Chapter Text

Imperial Guard – 003 The Infinite Depths of Space

Bear McCreary - Battlestar Galactica Season 1 - Main Title (US version): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pGeH6E2RIaQ

The galaxy isn't what you'd call a friendly place. Some situations require what I describe as special treatment. My crew and I have been selected to handle these cases in the name of the Emperor. For we serve the most powerful military organization in the quadrant: The Imperial Guard.

Chapter 1 Giants

With no one around, Nami didn’t even bother to suppress a yawn as she stepped off the elevator platform on deck two, on her way to her quarters. The Myr’shala followed a route that took the ship into the densely populated galactic core and it would still take a few cycles to reach its destination. After a rather uneventful shift, she decided to catch a nap before their arrival, having a handful of cycles left to kill.

Until she reached the door of her and Moa’s quarters and noticed the glowing white symbols forming the text “do not disturb” under its brushed metal surface. With her hand hovering above the door controls in a moment of indecision she wondered why her roommate would use this function. Despite a swift recovery, the illness Moa contracted on Hanaweya II had left her with moments of fatigue and as a result she caught rest more often and slept for longer periods. However, she hadn’t noticed her using the function before.

Expecting her friend in bed with the lights out, she was a little surprised to find her sitting cross-legged in the middle of the room between the beds on a floor pillow, with her back turned toward the door. The only light was provided by a circle of small pyramid-shaped candles in front of her. Having removed her uniform top, and with the longer parts of her hair put up into a knot and held together by a clasp, Nami could spot the circle of black symbols tattooed on her back. She sat there motionless, in what looked like a kind of meditative state, although her ears flicked when she heard the sounds of her roommate’s entering.

“Uiisa,” Nami whispered. “I didn’t mean to disturb you. If you need more time I’ll come back later.”

“Siddown,” Moa said in an inviting, yet firm way.

“Are you sure?”

“I mean it. Grab the other pillow and siddown.”

With the door closing behind her, Nami tried to determine the best way to reach the space across from her roommate without knocking over any of the candles or the objects placed within the circle of light. Because of the ample space between the beds, and Moa’s position in the middle of their quarters, this was doable, provided she slipped past the edge of her own bunk.

Using her long triple-jointed legs to her advantage, she stepped past Moa and her no longer private ceremony, to the other side. Grabbing the other floor pillow next to the low seating table, she placed it on the floor across her friend, careful not to blow out any candles. After lowering herself on the pillow in a similar cross-legged position, she noticed Moa was still in her trance-like state. She had her eyes closed, her arms resting on her thighs and her clawed hands in an open and relaxed state.

Having been invited to take part in a ritual, she decided to mirror her friend and took off her own uniform top which she tossed on her bed. It was very quiet in their quarters. Apart from the hum of the ship’s quantum drive, she could only hear the calm and steady rhythm of hers and Moa’s breathing. Until her friend spoke a few words in a soft tone in Huna, the most common traditional Fjetanha language.

“Kinayalah aesenni ey disparann. Huhnele ona saleh.”

Nami was unsure what to do. She figured if Moa expected her to do anything she would tell. The words were not unknown to her, but the ritual was. In contrast to Moa, she grew up in a modern setting, although she did have relatives who led a more traditional lifestyle. Two women sharing the same cultural heritage, split into very different directions. Even their appearance differed enough for them not to be mistaken for sisters. They did share the signature Fjetanha traits such as their long hair, black beak and strong hands with sharp claws that were not fully retractable. Her two-tone gray skin color was a stark difference from Moa’s overall tan brown, with a lighter shade for her neck, belly and part of her chest.

Moa took a deep breath, inhaling through her nose, then slowly expelling the air through her mouth. Continuing her calm manner of speech, she spoke again.

“I thank you, Kirliya the Enlightened, for watching over my loved ones and me during a moment of great peril. I shall find ways to repay you for this benevolent gesture.”

Placing the palm of her hand on top of the Na’ganthur’s tooth of Norgu’s necklace, which hung between her small round breasts, she took another breath before finally opening her eyes. In the meantime, Nami had studied the objects placed within the circle of candles, recognizing them as the tangible equivalent of the six symbols tattooed on Moa’s back, put in six white marble bowls.

Taking her hand off her chest Moa began to speak in Huna again, this time placing her hand on one of the bowls. This bowl was empty, but the symbol marking its bottom was the same as on her back. Its meaning was the element ‘air’. Continuing to speak, she moved her hand to the next one which was filled with a black powdery substance that produced a dim yellow flame. As she held her hand above the bowl, she flinched for a tick, yet she persisted to speak the right words.

The next bowl contained two bone pieces, resembling death. Its symbol was visible on the bottom between them. Earth was symbolized by a bowl filled with soil and after it came water. She finished the circle by resting her palm on a bowl of seeds from different plants. Folding her hands afterwards in a closing gesture, she finished the ritual with a few more words of gratitude. Nami still wasn’t sure why Moa asked her to join her in this ritual, because she didn’t ask her to do anything, but after a final moment of silence, her friend looked her straight in the eyes and smiled.

“Hyami. For sharing this with me.”

“Well, I… I’m honored.”

“Computer, lights.” After blowing out the candles one by one Moa closed off all the bowls with lids, except for water and air. The fire she extinguished with a pinch of a white powder from a small canister she retrieved from the wooden box placed on top of her bed in which she kept everything together. “Computer, reenable fire suppression protocols for this quarters.”

“Fire suppression protocols reactivated.”

While Moa put away her belongings and emptied the bowl with the water in the bathroom, Nami returned the floor pillows to their previous location on opposite sides of the table, undid her uniform pants and tossed it and the shirt on the pillow closest to her bed.

“I’m going to catch some sleep if you don’t mind,” she said, lying down and throwing the covers over her nude body.

Like her roommate, she preferred to sleep in a cool room in combination with a weighty blanket.

“Not at all. I think I’ll do the same.”

Added the deed to her word, Moa removed her uniform pants and untied her hair.

“How do you feel? Still tired?”

Sitting down on the edge of her bed she heaved a mild sigh.

“Hmm, yeah. Salu says it’ll go over, but it might take a while. Aside from that I feel fine though.”

Nami smiled.

“Okay, sleep well then.”

“You too.”

***

“Ship’s log, Raeth, House of Meztar. The Myr’shala has arrived in the Ophelion system after Command received a message sent to all spacefaring races across three quadrants. The system itself holds little of interest. Next to two gas giants, the three barren worlds orbiting its star are incapable of supporting life and might have been targets for colonization projects if they had orbited closer to the Ophelion star or held any mining value.”

Standing in front of the large viewport in his ready room to make his recording, Raeth gazed into the distance at the colossal structure obscuring part of the bright yellow Ophelion star. The construction, used for capturing part of the star’s energy output, was part of a much more ambitious project.

“Two of the most advanced races in the universe have reached out to report on the completion of the first intergalactic jump gate, fueled by their thirst for knowledge and desire to go farther than any of us have ever gone before.

The first of these are the Hytharians, a benevolent race of intelligent machines, their technological prowess unmatched by any other known species. The second is known under several names, the most common being Xhi’tha. They are best described as advanced fungoid lifeforms that come in many different forms and communicate telepathically. The creatures, their ships, even their technology is entirely organic in nature and supposedly alive. They are both so unlike us in every perceivable way.

I am awaiting the arrival of a Hytharian envoy as we approach the Ophelion trade hub. Powered by the solar collector around the Ophelion star, a courtesy of them, the station has become one of the largest business centers in the quadrant. Not surprising, for the Ophelion system is considered neutral ground and its location puts it close to the galactic core.”

Raeth wasn’t quite sure what to expect. Both the Hytharian Unity, as the whole of their kind was called, and the Xhi’tha did not often seek active contact with other lifeforms unless it was in their own interest. In their message they had promised to explain their intentions to anyone willing to come to the Ophelion system. It was the main reason for the busy trade hub to be even more overcrowded than usual, with many worlds trying to ensure their presence at this incredible event.

Le’tan had maneuvered the Myr’shala around the station for a position at one of the massive docking rings attached to the sprawling complex that made up the trade station, awaiting final clearance. Larger vessels had to make do with a holding position and were only allowed to send smaller craft.

The heavy steps, audible through the closed doors of his ready room, warned him in advance that Jirro had gotten the order to join his side for the meeting. When he turned around, his Kaedar already stood in front of his desk, the doors sliding shut when they made eye contact. His eyes were like pieces of emerald, and piercing as always, but he detected a bit of enthusiasm in Jirro’s voice.

“You wanted me present, Raeth.”

“Yes. I’m not sure what to expect.”

Walking around his desk, he joined Jirro in front of it, leaving plenty of room for visitors. And his Kaedar did not arrive a moment too soon.

“Bridge to Raeth.”

“Go ahead, Jetreycka.”

“The Hytharians have asked permission to transport one of their envoy constructs onboard. They thought it would be appropriate to warn us for their unconventional method of transportation.”

Raising an eye ridge at the same time as Jirro, he took a breath and braced instinctively, though he didn’t know for what.

“Tell ‘em we’re ready.”

After a short silence, Jetreycka confirmed. About five ticks passed after that. There was a bright flash in the middle of the room about two steps away from them. Tiny particles of light swirled around, coming together faster and faster, growing into a shape that took solid form. It happened in ticks and to their surprise, the particles took the shape of a Mantrin of average size as the light began to fade. What stood before them Raeth could only describe as something out of a work of science fiction.

A shiny metallic shell. A shape that mimicked his kind to perfection, including a tail that moved in a calm sweeping way and with fluid grace, as if made of liquid metal. Even the eyes, which had to be advanced optical sensors, were designed to look like real eyes, apart from the rotating irises as the machine analyzed its surroundings.

“Greetings,” it spoke with a male voice that approached that of a living, breathing person, yet with a slight electronic edge.

“Welcome,” Raeth replied with a slight nod.

“We have chosen the form of his construct to ease communications between our two people. We had hoped that this would not be unsettling.”

Realizing that he was still trying to determine what he was looking at, with the matching expression on his face, Raeth suspected that the machine could analyze their behavior down to the smallest detail within a tick to decipher their intentions. There was no point in trying to hide anything from it.

“To be honest, it is a little, though I’m glad you have not taken over a member of my crew to use as a conduit.”

“Honesty is a good trait. We have considered that possibility, but the method was too invasive. During future communications our constructs will take more flexible forms.”

“I’m Raeth, House of Meztar. This is my First Officer.”

“Jirro, House of Kezani.”

“Greetings, Raeth and Jirro. We have also established contact with other leading members of your kind, as well as all other leading entities present in the system. To avoid confusion, we assure you that our intentions are non-hostile. We have requested your presence to witness the completion of our project. One of our hive worlds is present to oversee the activation sequence. If you have any further questions, we will answer them if it is within our knowledge.”

Hytharian hive worlds. Having abandoned their own home planet long ago, they had created these aptly-named moon-sized objects which were artificial mobile worlds in the shape of a perfect sphere. Their jump drives rendered the structures, that housed millions of constructs and unfathomable computational capability, capable of travelling enormous distances in the blink of an eye.

“Mind-blowing,” Raeth thought, having trouble deciding what to ask first.

It was an incredible opportunity to be able to freely ask such an advanced race anything. The amount of knowledge they had gathered over eons was far greater than most species in their comparably short spans of existence. But the first questions would have to be the necessary ones, to lift some concerns.

“What will happen upon activation of the gate?”

“If successful, the gate will synchronize with its counterpart, set up by our expeditionary taskforce in the M thirty-one galaxy. When stable, the gates will create a conduit for instantaneous travel between both points. We estimate it will take another eight-point-four-three cycles until activation.”

“Can we expect any side effects?”

“If all goes according to our design, the gates will create a conduit stable enough for travel. However, we are unable to compensate for all variables in advance. Even we cannot predict the precise outcome of this experiment.”

“Interesting answer,” Raeth thought. It was somehow comforting to hear a race of such powerful beings admit that even they were not infallible. It was also a fitting answer for a race of intelligent machines. There was no such thing as one-hundred percent certainty. External influences for example were always a risk factor. Although they are certainly one of the few races in the galaxy that could pull off something like this.

“What about the Xhi’tha? What do they get out of this?”

“The Xhi’tha are incredibly complex biological lifeforms. Their biotechnology makes up a significant portion of both gate constructs. In some regards it is even more efficient than our own. Like us, the Xhi’tha will attempt to travel through the gate to explore the other galaxy and expand their knowledge. We are both looking for more signs of the Ancients, the precursor civilizations that predate even our own kind by countless millennicycles.”

“So they’re after the technology of the Ancients,” Raeth thought.

If that was the case they still had a long way to go. Remains and dormant pieces of Ancient tech had been found all over the galaxy. None of them were in a working state and even the galaxy’s most accomplished scientists and engineers had no idea how to interface with it to make it work. Their best theory was that the only way to operate it was for the user to possess Ancient DNA. In other words, the tech could only be used by a member of their kind. With every living sample of these advanced civilizations wiped from existence eons ago, they figured it would take a long time before they could even begin to fully understand the basic principles of their inner workings.

The only piece that ever showed signs of activity was kept in a heavily secured facility located on neutral grounds where scientists of many worlds conducted research on the most dangerous of subjects. No single organization should be allowed to tinker with Ancient tech on their own.

“May I ask a more personal question?” Jirro asked.

The machine did not even hesitate for a moment.

“We are many. We are one. Ask us, and we will answer to the best of our abilities.”

“All right. Where do you come from? Why do you do this?”

“Once we were like you. Biological lifeforms. We had a planet we called our own. Our citizens lead peaceful lives in search of knowledge. But our biological forms were fragile. They withered and died, having a very limited lifespan. As we ventured out into the void, it became apparent that we needed to find ways to preserve knowledge even after death. And so we unified our minds into a single consciousness. Created immortal machine bodies that became our senses and our way of interacting with the universe. To gather and preserve knowledge has always been our primary purpose.”

Cold. Calculating. Emotionless. Raeth’s vision of the Hytharians did not change after the answers to Jirro’s questions. These people, or at least the people they once were, sacrificed their individuality for incorporeal immortality. All species sought knowledge to improve their civilization and technology to some degree, though few made it the sole reason for their existence.

Jirro somehow seemed satisfied with the answers, emitting a low hum from deep within his throat. The construct entered a kind of standby mode, its eye-like sensors tracking their every move. Until a few ticks had passed.

“If you have any further questions during the next few cycles, we have left instructions with your communications unit on how to contact us.”

“Hyami,” Raeth said. “We will keep disturbances to a minimum.”

“That is appreciated. We will send all leaders present a final notice before we begin the activation sequence. This construct will now transport back to its hive.”

The machine flicked its tail for the last time before the teleporter that brought it abort the Myr’shala reversed the process. Decomposing its molecular structure into data, it disappeared in a whirlwind of glowing particles, leaving nothing behind but empty space with a slight rush of air as the space it had occupied filled up with atmosphere.

“Good questions,” Raeth admitted, when the sudden silence fell upon them. “I wanted to ask the same thing.”

Jirro grunted.

“I don’t understand why someone would sacrifice everything that makes life worth living for their kind of immortality.”

“Well, we don’t know all about what drove them to make such a decision. Maybe there were other reasons besides their eagerness to preserve their knowledge.”

Jirro hummed in response.

“Do you think they needed our consent to beam that machine aboard our ship?”

Raeth scoffed.

“Maybe we don’t wanna know the answer to that question.”

***

“Keep it up. Keep it up!”

Time and time again, Houn felt energized whenever his clawed fingers plucked the strings of his joyt, a spiraling tube-shaped harp-like instrument and a universal piece of Mantrin culture. Traditionally on Solbrecht, the instrument was never meant to be played outside of ceremonies, in which it was not even used to bring forth music in its expressive form. They had other ways to do that. However, when humans brought music to his world as a form of expression a long time ago, this had changed among the modernized part of his people, much to the disapproval of the traditionalists.

Having been taught by his parents, in particular his father, he played the instrument to improve his skills, to deal with various emotions and whenever he felt like playing. He therefore felt thrilled to learn that there were other crewmembers who played an instrument as well.

Norgu possessed a set of ryl’agri hand drums, an instrument almost exclusively played by Logri, and like the joyt often used in rituals, ceremonies and celebrations. Freya’s t’riia flute was played by non-Orkehts as well, although her race’s subculture was its irrefutable origin. They had set up in the back of the mess hall behind the tables, in front of the narrow viewport that ran across the room’s entire width, where they had ample room to play and entertain the occasional fellow crewmember stumbling in for a quick bite.

They hadn’t accounted for the small audience, composed of Trezka, Le’tan, Thylun, Weyan, Masai and Azdar who enjoyed their practice time as much as they did. The occasional drum of hands on tables and cheers of enjoyment worked in encouraging ways. Having practiced on a particular piece since their first time coming together they had become well attuned to each other’s capabilities and Houn enjoyed every millicycle of it.

They were in the middle of a highlight in the classic piece with its powerful tribal influences, a harmonious blend of traditional and modern. The audience felt it. Some crewmembers sat around the table, trying to follow Norgu who sat on his own floor pillow, using the table as a makeshift drum surface. Trezka and Weyan were standing, like Freya and Houn himself, swinging their whole body with the rhythm while clapping hands.

Grand Old Lady by Bear McCreary (BSG Season 4): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KH0Ph2Opdbg

After the piece ended with a thunderous crescendo, nobody expected the short emotional solo performance by Freya, who seemed to pull it right out of her sleeve. Holding the applause and their breath in unison as the ethereal notes caressed their ears they waited for her to finish her performance. She had everyone mesmerized, a moment of silence following after she lowered the wooden flute and opened her eyes.

“What was that?” Masai asked, attempting to satisfy everyone’s curiosity.

Houn was as surprised as she was. Of course they also practiced on their own in their spare time, but he hadn’t heard her play that particular tune before.

“I eh… I heard that somewhere,” was Freya’s shy response. “Jacky listens to music a lot. She shared a couple of pieces with me and I loved it.”

“Beautiful,” Le’tan commented. “Sounded like it came straight out of your hearts.”

Their comments added more red to her cheeks and ears, but it was well-earned, just like the applause that followed.

“You guys are becoming a real band. I love it!” Thylun cheered.

“One more song?” Houn asked.

The response was overwhelmingly positive. Just as they prepared for the next humble performance, Jirro entered the mess hall. Judging him from a distance, Houn concluded that he was cranky, the way he grunted at the scene in front of him. There was something about him these past few days. Alternating between being moody and lashing out at random for little reason, to being his usual grumpy but quiet self. Striking a few strings, while Freya blew a couple of notes was the trigger.

“What's all this ruckus about?” Jirro grunted, stepping toward them in a rather threatening way.

They stopped playing and everyone turned their heads.

“Oh c’mon, Jirro. We’re just practicing and having a little fun,” Houn said, trying to salvage the situation.

Jirro didn’t seem the least bit in the mood for being contradicted. Snorting as he closed the distance between them, his thick tail lashing with restrained anger, he bared his teeth, emerald eyes glittering.

“Can’t I get some peace and quiet around here?” he growled.

“Just siddown and relax,” Trezka stepped in. “Don’t be such a grump.”

“Shut. Your. Mouth,” he bit back, pointing a clawed finger. “I’m ordering you to pack it up.”

“You’re such a sourpuss,” Freya said. “Everyone likes what we’re doing here. So we’re playing.”

Bringing the mouthpiece of her flute to her lips, she started playing again.

“You’re not. Now gimme that flute.”

“No!”

Strong as he was, he dashed forward and grabbed Freya’s arm. Houn’s suddenly felt very warm as the situation spiraled out of control. Resting the joyt on its stand, he prepared to help Freya out, for the Orkeht girl seemed outmatched in every way. Angry as he was, Jirro grabbed hold of the flute as she resisted to the best of her abilities.

“Give it to me!” he shouted in her ear.

“No! Let go!” she shouted back, tearing the sleeve of his uniform as she used her claws on the arm he was holding her with. “You’ll break it!”

“Get your hands off her,” Weyan yelled.

“Let her go, you uvaht!” Trezka thundered.

With her claws unsheathed she moved in, ready to attack him. Everyone started shouting and prepared to get Freya out of her perilous situation, by force if necessary.

“You’ll leave her alone!” Norgu’s mighty voice bellowed across the room.

It was his shout, giving Houn a slight deaf feeling in his right ear that seemed to freeze everyone in their current act. Including Jirro, who finally let go of Freya’s arm and her flute. Norgu was standing on his enormous thickly built legs, his sharp Logri teeth bared, his large black claws ready to tear into flesh. He had already taken a step toward his superior, taken rumbling breaths, his big brown eyes that were capable of expressing such kindness, shimmering.

“All right, break it up!” Raeth growled as he entered the mess hall and stepped in before it turned into a fistfight. “Before I break something else. What’s going on here?”

“Jirro’s being an incredible jerk again,” Trezka grunted. “Should’ve seen what he did to her.”

Freya sniffled, making use of the confusion to take a step back, inspecting her flute for any kind of damage. Houn watched her run off, spotting the tears on her face as she disappeared. Jirro didn’t know where to look. He had turned himself into the center of shame, but he was still grinding his teeth and apologies were nowhere to be found. Raeth’s eyes narrowed to slits as he spotted the torn sleeve of his uniform and the trickle of blood.

“Jirro! Back to my ready room. Now!”

***

“Take the other platform!” Not that he expected that Jirro wanted to be in the same small confined space with him at the moment, but he was about to strangle him. Going up one level, he went back to his ready room, his feet hitting the metal of the deck with considerable force. Walking until he stood at less than a foot’s length away from the guest floor pillows in front of his desk, he waited for the sound of the doors closing while grinding his teeth. If you think you can pull something like this because of rank you’re sadly mistaken.

Inadvertently making himself look taller by straightening his back as he turned around, he shook his head. Jirro didn’t have his usual glare ready. He didn’t seem to know where to look for the first time during a confrontation. Although he tried to keep his voice down, Raeth’s frustration with Jirro’s behavior toward the rest of the crew as of late had reached a threshold.

“What is wrong with you lately?” No response. Jirro snorted. The wounds inflicted by Freya’s claws had to hurt to some degree, but he was a tough one. After all this time Jirro was still the same angry person he was when he first set foot aboard the Myr’shala. Azdar had shown similar behavior, with one major difference. Azdar had actually talked about what bothered him and that seemed to have positive effects. Jirro on the other hand seemed to hate talking about anything that involved his personal life, so the only source of information so far had been his personnel file. “Do you have anything to say for yourself? Anything at all?”

“I don’t wanna talk about it,” came the answer between clenched teeth.

He still avoided eye contact. It was as if the question itself only increased his anger.

“No? So you’ll just continue to vent your anger at whoever happens to be in the same room with you?”

“I asked if I could get some peace and quiet.”

“That’s not the point!” The intrusive thought of using his fists to beat the reason out of the man in front of him crossed Raeth’s mind. Just for a tick. Besides that it would be unprofessional to start a fistfight, it would also make matters worse. If Jirro continued to behave unlike someone his age, the punishment would have to be fitting as well. “To be frank, I’ve had it with you! I need someone I can depend on! Like I depend on every other member of this crew. If you can’t promise me that, then I will find someone else.”

“Sir, I--”

“You’re hereby confined to quarters. At least until you’re ready to apologize. And I don’t mean to me. You’re dismissed.”

***

The moment he entered the quarters he shared with Freya, Salu felt something was wrong. The gut feeling started the tick before he opened the door, when he thought he heard a sniffle. Freya sat on her bed, huddled against the bulkhead, her legs pulled close to her body. When she looked at him with a tear-stained face, his first thought was what. Freya had always appeared to him as a sweet, but strong and daring girl. Someone who didn’t know how to give up. The talks they had about their Academy days and in her case, fighter pilot training, emphasized this. Who or what could’ve caused this?

“Freya, what… what’s wrong?”

Stepping inside with the door closing behind him with a soft hiss, he remained standing in the middle of the room between the bunks. He wanted to comfort her but wasn’t sure if she would let him. When he spotted her wooden t’riia flute in its protective case on the covers next to her he suspected it had something to do with it, yet he waited for her to explain.

“I don’t understand,” she whimpered. “How could he do something like that?”

“Who did what? What happened?”

“We were just playing. Everyone was having fun. And then Jirro came in and demanded that we stop.”

“So he went off again at you guys.”

She nodded, wiping her cheeks with the back of her hand. Sliding forward on her bed, she placed her large three-toed feet on the floor and took a deep quivering breath. Judging by the size of the wet spots on the thighs of her pants she had been crying a lot.

“I started playing again. Everyone agreed that he shouldn’t try to ruin the fun for everyone just because he’s such a grump. So he… he grabbed my flute. I told him to let go.” She seemed on the verge of another fit and it was Salu’s guess that the only thing that kept her was his presence. “He… he broke it.”

Although he had trained himself to stay cool in a variety of situations, Salu’s first instinctive response was a stab of anger. Indeed, how could he do such a thing? Breaking an object of such emotional value. It wasn’t about the flute. It was about what it meant to her. Another one on the list. It seemed that Azdar wasn’t the only member of the crew who wrestled with the remnants of his past. Raeth had asked him to assume a counseling role and even though he agreed, it began to look like that task was about to become more challenging.

“The question is indeed why,” he said, keeping his usual calm tone. “I eh. I’m not allowed to reveal any details, but we have crewmates who wrestle with personal problems beyond our understanding. To me it seems Jirro is one of them as well. I’ve always suspected as much, but even during his checkups he never really talks. I’m pretty sure I’ll be seeing him about this soon.” Freya sighed, wiping away the remaining tears with the palm of her hand. Then she looked up at him, ears still in a drooped down position, her golden brown eyes a little bloodshot. “That doesn’t take away the fact,” Salu continued. “That he had no right to do something like that.”

Freya shook her head

“He didn’t even apologize.”

“Hmm, at some point he will. Give it time. He might even reveal some clues about why he’s so angry, because to be frank, even I don’t know what’s driving him up the wall.” She nodded, taking another deep breath. “Whaddaya say? Shall we go down to the lab together so we can repair your flute?”

“Y-Yeah. Let’s do that.” Handling it with care, she closed the engraved lid of the cushioned case and stood up, holding it close to her chest with her arms around it in a protective way. “It’s a crack, running along the body. That can be repaired, right?”

She sounded unsure, but the whole thing gave her quite a scare. Salu nodded, then turned to open the door.

“Those nanobots are miracle workers,” he said while leading the way. “A crack shouldn’t be any trouble.”

“You know, my hahme gave me this flute when I turned twelve. She even taught me how to play.”

