Heavens of Glory

2.4

The letters stood out brilliantly on the logger as Orion’s signature was confirmed. The young lieutenant looked up at him.
          “Alright, Orion. You are now quite officially a Bonscout.” The feilon shook Orion’s hand. “Welcome aboard. I’ll put you on the ship Tremerti. It’s about to leave dry-dock in a day or two. Brand new off the line ship, Hempholdt class, unless I’m mistaken.” The recruiter looked down at the file on the computer screen. “I’ll sign you up in the Offensive department. Put you in control of laser turret 3.” She squinted briefly at the screen then looked up at Orion, something that might have been surprise played across her face.
         “You were runner up to Star Arena Champion?” the feilon asked doubtfully.
         Orion shook his head. “That’s right.”
         “Hmm. I think I’ll put you in as second helm officer as well, then. You can fly the Tremerti when you’re not in a battle. So what’d ya do with the fifty-thousand mark reward?” the feilon asked as she typed a bit on the computer.
“Stuck it in a bank on Toan. Figured I’d let the interest build up a bit, then I’m gonna try to get my own ship, once the military’s given me enough to add to the fifty.”
         The lieutenant shook her head as her eyes waved around a bit. Orion thought it meant that the guy was a little doubtful of his plans, but he wasn’t really sure about feilonian expressions.
         “Alright, Orion. You’re all set to go.” She pulled out an ensign patch from under the desk. “Here ya go. Just stick it on the collar of your uniform. It’ll stay alright.”
         “Where…”
         The feilon pointed. “Just down the hall. In dock 14. There should be a Bonscout on guard. Talk to him and he’ll show you to your quarters. Your uniform’ll be in there.” Orion nodded and picked up his bag from the floor. He headed in the direction that the recruiter had pointed, and soon found himself in a crowded lounge. The ceiling was open to space, and revealed a view of the other side of the station and the dozen or so ships docked there. He wandered over to a map to find dock 14.
         He arrived at the door with little trouble. He walked up to the guard on duty. “Hey, I just signed up for…”
         “What, new meat, eh?” The guard pushed him roughly in the shoulder. “I bet you think this is gonna be fun.”
         “Ummm...”
         “Ah, just tell me ya name.”
         “Orion Terone. Uh, Ensign Orion Terone.” The guard punched the name onto a console, then disappeared into the gate without a word. Orion followed…

         “Raj-elmeth! This is your day! This is the day when you will shine out above all other Bonscouts. Today is your final test- the last test you will have as raj-elmeth. After today, you will either be raj-wreth, or nothing.”
         Raj-sen Amora pointed a sharp white blade out into the training field. “This field has been covered with everything from mines to android-driven tanks. You will find that the androids are very dangerous, and you will find that the mines are very much alive, and very much deadly.
         “Your goal is merely to get across this field within one hour. Anyone who accomplishes this shall be awarded the title of raj-wreth. You actions will be constantly monitored, and through this monitoring we will determine the best of you, who will become the First raj-ha.
         “It sounds simple, right? But you will see it is far from that. The timer starts NOW!" Four thousand units of armor suddenly deployed as four thousand personal shields activated, making the air buzz with power. Amora watched the trainees rush forward as one. She watched as the lines of mines exploded, and didn't twitch of muscle as half-dead raj-elmeth flew through the air. She gave a slight snort and muttered, "They really just don't listen.”
         Amora boarded the nearby airship and hovered calmly over the giant field of the Alpha Site. The three thousand raj that had not been hurled away by the initial lines of mines were now treading through the fields more cautiously. She activated her command gear and switched to the view of one particular raj, making his way just ahead of the rest. She checked the roster, for good measure. Raj-elmeth Rheo.
         Rheo had activated his energy sensors and was quickly stepping around the hundreds of mines littering the fields, watching carefully for the minuscule signatures hidden beneath the turf. Amora muttered into her comm, “Raise drone tank in sector 18.”
