The gravity was off. He was drifting off his bunk towards the ceiling. As the sensation of weightlessness stirred him to awareness, he remembered what she had told him. With a groggy gesture, he propped his arm to orient himself. They were preparing to enter breach-space and with a ship this small, that required all non-essential power. Blinking the sleepiness out of his eyes, he dressed himself quickly, before guiding himself out of his narrow quarters towards the cockpit. Gripping the handle he slid open the heavy cockpit door to see his three crewmates diligently plotting their entry point.

“The breach is a bit narrow in quadrant two,” said First Officer Merry to her navigator, both at the front of the ship on a slightly lower level than the door.

“I am well aware mother. I need to stabilize the energy flow to the breacher before I can begin any fine adjustments in the wormhole,” calmly replied Navigator Merry.

“It shouldn’t be called breacher. It sounds sorta lame. It should be like… the Void Piercer or Space Bender or Heaven’s Gateway. What do you think um… crewmate uhhhh… Danny?” Captain Merry wrinkled her brow trying to remember the name of the newly arrived crewmate as she spun her captain’s chair to face him.

“David. My name is David.” He smiled weakly at the frenzied familial energy within this small room.

“No last name?”

“No ma’am. My world never encouraged such practices. All we had were our rank and job description as identifiers.”

“Well,” she paused for a moment. “First Gunnery Officer David, I formally welcome you to the Sabre Drake.” Her smile and energy seemed to flow out of her. “I named her myself.”

It took almost twenty minutes for a satisfactory breach to be formed. During this time David was able to slowly converse with the entire family crew as they got to know each other better. The two sisters were vastly different despite their similar tastes in casual clothes. The First Officer, Karen was the elder and had piercing eyes and stoic manners. She was tall and elegant in short black hair. She greeted him curtly and efficiently before going back to her console. The captain, Kate, lounged lazily in her chair with her legs crossed beneath her with eyes always gazing out the viewports at the stars. She was in her late twenties and her dark pink hair was filled with gold streaks. She spoke little to him during this period. When he tried to raise small talk with her, she grinned mischievously and motioned her head towards her sister. David took the hint and avoided needless banter. He knew the captain intimately and she was the one who plucked him from the drudgery of a mining camp on Estavan.

The navigator was hard at work making sure the wormhole was stable and David left him to it. All he was able to construe was that Ken Merry was a very intelligent young man in his early 20’s with foppish blonde hair, whose technical expertise was very important to the health and success of the Sabre Drake. Every minute that passed, however, saw him getting angrier and angrier with frantic keystrokes and profuse sweating.

“The longer this takes… The more trouble we’ll get when we exit.” He seemed to be even more frantic as the twenty first minute ticked by. He was biting his lip as his eyes flicked back and forth from the breach clock to his console.

“It’ll be alright Kenny boy,” chirped Captain Merry as the wormhole was finally stable and large enough for their cargo freighter to traverse. She looked over at David, ”Now we have an extra gunner for all the big, bad monsters that are gonna come after us.”

        As the ship began traversing the wormhole, Karen motioned him to the stern. “We’re only going to be in the wormhole for about three minutes, so here’s the situation. Every time a ship leaves a wormhole, it stays open for a minute or two. During this time, there is a small chance that something alien tries to enter our universe.” Her speech reminded him of the work foremen on his homeworld, giving introductory speeches to new labourers. It seemed well practiced and to the point. The thought occurred to him that she had given this speech many times before. A shallow and grim smile crossed his face as they floated to the gunnery positions at the rear of the ship, while his mind tried to go over the actual information he was being told.

Karen never stopped moving as she spoke, “Voidforms are generally large and pretty gross, but they are susceptible to sustained projectile weaponry. They also have a lot of trouble crossing the threshold into real-space, so just keep your bursts well grouped and sustained on the largest mass you could see.” She gripped the ladder rungs and began to climb up to the topside gun. “Make sure to use the viewports to aim. They don’t always appear on the cameras and when they do the targeting computer doesn’t know what the hell to do anyway. Oh and kid…” He had already begun climbing upside down to the bottom side gun. “Try not to look too much at them… It might drive you a little insane.”