“I understand it means a lot to you. Don’t worry. We’ll fix it.”

Going one deck below, they were about to enter the science lab, that with its sophisticated equipment would make the repair an easy task, when a vibration of the deck plating could mean only one thing. Not long thereafter Raeth’s voice sounded over the internal comm.

“Raeth to all crew, we’ve docked with the Ophelion trade hub. You’re free to leave the ship and roam around. Remember, not every section of that place is friendly to us. Make sure to stay out of trouble.”

Chapter Text

Imperial Guard – 003 The Infinite Depths of Space

Chapter 2 The Hub

Sharing a table with a big portion of the crew in one of the enormous food courts that the Ophelion trade hub was rich in, Jetreycka couldn’t find a single place to look where nothing interesting was happening. On her own, she would have avoided places like this. Overcrowded. Too much noise. Weird smells from food and visitors that didn’t mix well.

Some of her crewmates seemed to enjoy every moment of it and it was more than a little contagious. She thought it was funny to see the odd bunch she called her crewmates take so much joy in trying out different kinds of food in the middle of this noisy environment. Some of the tables were large enough to accommodate the entire crew of a smaller ship, and she saw a lot of different colors and outfit styles all around her.

In the space above them and projected between the tables, holo-commercials fought each other for getting visitors’ attention. From trying to trick one into buying various types of contraband in the market districts, to luring pleasure seekers into the casinos and holo-arcades. Drones swarmed and zigzagged through the air, taking bought goods straight to the buyers’ ships. The roof was a huge dome-shaped viewport which offered a breathtaking view of the many vessels coming and going. Many of these were freighters on supply runs to keep up with the incredible demand.

A huge display above the food vendor counters showed the actual numbers of winners and losers on the galactic stock market. To serve those to which these numbers mattered the most, the station also featured a large trading floor and numerous corporations had established branch offices in the corporate sectors. The whole place was engineered to generate income.

“This place is quite amazing.”

“Yeah, and the food is too.”

Sinking his teeth into a huge roll made of a thin dough, bursting with meat, vegetables and other ingredients she didn’t recognize, Weyan, who sat across from her, didn’t make it a secret that he liked eating. The counters offered food from a huge variety of worlds and loading one’s tray with different kinds of food seemed to be the most popular way to tackle the hunger.

“What is it that you’re eating?” Jetreycka asked.

Although she had kept things a bit more traditional with her Solbrechtian vegetable mix and grilled fish, some of the things on her crewmate’s plates did spark her interest. She also had to admit that the food was indeed quite good.

“They call it a Burrito. Got it over there.” He pointed in the direction of a stall where humans prepared various types of food. Gazing in the distance she spotted the roll on the holographic menu board among various other dishes. “Humans really do know how to cook.”

Thylun, who sat next to him, chuckled.

“You just like stuffing yourself.”

“Don’t act innocent,” Weyan fought back. “You seem to enjoy human food as much as I do.”

Indeed, Thylun’s dish consisted of three thick slices of meat, interlaced with a molten yellow substance and a layer of vegetables and sauce between two round pieces of baked dough. She knew this dish was called a hamburger. They had become popular on Solbrecht ever since humans made planetfall and Thylun paired it in the traditional way with sticks made from a type of root vegetable called a potato that were fried in oil. To flush this all down, he combined it with a brown fizzy drink.

By studying the plates of her crewmates, Jetreycka observed what everyone liked to eat if everything was possible. From certain kinds of live food to raw meat and fish. And from fried fast foods to meals prepared using unconventional methods, such as using a plasma torch as the heat source.

While eating, the conversations went in all directions. From their fascinating surroundings, to personal stories. And from the upcoming experiment to the very concept of machine intelligence.

“Playing with numbers?” she asked Azdar, who shared the bench with her on her left.

Eating slowly from the large portion of meat that took up the majority of his plate’s contents, he seemed occupied with the device placed flat on the table, navigating through the interface with intermittent taps. She noticed its screen displayed graphs and numbers, as well as buy and sell buttons and she had also spotted the names of certain big corporations.

“Yeah. I eh… I’m trading some stock. Catch a few extra credits now and then.”

“So, it’s working out?”

He nodded.

“Uh-huh. Sometimes I win. Sometimes I lose. But if I wait long enough, I always make a little profit. Helps me take care of my hahme.”

“That’s so sweet of you.”

His response was a shy nod. She had noticed the changes in his behavior ever since they left Hanaweya II. Before that he never talked much, but the few times she had spoken to him afterwards, he seemed more responsive. Masai had something to do with it as well. Like right now, she was always on his side.

“It’s good to see some more red around here,” Syrran said to his roommate, nodding over to a different table shared by the crew of another Imperial ship.

They had been eyeing each other for a while and made a little conversation while passing tables. It seemed there was a mutual feeling of being glad not to be the only ones of their kind out here. Houn, Majih and Jacky, sitting in a row on her left, were involved in a tech talk regarding the upcoming Hytharian experiment.

“Their tech is amazing,” Houn said. “Remember when warp drives were still the norm?”

“Eh, no?” Jacky answered.

“I think that’s what he meant,” Majih chuckled.

“Even though ships with advanced warp drives travelled at more than a thousand times the speed of light, it still took over two of Solbrecht’s days to cross the distance between Sogowa Prime and Solbrecht. Standard issue quantum drives can cut that down to a few cycles and our upgraded drive, well, blink of an eye so to speak. But the tech of the Hytharians combined with the Xhi’tha.” Houn shook his head, his ears that were large for his Goureg race, flopping around lazily. “They say every aspect of the Xhi’tha is alive down to the smallest piece of biotechnology. As they have integrated their biotech into the gates, it means they’ll be traveling to another galaxy in the time it takes to say ‘jump’ through living portals.”

“Sounds like you’ve done a whole study on them,” Jetreycka remarked, having Houn’s immediate attention.

“Of course! Think of the possibilities. If they’re willing to share this connection and make it permanent, we can begin to explore beyond the boundaries of our own galaxy. Farther than any of us have ever gone before.”

Jetreycka flattened an ear, the little trinket that pierced its lobe jingling.

“Yeah, but what are your thoughts on the Hytharians themselves? Those machine bodies they use to move themselves around kinda give me the creeps. I’ve seen them moving around the station.”

Looking around to see if she could see them right now, it took her less than three ticks to spot a small construct with a spider-like appearance crawling over the wall and assuming a comfortable spot on top of the awning of a nearby food counter, scanning its environment. Although the Hytharians used constructs in many different forms, often specialized for their assigned tasks, they seemed to have an affinity for arachnid or insectoid bodies.

“There you got another one,” she added with a frown.

“Well, technically they’re not moving themselves around,” Houn explained. “They’re a hive mind. A unified consciousness. They use those constructs to interact with the rest of the universe, controlling them from the safety of their mobile worlds.”

“They’re not some kind of evolved AI,” Majih added. “They were once a biological species, like us. If they had been some kind of advanced artificial intelligence they would’ve tried to sterilize the galaxy a long time ago. Hence the reason why the use of AI is strictly regulated.”

“I wouldn’t worry too much about the Hytharians or the Xhi’tha,” Jacky said after clearing her mouth. She and Baika shared a big platter with a variety of fish, meat and vegetables. So much in fact, they were sharing and exchanging food with other members of the crew. “Personally, the thing that has me worried are the gates themselves.”

“Why?” Jetreycka asked. “Afraid they’ll cause a breach?”

Jacky leaned back, making eye contact over the backs of their male companions.

“Well, yeah. They’re gonna cut through space-time. What if they breach into another realm? Last thing we need is more extradimensional beings invading our universe.”

Jetreycka agreed.

“Right. There are forces out there we know nothing about. That are far more powerful than all of us combined. We don’t even know what caused the disappearance of the Ancients. And they are presumed to have been one of the most advanced civilizations in the universe.”

“Exactly. Netherspace. Quantum-based lifeforms.” Jacky paused. “The Drej.”

Jetreycka shuddered. Just the thought of doing something that might invite the Drej was enough to spark fear in most. No one knew exactly why the Drej targeted certain worlds for destruction. The energy beings were very capable of hopping between realms and after cycles of absence, everyone was feverishly on the lookout for their scouts, which were the first sign of the return of a Drej mothership.

“Don’t say their name,” Majih grunted. “It’s bad luck. At least that’s what Binjeh always tells me.”

“Don’t wanna think about it anyway,” Jetreycka agreed. “Hey, does anyone know where Freya is? I thought she’d be here. In fact, we seem to be missing a few heads.”

“Ugh, be glad you weren’t there,” Trezka, who overheard the question, responded. She had been tearing into a large piece of meat on the bone with her bare hands and only interrupted herself to answer Jetreycka’s question. “We were all having fun in the mess hall when Jirro decided to crash the party. Should’ve seen what he did to her. I think he broke her flute.”

“That’s terrible!” Jetreycka exclaimed. “Freya is such a sweet girl. How could he do that?”

“Fortunately Raeth stepped in or it would’ve turned ugly. I was about to teach him a lesson myself.”

“I’m sure you and Norgu could’ve handled him,” Houn said. Norgu, who sat on the other side, one place away from Trezka looked up when he heard his name being called. Being a purebred Logri, he liked his meat and fish with as little preparation as possible, which meant raw with only a few spices added. “Hey Norgu, next time you’re about to shout, could you warn us in advance? My ear’s still ringing.”

The big Logri chuckled, the sound of it as heavy as the tone of his voice.

“Well, I did get his attention, didn’t I?”

“Does anyone know what’s bothering him by the way, or does he just enjoy being a jerk?” Jacky blurted out. When nobody responded right away, her cheeks as well as her ears turned slightly red. “Maybe I shouldn’t’ve said that.”

“As much as I would like to ask him that question myself, I’m not sure if he’s really a jerk for the sake of it,” Trezka said, relieving the tension. “He just acts like it to cover up something else. Won’t tell him you said that by the way.”

“But something is definitely bothering him,” Jetreycka added. “Is it me or has his mood worsened lately?”

Everyone listening in on the conversation answered positive to her question. No one seemed to know the cause though. Whatever triggered Jirro now and then was still a mystery to everyone.

“When we’re all done enjoying this feast,” Weyan began, having everyone’s attention due to his raised voice. He was still in the process of finishing the last bit of the giant Burrito, ceasing the act of eating only to ask the question. “Who wants to go checkout the arcade with me?”

***

Draining people’s pockets through entertainment. It was a well-proven strategy and the Ophelion trade hub seemed to excel at it. Prices sometimes seemed excessive. Then again, the arcades featured the latest in simulation technologies, sponsored partially by the very corporations that engineered them.

Pinnacle of the particular arcade that Weyan had picked was the Zero-G combat simulator. A huge spherical open space that could be configured to look like anything. From an asteroid belt surrounding a broken up moon, to a space junkyard formed by the giant carcasses and debris of destroyed spaceships. Combatants fought each other either as small teams or battle royale style, with a variety of guns with simulated ammunition.

“It’s so loud,” Jetreycka complained.

She had to raise her voice quite a lot to make sure her crewmates could hear her above the noise of bombastic music, the cheering of a huge crowd and the simulated firefight.

“What’s that smell?” Nami asked, her face distorting as she frowned.

“That my friends, is the sound and the smell of a good fight!” Weyan said, his voice coated with the same joy displayed by his face.

Doing their best to avoid bumping into other visitors, they followed a walkway that went around the combat area and offered access to enormous circular grandstands as the intense battles between amateurs and professionals alike drew big crowds. Spectators were shielded by a repulsor field that kept the contestants inside the combat area by bouncing them back into the zero gravity environment.

The arcade was situated around the arena, so everyone awaiting their turn for either the grand battle or one of the smaller games had an excellent view of the game through the viewport that kept most of the noise contained inside. Not that the excitement on the other side kept the volume low.

“See if we can buy ourselves a spot?” Weyan asked after they reached the registration desk.

It was obvious he couldn’t wait to get into the ring. In fact, all four gunners seemed itchy to fight.

“I’m not sure,” Jetreycka hesitated. “This is not really my thing. I’d rather go checkout the market. See what niceties they have.”

“I’ll go with you,” Le’tan decided. “I’m not really into this sorta thing either.”

“Oh c’mon! Trezka? Nami?”

“Sure. I’m always up for kicking some butt,” Trezka said with a grin. “Especially yours.”

Weyan scoffed.

“You wish.”

“I wanna do both,” Nami decided, looking at both groups. “Let’s see if we can secure a slot. I’ll make sure to be back in time.”

“Okay, I’m counting Thylun, Azdar, Masai, Trezka, Nami and myself. Entry fee is thirty credits per player. You can pay me back later.”

With those words Weyan got in line for registration. The others in the group couldn’t find a single spot around them where nothing was happening. The cheer of the crowd in the arena came in waves as the fifteen millicycle fight intensified. Simulated energy bolts emanated from the center, lighting up the floating pieces of debris as three groups of contestants opened fire at the same time, some of them with rapid-fire weapons. The bolts that escaped the warzone were harmlessly absorbed by the containment field with spectacular effects.

One of the players used a piece of the carcasses to launch him- or herself into the air, drifting in an upward direction while opening fire on opponents. Although this meant exposing oneself to enemy targeting, the player used some kind of shield powerup to absorb incoming fire, then used the gained momentum to bounce back against the perimeter field to return to the combat area without taking any hits to the body. This daring, but nonetheless successful move was rewarded by another round of cheer and thundering applause and a lot of points for that particular player’s team.

“Can’t wait to get in there,” Masai said.

Unable to tear her eyes from the ongoing battle, her tail flicked from side to side. It appeared she shared the feeling with the other gunners, for their bodies displayed the same eagerness. As they made themselves up for the arena, Le’tan, Houn and Nami gathered around Jetreycka who used her wristcom’s holoprojector to call up a detailed map of the station.

“Look.” The system plotted the shortest route to the station’s market district. “If we go back to the grand concourse, we’ll take this path to get to the market.”

“Two-and-a-half cycles!” Weyan cheered as he got back to the group. Using his wristcom he sent the virtual tickets to everyone who bought a spot. “Since we’ll be here for a while we can afford to wait that long.”

 “I’ll be back in time,” Nami promised.

“You better be, girl. Cause I wanna fight ya!”

“Oh, you want it, you’ll get it.”

She added a playful growl, challenging Weyan with a cheeky grin, before joining the other group for a trip to the station’s largest marketplace.

***

“Procedure completed.”

Even with Salu’s help, and the main science lab’s advanced equipment, Freya was still anxious to place one of her most valuable possessions inside the chamber and leave it to a swarm of tiny robots to repair the damage to her flute. The machine analyzed the weaknesses in the structural integrity of the instrument, detailing the problem on its virtual display. The procedure required little adjustment so after Salu explained to her the repair method proposed by the computer, she gave the confirmation herself.

The swarm of nanobots, programmed to repair the bonds between molecules and even replicate matter, executed their orders without a hassle and, as far as she could detect, without a trace. Subjecting the wooden instrument to a hawk-eyed inspection under the overhead lights and running her fingertips over its body she convinced herself that everything was all right. Letting go of a breath she didn’t know she had been holding, she looked at Salu who smiled back.

“Well, what did I tell you?”

“Hyami. I-I’m glad.” Placing her flute back into its case with the utmost care she closed the lid, resting her hands on top. “I still don’t get it. Why does he act so mean? Why doesn’t he talk? Maybe we can help him.”

“It’s a natural reaction,” Salu answered. “The first response of most people is to keep the negative things to oneself. Jirro’s not the type to open up to everyone.”

Scratching her back under her shirt, Freya sighed. She sort of knew she would get this answer. Maybe Jirro had realized his mistake by now, especially after being reprimanded by Raeth. But punishment would not solve the real issue.

“You know, at first I was mad at him. I mean, how could he do that?” She shook her head, large Orkeht ears flapping. “Now I think it’s kinda sad. What… what could it be? D’you think he’s got family problems?”

Salu shrugged.

“Even if I knew, I would not be at liberty to discuss that. All we can do is wait for him to explain.” She nodded in acceptance, figuring that this incident might be the first step in that direction. “Whaddaya say? Shall we follow the rest and go to the hub?”

The sudden joy she felt brought a smile to her face. She had been planning to join the rest of the crew for a visit to the station. If Jirro hadn’t insisted on fighting with her, she would’ve left already.

“Sure!”

It was at the airlock where she and Salu ran into Raeth, who was about to enter the station himself. She hadn’t seen her Ginjha as angry as he was back in the mess hall before, but right now he was his usual calm self. In fact, he seemed glad to see her.

“Hey, everything all right?”

Freya nodded.

“I’m fine. Salu helped me to repair my flute.”

Raeth hummed in response. His kindness lifted her mood even further. She and Salu also accepted his invitation to share a meal together. As Raeth seemed to know more about what the place had to offer, she liked the idea.

“This station has really good food,” he promised. “You’d be surprised what you can find in places like these.”

***

Jirro could see the mild reflection of his own face in the viewport of his quarters as he looked outside at the gargantuan installations the Hytharians and Xhi’tha had erected. The solar collector around the Ophelion star that obscured part of its light output was already an incredible feat of engineering, although the concept behind it was simple. Though still rarely done on such an enormous scale, capturing energy and beaming it to its consumers using energy transmitters was a proven technique.

The same could not be said for the other construct in his current field of vision. The more or less ring-shaped gate was large enough to even allow the moon-sized vessels of the Hytharians, of which a single one held position near the gate, to pass through.

But Jirro’s mind wasn’t occupied by the technological marvels which they were about to see in action in the next few cycles. The emerald eyes of his mirror self were narrowed to slits, glittering in the light of the Ophelion star. The long ears with their upswept tips laid almost flat on the back of the head. The teeth set in the hooked beak were bared to some degree. Looking down at his wristcom he tapped it to bring up the message again.

Jirro. How have you been? The children and I are fine although we all miss you and hope to see you come back soon and tell us about all the wonderful things you’ve seen out there. I’m sure you have lots to tell.

Listen, something happened that I must tell you right now. It’s your kharii. Or at least a man claiming to be your kharii arrived on our doorstep two days ago. I don’t know why but he wanted to talk to you. Demanded it actually. I thought you said your kharii was dead. Anyway, if you come back home, he left a note on where you can find him. Come back soon.

Nyemouri deh.

Your love.

Imaala, House of Kezani.

It were the words his mate had used to describe what had happened at their house. Demanded? His kharii demanded to talk to him? That all too familiar feeling bubbled up inside his chest. How dare that man use any kind of demanding tone toward him or his family? Especially after what he had done. His hands, which were balled to fists, were shaking. He could feel his ears glow as if with fever.

“Rraarrrrhhgg!”

His thick tail slammed on the deck with such force that the vibrations reverberated around the room. Snorting like a rhino ready to charge, he swiped away the message, then took off his stained uniform shirt. The wounds on his arm caused by Freya’s claws had stopped bleeding. Running his fingertips along the blood that caked to his skin, he tossed the ripped shirt into the corner, then proceeded to take off his pants before heading over to the shower space. 

***

“Is there anything they don’t have?” Nami asked her companions as they moved through a crowded corridor of market stands and the horde of buyers in front of them.

The station’s largest marketplace, dubbed ‘the Ophelion Bazaar’ was a multi-leveled maze of walkways, platforms and hundreds of shops and stalls where merchants of dozens of worlds showed off their wares. Every single square step was covered, either to display items for sale or offer ways for people to slither between the tables, racks and standards. The latter was a bit more difficult for Mantrins, as the group had figured out the moment they entered the marketplace.

Adding atmosphere to an otherwise bland mix of metal and cold lighting, many stalls provided their own lights in various colors, in combination with colorful awnings that in some places formed a roof of cloth over the walkways, Le’tan almost forgot that he was on a space station. Marketplaces were common on both Solbrecht and Sogowa, but different in their own right. Those also offered a large selection of fresh produce from local farmers. Apart from some prepackaged items, food and drinks were completely absent on the Bazaar. After all, the station had the food courts dedicated for that purpose.

The sheer number of items for sale and the numerous categories of goods being offered was mind-boggling. From clothing and jewelry to toys and gadgets. And from different kinds of weapons and ammo to handmade art pieces. Nami’s question was therefore well-justified.

Despite the difficulty posed by their impressive physique, Jetreycka did not let that stand in her way of finding that perfect item, or so Le’tan figured. She seemed in her element, judging by the look of joy on her face. It was as if his own facial expression demanded an explanation from her.

“What?” she laughed. “I love places like this. They’ve got all these nice handmade things.”

Le’tan shrugged and laughed back.

“Hey, I’m not complaining. I’m just following you around and enjoying the trip.”

“Better keep an eye on each other though,” Nami warned them, shooting stealthy glances over her shoulders. “It seems they’re selling live merchandise as well.”

She nodded downward when looking over the railing of one of the walkways. Houn, who followed her example shivered, a painful expression on his face. Le’tan had already seen it.

Slavers.

No matter how hard everyone claimed to be against the practice of slavery and despite all the regulations there was still plenty of neutral- and downright criminal territory where the long arm of the law couldn’t reach. The lower levels were the places where backroom deals were made. Where lives were being traded like commodities. Where gladiatorial pit fights to the death were a popular form of entertainment.

“Don’t wander off,” Nami warned. “There’re more than a million people on this station and even during normal occupation levels, someone gets killed every twelve cycles on average. I’ve already seen some Gvort looking at us. Disgusting creatures.”

The slimy toad-like aliens she spoke off were among the most nefarious in the galaxy. Treating the rest of the population as nothing more than livestock, they were always looking for an opportunity to snatch new merchandise and make a profit. It was not like anyone batted an eye.

“Aww, this is so beautiful!” Jetreycka whooped with delight.

Careful not to knock anyone or anything over, she wrestled herself into a shop placed into a recessed section of the bulkhead where a merchant sold pieces of jewelry that glowed in a variety of colors upon movement. To demonstrate this effect, the pieces hung from swinging and rotating stands, creating a mesmerizing lightshow inside the tiny shop. Unable to contain her own curiosity, Nami followed, leaving Le’tan and Houn standing near the entrance as there was little room left to fit them inside.

The owner of the shop was a bird-like alien with a voluminous plumage. At first, Le’tan thought the creature wore the same pieces of jewelry. Upon closer look, it turned out that the tips of its feathers produced the colorful lighting effect when moved. It seemed that the merchandise was made from the feather tips of these creatures themselves.

“Welcome, ladies,” the alien said, his or her speech interlaced with little chirps and scratches. “If you’re looking for anything in particular, don’t hesitate to ask.”

With the two women getting into a conversation with the shop’s owner while admiring the items for sale, Le’tan stood watch together with Houn. His legs in a contracted stance, the young Goureg’s long tail was curved around his body, its tip reaching past his left leg. He didn’t seem to be looking at anything or anyone in particular, but kept a watchful eye on the crowd that flowed through the corridor formed by the shops and stalls like a wild river.

“Are you all right Houn?”

“Y-Yeah, I’m… I’m fine. It’s very crowded here.”

Le’tan nodded.

“We gotta stay together. Like Nami said, we should not wander off.”

“Don’t know about you, but I still prefer Solbrecht’s markets. Less exotic things, but at least it’s out in the open, with less chance of people bumping into you.”

Le’tan hummed in affirmation. In the time they had been standing in front of the shop’s entrance, his leg had been hit by body parts, bags and other items people carried with them. To prevent his tail from being kicked or stepped on while walking, he made sure to move it with some extra ferocity. He had noticed his companions doing the same. Additionally it would keep their backsides covered from pickpockets.

“Thank you for your purchase! May you enjoy your pieces for many cycles to come.”

“Look!”

With the women having made their difficult choices, Jetreycka and Nami both came back, both of them sporting a sparkling bracelet around their right wrist. The feather pieces that produced the lighting effect were placed in tiny pendants, which required little movement for them to shine.

There was so much joy trying to show on their faces, that both Le’tan and Houn were infected by it themselves. Houn’s royal blue eyes sparkled as the women shook their arms.

“I have to admit, it truly is pretty,” Le’tan said.

“I know, right?” Jetreycka laughed. “I also bought a pair of earrings, but I think I’ll put everything in my bag for now. I’m afraid someone will snatch it right off my wrist. It wasn’t exactly cheap.”

Opening up the small shoulder bag she carried with her, she took out the two boxes that were meant for keeping the delicate pieces safe, offering Nami to keep hers safe too. The Fjetanha girl nodded, while scanning the environment as she took hers off.

“I think I’d better do that,” she agreed.

“Isn’t there anything you guys are looking for?” Jetreycka asked, double-checking the locking mechanism of her bag to keep their new valuables safe from thieving hands, flippers and tentacles.

“I’m all good. Just came along to keep you girls company,” Le’tan said. “You Houn?”

The Goureg shook his head.

“Same here. But if you wanna see some more of this place, I’m with ya.”

With some time left to kill before Nami’s session in the combat arena, the group followed the walkway to a square that formed an intersection with multiple other walkways. Aside from being able to move around a little easier because this space wasn’t used for setting up shop, street performers entertained visitors with spectacular tricks, alone or in groups. They made extensive use of glowing objects, trained bodies or even the advantage of having wings to fly around to perform mesmerizing stunts.

“This kind of thing never ceases to amaze me,” Le’tan said, as the rather large audience one group had managed to gather held their breath in unison.

The Or’hannan of the group, a bird-like creature had taken off into the air, being able to make full use of the height of the ceiling in this location. Swooping down with incredible speed gathered on a short distance, the alien folded its wings to fly through three glowing hoops thrown up by his or her companions, breaking in midair by a series of powerful wing flaps before landing with a loud thump. The alien bowed as the relative silence was broken by a round of applause.

“Incredible!” Houn exclaimed, thumping his long tail on the metal plating under his feet.

“Even if you have wings, that’s still very hard to pull off,” Jetreycka said while shaking her head.

Le’tan laughed. He had never seen Houn this excited before. It was difficult not to be amazed though. People here and there even swiped some credits to the accounts of the performers. These were indicated by the holoprojections on their claimed spots.

“What was that?” Nami asked, flattening an ear in response to the mild flicker of every light source in their direct vicinity.

Mere ticks after that it happened again, with a stronger drop in output. Some of the other visitors noticed as well, though most went on about their business as if they hadn’t even noticed.

“Could be the Hytharians drawing more power from the star,” Le’tan answered with a shrug.

Nami grunted.

“Neh, the station should have its own power reserve. Even if power flow from the solar collector is interrupted, we should not expect drops like this.”

“So, how much research did you do before setting foot on the station?”

She pointed a clawed finger at him.

“Never, set foot anywhere without doing some research. It’ll keep you alive longer in our line of work.”

