Clayton said.

King urged him on.

“We ran some tests …” Clayton said. His eyes met with hers. “The tests revealed the early stages of Multiple Sclerosis. MS.”

She pulled the sheets up about herself and closed her eyes. In the solitude of her quarters, she thought about the last few weeks and all that had happened. The weight of it all seemed immeasurable. And now she had the knowledge of her Father’s true identity, and the illness he’d kept a secret from everyone.

But what if I have it too? she asked herself. What if I had what Singh – Dad – had?

She resolved to have Dr. Clayton run the tests as soon as possible. For all that she didn’t want to know if she had it, she knew she must. After all, she had a crew of hundreds to think about. But for now, she knew she must stop crying and get some sleep.

Tomorrow she would inform the crew of their new mission: find a way to get back home … or locate a new one.

PART FOUR

DIRECTIVE

The transmission repeated, over and over. Millennia passed. The nuclear heart of the ship continued to beat, however slowly, below the sands. The Captain’s words were broadcast through the metres of silicate that weighed the old wreck down, in the vaguest of hopes that somebody – anybody – might detect them.

And across the gulfs of time, they listened …

1.

As he’d done in his own time, Hawk liked to walk the ship first thing in the morning. Although night and day were mere matters of timekeeping on board the Defiant, when he wandered the ship at such an early hour he felt a definite sense of one shift ending and another about to begin.

Hawk grabbed a cup of coffee in the mess. Every table was full to capacity. He decided to walk with it, and was already out in the hall when he felt a tap on his shoulder.

He turned around. “Yeah?”

An older man with grey stubble and a balding head stood in front of him.

“Sorry Captain Nowlan, I don’t want to interrupt -“

“Shoot, fella,” Hawk said.

The other man smiled. “You do not remember me.”

Hawk cocked his head to one side, looked him up and down. At first his mind was a complete blank. It took a second for something to rise from the depths of his memory. Vague, but it was there.

“Yuh face is familiar,” Hawk said.

The man nodded, a smile spreading on his lips. “My name is Stephen. We served together aboard the Tiger.”

Hawk shook the others hand, lost for words. He looked Stephen over again.

It can’t be, he thought. This old guy? It can’t be.

And yet he was reminded that although only days had passed for him, it had been fifty years for everyone else. Stephen was a replicant, and they were known to have a much longer life expectancy. It was, of course, entirely conceivable that Stephen was still around. He chided himself for being so naive.

“The Tiger! Yuh!”

Stephen beamed. “I’m so pleased. I wasn’t sure that you would.”

Hawk sipped his coffee. “I remember now,” he said. “You were there following the Mestos incident.”

Stephen nodded. “Yes. Back then I was part of the rescue operation … it seems like a lifetime ago, now.”

Hawk exhaled heavily. “Well, all that was only a couple of months ago for me. Right before my imprisonment on Minich VI.”

“Of course, sorry. I forgot about the time difference. And I recall the incident on Minich VI. The whole planet, wasn’t it?”

Hawk nodded.

Stephen looked away grimly. “A terrible business. And you were tortured weren’t you?”

Hawk waved him off. “Ah, it’s nothin’.”

The replicant brightened. “Well, I’d best be getting on. I’d been meaning to come and find you. Of course the whole ship’s still buzzing about you being aboard.”

Hawk shook his hand. “Thanks.”

“We’re having a gathering tomorrow in the main hall. It’s Marquis day.”

“Of course! Uh, maybe I’ll pop by,” Hawk said. “Are there many of yuh kind on the Defiant?”

“Over fifty I think. Yes, certainly, I’m sure everyone will be thrilled to have you turn up. And it won’t just be replicants attending, in case you were wondering.”

“Oh no, of course not,” Hawk said, and he meant it. The days of segregation between replicants and humans were long gone. His own Father had had a part to play in that …

“Well, again, I’ll be seeing you,” Stephen said, anxious to get on.

“You too,” Hawk said and watched Stephen walk away before continuing his stroll.

Marquis day celebrated the success of the movement to see all replicants freed and accepted as equal to humans. He wondered how many of the ship’s own people would be in attendance.

He had an appointment with Dr. Clayton in two hour’s time. Before then he planned on speaking to as many head personnel as he could, to find out whether they were going. And if they weren’t planning to, he’d convince them. A living legend could be quite persuasive.

*

Commander Del Greene arrived early on the bridge. He found the night crew huddled around the science station.

“Hey,” he said, announcing himself. They all jumped and snapped to attention. He saluted back. “What’s up?”

Lieutenant LaPlante of the night shift stepped aside so that Greene could get a good look at the display. It showed readings of cosmic chatter: the sound of background radiation, distant quasars, the drumming of colliding nebulas. Such chatter was a galactic constant. However, there was something else.

“A signal?”

LaPlante nodded, slowly. “Yes sir, and it’s repeating at regular intervals. Definitely not a natural phenomenon.”

“Okay. Can you detect audio or visual? Or a data stream?”

“Not yet,” LaPlante said, “But we’re going to lock onto it, isolate it from everything else, and see if we can’t make out what it is.”

“Good work,” the Commander said. “Tell Chang and Boi when you hand over to the day shift.”

“Aye sir,” LaPlante said.

Greene sat down in the captain’s chair. “Okay everyone, let’s get back to work. Your relief won’t turn up for another half hour yet. And the computer will take a while to process that signal. Let’s get this bridge shipshape and ready for the day shift.”

*

“As far as I can tell, you’re in great shape,” Dr. Clayton said as Hawk stepped down from the treadmill. The doc had made him go from a steady walk to a light jog, to a full-on sprint. Hawk dabbed his face with a towel.

“Well, yuh sure as hell made me work up a sweat, that’s for sure.”

Clayton shrugged. “It’s what I’m here for,” he said dryly.

Hawk laughed, put his uniform top back on. Clayton turned to a console and added some notes to Hawk’s records. “You know, you’re the first patient of mine with a break in his medical history lasting fifty years. It seems strange to compare your blood pressure from fifty years ago and find it hasn’t changed.”

“Fine stock,” Hawk said with a cheesy grin.

“Hmm, maybe,” Clayton said doubtfully. He turned at the sound of the door whooshing open.

Jessica stopped in her tracks. “Oh. Are you two in the middle of something? If you are, then …”

She made to go. Clayton got up to stop her.

“Not at all. We’re done here, actually,” he said.

“We are? Great,” Hawk said. He saluted Jessica. “Morning Captain.”

“Same to you, Captain Nowlan,” Jessica said with a salute.

Hawk remembered the meet-up for Marquis Day and asked her if she’d be attending.

“Sure. I can’t see why not,” she said.

“Swell. Okay, I’ll see y’all later then,” Hawk said and left.

Jessica waited for the doors to close before she sat opposite Dr. Clayton. He regarded her with his always-tired-but-never-impatient eyes.

“He’s a funny guy,” Jessica said.

Clayton’s eyebrows rose, he shook his head and said, “Or something like that.”

Jessica laughed. “Yeah I know what you’re getting at. He can be a little hyper sometimes.”

Clayton accessed the Captain’s records from his terminal.

“Okay, if you’re ready for them, I have the results of the tests,” he said.

Jessica sobered, held her hands in her lap as though she were a child again.

“Okay.”

“You ready?”

“Ready as I’ll ever be, I suppose.”

“Right,” Clayton said. He took a deep breath. “You tested positive as carrying the MS gene. You also tested positive as having the very early stages of it. I’m sorry.”

She felt as though the wind had been punched out of her.

“But, I feel fine.”

Clayton waved a hand. “No, no, no. That’s not to say you’re ill with it. It just means that it’s there.”

“Okay,” she said, a tremor in her voice.

Clayton waited for it to sink in. “Jessica, you should know what to look out for. Numbness of the legs or feet. Pain in the back. I’ll send all of the data to the terminal in your quarters, encrypted so that nobody else can see it. I take it you don’t want to inform the crew …”

“That’s right. I don’t. It’s the last thing they need to worry about.”

“But -“

Jessica’s face was stern. “No.”

Clayton spread his hands in an open gesture. “Fair enough. You’re the patient. But what about the Commander? Jessica I think you should tell someone. If only so that you have someone to talk to,” Clayton said.

“No. It’s best kept between you and me,” she said. “Besides, it -“

They were interrupted by the comm. unit on the wall.

“Captain, this is Greene.”

She got up and hit a button. “Go ahead.”

“Sorry to interrupt your meeting,” Greene said. “But we need you on the bridge.”

She looked across at Dr. Clayton. He was full of concern. Worry.

“I’m on my way,” she said.

*

“Captain on the bridge!” Commander Greene announced. The bridge crew stood and saluted her.

“Report,” Captain King said as she took the command seat.

“We’ve detected a signal,” Greene told her, sitting back down. “And I don’t think you’ll quite believe this, but it’s one of ours.”

“Ours?” she asked, taken aback. “Are you sure?”

Greene nodded. “Yes ma’am. It’s on an older band, but it checks out.”

“And what’s the content?” King asked, turning to Chang.

Lieutenant Chang cocked her head to one side as she assessed the data on her screen. “It’s undetermined at the moment.”

“What do you mean?”

“Well, it’s very weak. A little too weak to be sure at this point, but I think it’s audio.”

King crossed her arms. “Any way of hearing it?”

“Not yet,” Chang said. “However, it seems to repeat on a cycle. I might be able to patch it together once it’s cycled through a couple of times, to fill the gaps in the stream. Then we can probably listen to it, but no guarantees on quality.”

“Noted,” Captain King said. “Commander, have we pinpointed the origin?”

Greene handed over to Lieutenant Kyle Banks.

“I’ve narrowed it down to a point about two days’ travel at standard cruising speed,” Banks explained.

King looked around at them all. She raised her hands. “Well then, what are we waiting for? Banks, get us underway.”

“Aye sir,” he said.

King looked at Commander Greene. “Let’s see what’s out there …”

2.

The Marquis Day celebrations were in full-swing. Captain Nowlan had forgotten that replicants could drink, just the same as any other man or woman. For once, as he made his way through the dancing bodies with a beer in one hand and Selena Walker hanging from the other, he wasn’t the biggest drunk in the room. The music thumped, boomed, and the noise in the room was incredible in volume.

They both made the rows of seats on the other side of the room and were thankful to get out of the crowd for a moment.

“Here,” Hawk said as they sat. He planted a kiss on Selena’s cheek.

Selena smiled, lifted her drink to her lips and took a sip. “Thanks. What was that for?”

“Do I have to have a reason?” he asked her with a smirk.

She just shrugged, grinning. “No …”

He leaned forward, kissed her on the mouth this time. He watched her close her eyes as they kissed. He closed his too. As they pulled away from each other, Hawk felt something well up inside of him. “I love you,” he said.

She looked embarrassed. Unsure what to say. He stroked the side of her face, and whilst she didn’t shrug him off she looked visibly uncomfortable.

“What is it?” he asked her. “What’s wrong?”

The boom of the music seemed to fade away into the background as she looked at him straight on, her eyes seeming to probe the depths of his soul, like they always did. Though this time it was different.

“I’m just not sure I feel the same way yet,” she said. “It’s not been long, and -“

“It’s fine,” he said, brushing the issue aside. He raised the glass of beer. “Just the drink talkin’.”

She nodded. “Hawk, it’s not like I’m saying it won’t be there over time. Or that I don’t feel anything for you right now, because I do. Trust me I do.”

Hawk looked away at the writhing bodies that seemed to fill the room on all sides. Marquis Day was a day to remember what had been achieved, and to celebrate freedom. They were always like this. A full-on party. But now he felt sober, no matter how fast he finished his pint.

Selena reached out, held his hand. He turned back to her.

“I just worry about sticking labels on things too early on,” Selena explained. “But I do have true feelings for you, Hawk … more than I’ve ever felt for anybody else.”

He squeezed her hand. “And I think you’re all right too, sweetheart.”

She slapped his leg, drained the last of her drink and handed him the glass.

“Hey, make yourself useful and grab me another drink. And tell ‘em to put some booze in it this time.”

He stood up, swallowed the dregs of his beer. “Where will yuh be?”

“Here of course. Waiting for my knight in shining armour to bring me a fresh mojito.”

Hawk waded back into the crowd with their empty glasses, chuckling to himself.

*

“Ah, yuh made it Cap,” Hawk said when he saw Jessica at the bar.

“I’ve just got here,” she said. “Quite a crowd. I might’ve thought twice about clearing this little get together if I’d known just how many people would be turning up.”

“Well …” Hawk said. “What yuh drinkin’?”

She jiggled a glass of clear liquid. “Got it. Water.”

Hawk looked flabbergasted. She might as well have shot somebody in the head right in front of him for the look he gave her. “Yuh jokin’, right?”

Jessica laughed. “Where’s Selena?”

“Waiting for her mojito,” Hawk said and handed the empty glass to the bartender.

“You know, you both make a cute couple. Even if you are older …”

Hawk broke into a grin as he collected the fresh mojito. “You’re never too old, Cap. Never too old.”

He wandered back into the party.

Somebody bumped Jessica’s back and she turned to see who it was. A young woman with mousy brown hair stood directly behind her, leaning against the bar. “Sorry, did I bump into you?”

Realisation bloomed in her face as to whom it was she’d been jostled into. She broke into a sloppy salute.

“At ease,” Jessica said with a chuckle. She raised her glass. “We’re celebrating.”

“I’m sorry. It’s just mad in here,” the woman said. “You’ve gotta fight ten men just to get to the bar.”

“I don’t recall your name. Isn’t it … Dana?”

She smiled. “Yes. Dana Oriz.”

“I remember now,” Jessica said. “You’re a, uh …”

Dana nodded. “Yes. A replicant.”

Now Jessica noticed the blue eye and the green eye. Typical of any replicant, or replicant-born.

“Both parents?”

“Yes Ma’am.”

Jessica indicated the writhing mass of people around them. She didn’t know if the ship had ever held such a party. “So all of this must have special significance for you.”

“You could say that,” Dana said. She took a glass of wine from the bartender, and as Jessica watched her drink she wondered absently how long the booze would last. When would it – and other things – run out? The meeting two days before indicated their general stores were in good shape. For the time being.

Enjoy that glass of wine while it lasts, she thought.

“So what’s your speciality on board, Dana?”

“Well, I don’t hold a rank. I’m a Doctor, but I don’t touch anything in Dr. Clayton’s arena. My speciality is history. Life sciences. Humanities.”

“That’s a broad canvas,” Jessica said.

“I guess it’s the study of civilisation.”

Jessica took a sip of water. “You know, I could use you for something.”

“Oh?”

“Come to my quarters later and I’ll explain it all. Here,” she drained her water and handed the glass to Dana. “Be a dear and give that back for me. I’m gonna make a quiet exit. Enjoy the party and I’ll see you shortly.”

*

“Ah! Just in time, sir,” Greene said as Jessica arrived on the bridge.

“What is it?” she asked. She stood next to him at Chang’s station.

“We think we’re ready to play you some of the transmission. It’s a short piece, but it’s clear,” Greene said.

Jessica looked around the bridge. “Okay, Commander, Chang and Ensign Boi, come to my quarters. Let’s keep this contained for the minute. Banks, you have the bridge.”

“Aye sir,” Banks replied from the helm.

They arrived in King’s quarters moments later. She told Chang to access the transmission via her personal console. It took several seconds.

“I didn’t want anyone else hearing this. Not right away. So this is need to know, understood?”

“Affirmative,” Greene said.

Chang played the first recording they’d been able to pull from the scramble. Jessica crossed her arms and sat on the edge of her sofa. Boi stood by the door, his hands in his pockets as he listened. Commander Greene walked back and forth, hands behind his back.

The scratchy sound of the static and interference, the pop and fizz of the recording, like a radio signal extracted from a million year old stone, gave her a chill.

“ … crewman Lukas. I am a replicant and, I believe, the last surviving crew member of this vessel. If you are listening to this, then it is probably too late. I am abandoning ship to learn what has become of the Captain and the other missing crew. I doubt I will continue to exist following the encounter with this planet’s natives, but I must go. It is my duty.

With any luck, they are only captives to these people. Perhaps I can reason with them. After all, I am not human …”

Jessica shivered. But not from the cold.

3.

For the first time in too long the Defiant entered standard orbit of a planet. A world made up mostly of yellows and browns, with small patches of bright green broken by bodies of water. A weather system moved across the northern hemisphere, a swirling maelstrom of white and grey with intermittent flashes of blue thunder.

“Good to see a planet again,” Captain King said.

“Standard orbit achieved, sir,” Kyle Banks reported.

“Excellent,” King said. “Ensign Boi, anything?”

He shook his head. “Just the signal. Obviously it’s stronger, but still just as fractured. Almost like it’s decayed.”

“Can we pinpoint the exact origin? Enough to get some landing co-ordinates?”

“It’ll take a minute. And I might have to launch a probe to do so, in order to triangulate,” Boi said.

“Understood. Do what you have to do. Chang, do you detect any signs of technology? An advanced civilisation down there?”

“Nothing as yet. Though I am picking up an energy signature of some kind, but it could just be the source of the transmissions permeating the atmosphere. We won’t be able to rule that out until Ensign Boi has located the source. Other than that, biological readings indicate the planet is inhabited.”

Jessica got up, walked to the front of the bridge, as close to the viewscreen as she could get. “Life …”

“One hundred per cent certain of it, sir,” Chang said. “But whether or not it’s intelligent life is anyone’s guess.”

“Hmm. The air down there … is it breathable?”

“From what I’m reading it’s close to Union Standard Atmosphere,” Chang said.

“Captain, I have a position on the transmission source,” Boi reported.

She turned on her heel. “Good. Go with Lieutenant Banks and fire up a shuttle. Commander, I want you to stay behind and watch the ship.”

“Aye,” Greene said, disappointed.

“Chin up, Commander. I’m sure it won’t be the only shuttle to the surface,” King said.

She walked back to her chair and accessed the comm. Her voice echoed throughout the ship. “Dana Oriz, report to the shuttle bay please. Dr. Dana Oriz to the shuttle bay.”

Jessica slapped Greene on the arm as she left the bridge. “Keep the old girl together for me, Del.”

*

King waited outside the entrance to the shuttle bay. Dana came running down the corridor, her cheeks flushed. She looked like she anticipated anything from a firing squad to an award.

She broke into a salute when she saw Jessica.

“Captain, I thought I had to come to your quarters later -“

King held up a hand. “Apologies, Doctor, for the lack of forewarning. We’re in orbit of a planet. We tracked an errant signal here, and now we’ve located the source. Lieutenant Banks, Ensign Boi, and myself are going down there to investigate. I thought you might appreciate coming along for the ride.”

“I’m, uh, flattered, I …”

Jessica led the way. “Then there’s not a minute to lose.”

Dana caught up with the Captain as she strode across the hangar to the awaiting shuttle. “I’m honoured you thought to ask me along, even if it is sudden …”

“Spontaneity is the spice of life, Doctor,” King said with a smirk. “Besides, I’ve been getting stir crazy. I don’t know about you but I’m looking forward to some fresh air.”

*

The upper layers of the atmosphere parted as they dropped to the surface, the underbelly of the transport glowing red hot.

“I always hate these things,” Dana said.

King chuckled. “It took a long while for me to get used to them, too.”

“Thirty seconds till we hit the cloud layer. Then we should be able to see something,” Banks reported.

“Good,” King said.

The little ship bucked and shook, and Dana gripped the sides of her chair, tense. Seconds later it steadied somewhat and Banks took them into a smooth dive through the cloud layer. They dissipated to reveal a dry, sandy landscape below them with patches of lush green and small oceans.

“An world of oases,” Dana said.

“Seems that way,” Jessica said. “Pretty, in a way.”

“I’m closing in on the co-ordinates now. We should be able to land in about ten minutes,” Banks said.

“Take her steady, Lieutenant. No rush.”

“Captain -” Dana said. She unbuckled herself and went forward.

King did the same. Dana stared through the front viewscreen at something on the ground.

“What is it?” Jessica started to say. Then she saw it.

A large pyramid, jet black and completely symmetrical. It stood amidst a patch of bright green and towered over what looked like some kind of settlement.

“Wow,” King said. “There’s no way that’s an act of nature.”

“I thought I was seeing things,” Dana said.

“Is that the source of the transmissions?” King asked.

Boi shook his head. “No. It’s several miles north of where we’re headed.”

“Well,” Jessica said. “Something tells me we’ll be going there afterward.”

*

It was an open wasteland and apart from the hills on one side, entirely without feature.

“Nothing here,” Boi said.

“Get a scanner and see if you can home in on the signal,” King ordered.

They stepped from the shade of the transport into the baking hot sun.

Dana tugged at the neck of her uniform. “Strange planet. Hot, yet …”

“Sticky. Reminds me of a jungle planet I once visited,” King said. “Must be the moisture from the oceans. Or lakes. Whatever you want to call them.”

Boi wandered ahead, a scanner in his hands. It beeped as it latched onto the weak signal. “Captain I think I’ve got something.”

They gathered where Boi stood. He had the scanner aimed at the ground.

“Down there?” Dana asked.

“Looks like it.”

King planted her hands on her hips. She frowned under the glare of the sun.

“A ship?”

Boi shrugged. “I suppose it could be a probe of some kind. Wandered near a black hole, got stuck here …”

“No.” King shook her head. “It doesn’t ring true to me. This has to be where the journal entries we’ve been picking up have come from.”

“So, do we dig our way to it?” Banks asked. He’d been inside the transport, shutting her down until they were ready to leave. He stomped a foot on the solid hardpack beneath which was a ship sending them signals.

“No, we don’t. Not right now, anyway. There’s life on this planet, and I’m betting it’s intelligent. I’m also betting that we’ll find some near that big black mountain.”

She looked away at the surrounding hills. At the grey clouds rushing through the bright blue sky. A barmy world. Hot and wet. Sand and oasis.

“We’re gonna go visit them, aren’t we?” Banks asked. He didn’t sound too pleased about the prospect of making first contact with a primitive race.

“Go back to the transport. Dana, you go with him. Fetch weapons, water, standard ground kit. Use the transport’s comm. to contact Defiant and let them know what we’re up to. Then we’ll go introduce ourselves and hope they welcome us with open arms.”

4.

Before they even got to the jungle surrounding the mountain, the L’ucrah made their presence known. They’d crossed the desert, scaled the side of the hills and found themselves on sloping land and craggy mountain peaks. From that height Jessica could see blue-green waters in the far distance.

A breeze rushed in their faces. Salt and humidity. The warm sweat of flora and fauna.

“Captain!”

Banks pointed ahead to where the desert met with jungle. They stood under the shadow of the peaks, so the black mountain they’d observed from the descent was obstructed from view. But they could see the bottom of it standing over the jungle.

Though it wasn’t the trees that had caught Banks’s attention.

Dead ahead, camouflaged against the tree line, was one of the natives.

“I see it, Lieutenant. Have your weapon at the ready,” she said as she unclipped the holster of her own gun.

“Should we go in there ready for action like that, Captain?” Dana asked her.

“I’m not going to draw unless they give us cause for concern, Doctor. Leave that side of things to us. How do you suggest we go about making contact?”

Dana bit her bottom lip. “One of us should go on behalf of the others. But only one. That way we’re not so threatening.”

“Right,” King said.

“I’ll go,” Dana said. “Please. This is a golden opportunity for me.”

Jessica looked at the others before nodding her head. “But if I see any sign of trouble, I won’t hesitate to give the order. And you know the one I mean.”

“Understood Captain.”

They watched as Dana went on ahead.

“I don’t like this, Captain,” Banks said.

“Neither do I. But she’s the expert,” King said.

Dana approached the native and offered a greeting. They couldn’t hear any words, but after about ten minutes of posturing they watched her follow him into the jungle.

“Come on let’s go after her -” Banks said, starting off. King grabbed his arm.

“Stay put, Lieutenant.”

“But Captain -“

She fixed him with a glare. “I said stay put. Give her a chance.”

Banks relaxed under her grip.

“Look!” Boi said. They looked back to the tree line where Dana had emerged with a small group of natives. She waved for them to come down. “Looks like she was successful.”

“Remain cautious though, Ensign. It could be a ruse of some kind.”

They went down the incline toward the jungle. Dana had a smile on her face. King stopped short of the natives and did her best at a polite greeting.

King held up a hand in a ‘hello’ gesture. The native looked at the others, then bowed down on the floor before her. They were humanoid, with slightly orange coloured skin, bald heads, and long earlobes covered in piercings. They wore tunics around their mid-sections, and each of them was adorned with bone necklaces and hide bracelets. Despite slight differences in appearances they might as well have been humans.

Jessica looked to Dana. As the rest of the group bowed down to them, Dana stepped forward to explain.

“They think we’re some kind of … uh …” Dana rubbed her forehead and laughed. “They think we’re gods, Captain. Far as I can tell. Deities returned from the heavens.”

“Gods?” King asked. She looked down at the aliens bowing down at her feet, and shook her head. “This isn’t what I expected …”

*

The mountain was just that. A massive pyramid of black stone. Smooth, without seams of any kind. As if it had been moulded from a solid block of black plastic. Nothing grew up its sides. No dirt of any kind clung to the ebony material of its construction. High up on the peak, where it touched the clouds, it caught the sunlight as if it were some kind of black diamond.

None of them said anything for a while. They were shown through the village, where the natives all reacted in the same way. Men, women, and children all dropped to the ground at the sight of them. The village went from a bustling centre of alien activity to a ghost town.

“How did you know they consider us some kind of god, Doctor? Apart from the worship, that is,” Ensign Boi asked.

“This,” Dana said as she led them through the village. They turned a corner, and there was the source of her conclusions. In the shadow of the giant mountain around which the natives had settled stood a ten foot statue of a man. It wasn’t merely a humanoid like the L’ucrah. Reminiscent of a human. It was a man, pure and simple. His chest pushed out, head tilted back to gaze up at the stars. His arm thrust upward, reaching …

“Oh my God,” King said.

Dana stood with her hands on her hips. “Funny that, Captain. I’m sure that’s what they said.”

5.

“Ekatchu,” one of the village elders said.

King bowed her head in greeting. They followed the elders into a large tepee-like tent where a fire burned in the centre, its blue-grey smoke drifting through a hole in the top.

Everyone sat. The L’ucrah outside the tent stood in a group, shifting from one foot to the other.

Jessica was aware that she’d not seen any weapons or defensive objects of any kind. As they’d been followed through the village by the starry-eyed crowd, she’d not picked up on any kind of aggression or hostility from them. The primitives of this planet were quite harmless, it seemed.

“Ganibish, oou depani,” another elder said. He made a show of plucking something invisible from the sky.

Jessica knew what it meant. She nodded.

“They’re in awe of our presence,” Dana said. “Even the old ones.”

“Do you think they’ll let us near the ship? I’d like to get a team out there excavating it. We might learn something about this region of space.”

“Maybe. I can’t see them saying no to us, to be fair,” Dana said.

The elders differed in age, and what appeared to be the youngest of their member came around the fire holding an old roll of cloth in his hand. He bowed as he handed it to the Captain. She opened it.

Painted in a deep red dye, it was a tapestry of sorts. It rolled out to about a metre long across her lap and onto the floor of the tent on either side. It depicted a star falling to the surface of the planet, with the primitives attacking the star. Then the star was swallowed up by the ground. It showed a man – she took it to be the same man who’d inspired the statue – reaching up to the sky. He had the same pose as the statue.

Not a coincidence, Jessica thought.

She looked to the oldest of the village elders, and indicated the fallen star on the tapestry. Tapped it with her finger.

“We need to get to this,” she said without hope they’d understand. It was clear they didn’t.

“He doesn’t get what we mean,” Boi said.

“Then we’ll just have to start excavating and see if they object,” Jessica said.

“Oh. Uh, look,” Dana said as she was passed a long pipe.

King watched as the Doctor took a long draw, stifled a cough and passed it on to her. Jessica pulled on it, clutched the corrosive smoke in her lungs, then managed to exhale without choking. She could feel her eyes water. She passed it down the line.

Lieutenant Banks was the last to have some. His coughing was their signal to leave the tent, patting his back as they did so.

*

Walking back through the village followed by an entourage of natives, Jessica looked back up at the black mountain.

“Unbelievable, isn’t it?” Chang said.

“Yes,” King said. “Yes it is.”

“What do we do now, sir?” Banks asked, his voice hoarse from the smoking.

“Well, for one we don’t go smoking any more pipes, agreed? Some of us can’t handle it.”

They all laughed under their breaths. Banks rolled his eyes.

“Right. I think we should head back to the Defiant. We’ll need to put a team together to dig down to that wreckage. If we can. Secondly, we’ll need to bring some translation equipment down here so we can communicate with them. Even if it’s a peer-to-peer system.”

“That’ll work,” Boi said.

“Chang, I want you to work with Dana in questioning the locals. We need to know about that ship out there, and of course there’s the question of that,” she said, nodding in the direction of the mountain.

“As you said it’s definitely artificial, Captain,” Chang said.

“Oh yes. It was never a question of whether or not it was made. Just a question of who the makers were.”

“Or what …” Chang said. They all stood looking up at it, at the clouds that clung to its peak. The existence of such a thing was audacious, unsettling. To know that it was the work of intelligent minds left them in awe.

Nobody talked on the way back to the transport.

6.

Captain King strode onto the bridge.

“Commander, I take it you’ve noticed that big black pyramid down there?”

Greene shot her a salute. “About an hour ago, sir. We’ve started making long-range scans.”

“That won’t do. We need to get in closer. Helm, bring us to a geostationary orbit over that pyramid, and lower our altitude to accommodate short-range scans,” King said. She laid a hand on Greene’s shoulder. “That should allow us to study it in more detail. Commander, care for a coffee down in the mess hall?”

“I never turn a cup of Joe down,” Greene said. “Ensign Rayne, looks like it’s your turn to watch the ship.”

Olivia stood up from her station. “Me?”

Greene and King exchanged looks.

“Do you see another Olivia Rayne in here, Ensign?”

Her face blossomed red. “No sir.”

“Very well. Any problems, I’ll be in the mess getting my fix.”

*

“Right,” Commander Greene said. “So we’ll need some sensors to test the wreck. Make sure it’s safe to dig away at it. But, uh …”

“What is it?” Captain King said. She fixed herself a coffee and walked with him to a table at the back.

“Well, do you think this is a good use of our time? I’m not questioning your orders, Captain. Don’t think that. But I would’ve thought we’d be better off trying to figure out that pyramid before anything else.”

“Del, I understand what you’re saying. But I think that ship might hold some answers for us. More so if it has star charts of the area.”

“True.”

“By the way, did you check the records on missing vessels? To see for links with these transmissions?”

“Yes. From what we have, it was a ship called Sophie. Went missing years ago.”

“Oh? And what did you find out about the Sophie?”

“Yeah, from what I can tell she was on a classified mission in Draxx space. The last the Union heard from her was a garbled message, and then …”

“Nothing,” Jessica said.

“Exactly.”

“Hmm. Keep digging. By the way, good news on the supplies,” King said.

“Well, I’m gonna have Chief Gunn do a check on that. Just to be sure.”

“Very well, but I don’t see it being that different,” King said.

“Neither do I,” Del said then drained his coffee.

*

Gunn wiped her hands on a rag, but the rag was a greasy number she’d used so many times it was now blacker than pitch. So she resorted to wiping them on the front of her overalls.

“Hello stranger,” she said.

“Hey Chief,” Greene said. He looked around. “Quiet in here for once.”

“Not complaining. It’s not often we get some down time, Del. I sent the majority of them off to get some sleep, get drunk, whatever the hell they want. A few elected to stay in here with me,” she said.

“I guess that’s true. You lot don’t get a lot of rest. And things are pretty quiet around here right now,” he said.

“So anyway, why’re you down here? If you’ve come to pull an inspection then you’re outta luck pal. We’re shipshape, in Bristol fashion.”

Greene chuckled. “No, no, nothing like that. It’s about that inventory. I want us to re-check it. Well, when I say we …”

“You mean me,” Gunn said with a roll of her eyes.

“Yeah sorry. I’d ask someone else to do it, but I know I can trust you to be thorough.”

“Well …”

“I’ll owe you big,” Greene said.

She considered, then punched him on the arm. “Yes you will.”

“Thanks,” he said.

The Chief shook her head, thinking, You already owe me, Commander. This debt is getting bigger and bigger.

*

They waited for the next sunrise, then departed for the surface. Dana and Lieutenant Chang sat in the back, next to the peer-to-peer translation devices. Though sophisticated, the tech looked just like a pair of headphones when you wore it. Behind them the limited cargo area was crammed with all of the scanning and excavation equipment, secured in place against the rear bulkhead with straps.

Commander Greene and four other men sat in front of the two women, with Banks on loan from the bridge again for piloting duties. They breached the atmosphere with the sun bathing that alien world in a deep fiery hue. This time, as they approached the burial site of the Sophie, they gazed in awe at the black mountain sparkling under that orangey light.

“I don’t think I’ve ever seen anything so alien,” Dana said.

“Don’t count your chickens just yet,” Greene said.

“What do you mean?”

Banks took them on a steady descent to the ground. The landing gears made a grating, thunderous sound as they opened out beneath the craft.

“I mean there’s plenty to see in the universe. I bet there are a lot of things far more alien than that mountain out there.”

They settled on the ground with an oomph, and Banks equalised pressure with the outside before opening the access door and lowering the ramp.

Dana and Chang carried the translation equipment away as the boys set about assembling their sensor equipment.

It wasn’t long before the L’ucrah showed themselves. “Uh oh,” Greene said. His hand fell to his side arm.

“Please Commander,” Dana said. “Rest easy, they’re harmless.”

“That’s not how it sounded in that message …” he mumbled.

There were three L’ucrah, and not a single one of them carried a weapon. They kept their distance from the men of the Defiant, and when Dana approached the one in the lead, he seemed to be on edge. She made it clear she wouldn’t hurt him, and offered him a set of the headphones.

It took several minutes for him to realise he was to wear them like her. As he settled them down around his ears, Dana tested the system.

“Hello,” she said.

He jumped, startled. The headphones dropped to the ground. Dana picked them up and handed them back to him.

“I did not mean to scare you,” she said after he slipped them back on his head.

His face went from confusion to realisation. “Hello,” he said with caution.

Dana heard it not as, “Jin jinoa,” but merely, “Hello.” They were working.

“Put yours on, they’re working fine,” she told Chang.

“We saw your bird in the sky,” the L’ucrah told her.

“Yes. We have come to test the ground. Something of ours is buried here. From long ago. Don’t worry. We also want to look at the mountain.”

The L’ucrah appeared fearful at the mention of it, but he bowed his head anyway. Who was he to argue with a god?

Dana and Chang waved to Commander Greene and set off with the L’ucrah to his village.

*

“It is strange. I hear two voices from your mouth,” the L’ucrah told her as they walked to the village.

“So that we can understand one another,” Dana said.

“I see.”

“What is your name?”

The L’ucrah held a fist to his chest. “I am Night-River, son of He-Who-Watches.”

“Pleasure to meet you, Night-River.”

“We are honoured to have you visit us,” he told them both. “It has been a long time since the gods returned from the stars. We are truly blessed.”

“Can you remember what happened the last time the gods came here?”

Night-River looked at the others, then said, “It is myth.”

“Tell us.”

“There was only one. He came to end the dry season that had ravaged the land, to put an end to the poison killing the people. And he did. He made it rain.”

Dana and Chang didn’t say anything.

“He tamed the mountain.”

As they entered the jungle, Dana wondered what he meant by that exactly.

*

They were in the village several hours, nosing about with Night-River as their tour guide. Dana asked him questions about everything. From the irrigation of their fields, to the pattern of the seasons, to the character of the society in which they existed.

They experienced no change in the seasons. It rained when they need it to, and the rest of the time they basked in the sunshine, unobstructed by any clouds. It became apparent that they lived in peace because it was the law to do so.

“And who enforces the law?”

“The all-seeing mountain. It cannot be disobeyed.”

Chang looked up at the black peak. “The mountain?”

“Explain,” Dana urged him.

“If we break the law, the mountain will punish us.”

“How?” Chang asked.

Night-River swept his arm to indicate the lands around them. “The dark times will come again. The lands … will be spoiled. No rain. No crops. Only death.”

Dana swallowed.

*

Night-River would take them only so far. They went the rest of the way by themselves. He waited back in the jungle whilst they approached the base of the black mountain.

“I’ve never seen anything like it,” Chang said. She laid a hand against the smooth black material.

They decided to walk around it and see if they could find some kind of opening or entrance. When at first it looked like they wouldn’t find one, Chang noticed a small slit in the material. It was only inches long, but it was a definite imperfection in the otherwise perfect black pyramid. In that way it stood out like a scar.

“Doctor, here,” Chang said. She got down to examine it.

Dana joined her. “How strange,” she said.

“Isn’t it?” Chang said, and ran a finger across the break in the mountain’s perfection. To her surprise the crack got bigger. They both stood well back as the crack shot up the side of the mountain. They watched it break left and right to form a doorway that opened up. Inside, the mountain was dark.

“I’m a little scared,” Dana whispered.

“Me too. Come on,” Chang said. She unhooked her scanner, held it in front of her so it could record as much as possible, and led the way.

*

“It’s useless Commander,” Ensign Ladd said. “The reading shows us a clear image of how she’s laying under all that. And from what I can tell, she’ll just snap in two the minute we try to do anything like get her out of there. She’d never take it.”

Greene drank from his water bottle. He wiped his mouth.

“Well, it was worth a try,” he said, disappointment apparent in his voice. Secretly he’d been quite looking forward to getting his hands dirty and doing something useful for a change.

“And the signal?”

“Well to be honest sir, how it’s still transmitting is a miracle. Must have the heart of a Hikarian Ox.”

Green laughed despite his disappointment. “Tell them to pack up. We’ll go back to the Defiant once we hear from the girls. Besides, it’s getting late. They should’ve shown by now.”

As if on cue, Dana and Chang returned.

“Ah good,” Ensign Ladd said. “Maybe they can tell us what to do about this …”

“Forget it,” Chang said.

“Lisa?” Greene asked her. He looked at her, studied her complexion. She was white as a sheet. “Are you okay?”

“Yes sir. Just feeling washed out.”

“You don’t look much better, either,” he told Dana.

She dismissed him. “I wouldn’t worry about digging up that old ship. Or piecing together its transmission like you’re doing a jigsaw. It’s not worth it.”

“What do you mean?” Greene asked her.

“We already have the transmissions.”

“But how? You’re not making sense …”

“The mountain, sir. We went inside the mountain.”

7.

Chang helped Dana load the data taken from the mountain into the ship’s systems. The Defiant’s computer had to work to convert it all into something they could understand. Eventually they had Lukas’s last will and testament – as Greene put it – ready for everyone to watch. They used the holo display in the conference room, and it did a good job of displaying the recording.

“Okay, first of all, Doctor Oriz has found something in the memory of that monolith down there that she feels we should all watch.”

“Yes,” Dana said. “I believe it will shed some light on everything.”

“Afterward, we’ll get onto other business. Dim the lights,” Jessica said. She sat down next to Commander Greene. Chief Gunn was there. Lieutenant Chang and Dana, Ensigns Boi and Rayne were also present. Chang started the recording and they watched as Lukas –

*

- started up the ladder. The ship jumped beneath him as he climbed. He clambered out onto the sand, regained his footing then moved quickly away from the sinking vessel. When he was a good twenty feet away he turned to watch as Sophie slid beneath the sands.

“Farewell.”

He climbed the embankment and with the sun nearly at its zenith behind him, he followed his Captain’s footprints into the barren wilderness. And whatever awaited.

*

Moonwatcher took the last remaining invader and dragged him in front of the sacred stone. The carvings at the top depicted the Star God, the Guardian of Sanctuary. The village elders assured the rest of them that sacrificing the invaders would bring the rains they so desperately needed. The drought had lasted far too long.

The man struggled in Moonwatcher’s arms, but he was no match for the L’ucrah’s lean strength. The others in the village cheered.

“Sanctuary,” Moonwatcher said, then withdrew his blade.

As he moved to draw it across the invaders throat, a flash of lightning tore through the atmosphere over his head. Only it wasn’t lightning.

He spun about, as did everyone else. Stood on a hill above the village was another invader, only this one was different. His hair was bright blonde.

One of the hunter-warriors made to move. The invader shot him with the weapon, blew him to bits. The villagers staggered back.

“Stop!” the invader yelled. He walked slowly toward them. He raised his hand to the sky, made as if he were clutching at something there. “I come from the stars. I mean you no harm,” he said, thumping his chest.

The gesture of connecting sky with self had an instant effect on them. A steady murmur spread throughout the village as the invader came to stand before Moonwatcher.

“No more killing. Please,” the invader said.

Although his words were meaningless, his actions were not. He was brave in front of them, cool and collected. In control. He could make a man split apart with the stick in his hand.

This invader was different from the others. Standing close to him and seeing his blue and green eyes, Moonwatcher did what any primitive mind would do, faced with such a being. He knelt in front of him.

Moments later, the rest of the village followed suit. The Star God had returned.

*

None of the other crew of the Sophie survived their encounter with the natives. None had matched Lukas in stature, in appearance of strength and vitality. In a society built around hunter-gatherer culture, size mattered. Brute force mattered.

It didn’t hurt that Lukas had dealt pure lightning from his hand, either.

However he didn’t rest. He investigated the giant black mountain from all sides. It took days for him to find the small slit in the base of the structure. Mere inches in length.

Lukas hunkered down in front of it, his head cocked to one side. He ran a finger down the length of the slit. It grew in front of him. He stood back up, and watched as it spread upward across the face of the pyramid, until it stopped at a height of thirty feet. Then the slit opened to create a doorway ten feet wide. There was no sound, no vibration. The walls of the mountain might as well have been made from oil.

The L’ucrah who had been following him around the whole time went crazy. They didn’t know what to do. The Star God had opened the mountain with a simple movement of one finger. And then, cool as a cucumber, Lukas stepped inside and the mountain swallowed him whole.

*

WE ARE HERE it boomed in his head.

“Who are you?” he asked in the darkness. His voice echoed over and over.

WE

“I do not understand …”

YOU ARE PRIMITIVE

“Not as primitive as some.”

THE TINY CREATURES WHO SWARM LIKE ANTS OUTSIDE HAVE NO CONCEPT OF TIME AND SPACE. THEY CANNOT KNOW OF THE REALITIES OF REALITY. BUT YOU ARE DIFFERENT

Lukas felt with his hands. They touched nothing. No air stirred within the dark chasm of the mountain’s insides.

WATCH

A holographic display appeared before him, out of nowhere. The mountain showed him how it had arrived on the planet, long ago. Showed the simple life of that world coming to worship the structure. Thousands of years stretched past, and yet the mountain waited. It had been placed there, and now it waited … but for what?

It did not tell him.

“I still don’t understand.”

The silence stretched out, dragged. Then in the same voice inside his head, it answered him.

YOU WILL, it said, and then the insides of the pyramid lit up.

*

Lukas came to realise that operating the many functions of the device – he’d found himself calling it that, in the end – required only the use of one’s mind. The initial communication with it had been more of a test than anything else. As he responded to it, the device mapped his brain. Tested it. Seeing what could be made of such a simple ball of mushy grey matter. Lukas wasn’t sure how long he spent inside the mountain. It might have been days, weeks. Even months.

The device provided food for him in the form of a blue, clay-like material. It had no taste to speak of, yet it seemed to hit the spot. Water ran from an opening in the ceiling into a wide basin three feet up from the floor. From this he drank and washed, as it was continuously replenished and refreshed. When he drank, it was cold. When he washed, it was warm. He slept flat out on the floor, his hands resting on his chest as he contemplated his circumstances.

Every day the device opened up to him. However the true purpose of its existence was a persistent mystery he could not break. He learned how to control the weather using the device. With this power he brought the rains to the simple village of the L’ucrah, and watched from a holographic display as they partied with joy at the answering of their prayers. For them it was a time of posterity. The Star God had spoken to the Black Mountain, and the rains had returned. The L’ucrah’s fields became green and lush. There hadn’t been a golden age like it for thousands of years. Far back, beyond the generational memory of the people.

THEY ARE CRUDE. THEY HAVE NO BOUNDARIES

“I can teach them,” Lukas offered.

By way of answer, the mountain opened again.

*

Somehow, he knew their language. Perhaps, he thought, the device has planted it there within me.

He spoke to the village elders directly, told them the bidding of the mountain.

“You will not fight amongst yourselves. You will not commit murder or seek to harm one another,” he said. Lukas thought back to some of the teachings that were implanted within him when he was created. Every replicant was taught a moral code in the rapid succession of their growth. Now he called upon it to show him the way. “You will not steal, you will love one another. You will …”

And so it went. On and on, until he was finished, and he was sure that the elders had understood.

“What will become of us, should these rules be broken?” the oldest of their kind asked him.

Lukas looked away then, away from the crackling firelight. Out there, in the darkness of the night, lay hidden the giant mountain.

“You will suffer,” he said, his voice a flat monotone sound like electric coursing through a wire.

But this did not stop them testing him. They fought. They killed each other. They went on with life as they always had done. And when they did, the rains would not come. The Black Mountain that controlled the weather would not work in their favour. The great mists and clouds that shrouded its peak would dissipate, and the people would know … they had done wrong.

Apart from isolated incidents, the desires of the Star God were followed without challenge after that, and life was good. The L’ucrah forgot their primitive roots. They cast aside murder and sacrifice. As a people, in the shadow of the Black Mountain, they washed their hands of bloodshed.

Lukas continued to learn from the mountain, well into his old age. And then one day he simply disappeared for good. Some said he went back into the mountain one last time … and never returned. Whatever the case they were mindful of his final words to them. “One day others, like me, will come. There are many Star Gods,” he said. “But I do not leave you alone. I will always watch over you.”

The L’ucrah went on as if he were still there with them, watching from afar. They did not know the lifespan of the Star God. For all they knew, he still existed.

And over time, he was not merely a ghost spoken of in stories. The Black Mountain became The Star God, their protector, their ruler. A giant presence that obstructed the sun for hours each day with its sheer size alone. The rain-bringer.

Lukas, the Star God and the Black Mountain were one and the same; something more powerful than the L’ucrah. Something from another place, another time, sent to watch over them.

It had the power to sustain them, or destroy them. And for as long as the L’ucrah obeyed its laws, it would ensure life continued as it should.

*

The holo display faded away, and the lights came up.

“Wow,” Greene said.

“How did we get this though? How was it made? The recording I mean,” Olivia Rayne asked.

Chang leaned forward on the table. “I think … and I know this sounds off-base, but I think it was pulled direct from his mind.”

King nodded. “So it stored him.”

“Stored his memories, yes.”

Greene frowned. “I don’t get it. How did that massive machine know you’d want to learn about him? How did it know to give you those specific memories?”

Dana answered this time. “Because it read our minds and knew we wanted that information. It’s like it expected us.”

“Maybe it did. He told them we’d come one day, and maybe he told the device to expect us too. Perhaps it already knew that from reading his mind,” King said.

“Yes.”

“And were there any star charts or data like that from Sophie? Anything to help us get an idea of where to go in this galaxy?” King asked.

Chang shook her head. “Sorry sir. Nothing. They just arrived here and crashed.”

“Captain, before we go too far into discussing all of this, I want to mention something else,” Greene said.

“Oh?”

“We’ve gotta bit of a situation. Our first estimates of ships stores and supplies might have been wrong.”

She rubbed her head. “So what are we saying here?”

Commander Greene looked from one to the other, then back down at his data tablet. “Well, there was anomalous data on the system. When we conducted a count in person, we realised the two sets of data were wildly different.”

“How different?” Chief Gunn asked.

Greene’s face became grim. “A lot.”

“Talk me through it,” King said.

“Well, we’re re-counting now, to ensure accuracy, but we’re in a lot worse shape than we thought. From my own calculations, we have little more than a month’s worth of food before we have to resort to processed rations. Whilst we could survive like that, we have to think about the repercussions on morale, on the well being of the crew,” Greene said. “Our figures show we’re also running low on Ditaron for the core.”

Chief Gunn picked up on that point. “Whilst we aren’t reliant on fuel, we still require some means of rejuvenating the main core. Unfortunately, on this ship, Ditaron was the ore chosen with the necessary attributes. All ships are different, depending on the class of core installed. But the Defiant is an old bird. She’s one of the last Union ships using the stuff … or she was.”

King sat. “Will it be easy to come by? Naturally abundant?”

Gunn shrugged. “I’m not sure. I’ve asked Lieutenant Chang to look into possible sources. We need at least a hundred kilos of pure Ditaron to function for another couple of years.”

“Does it pose any imminent problems?”

“You mean how long can we shoot through space before the wind dies?” Gunn asked.

King smirked. “Something like that.”

“Four months. Six at best, if we conserve power. If the system had been up to date, I would have had a new shipment put on board six years ago, when Captain Singh was alive. As it is, we can only hope to find some,” Gunn said.

“Understood. So, the priority here is food.”

Dr. Clayton raised a hand. “If we’re to be stuck out here, on our own, keeping the crew fed and watered is essential. I can only do so much. I can’t counter malnutrition.”

“Well, I don’t want to starve either, Doctor,” King said. “Commander, what do you suggest?”

“The surface. They have food stores that I’m sure would tide us over until we could locate something more suitable,” Greene said.

Lieutenant Chang frowned. “But suppose they had a shortage themselves. They’d starve instead, wouldn’t they?”

“Yes, but they could always grow more. We can’t,” Greene said.

She shook her head. “That’s not right, surely …”

“I’m looking at options, Lieutenant,” Greene snapped.

“Commander -” King warned.

“No sir. Sorry. Somebody has to look at ways of feeding this crew. It’s an option. I’m no more in favour of it than anything else. I’m just laying all the cards on the table,” he said.

“I understand that Commander, but I’m not about to leave a civilisation starving to feed my own people,” King said.

“There is a directive that sanctions such action,” Greene said. He raised a finger for quiet before Chang could cut in again. “Again, I’m just pointing out … Directive 401 dictates that we should take from an inferior race what we need to survive if it will ensure our own survival, and the agenda of the Union in general.”

“I’m well aware of the Directive,” King said. “And I’ve never heard of a single commanding officer ever invoking it.”

Greene was silent.

“But suppose we had to,” Banks said. Everyone looked in his direction. “What if things were so bad, and we were so desperate, we had no other choice?”

King always regretted these moments. She thought it akin to telling a child about death for the first time. She’d asked the same questions when she was junior officer.

“We may have to. It is not my policy, everyone. It’s something the Union worked out long ago. And it’s there for a reason. To keep us alive. That’s all it’s about,” she said. “As your Captain, if I had to make that decision … I would. If it meant keeping you all alive and kicking? Sure.”

Everyone was silent. The ship hummed beneath them.

“And would I regret it?” King looked down at her hands. “Yes. I would. But I’d do it anyway.”

She got up, laid a hand on Greene’s shoulder.

“However, I don’t think it will be necessary to do that on this occasion. My good friend here is just doing his job, weighing options. If he had to make the decision to invoke Directive 401 I’m sure he would, too.”

“Thanks Captain,” Greene said. “And it’d weigh on me too. But like you, I’d still do it.”

“So, apart from resorting to cannibalism at some point in the near future, or starving altogether, what else is there?” King asked.

Dana Oriz spoke up. “Captain, if I may?”

“Of course. Take the front.”

They swapped places.

“As you all know, I’ve spent some time with the L’ucrah. And both myself and Lieutenant Chang have been investigating the inside of the mountain. It looks like along with crewman Lukas’s memory, it also preserved the original transmissions from the Sophie,” she explained.

“Right. So can we play those?”

Chang nodded. “They’re all in the computer system now.”

King checked the time. “We’d better call it a day, ladies and gents. I know you all have things to do. Lieutenant Chang and Doctor Oriz, if you could both get some rest then continue to work on your findings from that device. The rest of you, I suspect, have things to get on with.”

Greene stood. “Aye Captain. Everybody dismissed.”

“I’ll listen to those recordings in my quarters,” she told him. “Then I’m going to get some rack time.”

Everyone filed out, but Jessica stopped Dana before she could leave.

“Captain?”

“Just a moment, Doctor, if you don’t mind.” When everyone was gone, they both sat back down. “What was it like?”

Dana licked her lips. “Like nothing I’ve ever experienced. It was strange. It knew I wanted that information. Somehow it got inside.”

Jessica chose her words carefully. She crossed her arms. “Doctor, do you think a machine like that – as powerful as that – might know of a way home for us?”

“I don’t know. But I can try and find out,” Dana said.

“Good. Do that. But don’t tell anyone else I asked you.”

“What about Lieutenant Chang?”

She shook her head. “No. Not even her. I don’t want anyone getting their hopes up …”

8.

Jessica showered first, then sat on the edge of her bunk listening to the Sophie’s logs. She towelled her hair as she played the first of them. Unlike what Chang and Boi had managed to piece together from the timeless swirls of space, these recordings were crystal clear. Duplicated and stored all that time ago, it was as though they’d been recorded that day.

Captain’s personal journal

Date: UNKNOWN – ERROR 409

Time: UNKNOWN – ERROR 409

It’s been eighteen hours since we arrived … wherever we are. Our computer systems are still playing catch-up. I don’t know what time it us. I’ve kept track of the lost time by using a countdown since I woke up on the deck.

Although I try to find some explanation for it, I can’t quite get my head around it. We are in low orbit around a planet. It is not Akron IV, that’s for certain. We’ve talked about this, and we think the Sophie was thrown across the galaxy when she went through the black hole. Burke is trying to determine our exact position, but with the computers playing up the way they are, it’s proving difficult.

There’s no sign of the Draxx warship. I have to assume they got thrown here with us. And there’s a problem – we can’t muster enough energy from the engines to maintain altitude. We’re falling toward the planet.

I hope our message to command got through. They need to stop any more of these things getting built. Lieutenant Burke tells me that there are no signs of a singularity nearby, so it must’ve fulfilled its shelf life.

As for now, I have to decide whether to wait and see if the Chief can get me some more power or risk an emergency landing down there, on that alien planet.

Captain’s personal journal

Date: UNKNOWN – ERROR 409

Time: UNKNOWN – ERROR 409

I still can’t believe it when I look at where the date should be, only to see an error message. It’s no longer a simple case of computer malfunction. We simply cannot pinpoint an exact date or time anymore. Everything is … screwy.

I keep thinking to myself: perhaps it’s Christmas Eve …

How did we end up thousands of years in the past? Burke thinks it has something to do with time dilation. Perhaps because the black hole was artificial. Hell, maybe it wasn’t really a black hole after all but something else altogether. The sort of hole in the fabric of space-time I read in those silly sci-fi books when I was a kid …

The simple fact is that we’re stuck here now … stuck wherever the hell this planet is. Stuck in our distant past. There won’t be a rescue.

I am not equipped to deal with this. The crew doesn’t realise the fear that flows in my veins. The lack of sleep. Our ship is dead and she is steadily sinking. The soft sand we landed on cannot support her weight. She’s gradually falling through it, as if this planet is absorbing her into itself. But for now she seems to have settled, doesn’t appear to be sinking any further.

We’re on a time limit to find shelter in the surrounding area. To strip her of everything we’ll need to survive. I feel like a castaway, stranded on a very strange island in the middle of a vast, dark sea.

Oh, and there’s something else. Burke thinks he detected life, further inland. Near the woodland. It appeared as a blip on his monitor, but before he could confirm it, it was gone …

Captain’s personal journal

Date: UNKNOWN – ERROR 409

Time: UNKNOWN – ERROR 409

Tonight has been the longest of my entire life. First the Chief, then Commander Reese. Burke has been left a trembling mess. I had him sedated.

I’m now sure that those people are the natives of this planet. The way in which they seem to attack the ship, as if it’s some kind of beast or dragon, backs my theory up. A primitive race like that would not be at a space-faring stage yet, and thus able to visit this planet from afar.

At about 0300 hours, they returned and tried to cut the main power lines on the outside of the ship. I sent Miller and two of the other lads up top to stop them. I threw all of the main lights on, which blinded them momentarily. Watching on the monitors I saw Miller and the others get a few good shots in. The natives seemed to flee.

Only it was a ruse, meant to draw them away from the ship. As they descended down the ladder to check the damage, the natives turned back. I watched my men get impaled, helpless to stop the bloodshed. I called for more men, and they came, but they too were slaughtered the moment they got to the skin of the ship. I slammed the hatch shut. On the monitors, I saw that not all of them were dead. I’m sure I saw Miller’s body twitching …

I am ashamed to say I turned away from the viewscreen as they were carried away. My heart hammered in my chest. I regret sending those men to their deaths, but what else could I do?

When I was a marine, we had a motto. Death and Glory. It was our battle cry before we went into action. I used to be young enough, and stupid enough, to believe in it. Now I realise how wrong I was. There’s no glory in death, not the death of others. And what glory can there be in mine when there are no others left to bear witness to it?

The door chimed. Jessica looked up. “Come.” Commander Greene walked in bearing two cups.

“Please, no booze,” she said. “I’m just about beat.”

“Oh not booze this time. Though I’ll remember for my next visit,” he said. “Here.”

He handed her a cup. She lifted the lid and smelled it.

“Hot chocolate?”

He shrugged. “Make the most of it. Once the supplies run out, we’ll be living off of reprocessed star dust, so …”

“You have a point,” Jessica said and took a sip. “Sit down.”

Greene plonked himself down on the sofa, but before Jessica could resume the log entries, he spoke up again.

“Jessica, the real reason I came down here …”

“Go on,” she said.

“The girls went straight to the science lab to work on that data. I guess they couldn’t sleep, and I’m not surprised. They, uh, managed to work out how long ago the recordings were made. How long since Lukas was alive.”

Jessica swallowed. “How long?”

“Thousands of years, Jessica. A long, long time.”

“But that doesn’t make sense. If they got here by the same process we did, then surely an equal period of time would have elapsed.”

“But you’re forgetting the time differential. Remember, Hawk got here fifty years before us, yet only days had passed for him. We already know that if we get back to our own galaxy, centuries will have passed. And there’s another thing,” Greene said.

“What’s that?”

“We don’t know how the Sophie got here. We don’t know it was a black hole.”

She shook her head. “For every answer we get another two questions pop up.”

“Like a hydra,” Greene said.

“Yes.”

She resumed the recordings and drank her hot chocolate.

Captain’s personal journal

Date: UNKNOWN – ERROR 409

Time: UNKNOWN – ERROR 409

… my last entry in this journal. I can only hope that if it is found then … Reese, Burke, Miller were killed … all of them … they’re hostiles … only myself and Lukas left. The other lads tried to help but they didn’t last long either … don’t know how long Lukas and I can hold out against them if they return. The ship is sinking. Must find some way of communicating our … ERROR 411 … this is Captain William Nate, commanding officer of the Union vessel Sophie. We have crash landed on an alien planet. I don’t know where we are … ERROR 411 … I am leaving Lukas on board. If I don’t return in six hours he is to take as much as he can carry and abandon the ship to the desert. I must try to find the others, see if any of them are still alive … I owe it to them … Captain Nate signing off.

Commander Greene and Jessica looked at each other in the vacuum of silence left by that last message. She thought the logs were over with, and was about to shut her console down when another one played.

Captain’s personal journal

SUPPLEMENTAL

Date: UNKNOWN – ERROR 409

Time: UNKNOWN – ERROR 409

This is crewman Lukas. I am a replicant and, I believe, the last surviving crew member of this vessel. If you are listening to this, then it is probably too late. I am abandoning ship to learn what has become of the Captain and the other missing crew. I doubt I will continue to exist following the encounter with this planet’s natives, but I must go. It is my duty.

With any luck, they are only captives to these people. Perhaps I can reason with them. After all, I am not human …

9.

“You’re Dana, ain’t yuh?” Hawk said as he sat opposite her with a tray of food. When Dana eyed the stacks of barbequed meats, cornbread, rice, and chilli, she thought about the imminent food shortages that would soon occur if they didn’t find anywhere to re-supply. At the rate Hawk Nowlan was eating his share of the food, they’d run out sooner rather than later.

Taking from the L’ucrah was out of the question – even if they were prospering, albeit with the aid of the mountain.

“Yes. Pleased to meet you,” she said and shook his hand.

“Not eatin’?”

She had a few biscuits on a plate, and a barely-touched hot chocolate that wasn’t so hot anymore. “I’m … uh … not that hungry to be honest.”

“Know the feelin’,” Hawk said and scooped up a load of rice with chilli.

The mess was quite full, and noisy.

“You know, as a history buff, you’d make an interesting case study,” Dana said. It felt good to be around different company.

“That so?”

“Being a living legend and all. I bet you could tell some stories …”

He rolled his eyes. “Oh, the legend thing again. Bah!”

Dana chuckled. She broke off some biscuit. “Your Father was responsible for the Metal Marquis, wasn’t he?”

Hawk chewed. “Yuh. I don’t know all the ins and outs of it, but from what I do know he was the one got them on their feet. An’ a good thing it was, too.”

“Well, I wouldn’t be here if he hadn’t.”

“Parents repo’s, huh?”

“Yes they were replicants,” she said, bristling at the word repo’s.

“I didn’t mean nothin’ by it, just somethin’ we used to call yuh kind in my day is all. I’m tryin’ to pack it in, believe me,” Hawk said.

“That’s okay. I’m not like this normally.”

“Yuh? What’s up?” Hawk said as he tore a strip from some chicken.

Dana drew a deep breath. “That world down there. It’s barren. Dry and inhospitable by all accounts. And yet, there’s life. An oasis with a thriving village inside.”

“I don’t see nothin’ strange in that,” Hawk said with a frown.

“That’s not it. There’s a kind of alien artefact on the surface influencing the weather so that it rains on a regular basis, and provides fresh water. Because of that, they’re surviving. But they’ve stalled. They’ve not developed in thousands of years.”

“Uh huh.”

“A society needs challenge. It needs to go through the fighting and the wars and the tragedy, then pick itself back up and get on with things. They’ve not had a chance to do that. Long ago a ship crashed there, and the survivor programmed that device to look after them. He thought he was saving them from themselves. He wasn’t. He was dooming them to die … of boredom.”

“Then switch it off,” Hawk said simply.

“Huh?”

“Pull the plug. Shake things up for ‘em.”

She chewed this over. “Yeah … yeah …”

Her eyes lit up, their inner fire rekindled. She got up.

“Yuh goin’?” Hawk asked, confused.

“Yep. I’ve got to see the Captain.”

Dana grabbed a biscuit to eat on the go, then left.

“Thanks for the advice!” she called back on her way out the door. Hawk watched her go, then looked back down at his plate.

“Yuh …”

*

“Doctor?” King asked. She rubbed her eye. “I was just nodding off …”

“I’m sorry, Captain. But something’s been bugging me about what’s going on down there.”

“Come inside. What’s the matter?”

The doors whooshed shut behind her. Dana licked her lips. “The locals. They’re stunted. Kept safe. By the Sophie crashing down there, we’ve stopped their evolution dead. Lukas. He told the mountain to provide the rains, so that they never suffered another drought, another famine. And now they’re stuck in the mud. They can’t move on.”

“But that’s not our fault. It was Lukas, right? We watched the recordings.”

“Yes, but it was human interference.”

“Well …”

“We crashed there. It was a member of our crew who changed the course of their progression. Going by our own moral code. Our rules and laws. Remember, you will not kill. You will not go to war …” Dana said. “In his own way, Lukas was creating the perfect society. One that doesn’t harm itself.”

“Okay.”

“The Commander mentioned a Directive in the meeting? Well I believe you have another Directive prohibiting the pollution of primitive races?”

“Yes. Directive 17.”

“Well, this mess is ours. It’s ours because we didn’t follow our own Directive. Our own limits,” Dana said.

“I see …” Captain King said. “So what do you suggest we do about it?”

Dana laid out her plan.

10.

The next morning, Captain King assembled a meeting between herself, Commander Greene, Lieutenant Chang and Doctor Oriz.

The big room seemed so empty without everyone else there, but Jessica hadn’t thought it urgent enough to call everyone away from their duties. For the time being, it was need-to-know; and that was often best.

She laid out Dana’s plan to Chang and Greene, and they listened without interrupting or asking questions. When King was finished, she sat down and waited for one of them to speak.

“So when you say you want to stop the rains, what do you mean? Stop them for months at a time? What?”

“No,” Dana said with a shake of her head. “No, I mean give them proper seasons. They should experience a dry season. Normal, natural stuff like that.”

“Take away their comfort zone,” Greene said.

“Yes. That’s it. Of course, it’d be great if they continued to live by the laws Lukas ordered them to obey all that time ago. And in a way, I think they will because they came direct from God himself, didn’t they? But the idea is to get them back on track.”

“Some people might question my decision to authorize this,” King said. “However it’s only fixing something broke a long time ago. He had no idea the damage it would do. He thought he’d done them a favour. In Thy Image and all that.”

“So we set it so that it’s not wrapping them up in cotton wool all the time, then just hope for the best?” Chang asked.

“Kind of, yeah,” Dana said.

“Is that any better than what Lukas did in the first place?”

King leaned forward over the table. “I think of it as fixing what’s broken.”

“My people spent a long time persecuted by regular humans, Commander,” Dana said. “We were the mistake. Now I get to set a mistake right. One made by one of my own kind, a long time ago.”

“Okay. So when do we go through with this?” Greene asked.

“In a couple of hours. Let the girls get everything they need. Can we get Lieutenant Harper to cover the helm so that Banks can fly them down there?” King asked.

“I’ll see to it,” Greene said.

“Then I think this little meeting is over,” King said as she stood. The other three followed suit. “We’ll be watching. We’re right over that mountain, and I’ll have the viewer on maximum magnification.”

“The eye in the sky …” Chang said with a smirk.

“Always,” King said.

11.

“Shuttle in transit,” Harper reported.

“Good. Keep track of her. And the black mountain?” King asked.

“No change,” Commander Greene reported from Chang’s station.

“Good.”

Should have gone with them, Jessica thought. Or at least sent some more bodies. Doesn’t feel right letting them go in there like that, on their own.

“They’ve breached the atmosphere,” Greene reported.

“I can get them on the screen, Captain,” Harper said.

“Do it.”

The viewscreen changed to a view of the shuttle, streaking through the air like a fireball.

Good luck girls, King thought.

*

The mountain opened for them. They stepped inside.

“You know, it does kind of give me the creeps in here,” Chang said, trying to see through the darkness.

“I know what you mean,” Dana said.

The voice of the mountain spoke to them both at the same time. Just as it had when they’d witnessed Lukas’s story. They stood in the pitch black, as they had their first visit to the mountain, with only the tiny glow-pads attached to their belts for illumination.

YOU RETURN

Chang knew there was a console nearby. The same console they’d downloaded the recording of Lukas, and the logs from the Sophie. But she could only see a foot in front of her. And now the voice filled both of their heads.

YOU RETURN, it said again.

“Yes. We wish to access your programming.”

FOR WHAT PURPOSE?

“We believe that when one of our race changed your protocols all that time ago, he was in error doing so,” Dana licked her lips. “We’d like to resolve that.”

THERE IS NO ERROR

Dana turned to Chang. She was lit from beneath by the little light on her belt, and her face was thrown in exaggerated relief. Chang drew a heavy breath.

“There is,” Dana said.

HE SAID THAT ONE DAY OTHERS WOULD COME. YOU HAVE. HE SAID YOU WOULD TRY TO ALTER MY PROGRAMMING. YOU HAVE

“Because the way in which he programmed you was wrong. Totally wrong.”

EXPLAIN

“Well, when we -“

TO HIM

They both exchanged looks, then turned around in time to see a holographic display flicker into life several feet away. It was a man. A tall man with blonde hair.

“Lukas!” Chang said in disbelief. This was a recording, evidently. But a different type of recording. This one spoke to them.

