Parallels A Freelancer short story ...Following the events of EvolvedOnes.com...
Marcus Scarman lay face down on the cold grill of the metal decking. His vision slowly span into focus, flashing lights and networks of tubing and circuitry falling into place before him. At first he felt slightly confused at the extreme and utterly bizarre sight before him. Nothing made sense; just lights flashing rhythmatically and long thin cables glowing a dull blue. He slowly tried to lift his head, but a jolt of pain shot down his spine rendering him motionless. He let out a pained breath and tried again. This time his body seemed to work, albiet stiffly. He slowly pushed himself up on his arms, blinking several times to try and make sense of his surroundings.
It all came back to him in a flood of reds and blues. The bridge of the LNS Avalanche was deserted apart from himself and the self-contented blinking of the consoles around him. The Captain's chair stood exactly where he had left it, as did the rest of the bridge's interior. Good, Marcus thought as he slowly heaved himself into the chair. He closed his eyes and gently massaged his temples. The memories inside his mind were still like a fractured painting; random images floating around pointlessly in his minds eye. He tried to make sense of it, but instead suffered a sharp pain in the back of his skull.
He winced and reached around, touching the back of his head carefully. Sure enough, slick blood returned to his field of vision along with the tips of his fingers. Marcus leaned back in the chair, careful not to make too many sudden movements. Instead of thinking about how hard his head must have struck the floor, Marcus concentrated on piecing together the jigsaw of memories drifting idly throughout his mind.
There was the bridge crew before him, and the device Professor Wilcox had designed was in position precisely five clicks off the prow of the Avalanche. The large circular station was framed by the large green presence of an entire world, although which world Marcus could not tell. The three energy nodes inside the circumference of the wheel-like station suddenly lit up with a crackling energy. And then he was back in the apartment. This apartment was different though; the view outside the window was different to the view outside of his Manhattan apartment and the interior design wasn't right.
Then he remembered Victoria. The young Liberty marine came into view, her shoulder length strawberry blonde hair wet from the shower.
"Aren't you going out Marcus?" Her voice sounded muffled, as if it had come from under water. Marcus stepped back in confusion.
"Where is Tomoko?" He found himself asking. But Victoria just gave him a puzzled look before turning and dissapearing from view.
Then Michael Maxthor came returned to his memories. The good Doctor was walking down an access ramp, his face lighting up with excitement.
"Marcus! He's done it Marcus, he's found a way to re-open the rift!" Maxthor's face then melted into the cold metallic features of a gundroid. Although this gundroid he knew very well, its brass exterior giving it away. It lifted one of its arms and fired its proton cannon. Marcus felt himself duck to the side, firing from the hip.
"What have you done with Victoria!" His voice echoed around his mind as if he had shouted at the centre of an auditorium.
His surroundings moulded once more and Kurt Manning, the Bounty Hunter, came flying in from the side as an explosion blasted through the side of the DWB medical vessel Pasteur. Alarm klaxons rang throughout the deck as Marcus dove beneath a closing bulkhead.
He remembered the insane rogue AI that tried to kill him. The AI that took control of Manning's brass gundroid and the Liberty Cruiser Argonaut. The AI that had been programmed to eliminate him by a man named Sayne Jaydn. An image of the Argonaut's detonation flashed through his mind, taking with it the AI's central consciousness and ending the plight once and for all.
A hazy memory of Kurt Manning, Doctor Maxthor and Victoria flittered through his skull, all battered and bloody as the Pasteur sent out her distress signal.
"Why did he want you dead?" Maxthor's voice echoed around his mind.
"I'm not sure," came Marcus' reply.
"Now at least we can rendezvous with the Avalanche and get under way."
"What about your family Marcus? What about Tomoko?"
"No," Marcus' voice sounded harsh. "I do not know where I am going, I will not endanger their lives."
"You might not see them again,"
"I'd rather they lived,"
Night fell over Los Angeles as Marcus stood with Victoria outside the front door of his Uncle's ranch. The door creaked open and his Uncle stood smiling in the doorway.
"Marcus!" The thought of his Uncle's voice eased the pain in his mind somewhat.
"I want you to tell Tomoko that I love her," Marcus' voice now sounded dejected. They were sat around the fire in his Uncles living room. "And look out for little Matthew,"
A tear escaped from Marcus' eye.
Then they were back on board the Avalanche entering the Omicron Alpha system and meeting up with the Pasteur and the Sygnus, a Bretonian science vessel.
"This is a risky procedure, no one has ever acomplished tearing a controlled wormhole in space and time,"
"No Professor," Marcus reassured the old man, "I know people who have."
"Activating main power source."
"The rift! Its opening!"
