Homeworld : Legacies, Homeworld fanfic -- comments welcome! Options

[Starlight Trinity]

Thanks. And sorry for the typos. I think I put that one together a little too fast, and when a little too sleepy...

Ok, onward then!

Chapter 31

Noreena eyed the scene from several camera angles. Ships buzzed around the Kuun-Lan with dozens of tasks to complete, their engine trails blazing in the pitch-dark of space. Nearby, the Shus-Naan was undergoing a similar process. A resourcer hung above it with another Far Jumper in its clamps; the same Nabaal frigate to bring the first Core had delivered it half an hour ago.

Noreena pulled her attention back to her own ship and location.

Directly below her chamber, Engineers had opened up a twelve-meter wide hole in the lower engine module. It had been build recently to replace the portion of the Kuun-Lan that had been jettisoned during Somtaaw's early encounters with the Beast. That portion had become the original Beast mothership. Shortly after the NAGGAROK's destruction, the Kiith-Sa of the time had ordered that a new lower Engine module be built to replace the Kuun-Lan's original.

Now that new module served another purpose as the Far Jumper's housing onboard the Kuun-Lan. Engineers had discovered that sufficient empty space had been left for future upgrades to the module to allow room for a Core and Fleet Command's systems. Now they would have to carefully guide the Far Jumper up through the opening in the module's hull, past a small tunnel built towards Noreena's chambers, and into its final housing.

She watched with the highest alertness a wirehead could achieve as a lone resourcer carefully nudged the Core upwards--towards her. The pilot obviously had some skill. He managed this precious device so fluidly that Noreena could barely detect the minute jolts of the little ship's thrusters as it maneuvered into position. Inside her tank, she smiled mischeviously. He probably was somebody she knew. She'd made it a point to get to know all the really good pilots during her time as a hangar technician. Slowly, but surely, the pilot nudged the Core until it was directly in the center of the opening. He gave it one final push with the resourcer's main jets, then released the clamps holding the ancient device. It floated majestically up the tunnel, and rose slowly into the Chamber. A pair of space-suited Engineers stood at the ready next to the prong-holding clamps built into the Chamber. As the Core rose in the zero-gravity environment, they reached out their hands, and letting their fingers brush across it, they slowed the Core until it tapped ever so delicately against its housing. One Engineer swiftly tapped a button on the side of the housing; two long mechanical arms extended towards the Core until they grasped it securely. Then they moved downwards slightly, setting the new arrival into the bottom part of its housing.

"Nice work, guys," Noreena called out on an open channel. "Smoother than a baby's bottom."

Below the chamber, the hull had already begun to close up as Engineers directed resourcers and repair bots to reseal the Kuun-Lan's plating. Noreena went to work, carefully checking all the hookups built directly into the Core's housing. Every status report came back clear of problems or concerns. She began setting up the Kuun-Lan's computers to recognize the Core for what it was--their new hyperdrive.

Within seconds, the computers reported back their acceptance of the engines' new component. Noreena grinned inside of her tank. Time to party, people.

"The engines and computers both have recognized the hyperspace Core," she announced on the ship-wide com system. "Beginning neural hookups now."

She reached out with the slightest tendril of a neural connection, hoping the Core didn't blast her with a mountain of data the minute the linkup came online. She got nothing back. Arching one eyebrow, she strengthened her connections, threading data connection after data connection into the Core's systems. Again, a blank. Then she realized what had to be done; a full neural link, as if the Core were the Kuun-Lan. She ran the remainder of her connections into the Core. Then, like a rocker switch that had taken enough pressure from a finger to flip to its opposite position, the Core lit up like a nova inside her mind.

WHOAAAA SAJUUK!

She backed out slightly, feeling slightly dazed. For a second, she felt as if she had not only become the Kuun-Lan's drives, the Core, and the ship itself, but the space around her. The sensation had reminded her of the first step outside in a very bright, and hot desert after sitting in a completely comfortable and darkened cave. And it proved addicting. She reached out again, and slid back into her connections with the Core. Now it felt more familiar, as if upon its introduction to her mind, it had adapted to who she was. She slid into her new world of perceptions, and began to explore them. Everything crackled with brilliant, crisp detail, as if the galaxy had rebirthed itself while she'd begun her connection process.

A serene calm settled over her, as she began to understand some of what Karan had told her about being connected to a Far Jumper. It made sense now--how she could be so calm, and yet so intense. The presence of the Core had not really changed her, but rather, changed how she reacted to things. It was as if she could understand the true Progenitors--and the Bentusi as well--much more fully.

Then a thought intruded into her ruminations.

Oh. Yeah. Right. Back to Hiigara, hon.

"Fleet Command is now online," she reported, "All systems are good to go. Retrieving coordinates for hyperspace jump calculations now."

Her vast array of electronic ears cringed as a thunderous cheer rose across the length of the Kuun-Lan and the new unified Hiigaran Fleet.

Ifrit cut in from the Bridge: "The Shus-Naan has just reported their Core has been installed. We'll be hearing from Strategic Command very shortly. Then we'll be ready for a Far Jump."

"I'll begin calculations immediately," Noreena replied as the coordinates flashed into her awareness. "I look forwards to hearing from him."

Then a new com line came to life...this time from the Shus-Naan.

"Strategic Command now online."

"Welcome to the party," Noreena replied on a private side-channel, a mischevious tone rippling through her voice-synthesizers. "Does Karan's tendency to get all deep and funky on you make more sense now?"

"Absolutely. We'll tell her when we've got free time.," Tamris replied on the same side-frequency. He then switched back to the public com-link.

"I've begun processing Intel's reports, and we'll do an all-nighter through the hyper ride to get a decent strategy out of this. Strategic Command reports ready for hyper as well."

"Sounds like fun," Noreena remarked dryly on the side-channel. "Hey, have you seen or heard from Karan? She wasn't at my hookup. Was she at yours?"

Tamris sighed, sending an unhappy emoticon over the com. Noreena scowled in her tank.

"No joy," he said grimly. "Bet she's still at the Collision, moping her butt off. Damn, I knew she wasn't taking mortality well, but this is nuts."

"I thought you knew her better than me?" Noreena asked, surprised. "You're her lover. I'm just her successor."

"Hah," Tamris replied, "do I ever wish. She didn't talk much about Core-time. Just about her other adventures. Kharak. Going up against the Taiidan Fleet. Fighting Makaan. I didn't pry much. Her Core-time seemed too personal, even for me. Look, I dunno if you heard the whole story, but most wireheads don't survive getting unplugged. I just...got lucky. Maybe it was because I wanted out so bad back then. I think it's why she likes me...that I'm like her somehow. But when it comes to Cores...I don't think I'll ever understand her experience with the things."

"You and me both. Someday someone's gonna be saying the same about us."

"Yeah. How about a friendly bet on who gets statues made of them next?" he snickered.

"Ten thousand, for you. You're her lover. People will think you're the Consort of God or something."

"Fifteen thousand for it being you. You came on the scene before I did."

"You're on!"



This post has been edited by Starlight Trinity: July 8, 2004, 10:56 PM

[Starlight Trinity]

Chapter 32

"Hyperspace jump in thirty seconds. Repeat, thirty seconds," Noreena called out. Throughout the Somtaaw--and now Hiigaran--flagship, crews rushed to secure final items for the jump. In their staterooms, delegates and Kiith-Sa strapped down into their chairs and beds. Hangars buzzed with frantic activity as techs triple-checked to make sure all ships were securely anchored to the hangar floors for the duration of the ride.

All systems came back green. She grinned to herself in the tank.

"Fifteen seconds," she called out, running through the calculations a third time. It took only a second to review them, but it was one second well-used. "Ten seconds."

The Kuun-Lan's engines' power rose to a fevered pitch. Every officer onboard could feel the vibrations in the ship's deck.

Noreena primed the Core, feeling its energies surging through her from the cables connected to her brain. She ran through yet another systems check to watch for any potential problems that may come up. None did.

"Five seconds....four....three....two....one. Engaging Hyperspace Core."

A massive wall of light opened up in front of the Kuun-Lan. Slowly, but surely, it moved along the length of the Kuun-Lan like a cosmic doorway admitting a new arrival. Another such doorway opened in front of the Shus-Naan. All around the Kuun-Lan, hyperspace windows had opened up in front of each ship in the fleet.

For a moment, all everyone could feel resembled a sensation of slowly floating apart into tiny molecules, and becoming clouds drifting where their bodies once sat or lay. Then everything snapped back like a released slingshot. Vertigo, disorientation, and dizziness prevailed amongst the fleet's occupants.

Then it was over. They had entered hyperspace in one piece, and now had 52 hours' worth of time to kill.

Jump Time -- 16:02:54

Ifrit sighed as he stared at the screens before him. The conference room, normally quite busy, now sat packed so tightly with personnel and Kiith-Sa that he thought it would likely be named Secondary Daiamid Chambers before the night was through. He tugged on his tunic for the umpteeth time. A veritable tide of noise slammed into his ears yet again as another argument broke out between Tamris and the several warrior Kiith-Sa in the room. He banged his new gavel, a metal affair welded together by a resourceful Engineer, against the conference table. The loud gong-like sound that resulted silenced the crowd immediately.

"Gentlemen," he growled, "Either find a compromise on fleet arrangements, or I will do the layouts myself!"

"As if," the Soban Kiith-Sa hissed, "I'm not taking orders from a Kiith-Sa whose crews are miners playing warrior! Nor am I taking orders from an ex-member of my Kiith as Strategic Command!"

