The Saga of Silver Wolf - Chapter 1

Chapter One – Where are we?

         The Wolfs Maw moved though space like a predator on the hunt, the engines were only at sub-light speed, but the ship gave that presence of sudden and terrible violence at a swift and deadly pace.
         The ship was long but not thin and was identifiable in three main parts; there was the forward section where the bridge was located, the much larger middle section which housed the crew and contained several hanger decks, hydroponics and most of the recreational facilities as well as the armoury and engineering and there was the aft section which housed the engines. Each of the three sections were connected via a rotating cylindrical mechanism, around each of the two cylinders was a large ring, parallel to each other and was connected to it’s respective cylinder via four large columned structures each of which resembled a small 20th century Earth skyscraper. Joining these two immense rings together were four struts that ran the length of the middle section of the ship; each of the four struts contained ten heavily built weapons platforms capable of dealing great destruction, the struts were able to rotate along their axis allowing the weapons platforms to fire at almost any angle. The two cylinders that connected the great ship together could rotate around the ship and thusly spin the rings and their struts. This gave the Wolfs Maw an uncanny advantage in most battles in that the ship could fire upon multiple targets in one motion with little or no need to manoeuvre. The Captain of this fearsome vessel was Silver Wolf, a man who demanded the utmost respect from the rest of his crew. Now as it so happens, our first story takes us on a journey unlike any other recorded, and certainly into places never before heard of....


         Silver Wolf sat in his chair on the bridge, he was a big man, a largeness of muscle and raw power; his shoulders were broad with arms the thickness of a grown mans legs; his legs were like thick tree trunks. His hair was a dirty blonde/brown colour and hung straight down to his shoulders framing his chiselled features.
Piercing blue eyes surrounded by small scars that covered the broken nose and continued down to his square jaw. The physique showed a man of violence and warfare but belied his intellect and ability to command; He was a Captain, and of one of the most impressive battleships ever built and at this moment he was listening to Malek droning on about some big gaseous phenomenon he wanted to see several parsecs away from the most remote trading lane in recorded space. With no more than a grunt, he sent Malek packing although He agreed that anything was better than wasting another day waiting for an already overdue pirate to appear. You see, we were going to apprehend Meephon, a fairly notorious pirate from the outer fringes, whose small bounty was hardly worth the bother, but when you lose a bet (and to a woman at that) you gotta play by the rules. And the rules was simple - Capture Meephon or spend a week trying.
Anyway Alinak (He's the pilot for all those who missed it) turned the ship around and headed for the co-ordinates that Malek had given to him; we were on our way to 'study' gas (After chef's cooking, you had all the gas you could want to study).

         Let’s skip the two days of boring travel

....


         The Ship dropped out of Warp speed and the sub-light engines carried us to the fringes of some big bright blue cloud that if truth were to be told was kinda pretty (and a fat lip for anyone who sniggers). It swirled in the space winds as various lights of all different hues flashed and sparked as the different gasses inside it mixed. Malek started to take his scans and the usual lights and blips began to happen, Silver Wolf sat there looking at the cloud on the main view screen and scanned the quickly cast about the bridge for any indication that the cloud was going to cause problems. There were no surprised looks on the crews’ faces as they stared with dull eyed looks at their own screens and scanners, I myself was also taking a quick peek now and again just to be on the safe side; after all, we were fairly close to a large cloud of gas that could for all we know explode. Silver Wolf rose from his seat and headed for the door, one hand on his stomach.

         The Captain had decided that if he was gonna be waiting for 'who knows how long' he might as well not wait hungry, so off he goes to the mess and leaves me running the show. Typical, now I felt hungry.

....

         The mess hall was packed, as it usually was at this time, various crew shifts were changing whilst other crew members were socialising on their days off; there was a peel of laughter from one of the tables containing several grease covered engineers. Silver Wolf knew there was always deep maintenance happening in the engine cores or on the multiple power generators connected to the turrets; the engineers worked hard and Silver Wolf never berated them for being in the mess with grease covered overalls.
         “What can I get for you, Captain?” asked Neera.

         Now Neera is the ships head chef and she is sweeeet; good looks, a heavenly body and the foulest mouth this side of the plutonian reaches - my kinda woman.

         “What's fresh today?” asked Silver Wolf leaning on the serving counter.
         “A classic as always - Chicken curry on Chips or you could have Bakwar noodles and mugworm.”
         “Curry it is then,” said Silver Wolf who was already scanning the mess.
         “You got it, sir.”
         Silver Wolf waited at the counter for the food while his gaze fell upon Ferne 88, a new addition to the crew and a strange one at that. She was sitting apart from the rest of the crew bent over some data tablet with a steaming cup in one of her hands. Silver Wolf cast his mind back to the first time he saw Ferne 88.

