-Okay we´re on the finish line of this story now. This is the first of the three 'Darkness' chapters.
Btw, special thanks to HiddenWolf97 again who helped me editing this chapter.-
"Welcome aboard!" A bald man in a blue-gray overall said tonelessly while wasn´t willing to look up from his clipboard. "You´ve been quartered in the quarter 86 on deck C."
"And where… is that?" Asked Dudley carrying his luggage along with a black kitbag on his shoulder.
Today was the day. After one year of intensive training, he was ready for his first internship on a real ship. At least in the eyes of his instructor, Sly Powers. The captain of the Leviathan made this one last year the hardest in Dudley´s life. The dog had to learn how to command a ship, and run through every training session for every station on the ship.
From the position as a security officer, the station he was trained for first, over the work as engineer and Pilot to the work as a scientific advisor, he had the biggest problems there mostly because he had to do the things he hated. Practice science.
Then he also had to learn countless strategies about how handle the team members. Keeping the morale up and prevent mutinies was also what he had to do. And also, he had to learn tactics about space warfare. Powers turned out to be a skilled teacher there.
And now the day came. Even if according to himself, Dudley wasn´t ready at all. He even was pretty nervous. "Into the lift, down to deck C and then just down the hallway until you find a room with your name on the door plate." The man explained and pointed bored at the lift at the end of the small room.
"Thank you…" Dudley said hesitantly and then walked to the elevator which doors opened as he came close to them. "Convenient." He mumbled and the doors were about to close as a female voice called. "Wait for me, please!"
Dudley held the doors open and a sweating young blonde woman in a white labcoat entered the elevator. She carried a stack of papers on her arm that was so high that it almost blocked her view.
"Wow… much stuff." He said and pushed the white C button on the panel. "Oh, sorry, I should have asked you. Which deck?"
"C is okay." She meant smiling.
"Awesome." He said and then the typical awkward elevator silence rose as soon as the door closed. A well-known, but unfortunately unexplained, phenomenon in elevators. It´s like things like the will to have a conversation or even the will to breathe normally would avoid the inner of an elevator. All the greater was the relieve as the elevator doors opened again and he could get out of that.
"Okay, I can´t keep it anymore!" squeaked the woman behind him suddenly and threw her papers on over her head just to have free hands to shake Dudley´s hand like her life would depend on that.
"Mr. Puppy" she gasped as the sheets rained down like a heavy autumn rain "I feel so unbelievably honored to finally have the chance to get to know you. Thank you."
"Oh… uhm… you´re welcome." Dudley meant while he tried to hide his confusion behind a kind smile. Hijacks like this became rarer over the time he already was part of this odd world. The people integrated him pretty fast into the society. Well, of course he was a curiosity at first. Aside from lots of examinations and tests scientists, including myself, did to him he was also bothered by the press. Interviews, photos, the full program. But after a while this wave abated, he was just a normal guy and he actually like being the normal guy and not the press haunted alien weirdo.
"No seriously, Mr. Puppy, I really feel honored." She said almost servilely. "I can´t believe, I mean…Wow."
"Yeah, okay, could you stop with that? It´s getting a bit annoying." The dog replied rolling his eyes.
"Oh, sorry, I am so sorry Mr. Puppy, I didn´t want to…"
"Again." Interrupted Dudley her. "Stop being so submissive. I mean, that´s… that´s really uncomfortable, you know?"
"Okay… You know I´m just… so happy." She squealed and held her breath like she was trying to restrain herself from speaking.
"Yeah… right." Dudley said and scratched the back of his head. "And, who are you?"
"I´m Melissa." She said shyly. "Melissa Jones."
"Nice to meet you Melissa. Well, if it´s okay for you I´d like to bring my stuff into my room now, so…" Dudley looked to the side looking down the hallway.
"Okay, yeah, sorry for keeping busy." She smiled interpreting his gaze and then started collecting the papers that were scattered all over the white floor.
Dudley wanted to keep on walking so she couldn´t engage him into another conversation in which she would show the same annoying behavior, but he also couldn´t let her alone.
So he gritted his teeth, overcame his inhibitions, helped her and then tried as good as possible to ignore her on the way to his quarter which was unfortunately right next to his quarter.
"Hey, seems we are hallway buddies." Melissa laughed as her door opened.
Dudley just nodded with a false grin on his lips until he was inside his room where he could sigh peacefully.
The room was similar to the room in which he was accommodated when he was on the Leviathan for the first time. Just a bed, a little opening in the wall that creates drinks and smaller dishes, even if everyone else but Dudley doesn´t call it opening but molecular readjuster, a desk and a few shelves which he could fill with personal things.
The thing just was that Dudley didn´t have that much personal stuff. And the few things he had weren´t even enough to fill the smallest of these shelves. But Dudley had an idea how to fill these shelves. A month ago started to learn how to draw. And seemed that he had a talent for that.
He wanted to practice a little more and then draw portrays of all these people in his memory. Kitty, Keswick, the chief, everyone. He wanted to bring all their faces to paper so that he could never forget how they looked even if his memories fade away. He would start right now. With Kitty of course. He reached into his duffle bag, get some paper and pencils out and started.
A whole hour he said on the table and drew sketches of her face or her standing while posing. He drew until he heard the doorbell of his room ringing.
