Star Clusters: New Arrivals (9 page)

“You have got to be kidding me…” Lanis muttered. “Into the ship,
now!
” he yelled, following his own order at the same time while a group of the smaller Xargans flew down towards the dig site, followed by a series of Xargan drop pods. As soon as everyone was aboard, the Eagle lifted off, flying with all guns blazing into the approaching flyers.

The ship’s turrets brought a few of the incoming Xargans down as it passed through their formation, and it dodged several projectiles from the larger craft before attempting to open a hyperspace window. When no hyperspace window appeared, Lanis was more than a little puzzled. “What’s wrong with the hyperdrive?” he asked over the intercom.

“It’s not the hyperdrive - they’ve got a disruptor!” Fanra answered from the engine room.

The Xargans were known for their adaptive nature, but mimicking such advanced technology had always seemed to be beyond their abilities - and, until the Interdictor prototype used to capture Admiral Jackson was developed, hyperspace disruption was considered impossible for starships even with the most advanced technology known to both the Terrans and the Petrans. “That’s impossible!”

“I guess it isn’t,” Fanra noted. “I’ll tap into the sensors, maybe I can find it.” As she said that, she accessed the sensors from the engineering console - a function that was usually managed by the Eagle’s cockpit. It didn’t take long to determine that the hyperspace disruptor was deep within the largest Xargan ship. Meanwhile, the Xargan in question extended several tentacles from its sides and sent them towards the Eagle, forcing Lanis to be even more creative in his evasive maneuvering. “We have a problem!”

“We’ve got tons of problems, which one are you talking about?” Lanis asked, avoiding another tentacle. Suddenly, one of them hit the hull - overpowering the Eagle’s shields within moments - and held on to it. Furthermore, the tentacle created a laserproof bubble around the ship, rendering its weapons useless. “Okay… I think we’re stuck.” He tried moving the ship around, but the tentacle remained attached, slowly pulling the Ivory Eagle in. “Yeah, we’re stuck.”

“Well, we’re stuck either way. Turns out their disruptor’s pretty well protected - our guns wouldn’t have done a thing to them,” Fanra explained.

“Do we not possess explosives of considerable power?” Zeshaira asked, remembering the story Lanis recalled to Jackson in the Carthan system.

“Yeah, I got some new bombs back at Cartha that should rip this thing apart, but without our shields, we’d be torn to bits along with it.”

“What about the transporter?” Fanra asked, realizing the idea behind Zeshaira’s question. “Xargans don’t have shields, so we
should
be able to send a couple of bombs over--”

“And blow up this tentacle thing and the hyperspace disruptor,” Herrun interrupted. “Nice thinking.”

“Alright, but I’ll need some help with this,” Lanis said. “Herrun, get over to the cockpit - you’ll have to take us into hyperspace once the bombs go off, and I need everyone else’s help to put this together.”

It didn’t take long at all for the bombs to be extracted from the Eagle’s makeshift minelayer; finally, they were beamed into the hyperspace disruptor and the root of the tentacle holding the ship, resulting in two powerful explosions. “Alright, punch it!” Lanis said into the intercom, and they made the jump to hyperspace. The Holsen system, however, was lost once again to the merciless Xargan onslaught.

Of course, these were not the only battles being fought against the Xargans. Deep in the interstellar void, the U.S.S. Orion - having been seized and sent to Earth, with Eugene Jackson confined to his quarters - was pulled abruptly from hyperspace along with its escort.

The admiral looked out of the window and saw a Xargan task force similar in size to that encountered by the Ivory Eagle in the Holsen system. To his great annoyance and concern, it was clear from the fleet’s maneuvering that the Orion’s acting captain was inexperienced or incompetent - and would be incapable of winning this battle. He headed towards the door, but was stopped by the heavily armed - and armored - soldier standing outside. “Sir, you have to stay inside,” the trooper insisted, pushing him back through the door.”

Jackson wasn’t going to give up, though. “I have to get to the bridge,” he said, trying to get past the guard.

The ship shook as Xargan projectiles impacted its shielded hull. “I’m afraid I can’t let you do that, sir.”

“Look at my uniform. Does it say ‘I give a damn about your orders’ anywhere on it? Let. Me. Pass.”

“Admiral, my orders include shooting you with a stunner if you keep resisting.”

