There was hectic around him. He couldn’t see anything as his vision was still failing him, but he could hear people yelling.
Someone grabbed his arm and pulled him forward.
‘Alena?’ He thought, ‘No… that isn’t possible. The robot… it has poison… it got a clean hit. Alena is… she is…’
The image of the dead figures in the hangar flashed in his mind.
‘No!’
“Stay away, don’t come here!” a voice yelled, “You won’t make it in time anyway. Protect the ship!”
Someone shook him. “Are you awake? We need to get out of here and away from the explosion!”
“Yuhgh” Robin mumbled.
“Damn, come on!”
Light broke through the darkness and slowly silhouettes began to form in his vision. His head still felt like it was on fire, but with each passing second his mind cleared a bit and he got a better grasp of his situation.
The voice talking to him, that was Alena.
‘How?’
Finally he could see enough to get a hold of his situation. Alena was pulling him along, they had already entered the command room and headed for the hole in the ceiling. In his Interface, a red timer was blinking as it rapidly counted down.
- T-68s
“Alena? How?” He managed to say, his words coming out slurred.
“Not now. Use your suit, we need to go faster.” She urged him.
“O… okay.” Robin said and tried to concentrate on the matter at hand – escaping this deathtrap.
He activated the steering nozzles and aimed for the hole above.
When they finally left the ship and returned to the vastness of space, the countdown in his vision was down to 49 seconds. Alena was directly in front of him and they had gained some speed by now.
“45 seconds.” He croaked an update.
“Roger.” Alena replied, her voice strained.
‘She’s still in pain.’ Robin realized, ‘Is it the poison or the bot itself?’
“Proto, give us a countdown when the timer is down to 10 seconds.” Alena said, turning to look back at the ship slowly getting smaller in the distance.
Robin also threw a glance over his shoulder. They gained more speed every second and the distance to the ship increased rapidly. But not fast enough.
“That’ll hurt!” He muttered and prepared himself.
- T-21s
Proto sent him a picture of a person curled up into a ball, hugging its knees with its arms.
“Yeah, no shit.” He mumbled but still informed Alena, “Curl up and prepare to be hit by the shockwave.”
“And start using your Overload skill.” Ang’Tue shouted over the comm.
“Already active.” Alena groaned, “Hurts like hell!”
Now that he heard it, Robin had to agree. Alena using her Overload made sense. Her senses would be enhanced even further, which meant the pain she felt from the robot’s needle in her stomach was greatly increased, but if she stopped it just before the ship exploded, she would fall into a state of total exhaustion with all her senses dulled. Hopefully enough to protect her from going crazy when they got hit by the shockwave.
There was a moment of silence as they just flew through space. Robin couldn’t avoid noticing the beauty of the scene in front of him. The two planets gleamed in the distance, sparkling like marbles in the sun. Even without his color vision, it was a sight to behold.
Why was it that each time he found something beautiful, something worth exploring and admiring, something else was just about to take all that away?
‘We just have to hold on a little longer. Finishing the quest for the Keeper, then we’ll be free to go wherever we want. Just a little longer…’
“Ten, nine, eight, …” Proto started to count down.
When only three seconds were left, Robin deactivated the nozzles of his suit and curled up to protect himself. A few meters to his side, Alena was doing the same.
“Zero!”
There was a low ‘fump’ and a moment later, Robin got catapulted forward like a rocket. The world spun and his already throbbing head got another kick. For a moment his passive sense sent shivers all over his body, then it was over.
Robin had feared he would get hit by shrapnel, but luckily was spared.
He uncurled, reactivated his suit and spread arms and legs. Slowly, the world stopped spinning and his speed reduced.
Then the comm cracked.
“Rob? Alena?” Happy asked worriedly.
“I’m good.” Robin said, his head feeling fuzzy.
“I’m also alive.” Alena said, her voice a pained whisper.
They had survived.
“Burn in Plasma!” Robin chuckled wearily, “What a ride!”
***
His headache had gotten much better when Robin entered the bridge an hour later.
