Years ago in a dark prison, the guards are preparing for an execution. The prisoner is sitting in the corner awaiting her fate. The guards come in and grab her forcefully, she could not struggle, she was to weak from the lack of food and drink. They blindfold her and bring her into another small room. What seems like hours passed.
“They said your real name is Lilith.” said Bianca removing the woman’s blindfold. “It took balls doing what you did. The fire you set was...impressive. It made quite a distraction. Did you really think you could just sneak in and steal what you wanted? It took 10 guards to take you down. Terrence wanted you executed a month ago. It took everything I had to stop him.”
“Why?” whispered Lilith.
“I see greatness in your abilities, and I know the value in surrounding yourself in such.” Bianca cut off the bonds and gave her a glass of water. She took it and drank is quickly. As she did Bianca stroked her hair. “Besides, I like your kind. You and I are going to be great friends... Tempest.”
***
The spaceport on Cleo is unusually busy. The Trade Union recently sided with Meeran, and a blockade was formed keeping any ships from leaving. Many passengers are desperate to get to a neutral world but every Terran is being thoroughly screened.
One woman walked confidently by the Guards without a single challenge. But this did not go completely unchallenged. One of the guards was taking on the communicator with Christopher Atlas. “She’s here?! But she’s supposed to be on Terra Prime! Challenge her for the proper credentials.” he ordered.
Several guards ran through the crowd and the woman was surrounded on all sides.
She looked perplexed and asked, “Don’t you know who I am?”
“Sorry ma'am we’re ordered to check all credentials for everyone, no exceptions.” Said one of the guards.
“Be quick about it you creeton, I’m on official business. To think that I’m subject to this…” she stood aggressively and handed him her ID card, “ Jacob will not be pleased.”
The guard scanned her ID but at first it would not work. After a second it failed again, but the third time worked fine. He still seemed suspicious and order, “Someone get me a full body scan.”
Another guard came out with a body scanner and started the scan. He had a confused look on his face, “Somethings wrong here…”
The woman smiled, “I guess I just going to have to fight it out of here.” She spun around knocked the first guard the the ground and had a second in her arms. She used his weapon to disable the other guards and then shot him in the leg. Before letting him go she threw out a small shiny marble, it rolled a little bit and exploded into a bright light.
All Terrains in range fell to the ground. The woman then ran out of the terminal and outside to a small ship, dropping a few more of her marbles. Before anyone could get up, the ship was off the ground and heading into the upper atmosphere.
In orbit, Jeremy’s ship just arrived. “Be diligent, her ship should be here in moments. In the meantime we can’t afford to get jumped by a patrol ship.”
“Too late for that Sir! We’ve already been spotted.” Responded Spike, “Two ships are approaching, and they don’t look like patrol ships.”
“Stay out of range until we spot her.” Ordered Jeremy as streaks of light begin to come out of the enemy ships and pass by their ship. “Not sure how to stay out of range of that.”
The woman’s ship came up from the surface now being followed by a patrol ship. Spike reports, “A small craft is approaching and it’s not alone”
Jeremy hits a button on his chair and said, “I challenge you..”
The woman’s voice is heard reading a secret phrase, “I’m falling from the sky.”
He responds, “I’m here to catch you. Proceed to landing bay.” The ship begins to vibrate and jolt around as it’s hit multiple times. Her ship comes in a high speed and slides to the back of the landing bay. Once her ship is aboard Jeremy ordered, “JUMP!” The ship grumbles and mones but with a flash of light the ship is now a 30 light years away. Jeremy took a breather, “I’m going to check on our guest.” he said after getting up. He walked down the hallway as repair crews passed him.
When he reached the bay he was greeted by master chief, “You're not going to believe who this is!”
Jeremy looked up to see the face of Bianca Lanner. But he know better, “Welcome aboard… Tempest, or Lilith Gardner?”
She smiled, “You have to take the fun out of everything? I really had them going.” her appearance slowly morphed to her true self.
Spike came up from behind, “Excuse me sir, we have a problem.”
Jeremy turned to the Chief and said, “Please take Lilith…”
“Tempest…” She interrupted.
“...Tempest,” he paused, “To her room.” He turned to her, “Excuse me ma'am.”
“Alright spike, lead the way.” Jeremy said while following him down another hallway to reach a room marked ‘UFA’. Inside a another main greets him with a jacket clearly marked ‘UFA Engineer’. Jeremy put his hand on the Engineers shoulder and asked, “what’s up.”
“We took a direct hit one of the UFA cores. We leaked a lot of radiation into subspace during the jump. Good chance we’ve been tracked.” he responded.
“That sounds bad…” Jeremy turned to Spike, “Get back to command, we’re expecting company soon. And it won’t be friendly...”
The Engineer interrupted, “...Don’t make any jumps” Spike turned to go back to command and control. The Engineer finished, “or we’ll all be atomized!”
