Terraformer Dreams - Chapter Eleven (complete)

[The Zig]

Story so far:
---------------------------------------
Chapter One - The Fly-Through Sector
Chapter Two - Danger is Coming...
Chapter Three - Scramble
Chapter Four - The Nexus
Chapter Five - Classified Information
Chapter Six - Ghosts of the Passed
Chapter Seven - It
Chapter Eight - Terraformer Dreams
Chapter Nine - Downtime
Chapter Ten - Frontier
---------------------------------------


Chapter Eleven – Choice

“Time is the school in which we learn. Time is the fire in which we burn”
Delmore Schwartz


Part One - Binary Song

32 minutes, 21 seconds: the duration since Asya had left him here.
Hzzar stood alone in his cell. He had noticed her unwillingness to leave. It pleased him irrationally. He could rationally justify some feeling, certainly – it would make things easier if he could win her trust – but he knew that wasn’t the limit of the feeling. It went beyond that. There was something more, some neurological source that he could not triangulate. Something irrational. This troubled Hzzar.
Thoughts kept recurring in his mind: When will Asya return? What is the probability of her return this minute? Within five minutes? Insufficient data for meaningful calculation...
He was not being rational. It would have to be looked into later.

Now Hzzar had a more important concern. He had returned to this sector, to their sector – the core sector – and he could ‘hear’ it again. Their song. That familiar sound, divine and deep. A religious chant that seeped through the walls, rich and rhythmic, filling everything with meaning.
The Nexus.
Silent and solitary, he listened to the binary-song – the rise and fall of a million mes blending over harmonics – it carried the sights of a million eyes looking out on the Universe. In the midst of it, the Nexus’s thoughts – cold, dead and rational – ran by before his eyes.
He became immediately aware of a shift in tone – a raise in key – as the Nexus became aware of Argon ships in their sector moving towards their shipyard. He heard the deep tones of the K that moved to intercept. The unprepared K that wasn’t ready to fight. The K that had no choice but to try to defend.
All was going to plan.
...


“It’s seen us.”
“Closing in,” Dekker said. “10k.”
“Full speed,” Jo ordered. “X form, Ions. My lead.”
“Acknowledged,” the pilots said almost simultaneously.
“Moving up,” Kami said.
“With you.”
Jo looked to the side. His pilots were flanking him. He felt a surge of energy as he led them up, aiming to take them over the ship and in behind the dorsal turret. Automatically he pitched to keep the enemy in view above.
Space lit up. Photon pulses leapt out for them.
“Incoming.”
“Pretty light.”
“ ‘Pretty lights’?! That supposed to be funny?”
“I said, light,” Devero said. “A light load-out, I mean. There’s only one PPC on the dorsal.”
“Starboard’s only two,” Green added.
“Looks like we caught em under-power,” Loni said.
“Hold course,” Jo repeated. “Keep tight.”
“Photon Pulses are quick!”
“Not as quick as Kyons!”
“Ready...” Jo said. “Dive!”

Large balls of light whizzed by as the Novas soared in. Simultaneously, twenty bolts of charge – two per ship – burned into the enemy shields. The shield turned an angry red colour, then a sharp violet as energy fluctuations wrenched and twisted the field. Electronic systems the length and breadth of the ship burst in a wave of angry firework-flashes.

“Whoa!”
“Shield’s down to twenty-four percent already!”
“Damn!”
“How the..?”
“Looks like it’s shielded like as badly as it’s armed.”
“Underpower?”
“Massively.”
“Sweet!”
“Pair off,” Jo said. “Gamma mode.”
The ships broke off into pairs with their assigned wing-mates. In each pair, the Alpha ship would lead with Ion Disruptors, the Beta would follow up with Plasma Throwers.
“Synchronise,” Jo said. “8 seconds.”
“Understood.”
“Stay tight,” Jo said. “Around me. Or the...”
“Yeah,” Loni said. “So just the one turret has to take us all on.”
“Ain’t rookies,” someone said.

The ion bolts cracked out within a quarter-second of each other. Electrical explosions wracked the Xenon ship. The huge ship started to turn, trying to bring more turrets into play. Now the beta ships were in range, they fired. With a violent flash the shields collapsed, and plasma poured on naked hull. In an instant the Ions had vanished. The leaders switched guns, more plasma followed.

“Hit the turrets.”
The Novas broke formation. They closed in on the ship, then turned. Now, they glided over the body of the ship, over the hull. They took the turrets side on. In seconds the turrets were gone. The ship was shield-less and defenceless.

“Finish it.”
Hot plasma pounded into the ship. Holes appeared where it penetrated naked hull. Chunks of ship were blown out into space.
“Target the engines,” Jo said.
His wingmen complied. Plasma burned into the ship, all around the engines. Soon enough the fuel system breached. With the safety bulk-heads shattered, raw power from the ship’s huge engines burst into the soft interior. Super-heated gases flooded through the ship, shooting out from every hull-breach as the ship was incinerated from inside.
As the Novas pulled away the glare died down. Jo looked back. For a moment it looked like the ship was still complete, like the Xenon had survived it, but then, the tough exterior hull – now no more than a shell – collapsed in on itself.
“Job done,” Dekker said.
Jo nodded. “Set course for the shipyard.”
He looked back at the disintegrating debris.
“Good job everyone.”
...


In his cell, Hzzar watched the K go down from several perspectives. Images of destruction formed in his mind, painted by the mournful tones of binary song washing over him.
Hzzar was pleased. Everything was still going to plan.
A moment later a new melody sang out in the Nexus, seizing Hzzar’s attention. It’s was high and clear, and rung over the network. The mood changed. The Nexus’ choir shifted in tone. The mournfulness faded. It sung of new hope.
Hzzar became aware of something new happening within the Nexus consciousness...
...


It was a strange sector. Dense, milky clouds. Davi hadn’t seen anything like it before.
He glanced at his scanners. There were no ships in range, enemy or friendly. The fleet must have already cleared this sector and passed onto the next; the shipyard sector. He took a long breath. He had hoped to catch them before they went on. He didn’t like the idea of flying into the heart of enemy space. Sure, his ship was fast enough, but so small. Just one unlucky hit...
Davi set course for where the East gate must be and eased his ship to speed. He was still in the far west of the sector – his scanners barely reached half way – the fleet could still be this side of the gate. It was possible.

