Nova Wars Chapter 184

It is sotis harder to go where another has gone before than it is to find the untrodden path. - Captain Verex, 2nd Solarian Federation, 2345 PG

Wrixet watched as Captain Decken stared at the holotank in the middle of the bridge. The Captain kept flicking his fngers through the holotank, altering the viewpoint. Once in a while he'd tap an icon that represented a stellar system, scroll through the contents of the data-box, then pinch the icon to close it.

"Any idea what he's doing?" Imna asked quietly, shuffling a little to stand next to Wrixet.

"How should I know?" Wrixet whispered back.

After a long mont Captain Decken stepped back and shook his head.

"What is wrong, Captain?" Imna asked.

Captain Henrik Vander Decken, a Born Whole ergency Captain, slowly turned and looked at the gathered crew.

Hetmwit, his XO from a species that he basically discovered, a Pagrik of unremarkable size, with brown colored fur that blended in with others of his kind in an unremarkable way. Drali'imna Lovefell and Wrixet, a pair of Telkan who had been sent out to die after witnessing the Warbound activating when TerraSol announced its return to the universe. Enduring Hateful Code, a maddened Digital Sentience Screaming One who was the only one who could run the flotilla.

"The latest update from Dominion Intelligence is full of woe and bad tidings," Captain Decken said.

He was in normal shipboard uniform instead of the heavy power armor he often wore, which ant the Captain's Throne seed for a mont much too big for him.

Then, to Imna's senses, he seed to fill it with his presence.

Mister Enduring flickered for a second then gave a low and evil hiss. "The Mar-gite have won. They and their glittery beetles must be xenocided or the last remnants of the Milky Way Galaxy are lost."

Decken just nodded.

Imna looked over at Wrixet, who had chosen that mont to sit down in one of the unoccupied bridge crew chairs. Wrixet saw her attention and shrugged.

"Is there any way we can stop them?" Imna asked.

"And why would they build the fence?" Wrixet asked at the sa ti. He looked at Imna. "Sorry."

Imna waved her hand in a 'don't worry about it' motion.

"Stopping them on a world by world or even system by system basis isn't the problem," Decken stated. "Even the fact we're fighting on at least two fronts isn't the problem. The problem is the rest of the galaxy is just going to keep spawning Mar-gite and whatever the phasic AI cos up with next until they take everything."

Decken tapped his fingers on the arm of the Captain's Throne.

"The fence makes sense. Split the Confederacy in half, force the Confederacy to opening up a third front," Decken said. He tapped his middle finger against the arm. "It also shows that they have numbers. A lot of numbers. That they'd planned this."

"It is often stated in intelligence briefings that the Mar-gite incursion prior to the current invasion were rely scouting probes," Mister Enduring said. "To kill you like I will."

Decken just nodded. Like everyone else, he was used to Enduring's declarations of imminent death and destruction.

"That's the current theory," Decken said. He got up and moved back to the holotank again, looking down at it. "Each beetle is a single neuron. Like any mind, you get enough of them together, they form a mind," Decken ran his hand through the holotank, saring the holograms for a mont. "We can't let any of them survive. According to biological examination, the damn things are born with fertilized eggs. They're genetically locked."

He turned and walked back to stare at the viewscreen at the front of the bridge.

"We miss so much as one, then we have the sa problem in as little as a few thousand years," Decken said. "Worse, how do we identify which stellar systems are infested," he sighed and rubbed his eyes with the bottom of his palms.

"We're going to head to the Galactic Core, then try to figure out if we can identify even roughly where these beetles started out," Decken said.

"I don't understand what that will even do? What good will it do?" Wrixet asked.

"The more we know about these things, the better we can figure out a way to kill it," Decken stated. "Finding what conditions it evolved under can help."

"Can't we just use the reality bomb?" Imna suddenly asked.

"Reality bomb?" Decken asked, turning around. "What's that? I've never heard of it."

"It's like an Elven Court, like a Genesis-Gecko, but it's a bomb. You detonate it and restore the original species. You can even explode it in an inhabited system and it doesn't even hurt the people even if it completely rebuilds the planet!" Imna said, starting to look excited. She swished her short tail. "I've seen it used in movies!"

Decken turned and looked at Mister Enduring. "Is there such a thing?"

