Post by Kwan on Jan 16, 2012 16:08:11 GMT -5
* * * Entry First And Only * * *
They called it the Death Star.
Although it was officially named the Desertron, it was an atom smasher 87 kilometers in circumference, designed to accelerate particles to 20 TeV and collide them at 40. The sheer size and power of the thing dwarfed every other structure in the world, not to mention its cost. Despite being built to help uncover some of the deepest mysteries of the universe and its ways, it was perhaps inevitable that the media and the public at large would indulge in a bit science fiction given its popular appellation, and certainly of no great surprise.
So, it was also of no great surprise to some when a large chunk of land in central Texas, encircling sleepy Waco, disappeared for seemingly no reason at all. It was, however, a great surprise to the few ranchers who populated the outskirts of Waco to find upon waking that they were not in Texas anymore. Neither, apparently were their livestock, ranches, and equipment. Well, that is to say parts of their livestock, ranches and equipment because it seemed that anything unlucky enough to have crossed the invisible line during the “event” was left cut in two.
This unfortunate incident left many baffled Waco residents without power, water, or a way to cross the deep ravine that now encircled their town. It also left both the residents of Waco and the unlucky ranchers with many bodies of very surprised and very dead steer to dispose of. Waco residents made quick use of their new gulch and simply pushed the cattle over the sides, no doubt listening intently to hear a familiar splat at the end that might indicate just how far down this new chasm delved. The ranchers, on the other hand, found themselves much too busy to worry about the carcasses of bewildered bovines.
One such rancher was Jackson Jones who, having been unceremoniously awoken by the bloodcurdling screams of his wife Sarah, was standing slack-jawed at the grassy edge of his property when the first of three Ternion battle-cruisers zapped into view. Being a rancher and not an astrophysicist of any kind, Jackson had little understanding of what had happened. He did, however, possess a working pair of eyes and a brain of average human intelligence which, when working in conjunction, left him well equipped to asses his situation. As he saw it, his situation could best be described in one word, “Fuck.” For what his eyes and brain told him seemed both impossible and terrifying. Jackson’s eyes beheld a width of his land stretching approximately two acres across that ended abruptly on both the North and South sides with a precipitous drop off into what looked like deep space. This two acre width appeared to continue in a ring of ranches from East to West with a giant black center which Jackson’s average intelligence told him was most likely space as well. He was indeed fucked.
All this brought the rancher to one very unhappy conclusion. “Aliens,” he said before spitting Skoal juice on what was left of his grass. He had managed heretofore not to faint at the sight of suddenly sliced livestock or scream upon realizing that his land was now part of a ring of earth floating in unknown space, so Jackson took this development in stride as well and simply went back into his house. Once there, he instructed Sarah, who had ceased her screaming and had moved on to silent, shaking sobs, to pour him a drink and bring it to him on the porch. It was there that he waited while sipping on his whiskey and rocking slowly back and forth in his old favorite rocking chair.
Jackson had decided, correctly as it would soon turn out, that because his neighbors’ front yards seemed devoid of giant spaceships that they would soon converge upon his patch of earth. So, as the convoy of Chevys and Fords rumbled towards his house, he simply leaned back and put his boots on the rail before yelling for his wife. “Sarah? Best get those donuts out from yesterday. We’re gonna have company.” As she came out of the house holding a tray of donuts and lemonade with trembling hands, Jackson stood and wrapped one arm around her waist. “Brave face, darlin’. We’ll sort this out; you’ll see.”
He spit again out the side of his mouth and watched as five trucks came to a dusty stop in his front yard. “My grass,” Sarah squeaked.
“Hush dear. I think ruts in the lawn are the least of our worries.” Jackson squeezed his wife’s waist once more and walked down the steps to meet his guests.
“Is this everyone,” Jackson asked, eyeing the group. There seemed to be about six men, four women, and eight kids. A couple of dogs were panting from the beds of trucks as well.
