Chapter Eight

“Declyn wants to see the two of you.” Cole looked them over before walking out the transfer chamber.

“At least he didn’t leave us on the planet.”

“He wouldn’t do that.”

She gave him a brief nod and headed for the door. He took her hand making her stop.

“We’re either in this together, or we’re not.”

She squeezed his hand, and they walked out together. They found him in the officer’s lounge.

“Take a seat.”

They sat. She took her time looking around it was the first time she had ever been invited in. It was much different than the lounge where she hung out. It was done in pale colors of blue and green with a mauve as an accent color. The cushions were a little softer but still serviceable. There was both a drink and a food station on the back counter.

He stared at them, and she hoped they weren’t playing the who speaks first game. She never lost with the enemy, but she was about to bubble over with words when Declyn spoke to them.

“What am I supposed to do with the two of you?”

“Amira is innocent, the blame belongs to me.”

She cut her eyes to look at him before protesting. “He did nothing wrong I will take any punishment you hand out.”

Please don’t kill me is what she wanted to say but she knew the punishment was cleansing and that meant killing her and reusing her enzymes unless she was found to be faulty down to her basic cells.

“Do you think Lazzar will walk away accepting the fact that I put you to death?”

“What other choice will he have?”

“If I kill you, I have to kill him also he won’t give me a choice. I want both of you to stop volunteering for death. Unless you both would rather die than live with your choices?”

That stopped the next words coming from her mouth. Was their alpha going to give them a chance? In her world his word was law. There were the controllers, but they were a shadowy organization she never saw. The male she sat before was her judge and jury.

“Go to your stations we’ll deal with what comes next after we win the war with the Thalians. Lazzar, we have four additional battalions on the ship. They were in stasis, but I’ve had them woken. I want you to assist making sure each battalion makes it to a lifeboat in case they have to be jettisoned from the ship. This is our fight, not theirs.”

“Yes, Alpha.”

“Dismissed.”

Enzo uncloaked and looked down at Ven who was leaning against his leg.

“You have earned their fidelity for life.”

“Let’s hope we live long enough for me to enjoy that perk. Are you bringing Ven to the command deck?”

“I am.”

“Ven I’ve had a special chair installed for you. It has a forcefield perfect for your size that will keep you from being thrown around when the ship encounters enemy fire.”

Ven’s blue eyes sparked. “Thank you, Alpha.”

He was still small and shy. Being thrown into a working battalion was not where anyone his age should be. Declyn sighed and looked at Enzo.

“If we make it he will make it.”

“We will make it.”

“Then let’s go fight a war.”

*~*~*~*

The ship rocked throwing Amira across the room before she crawled her way back to her battle station. Fighting in the ship was worse than when they fought planet side. There was nowhere to retreat to in the ship. No way to lay low and wait for the right moment to strike. She was manning the laztech they used to fight in space. Her job was to eliminate any Thalian ship trying to breach their hull.

Most of them were droids which meant no loss of life unless they got past her. She locked herself into her chair and became one with her station using her mental ability to direct the attack. Her brain worked faster than her hands. Her brain also didn’t stop to wonder or hesitate with whether the droid ship was occupied, it simply did its job. It was war she reminded herself as she shot one after the other out of space.

They were retreating, but she didn’t buy that. Declyn was drawing the Thalians away from the planet. The coordinates he sent out earlier would take them to deep space before the real battle began. For now, she would keep firing at the droids.

“Amira, I am detecting something to your right, but my screen is unable to define it. It looks like a mass then it shrinks in size.” Kels warned her.

She took care of the last droid and turned her chair around to get a visual of what she was seeing. It looked like a small light that grew and shrank as if it couldn’t keep its size.

“Amira to the command deck.”

“Go Amira.”

“We have located an anomaly on our view screen. There doesn’t seem to be any substance to it. I will try to destroy it on your word.” She rattled off the coordinates then waited.

Several minutes later the ship wide alarm sounded.

“Strap in everyone we are in for a bumpy ride. A rift in space was just identified. Alpha has decided going around it will be safer.”

“Do you think we’ll make it?”

One look at Kels was enough to tell her that she wasn’t worried about their lives.

“They will make it and so will we hold on.”

“What the hell is happening?” Lazzar growled as they went spinning through the air.

“We just lost Kgrav.”

“You think?” He reached for the back of his chair and pulled himself into it before hitting the field that would keep him from being thrown around the room again.

“Engineering we lost Kgrav.”

“No shit. What gave it away when you floated out of your chairs? Chairs you’re probably now locked into. Call me back if you discover something I don’t already know like why we lost Kgrav.”

“There are days I like Xander, and then there are days like this.”

