The great void between stars, a vacuum often described as “black” or “darkness”. In reality it was something far more than that. For time eternal it has been the vessel to which all of man’s aspirations and imagination was filled to its celestial brim. The wish to fly and to touch the sky, go to the moon, reach the stars or even to dream of life on another planet. That is is what the void is, an empty glass jar constantly filling with the penny wishes and hopes of mans intergalactic youth.
Man kind did make it into space. Though not in the way one would have imagined. It wasn’t on the back of a flying dragon, or by hopping up gumball and lollypop laden trail to the moon. No fanfare, or parades were held in honor of mankinds departure from Earth. In fact no one really noticed at all. The thing about mankind is that it goes on and an on, like a microscopic organism, even a nearly complete eradication of the entire species doesn’t mean it’s gone for good. Because of this ability to adapt and continue, Mankind’s journey into the stars was simply a matter of time.
As it happened one such man floating in the vastness of the great void, was not a man yet but will be tomorrow. His name was Aerick Sharpe and his father’s ship, the Executor, floated like a sailboat with no solarwinds to push it. The lights on the vessel were completely out not even warning lights flashed their red and green glows. Rather than helpless the ship was instead simply adrift like bait on a hook. The Executor, much as the name suggests, carried out the will of the council. It’s mission this time was to find and capture the pirates in a particular corner of the void. After three and a half weeks of nothing, they decided to play dead and let the scoundrels come to them.
Particularly for the reason that on this day it was Aericks Birthday. Aerick’s father, Maximus was named after the greek strong man of legend, and as if in a prophecy he grew strong and stout to live up to the name. As a captain he was skilled beyond measure but as a father his abilities could be counted, and measured then often found lacking. It did no damage to Aericks view of his father however, he was a god among men. Proud, confident and proven in battle.
This birthday was to be different than all the others, for today he turned ten. Once a child had double digits in their age field they were considered old enough to learn about the many responsibilities of adult life. living out in the void and nearly always aboard the Executor, that meant learning how to handle a weapon.
‘Here my son. This is for your. I would say you can’t open it yet but wrapping paper is hard to come by on this ship.’ Maximus spoke as he entered Aericks quarters, holding out a long sleek rifle. Under it’s barrell a set of short stubby tripod legs and a scope on top that appeared almost larger than the gun itself. It was well used, and had a small blue bow wrapped around the butt of the gun.
‘Oh wow! Hey! …wait a second isn’t that the gun that you said I would lose my hands if you ever saw me touching it?!’
‘Yes it is, this is the gun I used when I was your age… The scope is the one I have been using for the past year. I have a new one now so i don’t see why you shouldn’t have it.’
‘Thanks dad, my birthday isn’t until tomorrow, won’t mom get mad that you gave it to me early?’
‘Your mother sent me in here to tuck you in. She knew the risks, so if she doesn’t like it she can just stow it.’
‘Yeah I’ll be sure to tell her that. Where is mom anyway, she usually reads me a story.’
‘You are old enough you can read your own books.’
‘I’m not old enough yet, not until tomorrow and I want one last story before I become a man like you.’
‘Well you mommy is in the galley, trying to make you a cake. Not the easiest task in a galley stuck in the middle of the void in silent running.’
‘Oh no...’ Aericks face changed from it’s snarky but cheerful expression to one of authentic concern.
‘Don’t worry plank licker, Prissy is with her. The last time your mother cooked Precilia couldn’t go into the pantry for weeks without retching.’
‘Ok, good.’
‘Now lay your little stink face down, and make like a pillow. You won’t wake up in tomorrow until you fall asleep today.’
Aerick slid down under the covers and got comfortable. ‘Dad I know you’re probably really busy looking for pirates and stuff but I really like your stories, and I’m so excited I don’t know if I’ll be able to sleep. If you can’t read me a book, could you just tell me a story before you go?’
Maximus with his hand on the frame of the portal out of Aericks quarters took a deep breath and stepped back into the room, and sat next to his son. ‘Your mom and you have that hold on me, I will have you know that NO ONE, can get me to do what I don’t want to do. So you aren’t making me do this, I’m doing it because I want to.’
