Before the Dawn

Prologue

Exploration is in the very soul of humans and throughout our long and ancient past we have found that all exploration brings with it both wondrous advances and frightening discoveries. From cavemen walking across the long lost land bridges to new continents discovering new food stuffs and shelter but also coming face to face with new diseases and predators to the nuclear age which unlocked great advances in power and science but also brought us face to face with extinction in the shape of atomic weapons.

This is a story of such discovery and the perils that come with it and how humans find secrets about themselves hidden in the essence of the stars themselves.

The Beginning

Throughout history we have constantly strived to discover new places. This probably started as a survival instinct but has ended being mankind’s greatest drive. From the early ship born discoverers to the first settlers in space, we as a race have always searched for new frontiers to explore. Once our entire planet was mapped we then looked up, to the stars for new lands to discover and colonise. It was in the late 22nd century when we really left the old governments behind and proceeded forward as a planetary whole, making our dreams a reality, when we smashed the first ice meteor into Venus to start the terraforming process.

As we attempted to explore the earth in our ancient past, we had to wait for the correct technologies that allowed us to search unhindered- the compass, new materials, advanced mapping techniques. In exactly the same way, our exploration of space was hindered by our knowledge of propulsion, navigation and shielding. It was only in the early 24th century when we managed to harness nuclear fission and turn it into a means of propulsion that we were finally able to leave our solar system and travel to new systems in relative safety. This led to an age of discovery and the first time that humans had truly spread their wings.

This was the time of the planet ships. These ships held thousands of souls and the largest, the Pelagos, was over a mile long and could travel for periods of upto 200 years without planetfall. These great ships contained everything needed to colonise a world. With upwards of 200 specialist craft, atmosphere refiners and a complete population, these mammoths of space colonized 28 planets in 70 years. On top of being ships of colonization, these were also vessels of scientific discovery. In fact it was the planet ship Perseus that first catalogued and discovered the strange dark energies that would eventually give us the ability to take advantage of the invisible gravity tunnels that connect any bodies of large enough mass. The technology allowed us to open these tunnels and slip through sub space itself and arrive at our destination almost instantaneously. The tunnels in space time were first theorized in the late 20th century and were termed as Chaotic Transports. Only with the discovery of these certain ‘Dark’ energies were we able to prise open space time enough to give us access to these natural highways which bypassed the conventional restraints on space travel. It was in 2667 that the first ship using the Chaotic Transport Drive (CTD) left the orbit of our sun and arrived in the orbit of Alpha Centauri in the blink of an eye. The rules had changed, mankind now had the tool to travel faster than light, the Planet ships became obsolete, converted into great Space Stations and waypoints between far flung territories that demanded multiple CTD jumps.

This great leap of technology allowed smaller vessels to venture into deep space and also brought about a new era of trade throughout our new empire. This new trading empire brought about many advances but one of these ‘advances’ was to have a darker side. On a planet named Cyphus, a plant, more of a lichen, was discovered. This might not sound like a great find but hidden in the genome of this plant was the secret of genetic manipulation. It allowed us to change our physical nature without permanently altering our genes. It started as a breakthrough but ended up changing us and compartmentalized our race forever.

We found out too late that these changes became permanent to our genome if left for 10 years or more. We were ignorant and didn’t heed the warnings and as a result we destroyed our pure genome. 6 distinct new species of human became prevalent, each possessing genetically altered features originally chosen to help them with their given tasks in life. The changes that people thought were temporary ended becoming ingrained in their genetic code, passing these genes onto their children. Some of these new human ‘sects’ had only minor changes made but others altered their physical appearance so drastically that they no longer appeared to be human at all.

One of these sects were the Space Farers who became known as the Farers. These were once the pilots, navigators and crew of the deep space vessels. They modified their bodies to take advantage of the low G conditions they kept their spacecraft in. All deep space vehicles kept gravity to ¼ of Earth’s norm, this value was found to be the best average between known planet’s different gravities. To take advantage of this they elongated their limbs, softened their skeleton and created biological interfaces between their minds and their ships allowing them to become one with the ship’s sensors and systems. They also modified their lungs and internal organs, allowing them to eat less, breath less oxygen and excrete waste products much more slowly. These changes made the farers 8 feet tall with arms and legs over 5 ft long and their trunk a mere 2ft. Their skin took on a bluish tint because it was thinner and their feet were more like hands. Their eyes also changed a black colour and gave them the look of an alien from some 20th century horror film. These humans could no longer set foot on earth without the aid of special suits to reinforce their skeletons.

The most normal looking sect were probably Engineers or or ngins, these were the men and women who once controlled the technical processes of society. Although they had robots to assist they still needed to be strong for certain tasks and as a result they changed their body muscle to fat ratio and strengthened their bones 6 fold. On top of this they shortened their overall height by an average of 1 foot. In essence the engineers became very hardy and strong and lost none of their original human looks.