“Ayup,” said one of the ranchers as he stepped forward to shake Jackson’s hand. “The feller’s on the East side weren’t so lucky.” He made a chopping motion in the air. “Cut their houses near in half.” In a lower voice he said “Cut them in half too. I wouldn’t head that way if I were you.” Jackson clapped the man on the shoulder and nodded his understanding.
Now those who have never lived south of the Mason Dixon would be surprised to learn that upon arrival of their new guests Sarah forgot her fear and began playing the part of a near-perfect hostess. Manners run deep in the South and it would take more than the dislocation of her home to make Sarah a bad hostess. Within fifteen minutes she and the other ladies had set up two picnic tables with food and drinks. The ladies placed their backs to the spaceships and watched the kids rough-house in the yard as the men gathered together to talk.
The men cautiously approached the edge of the property and peered down as far as they dared. “How you s’pose the air is stayin’ in,” one of the men asked.
A boy, which Jackson figured was the man’s son, started laughing. “Pop, we’re in the middle of space. There are giant spaceships hoverin’ above us,” he said while flailing his arms. “Everythin’ around us has been severed by a magical invisible line and your question is how’s the air stayin’ in?”
A flush of red crept up the man’s neck. “Well shit, I jus’ mean…well I don’t see any of you lining up to touch it!” And he was right. None of the men, his son included, wanted to be the first to touch the barrier that surrounded their little island.
They stood in silence for a moment each waiting for someone else to talk and looking at anything but each other. As fortune had it, just as Jackson opened his mouth to break the silence, a ball flew past his head and passed straight through the barrier. A blue-electric hum rippled from the point of origin and spread across the sky before returning to normal. Meanwhile the ball drifted into the vacuum beyond, spurred by the force of that last child’s kick, until it ricocheted off the glassy hull of the lead spaceship. As if in response, the ship activated a beam of bright red light that formed a circle about three yards wide on Jackson’s front lawn. Seeing this, the men thought it best to immediately gather the women and children and retreat to the porch. This is exactly how the Ternions found them as their landing party materialized in the light.
Everything may indeed be bigger in Texas but that adage was clearly never meant to include aliens for these aliens were certainly larger than any human in Texas. The members of the landing party stood eight feet high and were wearing some sort of space-suit to protect them from the atmosphere. The ranchers and their families gasped as the lead alien whipped out a device, and then sighed audibly as soon as it was clear the device was not a weapon. The lumbering Ternion walked towards the porch with the device in one hand and poked at Jackson with the other.
“Hey man! Just what do ya think yer doin?” The device made a series of squeaks and beeps before quieting back down. The alien poked at Jackson again. “Now that’s just about enough of that. We don’t come…” The device kicked on again and after a couple of whirs, beeps, and clicks issued a high-pitched whine that sounded eerily like a fax machine and silenced Jackson mid-protest. Afterwards the lead Ternion snapped the lid shut and reattached the device to the outside of his suit.
The ranchers watched with a mixture of fascination and horror as the alien unclasped his helmet and removed it. They gasped for the second time as they beheld the face of their towering visitor. The skin was a grayish-blue hue that hung in flaps about the orifice in a fashion that immediately reminded Jackson of a bull-dog. But that was where the similarity to canines ended. Its nose was merely two slits above the confluence of the skin flaps and its three eyes formed a triangle above the nose. The eyes were a yellowish-white with a dark black center. Jackson noted that it had no eye-lids. Instead, a translucent film would briefly flick over each eye every few seconds in a repeating sequence.
Although these were the first aliens that the ranchers had ever knowingly had the pleasure of meeting, this was not the first time that the Ternions had happened upon new life-forms during their travels. Being a species of superior intellect, they had long ago devised a way to quickly learn the language of any new life-forms which greatly aided in first-contact communications. They would scan the life-forms and compare those scans to transmissions their computer had received during their travels. Unfortunately, this device did not differentiate between regional dialects which often resulted in very confusing but ultimately hilarious conversations. Were the ranchers not terrified and the aliens aware of their odd word choices, both groups would most certainly have agreed that the following conversation had indeed been quite amusing.
