Allison grumbled as she walked across the hangar to where Bit was waiting. The AI was in sleep mode until her pilot woke her up by opening the cockpit.
“What is going on Allison?”
Allison blushed.
“Honestly, I forgot the tesseract core. Aunt Maria was not happy.”
She reached under the seat and grabbed the device. She screamed when it zapped her with a purple beam of energy. It was pure agony. She was thrown from the ladder and knocked unconscious briefly. When she came to her senses, she was looking up at three ground crew and a medical team was already entering the hangar. She waved the medical team away and stood up and rubbed her head. Then they looked around for the tesseract, it was nowhere to be found.
“Where is the device? Did someone take it?”
The three ground crewmen looked at each other and shook their heads.
“We heard a noise and when we got here you were unconscious.”
She called out.
“Bit, where is the tesseract?”
Bit spoke.
“I do not know it vanished in a flash of purple light when you touched it.”
Allison looked at her hands; She had no burns or signs of injury. She swore under her breath. Her contacts, holo-phone and translator were all rebooting.
“Bit, open a link to the Phoenix ask the fleet to deploy and scan the planet for the tesseract energy signature. Then notify Andromeda Command.”
Allison’s trip to the Commonwealth was delayed by a few hours. It turned out the tesseract was nowhere on Eden Prime, or anywhere they could find. She left the search in the capable hands of the System’s Alliance military and eventually made her way back to her flagship. She sat down in the captain’s chair and looked like a queen wearing her crown on a troubled brow. Finally, she looked up at her helmswoman.
“Link our conventional FTL navigation system with the Ark Royal and the Vantus. Move away from the fleet and set a course for Andromeda-One.”
Allison leaned on her elbow. She would much rather be piloting the ship than giving orders. It was the eternal struggle of pilots and soldiers, promotion meant you were inevitably pushed upwards, away from what you loved doing. Her three ship fleet entered hyperspace. They were at Andromeda-One two hours later. Soon they were through the stargate and floating above the water world Allison had been stranded on just a few days before. She looked at her comm’s officer.
“Get me that Commonwealth ship, please.”
The captain of the Commonwealth ship appeared on their viewscreen. It was another Commander of the same race as Commander Yorta. He smiled at Allison.
“Battlelord Wanjala, you are expected. We were not expecting such an eclectic mix of ships.”
Allison stood up.
“We brought representatives from both the System’s Alliance and League of Sentient Races. My ship is… refurbished salvage from a long dead species. Do we have permission to proceed to your capital world?”
He nodded.
“You may proceed.”
Allison smiled.
“Thank you, Commander. Farewell.”
She ordered her comms officer to break communication then walked up to the only console on the bridge that wasn’t manned. It was also the only one that wasn’t covered in an overly simplified version of the Qual’sa language. It was in fact fairly hard to decipher even for her with her advanced knowledge of it because it was in the dark Qual’sa dialect. She’d tested it previously, but she was still hesitant about the technology, operating the fold drive was half fourth dimensional math and half psionic prowess. The Qual’sa had abandoned it as a technology long before her Aryna was born. It took extreme focus. Queen Aryna had demanded Allison learn the ins and outs of the technology. She tapped her AR HUD to transmit the positioning required by the Vantus and the Ark Royal.
“Initiating space fold in ten seconds.”
She counted down while focusing on the positioning on the star map provided by the Commonwealth. She pressed her palm on the control pad after a ten count. Everything shimmered, it was like having double vision, only each person and the ship seemed to exist in four places at once just out of sync, then everything went back to normal as they entered real space. Her crew had experienced the sensation before, the Ark Royal and Vantus had not. It was disconcerting like you were being pulled in every single direction and time at once. The sensation was brief but profoundly wrong feeling. She heard her bridge crew reporting after they came out of the fold.
“Sensors coming back online, Captain. I have the Commonwealth capital onscreen. Ark Royal and Vantus are in fleet formation with us as expected.”
Allison stood up straight and rubbed her temples. Interacting with the fold drive was mentally draining. She looked at the viewscreen and smiled. The Commonwealth home world was a beautiful blue planet. Much like Earth would have been a thousand years before. More of the Commonwealth’s graceful white ships were patrolling the system or in space repair bays. At the center of the activity was a beautiful white star fortress. It was massive, and likely could berth many of the ships inside it. Allison’s comm’s officer spoke up.
“Ma’am we have clearance to enter their space dock. They’ve provided speed regulations.”
Allison nodded and motioned at the helm with her hand then to the space dock. She was in awe of the size of the Commonwealth’s space dock. It dwarfed anything in the System’s Alliance or League.
“Tell the fleet they’re cleared to dock. Take us in and follow their regulations to the letter. Let’s make a good second impression.”
She sat down in the command chair and rubbed her forehead again. R’sslv leaned close.
