Erika
Lovechild of Time
By S.M.Kemp
Chapter 1
The medical lab of the Erika was dark apart from the one table lamp that lit up part of the office. A black Echidna was sat in the office which was separated from the rest of lab, in its own little room. She looked tired, she had worked for eleven hours straight.
She spun her paper across her desk as she wrote equations on another piece. Eleven hours and no closer to finding a solution for this problem, tubes of purple liquid were in a rack on the table, the room had a door way but no door and windows with blinds on them that looked out into the Medlab
The Medlab itself was a large room with about three beds that lined the wall that was furthest away from her. There were also cloning vats in this room but they had not been used for years.
The female stared into the murky liquid, for years she had tried to find a cure for this virus and for years she had failed. The only source of immunity was inside her, her own DNA did not allow her to fall to the Serenity Virus's effects.
Chaos had had enough, she got up and wandered the empty Medlab, she looked at the clock. It was two in the morning and her mind was starting the downward spiral of tiredness. Dr Goddard would be around at about six to set up the Medlab's computers for the day that lay ahead, which was usually utter boredom.
Since the end of the Zelnaian-Terrain War life had been going to smoothly, the new government, the Untied Alliance of Planets consisting of Zelna, Kelvina and Earth was maintain excellent control over the planets which it governed, making the transition easier. The war had brought many peoples nerves to a fray and many of the old UMSS officers gave up without a fight and integrated nicely into the new regime.
However there was still trouble.
Some UMSS ships, took the opposite stance and continued to attack UA ships and stations, sometimes with annoying consequences. The latest one being the destruction of Astro-1, a mining base in Zalleki system. The defence forces managed to fight them of but Astro-1 was destroyed in the process so the UA had to rebuild it and when it was rebuilt, they attacked again!
Chaos walked back to her desk, she was pondering whether she should go to bed or not, she imagined what awaited her in bed. Her boyfriend's cosy arms, he did not like her working late and constantly told her this but she constantly confounded him with ethics.
She was good at that.
The clock struck for two in the morning, the Medlab was in pristine condition, there had been no medical emergencies since the battle for Earth. It had become increasingly routine.
Looking at the cloudy mixture in the rack of her desk, Chaos toyed with the idea of injecting herself with the Serenity-G Virus that Lin had made. She wanted to study the effect it had on immune cells, she thought it would not hurt even though Goddard told her not to. He was like a father to her, they had been friends since the first day on the Erika, nine years ago and he sort of took her under his wing.
However in this instance she really thought that Goddard was wrong.
Chaos crossed the room and grabbed syringe, one injection would not hurt?
She thought about what Goddard and Stef would say if they ever found out and this made her hesitate but they would never know so it did not matter.
Chaos picked up the tube liquid from the rack and shoved the needle into the tube collecting twenty milligrams into the syringe, she pulled out her left arm and with her right pushed the syringe into her arm.
"What are you doing" said a low voice that made her jump, she quickly push the syringe and tube of Serenity-G in an open drawer and snapped it shut. She turned to find Goddard staring at her with his bright blue eyes.
"Um….I'm just going over the results we found on the physical effects of Serenity-G" said Chaos, coolly, maybe she had got away from it.
Goddard opened his mouth to speak but noticed that one of the tubes was missing from the rack. There was silence, only the gentle hum of the Erika's engines could be heard.
"Where's the other tube of Serenity?" said Goddard moving around to Chaos, he fixed her with a frown. He hoped she had not done anything stupid.
"Um….." said Chaos, she could not find the words, she could not lie to John Goddard, she wouldn't so she would just keep quiet. She back into the draw which she put the tube and syringe in.
Goddard noticed this, he moved her aside and opened the drawer, his face changed to a look of horror when discover the tube of Serenity-G and the syringe with still wet blood on it.
"Chaos!" he shouted, she looked up as if she was a pupil who had been called to the Headmasters office for a good telling-off. "What the hell have you done!? How much have you taken!?"
Goddard's disappointed face made Chaos feel like she wanted to cry. She looked into his large blue eyes and saw nothing but disappointment.
She felt strange, felt a tingle, it was getting more powerful from within her.
She let out a scream and backstabber burst right through her back and it climbed out on the floor. Goddard looked in horror as the backstabber grabbed him and bit off his head, it rolled on the floor. The look of horror evident on his face and Chaos could not nothing, she lay on the floor and succumbed to death.