‘Of course father, I understand.’ Aerick said fighting back a victorious grin.
‘If I’m going to tell you something on this, the last night of your childhood then I want it to be something meaningful.. and even educational. The story I’m about to tell you is real. There won’t be any fairy’s, dragons, or demons in this story. So get comfortable, I’m about to school you boy.
Every great idea begins with a crazy person spouting madness, often being laughed out of their positions of high esteem by their equals. Then someone, goes and tries it, then someone see’s what that person’s done and improves it, then someone sells takes that idea and sells it, then in a furious competition for the top they make this unimaginable thing into a common household thing.
Along time ago one such man, thought to be out of his mind, went by the name of Isaac Beisswanger, a man who later became the father of an entire people, but we will get to that part. In the mean time there was another thing that mankind was good at, fighting, primarily amongst themselves. For a long time man even fought even though they all lived on the same planet, an ancient place called Earth. I know it sounds strange, but much like brothers and sisters fight in a family that lives in the small vessels, the whole of the human race would often bicker, and even go to war over settlements of land. You see land was very hard to find in those days because they only had one planet to choose from. People were fighting sometimes for thousands of years, generations would battle, over land they felt was sacred or already belonged to them or simply because they wanted it for strategic purposes.
It got so bad that people, like our ancestors moved into the oceans, living aboard tiny sailing vessels, ones no larger than a hundred or two hundred feet long. Only these ships couldn’t fly they only floated in the water. Then the oceans had so many folks living amongst each other that governments and countries entirely at sea tried to form. Borders made of mountains and rivers where hard enough to control, it was impossible to maintain the governments at sea.
These failures would use much of the money and resources they collected during the short time they were together to form highly financed Pirate groups, taking from citizens of the ocean that refused to join with them.
There was no where that was safe. Even after settlements were formed on the moon and mars, the battle for control over landing pads, and resources continued. Finally one man had an idea and the means to get it done. Thats crazy Isaac. He had an idea that if we left the planets and instead worked together to live among the stars that we could find new homes for people who wanted land, resources for people with ideas and ability to make something of them, and give purpose to those who wanted to belong to something greater.
‘The Epimetheus!’ Aerick sat up in his bed and shouted his answer like he had won a prize for his answer.
‘Yes, you’re a sharp kid. Now let me finish the story, it’s very late. As you guessed his idea was to build a lifeboat for the people of the planet. It was named the Epimetheus after a even older story, one so ancient it was an ancient tale even to the ancients themselves. It was in a time where man believed that the gods lived in the sky above them and that the world was filled with magical beings, some of them were called Titans. One of the most famous of these titans is Prometheus, he was a titan who went against the wishes of his gods, and gave the gift of fire to man, which launched man’s rise to civilization. His name meant “forethinker” as if he could see what fire would do for the future of mankind.
However his brothers name was Epimetheus, whose name meant “after thinker” but is better known as hindsight.’
Aerick was drifting to sleep with the details but snapped back to attention after hearing hindsight. ‘I’ve heard you say that! You say that to Simon when he forgets to do stuff and then gets in trouble.’
‘Exactly, Epimetheus was considered foolish because he was supposed to give all of Earth’s creatures a positive trait but didn’t think out the details and ran out of positive traits to hand out when it came time to give humans their positive traits.’
Aerick laughed, ‘That’s sounds like a joke. Humans have good traits… we usually make our beds when we get up, and we brush our teeth before bed!’
‘Well it’s just a story but I don’t think that’s what they were talking about. Anyway our people have never been known for our ability to agree with each other. So just like anything else we’ve ever done, mankind was split. Those of us who left the earth came here on board the Epimetheus.’
‘Wow, so did you come from Earth?’
