Faux Realm Ch. 07

While walking to the bridge, he and Luca shared several worried glances, as if both men knew something that the other could not, both soon stood in the middle of the bridge waiting for the crew's full report.

"Sir, we think we have something." One of the crewmen said.

"Full stop. Maintain this distance." Al'Jafar slowly said.

"Aye, Captain." A man behind one console said.

"Report." Al'Jafar said taking a sit in his captain's chair.

"The readings are strange. But it's the definite source of the anomaly." Science officer said.

She had a troubled look on her face as she read her console screen, white background accented what she was observing, "Sir, we may need a conformation but I think there was a star system here."

"What?!" Al'Jafar yelled.

"Captain, entire dark patch is filled with elements that we usually find in a Sun. Radiation is of the scale." Science officer said.

"Do we know what happened here?" Al'Jafar asked.

A man in his pristine dark uniform with gold stripes pushed few buttons and waited for the results of his query. "We've sent out a space probe and will get results in a few moments sir, but we found something else. Vast quantities of metal. Residue in the field shows bits and pieces of ketracyil."

HUD map zeroed in on the edge of the dark zone showing metallic fragments that reminded most of the people on the bridge of space craft fields of death. A red flash of light soon appeared on everybody's screen jilting them awake from their daydreams. "Sir we have lost our probe."

"How? Is radiation the cause of its disappearance?" Al'Jafar moved his trained body on the edge of the seat.

"Unknown! We've been tracking it but it just vanished approximately 400 GU inside. We've kept receiving its data for entire time while the probe was traveling to its destination." The man said working frantically on his console.

As Al'Jafar sat more comfortably in his chair he swiped his fingers across his chairs arm, a trickle of light went up and right in front of him, level with his chest, appeared a dark white crystal screen showing what everyone saw, moving his dexterous fingers he finally showed the probes last moments before it had vanished.

"It would appear that the probe was sucked in by something." Al'Jafar pointed.

Few strokes of his fingers sent what he had discovered to other people in the room, "I want to know what caused that."

What appeared on everyone's screen was a device that was glowing one second, hurling through space at dizzying speeds and next it just vanished in front of their eyes. People worked in silence. Everyone had their own thoughts on what happened, but everyone depended on their training, everyone wanted cold hard evidence before their imaginations could run amok.

Luca silently worked on his own device that rested in his palm, controlling the picture and taking several scans with the ships built in scanners. Tearing up his theories as time went on, as his palm device was busy working on his postulations, he could not calmly sit while he saw that picture. An idea sprung up immediately. Bits and pieces of the image and its surrounding evidence substantially gave his idea more merit every time he got more and more results.

Silently he approached a science console and her officer stationed behind it, with low commanding voice he said, "I want you to start scanning for gravitational waves."

All science officer could do was nod and input her new instructions, while they were waiting Luca saw the woman's uneasiness and tried to make her feel more comfortable. He sent a smile and in moments she relaxed.

Soon her screen sent her data that confirmed what Luca originally thought. The entire Dark Patch of space was filled with gravitational waves. Suddenly he was on edge. He knew what these did to ships caught in them and getting trapped in one could mean a battle for their life that he was not about to chance.

"Captain, I suggest we move our ship out of the area and at least 2 LYS away from this point. I think we have a black hole in front of us." Luca's voice was on edge, he could yell to move faster but he wanted his voice calm and young officers on the bridge collected.

Contrary to his beliefs, everyone moved with extraordinary purpose and in seconds the ship was moving forward and back apparently moments away from getting caught in the gravitational pull of the black hole. Tense moments passed as everyone waited for their revved up engines to move them to where they wanted to be, after a while everyone breathed a sigh of relief as they were exactly 2LYS away from the presumed black hole. Looking back at their previous spot inches away from getting into an everlasting prison.

"How do we know about this black hole?" Al'Jafar wanted to make sure their findings were correct.