"NO!" Chaos jumped up from bed, she breathed heavily, sweat was rolling down her face. A person was laying beside her, a male Echidna with blond hair and an orange body with a zigzag across his chest and a green band on his head.
Stef had woken up beside and immediately sensed that she was in distress, he put his arms around her, she felt a blanket of safety come over her. She was alright.
"Did you have a nightmare?" asked Stef, he immediately thought that this was very stupid question but what else could he say.
Chaos nodded her heart pumped blood around her chest, she was sweating like a pig and she felt so sad. She wanted to find a cure, so badly for the virus. She wanted to take the pain away but she couldn't. Stef felt the pain too, his blood had been used as a template for the original Serenity Virus however Chaos and Goddard had helped create him. He would not be here now if it was not for them. He was glad to be here.
"Hold me?" asked Chaos, quietly and Stef embraced her, she put her head on his chest. Five years. Five years it had taken her to fall in love with him and now, it had happened.
Would they be separated again?
Chapter 2
The Erika lay silent in Earth dock, she had gone there for the extent of repairs and to give the crew some shore leave. A familiar face walked down on of the corridors of the docking hatch on deck 4, it was a orange and black, striped tiger holding hands with a little, human girl dressed in purple.
The approached one set of doors on the other side of brightly lit corridor. The tiger reminded himself he had not been on this ship for years, he had been on Earth, trying to find the Erika before the war started and he joined the underground resistance against the UMSS and now oppression had fallen, he was free.
Stef walked down the same corridor, he was holding a portable data terminal and just glanced up to see the pair.
He stopped……dropped the PDT which was an ultra-thin pocket sized computer used for analysing reports or just reading books. They had become as common as pen and paper.
Stef stood in awe as the tiger and girl did not notice him, he walked up right behind them and smiled.
"Good to see that your still alive, Slash" said Stef. In front of him Slash smiled he recognised that voice. "You always had a knack for it, so Lavender, you hanging with this loser?"
Slash turned and laughed, Stef laugher to and gave him a friend hug, Lavender kissed him on the cheek.
"Always the cocky one, eh Stef?" said Slash, his voice suddenly tried to sound serious but Stef knew he was playing with him. "I here you've been knocking off my girl? Eh?"
Stef smiled and shook his head.
"Nah" he joked "Not really, I'm involved with Chaos now"
Slash looked like he was gonna wet himself laughing.
"Bloody hell" he laughed. "I'm away for five years and you hit on the richest and most important girl on the ship! God! You've done well!"
Stef smiled, he was not sure whether that last comment was a joke or not.
"What are you doing here?" he asked Slash and Lavender answered the question herself.
"Going to see Lin, it will be a really nice surprise" said Lavender, chirpily.
"Right" said Stef, nodding his head. "I'll be on the bridge. I am after all second in command of this vessel. So if ya wanna come up and say hi to everyone let me know. Ok?"
At that Slash nodded and Stef turned to go, old friends reunited, he had not mentioned anything about Lin carrying his baby for a while because Lin did not remember that. After all she was brainwashed into doing it.
Captain Flex strode onto the bridge, she stared at Earth from the viewscreen, beautiful. No matter how many worlds she saw, he many people's she encountered. This felt like….home.
Her helmsman, Kiska Acheron sat at the helm; she was the pilot and one of the best. She and Flex had a good relationship, they were friends.
Kiska stood up out of her chair when Flex entered the room, it was proper decorum but it lacked on this ship because they were all friends and Captain, or now Admiral Flex did not like it to be that way. She wanted a home and a family as well as a crew.
The Erika's bridge had been given a new look, the walls were now a sort of grey with the consoles centred around the Captain's Chair, it was more efficient and more modern however the helm stayed where it was.
Kiska smoothed her new uniform with her fists and she smiled at Flex who nodded. The uniform was not compulsory in the early days of the new United Alliance of Planets, the new alliance of Zelna, Kelvina and Earth did not want to enforce that yet, not until they had swept away everything the UMSS had done.
Flex was wearing a Hawaiian style shirt with yellow shorts, she was on shore leave as far as she was concerned and that was it.
Most of her crew were in the new uniform though and as the Captain she was supposed to be setting an example, however she would change later. It was nice to let her long blue hair drop over her shoulders, rather than the usual bun.
"Captain Flex" said Ensign Michael Davis, he had only just been assigned to this vessel upon his graduation, an upcoming hot-shot. Or that's what the academy thought.