“Are you alright, ma’am?”
Allison nodded.
“I’m fine, the fold drive is just… taxing to use. It definitely makes me jealous of people who can use painkillers.”
The pair looked towards the viewscreen as massive doors slid open. They could easily dock one of the System’s Alliance Dreadnaught’s inside the space dock. Once they’d entered Allison stood up and straightened her uniform top out.
“You have the bridge, Commander. I’ll go meet greet our hosts. Have engineering teams standing by to assist with installing this… matter transmitter.”
R’sslv looked up at her from his seat.
“Ma’am, shouldn’t you take… a security detail, that is pretty much standing orders for both League and Alliance.”
Allison held up her hand.
“Widow is meeting me in the shuttle bay. I’ll be fine.”
Allison left the bridge and headed to the starboard shuttle bay. Her shuttle was already waiting. She got on board, Widow as predicted was already waiting for her. The bartender was in her special forces uniform. She nodded to Allison who sat down beside her. The pilot launched the shuttle and flew it towards the hangar he was directed to. A short time later Allison walked off the shuttle flanked by Widow. They were met by what looked like a human, the woman was wearing a Commonwealth uniform that indicated she was part of their command structure. Allison blinked a few times in disbelief. The human smiled at her.
“Hello Battlelord, I guess you weren’t expecting to see a human this far away from home.”
Allison nodded.
“That is a fact Sub-Commander.”
The Sub-Commander motioned for Widow and Allison to follow her.
“I am Sub-Commander Sera Roman; I’ll explain on the way.”
Allison rubbed her temple briefly then focused on the task at hand.
“Umm, why did Commander Yorta and the first contact people act like… they didn’t know what a human was?”
Sera smiled again.
“That was out of an abundance of caution. Not about your intentions. More about getting hopes up that we’d made contact with our origin system, our ancient records say it was destroyed in an apocalyptic war that our ancestors fled. You see we humans founded the Commonwealth about a hundred and fifty years ago. This is our home world, Demeter.”
Allison looked around at the star fortress. It was just as comfortable looking as the Commonwealth ships then back to Sera.
“But how did you end up here? We’re fifteen billion light years from Earth.”
Sera nodded.
“Yes, I can see how that would be puzzling. A quirk of physics is to blame. The short answer is, The Odyssey, the life Ark as they called it, was the first human warp drive. It could barely get past light speed, or so the histories say, but it should have made it to a system called Alpha Centauri in about four years. Something went wrong and it caused a distortion in space time, while we can’t be sure, we suspect a naturally occurring wormhole. The rest is… history for us.”
Allison blinked a few times.
“The chances of navigating a naturally occurring wormhole without being turned into… well getting spread across all of space time are… like 0.0000001%.”
The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.
Sera nodded.
“Oh, so you’re a science officer! I was told you were a pilot.”
Allison shook her head.
“No, I am a pilot who is qualified to do what we call blind wormhole jumps. Which requires… basically I need to know everything about wormholes and the math, otherwise I couldn’t calculate the destination trajectory.”
Sera looked extremely impressed.
“How do you usually use your wormhole drives?”
Allison shrugged.
“We have beacons that are connected to wormhole communication network. They broadcast their position compared to the galactic center, the person who designed it... my Aunt Maria called Sol System, Earth, our galactic center. So, we target those beacons. Doing it blindly is dangerous and usually requires pretty exact coordinates. Like, say we could open it into a middle of a star or planet which we have never done but it could either create a blast of solar radiation and heat, or cause a self-sustaining singularity… its bad. I’m only allowed to do it in emergencies. The weaponization of wormholes is well, very, very, very illegal.”
Sera had led them to a briefing room door.
“They must put a lot of trust in your mathematics knowledge then. Ah we are here. I’ll be your liaison while you’re here. Please go inside.”
Widow stood beside the door after nodding to Allison. Sera looked up at her.
“Oh, you’re not going in?”
Widow shook her head.
“No, I’m just the Princess’s bodyguard.”
“Princess?”
Widow nodded.
“Allison is the Crown Princess of Eternal Night, and the Ratoan Empire. Duchess of the Qual’sa. As such she is typically required to have a full security detail at all times when she is not on her home world or her flagship. She often evades or ignores that requirement.”
Allison made a face at Widow.
“That is because I can take care of myself.”
Sera was blushing.
“I am sorry, we did not realize you were royalty, we’ve missed several protocols!”
Allison shook her head and waved her hands.
“No! Let’s just treat this like I’m a simple military pilot… or ship’s captain. That’s fine with me.”
Sera and Widow started talking about Allison’s status. Allison rolled her eyes and went into the conference room. She was greeted by representatives from the Commonwealth Fleet and their civilian government. Half of which were human, including their Fleet’s commander and chief. A silver-haired man who reminded her a lot of her babu with his dark skin and kind eyes. They all stood when she entered. Everyone sat down. Allison felt like she was on the spot. They all looked somewhat confused, finally the fleet admiral spoke up.
