Tuonis

Being a captain encompasses a vast variety of tasks. Some more fun and interesting than the others. To Tuonis the most boring of his duties are daily rounds around his Flare, which he has named Cometgracer. Usually, he does them with due diligence and without allowing any distractions, but today is different. Still shaken from what he has seen in his dream with Vajira, he tries to make sense of it.

If he has learned one thing in the dreamworld, then that everything in there has a real body somewhere. A real state of existence no matter how alien or strange it might be. Sure, the majority of dreamers create special areas where their subconscious forms their dreams, but those are usually separated from the overall dreamworld. It’s like walking into a city with plenty of different houses. Theoretically, you can enter every house but to do so one need keys or permissions from those who live within first.

For a moment Tuonis stops and looks around. Without paying attention about the path he has taken, he has reached the medical bay. Marked by a grey blood drop symbol next to the sliding door, the medical bay is the largest single use room after the main bridge one floor above.

Since as part of his daily route through the Cometgracer as well as his personal duty to speak to everyone on his Flare, he enters it.

The large white room behind the sliding door is segmented by movable wall-screens to make sure there is enough privacy to be had in such a crammed place. Currently, the majority of sickbeds are empty. Most of the salves he has saved during his latest raid are in fairly good shape. But a few of them had been made examples for the others by their keepers, which always results in terrible dilapidating wounds. Those few — four to be exact — now rest each on their own bed. As usual, they are taken care of by Tuonis’ Chief of Health, Tarrat Sarpam, and his fellow medic, Urania Fahara.

Currently, only Urania is present and busy changing the bandages of one of the more unfortunate victims. The poor Menkar is fully covered from head to toe in white gauze and kept in a medical coma to ease his pain. Once they have returned to the camp, they will be moved to one of the few portable medical water tanks the Desertwalkers managed to get.

„Good evening, Captain,“ greets Urania Tuonis without raising her yellow-green eyes from her task.

„Good evening, Urania,“ he replies. „How’s it going?“

„Excellent!“, echoes Tarrat’s voice from behind a screen. „Just a moment, please.“

A second later the rather small but feisty looking Menkar pushes the screen away — he has just looked after the broken hand of one of Tuonis’ crew members. Tuonis greets the injured Menkar with a warm smile, which he returns and waves his uninjured hand. Meanwhile, Tarrat gives Urania a clipboard where she ticks a few items off before returning it to him. Then he moves with the screen on to the next patient.

Tuonis waits patiently for Tarrat to finish his work. He can be really bothersome if pulled out of his routine, just like Tuonis himself.

„You seem in a solemn mood today,“ Urania says as she moves with Tuonis away from the sickbed.

„I’ve some things to think about,“ he replies, cleaning his glasses.

„How’s Vajira doing? You’ve dreamed with her?“, she asks with a warm smile.

Tuonis frowns. „I met her but… Something happened…“

Urania’s smile vanishes and gets melts into a worried expression. „A nightmare? I thought her ability doesn’t allow for those?“

„I don’t think it was a nightmare,“ he tells her. „Although it looked like one. What do you know about the Void?“

„Not much,“ she replies with a shrug. „I prefer to keep as far away from it as possible.“

„Can’t hold that against you. Do you know someone who can help me?“

„Amaris.“

A shudder runs down his spine and causes the eye spot on his tail to brighten. How could he have forgotten her? She is after all part of his crew. Perhaps ignoring her is not the best decision, he muses frowning, But considering her… disposition… No, that’s unfair.

„If someone knows then her,“ Urania continues. „I know it’s difficult to approach her, but she’s alright. It’s just this deal she made and the aura it causes.“

Tuonis puts his hand thoughtful against his chin and thinks. As he does so, Tarrat scurries towards him, but before they can speak about the conditions of everyone in the sick-bay, Yagari, Tuonis second in command, bursts into the room. This prompts Urania to hiss at him with pulled back ears.

„Sorry for the interruption,“ he says and smiles nervously at Urania, who folds her arms indignant.

