Project - Prometheus Ch. 01

The staticky reply was laced with frustration, "Negative captain. Damn thing must be military grade for it to give me so much trouble."

Inari frowned pensively, then asked, "Can you give me an exact location?"

"Yeah, on the armor plating just above the engines. Why?"

"Three words; grab onto something!" Inari barked as she looked for the offending device. Hearing what sounded like a curse, Inari moved her Banshee into position just above the Darkstrider. 'On the plating above the engines.... there!' She focused her targeting reticle on the cylindrical protrusion on the plating and fired a short burst. One of the bolts hit the beacon, and it shattered into millions of pieces.

"Signal gone now?" Starwitch asked.

"Yeah, we're clear now, but did you have to do that??" came her XO's acidic reply.

"No time for a spacewalk to disable it. Looks like both destroyers have recovered and are closing fast!" Inari said as she readied the docking clamps on her fighter, closing with the depression built into the Darkstrider.

A few seconds later, she heard and felt the satisfying clunk of the clamps engaging and locking into place. Without taking a breath, she tore off her helmet and dropped it into her seat. Then she jumped to the hatch and slid down the ladder, back into the freighter.

"We ready to leave?" Inari yelled as she shot down the corridor towards the cockpit.

"Need to recalculate the jump to hyperspace. Just need a moment," Priya replied as she started up the Navi computer. "What the.... it's not working!" Priya shouted in horror.

"What do you mean it's not working?" Inari panicked.

"I mean that it's not working! We have a functioning hyper-drive but the damn Navi computer is fried!" the XO wailed in disbelief. Taal'ani ran over to check and see for herself. Her hands raced across the consoles, hoping to breathe life into the Navi computer. But it stayed off, having been reduced to dead weight on the ship.

"Talon, can the rig you built function as a Navi computer?" Korsa asked, thinking out loud.

"It's possible but it will take hours to spit out a proper route. Navigating Charybdis' Maw is no small feat! Without a proper route, we'll be torn apart!" Taal'ani said as she continued trying to get the Navi computer back online, but to no avail.

The crew looked at each other for answers but no one said anything, until Priya snapped her fingers, "Wasn't this freighter converted from an old explorer ship?" Inari looked at Priya in confusion.

"What do you mean?" Priya's hands quested about the ships controls, until she found the set she was looking for.

She began the power the long dormant sensor grid that was built into the Darkstrider, bringing them online from their long sleep. Immediately, the range of their radar expanded to an immense distance, far beyond what their current radar system was capable of. Inari's eyes widened, now comprehending what Priya had in mind.

"Are you crazy?!?!? We could wind up flying through a star, get caught in a supernova, any myriad of places or situations that could destroy us!" Priya looked up at her captain, steely resolve etched into her face.

"At least we'll be anywhere but here! You want to risk the pirates and what they could do to us?" As though in response, the freighter rocked with laser impacts. At least one of the destroyers had restored their power and was bringing her cannons to bear.

"We're out of time!" Priya screamed as she gunned the ship to maximum velocity, trying to outrun and dodge the destroyer's cannons. "What are your orders captain!?"

Inari stared out the viewport for a moment, knowing if they were to stay, they would be either killed or worse. She looked back at the radar holo and blew an outward breath of resignation.

"Do it XO. Take us out of here." As more laser blasts decimated their shields, Priya powered up the ship's hyper-drive and banked left, choosing a direction that led away from any known hyperspace routes.

"Sensors online and functioning at peak capacity. Nats, how's the power looking?" she queried over the intercom.

"Power levels are low but stable. Ready to jump!" came the slightly hysterical reply.

"Shields at seven percent! If we're going, we need to go now!" Inari shouted from behind Pree. Mentally reciting a prayer to Shiva, she set their course, and the activated the hyperdrive. The starlines around them blurred as the Darkstrider jumped into hyperspace.

******************************

Roaring in a rage, Dorian Johnson watched as the smugglers' ship disappear into hyperspace.

"Track them! Wherever they went, we will get them!" he screamed as he turned on his heel and stormed away from the bridge.

The tactical officer spoke up in a quavering voice, "S.. sir? We.... can't." The psychotic captain halted and turned about slowly.

"What do you mean, 'We can't?'" he asked, his voice as dangerous as a bared blade.

"The tracker sir. It's.... not sending a signal. It was...... either shut down or....... destroyed."

Faster than thought, Dorian was on him, his hands wrapped around the boy's neck, choking the life out of him. The young man tried to pry his captain hands from his throat, but his grip was like steel. Rather than try to fight back, the tactical officer punched an activation button, bringing up the localized star chart on the main holo, showing where they were.

