Episode 1 – Leviathan, Part 24

June 3, 2021June 8, 2022Captain Mayor Brooks

“Projectile incoming!” a Hev officer screeched.

“Activate!” K’Raaiia screeched. “Blood for blood!”

The system activated, and space deformed around the section that had been part of the Hev ship. It seemed to shrink, light around its edges that made it glow.

The projectile moved far too fast for any eye to track, leaving only a searing afterglow.

The section that had held thousands of Hev exploded. And for a brief moment, they saw into a hole in reality itself.

The fiery carnage and shattering debris, no matter how fast, could not resist the pull into that abyss. All motion reversed, and into zerospace it went.

Before they could see more, it was gone.

But the effect was immediate.

“Sir!” a Hev said. “The Leviathan has disappeared from scopes!”

“Gone?” K’Raaiia gasped. “Dead? Tell me!”

“Just gone,” Caraval confirmed, reading the sensors. “It . . . I don’t even know what else to say. It’s like it ceased to exist. Or . . .” He looked up. “It returned to zerospace. The explosion was bright to us, but in that place . . . god, it must have looked like a supernova. And we just propelled it across space.”

Something cold creeped up his spine. Had they just done something terrible? If the Craton had awoken something with a shout in the dark, what would an explosion that big bring?

“The Craton is not responding,” Pirra’s voice chipped in. “Her systems appear to be down – I can’t raise anyone!”

Caraval looked to K’Raaiia. “Captain . . .”

The Hev suddenly looked exhausted. He nodded. “We will help your people, as you have helped us.”

“Thank you, Captain.”

K’Raaiia’s expression was something like a wry smile. “I do what I must to survive. But you are in trouble because you helped me. You could have kept going. I repay my debts – and my allies.”

His eyes went to the side, fixing upon Ambassador N’Keeea. “I only ask for one more thing – take him off my ship.” He addressed N’Keeea directly. “I am sure you will understand, Ambassador, that I no longer wish for your commission.”

N’Keeea nodded respectfully. “I understand, Captain. I simply hope you understand why I did what I did.”

The Captain did not reply, and the Ambassador approached him, taking a pistol from his belt carefully, and offering it. “I return your property,” N’Keeea said.

K’Raaiia accepted it without a word.

Caraval watched it all, only able to wonder what that had been about.

“I hope my presence will not be a problem, Commander,” N’Keeea said to him. “I can offer you at least some commission if you wish. Whatever you feel is fair.”

“Not necessary, Ambassador,” Caraval answered, smiling. “We don’t charge commissions – I am sure I speak for Captain Brooks when I tell you – welcome to the Craton.”

Pirra’s voice came through the com. “Commander, I think we had better get back. Immediately.”

Caraval waved to the rest of his crew. “She’s right – everyone, bring only the equipment we might need. Let’s get over there and make sure our people are all right.”

< Part 23 | Part 25 >

Episode 1 – Leviathan, Part 23

June 2, 2021June 8, 2022Captain Mayor Brooks

“They aren’t firing!” Caraval said. “They’re oriented, they just need to fucking fire!”

Ambassador N’Keeea looked at the screen, and even on his strange face Caraval could see the horror and sadness. “They have entered the Reality Break Shadow.”

K’Raaiia let out a sound of rage. “No, we are so close! I desire revenge!” he snarled. “Can they yet still fire?”

“Maybe,” Caraval said. “I don’t know what it’s like in there. But there’s still a chance.”

“Captain, zerodrive prepared!” a crewmate called. “Will hold as long as possible! Twelve seconds max!”

*******

Something was overcoming Brooks. A presence, like nothing he had ever felt, was pressuring upon him, crushing him, suffocating him. A will.

It was not Kell, and he knew in a way that Kell would be a far harder nut to crack than anyone else on the ship – but eventually, he too would be crushed.

Subsumed. Become part of the Leviathan.

Brooks had no idea how long it had been since they had crossed the RBS – Seconds? Hours?

He felt a growing paranoia, a feeling that all were his enemies. His eyes went over Cenz, Cutter – aliens, not like him. Betraying him to the Leviathan? Urle, his right hand, but no longer like him. More machine than man.

Even those like him, they were not him. And Kell, the most like the Leviathan – surely colluding with it.

Another feeling was pressing into him, something he had never felt. It smothered even the paranoia, and in a sense he felt singled out, targeted by the Leviathan. Against his will, his eyes were drawn forward, towards it.

