Vang sat back in his office chair after sending the latest update to the Emperor about Prince Adar’s return, including his investigation results of the assassination attempt by Chief Hon. Vang knew the Emperor wouldn’t be happy about that particular news. For the moment, Vang was just glad for the time delay in communications, but it wouldn’t save him in the end. He fully expected a sharp response from the Emperor, as well as there should be.
He did not know how he had missed a Rebellion agent on his flag ship. Vang had strict vetting in place to weed out such possibilities. Obviously, they weren’t strict enough. Somehow, Chief Hon had found a way through a crack, and that had caused Vang an unending amount of concern the last few weeks. When he wasn’t busy giving the Prince his lessons, he had been going over how the Chief could have circumvented the process.
So far, he had not been successful in determining much beyond scouring Chief Hon’s entire life story, because aside from the fact that the Chief was without a Dome-ni, there were no other indications that he was anything but a devote Ethian who loved his Empire.
Did that mean Vang would have to block any Ethian without a Dome-ni from serving in top positions in the Zahnian Legion? That would eliminate at least forty percent of possible candidates. It seemed like a drastic move, and not all positions required Dome-ni talents as in Chief Hon’s case. Vang supposed that would just have to presented when he briefed the Emperor in person and see how his superior wanted to proceed.
Vang let out a heavy sigh. Besides retrieving the Prince, this mission had not been nearly as successful as he would have liked. It still ate at him that he had not been able to retrieve Remeer and the Empress, but at least that sacrifice had earned the Prince’s cooperation. Vang was quite certain that Prince Adar would not have been nearly so accommodating if they hadn’t had the deal in place.
That brought him to the Prince himself, who had been quite a handful, despite the deal they had made. Vang wrote it off as a result of his loss of memories and total indoctrination into the alien society he’d gown up under. Vang kept telling himself that with the proper instruction and time, the Prince would become more settled into his role, but Vang had his doubts.
He kept those doubts to himself when he made the reports to his Emperor, because he was sure that his opinion on that matter was not welcomed. The Emperor would see for himself soon enough anyways.
All Vang had to do was keep the Prince alive and cooperating until they reached Dyniss, but Vang would feel a lot better about the former once they passed back into Ethian space. Being out here in the unknown was another cause for his stress, especially after the incident three weeks ago.
They were calling it that, because there really was no other way to describe what had happened. The Xlero had barely begun its journey past the border to the destination of the planet the Prince called Earth, when a massive power surge had caused them to exit hyperlight.
For two whole days, Xlero operated on emergency power while the crew worked around the clock to restore the badly effected systems. Vang had been beside himself, expecting an attack at any moment, but there was no sign of what had caused the surge or any other ship or signs of life. The engineers and scientist claimed it was an undetectable spacial anomaly that caused the surge, but that didn’t allow Vang to rest any easier.
The only thing that soothed Vang was that they were now an hour from the border of Ethia. He wouldn’t be able to relax until the ship and his special passenger were within the safety of known space. Until then, it felt like he was sitting on the edge of disaster.
Certainly, he had had been in worse situations than this over his long career with the Zahnian Legion, but this felt different somehow. It was almost like the Universe itself was holding its breath, waiting for the next catastrophe to happen. And it was a feeling he couldn’t quite shake.
Vang’s unity ring beeped and lit up green. He could see from the display reading that it was Captain Minoya. He tapped the rectangle display and the stern image of the Captain appeared before him.
“Admiral, could we have your presence on the bridge?”
That caused Vang pause. He left the running of the ship to the Captain and spent the vast majority of his time locked away in his office. Granted, Vang relied on his Dome-ni to do much of the heavy lifting to instill the proper motivation for his subordinates to do their duties, but he also knew that less was more.
On long trips like this, Vang had always found it best to give the ship’s crew space to work without him hovering, and he knew the Captain and crew appreciated this. So there was only one reason why the Minoya would be calling him to the bridge.
Vang abruptly stood up from his desk, marched out of his office, and crossed the corridor to the bridge. When he entered, he could feel the tension in the air. It sent Vang into battle mode as he made his way to Minoya’s side. The Captain was standing by the lead science officer’s shoulder looking at the image on the Zahnian’s panel with a strained expression.
“What is it, Captain?” Vang asked as he stood behind the opposite shoulder of the scientist. The screen on the panel showed dancing streams of the rainbow colors, which was completely ordinary when they were in hyperlight. Vang puzzled as to why the three of them were staring at a screen of nothing.
“Just watch,” the Captain replied without taking his eyes from the screen.
Captain Minoya was not a man prone to false alarms, so Vang kept his gaze on the screen, waiting to see what had the man’s attention. Time ticked slowly by as he waited for something to happen. As a minute turned to two, Vang’s patience began to wear thin.
