“Captain, we have to find a way to open communications with the Trenits,” asked the navigator.
“They appear to be refusing our invitations to talk,” Javid replied, rubbing his reddening forehead.
Yara raised his heavy eyebrows. “Captain?”
“We picked up a transmission just before you lot walked onto the bridge, but we aren’t sure it’s meant for us.”
“What does it say?” Alek asked.
“That’s our other headache,” Javid muttered only partially in Alek’s direction. “It’s gibberish. AJ can’t make heads or tails of it. Hell, they could even be talking about our heads and tails.”
“Could it be the Trenits are blocking the transmission?” Hugo asked.
Javid, nodded his head. “Cadmore came to the same conclusion.”
"That’s Karl Cadmore, the CISO - Communications and Information Systems Officer," Javid told Alek.
Javid leaned over the ship communicator in the console. “Speaking of which… Intercom, Communications!”
AJ’s overly calm voice burst forth across the bridge to cut short Javid’s request of the Communications officer. “Captain, I am sorry to interrupt you but I have important information you will want to hear.”
“AJ, this had better be worth pulling me away from my existential dread,” Javid growled.
“It is Captain. The ship’s sensors have detected an anomaly. It’s a slight ripple in the fabric of space as it shows up on the visual indicators, light is bending around an object lurking just beyond the edges of our scanners.”
Meanwhile, unbeknownst to any aboard the Excalibur, a mysterious entity had silently slipped into position between the cruiser and the battleship, but far enough away it barely registered on instruments. The third craft began shadowing the Excalibur not long after the starship jumped back into the star system to resume its earlier route. When AJ alerted them of the observer, the idea of a specter stalking them from the fringes thoroughly unnerved all on the bridge.
“It’s keeping well away from the Trenit battleship,” Yara said, reviewing the records and statistics AJ produced. “I believe it perceives the Trenit ship as an enemy.”
“This day just gets more interesting, doesn’t it?” Javid quipped.
“Captain, this may offer us a sliver of hope,” Yara suggested.
“What’s on your mind, Lieutenant Commander?”
“Well, if this entity does indeed view the Trenits as enemies, we might be able to turn this precarious situation to our favor. "We might be able to gain their trust and turn this precarious situation to our favor, perhaps even strike up an alliance."
“The enemy of my enemy is my friend, you mean?” Javid asked with a thin smile.
“Yes, that Earthling saying does fit the situation,” Yara informed him.
"No time for chit-chat,” Javid barked, switching on the intercom. “Report, Karl. Now."
A holograph of the face of the CISO appeared before Javid’s chair.
“Captain, I believe we’ve cracked the code. We are getting an image link with the Trenit ship. Shall I go ahead and patch it through.”
“Yes, do it now,” Javid cried out.
“The translation tool is now shared between our vessels Captain,” AJ confirmed.
“Bridge, stand by,” Javid said into the ship’s communicator. “I’m about to open a direct line to the Trenits.”
The large screen assembled itself in front of the bridge and flickered into life. Particles of white snapping into one another. The face staring back at the bridge was alarming. The creature’s eyes were perfectly round and staring with an unwavering intensity. A crown of feather like appendages stood up on a head that was almost perfectly round so that it looked like a ball. Its cheeks were puffy and the beak that protruded from the lower face had a cruelly curving pointed end to it.
“Greetings,” Javid began. “I am Captain Javid of the Excalibur, an interstellar cruiser of the Earth Guardian fleet. We are on our way to the Janet B star system. We go in peace.”
Javid waited, but the Trenit on the screen continued to stare in silence. It was a flat lie of course. The ship was a cruiser intended to return hostile fire, and to initiate it when necessary.
“Ah, CISO, have we got a frozen image there?” Javid asked.
“No, Captain, the link is good.”
“Doctor Isolde, report to the bridge,” Javid barked into the intercom. “That means right now!”
He looked back up at the screen to see the creature staring back at him. He was relieved when the two eyes blinked, and it motivated him to try again. “Our mission is peaceful,” he repeated.
“Your ship is fitted for the purpose of war!”
Javid turned to Yara, who returned a shrug. “I guess polite introductions are not a big thing for Trenits, Captain.”