        The Saber Drake was spat out rather unceremoniously from the wormhole. Both gunners were in their cramped seats and had trained their rotating tri-barrelled mass drivers at the wormhole. A few seconds passed and nothing occurred. David paused to marvel at their location within the shallow, cramped and armoured gunnery nest. They were in a brilliant orange and green nebula with dust so thick it seemed ludicrous that this was in deep space. “This is some place isn’t it. I like to come here when I feel the need to paint. They remind me of this forest of brilliant flowers back home,” the captain’s voice seemed to glow as she spoke directly into his dermal circuitry. The red activation glow of the dermal implants on the left side of his face reflected off the turret’s glass viewport. This kaleidoscope of colours brought a smile to his face.

        “I’m afraid there wasn’t anything like this on my world ma’am.” His smile faded a little as he replied to her directly.

        “Don’t worry about it Gloomy,” she laughed, “I’m gonna show you all the stars and everything in between!”

        “Captain,” Karen interjected on the ship’s intercom,”we have contact.”

        They were drifting some three kilometres from the still open wormhole when the thing emerged from it. It’s massive form seemingly swelled to occupy the twenty-five meter gateway. It wore the form of a great marine eel almost a hundred metres long, with the head of a distorted anglerfish. It’s skin was grimy grey and glossy, as if it had just emerged from some primordial ooze. Instead of a bioluminescent lure on it’s head, there was an immense glowing scorpion stinger on a whip, hundreds of metres long. True to Karen’s warning it only managed to get its head and a small amount of its body through the portal before the big guns began opening fire.

The wormhole itself had now collapsed from a smooth circular swirling shape to an misshapen octagon with jagged edges, that splintered like broken glass. The portal had begun to shrink, crushing the grotesque creature inside it. David, looking past the creature, could see the stars now looked vastly different in the region around the wormhole cracks. Tinges of alien colours and psychedelic imagery replaced the void of space. The cracks stretched dozens of metres beyond the wormhole and seemed to twist and distort space and light around it.

        “Good grouping partner! Keep on it!” For the first time Karen seemed pleased even joyful as she congratulated him. He looked at his hands to see that he was indeed firing the mass drivers at the creature. He hadn’t even realized he was shooting. Some primal instinct within his mind seemed to be commanding his actions as he poured burst after burst into the angler’s head. The shots seemed to go into the creature’s skin before disappearing into a burst of light. He smiled his trademark grim smile as he said to himself,”So this is where they get the phrase ‘light him up’ then!”

        “Well, no not really hotshot, but keep lighting the bastard up and maybe I’ll explain it for you later.” His dermal implants were still transmitting to the captain as a smirk crossed his face. This explained why all ships he had seen had the breacher rings or hexes at the front of the ship’s superstructure while the guns always seemed to be at the back. The creature seemed to grimace and groan  in noiseless pain before it swung it’s stinger whip at the ship. The whip seemed to elongate rapidly as it came towards them. Karen screamed evasive maneuvers at her sister Kate and the Saber Drake duked to port for a second before rolling elegantly six times to its starboard, its six mass drivers never ceasing. The creature’s whip missed by a long way and it seemed to sense it’s time growing short as the cracks in space began to disappear. Reality and physics were reasserting their dominion over this region of space. The angler-thing then screamed in frustration.

A noiseless scream to be sure with not even the dust of the nebula reacting to it. David, however, felt the scream coming. He knew there was no sound in space but he could still feel the scream of this alien thing coming towards him and he did not know what to do.

“I don’t know …” he began into the intercom when the scream hit the ship. No vibrations rocked the structure. No noise was recorded. Nevertheless David heard it. A scream that seemed to go directly into his brain. It was a noise like a huge length of chain falling down a stone well sped up a hundred times. His nose bled. His eyes bled. His ears bled. His body couldn’t even register all these sensations without him putting his hand to these body parts to check. The last thing he could see before he lost consciousness was a wave of blue flowing through an ocean of orange as his body craned backwards and his head slammed into the viewport.

