Brief author's note:
This is only a draft of the first chapter, and it will fill out and evolve based on popularity, so I hope you like it.
NOCTURN
Chapter 1
Devlan Kaito was bored, and after spending four hours on a shuttle with nothing to do, you'd think anybody would be starting to become restless.
"Computer!" he barked, "How much longer do I have to sit in this metal box?"
"We are making our final approach to the dock now, Admiral, and you will be able to disembark shortly." the computer responded in its annoyingly cheerful voice. Devlan winced; he hated the enthusiasm with which the shuttle systems spoke, as though spending however long in a small craft with nothing but your thoughts for company was a good thing.
Suddenly the whole shuttle rocked to one side as the bow thrusters fired, manoeuvring the tiny vehicle into position. A loud hiss sounded, followed promptly by the rear hatch opening. Through the now open airlock, Devlan could see a neatly arranged grid of base personnel, who had clearly been awaiting his arrival for some time. As this crossed his mind, an engineer in the middle rank went limp and had to be escorted from the hangar by two security guards. A small, petite woman then walked up the ramp made by the rear airlock. "Welcome to Nocturn, my lord" she said, with a slightly exasperated tone to her voice, "Is there anything I can do for you, Admiral Kaito?"
"Yes, as a matter of fact there is something you can do for me. I seem to have been stationed on a base full of idiots, because somebody thinks that a shuttle is the correct means of transport for the highest ranking Fleet official in this galactic segment!" By this point, Devlan was furious. He had not had a pleasant journey over and the cut on his brow from where it and a bulkhead had collided was testimony to this. All he wanted was to find where he was staying and sit down with a nice cup of something warm and delicious. Adri, on the other hand, looked entirely quiescent.
"Would you like me to show you to your quarters my lord?" she asked politely, seemingly oblivious to the Admiral's previous rant.
"I would like that very much." He answered, in a slightly better temperament than before. Just as he was leaving, he saw the adjacent hangar doors open, and a small shuttle soared out into the inky blackness of space.
Devlan had found his room just how he left it. The papers were in the same places on his desk, his bed was still unmade and the visual screens were still on. "Thank you Adri, I can handle it from here" he said, a happier tone to his voice. "My pleasure," She responded, "However if you are to need anything, my communicator is always on. Channel seven, my lord." She winked as she said this, and promptly walked off down the corridor, her boot heels clacking against the hard metal.
As she walked off, the intercom network sparked into life: "Attention all personnel," sounded a computer generated voice "T-minus three minutes until D-Space translation." Devlan groaned. Moving into D-Space had always made him feel queasy, but having served in the Royal Star Fleet for as long as he had, he had learned to get on top of it. "Translation imminent!" the intercom blared. What happened next was a miracle of modern technology.
First of all, the D-Drives at the starfort's core activated, drawing power from the fragment of a star at the very centre of the massive fortress (hence the name starfort). The raw energy was then turned into a localised gravity well at the heart of the ship which, expanded as a set of energy fields that surrounded the station collapsed. This forced the entire construct into the gap between dimensions, also known as D-Space. To an onlooker, Nocturn just winked out of existence. However, to all the people on board and looking out of the portholes, the universe around them just seemed to disappear and be replaced by the greyness of D-Space. This was accompanied by the sound of paper tearing inside their heads, a still unexplained phenomenon. Once there, a vehicle can travel distances that seems to them to be several kilometres, whereas in the material universe the whole ship has jumped thousands of light years.
However, any vessel wanting to travel in D-Space first needs to be big enough to house the D-Drives and have a sufficient power source, as they run on pure energy. It also needs to be structurally stable enough to survive the transition. Many an inexperienced captain has installed D-Drives into their ship, only to find that the entire hull had been peeled away or crushed into the space of a tin can by the gravity well. One way of solving this is to have a sufficiently sized gravitational reductor, which alters the differences in gravitational field strength between the inside and the outside of the ship. However, the further you jump, the stronger a grav. reductor you need, as longer jumps expose the ship to higher gravity fields.
One quirk, however, that has been discovered within D-Space, is that if your vessel remains entirely motionless, the grav. reductor uses no more power than it does when operating stationary in the material universe. Some admirals have used this feature to great advantage by hiding entire fleets in D-Space, waiting for the opportune moment to re-translate and surprise the enemy. Though nothing comes without a price, and a ship must recharge the D-Drives between jumps as not to overheat the drives and cause them to burn out, leaving you stuck either in D-Space, the universe, or somewhere in between.
Devlan swallowed hard. Having been on planet for so long, he'd forgotten what it was like to translate. Staring out the porthole, he could see nothing but the uniform grey of D-Space. Uugghh he thought, why is this so boring?
Suddenly, a thought struck him. "Computer!" he said, "What is our ETA?"