         She had been in a heated discussion with four men in one of the many hangers in Agapelios Station when he was heading towards his own one-man fighter. Three of the men each wore a loose fitting white shirt and dark trousers tied at the waist by a green sash, black leather boots finished the attire; the fourth was a slightly taller man dressed in similar attire but for the colour of his sash, blue. The dress showed them to be members of a cult called ‘T.O.P. - The Original Pirates’, it was a stupid name for a stupid bunch of individuals. They raided and attacked any vessel that was smaller or more helpless than they were; they were laughed and ridiculed wherever they were seen but surprisingly some people still followed them despite this.
         The four men had started to become more aggressive and Silver Wolf gave pause to watch the scene develop; one of the men pulled a cruel looking blade from his sleeve and moved closer to the surrounded female.
         Ferne 88 stepped towards him and jammed the side of her hand directly to his windpipe, causing her would be assailant to fall to the floor gasping for breath. The remaining three all pulled knives from similar sleeve sheaths and moved in for the kill only to find a small puff of blue smoke where Ferne 88 once stood. She reappeared behind one of the men and stuck a one inch heel into the small of his back disabling the second foe instantly.

         Silver Wolf remembered running towards the combat with his favoured hand to hand weapons, two 18cm curved Bykirian war blades at the ready, when Ferne 88 shot him a look that quite clearly said 'interfere and die'.
Ferne 88 spun on her heel and kicked one man in the head, continued the spinning motion and swept his legs away causing his head to smack off the floor; she stood and turned to face the final man. He was a tall broad shouldered man with a long scar down the left side of his face; he looked at Ferne 88 then at Silver Wolf and the two Bykirian blades and fled as fast as his legs would carry him.

         Ferne 88 now turned her attention to Silver Wolf and walked towards him, a little smile playing upon her lips. Silver Wolf sheathed the blades and looked her up and down. She was a comely woman with a slender but muscular frame, covered in a tight fitting black leather jump suit and finished with steel forearm and shin guards. Her small pretty face was framed in dark hair that fell to her shoulders in small ringlets and shot with crimson streaks.
         “Still looking to rescue me?” she asked Silver Wolf sweetly.
         “I guess not. Who were those men?” he asked.
         “They were my mistake, my former Captain and his maggot bred crew. Who are you?” she enquired, “The cavalry?”
         “I'm Silver Wolf, Captain of the Wolf's Maw, the Battle cruiser in orbit around the station, and your new Captain - I could use someone as skilled as you in my crew.”
         “A battle cruiser grunt? - I don't think so. I've got more talent in my left nostril than half your crew put together.”
         Silver Wolf eyed her appraisingly, “I can think of something better than that...”


         “There you are sir, one chicken steamer.”
         “Thanks, Neera.” came the reply from Silver Wolf as his wandering thoughts were brought to a halt. He walked over to the empty seat at Ferne 88's table.
         “This free?” he enquired.
         “It's your ship,” the reply was simple and to the point.
         “So how are you settling into ship life then?” asked Silver Wolf as he seated himself and prepared to eat.
         “Not too bad - could be worse.”
         Silver Wolf raised an eyebrow, “Go on.”
         “There are some handsome young studs to look at!” Ferne 88 liked to tease Silver Wolf, but she wasn’t quite sure why.
         Silver Wolf choked on the curry, now it was Ferne 88’s turn to raise an eyebrow in enquiry.
         “Curry's a bit hot,” Silver Wolf replied lamely. “I’ve been meaning to ask, why the 88 at the end of your name, lots of siblings?”
         Ferne 88 smiled, “I'm an augmented clone, the 8th clone to be exact and I have 8 bio-metric augments. My name is Ferne eight-eight, not eighty eight.”
         “I knew of your augments, didn't know you were a clone though.”
         “Does it bother you - some of the crew keep a bit of a distance.” Ferne 88 sipped at her drink, keeping her eyes fixed upon the man in front of her; there was a slight edge to her tone although she hadn’t meant there to be.
         “Augments or clones don’t bother me in the slightest,” Silver Wolf continued shovelling the curry into his mouth. “So what augments have you got?”
         “Well, you've already seen that I can teleport small distances, I have an active camouflage that bends light around me and I have an augment that makes my muscles tighten or relax so that I can look and sound like somebody else, as for the rest, you'll just have to find out,” she winked.
         “How do your augments work? They must be somewhat complicated to work with.”
         “They’re fairly simple really,” replied Ferne 88, “there is a processor in my brain which is connected to the augments and it monitors my brain patterns and works out which augment I want to use.”
         “That’s impressive technology, why isn’t this widely available?”
         “There are two reasons; the first is that they can be dangerous. The augments use the bodies own energy to work, the more you use the augments, the more tired you become,” why had she said that, she was telling him a weakness, “there is also a small power core inside me which in the case of complete exhaustion, allows any augment one final use should I ever need it. And the second reason,” Ferne 88 sighed at the painful memory, “There was a religious cult near to the planet where the ‘experiments’ as we were called, were taking place. They somehow found out about the cloning and augmenting and deemed us as Demons. ‘Not created by the almighty, not of the Almighty’ they would shout. And if you weren’t of the Almighty then you were pure evil as far as they were concerned.”
         Silver Wolf continued to eat in silence as he listened to Ferne 88 speak about what had obviously been a traumatic time in her life.
         “They came in a fleet of cruisers and destroyed the place where I was created; my ‘Mother and Father’ were killed in the destruction as the continued to fire upon our settlement. I was a young girl at the time and witnessed the horrors first hand that man could deliver in the guise of religious fervour,” Ferne 88 paused to take a sip of her drink. Why was she telling him this? She hadn’t told anybody for over ten years what had happened.
         “The facility was completely destroyed and only a handful of us escaped. I sought revenge on the cult but they were just misguided fools, I never found the leader, and when we get back home again I’m going to pick up where I left off.”

