Chapter 37

MARK

“Ow, my head!” Arazis said upon waking up. She’d passed out without them noticing, and they decided to let her rest. Mark headed home shortly after, returning the next morning to check up on them.

“Yeah, I probably should have warned you about the next day,” Isabella replied. “You’re supposed to drink a bunch of water before going to bed to help prevent that.”

“I also need to pee like I never have before, I’ll be right back,” she added rushing for the washroom. There was audible projectile vomiting behind the door after less than a minute.

“And there’s the other part we probably should have warned her about,” Mark added.

“Yeah, oops.”

She took a while to exit the washroom. “I’m sorry, I made a large mess all over the floor.”

“Don’t worry, I’ll get janitorial to clean it up.”

“Suddenly it is no longer my favourite thing to consume. Oh, my head!”

“Here,” she said handing her three small white pills.”

“What’s this?”

“To help with that. Also these, because your eyes already are’t used to how bright we prefer it,” she said handing her a pair of dark burgundy glass ovals attached together. “So what do I do with these?”

She rolled her eyes. “They go on your face to cover your eyes, dummy.”

“Oh! So I guess these just sit on your ears then,” she said trying them on.

“Oh my, that’s much better and it wasn’t even that bright in here,” she said. “I’m never giving these back to you by the way,” she said.

“That’s fine, keep ‘em. They look nicer on you than me. Matches your hair.” Isabella called the cleaners, and they began for the hangar bay. “Is it oddly quiet to anyone else?” She asked. They stopped to listen.

“Yeah, now that you mention it, it sounds like we’re no longer in hyperspace. But our next stop isn’t even close!” Mark added.

“Well, let’s go see what’s up.” They picked up the pace, and made it to the hangar deck in no time. It appeared there was some anomalous vessel that pulled them from hyperspace similar to a Kadeshi inhibitor field. They brought it up on the nearest console.

“Whoa, look at the size of that thing!” Isabella said.

“Hold on a second, aren’t those some of ours?” Arazis said pointing to the smaller of the bunch clustered together to the side of the massive vessel.

“Yeah, those look like multi-beams alright,” Mark confirmed.

“This must be where our inhibitor technology came from,” Arazis said. “We do have long-range scouting parties that go far beyond the Garden to know what’s happening in the Galaxy. But I’ve never heard of anything like this.”

There was a probe outside, only approaching close enough to see what they were dealing with. A group of frigates were moving in to investigate.

“Attention! We’re taking enemy fire, these ships appear to be operational,” came the captain of the closest frigate before it backed off in full reverse to await further orders. Once the rest of the battle group arrived comprised of assault frigates in the vanguard followed closely behind by ion cannon frigates, destroyers and support frigates picking up the rear. The enemy units took notice and began locking on. And suddenly, the Kushan assault frigates decided to start spinning around for some reason, making them easy targets for the new Taiidan vessel, some sort of missile destroyer. After a few attempts to regain control of the assault frigates, they gave up and powered down the weapon systems and would wait for salvage crews to come collect them.

A salvage corvette was already docking with the massive unknown ship to recover its data core. After a few minutes, they were on the return trip with information on whatever the vessel was.

“Hyperspace signature detected,” the sensors officer announced.

It was the Bentusi. “We have known of this ship but could never approach it. We are particularly vulnerable to its influence. The Bentusi would like the information you have acquired. It will be transferred automatically if you choose to trade.”

“We are accepting to trade the information for super heavy chassis technology,” came Fleet Intelligence’s reply. “The purchased technology from the Bentusi in addition to the reverse-engineering of the Imperial Hiigaran wreck at Kadesh allow us to construct a new carrier-class unit.”

“The information was successfully transferred. Thank you,” the Bentusi said.

Karan spoke next. “The Taiidan are determined to destroy us. Will you help us defeat them?”

“Conflict is not our way. We will bring your cause to the Galactic Council. The Taiidan rule the Empire but even they must answer to the Council.” And with that, their hyperspace window opened and they were gone.

“What just happened?” Isabella wondered. The other two were also wondering the same, but the five minute confusion was interrupted by Johaan who was making his way towards them on the hangar deck.

“Greetings pilots, wanna see my next beastie of a ship?”

“I don’t see a Matriarch being built,” Mark said looking around.

“This is so much better.”

Curious, the three of them followed him up to the capital ship bay. There was a large craft being produced that filled nearly the entire cavity. “What the…”

“Meet the Imperator, he said. “The first true carrier of our own.” He showed them on the console nearby. The ship was still under construction, but the molecular assembler could produce even a carrier unit in an impressively short time.