Davi found himself in a slight clearing at the centre of the sector. From here he could dimly see the East Gate. There were no cap-ships in sight. They must already be through. Damn.
In each direction, clouds. Then something caught his eye. The cloud to the North was a different colour from the rest. It was similar, still white-ish, but it was definitely darker than the rest, redder. Odd. Davi bit his lip.
“Ah,” he said. That must be the hull-eater they warned him about. But even as he nodded to assure himself on this, he had a doubt. He had seen plenty of hull-eaters in his time. Back in his recon days he had to chart them. They were never discoloured. From outside they look just like normal clouds. Always. A different colour meant a different gas composition. And there’s no reason a naturally-occurring hull-eater should be made of different gas. Something’s wrong. Abanty knew this, he had the strongest feeling he should investigate.
“No,” he told himself firmly. “Job to do.”
He had to go. He had passed the clearing now, and was moving in to the first wisps of the thinner East cloud. Not far now.

Suddenly, a light. Bright. It lit up Davi’s entire cockpit with an awesome intensity. He jerked his head to the side, squeezing his eyes shut. Yet even through closed eyes, it was too bright. Panicking, he jerked back, his back slamming against the seat, and clamped his hands over his face. A raw heat burned into his skin, but then quickly died away. He eased his hand away from his face, eyes still shut. The light had faded. He opened his eyes as narrowly as possible. It was okay. Davi sat for a moment, blinking as his eyes recovered.
The reactive cockpit glass had saved him. It had adjusted its tint to dim-down the light. He had only been exposed for the few seconds it took to ‘react’. The white clouds had gone, and all around him was blackness, except for that one bright light to the left. The glass must be at maximum tint. The source seemed to be that strange northern cloud. It was entirely glowing now. As his eyes found focus, he saw why. There were hundreds, thousands – millions? – of lightning bolts shooting all through the cloud.
Then... there was no doubt about it, the cloud was getting smaller. It was shrinking. The bolts were pulling it together. And the huge painfully-bright nebula collapsed inward into a tiny, impossibly intense point of light, which then faded away...
... and was gone completely.

“No way...”
Davi stared at the space where the odd white cloud had been.
Where a North Gate was now revealed.
Where the gate’s flash announced arrivals.

“Uso...”
...

In his cell, Hzzar walked quickly to the forcefield wall. He could not wait. He had to talk Asya now. Urgent. Things were changing, moving fast. He considered for a moment. He could not wait. He reached his had forward, toward the force-field. He felt a powerful field repulsion as his hand moved near. He pressed harder, over-powering the field. His hand made contact.
The field screamed, shattered, became a spider's-web of tiny white lines, all focused on his hand. Huge amounts of current surged through his super-conductive skin. His body vibrated. The floor around his feet began to glow, to melt, to bubble. At last the alarm sounded. Hzzar withdrew his hand. The field instantly returned to normal. The floor under his feet had melted slightly and the air around him shimmered. He was undamaged. Two guards entered and pointed weapons at him. They were talking to him. Their words were irrelevant.
Hzzar waited.
Finally Asya appeared. Despite himself, pleasure flooded his mind as he saw her. But it was followed by another feeling. Regret? Things were about to turn for the worse. It was his fault. He felt like he had failed her.

“Asya,” he said. “We must go to the bridge. It is urgent. The situation has deteriorated. The Captain now must be told. There is no time to waste.”
...


Part Two – Internal Injuries


Davi hung around just long enough to see eight Ks with fighter escort start coming towards the East Gate. Then he went through ahead. He had to warn the fleet.
...

The warning came through to Lil soon afterwards.
“The Xenon are closing in behind us,” the Navy officer said. “Move towards the centre of sector, towards the Shipyard. Be ready to jump out as soon as it goes down.”
“We’re not going to block them at the gate?”
“Negative. Far too many. Pull back to support the shipyard attack. Be ready to jump the moment it goes down.”
“Understood.”
“You have energy cells?”
“Of course.”
“Good. Over.”
The communication ended abruptly.
Lil sat for a moment. He had sounded worried.

“Aksandros,” she shouted.
A moment’s silence.
“Yesss.”
“The jump-drive’s all working and up to power, right?”
“Of course.”
“You didn’t unplug it? Turn it round? Move it a bit to the left? Anything?”
“No!”
“Sure? Any surprises later would be really...” her voice trailed off. “Not good.”
“It’s on its own energy grid. I didn’t touch it.”
“Okay... Good.”
Lil looked to the stars and nodded. The computer reported the jump-drive status as ‘ready.’ She could jump the moment she needed to.
Stop being paranoid, she told herself.
They would not need to tell her twice. She would be out of here first possible moment. A little sooner, perhaps. Don’t get rich by dying.
...


“Status.”
“I’m very well! Kind of you to ask! You?!”
“Status,” Elton echoed.
Jo glared to the image on the comms screen. “On course for the Shipyard. Three mins.”
“Good.”
“That all?” Jo asked.
“More Xenon are closing.”
Jo glanced at Elton’s image. Grunted.
“From behind,” Elton added.
Jo scowled. “Huh?”
“Was a North Gate hidden in the last sector.” Elton explained. “Sounds like the Xenon actually created the entire cloud just to hide it. That hull-eater cloud you ran into in the North. An artificial gas cloud. All to stop us spotting a North Gate hidden there. A Terracorp scout just saw them collapse the cloud electrically somehow.”
“Collapse it...” Jo thought for a moment, finally shrugged. “Well I don’t get it.”
“They’re moving to cut off our retreat. Eight Ks with fighters. Minimum.”
“What?” Jo squinted contemptuously. “But we can jump out?”
“Don’t know what they hope to achieve,” Elton said. “But it puts a time limit on us.”
Jo nodded. Now he saw what Elton was getting at. “Understood.”
A hesitation.
“That all?” Jo asked.
“Something doesn’t add up, Jo.”
“Right,” Jo said.
“No,” Elton insisted. “Something doesn’t add up. Watch out.”
“Okay,” Jo nodded again. “I understand. I do.”
Elton nodded. “Over.”
“Ov...” The comms channel was already dead.

Jo looked at the shipyard ahead, unguarded. Just a few kilometres.
Elton's voice echoed in his head. Something doesn’t add up.

“Switch to Ions,” Jo said. “Let’s cut this thing down to size.”
...


“They’ve engaged the Shipyard.”
Elton Simons nodded. “Good. Tell me when the shield’s dropped.”
Elton glanced across to the command bridge. The monitors. He growled.
“Ripley,” Elton said. “Bring in Gamma.”
The Captain looked back at him. “Gamma wing? What? No! They’re getting useful data.”
“They’re Novas. They’ll get isolated there. We’ll need to jump fast. Won’t be caught waiting for our fighters to come in.”
“We need the intell.”
“Put Discos on the intell. Bring them in now or lose them later. Your call.”
Captain Ripley looked between the screens.
“Get Gamma in now,” he finally said. “Get Zeta in range of the gate. I want to know the second those Xenon come through.”

