Chapter 3

Both Kayjan and Niaba were silent for most of the journey. The sat in their seats and kept their thoughts to themselves. Kay spent most of his time contemplating what was ahead. He did notice however that Niaba was spending all her time staring out the cabin window. She seemed so keen on understanding the workings of the galaxy. He tried to make sure that she did not catch him looking at her, otherwise what happened last time might re-occur. Kay attempted keeping his mind on other things.

Eventually they reached the Carrier Teran-Ka. It was long, flat shaped craft with multiple deck and flashing lights across its hull. It had two rectangular openings on its bow to allow strike craft up to Corvettes to launch and larger shafts on its sides, which allowed strike craft to dock, and the launch of Frigates. It was appropriately covered in the Hiigaran colours, Light Blue with White stripe colours and on its top and between its Production modules was the Hiigaran symbol, painted in white. A circle with two smaller circles within it and a pair of angel's wings spreading from its centre.

As they exited the ship they were instructed to join other pilots in the lounge of the ship. As they took their seats, Niaba looked out the window with a slightly confused look on her face. She turned around and asked one of the support staff passing by,

"Excuse me, what going on. Why are we not facing the Herolian nebula? I though a ship had to Hyperspace in a straight line?"

The crewman turned around and said to her

"The ships can only Hyperspace in a straight line. We're not heading to the Herolian nebula. We're going to dock with the Mothership."

"But isn't the Mothership in the Nebula?" she asked.

"No, we released that information to confuse the Vaygr. We're heading to the great derelict?"

"Tanis?"

"Yes Miss," and with that he disappeared.

Whispers began to spread quickly around the lounge as all the pilots quietly spoke of their surprise of where they were heading and what stories they had heard about Tanis. Its location in the Great Wastelands left all suggestions open for no one has really ever been aware of how the Debris and Asteroid belts of the Wastelands came to be. Some believed it to be an ancient Starship that was destroyed millions of millennia ago. Others believed it to be an ancient Interstellar Space-city that became deserted after its people moved to more habitable lands. One of the pilots next to Kayjan said to his friends,

"I never thought they would have gone to such great lengths to keep this project a secret."

Kayjan spoke up at this point. "This project provides the greatest hope for our people. 'The Pride of Hiigara' will be our only defence against the swarms of Vaygr that will bear down upon us. We cannot allow them to find her before she is ready to face them in battle." Everyone stared at him for an uncomfortable length of time. Then the sound of the Carrier's Hyperspace Module turned everyone's attention away from him. This gave Kayjan an extreme amount of relief. The ship was underway. There was a loud humming noise as the ship opened a square Hyperspace opening in front of the ship and it then moved down the ship, causing her to pass slowly into the Hyperspace before closing the rift again behind them.

The distance to their destination was approximately a hundred light years so it would take the ships around six hours to get there. This gave Kayjan plenty of time to ponder once more. He wondered how much more stupid he could be. How could he tell the others about his dream? Why did he have to say what he did? They will now all live with doubts and questions until the end of this horrible war. He realized that if what he had said spread among other Outpost and into Hiigaran society, he could be a more dangerous weapon to his people than any the Vaygr possessed.

"Why am I always so stupid?" he kept asking himself.

"Why can't I learn when to keep my mouth shut and just fit in with everyone else?"

"Why do I have to be different?" His thoughts however did not just dwell on himself. He was curious about something else. Why was the mood of everyone around him so relaxed? Everyone seemed to be happy, joking, talkative. He saw how Niaba was asking about confidential subjects and was just handed a straightforward explanation. 'Why was this happening?'

'Was he the only one who actually saw that they were going to war?' What Kayjan didn't acknowledged was that these questions would all be answered chillingly in due time.

Upon arrival, the Carrier exited Hyperspace running parallel to the ship about one mile out from the Mothership's location, which didn't seem very far in space. As the Hyperspace rift dissipated, everyone turned to look out the Lounge's portholes. Gasps shortly followed, as the sight they saw was unimaginable. The Spacecraft was more magnificent than any had ever seen before. The space giant lay motionless inside the scaffolding of Tanis base. It had to be at least 4 kilometres high and stretched a kilometre outward. The ship did not lie flat; instead it stood upright and firms. It was twice the size of what the original Mothership's size was and had to be the largest construction in all Hiigaran history. Lights flickered from every mast and Docking bay. There were hundreds of robots working on the final ceramic plating of its hull when the Carrier pulled closer to her. The ship had already earned its title 'The Pride of Hiigara.'

The carrier moved close to the right side of the ship and pulled up into her hull before attached her docking cables to the ship's personnel docking station just above her Frigate launch bay. As this was happening, Kayjan had a strange feeling inside him and thought for a moment that he had seen this site before. Somehow, Tanis base seemed familiar to him. He didn't know where and couldn't put his finger on it, but he knew that something was terribly wrong. All the crews gathered their kit together and prepared for transfer. Kayjan tried to stay close to Niaba in the crowd, but as they all moved into gaps and were trying to move ahead they became separated. He watched as she disappeared behind floods on pilots and her lost sight of her. He felt numb for a moment. Whenever he became so far from her he felt so cold and empty. He wanted to talk to somebody about it, about how he felt about her and that he felt lonely, but he had reached the stage where he couldn't trust anymore, he was afraid of people.