His vision was blurry. A mix of distorted shapes and bright lights. He spoke slowly,”What happened?”

“You boinked your head pretty bad.”

“Boinked? It… screamed at me.”

“Sometimes they do weird stuff like that. Stay here for a while. We have to go make our deal. Your implants are alright and the intercom is up, so call us if you need anything.” He wasn’t sure which sister said this, so distorted were his senses.

Within twenty minutes, Ken detected an exit portal some fifty kilometres away. The captain and first officer manned the turrets, mostly under the pretext of assisting their contact with any voidforms pursuing them. There was always a hint of underlying danger in these deep space meetings, so the crew was prepared as well in case the deal went sour. A silver yacht came through the wormhole and ejected a tonne or so of coolant behind them. Coolant was found to be effective for reducing the odds of voidforms being able to detect an open gateway into this universe. “Rich bastard,” Kate said vehemently.

No communication, not even ID codes came from either vessel. The protocols for such a meeting already established. The Saber Drake ejected a few crates of intoxicants while the yacht replied with a ship to ship transmission of one hundred kilopulses of energy as payment. The wordless transaction took only five minutes before the yacht, having acquired its purchase with its gravity projector, silently pulled away into another wormhole.

Kate was surprised to see her injured crewmate sitting on his bunk staring at a console. He had been monitoring the deal. She remained in the doorway with her head down.

“So now you know what I do for a living. A little smuggle smuggle. Any thoughts or opinions?” she paused for a moment, ”Judgements?”

“Before you found me, I worked 80 hours a week in a mine. I had never seen the sun or the sky in my entire life.” He wasn’t much of a talker at his best but now he spoke even more slowly and chose his words carefully. “When the foremen were bored or needed entertainment for the labourers, I had to fight other people in a pit. When you found me in the hospital that was because I had collapsed during one of those fights.” He started to smile weakly as he continued, “To be fair though… it was like three-on-one. But you ma’am… delivered me from under that crushing weight.” He looked her in the eyes solemnly. “Considering the things I have done and the things you have done for me? You are well beyond my judgement and in my mind, the judgement of anyone.” A moment passed before she activated her multicoloured implants around her eyes. They surrounded her eyes and then went from the corners along her temples into her hair.

“Kenny boy… Prepare a course for Avalon in the colonial sector. System Monmath I think.” She closed the channel and stepped into his quarters, whistling while she closed the door.

The frigate had finished docking with the space station in orbit over Fingol. The attending officer barked out his introduction to the greeting party, ”Attention, His Majesty Crown Prince Calen of the esteemed Law Corporation on deck!” The prince strode out of the Crusader onto the space station clad in white with a majestic cloak, his handsome tan features mellowed by his weary gaze. At only 34 years old, he bore the heavy legacy of the entire Law Corporation on his large, heavy frame. His father the CEO and King, was approaching retirement as his age went into triple digits and soon Calen would be King of the fourth largest interstellar business dynasty within the human race. Such matters would have to wait however, he had more imminent business to deal with here in this manufacturing system.

Calen wished he could laugh at the ludicrousness of the situation. The Law Corp. Shipwright Division had created the generic template for all starships to follow. The typical large rings at the front for space-breaching prevented most ships from being able to land normally on a planet’s surface. This created the need of course for the Law Corp. Orbital Assembly Division to create and maintain space stations over all major worlds for ships to dock with and then have their goods and personnel shuttled down planetside. The downside in Calen’s mind was that his personal combat frigate, the Crusader could easily land on planets owing to its tubular design.

“But I can’t do that of course… because how would it look if the Prince of Space Parking ignored the valets and just parked his own damn ship.” Despite his position as a prince of capitalism, Calen was already jaded by the seemingly inherent greed that constantly surrounded him. Two of his bodyguards, flashed hidden smiles before breaking into chuckles. Some of the four blue cloaked figures seated in the shuttle around him had not yet grown accustomed to the prince’s sense of comedic commentary. They wore masks to hide their massive cybernetic overhauls from onlookers as well as enemy scans. “Has my brother shown up yet?”

