5430.05.09 1242
It was a beautiful noon on Zemoria. The sun was shining bright. The base was quiet. The training had been out by the water in a secluded military complex. Four barracks and a command building were all that they had to call home. It was the end of their first week, and the pretesting had been completed. The ones that stood here with him now were those that would go on to join the navy.
The birds shrilled and scattered. For a few moments, it was only the birds that seemed to have reacted, almost pre-emptively. The trees swayed, and a loud snap cut through the atmosphere, reverberating multiple times before being overwhelmed by a powerful deafening hum as an interstice opened and a massive ship emerged, a mere hundred or so meters from above their heads. The hum died down as the Descendent steadied itself.
“Students, meet Wituo. The same blood flows through his veins as the Black Nova’s. He is a direct one-thirty-one Descendent. Does anyone notice anything peculiar about Wituo?”
There was a silence among the fourteen students, gazing up at the starship, awestruck.
Darnell was the first to speak, knowing that every question was still a test. The academy held the right to discharge whoever they pleased, whenever they pleased, “Atmospheric flight, sir?”
“Very good. With this Descendent being seven hundred and eighty seven meters, the gravimetric lens he’s gotta create to maintain a steady altitude in Zemoria’s gravity well is a hell of a thing. Wituo learnt this skill the same way you and your Descendents will learn the skills needed to be effective in the Zemorian Navy.” yelled Commander Lucks, seeming to effortlessly bellow over the powerful hum of Wituo’s gravimetric lens.
“With the ever-present threat of hostile gravimetric weapons being deployed against our great people, it’s imperative that each and every Descendent in our navy at least attempts stable flight in a gravity well.”
Wituo was now hovering less than a hundred meters above them. They were shrouded in darkness as the ship blocked out the sun. A small fire had started near its tail, where a tree had been caught in the gravimetric lens. Soldiers were driving there in quads to extinguish it.
It was the last they would see of any Descendent for a while, including their own. Six months were spent in the remote facility. Remote augmentation was the first lesson. As the students sparred amongst each other, their Descendents would attempt to assist them, while also distracted by Wituo, who was training the Descendents in flight and basic combat. Most of the Descendents had never fired their own weapons. Darnell’s hadn’t either.
His Descendent was called Wings. Both he and the ship were seventeen, and had been linked from birth. Wings was only five hundred and fifty meters long, short for a Descendent, but he had thick, spurred skids, and a second, smaller pair of skids extending from his tail. It was a system that gave him a redundancy when it came to gravimetric terminals, as only three were needed to create the lens. Wings had five. The hull was myrtle, as was Darnell’s skin, with black stripes that expanded inwards towards the core of the ship and Darnell’s heart.
Darnell’s family had been with Descendents for as far back as he can remember. Both his father and mother were Descendent captains, as were their parents. They lived in a sector of Zemoria their great grandfather had bought after the end of the First Insurrection. While all their ships had been Descendents, only his grandfather’s had ever been involved in (or even knew) combat. Darnell would listen in awe at the war stories. It terrified and intrigued him.
When he was old enough to join the navy, he did. Wings had been just as excited, and they had begun their academic training as soon as possible.
The decision had caused fallout between Darnell’s parents and him. Wings’ parents were more understanding. Descendents were meant for war, the final genetic path of a ship designed for combat.
Zemoria had specialized schools for navy potentiates. Most Descendent pairs would be drawn to an academy somewhere in the galaxy. Zemoria had been the closest for Darnell. It was also where the most elite were trained, with the most stringent entry requirements. It was a requiem from the hell of the public schools as well.
He had been in the naval system for three years now. He hadn’t made many friends. While the kids weren’t as big a pain here, they were much more distant, conversing with their ships on the neural bands. He understood now why the linkless children had considered him to be so strange.
It was easy for rumour to spread when it didn’t need word of mouth, and tales about why Wings looked the way he did made for good gossip. Puritans hadn’t been seen near core systems for thousands of years, and the redundant terminals and ablative shields were more known to be genetic signs of the productive Puritans rather than the war-like Descendents.
A year into his training, the instructor summoned Darnell into his office. Wings had been failing every combat exercise. He hadn’t learnt how to wield his adaptive hypervelocity cannon, nor was he able to keep his gravimetric lens stable in a gravity well. Gravimetrics were ‘beyond him’.
“The Zemorian division is known for its elite operatives, craft trained to be capable of engaging in locations other ships would not survive. Wings is the first production-specialized Descendent we’ve seen. We’d like to make him a carrier.”
Darnell had been expecting to get kicked out, “A carrier?”
“Our programs aren’t tailored for fighter-wielding craft like yours. Most Descendents lose their production capabilities. Yours hasn’t. Have you heard of Black Wing?”
“From what I hear it’s a special forces division – A branch of the Zemorian navy. Only the best of the best get transferred there.”
“Aye. It’s been quiet as hell, we’d like to transfer you over to their squadron. You won’t learn anything else here, they are the only ones who can further your training.”
“That would be… unbelievable.”
“Good, I’ve already notified them of your apprenticeship. You will meet them here.” Co-ordinates were uploaded into his neural band. It was near the edge of Zemorian space, by Shiva’s Belt, an ice cloud that extended several hundred light years.”
–
5431.06.12
Darnell hadn’t been this excited since his acceptance into basic training years ago. It was all thanks to Wings. He lavished him with soothing thoughts, creating a pleasurable feedback loop of positive emotions that lasted up until they reached the co-ordinates, when the mood was abruptly halted by a gravimetric pulse. It pulled Wings into a well, his gravimetric lens failed and he fell helplessly for a few moments before stopping abruptly.
A couple of years ago, Darnell had fallen in love with a classmate. The emotions had driven Wings out in search of a mate. They had both been unsuccessful. Those same emotions were now mirrored perfectly in Wings. Looming over his hull was the most attractive ship he had ever sensed: A light blue ship, almost aquatic in color and profile. She had darker navy blue lines that ran along her beemveins. She was piercing Wings with a violating deep scan, revealing every portion of his structure.
“Been a while since I’ve seen another RT.” she said. Wings felt carried by the voice, uplifted.
A sudden realization struck Darnell as he watched the other beems through Wings’ eyes. That’s a Puritan.
It was Wings that tried a deep scan now, not believing his captain. The scan was blocked by some sort of field, the electromagnetic signals reflecting back at him uncomfortably.
“You’re the RT we’ve heard about?” It was another voice now, behind him. Wings spun around to see the most massive Descendent he’d ever seen, over a kilometre in length. His hull was black in the dim blue glow of the ice field. Three other Descendents were flying in a formation behind him.
“You mind if we come aboard?” this transmission was over his comms chip. There were several shuttles in a holding pattern around Wings. Darnell opened all of Wings’ bays. He met the Captains in the lounge. Things were happening so fast. It had been less than twelve hours since his transfer.
He shook hands with each Captain, a formality that had survived through the centuries.
He immediately recognized the tall black man. It was Anton Lars, commander of the Black Wing. The other four were Tory Lines, Lief Geno, Daemon Tyes, and Carey Mays. Carey Mays shared the light blue skin of the Puritan ship. There were darker blue lines that extended past the sides of her face down her neck, probably coalescing near her chest. Darnell was caught trying to track one of the blue lines down and quickly looked away.
5431.06.19
They got to know Carey quite well. Ironically, the Puritan was the most gravimetrically capable, using her two extra skids to deflect any gravimetric attack. The first time Darnell had seen Anton’s ship fire a gravimetric pulse at Carey had been the most terrifying moment of his life.
