The Gabriel’s bridge, orbiting a gas giant, un-named system
‘They’re here,’ squawked Pol, suddenly breaking the silence on the bridge and making Ed jump.
‘Bloody hell,’ he said, sitting up abruptly after spilling coffee on his shirt. ‘Who’s here?’
Pol pointed at the holomap. It showed seven other ships had jumped in nearby and were manoeuvring across the system to the planet they were orbiting.
‘Ah, Bache’s here,’ he said. ‘Better inform the others.’
‘And put on a clean shirt,’ said Pol, grinning. ‘One with a collar, he is an admiral after all.’
Linda, the only other crew member on the bridge, scoffed.
Ed stuck his tongue out as he disappeared through the floor on the tube lift, only to return a few minutes later wearing a smart collared shirt.
‘That’s better,’ said Pol. ‘No scruffy captains on this ship.’
Ed rolled his eyes at Linda, who smirked in return and then glanced down as a shrill tone from her console informed her a message was incoming.
‘It’s from Katadromiko 12,’ she said. ‘Admiral Loftt is hosting a captains’ meeting on the 12 in one hour.’
‘If I remember rightly, that was his old command when we first met,’ said Ed. ‘I hope he’s not getting too nostalgic.’
‘I feel sorry for the 12’s captain,’ said Linda. ‘Having a perfectionist like Bache breathing down his neck on every decision, you know what he’s like.’
Ed took one of the shuttles and let Cleo pilot it across to the 12 on a supplied flight plan. It took him into a hangar on the giant vessel’s starboard side and set him down amongst a mixture of small ships belonging to the other captains.
‘Good morning, Captain Virr,’ announced a smartly dressed officer as he stepped down from the cockpit. ‘Please accompany me to the meeting room.’
Ed had forgotten how heavy the gravity was on the Dasos-based ships and grimaced as he was led away towards the rear exit. He was thankful the tube stop was close by and a carriage waiting so he could sit down and acclimatise to what felt like walking around with an overladen rucksack on your shoulders.
As it turned out, Bache was having the meeting in a café overlooking the central atrium. Ed had been on this ship before and peeked over the railing as he was led the short distance from the tube stop to the meeting. He smiled and shook his head in wonder as he looked down on the beach far below. Waves lapped on pure white sand with hundreds of palm trees gently rustling in the artificial breeze and you had to remind yourself you were in fact on a starship.
‘Edward,’ came a shout from the café as Grogun waved and beckoned to him, pulling out a seat next to her.
‘I was bloody glad you didn’t have this gravity setting on your ship,’ said Ed, flinching as he sat heavily on the proffered chair.
‘Good for your bones,’ mumbled Bache, appearing at his shoulder after overhearing the comment. ‘Good to see you safe,’ he continued, giving Ed’s shoulder a squeeze. ‘We owe you a vote of thanks too for aiding Captain Whipper here retake her ship.’
‘Ah, we kinda had to,’ said Ed. ‘Can you imagine what those little shits would’ve done with one of these and all its technology? And anyway, the Captain here did most of it,’ he added, nodding at Grogun.
‘Yes,’ said Bache, eying Grogun warily. ‘She’s just as unpredictable, scary and brilliant as her father.’
Ed smiled as Grogun squirmed in her seat, seemingly unsure how to answer that.
‘Right,’ said Bache. ‘Let’s put the fear of the Ancients up these others, so they don’t underestimate what we’re up against.’
Ed held up a large data module.
‘Why don’t you let one of them do exactly that?’ said Ed.
‘Is this what I think it is?’ Bache asked.
‘What d’you think it is?’ Ed replied, tilting his head to one side.
‘The recorded thoughts of an Ancient regarding these bugs, it was in your report.’
‘Perhaps I didn’t make it clear,’ said Ed. ‘These aren’t recorded thoughts. That there is the digitised data core of a real sentient Ancient. They may be Ancients, but they’re still around. This is the second one I’ve met.’
‘You’ve been in space ten minutes and you’re already on first name terms with two of the Ancients?’
‘Well, I’m not on speed dial or anything, but yes, we’ve spoken.’
‘I hope for our sake you made a good impression.’
‘Don’t worry, Neferuptah was quite impressed with the GDA and its ability to keep a watchful eye on the human races they’d created.’
‘Let’s hope this one is too,’ Bache replied, waving the data module above his head as he strode on to face the group.
Over the next hour, Bache, Grogun and Ed managed to shock and awe the assembled senior officers. Any initial ebullience was quickly replaced by a mood of contemplative solemnity. All but one of the captains had brought their respective marine commanders with them and they never smile anyway. Eyes were wide as Grogun downloaded holographic video footage from the battles to retake the 52.