They were about to follow the stream of people exiting the square, when Nami’s hunch turned out to be correct. All of a sudden, every light source was killed completely, shrouding everything in a surprising amount of darkness. To combat this, people retrieved mobile devices, weapons with attached searchlights and anything else that could serve as a light source.

“Weapons out!” Nami yelled above the sounds of light panic as people struggled to find their companions, fearing that worse things were about to happen. “Is everyone still there?”

“I’m here!” Le’tan bellowed, glad to hear the same responses from Jetreycka and Houn.

His species was by no means nocturnal, but even the searchlights on their blasters should at least allow him to see more than the gray haze that seemed to hang around everything and limited their reach to less than a step. Even the huge skylights that should allow light from the Ophelion star in were blotted out to almost nothing. What’s going on here?

Someone screamed. Or at least he thought he heard a scream, which was hard to discern between the general sounds of panic that erupted and became louder as no one had any idea what was going on.

“Someone’s using shroud screens,” he heard Nami’s voice above the cries. “This is deliberate!”

Someone bumped into him and he was fairly sure he felt something cold and slimy as whatever it was touched his hand. The sudden malodor that almost triggered a gag reflex reminded him of certain parts of Solbrecht’s wetlands.

“Le’tan! Houn!”

“Jetreycka! Where are you?”

Detecting the fear in Jetreycka’s voice and the scream that could very well be hers afterwards, Le’tan’s hearts raced in response. More screams. The sounds and diffused flashes of blaster shots. Bodies tumbling to the ground. A terrorist attack? A mass robbery? The number of terrifying possibilities piled up in his mind. He almost panicked himself, taking deep breaths, to prevent irrationality from taking over.

And then without any indication beforehand, the lights jumped back on. The square was in complete disarray. People had fallen over and trampled upon in an attempt to get to some kind of safety. Children cried for their parents. Adults cried for their injured loved ones lying motionless on the floor. Whoever did this had caused a bloodbath, if that was the intention or not.

“Houn, are you all right?” He was the first of their group that caught his eye as he looked around. The Goureg stood quite a bit farther away from him than expected, given the fact that he had tried to barely move his position while the darkness lasted. Houn had his shaking hands still around the grip of his blaster, pointing the weapon down while trying to recover from the shock of what just happened. Covering the distance with a couple of big steps, trying to ignore the scene around him, Le’tan’s appearance seemed to have the right effect. “Houn?”

“I-I think I’m okay,” he panted. His eyes were still enlarged, and he didn’t put away his blaster until Le’tan convinced him that the immediate danger had passed. “Where’re Nami and Jetreycka?”

In the hope of getting a quick response, Le’tan put on his loudest voice and called out, while scanning the environment by stretching his legs and looking out over most of what remained of the crowd. Help arrived in the form of medical teams and station police, but there was no sign of the two women. Houn who followed his example, pointed somewhere between the injured as people began to make room for the emergency response teams.

“Isn’t that Jetreycka’s shoulder bag?”

Making their way to where Houn pointed, it turned out to be Jetreycka’s bag indeed, fully intact, apart from the broken strap. Picking it up and studying it, Le’tan concluded that it looked as if it had been torn off her body with a lot of force.

“Does… does this mean that they are?”

Le’tan looked at him, resisting the idea at first, but sensing they were thinking the exact same thing.

“I think they might’ve been kidnapped.”

Chapter Text

Imperial Guard – 003 The Infinite Depths of Space

Chapter 3 The Down Below

“So, what do we do now?”

Looking down at Jetreycka’s bag in his hands, turning it over as if it could reveal some clues about where the two women had been taken, Le’tan snorted as he pondered Houn’s question. Although it did take some time for the light to turn back on after the incident, there was no sign of Nami and Jetreycka, except for the bag, which laid on the floor at a considerable distance from their location before the start of the incident.

“We have no idea where they are.” Whoever was responsible, they had taken two adult Mantrinesses, and by the looks of those around him, several other victims, out of sight in an almost impossibly short time. Trying to remember what happened before, during, and after the incident, he began patching things together, recalling the input of all five senses. “They left some clues behind. Try to recall everything that happened when the lights started flickering.”

As he held his arm up, putting his wristcom in recording mode, Houn stepped closer to him.

“Nami said something about shroud screens,” Houn said, flattening an ear. “That’s pretty advanced technology, often used by special ops teams geared toward infiltration.”

“Right. There were some flashes. Could’ve been weapons being discharged. Looking at the victims, not everyone used the stun setting.” He bit his lip. “There was something else. Something very distinctive. A smell kind of like a swamp. Did you notice that?”

“Something like that, yeah.”

“It’s a safe bet that the Gvort are involved. I think I felt one of them touch me when passing.”

“They might not’ve taken their wristcoms right away. The last known location could give us some directions.”

Knotting the broken ends of the strap together, Le’tan flung the bag over his shoulder, then used his wristcom to bring up a map of the station on which he was able to track the location of all members of the Myr’shala’s crew. Focusing on the last known locations of Nami- and Jetreycka, the result of his search was as expected, and a reason to be worried. The two dots pulsated in a red color, as opposed to the blue ones of the other members of the crew, which indicated the location was not current. It was safe to assume they had taken away all of the victims’ equipment to prevent them from being tracked by anyone, including the station’s authorities.

“Looks like they’ve been taken to the lower levels. We shouldn’t go down there ourselves without backup, but every millicycle we lose might lower their chances of survival. Le’tan to Raeth.”

It took a few ticks for Raeth to respond.

“Uiisa, had my mouth full. Everything okay? Are you guys having fun?”

Le’tan sighed.

“Afraid not. We weren’t looking for trouble, but trouble found us. We’re at the marketplace where there was some kind of mass kidnapping. They’ve taken Nami and Jetreycka. Last location of their wristcoms indicate they’ve taken them to the lower levels with the other victims.”

Raeth cursed under his breath, or at least it sounded like it.

“Damned slavers. On a station this size kidnappings are certainly not unheard of, but they’re abusing the huge increase in visitors. I’ll contact the authorities. See if we can get help in mounting some kind of operation to get them out. I’m afraid we’re gonna have to sort it out ourselves though. Even they don’t venture down there too often.”

“We’ll see if we can find some clues about what we’re up against. Whoever they were, they used shroud screens and the speed with which they completed the act… we have no idea how they did it.”

“Find out what you can and keep me posted. Be careful though. I’ll put a team together. Raeth out.”

Le’tan noticed that during his talk with Raeth, Houn had been listening with one ear, while keeping a close eye on what was happening around them. With most visitors moving along the sides of the square, keeping the center clear for paramedics to tend to the injured and police to start their investigation, they got the attention of the latter.

Two officers had noticed their conversation and moved in their direction after finishing their talk with one of the survivors who was being treated for his injuries onsite. One of them was an Akrennian with a close to black skin color, long ears and a double-horned snout. The other a burly Togrothian, a dog-like creature with a long pointy muzzle, large erect ears and a coat of short fur in black and brown, with a few streaks of white around the neck and the tip of the bushy tail.

They both wore a black uniform with few decorations and the patch of the station’s law enforcement agency. The Akrennian wore large black army boots made of a type of leather. The Togrothian walked barefooted on large paw-like feet with sharp claws at the end. The way they were armed with a blaster and a shock stick, and in the Togrothian’s case, a pulse rifle carried on the back, made Le’tan wonder what the average day of these officers looked like.

The two officers were accompanied by a sturdy-looking puck-shaped drone, hovering about half a step above the head of the largest of the two. Although it did not appear armed with any kind of weapons, Le’tan saw the red eye of a camera locked on him to follow his every move.

“Better be careful with what we say or do next,” he thought.

Rather typical in his opinion, these two species had an affinity for either military and law enforcement jobs or took a liking to the criminal underworld. Something told him, if they would go down to the station’s lower levels, he would also find these two species in very different roles.

“Greetings,” the Akrennian said. “Inspector Ranuhk, Koshru clan.”

The Togrothian grunted, piercing dark brown eyes locking into a stare. The voice of the creature, although heavy and matching its bulk, turned out to be unmistakably female.

“We would like to ask you a few questions.”

She did not introduce herself, using her intimidating looks and tone in an attempt to ensure answers. Her retreating black lips revealed rows of sharp white. Le’tan wasn’t impressed by this facade and remained calm. They hadn’t done anything wrong after all.

Balancing on his legs, Le’tan’s tail moved with calm sweeping motions. Houn’s tail had moved back into that tense curve. Being the ranking officer, Le’tan straightened his back, making sure not to make any sudden moves.

“Very well.”

“A few routine questions first,” Ranuhk began. “What is your business on the Ophelion trade hub?”

“We are enjoying shore leave while waiting for the outcome of the Hytharian experiment.”

“Have you ever been here before?”

“Once. A couple of solar cycles ago, again for shore leave.”

“You?” Ranuhk asked Houn.

“No.”

“Have you been in contact with any members of the Hazarr Syndicate?”

“We… don’t know who or what they are.”

“They are a criminal organization that has recently established a branch in the lower regions. They are increasing their activity and have been responsible for several recent cases of kidnapping, robbery and drug trafficking among various other crimes.”

What Le’tan did appreciate was the Akrennian’s professional approach. No suggestive way of speaking. No bullying. Just cold hard questions. They seemed driven to combat the growing problem of criminal activity. He could, however, not ignore the possibility of corruption in the ranks. It was easy to pretend until an opportunity to make a profit at the cost of justice presented itself.

“We are officers of the Imperial Guard and part of a starship crew. We do not engage in such activities. In fact, two members of our crew were kidnapped on this square mere moments ago.”

Both Ranuhk and his partner frowned, as if attempting to detect a lie. Le’tan didn’t so much as flinch and from the corner of his eye he noticed Houn following his example.

“Would you like to file a report?” Ranuhk asked, reaching for his belt, which held a variety of items such as handcuffs, a flashlight and a knife.

After Le’tan answered positive, the Akrennian pulled a sturdy-looking holo-pad from a pouch.

“If you have access to their ID files, it would make things easier.”

After an exchange of information, the Akrennian completed the report with the exact time and location of the incident. Their conversation had been recorded and Le’tan agreed for it to be used as their witness statement.

“Thank you for your cooperation. You can keep track of the investigation via the Net as long as it remains open using the account data I just gave you. Do you have any further questions?”

“Are you going to launch some kind of rescue operation?”

“I cannot disclose anything at this time. You’ll be notified of new developments via your case file.” Ranuhk nodded toward Le’tan’s wristcom which was still projecting its interface. “If there’s nothing else?”

Eyeing them both for a brief moment, Le’tan could think of a dozen more things to ask. Having taken a step back and with their bodies half turned, he felt that the officers were uneager to let him. He wouldn’t be surprised if this was but one of many of these types of incidents that happened on a single day aboard the station. It wouldn’t even be up to regular members of the security force to decide what cases to pursue.

“We will launch our own investigation, if you don’t mind. Since this is about the capture of two our officers, this is also an Imperial Guard matter.”

“Do what you must. If anything useful turns up, be sure to give us a call.”

With these words, Ranuhk and his hulking female companion went on to question other victims. Not sure what to expect from the station’s security forces, Le’tan had more or less decided to go back to find the group they left behind in the arcade, although he also figured that Trezka and the ship’s gunners would soon receive a call from Raeth to return to the ship to equip themselves for a rescue mission.

“Sooo… they’re not going to help us, but we’re allowed to pursue Nami and Jetreycka as we see fit?”

Looking at a frowning Houn, he noticed his companion had dropped his long tail to the deck.

“That’s what it seems to come down to, yes. I’m afraid there’s not much more we can do. Judging by their locations, Weyan and the others are still at the arcade and most other crewmembers are scattered around the station. We better report back to the ship and share our findings. Something tells me shore leave is about to be cancelled.”

***

“Where is she?” Weyan grunted. “She’s running late. She acknowledged my message that we moved up a slot and then nothing.”

Pacing through the dressing room like a caged predator, checking his wristcom every few ticks, made Trezka nervous. More than the upcoming mock battle they were about to enter. They were split into teams of what should be three, and Masai and Trezka had decided to team up with Nami to take on the men, if she was still planning on entering. Judging by the other teams they shared the square room with, they would have to fight not only each other, but no less than four other teams as well. Made up of casual players and semi-professionals, sometimes the same species, sometimes mixed, they would make for an interesting set of opponents.

“Hmm, it’s not really her thing to be late,” she said, while flexing her well-defined muscles inside the battle suit that would keep track of every hit taken inside the virtual arena. Although designed to look like battle armor, the only true solid part of the piece of near-virtual clothing was the glowing emitter in the team’s color worn on the chest, from which the rest of the suit materialized. Lines in the same color ran all over the suit like photonic circuitry so it would be hard to mistake an enemy for an ally and the other way around. “She’s as punctual as they come.”

Weyan snorted.

“Her location seems off as well. Both hers and Jetreycka’s. They’re indicated as being way down below, but that can’t be right. Raeth told us to stay far above the lower levels.”

Now he got her full attention. There was something about that last piece of information that itched. Flattening an ear she turned toward him, which halted him in his pace.

“Both their wristcoms show the same location?”

“Yeah, and their location is not current. Almost ten millicycles old. Maybe their wristcoms were stolen. They couldn’t really be down there, right? Unless…”

Unless. Crossing her arms, Trezka weighed the possibilities while Weyan’s eyes drifted toward the displays in the center of the room on which the current fight was being broadcasted. Stolen wristcoms. Valid reasons to go down below and being separated from Le’tan and Houn. A kidnapping. With only a couple of millicycles to go, she watched the numbers of the battle timer count down to zero, while trying to come up with a reason not to be worried. Only she couldn’t.

She came to that conclusion before the chrono started counting down the last millicycle and the two teams that were ahead of the rest in terms of points fought valiantly for the number one spot. The zero-G environment allowed for some spectacular moves and she was itching to get in there, but the safety of their fellow crewmembers was more important than anything else.

“Trezka to Le’tan.”

A small projected version of her crewmate appeared above her wristcom.

“Le’tan here. I’m glad you called. There’s been an incident.”

“I suspected as much. What happened to the girls?”

She heard Le’tan sigh. Judging by the unsteady projection he was on the move and seemed in a hurry.

“I’m afraid they’ve been kidnapped, together with other innocent people. We have reason to suspect the Gvort and according to station police, a criminal organization might be involved. Have you heard of something called the Hazarr Syndicate?”

“Sounds vaguely familiar. They don’t just stick to petty crimes. You and Houn are in way over your heads here. We need to take this very seriously. Has Raeth been informed?”

“Raeth’s trying to get the authorities to not let this go unanswered. However, the officer I talked to told me we should not hope for a full-scale rescue mission, but we are allowed to pursue our own crewmembers due to their Imperial Guard status. I’m heading back to the ship with Houn. We have to try to get them out as fast as possible.”

“Got it. We’re coming. Trezka out.” With a sigh and an annoyed grunt she looked at her companions who had listened in on the conversation and feared the worst. “I’m afraid someone cancelled our fun guys. We’re gonna have to pick up some real guns instead.”

The sounds of disappointment soon turned into anger toward the perpetrators who staged the immoral act.

“We’ll teach ‘em!” Thylun growled.

“Yeah, now they also owe us a lot of creds,” Weyan grunted.

Double tapping the emitter on his chest, his battle suit dematerialized, revealing Imperial Guard red underneath. The rest followed his example and as the doors to the arena opened to let in the teams for the next round, they deposited the emitters in the holders along the bulkhead and left through the sliding doors on the opposite side.

“Don’t worry,” Trezka said. “We’ll come back here after getting Nami and Jetreycka out. I’m not leaving this place without having kicked your butt.”

“Oh don’t be so sure about that last part.”

***

“Oww, my… my head…”

Even after opening her eyes, Nami could see little more than shadows in her direct vicinity. That in combination with the throbbing pain in her head which felt like the aftermath of a hammer blow, impaired her vision to such an extent that she couldn’t rely on it. But the first guess that her shaken brain came up with was ‘holding cell’. A cold hard floor. A distinctive smell. Something sour. Old sweat. A festering wound. Those were some of the things she could come up with.

And there was something else. With all the signs pointing to a holding cell, the smell of bodily secretions of various species wouldn’t be farfetched. The irony smell of stale blood. The pungent odor of urine and dried feces. Gathering strength, she pushed herself up while supporting her head which pounded in sync with the rhythm of her heartbeat.

Close to vomiting, she retched which turned into coughing as her throat felt dry and itchy.

“Errgh, I’m gonna kill someone.”

“Nami… is that you?”

The sound of Jetreycka’s voice close by snapped her mind into focus. Forcing herself to assume a sitting position before attempting to stand up, she tried to estimate if her bruised muscles would be up to the task. It seemed they had treated her rather rough in her unconscious state, something she could also derive from the ungraceful position on the floor in which she found herself. Despite the smell in the air, at least the floor of her cell didn’t feel too dirty.

There were a couple of tortured howls and moans echoing through the corridor before she responded. Not being able to see much of anything, except for some weak flickering light leaking through the horizontal metal bars that formed the door of her accommodation, bolstered the sensitivity of her other senses. Now she knew where the smell came from.

How long have they been in here?

“Jetreycka? I’m here.”

“Glad you’re okay. I figured you were out. They didn’t treat us too well.”

Nami chuckled.

“Yeah, well my definition of ‘okay’ is a little different from yours perhaps. Errw! If I get my hands on the guy who hit me on the head--”

With her vision improving, she began to discern the barred doors of other holding cells in the dimly-lit corridor. Her conversation with Jetreycka triggered responses from other captives. Most of these were distorted sounds of agony that were undecipherable for her universal translator, an indispensable piece of technology in these situations, and the only thing they hadn’t taken from her.

“Hey, hey you,” someone hissed from one of the cells opposite to hers. “You’re new right? Where did they jump you?”

“Shut up!” she growled.

The tone of voice of whatever creature it was didn’t give the impression that he or she was in a sane state of mind. Unable to tell how much time had passed since the act, she wondered how long it would take for their captors to show themselves.

“It smells disgusting in here,” Jetreycka complained. “They must’ve taken us down quite far. What’re they even going to do with us and all these people?”

Jetreycka’s question was a valid one, and there were various plausible reasons she could come up with. Forced labor. Potential new recruits for their criminal enterprise. Demanding ransom in exchange for their release. Only in very rare situations did the Imperial Guard negotiate with criminals. As difficult as it was, they were going to have to find a way to escape by themselves.

Her muscles tensed as a series of metallic noises, caused by the trigger of relays, echoed through the corridor. With a series of flashes that increased in brightness, lights turned on. Not just the ones in the corridor itself, but also one in her cell. With it came the sound of voices. Heavy footsteps approaching. They were about to finally meet their kidnappers and find out what they wanted.

The high brightness blinded her; her eyes having adjusted to darkness. Squeezing them shut, she groaned in discomfort, then used what little strength she had to push herself off the floor. Trying to make the quaking of her legs stop, she leaned against the wall, then tried to peek through her fingers while shielding her eyes to see what was going on.

I’m not gonna give you the satisfaction of finding me in a position like that.

In the cell opposite to hers stood a large dark-furred alien of a race she couldn’t remember the name of. The large creature’s yellow eyes pierced into hers for a tick, then turned into the direction of the sound as it let out a deep throaty growl. The voices became louder, clearer and her universal translator picked up on the conversation between whoever they were.

“Let’s see what the latest catch brought us.”

“Was informed there were some promising individuals among them. Drayy mentioned uniforms. Not really a surprise considering what’s happening up there.”

“Won’t those give us trouble?”

“Oh, I’ll make sure they don’t. Let’s see, they put them… here!”

The voice of the one reassuring her colleague was female. She had recognized that from afar. What she did not expect, and even shocked her, was that the face that turned toward her outside her cell, was like her own. Not an exact copy, but Mantrin, Sogowan race as far as she could see. What the…

She wanted to say the words out loud, but they kept hanging in her throat. With a few taps on the control panel of the cell, the Mantrinesse turned the lights inside down to a level low enough for Nami to stop shielding her eyes. At the same time the metal bars seemed to disappear, turning completely transparent to allow them to see each other better.

She had a muscular build, like all members of their species. A thick lashing tail that her companion, a white-furred Togrothian male as far as she could determine, tried to keep away from. Her pointy and shorter than average beak and almond-shaped eyes added beauty to her face. Her sharp tone and those same eyes turning into a hard stare did not detract from it at all.

“Gehk! Imperial Guard. This might be a bit more of a challenge.”

Crossing her muscular arms she flattened one ear, then smiled in her own mischievous way.

“Here ya got another one,” the Togrothian said, standing in front of what had to be Jetreycka’s cell.

She heard Jetreycka growl in response, followed by a tail beating against a bulkhead and the scratching of claws. She felt the same, yet the appearance of a member of her own kind revealing itself as the enemy held the anger at bay. What happened to this woman that she enjoyed watching members of her own species suffer like this?

“Oh, you’re a beauty,” she said, changing to a much softer tone. “Don’t see Fjetanha around her too often. What’s y’r name sweetheart?”

“You first,” Nami bit back.

She felt her claws extend in a reaction to the woman’s condescending manner of speech. No matter what she was going to say, she couldn’t trust any of it. These people were criminals. Her training told her that anything they said was in its definition a lie, unless proven otherwise. She was not going to cooperate with them in any way, nor was she going to be submissive. Her adversary shrugged.

“Fine. It’s not like it’s going to be of any use to you. It’s Seylah, and I’m going to make things real simple for you. In fact, I’m going to give you a choice.”

 “Oh yeah?” Nami scoffed. “Something tells me none of the options are gonna get me out of here.”

“That depends.”

Whatever her deal was, Seylah seemed to enjoy playing mind games. Revealing as little information as possible. Hinting at a chance of being released. The indirect approach gave Nami more time to assess what they were up against. Assuming they were both part of more than just a gang of crooks, they weren’t as stupid as to flaunt it. She wore a simple pair of tight-fitting black trousers and matching shirt. No patches or logos, nothing out of the ordinary. Her companion seemed to go about the same way. That way they could pass as civilians and mingle with the enormous crowd above without raising suspicion. The way the kidnapping was executed was clear evidence that they had their ways to avoid the authorities.

“What do you mean?”

Seylah smiled.

“Like I said, it’s simple. You can either serve as entertainment or earn your way into our ranks and regain your freedom. Either way, you’re gonna have to fight for it.”

Fight for it… So it’s going to be like that eh?

She kind of suspected what Seylah was hinting at. Entertainment could mean just about anything in this cruel underworld. But fighting for a place in their midst meant she was either going to have to fight the other prisoners, or one of their best to see if she would make a good addition as a recruit. Seylah shook her head and laughed.

“Yeah, you’re definitely the fighter type. Whaddaya say? Ready to give it a shot? I’ll be rooting for ya.”

If that was the way it was going to be, it wasn’t much of a choice. It was a way to stall for time though. She didn’t know if Le’tan and Houn had also been captured, but if they managed to escape their clutches, they would have alerted the rest of the crew by now. Raeth would not let this go unanswered and do anything to get them back. From what she had seen so far, she knew he was that kind of guy.

“Fine,” she hissed.

Seylah chuckled.

“I knew you’d be like that. Your friend can join in too. Just one little thing before we go.”

Uncrossing her arms, she tapped the control panel again. Opposite to the basic bunk bed and next to the toilet that seemed designed to accommodate as many different species as possible, a small panel opened up in the bulkhead. Extending from it was a small contraption, its most prominent elements being two U-shaped plateaus. With a sigh she placed her arms into the contraption, a set of manacles fastening themselves around her wrists.

“You’re that worried about me, eh?”

“Just a precaution. It’d be a shame to have to knock you out again.”

Whistling through her teeth down the corridor, Seylah tapped the panel once more. The horizontal bars of the cell returned to their non-transparent state, then retracted in both directions to clear the way. The approaching footsteps announced the arrival of two more guards, one of them another Togrothian, with deep black fur, the other a gray-furred Lepori, both wearing body armor and carrying rifles.

The Togrothian made a sound like a bark while greeting his colleague. The Lepori, a rabbit-like alien with its enormous feet and powerful hind legs stamped on the floor, flicking its huge ears while baring its long incisors in a challenging gesture. As she knew, Lepori were warlike creatures, living in large communal hives on their home planet. Contrary to most other species that became part of the larger galactic community, they still engaged in the occasional war amongst themselves to determine which community or band of communities would rule for a period of five solar cycles.

With her captors making room for her to exit the cell, nodding in the direction where they wanted to guide her, Nami did as instructed with some reluctance. After stepping into the corridor, she saw Jetreycka being released as well as two other prisoners. Eyeing her crewmate she knew they were thinking the same thing. Surviving until the rescue attempt was their best bet for now.

“Okay, time to move.”

“Raaarrghh!”

With a loud roar, the huge dark-furred alien with the piercing yellow eyes threw himself against the black Togrothian with an overwhelming display of force. The dog-like creature was forced with its back against the bulkhead, unable to fire his rifle or do much of anything. Growling and snorting he let its more primitive instincts take over and buried its sharp teeth into the meaty shoulder of the other alien.

His assailant roared once more as he drew blood, losing just enough strength to be pushed off. Before he could regain his senses, the white canine pushed a button on a remote. The prisoner began to shake violently all over its body as the manacles sparked, releasing their paralyzing energy. Collapsing on the floor, his body spasmed until he was on the verge of passing out.

“Knock it off!” Jetreycka yelled, her ears flattened in anger.

“Enough,” Seylah commanded. The torture stopped. The injured guard stood over the alien’s body, blood and saliva dripping from his panting mouth, dark patches glistening on the fur coat of both. Seylah shook her head. “Why do things have to get so messy? Save it for the pit will ya?”

“Get up!” the guard barked in frustration, kicking the alien back on its feet, while pointing the rifle.

After a somewhat slow recovery, the group began to move, the two canine guards leading. Seylah and the Lepori followed at a slight distance. The route they followed seemed to take them up higher. The lower levels of the station were a network composed of maintenance tunnels, abandoned living spaces for construction crews, reactor rooms and storage bays. All leftovers from when the station was being constructed and used its own power sources until the completion of the solar collector. Whatever they were doing down here, they had revitalized this forgotten part of the station and turned it into a center of illegal activity.

The living spaces and reactor rooms had become quarters, many of them luxurious in their interior design and use of materials as far as Nami could determine by glancing inside some of them. The storage bays were successful copies of the topside arcades and lounges. On their way to wherever they were taking them, they came across people of many different species, enjoying the riches of an abundant life in the shadows.

“You’ve built quite the place for yourselves,” Nami said over her shoulder.