“Dr. Oriz. Lieutenant Chang. Welcome,” Lukas said. He opened his arms to indicate the whole mountain, or the planet, or the galaxy into which they’d found themselves thrown. Everything. The lights came up.

“Hello,” Chang said nervously, blinking in the sudden light.

“As you may have gathered, I am not real. What am I? More a representation of all that I was, based upon a complete scan of my mind. And yet I am not completely myself. I am … it, too. We are one. It’s quite a remarkable machine, isn’t it?”

Dana nodded. “Yes it is remarkable. Is it a machine?”

Lukas smirked. He walked around them, slowly. “Of course. What else?”

“But what’s it for?”

Lukas rubbed his chin as he circled them. “A good question. It does not know. Neither do I. It was left here, a long time ago. Before the sands of this world shifted like great oceans. Before great parts of it lay wasted, barren. Back when this world showed promise. It was left here, and instructed to wait.”

“Why?” Chang asked.

“Again, I don’t know.”

“But it can control the weather …” Dana said.

“Yes and much more. I was able to program it to ensure the L’ucrah – that is what they call themselves – would survive. They were dying when I arrived here,” Lukas said.

“We noticed,” Dana said. “The trouble is, your little adjustment has caused them to stagnate. To become lazy. They might just as well have died.”

Lukas frowned. “And I feel that you would rather that’s what they did.”

“No, no,” Chang said.

Lukas peered upward. There seemed to be no ceiling to the place. Not that they could see. Perhaps it was so high up the light didn’t touch it. Instead it just faded into darkness up there.

“I cannot allow you to put these people into jeopardy. They must be protected,” Lukas said.

The mountain did something. A rumble under their feet. Dana and Chang both noticed a change in the air. A shift, however subtle it might have been.

“What was that?” Dana asked.

“Your ship up there,” Lukas said. “I see it. I see it probing this mountain with its sensor beams. Assessing whether or not it is a threat of some kind. You wish to bring about the L’ucrah’s destruction. You wish to put an end to the power that has protected them all this time. I cannot allow that.”

He waved a hand and a holographic display next to him showed the Defiant floating above the planet. It also showed a beam of light arcing from the tip of the mountain to the underbelly of the ship.

“What the -“

“They must be protected,” he said again, his words heavy, echoing in that giant space like a bell and hammer. “At all costs …”

*

The peak of the black mountain glowed white hot. Harper barely had time to register it before a beam of pure energy raced up through the atmosphere and struck the underside of the Defiant. She shuddered from the impact of the beam against her hull. Sparks flew from the overloaded console next to him, and he covered his eyes as it died. The front viewscreen went dark.

The systems and lighting flickered and faded, suspending them in an inky darkness. In a moment emergency lighting took over.

“Report -” Jessica had time to say before even that dim illumination was taken from them.

*

Chang and Dana watched as the holographic display showed the Defiant sink powerless toward the planet. It tumbled crazily, nose down, helpless against the mighty power of the mountain.

“Within the hour your vessel will burn up in the atmosphere,” Lukas told them with cold detachment.

“Please,” Chang said. “You don’t understand.”

“I understand all right,” Lukas said. His face was bitter. “I was little more than a slave to your kind. A lesser being. And now you would ruin this paradise I have created. You would spoil it. Just to enslave these primitive beings.”

Chang looked at Dana.

“We only mean to set things right again. You must see this,” Dana said.

“Everything is right. They thrive. I have created perfection,” Lukas said.

“You’re not Lukas. I know that. You’re some kind of simulacrum of Lukas and whatever consciousness this machine has,” Dana said in a panicked voice. “But please listen to me. There must be something of the man who was.”

Lukas watched intently, his eyes burning with rage as the Defiant was pulled into the planet’s wake, to join the Sophie as yet another falling star.

*

The emergency lanterns gave limited illumination within the dark confines of the Defiant. “Nothing. No power at all,” Boi said.

“Then why do we have -” Greene was about to ask. He stomped his foot on the deck plating. They should have been floating around by now. With artificial gravity out of order …

“It’s not our gravity, Commander,” King said through gritted teeth. “We’re falling into the planet. And at a rate of knots, too.”

“My God,” Greene said.

“We need power. Get to engineering. See if the Chief can do anything,” King ordered. Greene left straight away. “The rest of you, keep checking those systems.”

Jessica was glad for the darkness. It meant none of them saw her swallow, her throat dry with panic.

*

“They will all die, and then my people will continue to live in peace,” Lukas said.

“But we’re your people,” Chang said.

“No … you’re not.”

Dana came to within inches of him, holograph or not. “I’m you’re people. We are the same.”

He looked into her eyes. Recognition flashed in there.

“I have to do it,” he said, with perhaps more of the human-replicant he’d once been showing through.

“No you don’t. You made a mistake. We’ll fix it … together. Work with us. Help us reset things. Give these people a challenge. Let them stumble. Let them learn. Allow them to grow as a society. It’s what you wanted all along, wasn’t it?”

Moments ticked by. And then Lukas nodded with a sigh. He waved his hand, and the image of the Defiant dissipated away like smoke.

“You listened to me,” Dana said, relieved and surprised.

He lowered his head. “You speak the truth.”

“Release your people. Let them go. You saved them once. Save them again.”

Lukas looked into her eyes. She wondered if the huge device had feelings. Desires. Any of the things that made human beings and their ilk so fallible.

“You know, they believe in a Sanctuary. A paradise. And that’s what I tried to give them,” Lukas said.

“I know.”

“I read in a book once: ‘So many people want it to exist, they want it so much that a place called Sanctuary becomes real. But it doesn’t exist. It never existed. Just … just the hope. That’s all.’ Do you think that’s right?” Lukas asked her.

Dana shrugged. “Paradise on Earth is what you make of it. Now it’s up to the L’ucrah to have their turn.”

*

The ship boomed into life. Every system returned. The curve of the planet filled the viewscreen from one side to the other. A sea of sky.

“Quickly! Full thrusters! Climb!” Jessica snapped.

At the helm, Harper took control of the ship’s engines. The deck shook with the sudden burst of power from behind. The engines strained to push them upward, fighting the pull of the planet’s gravity. The front end of the Defiant glowed as it scraped against the abrasive upper atmosphere.

When they were high enough, Harper executed a swift manoeuvre to get them into standard orbit again. Though this time, they were well clear of the pyramid.

King relaxed back into her chair. “Good work, Lieutenant.”

Too close for comfort, Jessica thought to herself.

12.

Hours later Jessica found herself at the entrance to the mountain, accompanied by a large band of L’ucrah, curious to see what was going on.

Dana and Chang waited for her inside the open doorway. She peered about. It was unlike anything she’d ever seen before.

“Wow,” she said.

“Over here we have a console where we can monitor the weather and adjust it if need be. For the moment we’ve gone with establishing a regular season pattern. The way it should be,” Chang said.

“So the beam that nearly killed us all, you’re saying it was some kind of defence mechanism?” King asked.

“Yes. As soon as he … it … they … thought we were going to tamper with the way things are, it kicked in. But we managed to talk him around in the end,” Dana said.

“I see. So how do you interact with it?” King asked them both.

Right then a voice entered her head.

TO WHOM DO YOU WISH TO SPEAK?

She thought for a moment. The sudden presence of something other than her own mind in her head threw her. “Anyone who can give me answers.”

IT DEPENDS ON THE QUESTION

“You don’t make -” Jessica stopped dead. In front of her a holograph had flickered into being. At last she found herself face-to-face with the same Lukas from the recordings.

“Greetings Captain. Welcome.”

“Much obliged,” she said, unsure of how to respond. “So, you must be able to answer some of my questions.”

“About us? Yes,” Lukas said primly.

Lukas and the Mountain. She’d forgotten that the two were now both the same. Two different apples growing on the same tree.

“What is this thing?”

“We don’t know,” Lukas said flatly.

“How did it get here?”

“There are a great many like it scattered across this galaxy. And they all have great power. Don’t underestimate them. But they are mere tools.” Lukas warned.

“Tools … ? Used by whom?”

“Well, that’s the fundamental question, isn’t it? Who holds the control stick? Who has their finger over the firing button?” Lukas asked. “The answer to that eludes us I’m afraid.”

“Firing button? What do you -“

“I’m sorry.”

Lukas faded away suddenly, as if he’d had the plug pulled. Jessica became suddenly aware of a presence in her mind again. Now the mountain was just itself. Nobody else’s personality to give it colour. It felt like something accommodating within her mind, pushing on the sides of her consciousness to make room for itself.

A LIVING BEING IS REQUIRED

“What for?”

A LIVING BEING IS REQUIRED TO TEACH THE OTHERS

“To act out your teachings? To liaise with the locals?”

CORRECT

“I don’t know about that,” Jessica said.

IT IS REQUIRED. TO COMPLETE NEW OBJECTIVES

“New objectives?”

“The one’s we’ve given it,” Chang said.

“I’ll do it,” Dana said. “I’ll stay.”

Jessica shook her head. “I won’t allow it.”

Dana placed her hands gently on King’s shoulders. “Captain, I want to. The chance to shape an entire civilisation? Who would pass that up? In my field, it doesn’t get any better than this.”

“I don’t know …”

“I’ll do it!” Dana told the machine. King just looked at her.

IT IS DECIDED

“You sure?” King asked Dana.

She nodded. “More sure than I’ve ever been.”

“I don’t know if I could ever come back to get you. You know that. You may be stranded here forever.”

“I’ll take the risk, Captain,” Dana said.

King smiled. “It’s Jessica. And you both did a wonderful job today. Well done.”

Chang looked down at her shoes, embarrassed. Dana beamed. She took Jessica in a big hug. Then the Captain addressed the machine again.

“I have your word, you will ensure the development of this world? These people?”

THE PRIMITIVE’S WILL EVOLVE. THEY WILL LEARN. WHAT WAS BROKEN SHALL BE REPAIRED

“Thank you,” she said.

It said nothing back.

*

“Look at this,” Jessica said as she plucked a tall red flower stem from a sunny spot in the jungle. They walked back to the awaiting shuttle. King sniffed the magnificent flower, recognised honey and spice. Not unlike the flora of Earth. It made her feel homesick.

“Excuse me Captain, but why the flower?”

“No particular reason. Just wanted something bright and cheerful. Reminds me of something.”

13.

The dawn of a new day broke over the lip of the planet, and bathed the Defiant in yellow light. There’d been much relief and good feeling on board following their encounter with the great power laying docile on that world. But now another feeling coursed through some of the crew: sadness. It was time for Dana to leave.

“I wish I could talk you out of it,” Captain King said. Dana loaded the last of her cases into the cargo compartment of the transport. She took not only her own belongings but any supplies and equipment she might need.

“I think it’s the best way,” Dana said. “How else will it instruct them?”

“As long as you’re sure about this.”

“More sure than I’ve ever been of anything.”

Jessica grinned. “Well you’re a braver woman than me, Doctor. You do understand we won’t be able to maintain contact once your transmitter is out of range?”

“Yes. But I’m hoping that further study of the mountain will allow me to use it as one big radio,” Dana said. “Maybe I’ll be able to stay in touch somehow.”

“I can’t promise that I’ll ever be back this way …” King said regretfully.

“I understand. Honestly, Captain, I go because I want to. I know the risks.”

Jessica turned to Commander Greene. “Del?”

He strode forward, a big grin on his face and pinned a medal to Dana’s chest.

“This is the medal of excellence in fields of science and humanity. We don’t ever get to give this one out,” he said.

“Thank you,” Dana said. She peered down at it. “And thanks for the loan of the ship. I’ll take good care of it.”

“Sure you can fly it?” Greene said with a smirk.

“It’s been a while since I did a refresher course, but I should be fine, Commander, thank you,” Dana said.

Jessica snapped to attention, made a sharp salute. “Then I suppose it’s time.”

Dana saluted back.

“It’s been an honour, Captain.”

Greene shook her hand. “You’re a brave woman, Doctor.”

Dana beamed. “Thanks.”

They stood back to let her get on board and watched as the ramp slid inside and the hatch lowered. Then they cleared the hangar.

*

Master At Arms Eisenhower moved aside so they could file into the hangar control centre. On a big screen they watched as Dana’s shuttle disembarked, flanked on either side by fighters. They escorted her as far as the upper atmosphere of the planet, then veered off to leave her to make entry. It was a tradition that went back further than any of them could remember.

“In minutes she’ll be down there,” Jessica said, “building a better world.”

“And what sort of world will it be, do you wonder?” Greene asked.

She shook her head. On the screen the transport disappeared from view. “Who knows?”

14.

“Lieutenant, let’s break orbit. I believe we have several systems that look promising?” King asked as she took the captain’s chair.

“Yes Captain. The star charts Chang took from the memory of that device were quite detailed. Ensign Rayne has some of the nearby systems mapped for us, ma’am.”

“Ensign?”

Olivia turned around. “I’ve fed them through to the helm, Captain.”

Despite the loneliness of their situation, Jessica couldn’t help but feel a stir in her belly. The same feeling she’d got on her first orbital dive. Her first time running a shift on a command deck. Her first kiss. It was the unknown. The fear – and promise – of whatever awaited them.

“Pick one, Banks,” she said. “And push the engines. Open her up. We have a whole galaxy to explore.”

*

Sometimes being a living legend was good for something. Such as getting your hands on vintage champagne. The real deal; not the type of synthetic stuff they peddled on Articus VI.

“It’s going to my head,” Selena said.

“That’s cause yuh can’t handle yuh drink,” Hawk said.

Selena slapped him playfully. “Such a wind-up merchant, you really are.”

“Awww …”

“I’m very proud of you, d’you know that?” Selena sipped more of the champagne.

“Why?”

“For the way you gave Dr. Oriz advice. I heard about it. Because of you she did what she did. Those people down there will move on now, and in a way it’s all thanks to you,” she said.

Hawk thought for a moment, his brain foggy from the champagne. He shrugged.

“God works in mysterious ways …” he said with a grin.

“Such an ego-maniac!”

They both broke into laughter, then refilled their glasses.

“I do love you,” she said.

Hawk stopped. “What?”

“I said I love you.”

“But yuh …”

Selena pulled him in toward her by the collar of his shirt. “Shut up and kiss me. Right here,” she said and rested a fingertip against her pursed lips.

Hawk didn’t hesitate to oblige.

15.

In her quarters, Jessica sipped from a glass of single malt as she watched the planet recede through the viewport. It was now no bigger than a marble. She sighed.

On the table, the giant red flower from the surface stood in a vase. She reached forward, felt one of the petals between her fingers. Soft as silk.

Something from an alien world. A world tarnished by mystery, by the stamp humanity had left on it. A man made in humanity’s own image had then set about making a safe society, one that his creators would have been proud of. A world without pain, without wars, without suffering.

They had lived their lives in peace and harmony. But they’d grown stilted. They’d not changed since the Sophie crashed there, thousands of years before. Now Dana had started the ball rolling. The natives would evolve. Would develop. Would hopefully turn out all right, given the right guidance.

The flower was beautiful. How many more beautiful things would they come across? Would it be the last?

She hoped not. Soon they’d need supplies. Hopefully the star chart taken from the mountain would help them in that regard. And they might need to find a planet to call home, if things went that way.

If they couldn’t get back home, then they’d have to find one. Preferably somewhere lush and green, with bright red flowers. Jessica lifted the vase to her nose and took a deep breath of the scent, sickly sweet. Good. She put it back and relaxed into the sofa again.

“Home …” she said.

Her words echoed in the empty darkness of her quarters. She sipped the scotch and waited for the dry burn inside her chest, next to her heart.

PART FIVE

ALLIES

1.

Ensign Olivia Rayne’s fifth visit to the Observation Deck in a week, and still she didn’t tire of it. With everything else going on, it was a welcome distraction. She accessed the control panel to the main door, then stood back as it opened for her. It was dark inside, with only minimal lighting along the floor itself. The huge bay windows that stretched from floor to ceiling, twenty feet high, gave an astounding view of space. When the door slid shut behind her, cutting out the glow from the corridor outside, Olivia found herself bathed in a thin, silvery light. The Defiant cruised into deep space, and directly ahead lay a huge nebula that glowed silver and gold. It was bordered above and below by the black of space, by star clusters and distant novas.

Only by viewing the vacuum from the observation deck, free of all distractions, could one truly appreciate how full of light and colour the cosmos truly was.

“Here again?” a voice asked her.

Olivia nearly jumped. She looked about and only now did she notice a head of brown hair down at the front of the deck.

“Captain,” Rayne said. “I didn’t think anyone else would be here this hour …”

She sat down a couple of seats away from Captain King. The Captain wore her night undershirt and joggers, just as Rayne did. Simple black cotton, comfortable to sleep in, and perfect for when you were woken up in the middle of the night and expected to spring into action.

“I couldn’t sleep,” King said.

“Me neither. I’ve been coming here a lot lately. You know, just to watch,” Rayne said.

“So I heard,” King said. “I thought I might join you on this occasion.”

“It’s beautiful,” Olivia said. The nebula was brighter than a moon, like a cloud of molten pearl.

“We’ll be heading through that soon,” King told her. “In a couple of days. According to the star charts, we should find some habitable planets on the other side.”

Rayne turned to her. “And supplies?”

The Captain’s face was serious, her eyes shadowed by tiredness and worry … but she managed a brief smile.

“We hope so.”

“Do you think she’s all right, Captain?” Olivia asked.

Dana had been on Jessica’s mind too since they’d left her behind on that alien planet. Of her own wish, of course. But still …

“I’m sure she is. There’s been no contact as of yet, but I’m hopeful she will. Maybe it’s taking time working it out,” King said.

“She’s strong,” Rayne said. “Lisa had a great deal of respect for her.”

“You and Lisa get along well, don’t you?” Jessica asked.

Olivia smiled. “Yes. Yes, we do.”

King turned back to the view. She truly did wonder how Dana was faring. She hoped that she’d never have to leave another crew member behind like that again.

*

“I don’t think I can get used to drinking tea in the mornin’,” Captain Nowlan said as he sat down at the conference table. He sipped his drink, pulling a disgusted face as he did so. “Ain’t right.”

“It’s not so bad,” Commander Greene said. “Well, this Earl Grey’s not bad.”

King sat. “Wait till that runs out, Del, and you’ll be on the green stuff.”

The Commander shook his head. “That’ll never happen.”

“You do know it’s better for you …” Dr. Clayton said.

Green rolled his eyes. “Yeah doc.”

“Okay, let’s get this underway. We’ve got a lot to do before we enter that nebula. Commander, where are we on the supply issue?” King said.

“Down to our last food stocks Captain,” he lifted his cup. “As you know, some of it’s run out already.”

She nodded. “Understood. Any estimate on how long we can stretch what we do have?”

“Clayton’s been working on it. Doctor?” Greene asked.

“Based on what we have, and the minimum nutritional requirements … I’d say we have a week and half of food left,” Clayton said.

She looked from one to the other. All department heads were present. “Have you told anyone else, Doctor Clayton?”

He shook his head. “No.”

“Good. We’ll keep this to ourselves. The last thing we need to do is cause a panic. The crew know things are getting tight, but I don’t need them to know just how tight they are. I’m hopeful that when we get through that nebula -“

“Hopeful?” Chief Gunn asked. She looked tired, stressed.

“At the minute, Chief, I don’t know what else to tell you,” King told her. “We’ve gotta hope. It’s all we have.”

“And what about the Ditaron for the core?” Gunn asked.

“I know as much as you. My gut tells me we can find something on the other side of that nebula. Gut instinct and hope. That’s what we got.”

The Chief lowered her head. “I know.”

The lights changed to red around them. The emergency klaxons blared.

“Captain King to the bridge! Captain King to the bridge!” issued from the speakers.

She walked to the comm. panel. “Bridge this is the Captain. What is it?”

“Unidentified vessel. Closing fast.”

“I’m on my way,” King said and left the room at a run.

*

“Report,” she said as she took the command chair.

“Closing in off the stern,” Banks said. He changed the front screen from a view of the nebula to the rear of the ship. The unidentified vessel fast approached the back end of the Defiant. It was a wide, angular craft about the same size of the Union ship.

“Readings?” she asked Chang.

“They’re masking all emissions and energy signatures,” Chang said. “I’m getting nothing.”

Commander Greene arrived on the bridge.

“Do you think they’re hostile?” Banks asked.

“Given the fact they’re coming up on us fast, and blocking all attempts to read them? I’d say so,” King said. “Ready all tubes. Target the main batteries and activate the hull plating.”

“You expecting a fight?” Greene asked her.

On the viewscreen, the front of the alien ship flashed bright green. A single ball of sparkling green light shot away from it and hit the Defiant’s aft. The ship shook around them.

“Silly question,” Greene said.

“All hands! Battle stations!” Jessica yelled and buckled up.

2.

Lights flickered. The Defiant reeled from yet another direct hit from the alien vessel.

“Aft quarter taking a hit,” Chang said. She winced as the ship shuddered. “Pressure loss on deck six. Repair crew attending.”

“Keep on it. Put people where you need them,” King said.

“Perhaps I should go and help,” Commander Greene offered.

Jessica’s mind flashed back to Captain Singh lying on the deck of munitions, breathing his last. She pushed it away. “Yeah. Be careful. Ensign Boi, cover the Commander’s station. Rayne, I want you to cover navigation and communications for the minute.”

On the viewscreen, the alien ship swung back around to face them. The nebula before them grew closer and closer, filling every corner of the display.

“Fire tube one,” King ordered.

“Bird away,” Boi said. The warhead spun away from the Defiant, shimmering as it ploughed into the enemy. A flash and then an explosion at the front of the ship. “Direct hit.”

“She’s not slowing,” Chang said.

“Firing all batteries,” Boi said.

“Banks, get us into that nebula,” King said.

The helmsman shook his head. “We’re quite a way off yet, Captain.”

Jessica bit her lip as she weighed her options.

“Rayne, set the Jump Drive for a twenty second burst ahead. That should give us a head start.”

Chang spun about in her seat. “Captain, we don’t know the composition of that nebula. If we miscalculate and jump right into it, we could -“

“I’m aware of the risk,” King snapped. “Just do it.”

Another direct hit from the enemy. An alarm sounded somewhere, then it was silenced. Below decks there was a barely perceptible whine as the Drive charged.

“Ready …” Rayne said.

“Do it.”

The familiar shift sensation pinned her back into the command chair as the space in front of the Defiant shrank back for a second, and the Union vessel Jumped toward the nebula. The guess was just right. They were several minutes away from the edge of the pearlescent cloud.

“It worked,” Chang said, relief in her voice.

Jessica smirked. “You sound surprised, Lieutenant. Banks, get us inside the nebula. Fast.”

“Aye,” Banks said.

“We’re going to hit turbulence when we enter that cloud,” Rayne said.

“Understood,” King said. “Compensate with dampeners and redirect emergency power to the forward plating.”

“Enemy vessel closing,” Chang reported.

“Rear view,” King said.

The screen changed back to the stern. The other ship closed the gap between them.

“Whatever it has for engines, they’re better than anything we’ve got,” Banks noted.

“Slow and steady wins the race,” King said. “Boi, fire the aft tubes. All of them. Now.”

Several warheads flew away from the back of the Defiant, impacting the alien ship in four explosions, one after another.

“Excellent,” King said. “That’ll give them something to think about. Switch to front view. How long until the nebula?”

Before Banks could answer the Defiant shivered, as if it had sailed into an icy cold sea.

“Captain -” Rayne said.

“Ensign?”

Olivia Rayne strained to hear through the comm. unit on her ear. “They’re contacting us. Audio only. The computer is working to translate.”

“We are now completely enveloped by the nebula,” Chang said. “Minor interference to sensors.”

Captain King crossed her arms. “Helm. Maintain speed and correct our course, five degrees to starboard every minute.”

“Aye,” Banks replied.

“I got it,” Rayne said.

“Go on …”

“They say to surrender … while we still have the chance,” Rayne looked up, her eyes full of worry.

Jessica nodded. “Put this into the computer to translate: Go screw yourself. Then send it. End transmission.”

Everyone chuckled. Despite their hunger, and the fact that Defiant was under attack from a superior vessel commanded by hostile aliens … they couldn’t help but laugh.

“It’s sent,” Rayne said.

An explosion rocked the ship. Jessica gripped the sides of her chair reflexively.

“And there’s our response.”

3.

“Banks, execute corkscrew manoeuvre. Ensign Boi, hold your fire for the moment.”

Lieutenant Banks did as he was told. On the screen the hazy form of the enemy still followed them. An unrelenting shadow in the mist.

“I wonder why they’re doing it. They’re obviously more advanced …” Chang said.

“It’s because we won’t stop, so nor will they,” Jessica said.

“But why attack us in the first place? No questions. No introductions. Just hostility.”

King shrugged. “I wish I could tell you lieutenant.”

Although it bugs me too, she thought. They don’t know us. We’re completely alien to them, and yet they attack us on sight.

“Gaining some distance,” Banks said.

“We may be shielded by the charged particles within the nebula itself. Perhaps it’s clouding their sensor readings,” Chang explained.

“Stop corkscrew, and correct our course. Aim for the other side of this nebula, lieutenant.”

*

Commander Greene moved aside for several crew members to make their way off the deck. “Get to your stations. Help where you can,” he told them.

“All clear,” Lieutenant Rourke said.

“Every compartment checked?” Greene asked.

Pressure steadily fell to dangerous levels. Enemy fire had pierced the hull outside, but there just wasn’t time to locate the hole and patch it. Not with the Defiant bucking like a bronco beneath them.

“Yes sir,” Rourke said.

“Then seal the deck. We can deal with the hull breach later,” Greene told him.

“Do it,” Rourke told two officers. Greene and Rourke stepped back and watched as the two men pressure sealed the deck. They activated the environmental controls for the deck from a panel on the wall to bleed out the remaining air. No point wasting it to the dead vacuum of space.

“Right, boys, on to the next,” Greene said and led the way.

*

“Visual on the other ship?” King asked.

“On screen now,” Chang said. The viewscreen changed to show the enemy vessel receding behind them into the milky white haze of the nebula. “They’re falling back.”

As Jessica watched the ship disappeared completely.

“Can we maintain sensor contact?”

Chang shook her head. “Too much interference. But it does work both ways.”

“Understood. Banks, continue on to the other side of the cloud. Maintain present speed. Work with Rayne to follow the star chart of this area. Ensign Boi, keep your eyes peeled,” she ordered.

King opened a direct channel to Commander Greene. “Del? How’s it going?”

“Just sealing compartment four of deck seven now, Captain,” Greene answered.

“Very well. We can deal with the problem areas later,” King said.

“My thoughts exactly.”

Just keep our people safe, Jessica thought.

“Uh … Captain?” Banks said.

Jessica looked toward the viewscreen. The enemy were right in front of them.

“Firing all batteries!” Boi yelled, his fingers flying over the controls.

The enemy vessel launched a barrage of green fireballs at the Defiant.

“Helm, hard to port!” Jessica shouted. Banks threw the Defiant into a sudden lurch to the left. She gripped the sides of her chair so hard she felt her knuckles pop.

“Brace for impact!” Chang called over the sudden scream of the collision alarm.

There was a loud flash, an eruption of sound. Jessica closed her eyes.

4.

Never a break, Jessica thought. The bridge looked to be still intact. Thank God we’re still here.

“Hull plating down,” Chang said, running her hands through her hair. She looked frazzled. “Absorbed approximately seventy percent of the blast.”

“I’m packing quite a wallop, but she’s not slowing down,” Boi reported. He continued to fire. King wasn’t sure he’d stopped even for the explosion.

“Power?” King asked.

“Unaffected,” Chang said. “But it won’t stay that way we keep taking hits like that.”

“Lieutenant Banks, bring us about. Collision course,” King ordered.

“Wha – ?” he half-asked as he turned to look at her.

“Do it!”

He did as he was told. The Defiant turned.

“Ensign Boi. Lock and load all tubes. Fire on my command,” King said.

She unbuckled herself, got up and stood behind Banks. The Defiant turned until the enemy came into view. They rushed to meet the other ship.

Now they’re wondering what I’m up to, she thought.

“Captain -” Banks said, cringing in his seat as they looked certain to plough straight into the hulk of gleaming metal.

“Drop our nose! Evasive action! Take us down,” she ordered. “Boi, fire all tubes.”

“Aye sir!” Banks yelled back. He threw the Defiant into a sudden nose dive. Jessica’s feet lifted from the deck. Her grip hardened on the back of Bank’s chair.

“Firing,” Boi said.

The Defiant shook from the shockwaves behind them. Chang switched to show the aft of the ship. The enemy vessel had suffered serious damage this time. Half of its front end had been blown away, hull fragments and debris drifting away from it like shattered teeth from a good, solid fist.

“Jesus!” Banks said as he glanced up at the screen. He held his chest. “For a minute there …”

“Get us out of here,” Jessica said, ignoring him. Up on the screen the other ship turned to follow them.

She strapped herself back into the captain’s chair.

“We only hit them good. Any other ship would’ve been destroyed by a hit like that,” she said.

“Enemy vessel closing,” Chang said, deflated.

“Understood,” Jessica said. She considered her next move.

“Oh.”

She turned to Chang. “What is it?”

The lieutenant looked up from her screens. “Sensors show three smaller ships headed our way.”

“Forward viewer.” The screen showed three ships emerge from the nebula ahead of them and tear past. “Track them.”

The camera changed in sequence. The three ships raced towards the larger alien vessel and bombarded it with what looked like energy bombs. With each hit the other ship visibly weakened. The attack went on for several moments, and then it started to turn away.

“Licking its wounds,” Jessica said under her breath.

She took a deep breath. The three ships sped after the bigger ship, and then returned seconds later to hold formation just behind the Defiant.

“We’re being hailed,” Rayne reported.

Jessica licked her lips. Could anything more happen today?

“Yes?”

Ensign Rayne waited for the computer to translate. Then she smiled. “They simply say, ‘Hello.’”

5.

“They want us to follow them to their home planet. They’re offering assistance,” Rayne said.

King weighed her options. They were few. She had no reason not to trust them, considering what they’d done.

“Request coordinates. Banks, follow that lead ship,” she said.

Olivia listened for a reply, then waited for the computer to crunch it into something she could understand. “Captain, they would also like to come aboard.”

Eyes turned to Jessica.

“Inform them of our atmospheric composition,” she said.

Olivia did. It was a close match to what they breathed themselves.

“They’d like to dock along our port side,” Rayne told her. “Their connector is adaptive. They’re confident it will fit our own.”

“Tell them yes. Do it. Banks, slow and keep her steady,” Jessica ordered. She hit a button. “Del, where are you?”

The reply took a moment. “Deck eight.”

“Meet me in the port docking chamber. Bring an armed guard. I’ll explain when you get there.”

*

A thud against the hull, and then the hiss of air pressures equalizing. Captain King and her first officer stood in front of three armed security officers awaiting their alien visitors.

“Weird. Why help us like that? Don’t you think they’re over-friendly?” Greene asked her. He’d thrown his uniform back on in a haste, and hadn’t yet got a chance to wipe the dirt from his brow.

“I don’t know. But they must have a reason. There’s more than simple charity going on here, of that I’m certain,” King said.

The doors started to beep.

“Bloody strange if you ask me …” Greene said.

Jessica nudged him in the ribs. “Here they come. Best behaviour.”

The doors parted, revealing a single alien. Bright purple and masculine in appearance. He had a muscular frame, two arms and legs, and was humanoid save for the feline characteristics of his face. The whiskers finished the look.

In its hand was a simple metal hoop.

King raised her hand. “Greetings.”

The alien nodded. “And to you. May I come aboard?” it said, in perfect English.

She glanced at Greene. “Please,” King said.

He crossed the threshold from his own ship. “Thank you.”

“Welcome to the Defiant. I am Captain Jessica King. This is my first officer, Commander Greene,” she said.

“I am Praror,” the alien said. “Captain of the Ishana.”

Jessica took a step forward. “In our culture it’s customary to shake hands. Will you permit me?”

Praror smiled. It reminded Jessica of how a cat she’d had when she was a young girl used to yawn. “Certainly.”

They shook hands. Jessica noted that he possessed three fingers and one thumb. And his purple hand was covered in a fine, silky fur.

He then shook hands with Commander Greene. With that done, the Commander asked him what the hoop was.

“It is a translation device. This is a portable model. On our ships, we have these everywhere. They’re essential for relations with other species. But for now this mobile option will do.”

“Incredible,” Greene said.

Better than what we have, Jessica thought.

“If you’ll accompany me, we’ll go somewhere we can talk,” she said.

6.

Praror sipped a glass of water.

“Sorry we can’t offer you something more. We’re quite low on supplies,” Jessica explained. “I wasn’t sure you’d like tea or coffee.”

“I do not know these things, but water will be fine. I’m sure that when we reach Krinu we can re-supply your vessel, Captain,” Praror said.

Greene leaned forward. “Do you know of a material called Ditaron?”

He accessed a screen and showed the molecular composition of it to Praror.

The alien shook his head. “No but I’m certain we have something like it.”

“We could use some. And we’d be happy to trade,” Jessica said.

“I’m sure we can provide you with all that you need, Captain,” Praror assured her.

“So, Krinu. Is that your homeworld?” Greene asked.

“Yes. Not far from here. That was how we detected your presence in the sector … and your attacker.”

“Who are they?” King asked.

“A species called the Naxor. An insectoid race of beings. We have been at war with them for over two centuries,” Praror said.

“I see,” Jessica said.

“And, sadly, it is a war we are steadily losing …” Praror said with a hint of sadness and regret in his voice. He sipped from the water again.

“How come?” Greene asked.

“They outnumber us. Their ships are bigger, more powerful. Our defences have been weakened from continuous attacks. The outer worlds of our system have fallen to the Naxor invasion. Now we fight to hold onto what is left. We’re a strong, proud race, Captain. But there are limits to how much even we can take.”

“Sounds familiar,” Greene said and looked at Jessica.

She nodded. “It does. Well, you’ve helped us. Anything we can do in return, we will do.”

Praror smiled. “Thank you. We may indeed ask for your help. But first we must go to my world and get your ship repaired. I’m sure we can manage some supplies as well.”

“I’d be pleased to call you our first ally in this galaxy,” King said.

“And on behalf of my race, I accept,” Praror said. This time he offered to shake her hand. They shook. “Forgive me, Captain, but what is your story?”

“We are not from this galaxy,” Jessica said.

“How did you come to be so far from home?” Praror asked.

King explained to him all that had happened. About Sepix, and their fall through the singularity. And the discovery of Captain Nowlan, and General Carn. The destruction of Sepix’s ship, and their experience on an alien planet where they’d discovered ancient technology. Praror’s eyes widened at the mention of the black pyramid, but he didn’t comment on it.

Yet.

“You have been through a lot,” Praror told her.

“Well, we -“

“Captain, this is the bridge.”

“Excuse me,” Jessica said. She got up and accessed the comm. panel.

“Yes?”

“We’re approaching the planet, Captain,” Banks told her.

“I’m on my way.”

*

Captain King, Commander Greene, and Praror arrived on the bridge in time to see the planet Krinu come into view. Two suns beat down on a huge planet, lush and green.

The bridge crew turned to look at the purple alien until they caught the eye of the Captain and went back to what they were doing.

“Big planet,” Greene noted.

“About the size of Jupiter,” Chang said. “Or Calamar. Tropical rainforest environment, Captain.”

As King watched the screen she noted a series of small white moons circling the massive world.

“Ma’am, the other ship is requesting we return their Captain. They’re about to uncouple the docking arm,” Rayne reported.

King looked to Praror.

“Inform them I will stay aboard the Defiant. If you will permit me,” he said.

“Of course. Relay the message, Ensign. Tell them to undock as soon as they’re ready,” Jessica said. “Lieutenant Banks, follow their lead.”

“Standard orbit?” Banks asked.

The Captain deferred to Praror. “We have an orbital station on the other side of the planet. We’ll dock there.”

King nodded. “Banks, standard docking procedure.”

7.

Praror hadn’t exaggerated when he said the rings were incorporated into everything. King could see them in the walls of the station the moment she stepped onto the deck.

“Is our air suitable for you, Captain?” Praror asked her.

“More or less the same composition as ours, in fact,” she said.

“Good. Ah, here they come,” Praror said. A group of Krinuans approached from another airlock down the hall. The one in front seemed to be a leader of some kind, he wore a tall headdress and had long trailing robes flecked with gold.

“Your Excellency,” Praror said. He bowed, and Jessica did the same.

“Rise, friend Praror,” the other Krinuan said.

“This is Captain Jessica King,” Praror said. “Captain King, this is Overseer Oblix.”

“A pleasure to meet you,” King said.

“Welcome to Krinu,” Oblix said.

He turned and started to walk in the opposite direction. It was made clear by the rest of his entourage that Jessica was meant to walk beside him and talk. Praror followed behind them both.

“Tell me, what species are you?” the Overseer asked.

“Human,” King said. “We’re not from this galaxy.”

The Krinuans eyebrows rose in surprise. “Oh.”

She proceeded to relate the same story she’d told Praror. The Overseer listened, then when she was finished he nodded. “And so you come seeking refuge.”

“In a way, we do. My ship is in desperate need of supplies. And we could use some help in repairs. We had quite a run-in with that Naxor ship.”

Oblix drew himself to his full height. “Any enemy of the Naxor are our ally. We will help you in any way we can.”

She bowed her head. “Thank you, Lord Overseer.”

“I’d be happy to liaise with the Captain in this matter, Your Excellency,” Praror offered.

“Indeed. See to it that the Captain is provided with whatever she needs,” Oblix said.

“Yes sir,” Praror said.

“We shall have refreshments and talk, Captain. But first you might be interested to see something. I heard mention of a blank mountain or pyramid, in your tale?”

King cocked her head to one side. “Yes?”

“Then you will find this most … fascinating,” the Overseer said with a smile.

*

“You have many of these stations?” King asked him as they rode a shuttle on a track to their intended destination. The shuttle was constructed entirely from glass, with only the very bottom made from some kind of metal. They passed through layer after layer of the station.

“This is our twenty-fourth and our largest. Eventually we will have hundreds in orbit, each one linked to the other like a -“

“- necklace,” she cut in.

The Overseer bowed his head. “Indeed. You have something like it where you come from?”

“Yes. Our homeworld, a planet called Earth, once had a necklace of stations. Ours was more like a ring, though. And it was partially destroyed by an errant meteor a couple of centuries after completion. But they rebuilt it,” she said.

“We have several systems in place to prevent such an accident,” the Overseer said. “Ah, here we are.”

The shuttle slowed and the doors opened. They walked along a long corridor, to a circular room at the end. It was dark in there.

“What is this?” Jessica asked.

“A Hall of Knowing,” Praror offered her. All of our space stations have them. And every major city on the surface. It has … I don’t know if you’ll understand the word. Meaning.”

“I think I know what you mean. Like a religious connection.”

“Yes. Exactly,” Praror said.

Oblix strode forward to a central pillar of glossy black material and pressed his hand against it. Immediately the room filled with swirling yellow light. It roiled like thick smoke. Jessica stepped back from surprise.

“It’s all right Captain. Just a projection,” Praror assured her.

The light coalesced to show the surface of a planet. Thick jungle cut by little streams and minor rivers.

“Our world. A million years ago,” Overseer Oblix said.

Two bright suns burned in the sky, and then Jessica noticed one of them became momentarily eclipsed by something passing across its face. She watched as an opaque pyramid shape descended through the light cloud layer and came to settle in the jungle. As it hit the ground, flocks of birds took flight. The trees rocked back and forth.

“This recording was from the pyramid itself. We breached the inside about a thousand years ago. Much of our society’s technology is derived from those first discoveries,” the Overseer said.

“You still have access to it now?” Jessica asked him.

“Well, this is where it gets interesting,” Praror said.

“This recording is from remote sensors placed around the pyramid. It happened fifty years ago,” the Overseer said.

The light changed around them to show the black mountain from farther away. Jessica watched for what seemed an age. Nothing happened.

“I don’t see -” she started to say and then the pyramid simply vanished. It stirred the jungle, like a pocket of air closing.

“We have worshipped this structure since the dawn of time. The sudden loss of it shook our society to its very core. The people were assured that every effort would be made to locate the pyramid, and to understand how and why it disappeared,” Oblix said. “However we are no further ahead in our investigations. It is perhaps the greatest mystery of our people.”

“I can understand that,” she said. “So it just vanished into thin air. Did it exhibit the same sort of behaviour as the one I described?”

“Yes. It nurtured our people. Allowed them to advance. And then it left us,” Praror said.

“Well perhaps the data on board Defiant will help you shed some light on it. I have two crew members in particular who may be able to help,” King said.

“And you say you left a member of your crew behind to study the other pyramid?” Oblix asked.

Jessica nodded. “Yes. Well, she volunteered. We haven’t made contact with her yet though.”

They started to file back out of the room. “We use these Halls of Knowing to reflect on the deepest mysteries of our universe. And to learn. Again, the technology and concept has its basis in what we have learned from the black mountain,” Praror said.

Not for the first time she wondered what kind of intelligence would build such things, then leave them on different planets. They were obviously capable of immense power. And to simply vanish into thin air like that. It was hard to fathom the intentions of the pyramids’ builders’.

They got back into the shuttle. “Where are we off to now?” she whispered Praror.

“The Overseer would like to show you the rest of the station. He’s quite proud of it, you know,” Praror whispered back.

“Ah,” Jessica said with a smile. Still her thoughts were on what she’d seen.

It infuriated her how the secret of the black pyramid kept presenting itself, and yet for every question raised there were no answers. She hoped that by having Rayne and Chang work together with the Krinuans they might get some answers.

But it was only a slim hope.

“Off to the hydroponics level,” Oblix said with visible relish.

Jessica looked at Praror. The Krinuan Captain just rolled his deep purple eyes.

8.

By the following afternoon the engineering section was a hive of activity. Krinuans buzzed back and forth, assisting the crew of the Defiant with every repair.

Soon she’ll look newer than new, Gunn thought.

Praror showed the Chief a holographic schematic. “This is what I propose. It’s the closest thing we have to a compatible power source.”

Gunn looked it over. “It can work. What does it run on?”

“I can give you the composition for it later. We don’t share your species’ habit of naming everything. It is what it is.”

The Chief chuckled. “Okay, so what is it?”

“An ore particular to our planet. It is renewable.”

“Renewable? How?” Gunn asked.

“Easily. My people will explain the process to you. Besides, we will provide enough spare stock you will never run out anyway.”

Gunn turned back to the plans. “Don’t know, the old girl does a lot of miles.”

*

“Ah, you’re a life saver.”

Captain King took the cup of coffee and sniffed it.

“Don’t ask me where I got it from. Just make the most of it. There’s not much more,” Commander Greene said.

King offered him a seat in her quarters. She sat back down herself. She’d been taking a quiet lunch. “Do you want half of this sandwich?”

“Yeah, don’t mind if I do.”

Greene took a bite straight away.

“We’re doing well,” King said. She sipped her coffee.

Greene swallowed. “Yeah. We’ve landed on our feet, that’s for sure.”

“What’s this I hear about an energy shield?” King asked.

“Well, apparently this Praror’s chatting about the new energy source with the Chief, and he happens to mention an energy shield. So of course, you know what she’s like. The Chief jumps in on it,” Greene explained. “She reckons with his help she can have it up and running in five days.”

“God knows we could do with it,” Jessica said. “The amount of action we’ve seen lately.”

“There was one condition …” Greene said.

“Oh?”

“Praror wants to fly one of our fighters. He spotted them on the tour we gave him.”

“Well, I’m not sure we can let him just take one out for a test run, Del …” Jessica said with a chuckle.

“I know, I know. I asked Hawk if he’d take him out later today. He said he’d be more than happy to,” Greene said.

“And where are we on the re-supply?” she asked.

“It’s going well. Chef’s gonna have to be inventive with some of it, but it beats starving.”

“True. Listen, I was thinking of throwing some kind of dinner or something, you know, just to say thanks,” Jessica said.

“We could do that. When were you thinking?”

“Tomorrow night. The Overseer, Praror, and whoever else they want to bring,” she said.

Greene nodded. “Good idea.”

Jessica sipped her coffee. She looked away out the view port. “You know, we just run from one conflict to another. I thought we were over the worst of it …”

“We’re in a good place now,” Greene said. “I’m thankful for that much.”

“But what about afterward? We only have a partial star chart of the surrounding space. Admittedly our new friends have helped broaden our database somewhat. But facts are facts. We’re a long way from home, Del. And we’ve got no direction.”

The Commander sat forward. “When I was a kid, my Dad would take me camping. Right out in the woods. He’d never use a compass or anything. I asked him one day how he knew what direction to take. You know what he said?”

Jessica shrugged. “Go on.”

“He said, ‘Sometimes you just know’. And I believe that. I believe we’ll know where we’re going when we get there,” Greene said.

“So you’re saying we should just … keep heading straight and hope something comes up?” King asked.

Greene smirked. “Something like that.”

“Hmm …” she said. Then she thought, If only it were that easy.

*

Rayne and Chang headed back to the Defiant, carrying their cases and equipment. In their hours spent with the Krinuans they’d learned a lot. But not enough to give them firm answers as to why the pyramids existed in the first place, where they came from, where the pyramid from the surface of Krinu had gone to. Or why.

“Long day,” Chang said.

“Yeah,” Rayne said. She wrestled with the shoulder strap of a particularly heavy case as they stepped into the airlock to their own ship. “And I don’t really feel like we got anywhere either.”

They waited for the decontamination jets to wash over them.

“We won’t know until we go through all the data,” Chang yelled over the scream of the jets.

“True.”

The Defiant was quiet. After dropping off their things at the science lab they decided to call it a night. Chang walked Rayne to her quarters.

“Tomorrow morning?” Olivia asked.

“Bright and early,” Chang said with a smile.

“It’s nice to get off the ship once in a while,” Rayne said.

Chang looked down, her hands in her pockets. Then she looked back up, her eyes catching Olivia’s. “And with good company too.”

Olivia blushed. “Good night Lisa.”

“Night,” Chang said and waited for Rayne to go into her quarters. Then she walked to her own. They’d started to connect in their time spent together. First on different tasks and projects. Now working together again with Krinuans. Some playful flirting from her in Olivia’s direction had been reciprocated, something that had surprised her. As far as she’d known, Olivia wasn’t attracted to women. But apparently she was.

Though cautious to step into anything too fast, Lisa could feel the familiar stir in her gut that told her something was happening between them. And she could see in Olivia’s face that she felt that too.

Time would tell.

*

“The Captain said yuh wanted to go for a spin?” Hawk said.

“Yes. We have never built such small ships,” Praror told him. He ran his hand along the edges of Speedy.

“Well, she may be small pal, but she’s got it where it counts,” Hawk quipped.

“And fast?” the Krinuan’s eyes lit up.

Hawk laughed. “Fast? Ain’t you heard of ‘Speedy’? Damn …” he said. “She’s the only ship that made the Kezzellian Run in less than two light hours! Fast? Sheesh …”

Praror cocked his head to one side. “I don’t follow.”

Hawk handed Praror a helmet with a chuckle. “Come on bud let’s take her out.”

“Gladly,” the Krinuan grinned, eager to get on.

They climbed in. Hawk threw switches and primed the engines. The ship rumbled to life beneath them. “Hold on tight, boss,” he said.

9.

“Quite a spread!” Greene said. He went to grab a vol-au-vent and Chef slapped his hand.

“They are for guests,” he scolded.

The Commander looked to Captain King. “You heard him, Del. They’re for our distinguished guests.”

Greene rolled his eyes.

She laid a hand on his shoulder. “Don’t worry. We’ll all eat together the minute they get here. I wanted them to taste some of our favourites from home. There’s party food, chilli, Italian, all sorts. Even a couple from that colony on Lynaka VI.”

“Ah yeah, I went there once. A whole community dedicated to fine cuisine …” Greene said, a dreamy look on his face.

With all of her senior staff present, it felt like a real gathering. She’d even let the regular bridge crew have the night off and let their hair down. Hawk was in a corner, his arm around Selena Walker as he chatted with Lieutenant Banks. Chang and Rayne were laughing and joking. Ensign Boi seemed to be in deep conversation with Master-at-Arms Eisenhower about something or other.

My family, Jessica thought.

The doors to the reception hall opened and a crowd of Krinuans rolled in, all of them dressed in bright sparkly clothes that King took to be their formal attire. At the head of them were Overseer Oblix, and Captain Praror.

“Welcome, Overseer,” King said. “And welcome fellow Krinuans.”

“We’re honoured to attend this great feast,” Oblix said as he looked about.

King laughed. “Well, we wouldn’t have done it without your supplies, Overseer, so it’s we who are honoured.”

The Overseer bowed his head in thanks.

“Drinks are served in the far corner. The bartender will fix you whatever you’d like to try. And of course, the foods on offer are a selection from our own culture.”

The Overseer inhaled deeply. “Smells great, Captain!”

The bartender came over, right on cue, carrying a large bottle of champagne.

“Thank you,” Jessica said. She unwrapped the foil from the top. “This is from my own personal store. I was saving it for a special occasion. Right now might be the right time to open this I think. Here’s to us everyone.”

She popped the cork, sending it flying through the air. The bubbly spewed up over her hand. And of course she took the customary first drink, straight from the bottle.

Praror wandered over carrying an empty glass. “May I?”

King nodded and poured him a drink. The Krinuan took a sip. His face wrinkled for a moment, then he smiled. “Much like something I tasted once at a wedding.”

“We get through plenty of this when we get married,” she said.

“Captain, I trust that your experience in the Hall of Knowing has not left you upset?” Praror asked her.

She shrugged. “No. Perplexed, maybe. I have a lot of questions. We all do.”

“Well, you have our data now, and we have yours. I’m confident we can get some answers,” Praror said, “together.”

“Something I can toast to,” Jessica said and clinked her bottle against his glass.

“In fact I had something to ask you,” Praror said.

“Yes?” Jessica set the bottle down on a nearby table so that people could help themselves.

“We have a ship leaving for a short cruise. Training purposes. But we’re shorthanded. Rather than pull crew from any vessel, I wondered if you’d like a couple of your own people to go along for the ride. It might help in getting to grips with the energy shield technology we’ve installed on the Defiant,” Praror offered.

“That sounds exciting. I’m sure there’ll be takers,” King said.

“Well, we have four spaces. If you could let me know in the next twelve hours …”

She shook his hand. “It’s a deal, Captain,” she said.

Praror left her to catch up with his own people. Jessica felt a bump against her back.

“Ah, Del, just the man I was about to see …” she said.

“Oh God, that always means trouble,” Greene said.

She told him about Praror’s offer.

“I intend for you to go. It’ll be good for you,” Jessica said. “I think Banks, Ensign Boi … and one other …”

“The Chief?” Greene asked.

King shook her head. “Nope. Not the Chief. She’s too essential. This old bucket of bolts would shake apart without her down in the engine room, holding her together.”

“What about Salno? Security. He might learn from the Krinuans.”

“Good choice,” King said. “So it’s settled. I won’t have to let him know till tomorrow. That’ll give you a chance to sober up.”

Greene smirked. “What makes you think I’m drunk?”

“You’re not, but you’re getting there,” King said. She crossed her arms.

“Captain, it’s like the old saying, it’s not about the destination. It’s the journey. It’s all about what it took to get there,” Greene said with a hearty laugh at the end to punctuate it.

“Well happy trucking, Del,” Jessica said.

Everyone mingled. Plates of food were loaded, drinks flowed. Greene had roped in a couple of the crew to play some classic tunes from Earth history. The Krinuans were attempting to dance as far as everyone could tell.

Jessica took a seat at the edge of the room and picked from some tapas on a plate. Hawk came and sat next to her.

“How ya doin’?” he asked her.

She noted the fresh glass of beer. “Sinking a few of those, aren’t you?”

“Cap,” he said with mock surprise. “It’s only my tenth!”

She blew her hand in front of her face. “Phew, I can tell!”

Hawk chuckled and looked around the room. “Great party. Nice to meet an alien race that don’t wanna shoot us to bits for a change.”

“I hear you on that,” King said. “By the way, how did Praror like his little flying lesson?”

Hawk took a long drink, then licked the foam from his top lip. “Exhilarating. That’s how he described it.”

The tune changed to something they were all familiar with. An old dance number.

“Care for a boogie, sir? I think I’ve worn Selena out …”

Jessica’s face had become serious.

“Jessica?” Hawk asked her, concerned.

She looked up at him and managed a smile. “No, I’m good, Captain. Go on, enjoy yourself.”

“Well if you’re sure …”

She nodded. Forced out another smile. Hawk walked away, confused at her sudden change in attitude.

The truth was she would’ve been more than happy to get up there and have a dance. But she only felt the weight of dread in her stomach, heavy as a stone.

A bead of sweat trickled down the back of her neck.

I don’t know how I’m going to get up, she thought in panic. I can’t feel my feet.

*

“You wanted to see me?” Dr. Clayton asked.

Jessica looked up and down the corridor then ushered him inside.

Clayton entered. “Why the skulduggery, Captain?”

The door shut behind them. Jessica stood with her hands over her mouth, as she tried to find the words to say what she had to say.

“It’s started.”

Clayton’s eyes grew wide. “Tell me.”

“Numbness in my feet. It started this evening at the party. All of a sudden, I couldn’t feel my feet,” she said, her voice trembling.

“Jessica …” Clayton said. He stepped forward, perhaps to take the Captain in his arms. But she sat down, lost in her own fears.

“I couldn’t stand. I was afraid I might fall down or something. Collapse in front of my crew,” she said. Her eyes were wet.

“It’s okay. Really. I can give you something for this. It will alleviate the symptoms a bit,” Clayton reassured her. “What you’re experiencing is a minor thing.”

“I hope so,” she said.

“You can expect this. Loss of sensation. Aches and pains. All these types of things,” Clayton said.

He walked to the door.

“I’ll go and fetch you some medication now, and I’ll bring it straight back. You did the right thing to tell me straight away.”

He left.

Alone in her quarters Jessica broke down. She sobbed into her hands.

It’s one thing to be out here, so far away from everything, she thought. But it’s something else to go through this and not be able to tell anyone. I just can’t take the risk.

The loss of sensation in her feet was maddening. It made her want to writhe around on the floor, screaming for it to come back.

He’ll come back in a minute. Better pull yourself together.

She went to the bathroom and splashed her face with cold water. Looked in the mirror.

“Dad …” she whispered and closed her eyes. It all flooded back.

*

Her voice cracked as she spoke. “Please don’t go, please.”

Captain Singh shook his head slowly. Smiled. “Jess … We each have our time. My own is at an end …”

“No …” she managed to say.

Singh reached up, stroked the side of her face. “Now it is your turn to do as much as you can with the time you have …”

He smiled again, then his eyes seemed focus on something far away. The light in them faded. Singh’s hand fell away from hers and the sound of his last breath issued from between his lips.

“No …”

She cradled him in her arms.

*

Now she wondered what he really meant by time you have. He’d known that she was his daughter, and he’d known that he had MS.

*

Jessica searched Clayton’s face for what was to come next. For the truth that lurked behind his sad eyes.

“He told me he had a daughter. But it was a secret. She didn’t know. He asked me to run a check on her, see if she might be susceptible to contracting the disease at some stage. I told him I needed a name,” Clayton said. He squeezed her hands. “He told me it was you, Jessica. You were his daughter.”

She looked away, suddenly unable to process what he was telling her.

We can be your family …

I don’t have what it takes …

With my help you will have. If you’ll trust me …

Now she understood. He wasn’t trying to be her Father – he was her Father. And that was why it had pained him so to see her careening off into chaos. That was why he’d pulled her back. Her own singularity, making sure she didn’t stray too far so that he could keep a close and careful watch on her.

*

She fought the memory away. Thinking about it burned like driving a red hot poker into a still-open wound. The door to her quarters opened. Clayton stood in the shaft of light from the corridor outside with a box in his hand.

“I’ll, uh, leave these here on the table. Follow the instructions. Take them right away. And come see me in the morning when you’ve had some sleep,” he said. “I want to run further tests.”

“Sure, Doctor.”

“Captain, you’re sure you don’t want to at least tell the Commander about your situation?” Clayton asked her.

“There is no situation. We’re dealing with it. Good night, Doctor,” King said sternly.

Clayton turned and left. The door closed again. Jessica looked back at the mirror, at the scared woman in the reflection. She drew a beaker of water, went to the table and quickly read the instructions. Then she down two tablets with a mouthful of water.

The memory came back to her, like the wake from a passing ship.

Now it is your turn to do as much as you can with the time you have.

“I will …” she said aloud.

10.

“Yo, Chief,” Greene said as the door to her quarters opened. It was dark inside. “Chief?”

He could hardly see anything inside the quarters. Then a shape stirred on the sofa. “Right here, Del.”

“What’re you doing on the sofa?”

The Chief sat up and switched on a dim little light over the rear wall. “I nodded off. You know, I was trying to sleep,” she said.

“Don’t be a misog,” Greene said and took a seat opposite.

Gunn rubbed her eye. Her hair was dishevelled and wild, and she still had her overalls on. A half glass of scotch sat on the coffee table.

The Commander sniffed the glass, then wrinkled his nose. “Rough.”

Gunn smirked. “That’s what I like.”

He rolled his eyes. “Listen, I came here to tell you something.”

“Huh?”

“I didn’t tell you last night because you were really drunk. And obviously you’re not much better now. But I’m going away for a while,” Greene told her.

“What do you mean?” she asked him.

“A Krinuan ship needs a helping hand. Four of us are going to do a little tour of duty, get to grips with their technology, etcetera, etcetera,” Greene told her. “I won’t see you.”

Gunn went to take the glass. “Maybe I do need this.”

The Commander stopped her, his hand over hers. “Don’t be a silly girl.”

Gunn leaned in close. “I’ve not been a girl for a long time, Del.”

“You’re a girl to me,” he said and kissed her. Her mouth tasted of old scotch, sleep, but it was warm and sweet and the kiss lasted a long time. He moved to sit next to her, and she cuddled into him.

“What’s brought all this on?”

Greene shrugged. “Do I need a reason? I think I’m falling for you Chief.”

“You know you’re an old charmer, right?” Gunn asked. She planted another kiss on his lips.

“Don’t have to tell me, Chief,” he said as they parted. “It’s my natural born talent.”

She pushed him away. “Get away with you. I bet you’ve got things to sort already. You don’t need to be here, making me weak at the knees!”

The Commander got up and walked to the door. He turned back at the last moment. “I’ll be thinking of you, Chief.”

“You ever gonna call me by my actual name?” Gunn asked him.

Greene shook his head. “I like calling you Chief. It’s … dominant.”

He left. The door slid shut behind him. The Chief drained the glass of scotch, laid back on the sofa. But she didn’t go back to sleep.

11.

Days later the Defiant started to look like her old self again. The Krinuan technology had been fitted and tested, and the Chief was visibly happier with the state of things.

“Looking good, Chief,” King said. She inspected the new technology. There were still Krinuans aboard, helping where they could.

“I’ve done preliminary tests on all of the new systems. They check out. But the real test will be when we take her out for a test cruise,” Gunn said. “Though our furry friends tell me we’ll be fine.”

King laughed. “You seem to have gotten on well with them,” she said.

“I love ‘em. Completely. I tell ya, if I could replace all my crew -“

An engineer in overalls walked past and threw the Chief a funny look.

“- I’d be in much better shape down here, you know what I’m saying?” Gunn whispered.

“I think so …”

The comm. system crackled into life.

“Captain, I have a direct line from the station,” Rayne reported over the speaker. Jessica walked to a nearby panel and hit a button.

“Yes?”

“A private message, sir,” Rayne said.

She frowned. “I’ll take it in my quarters Ensign.”

King closed the channel.

“Never a quiet moment, huh?” Gunn remarked.

“Story of my life, Chief,” King said as she left the engineering section. “Story of my life.”

*

“I apologise Captain King. It was quicker to contact you this way,” Praror said.

“That’s no problem Captain, how can I help you?” Jessica asked.

“The ship that your crew were on … it seems it’s encountered some trouble. We’ve received a distress signal, and a partial message,” Praror said.

That had her attention. “What kind of trouble?”

“A battle in a nearby system. The Naxor have started an invasion of our sector.”

King swallowed. “And the crew … they’re still alive?”

“Yes. From what we can tell. I’ll play you the message now,” there was a pause before the message played. “ … help. We were attacked by … a Naxor ship … The Commander was hurt but he’s okay … now attempting to fix our weapons … Help … Losing power … Don’t know how much longer we can hold them off … the Naxor are out there … waiting for us …”

King stood. “We’ll leave immediately.”

“And we will go with you. We’re launching a counteroffensive,” Praror said. “I’m heading a team to see the Naxor off.”

“Then you’ll find us right by your side,” Jessica told him and closed the channel.

*

“Report,” she said as she took the command chair.

“All mooring retracted. Air locks sealed. We’re good to go, Captain,” Chang said. “There are over thirty crew still on the station.”

“They’ll have to wait until we come back,” Jessica said. She noted Lieutenant Rogers at Banks’s station.

If we come back, she thought. They’re probably in the safest place …

“Bringing the engines online, Ma’am,” Lieutenant Rogers said.

“Take us out,” King ordered.

The helmsman backed them away from the massive superstructure, then eased them forward. Swarms of Krinuan vessel streamed away from the station around them. Once they had a ship’s length of distance Rogers brought the engines up to full strength, and they burst free into space.

“Coordinates are locked in,” Rayne reported.

“Red alert. Proceed to the coordinates at maximum velocity, but hold formation with the Krinuan ships. Rogers, I want you to ease her in,” King said. “Slowly open her up. Keep in mind we’re testing a lot of these systems.”

“Aye,” he said.

The stars tore past as Rogers brought them up to full speed. The Defiant surged forward.

“All systems operating within tolerances,” Chang reported.

“Engines at maximum,” Rogers said.

She’s doing fine now, she thought. But she’s going to get a rougher test than I counted on.

“Good. Steady as she goes, Lieutenant,” she said. “Steady as she goes.”

PART SIX

FOES

1.

“Chief, how’re we doing down there?” King asked through the comm. system.

“Better than I hoped,” Chief Gunn reported over the speakers. “Our furry friends did a swell job of patching it all together. Can’t fault any of it.”

Jessica nodded. “And the energy shield?”

“Ready for a test run when you are, Ma’am,” Gunn said.

“Standby Chief,” King said and closed the channel. “Chang, how long until we reach the Commander?”

The Lieutenant checked her monitors. “At our current speed, around thirty minutes.”

“Good. We’ll need someone for the weapons station,” King said. She thought it over for a minute. “Put a call out for Lieutenant Jackson.”

Moments later Jackson bounded onto the bridge. He gave Jessica a stiff salute.

“Easy, Lieutenant. Please take the weapons station. Liaise with Lieutenant Chang and have every weapon available ready to go at a moment’s notice.”

“Yes sir!” Jackson said and set about getting his station in order. Jessica watched him with mild curiosity. He’d always had good reports from the night shift. None of them had said anything of him that gave her the impression of an overly-formal Officer.

“Lieutenant Jackson?” King asked.

He spun about. “Yes sir?” he asked, back straight, chest puffed out.

She waved him down. “Just relax will you? You’re making me feel nervous here.”

There was a chuckle from both Rogers and Chang, and Jackson blushed.

“I’ll try … Captain,” he said and went back to what he’d been doing.

King shook her head.

“Ensign Rayne? You will need to be in constant contact with the other Krinuan ships at all times. I don’t want any confusion. No big gaps in knowledge. I want you to ensure that you know what’s going on, and who’s doing it. It’s the only way we’ll be able to work together,” Jessica advised. “Of course, we also need to understand what has happened to the ship Commander Greene and the others are on.”

“Understood, Captain,” Olivia Rayne said. “I’ll make sure there’s no confusion.”

King turned back to Chang. “Advise the Chief that we’re now ready to test the energy shield.”

“Aye sir,” Chang said and contacted the engineering section. She happened to glance over at Rayne and saw Olivia looking at her. They both smiled, a silent reassurance from one another that everything would be all right.

*

“I’ll be increasing power to the shield in increments of ten percent,” Chief Gunn said and closed the comm. channel to the bridge.

Gunn walked back through engineering and directed Ensign Stanton to activate the energy shield. She watched from a terminal as the device was brought online, then gradually fed more and more power. Within minutes it was at a steady fifty percent.

“Push it to the top. But watch your manifolds there, Stanton. You don’t want to blow anything,” the Chief advised.

Stanton nodded and eased the power levels toward a hundred percent.

“Chief, how will handle background energy? Stuff coming back at us?” Lieutenant Belcher asked her.

“I got the Krinuans to attach something like a feedback dampener into it. That’ll handle anything that comes flying back. After all, we’re dealing with pure energy here …” Gunn said.

“Yeah that’s what I thought. A substantial amount of energy feedback could blow the whole system,” Belcher said.

“You’re right,” Chief said. “It could put an end to the whole operation, to be honest.”

Stanton turned to look at her and swallowed.

“But of course it’s all conjecture. Everything will be fine. I feel it in my waters,” Gunn assured him. “So don’t poop your pants just yet, Lieutenant.”

2.

“Energy shield holding. Though we don’t know how much damage it will take, or how long it can last under constant bombardment,” Chang advised.

“Do you expect such a bombardment, Lieutenant?” King asked with a smirk.

Chang grinned. “On this ship, anything’s possible.”

Jessica laughed despite herself.

“Closing in on the battlefield,” Rogers reported from the con.

“Krinuan vessels fanning out into a wider formation,” Chang reported.

King turned to Ensign Rayne. “Patch me through to Praror, please.”

Olivia accessed the communication channels via her console, then nodded to the Captain that she was connected.

“Captain Praror?”

“Greetings, Captain. You see we’ve given each other some room to manoeuvre.”

“Yes. The best strategy?”

“Our own sensors show concentrations of Naxor energy signatures … there is a chance the enemy will already be lying in wait, ready to blow us from the sky.”

“A logical assumption,” King agreed. “For our own part, we will try to bring some muscle from the rear. Our energy shield is still untested.”

“I concur.”

“Praror, do we have an exact location of the stricken ship yet?” King asked.

“I will send it through now,” Praror told her. “If you handle the rescue operation, we can cover the Defiant until she is done.”

“Understood. Best of luck to you all.”

“And to you, dear Captain …”

Rayne closed the channel. Jessica looked around at them all. Rogers looked calm next to Jackson’s contained anxiety. The man sweated profusely. It didn’t make her nervous. She’d seen it before in men who were eager to get to the task at hand.

Highly trained, and extremely capable men and women who were always best at performing in their role. It was when they left the navy, the army, that they faltered. That the limitation of their stoic personalities was truly revealed.

Jackson was one of these capable men. He’d perform admirably for her, of that King had no doubt.

But he was nervous and she could see it; his fingers itching to pull the trigger.

On the forward viewer she could see a scattering of ships, fields of debris, the ghostly exhaust of spent vessels hung like smoky entrails above a rocky planetoid. Praror’s ship remained front and centre, with the other two Krinuan ships out of view to the left and right.

“Combat zone in thirty seconds,” Chang reported.

“Everybody buckle up,” King said. “Red alert. All hands, prepare for battle.”

3.

The Defiant entered the battlefield – or what remained of it. It was more of a debris field, a starship graveyard.

“Slow to one third,” Jessica ordered. She peered forward. “Watch your step, Rogers. A lot of obstructions here.”

“Aye,” Rogers said. “Noted.”

He handled the helm with confidence as he took the Defiant around the giant chunks of broken ship that blocked their path.

“Looks like they destroyed everything in their path,” Chang said.

Jessica folded her arms. “Scan for the stricken vessel. Jackson, be at the ready. The Naxor could have cleared off … or they could be lying in wait.”

