The Forsaken Empire (The Endervar War Book 2) (34 page)

What you just did that was a real gateway, Arendi said.

She approached Farcia in the shuttle’s cabin. The woman was still wiping the sand from her face. Beneath her feet a cleaning bot was at work, sucking up the dust.

Arendi saw no discernible expression. Just a slate of skin marked with dirt.

It’s not the safest way to travel, she remarked.

No, it isn’t, Farcia replied with a croak from her cheek.

She brushed her white hair to the side and sighed. She could still taste the salt in her gills. But at least she was alive, away from the danger.

The only obstacle that remained was her the Savior. She approached with her questions, insisting and needing to know.

How? Arendi asked. How did you do it?

It’s the power of my people, Farcia answered. It’s how we arrived here in the first place. To your galaxy.

A bridge, she explained. A link that could surmount incredible distances. Not just over the span of a galaxy, but across a universe.

But the structure on the outpost, Arendi said. That was Unity technology.

It was both Unity and Endervar, Farcia replied. The energies inside that was the power. The power of my people.

Arendi recalled the energy spike. It had emanated over the habitat before their sudden transit. The intensity had been monstrous. Maybe enough to fuel a star. She, however, was no stranger to such power. She had learned to command it during the time of the Great War. At her wrists were two arm bands, clamped against her jacket sleeves. The advanced technology was currently dormant and coated in a block of darkness. But Arendi knew what was there, secretly inside.

So did Farcia.

You weren’t the only one who learned how to use my people’s power, the woman said.

She stared at Arendi’s armbands. The exotic particles contained within belonged not to this universe, but that of another.

Endervar matter, Farcia said. What you possess. That’s only a small piece. In the same way you learned to use our power. The Unity, they wanted the same. They desired it.

So you showed them how, Arendi concluded.

No, Farcia said. I showed them more. I had to.

She walked past Arendi and entered the cockpit and began dialing in the next location.

This is where we need to go, Farcia said. The Ehvine symbols appeared on the main window.

The location was close. Only four light-years away. The star itself was a brown dwarf, or a failed star that had failed to ignite fully. From what Arendi could tell, the territory had been colonized by no one. The dwarf itself was faint barely visible. Moreover, the surrounding area was devoid of comm traffic or any signs of travel. There was nothing to suggest life or civilization. It was all conspicuously silent. But Farcia knew the truth.

The answers you seek are there, she said.

Although it would only take hours to cross the distance, Arendi was still skeptical and cautious.

What do you mean? she asked. There’s no activity on the scans.

Farcia dropped into a seat next to the ship’s controls. She was more than ready to venture ahead.

A remnant, she went on. A remnant of the Unity. It’s there. Once, they sought to betray me, Farcia muttered, so I destroyed them. I annihilated them.

***

The so-called remnant was indeed there, orbiting the failed star. It was aimless, scattered across a barely cohesive fleet. Arendi naturally suspected danger. The scans detected drones, cruisers, and orbital weapons roaming through the night. It was more than enough firepower to cut down their shuttle. She placed her hand on the craft’s control board, hesitant. Maybe even nervous.

Farcia, however, wasn’t afraid. To her it was just another ruin.

As they journeyed deeper into the system, the fleet remained cold and comatose. The shuttle was in plain sight, and still the surrounding ships failed to react.

Still no signs of activity, Arendi said.

That’s because they have no master, Farcia replied. Not anymore.

She looked out to the window and into the dull sunlight. The brown dwarf and its violet hues shone over the dormant fleet. The ships were more like dead matter: inert and wandering. In some cases, they weren’t even complete. Nevertheless, Farcia saw the resemblance. It made her think back to the past.

The Unity, she said. When I first encountered them, it was much like this. Machine ships searching throughout space. They were searching for the Endervars. They were attempting to study my kin, trying to find out where they went. Little did they know that I was in control. That was almost twenty-four years ago. When I left Red.

Farcia huffed; her breath was aflutter. She was remembering things she hadn’t thought about in years or maybe ever. Arendi saw her pensive stare. Farcia’s eyes were large and black.