Once all the crews and pilots had crossed over, the Carrier detached itself from the ship and headed back to the Hiigaran fleet. Kay was amazed by the size of the ship. It was larger than anything made by Hiigarans he had seen in his life. When the crews headed toward the meeting area, they entered the hanger and they all found themselves open mouthed and staring at the immensity of the ship's main production area. They could easily house the population of a city within it.

Their instructor pointed out

"Like its predecessor, 'The Pride of Hiigara's hanger is the single largest enclosed volume ever built in our history and possibly the history of many other civilizations. It has the ability to produce and manufacture craft of any scale possible up to Carriers. However, it cannot produce Battlecruisers, so it has to call in a Shipyard for that task. Other than that, this ship is the ultimate weapons platform." The crews were lead through corridors and over walkways to the overpass of a factory slab, where the other crews were waiting. Eventually, the gathering reached about a hundred. They were all talking and joking for a while until they were asked to silence and stand to attention. Then a man in Captain's uniform approached in his full ware of honours and medals to greet them all.

"Good Day everyone. I'm sure you all know why you're here. You have all been selected for your piloting and gunnery skills to escort the Mothership and support the Hiigaran fleet during the coming conflict. We wish you will become accustomed to the ways in which we operate here and that you will call this ship your new home, at least for the next few months. First we need you to sort yourselves into operation groups. We need all scouts pilots over here," He pointed to a corner of the metallic slab "Interceptor Pilots over here, Bomber pilots here, Gunship crew and Pulsar Gunship crew." The overpass was soon bustling as crews gathered into separate groups to be sorted into squadrons. There was a larger group of Interceptor pilots than any of the other groups. It wasn't long before a Senior Tactician greeted each group. For the Interceptor pilots, it was a young man with long, straight blonde hair that came down to his shoulders. He stepped forward and as Kayjan watched him he asked himself why he couldn't be like him. Why couldn't he be instilled with confidence and pride? He looked quickly over his shoulder to see if he could see Niaba and he noticed a smile on her face as she stared at this handsome young man. This he thought had to be the worst thing that could happen to him on top of everything else he had felt that day.

"Right," began the young man, "Now I need you to co-operate here when I tell you to form into groups. I'll call out each squadron individually and give you your squadron name and squadron leader. Are you with me so far?" Just about everyone nodded their heads at that point. Kayjan began to hope that he would be put in the same squadron as Niaba. It seemed kind of childish and cowardly, how he had to wish that he was put with her so that he could actually gather the courage to speak to her, but he didn't really care if it was childish. It was what he wanted.

"O.K. Now here on the Mother ship we have reduced squadrons from seven to five so, first I need Alpha squadron. This will consist of; Cameron Sjet, Treise Manaan, Niaba Naabal..."

"Please Sajuuk, just this once," thought Kayjan as he stared at the piece of paper the man was holding.

"Is that, Key...Kayjan Soban," said the man as Kayjan quietly cheered inside while he stepped out of the crowd.

"And your Squadron leader will be Diego Soban." Kayjan suddenly had a shock. Diego? Diego was here? His old childhood partner from the days of his Sobani youth? He watched as this young, strong, tall, handsome guy with spiked, blonde highlighted hair stepped out of the crowd and joined the group standing at the front.

"This is the Mothership's Primary Strike Squadron. With Diego as it's head you must all answer to him. He is your Fleet leader now. Is that clear?" Every person responded with a 'Yes Sir!'

"Right," continued the man, "Alpha Squad, you can now go to your new cabins. Follow the corridor around until you get there."

Once the five of them were out of the Hangar, Kayjan and Diego turned to each other.

"Diego, so good to see you again," said Kayjan.

"Same here," said Diego as they performed their childhood handshake.

"How did you get onto this project? I didn't think they allowed Psychopaths behind the controls of ships these days," said Diego with a chuckle.

"They must be pretty desperate this time to let you fly Command," replied Kayjan with a sarcastic voice.

"So, have you crashed any more fighter craft since I've been away?"

"Very funny Kayjan. No, Lebra base has been accident free since you left. I wonder what that could mean."

"Are you implying something again Diego?" asked Kayjan with a smirk on his face.

"Maybe," Diego replied with a smirk on his face as well. They then both began to laugh.

"So how's Colin? Still hanging around you all the time?"

"He fine and I was hanging around him actually until I was assigned to this mission."

"You mean he's not here?"

"Sara base can't afford to get rid of all its best pilots now can it?"

"No, it gets rid of its others instead," said Diego in a smug voice.

"Very funny."

"And who is this lovely lady you've brought with you Kay?" said Diego as he turned to look at Niaba further down the hallway.

"Oh, that's Niaba Naabal...But she's not with me," said Kayjan in a slightly let down voice. Diego quickened his pace to catch up with her and was soon in informal conversation with her. Kayjan just watched them. He could see that Diego hadn't changed from his charming self and even though he didn't let on, he was hurting inside at the sight of them together. Now this had to be the lowest it could get. If there was one thing Kayjan had noticed in his life, it was that in the end, nothing ever seemed to turn out his way.