Cosmos (Discontinued)

2: Conspiracy (part 2)

It took two hours for the flotilla to arrive. A staggered column of four dark, narrow-bodied corvettes hurtled through the scattered cloud batches hanging over the deep, treacherous valley carved between two peaks.

The ships broke my focus away from rereading the report I'd churned out on my Qbit. I'd had plenty of time, but the view from this ridge kept lulling me back into my own thoughts. My entire childhood I spent learning everything about the universe around me. I couldn't shake the feeling it was ready to teach me more.

Three of the corvettes peeled off into a wide patrol pattern while the lead craft descended over us with a deep whoosh. Its landing skids scraped over the shrubs and stopped the craft. The ramp lowered and Captain Attius trudged down, his crimson cape fluttering with the thruster-battered air and his silver-haired head poking out from between the gauntlets of his battle armor. A flippant smirk betrayed his otherwise fearsome appearance.

"Send the two members of the royal court on a harmless training patrol," he bantered by way of greeting. "What's the worst that can happen? Well, let's see...deviate from assigned tasks, wreck two starfighters, violate a treaty, and nearly get yourselves killed. Am I missing anything?"

Vel tightened his lips, ready to spit back a sharp rebuke. He swallowed it, displaying, quite-possibly, the first signs of growing accustomed to the captain's casual sarcasm.

I grinned sheepishly, answering, "possibly provoke an alien species?"

"Whatever you did sure kicked a hornet's nest."

"With the senate, you mean?" said Vel to clarify.

The captain shook his head. "No. I mean more of those crafts have turned up all over the nebula, fitting the same description as the one you encountered."

Vel and I exchanged looks.

"They're impossible to intercept."

"We've done it," I affirmed.

"Her majesty has," Vel corrected, giving me the credit.

"We need to extract the data core from my persecutor," I explained. "I managed to tag it with a Jack Dagger, but I'm not sure what we got out of it. If we can get it to Segreto--"

Captain Attius raised his hands as if to pump the brakes on my monologue. "You should know I am under strict orders from the empress to bring you home. And I have the Minerva's infirmary on standby."

"Then home is where we must go," Vel directed, looking at me to dissuade me of any other ideas.

"I'm not going home," I said to both of them. "Not without any answers. We have the data core. If there's any chance at finding out what these crafts are after, it's with that. And..."

"What?" asked Captain Attius.

Thinking back on my strange moments -- surviving an impossible crash and levitating -- I realized for the first time, "...the craft might have affected me in some way. I can't explain, but if it did, Dr. Vedrix could find out."

"I was afraid you'd mention her," he grumbled, but he crossed his arms and sunk into careful consideration. "Only one tiny hiccup: Segreto-13's location isn't on the Legion's Q4 network, much less the Q3 for navigation."

"But it is on the Q5 network," I reminded.

Captain Attius kept staring. "And this is the part where you say that you have the key to access that network..."

I raised my Qbit.

"Splendid, let's go!"

"That was for emergencies only, and the empress gave an order!" insisted Vel, chucking his head between the two of us in disbelief. "Diverting to Segreto-13 will add two days to our arrival in Haelona!"

"This is an emergency," I joked, exchanging wry smiles with the captain.

"Captain, you could be relieved of command for this!" Vel pleaded.

"After today, I'm counting on it."

We boarded the corvette and strapped in on the flight deck and shortly after, the corvette lifted off. It sank into the valley to allow the marines on board to retrieve the data core, but once stowed in the cargo bay under the flight deck, we pitched up and blasted off. Through the viewport, the pale blue sky darkened into the dead black of space.

Dotted formations of warships awaited us, hundreds of vessels in varying sizes. The larger cruisers commanded dozens of destroyers. Nimble frigates patrolled the flanks. None of them compared to the fearsome dreadnoughts, however. They spanned miles in length, their hulls as sleek as a double-edged sword with swept-back, anhedral sponsons. Their forked bow allowed an opening for the main gun: a massive scyther-class cannon so powerful it could probably crack open a small moon like an egg. All to anticipate a possible return of the Fallens' vanquishers.

At the first sign of microgravity, I loosened the restraints and leaned forward between the two pilots, gaping at the sheer number of them. "How many ships did they send?"

"The entire 7th fleet," said the captain, still strapped in and enjoying the ride.

I gulped. "The Gatekeepers? Shouldn't they--"

"Be guarding the Rift Gate?" he anticipated. "It's still dormant. Nothing ever came through it, not even our new friends. No. Besides, the rest of the fleets have been dispatched to every world and colony."

Passing the aft-most dreadnought cleared our jump corridor. Within minutes, from the perspective of special relativity, we'd arrived in another solar system entirely. A canvas of black space filled our view, then the corvette turned and we stared into the face of a luminescent, green gas giant, complete with a ring that circumvented the planet from top left to bottom right and around the backside. That wasn't our destination, however. The tiny, ball-shaped shadow -- a moon -- below the center of the ring was.

An automated voice hailed the ship. "Legion vessel XRV-12, corvette, unauthorized approach. Relinquish all vessel functions to the station intelligence or alter course at once."

"Go ahead," Captain Attius permitted the pilots, then croaked to the rest of us, "I got a sneaking suspicion we're not too welcome here."

The pilots pressed a sequence of buttons on the center control panel to disable the corvette's NI and a moment later, the station's NI took over. Suddenly, the ship veered hard to the right to pursue a synchronous orbit with the station. The speck grew into a dark gray sphere, then kept expanding like a balloon until the craggy surface of the moon filled our view and the bright neon green of the planet gradually retreated beyond the horizon. Imperceptible at first, rectangular structures embedded within the terrain became apparent. One of them opened via 4 triangularly converging hatches rotating outward, revealing a deep shaft beyond.

It swallowed our corvette into a network of shafts, lined with electromagnetic rails, which would carry us into the bowels of the facility. A facility we would never see because our cockpit blast shields closed, rolling over our viewport to block out any view of it.

A female voice with a high nasal timbre spoke over the corvette's intercom. "Vanguard vessel, vacate your crew from the cargo bay. Once we have unloaded your cargo, we will commence your departure sequence."

"Wha--" I stammered, not expecting that. No, I needed to see her!

Luckily, I had the captain on my side. He pressed the pilot's comm switch and said, "Selina, is that you?"

"Commander Attius," she gasped, "I should have known you were behind this."

"It's good to hear your lovely voice again. It's been too long."

"Not long enough."

"The crown princess requires your attention, she's had a... some sort of interaction with the unidentified object. She needs to be examined."

A pause followed on the other end, then she said, "send her down."

I threw my fists up in triumph.

Captain Attius turned to me. "Be aware she can be very...frank. Don't take it personally."

I nodded and climbed down into the cargo bay alone, my nerves electrified with excitement. I felt a knot of anticipation form in my stomach. It was time for answers.