         At that point, the ship communications system activated - GRINGOR TO THE CAPTAIN

         Silver Wolf double tapped the comm. badge on his shirt, “Go ahead, Gringor.”
         “Sir, Can you report to the Bridge, Malek's found something - interesting.”
         “On my way, Silver Wolf out,” a quick double tap on the comm. badge to put it back into stand-by mode and then both Ferne 88 and the Captain headed to the Bridge.

         As the Silver Wolf entered the Bridge he saw that Malek was jabbering excitedly to Allakor, the ships navigation Officer.
         “Captain, there's a ship on the other side of the cloud,” Malek exclaimed really excitedly upon seeing the Captains arrival.
         “They can be here too, Malek. This region of space is not forbidden to anyone,” Silver Wolf was disappointed to have left the curry for a rather useless report. As always Malek was over prioritising things.
         “Yes Captain, but they're not here; they're one the other side!!”
         “What are you babbling on about Malek? The other side of what?” asked Silver Wolf, “The cloud? So what if they are?”
         “Captain, they aren't just on the other side of the cloud, they are through the cloud AND on the other side!”

         Now I don't mind saying that that got the Captains attention, as well as the rest of the Bridge - me included.

         “Tanner, any sign of hostility from that ship?”
         “None Captain, I can't quite get a reading on it.”
         “Move us a little closer Allakor, and Tanner?”
         “Aye sir?” enquired Tanner.
         “Ready the shields and weapons.”
         “Aye, sir,” Tanner and Allakor responded in almost perfect unison.

         Tanner and Allakor are twins by the way, and for some reason they know what each other is thinking (Great for gambling, which is why they are both banned from just about every casino in the galaxy).

         As the ship started to move toward the cloud, the lightning that sparked across it now and again began to intensify and you could almost feel it on-board, it felt like static electricity on a balloon that was being moved over your arm hairs, only the sensations were all over your body, every hair standing to attention like a newly promoted soldier at a medal ceremony.

         “Tanner?”
         “No change Captain, wait; readings are coming through now sir. I... I’ve never seen this class of ship before sir,” there was a note of surprise in Tanners voice as he spoke; “Computer can’t find a match in the database either. It seems similar to a medium class Scrim Frigate, low yield weapons – probably anti-fighter and a few high yield turrets.”
         “Allakor, stop us here; Tanner, keep watching that ship.”
         “Aye, sir,” responded Tanner his eyes scanning his consoles.
         “Get me some readings on that ship and that cloud,” Silver Wolf said to the bridge in general.
         “Sir, were not stopping,” Allakors voice betrayed his concern.
         “Reverse engines,” Silver Wolf barked.
         “No effect sir.”
         “Turn us around, sub-light engines to full, keep us clear of that cloud.”
         “Aye, sir.”

         Several seconds later...

         “Sir, still no effect, I can't keep us...”

         And before that sentence was finished, we were in it and I'm not talking about the cloud either, although we were in that too. It seemed like time stood still for a second and then sped up again, slowed down, sped up, slowed down, and sped up. For any of you picturing this in your head, imagine that cup of hot java that was in your hand and then in your face in agonisingly slow motion – OOOHHH.
         Sparks were flying and consoles were exploding from their place on the walls - sheer chaos, but we were through the other side - and receiving a message...

         “..identified ship, yo***re tress***sing in Damogarrian sp***, prep*** to be boar**”

         Not even a 'How d'ya do’, must have seen us as easy pickings – HA were they wrong.