The alien spread his arm’s wide and the ranchers flinched backward. He tried his best to smile, displaying three rows of very sharp teeth beneath the skin-flaps. “Good Morrow, Ya’ll.” The humans blinked and did not respond. The lead Ternion glanced back at his companions and then decided to try again. “Hail Travelers! Ya’ll must jump this leaky raft forthwith. You think you can live long without air? Forgetaboutit!” You’se guys need to hop on board, don’t ya know?” The Ternion raised his hands and pantomimed his head exploding. “Or yer brains’ll be splattering around the galaxy, good fellows.”
Behind him, Jackson could hear that one of the women had started crying. He hoped it wasn’t Sarah because there was little he could do at the moment. The alien clasped his helmet back on and then the three opened a path to the red light still shining on the yard. After puzzling over the best way to get these earthlings to move, the Ternion flicked on the speaker in his helmet. “I said MOVE dogmeat. This ain’t yer private coach. Train is leaving the station in five. All aboard that’s going aboard.” His voice became younger and a bit higher as he sang, “Closing time. You don’t have to go home but you can’t stay here.” His voice lowered into a creepy old woman’s voice. “Go towards the light Carol-Ann. Go towards the light!” It then took on a commanding female English accent that sounded like the woman from that show The Weakest Link. “All those that do not wish to die in a horrible red mist, please step into the light.”
The last one spurred Jackson into action. Grabbing his wife’s hand he marched into the red beam. As they stepped into the light they felt their molecules being separated and transmitted aboard the ship. Their patterns hung in the computer momentarily as it scrubbed them of any pathogens dangerous to the Ternions and provided them with antibodies to pathogens they had never been exposed to. Incidentally, it also noticed Jackson’s nicotine habit and removed both the Skoal and the craving from his body. It then reassembled their molecules, placing them in the ship’s observation lounge. The three Ternions from the surface appeared shortly thereafter and Jackson was shocked to see that they were alone. All the other humans had decided to stay on the tiny space island.
After assessing their situation, the couple heard another female voice come over the loudspeaker. “This is your captain speaking. If you look out the window to your left you will now see a disintegrating space island. This phenomenon has never been seen before so please enjoy this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.” Jackson and Sarah rushed to the window where they watched the shield around their ring of land collapse in a cascade of explosions. Standing in front of their home were all the other ranchers, their children, and the two dogs, all of whom seemed very terrified. As the vacuum of space sent pieces flying in every direction, half of a steer was sent hurtling towards the ship. It splat against an invisible shield in a spectacular explosion of crystallized blood and guts. Sarah whimpered and cried for those they had left behind. Jackson just shrugged. The fools had made their choice.
Now one might think it would take some time for the two ranchers to adjust to such strange surroundings but it turns out that humans are nothing if not adaptable. By the time the three Ternion battle-cruisers reached their home planet of Turos the humans had grown accustomed to space-travel and their giant rescuers. They had been equipped with ear-pieces to translate the Ternion language to English and had educated their rescuers as to the basic needs of humans. The food had taken a bit more time to get used to but starvation will eventually convince even the pickiest of eaters that something is better than nothing.
Meanwhile, unbeknownst to the reluctant space-travelers, their celebrity on Turos had been growing by the day as they travelled toward the Ternion home world. An old race, the people of Turos had long ago mastered space exploration and had learned a sad truth: space is big and mostly empty. So each new discovery of sentient life was celebrated as a grand achievement. Parades were thrown and merchants everywhere put the humans’ faces on anything they needed to get off their shelves. In fact, their arrival was such a to-do that waiting to greet the ranchers as they materialized on the planet was none other than the Chancellor of Turos himself, Van Coceck, and his wife, Va Coceck.
The Chancellor, worried about upcoming reelection, had decided that attaching himself to this flavor-of-the-week was a fabulous way to get free press. Consequently, as soon Jackson and Sarah materialized on Turos they were treated like visiting royalty. They bid goodbye to their rescuers including the first Ternion they had met, who they now knew as Westma, and were quickly swept away into the Chancellor’s palace.