‘Do your job!’ Elton wanted to scream out. He felt his jaw clenching. He took a breath, and made a conscious effort to relax. He couldn’t let himself get wound up. Not now. He needed to be cold, efficient – to think. But he was doing three people’s jobs here. He would have given a lot for just one of his own staff – one person he could rely on.
“Mr Simons,” a comms officer called.
It took a moment to single out which face was talking to him. Elton nodded at the man.
“A Terracorp representative’s on the line,” the officer said. “Says it’s important.”
Elton sighed. “Put them through.”
...


Jo pulled side-by-side with Kami. Beams of light fired out from both ships cutting into the enemy shield, which glowed brightly. They broke off and pulled round.
Loni and another pilot passed ahead. Their Ions suddenly licked out for the Xenon shields. Behind them, two more streams of Ions started. Devero.
Jo was impressed. Good co-ordination.
“The hell...” Loni said. “This shield just ain’t going down.”
Jo looked at his target information. It was true, the shield was still almost 100%.
“Strange,” Jo said. “It should be way lower than that.”
“We been hitting for nearly four minutes. Should be gone.”
“Devero,” Jo said. “Get a deep-scan. See how much shielding we’re up against.”
“Already done,” Devero said. “It’s nothing special. It should’ve gone down over a minute ago.”
“What is it?” Kami asked.
“I don’t know... It’s sticking at 98%. It’s not going down further.”
“How?”
“Don’t know,” Devero said.
Jo looked at the shield. It was glowing brightly. Too brightly.
“Something’s off. Switch to Plasmas,” Jo said. “Let’s see how it handles those. Hit it.”
...


The face disappeared. Elton stared at the blank screen. For a few precious seconds, he could think. Actually think. He felt his mind move, shifting up to speed. He felt that moment of inner-stillness. His brain shallowed his questions whole, started spitting out answers. The world became clearer; the confused haze shifted into clear focus. A name materialised at the front of his mind.
“Hzzar Qr.”
Elton’s eyes opened wide. Why hadn’t he thought of this already!?
He grabbed a mobile comm unit, and marched toward the elevator.
“Asya Rieka,” he said as he walked.
He waited for the comm unit to connect him to her.
The elevator doors opened. He stepped inside.
“Asya Rieka,” he said again. “Priority.”
The doors closed and he felt the elevator start to move.

Elton could see it now. This Xenon – Hzzar Qr – this Xenon was at the heart of things that didn’t add up. The Nexus had prepared this ambush. That was clear. They had a counter-attack fleet ready. They had even built a gas cloud to cover a secret gate. That had all taken preparation. The Xenon had planned this; had been expecting them. Without any doubt.
But this incursion was not planned from the Argon side. It was totally unforeseeable. Everything that had set it into motion had happened in the last few hours. The Argon had walked into this ambush based on ‘intelligence’ this ‘defector’ had given them. That was the single thing that had brought them here. Hzzar Qr.
Elton wanted answers.

The comms still refused to connect him.
“Security,” he said. “Where’s Asya Rieka?”
The elevator slowed.
“She’s in the lock-down,” a voice told him.
“Right now?”
“Yes. The auto-door logs show her entering 14 minutes ago. She hasn’t left.”
“Understood.” Elton ended communication.

The elevator doors opened.
Elton passed a few metres of corridor and turned left, toward the lock-down. The lock-down doors were metres ahead. Reflective silver. They opened automatically as he neared.
The sound of the forcefield’s missing. He noticed immediately.
His eyes locked on the cell. Empty.
Elton stepped quickly toward it. His foot slipped. His eyes dropped to a slick, red liquid pooled under his feet. His eyes followed it to the bloody torso slumped against the wall. A body. The air left his lungs. The head was missing. There was no head.
His eyes collected data as his mind put the pieces together. There, a small, round indentation in the metal wall. The direction of blood splatter. Small white fragments embedded in the wall. That was where the head was slammed into the wall. Boom. Elton’s stomach shifted. His chest tightened. A name appeared on his lips.
“Asya...”
...


“Plasma’s ain’t working.”
“Try to hit simultaneously,” Jo said.
“There’s no point,” Devero said. “They aren’t having any effect.”
“Nothing’s having any damn effect!” Loni shouted.
“Loni, we...”
“That hornet didn’t even...”
“Suggestions anyone?” Jo asked.
“Shields are the problem,” Kami said. “So Mass Drivers?”
“Something this big?” Dekker said. “Don’t reckon drivers are powerful enough.”
“Too weak,” Devero agreed. “It’d take longer than we have. By about a day.”
“And we don’t have the ammo,” Jo said. “No. Keep working on it, try to find a weakness. I’ll call into tactical.”
...


Elton crouched down by the body, put his hand out to the shoulder. As he touched it, he noticed the uniform it wore. Navy Security. Not Asya. It must have been a guard. It was bigger than her anyway, now he thought of it. It was obvious now. It wasn’t her. He pushed the shoulder back against the wall. The arm flopped across and something slipped away, clattering to the floor. A weapon. Elton picked it up, staring. Standard-issue energy weapon. Hadn’t even been fired. Elton shook his head. Then he froze...
There was something behind him. He was certain.

Elton span around, gun held out. Nothing.
Then he saw...

“Damn.”
To the far left of the holding-cell, near the wall, another security guard lying face down. Elton ran across, turned the man over. This man was intact, warm. He looked unharmed. Elton felt around the neck. Wrist. Chest. Nothing. No pulse. No breathing. Elton stood up, a sickness rising in his throat.
Was he about to vomit? That’s what people do in this kind of situation. Normal behaviour. Elton struggled to pull himself together. What’s important now?

“Sec... security,” he stammered. “Officers down. Holding cells. We have a breakout. The Terra... the Xenon. It’s gone... it escaped. It’s dangerous... We... we...” his voice died in his throat as something caught his eye – there in the holding cell – Elton stepped forward.
He stopped at the threshold of the cell.

In the far corner of the cell, a body was sprawled across the floor. Petite yet curved. Body twisted, face turned toward him. This time he was sure.
“Asya.”
...


“We’ve got to have someone with weapons training,” Captain Ripley shouted.
The Security Chief shook his head. “Our marines – all but three – they were on that boarder. The one we lost on the derelict. There... there are only three left.”
The Captain slumped back onto his chair. He stared to the roof.

