Sun Speaker

Red Day, Ere the Sun Rises: A Sun Speaker Story (Serial Story) — Chapter 3

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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

Chapter 3: Hope arrives, Sol help us if it’s false hope

People as individuals are only predictable if you know them. People as a group are always predictable. Scared people are even more.

It took me nearly a half hour to get them to shut up and listen to me. It might have taken less time if I’d done more than look at them scathingly. 

When they’d finally calmed down, I said the worst possible thing, “These ships are our Allies, and despite their numbers they are nothing compared to what is coming.” That cost me another ten minutes of their panicking.

“The enemy we are facing wants only one thing, to destroy our sun and anyone it its way.” I thought this was a pretty good call to arms. 

I was surprised by the Venutian Queen saying, “What if we left? The old Earth corporations did it. We could find new homes.”

The head of the Psionic Clans, a thin and gangly man with bug-like eyes, answered, “Old Earth had a few billion people, and most of them probably died in the void between galaxies. Moving the trillion inhabitants of the system is impossible.”

The room was quiet and they all looked around. It didn’t take any special psychic powers for me to know what they were thinking. They were all the rich, the ruling elite. They were trying to decide if they could save themselves.

“You could spend your fortunes on leaving or you could spend them on preparing for what’s to come. With our new allies, we can create defensive turrets, mines, build new ships, and give them more than they bargained for.” I’d hoped for a “Void, Yeah!” or something equally as motivated but instead they all furrowed their brows and thought about it.

I walked out as they argued about who was going to do what.

Again I sat down on the floor and cradled my head. “Any progress?” Suzie asked me. 

“Yes, but we still have a lot of arguing to go through,” I said. She handed me some headache medicine and a bottle with water in it. “Thanks.”

“You’re getting a lot of headaches. Are you dying again?” she was glib but I could tell she was worried. 

“No. Not yet. I’m just tired of all the yelling.”

She sneered at the door and then looked at me in confusion, “But the headaches have been since we found that ghost ship.”

“Not their yelling,” I said and finished the water bottle. “The yelling in my head. Sol is really chatty and the closer our enemy gets, the louder their suns’ voices get. It’s like trying to listen to your loudest friend in front of a speaker at a Martian Metal concert.”

She whistled and replied, “Ouch.” She kissed me on the head and looked uncomfortable. She wanted what any significant other would have wanted, to stop the thing that was hurting me, but as amazing a fighter as she was she couldn’t stop an armada.

Coming back into the room, I was pleasantly surprised to see that Mercurial Guild had volunteered to make the weapons, while the Venusian Empire agreed to build ships.

“Who’s going to build the matter replicators, cloaking devices, micro-sun propulsion engines, and fighter ships?” I asked.

They all looked at me like I had just spouted off a bunch of technology that didn’t exist. To be fair, that’s exactly what I’d done. 

Over the coms, Adric said, “Sir, three more ships just appeared. One of them is massive.”

“Our other allies have arrived,” I said. “They have various technologies that can help us but we have to work together.” A vision hit me and I saw how one of the ships had arrived. “Diamond Stars brought us a gift.” Before they asked, I added, “Diamond Stars is the name of the captain of one of the ships, and he hijacked one of the enemy’s ships. We can use it to try and find their weakness.”

Adric routed a call from one of the ships to the conference hall, “This is Captain Ng of the Warship Ennill. We’ve been sent by the Children of the Stars to help you. Do you accept our help?”

For once, everyone in the room deferred to me. I didn’t like being chosen as the leader but I didn’t have a choice, “This is Hal, Sun Speaker of Sol. You are more than welcome. Make your way to the third planet from the Sun. I hear we have a lot of building to do.”

Captain Ng barked a small laugh and said, “You have no idea.” 

When the coms cut out, I said, “They seem nice. Better than disembodied brains controlling ships.” The comment was ignored and I’m glad I didn’t have to explain about the fleet of Myrddin that had come to help defend us.

The other two ships introduced themselves. There was the Galavant captained by Captain Muldune; they had just come from a devastating war against the same enemy but all three of their solar systems were destroyed. The second was the Revenge captained by Diamond Stars. They followed and managed to get past part of the enemy fleet.

Through the noise of Sol and the other suns in my head, I heard, Hal? Can you hear me? This is Diamond Stars. Sol called for my help. His voice was deep and full.

Diamond Stars? I love that name! another voice in my head said. I’m Arzure Pendreicht but call me Zuri. Her voice was young and enthusiastic.

With that, I was no longer the only Sun Speaker of Sol. I had backup. Why didn’t that make me feel better?

Read Chapter 4

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

Red Day, Ere the Sun Rises: A Sun Speaker Story (Serial Story) — Chapter 2

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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

Chapter 2: Seren and friends get a call for help

The Children of the Stars had been travelling the universe for ten thousand years. Annie could swear that’s how long they’d been assigned to the Mother of all Star’s planet. She was sick of sitting still and wanted to be moving again. It had only been five years in reality, but it had been a very uneventful five years.

“Can’t you sit still for two seconds?” Seren asked. She was sitting on the couch with her tablet translating the ancient language of the Mother. 

In the five years since they’d discovered this place, their entire civilization had gone from hoarding technology and enslaving micro-suns to sharing their knowledge and working with the suns as equals.

When the Children of the Stars were still just crawling out into the universe, they’d discovered a planet that had been hollowed out to make room for a micro-sun. The sun had been created to power a massive computer that housed the consciousness of the original inhabitants of the planet. Something had happened and the minds merged with the sapience of the sun. They melded into a wonderful and powerful mind. 

Instead of marvelling at what they’d discovered, they stole the technology and then pushed the planet into a void between galaxies. They monopolized the technology and travelled the universe.

