Night Sky:: Pt 1.

Night Sky

I


For a whole century now the darkness between moon and earth have been defeated; replaced with the reflections of the sun on metal and chrome, and the constant traffic lights of endless carriers, freighters, and other vessels lining up to pass on Earth's outer station stationed on its faithful moon. Only on some rare occasions incoming earthbound traffic was diverted to check points on Venus or Mars. This was such an occasion, and the reason: an enormous Raven Starfleet carrier stationed just off the moon.


The carrier hummed and vibrated in the emptiness of space, its massive engines plain visible from viewports on Luna station, rivalling with the brightness of the sun. Its endless stations of comms arrays, cannon emplacements and observation decks made the Luna base small by comparison. The gleaming white metal of the ship hummed and vibrated in the engine's final phase to enter warp. The vibrations stirred moon dust all around the lunar station.


There is no turning back now. He tied to keep his steps on the command deck sure and strong despite the trembling on the metal surface. He kept walking towards the front of the bridge; he could see Earth on the view screen and its moon on every window panel as he approached the from rows of seats and control stations where at least 15 other flight officials prepared the jump drive. "All systems ready commander", "All channels open sir", "Ready to disengage docking clams Cap'n", "Course laid in sir", he could hear these voices echoing each other with pre launch procedures all over the command deck. And he could sense in the middle of it all, a stoic, tranquil, white haired man staring at the viewport, receiving all the information, but not letting out any sound or motion. He could see the man as he approached the front of the bridge. He has never been on the bridge of a cruiser before and he found it hard not to look as a rookie as he approached the captain of the vessel.


The man turned his head towards him. The bridge went instantly silent, as the at least fifteen other crewmembers expected the words of their captain as soon as he moved a muscle. "Are the prisoners secure Lt. Riley?" With a fluid motion, he saluted the captain and confirmed his question. He could not find it in himself to look the man straight in the eye, and that made him feel small and inadequate. Gathering courage, he spoke again. "Aye sir, all thirteen hundred souls secure". "Very well Lt. return to your station and inform your men that the jump to Tartarus is imminent."


He retracted his steps with strong strides. It was the first time he talked to one of the senior officers in his brigade; no, not just only a senior officer this one, but also a senior Crovite. Rumours around the ship had the captain at three hundred years now. He could not say for sure by looking at the man if this was true, and he never liked to pay heed to rumours, but something in those lavender slightly glowing eyes put him off. As a norm, the Crovos people had no pupils and metallic orbs for eyes; dull, metallic orbs that some how terrified earthlings, or at least the few he had come in close contact with. Without a word, he stepped outside the bridge and in to the turbolift that would take him some fifty levels below, to the cell levels.




II


"They were loaded like cattle in to the slaughterhouse. Not a single one of us said or did anything. The world is theirs. It has always been theirs." The girl thought while kneeling in the dark. "When did it come to this...?"


The characteristic hiss of air pressure changing snapped her back in to attention; the heavy security airlock doors were opening. Two pair of heavy boots were walking down the aisle towards her. She kneeled in the darkened chamber, unmoving, frozen not in terror but in cold blooded anticipation. The lights on the small chamber turned on automatically at sensing the genetic trace of the men entering. "No, these are not men, as much as they look like us". She shifted her position behind a security desk filled with panels and controls for the prison block that spanned three levels below of the gargantuan carrier.


The security checkpoint chamber was small by the standards of the rest of the ship. A massive window portal displayed a somewhat disappointing view of jet exhausts and lights of the endless traffic lane trying to approach ear, disappointing to all except true spacers that know an undeniable truth: you cannot longer see stars so close to a planet's orbit as easily as by looking out a window. Lt. Riley turned the corner from the turbolift aisle and in to the chamber; a few steps put him next to the small space where the security desk was. He was followed by Sgt. Garth. Riley glanced over his shoulder at Sgt. Garth; These names were ridiculously out of Crovite regularity, but as a law enforcement body, it was necessary to adopt a more human name, humans being the predominant scourge on the galaxy. Still, riley missed his Crovite ascendance: The Crovos were by no means a petty race. Regal and elegant, their black, greyish, or purplish eyes without pupils marked them as mysterious beings.


“Sgt. Garth, would you be so kind as to turn off the security protocol to access the lower levels”, said Riley as he turned his gaze on the enormous window that covered the entire right hand wall of the small chamber. “I need to run a final inspection before the...” he was cut off by a ghostly reflection on the view port: the ghostly image of a lithe, muscular girl and the impossible thing she was about to do. Riley had barely time to turn and see the right hand of the girl as it rose towards the neck of Sgt. Garth, which would be perfectly alright any other time and place. But right there and then it was the least and most terrible thing Riley could have never thought it would happen to him. The girl was, for starters, clearly a human, not Crovite, and furthermore, her jet black hair and hazel eyes marked her as a member of the Severed Nations, a human race which happens to be the same race as thirteen hundred souls trapped in the bowels of the Black Raven, the cruiser he was in.


He started for his DL-44 blaster pistol just as the girl flashed a vicious looking serrated knife; she then took Sgt Garth by the hairs on the back of his head and pulled hard; looking up and not knowing what was about to begin, Sgt. Garth felt the serrated edge of the girl’s knife ripping flesh and tissue, felt the warm blood drenching his chest in a second and for a moment he wondered at the tingling sensation on his legs and arms, wondered at not seeing a spray of blood as he would have expected, but a silent, bountiful gush cascading all over his chest, legs and drenching his boots; then he just felt his knees buckle as darkness took him. Crovite blood was also a deep glorious dark red.


The girl screamed as blood emanated from the Crovite’s neck. She fixed her eyes on the other alien that came in to the chamber and pounced on him as he levelled his blaster pistol. She won the hand by being the fastest. With a fluid motion, she slapped the blaster out of his hand and aimed for the kill; As she was about to dig her serrated blade in to his chest, something happened she neither expected nor felt before; both their bodies lurched and trembled while they struggled, both their existences collapsed on to themselves; they both slammed against the bulkhead behind her, right next to the door that led to the prison levels below.


Black Raven, the massive cruiser star ship had finished its countdown and engaged its warp jump in to a distant part of the galaxy...