         Rheo felt the ground beneath him shudder and start to split into pieces. He jumped back and raised his right arm, surrounded by his zargot. As a huge tank rolled out from under the ground, the hole closed solidly up again. Without hesitation, Rheo thrice squeezed his fist tightly, and three balls of energy whirled out of the zargot. The first two were sufficient to explode the tank, and the third shot right through the spreading rubble, leaving a dark hole in the vegetated ground.
         Rheo looked down into the hole and saw that it led down into the large steel cave whence the tank had come. He jumped down into the darkness.
         “Activate all drone tanks in sector 18.”
         The cave of steel was suddenly flooded with light as nineteen tanks turned on. Rheo found himself surrounded by steel colossi, all of which had turned their cannons onto him. He activated his cloak and jumped quickly behind the wheel of the nearest tank. Shots from the other vehicles pounded the strong mass into shrapnel. Rheo shot six shots at three of the metal forms, and was rewarded by massive explosions that took out the rest of the tanks. Small shards of slag, most of which were blocked by the wreckage of the first tank, slammed into his shielding and armor but did not penetrate.
         Rheo turned on his light and ran down the cave, checking his compass to get his bearings. He soon found himself in another room, close to the far end of the field, filled with a hundred buzz drones.
         “Ah, slag!” Rheo muttered, backing up. The drones appeared inactive, at least.
         “Activate twenty buzz drones in sector 152.”
         Twenty of the black and red war machines suddenly lifted into the air and sensed the slightest distortion in the heat of the cavern. They simultaneously turned on Rheo, who was now running back down the corridor as fast as was possible.
         The raj threw himself to the ground as nineteen machines passed over, then hurled himself upwards as fast as he could manage and landed on the twentieth. He found the button to switch it over to manual control.
         The engine of the twentieth buzz drone suddenly exploded. Rheo was thrown back onto the ground. It seemed the controls had been scrambled. He stood up and began firing blindly into the darkness, hoping to hit the other drones. He was rewarded by three explosions, but soon found the drones coming back with a full-out attack. They began their characteristic buzz, disabling Rheo's shield and lasers and making the walls and the lenothias' teeth rattle. He switched over to hard ammo just in time, and fired off a handful of rounds. Three of the buzz drones exploded as a full-power laser simultaneously blew right into his arm, blasting the armor to shreds and destroying half of the lenothias' body. He fell unconscious to the floor.
         “Pity,” Amora said, switching her view to another raj-elmeth. “He was pretty good.”

* * *
         “We have four ships converging on our tail. They’re forcing open a channel.”
         A message echoed throughout the ship in the tonorion language. “Attention, vessel. You do not have clearance to leave the surface. Power down immediately, or you will be considered a threat. We are on full Danger Alert and no one may leave. Please advise.”
         “They’re firing an EMP. The Tournia’s been disabled. Deactivating all other systems before they can be shut down.” The interior of the ship went black. Orion found himself holding a lifeless white sphere, surprisingly heavy despite the low gravity of the tonorion ship. The gravity suddenly let up, and the sphere lost all weight as dozens of other objects began floating into the air. Acting on instinct, Orion grabbed onto the tonorion rest-chair and held himself down. The slight buzz that was the EMP stopped.
         “I’ll what systems we still have left.” Seedo began typing on the holographic display before him. The lights turned back on as the gravity returned. The globe was once again encapsulated by the yellow energy field.
         “The engines are down. I don’t even know where the weapons are to begin with, so might as well assume those are down as well. Powers completely out towards the top decks. Hatches, shields, landing gear, and all other hull-options are gone. The ship’s essentially dead.”
         The globe gave a jerk on Orion’s hand, which still grasped it firmly, and pulled itself back to the middle of the energy sphere.
         “What was that?” Orion asked.
         “Looks like power’s returned to the engines.” Seedo began typing again on the console. “The ship seems to have an anti-EMP grid, and its restoring all its systems to nominal.” Seedo turned his head every which way. “This is amazing. They’re parsecs ahead of us!”