Taking a deep breath, Luca finally took a moment to relax and started explaining, "We took a scan of the Dark Patch and found gravity waves, I'll make few adjustments to our probe and we'll send another one in few hours. But before that I want a Photon Sphere. That could confirm our suspicions sooner before we get any deep scans of the area."

"Where do you want Photon Sphere to be detonated?" Al'Jafar asked.

"10 GU from the anomaly should do it." Luca responded taking few notes on his personal palm Pad.

Al'Jafar was still sitting down in his pristine white uniform, bright yellow stripes across his chest shimmered in the light as he breathed heavily, knowing how close they were from losing the crew and ship.

He took his cap off wiping the sweat from his forehead and standing up from his chair. Approaching a console to his left he said, "Tactical I want you to prepare Photon Sphere."

Tactical officer was working. His fingers were preparing something that was not vital for a military warship. A Photon Sphere was essentially a bomb that would explode and send photon particles that would move in tangents around its area of detonation. Meaning a glowing bright ball would be formed around where the black hole was, if there was any. If not the light would dissipate in all directions as it would lack any gravitational pull, since after all, they were in space.

"The Sphere is ready sir." Officer said.

"Fire." Al'Jafar booming voice commanded.

The man pressed on his console and in seconds the light left their ship and was on a fast paced way across space to its final destination.

Unintentional observer would see a bright ball of light moving across space with alarming speed.

Tense moments passed and the ball detonated. A shimmer of light moved across time and space, a liquid bubble in vacuum of space slowly started to form, after few moments disappearing in all directions leaving only darkness behind it like nothing happened.

A single point in time started to dynamically change its shape. Like a ripple in a water, space around it started to move and bend, sucking any remaining light that was near its vicinity.

Those on the bridge could only gawk in awe at this magnificent phenomena. Everyone was riveted to their seats as next few minutes passed in observation, the anomaly moving and undulating leaving everyone marveling and gasping at its beauty.

"What do you think that was?" One of the officers asked.

Science officer started to slide her fingers across her glass surface and in moments her shaky voice said, "I do not know. The Photon Sphere left traces for few microns, our computers are still processing the data that we recorded with our on board sensors. It's too early to say anything conclusive."

Al'Jafar waited, thinking his options, he eventually came to a conclusion "Everybody, it's clear that our ship is limiting our own research. Coms I want you to send a message to Command, we need a science boat here that will have resources that we lack."

"Aye, Sir. This is Knarr Class Starship God of War requesting backup at these coordinates. Be advised..." A voice started.

Over the voice Al'Jafar continued to give his orders his voice calm and collected, "Meanwhile, I want to re-engineer few probes and set them around the perimeter of this anomaly so people would not get caught in its gravitational pull."

"Until we get some Nav markers we might want to improvise, there's no telling who's using Underspace while we are here. Let's begin work. I want reports on when this will be done. And work on the estimation on how big that anomaly is going to get." Al'Jafar's requests ended with him sitting down on his chair and starting to read the Photon Sphere's area of effect.

"That wreckage of ketracyil. Do you think we could get few probes to investigate that area?" Luca asked over the working men and women.

"I completely forgot about that, Sir, I've sent few probes there without your permission. I thought it was prudent to get as much scans as we could get during our stay there." An officer started.

"It's all right ensign, good thinking on your feet. What did you find out?" Al'Jafar said.

In few moments the young officer shared her screen on the big HUD screen that was pinned on a wall, a viewing screen, everyone could see what she saw on her console. "Well this was a remnant of a huge fleet, 50 ships, possibly more. Everything from Behemoth Class to, what I think were, Scadz class ships."

"Scadz? Aren't those patrol boats of Lizards?" Tactical officer asked.

While he said that he took a moment to think about the ships and their uses in a fleet of that size, "The only way I see their usefulness in a fleet of that size is if they were refitted and reequipped. They are usually used to patrol around planets and space stations."

"Yes, the number of these Scadz is substantial. The scans show more ships and hulls of their sizes than any of other classes." The officer ended her report.

"Can we use our tractor beam to salvage some of those pieces? Maybe we could deconstruct how ketracyil is made." Tactical asked.