Flex turned around allowing her hair to spin round her face, she smiled at him. He was her communication officer and he thought what a beautiful captain he had. He was lucky.
"We are receiving a transmission from the UAP Catherine, she's a science vessel in the nearby, Trxyos System. She reports that she is under attack. We are the only ship that is ready for combat within response time. The nearest ship is the Beverly and she is only Aceron Class, minimal weapons, low shields……"
Flex cut across him, she hated to have her shore leave interrupted.
"Ok" she exclaimed, she understood. This always happened to her. "Tell the crew that shore leave is over and for the families to leave the Erika ASAP."
Flex went and sat down in the command chair, this was going to be a difficult day, she had been in one battle too many.
"Miss Acheron, power up the engines and charge weapons. Set course for the Trxyos System, maximum hyperthrust. There goes our shore leave."
Chapter 3
A female human walked onto the bridge, she wore here usual black top and jeans. Her long, red hair was wavy and long, it sat just below her shoulders. Captain Thorn Loveheart.
"So where are we going now?" asked Thorn, as she walked through the lift onto the white bridge.
"Trxyos" said Flex as she leant back in her chair, smoothing out the creases in her shirt.
"That crappy little place? why?"
"We have received a distress call from the UAP Catherine and we are the only ship in range to deal with rescues."
Thorn walked over to the tactical console and the officer who was stood there walked off, she was the best weapons officer on the ship and her skills would be needed before long.
In Lin's quarters, the windows flashed to a blue/green domain as the Erika enter hyperthrust. Lin was sat at the table with Lavender on her lap and Slash looking back at her. They looked at the floor, feeling the power of the engines roar to life.
Lin looked out the window, she was surprised to see that the Erika had enter hyperthrust, surly they would had informed her first and all the families of the officers so they could vacate the vessel.
"Admiral O'Connor to bridge" said Lin tapping on the communication PDT on the table, it bleared to life creating a 3D image of Captain Flex's face.
"Yes Lin?" said Flex, she looked into Lin's dark eyes.
"Why are we jumping to hyperthrust? Is there a problem?"
Flex's face softened as she saw Lavender clinging onto Lin.
"No. We are answering a distress call from the Catherine in the Trxyos as we are the only vessel in range. We had time to allow most of the families to leave before we set of but a few remained onboard."
Slash's dark eyes looked across at Lin and into a frown, he always wondered what it was like to travel on a state-of-the-art vessel such as the legendary UMSS Erika, but now he got to see them in combat.
"Am I needed?" said Lin, quickly.
"No. This should be a walk in the park, I'll contact you if we need help. Flex out"
The image of Flex's smiling face now disappeared, leaving Lin to wonder whether she would be needed or not.
"Well" said Slash, he sharpened his claws. Lin looked into his dark eyes, she saw goodness but this a painful re-union, she had dealt with his death and to suddenly have him in front of here, again, an old lover. It was unsettling, but Lavender had grown since she last saw him, but she reminded herself of her baby, which was destroyed when she was reborn.
That in itself was painful.
"Look's like I coming along on this mission" said Slash, optimistically.
Stef wandered down the corridor, he had stopped an officer and asked what was going on. He needed to get to the bridge, Chaos was in the Medlab.
He walked into the Medlab and up behind Chaos, he then grabbed her and kissed her with all the passion that he could muster. he flung her around him bewildered.
He wanted to take her clothes off.
"Not yet" said Chaos sexily, she led him into the store cupboard adjoining the sickbay.
"Horny now, are we?" teased Stef as Chaos made passionate growls at him. She began to tear at his clothes and he removed her clothes. He kissed her neck as she flung her head back in amongst the brooms.
Stef then had an urge, he took his hand and groped her breasts, Chaos smiled and moaned, she was enjoying this too. Stef was half-naked and so was Chaos, but Chaos had more to show.
"When you're quite finished" said Goddard's voice as he open the store cupboard door and stood there in shock, Stef had his hand on Chaos's breast and Chaos was smiling.
His innocent little girl?
Stef went a bright shade of pink and Chaos went red, quickly putting her clothes back on.
"What is it Doctor?" asked Chaos and Goddard smiled and laughed at her. He had caught her and Stef making love in the store cupboard, that was very funny.
"We've reach the Catherine. Go to the bridge Chaos."
