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Why the hell had the Captain ignored her?

Jaya sat back in her chair, a sense of unease in her stomach.

She knew the Captain had had a lot to do in the aftermath of this fiasco.

But she had fully expected him to take the time to chew her out for her insubordination.

Which, she admitted, she deserved.  For an officer to question their superior openly like that was not acceptable; objections had to be made in a specific way.

He’d had the right to make that call to destroy the pirate vessel.  But it had been the wrong call.

There were over a dozen injured, they had managed to rescue only a single colonist, and worst of all, they had not recovered any relic technology.

This was a failure in every conceivable way, and Brooks had lost his nerve.

She could not have blamed anyone else.  They were dealing with things that beggared the greatest imaginations.  Forces that could kill stars and break entire fleets.

She had thought he understood the need, though.

They had to understand.  They had to press forward, even if the cost was great.

Wasn’t he the same man who had ordered her brother to his death, because that was what needed to be done?

It would be terrible to lose Response Team One and Executive Commander Urle and, it hurt her terribly to even think, Apollonia.  She truly liked the girl.

But sometimes those sacrifices had to be made.  The stakes were too high for mankind.

She slammed her hand into her desk, letting out an angry yell.

“Damn it, Brooks!” she yelled.

She breathed heavily, fighting the urge to overturn her desk.

Jaya rarely lost her composure, but this was too personal, too deep a pain, and too important.

Forcing herself to breathe deeply and slowly, she calmed.

Then, she got out her system and input the code that would shield her next message from anyone else on the ship.  The code she’d been given by her superiors.

On the official report, she would not contradict Brooks.

But in this message she would tell the truth of what had happened.  Including how the Captain had failed.

She had hoped one day to recruit him.  But she could see now, even though it was a bitter pill to swallow;

Ian Brooks was not the man she had thought.  He was a great man – but he was not strong enough.

< Ep 10 Part 37 | Ep 10 Part 39 >

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The walls dripped with blood, even in the darkness she could see it.

The physical stains had long since been cleaned away, every drop saved, but the essence of terror could never be removed.

They moved down it, towards the Source, the cause of this.

Didn’t the others hear it?  All-consuming, it beckoned them, called out to every mind that could listen.

But no; their minds were deaf to it.  Or rather, they heard it, but did not know that was what made them no longer even ask her for directions as they took turns through the blood-drenched halls.

Eventually the others saw the blood. Apollonia watched in detached serenity as they saw the literal stains running down the walls, streaking the floor, and splattered even up onto the ceiling. They all reacted with shock and horror.  But they pressed on.

It was a dumb idea, she thought.  But it seemed pointless to say that.

They could not resist any more than she could.

The call was akin to a song, something born of a darkness, a mind that thought in ways they could not understand.  It calculated; measured all it saw in only its usefulness to it.  A mind devoid of anything that one might ascribe as human.

Its song grew stronger as they neared the sacrificial chamber.

It was the source of the ship singing.  That song was its song, reaching out through unimaginable distances.

The Craton itself had heard it in a dream, for even the ship dreamed, she could now see.  It understood on some level, and when it had heard this ghastly siren song it had answered.

“Listen,” she breathed.  Urle turned, jerkily, staring at her, and she saw fear in his eyes.

Why then, did she feel so incredibly calm?

A door was now before them.  Multiple decks had been carved up, then bulkheads cut, to create a door of massive height.  The work was newly done, the edges of the metal still glowing hot.  And through vents cut into the bulkheads, the blood flowed.

It slid, slithered upward through the holes, towards the Source.  Even it obeyed the call.

One of the Response team, one she could see was more sensitive than the others, dropped to his knees, his body trembling.  Urle, Pirra, and the others did not notice – or could not stop themselves.

They entered.

Great spikes of metal protruded up from the deck, and to them were nailed the naked bodies of people.  Hundreds of them, all human.  They were dead, their blood drained through tubes pierced into their bodies.

Almost artfully, she thought, the idea almost making her gag.  It was not her own thought.

A feeling of slight appreciation, though only what one might give to the clever words of a being otherwise a dullard, came to her, and she knew that it was the thought of the Source.

One of the bodies moved.  He was different from the colonists; still human and not Greggan, but his body scarred and with the wiry strength of someone who had fought to survive in the worst conditions all their life.

“. . . part of the crew . . .” he said, his eyes staring sightlessly.  “. . . not one a’ them . . .  don’t cut me boys . . .  I beg ya . . .”

Urle’s knees seemed to give away momentarily.

“I -I’m having too many errors,” he said, his voice stuttering, sounding for once like a machine and not a man.

Pirra looked at him, her mouth moving, but no words came through.  Perhaps the radios were out now, Apollonia thought.

