Attempt 1 Updated 4-24-9
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"Kayla, how is this different from any other distress call we've received in the last three months?"
Kayla sighed and shrugged. She was standing with her arms at her sides in front of Captain Johansen's desk, stuck in her anteroom just outside the bridge...elaborating. "Captain, I don't know what additional information I can provide you, but Baramasta isn't even listed as a previous threat. Avenger could confidently overtake any resistance we encounter. But this man...this Wiegrif...something about him sticks out from all the other calls of distress. We need to investigate this. Please do not ask me to try to explain."
The captain looked up at her skeptically. She stood, sighing, and shrugged. "Very well. I guess we can drop in and clean up one more mess before we leave Isair to return to SPC. Gather an assault force and have them ready to disembark when we reach Baramasta."
Kayla nodded. "Yes, ma'am." The doors parted as she left and closed silently behind her. She made her way back to the bridge and sat in her chair, looking over to her left. "The captain cleared the Baramasta operation."
Lieutenant Ariadne looked back at her, and wrinkled her forehead. "She did?" She paused a moment...pondering Kayla's words, then shrugged dismissively "OK..." She turned to face her control console, setting the course. Kayla looked forward as she watched the viridian and azure hues start to sparkle and then grow more abundantly until they seemed to envelope the ship.
"ETA...three hours, Kayla." She looked up at her from the desk. "Make sure you bring the new photon cannons. 'Little to no resistance' can often mean 'a resistance.'"
Kayla rolled her eyes, but did not respond. She simply stood and left the bridge, heading down to the armory. What seemed like only moments ago, Kayla had been relaxing reclined in her chair in the large, but momentarily private, conference room aboard Avenger. The transmission had been one of the few that they had received since initiating their patrol of the system. It had come from someone claiming to be a resistance fighter. She'd watched the transmission twice but still couldn't decide what about the message felt so...peculiar. Ulration Defense vessels across the galaxy had been receiving calls for help a lot lately. The Admiral Council had decided they would attempt to address every call for help that came in, with all the ability they had. They had concluded the best way to carry out this approach was to assign at least one ship or vessel to every system within Alliance control. Avenger had been assigned to the Isair System where the Baramastic home was situated. They had yet to find anything that made the crew feel like they weren't wasting time. Captain Johansen had been eager to depart, especially when the first call that came in had asked for them to supply weapons for a planetary civil war in which both sides had no rational argument whatsoever save that either side felt their opponent simply did not deserve to live.
Kayla now found herself approach jubilation with the prospect of a real errand, one that might actually challenge them.

Three and a half hours later, or what seemed to Kayla like twenty minutes, they reached Baramasta's surface. It was after dark, and because Baramasta had no moons or satellites, she had only the night sky to light her surface. Kayla and her squad disembarked, geared up from head to toe, and turned to watch their dropship arc back towards space. Her voice was quiet and stern as she spoke. "Our contact is scheduled to meet us here in about-" she looked down to check her chronometer, "-ten minutes. Be ready to go by the time he gets here and set your weapons for stun. We're not looking for kills, this is a nonlethal mission, got it?" Her men nodded in unison. Kayla pointed her beacon across the valley to the opposite ridge. It blinked several times before going out. She saw a red light on the ridge respond in rapid succession. Ten minutes later, a man, painted with camouflage and covered in black approached her. His voice was equally calm and quieted. "Verify security sequence Echo Charlie Foxtrot."
"Verification sequence Umbrella Delta Indigo. Commander Kayla Wymond at your service, sir."
The man nodded. "Militiaman Wiegrif, it is a pleasure to make your acquaintance. Let me familiarize you on the situation in Heathenstorm Valley. About a year ago, the Kichess virus was deployed. If you are familiar with Kichess, you'll know that it works by inhibiting a person's ability to breathe until their lungs begin hemorrhaging, and...they die."
Kayla was finding that her previous feelings of overwhelming happiness...were now dwindling. "And, obviously you have found a cure for this...for Kichess, yes?"

He seemed to waiver and fidget a little at this. "Well, we have developed treatment for the disease, and tests show that we are close to conquering-"
Kayla's voice became cold and annoyed. "That would be a 'no' then. Very well, Militiaman, what can Avenger do for you then?"
"Well, there are those of us who are immune to Kichess who would...like to leave Baramasta, but when the virus attacked, it only took days for our government to collapse. But in despite the dwindling population, food and water are becoming harder and harder to secure. We were hoping that Avenger could lend us a hand. Once our tests show that the disease can be eradicated, we would like her help deploying the cure."
"You'll forgive me for being short on patience, but you had plenty of notice to warn me and my men of this disease spreading uncontrollably on your planet. Now you have endangered the lives of me and my men. I sympathize with your current situation, but if I must choose between the lives of your planet and the lives of my men, then I don't have to think very long." She turned to one of her men and twirled her index finger in the air. "Recall the dropship, Sergeant. We're gonna need evac. And be sure to notify them of the potential possibility of infection." She then turned back to the militiaman. "This is no longer in my hands. My captain is going to have to decide whether or not we can devote the resources to stay here and help you with this, especially considering the recklessness of what you have done tonight."



Tiber Durrin sat in his chair, anxiously waiting for the communique to arrive. Atalanta drifted in space, completely shut down, with the exception of her auxiliary and backup systems. The monitor didn't make a noise, the underscore cursor just blinking on his screen. Then the words seem to expand from cursor as it scrolled to the right, leaving characters in its wake. "Captain, there is a message incoming on the heads up display."
Captain. Ophelia, Atalanta's ship computer, seemed to be the only one who addressed him as "Captain."
"Display it."
The message was in Standard:
Message Incoming...
-Lieutenant Jon Wymond officially declared missing. Whereabouts and final mission data unavailable.
-Alliance vessel Elucidation flagged at red level.
-Any and all persons with sensor contacts or visuals urged to report findings and coordinates to Sky Point 1.
Message ends.

Tiber sat up in his seat, alerted. He brought Atalanta's systems back online and set his course. Her weapons came online and he started the checklist, activating navigational control and deep space telemetry. His cruiser analogue stopped drifting, accelerated forward before arching slightly and dropped into antispace.






Kayla and Jon walked out of the tavern. It was nice to be back, and not out in the field. Jon slipped his arm around her as they walked around the corner, still looking at each other. He released his arm from her back and turned to face her. She stood up straight and put her hand on his side as he leaned in to kiss her. They closed their eyes in the moment, but nothing happened. Kayla opened her eyes as she felt him pull away from her. His mouth was gaping as he stepped back, a wound to his abdomen bleeding on his shirt.
Kayla started to feel sick. There was a hole in his abdomen where he'd been shot, the wound track having been blown wide enough for Kayla to have been almost able fit all four fingers inside of it. She had blood on her clothes. He fell away from her and she hurried to catch him, but there was no color in his face, the veins showing through his skin as his complexion drew faint of life.
Kayla was in shock and crying now, tears rolling down her cheeks as she looked around frantically for help. She clenched her fists and said, "No! No, no, no, no, No! I'm here, Jon. Just stay here, stay here with me. It'll be alright." She saw relaxation filling his expression and almost happiness.