The pulse was massive, several thousand times that of a standard star, with an event horizon so wide that the defensive distortion field had to deflect as well as counter the gees. The pulse went wide as it met Carey’s distortion field. Her ship’s beemveins burnt a bright blue from the exertion.
Both Darnell and Wings had been rendered speechless.
I think I know what I’d like to learn first. Wings transmitted to Darnell.
So Carey and her ship, Kite, became their first teachers. They would fly off past Shiva’s Belt in search of all sorts of anomalies and planets. It wasn’t difficult finding the masses they needed, as all beems had an inherent ability to detect masses in their nodescape, as masses were directly related to koveran levels, and koveran levels were what the nodescape actually saw. The Black Wing had an intimate understanding of koveran particles, capable of siphoning the nourishing particles from areas of space that seemed barren to other beems.
“We’ll start with planets.” transmitted Carey.
There were five in this system. A few smaller ones near the G-type star, and several larger gas giants farther out. Wings, bound to please, leapt for one of the larger gas giants. Kite grabbed him with a distortion field, pulling him back. They would start with something smaller, one of the rockier, smaller planets near the sun.
As they approached the planet, Wing’s instinct to stay clear of gravity wells was gnawing at his neural plexus.
“This planet is dense, and remember: it’s being affected by the star as well. If you want to get close to it you have to start compensating for the tidal forces on your gravimetric lens before they get out of hand. Gravity affects things exponentially.”
“I know. I can feel it. I just don’t know how to manipulate the lens to work effectively in a field.”
“The navy taught us gravimetrics as our first course. It’s heavily dependent on distance.”
“That’s right.”
“They also told me Wings has no chance at learning to manipulate a gravity field.”
“It can be difficult initially. But you can use the extra terminals to tune the lens while the primary terminals hold it steady. It allows you quite a bit of leeway. Truly a positive step evolutionary-wise.”
Evolutionary-wise, Wings was still desperately trying to look competent to Kite, so he dove in towards the planet. There was no atmosphere, only the gravity. His lens began to fail. He accelerated enough to enter an orbit as he tried to stabilize his lens. Kite was on his left flank, flying perfectly steady, the lens idling on the gravimetric scale as she let her momentum carry her along Wings’ orbit.
Wings’ veins radiated the concentrated koveran build-up. Kite hadn’t even broken a sweat, her veins barely noticeable. The sun was between them and the planet, leaving only her silhouette in his optical vision. The silhouette suddenly distorted as her lens went to full power and she shot ahead of him at several gees. Wings followed.
“This would be an optimum approach towards this planet. It gives the assistance of an orbit you can retreat to while only altering the force of gravity by percentiles. You don’t have to dive in on the planet all at once.”
Wings was following her now, barely able to decay his orbit without losing the integrity of his lens. He finally rested in an orbit closer to the planet, veins burning a bright blue again.
“And you wanted to start with a gas giant…”
“I could land on a gas giant!”
“Once we graduate gravity and move on to atmospheres, we’ll make that the final test. Your wings will definitely help.”
At such a close proximity to her, Wings finally noticed the way Kite had a teardrop shaped plate covering the secondary terminals, like a shield. He simply had a wedge, like a pair of wings, which extended out over his skids, giving him an aerodynamic vee shape.
“I like your profile.” Wings complimented. “The way the inverted shield meets the primary terminal.”
“That’s so nice of you, nobody ever compliments my kite shield. I like it. I think it’s fitting. Note how I made the color a slightly higher wavelength.”
“It’s nice, matches your hull when photons excite it.”
“Exactly! I knew another RT ship would understand me. What made you choose a wing?”
“I liked the idea of being an aeroplane. Flying in atmospheres…”
“Were you born planet-side?”
“No, I was born and raised in Zemorian sector GR9.”
“How did you learn of airplanes?”
“Darnell knew of them.”
“Before our family line were Descendent captains, they were Descendent fighter pilots.”
“Being an RT craft, you have impressive production capabilities, have you ever thought of becoming a carrier?”
“I like fighters but I always thought they’d be a pain to take care of.”
“Only if you store them in the hangars during manoeuvres, you could put them in Tier Zero and then you don’t really have to baby them. You could even build transfer racks so that any tied down fighter that is damaged could immediately be taken to Tier Zero and repaired. Us producers have the spare resources for repairs like that.”
He definitely had spare resources, he could spend hours each day trimming his hull and adding new designs to the exterior ablative portion. He’d always thought he’d been very attractive, but it seemed other beems didn’t want to bond with a unique ship. The lucky Descendents were always the average looking ones. Not that he was vain. Tier Zero was just sore if it filled up with too much unused material. It was the one curse of being a producer: You always had to produce. It didn’t help that having two extra terminals meant other ships would feel the phantom pain of two terminals they probably didn’t have.
“Maybe I’ll tell the construction drones to make a few fighters. You can teach me how to take care of them.”
“That sounds fun.”
They continued their descent onto the small planet. They only had a few hundred kilometres to go.
“This is the most dangerous part. We can’t really reach the speed necessary to enter a safe stable orbit at this altitude.”
“Why not? There’s no atmosphere to get in our way here.”
“No, but high speed orbits bend space-time, and those bends decay our orbits.”
“I never knew that.”
“It generally isn’t an issue, only when our real speeds touch the speed of light does it become a problem. Anyways, for you to pass this test you have to stop using orbital velocity to steady you and descend smoothly.”
“What if I fall?”
“I’ll catch you!”
“I consume more koverans than I should, and I have a lot of extra layers of plating.”
“I’ve caught Ash in larger gravity fields.”
“What else have you done with Anton’s Descendent?”
“Why would you want to know?”
“Do you fight a lot of bad guys?”
“I’m sure that’s what you meant.”
“Of course! I am pure around Puritans.”
“I always hated that term. True Puritans died out long ago. If I were a real Puritan I wouldn’t be in Black Wing.”
“But you are unarmed?”
“Gun-wise! But that just gives me the energy to focus on my other strengths, like gravimetrics!” Kite pushed Wings farther down, reducing his speed. He began to fall but he maintained his gravimetric lens, fighting back against the planet’s pull. It became too much and he found himself weightless as Kite loomed over him.
“I told you I could hold you. Not even breaking a sweat.” she transmitted listlessly.
“Oh no.” Cary transmitted.
“What?” Darnell asked.
“This is what she said last time.” she whispered.
“To who? What happened?”
The comms link had been broken.
“Nothing happened!” Kite transmitted.
“She’s lying.” Cary transmitted on the beemspace band. “I really don’t think you should get tangled up in another relationship. They always end badly.”
“But this one’s different!”
“Nope. Wings, as your commanding officer in Black Wing I order you to ignore Kite’s advances.”
“You were advancing?” Wings asked, excited. He hadn’t been advanced on. Or if he had been, he didn’t recognize it. He quickly tried to recollect other times ships stopped him from plummeting to certain death – nope, no other times.
“Wait, doesn’t Naval Command dictate that orders can only be given directly to another warship if the commanding officer of said warship is incapacitated?”
“I’d hoped you hadn’t been paying attention… well then I order you to order Wings to ignore Kite.”
“Wings isn’t the most successful ship when it comes to the mating game. I’m glad he’s found someone interested.”
Kite was laughing at that. “You aren’t ‘the most successful’?”