Maximus laughed heartily, ‘me?! No my son, when I say we I mean our ancestors. Your great, great, great… well I can’t remember for sure how many generations ago it was but it took many generations to reach the Hercules Ring. We only barely scratched the surface of this massive galaxy but of all the star systems our people have explored this has been the closest thing we’ve found to a new home. Hundreds of planets, a massive star and room enough in the void that we could build ten more Epimetheus sized mother ships!’
‘No way’ Aerick said as he laid back down on his pillow pulling his blanket up tight around his neck. ‘There is only one Mothership, cuz humans only have one mother.’
‘Well, that’s not true at all precilla is like a mother too you. Anyway that’s enough of a history lesson for now, close your eyes and dream about what you want to be when you grow up tomorrow.’ His father stood as he spoke and smiled proudly at his son, then turned and went to for the control panel next to the door.
Before Maximus could power down the lights in his room Aerick sat up in bed with a start. ‘Dad!, What about the humans who stayed in the solar system. Are they still there?’
Maximus hesitated to respond, thinking to himself that he could pretend he didn’t hear the question, just to avoid having to answer it. He stepped backwards into the room again and tipping his head to the right as if he was struggling to find a way out of the question, he finally succumbed to the his only son’s expression of real concern for his far away cousins.
‘Well that is a whole other story… and you have to go to bed’ the response just slipped out but Max smiled and was proud of his own brilliance in finding a loophole but still giving an answer.
‘Just tell me if they are still there or do we know if they died or something?!’
‘Well yes we do know that they are still there, after so many of us left they were able to live on the planets in peace, for a while.’
‘What do you mean for a while? Are they okay? Do we ever go back there?’
Max sighed deeply and sat down again next to the bed and spoke quietly. ‘We know they are alive and we have been in communication with them since before I was born. But recently we lost contact with them, so we don’t know for sure. I think we just lost one of the quantum transmitters, either to pirates or just to a meteor, but that’s not really our place to find out.’
‘But’ Aerick began to feel even more concern and felt as though he would get into trouble for even mentioning his next thought but could not fight back the urge to ask. ‘What about the aliens. What if they got eaten or whatever.. maybe we should go save them?’
Max was genuinely surprised at his sons persistence and imagination. The only other known intelligence in the universe discovered in the millenias that man has sought them out was known to children as “Them” or “the aliens” once more they were things of fairy tales because they haven’t been seen since the great war. The counsel and society on board the Epimethius had labeled them “The Cluster” as a result of their swarming behavior. However they had not been seen for an entire generation and no movement from the planets they already devoured showed them migrating again.
‘Well Aerick, that’s quite a stretch… The aliens, making it all the way to the solar system? That’s not possible every good captain knows that those creatures can’t go long distances without establishing a new home world. They don’t do well in deep space which is why we don’t really go into the inner rings of the Hercules system.’
‘Ok, yeah it’s probably just a problem with one of our transmitters or maybe theres or something.’
‘Now go to bed, no more questions, no more excuses, go to sleep!’ Maximus sprang up from his seat and dashed for the door, then shot out of the room slapping the control panel and killing what little lights there were left on in the room. After a moment his head bounced back in to the doorway and as if detached from the rest of his body sat there floating still as he whispered loudly ‘I love you my son’ and his head dashed out again as the door closed behind him.
Aerick sat quietly, contemplating everything he had learned for a moment then reached over to the panel next to his bed and held his finger down on the dimly lit panel pressing a large yellow icon with the image of a speaker on it and, whispered equally as loud, ‘I love you too!’ as he did the ships internal PA system projected his voice disquieting the whole ship, and nearly knocked the proud father and captain off his feet.
As he layed there in his bed converted and “upgraded” from the service issued sleeping arrangements typically found on the Enforcer class deep space vessels Aericks eyes struggled to close, he knew that he must go to sleep or the night would never end but he was so excited by the next days activities that his mind spun with possibilities. ‘I bet he will let me fly a stinger!’ his mind shouted, through his voice was silent. He pictured himself behind the control stick of one of the small multipurpose ships, his father often called Dinghies after the sailors of the sea did in ancient tales. His father loved history, he studied it even as he hunted for pirates. Maximus always told Aerick that “knowing where you came from helps you understand where you are going.” He would even study recent history, not just ancient happenings, because he could learn the habits of his targets by watching what they were doing in the past. Aerick used to think his dad would have made a great detective.
