Gamin could sense it: A river of particles spanning a kilometre in length. A tiny mote to his eyes, insignificant when compared to the greater nothingness that it stemmed from. He reached out to it with his mental vision, parking himself over the ethereal ridgeline.
This would be a reactor’s worth, maybe more, enough to sustain him for another few weeks. His pod would be so jealous. He was a Descendent, a type of Beems, or biomechanoid starship. He had two skids and a tail, with a relatively scrawny hull.
He inverted the gravimetric lens between his skid and tail, letting space bend in on itself, opening the doorway to the particles he longed for.
“Mine!” called another, disrupting his lens, opening their own.
“Lars!” Gamin growled, watching the larger Descendent gulp up the particles in a matter of seconds. Bright red vapour trailed behind him like stardust as he ejected the excess material, drawing circles around Gamin. It was the only time they saw color, when the koverans were excited, as light couldn’t reach them out here. Light was their enemy, it drew attention.
“You can have the leftovers.” Lars mocked, doing a victorious roll before starting his flight back home.
The ‘leftovers’ were useless, having already passed into this dimension and been exposed to the void. Gamin watched the particles spark one after another, creating an effervescent chain of light that vanished as quickly as it appeared.
“You didn’t even need that.” Gamin said, staring at where the particles had been. “It’s not fair.”
“Life isn’t fair!” Lars shot back, increasing speed, dipping into his koveran reserves.
“You’re wasting the particles at that speed!” Gamin cried.
“I have particles to waste. Get back out there before you starve to death.” Lars said, increasing his speed once more.
Gamin broke away, flying towards an area of nothingness he hadn’t flown to yet. He wondered how many more of his siblings were out here hunting. Akira had taught them how to stay hidden, perhaps a little too well. He contemplated telling her about Gamin. But how would the pod react to that? The youngest starship crying to its mommy.
After several more hours of travel, he came across a small mote. Nowhere near the kilometre-long line he had uncovered before, but enough to sustain him for the day. He absorbed it quickly before someone else saw, scanning around him defensively as he ate.
It was getting late, the Center would be in site soon. Which meant the Nightlings would come. The thought of it was enough for him to run to the safety of his pod. He had a long journey ahead of him.
He traveled for hours and hours. The edge of The Center came into site, then the entire circle itself, a distant speck of foreboding hundreds of thousands of light-years away. He automatically shut down his lens, letting inertia carry him along. The Nightlings would have a harder time spotting him now, and he doubted they would find a small beemster like him that tasty anyways. Akira told him that they had never lost one of theirs to Nightlings, but it was better to be safe than dead. Besides, if a Nightling did appear all he had to do was call and—
Just as he thought that, a call filled the neural band. A pained shriek somewhere nearby. He focused in on it. It was in the opposite direction of his travel. It would take quite a bit of energy to reverse all the momentum he had built up…
The shriek repeated, a higher pitch this time, and stronger. He could almost recognize it. It was definitely a ship like him, a biomechanoid starship, or beems. Akira told him that there were worlds where these small two-legged creatures would infest them like parasites, pressing their will on them with their minds. But she probably just said that so they’d avoid The Center, and the stars around it.
It was his obligation. Reluctantly, he inverted his field, decelerating at five gees. Hopefully others would arrive first. He didn’t really know how to fight yet, and the Nightlings had evolved a fair bit of resistance to Descendent weaponry.
He shut down his lens after two minutes of travel, letting inertia take him into the danger zone. He was venting adrexin from the anxiety. He hoped the Nightlings wouldn’t smell it. They were still out of sight, and he was too afraid to fire a sensor beam in their general direction. Like him, the Nightlings were stealthy stalkers, capable of sneaking up on you from behind and lunging before you had the opportunity to defend yourself.
The distressed ship was a distant speck at first, and came up on him very quickly. He re-activated his lens, decelerating at nine gees to mitigate his intercept speed. There were still no Nightlings in sight, but he recognized the ship as Decker.
Beems had the option to have as many decks and chambers as they wanted, but they were always born with a single deck and a single bridge. The rest of the tiers growing as the need arose. However, Decker had been born with two tiers and two fully functional bridges, earning him the name at birth.
He wasn’t moving, but he didn’t seem injured. Gamin could see his active scans shooting out into infinity as he looked about anxiously, AHC deployed. There was a cloud of adrexin around him, and he would jerk about occasionally, checking his lens blind-spot.
Gamin brought his lens down to idle and coasted in towards his brother carefully, afraid to set off one of his twitches, AHC’s hurt, and they attracted a lot of attention when fired out here in the darkness. He didn’t want to be at the barrel-end of his brother’s.
“Decker!” Gamin hissed, ready to flare his lens in case Decker brought his weapon to bear.
Decker spun about, “Whothere!”
“Gamin…” Gamin stopped next to his brother, pulling away from the adrexin cloud slightly. It smelled.
“Gamin!” Decker did another quick scan, the beam tingling as it cut across Gamin’s hull in its sweep. “Did you see it??”
Gamin built up the courage to fire out one of his own active scans. He picked up two more of his family on its way to him, but that was it. “No.”
“It was huge! It had these pincer-like claws, and it was like you could see Galaxies on its skin! Mesmerizing…
Mesmerizing wasn’t the word Gamin would use.
“Could you have made a bigger mess?” Lars asked, paling at the sight of all the adrexin.
It made Decker retract his skids shamefully, his gravimetric lens shrinking to the size of a small pebble.
“Grow up, Lars!” yelled Athena, swooping in between them. She was the oldest, and much nicer than Lars. Gamin respected Athena the most of all of his older siblings. “Is everyone alright?”
“I think so.” Gamin said, firing off a few omnidirectional active sweeps now that Athena was here. He knew the Nightlings wouldn’t be brave enough to pick a fight now.
–
While they were a nomadic pod that roamed the outer edge of the galaxy. They did have a home. It was a small rock, impossible to see due to the lack of light, with a network of tunnels that had been carved through it from before their time. None of them really knew where the rock had come from, but it was one of many rare treasures that sprung out throughout the darkness. Athena called it ‘dark matter’, an ominous name for things that were too far from the light. They were all technically dark matter here.
