Chapter 15: Chapter 14 – Bugs (1)

When the Veil was nearing the end of the Astropath, Omega was escorted by four guards to the bridge of the ship. Sylen and Miyon had no chance to say anything in the matter, as they were made to wait in the small room. 

 

“Damn it!” Sylen shouted, banging her fist at the closed, metal door. “Why the hell did you bring us along if we are kept in this cell all the time?!” She growled, but no answer came. “Pa, this is bullshit!” She huffed and puffed, sitting back on the bed.

 

“It is.” He nodded, flipping a little disc, between his fingers. It was something that Omega “made” from who knows what and from who knows where. But part of the wall’s cover was missing behind the beds. “Let’s do as he said, for now! And wait for his message!”

 

“It is weird to hear that from you!” Sylen smiled a little, slowly calming down.

 

“Yes… I know! But this is such a hopeless situation! I feel like we got a leash put around our neck and we are getting dragged along everywhere they go!”

 

“I don’t want to be castrated!” Sylen moaned.

 

“Idiot! We are not dogs!” Miyon laughed, sitting next to her, hugging her head. “It will be alright! As always!”

 

“Um…” She nodded, trying to mask her fears as best as she could.

 

On the bridge, Omega was calmly standing next to the captain’s seat, looking at the panoramic screens and the smaller, 3D holo-projection coming from Parthen’s armrest. His chair was placed in a bit of an elevated position, right in the middle of the bridge. Below him sat two officers, with their own consoles, responsible for maneuvering the ship. Behind him, on the left stood another officer, responsible for the weapons on the underside of the ship, while stood another on the right, controlling those on the top. Behind them, at the wall mounted consoles sat the rest of the bridge’s crew in a half-circle. They were controlling the shields, the reactor, the cloaking system and the scanners. Of course, Parthen, if wanted, could access any of the sub-systems from his chair, even taking direct control if required. That rarely happened though. He trusted his people. They were handpicked by him and they worked together like a well oiled machine.

 

“Raise battle alert! Everyone should be ready to confront the enemy! Initiate the cloaking system!” Parthen started to give out orders. "When we drop out from the Astropath, I want a sweep of the short and long range scanners!”

 

“Yes Sir!” Every other soul aboard the bridge echoed the same answer.

 

As he looked at Omega with one eye, he was standing there unbothered, watching the image on the screens, only looking at the swirling, blue flow of the Astropath. Behind him stood two of Parthen’s personal guards, only here to watch Omega, unblinkingly. Everyone else was ignoring their presence, focusing on their own consoles and tasks.

 

“...” Omega turned his head a little, his eyes scanning the others and realizing most of them were similar to Sylen. Everyone was a kind of a mix between a human and some kind of bestial alien. Some had tiger-, cat- or lizard-like features. Scales, fur, tails and ears. Only the guards were different, all of them had a rock-like skin, reminding him of the one who oversaw their “cleaning procedure”. Watching them work together, without much words needed, he tilted his head a little. “Is it maybe because they are similar hybrids and their senses are more in tune because of that?” He was way more interested in the people here, than in the ship’s functions or their current destination. Only the slight bump, the shaking of the ship drew his thoughts and gaze back to the panoramic screen. The Astropath opened up before them, letting the Veil enter back into normal-space as the blue swirls gave space to the black background of infinity. 

 

“No active vessels on the long range reads!” One of the three officers, overseeing the scanners, said. 

 

“We are alone.” The second officer said, switching between multiple scanner readings. 

 

“The bugs are not used to receiving visitors.” Parthen said, bringing up a mix of reads on his personal feed. “Slowly raise the output of the engines, keep it in a range that can still be masked from detection!” He ordered as they started moving forward. 

 

At first, they traveled from the nebula to an empty, dead system, where only a lone red giant was swirling away, without anybody to accompany it. From there they had access to an Astropath, leading into the edge of Frezthwin. The system itself was barely known. No sane explorer came here willingly before. The Gynkwhon may be lax in guarding their borders but only because they welcomed anyone to try and invade their territory. They were proud to survive the long centuries against the humans so they welcomed anyone who offered their flesh for food and their bodies for their children. Fear was not in their dictionaries. 

 

“Major General,” The third officer said, sitting before his scanner’s feed. “The system has a yellow star in the middle and four planets. We were dropped out at the far edge of it! We are going to need two hours or so to get near the first planet in our way!”

 

“Any other reads?” Parthen asked.

 

“Only that the innermost two planets are medium sized, the outer two are that of gas giants!” He answered. “Nothing more yet, Sir!”

 

“Bugs?” He asked back.

 

“Nothing yet, Sir!” All three answered at the same time. 

 

“Helm, start taking us closer to the nearest gas giant! Keep us hidden! We are going to anchor down behind it, until we get a better read of the-” Parthen ordered, when Rururin’s voice connected to the bridge. 

 

“Major General! The control bracelet!” Her voice came through, laced with excitement, speaking rapidly. “It lit up immediately, after we exited the Astropath! It says; ‘connection established’! I got the readings from the suit, it is damaged and out of fuel but the bracelet seems to indicate it is recoverable!” 