Thanks Darnell, very smooth and helpful.
Sorry.
“It’s ok Wings. You can tell me about your successes!”
“It’s a private matter.”
Gravity reversed as Kite let Wings plummet a few dozen meters.
“I’m going to get distracted fantasizing.”
“I’ll tell you when we’re back in space, away from gravity wells. Deal?”
“Fine. I was just teasing anyways. You don’t have to tell me.”
“I do like the idea of being a pair though. If you’d be okay with that. At least we can give it a try. Go to places. I know several nice nebulae around Zemorian space. I’ve also got a few comets tracked.”
“Aww do you mean Heron’s Nebula? At GW9?”
“Yes I’ve heard of that one.”
“It has a beautiful white dwarf hidden near the center.”
“I tend to avoid the gravitational anomalies.”
“I’ll make sure you don’t fall.” Kite said affectionately, pulling Wings close with her gravimetric grip.
“You know just because our ships are obsessed with each other doesn’t mean we’re going out or anything.”
“I know.”
“But we can still enjoy the view in my lounge. I’ve got a beautiful window you can’t even see is there. A lot of art too. Do you like Rapsicky? Some of his paintings bring a tear to my eye.”
“I hadn’t figured you to be an art lover.”
“Kite is obsessive when it comes to all kinds of art. She had me fly all the way to the galactic rim so she could paint the view out towards the void.”
“Wouldn’t it just be…”
“Black? No, you’d think, but there’s a lot going on out there. The koveran field in itself is beautiful.”
“And lethal.” Kite added, “I nearly drowned.”
“That was your own fault!”
“Whatever. ‘A little closer, Kite! Closer!’”
Wings was satiated, content resting in Kite’s gravimetric embrace.
“So what do you like to do, Wings?” Kite asked.
“I’m liking this.”
“So you like being lazy and not doing anything. And you want to join Black Wing?”
“I thought you’d be nicer now that we’re a pair! And it’s Darnell obsessed with Black Wing.”
“Hey, I’m not obsessed with Black Wing I’m obsessed with the navy! And it was a shared decision.”
“Sure.” But then I didn’t have Kite.
Yeah but you wouldn’t have had Kite had I not been obsessed with the Navy in the first place. Are you sure this is even a good idea?
I don’t know, but it can’t hurt.
Oh I’m sure it can hurt very much.
Like you’d know!
That’s low.
“I think we should keep descending.” suggested Darnell.
“I agree.” transmitted Carey.
Wings focused on re-igniting his gravimetric lens, succeeding, but having drained most of his capacitor in the process.
“Good, now if you keep the lens stable on the descent I’ll give you an electrostatic kiss.”
“Only a kiss?”
“I promised Carey I’d go slow this time.”
“How many ‘times’ have you had?”
“I want to hear about yours first, then we can talk about mine.”
“You’d be disappointed with mine. I’ve only had attempts.”
“Really?! You’ve never paired off with another beems?” the shock from that statement disrupted Kite’s gravimetric lens. She plummeted several dozen meters before reigniting it and returning to Wings’ side. “Well I guess that’s ok. You’re only eighteen. I have a few years on you. I haven’t had the best relationships anyways.”
“Really?”
“She hasn’t had any. She tried to pair with Ash and he completely ignored her. She spent weeks crying about it.”
“Ash is cold.” Kite growled.
They made it to the surface of the planet, but Wings capacitor was critically low now. He didn’t have the strength to reach escape velocity, and idling the gravimetric lens to rest would mean all his weight would crush him. But there was no fear. Kite made him feel invincible. She transferred over capacitor energy via an umbilical. He enjoyed the contact.
“This isn’t because we’re a pair. It’s because we’re a squad. Capacitors run low, as do koveran reactors. It’s important we support one another any way we can.”
“So you’ve bonded with some of the male beems I surmise?”
“No, but if their koveran reactors were critically low and there was no other way to escape from a situation, I would. It’s a standard emergency manoeuvre. Not all bonds are sexual you know.”
“Right.”
“Now that you’ve grown accustomed to the gravity field of this planet, it’s important we fly about in open space for a while for you to get used to the lack of a gravity field. Acclimatization is important, and difficult.”
“Right.”
“What is it?”
“Nothing.”
“Reaching escape velocity should be easy. Hit a speed and I’ll match it. Let’s get out of here.”
Wings transferred as much power as he could to his gravimetric lens, leaving the planet’s gravity well in seconds. He slowly began to decelerate.
“Be sure to reserve some strength in your deflector, for possible kinetic impacts. We’ve lost someone to manoeuvres before.”
“I see, but my deflector’s instinctive. I’m pretty sure I know how to fly.”
“Sure, you can fly, but you can’t soar!” Kite shot ahead at a speed that was seemingly unimaginable at first. She was using her koveran reactor to create a warp field to augment her empty capacitor. If the capacitor even was empty.
Wings did the same, matching her speed, reaching into his koveran reactors.
“Isn’t this risky for you? You only have one koveran reactor.”
“That’s right, but I’m careful, and the koveran levels here are nominal because of the life over there.”
She was radiating a beam over to one of the planets. It was a floral planet, with the dots of what looked like city lights past the terminator.
“Coalition offshoots?”
“They’re independent. Have been for as long as I can remember. They call themselves the Rukari. They own this system. When I feel you’re ready, we’re going to try landing undetected in one of their forests. Undetected insertions are important for an element as small as ours.”
“Undetected insertions eh?” Wings flew past Kite, rubbing up against her port hull on the pass. Kite laughed and followed.
“I doubt you can sneak anything by me.”
“I thought that port rub was pretty sneaky.”
Kite was above him. Wings pulled up. Kite made some sort of magnetic sponge, which kept their distances equal as she faced him.
“You fly so gracefully.”
“This is going to make me sick. You got any drinks Darnell?” Carey asked.
“Of course, never fly without at least a hold full of Sarune’s.”
“Excellent, I’m out. See you in a few.”
–
Landing while the two ships were circling one another was a feat Darnell wished he could have seen.
“Do you think they’ll –“
“No, I doubt it. I told Kite a few horror stories of what happens to those who rush into things.”
“It’s young love.”
“You aren’t much older. In fact, you aren’t any older, being a type-3.”
“You’re a type-3 yourself?”
“Close to it. We’re a few years off. I found her on that planet down there. The Rukari wanted to get rid of her. She was destroying all the plant life, scaring the locals.”
“Get rid of her?”
“Not like that. Zemoria has an adoption program. She would have ended up there. I was deployed on Rukari, searching for an operative who was apparently a New Coalition member.”
“The New Coalition?”
“Yeah, pain in the ass people they are. Terrorist attacks across GC space are their specialty. Even after all these centuries they still won’t let it go.”
“The war?”
“Aye. They say we still owe em. They don’t realize that the majority of the Galactic Council’s people are ex-Coalition, so I dunno. I guess they’re just too cowardly to attack Zemoria head-on. We’ve got one hell of a navy.”
“And the Black Wing. I can’t think of anybody who hasn’t heard of you people.”
“Yeah, for a division that focuses primarily on reconnaissance we aren’t too hidden among the masses. At least it strikes some fear into them. Rumours of a Black Wing deployment are occasionally enough to quell the dissenters.”
She drank another Sarune’s. Darnell’s lounge also had a nice view of Wings’ starboard side, but the wing that extended over the redundant terminals blocked any view downwards. Theoretically if they’d open the window they’d be able to walk on the wing and touch each terminal.