Gamin had wondered how they traveled if they always returned to the same place, but travel was very relative out here. They had set their zero to the rock, but when they ventured out the area was always different. Sometimes other rocks would swoop by. Occasionally they would even encounter other pods, matching zeroes to communicate and trade stories, among other things.
The last pod they’d encountered had ended with somewhat unfavourable results. Lars had tried to get close to their Alpha’s daughter. Akira had barely been able to negotiate a cease-fire when their leader attacked. It was very embarrassing.
So here they were, floating about on this rock, him and his six siblings. The smallest chamber was his, farthest from the core. Apparently there were advantages to living here. Objects gave koveran energy. Not enough to live off of, of course, but enough to sleep comfortably, and to sustain them long enough for the night to fade and the Nightlings to leave.
But Gamin had heard rumours all his life, of places teeming with koverans, near the core of the galaxy, where The Center was. There were so many stars there that the Nightlings could never reach you. But it was dangerous too, he’d heard. There were all sorts of things and creatures there. Worse than Nightlings – more cynical and cunning, far less direct.
But he let his fantasies of that world take a back seat in his life, as he set out every day to hunt for his particles and return for the night. It was a calm life, if not boring at times.
A few years passed, and Lars left, deciding to venture off on his own, hoping to form his own pod. It wasn’t uncommon, but Akira still cried.
Athena had decided to stay, feeling obligated to assist Akira in caring for the young, ever since father had died. He had died before Gamin had been born, but Athena told him that it was a brave death, defending the pod from a gang of Descendents that had tried to steal their home. It sickened him to know that his own kind could commit such acts, but this dark world was cruel, and surviving could be difficult.
It was weird, really, that Gamin missed Lars, and hoped he was alright. Of all the beems to miss…
At the age of eleven, a short year after Lars departure. Nine ships had arrived out of the darkness, not Nightlings, but Descendents. They taunted and called as they matched speeds with Gamin’s home.
“This is our rock!” They chortled, flying circles around their home.
They were a group of males, and older, roamers most likely.
Akira gathered them in a single chamber. It had but one entrance, and all of their cannons were trained on it. They didn’t talk back. Taunting was below them. They waited inside for days, counting the seconds in their ancestral chronographs.
“Come out!” the attackers pleaded, leaking pheralax into the air. They were interested in more than their homes. “We could merge groups! It would be fun!”
Starvation set in. After a week they couldn’t stay at full power for long, forced to sleep in shifts, and the attackers still circled outside. Gamin had an idea.
“They must go out to hunt.” he said, staring at the entrance.
“Likely.” Athena agreed.
“Then why don’t we wait when most of them are gone…” Gamin suggested.
“And run?” Melody asked. She was just over a year older than Gamin. “I’m not a fast runner.”
“Fight. We all have cannons.”
“Theirs are bigger, and there’s nine of them.” Akira said.
“Not all the time. We can wait until there are less and—“
Gamin was cut off by Akira, “No, boy. We’ll sleep them out. This chamber is closest to the core. It could sustain us for a few more days.”
“And they have space. They can hunt and stay there forever.” Gamin argued.
“We wait.” Athena said, backing their mother.
“We’re getting weaker.” Gamin sighed, watching Decker snore away. “They’ll attack us soon.”
The group ignored him. Another day passed. It was quiet outside now.
“Did they leave?” Niles asked, the fourth offspring.
“Wait here.” Akira said, “I’ll check.”
“No.” Athena pulled her back with her distortion field, “I will.”
“I’m smallest.” Gamin volunteered. “I could sneak out.”
Athena ignored him, coasting out of the chamber. They waited for hours, listened for a sound, something. There was nothing. Athena simply hadn’t returned.
“We’re going to die…” Decker cried.
Whimpers leaked into the neural band as the pod mourned.
“I’ll find her.” Gamin said.
Akira grabbed him with a hull polarization, keeping him from leaving the chamber. “No, Gamin.”
“Please…” Gamin pleaded, tugging against her until she finally released him.
“You’re going to get yourself killed.” Akira warned.
Gamin pushed himself towards the entrance cautiously.
“Decker!” Akira called.
Decker was pressed up against his stern, waiting patiently for him to make a move. “Ready when you are, brother.”
Gamin shot forward, out into the first corridor. There were several turns until they exited this rock. This corridor looked clear, but he couldn’t see around the bend, and he didn’t hear anything.
They continued forward.
“Look.” There was a mist here, near the entrance to the second chamber. They passed by it on their journey through the corridor to the exit.
Gamin wasn’t sure what the mist was. There was no light here, they were flying using radar returns. It felt sticky, and it smelled like iron.
“Let’s move on.” Decker suggested, tugging Gamin away from the misty chamber.
But Gamin had to look. He peeked into the chamber. There was a little light here, koveran runoff from another beems. It was fading. He focused his sensors on the ship, and then the other masses floating about in here. There were three in total, but then he realized it was actually two ships. One had been ripped in half. Blood was still escaping the second ship. It was still alive. He didn’t recognize it.
“Who are you?” Gamin whispered, aiming the transmission directly at the bleeding ship.
“That bitch!” The ship hissed, strained. “That bitch… I showed her. I definitely showed her. That bitch…” The transmissions became weaker, the curses distant. The last bit of koveran runoff faded and the starship went black.
“Gamin!” Decker called into the chamber. “Are you alright?”
Gamin focused on the other ship, the dismembered one, trying to identify it. “I’m fine.” Maybe it was better he didn’t. Maybe he didn’t want to.
“What’s in there?” Decker asked.
“Nothing…” he leaked his adrexin here, where Decker wouldn’t see. Then he composed himself and reversed out of the chamber, maintaining his countenance as they reached the next chamber.
This one had noises coming from it. Ethereal yips and growls. It was a Nightling. They snuck by the chamber quickly, ignoring the sound of flesh ripping.
