Three weeks had gone by since the capture of the Odyssey and her crew. Three weeks of beatings, torturous mind probes and travelling in a direction very far from their planned flight path. Kelly winced as one of the Darla medics cleaned up her latest head wound.
“Keep still human, or you’ll end up with more than a gash to the forehead,” barked the medic.
“Anyone ever tell you that you have a lousy fucking bedside manner?”
Kelly groaned in agony, as a nearby guard sent a searing pain into Kelly’s mind, causing her to drop to her knees off the medical bed, grabbing furiously at her temples.
“Leave her alone!”
The laboured and groggy voice caught the attention of the guard, and he ceased his mental torture. Kelly dropped to the floor unconscious, the pain simply too much to bear. The medics lifted her back onto the bed and treated her wounds.
“I thought you’d be dead by now,” the guard spoke through gritted teeth. “I see you human puppets are tougher than you look. That’s what she must see in you.”
Harry Ransome looked like a completely different man. Large chunks of his face were swollen, blackened and either bleeding or weeping. His formerly grey beard was now stained red with his own blood, and considerably longer. His hair was wild, and also had streaks of crimson running through it, and his uniform had been all but shredded, several gashes and wounds visible on his chest and abdomen. He could barely stand, and was being propped up by two other guards.
“Sorry to disappoint you,” Harry spat in reply.
The guard took a stride toward him, and gripped his chin in his hand, yanking Harry’s eyes upward to look at him directly.
“Tell us what she wants from you, or we’ll kill your crew one by one. I think I’ll start with this loud mouth female. Yes. I think I’ll enjoy tearing her mind apart.”
He licked his lips, trying to get a rise out of Harry, and had he been even an ounce stronger in that moment, he would have done. But the beating he had taken was too much, and he slumped forward.
“A pity. Get him fixed up, and send him back to his cell. We can try again later.”
* * *
The office of the Darla Captain was not too dissimilar to his own. It was enough to make Harry wonder if Drusilla had simply stolen their ship design and copied it over to the Utopia fleet, making minor changes. It would certainly explain how she knew so much about ship design without ever having built one. The Captain himself, a man called Darven, was pouring a cup of green tea, the steam rising with the liquid level in the glass receptacle.
“I would offer you some Admiral, but it is deadly to humans, and I still need information from you.”
Harry coughed at the scent of the tea filling his lungs like smoke.
“I’ve told you everything I know,” he replied through laboured breaths.
“Hmm.”
Darven took a sip of the tea, Harry wincing at the thought that it had not even cooled, and yet Darven showed no discomfort. He lowered the cup and placed both hands on his desk.
“Admiral Ransome, we know a great many things about your friend Drusilla. But how much do you know, hmm?”
That was a question for which Harry couldn’t truly offer an honest answer. So he gave the only one he could.
“I feel like I only know what she wants me to know.”
Darven nodded.
“An astute summary, Sir. Are you aware that she lost her father during an unfortunate skirmish as a child?”
Harry nodded.
“And are you aware that not only did she blame us for this indiscretion, but she opted to seek revenge on our people?”
Again Harry nodded.
“Then she was more forthcoming with you than she was with her last concubine.”
“Her what?”
Darven chuckled to himself.
“You don’t honestly think you’re the first species she has tried to enslave do you?”
Harry’s mind was now swimming. Enslave? Drusilla had promised them a new home, a brighter future. Harry was the only one who knew that she wanted to use the military to hunt the Darla. But enslave all humans? No. Apparently reading his mind, Darven interrupted.
“Oh I’m afraid so, Admiral. Drusilla is from a species called the Shran. Much like us, she has telepathic abilities and much like us, she is able to manipulate others into doing her bidding. However, unlike us, she can transmit such thoughts across vast distances. And unlike us, she was never meant to leave her home planet.”
Harry’s head was pounding from the constant barrage of attacks and healing and attacks and more healing. The cycle had broken his mind, but he was desperately trying to cling on to what Darven was saying as he continued.
“You see, the Shran were once the dominant force across an entire solar system. They ruled with an iron fist, as I believe you humans say. They beat down anybody who stood in their way, and took all the resources from any planet they chose for their own wealth and gain. They sent twelve populated worlds into ruin and poverty. On a scouting mission from our home on Jupiter before we encountered you, one of our military vessels followed a shipment of weapons back to the Shran homeworld. When we became aware of the genocide and evil spreading through that system, we knew we could not simply sit back and do nothing.
And so we acted. We gathered all of our forces, and we fought the Shran for over sixty years. Eventually, we convinced the people of those twelve worlds to rise up with us, and we drove the Shran back to their home world. They were sentenced to remain on their planet forever more, and we took every ounce of technology from them. Their leaders were dead, and it was only the regular folk who remained. A beacon was put in place to warn other species to stay away from the Shran. And that peace lasted for a very long time. And we returned home.”