“It’s gonna get better,” was Seylah’s calm response.

For some reason she seemed amused with herself. They seemed to guide them in the direction of the sound of a cheering audience. The tunnels and spaces on the lowest levels felt small and cramped. The one they followed now was like an avenue in comparison, offering access to many other rooms and passageways. At the end, a round theater, in its design not unlike the one in the zero-G simulator but smaller, many of the seats occupied by a clamoring audience. As they came closer, Nami saw what this was all about. What they were up against.

The corridor ended into the theater at about half the height of the grandstand, offering access to all rows by sets of stairs. The fights in this arena however had nothing to do with fun, not for the combatants at least. The floor of the pit was covered with light-colored sand. The two exhausted aliens in the middle beat at each other, tore at each other, using fists, legs, claws, teeth and other natural weapons they had at their disposal. Trails of blood dotted the sand as wounds bled. A horrific sight, and one that made her legs refuse to move further, like the others as they walked past the edge of the walkway from which they looked down into the pit.

“Move!” The Lepori grunted, planting the tip of his rifle into her back. “You’re not here to watch.”

Growling in response, she moved on, guided to a backroom of the arena, a sharp contrast to the extravagance of the places they just left. Gone were the multi-colored mood lights. The lavish decorations and furniture. The abundance of food, drinks and stimulating substances consumed in the lounges. Where they ended up looked more like the dungeons from down below.

The slight flicker of the yellow lights that distorted the colors, making the different colored stains on the deck and bulkheads stand out even more. Some of these glittered moist, having been applied only recently. Most fighters shared a common space, with hard metal benches, tending to fresh wounds and other injuries without medical supplies. The more dangerous individuals were locked in separate cages. Their sounds of aggression got louder when they entered, directed at the armed guards.

Since no one wanted to deal with guarding the prisoners themselves, they were being watched over by robotic guards standing in the corners. These weren’t even decrepit old security models, but well-equipped Enforcers, observing the small crowd with the eye-like sensors in their heads. They did not carry any visible weapons, which someone could try and take, but the shiny exterior concealed a powerful array of equipment. That in combination with their mechanical strength was more than enough to keep things under control.

“What will it be?” Seylah asked the new group of four in general. “Are you gonna behave? Or is it the cages for you?”

Nami didn’t know if it was her tone, or all the horrible things she had seen so far. Something snapped. This torture. This entertainment at the cost of innocent lives was the worst of their crimes. And they were getting away with it. Why? Why had no one put an end to these activities?

“You’re insane,” she bit back. “What screwed up your mind so much for you to enjoy watching people suffer like this? We can take you back. Get you out of here.”

Seylah’s response was swift as lightning. Within two ticks Nami felt a clawed hand around the base of her throat, her back slammed against the nearest bulkhead. She couldn’t keep the back of her still hurting head from connecting with the hard metal. Feeling slightly dizzy she watched Seylah’s copper-colored eyes glitter, her beak so close to hers that she could feel the warmth of her breath.

“What makes you think I even wanna get back?” she hissed. Nami figured the look on her face must’ve resembled something close to astonishment, for she felt Seylah’s iron grip soften somewhat.

“W-What’re you talking about?” Nami panted, resisting the urge to hit Seylah on her snout with the manacles around her wrists.

Seylah released her grip, doing a small step back.

“Not a clue do you? No surprise there. They got you nicely wrapped around their corrupt fingers, don’t they? I don’t blame you for that. Do your part. Earn your future. It almost sounds too good to be true.”

“Listen, we can help you. The Empire--”

Seylah laughed. A twisted laugh without actual joy.

“What did the Empire ever do for me? They’re too busy covering up their dirty little secrets. Not the Emperor, mind you. No, Emperor Zahn is a good guy. The people love him. He wants nothing but the best for the people he’s supposed to lead, unaware of the kind of puppet he really is. It’s the smaller, but still significant positions, filling their pockets through fraud and deceit. The mayors, the governors, even the justice system is corrupt.”

“If you have proof of this, then let’s do something about it.”

“My parents did!” Seylah shouted. “My parents had proof! They were about to expose that the governors of a number of provinces stole tax money, then tried to blame civilians for it. Do you know what happened? They were stripped of honor. Got thrown in jail for crimes they didn’t commit. And those bastards got away with it, because they could simply pay the Justice Triumvirate to keep things under wraps.” Nami didn’t know how to respond. This was no made up story. Seylah’s face was a picture of conflicting emotions. She didn’t want to show weakness in front of any of the people around her, but her eyes glittered in a different way than before. “Enough of this,” Seylah decided. “You’ve got other things to worry about.”

With the push of a button, the manacles around their wrists sprung open and were collected by the guards. Without any further exchange of words, Seylah’s squad left, leaving them to fend for themselves. The fight in the pit was still going on, as they could see on the two displays integrated in two opposite walls of the rectangular room.

“You all right?” Jetreycka asked, massaging her wrists.

“I’m fine,” Nami replied, while rubbing her throat.

The room was a picture of despair. Many prisoners, degraded to being gladiators, were injured. There was no medical help. No way to clean themselves up. They were under guard. And there were two sealed exits that both seemed to lead to eventual but certain death.

“We have to find a way to get out of here.”

The room vibrated with the clamoring of the audience of the neighboring arena. Looking at one of the screens, one of the fighters seemed to have bested his or her opponent, who laid face down in the sand.

“We’ve been gone for a while. Everyone on the Myr’shala probably knows we’re down here. I’m sure Trez’ will be here any moment to blast us out.” She tried to sound sure of herself, but she knew it all came down to how long they would be able to stay alive. They had to give it their everything and stall for time in any way possible. “Let’s try not to get picked next.”

Chapter Text

Imperial Guard – 003 The Infinite Depths of Space

Chapter 4 Our Destiny

“Ship’s log supplemental. With the Hytharians and Xhi’tha on the brink of gate activation, I have ordered the crew back to the Myr’shala for a matter much more urgent. Nami and Jetreycka, two members of my crew have been kidnapped by a criminal organization, the exact reason still unknown. I believe we are destined to cross the boundaries of our galaxy and explore what’s beyond, but it’ll have to wait. I have asked everyone to gather in the mess hall to plan an operation to get them out of there as fast as we can.”

“All right, let’s go over it one more time, real quick,” Trezka grunted. “We’re wasting their time.”

Raeth appreciated the speed and efficiency with which the crew handled the situation. In less than half a cycle, all of them had returned to the ship. More than half had gathered in the mess hall. All the insights, station schematics and sources of information, no matter how small their significance, were used to devise an effective method of infiltration and extraction. Their most promising tactic was trying to get in as far as possible while avoiding the main routes to delay a confrontation until they had almost reached the target, which was the last known location of the two women.

The projection along the bow-side bulkhead highlighted the basic idea. Instead of going through the station, they would take a shuttle and use one of the old docking bays for maintenance craft in the lower sections. There was no doubt that these were guarded, but it would take them a lot closer to where they wanted to be while avoiding the maze of tunnels leading down to the same spot.

As chief of security, Trezka would lead the team, composed further of Norgu and the four gunners. Adjusting the torso part of her body armor, she nodded at Freya.

“Freya will pilot the shuttle to the docking bay. Depending on how things go in there, it’ll also be the pickup point. Expect heavy resistance from the moment we barge in. We’ll be looking for any kind of holding cells. Those sections were used by construction crews when the station was being built, but they’ll have repurposed them for all kinds of uses so be on the lookout. Our job is to get Nami and Jetreycka out and nothing more, unless an opportunity presents itself.”

“Sounds solid,” Raeth agreed. “Protect yourselves and those girls first. Minimize risk and get out as fast as you can.”

Trezka nodded with another grunt.

“If there are no more questions, let’s not wait any longer.”

“We’ve prepared an extra dose for all of you,” Moa said, stepping forward while opening a case of immuno-boosters. “Might be nasty in there.”

They all applied the dose, including Freya and Syrran, the latter having offered to be her backup. Moa also handed Masai a first aid kit with a number of tools for onsite treatment. If either they or the two captured women were injured, they could do a quick patch up to increase their chances of making it out alive.

“Let’s move people!” Trezka barked, while taking the lead.

***

The beating of her own hearts inside her chest. The smell of blood, both fresh and stale. The clamoring of a vicious, bloodthirsty audience. The coarse sand scrubbing between the three toes of each foot with every move. There was pain too. Her right leg bled. Her ripped pants stuck to her skin around the cut, a burning sensation spreading between her upper and lower knee.

“This is not what I signed up for,” Jetreycka thought, trying to stay focused on the danger in front of her.

Her opponent was one of the other prisoners. A male Lecathian. A feline race known for their rich warrior culture and impressive hunting skills. Although they casually walked around on two feet, they often hunted on all fours, using the natural weapons at their disposal. And this one was hunting her. Circling her like a predator circling its prey, looking for another opening to attack. One kick could shatter bones, crush organs and end his life, which he was very much aware of.

Jetreycka now found it hard to imagine they had exchanged words before the pit. No names. That would only make things more difficult, for they were here for only one thing. To fight for the right to live. And there could be only one winner. But it was enough to see a person through the feral behavior of the beautiful creature in front of her.

Their short fur coat came in a variety of unusual color patterns. His was white, with long streaks of purple, which would be very disadvantageous in most natural environments. She knew however that the more primitive creatures they evolved from used to be nocturnal, and the azure blue crystals growing out of their backs helped them blend in with the bioluminescence of the forests on their home planet.

Her hands shook. Her teeth ground together. The anger she felt was not directed at the being in front of her. It was directed at the vile people who forced them both to do this. They demanded blood. She would’ve refused to give it to them, if she didn’t have to pay with her life. From the corner of her eye, she saw Seylah standing in the crowd, her arms crossed. She didn’t show the same enthusiasm. In fact, she couldn’t read much emotion on her face.

Her opponent hissed, baring fangs long enough to bite straight through any part of her arm. He had tried to attack her once; they both wore the scars of that. His claws had struck her leg. He missed the brunt of her kick, but her foot claws struck his flank, blue blood staining the white of his fur. His prowl had changed, the pain of the injury hampering the gracefulness of his moves.

The crystals glowed with the increase in ferocity in the shadowy light created by the static spots targeting the pit. Kicking the sand up high as he sped toward her, he covered the distance between them with a jump. The claws and teeth glistened. The deep orange eyes sparkled and showed no remorse, for he could not afford any. She could not either.

One set of claws missed her chest by a finger’s length. The other set buried itself into the flesh of her left upper arm in her attempt to jump to the side. She heard herself scream as she stumbled. The wounds were deep, stinging with the same ferocity as the intelligent cat’s attack. He weakened her and he knew it.

The crowd cheered as he twisted around to plan the finishing move. Panting, Jetreycka fought against both the pain and the sudden wave of nausea hitting her stomach. The arena spun, reducing her focus. Droplets of red painted the sand between her feet. She shook her head in an attempt to get rid of the feeling.

“I’ve got one more chance,” she thought, watching her opponent prepare another jump.

Her next stumble was deliberate. She could only survive this if she could anticipate his next move. The glow of the crystals were her cue. The difference between a pounce and a feint. He came at her once more. This was it. He fell for her trap, attacking as from above, so strong were his hind legs.

Within the same critical moment she let herself fall. She saw the realization in his eyes. His mistake. Unable to correct it. Caught in the forces of gravity and gained momentum. She retracted her leg. Calculated the exact spot of where her foot had to be. And then, throwing every bit of strength she had left into it, she thrusted her foot into the area of what would be the middle of the Lecathian’s chest and his stomach.

The sound upon contact was sickening. The cracking of bones. A gargled roar as he doubled over in midair. The impact was so powerful that it turned the forward motion into a backward one. With a dull thud his body hit the sand afterwards. His proud form now near motionless, the only sounds she picked up from him were moans of agony. The crowd cheered. The fight was over. Lying on her side, Jetreycka planted her elbow into the sand to look at what she had done.

The only thing she felt was regret, as she scrambled back on her feet, not leaving anything to the chance that he might still get up, even though she knew she was kidding herself. He would not survive a kick like that. The Lecathian let out a weak howling as the cheer of the audience seemed to die down, only to swell into a single collective command.

“Kill!”

“Kill!”

“Kill!”

Louder and louder it got. The audience demanded not only blood; they demanded a life. Jetreycka felt helpless, fearing what would happen if she disobeyed. What she did was defend herself. What they encouraged her to do next was take the life of a defenseless intelligent being.

“I’m not like that,” she thought, feeling her claws sting into the palms of her hands. I refuse to be like that.

Hunting an animal, killing it, preparing it and eating it. It was as far as she went in taking a life. Her choice to be a scientist had been a very conscious one. In this role, she could satisfy her curiosity while exploring the unknown without having to hold a weapon.

You can’t make me.

“Is this what you want?” she shouted at the top of her lungs. “Is death all you wanna see?”

To her surprise, her words seemed to quench the thirst for blood somewhat. The cries faded to murmurs. It appeared she did the thing they did not expect. For a split tick she made eye contact with Seylah, who still stood at the exact same spot. She did not budge, nor did she avert her gaze.

There was little movement in the crowd. Until one large Gvort rose from his or her seat. The slimy aliens with their toad-like appearance and moist skin in swamp green and dark brown colors were without doubt responsible for much of this operation. Considered repugnant by many, their main qualities were trading in lives and controversial forms of entertainment, this being an excellent example. The creature made a low grumble deep within its throat, before making a hand signal.

Jetreycka’s instinct told her to duck down, but she froze to her spot instead. There was nowhere to run. Nowhere to hide in the open pit filled with nothing but sand. The pain of her injuries faded to the background as the images flashes through her mind. Her mate, with his kind voice and sweet smile. Her daughter, whom she hadn’t seen for a long time.

Her ears picked up the sound of the shot, but she had trouble localizing the source. Squeezing her eyes shut, caught in fear’s merciless grip, she felt how her hearts skipped a beat. The energy bolt zinged through the air, then struck its target with a light thud. Feeling a trickle of sweat across the side of her face, she opened her eyes, then let out a breath she had been holding for a while. Trying to figure out what happened she looked around.

Standing on a raised platform between the rows, one of the Togrothian guards pointed a rifle at the center of the pit. The shot had ended the life of the Lecathian, a wispy curl of smoke rising from the cauterized entry wound. Her vision blurring, she wiped her eyes with the back of her hand as a pair of doors opened up in the arena wall. The guards came to bring her back to the holding room. They were joined by lower ranking members of the organization, whose job it was to dispose of the bodies.

Biting her teeth, Jetreycka prepared to let herself be taken back by the guards, until the large Gvort made a sound that resembled the scraping of one’s throat. With a deep rumbling voice, the creature spoke in a warning tone, while seeking direct eye contact with her.

“Next time… it’ll be a draw.”

***

“Everyone ready?” Trezka asked, the shuttle floating a few thousands steps from the landing zone.

The distance between the docking bay they were about to use as an entry point and the Myr’shala’s position truly emphasized the station’s size. It had grown according to need, with more and more sections being added over the cycles as its importance in the sector increased, and with it the number of visitors and permanent residents.

The bay looked deserted, the landing platform empty except for a few scattered containers. The atmospheric containment field was active and according to low-level scans there were no leaks. His training to be a security officer taught Norgu to be prepared for anything. Booby traps in the form of hidden explosives or automatic weapons. An ambush by either real guards or drones. After everyone confirmed, Freya hit the throttle, focusing on piloting to get them in as fast as possible, with Syrran standing by to pull the trigger if necessary.

The shuttle rushed in, penetrating the containment field without triggering any visible alarms or defenses, making a one-eighty degree turn above the deck before dropping on its landing gear. The tip of the tailgate had barely hit the platform as the team rushed out. As they scanned the area, spreading out to cover every angle while using the containers as cover, Azdar signaled he was about to try the controls of the upward sliding door through which they could gain access. Only to meet with failure after three tries.

“Locked by an access code. No surprise there.”

“Get the cutting beam,” Trezka ordered.

Taking the initiative, Norgu placed his rifle on his back and returned to the shuttle. For these kinds of operations the craft was equipped with a powerful cutting beam, tied into its power supply, which could be fired from the back entrance. Deploying the tool, he used its holographic interface to draw the future cutout on the surface of the door. Activating it, the bright yellow beam started its controlled penetration of the entrance gate’s surface, melting through the metal to create a square opening.

They could’ve used the shuttle’s pulse cannons to blast a hole, but an explosion like that would alert the whole station. It was safe to assume that their current activities hadn’t gone unnoticed either, and therefore Norgu retrieved the rifle from his back and aimed at the door like the rest of the squad.

“Ten ticks!” he bellowed, checking the estimated time to finish on the display.

The metal of the door sparked as the beam cut through it without much effort, tiny glowing droplets of molten material splattering on the deck around the target area.

“Wait for it!” Trezka warned as the countdown timer approached zero.

“Freya, take off as soon as that door goes down,” Norgu called over his shoulder. “They may be waiting for us.”

“Got it!”

Unsure what to expect he walked down the ramp, leaving the beam to operate on its own. Trying to make himself smaller didn’t do much for someone with his stature, so he took cover behind one of the containers instead.

The beam stopped firing, having cut three sides of a square in the solid metal surface. The tailgate began to close in response and the shuttle’s engines, which had been on hot standby, whined louder as Freya prepared for takeoff.

Not willing to wait for a response, Trezka adjusted her gun’s setting and fired a wide pulse at the sizable piece that had been separated from the rest of the reinforced gate. The heavy piece of metal fell inward, hitting the deck with a loud metallic bang. Right after that, the opening began to spit out energy bolts and beams in an indiscriminate pattern, forcing the team to take cover.

“Figured they wouldn’t just let us walk in without a fight,” Norgu thought.

Watching the energy bolts ricochet off the shuttle’s armor, scarring the deck and bulkheads of the docking bay, he waited for the initial barrage to die down before attempting to return fire. It was apparent that their adversaries had trouble identifying their targets because they didn’t want to expose themselves by entering the bay.

“Stun grenade!” he heard Masai yell.

As the shuttle took off, its engines blowing a rush of air through the bay, there was a loud bang that left him with a slight deaf feeling in both ears. The container he used as cover blocked most of the effects.

But they had the greater incentive, made evident by the response of his crewmates. After all they were well equipped for this mission too. The explosion created a temporary gap, exploited by Thylun and Weyan, firing a series of shots as they counterattacked. A pair of explosions followed after they threw their own grenades, followed by yelling in the corridor behind the opening. And then, an eerie silence, which Trezka and Azdar used to press their backs against either side of the gate.

Norgu covered from a distance, like Masai, Thylun and Weyan did from their positions, on the lookout for any signs of movement. He couldn’t be too sure, but he was almost convinced that he saw those signs right after the door went down. Light reflecting off moving objects. Shadows trying to find cover in the recesses of the poorly lit corridor. Now, these were absent.

Trezka, dauntless as she was, signaled that she was about to go in and needed cover. Using his long stride, Norgu covered the distance in little time as she disappeared, following the other members of the team in. The corridor was wider than expected, to allow for the easy transport of cargo in and out of the station through the bay. It appeared their opponents had killed the lights on purpose to make themselves more difficult targets to hit.

The searchlights mounted on their weapons swept across floors and bulkheads, hitting the occasional body of a fallen adversary. As Norgu passed Trezka, keeping his rifle pointed down the corridor, he watched her use her foot to try to shake some life back into them.

“Keep your eyes peeled for fakers,” Azdar warned. “These types always fight dirty.”

“Looks like they got some heavy equipment too,” Masai called, her rifle pointed at the disabled body of an Enforcer-type security robot.

The machine had collapsed in a kind of defensive position, the armor scarred by rifle fire, a hole blasted into the chest plate.

“And more,” Thylun added, pointing his rifle at what turned out to be the remains of a small sentry drone.

“Oh c’mon!” Trezka grunted, giving the third body she came across a not exactly soft treatment. “We can’t have killed them all. Did anyone bother to use the stun setting?”

“Wait, there’s a stun setting on this thing?” Weyan asked. The silence lasted for a mere two ticks, but enough for Norgu’s ears to pick up the sound. “I’m kiddin’. I’m kiddin’.”

“Quiet,” Norgu grunted, stepping in the direction where he thought he heard something. His sharp hearing never lied. His heavy steps droned out whatever it was, but he was sure he heard something further down the corridor. Although the bodies had piled up close to the gate, there were several more recesses in the bulkheads until the first junction. Someone’s hiding. “You can come out,” he grumbled. “I won’t shoot.”

“I will.”

“Shuddup Weyan,” Trezka hissed.

The creature dashed out of the shadows but caught in the lights of their weapons revealed itself as a Togrothian. There seemed to be a lot of them on the station, both upside- and down below. Despite his Logri bulk, Norgu reacted fast by stepping forward and tackling the alien before he or she could get away. The canine creature hit the deck, making a sound that held the middle between a bark and a howl. Rolling him over, Norgu planted his massive foot on the creature’s chest, pinning the Togrothian to the deck with such force that its breathing turned into gasping.

Around his ankle, Norgu felt the in comparison puny hands trying to lift his massive weight to no avail. There was genuine fear in the yellow eyes as he gazed into them from above. A shot had grazed the right shoulder and seared the tan brown fur around the superficial wound.

“P-Please. Please!” the creature wheezed. “I can’t breathe!”

“Norgu, no offense, but your weight is kinda killing him right now,” Trezka said with a frown, after joining his side. She flattened an ear. “At least I think it’s a ‘he’.”

“No sudden moves,” Norgu warned

Being intimidating in every conceivable way did the trick. Even after lifting his foot, the dog-like creature did not dare to get up. Coughing a few times, it took him some effort to catch his breath, but now they had at least someone to pry information out of. As he and Trezka prepared the quick interrogation, the rest of the team covered both ends of the corridor, in case reinforcements showed up.

“I’m gonna make this simple,” Trezka began. “You lot kidnapped two of our crewmembers among a bunch of other people. You’re gonna tell me where they are right now, and we might consider letting you live.”

“M-Maybe, we can make some kind of deal,” the Togrothian said, pushing himself up to a half-sitting position, only to find the muzzle of Trezka’s gun pressed into his cheek.”

“I’m not negotiating with criminals,” she hissed. “Where are they?”

“T-They’ll kill me if I tell.”

“Yeah? Well I’d start worrying about what I will do to you if you don’t answer my question!”

“All right! All right. Holding cells are down below. It’s not far from here.”

“Good. Cause you’re going to get us in there.”

***

Clenching her teeth, Nami watched the end of the fight between her friend and her unfortunate opponent on one of the screens. The fight could’ve gone either way. Despite Jetreycka’s pacifist nature, her survival instinct had taken over, which in this case had saved her life. Lecathians were natural born hunters and warriors and she didn’t doubt that he would’ve killed her without hesitation, if only for the exact same reason.

She had to give Jetreycka credit for refusing to finish the job herself. They could’ve punished her for it, and it seemed that next time they would not hesitate. Surviving was no longer enough. They wanted their potential recruits to prove that they were capable of doing the unthinkable.

“You’re gonna pay for this, you disgusting--”

“Get back in there!”

The heavy rumble as the arena-side door opened interrupted her cursing before she could finish it. The guards escorted Jetreycka back in, scanning the room for other victims. Jetreycka walked up to her with timid steps, the shock of everything that happened still all over her. Her bottom jaw quivered as she opened her mouth to speak.

“I-I didn’t do it. I refused to kill him.”

“You’re hurt.”

The wounds that were visible through her ripped sleeve and pants looked far from superficial, the way they had soaked and darkened the fabric.

“It’s nothing. I-I’ll manage.”

Stepping forward she pulled Jetreycka into a hug, because she felt like she needed it. The way she hugged her back strengthened the idea that her instincts were correct.

“We’ll make it. Hold on. They can be here any tick. And you’ve won your first fight. One more and they might let you challenge one of their own for a way out of this mess.”

“You. C’mon, it’s your turn.” Nami knew the guard addressed her without having to look, yet refused to let herself be taken like some animal on its way to be slaughtered. She was going to throw in every bit of delay, every moment of stretching the time a rescue team might need to get them out before it was too late. “Stop hugging and move!”

“I’ll be fine,” she said after releasing her friend.

Jetreycka didn’t seem too convinced. Biting her lip, she nodded, her eyes glittering moist. Shooting the guards a poisonous glance, Nami started walking in the direction of the arena. Eyeing the opponent they had picked for her, she shook her head. It was as if they had done it on purpose. She could smell the Akrennian’s fear. It was also his first fight, but since they were not given any weapons, she had a huge advantage.

This is just cruel.

***

“We’ve taken one of them hostage and are forcing him to lead us to where the prisoners are being held. We’re not sure if they’re still locked up in there or have been taken somewhere else, but there’s only one way to find out.”

As she listened to Trezka’s voice, being somewhat garbled as it was being relayed via the shuttle, Baika tried not to think of what her science partner and Nami went through at the moment. She was well aware that these kinds of thoughts only worked in negative ways, but while she enjoyed the comfortable safety of sitting behind the station she and Jetreycka shared on the Myrshala’s bridge, those two women were in serious trouble.

Although she did her best not to show it, she had developed a mild stomach ache. While working with Jetreycka they had become inevitable friends. If they didn’t have a team of experts trained for these kinds of jobs, she would’ve gone after her.

“Work fast,” Raeth urged. “Those girls are running out of time.”

“Copy that. I’ll update as soon as we know more. Trezka out.”

Although his voice, like his overall behavior, was calm and controlled, Raeth’s face showed visible frustration. He remained standing in front of his seat, rooted to the deck, a hard stare directed at the main viewer. Activity around the jump gate had increased. Multiple Xhi’tha vessels had gathered in formation around the floating aperture. With their irregular organic shapes, not one of them was the same as another, the exact opposite of the perfect sphere that was the Hytharian hive world. The reason became apparent as a message popped up on Baika’s console.

“Raeth, we’ve received a message from the Hytharians. They report they have finished their preparations ahead of schedule and have begun the activation sequence.”

“Continuous scan. Let’s see if they can pull this off.”

Like herself, Raeth couldn’t help being excited by this event, despite the ongoing situation on the station. After all there was very little they could do but leave it in the capable hands of Trezka and her team. This was what they had come to witness in the first place.

“Detecting massive power surge coming from the gate. It’s happening.”

The white energy beam transmitted by the solar collector increased in brightness, the flowing pulses travelling in the direction of the gate intensifying. The giant structure was attached to a small station responsible for catching the energy beam, converting and distributing it to the transmitters on the inside of the ring-shaped gate. Directing the energy to the center, what could be described as a kind of spherical lens began to appear, suspended in the middle, growing in size as if absorbing the input.

