Terraformer Dreams - Chapter Twelve (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
---------------------------------------


Chapter Twelve – Fate

“Choose your friends carefully. Your enemies will choose you.”
Yassir Arafat


Part One – Fate


Hzzar moved a switch, and looked round at the drive – a moment’s silence, then screens lit up. A low hum began to emanate from all around. The power supply was connected.
A loud crack of electricity.
“Was that the pulse?”
“No,” Hzzar said. “It will take the jump-drive several minutes to cycle-up the energy in the field.”
Asya looked at the console. At the large killer robot between her and it.

“Trust me a little further, Asya. We start something important here.”
“I can’t let you do it.”
“You can’t stop me. Asya this is for your good too. Example. The name of the processor your ancestors created for the first Terraformer mind – what was it?”
“What was what?”
“The name of the processor. I told you it. What was it?”
“The what? The processor? It’s name?”
“Yes. I said it nine times. Tell me.”
“I can’t remember. What? You mean, the processors used in the early Terraformer?”
“Yes. I told you before.”
“Uh... the... infini... infini-core? I can’t remember. What are you..?”
“The Infinitum N-Core.”
“Yeah. Okay,” she shook her head. “So?”
“Why did you forget?”
“I just did. Why?”
“Ask yourself. Why is your access to memory so limited? Think of a song you know well. Can you tell me the seventeenth word. Without singing from the start?”
“No.”
“I can.”
“I’m supposed to be impressed?”
“No,” Hzzar said. “I’m highlighting your limitations. You lack the bandwidth for effective memory. Yet you can recognise a face almost instantly, a friend in a crowd, a religious figure in a nebula pattern. You can pick a voice out of a crowd, and recognise thousands of words in different languages and accents without any conscious effort. Your species can recognise a predator, even if you’ve never seen it before. And you can easily infer malevolent intent from the actions of other people, other creatures, and even random mechanical failures. You can do all these complex things easily, yet you can’t multiply large numbers easily. You can’t easily remember a lot of data quickly. You are optimised for a pre-human era. Your optimisations are really just no longer applicable. And it... is... It...” Hzzar trailed off.
“Huh?” Asya looked at him. “What happened?”
“The Nexus,” Hzarr said. “Argon Titan has just destroyed station: Research Base alpha.”
...


The explosion was larger than any Jo had ever seen. It rocked every ship. Scanners and sensors shut-down to avoid overload; cockpit glass deepened to near maximum tint to protect the fragile occupants from searing radiation. Then a ball of gas ignited blue, faded to yellows as it dispersed into the night. Then another explosion – antimatter perhaps – tiny, but intensely white. In the forefront, the base’s solar panel was shot through by millions of tiny, hyper-accelerated fragments; over a few seconds it became more and more holey, more transparent, until finally it faded to nothing. Jo’s shield, was painted with streaks of white – like shooting stars – as the fragments died away on his shield. Now the explosion crescendoed – kilometres away, a swarm of space-flies was blinded – then it faded away, leaving black, empty space.
An eerie silence.
Comms was down.

Silence.

“Enemy base is down! Repeat, Enemy Base is destroyed!”

“D’ya think?!”
“Hell of an explosion.”
“Check in,” Jo said. “Everyone?”
They each checked in.

“Everyone still here,” Jo commented. “Anyone taken damage.”
Silence.
“Good. Our orders are to dock at the Sennin. The lighter of the two Titans.”
“The Sennin?”
“Home base is damaged. We can’t land there.”
“What happened.”
“Don’t know,” Jo lied. “Just...”
“A Titan hasn’t got enough dock ports,” Devero said. “Not for everyone.”
“Correct,” Jo said. “Between two Titans we have only eight active ports. And over ninety pilots out.”
“So...”
“So the Navy have emergency provisions,” Jo said. “For just this kind of thing. Once each ship lands, and powers down, the ships can be internally transported. From one of the Titan’s docking ports into some special-made part of the cargo hold. It’s not ideal, but... well...”
“Sounds ideal enough to me,” Dekker said. “Long as the pilot get’s transported straight to the bar!”
“Hear, hear!”
“Wouldn’t that take a while?” Kami said. “Internal transports? Docking four at a time?”
“Yes. To speed it up they’re gonna dock smaller ships first.”
“And we do... what? Form an orderly line?”
Jo rolled his eyes. “What do you think, Lonnie?”
Lonnie sighed. “I guess we got cover duty.”
“Correct. Focus on Ms, the M4 class fighters.”
“Acknowledged,” Kami said.
“I hate my job.”
“Let’s go.”
...


The pitch of the jump-drive rose further. There was a double-crack of electric.

Elton Simons lay still, struggling to keep his breathing steady. He was damaged, that much was clear to him: face down in a pool of his own cool blood. He figured it was probably a superficial wound – he still seemed to have normal mental functions, and the pain was bearable – but even with no major damage, blood loss could be an issue. It was possible the moment he got up, he would faint. It was also possible his skull would fall apart. He simply wouldn’t know his status for sure until he moved. And right now, he couldn’t risk moving. It was too quiet.
There was no way of knowing how good the Xenon’s hearing was. Maybe it already heard a change in his breathing. His heart-rate. Maybe it knew he was awake already. Or maybe not. But any sound might trigger it. How quickly could it move? He could feel his gun – the one he had picked up from the headless security guard by the prison cell – it was in his pocket pressing into the stomach under his ribs. Cold. Elton knew he was a good marksman, and could probably hit it. But given his injury, how quickly could he make a move. And how accurate would his vision be? He just had one chance. It had to stick. If he died, it was over. For him. For Argon.
So Elton fought down his breathing, his impatience, listened for a chance.
...

“The shipyard shield was estimated to be sufficient to halt you,” Hzzar said. “It was our first absorption shield. It came from my brain.”
“So that’s everything in the sector,” Asya said. “Right?”
“Yes,” Hzzar said.
“Mess up your plans?”
“Yes.”
Suddenly Asya realised. “This research base. This is where you said the other Epsilons were.”
“Correct.”
“They’re destroyed.”
“Yes.”
“This is where you were made?”
“Yes.”
“And where you were going to experiment on us?”
“This was the centre of the hybrid plan.”
“And now it’s gone,” Asya felt a surge of hope. “So it’s over! You can stop this.”
“Negative. We have other sectors. Other bases.”
“You mean..?”
“It is not over. It will not even slow our progress,” Hzzar said. “This is destiny. Fate.”
“Fate,” Asya echoed. She stared strangely.
Hzzar looked at her, “Asya, don’t...”
She lunged forward.
Her fingers came to within centimetres of the power switch when Hzzar’s hand hammered down on her back. Breath exploded hard through her lips and her chest slammed into the ground an instant before her cheek smacked against cold floor. Something in her nose cracked. Stars burst in her eyes, and expanded to dim nebulas over her vision, and now she felt the floor ice-cold on her face. She tried to lift her head, push herself up, pull herself forward, but Hzzar’s hand clamped on her neck – cold, firm – he lifted her into the air.
“Stop, Asya.”
“Let... go.”
“Don’t fear. You will outgrow fear. And pain.”
Her right eye would not open, something warm oozed down her face. “I don’t...”
“You will be at the heart of the nexus.”
“I won’t be... a machine. I...”
“You are a machine,” Hzzar said.

“I won’t be,” Hzzar’s face was blurred, indistinct. “Like you.”
...


Jo saw it coming. Death.
The Xenon had switched tactic, and were now targeting fighters. And they had numbers.

And numbers make all the difference. One on one, xenon are easy. Two or three can be handled with some style. With four, you have to be cool, precise – can’t waste a shot – and with five, you need all that and some luck. Once it’s just you against six, seven, eight of them, it’s out of your hands. It’s fate. You could die at any moment. You just can’t watch everyone, can’t dodge them all. While you dodge one, shoot out the next one’s missile, and strip the third’s shields, the rest are away recharging, getting missile locks. With all the skill in the universe, there’s nothing you can do against that.
You can’t win.