"Mike, could you please open the door?" The dog asked kindly.
"Of course Dudley." The board computer said and the door opened silently.
Powers walked into the room and built himself up next to the table. "Dudley, time for your first shift."
"Oh, seems like I forgot the time." Dudley stood up from the table and saluted. "Captain, I am ready."
"We still have 15 minutes before it´s starting, so stay calm. By the way, what are you drawing?"
"Oh, just the people from my homeworld… Nothing special."
"Aha, and who is she?" Powers tapped with his finger on Kitty.
"That´s my fiancé."
"Really?" the Captain picked the picture up. His eyes became bigger and he raised both of his eyebrows high. "She?"
"Hey, what do you mean?" Dudley sounded a bit irritated, even if she wasn´t there he still would defend Kitty.
"What I mean is that she is too pretty for you." Powers said while he nodded grinning still with his eyes on the picture.
"Hey, I´m not that ugly!" The dog protested.
"No but she isn´t in your league… you two don´t even play the same sport. I mean she is playing for the world championship and you… you stay inside and play with your skipping rope."
"Yeah okay, I got your point." Dudley snatched the picture away from Powers and put it into one of the desk´s drawer. "Can we just go?"
"Sure… just one question, do all females on your planet are that busty? I mean her girls have their own gravitational field."
"Stop it, Sly." Dudley growled. "Seriously, stop it."
"Okay okay." The Captain cleared his throat and struck a more military tone. "Ensign, first of all, welcome on board of the Leviathan. You are now crewmember of one of most known alliance ships."
Sly cleared his throat once again and started moving out of the room always with his arms folded behind his back. "Some people love this ship, a lot of people hate this ship. Time will show in which group you´ll be."
"Well, I am a crewmember, captain, so I´ll…"
Powers laughed interrupted Dudley laughing. "Don´t say that too early, ensign! You´re not even two hours here. I can show you a lot of people here who hate that ship… actually, the little tour I planned to show you around will start there." In the meantime both of them had arrived at the end of the hallway and got into the elevator.
"Captain, I think I already know this ship, I mean I was here the day you extracted me from the singularity." Dudley remarked as Powers pushed a button on the panel.
"You may know the cantina, the lab, the ballroom and the sick bay, but you were never down in the…" Sly made a little break and waited until the elevator doors opened to call out. "… the engine room!"
Dudley´s mouth opened as he saw himself standing at an edge that was part of the hull of a giant sphere. The room was completely white, must have had a diameter of 50 meters, what was hard to estimate, its surface was smooth like perfect ice. But all this wasn´t even the most interesting things about it.
The most interesting thing about it was in the middle of this odd room was no apparatus, no engine, no machine, just a little fist-sized, floating black point. If this had been a normal black point like for example billiard ball, it would have been hard to tell that this little thing was there at all. But this thing wasn´t normal, no, normal things wouldn´t warp the light around it. A layman had said that this little ball consumes the light around it, what was actually not wrong.
"One more step and you will fall into the room, Dudley." Powers grinned widely what Dudley didn´t realize. The little black dot demanded all of his attention.
"What is that?" he mumbled intriguedly.
"Meliha will tell you." the captain said and pushed another button on the panel which let the elevator move upwards for a few seconds before it opened its doors again. This time Dudley saw a less impressive room. It was just filled with panels that looked, compared with the usual panels Dudley saw, not holographic.
This room was full of real hardware. Everywhere lights flashed while the computers hummed in unison a monotonous elegy. On one of the bigger panels a woman typed furiously orders into a computer.
"Work you pathetic quantum-gathering!" She screamed and hit it with her fist. "I hate you, work!" She rammed her fist a few times on the keyboard just to let out her anger. "WHAT! Now you WORK! Darn, I hate this ship!"
"See?" Powers said and stepped out of the elevator towards her and ordered in a military tone. "Meliha, status report!"
The woman twirled startled around and the saluted. "Yes, captain!" immediately she grabbed a device that looked like a long pencil and activated it so that next to the device a flat hologram appeared.
This thing seemed to be nothing more than a holographic clipboard. "Well, the main processor of the reactor´s temperature control unit melted. I could temporarily transfer this process to another processor but we really need a new one. If it´s possible, this time one made from Yukawaium."
"Yukawhat?" Dudley asked confused.
"An element, proton number 210 if I´m not mistaken." Powers explained.
"Never heard of that." The dog shrugged.
"Well, your civilization maybe haven´t found it yet." Powers assumed. "It costs lots of energy to gather so many protons and neutrons together that you reach one of these islands of stability on the nuclide map."
"I haven´t even understood half of that."
"Well that´s the difference between someone who went to school 80 years and someone who did that just for… I don´t know, how long have you went to school?"
"12 years." Dudley sighed rolling his eyes.
"Exactly, almost nothing." Powers giggled amused about how much Dudley was annoyed by that little sideswipe. "Anyway, Meliha, anything else?"
"Depends, can I speak openly?" She asked.
Powers answered with a nonchalant gesture of his hand.
"Everything!" She blurted out and her head got a bit red in anger. "The whole ship is mess. It´s hopelessly obsolete! I mean, look at the reactor room! Modern ships have a reactor with a diameter of not more than 10 meters!"
