Chapter 4: A History Uncovered
On his way back to his cabin Thunderchild thought long and hard about the upcoming visit to Lindblum Maybe I can find someone to send me back he thought; then a sense of slight guilt overtook him, No, I can't just leave these people, after what they've done for me, they've treated me very well He paused, looking around him. He was in a long corridor that seemed to stretch from one end of the ship to the other with other corridors joining in along the way. Baku's right he thought We're all in this now, the disc and gaia, if these mages can attack the disc and truly are as powerful as he thought then they were a distinct danger to the disc and must be stopped.
He continued walking thinking of what had happened in his past, mulling over events that had long gone. He didn't even notice Domino walking out of one of the connecting corridors until he walked straight into her
"Why don't you look where you're going human!?"
"Oh, I'm sorry, I didn't see you"
"So I noticed!"
Thunderchild had had just about enough of this genome and whirled round on her
"Look, for crying out loud can't you just get off my case for more than five minutes!? Ever since I got here you've done nothing but chip away at me. I saw what was happening in that fight, even in the so-called Trance you couldn't have fought your way out of that mess. Admit it I saved your life! You could have said thank you, you could have just muttered it on passing but NO!" He made Domino flinch slightly when he shouted, "You just had to have another crack at me. So I'm human, so what? Just because I'm not a genome or anything else, it doesn't mean I'm any less of a person! I'm fed up of being treated like I'm out of place. Just come to my planet, then see who'll be out of place!!"
With that he turned and stormed off down the corridor, he'd only got half-way when a voice behind him said
"Thunderchild?"
He turned to see Domino standing behind him, looking slightly ashamed
"I'm sorry, you did help save my life; Thank you"
"See? That wasn't so hard was it?"
Domino looked long and hard at Thunderchild and then ran back down the corridor, hands over her face, Thunderchild thought for a moment he could hear sobbing.
"Oh now what have I done!?" he cried and ran after her.
He followed her to a cabin and waited for a moment before slowly entering. Domino was sitting with her legs crossed and her back to him, she was also hanging from one of the beams in the ceiling by her tail.
"Go away" she said before he had had a chance to announce his presence
"Look Domino, I'm sorry"
She whirled around at him with fire in her eyes
"You NEVER shout at me, EVER!! I have been through more in life than you!!"
That got Thunderchilds back up
"Don't you bet on it monkey girl!"
She reacted strongly to that, jumping across the room at Thunderchild and knocking him to the ground, she raised a fist to hit him in the face but he was able to catch it in his hand before she could actually strike him.
"Domino, what are you doing?" he tried but he couldn't get through to her, she had the look of murder in her eyes and there was nothing Thunderchild could say or do to stop her. He pushed her off him and stood up, she instantly jumped to her feet and ran at him again, this time he side-stepped and swung her head over heels so that she landed on her back in a fall that should have winded anyone, but she got straight back up again and this time was more cautious in her approach, circling him slowly looking for a weak spot.
Thunderchild felt an itching feeling in the back of his head that rapidly grew into a headache; ow he thought what the hell is that? Then he noticed Domino staring intently at him. Something inside him clicked and suddenly the pain was removed.
Domino sagged slightly and gave him an incredulous look
"That…should have killed..you!"
Thunderchild shrugged and circled to her left slightly, as he did she drew herself up again, and Thunderchild felt the same itching feeling in the back of his head begin again. This time he not only shrugged it off, he felt a rush of heat towards his forehead as he sent out a physic blast in response.
Midway to Domino it met another blast coming back and created a feedback loop of physic energy, which steadily grew and grew. Domino and Thunderchild faced each other across the empty room, both with laboured breathing and faces breaking out in sweat, neither wanting to drop their guard should the blast strike them.
They remained like this for about five minutes while the blast grew larger and larger, suddenly both relaxed their guard and were instantly struck by the blast.
Domino tensed up and fell to the floor, unconscious while Thunderchild convulsed slightly and was thrown backward across the room before hitting the floor.
Thunderchilds life flashed before his eyes:
His life in Ankh-Morpork, getting into fights in the outskirts of the Shades, being heavily drunk and trashing the Mended Drum pub
Being captured in the Ankh-Klatch wars, suffering brief but painful torture at the hands of the Ankhs
Fighting in the aforementioned war, losing nearly every friend he ever had.
Living in Khot-Lip-Khin in Klatch, running through the streets after stealing from the bazaar.