She gave in and rested her head on his chest, crying. He then pushed her head away, holding it back and looking at her. She watched as the color of his eyes changed, the whites of them glowing red. His pupils seemed to expand as they changed to black, his voice dark and evil as he spoke, "He is here."

She sat up in her bed suddenly, sweating, her heart feeling like it was going to leave her chest. She sat up and tried to catch her breath, feeling tears streaming down her face and realized how terrified she still felt. She looked over as the recording system awoke from standby, the screen's arm extending out of the head board from the right side, folding out at a 90 degree angle to face her as she turned and swung her legs off the bed. From the second time she had the dream, the automated system remained active while she slept.
The system displayed the recording as it rewound back through the dream to the beginning. She saw the entire dream she had just had on the display, but then the indicator flashed as the display changed.

Recording incomplete. Fragment saved.

The dream never seemed to qualify for "complete" by the system's standards, which worried her. The "fragment," as the system categorized it, was horrifying and virtually overwhelming enough. The dream never seemed to qualify for "complete" by the system's standards, which worried her. The "fragment," as the system categorized it, was horrifying and virtually overwhelming enough. However, she had yet to see who had shot her husband. She was worried about Jon; she had not heard from him for almost five cycles and all attempts to reach him had been fruitless and dead-ended. The screen changed to display her vital signs again and her heart rate and blood pressure were elevated, as was her breathing. She watched as the vital-sign indicators went away, the unspoken words appearing on the center of the screen.

Would you like a sedative to facilitate the resumption of your sleeping cycle?

Kayla sighed and shook her head. "No, Eva, I'm fine." She rolled away from the screen and shut her eyes, trying to go back to sleep. She heard the system return to standby, the console retreating to its place inside of Kayla's headboard. "I'm sure I'll be ok..."




It was dark. The night had settled in. The wind blew over the flat, desert land, picking up sand from the surface and sending it into the air. The outpost was not on alert, it wasn't even guarded, though it was fortified with a sturdy wall that shot out of the ground nearly thirty feet and encompassed the small garrison. The entrance sat on the west side of the wall, a tall rolling-head door that remained shut. Because most of the transmigratory activity took place from the air, the base only needed a myriad of landing pads that varied in size and shape to accommodate the different ships and landing craft that came and went.
The shadow fiends, cloaked in suits of astris armor, were not immobilized or even encumbered by the blowing dust, thick as it was. It did not affect their indetectability or the speed by which they moved.
The reptilian creatures had always been effective at infiltrating Ulration defenses because the defenses were rarely tight enough to thwart astris-cloaked infiltration, or Atedan mercenaries. Their long limbs swung out in big circles, as they crawled over the terrain, making their way up to the base. They crouched outside the wall, looking up over its surface. Their speech was hoarse and throaty, their words soft. "No activity, Lieutenant. Shall we proceed with the mission?"
"Yes. Keep your Heads-Up Displays on 360 viewing. We don't need any initiates sneaking up on us. We only need the girl. We have been given permission to eliminate personnel and other obstacles that may interfere with our mission. Proceed." They made their way up the side of the wall, climbing up near the closest look-out tower, where they knew she would be.

Dawn sat in her seat. She hated being stuck in the transmission tower. She rolled her eyes and sighed, putting her headset on and listening to various communication frequencies. She became lost in thought and in the small amount of chatter over the channels. She didn't even realize they were under attack until the glass came flying, shards of transparinite shooting in every direction. She screamed as the headset fell off. The other soldiers in the tower rushed to her aid, but they were faster. The brood of Atedan commandos poured in through the window like blood from an open wound. Dawn got to her feet and ran towards one of them, managing to lift him off his feet with her tiny, fragile arms. The commandos hissed at her as their comrade went flying through the window.
"She is a Gifted!"
"Stun her!"
"Capture Dawn Usid!"
"Call the transport!"
The wave of energy that rattled from Atedan weapon threw Dawn off her feet. The lead Atedan moved in and attacked her, launching her into a control console hard enough to render her unconscious. He moved to her, lifting her limp, unresponsive form into his arms. He looked around at the others, not speaking his commands. Red lights had come on in the tower and started flashing. The commandos blasted the elevator doors, helping them collapse into the shaft. The Atedan ship's engines rumbled as it hovered outside the tower near the opening they'd entered through. The deck gun turned slowly before blasting open a hole in the wall large enough for the brood to easily escape with their cargo. The ship's doors slid open, and four armed soldiers stood on the boarding ramp to cover them. The boarding ramp moved closer to the tower, allowing the brood to board their ship before the its appearance shimmered and vanished. The lieutenant looked down at his prey and then looked up towards the cockpit and bellowed. "Inform Master Clactis that we have his prey and that we will be arriving within the next 17 hours."






-Message for battle cruiser, designation Atalanta-
-Contact with station Zeta-X 110 lost.
-Secondary Initiative requesting assistance from former Captain Tiber Durrin.
-Bounty to be determined after contact with SI has been established.
-Frequency 1101010
-Message Ends-

Tiber read the message over several times and let out a long breath. Secondary Initiative was like the uncle of UDI...that was in prison and no one talked about at family gatherings. It was Ulratia's secret way of handling problems that could not otherwise be handled by the Admiral Council. He had done a job or two for them, but he greatly disliked how they continued to refer to him as "Former Captain." It was like rubbing salt in an open wound. Communications with SI were never done verbally. It was far easier to encrypt communications that were sent via text.
He tuned his transmitter to the frequency they'd specified and sent back his reply:

-Message-
-Mission to investigate station Zeta-X 110's status.
-Fee to be determined after more elaborate details regarding designated mission have been provided or acquired.
-Requesting additional information about specifics.
-Message Transmission Complete-


Now he had to wait. They were usually very good about responding promptly...and paying sufficiently for his needs. He wrinkled his forehead as he tried to recall why the station they were concerned about seemed to mysteriously ring a bell in his mind. "Ophelia, run a database check for Zeta-X 110."
"Searching...
Defense Station Zeta-X, located within Alliance system Buryllia. Station's primary use designated for gas mining. Secondary purposes classified above black-white.
Appended note: Intel indicates that Zeta-X was researching properties of a new species of life and its varying aspects and uses. Specifics of this research, however, are not known."

He narrowed his eyes. "New species?" He grunted, shaking his head. He wished he knew what sort of "species" they were studying. He frowned and exhaled.
"SI response coming up on display, Captain."
-Message Incoming-
-Station Zeta-X 110 orbits the brightest star in the Buryllian system
-Intel Satellites report station is adrift and falling out of pre-designated orbit.
-Approach station and attempt to re-establish contact.
-Primary Mission Objective: Investigate Station Zeta-X 110
-Secondary Objectives as follows: Should station be accessible, but appear adrift or abandoned, if possible, dock and board. Retrieve as much research data as possible and locate any and all potential survivors. Zeta-X crew numbered over a hundred. Should survivor load exceed maximum vessel capacity, contact SI for reinforcements and additional assistance.
-Private Bounty
-Additional Intel transmitting: station coordinates and schematics
-Mission Classified above Black-White.
-Message Ends-