Darven’s eyes then grew wistful. Sadness crept across his face, and Harry felt he knew where the story was going next.
“And then she came. The elders had told the children nothing of the war, trying to forget such pain and the horrors they had imposed on others. Our chance encounter with Drusilla was mere coincidence. A simple trade mission with one of the newly reinvigorated worlds in their system went wrong, and one of our shuttles crashed on the Shran homeworld. One of the locals ran at the security officer with a pitchfork. Already wounded and panicked from the crash, he fired in self defence. Of course that man turned out to be Drusilla’s father. We rescued our crew and fled home, fearful of the impact our interference would have.
Somehow she managed to barter her way off the planet by way of a passing conman by the name of Tolian Gryffin.”
Harry’s suspicions had been right all along. The whole thing had been a hoax. And half of his crew had fallen for it. Darven saw the change in Harry’s expression.
“I take it you have met Mr Gryffin Admiral?”
Harry nodded.
“He’s the reason half my crew are fighting amongst themselves to reach some fabled magic doorway into the past.”
Darven held up a single finger.
“Ah, my dear Admiral, no. The Horizon may not be an actual route to the past, but it does exist. And so does the Expanse.”
“The Expanse?”
Darven nodded.
“An area of space devoid of any life. No stars, no planets, no life, no light. A void in the cosmos stretching an area that would take almost thirty days to cross. An area you do not wish to find yourself in, Admiral.”
Harry had been unfortunate enough to venture into a small void at the edge of the Sol System once. It was only thirty-thousand kilometres across, but the absence of light and stars had a severe effect on his mental health in the short time his vessel was trapped there. He shuddered at the thought of another void so large. Darven continued.
“Once freed by Gryffin, Drusilla attempted to coerce another humanoid species into fighting for her. The Titans were a race of ancient warriors, bred for war and conquest. They were each over two thousand years old, and their minds had become weakened by time. They were an ideal target for her. They came in their numbers to Jupiter and war raged on my homeworld. Fortunately, the Titans were too old to sustain heavy battle any longer, and we were able to defeat them and drive them back from our solar system. Drusilla was once again banished to her homeworld.
I had no idea how she escaped a second time, Admiral, but we did not see her again for almost two centuries, and when we did, she was accompanied by humanity. We lost our home, most of our people, and were scattered among the stars. Refugees of the cosmos. Because of you.”
Darven’s storytelling was over. The rage now trembling in his throat as he spoke, and stood from behind the desk.
“You helped her destroy our people. You helped that witch murder us in our beds. You, Admiral, murdered our children. And now she wants you to finish the job. Hah! Drusilla doesn’t know where you are, but her endgame for your people was always the same. And so, allow us the honour of sending you on your way ourselves.”
A whirring noise began coming from the wall alongside Harry’s chair, and as the mechanical blinds raised, the room was bathed in a golden light. The sight was incredible. They appeared to be inside a nebula of some sort, but the strands of energy were like cotton, simply swaying in an imaginary breeze. The colours were so vibrant, in any other scenario it would have brought a tear to Harry’s eyes. And hovering just ahead of the nearest dust cloud, was the Odyssey. She was adrift, but seemingly undamaged.
“You will all return to your ship, Admiral. And we will send you to your final destination. Consider it your punishment. You will end your days in the Expanse.”
Harry glared at him.
“And what makes you think we won’t just fly back out, and hunt you down?” he sneered.
Darven’s grin spread wide across his face.
“Just because you can’t see anything in the Expanse Admiral, doesn’t mean it’s empty.”
Harry’s blood ran cold, as he was lifted from the chair and dragged out of Darven’s office. Once the doors were closed, Darven sat down once more, and moved to pour himself another cup of tea. A sharp pain shot through his temple, and he dropped the glass cup on the floor, where it shattered into millions of tiny crystals.
“Come to us….”
The voice echoed around inside Darven’s mind. He tried to shake it off, but it came again.
“Come to us…”
“No, it’s not… not possible…”
“Come to us…”
Darven’s mind glazed over, as did his eyes. He could feel his own consciousness being pushed back into the recesses of his mind, as if someone had taken the wheel. He could see what he was doing, but had no control over it. Moments later, the Odyssey began to move towards the edge of the Saraswathi Nebula. A comms alert beeped from Darven’s communicator.
“Captain, the Odyssey autopilot has been engaged. She is headed into the Expanse.”
Darven’s head twitched left to right, before a voice that did not belong to him replied to his navigation officer.
“Follow them in.”
A confused Ensign on the other end of the channel was unsure he had heard correctly.
“Excuse me Sir?”
The creature now possessing Darven’s body smiled.
“You heard me. Follow them in.”