Leaving Urle, the squad continued forward relentlessly, helplessly.  Drawn to the Source that would undo them.

Its song grew richer, yet sicker.  It was nothing like a song for it had no melody, no words that could be understood, but it was the only way that she could describe it.

They stepped past the last of the metal pieces covered in bodies and finally saw it.

It was on a raised, terraced dais, crude but built with devotion.  Channels cut into the terraces let the blood continue to flow upwards, even through the air, behaving as no liquid should with or without gravity.

All into the casket.

It was twice the length of a man, made of a dark stone that she knew to be cratonic.  It was open at the top, and the blood came in through that top, overflowing its edges and running back out, only to swirl around its base.

Something thin and shriveled rose from the blood, reaching up.  It moved so slowly that she almost questioned if it was moving until it touched the stone.

You have come, it said.  The voice was soft and gentle.

“Yes,” she said.

Come closer upon me.

She approached, moving past the Response Team, who seemed frozen, struggling to move, unable to control their bodies.

“Let them go,” Apollonia said, her mind swirling.  She was watching herself step forward as if it was another.  She felt nothing, but she knew that on some level she was the only one who had even enough power to realize that.

That she was the only one who could save any of them.

Child, you have suffered for so long, the voice said.  Come closer and let your pain be at an end.

It was too ominous, and she felt closer to herself, almost inside her own body again.  She struggled to stop her feet, pausing before taking another step.

“Let the others go,” she said, more forcefully.

They will be free, the voice said.  It was so sweet and alluring that she wanted to believe it.

But what about you?  You have always wondered.  Always wanted to understand what you truly were.  What your passenger is and why it chose you.

“Your blood sings in me,” she said, not even understanding where the words came from.

Yes, it told her.

A million, million generations ago, your kind were nothing; just a chemical mockery of life.  But then we gave you everything.  And now it is time to repay that debt.

And make me live again.

She did not realize she had come even closer.  But now she was standing next to the sarcophagus, staring down into it.

The blood flow stopped.  The floating streams exploded, turning everything red.

Even the blood in the sarcophagus was gone.  The being inside was tall, so tall that it had to be folded to fit inside, its body shaped like a shield, its head embedded in its torso and entirely covered in organic plates.  Its arms small, coming from the bottom of its body, folded across it.  Its long legs, folded so many times, came from where one might expect the shoulders to be.

It was looking at her with its mind, from a body so ancient that it had withered into a husk.

Yet its spirit had held on, with hate and malice and sheer greed, those raw emotions just enough when it understood the secrets of the cosmos so deeply.  It had twisted reality around itself to make it possible.

All that while reaching into dreams to bring one to it.  The Greggan pirates had come, their captain more sensitive than most.  But it found their blood unpalatable.

Human blood suited it better.

The ancient Priest-Lord, grand worshipper of the Things That Lived in the Stars.  It was favored, basked in their . . . she knew it was not love, because they did not feel that.  It did not even understand that concept.  But it had been granted greatness by them, allowing it to shape flesh, minds, and reality.

You have come, it said again, and she felt herself become fully paralyzed.  Her eyes watered gazing upon its body, and as if emboldened by her presence its ancient limbs moved more, twitching, stretching, dust coming from the joints.

She hoped that it was too frail, that it would tear itself apart.  But it did not.

It was living again.

< Ep 10 Part 32 | Ep 10 Part 34 >

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Kade felt something on his face, and he reached up to touch it, seeing a dark liquid on his hand.

The lights on the bridge had turned to a deep shade of blue; some sort of emergency lighting attuned better to Greggan senses, but it left him nearly blind.

He was still on the bridge, or whatever this room was, as no other crew had ever come back to man the consoles.

Some had tried; they had banged at the door, tried to override it, then even to breach it.  They had failed.

Tarsota had ignored them all, ignored every call and attempt to contact him.

Then the ship had been hit.  Kade had no idea how badly, but he felt the shudders, and then one had been so near and so strong that he’d been thrown into a wall.

Had he lost consciousness?  He wasn’t sure.

Tarsota was unmoving, slumped in his chair still.  He hadn’t moved or changed position in minutes, as if the massive explosions had not even affected him.

Was he dead?  Kade had no idea how to even tell on a Greggan, they did not breathe in the same way as humans.

He had to get out of here.  There was no more pounding on the door, so the crew trying to get in must have fled.

Or died, he thought.  It could be a vacuum out there.

Shit, this kinda thing was why he lived on a planet, not on a station.  He’d always been terrified of dying in space, feeling the air sucked from his lungs and knowing, even if just for a few seconds, that his time had come.