Since Annie and Seren had re-discovered the Mother, they’d made a lot of fascinating discoveries. The largest being the ability to speak with suns. Every sun is sapient but until recently, they’d only been able to talk to the Mother and her children.

“The suns say anything interesting?” Annie asked.

Seren pointed at what she was working on and said, “This is just a novel I’m translating. It relaxes me.” 

Laughing, Annie walked over to her wife and kissed her head, saying, “Okay. That’s weird. Cute, but weird.”

A message beeped on both their watches. It was their friend and boss, Jan, or as they were supposed to call them, Captain Ng. Emergency meeting, my office. Now!

The captain’s office was sparsely decorated and Annie would normally tease them about it, but when she and Seren entered, they saw that the room was filled with high level military.

Annie saluted and said, “Generals!”

Seren only nodded politely since she wasn’t military. 

“Good. Thank you for coming,” said the soft voice of the Mother coming from a speaker in the walls. “I have been speaking with the suns and they are concerned about what is happening in the Milky Way Galaxy.” She brought up a starmap. 

“That’s one of the old galaxies,” Seren said, looking almost hungry. “Our home galaxy, Abell 1689, is roughly five hundred million years old. Most of the galaxies we’ve travelled to are between that and five billion. The Milky Way and the old quadrant are between ten and fifteen billion years old. Who knows what we could find.” An archeologist’s dream.

“Yes, exactly,” said the large man who was head of the military in this section of the galaxy. “And something is happening there?” 

Annie appreciated the general trying to get Seren and Mother back on topic.

“Yes,” said Mother and when no one said anything she continued, “Suns have fantastic powers. When a star explodes, everything it’s made of gets scattered, but eventually enough of it comes back and starts a new star. That means that the stars in the Milky Way have died and been reborn so often that their powers are closer to a god.”

“That’s ridiculous,” said Jan. “There’s no such thing as a god.” The Children of the Stars didn’t believe there was a deity, but they did believe in being reborn.

The Mother sighed, something that sounded strange from a digitised voice, and said, “Powers like a god not an actual god. Either way, one of them is screaming for help.”

Everyone stood in silence until Annie asked, “Why is a sun that has god-like powers asking for help from us?”

“He says that the other suns have banded together to destroy him and his people. He says there are two trillion people that will die.” The Mother sounded sad and disgusted at the same time.

“How can we help?” asked Seren.

“I propose we send every ship at our disposal to help them out,” the Mother replied.

The general huffed and said, “That’s not up to you alone. We need to assemble the council for something this big. An emergency meeting can happen by tonight.” He marched off muttering about logistics.

When he was gone, Seren got a huge smile on her face and asked, “What’s the real plan?”

Annie and Jan looked at her confused but Mother replied, “The council will probably refuse. I have been working on a new ship design that is smaller but could hold a few hundred fighters and a small crew. I believe I could change it into a warship and repository of knowledge. We could help upgrade their technology, which is quite primitive from the datastream the sun sent.”

“How big is this datastream?” Seren asked excitedly.

“It’s a complete history of his people, only half a million years of data. I’ll send you the compressed files.” 

The answer and offer was enough to make Seren sit down. She made the face that Annie jokingly called, “acheologasm” and started to scroll through the data.

Annie rolled her eyes and said, “If the council says no then who’s going on the ship?” She knew the answer but had to ask. The Children of the Stars had been ruled for ten thousand years by the Technomages who had been generous but brutal. When they’d found the Mother of All Stars, they’d briefly treated her as a new ruler. Mother had found the idea horrifying and they’d worked on a form of democracy. There was a ruling council but any major decisions could be voted on instantly through the star-communication network.

Jan sighed, “Whoever volunteers.”

The three friends looked at each other and nodded in agreement. They’d volunteer.Well, I wanted something exciting, thought Annie.

Read Chapter 3

While you wait for the next chapter, you can read some related stories:

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

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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

Chapter 1: When all other negotiation tactics fail, scare the pants off them

Have you ever tried holding onto melting ice cream? No matter how hard you hold on or try to force it back into shape, it just keeps dripping. That’s what it felt like trying to convince the rulers of the solar system to listen to me.

There were members from all the systems empires: The Mercurial Guild, The Venusian Empire, The Martian Empire, The Free Peoples of Ceres, The Jupiter Protectorate, The Titan Federation, The United Moons of Uranus, the Neptunia Commonwealth, Pluto, the TNO Alliance, The Republic of Kuiper, and last but not least, the nomadic Psionic Clans.

That’s a lot of names, and frankly I wouldn’t remember them all either if I were you. Just picture a room with a lot of people who’ve hated each other for longer than anyone can remember why, and add a very tired Sun Speaker, that’s me, in the centre of the yelling. 

Let me recap what’s going on, just in case you haven’t been following. I am Hal, and when I was young I was chosen by the great god Sol, who lives in our sun, to speak for him. I am the Sun Speaker, and in millenia past, that has meant being the head of a massive system-spanning church.

Unfortunately for me, the church didn’t approve of my style of leadership and declared me a heretic. The church then appointed a jerk who would say whatever they wanted and I stole a spaceship and did my best to serve Sol and help people.

Real Sun Speakers are given special powers. We can heal the sick, summon great cleansing fire, and purify water. We also get glimpses into the future and vague orders from Sol themselves. The human body wasn’t made to channel such power and most die by thirty.

I am now almost fifty and still look thirty, thanks to the last known vial of an immortality serum given to me by my friend, doctor, and resident mad scientist.

Things were going pretty well for me until Sol started showing me visions of devastation on a system-wide level. Black ships filled with other Sun Speakers and endless soldiers. And here I thought I was unique… Unfortunately I’m not, and the other Suns are older and able to have more than one Speaker.