"Take it or leave it," Tamris growled, "But I AM Strategic Command, and I doubt you're gonna find another wirehead to do the job either!"

Ifrit banged his gavel again, but to no avail. Tamris and several Kiith-Sa resumed their heated argument. He sighed, then cleared his throat.

"Fleet Command here," Noreena cut in, putting enough volume in her voice to cut through the yelling, "Whatever happened to the United Hiigara stand here, people?! I thought we left this at the Daiamid chambers! Are we going to have to go through this with every damned meeting?! And by the way, if my own Kiith-Sa isn't respected enough, I personally have the authority and ability to back Strategy Command. Give it a rest, or we're going to be sitting ducks for the Beast to rip to shreds. I don't want to have to do a full-length explanation of what Infection does to us, either!"

That silenced them for sure this time. Several people blanched so white that Ifrit could've spotted whose clothing needed a pass through the laundry systems.

"I see we all read our briefings for once," she growled, "good. Now work it out, or I have to put the C in Fleet Command. Got it?! Fleet Command out."

Ifrit smiled benignly as stunned expressions flashed across the conference room. I like this kid, he thought to himself. Plenty of guts, and the mouth to back 'em up. Ahh, this is going to be the beginning of a beautiful friendship.

"All right," Yaadren cut in, "I will defer to Strategic Command. And if he wants a kiith, let it be known Yaadren opens its arms to him."

"Fine," the Sobanii Kiith-Sa groused, "At least you guys all have combat experience. Unlike some sods I know. And Tamris may be a self-exiled Soban for that, but he was one of our best. I guess that's what got me. I feel kinda betrayed. But you have the skills, Tam. I defer to you."

"Thank you," Tamris replied. "All right. Let's default on the premise that Beast Infection Beams are going to be used as a big part of their strategy. I'm sure they want more ships and improved tech. They got Somtaaw something good a few times, and they sure got that Nabaal base. I want to know any possible anti-Infection strategies that you can think of. If we can put together a really good counter to that, then we stand a chance against even their mothership if it shows up. Every idea goes on the table, even the crazy ones."

Jump Time -- 28:16:05

Noreena ran yet another sweep of the Kuun-Lan's decks.

"Dammit," she grumbled to Tessar on a private com, "Where can she be?"

"Checked the Collision?" he asked as he continued to read the data reports flowing across his console screen. He'd set up office in a sideroom of the Communications Center of the Kuun-Lan, since he needed some serious com bandwidth to relay messages back and forth to Hiigara.

'Yep. Barkeep hasn't seen her in five hours."

"Her quarters?"

"I'm not a peeper, Dad."

"Well she may have fainted or something. We've got to be sure she's all right."

"Okay, okay, medical overrides. Fine."

Seconds later she came up blank.

"Not there either, and I even checked the bathroom."

"Crap," he muttered.

"Checking all the ships in the Hangar Module now. Maybe she just wanted some peace and quiet."

"She ever flown anything in her career besides command ships?"

"Not sure. Ahah. There's one resourcer with a little more infrared radiation inside its cabin than there should be--and it's shut down."

"Could be a mechanic. You sure?"

Noreena ran a secret command to the resourcer to activate its internal cameras. An image of a very morose Karan S'jet sitting there, staring bleakly at the hangar activity, came back to her.

"Yeah, she's there. Alive too. Vital signs--both hers and the baby's--are okay. She just reads to me as depressed."

"Oh, good," Tessar sighed with relief. "Thank we should talk to her?"

"Considering I yelled at her in the Collision, it's probably not a good idea. I'll let Tamris know, and if he wants to, he can chat with her."

"Fair enough."

"Tamris?" Noreena called, sending the signal across a more obscure frequency so it didn't get mixed with all the other data and strategic updates she'd been sending for the last several hours, "I found Karan. She's in a resourcer, Port hangar in the Hangar Module. Here's her frequency for that resourcer if you feel like chatting."

She sent up the resourcer's exact location, frequency, and a quick snapshot of Karan's lifesigns so that Tamris knew she had simply retreated for peace and quiet.

"Thanks. I probably won't bother her, though. She's pretty clear about when she wants time alone."

"All right, then."

Jump Time -- 32:28:16

Pyalun stood next to the massive holopit in the new Fleet Intel chambers. He frowned, eyeing the massive holographic map as Tamris outlined the strategy he'd come up with for dealing with the Beast. Then he nodded.

"With two Far Jumpers, we can afford to split the Fleet. The Beast will have to either divide evenly, or call in help. Let's make sure they don't, hmm?"

"I'm working on that. Since they're using Hiigaran frequencies, it'll be easy enough to jam them. However, here's the part I wanted to run by you. We need to switch our entire communications to frequencies they wouldn't likely bother to check. Could you get your people on that, so I know which frequencies to use for battle?"

"You got it, man," Pyalun replied with a grin. "I've got people sitting here twiddling their thumbs after that huge stack of profiles on the Beast's psychology, and potential changes and enhancements it put itself through. They'll love you after this."

"They'll hate me later, though," Tamris replied smugly. "I don't like the idea of useful people sitting on their asses waiting for the next job."

"A man after my own thinking," Pyalun replied with a chuckle. "Great. I'll get my teams cracking."

"Thanks," Tamris replied before cutting the link.

Jump Time -- 38:46:10

"Damn, that was fast," Pyalun replied as he scanned the list of frequencies Tamris had thrown up.

"I love wirehead life," Tamris replied with a mock-nasal tone. "Anyways, these came up as ones practically nobody uses unless they're desperate. If we can set up a reasonably synchronized rotation among these frequencies throughout the fleet, the Beast won't be able to hear us. Encrypt everything reasonably, and we'll do even better. They won't be able to tell their big bad buddies what's going down until it's too late."

"Fantastic!" Pyalun blurted out. "I'll go tell Fleet Command. She'll love this."

"You do that," Tamris replied.

Jump Time -- 45:33:21

"I think I'm getting claustrophobic," Noreena grumbled. "Never did like swimming, either."

Tamris sent up a string of laughing emoticons. Noreena grinned to herself.

"Oh, just another part of wirehead life, right?"

"Right," Tamris replied. "Here's that pile of frequencies you wanted."

Data flew across Noreena's neurons. She fired back a thumbs-up emoticon.

"Looks good. I'll set up encryption and rotation patterns right away. Anybody bitches, I'll bend their ears for ya"

"Thanks. You're making my life real easy, you know that? So, anything else bugging you?" he asked.

"Besides this intense craving for Collision Fudge, not really. I've kind of gotten used to this. The Core just expands your mind that much further."

"Yeah. I'm used to the hookup bit, but the Cores really take it to the next level."

"Yeah, they do. I nearly blew my mind the first time I hooked with mine."

"It won't do that to you again....I don't think?"

"You got that feeling, too? It's almost like they're semi-intelligent, like really subtle AIs or something."

"Yeah," Tamris replied thoughtfully, "Makes you wonder what the Progies wanted with 'em anyways. I'm sure they came up with better travel methods than these Cores."

"And why they left 'em in different systems, and all that fun stuff. I'll have to check those Progie ruin reports again sometime. Maybe there's something we overlooked after getting that ransom note."

"Good idea. Do that."

Noreena quickly began switching the priority of several tasks, and pulled up the ruins data from information storage. She got only a few seconds' worth of neural-reading in, but what came back to her made her jump on the com to Tamris again.

"Whoa. Get this."

She threw up a star chart that showed the locations of the various dig sites identified as Progenitor ruins.

"That's way bigger than the Taiidan Republic and our space combined," Tamris finally remarked. "What about Bentusi space?"

Noreena overlaid what the Hiigarans knew about Bentusi space on top of the starchart.

"Interesting," he remarked. "A lot of it is theirs. More than I thought. The Bentusi sure aren't telling us much. I'm betting money they've got even more space than this. I hear scut about them all the time. Raiders have an interesting fear of going into their space."

"And if fear overrides money, I'd have to wonder why. Could our fake Progies be rogue Bentusi?"

"That's an interesting thought. They'll listen to us too, so maybe they'll tell us more than what they'd say to Karan alone."

"They'd better," Noreena groused, "I'm not letting them take this fleet down because they're afraid of being Bound again. They may have firepower, but they sure know when to act like a bunch of wusses."

"You and me both," Tamris replied.

Jump Time -- 51:07:52

"Arrrgh," Noreena growled. "So close and too soon. I'm gonna miss this hookup, but I sure as hell won't miss the tank."

Tessar smiled.

"Hang in there. One more hour, hon. One more hour."

"At least we get another three hours before dealing with the Beast when the Jump ends. That's enough time to get down one meal. And a nap."

"Whatever you want, hon. You've been a real trooper to do this for this long."

"Thanks, Dad."

"I'd better go back and send the update to Hiigara and make sure nobody's arguing Kiith nonsense again."

"See ya soon, then," Noreena replied as Tessar scurried from his office.

Jump Time -- 52:00:00

A gleaming, yet flat, portal of shimmering purplish light opened into a dark gray nebula. Several dozen others opened shortly after this one, surrounding it with a new sort of starfield.

Then, as if emerging from the mouth of some mystical creature, the Kuun-Lan slowly rematerialized in the hyperspace portal.

Minutes later, the rest of the fleet emerged from their portals as well. It looked as if nothing had happened to them in their 52 hours' time in hyperspace.

"Whew," Noreena said on the open com, "Everything worked! I'm recording all engines in perfect condition."