“Aye,” Jackson said without looking away from his terminal.

“Praror reports they’ve detected the emergency beacon. He’s sending me the co-ordinates now,” Rayne said. She relayed them to Rogers.

“Best speed to those co-ordinates, Rogers,” King ordered.

The Defiant turned, then the helmsman gave her a brief surge of engine power. She coasted past one particularly large obstacle. The damaged Krinuan ship lay dead ahead, turning in circles like a small toy model on display, hanging on a wire.

“Their starboard engine appears to be operating at half speed, hence their spin. We’ll need to match in order to get a good link-up, or use a shuttle,” Chang advised.

“Agreed,” King said. “Contact Captain Nowlan and ask him for his assistance. We could do with some of his legendary piloting skills on this one.”

There were chuckles all around.

“Captain!” Jackson snapped. He turned in his seat. “Enemy vessels. Closing fast.”

Jessica sighed and nodded at Chang. “Tell him to hurry.”

Lieutenant Jackson’s fingers flew across controls, and Jessica felt the main guns rotating into position. “Batteries activated. Locking in on targets.”

“Chang, the status of our energy shield?” King asked calmly.

“At optimum efficiency,” Chang reported. “And hull plating charged.”

King turned to Jackson. “Lieutenant, hold fire until my order.”

“Understood, Captain,” Jackson said. He licked his top lip.

“Krinuan ships confirm they are bogies,” Rayne said.

On the viewscreen, Greene’s ship turned and turned uncontrollably. To the far right, a dozen ships sped into view. Jessica felt her stomach twist into a knot.

“Captain Nowlan has just left in a shuttle. He’s asking we cover his flight path,” Rayne said, a hand to her ear piece as she relayed his message.

“As if we’d do anything else,” King said. “Okay, Jackson. Let’s show our hand. Fire tubes four through six. Proximity blast.”

The Lieutenant nodded sharp. He threw a switch and three missiles blasted away from the front of the Defiant on a collision course with the enemy ships.

“Krinuan ships are moving to intercept the Naxor,” Chang said.

The warheads blew. A lead Naxor vessel erupted into flame, dipped its nose and turned end over end. The other ships sped around it.

“Follow up with a chaser, Jackson. Tubes seven through nine,” King ordered.

“Aye!”

Three more Duotonic missiles burst from the front end of the Defiant, at the same time Hawk’s shuttle came into view as it raced toward Greene’s ship.

“Keep moving us in closer, Rogers,” King said. “We’ll cover them with the Defiant herself if need be.”

“Yes Captain,” Rogers agreed.

“Captain Nowlan now thirty seconds from the other vessel,” Chang said.

The three warheads blew. They took another two Naxor ships with them. But now the other Naxor were on them. They fired energy weapons. Jessica shielded her eyes. The friction of energy weapon and energy shield caused violent explosions of light just beyond the ship. A burst of thunder.

“God …” Chang said with a wince.

“Fire all batteries!” King yelled.

The deck trembled rhythmically as the Defiant‘s mighty guns let loose against the enemy. Through the breaks in fireworks, she could make out the Krinuan ships ducking in and out amongst the Naxor vessels.

“Captain Nowlan has achieved dock!” Chang reported.

Jessica grinned.

Legendary, she thought.

“Roll along her main axis, Rogers. Give that ship cover,” she ordered.

4.

The Naxor hadn’t noticed a small shuttle making its precarious journey from the underbelly of the Defiant to the crippled ship spinning in circles before them. For any lesser pilot, it would have been a chore to align correctly with the other vessel, but for Hawk it was a piece of cake. He slipped alongside, matched its spin as it went around and around, and slowly edged in against the docking ring. The shuttle butted up against the side of the other ship with a slight clank of metal on metal.

He equalized the pressure between the two, then accessed the interior of the ship.

Inside was smoke and chaos. He could smell burning. Could hear the whimpering of injured crew.

Hawk grabbed his kit and proceeded into the ship to see who was still alive.

*

The Naxor ships swarmed the Defiant, bombarding her with fire.

“Shields showing signs of strain,” Chang said.

I’m not surprised, Jessica thought.

“Captain?” Chief Gunn asked on the overhead speakers.

King accessed her comm. panel. “Go ahead, Chief.”

“We’re struggling to reroute extra power to the shield down here, Captain. Any more of this and we’re in big trouble.”

“Understood,” King said and closed the channel again.

Directly ahead Jackson struck lucky against a Naxor ship and it exploded. The Defiant rocked from side to side.

“Rayne, contact Captain Nowlan and tell him to move his butt,” King ordered. “Chang, try to move power from non-essential systems to feed into the energy shield. See what you can do.”

“Yes Captain,” Chang answered and set straight to work.

Goddamn energy shield’s the only thing keeping us alive, Jessica thought. That and Jackson’s trigger finger.

*

Commander Greene helped pull the weak and injured through the airlock onto the awaiting shuttle. At a push, it would take all of them in one hit. Given Captain Nowlan’s account of the huge fire fight going on outside, that was fortunate.

The Commander ushered a group of Krinuans toward the airlock.

“I’ll take care of these,” Hawk said. “Go and get yuh people from the bridge. Yuh say Salnow’s in a bad way?”

“Yeah. Cut to ribbons. The sooner he gets to medical, the better,” Greene said.

“Well go get the last of ‘em. I’ll make sure we’re good to go the second that hatch is shut,” Hawk said.

*

The Defiant shuddered.

“Return fire on that Naxor ship,” King ordered.

Jackson nodded, accessed the gunnery controls and turned all turrets to target the enemy vessel. They blanketed it with a wall of deadly munitions. The hits registered against its own energy shielding.

“Direct hits across its port side!” Jackson reported.

“Fire tubes one and two!” King snapped.

Two missiles sped from the Defiant’s nose to the Naxor ship. They broke through the fractured shielding and slammed straight into the enemy’s hull. The resultant explosion tore the ship in two.

“Yes!” Jackson yelled. He looked about at everyone else with a grin, then turned back to his console. Jackson cleared his throat, as if restoring his resolve. “Uh, locating the nearest enemy vessel to engage.”

Good work, Jessica thought. The strength of the Union must remain unrelenting.

Who had told her that? A Fleet Commander many years ago. It all seemed like memories of another life. In a way it was.

“Captain, Naxor vessel targeting the rescue party,” Chang said. “They’re locking weapons. If that ship gets hit…”

“I know. Jackson, protect that ship. We need to give them time to get the hell off,” Jessica ordered.

*

The bridge of the Krinuan craft was in a state of complete carnage. Virtually pitch black with only the feeblest green light attempting to cut through the dark haze. The acrid burn of metal and plastic made his eyes sting, but Greene pushed through it. He found Ensign Boi tending to Salnow. The security officer sat slumped in a corner, cut all over. Boi turned at the sound of Greene’s approaching footsteps.

“Commander.”

“How is he?” Del asked. He got down on his haunches and looked the man over himself. He was in bad shape.

“Not really with it sir,” Boi said.

The ship shook around them. Greene looked about, as if he expected the roof to cave in any second. Something sizzled to his right. A burned out console. The bridge was dead. As was the ship.

“Where’s Banks?”

Boi ran a hand over his dirty, sweaty face. “The Lieutenant took a couple of the Krinuan crew to the shuttle.”

“I didn’t pass him on my way through,” Greene said doubtfully.

Boi shook his head. “Not from here, sir. Their engineering section. There were crew still messing about in there last we heard. Banks went down there to round them up.”

“Good.” He helped Boi get Salnow to his feet. “Get the other side, Ensign and let’s get him -“

A murmur at the entrance to the bridge made him stop mid-sentence. A female Krinuan staggered into the room, dazed. Greene spotted the hole in her side, the fur poking through her uniform matted with blood. She looked at him helplessly, then her eyes rolled into the back of her head. Before she could fall Greene got there and scooped her into his arms. She was surprisingly light, if awkward to carry.

“Come on, Ensign. Let’s move.”

*

The Defiant’s fire blasted the stern of the other Naxor ship, its energy shield crackling from the reactions of impacting artillery smashing into it. The vessel released two sparkly balls of energy from its bow.

“Enemy fire!” Chang reported.

“Target those birds! Now!” King shouted.

Jackson shifted his targeting recticals to the first of the Naxor torpedoes. The battery fire detonated it with a bright flash of energy. However, the other torpedo continued its course toward the stricken vessel.

“Jackson…” King said.

The Lieutenant didn’t say anything. He bit his bottom lip with concentration, yet still the guns failed to reach their target.

“Oh no…” King heard Chang whisper to the side of her. On the viewscreen the crippled ship turned with the Union shuttle clamped to its side. The torpedo ploughed down on top of it. Jessica flinched from the explosion.

*

The ship bucked beneath his feet. Greene sprang through the airlock and set the lady Krinuan on the deck. He turned back. Boi still struggled along the corridor with Salnow’s arm draped over his shoulder, his feet dragging on the decking.

“Come on!” the Commander yelled at them. “Quickly!”

“Wait here,” Banks said and pushed past him. He ran down the corridor toward the two struggling crewmen. He took up the other side of Salnow.

The hell mouth opened. Boi glanced behind him at the sound of a massive explosion. The Krinuan ship shook. A wall of flame surged up the corridor, sucking the air out. Salnow cried out in pain. They were still so far away. Banks looked up. He had time to fix his eyes on Commander Greene, then the flames consumed them.

“NO!”

The hot blast threw Commander Greene against the other side of the shuttle. He struck the bulkhead then landed in a heap on the floor. Fire licked inside the shuttle like dragon’s breath. A Krinuan male rushed to the side of the open airlock and slammed a paw against the control panel. It closed, sealed against the inferno on the other side.

At the same instant, Hawk disengaged and propelled them away. The Krinuan ship blew apart next to them, pelting the hull of the tiny shuttle with shattered pieces of ship.

“Woah! That was close!” Hawk yelled, throwing the shuttle into the kind of manoeuvres its designers had never been fortunate enough to imagine. He glanced back into the hold. “Hey, Commander -“

Greene stirred on the deck, but he didn’t respond. Blood spilled from the side of his head, and his skin looked charred and bobbled as if he’d been roasted. Several Krinuans tended to him, held a bundle of torn cloth against the gash along his temple. He tried to spot the other members of the Defiant’s crew but couldn’t.

Then he realized they were no more.

Hawk turned back to his helm controls, his jaw set as he sped them back to the Defiant.

5.

“Captain Nowlan coming in hot,” Rayne reported, holding her earpiece. “And he’s got casualties.”

“Did they all make it off alive?” King asked. They’d seen the ship blow apart, and had feared the worst until they saw the Union shuttle inexplicably emerge from the explosion intact.

Ensign Rayne listened, then looked up at Jessica with big, sad eyes.

“Boi, Salnow and Lieutenant Banks were killed. Commander Greene has been badly injured,” she said quietly.

Jessica couldn’t afford the news even a moment to sink in, as much as her heart sank instantly at the news her crew were gone.

“I want a crash team in that hangar. Medics, fire team. The lot,” she ordered. “Lieutenant Rogers, please move us out of the immediate vicinity. Use the surrounding debris as cover.”

“The shuttle is aboard,” Chang said.

“Do it,” King told the helmsman.

“Aye,” Rogers replied. The Defiant turned under his fingertips.

“Olivia, contact Praror and inform him of what we’re doing. I don’t want him to think that we’re leaving.”

“Yes Ma’am,” Rayne said.

“Enemy fire to our stern,” Chang said. “Naxor ship in pursuit.”

Jessica grimaced. “Jackson, I want every turret pointed at that ship. Target their shields.”

“With pleasure,” Jackson said and accessed his controls. The Defiant vibrated beneath the fury of her guns. The viewscreen changed to show an aft view. The Naxor suffered under the artillery barrage and tried to turn.

“Launch all tubes. Taker her out!” Jessica ordered.

Jackson fired at once. A spread of Duotonic missiles shot from the front of the Defiant, turned either side and rushed to the back. They tore the Naxor ship apart.

The viewscreen changed to show the bow. Rogers dropped them below a spindly mass of rock, then took the Defiant up behind it.

“Any word on Commander Greene?” King asked Chang.

The Lieutenant shook her head. “It’s not good, Captain. He’s out cold and he’s got bad burns to his face and arms. Dr. Clayton’s attending.”

Jessica swallowed.

She fought back memories of Captain Singh’s broken form in the munitions section months ago.

“Captain!” Rayne pivoted about. “Praror reports enemy birds headed our way.”

Jessica looked to Chang.

“I don’t see them on my -” Chang started to say, then her eyes lit with realization. “Yep. Four of them. Ten seconds to impact.”

“Everybody, grab hold of something!” King shouted. She gripped the sides of her chair as the enemy torpedoes hit. The Defiant seemed to break around her.

She closed her eyes momentarily against the roar of explosions happening over the ship.

Emergency klaxons wailed.

“Energy shield is disabled!” Chang shouted over the din. “Multiple hull breaches.”

Jessica unclipped herself. She squinted. The bridge was full of smoke. It burned her eyes.

“Activate the extractors -” King stopped when she saw the smoke rushing off the bridge. What started as a high pitched whistle soon became a scream of air escaping from the ship. It took a second for everything to register, then it hit her. She shot up from her chair. “Evacuate the bridge! Evacuate!”

A small hole in the wall next to the viewscreen widened, sending a piece of thick hull material out into space. The smoke hurried in its bid to escape into the vacuum. Jessica dove forward, yanked Rogers from his seat. She shoved him toward the entrance. “Get out!”

She turned to Jackson. The Lieutenant was already moving.

Rayne ripped her earpiece out and was getting down from her station. Jessica hurried past Chang.

“Move it!”

The Captain reached the entrance behind Rogers and Jackson. She turned back. Chang had stopped to see that Rayne was on her way. The last tendrils of smoke tore through the hole, then it split wide open before taking the entire portion of wall holding the viewscreen with it. Bare, naked space pulled every last particle of atmosphere from the bridge. Jessica clutched her last breath, her mouth pinched shut. She clung to the sides of the door frame. Chang slid, fell to the deck and was pulled toward the open end of the bridge. Olivia bounded across and grabbed her. With her last effort she swung Chang toward Jessica.

Chang caught the Captain’s free hand, and for a moment they formed a chain like that. Then Olivia’s hand slipped.

Chang made eye contact with her one last time before the pull of open space took her away, her arms flailing helplessly before she was lost to the darkness.

With her last ounce of strength, as the blackout closed in around her, Jessica just managed to pull them both through the door before it slid shut behind them, forming an airtight seal against the compromised bridge.

Chang collapsed on top of her Captain, gasping for breath. But Jessica didn’t move. Her face had turned a deathly shade of blue. Chang looked around. She took several breaths then called for a medic. She felt Jessica’s neck and found a pulse.

Weak, but it was there.

“Hang in there Captain,” she said. “Help’s on the way.”

6.

Dr. Clayton supervised the Captain as two orderlies loaded her onto a stretcher. She had a breathing apparatus strapped over her face.

“Careful. Now get her to medical, quickly” Clayton said.

Chang took hold of his elbow. “Doctor. Will she be all right?”

“What happened?”

“Hull breach at the front of the bridge. Ensign Rayne got sucked straight out into space…” her voice faded away for a moment as the memory struck her. The grief she’d felt during the wait for Dr. Clayton rose again, surfacing from a self-imposed fog. Her heart ached. Chang pushed the loss back down inside. She wiped at a single errant tear as it spilled down her cheek. “The Captain pulled me through to the corridor, but I think she got too exposed to the vacuum.”

“It can take seconds for it kill a person. I’ve heard of people doing space jumps without suits, but it’s fifty-fifty whether or not you survive,” Clayton explained.

“Do you think it’s air deprivation, then?”

“I don’t know. Maybe. She didn’t hit her head or anything?” Clayton asked.

Chang shook her head slowly. “Not that I’m aware. But I did land on top of her. She might have smacked the deck a second beforehand. It’s a possibility.”

“Yeah. Right, I better get down to medical. And you’ve got a ship to run,” Clayton said. He started walking away.

“Huh?”

The realisation hit her. With both the Captain and Commander Greene temporarily out of action, she was the next in line. Neither Jackson nor Rogers had the experience, and they weren’t primary bridge crew.

And talking of bridge…

A dozen or so crew had arrived to assist. There were repair crew and assorted crew members assisting in any way they could. Chang drew herself to full height, cleared her throat. “Okay everyone listen up! Rogers and Jackson, you come with me to the Emergency Command Centre. The rest of you continue to assist with repairs.”

They looked at her for a moment. A blast somewhere shook the ship.

“Now!” Chang yelled, motivating them to do as they were told.

*

Several fires had broken out through engineering, and the Chief ran from one to the other co-ordinating their frantic efforts to put them out. Klaxons wailed all around her, but she paid them no mind. Thick dark clouds of smoke clung to the tall ceiling of engineering, but it grew steadily thicker by the minute. The atmospheric extractors struggled to clear it.

“Belcher!” Gunn called. “Gary, come here quick.”

The Lieutenant busily worked a console in an attempt to ensure the coolant lines didn’t fail. If they did…

“Chief?”

Gunn waved him over. He got up and ran to her from the other side of the room. The Chief stood over a fallen crewman. “I need you to get her out of here, Lieutenant. Drag him out to the corridor. Give him some air.”

Belcher nodded. “And what about you Chief?”

Gunn had already started walking away. “Hop to it fella.”

The Lieutenant didn’t argue. He scooped Ensign Benedict up under the armpits and pulled him backwards toward the exit. The doors parted as he drew near, and he found himself breathing relatively smoke-free, cool air again. Belcher propped the crewman against a bulkhead, checked his pulse.

“Let’s hope nobody thinks you’re a passed-out drunk,” Belcher said as he stepped away. “Sorry to leave you there, Greg, but I gotta get back in there. She needs me.”

It didn’t matter that Ensign Greg Benedict was completely out for the count. Lieutenant Belcher had already gone back into the carnage of engineering.

7.

“Stats and vitals,” Clayton demanded. He listened as Nurse Munoz reeled off the Captain’s vital signs from an overhead monitor. Once finished, Clayton gave a curt nod of his head. He looked around. The sickbay had filled with people for no apparent reason.

The Doctor became furious. He slammed his data tablet down on the bed next to Jessica. “Don’t you people have better things to do? Get out! Go on!”

He indicated for Nurse Shook to get them out, then turned back to Captain King’s limp form.

He regarded her for a moment. She was in no immediate distress, but she was unconscious and very weak. And of course he had to take into consideration her…condition…

“Frank, get me a neuro scanner. Let’s see what activity we have,” Dr. Clayton said. As Munoz went to fetch it, Clayton walked over to Commander Greene. The two Nurses had done a good job of covering his burns with analgesic gel. It would take an hour or so for it to work fully, but the Commander would heal completely from his dance with fiery death. However, Greene too was out cold; though smoke inhalation and a blow to the head were his reasons. Not a close encounter with the cold, hard, nothingness of space.

“Well, now they’re all gone…” Nurse Shook said, dusting her hands symbolically down her front.

The Defiant rocked. Several glass utensils clattered along a desk in the corner and smashed on the floor. Shook went to clear it up straight away but Clayton laid a hand on her arm to still her.

“Leave it for a minute. There’ll be more of that,” he said.

Nurse Shook gave Commander Greene the once over. “D’you think he’ll wake up, Doctor?”

Clayton sighed. “Yep. He’ll have one helluva headache though. I don’t know what it is with that man hitting his goddamn head every other day. I’ve treated him more times for head injuries than -“

Nurse Munoz arrived with the neuro scanner.

“Here we are Doctor,” Munoz said.

Clayton took the device, in reality little more than just a thick band of metal. The moment it was fixed in the correct position around Jessica’s head, its readings of her brain’s electrical activity appeared on the overhead.

“Is it a coma?” Munoz asked him.

Clayton watched the data for a moment. Then he shook his head. “No. I don’t think so. She’s just shocked I think. It might take her a while to come around. I saw something like this during my service. A guy had shock from exposure. Took him a couple of weeks to wake up.”

There were treatments for those who braved the void for only a handful of seconds, but of course the Captain had had more than that …

On the bed, Jessica breathed slowly. But other than the steady rise and fall of her chest, she lay perfectly still.

“Okay. The oxygen levels in her blood are low. Nurse Shook, I think you can do something about that. Frank, put that thing on the Commander over there and monitor his readings for a couple of minutes. The amount of knocks he’s had to the noggin, I’d like to just double check there’s no permanent damage.”

His two Nurses busied themselves with his instructions, and Clayton stood watching the Captain’s vitals on the screen.

Come on Jessica, he thought. Fight.

*

The Emergency Command Centre was smaller than they were used to on the bridge, but they wasted no time in getting to their respective stations. Lieutenant Rogers took to the helm, with Jackson standing at a station to his right. Lisa Chang stood. There was only one seat in the Emergency Command Centre, and that was reserved for the pilot. For everyone else, there were handholds laid into the ceiling, amongst the jutting pipes and wires.

“Redirect all functions,” Chang said. She walked to the communications station, to the left-hand side of the helm, and opened the intercom to the rest of the ship. “Ensign Beaumont, report to the Emergency Command Centre,” Chang said.

She closed the channel, then helped Jackson and Rogers in switching the Defiant’s main functions over. Every console lit up. The viewscreen at the front came to life, revealing a Naxor ship before them with two smaller Krinuan vessels attacking it. They seemed to be keeping the Naxor monster at bay whilst the Defiant hung uselessly in space, crippled within and without.

Ensign Roland Beaumont arrived, flushed and sweaty.

“Get to the communications station, Ensign. Make contact with our Krinuan friends and tell them we’re attempting to get this tub back online,” Chang ordered. She was surprised at how naturally it came to her. Especially following the loss she’d had to experience and tuck away like a secret piece of paper. While the other three busied themselves, she managed to look away and close her eyes, for only a second. In that infinitely small gap of time, she saw Olivia Rayne tumble out into space again, her eyes wide with terror as it took her.

Chang opened her eyes.

Beaumont listened through his earpiece, then turned to her. “The Krinuans say we have enemy vessels on our hull.”

“On it?”

“That’s what they say. Clamped to it,” Beaumont explained.

“Shipwide communications, Ensign,” Chang ordered. A moment later the channel was ready to use. “Captain Nowlan, this is acting Captain Chang. Please contact the Emergency Command Centre. Urgent.”

The words acting Captain had a strange feel to them. They sounded foreign on her tongue. Dirty somehow.

It’s because they’re not earned, she thought. That’s why.

“We have full control over all of the Defiant’s systems,” Jackson said. “Including weapons.”

“How is the hull holding up?” Chang asked.

“Might as well be bare skin at the minute, Ma’am,” Jackson told her. “No energy shield or hull plating.”

“But we can fire?” Chang asked.

Jackson nodded.

“Then do your worst,” Chang said. “Hit them with everything.”

8.

Master At Arms Eisenhower listened to the knocking on the other side of the outer hull and knew what was coming. He’d been on a ship in the throes of getting boarded once before. The sound of one ship butting up against another was unmistakable. He moved as fast as his old legs would take him to the weapons lockers and threw them open.

He could’ve sworn he’d stowed it in there…

With a smile his hand fell on the old Hunter X Scatter Shot. He flipped it up, and activated it. The old shotgun came to life in his hands. Eisenhower grabbed a sonic grenade and tucked it in his pocket.

Now there was a fiery circle on the wall where they cut through. The Master At Arms double-checked the weapon.

“Let’s hope she still shoots true,” he said with a nervous chuckle.

He took a step back as a shower of sparks fell around him from the wall. Then the circle of metal hull fell to the deck with an almighty clank that rang out like a bell in a cave. Eisenhower peered through the smoke. A uniformed creature emerged from the newly cut hole. Eisenhower lifted the Scatter Shot, gritted his teeth, and fired. A splatter of energy bolts sent the creature flying back down into the hole. Within seconds another tried to set foot on the deck of the hangar.

Eisenhower shot again. This time the alien wasn’t blown away. The force of the old Scatter Shot blew the thing’s head off, leaving a mushy stump at what he took to be the neck. The dead alien blocked the hole. A clawed hand reached up from behind the creature, and pulled it backwards. Its cold glare pierced at the Master At Arms.

Oh lord, Eisenhower thought as he fired and blew the thing away.

The Scatter Shot grew hot in his hands.

Still they came, one after the other, and he shot them down. The old weapon became hotter and hotter.

Should’ve picked something else, he thought. What was I thinking?

Sure enough, Eisenhower shot one more alien attempting to board the Defiant, then the gun died on him. The corpse of the previous Naxor was yanked out of the way as its comrade pulled it aside and clambered onto the deck. The Master At Arms backed up.

“Watch it sonny!” he stammered.

The alien approached, regarding him with twitching eyes on long stems. It’s mouth quivered, revealing short but sharp teeth. Saliva – or the Naxor equivalent – hung from its chin. The thing raised its weapon. Eisenhower raised a hand and turned away.

He heard something travel through the air over him and looked up just in time to see Captain Hawk Nowlan whistle down in front of him. The legendary hero landed sure-footed on the deck. In his hand he carried his famous kataan. The Naxor cocked its head to one side with surprise.

“Not on my watch pal,” Hawk said and swung his blade. It sliced the two appendages holding the weapon. The Naxor gasped. Hawk sliced up, under its chin and it fell backward in a spray of yellow body fluids.

He turned to Eisenhower. “Yuh okay? They asked me to get down here, see what was goin down.”

The Master At Arms’ eyes widened. He pointed back at the hole in the wall. “Behind you!”

Hawk spun about in time to see another Naxor clamber through the temporary artery they’d tunnelled from their ship to the Defiant. He ran toward it, and as it looked up, he slammed his kataan through its head. The Naxor convulsed then fell still. A river of yellow blood ran to the decking.

“Call the alarm!” Hawk yelled back. He pulled his sword free. “And get yuhself somethin’ to shoot that ain’t as ancient as I am!”

Eisenhower threw the spent Scatter Shot to one side and moved as fast as his legs could take him.

*

They fought alongside each other, Human and Krinuan. Lieutenant Chang flinched as one of their Krinuan allies took a full hit to its dorsal section and broke out into small explosions.

“Report on that ship!” she yelled. Unlike the bridge, all tactical functions and data were routed through to the weapons station.

“Dead in the water,” Jackson reported. “They’re launching escape pods.”

“Contact them if you can. They can dock with us.”

“Aye,” Jackson said.

They’d now gotten clear of the more lethal debris, but that didn’t stop the Defiant taking a pounding from smaller pieces of rock and shattered hull. She’d never known the ship take such a beating, and secretly she wondered if they’d ever manage to get out of this alive.

Straight ahead was a larger Naxor vessel, identical to the one that had attacked before when they were crossing the nebula. It had two smaller ships with it. There were also two of the same, smaller ships clamped to their side.

“Engine manifolds straining against the weight of those ships,” Rogers said from the helm. “I’m having a hard time getting any more of out her with them piggybacking on us.”

They’re like leeches you get from crossing a swamp, Chang thought.

“The Master At Arms is on the line,” Beaumont reported. “He’s calling for help down there.”

“Go ship wide,” Chang ordered. “Put a call out for every available hand to get to the hangar deck and assist.”

“Aye.”

Chang turned to the viewscreen. “Then I want you to contact Praror…tell him he needs to focus on the smaller ships. We’ll tackle the bigger of the three.”

“Aye,” Beaumont said.

“I’d advise trying to get out of here,” Rogers said.

The Defiant shuddered from a direct hit. The lighting flickered, nearly died, then came back to full strength.

“There’s no way they’re gonna let us just up and leave the party,” Chang told him. “We have to face it down. We don’t have a choice. As much as I’d like to just retreat, we don’t have the luxury of making that call.”

“Fair enough,” Rogers said. He took the Defiant to avoid a nasty barrage of fire from the big enemy vessel.

“Praror agrees with your plan. He wishes us luck,” Beaumont said.

Chang nodded. “Share the sentiment.”

“So what’s the plan?” Rogers asked her.

The Lieutenant had given it some thought. The first notion of it had occurred before the bridge had been compromised. Now, from what she’d seen of the big Naxor warship, her gut told her she should go with it.

For a split second she saw Ensign Rayne go flying backwards into space. Her eyes…she knew those eyes would haunt her forever.

Chang swallowed, snapped back to reality. She drew a deep breath and relayed her plan.

*

Gary Belcher grabbed a mask from a unit on the wall. Chief Gunn took it from him and wrapped it over her face. The air in the engineering section had now grown toxic. The mask would protect their eyes and filter the air as they worked to ensure they didn’t pass out.

“Thanks,” Gunn said. She dripped perspiration, and her eyes were bright red.

“Those coolant lines are failing,” Belcher told her. “There’s only one thing I can think of.”

Gunn shook her head. She knew what he was driving at. “We can’t. The Defiant will lose power and we’ll be like a sitting duck.”

“Not if we can reroute emergency power from every system and feed it to engines and weapons only,” Belcher offered, his voice excited.

The Chief walked to the coolant controls and studied the readouts. Belcher was right. They were going to fail. If they did, and the reactor started to overheat…

Game over.

“The trick will be to get everything back up and running in time,” Gunn said. “We need to be sure.”

Belcher looked around. “To be honest Chief, I don’t think we got much choice.”

“Okay. Well here’s what we’ll do. You get a team together and get everything rerouted to engines and weapons. I’ll notify the con what we’re doing, then set about shutting everything down,” she said. “We’ll have to evacuate it in here, and vent the atmosphere out into space, then re-establish. It’s the only way to get breathable air in here in time. We can’t work in these goddamn masks.”

“I’m on it,” Belcher said. He turned to go and get some people together.

“Gary!” the Chief called after him. He spun about. “Good work.”

Belcher grinned, then ran off.

Gunn contacted the Emergency Command Centre and spoke directly with Lieutenant Chang.

“Any word on the Captain yet?”

“No nothing.”

Gunn didn’t ask about Commander Greene. She knew better than to fret over it. What would be would be. There was a bigger problem to worry over, such as a wounded starship blowing up.

She told Chang the plan she and Belcher had devised.

“And we’ll still be able to run and shoot?” Chang asked.

Gunn laughed behind her plastic mask. “Yeah. Run and shoot.”

“Do what you have to do, Chief. Best of luck.”

Gunn walked to the other side of the engineering section to begin the shutdown procedure. It wouldn’t take long for Belcher and the others to ensure the engines and defensive systems still had power. And shutting everything down wasn’t the problem.

The issue would be when it came to dealing with the coolant and switching everything back on.

Good thing that turning things on is a specialty of mine, the Chief thought with a snigger.

*

“The other hole!” Hawk yelled over to Eisenhower. The Master At Arms turned on his heels.

The hangar swarmed with Naxor. Hawk grappled with one. The way its jaws kept snapping it looked to Eisenhower as if it were trying to bite him.

The Krinuan survivors who’d landed in the hangar also joined in the fight. Those who weren’t locked into close quarters with the Naxor were on the other side, firing back at a group of Naxor soldiers armed with big heavy guns. The Krinuan refugees used cargo crates as cover, the Naxors’ fire making holes in the crates the size of dinner plates.

The hangar had become a full-blown war zone, the like of which Eisenhower hadn’t seen for a long, long time. Not since he was a much younger man …

Eisenhower looked toward the other hole the Naxor had bored through the hull. They were pouring through it, an infestation of fierce, two-legged cockroaches. Some of the Defiant’s crew grappled hand-to-hand against Naxor soldiers. Eisenhower pushed through them. He removed the grenade from his belt and flipped the trigger mechanism. It whirred to life in his hand. Hummed with energy.

“Fire in the hole!” Eisenhower shouted, and tossed it through the hole. It clattered along the ground on the other side. “Move! Move!”

Eisenhower moved as fast as possible, grabbing a couple of officers with him. The grenade went off, a gigantic sonic boom that shook the world apart.

It threw the Master At Arms to the deck, filled the whole hangar with smoke. He pushed himself up on his knees and fought for a deep breath; the blast had knocked the wind out of him. It seemed to have blown everyone over, like a house of cards destroyed by a strong gust of wind. Eisenhower looked back at the hole. Dark smoke wafted up from it, the Naxor from that ship seemingly eliminated.

He smiled with satisfaction.

“Get up all of yuh!” Hawk commanded them. He stood over them, kataan in hand, face splattered with dried blood. His own opponent got back to its feet. He swung his blade, cutting it from the shoulder to the waist. The giant insectoid fell apart at the seams. “Defend this ship!”

Everybody got back to their feet and resumed the fight to keep the Defiant from falling into enemy hands.

9.

“Main power is offline. We are on emergency power only,” Jackson reported. “We have helm and weapons. That’s it.”

Chang gripped the safety bar overhead. “As long as we can shoot, nothing else matters. Are you ready?”

Jackson nodded.

Lieutenant Rogers piloted them up and over the Naxor ship. It fired at their underside as they slid over it, turning cumbersomely along its axis as it did so, as if the Defiant were some huge whale. The enemy’s fire glanced off the edge of the turning hull.

“Fire!” Chang ordered.

Jackson turned every single battery gun to face the rear of the Naxor vessel. They fired streams of artillery directly into the Naxor’s engine manifolds.

Rogers switched to aft view.

“All tubes. Fire!”

Balls of light dissipated around the Defiant, then came to bear on their target. They detonated in the blinding heat of the enemy ship’s engines, and the resultant series of explosions cracked the vessel in two. It tore apart at the seams, grew bright then blew. Ensign Beaumont knocked his earpiece out as the wild scream of raw energy burst from it. He rubbed his ear.

The Defiant shook as if she herself were about to break apart, and Chang swung from the overhead safety bar, her knuckles white.

“Blimey!” Rogers yelled as he fought to stabilize the ship.

On the aft viewer, the explosion faded enough to show the Naxor vessel in pieces.

Just more debris, Chang thought.

“Midships Lieutenant Rogers,” she said. “Jackson, what about the ships clamped to our sides?”

The Lieutenant checked his readouts. “Still there. Fight still ongoing down in the hangar bay. Apparently they’ve managed to neutralise one of the ships though.”

Which means it’s stuck there for the foreseeable, Chang thought grimly.

She jammed a finger against a comm. panel.

“Doctor Clayton? This is Chang.”

“Clayton here,” after a beat.

“How are the Captain and Commander Greene?” Chang asked.

“The Commander is coming around. I’ve done what I can for his burns. His body will have to do its thing, I’m afraid. I’m a doctor, not a plastic surgeon. It’ll have to heal,” Clayton said gruffly. “Until then, he’s gonna look like crisp-n-dry I’m afraid.”

She heard his muffled laughter, and thought it was more of a nervous laugh than genuine humour.

“And the Captain?”

Clayton fell silent.

“Doctor?”

“I’m afraid it’s not so good. I don’t want to say too much over this line, Lieutenant. But it’s gonna be touch and go …” Clayton told her.

Lisa Chang swallowed. She cleared her throat. “Understood.”

She closed the channel, looked at the others. They watched her, awaiting instructions for their next move.

“Ensign Beaumont, get in touch with our Krinuan friends. Offer assistance if they need it. Tell them they have people over here, helping us out,” Chang said.

“Aye,” Beaumont said and set to work. He picked the earpiece back up.

“Jackson and Rogers … let’s get this tub back together.”

10.

Commander Greene opened his eyes to the blinding white lights of the sickbay.

His face felt stiff, as if it had something plastered all over it. Added to that his skin felt hot and sore.

Del closed his eyes and tried to get his bearings.

… the ship bucked beneath his feet. Greene sprang through the airlock and set the lady Krinuan on the deck. He turned back. Boi still struggled along the corridor with Salnow’s arm draped over his shoulder, his feet dragging on the decking.

“Come on!” the Commander yelled at them. “Quickly!”

“Wait here,” Banks said and pushed past him. He ran down the corridor toward the two struggling crewmen. He took up the other side of Salnow.

The hellmouth opened. Boi glanced behind him at the sound of a massive explosion. The Krinuan ship shook. A wall of flame surged up the corridor, sucking the air out. Salnow cried out in pain. They were still so far away. Banks looked up. He had time to fix his eyes on Commander Greene, then the flames consumed them. “NO!”

Now it came back to him.

… the hot blast threw Commander Greene against the other side of the shuttle. He struck the bulkhead then landed in a heap on the floor …

The Commander opened his eyes again and tried to sit up. A hand pressed gently against his chest, and a soothing voice told him to lay back down and rest. He couldn’t see a face, only an outline of a person against the lights.

“What’s happened?” he asked groggily.

“You’re okay, Commander. You’re in sickbay.”

He recognised the voice as that of Nurse Shook.

“What about the others?” he asked her.

He watched as the shadow of Nurse Shook checked something to his right. Then he felt a straw against his lips.

“Drink this.”

He did. When he’d had enough, Nurse Shook took the straw away.

“I want to talk to Dr. Clayton,” Commander Greene told her.

“Wait a moment and I’ll get him,” Shook told him and walked off.

Greene turned his head away from the light, and he found that his vision cleared somewhat. He was able to see the rest of the sickbay, albeit blurry. He couldn’t mistake the limp form of Captain King a few beds over. She had tubes in her nose, her mouth, into the veins of her wrists …

“Captain!” Greene called out to her. She didn’t stir at the sound of his voice. He heard footsteps approaching from the end of the bed, and turned back in time to see a hazy Dr. Clayton approach.

“Don’t shout in here, Commander,” Clayton said.

“What’s happened to the Captain?”

Clayton drew a big breath. “Slipping into a coma. There was a hull breach and the bridge was lost. The Captain managed to pull Lieutenant Chang to safety, but in the process she got exposed to the vacuum. Now she’s in a state of shock.”

The Commander didn’t say anything.

“I’m trying everything I can to bring her around, but so far there’s no change in her condition,” Clayton explained. “As for you, that strange sensation on your face you’re no doubt experiencing would be the burns you received from the explosion.”

Banks looked up. He had time to fix his eyes on Commander Greene, then the flames consumed them.

Commander Greene pushed it away.

“You too were out cold, but unlike the Captain’s yours came direct from a blow to the head,” Clayton said.

“Will she make it?” Greene asked him.

He wondered who commanded the ship, now that the Captain and he were incapacitated. Perhaps Hawk had stepped up to the plate …

Dr. Clayton’s eyes were big and sad. He looked over at the Captain’s bed, and Greene could see the man was tired and weary.

“I don’t know,” he said. “It’s all up to her. She’s strong. I’m hopeful that she’ll pull through.”

Greene tried to sit up again. This time it was Clayton who pushed him back down.

“And what do you think you’re doing? Be still.”

“I have to get to the bridge,” Greene said. “She’d want me to do that.”

“What she’d want doesn’t matter. You’re in no fit state to do anything right now. Just lay back and let your treatment take hold, otherwise you’ll end up scarred for life. Besides, I don’t think you’d make it past the end of the hall,” Clayton said dismissively.

The Commander wanted to argue the toss with him, but he couldn’t; he knew the man to be correct.

He did as he was told. He relaxed. Closed his eyes again. But he didn’t sleep.

He couldn’t. Not with Jessica balancing on the very edge of death the way she was.

11.

Darkness.

A swirling maelstrom of planetary debris and other cosmic flotsam surrounding a pitch black heart. The Koenig-Prime singularity. A black hole.

I would give my life over and over again to save you all.

In the very centre floated a pyramid of pure black material. She reached for it, went closer to the eye of the storm. She felt it pull at her, tugging her in by the lapels.

… up ahead there was a huge flash of light. They all looked up in time to see a small planetoid tumbling over the rim at the black hole’s centre. It seemed to happen in slow motion, though King was aware it was happening quickly. The atmosphere and surface matter was stripped away first as the planetoid fell. Then it broke apart like a ball of dry dirt, down into the nothingness. There was an explosion from the crushing of its core, but it lasted a mere second before the energy of that, too, was swallowed by the singularity …

Jessica flailed uselessly as she fell into the darkness, the pyramid just beyond reach.

She would have screamed, but she had no mouth. No voice. She was nothing and everything all at once.

The dark took her … and her memories …

*

“Doctor! She’s slipping!” Nurse Munoz called.

Clayton ran to the Captain’s bedside and looked up at the overhead monitor of her life functions. They were dipping, rapidly.

“Use the cardio vent to stimulate her heart,” he told Munoz. The male nurse did as he was told. Jessica’s heart rate picked up before it continued its slow decline.

A waltz of death, Clayton thought absently.

“No response.”

“Administer adrenaline,” Clayton told him.

Nurse Shook arrived at his side. Her worried face looked up at the Doctor, then she took one of Jessica’s hands in her own.

“Fight it,” she told the unconscious Captain. “Fight it.”

Dr. Clayton watched as Munoz administered the adrenaline. On the monitor her heart rate started to pick up.

But it can drop again any minute, Clayton told himself. I may just be holding off the inevitable.

*

A voice from her childhood. A teacher reciting a poem. It came to her in a whisper as she fell through the inky black.

The frosty ways like iron

The branches plumed with snow

Alas! in Winter, dead, and dark,

Where can poor Robin go?

Jessica laughed but there was no laughter. Just the absent breath of the vacuum itself, the wind of the void.

Winter, dead, and dark …

The air of nothingness.

Singh reached up, stroked the side of her face. “Now it is your turn to do as much as you can with the time you have …”

He smiled again, then his eyes seemed focus on something far away. The light in them faded. Singh’s hand fell away from hers and the sound of his last breath issued slowly from between his lips.

The black pyramid. It fell before her. Wherever you go, I will go, she thought.

“Doc, what is it?” she asked.

“Jessica, some months ago I had a visit from Captain Singh. He was concerned by a sudden numbness in his legs. He asked me to check it out,” Clayton said.

King urged him on.

“We ran some tests …” Clayton said. His eyes met with hers. “The tests revealed the early stages of Multiple Sclerosis. MS.”

Again Jessica reached out for it with outstretched fingers.

“We ran some tests …”

If only she could touch it, she knew she’d be safe. The pyramid would take her home. It would be her ruby slippers.

… falling from it like confetti …

The jet black pyramid continued to turn over and over, just beyond reach. Jessica strained to reach it. If only …

But it was a pyramid no longer. The shape had bent itself into the figure of a man.

“I miss you.”

It was Captain Singh. Her Father. Singh fell through the nothingness, and it was all that Jessica could to do but fall with him.

*

Jessica’s heart rate plummeted. The systems monitoring her life signs went berserk.

Commander Greene had gotten out of bed and staggered over.

Nurse Shook tried steering him back toward his own bed, but the Commander had none of it. “No.”

“Come on, you need to be back in bed, there’s nothing you can do,” Shook told him.

“The Captain!” Greene cried out, then held his head in his hands.

Dr. Clayton whirled about, fury burning behind his eyes.

“You idiot, get back to your bed NOW!”

Greene scowled at him. “I am the second in command of this vessel, and that woman is the Captain. I want -“

“Right now you’re the second in command of nothing. And she may be the Captain of this boat, but I am the Captain down here. This is my sickbay. You’ll do as you’re told. Now get back to your goddamned bed and let me try to save this woman!”

Greene stopped resisting and allowed Nurse Shook to take him back, his shoulders slumped.

“Flat lining,” Munoz announced.

“To hell with all this,” Clayton said. He climbed up on the bed, and to Munoz’s shocked surprise, mounted the Captain’s midsection. He placed both hands on her chest and started working her. “Frank, go grab a defrib. Move it.”

“Yes Doctor.”

Clayton massaged her heart, up and down, as if he were kneading bread. He performed chest compressions to an inaudible rhythm drummed into him when he was but a trainee. Even with every instrument and piece of modern equipment available, a doctor never forgot that simple rhythm.

“Don’t do this …” Clayton huffed.

12.

They watched as the Krinuan ships went toe-to-toe with the Naxors and chased them from the battlefield.

However, instead of turning back to resume a defensive position near the Defiant, Praror’s ships continued to pursue.

“Captain Praror says that he will not allow them to leave,” Ensign Beaumont reported.

“That’s his call,” Chang said. She felt exhausted. They’d done enough fighting for one day.

This ship has never been through so much … she thought. Or this crew.

“Contact engineering,” she told Beaumont.

13.

Chief Gunn’s team waited out in the hall for the engineering section to fill back up with breathable air. The Chief paced, waiting for the little red light above the door to change to green.

The moment it did, she pushed the doors apart, not waiting for them to open for her. The others filed in after her and rushed to their stations.

“Right! You lot know the drill. We do it by the book. But first thing’s first. We’ve gotta deal with this coolant problem,” she said.

Belcher worked alongside her.

Gunn looked up as if in prayer to the Patron Saint of Engineers.

Let’s give this old girl her heartbeat back, she thought, then set to work.

14.

In the sickbay, Dr. Clayton continued to try and kickstart Jessica’s heart.

“Doctor, perhaps …” Munoz offered.

Clayton ignored him and kept going. Up and down. Up and down.

Come on Jessica, come back to us, he thought.

*

Captain Singh looked down into his own coffin.

“Dad?”

He looked up. “Jessica …”

She enveloped him, held him tight. However the recently-deceased Singh remained exactly that. They parted.

“How … ?”

He shook his head. “No questions. I am gone. But I am also here.”

He shrugged.

The stepped away from the coffin and turned toward the darkness.

“There’s nothing there,” Jessica said.

“It always seems that way, doesn’t it?” Singh asked her. “A great wall of nothing. And yet we journey into it, seeking answers.”

“You said this to me once, a long time ago,” she told him.

“Oh, I probably did. Things have gotten muddled,” Singh said.

Jessica swallowed. “Am I dead?”

He shook his head. “No, Jessica. Not just yet. But you’re on the precipice.”

“What do you mean?”

“Well, you’re at the point of dying. That’s what I mean.”

“Oh.”

They regarded the darkness for a moment.

“You see that?” he asked her.

Singh pointed a finger into the black, and at first Jessica couldn’t make out what it was he was Singh pointed to. But then she saw it. A pyramid.

“Yes.”

“Go and get it.”

She tried to leap forward, but her legs were useless. They wouldn’t move.

She looked at her Father helplessly. “I can’t …”

“I know Jess. I know,” Singh said. He wiped tears from his eyes. “Let me help you.”

He got behind her and placed his hands at the small of her back. She braced for what was to come. “Dad…I’m scared. I know what you’re about to do, but I’m still scared. It’s just a great big nothing.”

“Don’t be afraid. I’ll always be around, Jess. You’re not alone,” he said and shoved her into the void. She hurtled toward the spinning pyramid, reached out with her hands and grabbed hold. Behind her, she could hear his voice receding into the distance. “Good girl.”

*

“Doc!”

Clayton stopped his chest compressions and looked at Nurse Munoz, his eyes wide. Sweat dripped from his forehead. “Well?”

Frank Munoz shook his head. “Doc…I can’t believe it …”

Clayton climbed down and looked up at the board himself. She’d pulled through. Now they just had to monitor her closely and ensure she didn’t slip away again.

Dr. Clayton affectionately laid a hand on her forehead and smiled with relief.

“Good girl,” he said. Then he turned to Munoz. “I need a cigarette.”

15.

The Naxor raised its weapon in the air and shook its arms. Hawk had a split second in which to roll out of the way as the Naxor staff slammed down on the decking.

Gunfire popped and exploded in the smoky air around him, but he paid it no mind. The Naxor lifted the staff again and let loose a battle cry.

“Argh!” Hawk grunted as he swung his lower half around to swipe the alien’s legs out from under it. The insectoid fell backward. Hawk didn’t wait for it to fall. He sprang to his feet, at the same time grabbing his kataan from where it had slipped from his hand moments before. The Naxor pushed itself up on its forearms, glared at him, antennae twitching.

“Goodnight Vienna,” Captain Nowlan said and decapitated the Naxor soldier with one clean swipe of his blade.

He looked up in time to make eye contact with Master At Arms Eisenhower, who gave him a nod to say he’d seen the quick kill. Hawk shrugged cockily, in a way that said, “It’s effortless.”

Nowlan turned back to the never-ending invasion of Naxor from the other hole they’d bored through the Defiant. If only they could get a break in the fighting. Another one of those sonic grenades would just about do the trick…

Hawk watched as three Naxor stood before the gaping hole, holding one end of some large metal cylinder. They carried it through to the hangar, then the three Naxor on the other end of it followed. He burst forth, kataan at the ready to cut through them. His mind had no time to wonder what the object might be. He only sensed danger and knew he must act. Everyone around him was too involved in their own fights with the other Naxor soldiers to have seen it. He cut across the hangar to where they were setting the cylinder down and got ready to execute more bugs.

He didn’t see the Naxor rush up on the side of him bearing a hand canon. It fired, a blue wave of energy hitting him dead-on. His legs crumbled first.

I’ve been shot, was his first thought. Then, I’m dead.

But when he fell to the deck he realized he wasn’t going to die, at least not right now. Whatever they’d hit him with, it turned his whole body into a numb block of ice. He heard the kataan strike the deck plating and slid away somewhere. He flopped down and stayed there.

Sinking. Sinking. Hawk panicked because he could feel his breathing getting shallower by the second, but he couldn’t fight it. Couldn’t do anything but allow himself to sink away, deep down into the seas of unconsciousness. His eyes rolled into the back of his head and he was gone.

Eisenhower watched as a Naxor soldier knocked one of the Defiant’s crew down then proceeded to level his gun at him. Eisenhower lifted his own weapon–liberated from a fallen comrade minutes before–and shot the insectoid in the back. It spun about, a hole through its middle, then fell down dead.

How ironic, Eisenhower thought. Now we’ve shot a hole through you.

He heard an energy weapon fire. You couldn’t mistake the sound. Eisenhower turned his head in time to see Captain Nowlan’s kataan fall away. The Captain himself looked out of it.

He rushed in that direction, but his legs just weren’t quick enough. The Naxor started to retreat back through the hole to their ship. They carried Hawk Nowlan with them.

As much as he was filled with panic at Hawk’s capture, his years of service kicked in above all else.

“Everyone clear the hangar! Get out of here!” he yelled. He made for the blast doors at the entrance. “GET OUT! RUN!”

The others saw him moving as fast as possible and started to follow. For some it was too late. The last of the Naxor soldiers leapt through the hole, followed by a loud explosion seconds later. The atmosphere rushed toward the hole as the Naxor vessel detached itself from the Defiant’s side to escape. It left a gaping hole, with everything inside the hangar sucked out into space. Several crew closest to the hole barely registered what was happening before they were sucked out.

The air rushed out of the hangar with a scream, and as soon as everyone who could get clear of it was on the other side of the blast door, Eisenhower slammed his hand against the control plate. The emergency contactor caused the doors to shut. Through a thick glass porthole, the Master At Arms watched as the last tendrils of breathable air were sucked clean out of the hangar on the other side. Gasping for breath, he hobbled over to the nearest comm. panel and contacted the Emergency Commander Centre. There were a lot of wounded crew sprawled on the floor, similarly trying to catch their breath.

“Chang here.”

“This…is Eisenhower…” he said. The old man paused to breathe. “He’s gone…the enemy…they’ve kidnapped…Captain Nowlan…he’s gone…”

*

The words rang out like hammer blows against a church bell.

“Hold the line,” Chang told him. She looked up. “Jackson, track that ship!”

The Lieutenant’s fingers flew over the controls. “I have their course plotted.”

“Intercept at maximum velocity. Ensign Beaumont, make contact and warn them that we will stop at nothing to get our crewman back.”

“Aye.”

Chang felt her gut churn.

Lieutenant Rogers smacked his hands against the helm console and spun about, frustration etched onto his face. “No response through the helm. She’s dead!”

*

Chief Gunn glanced about as the lights in the engineering section dimmed, then died altogether. Emergency lighting flickered to life.

“Complete power failure to lines two and three,” Belcher reported. He worked on a nearby station.

“Keep on it. I’ll try to bypass the affected systems. Ensign McJunkin come with me,” Gunn ordered a nearby Ensign. He fell in step with her as she raced around the engineering section.

*

“Enemy vessel getting away. We’re losing contact on sensors,” Jackson said with a snarl. “Dammit!”

Chang sighed. “Beaumont, contact engineering and ask them what the hell is going on down there. We need power.”

She shook her head and flipped the channel to the hangar back open.

“Eisenhower, are you still there? Eisenhower?”

*

The Master At Arms heard her voice, but felt incapable of answering straight away. His face pressed against the port of the blast door, he watched the long metal capsule the Naxor had set on the deck come to life. Lights flashed along its outer edges in a rapid sequence.

“Oh crumbs,” he said under his breath.

16.

“Radiological alarm!” Jackson spun about on his heels. “Main hangar!”

“Hangar bay!” Chang shouted into the comm. “Eisenhower do you hear me?”

The overhead crackled and spat static until a voice spoke. It was the Master At Arms again. “I may just be the old fella who hands out the shooting pistols at the duel, but if I’m not mistaken that’ll be a bomb they planted on our deck,” he told her.

Chang swallowed. When would it end? How far did it have to go?

“I don’t have to tell you what’s going to happen if that goes off,” Chang warned.

*

“Yup,” Eisenhower said. He closed the channel, drew a deep breath and turned to the others.

“I need four people to suit up and help me get that thing onto a shuttle. The rest of you need to get out of here, on the double.”

Whilst they busied themselves around him, the old man went back to the little bit of glass separating them from the depressurized hell of the hangar. He watched the lights on the capsule flash faster and faster. Sweat tickled the back of his neck and he wiped it away absently.

The clock is ticking, he thought.

17.

“Alert Praror that he needs to clear the area. We have a bomb on board that might blow any minute. Tell them to get some distance,” Chang told Beaumont.

“Aye.”

Chang opened the comm. to the engineering section.

“Chief, we could do with that Jump Drive right about now,” Chang said.

“We know the situation, but it’s not gonna happen, Lieutenant,” Gunn said on the other end. “I can’t give it to you.”

“Even a short burst, just enough to get us clear of the immediate area,” Chang said.

“Sorry,” the Chief said. “The best I can do is reroute power to the hull plating.”

“We’ll take whatever you’ve got,” Chang said and closed the channel.

*

“Careful fellas,” Eisenhower said. The other men slid the capsule into the back of Speedy and shut the hatch. They raised their suited hands in salute to the Master At Arms, who returned the gesture.

“Good luck sir,” one of them said.

“And to you too, boys,” Eisenhower said. He climbed into the cockpit of the legendary fighter and sealed it up. The crewmen stepped away from the ship as it came to life, its engines glowing white hot.

Eisenhower hadn’t flown in some years, but everything came back to him as he brought Speedy up off the deck and moved the craft slowly toward the hangar doors. A moment later they parted for him, and he pushed Speedy forward, into space.

*

The Chief watched with satisfaction as the power levels to the hull plating increased dramatically.

“Lieutenant, I’ve got you your hull plating. I’m sorry I can’t do more …”

“Thank you Chief, for everything,” Chang said. She closed the channel then stood behind Rogers at the helm station. “Give it all you’ve got, Rogers.”

She looked up at the viewscreen. It showed their aft as they limped away from the battle zone. She could still make out Speedy in retreat behind them.

Good luck Eisenhower, she thought.

*

Eisenhower could still see the Defiant even though it was a long way away. Behind him, in the cramped cargo compartment of Speedy, the Naxor bomb hummed with energy. He swallowed, terrified at what was about to happen.

He looked around the confines of the ship’s cockpit.

Well, at least I got a spin in it, he thought. If I’d known as a kid that I’d one day get to ride a mission in Speedy I’d have wet my pants.

He started to laugh at the notion. It started out quiet, and then it was so loud it took his breath away. At the very instance the weapon blew, Master At Arms Eisenhower was still laughing.

*

A baby sun blossomed into life behind them. The crew manning the Emergency Command Centre shielded their eyes from the blinding light of the explosion, and knew the shockwave would follow.

It slammed into the back of the Defiant, a brick wall of pure kinetic and radioactive energy. Lieutenant Jackson managed to hang onto his console, but Chang was thrown to the floor. Beaumont staggered about, barely kept his feet.

Systems blew around them.

Rogers cringed at the shower of sparks raining down around them. “Engines are offline!” he managed to shout over the din.

The Defiant shook from bow to stern. The ship shivered in her bones.

This time she’ll snap, Lisa Chang thought.

But then the ship stabilised. They’d ridden the worst of the energy wave, and the Defiant was left to coast through the last of it. She drifted forward from the residual thrust.

18.

“Captain Praror offers his assistance,” Ensign Beaumont told her.

Lieutenant Chang nodded. “Give him our situation and tell him we’ll gladly accept any help he can give us.”

Beaumont relayed the message. As she waited, Chang asked Jackson to try his systems again. The Lieutenant did so, then shook his head.

“Nothing.”

“Praror would like to attach grapplers to the front of our hull and tow us back to their planet,” Beaumont said.

“Agreed,” Chang said curtly.

“Makes us a load of spare parts,” Jackson remarked.

Chang shrugged. “That’s one way of looking at it. But then we will still need someone in here firing the manoeuvring thrusters and monitoring communications.”

“I guess so.”

“So who does that leave?”

“Me?” Beaumont asked, looking at the other two then back to Lieutenant Chang.

She nodded slowly. “I have something in mind for you, Lieutenant. It should be right up your alley.”

19.

“Take a seat, Commander,” Jessica told him. Greene perched himself on the edge of her bed.

“What is it?” he asked softly.

“I’ve not been honest with you, Del. And for that I’m sorry. As the second in command of this ship … and as my friend, I should have told you and I didn’t.”

The Commander frowned. “I don’t get it …”

“A little while ago it was revealed to me that Andrew was my Father,” she explained. Tears came, and she made no attempt to hold them back. “And that he had MS, Del. He knew all about it but never told anyone.”

Greene was shocked. “And he knew you were his daughter?”

Jessica nodded.

“And the MS …”

“I have it,” Jessica said. “And I’ve started to feel the effects of it. The doctor tells me that I may need a stick to help me walk.”

She broke down and started to sob into her hands. The Commander leaned forward and took her in his arms, held her tight against his chest and let her cry it out.

“It’ll be okay,” he whispered.

The door to the sickbay opened behind him, and the Commander turned in time to see Chief Gunn walk in.

She stopped short of the bed, unsure of what was going on. Greene patted Jessica’s back and then let go. She sat up, wiped at her eyes and nose.

Gunn grabbed a handful of tissues and returned. “Here honey. Here.”

Jessica took them gratefully and cleaned the mess off her face, sniffling.

The Chief rubbed her back as Greene explained all that had happened. He’d got a full report of everything following the explosion. “We lost Boi, Banks, Salnow,” he told her. “Ensign Rayne. Eisenhower …”

He looked at the Chief, who urged him on.

“And, uh, there’s another loss. But he’s not dead. Well, not yet,” Greene said.

“Who?” Jessica asked.

“Captain Nowlan. They took him,” he said incredulously.

Jessica shook her head in disbelief. “Our whole family has been torn apart. When will it end, Del?”

He opened his arms out. “I don’t know what to say, Jess. I don’t know what to say.”

“Maybe we should give the Captain some rest. Let her absorb everything. We’ll come back a bit later,” the Chief told her. “I’ll bring you something hot from the mess.”

Jessica smiled. “Thank you Chief.”

“And we’ll sort everything out, you just watch,” Greene promised her.

She smiled again and watched the two of them leave the sickbay. But when they left her smile left with them.

*

Outside the Meryl Gunn took Commander Greene’s hand in her own as they walked along the corridor. He looked at her in surprise but she made nothing of it.

“I’m so glad you’re safe,” Gunn said. She bit her lip, as if deciding whether or not to say what came next.

“I love you.”

The Commander gave her hand a good firm squeeze. “You know, I love you too. I think I always have.”

There was a moment, as they walked hand in hand, where they stared into each other’s eyes. It lasted only a second, but for the two of them lost in that moment, it stretched out for an eternity. Despite the doom and gloom around them, there was still the hope they found in each other. A love that had only grown through all they’d been through. Nothing else mattered. Whatever happened now.

“Soppy sod,” Meryl said with a chuckle.

*

Lieutenant Roland Beaumont checked the list on his data pad against the numbers Lieutenant Ken Dunham shouted back to him. The munitions section remained otherwise quiet; the battle over, all but relief crew had been sent to their quarters to get some much deserved rack time. That is, apart from the two Lieutenants tasked with doing a full stock take of their weaponry.

“I always wanted to be down here,” Jackson said, tired but happy. “You know, work down here.”

“It has its moments,” Dunham said. “You can add another batch of twelve to that list.”

Dunham clambered out from the firing tube and dusted his hands.

“So that’s it then,” Beaumont said. He signed off on the report and sent it away. It would make its way to the personal consoles of all the command staff.

They’d all know just how few Missiles remained.

“We keep getting into these scrapes,” Dunham said. “It’s running things low. Trouble is, it’s not like we have a resupply ship headed our way.”

“Yeah I get you,” Beaumont said.

“Hey, you wanna go grab a coffee? I know it’s been a long night, but I’m wired. I don’t think I could sleep if I wanted to,” Dunham explained.

Beaumont nodded. “Yeah come on. We can see if there’s any of that pie left.”

20.

The Krinuan’s homeworld loomed into view, and Lieutenant Chang breathed a sigh of relief.

“Approaching planet,” Rogers said as though she couldn’t see that for herself.

He’s just going through the motions, Chang told herself. Just like all of us. Operating on auto pilot to just get through the day. It’s all we can do. All I can do, anyway.

She felt a hand on her shoulder and turned to see Commander Greene stood there. He looked gruesome with his scabbed, burnt skin and bandages. If the Defiant had taken some knocks of late, the Commander had accumulated more.

“Lieutenant, how’re we doing?” he asked her. He looked around the cramped confines of the Emergency Command Centre. “Roomy in here, ain’t it?”

Lisa laughed despite herself. “You get used to it.”

“About to detach from the Krinuans and engage our own engines,” Rogers reported from the helm.

Greene nodded. “Good job people. No need to rush it though; take it easy.”

“Sir, I wondered if you’d mind seeing us in. I hoped to, uh …” Chang looked away.

“Get some rest. I understand.”

She shook her head. “Go see the Captain,” she said, looking back up.

Greene smiled weakly.

“I think she’d like that, Lieutenant.”

He watched Chang go. A wave of emotion broke and rolled over him, and Greene couldn’t help feeling that yet again, their predicament had cost them dearly.

He thought of Lieutenant Banks, Ensign Boi, Salnow … Olivia Rayne …

Commander Greene turned back to the viewscreen.

“Take her steady gents,” he said. “She’s been through a lot.”

*

Lieutenant Lisa Chang fiddled nervously with her hands as she stood over the sleeping form of Captain Jessica King. Somehow King sensed her presence. Her eyes opened slowly, and she looked up at the Lieutenant.

“Lisa,” she said. “Sit. Please.”

Chang did as she was told, and sat in a chair next to the bed.

“Captain. How are you?”

Jessica smiled. “I’ve been better.”

Chang looked down at her hands. She didn’t know how to tell her Captain about all that had happened. About the lives that were lost …

Jessica reached and took hold of Chang’s hands. “I know.”

“I …” Chang couldn’t say any more than that.

“Olivia saved your life.”

Chang nodded. She couldn’t speak. Jessica squeezed her hands.

“You’ll be fine,” she said softly. “I’ll help you through it. You don’t have to grieve on your own.”

Chang smiled. “Thank you.”

“I know it hurts, Lieutenant. But it will get better. She died so that you could live. So that we all could live. Never forget that.”

Chang nodded.

“I am so proud of you, Lisa. The ship was without a leader, and you stepped into that role and owned it. I couldn’t ask for more of you. Of any of you,” King said.

“And you heard about Eisenhower?” Chang asked her.

“Yes …” Jessica said.

“And they took Captain Nowlan. We have to find a way to get him back,” Chang said.

“We will,” King said and squeezed her hands again. “I promise.”

Silence fell like a veil around them.

“Captain, I’d better let you get some rest. I wouldn’t mind some myself, either,” Chang said.

“Of course,” Jessica said.

She watched Chang go, then she lay back staring up at the ceiling. Soon she fell asleep, but there were no dreams. Only the night side of her mind. Dark, cold, empty … and filled with ghosts.

21.

Meptin? Meptin cammow himmmmeeee?

Sounds. Incomprehensible sounds that at first came to him through a haze, and then slowly coalesced, forming themselves into words that he could understand.

Meptin? Meptin cammow hear me?

The fog of unconsciousness rolled back, and Hawk was aware of a huge pain in the centre of his head, as if from the worst hangover in history.

“Captain? Can you hear me?” that same voice asked him, but this time it made sense. This time it was clear, measured, recognizable …

Hawk opened his eyes and peered straight into the mirrored mask of General Carn.

He shook his head. “Can’t be.”

The General chuckled, dry, behind his mask.

“You’re dead …” Hawk said in disbelief.

“Evidently not,” Carn said. “Reports of my demise are grossly exaggerated. But believe me, Captain, you will soon wish that you were. Death will be but a sweet release from what I have in store for you …”

Hawk licked his lips. They were cracked, sore. “Where am I? Where are you keeping me?”

General Carn came as close as he could. All that Hawk could see in that silvery, mirrored mask was his own weary reflection. His voice came as a hate-filled rasp, dripping venom; the whistle of mercury vapour over acid. Pure, unquenchable hatred and conviction.

“Hell.”

PART SEVEN

BALANCE

1.

Lisa Chang straightened her uniform on the way to the Captain’s quarters. The corridors were a jumbled mess of fallen wires and circuitry. Here and there a pipe had burst free from a wall panel. Fluid leaked onto the deck. The Defiant was in the worst shape Chang had ever seen her.

Privately, the Lieutenant wondered if they’d ever patch the old girl back together. She’d certainly been put through her paces, especially with the last battle.

Lisa signalled at Captain King’s door. A second later, the door opened and Chang stepped inside.

“Lisa,” Captain King said, about to get up from her sofa with the aid of a stick.

Chang bounded forward to help, but King waved her away.

“I have to learn to do this myself,” the Captain said. She grunted as she heaved herself onto her feet, using the stick for support.

“Looks painful,” Chang said.

Jessica nodded. “Yes. Yes it is.”

She’d discussed with Commander Greene whether or not to tell the crew about her MS, and they’d both decided against it. Knowing their leader had such a weakness may prove difficult in the long run. The crew might question her ability to command the ship and to command them. She couldn’t have that.

So they’d told the crew that she’d lost some use of her legs due to the accident.

It would do for the time being.

Jessica was more than aware that right now her crew needed solidarity, not weakness.

The show must go on, King thought.

“Nice to see Commander Greene is on the mend,” Chang said.

“He’s tough as old boots,” Jessica said with a smile. She moved about slowly with the aid of the cane, stopping to stretch her legs one after the other as she spoke. “But I’d say that about all of you.”

“We do our best,” Chang said with no small amount of pride.

“Yes you do,” King said. “And that’s why I’ve asked you here. You performed admirably, Lisa. Above and beyond the call of duty, so to speak. When all seemed lost, you held your head above the water and did your job.”

“Thank you sir.”

“Which is why I have made the decision to promote you to the rank of Commander, bypassing the usual Lieutenant-Commander interim. Effective immediately, you are Commander Lisa Chang,” King said. She tossed a silver pin to her.

The colour flushed into Chang’s cheeks as she looked at the shiny new pin in her hand. “Captain, I don’t know what to say.”

“Say that you’re proud of yourself, because you should be,” King said. She perched herself on the edge of her desk. It brought temporary relief to her aching legs. “With what you’ve had to experience.”

Lisa looked down at the deck. “It’s been hard. We … were close.”

“I know you were. As your Captain, I’m always here for you. If you need to talk.”

Chang looked up. “Thank you.”

Captain King got back on her feet. Best to keep moving about. Perhaps it would help.

