Ransome, page 5
“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.”
TWELVE
The grogginess caught Harry by surprise. It almost took a few moments for him to register that he hadn’t passed out. Everything swirled around him, and it felt as if he was on a ship on the ocean, cascading between rolling waves. And then it passed. There was just enough time for him to become fully cognitive before the Odyssey lost all power. Everything. The moment the ship crossed the threshold of the Expanse, every system on the ship went into standby. Luckily, moments later, the emergency reserves kicked in, ensuring a continued stream of life support throughout the ship.
Darven and his crew had locked in a course using thrusters only and sent them on their way. Harry was still unsure as to the nature of this supposed demise, but already the added darkness seemed to envelop him. A cold sweat began to form on his brow as he looked around the bridge at his other officers, who unlike him, had been rendered unconscious.
Kelly came to first, and unsure of where she was, fell out of her chair and faceplanted the floor.
“Mother fucker!” she screamed, the noise seeming to echo throughout the ship.
As she struggled to her feet, Harry could see a thin trickle of blood coming down from just above her left eyebrow.
“Kelly, you okay?” he asked, his voice still hoarse.
She shot him a look of pure rage.
“Okay? You wanna know if I’m fucking okay Harry? What do you think?! Why don’t we try letting some mind reader control you like a fucking puppet and see how you like it!”
Several quick and sharp breaths followed her outburst, and she was struggling to maintain any form of calm or composure. Harry staggered over to her, and placed his hands on her shoulders to steady her.
“Come on Kelly, breathe. Take slower and deeper breaths, I need you focused, come on now.”
After a few minutes, Kelly managed to calm herself enough to talk, and nodded to Harry that she was okay. Around them, several others began to wake up, and after explaining to them where they were and the things that Darven had said, he attempted to come up with a plan.
“We need to restore main power, and crack whatever security measures they put in place for the engines. Our priority is getting out of this expanse as soon as possible.”
Commander Teale, now sporting a sling on her injured arm from a possessed Kelly’s earlier shooting, stepped forward.
“Admiral, what exactly is the expanse? Why would they send us here?”
Before Harry could answer, there was a bloodcurdling scream from somewhere beyond the bridge. Nobody dared move, too afraid of what they might find. The cries of agony increased and turned to gargling noises before being cut off abruptly. Back to silence.
“What the…” started Kelly.
“”I don’t know, but I’m pretty sure we’re gonna find out,” replied Harry. “And to answer your question Teale, I think we just became someone’s lunch.”
Kelly didn’t hear the dripping until it was almost in front of her. A steady drip, drip, drip was pattering onto the previously shiny and new marble floor. She aimed her disruptor rifle above, the beam of the torch attached illuminating the target. There was no question about it. The liquid was blood. And it was dripping through the light fixture above them, which now glowed the red of danger as opposed to its usual halo of white. Reluctantly, Kelly nodded to one of her security team, and he leaned up, unclipping the fitting. With only half the bolts removed, the sheer weight above buckled the rest of the fitting and the entire ceiling panel came crashing down from above, the security officer being knocked to the ground by the appearance of what used to be a human body.
Kelly wanted to scream, but she forced herself to keep it in. The mangled corpse was pushed aside by the security officer, and Kelly couldn’t tear her eyes away from the horror which lay in front of her. There was no face left to speak of. Four deep claw marks were scratched into the skull beneath, and similar marks tore through the chest of the victim. A large pool of blood began to collect around the body, and Kelly noticed one of its legs had been torn away, the tendons and muscles hanging limply from the severed thigh. Very quietly, she addressed her team.
“Grant and Sanderson, you two fan out towards engineering. Grayson and Hunt, you two head for Cargo Bay One. Teale, you and me will head for sickbay. Keep your wits about you. We don’t know what these things are, or where they’re hiding. And for the love of god… don’t let them touch you.”
Silent nods around the group, and the six team members split up heading for their various targets. Only two of the team would return to the bridge when the searches were done.