I had hoped I would have a few more decades before the attack arrived, but then I checked out a derelict ship and almost died fighting one Sun Speaker, and he said they were coming.

I’ve seen the fleet of ships covering everything inside the Kuiper Belt with death. They aren’t just coming for Sol, they’re coming for everything and everyone they protect.

The Grande Adjudicator of the Jupiter Protectorate screeched in frustration in the face of the Queen of Venus. She followed up with a comment about the faithfulness of his husband.

I should have interceded and stopped them from kicking off a system-wide war that would leave us weaker against the imminent threat. Instead, I left the room.

The air in the hall was cooler by several degrees. The royal palace of Mars wasn’t used to that many people in one room and was struggling to keep the temperature even. 

I put my back to the wall and slid down to the stone floor. I curled my legs up and debated crying, laughing, or locking the doors from the outside.

“Aren’t you supposed to be organizing them into a coherent defence plan?” Suzie said gently, kicking my foot. She looked like she was wearing a simple business suit, but I knew it was her light armour that projected a disguise. Her long curly black hair was pulled into a thick braid, which I knew held several spikes to dissuade anyone from pulling on it.

“Yeah. I’m not the right person for this. I’m a meddler, I pull small strings and help people. I don’t think I can do this.” I wouldn’t confide that to anyone else. Suzie and I had been together for four years now, four years of struggling to get to these negotiations.

She kicked me again. “Don’t do this. You’re the only one who can do this. You have allies in there, leverage that. Use some of that charm you keep saying you have. Do what you have to. Or would you rather I deal with them?”

“No!” I exclaimed, standing up. She was the love of my life, but as an ex-assassin, her way of dealing with people was a lot more violent than mine. I kissed her gently and added, “Thank you for believing in me.”

I turned to head toward the door and Sol chose to send me some interesting information. The worst visions can leave me crying on the floor in pain but most aren’t that bad; this was the equivalent of getting slapped behind the head.

I walked into the room and I’m not sure any of them even noticed me.

Into my comms earpiece, I said, “Adric, can you put our guests on the main viewscreen in the conference room.” The large screen had been used as a visual aid for explaining what was coming early in the conference. 

“How did you know? A ship just appeared outside Xanthus,” The asteroid past Pluto was populated by people who didn’t want to deal with groups like this. It was also home to the, arguably, best psychic in the system Caro, one of my good friends.

The screen flickered to life and a large saucer shaped ship came into view. The room fell silent for a second before they all started demanding answers at the same time.

They were cut off when Adric played the audio message that was coming from the ship. A loud deep mechanical voice said, “The Myrddin have arrived to protect Sol from the Council of Suns. Please do not resist the Myrddin, we will only harm you in self defence. The fleet shall arrive momentarily.”

Adric cut into the audio. With awe in his voice, he said, “Every trans-Neptunian outpost is reading ships. There’s tens of thousands… no, millions. The system is surrounded.”

Read Chapter 2

While you wait for the next chapter, you can read some related stories:

The Most Ambitious Crossover Event (on this blog)

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Hello Friends, Family, and Fans;

Prepare yourselves for the most ambitious crossover this blog has ever seen. Prepare for Red Day, Ere the Sun Rises: A Sun Speaker Story.

This galactic event will span 12 months with 1000 words each month. You will follow Hal the Sun Speaker after the events of his last story as he tries to unite the warlike factions of the Sol system before it’s attacked by the fleets of The Council of the Gods. Every other month will follow a linked story you may recognize from previous serial stories.

I will try to make sure that the story is self-contained and you can follow even if you haven’t read the previous stories.

If you want to get caught up, here are all the stories that have led up to this event:

The first chapter is planned for the 29th of January.

Stay safe and be kind,

Éric

Éric’s 2024 New Year’s Resolutions

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Hello 2024,

I want you to know that I’m watching you closely and I think you need to be the “rebel” year where everything goes well for everyone. I think we all need one year to rest and have nice things happen.

I took 2023 off from making Resolutions because of my arm injury. I’ve improved significantly, and then in December 2023, I almost died from RSV.

The combination made me realize that I need to strive to improve and give myself goals. These resolutions aren’t cheap promises; they are things I want to do.

1. Write a serial story.

This is year 11 of me writing 1000 words a month for a serial story. I’m very proud of them and think they’ve helped me think on my feet.

I’m not sure what this year’s will be but I’m going to write 1000 words per month, and if I miss a month I have to write an extra chapter.

2. Finish Speaker of the Rebel Sun

I’ve been working on stories involving Hal the Sun Speaker and others in his universe for almost 11 years. I have 63000 words in a compilation book and I just need the big ending. I had planned on it being the serial story, but I’m not sure if 12000 words will be enough to tie everything together and end the series.

Either way, I’d like to have this done and ready for submission by the end of the year.

3. Finish Fanatics! Inevitable Honeymoon Crashers

Jen and I have been working on this one since early November and we’re a good 6 chapters in. Between health and life, it’s going slower than we’d like but it’s still moving. I’d love to see this done by July but I’ll be happy by end of year.

4. Clean up FADDS and continue the re-skin towards making the Aetherverse the default setting.

I’d like to get FADDS published sometime in the next decade. The rules are almost there and it just needs some cleaning up and re-skinning to set it in the Aetherverse. It’s the perfect combination since it has elements of fantasy, urban, sci-fi, and horror.

5. Play more Ukulele and Bass

I haven’t played in over a month because I’ve been too sick and dizzy but I’d like to get back into it. It’s a great way of relaxing.

6. Work weekly on my magical café

My wife and kids gave me a build your own thing (Christmas 2022) and it’s wonderful but takes a lot of tiny details. I asked for it and I think I was overly ambitious. I got frustrated and didn’t keep going but I’d like to finish it.