Both Jackson and Sarah thoroughly enjoyed staying at the palace. It seemed every day was a special appearance and every night a party. They had only to ask for something and their hosts did everything they could to accommodate. Over the passing months Sarah became so fond of Va Cocek that the two became inseparable. Jackson often found them giggling and joking at the parties. In fact, he hadn’t seen his wife so at ease and happy since the county harvest dance some two decades before. Which is why he was so startled by the conversation he overheard one evening whilst relieving himself in a potted granicia plant.
“…and my contact says they have proof that the corruption reaches your office.” Jackson leaned sideways and saw the outline of two Ternions in deep conversation around the corner.
“Damn those Vizzinians!” The rancher heard the Ternion exclaim softly as he reached up to his ear and flipped the volume on the translator a bit higher. “Well, what can we do?” Now Jackson could recognize that voice as Van Coceck. The other voice seemed to be that of his right-hand-man Ru-gen.
“If the Vizzinians were to do something so despicable as to eclipse all mention of corruption…” The Ternion’s voice rose at the last word as if he wanted to say something without actually saying it.
“Oh, out with it, Ru-gen.” Van Coceck could be a very impatient alien.
“Let’s say they were to kidnap and kill your guests.” The Ternion spread his hands wide, “Why I’d say all of Torus would be after their heads.”
Van Coceck let out a low rumble which Jackson had learned was the way that Ternion’s laugh. “That wouldn’t just win the election for me, it’d destroy their party!” Jackson felt the flow of piss stop as the blood drained from every part of his body. “Oh, I’d hate to lose them though. Va is so fond of Sarah.”
“Perhaps just the male then?” Zipping up his jeans, the old rancher flattened himself against the wall. The two Ternions rounded the corner and never looked down to spy him hiding in the shadows. They continued their conversation as they passed him.
“Ah yes. Why kill two when one will do?” Van Coceck chuckled again as the two disappeared down the hall.
Jackson’s mind raced as he stood in the shadow of the great hall. Below him on the ground level he could hear the music playing and his wife laughing with a group of Ternion females. As he puzzled over the details of what he had just overheard, the rancher’s average brain kept coming back to one conclusion. “We’re fucked.” It was time to leave Turos.
Now there are many important things that one should know before attempting space travel. For instance, you should know how to get off the planet, how to navigate the ship, and where you are going. Jackson knew none of these things. What he did know or rather who he knew was Westma. He also knew that in two days time both he and Sarah were scheduled to travel with Van Coceck to observe a training exercise for the Turos military. This would be their best opportunity to get off the planet.
That night, Jackson waited until he heard the familiar snorts and fwaps coming from the Cocecks’ adjoining room that indicated they were fast asleep. He then woke his wife and explained the situation. She was less than enthused with his plan. But, after Jackson pointed out that should he mysteriously disappear they would need to off her instead, she immediately agreed. In short, they had decided that they would slip away during the military exercises and find Westma. It was their hope that they could be out in deep space before Van Coceck realized they were gone.
Two days later Jackson squeezed his wife’s hand as they boarded the transport to the military complex. The couple had brought as much clothing and personal effects as they could manage while still looking normal; not that the Ternions had any idea what normal was for humans. Jackson had also stolen as much technical information as he could without being noticed. He knew that, should he ever succeed in reaching Earth, such knowledge would make them very rich. All in all the two humans were as prepared as possible for their escape from Turos and did their best to act as if nothing was wrong as the ship took off.
Van Coceck was also trying to act as if nothing was wrong but for entirely different reasons. What Jackson and Sarah could not know and thus could not plan for was that Van Coceck had scheduled the staged abduction so that it would occur that very morning. So, as the transport shuddered with the sudden impact of a second ship, three passengers genuinely cried out in shock and pain while the fourth tried his best to look equally surprised. The Chancellor dove in front of his wife as a small boarding party entered the passenger compartment and in a blustery voice yelled, “Just what do you think you’re doing? Don’t you know who I…,” before being smacked across the head with the butt of a large black weapon.