Mister Enduring blurred slightly as he looked through the library.

"Just GeniGecko weapons. They've been outlawed over and over but the templates still exist in our ammo lockers. It would just take , you as the Captain, and Hetmwit as XO to unlock those weapon lockers," Enduring said. "After which I would kill you."

Decken nodded.

"Oh, there's no such thing?" Imna said, disappointnt in her voice.

"Not exactly," Decken said. He thought for a long mont. "Anyone on the planet is killed, no coming back. Maybe if they have SUDS they can be respawned," he reached out and tapped his middle finger on top of the secondary fire control console. "It shreds everything down to subatomic particles and rebuilds the entire planet. If you have a Singer in the Dark, you can shred an entire stellar system down and then rebuild it."

Stolen story; please report.

Hetmwit managed to keep his churning stomach from showing on his face at the idea that the Humans could just go by and blow the entire stellar system apart and then just put it back together so it was just like it was.

Minus inconvenient people.

"We used it during the Council/Confederacy Conflict and a few others," Captain Decken said. "About the only two places the Singers weren't used was Clownface and Mithril," he shook his head. "If they can tear apart a red giant system and leave behind a early stage yellow/white star and all the planets, moons, asteroids, cots, and Oort Cloud, they can rip apart the system a beetle is in."

He tapped his middle finger on the console again, staring at the wall.

"The camps. They never made sense," he said softly.

Mister Enduring nodded. "No, Captain, they did not. It was an anomaly."

"Camps?" Wrixet asked.

Decken nodded. "When the Confederacy managed to push back against the Mar-gite the first ti they showed up..." Decken's finger stopped, raised. "Wait. Are we positive that this is the first ti they've arrived?"

Imna blinked rapidly as she shifted ntal gears.

"Right when the Mar-gite pushed into the Cygnus-Orion Army Spur, when we pushed back we found huge camps we always assud were larders. Except Mar-gite don't have brains, so we didn't know why they did it," Decken said.

Mister Enduring nodded. "It has long been assud that it was a mistake, that the Mar-gite just hadn't eaten those people yet."

Decken's finger started tapping, slowly. "What if its been a cosmic year since the last ti they ca through," he said. "What if they just flood the galaxy, then eventually all die off."

"We'd find evidence, Captain," Mister Enduring said.

"Of what? A beetle shell that decays organically? Nothing about the beetle is going to last longer than a year or two," Decken said. "There's the factories and the like, but that's not civilization and nobody is going to notice it after a hundred million years or so."

"It would be a major Great Filter, Captain," Mister Enduring said.

Imna lifted up her hand, almost feeling like a student in class. "They wouldn't leave any evidence of why the world suffered a great die-off. When the Mar-gite eat the atmosphere and seas of other planets to protect the main beetle planet in the system it would just look natural."

Decken nodded. He moved over to the holotank and examined it for a mont. He wiped away the data and started working quickly.

Imna wanted to elbow Wrixet when the other Telkan opened up a candy bar and started eating.

"Uh, Captain, that data doesn't seem to..." Mister Enduring started.

Decken held out his hand. "Just give the data. Other than that, hush," he said softly. "I'm onto sothing."

After a few monts he stepped back, waving his hand to turn on the screen at the forward bulkhead then twitching his hand to connect the forward screen to the holotank.

The Milky Way galaxy appeared.

"All right, we know Em-Kay is roughly a half a million light years across," he said. "Once you get outside of stellar masses you can see that it's larger than you thought. Now, we have nearby galaxies."

"Oh, The Not Nearly As Great As Us Nearby Galactic Formation!" Imna said.

Decken snorted. "That's definitely a Lanaktallan na," he said. "OK, we call that one Androda, and it's a lot further than people think. We're talking millions of light years," he pointed at the screen and four small galaxies appeared. "These rotate around us, caught by Sag-A and Em-Kay like a moon caught by a planet," he said.

He tapped the top of the communications console. "They're only about fifty thousand to three hundred thousand light years away," he said. "Canis Major Dwarf Galaxy is only about twenty-five thousand, though."

"Okay," Mister Enduring said.

"Oh! We go there and just run a spectral analysis to find the nearest green zone planet stellar system to Em-Kay, jump there, and see if there's any hint of Mar-gite," Imna said, waving her hand excitedly over her head.