Tuonis suddenly feels like he has being spotted by an imperial destroyer, but he doesn‘t show his nervousness since a good captain remains calm no matter what. The crew would take him being afraid as a bad sign and panic. And a panicked crew is the first step into failure, and he is not known to make avoidable mistakes.

„Captain Junpid,“ Yagari wheezes and salutes him. „We have spotted something that might be of interest.“

„The imperials forces?“, he asks as he approaches him with his hands crossed behind his back.

„We don’t know,“ he replies. „But it seems something or someone unknown is entering the upper layers of the atmosphere.“

„Show me,“ he replies and follows him almost in a trance through the whole ship.

—

With steady speed, they climb up the ladder to the out-look. Erinas, the one currently surveying everything though the large telescope, moves aside as soon as she has noticed her captain and Yagari.

Tuonis climbs into the small chamber, which is barely large enough to offer enough space for him and Erinas. Yagari remains standing on the ladder, only his upper body visible above the iron-ledge. Without hesitation Tunois moves the telescope to look over the whole sky. After just a few moments he knows what his second in command meant about something or someone. Hight up in the sky, easily mistaken for shooting stars, are at least three small ships. Although the Cometgracer moves at a steady pace of nearly two-hundred klicks per hour, held above ground by her seven levitational jets, it is clear that those ships move much too slow for a direct attack.

„Erinas, can you switch on the octant?“, Tuonis asks her.

She hums affirmative and flicks a switch.

A moment later the lines of the octant appear and overlay on the lens. Slow Tuonis takes off his glasses and adjusts the lens. Since all three objects are a fair distance apart from each other, he needs a little longer to calculate their distance and possible landing spots.

„Is there something to write?“ he asks without moving his eyes away from the telescope.

„I’ve a pen and some paper,“ says Yagari. „You can start to dictate.“

„Ship One is closest to us and has the current coordinates 421°442°32’ and an angle of 45° to the surface,“ he dictates loud and clear. „Ship Two is much further away and has the coordinates 504°400°65’ and an angle of 47° to the surface. Ship Three is the furthest to our location and Ship One but closer to Ship Two. It’s coordinates 510°389°50’ and an angle of 46° to the surface.“

„Got it,“ announces Yagari and looks at the paper a few moments. „Isn’t ship one rather close to our current encampment?“

„Could it be a new ploy or even a weapon send out to kill us?“ asks Erinas nervous.

„They are from an imperial ship but no transporters or fighters,“ Tuonis says zooming in on one of them. „Judging from their shape, they’re life-ships…“

He pushes on a switch and enters a number before he pulls the microphone connected to the board underneath the telescope closer to his mouth.

„Captain Junpid here,“ he says into it. „Shulka, have there been any news of a larger accident among the Imperial Fleet? Perhaps a couple of days old?“

„Just a sec,“ comes the cracked answers through the speakers beside his head.

A second later the speakers crack up again. „Something indeed has happened. Since most of the official documents are blacked, I only can verify that one of their cruisers got attacked by a Creature of the Void a couple of days ago. Shall I hack it and dig a little deeper?“

For a moment Tuonis considers the advantages and disadvantages of letting Shulka hack into the data space of the Imperial Fleet. While it is always dangerous, Shulka is a skilled hacker who has plenty of times thwarted attempts of the Empire to spot them. There is also the fact to consider that at least one of the ships is awfully close to the encampment of the Desertwalkers. Taking a deep breath he speaks again into the microphone.

„Hack it but be careful not to set off any alarms.“

„Understood. I’m as sneaky as a panthera-catfowl,“ Shulka replies and signs off.

Tuonis pulls the microphone back, but then he freezes in mid-motion. The life-ship, he has designated ship two, has disappeared from one second to the next. He swallows the momentary shock down and searches for any signs of the ship. But no matter how much he looks he can’t find it anymore.

„Has something happened?“ asks Erinas worried.

„Kind of,“ he replies slow. „Ship two just disappeared.“

„Fuck! Gone like… Shot down or something?“, asks Yagari alarmed.