“Have you ever seen a Xargan kill his victims? I have, and believe me, it’s bad. It’s even worse than it looks. We’re about to be wiped out by a whole army of these things; if you’re lucky, they won’t board us and you’ll be incinerated in the explosion or left to die a slow death in the debris. Assuming they don’t find you, that is. If they find you, or if they board us, you’ll probably be eaten, dissolved, or just torn apart one piece at a time - and the worst part is, you’ll be
alive
as they do it to you. Let me get to the bridge, and maybe, just
maybe
we’ll get out of this place in one piece.”

As Jackson explained the trooper’s likely fate to him, he couldn’t see the reaction through his visor until the latter finally put down his gun. “Alright, but I’m coming with you,” he said.

“Fine. Come on.” They rushed towards the nearest turbolift, soon arriving on the ship’s bridge. “What’s the situation?” he demanded upon exiting the elevator, surprising the entire bridge crew, especially the captain who had arrested him near Menlon.

“What are you doing here? Crewman, I ordered you to--”

“I’m here because
somebody
has to win this fight, and it sure as hell doesn’t sound like it’s going to be you,” Jackson interrupted. “You can add ‘forcibly took control of a US task force’ to my charges if you like; now, what’s the situation?”

“A large Xargan mothership somehow pulled us out of hyperspace, several smaller ships and a swarm of fighters are attacking us,” the tactical officer reported. “Welcome back, sir.”

“This-- this is
mutiny
!” the captain protested furiously.

“Send all fighters to engage the mothership, concentrate their fire on the thing’s brain. Route power from hyperdrive capacitors to shields, order the escort ships to target enemy fighters and use us as cover, and lock on to the closest Xargan ship with all available tractor beams,” Jackson ordered before turning to the outraged officer. “This, ‘Captain’, is war. You don’t leave any resources unused if you want to live. Now, either shut up or get off my bridge.”

The displaced captain chose the former, silently observing the battle. The Orion quickly ensnared a medium-sized Xargan with its tractor beams, then opened fire, tearing the creature apart with a few well-aimed volleys from its main weapons. The admiral just smiled at the ease with which the maneuver was executed. “Alright, let’s try catching two at a time… try to split our graviton emitters and weapons as evenly as you can, targeting the next two ships. Shield status?”

“Shields are down to sixty percent and steadily decaying, sir.” The tractor beams activated again, capturing some of the lighter Xargans.

“Fire!” Once again, the ship’s weapons wiped the targets out. Meanwhile, its fighters were engaged in a mass dogfight near the lead Xargan ship and the escorts were hitting the Orion as frequently as they hit their targets. “Transfer power from life support to weapons, order all escorts to move in to engage the command ship.”

This last order confused most of the crew. “Life support, sir?”

“Yes, life support. Fire all weapons at these coordinates on my mark,” he ordered, indicating a point in the mothership’s reinforced hull. The Orion moved closer to the Xargan behemoth. “Mark!”

A barrage of shells, laser bolts and beams as well as missiles slammed into the target location, quickly penetrating the reinforced shell that served as the creature’s armor and devastating the interior, despite the redundant inner layers placed to avoid such a scenario. A nuclear missile launched into the hole dealt a considerable amount of damage due to the comparably vulnerable nature of the Xargan ship’s interior. Its sheer size and resilience, however, ensured that the creature kept fighting - less effectively, but it fought nonetheless. The attack did induce considerable chaos in the Xargan task force, though, as it wiped out whatever system they had been using to maintain their connection to the hive mind.

“Is their hyperspace disruptor still active?” Jackson asked as some of the Xargans turned on each other.

“Yes, sir. It wasn’t in the targeted section of the ship.”

“Restore power to hyperdrive and life support. All ships, concentrate your fire on the enemy flagship; target the hyperspace disruptor. Recall all fighters.” After some more bombardment, the Xargan mothership lost its hyperspace disruptor. “Alright, plot a course for the Centauri wormhole, maximum speed,” the admiral ordered. “Wouldn’t want to be late to my court martial, after all…”

The Terran ships jumped into hyperspace, leaving the Xargans to fight amongst themselves. “Admiral, you’re the first person I’ve met who
wants
to attend his court martial,” the captain said.

“That’s because I intend to win,” Jackson simply answered. His determination was clear. “And the sooner this is done, the sooner we can all start fighting the Xargans. You can take over now if you want to.”

“I think there’s no harm in it as long as we’re still on course.”

“Suit yourself.”

As the Orion proceeded towards the Centauri wormhole, Poteran’s fleet met near Lieproi. With the Xargans launching a full-scale invasion once again, everyone had to alter their plans accordingly. Poteran, Boller, Rotgen and the Lieproi station commander met in the Hippasrus’ briefing room.