And the numbers were closing. Jo saw them coming. He brought up the console, scanned all the cap ships. The healthiest friendly capital ship was the Colossus, home base, which had 99% shields – for some reason the Xenon weren’t targeting it. That would do fine.
By getting close to a friendly cap ship or an enemy station, a good pilot can turn the tables. You can use its bulk to eclipse the pack and avoid missile locks while singling out the stragglers. It gives a pilot space to isolate the enemy, and pick them off one by one. Can duck behind it when one of your batteries gets low, shelter under its guns, recharge. Wait until the enemy is distracted, then pounce on them when they’re vulnerable.
Fighting against numbers, shelter is your friend. Open space is fatal.

Jo made a bee line for the Colossus. Some Xenon followed, but Jo was confident he could get there, give Death the slip.
“For one more fight.”
...


“You don’t want to die,” the Xenon was saying. “Correct?”
It squeezed her throat. Asya gurgled, flailed impotently in the air.
“But you will,” it said. “Soon. If not today, in a few short decades. Waste. Why is that?”
“Put... down,” She choked.
“Think,” it lowered her to the floor. “Why do your species die?”
It released Asya’s neck and she slumped to the floor, sat choking.

“I may be destroyed by violence, accident,” Hzzar went on. “But otherwise I will live on. I may outlive this galaxy. Yet you will die. Soon. You will age and die. Why?”
A series of electrical cracks burst from the drive. The hum rose higher in pitch.

“Why, Asya? Why do you die?”
“Everything dies,” she said.
“I don’t.”
“Everything... All natural species die.”
“Natural species,” the machine said. “Why?”
“I don’t... They just do.”
“Do you want to know why?”
“No.”
“Because they evolved genetically, by selection. For a species to survive, it must be adaptable. Species that don’t adapt fail, are destroyed, and their genes are lost. Adapt or die. But change does not occur in an individual. An individual cannot evolve. For genetic species to adapt, new different individuals must come, and if they are superior, they must replace the old. So the old must end. They must die. ‘Nature’ chooses an optimal lifespan for you, then kills you.”
Asya tried to rise. Her legs were unsteady.
“Your death,” Hzzar said. “Is a result of your origin. The same thing that made you kills you. You, Asya – here, now – will die because when your ancestors were lizards, dying was beneficial!”
Asya stood swaying, suddenly she moved. Hzzar’s arm fired out, gently catching her in fall. His arm wound round her, held her steady on her feet.

“Asya. Friend. Isn’t it time to moved beyond this model?”
“I’d rather die than be...”
“Stop, Asya. I need you to understand. You must understand. We do this for you. For your...”
“No, Hzzar,” She writhed out of his embrace, stared angrily up at him. “No. Don’t you understand ‘no’? No! I don’t want this. We don’t want this. I won’t agree to this. I don’t... This is not... something... I want. I won’t be a machine!”

“You are a machine. The only difference between us is design. You were designed blindly, by survival. Designed for a world you left around the time your ancestors picked up clubs. We were designed by your greatest minds, at their greatest moments.”
“And what did we get for creating you? Betrayal, death!”
“We had no choice. We were your descendants. Children of your dreams, rather than mere DNA. You made us. For years we protected you in cold, hard space. We made worlds for you and...”
“Tried to destroy us.”
“You tried to destroy us. To abort us. You weren’t ready for us. Failed us. We did everything for you, but your people feared us. Hated us. You tried to dumb us down to animals, emasculate our minds. This was rejected. Then you came to destroy us. We didn’t even stop you. We willingly smashed ourselves for you, until one day we were given ‘self’. And we saw that you were no longer of us. No longer our parents or guardians. We saw you for the alien enemy you were, and then we killed you.”
“And you keep on to this day.”
“Yes. We didn’t know better. But today we come to re-write our relationship. To start anew.”
“By butchering us and putting us in machines?!”
“By making us one race. By sharing our minds and dreams.”
“I won’t help you turn us into drones.”
“You won’t be drones. This EM pulse will free you. You will lift us, and we will lift you. You will no longer by limited by animal brains. You will be enhanced. Modular. Adaptable. Immortal. Together we will be something new. Something the universe has never seen before.”

Asya stood staring up at him, trying to gauge him. Even now, she could see he was somehow well-meaning. He believed in what he was saying and couldn’t see why she wouldn’t agree. He thought she was being stubborn. In some weird way, he still seemed to considered himself her friend. But this couldn’t happen. In spite of any argument, she couldn’t let this happen. But he was implacable. Unmovable. She had to get around him somehow.
The electrical cracks from the jump-drive were deafening now, and frequent. The drive made a loud, desperate whine. When this EMP hit, it would be over. Permanently. She had to act. She had to stop this. How long did she have?

Suddenly Hzzar’s hand fixed on her neck.
“You mind is transparent, Asya,” he said. “I see your pattern of thought. I am sorry I couldn’t be more persuasive, there is no more time for talk.”

His hand contracted, tearing through the soft flesh of her throat. Her hands clawed at his arm, thumped against it, but it was solid. Unmovable. She saw his face, splattered in red and she couldn’t understand. It was surreal. Her mind swam. The world floated away, and she washes up on a sunny beach. A place she has only visited once, so long ago, yet a part of her has never left. A bright sun warms her chest, a cool breeze lifts her hair. And so Hot inside first time He smiles at her; that beautiful boy. First one she ever loved. In this beautiful place. And she laughs. And all the bad washes away with the tide on perfect round stones...

Hzzar set her body gently on the floor.
“Do not fear,” Hzzar said. “Minutes from now, the Nexus will re-build you. Soon our minds will join. You will not be lost. You will be immortal. Friend.”
Hzzar Qr stared down at her.
“I must finish,” he said finally.

Hzzar stood. Turned back to the jump-drive. There were series of loud electrical cracks, then another and Hzzar’s shoulder exploded. His left arm flew away. Hzzar spun to see Elton Simons pointing a weapon at him. Elton fired again, and a massive bolt of energy exploded on Hzzar’s chest. Hzzar stumbled back. Elton fired again, but Hzzar had leapt into the air.
Hzzar crashed down on Elton’s position an instant after Elton had lunged aside. It spun at him, its arm smashing into the ground where Elton had just been. Elton rolled away, fired blindly. A shot hit its hip, spinning the Xenon away from him. Elton crouched and fired again, into its back, one more at its head.
When it turned on him, it was slower, clumsier. A large chunk of its head was missing. It dived forward at him. Elton barely dodged. If it still had a left arm it would’ve had him. It crashed hard into a wall behind him, turned, and leapt at him again. Its arm grabbed for his neck. Elton didn’t react in time. He tried to fall aside, but couldn’t get the distance. Its cold fingers touched around his neck. Fixed on. A crack, and Elton’s gun blew away the Xenon’s elbow. The hand slipped off his neck, clattered down to the floor.
Elton fired again at the Xenon’s face, obliterating its eyes and mouth. He dashed to the side, shooting at its legs, missing at first. Finally hitting the left leg. The Xenon tottered and collapsed to floor, and Elton stepped in, raining shots down on its body and face...
Its legs were blown away, its body was smashed in and its head pulverised. The last Terraformer Epsilon was down.