“Huh, it looks oddly like the Imperial Hiigaran wreck from the Origin Nexus,” Arazis pointed out.

“Oh, that’s on purpose actually. We scanned it and more or less replicated its design, same as we did for our frigates. Construction began not too long after the Bentusi departed.”

“What do you mean about the frigates?” Mark asked.

“Oh, you didn’t know? Our original corvette and frigate chassis designs were taken and modified from Khar Toba, mixed with data from the Taiidan archives on Hiigaran Empire units. Command felt it would be pretty terrifying to them should ships that look almost the same as their old nemeses showed up again.”

“Wow, no I had no idea.”

“Not only that, we also took some cues from your Needleships,” he said looking to Arazis. “That top bulkhead’s very thick, no weapon I know of is breaching that side of the hull I can tell you that.”

“Smart,” Isabella said.

“You’re welcome to come aboard and stay too,” he said.

“I can’t though, we have to train a new batch of pilots again,” Mark complained.

“Bah! I’m sure Command can find someone else to do that. Besides, Command’s ordered all Kadeshi to embark before launch.”

“How very kind,” Arazis threw back.

“I mean, yes. Yes it is, cause you’re no longer prisoners once aboard but members of my crew.”

“Wait, really?” She asked.

“Yep, welcome to the Mothership fleet.”

ARAZIS

She watched as her kind made their way aboard the new Kushan carrier, this was the first step, she felt. An act of good will from Mark’s people to hers. She was surprised to see just how many had survived, lifting a weight on her heart. Hundreds of survivors remained, even familiar faces from the Amun. No Saiin to be seen, however.

Once all were accounted for, it was now their turn. Johaan Naabal had already left them as he was required at the helm.

“I’ve requested our interceptors transferred to the Imperator too,” Isabella said. “Someone will fly them over for us before we make the jump.”

“Can we even make the jump? Isn’t that massive hulk preventing us from leaving?” Mark asked.

“Well, since we can’t really attack that cluster of units head on and using strike craft which don’t seem to be affected would be suicide against those missiles, beam units with longer range have mostly taken care of them now. We sent in some salvagers to grab the destroyer and the Kadeshi units, but the rest we don’t need.”

“That settles that, then.” Mark opened a channel to Command. “See you around, Karan. I’ll hold the fort down on the Imperator until Mothership needs me for whatever reason,” he said. “Oh, and also send all available pilot recruits over will you when you move the Kadeshi swarmers?”

“Can do. See you around Mark,” she said in reply.

The three of them crossed the catwalk connecting the carrier to the hangar. Once inside, they had to hold the railing as the artificial gravity took hold. On the command bridge, Johaan was tapping away at the helm’s console. “Red Squad reporting for duty captain,” Mark said with a quick salute.

“Hey, you made it. I guess that’s everyone, yeah?”

“Pretty much. Oh, do them a favour and dim the lighting by about a third, would you? Their eyes aren’t used to light this bright apparently. And send all their pilots to the main bay, I’d like to have a word.”

“So that’s why the sunglasses, then?”

“No that’s just having a bit too much,” Isabella joked.

“Oh!” He laughed. “Don’t worry, my tolerance is nearly nonexistent too.”

“Leave it to a Naabal to show absolute weakness,” she continued, shaking her head in disappointment.

“Oh, ha ha Manaan,” he shot back. He returned his attention to the console. “Attention hangar control, we’re ready to get going.”

“Roger that captain,” came the response.

There was a large audible rumble, and he could see on the view screen a window showing the hangar door of Mothership’s capital bay beginning to open. Once complete, their new captain made his first announcement to the crew.

“Attention all hands, we are go for launch.” And with that, he gave a nod to his bridge officers, and took them out. The carrier was so large it had mere meters of clearance from the hangar walls, therefore it was a slow process to not hit anything and cause untold damage. Once they were clear and reorienting, she saw that this Taiidan missile destroyer was already in tow to occupy the space they’d just left. “The Imperator is away.” He stood from the helm, and the actual helmsman took over from there.

“We’re prepping main bay to receive the two Kadeshi frigates, sir. Boarding parties are ready to go.”

“Excellent, let’s try and figure out what exactly happened here,” he said before making a second announcement to the crew. “Attention, may any available and willing Kadeshi science officers as well as fighter pilots report to the main hangar deck? We have two multi-beam frigates in tow that were also affected by this unknown vessel’s gravity well. Might as well find out what we can from their computers about the anomaly. I am also permanently adjusting lighting to seventy percent from here on out ship-wide to help our newest kiith.” He took his headset off, and motioned for them to follow him out of the command centre, but before they could, they were interrupted.