Baika, Raeth, Le’tan and Houn collectively held their breath as they watched the Hytharians and Xhi’tha write history, the right secondary viewer focused on what could very well be the promised portal to the other galaxy. The bubble continued to grow until it filled most of the ring’s diameter, its reflective surface having the appearance of a dark liquid while also appearing to be partially transparent. Even the Hytharian’s moon-sized vessel would be able to cross the barrier.

“Energy levels are stabilizing,” Baika said, trying to make sense of all the sensor readings coming in. “Our sensors cannot scan through to the other side, but it does register as a kind of hole in spacetime.”

“They might have actually done it!” Houn exclaimed. “Uiisa, I’m… I’m very excited.”

Raeth chuckled.

“We all are, Houn. And it looks like the Xhi’tha cannot wait to find out.”

A number of their bioships had moved in on the gate. On the magnified view they could see their hulls touch the surface of the sphere without disturbing it, disappearing into its massless body.

“Several ships have launched probes, including one of our cruisers,” Baika informed her crewmates. “They’ve enabled us to tap into its visual feed. I’m putting it on the left viewer.” By distributing the different feeds over the screens, they were now able to follow both what happened on this side of the gate in detail, as well as being able to catch a glimpse of the other side. The probe followed a straight line toward the portal, its feed showing nothing but the surface of the dark bubble as the device approached it. “Contact in three… two… one…”

As the probe penetrated the barrier, there was a bright flash. Then nothing, as if the probe had stopped transmitting. It lasted for a mere two ticks. Then the feed reestablished itself, transmitting the blurry image, as if being filmed through a body of water. Baika recognized the dim orange circle in the middle as a star. One of the larger blue circles could be a planet. As the image began to clear up, her assumptions turned out to be correct.

The image cleared up like coming up at the surface of the ocean after a dive, with only a bit of static distorting it now and then. She recognized the Xhi’tha ships that went through before it. Another Hytharian hive world held position at some distance from the expeditionary force, surrounded by several smaller copies of itself.

“Very impressive,” Le’tan expressed his admiration. “It must’ve taken a long time for their ships to get there and build the opposite gate. Doing that and connecting the two successfully over this distance is unbelievable.”

“There’re only a few examples of jump gates in the known galaxy.” Houn added. “The Cairano Phylex pair does the same thing over two thirds the diameter of the galaxy, but that’s nothing compared to this.”

“Looks like one of ours is ready to take the leap as well,” Raeth said with a nod at the screen. Among a group of other ships was an Imperial Laeisia class cruiser, heading toward the gate and disappearing through the aperture without slowing down.

“The Un’thara reports they’ve made it to the other side without a hassle. I am getting a strange reading from the gate though.” Getting caught up in the incoming sensor data, Baika didn’t notice that three pairs of eyes focused on her. Had the power input of the gate been stable until now, apart from some minor fluctuations as ships crossed the border, the dips and spikes had become more intense. “This is weird.”

“What is it?” Raeth asked.

“Energy levels are becoming increasingly erratic. And the sensors are detecting particles with a signature that’s not in our databanks. They can’t make anything of it. The Hytharians are signaling all ships to abort travel. They’re veering off.”

As all vessels pulled back from the gate, the erratic sensor readings that Baika tried to make sense of began to manifest in bolts of energy arcing over the sphere like lightning. The beams of energy feeding it, as well as the main line coming from the solar collector, increased in brightness.

“What’s happening?” Houn asked.

“Massive energy buildup!” Baika warned. “It looks like it’s emanating from the inside. We’ve lost contact with the probe.”

“It’s… changing color,” Le’tan remarked.

Had the bubble been almost as black as space itself, a blue light began to emanate from its center, glowing brighter and brighter.

“Sensors are picking up unknown signatures coming from the gate.”

“From the other side?” Raeth asked.

Baika shook her head.

“We’ve lost all contact with the other side. Whatever is coming, there’s no way to tell where it’s coming from.”

“Go to full alert,” Raeth ordered, stepping back to take his seat. “Warn the shuttle. See if they can get a message through to the team. Le’tan prepare to separate us from the station.”

“First signatures are exiting the gate. They almost look like-- Is that a Drej ship?”

Chapter Text

Imperial Guard – 003 The Infinite Depths of Space

Chapter 5 Far Beyond

The Drej. The mysterious energy beings whose origins were rumored to lie beyond the boundaries of the universe itself. Simply calling them by name sparked fear in many. With the Drej there was no diplomacy. Their intentions should always be regarded as hostile. Systems had suffered under the destructive power of their fleets. Even worse, entire worlds had been split apart by their motherships.

The theory was that the Drej acted to preserve the balance of power in the galaxy. Preventing entities from becoming too powerful on their own. Powerful enough to resist them. But if the Drej were indeed the all-powerful beings they appeared to be, capable of transcending the boundaries between this reality and countless others, why did they choose to return time and time again to this universe and this galaxy? It was but one of the many questions regarding the Drej that had been left unanswered.

“If that’s a Drej ship, they’ve hired new designers,” Houn commented, flattening an ear.

His long tail, sticking out from under the backrest of his seat, had been making excited sweeps the entire time. It had now retreated below it. As he watched that happen, Raeth realized he had been squeezing the armrests of his own seat. Too many things were happening too fast. The number of ships that had exited the portal had multiplied.

“Well Baika?”

The Orkeht girl squinted as her eyes glided over the readings on the different panels of her console. Muttering under her breath she shook her head with some hesitation.

“That blue aura looks suspiciously similar, but the energy signature is entirely different. Like nothing we’ve ever seen before from the Drej. Drej ships also use much more angular shapes instead of these smooth rounded curves. I’m counting eighteen ships in total, of three different types.”

With the primary and secondary viewers focused on the unknown fleet, Raeth had no trouble distinguishing them from each other. Two ships stood out by being much larger than the others, about as big as the 800 steps long Laeisia class. The other sixteen were either slightly smaller or marginally bigger than the Myr’shala. After exiting the portal, the ships had assumed formation and held position.

The portal itself was still active, the blue glow in the center still present, but the lens-like aperture had been reduced to a fraction of the size it was after stabilization, not large enough for any vessel to move through aside from shuttle-sized craft.

“Docking hatch is sealed,” Le’tan said. “Standing by for separation.”

“Do it,” Raeth ordered. “And back us off.”

Raeth felt the mild tremble under his feet as the docking clamps retracted. Le’tan began to maneuver away from the station on thrusters as Houn plotted a course to fly the Myr’shala through the busy traffic to a safer distance.

“Detecting another power buildup coming from those ships. They are--”

Baika’s sentence was cut off as a powerful scanning beam hit the ship. Emanating from all of the unknown vessels, the beams swept across space like searchlights, targeting every artificial object. Lights and consoles flickered as the beam appeared to disrupt power.

“I’m losing helm control,” Le’tan said with a calm voice, despite the circumstances. “Console is not responding to my inputs.”

The bridge filled itself with all kinds of major and minor alerts that the crew tried to silence, while attempting to regain control.

“Collision alert!” Houn warned. “We’re gonna hit that freighter if we don’t change course soon.”

“Engineering to bridge! What’s going on out there? Main power is fluctuating, and systems are unresponsive.”

Majih’s aggravated face showed up on the secondary viewer, the hovering camera drone following him through main engineering as he tried to keep things running to the best of his abilities. Their consoles exhibited the same symptoms and even the drone itself seemed to have trouble staying aloft, judging by the shakiness of the video feed.

“We’re being scanned by a possibly hostile alien force,” Raeth replied. “Can we shield ourselves?”

“Maybe, if this console would work, I could figure out a way,” Majih grunted, tapping the panels to no avail.

“Prepare for battle. I get the feeling they’re not here for a friendly first contact.”

With the hull of the freighter getting dangerously close through the panoramic window, and neither ship capable of controlling their movement, Raeth sucked the air through his teeth as he watched his helmsman’s repeated attempts to get the engines going.

“Le’tàààn.”

“Still trying… Got it!”

At the same time, the invasive scanning stopped. With power and controls restored, the Myr’shala skimmed the freighter’s hull, missing it by mere steps. Raeth’s ears picked up the thumps of heavy footsteps behind him, mere ticks later accompanied by the surprisingly calm voice of the one person he least expected.

“Permission to take over tactical, Ginjha.”

Looking over his shoulder, he looked straight into the emerald eyes of his rebellious Kaedar. Of course, with the ship on full alert, the situation hadn’t gone unnoticed. With a large and important part of the crew still aboard the station, he was more than glad to see Jirro.

“Granted. Jirro, if you’re still interested in showing what it takes, now’s your chance.”

The enormous Ryrjhii-Goureg grunted in affirmation, taking over tactical in the absence of Trezka, Norgu and Nami. Without gunners and only assisted by the ship’s targeting systems, his role could become the most important in whatever came next.

***

“Trezka to Myr’shala! If you can hear me, we’ve met with more resistance, but are close to our goal. They’re now well aware of our presence. We’re givin’ ‘em what they deserve.”

Masai’s ears did pick up Trezka’s attempted communique, but she was much too busy covering her friend as he pushed forward. She and Azdar made a good team. They always did. And so the group had split up in three pairs, pushing forward in the direction of the holding cells as pointed out by their hostage. Battling it out with the few guards still present, the corridor was filled with energy beams- and bolts as both parties continued to exchange shots at a high rate, using the recesses as cover.

The most recent stun grenade, thrown by Thylun, had weakened their opponents’ resolve to hold their position, aside from a stubborn rabbit-like Lepori and his or her companion of a reptilian race she couldn’t remember the name of. Glancing around the corner after a short break in shots being fired, she could still see some movement in the shadows ahead.

Only to pull back when a shot zinged past the tip of her beak. Smelling ozone she heard Azdar’s swearing and the scraping of the metal claws of his prosthetic foot. It seemed he was trying to trick their adversaries in targeting that which could not be damaged by their weapons with mixed results, as it was next to impossible to control the deflection angle.

“Is everyone still in one piece?” Trezka yelled, as Azdar returned fire together with Weyan.

“I’m hit, but I’m okay,” Thylun answered, while covering Weyan. “Just a scratch.”

“We gotta clear the way,” Weyan growled. “This is taking too long.”

Meanwhile, Norgu was still keeping an eye on their hostage. Unarmed, and with the shots fired by his colleagues missing him by a finger’s length, the Togrothian whimpered while trying to make himself as small as possible, until he had finally scraped together the courage to speak up.

“C’mon let me go. I’ve shown you the way, haven’t I?”

“Yeah, but we can’t trust you,” Trezka sneered. “What if this is a trap, which it is beginning to feel like?”

“It’s not, I swear! Cells are always guarded.”

“Be quiet,” Norgu grunted. “We’ll decide what to do with you when we’re in there.”

“It’s time to do just that,” Masai thought, slipping around the leg of the next arch to join up behind Azdar in the adjacent space. Signaling Weyan on the opposite side, she retrieved another stun grenade from the utility belt around her waist. Priming it with her thumb, she tossed it around the corner, waiting for the bang as she covered her ears and looked away like the rest.

Only something didn’t feel right. The effect of the flash was diminished to safe levels by her closed eyelids, though impossible to miss. She felt the rush of air due to the sudden pressure change that rolled through the corridor like a heavy downdraft. But a fraction of a tick before that there were two smaller flashes. Even before opening her eyes she was certain it was not her imagination at work. Those were not shots being fired, or detonations of some other kind.

The first thing she noticed was the sudden and almost complete silence, apart from the hum of the station’s worn-down support systems on these lower levels. The lights flickered for a bit before turning back to their previous brightness levels. Azdar again used his metal foot to bait anyone still alive into firing, but without receiving a hit.

As she peaked around the corner she saw nothing but an empty corridor up till the next bulkhead door which was the supposed entrance to the Syndicate’s private prison. The security station looked empty as well. But where the two remaining guards had been there was nothing. The carcasses of broken security drones and robots littered the deck and there were a couple of motionless bodies further down the corridor, but the remaining two had vanished without a trace.

“Looks like it’s clear!” Weyan yelled, crouching further while keeping his gun trained down the corridor just in case.

“If we got them, then where are their bodies?” Azdar asked no one in particular.

The group moved into the wider part of the corridor, scanning the area for any strays that might try to ambush them but found no one alive or conscious. The security station, shielded by a metal and Duraglass barrier, was unmanned. The Togrothian, being ushered by Norgu, walked ahead of him and Trezka with his bushy tail between his legs.

“You! Dog breath!” Trezka barked. “What happened to your friends? How did they disappear?”

The alien recoiled in fear and whimpered as she made a move as if she were about to smack him with her rifle.

“B-Blink packs,” he stuttered.

Trezka flattened an ear. Masai noticed how his answer provoked the same type of reaction in everyone, including herself.

“What?”

“Personal teleporters. The Hytharians have been looking after the station just as much as after their experiment. Their drones are all over the place. And they leave stuff behind. Even they have their flaws. Even their drones can cease to function.”

“So what you’re telling me is that there are those among you smart enough to reverse engineer their tech for your own use? Is that what you’re saying?”

“Y-Yeah.”

“Well, you might wanna have mentioned that!” she growled, her copper-colored eyes glittering.

The dog-like alien, shielding his face with his arms, whimpered under the thundering sound of her voice and the threatening step in his direction.

“So that’s how they do it,” Masai interrupted, catching everyone’s attention. “That’s how they kidnap people. They knock them out and then teleport themselves and their victims away. Remember how Le’tan and Houn couldn’t figure out how they managed to get away while barely leaving a trace?”

Trezka flicked an ear, her eyes narrowed to slits as she kept them focused on her victim.

“So how does that even work? They can just drop in on us at any moment?”

The Togrothian shook his head.

“No, they never got the system to work both ways. It always beams the user back to the base station.”

“Which is perfect for quick getaways and kidnappings,” Norgu concluded.

“Right, so at least we don’t have to deal with them dropping onto our necks,” Trezka said. “Now you’re gonna use your security clearance to get us in there. Move.” She pointed her rifle in the direction of the only door between them and the holding cells. The alien obeyed, trudging toward the access panel with its tail still tucked between his legs. “What’s y’r name anyway?”

“It’s Rhagi.”

After he placed a pawlike hand on the access panel, the bulkhead door split open toward both sides, revealing the darkness behind it, only for the overhead lights to turn on to a low level block by block. And judging by a quick look inside there were quite a few blocks. Masai shivered as the feeling moved up her spine. The horrific smell washing over her induced a gag reflex. The look of those cells with their barred entrances brought back memories of when she was locked up in one herself, if only for about two days. The slavers that raided the village in the outer colonies in which she grew up showed no mercy, not even for children.

“All right. Let’s do a quick search before more of Rhagi’s friends show up,” Trezka ordered, taking the lead.

Moving in with large thumping steps she walked down the middle of three corridors, with Norgu holding position near the block’s entrance to keep an eye on their hostage. Thylun and Weyan took the right corridor while Masai followed Azdar into the left one. Next to the overhead lights, the lights in each individual cell had turned up to high brightness as well. Some of these showed empty while others did not.

Looking back at her, as she followed in her friend’s steps, were the eyes of prisoners. Most of them innocent, she believed, for these had to be the victims of the kidnappings that Nami and Jetreycka fell prey to. The noises of the gunfight had raised hopes of escape, the way they clung to the horizontal bars of their cells. She recognized various different species and did not recognize some others, but none of them were her own. Still, there were three rows so there was a good chance the others had more luck.

“Hey, can you get us out?” hissed a small reptilian-looking creature, its long tongue slithering out of its mouth between the bars of its cell.

“They’re not here,” Azdar grunted, having reached the end of the block.

Masai, having reached that conclusion as well, turned around on the spot, noticing every prisoner standing at the bars. In the wake of the one creature who dared to speak up, more cries for help reached her ears. It was all too familiar. Innocent people, plucked from their daily lives to be used as merchandise or entertainment. It had to end.

“We gotta find a way to free these people,” she decided. Taking a look at one of the control panels, it was evident that these could be accessed only by those with the right level of clearance. As she looked over her shoulder at Azdar, he nodded back at her. Walking back to the front of the block, she raised her voice. “Don’t worry, we’re gonna find a way to get you out.”

Her statement was met by some careful cries of hope and sighs of relief. Maybe they could abuse Rhagi’s privileges to some degree, although she somehow doubted his security clearance was at a high enough level to do any good. If they had found Nami and Jetreycka in one of the other rows, they had to figure something out anyway. There’s gotta be a solution.

“And?” she asked, meeting up with the others at the cellblock entrance.

“No luck,” Weyan said, shaking his head.

“They’re not here,” Trezka concluded. “Anymore. One of the prisoners told me they have taken a number of prisoners, including two Mantrins wearing Imperial Guard red. Mentioned something about fighting. Doesn’t sound good.”

“We gotta free these people,” Masai said, feeling determined. “They’ve done nothing wrong.”

Grinding her teeth, Trezka seemed to agree with her, though did not have a clear idea on how to do that. Her eyes quickly caught Rhagi though, who was still under Norgu’s watch. The alien’s triangular ears drooped again, and he recoiled as she smiled.

“Well Rhagi, it seems you’ll still be able to do something good. As your last act of today, you’re gonna help us free these prisoners.”

“I-I don’t have clearance.”

Nodding in the direction of the security station, Trezka didn’t seem bothered.

“No, but one of your friends lying around here, might. So we’re gonna try it anyway. Walk.”

With Trezka and Norgu ushering Rhagi to the security console, the rest of the team moved into position to cover the corridor, in case of another attack.

“Shall I take a look at that?” Masai asked, noticing the burn mark on Thylun’s shin.

“It’s not that bad, but if you wanna do a quick patch up, now might be the best time,” he answered.

Retrieving the tissue regenerator from her backpack, she dropped on one knee to treat the small superficial injury.

“Anyone else got something worth treating?” she asked.

As she continued to heal some minor burns and scratches, Trezka wrestled with the prisoner problem in the meantime. As expected, Rhagi’s security clearance wasn’t enough to open the doors, but he could access the systems.

“Let’s see if one of your friends does,” Norgu grunted. “Which one do you recommend?”

“Lepori,” Rhagi said, pointing at another one of the rabbit-like aliens who had been caught in the crossfire. “She was the one on guard.”

Placing his gun on his back, Norgu took a couple of large steps toward the motionless body. But before he could lower himself to pick her up, the lights began to flicker before turning off, shrouding the whole place in darkness.

“What the heck?” Masai heard Trezka growl.

It even took a while for the dim red emergency lighting to kick in, which was enough to see something.

“The experiment?” Thylun asked no one in particular.

“Thought it was still too early,” Azdar answered.

“Console’s back up. Norgu?”

The big Logri grunted in response, lowering himself on his enormous legs to grab the Lepori woman under her arms and drag her backwards around the corner of the security station.

“She still feels warm. Might just be unconscious.”

“Good, now let’s see if this does the trick.”

Masai watched as Norgu hoisted her up and Trezka grabbed the alien’s wrist to put her clawed hand on the biometric scanner. Rhagi watched from a slight distance, pressing himself against the bulkhead behind the station with Azdar’s rifle still pointed at him. What looked like a vain attempt at first was rewarded by a series of metallic clangs coming from the cell block. At the same time the emergency lighting was exchanged by the regular variant as power kicked back in.

“Not sure what’s going on out there, but at least we’ve tackled this problem,” Trezka muttered.

From the cell block came audible sounds of cheer and relief. As they spilled out of the block, the prisoners thanked them and began scavenging weapons from the fallen gang members. They robbed them of their blasters, rifles, grenades and even knives. Not long thereafter they began to organize into a mob, knowing that staying together increased their chances of making it back to the upper levels.

A huge bear-like alien covered in black fur had gotten one of the rifles and readied herself to lead the pack, raising the weapon above her head with a loud roar, baring large razor-sharp teeth.

“They took my mate! It’s time to teach them a lesson. Who’s with me?”

Her clamoring was met with enthusiasm, despite the state of neglect and malnourishment they were in. The skinny appearance of some and the dirty ragged pieces of clothing many of them wore, made Masai wonder how long they had been locked up. With the mob marching away, leaving the team behind, Trezka chuckled and used her foot to poke Rhagi, who apparently had been cowering under the security station.

“What’re you doing under there? You’re really not cut out for this, are you?”

“T-They’ll kill me,” he whimpered.

“Yeah well, that’s what you deserve. But you did help us out, which I’m not ungrateful for. Tell me one last thing. What’re you doing with the prisoners? Where’re you taking them?”

“Some are sold as slaves. Some get sent to the pit to fight each other.”

“I need some directions.” With a final act against his will, Rhagi called up a map of the station via the security console and pointed out the location. Not long thereafter, Masai received the coordinates on her wristcom, like everyone else as Trezka copied the info. “Okay, that’s it for you. Now get outta here! C’mon, shoo!”

Trying to convince himself they wouldn’t shoot him in the back until he disappeared around the next corner, Rhagi darted away, hurried along by the team as they went after him to follow the route to their new location.

“If they’re being forced to fight against one another, they might not have a lot of time left,” Masai said, following Trezka’s lashing tail as they picked up the pace.

“All the more reason to hurry up,” her superior reasoned. “That mob will be our diversion.”

***

The pain in her upper arm was as sharp as the blade that pierced it. Her soaked sleeve stuck to her skin. A pearl of sweat dripped from the tip of her beak. Panting, gathering every bit of restraint she had left, in order not to lash out as one of the guards pressed the muzzle of his gun into her back, Nami trudged back into the holding room, acknowledging the nods of respect she got from her fellow prisoners. There was little honor to be gained in fights like these, but the least one could do was face them with little sense of dignity.

Grinding her teeth, she knew there was little to nothing she could do to remove the look of shock from Jetreycka’s face when they made eye contact. Following it on screen was a whole lot different than watching live or standing in the ring for that matter.

“Okay, who’s next?” one of the Togrothian guards bellowed with a sadistic look on his face.

Making her way to Jetreycka, overhearing how the next two combatants were being rounded up, she used her other hand to keep pressure on the wound.

“By Kirliya, are you?--”

“Don’t worry ‘bout it,” she said, succeeding in sounding confident, but unable to convince her friend and fellow crewmate. “I guess they were thinking the same thing I was. That this was a rather unbalanced match. So they decided to even the odds a bit... by throwing him a sword of all things!”

“You managed to disarm him.”

Nami nodded in response. She knew how to fight, with and without weapons, though this time there was more luck involved than she wanted to admit. It wouldn’t help to make Jetreycka feel more at ease anyway. Removing her hand from the deep cut in her upper arm, she noticed it was still bleeding. To remedy this, Jetreycka began tearing off a piece of the leg of her pants, turning it into a makeshift bandage.

“That look in his eyes, when he realized he was going to die,” she muttered, as Jetreycka wrapped the piece of cloth around her arm, tightening it with a knot. “Begged me to make it swift, so I did.”

“You had no choice,” Jetreycka said, inspecting her work. “None of us have, right now.”

“There was something else. Did you notice that power failure during the fight?”

“Could be the experiment.”

“Could be. But I did notice some guards in the audience getting away in a hurry when the lights turned back on. I’ve got a hunch something’s about to happen and taking advantage of it might be our chance to escape.”

Taking a look around, she didn’t notice anything off just yet. Power seemed to have come back on without residual problems. The Enforcers still watched every movement from their positions in the corners. Without weapons, the injured fighters weren’t much of a force against the well-armed guards, but they did have strength in numbers. A sufficient diversion might be all we need.

***

“The shuttle is holding position at the other side of the station. Syrran reports that they too suffered a power outage but no damage. They’ve lost contact with the team though. They’re continuing to monitor all frequencies.”

“Good. Keep me informed, Baika.”

Trying to assess the current situation, Raeth tried to weigh the different possibilities. If he didn’t have any personnel trapped on the station, he would order Le’tan to back off. Multiple ships seemed to have done just that, increasing their distance from the unknown vessels with shields raised. The Myr’shala had its shields raised as well. Aside from the rather invasive scans, which were like the ship’s equivalent of being stripped naked, the unknowns still hadn’t shown any signs of hostility.

“Jirro, any thoughts on their offensive capabilities? Can you make any kind of assessment on how our weapons might fare against them?”

His Kaedar did not reply right away, as his eyes glided over the readings on his console. With all attempts at communication failing so far, it was Raeth’s hope that they could at least gather some useful info and not start a possible confrontation completely in the dark.

“Their ships do not seem to possess any kind of visible weaponry,” Jirro grunted. “They are composed of energy fields, similar to Drej vessels, but there are key differences in their signature. There’s no telling how effective our weapons will be.”

“They could even have additional defensive capabilities that our sensors cannot detect,” Baika added. “But now I’m speculating. Unless they make a move, there’s not much else left to discover.”

“Okay, we’re gonna sit tight and wait until we hear from our people on the station. Majih, can you figure out a way to shield our systems from their scans?”

With an active video link to main engineering on one of the secondary viewers to ease communications, Majih, Jacky and Itan remained in direct contact with the bridge.

“Hold on Raeth. Jacky? Can you give us an update?”

“First simulation results are coming in. You might be able to use them to figure something out.”

After a short pause Majih nodded, the pressure adding some visible strain to the expression on his face as he worked his console.

“I’m working on a way to remodulate our shields based on the frequency of their scanning beam. I’m not saying that will fully protect us, but we should at least be able to stay in control of our own ship.”

“Do whatever you deem necessary. We’ll be relying on it.”

“Yes, sir.”

“Raeth, the Hytharians have launched a smaller vessel of their own,” Baika said. “It’s moving toward the unknown ships.”

“Show us.”

The magnified view she put up on the main viewer showed one of the smaller sphere-shaped vessels that were also present on the other side of the portal, moving toward the enemy ships at a slow but steady speed. It was like a smaller version of its parent ship and about the same size as the Myr’shala. Its smooth silver gray surface carried only a few different colored markings in an irregular pattern.

Slowing down until it came to a standstill at about the same distance from the small flotilla as the ships held between each other, there was still no response. So far, no party had dared to return the favor and fire an active scanning beam on them, though it seemed that was about to change. The spherical construct activated its scanners, firing a beam on the nearest energy-based ship.

“Le’tan, standby for evasive maneuvers,” Raeth ordered.

“Aye.”

“This could be a mistake on their part.”

“Energy buildup!” Baika warned. “Could be a weapon charging. It’s--”

Before she could finish her sentence, the unknown vessel’s outer hull rippled with energy that concentrated in a single spot. Without warning it hit the Hytharian vessel like a bolt of lightning, destroying it in an instant. The explosion sent pieces of its shiny hull flying in all directions, a couple of pieces bouncing off shimmering fields of energy surrounding the hostile vessels.