“Now, there will be changes to the way we do things. We don’t have the bridge. Not for the time being, anyway. And I can’t stand in that Emergency Command Centre for long periods of time. So we will be splitting command of the Defiant across three shifts instead of two,” she said.

“A good idea,” Chang said.

“From now on, we will all do an eight-hour shift, as opposed to the normal twelve-hour. That will mean we share the responsibility between the three ranking commanding officers on board. It’ll also mean we get more time to do other things. After what’s happened, we’re stretched thin all over,” King said.

“I totally agree,” Lisa said. “The repair teams are struggling to get this work done right now. They could use any help we can give them. So what about the bridge crew?”

“I think Rogers at the helm, Beaumont at communications and Jackson for weapons. We won’t have the luxury of manning stations now. It’s like we’ve gone from commanding the ship from a barn to commanding it from a tool shed.”

“They’re all good choices, sir,” Chang said. “I couldn’t have asked more for them, you know, before.”

“Yes,” Jessica said. She checked the time. “I’m due to meet the others in the hangar. Care to walk with me?”

“Certainly. I think we have Lieutenant Rogers minding the ship for the minute,” Chang said.

“Well then, take my arm, Commander. Let’s go for a slow, decrepit walk to the hangar bay,” King said with a snigger.

2.

The Defiant had been the primary focus of the crew. Their secondary concern was to see what could be done with the Naxor ship still jutting from their side.

“How’s it going, Del?” Jessica asked as she walked onto the hangar.

Commander Greene had been mid-flow with Chief Gunn and her right hand, Gary Belcher. There were Krinuans aboard, helping where they could.

“Ah, Captain,” Greene said. “Right on time.”

“You sound excited,” King said.

“I think we’re good to go,” he said. He walked with her towards the hole in the side of the hangar where the Naxor had tunnelled through from outside. “Once we dragged the bodies out and steamed it down in there, we realised there’s very little damage.”

Gunn shook her head. “Forgive him, Captain. He’s not slept. There was fire damage, but once we cleaned it all up it was cosmetic. I replaced a few components in there, with the help of our Krinuan friends, and everything’s back up and running.”

“So what does this mean for us?” King asked.

Greene licked his lips. Now she could see he hadn’t slept. His eyes were positively feverish. “We can go rescue Hawk.”

*

Jessica sat down on a cargo crate. “So … let’s go over this one more time. You pilot the Naxor ship from here to wherever it is they’re holding Hawk. And you think they’ll just let you fly right on in?”

“Why wouldn’t they? We’re one of them right?” Greene said.

“True. Then what? Where are they holding him? We have no idea where Captain Nowlan is -” Jessica said.

“- but we do, Captain,” a voice cut in.

She turned to see Captain Praror stride across the hangar.

“I thought you were aboard your own vessel,” King said. She broke into a wide smile as Praror rested a paw on her shoulder.

“I’ve been aboard awhile, dear Captain. Helping where I can,” Praror said. “And I believe I can help you with your problem.”

“Yes?”

Praror’s eyes lit with an inner spark. “I know where they’ve taken him. There is only one place. But with this ship … if you’re lucky … we may just manage to rescue him.”

Jessica looked at Commander Greene. “I can see you won’t take no for an answer. We’re going to have a mutiny on board if I do.”

“We have to try,” Greene said.

“I would never have said otherwise, Del. But I don’t want any more lives lost, either,” King said.

Praror paced back and forth. “We will fly the Naxor vessel to the barren prison planet of Ozbah. There is only one facility, and it is not very big. The prisoners do not last long enough to build anything more substantial. Still, it will have its challenges. We will face death getting in … and even then your Captain Nowlan may not be alive.”

Greene went to say something, but Praror nodded his head to say he already understood.

“But we will try, Commander. We will try to save your hero.”

Jessica stood. She looked at them all. Then she smiled. “Oh he’s more than that, Captain Praror. He’s more than a hero … he’s a legend.”

“That’s the spirit!” Greene said, visibly pumped for action.

Praror laughed, a mix of purr and deep belly rumble.

“I think it’s great and all,” Chief Gunn said. “But you do realise this leaves me yet another hole in the ship I have to patch.”

Greene threw his arm around her and yanked her in for a tight squeeze. “Stop moaning!”

She pushed him away. “Get off of me you big lug!”

Greene was already off. “Come on we’ve got work to do. Everybody get yourselves motivated. We need supplies, weapons, medical kits stat!”

Gunn looked helplessly at the Captain.

Jessica just shook her head. She felt sorry she wouldn’t be able to go with them. But she had a starship and its entire crew to look after. It would be down to the Commander and whoever he took with him to try and rescue Hawk from the Naxors. She only wished it didn’t mean putting more lives at risk.

“Are you all right, Captain?” Chang asked.

She drew a deep breath. The Commander busied himself ordering the others about, including Captain Praror and his crewmen.

“I want them home safe,” she said.

*

An hour later and they were good to go. Nothing could be done about the hole they’d leave in the hull when they cut loose of the Defiant, so the whole hangar would have to be bled of atmosphere beforehand and sealed. The Chief and a couple of other engineers would wait in spacesuits for the Naxor ship to leave, then set about sealing the hole back up.

Before they bled the hangar of oxygen, Captain King returned to see them off.

“You go get him, Del, and you come straight back,” she said. “No heroics.”

“Never,” he said with a grin.

Jessica saluted the others. “And that goes for the rest of you.”

Captain Praror chuckled. There were a half dozen Krinuans going along for the ride with Praror and Commander Greene. Jessica was pleased to see that a couple of the Defiant’s repo crew were going along, too. She knew they held Hawk in high regard, for what his father had done to kick start their liberation all those years before.

She turned to leave the hangar when she found Selena Walker heading for them, a carryall over her shoulder.

“Selena?”

Walker saluted. Jessica returned the gesture. “Captain.”

“What’re you doing down here? We’re about to clear the hangar …”

“Captain, I want to go along. I want to help bring him back,” Selena said.

King sighed. “It’ll be dangerous. I couldn’t live with myself -“

“I want to. I need to,” Selena said. “I love him.”

King looked at Commander Greene. He just shrugged.

“I’m happy to have her aboard, Captain,” he said.

Jessica rolled her eyes. “Very well. But you listen to me, Miss Walker. Stay out of danger. Let those with guns lead the way.”

Selena swivelled her hip to reveal a holster. She patted it.

“Believe it or not, Captain, I’m a good shot,” Selena said.

Jessica jabbed a finger in Greene’s direction. “This live wire’s your responsibility now, Del,” she said with a smirk. With that she left, her stick tapping rhythmically on the deck.

“Come on, people, let’s get this show on the road!” Greene yelled. They filed onto the Naxor ship. He waited till he could talk to Selena Walker.

“You sure about this? It might be rough,” he said.

“Like I said, I need to go. I can’t sit on this ship, twiddling my thumbs. Hawk’s everything I’ve ever wanted, and more. I have to help save him.”

Greene nodded and left her to join the others.

Chief Gunn stood watching the farewells with her helmet tucked under her arm. “Well? Do we say goodbye?”

The Commander opened his arms and scooped her up. She wrapped her arms around his waist.

“No goodbyes. I’ll be back before you know it,” Greene told her.

Gunn squared him with an evil eye. “You better, Del.”

“I will.”

They kissed, a little longer than either would have wanted to in front of everyone, but still they couldn’t bring themselves to end it. If they only could’ve stood there like that, locked in each other’s embrace, they would.

When they finally parted, she wished him good luck.

The Commander took a deep breath. He pointed at her helmet. “Don’t forget that.”

Gunn waved him away. “I know what I’m doing peanut, now be off with you.”

She watched him jog across the hangar and climb through the hole in the wall. The sirens sounded as the atmosphere was bled from the area. The blast doors slammed shut. Gunn put her helmet on and twisted it into place.

Locked in her own glass bubble she afforded herself one tear. It trickled slowly down her cheek until it met with the fabric of her suit, touching her chin.

The Naxor ship separated from the side of the Defiant. Following a jolt, the smaller ship drifted away to gain some distance. The Chief could make out the star field beyond.

She sighed, then bent down to pick up her welding torch.

Gunn was glad the Commander hadn’t turned back around at the last minute. If he had, the Chief knew her resolve would have broken.

Time to patch a hole, she thought.

3.

“We’ll up the dose. I’m seeing some improvement in the swelling at the back of your brain stem. If we can get it down even more …” Dr. Clayton said hopefully.

“I get you,” Jessica said.

“We will try and combat this, Jess,” Clayton said, a hand on her shoulder. “I’ll do everything I can.”

She reached up and patted his hand. “I know you will. Now stop fussing.”

Jessica got up from the medical bed and stretched. Dr. Clayton handed her the cane. He signalled to Nurse Munoz that he was leaving sick bay with her.

“I’ll walk with you,” he said.

“Doctor, I’m not very fast,” King said.

“A good thing I’m only after a slow stroll then, isn’t it?” Clayton said.

They walked into the corridor, side by side.

“Ship’s a catastrophe,” Jessica said. “I’ve never seen her in such a state.”

“The Chief’ll fix her up. You watch,” Clayton said.

King shook her head. “I think this time she’s beyond the abilities of even the Chief. I don’t know …”

“What’s that?”

She stopped, leaned on her cane for support. There were no other crew members in either direction, yet Jessica lowered her voice. “Nothing seems to go right for us. We don’t catch a break. I don’t know how to stop this family from suffering.”

To her surprise, Dr. Clayton broke into a wide smile.

She frowned. “What’s so amusing?”

Clayton shook his head, still smiling. “It’s nothing, it’s just … I once heard your father say something just like that.”

“Oh?”

“Years ago. Before you came aboard. The ship took a beating in the Dujua Conflict.”

“I know of it,” Jessica said.

“She was in a bad state. Like now,” Clayton said, indicating the wires and shattered plastic that littered the floor. “And Captain Singh came down here to see to the wounded. I had my hands full; I can tell you.”

“What did he say to you?”

“He said, ‘I hate to see my family suffer like this,’ and I really got the sense that he truly felt that way, Jess. The ship was the home, and the crew, the family. And it broke his heart to see either in pain,” Clayton said.

“You ever heard the saying ‘Sometimes you can tell your bartender things you wouldn’t tell your doctor’?”

“More often than you’d think,” Clayton admitted. “Listen, Jess, things will pick up. And I don’t think we’re doing all that bad. The family is hurt, but they’re holding together.”

Jessica nodded. “True. I’m sorry, these are my private concerns. I shouldn’t voice them to anyone, let alone my doctor.”

Dr. Clayton laughed. “Right this minute, I’m your bartender, remember?”

“What advice does my bartender offer me then?”

“Everything will sort itself out,” Clayton said in dead seriousness. “Get through today. Tomorrow can wait.”

Jessica started walking away. “Profound, doctor,” she said over her shoulder.

Clayton watched her go. Under his breath, he said, “You’re welcome.”

Then he went back to the sickbay.

4.

CLLLLAAAANNNNGGGG!!!!

The high-pitched wail threatened to split his head in two.

“Beautiful, is it not, Captain?” General Carn asked him. “It has a certain … melody.”

Hawk peered through misty eyes. He found it increasingly hard to focus. The electrical current the General continued to use to torture his prisoner had taken its toll. With each long, painful burst, Hawk grew more tired. With each long, painful burst, he grew more tired.

Carn patted the side of Hawk’s face.

CLLLLAAAANNNNGGGG!!!!

Captain Nowlan cringed at the sound. He hung from chains, his feet dangling above the floor. It was scarily familiar to a time previous when the General had shown his own unique hospitality towards Hawk.

“Good Captain, I do believe you weaken,” Carn said with a chuckle. He moved away.

In front of Hawk there was a stand, a round device clamped to the top. It had a set of lights on the front, turning in a hypnotic spiral. Below it, a cone. The source of the god-awful sound Carn was intent on subjecting him to. Hawk’s mind was hazy, shocked from the bouts of pain inflicted at the hand of the Draxx General. And the sound.

“What are you doin’ to me?” Hawk asked weakly.

“You do not appreciate the sound?”

Hawk shook his head. Closed his eyes from exhaustion. “It’s not my favourite band, pal, that’s for sure …”

Carn turned slowly around. “Humour. A human fallacy. You think that making light of your situation will help.”

Hawk didn’t have the energy to argue. He hung his head. Sweat dripped from his hair.

“History repeats itself, does it not Captain?” Carn asked, amused. “I believe we have been met like this before, the two of us. Perhaps this time the message will sink in.”

That brought Nowlan around a little. He looked back up, anger flashing in his eyes. “You’ll never break me … never!”

With a simple nod of Carn’s head, one of his subordinates threw a switch. Raw electricity coursed through his veins, burned his muscles, made his bones hot. His teeth slammed together so hard they threatened to shatter from the force. Hawk screamed through clenched jaws until the breath ran out of his lungs. Spittle poured from his mouth.

Then the power was gone. Pain flooded through him in waves, and Hawk found everything falling into the distance. He slipped into unconsciousness and back into his own painful memories.

*

He was back in his ship, Speedy And there was Carn’s own fighter, zooming towards the huge Union construction array.

“He’s makin’ for it,” Hawk reported into his headset. The two fighters flying either side of him acknowledged his report. “Yuh two hang back. Pick up any stragglers. I’m takin’ him myself.”

“Captain -” Striker started to say.

“That’s an order!” Hawk spat. He pushed Speedy down to follow Carn’s vector, and increased to full thrust to close the gap.

Carn swept beneath the construction arrays, a spidery network of engineering grids used for constructing Union starships and space stations. Though Hawk knew the General’s interest didn’t lie with ships and stations. What he was after lay at the end of the arrays: Project 6.

Carn dove in among the arrays, ducking in and out of jagged white framework, and Hawk matched him move for move. Hawk managed to fire off a few shots, but they were little more than a warning, nowhere near the mark.

“Dammit!”

“Hawk, come in please, Hawk,” the familiar voice of Admiral Schaffer issued from the comm.

“Hawk here.”

“Kid, we’re having a hard time tracking him with the turrets. Unless you stop him before he gets there.”

“Yuh sir,” Hawk said. He performed a barrel roll, then a dive to duck away from a warhead Carn shot his way. It whirred past, missed him by inches. “I’m tryin’.”

“I have the Wermach en route to defend the project, but it won’t get there before he does. If he fires on it …”

Hawk sighed. “I won’t let that happen.”

They left the last of the arrays behind. Carn rocketed towards Project 6, a diamond-shaped machine about a hundred feet tall. It had a swarm of construction bots surrounding it, working back and forth. The end of the arrays cradled it at both ends, held it in place as it was worked on.

A small squadron burst free from around Project 6, a group of four fighters.

Carn obliterated them in seconds. Hawk fired on him, barely able to register the sight of the fighters bursting into flame.

A familiar voice broke through to his comm.

“I don’t think so, Captain.”

Carn levelled out, fired a single shot at the Project. But it wasn’t a warhead or an energy bolt.

A probe? Hawk asked himself.

It attached to the Project, clamped onto its side. Bright flashes of white light rippled away from it. And then, seconds later, the Project disappeared.

*

Hawk chased the General into a Jump. His computer locked onto Carn’s ship, to match its movements. When Carn dropped to a normal speed, so too did Hawk.

Then he wished he hadn’t.

He saw the Project floating beneath a massive Draxx warship, in the process of being slowly dragged inside the behemoth’s hold. Several other Draxx ships floated behind it, and fleets of Draxx fighters swarmed back and forth.

Before he could react, two grappling hooks shot from the bow of the warship and clamped onto Speedy.

Hawk shook the ship from side to side, but it was no use. The grapplers pulled him in towards the warship.

*

“I know this world,” Hawk said. The huge viewport in front of them looked out over Minich VI. It might have, once, been a beautiful world. A paradise.

It looked as though it had been bombarded, ground to dust, beneath the boots of the Draxx.

“One of many who dares defy us,” Carn said.

After arresting him, Hawk was sedated until they arrived at Minich. They flew him down to the surface to face questioning. At first he wondered why they’d gone to all the trouble. Why not torture him on board?

Only when he saw the view outside did he understand.

Project 6 stood against the horizon.

“My guards will take you to the interrogation room. I do hope you will be co-operative.”

As the Draxx foot soldiers led him away, Hawk looked back over his shoulder. “Don’t bet on it, pal.”

*

“Again. The detonation sequence of your … super weapon.”

“Never,” Hawk spat.

“Do you not grow tired of this? Tired of the pain?” Carn asked.

Hawk shook his head. “Don’t feel nothin’.”

The General laughed, signalled to the Draxx in the corner. “Then let us begin again,” he said.

Pain shot up Hawk’s spine like a rocket. It coursed through his veins, leaked into his muscles. His fingernails burned. He screamed through gritted teeth, his jaws clamped down hard.

Carn let him rest. “I am not without mercy, Captain,” he said.

Hawk looked up, and despite the agony he laughed. “You’re a funny guy, you know that?” He watched his own reflection in the mirror of Carn’s mask. Battered and bruised, a mere shadow of his usual self.

The General signalled the Draxx. “Again,” he said.

*

They let him sleep. But only a couple of hours passed before the General returned to the interrogation room. Not that Hawk had gotten much rest. The chains dug into his wrists, cutting tight into the flesh.

“Are you ready to tell us?”

Hawk stayed mute.

“I see. Then you leave me no choice. My time is short, and grows shorter by the hour.”

The General strapped a device over Hawk’s head, fastened it under his chin. When he switched it on, Hawk felt a heavy, warming sensation in the middle of his head. As if it was microwaving his brain.

“Since you are proving difficult to break, and I no longer have the time to indulge in my own enjoyment, I am forced to resort to more … extreme … methods,” Carn said.

Now the sensation in his head felt like an itch.

“What’s it doin’ to me?” Hawk croaked.

The General walked back and forth, his hands clasped behind his back.

“So you can speak,” he said with relish. “It is an extractor. It will take from your brain that which I desire. However, the process is a little intrusive, to say the least.”

Hawk grimaced as the itch became a niggling pain. His head felt hot as if it were cooking from the inside out.

“The detonation sequence.”

“Get lost.”

“What is the detonation sequence?”

Hawk strained against the chains holding his arms. If he could reach his head with his hands, he would have held it to keep it from blowing apart. “I’ll never give it to yuh.”

“The sequence.”

“Shut … up …”

Already it got hard to speak, to answer back. As if his brain were running slower than usual, confused by something burrowing into it.

“What is the detonation sequence?”

“No.”

Carn shrugged. “It doesn’t matter if you will or you won’t tell me. I am merely directing your mind to think of the secret you’re trying so hard to hide. The extractor will follow that line of thought until it reaches the truth.”

“No good …” Hawk said, grimacing.

“Tell me. The detonation sequence of the device. I must have it.” Carn took hold of Hawk’s head, held it firm in his gloved hands. “Tell me!”

Hawk couldn’t speak now. Cymbals crashed in his ears.

And then it was all over. Carn removed the device. The pain stopped.

“Good,” Carn said. He patted Hawk on the side of the face. “So long, Captain.”

Then he left.

Hawk fainted from exhaustion.

*

A loud bang woke him. He looked up to see Union soldiers in the room.

“What the -” he started to say.

A marine nodded a greeting at him. “Captain.”

Hawk recognised him, but he couldn’t think of a name. His mind was hazy, slow, numb. He didn’t need any medic to tell him his brain had been damaged in some way from whatever Carn did.

“One moment sir, we’ll have you out of there.”

Hawk hung his head, relieved. The chains were cut, and where he would have collapsed onto the floor he was caught by friendly hands.

“Okay, let’s go,” somebody said. They carried him out of there. His feet dragged along the floor.

A distant explosion shook the ground. Dust fell from the ceiling.

“We gotta hustle,” a voice said.

They ran. Soon they were outside, then across a flat surface. Hawk looked up, registered the sight of a Union transport awaiting them. Marines stood outside it, waving them on.

They clambered on board, then the transport lifted into the air.

“Hold on Captain Nowlan, we’ve got a battle cruiser waiting in orbit.”

Hawk looked up to find a familiar face peering at him, however he couldn’t place it.

Everything was … garbled.

“They took something from me,” Hawk said. “They took something …”

Just then an immense boom shook the craft. The air shattered around them. Everyone rushed to the viewports to see what had made it. Hawk peered over from where he sat, unable to move. He could just make out what they were all looking at.

A huge mushroom cloud lifted into the sky, and at the same time, the horizon was spreading, the ground coming apart. Then they were over the cloud layer and it was lost from view.

*

Days later, in the medical bay of the battle cruiser, Hawk received an unexpected visitor. Admiral Schaffer walked in holding a bottle of scotch in one hand and two glasses in the other. He sat on the edge of Hawk’s bed and poured them each a glass.

“Here you are kiddo. After what you’ve been through, I think you’ve earned it.”

Hawk broke into a lopsided grin. “Thanks.” He sipped the scotch, thankful for its familiar burn down his throat.

Schaffer looked around. “I’m not sure the, uh, medics will appreciate it, but I do have some say around here. How you feeling?”

Hawk shrugged. “Much better now. They say my brain showed signs of trauma. But the worst of the damage has healed. If they’d pumped any more electricity in me, I’d have cooked like Kentucky fried chicken.”

He lifted his hand, showed where all of his fingernails had dropped off.

“Yikes,” Schaffer said.

“Yeah, so …”

“Well, if it wasn’t for the tracking device installed on Speedy we would never have located you,” Schaffer said.

“Yeah, thank God for that.”

Schaffer took a hit of his scotch. Hawk sensed news coming, and not the good type.

“They took something from you. You kept saying it. The detonation sequence?”

Hawk locked eyes with him, nodded slowly. “I think so.”

Schaffer got up, motioned for Hawk to follow him.

He did so, slowly, in his hospital gown with the glass of scotch in his hand. He walked with Admiral Schaffer to a wide viewport on the other side of the medical bay.

“For obvious reasons we referred to it as Project 6, top secret. But its true purpose was as a weapon of ultimate destruction. Somehow the Draxx learned of its presence. We’re still trying to determine the means by which Carn transported it from one sector to another,” Schaffer explained.

Before them lay what was left of Minich VI. It took several minutes for Hawk to fully comprehend what he was seeing. The planet had been shattered in two, its atmosphere escaping into space.

“Unbelievable isn’t it? Project 6 was a planet cracker. That’s what we call it. Designed to cut a planet in half. Of course, we never intended to test it on an inhabited world.”

Hawk turned away, slung the scotch down his throat. He felt Schaffer’s hand on his shoulder.

“You okay kid? It’s not your fault. Nobody could’ve fought that machine off forever, you know.”

“I will avenge them,” Hawk said.

Admiral Schaffer patted him on the shoulder. “And you’ll get your chance, son. I promise you.”

Hawk went back to the view of Minich VI. Before he could say no, Schaffer had the glass out of his hand and filled again. Hawk sipped it.

The fire hit his belly. He knew it would never leave, not till justice was served.

*

Hawk woke.

The chains clink-clink-clinked together. Water dripped somewhere. He was alone. Or so he thought. As Hawk peered into the spiral of light in front of him, he could see a shape beyond them. He couldn’t tear his eyes away from that spinning whirlpool of hypnotic light.

CLLLLAAAANNNNGGGG!!!!

Hawk flinched. The sound filled the room, invaded his head, made his brain jitter against the walls of his skull.

“That’s it, Captain, I’m still here.”

Hawk swallowed, his throat dry and sore.

“Will you beg for me to end your life, Captain?”

He gave the General the only two-word answer that would do in the situation . . . then the torture resumed as if it hadn’t stopped in the first place.

5.

“Standard docking procedure, Rogers,” Captain King ordered. She found herself about to issue the order to Lieutenant Banks, but checked herself just in time.

It felt good to be back at the Krinuan’s home world, the one friendly way station they’d found in an unfamiliar galaxy.

“Aye,” Rogers said.

“Stand down on all weapons systems, Jackson. Shut it all off,” King said. “Beaumont, contact the Krinuans and request assistance.”

“Yes Ma’am,” Beaumont said.

“Shutting down all tactical systems,” Jackson said.

King watched as Rogers sidled the Defiant up against the side of the Krinuan space station, then used the manoeuvring thrusters to slide her sideward. With a slight thump, the Union vessel mated with the station.

“We have dock. Equalising pressure now,” Rogers reported.

“Excellent, well done Rogers. Shut-down procedure on the engines. You know the drill, I’m sure,” King said.

“Aye,” Rogers said. “I’ll put her to sleep, Captain.”

“Good. Then I’ll leave her in your capable hands, Lieutenant,” King said. She left the bridge and went to the engineering section. It took a lot longer with her cane than it would have otherwise, but she managed well enough with her lame legs.

“Captain, what’re you doing down here?” Gunn asked her.

Her team was in the process of doing the opposite to the crew in the emergency command centre. Instead of shutting down operations, the engineering team was just gearing up to sweep through the Defiant deck by deck.

“Just thought I’d check in, Chief,” King said. She looked around. “Not in bad shape in here.”

“It got hairy for a bit, but no, we’re good down here. The heart of the old girl still beats,” Gunn said.

“Indeed she does,” King said. “And what do you reckon on the rest of the ship?”

“It’s going to be a long process,” Gunn said. “Weeks.”

Jessica sighed. “Right.”

“Any word on Del and the others?” Gunn asked.

“Not yet. I’m expecting something soon, though. I expect they’ve observed blackout en route to avoid detection. I’m hopeful they’ll find some way of updating me though,” King said.

“As soon as you do, will you -“

Jessica nodded quickly. “Of course. Chief, you’ll be the first to know.”

King left engineering and made her way to her quarters. It’d been far too long with no word from the rescue team. What were they playing at?

It angered and worried her. Jessica wondered if they were all right.

She went to her quarters and sat down to ease her legs.

“Captain King, contact the bridge please. Captain King contact the bridge.”

With a groan, Jessica got back up and hit the comm. unit.

“Bridge this is the Captain.”

“Sorry Captain, but the Krinuans have arranged a welcome party on the station. They’re asking for you.”

“Okay Beaumont. Tell them I’ll be there as soon as possible. Contact Commander Chang and ask her to join me. King out.”

6.

The planet Ozbah loomed into view. The Krinuan pilot took them into an approach vector, handling the helm controls of the Naxor vessel with skill and confidence.

Praror showed Commander Greene a schematic.

“The facility is located within a dormant volcano, on an island in the northern hemisphere. We will touch down a ways from it and approach on foot. The Naxor will never suspect us.”

“Good plan. How long by foot from the landing site to the volcano?” Greene asked.

“Approximately an hour. If we move fast,” Praror said.

“Approaching the threshold of their security shield,” the pilot announced.

“What’s that?” Greene asked.

“The reason we’ve never attempted a rescue mission here before,” Praror said. “Anything other than a Naxor ship would never get through the shield surrounding this planet. We know a lot about this place, but we’ve never been able to overcome that one barrier separating us from your fallen crew.”

The ship passed through the security shield without event, then proceeded to break into the upper atmosphere. The front of the vessel glowed red hot as it descended.

“You fellas ready?” Greene asked the replicant crewmen who’d joined the rescue party.

Ensign Maisey nodded. “Yes sir. Ready to take names.”

“Spoken like a true marine,” Greene said.

“We’ll take out every Naxor in that base to get Hawk back,” one of the other replicants, Lieutenant Pilion said.

“I’m sure you will,” Greene said.

“We will face heavy resistance from the personnel at the base, Commander,” Praror told him. “It will not be an easy fight.”

Commander Greene watched as thin, dirty clouds of the planet peeled back to reveal a barren landscape of green ocean and black, volcanic terrain.

“I wasn’t expecting one,” he said.

The pilot took them down over scant emerald rivers and tributaries, then through the gaps in jagged cliff faces. They worked their way over the water. Up ahead a lone island appeared to grow as the ship crawled closer and closer.

“That it?” the Commander asked.

“Yes. That is where will find your Captain,” Praror said.

“What do they call this place?” Ensign Maisey asked.

Praror regarded him with wise eyes. “We call it The Pit. Nothing has ever survived that place. Many would choose death over imprisonment there.”

Commander Greene looked at Selena Walker in the corner, lost in her own thoughts. “Time for a change,” he said.

*

The Naxor ship landed along the shore of the island. Minutes later the rescue party was on its way to The Pit … to face whatever awaited them and rescue a legend.

7.

“Your ship is severely damaged, Captain,” a Krinuan engineer from the station the others called Jirn assessed a readout of the Defiant on one of his monitors. Jessica had to admit that the engineering capabilities of the Krinuans was surprisingly advanced. From a small station he could call up the readings of numerous sensor grids outside the station. The sensor beams probed the Defiant down to the very framework that held her together.

It did a much better job of assessing her overall condition than any visual detail could achieve.

“Tell me something I don’t know,” King said.

“Sorry?”

She sighed. “A human euphemism. Ignore me. So where do we go from here?”

“In other circumstances I would say that your ship should be stripped and her parts salvaged for use in other vessels … but I know that is not an option.”

Jessica frowned. “That bad, huh?”

Jirn showed her several points along the Defiant’s axis, illuminated in red.

“These are weaknesses at the structural level. They cannot be fixed. It’s something we see in ships that have withstood a great amount. To be honest with you Captain, it’s a wonder that your ship is still in one piece.”

“I thought we were doing better than that …” King said.

“Appearances can be deceptive,” Jirn said. He cycled through the readings on his monitor. “Our scans penetrate every part of the ship concerned. There can be no error.”

King put her hands on her hips. “You’re saying she’s scrap.”

Jirn went to say something further when a presence in the doorway to the little room made itself known.

“What’s this about scrap?”

King turned around. Chief Gunn stood with her arms crossed. Worry shone in her bloodshot eyes.

“Chief …”

She strode forward and looked at the readout. Her eyes widened when she saw the red areas along the Defiant’s main framework.

Jirn offered her a paw. Chief Gunn accepted.

“The Chief is the one person who’s been holding the ship together all this time,” Jessica said. “If she’s dead in the water, then the Chief needs to hear it.”

Gunn’s eyebrows rose. “Dead in the water?”

“As you can see, your ship -” Jirn went to say.

“Nothing that can’t be reinforced …” Gunn said.

“- and the extreme pressures involved -“

Gunn waved the notion aside. “Listen, she’s been through a lot worse. All she needs is some TLC.”

Jirn turned to Captain King with what passed for a frown on the furry Krinuan’s face.

“Tender loving care,” Jessica translated for him.

He nodded. “Ah.”

“I’m not ready to give up on this ship just yet. She’s got mileage in her. She’s got to have,” the Chief said. “The Defiant has to get us home.”

“Chief, maybe we have to acknowledge the fact that -” King started to say.

Gunn shook her head. “No. I’ll fix her. I just need time. And help.”

“Of course we will offer you any assistance you desire,” Jirn said. “As the head of engineering on this station, all of our resources are at your disposal. But please, do not hope for too much. Your ship is old and brittle.”

“She’s got fight in her yet,” Gunn said.

Jessica couldn’t help but smile. But it was short lived as a piercing scream erupted in the middle of her head. She took several steps back. The Chief and Jirn turned in her direction. She dropped her stick as her hands went to the sides of her head, as if to keep it together. Jessica’s legs buckled under her and before she knew it, she was falling towards the deck.

And the black closed in.

8.

The scream died away like a failing wind. In the darkness Jessica saw a single point of light. It grew in intensity until its cool illumination surrounded her. It was a sun in a deep blue sky. She looked around her. A jungle. Lush green. An oasis.

And there, as if it had been there the whole time and hadn’t just coalesced … a pyramid. Jet black against the blue. An alien artefact in both design and intent.

“Captain.”

Jessica turned in circles at the voice. Then a woman emerged from the surrounding jungle.

Dana Oriz.

“Where am I?” Jessica asked her.

“Wherever you were before,” Dana said. “I am communicating directly into your mind.”

Jessica’s hand went to her head. “How?”

Dana shrugged. “I don’t know. All I know is that the pyramid allows it.”

“The pyramid back at the planet … where we left you …”

Dana raised a hand. “We don’t have much time. Look.”

She looked up into the sky. Jessica turned to follow her line of sight. A group of starships descended through the atmosphere, headed directly for the pyramid.

“The Naxor …” King said.

“They’re coming for the pyramid,” Dana said. “They have one already. They’re working hard to unlock its secrets.”

“What will you do?”

“The only thing I can do. Tell the pyramid to flee.”

Jessica swallowed. “And the locals?”

Dana shrugged. “Their fate is in their own hands now. There is nothing we can do for them. I have instructed them to leave here and get as far away as they can.”

“Dana … how will the pyramid leave? Is it a spaceship?”

“I do not know. I can’t say it is a spaceship … and yet I can’t say it isn’t. All I know is that it is ready to leave. I asked it to wait whilst I made contact. There are things you need to know, Captain,” Dana said.

A sonic boom from above caused the trees to bend backwards as if from a giant’s breath. The ships were getting closer.

“Go on,” Jessica urged her.

“The pyramids are some kind of manipulator. They can change time and space in a manner we’re familiar with,” Dana said.

Realisation dawned in Jessica’s mind. “The black hole.”

“I know that prior to all of this, the Defiant encountered a wormhole that led to an alternate universe,” Dana said.

Jessica’s mind flashed back to that time. Years before, when she was a Commander, the Defiant had been on a mission to transport a deadly weapon to the hind end of space. During transit it was stolen by an intergalactic terrorist. He used the weapon to destroy a star system by turning their sun into a wormhole. The Defiant’s probes confirmed it as a tunnel through not only time and space, but the fabric between universes.

“How do you know about that? It’s highly classified.”

“The pyramid has knowledge of things like that. Please Captain, I have to be quick,” Dana said. “The pyramid can create shortcuts through space and time, in the form of black holes. These act as conduits. There are many pyramids, and many conduits. Though where they lead is anyone’s guess.”

“Why create them?”

“The race who built the pyramids and hid them throughout this galaxy were a race of titans who evolved past their physical reality. Captain, they became pure energy. Whatever their true intentions were, we’ll never know. They no longer exist” Dana explained. “At least, not in this dimension, anyway …”

“So that’s what they are. Relics. How dangerous are they?”

“With the know-how, one of these could be used to create a conduit from here to a pre-configured system,” Dana said. “But that’s not all. When I say they can manipulate space and time, I mean it. They can send you back and forth in time. An enemy could use a pyramid to create a conduit from here to Earth’s past, to a time when the human race would be easily enslaved.”

A mighty ship roared overhead.

“Dana!” Jessica yelled.

Dana shook her head. She started to step back into the jungle. “I have to go!”

Jessica reached out. “Dana! Not yet!”

The ship hovered overhead. The jungle consumed Dana. Then the pyramid rose into the air. The ground seemed as if it would break apart around her. The pyramid turned, then with a loud crack, as if a hurricane had been suddenly extinguished, it was gone.

The dark returned.

9.

“She’s coming around,” Gunn said.

Jessica’s eyes opened, then closed. They fluttered open again and stayed that way. She sat up.

“Are you all right?” Jirn asked her.

The back of King’s head smarted. “I’m fine … I think,” Jessica said, ” Just a little fuzzy around the edges.””’”

“What happened?” Gunn asked her.

King accepted the Chief’s help getting up off the floor. Jirn handed her the stick.

Everything rushed back to her. The jungle. Her conversation with Dana Oriz. It was like waking suddenly from a very deep, but vivid, dream.

“I’ll explain everything,” she said. “Jirn, do you have a ship in the vicinity of the planet we left before coming here?”

“I believe we do, yes.”

“Can you make contact with them? Could they do some reconnaissance?”

“Yes. I’d have to get clearance …”

“Please do it,” King said.

“What’s all this about? Are you okay?” Gunn asked her.

Jessica shook her head. “No. No, I’m not.”

*

An hour later, Jirn showed Captain King the telemetry from a vessel in the area. From a distance it managed to conduct observations on the alien planet.

“No sign of a pyramid at all,” Jirn said. “However they did detect several Naxor ships leaving the planet.”

“So it was real,” King said.

Chief Gunn and Jirn exchanged puzzled looks.

She walked to a nearby viewport. Outside were only stars. The Defiant lay on the other side of the station, and the planet glowed beneath them. But here, in this direction, stars and nothing else.

Where are you? Jessica thought. Where are you now Dana?

10.

“Beg.”

Hawk shook his head. “No … no …”

“ASK me to kill you … .”

“Never … it’ll never happen …”

“Death will be a release.”

CLLLLAAAANNNNGGGG!!!!

Another blast of the painful sound. It pulsed from one side of his head to the other.

“Do not fool yourself, Captain. You cannot hope to keep this up,” General Carn said in a flat voice. “You may not realise it, but the sound is getting increasingly louder as we go on. Thankfully I am impervious to its destructive abilities. However you are not. Eventually the sound waves will cook your brain.”

The pain subsided as the echo of the abrasive sound faded from his ears. Hawk drew long, ragged breaths.

“Eventually you will come around to my way of thinking. Eventually you will see for yourself, Captain, that there is no use in resisting me. You will beg me to kill you.”

Hawk couldn’t speak. His whole body ached.

“Lost for words, I see,” Carn said.

Hawk continued to look at the spiral. Stars sparkled in front of his eyes. I’m close to blackin’ out, he thought.

“Perhaps this calls for a different method of persuasion,” Carn said. He motioned to someone else in the room to fetch something. The General stood with his arms crossed. “Your outlook is entirely wrong. I hope that, with the right impetus, you will see that everything I tell you is true. Despite what you already believe. That there is no hope, only surrender.”

The General stepped back. A Naxor grabbed Hawk’s left hand above the shackle. Hawk felt something cold against the tip of his index finger.

“What … ?”

“Ask me and I will give it. Beg for death. Will you, Captain?” Carn asked.

Hawk wanted to give up. To give in and ask for what he craved. An end to his misery. But there was still some part of him that just couldn’t.

“Get lost.”

General Carn shook his head. “You will learn the hard way. Now tell me Captain, since you seem reluctant to ask for release from this nightmare … what do you know about the black pyramids?”

Hawk strained to see his hand. The Naxor held a metal instrument over the tip. At a nod of Carn’s head the Naxor clamped down with the device. It cut the end of his finger clean off. The blade crunched through the bone. Hawk screamed, every blood vessel standing out on his neck.

In front of him, the General chuckled.

11.

“Keep up. Weapons at the ready,” Greene said.

They moved from one rock outcropping to another. The basalt slopes were difficult to navigate. Built along one side of the dead volcano was a long white structure. It had a flat area where they could see vehicles parked. The team made their way around the treacherous shards of scoria as they headed towards it. Below them the base of the volcano was shrouded in thick, heavy mist.

“Another hundred metres,” Selena Walker said. She pulled her own gun free from its holster.

Greene shot her a look. “Easy. Remember, nobody does anything unless I say so.”

“The side of the compound facing us seems to back onto a corridor of some kind,” Ensign Maisey said. “I’m reading a hollow area behind there. It extends for over thirty metres.”

They stopped at another series of ragged boulders. Sulphurous steam rose from nearby.

“We’ll use timed detonators to breach the compound. From there it’s stack and file. We sweep the whole building, take this end and work our way through it,” Greene said. “We don’t stop till we find Hawk.”

“Shall I contact Captain Praror, sir?” a Krinuan soldier called Lexin asked.

“No. Observe radio silence for the moment. When we’ve made progress we’ll give Praror an update. Now let’s move.”

12.

Hawk let loose a blood-curdling scream as another fingertip was severed. He barely felt his own hot blood gush down his hand for the heavy throbbing emanating from his butchered digits.

“I’m tellin’ yuh,” Hawk gasped. “I don’t know nothin’ about these pyramids. Yuh askin’ the wrong guy.”

“I think not,” Carn said. He meshed his gloved hands together. “You’re holding back something, and I want to know what it is.”

“Yuh wrong,” Hawk said.

“No. You are. I will not stop, Captain. Even after I’ve squeezed every last drop of resolve from you, broken your spirit … I will continue until you hang there, perished. All you can hope to do is advance the process.”

Hawk didn’t say anything.

The General grabbed his face, his grip hard. “Tell me what you know. I must unlock their secret. It eludes me. Tell me how they work.”

Captain Nowlan just shook his head. “I can’t … I don’t know …”

Carn squeezed Hawk’s face so tight, Hawk thought his jaw would crack apart. “TELL ME …”

Just then an enormous explosion rocked the complex. The General staggered back. He steadied himself and pointed a finger at the two Naxor in the room with him.

“Get out there now.”

They left without a word. The door closed behind them.

“So yuh wanna create an empire for yuhself, huh?” Hawk asked him.

The General shook his head. “You really don’t get it, do you? I have sworn to devote my life to the expansion of the Draxx Dominion. To the spread of our rule. The Naxor are simply my allies, assisting me towards that end.”

Hawk licked his lips. “How can yuh still swear allegiance to the Draxx when yuh so far away? Don’t you see it’s a lost cause?”

Sounds of weapon discharge outside in the hall. The General didn’t pay them any attention.

“Your friends have arrived to rescue you, I suspect,” Carn said. “It is no matter. Any effort at resistance to my will is a futile gesture. What you do not understand is that the Draxx Dominion lives or dies with the Queen. My Queen.”

Hawk frowned at him.

“When you destroyed Prince Sepix, you failed to notice my own ship leave moments before. The Prince carried a very precious cargo …”

Hawk’s eyes widened in astonishment. “Yuh can’t mean …”

“This war has only begun. In this new Galaxy, with my help, the Queen will forge a new dominion. We will bring balance through terror. Balance through domination. Balance through fear.”

Carn pulled his sword free from the sheath. With a swift movement he whirled about and cut clean through the chains holding Hawk from the ground.

Nowlan clattered to the deck.

Carn aimed the end of the blade at him. “And you … I’m far from finished with you …”

13.

“Move!” Greene yelled.

Maisey took the lead, firing into the Naxor guards. Pilion filed in next to him, covering his flank with weapons fire as Maisey pushed through the long corridor. Through the thick, dusty smoke he could see the Naxor running left and right, and he dropped several with angry bursts of fire.

Commander Greene followed with Selena Walker. They both took up positions against a wide column on the other side of the corridor.

“Cover me, Walker, Lexin,” Greene told them.

Selena fired over his shoulder as he unstrapped several grenades from his belt. He activated them and, one after another, chucked them down the corridor.

“Get back!”

Maisey and Pilion hugged the wall nearest them as the grenades went off, a cacophony of small explosions.

Greene leapt out, weapon in hand. “Charge!”

He ran down the corridor, firing at the surviving Naxor still getting to their feet at the other end. One managed to fire, the blasts of energy whirring past Greene’s head before he could fire back.

Walker darted out from behind Greene and fired at the Naxor. The alien was blown back by the force of the hit to his chest. Lexin picked off two Naxor with his crossbow.

“Pilion, you take the other cells. Surface charges!” Maisey ordered.

Ensign Pilion nodded his compliance and started to attach tiny charges to the cell doors lining the right side of the corridor while Maisey focused on those to the left.

Greene told Walker to take cover on the other side of the corridor. He took cover with Lexin. Greene looked back to see Maisey and Pilion attach the last charges to the cells, twelve in total.

He looked ahead. Another twelve to go.

Maisey took up position behind Selena Walker. Pilion rushed up behind Greene and Lexin.

“On my mark! Three … two … one!” Maisey yelled. He depressed a trigger in his hand. Pilion did the same. All the cell doors behind them blew wide open.

Alarms sounded everywhere around them, a deafening thunder of high-pitched screams.

“Walker, with me! You two, check those cells!” Commander Greene ordered. “Lexin, hang back a bit and pick up the rear. We don’t want any Naxor circling back and surprising us.”

He pressed on with Selena. More Naxor ran into the corridor. The two of them squatted and fired.

Greene heard the footsteps of Maisey and Pilion behind him. “Any luck?”

They both shook their heads.

“Half of them empty. One had a rotting corpse in it. The others, they’re all too scared to even leave the room,” Pilion said.

“Quick let’s get these now,” Maisey said.

The two ensigns set about slapping charges to the other cell doors. No more Naxor appeared to challenge them, though Greene and Walker maintained a defensive stance. Maisey and Pilion ran back to them. They depressed their triggers. The doors to the cells blew open.

“Better check them before -“

A blood-curdling roar bellowed from one of the cells. Selena Walker looked terrified as she held her pistol out in front of her.

“What the -” Pilion wondered aloud.

A set of claws appeared from a cell at the far end. They grabbed the side of the door frame, then the rest of the creature presented itself.

Twelve feet high, four black eyes set into leathery, red skin. Giant muscular body, with a long tail furnished with spikes. Its mouth was a metre across and filled with row after row of razor sharp teeth.

It spotted the four of them and let loose another earth-shaking roar. Commander Greene flinched despite himself, then he remembered the weapon in his hand.

“Commander!” Lexin said. “It’s called a Tonabous. A very dangerous creature! It will kill us all.”

Greene nodded. “I didn’t come here to die. Open fire on that thing!”

As Maisey, Pilion and Lexin started to fire at the creature, it dropped its head and charged them, oblivious to the hits striking its thick, heavy body.

Lexin backed up, continuing to fire. The Tonabous knocked Maisey and Pilion clean out of the way. They barrel rolled to either side as the creature lifted its head in time to snatch Lexin up in its mouth. It shook Lexin from one side to the other. The Krinuan scrambled to pull himself free from its jaws, but to no avail. The Tonabous threw him against a wall. His head exploded on impact, brain matter and blood flying everywhere.

“Get back!” Greene shouted at the others. He fired into the creature.

Nothing seemed to touch it.

Pilion got to his feet and joined Greene and Walker. Maisey took longer to get up. He lifted his weapon to fire at the Tonabous, but too late. It was already upon him.

“No!” Greene was pulled away from the grizzly scene by Walker and Pilion. They made a quick check of the cells nearest them as Greene stood there, unable to take his eyes off of the horror before him.

The Tonabous bit Maisey in half. The Ensign let loose one final scream. The creature dropped him to the floor. Then it turned its attention to the Commander.

14.

Another explosion rocked the room, but this one came from the door itself. Carn lunged at Hawk, where he lay defenceless on the floor. The chains connected to his legs and arms coiled about him like metal tentacles. The General still managed to pull Hawk to his feet with only one hand.

In the other he held his blade, at the ready.

“I am finished toying with you. Now you will die.”

He raised the sword and prepared to deliver a death blow.

*

Commander Greene backed up against a partly open cell door. The Tonabous let loose a ferocious roar. It ran at him. The Commander dove to the side just in time. The Tonabous smashed through the cell door, tumbling forward in a clatter of broken wall and claws.

Greene waved his hand at the rubble and dust. The murk cleared and he almost couldn’t believe his eyes. General Carn had Hawk in one hand, and was about to execute Hawk with the blade in his other.

“No!” Greene yelled. He raised his weapon.

Carn shoved Hawk to one side. Captain Nowlan struck a wall. Carn now held the blade with both hands, ready to cut Greene down.

“Mistake!” Carn yelled. He dashed at the Commander. Greene backed up, ready to fire.

The Tonabous swiped at the General’s legs. Carn fell backwards. The great creature heaved itself back up. Carn rolled away from it.

The Commander backed into the doorway as the Tonabous shrieked with fury. As General Carn got to his feet, the thing rushed him. Carn slashed with his sword. The Tonabous recoiled then attacked again. Carn edged around the back of the torture equipment for cover. The Tonabous went around, swiping with its huge clawed mandibles.

“Hawk! Can you hear me?” Greene called out to the inert shape lying on the floor in the corner. It didn’t move or respond in any way.

General Carn pulled something from his belt then tossed it to the other side of the cell. Greene retreated into the corridor. The device stuck to the wall. It flashed with an explosion of light and smoke. Greene shielded his eyes. As the flash faded he saw that whatever the weapon was, it had left a gaping hole in the side of the room. Fresh air rushed into the building.

Carn defended himself with sword swipes as he neared the hole. As the Tonabous made a swipe for his head, Carn swung up and down with his blade, severing the creature’s lethal paw. It thudded to the floor in a splatter of purple blood.

The Tonabous reared up on its hind legs, roared in pain and outrage then made a final dash at the General.

Carn jumped backwards out of the hole, the Tonabous directly after him. Greene rushed to the opening in time to see both fall into the foggy basin of the inert volcano, where they were obscured in their final moments.

“Uhhh …” Hawk murmured.

Commander Greene rushed to his side.

“You’re hurt but I’ll get you out of here. You’ll be fine.”

Weapons fire and another explosion filled his ears. Greene watched as Hawk slipped from consciousness. He turned to the door. “Help! Get in here!”

He cradled the ghost white pilot in his arms.

15.

Pilion took up the other side of Hawk as Commander Greene carried him into the corridor. The alarms still rang all around them.

“What’s happened?” Selena asked, rushing to Hawk’s side.

Greene waved her away. “Later. He’s alive. Contact Praror and tell him we’re on our way.”

Walker fumbled with the comm. device.

They passed the mangled corpse of Ensign Maisey, and what remained of Lexin. All three of them tried not to look at what the Tonabous had left in its wake.

“Why would they have something like that in here?” Pilion asked aloud.

Greene shook his head. “Your guess is as good as mine. Testing maybe? All I know is, that thing killed two of our team.”

Walker put the comm. device back. “Praror’s prepping the ship now. He’s ready to go as soon as we get there.”

“Good. Now let’s hustle.”

The Commander didn’t look back.

16.

The starship blasted away from the island, up into the open sky.

Captain Praror joined Commander Greene and Selena Walker at Hawk’s bedside.

“How is he?” Praror asked.

“Weak. He’s been through hell,” Greene said.

Walker couldn’t stop crying. She ran the back of her hand softly across Hawk’s face. Greene put his arm around her.

“He’ll be all right.”

“What did they do to him?” she asked.

“Far as we can tell … all sorts. But let’s not focus on that now. We need to stay positive. The minute we get back to the Defiant he’ll be in Doctor Clayton’s capable hands. If there’s anyone can fix him back up it’s the doc,” Greene assured her.

A Krinuan crewmember entered the confined space. He whispered in Praror’s ear. The Captain nodded and sent him on his way.

“I’ve just been informed we’ve achieved significant enough distance from the planet’s gravity well to make the Jump. I’m going up there now to supervise. If you need me, just call,” Praror said.

“Thanks,” Greene told him. “Lexin fought bravely. We wouldn’t have got to Hawk if it weren’t for his efforts to stop that thing.”

“I thank you for the kind words, Commander,” Praror said stiffly.

“I’m sorry,” Walker said.

Praror dipped his head. “Lexin volunteered for this mission, as did everyone else who stayed behind. We all knew the risk going in. Including yourselves.”

Commander Greene’s mind flashed back to Maisey. He knew that watching that man die would haunt him.

The Krinuan Captain looked down at the inert form of Hawk Nowlan.

“Lexin did not die in vain.”

Praror left. Commander Greene watched him go, then turned back to the legend before them. He looked to be on death’s doorstep and if not, then not far from it. Selena looked at Hawk’s hand, at the missing tips of his first two fingers.

“Horrific …” she said sadly.

“He’s strong,” Greene said. “He’ll pull through.”

On the bed, Hawk slept. But it was not a sleep filled with dreams.

Just one nightmare … one scene that replayed itself over and over. In his unconscious state, he couldn’t fight it away. Couldn’t stop it coming.

In it he saw a Draxx Queen. She birthed an endless supply of Draxx soldiers.

Next to her, arms crossed in front of his chest as he laughed behind his silver mask, stood General Carn.

Behind them both, a spinning wheel of light he felt incapable of ignoring. And all around him, loud as a fog horn, a sound that would haunt his dreams for a long time. Hawk covered his ears with his hands, and in the dream he started to scream over and over and over …

PART EIGHT

WARRIOR

1.

The planet Krinu was a veritable paradise. Lush vegetation covered the surface in cohesion with the sprawl of the many Krinuan cities and star ports. The Krinuan government had designated an entire precinct to the Defiant and her crew. They were treated as guests of the highest order.

None of this was lost on Captain Jessica King. And yet, she felt ill at ease.

Her crew happily relaxing in the sunshine of this tamed jungle planet, the Defiant remained in orbit as her repairs continued. The fact that their ship – their home – had been designated unsafe for the crew to remain on board saddened her in a way she couldn’t quite explain. It was like they’d all given up.

The Krinuans had offered them sanctuary there on Krinu. They could stay if they wanted. Though Jessica had no desire to do any such thing, she knew it was not her place to make that decision for her crew.

She’d decided to let them know the offer and make up their own minds. Stay in paradise or continue to tramp through the stars on the thin hope that a way to get back home would be discovered.

I’ve got to admit, there’s not much to offer them, she thought as she made her way into an area of cultivated garden. There she set her cane against the side of an ornate bench and sat. It was becoming more difficult for her to get around.

She massaged the bottoms of her legs. Her feet were numb, a sensation she’d not quite gotten used to yet. They seemed to hang from her legs, cold as ice, heavy counter-weights against her desire to be free of her sudden immobility.

Dr. Clayton’s treatments helped, but there was no denying the truth of her condition. It was getting worse. Soon, she would be unable to walk for long periods. That meant a hover chair to help her get around. The MS had gone up a gear.

But for now she relaxed in the sun. The worry of her legs faded to the back of her mind, and she was able to enjoy the simple pleasure of sitting in the quiet, with only her thoughts to accompany her. A breeze picked up and Jessica momentarily closed her eyes. She could have been anywhere in that instant. The sun’s warmth on her skin, the soft whisper of the trees in the wind.

“There you are,” a familiar voice declared. Jessica opened her eyes, turned around to see Commander Greene approach.

“Ah. You found me.”

“Sorry to bother you,” Greene said as he sat next to her.

“No problem. I was just resting up out here. I’ve been doing a lot of that lately, it helps,” she said, indicating her legs. “Stress brings it out more.”

“Ah, I see. Well it’s nothing to worry about. I hear that Chang’s just about ready to take the Defiant out for a little shakedown,” Greene said.

“Yes. I know that.”

“And you’re sure we shouldn’t be there?”

Jessica slapped his knee. “Del, stop worrying. She’s going to keep her within this system, so there’ll be no worry of attack from enemy forces. The Chief just wants to test a few of the systems. She can’t do that moored up to a space station.”

“I understand, but you don’t think one of us should be there?” Greene asked.

“No. Lisa can handle it. She kept her cool in battle. Saved all of our lives. I’m sure she can handle a little tour around the system. If I thought one of us should be there, I’d go up there myself,” Jessica said. She studied her friend’s face. “What else is it?”

Greene licked his top lip. “I wasn’t going to mention this. Not right now. But I just wanted to be certain you were all set for tomorrow. For the memorial service.”

Jessica looked down at the ground.

“I’ve written a speech, if that’s what you’re asking.”

“Is there anything you want me to help with?” Greene asked her.

Jessica shook her head. “No. It will be quick and simple. That’s the way it’s got to be, I think. This crew doesn’t need to dwell on all who’ve been lost. We need to keep looking toward the future.”

With that she looked back up. Commander Greene could see the shine of tears in her eyes. A species of bird native to Krinu flapped overhead and they both looked up to watch it pass.

“I get you,” Greene said. “I checked with the crew taking the Defiant out for her shakedown and they’re all fine with missing it. I think they’re doing something on board at the same time. Chang said she’s arranged something.”

“Between Commander Chang and Chief Gunn, they’ll get a good send-off,” Jessica said.

Greene got up. “I won’t bother you any more, Captain. I’ll let you get back to your peace and quiet, and I’ll see you tomorrow.”

As he made to leave, Jessica held his wrist. “Del… have you been to see Hawk?”

Greene cleared his throat. “Yeah.”

“How was he? The last I heard, he was…”

The Commander only nodded. Jessica said nothing more on the subject.

She watched Greene leave, then she tried to relax again. But it was too late, the damage was done.

The peace didn’t return. In its place were the private worries and concerns of a starship captain. They were hers alone to carry, and like the numbness in her feet, that made them all the more intolerable.

2.

“Belcher, go get some rest. Eat. Do something. Whatever, just get out of this engine room,” Chief Gunn said in her strictest tone of voice.

Gary Belcher shook his head. “With all due respect, Chief, we need to get this repair completed. And we’re just about to launch. You need me in here —”

“No. Down tools and go. That’s a direct order.”

Belcher looked surprised, then hurt that he was being ordered away from engineering. Gunn led him by the elbow out into the hall.

“Well… I guess I’ll go and see if there’s anything in the mess. Maybe a sandwich or something…”

Gunn nodded vigorously. “Yeah. Go do that. Come back to me in twelve hours.”

Belcher didn’t say another word in defiance. He simply walked off.

The Chief herself had been on duty for more than sixteen hours, and Belcher had been there already when she arrived. They were all busting their butts to get the Defiant operational again, and she was, apart from some minor further repairs to essential systems. The old girl was far from shipshape, but thanks to weeks of hard work the Defiant was capable of travel.

She had her whole team to thank, but Officers like Belcher had gone above and beyond the call of duty to get it all done. However, the Chief knew it would do no good to have her finest falling asleep at their stations when she needed them.

I’ll put that guy in for a promotion when all’s said and done, Gunn told herself as she re-entered Engineering, her hands in the front pocket of her overalls.

“Chief, this is the bridge. We’re set to disembark if you are.”

Gunn hit a button on the nearest comm. panel. “Yeah. Go for it. Chief out.”

*

There were little more than twenty crew aboard the Defiant as she undocked from the station under minimal thruster power, and most of those crew members were engineers.

The rest of Defiant’s crew would enjoy some much needed R&R on the surface of Krinu while they were gone. Lisa felt proud the Captain and Commander Greene were trusting her with the ship for a few days, though it would be a largely uneventful little cruise within the local vicinity.

“Nice and slow, Rogers,” Chang said.

The bridge still looked a mess from the battle that had exposed it to the vacuum of space, but at least it was better than working the ship from the Emergency Command Centre. The bridge was back to a fully operational – if less pretty – version of its former self. For one thing, Chang was glad to have the captain’s chair back.

It wasn’t quite the same, commanding the Defiant without the traditional seat of power from which to issue orders. Not that it was an ego thing.

It just felt right.

The Defiant backed away from the station, then Rogers turned her to face away from Krinu. She lumbered under his fingertips, no longer the responsive vessel she’d once been. The Defiant was sluggish as she eased away from the planet at one quarter speed.

“She’s hard to turn,” Rogers noted.

“I know. You can expect that. The Chief hasn’t gotten around to that yet, but she will. In the meantime we’ll just have to manage best we can. This is only a tour of the system,” Chang explained. “We shouldn’t have any need for tight manoeuvres.”

“Agreed,” Rogers said.

There were just the two of them and Ensign Beaumont on the bridge.

“Ensign, signal the Krinuans and let them know we are underway. Rogers, you know the flight plan. Don’t deviate from it. I’ll be down in engineering if you need me.”

“Aye.”

*

“Captain on the deck!” the Chief called out in mock formality. The other engineering crew present snapped to attention.

“Very funny!” Chang said, her cheeks aglow with embarrassment.

Gunn chuckled. “All right you lot, get back to work. We’ve had our fun.”

“How’re we doing down here?” Chang asked.

Meryl crossed her arms. “It’s gone well so far. Everything’s responding as we want it to. Secondary systems are slowly coming back online. The real test will be whether or not the splints the Krinuans put in place to the Defiant’s support structure hold.”

“I see what you mean. Well, we’ll take her steady for the rest of the day. I don’t want to push her too fast. Maybe tomorrow we can try increasing speed, perform some fly-bys of nearby planets. That should test her,” Chang offered.

“Yeah, a good idea. Take it slow. After all, we’re melding Terran and Krinuan engineering here. We don’t know what will happen.”

Chang looked up at the ceiling. “I just hope we can get her back to how she used to be…”

Gunn sighed. “I don’t hold out much hope for that, Commander.”

“Even if she gets us to a new planet. Somewhere we can settle…” Chang said. She caught the Chief’s expression. “Sorry. I probably shouldn’t be such a defeatist.”

“I’m just surprised to hear someone voice the same thing I’ve been thinking these last few weeks. I mean, look around you,” Gunn said. “We’re holding everything together with Scotch tape and Popsicle sticks. Eventually the Defiant will break for good. I, for one, hope we’re not on her when it happens. Maybe the Captain needs to consider finding somewhere for us to live.”

There was a long silence between the two of them as they both contemplated what was being discussed.

“Do you think she’s thinking the same thing?” Chang asked.

The Chief shrugged. “Who knows? If I know the Captain, then it’s probably not far from her mind.”

“We’re so far from home . . . maybe it’s time to find a new one,” Chang said.

“Agreed. But let’s keep this between us,” Gunn said in a low voice. “I don’t need this lot attempting a mutiny and stuffing me down the trash compactor chute as a result.”

It was all Chang could do not to laugh. The thought of Meryl Gunn being overpowered in her own engine room was just too funny to even imagine.

3.

Captain Gerard Nowlan flexed the fingers of his hand and winced. Dr. Clayton had had to cut enough of his fingers away to fit the cybertronic replacements. The new artificial appendages were still tethering themselves to the fine strands of nerves in his hand… and the process of technology joining to organic material hurt like hell.

“How are they?” Clayton asked. He watched as Hawk continued to flex and wiggle his fingers.

“Gettin’ better. Still sore.”

“It will be,” Clayton said. Then with a smile, “But it’ll get better. It all will.”

Hawk nodded. He knew the doctor was talking about more than the loss of half of two fingers. Carn had done a lot more damage than that.

The mental wounds left behind following the General’s torture of him would never heal; they were already in the process of becoming scars. It would never leave him, Hawk knew.

“Thanks doc,” he said.

“Don’t mention it,” Clayton said.

The door to Hawk’s room whispered open and Selena Walker entered in carrying food and drink on a tray.

“So, uh, how come yuh not on the ship?” Hawk asked as he watched Selena set the tray down.

“Thought I’d take the opportunity to get some air myself,” Clayton said. “Nurse Munoz is up there with them, should anyone get an ingrown toenail.”

Hawk laughed despite himself. Clayton smiled and got up.

“I’ll see yuh ‘round,” Hawk said.

“Yeah,” Dr. Clayton said. “See you later. Take care of him Selena.”

“Oh I intend to,” Selena said.

Clayton left and the door slid shut behind him.

Hawk watched Selena fix them both a drink, then turned away. He looked out the window. Krinu was a beautiful, peaceful planet. A green oasis in an alien galaxy.

And yet he’d not once been outside.

He felt Selena’s hand on his shoulder. He looked up at her and managed to smile.

“You okay?” she asked him.

“Yuh,” Hawk said. “I think.”

She handed him a glass of water.

“It’s okay not to be,” she said.

Hawk shook his head. “Yuh don’t get it. What he did to me…”

He sipped his water. Selena sat next to him, reached out and held his hand. She thoughtfully avoided his two cybernetic fingers.

“I just wanna find him. An’ kill him. Twice he’s got me, twice he’s brought me to the edge of death only to let me live,” Hawk said. “Cause he knows.”

He tapped the side of his temple to indicate the real sore spot Carn had left him with. Selena gave his hand a squeeze.

“Honey…” she said and cuddled up to him. Hawk stared out the window, at the bright blue sky and fluffy white clouds of their temporary home. He knew he should feel more displaced than any of them. Not only was he also far from home, just as they were, he was a man out of time. True, the Defiant had experienced some temporal displacement from its journey through the black hole. But Hawk had already been from a different time.

He felt totally alone, despite the comfort of having a woman like Selena Walker with him. She’d been a blessing, especially following his most recent trauma.

And yet that was almost entirely the wrong way to describe it. Perhaps it wasn’t trauma at all that filled his heart. No, he thought that maybe it was that other thing. The very impetus that would now see him pursue General Carn to the ends of the universe if he had to. The man – or whatever he was – had to be stopped.

Trauma? No. Anger? Yes.

And more than that. Hawk knew it was pure hatred that weighed his heart down. For all that the General had done. For everything. He would pay.

*

“I hope you don’t mind my calling,” Jessica said some hours later. Selena had left a while before to see to something. Gerard had only been sitting on his own deep in thought anyway. As it was, he welcomed a bit of company while Selena was out.

“Not at all. Have a seat,” he said.

“It’s dark in here,” Jessica noted as she sat opposite.

“When it gets dark I like to turn the lights down in here. Helps me appreciate the view,” Hawk said with a nod in the direction of the window. Outside, the stars filled the pollution-free sky of Krinu. Every now and then, a craft would fly across the horizon, but apart from that, a person could gaze at the night sky uninterrupted. Certainly Jessica had never seen the stars so bright back on Earth. Not with the amount of pollution in the atmosphere.

“It is beautiful,” she admitted. “I don’t know if you feel the same way, but I just can’t sleep.”

“I know exactly how you feel,” Hawk said.

“Seems strange. We have a memorial service tomorrow, now that we know exactly who we lost…” Jess said. “And the Defiant is up there somewhere. Without me.”

“Chang took her out, ain’t that right?” Hawk asked.

Jessica nodded. “Yes. Defiant’s in good hands.”

“Agreed.”

“I hear you’ve not really been out,” Jessica said. “Why is that?”

Nowlan sighed. “I just don’t know. Lack of spirit maybe?” he offered with a wry smirk.

“You know it’s no good for you…”

“Yuh.”

“Since I’ve started having trouble with my legs, I’ve found it helps some to go for a walk now and then. Loosens things up. Also helps de-stress,” Jessica said.

“I know where you’re going with this…”

“And I could use one of those walks right about now,” she said, undeterred.

Hawk watched her get up, with the aid of her stick, and walk to the door. He rolled his eyes and got up to follow.

“I’m not goin’ far,” he said.

“Whatever is good for you, is good for me. We’ll just be two Captains taking a little stroll. One handicapped… and the other, well, the same…” she said, then laughed.

Hawk shook his head. “Yuh…” but he couldn’t help but laugh, too.

“Come on,” Jessica said, suddenly serious. “That’s an order.”

4.

The combined crew of the Defiant stood outside, listening to Captain King speak. The sun had slid below the horizon, striking the evening sky with splashes of gold and pink.

A device across her mouth amplified her words so that all assembled men and women could hear.

“I can think of no better evening than this to remember our fallen comrades,” Jessica said. “Such a beautiful, tranquil world. A jewel amongst the stars. It’s in this oasis that we come together as a family, albeit a family in mourning.”

Jessica had several handwritten pages in front of her at the makeshift podium. She turned the first one over, swallowed, then continued.

“It is a pity that not everyone could be here tonight. A small crew have taken the Defiant out for a shakedown, but I know they will be remembering the fallen in their own way just as we are now. I admit that I do not know what to say that can make the loss we all feel any less of a burden,” Jessica said. “Whether you’re an Ensign or a Captain, the grief of losing a colleague is a shared pain. But the key word there is shared.”

She paused for effect. To let that sink in. The wind rustled the tall, thin trees around them. Their small green leaves whispered in unison.

“We’ve been through tough times. But we’re still together. Still a family. So let us all remember, tonight, those we’ve lost along the way. Our journey is still ongoing. We carry with us the memory of the fallen. In our heads. Our memories. And in our hearts,” Jessica said. She scanned the crowd, then broke into a salute. Her chest swelled with pride as each and every member of the crew returned the salute. “Tonight we remember.”

*

“Sure you want to do this?” Gunn asked her.

Chang read her lips and gave her a thumbs up. Until the airlock was sealed, the Chief would be unable to communicate with the Commander via her comm. unit. There was no way for Lisa Chang to hear her through the transparent steel and glass helmet.

Meryl Gunn stepped back, over the threshold of the airlock. She waved to Chang, who waved back with her free hand. In the other she held a glass bottle.

Gunn closed the door.

Chang heard the comm. unit crackle to life as the seal was made. She knew that the air was being bled from the chamber and the pressure corrected.

“Can you hear me, Commander?”

“Affirmative.”|

“Don’t be too long out there,” Gunn said. “And be careful. I don’t want to end up in charge of this tub. I’ve got my work cut out as it is.”

