Journey of the Alacritous Regress Volume 1: The Dead Canary

Installment 7: In Space, No One Can Hear Your Wedding Vows

"Shield integrity 23%."

"S__t!" I hiss through my teeth. "Arron, give me some good news."

"We're perfectly set up for another suicide pass on the ship," Arron barks from the pilot seat. "The White Lion has withdrawn to recharge its shield, it's left to us."

"Quick, how far out are reinforcements?"

"An hour for shuttle reinforcements, another two hours for the destroyer!" She's hard at work setting up a freshly fabricated drone for a suicide strike against the Shike dreadnought. Across the bridge, Blue is busy analyzing the enemy ship and marking targets for the Alacritous's armaments.

"And how long do we need to hold out?"

Al is the one to answer me this time. "I just finished running the data. We've got 12 minutes before it finishes recharging its warp drive. From there, its a half hour before it drops into an orbit around Nike." I groan, if that ship got into orbit around Nike it could wipe out all intelligent life on the surface.

"So we need to prevent it from recharging?"

"Or eliminate the engines." Either way we don't have time to wait for reinforcements.

The ship rattles as the forward railguns fire in unison, launching the projectile forward and into the impenetrable shields of the dreadnought. The shields are the key here, the more energy used to deflect shots, the less energy that goes to recharging the warp drive.

"I sure hope that Tail and Rivan are enjoying their honeymoon, because it may come to an early end," Arron half heartedly jokes. If we didn't stop the ship, the honeymoon would be cut short, along with all the lives on the planet.

Why did this have to happen on my sister's wedding day?

<<Early that day>>

The name of the betrothed are Commit Tail and Rīk'at ze Rivan. Everyone here today is here to see this cute couple. Not that anyone has seen them yet, given that both are hidden away getting ready.

We had gotten ahold of the local baptist churches to host the wedding. Tail is agnostic and Rivan is practitioner of Sher'ak, but the crack wedding planner we had sourced from my cousins had insisted on having it in a church. It was the best we could do to talk them out of the family parish.

The main room has slowly filled as the families accumulated. To one side sit several large Blait, all calmly waiting. To the other side sit a massive number of smaller serval Engeas, also waiting patiently. In the center of the church is the oddest collection of creatures; four lynx, two serval, and a tiger Engea, my family. In addition, there is also a hare Engea, a Magi, a weird gray furred guy, and a Human, the crew of my ship. About a half of them are fidgeting.

The whole event starts with uniform blandness with a sense of underlying dread. Through the door walks the bridesmaids. There's Quick in a traditionally styled Terran gown, greatly altered to fit her Magi build. Walking next to her is a Blait by the name of Arow, one of Rivan's cousins. She's wearing ceremonial armor, a relic of the Blaits' bloody past.

The two reach the stage and take their positions to the sides. 'Here comes the brides' begins to play. First comes Rivan, wearing a gown of multiple sheets of white leather. It's a wonderful fusion of Blait and Terran wedding traditions. She gets to the front and takes her side of the stage.

Next walks in Tail. I've seen my sister in a bathing suit, space suit, and everything in-between, but none have taken away my breath like this. It had taken our aunts, and one of Rivan's uncles, many long sleepless nights to complete, but it's defiantly worth it. The dress is long and flowing, encompassing her in decameters of fabric. It isn't void of Blait touch either, the top is covered by a loose fitting tunic of thin yet opaque fabric, obscuring the very things she has spent her life flaunting. It addition to all this, the gown glows faintly blue, another touch of Blait tradition.