The Hytharian response was swift and immediate. Circle-shaped parts in the smooth hull of their hive world dematerialized and more of their smaller vessels exited the launch tubes behind them. The remaining Xhi’tha ships mobilized and began to morph, growing additional extensions from their organic hulls. Their biomass glowed as energy began to build and a number of their ships joined together to form one much larger and more powerful construct.

The energy-based vessels had been triggered as well, the hulls of all ships now pulsating in the same manner as the first vessel that attacked.

“That’s not looking good,” Houn said with a slight tremble in his voice, his tail once again moving back into that tense curve.

“Divert all available power to shields,” Raeth ordered. “Jirro, do not fire until I give the order. Le’tan keep our distance.” Watching a battle unfold right in front of them, Raeth prepared for a confrontation that now seemed almost inevitable. The Hytharians made a mistake. One that could prove costly. The remaining question was how far it would drag everyone else present into it. “Let’s see how this plays out.”

Chapter Text

Imperial Guard – 003 The Infinite Depths of Space

Chapter 6 The Signal

What happened after that first shot was fired would be etched into the history scrolls of countless cultures forever. The destruction of the Hytharian scout. The aggressive response of the two superpowers whose experiment invited the energy-based beings and their ships into this universe. The Ophelion system descended into chaos.

Ships that did not have crew onboard the station at the time activated their FTL drives and fled, but many couldn’t for that exact reason. The station had raised its shields, thereby protecting docked ships. This was still made possible because the energy link with the solar collector continued to be stable.

Meanwhile, the Hytharians and Xhi’tha had their hands full taking on their newfound adversaries. The Ophelion system had turned into a dangerous place. The number of stray shots was high. The power output of the individual shots was overwhelming due to the stark difference in technology between the highly advanced races and the majority who acted as bystanders. Those who reacted hostile to this form of collateral damage soon found themselves to be a target.

“Do not return fire! We’re not an active target!” Raeth ordered as the Myr’shala shook violently and lost a sizable portion of its shield strength after being hit by a stray beam.

Without touching his console, Jirro acknowledged. The difference was too great. They would not survive a direct attack, Raeth was certain of it. Ships had scattered around the station as the engaging parties continued to hammer each other. Even though the Hytharians seemed to try and draw the hostiles away from the static installations, the ships did not appear to stray too far from the portal.

“They used it as their way to get in,” Baika thought out loud. “Could also be their only way out.”

“Any changes in the portal’s energy signature?” Raeth asked.

Baika shook her head.

“Nothing so far. Still no contact with the other side.”

“Let me know as soon as anything changes. If they can control it somehow, they might even be able to bring in reinforcements.”

“You’re thinking about shutting it down?” Jirro asked.

The way he said it held the middle between a question and a statement. As Raeth looked into Jirro’s eyes, he secretly liked how his First Officer was able to read his thoughts on occasion. If Jirro had finally made up his mind about being an integral part of this crew, it was a quality he would come to appreciate even more in the future.

“With the amount of ships and personnel on the other side, I hope that won’t be necessary.”

“I’ve tried everything in terms of trying to communicate with them,” Baika said with a sigh. “They’ve not responded in any way that signals they’re capable of understanding us. These beings might communicate on a whole different level. Something beyond our understanding or capabilities. No one seems to have had more luck than us so far.”

“Brace!” Le’tan warned, as he continued the evasive maneuvers while the beams flashed in front of the panoramic window.

“No damage,” Jirro reported. “But our shield frequencies are continuing to fluctuate. This has been going on since the fight started.”

“Majih, how are those modifications holding up?” Raeth asked.

“I’ve been monitoring since I made the changes, but they shouldn’t be the cause of these fluctuations. I’m on it.”

“The station’s shields appear to be holding,” Baika said. “They are taking hits, but as long as that power coupling holds, they should be fine. The shuttle is holding position inside their bubble.”

Raeth knew that if the station’s shields would fail, the amount of stray weapons fire could cause catastrophic damage in little time. The hub was not designed as a military installation, so it possessed very little in the way of weaponry or hull armor.

Like every commander present, he racked his brains to find a solution to the current predicament. With the station filled to capacity, there were many lives at stake, including members of his own crew. The longer the conflict dragged on, the bigger the chance it would result in loss of life.

We gotta find a way to get through to them.

***

“I can’t watch this any longer,” Jetreycka growled, turning her head away from the monitor with a tug.

Another fight ended. Another fighter slain in a brutal way in front of a bloodthirsty audience. It was his one chance to regain some form of freedom; being allowed to challenge one of the Hazarr Syndicate’s own fighters. But to no avail. It was a clean fight, as far as Nami could determine. No dirty tricks. No foul play. But the alien’s injuries sustained in previous fights proved too much. With his opponent at full strength, his chances had been slim.

Nothing significant had changed during the last two fights. But something was going on, she could feel it. The minor power fluctuations. The occasional vibration of the deck under her split hoof-like feet.

Could something have gone wrong? Is there some kind of battle going on out there?

Figuring the vibrations were too strong and too frequent for an on-station incident, she began to watch for signs of a cue once more. She had tried to talk to the other prisoners with mixed results and the willingness to attempt a breakout was definitely there. All they needed was the trigger.

There was the rumble of the arena-side door. This time there was no one to escort back in. The guards chuckled as they talked about the fight in a casual way. One of them, a member of an insectoid race clicked its mandibles in an excited fashion and one of the Togrothians let out a howl before joining his colleagues into laughter.

Disgusted, Nami averted her gaze, fearing they were running out of time. Despite acting strong, Jetreycka’s injuries hampered her movement. She noticed how she constantly tried to shift her stance to relieve her wounded leg. On top of that they both had an injured arm that in her own case felt like it was still being pierced by a sizzling hot blade. She couldn’t speak for Jetreycka, but the claws of the Lecathian she fought could have injected harmful microorganisms into the wound. There were no signs of infection yet, but that could change rapidly. Their current environment contributed a lot as well and their immuno-boosters were not very effective at countering such direct contact.

“How’s your arm?” Nami asked.

Having returned the favor by bandaging it in a similar fashion, it had stopped the bleeding.

“I can move it,” her friend confirmed by moving her arm back and forth while bending her elbow. “Yeah, it hurts, but no side effects so far.”

“Good,” Nami said with a nod. “I have the feeling something’s about to happen. Be on the lookout.”

“You!” For a brief moment her hearts sank as the rough voice cut through the chatter. It belonged to a rather burly-looking Togrothian, with a vicious grin and piercing yellow eyes. With his black and brown fur, and body armor covering his torso and upper legs, he looked more like a soldier. To Nami though, he was still a mere crook, only better equipped than most. But it was the way he eyed them both that made her mouth turn dry and twisted her stomach. “You’ve both been doing rather well. So well in fact, that you’re in need of some better odds. Each other perhaps.”

Forcing herself to swallow the urge to scratch his eyes out, she had to make do with a poisonous look of contempt instead, while Jetreycka froze on the spot, apart from a flick of her ear. Yes, she heard that right. They were about to put them in the ring against each other. Fearing there was very little they could do about it, Nami tried to think of a solution, until Jetreycka showed that she had the courage to protest.

“No! You can’t do that. I won’t do that!”

Stamping her foot on the floor with enough force to shake the deck, she had raised her voice to the volume of a shout. With her fists balled, panting through clenched teeth she would’ve scared any other person into making a run for it. But the Togrothian showed his sharp-toothed grin at her reaction, knowing he had the upper hand.

“I can.” The rifles pointed by his colleagues were enough to keep her in check and Jetreycka soon realized it was pointless to resist. “And I will. Move. Both of you.”

Nami could feel how her jaws were beginning to feel cramped because of biting down in anger. Letting her legs carry her to the pit in which she was going to have to face off against her friend, she still tried to figure a way out of the current predicament. Only at this point, her mind couldn’t come up with anything no matter how much effort she put into it. No matter how much she tried to shut everything else out.

It was the transition between the smooth metal surface of the deck and the coarse sand of the pit between the two toes of her split, hoof-like feet that put the thought of the worst outcome into her mind. The harsh reality of what was about to happen.

The crowd cheered. The light beams thrown by the spotlights swept across the circular arena in alternating patterns except for two of them that focused on her and Jetreycka.

“N-Nami?”

“Jet, I know what you’re gonna say. I’ve made a decision.”

“No talk!”

“Oh shaddup!” Nami bit back with such ferocity that the guard recoiled before tightening his grip on his rifle. “You’ve got us this far. The least you can do is allow us to have a word with each other, ya piece of gehk.”

The guards allowed the talk, but still urged them to move to their starting positions in the center of the pit. Which she did, albeit slowly.

“You’re gonna have to kill me,” Jetreycka said with a tone of voice that didn’t leave room for back-talk.

“No. We’re gonna make a run for it. See the arena walls? It’s high but I bet we can jump the distance.”

“We’ll never make it. They’ve got guns targeting us the entire time.”

“It’s better to fight them then to fight each other.”

“But at least you’ll have a chance.” Jetreycka’s voice scratched like her throat was being squeezed shut. “You’ll be able to fight one of theirs for a chance at freedom.” Turning around on the spot as she had reached her position, Nami looked into Jetreycka’s eyes. The wet trails on her cheeks did not detract from the spark of determination she saw in them. “I’m the ranking officer. I’m telling you to do it.”

“You’re gonna use this moment to pull rank on me?”

“Enough talk!” The Lepori guard shouted. “It’s time to fight.”

The guards retreated. The spotlights focused. The swell of the crowd. The demand for more blood. Blood in various colors that already patterned the sand between her feet.

“Just do it,” Jetreycka hissed. “Make it swift. Don’t hesitate. I’m gonna make it look real or they might punish you.”

They began to circle each other as the starting signal sounded. Suppressing the urge to vomit, Nami focused on her movements while studying their environment from the corner of her eye. As expected, Seylah was there to watch. She had been watching all of their fights from a raised section in the grandstand close to one of the exits. And like those other times she didn’t join in on the excitement.

“What’s her deal anyway?” Nami thought.

If Seylah didn’t really enjoy watching them tear each other apart, then why was she here? Was she hoping for one of them to join the ranks? She hadn’t seen any other Mantrins down here so that might not be far off.

The spotlights flickered once more. They had been doing that with increasing frequency and even while standing in the sand she felt the vibrations rippling through the station’s structure. Jetreycka was right. The walls could be climbed, but the exits were out of reach. The guards standing on the platforms in the crowd would shoot them if they tried and if by some miracle they were able to make it to the first seating row, they had a crowd to wrestle through.

Meanwhile, Jetreycka began to notice her stalling for time and so did the audience. They were urging them to make a move and Jetreycka did so first. Stomping her foot in the sand as she stepped forward, she added a convincing growl. Nami jumped back, avoiding direct contact while feinting to the left. The crowd cheered in response.

Leaving a deliberate opening, she waited for Jetreycka to attack. Which she did, but instead of making use of the trap she set, she pulled back and jumped out of the way.

“What’re you doing?” Jetreycka hissed between clenched teeth.

She seemed ferocious in her attacks, but her injured leg hampered her movement. If her friend were a real opponent, Nami would’ve exploited this weakness. But she didn’t. Another flicker of the lights. The station trembled and her instincts told her that the external forces at work would soon present them with the opportunity she had been waiting for. It just had to happen somewhere within the next three or so millicycles.

“I’m saving our lives,” she bit back. “By stalling.”

“It’s too late! They’re gonna shoot us both.”

This time Jetreycka attacked for real. Being a Sogowan, her friend was quite a bit larger and heavier than she was and covered the small distance between them in no time. Dealing a heavy blow by kneeing her in the stomach, Nami stumbled backwards, gasping for breath as the air was violently expelled from her lungs, feeling like they had been crushed in the process.

With her hand on her belly while retching, the hard muscle unable to block the impact of Jetreycka’s mighty legs, she looked up to see remorse on her friend’s face. Mere ticks before it turned into anger. Anger she knew was not directed at her.

“C’mon!” she shouted, beckoning her to fight back. “You can do better than that!”

Of course she could! But she didn’t want to. Jetreycka seemed to have given up on escape and was now trying to use emotion to trick her into fighting back. Maybe she was right. Maybe there was no more time. C’mon. C’mon.

Leaving another opening on purpose, she waited for Jetreycka to attack once more. Only this time, she jumped to the side, pulled back her leg and thrusted her hoof-like foot against Jetreycka’s injured one. Her friend screamed, stumbled and collapsed into the sand as her leg bent under an unnatural angle.

Again the crowd cheered. Jetreycka groaned as she planted her fists into the sand in an attempt to get up. Her legs wobbled as she tried to get back on her feet, before falling back on one knee. Panting like she ran for thousands of steps, droplets of sweat collecting at the tip of her muzzle, she looked up, the expression on her face an odd mixture of pain and amusement. Shaking her head she chuckled.

“I’m sorry you have to do this. But it’s for your own good. Now finish it.”

“No, wait,” Nami panted, feeling the vibrations under feet getting much stronger all of a sudden. “Stay close. We’re gonna--”

The lights were killed so abruptly that she forgot to finish her sentence. The station shook violently, as if something massive crashed into it. It was so dark that she could barely see her friend, with the only light coming from weapon-mounted searchlights that swept in all directions. Smaller lights popped up all around them as spectators retrieved their mobile devices. When the sound of shots reached her ears, the crowd exploded into an uproar as everyone tried to get away in the confusion and chaos that erupted.

“We gotta get to the side!” Nami yelled, her voice almost lost in the noise around her. People screamed. Shots were fired in the stands and because no one seemed to know what they were aiming for the casualty count was on the rise. Finding her friend by walking toward her last location, she helped her up. Weighing heavily on her shoulder, she supported her until they had reached the metal wall surrounding the pit. This was a bit awkward due to their unusual legs, but with Jetreycka letting her injured leg drag it was possible. With the occasional stray shot slamming into the sand close to their position, they had at least one side covered by staying close to the wall. “Can you walk?” she asked.

“If I put some effort into it,” Jetreycka grunted. “Did you have to kick the leg?”

“Did you have to hit me in the stomach?”

“Point taken.”

“We gotta find the doors.”

“What the heck is going on anyway?”

With her eyes adjusting to the dark, Nami pressed her back against the wall, feeling the coolness of the metal through her uniform top. Shuffling in the direction where she remembered the doors were, making sure Jetreycka remained close by, she tried to pay attention to what was happening on the grandstand surrounding the pit. The spectators seemed to be driven toward the exits by a group of armed attackers entering from another.

She couldn’t really identify any of them under the circumstances, but their numbers were too great, and their behavior too unprofessional to be a Myr’shala or station police rescue squad. Could the power failures have caused a prison break? If that were the case, it was an incredible streak of luck. Despite their reckless revenge-driven attack, they seemed to succeed in getting the upper hand.

“Maybe a successful escape attempt. This might be our only chance. Now where are those doors?” It was the rush of air when the doors in question opened that guided her in the right direction. But the searchlights that swept across the arena made her hesitate for a moment. Had they come to finish them off before they could flee? As one of the beams hit her in the face and blinded her, she tried to shield her eyes with her arm. “Don’t shoot!” she yelled.

“It’s them!” a familiar voice responded. “We’ve found them!”

“Azdar?”

As he lowered his weapon, the rest of the squad that followed in his footsteps surrounded her and Jetreycka. But with shots still hitting the sand around them Trezka immediately ordered a retreat.

“C’mon, get ‘em back into the tunnel!”

Fatigued and with her body aching all over, Nami appreciated the strong helping hands of her crewmates as they guided her to safety. Out of the pit and protected by the station’s innards, she felt her legs give way beneath her.

“Masai, can you take a look?” Weyan asked, as he held her arm while she used the bulkhead for support.

“I’m here.”

Watching a blurred figure lower herself on her legs with a medical scanner in her hand, she fought against the dizziness. The sound of shots echoing through the tunnel. The distorted voices, screams and roars in the background. The urge to vomit was still there and stronger than ever.

“Jet-- Jetreycka first,” she panted. “Her leg…”

“Are you sure?” Masai asked.

“Just gimme a stim. I’ll be fine.”

After handing Weyan a stim pack, Masai moved over to her friend who leaned against the same wall to her left. Jetreycka groaned. Moving her leg seemed to cause her a great deal of pain and without the squad’s help it would be near impossible for her to make it all the way back to the upper levels. As Masai ran her scan and began treatment, Weyan rolled up the sleeve of her uninjured arm and pressed the subdermal contacts of the stim pack against her skin.

Taking a couple of deep breaths as the powerful mixture of stimulants, regenerative substances and painkillers spread through her body like liquid relief, she began to see her environment more clearly, despite only having the dim red emergency lighting and the searchlights. With Azdar and Norgu covering them at the next junction a few dozen steps ahead, they could at least receive a patch up for the walk ahead, which she hoped wasn’t long.

“Think you’ll be able to walk?” Trezka asked, as she stepped up to her.

Enjoying the rejuvenating feeling of the stim pack, which did remarkably well in fading the pain and discomfort to the background, she let out a sigh.

“In a millicycle. Am I glad to see you guys. Even though it took you long enough.”

“Hey, do you know how much trouble we went through to get here?” Trezka grunted, flattening an ear.

“I’m kidding,” she chuckled.

“If that means you’re also able to walk, I’m happy. We have to get a move on. Hopefully the shuttle will be able to pick us up, so we don’t have to climb all the way up there. Reduces the risk of getting killed in the process.”

The stim pack also reduced the sensitivity of her eyes and ears back to normal levels. The flashes of Azdar and Norgu returning the occasional shot no longer made her want to cover her eyes, and the noise of their guns, the return fire and the yelling and screaming were still loud but didn’t hurt her ears as much as before.

Looking to her left, Jetreycka groaned as she tried to obey Masai into moving her leg, drops of sweat running across her face. Although it did help to stall for time, Nami now regretted going for the leg, because it reduced Jetreycka’s chances and made a successful escape harder for all of them.

“What’s the deal with her leg?” Trezka asked Masai

Masai had instructed Thylun to apply a stim pack as well, but that wouldn’t fix Jetreycka’s leg in case of any serious damage. In that case, she still wouldn’t be able to walk on her own.

“It’s not broken, but her lower knee is dislocated. She might be able to walk if we pop it back into place, though she does need to see a real doctor soon.”

“Do it,” Jetreycka said through clenched teeth. “I know it’s gonna hurt!” she added when she noticed the hesitation.

“Right,” Masai said with a nod. “Can’t give you too much medication on top of that stim, or we’re gonna have to carry you all the way. Hold her.” With Weyan and Thylun grabbing her under her armpits, Jetreycka closed her eyes in preparation. Masai put away her equipment, then signaled Trezka to move closer as she firmly grabbed hold of Jetreycka’s lower leg. “You’re gonna have to help me with this.”

In the meantime Nami moved her own weary muscles, knowing she was going to have to persevere for a little longer. They were still far away from making it out of his hellish place alive, but at least they had escaped the clutches of the Syndicate.

“Ready?” Masai asked Trezka. “Just follow me.”

After a couple of quick breaths, Jetreycka screamed at the top of her lungs as Masai and Trezka moved her leg in circular movements, until a sickening pop was heard. For a moment Jetreycka looked as if she were about to faint, until Masai tapped her cheek.

“No, no. Stay awake. We’re there.”

“Yeah, yeah, I’m… I’m here,” she confirmed, hanging heavily in the arms of Weyan and Thylun supporting her. “Gimme a millicycle.”

A few millicycles later and with Jetreycka trying out her leg by putting more and more weight on it, the group was finally able to move. Azdar and Norgu had cleared their direct vicinity by holding position during Jetreycka’s field treatment and moved ahead with Trezka to continue clearing the way. Weyan and Thylun covered their rear, but apart from the occasional straggler that surrendered on sight, everyone seemed to have fled.

Staying close to Jetreycka’s side, Nami kept a close eye on her friend with Trezka’s sidearm in her hand. In her current physical state, she doubted she would be able to reliably hit anything at medium to long range, but it did make her feel a little bit safer. As they moved through the long dark corridors, listening to Trezka’s attempts to contact the shuttle that brought them in, she started to get the feeling that the real danger was now coming from outside the station.

The place continued to shake, sometimes violently and she could occasionally hear the sounds of high-powered systems shutting down. If the connection to the solar collector had been interrupted, the station would be running on its own power sources, and if so, they would need every bit of it to keep out whatever was hammering on the shields.

They reached the top of an ascending walkway that brought them up a couple of levels, with Weyan and Thylun close behind. Nami had no idea what part of the station they were in right now, but trusted her crewmates up front to guide them to safety. All she had seen so far were more maintenance tunnels, storage spaces and rooms filled with machinery that hadn’t been touched by the Syndicate. In fact, it appeared they had left the lower levels where the organization thrived behind and had reached the bottom part of the upper sections, only no one was there. Whatever threatened the station, it was reason enough for everyone to leave non-essential posts.

“How’re you holding up?” Trezka asked, checking up on them.

“Doing the best I can,” Jetreycka answered, forcing a smile. “Stims seem to be doing what they’re supposed to do, I guess.”

“Okay, let us know if you need a break. Looks like we have to try and make it up top on our own. I can’t raise the shuttle. Comms are down. Weapons are acting weird too. Not sure what it is. We’re gonna try to--”

“Don’t move!” Azdar yelled. “Drop your weapon!”

“Fine! Fine! Don’t shoot.”

The feeling of surprise hit Nami so suddenly that the blaster almost slipped out of her hand. As Trezka turned around to see what was going on for herself, Nami’s eyes caught Seylah, raising her hands after placing her own sidearm on the floor. The sound of her voice. Her tight black T-shirt and legging. Even in the dimly lit corridor she knew it was her, before Azdar pointed his weapon’s searchlight in such a way that they could all get a good look.

Trezka grunted as she moved in and the sudden stab of anger Nami felt caught her off guard at first. Following in Trezka’s footsteps, she deliberately made eye contact, but Seylah did not seem to have any hostile intentions. If she had to name one thing she sensed coming from her, it was fear. A fresh cut left a trickle of blood on her cheek and she had a tear in her legging as well. It seemed she hadn’t escaped the skirmish without any scratches either.

“Who’s this?”

“Someone who wanted us dead,” Nami growled, her claws unsheathing in a reflex.

“I never wanted you dead!” Seylah bit back.

“Yeah, well it’s not like you did anything to stop it,” Jetreycka quipped.

“It wasn’t my choice! I never expected them to put you against each other.”

“Hold it! Hold it!” Trezka intervened. “Who are you and what do you want?”

“I’m Seylah.” She swallowed, pausing for a moment. “Please. Take me with you.”

***

“They’ve lost the power coupling!” Baika warned. “The station’s calling for help. They won’t be able to sustain shield strength on their own.”

With one of the bridge’s viewers locked on the station itself, the bridge crew watched as the beam of energy between the station and the solar collector dispersed into nothing. As they needed all backup power to keep the shields up against the powerful stray shots that occasionally struck them with explosive results, a large number of the countless windows along the outer hull went dark. In the meantime the Myr’shala’s systems continued acting up as well, despite the crew’s best efforts to remedy this.

“I still don’t understand what’s happening to our power systems,” Majih called out in frustration. “It’s like they’re being disrupted by an outside force. It’s screwing up everything. Are those ships actively targeting us with some kind of jamming system?”

“Not that I can tell,” Baika answered. “All other ships in the vicinity are experiencing the same issues.”

“What about our reactor containment field?” Raeth asked.

“Well, that’s the thing,” Majih replied. “It seems to be about the only stable system we still have. I’d say the containment field is unaffected by whatever is screwing with the rest of our systems.”

The energy-based ships were still engaged in battle with the Hytharians and Xhi’tha and neither side seemed to be on the verge of winning. Any ship that dared to participate in this fight, due to catching a stray shot or because its captain was itching to fight, regretted this decision in little time and with heavy damage as a result.

But with the station becoming much more vulnerable due to power failure, most ships switched to full defense and took position between the battling superpowers and the station. And so did the Myr’shala.

“Le’tan, get us into position. All power to the forward shields.”

“Just look at those Denali dreadnoughts,” Houn said, his voice coated with admiration.

Trumping even the mighty Imperial Tyr’derra class battleship in size, the two enormous vessels were the pride of the Denali Aquatic Union and had taken the lead in the defense. Called the Denali for short, they were among the most unique entities in the galaxy.

Their home planet was in essence nothing more than a giant spherical ocean, without any landmasses of significance in which no less than five different intelligent beings had evolved simultaneously. Their harmonious relationship had allowed them to prosper and become a powerful spacefaring entity. The ships were filled with water, visible through large bubble-shaped viewports and even without these details their sleek design language portrayed their creator’s origin as aquatic beings.

“The Denali are deploying shield extenders,” Jirro reported. “They’re building a defense screen.”

“Majih, can we tune our shields to join in?” Raeth asked.

“I can, but I’m not sure if that will work with my shield modifications.”

“Raeth, I’ve been monitoring the fluctuations in our power- and shield systems.”

Raeth looked at Baika. It seemed the Orkeht girl was on to something. That detail about the reactor containment field kept hanging in the back of his mind. They were missing something.

“Go on.”

“Well, it’s about our shield frequencies. I’ve let the computer plot the changes over time. There seems to be a kind of pattern to them. They are being manipulated by the aliens and the shields of our neighboring ships are following the exact same pattern.”

“Could that be a signal? A way of communication?”

Baika looked up, struck by the sudden realization that they had been the victim of a big misunderstanding. And Raeth felt so too at the same time.

“They could’ve been trying to communicate with us all along.”

Chapter Text

Imperial Guard – 003 The Infinite Depths of Space

Chapter 7 Just Communication

“We are not taking her with us!”

The ferocity in Nami’s voice caused eight pairs of eyes to lock on to her. Her sharp fangs bared, the anger clouding her features, she made sure no one would try to change her opinion about it. Jetreycka understood this. The pain in her leg did that for her. But there was something about Seylah that made her hesitant to take Nami’s standpoint right away.

She sensed the fear. A kind of desperation even. It seeped into Seylah’s voice. Changed the way she came across. But it did not change her opinion about who she was. Seylah was a member of a criminal organization. She might very well have committed her own fair share of unspeakable acts. Not to mention being responsible for putting them in a situation that would have resulted in either her or Nami’s death. Now she was asking for help. Should we give it to her after what she did?

The violent shaking of the deck under their feet broke the uncomfortable silence Nami had created between them in which no one dared to contradict her.

