“Captain, The fleet has shifted its course and formation to cut off our departure route. We can’t reach the null gravity point before they complete their maneuver.”
Dean’s voice sounded harsh in her ears. She understood that his disagreement with her decision to leave before establishing full contact with the Neptune Colonies. Maybe he is right, she thought, maybe we should…
Her thought was cut off by a new report.
“Captain four small craft have disengaged from the Earth Flagship and are approaching on an attack vector. Commander Greene requests permission to engage Defender’s weapons systems.” An attack doesn’t make sense, she thought turning to the tactical screen. We are within range of the fleet’s heavy weapons, why would they deploy fighters?
“Request denied. Give me a full scan of the incoming small craft. Are they fighters or transports?”
“Too small for transports, but other than that they don’t match anything I’ve ever seen… energy readings on two of them are off the scale, but it appears to be solar energy, they read out as miniature suns, the other two have very low emissions, mostly bio-electrical… all four are…”
She saw the readings as they came up on the screen, just as Dean did, their reactions were identical.
“That’s not possible… They can’t be alive…”
Aboard the SP Cruiser “G’nortt”
“Lt. we have incoming traffic from the Navy Fleet. I’m duplicating the message in real time to Chief Zendak and the Legion Contingent. New orders, they want us there now, maximum overdrive is authorized.”
Ron-Karr turned to look at Lt. H’Bin’gr as he spoke, waiting for the remark that the confusion in his voice was sure to bring. Surprisingly she didn’t seem to have heard him and was staring out the small view-port at something he couldn’t see. Before he could repeat the message, Chief Zendak’s voice interrupted.
“Lt. H’Bin’gr, the passengers are secure, time for you to show off.”
Ron suddenly realized that there was a reason he was on this mission. Maximum overdrive – used inside the gravity fields of a solar system – was a killer. The acceleration was more than the inertial dampening fields of the G’Nortt could handle, the passengers would be OK, provided they were strapped down properly, and when he become two dimensional he had length and width, but almost no mass, so the acceleration would have very little effect on him. But what about Lt. H’Bin’gr?
As he watched a grim smile appeared on her face and she activated the manual steering system. Small bursts of white light began to play over her body. She’s a meta, he thought in amazement. The universe seemed to blink and suddenly they were elsewhere, but before he could grasp the new concepts of this altered space, they were somewhere else again.
Com traffic assaulted him. Suddenly they were in the midst of the fleet laser com grid.
Instinctively he let his training take over. He glanced at the correct icons and G’Nortt was integrated into the net. He heard Chief Zendak’s voice but couldn’t grasp the words. Without a conscious thought he shifted the Chief to the Admirals secure channel, and placed the G’Nortt under the command of the Flagship’s controllers. Piloting and positioning of the small transport within the navy’s formation would now be handled by the Space Traffic Controllers aboard the Bruce Wayne.
An after image of a Negative universe, brilliantly white space punctuated by the equally blinding effects of a million black stars danced in his vision. He shifted his equipment to remote operation mode, and allowed his mass to return.
The Lt. was slumped in her chair pale white and shivering, hands still clenching the steering yoke.
“Lt. … Belinda?” He started moving toward her but she waved him back to his station.
“I’m fine Rookie, in fact I'm ticketieboo! I just never AMPED a ship this big before. Wheew…”
“Huh? What does ticketstoboobs mean, and AMPED?”
She giggled at his broken pronunciation of the first word. “Ticketieboo,” she said it slowly, “It means wonderful in an old Earth dialect called Scots, and AMPING is what I do. It means increasing the capabilities of something, anything mechanical. I can make any ship I fly into the fastest thing in space.”
Aboard the Neptune Rising
Gathered around the airlock stood Captain Tamara Frake, Commander Greene, Lt. Cmdr Dean Karr, and the Podarian, all watching curiously as the chamber filled with atmosphere, anxious to see for themselves the four beings within, people who could survive in space unaided.
-------------------- Just an Old, Broke-Down, Drunk, Bum!!
With a Power Ring...
From: Westerly Rhode Island | Registered: Aug 2003
| IP: Logged |
posted
Inside the airlock Lar Gand signaled his distant cousin Laurel and the two Starhavenites, Greybird and Dawnstar, to stay back and allow him to make first contact. He had no doubt of any of their abilities, in particular the older Starhavenite, Greybird. The man seemed to be very level headed and scholarly, if a slight bit pompous. But he knew Laurel’s temper, and the younger Starhavenite, Dawnstar, had the look of a hunter, almost feral at times. He wanted to ensure that the meeting started out well.
