“What the hell just happened?” Jack struggled to pick himself up off the floor, still dazed from his experience.
“We jumped,” Eve replied matter-of-factly, leaping to her feet with an agility that contrasted sharply with Jack’s sluggish movements.
“I’ve been through thousands of jumps,” Jack protested, shaking his head to clear the fog. “None of them have ever felt—or looked—like this.”
“Actually, they did,” Dr. Liu chimed in from where he lay on the floor, making no effort to stand. “Well, not the jolting and jumping around—that’s because the engines were still running. I assume you’re referring to the out-of-body experience you presumably just had?”
“I’m telling you, this was... something else,” Jack insisted, still trying to wrap his mind around what he had just experienced.
“It was simply longer,” Dr. Liu explained with a mix of excitement and professionalism, as if delivering a lecture. “Long enough for you to process it consciously. The average jump takes you through interdimensional space in about four to five attoseconds. That’s millions of times faster than your brain can process. This one took somewhere around a full second, which, in terms of a space jump, is practically an eternity.”
“Hold on,” Eve interrupted, scratching her head in confusion. “That’s trillions of times slower than normal, right? That can’t be right!”
“Around 250 quadrillion times slower, actually,” Dr. Liu corrected her, doing his best not to sound too pedantic. “But the relationship between travel time and distance in interdimensional space is... not quite linear.”
“Guys, don’t you think you’re missing the point a little?” Julie interjected, catching her breath. The group turned to her as she continued, “We jumped. We made it to the other side. That’s half the mission. Now we need to help secure the ship.”
Taking the hint, Jack contacted Major Barrett, requesting new orders. The reply came quickly, delivered in the same disaffected, smarmy tone that Jack was quickly growing accustomed to:
“Find a corner to hide in, and try not to die. We have fresh reinforcements coming in. Actual professionals. Your part of the mission is done.”
“That guy’s a real asshole, isn’t he?” Eve protested as Jack relayed their orders verbatim.
“Still, our new mission is significantly easier,” Dr. Liu quipped, attempting to lighten the mood. “I have an excellent track record of not dying so far.”
“We all need to get back in that room and sit tight,” Jack said, once again taking charge of the situation.
The group slowly dragged themselves into the room, locking the door behind them. As Julie tended to the wounded, the rest tried to pass the time by discussing what they experienced during the jump.
“Do you think it means something, you know, spiritual? What we saw?” Private Scheer chimed in awkwardly.
“Hardly. It’s simply our four-dimensional brains struggling and failing to process a multi-dimensional reality,” Dr. Liu corrected him.
“I expected more intellectual curiosity from you, doctor,” Eve chided him.
“There’s nothing intellectual about such an exercise. You’re trying to ascribe meaning to a fundamentally meaningless experience. The mechanisms behind what we experienced, and why, are already understood,” the scientist hit back, somewhat annoyed.
“And you don’t think there’s room for something more? Beyond the purely rational?” Eve persisted.
“I haven’t said that,” Dr. Liu protested, this time slightly more reserved. “Simply that trying to ascribe some sort of spiritual or divine meaning to this particular occurrence isn’t productive. It is akin to believing that you met God on psychedelics. When the rational can already perfectly explain a phenomenon, why bring the supernatural into it?”
Jack tried to join the discussion at multiple points, but he felt out of his depth. He wasn’t the kind of man who gave much thought to philosophical or metaphysical concerns. He felt much more comfortable in the real, tangible world. It was something about himself that he’d long made peace with, but, watching the spirited discussion, he couldn’t help but feel slightly ashamed that he lacked the capacity to contribute. Soon enough, he stopped following the conversation altogether, letting his mind focus on more mundane matters. He began counting how much time had passed and wondered how long it would take for the battle to end. He had no clue where they’d jumped to, exactly, but it had to be some sort of Commonwealth stronghold. It couldn’t have been Frontier Station—too close to Earth to risk. Ares? Charon? Hades? Either way, there were presumably thousands of troops boarding the ship. If the Kharlath realized how outmatched they were and surrendered, it would be over in a matter of hours. But if they continued to resist, given the size of the ship, it could take days, or even weeks. He shuddered at the thought of being trapped in that cramped room for so long. Would anyone come for them, or would they simply be forgotten in the chaos of battle? Suddenly, a very mundane concern began forming in Jack’s mind.
“Dr. Liu?” he spoke up, somewhat hesitantly. “You said these were supposed to be living quarters, right? That would mean there’s some sort of bathroom around here somewhere, correct?”
The doctor shook his head. “We’ve got a shower, of sorts.” He pointed toward a strange-looking orb hanging from the ceiling in a corner of the room. “UV light. Kills most of the nasty stuff that clings to your body. Doesn’t do anything about the smell, unfortunately. As for toilets, I don’t think whoever built this ship had such a concept. But we’ll make do.”