"Maximum speed! Take us through!"
"Wait Admiral Scarman! The rift is unstable, its widening..."
A large flash, spawned from the centre of Wilcox's circular space station and expanded outwards, engulfing the base and the docked Pasteur. Sygnus was the next in line to go. The energy ribbon tore across her flank, surrounding her with energy and sucking her into the void.
"All hands brace for impact!"
There was a great flash of scarlett and a violent shove as the Avalanche was dragged prow first into the rift. And then silence.
Marcus opened his eyes and looked around the deserted bridge. So the impact had thrown him out of his chair. But where was he? How long had he been lying unconscious on the floor? And where the hell was the rest of his crew.
He gripped the arms of his chair and turned around, looking for Rear Admiral Anderson and the others who had been just behind him when the ribbon struck the ship. No one. He turned his head around and looked back out of the main viewer. He was diffinitely in space as a grand quilt of stars lay spread out before him. But aside from that, there was nothing.
I struggled to get to his feet behind the chair on the bridge, however I kept collapsing back to the floor. My wounds had healed, however the process drained me of all energy. Nothing made sense. Everything was a swirl of colors.
I was standing with my father as a young boy listening to my father debate with the other Zeta in the temple. I remembered cheering and my father looking down at me with proud eyes, those were the good days. My father smiled, "You will be here someday Janzt, my son."
It faded and like a jolt to my mind, I remember arguing with my father at the time he went insane. He gave me a look and smiled, throwing me into a prision meant for him and him only. The ancients inside trained me, pampered me with the rough environment and allowed me to become stronger. I emerged stronger and smiled...the memory faded to nothing.
I came back fighting my father and watching him kill me, but at the last second, the Ancients salvaged my body and discusted with my performance disgarded me on the closest planet. I crawled for days until I reached a medical outpost.
Once I was better, I killed the humans, pesky creatures. I remember one woman begging for her life and I turned my head sideways with a smile. "Hell waits for no one my dear." and killed her then and there. Memory faded back to nothing.
The memory came rushing back like torrents of waves and I stood, watching two human ships conduct some strange experement. They activated the device and I felt the world around me shifting, I screamed for I don't know how long...
My eyes shot open and I breathed deeply, I had regained some energy through my sleep and I rose to my feet looking out the front of the ship at the space around me. I tried accessing consoles to figure out where I was but no alas. Cursed human technology...On the console next to the one I was at looked active, how silly of me. I walked over to it and accessed it. According to these readings, I was at the very same place I had started out at, but the size and demension of the sourrounding area was changed, different. I looked at the reflection of my self in the metal panels and looked at my eyes up close.
They had changed, instead of the usual red eye with an iris in the middle, I had a black outside that faded to light grey new the middle, and after the light grey was a red eye that had different layers all the way to the middle. I shook my head and looked away.
Marcus ran over the event in his mind more than a hundred times. He was certain something had gone terribly wrong. For starters, where was the rest of his crew? And where were the Sygnus and the Pasteur? The console before him was giving him mixed feelings. It was telling him that there were two other ships in the area, yet the external proximity sensors were not reading anything within their sizable range.
Shaking his head, Marcus ran a diagnostic check on the Avalanche. Everything seemed to be working perfectly. The life support readings were within acceptable parameters and all shielding and defensive systems were online and fully functional. Something caught Marcus' eye however. The life support system was reading several life signs around the ship, some incredibly faint, others strong. None were at full strength however, as if they were mere shadows. There were two faint life signs apparantly on the bridge with him. A chill shot down his spine as he spotted the two faint dots. He glanced around the room anxiously, his hand ready to pull out the M9 'Enforcer' pistol at his hip.
There was no one else on the bridge. In fact, Marcus suspected that there was no one else on the entire vessel. The corridor leading to the Command Centre access elevator was completely deserted, yet the life support read three faint life signs in that section. Marcus downloaded the life support schematic to his palm computer and boosted its scanner output. He checked the bridge for anything he might have forgotten before activating the door control and stepping into the Bridge entrance corridor.
The access elevator doors were closed, as they were usually when not in use. The elevator its self stood right at the end of the wide corridor. The walls were flanked with consoles and holoscreens, each one activated and humming quietly. The simple lack of activity where there should normally be lots chilled Marcus to the bone. He quickly walked out into the corridor and made for the elevator. He thought he caught a shimmer of light to his left. He paused and quickly checked his palm computer. Sure enough, it read one of the faint life signs directly to his right, but now when he looked, the air was as normal as ever.
Marcus stepped up to the elevator and activated its control. The doors slid open smoothly, revealing the elevator's interior. He stepped inside and closed the doors, thankful that the only life sign registered inside was his own steadily blinking icon. He punched the controls and the lift started to decend.