There it should have ended, but it didn't…it carried on….
Back into a past Thunderchild never knew he had.
Flashes of indistinct memory. A Party, red dresses and dinners suits, wine and the laughter of guests. Then a more distinct memory, talking to a pretty woman of about 18 about flying as a fighter pilot in the Terran space program
"It must be very frightening at times"
"It does get pretty hairy very often" he'd replied
They had talked more and then had gone outside to sit on the balcony, now he could remember why the party was taking place, it was a ceremony to celebrate his squadrons 100th mission. He and this woman had sat there watching the stars for what had had to have been ages, her name was Jara, he could remember, Jara Gedyen. She was a scientist working on the recall project. A project creating creatures with programmable memories so that peoples personalities could be transferred over to these creatures before they died. In that way they could live forever in some form.
Thunderchild had thought it a great idea, but his mind had been inclined to think of the military aspects of the creations, an army of programmable soldiers.
Jara had argued quite strongly against this but they had finished the night in each others arms, watching the stars shine brightly. Thunderchild had never felt that way about someone before and the emotions he felt came as a surprise to him.
Then his communicator bleeped and he found he had a message calling him back to the fighter base on an urgent basis. The rest of his squadron were leaving so he joined them, waving goodbye to Jara as he pulled away in the staff hovercar, she stood at the top of the steps her dress gently flowing in the wind that had just began to blow up, he'd never forget that sight.
The memory changed to a fighter cockpit, it all seemed familier to him now considering he'd never seen one before in his life, or at least thought he hadn't but he knew all the switches and what they did.
Main cannon, lightspeed drive engage, particle torpedoes, it was all coming back to him now. Suddenly a small face appeared in a little screen next to him and a voice crackled into existence in the cockpit.
"All fighter squadrons this is the Quentin, the enemy ship is entering sensor range, prepare to engage"
He looked out into space from his cockpit window, alongside him flew other ships much like his, and further back larger ships floated along.
Far away up front a small object appeared with a small flash of light. The voice spoke again saying "The ship has come out of lightspeed and is engaging sublight drive, all fighters charge weapons"
He felt his hands working over the controls, flicking switches here and there and then gripping the control stick tightly in one hand he watched as the object grew quickly in size into a grey metal cube. Suddenly a dull mechanical voice, spoken as if thousands were repeating the same words in harmony
"We are the Borg, you will surrender your ships and prepare to be assimilated. Resistance is futile"
The metallic voice disappeared and was replaced by something more familiar, the voice of his wing commander
"All fighter squadrons, engage now, now, now"
He pushed the accelerator fully forward and increased speed to meet up with the cube; all of his wing mates did the same.
As they approached the cube it fired off four projectiles that struck the fighters to his left, all exploded when the projectiles hit them. The flashes made Thunderchild wince, as did the knowledge that his friends were inside those fighters, people he'd shared drinks with, fought alongside and celebrated with over the past four years.
Then the cube covered the nearest command cruiser in a green light, which came from a point on the cubes surface
"This is the Devington! We're losing power, that beam is drawing our shield power down, we're about to…arrrrrrgh!"
The transmission mercifully cut off, but Thunderchild knew that the cruisers crews end had been less than merciful. He aimed his weapons at the point from which the beam came and fired a full spread of three particle torpedoes followed up by a volley of cannon-fire.
The shots had no effect
"Quentin, this is fighter command, our shots seem to have no effect on them, better bring in the big guns"
"Roger that Fighter command, charging hyper-cannons now"
Less than 10 seconds after he had said that, a massive volley of very bright cannon fire overtook Thunderchilds fighter and struck the cube, some small explosions played across the surface but the end result was less than impressive
"Dammit, we can't touch them!"
"All ships fire on target!!"
What followed was the most confusing ten minutes that Thunderchild had ever encountered, space became filled with cannon and hyper-cannon fire and beams of light all too frequently flashed out from the cube and created a path of destruction where-ever they played.
However it was to no avail.
"All ships, we're taking heavy losses, retreat, I repeat all ships regroup and retreat immediately"
Thunderchild swung his ship around, as two fighters heavily damaged and on fire flew past in front of him, missing him by metres, and set a course back to Terra, engaging the lightspeed drive when he was safely out of the battle.
They had lost; there was nothing they could do to stop the Borg now.