His mind continued to wander like this from topic to topic before he completely forgot about his birthday and quickly fell into a deep sleep. His dreams floated like the ship he called home, drifting through a universe all his own. Where the Earth and the Epimetheus were reunited, where he could visit the great many environments of Earth. Never had he heard of a place so beautiful, Green vegetation, Tall Mountains, vast deserts, and deep oceans all in one place. He wondered how his own people, now so well organized could ever had been so bitter and cruel to something so wonderful.
He dreamed of his first day as a man, that he would wake up and be greeted by everyone on the ship, firing off confetti and throwing holloworks. They weren’t supposed be fired indoors because of the glare and may cause temporary blindness but he did it when he thought he could get away with it, even when sometimes got him in trouble. His dream continued with the crowd lifting him of the ground and carrying him to the bridge where they sat him in the captain’s chair and put his name on the crew roster. They let him pick a course, and he didn’t have to eat breakfast he could go right to lunch. As they gathered around the table they chanted his name and his mother Beth and his caring nursemaid Priss brought in cakes in the shape of his favorite storytime action hero icon, “Captain Streak!”. It was two bricks joined in the middle on both the top and the bottom by two thinner bars.
The sound of his friends and family around him filled the air, “Aerick, Aerick, Aerick, Aerick” They chanted. As he woke from his sleep by his junior void patrol alarm clock, he could still hear their voices in his ears, but only for a moment since just as quickly a deafening silence was of the lifeless ship was all around him. They had been silent running for days but this was different. The familiar sound of the ship’s pump was even absent. He woke with a dry mouth and as a result he swallowed to moisten it again, sound of his gulp sounded like a banging drum in his ear. The silence settled in his ear once more, and felt so heavy in his ear that it was like a thick jelly.
He sat up in his bed, as he never forgot the dangerous daily mission his family endured so regularly. Death and destruction was an everyday possibility. ‘Pirates’ he whispered to himself so loudly that he might as well been shouting. He stares solemnly at a poster of Captain Streak fighting an army of pirates single handed. His focus turns to the large group of snarling villains charging at his hero, ‘Maybe they came aboard while I was in my sleep.’ He now spoke to himself in his thoughts. After a brief moment he jumped up from where he sat, and put on his new officers uniform grabbing his rifle he sighed deeply. A passing thought entered his mind that he may be overreacting and just as quickly he remembered his father’s constant advice, “Never assumption, always caution”.
The door was tightly shut, and no warnings or messages were displayed on it’s control panel. He pressed the panels face and it’s interface sprang to life. The light of the flat smooth display screen was blinding compared to the lowlight of the room, previously only illuminated by the light of the alarm clocks number display, and the dimly projected light coming from the indicators on his rifle. He rubbed his eyes to adjust to the light before he activated any of the functions on the control panel, fearing that he might press the PA button or some other function nosey enough to draw attention to himself.
As he reached for the open operator, he stopped suddenly and instead pressed the spyglass icon next to it. A video flashed up on the screen filling the control panels interface with images of the corridor outside his door. Pressing the corners of the screen he could change the angle of the camera, he scanned from left to right for any activity, hoping to see some crew member or Priscilla coming down the path. There was nothing, the halls were abandoned, he didn’t know if that made him feel better or worse about his situation. Regardless he decided that he needed to find out what happened on his father’s ship, and he opened the door.
With the ships deadened silence the usual hiss and pop of his quarters door sounded like a hollowork going off, nearly shaking him out of his skin. He silently cursed the doors irresponsible noises with clenched teeth and growling looks as he reluctantly passed through them. He stepped into the corridor and a breeze passed through him like an arrow through his chest as he stood square in the middle, he felt exposed and terrified as he clung to the walls. He shrunk his size by folding as much as he could while still being able to walk and hold out his gun in front of him. He pointed it as he walked like a flashlight but it cast no light.