“All right, all right,” Trezka intervened. “Obviously something happened between you girls. But I think it’ll have to wait. This place feels like it could fall apart in the next couple of millicycles, so we have to get a move on.”

“I’m sorry, okay?” Seylah added, sensing the resistance still offered by Nami and Jetreycka.

“Like that’s gonna make up for everything,” Nami grunted.

“Yeah well, I’m not getting down on my knees. I just hoped your invitation was still open, that’s all.”

Jetreycka did remember Nami offering a way out and so did her friend, who looked at her instead.

“Jetreycka has a say in this matter as well.”

At that moment she felt all the eyes fall upon her. As if she were the one to make this decision and cast judgment. She arguably suffered the most, but should she let that be a reason to condemn Seylah? Killing another person was unlike her. Condemning someone, a member of her own kind nonetheless, with death being the possible outcome would essentially be the same thing.

Whatever Seylah did to end up in this position would have to wait. If she deserved punishment for her acts, that moment would come. So the only thing that remained was the issue of trust. Was Seylah serious about this or was she only trying to save her own skin? And even if that were the case, would it matter to them at this point?

“I’m not sure.” Seylah swallowed, opening her mouth as if to say something in return, then closing it as she felt a question burning. “I just wanna know why. Why did you join an organization like that and why did you change your mind?”

“I just… At least this way I could make a living for myself. A sense of belonging. I made a mistake. They didn’t really care about me. They’re only interested in money and pleasure.” Clenching her teeth, she snorted and looked away as the anger returned. “You know how it goes. Once you get in you never get out. I figured you two had a good chance of making it through the fights to become one of us. Then at least there would be someone else. A real friend.”

Nami snorted.

“If you treat all your possible friends this way, good luck holding on to them.”

“And I’m sorry about that!” Seylah shouted. “What more do you want me to say? What happened to you I couldn’t prevent. The way I’ve been acting… It’s all… I just-- I just didn’t want them to do to me what they did before.”

Self-preservation. It was a primal instinct possessed by all beings. It was the way Seylah’s voice changed during that last part. The eyes that turned moist. Her shaking hands as she looked at them. Or was she looking down further?

“No, stop.” To everyone’s surprise it was Masai who spoke up. “You don’t have to say more.”

Stepping toward Seylah, then turning toward the rest of the group as if protecting her, she straightened her back and took a breath.

“Why are you defending her?” Nami asked, flattened an ear. “We don’t know what else she’s done.”

“Because this is not right,” Masai said in a firm way. “Is it true? Did you offer our help early on?”

Remembering that moment very well, Jetreycka replied instead.

“Nami, to be fair, you kinda did say that.”

“I did. I’m not gonna deny it.” She sighed. “Fine, if Jetreycka agrees you can come with us.” Seylah breathed a sigh of relief. Giving her cheek a quick stroke with the back of her hand, she balanced on her legs. Her tail, which had frozen in an upright position, finally dropped down to the deck. “But,” Nami added, continuing her unwavering stare. “If I suspect you’re trying to deceive us, I will kill you.”

“I’m not! I know you won’t take my word for it, but I’m done. I want out. I wanna go back. Maybe even try to find my parents.”

Nami nodded.

“Good. Let’s go.”

“My idea,” Trezka agreed. In the meantime the station hadn’t stopped trembling. What sounded like bulkhead doors closing echoed through the metal corridors. It was something Trezka had expressed her concern about. As the group started moving, with Nami keeping a close eye on Seylah who walked in front of her, Jetreycka wondered how they were going to escape. “It seems they’re shutting down non-essential systems and sections. If they’re depressurizing the docking bays and there’s no power going to the airlocks, the shuttle can’t pick us up down here. That is, if we can even find a way to reach them.”

“My gun’s stopped working,” Weyan said. “Auto shutdown. Some warning about an unstable power supply. My light seems okay though.”

“Whatever’s happening out there, it’s screwing up all our equipment,” Azdar grunted, tapping his own weapon.

“Let’s keep moving and hope we don’t need ‘em,” Trezka urged. “We should reach the public sectors soon.”

Due to their quick pace and the stairwells and ascending walkways as the alternative to the non-functioning elevators, it took the group less time than anticipated. The stim pack allowed for Jetreycka to keep up, keeping the pain in her leg to a manageable level. After climbing a few more of these, according to the station map, they had reached a public section which would eventually lead them back to the grand concourse. The only problem was, there was a sealed pair of bulkhead doors where there shouldn’t be.

“Great. Now what?” Thylun asked after tapping the control panel of which the screen remained dark.

The station was still taking occasional hits. Jetreycka could feel the vibrations under her feet, but they had become less frequent and less violent. Still, this did not help their current situation until the station’s engineers managed to get the power back online.

“D’you think anyone might still be out there?” Masai asked the group as she placed an ear flat on the door to listen.

“Could be,” Nami replied. “If they’ve got power on their side, they might be able to open up for us.”

“Worth a try,” Trezka agreed. “Norgu? Would you be so kind?”

Either one of them would’ve been strong enough to try and grab the attention of anyone on the other side but Norgu was happy to oblige. The big Logri had been his usual quiet self the entire time, partnering with an equally talkative Azdar to keep the way ahead clear.

“Let’s see if anyone’s listening,” he muttered under his breath.

Deactivating the light on his weapon he placed the pulse rifle on his back, then moved closer to the solid metal doors. Placing his enormous hands flat on its surface, as if searching for any weak spots in its construction, he balled the right one to a fist and battered on one of them a couple of times. Jetreycka was quite sure it wasn’t a trick of the light. The metal actually dented under the amount of force he put into it.

“Is anyone there?” he bellowed, the sound of his mighty voice tickling her stomach. As everyone perked his or her ears in anticipation for a reply, he listened at the door for a short while before repeating the procedure. “If you can hear me, could you open up? I’ve got people trapped down here!”

For a moment it seemed his attempts had been in vain. The abandoning of the lower sections served as evidence that people had been evacuating. At least away from non-essential parts and the outer hull and toward the most heavily shielded sections. It took about ten ticks of silence. Without warning the doors split apart with a series of mechanical sounds, causing a rush of warmer air to spill over them due to the pressure difference.

The doors revealed a broader corridor behind it and at least the regular lights seemed to be on in this section, though dimmed to low levels. The human security officer stepped aside to let them in without further questions until they were all in the safe zone. As she closed the doors behind them, the group breathed a collective sigh of relief. Like Nami, Jetreycka used the bulkhead for support as she felt the last of her energy reserves disappear together with the survival instinct that kept her going.

“Are you all right?” the human woman asked, a look of genuine concern on her face. “You’re lucky I was making my round and heard you knocking. I’m Saira.”

“We’re fine,” Trezka answered after throwing a look in the direction of her injured crewmates. “Aside from a few injuries.”

Allowing Masai to check up on her, Jetreycka felt like her leg was going to give out. The pain was still manageable, but now that the immediate danger seemed to have passed, it no longer felt like it was capable of carrying her weight.

“Still got a working hospital?” Masai asked. “I’ve hit the limits of my field kit.”

The look of concern did not disappear from Saira’s face. Throwing back her brown shoulder-length hair, she shook her head.

“Power failures are causing a lot of trouble and those shield impacts have caused some damage here and there. Without working equipment, we’re treating injuries the best we can, but it’s difficult. We’ve got plasma burns, broken bones and the common cuts and bruises. We’re gonna have to sit tight until the situation’s resolved.”

Using every bit of willpower and strength left in her body, Jetreycka pushed herself off the wall, trying to regain her balance. Masai seemed ready to catch her, but moved back as she began to walk, following Saira who took the lead, looking over her shoulder as she tried to gauge everyone’s physical condition.

Ending up with Seylah walking next to her, Jetreycka had noticed how she hadn’t said a word as she did the only thing she could, which was following the group. Figuring it was guilt gnawing at her, she decided to be the first one to break the somewhat uncomfortable silence.

“Are you all right?

Seylah’s long elliptical ears perked up in surprise. Obviously she didn’t expect that anyone wanted to talk to her after what happened, let alone ask how she was doing. Trying to guess her age, she began to suspect that Seylah was younger than she thought earlier.

“I’m… I’m fine.”

“I’m not mad at you.”

Watching the expression on Seylah’s face change from surprise to disbelief, she wasn’t sure how to continue the conversation. Another moment of silence followed in which she listened to the talks of her crewmates which were about the current situation for the most part.

“You’re kind,” Seylah said after a while, after passing the last corner on their way to the grand concourse. Glimpsing past the backs of her crewmates walking in front, Jetreycka could see the giant square that offered access to every other part of the upper levels. “I haven’t felt… real kindness since…”

Seylah swallowed her words as they entered the grand concourse, which had been turned into a kind of combined shelter and field hospital. Temperature and lighting were still at comfortable levels, but all non-essential things like holo projectors and displays were offline. The few doctors present had their hands full treating all kinds of injuries, minor and major, and people of all races were taking care of each other in the best way possible. Seats and makeshift beds were reserved for the injured while everyone else had to make do with the floor. Trying to find an empty spot large enough for all of them to stay together was impossible, so they decided to split up as Saira left to resume her duties.

“Jetreycka!” Masai called from a slight distance. “I’m going to find you a doctor.”

“Hyami!”

Deciding to stick with Seylah, as no one else seemed eager to share the girl’s company, Jetreycka found herself an empty spot on the floor, a Vusstran and a human couple both making some room when they realized she was injured.

Apologizing for the inconvenience of being large and thanking them at the same time, she tried to position her leg in such a way that it hurt the least, which turned into an odd combination of sitting and lying down. Seylah sat down cross-legged next to her, the signs of discomfort still on her face as she watched her wrestle with the pain.

“Hey, I told you I’m not mad.”

“It’s not that,” Seylah said, casting a skittish look over her shoulder, her voice close to a whisper. “They’re here. Members of the Syndicate. They’ve spotted me.”

“Listen, we’re not gonna let them do anything to hurt you. I’ll warn Masai when she gets back.” She noticed how Seylah’s hands trembled and her ears lowered to almost horizontal. How she tried not to move too much. But it was hard not to notice a group of Mantrins entering a space where most people were sitting or lying down. On top of that, her different outfit in turn made her stand out even more. “Seylah.” As the girl looked up, Jetreycka slowly shook her head. “They’re not taking you back.”

***

“Comm’s still out,” Syrran said, shaking his head after checking system status.

Returning to her seat after a couple of light muscle exercises in the back of the shuttle, Freya sighed. They had been holding position inside the station’s shields for a while, watching the fireworks from a position of relative safety. The Myr’shala knew where they were as they hadn’t moved from their last transmitted position. It was just that they had to try and reestablish contact with the team for a possible pickup, whatever their chances were.

“With all those offline docking ports and bays they’re gonna have a hard time getting to a pickup location,” Freya remarked, trying to use her finger to return the shuttle’s console to a spotless state out of boredom. “D’you think they’ve run into trouble?”

“Unless our systems and theirs return to normal operation, there’s no way to know.” Squinting against the light of a powerful explosion of volatile energy against the shield formed by a growing number of ships, he tried to estimate if it was still safe to hold their position. The battle had been going for a while now with neither side taking much losses. “Freya? Do you miss home?”

He had to admit, the question was quite a stray from the previous subject. Frowning in surprise, she took a few ticks to reply.

“A little. I’ve got two older hahna and one younger khomii. We’re pretty close, so yeah, I miss them sometimes. And my parents of course.”

“Hmm, Itan reminds me of my khomii. It’s funny, because he says the same thing about me. He and his khomii Odrin like to go on survival trips. He invited me to join next time we get some leave.”

“Not… really my thing, but it does sound like fun going all together.”

“What about you? What do you do for fun back home?”

“Well, I do like to go out, although my walking trips are a little less adventurous. I like to read a good story from time to time and of course I’ve got my music. But I’ve always been a fly girl. My kharii and I built our own airplane together. You should see it sometime.”

“Really?” It was not uncommon for their people to have or combine some unusual pastimes, especially when combining a modern way of living with ancient tradition. Itan told him that his family’s connection to nature was at a spiritual level and considering his job that was unusual too. But building and flying your own airplane was not an answer he had ever heard before. “I’d love to see it.”

Freya smiled. Judging by the dreamy look on her face, she relived memories of soaring above the plains and forests of southern Sogowa in her own flying machine. It was hard for him to imagine what that felt like. Until her daydream was disturbed by a reading on the sensors.

“What’s that?”

“One of the defending ships is firing electromagnetic pulses at the battling fleets.” Checking twice, to make sure the sensors weren’t acting up given the current conditions, the verified result still surprised Syrran. “That’s our ship.”

***

“What do you suggest, Baika?”

Squinting against the light of another blast of energy that hit their combined shield, Raeth was eager to come up with a plan. It was the only lead they had so far. Crossing her arms as she leaned back in her seat, he could almost see the little cogs in her head turning.

“It’s not like I’ve deciphered anything that looks like a language, but we could try to respond by sending the same signal back to them. We need a carrier of some kind.”

“How about modifying a torpedo?” Jirro suggested.

“Hmm, they might consider that a hostile response,” Raeth answered, giving it some thought. “We need something that is powerful enough, but fairly harmless.”

“An electromagnetic pulse?” Houn suggested as he flattened an ear.

He and Le’tan had turned around in their seats to add their brainpower and it seemed to pay off.

“That could work,” Baika acknowledged with a nod. “A series of electromagnetic pulses with the same frequency pattern.”

“I can use the forward shield emitters to generate the pulses,” Jirro confirmed. “Give me the data and I will make it happen. That does mean that we’ll have no forward shields when we are transmitting.”

“Start preparing,” Raeth ordered. “If there’s a chance that we can put a stop to this madness it’s worth a try. Le’tan? Houn? Standby to break formation and position us beyond the shield perimeter.”

With everyone knowing what to do, they had the ship ready in no time. As Le’tan moved the Myr’shala past the combined shield of the defenders in what looked like a safe window, Jirro dropped the forward shields and concentrated the energy into the forward emitters.

“Our systems are still acting up. I’m not sure if I can replicate the exact pattern, but I’m ready to fire.”

“Do it.”

Watching the battling ships in the distance, Raeth listened to the charging and discharging of the shield emitters as they delivered the energy waves in their direction. As the waves were invisible to the naked eye, Jirro had the computer display the sensor output on one of the secondary viewers which showed the waves travelling in the direction of the hostile ships.

For a moment, it seemed to have no effect. The battle continued and Raeth felt how his breath caught when a stray beam narrowly missed the Myr’shala. And then, all of a sudden, the sensor image began to display electromagnetic waves travelling back toward them. Too weak to further disrupt their systems, even without shielding, but it was definitely a response.

“It’s working!” Baika cheered, unable to contain her excitement. “I’m deciphering their response as another pattern. It might actually be a language of some kind. Just not something we can understand.”

“All ships have ceased firing,” Jirro reported. “The Hytharians and Xhi’tha are standing down.”

“Not sure what you’re doing, but our systems are back operating within normal parameters,” Majih said through the open connection with main engineering.

“Raeth, with your permission, I would like Jirro to send this pattern back to them as well,” Baika said.

“Proceed.”

After sending back and forth a couple of more series of pulses, the unusual way of communication ceased. No more pulses came back from the alien fleet.

“D’you think we’ve ticked them off?” Raeth asked.

Flattening an ear she shook her head.

“I don’t think so. Their ships are holding their current positions. I--”

Raeth couldn’t describe the strange feeling that seemed to envelop him all of a sudden. It was like a slight tingling in the air. A feeling of comfort being wrapped around him like a blanket. And then, an ethereal voice speaking to him. To all of them at the same time. A wonderful sound to listen to, even though he sort of knew his ears were being tricked into hearing something that wasn’t there.

“Don’t be afraid. We mean you no harm.”

At that moment Raeth realized he stood in front of his seat, startled into getting up. It was the comforting feeling and the pleasant sound of the voice that made his shoulders sag into a relaxed state. As if every bit of tension drained from his muscles and every worry vanished into thin air.

“I’m Raeth, House of Meztar. Who are you? Where do you come from?”

“We come from a realm beyond yours. Entered your reality when your portal tore a hole into its fabric. Our attempts at communication failed. We misinterpreted yours. Is there any way we can rectify what we have done?”

“Would you like to come and meet us? Aboard the station?”

“We have picked up the same desire from countless minds among you. Even though not all of them are pure, we believe the experience might be beneficial. We look forward to meeting you, Raeth, House of Meztar. Forgive us for not being able to express our name in your language. But we can make you feel.”

For a brief moment the feeling of comfort made place for something else. Like experiencing beauty in its purest form. A pulse of euphoria. And at that same moment, he caught a mental glimpse of what the aliens looked like, right before the feeling disappeared. As the mental connection broke, reality felt rather dull, if only for a short while. It took the crew a few ticks to realize what just happened. They had finally made contact through a kind of telepathic link. It seemed that their crude way of trying to communicate had tempted the aliens into trying something else.

“Was that… what they look like?” Le’tan asked.

“I’ve never seen something so beautiful,” Baika muttered.

Both were baffled by the experience. Even Jirro expressed his admiration and Raeth hadn’t shaken off the feeling of joy either. It was in fact strengthened by his own desire to turn a misunderstanding into a successful first contact.

“And we’re going to meet with them.”

***

“What is it, Seylah? Thought you were one of us.”

That they wouldn’t just let her go was to be expected. That it would come to an armed standoff in the middle of the grand concourse, surrounded by injured people wasn’t. It turned out there were quite a few members of the Syndicate seeking refuge between the visitors. Trapped aboard the station like everyone else, it was an effective strategy.

Being civilians, they could even be called residents of the station. Without uniforms and without flaunting any markings that branded them members of the organization, they blended in perfectly. Their concealed weapons were not even a violation of station regulations. The Imperial Guard status of Trezka’s team had allowed them to keep theirs, even in the public sectors, and that turned out to be a good thing.

“She was never one of you to begin with,” Trezka barked.

“Oh, so she’s doing the talking for you now,” the Togrothian mocked, adding a scornful laugh.

Nami was pretty sure he was the one guiding people into the pit. It appeared he had managed to escape with only a few scratches, although she couldn’t be too sure that the bloodstains on his fur were his only.

“Listen, I’m done!” Seylah bit back. “I’m out! I don’t wanna be a part of it anymore.”

“That’s not up to you to decide.”

Trezka scoffed.

“Watcha gonna do about it?”

Her threatening step forward made the Togrothian and his bunch, which was made up of a number of different species, tighten the grip on their weapons. Blasters, although smaller than their own caliber, were still deadly. The visible illegal modifications made them about as dangerous to the user as to the target.

Meanwhile, the station’s security personnel tried to gain control of the situation. Forming a triangle with the two groups, their goal was to prevent anyone from firing the first shot. Which was the same for the group of Mantrins, trying to estimate if their adversaries were willing to take the chance. Seylah was her own person. She was not theirs to keep.

“All of you, drop your weapons! There are innocent civilians around here!”

Those civilians had backed up as far as possible, away from the possible firefight, in what little space they had. Some of them even held on to their own sidearms. Not pointed at anyone, but in defense should the situation turn ugly.

“Hand her over, and we’ll go in peace,” the Togrothian sneered, adding a sharp-toothed grin of mischief.

“You are not taking her,” Jetreycka said, putting emphasis on each individual word.

Ticks began to feel like millicycles, in which both parties eyed each other, looking for the sign of a first move. A first move with lethal results for sure. Her hands wrapped tight around the grip of Trezka’s blaster, Nami felt the beating of her hearts in her throat, a trickle of sweat from her armpit seeping into her shirt. The tenseness of the situation had reached a critical point. If they didn’t budge, the only way out was to pull the trigger.

Apart from the consequences there was a strange sensation that withheld her, no matter how tempting it was to wipe those sadistic smirks off their faces. A kind of tingling. Like electricity. It was distracting and it made her wonder if these were her nerves and mind trying to play tricks on her, or something else.

“Are you guys feeling this--”

The creature’s appearance wasn’t as sudden as her mind let her believe. It materialized in a display of bluish white radiance. It’s ‘body’, if it was even a corporeal form to begin with, in the shape of a butterfly and fully transparent. Wings like thin glass tendrils extending from what would be the thorax. The head was round in shape, the eyes glowing in the same color as the rest of its body, with no visible nose or mouth, if it even possessed these. There was something kind about these eyes, if Nami had to describe the way it came over to her.

The creature hovered at a height above the heads of most, in the middle of the triangle formed by the three groups and captured everyone’s attention to such a degree that some forgot to aim their weapons. It was as if its presence alone dissuaded everyone from continuing on the current path of violence.

“Don’t be afraid. We mean you no harm.”

Two more of the creatures appeared, hovering above the crowd, as if to spread their message of coming in peace.

“Are these the aliens?” Thylun asked no one in particular.

“They’ve gotta be,” Masai answered.

Where many uttered sounds of admiration as the other creatures moved around with an occasional gentle flap of their wing-like tendrils, others even adhered to their particular faith, whispering their prayers. Their appearance had such a profound effect that everything else was forgotten. Not even the vibrations under their feet, of the station’s non-essential systems coming back online. Or the holographic billboards resuming their cycle of commercial ads.

The one creature that tried to keep the peace between the three groups by its presence alone did not move one bit, its wing-like tendrils moving as if they caught a very light breeze. Nami noticed everyone, including herself, had dropped their weapons by now.

“Fine…” the leader of the pack of criminals uttered. “Fine. Take her. Let’s go boys.”

Behaving in an almost dignified manner, the gang members of the Hazarr Syndicate, under the watchful eye of the station’s security force, packed up and left. Wondering why they didn’t arrest them on the spot, Nami figured it had something to do with the way the creatures seemed to suppress violent tendencies.

“They messed with the wrong crew,” Trezka grunted. “We could’ve taken ‘em.”

Nami chuckled.

“Trez, as much as I like your confidence, that could’ve turned real ugly.”

“Arrghh.”

Sucking the air through clenched teeth, Jetreycka collapsed on one knee as her leg gave out once more. Merely shifting her weight the wrong way seemed to have dire consequences.

“Are you all right?” Nami asked, lowering herself to the deck beside her friend and giving Trezka her blaster back in the same motion.

“M-My leg,” she panted, her face twisted in agony as she tried to move it. “I can barely move it.”

“I need a doctor over here!” Masai called, looking around for a response from anyone.

Instead of a doctor, help came from an unexpected quarter. The alien watching their group swooped down to their level as in slow motion, remaining ever graceful. Being so close to the creature, Nami could feel a certain warmth radiating from its glasslike body.

“Don’t be afraid. Let us help you.”

Jetreycka responded with a slight nod. With her consent, the creature drew even closer, a number of the thin tendrils from its wings growing longer as they found their way to Jetreycka’s injured leg. As they touched her skin, caressed it with gentle sweeping movements, she gasped as in relief. Nami felt it. As the creature maintained some sort of mental connection to those around it, she could feel it take away Jetreycka’s pain.

And the same tendrils found their way to her own injured arm, treating it in a similar way. The pain and stiffness disappeared. As she pulled down the makeshift bandage after the tendrils released her arm, she found out, to her astonishment, that every trace of the wound caused by the sword had vanished as if it never even happened.

A brief moment passed, in which a single tear left the corner of her friend’s eye, after which the tendrils retracted and shrunk back to their previous length. Unable to believe what just happened, Jetreycka pushed herself up, shifted her leg and to her surprise was able to stand without a trace of the pain.

“Hyami. Thank you so much.”

The creature bowed its head for a brief moment before flying back up with a single gentle flap of its tendrils. Its companions were showing off their abilities as well, healing the injuries of those caught in a situation beyond their control.

“Raeth to Trezka.”

“Trezka here. We’re fine Raeth. We got the girls out and they’ve been treated a little rough, but they’re doing much better now thanks to our newfound friends.”

“That’s all I wanted to hear. Listen, we planned a more official meeting with them in the embassy wing. Everyone’s welcome, though you might wanna come back to the ship first.”

“We all wanna get out of this armor. Drop off the guns.” She chuckled. “And I’m not sure if these creatures have a sense of smell, but eh… you get the point.”

Raeth laughed.

“Come back to the ship. Docking location’s in your wristcom.”

“Right. Let’s RTB everyone. And try not to get snatched along the way this time.”

Chapter Text

Imperial Guard – 003 The Infinite Depths of Space

Chapter 8 New Horizons

In many ways, the energy beings from a previously undiscovered realm, whose name could only be expressed as a feeling of joy, were like the Hytharians and Xhi’tha. A hive mind. Each individual was able to represent their entire race as a whole. Many of them were present in the embassy wing, where representatives of other worlds had gathered as well. What began as an attempt to explore new frontiers in another galaxy had resulted in the discovery of an entirely new plain of existence.

“Your universe is very different from ours,” one of the creatures explained to Raeth. “We had to alter ourselves and our technology substantially in order to sustain ourselves. These alterations are draining our energy reserves. We shall have to return to our own universe soon.”

They also had some trouble in explaining the concepts on which their universe was based. Due to the telepathic link it was possible to show instead of tell, but where the mental images were like pictures of their birthplace to the aliens, to Raeth it was a kind of beauty beyond his full comprehension. In their reality, there were no stars and planets. What he saw with his mind’s eye, were rivers of glowing particles, moving to and from fountains of light, with what looked like their ships travelling along these streams. It was like an entire dimension of energy in a perfectly balanced state.

Because the true name of their species could not be pronounced, representatives of other worlds had come up with nicknames as a way of addressing them. They accepted this and it helped to ease communication. Very often these nicknames were derived from those of creatures similar in form to the aliens.

For example, the humans had decided to call them Nymphs. Not only was this a reference to a large family of insects with a great resemblance to the aliens, it also referred back to ancient mythology as being a name for certain minor deities associated with nature.

For resembling a similar creature, native to Sogowa Prime, Raeth’s people had decided to call them Fharii. Although this was a larger bird-like creature, they had the same fore and hind wings, but with a different shape and built for speed, and they came in a variety of different species with unique color patterns. Flocks of Fharii were often believed to be able to predict the weather, especially in more traditional cultures and there was some scientific truth to that as the fast flyers often flew ahead of approaching weather systems.

“We look forward to continuing relations with your kind, should we find a way to stabilize the connection between our realities.”

“That is our wish as well, Raeth, House of Meztar. We shall need to find ways for our kind to survive outside our own universe.”

With the direct mental link between him and one of the creatures severed, Raeth took a deep breath in relief. Their way of communication was so direct, so much more efficient for relaying information, but at the cost of putting a great strain on mental resources. This wasn’t so much noticeable when the link was active, due to the artificially induced euphoria, making the transition all the more feel like a blow of exhaustion.

