It took three standard days to get to the black nebula. During that time Korsha tried to get some sleep but found only nightmares stalking the blackness behind her eyes. She saw Deidra. Her face contorted in fear. Horrified lines sliced through her typical beautiful countenance. The fires in her eyes banished by the terror that now dwelled there. Her scream never reached Korsha’s ear. Neither did her hand as she was torn away into the darkness beyond.
Korsha was helpless.
Forced to watch…
…unable to act.
She’d awake in cold sweat as she jolted out of bed. Her rib cage ached as though someone had hit it with a hammer. Even awake the nightmares hounded her. Their relentless pursuit flashing through her mind as she tried to eat, stealing away her appetite. She fled from them, hiding away in her meditation chamber. Yet they were there. A court adjourned. Gathering to her guilt.
It didn’t matter what technique she used. Nothing from the Academy had prepared her for this. She was like a comet set adrift in an endless abyss. Aimless. Without purpose. She focused on the glory of the Imperial Goddess. Latching onto its orbit. She lit candles. Sang her praises. Yet they were hollow. Ringing out without heart. Dull vibrations that bounced off the metal walls of the ship and died.
Perhaps she knew, deep down inside, that the goddess didn’t want her. And why would she? Why would a mother ever want the heartbreaking reminder of a forsaken daughter? In her own way, Korsha knew she was holding back. Not wanting to be burned up by the goddess’s memories of her daughter.
Though the technomancers had assured her that the goddess loved her, it was plain to see that Azaelah’s touch left something within her, a remnant of her own tainted divinity, something that caused the Imperial Goddess to ache in the presence of that vital essence. Above all else, Korsha knew grief was a terrible thing. It was the worst emotion. A lingering shadow that followed wherever she went. It was a thief. Stealing smiles and speaking in quiet moments when the world was at peace. It was an advocate of the past, an adversary of the present and an arbiter of the future. In its hands was a ledger that always knew the balance between black and red. It was an emotion that burned, yet gave no light or warmth. It was cold and numb and infectiously fragile. A wall without an architect. A prison without a foundation.
Korsha knew its companionship all too well.
How much more did a goddess feel?
Her grief had left her hollow, scraping out everything within her that had been good and worth saving. It left a hole that she had desperately tried to fill, failed and then had learned to ignore except on those cold lonely nights where she wished for the comfort of a familiar body’s heat.
If the goddess could continue on…
Then Korsha could soldier on as well.
She continued to work on her meditation, losing herself to the darkness until the ship shuttered. The signal that they’d left hyperspace. Exiting the meditation chamber, she climbed up the ladder and entered the bridge. She gazed at the viewport to the black nebula. In truth the nebula itself wasn't actually black but a shimmering orange ocean that swelled and merged with a beautiful pink. But when color was all that you could see, blackness became sharp. In the absence of the beautiful swirling gas was a long serpentine blackness. Somewhere in that inky dark, nestled amongst the astral serpent's scales was the installation she was searching for.
She checked her ship's inventory and saw that there were only three probes left. She chewed on her lip as she devised a plan. First she would send out a probe to find the station. Afterward she could use the remaining two to get her there. She tapped away on the command console sending a series of orders down to the ship's fabrication deck, outfitting the first probe with as many stealth enhancements as possible while leaving herself enough material to finish the job. She was hoping that this installation's location was its primary defense against intruders.
While the probe was being retrofitted, she set course towards the nebula. It was slow going but within a day it was in position. She then set to work tearing apart the hyperdrive and ushering the parts down the fabrication deck. She had the machines re-forge the parts that were broken. Several were unsalvageable, having turned to slag during transit. Fortunately, she had enough to give the probe its own makeshift hyperdrive. It would cut down on the time needed to investigate the nebula thoroughly.
Right now she was throwing a dagger into the air and hoping it stuck to something. The estimates were three weeks if she happened to pick the wrong place to start. That was weeks longer than she had. She needed to find Deidra and make her undo what she'd done to her master. Taking a deep breath, she gazed at the picture of the black nebula. She shook her head. Any logic that could be applied as to where to hide the installation was just as good as any other. The machinations of the station’s architects were beyond her. That forced her to guess and she hated guessing. Punching the button, she glared out into the void as the probe shot away. With nothing else to do, she returned to her meditation chamber.
****
Six and a half hours later Korsha's eyes snapped open as her omnivice chirped. She steadied herself, not wishing to get her hopes up. It could be any sort of notification. Bringing her arm up she activated her omnivice. It was an image from the probe. Relief flooded her body as she examined the image for some time. The installation was a large pyramid with a circle cut out on one side. It was a design she'd never seen before.
This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.
She spent an hour manually maneuvering the probe around. Fortunately, the installation was near an asteroid belt. That little bit of efficiency had ensured her some level of animosity amongst the tumbling bodies of the cold hard rock. As she continued to examine the structure, she noted there were no official markings that designated it as an official imperial outpost. There was always the chance that there were multiple installations out here. Korsha sighed.
This was as good a start as any. She sent the coordinates to the command console and made her way to the fabrication deck. There she had her armor retrofitted to withstand the vacuum of space. Once that was done she maneuvered the ship to the asteroid field. It took the better part of three hours but soon she was standing at the edge of the fabrication deck, staring out into the glimmering nebula that surrounded her.