There were always rumors, Arendi said. That the Unity was obsessed with the Endervars.

Yes, they were obsessed, Farcia replied. They wanted to know our secrets. To know all. But they were also desperate. Desperate for power.

She looked back at the neglected fleet. It was dead for a reason.

I never trusted the Unity, Farcia said. No one did. Not even their own kind.

She then went to the control board and dialed in the next coordinate. It was located past the smattering of initial drones, closer to the failed star.

This vessel, she said. This is where we need to go.

According to the scans, it was the largest ship within the fleet. The Ouryan Juggernaut loomed, only partially built. Even without its full mass, the battleship was immense. The bulk of the dark vessel was a long heap of dense metal covered in a construction net. It was wrapped in tubes and spines, as though it were mummified flesh and bone.

Arendi tried to imagine its full form. To her, the battleship was a giant blade ready to be unsheathed.

The Unity, she said. We tried to stop them. We even sent a fleet.

I know, Farcia said. You were aided by someone, weren’t you? Someone who was leaking information.

Yes. A defector. From within the Unity.

Farcia gestured to the window and to the ships in view. This was all once hers

Remembering that, she paused. She coughed in her hand, thinking back to the exact moment years ago. It wasn’t a moment she wished to relive. She had briefly known the woman. The defector had even given her something a final, desperate request.

Farcia touched the security collar around her neck and sniffed. Then she suddenly turned away.

What happened to her? Arendi asked. To the defector?

She’s dead, Farcia said. I killed her.

***

Farcia claimed that she could offer access. Without it, the juggernaut would self-destruct. Arendi didn’t doubt her. Unity vessels were sometimes known to implode when any trace of intrusion was detected. The same might happen here. The battleship might have been hibernating, but whatever was inside was clearly important and probably protected.

Arendi flexed her right hand. Perhaps she had her own solution. The hack from the Destroyer was still located behind the skin inside her right palm. She felt the data chip protrude as the entire hand opened and extended. She wasn’t inside the shuttle, however. She had exited the craft and entered space. Her body had drifted several hundred meters to cross the gap. With a simple push, she flew into the jungle of metal. Her machine systems had calculated the approach.

The juggernaut had no discernible hangar bay. Furthermore, it was caged behind a vast construction net. Web like bars covered most of the outer exterior, barring easy entry, at least for a ship. Arendi looked past the mesh. She sought to cross between the bars through a porous opening large enough for a small drone or a human body. Wearing nothing but a combat jacket over her back, she began the slow descent. She was immune to the cold and lack of air; her android body had been built to withstand the vacuum.

The same couldn’t be said for Farcia. She followed along, donning a space suit its cloth was wrapped in a weave of gold she had taken from the shuttle. Her face was contained behind a helmet.

The two eventually landed on the juggernaut’s outer wall and magnetized their boots to cling to the surface. Arendi was now walking to a possible point of entry. Crouching down, she placed her right hand over the data port. The socket itself was embedded in the juggernaut’s plated exterior. Arendi opened her fingers and inserted the chip. The data exchange quickly began, delivering the Destroyer’s code into the vessel’s systems.

What are you doing? Farcia asked through the comm.

Trying to see if it remembers, Arendi replied.

As she suspected, the juggernaut recognized the code. In seconds the battleship came alive. They both sensed movement under their feet. Just a few meters away, from the data port, a door formed. A beam of light came from the opening. The two went inside.

Arendi half expected a sterile environment. The Unity had always cared little for organic life, and their vessels often reflected that. Most ships were essentially giant computers, largely devoid of any accommodations. Even the juggernaut itself contained no windows. There was only an opaque wall. Inside was a different matter. The door behind them sealed. For a moment, she floated. Then her feet settled. Gravity and atmosphere soon began to arrive.

This is unusual, she thought. They were inside a designated airlock an area meant for nonmachine life. She could smell the oxygen. It was heated. The entryway was also bright. The walls themselves were polished in ivory.

Farcia stood next to her and pulled the helmet off her face.