Though they existed in the heart of the Craton, the ship seemed to melt away. All he could see was the Beast.

Its eye filled his entire vision, filled his reality.

“It does gaze upon you,” Kell told him. “It knows you, Captain. It is not stupid. You oppose it, you desire to fight it.”

He heard the words, barely able to understand them. The feelings pressuring him, they were like nothing he had ever felt, emotions for which he had no name.

Alien. Eldritch.

Something moved between him and the eye. A shapeless mass that was all eyes, vague and unformed, but he knew somehow it was Kell. Shielding him with its presence. Through all the rock and metal and space itself, the Leviathan could see. But not through Kell, through what he was.

“I cannot do this, Captain. I do not know what needs to be done. Only you can.”

Brooks did not know if Kell’s presence was some protection, or if it was his words, but he felt like something lessened. He strained everything, his mind and body, willing himself to move.

Something took hold of him, something cold. It pulled him forward, closer to the console.

Yes, he thought. He moved closer, and willed with everything that he was to move his hand.

Yaepanaya was there, her hand so close to the button. She was straining everything she had to try and hit it and give the fire command. But she could not.

She had no help.

It felt like something broke inside him. He screamed, and his hand lashed out.

Did he hit the button? He could not even tell. The grip of Kell around him slackened, weakening. Even it was succumbing to the Leviathan.

He could only hope he had done his duty.

< Part 22 | Part 24 >

Episode 1 – Leviathan, Part 22

June 1, 2021June 8, 2022Captain Mayor Brooks

“Sir!” Eboh, the communications officer, said. “We’ve got contact from the Hev ship – it’s the Response Team, they’ve got the ship working!”

Brooks breathed a sigh of relief. “Communicate to them the trajectories of the escape ships – ask if they can recover them if possible, if the Leviathan leaves after we’re gone.”

“Sending now, sir. Lieutenant Commander Caraval is asking to speak with you as well.”

“Put him through,” Brooks replied. “Put them on channel for the command bridge.”

Caraval’s voice came through – there was a strange pitch to it that he knew came from the signal bending under the gravity of the Leviathan. The computer could not clean it up perfectly.

“Caraval reporting,” he said. “The Hev ship is fully functional. Had to jettison one section that we believe came too close to the Leviathan – lost a portion of its crew, but still operational.”

“Like the shuttle, that section is now a part of the being,” Kell mused.

“Had a near-problem with one of our number, but all is well.” His tone changed. “I . . . we . . . would sure like to know why you’re moving to engage, sir.”

“The Leviathan is going to catch us no matter what,” Brooks said. “We have to buy time.”

The reply was hesitant in coming. “. . . Ah.”

“Your families are among those evacuated,” Brooks told him. “Thank you for your service. You have my commendations, Lieutenant Commander.”

“Thank you, sir.” There was relief in his voice. Caraval’s son lived with him on the ship.

“Sir,” Cutter suddenly said. “Ambassador,” addressing Kell. “When you say shuttle and Hev ship section are now ‘part of’ Leviathan – is this literal?”

Kell nodded. “Yes. They are simply parts of it – as it split in two to follow us and the shuttle both, they are addendums to its body.”

Cutter’s mandibles clicked rapidly. “Sir, if we target the Hev component – it is physical. It is not surrounded by Reality Break Shadow. We can hit it, sir. We might . . . actually be able to hurt it.”

Surprise went over Kell’s face. “I agree. Captain, target it – target it immediately.”

The idea made Brooks feel a surge of excitement, until he saw the angle. He struggled to keep the frustration from his voice. “We can’t – the Leviathan is between us and it. We’re not even sure of its edges.”

“We can!” Cutter said excitedly. “Signal from Hev ship shows us exact gravity curve – we follow trajectory of signal for shot – we can bend it around the Leviathan!”

“Even better,” Urle said. “This Hev ship has its own zerodrive, yes? If they can extend their field and launch the piece into zerospace just as it explodes, it will . . . well, I don’t think the Leviathan will like that.”

“Yes!” Kell snapped. A fury was in his voice – the most emotion they had ever seen from the being. “Captain, I swear to you, if you do this, you will hurt it, and it shall regret this moment for all its time.”

“We have twenty seconds!” Yaepanaya noted loudly. “If we’re going to do it, say so quickly!”