After the doors had closed, the air around the corridor seemed to fall thicker and began to distort. If Marcus had looked at the life signs at that exact point, he would have seen them grow stronger.
At that same point in time, several clicks starboard of the LNS Avalanche, something in space began to stir. It started out as a shimmer of light and then grew into a dark shadow. Slowly but surely, a starship began to form, as if it were being pieced together atom by atom. Still just an outline, its type was undescernable. The stars shone brightly through the spectral form as an outline began to appear. From a distance, it looked to any trained eye that the Avalanche's shadow was apparantly disconnecting its self.
The doors slid open neatly and Marcus stepped out onto deck three. His palm computer was showing an odd fluctuation in one of the crews quarters in section five. Programmed to scan for life signs, the scanner was picking up another life form. Unlike the other spectral forms that seemed to be drifting about all over, this life sign bore similar traits to Marcus' own vibrant icon. Whichever way, it was certainly different from the other strange wraith like phantoms.
He stepped out of the elevator and turned down the corridor to his left. The crews quarters were just three sections away from his current location, it wouldn't take more than five minutes to walk there. As Marcus walked down the corridor, the air around him seemed to fall thicker, as if a heavy veil had fallen over everything. Suddenly Marcus found himself having difficulty breathing. He stopped and leaned heavily on the wall, slowly drawing his blaster pistol as he tried to suck in air.
The atmosphere around him began to distort, blurring the end of the corridor and twisting the walls around an impossible angle. Something came into being to his left. He looked across at the strange distortion, feeling the energy in his limbs fail at the effort. Something as black as the void its self began to form; a spectral form made from coruscating warp energies that lapped about its form like the tail of a serpent. What chilled Marcus the most was the phantom's lack of any life and colour. It wasn't even black, just darkness embodied. He swallowed in fear and began to step backwards, leaning heavily on the wall for support.
Slowly but surely, a humanoid figure began to take shape through the whirling mists of the phantom's form. Spectral legs wound their way down to the floor before securing the creature to the deck. Long arms snaked their way forwards and a head began to emerge from misted shoulders. The creature's transfiguration began to speed up as it began to drift closer towards him. Marcus raised his blaster and aimed it at the thing's head.
"Stop!" His voice sounded surprisingly stronger than he felt.
The phantom halted, its featureless orb of a head cocked to one side. Marcus stood rooted in horror as a face began to form on the black oval. Colour began to swirl into the form. Hues of blue etched themselves across the phantom's torso. The shoulders were marked off with golden epaulettes and an Admiral's stars. The dark brown spiked hair began to grow from the phantom's scalp as the face began to take on a set of shockingly familiar features.
Before long, Marcus found himself standing opposite an exact copy of himself. The wraith smiled, a dazed vacant smile, as it gazed striaght at Marcus.
"Who are you and what do you want?"
Marcus' confidence had returned somewhat. The wraith didn't seem to register his demand and began to walk towards him once more. He lifted his blaster and held it level with the wraith's head.
"Stay right where you are."
The wraith continued to walk towards him.
"Stay where you are or I'll shoot!" Marcus' finger gripped the trigger, ready to fire.
The wraith's mouth opened to an impossible size, the jaw seemingly stretching. All of the life and energy Marcus felt began to dissapear as it was sucked into the wraith. Its gaping mouth began to grow larger and larger as it walked closer and closer to Marcus.
Trying desperately to hang on to what strength he had left, Marcus fired his blaster. The laser bolt entered the wraith's mouth and moved straight through its misty form before smacking into the wall behind with a screech. The wraith seemed to break up as the bolt seared through its form. It lost Marcus' image, falling back into a mass of swirling darkness. An ear piercing scream rent the air as the wraith shot backwards and dissapeared around a corner with impossible speed.
Marcus fell to his knees, the last of his energy bleeding away. He dropped the blaster, which clattered to the decking with a muffled clank. He collapsed against the wall and lost consciousness as the last of his strength ebbed away...
Marcus came too both shocked and dizzy. He couldn't have been out cold for more than a few seconds because the charge indicator on his fallen blaster pistol still read warm. He lifted himself up, trying to ignore the pain in his head. He reached down for the blaster and scooped it up neatly with one hand. Moving cautiously, he opened up his palm computer once more and checked it for the vital sign he had seen before. It was still there, only now it was stronger.
Marcus moved away down the corridor, in the opposite direction the wraith had flown. He skillfully moved around a corner, keeping his vigil and his blaster raised.