7. Read at least 10 books

I’m slowly working on letting myself read for pleasure. It’s been hard since COVID, and I’ve felt like it’s a selfish thing. I need to get over that and read for fun.

8. Be kind to myself

I’ve been really hard on myself the past few years, concentrating on what I couldn’t do instead of what I did. I’ve felt a little like a failure despite quantitative proof to the opposite. I need to be nicer to myself.

9. Find time for more

I need to find a few minutes everyday where I relax and take time for myself. I’ve been doing that more in the past month since if I didn’t, I’d collapse and it’s helping emotionally as well as physically.

10. Restart posting JenEric Movie Reviews

December 2nd was the last movie I managed to review. Unfortunately, with getting sick it’s taken a back seat. Both watching and reviewing. I’d like to restart hopefully by February and stick to a weekly schedule, but we’ll see.

I think this is a good set of goals, ambitious without being unreasonable.

What are your goals this year?

Éric

The Suns of War – Chapter 12 (Serial Story)

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Prologue | 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 12: The End?

Hiding on an enemy ship is a lot easier when they don’t have security cameras. The Blue-Sun ships relied on their Sun Speakers to see any threats coming. Thankfully for Nessa, they still hadn’t figured out how to track felines like herself. 

Unfortunately, it would only take one guard seeing her for alarms and violence to start. I’d best be extra stealthy, she thought.

The most obvious place to look was the now emptied prisoner cells. Unfortunately, Zuri wasn’t there. She was trying to decide where to go next, having only been on one of these ships once and having only seen the cells, med facilities, and hangar bay, when all the screens turned on at once.

Aria, the Sun Speaker, started to talk the second she was on screen. “Myrddin ships. We have found Arthur and she has agreed to join our cause.”

A mechanical voice replied, “If this is another trick we will be displeased.”

“Here is her DNA.”

After a few minutes, the Myrddin fleet responded, “All hail Arthur!”

Zuri was now pulled on screen and Aria said, “Tell them!”

The young girl looked angry, there was fire in her eyes and a scowl on her face. She looked off camera and mouthed, “Deck 42, room 631.” Then she fixed her eyes on the camera and said, “Myrddin ships. Blue-Sun and Violet-Sun are on a holy quest to rid the universe of all who do not worship the glory of their Sun god council.”

Nessa didn’t waste time watching at one screen. It was being broadcast across the entire ship. She hurried to deck 42, hoping that was the kid’s way of asking for rescue. 

“Get on with it,” Aria said as she poked Zuri.

The younger girl smirked and said, “The original Arthur was a Sun Speaker for the sun of old Earth. They are waging a holy war against that sun. Against our origins. They must not be allowed to succeed. Return to Earth and protect its people and the god Sol.”

There was swearing and the feed cut off. Nessa chuckled and thought, Way to go kid.  

She was almost at the right room when Aria burst through the door, red with anger. “Take her to medical. Scan and dissect her, I want to know how her powers work so we can reproduce them.”

The door closed behind Aria and the woman stormed off. A few minutes later, two large men walked out each holding one of Zuri’s arms. They were half dragging her and it looked like she was asleep.

Suddenly in Nessa’s head, Zuri’s voice said, Glad you came back for me. Wait until we’re closer to medical before taking these guys out.

How are you talking to me in my head? Nessa asked, fighting a panicked feeling.

The Sun Speakers of Blue-Sun are very well trained in how to use their powers but not in shielding their minds. When I touched Aria, I experienced her whole life. Now I know everything she knows. Which is surprisingly little but enough to start my training.

Okay, Nessa said, it was all she could think of saying. The idea that Zuri could see someone’s whole life from a touch was disconcerting.

When they reached the medical facilities, she shot both guards in the back. They were stunned and Zuri was free. The moment both men let go, she stood up and ran to Nessa for a hug.

“How do we get out of here?” Zuri asked.

“Bart’s fighter is still in the hangar, but we’ll need a distraction. Do you think you could write a virus or something that will shut this ship down?”

With a big smile, Zuri replied, “I already have. I had a few minutes alone in my cell and they never frisked me for my computer.” Nessa thought that was weird and was about to say so when Zuri added, “I thought it was weird too. I checked and they uploaded a tracking app to it. I’ll have to leave it behind. Don’t worry.”

“Can you not read my thoughts? Please.” Nessa asked.

Sighing loudly, Zuri said, “Try thinking quieter then.”

They moved slowly and finally reached the hangar bay. Zuri attached her computer to the wall and pressed several buttons. All the lights in the ship turned off, leaving only emergency lighting.

They hurried to Bart’s fighter ship and got inside. It looked like it hadn’t been touched. Zuri gave it a once over and said, “Either they’re way more clever than I think or they didn’t expect anyone would try to escape in a short range fighter.”

With the power off there was no way to open the hangar doors and Nessa took pleasure out of blasting a hole for them to escape. No power meant no alarms, and they escaped without any trouble.

Nessa was setting a course for the closest debris field in hopes of hiding until the fleets left. From her scanners, the Myrddin fleet and the Violet-Sun fleet had already left. She almost crashed into the Galahad when it decloaked in front of her. It took all her skill to turn the fighter and land in her ship.

Bart met them as they exited the fighter and said, “You didn’t get any scratches on her, I hope.”

“You were supposed to be on the transport ship. What are you doing here?”

“It was really cramped and they had a fighter. The doc and I took it and convinced the crew to wait for you. It didn’t take much convincing. Despite you being a Feline, we all love you, Captain.”

Ness smiled and gave him a big hug.

He blushed a little and turned to Zuri, “And you, young lady. Just because you’re Arthur doesn’t mean you’ll get any special privileges around here. You’re a member of the crew same as the rest of us.”