The memory changed again, he was sitting in a barracks with what was left of his fighter team, a radio was playing the news in the background, Thunderchild could hear the panic in the radio announcers voice
"So far the cube ship has ignored all our attempts to establish contact with it, our main fleet was ineffective against their weaponry. There is nothing we can do except pray now. Evacuation ships are leaving in the following places: Guitsburg, Hallis, Bagury and Jagestung. The Borg will arrive in orbit in approximately three hours."
His other fighters were talking too; he listened to what they were saying
"Dammit, I feel so helpless" said one
"Yeah, our weapons couldn't scratch the damn thing!"
"Maybe there is a way" Thunderchild heard himself say
"How so?"
"It would be suicide but it might just work."
"Go on, at the moment I'm open to any suggestions"
Thunderchild felt himself sigh and rub his hands nervously
"A lightspeed jump into the cube, it might do some damage and force it to retreat"
There was a long pause as each of the fighter pilots let this suggestion sink in, they all knew what it meant, there would be no going back, no chance to see Terra or anyone they loved again. Thunderchild thought of Jara at that point, wondering if she had managed to get off the planet yet.
Then one of the younger pilots nodded and said
"It's gotta be worth a try. Lets blow these bastards out of this system!"
A ragged cheer went up from the rest of the pilots as they filed out to their fighters. Thunderchild didn't follow them immediately but went to a videphone and dialled Jaras number, it took a while to connect but then her face appeared on the screen again and she smiled as she saw him.
"Hiya, I hear your fighter squadron took heavy losses against the Borg"
"Yeah, we were pretty much wiped out"
"I'm sorry to hear that. I'm glad you're alright though."
"Yeah, err Jara, that's the thing. I'm about to go into battle against the Borg again and I won't be coming back"
"Won't be coming back?"
"No"
There was a stunned silence as Jara bowed her head slightly, Thunderchild thought he could hear sobbing at her end.
"I'll…miss you" she managed after a time
"I'll miss you too Jara, I'll always be with you. Right by your side, I'll never leave you."
She started to openly cry now "W-why!? Why does it h-have to happen now!!? We've only just met!"
"I know Jara, I know"
Thunderchild put his hand palm down onto the screen, Jara placed hers on her screen too, though there was plastic and miles of cabling between them it made them feel that somehow they were closer together. Then, the bases power went down and the screen went black. It was all Thunderchild could do not to cry as her picture blinked away. Alarms started off all over the base, that could only mean one thing, the Borg had arrived, and sooner than expected!! Thunderchild could only guess at the devastation they would cause if they were not stopped now, and with that knowledge he ran to his fighter craft, knowing that it was only he and the rest of his fighter squadron that stood between the Borg and Terra.
They wouldn't fail; they COULDN'T fail!
Thunderchilds fighter sat on the paved fighter station, it's engines idling over, the sunset glinting off the cockpit window, he ran over to it and pressed his hand on the door button and climbed through the engineering room into the cockpit. Strapping himself into his seat he hit several buttons and put his helmet on, he heard the engines pitch change behind him as they powered up fully. He switched thrusters to hover and power to full. Slowly but getting faster by the second, the fighter craft lifted into the air, as it did Thunderchild looked around the city of Hallis, the city of the greats, the pride and joy of Terra. He knew it would be the last time he'd ever see it. He tapped the communications button and set the broadcast to all ships
"Take a good look people, we'll never be closer to home than we are now"
Thunderchild knew that the rest of his squadron were thinking the same thing as they followed him into the atmosphere of Terra. Suddenly far away to Thunderchilds right, a beam of light shot out of the darkening night sky and hit the ground creating a large explosion
"They're attacking!! The Borg are attacking!!!" screamed one of his comrades
"I see it, let's go end this before it starts" replied Thunderchild
The sky darkened more as the atmosphere thinned and disappeared, before long the stars were out and Thunderchild could see the Borg cube in orbit, raining down fire upon his home. Thunderchild changed his thrusters to forward motion and prepared to broadcast his last message to the squadron.
"Ok, thrusters to forward, prepare to jump to lightspeed when I give the order"
Thunderchild knew that if they engaged the lightspeed drive too soon then they would not be in the matter stream and wouldn't have any effect on the cube. They had to be close enough. Thunderchild pressed a few buttons and got a range to target display appear on the control panel in front of him.
100 miles
The cube fired it's green beam down onto the planets surface, keeping it locked on something, Thunderchild dreaded to think what devastating affect it was having on the planets remaining population.
80 miles
Thunderchild did a quick system check on the engines, found no faults and prepared to engage the lightspeed drive at 35 miles from the Borg cube, that should give them enough time.