"Fleet Intelligence reports that we're at our calculated coordinates," Pyalun broke into the massive torrent of com chatter that erupted throughout the Fleet. "No hostiles anywhere within range....yet. Sensors are picking up a mass of Beast ships directly ahead, three hours sublight time."

"Strategic Command here. Looks like they've added a few ships while we were in transit. And one of 'em has higher mass numbers than any of the others. I think we just lucked out. It's got to be their Command Ship. Strategy meeting in one hour, people. One hour."

"Launching all ships," Noreena called out as the Kuun-Lan's hangar spewed out a small fleet of Siege Frigates. The little ships had blocky hulls covered with omnidirectional cannons pointing every which way.

Tamris broke in again: "All ships are advised to keep fighters in their bays until we reach the battle zone. Repeat, all ships are advised to keep fighters in their bays."

"Let's get cracking," Noreena said grimly, easing the Kuun-Lan up to its maximum sublight speed. "I smell some Beast barbeque waiting for us!"

A loud cheer rose from numerous ships in response to her quip.

******

In her stateroom, Karan sat frozen on her cot. The noise of constant radio traffic peppered the air. She heard Noreena's last comment about the Beast, and let out a long, miserable sigh.

She leaned back against the wall the cot sat next to, and sniffled again.


She's really doing it. Better than I ever expected. Damn, I wish I didn't have to see this happen. I wish time were frozen so I could make the most of it. I can feel it slipping through...feel it in her voice, in the way they respond to her. Everything. Why do I have to die? Why now?

Unconsciously, she reached for the block of Collision Fudge sitting next to her, and broke off a piece. She slowly chewed, fighting down the rising lump in her throat. For the first time she would go into combat as something other than a wirehead. Suddenly, she felt nauseous again.

Karan bolted for the bathroom, letting out a faint whimper of misery. After relieving her stomach into the toilet, she simply sat there, on the bathroom floor, for what felt like an eternity. A hot tear rolled down her cheek.

And why did I have to get pregnant NOW?! Everybody worships me like Sajuuk himself, I get morning sickness more times than I want to count, Tamris is hooked up, Noreena's pissed at me, and even Ifrit looks at me like a freaking has-been. I can't do a damned thing about this war. AAAGH! I hate my life, dammit. I hate it...

[fdewaele]

great work

[Starlight Trinity]

Chapter 33

A sensor system pinged. Then it pinged more insistently. Noreena diverted her attention from the constant sensor sweeps of the area that were coming in from all ships in the Kuun-Lan's battle group. She gave the data her typical twice-over, then arched her eyebrows inside her tank.

Out in space, several hyperspace portals had opened, spewing out ships of all sizes and armanent.

Interesting. Very interesting.

"Uhhh, guys," Noreena spoke up, cutting in on the arguments of a cluster of people in the conference room. "I'm picking up hyperspace signatures dead ahead of us. And what just came out of some of those gates are definitely not Beast. Or Progie."

That got their complete and undivided attention. Noreena put the Sensors data up on the room screens.

"They'll be in visual range in a couple of minutes. Right now from the engine signatures from those that already jumped, I'd say Taiidan ships. Civvie and military. Probably what's left of their fleet. Tamris, you reading this?"

Tamris' voice spoke up: "Yep. And it'd figure our Progenitor friends missed a few. Hiigarans and Taiidan basically share the same general ancestry and physiology. One could almost say they're, given the chance, as stubborn as we are. They might have some useful strategic data. Recommend we get together with them, swap data, and go in on the Beast together."

"I second that," Aldar Soban-Sa spoke up, a split second before several others concurred as well.

"It's decided then," Ifrit said with a curt nod. "Noreena, get in touch with the Taiidan. Set up a decent meeting point between the positions of our fleets right now. And send an encrypted note to the rest of our fleet to wait before we signal them to jump."

"Yessir," Noreena replied, then went silent.

Minutes later, she came back with a brief chuckle.

"Oh they're all over me, praising Sajuuk that we're still around. Sounds like our Beast friends massed to try and take them out, not us. They've been running from Progie and Beast ships all over the sector. Having no Far Jumper, they haven't had much luck getting away from them lately. That's why it took them so long to get to us. The head of their Intel department's leading them. Seems somebody had the sense to call in every damned spy they had, and he's been keeping track of the entire mess since New Taiidan went down. Name's Alyr Ta-Sel."

The screens switched to a curiously nondescript looking Taiidan with black hair and a short, but bristly beard. Despite his appearance, he had enough presence to match Ifrit in the way he carried himself. His steely eyes gazed across the Hiigarans in the room then settled on Ifrit.

"Ifrit Somtaaw-Sa. I've heard of you. Of all of you."

Then he paused, noticing a very obvious absence.

"Where is Karan S'jet?"

"Meditating," Tessar spoke up, hoping to head off an awkward silence. Ta-Sel nodded as if an entire conversation had taken place in the time it took the Ambassador to utter that one word.

"All right. I have information regarding your....friends. I take it you've found out about both the Progenitors and the Beast by now?"

Ifrit nodded grimly.

"Good. Datadump's coming up, encrypted, standard Alliance code. You'll find the key encrypted into this transmission. Once you've got that set I'll call you on that encryption, and we'll talk."

Alyr's face winked off the screen to a dazed silence.

"Cheerful guy," Tamris remarked glumly. "Ahah. Got the key, decoding and installing on computers now."

"Got it too," Noreena spoke up. "All right, we're wired back in, all secure. I'm using a few extra tricks Pyalun rigged as well, just to be sure."

Alyr's face reappeared on the conference screen. He nodded, seeming much more relaxed now.

"Sorry for the bluntness," he said in a far more congenial tone, "but I wasn't about to give away anything juicy just yet."

"I understand, Ta-Sel," Ifrit replied with a relieved smile. "So, what's the topic you have in mind?"

"Your Progenitors? Fake. Half our digs, and two others in unclaimed space backed that up. For one thing their use of Progenitor grammar's completely wrong. Another, Progenitor ships those are not. Intel told me all this back when we started losing dig crews. We've had some luck in detection of slipgates just before they form, and that translated into finding their little slipgate drive...and the signature associated with it. My guess is they dug the original ship up from a junkyard and managed to back-engineer them. We encountered one that seemed older than the rest, and it's got a lot more extra components of materials that don't match the rest of the hull...best a long-range scan could do, but that says a lot."

"Interesting," Pyalun remarked, leaning back in his chair. His face grew thoughtful as his eyes brightened. "Do go on."

"All right. The Beast? Seems the same as the reports we read from your Intel back when the Alliance got solidified. Although we've lost a few of our ships to Infection beams....much longer range than you've dealt with. Thank Sajuuk for that Naar Directive--the one for venting plasma into Infected sections of a ship, with or without un-Infected crewers there--it's saved quite a few of us already. Not a real popular one, but it's kept the rest of us alive so far. I've already got captains crawling up my butt bitching about losing too much crew. Tell me you've got something planned."

"We do," Tamris replied. "An all-out hit on the Beast to keep it from calling its buddies and sending 'em recon data. Want to join in the fun?"

"Gladly," Ta-Sel said bitterly. A white-hot fury gleamed in his eyes. "We fought and got nowhere with those two teaming up. They didn't care who they killed, as long as they punished us for sticking up to them. I've seen billions die by planetary bombardment, people. Almost all of our colonies are gone. New Taiidan's a burned-out cinder floating in space now. We're not much, but we'll do anything to avenge our people. How ironic that we're now in that same position."

Those last words came out in a voice that sounded so weary that every Hiigaran could feel the same fire blazing in them as shone in Ta-Sel's eyes.

"I speak for everyone here when I say you're in," Ifrit replied fiercely. "Bring your people over. We'll have an all-out meeting, to sort things out, and then we'll kick some nice juicy posterior, hmm?"

"Sounds wonderful," Ta-Sel replied, a touch of bloodlust in his voice. He cut the link, leaving the entire conference room feeling much better than when the meeting had started.

"More firepower," Tamris said gleefully, "And people ready to fight to the end. I'm liking how this'll shape up. Already running fleet-arrangement simulations here, and it's looking good."

A brief transmission flitted to Noreena's receptors from the lead Taiidan ship. She raised her eyebrows within her tank, then commed Ifrit.

"Ta-Sel just wants you to know he's the one who anonymously sent the Siege Frigate blueprints to R and D. Whoever theorized the original Cannon was Taiidan just hit paydirt."

"I'll let them know," Ifrit replied with a chuckle, "And I'm glad Ta-Sel's on our side."

"That makes two of us," she answered.

This post has been edited by Starlight Trinity: July 13, 2004, 01:12 AM

[Starlight Trinity]

Chapter 34

"Arrgh, now what?" Noreenga grumbled to herself as another sensor report came up.

She scanned the data flooding into her mind with her typical precision, then groaned inwardly.

"Happy happy joy joy," she sarcastically interrupted the newly reinvigorated strategy planning in the conference room. "We've got a new wrinkle."

An image of a veritable Bentusi armada lit up on the conference screen. Everyone blinked in surprise, then groaned upon seeing the images on the display.

"It's bad news, isn't it?" Pyalun asked.

"The Bentusi just jumped in a few light-years ahead of the fleet. Still a good distance away from the Beast...wouldn't expect any less of them. And they're pointed right at us. Don't ask me why, but I get the feeling someone's gonna have to do some pre-emptive yelling at them. They're not talking to us at all. Or they're waiting for us to ask them what the hell they're up to."

