Shadows of the Past
Finding One’s True Self: Part 45
By Xan Steel
Julyna made it to the Bridge with Rubicant following behind her. He stopped and watched her head towards a chair in the center of the Bridge. Rubicant stayed at the back like she asked him to do and began to sense everyone’s thoughts and feelings. Zalina was nervous because the ship that was following them was of unknown origin, which to her was never a good thing. Raybia was nervous, because it was matching her course corrections and speed, while Adreena had what little weapons they had left at the ready, just not targeted.
Julyna spoke in a commanding voice, “Is it close enough for a visual?”
Zalina answered, “Yes, I’ll bring it up on the main viewer.” She tapped a few buttons on her console as the larger screen at the front displayed the ship chasing them.
The smaller ship its self-wasn’t familiar to Rubicant, but the one thing that caught his attention quickly was the symbol on the front of it. Julyna and Iris picked up on his sudden increase of fear and anger, as well as his questioning though, ‘How?’
Iris spoke to him mentally, ‘Rubi what’s wrong?’
‘I know that symbol, but it, it can’t be,’ he said to her when Julyna mentally spoke up.
‘I remember this symbol from our first mind blend,’ she said.
‘Yes, and I hoped I’d never see it again. Can you find a place to hide?’ Rubicant asked Julyna. He then thought back to Iris, ‘Iris where are you?’
Iris responded, ‘In your quarters right now. Why?’
‘I need you to hide and stay hidden for me until I come and get you ok,’ he said to her as she agreed and did so.
“Raybia, is there a place nearby we can attempt to evade this ship?” Julyna asked as Raybia went to work scanning the area.
Zalina spoke up, “Captain, sensors indicate that the entire ship is crewed by the same species as,” she turned to look at Julyna and spoke in disbelief, “Rubicant.”
Julyna unfazed spoke, “How many are we dealing with?”
Zalina turned back around and looked over information, “One hundred and fifty-six total individuals Captain.”
That was a bit more than Julyna wanted to deal with. Raybia spoke up, “Captain sorry to report, but there is no place where we can hide from this ship, and to make things worse they are gaining on us at standard combat speed. So, unless you want me to use the XZR system, warp, or jump, they’ll be on us in a five and a half minutes.
Meanwhile, on the other ship sitting in a dimly lit bridge, we see an aged African gentleman seated in the captain’s chair, as well as an aged White gentleman sitting to his right. The white gentleman turns to the captain, “Sir, I’m picking up both targets on board that vessel.”
“Both?”
“Yes, Sir, The EM-Drive, and a Human.”
“I see.”
“They are also trying to outmaneuver us, but the pilot reports that shouldn’t be an issue.”
“Good, let the pilot and tactical officers know that once we are in range to engage the all three of the tow lines. I want to board that vessel and get back what is ours.”
“And my son, Sir.”
“Him too. Hopefully, it’s a happy reunion.”
Raybia had been using every maneuvering skill she knew of, but just couldn’t shake them. Their pilot was able to match her move for move, and it annoyed her greatly. As much as she wanted to use the XZR system, Julyna hadn’t given her permission to do so.
Julyna activated her ship-wide comm, “Attention all hands, Battle Stations. Secure all vital areas, Transporter Room monitor all crew life signs, and transport to medical if any fluctuate. To all security teams set energy weapons to full stun, and coordinate your positions with Commander Tygera,” she ordered and then closed the comm and turned to Adreena. “Adreena I need you to do a tactical scan, I need to know what we are up against,” she finished as Adreena nodded and began working.
Adreena turned back to her once the scan was finished. “Captain, they are armed with four 350mm Mass Drivers, two fore, and two aft. Two forward low yield missile launchers, a tow cable system, and an oddly configured shield grid that I’ve never seen,” she finished.
“Can our shields and hull withstand a hit from their Mass Drivers?” Julyna asked.
Adreena responded, “Concerning the shields, that depends on the type of ammunition which I’m unable to ascertain at this time. As far as the Hull is concerned, the computer isn’t giving us much of a chance there. Mass Drivers haven’t been used in our galaxy in over three hundred cycles, and our plate thickness is only ten centimeters.”
