Just minutes from our destination, panic sets in amongst the crews of the patrol ships that have been shadowing the Nightmare. The Klet'dol sends out a garbled message, something to do with a potential reactor breach, then the patrol cruiser ceases to exist in a flash of matter - anti-matter annihilation...
"Were they fired upon?", I enquire.
"Negative", responds Ghost-Myromar. "It was purely internal. Hold on - I'm getting after-echoes of their internal comms from my buffers... looks like someone entered their engineering section and disrupted the containment system. I think it was that psionic navigator. Yes - they were taking her to their medical facility, and she broke out."
"I'll wager that 'she' was long gone, in any meaningful sense", I say, the very thought forming a frozen lump of dread in my belly. "Legends say The White Beast's gaze could drive a person insane - and that poor girl made psychic contact with him. A second, that's all it would've taken."
"The other two patrol ships are powering up weapons and shields, and requesting clearance to engage", my friend continues. "The Nightmare is shedding that distortion layer, but there's no sign of open hostility. We're getting clear visuals..."
I have some idea what to expect, but to see Bekalth's ship this close is still chilling. The first impression I get is of an ancient tree that has fallen in winter, its thickly-ridged bark covered by a thick layer of frost. Bare "branches" and "roots" stretch out to front and rear, the roots held out stiff and straight, the branches bulging outward, then curving back in, suggestive of claws ready to reach out and snare the unwary.
"It looks... organic", Ghost-Myromar murmurs thoughtfully, "but even without the distortion field, none of our sensors are making much sense of it at all. It could be built using extradimensional materials, substances we've never encountered before..."
"Not that it's going to matter if no-one can do any damage to it", I interrupt, sullenly. "Remember that this ship was in the front line when The Dire Queen was using a weapon that affected planets millions of light years away."
"I assume you're going to let the Consolidation ships in on that particular piece of information?", asks my companion.
I shake my head. "He has to think there's nothing to stand between him and the planet", I tell her, and sigh. "Any resistance that comes even close to being effective risks putting him on guard, and more likely to find out we're here."
Ghost-Myromar clearly doesn't like what she's hearing, but she understands, and that's all I need. I don't enjoy sitting back as the Freewind and the Mark Of Reidos race towards the Nightmare, weapons blazing, only to be smashed to anonymous, molten scrap by invisible focussed energy bursts that are probably the very least of the weapons Bekalth can call upon. I expect Doomstone to protest, to demand to leave the ship and face this enemy in a futile attempt to defend the people of the Consolidation of Species...
...but instead, Doomstone just sits there, cross-legged, hovering several feet above the ground, the air around the three shards luminescing. He knows there are other ways to win battles, and he is simply preparing for his moment.
"The Nightmare hasn't even lost any speed", reports Ghost-Myromar. "She'll reach the defence perimeter in about four minutes. The Consolidation ships are in position, with orders to engage at will..."
My friend pauses, glances at a display hologram floating at her side. "Receiving a quick-burst transmission, text-only. It reads: 'If perimeter breached, will allow O/S to enter and engage hostile. Please pass on to your watchful friend.' It ends with two letters: 'P.C.'"
The Primary Comprehensor really doesn't have a choice, and he might as well make the best use of the resources at hand - even if it means giving ground to a Confederacy that I'm not sure can still be trusted. "Send a 'do not respond' battle-encrypted signal to Dominion One - message reads: maintain position and stance, but if targets enter your vicinity, do not - repeat do not engage. Entry will have been authorised. Message ends; Darkhawk."
"Transmitted", replies Ghost-Myromar, almost immediately. "Hostile will reach the perimeter in two minutes. The Seventh Core Support Wing are laying down a blanket of spatial disruption charges - old Hybrine tech, what Confederacy crews used to call 'poppers'. Based on what the patrol ships achieved, I don't think they'll do any good."
That's pretty much as I'd expected - but I'm more concerned with what we're going to do. "Find us a moon or planetoid to shelter behind", I instruct her. "Divert all non-essential power to the stealth array. Prepare to flood the observation deck with LifeStar energy at my signal - and leave the conduit open."
"You... you're going to try and use it against him? You going to channel LifeStar energy again?"
"It may be our only chance", I reply, trying my very best not to look or sound absolutely terrified. "And yes, I do know what happened last time - how can I possibly forget...?"
I rise from my commander's chair, and look aside to Doomstone. Before I can put the thought "It's time" into words, he lowers his legs to the ground, and stands. "I am ready", he tells me. "Are you?"
"I'm never ready", I try to joke. "I just give 'em hell and let the enemy work out who's ready or not."
It sounds good, but I'm fooling nobody - least of all myself.
Doomstone and I quickly relocate to the observation deck, a more modest facility than the great domes of the Dominion flagships, with Ghost-Myromar giving us a step-by-step commentary on the battle that's just about to commence. "Reading twenty four Consolidation ships, mostly Hybrine salvage, plus a few surplus Mark Two and Three Lu-Khian Voidstars", we're informed. "I'm also picking up several energy traces following in the wake of the Nightmare - living energies. Must be the Iekalon creatures, and it looks like they've brought some friends."
"Anything from the Over/Strike Units?", I enquire.