Give me a nice atmosphere!  Some solid land under my feet and gravity that isn’t from centrifugall force, he thought bitterly.

Wasn’t like it had been his choice to leave the colony world . . .

He reached for the door controls when the box exploded into a shower of sparks.  Burning spots of pain spread across his face and he screamed, falling back.

“No,” he heard Tarsota gurgle, his smoking handgun still pointing towards the door controls.  “You do not leave.”

He felt more warm liquid flowing down his face.  He’d just been cut up by the shrapnel.

Tarsota said nothing else, but his arm sagged, slowly sinking towards the floor in fits and starts.

Kade crawled away from the door, taking cover behind an instrument panel.  He glanced up at the readouts, seeing that the screen was on in some kind of low-light mode.

He did a double-take.  It was a video feed, this was a security station.

Reaching for the controls, he took a moment to puzzle them out.  Blood ran into his eyes, making them sting, and he wiped it away as best he could, blinking fiercely.

Figuring out the controls, he began to change the view.  It took him a few tries, but he figured out the system – it was all pretty obvious, clearly intended for poorly-trained crews.

He found the prisoner pits, and began to cycle through the camera views there.

He saw the cages, but they were empty.  He continued to flip, his heart beating with terror.  Where were they?

He saw a flicker of motion on the edge of one view as he cycled through and went back.  It was already gone, but looking to the corner he tried to figure out what camera would be sequentially next and flipped to it.

There.  It was a large Greggan, dragging a man by his leg.  The man was flailing in terror.

Kade flipped switches, trying to turn on audio, but he couldn’t hear anything.

He managed to make the image clearer, saw that the floor was darker under the man.  It looked like hundreds of footprints, smearing and smudging something black along the floor.  It hadn’t been that color before, he’d seen that hall.

Where were they taking the man?  Kade realized with a start that he knew him.  He was a city leader, head of the agriculture department.  He was fighting with all his strength, but the Greggan dragging him did not notice.  It didn’t even seem to care as the man tore at its exposed flesh with his hands, leaving gouges from his nails.

Like it was in a trance, it pulled him down a hall.  Kade followed it through another view, saw a heavy sealed door.

The dark streaks went under it, and as it opened to let the guard drag the man in, the brighter lights inside showed that the streaks were not black, but red.

Blood.

The man screamed as he saw in the room, his flailing turning to new horror.

Kade tried to find a camera in the room, desperate to see what was in there.  But if there ever had been cameras in that place, they had been removed.

He looked back, helplessly, as the door sealed.

More movement at the edge of the screen, and he realized he could pan the camera.

It was two more Greggans.  Their mouths were open, drooling.  Their eyes were staring off into space.  One of them had a knife stabbed into his cheek, but did not even seem to notice.

They were struggling to pull another human along.  He was fighting ferociously, like a cornered animal.

Kade saw an option he hadn’t noticed.  Flipping the switch, he finally got audio.

“I’m one of you!” the man was screaming.  “I’m not a sacrifice I’m a part a tha crew!”

His voice was beyond hysterical, almost unintelligible.

It was Surc, he realized.

The doors opened again, and as they did, a wave of blood splashed out into the hall.

Kade screamed falling back from the console, trying to crawl further and further away, but only pressing himself more into the console behind him.

It took him a few moments to regain any semblance of his senses.  He was hyperventilating, his head swimming.

Struggling to regain control, he fought his fear, trying to shove it aside or at least function.

Feeling weak, shaky, he turned and looked out, towards Captain Tarsota.

He needed to get out of here.  Eventually the crew would come back and get him.

Tarsota seemed even more slumped than before.  Kade rose, his terror at the thought of being caught by the crew giving him the bravery to approach the Captain.  When unconscious – or dead? – he was not as fearsome.

Stepping closer and closer, he watched the hand holding the gun.  But the weapon looked to be slipping from his grip.

Perhaps he really was dead . . . ?

But as he stepped up next to the being, he saw his eyes move.  They were affixed on him, and Kade froze in terror.

“There is not long,” the being said, his voice soft.  Intimate.

He leaned forward, making a horrible retching sound and vomited a disturbing quantity of black liquid that smelled like bile.

“I die soon,” he said, his eyes going back to Kade as if nothing had happened.  “You will live.  At least so long as it does not.”

“So long as what doesn’t live?” Kade found himself asking.

Tarsota made a gurgling sound, leaning away slowly, as if in great pain.

“It took control of me,” he said, his voice raspy and weak.  “Controlled my actions.  Took so much.  Demanded even more.  I gave and gave but I can give so little now.  Its attention wanes.”