"I know, Meliha, I know." Powers meant reassuringly.
"Then why do you always refuse to salvage the ship?!"
Powers gave no answer to that, he just turned around and said while walking to the elevator. "Answer ensign Puppy´s questions. If he knows everything he wants to know, send him to the bridge."
"Again?! You will again not answer that?!" A big vein became visible on Meliha´s forehead.
"Yes." The Captain simply said as the elevator doors closed and he disappeared.
"I could slap him every time he does that." Meliha hissed and turned back to the computer. She took a few deep breaths and the red color has almost disappeared from her face before she turned to Dudley and tried to say as calm as possible. "Anyway, you have some question about the ship?"
"I have…" Dudley said slowly.
"Then bring it on."
"Okay, you said she is obsolete, how old is the Lady?"
"Lady?" Dudley was able to coax a smile from her with that.
"Yeah." He said now also grinning. "Ships are Ladies."
Meliha laughed dirty. "More old woman. 'She' is 700 years old."
"700! Wow!" exclaimed Dudley. "That would mean that thing was built as my people were still fighting with swords!"
"Well, that may sounds impressive but it´s terrible from the engineer´s point of view. I mean look at that." She pointed at a hologram of the big sphere shaped room with the dot in the middle. "Nowadays we could produce trice the energy with a fifth of the space!"
"Talking about that, what´s that in the middle?" Dudley turned his head into the direction Meliha´s finger pointed.
"Oh, that. That´s a controlled singularity." She said nonchalantly while shivers ran down Dudley´s spine. He was at war with black holes somehow, but who could blame him for that. These spacetime rippers brought him nothing but troubles.
Meliha realized that Dudley felt pretty uncomfortable so she meant reassuringly. "No need to worry. As I said, it´s totally under control. We even have an amount of antimatter onboard to 'extinguish' it in case of an emergency. So really, no need to worry."
"Okay…" Dudley took a deep breath. "I think I can believe you with that."
"How kind of you." Meliha laughed. "Hey, I will start up the reactor, want to watch?"
"It can´t hurt to look, can it?"
"Nope." She laughed and started hacking orders into the computer in front of her. Meanwhile Dudley´s eyes were fixed to the holographic display that was monitoring the reactor.
Two big rays shot from the ceiling and the ground of the sphere into the singularity. The little black dot started to pulsate like a little heart. After a minute the rays from the ceiling and the ground stopped and the same kind of rays shot out of the singularity, but not just into ground and ceiling but also everywhere in that room.
"Well, that was the magic." Meliha said and turned smiling proudly at Dudley.
"Awesome." Dudley laughed impressed. "Even if it would destroy my amazement but how…"
"How it work? Well, we stimulate the black hole with Einstein-rays until it emits Einstein-rays again. Black holes can emit these rays but only if you stimulate them with these. You can compare it with an exothermic reaction."
"Aha… okay." Dudley said and looked once again at the display. "Hm… even after the scientific explanation stuff, it´s still awesome."
"How could that be not awesome?" She roared with laughter. "How could an energy output of approximately 3 Zettawatt not be awesome?"
"Don´t exaggerate it." Dudley meant afraid that she would start with a physics lecture.
"Okay." Meliha smiled. "Do you have any other questions?"
"No… I think the rest of that I can explain myself by the rest Isaac taught me."
"So you actually have the basics?" She asked surprised.
"Yes, but have you ever had Isaac as a teacher?" Dudley asked and a mixture of wrath and desperation lay in his look.
"To be honest, yes. I was in his course in the university. Advanced weapon technology. It was hard stuff but actually not that bad."
"Well, has he woke you up at 3am and then drug you?"
"Well… no" Meliha meant and looked even more surprised at Dudley.
"Then I think we have different experiences." He mumbled and then cleared his throat. "Anyway, to answer your question, I have the basics, even more than that, they are just not always present."
"Then let´s hope your knowledge manifests over the time." Meliha said confidently and then looked at one of her displays. "Oh, you should go to the bridge. Powers is waiting I guess."
"You are right, I better hurry." He nodded and ran to the elevator.
"Hey, wait." Meliha called as he was almost at the elevator doors.
"What?" Dudley asked while the doors opened.
"Welcome aboard, ensign." She laughed and saluted.
Dudley chuckled and saluted back.
An elevator ride came as the canine fleet member stepped onto the newly organized bridge. Dudley believed about a month ago that the crew members sat in little holes. They actually sit in separate horseshoe shaped holo-panels that are arranged in the usual triangle around the captain.
It was the long needed design update that everyone on the bridge appreciated. Except Powers, who had no chance to ignore Meternagel now because of the almost permanent possibility of the pilot to address the captain directly.
"So, what´s on the agenda today?" He heard Powers calling to his officers as he came closer.
"Captain, we received a distress signal from Alpha-Vega about an hour ago." Alex Casey replied briskly.
"Then what are we waiting for?" Powers nodded and turned to the pilot. "Meternagel, hit it!"
"Alright Captain!" Meternagel grinned and pushed a few buttons.
"Captain!" Dudley stood stiff and saluted. "Awaiting orders!"