“Wait.” Greybird’s hand gripped his shoulder just as he started to reach for the airlock door. “More of your Legionnaires have arrived in the area. I sense the presence of two beings who can bend space-time to their will. Perhaps you should contact them.”
Lar held his face neutral by sheer force of will. He was astonished by the bold statement the man had just made. He knew of the legendary tracking prowess of the Starhavenites, but to detect the presence of two unknown individuals among the multitude of beings occupying nearby space…
“Imra, are you in range,” he sent a thought.
“Just arrived, M’onel,” her reply was instantaneous. “I’ll Keep in the background and ride along, if you don’t mind.”
“Did you catch Greybird’s comment? Who is he talking about?”
“I’m not sure, but it might be our two Science Police pilots, they pulled a very impressive stunt to get us here this fast, worry about it later, Lar.”
He looked back at Greybird. “They’re monitoring our progress,” he stated.
The older man seemed satisfied by that response so Lar again reached for the airlock inner door.
Inside the ship, the Podarian’s eyes flashed a bright yellow. “There is a very high level telepath operating nearby. I detected an extremely well focused and shielded telepathic transmission.”
“There’s also another ship that just appeared on the scanners. It’s positioned directly between us and the closest null gravity point. Very small and not well armored, but the energy levels it’s putting out are impressive. Maybe these people are powerful enough to stand up to the Council.”
As Tamara’s eyes moved from the Podarian to Dean, who was now intently studying the small remote readout screen he held in his hand, she began, for the first time in many years, to hope.
The airlock began to cycle.
-------------------- Just an Old, Broke-Down, Drunk, Bum!!
With a Power Ring...
From: Westerly Rhode Island | Registered: Aug 2003
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posted
And you said I wasa tease!!! Where's the rest of it Chuck?
-------------------- "Tempus Fugitive" the final part of the Adventures of Dream Boy series, set in the Three-Boot Universe. Read it only in the Bits o' Legionnaire Business Forum.
From: here, more often than not | Registered: Sep 2003
| IP: Logged |
-------------------- "Tempus Fugitive" the final part of the Adventures of Dream Boy series, set in the Three-Boot Universe. Read it only in the Bits o' Legionnaire Business Forum.
From: here, more often than not | Registered: Sep 2003
| IP: Logged |
“Brainiac, have you found Anything? Anything at all?”
Jazmin’s question sounded harsh, even to her, but looking down into the docking bay at the wrecked ships and visiting the med-lab had put her in a harsh mood. The debacle at the Neptune Colonies yesterday was total. Everything that could go wrong did, and worse they still didn’t know the identity of the fleet that had attacked them.
That fleet had dropped out of Hyper-Space firing everything they had at the returning explorers. No warning, just a sudden eruption and attack.
Thankfully M’onel and Andromeda were on the scene along with the two Starhavenites, Greybird and Dawnstar, Greybird sensed the Hyper-Spatial disruption seconds before the fleet emerged and gave Lar and Laurel enough warning to get them out into open space before the attack. Between the two of them they drove the attackers back into Hyper-Space but not before five of the six returning ships were destroyed and everyone aboard them killed.
On their side the casualties were much lighter; three ships damaged including the G'Nortt, over two hundred injured, but only four deaths – Science Police Lt. H’Bin’gr, SP Officer Ron-Karr, Starhaven Diplomatic Special Envoy Greybird, and Starhaven Special Forces Operative Dawnstar – if they were dead, officially they were listed as Missing.
Funny, she thought, I didn’t even know that Starhaven had any military forces. The idea of a Starhaven Military operation just didn’t fit with what she knew of their society, but with what had happened during the past few years…
“Jazmin, two of the patients are awake.” Lyle’s voice was almost overcome by Dr, Gym’ll’s protests. “Not ready to be Interrogated, not strong en…”
Jazmin cut off the communicator and sped towards sickbay. Realizing as she did so that Brainiac 5 had never even acknowledged her question or gave her any form of an answer. She tapped her comm. Unit to the private frequency she and her deputy, Triad, shared.
“Lu, I need some answers from Brainiac 5 about that ‘Crystalline Man.’ Please go to his lab, and see if you can shake any form of an answer out of him.”
“Oh, I think he’ll answer,” came the reply, immediately followed by a second voice exactly matching the first, “Or else.”
Well, Purple’s in a mood, Jazmin thought as she entered the med-lab, not that I’m in a much better one.
Lyle Norg met her at the door and directed her to a darkened alcove. Inside sat a middle aged woman, wearing an antiquated UESF Uniform. She wore her hair down over the right side of her face and seemed to be consciously keeping the right half of her body as deep in the shadows as possible. She glanced at Lyle, but he only muttered a quick, “you’ll understand in a minute.”