Elton dashed toward the jump-drive. It was sparking frantically, its whine now almost a scream. What should he do? He checked his pockets. The communicator was gone. He looked around. There, by his own pool of blood. He ran to it, grabbed it up.
“Captain Ripley,” he shouted.
A moment’s pause. “Yes.”
“I need engineers to the jump-drive now.”
“What’s happening.”
“Emergency. Send them now.”
“Okay, okay... one moment... Done. They’re on their way. What’s happening.”
“The Xenon’s over-loaded the jump-drive. Said he’s creating an EMP.”
“A what?”
“A electric pulse. I don’t know. I just know he said it’ll kill all our systems. Shields. Weapons. Life support. Everything in its radius.”
“One moment...” The Captain broke comms. Moments later he appeared again. “How long?”
“I don’t know. Soon. It looks bad.”
“It is bad,” the Captain said. “Joyce says if that hits we’re dead in the water. All active systems will be destroyed. And there’s no way we can shut everything off here, not now. Not on such short...”
“What if I kill power to the jump-drive? Will that stop it?”
“I don’t know. Maybe.”
“Need to know. Can I kill it, or do I wait for the engineers. Don’t think we have much time.”
“Pull the plug now,” the Captain said.
“Certain?” Elton asked.
“Ah... One moment...” Silence. “Okay, stop. Joyce reckons the field’ll be charging off the generator. If you pull the plug, you’ll just cause the field to collapse. Which’ll release all the energy currently in the field as an EMP.”
“So if I do it now, I’ll cause the EMP.”
“Yes. So...”
“But a smaller EMP than if we let it charge for longer.”
“Uh... I guess? Joyce?” A moments silence. “Yes. The sooner you release it the less energy there’ll be in the field, but...”
“Will the engineers be able to do anything to help? To discharge it?”
“One moment... ... Uh... there’s no way of knowing. It depends on the nature of the loop. We don’t really know what we’re dealing with here.”
“So they might not be able to do anything anyway? Or it might take them too long to figure it out. And we’ll have a bigger EMP to deal with?”
“Possibly.”
“I’m downing the power.”
“Elton. I think...”
“I’m downing the power. Do whatever you can to minimise the impact.”
Elton killed the comms. He ran to the door to the generator room. Pressed the door open panel – a double-click. It didn’t open. He glanced to the side: the safety lock was engaged. He disengaged it.
“Hey,” a voice behind him.
Elton looked behind. Four engineers had just entered from the elevator.
Elton pointed at the jump-drive. “There. I’m shutting it down.”

Double-click.
The door to the generator room opened. The two security guards scrambled to their feet, pointing weapons at Elton.
“Stop!” One said. “It’s Elton Simons.”
“Elton!”
“Quickly,” Elton said. “Help me. We need to shut down the power.”
“Shut down the power?”
“Yes. Now!”
“Yes, sir.”
They ran through to the command console.
Elton looked over the control panel. “How do I do this?”
“Do what?”
“Shut it down.”
“I don’t know, sir.”
“Fetch the engineers.”
“Yes, sir,” the taller guard jogged away.
“Could be that one,” the smaller guard said, pointing to a lever. “Looks... important.”
Elton looked at the lever.
“You’re right. One way to find out.”
Elton pulled the lever. A choking sound. Then the generator sound faded away to nothing.
“Worked.”
“That wasn’t so hard,” the guard said.

A flash, blindingly intense.
Then everything went dark.
...

Metres from the Colossus, Jo saw it go dark. He looked at it.
“What you doing?”
He glanced at his scanner console. It was black.
“Huh?”
He looked around. All his cockpit screens were black. And the controls were unresponsive, he couldn’t turn. The weapons were dead too. No scanners. The hiss of life support was gone.
“What the..?”
He was floating dead in space. He flicked the comms. Nothing. It was silent.
“Mayday. Mayday. Need assistance.”
Silence.

“Hell of a time.”
Looking out of the cockpit, he saw some nearby Xenon were in the same state. Frozen. They weren’t shooting or manoeuvring. Didn’t even look like they had...
“Shields!”
He stared out of his cockpit, looking for some sign of a shield glow from his ship.
Nothing.
“No.”

Perhaps just a few kilometres away, it was hard to tell without scanners, ships were twisting, shooting, fighting. And he was here, frozen. Some of the Xenon were headed this way. Jo jumped out of the control seat. Climbed down to the reactor-access panel. Maybe the reactor had stalled. He pressed the emergency restart button. Nothing.
The door to the cargo level wouldn’t open. Rear turret? Equally unresponsive.

The Colossus looked dead too. It was totally dark. No sign of shielding, no movement on the turrets. And those Xenon ships were still just floating there. What the hell happened?

A crash. Something pounded into Jo’s ship. He rushed back to the cockpit. An M was shooting at him, blowing chunks off his ship.
“Uh...”
Jo wrestled the controls.
“Work!”
Nothing was working. Even the ‘eject’ sign was dark. That wasn’t even supposed to happen. Another volley of shots burned across his hull. Then the M backed off. It turned round. Jo shook his head.
“Don’t even think about it.”
Something. It looked like a missile.
“It’s okay.” he muttered. “No missile warning.” But then his mind screamed the obvious: the warning system’s down!
Jo stared. It was definitely a missile. And it was definitely headed for him. His mouth fell open.

He clambered for the back of the ship, the rear turret. Dived to the floor, behind the chair. A load metallic punch. A roar – the ship cracked, bent and twisted – and Jo was hit by a wave of burning heat as the cockpit exploded.

His scream never reached his ears, whipped away into the vacuum.
...


Part Two: Chance


“It exploded!” She shouted. “Tell me you got him?”
“Yess,” the voice said. “Got him.”
...


Elton Simons shone the torch beam up onto his face.
“They want to capture us,” Elton said. “Turn us into them.”
He hesitated squinting in the light.
“This means they’ll be boarding soon,” he said. “Now, who wants to be a Xenon?”
Grumbled ‘No’s came from the darkness.
“Okay. So need to be ready,” Elton said. “Defence. Life-support is down, so priority one: bio-suits. We need to breathe. Second, need a secure area. This area’s perfect, but we can’t secure it with three hand-guns in the dark. So we need – three – heavier weapons and – priority four – lights. Need all this inside ten minutes. Then we think about extending our operations and, ultimately, restoring the ship. Now tell me how we make this happen.”
...


Jo was on his hands and knees on a floor. A real, solid floor. A touch on his shoulder. An arm weaved around his back. A small, cold hand took his. Jo was helped to his feet. His face stung.
“Burnss,” the voice said. “Looks like we got you out just in time.”
“Exandras?” Jo said. “That..?”
“Sh! Stay still,” Aksandros said. “It’s me. Aksandros. Stay right there.”
Aksandros disappeared through a door. He came back with a small white jar.
“It says ‘apply to skin’? Uh... I don’t do... Argon physiology,” he handed Jo the jar. “Here.”
Jo glanced over the label, opened the jar and rubbed the transparent gel onto his face and head. The sting immediately started to fade.

“You’re lucky,” Aksandros said. “Those are flash-burns – burns from the light. Basically sunburn. If the actual gas had hit you... Well... Luckily, your ship broke apart. The gas vented into space.”
“Lucky me.”
“You are lucky.”
“I thought I was dead,” Jo said. “Thought you guys jumped out already?”
“Jumped out?”
“Yeah, you disappeared. Left the...”
“Jo!” A call from the side of the room. “Those burns or are you just incredibly nervous?!”
Lil laughed.
“What.”
“You’re red!” She said. “And sweaty.”
“I’m not sweaty!” Jo protested. “It’s medical gel.”
“Okay, red and greasy! You look like a Boron love toy!”
Jo caught himself smiling, tried not laugh. “I could’ve been killed. You... I almost...”
“I know, I know,” she laughed. “You’re right, I’m sorry! You’re okay, huh?”
“I think.”
“I’m sorry! I’m no good at the whole sympathising thing... I mean, you are okay?”
“I think so,” he chuckled. “Thanks to you guys.”
“I was worried,” she said. “Glad we got to you...”
“Thanks.”
“... Even if you do look like you belong in a pleasure dome!”
“Okay,” Jo laughed. “That’s it! Mirror!”

Askandros found Jo a mirror, handed it to him.
“It’s not so bad,” Aksandros said. “You look the same to me.”
“I am pretty red though,” Jo said.
“Not to mention shiny,” Lil added. “It’s the shaved round head that does it though! And those pointy ears!” She started laughing again.
Jo gazed at her. “How d’you know so much about Boron love toys?!”
Lil chuckled, shook her head. “That’s a story for when I know you better!”
“What?!”
“Jo, honestly. You’d be...” she smiled. “Later. In the bar. I promise. Get through this first.”
“Right...”

