Authors: Thomas Fay
The co
ntrol room descended into chaos as Xavier and Jonas drew their weapons and aimed them at Vorn. He in turn drew his weapon and pointed it at them. Cassandra sprang up and stood with her hands poised as Te’Anne shielded the little girl. No one moved as each waited to see what the other would do. That left only Izikiel.
Some part of him was surprised at how calm he was. In another life, at another time, the sight of heavily armed people facing off against each other would have made him cower
in fright. But that was another person and they were no more. He knew who he was now, where he had come from and, most importantly, he knew where he had to go.
‘Xavier, Jonas what are you doing?’ Izikiel asked.
‘Nuclear flare bombs are illegal on all the colonised worlds. Possession alone is punishable by death. He’s put all of our lives at risk,’ Xavier said.
‘Is this true?’
Izikiel asked.
‘Yes,’ Vorn replied. The reluctance was evident in his voice as he continued. ‘I had no
choice; they would have killed me on the spot. This was the only way that I could save myself and this ship.’
‘Damn you
, Vorn, how could you do this to us? We trusted you with our lives,’ Te’Anne said as she put her arms around the little girl.
‘If I hadn’t taken you off
Vesta
then you’d all be dead by now. What I carry in the cargo hold of my ship is none of your business,’ Vorn said.
‘It is when it’s nuclear flare bomb
s. Do you have any idea of the devastation that those things are capable of? No? I didn’t think so. I saw one of them used once out in the deserts of
Vesta
. The explosion could be seen from space as it scorched an area ten times the size of New Babylon,’ Te’Anne said.
‘I was never going to use them. My task was simply to deliver them to the authorities on
Tellus
.’
‘Men,’ Te’Anne said. ‘You never consider the consequences of your actions. You are perfectly happy to deliver twenty five of the most powerful weapons in the Universe and as long as you don’t know what happens with them, you don’t care.’
‘That’s not true, I -’
‘No? Then what were you going to do with them?’
‘I -’
‘Enough,’ Izikiel said.
Stepping forward, he looked at each of them in turn. Xavier and Jonas lowered their weapons. Even Cassandra seemed to relax as she saw him taking control of the situation.
‘This is not going to solve anything and the people on board that ship are goi
ng to die unless we help them,’ Izikiel said. ‘Vorn, can we still fit those people into the ship without losing the nuclear flare bombs?’
Vorn considered the question as he lowered his weapon. Turning to his console, he input a series of instructions. The main view screen changed. Instead of showing them the purple gas giant, it now displayed a schematic of the
Valiant Crusader
. A large section was highlighted in yellow.
‘We should be able to, provided there are only fifty of them,’ Vorn said
. He pointed at the screen. ‘The nuclear flare bombs are located in the aft section of the cargo hold. They’re sealed, so they’re perfectly safe. That means we can use these other areas to transport those people to
Tellus
.’
‘What about life support?’ Cassandra asked as she studied the display.
‘We’ll have enough. The air might get a bit stale but there’s sufficient capacity to keep us alive. Don’t forget that this ship was built for the
Tellus
Defence Department and it’s the best they ever made.’
‘Alright, let’s go and
get those people,’ Izikiel said.
‘Surely you’re not suggesting that we keep the nukes?’ Te’Anne asked.
‘That’s exactly what I’m suggesting.’
‘Why?’
‘Because I intend to use them against the Void Lords.’
More static filled the cabin as the other ship attempted to broadcast another message.
‘...this is...
Rising Phoenix
freighter...we are almost...our life support...failing...’
The message faded into static as Izikiel looked at Vorn. The
merchant captain nodded his head as he spun around and took control of his ship.
‘Hang on
. I’m going to bring us alongside that ship. While we’re joined through the airlock, we’ll effectively be losing our atmosphere inside their ship so we’ll need to work quickly to get them all aboard,’ Vorn said.
‘
Jonas and I are on it,’ Xavier said.
‘Good. Cassandra will show you how to use the magna-locks. Izikiel
, can you keep an eye out for any debris that may be heading towards us? If anything hits the docking corridor then we could lose both ships.’
‘No problem,’ Izikiel replied.
In the space between heartbeats he was back outside the ship. He hovered among the thin wisps of purple gas as the
Valiant Crusader
approached the stricken ship,
Rising Phoenix
. It looked like the other ship was losing less atmosphere now as the gases were escaping at a slower rate. Izikiel realised that meant they had very little time left.
(
‘Vorn, you’ve got to hurry. They’re almost out of air,’) he said.
‘
Rising Phoenix
, this is the
Valiant Crusader
. We are moving to assist you. Get everyone ready and standby the magna-locks.’
The crackle of static filled the control room as a voice a
board the other ship responded.
‘...
Valiant Crusader
...is captain...the ship
Rising Phoenix
. We are...to open the...-locks.’
‘Acknowledged
,
Rising Phoenix
. Countdown in ten-nine-eight...’
T
he
Valiant Crusader
manoeuvred alongside the
Rising Phoenix
. Despite its squat shape and size, the
Valiant Crusader
manoeuvred with effortless grace. Several short bursts from smaller thrusters lined up the two ships parallel to each other. Once they had established a stable holding pattern, a series of docking clamps extruded from the
Valiant Crusader
. Latching onto the sides of the
Rising Phoenix
, they locked the two ships in place. A transparent airlock corridor then extended and the two ships breathed the same air.
‘Cassandra, we’re stable. Open the airlock and get those people on board,’ Vorn said
.