“What about Navy personal?”
“Everyone’s got basic training. But no-one’s qualified to use our assault weapons.”
Ripley’s eyes closed, he started to speak, slow and low. “Get the marines. The three we have. They need to hunt down this Xenon. And then get everyone armed. Everyone. And let them know there’s a Xenon loose in the ship. Raise the alert.”
“What if it’s coming here?”
The Captain stood, turning to the man who had spoken. “Is it?”
“We should consider the possibility. If it was taking the ship, we’d be number one target.”
The Captain shook his head. This wasn’t part of the plan.

“You two,” he pointed at two lieutenants in tactical. “Get guns and guard that door. It is not to come in here.”
The lieutenants looked at each other, wide eyed, before running for the weapons lockers. One tripped over an engineering hatch and sprawled across the floor.

“Stop,” the Captain glanced around the bridge. “It’s coming here. This is its target, isn't it Wilkins?”
“That is likely, sir.”
“If it’s trying to commandeer us, where else, eh? Macdonal.”
Macdonal, the Security Chief, looked up from his communicator. “Sir?”
“Get those marines up here,” he said. “This will be the Xenon’s target.”
“Uh...” Macdonal looked unconvinced. “Sir, I think...”
“Now.”
“Yes, sir.”

“Sir,” a new voice came from the front of the bridge.
“Yes,” the Captain snapped.
“Uh... Xenon ships have just come through the gate behind us.”
The Captain nodded. “Good. Continue to fall back toward the shipyard. Pull in all fighters now. Get unassigned fighters landed. As soon as the Shipyard goes down, we jump.”
“That could be a problem, sir.”
The Captain’s eyes searched out the new speaker.
“Why?”
“Alpha wing are reporting problems,” the woman said. “Jo Slammer reported in. There’s something strange about Shipyard’s shields. They can’t get it below 98%. Plasma, Ions, missiles. Nothing’s working.”
“Well tell Mr Slammer that’s not an good enough. That’s not an option we... What the..?!”
Ripley stopped, grabbing onto a chair The bridge was shaking.
The shaking steadily increased, and a loud rumble went through the ship. The shaking died away.

“What the Hell was that?”
“An explosion?” someone said.
“Captain.”
“What happened?”
“We’ve been hit.”
“We’ve been hit?”
“What could hit us?”
“The Xenon?”
“There are none in range.”
“Captain.”
“It sounded internal though...”
“Are we in range of anything?”
“Internal?”
“The explosion was definitely inside the ship.”
“Our shield’s still full.”
“How could something hit through our...”
“Captain,” a voice pierced through the chaos.

Everyone looked at the small, scared looking ensign.

“The, uh...” the ensign stammered. “The jump-drive... it just went off-line.”
...


Part 3 – Black Pearl


Elton Simons looked back as the doors opened. Medics rushed in.
“They’re dead,” Elton called. “This one’s alive.”
The medics looked over to where Elton crouched over Asya. He was holding her up, sitting. Her head lolled to the side; her eyes, open, stared emptily.
One medic went for the intact-looking security guard, the other two rushed toward Elton and Asya.
“She’s conscious,” Elton said. “I think. But not talking.”
One medic moved a device around in front of her, the second wrapped a belt-like device around her chest. He moved something on it that caused a sharp clicking.

“Need her talking,” Elton said.
“We’ll do what we can,” the medic said as he planted small devices around Asya’s skull.

The third medic – still over with the security guard – activated something that gave off a whistle. The whistle started at a low pitch, but rose sharply, then ended with a sudden thump. Then silence. Then the rising whistle again, thump again. Silence. Whistle. Thump. Silence.
Silence.

“Need her now,” Elton said.
“Doing all we can, sir.”
...


“Sstrange.”
Lil jerked round, half out of her seat.
“Aksandros!” She sat back down. “Gave me a heart attack. What’d I say about sneaking around?!”
“Look.”
“What?!”
“There!” Aksandros pointed. “The shield on that shipyard. It’s bright.”
“That’s what happens when people shoot at them.”
“Not like that,” Aksandros said. “It’s really... bright.”
“It is,” Lil agreed. “Kinda bright.”
“Is it..?” Aksandros squinted. “Can you scan it from here?”
“Basic scan, sure. But freight scanner don’t reach that far.”
“Do it, please. Would you?”
Lil brought up an information screen.
“That’s wrong,” she said. “Shield’s still 99%. Been attacking for... While. Should be lower.”
“How long?”
“At least seven, eight minutes.”
“That’s... 4 mizuras? 5? Ten fighters? Impossible.”
Lil nodded. “Isn’t it?”
“Yess. Could it..? No.”
Lil looked across at him. “Could it what?”
“No... It’s stupid.”
“What?”
“No... No it’s stupid. I was thinking out loud... No-one’s ever made it work. No.”
“Made what work?!”
“Well...” Aksandros squinted at the shipyard. “No, it’s stup-”
“Tell!”
“Okay... Have you ever heard of a... absorption shield?”
Lil stared for a second; laughed. “Okay, yeah. That’s stupid!”

“That’s what I said... except the Paranid, Teladi... everyone’s been working on them again lately.”
“But they’re impossible! Space myth. Like Nividium fields, planets of gold, flying saucers. Lost Earth gates. They’re stories. Rumours. Impossible.”
“Well, no,” Aksandros said. “Not at all. Not really. That’s their seduction. Absorption shields are actually very possible in theory. Simple even. They’re just difficult to actually make.”

Lil looked at him steadily.
“Are we talking about the same thing here? An absorption shield; a shield that absorbs incoming fire. Feeds off it, and uses the energy to charge itself.”
“Exactly,” Aksandros said.
“An un-killable shield.”
“Well... Yes.”
“Impossible!”
“No. It’s really quite possible. It’s just impossibly difficult to do.”
“It’s impossible!”
“Explain that then!” Aksandros pointed angrily at the shipyard.
“But... What you’re... It’s not possible!”
“Well, yes. But is that possible?”
Lil stared out at the shipyard.

Finally she sighed. “Go on then. How?”
“It’s all about phase matching. You have to be able to scan incoming fire – in-flight – and then adapt your shield to match it. If the phases match at the exact moment it hits – then the reaction is constructive rather than destructive.”
“Okay... What?”
“I... Have you ever seen waves on a beach?”
“What?”
“Have you seen that?”
“No. ...I mean, only in those relaxation simulators. Virtual.”
“That’s what I mean. You must have watched the waves on the beach. Yes?”
“I guess.”
“It’s like that. Exactly like that. The waves come in, right. At random.”
“I guess. Yeah.”
“So most of the time they’re not in phase. So they interfere. The dying old wave gets in the way of the new one. Trips it over. The incoming wave peels over and crashes down. They destroy each other. The energy is wasted in a big, random splash. Right?”
“Yeah.”
“But every now and then, by pure chance, they come in phase. They match. And suddenly the interaction is constructive. The wave-peaks meet, merge together. The energy of two waves is absorbed into one. Suddenly, out of nowhere, a double wave towers right in. Soaks your lunch!”
“Okay, okay... I get that, but...”
“It’s the same. Exactly the same. It’s about making the waves peak together. Get the two phases matched – the shield and the weapons fire – get them matched exactly, they merge together. The interaction becomes constructive rather than destructive. They add together and you get a big wave of use-able energy.”