“You’re the representative from the System’s Alliance and League of Sentient races?”
Allison was somewhat confused because Maria had said they had specifically asked for her.
“Yes sir. Were you expecting someone else?”
He nodded.
“We requested the highest ranking military officers they could spare for these in person talks.”
Allison bit her lower lip.
“Sir, I am the highest ranking military officer in both the League and Alliance militaries. I report directly to the President and Primarch. I’ve been put in charge of all military arms so I can coordinate and repel the Sal’nash threat. I am also crown princess of the System’s Alliance non-human peoples and our close allies the Ratoan Empire. I’m also duchess of Qual’sa, a high ranking noble in the League. My sister and aunt are president and empress. You really can’t find someone of higher station in the Alliance without actually having my aunt and sister here, which is strictly forbidden since they aren’t allowed off of our home world for security reasons. Same with the League, short of having Tearyna here, that is Queen Aryna, ruler of the Qual’sa remnant.”
He nodded.
“I see, but you’re… a teenage girl.”
Allison shrugged.
“I’m afraid so, sir. If you’d rather… I can head home, and they can send someone else.”
The highest ranking civilian in the room, a human woman of what appeared to be Indian descent spoke up.
“No, that will not be necessary. The President of the System’s Alliance and Primarch of the League have both stated you have their utmost confidence. We apologize for the lack of fanfare at your arrival. We did not realize you were royalty.”
Allison blushed.
“That is fine, I try to avoid letting people know unless I need to for protocol. As your Fleet Admiral has said, I am a seventeen year old girl who is still in high school. I also happen to have been born into a royal family and am apparently a tactical genius, so I find myself filling roles I don’t feel old enough or ready for, I’m sure you’ve all been there at some time in your lives.”
That elicited a few laughs and chuckles. The Fleet Admiral stood up and waved his hand over a screen that came to life with the Commonwealth, System’s Alliance and League of sentient races flags.
“I’ll start with introductions; I am Fleet Admiral Mal Reese. I am in command of The Commonwealth Exploration Forces. We act both as a defense and exploration force for the Commonwealth. To my left is Vice President Ananya Naidu. To her left is our chief fleet engineer Kody Roberson. To my right is our chief science officer, Nxta Gotia, to her right is Dr. Gzta, our foremost specialist in xenobiology and psionics.”
Allison nodded to each in turn.
“Your president has advised us that you are in the middle of a war with a violent species that will not negotiate that are able to emit some form of psionic signal that is harmful to your tech and human lives. As fellow humans, we feel that is our duty to assist your people with this terrible foe.”
Allison was confused, this was pretty sudden.
“Sir, pardon me for being… well people offering help like this seems to be… well too easy and very soon after we’ve made first contact. Why are you offering your assistance so quickly?”
He nodded and motioned to the display screen again and her image showed on a video, the signal was degraded but it appeared they had received the many times boosted message through subspace that had been broadcast during the memorial for Mary.
“You did, Princess Wanjala.”
Allison sunk into her seat. She wanted to disappear but that would be impossible if the broadcast reached here then literally it could be picked up across the entire universe. If there were real gods, they probably heard her.
“This broadcast was discovered after you left for home. It was further confirmation that we had found the lost brothers and sisters of our origin system. Specifically, your mention of Christianity. More than that, your heartfelt words moved many hearts. I apologize if my reaction seemed unimpressed by your presence. We did not realize you were the voice of sorrow as you’ve been called here. We are fully prepared to help you analyze any data you have gathered. We are also upgrading the shields on your ships and fighters. We are also providing the specifications for our phasic beam arrays. Our preliminary reports seem to indicate with the shield upgrades we are providing you should be able to defend yourselves with the proper harmonics. Our science teams have received the tracking data and are working with your stellar cartography team to see if we can’t figure out tracking of these beasties.”
Allison was forcing back tears of joy. Now her people would be protected, and she was happy to get all the help she could tracking the Sal’nash. Enid had done this. She had to have been the source of the wormhole. She sent them to be here when the ships from the other universes arrived, she sent them here to develop on their own divergent path. She pulled Allison here to meet them. For the first time since she encountered the Sal’nash she had real hope of victory.
“I don’t know what to say, sir. You probably just saved billions of lives and the lives of my soldiers.”
He smiled.
“You have said enough, Princess Wanjala.”
Allison realized she should be providing the Commonwealth with the Alliance and League’s side. She tapped her AR HUD and swept her hand towards the screen it accepted her access request and displayed the specifications for their hyperdrive.
“I have been authorized to deliver a hyperdrive, the specifications for the drive and a volunteer to assist you with developing your own version, I’ve also been authorized to provide the specifications for our particle beams.”