"I'll call Karan," Tamris spoke up worriedly. "They'll listen to her."

"Good luck," Noreena replied publicly in the conference room, "Last I saw of her, she was headed to the Collision."

Ifrit sighed as he slumped into his chair. Ta-Sel shook his head in disgust.

"We didn't have any help from those high-and-mighty gods of the spaceways," he growled angrily. "They sat by and watched a billion people die, and didn't even try to go against them. They're either protecting these fakes, or they're scared witless of them. And I still don't know what to make of them now, considering what they just did."

"Getting a signal from them," Noreena spoke up. "Audio only...naturally."

"We sense several Unbound among you. The plague ahead is dangerous to them. They can become Bound, and trapped. We will not allow this to happen. Withdraw. Or we will take action to preserve our kind."

"You know our answer," Ifrit growled, "We'll all take our chances...which is a lot more than you ever will."

Alarms suddenly began screaming shrilly throughout the Kuun-Lan.

"Crap," Noreena cut in. "I'm ordering a Fleet All-Stop. Those Bentusi just started heading right at us, and yes their damned weapons are at full power, as far as I can detect. Where the hell is Karan when you need her?!"

Bleep.

"What?" Ifrit snapped.

"Collision barkeep here. We've got Karan S'jet fast asleep over an empty fudge plate, and she's a pretty heavy sleeper. I've been monitoring the situation from down here. I think you'd better send a medic and some serious caffiene. Don't ask me how she could sleep with that much fudge in her. I honestly don't know."

"Will do," Pyalun spoke up. He nodded to Ifrit, then waved the Kuun-Lan's Chief Medical Officer over to where he stood. Walking together, the two left the office. Ta-Sel blinked, then glanced at Ifrit and Tessar. The Ambassador sighed wearily.

"Long story," he said, "But here it is in a nutshell: She's dying and pregnant."

The Taiidan blinked in shock.

"Damn," he muttered, "When it rains, it pours."

"Yep," Tessar replied glumly.

Just as everyone seemed to relax slightly from the turn of events, the deck shook violently underneath them. Alarms buzzed noisily throughout the Kuun-Lan.

"The bastards started firing," Noreena reported angrily. "Shus-Naan's taking minor damage. Same for the others. Seems like a warning volley, but it's still putting a dent in power and repair reserves trying to fix 'em. I'm advising everyone to keep their ships inside 'em. It'll be a freaking slaughter if they go out now."

More quivers ensued from the deck.

"Dammit!" Tamris roared. "I just checked on Karan. She's in no shape to talk sense into them. Fine by me. Nor, get me a standard Bentusi frequency will ya?! Thanks."

"Don't do anything stupid...!" Tessar shouted.

"As if," Tamris hissed angrily.

"She-Naal just reported engine damage," Noreena said so tersely it took several minutes to process her words, "They're not going to hyper anytime soon. It's a damned dockyard job. Getting reports of worse damage from frigs and destroyers in the group. Tamris, if you can't knock sense into them, let me at 'em! If they kill ONE CREWMAN in this, THEY ARE DEAD!"

The deck suddenly gave one violent heave, tossing everyone in various directions. The lights went out briefly, only to come back on again with a few flickers. A stream of cursewords flew across the conference room screen with images of the She-Naal exploding in a brilliant fireball for a background.

Then Tamris' voice cut in at full bellow. Noreena listened with a broad grin on her face, making sure to relay the signal to the Bentusi at the highest volume possible.

"ARE YOU OUT OF YOUR FREAKING MINDS YOU SAJUUK-WANNABES?!" he roared furiously, "HAVE YOU LEARNED NOTHING FROM THE SOMTAAW?! We have a FIGHTING CHANCE to take the Beast out and this is how you back us up?! WITH CANNONS AND COWARDICE?! And here I thought you were a MATURE race! I don't CARE if you're trying to protect Karan, Noreena and me....THIS IS NOT THE WAY TO DO IT, DAMMIT! You're taking out the ships and crews that can DO THAT! And you scratched the paint on MY SHIP, you MORONS!!!"

A string of particularly inventive cursewords blasted from the speakers. Then Tamris fell silent. The entire conference room followed his example, staring at the Bentusi ships on the screen as if half expecting the paint to peel off their hulls.

"Nice," was all Ifrit could get out amid his shock.

"They're backing off," Noreena reported. "Getting datadump...looks like a construction program for some type of warhead. And there's some other stuff too. Looks like text files to me. And..."

The Bentusi ships vanished off the Kuun-Lan's screens and sensors.

"....they've just jumped out. Going over damage reports now. Gimme a few."

Everyone breathed a sigh of relief.

"How in Sajuuk's name am I gonna repaint my ship before a fight?!" Tamris complained into the silence. "I'm not going out there with my ship looking like a Turanic knock-off job!"

This post has been edited by Starlight Trinity: July 13, 2004, 01:28 AM

[fdewaele]

very good

[Starlight Trinity]

Chapter 35

"Hey, Tamris," Noreena called on the private com-line. "Talked to Karan yet?"

"She's recovering in sickbay," he replied glumly, "and still doesn't feel like talking. Damn, I wish I could think of something to snap her out of it."

"You and me both. We still need her. I still think she could've headed the Bentusi off before they blew up the She-Naal and that other frigate. I finally got a look at the death toll--looks like 100 for the carrier, and 24 for the frigate. Everybody else made it out with scrapes, cuts, bruises or concussions. Damage has been more or less repaired in the last three hours alone. I'd say we're back to full capacity--except for that carrier we lost. Oh wait, report just came in from sickbay--add two more casualties. Pair of techs working in the Hangar got cooked in an explosion and went into a coma. They died just minutes apart."

Tamris let out a sigh.

"We'll be losing more before we're through this cooker," he said grimly, "If there's one thing that would've made a pacifist out of me, it'd be one casualty too many from war. I'm not there yet, but situations like this one make me wonder. It's in my blood, but that doesn't mean I have to like everything about battle."

"You and me both," Noreena replied. "Doc just sent up the report on Karan's health. Looks mostly like stress, sleep deprivation, and a caffeine overload for her system. He's given her injections to make sure the kid comes out of that binge all right."

A sensor sent off a string of alerts in both wireheads' systems.

"Oh, crap," Tamris growled. "They've figured where the Taiidan are."

"Wonderful," Noreena groaned, "And they're headed right at us. Looks like we'll run into 'em in about two hours. And yes, it looks like their command ship is with 'em. Better send out those Naar Directive prep-calls."

"Let's hope the coffee supplies are still going strong. Get Med to break out the stimulants. And I mean the heavy stuff."

"You got it. Sending out orders for deployment!"

*****

Tamris eyed the somber--and fortunately, alert--group in the newly overhauled Bridge of the Kuun-Lan. Around them, officers scurried frantically to meet Fleet Command's orders for fleet-wide preparation. Already, the rest of the Hiigaran and Taiidan fleets had caught up to the Kuun-Lan. Now everywhere one looked, personnel were gearing for combat.

"All right, I'm gonna recap one last time before the bovine crud hits the fan," he called out, "The Naar Directive is operational as of now. All ships will vent plasma into the damaged areas upon the first Infection blasts. With luck, by hitting them THAT soon, we can prevent having to put the Directive in effect to the point of losing entire quarters of ship functionality. The new upgrades to ion cannons should help anybody flying a Multi-Beam Frig. All ships with omni-directional cannons will surround the rest of the fleet, and prevent the larger ships from getting Infected to the best of their ability. Siege Frigates have been positioned strategically around the Kuun-Lan, and are fully charged to go. The Kuun-Lan group...that's the Kuun-Lan, the two fastest Taiidan battlecruisers, the Sajuuk's Will, and Eye of Fire. And all wings of fighters on our ships. We will go after the Beast Command Ship. The rest of you guys will plow the road for us right through the Beast Fleet. From the looks of Intel's last scans, we're facing down a fleet of at least 20, if not 30, ships. That's destroyers, MBFs, carriers and dreadnaughts. So you'll have more than enough on your hands. The remainder of the fleet--which is also the vast majority of it as well--will be making sure those Infection beams don't get turned our way."

Heads nodded throughout the Bridge. Noreena then spoke up.

"We've got one more trick up our sleeves--upgraded robotic Sentinels. While everybody was arguing over whose authority to follow, Construction not only got our the Siege Frigs, but about four dozen of 'em built. They will take a frontal half-spherical position around the fleet, and buy everybody about ten minutes' time against the Beast to get fighters out and in fomation before their power runs right out. I'm almost expecting the Beast to try and Infect them--let 'em. Those things are rigged with nukes. First sign of Infection, they'll blow, and hit anything trying to zap it. Then we'll get right into our game plan. Everyone clear on their orders and directives?"

The group of Kiith-Sa and officers all murmured agreement, nodding their approval.

"Let's go cook us some roast Beast, people!" she yelled, "All ships in combat mode, NOW!"

******

A shimmering umbrella of green-hued energy blazed in space. Behind it flew the united Hiigaran and Taiidan fleets, bristling as their ships powered up weapons and launched their fighters and repair vessels. Like a pack of deadly predators gearing for a kill, they moved swiftly and surely. Ahead of them lay another collection of ships, the faint reddish glow of Beast technology oozing from their hulls like psychic slime.

In front of the battle group, with a group of battlecruisers, the Kuun-Lan moved like a gigantic beast, its armanents powering up as surely as its occupants' determination. Ahead of it flew a squadron of Super Acolytes, linked together to form Super ACVs. Behind them flew a wave of Multi-Beam Frigates and Siege Frigates. From the distance, one could imagine this were a cavalry charge.

