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Episode 17: Shadowed
They watched, waited. The dark cold of space surrounded the ship as they trailed the strange Eratite vessel that sailed before them.
The captain waited silently on the bridge, arms folded in calculating thought. His black clothes made his green eyes seem to pierce through the thick air and look straight into the very soul of whoever met his gaze.
He narrowed his eyes as he stared out at the ship they were tailing. Something about it was strange. He had never seen a ship that filled him with such anticipation… and such dread.
"Captain, he is ready."
"Send him then." The captain replied with a dismissive hand.
"Yes, Sir." The crewman bowed and left to send the chosen one out to do his master's bidding.
Mark jerked awake. The sensation of something crawling down his neck made him swat at his skin. It did nothing to relieve his discomfort. He got up and clicked on a small light, trying not to wake up Derek, asleep in the bunk above.
Mark rolled off his bunk and stood up, quickly finding the small mirror over in the corner. The sensation was getting worse, and he frantically started scratching at his neck.
"What in the world are you doing over there?" Derek asked groggily, "Are you molting or something?"
"There's something on my neck!" Mark exclaimed.
Derek groaned and slid out of his bunk, clumping across the floor in his shorts and t-shirt. He opened his sleep-filled eyes and stared at Mark's neck.
"There's nothing there." Derek groaned, trudging back to the bunk and flopping down into it. "It's all in your head. Just go back to sleep."
"I can't! It feels like a hundred spiders are crawling down my neck and it's getting worse."
The only reply he got this time was a muffled, "Uhmph."
Suddenly the feeling disappeared and Mark was left with a strange feeling of foreboding.
"Hey Wildstar, it's –" he turned back towards his bunk, "- gone… Oh… great…"
Derek was sprawled out in Mark's bed.
Mark shook his head, "He's drooling on my pillow…"
Sandor sat staring at some of the most recent notes on the finds they'd made regarding Gamilon. Thus far, from what they knew, their enemy was much like them. Even their language was akin to one from Earth. Then there was the find they had made concerning the Gamilon genetic marker.
He shook his head. He knew he should feel like sleeping by now. The ship's clock read three in the morning, but thus far, sleep evaded him. Something felt wrong tonight. The air was too still and for the first time since he'd boarded this magnificent ship he felt like the walls were closing in on him.
Suddenly he felt like the air around him was moving; odd, since he was the only one in the room. Then he thought he heard the faintest whisper, but the sound disappeared just as quickly as it had come, but the air remained heavy and ominous.
The Captain slept fitfully, his wound paining him. Finally, he gave in and called Dr. Sane in to look at it.
"You knew this would happen." The doctor chided, "It's getting worse. You can't go on like this. I've said that to you several times since we left Earth. You have to take it easier."
Captain Avatar nodded slowly, "I know." He was about to continue when a sudden chill overcame him and he shivered visibly.
"Have you caught a chill on top of having this hole in your side?" Sane asked, his voice squeaking a little.
"No, nothing like that, Doctor." He said, his voice low, "I cannot help but feel that we are being watched."
Nova couldn't sleep, which was a rarity for her. Usually she was well into slumber land an hour or two before mandatory lights out for her shift.
She'd gone to bed the same time she usually did, laying down quietly and closing her eyes, expecting to soon be lost in dreamless sleep, but not tonight. Tonight she lay, eyes closed, mind wide awake.
She tossed and turned, trying to avoid getting up. If she gave in to the urge to get out of bed she knew it would be that much harder to get back to sleep later, and her shift was in four hours. If she didn't get to sleep soon, she wouldn't get much of any sleep tonight.
She tried to stay still, forcing her body to relax and hopefully talk her brain into doing the same.
Finally, in frustration, she gave in and sat up slowly, rubbing her sleep deprived eyes and groaning.
"Why… why can't I sleep?" she thought. "I didn't forget anything; I haven't eaten anything strange."
She swung her legs over the side of her bottom bunk. Her bare feet touched the cold floor and she jerked back for a second, then found her slippers and put her feet in those instead of on the floor.
She had been one of the fortunate few who had not been assigned a roommate. The rooms were small enough as it was without having to avoid someone else and their belongings. Not that she would have been too terribly disappointed with a roommate, but being alone seemed to suit her right now.