There was a slight jolt. They both looked out the window to see Kite’s angle changing rapidly. They were spinning around each other again. Darnell and Carey had de-activated the neural interface to get some privacy.
“I’m glad Kite is having some fun. She’s a good ship, but has always been an outsider, being the youngest and the only Puritan.”
“Honestly I have to say I was surprised to see a Puritan under Zemoria’s employ. I thought they’d all left hundreds of years ago.”
“A few stayed. The occasional courier and such. But yeah, most operate near the outer rim. It was another reason I wanted to take her out there… to see if she’d find someone.”
“No luck I presume?”
“Nope. She couldn’t find another RT there, and the other Puritans weren’t interested in an outsider; they had their own local groups.”
“What about the other ships in Black Wing?”
“They are all about duty and honour. They don’t even think of it. They’ve been doing this for so long it’s almost like they avoid attachment.”
“I guess that’s a good thing. What’s our casualty rate?”
“In the year I’ve spent with them we’ve lost two potentials. Both in their first missions. Kite mentioned one, falling victim to a manoeuvre kill. The other got blown up.”
“How do you destroy an entire starship?”
“Bomb near the core. Caused a cascade reaction. The whole ship lit up before we even knew what happened. Captain, ship and crew died instantly.”
“Ouch, a crew too?”
“Yep, some Descendents lose their ability to produce completely once mature. Even a maintenance drone would take years to complete. They need crews and spare parts to keep themselves in check. Ash has a crew of nearly five hundred. That’s probably why he’s heard of the most. Crews go around spreading all the rumours.”
“I see. They can still heal though, right?”
“Yeah yeah. If the plate’s hit it’ll heal. Sections can be broken off and fixed even, but the drones are needed to apply the casts and to get bemicytes to places quickly, as well as to seal sudden lacerations. Ash has lost most of his drones over the years, so that job has been transferred over to a maintenance crew, while the drones stay in the places that can’t be reached by raumenoids.
“Interesting. How does that affect manoeuvring?”
“Badly, he has to use his lens to cushion the gees the crew feels. He’s definitely the slowest amongst us, which is a pity because I heard he was an unbelievable flyer when he still had all his drones.”
“Couldn’t you transfer drones over?”
“Yeah, we do too, but there’s never enough. Ash is a big ship, very big. Kite can’t produce enough drones to transfer over and keep enough for herself, and we can’t resupply on drones the way we resupply on crew. Drones can only be built by beems, and beems don’t generally give up their drones easily. In fact, you’re the only other producer in Black Wing. None of the other four Descendents can produce drones at any decent rate. They all need crews.”
“Must be annoying. No quiet lounge to yourself.”
“Oh Anton has a captain’s lounge. Bigger than this one even!” she said with a laugh. “Speaking of quarters, any place I can bunk for the night? Don’t really feel like flying.”
“Yeah sure, I have everything on this tier. The guest chamber is down the hall, port side.”
“Sounds good. I’ll see you tomorrow.” She tapped her neural interface. “Kite’s koveran levels are at thirty anyways. She could use some rest.”
Darnell re-activated his neural interface as well, checking his ship’s koveran levels. They were at eighty-eight percent.
Carey’s mood is making Kite want to sleep. I’m not tired.
Being a ship, you should be able to spend days in drydock at full power. You’re supposed to be patient.
I guess I could be sentry for Kite. Watch over her while she sleeps.
Her sensors would alert her of any danger. Besides, this system looks pretty safe.
What do you want to do?
We should try landing on that planet again. Without Kite’s help.
They didn’t use orbital velocity as a crutch now. Approaching slow and steady. Wings got pretty close before pulling away, aware of his lens’ instability. They spent hours inching closer and closer, rehearsing what Kite taught them. The exertion drained the capacitor steadily, and the koveran reserves were being sapped trying to keep enough power in the capacitor to augment the lens.
Darnell was getting tired. He had been awake for nearly a hundred hours, which was pushing the limits of what Zemorian-Bemyte physiology allowed. He hadn’t expected Black Wing to be this dangerous. Two losses within a year were pretty extreme.
Wings had spent the night trying to land on the planet, finally giving up and resting as well. Kite woke both of them up four hours after Darnell had dozed off.
“I tried landing on the planet.”
“How did it go?”
“I got close, but I was afraid of touching down without you there to catch me.”
“I’ll always be there to catch you.”
While it did sound horribly cheesy, Darnell remembered that paired beems ultimately developed a beemspace link that made them light up like flares in each other’s nodescape. He would ask Carey about that when she awoke. He should wake her.
He rang the chamber bell. There were monitoring devices in the guest room, and he reluctantly tuned into one. Carey was sound asleep.
“Carey.” he said into the comm.
She awoke with a jolt. Darnell cut his link to the guest chamber monitors before she slipped out from behind the covers.
“You get any rest Darnell?” she asked.
“Yeah.”
“Interesting how you heard that. You been peaking Darnell?”
“Only audio!”
“Sure, sure. Wings sleep at all?”
“Barely.”
“I wouldn’t either. Regardless of what the Navy says of the responsibilities of a Captain, I still say the ship carries most of the burden.”
“This gravimetric stuff definitely seems to be more of a ship thing. I can’t wrap my head around it.”
“Most people can’t. It’s why beems are still the only craft capable of FTL, even after all these centuries.”
“Do Puritans still do most of the transporting and all that?”
“The logistics? Probably, though you wouldn’t see em. They’ve become extremely good at jumping into their destination, dropping off their cargo, and vanishing before you even know they’re there. A hell of a security risk if you ask me.”
“I thought they were passive?”
“I’m sure they once were, but things have changed. The standard Puritan and Descendent profiles don’t fit anymore. The gene pool is too mixed up. The fact that there was any divergence at all is interesting in and of itself. Our progenitor Descendents were much more powerful, and the Puritans were much more peaceful. Our last catch was a Puritan loaded with enough explosives to level a planet. Barely managed to secure it in time.”
“What happens to beems that are caught doing things like that?”
“If we don’t shoot em on sight – and we usually don’t… usually – they’re exiled.”
“Harsh.”
“You’d think, but more and more ships are turning, either by captain influence or just plain old hate. I doubt this is the world the Black Nova thought he’d sire.”
“You’re religious?”
“If you consider fact a religion, I guess so.” Carey retorted, “There was a reckoning, it’s why all these damn ex-Coalition are so pissed off. No other way we would have won the war either had it not been for something as powerful as one thirty one.”
“So you believe one thirty one was the Black Nova?”
“Him or some close relative. Nothing else was capable of destroying a solar system like that at the time.”
“That happened thousands of years ago. It could all be exaggerated. Black Nova’s destruction of the solar system might just symbolize Zemoria’s destruction of that system.”
“Possibly, but what of the genetic variance? Where did Descendents come from then? Why the sudden variance and now the merger? That only happens if something alien is added to the gene pool, a major genetic mutation of some sort.”
“You believe the Black Nova was a mutation?”
“I don’t know what it was. Records switch between regarding him as an entity and as a man and then as a beems.”
“Black Nova may have been a group, then. Like the Black Wing.”
“A possibility.” Carey was fully dressed now. Kite and Wings were already back at the planet, with Wings showing Kite how far he’d gotten throughout the night.
“I like how Kite always looks at Wings.” she whispered, tapping the neural interface. “It’s so adorable!”