In contrast to the technology loving engineers were the warriors. These were once ordinary soldiers who opted to change their bodies to better suit their role. They hardened their skeletons so that they were almost as strong as steel, their skin was altered so it became tougher than alligator skin and could blunt a knife, they increased their height to 8 feet and increased base muscle mass by threefold. On top of this they had boney protrusions added to the tops of their fore arms. These were strong enough to puncture plas steel or to tear a normal man to shreds. The warriors became titans amongst men. Their skin an oily black, 4 times the width of unaltered man, 2 feet taller than a ‘normal’ man and with the strength to snap a man’s back with a glancing blow, the warriors were terrifying.

On the flipside of the warriors were the seers and academics. The original seers were psychics who strived to genetically modify their talents. Their heads grew larger and their bodies withered away as they needed them less and less. Despite years of searching we were unable to find the genes responsible directly for psychic powers and a lot of children born to seers had no psychic powers at all, these impotent seers became academics, there larger cranial size allowing them to consider larger problems than ‘normal brains’ and thus made them perfect for the role of scientists, theorists, researchers and problem solvers. The children who were born with psychic abilities went on to perfect their gift and were able to see the unseen and, to a certain extent, read minds. This was not the role they would assume in this new humanity. Because of their telepathic abilities the seers could communicate with other seers using only their minds. Unlike normal communications, Seers could communicate with each other almost instantaneously over vast distances. This made the seers great conduits of information and because of their brothers, the academics or cadems, they took over the role of managing all AI, computer and communication systems across the new empire.

The last sect were the merchants. These, the wealthy owners of spacecraft and trading companies, had no physical need to change their bodies and instead began altering themselves for pleasure. Most of them made themselves hermaphroditic, possessing both male and female genitalia. As well as the physical changes, they adjusted their nervous system, increasing the sensitivity of their bodies pleasure centres. In essence the merchants became the ultimate pleasure seekers and apart from counting their money their main interest was in having sex with each other or with themselves.

As you can see, the human race became a mixr of very distinct and separate sub species because of our naïve manipulation of the human genome. Each sect had it’s own distinct role in the new world. The apartheid and racial hatred of the past was childs play to the new inter species hatred that arose. The Farers and Warriors thought they were Gods and the other sects resented everything about them. As had repeated itself throughout human history war erupted because of racial and social ignorance.

The War

No one really knows for sure how it started but we do know that it was the warriors who attacked first. They wiped out an academic colony in an outlying sector killing over 25,000 souls and making an entire planet uninhabitable. The academics retaliated at Seluca Secundus in an ambush. The Heavy Planet Cruiser Panthera was destroyed when a quantum singularity mine was hidden in an asteroid along the ship’s path. Panthera and her 12,000 crew didn’t know what hit them as the singularity weapon ripped them and their 980,000 ton vessel to scrap metal.

This tit for tat warfare carried on un-perturbed, alliances formed between the farers and the warriors, both of whom believed they were better than the others. The rest of the sects joined together in an effort to oppose the almost racial hatred the warriors and farers had towards them.

20 years into the war, 6 entire star systems had been destroyed and the death toll on both sides totalled over 2 billion. Sadly this didn’t stop the war but fuelled each side on, each blaming the other for the atrocities they’d committed. Eventually another human form arose- the ‘mechs’. These were at first a creation of the cadems and were volunteers who were disembodied, their brain and spinal column kept in special canisters which kept the living tissue alive. These ‘brains’ could then be placed into mechanical bodies of immense size and power in order to fight the opposition. The brains of these volunteers could almost live forever and the only death they could experience was that of utter destruction.

The bodies built for these mech brains were gigantic. Some of the larger Titans rose over 1300 feet into the air and were so powerful that a single Titan could decimate an entire army. At first it seemed like the cadems had won the war with the mechs. These mechanical humans won battle after battle and it looked like victory would finally go to the Cadems. That was until the tragedy of Colondor.

Colondor was the main stronghold of the warriors, with over 9 million troops, 8 orbital battle platforms and an armada of system cruisers in orbit it previously thought of as an impossible target. The Cadems knew that if they could over power and destroy this stronghold the Warriors moral would be crushed and victory and an end to the war would in view at last.

86 years into the great war, the Cadems launched an all out offensive at Colondor. Their entire Battle Fleet of 94 Heavy Star Cruisers approached the planet, 400 Titans hidden in their launch bays. As the fleet jumped into the orbit of Colondor’s sun and the tachyon fields surrounding them dissipated, they realized they had caught the Warriors off guard. All vessels made for the planet at full sub light speed, their shields a ghostly blue in the orange light of the dying sun. As they entered high orbit the Titans were launched and roared down into the atmosphere while the fleet began it’s bombardment of the planet’s orbital defense.

