Serial story

Blank Space Adventure (Serial Story) — Chapter 4

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Chapter 1 | Chapter 2 | Chapter 3 | Chapter 4 | Chapter 5 | Chapter 6 | Chapter 7 | Chapter 8 | Chapter 9 | Chapter 10 | Chapter 11 | Chapter 12

Chapter 4: Finding out we’re not alone

The corridor on the other side of the hatch lit up as we walked with some sort of fluorescent light, harsh and bright but illuminating everything. There were small portholes that let us look outside that must have been shielded because we could look at the sun without burning our eyes.

I couldn’t help looking out every one of them. Space is beautiful. It’s the reason I saw the comet coming toward us. “Run!” I screamed.

To everyone’s credit, they listened to me and we ran. We barely managed to close the hatch at the end when the comet destroyed the corridor. It smashed apart like it was made from cardboard.

“Look,” said T and he pointed to the habitat we’d been in. Untethered from the main station, it flew away for a few seconds before the engines I hadn’t noticed before kicked in and it flew away from the sun, and us.

W threw her curly brown hair back and laughed. “Wow. We chose the wrong option.”

We were in a small airlock. When we opened the other hatch we found ourselves in a massive cargo area. It was filled with crates, boxes, even a few small space ships. I didn’t see the rows upon rows of stasis pods until we’d walked half-way to the next spoke that would lead to another habitat. Going to the closest one, I saw it had someone inside.    

“Oh my goodness,” said S as she looked down the row. “That’s easily two thousand people, assuming they are all full, and there aren’t more on the levels above us.” She pointed at a map on the wall that showed there were nine more levels like this one. 

I pointed at the level below us and said, “That’s a docking ring. There could be ships down there that we could use to get out of here.”

A gestured at the small ships near us and asked, “Why not use that?”

With an annoyed sigh, T replied, “Those are short range shuttles. They won’t be able to escape the sun’s gravity.”

“I still think it’s worth a try,” A said with a scowl.

“We can’t leave all these people to fry in the sun!” exclaimed W. “We have to find a way to save them.” 

Nodding, I agreed. “We can’t wake them. They don’t have these suits and would need food, drink, etc. Let’s figure out how to save them first.”

“We need to find out if the station is capable of moving on its own,” T said with authority. With a little bashfulness, he added, “But I can’t read any of this.” He pointed at the map. “We need to find a computer terminal and assess the damage.”

“Maybe we should split up? Some of us go find a computer and others go check for ships?” S suggested.

I was going to argue but the rest of the group agreed. T pointed to me and said, “You can read this stuff. You and I should find a computer.” He gestured at the massive platform that worked like an elevator from the docking ring up to the top cargo bay. “I assume that’s an elevator?”

“I can also read whatever language this is. l’ll check for any ships,” W said. 

A looked grumpy and said, “I’ll go with you.”

When we all looked at S, she bounced in place a little and said, “I’ll check to see if any of the other habitats are still intact. Maybe we could get everyone in one and fly away?”

“I wish we had radios,” I said.

T looked around and went to a crate that was marked for Cygnus 3. He pulled off a board and reached in, taking out a box. He handed each of us an earpiece from the box when he returned.

“How did you know that was there?” I asked incredulously.

Shrugging, T replied, “I just knew they were. I could feel them there.”

“Cool!” exclaimed S and it echoed through the earpiece. “Like how you can tell that the hull is made with carbotanium-aluminide alloy arranged in a honeycomb form.” When everyone gave her a blank look, she added, “Just me then.”

We split up, and as T and I took the elevator up, I could see that not only was each level full but levels five to nine had only stasis pods. That meant there were over fifty-thousand people on board. 

“Why are we the only ones awake?” I asked aloud.

T seemed to think about it and said, “The pod people have regular clothes, which means we were either being used as workers or test subjects. Maybe there were more of us in the habitats?”

“That makes sense, but if this is a slaver ship, where are all the slavers?” My question was answered when we reached level ten. 

The bay was just as large and just as full but instead of cargo or stasis pods there were row upon row of robot suits. They were so tightly packed, I couldn’t count how many. Each of them was connected by a hose to a set of large vats filled with black liquid.

“The Andromeda Syndicate!” I said too loudly. Nothing moved despite my volume.

Looking pale, T said, “They’re intergalactic slavers and black market dealers. A hive mind of fungus that uses robots to interact with other races.”

“The fungus is usually white,” I observed and then added, “I hate how these memories come up only when we’re confronted with them instead of when it would be helpful.”

The black goo churned and sputtered. It looked like it was trying to get to the robots but someone, or something, had turned off the tubes.

“We should get out of here before they activate,” I suggested.

We ran for where the map had said the main computer was and found a door that was splattered with black goo and dried blood. The door handle had icicle-like dried drips of the mixture.

“I really don’t want to touch that,” I said.

Then something big hit the door from the other side.

Read Chapter 5 (May 2026)

While you wait for the next chapter, check out the previous serial stories:

Blank Space Adventure (Serial Story) — Chapter 3

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Chapter 1 | Chapter 2 | Chapter 3 | Chapter 4 | Chapter 5 | Chapter 6 | Chapter 7 | Chapter 8 | Chapter 9 | Chapter 10 | Chapter 11 | Chapter 12

Chapter 3: Learning Secrets on a Mountain 

The car-sized luminescent bats didn’t seem interested in us at all; instead they swooped by us and started grabbing wargs that were hiding in the forest. 

We continued to climb up the mountain, doing our best to not attract attention. By the time we reached the top, the bats had left and the sun was rising again. The top was unnaturally flat, about the size of a hockey rink, and dotted with trees that hummed with electricity.

“That’s not good. No no no, not good at all.” The voice surprised me and it took a moment for me to see the woman who was speaking. She was moving quickly and seemed to be building something out of sticks, vines, and rocks.