She stood up, turned on a small light and stepped over to the one small mirror in the room. Her hair was a mess and her eyes were starting to develop dark circles. Looking at her own face made her even more tired than she already was, but it didn't help with her racing mind.
She turned to go back to her bed and out of the corner of her eye she thought she saw something move.
Nova squeezed her eyes shut and opened them wide, blinking them over and over, trying to clear her vision. She shook her head and looked again. Nothing was there.
"Great, now I'm imagining things." She walked slowly back to her bed and sat down heavily, letting her head hang, her hair falling around her face, creating a tunnel that only let her see the floor.
Suddenly she felt the overwhelming current of memory sweeping over her. She thought about her parents – her mother and ailing father. She thought about her friends back home – some living, and some who had succumbed to the radioactivity. She thought of everything they had been through since leaving Earth, and she thought of all the times they should have been dead, should have lost someone along the way.
With those thoughts, something else came, familiar words and music melted through the racing thoughts and reformed on her lips.
She sang softly the old song now filling her heart.
"Rock of ages, cleft for me,
Let me hide myself in Thee.
Let the water and the blood
From Thy riven side which flowed
Be of sin the double cure,
Save from wrath and make me pure."
As she finished the first verse her room door suddenly opened, then closed on its own.
Nova's head jerked up at the sudden movement, but when she saw no one she decided it must have been a computer glitch.
Suddenly she felt very sleepy and within a few minutes she was fast asleep.
Orion stood at one of the many engineering stations down in the engine room. He was in the middle of running a series of diagnostics. Preventative maintenance had served him well in the past and saved his life more than once. Though it was hard work and required him to cut his off-shift time down to a minimum, he had promised that as long as he was an engineer, he would always do it – if not for himself, for the others whose lives might be saved because of it.
Perhaps it was his lack of sleep, or his age, but when the apparition appeared he did not react immediately.
The first thing he did was squint at it and step away from the control panel towards the sight.
The vision thundered something threatening in a voice Orion never would have thought would come from the beautiful young woman standing with her face towards the main entrance.
He was confused at the woman's words. What was she saying? And who was she speaking to? There was no one else here besides him.
The woman raised an accusing finger towards the engine room door, her voice boomed again. It seemed like she was telling someone to leave. But certainly she couldn't be speaking to him. This was his own ship. And who was this woman?
Suddenly the engine room door opened and then closed, but no one passed through it. Then the woman disappeared from sight.
Orion walked quickly over to the spot the woman had been pointing at and looked around. Then he saw something glinting on the floor very close to the door. He walked over and reached out to pick up the object. It was a small silver circle with a curious emblem in the center, a bear reaching out with a clawed paw and bared teeth. An insignia? But where had it come from? Certainly it couldn't just have appeared out of thin air.
"It's not like anything I've ever seen." Sandor said, turning the little silver circle over and over in his hand, looking for anything that might give him a hint of where this had come from.
"Is it possible that one of the crewmen dropped it?" Avatar asked from his desk, hands folded in thought.
"Not likely, but worth finding out." Sandor replied. "I'll check the security footage, and then I'll start asking everyone who's been in the vicinity."
"Good." The Captain nodded, "Tell me what you find out."
"Of course." Sandor left quickly, his mind running through a list of everyone who might possibly have been in the engine room since the ship was created.
Six hours later Sandor had no information and felt like he needed three pots of black coffee. He had scoured the video of the engine room. He had watched every person closely who'd come near that area of the floor. He'd even watched the exact spot that Orion had pointed out to him up until the incident in the engine room.
He started the video up again about a minute before the events Orion had told him about. He stared intently at the video, waiting. Suddenly, it appeared. A silver insignia – almost like a coin – fell through the air and landed on the floor plating. It bounced once and landed face-down. Several minutes later Orion came into view, stooping down to pick up the small object.
Sandor stopped the video and backed up to the point where the apparition had appeared. Her words were much like the ones on the jewelry he'd found in the memorial on the floating continent, but not exactly – like a slightly different dialect, but it was clearly the same language. He was about to ignore the words and just watch when he heard a word he recognized.
"Starsha…?" Sandor said softly, "This is Starsha of Iscandar?" he looked at her more carefully, then remembered the voice he'd heard on the recording they'd recovered from the crashed ship on Mars. "She seems rather young to be a queen; perhaps her parents are regents for her." he thought, "Though she seems to have the bearing of the queen, that much I can see." He looked at her face. In it he saw determination, confidence… and rage. But what could she be so angry about?