With the Chancellor effectively silenced and his wife cowering in a corner of the cabin, the boarding party scooped up their hostages and were back aboard their own ship before security could be scrambled to stop them. Jackson and Sarah were tossed in a small room within their new transport and could feel the ship shaking under the stress of great speed as it raced away from the scene. They huddled together in a corner and sat in the dark, listening for clues to their fate.
“This is so stupid. They’ll have every ship in the fleet after us!”
“No. They won’t. We’ll be in deep space before they can rally.”
“So no one will follow us?”
“Of course not! The Vizzinians don’t know what we’ve done and the Chancellor’s men won’t be able to track us in time.”
“Oh, well all right then.”
Their captors continued on in silence for a few moments and then Jackson heard the second voice ask, “Out of curiosity, why are you concerned?”
“Well, it’s probably nothing…”
“What is nothing?”
“I just happened to look at our rear scanners and the readout says something is behind us.”
“What?! Let me look at that.” Jackson could hear the two Ternions scuffling as the one in charge pushed his lackey away to look at the readout. The lead Ternion grew concerned as he studied the map. There was a ship and it was travelling at the same rate of speed and direction as them. Not wanting to appear weak to his crew, the Ternion decided to play it off. “Probably a local pleasure ship out for a cruise…in an asteroid belt.”
The ship roiled back and forth as they navigated around the asteroids. Sarah got nauseous from the constant motion and began heaving in the dark. Desperate to help his wife, Jackson probed with his hands, trying to find anything on the walls that might illuminate the room. At last his hands came upon a small rectangular object protruding from the walls. Jackson began pressing and pulling at any part that felt different from the rest. Frustrated, he punched the box and in response the lights flashed on, flooding the room in glaring white.
After their eyes adjusted the couple looked about the rather small but comfortable looking compartment. They found there was actually a small port-hole window that they could see out of if they stood on the low couches that were affixed to each wall. Looking outside, Jackson saw the planet of Turos disappearing into a speck of swirling green and purple. Occasionally a dark shadow would fall across the port-hole and the rancher could only assume that these shadows were the passing asteroids blocking his view.
Sarah, meanwhile, continued to look around their room. Being able to see had relieved her nausea quite a bit and she stripped one of her shirts off in order to tidy up the mess she had made. With that done she studied the box that Jackson had punched and found that it contained a rainbow of buttons and switches including one bright red button that was protected by a bubble made of a plastic-like substance. There was also a small white button which was pressed in. Sarah found that when she pressed very hard it pushed back out and turned off the lights. She quickly pressed it again to bring the lights back on and then called Jackson over.
The two stared at the red button for some time before saying anything. It was finally Sarah who spoke. “Jackson, when I woke up a few months ago and found we had been transported into the middle of space, I thought surely I had gone crazy.” She stopped to breathe and saw that she had her husband’s undivided attention. “When the Ternions rescued us and those people were disintegrated I thought perhaps we were being spared for some greater purpose. Like perhaps we were meant to travel across the stars and make contact with alien life.” She shrugged, “But now…now I think we’re either incredibly lucky or incredibly unlucky and either way, I’m ready to go home.” Sarah reached up, flipped the protective covering open and punched the red button with her fist.” The room shook and hissed in response as it began to detach from the transport ship. In moments they were floating alone in the asteroid belt as the transport ship continued on its course.
On board the transport ship the navigator noticed a flashing red light on his console and called another crewmember over. Their leader was dozing in the captain’s chair. The navigator looked to his crewmate and smiled. “I suppose we should sound the... alarm.”
“To let them live would do no... harm,” his crewmate responded.
The navigator smiled and nodded in agreement. “Ru-gen will surely raise a... fuss.”
His crewmate shrugged. “He’ll have no way to punish... us.”
Their leader snorted awake at the sound of the hushed conversation. “What’s that noise? Are you rhyming again?”