He moved along the halls automatically, he wasn’t sure where he was going to go, but his body drifted of its own accord toward the bridge, which was on the same deck as his quarters, only a few meters away. The silence in the halls did not change any as he moved, passing two rooms of the crew members. Their doors were left ajar, showing their interactivity panels on paused screens as if they had left in a hurry. Seeing this Aerick’s mind raced with possibilities, ranging from pirate raid to rapture. ‘How could they of all gone and left me here. It’s my birthday, how could they forget to take me with them?’ Tears began to well up in him, fearing for his parents and friends. The crew of the ship was like an extended family to him. He thought of Simon Ferro the first mate, who was like an uncle to Aerick since birth and at times he was more like a big brother. He often would sit with Simon at the helms control screens and would try to embarrass Maximus with stories of their youth. He was a massive figure and while Aericks small frame didn’t suggest that he would be tall or muscular, he hoped one day to be as fearless and brave as his idol. Remembering this, he pushed the fear back, and went on because that’s what Simon would have done. ‘Hang on guys I’m going to find you.’ A soft whisper came out in a forced deep voice, an attempt to sound larger than he was.
At that moment he rounded the the final corner to the bridge. He could see the door, cracked, normally the door would be wide open, or closed entirely. He felt the hairs on the back of his neck stand straight. This finally oddity was all he needed to know something strange had certainly taken place on board in his sleep. He reached the corner frame of the large metal door. It’s frame surrounded in airtight rubber seals and the door itself a rounded edged rectangle that appeared to weigh a ton, and Aerick had always thought it looked to be a “good three feet thick”. (Though in actuality it was no thicker than his own bedroom door).
After a brief respite, he continued on, pressing his weight against the yawning door. It creaked softly as the hinges painted metal broke the friction against each other. Tipping his head into the room it appeared dark, the light of the stars outside was all that illuminated the room. He entered cautiously tiptoeing over the threshold of the door. He now felt a bit safer seeing that no one was trying to steer the ship into the sun or some other form of dreadful thing. As he cleared the doorway he turned to pull the door shut and lay claim to the bridge, but as he did he saw before him two pair of long legs and a floating torso with its hands and face veiled in darkness. With a start Aerick jumped back, and in a squeal shouted “S.I.E.G.E. lights!”
The lights snapped on with a pop as the bridge was flooded with all manner of color, the glare. It filled his eyes but knowing the man in the shadows might also be blinded he pointed out his rifle. Before he could do anything else, the room was filled with a chorus of voices all shouting “Surprise!” The sound itself seemed to lift him up and dropped him flat on the deck. As he lay there shocked and stunned laughter filled the room. The figure he saw in the dark belonged to his father, who quickly stood over his son and with a chuckle he picked up Aerick by the hand and took his rifle.
Toying with it and checking it for scratches he laughed then knelt down to his boy who was and spoke loudly so everyone could hear. ‘We’ve been watching you on the monitors my little man and I couldn’t help it I had to see how it played out, you were so impressive, clearing hallways and checking your six. What did you think happened? What were you going to do with this?’ Holding out the weapon which was not charged.
‘I thought maybe I would at least scare off whoever might have seized the ship. They don’t know it won’t fire.” Aerick spoke with a starting grin as he took back his rifle from his father who was smiling ear to ear.
‘You must’ve influenced your boy more than you had known, Captain, that sounds like something you would have done..’ Simon spoke out from the crowd of crew standing near the large Situation Table in the back of the bridge, which usually had a display of the void sectors around the ship but was instead adorned with a yellow tablecloth, plates, cups, sweet drinks and a variety of snacks, as well as a large platter holding cook it yourself pizza, topped with spiced protein slices and sweet chimes, a lovely sweet yellow fruit discovered on the surface of an equally lovely planet just inside the habitable ring of the hercules galaxy, it was Aericks favorite. The crew grew several crops worth in their Haven Chamber hydro garden system.