Tiber pursed his lips. He pulled up the coordinates from navigation and plotted what appeared to be the most efficient course. He let the ship's autopilot take him into the antispace window. He decided to go into the back and gear up, but the message left him feeling a little concerned. SI had indicated that there were over a hundred people, but his ship only allowed room for about fifteen. He decided to get out the big guns for this mission and dug out his extreme hazard suit. He loved the new gadget because along with 360 degree viewing on the Heads Up Display, it had its own air supply and an advanced sensor array built into it. The fact that it could easily take as much of a beating as his ship also left him feeling more and more reassured every time he put it on.
He strapped on each piece and slid the helmet on over his head, rotating it into a locked position. Thankfully, the suit allowed for a fantastic degree of movement. He could have piloted the ship in the thing if he ever really wanted to. He checked the power cells to make sure they were fully charged, then began with the weapons. He had no idea what kind of "life" he was going to encounter on Zeta-X, and the fact that SI hadn't even mentioned it made him all the more wary. He clipped on four different ignition pistols, one to each slot, then clipped a few detonators to the utility belt. Finally, he pulled the strap of the ignition rifle over his head and hung it off his shoulder.
"Would you like me to accompany you, sir?"
He crumpled his forehead and thought about it a long moment. "Yes. I'll connect the suit to the upload port in a moment."
The ship dropped out of antispace and the vision of Zeta-X drifted before him. It was quite large. He was a little worried that he wouldn't be able to search the entire vessel. Atalanta's sensors estimated it was nearly two hundred feet tall and three hundred feet at its widest point. He guided the ship in closer and switched his transmitter to broadcast at short range on every available frequency.
"UDI Station, designation Zeta-X 110, please respond with approach vector."
Static.
"Station Zeta-X, this is private vessel Atalanta requesting permission to approach and dock. Please respond."
Static.
Her voice now sounded from within his helmet. "They appear to be ignoring your hails, Captain."
He sighed and decided to try one last time as he made his approach, ignoring her remark. "Station Zeta-X, this is Captain Durrin of the private vessel Atalanta. All efforts to receive a response have gone unanswered. Making final approach now. I am coming aboard."
As the ship moved closer to the drifting station, its docking tube extended out. He made his way over to the exit, shutting down his ship and leaving only the vitals systems active. He held the rifle in his hand as the door into the station opened, then switched on the lights mounted to the sides of his head. The station was dark and felt really creepy. The map of the station, which had been transmitted with the message, hung on the edge of his peripheral vision. He knew he was going the right way. The corridor was wide and short, the roof hanging no more than half a meter over his head. He felt his insides lurch when he heard what sounded like...
He turned around and saw a dark silhouette charging at him on all four legs. It had a curved back, red skin, and was moving incredibly fast. Tiber raised his weapon at it. "Stop right there!"
This did not persuade it. The creature bellowed at him and roared. It was gasping and breathing like dog, apparently very eager for a fresh meal. He raised his gun and fired, the long blast of energy emitting from the barrel, expanding as it hit the air and struck the creature, eviscerating it and littering the nearby wall and floor with blood and entrails. Tiber sighed and turned back towards where the lab was indicated on the map. He didn't bother investigating, feeling confident the blast had obliterated the creature beyond recognition. He waved a hand over the sensor of a door and it screeched and crunched as it slowly retracted out of the way. Immediately, he heard the same noises, but much closer this time. One of the creatures leapt out from behind the broken door, apparently having been held captive by it. The creature launched into Tiber's chest, its weight enough to force him off his feet. As he felt his back moving towards the ground, he managed to react fast enough to use the force of the creature's attack, rolling and throwing the beast over his head and down the corridor. As he continued to roll, he handsprung back onto his feet, whirling around, pointing his rifle at the creature, and fired. It had tried to claw through the armor and left the smallest scratch on his face plate. He saw two more come running at him, and opened fire again, blasting their entrails over the floor. He grunted, realizing he was leaving quite the blood trail. He went into the room the creatures had surprised him from, trying to find a way into the lab, but heard a scream.
"No! Stay back! Don't come any closer or you'll alert..."
He looked around, trying to find the source of the voice. "Above you, Captain! The monitor." Ophelia took control of his viewer, panning the view towards the upper side of the wall. The light from the screen was what had caught her attention, the monitor's mounting falling apart, barely holding it off the floor. It was a frantic looking woman with fear in her eyes. He had never before seen such fear. Then he heard the bleating of more animals. He looked back out the door towards the corridor where the noises were coming from before he turned back to the monitor and grunted. "Ophelia, give me back control of my suit, will you? You're a guest, not a copilot!"
His view adjusted back to where he was facing rather than what Ophelia was trying to show him. He stared at the woman on the screen. "Who are you? Where are the other scientists?"
She was already in tears as she yelled back at him. "There are no other scientists! I told them we should leave the [name] alone, but they wouldn't listen. They were more concerned with their research on evolving Ulration soldiers for the battle to come!"
Nothing she said was making any sense. "Captain, what is she talking about?"
He scoffed. "Ophelia," he chastised, "how should I have any better idea than you? You're the intelligence. Now be quiet."
"What is your name then, survivor?"
"My name?" She seemed ultimately confused by a question Tiber thought was rather simple. Had this poor woman been stranded out here so long that she had forgotten her own name?
"I...my name is Aleena."
He nodded, trying to calm her enough that she could coherently communicate with him. "Okay, Aleena. Where are you then?"
She shook her head. "No! I'm not going to tell me where you are!" She paused, realizing the error in her backwards wording. "I mean...I'm not..." She stopped as frustration seemed to overwhelm her. "How do I know I can trust you? You're with them, aren't you? With Secondary Initiative? How do I know you're not just part of some kind of clean up crew?"
He shook his head. "No, no, Aleena. I'm Captain Tiber Durrin. I was conscripted by SI and sent here to salvage Zeta-X." It was kind of a lie, but telling frightened, sole-survivors of an alien massacre that you were a mercenary hadn't tended to earn him a great deal of trust. She went on.
"There isn't a Zeta-X to salvage. Everything, the research, the data, and her crew...all destroyed, much of it at my own hand!"
He sighed. "Then you won't mind if I go in here?" He tipped the barrel of his rifle towards the door in front of him. The door, according to his map, lead into the main research lab.
She froze a moment and seemed to weigh something in her mind, some clandestine knowledge she obviously wasn't open to sharing with the rest of the class. She opened her mouth to speak and then pursed her lips, some false sense of happiness or approval filling her expression. "No, go right ahead, Captain. You obviously know what you are doing and what you're dealing with."
"She's not very forthcoming, is she, Captain?" Tiber rolled his eyes, continually grateful that this poor woman was not able to hear the many remarks about her, tactless as much of them were, that Ophelia seemed prone to make. "No, Ophelia, I guess she isn't, is she? And not very helpful either."
He looked to the monitor. "I'm gonna go in here and look around and see if I can find anything of consequence. Should you decide you don't want to be stranded out here alone and you would like me to come and find you and rescue you, just let me know, alright?"
She hesitated again. "If you go into that room, you probably won't be able to come and do anything for me, Captain."
He sighed and moved closer. The sensor on this door didn't seem to work at all. He decided to make quick work of it instead of trying to pry it open, blasting the door over and over again until the hole was big enough for him to step through.
He looked around the room. "Ophelia, can you check the schematics of the suit and see if there is anyway to produce additional illumination?"
Without responding verbally, she started activating little lights in the suit's armor from head to toe until his suit was glowing enough to extend the visibility more than one or two meters. He went to one of the computers and tried to boot it up. It seemed intact. Now he was confused. He took the slicer out of a slot in his thigh and slid it inside of one of the I/O slots, downloading as much information as he could. He heard a low growling noise. This sound was unique. He turned around to find...nothing. Whatever the source of the noise was, it was in the dark, outside of the area lit by his suit.
"Captain, it might facilitate the search if you were to switch your optical input to allow you to simply see through the dark as opposed to walking around blaring your headlights. It is likely to increase visibility-"
"Ophelia, that is a great idea. Why don't you temporarily access my suit's settings to make the change and then immediately return control to me?"
He shook his head. Sometimes he hated her and sometimes he was grateful to have her along. While he found her tendency to offer her "support" irritating at times, he didn't completely discourage her...because unfortunately, she tended to be right. This...was another one of those times. As he watched the light around him dim and watched as his visibility reduce to zero, a very bad feeling came over him. As his night vision illuminated, its green hue cast over everything, he felt his insides lurch. His visibility returned to him just in time to see a tall, bulky creature jump down in front of him. It lashed out, its hands pushing and lifting him with enough force to launch him off the floor. He felt his feet leave the ground as his body soared up through the air before the back of his legs hit a table and flipped him backwards, his head slamming against the opposite side of the table before he crumpled to the floor on the other side. He groaned, more in frustration than in pain. He secretly thanked the maker of the suit for creating it with so much protection. He rolled and tried to get to his feet, but the creature was faster. As he moved, he felt himself being picked up and thrown like a rag doll. This time, he was not fortunate enough to roll over a table, instead, he felt his sides slam into a refrigerator. Its floor mounting creaked, but the large, metal device did not give way. His body left a very large dent in the machine.
He'd lost his rifle in the first throw...and then he realized that the creature had found it. He paled inside of his helmet as he watched the creature holding the rifle, correctly, pointing it at him.
"Captain? Captain?!"
Suddenly, he was moving. He groaned. His suit was moving. It rolled out of the way as the blast of energy plowed into the floor, burning a long blast out of the metal. Flames smoldered from the heat as the metal cooled. He felt his hand move to his thigh and pick out a pistol.
"Ok! OK! I'm alive, now let me shoot, you stupid computer!"
She relinquished control, but not before replying back to him. "Captain, I might remind you that your computer just saved your life, and my own, I might add."
She hated being called "computer." "Now is not the time for you to get your feelings hurt, Ophelia."
He jumped out of the way as another blast missed him. He fired over and over, but the creature didn't seem to be phased by the many blasts of energy that were burning small holes into its flesh. "Ok, Ophelia, now would be the perfect time to offer a solution. I'm not interested in preserving this predator's life."
"The probability of you single-handedly defeating this creature is highly unlikely, Captain."
"What?! That's your solution?!" He scoffed. "Thank you for the vote of confidence."
"However, it is more likely, given my ability to react faster than even you and communicate directly with the suit, that I might be able to eliminate this creature before it kills us."
He paused a moment. He rolled his eyes and snapped back. "Fine! Take the xfing suit! I'll just sit here and watch!"
He felt himself roll away as another blast came towards him. He was on his feet, running towards the creature. He felt himself leaping through the air and tackling his foe. His fingers curled into a fist before his suit crunched into the face of the creature. He heard its bone break and watched as the blow turned its head and snap its neck. It exhaled with a snarling noise before it fell limp. His gun clipped back into his suit and the rifle was back in his hands. He watched himself step back and blast the creature with the firearm. The creature exploded...everywhere. He groaned inside of his helmet. "OK! Enough! Give me back control now."
He felt the tension against his muscles relax. He looked around and made a face. "Was that completely necessary? It's everywhere."
"You are alive. The unknown creature is not. You gave no other specifics, Captain, other than petitioning for me to give you a solution."
"Right, next time be specific, and it might be more prudent to ask you not to blow mutant entrails over every exposed surface and my brand new combat suit. How am I supposed to identify these creatures if they all keep getting blown away?"
"Captain, you did not voice an intention, or desire, for me to be conservative about the amount of violence I used, nor did you voice any restrictions about my methods. Our existences are more important than the possibility of obtaining additional information. Every simulation that I can run that shows you not surviving greatly decreases the likelihood that you will then be able to accomplish any mission objectives."
He rolled his eyes. "Now you're just being a smart ass."
"Actually, Captain, my data shows that I am in fact a great deal more intelligent than you, but that I do not in fact-"
"Yeah, I know!" His tone became more mocking as he finished, "'I don't have an ass.' Yes, I know...I know. Now please, shut up."
He sighed and looked at the computer, focusing now on the task at hand. It was scrolling through photos and files as the slicer harvested information as fast as the system would allow it. He heard pistol shots firing not too far away. He looked up, but he couldn't see far enough to pinpoint the source of the blast. He decided to leave the computer and ran forward. He came up to the end of the lab and spotted a doorway to his left. This one was open. As he walked through, he saw the expanse of a corridor and a light at the end. He could see a shadow of a person holding out a gun. He ran down to the end of the hall into the room and saw the woman, Aleena, pointing a pistol at a small brood of creatures. Their size...was almost adorable.
"Get back!"
"Get back? Why, they're the size of my fist, what could they possibly-"
But as if to answer his own question, one of the small creatures seemed to explode. It transformed out of what he assumed was a contented state, and lashed out, claws the size of his hand reaching out, its teeth beared as it tried to sink its fangs and claws into him. All it managed to do was making a terrible noise as it tried to scratch away at the plating. He tried to back away, more out of reflex than fear, and then stood there nonchalantly as the creature attempted, futilely, to shred through the armor. He turned his gaze over to Aleena as more of the creatures joined in. "Oh...I see."
She rolled her eyes at him, backing away. He kicked one of the creatures off the floor and shot it, and then repeated the process two more times until the rest of the creatures decided to run away. He grunted a little, looking around to see the spilled blood of his prey all over the wall and the front of his suit. "Great...just what I wanted today."
He turned to face and found...she was pointing her gun at him. He raised his rifle between them. "I think it would be extremely counter-productive for you to do that. Why don't you lower your weapon and then come with me. Unless you would prefer to stay here with all of the new friends you've made."
"Or I could just kill you and get away with your suit and a new ship." She leapt off her feet, knocking his back to the floor with a hard kick. She was standing on his chest now. She crinkled her nose at him and scoffed. "Ugh, I guess that isn't an option."
He swept his hands at her ankles but she simply hopped over them and landed on his suit again. He groaned and just moved to stand. He pushed her off her feet and sent her into the nearest wall. She shrieked as she felt herself thrown off her feet before she crumpled to the ground.
"I'd really prefer you not do that anymore." His tone was nonchalant and he made a show of dusting off his chest. She glared back at him and got to her feet. She jumped out of the door way and it closed behind her. He went to try to open it, but it was jammed. He groaned loudly to himself. "Seriously?! I go through all this trouble and save your life, and now your are going to lock me in here?!" He slammed his fists on the door.
"Captain! Behind you!"
He heard her voice in his head, but he didn't even turn around fast enough. As his gaze shifted 180 degrees, he saw the rest of the room he'd dashed into. It actually wasn't very small. Now that his suit had reactivated his night vision, he could see the cages. Each one had a bloodied animal or a mutilated corpse, except for one. As the creature leapt at him, he felt the pressure around the neck of his armor increase. His eyes went wide. As he felt the pain, the pain of the creature's incisors penetrating his skin, he screamed. He felt something...something oozing into his neck and then felt the pain as the substance seemed to lurch through his body. He managed, now, to reach the creature, his fist coming down on the skull and flattening the head. The creature fell limp, but as he clutched his neck, he knew it was already too late. He was positive that whatever it was that had infected this base, had now infected him. As he felt his head sway and watched his body fall to the ground. He managed to give Ophelia one last command. "Activate...internal self-destruct system...silent countdown...ten..." But he didn't finish his sentence. All turned to black as he fell limp and unconscious on the floor.
It was Ophelia's voice that spoke now. "Emergency protocols active. Combat suit initiatives and controls transfered to computer control."
The suit, with Tiber's unconscious form, got to its feet. Ophelia turned it and blasted the door. It took a lot more effort to melt away the plating, but after a long moment, she succeeded. She chased after the girl, the one who had tried to trap both of them with the creature. The odds that the woman knew about what had infected Tiber, she'd concluded, were quite high.
As she made her way back into lab with all of the computers, the remains of the predator still drying on the floor, she spotted the woman. She seemed to be trying to remove the data slicer. No warning was given, she simply aimed and fired, again...and again. The woman's reflexing were surprising. She moved with a great deal of speed and agility. One shot hit the suit in the chest. It didn't do a great deal of damage, but as the motor controls in the suit stopped responding and all of the primary systems started to go out, it fell backward onto the floor. The woman approached, looking down at the armor. Her eyes grew wide when she appeared to spot the hole in the neck.
"It bit you! Oh no..." She bit her lip, remorse in her eyes. "The [name], it got you." She bit her lip and tried to see if she could get the helmet off. Ophelia's voice boomed back at her.
"Do NOT attempt to remove Captain Durrin's helmet! Your best decision, at this moment, would be to move away and disappear before I regain control of the armor's primary systems."
"But he is hurt. If I don't get him inoculated or to a safe place, then it is likely that his condition will worsen before it gets better."
"And why is Aleena suddenly so concerned with the captain's health? Moments ago, she was trying to destroy us. Elaborate."
"Well, he's been attacked. It's not like before when he was awake and I thought I was going to die. Now, he is going to die if I don't help him. So it doesn't matter if he was sent here to scrub me, because if I don't treat him, he'll be just another animal that I have to defend myself from.