Julyna sighed internally. “Raybia do your best for now. Adreena, bring our weapons online if you haven’t already and target the enemy. Once they are in range fire a few warning shots, with any luck that will make them think twice.
Meanwhile back on the other ship, the elderly white gentleman turned to his captain. “Sir, they are targeting us now, and according to scanners, it’s some type of energy weapon.”
“Can the shields handle it?” the captain asked.
“We won’t know until the energy hits our shields.”
The captain leaned forward in thought before turning to his tactical officer, “Lieutenant, reinforce the forward shields I want nothing getting through.”
“Aye aye, Sir.”
Adreena waited until the other ship was within five kilometers and targeted the outer edge of their shield grid and fired.
From the outside, four yellowish bolts of disrupter energy fly through space from the two turrent hard-points mounted on the upper center of the wings, as the other ship managed to dodge two of them, the other two impacted on the outer edge of the other ship’s shield grid.
The elderly white gentleman spoke, “That is interesting.”
The captain turned to him, “What is it?”
“They are using a type of disrupting energy. While I’m positive, those were warning shots. Those two hits managed to take thirty-five percent of our shield power. Adding that information to the computer, our hull wouldn’t stand a chance of protecting us from one shot.”
The Captain turned to his lieutenant, “Return a similar warning shot.”
The other ship returned fire as Raybia dodged one of them as the other hit the Kestrels shield grid. Adreena made an announcement, “Captain, they are using a type of Cobalt-Uranium projectile. That shot took thirteen percent of our shields. I’ve also added in the projectiles speed, and sadly, once our shields or down. The hull wouldn’t be able to withstand one shot.
“Captain, if they get any closer. They’ll be able to use that tow system to possibly board us.” Raybia informed her.
Julyna had already considered that option only because they didn’t continue to fire their weapons at them after the warning shots. A lot was going through her mind. One, what was their overall intention. Two, how they got to this galaxy. Three were they planning to take Rubicant away. She turned to Zalina, “Hail them!” she ordered.
After a few seconds, Zalina turned back to her, “I’m afraid that’s not possible as they don’t appear to have a recognizable communication system,” she replied.
“Sir, the pilot, has found a spot on that ship to connect the boarding port to and is ready to engage the engines at maximum,” the elderly white gentleman announced.
The African gentleman turned to the pilot. “Once in range fire the tow cables, and bring us in.” He then turned to his comm panel. “To all boarding party crew. We are here to retrieve what is ours, the EM-Drive, and the human. Any resistance is to be met with lethal force.”
Raybia trying desperately to outmaneuver the other vessel while noticing it get closer and closer. Fear began to overtake her common sense and blurted out “I’m taking us to warp!”
“Negative Raybia!” Julyna commanded her as she watched her stop mid-motion.
“Captain I can’t outmaneuver them! They are going to catch up soon!” Raybia’s tone was mixed with fear and excitement.
Julyna’s tone softens a bit, “I know right now things are scary with not knowing everything about them and what they plan to do. That is why we need to find out and not run away. With their older technology, and somewhat large crew for that small a ship. I can only guess their goal is a possible takeover. There are no ships in any government that could defend against their weapons. I know that sounds weird to say, but this can happen when advancements are made,” she finished just as they all heard three loud thunks on the hull of the Kestrel.
Zalina announced, “That would be their tow cables Captain. They created a magnetic field around them to allow them to pass through the shields. Plus it looks like they are pulling towards Cargo Bay 1.”
“Alright once they are close drop our shields and let them approach, don’t need to blowout the shield grid.” Julyna turned to Raybia, “Please use your piloting skills to soften their attachment to our hull. I want to minimize the amount of damage since we are far from a starbase to get repairs,” she asked as Raybia nodded in response.