The hangar deck of the imperator-class carrier was odd. The main deck was upside down from its regular orientation, so it was more like they stood on the hangar ceiling than its deck, but artificial gravity meant that didn’t matter a whole lot. There were about a dozen others of her kiith gathered together, unsure what they should be doing, with many more further away. Seeing her, they started to look more at ease.

“Greetings, Kadeshi.” Johaan began. “The two vessels about to dock are your models. While we’ve managed to secure information from your other ships’ archives, it was encrypted and we are still barely scratching the surface with our decryption algorithms. It would be a whole lot more convenient if some of you were willing to help us out in this regard.”

They looked to one another unsure, then to Arazis. She nodded, and they stepped forward. “Well, it is simple actually. Our computers are based off that same Imperial Hiigaran one’s for the most part. The encryption is easily broken with the right keys.”

“And you have these keys?” Johaan asked.

“Well, no, and even if we did have current keys known off-hand, there is no guarantee they would also work on these couple given it is unknown how old they are.”

“I see.”

“It should take us no more than an hour to access the main databanks,” he added.

“No rush, our resourcing operations might take us the entire day,” he said.

“I am an engineer formerly from our Needle’s production division. If you want blueprints to construct our units I can provide that as well,” she said.

“I’d appreciate that, yes. No point training all of you how to use ours when we can just build you some of your own.”

“And what of the others? Those still on the other carrier?” A third asked.

“Oh, they’re on their way over soon too don’t you worry. All Kadeshi are now members of my crew, same as any other kiith. If there’s discrimination going on under my watch, I’d like to hear about it so I may send them back to Mothership. It will not be tolerated. I am under no illusions, I am not known well by any of you, but I assure you that under my command you will be living among us as equals from here on out. Your detainment was not an ideal solution to a large problem of what to do with so many enemy combatants. Now that we’re no longer enemies I presume, there’s no need.”

“I see.”

“If we are to reach Hiigara and succeed, we will need the help of kiith Kadesh to do it.”

“We can make no promises all will agree to this, but we will inform them,” another said.

“If they don’t,” Arazis began, “I’d like you to also remind them of captain Jeremiah’s final order.”

The other nodded.

“And who knows,” Johaan added, “if we succeed and reach Hiigara, someday you may all be able to return to the nebula as well should you choose. I cannot make any promises in that regard, however.” And suddenly, she saw their spirits begin to lift. “Now then, I take my leave. I have some matters to attend to. Mark, deck’s yours.”

“Aye, cap.” Once the captain was gone, Mark stomped one foot down as hard as he could to get everyone’s attention. “Pilots!” He shouted, ensuring they paid attention. “The deck’s mine. When I am present, I’m to be considered as your king. My rules apply. The only ones who can override are the captain, his first officer, and Karan S’jet herself. Second in charge after me is this pretty lady to my left. Her name is Isabella Manaan, and the two of us will be assessing your abilities to determine ranking. I’m sure you have preexisting squad mates, and I have no issues with you reforming your previous teams as it would be more effective working with others you already work best with.”

Isabella spoke next. “Another thing, piss me off enough and you won’t just be sent to the brig. I know I look like a cute innocent child, but I can deck you in no time. So yes, try my patience. I welcome it. Did you wanna say anything?” She asked looking Arazis’ way.

“Yes, actually,” she said removing her shades and soaking in the still far too bright azure light. “I am Arazis Restona. Aboard the Amun I was in command of the forward bay multiple times when those tasked with that duty were away or indisposed. If you aren’t comfortable yet taking issues that arise to either of these two, you can come to me with it instead and I’ll relay the information. These two next to me are a couple of the most talented pilots I’ve gone up against, and now they’re my new squad mates. Disrespect them and you disrespect me. I know a lot of you already, but only those from one of our three Needles. Everyone else, I’ve never met in my life. I also know that many of you are from the Suteh, and Elite Guardians too. Your sacred duty is to serve and protect the Garden, I know you feel you have failed in that task. But that’s not accurate. Your actual duty is to serve and protect the Kadeshi, and now that we are so far from home, there’s no going back for us. Your duty is to all who remain. Step forward, Guardians.”

Several dozen took two paces.

“Good, you get to skip skill assessment entirely, I’m fairly confident it would be wasting everyone present’s time to do so,” she added.

“Well, I still need you to fill out some basic forms and all that but yeah pretty much what she said,” Mark added. “I’m sure anyone with a title like Elite Guardian is sufficiently ranked compared to us, I’d wager. Now then, you’re all dismissed. Take some time, speak with your kiith. And welcome to the fleet. We meet back here tomorrow morning.”