Zuri stood a little taller and smiled. “Yes, sir.”

One the bridge, Nessa addressed the crew, “Thank you for waiting for us. Now we need to decide what to do. Those bastards who destroyed our homes are going to do it again at old Earth. We can stay here and help the three systems regroup and rebuild or we can go join the fight at Earth. I won’t order you, this has to be a group decision.”

They all looked at Zuri who shook her head. Everyone was silent until Alexandre spoke, his lizard hiss extra pronounced as he said, “Our systems have been at war for centuries but I have never felt closer to a crew than I do all of you. I say we teach those sun worshipping bastards what war really means.”

The rest of the crew cheered and agreed. 

“There’s only one problem. They have engines that can make the distance between systems in seconds. How will we ever make it back to earth in time?” Bart asked.

With an impish grin, Zuri replied, “We have a few antimatter bombs and if I can get the math just right, we can replicate what happened last time we were hit.”

The end?

While you wait for the next serial story why not read a previous one?

The Suns of War – Chapter 11 (Serial Story)

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Prologue | 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 11: A Rescue and a Trap

As far as rescue missions went, this one didn’t start well. It actually didn’t start for a little while.

They flew their cloaked ship close enough to the other to be able to get across but there was no way in without the other ship finding out.

“They’re opening their shields long enough to let out fighter ships. We could try and time it so we can jump in while they’re going out?” Bart asked.

“We won’t fit in there.” Nessa pointed out the obvious.

“Not the whole Galahad, just my little fighter. Once we get everyone on the transport carrier, someone’s going to need to fly it out. I’ll be sad to leave the old fighter behind, but that’s an easy sacrifice.” There wouldn’t be room in the transport with all those people and the fighter wasn’t fast enough to keep up.

Alexandre, Em, and Tanya had volunteered to stay in the Galahad while the rest of them crammed into the little fighter and got ready to leave.

“It’s been an honour serving with you. We are all representative of our people and despite our systems being at war for a millennium, we have come together to become a damn fine crew. Now remember, the Sun Speakers can see the future especially when it’s governed by the actions of a Sapian. They have no idea what we Feline or Canine are doing. Hopefully that will extend to Serpents like Alexandre. Follow his lead and let’s save our people.” It wasn’t her best speech, but it got the reactions she’d hoped for. 

The fighter ship was designed for two people and it had felt cramped when they had gone out with three. Now at four with Zuri, Nessa, Bart, and Peri, it was pretty squished.

They waited as close as they could with the bay door open. Peri scanned them all as they were waiting. Finally, the other ship released its fighters and Bart flew toward their hold as fast as possible.

The hold was massive and still had some fighters getting ready to launch. Nessa, in the gunner’s chair, shot the remaining ships before they had a chance to move. 

Alarms blared. “We weren’t going for subtle, were we?” asked Peri rhetorically.

Instead of landing, Bart took advantage of the large corridors in the Blue Sun ships and crashed through the door. Nessa shot at any soldiers in their way. Through the twisting corridors, they passed the prisoner cells and took a sharp right into the large cargo hold that had the Tyrite Troop Transport. They landed outside the doors and ran back toward the prisoner cells.

With the guards taken care of, they moved quickly. As they ran, Peri whispered to Nessa, “I found Arthur.”

She whispered back, “If it’s Bart, don’t tell anyone, he’ll be insufferable.” 

Yelling from the front, Bart said, “I’m a canine. I can hear a whisper as well as you could, feline, we all know it’s not me but the girl.”

Peri looked surprised at Bart’s comment, “How did you know?”

“Only one of us was raised by an old-Earth cult and looks like the guy on the screen.”

Zuri stopped running and said, “I’m Arthur? But I’m a girl.”

“Bah!” Bart barked. “The Tyrite Empress is a girl. The leaders of Avalon are girls. The royal Family of Ares are all non-binary.” He paused before yelling, “Welcome back, Queen. Now move your tiny butt, I’m going to need help hacking the cell locks. Unless we find a living guard, my method won’t work.” It felt like months since they’d thrown a guard at the forcefields to open the cells, but it had been only a few days.

Relaxing at his casual tone, Zuri rushed forward to hug him and the two ran ahead to the central chamber.

The Sun Speakers couldn’t follow what was going on with her, but Zuri was a Sapian and that meant they probably already knew. “We need to speed things up,” she said.

Zuri made quick work of the console and released the prisoners. Releasing them was easier than organizing them. You don’t move a thousand people quickly unless you want some of them trampled.

Nessa and Bart directed the flow while the doctor made sure everyone was alright. Finally, as the last of them was moving toward the ship, Nessa and Zuri were alone at the end of the line. “Did you know?” the older woman asked.

“No. I was told my whole life that my brother was Arthur. That Arthur could never be a woman.” Zuri still looked uncertain.

“Did you finding out unlock some sort of latent memories that would teach you about your powers?”

Laughing, Zuri said, “No, and you know it wouldn’t. The Avalon lady said she needed to train him, I mean me.”

“I guess we need to get you to her then.” Nessa felt the fur on the back of her neck rise in alarm and she pushed Zuri out of the way of a stun bolt. It hit the bulkhead beside her.

Behind them were a dozen soldiers and Aria the Sun Speaker. She still looked young but her eyes were old and angry. “Hello, cat.”

“That’s Captain Nessa Muldune, you prepubescent prophet.”

Zuri snickered at Nessa’s snarky tone.

The Sun Speaker didn’t seem amused; she said, “Did you think you could save them?” When Nessa didn’t reply, she continued, “We knew if we had enough people and started a fight, you’d eventually show up and we knew that you’d bring us back Arthur.”

“You knew I was Arthur?”

“Absolutely. Now you have two choices. Die with them or live with us.”