Birthday’s aboard where celebrations that everyone looked forward to, even childrens parties but particularly Aericks because they knew Beth would’ve snuck many sweet treats and extra food rations aboard just for the party so the crew could indulge themselves without worrying about the health restrictions put on them by the ship’s galley staff. The adult staff members would usually get cupcakes or shore leave for their birthdays which was enjoyable but having a birthday party really broke up the constant fears and absolute boredom deep space brought with it.
This far out in the void, collision with comets or asteroids still occurred even with the help of the S.I.E.G.E. systems. Pirate attacks were unpredictable even with a good plan of attack, there is no way to know how any attack will end. Fear of being stranded is always in the back of the crews mind, if the ship were to lose all power including backups and the solar generators were to be destroyed or disabled there would be no way for the counsels rescue ships to find them.
All these dark thoughts aside for the moment, the crew had already begun to pick at the snacks while they were waiting for Aerick to wake up. Surprise parties were difficult enough to pull off on a ship, most of the time everyone including the guest of honor would know they were having a party it was usually just a surprise as to when. Aericks lack of a crew schedule meant that mornings were really the only time they could get thing set up without fear of his all seeing eyes spying on them from some secret hidden pocket of the ship.
Aerick loved morning parties because it meant he could have cake and treats first thing in the morning, much preferred to the usual health malt or oat and grain meals the entire crew typically endured. He didn’t even mind that he would have to work off the extra calories after. Right away he was taken to his chair at the head of the table and Priss glared at the rest of the crew so they would stop swiping bits of food until after the birthday was officially started off. “Everyone! Get your grubby hands back… it’s time for us to sing! So stop stuffing your mouths, II don’t want everyone spitting all over the hard work Beth and I did making this food all night.” She said laughingly. “I think that our voice of an angle, Simon, should start the song.”
Simon, appearing almost eager for the chance to sing in front of the others, stood back from the table and held out his hands wide as if they were speakers, not that he would need them. A beautiful rich tone came forth from him as he began to sing the song now customary on all vessels in the void.
Amid the silence and stars, behind horizons and sky
The stars surround you and a years has gone by
May the world you seek someday find your feet,
or the ships of all mankind join to your fleet,
The crew joined all in and sang the tune that was happy and rhythmic.
today we dance and feast for your birthday
we’ve liked you since the first day...
Wish, insist, dream, exist!
Then all held their breath except for Aerick who took a deep breath and blew out all 10 candles with a single breath. The crowd cheered and clapped as they released their breath at once. They all began to shuffle and chatter among one another taking plates and drinks from the table. Beth now standing next to Maximus with Aerick directly in front of them stooped down and kissed her young son who looked excitedly at the feast before him. “Why not have your dessert first!” she said in a cheerful voice. “You only turn ten once!” Aerick nodded and looked at the cake with great anticipation.
The young mother eagerly took up a cutting knife and pulled the cake closer so she could cut out a nice piece. As the blade passed through the sweet and creamy frosting, passed through the light and fluffy chocolate flavored base and met the paper sheet beneath it stopped with a hard click as it tapped the aluminum tray below. In that instant the yellow table cloth directly below the cake tray began to glow with a red hue, flashing rapidly and a tone was emitted from the speakers on the bridge.
Maximus with a mouth full of something resembling pizza, lit up his eyes and forced an under chewed gulp down his throat. The crew around the table froze and Beth held her hand still with the knife in the cake just as it was, time seemed to pause for everyone as they struggled to get their minds back to the mission at hand, back to the turmoils, the search, the danger. Then just as quickly the Captain and all those aboard moved as if one organism darting this way and that, as Maximus shouted mouth still filled with hot melted bits “To stations! To Stations! We have a bite! Curse our rotted luck, and there inconsiderate timing. Those bastards would choose now, wouldn’t they.”
As he spoke and in a frenzy he reached under the table and pulled on the cloth, each person had taken some platter from the table though a few items still remained specifically the cake, and as Max pulled on the cloth it tipped nearly off the edge of the table. Priss let out a shriek as she reached for the cakes platter and missed. As it tipped over the side Simon seemingly out of thin air appeared with his hands under the platter and with a graceful swoop managed to keep the cake atop the plate, not so much as a crumb was lost.