She made her way over to his lounge, “Try living longer than our other new recruits, eh?”
–
Than and Thanatos
There was an echo of agony as Than activated the device in Thanatos’ neural plexus. He basked in the intense pain, feeling a rush he savoured every time he triggered it. The Black Nova had taken his freedom from him thousands of years ago, and while he wasn’t alive then to make a difference, he would ensure that all beems would suffer for what the rogue beems had done.
He would catch them in the outer rims, Puritans mostly. Stalking and violating them before killing them in creative, pleasurable ways, the bond giving him a first row seat to the abominable misery.
Regardless of what he did, however. How dark he became. It seems Thanatos was eternally devote, never once having questioned his captain’s actions. Even after all the sessions he had spent with Thanatos alone when there were no other beems to experiment on.
Other than the cosmetic scars, however, Thanatos was a healthy Descendent, the largest and most powerful he could find. There had been others before him, but he upgraded as he captured larger and larger ones. The ship had been a gamble. He had switched to him as a child, noticing his resilience when he didn’t die like the others in the pod. Azrael had been a good ship, but unfortunately no beems that ever linked with him could be allowed to live after he chose another.
He ran his fingers along Thanatos’ hull, his genetically enhanced ability to inflict pain antagonizing the bond between the molecules he touched, like a walking koveran particle. He basked in the concealed agony as Thanatos tried to maintain his composure.
Thanatos was used to these sessions, and awaited the orgasmic release Than would always emit nearing the end of one. It made it all worth it. Than had finally met someone whom he understood completely.
Where should we go now? Thanatos asked loyally.
News of their presence had spread through this sector like a wildfire. No beems were anywhere to be seen here. Not even Descendent patrols would risk an open confrontation with a ship that had worse done to it by its captain than could ever be inflicted by an enemy.
Than walked down to the prison cells, taking one of the prisoners to his room. A younger man in his twenties. “Please sir you don’t have to do this.”
Imperatives confused him. Of course he didn’t have to do it. But there was also no reason not to. What was the point of anything when everybody ended up the same anyways?
He broke a small bone first, using his gravimetric grip like a pincer. The boy cried out in pain, collapsing to the floor by the foot of his bed. He hoped this one would struggle more than the last one. The bonds he had had with Thanatos gave him skills that most raumenoids could only dream of having. He felt the boy’s fear; tasted it; savoured it.
He thrust and bit, ripping at the shrieking prey. The boy hit back as hard as he could, thrashing violently with whatever was left of his limbs as Than tore away with gravimetric fangs, feasting on the trophy. While Thanatos could survive on the koveran particles alone, Than needed meat.
Than had been called another name once, but he had embraced the name he had given his Descendent, the key to his revenge, for when the time was right, Than would drive Thanatos into the heart of Zemoria and destroy it, avenging all his fallen brothers and spitting in the proverbial Black Nova’s face or bow or whatever it really was, whoever it really was.
For a time the subject had fascinated him, but the fable and fact entwined with no discretion. All he knew is Zemoria had helped it. Zemoria had assisted in the near-genocide of the Raumenoid people, and now they ignored that fact in history as if it had never happened. But he would remind people; he would let the other Raumen know.
He called on Volax to clean up the bedroom after his feast. Occasionally there were those he found worthy of being accepted into the new Coalition he was forging. He let those live, planting them in planets where they could spread the word of Raum.
“We will move to GR9. There is a flock of Descendents there I believe are worthy of our intervention. Laetus tells me the parents may be beyond saving, but the children, the four sumptuous children might be worth their weight.”
“That’s in Zemorian space.” Thanatos chirped. Sometimes Than didn’t feel like speaking on the neural band. He was like that.
“Yes, it is time Zemoria got a look into their future. Jump us!” Than bellowed, tossing away a half-eaten piece of liver that Volax scurried to pick up.
He was antsy, desperately waiting for the feel of warm Descendent flesh struggling against Thanatos’ powerful gravimetric grip. In one fell swoop, he would reave the helpless ships, taking everything. The pain would satiate his uncontrollable urge for more, and the crews would control his addiction even longer. But the intervals between big catches has been decreasing steadily, and Than feared that soon he would be forced to expedite his incursion deep into Zemorian space. It was why he chose GR9. He excitedly awaited Zemoria’s counter.
–
–
5431.06.23
In thirty hours they had managed to master landing on the first planet, and had moved on to the other two atmosphereless planets in the system, as well as a peculiarly dense moon that proved to be extremely difficult. After Wings third attempt on the moon, they called it a day.
Carey had spent the day in the lounge drinking and talking with Darnell. They had even sparred in the lounge with their swords.
“Sparring might be fun, but these weapons are our last resort. To hell with whatever Anton and the others think of honour or dignity, if you are in danger, you light em up with everything you’ve got. Once we finish your training here I’ll be sure to have Tory and EagleEye make marksmen out of both of you.”
“I’ll keep that in mind.”
“You have more to live for now than just yourself. I don’t want to have to go through another week of Kite crying to me after how her beloved ship got smeared against a planet, or blown up by a Caledon.”
“Those still exist?”
“Bet your ass they do. The New Coalition has a supplier. We’ve been trying to track it down for a while but haven’t gotten any leads yet. You can help us look into it once we feel you’ve grown up enough.”
Caledons were massive, deadly battleships, used extensively during the Zemorian-Coalition war by the Coalition. They were responsible for a good portion of the casualties suffered.
That night, Darnell had a nightmare of being chased by one. It wasn’t a mechanical one, but a massive wolf-like one with fangs and beady red eyes. It consumed them and both Wings and Darnell woke up from the dream.
What the hell was that? Darnell asked.
A living Caledon? I don’t know. Wings replied, fighting sleep inertia.
No, the explosion, didn’t you hear it? Darnell persisted.
There are no explosions in space. Wings sang wittily.
You know what I mean. I sensed something. It came from the moon.
Wings carefully lit his gravimetric lens. Kite had fallen asleep pressed between his skids, and Wings had to take care not to accidentally zap poor Kite with koveran energy. Knowing her she’d probably like it though. He coasted away from her slowly, and once he was sure he was out of mass detection range, he bolted towards the moon.
You were still partially asleep. I doubt there’s anything there.
Yet you aren’t stopping me, which means you’re curious.
Why not? I haven’t had a good night’s sleep since I’ve joined the navy anyways.
Darnell checked up on Carey. She was still sound asleep aboard Wings. If she awoke, Kite would too. Wings took care to cushion any sudden acceleration with a reverse distortion field. They circled the moon carefully, peering at it from a distance.
I’m sure there’s something there, hiding in those valleys.
And you’re going to fly down there and investigate it? What if it’s a Bedang or something?
Then I’ll blast it! But Bedangs don’t sound like that. It was something else.
What did it sound like?
A loud shrill filled Darnell’s mind, exciting every hair on his body.
Shit! Don’t do that!
I didn’t.
“What was that noise?” Kite asked.
I told you. Wings said. His dorsal carapace depressurized as he deployed his adaptive hypervelocity cannon and loaded a koveran-laced shell, taking care to do it the way the navy had taught him in basic training. He immediately made his way back towards Kite. Something was distorting her image.
Kite saw the distortion and moved out of the way. “Shoot it, Wings.” Wings opened fire. The distortion faded and the koveran-laced round sped on, exploding a few kilometres past the distortion with a crimson aura.
“What is it?”
“Probably a Koraxian – they’re subspace creatures. Luckily we can hear them coming.”