“Unfortunately, it is as I feared,” Poteran started. “Even with the Xargan invasion, the High Council is more concerned with apprehending us than they are with defending against the Xargans. Rumor has it that they intend to fight this war without ‘alien meddling’, a decision that can result only in defeat.”

“So the Lieproi attack didn’t work?” Captain Rotgen asked.

“I wouldn’t say that just yet - even if we haven’t forced the Council to send more ships from Petra, we did get some reinforcements of our own,” Poteran answered.

“Including a space station - perhaps deep space deployment could allow us to safely repair and refit your ships, once we put it back together,” the Lieproian commander, D’fal Woren, suggested.

“Unfortunately,” Boller said, “our survey teams didn’t find anything new in the ruins. It looks like Cartha and Daserus were the only systems containing anything noteworthy.”

“Are we going to Petra, then?” Rotgen inquired.

“No, not yet. As important as the matter is, acting before we’re ready would be a disaster,” Poteran stated. “We’re going to help with the defense of the outlying systems for now.”

“I think we’re as ready as we’ll ever be,” Boller noted. “
Trying
to fight alongside a force that may or may not shoot us on sight certainly won’t help.”

“Agreed,” Rotgen said. “The sooner we’re done with this quasi-revolution of ours, the sooner we can start coordinating our defense with the rest of the fleet. We should hit Petra now with everything we’ve got, finish this before it’s too late.”

“We may be able to use the chaos to our advantage,” Woren suggested. “Nobody knows we’ve joined forces with you - we could ‘flee’ to Petra, launch a sneak attack from within. Once all their forces had diverted to take us down, you could reach the objective.”

“That’s suicide!” Poteran answered. “I mean, it could work, but your group would be obliterated.”

“I don’t think we have a choice,” Woren said.

“Whatever we do, we should do it as soon as possible,” Boller reminded them.

“Alright,” Poteran finally yielded. “Take your force to Petra - we will arrive precisely twenty hours after you depart, so plan your attack accordingly. If the operation is compromised, transmit a signal to us.”

As Poteran and the others planned the attack, it seemed to him as if though there was no way for them to win this war…

Chapter 7

Shadows

Zeshaira sat on her bed, meditating in front of a blue, shimmering ball of energy. To the untrained eye, the orb looked chaotic, but there was a pattern to some of the movements, and careful observation would reveal that it was growing. It was a slow expansion - not even visible to the naked eye, but it remained constant as the ship sped through hyperspace, hoping to outpace the Xargan advance.

Suddenly, the door opened, and the ball started shrinking, rapidly withdrawing its energy into Zeshaira. “Oh, sorry - I didn’t know you were… doing whatever you were doing,” Fanra said, having seen the last moments of its decay. “What was that thing, anyway? Uhh, never mind - you can tell me later. O-or not at all.” She paused, trying to focus on why she was here in the first place. “We picked up a transmission, and, uh, Lanis thought it’d be a good idea if we all discussed it together.”

“Very well,” Zeshaira said, getting out of the bed and following Fanra into the main hold. When they got there, they saw Lanis and Herrun were arguing.

“... beside the point! The point is, you should have at least
told me
before you turned the place into your private battlefield!” they heard Lanis say.

“What’s going on?” Fanra asked.

“Herrun got bored and turned the drone bay into a warzone, that’s what,” Lanis answered.

“It’s just a bunch of guns set to stun,” Herrun argued, “it won’t hurt anybody! Besides, the drones were--”

“Again, not the point! This is
my
ship, I should know about everything people do to it!”

“He is quite right,” Zeshaira noted, “you should have told him about it. It would also have been a good idea to inform me - I’m quite knowledgeable when it comes to training grounds, and I would also have enjoyed participating in the exercises.” She looked towards an irritated Lanis. “Perhaps it would be better if we discussed the transmission you received.”

“Yeah, fine - the ship’s computer received this message when the Xargans arrived, I just found it a couple of minutes ago.” he said, showing everybody his datapad.

The screen displayed the following message: “Lanis Baltor, meet me in front of Docking Bay 47 in the colony on Aphis. Come alone and unarmed or not at all.”

“‘Come alone and unarmed or not at all’?” Fanra said. “That’s… alarming.”

“I’m guessing they won’t show up if I don’t do as they say. Bit of a cliché, really.”

“It’s a trap,” Herrun said.

“Or it’s something very important and we
have
to risk it,” Fanra countered.

“Thank you for throwing me out of the airlock,” Lanis dryly commented. “You’re right, though - we can’t just dismiss this,
but
we shouldn’t just rush in and risk getting ourselves - or in this case, me - killed,
especially
if this is a Xargan we’re dealing with.”