“What’s not good?” I asked.

She didn’t even look at me as she answered, “Our rotation is speeding up and the sun is getting closer.” She was short and rotund, with skin that was the colour of cream limestone with dark brown marbling, like she was made of the stone itself. Her hair was granite grey and her eyes were pure gold. She wore the same uniform as we did with an S on it.

“How is that possible? Shouldn’t we be feeling a change in temperature?” W asked, pushing her curly brown hair behind her ears.

“You’re right. Something is wrong. None of this makes sense. Who are all of you?” S asked.

“We have no idea. Do you have any memories of before waking up in this place?” T asked, his voice tense.

Still putting together her device, S replied with, “Nope.”

I was the first to realize what she was building. “Why are you making a trebuchet?”

“I think the sky is fake.”

T scoffed and said, “You’re planning on shooting the sky?”

“Yup!” She put the final touches on the small siege engine.

“At that size, you could get the same distance with a bow,” T replied. 

She shrugged and replied, “I don’t know how to make a bow or shoot it. It was this or a cannon and I can’t find any saltpeter. Stand back.”

She picked up a large rock, the size of a basketball, and put in the sling of the weapon. Why did I know what basketball was and not where I was from? She shouldn’t have been able to pick it up; I would have assumed T would have trouble with it.

Pulling on the release, the counterweight fell and the whole thing swung. The rock flew into the air and just as it hit the apex of its arc, it hit something invisible and fell straight down.

“It’s a dome,” W said, her mouth open in awe. “Where the hell are we, Everdome?”

“No. That was too close to be one of those domes and it made a noise like metal.” I knew the distance from the ground to the top of a dome in Everdome and knew what Everdome was but not my name or home? That’s when I realized that our memories were selectively wiped to remove anything personal. I knew about Everdome because it wasn’t my place of origin, I knew about basketball and the sound of metal because it wasn’t a hint to who I was. Maybe I could use the lack of knowledge to help paint a picture of myself.

I hadn’t noticed A had left, but he ran toward us through the trees and shouted, “We’re on a space station!”

We followed him through the thick pine-like trees and when we reached a clearing on the other side we were struck by a horrifying site. We were definitely on some sort of space craft. There were four other domes like ours attached with grey metal spokes to a central city of spires that looked like different sized knitting needles tied together by metal wire. The part that sent a cold shiver down my spine was that the closest dome was cracked and parts of the habitat were being sucked out into space. I couldn’t see the other domes well enough to know if they’d met the same fate.

“There aren’t any lights,” A said. “There should be lights in the central spire and at the docking bays.”

T grunted in a concerned way, it almost reminded me of someone, before saying, “The ship must be working on emergency power.”

“Well that explains it, time to panic!” S sat down and I swear she sank a few inches into the stone.

“No panicking yet S. A mentioned docking bays. We need to get to a ship,” W said with the confidence of someone who’s been through a lot of dire situations. 

“That’s all the way across the dome,” A whined, running his hands through his silver hair.

“Then I guess we should get started,” I replied as chipperly as possible.

The trek down the mountain was worse than the trek up. This side was steeper and the sun was setting every hour making it impossible to get used to the light or dark. It also felt like every step weighed different amounts and like I was constantly dizzy.

When we reached the bottom we saw the giant bats swirling around the mountain and hitting into each other. “The artificial gravity is having a hard time dealing with the stations spinning. It’s messing with our balance,“ I said, feeling confident about my deduction.

“Won’t matter in about twenty hours,’ said S. When we all stared at her she sighed and said, “We’re heading toward the sun. Didn’t I mention that earlier?” 

Without speaking, we all moved toward the end of the dome, where the spoke should have an entrance. We reached it quicker than I’d expected considering how far it looked from the mountain and how every few steps we stumbled. 

“Why aren’t I tired?” asked W. “I should be huffing and puffing? Are we in a simulation?”

A replied, “I think it’s the clothes. They are often used by slavers to keep the slaves fed and strong but it takes a toll and can lead to heart attacks or strokes.” He paused with wide eyes and said, “I didn’t know I knew that until you asked.”

That made sense. Something about the whole situation felt familiar and wrong at the same time. It was like having something right on the tip of my tongue.

“We’re on a slaver ship, or station, that’s drifting toward the sun, and no one remembers anything?” T asked, sounding more like he was asking for pushups. 

S nodded and asked, “Is it now time for panic?”

Read Chapter 4

While you wait for the next chapter, check out the previous serial stories:

Blank Space Adventure (Serial Story) — Chapter 2

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Chapter 1 | Chapter 2 | Chapter 3 | Chapter 4 | Chapter 5 | Chapter 6 | Chapter 7 | Chapter 8 | Chapter 9 | Chapter 10 | Chapter 11 | Chapter 12

Chapter 2: Experiencing Night and Day

“These things shouldn’t exist,” I said to the Wargs.

“The leaves are pink and the moss is orange,” T said with a hint of a smile. He had his makeshift spear pointed at one of the dog-like creatures.

I slowly reached down for a stick, rock, or twig to defend myself with when T made a loud bellowing noise and moved a little toward one of the Wargs. I swear it laughed at him.

The light changed suddenly. It went from daylight to night in a blink and suddenly the forest was alive with clicking and chirps. 

The wargs howled and ran away.

I turned to T and said, “Anything that scares those things is bad news for us.”

“It… It laughed at me,” T said before adding, “How rude.” He put his spear on his shoulder like a baseball player. “You’re right. Let’s find some shelter.”

There was a large hill or small mountain in the distance and we both decided to head that way, hoping that we wouldn’t encounter anything else.

It was surprisingly easy to see despite the sun having set. When I looked up at the moon, I was so shocked by the quantity of stars I stopped walking.