"Approximately two hours, sir. For further ease of use, might sir like to give me a name?" Devlan thought for a moment, and then decided upon a name.
"Computer, from now on, you shall be known a Kara. You may change your voice accordingly." At this command, the computers voice merged from a male to a female voice. "Is that better sir?"
"Much better, thank you Kara," Devlan replied. He moved across the room and sat down at his desk, the leather seat groaning as its springs were compressed. Devlan then reached under the lip of the desk and pressed a concealed button. The main panel on the surface of the desk then flipped over, revealing a screen which displayed all sorts of astrometrics to do with Nocturn's course through D-Space. The plotted course looked erratic and directionless, though Devlan knew that Nocturn's master navigators would have chosen such a route to compensate for the energy tides that flowed and circulated throughout this realm. Devlan took his admiral's hat off and threw it across the room like a Frisbee, in the direction of a hat stand. The hat caught the edge of one of the rods and spun round twice before hanging still. Having been in the office he was in for nearly seven years, Devlan had made the shot from his desk many times over. He then draped his formal coat over the back of his chair, and walked into the bedroom. As with the main room, nothing had changed. Bed unmade, half drank glass of water on the bedside table, as though he had slept there that morning. He then kicked off his shoes, fell back against the mattress and was asleep as soon as his eyes were closed.
Devlan was abruptly awoken by the re-translation into real space. He stood up, finished the glass of water, and as he put his uniform back on, there was a knock at the door.
"Enter," he called from his chair, while lacing up his shoes. The door slid back, and a naval officer walked in. "And you might be?"
"Pilot Officer Liss my lord, Alexander Liss," the officer replied, "And your presence is requested on the bridge," he said, clearly thoroughly displeased with the task of fetching somebody from their quarters.
"Well then, I guess I shall have to attend!" Devlan said in an attempt to brighten up the atmosphere.
Alexander sighed loudly, "If you deem it necessary, my lord."
"As it turns out, I do. Now cheer up, show me the route and that's an order Liss."
"Follow me then," Liss said, just as grumpy as before.
As the two men walked through the bridge airlock, Devlan noticed something that was a new addition to the room. It was a clear, egg shaped, glass pod, in which a person was suspended by a series of gently glowing blue cables, the thickest of which was attached to the back of his neck. A team of people wearing red flowing robes stood at a series of control panels and one of them was seated in a swivelling chair, numerous holograms dancing around in the air in front of his face.
"What is that?" Kaito asked, slightly perturbed by the egg.
"Welcome to the bridge, Admiral Kaito. I see you have noticed our Plotter," he said without turning round, "And might I say what a stunning piece of headgear you are wearing." Devlan was surprised, as this was the first crewmember aboard Nocturn that had noticed his new hat.
"Two things, first of all, to whom do I owe thanks for that compliment?" he enquired, hoping that the figure would stop looking at his readouts and turn to face him, "and secondly, what is a plotter?"
"A plotter is a specialised navigator, who is kept constantly exposed to the raw energies of D-Space itself. It is very dangerous, as the longer you are exposed to it, the more your body depends on this energy for sustenance, coupled with the fact that they normally "burn out" after several years, meaning that their bodies cannot take the amount of energy that it requires to function. However, the influx induces prescience, the gift of prophecy, in the consumer. This makes for a very good quality in a course plotter as it means they know of any obstacles or complications in the route before we encounter them. Also, my name is Navigator-Mechandrite Korvax, and I am the chief navigational officer as well as the highest ranking official when it comes to guiding Nocturn itself. Now, I have brought you up here to show you something. You there!" he said, gesturing at another Mechandrite, "Open the blast shields."
As he said this, the great steel plates layered over the observation window started to recede with a loud clanking noise. The further they went up, the more and more of the great construct in front of them Devlan could see. It appeared to be a large, silver ring, with multiple glowing sections stationed at even intervals around the circumference of the circle. Every now and then, a huge lightning bolt would lance from one of the sections to an illuminated spot in the centre of the ring. All of a sudden, the glowing segments simultaneously discharged their lightning into the middle. Where they collided, a jagged, roughly circular rift was expanding. As this tear in the fabric of reality expanded, Devlan could see through it. On the other side appeared to be a planet, with several large, grey continents and one or two small blue oceans.
"Welcome to Chiron's Gate Admiral Kaito, one of several structures known as "supergates". These allow instantaneous travel between key sectors of our empire. There is one here, one in orbit around Sol, between Terra and Mars, as well as others located in heavily populated areas. Tell me Devlan, have you ever set foot on our home planet?" Korvax asked.
"No, but I have a funny feeling that is about to change," replied Devlan, tightening his grip on the railing next to him, as Nocturn's sub-light engines roared into action, pushing the mighty starfort through the rip in the universe.