“This is a cruiser, yes, and you command a battleship!”
The creature blinked once, staring back at Javid as if it was listening to a translation of the Earthling’s language.
Javid leaned over to Yara and whispered in his ear. "Perhaps I said too much?"
“Uh-huh, indeed,” the Tropian grunted unhappily.
“Mind if I ask the name of the big cheese I'm talking to?" Javid queried, maintaining an aura of respectful curiosity even as he held the creature's unsettling visage in a steady stare. AJ would iron out the tone of his question when delivering the Trenit commander a translation.
"You are speaking to the Commander of this starship. State your purpose!” the staring creature demanded, omitting to give Javid its name.
"Well, same goes to you, mister anonymous," Javid retorted, the ghost of a smile playing on his lips.
"Captain," AJ pleaded. "It's becoming increasingly difficult for me to capture an acceptable nuance in the translation."
"You dared to trespass in our dominion?" The staring alien demanded. "What was your justification?"
“It was a mistake, and I apologize. A systems glitch that took us off course.”
"Off course by a LONG way, Captain!"
“Yes, and we have apologized to you for the error."
"We are not interested in your apologies. We are here to take back what you’ve stolen. If you return the artifact quickly, no harm will come to you or your ship.”
Isolde stepped up to Javid’s console. “I detect dishonesty, Captain.”
Javid shot her a sidelong glance, his eyebrow hitching up in silent agreement. He turned back to the Trenit commander. “It is a very interesting artifact. It told us its story. That was also…interesting.”
“Ah, Captain.” Yara said quickly, licking his lips with his black tongue. “To reveal what you know of the orb would be a mistake.”
“I concur with Grouch, Captain,” Isolde said with a nod to Yara.
“Trust it as far as you could throw it,” Yara added.
"If you managed to throw it to another galaxy, it still wouldn’t be far enough," Isolde retorted.
"Its intensions are entirely self-centered and focused on expediency."
“What evidence can you show us you have ever owned this artifact?” Javid asked the Trenit, waving his hand to quieten his officers.
“"We own the artifact. It's ours to take back." You will return it to our ship by securing it in a vessel you will then send to the coordinates I include in this broadcast. Noncompliance will result in the annihilation of your ship, after we have boarded it, and taken whatever we need. "Immediately after I end this transmission, you will dispatch the artifact to our ship."
"Then it appears we need more time to negotiate,” Javid told him, a calculated glint in his eye. "It is in both our interests to ensure a peaceful resolution, isn't it?"
“Why?” the Trenit commander squawked.
Javid cleared his throat, taken aback by the question. “Ah, we have encountered difficulty in getting the artifact onto a vessel. It tells us that it doesn’t like you.”
The creature fell silent, but continued to stare at Javid, the eyes cold and the gaze penetrating."
“I can wait a little longer, if you need the time to convince the artifact.”
Javid gave a nod. “Thank you. Allow me a moment to issue my instructions.”
“Of course Captain, but I warn you, my patience IS limited.”
Javid turned to Alek. “Can you convince it to allow us to put it in a shuttle craft and send it back out in space?”
“I can try,” Alek told him, feeling sorry the end of his interaction with the orb was now in sight.
“Don’t waste any time,” Javid told him. “It gets done or we fry. Magic or no magic, AJ tells me the Trenit battleship is vastly better equipped than us. So, we must take no chances. However you go about it, get it done at once. Hugo, you go with him. Lieutenant Commander, I need you on the bridge.”
The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.
A second before the transporter door opened, Alek had read a HUD alert. It was the first warning about an NPC he had experienced since he found himself on the ship.
WARNING: EXTREME THREAT NPC DETECTED.
POWER LEVEL BEYOND CURRENT ANALYTICAL CAPABILITIES.
PROCEED WITH UTMOST CAUTION.
She was a towering figure, standing at least seven feet tall. Her broad silhouette, backlit by the cold bright lights of the hold, resembled a titan. Silver hair hung in spikes around her muscular copper skinned shoulders. She was wide-eyed with dark brown irises under arching eyebrows, a perfect nose framed by small pointed ears, high cheekbones, a wide mouth curving in a sardonic smile underlined by a strong jaw. She wore body fitting body armor with glinting serrated toothed attachments on her forearms, a non to subtle addition that made her look all the more formidable.