“Captain, would you care to explain exactly what we are supposed to be looking for?” Vang barked at Minoya.
The Captain’s face reddened, but he did not take his eyes from the screen. “Trilix caught a blip on the scans, and then, well, I can’t exactly explain––there! Did you see it?”
Vang had seen it, and he wasn’t sure exactly what he had just witnessed. There in the different arcing colors was a oblong black shape that stood out for a handful of seconds, and then it was gone like it had never been there at all.
“What was that?” Vang replied.
“All my scans are inconclusive, Admiral,” the Zahnian scientist replied.
“Run them again,” Vang ordered.
“Trilix has, Admiral. Three times, but we will keep doing it. We do know it’s been following us for an undetermined amount of time. The thing that’s even more disturbing is that Trilix says the unidentified object does have the same signature of what caused our power surge three weeks ago.”
That sent off warning bells in Vang’s mind. “So this is the thing that caused us to be dead in space for the better part of two days?”
“It would seem so, Admiral. Whatever it is.” the Captain replied in a grave tone.
Vang stared at the screen waiting for the black object to come back into sight. “How long does it take to become visible again?”
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“It varies. It’s never the same time, but usually between two to six minutes, and the longest it has stayed visible has been five seconds.”
“Could it be a ship?” Vang asked.
“It’s not registering as any ship we have ever encountered, Admiral,” the scientist spoke up. “And my scans aren’t picking up any metallic compounds. The black object isn’t made of any known materials other than the regular particulates common in the hyperlight stream.”
“Are you saying that black shape is part of the hyperlight stream?” Vang asked.
The scientist shrugged. “I’ve never heard of or seen anything like this in hyperlight before and I’ve been doing this for nearly thirty years. Whatever it is. It is not normal.”
“But you said it had the same signature of what caused our power surge.”
“The black object is putting off a faint signal that I have determined is similar to the signal we received right before our surge.”
Alarm raced through Vang. He didn’t like the idea of sitting dead in space for two more days. They had been fortunate last time that they had been able to get Xlero back up and working before the crew had been exposed to too much space radiation with shields down or their adrift ship hadn’t been discovered by a random passerby.
So far while in the void, they had not encountered any signs of other travelers, but the history books were full of stories of all the alien species that transversed the Universe, not to mention that the Fazha were descents of many of those species that had been trapped in Ethia when the Empire closed its border so long ago.
One thing Vang did know was that if they stayed out here long enough, it would only be a matter of time before they stumbled across others. And perhaps they already had. Maybe this black object following them was one of those races that Ethia had forgotten?
“Bring the ship out of hyperlight.” Vang ordered. “Let’s see if it follows us.”
Minoya gave the order as Vang watched the dancing strands of light change shape to straight white lines. A few seconds later, the lines disappeared and Vang felt the shift under his feet as the engines decelerated, and then they were in the blackness of the void with only the pinpricks of stars to break up the darkness.
“I doubt we will be able to see it without the hyperlight stream highlighting it for us,” Minyoa relied, keeping his eyes on the screen just the same.
“That’s why I want continual scans for that unique signature. Also, put this image up on the large screen and magnify the approximate area the object has been showing up. Perhaps we will see something against the starlight,” Vang said to the Zahnian scientist.
“Yes, Admiral,” the man worked at his console. A moment later, the view screen that took up most of one side of the bridge showed the same image Vang and Minoya were looking at on the scientist’s console.
Vang walked to the front of the bridge and diligently scanned the screen, looking for any disruption, no matter how small. Minoya followed and did the same. Long minutes passed with only the soft sounds of the Zahnian officers at their consoles doing their duties.
“There!” The Captain pointed to a space near the left edge of the screen. “I barely saw it, but there was definitely movement across the stars along that section of the screen. Trilix, are you picking up the signature.”
Vang looked back toward the scientist. There was a grim expression on the other man’s face. “I’m afraid so,” he said.
“So it followed us,” the Captain replied.
“Then it’s sentient. Whoever is driving that thing knows what it’s doing. It must be some sort of ship. It has to be.” Vang replied with a grimace.
“Uhhhh… that’s not good,” the scientist said.
“What?” Vang demanded.
“There’s a sizable increase in the signature from the object and it’s building rapidly.”
“How quickly?” Vang asked.
“I would say within five minutes it will be as strong as when we had the power surge, Admiral.”
Panic gripped Vang. “Get us back into hyperlight,” he ordered.
The crew didn’t waste time as they followed his orders. Moments later, they were back in the swirling light of the slip stream that allowed them to travel faster than the speed of light.
“Keep an eye out for it,” Vang replied, his eyes already working the large view screen.
He saw it when it showed up two minutes later. Its dark oblong shape contrasting against the bright colors. It was much larger on the front screen, but it didn’t really help identify the black object other than its oblong shape.