Tarsota’s eyes had drifted off, unfocusing, but they snapped back to Kade.  “It controls them all now.  Makes them act.  They think they control themselves, but they are slaves.  Like I was.  But I am cast aside now.  Leaves me some strength to defy it.”

“Defy what?” Kade asked, leaning in, putting a hand on Tarsota.  The being’s words terrified him – because Kade believed them.

“The thing we found . . . so long ago . . . years.”  His eyes opened wider. “Or was it only months?  I no longer know.  Deep in space . . .  I hid the location.  Killed most who came with me.  Wanted its power, it helped us, whispered to me secrets that . . .”

He coughed again, slumping, but Kade pushed him back upright.  “What kind of secrets?” he demanded, not even sure why he was asking.

“Secrets of space.  Of . . . the nature of things.  Ways to change the engines that let us jump so easily.  It only took blood, demanded blood.  It did not want ours, I do not know why . . .  We gave it the humans.”

His head slowly moved back and forth, shaking.  In what emotion, Kade wondered.

Shame?

“Nothing was enough . . . it was not enough . . .”

His words faded.

He was not dead, Kade thought.  But he could say no more.

The gun slipped from his hands completely, and Kade didn’t feel afraid of him anymore, even though he was still otherwise terrified.

He stepped back, looking at Tarsota’s console, and saw that his journal was open.  There were entries, newer ones, that hadn’t been in the version he’d shared earlier.

His curiosity was stronger than his fear.  Besides, what else was he to do?

Kade pulled over a seat, turning the console so he could see it fully, and sat down to read.

< Ep 10 Part 27 | Ep 10 Part 29 >

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“Congratulations, Captain Brooks,” Admiral Jarod said.

Though transmitting from dozens of light-years away, he appeared as a full three-dimensional hologram in the HUDs of all the officers present.

“To use this unusual ‘hum’ to triangulate a possible location of the pirate base was brilliant work.  I look forward to reviewing your full report.”

Brooks nodded.  “Thank you, Admiral.”

“It was a risk leaving the colonies undefended while you took this jump,” Jarod noted.  “If they had been attacked, you would not have been able to reach them in a timely manner.”

“The pirates have waited some time between each attack,” Brooks replied.  “I felt it likely they would be even more cautious since we nearly intercepted them during their last attack.”

“Still,” Jarod said, tapping his chin in thought.  “They do seem able to make jumps quickly, don’t they?  We do not know the full extent of their relic technology.”

Brooks felt a flicker of annoyance.  Jarod was not a man he had ever liked or gotten along with.  He was well-known to collaborate with Director Freeman of Tenkionic Research as well, another man Brooks neither liked nor trusted.

He did not let his emotions show, however.  “We are still uncertain if they do in fact possess relic technology, or if there is just simple trickery here.”

“Mm,” Jarod replied.  “Well now that you’ve made your third jump and figured out a direction – how long until you can jump again?”

“We began charging for another jump shortly after our arrival here,” Brooks said.  ‘Here’ was simply an empty area of space which Cenz had decided was a good point for triangulation.  “We can jump again in two hours.”

“Good, good.” Jarod said.  “Now,” he continued, “your orders upon finding the pirates is to take as many alive as possible, especially those of rank.  We also want to recover all potential relic technology, and most especially any data that could lead to the location of one of these supposed temple-stations.”

Urle raised a hand.  “Is the rescue of the colonists to be a secondary concern?”

Brooks had turned to look at Urle, and he could tell that he was bothered by the Admiral’s priorities.  He felt the same way.

The Admiral paused just a little too long.  “Achieve both objectives,” he said bluntly.  “Of course we want to recover the colonists.”

“Understood,” Urle said.  “Also Admiral – have you received our report regarding the pressing needs of the colonists?”

“That is outside my purview,” Jarod said dismissively.  “Now, go recover a relic and get your names in the history books.”

With a smile and salute, Jarod terminated the conversation.

Brooks looked back to the table of command officers, his expression more serious.

“We all heard the Admiral,” he said.  “We are to board and recover any relic technology.”

Kai spoke.  “Which will we be prioritizing?  The colonists or any suspected relic technology?”

“The colonists,” Brooks said.  “It is the best way to achieve both objectives.  Relic technology has lasted for eons in the void, it can wait until after we recover people.”

It was a good enough excuse, he thought, if the logs were ever reviewed.

He could not say that he was against recovering the relic tech; not for fame or to get his name in the history books, as the Admiral had said, but for sheer curiosity.  If they were relics of an ancient spacefaring civilization, it would be incredible to study them, and they could change the course of history.

And perhaps they did have some insight into zerospace and other such things that could prove advantageous, though he still privately was skeptical of the more fantastical claims about it.