“Don’t worry Chief. I will be.”

“Lisa . . .” Gunn started to say.

“I know.”

The Chief said nothing more.

Chang turned to the airlock on the other side of the room. The light over the door changed from red to green. She trudged forward, encumbered by the heavy suit, and depressed the manual control switch. The hatch swung open for her, a few stray breaths of air rushing out into space.

Chang stepped out onto the hull of the Defiant. The stars seemed to glide past like phosphorescent plankton atop a dark sea. She remembered not to look at them.

Not only could it make someone performing an EVA sick, it could on occasion cause a kind of psychosis. The sheer wonder of the infinity all around you could send your mind into depths from which it might never return.

Chang’s boots stuck to the hull as she walked out several metres. She held the bottle up. Inside there was a letter, and a photo of Olivia Rayne’s parents Chang had found in the recently deceased crewmate’s quarters. She’d folded the photo up and fed it down the neck of the bottle. However, the letter was from her. She’d plugged the bottle with a cork and made sure it was in there extra tight.

“Well, here we go,” she said, aware that she spoke only for herself. She’d switched her helmet comm. off. There was only herself and the stars, and of course, they did not care much for the microscopic concerns of humanity.

“You were my friend. And I loved you,” Chang started to cry, completely unable to wipe her eyes.

She cocked the bottle back over her shoulder, then launched it forward, into the void. It turned end on end. The momentum afforded it from her throw would increase exponentially over time. With nothing within the vacuum to slow the bottle down, it would travel on and on, farther and farther into the cosmos.

It gave the Commander some comfort to think that her message in a bottle would probably endure beyond any of them. The longings of her heart, locked within the bottle, were now a heavenly body on a course with eternity…

*

Meryl Gunn filled each shot glass with vodka. She spun the cap back onto the bottle. “Come on. Everyone grab a glass.”

Belcher rallied the others together to join in on the toast. Even the Krinuans, who sniffed the noxious liquid with wrinkled, feline noses.

Gunn lifted a shot. “To everyone we’ve lost along the way, and those of us who’re left to remember them. Cheers.”

She threw the shot of vodka down her throat in one go, grimacing from the dry burn. The others repeated her call of “Cheers” and downed their shots, too. The Krinuans indulged as well, but they seemed less impressed than anyone else with it.

I suppose they only drink milk, Gunn thought.

With all the shot glasses back on the work bench, Gunn clapped her hands together. “Right! Let’s all get back to work! Chop chop!”

Belcher shook his head, laughing at the Chief’s sudden shift in attitude.

She jabbed a finger in his direction. “And you, Gary! Move it!”

He didn’t wait for her to repeat the order, lest he feel dragon’s breath at his heels.

5.

“Hold on! Just coming!”

Jessica stumbled out of the shower cubicle and wrapped herself in a towel. The Krinuans had done a fine job duplicating the bathing units aboard the Defiant. Even down to the towels, though they felt anything but cotton, they were still soft to the touch. The Krinuans found the concept of actually drying oneself a completely alien concept. They simply shook off. Their fur dried in minutes.

Unfortunately, the crew of the Defiant lacked that ability.

Jessica was dripping wet as she ran to the door and pressed her hand against the sensor to disengage the lock.

“Oh,” she said at the sight of both Commander Greene and Captain Praror.

Blood rushed to Greene’s cheeks. “Uh… if you want us to give you a minute…”

“We didn’t mean to impose,” Praror said.

“Don’t be silly. Back in a pinch,” Jessica said. She motioned for them both to take a seat while she got dressed.

She emerged from her bedroom towelling her hair, but at least she now wore clothes.

“You caught me with my hair down,” she said. “Literally.”

“Again, I apologise for our imposition. But this cannot wait,” Praror told her.

Jessica frowned. She sat down opposite the two of them. “Oh? What is it?”

Commander Greene shifted in his seat but he left it to Praror to explain their visit.

“Two hours ago we received data from a probe of ours. It is one of thousands travelling from one uncharted system to another, cataloguing what it finds. At regular intervals we receive a data packet from each probe,” Praror explained.

“And I guess you’re putting all of this together, adding it to your charts,” Jessica said.

“Precisely,” Praror said. “Usually the data collected by the probes is of little import. Most uninhabited planets. Some with basic life. Occasionally an intelligent species that we earmark for contact when the time arises. And sometimes…”

He looked to Greene. The Commander took the hint that he was to continue.

“Sometimes they come across something out of the ordinary,” Greene told her. “Like a ship.”

“A ship? What sort of ship?” Jess asked.

The Commander looked her square in the eye, his face deadly serious. “One of ours. It bears the same signature as all Union ships. A derelict ship from our side of things… just sitting there.”

6.

The briefing room was small, most of the floor taken up by a holo display. Praror replayed the data readings from the probe. In front of them was the crown of a planet, depicted in sandy shades and light blues. White streaks of cloud marbled the atmosphere like wisps of hair over a bald head.

Floating above the planet was a ship. And Jessica recognised the design and configuration.

“Runner class,” she said. “I remember it. They were old when I was a cadet.”

“Yeah, you’re right. They were the backbone of the fleet at one time,” Greene said. “Antiques now, though.”

Jessica fixed him with a look. “Our own ship’s not far off…”

Greene clutched his chest as if he’d been shot. “On behalf of the old girl, I’m hurt.”

Praror cleared his throat. “As you can see, the unknown vessel is currently in a high orbit above the planet. However it is not stable, though it would seem otherwise. The vessel is in a deteriorating orbit that will see it begin to graze the upper atmosphere in less than ten days.”

“Any idea how long it might’ve been there?” Jessica asked.

“We have extrapolated that, given its current orbit vector, the ship has been in situ above the planet for over fifty years,” Praror said.

“That’d mean it arrived here about the same time as Hawk,” Jessica said.

“Yeah that’s right,” Greene said.

“Our own directives do dictate that when discoveries such as these are made, we must investigate further,” Praror said with what passed as a smile. “I would like to offer you a ride, if you’d like to come.”

“If you hadn’t offered, I’d have suggested it,” Jessica said.

She stood watching the old ship, her head full of questions.

*

“You don’t have to go if you don’t want to,” Selena told him.

Hawk threw a few more items into a small carryall on the end of the bed.

“I gotta,” he said simply. “Yuh know I gotta.”

“Yes,” she said.

“I’ll be back before yuh know it,” Hawk said.

Selena nodded. She looked down at the floor for a moment. He lifted her chin with his finger, a smile on his face.

“It’s what I need. I’m no use to anyone sat around here, mopin’.”

“I understand,” Selena said. “And I know you’ve got to do it. But that doesn’t mean I want you to go. I’ve got used to having you around. To being like a normal couple.”

Hawk kissed her full on the lips. She slipped her arms around him as they kissed.

“Like I said, I’ll be back before yuh know it,” Hawk said again.

I hope so, Selena thought.

*

“You sure you don’t want to contact the Defiant and let Meryl know?” Jessica asked.

Commander Greene shook his head.

“She’ll only worry. This is only a short trip. I’ll tell her about it when we get back.”

Jessica said nothing more on the subject. The two of them arrived at the landing platform for the transport that would take them into orbit. Hawk was already there, bag in hand. He looked the best he had since his treatment at the hands of General Carn. Once more he looked like a man with purpose, rather than the shell he’d become.

“Someone’s eager,” Greene said.

Hawk shot him a flyboy salute. “Eager Beaver’s my second name, son.”

Greene chuckled.

“Come on you two, Praror’s already up there waiting for us. Let’s not keep him waiting any longer,” Jessica said.

“Aye Cap,” Hawk said.

She shook her head as Greene hustled past her with, “What he said.”

“No respect . . .” Jessica said under her breath as she followed them both onto the transport.

*

Captain Praror showed them to their bunks. They were little more than simple racks stacked atop one another between bulkheads, barely long enough to allow someone to stretch themselves out.

“I’m sorry it’s not much. The Naxor don’t put much stock in comfort,” Praror said apologetically.

“They’ll do fine,” Jessica said. “So we’ll be travelling incognito as the enemy.”

“I’ve recently learned the meaning of that phrase, Captain King. Yes we will be flying the Naxor ship. If there are enemy forces where we’re headed, they’ll think twice about firing on their own people,” Praror said. “I’d like to avoid a fire fight on this trip if possible.”

“Agreed.”

Praror watched them set their things away. “We’ll be underway in a moment. I’ll leave you all to get settled.”

Commander Greene watched Praror go, then dropped his bag on one of the beds. But before he could say or do anything, Jessica coughed. “Ahem.”

“Huh?” Greene asked, looking at her.

“You’re seriously going to let me drag my crippled butt up to the top bunk, Del?” she asked him.

The Commander blushed for the second time in less than twenty-four hours and grabbed his bag. “Course not,” he mumbled and threw it up on the top bunk.

Hawk shook his head as he laughed. Jessica winked in his direction.

The ship bucked beneath their feet as the clamps were released.

“Off we go,” Jessica said.

7.

Commander Greene and Captain Nowlan were asleep when Jessica made her way quietly to the bridge.

“Captain, you’re awake,” Praror said with a welcoming smile. The expression caused his whiskers to bunch up and stand to attention.

“I don’t sleep well lately,” Jessica said. She looked around. “Small crew, I noticed.”

Praror shrugged. “Small ship. Small mission. There are three of you and six of us. More than enough for a little jaunt across uncharted space.”

“You say it like that, it sounds simple,” she said.

Praror sat down at a nearby station. “When you’re riding in a stolen enemy vessel it is.”

“True,” Jessica said.

“How are you?” Praror asked her unexpectedly.

Jessica frowned, her head to one side. “How d’you mean?”

Praror pointed to her legs. “Your difficulties.”

“Oh. That. It comes and goes. I brought the stick with me, but I’ve not had to use it for a day or so. It sort of fades away,” she said.

“Will it ever go?” Praror asked her.

For a moment Jessica thought of her father, Captain Singh. How he’d learned that he had MS shortly before dying. He’d known he was her father.

There were still so many questions to be answered. Did he know all along? If not, when did he find out? Why did he keep it from her?

Answers that would never come.

“It’ll never go,” Jessica said. She shrugged. “I’ll learn to live with it.”

Praror nodded slowly. “You are a brave woman, Captain. A fine Warrior.”

Jessica looked away. She’d never been able to cope with outright praise. It made her uncomfortable.

“How long until we get there?” she asked Praror.

“Another six hours,” he said. “Do try to get some rest, dear Captain.”

Jessica smiled. “I will.”

She left the bridge and went back to her bunk. She laid back, one arm tucked under her head. When she closed her eyes she could almost believe that she was back on the Defiant. But the illusion wouldn’t hold.

It wasn’t the heart of the Defiant that beat beneath her. It was some other vessel, and the heart wasn’t there. It was just an engine powering the Naxor ship and nothing more.

There was no beat. The Defiant had a pulse and Jess missed it.

*

A Krinuan fetched them to the bridge. Praror stood with his hands clasped behind his back. On the viewscreen was the bright curve of a planet. “We have arrived,” he announced.

“And the ship?” Greene asked.

“Tracking its signal now. We’re also scanning the area for hostiles,” Praror said.

“Got it,” the helmsman reported. “Locking in co-ordinates.”

“Execute. Full speed,” Praror ordered. He glanced at Jessica. “Time to make our rendezvous.”

*

The old ship was falling.

“Definitely Runner class,” Greene noted.

“Yuh,” Hawk said. “No doubt about it. Can we zoom in? Get a look at that registration?”

The helmsman did what he could to zero in on the rotating ship ahead of them. It tumbled above the planet, locked into a dance of death with the planet’s gravity well. Soon the dance would end in flames. But they had time yet.

“Improving resolution,” the helmsman said.

The image cleared. As the ship turned to face them again, the registration became clear.

Hawks’ eyes widened with surprise. “The Warrior?”

Praror looked to Jessica. “Your namesake, Captain.”

King shot him a disapproving look. She crossed her arms in front of her chest. “Hawk, you know that ship?”

“Yuh,” he said. “Registration TU-31985.”

“Wow. I didn’t realise you had such a good memory,” Greene said.

“It’s not that,” Hawk said. “In my time, hell, before the two of yuh were even born… the Warrior was infamous. At the time, no other Union ship had ever seen as much action as the Warrior. She was in every major battle.”

“I don’t remember seeing anything about her,” Jessica said, frowning. “And I’m pretty good with Union history. You know, the Marquis wars and everything.”

Hawk shook his head. “That’s because y’all won’t find any mention of it in the history books.”

Greene exchanged puzzled looks with Jessica. “I don’t follow,” he said.

Hawk crossed his arms. He continued to gaze at the viewscreen, at the dead ship before them. “Her designation and purpose were top secret. Only top brass knew of her existence. And myself. I was involved with the Warrior for several covert missions. Yuh won’t find any record of those, either. To any ships that came across her, either in passing or in the field of battle, she was just Warrior. Another ship. But she was anything but.”

“Okay. So she was black ops. How come she’s here?” Jessica asked.

“The last I heard, the Warrior went dark on a mission against the Draxx. That was shortly before I ended up here. So who knows?”

Praror interrupted. “Excuse me, but you all may want to be seated. We’re going to attempt a docking procedure. If we can successfully couple to it, we can use our engines to pull it into a higher orbit.”

“You heard the man,” Jessica said. She took a seat.

*

The Naxor ship turned and turned, the alien planet swinging about the viewscreen in tight circles. It was enough to make anyone feel sick, even with the presence of artificial gravity. However, the Krinuan pilot did a fine job of inching them closer and closer to the Warrior, matching its alignment, velocity of spin and rate of fall toward the planet.

“Easy,” Praror said.

The helmsman nodded, his full concentration on the awkward mating of two foreign starships to one another. The viewscreen showed the very front of the Naxor ship. A docking collar emerged from the nose of the craft, and the Krinuan brought them to within a few feet of the dock on the side of the Warrior.

With a few well-placed bursts of thruster power, the pilot eased the two ships together. The seals closed around the Warrior’s dock, and the pressure gauges worked to equalise with that of the other ship.

“Docked.”

“Good work,” Captain Praror said. “Initial readings?”

“Breathable atmosphere,” the helmsman said. “Cold, however. And I’m not reading any operable devices over there. No real signs of power.”

Jess stood up. “Well let’s get over there and have a look. If you agree, of course, Captain.”

Praror bowed his head. “It’s your ship, Captain King. I’m afraid I wouldn’t know where to look first. But I’ll come along with you, of course. I’m curious.”

“Appreciated. Del, Hawk, let’s go,” King ordered.

*

They had to bend forward to fit through the docking collar. The seals parted before them. Instantly, cold, stale air rushed up to meet them. As Jessica, Commander Greene, Hawk and Captain Praror advanced into the Warrior, they left a trail of icy breath behind them. They stood together in a corridor with only their torches for illumination.

“If yuh agree Cap, I think we should split up,” Hawk said.

“Sounds like a good idea,” Jessica said. “I’ll go with Praror to the bridge.”

“Yuh. If I take the Commander to the engine room, we might get some power goin’.”

“Good. We’ll meet back here in thirty minutes,” Jessica said.

The two teams went their separate ways. Jessica walked with her torch in front of her, scanning the darkness ahead for any kind of movement. Ice crystals on the deck and walls glittered like diamond dust. The cold was biting, dry. The Warrior creaked around them. They hadn’t yet corrected the ships position. Not until they could assess her actual condition. If the Warrior broke up through the effort to lift her into a higher orbit, they would go with it…

The ship gave her the creeps. She expected to turn a corner and find a frozen corpse staring at her with glittery eyeballs. That or something else. She still remembered the tales from her cadet days. Talk of ships lost to deadly creatures. Alien predators, xenomorphs that deposited their young down your throat, only for them to hatch through your stomach hours later…

It made her shiver just to think of it.

The beam from her flashlight came to rest on a door ahead. “This must be the bridge.”

The Warrior was a small ship. Much smaller than the Defiant. Jessica knew that the old Runner class were capable of carrying a crew of about sixty or so.

She stepped to one side as Praror grabbed the edge of the door and gave it a heave. It groaned on icy hinges as it receded into the bulkhead to reveal the dark bridge on the other side.

Praror went in first, sweeping his torch left and right. The room was completely empty.

“No bodies. Nothing,” he said in a low voice.

Jessica looked at the various consoles and displays. The ship had definitely been outfitted for battle. Special ops. She’d seen the internal specifications of the Runner class before, and knew enough to see that the Warrior was not standard specification.

Yet Praror was right. No bodies. No phantom aliens waiting to jump out, latch onto her face and impregnate her with their reptilian seed. Nothing.

A ghost ship.

*

The engine room was similarly deserted.

“If I remember right, there should be a lever there somewhere for the auxiliary feed,” Hawk said.

“Gotchya,” Greene said. He held the torch in his mouth so he could work with both hands. He popped a panel open on the wall nearest him, revealing an assortment of levers and wheels amidst pipe work. All of it covered in the same type of ice crystals as they’d seen on their way there. The Commander located the auxiliary feed and silently prayed that the ice covering everything wouldn’t cause some kind of electrical backwash. He didn’t fancy being fried.

He threw a lever. There was a loud bang, then a hum. It built in volume until it was joined by a mechanical whir. Hawk looked up at the lighting panels as they flickered to life.

He grinned, finally able to turn his torch off and clip it onto his belt.

“Hey!” Greene said, just as happy to have some real light at last.

Hawk tapped his temple. “Told yuh I’d remember.”

Greene held up his hand in surrender. “I bow to your wisdom.”

“That’s the auxiliary power from the batteries. Now how’s about we see if this thing’s still got a working generator. You know your way around an engine room?”

The Commander nodded. “I know a fair amount.”

“Then let’s get to work, boy-o.”

*

Jessica glanced around. “Hey. We have light.”

“Indeed we do,” Praror said. “A good sign. Perhaps we should proceed to the engine room to assist. If the ship has a functioning generator, then perhaps manoeuvring capability will follow.”

“Go ahead. I’ll be right behind you. I want to check something here first,” Jessica said.

Praror nodded and left the bridge. Jessica sat in the captain’s chair. The bridge was smaller than that on the Defiant, but not as small as the Emergency Command Centre. At least there were seats.

Now that the ship had lights, she could see all of the defensive systems that had been incorporated into the standard bridge design.

This baby’s meant for war, Jessica thought as she attempted to access the Warrior’s computer core from the captain’s chair. She’s a fighting machine.

The computer was sluggish, but she didn’t push it to do a hundred things at once. She allowed it to wake up a bit and watched as the data she’d requested flashed up on the little display built into the arm rest. Her eyes widened in astonishment. Any thoughts of joining the other three in the engine room right away were forgotten in light of what she discovered.

She looked up.

“A fighting machine…” she whispered to herself, then continued reading.

8.

She scrolled back through the weapons inventory. It took a couple of moments to register what she saw. The back of her neck prickled with electricity.

LOG 6 – PROJECT HYDRA II

The Hydra project was well known in command circles. Decades before, the Union had experimented with technology that could cause the fusion of a body of water. They tested it on small amounts of H2O at first. Then they built bigger models. Apparently, they’d constructed several of them for use against the Draxx in extreme circumstances. Officially they were deemed too destructive to be used, even against the Draxx. With one shot, a Hydra missile could ignite a planet’s ocean, turning it into one huge nuclear reaction.

Bang.

And the Warrior had one within its hold. Years later, the Union would follow the same train of thought and learn to ignite an entire sun. An extension of the same technology. The Sun Hammer.

Jess shuddered. That wasn’t all, either. She looked down the list.

LOG 27 – Q50 – IMPLOSION ROUNDS

Fifty implosion rounds. She couldn’t believe it. Yet another technology outlawed a long time ago, thought to have been destroyed by the Union. No, they’d outfitted a black ops ship with them.

LOG 116 – CLOAKING DEVICE – CLASSIFIED

Jessica left the inventory, noting the presence of a cloaking device in there for future reference. She found the Captain’s journal, hoping it would illuminate the circumstances of the Warrior‘s current status a little better.

Captain’s personal journal

Date: CLASSIFIED – ENTER SECURITY CLEARANCE

Time: CLASSIFIED – ENTER SECURITY CLEARANCE

. . . a sinkhole in space. That’s the only way I can describe it. We didn’t have a chance to evade it. The Warrior was dragged into it, and I issued the general evacuation alarm… but I knew we didn’t have a chance of getting out.

I don’t know how to explain what happened next. It all went . . . dark. We fell into nothing.

And then we woke, to find ourselves here.

I have the boys working round the clock to try and puzzle this one out. Where are we? Why can’t we contact the Union? Just what the hell is going on?

This is Captain Hal Dolarhyde, of the starship Warrior. Designation classified, position and status… unknown.

Jessica flicked past pages of journals, none of them any more enlightening. Her eyes came to rest on an entry much further down the list.

Captain’s personal journal

Date: CLASSIFIED – ENTER SECURITY CLEARANCE

Time: CLASSIFIED – ENTER SECURITY CLEARANCE

This may be the last time I leave a journal entry. I can’t see the point anymore. Who’s ever going to read it anyway? I’m starting to think we’ll never get out of here. Never see home again.

It tears me apart, to be honest.

The men haven’t taken it well. We’re running low on supplies and I’ve ordered a landing party to survey the surface of this planet for anything we can eat or drink. One of the two shuttles we have on board has left with a team. I’m hopeful they’ll find something down there.

If worse comes to worst, we can camp down on the surface, find shelter down there, and leave the Warrior broadcasting an emergency beacon on a Union frequency. Maybe a passing ship will hear it. Though I doubt it.

Lieutenant Vernon seems to think we’ve been pulled into a different galaxy altogether. I like to think he’s wrong. But I know, in my gut, that he’s probably correct. I’ve felt it for a while.

The stars are different.

Jessica wondered why there was no beacon. No power at all. The ship had been left entirely deserted up here in orbit. She went to the very last entry.

Captain’s personal journal

Date: CLASSIFIED – ENTER SECURITY CLEARANCE

Time: CLASSIFIED – ENTER SECURITY CLEARANCE

This is Captain Dolarhyde… and this will be my last entry.

We‘ve been up here for seven months and I’ve made the tough decision to abandon ship. The emergency beacon is inoperable. Perhaps damaged when we were pulled through to here.

We will slip the Warrior into a safe orbit and shut her down. We’re taking both shuttles to the surface, where we have been constructing a series of shelters. They’re not far from completion. Everything we can take to help us survive down there, we have done. That includes some weaponry. The rest, I have no choice but to leave it aboard the Warrior.

It’s not an ideal situation, but what choice to do I have?

For now we surrender our vessel – and our lives – to this planet. There are enough of us to make a go of it down there. We’ll survive.

There’s something else, too. Our survey team found something down there. A kind of relic or monolith. It’s a perfect pyramid constructed from some kind of black material. There doesn’t appear to be any entrance, and Commander Ryman has postulated the theory that it is of natural origin. I don’t believe it for a second.

There are no intelligent life forms on the surface, however. So whoever built it is long since gone. Initial results of dating measurements make it to be centuries old. Perhaps millennia.

It’s a relic of some kind.

I haven’t shared this with the crew, but I hope its makers don’t return to check in on it while we’re down there. In the meantime, I will do what I can to study it. I harbour hopes it will give us some clues as to how we ended up here…

*

The generator was an antique, but a well-preserved one. It had some obvious adaptations to it that neither Hawk nor Commander Greene recognised. However it was a case of simply kick-starting the reaction in the core and letting the generator do its thing.

“We have life!” Greene cried in mock Frankensteinian.

Hawk chuckled as he shook his head. “Loon.”

The narrow panes of glass on the generator’s front spat white light throughout the room, as if a million fireworks were going off in there. Captain Praror looked nervous.

“Is it safe?” he asked.

“Fella, in my day these were top of the line,” Hawk said with obvious pride in the fact Greene and himself had got the Warrior back up and running between themselves.

“Yeah but you are pretty out of date,” Greene quipped.

“Hey. I’m a legend. Don’t forget that. We don’t come along all the time.”

The Commander rolled his eyes.

Jessica stood in the doorway to the engine room. None of them had seen her arrive.

“Captain,” Greene said. His face turned serious when he saw Jessica’s expression. “What is it? What’s wrong?”

“All of you, come up to the bridge. Now.”

9.

Greene looked through the weapons inventory.

“Is there a weapon they didn’t pack into the hold of this thing?” he exclaimed in disbelief.

“Hydra . . .” Hawk said. He shook his head. “I saw what happened to Hartley IX. The whole planet burned up from one side to the other. One missile.”

“I’ve read about it,” King said. “We ourselves had a run-in with the project’s successor, isn’t that right Del?”

Greene nodded. “Yeah.”

“And you say that the crew abandoned ship and settled on the surface?” Praror asked her.

Jessica showed him a readout on an adjacent station. The little settlement was clearly visible among a series of rocky formations. There was a river winding its way north of the settlement, and cultivated fields a deep, lush green. Obviously their efforts had worked.

“I believe the ship would withstand a corrective procedure. Once that is completed, we can disembark for the surface,” Praror offered.

“If you’re sure,” King said.

Praror smiled, his whiskers lifting. “Of course.”

“It’s going to be a while till we can get those engines back up and running, otherwise we wouldn’t have to do it this way,” Greene said.

“As I said, I’m sure this vessel can take the strain,” Praror said.

Jessica shifted the display to show an area ten miles east of the settlement. What appeared to be a big, black square from orbit was in fact a jet black pyramid.

“I gotta get down there,” King whispered, too low for any of the others to hear.

Another black pyramid. Another mystery. Another bread crumb left behind by an ancient race. Where would the breadcrumbs lead?

*

Praror’s ship rattled around them, but the Krinuan had been correct. Both ships held together. The effort of lifting the Warrior high enough for it to be out of danger put considerable strain on the Naxor ship, but not so much as to cause alarm.

“And decrease thrust,” Praror ordered. The helmsman complied by pulling back on the engines and bringing the two conjoined ships to a halt.

“High orbit obtained.”

“So, Captain King, what is your plan? I assume you’ll have someone aboard the Warrior?”

Jessica shook her head. “We’ll head down to the surface first, there’s no rush in getting the Warrior back up and running. It’s out of danger, which will do until we get back. There’s a lot to study there.”

Now that she’d mentioned it, Jess felt conscious of the deadly weaponry stored in the Warrior’s hold. Was it wise to give such technology to the Krinuans? But how could they hide it?

It was something she knew she’d have to decide upon, but not now.

“We’ll take one of the shuttles,” Praror said. He led them off the bridge to the small cargo bay in the belly of the Naxor ship. Thankfully, Praror had had the foresight to have several Krinuan shuttle craft fitted there.

King could only think of the pyramid. There might be survivors down there, and if so, great, but… she couldn’t get the artefact out of her mind.

“Let’s do this,” Hawk said.

*

The emergency shelters stored in all Union ships had stood the test of time. Though they were corroded and had seen better days, the simple box shaped huts constructed from panels of reinforced aluminium still stood strong. There were twenty or so in total.

“Weapons at the ready, just to be on the safe side,” King ordered.

They fanned out, peering inside each shelter. The place was silent except for the eerie whistle of the wind through the rocky outcroppings.

We’ve gone from a ghost ship to a ghost town, Jessica thought. She kicked the remains of a fire with her foot.

“Someone’s here at least. This fire looks new. Maybe a couple of days old.”

Commander Greene lifted some clothing hung out on a wooden rack to dry. “Looks like it was laundry day not so long ago,” he quipped.

Hawk chuckled.

King peered about. “Signs of life, but no life,” she said.

“Cryptic . . .” Hawk said. “Like it.”

Praror’s voice broke sharp and to the point. “We have company.”

They followed his gaze. Above them, at the edge of a boulder at least fifty feet high stood a man with a long white beard. He observed them in silence, one hand holding a staff and the other, some kind of device.

Jessica sensed Del tense up, his hand flexing around his shooter. She shot him a look that said, “at ease.” He nodded and relaxed a bit.

Hawk stepped forward, his arms outspread. “Hey. Nice to meet yuh. We don’t mean yuh any harm.”

The old man looked from one to the other. He was thin, but not without muscle. King knew from the look of him he possessed of a kind of wiry strength. The kind that comes from hard living. Survival. He looked to be sixty, if not seventy years old. But he had the body of a forty-year-old man. His skin was dark from the sun, and his face weathered and wrinkled like old leather beneath the thick beard.

“I am Captain Jessica King of the starship Defiant. Are you a member of the Warrior’s crew?”

The old man’s eyes widened slightly, then he turned on his heels and disappeared.

“What the—?” Hawk spat, stepping back to try and get a view of the top of the rock.

“Hawk,” Jessica said as the old man appeared to their right. Now she could see that he held an old fashioned design of communicator in his hand. He wore torn rags for clothing, tied at his waist.

He regarded them all with his small, dark eyes.

“Are you from the Warrior?”

The old man nodded his head slowly. “Yes.”

He looked up at the sky, as if he could see past the rich blue to where his ship floated in orbit.

“And the others?” King asked him.

“Dead. I am the last,” the old man said. He tucked the staff under his armpit then offered his hand. “Captain Hal Dolarhyde, last surviving crewmember of the Warrior.”

10.

He offered them water but they declined. Dolarhyde shrugged and sipped from a beat up old cup. He wiped the runoff from his beard.

“So what happened here?” Greene asked him.

Captain Dolarhyde sat down on an upturned crate with a sigh. “Old age. Accidents. A couple died from diseases. We had a handful of people, a year after we came down here… they left for the mountains. I never saw them again,” he said sadly.

“How long have you been on your own, Captain?” King asked him.

He looked at her. “Too long.”

“I’m sorry,” Jess said. “And the communicator?”

Dolarhyde looked down at the device. He laughed. It was not the laughter of a madman, but a man caught off guard. “Doesn’t work. Hasn’t for years. I just… carry things sometimes, I… I forget why.”

He tossed it to the side. It clattered in the dry soil.

“Is this planet inhabited?” Greene asked him.

“Apart from some primitive creatures, no. We used to hunt the herbivores, but I’ve grown too old for that. Besides, my rifle finally died on me. I may look like Robinson Crusoe, but I’m not about ready to start fashioning spears just yet,” Dolarhyde said. Again, he laughed. “No, these days I’m a vegetarian. The animals stay away from me, and I don’t hunt them anymore. Seems a pretty fair deal to me.”

“We’ve seen some hardship ourselves,” King said.

“Been on this side long?” Dolarhyde asked her.

“A while. Not as long as yourself though, Captain. Do you have any idea how you ended up here? On this side, as you put it? Your log mentioned something about a sinkhole…” King said.

Dolarhyde looked up. “So she’s still up there, huh?”

“Barely. She was just about ready to break up in the atmosphere. Her orbit had degraded over the years,” King said.

“Some kind of inter-dimensional anomaly perhaps? A black hole? I’ve tried to work it out over the years, and I can’t. All I know is, it appeared, we fell into it, and we ended up here,” he said. “I made the decision to remain here because I reasoned that if a rescue party were to come, it’d be best to stay in one place.”

“A reasonable decision,” King said.

Dolarhyde looked away. “And perhaps the wrong one, nevertheless. If only I could have found the courage to strike out on my own, find a way back. But I couldn’t. I wanted to keep them safe.”

“You did your best.”

“All I did was sign their death warrant. I wonder if it’s some kind of joke.”

Jessica frowned. “I don’t follow.”

“A joke. Like fate is laughing at me. Here I am, the last of my crew. Left to die on his own. Penance for my negligence, eh?” Dolarhyde said.

“I think you’re too hard on yourself,” King said. “And besides, we’re here now. If you’re agreeable to it, I’d like to take you back to the Defiant.”

“The Defiant?”

She smiled. “My ship. Archon class.”

“I don’t know it, but she sounds grand,” Dolarhyde said, for a moment distracted from his maudlin reverie.

“She is,” Jessica said.

Dolarhyde nodded in Hawk’s direction. “Of course, I know who you are. Don’t quite understand how you can be here, and looking so young, but I can put a name to that Texan mug of yours.”

Hawk grinned. “I did wonder.”

“Yeah. I remember when you went missing. They said you were dead…” Dolarhyde said.

“Greatly exaggerated,” Hawk grinned.

“Ain’t that right,” Dolarhyde said.

Captain Praror surveyed the area. “We should probably get to the pyramid soon, Captain King. While we have light.”

“Agreed,” Jessica said. She turned back to Captain Dolarhyde. “We noticed a big, black monolith not far from here. D’you know of it?”

Dolarhyde nodded slowly. His small, dark eyes sparkled with knowing.

“Yeah. I wondered when you’d bring it up.”

11.

The mountain opened under Dolarhyde’s careful touch. They stepped back as it revealed itself to them. Then they followed him in.

*

Dolarhyde shuffled through the pristine white innards of the pyramid. Looking around, Jessica could see that it was slightly different to the last pyramid she’d had the fortune of investigating.

“This is different . . .” Greene said with an awe struck cluck of his tongue.

“My reaction the first time,” King said. “It’s just so massive.”

“Size of a mountain,” Hawk said, peering up to where the very top of the pyramid was lost to shadow.

“Indeed,” Captain Praror said.

“This way, this way,” Dolarhyde said.

He showed them what looked like a chair. It couldn’t be anything else. Completely angular, with a back rest and seat. Jessica looked to the others and found comfort in the fact they were just as surprised by the presence of what could only be a driving seat as she.

“Sit,” Dolarhyde urged her, his eyes darting back and forth.

“Okay . . .” King said. She hopped up onto the seat best she could, thankful once again that her condition had abated for the time being. “Now what?”

Before Dolarhyde or anyone else could even begin to answer, the lights went out. Apart for one. A single strong beam of light fell upon her forehead. Jessica peered into it, squinting.

She heard Dolarhyde chuckle like a child watching a circus act. She tried to look for him, but the light was blinding. Everything else was shadow.

And there was something on her mind. In her mind. Like the light was burrowing a hole in her forehead. Opening her up. Jessica concentrated on it, sought it out.

Who are you? What are you doing in my head? she asked the presence steadily making itself known in her mind. Its answer rang out like a division bell. It sent a shiver through her entire body.

Deep and booming, the unmistakable voice of the pyramid itself spoke to her directly. Into her head.

I AM HERE

Then all was dark.

12.

She travelled across time and space. Through it. Around it. In between.

Her primitive human brain barely accepted the reality of what she saw, let alone comprehended everything for what it was. Colour and light. Speed. Incredible speed.

Set your controls for the heart of the sun, she thought and laughed hysterically, at the top of her lungs.

Then she found herself standing in a huge white hall. Pristine, sterile.

“Hello again, Captain,” Dana said.

“Dana?” Jessica asked, somewhat overwhelmed and disoriented.

“Yes. It’s me. Don’t ask me where we are. I’m not entirely sure I’ve got it figured out yet. The pyramid doesn’t tell me a lot. Well, not a lot that I can understand at any rate. But I believe this to be a kind of corridor between universes.”

“A gap.”

Dana smiled. “Yes. Yes, exactly. A gap.”

“Why am I here?” Jessica asked.

“Because I asked them to bring you here,” Dana told her.

“Them? The makers of these things?”

Dana shook her head. “No, the devices themselves. They have a consciousness, Captain, but I don’t know if you’ll believe me when I tell you that they’re each linked to one another. A kind of hive mind. But it takes some work to get them all talking again. There’s a couple out there that aren’t operating anymore. Totally inert.”

“So even these things can break down,” Jessica noted. “You must have a reason for pulling me here? To take you back?”

“No. To warn you. I know where you are. You’ve stepped into some very real danger. General Carn is en route to your location now, as we speak,” Dana said.

“Carn?”

“He has learned the location of the other pyramids in this galaxy and he is trying to gain access to each one. Eventually, Carn will find the cypher that controls them all,” Dana said.

“The cypher?”

Dana swallowed. “A way of controlling them to manipulate time itself. If he manages to do that, then he could wipe out whole civilisations at a whim. All opposition to the Draxx erased from existence. Lost.”

“My God…” Jessica said, lost for any other words.

“Exactly. And he’s very close to discovering it. He already knows the devices are capable of such a feat. Just not how to make them do it. That’s the cypher. And it’s what I’m going to give to you,” Dana said. She handed Jessica a small white pebble. She took it and turned it over in her hand. Exactly like something you’d get on a beach, washed smooth by the tide. “What is it?”

“Knowledge. When the time comes, you’ll know what to do with it,” Dana said. “Now it’s imperative he doesn’t gain access to this pyramid. He’s less than two hours away. But there may be time to wake the pyramid enough to get it to disappear. I need you to buy me time, though.”

“I’ll do what I can.”

“One more thing, Captain. The old man with you. He has a gift when it comes to communicating with this particular pyramid. He’s valuable to you. It’s important you get his help.”

“Understood. Dana… will you ever return to us?” Jessica asked.

The room started to dim. The white falling to shadow.

“Yes. One day. I have a rare bond with these machines. They need me for the moment. But when they’re safe, I hope to return.”

Dana reached out and stroked the side of Jessica’s face.

“Don’t fear, Captain. The dawn will always break the night. But first it has to get dark,” Dana said.

And it did.

*

She opened her eyes. “How long?”

“You’ve been in the chair seconds,” Greene said. “Why? What happened? You were twitching and writhing around.”

King looked down at her hand. Empty. But she understood that the gift Dana had given her had not simply disappeared. It had been knowledge. And it was where it needed to be.

She stood. “We have to go.”

*

Jessica explained everything to them as they left the pyramid. No one could have guessed that she suffered from MS at the rate her legs were going. They struggled to keep up with her.

“So he’s coming here?” Greene asked her.

“He’s attempting to access the devices one by one, travelling far and wide to learn what he can from them.”

“They’re very powerful. I’ve had some success over the years in gaining access to the knowledge stored within,” Dolarhyde said. “Though I think you already know that.”

“Yes,” Jessica said.

“That’s spooky,” Greene muttered.

“I need your help in locating the others. Can you do that?” Jessica asked.

Dolarhyde nodded as he kept pace. “If you show me a good star chart of the surrounding space, I think I could give you some pointers. It often showed me the locations of its companions. Though what use it was to me then . . .”

“Well it’s gold dust to me now. You’ll leave the surface with us?” Jessica asked him.

“Of course,” Dolarhyde said.

“Good. Because I’ll need your help getting the Warrior back up and running again. Work with Commander Greene and Captain Nowlan to get her operational as fast as possible.”

They neared the shuttle.

“We’re really gonna try and hold him off, huh?” Hawk asked.

Praror activated a panel at the side of the doors and they waited for them to whoosh open.

“He can’t get it,” Jessica said. “He’s one piece away from completing the puzzle. And if he does… game over.”

13.

“Once the shuttle docks, we get to the Warrior. Get her back up and running,” King said, her voice tense.

“Understood. If we can nudge her above the north pole, we might be able to hide her from their sensors,” Greene offered. “That’ll buy us time to reactivate her systems.”

“A sound plan,” Praror agreed. “There may be enough time, provided of course you can get the engines online.”

“We can’t let the Warrior fall into their hands,” Dolarhyde said. “As I know you’re aware, she’s not your average ship.”

“I don’t think it’s the ship they’re after,” Hawk said.

“No it’s not. But they’ll take it anyway, and I can’t allow that to happen. I’ll set the self-destruct myself before they lay their mitts on it,” King said.

“The pyramid. They’re after the pyramid,” Greene said.

“Of course. Carn is on a quest to unlock their secrets,” King said. “And if he does so, it’ll spell certain doom for all of us.”

“Amen,” Hawk said.

The shuttle coasted through the darkness of space. Praror worked the controls. “We’ll dock in two minutes.”

“As soon as we’re aboard, I want you to send a signal to the Defiant. Make it your first priority whilst we get started on the Warrior,” Jessica said to Greene. “We need them here. And any help they can bring will be appreciated.”

“Aye.”

“There’s a lot at stake. A ship filled to the brim with volatile weaponry. An alien artefact that could wipe out whole civilisations at the push of a button,” Jessica said, almost to herself.

“Not even that. At a thought,” Dolarhyde said. “One thing to understand, Captain. We don’t know what caused the Big Bang. An act of nature, or an act of God. But one thing we can know for sure now, whoever built these things had a hand in the life that sprang up after. They nurtured. They sowed. They weeded out what they had to.”

He reached out and took her hand in his. Old and young, but still one Captain to another.

“That is why he seeks their power. He sees its potential. A key to the universe, Captain. A key to the universe,” Dolarhyde whispered to her.

She turned to the front of the shuttle. Her eyes fixed dead ahead. They bore down on the Naxor and Union ships stuck to one another, joined at the hip. Praror swung them around to face the docking bay.

“This may well be our last stand,” King said. “And if it is, so be it. I will not let him get what he’s after. I draw the line here. This time there will be no retreat.”

14.

Minutes later, Commander Greene’s transmission reached the Defiant loud and clear.

“Commander,” Beaumont said. “Incoming message.”

“Put it on,” Chang said.

She listened to Del Greene. When she reached the end, her hands reflexively gripped the edges of the arm rests.

“How shall I respond?” Beaumont asked her.

Commander Lisa Chang drew a deep breath. “Tell them we’re on our way. And we’ll bring whatever assistance we can rustle together. Tell them… tell the Captain… to hold on till we get there. We’re coming.”

“Aye,” Beaumont said.

She turned to the helmsman. “Rogers, get us there. Maximum speed.”

PART NINE

DEFIANT

1.

Captain Praror’s ship dragged the Warrior – still incapable of moving under its own power – toward the north pole of the planet where it would be virtually invisible to enemy sensors.

“Braking thrusters,” he ordered. “Slow to full stop once we reach the zenith, then apply manoeuvring jets as and when needed to hold our position.”

“Yes sir,” the helmsman replied.

Praror signalled through to the Warrior, attached to their side by a docking port that resembled the connective bridge of tissue that binds two Siamese twins.

“Captain King, do you read me?”

“Yes. We’re all set here,” King replied.

“Good. We’ll uncouple once we’re in position. It’ll be up to you to maintain position from there,” Praror advised her.

“Understood. Thank you Captain. For everything,” King said.

Praror smiled, it made his whiskers lift. “You can thank me over a drink when this is all over, Captain…”

*

Jessica closed the channel and turned to Hawk, who was seated at the helm.

“Get ready for them to release us,” she said.

“Aye,” Hawk said. His hands keyed several controls as he prepared to take over control of the Warrior. “Ready when you are.”

They slowed to a stop, then seconds later a loud thud boomed around them as the old ship was unfettered from Captain Praror’s command.

“Holding our position,” Hawk said. His fingers ran across controls with the lightest touch possible, just enough to keep the Warrior where she was. “The old girl should stay put for a couple of hours.”

“I don’t think we’ll have that long,” Jessica said. She got up from the command chair and came face to face with Dolarhyde.

“Captain,” Dolarhyde said. “I think we’re nearly ready. There’s some rerouting to do, but nothing that should take more than half an hour or so. Commander Greene is up to his elbows in wiring right now, getting it done.”

“Excellent news,” King said. She looked back at the command chair. “You know, it seems a bit strange to be sitting in that chair, Captain. Especially when its owner is standing in front of me.”

Dolarhyde shook his head, looked down at the deck. “It no longer crosses my mind. This command of this bridge is as alien a concept to me now as becoming a permanent resident of that planet was when we first arrived. I can recall every system on this ship… but I doubt I’d remember what to do as her skipper. The minute I’d sit in that seat, I’d go blank. The years here have washed it all away. Now I’m just a man.”

Hawk turned around. “Yuh never lose it, pal.”

Dolarhyde didn’t say anything.

Jessica cleared her throat. “Captain, I was about to go see the engineering section. See if there was anything I could do to help.”

“I’ll lead the way,” Dolarhyde said. He turned back through the entrance and left.

“Yuh want me to hold the fort?” Hawk asked her.

“If you wouldn’t mind. There’s little I can do up here until we have this ship up and running,” she said. “In the mean time, use what scanning capabilities the Warrior has to keep a tab on our visitors.”

“Aye,” he said.

“I can only hope the Defiant is en route to join us. And perhaps Chang has managed to rally up some Krinuan support. We’ll need all the help we can get to keep Carn’s hands off that pyramid…”

2.

Captain King could hardly have known just how prophetic her words were. Commander Chang had arranged for a sizeable fleet of Krinuan ships to join the Defiant in answering Commander Greene’s call for assistance, though they would still arrive a little late to the party.

“How long till they reach us?” Chang asked Rogers.

The helmsman checked a readout at the side of his station. “Two hours.”

Chang cursed under her breath. She opened a comm. channel to engineering.

“Chief? What’re the possibilities of opening her up a bit? Give us some extra power? I want to get there as soon as we can. I don’t think we can afford to wait for our Krinuan backup.”

*

Meryl Gunn rolled her eyes as she hit the reply button on the comm. panel.

“Believe it or not, I am trying everything I can down here,” she said sarcastically.

“I know, Chief, but we need more.”

“She’s in rough shape,” Gunn said. “I can only push her so far.”

“With all due respect, Chief, if it means pushing her till she flies apart then that’s what I’m going to do. Whatever it takes to get the Captain and Commander Greene out of a jam,” Chang said.

Gunn ran a hand over her face. The mention of Commander Greene had stopped her in her tracks, reminded her of the panic that fluttered in her stomach when she heard the distress call. She didn’t know if she could deal with anything happening to Del. Not after all they’d been through. The Chief took a deep breath. “Understood. I’ll do what I can. But you’ll have to trust me on this. I wanna see them safe, too.”

“I know you do. Keep me posted,” Chang said and closed the channel.

Gunn felt a hand on her shoulder. It was Belcher.

“Are you okay, Chief?” he asked her.

Gunn straightened up, puffed her chest out. She gently removed his hand from her shoulder and patted his arm. “Come on, we’ve got a ship to fly to pieces.”

*

General Carn stood with his hands clasped behind his back, legs slightly apart, as he took in the forward view. The cosmos raced around them, a blizzard of stars against the darkness. His breathing was slow and measured, though his mirrored visor gave no sign of that fact. It hid every aspect of whatever was happening on his face – if indeed he still had one. Many had tried to determine why he wore the mask, and what he looked like beneath it. And they would never know, not while he still had a heartbeat: albeit the pumping of an artificial one.

Remarkably, the General felt at peace. His ship – a Dreadnought class borrowed from the Naxors – raced toward the location of one of the pyramids. It could very well be the pyramid he’d been searching for all along. And its location may well be guarded by Krinuan forces. He knew he could be headed toward a fight… and yet it did not phase him. Battle never had.

Such cool, logical calm had little to do with whatever artificial organs kept him alive. It came from instinct. True, his skill with a blade and his tactical prowess had won him battles. But it was his nature – that of a killer – that had kept him alive.

And he knew it was that same killer instinct that would see his mission through. No matter what, he’d find the pyramid that would unlock the universe for them.

The Draxx Dominion, the one power in the galaxy to which he’d sworn allegiance. And not only the Dominion as a whole, but the Queen herself. At the same instant his thoughts turned to her, the General heard movement behind him. He’d ordered he be left in peace on the observation deck. Not to be disturbed.

Except by one.

“General,” she said.

Carn turned, bowed his head. “My Queen.”

“What is our progress?” the Draxx Queen asked him.

The monarch of the entire race stood twelve feet tall with a long, green body that snaked behind her for twenty feet. She had several legs, two pairs of arms and could almost have been mistaken for a kind of giant insect. But there was no mistaking the reptilian face and eyes. Nor the rattle at the end of her tail, or the forked tongue that flickered from her mouth every few seconds. She wore a crown of twisted metals set with precious stones. And all the while, almost unnoticed by her, a series of smaller creatures clambered all over her body, cleaning the Queen’s leathery green skin and moisturising her joints.

“We’re nearing the location of another artefact, your highness,” Carn said.

“General, I do not doubt your plan to get us home. But so far we’ve seen little success,” the Queen said. “Are you certain it will work?”

“Your highness, with all due respect, the artefacts are our only hope of getting back to our own galaxy, back to the Dominion. However, I believe that with the right one… the key that unlocks the others . . . we can return to our galaxy, stronger than when we left.”

“And I trust your plan, General. I simply advise caution,” she said. She walked slowly past him to gaze at the forward view.

“What I do, I do not only for the Dominion… but you, your highness. My Queen,” Carn said softly.

“And you shall be rewarded when we return,” the Queen said. “When you take your rightful place at my side, as we lead the Dominion into the future.”

Or the past, Carn thought to himself. First we must go to the past. Do what must be done. Only then will the Draxx reign supreme.

“We will rule the galaxy…” Carn said.

The Draxx Queen’s mouth broke into a wide grin, showing all four rows of pin-sharp teeth. Venom fell from her fangs as she salivated at the thought of universal domination. She gazed out at the stars.

“Yes. We will dominate, as it was always meant to be,” she said. Her slitted red eyes locked onto his. “Together.”

Behind his mask, the General smiled.

3.

“Engines now at one hundred and fifty percent,” Gunn told Chang on the bridge. She’d gone up there to deliver the news personally, and to see the Commander face to face.

“Great work, Chief. This cuts our travelling time by a sizeable chunk,” Chang said. “I think the Krinuans are struggling to keep up, and for an old ship that’s good.”

The reinforcements tailed the Defiant, with over an hour separating the older Union vessel and the small Krinuan ships. They’d contacted the Defiant to announce the fact that they’d noticed her speeding up and were pushing their own engines to excess in order to maintain the pace.

Gunn led Chang off to the side by the tip of her elbow. “Can I have a word?”

“Yeah, of course, what is it?”

“This ship has been through hell, and she’s nowhere near where she needs to be,” Gunn explained in a low voice, almost a whisper. “I really don’t know how she’ll hold up to a fire fight.”

“We don’t know if that’s what’ll happen, yet, Chief.”

Gunn gave her a look that said, Yeah right. With our track record?

“Chief… what do you want me to do? Seriously, what choice do we have? If they’re in trouble, we have to try and help. Ship be damned,” Chang said.

“I was afraid you’d say that.”

“She’ll hold together,” Chang said.

“I wish I shared your optimism. For what it’s worth, I’ll try my damndest to keep her in one piece. But I don’t make any promises. I’m just warning you, if the old girl takes too much of a whopping… well…”

She didn’t have to say the last. Commander Chang understood all too well. But still, they would continue to race toward King’s location. And they would do what they could. The Defiant would see them right, she knew. She’d not let them down yet.

*

In the engineering section of the Warrior, Captain Jessica King glanced about as the lighting flickered, died, then a moment later came back to life.

Commander Greene rammed two wired connections together and the old ship gave a satisfactory rumble.

“That’s the engines!” Jessica said. “You can tell it a mile off.”

Dolarhyde closed his eyes. “Just as I remember it.”

She gave Greene a hard couple of slaps on the back. “Well done, Del! Well done the pair of you. We’re in business!”

Commander Greene wiped his hands on his trousers and looked around at the controlled chaos of the engineering section. Organized mayhem.

“Thanks,” he said. “So now what’s the plan?”

Jessica raised a finger. “One thing at a time, Del. I have ideas. Do we have power to weapons?”

He checked the engineering station. “All systems nominal.”

“Right. Then let’s get up to the bridge. I have to talk to Captain Praror. There’s something I saw in the ship’s inventory we can make use of.”

Dolarhyde’s eyes widened for a second. “I believe I know what you’re talking about. A clever ruse, if you can pull it off. Though it was never tested that I know of.”

“Have I missed something?” Greene asked.

“Come on,” King said and led the way out of engineering to the bridge, where she explained her plan… something that might buy them some time, at the very least.

If she could defend the pyramid without unleashing some of the Warrior‘s more deadly arsenal, then she preferred to do that. Besides, they had no time to prep the top secret weaponry. To remove it from storage, correctly load and activate it. There were too many variables and not enough time. But what she had in mind was a fairly simple case of installing one mechanism and after talking to both Commander Green and Captain Dolarhyde, she was confident it would take little more than thirty minutes to do so.

As the pair of them went off to do so, King moved toward Hawk at the helm console. “How’re we doing?”

“Fine. I’m readin’ enemy ships incomin’,” Hawk told her. “Yuh ain’t got long, Cap.”

“It’ll be close, but we knew that anyway,” King said.

“If we just had a star fighter…” Hawk said wistfully.

She smiled. “I know, Captain. Next time we’ll make sure you have one.”

Jessica sat in the command chair.

Fingers crossed there’s a next time, she thought.

*

General Carn stood among the Naxors on the bridge, watching them bring the Dreadnought to a halt. The alien planet slid into view, and immediately the sensors of the huge ship swept the system for any signs of other vessel. The sweeps came back negative.

“We’re alone, my Lord,” the Captain of the Dreadnought reported to him.

“Excellent. Take us to standard orbit of the planet,” Carn ordered.

4.

Jessica watched on the Warrior‘s viewscreen as the Naxor ship slowly approached the planet.

“They just swept over us with their front sensor field,” Greene said from a nearby console. They were all on the bridge now. There was nothing more to be done elsewhere on the ship. “And as we hoped, the magnetic pole of this planet has shielded our presence.”

“Mother Nature’s very own invisibility cloak,” Jessica said.

“The device is working as expected,” Greene said.

“Hawk, hold us steady for the moment but be ready to move,” King ordered.

“Yes ma’am,” Hawk said, then he frowned as a new blip appeared on his monitor. “Hold on…”

Jessica sat forward. “What is it?”

He turned back to her. “The Defiant. She’s here.”

*

Carn watched the Defiant race toward them, and he felt the blood boil in his veins. He felt pure hatred wash over him, irrationally and yet completely founded in what he’d experienced of that ship and her crew.

Time for me to end this, once and for all, he thought. End that ship. End that crew. End HER. Captain Jessica King.

“Ship approaching fast,” the Naxor Captain told him.

“I can see that you fool,” Carn spat. “I want every weapon on line. Blow it out of the sky.”

*

“Enemy vessel dead ahead,” Beaumont reported.

Chang nodded curtly. “Any sign of the Captain?”

Beaumont shook his head.

“Helm, maintain present speed. Full power to energy shields and keep the bow faced to give them the minimal target area,” Chang ordered. She keyed through to engineering. “Chief, we’re firing up the energy shield. Good to go?”

“Aye, but don’t give me any surprises,” Gunn said.

Chang closed the channel. No promises, she thought.

5.

“So what do we have at our disposal?” King asked.

“Fore and aft guns, two tubes with warheads primed,” Greene rattled off the top of his head. “There’s some kind of firing pod beneath us. It’s loaded, but I’ve not had chance to figure out what with yet.”

Dolarhyde cleared his throat. “That would be an experimental type of cluster bomb we were carrying but never had the chance to test. One of many little pet projects command stuffed into my ship.”

“Do they work?” King asked him.

Dolarhyde shrugged. “As I said, we never used them. But I suppose they must have been finalised when they were fitted on board.”

“And we’re good to go with the other device?”

Greene nodded. “When you need it, I’ll activate it from the console over there. Should provide us with a decoy image for as long as we need it.”

King opened a channel to Captain Praror. “We’re ready over here, Captain. If you have no objections we can begin as soon as they’re in range.”

“Agreed. Praror out.”

“Hull platin’ charged at full strength,” Hawk reported. “Bringin’ us about now.”

On the viewscreen they could see the Defiant approaching the now closer Naxor Dreadnought. Soon the old Union ship would be on top of them. Jessica knew it was a matter of seconds before the Naxor fired on the. She just hoped Chang had the Defiant fully prepared.

“Are you sure you don’t want me to make contact?” Greene asked her.

Jessica shook her head. “No. Maintain silence. They know we’re here somewhere. They might’ve even worked out where we’re hiding. In either case, we’re about to butt heads with General Carn. It’s going to happen. We have to use this little bit of grace for what it is, an advantage.”

“Understood.”

The Warrior hummed around her. Despite her declining orbit, and her age, the ship had been perfectly preserved up there in space, waiting for them to find her. And she carried a veritable treasure trove of dangerous weaponry, though Jessica was hesitant about using some of it. The Directives still held. If the Krinuans knew just what the Warrior had in her cargo holds, they might try to utilise them in their ongoing war with the Naxor. And suppose they used something from the Warrior to wipe the Naxor out? To commit genocide… she didn’t think she could live with that. In fact, she knew she couldn’t.

Jessica spared a glance at Captain Dolarhyde. How strange, she thought, to not want to get back in the chair. To not want to resume command of your own ship.

Would she be the same, if she were removed from her command for such a long period of time? Would she lose the taste for it?

The captain’s chair felt worn in, used. It felt comfortable to her. Dolarhyde had commanded the Warrior on untold, top secret missions. And now he sat at a station behind her, monitoring the readings from the engines and reactor.

It didn’t feel right . . . and yet it felt totally okay at the same time. She herself hadn’t felt better in months. The MS wasn’t a weight on her shoulders right now. It was like a stormy sea against her legs. Right now the tide had gone out.

But it would return.

Captain Jessica King shifted in the command seat and watched the Dreadnought start to turn to port.

Rounding on the Defiant, she thought. Here we go.

6.

The Dreadnought flashed its guns in their direction.

“The enemy vessel is firing,” Beaumont reported.

“Sound collision,” Chang said. The emergency lighting burned deep red. A klaxon shrilled around them. “Brace yourselves.”

The Dreadnought’s fire rushed upon them like lightning bolts. The shots crackled against the shell of the energy shield.

Rogers lifted a hand to shield his eyes but his other remained at the helm controls.

“Helm, dip our nose. Drop us one hundred metres,” Chang ordered. She turned to Ensign Sandie Slavin at the weapons station. “Slavin, return fire. Don’t hold back.”

Slavin responded to the order by unleashing the Defiant‘s main batteries. They strafed the hull of the Naxor Dreadnought.

“That’s it, Rogers, take us under them. We have one thing on our side. We’re smaller. More agile,” Chang said. “Slavin, when we get under there I want you to fire all tubes against their lower hull.”

“Aye,” Slavin said. The Ensign’s eyes flicked from the screen to her readouts at the weapon’s station, her hands ready against the controls.

*

“Evasive to starboard, fire lateral cannons!” Carn ordered.

The Naxor Captain relayed the order, and the crew at the helm responded an instant later, rolling the ship to the right. Again the Dreadnought reverberated from the recoil of its own weapons.

*

The Defiant ducked beneath the Naxor ship, the Dreadnought’s fire exploding in multiple eruptions of energy against their shielding.

The Defiant shivered from the hits but the defences held. Ensign Slavin shot everything they had at the underbelly of the Naxor whale, several of the warheads slicing through whatever protective shielding the larger ship had and tearing into the hull.

“Direct hits,” Beaumont reported.

“Good work. Rogers, cut power and take us up, right behind their engine mantles,” Chang ordered.

Rogers didn’t have time to question the order, though he did manage to raise an eyebrow at the unorthodox manoeuvre. They tore past the Naxor ship, and Rogers pulled the Defiant up. The Union ship creaked around them at the sudden exertion, as it shot vertically through the backwash of the Dreadnought’s engines.

“Slavin, get ready to fire again,” Chang said. “Helm, tip us back so we’re horizontally aligned to their dorsal, and put us in a barrel roll.”

Rogers bit his bottom lip with concentration as he threw the Defiant backwards, and around in a spin. Two systems blew out around them, showering the bridge momentarily in a confetti of white sparks.

“FIRE!” Chang yelled.

Ensign Slavin unleashed the might of the Defiant‘s weaponry against the bigger opponent, and Chang watched with satisfaction as explosions bloomed across the Dreadnought’s hull.

*

Carn gripped a hand rail as the Dreadnought shook around him.

“Do not toy with them. Blow them away. Fire your warheads.”

Seconds later, dozens of swirling balls of glowing energy spat forth from the sides of the massive ship.

*

“Incoming!” Beaumont shouted as they once again left the Dreadnought behind them.

Commander Chang didn’t have a chance to say anything before the enemy’s firepower impacted against the Defiant‘s shields. It was as if the old ship had slammed into a blast door. The shields buckled beneath the strength of the Dreadnought’s warheads, and fires broke out over the bridge.

“Sprinklers!” Chang yelled to no one in particular. The sprinkler system doused everything with water, dampening the multiple fires around them. At the back of her mind, Chang was silently thankful that each console and control was water and air tight, hence the feasibility of such a safety device.

“Commander, we have damage reports coming in. Shields are down,” Beaumont said.

“Tell me something I don’t know,” Chang said. She patched herself through to engineering. “Chief! How’re we holding up?”

The comm. system hissed and gargled static. “Working on it. You’ve got hull plating, but the shield’s kaput.”

“Understood, Chief, do what you can.”

*

Captain King grimaced when she saw the Defiant take the crippling hits from General Carn’s ship. Now, she thought. Now’s the time.

“Activate the decoy. Signal Captain Praror we’re a go,” King ordered.

“Takin’ us out,” Hawk said. The Warrior rumbled underfoot as he piloted them away from the protective magnetic interference of the planet’s north pole toward the battlefield.

“Decoy activated,” Commander Greene reported. “Controlling the mirror independently as discussed.”

“Excellent.”

The decoy device was another experimental piece of tech loaded onto the Warrior back in the day. It mapped the exterior of the ship and created a holographic duplicate that could be manipulated and controlled separately to create the illusion of more ships than there were. However, where it differed from previous attempts at the same technology, the Warrior‘s device registered as a real ship to enemy sensors. Not as a hologram, or blip on their readings. But as an actual vessel. For all intents and purposes, the decoy was really there.

“Captain Praror is moving on ahead, as planned,” Greene said.

“Let’s do this,” Jessica said. “Hawk, go to full thrusters. Let’s pounce on them.”

7.

The Dreadnought gave chase to the smaller, but faster, Defiant. Inexplicably, the Union ship was still holding up.

“The enemy has partial energy shielding back online,” one of the officers on the bridge reported. The Captain moved to relay the order, and General Carn grabbed him by the lapel, the Naxor’s feet dangling inches off the deck. As with all of the other Naxor on the bridge, he was not of the lower class, the more brutish Naxor who constituted the soldiers and manual labour of their society. He was of the higher class, the more intelligent offshoot of the Naxor race. They were almost human . . . almost.

“I heard him you fool!” Carn snapped, then tossed the Captain to one side. He skidded along the deck backwards, slamming into the bottom of a series of consoles. His head made an audible crack against the metal console housing and he was out cold.

Carn paced to the front of the bridge and watched their weapons fire past the Defiant once again.

“Open a communications channel with the Defiant. I want to see her Captain,” Carn said.

A moment later the front viewscreen changed to show the bridge of the Defiant. He didn’t recognise anyone there.

“I am General Carn, of the Draxx Dominion.”

“I’m fully aware who you are,” the woman in charge said. “What do you want?”

“To look you in the eye. To see my opponent.”

The woman smiled. “I hope you like what you see. Shame I cannot see your own face, General.”

“You will die here, earthling. You and your ship.”

“Strong words,” the woman said and made the cut signal. The connection was severed.

Carn took a deep breath. “Fire every available weapon at -“

“General! Three more enemy vessels! Closing fast!” a Tactical Officer cried to his right. Carn stormed over to where he was sitting to look at the readouts. On the sensor screens were three clear signatures.

“So . . . it’s an ambush. Bring us about. Lock weapons on the lead ship and open fire as soon as they’re in range.”

*

“They’re turning,” Greene said.

“Dolarhyde, draw every bit of power from other systems and have it rerouted to the forward shielding and the engines,” King ordered.

“On the case,” Captain Dolarhyde said, his hands working the controls as if he’d never been away from them.

The Warrior thundered beneath them, its engines working at full capacity for the first time in decades. They rushed upon the Naxor Dreadnought.

“They are locking weapons,” Commander Greene said. He looked up. “They’re firing.”

“OPEN FIRE!” Jessica yelled.

Hawk let loose the Warrior‘s arsenal of warheads and guns as they sped over the top of the Dreadnought, narrowly missing what was shot at them. The Naxor’s fire streaked past in a blur. Hawk swung the Warrior left and right, lifting her wings as if she were a bird in flight. At the same time, he rained weapons fire down on the bigger ship. The hull erupted here and there behind them, the Warrior‘s firepower disintegrating the Dreadnought’s hull as if it were paper.

Jessica turned to Dolarhyde. “Don’t tell me these are standard weapons, either?”

Dolarhyde shrugged. “I must’ve forgot.”

Jessica laughed. Hawk dipped them down, took them around the Defiant in a wide arc.

“They’re firing at the decoy,” Greene said.

“Good work. Have the decoy veer away from us, give us some breathing room for a moment.”

“Aye.”

She watched the holographic ship split from formation alongside the Warrior, drawing the Dreadnought’s fire away from them for the time being.

“Make contact with the Defiant. Get a status update,” King ordered.

“Aye,” Green said.

She watched on the viewscreen as Captain Praror’s ship buzzed about the Dreadnought, inflicting punches of damage wherever it hit.

“I have them on audio,” Commander Greene reported.

*

The Defiant gained distance from the Dreadnought as it engaged the other ships.

“I have the Captain, sir,” Beaumont said.

Chang frowned. She watched the smaller ship as it flew past them, demonstrating speed and agility. “Put her on, Ensign.”

“Commander?”

“Yes Captain,” Chang said. “It’s good to hear your voice.”

“And yours. Do you have reinforcements on the way?”

“Yes but they’re still a while away,” Chang answered.

She heard Captain King draw in a sharp breath. “What’s your status?”

“Energy shields are back up and running, but only at fifty percent. We have damage all over the ship, but all systems are still working. We’re doing okay, Captain.”

The Defiant jolted from an impact to her side and Chang gripped the arms of the command chair.

“Keep her together, Commander, you’re doing great,” King said.

“Thanks. I will.”

The line went dead. The Defiant took another hit. This time the lights flickered before returning to full strength.

Chang looked dead ahead. “You heard the Captain, everyone. Hold your nerve.”

*

“The enemy is attempting to retarget us,” Greene reported. “Luckily, they’re struggling to keep up with us, but that won’t last.”

“I understand, Commander,” Jessica started to say, then stopped mid-sentence.

She felt herself go slack-jawed. Her words tumbled away without sound, like a handful of marbles dropped on a floor. She sat there, unable to speak, unable to move for the voice in her head.

Captain.

It could only be one person. She knew that voice. And in a strange way – in a way she couldn’t possibly explain – she’d been expecting it. Subconsciously, Jessica had waited to hear Dana’s voice.

Captain. You must hear me.

I do, Jessica thought. I hear you, Dana.

I need more time.

I’m doing my best, Jessica told her.

Trust me, I will have the artefact out of harm’s way, but it’s taking longer than I hoped. Each one is different. They work entirely separate of one another, though connected by some means I still don’t quite understand.

The Warrior vibrated around her, and Jessica was faintly aware of someone saying something about a direct hit, but that was as far as it went. In a way, it was akin to hearing muted conversation in another room. It wasn’t immediate.

But Dana’s voice was. Because it was right there, straight away, in her brain.

In her thoughts.

We’ll hold them off as long as we can. But the minute he releases craft to land on the surface, I’ll be hard pressed to stop them and fight him at the same time.

Understood, Captain, Dana said. Best of luck to you.

Everything was coming back to her now. The sounds, sensations, smells of her surroundings coming back into focus. Becoming sharper, more defined.

Dana…

Yes Captain?

When will you come back?

A long pause. She didn’t think Dana would even answer her.

But then: When the time is right.

The next thing Jessica knew, she’d tumbled forward out of the command chair, her arms barely keeping her head above the deck plating. And in that same moment, the Warrior nearly shook apart.

*

“Excellent! Continue firing!” Carn said with what came close to joy as he watched the small Union ship dodge around their streams of fire. Bolt after bolt slammed into the little ship, yet still it held together. Kept moving. Kept buzzing about them like some metal bumblebee.

“We are re-aligning the warheads,” a helm officer reported.