“Oh, Simon, I loved you before; now you are my hero!” Priss ran behind the captain who was still bunching up the table cloth to reveal the situation table below. She took the cake and gave Simon a quick kiss on the cheek as she ran through the door that led to the Galley holding the cake in front of her as if it were a bomb about to go off.
“Beth take Aerick out of here the pirates took the bait, but we have a lot of work still to do before they get here.” Maximus was excited, so he was not looking at his family as he spoke but he motioned them away from the table. As Aerick jumped down from his chair led by his mother he wasn’t disappointed he was excited they may be able to return to the Epimetheus soon. An incoming pirate ship was not a surprise to the crew, they were hoping for this moment and everyone was getting to their stations to take down the pirates as soon as they tried to board. As his wife and son walked away he quickly grabbed Aericks shoulder and spun him around. “I’m sorry about this son, but maybe for your birthday we will get to go home, finally! Maybe, since you’re a grown man now, you can stay here near mom… to protect her.” He gave a sly wink to Beth as he stood back up and pointed them to calm corner of the bridge where they could watch the activity and they happily moved off to watch the captain at work. Spinning around and dusting his hands “Okay everyone, give me a sitrep, I see them coming but what are we dealing with.”
The second officer sat hunched over a display screen in one of the many display stations around the bridge. Wearing full dress uniform from the day before, and very tired from the night watch, he managed to quickly execute commands on his touch screen display as windows and statistics flashed up on the screen. ‘It’s a Marathon class cargo vessel, heavily modified. I can’t get a reading for how many souls on board.’
The captain waves his hand at his second mate and relaxed in his Captain’s Chair, ‘That’s fine Bridges, those ships usually give false readings anyway. Nash what can we tell about their game plan?’ The captain turned his attention to a young female officer wearing still wearing sleeping clothes and a bit frazzled from the excitement, who was sitting in front of a pulsing round display screen that showed an icon of the executor in the center and random blips of motions out at a distance moving towards the center.
‘Um, it’s hard to say exactly sir, the… they don’t. It’s strange.’
Simon changed his tone to what he calls is “Pull rank voice” a deep and booming voice appropriate to his size but rarely used unless he is fulfilling his duties as First Officer. ‘We are going to need a bit more than “strange” Petty officer Nash! Stop messing around!’
‘I’m sorry sir, that’s all I can say… they don’t seem to be functioning properly, or something.’
Maximus and Simon both stood up and with huff walked over to the display screen to see what could have her so baffled, she typically was incredibly precise with her vocabulary which is how she was put in charge of the Pulse Doppler station. As her superiors took their places over her shoulder the captain put his hand on her shoulder as if to move her from her chair, while glancing at the monitor. His expression quickly changed, before she could get out of her seat he pressed down on her shoulder and leaned in to the screen as if it was hard for him to read or maybe there was smudges of something on the screen. His face contorted and he turned, he tilted his head to the side as he whispered to himself ‘That’s strange’.
“I know right!?” Nash said loudly flipping palms upwards and through them out in front of her, then quickly retracting as she remembered her station. ‘They have to be steering manually, they are changing directions so fast that we are getting echos, the scanner can’t keep up.
Simon had been staring ently at the screen the whole time, and finally spoke up after a moment of silence. ‘If I didn’t know better I would say they were going to ram us.’
With a nod Maximus stepped back away from the petty officers station and turned to his first officer, ‘I agree with you but what good are we to them if they knock us around and spread our cargo all over the Void?’
Simon, wagged his finger in the air and then scratched his chin in obvious thought, ‘Maybe they are trying to call our bluff about being dead, playing chicken to see if we power up or try to move.’
The same thought occurred to Maximus and he turned quickly to the Second Officer once again. ‘When we set ourselves adrift did we have any spin in relation to the approach?’
‘Aye captain’ the officer spoke after sliding down his workstation to another monitor filled again with charts and statistics of the ships location in the void.
