Turning Point -Warhammer 40k Fan Fiction

Chapter 6 - The Isis

          Speechless, Joseph stared blankly at the Captain for a second. 
         
         “How did you find me?” Joseph asked.

         “I’ve never lost you.  I had a couple of men trailing you since you left the bar earlier.”

         “You’ve been watching me,” Joseph said as his anger started to become evident in his voice, “even during the firefight in the hangar?”

         “Listen, my boy, I could sit down and explain myself to you now while your body gets riddled with bullets, or you could shut up, jump aboard, and live.”  As if to emphasize the Captain’s point, several shots sprinkled dirt up from the ground near Joseph’s feet.

         Keeping a hard stare into the Captain’s eyes, Joseph grabbed the proffered hand and climbed inside of the speeder.  Motioning to the driver, the Captain smiled broadly at Joseph as they accelerated abruptly.

         Speaking into the driver’s ear, the Captain motioned forward with his arm and then walked to the back part of the cabin where Joseph was waiting.

         “Have a seat, my boy.”  Captain Vin Holson waved his hand to the brown leather bench behind Joseph.

         “Where are we going?” he asked the Captain, slowly moving backwards to take a seat.

         “We’re going to Pasius, where my ship awaits us.  More importantly, it’s where your freedom awaits you, my boy.”

         Breathing out slowly, Joseph tried hard to ignore the way the Captain kept addressing him.  Simply nodding his head, he turned his attention away from the Captain and glanced behind them through the port window of the enclosed land speeder.  The spot where Joseph had boarded, now hundreds of yards behind them, numerous guardsmen were scrambling into vehicles to chase after them.  Suddenly three land speeders identical to the one they were riding in sprung into their back trail, following in a loose formation.

         “What’s this?” Joseph asked, pointing to the land speeders.

         “Well, we can’t have them following us, can we?  That’s just a little insurance, my boy.”  The Captain motioned to the driver.  A few moments after the driver spoke into his communication headset, Joseph watched as the speeders behind them split off in three different directions.  “There, that should give us very good odds of escape.”

         “Sir, to be exact, this would give us a 71.5 percent chance of unmolested passage.”  The man whom Joseph had first met with the Captain spoke from the right side of the small cabin, his voice having a slight mechanical quality to it.  “Taking into account the factors of our off radar equipment and low visibility, we have in total an 89.7 percent chance of uninhibited flight.”  The odd and heavily augmented man continued to speak, but the rest of it was a murmur most likely to himself.

         “Yes, well, thank you for that helpful info, Strom,” the Captain said, finishing the statement with a roll his eyes.  “You’ll have to excuse Adrium, he has a penchant for statistics and likes to contribute his ever factual precision to situations.”

         Somewhere a good ways behind them, a loud explosion reverberated.  The men in the small cabin of the swift land speeder turned around and could see the scattering debris and smoke far off in the horizon.

         “So much for the survivability of that crew,” Joseph said with a bit of sorrow in his voice.

         “Ah, not to worry, my boy.  They’re drones.”

         “Drones?”

         Laughing, the captain replied, “Of course, my boy!  You think I would take a big chance of losing my valuable crew?  I take care of my own.  You’ll soon learn.”




         
         The rest of the trip through the plains of Garius IV passed by uneventful.  Joseph, deep in thought, ignored the small conversation that the Captain and his first mate seemed caught up in.  Report came in through the driver that two of the drones had been destroyed in the chase, but their speeder had not been detected or traced.

         Their craft gained altitude as they entered the city limits of Pasius, the capitol of Garius IV.  Droves of commercial vehicles below followed pathways and streets like ants scurrying across their domain.  Striking Joseph as peculiar, very little air traffic seemed to be passing through the skies of Pasius.

         As if reading his thoughts, Adrium spoke up, “Due to the war, the Guard issued an ordinance making most of the city a no-fly zone.  Only authorized traffic may pass without danger of being shot down.”

         “Yes, it’s taken quite a few imperial coins to get a clearance code for the past few days,” added the Captain.

         After several such queries demanding their clearance code, the Captain’s small craft finally gained permission to land inside of an enormous oval-shaped building at the far edge of the star port.  Landing smoothly onto their designated pad, the Captain spoke to the driver briefly before motioning Joseph to follow him outside.

         “Where to?” Joseph asked.