“Fire them as soon as you have a lock,” Carn ordered.

He clasped his hands behind his back. Behind the mask, behind the mirror into which every fallen enemy had looked in their final moments, Carn grinned.

“Sir! We have a lock!”

He inhaled. Already he felt victorious. “Fire.”

*

She heard: “Damage to the port engine.”

And: “. . . leaking coolant!”

Then: “They’ve locked weapons.”

She opened her eyes. Pushed herself up. The Warrior tilted back crazily, like some kind of animal climbing a wall. The whole ship vibrated, thrummed, beneath her. A set of hands lifted her up by the armpits, and she got to her feet then settled back into the chair.

“Captain! Are you okay?” Dolarhyde asked her.

She nodded. “Yes. Yes, I think so.”

His hand was still on her shoulder, as if holding her in place so she wouldn’t fall again. She patted his hand, looked up at him. “I would consider the harness.”

She frowned. Then she looked down and saw what he was pointing to. The safety harness straps at each side of the command chair.

“Oh, yeah, sure,” she said and buckled herself in. “Thank you.”

Dolarhyde smiled somewhere beneath his great, bushy beard, then went back to his station. Jessica turned around.

“Jess, you okay?” Greene asked her. He didn’t even look up. His hands flew across the controls, beads of sweat stood out on his forehead.

King didn’t get a chance to answer. Alarm bells rang all around her.

“Incoming warheads . . .” Greene said, his voice trailing away. He looked up, shocked. Then sense kicked back in and he worked furiously with the controls. “Diverting all energy to the aft hull plating. Hopefully it’ll hold.”

Hawk took them into a steep nose dive. Jessica clung to the arm rests of the command chair, the Warrior tumbling in a corkscrew manoeuvre. Her stomach lifted into her mouth, then back down toward her feet.

“Brace–” Greene yelled. Then he was silenced as space opened up around them in an almighty explosion.

*

General Carn watched the Warrior tumble and die in front of him.

“Direct hits. They are disabled,” a Naxor crew member reported.

“Load a nuclear warhead into tube two,” Carn said, his voice calm and collected. “Then send them to oblivion.”

8.

Commander Chang would have stood up were it not for her own safety harness holding her in place. “Report!”

Beaumont scanned the smaller vessel. “Their atmosphere is intact, and I’m picking up life readings inside,” he said with relief.

“They’re spinning out of control,” Rogers noted as he glanced up at the viewscreen.

No power, Chang thought.

“Commander!” Beaumont yelled as he spun about. “I have a radiological alarm!”

*

“Report!” King shouted. “And stop these goddamn alarms.”

A moment later, the noise stopped. Systems were still online. She could see the lights twinkling in random patterns on the different stations around her.

“Temporary loss of power,” Dolarhyde said. The dim emergency lighting cast long shadows on the old man’s face. He looked like a caricature of a castaway as he got up from his station.

“Where are you going, Captain?” King asked.

“Down to engineering. We need power. I’ll do what I can,” he said.

“Be careful down there,” she said.

He nodded and left.

“Hawk?”

The helmsman bashed the helm terminal with both fists. “Hell! There ain’t nothin’ there, Cap! We’re a sittin’ duck!”

Commander Greene drew a sharp breath. “Captain, I’m picking up a nuclear signature.”

“Where from?”

“The enemy ship,” Greene said. He swallowed. “If they intend to launch a nuke at us, we won’t be able to outrun it.”

King gritted her teeth together. She watched the blank viewscreen, willing it to come back to life. Hoping beyond hope for the ship to get them out of a jam.

“Understood,” she said.

*

“How long till we get there?” Chang asked. The Defiant headed toward the Warrior‘s position.

“Twenty seconds,” Rogers replied.

“They have launched the nuclear warhead!” Beaumont yelled. “Fifteen seconds till impact.”

The Warrior’s going to disappear before our eyes, Chang thought. And who knows how powerful it’ll be? It’s a completely alien design.

“Increase power to engines and shielding. Every last inch of power, whatever you have. The dregs in the bottom of the tank. Give her all you’ve got!” Chang shouted. The Defiant raced toward the Warrior.

A bright, sparkling yellow light tore away from the bottom edge of the Dreadnought, headed straight for the Warrior.

“Eight seconds to impact.”

“Come on come on come on,” Chang said.

“Five.”

“We’ve cut the gap,” Rogers said.

“Turn! Turn! Turn!” Chang shouted and closed her eyes, waiting for the nuke to slam into the Defiant‘s side and blow them to kingdom come. Rogers rolled the Defiant to starboard, offering her port side flank for the nuke. Sacrificing her wing for the sake of everyone and everything they held dear.

The explosion tore through the Defiant in a blinding white flash. It sent her veering away, barely missing the freewheeling form of the Warrior. The resultant damage ran across entire decks, penetrating vital systems that immediately died upon exposure to the void. Atmosphere and particle matter spewed from the gaping hole in her side, like blood and guts from a slain beast.

For all intents and purposes, the Defiant was dead.

*

The blinding light faded away. Seconds beforehand, the viewscreen had come back to life, revealing the Defiant‘s desperate bid to close the distance between them and the incoming nuke. Jessica had watched, helplessly, as the weapon smashed straight into the Defiant.

Now she wondered if her command was still there. Still in one piece. She doubted it, and her heart felt like a lead weight in her chest at the mere thought of it, but there was always hope . . .

“The Defiant‘s still there!” Greene said. “Not answering hails just yet, but they’re still there.”

Immediately, her thoughts turned to how she would enact revenge. How she would hit back. Inexplicably, they were still in one piece. They were still alive, against the odds.

She’d use what time they had to make sure Carn regretted his actions.

“Commander, please assist Captain Dolarhyde down in engineering. Get the tubes loaded with the most dangerous warheads we have in our arsenal,” King ordered. “He’ll know which one will serve us best.”

Greene left without another word.

Hawk let rip a Yeeha! from the helm. “Finally! We’re gonna be shootin’ somethin’ big!”

Jessica nodded once. “You’ve got that right.”

*

Aboard the Defiant, all was not well. Down in the engineering section, Chief Meryl Gunn gave the order to evacuate.

“Come on! We’ve got thirty seconds to clear the whole deck! Everybody out! Get behind the blast doors!” she shouted at them all.

The engineering crew – Krinuans among them – ran past her.

“Come on Chief,” Belcher urged.

“No. I’m the last out. Go.”

“Not without you, Chief,” Belcher said.

Gunn rounded on him, grabbed him by the collar and screamed in his face. “I’m not messing with you, Gary! Get the hell out!”

He took the hint and joined the others.

Certain the whole section was secure and free of personnel, Gunn left too. The doors slid shut behind her and she accessed the control pad to the side of them, locking the section off. Then she evacuated the deck.

Not that it would do much good hiding behind a blast door when the entire reactor went up.

*

Chang felt the blood trickle down the side of her face but she ignored it.

Just a small bleed, she told herself. Or I’d have bled out already.

“Commander!” Gunn’s voice was loud and immediate over the speakers. “I’ve evacuated the entire deck. The reactor’s critical.”

Chang swallowed. “How long, Chief?”

There were many things that could be fixed aboard a starship. Even the beating heart of the ship, the reactor, could be mended on most occasions. But it was a given that when the ship’s Chief Engineer announced the reactor as critical, and told you she’d evacuated the area, that the heart of the Defiant had finally given out.

She was going to blow.

“Fifteen to twenty minutes. We might have time, if we start evacuating now, to get clear of the blast,” Gunn said.

This is almost unbelievable, Chang thought.

“Then get to the escape pods, Chief. I’ll issue a ship wide evacuation call.”

“Commander… Lisa… I’m sorry…” Gunn said.

Chang smiled thinly. “There was nothing you could do, Chief. Now get going, the clock’s ticking. Get your people out.”

Chang turned to the others on the bridge. “That goes for all of you, too. Once the ship is secure, we’ll get to the nearest escape pod. The Defiant‘s a ticking time bomb.”

Rogers and Beaumont shared apprehensive looks. Lieutenant Slavin visibly swallowed.

Alarms rang all over the ship, the bells of impending doom echoing through the deck plating to the bridge.

“Now I’d better inform the whole ship…” Chang said, her voice cracking despite her attempts to control it.

9.

Dolarhyde arrived back on the bridge.

“Well?” King asked him.

At the helm, Hawk kept the Warrior out of the Dreadnought’s reach. Their fire glanced the Warrior’s bow, struggling to keep a lock on them. If he’d been any less of a pilot…

The older man wiped his brow. He was covered in dust, sweat and some kind of grease. “They’re loaded and ready to fire. Not sure how they’ll work though.”

Jessica shifted in her seat. “And you say these are… ?”

“Something called a Duotonic Cascade Shell. Least, that’s what it says on the container. I don’t know if they’ll even work, sitting up here so long.”

She shrugged. “We’ll see.”

“I’ll be back in engineering with Commander Greene,” Dolarhyde said and left.

Jessica unclipped from the command chair and took a seat at the weapons console. She opened a channel to Captain Praror’s ship. Presently his people were keeping the Dreadnought moderately busy. It was no wonder they couldn’t fix a good shot on the Warrior with the Krinuans running back and forth, punching where they could.

“Captain Praror, can you hear me.”

“I read you Captain,” Praror said.

“You may want to pull your people back,” she advised. “We’re about to fire something at that Naxor ship. Something experimental. It might have . . . unpredictable . . . results.”

“Understood. We’re falling back now. Any reports from the Defiant?”

Jessica shook her head, though she knew he couldn’t see it. “No. They’re not responding to our transmissions.”

Silence then, between the two Captains, a moment that stretched on for what seemed like forever before Praror wished her luck and closed the channel.

He doesn’t want to say it, she thought. But it’s bad news. My ship’s hurting, I’m over here. They can’t hear me. Or they can, and they can’t respond. Whatever the case, I feel lost.

Her hands braced against the firing controls.

“In position, Cap,” Hawk said as he steadied the Warrior. The Naxor Dreadnought, a dark colossus with the Terran Union’s greatest enemy on board, glided past.

“Bottom’s up,” King muttered and fired the warheads.

*

The Duotonic Cascade Shells hurtled away from the nose of the Warrior, six seconds later slamming into the Naxor Dreadnought. They detonated on impact. The multiple shockwaves blew out ten decks. But it didn’t stop there. They continued to explode, the detonations larger and larger each time. Throughout the Dreadnought, the lighting failed, environmental and gravity controls whimpered and died. The ship lost all directional control, and tipped forward with its nose down. The Dreadnought’s engines still fired, causing it to loop the loop in a ballet of death.

Several secondary power conduits blew in the aft sections of the ship, resulting in power stations throughout the length of the vessel to blow in rapid succession.

Where the Draxx Queen sat in relative safety, beneath the command deck, a power conduit erupted, throwing her the length of the room, smashing her into a far wall. She did not die instantly, however. There was one final thing to do. The very last act of any Draxx Queen. She focused the last of her energies and laid an egg.

*

The moment Carn became aware of the explosions taking place throughout the ship, he realised the fight was lost. His first thought was for the Queen.

By the time he got to her, she was already lying half burned, in a pool of her own sickly blood. In her arms she clutched a single egg, a half metre across.

The light fading from her eyes, she gazed up at him and released her grip on the egg.

“General… the next heir…” she whispered, her forked tongue darting out, then staying out as her mouth lulled wide open. Her eyes became dim and she died in front of him.

Carn bent down and picked up the egg . The massive ship shook violently around him.

He left, carrying the Dominion’s new future ruler in his hands.

*

Outside the cargo bay, the General accessed a comm. panel.

“Abandon ship,” he said. “All hands. Every member of crew. Abandon ship. They have won this battle. But not the war. Next time we will come in greater numbers.”

He paused. Somewhere, far off within the veins of the giant Dreadnought, an explosion boomed. He leaned back in toward the comm. panel, “This is only the beginning.”

10.

“Communications are still down,” Beaumont said.

“Understood. You’ve done all you can here, Roland, get to an escape pod,” Chang said.

Beaumont nodded, got up and shook her hand. “It’s been a pleasure.”

“Same. Now get going,” she said sternly.

Beaumont left the bridge.

“I have limited power,” Rogers said. “If anyone’s going to survive, we need to get the ship away from the escape pods. We can gain some distance, but I can’t set the auto pilot. The system’s totally blown.”

Chang closed her eyes. She’d known this was coming.

“Okay. I think you’re done here, Rogers. Both you and Slavin get to a pod. Get off the Defiant. I’ll hold the fort here for as long as I can, then I’ll ditch,” Chang said.

Rogers’s eyes widened. “Commander! You can’t stay! Don’t you understand? You’ll never escape the blast!”

Chang frowned. “It’s an order! Get up, and get out of here. Now!”

Rogers did as he was told. Slavin left with him, offering Chang once last backwards glance as she exited through the doors at the back of the bridge.

Now all was silent.

Commander Chang went back to her old station and checked the readouts. Most of the escape pods had been fired. She smiled. At least they’d survive.

Soon the reactor would overload, blowing the whole ship to pieces.

And she’d make sure that she got the Defiant as far from the pods as possible.

Chang went to the helm, settled in the pilot’s seat. The controls were sluggish, but still operable. The ship had power.

You’ve been good to us, she thought absently.

“Hey! Just what the hell do you think you’re doing?” a voice said behind her.

Chang knew even before she turned around that it was Chief Meryl Gunn.

*

Captain King watched with satisfaction as the Naxor Dreadnought turned end over end before finally snapping at the middle. But not before swarms of ships could escape the crippled ship, fleeing into open space.

“We’re pursuing now,” Captain Praror told her.

The only thing Jessica could think to say was, “Good hunting.”

Hawk took them around the torturous hulk of the Dreadnought so they could catch a proper glimpse of the Defiant.

“Damn!” Hawk exclaimed.

Jessica drew in a sharp breath. Escape pods fled from the crippled ship as it lumbered away from them. She tried all the functions at her disposal, and not one of them resulted in a connection with the Defiant. She felt completely desperate. Completely useless to help.

“I can’t reach them,” she managed to whisper. She cleared her throat. “They . . . they’re not…”

Commander Greene and Captain Dolarhyde arrived on the bridge. They were both instantly transfixed by what was unfolding on the viewscreen. The Defiant crawled away, toward the planet, leaving the escape pods behind.

There was no need for anyone to come out and state the obvious. The Defiant was getting out of the way. The escape pods meant she’d been evacuated. Good as dead.

The fact the ship was gaining distance from them told Jessica one thing, and one thing only: She was going to blow. And it was all they could do to stay well back.

*

“Chief, I have to be the one who does this,” Chang said.

“No!” Gunn cried. She grabbed her by the arm, tried to pull her off the bridge. Chang fought against her. “Come on!”

“NO!” Chang yelled, yanking her arm free. “Listen to me! The auto pilot doesn’t work. The ship must be manually piloted clear of the escape pods. Chief, I don’t have time for this.”

“Now you listen to me,” Gunn said, jabbing a finger at her. “There’s no time to pilot her away. You’d never get out in time. We’ve gotta go.”

Once again, she grabbed Chang’s arm. And this time, the Commander gave in.

“All right. All right, you win. Come on, let’s get to a pod,” Chang said.

They left the bridge.

“You know it’s the right thing,” the Chief said.

Chang barely heard her. She watched the Chief hurry to a hatch covering an escape pod. The hatch slid open, revealing a short tube they had to crawl through.

“Go on, Chief, you go through,” Chang said.

“It should only take a second or two to fire her up,” Gunn said as she kneeled inside the tube and crawled toward the pod. She pressed a button. The opening to the pod revealed a small spherical craft beyond. The Chief crawled on her hands and knees through it, then turned around inside the pod.

Chang stood out on the deck. She hit the controls for the door.

“NO!” the Chief shouted as the hatch slid shut again. Seconds later the pod sped away from the Defiant.

“Good luck, Chief,” Chang said and headed back to the bridge.

*

Jessica King paced back and forth. “Del, what’re the readings? How long till the Defiant goes up?”

Greene shook his head. “I can’t get a definite reading, but I reckon she’s got about five minutes.”

King sighed. It wasn’t enough. None of it. If only she could have been over there, with her ship. She looked at the viewscreen, at the Defiant headed for the alien planet. Debris and different matter spewed from her open wounds. Her port engine flickered, barely operable. The escape pods lay behind her, like flotsam in the wake of some huge ocean-going vessel.

“There might be enough distance,” Hawk offered. “If she can keep goin’, that is.”

Jessica agreed, but it was a slim margin for error. Too close and they’d be annihilated in the eruption of the Defiant‘s core. With any luck, the clearing between them and the Union ship would be sufficient to keep them away from the blast radius.

But what about my ship? Jessica asked herself. And has anyone stayed aboard to get her out of the way?

*

Chang handled the controls like a pro, funnelling every ounce of energy left in the Defiant to get her away from everything. She focused on the only thing in her view she could aim for. The planet.

The ship bucked and heaved beneath her, systems overheating, manifolds bending and writhing like rubber limbs. The reactor was nearing critical, klaxons she couldn’t silence blaring around her.

And still she stayed. She piloted the ship that had borne them safe and free from countless skirmishes away from everyone she knew and loved and cared for. To keep them safe.

Because this was her responsibility. Nobody else‘s.

She’d see it through to the end.

*

Three minutes later, the Defiant exploded. She bloomed, a giant white ball of raw energy as the materials in her reactor became superheated to the point of causing fission. She expanded above the curve of the planet, broken into thousands of pieces by an immense fireball that tore her apart.

The wreckage from the Defiant fell into the planet’s atmosphere, where they rained down like a meteor shower.

Finally, the Defiant had met her end. She was gone, returned to the stardust from which she’d once come.

*

Jessica fell to her knees, tears streaming down her cheeks as the Defiant blew before her. She couldn’t turn away from the screen. Couldn’t avert her eyes. That would have been a coward’s way out. Her old ship deserved more.

She’d seen them safe and well countless times. And now she was gone.

The Warrior lifted and dropped on the shockwave eddies from the Defiant exploding. Jessica closed her eyes. The light from the explosion was still there, burned into her retina. She realized it would never leave her. It would always be there.

She’d never be able to forget the day she watched the Defiant die.

11.

The General watched from his aft view as a small sun blossomed against the curve of the receding planet, then faded away.

He cradled the egg, the last heir of the Draxx Dominion. The future.

Entrusted to him, the greatest warrior the Draxx had ever known.

It was a sombre moment. He’d lost in his fight against the humans. He’d lost one of the Naxor’s greatest vessels in the process. And the Queen had perished in the attack.

But there was tomorrow. And the next artefact. Soon he’d close in on the one that would give him what he needed. He could feel it.

Carn looked down at the egg, then back up at the small viewscreen. His ship sped out of the system, piloted by two Naxors. The planet shrank away, the final resting place of the cursed Defiant. He may have lost the battle – but he’d also won, too. He’d finally crushed the Union ship. There were other vessels, of particular interest the smaller ship that dealt him such a crippling blow.

And that would be dealt with, in time.

The General laughed, shook his head. The Naxor officers eyed each other nervously.

Time.

If all went to plan, he’d have time on his hands. More than enough.

With a slight sensation as it shifted, the little craft engaged its Jump Drive and leapt into the stars.

12.

Commander Greene helped her up, then held her in his arms.

“Jess . . .”

She shook her head. “I should’ve been over there.”

“No, no, no. Don’t think like that,” Greene said. He looked sideways at the viewscreen, at the dissipating remnants of the Defiant as they fell into the atmosphere, shooting stars in the evening sky.

“Del, I have failed,” Jessica said.

Captain Dolarhyde noticed several indicators on the communications station flashing and moved across to see to them. He held the earpiece up, listened, and his eyes brightened. “I believe we have the escape pods on audio.”

Jessica wiped her eyes and looked up. “Sorry?”

“The escape pods. They’re making contact.”

She moved toward the comm. station. “Can you find out whether Commander Chang or the Chief is among them? See if we can get a handle on what happened?”

We already know what happened, she chided herself. You lost your ship. They died in the explosion. You family is without a home.

She pushed the thought away as Dolarhyde listened to the incoming transmissions and attempted to sift through them, his brow furrowed in concentration.

Where will you go from here? You’re lost. Marooned on an alien world. A bunch of refugees. Without a home and no way of reaching one, either.

Again she pushed it away.

Dolarhyde looked up. “I have Chief Meryl Gunn on audio.”

The ancient speakers within the Warrior spat and crackled, but they worked, and the Chief’s voice came thundering through.

“Captain! Can you hear me? Am I coming through clear enough?”

Jessica smiled. She watched Greene’s face as it lightened at the sound of Gunn on the speakers. At the reassurance and relief that brought him.

“Yes, Chief. We’re here.”

A pause. Then: “The Defiant . . .”

Jessica swallowed. “Chief, what happened over there?”

“The reactor went critical. We got everyone off the ship, Captain. We’re all here, waiting to get picked up. If it weren’t for Commander Chang we’d all be dead right now, though I tried to stop her.”

“Chang?”

“Yes Captain. She stayed behind, piloted the Defiant clear of us. We owe her our lives.”

The rest of seemed to fall into the background. Her heart ached in her chest, her throat was dry and felt as though it were closing in on itself.

Chang.

Another name to add to the roster of those she’d lost. She shook her head, looked down at the deck. “No . . .”

All was silent on the bridge. The news of Commander Chang’s demise sunk in.

Dolarhyde listened intently still, roving through the many different channels for anything of interest. Mostly the escape pods requesting assistance. He ignored these for the time being. Until backup arrived, there wasn’t much they could do. Besides, all pods were designed to last weeks in the forbidding vacuum of space.

His hand paused on the controls, and he stopped cycling through the different channels when he heard a different kind of message come into his ear piece. Instead of announcing it, he simply put it straight on the overhead speakers.

The sudden explosion of sound made them all jump. At first it didn’t quite register just what it was they were listening to.

“ . . . Commander Chang! Repeat, this is Commander Chang! Is anyone reading me?”

Jessica’s eyes filled with tears, but this time from relief. She looked up at the viewscreen in time to see one of the Defiant‘s shuttles speeding toward them, carrying their saviour, the not-quite-dead Commander Lisa Chang.

13.

A Krinuan task force, headed by Captain Praror and his team, set about gathering the escape pods from space. All pods were designed to operate without power. To simply float where they were. In the event of all-out warfare, they would then be undetectable to enemy sensors due to their lack of propulsion.

Commander Greene had provided them with the Defiant‘s specific distress signature, used by rescue ships to locate a vessel’s escape pods.

As the Krinuans scooped her crew up, Jessica talked with Commander Chang in what had once been Captain Dolarhyde’s quarters. Back up on the bridge, Commander Greene finally made contact with Chief Gunn again. He spoke to her privately, through his ear piece.

“How’re you doing?” he asked her.

“Find, considering. I’m glad you’re still in one piece,” she said. “I’d hate to have to stitch you back together.”

“Would you do that?” Greene asked.

“In a heartbeat. I don’t think I could stand to lose you, your natural stupidity notwithstanding, of course,” Gunn said.

Greene shook his head. “Always the sarcasm. Beneath that is a big heart, girl, you better believe I know it’s there.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“See you soon?”

“Sure,” the Chief said in a lower voice. A husky whisper. “I love you.”

Commander Greene grinned from ear to ear. He couldn’t help it. “Me too, Chief. Me too.”

*

“I waited till the last moment, then dashed down to the cargo bay. Luckily there was a shuttle on standby down there. I knew I’d never get clear in a pod. I needed something with an engine behind it,” Chang finished her report of what had taken place. “And that’s how it happened. Got a bit hairy there, though. I thought the shockwave would swallow me right up. Shuttle held together, though.”

Jessica shook Chang’s hand as she said, “You did well today, Lisa. I’m very proud of you.”

She couldn’t keep it going. Couldn’t stop herself from looking away, couldn’t stop the tears spilling down her face in rivers. Lisa Chang laid a reassuring hand on her Captain’s shoulder.

“We’ll be all right,” she said.

King shook her head. “Our home is gone,” Jessica said wistfully.

“We were far from home anyway,” Chang offered with more than enough hope for the both of them. “We’ll find a new one.”

Jessica King looked up, wiped the tears away.

She nodded. Jessica felt a familiar sensation come to life and flutter in her chest. It felt good for it to be there after so long. It felt right.

It was hope. They’d pull through. The family would hold together.

And somehow, she’d get them home. Whatever it took.

14.

Hours later, with Captain Praror’s help, Commander Greene produced a star chart of the surrounding space so that Captain Dolarhyde could pinpoint the locations of other artefacts.

He tapped on one planet in particular, at the north-eastern quadrant of the galaxy. “There. That’s the key. I’m sure of it.”

Greene crossed his arms. “If I’m reading this map correctly…”

“You are,” Praror cut in. “It’s on the outer fringes of Naxor territory.”

“Well, if that’s where we’ve gotta go, then that’s where we’ve gotta go,” Jessica said. “I’m sure that Carn will find it eventually. It would serve us to get to it first. Before he can gain access to a power he can’t control. We must stop him.”

“I brought him here,” Hawk said, his jaw set. “I’ll hunt him down.”

“We all will, Captain Nowlan,” King said. “Together.”

*

Though no one in orbit would realise for another hour, the monolith had already vanished from the planet’s surface, leaving behind only a vacant square of land to show it was ever really there.

But there were others scattered throughout that galaxy, just waiting for someone to find them. And one in particular, the pyramid with the power to unlock the secrets of the others.

The one to open Pandora’s box. And for whomever held the key, control of the universe and more…

PART TEN

EMISSARY

1.

Commander Del Greene twisted the wrench as far as it would go, the bolt refusing to budge any further.

“Bloody thing!”

He heard footsteps behind him and turned in time to see Chief Meryl Gunn walk in. “Here, let a real woman have a go.”

She took the wrench out of his hands, set the end against the bolt and twisted. With a metal on metal squeal, the bolt turned.

She slapped the wrench back into his hand with a smirk. “There you go, sonny.”

Greene looked at her, eyes wide and mouth open. “How did you do that? I put everything behind it, and still couldn’t get it to move. What are you, super human?”

Chief Gunn tapped the end of her nose. “Secret of the trade. And muscles. Real ones, not these puny things.” She grabbed at his upper arm and gave it a squeeze.

“Hey! Leave my flappers alone!”

Gunn laughed. “Flappers! Where did that one come from?”

The Commander shrugged. “Comedy genius. Just like –”

Meryl shut him up by pressing her lips against his in a firm kiss. Her arms encircled his neck as the Commander took her in for a full, passionate snog. It was impromptu; it was sloppy, like two school kids making out for the first time. And still, it was good. Very good.

He held her around the waist, any trace of what he’d been about to say blown away like vapour. Forgotten.

They parted. “Wow,” he said. “Strong as a man, but still kisses like a lady.”

“How was it?” she asked in a husky voice.

The Commander looked at her big, beautiful eyes. Her naturally good looks. The look of pure love she gave him. He hoped she got the same impression from him, that his affection for her showed through his jokes and innuendo.

He thought of all they’d been through. All they’d endured. The heavy losses. And now the Defiant . . .

Through it all, though, they had remained strong. In fact, their bond had only grown stronger.

The Chief gazed into his eyes, her hands at the back of his neck, waiting for his answer. The only thing he could say again was “Wow.”

She smiled, leaned up and kissed him again. With her free hand she reached over and slammed the door to the engineering section shut. Gunn broke the kiss, put her lips to his ear and in a tickly whisper she said, “That’s my boy . . .”

*

The Krinuan’s home world came into view, a blue green gemstone of a planet. A veritable paradise, the likes of which they’d been fortunate to call home for a short time.

But it’s not our home, Jessica thought. It never will be, no matter how much the Krinuans make us feel welcome. It won’t ever be right.

“Enter standard orbit, Captain Nowlan,” King said. She turned around, expected to see Commander Greene there at his post. But it was empty.

Dolarhyde took up the mantel in his stead. “I’m on it.”

“Where’s Commander Greene?” she asked.

Dolarhyde shot a look at Hawk. King looked from one to the other, her eyebrows raised.

“Well, gentlemen?” she asked. “Either of you know?”

Hawk cleared his throat, swivelled about in the helm chair. “He’s… uh… below decks. With the Chief.”

“Oh,” Jessica said. She relaxed as what Hawk was saying set in. “Oh. Well, I didn’t know Meryl was aboard.”

“Gal insisted, far as I can tell, Cap,” Hawk said. His hands flittered over the helm controls as he performed a standard orbital insertion with expert control and poise. “The Commander was fixin’ up the engine room. Guess he needed a woman’s touch.”

Dolarhyde choked back a hearty laugh. Jessica shook her head. “Come on boys, let’s keep it clean. We’ve been in space a long time. I don’t deny the Commander a little . . . celebratory… Oh, whatever. Let’s keep our eyes on the prize here and focus on what we’re doing.”

But secretly she thought. Hope they don’t break anything down there…

“Aye,” Hawk said.

“Yes Ma’am,” Dolarhyde said, still chuckling behind his beard.

I don’t know what you’re laughing at old man, King thought. If it’s been long for us, how long has it been for you?

“Krinuan ships following,” Hawk said.

They would round the planet and dock at the space station, where the escape pods from the Defiant would be opened in the safety of the station’s hangar. There hadn’t been enough room on the little Krinuan ships to take all of the Defiant‘s survivors at once. Some had to be towed, a fairly painless matter of the occupants waiting a few hours.

She wasn’t sure what was going on down there in engineering between the Commander and the Chief (nor did she wish to know), but the pair of them deserved a little release after all that had happened.

Release.

Jessica shook her head to rid it of any further words carrying implicit connotations, and left for the mess to grab a coffee. Or the closest thing to it.

The Warrior bumped against the docking ports of the station, and seconds later Jessica heard the familiar hiss of atmospheres equalizing.

She sipped her tea – there had been no coffee, just as she’d feared – alone with her thoughts. The image of the Defiant blowing apart still burned like a flame in her mind. Her first command, and her Father’s last.

It made her heart feel heavy as lead in her chest. In a major way, she felt as though she’d failed them all. How would they continue from here? How would she manage to move them all at once without a ship large enough to take the whole crew? How would they continue to search for a way home?

But she knew she’d not properly considered the fact that some of them might want to remain with the Krinuans. The idea of home, of returning to their own galaxy, may well be out of the picture. It wasn’t an agreeable situation, but if that’s what they wanted, she could not deny them.

Still, it was a worry for another time. They’d have a few hours layover, re-gather themselves for what was to come, and then head straight back out.

“There’s work to do,” she said aloud to herself. “A madman to stop.”

Jessica sipped the tea, and in the quiet she couldn’t help but contemplate the way starships blossomed into momentary suns, their reactors igniting, an explosion of energy and light. She thought how it had been both awful and beautiful to witness. As if death – even the death of a starship – were a majestic, natural act. And how could such a thing be both of those at the same time?

2.

General Carn walked next to the Naxor High Vizar, hands clasped behind his back. They crossed the long, glass corridor connecting one end of the base to the other. The sky above them was a dirty pink, reflecting the nature of the planet’s volatile atmosphere. Once it had been a prosperous world, with trees and rivers of cool, clean water that flowed from mountain springs. Now it was a dying world, an old world, a rotten home to a race of warmongers.

“General, this will be the last time I allow you to command my forces,” the High Vizar warned him. “The losses have been… extreme, to say the least.”

“I will not fail you again.”

The Vizar glanced across at him. “I do hope so, General. I am handing you one of our most powerful battleships. I don’t think I need to explain to you, the resources expended in constructing such a vessel. If we were to lose it…”

The General peered up through the glass. Even from the surface, one could make out the hazy shape of the battleships in orbit. They were so massive, their blocky white frames could be seen through the pink smog of poisoned ozone. They were clear as white moons in the dusk.

“It is an honour,” Carn said. “And this time I will be victorious.”

Truly, the General could not have cared less for the concerns of the Naxor. They were but tools to be used in the moment. A means to an end.

The two of them walked farther on in silence. Then the Vizar spoke again. “You know where it is?”

Carn shook his head. “No, but I am drawing closer to it. All of the artefacts are capable of performing wonders, but only the master pyramid can do what I need it to do.”

They reached the end of the connecting corridor. “Let us hope you are successful,” the Vizar said. “Remember our deal, General. Everything rests on this.”

Carn nodded slowly, as if in complete compliance. However behind the faceplate, his grin was so wide it would have seemed comedic if anyone had been able to see it.

He watched the Vizar go, then turned back the way they’d come. His next port of call, a shuttle takeoff strip. His destination, one of the behemoths in orbit of the Naxor’s home world. A mighty hammer with which to smite his enemies and finally have in his grasp ultimate power – dominion – over the universe.

3.

“I wish you’d reconsider this plan, dear Captain,” Praror said with regret, his big eyes full of concern. “Though I will, of course, assist you in any way I can.”

Jessica laid a hand on his shoulder. “I can’t ask that of you, my friend.”

Praror smiled. There was the distinct hint of a purr to his voice. “You do not ask. I offer. It’s different. And it is not an offer you can refuse. There is no choice in the matter.”

“I believe that’s so,” King said with a laugh. “When will you be ready to leave?”

“Give me three hours.”

*

Commander Chang met Jessica on the station side of the airlock.

“Lisa,” King said. “I wanted to give you this. It was Singh’s.”

She reached up, removed her own Captain’s pin, and added it to Chang’s uniform. Her Father’s pin had looked worn before, but now it was battered and scratched, more than it had been when Admiral Grimshaw had given it to her. How all of that seemed like a lifetime ago now.

Chang was speechless.

“I am promoting you to the rank of Captain,” King said. “And placing you in charge of everyone until I return.”

If I return, she thought. If.

“Captain . . . I don’t… I don’t know what to say…”

King leaned in, gave Chang a light kiss on the cheek. “You don’t have to say anything. You’ve more than deserved it. I can’t think of anyone I’d trust more with the lives of the crew.”

She remembered Admiral Grimshaw’s words to her that day.

“Just remember where it came from. Remember what it stands for. Always wear it with pride, because you deserve it.”

She stood to attention. Chang snapped a salute and Jessica returned it.

“Good luck, Captain,” Chang said.

“And to you,” King said. “Look after them.”

“I will do,” Chang managed to say. There were tears in her eyes.

Jessica made a stern face. “And stop crying, Lisa. That’s an order.”

“Yes Ma’am.”

*

“So, here’s the plan,” King said. Assembled in the tiny briefing room of the Warrior were herself, Commander Greene, Hawk, Captain Dolarhyde and Chief Gunn. “Praror will fly our wing in the Naxor ship. Its familiar signature should allow us to travel without incident through enemy space.”

“And what about our own?” Gunn asked.

“If the cloaking device on board the Warrior works as it should, we will appear as a very small blip on a very large monitor. And the Naxor ship, under Praror’s command, will help mask us,” King said.

“A fair plan. I take it I’ll be in engineering?” Gunn asked.

“Yes. And I’ll have Commander Greene and Captain Dolarhyde assisting you as needed. Unless you have someone in mind you’d like along for the ride? I’m trying to keep all of this to a minimum.”

“Well,” the Chief said. “I could bring across Lieutenant Belcher. He’s a good man. We work well together. He should be familiar with these older systems, too.”

Greene exchanged a look with the Chief, no doubt with regards to just how well she worked with Gary Belcher. But the Chief was having none of it, and rolled her eyes at his silent suggestion.

“If you want him, Chief, then put the call in,” King said. “Get him up here ASAP.”

“Will do.”

“So. My reasons for keeping this a small task force are simple and, no doubt, self-evident. I don’t want to put unnecessary lives at risk. Not anymore. We’ve lost enough already.”

“Fair enough,” Hawk said.

“This ship will run just fine on a skeleton crew,” King explained. “We slip in, do what we’ve got to do and get out with minimum fuss.”

“And Commander Chang?” Gunn asked.

“Captain Chang will stay behind and hold the fort until we return,” King said. She registered their faces and decided to explain before she got a barrage of endless questions. “And yes, I promoted her myself. This morning.”

“Well, she sure deserved it,” Gunn said.

“Yes. She did us proud.”

She looked across at Commander Greene and felt a twinge of guilt that she’d not promoted him for all he’d done. But it just didn’t work like that, and she knew Greene understood because she saw no sign of resentment or envy on his face.

“So we’re headed straight for the Big Kahuna?” he asked.

She shook her head. “Not right away. We have a slight detour first. Captain Dolarhyde, if you’d like to explain?”

Dolarhyde cleared his throat. “Uh, yes. I spent a lot of time around these things, and I think I have pretty good idea of how to operate them. Each one’s different of course, but the principle is the same.”

He tapped his temple slowly with the tip of his finger.

“Mind control,” Greene said.

“Yes and no. Think of it as a mental interface. And the more you use it, the more adept you get at accessing the device’s many functions. One of them being, in fact, control over time.”

The Commander folded his arms and looked about in disbelief. “That’s a bit of a stretch, isn’t it?”

Before Dolarhyde could answer, Captain King was there at his side. “Not really, Del. Remember, we did a little bit of time travelling ourselves arriving here. Time slowed down for us just as it continued on for everyone else. That, in itself, is time travel, don’t you think?”

“I guess…”

Dolarhyde raised his hands. “Listen, I don’t expect you to take this hook, line, and sinker right off. I plan on showing you all. I plan on demonstrating it. In my years alone, I discovered the capability. However I could never use it to get home. Only the master pyramid will permit time travel of that magnitude. At the most, I could travel back a matter of days. With the ‘Big Kahuna,’ as you put it, we will be able to achieve travel through time and space across whatever distances we wish.”

“But what’s the purpose?” Greene asked.

“Because if we can do it, then you can bet that it won’t be long before General Carn will be able to do the same,” Jessica cut in. “And that we can’t have.”

King walked to the navigation console and brought up a star chart on the viewscreen. It was the same chart on which Dolarhyde had pinpointed the location of the master artefact before – the monolith that would unlock all the others.

The one with every bell and whistle ready to go, right out of the box.

On the chart, where previously their course had been straightforward, there was a minor diversion to a system of two planets circling a red giant.

“Any idea on what kind of planet that’ll be?” Hawk asked.

“Hospitable but not habitable. We’ll have to suit up for it. And it has two gees, so it’ll be heavier going than we’re used to. Certainly much stronger gravity than what we use on board. But, if Captain Dolarhyde is right… it’ll be worth it,” King said.

Dolarhyde regarded them all one by one. “It will be. I promise.”

*

They left the Krinuan’s home world behind hours later, headed into open space with Captain Praror’s Naxor vessel at their flank.

“Is the device ready?” Captain King asked.

“The Chief says it’s fully operational,” Commander Greene said. “All boards show green.”

King got up, and rested her hand on Hawk’s shoulder. “Captain Gerard, if you please.”

“With pleasure,” Hawk said and flicked a switch.

The lights on the Warrior dimmed momentarily before the power could redirect from the auxiliary banks.

Commander Greene turned to Dolarhyde, who had his hand up to his earpiece, listening to Captain Praror’s ship. He looked up. “They say we’ve disappeared. Vanished.”

Jessica smiled. Finally, a break. “Good. Tell them we’ll proceed to our first stop, three quarters speed.”

“Very good,” Dolarhyde said.

“Increasin’ speed to three quarters,” Hawk said, his hands swift and sure at the helm controls. The Warrior answered his needs, the engines responding by ensuring they were a fast, however invisible, traveller of the stars.

4.

The two planets swung around a huge, engorged red sun on elliptical orbits. The innermost planet burned white hot, like a miniature sun itself. However, their destination stood farther out, a cooler world devoid of most of its once-breathable air. The nova had stripped most of its atmosphere away. What was left trailed behind the planet now, like the vaporous exhaust of a passing comet.

“Friendly lookin’ joint,” Hawk said with a trademark lop-sided grin. “Might have to come prospectin’, maybe sink a well, build a farm…”

“Another time, Mister,” King said with a slight chuckle. “Take us into orbit and scan the surface for anything resembling one of those pyramids. Then we can prepare for a landing.”

“You know, she’s not landed anywhere in a long time…” Dolarhyde said.

“She’ll be fine, Captain,” Jessica said. “I feel this ship is a tough old broad.”

Like mine, she thought. How I miss her…

She watched as Hawk slipped the Warrior into a low orbit. It didn’t take long to locate the giant, black pyramid, resting atop a plateau. It was fortunate, really, as it made it easier on them for landing and takeoff. The plateau was wide and flat, and thousands of feet below it, volcanic eruptions filled the air with black smoke. Rivers of lava burned down there, liquid fire caused by the planet’s increasing internal temperatures.

“Looks like this world will join its sister soon,” Greene remarked.

“Well, we’ll be in and out before it does,” Jessica said. “Dolarhyde, contact Praror and ask him to remain up here in orbit. Hawk, disengage the cloaking device and prepare for landing procedures.”

*

The Warrior settled upon the flat rock with a jolt and the hiss of escaping gasses from her landing gear, four legs extended from the belly of the ship. When landed, the ship resembled a rather big fly, minus wings and bug eyes.

“Distance to the monolith?” King asked as she suited up.

Hawk shrugged his arms into his own suit, and then grabbed a data tablet from a work station to the side. “Thirty minutes’ walk north.”

“Good. Commander, you comfortable in there? I know these suits are older models, but they should do the same job.”

He gave a thumbs up as Dolarhyde settled the helmet over his head and locked it into place. A second later, the lights inside the helmet came to life, as did his internal radio.

“Better?” Jessica asked him.

“Yeah. Smells musty in here, though,” Greene said.

Jessica laughed until her own helmet was on and secured. Then she wrinkled her nose. “You’re right. It smells like a Mummy’s armpit!”

The Commander laughed over the internal comm.

Hawk put on his own helmet without fuss, then helped Dolarhyde into his. They fetched their equipment and signalled through to Chief Gunn for her to equalize the pressure with the outside and open the cargo bay door.

Moments later, the red light above the exit ramp changed to green and the door opened. The world outside was a fiery, smoky hell.

“Gentlemen, I don’t think we’re in Kansas anymore,” King said.

*

The pyramid was like a giant, ebony arrow head at the summit of the plateau, its topmost peak aimed at the thinning red atmosphere and the veil of stars beyond. Soon, the rest of the planet’s ozone would dissipate, surrendering to the exertions of the giant red sun it called master. Then it would be yet another fiery, broken world, coasting through the void on an inevitable dance of death. And would the black mountain remain? If it chose to, yes.

“Now, it should open somewhere around here,” Dolarhyde said. He stopped at a small mark at the base of the pyramid and used it to activate the pyramid’s entrance. The door opened to reveal shining white innards.

“Déjà vu,” Commander Greene said.

Jessica tapped her comm. “Warrior, this is King. We are going inside the artefact. Expect loss of radio. Continue to monitor. Over.”

They waited a moment for confirmation from the Warrior. Then they stepped inside.

*

Dolarhyde took a seat at the angular chair in the middle of the vast, white space. The moment he did, all light died. Apart from a solid shaft of light that fell from the roof to Dolarhyde’s helmet-covered head.

YOU HAVE TRAVELLED FAR, a not too unfamiliar voice boomed in their heads simultaneously.

“Yes, we have. Travelled to reveal your secrets,” Dolarhyde said to it. The others remained silent.

If it hadn’t been for their twinkling suit lights, they wouldn’t have been able to see each other in such thick, soupy darkness. There was only the shaft of light, and a suited-up Dolarhyde within it.

DO YOU HAVE KNOWLEDGE?

“Yes I do. And, if you will permit me, I will put it to use,” Dolarhyde said aloud.

AS YOU WISH

Dolarhyde remained perfectly still. Then the light intensified. It grew so bright they had to shield their eyes. The light grew to fill the room. Their heads vibrated with a deep, heavy hum.

Then it was over. The light vanished completely before everything returned to its previous state of clean, white, hospital sterility.

And Captain Dolarhyde was gone. Vanished into thin air.

*

They spent over an hour at the pyramid, trying to determine if he was, in fact, somewhere within the structure. But they had no such luck as to have their doubts answered so directly. Before long, Captain King gave the order for them to return to the Warrior and try to make some sense of the situation.

“Chief, any sign of Dolarhyde?” Greene asked over the radio as the Warrior came into view. It was still a good fifteen minutes’ walk away.

“Yes. He arrived shortly after you left. I wondered where you’d all got to, to be honest,” Gunn said. “I figured he must have turned back for some reason.”

“Wait a minute,” King said. She stopped and activated the suit controls to project the camera feed from her helmet onto her visor. It showed the Warrior up ahead. She zoomed in, and sure enough, Dolarhyde was sitting on the access ramp with his arms folded waiting for them to come back.

“I don’t believe it . . .” she said.

“What?” Greene asked.

“Zoom in. He’s there. It must’ve worked,” she said. “I can’t believe it.”

She watched as the Commander did as instructed, his face changing from cocksure to gobsmacked.

“Well I’ll be damned…”

*

The cargo bay door slid shut and the atmosphere within the sealed room flooded in from vents in the ceiling. It took a matter of seconds to equalize the cargo area so that they could remove their helmets.

“So, Captain Dolarhyde,” Greene said. He offered his hand. “Congratulations are in order.”

Dolarhyde shook his hand, a smile beneath his shaggy grey beard. “I believe I’ve proven my point.”

“Indeed,” Jessica said. “And now, if you could explain it . . .”

“I’m not sure I can. It’s merely a case of allowing the pyramid into your mind. Offering no resistance. The more you open to it, the more it opens to you.”

“I’d imagine that’s something our friend Carn is struggling with,” Greene said.

“He’ll master it soon,” Dolarhyde said. “And I believe you yourself have had some experience of interacting with one of those devices.”

“A little bit,” King admitted.

“I believe that if pressed, you could work one of the machines too,” Dolarhyde said. “I merely thought of where I wanted to go, regardless of when. There was a kind of tingling all over my body and when I opened my eyes, there I was. Sat on the ramp. I’d got back to the ship before we’d even reached the pyramid. I time travelled.”

“And if you can, it’s only a matter of time before Carn will be able to do the same,” King said. “And who knows what sort of damage he could inflict?”

“If yuh think about it, what’s stoppin’ him goin’ back and leading a Draxx fleet to Earth when it was just startin’ out? Before the foundin’ of the Union?”

Jessica locked eyes with him. “What’s stopping him? We are.”

5.

With the ship safely back in orbit, they held a brief meeting on the bridge.

There was coffee all round – the freeze-dried variety, found perfectly preserved in the Warrior‘s stores – and they discussed the neat trick Dolarhyde had managed to pull off with the pyramid on the surface.

“So how do we know he won’t come here for this one?” Hawk asked.

“Well, there’s nothing to say that he won’t,” King said. “However, it won’t matter. As far as we know, he doesn’t know about the master pyramid yet. It’s a little advantage we have, which makes a change for once.”

Chief Gunn stood next to Gary Belcher, one hand resting in the pouch at the front of her overalls, the other gripped a paper cup filled with strong coffee, a little too much cream, and a certifiable overdose of sugar.

“Hey, uh, so we’ll be heading straight into the lion’s den on this one?” she asked.

“I’m afraid so, Chief. It’s in the heart of Naxor territory . . . right under the General’s nose.”

“You know, one thing I’ve not worked out yet,” Gunn said. “And that’s why the Naxors are working with Carn. What possible agreement could he have with them, for them to put everything they have at his disposal?”

Jessica shook her head. “I’ve not figured it out myself, yet. I’m sure they have their reasons. Knowing the General as we do, I think we can safely assume it isn’t just an act of friendship.”

“You can say that again.”

Commander Greene nodded toward the viewscreen. “You know, we never did get to see a lot of this galaxy. I know it’s rough down there, but what a view.”

They all turned to see what he was talking about. Below them, the planet around which they were in orbit fell to darkness, the last glow of its giant red sun turning the atmosphere into a smear of ochre against the black. And in the distance, like a ball of fire, its sister planet shone like a small star.

“Hellish, but beautiful,” Jessica said.

A bit like our time here, she thought. We may not have done as much exploring as I’d have liked in other circumstances, but we’ve survived. Well, most of us have. And that’s not too bad. None of it is.

As she sipped her coffee, and the others chatted amongst themselves, she felt a not too unfamiliar numbness rise up her legs. Like a creeping cold, its fingertips working their way into her muscles. She made her excuses and retired to one of the bunks farther down the corridor to rest in the hope that her illness wasn’t about to rear its ugly head once more.

She remembered Dr. Clayton telling her that it could be triggered by stress. As she lay there with her hands folded on her stomach, staring up at the ceiling, she admitted to herself that she found the idea of what they were about to do frightening. She’d have never said as much to the crew – not even to Commander Greene. But Jessica knew that this was it. The final offensive against a vile enemy, hell-bent on their total destruction. There would be no further chances.

If the General could go back in time as Dolarhyde had, then they were doomed. Simple. He would go back and erase them from existence.

I’ll be damned if I’ll allow everything we’ve been through to stand for nothing, she thought. But legs, don’t fail me now. See me through this.

It seemed a good thing to hope for, and yet Jessica knew it was foolhardy.

Everything would pan out as it was meant to.

I just hope we get there before he does.

Presently she got back up and made her way to the bridge, careful not to go too fast. There she gave the order to continue on with their mission. If she had not felt the urgency before, she did now.

“Inform Captain Praror we are continuing with the mission immediately,” she ordered. “Everybody, after that we go silent. Communication blackout. We’re going into enemy territory.”

6.

The Warrior cruised through space, all communication circuits disabled for full silence and the cloaking device running at full power. Captain Praror’s ship at their wing, under the guise of just another Naxor ship travelling back into “friendly” territory.

She couldn’t sleep, and when Jessica wandered up to the bridge in her slacks and a vest, she found Hawk there with his feet up on the helm.

“Captain Nowlan, I didn’t think anyone would be up here,” she said.

He started at the sudden intrusion. “Jeez! Yuh made me jump, Cap.”

“Sorry. Everyone else is getting some rack time. You should be too,” she said.

He raised an eyebrow. “I think that goes for the skipper too, don’t it?”

She couldn’t argue. “You have a point there.”

The ship was quiet, save for a ticking noise from somewhere and the general thrum of the engines powering them through the void at a speed any primitive race would have found astounding . . .

“Yuh think they’ll be all right back there? The others I mean?” Hawk asked her.

“I think so. Why? Are you thinking about Selena?”

Hawk nodded. “Never thought I’d say this about a gal, but I really do miss her. We’ve got chemistry. Only took me a black hole and half a century to find her,” he said.

“I’m glad for you, Captain,” Jessica said. She sat on the edge of the captain’s chair, her hands clasped between her legs. “You’ll see her again.”

Hawk looked away then. “I sure do hope so.”

Jessica thought about the bonds the crew had made since being catapulted so far from home. Del and the Chief. Hawk and Selena. Then there had been Chang and Rayne… they’d become a true family.

And when the Defiant blew up, it was like saying goodbye to all that.

She realized Hawk was now looking at her. “What?”

“You miss her, don’t you?” he asked.

“What d’you mean?”

“The Defiant. You miss her.”

Jessica smiled. “Yes. Yes, I do. I can’t believe she’s gone.”

“We’ll get another ship,” Hawk said. “Yuh can call her the Defiant II or somethin’.”

She laughed. “Yeah, won’t that be strange?”

“Hey, how come you never hooked up with anyone?” Hawk asked.

She felt her face heat up and had to look down at the deck.

“Sorry if I’m puttin’ yuh on the spot an’ all,” Hawk apologised.

Jessica shook her head. “No, it’s not that. It’s just . . . I’ve not had a chance to. I’ve been so concerned with everything else; there’s been no time for any of that.”

Plus I’m ill, she thought. And in all good conscience, I couldn’t expect anyone to have to deal with that.

“I can appreciate that,” Hawk said. “It’s a lotta pressure.”

“Yeah. You could say that.”

Hawk got up from the helm. “You wanna coffee? There’s no way I’ll be gettin’ to sleep.”

She smiled. “Yes I’d love one. I take it we’re on watch tonight then.”

He pointed a finger at her, and she recognised his pose from one of the many posters she’d seen when she was younger. “The Hawk is always on watch.”

She shook her head and laughed. “The poster boy.”

“Always,” he said. “Defending the Union from tyranny, even in my sleep.”

7.

The fact that the battleship was the largest vessel, by far, that he’d ever commanded did not phase General Carn in the slightest. Indeed, it was like throwing fuel on a fire. It made him feel more invincible than ever.

He stood watching the bridge operations with disinterest. What mattered was getting to the planet containing the master pyramid. Nothing else. At the front, one end of the huge room was given to a viewscreen. The starlight flicked past at a steady rate as the battleship’s engines ploughed through the inky blackness. But Carn did not watch any of it.

He was deep in thought, still mulling over the last planet they’d visited. A moon around a blue gas giant, the artefact they found there confirmed many of the things he’d learned already, and educated him about one or two things, too. Namely, the location of the master pyramid . . . and just what he could do with it, if he had the inclination.

The Naxors trusted him with one of their most expensive vessels. And why? Because he had promised the High Vizar a seat at the table.

“Help me,” he’d told him. “And we shall rule side by side. The Draxx and the Naxor, sharing the universe… together.”

But, of course, he had no intentions of sharing anything. The Naxor were worthy allies, but there was no place for them in his plans. As far as Carn was concerned, the only other being going into the pyramid with him – and into the past – resided within the royal egg the Queen had entrusted to him before she died. With that he would rule the Draxx upon his return. The Queen larvae would grow and mature under his guidance, raised to follow his word. To allow him to rule the entire Dominion from behind the throne and not on it.

I’d be a King of the shadows, he thought to himself with satisfaction.

That, he’d decided, was the best way to be. And there was the matter of the Union and its territories.

Once he knew how to control the master monolith, Carn would use it to travel back in time and space. For the pyramid could achieve both. From what he’d learned, there were no limits to its power, once you knew how to wield it. The pyramid would take him back to the Draxx home world a century or so before the humans launched their ship into the cosmos – which had been the very beginnings of the Union. Preceding those baby steps into space, he would launch an attack against Earth itself. Wipe them all out. Perhaps incinerate the Earth’s surface with every weapon he could muster.

Stamp them from history.

There would be no Earth. No Terran Union. Nothing to stand in their way. The Draxx had once been described as a kind of cancer, attacking star systems on its way toward expanding across the entire galaxy. Now it would do more than that. The Dominion would invade several star systems at once, taking them by force in grand sweeps. Within fifty years, he estimated, the Draxx Dominion would rule half of the galaxy.

And I’ll live to see it happen, he told himself. Thankfully, the ravages of time don’t wear down on me like they do the humans.

There had been many attempts by different parties at guessing just what the General was. At trying to imagine what he looked like behind the mask.

As the old saying went, the truth will always be far stranger. If only those who’d tried to guess who and what he was over the years could have known.

They’d have never believed it. Especially how he had come to be that way . . .

One of the bridge crew approached. “General, we are approaching the planet now. Do you authorize us to drop from Jump and activate our defences?”

He nodded once, slowly. “Yes. Observe extreme prejudice. Take no prisoners.”

8.

“I recommend slowing to one quarter speed,” Greene said from his station. “We’re coming up on some kind of asteroid field.”

King got up to look at his readouts. The field stretched like a vast barrier, cutting right across their path.

“Is it navigable?”

“Yeah, but we’ll have to take it slow. And there’s something else…”

He changed views to show thermal energy scans. Many of the asteroids showed what could only be the thermal exhausts of small outposts hidden within their recesses. Even when separated by entire galaxies, Jessica could recognise a defensive perimeter when she saw one.

“Gun turrets.”

Greene nodded. “Aye.”

She turned to Hawk. “Cut the engines to one quarter or less. Close all exhaust ports. We need to be a shadow, nothing more.”

“Working on it,” Hawk said.

“I just hope Praror’s ship doesn’t spark any kind of alarm,” King said.

“It shouldn’t do,” Greene said.

“Shall we make brief contact?” Dolarhyde asked her.

She shook her head. “No. Let’s stick with the plan. Front it out. Commander Greene, how long until the asteroid field?”

“Four minutes,” he said.

She clipped herself in. “Everyone buckle up. Hawk, take it easy in there.”

“Subtlety’s my middle name,” Hawk said.

*

The Warrior swung out of the way of massive boulders, ducked beneath smaller rocks that spiralled toward them on a collision course. And all the while, probing the entire area with wide sensor beams, the Naxor outposts watched for any sign of trespassers. Fortunately, the Warrior was not detected.

Captain Praror’s ship was, though it merely registered as just another Naxor ship on its way back from deep space operations. It was uncommon, but not unusual, for Naxor ships to traverse the asteroid field.

After several hours of sometimes hair-raising flying, Hawk took them out of the field and back into clear, obstacle-free space.

“Thank the gods for that,” Greene said.

“Yuh didn’t trust me, kid?” Hawk asked, setting the Warrior back to automatic control for a while.

Greene let loose a big sigh. “I just hate rocks.”

“Unless they’re under scotch,” Jessica said.

“What I wouldn’t do for one of those right now . . .” Greene said.

Jessica unclipped herself. “When we get back, Commander. And if we pull this off, there’ll be more than one.”

“I think –” Greene started to say, before his station let loose a series of warning sounds. He looked down and his eyes widened in surprise. “Enemy vessel, dead ahead!”

Jessica spun around in time to see a huge Naxor ship rush upon them.

“Evasive! Get us out of the way!”

Hawk dived back into his chair, threw the controls to manual and steered them out of the other ship’s path. It ploughed through the spot they’d vacated only seconds before, oblivious to their presence. The ship was massive, like a floating city powered by immense engines. Captain Praror’s ship also ducked out of their way, passing beneath them either undetected or ignored. What was one little friendly ship, headed for home, after all?

“Rear view,” Jessica said.

The viewscreen changed to show the departing ship.

“Biggest I’ve seen yet,” Hawk said.

“Size of that thing, Commander?”

Greene swallowed as he made sense of his readings. “Over twenty thousand metres long. Ten thousand metres wide,” he said in awe.

“Things just got real,” Hawk said.

Jessica looked from one to the other. “Continue as we were,” she said.

Then she left for the engineering section.

9.

“I don’t even know what half this stuff is, let alone what it’s capable of,” Chief Gunn said as they had a look around the hold.

“Work with Captain Dolarhyde, try and get a sense of what we can use and what’s a definite no no,” King said.

“Well, Belcher can hold the fort in there while I do that, sure,” Gunn said. “This is to do with that big ship we passed, isn’t it?”

King nodded. “I just want us to be prepared, Chief. If we come up against something like that, we won’t last two minutes. I need us to be able to pack a punch.”

Gunn regarded her.

“No, not just a punch,” Jessica said, “a locomotive.”

The Chief grinned. “Tell Dolarhyde to get his old Robinson Crusoe behind down here and I’ll see what we can rustle up . . .”

*

Men – and women – headed into a battle of some kind often observe a kind of routine. Whether it’s two parents going to war in a courtroom for custody of their child, two duelling shootists in the Old West, or a hero of the Terran Union, headed for a possible confrontation with his arch-nemesis.

There are behaviours that precede the trouble to come. Hawk’s own ritual, when he found himself with the luxury of time to do it, was to clean and oil his kataan. The blade had seen a lot of action but there was not one knick on its cutting edge. The hardened alloy from which it had been forged had proven, so far, entirely impervious to anything it was subjected to.

He rubbed an oiled cloth up and down its length, in an almost mesmerised manner.

“I’ve never seen you do that before,” Commander Greene said as he walked into the little mess hall. He made himself a coffee and sat at the table opposite.

“I do, from time to time,” Hawk said. “Yuh see, I don’t usually get any warnin’ we’re headed for trouble.”

“True,” Greene admitted.

“Besides, I get the feelin’ this one’s a kind of… how d’yuh say? A final stand?”

“Yeah, I get you,” Greene said. “I think if we don’t stop him now, we never will. He’ll unlock everything he wants to know about and it’ll be like we never existed.”

Hawk looked up as that sunk in between the two men, then went back to his care of the sword. “A universe with no Hawk in it… can yuh imagine that, fella?”

The Commander couldn’t help but chuckle. “It’s unthinkable.”

“Yuh know, I don’t think there’d be a big bang without yours truly there to light the match…”

Greene shook his head. He watched as Hawk inspected his weapon, looking appreciatively down its edges, all of them perfectly straight. The whole blade sparkled with a high shine, as if it were brand new.

“You’re really expecting a fight with Carn, aren’t you?”

Hawk’s face was set. “Yep.”

“I take it you think the General’s also looking forward to a rematch…”

Hawk smiled. “Del, my boy, I’d bet the farm on it.”

10.

“You are to locate a pyramid built of black material on the planet’s surface. Notify me when you do,” Carn ordered.

The officer nodded compliance and scurried off to do his bidding. Carn watched as two ships approached from orbit to intercept.

“Enemies to starboard,” a crewman announced.

“Target and destroy,” the General ordered, barely interested or concerned by the threat of two light cruisers. Not with what he had loaded aboard. A moment later, the awesome firepower of the battleship struck the two ships and tore them to pieces. They erupted into balls of flame and debris.

“Enemy vessels eliminated,” came the feedback from the helm.

Carn nodded. This is how it is meant to be, he thought. With such a ship as this at my disposal, nothing can stand in my way. What had the High Vizar called the cannon fitted to the ship? The Crusher?

An apt name.

“Excellent,” Carn said. “Use the weapon against all who oppose us.”

11.

Up on the bridge by herself, while Hawk grabbed some much needed down time, Jessica couldn’t help but look around. She could almost imagine she was on the Defiant again. Back on her old ship, her Father’s command.

But it wasn’t the same. The Warrior was smaller, and her bridge layout too dissimilar for the illusion to hold and give any comfort.

I feel alone, she thought. I feel like I’m on a solo mission. Following a crazy old man on a quest to find an ancient alien artefact that… what? Controls time?

But Dolarhyde had proven to them that the pyramids could be used for just that. And it had confirmed the general consensus that if Carn could manipulate time, his first order of business would be to ensure the Draxx were the dominant race. Not just back home, in their own galaxy – but everywhere.

No way, she told herself. And I’m not alone. The best of them are with me, putting their lives on the line too. We’ll do this together, as a family. We’ll set everything right.

There was a beeping noise from one of the nearby consoles. Jessica snapped out of her reverie and located the source of the incessant beep.

The ship’s sensors showed a planetary system fast approaching. She hit the comm. panel, broadcasting her voice to every inch of the Warrior.

“All hands to your stations. We’re here.”

12.

“Full stop,” Hawk reported from the helm.

A huge battleship stood over the planet like an upturned city with a cluster of engines glowing white hot at the back of it to push its mass through space.

“Is that the same ship from before?” King asked.

“No. Looks like a sister ship. Same design, slightly different signature,” Greene said.

“I’m receiving old-style binary code from Captain Praror,” Dolarhyde announced. “He’s asking what you want him to do.”

“Well . . .” Jessica said. She looked on the viewscreen as the Naxor ship engaged an entire fleet of alien fighters, blasting them into smithereens with lances of energy from its weapons.

“I’m detecting a developed culture down there,” Greene said. “It’ll take a while to track down the pyramid amongst all that interference. And then there’s the problem of getting to it, if whatever species that is down there is guarding it.”

“We’ll come to that when we come to it,” King said. “Just track the artefact down.”

“Aye.”

“So the General’s found it,” Hawk said. “And old mirror face is tryin’ to take it by force.”

“Would he do it any other way?” King asked him.

“True,” Hawk said.

King took in a deep breath and held it before letting go, in an attempt to still her nerves and remain cool headed about the situation. She watched from their relatively safe distance as the floating city of a ship turned broadside to confront a trio of cruisers headed straight for it from the planet’s surface. They exchanged blows and the battleship stopped abruptly. The alien ships must have thought they’d done some damage, because they swooped in with everything they had. Then the battleship fired at them with great crackling beams of pure energy that burned through them as if they were made of butter. Moments later the three ships were left to tumble, powerless, back toward the planet from which they’d come.

We need to decide what we’re doing, King thought. Before they spot Praror’s ship just sitting here and question it. And before they fire that weapon at us. Whatever that was…

“Captain Dolarhyde, contact Praror and ask him to move in. Slowly. Buy me some time,” Jessica said.

Dolarhyde nodded and executed her order without a word.

“What’s the thinkin’, Cap?” Hawk asked.

Commander Greene looked up. “Got it. Outside one of their major cities, in an area of dense vegetation and foliage. Jungle. No sign of protection.”

“It’s a temple. A religious site. They no doubt worship at the foot of it,” she said. “But no resistance to us means no resistance to Carn. At least, not until it’s all too late. Keep it locked in, and monitor for any Naxor forces making their way toward it.”

She turned back to Hawk.

“My plan is to reveal us at the last minute,” she said. “And then hit him with weaponry he’s never seen before.”

The legendary Captain grinned from ear to ear and turned back to the helm controls. “Takin’ us in. With pleasure.”

“Commander Greene, raise the energy shield and charge the hull plating. It’ll sap the energy reserves, but don’t worry about that. I don’t plan on having this cloaking device running any more than necessary. We’ll need the extra energy for the defences.”

Jessica opened a channel to the engineering section.

“Belcher here,” the voice on the other end announced.

“Lieutenant, please inform the Chief to increase energy output as far as she can get it,” she said. “And activate the weaponry. We’re about to start shooting.”

“Aye Captain.”

He closed the channel on his end.

Jessica buckled up. “Here we go…” she said.

PART ELEVEN

SALVATION

1.

Finally, General Carn thought to himself. I have you within reach. The ultimate power of the universe, in the palm of my hand. At my disposal.

He watched feeble ships from the planet’s surface streak toward them and almost laughed.

Everything will be as it should be. The Dominion will rule all… and I will rule the Dominion.

And eventually, the Queen – and her descendants – would rule under his direction.

As it should be, he thought again. Perfect.

The Naxor battleship took the alien ships out one by one, with short, sharp bursts of firepower that turned them to fire and dust before his eyes.

Carn smiled.

Everything is going as planned, he told himself. Nothing can stop me now . . .

2.

Hawk turned in his seat. “Cap, just how close d’yuh think yuh can get me before they detect us?

Jessica frowned. “Pretty close. Why? Won’t you be driving the car tonight, Captain Gerard.”

There was a nervous chuckle from Greene and Dolarhyde.

Hawk didn’t laugh. “Close enough for a space jump?”

That caught her attention. “Just what do you have in mind?”

“Yuh get me close as yuh can, and I jump over there. Find the controls to that weapon they’ve got and disable it.”

“It’s a suicide mission,” Greene said.

“Nah, it’s a good plan. And I don’t trust anyone else to do it. What d’yuh say, Cap? Let a man do his thing?” Hawk said. “Gotta say, I don’t see how we got much choice.”

Jessica drew a deep breath. “It could work. We’ll have a much better chance of stopping them if they don’t have that weapon at hand… but in all good conscience, I can’t let you do it.”

Hawk shook his head. “I’ve done crazier stuff in the past, Cap.”

“I don’t doubt it, but Commander Greene is right,” Jessica said. “It’d be suicide.”

“Only if I screw up, and I don’t plan on that happenin’.”

Commander Greene shook his head in disbelief. “This is crazy. Going it alone? How will you even know where to look?”

Nowlan tapped the end of his nose. “The Hawk knows, fella. Don’t question a livin’ legend.”

Greene looked at Jessica. “Jessica, you can’t be serious about allowing this. He’s nuts. He’ll get himself killed.”

She raised her hands, admitting defeat over the issue. “What else do we have? We’ve got a mighty arsenal on board, but what use is that if we don’t get a chance to use it? We’ll give Hawk thirty minutes. Once he gives the signal, we reveal ourselves and attack. If nothing happens after thirty minutes, we de-cloak and attack anyway.”

Greene looked incredulously from one to the other. “I thought we only had one cowboy on this ship…”

Jessica’s eyebrows rose and she glared at him. “Del . . .”