The palm computer read the life sign as close by now. Marcus halted as the life sign began to move. His breath caught in his throat as he realized it seemed to be moving towards him. He looked up from his palm computer down the corridor. However there was nothing but the next bend. Swallowing, Marcus advanced, about to call out but thinking better of it at the last minute.
He stopped again as the life sign entered the corridor at the far end. He looked up from the small screen, hoping for a familiar face or uniform. There was still nothing there however. Expecting another one of the wraith creatures, Marcus raised his blaster. He checked the palm computer for the indication he had been given before. There were three of the strange spectral life signs in the same corridor, but none as strong as the life sign which was now heading towards him.
A sudden thickness in the air descended and Marcus swore he heard a faint cry. He looked about, hesitating. A faint gust of air seemed to wash over him as the palm computer read the life sign as passing his direct location.
"Hello," He spoke in a loud, controlled voice.
Another faint whisper seemed to float about the corridor, sending a shiver down Marcus' spine. The air was getting thicker by the minute. Marcus turned and looked towards the end of the corridor, discovering that he could not see the end; a bizarre haze had fallen on the entire walkway.
"Hello," Marcus cancelled out his fear, his voice striking the heavy air boldly.
"Help, who's there," This time the words were far clearer.
"Where are you," Marcus called out, turning around.
"Who's there," The voice was beginning to clarify as the air became denser.
Marcus pressed himself against the wall, trying his hardest to preserve oxygen. He gripped his blaster tightly as a faintly humanoid figure began to materialize before him. Captivated, Marcus could do nothing but watch as another human slowly formed out of the mists. The process began to speed up, seemingly sucking the very essence of life from the corridor. Marcus fought it hard and concentrated on the silhouette.
Then, as if the air were contorting one final squeeze, the figure burst into reality and everything fell back to normal. The pressure left the air straight away and Marcus relaxed as clean oxygen flooded into his lungs.
He looked up and took in the new arrival. She was definitely part of the crew; wearing the standard blue and grey uniform of an Ensign. She looked bewildered at what was going on, unsure of her surrounding and definitely wary of Marcus.
"Name and rank," He said plainly, lowering his weapon as not to shock the woman.
"Ensign Jessica Powell, serving on board LNS Avalanche, or at least, I thought I was."
"At ease Ensign,"
The young woman suddenly noticed Marcus' Admiral's stars and snapped to attention. "Sorry sir, I didn't recognize you sir,"
"I said at ease, we can dispense with formalities for the moment."
"Yes sir, I mean, sorry sir,"
Marcus holstered his weapon and checked his palm computer once more. The wraith's life signs were getting bolder. He quickly took Powell by the hand and moved off up the corridor.
"Come on," He said urgently, "we need to get somewhere where there are no phantoms,"
"Phantoms... wha?" Powell stammered behind him, still recoiling from the shock of meeting the Avalanche's commanding officer.
Marcus turned the next corner and lead the young Ensign directly down to the end. A set of double doors blocked their way with the words "Crew's Mess" stenciled above. Marcus punched in a door code and the doors clicked back into their berths.
Quickly checking his palm computer, Marcus lead Powell into the large room and sealed the doors behind him.
"There aren't any in here," He verified, nodding his head.
"Excuse me sir," Powell regained her composure. "Aren't any what?"
He handed her the palm computer and indicated the spectral life signs. "I have no idea what they are Ensign, but they are all over the ship and they aren't friendly."
She handed the palm computer back to him, wide eyed.
"We'll be safe in here, for a while."
"Where is everyone else," Powell looked around here, "I just came from the mess, there were at least twenty people in here before."
"That's something else I plan on finding out..." Marcus' voice trailed off.
Powell followed his gaze across to the wide viewport. Her jaw dropped in confusion. Another ship was materializing next to them, as if decloaking incredibly slowly. The stars were still visible through the other side of the ship, however the ship's name was clearly displayed along her ghostly prow; AVALANCHE.
Shaking his head, Marcus turned away from the viewport. "I am truly sorry, but I have absolutely no idea what is happening Ensign, absolutely no idea."
"Ship is taking heavy damage. The Nomads arn't letting up this time. The Zeta either. Seems we flew right into a fracking war zone sir!"
"Evasive manuvers! Mark Beta-6...mark!"
"Belay that order ensign!" said a voice behind me. The voice came from Fleet Admiral Michaels. "Try Beta-4 first, then proceed on to 6 if it gets too rough, we're in far too bad of shape to be trying that evasive of a manuver."
"You're correct sir, my mistake." I said cursing my own mistake.
"We all make them." he said back.