         “Well I’m going to check out at customs.  You are going to find a certain hiding spot inside of my ship.  Adrium will show you the way.”  The Captain nodded to his first mate and then started to walk away.  Stopping briefly, the Captain turned around and said, “Oh, and do try to be quiet, my boy.  I’m pretty sure that my ship will be subject to scrutiny before we are allowed to take off.”

         Pursing his lips together in partial annoyance, Joseph took a deep breath and then nodded to the Captain.

         Talking more to Joseph than to Vin Holson who was already a good distance away, Strom said, “There’s a 90% chance that we will be searched before making our way off planet.  Follow me, I’ll show where you can hide for the time being.”

         “Let me guess, it’s a place where you put dignitaries and legal cargo?” Joseph added a good amount of sarcasm to his statement.

         “Out in frontier space I’m sure you will find life to be quite different, Mr. Vintros.  I’ve been told that it will be my job to help you acclimate to the lifestyle.  You’re going to get a much different if not clearer picture of the Imperium pretty soon.”

         “Actually, Mr. Strom, I think I’ve already begun to.”

         “Please, call me Adrium.”  The first mate extended his hand to Joseph.

         “Call me Joseph.”  Shaking hands the two men started walking towards the Captain’s ship.






         Trying to avoid as many people as possible, Joseph followed Adrium through a series of long maintenance passageways.  Quickly moving through the vacant corridors, they came upon the entranceway to dock twelve.  Opening the access hatch, Adrium waved for Joseph to exit.

         Stepping out into the wide open space of the star dock, Joseph immediately saw the large and gleaming ship on the landing pad in front of him.

         Quite unlike any ship he had ever seen, the medium-sized Lorcha class vessel stood alone.  Although nowhere near the size of a cruiser, and somewhat smaller than most of the larger trade galleons rogue traders commissioned, the odd modifications and aesthetics definitely gave it character.  A large metallic body extended to a bulbous, hefty oval section at the rear.  Numerous antennae and mechanical constructs lined along the top.  Just before the oval shape began in the back, two wings extended out across the width of the ship.  Each wing had three distinct angles forming into sharp points, almost giving the spaceship the appearance of an aerodynamic terrestrial craft.  A large silvery mirrored section somewhat near the nose of the ship was what Joseph took to be the location of the bridge.  Although mostly black and gray with noticeable weathering along the hull, the ship looked very majestic.  With all its decorative value, Joseph curiously found no trace of weapons or defensive mounts.

         “She’s beautiful, isn’t she?” Adrium spoke. 

         “Yeah, she definitely is.  What’s she called?” Joseph queried.

         “The Isis.”

         “The Isis?  What does it mean?”

         “Apparently the Captain’s ancestry goes back a long ways on Terra.  From his family’s annuals, he plucked the name.  At one time, the name had some meaning, I suppose.  Anyways, she’s definitely one of a kind.  Come on.”  Motioning to Joseph, Adrium walked up the stairs and into the open hatch, disappearing inside of the ship.  As he still was studying the vessel, Joseph inattentively followed Adrium up and inside.




         Hours that seemed like days crept by as Joseph’s muscles started to ache from the small space he was huddled in.  Even with his knees to his chest there was hardly any room in the small holdout compartment.  Several times in the past few hours Joseph heard the voices of the port security forces scouring the Isis.  Footsteps began to approach his position, reverberating through the metal grated floor outside.  Tensing for the unknown, he held his breath as the heavy steel panel that opened to the hallway in the ship began to slide away.

         “Hopefully your quarters were not too uncomfortable, my boy.”

         Squinting as the rush of light from the ship’s interior hit his body, he grabbed the pro-offered hand and rose up out of the holdout space.  Stretching painfully as his body adjusted to open space, he gave the Captain a wry look. 

         “If those are to be my quarters, I think I’ll take my chances back with the Guard.”

         Laughing, the Captain replied, “Lucky for you, my boy, we are short staffed at the time.  Your quarters are to be much roomier.  C’mon, let’s introduce you to the crew.”

         As he followed the Captain through the narrow corridor, he felt the ship rumble as the engines began firing for liftoff.  For a brief second, Joseph lost his sense of balance and stumbled towards the side of the hallway.  Once the inertial dampeners kicked in and his balance fully returned, Joseph once again followed the Captain towards the bridge.

         “The port was alerted of several fugitives escaping authorities in New Gherin.  They just about triple checked every inch of my ship, which would be why you were in there so long.  I guess it’s a good thing we sold the last of our contraband two ports ago.”