60 miles
Another green beam fired out and engulfed a nearby squadron member, instantly the rest of the squadron opened fire.
"Dammit, hold your fire, they won't attack us unless we're a threat!"
But the damage was done, the Borg cube re-evaluated its threat priority and concentrated it's attention on the fighters approaching it. Several torpedoes left the cube and streaked out towards Thunderchilds squadron, Thunderchild left it to the last moment and then screamed
"Fighters, break break break!"
The squadron instantly dispersed, every ship for itself, trying to avoid the deadly torpedoes headed their way. Thunderchild found himself with a torpedo right on his tail, he pushed his engines onto overload and headed flat out directly for the cube, the only way he could see of evading the torpedo was to bring it back to those who'd fired it.
40 miles
There wasn't any point in ordering lightspeed now, the rest of his squadron were scattered and one ship at a time wasn't going to be much use, it needed to be a concentrated assault.
A flash of light past him and impacted on his cube creating a very large explosion that looked like it could have done major damage to the cube but when the fireball cleared Thunderchild saw that the damage was merely superficial. Then he realised what was happening. The squadron was beginning their run, without him!
"Echo Squadron, disengage your runs, I repeat disengage your runs, we need to do this together!!"
Another ship flew past him and impacted on the cube. Thunderchild almost screamed at them "NO! STOP IT, YOU'RE WASTING YOUR LIVES FOR NOTHING!!!"
20 miles
Thunderchild suddenly realised what was happening and pulled hard back on the control stick to avoid a collision with the cube, the torpedo following him impacted on the Borg hull, with minimal damage to the cube. The fighter flew, less than 5 miles off the cubes surface as more and more ships flung themselves at the cube, Thunderchild didn't what to think how many pilots were needlessly sacrificing their lives.
A flash of light nearly blinded him and suddenly the whole control panel in front of him lit up with red lights. Uh oh Thunderchild thought, not good, not good at all
His ship spiralled out of control flying off into space
"Ooooooooooh Crap!" he screamed as he tried to return the fighter under control. However with the majority of his control system fried, there was little he could do to recover any sort of control over the ship. After about half an hours worth of struggling, he gave up and surveyed the damage.
Lightspeed drive was fairly badly damaged, Life support was in very bad condition, and flight controls were offline. There was only one possible alternative that Thunderchild knew about and even that alternative was experimental and not something that Thunderchild would normally even consider.
He hit the cryostasis button.
A steel bubble expanded around his seat and a compressed gas was pumped in, Thunderchild felt himself falling slowly asleep.
The next memory gave quickly after that. Thunderchild remembered awaking from stasis to find a warning light bleeping on his console, he hadn't a clue how long he'd been in stasis, it could have been days it could have been weeks, it could even have been years! He looked at the readout on his control panel, another planet had been detected and the ship was on an intercept course for it. Sublight engines had been returned to full power, as had his flight control. Thunderchild mentally thanked the inventor of the auto-repair system.
He leaned forward and read some more data on this planet, strange he thought it's not spherical it's a disc! He increased engine power to full and then cut the engines totally, relying on the momentum of the ship to carry it to the disc and save power for the landing.
Within minutes the disc filled the cockpit screen, he could see continents, oceans, even grey smudges that were probably cities down there, and in the middle of this giant disc a mountain stretch high up into the top of the atmosphere. Thunderchild looked to his left and right to see the rim of the disc where the oceans just fell over the side. It was like the waterfalls of Retara on Terra only on a planet sized scale, Thunderchild mentally flinched when he thought of Terra and what it must be going through now or indeed, gone through years ago.
A few minutes later and the ship hit the atmosphere, a blinding red scorching across the front of the craft as the powerful friction rubbed the metal red. Thunderchild could see that he was heading for some desert land; hopefully the sand would cushion his impact. Then he lost view of everything as he hit the cloud layer, which was quite thick. Suddenly the desert vista opened up in front of him and Thunderchild crossed his hands over his chest and prayed.
The ship smashed into the top of a sand dune and bounced over it, sailing through the air and crashing into another dune, it carried on in this way for about a mile at high speed before smashing into a rock and flipping over and sliding gently into a darkened cave.
There Thunderchilds new memories ended, but something strange happened. The memories continued, not his memories though but the memories of someone else.
Someone he once knew by the name of Jara Gedyen but know knew by a completely different name.
Domino.