It’s fine, she said, breathing in the air. This ship is different from the others.

With another several steps, they exited the area and found themselves in a hallway. There was more oxygen rushing in, along with an abundance of light.

Brushing back her ruffled hair, Arendi initiated the scans with her machine vision. From what she could see, the juggernaut’s interior might already be complete. This particular area had also been built with life support. It was also spacious. The ivory walls stretched up to a high ceiling. Across the bulkhead she saw the outlines of actual doors.

Arendi looked down at the floor. At her feet was the symbol of the Unity. It was a circular ring chiseled into the surface. She stepped over it, only to encounter something else. The bright lights converged at the center of the hallway. A virtual white steam began to emerge from the floor. Arendi stopped and stared at the apparition. The hologram spoke, mistakenly addressing her by the wrong name.

Welcome Magnus, it said. The true Unity greets you.

Chapter 35

Indeed, there were rooms here. Many rooms. Probably several dozen people could live or work in this very section alone. Arendi went to her machine vision and saw the evidence of beds, cryochambers, and bath facilities behind each confine. Very strange for a ship supposedly connected with the Unity, a group that generally had no need for such things.

She walked to the other end of the hallway, eager. Her step was fast, and she singled out one area in particular. The hologram had guided her here. Inside this room was the juggernaut’s central bridge. She was about to enter when she looked back to the rest of the hallway.

Farcia was there, a step behind. She was slow, almost dragging. Arendi then heard the crack of Farcia’s helmet fall to the floor. She doubled back and checked on the woman. Farcia huffed. She knelt down and lay her back against the ivory wall. Arendi assumed that she was tired or just flustered. Her eyes seemed small. The skin underneath them was ringed and bagged. In reality, her expression was closer to dread. Arendi didn’t know it, but Farcia felt exposed, sitting here, in this monument to the past.

Savior, she said. What you find there, in that room maybe then you’ll understand.

Arendi pulled the woman off from the floor. She threw Farcia’s arm over her shoulder, and they walked inside together.

The bridge was refined, like the hallway. More spotless white. The surfaces were polished, and almost everything was nearly bare. But in a flash, the empty space receded. The room came online to reveal the stars. There were thousands of them, as all the surrounding surfaces suddenly became virtual windows. Even the ground was transparent; below them was more cosmic light. Off in the distance, Arendi even saw the dormant fleet. In the center of the bridge emerged the hologram she had seen earlier. The white steam rose like a ghost. Arendi noticed the vague trace of a face floating amid the fog. It was etched in a sculpture of glass.

She gently placed Farcia on the floor and began to access the system. The hack had apparently lifted all the security across the ship. Arendi realized it was probably deliberate. The protocols protecting the data had unraveled the moment the Destroyer’s code had entered into the system. To some extent, the juggernaut had wanted to be found. All this time, the vessel had been drifting, carrying a final message.

There’s something here, Arendi said. It was recorded two decades ago.

The juggernaut and its systems then sent out an alert. Farcia lifted her face when she heard the ring. She had no idea what it was. Evidently, the message had been stored in secret. Arendi played it now. The hologram reacted, embodying the voice of the one who had composed it. The voice was feminine. To Arendi, it sounded troubled and desperate.

Magnus, the hologram said, if you’re getting this, I am most likely dead.

Arendi looked up. The face within the fog winced. She then saw the hologram walk across the floor, as though it were alive. The nameless woman behind it was shrouded in guilt.

I’m afraid things haven’t gone well, the voice went on. The Alliance strike force. Your ships. There were complications. I thought the target was vulnerable. But everything went wrong. I can only assume nothing is left.

I’m sorry, the hologram added in a rasp. It’s all my fault. But know this. It’s far more disturbing than I ever imagined. A faction of the Unity has allied itself with the Endervars. Somehow. I’m trying to learn more. I assume we destroyed what they were working on. But the danger it’s still there. Now I’m on the run. I’m moving to contingencies. I would meet you again, but I can’t. The Unity has to be stopped. So there’s something I have to try.