"Okay, first of all, stand at ease. Second…" Powers tilted his head back and spoke with the ceiling. "Mike, be so kind and give Dudley something to sit on."
"On it Captain." The computer responded as a chair, next to the captain´s chair, emerged from the floor.
"Thanks Mike." Dudley said and sat down on the chair that was much more comfortable then it looked like.
"Well Dudley, as you may have already heard, our destination is a planet called Alpha-Vega and... oh well, you´ll see when you´re there."
"Uhm… okay." Dudley had asked what he meant but the way Powers grinned made him just not want to ask.
Not a while later, a while so short that it makes Dudley wonder again how fast interstellar traveling was, the Leviathan arrived the orbit of Alpha-Vega.
"Well, team…" Powers yawned as he got out of his armchair and stretched, behaving like he had sat in his chair for half a day. "The planet is safe, so no extra arms for the landing party. Casey, Isaac, get ready. Meternagel, go and prepare a shuttle. Dudley, you come with me." Everybody around nodded and then left the bridge so that just Dudley and Powers were there.
"So we don´t go?" the captain´s contender asked.
"Of course we´ll go, but it´s the captain´s privilege to be last on the shuttle bay." Powers grinned clapping Dudley´s back in the usually violent but friendly meant way.
"Okay." Hissed Dudley trying to suppress the urge to scream because of the pain from the patting.
Powers stretched again and let his joints crack with relish before walking with a steady pace to the shuttle bay. Always followed by Dudley who stuck to his heels. The team was already in the white semicircle shaped vessel as the Captain and his protégé finally arrived.
"Uhm, captain" Meternagel scratched the back of his head sheepishly. "Never thought you would be here that fast. Still haven´t received the landing clearance."
"Do we even need one? I mean we received a distress call." Dudley objected confusedly.
"A landing permission is needed as long as the planet isn´t under attack." Casey said absently while she checked the weapon system of the shuttle.
"We like to knock on the door before entering." I explained smiling.
"Got it." Dudley nodded and fastened his seatbelt. He leaned a bit back in his seat and took some deep breaths. This was his first day on the ship and there was already action! And even if he tried to be serene and calm, he couldn´t oppress his nervousness. His hands even trembled a bit.
"That is totally normal." I laid my hand soothingly on his should seeing his agitation. "On my first real mission, I covered the whole floor with...well… vomit."
"Really?"
"Yes." Casey averted her gaze from her check-up list and gave Dudley a look that confirmed her answer even more.
"Oh, right, I remember." I laughed. "It was back then on the Griffin, right? … I almost forgot that you were there back then."
"You ruined my shoes back then." She meant and flashed her eyes angrily at me.
"Casey… could you stop that? Your gaze starts burning." I said and looked down at my holo-clipboard.
"I get my revenge, Isaac." She said and then looked back at her check list.
A few minutes pasted in which Meternagel desperately waited for an answer from the surface. "Uhm captain, I´m not receiving anything." He finally said bewilderedly.
"Hm… stuff it. We´ll go anyway." Powers ordered.
"Aye aye captain." Meternagel saluted and started the engines.
"I thought you like to knock." Dudley asked as the ship flew towards the planet.
"Sometimes you have to knock, sometimes you have to kick the door in." Powers said grinning.
The ship approached swiftly to the planet as the surface was close enough for a visual examination by humans and Dudley as they all stood utterly shocked. All buildings lay in ashes. The whole surface was burnt and destroyed. Nothing moved at the surface, everything seemed calm. And everything seemed lifeless, even if there were no corpses lying on the ground. There was just nothing except ruins.
"METERNAGEL, ISAAC, CASEY! WHAT AM I LOOKING AT?!" Powers shouted out furiously which made me and the other two winced startled.
"I do not know, Sly." I stammered looking down at my data searching for something I missed.
"Captain, the scanners still show that everything´s alright here." Meternagel said pointing at his displays. Powers eyed them with a raised eyebrow and then said. "What in the name of the Leviathan is wrong here?"
"I think I found the error." I meant and handed my clipboard to Sly who eyed it for a second, and then looked up and said. "Bloody bastards."
"What is it?" Dudley asked as he gazed with eyes wide open through the shuttles wind shield.
"Someone. I bet my salary that is either the Union or the League who faked planetary activity!" the captain growled handing the clipboard back to me.
"What?"
"Interstellar warfare." I sighed and turned to Dudley. "With a few strong signal generators, you can fake that the planet is still intact even if it is not. Mostly used to disguise surprise attacks in order to do another surprise attack… actually you can surprise attack so long until someone exposes the fraud." I typed a few commands into the computer and sighed again. "Casey, there are three targets on the ground. Destroy them and the farce is over."
"On it." hissed Casey and almost immediately after that, three blue rays shot onto the three targets which exploded in a not insignificant firework.
"Scanners now show what they should." Meternagel said oddly calm.
"Then scan for life signs." Powers commanded gritting his teeth.
Meternagel let his finger wander over a few buttons and then meant surprised. "Captain, there is a working stasis pod in the cellar of one of the ruins!"
"Then what are you waiting for?! Bring us down!" the captain hissed irritated.
Smoothly the vessel glided to the ground like a tumbling leave reminding everyone that even if Meternagel was a weirdo sometimes he was indeed the best pilot you could wish for. He stopped the ship just a few centimeters above the ground. Me, Casey, the captain, and Dudley jumped out of the shuttle.