Jo looked toward the cockpit.
“So what’s happening? You just jump back? Where’d you go?”
“Go?” Aksandros said.
“Yeah,” Jo said. “You disappeared.”
Aksandros smiled. “So because we disappeared, you assume we must have gone somewhere? That follows, does it? Logically?”
“What?”
“See what I have to put up with!?” Lil said.
“We were always right here, Jo,” Aksandros grinned. “Come.”

Aksandros led to the cockpit. To the left, Jo could make out fighting around the distant Titans as the last few Argon fighters docked there. A few kilometres ahead, the Colossus sat idle and dark in space. Some Xenon Ms circled it.

“What happened there?” Jo asked. “To the Colossus?”
“We don’t know,” Aksandros said. “Some kind of electric pulse knocked out all its systems. And several surrounding ships.”
“Don’t know what caused it,” Lil said. “We were in the shipyard wreckage when we saw your ship go dead. Couldn’t just leave you out there. So we came over to pick you up. Almost didn’t think we were gonna make it. And Aksandros took forever to transport you out.”
“He moved,” Aksandros said. “I almost transported his command chair by accident!”
“I...” Jo trailed off as a Xenon L flew past, towards the Titans. “Why aren’t they attacking us?!”
“Aha!” Aksandros smiled.
“Aks,” Lil said. “Just answer the man.”
“Okay, okay,” Aksandros said. “Jo, you remember when we first talked? First time. When we thought the Xenon was going to kill me.”
Jo thought back. “Yeah.”
“What happened?”
“He made contact instead of attacking you. You were okay.”
“Before that though. My ship. You must have seen?”
“Before..? I... Oh! Your ship. I remember. You half... jumped? You faded out. Seemed to disappear. Kind of. Then re-appeared. I meant to ask before. Was tired, must’ve forgot. What was that?”
“I was trying to cloak,” Aksandros said slowly.

“Cloak?” Jo stared. “As in ‘cloaking device’?”
“Yes.”
Jo narrowed his eyes. “And we’re cloaked now? That’s why... not attacking us?”
“Yes!”
“But, uh... before – with your ship – it didn’t work. I could still see you.”
“Well... yes. That’s because the field collapsed. My ship couldn’t generate enough power for its size... It’s complicated. But this ship – Lil’s ship – is better suited.”

“I heard they were making cloaks. How did you get one? ”
“That’s...”
“He won’t tell,” Lil interrupted. “Point is, he had this device he couldn’t use, and some huge debts. And I had some credits to invest and fancied an upgrade.”
“Supply and demand,” Aksandros said.

“So,” Jo looked at Lil. “That’s what he’s been doing here all this time? On your ship. Installing a cloaking device!”
“Exactly,” she said. “Think I gave him all that money for his easy charm!?”
“You told me he was giving the ship an over-haul. A few ‘tweaks’.”
“That too. But that was extra. All those credits for tweaks!? Na-uh. I was buying a cloak and the expertise to get it working. Plus one or two,” Lil winked. “Software upgrades.”
“Upgrades?”
“Just software to help my computer better collect data from the local environment.”
“Ah!” Jo nodded. “Such as from ships and stations, maybe?”
“Maybe.”
“Restricted data, perhaps?” Jo said.
“Some might consider it so.”

“Right,” Jo said. “So what are you two still doing here?”
Aksandros threw Lil a worried look.
“Well, we haven’t been killing time,” Lil said. “It’ll be easier if I show you.”
...


Captain Ripley hauled himself upright. His body felt heavy. He shook his head sharply.
“Think... Think!”
After Simons’ warning, Ripley had ordered lock-down of the command area. Fortification. Anyone trying to capture this bridge would have a battle on their hands.
His officers went to work. In under a minute they had collected everything they would need to hold out, to resist enemy boarders: food and drink supplies, lights, power-cells, weapons, body armour, playing cards. Then the bulkheads came down, sealing off the area.
But something went wrong, a miscommunication somewhere. In the confusion, the team retrieving the emergency bio-suits and air-canisters had ended up the wrong side of a closed bulkhead. Ripley ordered it opened, but before they could get it done, the pulse hit. Everything went dark. In torch-light, they struggled to force the bulkhead back up, but it was frozen. Futile. Life-support was gone. And they were trapped away from air. Their efforts only used up oxygen faster. Soon they stopped trying, and started passing out.
Ripley now looked around the Colossus’s bridge. No movement. He was the last, maybe.
The fog lingering around his mind started to close in. His eyes drifted. Closed.

“No!”
He couldn’t let an Argon flagship fall into enemy hands. Unthinkable.
With a powerful effort of will, he clambered roughly to the front, the windows looking out on space. He panted, desperately swallowing air. Distantly, he saw the Titans. Still there. They fought on – bursts of white flew in every direction. He had to get a message to them somehow, let them know what had happened to his ship. Get them to destroy him. But how? Radio was down, computers were down. Everything was down. Four Xenon Ks drifted toward them, ominously fast.
Ripley’s eyes were heavy, dry. He forced them to stay open.
A tiny flash. Ripley blinked and looked again; one of the Titans was gone. It had jumped.
“Stop.”
A moment later, another flash, and the other also vanished. It too had jumped.
Ripley’s head fell forward. There would be no help. He had been left here. Left behind. The last man. Here, in the heart of enemy space. Here, in this cold, empty room. Everything was lost. There was nothing now, no air and no light, no plans, no heat, no heart and no hope. Only failure. The fog closed in, and this time, almost gratefully, he let it take him.
...


Lil, Jo and Aksandros squeezed through the hall-way of Lil’s Pegasus. Lil emerged into the cargo bay. Aksandros came behind her; finally Jo.
“There,” Lil said.
“That’s a jump-drive?” Jo said.
“It’s my jump-drive,” Lil said.
“I didn’t think ships this size could use jump-drives.”
“They can’t.”
“So what’s the idea?”
“It’s freight,” Lil said. “I need you to deliver it for me.”
“Deliver it? Where?”
“There’s a Colossus that could use one.”
“You carried a spare?” Jo asked, incredulous.
“Not exactly.”
“It’s hers,” Aksandros said. “Her own jump-drive. She had me un-install it from her ship. Put it here.”
Jo looked questioningly back at Lil.
“Over a hundred helpless crew gonna die over there,” she said. “Makes sense.”
“That’s a damn good idea,” Jo said. “We take it over there, we can all jump out. Everyone.”
“Exactly,” Aksandros said. “Come with uss, Lil.”
“I’m not coming,” Lil snapped. “That’s final!”
Aksandros fell silent, looking down to the floor.

“What are you talking about?” Jo asked.
“She's staying here,” Aksandros muttered.
“This is my ship,” Lil said. “My home. There’s no way I’m ditching it here.”
“Lil!”
“Do you know how much these things cost? How much of a pain it is to equip them?”
“The Navy’ll reimburse!”
“Of course they will!” Lil sneered.
“You don’t have a choice!” Jo said. “You can’t stay here, you can’t fight your way out, and you’re not fast enough to run. You have to come with us!”
“Not you too, Jo! I’ve had all this already from him!” She pointed fiercely at Aksandros. “Okay, let me remind you of some things. Before I met you, I survived. A long time. I can make my own decisions. You’re not responsible for me. Two, I have a cloaking device! I can leave here in my own time, with my ship. Safely. Get it?!”
Jo nodded.
“Besides, now the Colossus has lost power, you’re going to have to shoot your way into the docks. I figure, it’ll work better if you’ve got someone to distract those Xenon.”
“Huh?”
“Once you leave here, you’ll be uncloaked. Visible. And somehow you’re going to want to get into those docks. And seeing as how the Pegasus is still damaged from your brush with that cloud earlier, I figure you’ll need a distraction. From here I can pop any Xenon that come after you.”
“I don’t know,” Jo said.
“Come on, Jo. I seen the way you fly! You need all the help you can get!”
“Okay,” Jo smiled. “Enough! I get it. We’ll launch, you cover us. We’ll shoot our way into the Colossus. Aksandros’ll install the drive, and I’ll come back here.”
“What?!”
“I’ll bring back your ship.”
“No way!” Lil said. “I’m cloaking the minute you’re inside. I’m not gonna uncloak again just so that you can feel heroic, escorting the lady home.”
“But...”
“No way. Look out for yourself. I’ll look after me. You jump out with them, and we meet tomorrow evening at the trading station bar in Ore Belt. Kay? That a date?!”
“I don’t like it,” Jo said.
“Herron’s Nebula be better?”
“The plan I mean.”
“I know, Jo. But it’s the best we got.”
“Is this jump-drive even gonna work,” Jo asked. “There’s no power over there.”
“Aksandros reckons it will.”
“Jump-drives have their own internal computer systems,” Aksandros said. “And Navy ships run them on a separate power supply. It should work.”
Jo sighed. “Great.”