2 platforms and 12 ships were destroyed before the warriors knew what had hit them. The Warrior fleet, crewed and piloted by Farers, suddenly realized what was happening and brought their guns to bare. Although their ships were only half the size of the massive star cruisers they were a great deal more maneuverable. The Farer pilots were actually linked directly to their ships and flew the vessels as extensions of their own bodies. As they outflanked the cadem cruisers they managed to destroy 9 of them, sending the gigantic ships crashing into the atmosphere for all Warrior troops on the surface to witness and applaud.

On the surface, the Titans, in teams of 3 had managed to gain control of the planet’s Oceans and their AI fighters dominated the skies. The Warriors called on close air fighter support from the Farers but the Titans had anticipated this and nearly every aircraft was vaporized before they got within a hundred miles of their Titan targets. The unbelievably powerful energy weapons within each Mech controlled Titan decimated the Warrior troops, their tough hides and exo armour being no match for weapons that vaporized the atmosphere around them. Hard to believe that a single human mind controlled each of these harbingers of destruction.

In orbit the Farers had sent another 4 Cruisers of the Cadem fleet into the atmosphere but as a result had lost over half of their fleet and 2 more of their Heavily armed orbital platforms. The Battle was the Cadem’s, or so they thought. At that moment the entire Farer Armada seemed to stand still before turning and heading at full speed out of the Colondor system.

The bridge of the Cadem command ship erupted in applause and cheers but just as suddenly the cheers were extinguished and looks of panic began spreading across the bridge of the mighty battle ship. As the command crew stared at the view screens, the remaining Orbital platforms each fired 2 projectiles straight down at the planet. Sensors all over the vessel sprang to life and it took mere milliseconds for alarms across the entire fleet to sound.

In desperation the warriors had launched a weapon that was never meant to be used, the ultimate deterrent, the final peace maker. They had launched planet killers- anti matter core bombs. These devices tunneled into the core of a planet and used anti matter to react with a planet’s super dense core, the resulting reaction destroyed a planet from the inside out in minutes. In this case, the desperation of the Farers had made them launch 8 of these weapons into Colondor’s core. If one could destroy a planet what untold devastation would this cause.

All was lost, the Admiral knew there was no way to evacuate the Titans in time and understood he’d be lucky to escape with any part of his fleet intact. He sent an emergency signal to the surface warning his comrades of their imminent destruction and then pulled the remaining fleet away from the planet at maximum speed. As the first 10 vessels jumped, the night behind them exploded, for a light year across the visible horizon the universe erupted into a fiery hell. 5 more vessels managed to escape before the wave of superheated plasma hit them. No one onboard the ships knew or felt anything, they were heated to temperatures of over a 1 million Kelvin in under a second, dying instantly, nothing remained of them, not even ashes.

The Colondor system was gone, the star at it’s centre, which had burned for a billion years, was literally blown out, nothing would ever exist here again because of man’s mistake. In later years it would be marked as a memorial to the folly of war and the stupidity of mankind.


Peace?

The war finally ended in 2805- 87 years after it started. Nobody knew whether it was the fear of the weapon or the fear of humanity itself that forced the sides to the peace table. What we do know is that exactly one year after the tragedy at Condor, the leaders of all sects met upon a converted planet ship, in an arboretum module, overlooking what was once the Colondor system, and signed a peace treaty beginning work on a new constitution for a Federation of United Humanities.

It was this framework that led to the 1st Galactic Federation of Humans, the largest empire in history. The Colondor treaty also outlined the structure of the new federation’s government, a senate led by an elected member of one of the sects. This leading sect would be rotated once a terran year, allowing a fair spread of power at the top. In the senate itself, 40 representatives of each sect made up the bulk of the members, on top of this, the senate would also have mixed science, exploration, war and ethics delegations, each comprising of 25 members of different sects.

The senate would make decisions that effected the day to day running of the federation, it’s development, it’s laws and it’s expansion. To take care of the normal disputes, trade disputes, galactic planning etc a house of planetary representatives was created. This house would contain 1 representative of every colonized system in the federation. At the inauguration of this new federation in 2810, there were over 1200 colonised world’s in the federation with a combined population of over 180 billion.

In this way and in this way alone could the safe and fair running of a Galactic federation be secured. As with everything, there were slight running problems to start with but all in all the teething problems were minimal and the federation has endured a pretty long time, 200 years to be precise. That’s 200 years with no fighting, no war, in fact it’s been 200 years of pretty much nothing apart from peace, ongoing exploration, population growth, discovery and all round development of humanity as a whole.