Harry’s team had remained on the bridge to establish if any of the internal sensors were working. They weren’t. The Darla had locked everything out before the power drain, so even if they did have full energy capacity, they still wouldn’t be able to access main computer systems. After trying and failing to send out a distress call, they had left the bridge and headed in the opposite direction to Kelly’s team, towards the crew quarters. With an original crew of a thousand, the quarters made up half the ship’s mass. Similarly to Kelly’s team, Harry split his into three search parties of two. He teamed up with tactical officer Perry, in the hopes he was as good with a handheld weapon as he was with the ship’s disruptor cannons.
“You doing alright back there Lieutenant?” Harry whispered under his breath.
“Yes Sir. Just another day at the office right?”
Harry chuckled to himself, a welcome relief given the circumstances. They turned the corner ahead of them and Harry let out a long sigh, lowering his weapon in frustration.
“Well, that’s a dead end then.”
In front of them was the only remaining damage from the initial Darla attack months earlier. A ten metre gap in the hull spanning the floor ahead prevented them from going any further. The emergency power had kept the forcefield in place, but it meant they had to find another way around.
Suddenly, a dark shadow shot behind Perry. The light breeze made him spin around, aiming his rifle into the darkness.
“What was that?” he said, his voice trembling.
“I didn’t see anything Lieutenant. Are you sure?”
Perry turned back to Harry.
“I felt something behind me Sir, like a… a shadow.”
Harry’s own heart rate was elevated so he knew how Perry was feeling. This was after all, his first deep space mission of any kind. The Odyssey had plucked him straight out of the academy. Tested off the charts second only to Commander Kelly Dresden. Harry had chosen him personally. Promoted him within six weeks, and stationed him at tactical.
“This constant darkness has us all on edge, son. But I’m still not picking up any lifeforms on my scanner. It’s just your mind playing tricks on you.”
Perry chuckled and shook his head.
“Forgive me Admiral Ransome, but I’ve seen this movie, and the black dude gets it first. If it’s all the same to you, I’d appreciate you checking it out with me.”
“Lieutenant Jayden Perry, are you asking me to hold your hand?”
The levity was welcomed and it broke a good degree of the tension, as Harry nodded and the two of them returned to the junction they had turned around moments earlier. Harry wanted to keep Perry distracted as long as possible, and himself if he was being honest. He decided to make small talk.
“So Jayden, what did your old man think of you making it onto the Odyssey?” he asked.
“He couldn’t be prouder, Sir. He wanted to come to your house and shake your hand personally. It was everything I could do to get him to stay home.”
Harry chuckled as he swept his torch light across what he thought was a figure in the darkness. It was in fact a discarded fire extinguisher.
“I served with your dad on Mars. He was a good soldier. Always first into the barracks of a morning, and last one out. I was real sorry about what happened to him.”
Perry nodded his head as he too aimed his flashlight at a moving shadow up ahead.
“He’s doing alright Sir. We had the house adapted, and now he rolls his ass around the place like a Formula E driver.”
Harry pictured the very image in his mind. Marcus Perry had always been a speed demon. He was planning to test the next iteration of the star drive once his tour of duty was completed. Unfortunately a rogue disruptor blast at maximum power across his spine put that dream beyond reach.
Whoosh.
Something flew behind Perry, this time much closer than it had been before. He span round to try and catch it, Harry turning with him.
Whoosh.
This time, behind Harry. And this time he felt it. The hairs on the nape of his neck shot towards the sky, and goosebumps covered his whole body.
“I guess it wasn’t your imagination, Jayden.”
“No Sir, it was not.”
From behind Perry, a scratching sound started echoing towards them. It got gradually louder as it came closer to them, and the sound equivalent to nails on a chalkboard almost shattered Ransome and Perry’s eardrums, such was the volume. And then it stopped, leaving the two of them staring into the darkness, their breathing the only audible sound.