She stood with her arms outstretched, her hands cupped together around the orb watching them exit the transporters. Keeping one eye on the alien, Hugo checked for signs of the fight that must have taken place. The twelve soldiers who had been guarding the orb lay scattered about the deck of the hold. There were no laser burns on the bodies as much as he could tell, and neither was there any blackened structure to be seen.
“They’ll be fine,” she said quietly as he gazed quickly around the hold.
Hugo tapped his wrist to speak into the intercom, but stopped when he saw the woman staring at him.
“It’s better for everyone if you do not call for help for the moment,” she said to Hugo, in the same calm voice.
“Ah, Captain, we…” Hugo's words trailed off as he slumped heavily to the deck.".
Alek barely saw the move - just a slight raise of her fingers.
A beam of light shot out from the clasp around her wrist to envelop the Canadian in light. The effect on Hugo was instantaneous.
“Are you a mage?”
“No, I use technology, not magic!” she replied. “My name is Samara. I am of the Kanduk clan. We are the warrior class on Biesleduphren. I am here to keep you and all the lifeforms on this starship from harm.”
“I have no idea where or what that place is,” Alek told her. “But I notice you recognized my outfit.”
“Not your outfit, Mage. Your magic! Biesleduphren is a planet in the nearest 2-star system. You are in my neighborhood.”
“So you thought you might drop in on us to see what the fuss is about?” Alek exclaimed
“No species wants Trenits anywhere near them,” she told him. “They are universally feared, known for their ruthless acquisition of resources and destruction of any who stand in their path. We are watching them closely while they remain in our patch of space.”
“Their reputation precedes them,” Alek said.
“They have the worst reputation you can imagine,” she told him and spat on the deck in disgust.
“Never mind. Why is it you recognize my abilities, but no one else in this game seems able to do the same?”
'Game?' she asked, her eyebrows furrowing in confusion."
“Oh, right. Of course you don’t know,” Alek said, rolling his eyes, but dropping his head so she didn’t notice .
“Do you speak in riddles all the time?” she asked him.
“You gave the standard NPC reply whenever I say that.”
She frowned at him. “I am speaking your language correctly.”
“Yes, you do that very well,” Alek said. “Look, I have to get that orb in your hand, onto a shuttle. I don’t know which shuttle or even where to find one. Can you help me get it done?”
“This is what the Trenit are chasing you for, isn’t it?” she said, staring at the orb that pulsed quietly with a blue light in the palms of her hands. “It is beautiful, isn’t it?”
Alek ignored her question, waving a hand in the air as if to erase it. “As you can tell, we are in a bit of a spot. Can you help me or not?”
“Not in the way you are asking me to help. The Book of the Ancients does not want to go near the Trenits.”
“I can see why,” Alek said, “but we still have to get it to them.”
“Or they will destroy your starship. That’s what they have said. Am I right?”
“That’s the situation, yes. If we try to delay, they have said they board us, take what they need, and then destroy the ship.”
“They always take the easiest route. The only thing they want is what I am holding in my hand, and they prefer to ensure they have it by forcing you to give it to them.”
Alek stared at her. “Can you help me or not.”
“Once they have the Book of the Ancients, they will destroy your ship.”
“Yes, the orb revealed that possibility to me.”
“It’s not a possibility. They will destroy you. They would never stand to have outsiders come into their system, take what they consider theirs, and live to go on and tell others.”
“I have reinforced its armaments with magic.”
“What kind?”
Alek told her how he how he had beefed up the vessel’s shielding and the guns of the soldiers and the ship.
“That won’t do any good,” she told him.
“Why not?” he asked indignantly.
“Take me to the Captain, and I’ll explain the threat your ship is facing.”
Alek balked at her words. “I don’t think we have the time for that,” he replied hurriedly.
"So you're not in the mood to find out how you and your ship can avoid getting vaporized?" She asked with eyebrows arched.
Alek thought if it came down to it, his magic was powerful enough to fight her. However, she also had access to one thing that had rapidly become his main source of power, the orb. He decided it would be prudent to check his stats.