"I´ll stay in here and wait for you in the orbit." Meternagel told us over the implants in our heads.
"Roger that." Powers meant. "Also contact the Leviathan. Tell them they should pass the news to the alliance."
"I will, good luck to you down there." Meternagel lifted off fast and disappeared in the next second on the horizon.
"Casey, you have the lead now." Powers said without losing more time.
"Okay boys, easy." She and put a big black glove onto her right hand and pushed a button on the back of the hand what made the glove´s palm glow blue. "If something is moving, shoot it. Meternagel could just scan for life signs that are not cloaked. And what isn´t cloaked? Enemies. So don´t ask, shoot. We´re not here to have a nice coffee party. Oh and if I say jump…"
"We jump, got it." I said and put on my glove and armed it, so did Sly. Only Dudley looked confused around and searched for his.
"Here." Powers said, pulled a glove out of a pocket and handed it to Dudley.
"Thanks." The dog said and put it on before arming it.
"Ready everyone? Then let´s move before something uses this moment to attack us."
We nodded and then started moving over the dead yellow ground towards the dreary steel skeleton of something that once was a mighty sky scraper.
The mood outside of the building was already eerie. But as our team entered the innards, over my spine ran a shiver. The inside was not only completely dark but also empty, which was such a creepy feeling.
"Why is no one here?" Dudley asked pulling a little ball shaped device out of his jacket and throwing it into the air where it started to float and illuminate the room with a cold white light. Now we could see that we were into the foyer of the building. Still piles of rubble that had fallen out of the ceiling and the rest of destroyed furnishings were the only thing around.
"The attack was quick and thorough I guess." I pointed with the palm of my hand around ready to shoot at anything that moves.
"And what does that mean?"
"That means that they left nothing more than dust." Powers growled grimly.
"Steady boys." Casey said and raised her other hand making the rest of us stop. Like she was looking on a trace on the ground she walked closer to a bigger pile of rubble while mumbling things like
"Fascinating" or "Odd".
As she was close to the pile, she knelt down and drew a circle in the sand. She called towards us "Nothing here!" but right that moment, and contrary to everything she did so far, she jumped over the pile of rubble. We heard a really short fight before she walked triumphantly back in our field of view while holding a man in a uniform in a chokehold.
"Well well well." Powers meant grinning viciously as the victorious amazon returned with the catch of the day. "Seems like we caught ourselves a little spy."
"You get nothing out of me." The guy winded in a fruitless attempt to break loose from Casey´s firm grip.
"We´ll see about that later. Good work Casey." The captain praised still with that evil grin on his lips. "I´ll take the lead from now on. You go out and save this hostage. We´ll need him to explain this here. Feel free to prepare him."
"Yes Sir." She saluted and then dragged the guy out like a butcher with a piece of meat.
"Okay, we will proceed with caution. Follow me." Powers stated and together we ventured into the darkness of the building´s cellar. Eventually, after three or four minutes of nervously pointing around, we made it to a long narrow hallway with only one nondescript door at the end of it.
"Okay, everybody stay calm now." Powers ordered, who was at that point the only one who didn´t aim idiotically at everything that made sound. But now the captain´s chest also moved faster. "Isaac, open the door. The rest of us will breach into the room. Ready?"
"Dammit, I am a scientist." I hissed walking to the door while sweating out the bottle of water I drank before the trip. "I have not signed up for that… All I wanted is a nice lab in which I can…"
"Shut the hell up, Isaac." Powers whispered hectically while he got together with Dudley ready to burst into the room.
"Good. One... two…" Every muscle in my body flexed waiting for Powers to call out the releasing third number. As I heard it, I tore the door open and let the two others run like two angry bulls into the room. They pointed with the palms of their hands around finding…
"Nothing!" Dudley sighed in relieve.
"I have to say, I´m a bit disappointed now." Powers meant letting his hand sink down.
"Nothing? Nothing is good." I said now following them into the room. "Nothing means…" I stopped as I saw the big coffin-like device in the middle of the room. "That is not nothing. That is something. The something we searched." I stated gazing at it.
"So this is this stasis pod we searched?"
"Right you are." Powers nodded. "Isaac, can we open it?"
I bent down and eyed the underside of the freestanding pod. "I would not recommend that Sly… The thing is running on emergency power supply. The wake up process would make the energy overload and end in a firework."
"Hm…" Powers growled pensively and scratched the stubbles on his unshaved chin. "Any ideas what we should do now?"
"We could ask Meternagel to get an energy cell to…"
"Guys, seriously?" Dudley asked shaking his head in exasperation. "This thing is maybe weighing 150 kilograms. Two of us should be able to carry that. And we are three!"
Powers and I looked for a second dumbfounded at Dudley and then smiled. "You evil mutt! That´s the kind of idea we need"
"Why did I not have that idea?" I asked.
"Because you aren´t the Rocketman." Powers smiled and then bent down to search for a grip on the stasis pod. Me and Dudley did the same. With ease, we carried the pod out of the building. It was surprisingly easier to carry than I thought.
