Chapter Two: Jump Crash
Somewhere in the Galliston Quadrant…
"We're lost."
"We are not lost, we are just...not where we meant to be. At the moment. It is fine."
"It is not fine, because we are lost. You need to consult the starnav."
"The starnav led us here."
"Impossible."
"It is not impossible, it's what happened. I entered in the coordinates for where we are meant to be going, and this is where it put us."
"This is not where we are meant to be going. Galliston is on the other side of the galaxy from where we are meant to be going."
"And now you're just exaggerating."
"I am not."
"You are too."
"Can you both be quiet?"
The voice of Temos, the eldest of them, the most decorated, caused the argument the other two had been having to end immediately. It was partly out of respect, a little bit out of fear, and just a bit out of hope that he had the answer to the pointless go round they had been having.
Temos was often the voice of reason, which, considering he was one of the most hot headed of their kind, was especially bad.
The three of them were Dammen Ka, dragon warriors from the planet Sarrian, off on a mission of exploration.
Their kind didn't really settle, instead preferring to traverse the universe, seeing what there was to see. Sometimes they would put down roots in one place or another, raise families, find livelihoods, but it usually didn't take long for the call of the great boundless black of space to make them want to start traveling again.
Sarrian was the planet where the first of the dragon warriors had been born. Legend had it that he was a warrior of unknown race, blessed by the fierce might of the Dragon of the Stars. That blessing led the warrior to change, giving him a stronger stature and turning his skin the aqua teal color that all of the Dammen Ka had in varying shades. His face took on the look of the Dragon, growing scales in shimmering colors, and he became even better at weapons and fighting than he had been before, the heat of the Dragon burning within him.
The Dammen Ka considered him their forefather, their ancestor, and so every warrior who was born to a Dammen Ka member was born on Sarrian. No matter where in the universe someone was when they were with child, they made their way back to the home planet, so that the blessing of the Dragon of the Stars would be passed on to their child and they might grow to have the fire and ferocity of the Dragon in them as well.
Temos, Alaran, and Azaniston were three such warriors. Each of them could trace their lineage back to the origin, and each of them were strong, capable warriors.
Maybe not so much navigators, but they had been traveling together for cycles now, and they had yet to meet a foe they couldn’t best.
Temos stepped to the console and frowned. “Alaran is right,” he said to Azaniston. “We are lost.” He used his fingers to draw a line between the glowing spot that indicated where they were currently to the place where they were supposed to be. “Mother of mercy, we’re 68 quolants away.”
Az cringed at the measurement. That was at least a week’s travel, even if they used the hyper jumps.
To Alaran's credit, he didn't gloat at being right. But then, he was usually right and he rarely gloated. Him being right was just a fact of the universe at this point. Az was still cringing.
"We can probably turn it around," he said, tipping his head to the side to get a better look at the map on the console.
Galaxies, systems, planets, and stars were all represented by a series of glowing dots on the screen that shifted and changed depending on what you were looking for. The current cluster they were in was glowing a soft blue, indicating that it was known to be peaceful and that they weren't in any danger.
"After all," he said, "This isn't a hostile area, and we aren't really on a deadline, now are we?"
"No," Az agreed, however reluctantly. "But I was looking forward to getting to Cartique before the end of the showers."
"The showers happen every couple of days, Az," Temos pointed out. "We will see them."
"Of course," Az grumbled under his breath. Being wrong didn't really sit well with him, especially when it came to flying the ship. He was, far and away, the best pilot of the three of them. He was one of the best pilots the Dammen Ka had ever had, actually, and having flown them in the opposite direction of where they were meant to be heading was an embarrassment.
He could already see the smirk curling over Temos' lips.
Temos might have been the eldest, but he was not the most mature.
A beeping sound from the console caught the attention of all three of them, and their eyes turned to the screen to see the flashing warning sign was illuminated.
Az hit a button and amplified the AI voice.
“Solar storms imminent,” the pleasant female voice said. “Originating two quolants away.”
“Solar shields up,” Az said before looking to his companions. “I don’t think we want to be making hyper jumps in a solar storm. The energy alone is enough to throw off most of the calculations. We could end up on the Histeron System somewhere with all of our comms down.”
Alaran nodded, but they both could see the gleam in Temos’ eyes.
Aside from not being the most mature, he was also not the most cautious. Maybe it was something to do with him being the strongest of the three of them, but he had a habit of dashing into trouble before they’d even taken time to judge the situation, and it usually led to more danger and fights than was necessary.
The naked excitement on his face proved that he thought that hyper jumping through a solar storm would be a great adventure.
"Temos, no," Az said. "We will get blown even further off course. Who knows where we could end up? It's too risky."
"Oh now you've done it," Alaran mumbled under his breath. "Now he'll have to do it."
Az realized his mistake rather quickly. After traveling with them for so long, he was rather attuned to their personalities and quirks, and telling Temos the Thunderer that something was too risky was the first way to make sure that he was going to have to do it.