The answer didn’t exactly comfort Jack, but he didn’t want to inquire further about what the doctor meant by “make do.” Instead, a more pressing question popped into his mind. Where exactly did Dr. Liu come from?
“So, you were with the Intelligence Operations Fleet?” Jack tried to broach the subject, a bit awkwardly.
The scientist looked back at him, surprised. “I’ve been here for months. We’ve been over this.”
“We have?” Jack replied, confused.
“Oh, you weren’t here,” Dr. Liu corrected himself, absentmindedly. “I was taken prisoner from Enki, a research station on the border of the Badlands. At first, they brought me to some sort of prison facility, carved into an asteroid. There were thousands of Humans and Zargon there. Once they learned of my skill set, they brought me here and made me study this ship.”
“You were a slave?” Julie asked, her voice filled with compassion.
“I suppose I was, yes. It’s not like they’ve been paying me,” the doctor laughed drily. “I never thought of it that way. Really, they pretty much gave me the run of the place. I had to type up some reports that I don’t think their translators actually understood, and I had to sleep with the other captives, but other than that, they just let me wander around and mess with stuff. This ship—they don’t have as much control over it as you’d think. I believe they’re pretty desperate to find out more about how it works.”
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“What do you mean they don’t have control over it?” Jack asked, surprised.
“Well, they do. In a sense. They can fly it around, jump, shoot the weapons. But it has a mind of its own. Sometimes, it refuses orders or does things on its own. Apart from the obvious, like self-preservation, there’s no real rhyme or reason to it. They’ve been trying to actually communicate with it, but so far, they’ve been unsuccessful.”
“Are you saying the ship is… alive?” Jack asked, stunned.
“I suppose you could say that, but not in the way you think. It’s not like there’s some sort of central intelligence calling the shots, at least as far as we can tell. It’s more like an animal, really—operating on instinct, reacting to various stimuli. We just don’t know exactly how to fully tame it.”
“So, how did you end up with Ms. Nakayama’s group?” Julie interjected, changing the subject.
“He saved our asses,” Eve cut in. “After we left the Bismarck, Mr. Windek figured out that the boarding probes fit perfectly into the ship’s windows, so we didn’t have to try breaching the hull. That’s how we avoided the bloodbath in the hangars. Unfortunately, we were still eventually overrun before we could reach any fortifiable position. Just as we were about to be killed, Dr. Liu raised an emergency bulkhead. Some of us were trapped on the other side, with the Kharlath forces, but most of us made it out. He then guided us through the ship to him, and we barricaded ourselves in this room. You know the rest.”
“Mr. Windek didn’t make it?” Jack asked, his voice heavy with dejection.
“He was on the other side of that bulkhead,” Eve replied, regret tinging her words. “I didn’t see him go down, but… I think he’s gone, Jack. I’m sorry.”
“He was a good man,” Jack said, lowering his head solemnly.
The crackle of their headsets suddenly captured everyone’s attention—it was Major Barrett on a wide channel:
“The ship is ours! The upper decks are being cleared of hostiles as I speak. Most of the remaining Kharlath forces have barricaded themselves in the lower levels, out of reach of any vital systems. Translators are being brought in to help negotiate their surrender. In the meantime, everything below deck 12 is off-limits to non-authorized personnel. Anyone with medical training must go to deck 8, where we’ve set up emergency medical bays. Everyone else is requested to report to the eastern hangar. Travel in groups and keep your weapons ready.”
As the transmission ended, an air of reserved jubilation filled the room. After more than 20 hours of constant fighting, Jack couldn’t believe it was over. He was still too tense to relax and too tired to celebrate, but he felt a deep sense of relief. As a low murmur began to form among the group, he raised his voice, once again taking charge, he hoped, for the final time:
“You heard the man! Scheer, accompany Nurse Giordano to deck 8 in case there’s trouble. Everyone else, follow me! Weapons ready!”
As they marched toward the hangar, still tense but now far more hopeful, Jack tried to suppress thoughts of just how close he’d come to dying—over and over again—and how many people he’d lost on that horribly long, awful day. Captain Stirling, Louise, Windek, even his roommates—all weighed heavily on him, as did the countless others he’d watched die right in front of his eyes. It was a great victory for the Commonwealth, but not for him. To him, it was a battle that had brought nothing but misery.
Making their way into the hangar that had been, just hours ago, the scene of a near-death confrontation, the group was stunned to see how many people had gathered. The crowd, numbering in the thousands, nearly filled the expansive space. Though the bodies had been removed, the evident signs of battle remained as a grim reminder of how close they’d come to defeat. Jack scanned the crowd, trying to spot familiar faces, but his attention was quickly drawn to an imposing figure standing atop a makeshift podium. It was Major Barrett—finally, in the flesh.