The Nomad and Zeta ships had all but stopped firing on each other and focused their fire on the Avalanche. We had something on board that they didn't want anywhere near the system they were battling over. Omicron Alpha had long sense destabalized from Outcast control and had been over run with two opposing sides of alien threats. Zeta and Nomad. Two mortal enemy races which had been fighting for centuries before Man arrived in Sirius. We had, in our posession, a rare Zeta artifact from when they were created. This was a one way mission. We all knew that, there was a slim chance of escaping, but it was very slim.
"Is the weapon ready?" I screamed over the shaking of the ship and the explosions from comm panels.
"Aye sir! Awaiting your command Admiral Michaels!"
The ship rocked hard and the lights flickered as the shield warning started to wail over the comms.
"SIR-" shouted someone.
"I know damnit! You think I'm some kind of moron!?" I yelled.
"No sir! Of course not! I was going to say that we've lost primary and secondary power systems. We are unable to fire the weapon!"
"Sonofabitch!" I screamed. "Admiral Michaels! I'm proceeding down to the engine room, I'm going to attempt a jumpstart of the systems energy matrix core. Once it's online, fire that damned weapon at that god foraken sun!" He only smiled back.
"You got it, sir."
I placed my hand on the wall as the ship shook hard again but it wasn't enough and the ship rocked hard. The sirens wailed over the ships systems: "Dampeners offline" over and over again.
"Wonderful." I murmered under my breath. I managed to make it to the engine room and walked up to the Captain.
"Sir!" he said "We've managed to find the problem, it seems as if they targeted the damned things directly!"
"What??" I yelled. "This was a classified destroyer design! How the-"
"Advanced scanning systems I recon sir!" he yelled as another explosion rocked the ship hard.
"Can you jumpstart it?"
"Working on it now sir-"
The sound of a whirring energy drive sprung to life and I paged Admiral Michaels at the bridge. "FIRE!"
The world went a mix of white and dark as I felt my self being ripped apart. The ships hull began to distort around me and then with out warning, things started going very fast before everything went black.
----
Jayce stumbled and held on to the railing in the engine room. Things were blurry and slowed down. He heard distant noises in the ship, but lowered the probability down to only it being engine parts in normal opperation. His name read "Wilder" and the rank on his shoulders clearly read Admiral. He grabbed ahold of the railing with a sturdy arm as best as he could and lifted himself to his full height and surveyed the damage to the engine room. Surprisingly it wasn't in too bad of shape for what had just happened. The coils looked to be toasted and it seemed the emergency power cells were offline, however no external damage seemed to be caused.
He held his head and limped over to the door at the end of the hallway, and fell to his knees. He was exhausted for some reason. However, he had been out of it for several days it felt like and yet he still had no energy left. He looked ahead and saw a bulkhead crawl space torn open by what looked like a monster, but he was sure that there was nothing trying to attack the ship. He leaned against the door to the hallway and gasped for air as he did so. The ship seemed abnormally quiet. Someone should have passed by, by now and seen him unconcious on the floor and taken him to sickbay.
He grabbed the bulkhead ridges to help him get to his feet again and leaned on the door, managing to open it. He fell through and into the hallway before seeing a dim black mist form into some kind of human form. It stood for a second, staring at Jayce and then he realized the mist had taken his form. It cocked it's head to the right like a lost puppy and then smiled. Revealing black mist swirling behind the form. It lost it's shape and the mist flew down the other hallway into the darkness. He reached for his blaster but found only the empty holder. Cursing his foolishness of leaving the bridge in mid transit because of the accident with out a blaster, he climbed to his feet slowly. After the strange creature left, he felt his energy slowly returning, however he was sure he would need a nice long nap after his "adventure".
He entered the bridge and saw everything in working order like nothing had happened. Fleet Admiral Scarman was no where in the immediate vicinity and that's when he realized this wasn't the Avalanche. However, he was onboard the Avalanche when the experement began. But he was onboard another ship he was sure of it. Things wern't in the right place from when they first came through. He scratched his head and looked around. For one, the consoles were switched around like a mirror. Everything was oppisite. From the comm station to the Ops station, things were in reverse. The captains chair looked to be at least 16 inches back from what it was before. The First officers chair, Jayce's chair, was bolted to the center of the ships bridge, several feet from it's original location next to the commanders chair. Things wern't making sense.
For one, the sensors on the bridge indicated that no lifeforms existed on the ship besides a few strange shadow lifeforms, this was what Jayce assumed were the strange mist creatures like the one he had come in contact with while down in the engine room. Two faint lifeforms were together in a sealed room. But they were fading in and out, along with several others, as if they were appearing all over the ship. A form flew past the outside of the window and Jayce looked up quickly to see the form of another ship fading in and out as if it were some kind of ghost ship. On the front of the ship, etched in, in blue letters plain as day.