After the Relentless Stride had returned and picked them up, Robin was in dire need of a quick nap to let his mind rest and recuperate from the backlash of overusing his G-Anomaly. Afterwards, a Mind Refresh stim took care of the rest. It wasn’t perfect, but enough for the moment.
“Hey folks!” He greeted Niu and Ang’Tue, “Thanks again for picking us up. How is Alena?”
“She is sleeping in her room. She is fine but will be out for a bit longer.” Happy grumbled, “I would have been there earlier, but these two didn’t let me fly over!”
“I know you would. Thanks, Happy.” Robin smiled and ruffled her hair, “But they were correct, it wouldn’t have worked and you know that. You wouldn’t have made it in time and only risked the ship – or worse, being in the way when we were sent flying.”
“Meh, I know. But still…”
“Don’t make it difficult for them. You did an amazing job by catching us so fast.” Robin said with an honest smile, “We got lucky. The blast wasn’t as bad as we had expected.”
“That wasn’t a matter of luck, just basic physics.” Proto chimed in, “You all just lost your nerves as a reaction to your body’s state of panic. Like sound, shock waves also need resonating particles to expand. Out there in space, explosions are mostly contained by the lack of matter and atmosphere. The dangerous parts are shrapnel and other pieces sent flying.”
“Even though I know that in my head, it’s different when you have to bet your life on it.” Robin said and a shiver ran through his body when he thought back.
Then he turned to Ang’Tue. The old man didn’t look well and seemed to have aged quite a bit over the last hours.
“Hey, while I’m happy that she is okay, I have to ask. What has happened when Alena got hit by the robot? I thought it used a deadly poison. I even saw liquid leaking out of the broken units.”
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“It is a deadly poison, but also on a biological basis. We’re still not one hundred percent certain that we understand what exactly had happened there, but our working theory is that Alena managed to erode, spoil or kill the poison when she hit it with the ?ther pulse.” Ang’Tue said.
“Wow, that was literally a lucky shot then!” Robin said and exhaled a deep, relieving breath. He saw that the man wanted to say more but held back in the end.
“You knew what we were dealing with the moment you saw the picture of the robot. Am I right to assume that these things are part of the Eltaran’s armory?”
“You are, I’m sorry.” Ang’Tue said, his head lowered.
“Mate, nothing to be sorry about. We were the ones who sneaked on that ship. Your people couldn’t possibly have known.” Robin gave an easy laugh, “But that raises the question why there is an abandoned ship out here that was obviously attacked by the Eltaran.”
When he saw Ang’Tue’s face darkening and that even Happy was getting smaller in her seat, he sighed, “You manage to get in contact with them? How bad is it?”
“Really bad.” The old man sighed and tapped on his screens. A message started to play.
“Elder Ang’Tue! If you receive this message, please immediately travel to Bloom I and assist our people at the waystation. We are under attack by a massive force from an unknown enemy. Our last reports state that the defenses have not yet been broken, but time is running out.”
“Shit, how old is that message?” Robin asked and sat down at the captain’s station.
“About 90 minutes. They’ve attached the coordinates of the waystation to the message.” Ang’Tue replied.
“Okay, what is the standard procedure for emergencies like this?”
“The Eltaran have a fleet in hiding that comes to assist. But if that isn’t enough, they can’t quickly send more reinforcements because it would reveal the location of the colony.” The Eltaran hesitated before he continued, “If the enemy manages to breach the defense of the waystation, the whole outpost will selfdestruct.”
“Fuck.” Robin cursed, “What are our options?”
“We can retreat and let them fight it out or join the battle to assist the Eltaran. We cannot call the UAS for help unfortunately. Neither do we have a good standing with them right now, nor does the UAS have many forces in the system that it could send there.” Proto reported.
Robin thought about that and quickly sorted his mind. Then he looked over to the pilot’s seat.
“Happy, how quickly can we reach Bloom I?”
“If we use the FTL module, we could make it in under twelve hours.”