“I could come. They will not be expecting a concealed Tarhedian.”

“Probably, but what about the rest of us?” Herrun asked. “Are we supposed to just sit this one out?”

“Well, you could always use your little training ground,” Lanis suggested jokingly. “No, you two will find a good spot to watch from and cover us if we get into trouble.”

“What do you know about the place, anyway?” Fanra asked.

“Well, Aphis is a small star with only one planet orbiting it, so the name’s also used for the planet itself. The planet Aphis is to Earth what its star is to Sol, but it’s quite dense and rich in various minerals and important chemicals, most notably Aphian fuel. Completely uninhabitable, but if you use enough technology you’re bound to survive anything, so that’s not a problem. Anyway, there’s a mining colony on the planet surface, a pretty big one as far as mining colonies go, really. It could have changed a lot since I was last there, though.”

“What is Aphian fuel?” Zeshaira asked.

“I think I should give you a bit of background info first - that way you’ll understand why it’s important. Back in the early days of Terran spaceflight - around the time when we built the first hyperdrive, actually - our ships were powered by bulky nuclear reactors. Now, those things were heavy and - depending on the kind of reactor used - could be extremely dangerous. Most importantly, this meant that we didn’t have a lot of ships capable of hyperspace travel, that they weren’t as fast as they could have been, and that we had to use big, expensive ships to do just about anything. Hyperdrive capacitors were a nice idea, but without a powerful enough generator, it’d take ages to charge up for just one jump. Not to mention the fact that the technology was still rather primitive, so you’d need a lot of room to install them.”

“Yeah, we had problems like that. Except the capacitors, we could make those a bit smaller than you,” Fanra said. “How fast did those first ships go, anyway?”

“Ten times the speed of light, I think.”

“Ours could go twice as fast,” she stated. There was a hint of pride in her voice, but Lanis thought it didn’t matter. “What about your people, Zeshaira?”

“When we left Tarhedia, the fastest of our ships could only move twice as fast as light,” Zeshaira answered, “so it is hardly surprising that the journey to our new homeworld lasted as long as it did.”

“How much did it take?” Herrun asked.

“Far too much,” Zeshaira simply stated. “If there was ever a time when I would have considered suicide as an option, that was it.”

“What about combat training? Or that meditation thing you were doing earlier? Playing games? Scientific research?” Fanra paused. “Okay, I can see why you might not want to go for that one.”

“There are only so many things you can do aboard a vessel such as that before
everything
becomes tiresome and the only thing preventing you from ending your life is the knowledge that you are among the last of your kind - and that, if you wait, the situation will improve,” Zeshaira agitatedly explained. “It was torture, especially for the younger, more impatient ones among us - such as myself. By the time we arrived, I suspect even Hatos had grown weary of it.”

“What about cryogenic suspension or something?” Lanis asked.

“Unfortunately, this was not an option when we departed. Our entire civilization - what was left of it - had to exist in those same conditions,” she answered. “However, you should continue your story.”

“Right. Anyway, we eventually stumbled upon a planet - no, not Aphis,” he preemptively clarified, “containing a gas which, if properly treated and used, could provide large quantities of energy with relatively little mass or volume. Volatile stuff, but it was much more effective than hauling around massive nuclear reactors to power your ship. Not to mention the fact that it made energy weapons a lot easier to implement. Anyway, these days we just call such substances ‘fuel’ - it’s a sort of blanket term, really. Aphian fuel, sometimes also called ‘aphium’, is the best one we’ve found so far, but it’s also extremely toxic. Well, that and it explodes up to ten times as violently as the equivalent mass of our best conventional explosives, so it’s pretty dangerous. Despite this, Aphis provides a large chunk of our fuel supply these days, though it’s by no means irreplaceable. Fuel is used for a variety of purposes; due to their less dangerous nature, most sorts of fuel are used in power plants and other less secure locations - including certain personal weapons, but aphium is most commonly used in starship propulsion, toxic weapons that nobody really uses because they’re too much of an environmental hazard in the only places they can actually work in, as additives for - or simply the entire content of - various explosives, including the Eagle’s bombs; for starship weapons and just about anything related to powering starships, really, and I think that’s about it.”

“Are you saying fuel is used in individual weapons?”

“Yeah, that way we don’t have to worry about losing a vital power conduit. Instead of sending large amounts of power from the ship’s generators into the guns, we use smaller generators to provide power for each separate weapon. Of course, we can - and usually do - divert power from the main reactor into the weapons, supplement the guns’ own power sources, but they
can
be self-sufficient.”