The unknown vessel is seen getting closer to the Kestrel via the attached tow cables. The Kestrel then slows down a bit and sets its Yaw to match the underside of the smaller unknown ship, as it, in turn, lowers a port ring that magnetically attaches to the Kestrels hull and begins to cut into Cargo Bay 1. Inside the cargo bay, the security teams had set up barriers to cover around all three entrances into the bay itself. Tygera remained out in the corridor to monitor the video feed from inside and coordinate the small security groups. There where six groups of four officers each in the cargo bay, as well as more officers in fall back positions in the corridor farther down from the cargo bay should they manage to break through.
The port ring had cut through the hull on the opposite end of the cargo bay and pushed passed the environmental energy shield between the layers, that kept the atmosphere from venting into space in the event of a hull breach. After which, four sturdy panels flipped out and back to press against the wall to hold it in place. Upon closer visual inspection, the ring itself was large enough to fit three individuals side by side.
The crew of the Kestrel watched as an energy field protected three meters out from the port ring, as twelve individuals came out and stood behind the energy barrier. They appeared to be armored from head to foot, and the weapons they were holding looked like rifles of some sort.
The standoff between them was tense for the first few minutes, until they dropped their energy barrier, and began driving for cover. Both sides started firing their weapons at that moment. It was interesting to the outside observer. Seeing yellow disruptor energy bolts flying through the air from the Kestrel’s crew, but only hearing loud popping noises from the other side. Even more interesting was hearing dings and thunks on the cover the Kestrel’s crew was using.
A Derlenian crew member, who is the commander of his group, thought to Tygera, ‘They appear to be using kinetic based weapons,’ she said.
Tygera knew those weapons were meant for one purpose only, and it wasn’t to disable their target. She thought back to her, ‘I want you and the rest of the squad commanders to switch over to the kill setting if you are overwhelmed. Please inform the rest of the squad commanders.’
It didn’t take long for the intruders to overwhelm the cargo bay as the battle moved out into all three corridors. Kestrel crew members that had been hit by enemy fire were immediately beamed to medical for treatment thanks to the watchful eye of the transporter chief.
Throughout the battle, the commanders were using the kill setting fulltime. They noticed it would disintegrate parts of the enemy’s body armor and allowed the others to stun them. Sadly, this process slowed down once the other side figured out what they were doing. Tygera told her lead commander to let one additional officer in each squad change their weapons over to the kill setting. Hoping this change would make them back down and think twice before advancing further.
Sadly, this didn’t slow down the attackers, and in about twenty minutes they had secured both Cargo Bay One and Two, as well as their corridors. It was at this point that they stopped advancing and began defending their positions.
The Kestrel’s security teams had managed to knock out about a quarter of the invader's crew. Even though they felt like they hadn’t done much.
These invaders had a “Take No Prisoners” feel in their attack until this point. Tygera, however, noticed in Cargo Bay One that a different person was coming out of the ship and was talking to one of their crew members. She could only assume that this person was a high ranking commander like her. He was dressed in white with gold trim uniform and stood with a rigged posture. Unfortunately, there was no way to tell what was being said, but judging from the motions of his hands it looked like he was ordering them to Cargo Bay Three.
Meanwhile, on the bridge, everyone was watching the battle, and Rubicant was getting increasingly worried about Iris. When Julyna ordered a view of Cargo Bay One again was when his worst fear had been confirmed. Standing there in a white and gold uniform was his earthen father. Both Iris and Julyna picked up on a new emotion they had never felt from him, Hate. Both of them knew who this person was from all the times they blended minds with Rubicant.
Iris calmly thought to Rubicant, ‘Rubi I know how you feel right now, but please don’t let this emotion control you.’
Both Iris and Julyna could sense him doing his best to control himself, but they could feel his rage building. ‘I, I’m trying, but he is the last part of my past and has no reason to be here,’ he said.
Iris spoke again in a calm and relaxing tone, ‘I know hun, and I know what it would mean…’ she suddenly went silent.
‘Iris?’ Rubicant thought to her but was met with emptiness. He mentally screamed her name and was still met with emptiness.