“Why did you stop?” T said and then followed my gaze. He swore in his language and I didn’t blame him. 

The stars should have been like pinpricks in a canopy; instead I was treated to glorious lights that almost merged together. I wished I could remember why this was making me feel so awestruck. Was this stranger than the night sky where I was from? 

“We should keep moving,” I said, feeling very small and very lost.

The hill turned out to be bigger, and farther than we expected. I glanced up every once in a while and noticed the stars were moving. 

“How long have we been walking?” asked T.

I shrugged and said, “I have no idea. Maybe an hour. Why? Do you need a break?”

He laughed and replied, “No, but either the sky’s broken or it’s already dawn.”

“How can the sky be broken?” I asked and shuddered. Something about that sentence scared me and I hated not knowing why.

The sun rose and we heard a scream. Both of us, without hesitation, ran towards the scream. That told me we were both the type of people who wanted to help, or needed to sate our curiosity. 

I was expecting to find someone being attacked but instead we found two people, in the same mustard yellow prison outfits, writhing on the ground. It was the same thing that had happened to us when we’d tried to access some sort of powers, which meant the two were going to be okay.

The first was a beautiful brunette with pale skin and a W on her shirt. She radiated power and my instincts told me that she was dangerous. I didn’t want to startle her even if she couldn’t access her power yet.

The second was a white man with silver hair and an A on his shirt. He felt powerful, but in a completely different way. As he lay on the ground, I saw tiny sparks of electricity shooting from his body.

When the two stopped flopping around, T demanded, “Who are you?”

“I have no clue and I really hate that,” said the woman. 

“I woke up with no memory,” said the man. “I started walking through the forest. I figured I could see better from the top of the mountain. Then I walked into her and we both fell to the ground.”

I offered the woman my hand and she gave me an annoyed glance before saying, “If me touching him caused us to fall to the ground, why would it be different for you?”

Shrugging, I said, “Can’t know if we don’t try.”

She took my hand and the same pain as when T and I had tried to use our powers wracked my body. This time I stayed standing. The pain wasn’t as overwhelming as the first time.

When I opened my eyes the woman was staring at me like I was a puzzle she could put together. “Did you know that it would be easier the second time?”

“No, but knowledge requires repetition.”

She stood up and the four of us sized each other up, trying to find some sort of answers. The woman was the first to speak. “I think A’s idea of going up the mountain for a better view is a good idea.”

“What, just because we all have memory loss and matching outfits, you think we should travel together?” T said.

The woman stood tall and said, “Yes. We’ll live longer together than apart.”

“Dude, she’s got a point,” added A as he dusted the dirt off his pants.

T waited for me and when I nodded, sighed and said, “Sure, why not.”

“Dude! You’re a suspicious little man,” A laughed and followed W, who’d already started walking up the mountain.

“Just because you’re paranoid, doesn’t mean someone isn’t out to get you,” mumbled T as he joined the group. 

I followed behind and was hit with a sense of dread. Something, beyond the weird world and lack of memory, wasn’t right.

The feeling didn’t go away but also didn’t get any stronger. I wondered if I was an anxious person or if I had some sort of magical danger radar.

As we climbed, the light changed again, and W asked, “I feel like we’ve been climbing for hours. Why aren’t I hungry or thirsty?” 

It was a good question, but we didn’t get a chance to think about it before we heard the sound of wings. From above came a cloud of luminescent bats. They quickly got bigger and bigger until it was obvious that they were larger than we were and there were hundreds of them.

Read Chapter 3

While you wait for the next chapter, check out the previous serial stories:

New Serial Story

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Hello Friends, Family, and Fans;

Friday, we debuted my new serial story, Blank Space Adventure. It’s a type of story that I’ve been wanting to tell for a long time but hadn’t found a place for it yet. It’s partially inspired by the beginning of Nine Princes in Amber by Roger Zelazny, Dark Matter, and The Hollow.

Waking up in a strange forest with no memories, M needs to find others who are like her. Nothing is as it seems and no one can be trusted in this science-fiction/fantasy adventure. Firmly set in the Aetherverse built by Jen and Éric Desmarais, this story will keep you guessing while introducing a new threat.

Chapter 1 | Chapter 2 | Chapter 3 | Chapter 4 | Chapter 5 | Chapter 6 | Chapter 7 | Chapter 8 | Chapter 9 | Chapter 10 | Chapter 11 | Chapter 12

Hope you like it!

Éric

Blank Space Adventure (Serial Story) — Chapter 1

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Chapter 1 | Chapter 2 | Chapter 3 | Chapter 4 | Chapter 5 | Chapter 6 | Chapter 7 | Chapter 8 | Chapter 9 | Chapter 10 | Chapter 11 | Chapter 12

Chapter 1: Lost in the Jungle

The sun shone through pink leaves. I wondered where I was. Looking at my dark brown hands and hideous mustard yellow shirt and pants, I wondered who I was.

I was wearing no jewelry and had no tattoos that I could see.

There was something strange about the sun. Its light felt filtered. I could feel its warmth on my bare head but it felt muted. Despite that, the temperature was comfortable and the orange moss felt soft under my naked feet.

I felt like I was heading somewhere and I had to do something important, but I couldn’t remember.

A bird made a horrific shriek at a distance and I almost jumped out of my skin.

I felt my face and body, deciding I was definitely human or close enough to pass. That was an interesting thought, and it meant being not human was an option. I was definitely shaped like a woman, from the feel of my face and lack of pain in my joints, I assumed I was somewhere in my late twenties.

“Okay, look around. Figure out where you are, and find a village or town,” I whispered. Somehow saying it aloud made me feel more real. My voice was deep and feminine. 

I was in a forest and seemed to have been walking on a path made of cushiony moss. The forest was painted in hues of pastel pink, blue, and violet. It could have been normal, but something deep inside me said that trees were not meant to be that colour.