"The salvage is too deep for that. Without a stable orbit around that anomaly we could not do anything. What I want to know is what could destroy that amount of ships. Behemoths are sturdy class of ships."

Al'Jafar looked perplexed, "Regardless I want to know what happened here. Maybe the answers will come by themselves."

***

The room was drenched in humidity, dark lights around it did nothing to tell anyone about what was around, but still, silhouettes moved like they did not need light. Every now and then klicks could be heard from far corners of the room as the low light of five consoles illuminated their limited area. Tentacles moved across one particular console and made series of adjustments. Low slow ping of light shot out of several round projectors in the middle of the room. Slowly revealing a face of a human being.

The face that appeared on the large 3d screen was vivid and bright, everyone around it almost winced as the glow of this face left some in fear while revealing others in their hooded clothes. Looking simple, yet terrifying. Still klicks got louder and faster.

Area erupted in response as in conformation to anything that has been said. Moving once more the tentacle revealed a galaxy and strands of sand started to trickle down. As if in response the klicks became more urgent, faster and more prominent.

As the klicks started to vane, trickling sands revealed series of symbols. Klicks eventually dying out with the revelation of the last symbol.

A grim silence washing over the room. Darkness followed.

***

Lucian was still sitting in his chair and reading the stream of text that now explained how to effectively kill something called a Puma. There was a single picture of a being that resembled a cat person. Lucian thought with a smile that dreams do come true, in a line that almost resembled a cheesy romance movie. There was no reference point to the size, but the text did say that the species were territorial and killing everything that would infringe on their space without permission. He smiled. He wanted to meet these cat people so badly.

The picture showed a humanoid. Lucian thought that everybody in universe looked ripped and in shape, since this creature had muscles all over its body. He was slowly getting depressed, forgetting that he had a similarly shaped body. Clawed, five fingered hands were menacingly extended and yet again there was no reference to their size but he could see that the claws were large and thick.

As he was previously reading, the text revealed that they were battle born race that thrived in conflict and respected strength. Cowardice was unknown to them.

Several times boteans battled these battle born cats, every time they did engage in combat it ended with clash to the death. Something that Pumas respected and valued. They were not space ferrying society, but were often used as hand to hand combatants, mercenaries of sorts, that is not to say that they lacked ships for space travel, they just refrained from doing so.

Lucian's eyes were aching when he was done with reading several self-imposed texts about various races around Star Republic. He was pleasantly surprised by the diversity of races included in the territory of Star Republic.

"Finally I'm done for the day." He yelled stretching his arms.

Ericha lightly smiled, she was still graceful even spending hours upon hours, reviewing the data that came to the ship, helping and guiding Lindsay in her somewhat new seat, as Nav Markers came and went the finest detail was left by the ships powerful on board computer, processing mountains of data with incredible speeds. Lucian was in one second tempted to disassemble the entire program to se how it worked, but was promptly stopped by Ericha. Claiming it was insane to do that this far in space.

"Listen where is Liz', I haven't seen her all day?" Lucian asked his commanding officer.

Ericha took one glance at Lucian and said, "She's with some of the passengers. Checking their health and cataloging their conditions. We did not have enough time to do that while this ship was docked with God of War."

Pushing few buttons and saying something quietly to Lindsay while she was looking at the next Nav Marker, she slowly turned towards Lucian and continued, "You'll probably find her on Deck 2."

"There is more to this ship?" Lucian asked perplexed.

"Yeah. Though no Lift. You'll have to use your legs. The stairway is just outside of the engineering." She slowly explained.

"We've been there and saw nothing of the sorts." Lucian slowly explained. "Just a locked door and few rooms for the crew."

"The actual stairway is behind one of the doors, and the lock is there just until the passengers leave this ship. We can't take any chances regarding the safety of this vessel." Ericha explained.

Lucian jumped up and started to run out of the door. Shouting behind him, "Going to go see if Liza needs any help. See ya later girls."