Sandor followed the woman's eyes. Her gaze led him to the spot he had just been studying for hours, but, just like all the other times he'd looked at it, nothing was there.
He let the video run for a bit, watching intently. Then he saw the engine room door open. Orion had mentioned that the door opened and closed with no one going through it.
He stopped and backed up, staring again at the moment the silver sphere appeared. Something wasn't right. It didn't made sense. Nothing could just appear from nowhere. He watched the video again, looked this time at everything he hadn't been watching before. Then he saw it, a rippling in the air right before the door opened.
The hair on the back of his neck stood straight up and his eyes opened more widely than he thought they could.
"We have an intruder on board." Sandor said soberly. "I don't know if they are still here or not, but I'm certain they were here for some time. I'm now receiving reports from around the ship of unusual problems with the doors to the crew quarters and other areas including the third bridge, the mess hall, the medical bay and the Black Tiger hangars. I've checked the sensor logs and I cannot find any record of a ship approaching or docking with us. They must have some sort of cloaking technology that fools our sensors."
"Gamilon?" Avatar asked, his face deathly serious.
"I don't know, Sir." He replied, but there's something else that troubles me." He brought up the video footage, "This."
The video started playing just before the image appeared.
"What is she saying?" the captain asked.
"I don't know." Sandor replied, "But I'm quite sure she's rather angry about this intruder's presence. Orion said he thought she was talking to him for a while, wanting him to leave. He thought better of that once he saw the door open and found this insignia."
"If you have more time could you translate it?"
"Perhaps." Sandor nodded slowly, "but I'm better with the written word than with translating speech. Perhaps we should… ask someone more familiar with the base language."
"You're right." The captain replied.
Homer stepped through the door to the Captain's cabin, fidgeting nervously. "H – hello Captain, Sandor." He nodded to his superiors and saluted.
"At ease, Homer." The Captain motioned to an empty chair, "Please, sit."
"Yes, Sir." Homer obeyed. "Has – has something happened?"
"Yes." Sandor replied bluntly.
"Oh no…" Homer leaned over and put his face in his hands, "I didn't tell them to do it, I promise." he sounded rather desperate, "It was Hardy's idea to inflate the life raft in Conroy's fighter. He just told me about it afterwards! I didn't know anyth – "
"Homer." Sandor stopped the communications chief, "This isn't about that. Though why Hardy decided to do something that juvenile is a something we may ask him later. This is about something much more… serious."
There was silence for a moment while Homer registered everything that the XO had just said.
"Oh… Right…" Homer cleared his throat looking sheepish, "What's going on?"
"We need you to tell us what this woman is saying." Sandor brought up the security footage and started to play it.
Homer stared at the video for a long moment, then pointed at the woman and stuttered, "Wh – who is that?"
"That is Starsha." Sandor said, "Starsha of Iscandar."
"What?! What's she doing here? How is she here? What's going on?!" Homer's questions ran together, then he said in genuine awe, "She's… beautiful…"
"We don't know the answers to any of those questions either, Homer. That's why you're here. We need you to tell us what she's saying so that we can better understand what's happened." Sandor replied, trying to calm the excitable man down just a bit. "Now, can you help us?"
"Yeah. Yeah, sure." Homer nodded, his knee bouncing up and down so fast it was making the deck vibrate.
Sandor rewound the footage to the same point he'd started from and let it play again. This time Homer concentrated on the words, at times making faces at the woman's speech.
"Wow…" Homer finally said once the recording was over. "She was mad."
"About what?" Sandor asked.
"She told someone to leave and that he wasn't welcome here on the ship."
"How unwelcome were they?"
"'He'." Homer corrected, "It was most certainly a man she was talking to. And she said that if he hurt anyone on this ship that he wouldn't see another day in this world." Homer looked from Sandor to the Captain and back, "I'm glad she's on our side."
"So are we, Homer." The Captain nodded, "Thank you."
"Captain! She knows!" the chosen spy gasped as he ran onto the bridge of the ship. "She could see me – somehow!"