That’s history up to now, well, it’s the history I have time to tell you. The year is now 3010, humanity is now going through another expansion and discovery push thanks to the last 15 leaders of the senate who thought mapping and exploring the entire Milky Way would be a great idea. Now an exploration fleet of over 1000 ships explored the uncharted reaches of our galaxy. These ships were deliberately crewed with a mix of every human sect so that no single sect could ever take credit or be blamed outright for anything.

Strange reports started coming from the direction of the galactic core, reports were confused and contact lost with 2 ships. Something seemed to be happening at the core and humanity was about to find out what.


Chapter 1. To the Core of Things

The Galactic Core or Centre of the Galaxy is the large mass at the centre of our galaxy. When I say large mass, I really mean large, absolutely huge actually. Most people think our Sun is pretty big because it’s mass causes the planets of our solar system to orbit it. The core is so big that it makes our sun and a million others like it orbit around it. Among many other things the core is a stella nursery, stars form there and stars die there. This takes vast amounts of energy and many have hypothesized that a giant black hole exists at the core but no one is sure because it is so dense that ships have been unable to get close enough to study it and because of the gravitational force, even light itself gets twisted and distorted.

This was true until we discovered very efficient means of manipulating gravity’s effects, shield’s came about because of the CTD, the space time corridors only existed near objects with great gravitational fields, namely stars, gravity wells and gas giants. In strong enough gravitational fields the ships would glow like a stars themselves as the shields did their job. To travel to the core would test this technology to the edge of it’s ability. In all of mankind’s explorations thus far, we had only explored a mere 2% of our own galaxy, still a great achievement but we wanted more. Since the 20th century, scientists had speculated that there must be between 3 and 45,000 intelligent species in our galaxy. None had been found, in the fact the most advanced form of life we had found was a type of tube worm and that was discovered back in the days of the planet ships.

Closer to the galactic core the density of stars increases and so the probability of discovering life increases. This was the theory anyway, as usual, the theorists had no idea what was actually out there. A new generation of explorer ships were built, these vessels were designed to travel further than ever before and carried the equipment and crew to face anything these journeys could throw them. The distances they would travel would make communication incredibly difficult, even using the psychic ability of Seers. The Deep Exploratory Vessels (DEV) were designed to journey for 5 years at a time and were our best bet for discovering other intelligent races and continuing our epic quest of discovery.

The newest DEV, Atlantia, fresh out of the construction yards in the Sol System Asteroid belt was the most advanced vessel ever built. Able to travel at .9c (0.9 the speed of light on her sub light engines) and capable of jumps of upto 100 light years at a time, she was as fast as anything man had ever built. At 1800 feet long with every bit of technology man possessed, she was truly magnificentl. When her new shields were powered up, the skin of her hull glistened like some mad scientists rainbow, at sub light power her drive ports glowed a brilliant white. At the centre of her super structure rose the dome of the CTD core. Within it, dark energies swirled in a negative spectrum and because of the nature of the energy, only a force field held them in place, making them visible to all from outside the vessel. This strange and disturbing site made the Atlantia even more beautiful, in all, she looked more like a chariot of the Gods than a ship built by man. At least that’s what her new captain thought as his shuttle approached her for the first time.

Commander Jake Dylane stepped off his shuttle onto the hangar deck of Atlantia with a look of awe in his eyes An experienced Captain with 6 commands behind him, at 80, Jake was still in his prime. As an Ngin he was not the tallest of men and at 5 feet 3 inches his Farer Navigator Bryn Morcha towered over him. At only 35, Bryn was young for a full fleet navigator but she was good, Jake usually went so far as to say she was the best. Now aboard she could feel her bio interfaces tingling as she made soft contact with Atlantia’s ancillary systems.

‘She is itching to go Jake’ Bryn bent over almost double to talk to the Captain. Like a scene from an ancient zoo of a child and a giraffe, Jack looked back up at Bryn and winked, ‘Believe me there Bryn when I say she ain’t the only one. What do say we get straight up to the bridge and start giving our new baby a good shakedown?’

Bryn returned a smile the way only a Farer can, her partially translucent teeth showing from ear to ear, her black eyes twinkling, ‘I can’t wait to interface with the new systems and find out exactly how far I can push her, the specs are truly amazing. Let’s get up there right away Captain.’

And they would have got up there right away had the entire ship’s compliment not been stood to attention in front of them awaiting inspection. The one thing that Jake couldn’t stand was pomp and ceremony. He took one look at the assembled 1600 crew, flicked a half hearted salute and said his usual, ‘Call me Captain and follow my orders and we’ll be a happy family. As you were!’

He went to turn and walk off but seemed to walk into a bulkhead. In great comedy tradition he stared up and came face to face with a 9 foot monster, ‘argh!’ and he jumped backed.