The next few things that happened were quite uneventful. We brought the pod and the hostage soldier, who looked extremely damaged due to Casey´s intensive interrogation techniques.I went back to the ship where I left it to Meliha´s skilled hands to fix the stasis pod.
That gave me, the captain, and Dudley a short break which we spent in the cafeteria without eating anything. We just didn´t want to give ourselves upset stomachs. At least Sly and I didn´t want to do so. In Dudley´s opinion, the food was still good.
"Who do you think this guy is the only survivor of this massacre?" Dudley asked leaning puzzled over the shiny white table.
"Probably a guy who was at the wrong time in the right place." I said shrugging.
"Poor lucky guy." Dudley said.
"Or gal, who knows?" I chuckled.
"Yeah!" Dudley giggled and turned to the captain. "What do you think Sly?"
"What I think?" Powers said in a calm but sinister voice. "I think that there will be some serious changes when the soldier speaks or the person in the stasis pod is able to witness what happened."
"What do you mean by that?" Dudley asked not having the slightest clue what the man with the angular face was talking about.
"Dudley, I know your history knowledge is not so well. Here´s a little crash course for you. 600 years ago, the Myrt-peace-pact was made after an awful war between the Union, the League, and a new risen nation that was founded by people from those two nations seeking for peace and prosperity. This nation is called Alliance."
"Nicely quoted from the history books, Sly." I laughed half bitterly and half angrily. "But to be honest, this union of so-called peaceful people also killed a lot of other people during that war. And just to keep this image up, they condemned the weapon research. How hypocritical!"
"Isaac, shut it!" The captain said and beat his fist onto the table. "You weren´t the only one who experienced big deprivations! But dammit, don´t speak like you forgot why we did that all!"
I wanted to answer, but the words couldn´t pass the lump that was in my throat. After all, I had to admit that Sly was right. "Sorry." I stammered looking guiltily at the tabletop. "I sometimes get grim and forget that I also caused this revolution."
"Right." Powers nodded calming a bit down and continued his lecture. "The pact was signed with blood. 2000 billion humans died killed by other humans that were driven by blind expansionism. 2000 billion, Dudley. That brought us at the edge of extinction for the 10th or 20th time!" The captain sighed closing his eyes. "Now think of something the factions increased in every respect. And now adding weapon technology that is 600 years advanced. Well, except ours…"
"Oh, thank you!" I said insulted.
"Really, no offense Isaac, but you are one of ten in your field in our nation. The others have about 20,000 of your kind."
"But no one as good as I am." I boasted proudly.
"That is true, but you had to develop some kind of super weapon to give us a chance to stand a longer war."
"I never knew our situation was that bad." Dudley meant upset.
"Yeah… and if one of these two persons testifies that either the Union or the League attacked, we have to declare them war. Regarding the current political alliances, we are fighting them both."
"So no matter what, we are screwed." Dudley concluded.
"Exactly, well except…" Powers turned his head to me. "Isaac…"
"Got it." I cut him short and stood up. "I will go and create a super weapon." With a fast pace, I walked away from the table back to my lab.
"Time to go Dudley." Powers meant exhaustedly and got up from the table. He lead Dudley this time again to the shuttle deck, but not to board a ship. The bay next to Meternagel´s shuttle missed a vessel that waited to be, an escape pod stood there.
"Ready Meliha?" the captain asked watching closely how the engineer readjusted the innards of the stasis pod´s systems.
"Ready." She stated and got her hands out of the pod.
"I´m also ready." Meternagel nodded.
"And why exactly is that important?" Powers raised his eyebrow and folded his arms.
"Uhm captain, because being ready is important." The pilot explained what makes Powers sigh.
"You are right." He simply said and then turned back to Meliha. "Turn it on."
"Okay, the wake up button is broken, but there is an old engineer trick that should work." The engineer said and kicked the pod powerfully. With a whirring sound, the machine started working and not a minute later, the pod´s door unlocked with a ridiculous sound.
"Pong?" Dudley asked confused while the door opened slowly.
"Yes, Pong." Meliha meant baldly. "What have you expected?"
"I don´t know, something more… mystical."
"Mystical?"
"Yes, it should be something mystical." Dudley stated firmly.
"My words exactly." Meternagel laughed. "We are somehow alike."
As Dudley heard that, he stared shocked at the pilot for a second but then turned his gaze back at the pod. "In a retrospect, Pong is okay."
During the conversation between those three, the pod´s door had opened completely and Powers was the first who peeked into it. "YOU GOT TO BE KIDDING ME!" he shouted as he saw the tanned black-haired woman in a black leather jump suit which seemed damaged by debris and also energy discharges.
"Uhm, Captain, who is she?" Meternagel asked Powers who was already shaking the woman foaming with rage.
"Wake up! Wake up! You damn tick, wake up!"
"Sly?" the woman coughed weakly but smiling.
"Who else?!" He yelled at her. "Who else is the host for you for over 1000 years?!"
"It is… you." She grinned joyfully. "I almost missed… these crappy… parasite analogies."
"God dammit, Kate! Leave me alone!"
"Sly, calm down!" Dudley intervened as it looked like that the captain would toss the woman through the room. "Calm down and give us some answers!"
Not only the dog was puzzled. Also Meternagel and Meliha had no idea who the stasis pod survivor was or why Powers was so upset seeing her.