„Not shot down…,“ he says while trying to fish for the right words. „It has vanished into thin air. Almost as if it has ceased to exist…“

„This isn‘t good,“ chimes Erinas in. „Those ships may be life-ships, but what tells us that it isn’t just a trick from the Empress and her minions? What if they're from the Deep Space Fleet?“

To send them would be overkill, wouldn't it?, Tuonis wonders. No. Amaris would've warned us. She's after all like… them. Unwilling to cause panic, he tells both Yagari and Erinas his thoughts. A moment later the intercom hisses.

„You still there, Captain?“

„What did you find?“, Tuonis asks into the microphone, while Erinas and Yagari tense up and listen.

„A few very interesting things. First of all, the cruiser was called the Starblazer and wasn‘t one of the regular cruisers.“

„Was it a special construct?“

„Ha! Special construct, my ass. It was the flagship of the Fleet and namesake for its own class before our current Empress took over. Now it’s nothing more than a parade-ship. Or rather was. It had no means to attack anything more resisting than asteroids. Was just a fancy transporter at best. And the people on it were not really what you would call a functioning sub-unit. Most of them were forced transfers from other units — those disturbing the rest but being too strong or useful to be executed on the spot. Nothing more than cannon fodder, if you ask me.“

„Doesn’t sound like a ship to be sent on an important mission,“ Tuonis muses.

„My thoughts exactly and this’s where things get strange,“ Shulka replies in a mysterious tone. „The mission they got was a very unusual one. Something about a weapon to be found close to the Boundary of the Void. The crew of the Starblazer was supposed to get there, secure the weapon and bring it to the Empress’ flagship, the Leviathan. And as the reports go, they got to the weapon’s destination and secured it without problems. Yet on their way back a few odd things happened. The weight sensors had registered a few blind passengers and there’s a report about a murder. A high-ranking officer got messily butchered, judging from the medical report and the pictures added to it. Shortly thereafter the Starblazer got attacked by a Creature of the deep Void.“

„Are there any connections to the murder and the attack?“

„I’ve the feeling that there have to be some, but I also have the feeling that this report doesn’t incorporate every detail. I think whoever has written it keeps some information from the Empress, since there are a few things that seem awfully unexplained. Especial one image makes we wonder…“

„What is on it?“

„A strange poem seemingly mocking the killed officer. But what’s more interesting are the other droplets of grey blood dripping down on those lines. They’re much too regular to be caused by blood spilled on it during the kill. I guess that there were also other things written or drawn on the wall, but I don’t find any information on them.“

„Are there any survivors? From the attack, I mean.“

„It’s verified that three life-ships have been ejected from the Starblazer, each at different times. The first seconds before the alarm protocol went off. The second some time during the attack on the ship. The last just mere seconds before the cruiser got torn apart. According to the report, they think that some members of the crew have escaped in the first one. One of them was branded a traitor by the Commander of the Starblazer, who’s also suspected of leaving on either one of the remaining two ships.“

„What’s the name of the traitor?“

„Respin Gloomer, Bladedancer, twenty Circles old. He seems to have tried to get the Weapon off the ship. But the whole thing is rather fishy if you ask me. There’s also the thing about the Starblazer‘s Captain. One Aranian Velten also known as Slicer… There’s the suspicion he has planned to attack the Empress with the weapon, which is somewhat understandable judging from his profile.“

Tuonis ponders for a while about the information and the implications surrounding the whole report. Meanwhile, Erinas and Yagari whisper about them as well. I’ve to admit it, he thinks chewing his lip. I don’t like the sound of this. Regarding that maybe some sort of weapon as well as a crazy bloodthirsty Captain get close to the encampment and therefor close to Vajira… I can’t ignore it and leave it to the Imperial Forces to deal with. Moreover, the sudden disappearance of the second ship might mean trouble. Ships don’t vanish suddenly. Also… this so-called traitor… He needs to be found and brought to Talliomere, he could be a real help against the Empress. Especially if he has the weapon.

„Send out a warning to Talliomere and Weldenwall to expect danger and inform the whole crew that we’ll move at maximum speed to the closest of those ships,“ he says and moves with Yagari down the ladder without waiting for an answer.

With determined steps and followed by his second in command, Tuonis makes haste towards the bridge.