As soon as Spike got back to command the alarms went off indicating a hostile ship jumped in.
“Hostile at 9 o’clock!” said the co-pilot
“I see him, our UFA is damaged, we can’t jump.” responded Spike.
“Now what?”
“We hightail it to the twins!” Responded spike pointing at a very odd shaped planet. “I’ve been there before, the gravity wells will keep them out.”
“Shouldn’t that keep us out?!”
“C’mon Rudy, what’s life without a few risks? Do you want to live forever?”
Co-pilot Rudy looked at him with stunned look and answered, “YES!”
The ship started shaking more violently as the Meeran destroyer fired on it. The alarms start sounding. “Chief! I need you to secure bulked 21!” yelled spike on the intercom.
The chief ran down the hallway to 21 and opened the door. Fire a smoke poured out as the chief pulled the fire suppressant. All at once the ship was hit again by enemy fire and 21 ripped open to space. Jeremy arrived just in time to grab his hand and close the door.
The chief tapped the communicator and said, “No more 21.”
The ship jolted back, as Tempest ran out to see what was going on. She fell and landed squarely in Jeremy’s lap. A loud sound of wind buffeted the ship.
“Excuse me my dear,” Jeremy said, “I need to get to Command and find out what is going on.” After an awkward moment, she rolled to the side to allow him up. He smiled got up and straightened his suit before heading to Command. After reaching it he noticed they were no longer in space, but he could not see what was going on outside, the windows were bright and it looked like some sort of sandstorm. “Report” ordered Jeremy.
“We’re in the Twins!” yelled back Spike, loud enough the noise outside. “It’s two planets orbiting so close that they share the same atmosphere and they’re magnetic fields align. There’s no way the Meeran ship will come in.”
“10 credits says they’ll be ready when we come out.” Said Rudy.
“Let me guess, we’re going to hang out at the Lagrange point where both planets gravity cancel each other out. Hopefully make repairs enough to get home.” said Jeremy
“Plus one for you, you’re one smart cus.’” Laughed out Spike. The ship slowed to a stop and the wind died down. The cabin is quiet.
“Let’s see how much damage we got and what we can fix.” Jeremy pulls a couple flashlig
hts from the wall and walked down the hallway. He met up with Tempest and tossed her a flashlight. “here…”
“Here what? What are we looking for?” she asked
“Leaks. C’mon. we’ll start at the far bulkhead and make our way back.” he said pulling her arm.
“Leaks?!”
They both slowly start scanning walls with their flashlights back and forth looking for damage and leaks. Jeremy decided to chitchat and while looking, “What made you decide to defect.”
She stopped for a moment and continued. “I found a guardian.”
Jeremy also paused. “We were trying to get that shipped out. Looks like it’s too late. Jacob has the Guardian, and Cathedral. Who knows the secrets he’s learned.”
“He’s your brother…”
“Yes” he said still moving the flashlight and slowly walking down the hallway.
“He’s not a bad man you know. His intentions are noble even if his actions are not.” She pulled out a lighter and waved it next to the wall.
“I wish that was true. At least such a man could be reasoned with.”
“It’s Bianca.” she said getting out a piece of gum.
“What?” he let his flashlight moved down and turned to her.
“She’s the dangerous one. She’ll stop at nothing to get what she wants, even manipulate the one she loves to do it. Bianca seeks power for herself. Jacob is a tool, whether she has the title or not is irrelevant, power is her title.” Tempest takes her gum out and plugs a pin hole. It’s hissing becomes quite. “I got one.”
“Why doesn’t he see it?”
“Oh he sees it, he surrounded himself with people who have their own ambitions. Each has their place. What’s sad is they all think they have the upper hand.”
“Bianca does?”
“No, someone else.., something else.”
The engineer stepped out into the corridor, “Sir, you want the good news or bad news?”
“Just give it to me in order.”
“I found the problem. I have to take the whole power system off-line in order to fix the Unified Field Array. it’s going to get cold quickly, the oxygen will drop. Dangerously low for humans like you.”
“What was the good news?”
“That was the good news. All our communications are down, looks like they hit us with the same thing they got Terra Prime with. And we still won't be able to jump worth a damn.”
“Can you get us the Susa’s Maze?”
The engineer sighed. “I’ll do my best sir. I’ll see if I can give the ship a little spin to counter the lack of gravity.”
“Do your best.”
Moments later the most of the lights go out and everyone feels a little lighter. At this point the ship is spinning. They felt awkward at first walking on the walls but soon got used to it. The ship was designed for just such occasions. Engineering could be accessed from all orientations, this assured that the Engineer to get his job done no matter the situation.
***.
On Cleo, the Office of MBQ’s corporate COO gets an urgent message. The COO taps his desk communicator and a well dress man appears. “Mr Queen, we just had an incident at the airport. It appears the fugitive King Jacob Lanner told us to look for escaped.”