The Erika flew out of hyperthrust in front of large rusty red clouded plant, this was Trxyos. No ship had ever seen the surface as they were destroyed by the focused neo-electric pulses that turned ships to debris. There was no defence against this, so Trxyos remained largely unexplored and due to the thick cloud, the surface could not be seen.
However in front of Trxyos was a small, fast looking ship, heavily damaged and drifting. Stef knew it was the Catherine, however the ships that were circling firing at it had no distinguishing features at all, they just looked like massive black blobs that fired beams. This was a new species to discover. After protecting the Catherine.
Of course
Chapter 4
Captain Ellen Axel looked up from her console. All she could see was death and destruction, he ship was in flames.
She sat in the captain's chair on the small bridge of UAP Catherine. She was quaint woman with a vibrant personality and her crew loved her for it. But now.
Now..
Most of her crew lay on the bridge, dead or dying. The constant blasts of the alien ships weapons could be heard. There engines were gone and they could not flee, however the aliens had yet to break though there shields, they had to divert all power to shields, until another ship picked up a distress call.
Her remaining bridge crew, two human male officers and a Zelnaian male pilot were already set about working on restoring, the most basic of propulsion systems, the ANT's, Automatic Navigation Thrusters were the least powerful of engine power.
The Catherine's doctor was already set about the bridge treating the crew members had not died yet, the occasional spark or explosion of a console lit the dark bridge.
Captain Axel looked up, he face was full of dirt from explosions and her hair was out of place, she was young woman, her first command and it ended like this?
Was she going to die? She knew the risks, everybody in the military did but she remember the recruitment posters about discovery and beautiful plants but this..
This was the ass-end of space.
A console exploded behind her and small, barely lit bridge shook in shock. Flames could now be seen from the corner of the room. This ship was going to be destroyed and her crew killed….for what?
They had not done anything to offend these aliens, they had not even met them before now.
On the viewscreen, there was image of a blue-tinged hull of a battleship, it was small vessel and highly manoeuvrable however it lacked in offensive fire-power which is why it was taking so long to destroy the Catherine.
With most of her crew dead and her ship damaged, Alex was accepting her fate.
Death.
"Captain!" a voice came over the comlink, it was her chief engineer. Maxwell Ryke. His voice was loud against the sounds of the weapons impacting on this quiet science vessel.
Axel jumped to respond, hoping for some good news at last.
"The core is going critical and the Chrono-device is losing structural integrity. At this rate we'll be destroyed."
Axel sighed, tell her something she didn't know. She was under attack and that Chrono-device was her mission. She was to deliver it to Zelna and conduct test, she was first and foremost a scientist and she would die a scientist.
"Mr Q'alak" commanded Axel and the Zelnaian pilot turned to look at her, wings out stretched, there was dirt on his face. "Prepare to launch the flight and duty logs in a capsule, hopefully the military will pick it up."
"Captain!" Q'alak argued, he liked to believe that they would live past today. He would die yet. "I shouldn't do that until we'll sure were dead. There must be another way."
Sparks lit up Axel's tired as she glared at her pilot, she suddenly snapped, something which frightened her and her crew. She was never this direct.
"What would you have me do. Face facts Hurrl! We have no weapons or propulsion! We might as well sit here and wait until….."
A shout from her operations officer blocked her out completely. He had a low booming voice.
"Captain! There's another ship coming in. It's the Erika!"
Axel smiled to herself, maybe her prayers had been answered.
Finally.
"What kind of shape is the Catherine in?" asked Chaos, Stef was sat behind her and he was doing the sensor sweeps over the vessel.
"She's lost power on all but three decks, her weapons are out and her shields are at 21 and falling. She has no engines either" said Stef running his fingers along the control panel.
"Battle alert!" shouted Flex and the who bridge was doused in red light and a low siren sounded. "Target the lead vessel."
Kiska pushed forward on the piloting sticks and moved closer to the lead blue-tinged vessel, Thorn then put her tactical skills to the test and fired volleys at the ship which seemed to go straight through the vessel.
"That was a clear hit" said Thorn in surprise. "I don't understand!"
A shot exploded a console on the bridge, causing coolant to leak on the floor. Just one shot caused that kind of damage. The shot caught Kiska right in the face and she fell back off the chair, Chaos rushed to her and Lin took the helm of the ship.
"I'm detecting power fluctuations" shouted Stef as another blast deafened the bridge. "330 yards starboard. Looks like a cloaking device."