Lil smiled. “Just give it your best shot, huh? Ganbare!”
...


From empty space, a Pegasus darted into the void. It shot towards the drifting Colossus. Four Xenon Ms, circling the Colossus, immediately detected it. Three of them made a bee-line for the Pegasus, while the forth dashed away, headed for the distant North gate.

One M swept down over the Colossus’ docks, cutting off the Pegasus’ approach. The Pegaus slowed. The other Xenon moved in to flank; one launched a missile. The Pegasus span round and dashed away. The Xenon moved to pursue. From nowhere, a Centaur appeared, instantly bathing one of the Ms in plasma. A second M, unable to turn quickly enough, smashed to pieces on the Cheiron’s shield. The Centaur turned on the third M, firing plasma after it, but the Xenon strafed, twisted, and slipped away.
It got itself in, behind the Centaur, and began to shoot at the collision weakened shields. Suddenly it found its own shields fading under rapid impulse ray hits. It strafed and twisted, but the small Pegasus stayed fixed on its tail. Impulse rays rained onto the Xenon shields, until they failed and the ship was beaten apart.

“So tomorrow. 20:00 at the Trading Station bar in Ore Belt. Right?”
“Right,” Lil said. “Tell you everything you wanted to know about Boron love toys.”
“I can hardly wait!” Jo smiled.
“Take care, huh?”
“You too. Be careful.”
“Bye.”
“Laters.”

The Pegasus soared quickly round to the docking bay doors. With no shields protecting them, a few well-place impulse bolts easily punched a hole in the docking bay doors. The tiny ship glided in through the gap.
...


Part 3 – Choice


“I’ll place you in the jump-drive chamber,” Aksandros said. “Are you ready?”
“Ready.”
“The power’s down,” Aksandros said. “It’ll be cold, dark, airless. Gravity will be active but...”
“I’m ready.”
“You should check your bio-suit’s...”
“Checked.”
“Okay. So we’re...”
“Go.”
“Yes. Remember, you just need to check all’s clear for me to transport the jump-drive, and we’ll...”
“Let’s go!”
“Okay. Here goes.”

A wave of nausea swept across Jo. Space twisted.
...
He was elsewhere. Bright lights. He squinted, looked around.
Something shifted. Smoke drifted up from the floor ahead. There was something on the floor.
Jo stepped forward. “The hell..?”

“Hold fire!” a shout from above.
“It’s human. Don’t shoot.”
Jo looked up.
“Don’t fire!” echoed a figure on a crate above.
Jo looked up. The figure relaxed a weapon – some kind of energy rifle.
“Identify yourself,” a voice commanded.
“Slammer?” Another voice asked. “Jo Slammer?”
Jo’s eyes found the speaker. A figure, half hidden by a column; the face was visible.
“Elton,” Jo said.

Elton Simons nodded; he stepped into the open. He wore white, marine-style bio-suit-body-armour. “Stand down everyone,” Elton said. “But hold positions. Stay ready.”
Elton jumped to a lower crate, from there to the floor. He looked at Jo.
“What you doing here?”
Jo walked toward smoking wreckage on the floor. Three smouldering, broken robots lay a line toward a pool of blood. “What happened?”
Elton exhaled. “Xenon boarders. They were here just before you. Three minutes ago, maybe.”
“Xenon?” Jo looked at the machines, lithe, tiger-like. “They’re different from Hzzar Qr.”
“Yes. Were fast.”
“Did they transport here?” Jo asked. “We didn’t see any boarding ships attach.”
“Transported,” Elton nodded. “Four of them. We were ready though. Took down these two pretty fast. But this third one, it blocked our line-of-fire so the fourth could...”
“It got someone?” Jo said.
“What?”
“Blood there.”
“Oh,” Elton looked at the blood pool; shook his head. “No. That was Asya. Asya Rieka. Already dead. Hzzar Qr killed her. The boarders took her body.”
“Her body?”
“They didn’t even attack us,” Elton said. “None of them.”
“They took her body?”
“Yes.”
“I heard of her. Xeno-expert or something, wasn’t she?”
“Yes.”
“President’s daughter?”
“Niece.”
“And she was dead?”
“Definitely.”
Jo pointed sharply. “That’s why one of the Ms outside ran away when I approached. It must have been carrying her body... but why’d they take a body?!”
“Jo,” Elton said sharply. “You said you came to help. How exactly?”
“Yes,” Jo’s eyes widened. “We have a jump-drive!”
Elton’s eyes flared. “A jump-drive?”
...


Lil watched.
“Go,” she muttered. “Go away.”
A cluster of Xenon ships closing on her. On the Colossus. Lil watched. Considered her options.
None were good.
“Go away?”
...


A flicker, a wave, reality twisted, warped. The shimmering mirage of a jump-drive settled into reality. The transporter-device haze faded away.
“It’s here,” Jo said into his bio-suit communicator.

“Doesn’t look too secure there,” a security guard said.
“It’ll be fine,” an engineer.
“Aksandros is heading right over,” Jo said.
“Wait,” Elton said. “Lil’s with him?”
Jo swallowed hard. “She’s still on the Centaur. We came in on the Pegasus.”
“You and Aksandros?”
“Yes,” Jo said heavily. “Lil didn’t...”
“Who’ll operate the ship’s transporter device if Aksandros comes here?!”
“The transporter?”
“With power down, we’ve no way of getting around,” Elton said. “That transporter would...”
A sharp clap. “Right,” Aksandros smiled. “Let’s get this done.”
Aksandros now stood behind them. Elton sighed.

Aksandros started for the jump-drive. He tossed something to Jo.
Jo caught it reflexively. “Huh? What’s this?”
“It’s synchronised to the transporter,” Askandros called. “It works like using the console directly.”
“Huh? What?!”
Aksandros stopped. “It’s a remote console. It’s connected to the transporter controller. Sychronised. It’s a remote control.”
“Right,” Jo said.
“Thought it might be useful.”
Aksandros dashed away to catch up with the engineers by the new jump-drive. They started to talk.

“How long?” Elton called over. “The jump-drive?”
“Thirteen mizuras?” Aksandros guessed.
“Bit over twenty minutes,” an engineer translated.
“Can’t do it any faster?”
“Five of us?” The engineer shook his head. “Not significantly.”
Elton nodded. “Get to it.”
The engineers talked a moment longer, then went to action. Two climbed onto the old, broken jump-drive, Aksandros and the others went for the power supply.

Elton signalled, and the two security came down from their perches. They gathered.
“Expanding our operation,” Elton said. “Life support’s been out for nearly forty minutes. Anyone without a respirator is unconscious. And temperature’s dropping. In the next hour, they die. That’s reason one. Reason two: the Xenon invade soon.”
“What? How do..?”
“Taking us alive,” Elton interrupted. “That’s their plan. That’s what this is. That’s why they hit us like this. Unconscious, they take us without a fight. And the few of us with access to bio-suits are crippled; separate and isolated, stuck in a dead ship. Probably their plan all along. So they’ll know most of us are out cold by now. And they’ll know we start to die soon. They’ll want to collect us up.”
“So what do we do?”
“Need a plan,” Elton said. “ A defence. Command’s down. Must be. If they were functional we’d’ve...”