Bache called Ed up to provide a bit of background and introduce their guest.
‘Many tens of thousands of years ago in the time of the Ancients a mistake was made,’ said Ed. ‘A few rocks containing a contingent of these insects was accidentally imported into this galaxy during the testing phase of a new galactic gateway.’
‘If it was that long ago, why are they only now becoming a problem?’ one of the marine commanders asked.
‘Good question,’ Ed replied, pointing at the man. ‘We believe it was only recently that they perfected a crude form of jump drive and as you know, this is a very remote area of our galaxy. The Ancient who was here at the time managed to destroy the gate before more could follow and secure the majority of his technology before his developing planet was overrun.’
‘And you know all this, how?’ a captain asked, sounding distinctly sceptical.
‘Because he’s explained it all to us,’ said Ed, staring back deadpan.
‘You’ve spoken to an Ancient?’ he said, a sly grin crossing his face as he glanced around at the others. ‘I’ve heard some fanciful briefings in my time but this has to be the most creative.’
A chorus of chuckles spread through the group.
‘It seems my existence is proving a little difficult to grasp,’ stated Pyriaeus, from behind them, having to raise his voice over the hubbub to be heard.
The room went silent as he strode through the seated group and stood next to Ed. He was wearing the now familiar white and gold robes with blue sandals that laced halfway up his calves. Ed noticed the gold headdress was absent, but the short black goatee remained. Pyriaeus stroked it as he flicked his eyes from person to person.
‘You’re trying to make us believe you’re an Ancient are you?’ one of the captains asked cynically.
Pyriaeus raised an eyebrow, and lifted a hand palm upwards. A pretty blue planet around half a metre in diameter materialised, spinning slowly a couple of centimetres above his fingers.
‘This was my home planet in spiral 271,’ he said. ‘It was destroyed unexpectedly over three hundred thousand chronia ago when our star went supernova without warning.’
A flash followed by a loud crack made everyone in the room jump and the planet vaporised in a split second.
‘Poof,’ he said, quietly and languorously. ‘Shockingly in a millisecond, your entire race with its complete fifty thousand chronia history, every scientific breakthrough, every animal and plant that evolved over billions of chronia, gone in the blink of an eye.’
‘Apart from you?’ the same man quizzed, folding his arms and remaining just as cynical.
‘There were twelve of us on our most advanced science vessel, luckily distant enough to have time to initiate an emergency jump and avoid the all-enveloping pressure wave that engulfed the entire system.’
‘Where are the other eleven then?’ the man asked, not giving up.
‘I wish I knew,’ Pyriaeus said. ‘After a few chronia and when we had the resources, we split up to seed new human races around the nearby galaxies. I was on my first civilisation when the arthropod disaster struck. It appears, owing to your existence, that my colleagues were a lot more pioneering and effective.’
The mouthy captain turned to the others shaking his head.
‘I don’t know about the rest of you, but I don’t believe a word of it,’ he said. ‘You’re trying to make out you’re one of our gods. What a load of fucking rubbi…’
He suddenly went silent and levitated out of his chair. He grunted a couple of times and could be seen shaking and struggling against whatever force was restricting him. Everyone’s eyes were wide as they backed away from him, including his own marine commander.
‘Pyriaeus, this won’t help,’ said Ed. ‘Please put him down, he’s going blue.’
‘It’s not me,’ said Pyriaeus, shrugging and backing up a step.
‘Cleo, is that you?’ Ed asked, glancing up at the ceiling.
‘No,’ said a familiar voice from behind him. ‘It’s me.’
He spun around to find a scowling Neferuptah sitting on a throne of gold. It was a huge chair and interlaced all over with intricate filigree designs of planetary systems. He realised at once, it wasn’t the mouthy captain or Pyriaeus the others had been backing away from.
‘NEFERUPTAH,’ shouted Pyriaeus, stumbling towards her.
She grinned and stood to meet him in an embrace. The ship’s lighting flickered alarmingly as they enveloped each other. Everybody instinctively ducked as sparks flew from all the electrical appliances in the vicinity. The background hum changed pitch and the entire starship shook as the two leviathans of the Ancient creator civilisation came together.
‘Shit, the earth really does move when these two get together,’ Ed mumbled to himself as he struggled to keep his balance. He turned again, as a shout and a crash sounded behind him. The mouthy captain had dropped back down and crashed into his chair as Neferuptah became otherwise engaged.
‘I’m hoping this is a good scenario?’ Bache asked, giving Ed a concerned stare.
‘I believe this could be very good for us,’ Ed replied.