Flex sat back in her chair, breathing in the coolant. She wondered if they would meet the same fate as the Catherine at the hands of this seemingly unbeatable alien force.
"That might be our friends reinforcements" she said. She remembered that with cloaking devices, or at least normal ones or the one which the Erika had, you could not raise shields. That was it.
"Thorn" she called to the red-haired captain. "Target the region which Stef is talking about."
Thorn nodded, she was not having any luck with the other ships anyway, she could not understand why her weapons were just passing through them like thin air.
The Erika turned and fired on empty space which Stef had designated and blew a chunk out of a vessel that was sitting there, cloaked. The small vessel disappeared as the larger vessel that was cloaked began to jump into hyperthrust leaving just the Erika and the Catherine.
Chapter 5
"UMSS Erika to the UAP Catherine, Captain Axel, please respond" said Flex as she called out over the communications array.
A muffled signal came back, which Stef worked on cleaning up.
"This…Axel……core…….critical……explosion……Chrono………one minute"
Flex knew enough to believe that the ship would explode in about one minute. She could save them though!
"Captain Axel, lower your shields! We can translocate you to safety!" said Flex but there was no answer.
The Catherine began to break up, bits of the ship began to fly out space and explosions began to on the ship. Flex stared, she could do nothing. She hated that feeling, watching a crew die.
The Catherine now began to spin and spin, unnaturally as a blue bubble-like ball emerged from the ship and began to expand.
Flex looked up. It would engulf the Erika!
"Get us out of here!" shouted Flex and Lin tried to get the engines to respond, she pulled the Erika into turning around and moved around the beam.
"We can't go to hyperthrust, I can't create the vortex! That thing blocking our field that we need to create the entry point!"
"Ten seconds till impact!" said Stef ominously. They would not outrun this thing that had come out of the Catherine.
"Five"
Flex looked back at Chaos, she grabbed onto one of the poles in the room.
"Four"
A bright light began to fill the bridge, so bright that it was blocking out everyone vision.
"Three"
"Two"
"One"
Everyone suddenly felt like they were being thrown forward. Outside the bubble passed over the Erika and changed its appearance, the vessel looked highly damaged. How did it receive so much damage. It then exploded, pieces of the Erika flew out into space.
Chapter 6
Flex eyes adjusted to the darkness of the night which took her, she was standing upright in the middle of the road of a deserted city. There were crashed cars everywhere and shops windows were smashed.
Some of the smashed up cars were on fire, there flames lit the dark street in which there was paper on the floor, blowing in the breeze and broken tables with parasols, this must have been a café.
However Flex was not the only one here, Stef, Chaos, Lin, Kiska and Thorn had all been transported here too, they looked a bewildered as she did.
"Where the fuck is this?" asked Flex as she looked round the empty street, strange, no people, no nothing. She did not recognise this city but it looked as though they were on Earth.
Stef took out his pocket scanning device and pointed it out to allow it to scan.
"This is Earth." He said to Flex, still looking at the scanning device and sighing. "Forever City, if I'm not mistaken but what are we doing back here and what has happened to this city?"
Chaos frowned, she had walked a little further away from the rest of the group towards some large, rusted, metal gates. She peered through the gates and saw a large building with a tower on top of it. This was the town hall or clock tower, the gate however was locked by a pad-lock so she turned around and walked back.
"I don't like this!" said Thorn, she frowned as she walked down the street facing away from the clock tower.
Boom!
A large explosion shattered the window of one of the shops behind her, she turned to see a body on the pavement. He was dead, all his skin was burnt and mangled but he had strange markings on his chest, in between his shirt, on his skin.
The rest of the team ran up to the body and Chaos bent down to see what had killed him. She looked up confused at Lin.
"What?"
"Well, these are burn marks……but these……these look more like bite marks."
Stef shivered as Chaos said the word bite marks, he now wanted to know what had done this to that man.
"Come on" said Flex, she looked at her team and wished that they were somewhere else. "We better find a safe place to set up a perimeter before we figure out how we got here and how to get back."
Lin nodded, the Admiral did agree, she had too, she did not want to know what carnage had happened in Forever City.
Forever City was on the east coast of the third continent of Earth, it was relatively small and was surrounded by thick jungles which some were still unexplored.
The team got up with Lin and Flex leading the way and walked down the street until….
Stef sensed something, he turned to look at the dead body of the burnt man, his flesh was wrapped around him like a sheet, he could have sword that he felt him move.