“Not yet sir, he was late checking in on his last checkpoint by an hour or so,” Alpha replied reading off the information relayed to his integrated computer.

“He probably stopped off for some party favours somewhere before stopping for an actual party,” Charlie reasoned. She often talked about the time when worked with the elder Prince Robert, his yacht seemingly possessing an inexhaustible supply of exotic intoxicants. The things she had seen during this period could never be unseen, especially by a cyborg with her enhanced mental capacity.

“Yeah… that seems likely,” Calen grinned. Unlike their father, Calen adored his elder brother’s frivolity and jovialness. He was a ray of honesty and light in a gloomy seemingly infinitely corruptible society.

The transport shuttle’s inelegant cuboid shape entered the atmosphere, two of its four corners thrusters slowing their descent. After several minutes, the ship pivoted and all four corner thrusters rotated to vertical positions and fired to keep the ship still. The dipolar rails then began activation as the ship’s pilot began using the planet’s magnetic field to maintain lift. With only the buzz of the electromagnets cycling through the dipolar rails, the shuttle hooked onto a field line and accelerated almost instantaneously to hypersonic speed.

As the shuttle reached the outskirts of Antorn, capital city of the planet Fingol, the pilot reduced the cycle rate of the dipolar rails to city limits. and the shuttle slowed to traffic speed. The city sprawled in front of them, a giant metropolitan industrial park. The architecture inspired by efficient boxes and necessary factory infrastructure. Huge smelteries refined ore into space-worthy alloys while large vertical farms harvested chlorophyll for solar panels and artificially generated petrochemicals were converted into plastics harder and more pliable than iridium. Delta perked up in his shuttle seat to look out the viewport while Bravo motioned for him to settle down. Calen waved his hand as if to give the ‘okay’ for the unprofessional behaviour.

“You’re both from Estavan aren’t you? Have you ever been planetside?” Calen inquired of his two newest bodyguards. Estavan lumbered in the sky above them, the source of Fingol’s abundant raw materials.

“Yes sir!” Bravo’s discipline was impeccable but he stammered when he realized there were two questions. “Yes sir to both.”

“You only got to come to Fingol cause you needed a lot more treatment than me,” Delta interjected. Despite his great size he was still a teenager. Alpha suspected he had been given a great deal of hormones while he was a mine-labourer.

“Treatment?” asked Calen. Alpha had personally recruited them and now Calen’s interest in their history was piqued. “All I know is that I sent Alpha and the old Bravo scouting for a new Delta and then he comes back with both a Delta and a new Bravo.” Bravo and Delta exchanged glances while Alpha began his explanation.

        “Sir you remember that Bravo… the old one, that is, was a bit aggressive and hands on kind of guy. Well he organized a contest in one of the mine towns. Three of the locals against him with the best to be the new Delta. Turns out one of the locals was a bit capable. Firearms were Bravo’s specialty but they’re weren’t permitted in the mines so he found himself a bit outmatched against this guy.” Alpha’s storytelling abilities were well known to Calen… much of his childhood punctuated by the veteran’s myriad tales.

        “These two wanted out of the mines and they figured murdering the recruiter might not be a good idea. So they went after the other guy. When I got there, Bravo was already pretty much done at this point. These two were able to take down the other guy but not before Bravo ended up with a knife blade in the top of his head. These two needed imminent treatment and agreed to cybernetics and the security contract.”

        “What happened to the third fighter?” Charlie asked. She disliked Bravo intensely and was happy when Alpha didn’t come back with him.

        “I looked him in the eyes and didn’t like what was in there. So I left him in the pit.” Alpha remembered the aura of darkness the wiry young man had with eyes that seemed ever distant and empty. With firearms heavily regulated on all spacecraft for obvious reason, close combat ability was very important for any soldier to have. “He might have been a great asset but a poor choice for a bodyguard.”

Calen seemed deep in thought before saying,”Well I trust your judgement Alpha. I’m sure these two will be up to the task.” He grinned a little menacingly as the shuttle approached the landing platform, “If not… I’m sure high end cyborg miners are in high demand.”