"The parasite has infected your abdominal cavity. It will continue to grow and leech whatever resources it needs from your body, until in a year or so, your body with begin to die and the creature will hatch and consume your remains for food."
He groaned. He was sitting in the medical bay, inside Atalanta. He'd managed to calm Aleena enough and now that it had become clear that he was not here to "scrub" her, she'd been very helpful in rousing him and examining him. "But, I feel fine! I feel great even." He flexed his arm experimentally. He looked across the room at the table behind Aleena and moved it a little. He hadn't touched it. He hadn't moved. "And I have acquired a new Gift."
But Ophelia persisted. "Captain, don't you understand? This is how the creature prevents its incubator from dislodging it and exterminating it, by convincing the host, via a various array of hormones and mind-altering secretions, that it is better off allowing the creature to consume it."
Aleena shook her head. "No, Ophelia. I've seen plenty of cases of infestation and infection. Tiber's case...it perplexes me. Usually when the host is infected, they are changed for the worst. Instead of being imbued or...Gifted even, they are crippled, bed-ridden sometimes, until their very last days. But Tiber's parasite..."
"And I have never before felt this alive, or this in control, Ophelia." He cut Aleena off, his excitement interjecting. "What is the harm in allowing the creature to grow, to borrow life from me until I can harness whatever effects it is having on me and duplicate them."
"Captain, it is likely that that is what the other scientists thought they could do, before they all hatched. You may be feeling relief now, but in a few cycles or a year or so, you'll begin to die."
"I shall cross that bridge, then, when I get to it, Ophelia. For now...I am going to keep it..."
Aleena nodded in agreement. She'd felt a little bad, at first, when the realization of who Tiber was, what he was, had settled on her. But now, with this discovery, she felt confident she had given him something, given him a chance to tap into an existence he'd never before contemplated. "Even in Gifteds, naturally Gifteds, telekinesis is extremely rare. And who knows what other things might evolve from this symbiosis."
"Very well, Captain. Do what you like, but I stand by my conclusions."