“No, no; just a chat among two... friends.” Neither of the crewmen could stifle their laughter.
Their leader pounded his fist against his chair. “Stop that now, I mean it!”
The navigator slyly covered the red flashing light and whispered, “I don’t think our captain has seen it.” The two friends glanced knowingly at each other as the transport continued to move out of the asteroid belt, leaving their hostages behind.
Now safely away from their captors, Sarah and Jackson knew they were most assuredly not out of trouble yet. Although they were floating in a relatively comfortable escape pod, neither of them knew how exactly to pilot such a thing. What they did know was that they were once again stranded in space, only this time they had the unfortunate luck to be sitting in the passing lane of a very busy space-rock super highway. Tiny pebbles had already begun to rain upon the outer skin of their pod and the pair knew it was only a matter of time before the big one hit
As if on cue, a shadow passed over the port-hole window and Jackson and Sarah clung to each other as they braced for impact. They were certain that this would be the jolt that would send them careening into space. The pair said nothing; they just held each other and waited for the end. Rocking his wife back and forth Jackson couldn’t help but marvel at their journey. He didn’t know what the people of Earth thought had happened to the strip of land that had been zapped into space but he was certain that no one could have predicted this. Just as Jackson could not have predicted that the shadow looming above their pod was in fact Westma’s battle-cruiser.
Once the couple was properly rescued and had finished greeting the Ternion they learned how fate had once again intervened in their favor. Although Jackson and Sarah had stayed on Turos for several months, their hosts had never bothered to explain the political structure on or indeed anything about Turos. Westma now explained in detail that there were two political factions and that it was the Chancellor’s faction who was currently in power. He further explained that the rivalry between the two factions had grown so deep that they suspected each other immediately whenever anything unpleasant happened. Their paranoia had led both factions to plant spies in all levels of their rival’s organizations. Westma was one such spy.
Upon learning that the Chancellor’s men were intending to capture and kill his tiny pink friends, Westma had immediately contacted the Vizzinian agency. He had urgently requested permission to intervene and was granted clearance to intercept their captors. His original intention had been to warn the pair at the military exercises but, when they had failed to arrive on time, he jumped into action. It was only by luck that he had guessed the course the hired thugs would take.
As they continued to move out of the asteroid belt, Westma explained that he had also figured out how to get the ranchers home. “You see this blob here,” he asked while pointing to star-chart on the navigation console. “That is the Ember Mire, a nebula of noxious and very flammable gases that hides a wealth of gravity sinks and wormholes.” The Ternion turned and smiled at the couple. “This is how we’ll get you home.”
Westma plotted their new course and the ship shifted into overdrive. Stars, streamed past them as the Ternion continued to explain. “You see, all those transmissions we monitor come from the nebula.” He poked at the screen with his largest finger. “We can hear other life-forms but we can’t get to them.” He shook his head. “Except of course when something physical pops through a wormhole. That’s my job, to monitor the space-junk that shows up on the outskirts of the Ember Mire.”
The Ternion waved Jackson and Sarah over to some seats on the deck and settled in to one himself. “So that got me to thinking. If stuff can come out of the wormholes, I bet stuff can go in to them too. We could be sitting on our very own hyper-explosive spacial transportation hub!”
Now up to this point Jackson had been able to follow the Ternion’s line of thought but his explanation seemed to missing a very key component. “How will you know which one goes to Earth?”
Westma chuckled, “That’s the best part. We just have to follow the transmissions emanating from the wormhole and it should lead us straight there.” What he didn’t say was that the he was not at all sure what a wormhole would do to his battle-cruiser nor did he mention just how terribly dangerous the Ember Mire could be. There was a famous saying on Turos ‘No one ever escapes the Ember Mire.’ Westma had thought it best not to mention that.
The ship shifted back into a cruising speed as it neared the outskirts of the nebula and Westma walked back over to the controls. Pointing to the navigation terminal he said, “All right tiny friends, this part will be tricky. One of you, please keep an eye on that terminal there. The other, please watch the forward view. Look for anything…abnormal.”