“Calculate it,” Brooks ordered. “Get firing solution – Caraval, are you tracking this?”

“Yes, sir! The Hev Captain is – he’s delighted by this idea.”

“If you can synch their zerodrive with our shot, we can make this perfect,” Brooks added.

“Already doing so – they can hold the charge for a ten-second window!”

“Five seconds until Shadow Break!” Yaepanaya yelled.

“Firing solutions, now! Orient the ship! We have to-“

Reality broke around them.

They heard it, a sound as the air itself around them shuddered, twisted and altered.

Brooks felt like he had been turned inside out, and he knew it had only just begun.

He could barely see, everything appeared distorted – an effect upon the synapses in his mind. Others around him staggered, even Urle. It did not matter that he was more machine than man, he was still just a being, and there was no resisting such a thing as a Leviathan.

Save for Kell.

Somehow, the being was not blurred in his mind. He saw him as clearly as he had only moments before.

No, he saw him even more. More clearly – every inch of the form of man he had taken on, and in moments he saw yet more.

He saw in ways he did not know he could see. He saw beyond the charade of a human form, to something, something else more alien than anything he had encountered in all his years in space. Something huge, something primordial, something that was innately like the Leviathan.

And yet, he realized for the first time, something that was contained. While the Leviathan viewed them as nothing and would walk over them with the anger of a being stepping on ants, Kell moved carefully. Restrained.

And he could sense something, a feeling – sorrow.

Kell was looking at him, not in his human form, but his presence.

“I am sorry,” he felt, more than heard, Kell say. They were not words, but merely an idea, conveyed to him through something other than sound.

Brooks wanted to reply, to say to Kell to finish what they had started. He could see the button on the console, near Yaepanaya, and he only had to press it. The computer could not do it – the AI of their system was experiencing what they were, in its own way.

All he had to do was press it. But he could not make himself move.

< Part 21 | Part 23 >

The End is Near . . .

May 31, 2021Captain Mayor Brooks

Of Episode 1, Leviathan! We are nearing the finale of the story, and if you’ve been coming back to read it with each update – thanks for staying with us! There are more episodes and stories coming!

After Episode 1 is concluded, I’m trying a new format for a special epilogue story. Rather than a whole week of posts, I am going to post the entire Epilogue as a single post. It’s not excessively long, but I think will function better as a single piece rather than broken into parts. It will likely be the only post that week, depending on the poll below.

Not long after, Episode 2 will begin!

Now, real quick, the poll.

Episode 1 – Leviathan, Part 21

May 31, 2021June 8, 2022Captain Mayor Brooks

Brooks watched as the Leviathan consumed the shuttle. It had become engulfed in the Reality Break Shadow much earlier, and all connection had been cut off. For some time there had been no visible change to the shuttle – the RBS was only a threshold, and crossing it did not cause immediate effects. Had there been crew on the shuttle, though, they would have felt it, and soon after their minds would no longer be their own.

Two minutes later, the ship had visibly rippled as it had begun to alter, soon becoming something else. Its shape had blurred, its parts rearranging. It was deep within the Shadow now, and there was no coming back.

It was like watching a mad engineer retool a device into something that made sense only to him. After this point, it would not have functioned outside of the Shadow of the Leviathan, grim experience had taught Brooks that. Things altered beyond a certain point, if they left the Shadow they could no longer hold themselves together as matter. The resulting event was known as a matter failure, as the object broke down almost entirely into a burst of elementary particles and massive amounts of energy.

This time, he did not have to see that. This time, he got to see something worse, as the bulk of the Leviathan came more and more into their reality. No longer was its eye simply a vague outline, but it had become something almost corporeal, and once it engulfed the thing-that-had-been-a-shuttle, it ceased to be.

“It is a part of the Leviathan now,” Kell commented.

Urle looked at him, but said nothing.

“Launch all escape pods and craft as soon as they’re ready,” Brooks ordered. “Yaepanaya, do we have firing solutions for the Magnetic Accelerators?”

The woman looked up from her desk – she had been actively scribbling. “The system can’t get firing solutions through the Reality Break Shadow – we’ve calculated by hand down to the 20th decimal. In theory it should be hard to miss something that big, but . . .” she gestured. “Nothing about them makes sense. But we’re going to need to let it be closer before I can give you good odds on a hit. At most, ten seconds before contact with the Shadow.”