"It was inevitable…" the captain said, his voice low, eyes darker than usual. "We must not return to the ship… She will know and it will be the end of us… Though she is not here she somehow wields a power we do not." the captain crossed his arms and glared at the Eratite ship sailing on before them. "But do not think this is the last time we will board you, my friends." He smirked at the ship. "One woman is no threat to me."
Starsha collapsed onto her bed, all the energy of the moment drained from her by the sight of the man she'd seen aboard the Eratite ship. How had he gotten there? What was going on?
Every possibility ran through her head and she liked none of them, but the one she liked least was unfortunately the most likely, especially in light of the strange insignia that the man had borne.
"She's back…" Starsha whispered, "The Malha has come out from hiding."
A shiver ran through her as she remembered her own encounter with the shêd-bearer. When she was a young girl, the Malha had kidnapped her and held her for ransom – a ransom of blood. The Queen Talonka herself had paid that ransom in full, leaving Gamilon queenless and her family in despair. Her son, Leader Desslok, had never forgotten Talonka's murder and though he had banished the Malha and her followers from his world, the Malha still had a hold on his heart in the form of deep bitterness.
Starsha remembered the day she'd found out that Talonka had traded her life for Starsha's. Masterson had relayed the entire event to her. It had been the hardest thing she'd ever heard.
Now that the threat of the Malha had so suddenly reappeared she knew of only one thing to do.
"Yahweh," she prayed, "Protect them from the death that stalks them."
Episode 18: Taking Pluto
"We've lost time, time we have to make up as quickly as possible." Avatar looked at each of his officers grimly. "By now I'm sure you all have heard about the incidents of last night. There are rumors of a malfunction in the computer mainframe, but that is not the case. We had an intruder on board this ship."
A chorus of disbelief erupted in the operations room.
"Are they still here?" Mark asked, clearly shaken.
"No, we don't believe so." Sandor replied.
"Don't 'believe' so?" Chris Eager asked in his southern American drawl. "Shouldn't we 'know' so?"
"We're doing everything we can to find out how and when they boarded us." Sandor assured, "But until then, all doors will be keyed to retinal patterns instead of movement; just as before, you will be able to lock the doors to your quarters by combination and handprint. I know many of you leave your doors unlocked, but I would caution you all to start locking your doors, at least while you sleep."
All nodded, then Mark asked cautiously, "Why do you think it's possible they've left?"
Homer chuckled to himself off in the corner and Orion looked down at the gigantic vid screen imbedded in the floor.
At this, Sandor and Avatar's faces both lightened a bit and the XO replied, "We received something of a visitation from none other than Queen Starsha herself."
"Whoa – wait! Starsha was here?" Derek piped up, surprised.
"Not 'here', per se." Sandor said, "But she was here in a way. From the video we have of the incident it appears that she somehow projected a hologram of herself, and she was able to see the intruder even though we couldn't."
"You couldn't see them?" Wildstar asked in disbelief, "So that's why you don't know for sure if he's gone."
"Unfortunately, yes." Sandor replied.
"So we're going to go about our business and pretend like nothing's going on when we might end up dead any second because some 'invisible man' is running around the ship as he pleases." Derek shook his head, exasperated.
"Would you stay on a strange ship if its guardian threatened your life?" Sandor asked Derek, looking the young man straight in the eye.
"No…" Wildstar said, not sure where Sandor was going with such a question.
Sandor took a breath and said, "We didn't know it until now, but it appears we've been afforded a guardian in Starsha. We heard her threaten our intruder."
"And you understood her… how?" Wildstar asked, still skeptical.
Sandor's eyes darted to Homer and back to Wildstar before he answered, "We have a way of translating the bulk of her language."
Wildstar shrugged, "Okay, so if he's smart, he left. What if he's not that smart?"
"And that's why we've put the extra security measures in place." Avatar interrupted, "Now we must discuss the primary reason we've called you all here. We will be performing another warp as soon as the preparations are ready. This time, our destination is Pluto-space."
This silenced everyone, even Wildstar.
"Pluto's been held by the enemy for much too long." Sandor looked at them all with purpose firmly rooted in his eyes. "The last time we were here, they took the lives of many of our own. It's time we took back what's ours and took that base from Gamilon once and for all. Their Pluto base is likely the source of most of the planet bomb activity in the recent years – ever since the frequency of the attacks increased."
There was silence for a long moment before Wildstar broke it.
"Well, what are we waiting for?" Derek said, "Let's get those parasites out of our solar system!"