‘What chance do we have to put our backside facing them, but without activating any of our thrusters, or making it too obvious, anyway?
‘We would need time to come all the way around again, we just turned passed it or we would have to change our spin around the other way.’
‘No, they would notice that, then we’d have a ship battle on our hands, plus we’ve been waiting for a bite for song long I would hate to spring the trap early.’
Simon singled Maximus to go to the Captains Den, just outside the bridge door. As they both entered Simon closed the door behind them. ‘Max, I say we let them broadside us. If they ram us they board us through the breach I say we let them and put up a fight they won’t be ready for.’
‘I’m not going to let them put a hole in my ship! Plus we would all be put at risk, my son is on board!’
‘I know Captain’ Simon never called him captain unless it was a serious matter, so Maximus knew he meant business. ‘We brought him on this trip because we thought we were hunting Void Jackers and thieves. The guys are way more aggressive than we thought, the don’t want our ship they want us dead! Now we have to act they are right on top of us by now.’ His eyes flared and he grabbed his long time friend by the shoulders as if to shake some sense into him.
‘Alright! Alright.’ Maximus was caught up in Simon’s energy and calmed himself before continuing. ‘You know what you are talking about, if we don’t take these guys down smart, then we will have a bigger fight on our hands and we may lose everything, I get it.’ He took a deep breath and rubbed his hands on his face as if to wash the frustration from it, ‘Get everyone to the opposite side of the ship and everyone in environment suits, We will keep Beth, Aerick and Priss up on the bridge deck then seal it off.’
They emerged from the Captains Den, Simon went to the right down the hall to the Armory and Maximus returned to the bridge. He sat down in his captains chair with a thud, and pressed the touch screen panel on his arm chair. A high pitched whistle blows out over the speakers, the “message to follow” tone that informs the crew the captain is about to issue commands.
‘Alright, our long wait is over. Let’s not make this trap a waste of all our time. The vessel we are looking for has noticed us and they are coming fast. A little faster then my liking but that’s the way it goes.’ Maximus looked over at his wife and son standing in the corner, he thought about his boy and wanted to reassure him as well as anyone on the crew that might feel the way he does. Time was short so he was going to have to make this announcement fast.
‘We are going to need everyone on this, and we are all going to have be brave. I need all hands to suit up in there environment suits, grab a heavy rifle, and report to the starboard side of the cargo hold. These aren’t pirates looking for a new ship, these guys mean to destroy us and we can’t let that happen. Sharpe Out.’
Maximus turned to Beth and Aerick, who were walking over to him already and reaching to embrace him. An alarm tone began to pulse on the bridge, a soft computer voice calmly spoke over the alarm. ‘Impact… Impact… Impact” repeating at a slow but rhythmic pace.
‘S.I.E.G.E. silence the alarm!’ The captain spoke out into the air as if the ship had ears in the ceiling. They walked to the door and he hugged his wife and son together. Squatting down to Aericks height Max his son’s shoulders and leaned in closely as if to keep Beth from hearing him, though he spoke loudly enough for her to hear him plainly. Max grabbed his wife’s hand behind Aericks head.
‘Go to the armory, my little man. I have another gift there waiting for you. If Simon is still there he will help you with getting it, then come back here as fast as you can.
Quickly turning out towards the doorway Aerick started to run off, Max stands up and kisses his Beth briefly as if he was going to work. Just as quickly Aerick spun back around and taking his mother’s hand he looked her right in the eyes and spoke with a calm voice, and an inflection like that of someone twice his age. ‘It will be okay mom, dad will catch the bad guys just like Captain Streak does and I’ll be right back.’ Then with excitement on his face he ran out the door followed by the Maximus.
“I love you, I won’t be long I promise” then both of men disappeared down the hall in different directions.
Beth broke down, alone on the bridge, but after tears began to roll down her face she breathed in sharply and regained control. ‘Beth, take a deep breath, this isn’t what I was expecting but we’ve done this a hundred times. I still need a vacation’