"Come on Stef" said Chaos and she walked up and grabbed him as he looked back.
Stef turned back around and heard a thump, he turned quietly to see the dead man climb to his feet, blood dripping down his face and his flesh on some parts burnt off so his bone was showing.
Chaos stared too. She had seen zombies before, after all they had been through all the problems with the Serenity Virus however, she had never seen something quite so disgusting. Thorn, Lin and Flex turned around, watching this thing climb to his feet, or what was left of them.
Flex turned around, she had seen zombies before and they were slow, but before she did the zombie dashed straight for Chaos, knocking her down on the floor making horrible moans and roars.
"Stef, help me!" shouted Chaos, trying to avoid the zombies slashing claws and teeth. Stef ran forward, he had no weapons. He kicked the zombie of her and Chaos climbed to her feet.
"Run!" shouted Flex and all the team charged down the street with the zombie chasing after them. They had to find some to go. There.
It was a garage with a metal shutter that was open, Flex ran in first, followed by the others, she began closing the shutter and Stef rolled under it just as she closed it. They were safe.
Bang, the zombies smashed and scraped the door while Flex looked around.
The garage was dimly lit with a door on the left side which led into the house next door to it, there was know car in here or anything, just a bottle and a aerosol can of de-icer. This would not be a good place to hide but it would do.
Chapter 7
"You can't escape" said a voice, coming through the door on the left, it was female Echidna, she was in her teens and had black/yellowy hair, it was tied back, she wore a blue top and skirt to disguise her orange belly, her eyes were blue.
"Who are you" asked Stef, he looked at her suspiciously, an Echidna here, this was strange.
"Alexia" she said proudly "Captain Alexia but my ship was disabled and I was only survivor, I have been living here for months, scavenging supplies and trying to survive those things. I'm glad to see other people"
She was staring at Stef and Chaos with particular interest, it made Stef nervous.
"I'm Captain Flex, this is my crew, Commander Stef, Doctor Chaos, Admiral Lin, Captain Thorn and Lieutenant Kiska. We are the crew of the UMSS Erika."
Alexia's eyes went from shock to horror when she heard the names of the crew and then even more when she heard the name of the ship. She stared at Chaos.
"Dr Chaos, right?" she said, hoping that Chaos would remember. "You're the crew of the Erika?"
"That's right" said Chaos as Lin went and sat down on a tyre.
"That's not possible" said Alexia, she looked terrified, as if she had seen ghosts.
"Doctor!" she said throwing herself down into Chaos who backed off. "Don't you remember me" she turned to face Stef. "Please remember"
"Remember what exactly?" said Stef, frowning at her bizarre behaviour.
"I'm the Captain of the UMSS Erika NX-09-ADF, My full name is Captain Alexia Elizabeth Kemp"
Stef stood in horror. What? She had the same family name as him, was that mere coincidence however he had never seen her in his life before.
"I'm your daughter, you both died, when I was 16, a year ago in a mission and I inherited command of the Erika."
Stef look like he had swallowed a lemon, Chaos was shocked but now she understood what Captain Axel had meant by Chrono. Chrono-kinetic shock to be more precise.
"Alexia?" asked Chaos, in her calmest voice possible while the other members of the crew took this in. "What is the year?"
Alexia smiled, her mother had obviously accepted that she was her daughter, she did look like the spawn of Stef and Chaos.
"The year 2021" said Alexia and that just put the icing on the cake, Stef looked up in disbelief. What 2021? It was only 2005!
"That's not possible?" said Stef as the zombie banged at the door, scratching.
"It is" said Kiska as Chaos nodded to her, she got off and tyre and moved to explain. "I did a scan of that "bubble" before we entered it and I found it full of Chrono-particles. Now Chrono-Particles are most associated with temporal distortions."
Stef nodded, he was scientist too, not just a warrior. "Time travel"
"Essentially yes." Kiska explained. "When we hit that bubble, it destroyed all the crew as if they never existed and created a world in which the Erika had never answered the distress call, however because we are thrown out of this time anomaly at a random, place and time. There must be a device that attracted the Chrono-kinetic surge to drop us off here, maybe it was the Erika from this universe."
"Then why weren't we destroyed from the timeline?" asked Thorn, getting baffled. She hated temporal mechanics, she was one of the first years at school to try out that knew subject and she hated it, just scraping a C in it.