If I’d been heading in the direction I was facing, I was going toward something or away from something; either way it made sense to keep moving. 

The sky was white; that was unnerving. “If white is wrong, what colour is right?” I wondered out loud.

A large winged insect flew by me and my skin crawled. It was the size of my fist with a nasty-looking barb on its posterior.

The moss changed to something firmer, maybe some sort of wood. It was definitely something organic but artificially shaped. The bird shrieked again,  sounding closer.

The forest was cleared in a perfect circle around one tree. This tree had a hard bark of royal blue and it was at least twice as tall as the rest of the forest.

As I got closer to the tree, I heard the telltale hum of electricity. I reached out toward the tree, and my hand was batted down forcefully by a large stick.

“Who are you?” demanded a lithe man with golden brown skin and a close-cropped haircut. My mind told me he must be military.

“Good question. I don’t know,” I replied, noticing he’d sharpened the end into a spear. He’d even carved it a little off centre so that the pointy part wasn’t made of the softer core of the branch. 

I wonder what it says about me that I didn’t think to arm myself but could recognize the technique he’d used? 

“Why don’t you know?” the man asked. It was a question but he sounded unsure.

“Probably the same reason you don’t,” I answered and pointed at the tree. “That’s not a regular tree.”

“You’re right, there’s some sort of computer inside it. It seems biological. I didn’t know that was possible. He lowered the spear and gently caressed the tree. “Why do you have a large M on your shirt?”

I looked down and saw he was right: in the center of the shirt was a large M. His shirt had a large T. “I don’t know. How do you know about the computer in the tree?”

The man put both hands on the tree and my vision swam. When it cleared, I could see a swirl of pink energy around him. He reached out and pushed the energy toward the tree.

Pain flared into my head. Electric shocks made my body convulse and I fell to the hard ground.

When it stopped, I saw that the man, who I was thinking of as T, was on the ground as well.

He sat up and grunted. I let my head stop swimming before doing the same.

“What the hell was that?” he asked, but it was a general ask, not a demand to me.

“I think we tried to use some sort of ability and were shocked into submission.”

He looked at me and then at our matching outfits before swearing in what I recognized as Sámi but wasn’t sure of which language exactly it was. I was surprised to realize that I understood him. “We’re prisoners,” he said finally. 

It made complete sense. We had matching outfits that were obviously made for ease of wash not fashion, we had some sort of trigger device that shocked us… But why take our memory? “Where are our jailers?”

He looked angry for a moment, like he thought I was challenging him, but then he looked around nervously. “If they aren’t visible and they let me make a weapon, they must be watching from hidden cameras.”

“Or they are gone for the same reason we can’t remember who we are?”

That idea was frightening. Being stuck in a jail without jailers meant that unless we could escape, we’d eventually run out of food.

Thinking of food, my stomach growled. Nothing around me looked edible and there was nothing in my pocket.

“Where do we get food?” I asked him.

Again I heard the strange bird, much closer this time, and he must have also, because he said, “Where there are animals, there’s game.”

The bird made another horrifying screech, which was echoed by two others behind us. 

Suddenly, we were surrounded by three massive dog-like creatures. My mind supplied ‘Warg’ but that wasn’t possible, because they were fictional. At least that’s what my mind was telling me.

Fictional or not, they were approaching us, and they looked hungrier than I felt.

Read Chapter 2

While you wait for the next chapter, check out the previous serial stories:

Red Day, Ere the Sun Rises – Epilogue

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The text, "Red Day, Ere the Sun Rises: A Sun Speaker Story" over a red sun.

Characters | Chapter 1 | Chapter 2 | Chapter 3 | Chapter 4 | Chapter 5 | Chapter 6 | Chapter 7 | Chapter 8 | Chapter 9 | Chapter 10 | Chapter 11 | Chapter 12 | Epilogue

Chapter 13: Epilogue

A few months later Suzie and I were relaxing on a beach on Earth. Zuri and the Galahad had returned to their home to try and organize the survivors. Where Zuri went, the Myrddin followed. Diamond Stars and the crew of The Revenge returned home with the remnants of Black Sun to try and fix the harm they’d done. Captain Ng and the crew of the Warship Ennill had stayed to learn all they could from the various people.

The other speakers and people of the Sun fleet were given the chance to stay with a quarter of them doing so and the rest returning to their systems. 

With all the technology we’d gained, travel between systems was going to be a regular thing now. The universe had shrunk significantly.

I was enjoying the feel of clear water on my toes when we got a call.

“I shouldn’t answer it,” I said.

“They won’t stop,” Suzie replied. She’d seen it was the Hey Sunny Too.

“What is it?” I asked into the coms.

“The Gate activated, get up here,” Adric replied and we had no choice but to get the shuttle and head back to our new ship. 

The gate dated from the beginning of the universe and seemed to emit a kind of power we couldn’t recognize. Sol didn’t know what it was. Of course I installed it on my ship.

Once we were aboard, Adric said, “The gate activated and a crude robot came through, left this, and then went back in. The whole thing lasted less than a minute.” 

He handed me a nicely embossed piece of paper that had a tree on it. As I stared, the words swam and formed, Yggdrasil Command Aether Earth. If your atmosphere is safe for us, we shall visit you in 24 hours. It was followed by a complex mathematical algorithm.

Adric anticipated my confusion and said, “It’s a formula for figuring out what their 24 hours means using the speed of light and the emission frequency of a hydrogen atom.” He stopped there and I gave him a quizzical look. “Oh. It’s close to our Earth but their day is roughly 80 milliseconds longer than ours which means they are probably from an alternate reality Earth that is further in the past.”

I blinked a few times and asked, “How do you get that from a simple calculation?”

“It wasn’t simple, and I also analyzed the note. It has massive quantities of microplastics and greenhouse gases which was typical of Old-Earth.”