“Okay, get us there. Exit with a healthy distance to the planet.” Robin ordered.
“Thank you, Robin.” Ang’Tue whispered with a weak voice.
“Nothing is decided yet. Sorry, mate.” Robin shook his head, “I need to think this through and I’ll first talk to the others to get a better idea of our best course of action. We’re just initiating the jump to Bloom I so we don’t waste any time if we decide to intervene.”
Robin rubbed his nose in annoyance. Why doesn’t he ever get a calm moment? Why is there always the next emergency that tries to pull him in?
‘I don’t have to do this.’ he tried to convince himself, but he knew better, ‘Burn in Plasma, who am I lying to? It’s Ang’Tue’s people, his family. I want to help and even though I really want to hear the others’ perspectives first, I can easily guess what they will say. Damn this…’
“Ang’Tue, go and inform Krez that we’ll have a meeting about this in six hours. Make sure that Alena knows as well, but don’t wake her up just yet. Give her time to recuperate first. Niu, you have the bridge.” With that, Robin left the room and headed for the elevator. He went down a level and returned to his bunk.
“Proto, I need to get some more sleep first. Filling my tanks and giving my mind time to properly rest and relax. Please wake me up in four hours.” he said and fell onto the bed, “I want to know everything about this ship’s defensive and offensive options, anything we know about the enemy so far and everything about the Eltaran’s military strength. Ask Ang’Tue about it or contact the colony itself if possible, then prepare a detailed report with everything you’ve learned.
“Will be done, routines and computations are running.” Proto confirmed with a no-bullshit attitude.
The AI may over-indulge in its ability to feel emotions sometimes, but Proto definitely knew when it was time to put that flippant side aside.
“Thanks mate, good to have you aboard!”
***
The crew gathered around the table in the big conference room exactly six hours later. Robin had already gotten his report from Proto. The AI wasn’t able to reach out to the colony because that would have needed them to drop out of superluminal travel first, but it still got a good overview about the Eltaran’s strength and military strategies from Ang’Tue.
Alena was also back on her feet and Robin gave her a quick hug before they sat down.
“Thanks for saving my ass back there.” He chuckled, “You really gave me a fright when the last robot hit you.”
“Yeah, I nearly shat my pants.” Alena said and a quick smile rushed over her face.
‘I see those more often lately.’ Robin noticed, ‘Seems like she’s really warming up, just like Sevastian had said.’
When everyone had taken their seat, Robin took a deep breath and began with a quick introduction.
“Alena, Krez, I assume you two are already up to date, right? The situation is as follows: There is an outpost on Bloom I that the Eltaran are using as a waystation to the colony. At this moment it is under heavy attack. We do not know the enemy’s strength or even the kind of conflict – space, air or ground. However, we can safely assume that the hostile party is of the same group that attacked us back on Terulos. That doesn’t help us at all though, as we still have no idea about their motives or who is behind them.” Robin explained.
“The most likely scenario is that they found out about the waystation and want to take it over to get a lead to the hidden colony. That will probably not work out, because the Eltaran’s reaction to these emergencies is the immediate and complete destruction of their own outpost as soon as the defenses are breached.”
“The Eltaran are requesting our assistance in the waning defense of the outpost. As we speak, we are on our way to Bloom I and will arrive in less than six hours. We have to decide on our next steps now, so we’re able to act upon arrival.”
After he finished, Robin looked at the crew, “Any questions?”
It was Alena who tilted her head and then spoke up. “Could this attack be the reason the Keeper have sent us here? To protect the Eltaran?”
“I thought about that too and discussed it with Proto. We are both pretty sure that this has nothing to do with the mission from the Keeper.” Robin said, “But even if they predicted this and hoped we would help, that wasn’t what they asked from us when they proposed a deal. Therefore, you can disregard the deal with the Keeper in further discussions about this attack. Anything else?”
When no questions came, he continued. “Good. Now, give me your opinions about the situation in front of us!”