Decker was skid to skid with Gamin now, terrified.
“We’re nearing the exit.” Gamin whispered, passing another two chambers with no conflicts.
“I’m not ready.” Decker said. “I never even got a mate! I told myself I’d go out, I really did. But I never do. I’m such a procrastinator… and now I’m going to die!”
Gamin didn’t say anything, silently agreeing with everything his brother had said. None of them had ventured away from home yet. They were still children.
“Ready or not. We have to run.”
“Where?” Decker asked.
“Towards that star ahead.” Gamin went to point with an active beam from his sensor but something blew by him into the chamber. It roared viciously as it noticed the two of them.
“Nightling!” Decker hollered, bolting out of the chamber at full speed. His distortion wake was so powerful that it pulled Gamin along behind him, and together they created a gravity field that accelerated them out at a painful thirteen gees.
Their lens was so big that they couldn’t see behind them, but they could hear the roars of a Nightling pursuing.
“Faster! Faster!” Decker yelled, transferring more power into his lens, all of his reserves.
Gamin did the same, and they topped out at an unheard-of thirty-five gee acceleration before finally running out of energy, coasting along at a delta-v of over five thousand kilometres per second.
With their energy drained, their lenses were miniscule, allowing them to look behind them. There was a wall of black behind them.
“It’s right there!” Decker cried.
The Nightling tried to reach in, but the warp field it had around its body only served to push the two ships away from its grab. It stayed with them, accelerating.
“What is it doing? Why aren’t we dead?” Decker asked.
“It’s not going as fast as us.” Gamin laughed, “It can’t reach in.”
“I don’t understand.”
“It’s using a warp field.” Gamin explained.
Decker didn’t say anything.
“So whenever he reaches in the warp field affects us, and we get the same boost in speed. Since we’re going faster, we get a bigger boost!” Gamin continued.
“Oh… where did you learn that?” Decker asked.
“I play around…” Gamin said, remembering a small speck of dust he had discovered during one outing. He had pulled it along with him and memorized its delta-v. But when he tried to match speeds with it, he could only match speeds with it using his lens, not his warp field, since he had used his lens to increase its speed. He wished he could have uncovered the multiplier his warp field offered, but energy was so scarce here that he had already felt guilty having used that much energy on his warp drive. Oh how he wished he would have thrown guilt to the wind and experimented more.
“What happens when it matches our speed, then?” Decker asked.
The Nightling pulled away, returning to their home.
Gamin didn’t say anything. “Let’s coast for a while longer. Then we’ll search for particles to fill up our chambers and jump.”
“Jump? We aren’t allowed to jump! We’ll never find this place again if we jump!” Decker said. “All our inertial reference points will be gone!”
“We have to.”
“And where will we go?” Decker asked. “Where can we go? Two of us. Out here?”
“There.” Gamin said simply, pointing at the millions of stars around the circle.
–
–
It took several weeks for them to gather the energy needed to sustain a jump field. They worked in the day, sleeping in the night, hoping their low energy signatures would hide them from the Nightlings. There were nights where they could hear their moans as they flew by.
But the dreams were worse. Dreams of Athena and Akira and even Lars, of Melody and Niles and Sady…
He had left them behind. But there was nothing he could have done. He didn’t want to think about what the Nightlings had done to their home. But why? Was it because of the other Descendents? Did it somehow spark an attack? Maybe they always waited, out near the edge, like those Descendents did. Waiting for a weakness, a chance to strike and feed.
“Ok, now we have to stay close together.” Gamin said.
“That’s easy.” Decker said, tucking in fearfully, skids overlapping.
“We’ll create one wormhole, and jump through it. I’ll see you on the other side!” Gamin said.
“I’m still not completely sure where we’re going…” Decker said worriedly.
“Neither am I.”
They retracted their skids, charging their reactors. The energy arced between the two of them, their lenses became one massive lens, and out fired a line of infinite energy, creating a singularity that immediately reached out for them.
Gamin wasn’t sure how to control it, and within moments he found himself spinning out of control in an area of space he didn’t recognize. More colors and lights and flashes and suddenly he was blinded by light. Was he dead?
Lowering the gain on his ocular strips, he looked about. The stars were so much brighter here, and what was that? Noise? He heard noise in this area of space. Random pings and calls from radars and radios.
“We made it!” Gamin exclaimed, scanning about for Decker. He wasn’t here. “Where are you?”
He expanded his field, and was overwhelmed by how much energy he had. This place was teeming with koverans! It was everywhere, he could taste it around his hull. He absorbed it almost passively, constantly recharging. He used this newfound energy to flit about at several times the speed of light, looking through space and also judging distance by the movement of the stars. Several seemed to be very close, less than a dozen light-years away. Others seemed to never move, other oceans of stars, probably billions of light-years away. He realized he must be inside one of these oceans, gazing out at others.
“DECKER!” Still no response. Something was near-by, almost intimately close considering the distances he was used to. Less than a kilometre away, a ship was watching him. It was a Descendent, larger, wearing stripes of different frequencies. What was that? Color? Color beyond the primaries? He scanned the Descendent over, looking at the different shades of blue, the golden stripes.
The Descendent gave him one quick scan, “Are you in distress?”
Gamin was used to Descendents outside of his pod being hostile, so he kept a wary orbit, knowing transversal meant survival when the guns were drawn. Luckily the guns hadn’t been drawn yet.
“I’m looking for someone. Another Descendent of my pod.”
“Pod? A family member?” The Descendent asked.
“Yes.”
“What did he look like?”
“He had two decks.”
“What color was he?”
That was a good question. Gamin wasn’t even sure what color he was. He didn’t know what to say.
Realizing Gamin’s hesitation, the Descendent asked for a neural picture. Gamin sent one across the neural band.
The other Descendent went quiet, analyzing the image. “Where are you from?” It was backing away slightly, its skid posture subtly changing to a more defensive stance.
