AUTHOR'S NOTE: I'm back! I'll keep posting new chapters for the next few weeks. Although the next few are probably going to get weird...
Thank you Anonymous Guest for the review.
Chapter 166: Silver-Inlé: The Next Generation.
"That's It! Suddenly I know:
I have to follow. Somehow, I must
convince them to let me come too
...There is nothing left for me here.
Blindly I race to catch them up
Desperation driving me on
They may tear me to pieces-
- no less than I deserve
for the part I have played here-
But that, or anything, is more endurable
than to remain behind
[...]
Take me with you!
The plea of my soul
echoes the words of the poet the night before
It is met with
Silence.
Rejection."
-StoryMing, Strawberry's Silent Lament
It was very dark. The closest stars were distant enough that they appeared only as faint spots. There was also absolute quiet, which made sense: outer space is a vacuum, after all. Suddenly, something flew by, too fast for the naked eye. And just as quickly as it had arrived, it had already departed, in the direction of one of those stars. There was no indication that it had ever been there.
It was a large spaceship, and it was traveling faster than the speed of light. On the bridge, there were no humans, or aliens. The only creatures present were rabbits, who had to stand on their hind legs on the chairs in order to be able to reach the controls. Hazel was sitting in the centre of the room, on the largest chair of them all; it normally belonged to the ship's captain. He was dictating an entry into the Chief's Log, and while everyone could hear him, nobody was paying close attention to his words.
-"We received a distress message from the direction of the border warren of Meadow Grove, and are currently on our way to investigate. The message was quickly cut off before anyone could explain the nature of the problems they were encountering. Frith, please let us arrive there in time."
Several other rabbits were scattered around the bridge. Bigwig and Spartina were in the back, with Blackberry and Bluebell in the front, at the helm. The front wall was a large viewscreen, with most rabbits glancing at it on a regular basis. Fiver and Vilthuril were on the chairs next to Hazel's, awkwardly looking at each other.
-"Is this really happening?" the doe asked.
Fiver stared straight ahead. When he had had the initial vision, then learned of Bluebell's portal, he had been left terrified. Now that he managed to experience this other world, however, he had calmed down. This would be a nice diversion. No need to worry about dissent, elil, visions, or Darkhaven, at least for now. He knew very well that this was all wrong, and yet, despite how wrong it was, he had no objections to letting it go on for a while. But Vilthuril had also figured it out. This had been much quicker than expected. He couldn't lie to her; he would have to tell the truth, even if it meant a quicker end to this adventure.
-"We're in a hrududu that moves throughout the stars," Fiver explained. "Humans would call it a 'starship' or a 'spaceship'."
-"That's good to know, but why are we here?"
-"We went through Bluebell's portal."
-"This is so unlike his usual jokes."
-"I doubt this is a joke. I don't think he himself realizes what he did. He probably just made a mistake, and we are all experiencing the accidental consequences."
The two rabbits' discussion was interrupted as they heard Blackberry's voice:
-"Now approaching Meadow Grove."
Indeed, looking at the ship's viewscreen, an almost spherical ship was clearly visible.
-"Assume standard orbit," Hazel ordered, jumping off the chair.
-"That's a warren?" Blackberry whispered to Bluebell.
-"It's a planet," Bluebell said.
-"Oh. Anyway, standard orbit."
Blackberry manipulated the touchscreen interface in front of him, to stabilize the ship in a normal orbit around Meadow Grove. Bluebell, meanwhile, took a look at the data from the ship's long-range sensors, scrolling by at great speed on his screen.
-"There is a vessel moving towards us."
-"On screen," Hazel ordered.
Bluebell did so. Due to how far away the vessel was, the image on the viewscreen was not very detailed.
-"This looks like a Zorn vessel," Spartina said.
-"We should have expected that," Bigwig said. "They have violated the neutral zone several times recently, and now they're doing it again. Shall I ready thundersticks and photon claws?"
-"Not just yet, Plump Rabbit," Hazel said. "Let us not do anything that could be interpreted as hostile. That said, if diplomacy fails, be ready."
Bigwig was clearly angry at the "plump rabbit" remark, but did not complain.
-"Zorn vessel just dropped out of warp," Bluebell announced.
The viewscreen now displayed the Zorn ship over the planet's surface, in greater detail than ever before. It had been designed specifically for combat.
-"Counsellor, anything?"
It took several moments for Vilthuril to realize that Hazel was talking to her. It was only when she saw him staring at her that she figured out that she was the counsellor. She looked back at the viewscreen. Ordinarily, Fiver should have been the one sensing things, but in this twisted place, the task had fallen to her instead.
-"I sense hostility," she said. "I don't think they're interested in listening."
-"Still no harm in trying, though, is there?" Hazel appeared optimistic about the situation, more so than anyone else present. "Open hedgerow frequencies."
-"Hedgerow frequencies open," Spartina announced after pressing a button on her console. On the viewscreen, the image of the Zorn vessel's commander appeared. Hazel stepped forward, so that the enemy could see him too.
-"This is Chief Hazel-rah of Watership Down. On behalf of the United Federation of Warrens, we come in peace."
