Chapters:

Gateways

Annabelle Lee woke with a start, half blinded by cheap lamps set to full brightness hanging from rust spotted beams. She tried to brush the sleep from her eyes, but her arms strained against steel bracers that held them tight. A voice in the back of her head told her to scream, to summon her father’s guards, but the thought never forced its way far enough through the thick molasses of her mind to reach her mouth. The young woman tried to sit up, only to find herself face to face with the hard metal deck of an unfamiliar space ship.

More rust spotted the floor, highlighting the large crack running down the deck in front of her. No active ship in her father’s fleet would dare to be found in this condition. Even a raider would be embarrassed to fly such a heap. She must be on one of the ancient junkers that floated at the far edge of the Star Seal Fleet.

Annabelle racked her brain, trying to dredge up memories of the previous night. She remembered Jeremiah buying her a drink as thanks for challenging their crackpot professor in the middle of his lecture on interstellar history. Not only did she get the assignment pushed back a week, but the old man ended class almost two hours early. By the time Jeremiah left to have dinner with his family, Kazuko and Niket showed up at the bar and the drinks kept flowing. No wonder her head pounded. Why in starlight did she think it would be a good idea to drink that much the night before the Ceremony?

Shit. The Ceremony. The big day. Tamia Octavia, her father’s Minister of Sciences, planned to unveil the unlocked portal to humanity’s home world. Her father’s crew would finally fulfill the promise of the Watchers.

Annabelle forced herself back upright. Her vision spun painfully again. She licked her dry lips.

"Help?" Her voice echoed roughly in her ringing ears.

"Good. You’re awake. I wanted to let you sleep as long as possible, before.. well... I didn’t have to wake you."

Anton Triago, her crackpot professor, stepped into Annabelle’s field of view. The old man looked her over, his golden eyes peeking from a disheveled mess of gray hair. She gasped when she realized he wore the ancient uniform of the Central Fleet, the one that abandoned the Way, those that betrayed the Watchers centuries ago. Not just a crackpot, a heretic.

Triago flipped a switch. The wall to Annabelle’s right split to reveal a huge viewport inset in the exterior hull. From their vantage point she could see the fleet of the Watchers floating a respectful distance from the ancient portal the traitors sealed so long ago. Her father’s flagship, the Letzete Hoffnung, broke off from the main fleet, the modified bow deflector shield pouring energy into the star seal.

"No! It can’t be happening yet. I belong there!" Annabelle struggled against her bonds.

Triago shook his head, his eyes locked on the viewport as his hand fiddled with the controls. Annabelle watched helplessly as the Way, long dormant, sprang to life. The wormhole tore open the sky before them. Even at this distance, Annabelle could make out the brilliant glow of the freighters of legend, waiting to take them home.

"Fools. Fucking fools." Triago said. "You kept knocking. All these years. Eventually something had to come to the door."

The largest of the glowing ships pulled forward, settling nose to nose with the Letzte Hoffnung. The figure that emerged to meet her father seemed to large to be human. Annabelle realized it must be an Emissary, one the demi-gods prophesied to lead her people home.

"Mister Triago, what have you done?"

He finally turned his attention to her. "My family once failed the human race. Now I discharge that debt. This," his wave encompassed the ancient ship, "was built to allow my family to escape, but I’ve fathered no children."

"Escape from what? The Emissary will save us!"

Triago looked at her, sadness heavy in his old eyes. His hand moved out of her sight. Annabelle heard a low whistle coming from somewhere above her head. She jerked against her restraints. Cold water splashed down, pouring down her face. Her movement disturbed the path of the water, causing it to drip into her right eye. She screamed as the liquid burned into her cornea.

"The waters stolen from his ancient temple should free your mind."

Annabelle roared, a wordless sound of rage and fear. Triago pointed out the viewport. Something was terribly wrong. In what little she could see through her left eye, the brilliant ships glowed brightly. The Emissary held its hand out to her kneeling father. Her mind reeled as she tried to process the visions in her other eye. The terrible glow vanished from the incoming vessels. She no longer felt comfortable thinking of them as ships. Long bloated bodies floated in space, gaping maws glistening with reflected starlight. The Emissary, enlarged on the view screen, lurched towards her father. Made from the same bloated flesh as the ships, the creature had sunken hollow pits where eyes belongs. Its teeth seemed to large for its mouth, a mouth cartoonishly large compared to its body.

