Chapter 36: Right Now, in a Galaxy Far, Far Away..
Cronus leaned back in his chair, arms crossed behind his head. He was currently taking a break from his duties, and relaxing in his office. He gazed out of a window, looking at the darkness of the Delkar System. Once a vibrant and bright area of the universe, the Morai had harvested its stars to power their weaponry. Now it was just a system of lifeless planets, the inhabitants either evacuated or dead along with their world. As the Vealox would have simply put it, it was all just “Another group of casualties of war, and nothing more.”
Cronus watched as a streak of light speed past the vast window in his office on the Equinox, the new flag ship of the Spiral Knights’ spaceship armada which he commanded. It named after a famous general in the Spiral Army, who had led an army to victory against the Morai during the Liberation of Ilsola. The Equinox’s predecessor, the Skylark, had gone missing in action two years earlier, exploring a previously undiscovered galaxy. The last they had heard from it was a garbled message, the words unrecognizable but the screams and explosions in the background very clear. Had the Skylark been attacked, or had something else happened?
The leader of the Spiral Knights, Nick, had sent several ships to investigate, but they turned up with nothing. They couldn’t spare any more ships to search for the missing Skylark, as they were in the middle of a war. Also, for some strange reason, they weren’t able to track the coordinates of where the ship’s final message had come from. For all they knew, they could be anywhere in the entire galaxy. So, they had to close the case and reluctantly leave the Skylark to whatever fate had befallen her. They decided to call the galaxy the ‘Skylark Galaxy,’ in memory of the lost ship.
Hydra Drones. Cronus thought as more streaks of light passed by. Destructive little robotic ships created by the Vealox. Probably headed back to a cruiser to report the Spiral Knights’ presence in the Vealox’s territory. Not that they were planning to stay long. They were just there to do a quick survey on the status of the Delkar System. It hadn’t changed much since they’d last been there. It was still dark. And cold. And dead. Cronus didn’t understand why the Vealox wanted to stake a claim to this patch of the universe. Maybe they had created some sort of strategic purpose for doing so. Or maybe they were just stupid.
There was a knock on the metal door to his office. Cronus blinked, his thoughts suddenly interrupted.
“Come in.” Cronus said, and he heard the door hiss and slide into the wall. Eurydice, Cronus’ 2nd-in-command and backup pilot, walked in.
“We’ve finished our sweep.” She said. “We’re almost ready to enter hyperspace. Just thought you should know.” Cronus nodded.
“Very good timing. I just say some Hydra Drones fly past. We wouldn’t want to be here when the cruiser they belong to arrives.” He pushed himself out of his chair. “I suppose I should get back to my position in the bridge. I’m already breaking protocol as it is, letting someone else pilot the ship for a while. Never should have done that. Too many things could have gone wrong.”
“With all due respect, sir-”
“You know I hate being called that, Eury.” It was true. Cronus preferred to call everyone, including himself, by their true names, not by their title. In his mind, ranks and titles would give people the thought that they were superior to other Knights, due to their high rank. Or make people with a low rank feel inferior. Sure, ‘sir’ wasn’t exactly a rank of any kind, but Cronus still didn’t feel comfortable being called it.
“Sorry si- er, Cronus. Force of habit. But as I was saying, with all due respect, I think Boswick’s doing a fine job piloting this ship. Maybe even better than you.”
“Whatever you say.”
He and Eurydice walked out of his office and into a wide corridor. They walked down it until they reached a glass-like door at the end of the corridor. Cronus waved his hand over a sensor, and the door slid into the wall. There was a glowing panel inside the small alcove, featuring a 3-D map of the Equinox. They stepped inside, the door closing behind them, and Cronus touched the panel, picking where he wanted to go on the Equinox. There was a blinding flash of light, and the door slid open. The pair stepped out into the bridge of the ship, where several dozen Knights were busy monitoring computers and pressing buttons.
“Teleportation. You gotta love it.” Cronus said to no one in particular. He walked over to the front of the bridge. There was a pair of chairs with buttons and levers on the armrests and a computer panel in front of them. with one of them currently occupied. The Knight sitting in it was currently busy moving his right hand around a touchpad, steering the ship that way, and fingering several buttons with the other. Eurydice took a seat in the unoccupied chair, leaving Cronus standing.
The Knight in the other chair, Boswick, didn’t seem to notice Cronus standing beside him. His fingers were dancing across the touchpad, steering the ship, but other than that, he seemed to be frozen. Cronus waited a few seconds, but obtaining no visible hint that he’d been noticed, moved to the front of Boswick. He bent down and stared into his eyes. They were blank, not in the ‘my-mind-is-drifting-off-into-nothing’ sort of way, but sort of in the ‘I’m-busy-with-something-so-I’m-trying-to-ignore-everything-else’ kind of blank.
Cronus banged his impatient fist on the panel in front of Boswick’s face.
“Oi. Boswick. Wake up.”
Boswick started, then looked up at him. “Oh, hey there, Cronus.” He said cheerfully. “Didn’t see you there. I was too engrossed with this ship. Handles like a dream. It’s amazing. I was just thinking about how awesome it’d be if I commanded one of these. Anyway, you need something?”
“Yes. My chair.” Cronus replied bluntly.
Boswick stared blankly at Cronus. After several seconds, realization dawned on him.