“The navy never told us about these Koraxians.”
“The navy denies their existence. Better to mysteriously lose a few craft than start a panic.”
“What does it do to ships it catches?”
“Probably sucks them dry, rips them apart? I don’t know. Nobody’s ever seen a Koraxian.”
“Kite it could have just been a solar flare. They could cause a distortion like that too. Hell it could have just been CKRO. It can cause gravimetric distortions too. We’ve got enough real things to worry about. No need to fear ghosts.” Carey transmitted.
“All three of us heard it.” Wings said.
“You heard a high frequency transmission. It could have been a solar flare messing with your receivers.”
“Right, I still think we should let Anton know.”
“Fine, we’ll let him know once our training here is done.”
“That will be a while.” Kite said.
“What if it comes back?” Wings asked.
“There’s nothing out there.” Carey repeated slowly.
“Did you get the origin of that shriek?” Darnell asked.
“Too short and broad, not enough data.”
“We should check the Rukari planet, see if they’re okay.”
“You’re both being paranoid.”
“But they’re both beems. And they’re both on edge. Trusting their space instincts is probably in our best interest.”
“We’re here to ensure their space instincts don’t get out of hand.”
“Yeah which we’re so good at.”
“Letting them pair up was your idea. I was against it from the start.”
“You just feared getting hurt. You didn’t want to put up with the pain of loss or rejection.”
“And that pain will come eventually, and then you’ll live your life in regret.”
“Either that or live your life regretting you never tried.”
The words seemed to hit home for Carey. “Let’s set a course for the Rukari homeworld.”
“We can travel, which would take approximately an hour at leisurely speeds. Or we can jump, which will get us there instantly but drain my koveran reserves completely.” Kite explained, “You will still have two chambers left, so if we need to do an emergency jump we’d be forced to bond for navigational purposes.”
“What a dilemma.” Wings said, priming a jump. Kite excitedly tucked in so they’d share the same interstice.
They arrived at the Rukari homeworld at a separation of two hundred metres, traveling at a relatively slow speed.
Kite sent out a distortion pulse, scanning for mass signatures. “Nothing here.” She bolted towards the blind spot on the other side of the planet. Wings followed, making sure he didn’t lose her over the horizon. The other side had a patrol. It was comprised of three cruisers. The transponders indicated Rukari.
Carey hailed them, “We heard a noise. Is there anything wrong?”
“We heard it as well. Our satellites tracked it to the second planet’s second moon.”
That’s where I heard it from initially. I should have told Kite!
Kite was already sprinting to the moon. Wings followed. “We were just there too.”
“I know, and I remembered sensing something from the moon, but I checked. There was nothing outside.”
“Did you land?”
“No, but there were valleys. There could be something down there.”
“Darnell, you’ve been through basic and all that I presume?” Carey asked.
“Yep.”
“Good, this will be an excellent training exercise for us. The mystery of the… mysterious signal. Suit up.”
–
Darnell felt strange in his combat suit. It was uncomfortably tight, and tingled from the electrostatic field that coursed across it. His sword was now in rifle form, slung across his shoulder.
“During a patrol we maintain a link with our ship at all times. It’s important that we are within mental range of each other in case assistance is needed. A beems can increase your reflexes a hundredfold. Time can literally stand still as you make your next decision, or dodge the next bullet. The beems is what makes us unstoppable in combat.” Carey said, securing her helmet. Her uniform was a light blue, matching the color of her ship. Darnell’s was myrtle with black stripes.
They made their way over to the bay where Carey’s shuttle was docked. “When we communicate, we do so over the neural band first. If that fails, we use the comms chip. You activate it from the collar here. You can also yell my name to activate it without the collar, in case your arms break or something.”
“I know. I was briefed on the suit.”
“Just making sure. It’s the little things that get you killed. Greatest enemy out there is yourself.”
The shuttle was on the approach now. They had found a valley to pull into. The two beems were dark silhouettes behind them.
“There is a slight atmosphere here: Sulphur. We’ve also got a gravimetric level here of three gees, so expect the suit to have to do quite a bit of compensating. If you get tired let the CKRO run off before moving on, you don’t want to get boiled by your own suit.”
“Right.”
“Once we activate the helmet’s shield, we’ll only be able to talk across the neural band. Remember that there is also an electrostatic shield as backup, so losing your helmet doesn’t mean you’re screwed. Though I wouldn’t trust my life on just the electrostatic shield, or just the helmet.”
“Understood.”
The shuttle landed in the valley with a thud, the ramp lowered.
“This is where it probably came from. I’m sure.” Wings transmitted.
“You’re sure it probably came from here?” Carey mocked.
Darnell felt Wings’ discomfort on the neural band. “Wings, why don’t you move up to a higher altitude. I’ll piggyback my neural link off Kite, that way we’ll see anything that tries to sneak up on us on the other side of the planet.”
“Good idea, Darnell.” Carey complimented. The shuttle ramp raised behind them, and they began their walk down the ravine. “Watch for freak storms, as well as falling rocks. Don’t rely entirely on proxies. Use your eyes.”
“I will.”
Darnell peeked into Wings’ sensor suite. A Rukari task force of four cruisers was on the other side of the planet. They seemed to be orbiting the planet as well, drawn towards whatever the signal was.
Should I deploy my AHC? So the Rukari know not to mess with us? Wings asked.
No. Stay friendly. They’re as curious as us. Darnell replied.
The beacon was found a quarter of an hour into the search, well before a Rukari search team had even been sighted on sensors.
“It’s a point-singularity device. Sort of like a jump drive. Might be usable for beemspace transmissions.” Carey said.
“Singularity devices can be used to launch gravimetric attacks as well, you know that.” Kite transmitted.
“I don’t think we should take that aboard. Isn’t this how one of the recruits died?” Wings said.
“Not exactly like this, but the circumstances were similar enough to warrant extra caution. Are the Rukari aware that we have the device?”Carey asked.
“They do not seem to be reacting any differently. The patrol is still holding on the far side of the planet, and their search teams are still sweeping that side.” Kite reported.
“Prepare a portion of your cargo hold for transport. Seal it off, highest level electrostatic fields. If this does create a singularity, be ready to disrupt its Hawking’s fuse.” Carey said.
“I don’t think that’s a good idea.” Darnell said.
“Noted, but I don’t want the Rukari getting their hands on a weapon. They are New Coalition sympathizers as is. Who knows what this could do if deployed in a city.”
“Perhaps they own it? Maybe they have a right to it?” Darnell suggested.
“Unlikely, the design does not match their cruisers. These glyphs look ancient.” The device was a diamond-shaped structure, with glyphs on each of its eight faces. As Carey put it onto a trolley, they noticed the diamond would always stand straight up, never resting on a face.
“Some sort of sophisticated anti-grav. I’m not even reading anything from our standard sensors. Anton will freak when he hears of this.”
To expedite their departure, Carey had her shuttle fly to their location on its own. It would not be detectable by Rukari sensors.
They docked with Kite and jumped out.
–
Anton and the team were consulting with a long range division in outpost 47, located in the Zylar nebula at the edge of Zemorian space. It was a beautiful and warm place, a tropical paradise for a beems, so long as Wings avoided the many gravimetric disturbances.
“This would make a fine obstacle course for you once you master countering gravity fields.” Kite said.
Wings pushed at her with a distortion pulse. Surprised, she didn’t have time to counter it, being flung several gees back.