Hawk got up. “Commander? Care to take my seat? Looks like you’re at the wheel now, son.”

*

“They are launching a squadron of fighters from their base on the surface,” an officer reported.

Carn’s hands made tight fists at his sides.

“Target the Crusher on that location and fire,” he ordered.

The officer did as he was told. His appendages manipulated the controls, shifting the barrel of the cannon to point toward the city the fighters had launched from seconds before.

“Ready.”

“Fire.”

A lance of blinding energy reached from the end of the battleship to the surface of the planet before it. The city was engulfed by an enormous flash and when it dissipated, the sprawl of civilisation that had been there before was a black scorch mark on the landscape. A scar.

“One hundred per cent destruction,” the officer explained. “Our strike consumed several power production plants. The energy was the equivalent to a major asteroid collision.”

Carn thought of the millions down there who had been incinerated within the space of seconds. It sent a wave of pleasure through his body to imagine their cries of terror as the blast obliterated them. Behind his mask, he closed his eyes in near ecstasy.

“Good. Now target those fighters with our guns and pick them off.”

*

In the cargo bay, Hawk got into his suit. Jessica helped him with the helmet, and double-checked that it was fastened securely. She handed him an EVA motor unit. The handheld device would power him to where he wanted to go, and was good for several hours use before it ran out of propellant. A few minutes were all that he needed to get to the battleship. The EVA motor units could reach surprisingly high speeds.

Hawk gave her the thumbs up sign. Jessica stepped forward, and snapped to a sharp salute. Hawk returned the gesture.

“Good luck Captain Nowlan. Remember, Commander Greene believes the controls to the cannon will be mid-ship. The strong energy signatures from that section were a match for whatever it is the Naxors are firing. The target area should appear in your reticule as you approach.”

“Understood. Good luck.”

She stepped back, toward the bulkhead. “And you.”

Jessica reached over, activated the controls to the doors. They slid shut in front of her, sealing her off from the hangar bay. Hawk got into position before the bay door as the atmosphere leached out of the room. The green light flashed, and the door opened to reveal black space and the bright curve of the planet to the right. He stepped to the edge, held the EVA unit in front of him and, with a flick of its controls, burst free from the ship.

Jessica hurried back to the bridge.

“Report! Track him on the viewscreen.”

Greene cycled through the controls until they showed Hawk hurtling away from them, the exhaust from the unit making him appear as a comet on a collision course with the Naxor battleship.

“Ten seconds to contact.”

King bit her lip. I hope he doesn’t forget the braking thrusters…

“Five seconds.”

The viewscreen increased in magnification to show Hawk slow, but not enough to stop him clanging against the hull. He appeared to be in one piece as he manoeuvred to the side, toward an emergency access hatch. Designed to give access to the ship for stranded astronauts, Jessica was relieved to find they weren’t just a human concern. The Naxor valued their crew enough to include such an addition to their ship design too.

They watched as Hawk activated the manual controls, letting the EVA motor unit float away, then pulling the hatch open and stepping inside. He shut it behind him.

“That was quick and easy,” Dolarhyde remarked.

“Now comes the hard part,” King said.

3.

The minute the door shut and locked, the tiny access chamber filled with breathable air. Hawk removed his suit and helmet. With pressure equalized between the chamber and the ship’s innards, he opened the next door onto a corridor.

It was empty save for one Naxor.

Hawk didn’t waste a second. He leapt from the doorway, flicked his kataan from his belt and sliced the Naxor’s head clean from its body. It rolled along the corridor. As the headless body staggered toward the wall then fell in a heap, Hawk retrieved the head and tossed it into the access chamber. Next, he dragged the body in there before it could be discovered.

Kataan back on his belt, he clambered in after it and set to work liberating the Naxor from its uniform.

“Thanks fella,” he said as he got back out and shut the door behind him.

He looked left and right, then got moving, confident that if he was as fast as possible, the Naxors aboard wouldn’t pay too much attention to the southern gent in the ill-fitting uniform wandering the decks of their ship.

Or, for that matter, the deadly blade at his side.

4.

Captain Praror reached the controls for the comm. circuits and opened a ship-to-ship line with the Warrior. He doubted very much that whatever was said would be detected. General Carn and the Naxors visibly had their hands full. They probably hadn’t even noticed his little ship floating nearby.

Still, it was a risk that had to be taken. After all, how long could they stay out here with their paws behind their backs?

“Captain King, do you receive?” he asked.

“Yes. What is your status?”

“We are ready to strike when you are.”

“Glad to hear it,” King said on the other end.

“We will await your signal, dear Captain. But I warn you not to hold out for too long. They are blind to us at the moment, but it will not stay that way forever.”

“Agreed, Captain. Warrior out.”

*

The General tilted his head to one side as he watched the various screens at the tactical stations. The cameras mounted all over the exterior of the ship covered every possible angle.

That was how he spotted Captain Praror’s ship drifting off the port bow.

“What is that ship doing there?” he asked.

An officer zoomed in, at the same time running a scan of the Naxor vessel. “One of ours, sir.”

Carn’s mind ticked over. “However that does not answer my question. I asked you what it was doing there.”

The officer stammered nervously in an attempt to produce an answer, but already Carn was beyond it. He turned to the Naxor next to him.

“Monitor that ship’s transmissions,” he ordered.

“Working,” the officer said.

Carn folded his arms as he waited for the Naxor to perform his duty.

“I am detecting ship-to-ship communications with an unidentified vessel!”

The General turned on his heel and walked to the middle of the bridge.

“Target the Naxor ship off the port bow,” he snapped. “And open fire with standard warheads. I do not want them destroyed, not yet.”

*

“Sir! They are locked on and preparing to fire!” the Krinuan helmsman yelled.

Praror looked up in shock. “Full power to the shields!”

The pilot barely managed it in time as three warheads hurtled away from the side of the Naxor battleship and headed straight for them. One struck the ship to starboard; the other two barely glanced off the hull.

“Evasive!”

*

Jessica saw it happen with the kind of shell-shocked detachment that comes with facing many battles and fire fights. She watched as the warheads emerged from the firing tubes of the battleship before them. She registered them striking Captain Praror’s command, and when she saw his ship start to move away, it finally dawned on her. She snapped to.

“Disengage the cloak! Every ounce of power to engines, energy shields and weapons!”

The lights on the bridge dimmed to red and an emergency klaxon wailed before Dolarhyde had a chance to silence it.

*

Carn pointed at the Warrior, shimmering into being before them.

“Fire on that ship! Use the Crusher!” he barked.

The Naxors hurried to complete his command. The giant cannon repositioned from where it was housed at the front of the battleship, mounted to a firing platform. The Naxors settled their sights on the relatively still Warrior and got ready to fire.

*

“Locking on with their cannon,” the Krinuan helmsman announced. “Targeting the Warrior.”

Praror grimaced. “Quickly. Move between them. We cannot allow them to destroy the Warrior. Our fates, too, rest on their shoulders. Full power to the thrusters.”

“Aye,” the pilot replied and, with deft manipulation of the helm controls, he moved their little ship between the Naxor battleship and the Warrior.

“Divert weapons power to shields on our port side –” was all Captain Praror had time to say.

The Crusher fired, and in an instant his ship, his stolen Naxor bounty, was incinerated in a blinding white explosion. There was no time to regret. No time for last words. Only the brief perception of something happening. Of light all around him.

And then Captain Praror, and his crew, were no more.

5.

His head down, but taking quick stock of his surroundings, Hawk followed the flow of foot traffic on the other decks toward the cannon. None of the Naxor noticed him, so focused on their own orders and objectives, they paid no attention to him as he wove in and out of them, rushing for the cannon’s controls with a kind of tunnel vision.

And if any of them had noticed him, he didn’t wait around to find out. The doors to the control room parted for him and he bounded in. His eyes took in the whole room in a single sweep. The control stations for the cannon were lined along one wall. Four stations, each with two crewmen stood before them. On the right were what he took to be conductor coils for the cannon itself, housed behind thick glass.

Not wasting a second, Hawk took his blade in hand and rushed them. The second Naxor looked up in surprise as the first one fell, sliced through the middle. It managed to let loose a single cry as Hawk jammed his kataan into its chest and withdrew in a burst of body fluids.

The other Naxor raced toward him, a couple attempting to pull their weapons free from their holsters. Hawk leapt upon the nearest console, beheaded two of the Naxors in one swift stroke. A Naxor fired at him, the shot hitting the wall behind him. Hawk jumped down, skidded forward and hacked at the Naxor’s legs. It fell, blood pumping from its stumps. He finished the others off with a butcher’s efficiency, then walked back to the legless heap on the floor and finished it off. He wiped his kataan on his trousers and put it away.

Panting, trying to catch his breath, Hawk looked from one console to another.

“Right. Which one of yuh buggers control this cannon then, eh?”

He reached down, activated the tiny beacon on his belt, then set to work putting the cannon out of action.

*

Dolarhyde looked up. “He’s signalling. Mission complete.”

Jessica nodded. She shifted in the command chair. It was true, the battleship no longer fired at them. Commander Greene brought them into a more stable flight path over the mighty vessel. But what had it cost them?

The after-image of Captain Praror’s ship blowing up in front of them was still burned into her retinas. She couldn’t quite believe it.

“Order?” Greene asked.

“We’ve taken a few licks,” she said. “Now let’s show them what we’ve got up our sleeve, see if they can do the same. Let’s honour Praror and his sacrifice. Because of him, because of them… we get to kick Carn’s ass.”

6.

Chief Gunn nodded at Lieutenant Belcher. “Go.”

He threw the switches at the same time as her, diverting power to the weaponry they’d rigged to the Warrior‘s power core. It amounted to a twin set of Neutron lasers, a Duotonic Cannon and two dozen warheads designed to break apart the molecular structure of metal alloys. Literally dissolve an enemy’s hull.

Gary Belcher quickly checked the readouts for the new weapons. “They all look good, Chief.”

Gunn contacted the bridge. “We’re hot.”

*

“FIRE!” Jessica yelled.

Commander Greene shot the Neutron lasers at the battleship as they rumbled over its surface. The twin shafts of bright green energy left thick lines of melted destruction in their wake. Wherever it hit, it burst through the battleship’s hull. Atmosphere tore free from the blistered skin of the vessel, as if the lasers were scalpels making incisions.

“Their hull is compromised,” Dolarhyde said, monitoring both the tactical and communications stations. “You know, I always thought ‘If this baby gets hit, she’ll go supernova with the amount of hardware below decks.’”

Greene spun about. “Dammit, don’t say that NOW! You make me feel like I’m flying a giant bomb!”

King snapped her fingers. “Del, eyes forward. Bring us about for another pass and prepare to fire the experimental warheads.”

*

The battleship shuddered from the multiple hull breaches.

General Carn pointed to the tiny Union ship performing a tight roll to double-back on itself and attack them again.

“Target that ship! Full power to the Crusher. Blow them out of the sky!”

“Yes General!”

*

Hawk grinned from ear to ear as the power levels for the cannon dropped to nothing. Then he ripped out every cable he could. “That’ll fix ‘em.”

He headed for the exit, the battleship lit by deep red emergency lighting. The air was thinner out there in the corridor.

Breach somewhere, he thought to himself as he ran in what he hoped was the direction of the shuttle bay.

Several Naxor stopped to watch him run past, and a handful of them took chase. Hawk freed his sword and turned to hack away at them, Naxor body parts flying left and right as he chopped at their bodies.

Two Naxor foot soldiers lifted their weapons and fired at him. Hawk ducked behind a bulkhead as the gunfire struck the wall a few inches to his left.

“Should’ve brought a pistol!”

The moment they paused, he was moving again. He leapt out, lifted his legs and rebounded off the bulkhead opposite. His momentum carried him through the air, and he crashed clumsily into the two soldiers, knocking them to the floor with him. They scrambled over him, but they spilled off of him as Hawk shoved himself up. One of them let loose a battle cry and Hawk slammed his kataan into its open mouth. The other one attacked him from behind, took hold of his head and yanked it back. Hawk just managed to pull his sword free of the dead Naxor and stab behind him into his other attacker.

Covered in Naxor blood, he dashed toward what he took to be the shuttle bay, following three Naxor dressed in what could only be pilot’s gear, sleek black helmets tucked under their arms as they ran.

Time to get out of Dodge, he thought as the huge ship quivered underfoot.

7.

The warheads erupted over a wide area, disintegrating whole sections of the battleship’s hull. Instant erosion that left it exposed immediately to the harsh vacuum. Naxor crew were sucked out into space, clouds of debris and frozen atmosphere rushed past the Warrior as she continued her onslaught of the larger ship.

It should have been impossible, and indeed it would have been had they not had the experimental weapons at their disposal.

Use what you’ve got, King thought. That’s what Captain Singh – Dad – told me once. Use what you have at hand and make the best of it.

“Commander, bring us around to their rear. Fire a couple of those directly into their engine exhaust.”

“Aye.”

He made the Warrior turn in a wide circle around the stern of the battleship, until they faced the massive engines. He locked on to their white-hot centres and fired.

The explosion was immense and blinding. It rocked the Warrior until King thought she might break apart.

“Back away, back away!” she yelled. Commander Greene did his best to reverse back from the battleships engines.

*

General Carn grabbed whatever was nearby. It just happened to be a bulkhead jutting out from the wall. He staggered against it as the battleship fell to chaos. The deck started to tilt backward, the ship lifting at the nose as her engines died.

“Extensive damage to engines, multiple hull breaches on most decks,” the status report came from somewhere to his left. He didn’t bother to look in the direction of the speaker. Carn looked up at the viewscreen.

“Have you located the monolith yet?” he shouted.

A moment later. “On screen now, General.”

A map appeared, overlaid across the full width of the screen. It showed the artefact nestled amongst thick jungle. Surprisingly there were no defences guarding it, no signs of civilisation anywhere near.

It was all he needed to see.

This ship, he thought. It’s just a tool. What matters is down there. The master pyramid.

The deck still lifting crazily, Carn didn’t say another word. The bridge was in a state of craziness, all hands attempting to wrestle back control of the mighty vessel. Not one of them noticed when the General slipped out of the exit at a near run.

*

The battleship had stopped firing and so too had the Warrior, for the moment. It seemed unbelievable that they’d managed to inflict so much damage in so short a time.

“Their ship’s dead,” Greene said. “And for once we’re doing fine.”

Jessica patched herself through to engineering. “Chief? How’re we holding up?”

“Better than the last ship I was on.”

It’d been meant as harmless patter, but Jessica still felt a pang of discomfort at the thought of the Defiant going down the way she did. And if she felt as though she’d failed everyone, how did the Chief feel? After all, the Defiant was her baby. Repaired and patched together with band-aids more times than she cared to remember, usually under Chief Gunn’s watchful eye.

“I know what you mean, Chief,” King said, dismissing the little stab of guilt in her heart at what she’d led her crew into in the past. What she’d asked of them.

“Everything’s holding up,” Gunn said. “She may be old and full of dust, but this ship’s strong and has it where it matters.”

“Rather like another ship of her time I once knew,” Jessica said with a smile.

The Chief chuckled over the intercom. “Yeah, Ma’am, me too.”

“Keep me posted of any changes, Chief.”

She closed the channel.

Dolarhyde looked up. “Captain King, I have Hawk on the line. Shall I put him on speakers?”

She nodded and exchanged looks with Commander Greene.

The Texan’s voice was barely a whisper, but it was clearly that of Hawk in a highly excitable state.

“Cap! Hey it’s me, Hawk. I’m hidin’ out in the shuttle bay till I can get my mitts on a ship and blow off of this tub,” he said. “But I got somethin’ to tell yuh. I ain’t alone.”

Jessica frowned. “Be clear, Captain. What do you mean? Members of the crew?”

“No, no, no, I mean the General. Old buzzard’s here. And he’s gettin’ into a shuttle. I think he’s ditchin’ ship.”

She smiled. Finally, a chance at grabbing Carn.

“Are there other ships there, Captain Nowlan?”

“Yuh. Another three. I’m about to try and nab one.”

“Make sure you get one,” she ordered. “We’ll follow.”

Jessica connected with engineering once again. “Yes?” Lieutenant Belcher said.

“Lieutenant, what’s the status of the cloak? Still operational?”

“Aye. Will we be needing it?”

“You bet. Prepare to divert power to the cloak.”

She closed the channel.

“Good idea,” Dolarhyde said. “I did wonder how we’d get past the inhabitants of that planet and their need to enact revenge. They’ll be on their way up here, no doubt, to take advantage of that ship being disabled.”

Commander Greene steered them beneath the listing battleship. “Yeah, and I for one don’t plan on staying up here to see what happens when they spot us.”

“Commander, activate the cloak. Let’s drift but prepare to punch the engines once Hawk gives us word.”

“Aye.”

8.

Hawk watched from his hiding place as the General carefully lowered a large mottled egg into the back of one of the shuttlecraft. He then slid into the pilot’s seat. The shuttles were for two passengers only, seated side by side. A pilot and a gunner. They were like two separate pods connected by the bullet-shaped engine in the middle. Carn activated the little ship, and the hood slid shut over him.

That was when Hawk moved. With the General’s attention now fixed on the matter of getting up off the deck and out the hangar bay doors, he dashed to the nearest shuttle and dived in.

His eyes darted over the controls to find the activation switch. He knew he only had seconds before the hangar was purged of atmosphere and the doors were allowed to open. If he couldn’t get the canopy down by then…

“There!” he said with a grin and slapped the switch. The shuttle rumbled to life at the same time as the canopy slid over him and sealed shut with a whoosh of air. He watched out the cockpit as General Carn’s shuttle lifted and seconds later the hangar bay doors opened to reveal a corner of space over a bright, blue planet.

“Come on come on come on,” Hawk muttered. He grabbed the stick and swung the shuttle around. Carn slid through the gaping exit and he hurried to close in behind, though keeping a respectable distance.

He left the battleship behind and followed the General into the upper atmosphere.

*

Dolarhyde nodded, holding the comm. piece to his ear. “Hawk is in pursuit. He’s activating his tracker now.”

Jessica pointed at Commander Greene, who merely nodded in compliance. “On it,” he said. “Pursuit course. Full thrusters.”

“Activate the cloaking device,” Jessica ordered. “And try to keep up, Del. We can’t lose them.”

Commander Greene shook his head as he brought the Warrior to full thrust, tearing toward the planet as fast as she could without going to Jump speed. “Always trust the driver,” he said.

The alien planet rushed to meet them as they left the field of battle behind, the nose of the Warrior glowing red-hot.

9.

Hawk followed the General into the cloud layer. Visibility cut to barely anything, he had to rely on the crude sensor display before him. It showed the General as a green dot – a friendly – several clicks in front of him. And Carn was steadily dropping altitude.

Definitely moving toward a target on the ground somewhere near here, Hawk thought.

The clouds gave way to jungle terrain populated here and there by some of the tallest, thinnest trees Hawk had ever seen. Up ahead he could see Carn’s ship still dropping toward the ground. Hawk picked up speed to close the gap.

“Hawk to Warrior. Hope yuh not too far behind, folks. Mirror face is gettin’ ready to land.”

“We’re right behind you, cloaked,” Dolarhyde’s voice came through. “Just keep up with him, Captain.”

*

“With the vegetation this dense, will we be able to land, do you think?” Jessica asked.

Commander Greene shook his head. “No. And I don’t think we’ll have the time to scout about for a clearing, either.”

“We’re racing the clock.”

“Yeah,” Greene said. The trees sped past beneath them in a green blur.

King got up out of the command chair. “Then we’ll have to do this the old fashioned way. What’s it like out there?”

Dolarhyde checked the adjacent station. “Standard atmosphere. Slightly higher pressure. One gee of gravity. Won’t take long to equalize.”

Jessica nodded, flicked the comm. by the chair. “Chief, Lieutenant Belcher… get yourselves up here please.”

*

General Carn raced ahead, clawing closer and closer toward the tree canopy as he neared his target. Hawk checked his readings, then when he glanced back up he saw it. A little triangle on the horizon, coming up fast. Getting clearer, bigger, darker. Not just a triangle against the sky, but the tip of a pyramid.

“Warrior, Hawk. Better hurry. And be ready to move. I see the artefact.”

10.

Hawk circled above the pyramid as he watched Carn land in the green bordering the pyramid, like a moat, from the encroaching jungle. He didn’t wait for the General to spot him – if he hadn’t already – and selected a site on the opposite side.

His shuttle settled in the long grass with a slight bump and Hawk didn’t waste any time clambering out and using the ship as cover. He peered up at the sky.

“Come on!” he whispered.

*

“It’s been a long time since I piloted a ship,” Chief Gunn said as she took over from Commander Greene at the pilot’s station. As they passed each other, their eyes caught and they lingered there for the briefest of moments.

“You’ll do fine,” he said to her.

They kissed, and as he pulled himself away, she grabbed his belt and yanked him back in. “Be safe.”

“I will.”

Jessica was already heading out the door, leaving the bridge in the temporary command and care of Chief Gunn and Lieutenant Belcher.

“Hurry, Commander,” she said.

She broke into a run down the hall, conscious of the slight numbness in her calf muscles and the uncomfortable knot working its way into the bottom of her back.

Not now, she willed it. Please.

*

A shot ricocheted off the side of the shuttle, followed by its thunderous report. Hawk flinched as General Carn took a few more shots at him, peppering the facing side of the shuttle with blast holes.

In the quick glance Hawk managed from behind the landed ship, he saw the General firing with one hand. Under his other arm, he held a big egg.

“General! We know what you’re going to do!” he yelled from behind the craft.

“And yet you are powerless to stop me!” came the reply. “History repeats itself. Yet again.”

The General looked up at the sky as the unmistakable rumble of a starship engine blasted the ground from above. The trees blew this way and that. Hawk looked up but couldn’t see a ship.

The cloak, he thought.

When he looked back to where the General had been standing, the space was empty.

*

The door opened, warm air rushing into the ship. Commander Greene tossed the jump cables out over the side of the landing ramp, fastened as they were to the aft bulkhead.

They each took one, attached it to their belts and walked slowly backwards to the lip of the ramp.

“These are tied on tight, right?” Jessica asked him.

Greene nodded.

“Only one way to find out,” Dolarhyde said.

Jessica swallowed. “I hope she flies this baby straight…”

They all went at the same time, allowing the clips in their hands to do the work and slide them down the cables toward the ground. By squeezing the clips together they were able to slow their descent several times so that their landing was a little softer. It was old fashioned, and only ever taught in the Academy as a last minute resort. But here they were, decades after passing their basic ‘Descent From A Non-Stationary Vehicle’ course, and doing so perfectly.

Jessica unclipped herself and looked around. She spotted General Carn’s ship straight away.

“Where’s Hawk?”

“Come on,” Greene said, running ahead and pulling his weapon from its holster at the same time. “He’ll be on the other side.”

Captains King and Dolarhyde followed.

11.

“Where did he go?” Greene asked Hawk.

“Dunno. Fella was there one minute, then he just disappeared.”

Dolarhyde pushed ahead of them to examine the exterior wall of the massive pyramid. After several minutes, Jessica urged him on.

“Any luck?”

Dolarhyde held up a finger to her as he concentrated on trying to find the familiar groove. And then –

“Got it!” Dolarhyde cried. He bent down, ran his finger upward along the seam and then stepped back as the entrance to the pyramid opened before him.

Jessica breathed a sigh of relief. “Thank goodness…”

Dolarhyde turned to them, bathed in the intense white light from the pyramid’s innards, and grinned. “Finally. We’re here.”

A shot rang out. Dolarhyde’s expression changed from delight to one of surprise. He looked down at his sternum, at the ruby red blotch spreading across his clothes. The former Captain staggered backward, steeled himself for a moment, then toppled to the side into the grass.

“NO!” Jessica yelled. She ran to his side as the mountain sealed itself back up. She fell onto her knees beside him, and lifted his head.

His eyes stared up into the sky.

“Captain Dolarhyde! Stay with me!”

She heard the others crowd in around her.

Dolarhyde’s eyes grew pale, misty. Perhaps it was merely the light blue of the sky reflected in their glassy orbs. Or it could have been the colour draining out of them, their inner light fading away.

His face grew ashen. Blood gushed from where his hands clamped over his midsection.

“So beautiful,” he whispered, his voice quiet as the sigh in the wind. “And I can see it.”

Tears spilled down Jessica’s cheeks. She was sobbing and couldn’t help it.

“See what, Captain? Stay with us.”

“I . . . I…” he stammered in a breathless voice. “I… see the light.”

He died there in the grass, right in front of them. With trembling hands, she leant over and closed his eyes.

“Jess…” Greene said. “We need to get in there. Stop him.”

She couldn’t move.

Commander Greene yanked her up by the elbow, and her training kicked in. She wiped her eyes, found her resolve. Managed to control her grief enough to find the same groove Dolarhyde had used to activate the doorway. And sure enough, it opened for her.

Carefully the three of them stepped inside . . . and the moment they crossed the threshold of the pyramid, everything changed.

12.

“Whoa,” Hawk said. “Any of you feel that?”

Greene held his head. “I don’t feel right.”

Jessica looked about for General Carn, but he was nowhere to be seen.

“Where is he?”

Hawk went on ahead, his kataan at the ready. The inside of the pyramid was the same as all the others. Pristine white, almost clinical in its sterility.

Jessica looked back at the still-open entrance, and felt the breath catch in her lungs.

“Del…”

The Commander turned around too.

Dolarhyde wasn’t there.

“What the . . .” Greene managed to say. “Where is he?”

“I believe I can answer that,” a female voice said from within the pyramid. They both turned back around to see Hawk staring at a woman. She stood there, dressed in a Union uniform.

“Dana!” Jessica said in disbelief.

The former crewmember of the Defiant broke into a wide smile. “Hello Captain.”

“You’re really here,” Jessica said, touching Dana’s arms and shoulders to test her physical presence. “Not a spiritual being or anything like that?”

Dana shook her head. “Really here. In the flesh, as they say.”

Commander Greene had turned back to face the entrance, and the patch of grass outside where only seconds before Dolarhyde’s body had lain.

“Dana, can you tell us what the hell has happened? General Carn was in here, now he’s gone. Captain Dolarhyde was killed right out there,” she said and pointed to the spot. “And now his body’s vanished.”

Dana sighed as she readied to tell them what she knew. Hawk came to stand with them as they listened.

“When the General ran in here, he managed to change the timeline. But not in the way he wished,” she said.

“What d’you mean?” Greene asked.

“Well, as you may have already guessed, he wanted to head back to humanity’s past and wipe them out. But the devices are not built for that purpose. There are certain safeguards, and it wouldn’t allow him to wipe an entire species from history. However, it did allow him to choose another part of the timeline to visit. And that’s where he’s gone.”

“So . . .” Jessica urged.

Dana licked her lips. “Captain this is going to be hard to accept, but . . . your timeline – our timeline – doesn’t exist anymore. It’s all been changed. General Carn destroyed the Defiant before she could get pulled into the black hole that sent her to this galaxy. He left his former self stranded there, along with Hawk, and then assisted the Draxx in taking one system after another from the Union.”

Greene’s eyes filled with panic. “So Meryl . . .”

Dana shook her head slowly. “I’m sorry Commander. You’re all dead. We’re all dead. The Defiant was destroyed shortly after leaving the starbase.”

Greene stepped back, against one of the consoles lining the huge room, then slid down to the floor, his face blank, eyes pale with shock. The entrance to the mountain slid shut, sealing them in.

Jessica looked to Hawk. “Captain, if you wouldn’t mind,” she said and indicated the Commander.

“Yuh, sure thing,” he said and walked to where Commander Greene sat. “Hey fella . . .”

Jessica turned back to Dana.

“How do we fix this?”

“The only way you can,” Dana said. “Go back to a point in time where you can counter the General’s attempts at destroying the Defiant. It’s your only hope.”

13.

Jessica knelt in front of the Commander.

“Del.”

He shook his head. “I can’t believe it.”

“Del, listen to me.”

“I can’t believe she’s gone. Wiped out.”

Jessica snapped her fingers in front of his face. His eyes shifted to gaze into hers.

“Listen to me! You need to snap out of it! We can fix this. But I need you. We can save everyone,” she said.

Commander Greene nodded once. “Sure.”

Jessica stood. “Del, why don’t you let Hawk find you something to drink in here.”

Dana cleared her throat. Jessica saw she now held a tray of drinks, somehow miraculously conjured from thin air.

“How . . .”

Dana put a finger to her lips. “It’s a secret.”

*

They drank and started to feel a bit better about things. But there were many questions, and Dana did her best to answer them.

“So why weren’t we effected by the change in timeline?” King asked her.

“Because you were in here. It might sound unbelievable, but these artefacts stand separate to time and external forces. They are literally invincible.”

Hawk thumbed back in the direction of the entrance. “And Dolarhyde?”

“Still on the planet where you found him, no doubt,” Dana said. “After all, you were never here to pick him up.”

“And this thing will let us go anywhere we choose?”

Dana nodded.

“But we only get one shot.”

“Yes. Because there are no pyramids in our own galaxy, there would be no way of trying any of this again. One chance, Captain, to restore things to how they were meant to be and stop him. Rebalance the books.”

Jessica drank.

“And, uh, why are you here? Have they kept you prisoner all this time?” Greene asked her, finally coming back to himself. The thought of being able to fix everything was what had done it for him. To sort out the mess they’d gotten themselves into. To stop the Chief from dying along with the rest of the Defiant.

“They have transferred my body to a state of pure energy,” Dana explained. “This is the form I have adopted for now, and as you can see it is quite real. But should I want to change, I have only to will it for it to happen.”

“So yuh not human anymore, eh?”

“I guess you could look at it like that,” Dana said. She laughed. “Sorry. It’s just that I was thinking I’m really ‘More Than Human,’ you know, as the saying goes.”

“That doesn’t freak you out at all?” Greene asked.

“Not at all. It feels natural. It feels right. You should try it, Commander.”

“Uh huh.”

Captain King folded her arms. “So, we’re lost in time. What do we do?”

“I have a plan,” Dana said. “And although you’ll only get one chance, if you can pull it off, you might just be able to stop the Defiant from getting stranded in the first place.”

14.

It took about half an hour for them to flesh out the plan, working with Dana to perfect it.

“Seems good to me,” Greene said. “I don’t see how anything can fall through.”

“Well, it can,” Jessica said. “We can fail. That’s how it can fall through. But it won’t.”

“There’s only the four of us,” Hawk said.

Dana held up three fingers. “No, only three.”

“Huh?”

“I cannot come. They have other work for me. It seems that the ancient minds of these devices want to correct some problems with their programming. And they realise that they’re desperately in need of a spokesperson, of sorts, to converse with the natives of whatever planets they’ve been left on.”

“I can think of a problem, a pretty big one,” Jessica said. “If you’re not coming with us, who will control the machine? Dolarhyde was our man, but of course…”

She didn’t have to say it. Though Captain Dolarhyde was, right now, on the surface of that planet, they’d still watched him die in front of them. That reality had been overwritten, but it was real to them. As real as his body going lax in her arms as she held him in his final moments. As real as the light leaving his eyes . . .

“Captain, you will know. It’s all there,” Dana said and tapped her own forehead. “Everything you need is in there already.”

“I’m afraid I don’t share your optimism.”

Commander Greene stood next to Jessica and put his arm around her. “We have faith in you, Jess.”

“Don’t get soppy on me,” she warned.

15.

They joined hands, Jessica in the big white chair at the centre of the room, Hawk and Del in front of her, holding her hands and each other’s to form a rough triangle – pyramid – of their own.

To the side, Dana watched them. Jessica noticed the woman starting to fade.

“Where are you going, Dana?” she asked her, a little panicked to be left to her own devices. “You’re leaving already?”

Dana smiled. “Have faith in yourself. You’re doing it right now.”

She faded from view completely. Jessica couldn’t help but swallow from fright. Everything grew bright around them, until the beam of light in which they stood omitted all else. It absorbed them.

“You’re doing it!” Greene said with a big grin. Hawk was staring up at where the indeterminate roof of the structure had to be.

Jessica looked up. The light became a white mist through which they ascended. Now she understood Dolarhyde’s last words.

Together, holding hands, they became one with the light . . .

PART TWELVE

ENDGAME

1.

In his journey back, General Carn held on tight to the Queen’s egg. It jittered and vibrated under his arm, moving with the new life growing inside of it. Regardless of whatever else happened, the egg would be his proof to the Draxx Queen that what he said was true. After all, there was only one place you could get a Royal egg…

The intense light lifted him, turned him over and over. He revisited his tumble into the black hole and to what happened before that. The events that led up to it. In a way, it was all relevant, considering his plans had had to change. The artefact would not allow him to wipe them out.

Well, so be it.

But what had happened before would play into his plans as they stood now . . .

*

General Carn targeted the group of craft in his scanners and sent his orders through the stealth communication circuits. The two ships following his lead acknowledged with similarly silent signals.

He increased his speed. Once he closed the distance to the enemy, he would spring the trap.

So, their intel had been correct after all: a Union task force led by Captain Gerard “Hawk” Nowlan was systematically destroying their replicant production facilities, a strategy he respected if not appreciated.

But he couldn’t allow that to happen. They’d lost too many foot soldiers to unending battlefields like Massa E Kym. There was no way they could afford to lose the ability to quickly produce more. A ready-made battle force of unthinkable possibilities was an extremely valuable asset.

He locked onto the craft at the rear of the group as he came up behind it, and signalled his own ships to fan out. Under no circumstances were they to open fire until he’d already done so.

The General considered himself a true man of war, though man was the loosest possible term. In another life he’d once been like a man, it was true. But like the blacksmiths of a bygone age, he’d been reforged by the fires of chaos into something new entirely, a deadly weapon, tempered for war.

And now, like an arrowhead formed from molten steel, he was headed for his target. Carn’s hand braced against the firing trigger. Wait… wait… wait…

He fired.

Red energy bolts tore free from the front of his fighter. His stream of fire struck the back of the small Union craft. “Yes…” he whispered with pleasure as it exploded.

Now the two Draxx ships would perform a pincer movement to pick the other ships off. However, unlike the custom design of his own ship, fitted with the latest in stealth camouflage technology, the other two could not fire while cloaked. Their energy banks could not handle the vast amount of energy required for both acts, leaving them open to attack.

He watched from the side of his cockpit as the lead Union ship climbed away. The little ship spun on its axis. As it came up behind the Draxx vessel it let loose the cannons at its front, firing in rapid succession.

The Draxx ship was no more.

Carn brought himself to a standstill, to see what would happen next. However he hadn’t counted on two things. The first was that the stealth technology was not entirely without flaws. It reflected a fraction of the ambient starlight. Perhaps not noticeable to the average observer. But at the right angle…

The second was that his enemy would have the eyes of his namesake. And those hawk-like eyes spotted the subtle shift in light as Carn’s ship drifted on the currents of space.

Hawk’s fighter swung to the right. Then, without warning, it fired on him. The powerful bolts struck him dead on.

Circuits blew as the cloak failed. Carn ignored it. He threw the ship into overdrive and rocketed forward. Immediately he fired two warheads at Hawk’s ship. Hawk ducked out of their way, and they went hurtling through the pocket of space he’d occupied a second before.

Carn hurled his ship into a seemingly impossible barrel roll that evaded every one of the bolts Hawk fired his way. The swift response of his limbs was unnatural in its cool fluidity.

The other Union ship took out his last wingmate, burst the ship like a metal balloon.

That’s enough. Time to leave.

As Carn turned, he unleashed a single warhead on the small Union ship. It didn’t have time to react, and its radio chatter over his comm. system was immediately silenced.

He sped away. Immediately Hawk tried to close the gap.

Carn hailed the pursuing vessel through the comm. He didn’t need to identify himself. As the saying went, they were well met.

“General,” Hawk said.

“How did you know?” Carn said with mock innocence in his trademark silvery voice.

“It looked like your type of ship, to be honest,” Hawk said.

Carn chuckled. The last time he’d had cause to laugh was when he had Hawk on a slab torturing him, back on Mephisto Mara. But that was months ago. Nowlan had obviously regained his strength and confidence since then. Of course, the purpose of the torture had not been to kill him. That would have been swift and clean.

Uninteresting.

The key had been to find his weakness, find his pain threshold and slowly break through it. Tease it open wide enough to exploit it. If that Union rescue force hadn’t arrived to free him, the General might have succeeded in finally breaking him in two . . .

“Well, I have to say, your own ship suits you the best,” Carn said.

“Oh yeah? And how’s that?”

Carn checked his readout. “It’s small.”

Hawk fired a warhead. It fell short of Carn’s ship, although the explosion behind rocked the Draxx vessel from side to side.

“I’d have thought you’d know better than to waste your precious ammunition,” Carn said.

“Just a taster for you, General. Now how’s about we stop this charade and get you under arrest,” Hawk said.

Again, Carn laughed. He keyed several controls. There was no time to plot an exact course. If he waited any longer, he knew Hawk would close the distance between them and blow him out of the sky. What Hawk had probably guessed was that in disabling the stealth systems of the enemy ship, the battle had also damaged the ship’s energy shielding. Carn was a sitting target without it.

Well, not for much longer.

“You are confident, human. I’ll give you that. Anyway, it’s been pleasant enough but I grow tired of your company.”

General Carn pushed the Jump Drive lever forward. The stars burst forth around him and he was gone.

*

He exited in the path of a black hole. With the immense speed of his mighty ship, Carn failed to brake in time to slow down. He tore straight toward the eye of the swirling singularity. There was no wait. No slow tumble into the prospect of nothingness at its centre.

If the General believed in a God, he’d have sworn by one as his ship got sucked in like flotsam down a plughole. There was no panic. No fear. The methods taught to him so long ago to control his emotions kicked in again.

He was still. At peace.

The edges of the black hole slipped past, and he descended into the eye.

Into the void.

He expected the crush of unthinkable forces, but it didn’t come. Instead he found his mind opened like a flower, and every thought he’d ever had was released like dandelion seeds on a breeze.

He wandered.

Worlds and systems he’d seen. The star he’d called Sun in another life. A planet, small and covered in water. Blue skies. Dusk and dawn through blankets of cloud.

He remembered what it was like to have hands — real ones. And to touch with them. To really feel, with natural, biological skin.

A battle raged below his feet, and when he looked down he saw a war zone. Fire, blood, screams of agony. Explosions. Misery.

It was in this battle that he had ended. That he’d been pushed away. But war, a force of nature in itself, was not yet ready to let go. It pulled him back, breathed new life into his body. Made him return from death, reborn with hatred to fulfil the bitter and twisted torments of his masters.

And now, he felt himself come back together. The darkness fell to the side. He opened his eyes, expecting the blazes of hell that surely awaited him. But there were only stars. And a bright blue nebula.

Perhaps next time, he thought.

*

His ship tumbled through space, powerless. Every circuit blown, life support failing.

That’s fine, he thought. I don’t need it anyway.

He reached under his seat and activated the emergency beacon that would signal his presence to any Draxx forces within twenty light years.

Carn caught movement from the side of his cockpit. He looked in time to see Hawk’s fighter zoom past. For whatever reason the human’s ship still had minimal power, at least. He tensed, wondered if Hawk would do an about face and make a visual reconnaissance of the area. With his own ship dead in the water, it wouldn’t show up on any immediate scans, but if he was seen…

His fears were rendered moot when Hawk’s fighter limped away toward the nebula.

He doesn’t realise I’m already here, Carn thought.

He watched Hawk go, then settled in for a long wait. The temperature in his cockpit dropped dramatically, the air grew thin, but it was of no matter. The General could stand exposure to the void itself for several days before it would have any real effect on him.

He closed his eyes and drifted away, deep in meditation.

*

The ship rocked from side to side. It broke his state of mental tranquillity. Carn opened his eyes to find himself staring at the back end of an enormous vessel. He could tell straight away that it was Draxx in design. His ship bucked in the eddy from the vessel’s engines.

They’re here to collect me, he thought. And then he saw Hawk’s fighter fly underneath and away. Seconds later, an enormous explosion blasted from the front of the gigantic ship, and it visibly lost power. The engines and lights died and it listed to port.

He knew immediately that the passage through the black hole had knocked out the larger ship’s power and, with that, its shields. For Union weapons to render such a critical blow, with one hit, they’d picked their moment well.

Once more, he waited.

An hour later, there were signs of power again on the gigantic ship. It righted itself and seemed to have recovered from the hit that Hawk had delivered to it.

Then, when he began to wonder whether it would ever notice him, the vessel fired a grappler in his direction. He eased back in his chair as the larger ship reeled him in.

*

Sepix stood in the hangar bay with his hands behind his huge back. He watched patiently as the Draxx fighter was lifted inside. It was of an older design, and the sight of the craft struck a chord, as though he should remember it for being important somehow.

It made a loud clang as it settled heavily upon the deck. A legion of troops stood by with their weapons raised, lest the occupant prove hostile. Sepix strode forward until he stood six feet from the cockpit.

The hatch opened slowly, and as it did, the air from the hangar rushed into the ship. It threw him a moment before he realised it was rushing to fill a vacuum. There had been no air inside the fighter.

But how —

The pilot stepped out, onto the deck. Sepix watched in disbelief as Carn looked around the hangar. He got down on one knee in front of Sepix and lowered his head.

“My lord. We are not yet met,” the pilot said. “But you are clearly of pure blood. The oath I gave your predecessors still stands now. I am your loyal servant, and at your command.”

The pilot looked up.

Sepix saw nothing through that mirrored mask but his own face staring down. “Accepted. Rise, General,” he said, the words alien on his lips.

Carn stood. Sepix turned and walked slowly across the hangar bay. Carn fell in step with him.

“You’re right, I do not know you. Only of you. You were once a great a hero to our people,” Sepix said.

After a moment, Carn said “Forgive me, I can tell that time has passed, but not how much. How long has it been?”

“Fifty years,” Sepix said.

Another long silence. “And the war to quell the Human plague?”

Sepix nodded. “Yes, the purge continues.”

“Excellent . . .” Carn said, pleased to find that though time might have moved on, other things hadn’t. There was still a place for him. And a job to do…

*

The General moved past that memory to where he needed to be, to where the pyramid had allowed him to travel. Back in time, back to his own galaxy.

Now the light faded around him as he reached his destination. He materialized at the centre of the Inflictor‘s bridge and several Draxx foot soldiers rushed at him, weapons drawn.

Prince Sepix turned in surprise at the sudden ruckus on his bridge.

Carn looked up. “My lord,” he said and dropped to one knee.

Prince Sepix told his men to back off a bit. He stepped toward the stranger.

“Are you who I believe you to be?” Sepix asked him.

Carn nodded slowly. “And I have brought proof to justify my claims.”

He handed the Prince the Royal egg. Sepix took it carefully from him. He glanced around at the bridge crew, aware of them watching this exchange with keen interest.

“Then you know who is aboard . . .” Sepix said.

“Yes, my lord.”

“Come,” Sepix said, and left the bridge with the General in tow.

2.

As General Carn bowed to the Draxx Queen, he could still vividly remember when he had fled this very same ship and taken her with him. She’d proved essential in gaining the trust of the Naxors and the use of their military. It turned out the Naxors weren’t so different to the Draxx, in many ways. Leaving her to die on the Inflictor along with Prince Sepix had been an unthinkable notion and he was glad to have not entertained it for even a second.

Afterall, the Queen was the key to his eventual goal, even if she was not the entire impetus for his actions…

Now he bore her a gift.

The Queen took the egg from him, her head tilted to one side in a pose of curiosity.

“General . . . where did you get this?”

Prince Sepix stood nearby, clawed hands behind his back, his face impassive as he watched the scene unfold. Carn spared him a look, then began to relate his tale. When he was finished, the Queen looked to the Prince.

“Sepix, you believe the General?” she asked him, her tongue flicking in and out between her fangs. The whole time, she cradled the egg.

“I believe the General to be telling the truth,” Sepix said. “In the past he never gave us cause to doubt his loyalty. I don’t see why we should now. And there is the proof he has brought us . . .”

The Queen looked down at the egg. The royal baby within rocked the egg slightly, and the Queen steadied it, clutching it to her chest.

“Proof,” she said, looking down at it.

Carn rose from the floor. “Then you will act on what I have told you?”

The Queen nodded slowly. “Yes, General.”

Good, Carn thought. Because I can’t have the Defiant going through that black hole. Even without dragging us in there with them, they could still discover the artefacts. That must not happen.

“We are en route now,” Prince Sepix said.

“I cannot emphasize enough the importance we destroy the Defiant as soon as we can,” Carn said. “The future of our people relies upon it.”

Sepix looked to the Queen.

“Then it will be done,” she said.

3.

Captain King focused her mind on where they needed to be, and the light enveloped the three of them and transported them away, through time and space. The monolith read her mind, understood her intentions, and granted her request.

The light was warm, like an embrace. Each of them had their own minor recall of past events as they were shifted in time. The recollection seemed to last forever, but just like a dream, it was over within seconds . . .

*

Jessica:

Admiral Grimshaw welcomed her up on stage to speak. She hadn’t prepared anything. Nerves fluttered like errant moths in her stomach. When she took the podium, however, the words just came.

She thanked everyone for coming. She gave a little insight into what he’d been like as a Captain, and then a little of Andrew Singh as a man, separate from his rank and responsibilities.

“He was a friend of everyone. He was my friend. It will take me a long time to get used to the fact that he is never going to come back,” she said, her voice cracking. “But of course I will never forget him. He’ll always be here, with all of us.”

There wasn’t a dry eye in the house. The lid was placed atop of Andrew Singh’s casket and sealed tight. The flag of the Union was draped across it.

The assembled officers and crew stood on either side of the casket as it was lowered into one of the Station’s firing tubes.

Admiral Grimshaw faced the giant viewports and held a formal salute. Everyone present followed suit.

There were no words, no music. Just the sound of the firing tube closing around the casket. Then, seconds later, it was fired from the side of the Station.

Through her tears, King tried to watch it travel away from them as long as she could. But it was just a blur, eventually swallowed by the infinite blackness of space . . .

*

Hawk:

“Gerard…” the voice said. It was gruff, slurred. It was the same ruined voice he heard every time he dreamt of his Father.

The man had tattoos interlaced across his entire scalp, which was bald and scarred. His face was a ruin, and one of his eyes was milky white. By all standards, a monster, but knowing what he did, Nowlan could not feel repulsion at the sight of him. Even though it was only a dream, he still felt a pang of something he didn’t truly understand.

Love.

“Gerard listen to me,” he said. “Yuh think yuh dreaming. And yuh are. In a way. But I’m here to tell yuh that this time it’s a little more than a dream.”

Nowlan looked down at himself. He was a young boy.

“Hear me!” his Father said. He took him by the arms, and Nowlan looked straight into his eyes. They were filled with wisdom, with the life and death of the stars themselves. Eyes that had seen, perhaps, too much.

“Dad,” Nowlan whispered.

His Father’s face grew slack, tired. Defeated. He pulled little Gerard Nowlan in for a hug. Held him tight.

“In a moment you’ll be on the other side,” his Father told him softly. “And you’ll wonder if this was a dream.”

Nowlan said nothing. Over their heads, planets zoomed past. Black outlined against whiteness. Space itself inverted. There was a rumble building from somewhere behind him. He didn’t dare turn around. He clung to his Father.

“I’m not really gone, son. And one day you’ll see me again. But for now, you have to stop the evil that’s passed through that thing with you. Try your best to stop it. The galaxy you’re going to isn’t ready for it, I know that much.”

Everything started to shake. It grew hazy around the edges.

Little Gerard looked up at his Father, placed his small hands on his ragged face.

“Dad,” he said. “Who were you?”

Then the lights went out, and everything sank to darkness…

*

Greene:

Chief Gunn took over from Commander Greene at the pilot’s station. As they passed each other, their eyes caught and they lingered there for the briefest of moments.

“You’ll do fine,” he said to her.

They kissed, and as he pulled himself away, she grabbed his belt and yanked him back in. “Be safe.”

“I will.”

What he didn’t say was “I love you,” and now he regretted it. If only he’d uttered the words one last time, before she was taken away from him. Before their history was wiped from existence. Before they were erased, the two of them, and with it, all they’d ever felt for one another. In his delirium, during his transit through time, Commander Del Greene sobbed like a baby.

But as he came around, and their travel slowed, he found himself a determined man. There was no way he would go on living with someone like General Carn free to roam the galaxy and do as he wished.

He’d die first…

*

The light faded around them and the three materialized, still holding hands, on the deck of Station 6. Thankfully it was empty, save for several cleaning bots who didn’t so much as notice their presence as they busily cleansed the floors and walls.

The huge bay windows lining the corridor showed the darkness of space.

“Oh…” Jessica said, looking up at one of the windows.

The other two followed her gaze.

Out there, coasting toward the station was the Defiant.

“We’re back,” Greene said, his voice barely a whisper.

4.

“Come on, quick, before we’re spotted,” King said. She led the way through the empty corridors of the station’s upper levels.

“Where are we going?” Greene asked her.

“Hold on, I’m trying to remember,” she said, her voice clipped as she tried her best to recall details from the last time they’d been here.

Hawk looked for signs of life. “Gotta be a night shift or somethin,’ eh?” he asked.

“Yeah,” Commander Greene said.

It came back to her. Jessica shot to her left, the other two jogging to keep up.

“There’s a ship docked around here somewhere,” she said. “I’m trying to remember the name. The Sarabano?”

Greene shook his head. “You must mean the Saratoga.”

“Yes!” she said with a grin. “How d’you remember that?”

The Commander just shrugged.

They reached the dock and, as expected, it was deserted. Repair crews had finished patching up the Saratoga, from what she could recall, and the ship was good to go. However there weren’t any crewmen aboard her. The ship was awaiting a fresh crew, due to arrive four days after the Defiant had docked.

Jessica tapped her access code into the airlock and watched with satisfaction as the doors slid open.

“Easy as that, yeah?” Greene asked.

“Yep,” she said. “This way gentlemen, we’re stealing a starship.”

*

“Not the biggest girl on the block,” the Commander said after he had a look around.

The Saratoga was slightly smaller than the Warrior, though not as old. Runabout craft like that were employed en mass by the Union to perform chores and small items of business, often travelling from one remote star system to another.

Station 6 – like any deep space station – had been assigned the task of repairing her and seeing to her crew’s replacement.

“Well, what do you think, Hawk? Did you see the shuttle bay?” King asked him, taking a seat at the helm. It seemed strange to be on a ship when it was docked like that. Dead quiet, the darkened interior giving a sense of a ship asleep.

“I saw that shuttle. Nice,” he said. “Should work out fine.”

“Good.”

“So what now?” Commander Greene asked.

She grinned at the other two. “We get to work.”

*

Down in the engineering section, Commander Greene surveyed the reactor.

Jessica stood in the doorway. “So, do you think you can get her up and running in a flash?”

“I don’t see why not,” Greene said. “Trouble is, if I fire it up too early, the station control might detect it.”

“Yes I had that concern. But I think we can get away with firing everything up a half hour before. I’ll have the airlock sealed off by then anyway. There’s no way they’ll get on board to stop us,” King said.

“That’s good,” Greene said. He seemed distant, a little quiet down there in the bowels of the Saratoga.

“What’s up, Del?” she asked but didn’t have to wait for an answer, or even to see if one had been forthcoming. “You’re thinking about the Chief.”

The Commander nodded. “Yeah…” he said quietly and looked down at his feet.

“You’ll see her again,” Jessica said.

The Commander nodded but didn’t say anything.

“Hey! No time for sadness, Del. We’re thieves. Fugitives. We’re about to steal a starship,” she said in an attempt to cheer him up. “Don’t flake out on me now. I need my closest friend more than ever.”

He looked up. “Thanks.”

She stepped inside the room, took him in her arms and embraced him in a big bear hug. They stood like that for a long moment, two best friends who’d seen a lot and been through a lot.

“Come on, that’s enough,” Del said, breaking it. “I’ll start crying.”

“For real?” Jessica asked, a big smile on her face.

The Commander turned away. “Now I need to see about this unit here. If I can calibrate it just right…”

5.

With Commander Greene busying himself in engineering, preparing the Saratoga for a quick start-up, and Hawk getting an hour or so of rack time, Jessica found the Captain’s quarters and shut the door behind her.

The room was bare, stripped of any personality or sign of habitation. However, when she checked the closet she did find a standard issue uniform still in the shrink wrap, and attached to that a little bag of metal insignia.

She ripped the bag open, removed a pin and stuck it to her lapel to replace the one she’d given Chang before. Then she left without telling the others where she was going. If her memory still served, she had plenty of time before Captain Singh’s memorial service.

She snuck off the Saratoga, using her code to seal the airlock behind her.

*

Captain Andrew Singh lay there in the chapel, exactly as he had done when she’d last seen him.

Jessica locked the door from the inside and took several deep breaths. Suddenly she felt so tight chested, her heart seeming to beat that much heavier and louder in her ears.

Her father lay in the casket before her, as if he were asleep.

“Dad . . .” she started to say. Her voice cracked with emotion. “I don’t even know what I’m doing here.”

The room was too quiet, though it didn’t feel as though she was alone. She’d found it never does when you view a person’s body. It’s as if their presence lingers around, letting itself be known.

The tears came hot and fast, rolling down her cheeks, hanging off her chin. She couldn’t help them, she couldn’t stop them and she didn’t attempt to, either. It felt like her heart was open, leaking salty tears in place of blood. Grief, bottled up for all that time, flowed freely from her and she found herself sobbing like a child, her nose streaming.

“Dad . . . I miss you so much,” she said. “I love you.”

There were tissues in the far corner for precisely this reason, and she made use of them to wipe her face as she fought to regain her composure.

Jessica stood over him for a while, studying his peaceful face and trying to see her own features in his. Then she removed the shiny new pin from her uniform and exchanged it for his.

“The big wheel turns,” she whispered. Then she leaned down and planted a kiss on his forehead. She straightened up and patted the pin on her lapel. “Whatever happens, I deserve to have this at least. I’ve earned it at last.”

She left before she could get caught there, and was back on the Saratoga before either Hawk or the Commander knew she’d gone.

And that was exactly as she’d wanted it.

6.

Alone in the spare Captain’s quarters, Jessica accessed the terminal and started to record a video message.

“Jess, I know you must be surprised to see me. Believe me, if this were as strange as it was going to get, you’d be lucky. I have a lot to tell you, and I’ll be brief as possible…” she began, talking directly into the camera.

An hour later, she was finished. She’d not covered everything, but she realized while relating their adventures that she had no need to. Only the important stuff, and a general overview, were needed. Enough to clue her in.

Enough so her counterpart would understand why what was about to happen had to happen. She finished things on a good note, almost an act of whimsy on her part.

“. . . I have taken our Father’s pin. It’s the least I deserve, to take it with me. And I had another reason for taking the pin. It was to test whether or not I could alter history. It worked. You did not receive the pin, and it possibly altered how you reacted within the chapel. My doubts assuaged, I can now proceed with my plan. Whether I succeed or fail, you will likely never meet me. That’s how it should be. We each have our own path.”

She was about to close the recording off when she remembered she’d left out the most important information she had a duty to hand over to her other self.

“Before I go I need to tell you something about a medical condition you may, as yet, be unaware of. This revelation will shock you…”

That done, she finalized the file and transmitted it to the Defiant as a delayed message. It would show up in the other Jessica’s inbox a week from then.

Plenty of time, King thought.

*

With everything taken care of, she took advantage of the hours they had before the Draxx were due to arrive. A strange sense of calm washed over her, as it does to all who’ve done everything they possibly can in a given situation. Now there was just the wait for what was to come.

Jessica lay down on the bunk and closed her eyes.

Sleep came quickly to her exhausted mind, and she found she dreamed of jungles… and the black pyramids that towered over them, their dark tips touching the stars.

7.

Hours later, aboard the station, the memorial service for Captain Singh was in full swing. The Inflictor dropped from Jump and began its full frontal approach. The massive vessel did not attempt to mask its signature. It did not attempt to hide its presence from them. The Inflictor simply arrived, a Draxx behemoth hell bent on their imminent destruction.

“Slow a little,” Prince Sepix said. General Carn stood behind, his arms folded, watching as they approached the station. “Let them fear us.”

Behind his mask, Carn smiled.

*

As the station sensors were just announcing the arrival of the Inflictor, Jessica, Commander Greene, and Hawk were already preparing to disembark.

“Reactor operating at full power,” Greene said.

“Good. Full power to the hull plating. Hawk, disengage the clamps and back away from the station,” King ordered.

Even if the station had noticed their escape and wanted to make contact, they couldn’t. Commander Greene had already disabled the communication circuits.

As Jessica had said at the time, “Why not do what we have to do in peace?”

The Saratoga uncoupled from Station 6 with a jolt, then backed away much faster than regulations usually allowed.

“Good, now bring us about. Let’s look them right in the eye,” she said.

Hawk did so, turning the little ship on her axis to face the incoming Draxx giant bearing down on them.

Jessica got up, laid a hand on Hawk’s shoulder. He looked up at her.

“You ready, Ma’am?” he asked.

She slapped his shoulder once. “Go.”

He got up and walked to the exit. He hesitated at the threshold and turned back to look at them both. “Yuh know, meetin’ you lot has been one of the best things that’s ever happened to me.”

“And the same to you,” Greene said.

Hawk looked to Jessica.

“All our hopes, Captain,” she said.

He nodded curtly, and then he and his trademark lop sided grin were gone.

Jessica turned back to the helm console. “Right. Let’s do this thing. You ready, Del?”

“Yep,” he said from behind her.

She brought the Saratoga up to full thrust and aimed her straight at the Inflictor.

8.

“Lock all weapons and prepare to fire at my command,” Sepix said, pacing the bridge while the crew scurried to see to his orders.

The small Saratoga barely registered on the Inflictor‘s sensors. At least, until she was close enough for her to appear on the viewscreen.

“My lord! A ship approaches!”

Sepix’s head snapped about. “What!?”

Up ahead, the Union ship closed the distance between them – fast.

Carn stepped forward, head to one side as what was happening registered with him. He had thought for only one word. King…

“Target that ship and blow it from the sky!” Sepix ordered.

“Yes my –” the weapons officer stopped short as the Union vessel opened fire, unleashing every Duotonic warhead in its armament.

They erupted in front of the Inflictor, against its energy shield. Everyone on the Inflictor‘s bridge turned away from the blinding flashes before them. The ship shook as the energy shield failed and died, allowing several of the warheads to penetrate the hull at the bow. The sucker punches knocked both Sepix and Carn off their feet as the Inflictor stumbled, listing to the side.

“Damage report!” Sepix screamed as he took hold of a console to pull himself back up. “Stabilize the ship.”

*

Jessica’s voice issued from the speakers in the little hangar, barely large enough to house the single shuttle he now climbed into.

“Better hurry, Hawk, we don’t have any more warheads,” she said.

“Understood.”

He dropped into the pilot’s chair and activated the hatch. It closed in around him.

“Good luck,” King said.

“You too,” Hawk called as the shuttle sealed itself. The hangar door parted seconds later, and Hawk took the craft out into space at full speed, his hands tight against the controls and his jaw set.

*

“He’s away,” Greene noted from his console.

Jessica took the Saratoga beneath the Inflictor, careful to avoid any watchful defensive turrets that may have been tracking their progress. As it was, the bigger ship seemed to be caught off guard by their attack. Exactly how they’d planned it. By unleashing everything they had – apart from the single gun mounted at the front of the Saratoga, and a special surprise loaded into the aft garbage chute – they risked hitting the Inflictor and not leaving any punches aside for later. But there had never been any plans for later.

“You know,” she said as she piloted the ship. “He never questioned the need for him to go over there and challenge Carn directly.”

“I know. I think he wanted to do it anyway,” Greene said.

She shook her head. “He needs to do it, Del. If the General is going to die, it should be by his hand. Not ours.”

“We never told him the rest of the plan,” the Commander said. “Do you think he still would’ve gone if we had?”

Jessica shrugged. “I don’t know. And I guess we’ll never find out,” she said.

She took the Saratoga out past the Inflictor, then took a tight turn and double backed on the Draxx monster. She imagined that if it had a mouth, it would’ve been gaping wide open, waiting.

I might have something to ram down that throat of yours, she thought. But I’ve got to hold out – give Hawk a chance to do what he needs to do first. This ends here.

9.

Hawk located the main hangar and took his opportunity to hail the Inflictor on an open frequency.

“If yuh readin’ me, this is Captain Hawk Nowlan. I’ll be landin’ in your main hangar in half a minute. I know you got General Carn on board,” Hawk said into the comm. “If he wants to settle this once and for all, he knows where I’ll be.”

He closed it off and checked his course, ready for capture, ready for death, ready for a final confrontation… ready for whatever came. The Inflictor seemed to swallow him up as he drove the shuttle toward the hangar bay. When he was starting to wonder if the doors would ever open for him, they did.

“Well, here we go,” Hawk mumbled under his breath as he settled the shuttle on the deck and shut down the little ship.

*

“We will detain him,” Sepix said. “We can torture him later.”

Carn shook his head. He had his blade out already. “No, my lord. He is mine. I must deal with him myself.”

Sepix regarded him with respect. “History does not lie, you are a true warrior.”

Carn bowed his head and walked away, the sound of his brisk footfalls receding down the corridor outside.

Sepix turned back to the bridge officers. “Fools! Every second you waste, the Union scum are using to their advantage!”

The station lay not far in front of them, almost within reach.

“Prince Sepix, we will have all systems restored in moments,” a bumbling officer told him.

Sepix grabbed him around the throat, lifted him into the air and shook him with powerful movements of his right arm until the small Draxx’s neck snapped in two. Then he tossed him to the side as if he were a piece of garbage.

“MOVE!” he bellowed, incensed with rage and frustration. “I want that station destroyed! NOW!”

10.

“They’re powering back up,” Greene reported. “That was quick.”

Jessica’s hands flew over the controls. “Taking us back. Get ready to fire the gun.”

“Aye,” Greene said.

The Saratoga swooped in over the Inflictor, her front gun firing non-stop under the masterful control of Commander Greene. The ammunition was like firing a pellet gun at a raging bull, but where it did connect, it impacted systems fitted to the exterior of the ship. They blew out below the Saratoga as it passed, miniature explosions.

“Multiple direct hits,” the Commander said. “But it won’t be long until they have their shields back up.”

“I know.”

She piloted the Saratoga across the blocky surface of the Inflictor and swung quickly out of the way when several of the Draxx ship’s gun turrets opened fire. A couple of shots hit their flank, diminishing the power of the hull plating.

“Looks like they’re already getting their systems back,” Jessica said. She swung the ship to port, tilted her over to her side. At the same time, Commander Greene rotated the forward gun to target the turrets. He managed to disable one of them before the Saratoga swept past and the others were firing again.

Shots raced past them, but the Saratoga cut through their path without getting hit.

*

“Systems are coming back online,” the weapons officer reported.

Prince Sepix pointed toward the viewscreen, at the Union ship that had caused so much trouble. “Take them out.”

“Yes, your highness.”

*

Greene looked up. “Jess, they’re targeting warheads at us. Getting ready to fire.”

She looked back over her shoulder. “Get ready to release the trash, Del.”

He managed a smile. “Aye.”

King steered them back around, then dipped them beneath the edge of the Inflictor‘s hull. It rushed past as they hung close, racing downhill. Beneath the Inflictor, where the behemoth’s huge reactor exhausts fumed invisible plasma, they jutted from the hull like the open valves of a heart.

“Ready?”

Greene’s hands braced against the release controls. “Check.”

“RELEASE!”

He yanked the levers down. The Saratoga jolted slightly as their secret cargo – every ounce of combustible material they could find, stuffed into a cargo container along with a warhead fitted with a remote switch – floated away from the back of the ship toward the Inflictor‘s exhausts.

Turrets turned in their direction and opened fire. Jessica swung the Saratoga left and right to avoid the fire, but she couldn’t get past it all. The Inflictor‘s weapons chased down the Saratoga‘s hull, smashing against the plating and tearing into the bare titanium alloy beneath.

“Hull breaches,” he reported.

“Seal us in,” Jessica said. “As long as they’re not in here, it doesn’t matter.”

“Aye.”

She turned the ship out of the line of fire. The Saratoga handled well.

Commander Greene tracked the cargo container’s path on his screen.

“Almost there…”

“Wait till it’s right in the exhaust fumes,” she advised. “That little spark should do a lot of damage.”

Greene bit his lip as he watched the blip roll into the Inflictor‘s plasma exhaust. He slammed his fist down on the detonator.

Before they could get away from the blast zone, the container exploded, igniting the exhaust. The chain reaction started in the exhaust manifolds, spreading toward the many pipes feeding the Inflictor like arteries directing the flow of blood to muscles. In an effort to restrict the fire, the safety systems built into the Inflictor‘s inner workings sealed entire sections of the ship, and in so doing, robbed the Inflictor of any engine capability.

The explosion swept the Saratoga to one side, as if she were a fly batted away by the back of a hand. Circuits blew all over the tiny bridge, raining hot white sparks down around them.

“Yes!” Greene yelled with joy. “Direct hit! Multiple explosions inside.”

“Nice one,” King said. “Now what about us?”

He checked his readings, his expression changing to one of concern. “Same as them, loss of thrusters. We have manoeuvring jets and the Jump Drive. Other than that we’re dead in the water,” he said.

“Well that’s put a dampener on proceedings…” Jessica said as she tried to get something – anything – out of the engines.

Nothing. Totally inoperable.

“Dammit!” she snapped, smacking her fists down on the console.

“Uh . . .” Greene muttered.

She turned around. “Del?”

“They still have weapons control. The Inflictor is firing!”

Jessica looked back up at the viewscreen. Sure enough, like a dragon, the Draxx ship spat balls of fire at them. The spheres of crackling, wicked energy rushed toward them. Jessica stood to attention, facing the inevitable, her hands clenched at her sides.

At the last minute, she registered movement to her left. Then it swooped in front of them, a ghost from the past, a thing of beauty. The Defiant cut between them and the warheads struck her side. Explosions registered there, but they did not stop the Union vessel as she swung past.

“Wow,” Greene managed to say.

Jessica smiled as in front of them, the Defiant locked heads with the Inflictor.

11.

The hangar tested positive for a breathable atmosphere, and Hawk clambered out of the shuttle. He removed his kataan, flicked its switch, and stood with it braced at his side. The hangar was empty, save for him, his shuttle, and dozens of Draxx fighters.

Warning sounds issued from within the ship, and red lighting flashed at the far end of the hangar, but the hangar itself was dark and deathly silent.

Then he heard the blast doors open about two hundred yards away. General Carn stood there, silhouetted against the white square of light in the doorway. He, too, held his blade at the ready.

The General stepped into the hangar. The doors slid shut. Then the General ran at Hawk, blade held forward. Hawk broke into a run, his kataan out to the side, both hands on the grip.

He grimaced, every bit of rage he could possibly muster directed into a furious growl. They rushed upon one another, and their blades clashed in a huge white spark.

*

Up ahead, the Defiant attacked the Inflictor with all she had, but the Draxx ship just had more punches to swing. The exchange of firepower was furious and blinding from the Saratoga‘s standpoint.

But as the Defiant turned away from the Inflictor to gain some distance, the Draxx giant didn’t stop. Hits registered in small explosions along her hull.

“This is going to be a short battle,” Jessica said.

They both looked at one another, and in the silence was an unspoken agreement between the two of them. Greene’s eyes were sad, regretful. But his face remained determined, and the fact she could rely on him brought Jessica strength.

“I always knew this would be a one way trip,” Commander Greene said.

Jessica stared dead ahead. “I didn’t want it to come to this…”

“I know,” he said simply.

It was all that was needed.

“Del, spool the Jump Drive generator,” she ordered, sitting back down at the helm.

