Flowers in the Black - Part IV
02 Jul 2018Jellicoe
Deep Space, Celeano SystemJellicoe sat in his ready room looking, yet again at the holo-film of the wrecks of the various capitol ships that dotted the region and scrolling through a plethora of reports of alien encounters from independent pilots looking for something, anything, he might have missed. All the destroyed vessels displayed the same corrosive damage pattern, none appeared to have taken more than a handful of hits and not one appeared to have destroyed a single enemy ship. He leaned back in his chair and stretched, admitting defeat when his wife entered, completely unannounced. His wife. He was still struggling to take that in, not just the suddenness of it but that it had happened at all, even in the earliest days of their relationship, even though it had only begun as a casual fling he had always felt he was punching a long way above his weight with her, but he had been happy to ride the wave for as long as he could, then it had been he who had left, vanishing for seven long years, had that been the real reason? A deep seated belief that she could do a lot better, that sooner or later she'd realise it and so better to let it fade away and keep the memory of the good times than see it overshadowed by the pain that would come when she inevitable tired of her dalliance with a man twenty years her junior and a common spacer to boot. I loved you even then he thought, i just never even imagined you might feel the same. But she had. She loved him and she understood him, understood him better than he did himself he often thought.
"I know you hate tea in zero gravity so here's a coffee," Kira said briskly throwing him a squeeze-pack, "have you given up yet?" she asked, perching herself on his desk a knowing smile on her lips.
"What do you mean?"
"I know you sweetie, it was obvious within minutes that there was nothing useful in those films but you being you had to spend the next hour going over them just in case, so have you given up yet?"
"Yes." He replied unsuccessfully trying to keep the smile off his face
"What do we do now then?"
"I want another look at one of their ships, like Vik says there's something that doesn't add up."
Asterope System
"Got a signal source Skipper." Vik called from tactical, "locking on... it's non human... threat level five."
"Five?" Claude asked. "That's..."
"The same as a battlecruiser," Jellicoe interrupted firmly, "and we've survived a good few encounters with them so stay sharp, do your jobs and we'll be fine."
They dropped, back into normal space, but here the void itself had changed with a luminous green tinge colouring space itself in a way reminiscent of a planetary fog but giving the scene before them a threatening, otherworldly quality that heightened the sense of mystery and danger.
"We're mass locked." Claude called from astrogation moments after they entered normal space then raised his eyes to look out of the canopy. "Oh!"
A navy Corvette drifted, gouts of flame blazing from numerous hull breaches, its superstructure flecked with the now familiar luminescent green patches around the fire. The dead hulks of two Dropships floated close to their command vessel both also spewing flame from their gutted innards, the corpse of a tiny Condor fighter, one of its wings blown off also spun gently amidst the wreckage.
"So significant heat signature from the wrecks," Vik said confirming what all had guessed, "multiple other sensor traces... two escape pods, a black box, tactical data pod and... an unknown trace."
"Unknown?"
"Checking... yes unknown, there's something there but the scanners can't identify it." Vik replied his voice both thoughtful and uneasy.
"It's them." Kira said quietly.
"Lock on to it," Jellicoe ordered, "I want a full scan."
"There!" Claude said, pointing at a small pattern of yellow light in the near distance."
"It's moving to intercept us." Vik called, "scanners are useless, just a jumble of numbers."
The object came closer and a shape they all recognised moved smoothly into clear relief, a vast, skeletal, eight petalled flower halted around five hundred meters from the 'Resolution's' bow, its petals glowing a fluorescent yellow against the green haze.
"Hardpoints?" Vik asked.
"No," Jellicoe replied, "not yet anyway, are the scanners doing any better up close?"
"No. They've locked on but no information, they can't even confirm it's a ship."
At that moment a piercing, inhuman shrieking sound filled the bridge and a long tendril of brilliant yellow light flicked out from the unknown ship bathing the 'Resolution' in its almost ethereal glow.
"Damage report?" Jellicoe barked.
"All fine," Vik replied, "remember last time? It's probably a scan again."