“Interesting,” Zeshaira said. “How long will it take us to reach Aphis?”

“Five hours, I think,” Lanis answered. “That’s basically it, unless somebody has any other questions.”

After a brief moment of silence, Herrun went off to the drone bay. Noticing that, Lanis gave off an agitated sigh and went into his cabin. Fanra was about to do the same when Zeshaira gently grabbed her left wrist from behind. “You were right,” she started as the Petran turned around, “about what I was doing. Tarhedians perform that exercise from time to time, as it helps them focus their mental abilities. I find that it can also serve as an alternative to sleep - to a certain degree. Another purpose is to test the focus and calmness of a person.”

“Was that what that blue energy ball was for?”

“I do not know what causes the orb to form or grow, but yes - the more stable and organized it is, the calmer and more focused the Tarhedian in question is. Hatos has managed on several occasions to achieve perfect control, with each movement in the sphere being a part of the same pattern.”

“Can I watch?” Fanra asked enthusiastically. She was clearly fascinated by the process.

“If you must,” Zeshaira answered, then started walking towards her cabin.

Fanra followed her. “Do you need anything?”

“No.” The two of them entered Zeshaira’s cabin, and Zeshaira sat on her bed again, closing her eyes. Fanra, however, looked around, waiting for the sphere to form.

“So how long does it take the sphere to appear?”

“That mostly depends on the environment.”

“I see. By the way, why were you so… disturbed by that Tarhedian text we found?”

“It would seem that I was wrong.”

“How so?”

“There is one vital thing I need that you are denying me. Silence.”

“Oh, okay,” Fanra said, sitting down next to Zeshaira. Soon, the small, chaotic ball formed. Over the next five hours, the orb grew, becoming more organized and calming down. Fanra just watched it, seemingly hypnotised by the orb’s movements until it rapidly started decaying. “What’s going on?”

“There is no time left,” Zeshaira answered. “We should prepare for the mission.”

“How do you know? I don’t see a clock anywhere.”

“There are multiple things allowing me to determine the time. The ship’s chronometer, for example. There is also the fact that Lanis has just rather suddenly left his cabin after spending most of his time inside.”

“Right.”

Soon, the Ivory Eagle landed in one of the Aphian hangars, and the team spread out to execute the plan. Lanis and a concealed Zeshaira quickly arrived at the meeting site in front of Docking Bay 47. Surprisingly, there were very few people there - the entire area was somehow lifeless, darker than it usually was.

Suddenly, a voice spoke out of the darkness. “I told you to come alone, Baltor,” it said. “Fortunately, there was a backup plan for such an event.” A group of armed men emerged from the shadows, pointing their rifles at Lanis and (to her great surprise) Zeshaira.

“Well, you didn’t catch all of us,” Lanis commented, “so there’s still somebody out there to stop you.”

“Uhh, I’m not so sure about that,” Fanra said through her comlink. Four of the strangers had just appeared, pointing their weapons at her and Herrun.

“This was not a smart move, I’m afraid,” the voice said, emerging from the dark corner he had been in. It was a middle-aged Petran - in fact, several of their captors were Petrans, to Lanis’ surprise. “Don’t be so surprised. You are not the first group which has decided to put aside their differences - without the approval of their governments, that is - to fight this war. I had intended to take you alone, but under the circumstances I suppose that plan will have to change.” He walked over to the docking bay door controls, entering a code on the keypad; the door opened.

“What is this? Who are you?” Lanis asked.

“I will explain everything to you in due time. For now, trust me when I say that we are on the same side - we will see to it that your ship is taken to safety. Come on, we don’t have all day,” he added, boarding the Terran transport located in the hangar.

Within minutes, everyone was aboard the transport, and it took off, jumping into hyperspace as soon as it left the atmosphere. Once the ship was in hyperspace, the Petran commanding it entered the room they had been locked in. “I’m sure you have many questions for me - but for now, I need answers of my own. Who told you the Tarhedians were killed on Petra?”

“A Petran major - Hokka Lurvat, if I remember correctly. Why?”

This obviously came as a great surprise to the man, as the shock was visible on his face. “Hokka Lurvat? Are you sure?”

“Pretty sure. Now could you please explain what’s going on here?”

“Yes, I suppose an introduction is in order. I’m a member of a secret task force known as the Arcamil, formed by various individuals on both sides shortly after everyone realized that the Xargans were not a bioweapon created by the Terrans, but in fact a third party seeking to destroy us all. You can call me Lossuh.”