I nodded and said, “I’m impressed. How long do we have?”

“Ten minutes. You really took your time.”

Suzie wanted us to greet them remotely but I figured if we’re going to meet interdimensional aliens, we should do it in person.

The gate lit up with blue energy that looked like waves, which was different from our jumpgates that just shimmered silver.

Two people walked through, a man and a woman in what looked like pseudo-military garb. He had dark skin, was tall, broad, and his long brown hair was streaked with grey and tied in a bun on the top of his head. The woman with him was also tall, but had white skin and blonde hair, just starting to turn white. 

They didn’t look like any military I’d met and there was a strange power about them.

The man smiled and it was obvious from the creases in his face that he did it a lot. He moved forward and spoke gibberish. 

“I’m sorry, I don’t understand you,” I said. I was surprised, we’d installed a translator designed by the Children of the Stars, and it was able to translate almost anything.

The woman said a few words, pointed at Suzie, and at Suzie’s sword.

“I think she wants you to talk about your sword?” I said.

“I don’t want to tell them about my sword,” Suzie said, sounding almost offended.

The man held his hand out for a handshake and said, “Thank you, our translations need two native speakers and a few sentences to parse the language. I am Agent Jason Johnson and this is Agent Kennedy Johnson.”

“Nice to meet you.” I shook his muscular hand. “I’m Hal the Sun Speaker, this is Suzie, and this is Adric. You are on my ship in orbit around our Earth.”

The woman smiled broadly and said, “I love it when it’s a spaceship gate. It’s always so cool.”

“I don’t want to be rude, but why are you here and where did you come from?” These two were likeable, but seemed genuine and not fake.

“We’re from Aether Earth and we’re here with a warning. The Mulciber are coming.”

The word meant nothing to me, but it triggered a vision from Sol. I stood on a tall mountain on Mars and watched as a silver serpent of massive size decimated the Martian military.

At least it was less disgusting than the void-beasts, but it looked like I had another threat to prepare for.

While you wait for the next serial story, check out the previous ones:

Red Day, Ere the Sun Rises: A Sun Speaker Story (Serial Story) — Chapter 12

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The text, "Red Day, Ere the Sun Rises: A Sun Speaker Story" over a red sun.

Characters | Chapter 1 | Chapter 2 | Chapter 3 | Chapter 4 | Chapter 5 | Chapter 6 | Chapter 7 | Chapter 8 | Chapter 9 | Chapter 10 | Chapter 11 | Chapter 12 | Epilogue

Chapter 12: Rescues and final fights

Being helpless in a tin can is the best descriptor I’ve heard for living in space. But being trapped in your own ship, you can’t pretend you have any sort of power. We all sat there; assassin, immortal doctor, child prodigy, pilot extraordinaire, and three Sun Speakers. Each more useless than the last.

I considered playing I-spy but since the panic room was also my quarters, and I hadn’t had much time to clean, I decided it was a bad idea.

Finally, I heard the rumble of the ship being surgically cut to pieces by the Venusian mothership. They cut out just the panic room and pulled it to their ship while blasting the damned void-beasts that still crawled all over us.

Once in their cargo hold, we opened the doors and piled out. “Thank you for the save, Gwin. You owe me a ship if we get out of this.”

“If? We’re just mopping up the leftovers and we’re good,” she said, exasperated. She wasn’t arguing with me, she was trying to negotiate with the universe, and she knew she was going to lose. That’s why she barely paused before grumpily saying, “Fine. Where do you need to be?”

“There’s a last planetship that’s coming. Take us to the edge of the solar system,” I said, causing both Gwin and Suzie to gasp.

Suzie was the first to say, “That far out you’ll be almost powerless, especially with the micro-suns completely depleted.”

Diamond put his hand on Suzie’s shoulder and said, “It’s what has to be done.” He said it with such charisma and conviction that she didn’t remove the hand from his arm. I was impressed.

If the planet-ship got too far into the solar system it would start nudging the orbits of the planets and that would be devastating to those who lived on them. We needed to stop it quickly.

As we travelled to the right place, the doctor insisted I eat something. Apparently my body needed fuel. That would explain the headache and weakness.

“I’m tired of you almost dying. Can we take a relaxing vacation after this is over?” Suzie said, holding my hand like it was going to run away from her.

“If I find a way to survive this one, I will take you to Earth and show you what a real beach looks like,” I said, smiling. Despite the terraforming and millenia of living on the other planets, beaches didn’t have the same quality as the pristine beaches of Earth.

Our snuggling moment was interrupted by Zuri cooing and saying, “We’re going with you. The vision only showed you so maybe we can do it together?”

“That would only leave the converted Sun-Speakers to take care of Sol,” I said knowing it was a weak defence.

They gave me identical stubborn looks and I laughed saying, “I hope I look half as cute as the two of you when I do that.”

Suzie shook her head and said, “She’s adorable, he’s sexy, and you’re just barely tolerable.”

“Love you too!” I replied and kissed her passionately.

The planet-ship was more of the same writhing masses of void-beasts. That didn’t make it any less horrifying. I don’t think I could ever get used to that view and that’s probably for the best.

“So what now? How do we stop that?” asked Gwin, annoyed. She probably hadn’t rested since the war started.

“We are going to crash a shuttle in the planet-ship, and then take over its propulsion, sending it into the black holes at the centre of the universe,” I said with complete confidence.

Zuri added, “If we blow it up, we’ll disrupt the gravity in the system and that’s a bad idea.”

I got a kiss from Suzie, a stimulant from the doctor, a hug from Gwin, and a dirty look from her husband. All very reassuring.

“If these are my last words, I want you to remember that I died protecting humanity, not because it loved me but because I believed there was good in us.”

“Nice,” Diamond said.

“Little sappy,” said Zuri.