Somewhere in Hyper-Space
Ambassador Greybird placed his hands on the walls of the crystalline tube that confined him and shoved with every ounce of his strength. He could feel a slight give in the walls and his hyper-sensitive hearing could detect a faint cracking. On his tenth try he was finally achieving some results, but he was still recovering from the effects of the shockwave that had rendered him unconscious during the battle. He was far weaker than he cared to admit, but at least he was conscious. His fellow captives, his sister Dawnstar and two Science Police Officers were all still unconscious, slumped in the bottom of similar tubes.
When he could no longer maintain the pressure against the walls of the tube he allowed his muscles to slowly relax, feeling and listening for the results of his latest effort. The faint cracking noise rewarded him. Soon, he thought, very soon, as he slid down into the lotus position and began to gather his strength for another try.
Legion World
“Why didn’t you let us leave? Why? We would have been able to draw them away. They wouldn’t have found your system.”
The woman looked bleakly into Jazmin’s face as she spoke. Her voice was low and halting, she seemed ready to burst into tears. She gave Jazmin the distinct impression that she was tired of being hunted but relieved that once again, she had escaped without being caught.
“How did they find us? How do they always find us? How many died this time? How many died?”
Jazmin had entered the room ready to tear into the woman, ready to demand hard answers, but as she watched her crumble into a sobbing heap on the medi-bench she found that she couldn’t even bring herself to speak. The Captain’s insignia on her collar told Jazmin that this had once been a strong, proud person. What could have brought her to this? This woman and her people had been through something horrible. She appeared broken, a shattered shell of a woman.
A slight rustling noise announced Sensor’s arrival. Jazmin turned to the mutated snake-woman and nodded.
“How much have you heard?”
“Enough to know that she needs rest.” Sensor moved her head to indicate two people on the other side of the room, “Cham and Lyle have completed downloading her ships records… You need to see them Jazmin… To see what they went through…”
Jazmin simply nodded at Sensor in reply to her comments, she was disturbed by the solemn tone of her friend’s voice and didn’t want to show the emotions starting to build up within her.
Somewhere in Hyper-Space
Ambassador Greybird watched in amazement as his sister rose from her slumped position and with a single kick shattered the tube she was imprisoned in.
The guard, a member of a race that Greybird had never seen before, seemingly a feline centaur, moved quickly to recapture her but receiver a boot in the face for his trouble. He (or should I say it, Greybird wondered) went down in a crumpled heap from the force of that single blow.
Dawnstar flew to the guard station and deftly entered a series of commands into the computer station. The other three confinement tubes opened and without speaking Greybird moved to aid the Science Police Lieutenant while Dawnstar went to help the young officer. A quick examination revealed that neither was seriously injured. A few judicious slaps brought both around, and earned Greybird a return slap from H’Bin’gr.
Greybird looked around nervously, he knew they didn’t have much time.
[ October 04, 2003, 05:24 PM: Message edited by: Almost New Kid ]
-------------------- Just an Old, Broke-Down, Drunk, Bum!!
With a Power Ring...
From: Westerly Rhode Island | Registered: Aug 2003
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posted
Loving it ANK, you deliver perfect 'bitesized' segments! Nice to see Dawny back in action too!
The returned slap sounds right too!
-------------------- "Tempus Fugitive" the final part of the Adventures of Dream Boy series, set in the Three-Boot Universe. Read it only in the Bits o' Legionnaire Business Forum.
From: here, more often than not | Registered: Sep 2003
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posted
I'm enjoying this immensely ANK, love how you're slowly moving away from established Legion history - with both Lyle Norg and Grey Bird being active participants in this story.
I liked KQ and Triad Purple's anger though my favourite line is Dawnstar having "the look of a hunter, almost feral" - it's so spot on! I am there.....
Very good matey, can't wait for more!
K
From: home sweet home... unless i'm posting from work | Registered: Jul 2003
| IP: Logged |
-------------------- "Tempus Fugitive" the final part of the Adventures of Dream Boy series, set in the Three-Boot Universe. Read it only in the Bits o' Legionnaire Business Forum.
From: here, more often than not | Registered: Sep 2003
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posted
Yeah, now that "I'm" in the thick of the well-turned action, and I've caught up on some of my Bits-section reading, I wanna see them thay-yar prisoners KICK MORE ASS!
("A bit pompous"? he asked himself. It's become only a "bit"? Well, that's progress, then ... {g})
From: Starhaven Consulate, City of Angels | Registered: Jul 2003
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