“Take us out of hyperlight. We obviously aren’t going to out run it,” Vang said.
A moment later, the ship was back in the void of space.
“Let’s try communicating with it,” Vang replied.
Captain Minoya nodded to another Zahnian at a console across the bridge. “Open a channel.”
The Zahnian worked on his console for a moment. “Channel open and broadcasting in all known languages.”
Minoya nodded to Vang.
“This is Supreme Admiral Ko-tus Vang of the Zahnian Legion. We have noticed you following us, and we request an explanation for this behavior. We mean you no harm. We are simply passing through this space back to our Empire. We await your response.”
Vang felt his jaw tighten as he waited for whatever was out there to reply. The bridge was deadly silent as they all waited in hushed silence. Seconds ticked by. Vang waited a whole minute before he turned to the communications officer.
“Anything at all?”
“No, Admiral.”
“Is there still build up going on?”
“Yes, Admiral,” The Zahnian scientist responded. “And it is almost at the the strength when it disabled us before.”
Vang realized that the polite tactic wasn’t going to work. Time to get serious.
“Unidentified ship. This is Supreme Admiral Ko-tus Vang from the Ethian Empire. We demand an explanation for your behavior. You have been following us and you or someone with your exact output signature was responsible for disabling our ship a few weeks ago. If you do not respond, we will take your intentions as hostile and will fire upon you in self-defense.”
Vang nodded to Minoya. That was all that was needed before the Captain gave a quick order to the Zahnian at the weapon’s console. The officer nodded that he understood and stood at the ready to open fire.
“How close is it getting?” Vang asked the science officer.
“Fifty-six seconds,” he said.
Vang turned to the communications officer. “Anything?”
The Zahnian shook his head.
Vang blew out a breath. He then nodded to the weapon’s officer. “Send out a short blast in the direction the ship was when it last appeared.”
“Yes, Admiral.”
The weapon’s officer worked on his console. A moment later, a burst of gold zipped across the screen display into the black. The golden stream stopped and exploded into a cloud burst as if it hit something. For a moment, the blackness before them took shape and Vang could distinctly see a separate oblong black form light up for a few seconds, and then it was gone, blended back into the black space that surrounded them.
Vang turned to the science officer. “Any changes?”
“None. I’m not sure our blast did any damage, but it’s difficult to tell since we can’t get a good look at it.”
Vang nodded. He wasn’t happy about that news, but it was only a plasma blast. They had far more destructive weapon’s available.
“Any communications?” Vang asked the communications officer.
“No, Admiral.”
Vang felt a grimness fill him. If they refused to talk, then this was only going to go one way. He didn’t mind battle, but he had learned long ago that the best battles were the ones avoided. He was willing to give them one more chance, and then they would have to commit to destroying whatever this was that had been following them.
“Open the channel again.”
“Yes, Admiral.”
“This is your last warning unidentified ship. If you do not contact us and let us know your intentions, we will be forced to destroy you.”
Vang waited a few moments, but he knew they were running out of time if they wanted to avoid another power outage. He nodded to Minoya. The Captain moved to his own smaller console on the right armrest of his Captain’s chair.
A moment later, the lights on the bridge and throughout the ship dimmed to let all of those on Xlero know to prepare for open combat.
“Hit them with three mark 12’s,” Vang ordered. He knew it was far more than needed. That sort of fire power could kill a whole planet, but he didn’t know what he was dealing with and he needed a guaranteed win. If there were consequences, he would pay them later once he saw the Prince safely to the Empire.
“Yes, Admiral,” the weapon’s officer replied.
It didn’t take long for three green objects to race across the expanse to where the hidden ship lay. The first mark 12 reached about where the ship had last appeared. But there was no explosion as it reached its target. The green projectile just vanished. The other two reached the same area and vanished as well.
Alarmed, Vang turned to the science officer. “What was that? Did they hit?”
The Zahnina looked perplexed as he stared at his screen for a few moments, before shaking his head. He looked up and Vang could see the color drain from his face. “No, Admiral. No hits. It’s like the mark 12’s just… disappeared. And what’s worse, the ship has reached full strength like the last time we…”
Xlero quaked around Vang and the lights on the bridge flickered before dying all together. Vang looked around to find all the consoles on the bridge dark as well. Fear blossomed in Vang’s chest. He didn’t need an update to know what had just happened.
They were dead in space just like last time. Vang’s mind raced as he tried to understand this enemy’s tactics and intentions. Would these beings let them fix the ship and move on like before? But why even let them fix the ship at all, if these beings wanted to do them harm? Vang shook his head. He just didn’t know, and that frustrated him. There was nothing so annoying as an enemy that he did not understand.