It was a matter of defiance, they all knew. Tens of thousands of ships had fired upon Leviathans in the past, and few, if any, projectiles even reached their target before they ceased to exist.

And those that hit did little. How could they, against something so vast?

Brooks accepted Yaepanaya’s words all the same, then looked to Urle. “Evacuation status?”

“The last shuttle is launching in twenty seconds,” he stated. “We’ve got at least 80% of the civilian population and 15% of personnel off. The rest of the civilians . . . voluntarily gave up their seats.”

Brooks looked at the stats – out of 14,892 civilians, 11,943 were evacuated. Out of the ship’s complement of 19,955, only 2,973 were evacuated. All were in non-combat roles. Every ship had evacuated full.

Almost 20,000 left behind. Their lives were in his hands. All of them had moved to the furthest point in the ship from the Leviathan, if they could. He and his bridge crew would be closest to it, taking the fullest extent of its reality-defying presence.

They had more escape craft, but they were running out of time. They would have to buy time for those escape craft and hope that the Leviathan did not notice them.

And most importantly, they would have to call for help.

“Last ship launched, sir,” Urle said.

Brooks leaned forward, his voice quiet. “You’re certain your daughters are out?”

Urle hesitated in answering, and when he did, the emotion bled through his mechanical voice. “Yes, sir. They are safe.”

Brooks spoke louder. “Then we had better make sure we do our duty.” He clicked on a channel to address the entire ship.

“To all souls aboard the Craton – to battle stations. We are going to engage the Leviathan. It is not a desirable outcome, but we do it to give those who have escaped time. Thank you all.”

He closed the channel.

“Send the emergency signal,” he ordered.

“As ordered, Captain,” Cutter said.

There was no bang, no dramatic sound as the engines overloaded. Not even a vibration – they simply did not work in that way. But they all felt it; it was an electric feeling, like static, but moreso. It built until it seemed almost unbearable – and then it was gone.

Kell staggered. Brooks looked at him, and stood to help steady the being.

Touching him, he was not just cold, his body felt like rock, both in its unyielding nature, and also its solidity. He could not right the man with any exertion.

“Ambassador, are you-?”

“I am fine,” Kell said, standing upright. His body moved like a marionette on strings, simply moving vertically.

“Are you sure?”

“You have more important things to do, I am certain,” Kell replied. There was a bite in his voice that Brooks had not heard before.

Brooks’ skin was too thick to be bothered by angry words, but the Shoggoth was right. He looked to Cutter.

“Message has been sent, Captain. And our engines are disabled – we have momentum, but that is all.”

“Time until we enter the Shadow?”

“Two minutes and seven seconds, Captain,” Cenz reported.

“Ready the Mag Cannons. Prepare to fire on my mark.”

< Part 20 | Part 22 >

Episode 1 – Leviathan, Part 20

May 28, 2021June 8, 2022Captain Mayor Brooks

“Engage explosives on my mark!”

Pirra heard the order over the comm and braced herself in the shuttle. She had put on a spare suit, but it wasn’t tailored for her physiology and it was rather large on her frame. Still, it worked and was better than being in just an undersuit.

“Mark!” the order came.

She tried to calculate the odds that the whole Hev ship would rip apart. They seemed far too high for comfort.

A rumble passed through the ship, into the shuttle. It felt like a small earthquake, and her eyes went to the sensors detecting air pressure.

It fluctuated. Dropped.

Then it stabilized.

She let out a deep breath. The ship was holding together for now.

There were external cameras on the shuttle, and while the explosions were not going on at an angle she could see, she could see the debris that blasted away from the hull.

“Sensors confirm that a section has separated,” she messaged Caraval.

“Extent?” he asked.

“Not sure. After predicted micro-debris field has spread enough I can send in some drones to confirm. Until then, the risk to them is too high.”

There was a pause before Caraval spoke again. “The Hev seem pretty nervous, and they’re talking in a tradespeak that our translators don’t know. Better send in the drones anyway. We have to be sure.”

“Understood.”

Pirra sent a directive to their drones, and began to guide them around the Hev ship. Only the small glitter of debris as it caught a light source was an indication of the deadly cloud that would exact a terrible toll on them.

But that was what the drones were for; unintelligent and expendable assets that could be sacrificed in place of real lives. Didn’t keep her from feeling bad about it, though.