“Oh, you mean this chair!” He quickly got out of the chair he was sitting in.
Cronus rolled his eyes. “Yes, that chair.” He sat down in it, and put his hands onto the touchpad and buttons.
“Sorry Cronus.”
Cronus ignored him. Looking over a Eurydice, he nodded his head. Eurydice leaned forward and pressed a button, activating the ship’s intercom.
All right folks, this is Eurydice speaking. We’re just about ready to enter hyperspace, and return to Isora. I suggest you all brace yourselves. Hold on to something that is bolted to the ship.
With that, Cronus pressed several buttons and moved a finger forward on the touchpad. A glowing screen appeared in front of the Equinox, and the ship shot through it, the hyperspace window closing behind them. Boswick tumbled over as the sudden movement overthrew his balance. After a few seconds, he got up from the floor, rubbing his head.
“Ow… I hate it when that happens. We need more powerful inertia dampeners.”
Eurydice rolled her eyes. “Or you could have just held on to something like I’d suggested.”
“You could’ve at least given me two seconds to do so. You don’t tell people to suddenly grab something so they won’t fall over and immediately afterwards topple them before they’re ready.”
Eurydice rolled her eyes again.
Boswick threw his hands into the air. “I suppose you think I can’t try and win an argument with you, am I right? Have it your way. I’ll be checking the results of our scan.” With those parting words, he walked away and into the Teleporter Eurydice and Cronus had arrived in. There was a flash of light, and he was gone.
Cronus looked over at Eurydice.
“He has a point, you know.”
“Shut up.”
Cronus continued to control the ship in relative silence for the next few minutes, save for the sounds of controls beeping and other Knights shuffling around as they worked at their stations. It was more or less broken by a flash of light and the hissing sound of a door opening. Cronus spun his chair around and saw Boswick stepping out of the Teleporter.
“So, what did you make of the scan results?” Cronus asked.
“I found something quite… Interesting, to say the least.” Boswick said. “I need to show you something.”
Cronus looked over his shoulder at Eurydice, who was listening in on their conversation. “Take over for me, will you?” Eurydice nodded, and placed her hands on her own set of controls. Cronus got out of his chair.
“All right. Where do we need to go?” He asked Boswick. Boswick headed into the Teleporter, and Cronus followed. Boswick pressed a section of the ship on the map, and they stepped out of the Teleporter into a different room, where a group of Knights were huddled over a bunch of computers. The pair walked over to a computer screen, which was showing a jumble of gibberish.
“What’s this supposed to be?” Cronus inquired.
“We picked this up during our scan.” Boswick explained. “I haven’t been able to make heads or tails of it, but it seems to be some sort of repeating message. See how it starts here-” Boswick pointed to a part of the wall of text – “-and ends here-” He pointed to another section- “- then repeats?”
Cronus nodded.
“Well, whatever this is, we’ve managed to pinpoint its source.” Boswick walked over to a different screen, showing a map of the known universe. “It comes from here.” He touched a section of the map, and it zoomed in on it, now showing a close-up of a galaxy.
“And this is?...” Cronus asked.
Boswick cleared his throat. “Well.. Let me put it this way. I suppose you’ve heard of the disappearance of the Skylark?”
“Of course I have. Who hasn’t?”
“Well, this is none other than the very same galaxy where they were last heard from. The Skylark Galaxy.”
“Wait, you don’t mean that-”
“Hold on, I’m not done yet.” Boswick touched the screen again, zooming in closer and closer until a single planet and its moon dominated the screen. “To be precise, this is the exact planet where the message came from. We’re busy trying to find out as much as we can about this planet, although information is limited. However, we have fou-”
Suddenly, one of the other Knights in the room called out to them. “Hey! I think we’ve figured out what the message says!” Boswick and Cronus rushed over to their computer, a group of Knights already crowded around it.
The original message in the gibberish language was on the computer screen. “The dialect the message was seems to be some kind of variation of our alphabet.” The Knight explained. “We were able to translate it.” He touched the computer, and the letters changed into words that they recognized.
SAVE US
The message kept repeating itself, never ending.
“What in the world?’ Cronus muttered.
“It’s obviously some sort of distress call.” Boswick said. “From who, we don’t know, but it might be worth checking out.”
Cronus stared at the message again for several quiet moments. “Do you… Do you think it might be the crew of the Skylark?”
“It’s possible, although I don’t understand why they’d use that strange variation of our language. It doesn’t add up.”
The Knights stood there, looking at the computer screen.
“We should probably tell the Council of Isora about this…” Cronus said.
Suddenly, the computer screen flickered. The message disappeared.
“What the heck?” One of the Knights exclaimed.
The screen blinked out, as did every other compute in the room.
“…”
‘Power failure?” Boswick said.
The computers flared on again, but this time, they were replaced by a pulsing purple eye. It glowed with a strange light, and a message appeared on the screens.
THE SWARM SEES YOU.
Then the computers exploded.
LIVE
Alright guys, I've got good news and bad news...
Good news, the next chapter should be out by this weekend.
Bad news is, it would be out today if I hadn't watched a video of Ghosts in the Machine and realized a major huge flaw in my chapter 36...
/headdesk
DON'T GIVE UP ON THIS YET. I STILL HAVE GREAT PLANS FOR IT.