"Avalanche...what in the hell is going on here." Jayce mumbled to himself. He reached for the comm phone for the entire ship and when he reached for it, his hand went straight through it. He blinked twice and looked around, the comm station had switched places. It now was on the very front of the bridge where the ships controls used to be, however, the commanders chair and everything else had switched places as well. Jayce reached for the comm phone again, this time feeling the cold metal in his hand. He placed his mouth to the mic at the other end only to have nothing come out over the comm system. "What in the hell is going on here?" Jayce asked himself, standing looking at his hand, with nothing in it. Now, the comm station had switched to yet another place on the bridge. Jayce pulled out a small metal object out of his coat pocket.
"Doctor Jayce Wilder, Admiral Logs. After an experement to span void space, something went wrong. I awoke in the engine room after a brief emergency in the engine room. I appear to be the only biological creature on board with several phasing in and out of existance. The strange "shadow" lifeforms appearing on the sensors are a strange mist like race that appeared to me as a mirror image of my self, which simply smiled and dissappeared down another hallway. Not other contact has occured. Note: Once creature left, I noted a large increase of my energy. A energy devouring race?
"Another Avalanche is in a ghostly form beginning to form into a full real time vessel. Stations onboard the current vessel I am in are switching places each time I attempt to use one. Possible hypothisis explains several thoughts coming into my mind. One, the race is not allowing me to contact others on the vessel for fear of being discovered. Two, the resulting subspace damage to the vessel has caused a temporal rift on board this vessel and possibly other 'copys' that might appear next or around our current location and vessel. End."
He placed the recorder back in his pocket and looked around. Sitting on the Fleet Admirals Commanding chair, a blaster had mysteriously appeared on the arm rest. Jayce grabbed the blaster off the captains chair, then he opened the door to the bridge slowly and looked through, walking slowly down the hallway to find anyone on board.
By now the ghostly form of the second Avalanche was all but solid, an occasional shimmer seeming to quake through its form. Marcus stood by the viewport, stroking his beard of several days. He was beginning to piece together a theory. Whatever had happened back in Omicron Alpha had thrown the Avalanche and quite possibly the research station, the Pasteur and the Sygnus, through the void and into a different dimension. He had no idea where the other ships were, but what he was looking at had to be either a duplicate of the Avalanche or the same ship, but sucked out of its own dimension. Neither option sounded particularly good, as any manipulation with time / space was bad. Marcus had taken a big risk when asking Professor Wilcox to create a device that would manipulate time and space and it seemed he had made a bad choice.
"I need to get to the bridge," Marcus turned around. Ensign Kerry ODonnell was standing by him, still dazed and confused about the entire situation. Her and several others had materialized inside the mess room since Marcus and Ensign Powell had blocked themselves inside. Marcus figured it was just a matter of time before the entire crew materialized. They seemed to be falling out of sub-space one at a time.
"Once I'm on the bridge," Marcus continued, "I can make a general shipwide announcement and try and get order back to the ship."
"But how do you plan on getting back?" Powell asked, walking over to him. "With those wraith things out there its going to be difficult, we still dont know what they do to you."
"Well so far none of them have managed to get in, when you sealed the door I activated the defense grid for this sector, none have gotten in since have they,"
"Well no Admiral, but..." Powell looked confused.
"The defense grid includes a low grade forcefield, its designed as an oxygen seal in case this section is breeched, but it may somehow deter the wraiths from manifesting themselves."
"An interesting theory Admiral, I was thinking along similar lines myself." Doctor Harry James nodded his head as he joined the conversation. The Bretonian Doctor was part of Wilcox's team and had opted to ride the Avalanche through the rift with the Admiral. It seemed he had been in the crew quarter's mess when the accident had occurred. "If you are right then something has to be done about this immediately, such damage to the space / time continuum could spell disaster for all the dimensions involved."
"Agreed, I'm heading for the bridge, Powell, O'Donnell, you're with me, Doctor you can come too. I want the rest of you to remain here until I give you further notice. I have an idea as to how to get rid of the wraiths, until I bring this plan into effect, keep the defense grid on."
Marcus turned and made for the door, the others in tow.
"Alright, make sure you are armed. I shot at one before, it didn't harm it but it seemed to scare it."
The two Ensign's nodded, drawing their blasters. The Doctor was unarmed however and looked at Marcus with a raised eyebrow.
"Just stay close to me," Marcus then punched in the code to lower the defenses and opened the door. The corridor ahead of them was empty, but Marcus' palm computer read the wraith's specral life signs as close by. Indicating for the others to follow, he entered the corridor and sealed the bulkhead behind him.