His eyes fell to Apollonia, who had managed to squish herself in between Y and Cenz, using their sizes to hide somewhat.

She looked uncomfortable, and when she caught him looking, she looked down.

“The majority of pirates, we expect to be Greggans, so prepare accordingly.  I expect that their fighting force will consist of the D-type Greggans-“

“Those are the big ones, right?” Apollonia interrupted.

“That’s correct,” Brooks said.  “They average 2.5 meters in height and possess heightened physical strength, which is often supplemented with crude but effective enhancers, both chemical and mechanical.  Expect that they will want to engage in melee combat if possible to press this advantage.”

Jaya looked to Kai.  “Our enhancements should be quite superior to theirs.  Do we expect them to really have that much of a physical advantage?”

“Possibly,” Kai said.  “They will have a lot of mass to press.  I’ll issue melee defenses and inform all teams of the possibility.”

“Prep teams one through six,” Brooks said.  “We’ll be launching the first three teams as soon as we can ensure their safety in transit.  They will focus on securing vital parts of the ship, and then we will send across teams four through six to help hold.  After that, Team One will have the primary objective of locating any relic technology, while Two and Three will focus on the colonists.  Team One will only move in to secure the technology after the other teams have completed their missions and we’re sure all colonists are safe.”

He looked to Apollonia again.  “Ms. Nor will be sent in the second wave to help in securing the technology.”

Apollonia’s eyes widened, jaw dropping.

“I hope that due to her abilities, she will provide protection against elevated levels of krahteons,” he continued.

“Captain,” Urle said emphatically.  “Are you certain we should be sending a civilian into a war zone?”

“I concur with the Executive Commander,” Y said.  “I object to this decision on medical grounds.”

Jaya leaned forward.  “Captain, I do not believe she is ready.”

Brooks hesitated, but not because of their objections.  He understood them all and more.  He did not like this idea; he hated it, even if he could see the logic.  But it was over his head, ultimately.  And even if it was in his hands, he had to think of all the lives under his command.

“Apollonia,” he said, looking to her.  “If you refuse to go, I understand.  I know you aspire to be an officer, but this is far too soon for you to be put into such a situation.  This will, however, reflect well on you.  Are you willing to perform this task?”

She was silent for a few moments.  Dr. Y began to speak again, but Brooks raised a hand, silencing him.

“Your presence is passive,” Brooks told her.  “You will also have a security detail whose sole mission will be your protection.  We don’t know how much radiation relic technology might put out, which is why you will be present.  You will protect the lives of every Response Officer on the mission.”

Apollonia finally looked up, watching him for a few moments.

“Okay,” she said.  “I’ll do it.”

< Ep 10 Part 22 | Ep 10 Part 24 >

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“Surfacing in realspace in 3 . . . 2 . . . 1!”

Reality coalesced on the screen, spreading from the center of their view out, and before them lay the colony world of Cyphon IV.

Small glints, mere chips of light against the stars beyond, were in orbit around the world.

“Unknown vessels detected,” Cenz said.  “98% matches for our pirate vessels.”

“Launch all combat drones,” Brooks ordered.  “Give me everything you can about what they are doing.  Eboh, message them to surrender.  If we’re lucky, we can end this without violence.”

“There are cargo craft en route from the surface,” Cenz said.  “We have some still lifting out of the atmosphere, and others already in orbit, heading towards the pirate vessels.”

“Close the gap and launch micro-missiles,” Brooks ordered.  “I want those cargo ships disabled before they get to the pirate ship.”

“Missiles away,” Jaya said.  “Ninety seconds until impact.  We should knock out the cargo ships before they can get within the safety perimeter of the pirate fleet.”

“We are getting no response to our demands, Captain,” Eboh called out.

“A pity,” Jaya said.  “I suppose we’ll have to destroy them.”

“Not quite yet,” Brooks said.  “They may have hostages aboard.  Send forward some of our defensive drones, put them around the shuttles.”

“We are receiving a message,” Eboh said.  “It is pre-recorded.”

“Put it up,” Brooks ordered.

A three-dimensional image appeared of a Greggan.  The view was terribly close, showing every detail of its head.

It appeared large, even for a Delta, but unhealthy.  Strips of skin dangled from the sides of its face as if it had been tearing at its own flesh – or something else had.  The wounds had congealed, but were still relatively fresh.  Its eyes had a greenish pallor that Brooks knew was a sign of poor health in the species, and its lips were unkempt, swollen to the point where its own teeth pierced them, pale blood dribbling from the wounds.

Its eyes twitched, at times the pupils in one or two darting off to peer away, and it leaned even closer to the camera, the edges of its head clipping out of view.