“Did the meeran ships catch them?” He responded nonchalantly.
“No sir, but they left orbit a few minutes later.”
“Thank you, Mr Atlas.” he tapped the communicator again, “Did you hear that Abby?”
Abby stood right in front of him, but on the other side of the desk. “Thank you, Michael. Our alliance will be profitable.”
“But the Trade Union’s CEO already sided with Meeran. I’m in a very dangerous position and shouldn’t you get back, if Jacob knew you were here...”
“Big profits require big risks, you must learn how to play both sides.” She smiled, “Don’t worry about me, we are everywhere...”
***
Jeremy’s ship is getting very cold, he passes the time by analyzing the attack on Terra Prime. He’s laying on the wall of the mess hall. The gravity is out but the ship is rotating to compensate, hence the floors became the walls and the walls became the floor.
“I can’t take it anymore.” Said tempest climbing out of the hallways.”You know what?” she climbed up and lays on the wall opposite him.
Jeremy is hard at work on and hardly notices here.
“This room is the exact center of the rotation. That’s way I’m laying on the opposite wall from you.” she still doesn’t get the attention she feels is do. “Whatcha doing?”
“Looking over what went wrong on, why our satellite network went down without even a warning.” he responded without looking up.
“Poppers!” she responded.
“What?
“At least that’s what I call them. They interrupt the quantum entanglement in your communication system. I used a few of them to get out of the space port.”
“That would explain quite a bit, the communication system as a whole when down. We were fortunate to have land line communications as a backup.” Jeremy popped his head up, “Hey! You used these? Why?”
“To knock the guards out silly.”
“They knock Terran’s out?”
“When you’re close enough.”
“Then you’re not Terran! You’re human?”
“Ding, you’re a smart one. Just like your brother.”
“But your shape shifting abilities?”
“It was a gift. From someone I met in a cave on Lomen. A being of light, not sure who they were. It was too long to walk but there were drawings everywhere.”
“You met a keeper? They’re only a myth!”
“Hey you asked.”
“Hmm keepers were the ghostly inhabitants of the Guardians, neither Noddian or Human. Now Jacob has one, If he can activate it…” He pauses in contemplation. “What did the one you saw look like?”
“An very well endowed Amazon woman. Crazy huh?”
“Hmm, they all take shapes that would best persuade the local population…”
“Now it makes perfect sense.”
“Yes, this guardian was probably taken from earth!”
“Ok.. OK..” she pushed herself off her wall and floated over, “What are they exactly, I mean we’re all told the stories, but what’s the truth?” She laid down next to him to share the blanket.
He was startled for the moment, she wrapped her arm around his and her feet next to his legs. After a moment to bring his heart back in rhythm, he answered her, “Well after Earth’s first interstellar war a highly advanced race called the Nod created the Guardians to enforce peace in the Galaxy. The Nod are so old, that they visited earth long before human existed. Some say they are the seeds of the first humans.”
“Cain married a woman from a land called Nod.”
“Exactly, the Nod, had a vested interest in earth. So they sent the Guardian to protect it, albeit ten thousand years later, but then something happened. The Nod began dying off, but the Guardians stayed around for over a hundred more years. Eventually they shut down. The Warren were the first to discover this, and moved to retake planets the Guardians expelled them from.” She laid her head on his shoulder, he stuttered on. ”Many have tried to find the secrets, but most just give up. Jacob must be following up on the rumor that the secrets are buried under Cathedral.”
“Not just Cathedral,” she whispered. “The Warrens Royal chair, Olympus Mons on mars, the wolf of Alpha Centauri and my little pinky.” she pointed her pinky out of the blanket.
The lights come on bright and gravity is restored. They both slide back to the floor on their heads and tumble over each other. She ends up on top.
She whispers, “You have his eyes, so intense so serious. But yours doesn’t show his anger.” She dips her head and kissed him on the lips. “His always scared me, your’s makes me feel safe.”
The Engineer walked, “Just in case you…” he stopped co
ld waiting for Tempest to get up and return to her quarters, “Isn’t she a prisoner or something?”
“Protective custody.” Jacob corrected him.
“Anyhow the engines are on-line we can make the jump to Suza's maze but we can’t go much further. Hope you have a plan. That Meeran ship is getting more daring. I doubt going into the maze will help us.”
“Have faith, chief. Return to your post, I’ll have spike plot us in for a jump in a minute.” Jeremy walked down the hallway past Tempests room glancing inside to see her smiling and waving. He spent the the rest of the trip to the bridge trying to get his heart bad into rhythm.
On the bridge, Spike is already in the pilot’s seat, “Suza’s Maze locked in, Sir.” he said.
“Good, now we make out of here like a bat out of hell. My guess is no matter where we exit, that Meeran ship will be on our six.” Responded Jeremy.
“Maybe some decoy?”