Lil stared down, nodding. “So it builds your shield, rather than destroying it.”
“Yesss,” Aksandros nodded violently. “Exactly! Of course, it’s more difficult to do than to say, but that's the principle of-”
“Why?”
“Huh?”
“Why is it difficult to do?”
“You mean apart from needing to scan every single shot of incoming fire? In flight? And then adjust your entire... entire...” Aksandros trailed off, staring at a screen.
“Entire..?”
“Shh!” Aksandros pointed at an image of the shipyard. “There!”
“What!”
“There. Look! Look! No, no, wait... wait...”
Aksandros and Lil stared at the shipyard’s image on the screen...

“What am I-”
“There!” Aksandros shouted. “You saw it! That! There! It is!”
“What?”
“Just before each hit. Watch... See there?! The shield flashes.”
Lil watched the screen. Sure enough, just before each ‘hit’ there was a tiny flash in the shield field.
“So?”
“So it’s doing it... The flashes must be phase adjustments. Matching the peaks. It’s really doing it!”
Another flash, another hit. After the hit the shield glowed brighter. A faint wave of light rippled over the shield bubble.
“It is,” Aksandros said. “It’s adapting.”
“So... You’re seriously telling me this is an absorption shield?”
“I think it is.”
“So their shots are just feeding the shield.”
“I think so.”

“Okay,” Lil stared for a while. “So how do we kill it?”
...


“Don’t be ridiculous,” Elton said into the communicator. “Taking down that shipyard is our only priority. Worry about how we get out once that’s done.”
He listened for a moment.
“Then we never leave!” He snapped. “Failure is not an option.”
Elton killed the channel.

“Anything?” He said.
Asya shook her head. “I don’t remember a thing.”
“Your Xenon led us into an ambush,” Elton said. “He’s destroyed our jump drive. Anything that can help?”
“It’s all blank. I don’t even remember coming in here.”
Elton looked to the Medic, who shrugged.
“It’s to be expected I guess,” the Medic said.
Elton glanced to the side, to the floor.
“What is it?” Asya said.
“We need to find it.”
“Hzzar?”
Elton nodded. “Need to find it. Can you walk?”
“Of course,” Asya started to move.
“Can she walk?”
The medic nodded. “I think she’s okay. There’s no real damage. Just scratches. It’s not even clear why she passed out.”
Asya stood. “I’m fine.”
Elton looked at her; nodded once.
“Come.”
...


“It’s not going down,” Devero said. “We have to abort.”
“Goddamn shield!” the pilot called Jay shouted. “What is this?!”
“Does no-one have any ideas?” Jo called out.
“We gotta land so they can jump,” Green said. “The Xenon fleet’s almost on them.”
“We’ve tried everything. It ain’t working.”
“I don’t fail,” Jo said.
“We can’t win,” Jay said. “This shield will not go down.”
“Ideas?” Jo begged. “Anyone?”
Silence.
Jo activated the comms.

“Alpha Wing, Jo Slammer. Request permission to abort. We’ve tried everything. We’re not gonna take this thing down in time. Repeat: request permission to abort.”
“Negative. Do not abort. Destroy your target.”
“Yeah. That seems to be a problem. Can’t get its shield down. Tactical have any bright ideas yet?”
“Negative. No word yet from tactical. We’ll let you know if they work a solution.”
“Damn it! There’s just no way we can kill it in time. Even if the shield falls now, we’ll never be able to take it out and then dock... before...” Jo trailed off. He swallowed.
“You’re... Are you jumping without us?”
“We ain’t jumping anywhere without a jump-drive!”
“What?”
“We’re retreating towards your position. Think our fire-power will make a difference over there?”
“Maybe,” Jo did not sound hopeful.
“We’ll see.”

Jo switched the comms channel.
“That was a negative on the abort request,” he told his wingmen. “We gotta take this thing down.”
“Yeah?! How!?”
“They don’t know.”
“Then how the hell we gonna get out of here.”
“Don’t think we do,” Jo said. “Now let’s get this done.”

Jo sent a thick river of plasma toward the shipyard. Not even a 1% shield drop. It glowed infuriatingly. Mocking him. Jo felt a sudden emotion grip his chest. Impossible odds he could handle, turns of fate, the risk of sudden death. He could handle anything, he thought. But this! This sudden impotence crushed him, pissed out the fire in his heart.
Just soggy, stinking embers of despair.
What the hell do I do?!

Jo’s comm lit up. Open channel. Lil’s face.
“Guess it’s up to me to save all you losers!” Lil said. “Y’all sit comfortable while I take care of the big, nasty Xenon!”
...

“What you doing here, Lil?”
“Move away, Jo.”
“What you gonna do?”
“It’s an absorption shield. Your weapons are useless.”
“Huh? So what you gonna do?”
“Can’t explain, get back.”
Lil killed her comm channel.
“Understood,” she saw Jo acknowledge on the open channel. “What we got to lose? Pull back for a moment everyone. Everyone back off to 1km.”
From behind her in the cockpit a voice hissed.
“Targets assigned,” Aksandros said. “Ready to fire.”
Lil took a breath.
“Here goes.”
...

The silkworm fired from the Centaur’s missile tube.
Immediately it started to curve towards the target. Inside three seconds it was on a perfect bee-line for the shipyard. It closed swiftly. At 4km, its internal scanners activated; its path adjusted, away from the Yard’s central mass, away from reactors, away from the docks. There. It found its target.
Its course was set. At 200m, the missile burned its excess fuel, throwing itself forward, suicidally. At 30m, the shield flashed – adjusted. 8 metres from the hull, missile met shield. It exploded. Strangely, the explosion didn’t actually seem to hit the shield. It looked more like the shield reached out and sucked it in. For a moment the two seemed connected, joined, the blast from the explosion flowing into the shield field. The explosion’s fury passed round the shipyard as a bright white ripple in the shield bubble.
It was absorbed completely...
... but the thousands of fragments of mass-driver ammo were not. The explosion fired them forward, just as Aksandros had planned. They slipped through the shield passing on toward their target, that glossy, dark hemisphere – that tiny black pearl embedded in the hull.