“Vessel unwisely opposing us,” the Greggan spoke in its deep, croaking language.  “You trespass in holy space, sanctified by the presence of the Free Star Company led by Feared Captain Tarsota.  We are privateers in service to a higher power, on glorious purpose.  You will not impede us.  You will not stop us.  You will surrender, or you will die.”

The transmission ended.

“There is a simple virus encoded in the message,” Eboh noted.  “It was picked up immediately.  Deeper scans reveal some other malicious code, but nothing that poses a threat to our system.”

Jaya shook her head.  “I recommend we send a full missile barrage at their fleet, Captain.  Aim for surgical strikes to disable their vessels.”

Brooks was quiet a moment before answering.

“Status of missiles headed towards their cargo transports?”

“Hitting in ten seconds,” Cenz said.

“Prepare a larger barrage as you suggest, Jaya, but do not launch yet.  They have to see the first missiles by now – are they doing anything?”

“Negative,” Cenz said.  “We have hits on the cargo ships.  All appear disabled.”  A pause.  “We are seeing activity now, they appear to be preparing to launch their own missiles.”

Brooks sighed.  “Then we’re in it now.  Launch our full barrage, aim to disable their zerodrives and weapons systems.”

An image of the Craton appeared in his HUD, showing the launch of missiles, spat out by their launchers, waiting, and once all out, firing off their thrusters and speeding away.

“All missiles launched.  Two-minutes-thirty until impact,” Jaya said.

Apollonia, who had been quiet, leaned forward.  “What happens if we disable them and they still won’t surrender?” she asked.

“Then,” Brooks replied.  “We will have to board them and take their ships by force.”

Cenz turned suddenly.  “Captain, the pirate ships have fired on their cargo carriers!”

Brooks looked back to the screen.  Missile streaks had indeed started off from the pirate vessels, heading towards the disabled carriers.

“How long until our missiles get there?” Brooks asked.

“Still two minutes.  Their missiles will hit in thirty-seven seconds.”

“And our drones?” Jaya asked.

“Still a minute out,” Cenz continued.  “We cannot intercept their barrage.”

“Tell me what’s on those ships!  Any indications that there are hostages aboard?”

Cenz was silent a moment.  The seconds ticked away.

“I’m sorry, Captain,” Cenz finally replied.  “I cannot tell from this distance.”

They could only watch helplessly as the pirate missiles slammed into the disabled ships, blasting their hulls open and ripping them apart.

“All cargo carriers destroyed,” Cenz said.  “I am still unsure as to what they were carrying.”

Brooks took a deep breath and looked at the timer.  Just over a minute until their own missiles hit the pirate ships.

“Put our drones into a holding formation,” Jaya ordered.  “Over the colony.  We want to prevent the pirates from attacking it.”

“Full defense protocol,” Brooks added.  “If they launch so much as a single missile – especially if they launch a single missile – I want all effort made to intercept it.”

“The lead pirate vessel is activating a zerodrive, Captain,” Cenz said.  “The portal is big enough for all of their ships.”

“They had to have jumped in here just a few hours ago!” Jaya said.  “There’s no way they can have enough charge to jump again already.”

“This has to be some kind of trick.  How stable is their portal?” Brooks asked.

Cenz slumped slightly.  “Stable enough, it seems.  I’m sorry, Captain, but they are already gone.”

< Ep 10 Part 12 | Ep 10 Part 14 >

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The pirate known as the Star Hunter has attained a legendary status across stellar civilization, with stories being told and embellished even into modern times.

Though the events surrounding him occurred almost four thousand years prior to humanity’s first encounter, the Star Hunter has remained a darling of cheap dramas and thrillers.  Viewed as a villain, a dark hero, or sometimes even as a victim of great forces far beyond the individual, he remains a household name.

So many stories have been told that the reality of his life and final days are oft lost and forgotten.

What is known for certain of the Dessei, whose birth name was Keraoãng, is that he was born on the mid-size island of Nosng on Enope, the Dessei homeworld.  Son of mid-tier public officials, his joining the Dessei Republic Fleet was a very natural and easy step in his life path.

While scoring well in his training and exams, Keraoãng was not exemplary in most fields, but displayed a great desire to explore unknown space.  All Dessei have their head in the sky, it is said, but Keraoãng was born with his head in the stars.

Becoming the captain of a deep-space scout vessel, he was one of many seeking to chart places only ever seen through telescopes or by probes.  On one of these long-term missions, in the darkness between systems he claimed to discover an ancient space station that he dubbed a temple-station.  While appearing abandoned, the story goes, he felt drawn to the place.

Against the judgment of his subordinate officers, Keraoãng landed his scout ship on the station and led a boarding party.