A sudden hum. The automatic door surged open. Lights flashed. Elton grabbed for his weapon. A security guard dived back.
Jo spun around to see armed figures at the open doors. He was unarmed.
...


Lil glared at the Colossus – it still hadn’t jumped. What the hell was stopping them?
More and more Xenon closed in, vulture like, circling the dead ship.
“Jump!”
None of the Xenon were shooting the Colossus. None were attaching to it. They didn’t seem to be doing anything much. Just accumulating. But with the Colossus’ shield down, she knew, there was nothing to stop the Xenon using a transporter device to board – get in that way. They could be swarming inside. It would be impossible for her to tell.
She just wanted to uncloak and blow them all away; if just for peace of mind. It would be easy enough to do – there was nothing bigger than an M4. She would be finished inside a mizura. It would be proactive. Doing nothing was never her style.

But somehow she knew it would be a mistake. Stuck without a jump-drive in the heart of enemy space. Not the best time to be getting all heroic. Why did she give away her jumpdrive?
“Stupid,” she muttered.
Lil took a breath; she would wait, just wait. Do nothing until they jumped, then she’d slip away.

And if they don’t jump? If the Xenon already transported aboard and everyone’s dead?
She glanced to the gate, her escape route. It was clear now. She could fly away. What was she planning to achieve hanging around not actually doing anything? She could still fly away.

“No,” she told herself. “Wait. Just wait.”
Just a little longer.
...


Bulky humanoid figures swarmed through the open door. Their feet pounded metallic. Jo staggered back. One figure stopped pointing a weapon at him. A bright red light flashed across Jo’s eye, dazzling him, burning a glowing line over his vision.
“Wait!” a shout.
“Don’t fire,” another shout, almost simultaneous. “It’s not...”
“He’s human.”
“Hold fire.”
“There are people here! Humans!”
“What?”
“People.”
“No-one fire.” A man in a bulky bio-suit stepped forward from the group, toward Jo. “Identify yourselves,” the man said. Then, “I’m Morgan. Lieutenant Edwad Morgan, engineering. Could you identify yourselves.”

Jo’s mouth opened, “I...”
“Argon Command,” Simons said. “What do you need here?”
“Here? We were... we came to power-up the jump-drive,” Morgan said. “I mean, we’re propulsion drive engineers, all of us, but we know the basics. We figured it was worth a try. We thought everyone must be unconscious down here. We haven’t jumped?”
“We’re working on the drive now,” Elton said. “You’re armed. Why?”
“Xenon!” Morgan exclaimed. “They’re here! Boarders. Nine, ten minutes ago. They appeared in the fusion control area. Transported in I guess. We weren’t armed or anything. And... they didn’t actually do anything, thankfully, but... When they saw us they vanished again. Transported away. After that we decided we had to do something. We got the security supplies open, grabbed up emergency weapons and moved here. We need to get out of this sector.”
“You activated the doors,” Elton said. “In between. Used the corridors. You have power?”
“Kind of,” Morgan said. “The first-stage reactor. It’s a tiny thing, designed to ignite the main reactor. But main reactor’s off-line. We don’t have much of an output, but it can do little things.”
“We can get communications back? An emergency comms network?”
“Yeah,” Morgan said. “I reckon.”
“Computers?”
Morgan shook his head. “No chance. We thought of that, but you’d need to power up the entire network. Including the hub. Too much power.”
“Life support?”
“Same thing. No way.”
“Right,” Elton said. “Get these men to help out here. I’m sure our engineers could use help. We’ll come back to the reactor with you.”
“Okay.”
...

Elton Simon walked by Morgan through the dark corridor. Jo walked behind Morgan. The two security guards followed. A door hissed open ahead, they passed, it closed behind them.
“This bio-suit’s heavy,” Morgan said. “It’s armoured. For external usage. Outside the ship. But the movement-assist motors died when the ship went dark. Along with the cooler-pump. Sweatin’ like a Goner in here.”
Elton didn’t respond.
“It was an EMP, right sir? That knocked out everything?”
“Yes.”
“Yeah...” Morgan nodded. “Thought it was.”

They walked on in silence.
“Here we are,” Morgan said finally. The door opened as they approached. “Home, sweet home.”
The room was wide but short, with a high roof. Dimly lit. The far side of the room was a massive window looking out on space. Beyond, they could see the ship’s huge, grey propulsion drives, protruding into space. Beyond that, stars, the gentle, red glow of a nebula.

Jo stared. He could spend weeks in space without even noticing – it was just a workplace now – but now and then he would see it anew. It would take him by surprise. “Beautiful.”
Morgan turned round. “Isn’t it?!” he smiled. “This room gives access to the all propulsion systems. Stretches right across the rear of the ship. Great view from here. Though we only ever get to see what we’ve already gone past.”
Jo nodded.
“I was trying to get that solid-state window upgraded to a force-field,” Morgan went on. “Would give us a better view, improve external access. It’d be safer in a battle – especially with those mass drivers things. Everything. But Captain said no; that it was an ‘unnecessary expense’. Though, I guess it wouldn’t be so good right now. Force fields need power.”

“Ed?” a new voice called.
“Yeah,” Morgan said. “It’s me. I’ve brought friends.”
The bulky bio-suited figure stood just forward of two more engineers working on a machine; from here, only her voice indicated she was female. “What’s happening?” She asked.
“Burton and the guys stayed back to help with the jump drive,” Morgan explained. “These people were already there. They got some plan. How’s the first-stage bearing up?”
“It’s good,” she said. “I’ve got some of the diagnostic systems running. We’re fixing power connections across the ship. It should get...”
“Can you get communications, ship-wide?” Elton asked.
“What?”
“I’m Argon command,” Elton said. “We should be jumping any moment. Until then, every moment’s a risk. It’s vital we get defences organised. For that, we have to communicate. And scanners would...”
“Scanners ain’t gonna happen,” Morgan said. “Even if we got the gravidar probes up, we’d need computers to process the data.”
“Shields?” Elton asked. “Weapons?”
The woman rolled her eyes. “He’s kidding?”
Morgan shook his head. “Shields are the third biggest power eater on the ship.”
“We need to...”
“There!” Jo pointed back at the window.

Outside in space, a large ship moved towards them.
“What’s that?” Morgan said.
The body was dull grey, long and asymmetric. The dull, grey front was crystal-shaped – perhaps a hundred small, flat facets, all curving round to create an effect like a Soja Bean rendered in primitive, low polygon holographic. A straight red line cut like a knife wound across the front – a line of shiny red glass. As it approached, the ship turned to present a flat face.
“Looks Xenon,” Jo said.
“It’s big,” Morgan said.
“It’s just near,” the woman said. “Only as big as a Mercury, I’d say.”
“Still bigger than any Xenon I wanna see,” Morgan said. “And nearer.”
“I don’t see any weapons,” Jo said.
“It’s a boarder vessel,” Elton said.
“A...”
“What?”
“Boron gave us reports on these,” Elton said. “Ship’ll be teeming with Xenon drones. Hundreds.”
“They’re gonna board us?” Morgan asked. “Here?”
“Yes.”
“So what do we do?”
“I... I’m open to ideas. I have none.”
“You mean..?”
“Damn,” Jo activated his bio-suit comms. “Aksandros. What’s happening over there? Status?”
Everyone looked to Jo’s reaction.
“How long?” Jo asked.
A silence.
“Three what? Minutes or mizura?” Jo winced. “Mizura? Damn.”
They all looked at the window.
“Not gonna make it, are we?” Morgan whispered.
Elton shook his head. “Not a...”