Radio chatter peppered the space between the ships, constantly flipping through different encryption codes and transmission frequencies. The opposing fleet, its reddish hulls gleaming in the starlight, probed the space eagerly, like a shark seeking the blood of a wounded fish before devouring it. Its central mind paused, confused. It could not hear what the enemy planned. They had indeed gotten better in their strategies. But the Beast was nothing if not methodically patient. It would wait, and then it would engage them.

Then the Hiigaran Sentinel shield caught its attention. Fascination was replaced by icy determination--the Beast had to have these new shields. It sent out a small wing of fighters equipped with short-range Infection beams. The flew towards the shield. The Beast's plan had been two-fold. It would Infect the shielding devices first, and then it would disable that shield so the fleets behind it would become vulnerable. The fighters reached the Sentinels in a matter of seconds, and lanced out with their Infection beams, licking at the Sentinels as if they were succulent treats.

Then brilliant flashes lit the sky with a pyrotechnic display that dazzled even Beast sensors. When the glow cleared, half the shield had opened. The Beast fighters and the Sentinels they had tried to infect had vanished, vaporized into their most basic atoms by the blasts.

******

Captain Veraan Paktu grinned broadly, motioning to the rest of the Siege Frigate's crew as he yelled out his orders. Fleet Command's text orders flashed across his chair's screens, indicating clearance for all ships to begin firing.

"They fell for it! Get ready people! Target that next wave of ships, and fire at will!"

His face instantly turned to one of horror as the screens showed at least a hundred Cruise Missiles headed at the fleet.

Within seconds, his frigate, and several others, exploded in a fireball as brilliant as the nukes'.

Plasma blasts, ion beams, and missiles lanced out from the combined fleets towards the Beast ships. All the attacks found their marks: enemy vessels exploded into reddish fireballs. Then more Beast vessels surged forwards, firing their Infection Beams at everything they could reach. Immediately, decks closed and plasma flew into the Infected areas. Within minutes, the Beast realized that the Hiigarans' strategies had improved--it would now have to expend more energy to get an entire ship Infected. It switched back to using Cruise Missiles, sending them at the smaller vessels while targeting the larger ones for Infection.

Then the battle was joined--the heavier ships of both fleets opened fire, launching themselves at one another in a hope to end the battle quickly.

In his chambers, Tamris frowned. The Beast hadn't changed its strategies much. And victory was proving a little too easy against the smaller Beast ships. But those Infection beams had twice the range of Hiigaran and Taiidan ion cannons, and had proven a good deal more accurate than during the Somtaaw's last encounter with them.

Time to re-strategize.

He sent out orders to his group--the portion of the unified fleets not going after the Beast Command Ship--to begin drawing the Beast ships away from their command ship. Hopefully, even the Beast's efforts to increase the number of Infection beams on each ship would not work as effectively with their ships spread further apart. As he watched, the battle continued. Fighters swirled around Beast vessels that had just fired their beams, hoping to destroy them before the Beast's primary weapons recharged back to full power. All around the Shus-Naan, ships had begun to catch on to the new recharge periods of the Infection beams, and coordinated their attacks with one another, hoping to stop any of their ships from becoming Infected.

*****

The Kuun-Lan charged forwards, its battleships creating a protective shield of blazing ion beams and missiles around their command ship. Noreena watched the battle around her--so far, not too bad with only two frigates fully Infected thus far. She could see a cluster of Siege Frigates firing synchronized blasts at one Beast destroyer that had taken heavy damage. A quick scan told her it could no longer fire its Infection beam. Then, within seconds, the first major Beast casualty lit up in a luminous fireball, sending debris flying everywhere.

"Good one, guys!" she called to the Captains of the victorous frigates. "Try concentrating on that Dreadnaught coming up your asses! It's right in our way!"

Slowly but surely, the Kuun-Lan's group plowed through wave after wave of the smaller Beast ships. Tamris' strategy of drawing off the larger Beast elements had worked to a degree--the Beast had decided to split up its fleet into groups of three destroyers for every dreadnaught it had. She watched as the list of fully Infected ships grew to 15. That took the casualty list to several hundred dead by the Beast's peculiar method of absorption.

She began scanning for the location of the Beast Command ship--it had hidden behind the majority of its fleet, and now seemed ready to make a quick hyperspace getaway. It hung there in the distance, moving away from the general fray at sublight speeds. Noreena frowned inside her tank.

Interesting. You'd think it'd have enough resources to do a clean jump straight out of battle. It's certainly not damaged, and it's not firing Infection beams. First time I've seen a Beast ship acting as Bentusi as this one. I mean, why even bring your command ship?

Then she saw the real reason why. A massively long-range Infection beam shot out from the Beast's command ship, slamming into one of the four battlecruisers guarding the Kuun-Lan. Within seconds, the entire ship had become fully Infected, its crew having literally no time to carry out the Naar Directive. It promptly opened fire on the Kuun-Lan, causing its decks to rattle violently. The other three battlecruisers promptly opened fire on it. Within minutes, an all out firefight had gone on, with the Kuun-Lan caught in the middle.

Noreena edged the flagship out of the fray, sensing the damage done to its hull as she did so. Damn, that was right smart for the Beast. How bloody long was the range on that Beam?! Even Naar can't stand up to that!

Then the offending battlecruiser began to take damage. Its three former companions saw the fires break out across its hull, and intensified their attack. Within minutes, the Infected battlecruiser had gone from a battle-worthy ship to a badly damaged lump of metal floating through space. A Siege Frigate within the area targeted it with one of its Cannons. The ball of blazing plasma slammed into it, turning the enemy hulk into a nova for several brief minutes. The resulting shockwave destroyed several Beast workers attempting to repair the Beast's latest catch.

Noreena took stock of the situation. Things had looked good at first, but now Infected ships had caused considerable havoc from within their formations, pulling the Hiigaran and Taiidan ships apart from one another so their command ship's Infection beam had more targets. The hundreds of Cruise Missiles flying around worsened matters further; she could see Hiigaran and Taiidan fighters going up in blazes as far as her sensor-eyes could see. It hadn't fired yet; Noreena kept a dedicated timer running on that ship's beam. If she could estimate the recharge time, it might buy her group a chance to take that ship out in time.

Something of that kind of power would have a pretty long recharge. Even so, that CS probably has a few good fusion reactors in there.

She did a quick sweep of all the ships in the battle, and made a quick decision. She opened a line to her group.

"All ships, we're going to keep them from firing Infection beams by bringing the targets too close to lock on accurately. Go so close that their ships shield us from that long-range beam! Confuse the hell outta them!"

Within minutes, the remaining three battlecruisers, the Kuun-Lan, and a trio of Multi-Beam Frigates, headed directly for the very center of the Beast Fleet. The Beast Command Ship fired its Beam again, targeting another battlecruiser. Noreena noted a full five minutes' recharge time on that beam, and sent the information to the entire fleet. Fortunately for them, the battlecruiser had already gone to top speed, and the beam only clipped its rear engine compartments. The Naar Directive went into effect; the compartment went up in a blaze of white-hot plasma, and then flew away from the battleship as its crew jettisoned it.

Noreena's group plowed ahead, moving directly towards a cluster of Beast battlecruisers. She quickly flashed orders to the ships, directing them into a series of complex flight paths designed to cause Infection beams targeted at them to more likely wind up landing uselessly against Beast hulls. While the Beast's beams missed, the Cruise Missiles continued to fly at the group. Within seconds, all three frigates in the group went up in brilliant explosions from their attacks. Then a whole cluster of the Missiles headed for one of the battlecruisers. Before Noreena could warn its crew, it blew up on impact, sending debris in every direction.

The Kuun-Lan's decks quivered violently; several large chunks of the destroyed battleship had slammed into the Hiigaran command ship. Noreena scowled inside her tank as damage reports flashed through her consciousness. She ordered the ship's defense systems to take out as much of the debris before it could cause further damage.

Crap, down to two battlecruisers. This is soooo not going well.

Then an alarm went off.

The Beast Command Ship had targeted the Kuun-Lan with the Infection Beam.

AH SAJUUK!

She frantically tried to maneuver the Kuun-Lan in such a way that the Beam would clip the top end of an easily detached module. With luck the Naar Directive might save them...might.

Then the remaining Taiidan battlecruiser in Noreena's group maneuvered in front of the Kuun-Lan. Just as the Infection Beam touched its hull, it exploded into a dazzling fireball that left even Fleet Command stunned into a stupor. When her head and sensors cleared, the ship was gone. And the Beam had neatly missed the Kuun-Lan.

She could only gape in mental shock at the Taiidan battlecruiser crew's audacity in fighting to save the Kuun-Lan. They'd risked Infection, and then did a kamikaze rather than let themselves harm their allies' command ship. Not only had they saved the Kuun-Lan, their self-destruct's shockwave had cleared an area of empty space filled with debris from Beast ships that had veered too close, and vaporized in the blast zone.

"Let's make that sacrifice count for something!" she yelled to the crew of the last battlecruiser, and the Kuun-Lan. "Full on to their CS! Let's be in Siege Range in under five minutes, people! It's all we've got!"

All around them, the battle raged on. Noreena could see the Shus-Naan battering at a trio of Beast destroyers with the help of a Hiigaran battlecruiser. She felt her mood lift slightly in knowing that Tamris had made it this far. She then refocused her attention back on the Kuun-Lan's movement. Already the ship and its accompanying battlecruiser had closed quite a bit of distance between them and the Beast Command ship.