         “Gringor, clear that signal up and open a channel on all frequencies.”
         “Aye, sir,” I replied, my hands flying over my console.
         “Unidentified ship this is Captain Silver Wolf of the Wolfs Maw. We apologize for trespassing; we were monitoring the cloud...”
         “This is Damogarrian Space; your ship now belongs to us. Prepare to be boarded.” retorted the rather abrupt voice from the other ship.
         “The hell I will; all hands, this is the Captain, Battle stations - Prepare to be boarded, GIVE 'EM HELL - DOGS!!!”
         The Captain released the comm. switch and turned to Tanner as the battle siren began to sound.
         “Tanner, Full shields, take control of all the turrets and attack that ship.”
         “With pleasure Captain,” Tanner grinned.

         Tanner turned the weapons to bear on the enemy vessel, rotating the two great rings allowing two of the strut weapons a clear firing line; and with the ease borne of experience Allakor manoeuvred the ship so that we broadsided her.

         The turrets spat red death at the other ship who returned fire with some yellow and blue energy bolts of their own. Both the ships were manoeuvring into position trying to get maximum firepower with minimal sustained damage.
We were the bigger of the two vessels and it wouldn’t be long before the other surrendered or didn’t have a chance to surrender.

         “Sir, their shields are beginning to fail,” Tanner announced.
         “Gringor, hail them,” Silver Wolf commanded.
         “Go ahead sir,” I replied.
         “Unidentified vessel, stand down your attack and surrender,” Silver Wolf stated.

         The opposing ship didn’t listen though, they just kept on attacking, firing everything they had – morons!! Couldn’t they see they were outgunned, we had them; one more salvo and they were gonna be just another bit of space debris.

         “Unidentified vessel, stand down your attack and surrender; I will defend my ship,” Silver Wolf repeated.

         The other ship really must have thought we were bluffing.

         Silver Wolf looked at me with an expression that conveyed his thoughts – they were pig-headed and soon to be very dead.
         “Tanner, waste it.”
         Tanner didn’t respond, he just hit the fire button and let the resulting explosions do his talking for him.
         The ship bucked and rocked as Tanners blast hit them; several large chucks of the craft blew apart from the main structure as it detonated; the resulting debris all exploded at different times creating a kaleidoscope of colour. One piece was flying towards our ship, heading for the bridge; it was only a small piece and the shields would cope with it. It was a body, a humanoid body. As the cold dead flesh of that blueing carcass drifted towards the ship, it came into contact with our shields and was slowly disintegrated showing all the innards and entrails turning into a red ash.

         “Good work Tanner, Allakor. Malek, tell me where the Hell we are?”
         “Well sir, I'm not really sure,” replied Malek “we're definitely not in Kansas any more!”
         “Very Funny, find out, your scanners seem to be working better than Tanners”
         “Yes, sir,” said Malek.
         Silver Wolf double tapped his comm. badge into activation “Jenrick - System report,” he commanded.

         Jenrick is the chief engineer, imagine if you will a small man about 5'2” with small round glasses and a long stare that went right through you, the wall you were leaning against and into the room beyond - creepy, but a heck of an engineer.

         “Systems are crashing all over the place Captain, Warp engines are virtually non-existent, main computer is at 25% efficiency, shields are a non-starter - and my java is scalding my gonads !”
         “Get the shields operational first.”
         “Aye, sir,” replied Jenrick.
Silver Wolf continued to speak into his comm. badge, “Baiyush, casualty report.”
         “Reports are coming in from every deck, sir - about 1/3 of the crew reporting minor injuries; cuts, abrasions, minor concussions, nothing serious.”
         “Keep me posted.”
         “Aye, sir” replied Baiyush.
         Silver Wolf was about to double tap his comm. badge into stand-by mode when Allakor spoke up, “Sir, my scanners indicate that there’s a planet not too far from here; the navigational computers don't recognize any of the planetary systems or stars.”
         “Very well, link up with Malek and find out where we are; Gringor I want you, Malek, Shadik, and Avad in the briefing room now, Ferne 88 you too.”

         Various acknowledgments came in response, both from the bridge and from Silver Wolfs comm. badge before he finally double tapped it to stand-by mode.

         As an after thought, the Captain double tapped the comm. badge again and spoke once more into it.
         “Silver Wolf to Neera, I want a chef prepared with a list of items for stores replenishment in the briefing room in 5 minutes.”
         “Yes sir.”
         “Jenrick, I want an engineer in my briefing room in five minutes for an away mission,” Silver Wolf continued on.
         “Aye, sir” came Jenricks reply before the comm. badge was double tapped to stand-by mode again.
         “Allakor, you have the bridge, report anything you find different; we have no idea where we are.”
         “Absolutely sir.”