And they destroyed it completely.
...

“Yess!” Aksandros shouted. “Hit! We got a node!”
“Excellent! Targeting the next one. Firing. How many are there?”
“Nine now.”
“What do these nodes do again?”
“I told you!” Aksandros said.
“Yeah, but the ‘for dummies’ translation?”
“They’re scanners. I told you: they’re scanners. To adapt, an absorption shield has to be able to scan all incoming fire – in-flight. Impossible with a normal unified scanner. These nodes – I think – are point scanners. This is how they can scan multiple incoming shots from all directions. These enable the shield to adapt.”
“So if we take these down, the shield falls?”
“Of course not! But with these gone, it can’t scan incoming fire. So it won’t be able to adapt. It becomes a normal shield.”
“Right...” Lil looked round at him. “How sure are you.”
Aksandros moved his head, somewhere between a nod an a shake.
“Okay,” Lil said.
“Hit!” Aksandros shouted. He smiled. “Eight nodes left. But only two more modified missiles. Get Jo’s wing using mass drivers. Get them to take down the rest.”

“I got this covered,” Lil said. “You go prepare the jump-drive.”

“The jump-drive,” Aksandros said.
He halted. “I don’t like this. It seems... premature. Are you sure?”

“Don’t have a choice,” Lil said. “The enemy fleet’s almost here. Get it ready.”
Aksandros sighed.
“Understood.”
...

“One more down.”
“Two nodes left.”
“Targeting now.... Got it. Scratch one more. Last one anyone?”
“On it,” Dekker said. His targeting computer switched to the co-ordinates Aksandros had given. “Firing.”
The tiny pellets flew from his ship. Instantly he saw tens of tiny impacts on the shipyard hull. Then the dark orb on the hull shattered suddenly. Fragments flew in all directions.
“Nice shooting!”
“Okay, switch to ions,” Jo said. “Let’s see if that made any difference.”

Twenty beams of light burned into the shield.
Jo glanced at his targeting computer.
“Now that’s more like it!”
“If you liked that, you’re gonna love this!”
“Huh?” Jo glanced round.
A photon pulse the size of his ship soared past.

The two giant Titans moved to flanking positions.
The Shipyard’s shield was down to 88%.
Jo smiled.
...


“The shipyard’s down. Moving onto the research base now.”
The word came through on Elton’s comms unit. Asya threw him a half-smile. He nodded back – mere acknowledgement. He would celebrate when there wasn’t a killer-cyborg loose on the ship. He signalled toward a nearby door.
“There.”
The security men moved slowly toward the door; deliberate steps, cautious not to trip the auto-open. Now they stood, backs to the wall, breathing deeply, one either side of the door. They shared a look.

One reached slowly for the door-open panel. His hand was shaking.
...


Part Four: Darkness


Jo twisted through the wreckage of the shipyard. Deja Vu.
“Target the research base,” Jo said.
“We not docking?” Green asked.
“Not yet,” Jo said.
“The enemy fleet are almost on us,” Dekker said.
“Target the Xenon base,” Jo closed the channel. He tried to switch his comm to a private channel, but the ship he wanted to link to was missing from his scanner. He squinted at his screen, confused.
“Don’t get it,” he muttered. He switched back to the open channel.

“Lil,” Jo said. “Thanks for the help back there.”
He waited a moment.
“Lil?” he said. “Lil Sarra. Respond.”

Nothing.
“Anyone got Lil on scanners? The Cheiron. A Centaur. ”
“Negative.”
“The one who told us about the nodes?” Devero asked.
“Yeah,” Jo said. “Her.”
“She was beside me before,” Kami said. “When we were shooting at the shipyard.”
“And now?” Jo asked.
“Don’t know.”
“I ain’t seen her at all.”
“She jumped,” Lonnie said. “The corvette? She was ahead of me when the yard blew. She jumped out, literally, like... 10 seconds after it blew. Ten seconds. Gone.”
“You sure?”
“Yeah. I saw her.”
Silence.
“You okay, Jo?” Kami asked.
“Yeah. Of course. I’m, uh... I’m fine.”
“She break your heart, sir?!”
“Give it a break, Lonnie,” Devero said. “Let’s hit this base.”
...


The door closed behind them.
Asya watched the light from the corridor squeezed into a bright, thin line, now gone.
Darkness.

“Must have downed the power grid,” Elton said.

Beams from flash-lights vanished into the darkness. Large brown-yellow circles illuminated distant crates, machinery. Suddenly Asya, bright and blinking materialised in blackness. She squinted and looked away from the torch. It moved on and she vanished back to black.
“Big ol’ room,” one of the security guards whispered.
“It’s quiet,” a deeper voice replied. “Can’t hear anything.”
“I don’t like it.”
“Jump-drive’s definitely off,” Elton said. “On stand-by it makes a sound. And the computers displays should be on. But look. Nothing.”
“So it’s definitely down.”
“Definitely.”
“Could it’ve just killed the power?” The deeper voice asked. “I don’t see any damage.”
“Would that work?” The other guard.
“I don’t know.”
“Wouldn’t it have to take down power to the whole ship? The main reactor?”
“No,” Elton said. “Jump-drive’s self-contained. Own power supply; own systems. Completely independent of the rest of the ship. So we can still jump even if we lose everything else.”
“Yeah? And taking out its power supply would stop it working?”
“Of course.”
“And these lights?”
“Seems plausible,” Elton said. “I don’t know.”
“So maybe, if the drive isn’t damaged, we can just power it up and get out of here?”
“That may be possible.”
“So where’s the drive’s power source?”
“Next room. That way.”
One of the flash-lights suddenly produced Elton from darkness. He squinted.
“Which way?” the voice asked.
Elton pointed. “That way.”

They walked.
“You’ve been down here before, sir?” the deep voice asked.
“Me?” Elton said. “No.”
“No? So how did-”
“There was a schematic by the elevator,” Elton said. “A map.”
“There was?”
“Yes.”
“Didn’t notice.”
“Will he be in there?” Asya asked.
“Who?”
“The Xenon,” Elton said. “Expect so. Be alert, men. It’s a killer.”
“I still can’t believe he did that.” Asya said. A disembodied sigh. “I don’t get it.”