‘S-sorry sir’, said the black skinned giant, standing like a flagpole, saluting at 90 degrees, the warrior looked sort of embarrassed. ‘Lieutenant Rhone Blue Captain, your n-new security and tactical officer’.
Jake stared up at the Lieutenant, looked back at Bryn and then back at Rhone. ‘Pleasure to meet you then Blue’, Jake said extending his hand upwards, Rhone seemed to take it as delicately as possible and gave a little shake.
‘T-thankyou sir’, he stammered yet again.
‘Look Blue, just call me Captain, I never did like the S word. Why don’t you follow myself and Bryn here up to the bridge, we’re going to start the shakedown as soon as we can.’
‘Yes Captain’, he bellowed back down, ‘my men are fully briefed and looking forward to the exercises.’ This was followed by another almighty salute which could have disemboweled an elephant.

Looking around the hangar deck Jake was amazed. With 9 shuttles, 25 fighters and a fleet of repair AI’s, the Atlantia was equipped for just about anything. Cadems on hover chairs flew around the hangar checking systems out. Farers, at home in the light gravity moved nimbly around the outside of their fighters and shuttles checking all was functioning well. The massive warriors stood guard at every entrance to the hangar.

Moving to the fore section of the hangar the 3 found the D lift entrance, asking for the bridge the lift moved off without a sound or a hint of movement. Moments later the doors opened on the main command bridge. This was a sight to behold, the main view screen rose 20 feet and covered the entire fore section of the bridge. Currently viewing the dock they were tethered to, the view screen gave analysis of everything in Atlantia’s vicinity, other vessels, planets, analysis of structures and the full status of Atlantia herself.

Looking around the bridge Jake eyed up his new command crew, 30 people in all manned the bridge. Cadem’s in the Science section, Ngins and Farers in Engineering, Warriors and Ngins in Tactical, Seers in communications and then the 2 command seats.

The command chair sat in the centre of the bridge, raised 5 feet off the ground to provide the Captain with unhindered views. The chair literally bristled with computer interfaces and displays, providing Jake with access to every system on the ship and every ounce of information he could ever need. Directly in front of the command chair was Bryn’s navigation seat. Where a head rest would normally be was a strange half collar. This neck hold was covered with what looked like the suckers from a starfish and it was this that provided the bio interface from the ship’s systems direct to Bryn’s nervous system.

Bryn left the Captain behind and approached her station, staring at the seat a strange look came over her face. Jake recognized this look, all Farer’s looked like this before they ‘plugged in’ to a vessel for the first time. She sat down, closed her eyes and very slowly eased her slender neck back into the collar. As her neck moved closer the thin tendrils of the collar seemed to bristle until she made contact. Bryn’s body gave a slight shudder and she grew deadly still. A few seconds later a non augmented human face appeared on the main view screen.
‘Awaiting your orders Captain’, Bryn’s voice came through the ship’s comm. system.
‘Right you are Bryn, how’s the interface? Encountering any problems?’, Jake addressed the main view screen. Bryn’s virtual face smiled back down at him, ‘none at all Jake, a seemless interface, those designers have done an amazing job on this one! I can sense almost 40 light years in every direction and Atlantia is ready for a full system’s shakedown.’

A large smile came over Jake’s face, it never failed to amaze him how Farer navigators could become one with a vessel, making it an extension of their own body and mind. ‘Notify crew and contact control to inform them we’re moving out.’ Almost instantly another face appeared on the view screen.
‘Commander Dylane, you are cleared for departure and are instructed to follow your shakedown orders in the lymbus abyss. Good luck and we’ll see you in a week. Take good care of Atlantia, we’ve all grown quite attached to her.’ This was Admiral Zen Marsha, overall commander of the Explorer fleet, a Cadem who managed to work his way up the ranks usually reserved for Warriors, Farers and Ngins.
‘You know she’s in good hands Admiral, we’’ll see you in a week.’ Jake saluted his old commanding officer and closed the communication.

Jake beamed once more round the bridge, he loved the feeling of taking a ship out for the first time. ‘Bryn, detach the umbilical and take us out’.
‘Aye, aye Captain.’ Bryn’s virtual self replied. A tiny shudder crept through the ship as the 12 umbilical cords detached away from Atlantia and the mighty ship eased away from the dock at 1/12 impulse power. They would use the journey to the proving grounds at the Lymbus Abyss as a test of their CTD and attached systems. Accelerating outwards from Sol system and approaching light speed, Jake’s console started flashing system reports and checks. Jake eyed them with interest and then looked up at Bryn, ‘ok then Bryn, lets turn her around and get to the jump corridor. The mighty ships swung gracely around at 90 percent of light speed heading directly for the sun.
‘I have the corridor targeted Captain.’ Bryn reported with a look of mischief in her eyes, this is what she lived for, the feeling from the shipss sensors as they passed into the realm of sub space. Although the jump would appear instantaneous for the crew, for the navigator time slowed down and it was possible to view the eddies and currents in the sub space corridors, Bryn could almost feel the strings that created these great chaotic transport corridors.