Izikiel’s
attention turned to a piece of metallic hull heading directly for the airlock corridor. It was at least five metres in diameter, with jagged, razor sharp edges. Focusing his thoughts, he spoke the ancient language.
‘
Repulso
’
The
shattered hull piece was cast aside like it was little more than a child’s toy. Spiralling backwards, it disappeared into the amethyst cloud. Looking around, Izikiel spotted several other pieces of debris which he easily deflected. Satisfied that there was no more immediate danger to either of the ships, he returned to the
Valiant Crusader
. Opening his eyes, he looked at Vorn. The freighter captain had a strange expression on his face.
‘What is it?’ Izi
kiel asked.
Instead of replying, Vorn simply pointed at the view screen.
Izikiel was about to ask what had shaken the ship captain so much, when he stopped. Looking at the view screen, he was unable to understand what he was seeing. The amethyst gas giant rotated slowly, surrounded by its purple mist. The distant light from
Tellus’
sun shone brightly as before. But there was one thing missing.
‘What happened to the other ship?’
Izikiel asked.
Alarms sounded throughout the
Valiant Crusader
as the entire ship shuddered and rolled to the side. Izikiel was thrown of balance. He landed hard on one of the acceleration couches. Grimacing, he stood up and watched as Vorn frantically fought to stabilise the ship. It lurched again and finally levelled out. The alarms stopped.
‘What was that?’ Izikiel asked.
‘Decompression, the air lock must have been open when the other ship vanished,’ Vorn replied. Pressing a button on the console before him, he said, ‘Cassandra, are you alright?’
The human-form Elemental’s silken tone spoke into the control room through a hidden speaker.
‘That was close. By the Flame, what happened?’
Vorn looked
at the view screen and then at Izikiel. He pressed the button on the console again.
‘You’d better get back up here.’
It didn’t take long for Cassandra and the two ex-security officers to return to the control room. During that interval, Izikiel quickly scouted around outside the ship. There was no sign that the
Rising Phoenix
had ever been there. Even the debris from its damaged hull was gone.
‘What happened?’ Cassandra asked the moment
that she stepped into the control room.
‘I don’t know. The other ship simply vanished. One minute it was there and then...’ Vorn said as he pointed at the view screen. Cassandra furrowed her brow as she looked at the empty space outside the ship.
Her blue eyes began to glow with an inner radiance as she studied the image before her.
‘
What happened to our ship?’ Izikiel asked.
‘The airlock breached and we began venting atmosphere,’ Xavier replied
, casting a guarded glance at Jonas.
‘But you managed to stop it?’
‘Not us,’ Jonas replied, shaking his head. Then he pointed at Cassandra. ‘It was her. I’ve never seen anything like it before in my life.’
‘What do you mean?’
Jonas looked over at Cassandra but she didn’t say anything. Taking a deep breath, he said, ‘The moment the airlock breached we felt the air rushing out of the ship. Xavier and I barely managed to grab onto the bulkhead in time. Despite the tremendous pressure, Cassandra simply stepped forward and extending her arms created a wall of flame which blocked the airlock. We managed to seal it after that.’
Izikiel nodded. He knew
that the Elementals were powerful, he had sensed as much in the Baron Stefan on
Aurora
. Clearly their ability to wield the power of the Eternal Flame was unquestionable. He was thankful that they were on the same side.
‘That still doesn’t explain what happened to the other ship,’ Cassandra said.
‘Hang on, I’m going to do a search through the ship catalogue to see if I can find any information on the
Rising Phoenix
,’ Vorn said.
Turning towards his console, he input a series of instructions.
The main view screen changed from displaying the purple gas giant to scrolling through a list of names. A blinking orange highlighter bar stopped at one of them:
Rising Phoenix
.
‘Ok, here it is. The
Rising Phoenix
was constructed on
Tellus
for an inter-colony transport company. It was later sold to a private individual based out of
Vesta
. Technical specifications, loading dimensions,’ Vorn read off the display, skipping through the detailed information. The orange highlighter bar scrolled down through several pages of text before stopping on one particular section. Vorn continued to read out loud.
‘Last known flight plan was from
Vesta
heading to
Tellus
. According to this, the
Rising Phoenix
never made it to its destination. It was badly damaged upon entering the
Tellus
system when it emerged inside of an asteroid field. One of the engines was destroyed and the other lost so much fuel that it only made it to a nearby gas giant. There the crew and almost fifty paying passengers perished when the oxygen supplies vented into space because of hull damage. The empty ship was recovered and towed back to
Tellus
. This is the last known record of the ship dated over two hundred years ago.’
Silence fell
across the control room as they all stared at the information on the view screen. The last sentence blinked steadily, its meaning not lost on those reading it.
‘
Two hundred years ago?’ Jonas asked in disbelief. ‘But that would mean that...?’
‘That we
have somehow travelled back in time, to the exact moment that the
Rising Phoenix
ran out of oxygen,’ Vorn finished Jonas’ sentence.
‘But how is that possible?’
Izikiel looked over at Cassandra who simply shrugged her shoulders. Thinking back to his training with Da’Amo, he realised that he already knew the answer. What they had experienced was incredible but also frightening at the same time. At least now he knew what the Baron had warned him about.
‘
It’s possible because there is a very powerful true believer on
Tellus
who has the ability to manipulate the flow of time,’ Izikiel said. ‘We’re going to have to tread very carefully indeed.’