Niu quickly raised her hand. “I… um, I would like to go there and at least check the situation. With the natural stealth of the Relentless Stride we should be relatively safe as long as we do not directly engage.”
“I see it the same way.” Alena concurred, “And as soon as we are out of FTL mode and communication is back online, we can get the latest update on the battle and then decide how to proceed.”
Krez just shrugged, seemingly not interested in this and Ang’Tue kept quiet. Of course the others knew he would be on the same page.
“Good, we can agree on that. I had planned the same. But I want to hear something else from you. I would like to reach a consensus before we receive the update and decide how we will proceed.” Robin slowly said, “If the situation is forlorn or the outpost nearly taken, we will retread, sure. But what if they are still in the middle of the fight and both sides are somewhat balanced? We could be the deciding factor, yes – but do we really want to actively engage in combat? We’re not talking about a firefight with some bandits, we would step onto a freakin’ battlefield.”
That shook them awake and Robin noticed that at least Happy hadn’t thought about it that way.
There was a long silence until Ang’Tue spoke up. “Friends, you’ve already done so much for me and my people. You helped me get the data from Seavis, giving my people a chance to survive. No one is asking you to risk your life in this conflict. We can just sit this out and head to the colony after everything has settled.”
Alena scoffed and addressed Proto, “If I get this correct, the Relentless Stride gives us better protection than nearly every other ship out there, right? Our offensive options are limited, but with the ship’s perfect stealth we are primed for quick hit-and-run ambushes. We should be able to have quite the impact on any battlefield just by harassing the enemy without being in too much danger. If things go south we always have the option to run since the enemy shouldn’t have weapons that can get through the passive energy shield to disable our power. Proto, is that assessment correct?”
“Mostly, yes.” Proto replied, “The Relentless Stride is the perfect ship for a strategy like that. However, I also want to point out that we’ve still not completely familiarized with the ship and its capabilities. There remains a noticeable risk when we enter a battlefield.”
“There always is a risk.” Niu said, “And in most of the shitty situations we ran headfirst into, the odds were against us. Now that we finally have the time to think things through, make a plan and have a low risk of shit going south, I would also give it a shot. I have no idea if we can turn the table and save the outpost, but we should at least give it a try if we can make a real difference.”
“Ang’Tue?” Robin asked without showing his own stance in this matter.
“I cannot ask that from you.” The old man said.
“You’re not the one asking anything from us.” Robin corrected him, “These two are asking you, if you are willing to risk your life for this?”
“I… You…” Ang’Tue struggled for words, “I mean, yes. Of course I’m willing!”
“Good, Krezolgok. What about you?” Robin asked the Zulbano, “I can take your wishes into consideration only so much, but I definitely will respect it if you want to sit this out.”
“Pah!” Krez scoffed, “As interesting as it would be to see how you intend to uphold your word if I were against this, I agree as well. This is what that old man has conscripted me for, right?”
“Hired!” Ang’Tue quickly corrected him, “Well, forcefully hired.”
Krez just grunted contemptuously but held his tongue.
“Okay.” Robin said and tried to hide his relief. He really had no idea what he would have done, if the Zulbano had voted against this. “Proto, you’re with us on this, right?”
“Most definitely!” The AI happily confirmed.
“Good.” Robin clenched his hands once and took a deep breath, “Good! You have five hours to prepare. After communication is back online Alena starts scanning as if there is no tomorrow and Proto will contact the Eltaran to collect all the information he needs to evaluate the situation. Proto also has the last word in the risk evaluation. No discussion, if he deems this a lost cause or too dangerous, we immediately get out of there.”
He looked into the determined faces of his friends and had to smile to himself. They had really grown together. This kind of comradery is what he always wished for.
‘I already knew it, but still–no one hesitated and for everyone it is a given to jump headfirst into a battle when there is the chance to save a friend’s family. This is it, these people are the family I’ve always dreamed of.’
His mind wandered back to Jim but also to Patience, Sevastian and the others that remained on Rucsaur.
‘One day we’ll return. One day we’ll reunite!’