If a spectator were to watch a ship engage CTD they would be a bit disappointed. As the tachyon field started to encompass Atlantia all that was visible was a slight shimmering effect, as the dark energy core opened the sky in front of the vessel begins to warp like water in a fish bowl and then the ship disappears into the distortion. Systems onboard the mighty vessel show more obvious signs, the massive inertial dampeners kick in, the gigantic forward facing particle dissipaters charge and then fire removing any particles lying in the ships path as she travels faster than light through the corridor and then the quantum generators come on line to dissipate the time dilation effects which may be encountered in their brief time in the corridor.

Back aboard the bridge, the transition showed as nothing but a brief transition between views. One second they were rushing towards the sun and the next they were racing away from gravity well, 38 light years away. This was how the crew perceived the jump, to Bryn it was an overwhelming sensory encounter. She could feel the eddies on her fingertips, could see the strange and wonderful energies with her enhanced senses, she was the ship and she lived the moment. To her, every jump lasted an hour, an hour that she treasured.

‘Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the Abyss.’ Bryn smiled down at the Captain from the view screen.
‘Thankyou Bryn, an excellent jump. Take us to the proving grounds now and don’t spare the horses.’ The Captain let out a sigh and began issuing orders to department heads preparing them the the tests that lay ahead in the coming days.

The Abyss was a 5 light year expanse of space that was home to nothing, the perfect proving ground for the mighty explorer ships, their weapons and technologies. The shake down was uneventful, weapons were tested, maneuvers carried out, fighters and shuttles launched and collected, emergency drills executed over and over. At the end of 6 days the crew were exhausted and when Jake gave the command to stand down, it was followed by a great cheer. The entire crew now knew that Atlantia was ready, that they had passed the tests and that they were ready for anything.

‘All none essential personnel stand down. You are now ordered to your relevant messes to enjoy at least one drink. That is an order!’ Jake flipped down the comm. mike on his chair stretched his arms and dismounted his new throne.

For the first time since they left the asteroid belt Bryn’s eyes opened and she rose from her interface seat. Farer’s metabolism meant they only needed to eat once a week and this was her chance. Jake looked down to her, a rare experience, ‘Bryn, would you and the other senior staff care to join me in Captain’s mess for a celebratory dinner in 30 minutes?’

‘I’ll assemble the Officers Captain and see you in the mess at the earliest.’ Bryn sounded tired and Jake knew how much a new integration could exhaust a navigator.
‘Don’t worry Bryn, you can rest as soon as the meal’s over’
‘Thanks Jake, I forgot how much a shakedown can effect me.’ Bryn saluted with her massively elongated arms and went off to gather the department heads for their pat on the back.

Jake passed command onto the duty Officer and took his leave to his cabin. He felt pretty pleased with the crew for the successful shake down but wasn’t sure his command team were firing on all cylinders. This was the real reason he wanted dinner with them, time to see who the egos were. He had previously ‘sailed’ with the head of Science and had met his stammering tactical officer, the rest were a mystery. Jake thought himself a fair man and a good commander, he hated to rely on AIs and put much more emphasis on humans and teamwork. This emphasis was some what of a compulsion with Jake and even stretched to the point where he demanded a human doctor onboard each of his vessels.

Ever since he was a child, Jake had hated AIs and their cold, sterile thought process. When he was 12 an AI guard drone had malfunctioned killing his younger sister and destroying his left leg. Ever since he had had to tolerate his mechanical leg. Although identical to a normal leg to the untrained eye, Jake knew it was there and reminded him constantly that he was not fully human anymore.

With his uniform on he glanced once more in his mirror and marched off to meet his crew in the Captain’s mess.

Chapter 2. Meeting the troops

The gathered officers were sat in the mess passing the time with idle chit chat as the door slid open and Jake walked in. ‘Don’t bother standing people, just stay as you were.’ Too late, Rhone Blue was already up at full attention with another one of those worrying salutes. ‘Sit down Blue and try not to hurt anyone with that salute.’ The officers tittered to themselves and blue turned a darker black and folded into his seat. Jake made a mental note to read more on this warrior, why was he so nervous? Could become a worry once the pressure heated up?

As Jake sat down he glanced around and his eyes came to settle at the far end of the table. Here was what seemed to be an AI, a metal body, 4 legs, 2 arms and god knows what hidden appendages within it’s body. The metal being noticed the attention and addressed the Captain in a strong, clear and unmistakably human voice. ‘Captain Dylane, I am Shona Tena, the ship’s medical officer.’
Jake looked around at the others and back to his new medic. ‘You’re human then?’
‘Yes Captain, I’m a mech.’ He said nonchalantly, ‘my body was almost completely destroyed when the Planet Ship Voltera’s core went critical.’ A face appeared on the front of the metal body showing a face with no hair at all but with a strange look of sadness in it’s eyes.