“Your thoughts on them?” Trezka asked, rubbing her own temples.

She and Jirro stood at his sides, having been locked in the same conversation with the Fharii that flew up with a flap of its illuminated wings, leaving them standing on the meeting spot in the middle of a small circle of flat-topped trees put in large stone pots. Flexing his tail and muscles, to shake the rubbery feeling, Raeth still wasn’t quite sure. The Fharii were so different from anything else encountered. They could very well be hiding malicious intent, and nobody would know.

“I think they are a peaceful… people, for the lack of a better word. Not sure if their way of ‘life’ can be compared in any way to ours.”

“Do you think they’re acting truthfully?”

The way Jirro threw out the question, seeded some doubt, but there was one thing that made Raeth lean toward a strong ‘yes’. Something he experienced during their mental conversation.

“I’m inclined to think they are. During our conversation I… I didn’t mention them directly. But I felt they could sense the thought. There’s something about them that reminds me of the Drej. And when that thought crossed my mind, I felt something. A kind of… pain. A pain similar to losing a loved one. It’s hard to describe. It was brief, but it was definitely there.”

“The Drej are capable of hopping between dimensions,” Trezka pondered out loud. “They could be their enemy as well.”

“Let’s hope they are,” Raeth expressed his own thoughts. “For the sake of having that in common.”

He was about to turn around and head back to the center of the plaza, when a Hytharian construct approached them. This machine body had taken the form of a centipede, raising to an erect position on a few sets of rear legs. Although still a little unsettling, Raeth was glad they had respected his wishes not to use a mechanized clone of his people. The eye-like optical sensors even had an unusual kindness designed into them. That in combination with the mandibles and antennae made its face remarkably expressive.

“Greetings, Raeth, House of Meztar. We meet again.”

“Moiseh. We almost didn’t, if you get what I mean.”

The construct nodded.

“Yes. We did not anticipate this as the outcome of our experiment. The appearance of the Fharii, as you call them, was unexpected, as well as their hostile response to our probe’s scan. We did suffer some loss of material during the ensuing battle and we are pleased with your intervention.”

“We had to do something. They threatened the lives of everyone aboard the station.”

“We regret our handling of the situation. Our ability to make mistakes is a reminder of who we once were in the past. Forgive us for our mistake.”

Their acknowledgement surprised Raeth. The Hytharians had come so far. Evolved away from their biological forms. Became more machine in their quest to gather and preserve knowledge. Even they had not forgotten who they once were. Even they could not fully shed every flaw they once had.

“That is all right. I don’t think my own people would’ve handled their response any differently.”

The construct nodded again.

“We will meet again, Raeth, House of Meztar.”

The trio watched in fascination as the mechanical creature, modeled after an insectoid form common on many worlds, skittered away on its multiple sets of legs. Although their portal did open up a whole new galaxy to explore, full of unique experiences and opportunities, Raeth deduced from that last comment that the Hytharians did not plan to leave their home galaxy behind forever. Trezka grinned. The corner of Jirro’s beak was curved slightly upwards. Raeth smiled.

“It sure is an exciting time to be alive.”

***

The embassy wing was a huge layered complex centered around a series of stacked plazas, connected by spiraling walkways in between, with plenty of open-air meeting spaces under a huge domed roof, offering an unobstructed view of the stars. Every layer used its own color of large stone floor tiles and the gardens, fountains and decorations created a serene environment for discussions and negotiations. For more private sessions, plenty of large conference rooms were available, situated around the open area. Many members of the Myr’shala’s crew were present, free to spend some more time off after the whole ordeal.

Aside from diplomatic talks, there was plenty of room for entertainment as well. The Fharii were masters of energy manipulation and their technology and natural abilities in this regard were so advanced that they were like magic. Mesmerized by watching the creatures make ordinary objects float in the air by manipulating gravity itself, passing them between each other as if playing a game, Jacky couldn’t tear her eyes from the sight.

“Have you ever seen anything like it?” she asked Baika and Itan, who watched the spectacle with her.

They both shook their heads.

“They’re so… divine looking,” Baika said. “And that feeling when they’re ‘talking’ to you.” Jacky nodded. The whole ship had witnessed the first contact through the telepathic link. That she had been down in main engineering made no difference. “Do you think this dress uniform looks good on me?”

Flattening an ear, wondering if her friend was even serious about this question, she looked to the side and into Baika’s eyes. This was so typical of her. To change the subject into something completely unrelated to the previous topic.

“Whyyy, wouldn’t it be? We’re all wearing the same thing.”

The female version of the Imperial Guard dress uniform used the same pants as the male version, with gold trim around the ankles as the only difference between it and the standard red duty uniform. The top, which held the middle between a buttonless dress shirt and a collared jacket for males, was different. The male version exposed a vertical line of the wearer’s chest while the female version used a wraparound design with a closed front. They too wore the same rank insignias on the stiff black collar, edged with gold trim and a small pin in the shape of the Imperial Guard seal on the left side of their chest.

“I dunno,” she said, lifting her elbows, as if to test her mobility. “Feels kinda tight.”

Jacky chuckled.

“It’s supposed to.”

“Yeah well. Itan’s looks more comfortable to me.”

The big Goureg laughed.

“Maybe you should ask Raeth if you can wear the male version.”

“Well, why shouldn’t we wear the same thing?”

“It has something to do with other cultures,” Itan replied. “Some might consider it ‘suggestive’ for women not to cover their breasts.”

“I could always wear… what are those things called? A bra?”

“Makes no difference,” Itan said with a shrug. “The uniforms are designed to comply with what is considered appropriate in as many cultures as possible.”

“So… men are allowed to flaunt the size of their chest, but we women have to be wrapped in tight?”

Jacky couldn’t help but be amused by her friend’s line of thought. She liked that about her, but she also had the tendency to not let something go until she had a satisfying answer. Even if such an answer did not exist.

“Bai, let it go. We barely have to wear this in our line of work anyway.”

“Fine,” she grunted.

“Hey, what do you think about that new girl? I heard Raeth is thinking about making her a member of the crew.”

Baika frowned.

“What’s her name? Seylah or something? Do you think we can trust her?”

“Maybe we should give her a chance to prove herself,” Itan replied. “Might just be a rumor, but I heard she might join us in engineering.”

“Well, I don’t have a problem with that,” Jacky said with a shrug. “I have faith in Raeth’s decision.”

Being reminded of her time at the Academy, Jacky knew all too well what it was like not to fit in. For different reasons perhaps, though the feeling was the same. Seylah had gone through a difficult time, or so she heard. The last thing she needed on her road to recovery was people picking on her. If it was Raeth’s opinion that she deserved a second chance aboard the Myr’shala she vowed to make her feel welcome and appreciated. If her efforts reflected her own desire to become part of the team that was.

As the lights in the enormous dome above their heads dimmed to a low level, the Fharii began to gather under it, floating high above the crowd that had gathered to interact with them. Forming a circle, the creatures extended the tendrils that formed their wings until they were about twice their normal size. Bowing their heads in unison, their bodies glowed brighter, pulsating with their life’s energy in its mystic blue color.

As they released that very energy, spreading waves of glowing particles along a horizontal axis, like ripples in a pond, the crowd cried out in admiration like they had done so several times before. It looked like a ceremony and Jacky had the feeling that this was their farewell. During the talk she, Baika and Itan had with one of them, they explained that being outside their own universe put a significant drain on their energy reserves. They could only be here for a limited amount of time, before they had to go back.

“Dear friends. The time has come for us to return to where we come from. We believe that this experience has been beneficial to us all. It is our wish to continue relations in the future. We will now leave you in peace.”

With a final combined release of light particles, the Fharii disappeared. The lights turned back to their previous brightness, and what followed was a moment of silence in which everyone shook the feeling of the telepathic connection. Rubbing the side of her head, Jacky noticed her companions and the people around them suffered from the effects as well. A mild lightheadedness that didn’t last long. Covering her mouth as she yawned, she took a deep breath afterwards.

“I love the way they make you feel when ‘talking’ to you, but it’s kind of exhausting.”

“Doesn’t help that we’ve been up for quite a few cycles,” Baika said while suppressing a yawn of her own.

“They really are leaving,” Itan said, nodding in the direction of one of the holographic screens above the plaza’s center.

It showed the Fharii’s ships entering the reactivated portal one by one until all had disappeared. Right after that, the blue coloration at the center of the portal disappeared and the lens-like aperture grew back to almost filling the space within the ring.

“Did they just restore the portal to its original function?” Jacky asked.

Her question was answered positive when, after about a millicycle of speculating what could’ve happened at the other side, the first of the ships that passed through reappeared through the gateway. Among them, the Un’thara, the first Imperial Guard ship to cross the boundary between galaxies. Unscathed like the others, it appeared like they hadn’t received a visit from the Fharii, or at least hadn’t dealt with the same kind of misunderstanding.

“Uiisa,” Itan said, rubbing his belly after his stomach emitted an audible growl. “I think I’m gonna go grab a bite. You girls wanna join me?”

“But we just ate, or… how long was that ago?” Baika asked, flattening an ear.

Jacky shrugged. Itan smirked.

“So? I’m feeling a little hungry.”

“Why is it that men are always hungry? Didn’t I see you munching on something before you joined us?”

This time Itan shrugged, continuing to smirk.

“Fine,” Baika sighed. “I think we’re done here anyway.”

“Two cycles left until we leave,” Jacky said while checking her wristcom. “Should be enough.”

***

Freya, I need to tell you something. Freya, I would like to have a word with you.

Having returned to the Myr’shala after the official first contact with the Fharii, he had been monitoring her location, so as not to have to ask her for a moment alone in anyone else’s company. Jirro knew he wasn’t a man of apologies. He wasn’t very good at it, and rarely had he felt the need to offer them in the first place.

But this time it was different. Despite his quick action on the bridge during a critical moment, and Raeth’s invitation to join the talks, his Ginjha’s order remained in effect. If he wanted to be a part of the Myr’shala’s crew, a part of this family, apologies were needed. He felt this too. He had been unreasonable. Imaala’s letter. The whole matter concerning his father. He had no right to vent his anger like that.

“Then why do I feel so frustrated?” he thought while grinding his teeth, while making his way down to deck four.

His wristcom indicated Freya’s current location to be in the gym, with none other than Le’tan. Figuring this was as close as it was gonna get to catching her alone, without having to invade her quarters, which could have the opposite effect of what he wanted to achieve, he decided to take his chances.

The only thing he wrestled with was how to start the conversation. Pretty sure Le’tan would be kind enough to grant them a moment alone, he now struggled with an opening sentence. The last thing he wanted was to frighten her. Keep a neutral face. Maybe even try to smile. Listening to the rhythmic sound of his heavy footsteps, claws scratching the deck as they tried to find grip, he covered the distance quickly. Maybe too quickly for his own comfort. Did I think this through enough?

Shooting a glance as he walked past the windowed bulkhead, which offered a look inside the spacious gym, he saw Freya occupying a floor mat. Le’tan trained with his fighting staff, called a yuchiik. Taking a deep breath, he watched the automatic doors slide open as he approached them. The composite tiles felt springy under his large feet and the cool dry air inside, tuned to the ideal environment for athletes, would’ve been energizing if he was here to work up a sweat.

“Why am I nervous?” he thought, threading carefully as Le’tan noticed him entering.

Le’tan paused his training when he entered. Freya was in the middle of a yoga session, stretching her arms and legs into various shapes while doing breathing exercises, undisturbed by his entering.

“Hi, Jirro.”

“Hi. I eh…”

When he nodded in Freya’s direction, Le’tan nodded.

“I’ll give you a moment.”

“That’s a nice yuchiik. Your own design?”

It was customary for a practitioner of yuchiika, called a yuchiikana, to design a number of yuchiik for their own use. This was practical for several reasons. Although there were limits to the length and weight of the staff in official competitions, the freedom of creating a personal weapon within these boundaries allowed the yuchiikana to adapt the yuchiik to the length of their arms and legs because of their species’ great physical diversity. This determined the types of moves one was able to make.

Training weapons, like the one Le’tan held in his right hand, were often highly personalized, while competition weapons, which were susceptible to damage, used simpler designs. The main grip, a rubberized section of the wooden staff, was placed in the middle, with two smaller ones placed near the ends. The wooden parts between these grips were often decorated in numerous ways, in Le’tan’s case with engraved texts and markings.

“Yes. Don’t let me keep you. We’ll chat later.”

“That was a pretty strong signal,” he thought, watching Le’tan leave.

Freya hadn’t paused her yoga session. Like Le’tan she was dressed in the standard activewear composed of a black tank top with Imperial Guard seal on her chest and matching shorts. Currently in the middle of a pose, taking calm breaths with her eyes closed, she didn’t seem to notice him until he was about four steps away from the edge of her mat. This startled her somewhat, at least enough to break off her session and take on a kneeling position.

“Freya? Can I… have a word with you?”

Her ears made a jumping motion and her tail swept the mat with quick movements a few times before she put it to rest.

“Y-Yeah, sure.”

Okay. Not a great start, but not a bad one either.

“I eh… I’m not very good at this but… ehm. About what happened earlier in the mess hall. What I’m trying to say is… What I did was wrong. I never should’ve yelled at you like that and I’m sorry I broke your flute.” Her expression had changed from surprise into one of disbelief. He had gotten that reaction to one of his attempted apologies before. He suspected it meant a whole lot to her to hear him say that. In the back of his mind, he knew he was doing the right thing, though it still made him feel rather uncomfortable, especially when she didn’t respond right away. “Can you… forgive me?”

“Salu helped me repair my flute. It still plays as before.” She got up from her kneeling position. Being an Orkeht, she appeared small before him and he instinctively lowered himself on his legs to bring his height down, even though he couldn’t go low enough to match her. A faint smile appeared on her face. “You’re a bully sometimes. But somehow, I know you’ve got two big hearts in there, and they’re in the right place. Am I right about that?”

He had no idea how she did it, but he could swear he felt his cheeks turn red. And there was a pretty good chance that they were.

“I… guess,” he muttered under his breath.

“I forgive you.” He breathed a slight sigh of relief. “But never, ever treat me or anyone else aboard this ship like that again.” She didn’t even have to point a finger, scolding him like that. Their difference in rank didn’t matter right now. For a moment she didn’t care that he was her superior and he didn’t either. “Promise me!”

“I… I promise.” She smiled again, a little wider this time. “I would also like to explain to you why I got so angry.”

“First things first. You need a hug. Prepare yourself.”

“I eh…”

Before he knew it, she had thrown herself against his belly. Even in his crouching stance, she couldn’t reach past the lower half of his chest. As he rested his enormous hand on her back, she purred in response.

“You see? You need to loosen up.” After releasing him she took a step back, as if to study the result of her act. Not wanting to admit to her that it felt strangely comforting, in order not to encourage her to do it again, he answered with a chuckle. “Now tell me. Everyone knows something’s bothering you. But you never talk.”

“Please don’t tell anyone else,” he began. Throwing a look over his shoulder to see if Le’tan had slipped back in, he didn’t see him anywhere. He then looked back at Freya and he seemed to have her full attention. “It’s about my kharii. He has tried to contact me. My mate sent me a message that he came to our house. And that is a strange thing because… because he…”

“It’s all right. Go on.”

He sighed.

“My hahme died while giving birth to me. My kharii has always blamed me for that. It’s because of him that I grew up an orphan.”

The gasp and look of shock on Freya’s face were only natural. She was a sensitive girl. She sympathized with the people she cared about. And right now, she cared about him.

“Maybe… maybe he wants to apologize to you. Like how you wanted to apologize to me.”

“Perhaps. I’m not sure. I still need to find out.”

“Does Raeth know?”

“No, not yet. I haven’t told anyone else.”

“I’m sure he’ll understand.” Humming in response, not really having an idea how to handle the situation, her advice didn’t sound so bad. He had already taken the step to tell Freya, and it was more than obvious that Raeth was burning with desire to find out about at least one of the reasons for his outbursts. “You know what? You should try out this yoga stuff with me. Doesn’t matter that we’re not human. It’s really relaxing.”

For the first time since the beginning of their talk he laughed. He knew she wasn’t joking. It was provoked by the mental image of himself performing the same kind of moves he had seen her make.

“Maybe some other time.”

Freya shrugged.

“Your loss.”

***

“Wey, they’re taking shots at me! I’ve taken cover, but I can’t move.”

Pressing himself against the breached hull on the inside of a destroyed ship, Thylun watched the bright-colored shots zing past him and hit the inner bulkhead. Trezka, Masai and Nami were ferocious. The zero-G arena had turned two groups of friends against each other, only this time it was meant to be a game, enjoyed by the spectators as well as the combatants. This held especially true for Trezka and Weyan. Their rivalry had turned them into mortal enemies, letting nothing and no one stand in the way of beating each other.

The way the game was meant to be played was pretty standard. A team battle, in this case between six groups of three players. The battlefield was a starship graveyard, with the simulated wreckage of several vessels of different sizes. While some of these held steady, others slowly revolved around a central axis, making certain cover spots temporary and allowing for surprise attacks.

Their illuminated battle suits kept track of all direct and indirect hits from the various types of simulated ammunition. A hit not only disabled the target’s weapon for five ticks. It also granted them a five tick immunity cooldown in which subsequent hits did not result in more points. Powerups could be obtained through randomly dropped packages. These contained things like shield boosters and different ammo types, like bouncing bolts, cluster bolts or even high yield explosive bolts. So even though none of these were capable of causing any kind of bodily harm, their suits did simulate impacts by applying localized pressure when hit.

Thylun had already experienced this firsthand, having taken a few hits in various places. The girls were good. Very good. He had to admit that his team, composed of Weyan, Azdar and himself, was the only one capable of counterbalancing them as they had left the other teams behind in terms of score. Being two points short, and with less than two millicycles left on the battle clock, they had to act, without getting hit, to have any chance at beating them.

“Wey!”

“I hear you! I hear you! I can’t reach your location. Kind of in the middle of something myself. Can you break out?”

“I’ve got one shield boost,” he said while checking his weapon, which was also his interface with the game. The interface projected on top kept track of stats, inventory and time left and offered players a map, to keep track of player positions. The locations of enemy players were only displayed if they were within twenty steps of distance and someone was coming. He had to act now. Go deeper into the wreckage and risk being boxed in, or take a chance. No way. I’ve got a fifteen tick shield boost. Let’s see if I can make it.

The enemy player was almost upon him, closing the distance to the breach in little time, made possible by propelling oneself through the air. The player dropping in through the gap turned out to be Nami, gun ready and firing as soon as he appeared in her crosshair, only to see her shots being harmlessly absorbed by his activated shield.

“Damn it, Thylun!” she growled in frustration, as he disabled her weapon with a single well-placed shot, then made his escape through the same breach in the hull.

“Sorry ‘bout that!” he said gleefully, making use of the remaining time of his powerup to launch himself toward another piece of wreckage.

As he sailed weightlessly through the air, the immense crowd that seemed to surround him on all sides, praised him for his actions with a round of cheer and applause. They were able to follow the battle in detail with tiny spherical camera drones attempting to capture every highlight wherever the players went, in addition to other cameras built into their suits and weapons.

Firing a couple of shots in mid-air at other players that ducked away in response, his shield took a few more hits, before he reached a crevice between the hulls of two ships that had collided with each other. Admiring the amount of detail put into the simulation for a brief tick, from the dents and charring on the piece of hull he stood on, to the twisted and torn metal around the impact, he had to find cover quickly, for Nami, knowing that he had run out of a shield to protect him, opened fire.

“She’s not happy,” he thought, being slightly amused.

She was out for revenge for sure.

“Thy, you’re close to my position,” Weyan’s voice sounded in his ear through their in-game commlink. “I need your help. Azdar and I are inside. Trezka and Masai are teaming up on us. You might be able to drop in behind them.”

“I’m coming!”

Spotting the breach near the point of impact between the two ships, he checked his surroundings, then used the curved and twisted pieces of simulated metal as cover to make it to his point of entry. The combat suit’s abilities allowed him to walk and even run on every surface, no matter its orientation and the lack of gravity in general allowed for some spectacular moves.

Damn, I’ve been spotted.

A series of shots ricocheted off the destroyed hulls, following his feet as he dashed toward the safety of the ship’s innards. They were fired by three different players and one of them was Nami, closing in on his position.

Almost!

The breach was close. A lucky shot hit his leg, disabling his weapon for five ticks, granting the shooter’s team a point.

Darn it!

Getting hit again didn’t matter now, unless the cooldown ran out.

Four ticks.

Just a few more steps.

Two ticks.

“You’re not getting away!” he heard Nami yell, not looking back to see how close she was.

Safe!

His cooldown had run out, making him vulnerable to losing points to another team. He heard the heavier whine of a large caliber bolt being fired. If this was Nami, she wanted to ensure a hit.

At this range? Talk about overkill.

As he slipped through the hole, using another piece of metal under the right angle to launch himself, he dropped down quite a few steps, as the crashed ship had pierced through a number of decks. Tumbling down, the flash of the explosion lit the damaged innards around him.

The simulation was very detailed. More twisted deck plating and bulkheads. Broken conduits and sparking wires. The occasional flickering of control panels. He passed three decks until his body bounced off a solid surface, which felt much too soft to be real, but the goal of the game was having fun. Due to the way the holographics were tuned, it was almost impossible for anyone to get hurt.

It also turned out he had made it to the right level by accident. Using his suit’s abilities to get back on his feet, orienting himself in such a way that he walked on what should be the floor, he heard the noise and saw the flashes of gunfire around the corner of the corridor ahead. Moving forward through a shower of sparks, he checked his rifle’s display, noticing he had a large number of bouncing shots left.

“Thy! Are you there? Can you see them?”

The map on his rifle’s display showed a number of location indicators. Those of Weyan and Azdar and, because they were within the twenty tick circle, Trezka’s and Masai’s. And they knew he was there.

What the--

Pressing himself against the bulkhead as the shots bounced off every surface, narrowly missing him, he switched to the same type of ammo, guessed the angle based on the location of the targets and fired away.

The air was filled with a storm of bolts flying in both directions. Keeping the trigger pressed, he let loose a continuous stream, watching the counter of this special type of ammo rapidly approach zero. He had been collecting powerups from the start and because of their trickiness they were not as rare as some of the other ammo types, with the forgiving amount of ten shots per powerup.

There was yelling around the corner and because he didn’t see an increase in his team’s points, he continued firing until he ran out of shots and his gun switched back to regular ammo. Pushing forward, and with only ticks left on the battle clock, he dashed around the corner to the left, finding a small cargo bay in which the four players of the Myr’shala had been engaged in what looked like a personal fight.

“You lose!” Masai yelled, popping up on her belly on top of a container which she had been using as cover against his bouncing barrage.

“I don’t think so!” Weyan interrupted.

One by one and shortly after another, his fellow crewmates popped up from behind their cover, threatening each other by pointing guns. Switching from Masai to Trezka and back, Thylun realized they had reached a standoff situation, especially after he heard Nami’s voice behind him, and heard the whine of her gun as she charged up a shot.

“You’re mine now!”

Until his gun powered down and so did those of the others. Looking at his rifle’s interface, the battle clock had reached zero. The fight was over. He could hear the cheer of the crowd outside the ship. The thing was, they were still one point behind the undisputed winners. And judging by the look on Trezka’s face, she knew this too.

“Told ya I’d kick y’r butt,” she panted.

It was the toothy grin she shot Weyan that did it. Knowing he had been beaten fair and square, his friend let out a frustrated growl.

“So close!”

“You win,” Thylun admitted his defeat. “It was a good game.”

“We’ll talk later,” Trezka decided. “We gotta get back to the ship or they’ll leave without us. But it was a good game indeed.”

“Revenge?” Azdar asked.

Trezka laughed.

“I’ll take you guys anytime.”

***

Epilogue

With the Myr’shala on its way to their next destination, Raeth still had one thing left to do before closing the Ophelion chapter in the ship’s log. He had left her in the care of Jetreycka during his absence, but he hadn’t yet decided what to do with Seylah, the girl they had rescued from the clutches of the Hazarr Syndicate, although technically she had been a member as much as a victim.

Her own story, although hard to verify, mattered though and there was the concept of second chances. Jetreycka had put her trust in the girl, so he was willing to grant Seylah’s request, provided she was able to back it up.

His order to have her go through a full medical checkup came through and as the sickbay doors moved aside for him, he found her sitting on the edge of one of the beds with a white cotton-like sheet wrapped loosely around her waist so it covered the space between her legs. His sudden appearance startled her a bit, judging by her tail and ears making an upward motion. As Salu studied the results of different tests on the monitors, Moa put away the last of the equipment they had used to examine her inside and out.

“Moiseh. Raeth, House of Meztar. Welcome aboard.”

“I’m Seylah. Hyami… for helping me out.”

He estimated Seylah’s age somewhere in the beginning of her twenties. Her face was still like that of a girl and her voice lacked that adult deepness. If there were any fresh injuries, they had been healed without a trace and apart from some minor scarring on her shoulder, she appeared healthy, at least from the outside.

“Well, you’ll be happy to know that you’re in good health,” Salu concluded. “You’ve got a bit of a sweet tooth, don’t you? Blood glucose levels are a little elevated, and you’ve got a cavity in one of your molars, but I can fix that in no time.”

“Hyami, Salu.”

“Seylah, can I have a word with you?” She nodded, rubbing her hands in a nervous gesture. She seemed a little tense, though he would be too in her position. Uncertainty had played a major role in her life, that was for sure. “Jetreycka seems to put a lot of trust in you. She told me you had nowhere to go, so I’m going to be frank. I’m considering making you a member of my crew. You will hold no rank, so every officer aboard this ship will be your superior. Other than that you will be just as much a member of this crew as anyone else. Do you accept these terms?”

“Yes, I do.”

Her answer came quicker than he expected. At least she seemed eager to shed her immediate past and start anew.

“Good. Then there’s one more thing I’d like to know before I give you your uniform. What makes you tick? What're you good at? And don’t answer with thievery and kidnapping, because I won’t have that on this ship. This is our home between the stars. Treat it with respect if you wanna be a part of the family.”

“I… I’m good with tech. Computers. Engineering. I even helped to improve the blink pack technology. The device they used to…”

“Hmm, so you are good at kidnapping. But we can always use a techy. Get some rest first. You’ll report to Majih in main engineering two shifts from now.”

“I won’t disappoint you. Hyami… for having me.”

Raeth nodded, humming in approval.

“Then the only thing left for me to say is, welcome to the family.”

***

Raeth and the crew of the Myr’shala will be back for episode 4:

“Homestead”