From a distance, Jack struggled to take in the details of the major. He appeared to be around sixty, though only his face gave it away. His posture was as straight as an arrow, standing nearly two meters tall by Jack's estimation, with broad shoulders and a powerful chest. His strong, square jaw was covered in a short, meticulously trimmed beard, dyed black to match his thick, perfectly groomed hair. Beneath two bushy eyebrows, a pair of jet-black eyes darted around the room, his forehead creased with impatience. The major kept glancing out of the hangar, toward the expanse of space, as if expecting someone.
The source of Major Barrett’s impatience soon became clear. A white, completely featureless oblong object glided silently into the room. Jack recognized it immediately as an Othiri spaceship—an exceedingly rare sight. He had never seen one before, not even in pictures, but its description was unmistakable. As the object reached the center of the room, it set down quietly, with no visible means of guidance or propulsion. Suddenly, a spherical opening appeared in its center, and a ladder extended from within the ship.
Three Othiri emerged, followed by a small group of golems—vaguely humanoid biological constructs that served as the Othiri’s disposable servants and laborers. The Othiri themselves were striking: their skin a greyish-teal, with impossibly tall, slender bodies and spindly arms draped across their chests. Their floor-length robes and unnaturally still upper bodies gave the illusion that they were floating as they moved toward the podium. As they approached, Jack felt a wave of dread, unnerved by their enormous black eyes and the eerie lack of expression on their elongated faces.
As they climbed up to the podium in perfect silence, Jack suddenly felt a presence enter his mind. One of the Othiri briefly turned its gaze toward him, and in that moment, he experienced something reminiscent of his earlier interaction with the ship, but this time the presence felt more palpable, more real.
“Jack Nereus,” a voice echoed within his mind, freezing him in terror. It was as if his own internal monologue had taken on someone else’s voice. “We have a task for you.” Jack realized with dawning horror that it was one of the Othiri communicating directly with him. “Your leader, Major Barrett, is not to be trusted. He is the one who has been feeding intelligence to the Kharlath. He is the traitor. He is the reason why your friend, Adam, is dead. When the time is right, you will know what to do.”
Jack remained frozen, struggling to comprehend the weight of what had just transpired. If the Othiri had proof of this—and how could they not, given their ability to read minds—why was he the one being informed? What sense could it possibly make to entrust him with this knowledge and responsibility? As soon as the thought formed in his head, he received an answer.
“We have examined the minds of everyone gathered here. You are the one most suitable for our purposes. You are capable of far greater things than you can imagine.”
Just as suddenly as it had appeared, the presence withdrew from his mind, leaving Jack reeling and confused. The Othiri remained motionless on the podium, staring out at the crowd as the gathered people grew increasingly restless. Finally, sensing the discomfort in the room, Major Barrett began to speak.
“Let us extend a warm welcome to our generous allies in the Othiri Imperial Remnant, without whom this operation wouldn’t have been possible.”
As if on cue, the crowd erupted into applause, though it was somewhat restrained.
The Major continued, “Our success is a remarkable reminder of the doors that mutual respect and cooperation can open for us, as well as a testament to why we will win this war. Because we are not alone in this! And as long as we have allies, we have hope!” His words rang hollow, barely concealing his contempt for the speech, undoubtedly penned by someone with very different values.
As Major Barrett continued with his speech, Jack soon lost track of his surroundings, consumed by thoughts of his interaction with the Othiri. He struggled to comprehend what had just happened. The Othiri were known for their inscrutable and mysterious nature, yet they were also the Commonwealth’s closest allies. They had provided humanity with essential technology: jump drives, artificial gravity, and control over the T-gate network—everything that formed the backbone of mankind’s dominion over the stars. But just because the Imperial Remnant was allied with the Commonwealth didn’t automatically mean that any individual Othiri could be trusted. But then, again, in a society of mind readers, was there truly any room for distrust?
This entire situation felt far above his pay grade. Jack needed help, but from whom? He scanned the crowd for Eve, but she was nowhere to be seen. His hand instinctively reached for his wristpad, and his fingers hesitated on one name—Mr. Okoro. He was the one who knew what to do. Jack sent him a brief message, and almost instantly received a reply:
“Meet me outside the hangar. Don’t draw too much attention.”
Navigating through the masses, Jack tried to blend in and remain inconspicuous. Suddenly, a strong arm grabbed his shoulder, halting him in place. He looked up to see Mr. Okoro’s familiar face, his brow furrowed in concern. Before Jack could speak, the agent shushed him.
“Not here. Not now. I know about the message you received. They’ve told Ms. Nakayama the same thing. Possibly others as well. We will deal with this later. For now, don’t mention it to anyone.”
As Okoro prepared to slip back into the crowd, he turned back to Jack, his voice softer now. “Watch your back, Nereus. Something very strange is going on.”