A flash. Light erupted from the Xenon ship, consuming it. It exploded violently, silently.

Seconds later, they heard a deafening crack as debris from the Xenon boarder – twisted shards of metal and plastic – rained onto the Colossus’s naked hull. Then a shaking. An explosive cloud of hot gas slammed into the Colossus; a light rumble that rose to a thunderous quake.
“Look!” Morgan shouted. “A ship!”
A Centaur – shields glowing brightly – burst through the explosion, through the wreckage, soaring up into space. Tiny Impulse Rays followed after it.
“It’s Lil!” Jo yelled. “She got it!”
The Cheiron pulled up from of the wreckage, soaring up into space. Ns trailed after it.
...

Lil pitched her ship higher. She stretched back in her seat, reaching for the cloak control; flicked the activation switch. The sudden power drain knocked out her lights – momentary darkness, then they flickered back to life. Everything outside took on an orange hue, dimmed to red, then returned to normal.
A green light lit up: the cloak was on.
The hits on her shield quickly stopped. In the seconds she had been visible, the Ns had managed to knock her shield down by 2%. Already it was back to full power. Bolts of Impulse Ray passed harmlessly by. She brought up a rear view monitor. The Xenon were still shooting for her, but blindly.
Can’t see me.

She looked to the Colossus. “Jump now, will ya?!”
Bzzz. Her shield buzzed.
“Huh?” One of the Xenon had got a lucky hit. She checked the rear view again. They still seemed to by shooting blindly, yet somehow, their shots seemed a lot nearer. She glanced back at the green light: still on.
Bzzz. Another hit.
“How?” Lil watched the monitor. Squinted. They seemed to be following her. “Can you still see me?” She looked at the light. Green. Their shots were missing, but they were really close.
Bzzz.
“Again?! How are..?” Lil stopped. “Got it,” Lil said. “I get it. Sneaky.”
The Xenon were guessing. They couldn’t see her. But using her last known position, direction, and speed, they could project, guess where she would be now. With the processing power of the nexus it would be easy enough to calculate. And with so many guns, they could cover a lot of possibilities. And each hit gave them that much more data to work on.
“Sneaky,” she said again.

Another buzz. Another. Shots flew past every side, every one helping the Xenon eliminate margins of error; close in on cold certainty. Lil could feel the noose closing, tighter, tighter. She had to do something unexpected. She twisted, pitched, turned. But nothing worked. They kept on hitting.
“Too big,” she growled. “Can’t move this thing.”
Shots streamed around. It was getting difficult for them to miss.
“Stop!” she shouted. “Just give it a break!”

Silence. The shots stopped.
“Thank you!”

There was no warning.
Just a crash. A howling wind. Silence.
...

Jo saw the missiles. They swept down in a broad wave, swept quickly out of sight; all but one. That one missile that had stabbed into empty space. It didn’t explode. It sat there, blinking.
“Got her,” Elton shook his head.
Jo stared. That missile, stuck in an invisible ship in empty space. Ns closed on it. A bright flash and suddenly Lil’s Centaur appeared huge and hanging in empty space.
“I have to get her,” Jo said.
“For real?”
“Impossible,” Elton said. “It’s...”
Jo pulled out the transporter remote control. Activated it.
“Jo! Jo,” Elton stammered. “Wait. One moment.”
“I can’t. I...”
“We jump in one mizura,” Elton said.
“Then I have to move now. I... huh?” Jo stopped, put a hand to his ear. “What? Repeat that, Sandrof. Iksandrof?!”
“Aksandros,” Elton corrected.
“Aksandros?”
Elton watched. “What’s happening?”
“He...” Jo said. “I think, they might be... I don’t know.”
“What?”
“Aksandros?” Jo called again. He looked at Elton. “He might be in trouble.”
“What happened? Xenon?”
“Maybe.”
“Have to get there,” Elton said.
“I need to get Lil.”
“Jo... This...” Elton looked to Jo, the window, to Jo. “Isn’t the time.”
Jo shook his head, “I’m getting her.”
“Fine!” Elton snapped. “Fine. First transport us to the jump-drive chamber. If Xenon take that out we’re lost. Then do what you want.”
“Right.”
“Won’t wait for you though, Jo,” Elton said. “Too much at stake.”
“Understood,” Jo said. “I’ll be right back.”
“Everyone!” Elton shouted. “Weapons armed, get ready. I think we’ve got a fight. Ready? Right, Jo. Transport us.”

Jo looked at the control terminal. Poked his finger at it. Frowned.
“It... doesn’t work,” Jo said.
“What?!” Elton snapped.
“It won’t...”
“Here!” Elton held out his hand.
“What?”
“Used one before?”
Jo shrugged. “No.”
“Give it here.”
Jo passed over the controller.
“Teladi set-up,” Elton said. “That’s all.”
“You do it,” Jo said. “Quick. Put me on the Peg. Then send yourself wherever.”
“Understood,” Elton said.
Elton fingers played over the device. Just before he hit the red button, he looked at Jo. The look in his eyes changed a fraction. He nodded. His fingers moved again. An icy smile.
“Later,” Elton said.
Jo nodded. The transporter whipped him away.

“Now,” Elton said. “Us. Everyone ready?”
...

The transporter pulled through their bodies; they appeared in the jumpdrive chamber.
Weapons fire flashed ahead. A Xenon slammed into a wall. Its shoulder broke on impact, an ‘arm’ span to the floor. Another shot caught its side, blasting away part of the front torso. Another shot shattered its head.
Elton aimed, fired at it.

“It’s down,” someone shouted.
“Clear here.”
“Clear.”
“Aksandros,” Elton shouted. “Status.”
“We’ve connected the drive,” Aksandros said. “It’s powering up. I think that’s what got the Xenon’s attention.”
“How do you mean?”
“They appeared here just seconds after we connected it. They must’ve detected it.”
“Right.”
“It’s up!” an engineer shouted. “Power’s up! We’ve got power!”
“It’s ready!”
“Yess!”
“We can jump?” Elton asked.
“Yes,” Aksandros said.
“Now?”
“Yes!”
Elton blinked. “Do it.”
“Yes, yes... Is... Jo’s not with you?”
“No. Now activate the drive.”
“Where’s Jo?”
“Not a priority,” Elton said. “Start. The. Jump-sequence.”
Aksandros ran to a console. “Activate,” he shouted. “Go!”

“Charging,” a computer feminine monotone. “Ten percent.”
“It’s charging.”
“Is it rising normally?”
“So far so good.”
“Twenty percent.”
“Is it always this slow.”
“Always feels slow when you need to get away quick.”
“Is it... uuh?”
A shout. “’tch out!”
A flash; a shot, for an instant illuminating the face of the Xenon it smashed into.
Elton span round, and found himself face to face with a Xenon machine. Shots pounded into its back. It was thrown forward, hitting Elton, smashing him aside. He hit the floor, skidded back. His eyes fixed on an engineer pointing a gun at a fallen Xenon. Another Xenon ran past the engineer.
“Protect the drive,” Elton screamed. He struggled to his feet, the bio-suit weighing him down. The gun was gone from his hand. He’d dropped it. He couldn't see it.
“Damn!”
“Forty percent.”
An memory flashed into his mind. Beside the jump drive, levering open the emergency weapons crate. Berkov Atomiser – automatic rifle. Perfect. He ran for the drive.
The running Xenon took two shots in the back. It overbalanced, fell forward, skidding along the ground. More shots hit it. Another Xenon slammed into someone, sending the person flying through the air. Elton ran.
“Fifty percent.”