His sentiments were met with enthusiasm from all, except one. In the corner, Homer looked down at the floor, Wildstar's comments making him dread even more the day the crew found out about Sandor's little genetic discovery.
"Five.
"Four.
"Three.
"Two.
"One.
"Warp."
The computer countdown was just as intense and exciting as it had been the first time they'd jumped. Everyone was still new to the sensation. Even after two warps, this third one caused just as much anxiety as the first two had.
The ship warped and reappeared just outside Pluto-space, a safe distance from the planet and well outside any sensor range a base on the surface might have.
"Damage report." Said Avatar upon their reappearance into normal space.
"All systems are operating normally, Captain." Sandor replied, "The repairs we made at Titan are holding up quite well."
"Good." Avatar nodded, "Wildstar, take a Zero* down to the surface. Conroy and the rest of the squadron will be standing by to launch. Maintain radio silence until you've found the enemy base. As soon as you do, let the Tigers know and they'll join you. We don't know their weapons or their numbers. Our best weapon is surprise. They cannot know we're coming."
"Yes, Captain." Wildstar saluted sharply and ran off the bridge, headed for his plane as fast as his feet would go.
"Launch the next round of bombs." The base commander ordered.
Several small asteroids shot up out of underground launch ports and were grabbed by tractor beams before they flew off into the atmosphere.
"Charge them."
A brilliant magenta beam appeared seemingly out of nowhere. It squarely hit the asteroid, causing it to go from its normal dull self to a glowing mass of radioactivity.
"Input trajectory corrections and launch."
The tech in charge of bomb prep tapped in the proper coordinates and sent the rain of death on its way towards Erats.
"Soon we won't need these anymore." The base commander said, "Soon they'll give up and let us have their world, once they see that our force is far too superior to defeat."
"Yes, Sir." The tech echoed.
"Begin the diagnostics on the satellites. We want them operating at peak condition when General Lysis arrives."
"Yes, Sir."
"Wow, this place is uglier than the backside of a camel." Wildstar said to himself as he flew silently over the rugged Plutonian terrain, looking carefully for any sign of a Gamilon base. Thus far he'd been out for two hours with no success.
He continued on and on, over hills and valleys, staying as low as he could. After a while everything started to look the same – dull and gray. He was just about to give up and turn around to head to a different area when he saw a flash off to his right.
He waited to see if it would come again or if it had just been his imagination wanting to see something that wasn't there, or just a reflection off his helmet visor.
Twenty seconds later the flash appeared again, coming from the same place.
Immediately, Wildstar went to investigate, keeping an eye out for any more flashes as he went.
There were three more, then nothing, all from the same direction as the first two.
He flew straight towards the location, looking intently for any sign of the base he was now sure was there. Somewhere.
He flew on and on, waiting for another flash, a sign of life, a building – something, but he found nothing.
"What's going on here?" he thought, then circled the area several times, confused. "There's something here. I saw it." He flew back the way he'd come and waited, hoping to see another flash like the ones he'd seen before.
He waited a full twenty minutes without seeing another thing.
He pounded his fist into the metal plating, "Where are you?!"
He stared at the barren wilderness before him again for a very long time, willing the flash of light to appear again. But it didn't.
He hung his head in defeat and circled back to return to the ship. His fuel was getting dangerously low. He'd already tapped into his reserve fuel and he didn't want to have to call for a pickup because he wasn't responsible enough to pay attention to his gauges.
He was turning his Zero around when he thought he saw something again.
He jerked his head around to look back. Just as he did another flash flew through the sky – coming from nowhere.
He looked back at his fuel gauge and winced. He couldn't stay any longer.
All the way back to the ship he pushed his plane as fast as it would safely go. Upon landing he didn't even wait to leave the Zero before tapping into the ship's com system to tell the Captain what he'd seen.
"We were beginning to think you'd gotten lost, Wildstar." Sandor said over the comm.
"It's there, I know it is." Wildstar replied, frustrated.
"You were supposed to radio Conroy when you found it." Sandor said.
"I would have, but all I saw were flashes of light. Nothing Conroy could go on."
"Fuel back up and go back out. Note the coordinates of the flashes as well as you can, then find a safe place to land and hold your position until you receive further orders." Avatar ordered.
"Yes, Sir."