Ahead of them, the Inflictor continued to fire at the Defiant, and it was all she could do to watch her old ship try and evade.

12.

Hawk leapt backwards onto the nose of a Draxx fighter, and still Carn swung at him. He parried the hit, knocked the General’s blade to the side, and kicked him.

His foot connected with Carn’s head, smashing the mirrored face plate. The General stumbled backward, one hand holding the remains of his mask while the other held his sword outstretched in front of him defensively.

Hawk dropped to the deck and dived forward. Carn blocked one of his hits, then followed it up with one of his own. But with one hand held to his face, he was handicapped somewhat in his intimate battle with the Union legend.

Hawk ducked beneath one of Carn’s hits. He sliced up through the General’s armpit. His sword arm fell away and black blood splattered over the deck from the raw, exposed flesh at the gaping hole.

“GAAAAARRRRGGGGHHHHH!!!!!” Carn screamed, forgetting his face to touch where his arm had been seconds before. He looked down incredulously at his arm on the deck – the hand spasming around the handle of the sword, the fingers still twitching. Body fluid spurted down his side.

Hawk didn’t wait. He stood up, raised his kataan and brought it down on the General’s torso. It sliced through his body armour, revealing dark flesh beneath. Hawk spun about, jabbed the sword backwards into the General and skewered his midsection.

“I’ve waited a long time for this,” he said. He stepped forward, pulled the blade free. Carn fell to his knees, and when Hawk turned around to face him, he found himself seeing Carn’s identity for the first time.

General Carn was humanoid. Or had been, once. His skin had wrinkled and darkened with extreme age. His face resembled a giant prune. Where his eyes had failed he had artificial ocular implants. A silver coloured re-breather covered his nose and part of his mouth.

“What are you?”

Hawk’s spoke through ragged breaths. “I was once like you.”

“Human?”

The little lights set into the General’s implants twinkled on and off. “Almost.”

Hawk held the tip of the kataan against Carn’s throat. “Your war ends here, General.”

He lifted the sword, and Carn looked up at him. For a split second it almost looked as if the old man was thankful for some kind of release.

Then Hawk swung down and Carn’s face contorted into one of pure, undeniable hatred as his long, cruel life ended.

13.

“Activating the Jump Drive,” Jessica said. Up ahead, the Inflictor rushed toward the limping form of the Defiant.

She positioned them where they needed to be and stood. Del came to stand next to her. His eyes were wet with tears.

“It’s been an honour,” he said.

He extended his hand. Jessica didn’t shake it. She pulled him in, held him close.

“You were like a brother,” she said in his ear. “And I loved you like a brother.”

Del squeezed her. “Your Father would have been proud.”

Without looking, Jessica reached over and pressed a button. Then she held on tight to Commander Greene, squeezing her eyes shut as she awaited the inevitable.

“I’m scared,” she whispered.

“Me too,” Greene said.

The Jump Drive of the Saratoga kicked in. The ship raced toward the Inflictor like one giant warhead. Its speeding form cut through the Inflictor‘s interior, and in an instant, the massive ship evaporated in the white hot fury of its own reactor blossoming into a nova. In her final second of life, Captain Jessica King felt warmth engulf her. It was not unpleasant. She sucked in one last breath, held it in her lungs so she couldn’t cry out.

Then she knew no more.

*

The Defiant was blown back by the rush of energy expended by the detonation of the Inflictor, tumbling through space but still intact. And tearing away from the scene of chaos, headed back to the station, a little Union shuttle bore a legend to safety…

14.

On the Defiant, Captain Jessica King watched as the Inflictor blew apart in a mighty explosion. She lifted a hand to shield her eyes.

“What was that?”

Lisa Chang tried to make sense of her readouts. “I think the Saratoga used their Jump Drive to literally jump through her.”

“You’re mistaken,” King said, shaking her head. “That’d be suicide.”

Chang looked up. “Yes, sir.”

Jessica turned to Lieutenant Commander Del Greene. “Del?”

He looked just as confused as she was. “I don’t know what to say. I thought we were dead there for a minute.”

Jessica ran a hand over her face. She felt tired, irritable. Shocked, too, by what had happened. They were in one piece. The Defiant had the guts kicked out of her, but she was still standing.

She thought that perhaps it was fitting that on the day they consigned Captain Singh to the darkness of space they’d faced a battle of life and death and come out on the other side of it. He would’ve called that a good day’s work.

“We’ll figure it all out,” she said. “For now let’s take stock of whatever damage we’ve sustained and get back to the station. Something tells me the repairs we booked in for are going to take a little longer than we hoped…”

15.

Hawk finished his story. It had been days since he’d handed himself into Station 6. He’d instructed Admiral Grimshaw that his mission had been Top Secret, and that he must only tell the highest ranking official in the area.

That official, Admiral Clarke, now steepled his fingers in front of him as he considered what had been said.

“Well, Admiral? What d’yuh think?” Hawk asked him. “Am I mad?”

Clarke smiled. “No. I’ve had your DNA checked. You are who you say you are. And whilst your story is far-fetched . . . I cannot say that you aren’t telling the truth. Besides, I’ve heard some strange tales in my time.”

Hawk relaxed into his chair, relieved to have the Admiral on his side.

“So, where do we go from here?” Hawk asked.

Clarke glanced sideward at Grimshaw, who nodded slightly in agreement with whatever Clarke was about to say.

“That will have to be discussed,” Clarke answered. “I’d imagine a change of identity, for one thing. I don’t think it’d do for the general public to believe a legend has simply returned to life.”

“Agreed. I was thinkin’ along the same sorta lines.”

“Did you have a name in mind?”

Hawk thought for a moment. His eyes lit up. “Yeah. Come to think of it, I do.”

16.

Admiral Grimshaw walked with his hands behind his back.

“You know, it’s taken weeks to get this back into shape,” he remarked. “But it’s worth it. She looks great.”

They walked the corridors of the Defiant together, inspecting the recent repair and refit. The station itself had also undergone extensive repairs following its run-in with the Inflictor.

“Thank you, Admiral,” King said. “The repair teams have worked around the clock to get it done.”

“I think she looks the best she ever has,” Grimshaw said.

“I agree.”

They found their way to the munitions section where a plaque had been fixed to the bulkhead where Captain Singh had succumbed to his wounds from the fire.

“This is a nice touch,” Grimshaw said.

“Yes I know,” Jessica said. “The crew did the whole thing. I’m very proud of them.”

The plaque read:

IN MEMORIAM

CAPTAIN ANDREW SINGH

FATHER TO MANY

Every time she read it, Jessica felt a weight tug at her heart. It was getting easier, but she still grieved for Singh. It was apt that the crew had added the part about him being a father to them all, because that’s how she had looked at him. As the only father figure she’d truly known.

They left the Defiant and headed back to Grimshaw’s office on the station for her final debrief. On the ride toward the heart of Station 6, she happened to glance back at the Defiant.

“You know, she does look magnificent,” she said.

Grimshaw turned around to look too. “Aye,” he agreed.

*

“So, as far as we’re concerned, the Defiant is ship shape and ready to head back out,” Grimshaw said. He handed King a cup of tea and sat behind his desk with his own. “There is the matter of the ship that was stolen, of course.”

“Any luck with figuring out who they were?” she asked.

Grimshaw shook his head. “No, but whoever they were, we have them to thank. If it weren’t for their sacrifice…”

She nodded slowly. “Yes.”

“Well, I’m sure we’ll come to the bottom of it. The important thing is the destruction of the Inflictor destabilized the entire Draxx Dominion. It would seem both the Draxx Queen and Prince Sepix were aboard at the time, and with both lost so quickly, the Dominion didn’t know what to do with itself. Command saw the opportunity to act and took it.”

Jessica sipped her tea. “How did it go? I’ve been too preoccupied with the Defiant to read the news feeds.”

“They took the capitol planet in less than two days. Just sent every available ship there and stormed it. We estimate the Union has control of over forty per cent of the Dominion. And it won’t stop there,” he sighed, but it was a contented, happy sound. “Finally, this war is ended.”

“I’m glad,” Jessica said. “It’ll be good to know peace for once.”

“Which reminds me,” Grimshaw said. “The Defiant‘s objectives have changed. We’re putting her on new mission parameters.”

“Yes?”

Grimshaw nodded. “We’re sending her out to explore. She’s going to travel to the outer edges of our galaxy and survey what’s there. Make contact where possible, introduce them to the Union. It’s an exciting time.”

“Who’s our new skipper?” Jessica asked him.

Grimshaw’s eyebrows rose. “You are. I’d have thought that was obvious.”

She couldn’t speak. “I –”

The Admiral raised a hand, stopping her mid-stammer. “There’s nothing to say, Captain King. Just drink your tea.”

She did as she was told, taking long swallows to quench her dry throat.

Grimshaw got up, walked around the desk and produced a metal pin.

“Stand please,” he said.

Jessica stood. He pinned it to her lapel.

“Wear it with pride, Captain. And honour your father. Follow his example, and you’ll be all right.”

She beamed with pride. “I will sir.”

*

Days later, the Defiant vibrated with the steady hum of her engines.

“Ensign Banks, take us out please,” she commanded.

“Aye Ma’am,” Banks said. His hands flew across the controls and the Defiant responded instantly, backing away from the station and turning to face open space.

“Where are we going?” Commander Greene asked her.

Jessica stared at the viewscreen, at the infinite sea of stars twinkling ahead of them. “Out there, Del. Wherever the winds take us.”

17.

Selena Walker felt a tug at her elbow. She turned to find a young man behind her. Crew bustled past them as they stood in the middle of the corridor.

“Can I help you?” she asked him.

The man smiled. “Yuh don’t remember me, d’yuh?”

She thought for a moment, trying to place him. His face seemed familiar, but… she couldn’t connect it with anyone in particular.

“No,” she said with a shake of her head and an embarrassed giggle. “Sorry. I’m really bad with names and faces.”

The man laughed. “It’s okay. It’s been a long time. We met once. Name’s Dolarhyde, but most people just call me Dollar.”

“Dollar. That’s a strange name,” Walker said.

Dolarhyde shrugged. “Blame Mom, that’s what I say,” he quipped.

“So where did we meet?”

“At a party.”

“Oh,” she said, trying to remember.

“Hey, yuh got time to go to the mess hall, grab a drink and catch up?”

She thought about it for a moment. It couldn’t hurt, could it? After all he was charming and handsome all at the same time. And how could she resist teasing him about his name?

Selena Walker nodded her head. “Sure, why not?” she said with a grin.

The man formerly known as Hawk let her lead the way to the mess, and when she asked him if he was new on board, he answered that yes he was.

“What did you do before?” she asked him as they walked.

“Travelled, mostly,” Hawk said. “Got into adventures and stuff. You wouldn’t believe half of ‘em.”

“I look forward to hearing a few of your tall tales,” Walker said.

Hawk – now Lieutenant Dolarhyde – could only smile. It was exactly as he’d wanted it. A fresh start.

18.

Captain Jessica King retired to her quarters and stripped free of her uniform. She felt tired, dirty, and knew that soon she’d be fit to hit the rack.

She showered, tied a towel around herself and padded back into her living area. As she passed her personal terminal, that was when she noticed the message flashing up on the screen.

SCHEDULED MESSAGE

She frowned, sat down in front of the console and opened the message. A timed message like that was something sent hours or days ahead, but she couldn’t remember setting such a message herself…

It was a video file. When she started it playing, she was taken aback to find herself looking back at her on the screen.

“Jess, I know you must be surprised to see me. Believe me, if this were as strange as it was going to get, you’d be lucky. I have a lot to tell you, and I’ll be brief as possible. You have an entire galaxy to explore and I don’t want to stop you – us – from living that dream. A dream of a simpler time, an age of peace. When we can revert to being explorers again. See what’s out there…”

The woman on the screen took a deep breath.

“Jessica, there’s only one way to tell you all of this. Some of it will be hard to hear, some of it will confuse you. But you must hear it. So let me start at the beginning…”

AFTERWORD

I‘d like to thank the authors and friends who have supported and helped me along the way, without whom I could not have started on this journey – let alone completed it. There are far too many to list their names here, but you know who you are. Indeed, a lot of you ended up in the series as characters and place names here and there …

I owe a huge debt of gratitude, as ever, to my wife Lesley who gives support and encouragement every step of the way. And to my kids, who drive me crazy (in a good way) and who I love dearly.

But the biggest thank you of all goes to the kind people who have read and reviewed Far From Home as it has progressed. Your positive energy and enthusiasm for the series has really kept me going.

I hope you’ll come with me as I journey with them on their further adventures, because so far it’s been a lot of fun. Now it’s time to see what’s out there …

Tony Healey

Note on Bonus Content: What follows is the first half of a two-part crossover between the Far From Home and Grendel Unit universes. Part 2 (Suicide Planet), is written by Bernard Schaffer and available wherever ebooks are sold.

BONUS CONTENT:

SUN HAMMER PART 1

1.

The doctor waited for the doors to his quarters to automatically sense his bio-signature and open. It didn’t. He impatiently pressed his palm against the sensor pad to the side, making a mental note to have a technician check it over. The doors slid open.

He didn’t bother to raise the lights as he walked in, tossing his data pad on the desk to his left. In the corner, a round fish tank emitted a cool, thin light. It was enough to see by. The doors whooshed shut behind him.

After his hours in the bright white sterility of the lab, it was pleasing to him to experience something akin to nighttime. It helped the doctor relax. To unwind.

He walked to the fish tank and peered at the miniature school of Tadarian Neons that rushed toward him, eager for food.

“Hello my little friends,” the doctor said in a tired but contented voice. It had been a long day, but a fulfilling one. They’d achieved much.

He took the cap off a pot of food and started to sprinkle some of the brown flakes onto the surface of the water. The Neons snipped at it, their tiny mouths working through the skin of the water.

The doctor didn’t see the shape in the corner of the room, where it was darkest. He was not aware of the shadow that coalesced into the form of a man as it drew nearer the glow from the fish tank.

“Good evening doctor,” a voice said.

The doctor spun about. Before he could even register the shadowy figure, a hand clamped over his mouth. There was a sting to the side of his neck and his legs buckled seconds later.

He lay sprawled on the floor, his mind racing to understand what had happened as he felt something cold cover his face.

The intruder took the device away and peered leaned in close. The doctor watched as the young man pressed a finger to the side of his neck. The man’s face changed. It shifted. His features widened, became older.

Familiar.

“For now we see through a mirror darkly,” the other man said. “Face to face.”

Then he felt another sting . . . and nothing more.

2.

“Slow to full stop,” Captain Singh ordered. “Banks, standard docking procedure.”

“Aye,” First Lieutenant Banks said.

The Captain turned to Commander Jessica King. “Are we good to go?”

She nodded. “Ready when you are sir.”

“Good,” Singh said.

Jessica finished up what she’d been doing with Lieutenant Chang, then headed for the exit.

Captain Singh left the command chair and stepped down to the helm. He rested a hand on Lieutenant Banks’s shoulder. “You know the protocol. I’ll leave her in your hands.”

“Aye Captain,” Banks said.

Commander King waited for the Captain at the threshold of the exit. They walked along the adjoining corridor. “Greene has the men ready?”

“Just as you asked,” King said. “I’ve gotta say, I still don’t get the skulduggery.”

“Neither do I, Jess. But those were the orders. Proceed here at maximum speed, maintain communication silence, and be ready to accept new cargo,” Singh recited their directives from command.

“It’s odd,” King said.

The Captain shrugged. “Always go on the assumption that you’re the last to know anything.”

*

Lieutenant Commander Greene stood waiting by the airlock with four other men.

“Ready to go, Del?” Singh asked him.

“Aye sir,” Greene said. “Any idea what it is we’re bringing on board?”

Captain Singh shook his head. “For all I know it could be the Commander in Chief’s birthday cake, a monolith of Victoria sponge with jet black frosting.”

Jessica chuckled. Singh turned to her, his face deadpan. “You laugh, Commander, but I’ve known stuff like that happen.”

Lieutenant Commander Greene accessed the airlock controls, and they watched the lights turn from red to green. The airlock hissed open, and they walked through the decontamination jets. On the other side, the awaiting station remained silent. Singh had expected to find a welcome party but the reception area was empty.

“Huh?” King asked. “They know we’re here.”

Captain Singh put his hands on his hips and frowned. “You’d think -“

The door at the other end opened and a whole team of people filed into the reception area, led by an Admiral bearing more decorations than a Christmas tree.

“Attention!” Singh snapped. King, Greene and the four other officers from the Defiant stood at attention as their Captain strode forward to shake the hand of the approaching Admiral.

“Arthur!” Singh said with a grin as he clasped the older man’s hand.

“Good to see you, Andrew. I wish it were under different circumstances,” Admiral Clarke said.

Singh turned to introduce his people. “This is Commander Jessica King, my right hand. Then Lieutenant Commander Del Greene, and Ensigns Garcia, Fox, Holloway, and O’Quinn,” he said.

Admiral Clarke shot them a salute. “At ease.”

They relaxed a little.

“So, uh, what’s all this about, Arthur?” Captain Singh asked.

“Walk with me. Bring the Commander along, too,” Admiral Clarke said. He led them past the entourage that had followed him into the reception area. The Admiral stopped to talk to one of the men, then continued.

“That was Rafferty, the commander of the station. I told him to work with your crew in getting the cargo stowed properly in the Defiant‘s hold,” Clarke explained.

“What sort of cargo?” Singh asked.

Clarke looked about, tapped the side of his nose. “Not here.”

The station was an older model, all ladders and gangways. Small and compact, it functioned as little more than a whistle stop in deep space. The Admiral moved fast for someone of his age. Andrew Singh and Jessica had to keep up.

Eventually they came to an office. The doors sensed Clarke’s bio-signature and opened for him.

“Come in; take a seat,” he told them.

The Admiral settled in on the other side of a long desk. Captain Singh and Commander King sat. They watched as Clarke removed his thick glasses and rubbed his tired eyes. He slid the glasses back on before continuing.

“I’ve had hardly any sleep in the past thirty-six hours,” he explained. “So forgive me if I appear to be a little tired.”

Singh sat forward. “What’s going on here?”

“Top secret shipment, Andrew. I’ve only just found out what it is myself. Orders came straight from the President,” Admiral Clarke said. He let what he’d just said sink in for a second. “It seems the fleet’s research division has opened Pandora’s Box.”

“What do you mean?” Singh asked.

Clarke looked from Singh to Jessica. “Commander King, what you are about to hear is highly classified. I’m sure I don’t have to tell you that if you breathe a word of this to anyone, you’ll spend the rest of your life rotting in a penal colony somewhere out on the frontier.”

Jessica swallowed. “No, Admiral.”

Singh raised his hands. “Arthur, with all due respect . . . what’s good to say in front of me is good to say in front of Jess.”

“Then I’ll defer to your judgement, Captain,” Clarke said. He drew a deep breath. “Two days ago I received an encrypted communiqué from the President. Apparently they’ve been tinkering with something . . . and they didn’t expect it to work.”

“What are we talking about here?” Singh asked.

“A weapon,” Clarke said. “A weapon of such destructive force that it can destroy an entire system with only one shot. One shot. Can you imagine?”

Captain Singh slumped into his chair. “My God . . .”

“Admiral, is that what’s being put in our hold right now?” King asked.

Clarke nodded. “Yes.”

Jessica looked from one to the other. “Well, is it safe?”

“We believe so, yes,” Clarke said. “I’m afraid you don’t have the luxury of deciding whether to take it or not, Commander. It’s a done deal. Normally a starship would have a right to refuse a shipment it deemed potentially volatile. But not in this instance. The order comes from the top. It couldn’t possibly come any higher.”

“How did it get here?” Singh asked.

“The William Tell dropped it off about twelve hours ago,” the Admiral said. “But as you know, she’s just a light cruiser. We need a ship with some real defensive capabilities. And a Captain we can trust.”

“So, you said it’s a weapon. What kind?” King asked him.

Clarke crossed his arms. “They call it a Sun Hammer. It’s a kind of canon that fires a specific type of catalytic energy. When that energy strikes the kind of material at play in the heart of a sun, the reaction is… explosive, to say the least.”

“Go on . . .” Singh said.

“The weapon is fired. The star explodes, goes supernova,” Clarke moved his hands about as he explained. “It expands. The reaction destroys everything in its path, then the sun shrinks back rapidly. As quickly as it’s begun, the reaction is over. It shrinks to nothing. Collapses into itself. Gone, as if it never existed.”

“That’s… unbelievable…” Jessica said.

“It’s unthinkable,” Singh said, just as awe struck by the implications of such a device.

“Both of those and more. It’s more than a weapon of mass destruction. It’s more than anything we’ve had before in our arsenal. Not even the act of obliterating the surface of a planet is in the same league as destroying an entire star system. The President himself explained the Sun Hammer as an ‘abominable weapon of total destruction.’ And you can quote me on that one,” Clarke said.

“So let’s get this right,” Captain Singh said. “They messed about with this technology, then when they realised what it was they’d created, they decided to hide it away somewhere.”

“Correct.”

“Why not just destroy it?”

“To be honest, they don’t know what will happen to the type of energy source inside if it’s detonated in any way,” Clarke said gravely. “Which is why we’ve taken the utmost care in how it’s been transported. As a wise scientist once said, ‘Any significantly advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.’”

“Why not assign it first to a battleship. Why start with the William Tell at all? Surely it would’ve kept things simple. Why the complicated plan?” Singh asked.

Clarke shrugged. “Captain, you know I have my orders too. This is the way they wanted it. I just go with the flow, as we all do. I’d assume the change is for security reasons. Possibly there are concerns the weapon could be the target of forces in opposition to the Union.”

“Admiral, if I may,” Jessica said. “Where are we taking this thing?”

“Good question,” Clarke said. He got up and walked to a holographic display at the centre of the room. He activated it and called up a star chart. It moved past a dozen systems Jessica recognised from memory and double that amount she didn’t. The Admiral brought the display to rest on a distant star system, several days travel from any civilised systems. “Here, in the Takei System. We have a secret underground facility on the third planet, guarded by several battle cruisers in orbit. There are only a dozen people within the Union aware of its purpose, including the two of you.”

“So what are our official orders?” Singh asked.

“Captain, you are to proceed with haste to the Takei System. You are to observe a complete communication blackout during the journey. Your course has been carefully plotted to avoid any possible encounters with Draxx forces, however it will take you through several heavily inhabited systems. You are not to stop whilst in transit of these systems. Just keep going until you reach your destination.”

“Understood.”

“I’ve assigned two of my people to the Defiant to assist in the transport of the device. One of them, Doctor Grissom, knows more about its inner workings than anyone. He travelled here on the William Tell. Doctor Grissom will be responsible for making regular checks of the Sun Hammer to ensure it is stable.”

“And the other?” Jessica asked.

“The other is Doctor Russell. He’s one of my own. He’s to assist Doctor Grissom with whatever he needs. Show them both full co-operation,” Clarke told them.

“Aye,” Captain Singh and Commander King said in unison.

The Admiral showed them to the door. “Good luck, the pair of you. Captain, you’ll find a copy of the orders in your quarters upon your return.”

“Thank you,” Singh said and shook Clarke’s hand.

“It was a pleasure meeting you, Commander,” Admiral Clarke said to Jessica as he saw her out.

“If I could ask one last question, Admiral?” she asked.

“Go on,” Clarke said.

“Was the weapon tested?” she asked. “Are the consequences of firing the Sun Hammer purely theoretical? Surely it hasn’t been fired on a sun for real…”

Clarke looked down at his shoes. When he looked back up, she could have sworn she saw regret in his lined face. And knowledge.

“Until we meet again, Commander,” he said, and shut the door.

3.

The conference room was half empty with only the Captain, Commander King, and Lieutenant Commander Greene present. They waited for the two doctors from the station.

“I don’t like it,” King said. “It’s like carrying nitro. We don’t know how stable it is. Certainly we know how volatile it is when fired. I mean, what if it blows?”

Captain Singh sighed. “I know Jess, but we don’t have a choice. Besides, look at the great service we’ll be doing to the entire galaxy by hiding this thing.”

“I have become death, destroyer of worlds,” Greene said. They both looked at him. “Sorry, it’s something a famous scientist said centuries ago on Earth. It’s always stuck in my head.”

“An apt quote, Del,” King said. “The Admiral referred to it as being like they’d opened Pandora’s Box. That’s pretty apt too.”

Captain Singh sipped his glass of water. “We’re human. We have to push things as far as we can. We don’t know the limits there until we can reach out and touch it. The evidence of that is sitting in our hangar bay under armed guard.”

The doors to the conference room opened. Dr. Grissom and Dr. Russell walked in.

“Welcome gentlemen,” Singh said. He got up and shook their hands. “Please have a seat. Can I get you anything? Some water?”

They both shook their heads as they sat.

“Thank you Captain, but no,” Dr. Grissom said. “We just had the nicest coffee in your mess hall I’ve had in a long time.”

“I don’t usually get decent coffee at the station,” Dr. Russell explained. “Not this far out.”

“Well, I like my crew awake at their posts. Re-processed coffee grains don’t quite hit it,” Singh said. “I trust you’ve been shown your quarters, and that they’re satisfactory?”

“Certainly,” Dr. Russell said.

“Good. Now, doctor Grissom, this weapon has been secured correctly in the hangar?” Singh asked.

Dr. Grissom shifted in his seat. Jessica looked him over. He was a middle aged, clean shaven, slicked-back dark grey hair. Piercing sapphire eyes. Dr. Grissom was handsome, but Jessica sensed there was something else too him, in the rigidity of his movements, in the air of formality about him. He wasn’t comfortable in this type of setting, not entirely, but he knew he had to make a show of being so.

“Strapped to an anti-grav platform aboard one of your shuttles and locked in with magneto clamps, with two armed guards watching over it. This vessel could lose all gravity tractions, do a somersault and it would still remain in place inside that shuttle craft. Rest assured, Captain, that weapon is going nowhere,” Grissom said.

“You’ve worked with this technology?” King asked him.

“I was on the original team that conceived of it, though I wish I weren’t. The Sun Hammer is not a weapon, on that we’re all wrong in defining it as such. It is a mistake. An awful, regretful mistake I wish we’d never been a part of. However, I was,” Grissom said. “Now we must take it to the farthest reaches of our known galaxy and hide it twenty-two miles under the ground.”

“I think you’ll find we all share your sentiments, doctor,” King said. “We just want to make sure it won’t blow up during transit. We pass through some heavily populated systems along the way . . .”

Dr. Russell cleared his throat. “Uh, both the doctor and myself will be checking the device every six hours and will monitor any change in temperature or radiation. If it were connected to your reactor the Sun Hammer would be housed in a specially lined chamber.”

“This thing’s radioactive?” Greene asked, appalled.

“It does emit very slight degrees of radiation when inactive, however they’re no more harmful than what you’d be exposed to on a sunny day. We will carefully monitor it to ensure the emissions do not change,” Russell explained.

Greene sipped his own water now.

“Well, I believe that’s about everything. I don’t see any reason to wait around. We disembark within the half hour,” Captain Singh told them all.

“Thank you Captain,” Grissom said. He got up from the table. “We’ll both get out of your hair.”

“Very well. Doctor Grissom, doctor Russell, I’ll catch up with you both once we’re under way,” Singh told them.

Grissom thanked them all and left.

“Friendly enough,” Greene said.

Jessica nodded. She was contemplating how a man of Grissom’s age could have such bright blue eyes.

*

Ten minutes later the Defiant cruised away from the station, carrying within its belly the Sun Hammer, the most destructive man-made force ever created.

4.

Captain Singh studied the astronomical charts over Ensign Rayne’s shoulder.

“We’re just leaving the Dunbar System behind, sir,” Rayne said, showing him where they were on the chart.

“What’s this disturbance here?” Singh asked, pointing to an area ahead of their present course.

“Our charts update with the latest information regarding galactic weather systems gathered from probes in every system. That is an ion storm,” she explained. “It’s not the worst I’ve ever seen, but it’ll still be a bumpy ride.”

“And we can’t use the Jump Drive through that,” Singh said knowingly. “Any way of getting around it?”

Rayne shook her head. “Not unless you want to cost us a couple of days travel. Although command have plotted this route for us, they couldn’t have known things like this would develop. However, deviating around it will make the journey there much longer.”

Singh straightened up. “I’d just as soon have this whole trip over and done with. Very well, Ensign. Keep an eye out. How long until we reach it?”

“A little under eighteen hours,” Rayne said.

Captain Singh returned to the command chair. “Everyone listen up. In eighteen hours we will be dropping from Jump to cross an ion storm. I want full system checks from now until then. Anything we won’t need, shut it down. We don’t need things blowing if the Defiant is hit by a discharge of ions.”

He turned to Jessica and smirked.

“Time to batten down the hatches, Commander. Looks like the sea’s getting choppy.”

*

“What about the hull plating?” Commander Greene asked the Chief.

Meryl Gunn cocked an eye at him. “What about it?”

“The Captain wants the extra power there. We can’t take any chances,” Greene explained.

The Chief wiped her hands on a greasy rag. “Look, don’t you worry yourself over it, Del. Leave me to get things down here ship shape. You lot worry about your end of things.”

“I’m just asking, Chief . . .” Greene said defensively.

“I know the routine. My team’s already on it. I bet you’ve not sorted out what I asked you to do, though, eh? Requisitioning those parts for the next time we’re in dock?” she asked him.

Greene took a step back. “No, not yet, but I’m on it…”

“There we go. Like I said, leave me to mine, and you deal with yours. Then everyone’s happy,” she said and sarcastically pinched his cheek.

The Chief walked away. Green rubbed his cheek with one hand but as he left the engineering section he couldn’t help but smirk at the woman’s brass balls.

On his way back to the bridge he passed Dr. Russell. “Hey doc.”

“Good evening, uh…” Russell struggled to recall his name.

“Del. Just Del, doc. How’s it going?”

“Fine, fine. I’m about to get my head down for the night. Doctor Grissom will take over checking the device. Everything appears normal so far,” Russell explained.

“Good. That’s a bit of a relief. I swear I have night sweats with that thing only a couple of decks under my bunk,” Greene said. “Well anyway, goodnight doc.”

“And you, uh, Del,” Russell said.

*

Dr. Grissom looked in the mirror. His quarters were only half lit. He studied his face. Everything looked as it should. Beneath what was there, his natural features almost entirely came from his Mother. Apart from the eyes. They were his Father staring right back at him.

He ran a hand over his chin.

Not long now, he thought. Soon we’ll be hitting that storm. Just as planned.

He snapped out of it. There was someone at the door. He opened it.

It was Dr. Russell.

“Evening, Doctor Grissom. Just thought I’d let you know I’m off to bed now.”

“Oh. Very well,” Grissom said in a flat monotone, unable to fully disguise his disinterest. “Good night.”

“And you,” Dr. Russell said, oblivious, and walked off. The door closed again.

Grissom went back to the mirror.

Not long now, he told himself again.

5.

The Defiant barely crawled through the volatile ion storm.

Commander King unstrapped herself from the command chair as Captain Singh arrived on the bridge.

He took his seat. “Thank you, Commander. Status?”

The ship trembled around them, every inch of its outer hull subject to the cosmic turbulence of the storm.

“We’ve had to reduce speed to one fifth,” King reported. “And the Chief has increased power to the hull plating.”

“Understood. I’ll take it from here. Go and get yourself something to eat,” Singh told her.

“Are you sure, sir?”

He nodded. On her way out he said, “Tell the cook to save me some of that pie, will you? I’ll throw him in the brig if he gives it all away like last time.”

Jessica chuckled. “Aye.”

*

“Dr. Grissom” was due to inspect the device, even though he was not aboard. Sonjiin of Nyular checked his timepiece. Everything had gone as expected. Once again he found himself in the mirror.

He had to restrain himself from touching the hidden activator on his neck that would change his face back to that of his own. Sonjiin was eager to leave the identity of Dr. Grissom behind. After today he’d have no further use for it. And he’d look a good twenty years younger, too.

The Union idiots had no idea just how easy it was to infiltrate their inner circles. To convince them, with some minor tampering of their databases, that he’d been there when the thing was created. It was all a lie. However the real Dr. Grissom had worked on the Sun Hammer during the early stages of its construction before being reassigned to another station. That foundation was more than enough for Sonjiin’s people to build on.

And he’d not seen it tested. But he’d heard about it. They all had.

That was why his people – the Outland Raiders – had to have it. With the power of the Sun Hammer at their disposal, the Union would fall to its knees…

Sonjiin studied his face again. Beneath it was a smooth, youthful face for one who had done so much. The other members of the Raiders simply called him “Blue Eyes,” and he didn’t mind the name. The media reported his various acts of terror, calling him a faceless terror. Soon they would have a face to put to their reports of anarchy across the galaxy.

Sonjiin closed his eyes, thought back to his childhood back on Nyular. Green fields, blue skies. The migrating avian species the locals called “Cloud Chasers” that occupied the peaks of the Kreskus mountains. His Mother’s cooking in the evenings. Listening to his Father’s stories when they would fish, on those hot days when it would be a crime to do anything else…

All of that lost to the Draxx. Because of the Union. Because when they had called for help, the Union didn’t come. Because the peaceful settlers of Nyular, at the very frontier of the galaxy, had refused to accept Union rule, instead opting for independence.

Sonjiin glared at himself in the mirror, blue eyes sparkling with cold fire.

He hated the Union and everything it stood for. As did the Outland Raiders.

They’d done a lot to cause disruption and mayhem, but this would be their crowning achievement. It would be more than terrorism. It would be more than idealism with an edge.

Outright war . . . and a war the Terran Union would never win.

Sonjiin checked the time again. “Time to go.”

*

“Sensors have deteriorated to less than ten per cent,” Chang reported, dismayed.

“Easy, Lieutenant,” Captain Singh told her. “That’s to be expected.”

“What am I meant to do? Use visuals only?” Lieutenant Banks asked.

Singh shrugged. “Pretty much, Mr. Banks. Sometimes you just have to… fly by the seat of your pants.”

It was one of the more powerful ion storms the Captain had ever flown through, that was for certain. Not that he’d have let that be known. From all outward appearances, he was cool as a cucumber but in reality he was keen to have it behind them.

“Aye Captain,” Banks said.

*

Sonjiin checked the corridors before climbing through Relay Service Hatch 28. In the confines of the small space he located the power line control relays to the engines. From his pocket he produced a small, black device. It would go off at a designated time and cut the power. Even though they’d locate the problem before too long and bypass it, it wasn’t a concern. He’d be long gone by then.

Sonjiin set the device for half an hour later, and climbed out of the hatch. Still nobody around, and what if there were? No-one would suspect good old Dr. Grissom of any wrongdoing.

Sonjiin headed for the hangar.

*

“Just one slice?” the cook asked her.

She held up her fingers. “Better save him two. He likes his pie.”

“Yeah, he got real upset the last time,” the cook said as he put the plate beneath the counter.

“I heard,” Jessica told him, picturing the man thrown in the brig for crimes against pie lovers.

She took her sandwich and coffee and sat down at an empty table. The ship continued to tremor all around them, despite the efforts of the dampeners to absorb the turbulence. She didn’t fancy too much to eat. Just a snack.

Jessica also didn’t expect to sleep that well. It was like snoozing on top of a gyrating tectonic plate. Impossible.

She gazed out of a nearby viewport as she ate. The storm was one thing, at least.

Beautiful. It couldn’t be said of many of nature’s lethal dangers. Outside soundless lightning flashed around them. Jessica ate her sandwich.

*

Sonjiin climbed into the shuttle.

“Your shift now, eh doc?” one of the guards asked him through the hatch.

“Yes,” Sonjiin said. He disappeared behind the Sun Hammer, as if he were examining a part of it. On the wall behind him hung a selection of basic tools. He selected a laser torch and flicked it on.

The guard had his back to the hatch as he surveyed the hangar’s interiour. Sonjiin stood with the torch in hand, his thumb over the lighting switch. He crept up behind the guard and levelled the torch an inch from the back of his neck. He activated it, sending a thin beam of pure energy straight through the guard’s neck. With one flick of the wrist he had severed the man’s head from his body. The guard only had time to utter “Huh?”

Sonjiin shoved the man forward. His body hit the deck followed by his head, which rolled for several metres before coming to a stop.

“What the hell!?” the other guard asked as he bounded over to his fallen comrade.

Sonjiin leapt out, slashed the laser torch in a downward motion. It cut the guard all the way down the front, his innards spilling to the floor.

He didn’t wait for the man to collapse. Sonjiin ran to the controls for the hangar bay doors and set them for a timed release using one of the access codes they’d been able to obtain prior to his arrival at the station.

He dropped the torch and ran for the shuttle. Sonjiin turned to where he knew there was a series of cameras overlooking the hangar. He pressed the side of his neck. The facial stealth technology deactivated, returning his face and hair to its natural state. He waved at the camera. Klaxons sounded around him.

Sonjiin closed the shuttle and settled into the pilot’s seat. Moments later the engines fired and he brought the shuttle to a steady hover over the deck.

As he waited for the hangar bay doors to open he glanced back into the rear of the shuttle. The Sun Hammer looked harmless enough, secured to its platform.

So does a tiger, he thought. Till you wake it up.

*

“Sir! The hangar bay doors are about to open!” Banks said, shocked.

“What?” Singh asked, just as surprised. His mind raced. “Stop it. Lock it down.”

Banks tried. “Captain, I can’t!”

“Ensign Boi, shipwide communications,” Singh ordered. “Commander King to the hangar deck at once. Commander King to the hangar deck. Unauthorised launch in progress.”

*

Jessica dropped her sandwich and darted for the door. She raced through the ship, stopping only to relieve a male crewman of his side arm. As she continued to the hangar she took the weapon off the safety. It hummed into life in her hand.

*

The doors opened slowly, exposing the airless hangar to the similarly airless vacuum of space. Sonjiin took the shuttle up and over the other stationary vehicles parked there. He took it through the opening in the ship’s side and out into the storm. Almost at once the shuttle was hit by the strength of the tempest.

*

Jessica watched through the blast door viewport as the shuttle took off and exited the ship. She went to the nearby comm. panel and contacted the bridge.

“Bridge this is King. It’s gone. The Sun Hammer’s gone.”

6.

Sonjiin flew the shuttle away from the Defiant, then turned the small craft about to face the larger vessel again. He tipped the shuttle’s nose and rose up over the Defiant’s dorsal. As planned, his own starship hovered above the Defiant’s aft fin, completely hidden from both the visual inputs and the diminished sensors of the Union ship. It had travelled with the Defiant for hours that way, within one of the bigger ship’s blind spots.

The Retribution pivoted about to gain him access to its aft cargo bay. Sonjiin spoke into the shuttle’s comm. system.

“Sonjiin to Retribution. Get us out of here as soon as I’m aboard,” he said.

*

“Whoever it is, they just piloted that shuttle out of the hangar,” Jessica said over the comm.

Before Captain Singh could let that register the Defiant died around him. Every console went dark, the lights failed. The steady background vibration of the Defiant’s powerful engines faded away to nothing. It took several seconds for the emergency systems to kick in, for the different stations around the bridge to come back online. The emergency lighting flickered to life.

“Engines are down,” Banks reported.

Chang looked up from her own readouts. “Complete loss of power.”

Captain Singh turned to Lieutenant Commander Greene. “We need to get answers and fast. Somebody needs to explain to me what the hell’s going on!”

*

“You are safe, brother,” Belosh said.

“And I have our bounty. Are we about to get under way?”

Belosh nodded. “As you ordered.”

Using a scanner attached to his forearm, Belosh performed a diagnostic of the Sun Hammer.

“As you expect it to be?” Sonjiin asked him. Already his men were removing the device from the shuttle.

“Yes. It should not take long to connect it to the Retribution. The containment room was installed precisely as we were told,” Belosh said.

The two of them followed the Sun Hammer into the adjacent room, where the sealed centrifuge had been fitted weeks before. It would shield them from the lethal radiation emitted by the device when fully operational.

“Good. Then return to the bridge and I will oversee the connection. You have all done well. At last, our time has come.”

*

When the power died, Commander King went straight to engineering. The Chief didn’t even notice her enter the engineering section. She was focused on getting the ship back online.

“Chief,” Jessica said as she approached. “Hey, Chief…”

Gunn shook her head. “Wait. Give me a second.”

King bit her lip. The Chief’s lack of a bedside manner could shock at times, but she was by far the best engineer in the Union. It was worth putting up with her abrupt manner, because she nearly always delivered.

She watched as Gunn coordinated the engineering crew as if she were a military general. The Chief barked orders left and right.

A moment later, the lights came back on.

Jessica smiled.

“We’re not out of it yet, Commander. I can’t get the engines back online,” Gunn explained fleetingly as she rushed past. “I’m still working on that one.”

“Could it be sabotage?” King offered.

“Perhaps.”

Gunn stopped. She locked eyes with Jessica as the implication of what she’d just said set in.

Jessica nodded slowly. “And if you were going to sabotage the engine’s you’d…”

“. . . cut the power lines at one of the relays!” Gunn said, putting it together in her mind. She rushed away.

“Is there anything I can do?” Jessica called after her.

“Stay out of my way,” Gunn called back.

The smile on Jessica’s face disappeared as fast as it had come.

*

“Captain! Dead ahead!” Banks yelled.

On the viewscreen an arrow-shaped ship came into view above them. It went on ahead, corrected its course slightly then increased speed to leave the Defiant behind.

“Lieutenant Chang, do what you can to track that goddamned ship!” Singh snapped. He cracked his knuckles with frustration. “Banks, as soon as you have engines you will initiate a pursuit course. Let’s hope their trail isn’t lost in this storm.”

Lieutenant Commander Greene removed an earpiece. “Apparently the security footage shows Doctor Grissom killing the two guards and then boarding the shuttle.”

It didn’t seem possible. “Doctor Grissom?”

“I’ve sent security to go and grab Doctor Russell,” Greene said. “Salnow will interrogate him, get some answers.”

“Do what you have to. We need to know what’s happened here,” Singh said. “Something tells me our Doctor Grissom wasn’t who we thought he was.”

And now we’ve lost the galaxy’s most devastating weapon, Singh thought.

He swallowed hard. His throat had turned to dust.

7.

When Commander King returned to the bridge, the engines were back. But in the time it had taken to fix them, the enemy vessel was long gone.

Captain Singh updated her on their situation. “We’re now trying to locate their trail.”

“But the sensors are all jammed up, aren’t they?” King asked, hands on her hips.

“They are, but we have enough to work with,” Chang said.

“Try looking for their residual wake through the ion storm’s dispersal patterns,” King suggested. “Think of an old-style boat cutting across a lake.”

Chang’s eyes lit up. “Great… working…”

Her hands flew over the console controls.

“Well?” Singh asked impatiently.

“Got it!” Chang said. “Tying in with navigation now.”

“Excellent,” Singh said. “Push her as hard as you can, Banks.”

*

“Approaching the system,” Vilik announced as Sonjiin strode onto the bridge.

“The device is now tied in with the Retribution‘s main power banks within the sealed containment room,” Sonjiin said with satisfaction.

Belosh looked nervous. “Sonjiin, you’re certain this is where you want to use it…”

Sonjiin closed the gap between them. “You doubt me, Belosh? I have led you this far and you doubt me? Brother… don’t start to question me now.”

“I’m… I’m… not…” Belosh stammered.

The others looked on. Sonjiin rested a hand on Belosh’s shoulder. “Proceed to the system,” he ordered firmly. “And we will show the full measure of our resolve to these Union dogs.”

“Yes, Sonjiin,” Belosh said weakly. “Right away.”

*

They left the last of the ion storm behind them.

“Where’s he headed?” Singh asked. He joined Lieutenant Commander Greene at Ensign Rayne’s station.

“It appears to be the Xilin system,” Greene said.

“Inhabitants?” Singh asked him.

Greene deferred to the Ensign. “An estimated thirty billion,” Rayne said.

The Captain looked up at Greene. “Time?”

“At their current speed…” the Lieutenant Commander said, “they’ll be there in under an hour.”

Singh walked away, his hands at the bottom of his back. He worked the kinks out of his neck. “Will we be able to catch them up?” he asked no-one in particular.

“No,” Banks answered.

The Captain turned around. “Spool up the Jump Drive, Lieutenant. Prepare for a short burst.”

“What’re you thinking?” Jessica asked him.

“A former Captain of mine did it once. Increase elevation, then calculate how much Drive you’ll need to cut the distance between you and the other vessel. With any luck you end up just ahead of them. But if you get it wrong…” Captain Singh explained.

“Road kill,” King said with obvious distaste.

“Nice,” Singh said with a roll of his eyes. “Okay, everyone buckle up! Prepare for Jump! Del, I want you at the weapons station ready to fire at my command.”

*

Belosh peered over Vilik’s shoulder at the readouts from the helm console. “Ten minutes till we reach firing distance.”

“Target their sun and prepare to -” Sonjiin was cut off by the helmsman.

“Defiant dead ahead!” Vilik yelled.

Sonjiin’s head snapped about. He glared at the hulk of the Union vessel before them. It blocked their path directly. Vilik threw the ship into a nose dive.

*

“We don’t want to destroy them, sir,” King said. “There’s no knowing what will happen.”

“Agreed. Del, target their propulsion systems with the forward batteries only,” Singh said.

“Aye!”

The Captain sat forward in the command chair. “FIRE!”

Lieutenant Commander Greene’s hands flew across the controls. The Defiant reverberated from the action of the ship’s guns. They watched on the viewscreen as the enemy ship ducked beneath them. The guns traced their progress, unable to meet their mark.

“She’s fast,” Greene said, tongue between his teeth as he worked the controls. “Switching to lateral batteries.”

Lieutenant Banks brought the Defiant around to pursue. There was less than a ship’s length between them.

“Easy, Del,” King warned.

Their fire glanced the rear of the craft. A minor explosion knocked the ship off course, but it recovered quickly.

“She’s not firing back. She doesn’t have any weapons,” Greene said.

“Just the one,” Captain Singh said ominously. He turned to Jessica. “Anything from Salnow?”

“He’s still questioning Russell, but so far nothing. Apparently Doctor Russell knew nothing about it. But I didn’t hold out much hope for info anyway,” King said.

“Me neither. If he’d been in on it, they would have left together,” Singh said. He slapped his thigh in anger. “I can’t believe we were fooled like that.”

“We weren’t to know, sir,” she assured him. “This is obviously bigger than all of us.”

Singh turned back to the viewscreen. The Defiant’s guns trained in on the enemy ship again. It’s starboard engine flared white and burst into flame.

“Good shot!” Singh cheered.

“Maintaining speed,” Chang said. “Damage to their engines but they’re not slowing.”

*

“We’ve lost one engine,” Vilik said.

“Keep us out of reach of their guns! We’re so close…” Sonjiin said, his face eager with anticipation.

“But, Sonjiin… with only one engine, how can we hope to outrun a Union starship?” Belosh cried out, unable to contain his worry.

Sonjiin rounded on him, grabbed him by the jacket and shoved him across the command deck. He went flying into the far wall.

“Weak fool! In the palm of our hands we have the power to kill a star!” Sonjiin said. His outstretched hand closed into the tight knot of a fist.

8.

Thirty seconds later, the Retribution came into range. Sonjiin fired the Sun Hammer. A bright orange glow lit every nook and cranny of the ship, as if she were ablaze.

A beam of energy stretched from the front of the craft to the fierce sun at the centre of the Xilin system. At first it seemed as though nothing happened.

But within the heart of the sun, where the Sun Hammer‘s blow had struck true, nuclear reactions of unfathomable magnitude were accelerated to millions of times their normal speed. The sun swelled white hot in a blinding flash as it erupted, doing in moments what would have normally taken billions of years.

The expanding energies of the resultant shockwave consumed all that stood before it. It tore through the orbiting planets, vaporising their atmospheres in seconds. The billions of sentient beings on their surface didn’t have a chance to know what had taken place. The shockwave shattered each planet as it blasted through. Entire cultures and civilisations were wiped from existence in a matter of seconds.

And in the presence of all that destruction, Sonjiin smiled.

“This is our message to the galaxy. That we will not be toyed with. That we will not accept anything but total and utter surrender to our terms,” Sonjiin said to the other Raiders aboard the Retribution as they watched the explosion on the command deck. “Brothers and sisters, we have arrived!”

9.

Everything else was forgotten in the afterglow of the supernova. The fleeing ship ahead of them, everything that had happened. All of it. There was only that sun, growing in size, spreading itself out to the farthest reaches of the system.

“Cutting speed to avoid collision with that shockwave,” Banks said, but Singh did not hear him.

He stood, speechless before such wanton devastation. So many lives . . . needlessly taken away. It was barely conceivable that an entire star system had just been wiped from existence before them. Singh staggered back and ended up back in his chair, unable to stand any longer. He closed his eyes.

His heart was an empty ache in his chest. He felt a hand on the back of his neck. He opened his eyes and looked up. Jessica smiled. She didn’t need to say anything.

Singh nodded. No words. No explanations. No rationalisations of what had happened. The Captain stood again. His strong, firm voice rang out. It pushed everything else away.

“Attention all hands!”

They all turned from the horror before them to look at him, and he regarded each of them in turn. Now their mission was simple, and he would see to it that this time there was no failure.

“Increase speed. Every ounce of power to the bow hull plating. We’re not letting these animals escape,” he commanded.

“Aye,” Banks said.

10.

The enemy vessel broke through the remnants of the shockwave first. The Defiant tore through shortly after. It sounded like a brick wall breaking over the nose of the ship.

Already the sun was shrinking. Withdrawing back into itself. Collapsing. Multiple shockwaves rippled away from it, as if it were a stone’s thrown into water.

“The pull of that sun is strong, sir,” Banks said. “It’s getting hard to manoeuvre the ship.”

“That’s why they’ve not changed course. If we can’t move, they can’t either,” King said.

“All that matters is stopping them from leaving this star system,” Singh said. “They cannot be allowed to use that weapon against another system. If they used it against our own sun… the Union would crumble.”

“That’s their intention,” King said. “It has to be.”

“Increasing speed now we’re through the bow shock,” Banks said. “I’ve diverted power from other systems. Engines are straining, but…”

“Don’t worry about it. She’ll hold together,” Singh said.

Hear me baby? Hold together, he thought to himself.

“If they’re headed straight for what’s left of that sun, then so are we. I don’t see how we’ll break free in time,” King said.

Captain Singh’s jaw set with determination. “Either way they’re not getting away with it.”

11.

“I was a fool to doubt you, Sonjiin,” Belosh said.

“I can’t break free of the sun’s gravity. It’s increased tenfold!” Vilik said from the helm. “And with only one engine…”

Sonjiin paced back and forth. Then he stopped, deep in thought.

“I want you to increase speed.”

The other crewmen looked on in shock.

“This is madness!” Vilik exclaimed. “Fly toward it?”

“Perhaps it is mad,” Sonjiin said. He broke into a grin. “Or perhaps not. If we race towards it, then activate our Jump Drive at the last second, we can shift our trajectory just enough to Jump over it.”

Vilik swallowed, then pushed their only working engine to full power. He charged their Jump Drive with grim determination.

*

The sun was little more than a spark of light in front of them, dimming with every passing second.

“Now a white dwarf,” Chang said.

“And still shrinking, I bet,” King said.

Chang nodded. “The gravitational pull of that thing is unbelievable. I’ve got every recording device monitoring the sun’s degeneration.”

“Look at that,” Greene said.

They raced past the feeble remains of what had been a planet, reduced to a field of debris and broken atmosphere. A world once home to billions… now little more than a slew of dirt running down a plughole.

“It’s unbelievable,” Commander King said.

“That’s the problem Commander,” Chang said from behind her. “It’s not.”

“Lieutenant, any sign of that sun’s gravity starting to wane?” Singh asked.

“Only marginally.”

“Time to impact?”

“Minutes, Captain…” Chang said.

Captain Singh got back up. He stood behind Banks at the helm. “What’s the other ship doing? Speeding up?”

Banks nodded. “Yeah.”

“Slowly reduce speed, Lieutenant. Very slowly. When you hit half engine thrust, apply the braking thrusters,” Singh said.

King came to stand next to him. “D’you know something we don’t, Captain?”

“Only a hunch. With their damaged engines, they don’t have the power to break away. They think they can overshoot it if they keep racing toward it at increased speed. That’s what I thought, at first. But if that thing is dying down, I’ve a feeling we’ll be able to break free of it simply by hitting the brakes.”

“Sometimes you have to act on a hunch,” King said.

“Couldn’t have said it better myself,” Singh said. “And, if I’m right, we’ll fall short of that thing and they’ll end up shooting straight into it.”

“Bullseye,” Greene said.

*

The star died completely, faded to nothing in the wink of an eye. The last of what had once been a bright, youthful sun sputtered out suddenly. One moment there was something there. The next…

A dark hole where the sun had been, no larger than a planetoid.

“It’s gone,” Vilik said.

“Hold your course,” Sonjiin said. “Soon we will escape this system then strike at the very heart of the Union. And the dogs will know what it is like to never feel the sun of home against their skin. To feel the wind against their skin. They will know our pain, and we will conquer them all.”

*

The enemy ship raced ahead as the Defiant lagged behind.

“Firing braking thrusters,” Banks announced.

The Defiant lurched as it slowed, at the same time resisting the gravity exerted by the fallen star.

“Star’s gravitational pull fading away,” Chang said. “In no time it’ll just be an empty hole in space.”

“The enemy are making contact,” Ensign Boi said.

Singh looked at Jessica. “On screen.”

The former Dr. Grissom appeared in front of them.

“Greetings. By now I am sure you realise I am not a doctor. My brothers and sisters and I are a part of an organisation you may be familiar with. The Outland Raiders. I am Sonjiin of Nyular,” he said.

“We’ve met before,” Captain Singh said bitterly. “In a different guise.”

“I see that you are falling behind, Captain,” Sonjiin said.

“Yes, our engines are failing. It doesn’t matter. You’ll suffer the same fate as us,” Singh lied.

“Such a pity. We will leave what remains of this system far behind as you tumble into what was once a great and mighty star,” Sonjiin said.

“Do you always talk like this, Sonjiin?”

The Nyularian broke into a wide grin that showed crooked teeth. They transformed his handsome face into something warped and twisted. “I respect your resolve, Captain. But I assure you it’s all for nothing. Soon the Union will lie broken at our feet. Its glory days little more than a fading memory…”

Singh turned to Ensign Boi. “Cut this idiot off.”

*

The viewscreen changed back to show the enemy ship fast approaching the dark heart of the star.

“He bought it,” King said.

“I think so. He knows we can’t just blow him up. And he thinks we’re falling behind because we’re in such bad shape,” Singh said. “Now for the cherry on the cake. Lieutenant Commander Greene, please ready a missile.”

“A missile?” Greene asked.

“Rig it to detonate approximately six metres above them. But we need to time it so they’re just about to break away from that… whatever it is,” Singh explained.

“It’s not a black hole, sir, although it looks like it,” Chang said. On the viewscreen, a swirl of gases and twisted light were being sucked into a black circle of nothingness. “I don’t know what it is.”

“Understood, Lieutenant,” Captain Singh said.

“Ready,” Greene said.

“They’ll be at the threshold of the dead star in ten, nine, eight, seven, six…” Chang counted down.

“FIRE!” Singh yelled.

A Duotonic Missile flared away from the front of the Defiant toward the enemy ship.

*

“Ready?” Sonjiin asked. The black hole left by the fallen star filled their view port in every direction. The Jump Drive hummed beneath their feet.

“Yes. Jumping now,” Vilik said. He threw the control lever. A huge explosion directly above them knocked the ship down as it entered the Jump. Vilik was unable to compensate in time and he lost control as his ship careened into the anomaly.

Everything spun as they shot straight through the dark heart of a former sun. Sonjiin of Nyular did not close his eyes.

12.

The ship emerged into open space. Sonjiin peered about. He checked the navigational readouts.

“Where are we?” Vilik asked, his voice groggy.

“Exactly where we were,” Sonjiin said. He looked at the readouts of their sensors. “Look. There is the anomaly. And there is what’s left of the system. We did it. We overshot the wormhole.”

Right then the helm console sparked. Vilik dived out of the way as it burst into flame, electricity arcing from it to the deck. Belosh ran to the side of it and cut the power. The console died.

“We’ve lost our Jump Drive,” Belosh said.

“Then fix it!” Sonjiin snapped. “We have a date with destiny.”

13.

“Launch a probe into that thing,” Singh ordered.

“Aye,” King said. “Do it, Lieutenant.”

She stood behind Chang as she worked her controls to release a primed probe. Seconds later it shot away from the front of the ship and down into the astronomical plughole before them.

Captain Singh waited patiently, staring dead ahead at the anomaly. It had consumed an entire sun … and the galaxy’s most dangerous criminal. He’d had the Defiant maintain a respectable distance from it, lest the wormhole belch.

“Data is coming in …” Chang said, a frown shadowing her features.

“Lieutenant?” Singh asked.

Jessica looked first at the readouts appearing at Chang’s station, then the Lieutenant herself. She was busily absorbing the streams of data on her screen.

“It would seem there is a stable spatial environment … the other side of the anomaly,” King said. “I know it sounds ludicrous, but it would seem it’s not just a big hole. It’s a tunnel.”

Singh nodded. “Fantastical, but if that’s what the data implies …”

“I’m attempting to access the Union comm. grid,” Rayne said.

“A good idea,” King said. She looked at Captain Singh who appeared just as miffed by the whole scenario.

Rayne shook her head. “Nothing there, sir. Not on our usual channels. However I am detecting an alternate communication relay present.”

“Try to access it, Ensign,” Singh said.

Chang spoke up. “I have a theory.”

“Go on. I’m all ears,” Singh said.

“I think that what’s been created is a kind of wormhole. That would account for what I’m seeing on my screen. Apparently the probe detects the anomaly, and the remains of the system behind it … but not us. We’re not there. And the fact that our own comm. grid isn’t present when it is here indicates another galaxy.”

“Another galaxy, Lieutenant?” King asked.

“I mean, one just like our own. But different. String theory. Multiples realities existing side by side. Perhaps this anomaly, this wormhole, is a connecting bridge between the two,” Chang explained. “Of course it’s just a theory.”

“Well at the moment it’s the best theory we have,” Singh said. “Now let’s see if we can use that probe to tap into whatever kind of communication grid that end of things.”

*

“Yes Admiral…”

“As yet you’ve not made contact with him again?” Clarke asked.

“Correct. We did have readings come back from the probe, perhaps adding weight to the Lieutenant’s theory that this is now some kind of . . . wormhole phenomena. A link from our galaxy to another.”

“Keep studying it. Certainly it’s been documented before, though it is highly classified. I’m rallying some ships together to come to your aid. Hang on in there until we can arrive.”

“We will Admiral, Captain Singh out.”

*

Singh closed the channel and leaned back into the chair in his quarters.

What sort of diabolical mind would detonate a star? This wasn’t just terrorism. It was something more. Genocide. It made his skin crawl.

His intercom came to life.

“Captain Singh, report to the bridge.”

He sighed.

“I’m on my way.”

*

Singh walked back onto the bridge. “Yes?”

“We have contact sir,” Ensign Boi said. “From the wormhole.”

Captain Singh frowned. “Come again?”

14.

Singh looked at Jessica. She seemed just as miffed as he did. He licked his lips.

“You’re connected, sir, but it’s weak,” Ensign Boi said.

“This is Captain Singh of the Union Starship Defiant, T. U. zero-one-one-three-eight. To whom am I speaking?”

The reply was hidden by a cloud of static. The speakers popped and hissed. Singh opened his hands as he looked expectantly at the Ensign.

“I’m clearing it up,” Boi said.

Captain Singh crossed his arms, his chin in his hand as the connection cleared.

“This General Millner. Who the hell is this?”

Singh looked at Jessica. She shrugged.

“Captain Singh of the -“

“We don’t recognise that classification. Who’re you with?”

“General . . . do you have a spatial anomaly nearby?”

More static. Ensign Boi fought with the controls to keep the transmission steady.

“Yeah. Some kind of hole in space.”

“This may sound fantastical to you but we are talking to you from the other side of that anomaly,” Singh explained.

“From another end of the galaxy?”

Singh licked his lips. “No, General. We believe the wormhole is acting as some kind of connecting tunnel between your universe and ours.”

There was no response.

“You’ve been checking your charts, General, trying to figure out where you’ve gone wrong, I bet. There should be a star system here, and all you see is -“

“- this anomaly and a tonne of debris.”

“That’s because the system was just destroyed. We’ve been in pursuit of the man responsible. But he has now crossed through to your side,” Singh said.

“We don’t detect another ship,” Millner said.

“I’ll have all of our data sent through to you. It should allow you to track him,” Singh said.

“And this guy destroyed a whole star system you say? What did he do, blow up a star or something?” Millner asked with an incredulous chuckle.

“That’s it in a nutshell, Captain. The man in charge of that ship is called Sonjiin. I cannot emphasise enough to you the severity of the situation. He must be stopped at all costs. We have saved our own galaxy… now I’m afraid you must save yours.”

“A mad man.”

“And a terrorist. We believe he will stop at nothing to test it out on home soil, so to speak,” Singh said gravely. “We think he’s going to destroy Sol.”

“How do I know this isn’t some kind of trick?” General Millner asked him.

“You’ll have to trust us. We will send you through our footage of the last couple of hours, Captain, and you can decide for yourself,” Singh said.

“If it’s so important we get this guy, why don’t you come through yourself?”

“There’s no guarantee that what comes through can come back. In either case, you don’t have long. He must be stopped. Trust me when I say, Sonjiin won’t hesitate to use the weapon again. In fact, he means to,” Singh said with a sigh. “The future of the human race rests in your hands.”

There was a long pause, then: “Don’t sweat it. I think I have just the guys for the job…”

ABOUT TONY HEALEY

Tony Healey is a best-selling independent author. In 2011, his fiction was published in an anthology alongside Harlan Ellison and Alan Dean Foster.

In 2012 he saw his sci-fi serial FAR FROM HOME become a best-selling sensation, with each instalment hitting the Top 100 in its category. He also published DARK VISIONS, a collection of his horror fiction.

2013 saw the publication of DEAD PRETTY, a crime novella that has received rave reviews. He also collaborated with best-selling author Bernard Schaffer on a crossover project written in two parts.

Tony Healey is a born and bred Brightonian. He is married and has three daughters.

For the latest on Tony’s various projects, visit his site www.tonyhealey.com

THE STARS MY REDEMPTION

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Abe has spent his entire life among the cold, hard swirl of the stars. He’s been a bounty hunter, an assassin, a pirate, a drug runner. He has a talent for unsavoury occupations. Now an opportunity for change falls at his feet, and Abe must decide whether to continue living the life of a rogue or embrace the prospect of redemption . . .

Praise for THE STARS MY REDEMPTION

“. . . loads of fun, reads at a blistering pace. Abe’s a galactic criminal who wanders from score to score leaving a bloody trail of human and alien carcasses, but there’s a stubborn crumb of humanity left inside of him. This is the story of how he rediscovers that lost part of himself. The action sequences remind me of Robert E. Howard. Abe would fit in well with Conan the Barbarian and Solomon Kane.”

“The story grabs you right from the outset. It is fast paced and enjoyable. It is written in the style of Star Trek/Star Wars that lets you feel for the characters without getting swamped with the technology… was well worth reading.”

“Story telling that is compelling and ultra-readable. Don’t expect to sleep till you have finished this book. Be ready to be addicted.”

FAR FROM HOME: VOLUME I

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The first three instalments in the smash hit FAR FROM HOME series, collected into one volume. Serves as a great entry point to the series.”

Praise for the FAR FROM HOME series

“There are so many characters and story lines to be pursued! I also LOVE that the author included so many strong female main roles and leaders. That is the future after all, equality! It’s an excellent read and I strongly recommend the series in the 3 book volume forms because you will always want more! It’s all good in the space neighborhood.”

“Fun to read. Far from Home would make an excellent TV series or mini-series special. The stories by Tony Healey, I’ve so far read, have what I refer to as ‘soul’ in them, being more than just words on paper or in ebooks.”

“An excellent book, Enjoyed it from start to finish. LOOKING FORWARD TO READING THE REST OF THIS SERIES. You go! TONY HEALEY!”

“. . . very easy to get into and it pulls you in so you don’t want to stop reading. If you enjoy Star Trek and other science fiction adventures you’ll enjoy this great adventure with Jessica and her crew. You’ll never want to put it down… trust me.”

“As a former nuclear submarine officer in the US Navy, I was immediately transported back to my time on subs during the cold war years. Since retiring from both the Navy and Navy supporting civilian contractors, I have been reading numerous sci-fi novels. I rank Far From Home as an extremely entertaining story… the action makes sense and time travel is possibly believable. THANKS SO MUCH!!!”

“I really enjoyed this book, and am looking forward to the rest of the series. It’s great to see a female commander and the action and characters really had a nice balance. Reminded me of some of my favorite sci-fi and that’s a good thing! I definitely recommend for fans of Battlestar and Star Trek.”

DARK VISIONS

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3 Dark Stories . . .

3 Dark Insights Into Human Nature…

3 Dark Visions…

In BURIAL, a DARK secret buried out in the woods is let loose…

In DARK ORB, the secrets of this life are unearthed from the cold, DARK ground…

In ABC, the DARK mystery of a small seaside town is unleashed…

Praise for the stories in DARK VISIONS

“. . . easily digestible and enjoyable for readers who don’t normally tread inside the genre. In fact, it’s a quite touching story. It’s a piece of well-written fiction that carefully weaves in actual reported events on record from the 1960s. I won’t spoil any of that, but for you conspiracy theory chasing cryptozoologists, I’m sure I don’t even need to.”

“. . . a suspenseful thriller written in a style that reminded me a bit of Poe. Healey is quickly assembling an impressive collection of horror stories that hearken back to the days gone by of classic storytelling. He writes with the panache of an author beyond his years. I can’t wait to see what he comes up with next.”

DEAD PRETTY

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Brighton, 1985—Christmas

‘tis the season . . . to die

Clementine is young, beautiful. The wife of a rich businessman. And she wants her husband killed. It’s meant to be a simple hit. But when it comes to murder, nothing is ever simple…

DEAD PRETTY is the explosive debut of man-for-hire COLBY JONES, written by the author of the best-selling series FAR FROM HOME

Praise for DEAD PRETTY

“Tony Healey has no fear. He’s not content to colour inside the lines, and writes compelling stories no matter which genre he selects. Tony is a brilliant Sci-Fi writer, but he can tackle any setting and still command your attention. This novella is the debut of Colby Jones, an anti-hero with traces of a conscience. I like Colby because despite his dealings on the other side of the law, it’s not hard to find him relatable. His motives are not unlike an average person. His means to an end are in a grey moral area, but his goals are so earnest that you can’t help but cheer him on. All of Tony’s work is well-written and enjoyable to read, but this is a good primer for readers that don’t like science-fiction. Once you get a feel for Tony’s endearing style, you’ll want to see how he applies it to other genres.”

“This is a damn good first attempt at hardboiled criminal fare. I really enjoyed it…”

“Anti-hero Colby Jones is a fella that maybe you should steer well clear of, but you actually find yourself overlooking his ‘misdemeanours’. He’s your average man, which is why I think you can relate to him, but he’s pretty ruthless too. When he takes a job, he sees it through, right to the very end. This was a great read and I really liked the author’s writing style. I was pulled in from the first page and proceeded to fly through the book. It’s a novella with a good storyline and with lots going on…”

More From Tony Healey:

Amazon.com Author Page

Amazon.co.uk Author Page

Smashwords Author Page

Tony Healey on Wattpad

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web: www.tonyhealey.com

email: tonyleehealey@gmail.com

twitter: @fringescientist