         “Parsecs or not, we’re getting out of here. Scarth, see if you can figure out the hyperspace controls.” Scarth nodded as the Tournia shot forward again at Orion’s bidding.
         Ter, standing behind another station, interrupted, “They’re following again. I figured out how to get the computer to lock onto them, and I think the ship has an auto-fire mode. I’ll see what it can do.” A hologram of the ship appeared next to the piloting display at Orion’s position and showed beams of light suddenly arching out at the four ships behind it. Three turrets began pelleting the enemy vessels with laser shots as the beam cannon shut off to recharge. The aim on the turrets was none too good.
         “Ter, Sel, Qik. Get over to those turrets and see if you can pilot them manually. Scarth, how’s the hyperspace coming?”
         “I have absolutely no idea, sir. Any of these controls could activate the hyperspace console, and could just as easily initiate the self-destruct.”
         A tonorion voice interrupted. “Because you have fired on a Star Patrol ship, you are to be considered hostile and will be destroyed immediately.”
         “Could really use hyperspace right about now, Scarth.” Orion began moving the globe randomly about within the energy field, always keeping it more or less forward, as he gazed over the series of controls suspended in the air. He pushed a couple of buttons slowly, keeping one hand on the globe. The display of the enemy ships expanded and entered into the piloting view. He was now immersed within a giant hologram of the surrounding space, his head in the place of the Tournia.
         “Can you give me shields and armor, Seedo?”
         “Done.”
         Orion began piloting the starship in a complicated weave through space, using the holographic display to avoid the enemy weapons with ease. He pulled spins, barrel rolls, double-backs, sidewinders, and a slew of other tricks to stay out of danger from the enemy fire. His hands twisted the white globe in a spinning whirl too fast for the eye, and the ship spun along with it.
         “Three more ships converging on our tail.” The Tournia wove its way through a tapestry of laser fire as Orion jerked the white globe across the energy sphere.
         “Orion, I think I’ve figured it out.” Scarth was surrounded by dozens of holographic panels and displays.
         “Then why are we still here? I can’t dodge lasers forever.”
         “Keep in mind, though, I could be wrong. So don’t blame me if we self-destruct.”
         “I’m willing to take that chance.” He ship shook violently and Orion felt the controls stiffen up.
         “We’ve been hit. Aft shielding is down,” Seedo reported.
         “Shit! Scarth, get us into hyperspace now!” Orion screamed, and the universe disappeared in a bright flash of tachyons. Orion pulled his hands out of the helm and slowly calmed his breathing and beating heart.
         “All right. Look’s like we’re out of that. For now. Scarth, did anyone follow us into delta space?”
         “Doesn’t look like it.” Scarth pulled up a series of displays. “Few people would risk making that jump so close to a planet- there’s far too much altercontinuum distortions from Sela itself. Plus, I don’t think there are many ships that could outrun this thing, anyway. That was their one chance to get us from behind. The rest of our dangers will have to come from ahead.”
         Orion nodded. “Seedo, can you call Ter, Qik and Sel back down?” After a quick nod, Seedo pulled up a comm menu.” Scarth, you seem to be figuring things out quite well.”
         “It’s actually quite orderly. Once you get the basic pattern figured out, you can access just about anything with no problems.”
         “Can you give me a long-range tachyon sensor overlay?” A new hologram appeared on Orion’s right, showing the distant and faint signatures of stars, surrounded by the bright dots of ships. The Great Wall stood out like the giant border that it was.
         Once he found the correct control, Orion magnified a section of the defensive wall. “We’ll get through here. Hopefully we won’t have any problems getting past it in this tonorion ship.”
         Scarth pushed some of the holographic buttons floating around him, but abruptly stopped. “I can’t access the helm, Captain.”