Az just put his head in his hands and sighed. "If we end up in some dangerous backwater, I'm not helping you fight off whatever cannibalistic monsters we run into. I am going to sit on this ship and watch as you get devoured, Temos, and I hope you will die with the knowledge that it's all your own fault."
Alaran laughed, and Temos didn't even seem to be paying attention. Instead he was typing instructions on the console, and Az didn't need to look to know what he was programming their ship to do.
"Seven jumps," Temos said. "To reach our destination. Eight if we wanted to push it. We can outrun the storms. Just catch the very edge of them."
"And fry our starnav if we aren't careful," Alaran said. "And then what?"
"Then we navigate the old fashioned way."
"There is no old fashioned way. People have been using starnavs since the dawn of time, Temos. There's no reason to start trying to mess with the system now. If we wait, we can weather the storms and then do the jumps. It will be much easier."
Temos gave him a look that said everything he thought about doing things the easy way. "Hold on to something," he said. "Begin hyper jump sequence."
"Beginning sequence," the ship's voice said, ringing with finality.
Alaran just sighed and made the symbol for protection against his chest. “I'd strap in if I were you,” he said to Az.
“I'm already on it,” Az replied, and he was doing the straps that went over each shoulder and snapped in on the opposing side down by his hips.
It was not going to be smooth going, they both knew that. And while the ship's AI counted down to the beginning of the jump sequence, they tried to make themselves as safe as possible.
“Is all the food secure in the back? The medical supplies?” Alaran wanted to know.
“Yes. We never unsecured them from the last time Temos decided to do something horribly reckless and impossibly dangerous.”
“We're learning, then.”
“Pity he never will.”
“I can hear you, you know,” Temos interjected.
“You always hear us,” Az said. “You're just never listening to what we're saying.”
The console beeped urgently, cutting off their argument. The storms were getting closer. Before Alaran could issue another warning, the AI announced “Jumping now”, and they were flung back against their seats.
The first jump went smoothly, their ship hopping through space, cutting the time it would have taken them to get there normally into almost nothing. The second jump was shaky at best, and the third…
Well.
The third jump took them right into the heart of the storm.
As soon as they materialized out of the hyper field, their ship was rocked hard and they could barely see for the bright glow of the storm.
Az swore under his breath. “Didn’t check to see if there were storms where we were going,” he snapped, cursing again as the rocking of the ship threw him into the side of the seat.
And since they apparently had the most appalling luck, the storms on this end were so much worse than they would have been if they'd just stayed put. Debris slammed into the sides of their ship and the starnav was going crazy.
"We can't make the next jump," Alaran was saying. "There's too much interference from the storm. It's lost our coordinates."
"Just put in new ones, then. We can't sit here," Temos suggested. And, of course, he still looked like he was enjoying himself.
"And end up somewhere random?" Alaran asked. "We have no idea where we are now!"
"We cannot sit here!" Temos said again, and neither of them could argue with that.
Swearing, Alaran unbuckled himself enough that he could lurch forward.
Before he got to the command console, though, an alarm started blaring through the ship.
"Hull unstable," the AI voice said, echoing around them. "Structural integrity at eighty percent."
"Oh well that is just wonderful," Alaran muttered. "Eighty percent."
"It could be worse."
Something big and heavy slammed into the side of the ship just then, and the AI kicked on again. "Structural integrity at seventy-two percent."
Alaran's look said everything it needed to. Still, he made his way to the command console and let his fingers fly over the screen, trying to get them to somewhere other than here. Anywhere else.
"Az," he called over his shoulder. "You'll need to take the controls. We might have to get out of here manually."
"What? That's too dangerous."
"If there is too much interference for us to jump, then we will have to. And you are the only one who can do it."
“I’m going to kill him,” Az muttered under his breath. “Do we have any idea where we are?”
“Near Mars is the best I can work out.”
"Wonderful." That wasn't even a planet in the neighborhood of anywhere he'd been before. Az got up from his seat, releasing the straps that held him down, just in time for the ship to rock once more. He nearly lost his footing, but held on, swallowing hard and gripping the headrest.
Quickly, he made his way over to the controls and strapped himself in there.
"Manual override, code Gamma Alpha Delta Nova," he said.
"Code recognized," the ship's system acknowledged. "Switching to manual."
Alaran watched as Az got himself ready. Of the three of them, Az was the one that Alaran trusted to get them out of this alive. Temos looked only too excited that something new was happening, and if they survived this, Alaran was going to smack him and smack him good.
The alarm blared, and the AI warned them “Structural integrity at forty-six percent”. Az’s hands were gripped tight on the controls, and no one disturbed him, but it was clear that they were falling. They were going to crash if something didn’t happen.
In a last ditch effort to try to keep them from spiraling down to the nearest planet in a fiery wreck, Temos lurched forward and slammed the button to send them into a hyper jump, unsure of where it would spit them out.