Behind her on the screen an animation of the various specifications, hyperdrive and particle beams in action was on display.
“The president also asked me to pass on her thanks for your assistance with warp drive technology. She has decided not to pursue it further. It is not compatible with our graviton generators. Her exact words were: ‘Their impulse drives are an impressive advancement in EM drive technology, but our graviton generators are just vastly superior in acceleration and maneuverability we simply cannot give up sub-light advantage for non-hyperdrive FTL that is slower.’ She is not just our president; She is also our greatest engineer and scientist.”
The fleet admiral nodded then asked.
“Just how fast is your graviton drive?”
Allison did some quick math.
“It can get us to 90% the speed of light. With hyperdrives the faster your sub-light engine is, the faster you can travel through hyperspace. The drive provides almost near infinite speeds the only thing holding us back is well going too deep into hyperspace kills organic cells. Our hyperdrives have safety features on them to prevent crews from going too fast. Basically, a ship is limited to the most sensitive of the species on board. For me that is a hundred light years per hour, for a normal human, ten light years per hour is the safest maximum speed.”
The fleet admiral spoke.
“I see, did you use the wormhole drive to arrive here from your origin point instantaneously?”
Allison shook her head.
“No sir, that was a fold drive. It is unique to my ship. It requires psionic potential to use. It interfaces with a plant that can bend space and time and pull you from one point to another. We still don’t quite understand it. I have extensive experience with it from time I spent with the creators of the drive. They made sure I knew how to use it. I guess they had some precognitive ability because I found a ship with a fold drive on it.”
Allison shrugged.
“Mine is the only one in existence now. The species that created it were wiped out.”
There were some confused looks.
“I apologize. I can’t really explain my interaction with them, it is highly classified. What is next on your agenda?”
One of the admiral’s aides walked around the table and placed a data tablet in front of Allison. Her AR HUD overlaid the controls with the System’s Alliance basic language for her and they translated the list that was displayed. They were names. She glanced at the first few.
“What is this?”
The admiral looked around the table, no one else seemed willing to answer.
“Those are the colonists that originally left Earth. They are in cryostasis we were hoping you could help us identify them, and possibly their descendants”
Allison blinked a few times as she processed the sentence, she’d almost missed the they are in, instead of they were…
“Sir, did you say they’re still in cryostasis?”
He nodded.
“That is correct.”
Allison took a deep breath, she was confused, how did the colonists have children if they were still ice cubes.
“Umm, I’m very confused now, how do… how did you survive?”
One of the civilian representatives spoke, another human.
“The origin ship was scheduled for a 4.5 year journey. So, when it arrived, they did not wake up because they had barely left the origin system. There was damage, the computers lost most of the historical data and the wake sequence failed. It was still able to deploy the colony pod and the artificial wombs were able to grow infants. Two robots were all our ancestors had for guidance. The ship is still in orbit and we have adapted modern power systems over the years to keep the cryostasis going. They have been in stasis for too long and our medical science cannot wake them. Some have already died, three… though it appears they died in the original incident that damaged the computers. It is time we let the remaining colonists rest. So if we can find their descendants we can ask them permission to let them go.”
Allison blinked a few more times. They had come so far and been in stasis for so long and now they were just going to die. She sighed.
“Sirs, ma’ams, I must be honest, the records from before The Grey are spotty at best. We have been recovering media and historical data for almost three hundred years but we still know almost nothing of our true history. The chances anyone can identify these people are extremely low.”
She glanced down and scrolled through the list and stopped suddenly scrolled up because she had seen a name that couldn’t be… it just couldn’t be. Because Zuri Mwangi would be her mother’s twin sister’s name. There was no way this could be her. Her mother would have remembered her going on some colony expedition. She tapped the name, thirteen. Known relatives, every single name on the list she recognized, and more specifically she saw twin sister Apyio Mwangi.
“This isn’t possible.”
Everyone looked up at her suddenly.
“Zuri Mwangi is my aunt. My mom’s twin sister.”
The fleet admiral looked confused.
“How is that possible?”
Allison rubbed her forehead.
“My mother was born in 2014. Just under a thousand Earth years ago. She froze in The Grey and was thawed out and revived about twenty five years ago. My adoptive mother. Her maiden name was Mwangi, Apiyo Mwangi, listed here as the twin sister of Zuri Mwangi.”
She kept looking and her eyes caught something. The three deceased members all had V next to their names, she actually recognized five names on the list in total. Zuri, Lysander Aurelius, Aeliana Aurelius and their twins, Plutonia and Rose.
“Actually… my aunt, uncle and two cousins… biological are on the list and they aren’t dead they’re vampires, they’re just sleeping. I don’t think your… I don’t think the people in cryostasis need to die. I can request the medical team from the Ark Royal assess them…”