         Orion looked down at the floating sphere before him. “I wonder if…” He placed his hands back on the white globe and pushed it forward. The Tournia began accelerating through the starless reality. “It looks like the helm automatically transfers between normal and hyperspace engines, and locks out all other access while it’s activated. Now, I wonder if I can lock it into accelerating.” He held his hands on the globe for a second longer, still pushing it forward against the force to restore it to the center of the sphere, then pulled his hands off. Despite the constant tug he had felt while holding it, the globe did not move as he released his grip, and the ship continued accelerating forwards.
         “Might as well start exploring the ship some more,” Orion said, standing up and stretching, cramped from the time spent in the unforgiving alien rest.

         Orion was rooting through the cargo holds, muttering notes on the foreign inventory into a small recording device he had found, when the wall began to echo with Seedo’s voice. Orion shuddered as he listened to the pounding comm system vibrating every molecule in his body.
         “Orion, we’re gonna drop back into Alpha space in three minutes.”
         “Understood. I’ll be up in two.” Orion stuck the recorder in a slot by the door as he left.
         The bridge was filled with twice as many holograms as before when he entered. He moved to the back of the room and remained standing, slightly above the others due to the sloped floor.
         “Been exploring a bit?” Orion said, referring to the plethora of displays littering the air. Scarth and Seedo both nodded, intent on their work. “Well, shut down all the unnecessary displays for now. We got some work to do- have to convince the tonorions in the Great Wall that we’re friends. How much longer until emergence, Scarth?” Scarth was in Orion’s ‘seat,’ staffing the helm that Orion had controlled earlier. He glanced over at one of the nearby displays.
         “Twenty seconds, sir.”
         “Alright. Where are the others?”
         “They’re also exploring, like you were. It looks like this ship wasn’t actually designed for a very large crew. No more than about ten or fifteen, but there’s still plenty of rooms to look through and plenty of controls to play around with. It’s gonna take a while to completely understand this ship.”
         “Tell them to stop the exploring for now anyway and get into the forward gun-controls. I want them to have manual controls of both the forward laser towers and the Tournia’s primary weapon, just in case.”
         Seedo moved to contact the other Bonscouts as Scarth signaled the reemergence. Stars suddenly filled the dozens of screens covering the walls and the holographic radar display surrounded the helm became littered with hundreds of ships and platforms. Orion winced out of habit at the sight of the thousands of enemy structures.
         “Smooth and easy, Or. Smooth and easy,” he muttered to himself.
         “I think we’re being hailed,” Scarth said cautiously. “I can’t really say- haven’t done much with the comm system yet beyond the internal communications.”
         “Open a channel if you can. And try to make it voice only. If you get visuals going, it’s only our lives that are over.” With a great show of caution, Scarth tapped the air around him. Orion cautiously let the translator chip turn over the words in his mind a few times before speaking them as accurately as he could.
         “This ship is on a reconnaissance mission straight out of Sela. Please let us through.”
         “Very well,” came the replay in the crackling tonorion tong. “Just give us your ship authentication code and you’re free to go.”
         Orion looked helplessly at the other two in the room. Both Lenothias began working frantically to dig up the code.
         “We’ll have it in just a second,” Orion slurred the words, stalling for time. “This is a new ship, so we have to dredge it up from the databanks.” Orion hoped to hell that it was usually kept in the databanks, or the Union soldier would suspect a rat right off.
         “So what exactly is your mission, again?”
         “I… can’t say. Reconnaissance.”
         “Ah, one of those missions. Well, I can’t exactly wish safe flying to you, but good luck, nonetheless. Been getting a bunch of them lately, actually.”
         What the hell did they mean, ‘those missions?’ What was the Union doing? Orion merely said, “Yeah. Fleet command’s been stepping up the urgency of it.” Orion saw Seedo look up and motion that he had something. “Alright, I’m sending over the code now.”
         “Just beam it right over. You know the routine.”
         No Orion really looked helpless. Seedo cocked his head a little in doubt, but tried tapping in a few sequences to the computer, nonetheless. The tonorion’s voice came back over the com-line.
         “Alright, I’ve received it. On your merry way, then. Good hunting.”