“I agree, but he raised a good question why did we lose Kgrav.”

He turned back to check the readings that were pouring over his screen as much as he hated to agree with Xander, he and Arkel were correct, the loss of Kgrav was an indicator of something seriously being wrong

“I’m doing a thorough check of the hull right now. At this time, I cannot detect any breaches.”

“Command deck to Lazzar.”

“Lazzar here. I am running another scan on the hull looking for breaches the first one came back negative.”

“Run a separate scan checking the engines and the secondary engines for a hull breach.”

“Yes, Alpha.” The all com discounted.

“Is there any other way for that to happen other than sabotage?” Arkel was checking the interior of the ship for any anomaly.

“Anything is possible, but sabotage would be the first thing I looked for.”

“The ship is turning.”

The battalion was a huge ship that covered miles of space. It was surprisingly fast when aimed in a certain direction. Turning it, on the other hand, was cumbersome and something only done in rare circumstances like this. It was so large and unwieldy and housed so many Kur’iks that it took skill and patience and time to turn it. Skill they had but time and patience were in short supply.

Lazzar ran his scans allowing them to filtrate to Arkel’s screen for a second pair of eyes.

“Do you see this?”

“I do, but I want to run the scan again to make sure that ions have not escaped from the core of the engine corrupting the sensitive equipment.”

“Alright, I’ll measure the heat levels and check for any burst of ionic activity.”

Lazzar started the second scan before he started one in the secondary engines and went back to studying the hull for signs of a breach. Three scans later he was sure there was a minuscule breach in the hull from the engine room. It wasn’t big enough to actually rupture the hull, but it would be soon.

“Lazzar to Xander.”

“This better not be you wanting to chat or tell me about the Kgrav again.”

“I would tell you that you were grumpy, but I found a small tear in the hull on the engine side.”

“That’s impossible. I’m reviewing your data stream right now. I see it. We’ll have to take the main engines offline and engage the secondary engines.”

“I’ll keep monitoring the hull.”

“Enzo to Lazzar. Excellent work on the engine hull breach. Have you found anything in the secondary engines?”

“I don’t see any type of hull breach in the secondary engines.”

“But?”

“They sound different.”

“Repeat?”

“I know it doesn’t make sense. We have been monitoring the secondary engines along with the energy outtake and the ionic bursts. We tapped into sound because the secondary engines make a unique sound. It sounded fine then it changed just before you called us.”

“Xander to command deck.”

“What’s happening?”

“The secondary engines are failing. They seem to have come online without me running the proper sequence and are powering up. We are going to run into whatever you're trying to avoid.”

“Shut them down!”

“I will at the risk of the battalion blowing up.”

“To all the crew this is your alpha, hang on things are about to get out of control. Lifeboats prepare to jettison.”

“Declyn the anomaly is…”

It swallowed the ship whole taking the Thalians with them. Time slowed down as everyone in the ship lost consciousness. The rift brightened allowing the forms in it to examine the ship and the occupants inside of it. They argued back and forth about what was to be done with the ship until they reached a consensus.

The ship was expelled from the anomaly to circle a blue planet before it was sucked into its atmosphere. The collision warning was what jarred them enough to wake them in time to use reverse thrusters to try and slow the impact.

“Brace for impact.”

The ship came to a halt over flat land that looked like it had never been walked on before.

“Tristan how many casualties.”

“We lost life support on the lower quell level all life was lost. The rest of the ship is reporting in with bruises and other minor problems. I have one serious problem, Caden, but he is too stubborn to die. I’ll be in touch after I heal him.”

“Where are we?”

“Someone try to find out our coordinates in relationship to Kur’ik Minor.”

“Kur’ik Minor does not exist in this galaxy.”

“How’s that possible?”

“Whatever rift we went through brought us to an unknown galaxy.”

“Unless this galaxy has a supercharged ion core lying around that they’re not using, we’re never going back.” Xander's voice came over the open all com.

“Understood, see what you can do with the engines.”

“Were we sabotaged and if so why?” Enzo asked him as he stared at the planet they were on.

“Those answers don’t mean anything unless we can get off this planet. For now, I need to send out a discovery team. This may be where we live and die.”

“To the crew. We have come through mostly intact. We lost the quell section of the ship. Life support is being worked on, we will give our brethren a proper send-off. Report to med bay if you are in need of healing. I will be sending out a crew that I will lead to check if life is possible on this planet. They do have foliage most of it seems to be green, but it is still foliage.

“Gather anything you need or want to take with you. Leaving the ship in plain sight could cause an enormous problem. We are about to become whatever the occupants on this planet are.”

“Do you think they’re humanoid?”

“It would be easier to blend in if they are.”

“Enzo and Cole with me.”