She ran a scan on the massive vessel ahead of her, hoping to spot weak points that would work well for the Siege Cannon's targeting crew.

What she got back nearly caused her to faint from sheer disbelief.

Before the Kuun-Lan flew a thorougly Infected Pride of Hiigara, its curved Mothership hull warped extensively by Beast technology.

This post has been edited by Starlight Trinity: July 14, 2004, 01:39 AM

[fdewaele]

nice work

[Starlight Trinity]

Chapter 36

Noreena let out a long mental groan. Then she broadcast to the bridge: "What LUNATIC just dropped off your hard-built second Mothership in a black hole with NO PROTECTION if someone decided to bop in and steal it?!?!"

Nobody ventured a reply after staring at the Pride of Hiigara on the screens.

"Well it's water under the bridge now," she growled, "If we don't do something it'll Infect us and mop up the rest of the fleet! I need weakpoint data NOW, and that requires clearances nobody bothered to install when I got hooked up today!"

"Oh, right," Ifrit finally spluttered out. He tapped a string of numbers on a nearby console. As the last number flew into the system, Noreena felt the databanks on the PoH open wide to her mind. She quickly absorbed it, and swore gleefully. The Hiigarans' overconfidence in the Mothership design had caused them to overlook several minor weaknesses that would allow a quick victory against it. It had been most fortunate that Makaan hadn't gotten ahold of this data; the Vagyr War would've ended quite differently.

She sent certain points of the data down to the Siege targeting crews, and to her group's lone remaining battlecruiser.

The clock bleeped. Thirty seconds before that deadly Infection beam recharged. Time for some quick thinking.

If only we weren't headed dead-on at the thing....give it time to aim. GAH! Waitaminute....

She checked the Siege Cannon recharge cycle. It hadn't fired at all in the battle yet, so it had remained at full charge for quite some time. She grinned evilly inside her tank. Tamris would give a few neural sockets to pull off what she had in mind...

"Brace for quick Hyperspace Jump, people!" she yelled on all channels, to the Kuun-Lan and the battlecruiser. She maintained her best encryption in that signal, however. She quickly fired the coordinates to the battlecruiser, then fed them through her own computers. "Siege crews, get that prefire going!"

"Jump in 5.....4.....3....2.....ONE!"

Space buckled and folded, causing everyone to feel like a pack of ghosts inside of a ghost ship for several seconds. Then normalcy returned for several brief seconds. She sensed the Cannon going through the pre-fire routines. Another lurch of realities, and then they found themselves back in normal space, staring at the rear of the Beast command ship.

"FIRE NOW!" she yelled at the Siege Crews, hoping they had gotten where she'd been going with her little jump order.

They had. Noreena felt as if she would end up causing the entire life-support system to freeze in a parallel to her instinct to hold her breath. A massive ball of sizzling plasma belched from the Cannon several eternal seconds later. It flew towards the Beast Command Ship like an angel of vengeance, lighting the entire sky with an orange glow.

Then it slammed into the Beast ship, setting off a massive shockwave that rippled through the portions of the Beast fleet that'd tried to catch up with the Kuun-Lan. Then the former Pride of Hiigara began to experience small explosions across its entire body. Brilliant sparks of fire flashed from its hull.

Just as Noreena felt ready to let out a victory yell, the flames on the Pride of Hiigara subsided. She stared in stunned shock as its regeneration abilities kicked in. The hull swiftly closed its gaping holes with Beast ooze. Noreena's sensors registered a massive amount of energy swirling through the Beast technology on the Pride of Hiigara. She let fly with a string of mental curses as the scans' implications hit home.

"Oh, crap!" she growled, "Beast upgraded its energy-absorption abilities! Siege Crews, get ready to fire another one!"

She fired off a string of text orders to her battleship. Within seconds, it had opened fire on the Beast Command Ship with all four of its ion cannons. Their beams slammed into the regenerating hull with deadly precision. Then Noreena sent the Kuun-Lan's defensive batteries into a firing spree, adding their firepower to the ion beams. Together, the two ships continued their steady barrage on the Beast vessel--one pause and the Beast could regenerate enough to use that Infection Beam again.

She risked a quick divide of her attention to check the Siege Cannon's firing cycle, and cringed. They still had another thirty seconds to go before firing a second shot. And the enemy command ship showed no signs of going under yet.

Then a call came in.

"Yo, Fleet, you need some help?!" Tamris yelled. "I've got a few Siege Frigs--they're a little damaged, however--and a pair of battlecruisers still sticking it out over here with me. Rest of the fleet's all over the sector!"

"Anything!" she shouted back, "I'm waiting for a Siege Recharge!"

"Comin' right over, then!" Tamris shouted.

Then a small cluster of ships had vanished off her sensor fields. Five seconds later, they rematerialized, this time facing the front of the Beast Mothership only a thousand kilometers away. The minute the hyperspace portals had closed, they cut loose with every weapon they had. Smaller versions of the Kuun-Lan's Siege Cannon's plasma sphere flew at the Beast ship. The Infected Pride of Hiigara fired back with an array of defensive ion cannons that had obviously come off ships the Beast had absorbed. The Shus-Naan took some damage to one hangar before veering clear and firing off an array of missiles.

Then a fleet of Cruise Missiles soared into the fray from behind Tamris' fleet. Decimation proved swift and brutal--by the time the dust cleared, only the Shus-Naan and one Siege Frigate remained. Noreena could hear her fellow wirehead cursing even more inventively than when he'd cussed out the Bentusi.

Bleep. Cannon Charge Sequence Complete.

"FIRE!" Noreena yelled.

Once again, the Hiigaran command ship spat out a massive sphere of glowing orange plasma. It flew towards the Beast ship with unerring precision. Upon impact, it sent out another massive shockwave, pushing back Tamris' little battle group a few hundred kilometers.

This time, the Beast could not absorb so much energy so quickly. It promptly crumpled in the very center of its chassis, and then proceeded to blow apart in a dazzling light display that the nuke-rigged Sentinels couldn't have matched.

"HOOO-AAAH SAJUUK!" Noreena whooped on the open com to all Hiigaran and Taiidan ships within range. A resounding cheer went up from the other ships.

"All right!" Tamris yelled, "Time to mop up, people! Let's end this!"

With renewed fervor, the various remaining ships of the Hiigaran and Taiidan fleets lunged at the remaining Beast vessels, firing everything they had left.

The Beast, however, had reached its quota for defeat today. All its remaining ships fired up their hyperdrives. Within seconds, no Beast ship remained in the entire sector.

"Wimps," Tamris growled, "Can't take the heat, then get outta the kitchen."

"That's what they just did," a battlecruiser captain protested on the open com.

"He's got a point, Tamris," Noreena replied.

"All right, all right. Everyone: Job well done. Let's regroup over at that red giant five parsecs over, and see how we did, all right?"

Affirmative answers peppered the airwaves along with heartfelt thanks to Sajuuk and a few battle cheers.

[fdewaele]

very good

[Stefan]

I like this.

[Will the Great]

Very good.

What? When in Rome...

[Starlight Trinity]

Chapter 37

The sound of loud partying blasted from the Collision in all directions. A massive crowd of jubilant Hiigarans and Taiidan surrounded it on all sides, cramming into the hallways and elevators to get inside the famous Somtaaw restaurant. Among them, a young woman with a neon pink kerchief wrapped around her head, struggled to get to the entryway with the urgency of a starving traveler.

Noreena, finally disconnected from her Core hookup for the time being, strode towards the restaurant with one goal in mind. Unfortunately the massive crowd around it didn't recognize her as easily as they would have Karan; Noreena wished she'd worn her robe instead. Then she remembered that it would've easily gotten stepped on or worse out here. She sighed as more people streamed in from behind her, effectively squishing her into the crowd.

She soon found herself squeezed in on all sides by crewmen in various states. Some looked as if they'd just come out of sickbay minutes ago. Now it would take a miracle for anyone to recognize her, much less let her through to the Collision. Others looked as if they'd already had some engine cleaner to drink before they came down here.

"Hey, guys, I'm trying to get inside!" she protested over the blare of loud music from the Collision's entryway speakers.

"Well, so am I!" shouted the massive Nabaal crewman standing next to her. "Your point?!"

"I haven't eaten in four days, dammit! LET ME THROUGH!"

"Yeah well I've had combat rations all damned WEEK. You're just gonna have to wait your turn, lil lady!"

Noreena scowled darkly. Her stomach rumbled insistently.

"Yeah well you didn't spend those last three days cooped up in a two meter tall, one meter wide tank with nothing to eat but IV-drip fluid!"

"Hah. Like a little shrimp like you could pass off for The Somtaaw?" he retorted with an eyeroll. "Now that girl had guts. Didn't care about kiith or nothin' just saving Hiigara....just like Karan S'jet. Now if you'll excuse me, hotshot," he growled as he shoved aside two more crewers to get past them.

Noreena found herself working her mouth in shock, but no words came out. She shook her head. At the rate this was going, Tamris was going to lose their little bet real quick. Then she saw her opening, and squeezed through the swath the massive Nabaal had left on his way out. By the time she caught up to him, he had started arguing with the trio of massive Sobanii and Taiidan bouncers working the entrances.