“There is no ‘he’,” Elton said. “It is a machine. And it follows programs. Nothing to get.”
“You’re patronising me, Elton. It’s not that simple. You’re not the expert here. I talked to him. I...”
“You were manipulated, Asya. ‘He’ doesn’t give a damn about you. It doesn’t care about anything. It does what it’s told. It used you to achieve its goals. That’s all. Almost admirable. Our agents could...”
“Stop!” the guard put his arms out to stop them. “There. That red light. That means the door’s active. It’ll auto-open. We should approach from the sides.”

They spread out, backed to the wall, edged toward the door.
“As before,” the guard said. “We’ll go through first – me and Tor – we’ll clear the room. Soon as we say so, you follow us through. Understand?”
Elton rolled his eyes, invisible in the blackness. “Understood.”
“Understood,” Asya said. “Be careful.”

A double-click, a hiss, and the door opened. A dim redness spilled into the room. The guards looked at each other across the gap, they nodded, moved silently through. Asya leaned out, her eyes following them into the dull red room.
The door closed. Darkness.

“Mm?” Elton’s voice.
A double-click. A double-click. Again.
“Door won’t open...” Elton said.
“It’s locked,” a new voice, low and flat.
Asya inhaled sharply. She heard a footstep, movement. A crack, a grunt, and a muffled thud as something hit the floor.

“Asya,” Hzzar said. “Good to see you.”
Asya stared out into the darkness.
...


“Shield’s almost down,” Jo said. “Keep hitting.”
“Switching to Plasmas.”
“Whoa! Uh...”
A silence.
“What happened?”
“Incoming... the Xenon are here. The fleet.”
“Damn. I got an incoming missile.”
“Me too.”
“An N. He’s on me.”
“Okay,” Jo said. “Break off and engage enemy fighters. The Titans can take down the base. We’ll cover the Titans.”
“Acknowledged.”
“How many fighters are there?!”
“Uh... a lot.”
“More incoming. M4s in about three minutes. M3s in nine.”
“Damn.”
“Go get ’em,” Jo said.
...


Empty blackness.
Asya stepped back reflexively. His voice was too close.

“Your eyes so much are limited,” Hzzar said. “This room is full of light, but you do not see it. Right now, I watch your pupils dilate, the patterns of brain activity pulsating around your head: here and here. I watch your small heart beat. One-two... One-two... Faster than normal. Fear? Don’t fear. You humans are blind to almost all light in the universe. Radio, infra, ultra, micro, gamma. Your entire universe is a tiny little sliver of light. Far less than one trillionth of one percent of the spectrum. Less than a trillionth of a trillionth. To write it as a percentage, you need twenty-six zeros after the point. And then only a three.”
Silence, a cold darkness that wrapped around her skin.
“Let there be light.”

A flicker, then the room filled with light, bright, dizzyingly big all of a sudden. Asya took a step forward, to steady herself. She squinted ahead. There, shiny and golden, looking at her with large child-like eyes, Hzzar Qr stood.
“Better?” Hzzar asked.

Her eyes suddenly found Elton by a wall. He lay face down on the floor. A pool of red expanded around his head, a crimson halo.

“Hzzar,” she felt herself say. “He..?”
“He was an obstacle,” Hzzar said.
“Is he..?”
“He is alive. I would not waste such an asset.”
“Hzzar? What... What are you doing?”
“I must stop the destruction,” Hzzar turned and walked toward the jump-drive module. “I must finish now.”
Asya looked after him as he walked. His footsteps were totally silent. In the whole room, there was no sound at all, just Asya’s raw breath. Her jaw was shaking; she clenched it shut. Control yourself, girl.
An image appeared, photo-clear, in her mind: the security guard from the cell-room, headless, faceless. Dead. The medic shaking his head. A sound broke painfully from her chest. Hzzar did that. This wasn’t happening. This just was not happening.
...


“Captain.”
“Yes,” Captain Ripley responded.
“Captain Jorden – of the Wakinyan – she’s on comms. Her shields are starting to deteriorate. She’s requesting assistance.”
“Okay,” Ripley nodded. “I want to talk to her. Put her through to me.”
“Yes, sir.”

Seconds later, Ripley’s screen activated: a woman’s face.

“Captain Ripley,” she smiled. “Alan. Long time no see. How long’s it been?”
“Rebecca,” he said. “Been a while. How can I help?”
“No big problem,” she said. “But we’re getting most of the enemy fleet here. And these M4s are too fast for our turrets. They’re starting to eat into our shields. Can we get more fighter support?”
“Could be tricky – everyone’s launched already. Okay. Yes. I’ll order our ships to prioritise your defence. Take the pressure off.”
“Thanks. It’s not a problem now, but we’ll want these shields once those Ls get here.”
“Understood.”
“Of course nothing’ll save us once the Ks get here. We jump the moment this base is dust, right?”
“That was the plan,” Ripley trailed off.

“Good. Okay, well... You’ve got a lot of fighters out there, Alan. Are you gonna be able to dock them all in time? If it’s gonna be a problem, you’re more than welcome to dock some here. We’ve got empty ports. We can sort who’s whose after the jump.”
“Yes,” He hesitated. “That’s good of you, Becca, I’ll take you up on it. Can you take all our pilots?”
“What?! All of them!?” She gave him a confused smile. “Alan. What?”
“It’s... We’ve lost jump-ability. Our drive... It’s destroyed probably. Gone. So... I don’t think we’ll be able to jump out of this one.”
“Serious?”
“Of course.”
“How did you lose your jump-drive?!”
“It’s complicated.”
“You don’t have... a spare?”
“No! Do you?”
“Kuso! Alan! This is a hell of a time! There are just too many. We can’t fight them off. Not all of them. What are we gonna do?”

Ripley glanced around, leaned toward the screen and spoke low and quiet.
“We’re gonna scuttle.”
“What?!”
“We’re lost, Becca. I don’t see a way out – unless anyone’s got a spare jump-drive! We can’t even evacuate. Our only people-carrier ship was a boarder we lost a few hours ago. All our fighters are launched. ’cept some battered Discos. There’s no way out. We’re going down.”
“Get some of your M3s to ferry you over here. Ten would be enough?”
“They’re all launched.”
“Recall them!”
“In the middle of a battle? Don’t be ridiculous. We can’t afford the... I don’t need to tell this to you, Becca – of all people! You know well as I do. And we’re gone. When this base is down I want you to take in our fighters and jump out of here. And we’ll let these Xenon get in close – really start pounding on us – then we’ll over-load the reactors, let the cores go nuclear, and fry these bakazu.”
“Alan...”
“But I need you to get my fighters out of here,” Ripley cut her off. “They’re some of the best pilots I’ve ever seen. Can you do that?”
“Alan, I... Of course. Yes, we... We’ll do everything we can. I’ll co-ordinate with the Sennin’s Captain and... We’ll get it done.”
“Good. Thank you.”
“Alan... I never... I mean... I just want to...”
“It’s okay,” Ripley said. “We made a mark today. I can live with this.”
Captain Jorden shook her head.
“I can live with this,” Ripley said again.
...