Jackson rose and walked to the forward view while Sarah headed back over to the terminal. “What exactly do you mean by abnormal?”
Westma waved away the concern in Jackson’s voice. “It’s no big deal. There are these things called gravity sinks in the nebula. They can suck in a ship and cause it to lose power which would make it impossible for us to ever get back out again. So, you know, if you see a part of the nebula that doesn’t look like the other parts, just mention it.”
Heeding this warning, Jackson took to scanning the forward viewer from left to right and back again every few seconds. “Now Sarah,” Westma continued, “You just keep looking at that terminal and let me know if anything new shows pops up.”
“New?”
“Yes the wormholes could be unstable and just appear at any time. I’d like to make sure we only enter one. Plus…” He paused a moment, unsure if he should finish.
“Plus?”
“Well they say there are these space eels called cos-rays in the nebula.” The Ternion shrugged. “I’ve never seen one. I don’t think they exist.” That, of course, was precisely the wrong thing to say for at that moment a very real and very determined cos-ray was wriggling directly towards the battle-cruiser in plain sight of the forward viewer.
Jackson stood frozen for a moment, mesmerized by the glowing, undulating mass that was approaching them but, eventually, he found his tongue. “Uh, Westma.”
“I mean how could a life-form even exist out in space,” Westma said as he continued to monitor the ship’s speed and trajectory.
“Westma?”
“No, better to focus on the problems we know than to start making up new ones.”
“WESTMA!” The Ternion turned in time to see the cos-ray open its mouth and attach itself to the shield. Immediately an alarm started to sound and the sensors showed that power was being drained by their thirsty new friend.
“Okay, okay. Don’t panic.” Westma scanned the controls, trying to stall for a moment while he decided what to do. “We just need to…Ah! Yes, this should do it.” He punched in a few commands and the shields powered down. The power inside the ship was also reduced to essential functions only.
All three watched the forward viewer and waited to see what would happen. The cos-ray eel continued to move around the ship for a moment before slinking off. Jackson and Westma both breathed a sigh of relief. Sarah threw up her hands. “Oh what’s the use? We’ll never succeed. We may as well die here.”
Jackson tried to put a brave face for his wife. “No, no, we have already succeeded. I mean, what are the three dangers of the Ember Mire,” he asked in a comforting tone. “One, the gravity sinks. They are visible on the screen and we have plenty of time to avoid them. Two, the cos-ray eels, which Westma was clever enough to deflect by shutting down our shields.”
“But what about the unstable wormholes,” Sarah sobbed.
“Well…”
Westma interrupted, “That won’t be a problem.” He quickly twisted a knob and the cabin filled with the monotone sounds of ‘Chocolate Rain.’ “I don’t know what this is, but it’s your language and it’s enough to get you home.” The Ternion used the signal to extrapolate the wormhole’s location and set the course.
After several hours of dodging gravity sinks, deflecting cos-ray eels, and maneuvering around unstable wormholes, the battle-cruiser limped to the edge of its destination. A giant swirl of light and energy twisted and spun on the screen while ‘Chocolate Rain’ continued to blare over the loudspeakers. “This is it.” Westma looked at the couple hopefully. “Are you ready?”
Jackson grabbed his wife’s hand and turned to face the forward viewer. He’d rather look fate in the eye before it crushed him with the weight of the universe. Sarah was not so philosophical; she squeezed her eyes shut and gripped her husband’s hand tightly. “Ready.” Westma punched the engine into overdrive, which sent the battle-cruiser zooming into the universal shortcut.
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They called it the Death Star, a machine designed to uncover some of the deepest mysteries of the universe, and it had lived up to its name. It had severed Waco’s residents from civilization, vaporized a ring of land around the city, killed dozens of people, and traumatized countless cows. For this reason, the program had been shut down for several months by the time a beaten Ternion battle-cruiser set down on the banks of the Brazos River and three travel-weary passengers tumbled out.
The history books would go on to say that the Death Star had been a great success.