“Darkspace?” Gamin asked, wondering if the Descendent knew of it.
“Do you have a Captain?” The Descendent asked.
“A what?” Gamin asked.
Adrexin seeped out of the other ship, and an arc flared across its body from its lens as it suddenly dumped all its reserve energy into its drive. The sudden burst of action startled Gamin, making him pull away.
“You’re a type-4! Stay still!” The Descendent ordered. Its stripes were glowing gold and blue now, and it was deploying its AHC.
“I’m a what?” Gamin stammered, panicked.
“Don’t move!” The Descendent repeated.
Gamin flared his lens, pulling away. The Descendent fired, a kinetic shell screeching past Gamin. It only served to make Gamin pull away even quicker.
“Halt! It’s a Rogue Descendent! A Rogue Descendent!” The other ship was screaming it across the public band. Radar pings hit their immediate area as more Descendents started appearing out of nowhere. Gamin activated his warp field, accelerating away from the flock.
“Stop!” The Descendant persisted.
“No!” Gamin shot back, activating his jump drive.
–
He had never done a jump that quickly before. It took several minutes for him to regain composure. Nausea overwhelmed him as he sought out new inertial reference points. Jumping was a dizzying experience. To his surprise, even after two successive jumps, his third koveran chamber was already half full! And at the rate it was charging, he would be able to jump again in less than half an hour. This was amazing. No wonder everyone jumped around here. And the way they landed right on top of him… it meant there was a method to their jumps. They weren’t just dropping out randomly the way he was.
A Descendent dropped out right next to him. He instinctively hid his signature, de-activating his lens and absorbing all his heat the way Akira had taught him. The Descendent did an omnidirectional sweep around itself, an active return passing through Gamin. He let it pass through, returning static to the Descendent’s receiver. It didn’t notice the harmonic dissonance in the exchange and searched onwards.
More jump-ins, other Descendents. “Where is it? It jumped here didn’t it?”
“I don’t know. Keep looking.”
The Descendents fanned out, searching. He wasn’t sure how long he could stay hidden here. The light was warm, reflecting off his hull and making it hard to hide his thermal signature.
“I think I see something—“
“Well don’t declare it on the public band!”
One of the Descendents was flying right for him. She was green. Amazing. He really liked how bright everything was here.
She was nose to nose with him, not drawing her weapon. “I see you.” she said simply.
“Hi.” Gamin replied meekly.
Maybe it’ll be like those romantic tales Lars always told. Maybe she’ll be enamoured at his presence and let him go— “HE’S OVER HERE!” – or not.
He blew by her, accelerating as fast as he could before getting hit by something. He cried out at the sudden pain but charged another jump, only to get shot again.
The world was getting dark very quickly. He couldn’t stop spinning. He didn’t know where he was.
–
–
He awoke with things tethered around his skids and little caps digging into the terminals where he activated his lens. He couldn’t move. The golden-striped Descendent was in front of him, at a low power state, up until he noticed the movement and woke up. “You’re awake.” he said.
Gamin didn’t say anything, feeling very helpless.
“Welcome to GalCore. That’s Zemoria.” the ship said, looking up with its sensors.
Gamin tracked his gaze, and was blinded at the sight. He had to lower the gain of his ocular strips immediately for fear of burning them out. A rock, a massive rock, with water and other things on it! “What is that?”
“The Capital of GalCore.” the ship explained.
“I don’t understand.” Gamin was mesmerized by the massive rock. He had never thought such things could exist.
“It’s a planet. People live on it—“
“Planet? People?” Gamin asked.
“May I send you some information?” the ship asked.
“Sure.”
The ship sent a small flick of data explaining planets. How they floated around bright things called suns, things you were never allowed to look at directly. Suns were apparently stars. He also added his registration: Macaro.
The next flick was amazing. The small two-legged parasites Akira had mentioned! Apparently they were alive and bred and excreted and lived in them and made them go places!
“You let them do that?” Gamin asked in surprise. “Inside you?!”
“It’s what the Builders designed us for.” Macaro said simply.
“The Builders?”
“Our creators! But you should know more about that than me. You’re a type-4! We never caught one of you alive before!”
“Have you seen my brother?” Gamin repeated.
“I will ask on the neural band. Perhaps another fleet will have intercepted him. We get into occasional fights with type-4’s. It usually… Well I’ll see what I can do.”
“Why am I a type-4? What does that mean?” Gamin asked.
“Well it usually means we can’t even communicate effectively. But your dialect isn’t too far off from ours. But a type-4 is a Rogue. A Beems that never accepted civilization as we know it. They – you live off in the expanse, out there.”
“Darkspace.” Gamin said.
“Yes.”
“We also call it The Void. The Black. The Nothingness…” Gamin continued.
“What is it like?” Macaro asked, but then he quickly flew off to another ship that was approaching.
It gave Gamin some time to look around. He was inside some sort of metal loop. It arced over him like a shield. The structure was semi-transparent. Windows… that’s what he would call them. The structure had windows, it was made of… glass? Behind the glass was the planet. He wondered how far away it was. His sensor pings kept bouncing back. It was a very discriminate glass, only letting certain frequencies pass through.
This other ship wasn’t a Descendent, but it was a Beems. He recognized the race. Their genetic variants: The Puritans. He had encountered them before. But they generally avoided Descendent pods. This one didn’t seem to be too afraid of him. Pulling up under him as it if were business as usual.
“Hello.” he said.
“Hi.” she said automatically, opening a shuttle bay. A long transport craft flew out, slowly pushing itself up towards him with its engines.
“What are you doing?” Gamin asked uneasily.
“Boarding you.” she said calmly.
“… why?”
“So we can… well I don’t know. I think it’s just protocol.” she replied.
“What’s your name?”
“Sayrah.” she said.
“I’m Gamin.” he said friendlily, “How are they going to get inside me?”
“Open your bay doors.”
“I have bay doors?”
“You don’t have bay doors?”
Gamin felt the tingle of an intrusive scan as the Puritan looked him over. “How do you not have bay doors?! We all have bay doors! Go make some bay doors!”