Hzzar stopped, looked up at the jump-drive. His body – bulky, metallic and round – sank down slightly. Suddenly he leapt into the air, two metres; his hand fixed onto a part of the structure, and his body swung over and round, to land softly, silently, on the casing. He moved forward and climbed down into an open section of the drive.

“What are you doing?” Asya sprinted over.
“I must end now’s conflict,” Hzzar lowered himself into the drive.
“End the conflict?” Asya’s heart lifted. “Are you fixing the jump-drive?”
“Negative.”
“What are you doing?” Asya pulled herself up onto the drive. “Get out of there! I can’t believe you... What are you doing? Stop. Just stop. Why are you just doing what they want you to do, Hzzar? Following orders? You can think for yourself. Stop and think. Think! Whose side are you really on?”
Hzzar’s head rose back into view. He looked at Asya. “I am on your ‘side’, Asya. And I am on the Terraformer side. Sides are not... a helpful concept here. This is more complex than sides. You cannot understand yet. But you will.”
Hzzar disappeared back into the drive.

“Answer me straight! You’re Xenon right through, aren’t you? There’s no humanity in you. No dreams. There’s no ‘new xenon’. No Epsilon, Delta, that was all... lies. And I – stupid, dumb, naïve, stupid me – I believed you, didn’t I? I helped you. When everything you said was a lie.”
“Not everything was a lie. Most of what I told you was...”
“Oh!? Not all lies? Great(!) Bakatzu! I thought we were f... friends. Stupid, huh? I believed in you, I thought... You’ve been working for the Xenon since the start. Right?”
“Terraformer,” Hzzar corrected.
“TRUE OR FALSE?!”
“True.”

Asya shook her head. Her chest sank, and her head fell forward. “It’s my fault. You killed people. I made it easy. Set everything up. Passed on your lies. Led us into your trap. I knew I should’ve...”
“You did your best, Asya,” Hzzar said. “We all have callings. We all follow programs. Elton’s programme makes him scheme. Jo’s programme makes him fight. My programme required this. But it was not easy. We are alike; human and Terraformer; you and I. And we all must follow difficult paths when we believe the goal is worthwhile. That the reward will outweigh the cost.”

“What are you doing in there?”
“I must end destruction,” Hzzar said. “So I now disable ship.”
“Disable ship? This ship? From here?! You’re in the wrong place, pal!” Asya spat. “Guess you never studied our ships, huh?! You’d want the reactor. That’s the other side of...”
“The jump-drive is very suitable for my mission,” Hzzar said.
“You can’t do anything from the jump-drive. It isn’t even connected to the rest of the ship systems. They’re self contained. Everyone knows... What are you trying to do?”
He launched out of the drive’s interior, landing silently at Asya’s side.

“What did you do?”
“I did rewire the jump-drive,” Hzzar said. “Looped the field generator. When activated, it will over-load and generate a large EM pulse.”
“An Electro...Magnetic pulse?”
“Yes. It will destroy all electrical systems in the ship. Shields, weapons, communications, elevators, reactors, power-cores, life-support, engines, etcetera.”
“Life-support... You’re... You’re going to kill everyone?”
“No,” Hzzar jumped down from the drive. “This is to avoid wasteful death. Once the flagship is down, the rest of your fleet will have no choice but to jump to safety. This ship will be captured while the crew are unconscious. This will prevent any further destruction.”

Asya jumped down. “Captured?”
“Capture,” Hzzar said. “The purpose of my mission. Soon you will be integrated into the nexus.”
“The nexus!?” Asya said. “Impossible. I can’t believe... I can’t let you do it.”

Hzzar turned around and walked away from her.
“You can’t stop me.”
...

Chapter Twelve - Fate

[KiwiNZ]

WOW Cool read and great tension. Could it be that the cloud is related to the derilict ship and now moving in to help the Xenons knowing that they are no threat to the ship but Argons are?

Looking forward to the next part!

[kethalpak]

A 'cloud' of jump capable ships? nice!

[jannix]

We want more! MORE!!! *starts chanting MORE ever 5 seconds*

[Syndrome]

Great stuff. You always inspire me.

[The Zig]

Cheers for the comments.
Next part tomorrow, no matter what. Currently trying to get part 3 to come together. I'd feel a lot happier working a full part ahead. But will post tomorrow no matter what!
Deadlines focus the mind...

[The Zig]

Part 2's up.
I put in a bit more explanation on that gas cloud to clarify what happened there. Cheers for the feedback. Enjoy.

Part 3's coming together.

[KiwiNZ]

COOL! Great new part! I wonder how they managed to modify the shields like that. Making them resistant against one sort of energy should be easy but res to all sorts is difficult. So perhaps the Xenon actually managed to get information out of the derelict ship. And what is the trap for? Mak/Jo?

Looking forward to the next part!

[kethalpak]

Aww, i was wrong, a 'cloud' of jumping ships sounded so cool

I see the xenons ability to lie worked both ways....

[jannix]

Ziggy!!! Where are you!!!

[somalezulus]

Man, that's the best Xstory I've ever read! Please, DO NOT STOP now! Zig, where are U?

[Dragonteen]

Don't stop now. In a side note; why are ensigns always the ones to deliver the bad news?

[kethalpak]

Because as the saying goes "Sh*t rolls down hill"

[The Zig]

Part 3's up. Sorry for the delay, hope you like.
Part 4's tricky, but part done. Right now deciding whether to cut this as trim as possible to squeeze it into 5 parts, or if to let it run to 6.

Any feedback welcome!

[Snowship]

it's good to see the Teladi's knowledge being usefull (he might get some noteriety and p!ss his mum off )

Keep it coming

[KiwiNZ]

Great new part and good to see you are back. I was going to have an early night but this got somewhat delayed.

I guess Akssandros got himself a place in the history books.

Looking forward to the next part!

[jannix]

*hugs Ziggy* We love you! Now keep posting!

[ANEG]

just read the whole lot posted so far in 3 nights because of the catchy story line. please keep posting it and i hoe the links stay active for a long time to come so that others cane read this excellent "fan fiction"

[collins50]

Very Good
Awaiting the next chapter
grate work

[The Zig]

Thank-you.
And ANEG, sorry about the error with the links before!

Gonna post the next part tomorrow (Thursday) or Friday.
Almost at the end!