Zuri looked confused, then her whole face went blank, and then she furrowed her brow like she was watching something absolutely fascinating. Finally, the girl slumped a little and started to cry.

Looking smug, Aria said, “That’s right. We’ve rigged the ship to explode and unless you stay with us, we’ll detonate it.”

Barely audible over the hum of air and the smugness of the Sun Speaker, Zuri whispered a series of numbers. She repeated the ten digit code twice and then said, “Fine. I’ll stay, but you have to let Nessa go with the others.”

“I won’t leave you alone with these people,” Nessa argued.

“Go, please.” Zuri looked worried enough to be sick. 

Nodding, Nessa turned and ran to the transport. Peri was waiting at the door. She got to him and said, “There’s a bomb on the ship, but I think Zuri gave me the disarm code.” She gave him the code and when he didn’t move she added, “Go disarm it.”

“What about you?”

“I’m going to save Zuri”

Read Chapter 12

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

The Suns of War – Chapter 10 (Serial Story)

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Prologue | 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 10: A lot of Ships, a Fake, and a Decision

They all forgot to breathe as they dropped out of FTL. None of them were sure what they’d find. The Blue-Sun armada was powerful enough to destroy every planet in a solar system but the Myrddin were also powerhouses.

“Is it too much to ask that they destroy each other?” had asked Bart.

The sight when they arrived was as terrifying as it was awe-inspiring. Nessa fought down nausea and feelings of insignificance as she looked at all the ships.

The million-strong fleet of pitch black monstrosities that was Blue-Sun was faced by an equal number of round red Myrddin ships. Over both fleets was the self proclaimed Three-System Fleet, a group made of the survivors of the Martian, Tyrite, and Aresian empires interspersed by Old Earth ships. Apparently, Proserpina wasn’t the only Old Earth colony that had been hiding. 

“I don’t get it. No one is saying anything,” Em said.

“They’re deciding what to do,” Nessa responded.

The quiet was interrupted by the mechanical voice of the Myrddin ships, “Show us Arthur and we shall join your quest.”

Bart let loose a chain of swears in every possible language and a few that Nessa didn’t recognize.

Blue-Sun broadcasted a videofeed of a man. He was tall, athletic, with a chiselled jaw and chin. His wavy brown hair and piercing blue eyes. His voice was resonant and commanding as he said, “I am Arthur, bow before me or face destruction.”

“A kingly character,” Peri said, not sounding convinced.

“He looks like the show fighters, all definition and no real strength.” Tanya sounded disgusted.

Nessa chuckled, “He doesn’t seem like a prisoner. I think he’d give us a fight if we tried to rescue him.” Addressing Arzure, she asked, “How’s the cloak holding up?”

“It’s solid and even their Sun Speakers won’t see us,” the girl said. 

Nessa noticed that Zuri had the same brown wavy hair and piercing blue eyes as the fake Arthur. They had the same strong chin, although he was pale white and she had dark amber skin.

“We should still try to take him or take him out,” Alexandre said. His scales shone in the lights of the bridge.

“No,” Nessa said. “If they take him and leave, we’re rid of the lot.”

The Myrddin finally replied, “Send us his DNA and we shall decide.”

The Blue-Sun fleet sent the information and Doctor Peri looked it over at the same time. 

“What do you have, doc?” asked Bart.

“It’s human DNA from a man, about forty. He’s in good health, needs more iron in his diet. Without something to compare it to, I can’t really tell anything.

“Compare it to this.” Zuri sent information to the doctor’s terminal. “The DNA of Arthur was in the database we took from them.”

After a few moments, the doctor said, “It’s so close a match it could be a sibling, but it’s not Arthur.”

“How long before they figure it out?” Nessa asked.

The Doctor didn’t get a chance to answer as the Myrddin fleet started firing on the Blue-Sun. They moved in unison, like birds flocking on a loaf of bread. It was efficient on a horrifying level.

Despite their impressive powers, the Blue-Sun ships crumbled into random debris. When the other fleet finally retaliated, it was like watching fireworks.

The Three-System fleet made the wise choice and retreated. Nessa was about to order that they do the same when another fleet appeared above the combatants. They looked a lot like the Blue-Sun ships, but their ships were a little smaller and the logo was a dark violet.

Pincered, the Myrddin didn’t stand a chance.

“Prisoners!” Nessa cried. That’s why the Three-System fleet had been there, they’d been hoping to save some of their people. “The Blue-Sun still has a lot of our people. Let’s save some.”

“That is reckless, dangerous, and will most likely kill us,” growled Bart. “I love it!”

“Zuri. Find out how to get us past their shields. Tanya, Alexandre, and Peri, get to the armoury. We’re boarding one of those ships.” Nessa felt a thrill of excitement at the idea that she might be able to save a few more people.

“I’m scanning the fleet for our people,” Em said. “There’s a ship near the rear that has over a thousand captives.”

“We’ll never be able to get that many on the ship,” the Doctor said.

Em smiled and replied, “You’re right, but there’s a Tyrite troop ship in their hold.” The Tyrite troop ships were some of the fastest in the galaxy. It would be a tight fit with that many people, but it would give them a chance to rejoin the new Three-System fleet.

With their orders, everyone got ready to head out. As she was heading to the armoury, Nessa was stopped by Peri. “Captain. I’ve analysed Arthur’s DNA from the Myrddin. It’s missing pieces. It’s more of a unique template that’s missing markers for gender, skin colour, and even race.”

“What are you saying, Doctor?” she asked, buckling a protective vest on herself.

“We’re looking for a human-white-male, but I think that’s too narrow.”

With a chuckle, Nessa said, “So is Bart the mythic Arthur?”

With no sign of humour, the doctor replied with, “He could be.” He helped her get into a double harness for handguns.