"Sir, we have something on the radar." The tech announced, "It appears to be a fighter – not one of ours."
"Cease all activity. Halt the asteroid launch until I give the word."
"Yes, Sir."
"Is it Cometine?"
"No, it appears to be –" the tech squinted at his screen, making sure he wasn't reading it wrong, "It's Eratite, Sir."
"Eratite? Contact the outer perimeter defenses immediately. I want a thorough search of this planet's orbit and surrounding space."
"The order is sent, Sir."
"Notify me when we've received word."
"Yes, Sir."
The commander stayed in the control center, staring out into the darkness of the underground caverns they occupied. He waited, his eyes blank, his thoughts on the strange sudden appearance of this Eratite vessel.
"Sir, the fighter is leaving."
"Good." The commander nodded. Any news from the perimeter guard?"
"Yes. The report just came in. There is a confirmed sighting of the Eratite battleship we've heard about in reports. It's just inside Pluto space. They appear to be moving slowly towards the planet."
There was a moment of silence, then the tech suddenly exclaimed, "We have an incoming message. It's from General Lysis."
"He's here? He wasn't scheduled to arrive for another three days." The commander said, starting to feel just the slightest bit of panic.
"He isn't here yet, Sir. He's requesting a report. What shall I tell him?"
The base commander's anxiety eased and he thought about his response for a moment then said, "Tell him we have the Eratite ship here and wish to bring it down. Ask him for his recommendation on this course of action."
"Yes, Sir."
The tech sent the message and waited for a response. It came a few minutes later.
"Sir, he recommends that we 'make full use of our resources.' He says that our reflection satellite system may be of great use."
"Ah… of course…" the commander smirked, "Resume the asteroid launch."
"But sir, they'll see us." The tech protested.
"Exactly. Once they're close enough, we'll use the satellites to our advantage. They won't even know what's hit them until it's too late."
"I see, Sir. A very clever move." The tech replied, delighted that he would be able to do something other than toss asteroids in the air and turn them into glowing balls.
"Indeed. General Lysis is a man to be reckoned with."
"There it is again!" Wildstar thought as he flew back to the spot he'd been before, his plane freshly refueled and the promise of help coming if he should be able to pinpoint the location of this elusive base.
Another flash came into view, but this time, Wildstar saw something ignite up towards the atmosphere. He stared up into the sky. Suddenly another flash came and ignited another object.
Derek pulled out a small pair of binoculars and stared at the burning thing.
"Planet bombs?!" he exclaimed, then cursed again this horrific enemy who would send out such a rain of death on an innocent world, killing millions including his own parents.
"How can anyone be so barbaric…?" he tucked the binoculars back into their holster and fixed his eyes on the place he just knew had to be where the enemy lay hidden.
He gritted his teeth and sent the coordinates back to the Argo. "We're coming for you, Gamilon scum! And you won't know what hit you when we do."
Argo slowly moved in on Pluto, careful to stay in a wide orbit. The coordinates Wildstar had sent them were slowly rotating into view.
"Anything on radar?" Avatar asked.
"Not yet, Sir." Nova replied.
"Where are they?" Captain Avatar thought as he stared out the front viewport, waiting for the strange flashes Wildstar had reported seeing, but there was nothing.
He looked away for a moment.
"Captain, there's a surge of energy headed toward us! Coming in fast at nine o'clock!" Nova exclaimed.
"Evasive –" Avatar was cut off by the sudden explosion that ripped into the ship.
"Damage report!" Avatar barked, discreetly holding his side and trying not to wince. He felt something wet beneath his white-gloved hand and knew he would soon feel the effects of the sudden jarring.
"Damage to the lower decks and the recon plane launch pad is out of commission." Sandor replied.
"Where did that shot come from?" Avatar questioned.
"It became visible directly off our port side. Before that, I have no data." Nova replied.
"Was there a flash before the surge appeared?"
"No, nothing." Nova replied.
"Captain, another surge at nine o'clock!"
"Evasive maneuvers!"
This time Mark managed to evade the surge in time.
"Move the ship to the other side of Pluto." Avatar ordered. "Get us out of here."
"Yes, Sir." Mark immediately steered the ship away from the area and around the planet.
"Find a place to hide the ship and get some repair crews out to get any critical systems back up. And repair that launch pad." Avatar ordered.