She awoke from her slumber, her heart pounding and her blood feeling cold. It had been another nightmare. She looked around and remembered where she was. She was aboard the soldier's ship. What did he call it again? Atalanta? She liked the name, but she did not enjoy the ship. It was cold. It was lonely. It was not home. But then again, nothing felt like home anymore.
His eyes were closed, his cabin lights dimmed to nothing more than an ambient glow. It was light enough that he could see the room, every contour, every detail, but it was dark enough that when he closed his eyes, it was black. He couldn't sleep. He was worried. He was worried about his passenger, about the survivor. He knew she had been through a lot. His door remained open, in an effort to extend to her his trust, to make her feel as though his ship was open to her, if she needed it to be. At least, everything with the exception of the armory, and his sealed cargo bay. He turned and saw her standing in the door. She was clothed in a mix of white and blue. The top left her midriff open and the pants she wore held to her skin and encompassed her hips and legs, the sleeve ending near the middle of her shins. "What is wrong?"
She shook her head. "I can't sleep. I keep having..." She let her voice trail off. He just looked at her, wishing that he could dull the pain and suffering she must have been feeling, but he knew, she would likely never let him. It was something she would force herself to live with.
"Would it be alright if I just...stayed...in here?"
He opened his mouth to speak, but then decided against it. He nodded, slowly, and started to get out of bed. He didn't have a shirt on. He wore nothing more than a pair of long shorts. She held up her hand in protest. "No, I mean...you...not..." She sighed. "You don't have to get up, unless you want to. I just...I think I would feel better...not being alone. Knowing someone is in the same room, someone safe, might...I might be able to sleep then."
He felt a little awkward. He was open to letting her sleep next to him. He trusted himself enough to know that nothing would happen. The most he might have done is let her hold him, and perhaps allowed himself to reciprocate the gesture. "W-Well, you...can sleep where ever-"
He felt her finger on his lips, a weak smile as she climbed into bed. She looked at him, a grateful, thankfulness in her eyes before she rolled over, pulling his right hand around her body and letting it settle at her midriff. She rested her head on his pillow, and fell asleep.
He sighed, letting his arm move closer to her, more comfortably, and he closed his eyes. He didn't say anything, no "good night" or "sweet dreams, just lied there next to her and fell asleep...


He groaned. There was a noise, a terrible...noise. The dark blue light seemed to be flashing all over the ship. "The proximity alarm? Ophelia?!"
"Captain, there is a ship closing on our position rather quickly. I think you should devote your attention to it."
"Why?!" He wasn't very happy about being woken up, and as he looked over at Aleena, he could tell she was a little more than roused about it too.
"Because, Sir, its about ten times our size...and its locked onto us."
His eyes nearly bugged out of his head. He groaned. It was cold, but it didn't matter. He didn't take threats from bigger ships very lightly. He made his way to the cockpit as the message began blaring.
"Unknown Vesssel, this is Atedan battleship Asteroy. Lower your shields and prepare to be boarded."
He grunted. He recognized the hissing in their words, the unique qualities of their ship. He wasn't about to surrender his ship to a bunch of raiders though. "Asteroy, I am in Alliance Space. What do you think you are going to accomplish by seizing me or making an incident?"
"Well, for starters, we shall get what we came for. We know you have the survivors from Zeta-X. We want them."