         Orion was really worried as Scarth moved on through the lattice of metal colossi. Good hunting? What did the tonorion mean by that?
         The Tournia was passing the last of the platforms when Scarth received another hail from the stations.
         “Sela vessel, please stop immediately. Your ship’s authentication code is confirmed as a match with a vessel that was stolen from Sela earlier today. Please send us your commander authorization code, and we can let you pass.”
         The lenothias cut the transmission before Orion ever gave the signal.
         “Slag. Why do bad things always happen to us. How long do you think we have?”
         “I’m guessing about ninety seconds,” Seedo said from his console. “Union ships are closing in on us fast.”
         “And if we try to just go straight through, the stations slag us. Wonderful.”
         For a second, Orion was pensive. “Scarth, get up to the rear turret. I’ll take the helm. Seedo, get me an overlay of the AT grid.”
         “What exactly are you planning, Orion?” Seedo brought up the view of the anti-tachyon grid.
         “Something that we should never have to.”
         Orion slid back into the strange rest and thrust his hands into the helm-sphere. He tapped a few buttons on the floating communications console. “Alright, guys. Brace yourselves. This isn’t gonna be pretty. Fire at will.”
         Just as the laser platforms began firing on the lone corvette, the Tournia winked out into hyperspace amid the clutter of deadly anti-tachyon bars littering space. A thousand feet farther through the Wall, the ship reappeared and turned on a dime before disappearing again. For flash after flash the solitary ship flickered in and out of existence. Each time it appeared, a thousand shots would fire right at it, and a dozen lasers would spread out from it. Before the weapons from either direction could hit, the vessel would be gone again.
         Orion slammed the globe around, making instant decisions on which direction to go as he reoriented himself in real-space before flickering back into hyperspace through a thin opening in the AT bars. He would jerk the ship painfully out of delta space feet from one of the AT bars and turn into another path. The bridge shuddered as the Tachyon packs worked faster than ever. With every jump, with every forceful override of the ship’s automated anti-tachyon avoidance system, the Tournia came within feet of landing on the deadly spars while in hyperspace. Slowly, miraculously, the Bonscouts made their way across the Great Wall.
         At last, Orion saw a long path through the thinning grid. He took a last jump into hyperspace, aiming straight down the tunnel. Half a second into the jump, the vessel shook as if under laser fire and fell into normal space. Orion desperately tried to compensate by raising shields and bulkheads as the first of two tachyon packs exploded, haling a stream of particles in all directions, disintegrating quickly amongst thousands of space-time anomalies.
         Bright blue warning signals clamored into sight as the outer hull was scorched and torn, but the blast was deflected back into empty space by the activated shields. The ship hurled forward as Orion fled out of firing range of the Great Wall, risking the active laser towers over another hyperspace jump. The Tournia accelerated onwards, with the occasional course change to avoid any well-aimed lasers until the black-body radiation from the system of platforms became too weak for the short-range scanners to detect.
         At last, Orion stopped accelerating and let the Union ship coast deeper into Alliance territory.
         “How bad was that collision, Seedo?”
         “Not too bad. Just the tachyon pack was destroyed. The hull didn’t breach.”
         “Call the others back here.” The Alliance captain stood up and moved around to the back of the room. He rested his arms on the top of one of the consoles, gazing over the giant hologram flowing around the pilot chair.
         “What the space were you thinking, Orion? You’re lucky we’re pulled out of that alive at all,” Sel said, marching into the bridge with the three other Bonscouts.
         Orion turned towards him. “Sel, not the time for this. I did what I had to, now don’t make me pull rank on you. I’m still your captain.” He turned back to the console and brought up a panel to manipulate the giant hologram and screens. “Here’s the deal, guys. We’re back in Alliance space. Our first priority is to get contact with an Alliancic vessel. Once we’re a little deeper in, far enough away from Union ships, I’m going to send out a hail on all frequencies announcing ourselves. Hopefully we won’t be blown to smithereens by our own friends.