There are no reliable accounts of what occurred in the station, only distorted messages that described great danger and an unknown opposing force.

Finally, a single clear message came through from Keraoãng himself; “I have found it.”

Keraoãng and less than a third of his original party returned to the scout ship.  The survivors would not speak of what they had seen or experienced, and Keraoãng dismissed such details as unimportant.  The remaining members of the crew on the ship noted a severe change in personality in Keraoãng after recovering the item he called relic technology.

Whereas prior he had been a well-liked commander who followed protocol and cared little for personal prestige, after the trip onto the station he became arrogant and brutal.  He carried an object with him in a pouch on his chest, but would not tell or show anyone what it was.  Those who pressed too hard were punished severely.  Finally, after a confrontation with his first officer, Keraoãng shot and killed him.  After that, none aboard dared to question him.

Returning to Dessei space, he was detained by the Dessei government and questioned in secret.  Rumors abounded about what punishment he might face for losing so many crew members and his later behavior, but the government dragged its feet on the issue for unknown reasons.  The day before a sentence was to be announced, however, Keraoãng was freed by members of his crew who had gone into the temple-station with him.  Together, they seized control of a light cruiser and fled Dessei space.

The Dessei government were in clear shock over this turn of events, and while little was publicly admitted, sources of good repute leaked that the government had been more curious in the temple-station and relic technology than Keraoãng’s aberrant behavior.  Yet despite that, they had not learned the location of the supposed temple-station, and all data on the scout ship’s computers had been erased by Keraoãng before arrival back at Enope.

The incident faded from public minds until two years later, when Keraoãng returned.  Now leading a fleet of ramshackle ships with his light cruiser, which he had named the Rightful Prize.

In a series of lightning strikes, Keraoãng, now identifying himself as Star Hunter, captured several more small warships, taking hostages with each attack.

To add to his mystique, the Star Hunter sent a series of missives, claiming to be a legal privateer in service to “a higher power”.

His boldness growing, the Star Hunter even staged a raid upon Enope itself, capturing and taking back with him a military defense platform along with his original scout vessel.  Exactly how this was achieved has been a closely-guarded secret of the Dessei Republic – many have noted in the centuries since that the ability to carry off an entire station should not have been possible with the level of technology then in play.

Attempts by the Dessei to crush the Star Hunter met in dismal failure; in several battles, the Dessei Republic Fleet was humbled by the pirate’s inferior forces, suffering staggering losses in the process.

The apparently impossible nature of the Star Hunter’s attacks became a recurring theme.  The precision of his zerospace jumps and the rapidity with which his ships could jump again still has not been explained.  They allowed him to bypass standard defenses and reach prize targets with ease, taking what he wished to supply and strengthen his forces.

Likewise, the Rightful Prize seemed able to punch far above her weight class; in several battles that are still studied by multiple species, the light cruiser bested groups of heavier vessels that faced it, without sustaining any serious damage.  The destruction of the battleship Winged Heart with all hands has become the subject of several songs alone.

In further communiques sent by dummy drones, the Star Hunter claimed that the relic technology he had discovered granted him these powers and that his strength would only continue to grow. In none of these communiques did the Star Hunter ever declare a clear goal, and as time went on they became longer and more rambling, often decrying the existing government of the Dessei Republic for ‘lacking true vision’ and ‘seeing only the mundane’.

He sent out a more general call, summoning to him every privateer and mercenary in known space.

Millions flocked to his banner, and a small local annoyance soon became a clear threat to the stability of governments in space.

Ranging further, Star Hunter began to strike outside of Dessei space, into territories of the Sepht and Bicet.  With each victory increasing the technological advantage of his forces, he gained more ships and took more hostages at every turn.

His most notorious attack became known as the Taking of New Enope, where nearly all 300,000 people in a Dessei colony were taken prisoner by Star Hunter’s forces.

Some stories claimed that he had long frequented the colony and had fallen in love with a local woman.  But because she loved her home so much, Star Hunter had taken them all to allow her to keep them near her.

Other stories, and likely the reality, were far darker.

Attempts to track the zerojumps of Star Hunter’s forces proved useless; his fleets seemed to move impossibly fast, at times even to be in two places at once.

This threat led the Dessei Republic to press for peace with their long-time rivals, the Sepht.  The wise leadership of both peoples saw the threat posed by the Star Hunter, and they joined forces.  The Bicet were more than happy to join this coalition, planting the seed that would eventually grow into the Sapient Union.