Aleena looked out the window, enjoying the view of [name] from the copilot's chair on Atalanta. She sighed, and felt his hand on her shoulder.
"Are you certain you want to go back? These are the people responsible for what happened. It was because of their neglect that anything even went wrong on Zeta-X."
She was barely listening. She turned to look up at him and frowned. "Yes, Tiber. Thank you for letting me stay...for getting me out alive. I appreciate that, but-"
"-But you would rather risk being in constant danger with SI than staying on board."
She watched his shoulders fall. She narrowed her eyes and glared. "Secondary Initiative is not dangerous, Tiber. They are necessary. I wouldn't have what little I still have if not for them, and I would not be where I am now if not for them either."
"You mean on my ship, because they were too busy to head out and save a space station?"
"I don't want to talk about this, Tiber. We've already had this discussion. I am staying with SI. They're even going to give me funding to research my new case."
He flinched. "So, that's all I am to you anymore. A new experiment, a project?"
She shook her head and snidely replied. "No, you are a project with unpredictable variables."
"If you want to stay in a place where your life is at risk just because something risky might happen if you stay here, then fine, go. But what happens when they go too far and you become the collateral damage?"
"That's not going to happen. They've sworn they are going to be safer this time. They've taken all of the necessary precautions."
He tilted his head and blinked at her. "Oh? All of the necessary precautions. Hmm..." He moved a little closer to her, and she took a step back. "You mean like how they took all the necessary precautions on Zeta-X, with all of your coworkers? Yes, I am sure they fixed the problem this time."
She sighed at him, glaring. She felt like hurting him, like slapping his sarcastic face red, but she simply left him, making her way back to the hatch.
He watched her walk away, a pain, an agony inside of him. It hurt, not because she did not want to stay, that she didn't want to be there, but because the thought repulsed her so much, that she preferred to put her life in danger with an uncontrolled unpredictability in a miserable atmosphere. He resigned to taking a seat in the pilot's chair and started his approach...


The mists and fog seem to swirl around him. The dead trees, the absence of life around him seemed strangely inviting. The breeze made the fog and mist swirl, but it seemed thick, like a gray smoke that he could almost feel. He heard something, but he could not distinguish its identity. It was a voice. Then the voice seemed to draw closer until the swirling of the smoke swirled into a form. The form was not corporeal, nor did it even appear to be real. It looked like her, like the women he had loved what seemed, now, like eons ago. The form crooked a finger at him, beckoning him closer. The way she moved, similiar to swirl of the fog, the mists and vapors that made up her form blowing away ocassionally to be replaced.
"Tiber."
Her voice...it seemed like her voice was made up of many voices, as if when she spoke, her words held the sound and the tongues of more than just herself. He moved cautiously, closer to her. He was irritated with the form that she had chosen, and he felt that hostility boil over in his words. "Why have you come before me in her shape." He shook his head. "You aren't her. I wish to see your true form."
The figure shook its head. "No, we will not show you our true form. You are not yet ready to see us, so we appear before you in the shape that you seek most desperately above all others. But if not this one, perhaps another?"
The smoke blurred until it was the form of Aleena. This also made him cringe. "No? Perhaps a different girl."
She changed again, the form of Kayla Wymond blurring into focus. He felt his insides lurch. He glared. "Deliver your message, entity, whatever you are. Stop with your games. You have obviously come to me for a reason."
"No, it was you...who came to us. And upon receiving us, we chose you, Tiber Durrin. Your uniqueness puzzled us, and with this bafflement, we chose you. "
He warily felt his neck, the two deep wounds that seemed to not want to heal. He felt a chill run down his spine. The figure grinned at him, smiling malevolently. "Yes. You know of us then, you have sensed us inside of you. Do not be troubled, Captain Durrin. We issue a promise and a request. We promise that if you leave us alone, leave us inside of you, we will continue to bestow our power to you, without any harm. We ask that you not seek to invade the space that we have settled in and that you not attempt to destroy what we have created. The gestation of the form you carry will takes decades, now, now that we are no longer eager to escape. Your vessel has much potential for power, for many great things. We only seek to help you find these things, with our help."
He shook his head, now growing impatient. "I don't understand. Why should I believe you? Why should I think that you are anything less than an infection?"
"Because the other, she told you. She told you that you were different. And you have felt our power, you have seen the gifts we have given you. The more we learn about you, the more of these gifts we shall bestow upon you. Being able to force your energy on other objects, in time, will seem utterly insignificant in comparison to the other powers we see fit to give you."
He deliberated, thinking about this. "Fine. You may have your time, and your request, so long as your promise is kept. What should I call you then? Certainly you have a name of some sort?"
"Our name is of no importance, but for this short while, you may call us Morrigan."
He nodded slowly. "Morrigan. Shall you be appearing to me again?"
"As the need arises, as our aspirations grow more numerous and specific, we shall come to you, but only in your dreams."
He nodded again. "Yes. This isn't real..."
"It is the place we felt would be best to converse with you, on a nuetral ground where we would not have to fear additional influences. But we leave you now, with our request...and our promise. Use what we have given you openly, Captain, and all will be as it should."
He nodded again and watched as the mist swirled around her, cycling and then blowing away. He watched as a darkness encompassed him, and then he woke up.
He was in his quarters, on his ship.
"Captain, I am afraid I was unable to record your sleep. There appears to be a malfunction in the recording hardware. Until it is addressed, I will not be able to-"
"That's fine, Ophelia. If it is alright with you, I think I'll just go back to sleep."
"Very well, Captain. Sweet dreams."
He huffed, shaking his head. While "sweet" wasn't exactly the word he used, he hoped that Morrigan, this face of the symbiote that grew inside of him, would appear again before he awoke to show him something more specific about her gifts for him...


"Captain, the antispace drives are beginning to overheat again. We'll need to pull out of antispace and run on sublight for a while. It shouldn't delay our return too much, but if the drive overheats to critical, it is likely that it will delay us a lot more." Lieutenant Usid was staring at her console while she spoke, sitting in her usual place on the bridge.
Captain Johansen merely laughed lightly. "Very well, Lieutenant, drop us out and continue at maximum sublight." She turned to Kayla, her second in command, who was now looking distant and thoughtful.
"Lieutenant Wymond, why don't you head down to the engine room and see if you can find out what is going on with our engines."
It took Kayla a moment to respond, but she seemed to snap from her trance and hear the order. She was responsive...and then confused. She looked at her console and began to comm down to propulsion, but Captain Johansen stopped her. "Lieutenant, if you force me to make my request an order, I'll add staying down there for the rest of the journey to my list, understood?"
She turned back from her chair to look at Captain Johansen, confused, and a little provoked. Her words seemed out of character, especially towards her. Even Lieutenant Usid turned her head to look at the captain with a fleeting glance. Then she exchanged a perplexed expression with her fellow lieutenant as she left the bridge, the door opening and closing behind her. Aria was tempted to ask about the harshness of her captain's words, but decided against it.
"Lieutenant, what is our current position?" She sounded worried.
"We are...approximately forty-seven light-years away from Sky Point. Our ETA at this speed is...approximately three months."
She chewed on this for a moment. "Be sure we re-enter antispace as soon as the engines will allow, Lieutenant."
"Yes...ma'am."