Julyna had switched over to a view of Cargo Bay Three and saw that the invaders had a team of twelve in there with tools. Dr. Pagri came over the comm system. “Captain I have Lady Iris, and I’m afraid she has taken multiple hits from their kinetic weapons,” she said.
Julyna suddenly felt Rubicant close off his mind after his rage spiked and turned to speak to him only to see him kneeling on the floor. She got up and went to him, but didn’t make it as she watched him stand up and turn towards the sealed bridge door, and wave his hand as it opened for him. He walked out and waved his hand again closing the door behind him. Julyna sighed, and thought to everyone on the ship, ‘Be warned, everyone. If you see Rubicant, do not interfere or block him. Lady Iris has been attacked and is medical, and because of this Rubicant is on the warpath to Cargo Bay One.’
Rubicant ran down the corridors, his mind was filled with both sadness and rage. Sadness for fear that Iris was gone, and rage that his earthen father would even order the death of others with his supposed religion.
Rubicant didn’t waste any time when meeting any one of the other ships crew. He waved his hand, which threw them against the wall and knocked them out cold and allowed any of the Kestrel’s security team that was nearby to arrest them.
Tygear was near Cargo Bay Three with four security teams still trying to hold off the invader's advancement, when she felt the air around her become heavy and thick. She began to look around her and saw Rubicant come around a corner towards them. His eyes were glowing brightly while having an expression she had never seen on his face. Tygera immediately told the others to move to the side and let him pass. They watched him walk into the cargo bay and get reasonably close to the invader’s before they turned to him in surprise. However, that only lasted a few seconds as they raised their weapons to him, and at the same time Rubicant waved his hand and sent them all flying against the wall at the back, knocking them out entirely.
The security teams moved in and arrested the invader’s as Rubicant moved on to Cargo Bay Two.
Tygera was honestly terrified of Rubicant, only because she had never seen him like this, or displaying this level of power. Whatever had happened to him on that planet, had changed him in such a way that she didn’t want to be near him. Julyna’s thoughts entered her mind at this moment. ‘Tyg, please don’t be scared of him. I know this is a lot to take in, but I sense that he is in control. Right now his is on the hunt for his earthen father, and the invader’s in Cargo Bay Three attacked Lady Iris,’ she informed her.
‘Is she okay?’ Tygera thought back to Julyna with a worried tone.
‘We don’t know yet, but please watch his back,’ Julyna replied.
Samantha watched as Iris’s body was beamed into the surgical bay, as one of her nurses helped move Lady Iris to the bio-bed. Between Samantha looking her over, and the medical scanner. Iris had been hit twelve times in both the chest and abdomen areas. However, that wasn’t the worse of it. Each projectile that had entered her body also broke into much smaller pieces, that causes significantly more internal damage. Blood was pouring out of each entry point on her body that Samantha activated a stasis field around the bed to prevent losing her.
Samantha reviewed her information again and realized that it would be more time consuming to remove each fragment individually. So instead she decided to employ the fetal transport. Once, Samantha, had it brought over, she let it scan Iris’s chest and abdomen area. The scanner, of course, began to throw errors letting Samantha know there wasn’t a fetus in her abdomen, and that she was also scanning a chest cavity. Samantha then reconfigured the scanner for the fragments that her handheld medical scanner found and let it scan again, and this time it found seventy-two fragments. The scanner then told her that it would take several passes to remove all of the fragments from Iris’s body. Samantha let the fetal transport do its job as she went to help out her nurse with other crew members.
Through the assault that Rubicant was handing out to the invaders, the tides of that battle had been changed. However, his rage was slowly coming to an end, and he was showing signs of fatigue. Julyna had told Tygera that this would happen to him and that he would need to be pulled back once this happened. Lucky for her and the security teams, he had cleared the way back to Cargo Bay One.
Tygera noticed at this point that the air felt normal and walked up behind Rubicant. She gently placed a handpaw on his shoulder and watched him face her. His eyes were no longer glowing, and his breathing was ragged. Tygera spoke calmly to him, “You all right Rubi?” She noticed a sad look had come over him, and it looked like he was about to burst into to tears.