Almost immediately, one of the dozen she was commanding went to static. Sensors on the others confirmed that a larger piece of debris had smashed it head-on. In the dark of space it had been all-but invisible. The whole cloud of debris was baffling to all manner of sensors, carrying heat, reflecting signals, and making it simply too dangerous to even have the most powerful sensors extended.

Two more went dark; only one was destroyed, but the sensor array on the other had been holed by a small piece of scrap. Probably her own boot she had left behind, she thought in annoyance.

Keeping six back, she sent in the other three.

And there they beheld the sight of a section of the ship floating free.

Just the sight was terrible to her. Seeing a ship in such a shape that large pieces were floating free was a terror; her mind immediately jumped to ways in which they might approach it for trying to save those stranded. In any other situation, it would have been a terrible and desperate thing to behold.

Even if it hadn’t been corrupted, the debris and proximity to the main ship would have made it too dangerous, she surmised.

“Pirra, update?”

“Sensors confirm separation. Unsure yet if it has enough energy to drift free.”

“We’re pretty sure we have control back. The Captain is considering a minor burn to drift the rest of the ship away. Feed the drone telemetry data to the Hev network to assist them.”

“Yes, sir.” She did as ordered, feeling her frustration rise as she tried to feed the data. Without any AI, trying to communicate with the Hev ship was about as easy as explaining zerospace to a potato.

When she got a confirmation from a Hev engineer, she felt at least a little better.

“Preparing for burn,” the order came.

She steeled herself and set the drones into intercept mode. This was going to be only marginally less dangerous than the initial explosion.

“I hope someone else is monitoring air pressure,” she muttered.

She felt the ship begin to move. It was subtle, held in check by the ship’s weak counter-G systems, but she felt it all the same. It wasn’t a strong burn, and it made her concerned for the robustness of their system.

But that wasn’t an issue for right now. Pushing that worry away, she checked the drones.

“We’re moving away, it looks – no, wait, the section is following! Commander, there has to be a structural cable that didn’t cut!”

“Get on it, Pirra!” Caraval barked. He began to throw orders to the Hev and the rest of the team, but she knew it was really on her at this point, through sheer bad luck of being on drone duty.

Two drones dove in to find the cable. The debris was even heavier here, bouncing around between sections of the hull. One drone was cut in half immediately, she saw it on the other’s camera.

The other didn’t make it much further.

She sent in three more from her reserve, trying for new angles the computer calculated might be safer. One made it, and she saw the cable.

“Ram it,” she ordered. “Full speed.”

With enough energy, the drone should shear the cable . . . but at this close range, there was only so much time to accelerate.

The drone hit, but the cable didn’t break.

Four left. “All in,” she said, sending the last of their drones in.

Three made it in, better than she had hoped. The first two hit the cable and damaged it. The third took a hit from debris, but wasn’t disabled, instead spinning out wildly.

“Get control!” she ordered the system. “Use the momentum, if possible.”

The system went through a million scenarios. It settled on one and ran it. The drone continued to spin, its thrusters burning to add to its inertia. Such a force wasn’t good for it, but they were rated for incredible accelerations – Pirra just hoped it would be able to take them in its damaged state.

Whirling like a buzzsaw, it hit the cable and sheared through.

As the sensor feed went blank, she felt another shudder through the ship.

“Visual confirmation by sensors – the section is detached!” Caraval called.

She slumped in her seat. “Cannot give confirmation on my end – all drones MIA.” Damn it, she was going to put in for a vacation after this.

No, after her quarantine, she realized. Maybe that would be like a vacation.

“Most systems are coming back online,” Caraval noted, still broadcasting to the whole team. “Good work, team. The Hev now have full control of their vessel, including coms. Get me the Craton.”

< Part 19 | Part 21 >

Special Announcement!

May 27, 2021Captain Mayor Brooks

Today I have a special announcement – the launch of Other-Terrestrial as an audio story!

Each audio episode covers one week of story posts, and average 25 minutes.

Check out the youtube channel here!

I’ve done all of these recordings myself, with the assistance of my friends Morgan Hill and Orson Maxwell, both brilliant with audio equipment and techniques.

I feel I have a lot to learn about recording these, but I’ve been practicing and I’m excited to continue growing my audio skills.

The music was created by my good friend who runs WeLoudAF music – check out more of his music here!