The wraith had almost manifested its self by the time Marcus reached the entrance to the bridge access elevator. He turned around and fired in its general direction with his blaster. The air was rent by a high pitched wail once more as the creature began to angrily zoom about the corridor. Marcus punched in the access code and the doors to the elevator slid open neatly. One of them was waiting on the other side, its featureless face hovering directly in front of his.
The air suddenly felt like a lead weight on his shoulders as the creature advanced on him. The walls seemed to fade into black and white as its face fell before his. His eyes widened as things began to slowly disappear. A sharp impact from behind him tore the creature from him and colour seemed to swirl back into being in a blinding flash. Doctor James had tackled him from behind, breaking the wraith's concentration.
Marcus turned and thanked the Doctor, who sat on his behind gasping for breath. The air was still thick and sickly and Marcus was finding it hard to breathe. He looked down the corridor and saw Powell leaning heavily on the wall, losing the strength to hold up her blaster.
Marcus forced himself to his feet and stumbled towards her. O'Donnell cried out to his left, clawing at her throat as one of the wraiths bore down on her. The colour faded from her face as the glint in her eyes disappeared. She collapsed to the floor as Marcus stumbled by. He grabbed Powell by the wrist and turned back for the elevator. Doctor James was hunched in the corner of the small compartment, clutching at his own throat.
"Get away from him!" Marcus yelled with what strength he had, firing his blaster into the elevator. The wraith screamed and swooped out of the life compartment, turning for him. He handed his blaster to Powell and urged her on towards the elevator. Using the remainder of his strength, he scooped up the prone form of O'Donnell and made for the lift. Just as he fell past the entrance line, Powell slammed her fist on the access pad and the doors slid shut.
"Bridge level," She gasped into the comm. Straight away the air seemed to lighten as they were whisked away from the wraiths. Marcus deposited O'Donnell on the floor and took a deep breath. James reached across and pulled O'Donnell over onto her back. Her face was placid and her eyes were staring directly ahead of her.
"****, they got her,"
"Sucked the fracking life right out of her," Marcus sighed, dropping to the floor of the elevator. Ensign Powell just turned away.
The elevator reached the bridge and the doors slid open in turn. Marcus quickly checked his palm computer and then stood up.
"There aren't any in the bridge section, they must have gone to gorge themselves on the crew who have materialized. Quick, leave O'Donnell, theres little we can do for her at the moment."
They all stepped out and made for the bridge entrance. Powell handed Marcus his blaster back and he thanked her.
The single door slid open and the three stepped onto the bridge. It was quiet, as it had been when Marcus had come around, except now there were a number of forms appearing on the view screen. For one, the aft end of the other Avalanche stretched out ahead; now fully materialized.
The shaded form of a pearly white Bretonian destroyer was also taking form just off the prow. Marcus quickly made his way across to the con and began manipulating the controls.
"The Pasteur," He quietly muttered to himself. "Come on, come on, Doctor Maxthor?"
The con yielded no response and he smacked it with the bottom of his fist in frustration. Gathering himself, he turned to the others.
"Ensign, take the con, Doctor are you familiar with a starship's controls?"
"Not particularly..." James stammered, looking about him.
"Good, sit yourself in that seat over there." Marcus pointed at the communications console.
He walked across to his command chair and sat down in it, taking a moment to compose himself. He took a deep breath and looked directly at the screen.
"Con, broadcast this message on a system wide channel. Doctor, what I need you to do is flick the switch under the glowing icon."
"There are no glowing icons," James protested.
"No, but there will be soon, theoretically." Marcus straightened himself up and looked directly at the screen.
"To all surrounding ships, if you can hear this please respond. This is Admiral Marcus Scarman of the LNS Avalanche. Please, to anyone listening, this is the Liberty dreadnought LNS Avalanche. We are all here because of an incident involving a time / space manipulator. I think I can piece together what has gone wrong, but I'll need your help. If you are listening to this message, please..."
"Admiral," Doctor James broke off Marcus' message. "One of the icons is flashing,"
Marcus' heart jumped into his throat. "On screen..."
I re-entered the bridge and sat down. No contacts on board yet, only the strange mist like creatures that seemed to drain me of energy. I wiped off my brow as I started noticing yet another ship materalizing out of nothing. I shook my head and began a scan of the ship. The sensors read it as a Bretonian Destroyer. Odd, because Bretonia was wiped out by the Zeta for the most part, as was Kusari, however I read no Kusari vessels on sensors.
The comm light started to blink rapidly and he pressed the accept button.
"To all surrounding ships, if you can hear this please respond. This is Admiral Marcus Scarman of the LNS Avalanche. Please, to anyone listening, this is the Liberty dreadnought LNS Avalanche. We are all here because of an incident involving a time / space manipulator. I think I can piece together what has gone wrong, but I'll need your help. If you are listening to this message, please..."