"I can answer that" said Flex, the zombie was still pounding the door. "The bridge has a different type of shield than the rest of the ship, it has shields that are designed to deflect subspace disruptions and what is a Chrono-kinetic surge but a big subspace disruption. So the as where the rest of the crew had no protection, the people on the bridge had some however the ship was destroyed and we already in the anomaly when the ship was destroyed or erased so we survived and got transported here by the anomaly….."
"Which was attracted to a Chrono-based field – which the latest hull modifications on the Erika produce to disrupt subspace anomalies" said Alexia, she was as bright as her mother and father. "However that means that the Erika is still in one piece!"
Everyone was feeling triumphant after that session that they did not notice the zombie banging on this door.
"We have to get out of here" said Alexia, everyone was wondering whether she could be trusted, here was someone who may or may not be from the future.
Alexia turned to look out the door, she turned and waited as the team stared at her, Stef was a bit cautious but this was a large shock to him, being thrown forward in time and having to deal with this. Chaos and Stef were gonna have a kid and that kid would grow to be as beautiful and as smart as Alexia.
It comforted him.
It consoled him.
It worried him.
The street outside the clock tower was unusually quite, the zombie was no longer there and there were no more. A woman stood in the road amongst the paper, she had white hair and a sinister smile, her young face was without lines or creases. Her hair flowed down to her shoulders, her eyes had black irises, which was unusual for a human. Her clothes were a black dress that went from her breasts down to her knees, her skin was pure white flesh.
Another woman approached her, she was not in the slightest bit beautiful, she was a little girl but in a monster's body, there were only a few distinguished markings that made her for definite female, however she had a eight body with massive claws and a young face, her skin was black and mottled and she wore a leather trench coat.
The white haired woman turned round to face the monster, she looked at the monster with disgust.
"So child, where is Alexia, I want Captain Alexia brought to me" said the woman with white hair, her voice was commanding.
The monster nodded, she was sad, you could see it in her face, the experiments had taken there toll on the monster, she was know longer a human but a victim of the once powerful Phoenix Grace. She remembered but her memories of her mother and father were fragmented.
Chapter 8
Sakura walked the corridors of the Erika's engineering, her father, Director Solomon of the Phoenix Grace facility had forgotten to take anything to eat and she wanted to give him his lunch.
She walked up to the huge metal doors of the Phoenix Grace areas, she knew she was not going to get through them. Captain Flex had told her not to go down there, not since she was here as a guest as Flex had allowed Solomon's family to live on the ship. However.
She would just drop off her father's lunch and then go, she crawled through the small air duct next to the door and into the Phoenix Grace hall, she was amazed from the marble hall, it was beautiful. Her daddy worked here?
Now she would find his office and sneak the lunch in.
However.
Fatal.
She saw small door on one side of the hall which was half open, people were inside, she was too curious for her own good. Sakura was a beautiful girl, she had long red hair and was about seven, she wore a white shorts and a T-shirt.
She walked up to the door, seeing a black hedgehog holding out a cylinder of red blood to a scientist. The black hedgehog had cold eyes and smiled at the scientist.
The hedgehog then noticed Sakura as she moved to get a better position to look inside the room. He ran and picked her up by the hair.
"Well, Solomon's little brat" he smiled at her terrified face. "Use her!"
She scraped inside the tube.
Pain
She was given injections, despite her screams for mercy, daddy didn't come to save her anyway
Pain
She remembered things coming out of her back, her muscles increasing.
Pain
She became Tirana, the tormented soul who had her mind twisted. Phoenix Grace were evil for this, Rift was evil. Never again.
Alexia walked down a back ally in the street, the others followed behind her closely, they were passing these new zombies in almost every door or gate. They groaned for blood and reached out, men, woman and children.
Alexia walked back into the street with the clock-tower, it was deserted and cold, the wind blew though her hair.
"Where are we going?" asked Thorn, she had thought that they were gonna get back out of this place.
"To the clock-tower" said Alexia, she turned to face the group and produced a handgun. "There's a transmitter inside, I can remotely contact the Erika, if it's still in one piece to come and pick us up."
The weather turned and the clouds rumbled in the night, they blotted out the moon, it began to rain, water dropped down vigorously onto the street.
Alexia walked up to the padlock and produced the key to the lock, where had she got that?
The steel gates swung open leading to the gardens of the clock-tower, Stef looked up and saw the massive tower, it was shaped like a thin pyramid with massive stone doors at the front.