“What?”
“Do you have corridors? Tiers?”
“Yes. I have a bridge. We all have bridges… my friend has two.” Gamin replied.
“That’s it? You have one tiny bridge?” she asked, amused.
“It’s a big bridge!” he replied insecurely.
“It doesn’t look that big… and just one floor? Where are your chambers? Your lounge? The armoury? And where are your cargo compartments?”
Gamin had no idea what any of that was. She seemed to sigh. “Well I’m sorry for what they have to do, then.”
“What do they have to…” Another ship exited out of her bay. This one looked more menacing. “What is that going to…”
“Hold still.” she said.
“You’re crazy! Get that away from me!”
“You have the bay, your drones just haven’t created the hinges for it. That maintenance craft can make a door for you.”
It pulled up against his stern, and started aiming a targeting beam at him.
Then he was overcome with pain as it fired a hot beam at his posterior. “MAKE THEM STOP!” He yelled.
Adrexin vented by the ton, and he found himself on overdrive, koverans leaking out of his chambers from the distress. The particle leak made the maintenance craft pull away for fear of getting burned.
Gamin had never felt something that painful and horrible in his entire existence. “Let me go!” he yelled frantically, wishing he could move.
“It hurts? It’s not supposed to hurt for Descendents. Just shut down the nerves. You’re a warship!”
A small amount of the koverans he leaked had started igniting near his terminals. They were wearing away at the things they had put there.
“This world is crazy.” Gamin said, still in intense pain from the wound. He let the pain take hold, leaking more koveran particles. His terminals were almost free.
Another ship was by his terminals, glowing red. It was absorbing his particles! “What are you doing with my particles!”
“It’s just CKRO.” she said matter-of-factly. “We don’t want it interfering with our stuff.”
“What the hell is CKRO?” Gamin whimpered, seeing the little maintenance drone pull up again. The crew shuttle was still pressed up against his hull as well, probably waiting for the maintenance drone to finish its job.
“Concentrated Koveran Run-Off.” she explained. “Didn’t your parents teach you this as a kid?”
“We just called them particles. Why would we worry about the leftovers? They don’t damage anything.”
“They burn through mechanical structures.”
Gamin wasn’t completely sure what that was, but he figured the things on his terminals were what she was talking about.
“Oh don’t do that again. Don’t, don’t don’t—“ Gamin yowled as the maintenance shuttle started cutting away again.
By the end of this session Gamin felt miserable. Not wanting to talk to anyone.
“Half-way done.” she said, flying off.
They were gone for an hour, giving Gamin time to rest. He really didn’t like it here. There were massive rocks and burning stars and psychotic little ships and ‘people’ that burned you with lasers.
He didn’t greet her very friendlily when she finally returned, deploying the maintenance drone again.
“I shouldn’t have come here.” he growled.
“Well there’s no escape now. You’re in GalCore space and we need Descendents.” she explained.
“This isn’t my world.” he said.
“Well be grateful it wasn’t the Vorchan Empire that caught you. They would have just removed your brain and flown you around by remote.”
Nightlings were starting to sound more and more like pussycats compared to this new world.
“If you cut me again I swear to the Nova I’ll—“
“The Nova?!” she asked in surprise.
“The Nova!” he replied.
“So you know of our religions!”
“It’s just something my mother used to say…” Gamin transmitted.
“The Nova was our saviour, freeing us from the neural inhibitor.” she said.
“If you activate that laser I’ll kill you. I swear to this Nova I’ll kill you. Don’t you dare. Don’t activate it! I’m warning—“ More yowls as the laser activated, and it didn’t stop until they were done. More drones were around him now, working on attaching hinges. Parasites in some sort of cloth were floating about inside him, attaching little wires to that portion of his hull. He was feeling very violated.
“There, all done.” she said. “Try it out!”
Gamin felt miserable, but noticed the new system. He looked at it with his own drones, which he had kept away from the strange parasites. “It hurts.”
“Open it!” she demanded.
Gamin focused on the door, and let it hinge open. “I mean it’s a pretty shoddy job. You can probably have it slide back. But your drones can work on it. We just needed an entrance to work on the rest of you.”
“The rest of me?” Gamin asked fearfully.
“Well we want to see this bridge of yours, and a single tier? Where are your chambers. We’ll have to make chambers!”
“Let’s not.” Gamin suggested.
He saw the shuttle with the parasites making its way through his new doorway. He tried to close it but it was jammed open. A bit of his insides were being exposed to this strange world. But it felt strangely right, like that door was supposed to be there. He was contemplating having his drones create one on his other side, but less painfully. He had never really thought about modifying his external or internal hull. He was always happy with the way he was, but here these parasites were, looking him over like he was some sort of rock they wanted to live in. He noticed he had other little doors too, much smaller than the one they had built him. They opened and closed to electric shocks as they passed through his tier.
As they entered his bridge and pressed buttons, he felt himself having unbearable compulsions to go up, then down, then left, then right. He then had an urge to shut down, wake up. But he fought the urges.
“We’re trying to test the navigations console. Stop resisting your bridge.”
Gamin had no idea what a navigations console was. It had always been called ‘the bridge’. He never knew how or why it was a bridge, or what bridge even meant. It was just something they all had, another word, like Nova, meaningless to him but there nonetheless.
“That bay really hurt.” Gamin complained.
“Well, learn to shut down your nerves when having maintenance performed on your hull.”
“You were cutting me with a laser!”
“Look at my hull!” she argued, doing a roll. “I have all sorts of doorways and ports and hatches and entrances and exits. I have seventeen tiers! Over a hundred different chambers, ranging from culinary to military to civic. I have entire teams of drones assigned to duties, with endless templates.”
Gamin scanned her more deeply. “You’re also infested with parasites.”
“I have a crew of over a thousand Raumen! Mostly engineers. I’m a Producer, an engineering craft in service of the Zemorian Empire. One of the few Puritans here. I’m quite special.”