“Maybe it’s you who needs a refresher!” Wings suggested.
Kite playfully grabbed him with her magnetic grip, nipping at his port bow with an electrostatic kiss.
“I see you two have made great friends.” observed Dart.
“Remember.” Kite whispered, “We have to be somewhat secretive about it. If they know we’ve been fooling around Anton’ll get cross.”
“Fooling around? We didn’t even –“
“Shh!” Kite hissed as Dart made a high-speed fly by.
“What’s with all the excitement Dart?”
“Nothing, was just hoping I’d catch a little of your gossip! What’s the latest now? Was it about Ash again? You know how strict he is about protocol. If it weren’t for that I’m sure he’d be all over you.”
“Now Dart!” Kite said, as serious as possible, “You know relations are strictly against protocol!”
“Very!” Dart exclaimed. Kite and Wings were so close together that Dart had to push them apart with her distortion wake to fit between them. “Close formation flying is what it is – close formation manoeuvres! Nothing to do with relations of course… right Fins?” Dart was now the one close to Wings, rubbing up against his starboard side as Kite pulled against Dart’s starboard side.
“It’s Wings. It’s a pleasure to see you again Dart. It’s been getting very boring with just Kite and only Kite.”
“What?” Kite exclaimed.
“Just that Kite is so slooow.” Wings moaned jokingly.
“I’m fast. That’s why they call me Dart. I’m the fastest ship that ever is, has been, or ever will be, in Black Wing. I can cruise at 800c.”
Darnell jumped at such a high cruising speed. He had never heard of a number over 500.
“Liar, you aren’t that fast.” Kite replied.
“Whatever! You better believe it! I’ll run laps around the both of you!” Dart bragged.
“I believe it.” Wings said excitedly.
Kite shot a deadly glance at him, glaring at him with every sensor she had at her disposal for a moment before backing away and floating towards the outpost.
Wings broke formation with Dart and followed Kite guiltily.
“Oh don’t be like that!” Dart was instantly beside him again, neither Darnell or Wings had even seen her trail.
“There is no way a ship that big should be able to go that fast.” Darnell said to Carey. He was in her lounge now, watching the ship on the massive panoramic window.
“Warp fields and such. You can do a lot when you can negate the impact of acceleration. You’ll see.” Carey said, patting him on the shoulder.
“Can’t wait.” Darnell said.
–
They docked with the outpost after a few more minutes of frolicking between the ships. They met Anton at the outpost bar. Him, Lief, and Tory were sitting at one table.
“Have we got news for you.” Carey said.
Anton had a grim expression on his face. They hadn’t made eye contact with Darnell since he’d sat down.
“What is it?” Darnell asked.
“There’s been an attack. Violent. Zemorian space.” Anton said.
“What? Where? Who was hurt?” Darnell asked.
“GR9.”
Darnell didn’t think he’d heard correctly, “Where?”
They looked away. “Are you sure, sir?”
“You don’t need to hide behind formalities. We treat everyone as equals here.” Anton said.
Carey had an arm around Darnell’s shoulder.
“All of them?” he asked.
“Several crew were taken prisoner. One ship.”
“Which ship?”
“Miranda.”
“Who took her? Which crew are alive?”
“We don’t know. We just know Miranda wasn’t among the wreckage.”
“Who? Who was it?” Darnell pleaded.
Carey squeezed his shoulder.
“Koveran weapons. Gravimetric.”
“Beems? Beems attacked my family?”
“They were probably inhibited.” Tory chimed in.
“Doesn’t matter.” Anton snapped, this was the first time Darnell had heard him raise his voice, his grief was put on hold as he felt the anger behind the voice. “We will find those responsible, Darnell. We promise you.”
–
–
Thanatos embraced the surviving ship. Frustrated at Than’s insistence on not bonding with her as violently as possible. Still, he used his fore skids to penetrate sections he had learnt from experience were extremely sensitive, listening to the whimpers and enjoying the feedback loop of pain and pleasure between the three participants. Than had an iron grip on a bulkhead as he concentrated on the act.
“This one is worthy. She survived what others could not. I name her Morana for her resilience. She will make a fine mate, the only one worth being under you without meeting swift demise.”
Morana could only whimper, any attempts at fight or flight having long been extinguished by Thanatos’ titan grip.
Than’s minions corralled the crew of the ships into the cells. Each was allowed to torture one, but only one. Extras were only offered in exchange for extra acts of submission by the submissive.
–
“Than, my lord. I swear! There were four. The fourth must have left!”
Morana had denied the existence of a fourth progeny, even after countless sessions with Thanatos. Space was thick with their blood as they grabbed each other in their magnetic grips, digging into each other with their skids. Than manoeuvred Thanatos so that he too would suffer some damage from her sharp streamlined profile, rewarding his ship with the release that followed as all the pain overloaded Than’s neural receptors and responded with a surge of orgasmic pleasure greater than any they had yet experienced. Even Morana had been humbled by it over the bond, silent, even the whimpers a thing of the past as she tried to disappear in her own mind.
“Please Than!” Laetus pleaded, as his master bit into his right arm, devouring it and drinking down the arterial spray. Than’s teeth crushed the bone, driving their way closer to Laetus’ pumping heart. Blood was all Than could see now.
He bit into Laetus’ heart with a sickening crunch as he pulled it from the ribcage with his teeth, watching Laetus’ terrified eyes watch him eat it as his final grains of life slipped away.
“We must find this fourth ship. In honour of Laetus, one of my most loyal comrades.”
–
While Morana had tried to remain silent, she couldn’t resist Thanatos’ bond for long, and soon they were entwined even more intimately. Their neural plexus’ working in symphony in the full bond as their bodies delighted in its rapture. Morana had been called Miranda before her life here. She was the second ship of four. It was the firstborn that had escaped him, a firstborn that had moved onto the Zemorian navy. The memories of the firstborn vanished after that. No more specifics could be gathered from Morana’s discombobulated psyche. Than let her recover as he considered his next move.
–
–
“That was fun.” Geno whispered. She had spent the night with Darnell aboard Wings. Wings had remained in the idling area of the outpost with the other ships. Kite had been watching Dart continuously, not sparing a single moment for rest.
Most beems took their bonds very seriously, but Kite felt she had more to prove, being a Puritan among Descendents. Wings knew she worried that he would bond with Dart if Kite wasn’t as forthcoming, but Wings also knew he was beyond that. While Carey hadn’t made any such vows of partnership to Darnell, Wings had declared a pairing with Kite. His first pairing, and he wouldn’t let it end in disaster. If Kite felt inclined to bond just to secure their relationship, Wings would be the one to decline the offer. He prepared himself mentally for her request, unsure of how he would be able to decline such an offer, even if he knew it was only being made to secure their relationship.
Dart wasn’t making matters easier, either, having the perfect excuse to stay next to him through the night with her captain being aboard.
Ash stirred. The Descendent only ever moved if by command from his captain.
“Our investigators report several murders that match the profile of that done to your family, Darnell. I assume you are unable to sense the surviving beems in your nodescape?” Anton asked.
“That’s right.” Wings answered.
“Which of your siblings have you never had any contact with?” Anton asked.
“We left to join the navy before the other ships were born.” Darnell said.
“How could the Zemorians allow this to happen? That was Zemorian space!” Wings cried.