Jake stared back at Shona in awe, the Voltera incident was over 300 years ago. Of the 20000 humans aboard only 297 managed to escape. ‘Doctor Tena, the Voltera was destroyed over 300 years ago, I was unaware of any living survivors.’

“My body was so badly damaged that the only way I could be saved was by turning me into a mech, my mind has lived in this canister for 303 years now. The Admiral thought my experience would come in useful on your upcoming mission.’ The face looked sad and Jake could see the pain on the face even if it was only a computer generated image.

‘Very good doctor, you have my utmost respect and I look forward to speaking to you and hearing some of your, no doubt, fantastic stories.’ Jake was taken aback, he thought the only living mechs were aboard the deep space vessels attempting to reach other galaxies.

He smiled across at his Science officer, a Cadem but an unusual one. Chryse Sonomar had implanted neural conductors into his legs and through years of training had managed to learn how to walk. This for a Cadem was staggering, as most of them refused the chance to walk because they saw no need in it. Their life was in their minds, pondering problems and digesting information. The Commander liked Chryse, he was a man of character and great inner strength. He was a great officer to have in a crisis.
‘Great to see you again Chryse.’
‘Likewise Commander, this should be an interesting trip I believe.’ Chryse’s voice like most Cadems was quite shrill and sounded more feminine than other races.

‘I’ll drink to that Chryse, everyone, I give you the toast…to interesting times.’ Jake raised his glass and his officers reciprocated with a resounding ‘here, here.’ Everyone took a deep draught and Jake heard a nervous cough from his right hand side.

‘Captain Dylane, my name is Joain Montral your Engineering Officer, I was wondering if Atlantia is living up to her looks? I take a great pride in my work and was wondering why the CTD drive has not yet been taken to maximum power. With all due respect Commander, I need to test the power levels within the core at maximum levels to ensure safety during high energy usage.’ Joain was an Ngin like Jake but appeared to be a full foot shorter and what more, against the norm for space fairing Ngins, Joain was a woman.

‘Patience Chief, on our return run back to Sol we’ll be running at maximum power. I’ll be ordering full Battle Ready CTD jump to test the generators and drive fully.’ A jump of this nature consisted of launching all fighters and then initiating the CTD process. The Tachyon generators would have to surround the fighters outside of the ship whilst they jumped into the corridor.

It was a risky tactic and pushed crew and all vessels to their maximum. All of the officers stared around at each other.in nervous silence. Eventually Rhone Blue addressed Jake, ‘Captain, I wish I had been informed of this earlier, the fighters internal power systems will have to be adjusted accordingly prior to the jump.’ This time the security officer’s voice was strong and steady.

Jake slowly turned to him with an icy look, ‘tell me lieutenant, how long would you have in a battle situation? The exercise will be run as in real life, Joain, you will have extra technicians on standby to adjust power couplings but Mr Blue, your pilots are not to be informed of the exercise until it is announced by myself. Am I understood?’ Some were taken aback by the sharpness of the Commander’s voice and the 2 concerned officers both nodded their acknowledgement.

The voice of the mech doctor returned, ‘Captain, I shall have medical drones under my instruction put on standby as well. I am capable of controlling 10 of these drones myself so your wish of no AI interference on this mission will be carried out.’

Jake was unaware that the Doctor knew his wishes, ‘yes Doctor, that will be very good.’

The food arrived and for the most part they ate in silence, most people’s thoughts concentrating on the intricacies of the upcoming exercise. Bryn was the first to leave, Jake then excused himself, ‘Tomorrow is going to be a long day, as a heads up, I will be sounding battle stations at 0800, please prepare your departments accordingly and Rhone, the pilots must not know til the time. Goodnight.’

The command crew returned the compliment and sat in bemused silence as Jake left. Bryn arrived at her cabin carrying dark thoughts, what was wrong with Jake? What was he hiding? Why was he demanding a fresh crew run one of the most difficult maneuvers a starship can undertake? They had known each other for many years and many voyages and in all that time she had never seen the man act like this.

Was it something to do with the strange stories circulating around the fleet?

Chapter 4. War Games

As the klaxon sounded, the ship sprang to life, pilots scrambled about their vessels, tactical stations all over the ship sprung to life. Atlantia’s hull took on a vague green shimmer as her defensive shields charged up and encompassed the vessel, simultaneously the ships external lights blinked out. Internally the ship took on a red hue, shields glowed in front of fragile view screens and command crew seats lowered to the ground and safety supports wrapped around crews bodies to prevent them being injured by any blasts. In the hangar Warrior Marines and Ngin technicians donned their exo armour in anticipation of the launch tube doors opening.