Attempting to determine patterns in Star Hunter’s attacks, which now focused on Sepht and Bicet colonies as a form of retaliation for the alliance, a suspected pattern was found by a team of researchers.  This team were not military analysts or even mathematicians, but tenkionic researchers who had been attempting to understand the nature of subspace itself.  Though two of them took their lives not long after submitting their findings, the Combined Fleet was able to catch Star Hunter’s forces in action attacking a Bicet colony.

While the fight itself was inconclusive, as Star Hunter quickly withdrew, it was hailed as a major turning point.

Months of cat-and-mouse chases continued without success, however, until a small ship of defectors from the Star Hunter’s forces were found, desperately seeking to surrender.

These defectors claimed that the Star Hunter was sinking into a dark insanity.  The beings taken as hostages were being sacrificed, and his secret base which could not be located was in the ancient temple-station where he had first found his technology.  Further, these defectors were willing to trade the location of the temple-station in return for amnesty.

The combined forces saw that this could be a trap, but having no other leads, decided to launch an attack.

Arriving, they found the ancient edifice, larger than any known space station, and engaged the pirate fleet.

Star Hunter’s forces were not at all prepared for an assault on their home base, not even reacting until they had been attacked.

Once roused to action, though, the severely outnumbered pirate fleet fought back.  Anchored by the defense platform taken years earlier, they were able to mount a formidable defense, inflicting heavy damage on the Combined Fleet.  But the comradeship that had been built between the three species told; the heroic defense of the disabled Sepht flagship by Dessei forces helped to heal centuries of mistrust between the two species.

The Star Hunter’s fleet fought to the very last, even as their ships were shattered apart, pockets of resistance held out.

Now able to approach the temple-station, a combined-arms force was launched.  From here there is little solid information, as the official records have been sealed by each of the involved governments.

Stories, however, tell that the temple was filled with blood-sacrifices, growing more gruesome and twisted the deeper they went.  The living in the temple were maniacs, the original followers of the Star Hunter who had become completely mindless puppets.

The most fanciful stories tell that the troops encountered beings of a species unknown, that were nearly immune to conventional weapons and could keep fighting even when nearly torn apart.

Sustaining great casualties, the forces drove into the heart of the temple-station.  There is no real information on what occurred there, but after a four-hour battle the Star Hunter fled from the temple, escaping in the Rightful Prize.

Whatever luck the Star Hunter had once possessed that allowed him to fight against incredible odds in the past seemed to abandon him.  Or perhaps the odds were simply too great, but as the Rightful Prize moved away, the Combined Fleet launched overwhelming volleys of missiles and coilgun strikes.

Taking hits, the Star Hunter broadcast a constant stream of maddened invective, cursing the Combined Fleet and all in it.

Defying calls for his surrender, the Rightful Prize instead made a desperate dive into zerospace.

Most experts agree that in the state of the Rightful Prize, it likely broke up and disintegrated almost immediately after submersion.  Even if it did survive the initial acceleration into zerospace, it is unlikely it could have exited safely.  And even if all of that did not occur, with the damage the vessel had sustained, it was unlikely the crew could survive much longer.

The mysterious temple-station itself likewise met its end; perhaps as a result of damage from the battle, it began to break apart and collapse in on itself.  It is suspected that it was powered by a black hole at its heart, and the containment system was damaged.  Of the boarding forces deployed, only a handful managed to escape in time.

Gravitic anomalies and debris, it is said, forced the retreat of the Combined Fleet.  Later investigations into the region found no traces of the temple-station, and studies of its external views have determined very little.

Thus, the story of the Star Hunter ends.

Stories and legends continue on without end; the more romantic deny claims of human sacrifice as mere propaganda and claim that in the end Star Hunter was able to escape with his unnamed wife and finally found peace out beyond the fringe.  Others say that his relic technology conferred upon him immortality, and he is only biding his time before he attacks again.

Though the Sapient Union itself was not founded directly after this incident, the Space Hunter War is sometimes listed as one of the factors that led to the Union’s birth.  Official histories, however, do not even mention the period or even call it a war.

The survivors of the landing party have never been identified, and if any of them returned to normal life, they never spoke of what they saw.  It is sometimes claimed that the stories they spread were so disturbing that they were re-settled on a distant secret colony.

Whatever happened to them, or to the Star Hunter, in times since many pirates have tried to claim his mantle or that they have a piece of his relic technology.  Many go out seeking the supposed Lost Treasure of the Star Hunter, a cache they claim he made before the final battle where he hid his relic technology, thus explaining his failures in that final battle.

Thus far, there are no publicly confirmed accounts of other space pirates obtaining such relic technology.

Unofficially, however, on a need to know basis, it is known that such incidents have occurred.  While none have been as overtly threatening as the Star Hunter War, they are treated with the utmost seriousness by the Sapient Union.

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