Lucian had to admit, his body was lacking fitness, and he was breathing heavily as he reached the engineering doors not even 30 meters away. Cursing his weak body and vowing 'no more laziness'.

"God damn this body of mine." Lucian said. "I have to stop eating junk food."

There was stomp of feet and blur of his hands as he started to open one door, revealing a storage room. The compartment that had enough space to hold 4-5 people, now was filled with strange silver containers, all of which looked very important and menacing.

They looked a lot like those milk containers; he would often see people storing milk in, but these were larger, looked heavier and were arranged in stacks of two. Every container looked intimidating and he could not feel safe around them. True they looked extremely low key. That is to say most things that were truly dangerous looked fairly safe.

He slowly approached and opened one of the containers, revealing its contents. The inside was filled with whitish sand, taking a handful he felt its texture between his fingers. The sand was course, had a pungent smell and for a second he was wondering what manner of product this was, truly the danger was gone and he was glad taking a giant sigh of relief Lucian moved out of the room. Not knowing what made him so on edge in the first place. Their nature maybe. He just could not put his finger on it. While he was walking out of the room he paused and turned to take another, calmer, look at this room.

While he was here he thought of what good was a room filled with sand when it could be so much more. He wanted to refurnish this room with, what he thought was a good idea, some TV's maybe few stereos and make this a genuine playroom where people could unwind. He had to talk with Ericha about doing any work around this ship.

Walking clear out of the room he saw a door on the other side, walking few meters he reached them and pushed a button to open them, thinking what a crazy way to have a stairway. Hidden from all eyes yet it went to the most important place on the ship. The infirmary. These things should at least be where most of the crew did their work. Again his little grey cells were thinking ways of making something out of this ship.

The stairway was a normal metal construction that bent downwards into the belly of the beast. In this case it was a calm variety of animal. "Me and my little gems." Lucian shook his head thinking for a moment where these were leading.

A ship that they were going to spend most of their time in, as he approached the stairs he noticed they were constructed as a ramp with several soft bends that gently led people into the level below.

There was no handrail, there was no need for one, as the gentle curves of the ramp did not made too high of an angle so people that were wounded or on a stretcher would not even notice them. They were wide enough to accommodate two grown people to walk side by side, like the corridors on the upper decks, the ramp looked like a lot of thought went into designing it and placing it into this ship.

His hand brushed along the side of black wall and it happened again.

The memories rushed in like they were being blocked by a dam.

They weren't his, of that he was sure. As if he were watching from a ceiling camera, no he was the camera for some reason. The people in them were not familiar, he saw them laughing while walking the same area he was, nothing made sense and he watched as they pleasantly joke around. The men were wearing white overalls, not knowing their rank or purpose he saw they were wearing name tags, but they were too far away to see them clearly.

Very soon as if he was responding to their laughter a burly man in dungarees approached them and smiled at their gentle attempts at poking fun. He was messy, he was clearly doing some chores around as his hands were greasy and he was trying to wipe them over a rag that hung over his pocket. The laugher for some reason irked him and he lunged at the two people taking his dirty hands and making them holler with laughter as he chased them around and up the ramp. The face of Momoa was clear as day and the kind look on his face did not escape Lucian's scrutiny.

Like a tape being fast-forwarded by someone with remote, next memory showed two people, a man and a woman in love. Hugging and kissing. The man was Momoa and he was gently caressing the woman's tummy as she said something to him, making his smile even wider. The distinct elation on his face told Lucian everything, as he was wondering about his motives, and clearly this man was a loving man and probably a father.

*Why would he lie about being a trader?* Lucian thought.

As if responding to his thoughts the picture of two lovebirds changed almost immediately. The woman was now in agony. The man he recognized as that captain he gave a good beating to; was busy raping the woman, previously in so much love, with his small prick. Momoa was yelling and screaming obscenities as he was black and purple tied to a wall with some sort of metal chains. Lucian could see even in his weakened state, Momoa had amazing strength and if he weren't chained to a wall he would probably rip this wicked mucus of a man to shreds with his bare hands.