Fortunately, one of the bouncers had worked the Daiamid chamber entrances when Noreena had gone with Tessar to plead for help on Somtaaw's behalf when this entire war had started. He recognized her instantly, despite the kerchief and rumpled uniform. After he held up a small device for a retina-print check on her left eye, he nodded.

"Madam Somtaaw, this way please," he said with a grin. "By the way, I almost didn't need the scanner with eyes like those." He winked knowingly.

Noreena chuckled as she stepped past the bouncer, who put up his hand as the large Nabaal approached.

"Hey," he growled suspiciously, "Why'd you let her in?"

"You didn't recognize her?" the Soban asked with a raised eyebrow, "That's Fleet Command. Noreena Somtaaw. The Royal Smartass-ness herself. As for you"--he held up the retina-scan device again--"don't you have a duty shift down at Waste Reclamation right now?"

The Nabaal merely blinked in shock.

******

Noreena wove her way towards the bar through the incredibly thick crowds inside the Collision. It took a few elbows, a couple of well-placed cursewords, and one kick at a particularly obnoxious officer's shin, but she made it to her destination. She shook her head and hopped onto a barstool. Glancing around for a waiter or the bartender, she saw that the waitstaff had gotten so overworked that they'd called up Engineering to recruit some of their repair-bots as extra waiters. One of the robots moved towards her, its arms' usually sharp extensions now replaced with dozens of beer-tap faucets.

"First two orders are on the house. What would you like?" it asked.

Noreena glanced around, then let her eyes fall on the brilliant purple concotion that a particularly rumpled-looking S'jet medic sipped from.

"I'll have one of those," she pointed to the medic's drink, "And a block of your double-chocolate fudge."

"Very good, madam," the robot replied, and glided off to make her drink.

It returned moments later with both the drink and a massive chunk of Collision Fudge on a plate. Noreena took them with a nod, and then headed off to find some familiar faces to celebrate with.

Then she froze.

At a nearby booth, next to Tessar, Ifrit, and a handful of other brass, sat the Purple Ghost. A massive variety platter of fudges sat among them. Grinning with relief, Noreena headed towards them. Bout time Karan hung out with some people. Wonder if the recent fight cheered her up?

Tessar flagged her down from the fudge-laden table, and moved over in the booth to give his daughter room to sit down. She did so, setting down both her drink and fudge.

"Hey everyone!" she said with a grin, "I'm surprised you came down here!"

"You forget I practically grew up here," Ifrit said with a grin, "Father wanted me to know what it was like for the other 99% of the kiith, so he got me a bartending job here....years ago."

"You? Bartending? I don't believe it!"

"Where else would I have learned to tell people "no" with a mean-ass glare!?" the Kiith-Sa laughed. Tessar and Noreena shook their heads in unison.

"Hey, Karan," Noreena finally said, "Nice to see you out here."

"I'm only here for the fudge," Karan replied blandly. "By the way, congratulations on your victory. Very well done. I just wish it didn't have to be the Pride."

The mood at the table sobered considerably.

"How could the Beast have gotten ahold of it anyways?" Pyalun asked curiously. Karan let out a long sigh.

"I was careless," she said glumly. "I thought if we dropped it off near the black hole, where the Sajuuk was, the hole would at least suck it up and prevent the Vagyr from finding it and using it against us. Or anyone else, too. I didn't think to leave any probes behind us to be sure nobody came for the PoH. I was wrong, and you had to take the brunt of my mistake."

"Hey, nobody knew the Beast was still out there," Noreena protested. "Least of all you."

"I could've sensed it with the Sajuuk sensors," she replied.

"You had bigger problems on your hands--without a Hiigara, dealing with the Beast or any thieves would've been academic."

"I should've thought of it!" she snapped irritably.

"Begging pardon, Karan," Ifrit broke in cautiously, "but you did the best job you could then. Nobody's perfect, and nobody thinks of everything. I sure don't."

"I'm a Far Jumper Wirehead. It should've crossed my mind," Karan insisted. "Look at Noreena. She figured out that jump and cannon tactic of hers without even trying."

Noreena sighed wearily.

"I was thinking on the seat of my pants, not out of any overall tactic. I was damned close to panicking anyways, and everybody knows I don't admit that easily. But you have to know I was. One more second trying to figure it out, and it wouldn't have mattered what I thought."

"Come on, guys," Pyalun interrupted, "You're starting to depress the hell out of me. I've heard enough, all right? There's a mountain of food here, and I intend to eat some, and to get a good buzz. Let's deal with this tomorrow...after everyone takes their naps and hangover pills."

"Fine, fine," Noreena replied, glad for a change of topic. Karan merely sat there, staring at her fudge.

Ifrit stood, and picked up his drink. He sucked in a deep breath, and then let out in his best bellow: "EVERYONE! I wish to make a toast to this unified fleet for their hard work and dedication in beating the crap out of that monster out there! A TOAST!"

He lifted his tankard of stout Somtaaw beer, and then drank it up in one long stream of swallows. A deafening cheer rose from the Collision's jam-packed patrons as arms bearing glasses rose and then dipped.

"And now I give the floor to our Fleet Command!" Ifrit boomed, and motioned to Noreena to address the crowd. She blinked uneasily, then pulled her kerchief off so people knew who she was. Then, as she gazed into the crew's eyes, recalling Hiigaran history as she did. What to say, what to say. They're looking at me like a freakin' icon....dammit! The words suddenly came to her in a rush of thought and adrenaline.

"I also wanna thank everybody for their courage," she began tentatively, "I'd also like to remind everyone also that all victories in war are bittersweet. We lost a lot of good people out there to those missiles and Infection beams. Let's make sure their sacrifice counted for something."

She paused, pondering her next words while letting her sentences sink in. Then, emboldened by the memories of the day's victory, she spoke again: "We've got to take the fight to the Beast's new boss...and we've got to do it while they're still recovering from today's victory! The battle's won, but we've still got a war to go...and we're going to do this TOGETHER! All Kiith, all Hiigarans, all Taiidan! We have GOT to make sure the galaxy doesn't get one more ransom letter! Are you people with me?!"

A loud cheer punctuated the end of that question, shaking the walls and rattling the decks above and below the Collision. Noreena lifted her hands for calm and quiet, and motioned to Karan, who declined with a simple hand motion. Fighting the awkward moment that rose, Noreena turned back to the crowd.

"So let's celebrate today, and tomorrow.....we whip some more ass!!"

The cheering intensified even more this time, reminding Noreena of a divine thunderclap like she'd read about in the old Hiigaran religious texts.

She sat down, letting Ifrit retake the spotlight and the crowd's attention. She had no intention of becoming a glory hound tonight. Not so soon after what just happened.

She glanced at Karan to see if she was all right, and blinked in surprise. She was gone. A quick glance gave her a brief glimpse of purple fabric fluttering through the emergency exit of the restaurant.

What is with that woman?

****

Technician Kabris Liir'Ha eyed the massive wrapping Plexiform window that surrounded his station. So far, the hangar looked as busy as it would get tonight. Several small groups of space-suited repair techs moved amongst the battle-scarred fighters seated in Hangar Two, deep within the Kuun-Lan's Hangar Module. Nothing seemed amiss to him.

Further away from the fighters sat a row of resource collectors, gleaming with relative newness next to the damaged ships in front of Kabris. Just behind them towered a pair of doors that led to one of the Kuun-Lan's outer hangars, where ships would launch into the cold vacuum of space and whatever waited for them.

He looked back down at his console, making sure that things ran smoothly for the techs on the hangar floor. Then he blinked in surprise.

One of the resourcers came online, indicating its pilot had just gone through the power up sequence. Now whoever it was had begun the systems check prior to launch. He raised an eyebrow. Tapping the com-line button he called out: "Resourcer Five, I didn't hear about any launches or collection orders. What's the deal?"

No reply came.

"Resourcer Five, check your transciever and please respond, or I'm going to ground you. Nobody flies out with a busted transmitter."

Static crackled across the line, then a muffled female voice spoke. Kabris raised an eyebrow. It sounded familiar, but he couldn't quite understand why.

"Just going out for a ride. Getting away from all the craziness over here. Also, can't hurt to check for some crystals or something."

"Uhh, have you cleared this--"

"Yes, I've cleared this with Command. Don't worry about a thing."

"Well, all right," Kabris replied uneasily. He made a mental note to check with Command after the resourcer pilot left. Something just didn't feel right.

"Thanks," the voice replied again. Out the window, Kabris could see the lone resourcer lifting off the floor with delicate, expert movements. Whoever the pilot was they sure had logged more than enough time on the thing; he decided they knew what they were doing. But still....he'd better tell someone.

He tapped the controls for the hangar doors to open just enough for the resourcer to depart. Watching it fly away, he wondered who the pilot was.

******

Bleep.

Noreena rolled over in her bed, blinking in confusion.

"What the...? Lights on."

The room lit dimly, illuminating the bed's nightstand just enough for Noreena to find the com-panel built into it.

Bleep.

"All right, all right," she groaned as she lifted herself out of bed. Her body felt incredibly heavy--tanktime had already spoiled her reflexes. Finally she found the com-link button and tapped it.

"What is it that you got me up out of a sound sleep?!" she growled.

"It's Karan," Tamris replied. "I tried calling her at her place, but she wasn't there. Did an override-scan, she wasn't in there for sure. Collision hasn't seen her in ages. Neither has Ta-Sel or anybody in Command. It gets better. Just a few minutes ago, a hangar monitor tech called Command about a lone resourcer pilot. After some thinking, he said the pilot's voice reminded him of Karan. He'd worked on the PoH and then the Sajuuk during the Vagyr War."