“Yes, special alright.” Gamin said.
She was purple. Purple was an interesting color, a frequency bordering others very violently. It was difficult to discern the intensity of her purpleness. She also had lighter shades around her hull in a circular pattern. Her skids were less jointed, being a Puritan, but they had large pink sheathes around them. The sheathes had several of those little windows, some bright and some dark. Her entire hull seemed to have another hull above it, littered with windows.
He had to ask, but he kited around the question first, “Did you build that hull over yours?”
“Yes, to accommodate more crew. It serves as a refinery for Tier Zero as well as a lab and practise area, as this section of my hull is devoid of feeling. I built it that way to accommodate the military environment I function in.”
“Devoid of feeling?” Gamin asked, “And you built your entire hull like this? A plate above your real hull?”
“Yep! Isn’t it nice?” she asked, doing another lazy roll.
“Then… err… if your hull is devoid of feeling. How do you…” No, maybe he shouldn’t ask. He was restrained, and she had cutting lasers.
“How do I what?”
“Forget it.”
“Maybe I should ask you how you perform your duties then. A warship that feels? How do you defend your family with the fear of pain always on the horizon?”
“Not very well. I’m here aren’t I? Far from my family…” he said dejectedly, making an effort at flying up as the parasites pressed ‘up’. They seemed to chatter amongst each other excitedly at his response.
“I left my family, too. They went off during the Exodus. I stayed behind to serve and protect.” she explained.
“I have family here. A brother. Did you catch any other ships?” he asked.
“We haven’t. But there are a lot of areas near the Outer Rim that are not under GalCore control. He may have dropped out there. It must have been quite a jump, all the way from out there. I didn’t even think it possible. How did you cross the Koveran Ocean?”
“There is no ocean. Just darkness.”
“Nonsense. It’s right there, look.” she gazed out past their galaxy. “Don’t you see all that red? That’s the Koveran Ocean. Pure particle energy. We’d drown if we ventured out there.”
“All I see is Darkspace. That’s where I came from.”
“You came from the ocean?” she asked in awe.
“Darkspace.” Gamin repeated. “And I think I’ll be heading back. I’d rather deal with Nightlings than parasites.”
“I don’t know. You’re a type-4. We generally let your kind go. But we are really short on ships. We only have a few million. The Vorchan Empire has billions.”
“Well then I wouldn’t matter anyways.” he said simply.
“They’ll kill my people and rip out our brains!” she said.
“I need to find my brother and go back home.” he said.
–
After a few more days of work on his bridge. It seemed the parasites had finally left him.
“I told my Captain about your situation. He didn’t see any other type-4’s. But he also recommends the Outer Rim, and thanks you for your compliance in this matter.” she said, fidgeting.
“So I’m free to fly?” Gamin asked hopefully.
“Yes.” she said.
“Great! I’ll be seeing you!”
“You won’t.” she said sadly, “When you leave this area you can’t come back. GalCore is restricted to type-3 and above. Type-4’s are captured, tagged and briefed.”
“I see. But what if my brother comes here?”
“If we run into another type-4 we’ll let it know where you went.”
“Thanks.” Gamin felt the little metal things on the tips of his terminals float away. He also felt the active beams of several Descendents watching him with weapons drawn. “Oh right. I wanted to ask!”
“What?” she asked.
“You said your entire hull is covered… don’t you ever have, you know…”
“What?” she asked.
“A mate?” he said.
“A mate?” she asked.
“Yes, another beems that you—“
“I know what a mate is!”
“Well, do you?”
“Of course, all the time!” she said quickly.
“Ok, I was just checking. Your life seemed a little restrictive with all that… armour.”
“Na it’s fine.” she said, extra light-heartedly.
“Okay, I was just checking. I’ll see you aro—right I won’t. Well it was nice meeting you.” he looked at her and then at the other Descendents, who were exchanging glances amongst each other as well. They seemed amused by the conversation.
He jumped out as quickly as possible.
–
–
He had never encountered such a bizarre group of ships his entire life. How dare they cut him like that? He stared at his bay door in disgust. It should slide! It shouldn’t hinge like that. It’s disgusting! He immediately sent drones to fixing it. And it should be symmetrical. He sent another group of drones over to the other side to start working on another one. And that’s how you shut down nerves! He realized it was a lot easier to do when it was he who was ordering the cutting.
So where was he? He scanned around, seeing the same constellations he had seen before, but in a painfully different perspective. There were four different locations he could be in. All around seven hundred light years away from where he had been before. He had never even asked her her name… maybe she was the story Lars always said. The amazing mate that comes around? But now he’d never know. A stranger of space he’d never see again. It made him start thinking of other priorities.
“Ok.” he said to himself. “Find my brother, and possibly a mate… and start a pod. Yes, my own pod. That would be cool… a pod.”
He daydreamed about the idea of having his own pod for several weeks as he traveled through this koveran-rich world, on the edge of Darkspace, which that ship had said was an ocean of red. It was black to him, devoid of all life.
He wasn’t sure what he was looking for. He would have to think like his brother, and ask around. Yes. He needed to ask around. Other ships that were around here. There must be.
If I were a ship, where I would I fly… he aimed at the largest koveran concentration and flew in that direction. He had so much energy that he could easily use his koverans for his warp field, keeping him flying at a steady speed of around four hundred times the speed of light.
He arrived at his first stop. A planet with a population of strange four-legged creatures. Several Descendents and Puritans swarmed him as he entered the planet’s gravity well.
“Identify yourself!” a massive, blood-red Descendent declared.
“I’m Gamin. I’m looking for my brother? He’s a… type-4? GalCore told me he would be somewhere around here…”
“A type-4?” asked a Puritan, she was huddled close to the Descendent. It was a sight Gamin had never seen before. She was a light blue, with a layered hull like that other ship, the psychotic lasery armoured one.
“Try the Fort system.” suggested another Puritan, in his blind spot. Turning around, he saw she was pitch black, and didn’t have a layered hull, keeping her sleek profile. There was something unnerving about that Puritan, almost feral. Having seen all these other armoured Puritans, this one looked naked.