The monster watched her father prostrate himself for several moments while the horrific fleet flowed amongst the rest of the ships. The rest of her ships. Her friends and family and everyone she loved. Annabelle screamed again, tears pouring down her cheeks. "No! Dad! Get up! No!"

Her father, thousands of feet away, could not hear her warning. He stared mindlessly into the monster’s eye sockets, a beatific smile on his face. The smile never wavered, even when the monstrosity wrapped one bloated arm around him, unhinged its jaw, and bit his head off.

Triago zoomed out the views screen a moment too late. Annabelle now saw the space terrors bearing down on her fleet, glistening teeth prepared to crush the metal hulls.

"Why" Why did you bring me here?"

"I have no children. I am the last of my line. My debt has been paid." Triago stood formally in front of Annabelle. "Annabelle Lee, I charge you. Your family hailed humanity. You and your descendants must atone. You must live, you must spread word of what happened this day."

Triago stepped away, out of Annabelle’s line of sight. She heard the click of the switch, the harsh shudder of metal grinding against metal. The crack in the deck in front of her expanded, filling with the shimmer of a force field as the entire section floated away from the rest of the ships. She pounded against her restraints.

The old man’s voice crackled, coming now through a speaker near her head. Ship to ship communication.

"Don’t worry child, the chair will release you once you are safely out of this system."

"What about you? Where are you going? Why are you leaving me?"

The old man chuckled, his breath catching. "I want to lie to you. I want to tell you I’ll be right back. But you’ll never make it out of this system if they notice you. I choose my death so you can live, Annabelle Lee. Remember that, and remember, in strange aeons, even death may die."

The pod exploded from the rest of the ship. Annabelle closed her left eye to better see the the truth of things through the force field as she hurtled away. Other pieces of the ship floated around her, roughly the same size and shape as her escape pod, revealing the old junker was no junker at all, but an ancient light fighter, a relic of the days when humanity warred across the stars.

Annabelle screamed again, in pain and frustration, as she floated towards the edge of the system. Triago’s ship darted in and out of the monstrous formation, laster beams and concussive blasts ripping the imposter ships to shred. Her fleet floated uselessly, no one besides the old professor even attempting to resist. Triago slaughtered three of the monsters before they realized anyone fought back.

She cheered him on, amazed at the mastery with which he commanded the small fighter. More bloatships burst as he twisted through their ranks. Annabelle realized they had a chance, that the human spirit could triumph over anything. The monster ships stopped their feast on the remains of her fleet, slowly gliding back into the Way, no longer a gate to paradise, but a twisted passage into the depths of madness.

The master bloatship, the one housing the monster that devoured her father, charged the others. It emitted a low, keening vibration that shook Annabelle to her bones. The monsters clustered at the edge of the Way changed direction again, turning back to the fleet. Triago emerged from the debris of the Watchers, flying a strafing run on the master ship. The blasts had little impact, other than to draw the enemy leader’s attention.

The Emissary creature flung itself onto Triago’s little fighter, wrapping its jaws around the craft’s left wing. The little ship banked hard one last time, diving straight for the lead bloatship.

The viewscreen filled with a bright, hot light, the glowing afterimage assaulting Annabelle’s eyes.

When she could see again, Annabelle realized only chunks of rotting flesh floated where the bloat fleet once flew. Triago’s bomb ripped apart the invaders, but also wiped out any last remains of her fleet. Before Annabelle could come to terms with the fact that everyone she knew and loved was gone, she realized something else. Something worse.

The Way never closed. It pulsed in the sky, beckoning whatever waited out there.

Annabelle sobbed angrily as the escape pod’s engines spun up to hyperspeed. The old fool’s sacrifice had been in vain. He’d bought them months, maybe years if they were lucky. Humanity couldn’t afford to wait generations for her descendants to pay off her debt. She needed to do more than just survive.

The hyperdrive kicked in. Pressure from the jump pounded at her temples. She fought to stay conscious, but it was all too much. Darkness enveloped Annabelle Lee as she hurtled through the unknown stars.