She's just a kid, went through Decken's head.

So were all of us when we charged through the dust of Anthill, his own mind reminded him.

"Exactly," Decken said.

Wrixet nodded. "All right. If they're there, we know that it's a major problem. If they aren't there, we know what? That it's too far for them to make it?"

"We don't know how they propel themselves," Decken said.

"With the power of bejeweled beetle psychic powers!" Imna said, still excited.

Captain Decken nodded. "Phasic might work. Probably so type of Accu-berry... anyway, we know that the way they do things is the ship eats the inner layers, tightening as it goes. The Tetra and Petra structures shrink as they devour the inner layers for fuel."

"They'd have to devour while in superluminal to maintain the energy that they're using. When they hit a point, they'd have to drop out," Mister Enduring said slowly. "Then they'd be moving slower than light but still eating the inner layers. Killing themselves just like I shall kill..." he shook his head. "Eating the inner layers for fuel."

"Eventually, you'd end up with a handful cannibalizing the last of them," Wrixet said. "Do we know what their max range is?"

Mister Enduring shook his head. "No. We aren't even sure how they manage superluminal travel," He tapped the hologram of the small galaxy. "The problem is," Mister Enduring continued, "Is that we don't have any hyperspace or jumpspace data. We'd still take six months or a year. During which, I will kill you."

Decken nodded. "Which leaves only one choice."

Wrixet leaned back, digging in his pocket. "Hellspace."

Hetmwit nodded. "Hellspace, but the problem is, we don't know how to get there from here."

Decken smiled. "Except, we have access to a group who does."

Everyone frowned.

It was Hetmwit who broke the silence.

"The other you."

0-0-0-0-0

The Seven Rings of Gehanna was a system shrouded in darkness. Set at the mouth of the Tartarus Dark Matter Sea, with the Eye of Gorthaur only a light week 'north' of the massive red giant nad the Eye of Barad-dûr. The gas giants had burned away in the gaze of the Eye of Gorthaur, the inner planets devoured by the hunger of the Eye of Barad-dur, leaving only a single planet surrounded by six rings of asteroids, three toward and three away from the red giant. The single planet was known as the Isle of Dread was circled by defensive systems, ship berths, stations, and other, more esoteric systems.

The Little Nell of Night nestled into the docking slip at the dark and twisted orbital station.

Imna sat in the damage control officer's space, waiting.

After nearly two hours the door to the bridge opened and the Captain returned.

The person with him made Imna sit up.

She had seen that person in movies.

She was tall, regal, with night black hair and eyes of purple fire. The slash across her throat leaked black blood down her neck and into her uniform.

The other person wasn't anyone that Imna recognized, but she was obviously important.

Heavy combat armor, a lightning bolt covering one eye, a bloody handprint covering the other.

They were on either side of Captain Decken.

"The Tenth Order will be accompanying us," Captain Decken said. "As will the Mistress of the Black Fleet."

"A pleasure," Bellona, Mistress of the Black Fleet said.

"I am pleased to be here," the other woman said, her voice tight and quivering.

Bellona put her hand on the shoulder pauldron of the other woman. "Steady, sister. We will take to the stars and there your rage will lead us safely through the seas of Hellspace."

The woman nodded.

"I will remain here, aboard this vessel," Bellona said. Her smiled got wider. "The fates have demanded that I be here, although I did not know here is where they ant."

Imna was so excited she could barely keep it hidden as the two won turned and began to leave.

That's when she saw it.

It was short, bright red, with little horns, pointed ears, a fanged mouth, with a pointed tail and little bat wings. It hard a burning rune on its forehead.

"Hey, does anyone else see that?" She asked, standing up and pointing.

"Oh, that's my imp," Bellona smiled. "A gift from the Dark One."

The imp made a face at Imna as she sat back down.

"I want to be underway in the next two hours," Decken said.

"Of course. I will help the young one then return," Bellona said.

The door closed and she was gone.

Mister Enduring looked at Decken.

"Have you gone mad?" he asked.

"My other self is in the Ornislarp Contested Zone," Decken said. "Bellona the Grave Bound Beauty was waiting for us."

"She knew we would be here," Mister Enduring said.

Decken nodded.

"She knew we would be here."