"Oh hello, welcome to Forever City" said the voice of the white haired woman, she smiled at the team. Sinisterly. "This is my city!"
Stef recognised the voice but he did not know the person behind the white hair, he squinted at her.
"It really doesn't matter" said the woman, she was sat on one of the supports for the gate. "I have an old friend to introduce to you, she'll be here soon."
"Captain!" shouted a voice from the sky and a drop-ship appeared, this was there way out! They could survive this. The drop-ship circled, she was called the Verinox. The Verinox had a man at the helm, he could be seen through the small drop-ship's windows.
"Sorry to leave so soon!" gloated Thorn to the mysterious woman who just smiled.
Something happened, a blue laser shot up to the drop-ship making it explode and burst into a ball of flames.
"No!" shouted Lin, she shot at look at where the beam had come from. No. This wasn't possible……..Tirana glared back at her.
Chapter 9
Tirana jumped straight down to the level of the team and made a swipe for Flex, who narrowly missed it. The woman with white hair, floated in the air above Alexia.
"You! Daughter of a Goddess and the Seeker! I want your power" said the woman as her hair changed colour. Stef knew it! Andrea!
Andrea created the wall of fire between Alexia and the rest of the team who was busy dodging Tirana.
"Alexia" called Chaos, she could not get to her, she had to let her daughter stand on her own two feet.
Alexia stood in front of Andrea, she glared at her, the clock-tower was still under construction in some places and there were poles laying around the floor. Quick as a flash, Alexia picked up a pole and swung it at Andrea, knocking her back.
Andrea laughed and began to change, he skin became bluer and she had massive long claws with tentacles, her tentacles grabbed Alexia and she struggled.
Meanwhile, Lin was dodging Tirana's laser but she was standing near a construction pit to lay pipes, it looked pretty and there was a container suspended by chains, it had earth in it and long, sharp metal pipes.
Lin rushed forward and with Thorn's help smacked into Tirana causing her to fall into the hole.
"D……AD…..DY" she moaned as she fell into the pit, Lin hesitated for a moment to kick the chain and caused the container of metal pipes and earth to fall on her. What did she say? It sounded like Daddy! Lin began to believe that her creation was just an accident and that Tirana was just a scared little girl but she was beyond help anyway.
This moment was enough to grab hold of Thorn as she fell, Thorn fell backwards and grabbed hold of the top of the pit. She was going to lose her grip, Tirana had to be more heavy than she could possibly carry. She had no choice, she let go.
What?
A hand grabbed her just as she fell, catching her, it was Flex, she smiled and tried to shake Tirana off of Thorn's leg. One captain to another.
Alexia struggled to break free of Andrea's tentacles, she needed a plan, if only she had listened to her father when he taught her the spell of banishing light.
Wait!
She remembered, she was young and working with her dad on the Erika, she smiled at everyone and Stef took her aside and told her that she was old enough to know one of the ancient secrets of the Serenity Tribe.
She called to the god's and put her hands in the air!
"Under the sky
Through the wind
Over the water
On the Earth
To the power of the seven stones
Create the light"
The pendant around her neck started to glow; she had forgotten about it, it was a piece of the master emerald which her father had given her. She smiled as a piercing light shot through the sky filling the courtyard with light, Andrea started burning, her flesh fell off her body and she let go of Alexia so she could whale.
The wall of fire dropped and Alexia went straight into her mother's arms while Andrea exploded behind her splattering blood.
Now for one more, Lin was crouched holding onto to Flex, who was holding onto Thorn. Kiska was stood back, shocked by what she had just seen.
Alexia pulled out her gun and shot Tirana, square in the head, she let go of Thorn and Flex pulled her up. Chaos then kicked the chains of the container and tons of earth and sharp metal poles fell on the dying Tirana. She felt guilty for this but she had to remember that Tirana had killed before.
Epilogue
They reached the roof of the clock-tower which was flat, it was still raining and lightning streaked the sky. Alexia ran to a little box, with an antenna driven into it. They would be saved.
A vessel came down through the clouds however it wasn't the Erika, it was a longer vessel with large wings with a hideous symbol on the ship, it was a face, two eyes and a massive moustache. It was also red and long.
A tube came down from the ship and dragged them up to the ship, it was like a cage and pulled them into the ship.
"Welcome" said a voice. "We meet again"
The voice was coming from a shadow as he stepped forward, a fat man with a massive moustache looked at them and smiled.
No mistaking.
Doctor Eggman.