“Uh, one moment, please,” Alek told her. “HUD!”
The display flickered in response to his call, and when he saw his stats, he sighed in relief. His health and power were 100%, his spells were fully charged, and his skills were at maximum strength. “Amazing,” he said. “After working all those spells. The orb just keeps on replenishing me.”
“The Book of the Ancients continues to ensure you are useful to its survival,” Samara told him. “It keeps you strong.”
Hugo stirred behind Alek, and got slowly to his feet. He squinted at Samara least she fired on him again. “Intercom, get me the bridge!”
“Hugo, what’s going on,” Javid answered.
Captain, we have one onboard,” Hugo said.
“From the battleship?” Javid asked, his voice cracking. “Just the one?”
“Unless it’s taken off the fancy dress, I don’t think it's one of the chicken heads!” Hugo retorted rubbing the bump on his head.
Javid along with Yara, and three soldiers with their pulsar guns at the ready stepped onto the deck of the hold. He glanced at the security detail getting slowly to their feet.
“Tell your soldiers to place all their weapons at their feet and to take two steps back from them,” she said to Javid.
The captain did as he was told.
Javid gestured for them to lower their weapons. “Hugo, are you alright?” he asked the engineering officer who was clearly dazed.
“I’m fine,” Hugo said rubbing his head.
“The third gunfighter in the square, I take it? You are from the other vessel that’s been observing from a distance, aren’t you?”
“I am here to help you escape the Trenits.”
“We don’t need your help,” Javid told her.
Her gaze bore into Javid's. “You must not trust them!
“Oh, believe me, we trust no one who threatens us harm, or boards our ship uninvited,” Javid replied evenly. “Not until they prove they are an ally.”
“Listen to me,” Samara said to Javid, her face deadly serious. “I know you have very little time. The Trenit weapon of choice is a neutron beam. They use it to blow away the software, leaving all the hardware intact. Biological matter is destroyed in an instant. They will use it anyway, no matter whether you give them the orb or refuse. They will neutralize all life on this ship just the same. With you and your crew gone, they board your ship and take it.”
“You mean their threat to board the Excalibur is intended to fool us into thinking we have a chance if we give them the orb,” Javid muttered. “The vicious bastards!
"Quite so, Captain. Once the orb is in their hands, they will vaporize your ship. They will not be a trace of it left behind to tell the tale,” she said. “That is the usual routine for a Trenit marauder. My ship had completed a scan of your weapons. The Trenits will have done the same. You don’t have the ability to fight them."
Yara stared up at the Biesleduphren warrior. “Alright. If you know the cruiser’s capabilities. Prove it. Tell us what they are.”
“You have fusion drive for propulsion. Standard for your world, but novel, and considered antique by most other advanced civilizations. The Excalibur couldn’t outpace the Trenit battleship. It uses quantum thrust warp drive, much the same as we have on our ship, only the Trenit system is larger, faster, and dirtier than ours.”
“So, that’s how they were able to follow us, and be so damn quick about it too,” Hugo muttered.
“You have a pulsar generator aboard, but you use it for weapons as its incapable of providing propulsion, an unfathomable waste,” Samara continued.
“I agree with you there,” Javid said nodding his head.
Samara turned to Alek. “You used the orb the Excalibur to go from the Trenit system to this one?”
“No, I used good old magic,” Alek replied proudly.
She stared at him a moment longer, pondering on another question, but she changed her mind, and turned back to the officers. “Your craft has a metamaterial hull. Very nice, but antique. It is hopelessly ineffective when faced with the capabilities of a Trenit battleship.”
“Our armor is reactive and self-repairing!” Hugo exclaimed.
“She’s right and you know it,” Javid said to Hugo. “A sustained attack by the Trenits would likely destroy the ship before the armor was able to self-repair.”
“All depends on their weapons,” Yara said. He was eager to know what the Trenits had to call on in a fight.
“Staying with your ship, Captain,” Samara said. “Your weapons are substantial, but nowhere near powerful enough to seriously damage the battleship.”
“We have an antique weapon system too, I suppose?” Hugo asked her glumly.