         Unable to tell if the Captain was kidding or not, Joseph decided to let it go.

         “Captain, about my role on your crew…”

         “Don’t worry, my boy.  We’ll discuss terms and expectations later.  Let’s get you properly introduced and on our way.”

         “Where are we going?” Joseph asked.

         “We’re off to the Anaki system.  We have business there.”

         Recognizing the name, Joseph stopped a few feet behind the Captain.  “That’s only a couple of systems away from my home planet!”

         “No time for reunions, my boy.  But maybe once the heat surrounding you dies down we could make an unannounced stop.  Okay, my boy.  Prepare to meet the fine crew of the Isis.”

         Opening the hatch in front of him, the Captain waved Joseph in as the bustling voices and machine chirps from the bridge echoed out to them in the hall.  “After you…”
         
         Walking through the hatchway, the size of the bridge surprised him.  Four large reflective windows were aligned along the top of the front wall.  All but one showed the beautiful view of the sky above Pasius.  The lone remaining display had ship diagnostics running across it, hinting to Joseph that all of the windows doubled as monitor screens when needed.

         Half of the crew inside of the bridge were servitors, organic humanoids mixed with cybernetics.  They were once human, before undergoing extensive bio-mechanical fittings and a subsequent mind wipe.  Programmed now to serve as robotic slaves, they oversaw many different aspects of Imperial society.

         Seated in several chairs a few feet from the four large displays were three men, busy working with the machine interfaces on the panels in front of them.  To the left and right, Joseph saw a couple more moving in and around the various servitors, encompassed with the ritual duties of takeoff.

         In the center of the room stood Captain Vin Holson’s elaborate command chair.  Plated with gold and inlaid with various jewels, its gaudiness was somewhat offset by the complicated controls on the arms and panels nearby.

         Approaching from his left, Adrium nodded to Joseph and the Captain.  “Captain, everything is set.  Clearance has been given and we’ve already begun calculating the translation to warp.”

         “Excellent, Mr. Strom.”  The Captain walked next to his chair and began to address the entire bridge.  “Excuse me, all.  I would like to introduce Joseph Vintros.  He’s joining our crew as part of the security detail.  Sound off and welcome him aboard!”

         “Welcome aboard.  Name’s Yuda Scario.  I’m the resident weapons expert,” said the gruff and weathered man to Joseph’s left.  He wore long sleeved green and gray fatigues with several ammo belts around his waist and chest.  Yuda’s dark gray hair and scarred face displayed the many battles the man had fought.  Noting also the man’s perfect posture and muscular build, Joseph knew to respect his combat prowess.

         “Greetings, I am Faramund.  I’m the language expert and social facilitator.  I also serve as a diplomat to various governments of…” the short dark-haired man started, only to be interrupted by the Captain.

         “Mr. Faramund, I believe that short introductions are adequate for this phase.”

         “Yes, of course, Captain.  Nice to have you aboard, Mr. Vintros.”  The slightly overweight man bowed almost humorously, folding one arm to his chest and grabbing the side of his expensively sewn robe with the other.  To Joseph, the man looked like the type usually seen in the high court for Imperial diplomats or the scholars of the various academies.

         A few seconds of silence went by as the giant of a man standing in the far left hand corner merely stared at Joseph without uttering a single word.  The eyes of the people standing around gazed at him expectantly.

         “Kuro?  I believe that more than a stare will be required,” the Captain said, breaking the brief silence and general discomfort of the moment.

         Annoyance clearly on his face, the big man finally spoke, “Name’s Kuro.  Don’t think I like you much, but the Captain says you’re part of the crew now.  Just stay outta my stuff and outta my way and nobody has a problem.”  Joseph recognized the tightly cropped blonde haired titan as the man who stopped him in the bar during his second encounter with the Captain.  Kuro’s steely blue eyes held a strong gaze that challenged all they looked upon.  Guessing the man to be almost twice his height, Joseph knew it must be hard for such an individual to live in a starship where room was always at a premium.  It undoubtedly did little for his manners.

         “Yes, well… I think that’s about as good as it gets for old Kuro here.  Let me introduce you to the ship operators.  This is Shadow, Menthoa, and Palthorn.”  Turning around from the displays in front, each man raised a hand and waved their greeting as the Captain introduced them.  “Shadow and Palthorn are from the mechanicus academy, and Menthoa is the ship’s engineer.  Speaking of which, why aren’t you in engineering readying for translation?”