"No activity yet, but Consolidation Space Command have attempted to make contact", says my friend. "The Battlehawk Breath Of The Risen is now trailing the Over/Strike vessels, on the Tai-reh'taran side of the border... hold on, here we go. The Nightmare is entering the Corphain system."
I catch sight of a view-screen, just as we enter the observation deck, and see Bekalth's ship dropping out of hyper-light speed. The evil-looking craft is starting to rotate along its long axis, its forward "branches" spreading...
Space ripples in front of the Nightmare, and lights up as the cloud of "poppers" detonate before they even get close to the vessel. The only damage that is done is that the communications link, coming from the lead Consolidation warship, flickers, then dissolves into electronic snow before the screen goes completely black.
"The forward rank of The Seventh Wing are firing", continues Ghost-Myromar. "Torpedoes aren't reaching the Nightmare - they're being intercepted by small-scale spatial anomalies, generated from the tips of those front 'limbs'. A more standard energy shield is neutralising any energy weapons... the Nightmare isn't taking damage."
The lights on the observation deck, already dimmed to a combat-ready setting, flicker momentarily just before we reach the raised platform at the centre of the chamber. "Wow!", exclaims Ghost-Myromar. "Some kind of high-energy discharge, almost pure transdimensional energy! It... It's like lightning, but on a cosmic level - five Consolidation ships destroyed, three critically damaged, others reporting overloads. Even our sensors are being 'fogged' by it - adjusting to compensate. Looks like the Iekalon creatures have just about caught up - ten, maybe twelve of them..."
"Route more power to our shields - I don't want our systems getting knocked out", I order Myromar. "Also, we won't be needing any more reports. Just tell us when our unwelcome guest breaks through the perimeter."
"Understood", my companion replies. "Auxiliary forces of The Seventh Core Support Wing are moving into position - another twelve ships - but they can't hope to hold him for long. I think he's just toying with them."
I stand on the platform, facing Doomstone, hands stretched out to him, palms up. He places his hands in mine, the shards facing up, streamers of energy rising from them like billows of rainbow-tinted steam. ***Show me what you remember of The White Beast***, he asks. ***What he left behind in you is the key...***
The first image that springs to mind is of Xalreshara, the monstrous daughter of Bekalth, looming over me with the last glittering remnant of her father grasped tightly in her clawed fist. I remember pain, then a sensation of being cut loose, falling into an immeasurable void within myself as another mind took root in my body, and pushed me aside. I recall seeking refuge in the body of one of my servants, guiding her to a swift escape from Bekalth's clutches... I well remember swearing to reclaim all that was previously mine - and the battle for the liberation of Dominion that followed.
Few people know the truth - friends, allies, those of my elite warriors who fought by my side, and survived - and right now, that number increases by one as Doomstone sees everything with me, experiences every sensation, every moment. Through my experiences, he sees the links, the patterns weaving in and out of each other, an intricate, multi-dimensional map of existences colliding...
He's right, I realise in one dazzling instant. The shards - whatever being they come from, whatever caused them to shatter from a single entity - they're fundamentally the same. And that makes Bekalth uniquely vulnerable.
"The Nightmare is breaking through", announces Ghost-Myromar. "He... he's just ramming through what's left..."
I don't need to be told that he's drawing near to our hiding place. I can feel him, and every sub-atomic particle of my self remembers him, and cries out for revenge at the violation to which he subjected them. Any moment now, our orbit will bring us out of the sheltering shadow of the moonlet that can only barely cling to the edge of the system - Bekalth's passing could be enough to cause it to lose its grip, and tumble, lost, into the interstellar...
The Nightmare is advancing without any sign of being on heightened alert - but suddenly, there's another dimming of the lights, a sharp dip in the power levels throughout the Ghost Phoenix. That better not be compromising our stealth capabilities...
"He's firing on the Iekalon creatures", reports Ghost-Myromar. "There are about twenty of them - they seem to have artificial short-range jump-systems..."
I give Ghost-Myromar a telepathic "poke", all the energy I can safely devote to telling her "Don't need to know that". Distractions I can do without right now, especially when this stage of the battle has come along at just the right time...
Doomstones utters a single word: ***Now.***
"Myromar - do it."
I brace myself for the pain as the room is dyed amber and red, LifeStar energy filling the chamber, then filling me as it rushes inward, seeking a reunion with The Spark no matter what lies in its path - including my flesh and bone...
...and then there's... nothing. No - more than nothing. A numbness without limits, a sense of absolute disconnection... I've felt this before, and I know that when this comes over me, I'm not alone...
***Hello, Darkhawk***, snarls Bekalth, a formless presence expanding to fill every part of that inner darkness. ***This is quite unexpected - I never imagined I'd find you here again...***
...to be concluded...
- Posted on 26.03.2008 at 21:57 -
Previously...
The Traveller: Old Friends, New Friends - Chapter 4 - 28.08.2009
The Traveller: Old Friends, New Friends - Chapter 3 - 25.08.2009
The Traveller: Old Friends, New Friends - Chapter 2 - 23.08.2009
The Traveller: Old Friends, New Friends - Chapter 1 - 21.08.2009
Shards And Splinters - Chapter 3 - 19.08.2009