-"How many warrens in this federation, already?" Vilthuril whispered to her mate.
-"With Redstone destroyed...one," Fiver confessed after thinking for a few moments. "Unless you count Buttercup's, but she doesn't even know about Woundwort."
The captain of the Zorn vessel was not impressed with Hazel's speech.
-"I'm Bartsia. A Bunfleet ship, eh? It's been a long time since we encountered one of THOSE. What are you even doing here? That 'prime owsla directive' of yours prevents you from meddling here."
-"Does it?" Hazel asked, unsure himself of the answer; this prompted Bigwig to shake his head. "We received a distress call, and we answered."
-"Look, just go away," Bartsia said, with a hint of anger. "If you don't, you shall all face our wrath."
With that, communication was cut off, and the image on the viewscreen was replaced with what it was before, the Zorn vessel over the planet's surface.
-"You certainly handled that very well, Chief" Bigwig said.
-"Thank you, Plump Rabbit," Hazel replied, not noticing the sarcasm.
-"Don't call me..." Bigwig started to say, but before he had a chance to finish, Bluebell made a worrying announcement:
-"They're firing their thundersticks at us!"
-"Shields up!" Hazel ordered, but it was too late, the ship took the full impact. The ground shook, knocking some rabbits off their chairs, and sparks flew from the ceiling.
-"Damage report," Hazel asked.
-"One shield is out," Blackberry announced, looking at his controls. "I need to go to the machine burrows to try to fix it. Until then, Bluebell, protect the left side, that's our most vulnerable spot right now."
-"I'll do my best," Bluebell replied.
Blackberry ran off his seat, and off the bridge, to reach the "machine burrows"; the engineering deck, as the spaceship's normal occupants would call it.
-"Another thunderstick blast aimed towards us," Bluebell warned.
-"Let's return fire," Hazel ordered.
-"Finally," Bigwig said, annoyed at how long it had taken before Hazel finally decided to fight back. More thundersticks were fired, but all hits on both sides were deflected; Bluebell did a good job at maneuvering the vessel to compensate for the one disabled shield.
Upon arriving in engineering, Blackberry was taken aback by all the large and complicated machinery. On the bridge, there had been a few situations that had felt unnatural, but this was worse than ever before. Like Fiver and Vilthuril before him, he realized how absurd the current situation was. Nevertheless, he still had to try to restore the systems, even if he had no idea how to do so. If he didn't, everyone would be destroyed by the Zorn, and nobody would ever make it back home.
The battle went on for what seemed like a long time to both sides. Nobody was able to cause serious damage to their opponents; they did little besides firing thundersticks at each other, most of which were then dodged or deflected. Both vessels' shields were weakened, but remained effective.
This continued until Bigwig realized he was unable to fire any further thundersticks.
-"Blackberry, status report," Hazel called over the ship's communication system.
-"The thunderstick banks are empty, it'll take some time for them to recharge," came Blackberry's reply.
-"Are photon claws still functional?"
-"I'm trying..."
Restoring the photon claws was a massive challenge for Blackberry. Not because of complicated equipment, but because he had trouble convincing Silverweed to take part.
-"When I came to live at Watership Down, I vowed I would never use my powers to hurt anyone ever again," the mystic said.
-"Not even to save us all? If you don't do this now, we're all going to die."
-"If I really don't have a choice, I'll do it..."
In order to be able to provide the photon claws, Silverweed went inside a nearby glass chamber. He had to place his front paws on a pair of conductive platforms, and wires were mechanically inserted inside his ears.
-"Can you replicate me some mushrooms?" he asked.
-"Mushrooms?" Blackberry was taken aback. "Why do you want mushrooms?"
-"So I can perform a spore jump. This will allow us to get away without having to destroy the Zorn, and it'll be too fast for them to be able to follow us."
-"If we do that, then the Zorn will destroy Meadow Grove. You have to use the claws."
-"It would be nice to avoid destruction for once..." Silverweed said with a sigh, realizing he would have no choice but to take part in the battle.
On the bridge, Bigwig saw a light flash on his console.
-"Photon claws armed and ready, Hazel."
-"Fire!" Hazel ordered.
Bigwig pressed a button, and Silverweed fired the photon claws. The Zorn vessel, weakened following the prolonged battle, was unable to defend itself, and took a direct hit, leaving it completely disabled. Bartsia, realizing the situation was hopeless, reopened communications with the other vessel.
-"It seems you won," he was forced to admit. "A shame we had to fight each other, though. In an alternate universe, we could have been great friends."
-"A shame indeed," Hazel said, looking at the viewscreen. "Stand by, while we transport survivors to our vessel."
-"No. You don't know what it's like to be Zorn. It is better to die than to be taken prisoner."
-"Wait, no, don't..."
But it was too late. Bartsia ended communications, and activated his own vessel's self-destruct sequence. Moments later, it exploded. The Watershippers' vessel was shaken by the shockwave, and more sparks flew. It had all happened too quickly for them to rescue anyone; there was little they could do except watch the destruction on the viewscreen.