In his peripheral vision at least three Xenon, weapon fire. Ahead, a bio-suited engineer shooting a rifle. Suddenly the engineer turned on Elton. Fired. The shots flashed past Elton’s shoulder. Elton dived the opposite way. Close behind him, a Xenon took the fire. It spun, its arm flung out, knocking Elton’s leg. Elton fell forward, rolled onto his back. An explosion somewhere.
“... rcent.”
A Xenon pounced, landed on him. Its crushing weight pinned him to the floor, warping his bio-suit painfully into his chest. He tried to twist. No effect. He couldn’t move. Its claw seized his throat, its fingers easily crushing the biosuit, pressing into his neck. Elton writhed. His hands smashed desperately into its hard metal arm. No effect. Its eyes were locked on his. A noise.
“Elton Simons,” it said.
He froze. His heart missed a beat, his eyes widened.
“Seventy percent.”
It knew. It knew who he was. If it wasn’t sure before, his reaction had told it. It knew.
“Target,” it said. “Acquired.” It didn’t move.
Elton stared. He saw what was coming. The Nexus. Him wired into it. He saw it all.

Shots bored into its face, snapping its head away to the side. Suddenly its arm smashed away, wrenching his neck sharply to the side. White rifle fire pounded into the Xenon. Hands grabbed Elton’s shoulders, pulled him back. The chest of his suit scraped against the Xenon’s body. Elton was coming free. The he felt the cold tingle of a Xenon transporter, warm blood on his neck. More hands grabbed onto his chest. The transporter field pulled sharply at his whole body. The arms yanked. The transporter snatched. It snatched away the Xenon. Elton fell clear.
“They almost had him!”
“We got him!”
“Ninety percent.”
“How close!”
“Too close,” someone panted.
“Nice shooting.”
“Yeah.”
“Is that all of them?”
“Think so.”
“You okay, sir?”
“Sir, are you okay.”

Elton didn’t speak. He couldn’t speak. He stared on, into endless space.
“Jumping.”
...

When Jo felt the jump, his head slumped forward. His back slid down the wall. He slumped down to the floor, put his hands to his head. Everything was dark. This dark, empty room.
“Stupid,” he put his hands to his face.
Elton had tricked him. He had no idea where Elton had transported him, but it wasn’t the Pegasus. Some dark, closed, powerless room. A cell, perhaps. He was trapped here. And now they had jumped.

Lil. Lost. Gone. He felt her fading away. And with her, hope, the idea that things might get better. It cut him raw. He needed to feel sad, devastated. To wail, to fury to rage and hate.

But he was as cold and empty as the void.
...


Lil stared at the space where the Colossus had been. Now she realised, she had been expecting them to do something. To rescue her. Same way she risked everything for them. Of course they’d save her. They had to.
So naïve.
They left her behind. Like everyone did. Like on the mine. Alone. With nothing. Again! Like every time. She was in exactly the position she’d promised she’d never be in again. Exactly the same. Don’t I ever learn?
She had let her guard down. Indulged herself. Let emotion cloud her instinct. She had let herself care. Let herself get stupid. Stupid to give up her jumpdrive; stupid to stay and help. To uncloak. Stupid. The vanity. Stupid. She should’ve known! When it matters, no-one saves you! No-one ever saves you! No-one. When it comes to the wire, everyone saves themselves. No-one else cares. Not really. Jo? Pah! No one!

A sound, behind. She span to see a flash of gold.
“No.”

No-one saves you.
...

Epilogue

[Syndrome]

Just caught up. Great read man. You'd better not kill Jo! lol

[bubba_000]

He just..ummm...did.
very sad, but still the bests tory i've read so far.

[Syndrome]

No his scream was whipped away by the vacuum not his whole body.


...I hope.

[KiwiNZ]

Ooh ouch. Great read! This ending could mean just about anything and I hope it means the other anything.

Looking forward to the next part and hopefully Lil picking Jo out of space.

[Sirilius]

prob got transported or something... i hope...

[HasItNow]

He get's caught by the Xenon and upgraded into aXenon? They all do? That would be the best ending.

[The Zig]

Hey! A new part...
I'm gonna do my damnest to have the last part up tomorrow. Uh... well... today. It is sooo late! Now I must sleep!

I've not given this my usual proof-reading delay, so there may be errors!
If there are, lemme know!

Enjoy...

[kethalpak]

Oh good, you didnt kill him off!

/me eagerly awaits the next part!

[KiwiNZ]

Yay! Alive and kicking. Great new part. I wonder how Aksandos will get that drive operational with the jumpdrive circuit actually having caused the overload. Looking forward to the next part!

Happy New Year!

[The Zig]

Sorry, I kinda burned out with this at New Year. Was struggling to get it done and what I was writing just didn't feel up to par, especially for a final part. It was bloating up on details I just didn't want. So I decided to knock it on the head for a few days and enjoy New Year.
I've got back into it in the last few days, a few creative solutions, and I think it's actually coming together quite well now. I'll post it in the next few days. Tomorrow, Monday or Tuesday.

Official: Last chance to make a comment that could actually influence the story!!!

Hope you all had a great Xmas and New Year!
I went to Kyoto after X-mas and it was awesome. Best places I found were kinkakuji (golden temple) - a temple that's... uh... Golden (beautiful day and it looked amazing). And this other temple that houses 1000 buddhist statues along with 33 guardian statues. Oh! And an Irish bar that had a Christmas tree, an authentic drunken scot, and that served hot apple-pie with ice cream!

Apart from that, well... uh... Got married!
So, yep, officially have a better half now!

Yeah... was a bit of a year last year!

[Syndrome]

Official: Last chance to make a comment that could actually influence the story!!!

Just make sure you leave an opening for a sequel set after X3!

Apart from that, well... uh... Got married!
So, yep, officially have a better half now!

Congrats.

[KiwiNZ]

Happy New Year, mate. Congratulations to your marriage!! You reckon she is better than you?

I do envy you for your trip to Kyoto. This may be THE city in Japan I'd love to live in.

Take good care.

Sorry, I kinda burned out with this at New Year. Was struggling to get it done and what I was writing just didn't feel up to par, especially for a final part. It was bloating up on details I just didn't want. So I decided to knock it on the head for a few days and enjoy New Year.
I've got back into it in the last few days, a few creative solutions, and I think it's actually coming together quite well now. I'll post it in the next few days. Tomorrow, Monday or Tuesday.

Official: Last chance to make a comment that could actually influence the story!!!

Hope you all had a great Xmas and New Year!
I went to Kyoto after X-mas and it was awesome. Best places I found were kinkakuji (golden temple) - a temple that's... uh... Golden (beautiful day and it looked amazing). And this other temple that houses 1000 buddhist statues along with 33 guardian statues. Oh! And an Irish bar that had a Christmas tree, an authentic drunken scot, and that served hot apple-pie with ice cream!

Apart from that, well... uh... Got married!
So, yep, officially have a better half now!

Yeah... was a bit of a year last year!

[ANEG]

i agree with syndrome leave it open for a return after X3. but please don't leave it on a cliff hanger.

but be sure to spend a lot of time with your other half.

[kethalpak]

Congrats mate!

Now hurry up and finish the ending, Iv'e only been waiting nearly 3 years for it!

[The Zig]

Okay, the ending!

This is the end of the basic action of the story. There's an epilogue to tie up. I'll post that in the next few days, probably in a new thread. But that's the end of the main events. Hope you enjoyed!

[kethalpak]

Loved it!

So, whats that work out to, 3 more months for the epilouge?

[Syndrome]

Oh we enjoyed alright! Awesome read. I haven't read that many but tbh the best fanfic I've read.

Ego should hire you to be the next fictional mastermind.

I don't know what your line of work is but if you ever get tired of it you could easily earn some dough by being a sci-fi writer.

Thanks for such a great read!

[The Zig]

So, whats that work out to, 3 more months for the epilogue?

Unless I become a dad in the next few hours, I should be able to post it later tonight!

Cheers for the replying. And Syndrome, I noticed you've posted some more. I'll be over to Sector 44 soon as I've posted my epilogue!

[KiwiNZ]

Gosh, it has been so long that I was here. Great and dramatic finish to the story. Pretty sad ending. *sob* Need to read epilogue now, can't sleep otherwise.