‘This is your Captain speaking, we are about to commence a full battle jump. All fighters are ordered to launch and assume close defensive positions around the ship. Heavy Fighters are ordered to the dock with the external magnetic couplings and prepare for incoming fire.’ As Jake’s voice echoed around Atlantia, the pilots scrambled into their cockpits in a state of confusion. First to launch were the Heavy Fighters, they launched and then approached magnetic couplings on the hull of Atlantia, here a magnetic plate lowered from underneath them and they became instantly fastened to the hull. Here they would adopt the role of gun turrets and missile launchers assisting in the defense of their huge mother ship, the huge magnetic couplings shunting ships power direct to their own shields.

Now the four, light fighter wings launched and approached their defensive positions. The first wing forned around Atlantia’s nose in a cross, perpendicular to the nose, the second wing encircled the mid section of the vessel and the remaining 2 wings formed defensive flanks to the port and starboard of the Explorer. Whilst this display of aerobatics went on the massive generators within Atlantia began to whine as they approached maximum output. The ships shields slowly expanded to encompass the fighters as the pilots awaited nervously for the next part of the procedure.

Bryn’s voice sounded into the fighter’s comm systems, ‘all pilots turn flight control to over to Atlantia, we are about to accelerate to our jump point.’ The Farer pilots engaged their systems and Atlantia began to accelerate back towards the gravity well. The ships coversion shields began to glow as they approached the high gravity of the well. Suddenly the CTD generators engaged and the ship disappeared into subspace. The whole ship trembled as the generators were pushed to their absolute maximum. The ship exploded back into the orbit of our sun traveling at .5c. ‘Bryn, bring her down to 0.3c and notify the fighters to a assume attack pattern delta x ray 9.’ No mistakes Jake thought, so far, so good. The fighters left the safety of Atlantia’s shields and pushed forwards to their attack positions. ‘Fighters in position Captain, what’s our heading?’, Bryn’s face seemed more relaxed now and her eyes took on their usual twinkling. ‘Take her into low Venusian orbit in approach to Fleet station Morpheus. Once in approach vectors, please tell the pilots to perform a Vasquerez helix around the hull. Let’s give the fleet something to look at as we arrive.’ Jake winked at his navigator and looked thoroughly pleased with himself.
Bryn’s face appeared on Jake’s command console, ‘Cat got the milk there Captain?’
Jake just smiled back and brought up a close up of Morpheus station on the main view screen. Pefect, he thought to himself, 13 ships docked and 3 more inbound. They’re gonna love this. He then signalled Morpheus control.
A fresh faced Cadem appeared on the view screen, ‘Commander Dylane, welcome back to Sol System, we have docking arm 12 on standby for you. Prepare to switch navigational control to us.’
‘There is no need for that ensign, Bryn vector us in to dock 12.’ The Captain had utmost faith in Bryn as she’d performed this docking a hundred times in the past. ‘Oh and Morpheus control…please tape our approach, it should be quite a show.’
‘That is affirmative Commander Dylane.’ The fresh faced Cadem replied with little or no humour in his face. Jake couldn’t help but smile as his fighters formed a helix around Atlantia, slowly circling their mother ship. With their shields at maximum they became little fireflies spinning around the great ship. As they approached the dock the helix folded in on itself as the fighters returned to the hangar. Only one heavy fighter remained anchored to the hull due to a malfunction in it’s magnetic coupling.

Atlantia cruised into dock and came to slow halt as Bryn fired the docking thrusters, at the same moment the dock’s umbilical flew out to the ship and attached themselves like huge tentacles. ‘Welcome to Fleet Station Morpheus Atlantia’ Jake said into the intercom, ‘all non essential have 24 hours R&R. Please be at your stations no later than 19:00 tomorrow. Well done everyone and I look forward to seeing you in 24 hours with our new orders.’ The crew couldn’t get off the ship fast enough, their casual clothes thrown on they headed off to seek the pleasures that awaited them on the gigantic fleet station.

Jake spied Joain to his right hand side, ‘Chief get a crew on that grounded fighter and have it off the hull at the earliest. I have a feeling we’ll be leaving pretty soon.’
‘Consider it done Captain.’ Joain churped back and abruptly turned face, marching to the D lift.
Bryn had unplugged and approached Jake, ‘Impeccable as always Bryn, stand down and get yourself some shore leave. I’m off to find out what our orders are’.
‘Actually Captain, I think I’ll turn in and get some rest.’ Bryn was still smiling but seemed a little tired.
‘Come on Bryn, I should be back in a few hours, how about we have a drink in that zero G bar? We had a great laugh in there last time.’ Jake was a bit worried about his navigator but didn’t let it show.
‘OK then Jake, you’ve twisted my rubber arm. Contact me once you know your movements.’ Bryn lurched off and Jake stood on his bridge wondering where they were going and what surprises it would have in store for him and his crew.


To be continued