We got into the shuttle and they let me pilot, probably because they weren’t used to the controls. Both of them were better pilots.

Part way there, they both asked, “What’s the real plan?”

“Crash the ship and figure it out there,” I shrugged.

We crashed through into what the scanners had told us was the largest cargo hold.

The ship was so massive that it kept its atmosphere with gravity alone, which meant our ship piercing the walls did nothing.

The room was large enough that we could have put half the Venusian fleet inside with room to spare, but it was empty except for a large stone semicircular gate with alien sigils on it. 

We stepped out of the shuttle and I walked toward the gate. In the vision from Sol, I died horribly in front of that gate, killed by a void-beast five times the size of a regular one.

When we were close enough, the large beast appeared and spoke in a raspy voice, “You are foolish to come here. I will kill you!”

“Foolish is definitely my strong suit,” I said.

Both Zuri and Diamond’s eyes flickered like they were getting a vision. I was jealous for a split second before I realized I was the distraction. 

“You can talk. Why can’t the others?”

The beast growled and said, “We can all talk but not in your disgusting language.”

“Great. I’m guessing you’re a sun speaker?”

Its eyes grew wide and it moved forward like a cat about to pounce. It wheezed, “Yes.”

In my vision, this is where it pounced on me and played with my entrails until I died. I waited and at the last second threw myself forward and down. The beast flew over me and landed elegantly on its face.

“No!” it bellowed. I thought it was talking to me, but a quick glance back showed Zuri and Diamond holding the gate and forcing plasma energy through it with their powers.

I rushed to the beast and grabbed its head. I tried to cleanse it the way I had other Sun Speakers, but it wasn’t just loyal, it was part of its god.

My goal was to slow it down and not let it attack or call the other beasts to attack.

Suddenly the gate opened and connected to a black hole. “Now!” I shouted into my coms and we were teleported away.

The black hole turned the planet ship inside out and devoured it. When the metaphorical dust settled, there was nothing left but the gate floating in space.

We were finally done.

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Red Day, Ere the Sun Rises – Chapter 11

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The text, "Red Day, Ere the Sun Rises: A Sun Speaker Story" over a red sun.

Characters | Chapter 1 | Chapter 2 | Chapter 3 | Chapter 4 | Chapter 5 | Chapter 6 | Chapter 7 | Chapter 8 | Chapter 9 | Chapter 10 | Chapter 11 | Chapter 12 | Epilogue

Chapter 11: Hal doesn’t die but it isn’t from a lack of trying

I have spent my life in the service of Sol. They are my God, my compass, and my reason for existing. The family I built around myself is my heart, soul, and reason for living.

As I stood there with an alien abomination’s hand through my chest, I didn’t think about Sol. I thought about Suzie, Adric, Janet, Hoff, and all the others who I’ve called friends. That’s what made me decide to live. I might have survived despite me but who knows.

I burst into flames, using the power to cleanse myself and heal. It didn’t usually work on anything beyond sickness but I knew it would work this time.

Coming out the other side, I was naked but whole. I much prefer being whole over having holes. 

I didn’t have much time to rest however. The beast who had perforated me didn’t wait long to try and do it again. The creatures weren’t just immune to the cleansing fire, they used its energy to make themselves stronger. I threw myself to the ground and Suzie took its head off with her sword.

Avoiding the fighting, I went to the locker on the far end of the cargo hold and quickly got dressed. There was no way I was fighting these things naked. Also under the seat was a bolt gun and Flare, my sword. I had recovered the sword on Venus during the civil war. Suzie had been doing her best to teach me how to use it.

The legend says that the sword was forged in the heart of Sol themselves and had been passed down to each Sun Speaker since. I hadn’t received it on account of being thrown out of the church as a teen.

The room was swarming with beasts but Suzie held them back, her blade whirling like death.

Zuri and Diamond were holding their own with bolt guns and fists. We’d all agreed on bolt guns since plasma guns just fed the beasts, not to mention what they do to a ship’s hull.

“Let’s get out of here and seal the doors,” I said and everyone started falling back to the exit. I pulled out the bolt gun and fought off those that were between us and the exit. They’d somehow managed to get in the cargo hold on the deck above and were moving down to flank us.

The void beasts are hideous creatures with melting flesh for faces that looked vaguely like if the black of space and molasses had a child. They smelled like rotting flesh; vaguely sweet, sour, and pungent. They were the things of my nightmares but they weren’t that tough or particularly good at combat. They relied on their numbers and the virus that they spread. We’d already been vaccinated from the virus but not the numbers. We were killing them easily enough but we’d tire eventually and then they would win.

Deep in the centre of my ship are my quarters. They also double as a panic room in case something like this were to happen. The room isn’t massive but it is reinforced and defensible. 

Over the coms I ordered, “Everyone retreat to my quarters.”

We were in the corridor and fighting for each centimetre of movement when Sol sent me a vision. It wasn’t pleasant and it also could have waited.

“Did you see that?” asked Zuri.

“I think so,” replied Diamond and he looked a little green.

I holstered my gun and drew my sword as I said, “Anyone else getting tired of seeing visions of my death?”

Zuri snorted and she shot a beast in the head. 

Diamond punched one and said, “I barely know you and I’m sick of seeing you die. Is all this normal for you?”

“Not really,” I replied.

“This is an escalation of normal but it’s not unprecedented,” Suzie said while chuckling. 

I sighed and quipped, “I guess I just have one of those faces you either want to punch or kiss.”

Suzie didn’t hesitate to reply, “It’s both. Always both.”

The other two laughed and fought harder. A large part of leadership is convincing people to keep going. If all it took was some self-deprecating humour, I was happy to lead. 

We made it to my room and found the rest of the crew there except for Janet. “Doc, where are you?” I asked, scared I would only get static.