“No,” he said in a tone of mixed emotions.
“It’s Lady Iris?” she asked.
“Yes, I’ve not heard from her since she was attacked.” He replied in a calmer tone.
“I’m sure she’s fine, as she is in the hands of the best doctor on the ship,” Tygera with more confidence in her voice to hopefully relax Rubicant, and saw his brighten up slightly at her words. She continued, “Julyna wants me to pull you back,” she finished.
“No, I need to continue. Cargo Bay One is empty of the invaders except for their captain, and my earthen father. I need to confront him and finish this,” he pleaded with her.
Tygera looked at him and saw “That” look in his eyes. A look that said, ‘My past is dead to me, and must not affect me anymore.’ She sighed as she handed over her energy weapon to him. “I know what your feeling Rubi, but please make sure it’s the right thing to do. I’ll leave a security team outside in the corridor to watch your back,” she replied to him as he thanked her and walked through the door into Cargo Bay One.
Rubicant took the weapon in hand and walked into the cargo bay to confront his earthen father for the last time he hoped. He got about half way between the door and this man. Rubicant watched him turn around and face him when he came to a stop.
An excited look came over the man’s face with a voice to match, “Daniel, I’m so happy to finally see you again.”
Rubicant just looked at him only to realize it had been a long time since anyone called him by that name. “Žyö ?ïõ? Šážø?” Rubicant said.
The man gave him a confused look before speaking, “I see you’ve learned a new language Son.”
Rubicant looked at him for a moment only to realize that he hadn’t spoken English in a long while, and instead though to him mentally. ‘Yes, among other things, Saul,’ he said.
Saul looked around himself for a moment only to realize that Rubicant’s voice was in his head. “Interesting. I never thought humans could be telepathic,” he replied.
‘That’s because I’m not actually human. Something I recently discovered about myself,’ Rubicant answered back.
Saul looked at him a bit more intently. “Is that was these creatures have you believing? You run so far away that you are willing to abandon your humanity because they say so?” he asked.
‘I don’t expect you to understand, or even want to. You’ve always forced your view of things on me and denied me my right to think for myself. Even when I did, you would beat me for it. Maria taught me to keep my views quiet from you and mother, and it did help lessen the number of beatings we got, but it only made the others worse,’ Rubicant finished.
Saul shook his head again, “Is that all you and Maria focus on? How often you were beaten? Though now that I look around, where is your sister?” he asked.
‘I’m afraid to say that she and two others didn’t make the journey safely, but then at least that’s one less child you have to kill as you stated in your letter.” Rubicant replied before he continued on. “You never really showed us any love. I personally envied my friends growing up hearing how loving their families were. How little they were punished. How much more they did for each other. It amazes me that even now you seem to not understand that when mother disowned us, you didn’t stop her or tell us that you didn’t agree with it,” Rubicant finished with a more firm tone.
Saul looked at him again, but in his mind, he still saw a spoiled brat needing discipline. He sighed, “I had hoped that you might return to Earth with me willingly, and maybe have a family again. Sadly I’m guessing that’s not the case, is it?” he asked.
‘No it is not. I have loved ones here that I plan to have a family with since I am capable of doing so, as well as, spending the rest of my life with, and have no plans to change that.’ Rubicant said with a tone of defiance. He saw the questioning look that Saul was giving him and decided to show him what had happened with his granddaughter. Of course, Rubicant felt his xenophobic disgust when he saw it was with Iris.
“Then I guess I have no choice but to make good on my promise from so long ago,” Saul said and raised his arm and hand that was holding an AMT Hardballer pistol, while at the same time Rubicant pulled up the weapon that Tygera gave him.
There was a long pause between them, each of them waiting for the other to pull the trigger. Rubicant however, got a big surprise.
‘Rubi sweetie, please don’t pull the trigger,’ came Iris’s pleading voice to him mentally.
‘Iris?’