“You are too dependent on rail guns. Two at the top the hull and two at the bottom. All four with a firing range of 360-degrees. These are redundant when faced with battleships like that of the Trenit. You have a standard pulsar series on the sides, front, and back of the craft with long range capabilities. Effective, except when you come up against a craft equipped like the Trenit ship.
“We have other weapons,” Yara pointed out.
“Your bombs, drones, lasers are impressive but outdated and completely outclassed by the kinds of systems the Trenits use,” Samara told Yara. “Even my own small ship would be a serious match for yours!”
“We have the eight light fighters ready for action too,” Hugo pointed out.
“They might as well be annoying gnats if we attempted to pit them against the battleship,” Javid told him.
“Are we powerless to stop them boarding our ship?” Yara asked her.
"That’s what they think, but we can use their arrogance to our advantage," Samara replied.
“So, all of this is why the orb showed you the chicken head ship blasting the Excalibur to pieces!” Hugo growled, looking at Alek.
“I want to make sure that does not happen,” she told them.
“You are here for the orb though,” Alek said to Samara. “You are, aren’t you?”
She shrugged. “It’s true, I don’t want to see them with the Book of the Ancients. That kind of power in their hands is just unthinkable.”
“Why did they not secure it when they found it in their territory?” Yara asked.
“It wouldn’t allow them, but still they try,” she said. “The orb’s on a perpetual journey through space and time. While it allows a worthy soul to read it, no one can ever own it. By the way, there is more than one Book out there, but we rarely encounter any of them.”
“Have you heard of this Book of the Ancients?” Javid asked, turning to Yara.
He nodded. “It is legendary.”
“But you know of no evidence that’s held in a library or museum on your world?”
“It is a party of the legend of our beginnings,” Yara replied.
“This could be the Book of the Ancients, or it might be something else,” Javid said, looking quizzically at Yara.
“Given how much the Trenit want it, we can safely assume it is extremely valuable one way or another,” Yara replied.
AJ’s voice came over the intercom in the hold. “Captain, the Trenit ship has engaged its engines. It will reach the edge of the Excalibur’s force field in seven minutes and fifty-five seconds, if it holds its present speed.”
"Captain?" Samara queried, her voice laced with a hint of mockery. "Do you accept my assistance, or would you rather play the hero?"
What’s your plan?” Javid asked her.
“Nothing less than to ensure this craft and its crew are shielded from the attack of the Trenit battleship”, she replied.
“I’ve got the shielding covered,” Alek told her. “Your assessment of it didn’t take account for the upgrading I have completed using my abilities.”
“Then you won’t mind us adding another layer to ensure that yours holds,” she said.
“It will hold,” Alek told her.
“The Trenit come prepared for magic like yours,” she said.
“Why do they want the orb so badly?” Hugo asked her.
“If they were able to access it like Alek is doing, it would give them overwhelming power. Then they might as well be omnipotent, because they can invade whatever surrounding star system they wish. No one will be able to stop them.”
“Alright!” Javid said. “Yes, help us, and we help each other.”
"We can block their neutron beam, but we avoid a fight," Samara told them.
"We're ready to roll out the red carpet, should they try to board us," Javid reassured her, his voice steely.
“Good,” she said. “I am returning to my ship to join my soldiers.”
The orb floated up from her open hands to hover in front of Alek, but his attention was on Samara’s feet which had vanished. He watched as the rest of her disappeared, continuing from her ankles up to the top of her head.
“Neat trick,” he said to no one in particular. The he realized the orb was pulsing in the palms of his hands. It felt like he was holding a metallic beating heart.
"Intercom," Javid commanded. "Listen up, everyone," he said, speaking to the ship’s crew. "This is Battle Readiness, Stage Red! We are being helped by the third ship we have detected out here. They have offered us extra shielding. But it is going to get rough. Brace yourself for the possible impact of a neutron beam against our shields."
Javid started for the transporter. “Chief Engineer to your station,” he shouted. “You two with me. Alek, carry the orb like it's your newborn!"
“You want it on the bridge?”
"That’s what I said, " Javid snapped back in reply, just before the transporter door closed behind him.