As Kayla got on the lift, heading down to the engine room, she felt an unfamiliar irritation growing inside of her. She was confused and a little perturbed by her task and, more predominantly, she was baffled by the way she'd been chided on the bridge.
The lift doors opened and she made her way down the hall, continuing her trip. As the doors opened, she was presented with the immense space that made up the antispace and sublight propulsion systems. She was met by Colonel Varne near the door.
"Everything seems to be functioning well within normal parameters, but for some reason, our antispace generators keep overheating without warning. I've looked over the system several times and continuously troubleshot the damn thing, but we just can't figure it out."
She frowned at him and sighed. This is what she had anticipated, but why she had to come all the way down here to get this answer...
Her train of thought was cut off as an alarm in the engine room blared. "Shots fired! Sublight engines are not responding, Colonel! We're almost at full stop!"
Colonel Varnes eyes seem to pop out of his head. Kayla looked at him with surprise and shock as well. "What do you mean we've been fired on?!" She demanded.
"Apparently, some unidentified vessel has closed in on our position and tried to blow us out of the sky. We're trying to activate the emergency propulsion systems now!"
She ran to the communicator on the wall. "Lieutenant Wymond to Bridge. Aria, what's going on?"

Lieutenant Usid was sitting at her station, monitoring the engines. She was so focused, that she did not see the immense vessel decloak on their starboard side. The ship was almost twice their size, its enormous black hull eclipsing what little light shone in from bridge viewport. Almost immediately after it started decloaking, the vessel attacked them. The first blows had disabled their engines before Captain Johansen could even call for the shields to be raised. But it wasn't too late, they were still intact when she gave the order. "Activate our shields, Aria! All stations, this is a red alert. Confirmed attack on Avenger. Activate all weapon arrays and return fire!"
"Lieutenant Wymond to Bridge. Aria, what is going on?"
Before she could answer though, the captain cut her off. "Lieutenant Wymond, what's going on with our engines?! Why are we stopping?!"
Aria started to read the report on her console, but Captain Johansen cut her off.
"The unknown vessel disabled our sublight engines, Captain. We're dead in the water until we can get emergency propulsion activated."
"Unknown Vessel, this is Captain Johansen of UDI vessel Avenger! You have just committed and act of war! Cease fire and lower your shield and we may be able to negotiate your surrender. Failure to comply will result in your destruction. The Initiative does not forgive attacks on its people."
This only seemed to provoke more attacks. "Aria, launch all our fighters and send a distress signal on every frequency. Try to alert Sky Point to our situation." She was remarkably calm as she spoke.
"Scramble fighters! Get everyone off the flight deck and into the air!" Aria was feeling anxious, now, to get into her own fighter and get into the fray.
As if reading her emotions, one the of the airman on the bridge came to her aid. "Shall I take your post, Lieutenant, so you can get Black Thorn off the deck?"
"Permission to delegate my station, Captain."
"Yes. Take two pilots with you and see if you can't get out there and end this."
The enemy vessel was launching its own fighters now. The white dots on the viewport were flying out of the attacking vessel like a bunch of insects evacuating their hive.
Then, another voice came over the comm. "Battleship Avenger, this is vessel Atalanta, you seem to be getting more popular every time I see you. Any chance you'd like some extra company?"
Captain Johansen snorted and rolled her eyes. "Tiber, if you can handle getting in there and not firing on my ship, I'd be thrilled to have the extra company."

Aria sprinted up the boarding ramp to her little ship. It was little more than a modified Ukastic Fighter, but with the space of a cargo shuttle and quadruple the weapon power, it made for an unfair fight. The other pilots took their places behind her as she powered up the engines and took off. Then she heard a familiar voice blast across her comm. She groaned and rolled her eyes. "Tiber, can't you ever just help out without being a cocky smart ass?"
"Lieutenant Usid. I almost forgot I was in the company of so many of the Initiative's elite."
She ignored this and flew in next to Tiber's ship, following it on an attack run on the enemy vessel. "Who the hell is reckless enough to make an unprovoked attack on an Initiative vessel this far away from SPC?!"
The battleship continuing to unrelentingly fire on Avenger, without mercy, but Avenger's shields were holding up. The powerful beams of light that came from Avenger continued to light up her viewport as the energy continued to burrow into the rippling shell of the enemy shields. It appeared they were at a stalemate, but Aria knew that soon, hopefully very soon, reinforcements would arrive.

Tiber Durrin sat in his pilot's seat, grateful he had thought to resupply his ship at the last stop with as much ammunition as he could spare. He let his weapons array rain down on the shields of this mystery ship, watching as the life of the shields seem to last forever. He watched as one of the enemy fighters came up on his bow, the great ball of blue energy seeming to come at him with more accuracy than a baseball pitch.
Then he heard her voice. That deep, pleasing voice. "Tiber, you must allow me in. Let me give you the power to end this fight now before more lives are lost."
He looked at the copilot's seat. She had broken her previous promise, appearing more and more while he was wide awake, like a terrible delusion that would not leave him alone.
"Morrigan. No, I have to do this on my own."
"But I can help you. I can give you a second sight to guide your actions with perfection and help you eliminate this rogue vessel who has seen fit to attack unprovoked."
He shook his head again, turning away from her. He hoped that if he just focused, she would not be able to distract him much longer.
"Please, Captain Durrin. Don't be reckless and arrogant. You know that I can save you, save your ship, save your friends. You need only to relinquish control."
He held his breath as he turned to face her. "What do you need me to do..."
The form seemed to smile at him. It did not speak, and Tiber felt himself getting drowsy until finally he passed out in his chair.