"Last time they shut us down," Claude put in, "What's changed?"
As abruptly as it had appeared the tongue of light snaked back to the strange craft which turned, apparently unconcerned by the presence of the 'Resolution' and glid back towards the wreck of the navy Corvette, with its trail of strangely distorted space in its wake."
"It attacked them why not us?" Claude asked. "It just looked us over and ignored us."
"Maybe they fired first," Jellicoe said thoughtfully, "or deployed weapons or something that thing took as hostile. Anyway now we've shown it we're no threat I want those two escape pods, they can't object to us collecting our survivors. Deploy limpets as soon as we're in range."
"First limpet away." Claude called a short while later.
"Skipper it's got the other pod in some kind of tractor beam," Vik called urgently, "that yellow beam, it's pulling the pod in."
"Claude launch a limpet, that thing's not getting one of our boys, not on my watch."
"Limpet away," Claude replied imediately, "first limpet back aboard, one pod recovered. I'm going to get us as close to the other as you can, between see if we can block that beam."
The limpet was in the light stream by now, it had the pod in its grip but was clearly taking a buffeting, the struggle was brief but intense until the human drone emerged from the alien light beam, the escape pod grasped in its metal claws. Jellicoe interposed his ship between the alien and its prize.
"We've got it." Claude called exultantly. At that moment another shrieking sound tore through the bridge, a sound somehow combining frustration, rage and pain in one explosion of noise.
"I don't think it liked that Skipper," Vik said, "readings are going haywire and... what the... it's changing!"
All eyes turned to the mysterious vessel, the ship looked somehow darker the bright yellow light on its petals had turned to a dull, angry red while from the rear of the craft came numerable small projectiles, larger than missiles, smaller than fighters but taking up a seemingly ordered formation around their mother ship.
"Caution shield breach attack." The ships computer announced, none of the crew had even noticed the incoming fire so transfixed had they been on the spectacle before them.
"Superficial damage only," Vik said, quickly recovering his composure, "all modules at 100%>"
The alien peeled off, speeding away from the 'Resolution' with an agility seemingly at odds with its size extending the range while its swarm buzzed about the Corvette maintaining a stinging torrent of fire.
"Do we fight?" Claude asked, Jellicoe paused for a long moment, his finger hovering over the trigger. The 'Resolution' was taking some damage but nothing serious, her stout shields and heavy armour protecting her, as yet, from serious harm.
"No." The commander replied boosting the ships engines, "We'll get back into super-cruise and make a sweep of the system, I want an idea of how many of them we're dealing with."
"It's following us, matching our speed." Vik warned.
"Jumping now."
"Warning. Mass lock factor 33." The computer called as the frame shift progress bar slowed to a crawl.
"We're still taking fire, hull at 92%."
"Right then, let's see if we can teach it some manners," Jellicoe growled as the ships massive multi-cannons supplemented by a battery of lasers deployed, "La'Niyah get a fighter up, see if you can keep that swarm off our backs."
"What makes you think that the one of us can do any better than the three of them?" Claude asked.
"Because I very much doubt they had old Todd and uncle Broo play around with their weapons," Jellicoe replied emptying a full magazine of overcharged rounds and a storm of laser fire into the mysterious vessel, "How much damage are we doing Vik?"
"I don't know," Vik replied, "the scanners just a jumble of numbers, it seemed to register we'd hit it but beyond that? for all I know it could be about to blow or completely unharmed."
"Skipper we're fighting blind," Claude said forcefully as Jellicoe unleashed a second salvo, "this is insane."
"He's right Stannis," Kira spoke clearly and calmly, in the tone of a woman accustomed to being obeyed, "use your brain and get us out of here."
"Shields at 43%," Vik put in, "hull at 85%"
"We came here for answers not a fight," Kira said more gently this time, "let's find out if we got any."
Jellicoe looked around the bridge, his ship was in no imminent danger but Claude was right, they were fighting the unknown and punching blind.
"Alright," Jellicoe said nodding, "lay in a course for Merope, engage when ready."