"I.A.I. agent." Powers hissed.
"Seriously?" Meliha probed surprised. "I thought they wouldn´t exist."
"I.A.I.?" Dudley meant confused.
"Interstellar Alliance Intelligence." Powers explained seething. "And this is the worst of its agents! Kate Hudson, codename 'The Tick'. A tick who's hobby it is to bite my ass!"
"Last time I did… you liked it, Sly." Kate coughed sitting slowly up in the stasis pod.
"Shut up." Powers grumbled and turned around.
"Uhm captain, were you two really…" Meternagel was about to ask the question everybody had in their minds, but the captain didn´t let him finish.
"Ensign Puppy, guide The Tick to the bridge." He ordered with his military voice. "Meternagel, go to the bridge and set a course to the Antigone system. And you Meliha, drain every bit of energy out of the reactor. I have the feeling we will need it."
"Yes Sir!" All three said in unison and saluted.
The crowd dissolved swiftly as Dudley and Kate left the bay. With an amused grin, the woman jumped vibrantly out of the pod. "God, I love it when he´s getting angry." She suddenly stood firmly on her two feet what made Dudley wonder.
"Uhm… Mrs Hudson…"
"Mrs. Hudson was my mother" she intervened quickly. "Terribly boring woman. Just call me Kate."
"Okay, Kate. Nice to meet you." He smiled and shook her hand friendlily. "My name is…"
"Dudley Donald Puppy." The Tick grinned evilly.
"From where do you know that?!" Dudley gasped astonished.
"Well, your name was written in the news."
"But not my second name!"
"Dudley, please." She smiled brushing a strand of her long straight hair out of her face. "Information procurement is my business."
"From where did you get it?" Dudley demanded to know.
"A lady never tells." She winked.
"That´s your answer? Seriously?"
"You have been a secret agent once too." Kate simply said and then started walking towards the exit of the bay.
"From where do you know that?!" Dudley shouted running after her.
"I´m pretty good at my job."
"Why have I even asked you?" The dog sighed as both of them stood waiting in front of the elevator.
"You have been a former agent… there is a certain curiosity that drives us to ask questions. Although you also have a certain pioneering spirit as I heard… I mean, a trial flight in an untested shuttle with an untested engine into the unknown? Pretty brave." She laughed after a quick spoken speech.
"More stupid." Grumbled Dudley feeling this loneliness rising up in him.
"What´s the difference?" She laughed.
"I.A.I., what kind of agency is that?" He meant trying to change the subject.
"A secret one." She smirked.
"Seriously?" Dudley asked again with a bitter laugh.
"Okay, from spy to ex-spy. The I.A.I. is an agency that is collecting data from the inside as well as from the outside of the Alliance."
"So you spy on your own as well as all other people."
"Mostly the other factions and some higher fleet members, like good old Sly. But inside our borders we act as a supervision body. We keep captains, admirals, and sometimes officers under surveillance so we know that they do what they should do. And people like Sly didn´t prove very trustworthy." She explained speaking very swiftly again.
"What do you mean with that?"
"You better asked that himself." She said but without this mischievous grin on her face. Dudley wanted to enquire what she meant by that but in that moment the opening of the elevator door saved her.
Soon, the elevator silence came. Of course Dudley could have make an attempt to break the elevator silence but with what result? She had certainly avoided his questions again. She was quite good at that. Together both of them finally stepped onto the bridge of the ship where they had the chance to hear the conversation between the Captain and the officer for long distant communication.
"Captain, we have a problem." The officer said standing stiff in front of the captain with his hand saluting on his head like it was glued there. "We had no chance to send the message to the fleet commando. All communication frequencies are jammed! We…"
"It´s okay, Mr. Thompson." Powers meant waving him aside. "Go back to your station and continue."
"Yes Sir." The man said and rushed off.
"The wolf´s scent detects prey, Sly." Kate said stepping closer to the captain. She even laid her hands on his shoulders like people who are very close with each other would do.
"But not fear." Powers growled. "Dudley, take Isaac´s place!"
"What?" Dudley asked surprised. He had no idea what the scientific advisor had to do in a battle situation. "But I…"
"Just coordinate the shields! It´s not that hard!" the captain barked.
"Okay." Dudley nodded and sat onto my empty chair.
"Well everyone." Powers said, stood up and shook off Kate´s hand off him. "Dudley, shields up. Casey, charge the phasers and wait for an aim. Meternagel, set course to the next Alliance outpost. Accelerate on my sign. And before I give that signal, open a com channel."
"Uhm… Captain" Meternagel called in. "I need a frequency."
"Send it on all frequencies." The captain folded his arms behind his back and stepped two steps away from his seat. "This is Captain Sly Powers of the Alliance ship Leviathan, I have a message to all aggressors out there that are lurking in the dark. You made yourself liable to prosecution for breaking the Myrt-peace-pact. Be sure that we can´t and won´t ignore this act of brutality. In the name of the Alliance, I demand you to deactivate your cloaking devices and surrender." Satisfiedly the captain nodded and sat back onto his seat. He didn´t had to wait long until he heard Meternagel say.
"Captain, one ship uncloaked. About 1AU in front of us."
"The leader of the pack greets the prey." Kate mumbled.