"Aria. Aria, wake up!"
The little girl had been asleep in her bed. It was late and her room was dark. She groggily rolled over and looked toward the sound. "Daddy?"
"Sweetie, you have to wake up. They're coming here. Do you remember what I told you to do if they found us?"
She stared at him for a long moment, her eyes filling with tears, and her voice breaking as she spoke. "Daddy? Daddy...no. I...I can't..." She looked up at him as the tears began to stream down her face. She was already out of bed, her hands clutching at his arm. "No. I can't leave you...you're coming...with us, aren't you, Daddy?"
Her father didn't say anything, simply stared at her, his expression cold. "Ariadne, get your sister...you know the way...where to go. If I go with you, it will jeopardize everything."
She felt her body shaking, trembling uncontrollably as the sobs came. "Please...don't make me go without you."
He looked at her for a long moment, then got down on one knee to look her in the eye. He took her arms above the elbows and stared at her. "I need you to be strong, for me, and for your sister. She can't know what is going on here. Get down to the shelter. When you get there, take the tunnels. You remember the way. The emergency transport is still there. You remember how to fly it, don't you?"
Her mouth fell open a little as she tried to answer, but she couldn't find the words.
"Ariadne! Listen to me. If you don't get your sister, right now, and leave, then everything we have done, everything that I have done...and your mother did..." His voice trailed off for a moment before he spoke again. "It...will all be for not."
They could hear the familiar noise, the sound of thrusters setting down the shuttle outside. He looked at her for a long moment and pointed. "Go, Aria. Get Dawn and get to the shuttle. It is preset with the contingency destination, all you have to do is get clear of the atmosphere." He placed a small cube, no more than a few centimeters wide on every side, closing her hand over it. "Take this with you. Give it to Lieutenant Durrin. He already knows what to do with it.
She nodded slowly, and, still wearing her nightgown, ran to her sister's room, waking her up. "Dawn. Dawn, we have to go for a ride. We're going to the tunnel. Come with me, ok?"
She beckoned her sister out of bed with both hands motioning towards herself and the little girl looked at her sister and nodded slowly, confused and disoriented. But they were going to the tunnels. She liked the tunnels. She smiled and opened her arms to Aria, motioning for her to pick her up. Aria took her and ran down into the basement. She heard the door upstairs blow off its hinges as the shock troops entered her father's house. She was crying now, uncontrollably. She pulled the panel out of the wall and ran inside. It looked just like every other stone in the basement, and once she was inside, the panel sprung back into place, the small chain of LEDs over head lighting up as she progressed down the long tunnel. It slowly opened up as she progressed a few meters until she could stand up right and run. The lights were programmed to hers, her sister's, and her father's specific life-signature, illuminating in their presence and dimming after the sensors couldn't pick them up. The tunnel lead about half a kilometer underground to a hanger that her father had constructed in case they ever needed to make a quick get away.
He had explained it to her before, that if the shock troops ever found out that he was part of the Initiative, they would come after him. He had been working on a special project which Aria now assumed was contained in the data cube he'd given her. He had told her that he would have to stay behind, that if they all tried to escape, they would all die and her father's, and mother's works, would be lost.
Dawn was almost sleeping in Aria's tired arms as she got to the end of the tunnel. She entered in the access code and the door slid open, the remaining lights in the tunnel turning off as the door closed again. She activated the panic system which would flood the tunnel with poisonous gas in order to deter anyone following them. The lights in the hangar had all already light up. "UIDS" was spelled out on the side of the small cruiser analog. She had basic weapons and shield, but more than anything, she was fast. She shut her eyes and tried to gain her composure.
"Usid Initiative Delivery System." She touched the ship with her hand as she said the name aloud. It had been a play on acronyms, the Ulration Initiative was going to free them, and some day she would never have to worry about shock troops. She let the loading ramp touch the floor as she carried Dawn up the ramp and sat her in the seat, securing her crash fibers in the copilot as she powered up the ship. The sublight engines groaned to life. She looked up as the tunnel that lead straight up to the surface started opening. It was divided by terracrete plates every five or six meters to make the tunnel unpilotable. Even if you blaster through the first wall, you would have to make it through almost twenty more before you reached the surface. They opened one by one, except for the very last one. The top panel looked identical to the surrounding ground and would not open up the first door closed behind her.
UIDS lifted off the floor and made its way up to the surface. She knew that by the end of the tunnel, she'd be almost ten kilometers away from her bedroom, a distance her father felt would be sufficient should the shock troops ever discover that her and her sister had escaped with the information. She looked at the heads-up display and saw that her sensors had already picked up a patrol of zone crafts. She activated the stealth systems as the ships hull changed, the appearance reflected from one side of the ship to another to make it practically transparent. She knew that once she reached the out atmosphere she would probably have to evade the more astringent security forces until she got to a jump point.
He sister was still asleep now as she the air started to burn around her cruiser analog and the stealth systems went offline. There was no hiding when you turned into a fireball. Alarms sounded, and she heard her sister wake up. She whimpered, and looked out the viewport.
"Ar-yuh, make it stop. Turn the noise off."
She hadn't yet managed to learn how to say her name right. "It's okay, Dawny. We're going to be alright. Just hold onto your seat and close your eyes."
She shut off the alarms and watched as the fighters swerved to come after her, their wide front-face turning towards them. She just kept going, letting the ship fly as fast as it could. It zipped through space as it traveled away from their home. She was only half a minute from a safe jump space. All she had to do was evade the fighters until then. She watched as ignition bolts sailed past her on either side as she pushed the inertial dampeners to their fullest potential, winding and weaving as she spun and maneuvered.
"Almost there..." She said it more to herself than to Dawn. She watched as the colors in front of the ship began to change and grow more abundant until finally, she made her way through the window into antispace...

She was beginning to remember this dream, feeling a little more aware. She hadn't had this dream in a long time, but she did vaguely remember it...

"Ar-yuh, where are we going? And, when will we see Papa?"
She looked at her sister, tears brimming as she looked at her. She sniffled and shook her head. Dawn looked back at her and saw the sadness in her eyes. She persisted. "Ar-yuh?"
"Papa...said he would meet us...where we are going, Dawn." She tried to smile at her, tears streaming down her face.
Dawn looked at her, appearing lost. She didn't seem to understand what had her older sister so upset. Aria was not a girl who cried, and to see her doing so terrified her.
"Come on, Sweetie, let's get you into bed. You'll want to sleep until we get to..." She stopped, her voice breaking. She didn't even know where they were going. She put Dawn to bed, wiping the tears from her eyes. "Just go to sleep, ok? I'll be here when you wake up."
She left Dawn in the aft hold and made her way back to the front of the ship, sitting back in the pilot's chair. "Demeter?"
The hologram came to life on the display pad, standing a little more than half a meter tall on the far left side of the pilot controls. "Mistress Usid, how might I be of service"
"Where are we going?"
"UIDS is on a classified rendezvous course. It does not have a destination, at this time."
Aria looked at the image with disbelief. "You're telling me that the ship is programmed to just fly...with no particular end or arrival in mind...whatsoever?"
"That is correct. The course is designed to evade shock troop patrols and eventually be intercepted by UDI forces."
"I don't understand; why can't we just meet them at a predesignated coordinate?"
"The Ulration Defense Initiative is greater than any one ship, person, or planet, Mistress Usid. If UIDS was to be captured by shock troops, they would then be able to lay a trap for UDI forces. This is not a risk that has been deemed reasonable for the initiative to take. Therefore, UIDS was given a trajectory and then an elliptical course to fly in once said trajectory has been reached. We have no destination, but UDI forces patrol in several of these ellipses looking for escape craft, like this one. They should be able to find us in a day or so. The ship has more than enough resources to sustain you and the other Mistress Usid."
She sighed. "And, there is no way for us to broadcast any kind of beacon or signal to...expedite this process?"
"I would not advise that you risk that either, Mistress Usid. If enemy patrols discover your craft, one that matches the description of one having left amidst a surface raid, they would likely take you and your sister, interrogate and/or execute-"
Ariadne held up a hand. "That's ok, really. Distress signal bad. I understand."
"Of course, there is a possibility that we might be able to arrive in range of initiative patrols and not have to wait for an interception..."
And, almost as if she knew it would happen, UIDS dropped out of antispace less than thirty kilometers from an initiative patrol. She sighed with relief and leaned back into her chair. Demeter's image seemed to turn and look out towards the ship with her. The viewport filled with the communications display.
(this is as far with this as I can get before bed)


































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