         “We lost one tachyon pack back there. The other one is mostly empty, as well, from the hundreds of jumps we pulled to get through the anti-tachyon grid.” He looked over at Sel. “I know it was risky, but it worked. And as far as I know, that’s history in itself. No one else has ever made a successful solo flight through the Great Wall.
         “We’re going to try to make another jump with the few tachyons we have left. We’ll head a little over a parsec into Alliance territory, then reemerge. Once we’re that far in, we should be a safe distance from the Union border to start sending wide-range comm- signals. Scarth, make the jump now. Set us in a straight line towards Toan.”
         Scarth moved to obey the command, but Seedo, still standing behind one of the stations, interrupted him before he even got to the helm. “Orion, there’s something happening over to port, just under an inisec away.”
         Orion walked over to his console. “Can you be a little more specific?”
         “Not accurately. I haven’t seen anything like it before. It’s… there’s a huge surge of delta and alpha tachyons forming.”
         “What? Seedo, can you give me an active overlay of the long-range scanners?”
         Orion moved back to the helm seat, putting himself in the center of the display next to Scarth as Seedo deactivated all other holograms and brought up a live-time display of the long-range sensors. It showed a series of lines that were the basis for detecting ships parsecs away: the Type 1 tachyons, different from the Type 2 tachyons such as alpha tachyons and beta tachyons used for inter-space travel. The pseudo-particles, neither mass nor energy, spread across the field, crossing the length of the galaxy in seconds and leaving a tell-tale streak of spent energy. The image expanded inwards towards a single point, the area immediately around the Tournia. Now, instead of the yellow specks weaving their way across the universe, only the occasional yellow line could be seen appearing unpredictably, stretching across the entire field of vision. A huge bundle of white appeared in a spot not to far from the center chair. Orion walked over to it and examined the oddity.
         “What is that?”
         “I don’t know. It’s emanating about 89 trocs of tachyons.”
         The captain’s mouth gaped open. “Nothing uses that much.”
         “This does, whatever it is.”
         As Orion continued to watch, a series of Type-1 tachyons began pouring out of the anomaly. The billions of white dots began to clear out. Orion didn’t need to see anymore. He recognized the pattern.
         “That’s a friggin’ ship!”
         “Impossible. No ship is that large.”
         “Look, only a fusion reactor shoots out Type-1s like that, and only a ship carries a fusion reactor around on it.”
         “Orion, it can’t be ship. That would be impossible.”
         “Why? Is there something you know that I don’t?”
         Seedo bobbed his tail, and Orion waited.
         “Orion, that thing appeared on short-range sensors.”
         “Yeah, and?”
         “And it’s over ten grasecs long, and just as wide. All told, it’s fifty cubic grasecs.”
         Orion’s knees buckled. He grasped onto the nearest console and supported himself. The immensity of the fact overwhelmed him, incapacitating his thoughts. He managed to utter, “Then how the hell did it just come out of hyperspace? That’s bigger than any station I’ve ever seen.”
         “I can’t even begin to imagine. The shear power it would consume for the jump- it would power all of Toan for a decade!”
         “Ah, sirs?” Scarth spoke up.
         Orion didn’t bother to answer. He found himself on the floor, wondering how such a thing could be possible. Scarth continued anyways.
         “It has to be a ship.” All eyes turned towards the pilot.
         “Why?”
         “Because it’s accelerating towards us. Quickly. Not to mention it appears to be charging it’s weapons.”
         Orion forced himself to stand up. “You mean… Alright. Everybody, get to your stations. If that… thing… gets close to us, then we’re going to go out fighting. We may just be a sewer skrit against a dinosaur, but we’re not going to go down easily. Seedo, you too. Get in one of the gun controls. There are only five turrets anyway. Scarth, I want you controlling this ship’s main weapon. I’ll open up a conference channel throughout the ship.”