She swore. “So he, I mean they, could be Sapian, Feline, Serpent, or even Canine?”  

“Yes. I’m sorry but that makes our job a lot harder.”

Taking a moment to process the information, Nessa finally said, “Bring a portable medical scanner and scan everyone. Maybe we’ll get lucky. Until then, let’s go save some people.” She patted him on the back.

Nessa expected to be frustrated by the news, but she wasn’t. Something was niggling at the back of her mind and she was starting to suspect that Arthur was closer than any of them knew.

Read Chapter 11

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

The Suns of War – Chapter 9 (Serial Story)

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Prologue | 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 9: A Bomb, more Fanatics, and some Rest

The bomb embedded in the ship was giving off so much energy that it was super-charging the engines. 

“Once we open the energy collectors, we can syphon off the energy. That should slow us down,” Zuri explained again.

Bart’s bushy eyebrows furrowed and he asked, “Where are we going to put all that energy?”

It was Alexandre who replied, “Our new energy cells can hold a hundred and fifty percent of maximum. The rest we’ll be using to drop out of FTL without exploding.”

Bart swallowed hard and just nodded.

It wasn’t long before they had modified the ship and were ready to try. 

“Captain, on your mark,” Zuri said.

Trying not to think about what would happen if they had missed a valve or a bolt, Nessa said, “Bart, prepare for some fancy flying. When we drop out, we’ll be right in the middle of the Ares system and I don’t think they’ll be too happy to see a Martian ship arriving. Okay, Zuri, do it.”

Everyone braced for impact, but other than a worrisome humming noise, not much happened other than the view from the monitors changing.

Once they’d successfully dropped out of FTL, however, things got bumpy. They were still going extremely fast and Ares was one giant asteroid field.

Bart navigated them out of the field and then howled in frustration and anger. 

Nessa knew what it felt like to see your homeworld reduced to rubble and let the man grieve. She asked the rest of the bridge crew, “Damage report?” 

Zuri looked frustrated as she replied, “Working on it captain, but our sensors were damaged, and that’s slowing things down.”

Frowning, Nessa said, “Blue-Sun has to be stopped. We need to find Arthur. From what the Avalonians said, he has the power to stop them.”

“Sir, I’ve been reading through the massive amount of information they gave us on Arthur and I think I found something that will help.” Em looked hopeful.

“Go ahead.”

“It’s said that Arthur can block the connection between the Sun Speakers and their gods. He was also a powerful Sun Speaker himself so he has those powers. It says that the best way to identify Arthur is when he uses his powers.”

Still heartbroken at seeing his homeworld destroyed, Bart asked in a teary voice, “What powers? What can stand up to this level of destruction?”

Em sighed and said, “The text is half metaphors and all flowery language. It’s hard to decipher. Other than blocking the Sun Speakers, there’s something about leading the half-living into battle, and understanding the secrets of war. I really d—” Alarms cut him off and he tapped at his console before saying, “There are four Myrddin ships and they’re hailing us.”

The near mechanical voices boomed over the ships coms, “Myrddin searches for Arthur.”

“Put me on,” Nessa said and once Em did, she said, “Myrddin ships. We are the Galahad and we also search for Arthur.” When they didn’t respond, she asked, “How will you recognize him and what do you plan to do with him?”

It seemed like they weren’t going to answer until the voice said, “We will recognize him by DNA and we shall follow him into the war to end all wars. Why do you search for him?”

Nessa didn’t want to mention Avalon so she settled for a half truth, “We hope he can help against the meaningless destruction of Blue-Sun.”

“They are serpents, which must be destroyed. It is agreed.” The coms cut off and everyone stared at the screen in confusion.

After a moment, Em said, “They’ve sent us a data packet with what looks like medical information.”

Peri, who’d been sitting at a spare station, perked up and said, “Send it to medbay and I’ll look it over.”

Zuri, who seemed to have missed everything, looked up and said, “Looks like sensors, shields, cloak, weapons, FTL engines, and plasma collectors all sustained severe damage.”

“Is that it?” Alexandre said, and Nessa could swear the large lizardman was teasing Zuri.

Blushing, Zuri said, “It’ll take a day and a half to repair.”

Nessa nodded and gestured for her to go ahead. Both her and Alexandre got up and headed to wherever they needed to repair things. “We’ll set up two shifts. Bart and Tanya, you go for a rest, Em and I will take first duty.” When the other two were gone, Nessa told Em to go help the engineers. 

The bridge was so quiet with everyone gone, Nessa could almost believe that she was back as a commander in the Martian military. “Has it really only been a few days?” she asked herself.

She monitored communications, but the usually active channels were quiet. With at least two of the three major powers destroyed, there weren’t many people left.

The shift went on quietly until Bart came to relieve her of duty.

“How are you holding up?” she asked.

“I’m angry and sad, but mostly I feel numb. Those bastards took our homes without breaking a sweat.”

She placed a gentle hand on his shoulder and he pulled her into a hug. She said, “I understand.”

“Bah, enough touchy-feely stuff. Get some sleep.”

Her quarters were untouched, but felt wrong, like a relic from another time. She ate a quick meal and then lay down for sleep. She didn’t expect it would be easy, but she closed her eyes and fell into a deep sleep.

She was started out of a dream about chasing ghosts through a maze by Bart over the coms, “Captain, Blue-Sun is broadcasting on all channels that they found Arthur and he’s going to lead them into battle against the rebel suns. We’re reading a massive fleet of Myrddin on their way to the Blue-Sun location.”

Later, on the bridge, Nessa looked around at the assembled crew and said, “It’s probably a trap, but if there’s a chance they found Arthur, we need to make sure he isn’t being used by them.”

“The ship’s ready to go,” Zuri said.