Mark found a place as far away from the other side of Pluto as possible and put the ship in synchronic orbit, making sure that the place Wildstar had found wasn't coming near them anytime soon.
The repair crews were sent out as soon as it was deemed safe. The examination of the ship's wound took no more than twenty minutes and the critical repairs took half that time.
"Everything essential is up and running, Captain." Sandor reported, "I'm pulling the repair crew back in."
"Very good." Avatar nodded, "Keep the ship here."
With that, he ascended into his quarters, his captain's chair rising quickly up the wall and disappearing into the ceiling.
As soon as he was in his quarters, Avatar doubled over. He reached out a hand and immediately activated the emergency notification system that he had had Sandor put in his quarters in case of just such an event as this.
Dr. Sane was there within minutes. He managed, with the help of IQ-9 to get the captain into bed.
He sent the robot back to the medical bay immediately. The captain wanted to keep the severity of his condition as clandestine as possible, which meant that even IQ couldn't know the full extent of it. They'd gone so far as to lock the robot out of that area of the computer. So far, only Sandor and Dr. Sane knew exactly how bad the situation really was.
He peeled back the captain's black peacoat and white shirt and undershirt, the crisp white now soaked in crimson blood.
Sane bit back an exclamation of horror, and managed to hold in all but a loud hiss. He stopped the bleeding as quickly as he could and applied a medicated dressing before binding the wound again.
"You should be dead, you old coot!" he scolded Avatar.
"I know, Sado." The captain replied weakly. "But these young ones need me for a while longer."
"And you're willing to kill yourself to do that?!"
Avatar looked Dr. Sane in the eye, "If need be. Yes. You know that."
"Abraham, this journey will kill you." The old doctor replied, his face completely sober.
"I know, my friend. I only hope that I might see the Earth one last time before then."
"Give your candidate a deputy captain's position."
"He is not ready." Avatar replied, "I will not lay that responsibility on him until the time is right."
"Alright…" Sane acquiesced, "But you are on bed rest until that wound heals some more."
Avatar chuckled, "Sado, you know it will never heal…"
"If you can hope, so can I." Dr. Sane's brow furrowed in sadness, knowing that he was only lying to himself if he thought the captain's condition would improve.
"The captain isn't feeling well." Sandor announced, "In his absence I will be overseeing our operation."
"Is he alright?" Nova asked, concern in her eyes.
Sandor didn't answer for a moment, "He is as well as he can be at the moment."
Nova saw the hesitancy in the XO's face and didn't push any farther.
"Take us back to the coordinates Wildstar gave us." Sandor ordered. "We must eliminate the enemy's presence here."
"Yes, Sir." Mark replied, thoughts of his brother and parents coming to his mind.
Those thoughts were short-lived.
"Energy surge at six o'clock!" Nova exclaimed.
Mark immediately reacted, trying to move the ship out of harm's way. He thought he's succeeded, but the explosion and violent jolt through the ship told him otherwise.
"We've been hit!" Nova's voice came again.
"Where are they coming from?!" Mark exclaimed, frustrated. "They can't just be appearing out of nowhere!"
"Any sign of ships in the area?" Sandor asked Nova.
"No, none." She said. "We've seen evidence of several small ships much farther out towards Neptune, but none close enough or large enough to be doing this sort of damage. All indications were that the ships we've passed weren't even manned."
"We have to find out where those –" he was about to spout a rather derogatory label when he saw Nova glaring at him, "Where the enemy is hiding."
"We must wait –" Sandor started to say.
"Go and find them." A gravelly voice ordered from the back of the bridge.
"Captain?!" Sandor whirled around in his chair, stunned, "But you're –"
"I'm fine." The old captain asserted. "Now go and meet up with Wildstar on the surface. We've taken damage, but not enough to send us crawling away in defeat. No, it will take much more than this to sink this proud ship." The captain's eyes were filled with a fire the Sandor had not seen in him for some time.
"Yes, Sir." Sandor nodded, "Dash, Forrester. You're with me." He looked around the bridge, noting the looks of reservation on many faces. "The enemy has held this planet for much too long. Today, we change that."
Though there were no cheers of praise for his words, Sandor did see some of the fear melt away from his fellow officers' faces, and that was more than enough for him.
* Zero – The lead Cosmo Tiger plane, painted gray and red instead of the signature black and gold