         “I’ve re-routed main controls here for the time being, Captain.  We’re working on the problem that we talked about a couple of days ago.”  The heavily augmented man nodded strangely to the Captain, hinting in his body language that it was a sensitive subject.

         “Ah, very good, Menthoa.  Carry on.”  Taking a few steps the Captain turned and spoke again to Joseph, “Navigator Pressley will have to greet you later, he’s busy in his chamber preparing for warp.  Doctor Maxwell is preparing his lab near the rear of the ship, so you’ll have to meet him later as well.”

         “You have a fine crew here, Captain,” Joseph stated politely.

         “Oh, we are missing one more person…”  The Captain’s statement was interrupted by the mechanical hiss of the bridge door opening behind Joseph.

         “Speak of the daemon…” the Captain humored.

         “And she shall appear,” the newcomer finished with a smile.

         Once he saw her, Joseph took a quick breath and held it.  Her long and flowing silky black hair draped just below her shoulders.  Her slightly brown skin, flawless complexion and fierce green eyes immediately made him feel self conscious.  For the first time in several days it occurred to him that he hadn’t taken a decent shower or a comb to his head.  The tight green and black bodysuit she wore only furthered his embarrassment and self awareness.

         “Grace, my dear, please introduce yourself to Joseph.”  The Captain smiled, noticing the awestruck young man next to him.

         “So you’re the new gun hand?  Heard you’re pretty good.  Grace Alexander, pleased to meet you.”  The elaborately beautiful and elegant young woman walked across the room to shake Joseph’s hand.  Joseph stood still and stared at her, only breaking free of her visual charm when she cleared her voice politely.  Realizing that she was now standing right in front of him with her hand still held out in unrequited greeting immediately made him blush.

         “Joseph… I’m Joseph,” he spoke in a slightly monotone and distant voice.

         “Yes, we’ve established that,” she said bemusedly.

         Several of the men on the bridge chuckled and turned to go back about their business.

         “Well now, that should take care of the introductions.  Grace, please double check our trajectory point and prepare the field kits for arrival.  Have all of the communicae’s been sent?”

         “Yes, Captain.  Pressley sent them early this morning.”

         “Excellent.  Well, the time’s come to take this show on the road!  Joseph, my boy, please take a seat at the station in the back there.”  Vin Holson pointed to a chair at the rear station to his right.  Caught in her beauty, Joseph almost ignored the Captain entirely.

         “Well, it was nice to meet you,” Grace said to Joseph, giving him a smile that made his spine tingle.

         Addressing the entire bridge, the Captain spoke, “Crew of the Isis, prepare for warp.  Navigator Pressley, on your mark.”

         Never having been on a smaller vessel travelling through warp, Joseph suddenly felt like small bugs were crawling in his stomach.  He hurriedly grabbed the chair at the station in the back of the bridge and sat down, vigilantly strapping himself in securely.

         “Translating to warp in ten seconds, Captain.”  Joseph guessed that the eerie voice emanating from the vox was that of the navigator’s.  Born through a bloodline that held a unique mutation, navigators were able to guide ships traversing through the etheric dimension known as the warp using the third eye centered on their forehead.  Almost always concealed until time of actual warp travel, it was rumored that a single unprotected gaze into their third eye could cause a normal man to go insane.

         Knowing that the warp allowed quick access through the dominion of man, and that the Imperium could never have spread humanity without its presence, it still held little comfort to Joseph.  Some of the most evil and frightening creatures inhabited its boundaries, waiting to feast on human souls and to corrupt the material universe.  Although his father had told him some of what the other-worldly dimension held, Joseph gathered that even his father feared and warily spoke of the warp or the very chaos that was contained within it.

         Anticipating the change, Joseph closed his eyes and felt his heart pounding inside of his chest.  Sweat formed in the palms of his hands and he tried hard to control his breathing.  Images of daemons and twisted creatures vying for his soul swept in and out of thought.  The countdown echoing through the bridge neared the end.  Demanding himself to think positive thoughts, he felt the sudden change in atmospheric pressure and the electromagnetic hum of the warp shields igniting around the outside of the ship.

         Gripping the armrests of his chair tightly, Joseph prepared for only the third time in his life to brave the treacherous and vast dimension known to man as the warp.  He said a quick prayer to the Emperor that he would emerge on the other side with his sanity and soul intact.