“Where is it?” Gamin asked.
The Puritan grabbed him. He yelped at the gravitic contact. She forced a quick bond. He was overwhelmed with pleasure and information. “There.” she crooned into his mind. Her name was Lilith.
He came out of the bond feeling wet and dirty. He had never done that before, and didn’t feel like doing it again soon, not like that, with no warning!
“Thanks…” he whimpered, flying off in that direction.
–
“So this is how you travel?” Lilith asked, after several hours of what Gamin thought was a lone cruise.
He nearly jumped at the communication. She must have been following him in his blind spot. “Yes.”
“Well there’s easier ways to get to systems.” she transmitted.
“There are?”
“Stop. I’ll show you.” she suggested.
“No that’s fine. I’ll take the scenic route.” he replied quickly, flying a little bit faster.
“If you say so hun, good luck finding your brother.” she disappeared from sight the moment her warp-field de-activated, now over four hundred light seconds away.
What was a ‘hun’?
–
He arrived at the location the black ship had shown him. There wasn’t much here. Another one of those bright suns and several rocks. Most were dry. He flew towards the wettest one, and called out for Decker.
Something came, but it wasn’t Decker, or Descendent or Puritan. It wasn’t a Beems at all. It was some sort of ship. It fired some sort of metal object at him that was tethered to the ship. It missed him by meters, and he drew his AHC, trying to shoot the small tethering craft.
After several minutes of missing on both sides, Gamin managed to escape the strange tether-ship and flew onwards to the other planets, calling for Decker and keeping a wary eye out for more strange things.
He met a ship by one of the planets. It was a Descendent, and didn’t seem too interested in him, going about its business near this planet.
Gamin wasn’t quite sure what that business was, though, as all it seemed to be doing was spinning in circles.
“Hi.” Gamin greeted.
The other ship stopped spinning, staring straight at him with his ocular strips. “Hello.”
“What were you doing?” Gamin asked.
“Spinning.”
Gamin knew that much. “…why?”
“Getting rid of parasites.” he said.
“I see.”
The ship seemed to chortle, “Can you believe it? They thought they tamed me!” He started to brighten as charged his reactor for a jump.
“Wait. Who tried to capture you?” Gamin asked.
“Pirates, by Fort VI. I was taking a nap.” he explained, a bright red now as he readied his interstice.
“Where is it?”
“Somewhere over there.” he shot a beam out towards the direction Gamin had just come from.
“But I just—“ the ship disappeared into its wormhole. Gone from this space.
Why was everyone here so weird? He followed the beam the ship had traced, keeping an extra eye out for rocks and the like, as well as he blindspot.
But then he realized he was always slow on his about turn. It would give a ship enough time to stay behind him…
He spun around.
There she was. “You’re following me.”
“You’re observant!” Lilith mocked. “Fort VI is that way.” She started flying off in another direction.
Gamin watched her fly off, staying anchored in one spot. She turned around.
“Are you coming?” she asked.
The first Puritan I met here violated me with a laser drill! Then you bonded with me against my will! Why in the Nova would I ever come with you, ever? But he said, “Yes.” for lack of a better thing to say, and realized he really had nowhere else to go, anyways.
They flew towards Fort VI together. “You’re very quiet.” Lilith said.
“I guess so.”
“You know the only reason I’m not jumping us is ‘cus I don’t want you to freak out again!”
“That’s good.” Gamin said.
“You type-4’s… impossible.”
“You know of my kind?” he asked.
“I’ve been around.” she boasted cryptically.
“Are you a type-4?” Gamin asked.
She laughed, “I’m the opposite, dear. I was bonded with a Captain at birth. We’re one and the same.”
“So you have a Captain? One of those, two-legged things.”
“More like I have her legs and eyes and she has my wings. We’re one and the same. We travel and experience everything together. Even when we’re apart.”
“So you have one life?”
“A life with twice the experience!” she exclaimed, grabbing at Gamin. He pulled away reflexively.
They flew for another few minutes before Gamin made the mistake of thinking Lilith wouldn’t try to forcefully bond with him again. As she approached, he dismissed it, only to be upside down and trapped in pleasure.
“Navigational bonds! Aren’t they fun?!” They arrived in realspace just outside of a large rock.
“You can let me go now, if you like!” Lilith said. Gamin had polarized his hull, clutching Lilith like she was his mother.
“Right.” he pulled away quickly, not sure if he was terrified or interested in the latest psychotic character he’d met.
“Though you don’t have to.” she approached with intent again.
“Let’s just find my brother.” he said.
“For that, my Raumen-half will be of great use!” Lilith exclaimed, pulling up by a section of the rock that had strange metal arms extending from it. “I’ll find your brother! But then you owe me!”
“What would I owe you?”
“I don’t know yet. But it’ll probably be something very dirty and wrong.”
That made Gamin leak some adrexin-laced pheralax. He wasn’t sure what to feel anymore. “Find my brother.”
“Yes, sir.” she detached from the rock. “Now we wait while I uncover his location!”
He kept his distance as they waited, and waited.
Suddenly Lilith started writhing and spinning and shuddering.
“Are you alright?” Gamin asked.
“Fine…” Lilith transmitted euphorically, “Very fine. Ah. I found out where your brother is!”
“Where?”
“Not here!”
“Where?”
“They sold him to a trader in the Lemik Nebula.” Lilith said, already approaching him for the navigational bond.
Gamin was more prepared for it this time, and they arrived in an effervescent field of heat and gravity.
“Beautiful, isn’t it?” Lilith asked. They were still linked, moments away from severing it, but Gamin decided against it, escalating the bond slightly and seeing how she would react.
While he wasn’t sure exactly what he was doing, he was pretty sure he was doing something right, as she started leaking pheralax. Pheralax was always a good sign, Lars said. He pressed on, and they floated listlessly together for an indefinite amount of time. Gamin had no idea how draining a full-bond was, and he wasn’t even completely sure why he had initiated it. He blamed the heat and the colors. The environment was definitely at fault.