        Robert reclined in his throne aboard his yacht. The room’s lights were dark with only the large viewport providing illumination. His ruddy blonde hair and unkempt face stared out at the stars. How he hated them. He wished he could reach out and crush all their brightness and happiness. His despair seeped out of him. He stared at the narcotics laid across his table. With a blindingly fast motion he threw the empty bottle in his hand at the viewport. Some of the anger and spite seemed to settle within him as wiped away some errant tears and his runny nose. He didn’t hate the stars after all, merely the happy people within them. Beta and Gamma strolled into the spacious throne room, flechette pistols at the ready. Their pristinely maintained gynoid bodies bore tight black leather clothes while their false human faces showed no emotion. There was little need to protect the decency of a Pioneer as most traces of biology had long been removed.

        “Throwing things again Your Majesty?” Their female voices spoke simultaneously, their Pioneer mental network seemingly designed to rouse his dark anger.

        “She would’ve been here faster, with a pistol and sword at the ready.” He reminisced about Charlie often. “Stop calling me that too… I am simply Captain Robert of the Last Candle…”  

        “She would have been wasting her time.” Again, in unison. “Your Majesty.”

        “You shitty Pioneers like to piss me off don’t you!” He stood up, his pale, gaunt form swaying slightly. “Don’t overestimate yourselves you ancient pieces of garbage.” The two bodyguards paused for a quick moment, communicating over their network. Despite Beta and Gamma’s war capable bodies, there was enough humanity left in them to feel fear and Robert was one of the few men worthy of such a distinction.

        “You’re going to hurt our feelings with talk like that.” His stance filled with anger but with a hunched posture and weak breathing. “Why don’t you take some of your pills and calm down before someone gets hurt.” The exertion of effort seemed to weary him quickly and he slumped back down into his throne. He missed the joy and banter Charlie brought to his crew. It was too much of an effort for him to be constantly drugged and partying when she was around. The quantity of narcotics he was taking was detrimental to his health and he had to send her to his brother for his own well being.

        “I didn’t want her to see me this way. The shitty broken mess of a person I am.” He never cared if the Pioneers heard his external monologues. “I was once the greatest military commander of our time. I broke your shitty rebellions,” he gestured weakly at the Pioneers, ”I ground every army I faced into dust and broke the siege of Sol. I would’ve been a great king… now look at me. A big freaking waste of time.” A great sadness came upon him again. He knew in his mind it wasn’t his fault. Anyone who was there, in the space above Malen would’ve been the same, if not worse. “I’ve seen too much… And I can’t forget.” He reached for an exotic blend of green liquids from some alien world. “No matter how hard I try.”

        He seemingly spent the next few hours in his yacht’s common room where loud alien rhythms cut through the noise and gloom of his life. Fountains of wine flowed and expensive horderves were brought out. Robert danced and danced until he ran out of imaginary dance partners, his body propped up by a cocktail of enhancement drugs. Hours became mere minutes to him as he danced and sang and cavorted within his imagination.

        “We should get moving. We’re already overdue sir.” His pilot,  loomed large over him, his large reptilian frame taking up all of Robert’s field of vision.  It had been only a few minutes since he had taken the drugs and he had fallen asleep on a large air mattress along with a few members of the false party in various states of translucence. He hated breaching space. The memories of Malen began to trickle back into his mind. He wished he could travel without them, perhaps using only the dark energy sails or the dipolar rails. The sight of the two Pioneers near the doorway reminded him of their sad fate and he put the thought from his mind.

        “Set a course for Raijin instead.” The pilot tilted his head slightly at this change in plans. “Don’t worry Taynah, my brother has it well in hand. I’m hunting bigger game.”

        “The Refuge?”

        “Oh yeah my man… Don’t worry about a thing, I’ll find your son.” He stood up and walked to the viewport… the stars were looking fantastic at the moment. “ And then I’m going to kill him…” He paused for a long moment, his eye colours independently changing frequently as his drug cocktail began to fade. “Noah is as good as dead.”