After a second delay that felt like an eternity, she replied, “I’m in the medbay, but they have me trapped.”

We closed the big reinforced doors and I concentrated. When I was lucky, I could see if the teleporter would work. It only worked on biological matter ten percent of the time. “Shit,” I said when I realized it wouldn’t work.

“What?” Suzie asked as she cleaned her blade.

“The teleporter can’t save the doctor. It won’t work.”

It was Zuri that said, “Why couldn’t we force it?”

“What?” I asked.

She breathed out and started talking to me like I was a child, “Our visions see the future but they can also let us see the math of the future. All we need is to calculate the right program to teleport the doctor here.” 

I felt sort of dumb trying to understand what she meant, but Diamond summed it up better, “If we work together we can pick the best outcome from our visions.”

I grabbed their hands and we found the solution. Zuri put the math into the computer, and with a quick humming noise, Janet was standing in front of us.

I cheered and Sol showed me the outside of the ship. It barely looked like the Hey Sunny. It looked like a piece of candy covered in ants. It was just a matter of time before they cracked the gooey centre of our panic room.

I reached for the connection I had with Gwin and hoped she was close enough. I pushed my thoughts out to the universe, “Help us! Please.”

I prayed she could hear us.  

Read Chapter 12

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Red Day, Ere the Sun Rises – Chapter 10

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The text, "Red Day, Ere the Sun Rises: A Sun Speaker Story" over a red sun.

Characters | Chapter 1 | Chapter 2 | Chapter 3 | Chapter 4 | Chapter 5 | Chapter 6 | Chapter 7 | Chapter 8 | Chapter 9 | Chapter 10 | Chapter 11 | Chapter 12 | Epilogue

Chapter 10: The High Queen of Venus takes control

From my point of view on the bridge of my mothership The Imperial High Cruiser Alpha Two, it looked like the Hey Sunny exploded and the solar system was covered in a spherical shield. 

“Your imperial majesty. We’re reading countless jump points outside the shield. It’s already starting to fail,” helmsman Jones said.

I was still trying to decide who I trusted after the attempted coup but everyone on the ship had been vetted by Hal, and him I always trusted.

“Gwin, my dear. I’m sorry,” Raphael the King Consort, my husband, said. “I know you cared for him.”

“So did you. We were all friends once,” I snapped. It was an old argument, one that I knew hadn’t gotten any easier over the past decade. My husband was the man I was always meant to marry, and I love him, but my first love was Hal, that awkward gangly boy I found stowed away in my father’s ship.

A wave of soothing light erupted as the shield collapsed and I felt calm, something I’m not sure I’ve ever experienced. It felt like warmth and love. I dearly held on to that feeling but it was quickly destroyed by the ships that crashed through the shield.

They were black and oily, the surface seeming to constantly shift as if it was a river or tar. They didn’t fire torpedoes; they crashed directly into the closest ship.

“Open hailing frequencies to the Sun fleet,” I ordered leaning forward in my command chair.

“Open,” the comms officer said.

“Sun fleet. We may have our differences but it seems we have a mutual problem. Are you amenable to a truce?”

The answer came from a lot of their ships at the same time, “Yes. Oh Sol, what have we done?” 

Jones tapped at his console and said, “The fleet is in disarray; they’re arguing about who’s in charge. The Black Sun command ship is only replying with sobbing. I think something happened.”

With a smile, I said, “Hal. That bastard converted them to Sol. That warm glowing feeling was his way of freeing the enemy fleet. Send a wide data packet to them with all our information on the void beasts and the virus they hold.” Hal had managed to fight the beasts once before and if they didn’t rip someone apart, the virus they held killed them horrifically.

I watched as the million-strong Myrddin fleet was torn to shreds. They fought valiantly but for every ten ships they destroyed, another hundred appeared. The void beast ships didn’t fire weapons; they crashed into their opponents and then swarmed them, leaving dead husks behind. 

Gesturing to comms, I ordered our fleet, “Okay people. Hal would say that this is the moment we were all born for. Let’s show these abominations what the sol system and its allies can do. And don’t die.”

The sol fleet did its best to hold off the ships but they were fast and determined to crash into us. I was about to order a retreat when the Sun fleet joined the fight.

“This is Sun Speaker Gerald first converted to Sol from the Sun Fleet. We’re here to help,” The voice was confident and we started to coordinate. The three fleets started working together and I led the charge. The fight seemed hopeless and the enemy endless but soon they started to thin out. 

I was thinking we were in the clear. More than half the Sun fleet was destroyed, the Myrddin counted less than a dozen, and the Sol fleet had lost a third of our people.

Then a planetship appeared past FarFarOut, the furthest human outpost in the Sol system. We’d managed to evacuate them back to Pluto. Thankfully, because the planetship devoured it.

The writhing oiliness of the ships was mimicked in this one, and after the fight, we knew it to be the void beasts that created the effect. 

Raphael gagged at the sight and in a whimper he asked, “What can we do against that?”

Before Hal had gone and done something foolishly selfless, he’d sent me a message that said, “Gwin, I loved you from the moment we met and I don’t blame you for what happened. Sometimes we need to move planets for those we love.” With the message was a schematic for the wormhole generator from The Revenge.

“We need to create a wormhole right in front of that thing and send it straight to Sol.”

“We’d have to be right next to them!” exclaimed Jones. He looked pensive and finally said, “If we used the microsun drive to get out right after we opened the gate, the planetship would get sucked in and we might survive. But it’ll take a few minutes to open the gate.”

“Make it happen!” I ordered. Softer, I said, “We need to do this for our families, our friends, our worlds, and our god.” The crew cheered and I felt sick to my stomach.

As we raced to the planetship, we were almost surprised by a void beast ship that was hiding in its shadow. Powerful weapons blasted it out of our way followed by a voice saying, “Imperial High Cruiser Alpha Two, this is The Revenge and The Warship Ennill, we’ll cover you.”