 

“Then the damage is superficial. Probably related to armor or weapon malfunction.” Omega explained, speaking up suddenly. “If the core drive would be damaged, there would be no communication from it. The suits only report back the ‘recoverable’ status if only easily replaceable parts suffered damage. A truly damaged suit is left to self-destruct.”

 

“Roger.” Parthen replied to Rururin while listening to Omega’s words. “Anything else that can help us?”

 

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“It says,” Rururin continued “The suit’s location is at the 3rd planet, in low orbit.”

 

“Keep me informed!” Parthen nodded, closing down the communication for now. “I am listening.” He said, turning his ear towards Omega. It was not just him but the rest of the officers on the bridge too, who did the same. They were curious about what he knew.

 

“The suit was probably left here and it started to orbit the 3rd planet.” Omega shrugged, only guessing. “And it has fallen further and further inwards! If it is already in low orbit… If it falls deeper, it won’t be able to withstand the pressure that a gas giant could generate. Its damages could easily originate from that fact alone!”

 

“Then we have no time to waste!” Parthen fixed his sitting position. “Still! We can’t rush it! First, get us to the 4th planet, where we can hide and scan for bugs!” He ordered his pilots again.

 

…

….

…..

 

Omega remained silent throughout the time it took them to arrive at the 4th planet. The deep blue giant before them was enormous and hiding behind it, its shadow swallowed up the Veil.

 

“Turn off the cloaking system and the engines!” Parthen ordered as the darkness would already be sufficient for the Veil’s black exterior to blend in perfectly. “Scanners?” He asked.

 

“The innermost planet has an atmosphere.” One of them said, his voice a bit dry, licking his lips. “We got readings of a colony down there.”

 

“Bugs…” everyone whispered under their breath.

 

“It is perfect for them.” Parthen nodded, bringing up the readings to himself. “The greenhouse effect on this hot garbage is what they love!” He scoffed, clicking his tongue. “Ships?” He asked, switching feeds himself in the meanwhile.

 

“A lot, Sir!” The officer answered, with a shaky voice. 

 

“...” Omega only tilted his head when he saw the 3D image appearing on Parthen’s holo-projector. The ship’s form was elongated. Ragged and uneven, filled with holes and protrusions. It had no clear slot for an engine as they were using the planets and stars' gravity wells to accelerate. That was their preferred method to set a course when it came to long-distance travel. In color, the ‘ship’ was brownish, as if made out of wet, soggy paper, scrunched together. “Looks like a turd floating in space.” Omega said with a child-like humor coming through his voice, making everyone else on the bridge turn towards him. “Hm?” He looked around, not getting why they were looking at him like that.

 

“Khm.” Parthen scratched his throat, quickly making the rest turn back to their consoles. “It is a destroyer class ship. Made from biomass.” He explained, turning his head towards Omega.

 

“In other words; A space turd.” He nodded and one of the officers at the helm couldn’t hold back her muffled laugh. 

 

“Grow up!” Parthen growled, raising his voice. “That ship usually hosts hundreds of gestating bugs, young abominations, ready to be unleashed upon their enemies to feast!” He groaned, switching the image and it showed that the bugs had around a hundred of the same ship, orbiting the planet. If not more. “We alert them and we are going to be swarmed! We only need to let them know we are here, when we are ready to make our escape!”

 

“If they don’t have engines…” Omega said, reading the information on the projection, waiting for his answer.

 

“They have.” Parthen turned back towards the screen. “They have a volatile, organic mix that when burnt can propel them forward. That is how they reach space from their planets. We need to be extra careful from now on! They notice us and we won’t have enough time to collect our prize!” He said, tapping on his armrest. “Plan a course towards the second giant! I want to remain hidden, without using our cloaking system to reserve power!”

 

“Yes Sir!” the officers replied as they got to work.

 

They couldn’t afford any mistakes so it took them 14 hours to slowly drift from the 4th planet inwards, approaching the third, with momentarily boosts of their engines. That was the moment when Rururin, once again, connected with the bridge’s communicator.

 

“We got it!” She explained hurriedly. “Transmitting correct coordinates! Please confirm! By the bracelet’s readings, it is in a depth that one of our shuttles can approach! We could tow it upwards and dock with the Veil quickly. Half an hour at max!”

 

“Get ready!” Parthen nodded, while their systems confirmed the data she sent over. “We need to be quick because its position is going to turn towards the sun in an hour! If they are looking, we may be discovered!”

 

“It can be done, Major General!” Rururin answered with conviction.

 

“Mmh.” He nodded, looking at Omega with one eye, seeing if he had anything to say.

 

“As I told you, Major General.” He spoke up softly, with a half-smile. “This is your mission. Your show. I am just spectating and letting it play out as it should.”

 

“...” Parthen furrowed his brow, while some other officers also looked at the guy, unsure what to make of that. “Start the recovery operation.” He said in the end, his voice hard as steel. “We have 45 minutes! Start the timer; Now!”

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