"Shut up Kate." Powers mumbled back and ran with his finger nervously over his angular chin.
"Captain Powers!" An amused sounding voice filled the bridge and a second later the hologram of a tall broad man appeared in the middle of the room. He wore a pompous, grass-green uniform that was covers in medals. Actually, if you just looked at his chest, it would be hard to tell the color of the uniform because of the sheer amount of medals that hung there.
"Captain Jane." The captain said while leaning into his chair. "Seems like we don´t have to interrogate the solider or 'The Tick'. I somehow knew that it was the union who attacked. I mean, out of all mean bastards in the universe your faction has the most soulless."
"Oh, Sly, I see that you are still as flattering as always." The guy smiled with the arrogance of superiority.
"And I see that you are still collecting achievements." Powers countered pointing at Jane´s chest.
"I do." the hologram said playing with a medal on his chest. "And I get at least ten new for destroying your ship."
"Odd… I thought you have already earned every medal for pointless murdering and destruction."
"You thought wrong."
"Captain, the enemy ship charged its weapons." Casey called in.
"Oh, you want to play it like that? Dudley, shields up." Powers said snapping his fingers into Dudley´s direction.
"Sly." The medal covered man rolled his eyes excessively. "You thought we came alone?"
"Uhm Captain, about a dozen ships just uncloa…" Meternagel falter a second and stared at his displays. "I revise, two dozens… three dozens… four…"
"I got the core concept, Meterneagel." Powers meant oddly calm for the situation. "I think there´s nothing left to say, Jane." He pushed a button on his panel and the hologram disappeared.
"No chance that we make it through that barricade, Captain." Casey said typing on her holographic displays. "We have four dozens of ships around us that will open fire in a few seconds. That is not possible.
"Impossible." Meternagel said turning around on his chair looking sternly at his captain. "Completely impossible."
"Hm…" Powers scratched his chin and crossed his legs. "What do you say, Dudley?"
"Captain, I… have actually no idea." The dog meant utterly confused and completely overstretched.
"Would you say we could make it?"
"Maybe?" He replied insecurely. "As I said, I have no idea!"
"Maybe? That´s almost yes. And yes is almost certainly. And certainly means that we will make it absolutely." Powers laughed and pointed at Meternagel. "Hit it, John. Collision course towards Jane´s ship."
"So you don´t beat around the bush, captain?" Casey raised her eyebrow. "Directly into suicide."
"Like we always do." The captain grinned.
A loud sigh came from the pilot as he pushed a small non holographic lever that was just attached to his seat while he laid his left hand around the joystick which he tilted softly to the left. "If we can´t win we at least make some proper damage." He mumbled and then called out loudly. "Course set."
"It was an honor serving with you all." Casey said without looking up from her panels.
"Dito, Alex. Dito."
The ship rushed closer to the captain Jane´s ship and from everywhere green rays hit the ship what shook the ship in a way that the word heavy would be too weak to describe it.
"Dudley, shields?" Powers yelled as the wall on the backside of the bridge was torn open and emitted a shower of white sparks into the room.
"Shields down!" The dog howled before the holographic emitter in front him exploded.
The enormous force flung him away from his station towards the ceiling which he hit hard followed by the next hard collision with the ground he came from. Against any expectations Dudley didn´t feel the stabbing pains he should have after landing on his chest.
He just lay shivering on the floor while he could taste the blood that filled his mouth. Shakily he tried to press his arms onto the ground so he could get at least on his knees to get a quick overview of the situation. But as much as he tried, he couldn´t get a centimeter away from the floor.
Dudley spit out the cooling blood in his mouth, what was pointless because he felt the taste of blood immediately again, and turned onto his back. Abandoning himself to an impulse he raised both of his arms and eyed them through his blurry eyes. Both of them were bend unnaturally into different direction. No doubt, his lower arms were broken, there was no chance that he could use them to get up.
Dudley somehow responded to this discovery with total calmness. He was neither shocked nor surprised. If he had been able to do so, he would have just shrugged. But because he had no strength to do so he moved his head slowly to the side.
There he saw Powers clinging to the arm rest of his chair as he tried to get back into it. Also something must have exploded next to him, or at least hit him at his head, Dudley concluded that by the stream of blood that ran down his face. There was so much of that coming down his face that half of his face covered by a thick layer of it.
Casey was lying in front of him screaming in pains. A big shrapnel, about as big as a hand, stuck in her shoulder and another one, a bit thinner but almost the same size, stuck out of her belly.
The only one who seemed unharmed was Meternagel. He still sat in his chair and looked with glazed eyes at the still operating displays in front of him.
It was like, even if the hell would open next to him, what somehow happened here, nothing could make him avert his eyes from the displays.
Dudley couldn´t hear anything, everything he saw seemed like a muted movie.
Just one word that Powers´ voice screamed powerfully over all the noise even through Dudley´s deafness.
"NOW" and then nothing more. Everything slowed down around Dudley from that point until it stopped completely. And as the scene in front of him came to a full stop, darkness crawled from the sides of his field of view and finally overwhelmed his eyes.
For a short while this darkness wrapped him into a peace that felt like a warm blanket. Then the pains returned to his numb body, and these pains were just too much to stay conscious.