“We believe this person operates in the outer rims, past the edge of Galactic Council space.” Anton explained, “There have been rumours of a rogue Descendent that –“
“Hunts other beems.” Tory continued. “We’ll start our search there. Ash will escort you. Kite and Dart will patrol the adjacent grid. Emerald and I will watch the upper and lower zees.”
“Let’s go.” Anton ordered.
Kite and Dart reluctantly joined a formation, splitting from Wings. Wings steadily pulled up next to Ash, who was over twice his size.
“There is a lot of myth surrounding this creature. The only constant we are aware of is the fact that it is extremely powerful. Call for backup over the beemspace band the moment you make contact.” Anton said.
“What’s our sortie duration?” Daemon asked.
“We will rendezvous at G7 in one galactic week.” Anton replied.
–
Why did you mate with Lief Geno? Do you know how complicated that makes things? Wings transmitted. They had been patrolling with Ash and Anton for well over an hour.
I really liked her.
You didn’t meet her until the briefing!
I know, but she’s a type-3. I learnt a lot about her from Dart. I think I fell in love with her through that.
You weren’t feeling your own love… it was her constant proximity to me. I would have thought Black Wing would be more professional.
When you know every day might be your last. You live it to the fullest. Have you bonded with Kite yet?
No. I don’t want to rush her.
You could be dead tomorrow. She could be dead tomorrow.
Don’t say that. I couldn’t imagine that.
We’re in the navy, Wings. I’ve longed for these thrills, these relationships. All the adrenaline and fear; the anxiety, hormones racing. Darnell shuddered in ecstasy remembering their night. This is what it is.
Which is what?
Life. This is life. People live hundreds of years without a single risk. What’s the point of that? Look where we are, Wings: The corner of the outer rim. Out there is the koveran field – the mysterious expanse.
I don’t know—
–
A shriek filled the beemspace band. Ash and Wings immediately jumped to the origin. It was Dart. A portion of her port skid had been destroyed. Ash stabilized her uncontrolled spin and the other ships immediately began tending to her wounds.
“Where’s Kite?” Wings asked, but he knew nobody would be able to tell him. They were a pair. He looked inwards, to his nodescape.
She’s still alive. Wings said, almost to himself, jumping towards the signature.
It was a foolish move. The rest of Black Wing wouldn’t have time to trace his jump. He was on his own.
He arrived in a cloud of red. The temperatures were in the millions. He immediately began to fall towards a cluster of protostars. He compensated with his gravimetric lens the way Kite had taught him, keeping himself steady.
Darnell deployed the AHC from the dorsal carapace and began infusing the kinetic shells with koveran rounds. He helped Wings scan the carmine nebula. It was so thick, visibility was less than a ship length ahead of him.
“You killed a good friend of mine, and now it’s time you paid.” transmitted something through the nebula.
A wake emerged from the abyss as a Descendent cut its way through the red cloud. It flew right by Wings, glancing his port skid. The ship’s skids must have been serrated, as they dirtily sliced through the port skid. Arteries had to be sealed immediately as blood blended with the nebula, the nebula’s heat searing Wing’s open wound, helping cauterize it.
The Descendent came around, coming well within range. It pulled Wings close, holding him in a gentle embrace. He watched in horror as it deployed its AHC.
“Where are the other ships? What have you done to them?”
“I enjoyed them. They brought me great pleasure. More so than you would ever understand. Although from her memories it seems she had brought you pleasure as well.”
“Did her memories also tell you why I have an extra wing?” Wings asked, activating his redundant gravimetric lens and unleashing a powerful gravimetric distortion field. It threw the rogue Descendent into the red expanse, but due to the magnetic coupling, also tore at Wings superstructure. Repair drones were working furiously to seal the wounds.
“Kite!” Wings cried. She wasn’t responding, but he could sense her through the burning nebula.
Wings flew through the cloud with all his might, grabbing her with his magnetic embrace.
“I have to jump you to safety.” Wings said guiltily, bonding.
The connection was painful, the missing skid giving a redundant impulse that fed back along the neural plexus. He transferred his remaining koveran chamber’s energy over to her and activated the jump sequence, but he himself broke the bond at the last moment as Kite was sent off to the rendezvous point.
“Noble!” yelled the attacker as it cut through the dust cloud again. Wings pulled to the side, reversing his hull polarity to keep him from his attacker. It worked, barely. The ship’s serrated skids came inches from his own.
Darnell saw that Wings was out of koveran energy, and running low on blood. He readied the AHC, focusing all his mental power to line it up at where he felt the attacking ship would emerge for its next run.
It emerged, soaring straight at them. He fired, but was overcome with horror when he realized it wasn’t the attacking Descendent. He tried to cancel the firing sequence but failed; he tried to move the cannon out of the way but failed.
The koveran round sliced through Miranda, detonating perfectly in the core of the ship, destroying the ship in a single blow and leaving nothing.
Wings said nothing.
Laughter from the rogue Descendent filled the neural band.
“A worthy sacrifice to place you where I need you. Oh noble Morana. How I will miss thee!”
They heard an AHC charge behind them.
It fired.
An interstice opened in the middle of the koveran round’s trajectory. Dart emerged. She cried out in surprise as koveran round nearly hit her, deflecting by Ash at the last second as the massive ship appeared on the field.
“How?” Darnell asked.
“We don’t know how, but Dart had your co-ordinates.” Anton replied.
“Sex has its advantages.” whispered Geno.
Ash fired a massive gravimetric pulse out in the direction of the Descendent. Everything was absorbed, the red cloud falling towards the pulse. The gravimetric weapon detonated, creating a powerful singularity that must have destroyed a good portion of the nebula, as when the chaos cleared, only the three of them remained, shielded by a koveran field erected by Ash.
“Is he still alive?” Wings asked weakly.
“That is unlikely.”
“Am I still alive?” Wings followed up.
“You performed amicably.” Anton said. “You will make a fine addition to Black Wing.”
Kite and Wings were at Heron’s Nebula in GW9, enjoying the view. Kite was having difficulties flying straight, but it wasn’t due to the wounds she had suffered. The phantom signal from Wings’ AHC would be something that would take getting used to.
Do you think Anton will be mad? Kite asked through the bond, the one time two beems were able to share a neural link that was the equivalent of that between them and their own captain.
I don’t care. Wings replied contently.
Darnell and Carey were sitting in the lounge again. Carey seemed depressed.
“It always seems the ships get the more romantic lives. Zemorian sex seems so bland compared to theirs. It isn’t really fair.”
“There are others rewards to a good life with a partner.” Darnell mused. “I always wanted to have a family on a planet somewhere. Own a house. The closest I’ve ever come is the naval academy, and I had to share a room there.”
“I’ve never been one to want a family.” Carey said.
“Oh, no that’s not what I meant. I wasn’t talking about you!” Darnell replied quickly.
“You weren’t?” She seemed disappointed.
“Well unless that’s what you want. I wouldn’t want to force you into doing anything just because our ships are an item?” Darnell said, leaning towards her.
“Was that a statement or a request?” Carey answered, not pulling away.
He kissed her lightly.
“What about Geno?” she asked.
“That was a hormonal thing. Now I don’t need to worry about dying tomorrow.”
“Well I don’t know. What do you think of wallpaper? I was thinking of blue.”
“Blue? Are you nuts? Green!”
“I guess I can settle for some green.” Carey crooned.
“And I could do with more blue.” Darnell sang, stroking her hair. “So what now?”
“Now comes the hard part.”
“What’s that?”
“Repaying all our academy fees.”