We fought our way to the planet and opened the gate. The gravity of Sol reached through the gate and pulled the planetship into the sun. We and the other two ships jumped out in time to avoid a fiery death.

I breathed a sigh of relief. There were still some void beast ships but the Sun fleet was making quick work of them. I started to relax when a void beast ship headed toward us.

Just as I was about to order weapons at full power, I heard Hal’s voice in my head, Help us! Please. I then recognized the shape of the ship. 

Under the writhing mass of beasts was the Hey Sunny.

“Target the Beasts on the ship. Prepare a boarding party. I want to rescue any survivors.”

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Red Day, Ere the Sun Rises – Chapter 9

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The text, "Red Day, Ere the Sun Rises: A Sun Speaker Story" over a red sun.

Characters | Chapter 1 | Chapter 2 | Chapter 3 | Chapter 4 | Chapter 5 | Chapter 6 | Chapter 7 | Chapter 8 | Chapter 9 | Chapter 10 | Chapter 11 | Chapter 12 | Epilogue

Chapter 9: The God of devouring comes to dinner

I used to think that the noblest thing I could do was die for a good cause. I’m an idiot. Being a martyr can help motivate people but beyond that you can no longer help with anything.

I’m the mouthpiece of a literal God, I have been injected with a pseudo-magical immortality potion, and there’s one thing I know for sure; death is death. You don’t get perfect closure, you don’t get to haunt your friends, and you certainly don’t get to come back.

All of these thoughts crossed my mind as I stood on the bridge of the Hey Sunny and waited for everything to come together.

I had a plan. It was almost impossible, relied on luck and my own immortality, but it was a good plan.

“The micro-suns are in position,” Captain Ng said. 

“Thank you.” I cut the coms and said, “Crew. Some of you have been with me for almost twenty years and some I’ve barely gotten to know. I need to take the ship into my nightmares. I want to be there when the beasts come out. If I’m lucky, I can minimise the death toll. I won’t ask you to come with me.”

Travis stood up and started for the exit, but he turned at the last second and punched me in the arm, “You idiot. Of course we’ll follow you. You’re the bravest, kindest, and best of us, and even if you’re broody, narcissistic, irrational, and make terrible jokes; we’re still going to follow you.”

He returned to his post and the rest of the crew shot me dirty looks. I wished I could send them away. I’d been having visions of this day for over ten years and they all had the horrors of the void-beasts, but unlike my other visions, I wasn’t in them. I don’t know what that meant, but none of the crew were in them either. 

I guess I’d gotten used to knowing the future, and not seeing anything past the destruction scared me. The destruction itself wasn’t much fun to see on repeat either.

“Venusian mother ship, you’re in charge,” I sent before telling Travis to take us into position.

As he pressed the jump commands I told him, two people appeared on the bridge. Zuri and Diamond Stars gave me matching scathing looks, complete with hip pop.

“You idiot, you can’t do this without us.”

No, no, you’re needed with the rest of the fleet in case I fail, I said into their minds. I’m not actually going to try and blow up the suns, that was a clever lie.

“Hal, you’re not that good a liar, and Sol thinks you need help.” Zuri had the condescending tone that only teens can manage. In my head, she added, Gerald stayed behind. He’s still a little shaken from the conversion.

“We’re in position. What’s the real plan?” Travis asked.

Sighing dramatically, I said, “Did everyone know I was planning something?”

Everyone nodded.

Adric laughed and said, “You always have a fake plan, a real plan, and the cobbled together idea of a plan for when everything goes pear-shaped.” 

“Fine.” I threw up my hands in surrender. “I planned on making a shield out of the micro-suns. A few centimetres of pure plasma would be enough to stop the void-beast fleet.”

That’s only half of it. You’re planning on cleansing all the Sun Speakers from the enemy fleet. You want to try and turn them. Diamond Stars smirked. He actually smirked, and damn him, he looked good doing it. When I smirk, I look ridiculous.

Me and the other two Sun Speakers went down to the cargo hold and I opened the cargo bay door. It gave me a perfect view of one of the micro-suns. It was beautiful and wouldn’t survive more than a week without a soul. That’s what stops the suns from burning too bright and too fast, their consciousness or souls.

Suzie stood in the corner, harnessed to the wall with a really big gun in her hands and a sword strapped to her back. I’d tried to tell her it wasn’t necessary, but I lost that argument.

I took the hands of the other Sun Speakers and reached out to the micro-sun. Its fire was bright and pure, ordered in the way that only manufactured things could be. Through it, I reached the next and then the next. Over two thousand spread into a circle around our solar system. 2000AU away from Sol and spread over an area of 12,000AU, each connected to the other and spreading its plasma out.

The feeling was exhilarating, holy, and painful. We channelled the plasma through our powers and felt every part. I knew instantly that I wouldn’t have been able to do it without the others.

We closed the sphere with Sol lending some of his own plasma, and I forced my will on all the other Sun Speakers. Our enemies’ prophets were brainwashed and not willing, so we gave them a choice. That was all we could do for them, that and pray.

I felt the void beasts arrive like a cold shiver down my spine. They saw the shield we’d built, and threw themselves at it with reckless abandon. There was no way we could hold it for long, but we did our best.

I was just starting to think we could thin them out when I heard Suzie screaming and her gun shooting.

I tried to take a step forward and couldn’t. Something was holding onto my chest. I looked down and saw a bloody cross between a paw and a hand sticking out of me. “That’ll give me pause,” I said, giggling as blood pooled in my mouth.That’s when I heard the voice of Denebola echoing through my head, sounding like screeching static, Hal The Sun Speaker of Sol, you and your God have been found wanting. Your death will be celebrated. You and your people shall be devoured.

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