         The five crewmembers saluted, for once, and rushed to their duties. Each one slid into the cockpit of one of the turrets. Scarth found himself in the front-most part of the ship, surrounded by screens giving the illusion of windows. The Tournia’s power core began to hum, vibrating the entire ship as fifteen weapons were charged to full. Sitting again in the ship’s cockpit, cleared away every display except what he needed to see what was ahead. He began accelerating the petty corvette forward, straight at the thundering mammoth ship.
         He counted the grasecs until they were within firing range. “All hands, get ready to shoot. Forty seconds. This may be the end, but it will be a noble death.”
         The two ships closed in on each other, rat versus elephant.
         “I’ve been honored to work with all of you,” someone said.
         “Aye.”
         “Aye.”
         “Ten seconds. Prep yourselves.”
         Do not fire on them. They are your friends.
         “HOLD YOUR FIRE! HOLD YOUR FIRE!” Orion slammed on the reverse acceleration, turning the small ship out of its collision course. The whale had emerged into firing distance.
         “Captain? What’s happened?”
         “They… are our friends. We mustn’t shoot at them.”
         “But they charged up their weapons. They were attacking us, for Schoona’s sake. Dammit, Orion, what are you thinking?”
         “They, they are our friends. Power down weapons. White flag broadcasts.” He couldn’t shake the feeling. He wasn’t sure where the thought had come from. It didn’t feel like it had been his own thought. It didn’t even sound like his own voice. It had just popped into his head.
         He had heard that voice somewhere before.
         Orion was overwhelmed by a sense of déjà vu. He pulled his hands out of the controls and cradled his head in them, leaning his elbows on his knees and running his fingers through his growing hair.
         “What is this?” he muttered.
         “Captain?”
         He was vaguely aware of the gargantuan ship passing by, suddenly ignoring the small vessel, and then disappearing back into delta space.
         The feeling passed. He sat back upright. The others were coming back into the bridge now, each looking strangely at their captain as they arrived. Seedo walked up to him.
         “Are you okay, Orion? That, that was weird.”
         “Yeah, I’m fine, Seedo. It’s nothing.”
         “Slag, captain! You’re the luckiest son-of-a-star I ever met,” Scarth laughed. “That’s two absolutely nuts decisions that you made today, which in every other circumstance would be the worst decisions possible, and both turned out to be right.”
         “Schoona must be shining on us today, I guess.” Orion snorted as he heard himself say it. Schoona. Yeah, right.
         “Whatever that thing was, though, you’re damn lucky, sir,” Sel put in.
         Orion nodded. “Looks like we back again to plan A. Scarth, take us into hyperspace. Whatever that was, it doesn’t matter anymore. Let’s just get home. We’re too close now. Use up the tachyon packs completely if you need to.”
         The lenothias bobbed his tail once and moved back to the helm. In a quick flash, the universe disappeared once more.

* * *

         In the lonely dark, the giantess awoke. She felt around her, reaching into the silence. Yes, there were the workers. Only twelve left. Seven had died since she had last been awake. But they were keeping the males alive, well enough. Digging slowly through the vats of food.
         Two of the workers approached her, bringing her nutrients. She instructed them, eating the cold nutrients, to feed one of the males. The sleeping form, smaller than her own, awoke. The tired limbs were unaccustomed to life, and could not move at first. But soon enough, he was standing.
         The giant thought slowly, her mind not used to conscious processes. The food store was dwindling. Even with the community as small as it currently was, it would only last a short time longer. Alas that she, who had memories of days when she would sail the stars with a billion minions, should die such a lonely, forsaken death. She had been unable to contact any other of her race.
         The food was too little to support a community large enough to build ships and leave. Every attempt she had made to leave had met disaster, only depleting valuable resources more. She had waited too long. Her minions had culled through the native food too quickly, depleting this strange world of all resources, and no more food had come since then.
         She was forgotten. Abandoned. And enraged by it.
         Come, she said to the awake male. Let us rebuild this population, with thousands more. As many as we can make until the food runs out. We will not die such a miserable and small death.