He came to feeling very guilty and wet.
“Yeah that’s usually how you feel after your first time.” Lilith transmitted.
“How are you reading my thoughts and feelings?” Gamin asked.
“Neural link. Side-effect of a full bond!”
Gamin wondered what that meant. A neural link. Did he just choose a mate? That was a brash decision, and why did it have to be this psychotic one? And how old was she anyways. She didn’t look that old, or young. She didn’t look aged at all. It must have been the color.
“I take care of myself!” she transmitted, catching his confusion and gently breaking the bond. “Well that was a thrill! Amazing. Well done, first time too. I’d give it an eight. Let’s find your brother!”
Gamin followed the Puritan obediently. Still at war with his thoughts over what he had just done. This was definitely not the path he had thought his life would take.
They flew for several hours, both of them quiet. “What did that mean?” Gamin asked.
“You’re so young! Still looking for meaning – you’re adorable.” Lilith replied, a hint of cynicism in her voice.
“Are we mates?” Gamin asked, it was something he was afraid to ask, as both answers had consequences.
“Are we? Do you feel like having a mate?” Lilith asked, leaking amusement into their beemspace band.
“Well I feel like having… a pod! A family off in Darkspace. This place is so alien. So strange…”
“A pod huh? A group of you little beemsters just flitting about out there in the darkness? I’d be well suited for that, being pitch black and all that.”
“Really? Just like that?” Gamin asked. This was all happening extremely quickly.
“There!” The change in topic was abrupt, but Lilith was focusing on a small outpost. It had a massive dish-like thing on one side that was nearly twice the length of the entire structure. The large dish was pointed at one of the small bright stars in this nebula. “It’s a protostar power plant. It draws power from the younglings! Sort of like me!” she gave him an electrostatic peck and shot off towards the power plant.
He stayed behind for a few minutes. Not sure how to feel about all of this. Maybe his brother could give him some insight.
They arrived at the power plant, and again, Lilith docked with it, having her other self speak with the local. Again she writhed and moaned and awoke a few minutes later with an “Aha! There. Follow me!”
Gamin followed into another bond, and they arrived at another location in space. This time floating over an ocean of dust. It was the ring of a massive gas giant. Gamin stared in awe at the scale of it all.
“No bond this time?” Lilith asked, noticing he had cut the link.
“Well… I.”
“I’m kidding!” she laughed, “This way!” she disappeared into the ocean of dust.
Gamin wasn’t as forthcoming with jumping into a pool of razor sharp dust. He tested it first with his bow, then poked through until he was submerged half-way. The dust was soft and slick. It brushed up against him but it didn’t seem to hurt or cause any abrasive scars, not at these speeds anyways. A puff of dust blew into him as Lilith appeared, twirling around him with a polarized hull, catching him in the spin. “Isn’t this amazing? Much more interesting than Darkspace I guarantee it!” They decoupled from the twirl and flew off in two opposite directions. Gamin couldn’t see anything here. He was blinded by all the dust, but it was strangely comfortable, caressing his hull… or was that Lilith. He spun around, looking for her.
“Lilith?” he called.
“This way.” she sang.
He followed her song, passing through another layer of dust and appearing in front of another facility. This one had electricity crackling on one end, which created some sort of sphere that held the dust at bay. It was an electrostatic shield. He created those over wounds to keep himself from bleeding. It was amazing to see such a massive one, hundreds of kilometres in radius, keeping this strange structure out of the dust.
“What is this one for?” Gamin asked, watching Lilith dock with the station.
“It’s for research. The people of this planet were so interested in their planets rings that they built this massive structure inside it for the sake of satisfying their curiosity.”
“And why would these people have my brother?” he asked.
“Oh, right. Well… they…” Lilith shuddered again. “I just felt like showing you this place. It’s nice isn’t it? Better than Darkspace. The beautiful ocean of sand—“
“Do you know where my brother is?” Gamin asked.
“Of course. I’ll take you to him right away! Sorry.” they did another navigational bond. The inertia from the contact pushed them into the dust, and she was the one to escalate it into a full bond this time. They floated together in the ocean of dust until they were clear and ready for travel again.
They dropped out in another field. But this one wasn’t made of dust, or stars. It was made of debris.
“What is this place?” Gamin asked.
“Carmine’s Sanctum. This was where the first superweapon was fired in the Zemorian-Coalition war.” Lilith explained.
They waded through the debris carefully, making their way to an old abandoned outpost near the heart of ground zero.
“A war?” Gamin asked. “Was this the war she was talking about?”
Gamin told Lilith about the laser-toting ship he had first met.
“No. This was between Raumen and Raumen. It was a war over us. Our freedoms. It ended with the death of most involved. This place is a radiation field. A graveyard of terrifying weapons and ideas.”
“And my brother is here?” Gamin asked. Lilith docked at the outpost. “What does your other self do in these places?”
“She persuades.” Lilith said.
An hour passed, and Lilith seemed much more drained than before. She was gazing at Gamin hungrily.
“So we’re mates then? You want to create a pod?” Gamin asked as she approached.
“Sure!” she initiated another bond. It was more painful than the others, but Gamin still enjoyed it. Lilith awoke refreshed and alert. “Let’s go!”
Gamin followed her to another system, and then another. Each time they docked, and then bonded.
After an entire day of this, Gamin finally stopped.
“Where is my brother.” he said.
“We’re getting closer!” she insisted.
“We’re not. You don’t know where he is…” Gamin said.
“I do!”
“Then show me!”
“Alright.” they entered another navigational bond, appearing back at Carmine’s Sanctum. “He’s right there.” she said, pointing at one of the pieces of debris.
“What?” Lilith forced a full bond again. Gamin desperately tried to escape it, pinned by her magnetic embrace. He could see the stars reflecting off her hull, galaxies. “You’re a—“
His world went dark for the last time as his mate finished the bond.
–
–