Licking her lips, she tapped the release on the other two probes. They dropped out from below the ship before setting off on their predestined path. She eyed the screen, watching as they spaced themselves out and then coming to a halt. They were now drifting. Two small additions to the treasure trove of the black nebula.
Taking a deep breath, she stepped through the shield and dropped out into the nothingness of space. The ship’s gravitational field lost its grip on her and she found herself tumbling forward. Though unlike under the harsh grip of gravity, the motion was soft. Fluid. Freeing. Using her suit’s jets, she maneuvered herself into position.
“I give you purpose.” She whispered to herself.
Her forward momentum came to a sudden halt as she tethered herself to the closest drone. She hovered in the vacuum of space. Concentrating, she kept hold of her tether and ordered the probes to continue their sojourn. She gasped as she was pulled forward. The force wasn’t the strongest thing she’d ever experienced before but its constant strain seemed to stretch her.
As she drifted through the silent aether, she hoped that the command console’s projection of the asteroid's paths had been correct. If not she'd have to manually control the probes. Something that was not desirable when she was inside the asteroid field and unable to see the full picture. Her heart pounded in her chest as her omnivice alerted her to an imminent collision. The projected debris was something that even the greatest computers couldn't calculate. She watched as two capital ship destroying asteroids collided, shattering into massive chunks the size of skyscrapers. Those chunks sprayed, hurtling out as the remnants of the asteroids bounced off. Korsha watched as a massive chunk floated by.
Fortunately there were no other such collisions that were eminent. She had the command console constantly rescanning and updating its projections. Korsha watched as smaller asteroids bumped into each other, redirecting their courses. Yet through it all, she found a strange sort of serenity in such a place. There was an order within the chaos. In its own way it was beautiful. An infinite pattern that would never be repeated and she was here to bear witness. A tiny speck amongst a sea of giants.
Korsha caught glimpses of the installation between the floating chunks of rock. At one point she had to stop as the lead probe caught sight of a mining crew. At first Korsha cursed, using the second probe to make her way into the shadow of a large asteroid where she could keep an eye on them. After some study she found the mining crew to be made up of acrena. She tossed around the idea of trying to find one to replace Koklan but she wasn't eager to repeat the experiment. She’d been warned that disturbing the spirits within the acrena was a blasphemy in the eyes of the Imperial Goddess. Only to be used in the most dire situations and even then one had to repent lest the Goddess’s wrath be kindled.
Ultimately, she decided it wasn't worth the risk.
That forced Korsha to leave one of the probes behind to monitor the mining crew. It wasn’t ideal and it went against her plan but if the mining crew stumbled upon her, things could get far worse. Ensuring her tether to the probe remained strong, she directed the probe forward. It maneuvered between incoming asteroids, weaving through chunks the size of her hand to those whose colossal shadow consumed her as though she were a droplet of dew.
Eventually they reached the edge of the asteroid belt. She could see the pyramid now. Gray metal, cast in ornate red shadows. It wasn't smooth as she had thought, as she could see pitch blackness edging its exterior like trenches.
She checked her omnivice. She had about five minutes before she had to act. Those five minutes drew on in unending agony. Her thoughts were a beehive of activity, swirling and buzzing. They collided much like the asteroids around her. What if there was no data here? What if Tal wasn't good enough to break through the encryption? This was a black ops installation after all. What if she got caught? What would they do to her?
She didn't know what her master's orders to the security forces at this base were. If he are awake he could vouch for her but then again if he were awake she wouldn't be here. She chewed on the inside of her lip. This had to work. Everything was hinging on this.
The timer beeped and Korsha let out a heavy breath. She steeled herself, as she waited for the collision. The reverberations of a smaller nearby collision flowed through the aether. Her eyes darted back and forth as she searched for the incoming collision. Then her HUD highlighted a monstrous asteroid that was tumbling end over end and shoving all the smaller ones out of the way. It was going far harder than it should. Perhaps the miners had done something in the recent past that caused the asteroid to move so hard. None of the collisions seemed to be slowing it down.
A deep bassy rumble thundered across the aether as it galloped out from the pyramid. Her head snapped to the side as she saw red lights glowing along its exterior. They knew. She grinned as the asteroid neared. The vibrations were getting heavier and heavier, the aether mixed up and churned like a roiling ocean. Then she sought it. A body sized asteroid that was knocked aside. It was sent hurtling along, spinning straight for the pyramid. It shot past her and she seized hold with her power.
Her body shot forward only a dozen paces behind. She hoped that they weren't actively scanning the asteroids. There was no reason to do that unless they thought there were intruders. Her HUD's display turned red and there was an alarm bell. They were targeting the asteroid. She took a deep breath. This was all about timing. All she had to do now was not screw this up and be vaporized.
A moment later the asteroid shattered molten chunks of rock that instantly cooled. Dust filled the space before her. She brought her arms in together, making herself as small as possible. Her kinetic shields hissed as sparks of dust disintegrated across its surface. It reminded her of the fireworks she'd seen as a kid. Back then she felt as though she were on top of the world because she was on her brother's shoulders.
Just before Korsha slammed into the shadowed side of the pyramid she tethered herself to the surface, arresting her momentum. Her suits' jets flashed, in short spurts so as to hopefully not alert anyone who happened to be looking that way, maneuvering her towards the metallic surface. Within a span of heartbeats her boots sealed themselves to the surface.
She'd made it.