“Let’s go rescue King Arthur Pendragon, Speaker of the Rebel Sun, Ruler of Old Earth and the three kingdoms of War.”

Read Chapter 10

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

The Suns of War – Chapter 8 (Serial Story)

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Prologue | 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 8: Angry Parents and Antimatter Bombs

When the fake asteroid hailed them, Nessa had assumed they’d talk to a burly farmer or engineer. There were jokes throughout the Mars system about Proserpinans being uncultured or backwards. 

The man on the screen was dressed in an ancient styled suit and looked like something from the old Earth stories. He had a strange sharp accent like Martian wasn’t his first language. “Arzure Pendreicht, where have you been?” It was the tone of a precise and strict teacher, not a parent.

“Excuse me Sir, but I’m Commander Nessa Muldune of the ISS Galahad. We are searching for a man named Arthur.”

The man turned his piercing grey eyes on Nessa and said, “Would that be King Arthur? Who shall return and rule the galaxy ushering in a golden age of galactic peace?”

Hesitating, Nessa then replied, “Yes.”

With a sly smile the man said, “No one by that name is on Proserpina.” He then scowled at Zuri and commanded, “You will return home immediately or we will retrieve you! You have no business traipsing around the cosmos with these people.” His emphasis on the word people made it clear it was meant as an insult.

“But Father,” she started and then added, “Yes, Sir.”

The line was cut and the whole bridge crew turned to Zuri. Nessa was the first to talk and asked, “How old are you?”

“Twenty. Why?” Zuri looked confused.

“I was sixteen when I enlisted and by Martian law you’re an adult at that age. You don’t have to go with him if you don’t want to.”

Zuri sighed and slumped into the engineering station’s chair. “You don’t understand. He’ll chase us and he’ll destroy this ship.”

Alexandre scoffed. “This might be a Martian design, but with the upgrades done by the Avalonians and yourself, there’s no way that ancient bucket of bolts could touch us.”

“That’s an original old Earth destroyer class colony ship. Its hull was designed to absorb radiation and turn it into fuel. It would take crashing a planet into it to make a dent.” Zuri sounded defeated. 

Nessa put a gentle paw on the girl’s arm and said, “He could command the combined army of the three systems. If you don’t want to return, I will protect you.”

The rest of the crew nodded in agreement and the decision was made. 

“Please,” Zuri said, her voice thin and fragile.

Nessa gestured at the screen and said, “Em, get them back on the vid.”

“Yes Sir,” the master sergeant replied.

“What do you want now?” The man’s glare was as sharp as his suit.

“Zuri is a member of our crew and she wants to stay with us. Our mission is to find Arthur. Any information you can give us would be appreciated.” 

The man fixed his eye on Zuri and said, “If you do this, we will kill everyone on that sh—” His words were interrupted by heavy fire.

“Sir, there are three Myrddin ships that have just dropped out of FTL. They’re firing on both us and the Proserpina,” Tanya said with her fingers poised over the weapon controls.

“They’re firing on both of us,” confirmed Alexandre.

Bart barked, “Let’s get out of here.”

“Agreed,” Nessa replied. “Take us anywhere but here.”

Just as the Galahad jumped to FTL, an explosion rocked the ship. 

Still looking younger than her years, Zuri tapped furiously at her consol, “Captain, we’ve taken severe damage to our engines. I’m not sure how we’re still in FTL.”

“How is that possible and can anyone tell where we’re headed?” Nessa asked. Sometimes it was the Captain’s job to know all the answers and sometimes they had to ask the right ones. Finding the balance was always tricky.

After a little, Em answered from the helm, “It looks like we’re headed toward the Ares system and our speed is increasing. We just passed FTL-20.” Faster than light speed was calculated by multiplying the speed of light. Twenty meant they were moving at twenty the speed of light. With the ship’s engines, they normally moved at a maximum of FTL-15.

“Zuri, I thought you said our engines were down?” Bart asked.

“They are, but that was an antimatter bomb, and it hit our shields at the exact moment we created the FTL bubble. The bomb is stuck in our bubble, fueling our speed, and sustaining the bubble.”

“Can the ship survive this?” Nessa asked, surprised that she couldn’t feel any turbulence.

“Absolutely. The ship isn’t doing anything so it’s not a problem. However, if the bubble bursts before it slows, the ship will be torn apart at a molecular level,” Alexandre replied.

“Sir we just hit FTL-2000. Nope FTL-4000.” Em sounded awed and panicked at the same time. A feeling that Nessa could understand.

“Options?”

“What if we shot a regular bomb at the antimatter one?” Tanya sounded excited about blowing things up. 

With wide eyes, both Alexandre and Em said, “No!”

Zuri explained, “That would probably knock the antimatter bomb out of the bubble, but it would also burst it.”

“We’re moving too fast for my instruments. We’re going to pass Ares in less than an hour,” Em smacked her console as if that would help it make more sense.

“How can we syphon off this speed?” Bart asked. When they all looked at him he said, “When I’m flying the fighter and I’m getting too close to my target, I can activate my rudder flaps to slow me down. Can we do the same, but with the bubble?”

“You’re a genius,” Zuri said, causing the canine to puff up his chest.

“So we have something like a wing rudder?” he asked.

“Tartarus, no! That’s a terrible idea. But you said syphon off our speed. What we need to do is syphon the power of the antimatter bomb into our ship’s energy collectors and that will slow us down.”

“Those are designed for plasma not antimatter,” Alexandre pointed out.

“We just need to make some small changes. These engines were designed to run on plasma converted to antimatter, so we just disconnect the micro-collider and feed it directly.”

Alexandre agreed and Nessa asked, “Is this going to kill us?”

Both Zuri and Alexandre replied, “Probably.”

Read Chapter 9

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