"So what? Sounds like she just wanted peace and quiet."

"It gets better," he replied grimly, "She flew off on a hell of a zigzag flight path according to the sensor logs, and then went down a slipgate. That's not someone who just wants peace and quiet. It's someone running the hell away."

"Crap!" Noreena shouted, bolting to the bathroom. "All right, I'll get dressed and head down to the Hangar. If you can figure out where that slipgate went, I'll go after her."

"No can do. Got a pack of ACVs out lookin' for her, along with all the recons and a pair of science ships with beefed-up sensors. We're doing as well as we can looking for her. And the slipgate wasn't on the star charts, so I have no idea where it went."

"Fine, then why'd you call me?" she retorted.

"For a theory. How'd she act down at the Collision?"

"Messed up. Said it was her fault the Beast got the Pride of...Oh hell. We've got to find her!"

"Wha....?!"

"She's been stewing ever since that mortality crap from the Cores, even to the point of not even liking the pregnancy. Don't ask me why, but I think she wants to die....while she can still control her life."

Tamris remained in an aghast silence for sixty seconds.

"Suicide?" he finally gasped out.

"Suicide," Noreena replied grimly as she grabbed the nearest clothes within her reach. "Better start extrapolating where that gate goes to. I'll go hook in."

[fdewaele]

nice work

[Starlight Trinity]

Chapter 38

Noreena folded her arms inside her tank.

"Come on guys," she complained over the com, "Don't tell me that slipgate just....vanished without leaving a trace signature!"

"Fraid so," Pyalun answered from the Fleet Intel room. "Scanned for it with every system onboard. It's gone. And gone faster than a Bentusi one too."

"Crap," she growled. "Okay. Did you guys check sensor readings to see about referencing quantum-decay patterns on it to see how far it stretched?"

"Yeah. It looks like one of the more unstable ones. This end looked like it had a random factor going on in there...but there's enough of a stable pattern--like a Bentusi slipgate--to suggest the other end will stay put. As for distance, it's looking like at least a thousand lightyears. That's pretty far for a natural slipgate. I'm guessing maybe an hour or so to get to its destination as opposed to those short-range naturals we're used to."

"Damn," Noreena groaned, "That's like a hop on a Far Jumper. From the records I got about that resourcer...it just got an experimental hyperspace module put in for making long mining trips. It's probably why she picked it. So not only do we have to figure where the other end of that thing is, but where she hypered off to after that."

"You still sure it's suicide?" Pyalun asked worriedly.

"It's possible she may just set the hyper coordinates to drop her into the guts of a star or something like that. I'm checking the star charts. There's nothing within the one-thousand lightyear limit, meaning she won't fly at anything there. She'd have to hyper to get anywhere. And from the looks of things the nearest star to dive into is about one thousand four-hundred lightyears away. That resourcer's hyperdrive's not strong enough to do more than maybe twelve hours tops, on a ride like that if she jumped right from the slipgate opening."

"Hmm," Intel mused. "All right. I'm going to get back to tracking that slipgate."

"Okay," Noreena said, "I'll keep scanning out here. Maybe we'll get lucky. Tamris is going bonkers in his tank over there. Last I heard from him, he found a letter from Karan in his personal files folder just after she disappeared."

"I bet. All right, gotta go."

"Bye."

Noreena let out a long mental sigh as she settled back into eyeing the star charts.


***************


Karan wiped her nose on her sleeve yet again. On the resourcer's main viewport, the view of a slipgate tunnel spiraled in a wild mix of colors and patterns. Occasionally the view blurred as tears blocked her vision.

She blinked constantly, fighting the urge to break down and cry. But she kept her self-control. She at least had that in this mess her life had become.

I can't take this anymore. They've got Noreena. They don't need me anymore. Hell, even I don't need me anymore. I hope Tamris gets my note...

Then Karan frowned. This slipgate was taking a very long while to send her to its other end. She didn't even see the end of the tunnel the resourcer flew in either.

She tapped the sensor console, eyeing its readouts with growing confusion.

It read as a natural from the Kuun-Lan systems. What the hell is this thing?

A quick glance at the small mining craft's chronometer told her that only fifteen minutes had passed since she entered the slipgate. Karan frowned more deeply. She knew this one had not made it into the Hiigaran star charts yet--thus buying her just enough time to end her life with dignity.

What she hadn't expected was for the slipgate itself to have more anomalies than its newness.

Just as she tapped for another sensor scan, a flash of light caught Karan's eyes. She glanced up at the viewport, only to see several glowing blue tentacles reaching in through the walls of the slipgate's corridor. They extended towards her craft like the fingers of some greedy monster out of myth and legend.

The resourcer jolted violently, knocking Karan face-first into her console. She glanced up in time to see those appendages wrapping themselves around the little ship. Then the resourcer lurched even more violently. Outside, the view changed from one of the multi-colored slipgate tunnel to the stark white of pure hyperspace.

Just as Karan wondered if she would lose her life before she had a chance to end it herself, the shaking ended. She sat up, staring in shock at the view in front of her.

Hanging in hyperspace, a mass of waving tentacles that resembled the pseudopods of single-celled organisms hung in a roughly spherical arrangement. It glowed sporadically along its entire body with flickers of intense blue light. Karan sat frozen, hypnotized by that blue shimmering.

Then, just as she thought things could not possibly get any crazier, the tentacles tugged on the resourcer again, pulling it rapidly towards the mass from which they came. Within moments, the resourcer had been completely engulfed by the luminous blue mass.

[fdewaele]

nice work

[Starlight Trinity]

Chapter 39

Hyperspace swirled around the battered corvette as it limped towards a destination locked within its deepest systems. Then normal space settled back around it. Plasma and vital energy leaked from dozens of seams in its battle-scarred hull. The sentience within, rattled by its abrupt reduction down to one meager corvette, remained a jumble of confused thoughts and limited resources.

The corvette flew towards a familiar landmark in space.

Then hyperspace and normal space intersected once more, forming a single gateway between the two worlds. Several large obelisks, gleaming like obsidian peppered with thousands of spires and interlocking plates, slid from the gateway like a flock of whales breaching the water surface.
The blood-red nebula behind them added to their ominous nature.

"Attacked..." a rasping multi-voiced whisper oozed across the com channels from the corvette, "Alone. So small..."

"By whom?" a lone voice responded from the oldest-looking of the massive vessels. It remained crisp and calm.

"Somtaaw," the jumbled voices replied. That one word encompassed so much that the voice dared not question it.

*******
Noreena swore inventively as text scrolled across dozens of screens, indicating her sentiments with far more words.

"Nowhere?" Ifrit grunted. "Not even on the long-range hyperspace scanners?"

"Zip. Zero. Z'ta. She might've well just vanished into thin air. Er, vacuum."

Somber nods greeted that declaration.

"She can't," Tamris growled, "She has to be out there, SOMEWHERE. I need to talk to her. She has no idea what she's doing to us by this...and hell, that baby's my kid too. We can't stop. We just can't."

Noreena sighed.

"I'd love to dedicate some ships for that, but we've got a galaxy on the brink of a mess even the Vagyr couldn't have dreamed of. We need to think practically here. We've got to focus on what we set out to do, people. Karan would've wanted that, suicide mission or not."

Heads bobbed throughout the war room.

"We'll keep an eye out for her--I have this feeling she'll have much more time to think between now and when that resourcer's scrubber goes out completely. Estimates look to be around a month--with regular maintenance--before the scrubbers onboard the resourcer go out, and Karan runs out of air. That's assuming she didn't blow the airlock, or do something else unwise. So that's about a month, maximum, before we're stuck trying to find a body. Nevermind what the zealots among us are gonna say. Since we're roaming the galaxy, we're probably bound to turn up that resourcer--sooner or later."

Heads bobbed again. Nobody felt like challenging the current Fleet Command, especially when the former was missing.

BEEP.

"Oh, great," Noreena growled irritably. "Guess what?"

Everyone in the conference room looked at the lone screen that went dark. It switched to a view from the Sensors Manager, showing one lone blip passing into hyperspace.

"Computers finished checking all the sensor records in the fighting. We missed one," she groaned, "And it took off to hyperspace. DAMN!"

Pyalun gritted his teeth.

"I kept telling my people to check for this very thing right after the fighting ended, but there was just too much debris for Sensors to tell right off. Either that or the Beast has got better stealthing tech thanks to their big buddies."

"I think it's safe to say we can expect an attack from these buddies," growled Tamris. Finally diverted from his worries about Karan to his worries about Hiigarans as a whole, he began shifting his focus back to his intended one: warfare.

Ifrit nodded.

"All right, I think it's time we had another bunch of marathon strategy sessions. We need everyone in here, yesterday. Nor, I'm going to need all the data you and Pyalun have on where that 'vette went."

"Already in your databanks," she replied sweetly, "Let's just say I had a bet running on how soon you'd ask."

Pyalun sighed, and slapped down several cashdiscs. Faint chuckles rippled through the crowd.

"All right," Ifrit rumbled, "I'm calling every Kiith-Sa within com range to get their butts in here. Nor, get the Collision to start feeding us caffiene any way they can, short of an IV-drip. Pyalun, I want every bit of intel data in here in an hour. And Nor, keep an eye out for any interesting transmissions...Karan, Progie-wannabes, or Beast."

"You got it," she replied, "We're pretty close to the Taiidan border as it is. Wannabe activity should get higher the further in we go."