‘I’m okay, the doctor is taking care of me and says I should be good as new soon. So please don’t pull the trigger. I know you want to, but doing so would change you.’ Iris finished
Rubicant was at a crossroad now. Between his love for Iris, and ending the last piece of his past. Saul caught a conflict happening in his mind, and while he wasn’t sure what was happening, he took this opportunity and fired all eight rounds in his magazine. This caught Rubicant by surprise, but more so was the fact that E’lum was somehow in front of him. E’Lum took all eight rounds into himself, while at the same time taking the weapon out of Rubicant’s hands, and aimed and fired at Saul. Everyone watching saw Saul become engulfed in a red light and disappear without a trace.
E’Lum fell to the floor in front of Rubicant. Blood pouring out of his chest while he coughed up more blood. Rubicant rolled him over on his back and looked him over. E’Lum was gasping for breath but started to speak. “I’m glad I *coughing fit* made it in time.”
Rubicant filled with worry, “Don’t speak E’Lum.” Then he turned to Tygera who he saw coming over, “Medical…” E’Lum covered his mouth.
“No! Ignore him, commander!” E’Lum said in a stern tone as Tygera knelt next to him as he spoke again to Rubicant, “I have a confession, Rubi. *coughing fit while gasping for air* I’m not a janitor, but a spy.” This is when both Rubicant and Tygera could hear the death rattle in his chest which meant that his lungs were filling up with blood. E’Lum spoke mentally to the both of them. ‘I was sent to find the progenitor, and return him to the Four Heads of the Alliance. I didn’t do this willingly, as they had captured my family and was using them to force me to work for them. When I failed to deliver, they killed them and would attempt to kill me the moment I left this ship. I didn’t see any other way to avoid my death, so instead, I pleaded with the good captain to let me help out in protecting you.’
Rubicant was a bit surprised, but he always figured there was more to E’Lum. When Rubicant thought about it, he realized that E’Lum had been beamed in front of him. ‘Why did you take the weapon?’ he asked.
E’Lum mentally spoke again through another coughing fit, ‘I felt your rage earlier and knew you wanted that part of your past gone for good, but of all the people in this galaxy, it is essential that you never take a life. Knowing the path you will take, means you need to be innocent of this act and emotion.’
Tygera spoke up, “Why are you denying medical treatment?”
E’Lum spoke openly, “Because I want to see my family again,” he finished with a final coughing fit before he gave his last breath.
Rubicant sat back to look at the now lifeless E’Lum before him, while Tygera picked up her weapon, and went off into the invader's ship. Rubicant could hear some yelling and a few discharges of weapons fire, and then silence. He then saw Tygera walk out of the other ship just a nurse came over with an anti-grav stretcher. With the help of a few of the security officers, they lifted his body on to it and took it to medical.
Rubicant entered medical to check on Iris, as he saw Julyna standing next to her. They both looked at him as he lovingly greeted each of them. Iris spoke softly “I’m both glad and sad about the outcome. Glad that you didn’t pull the trigger, but sad that E’Lum is no longer with us,” she said while sensing that Rubicant didn’t know how to feel.
Rubicant spoke after a minute of silence, “Is this what I have to look forward to, losing friends and loved ones if I follow this path?” he asked.
Iris sat up and pulled him into an embrace. As much as she wanted to answer him in a way that would make him feel better. Iris really didn’t have an answer for him. She sensed that he knew this and finally broke down in her arms, while Julyna came up behind him and wrapped her arms around him as well. Iris knew that he didn’t want this new path he had been given, and that having the control of his life taken from him without even knowing until now. It was something that was hard for him to take in and understand. Iris could feel him mourn the loss of E’Lum, as the memories of Maria, Sandra, and Mathew resurfaced after all these cycles. Death it would seem was not something he could easily overcome.
Iris remembered that the GrandMaster had told her when she started in the program, that in her life she would have two paths she could choose from, and that it would lead to major changes in her life. After having thought about it for a long time. Not being chosen to be the next GrandMaster no longer felt important to her. Rubicant was the most important part of her life followed by Julyna and Altair.
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