What in the...
"This is Doctor Admiral Jayce Wilder of the LNS Avalanche. The commanding officer is Fleet Admiral Marcus Michaels, now be in his absence. I'm going to require full on access codes followed by your 22 pin access code to verify your identity."
I stopped my self. How was it that there are not one but two Avalanche Liberty destroyers? It would make sense that a possible other alternate one would exist in another realm and possibly another Jayce Wilder...
I shuddered at the thought of another me walking around in the same vicinity I was in.
"Belay that sir. As I said before this is Doctor Admiral Jayce Wilder of the LNS Avalanche from another realm I'm assuming. I have been in second command for two years. The ship has taken heavy damage from our demension where Nomads and Zeta have litterally torn the Sirius sector apart. Bretonia has become no more and so has Kusari from the resulting violence. We were on a mission to destroy the sun in Omicron Alpha where the core of the Nomad/Zeta fighting originated with a Zeta artifact. However once the object was launched into the sun, subspace began to warp and tear. Sensors lost a lot of data, but it managed to keep a majority of the data. At this moment, I am the only one onboard with a few "shadow" lifesigns which I have ruled to be strange mist like creatures and several biological lifesigns fading in and out of existance.
"Whatever is happening I believe that your "manipulator" has caused it. It would be best if we were able to shut it down so we can all return to where we came from, but I'm sure as most scientific devices as this "manipulator" are, it will require signifigant data to be able to find out what went wrong and how, all the while dodging these mist creatures."
Marcus listened to the man speak intently. He faintly remembered the name Wilder from his crew's dossier; had he been a Doctor? Something along the lines of a medical profession Marcus was sure. He returned from his thoughts and looked at the main screen.
"I have confirmed your status Admiral and scanned your ship; it appears you've been through quite a lot. And I am sorry to hear about the state of affairs you have just left, I wouldn't be too surprised if you didn't want to return to such dire times to be frank. However I think you are right. I and what personnel I have on board have come to a similar conclusion."
Marcus took a deep breath and chose his next few words very carefully. "I have been a fool Admiral Wilder, I too have encountered the Zeta, and it lead to my people being dragged through the void into a different dimension. I sought to find them, and failed. It is my belief that parallel's such as yourself are being plucked out of their respectful dimensions as we speak and thrown here. Whatever is causing this must be beyond human comprehension, however I believe there is a way to stop it."
"I befriended a Doctor Wilcox, back in my 'native dimension'," As he spoke, he realized the impossibility of what he was saying and took a second's pause. "Yes, excuse me. Back in my native dimension, Doctor Wilcox was a renowned physicist in Bretonia, he agreed to help develop what he called a 'rift manipulator', a device strong enough to mould the fabrics of space and time. It was loosely based from technology we obtained from the Zeta in previous battles, however it was a mere childs toy in comparison. It appears something has gone wrong in the making and thrown us out here."
"Interesting Admiral, very interesting," Wilder replied via the ship to ship channel. "So what you are saying is, you dragged us all here. Well I don't know whether to thank you or blast you out of the sky. Naturally, my ship is in no condition to do the latter, and I am grateful to be out of that hell zone, so I believe thanks are in order."
The man gave Marcus a brief smile, indicating his respect. But the smile was gone as soon as it came. Wilder was looking just out of the view screen's field of vision.
"Hold on a moment Admiral, I have a development here."
Marcus was about to ask what when the air began to shimmer close by. At first, Marcus figured the wraiths had found their way onto the bridge, but when he quickly checked his palm computer, he noticed that the signal was a lot stronger than those of the wraiths. More crew? Marcus stood up and turned to the viewscreen.
"As am I Admiral, I advise you to check the life sign vitals for the bridge. If there are any other human-like vitals other than your own, there is no cause for alarm. If what you have is a wraith forming, I suggest you get out of there fast."
Putting the channel on a temporary hold, Marcus turned to the distortion. A faint humanoid shape was beginning to take form on the higher part of the decking.
"Another crew member," Powell said as she got up out of her chair.
"It would seem so," Marcus agreed. He stood himself directly in front of the newcomer, waiting patiently for them to materialize fully. As he did so, another figure began to shimmer to his right, and then another behind that.
"I think everyone is finally dropping out of the void," Marcus said, keeping his eyes on the figure.
As the air seemed to mould and twist, the man before him finally took shape and his features began to show. Marcus smiled slightly as he recognized his old friend. Soon enough, Rear Admiral Lucas Anderson stood before him, looking shocked and confused.
"Relax Lucas," Marcus stepped up to his friend and smiled, "I'll explain everything."