Highlighted in green was the trajectory they had been heading, following the Darkstrider's course. Outlined in red was the trajectory in which they had jumped out of the area. When the holo sprang to life, Dorian's attention snapped up to it, no longer focused on killing yet another tactical officer.

He slowly released the kid from his death grip and stepped forward to study the hologram in further detail. First confusion lined his face, then a small smile appeared, his mood evidently lighter.

"I suppose this will do. Taking a risk like this, this close to Charybdis' Maw? They're dead already." Dorian spoke out loud, as he finished his study of the star map. The route the smuggler's ship had taken was not on any known hyperspace route or star chart.

Effectively, they had traversed into wild space, an uncharted frontier which few explorers had ever come back from. Space itself would kill the unwary traveler if they were foolish enough to take such gambles. The small cluster of black holes here on the outer halo of the known galaxy, known as Charybdis' Maw, had torn apart many ships that had dared venture too close to it.

The only ways to get past it was around, towards the core, or through a small gap in the gravitational pull of the cluster. Only the most desperate of people ever took that route. Some explorers had tried to find a way around the outer edge of the Maw, but none had succeeded.

"Contact the base and let them know, target destroyed. There is no way they will survive this close to the Maw," Dorian said with a slight edge to his voice. "Notify the Phoenix. Tell them to conduct what repairs they need and then we head back to base. I'll be in my quarters and I'm not to be disturbed," he said stiffly as he strode from the bridge.

Miffed that he wouldn't have any new toys to play with, he headed to his quarters, where his current playthings waited for him. As he stepped into the elevator and descended to deck three, the bridge crew breathed a collective sigh of relief. The tactical officer sat rubbing his neck as he went back to work, thankful that it wasn't him chained up in the captain's quarters.

******************************

Priya was sitting on eggshells as they plowed through hyperspace, hoping that they would live through this jump. The sensor grid was operating as it should be though it was dangerous going through uncharted space and there was only so much that the sensors could pick up.

So far, there was nothing of note on the radar holo, but the whole crew had to be vigilant. All it would take is a few seconds of distraction and they would wind up dragged into the pull of a black hole, caught in a solar storm or one of many ways in which they could not escape.

Focusing on the sensor grid readout, Inari called out, "Nats, anything to report?"

"Nothing captain! Hyperdrive is functioning normally as is the power core! Any fluctuations are within normal parameters! I'll let you know if anything changes!" came the agitated reply. The whole crew was on edge, having taken such a risk with their lives.

Decking panels littered the corridor behind the bridge, as Korsa was checking the cabling and power conduits, to ensure that there were no shorts or issues. Taal'ani was hunched over her arm holo as she was focused on writing up a complex algorithm.

"How's it coming Talon?" the elder woman asked without taking her eyes off the radar.

"Slow. Re-writing sensor algorithms isn't exactly my forte and this program hasn't been updated in nearly fifty years. I might be able to squeeze point two-five parsecs of distance out of it, but I'll have to tear apart and write it from the ground up to make any real difference." Taal'ani replied as her fingers tapped in numerous complex sequences.

"It'll have to do," the captain said, her voice betraying a slight tremble.

"Seven minutes captain," Priya chittered as she maintained her focus on the controls, ready to drop them out of hyperspace at a moment's notice.

"Finished!" Taal'ani crowed triumphantly. "Uploading the changes now!" The radar holo winked out, then three seconds later, it came back online. Previously then sensors could only see up to point six-nine parsecs from the Darkstrider, but now, they could see up to point nine-six parsecs away.

"Outstanding work, as always Talon!" Inari sighed in relief as she clapped her crewmate on the shoulder. "How much time do we have now?" Priya asked.

"Should have ten, maybe eleven seconds to do an emergency hyper-drop before we hit something," the Fel'caan said as she finished running the numbers. Pree then relaxed, their time to respond nearly doubling, giving them a substantially better chance at surviving this.

"Nats, should we chance dropping now?" Pree inquired over the intercom. "We have more distance now but I'm not sure how much further we can keep going."

"I wouldn't risk it," came the honey-voiced response. "Some of the panels were blown off in that firefight and nearly fried half of our systems. We're lucky that this is all the damage we sustained. Give it another four minutes and we should be OK."

The XO huffed in frustration but understood that the hyperdrive wasn't something to be toyed around with. It had to run for a certain amount of time before the energies that enabled them to jump stabilized and the hyperdrive could be safely shut down. Shut them down before they stabilized, you risked rupturing the containment module in the hyperdrive, rendering it a half-ton paperweight. At worst, half the ship would be vaporized in the ensuing explosion.

Pree had often said they needed to get a new hyperdrive. Many of the newest ones, which were far more advanced than their current one, had reduced the time needed for stabilization to less than a minute. Only problem was, that such drives were in the hundreds of thousands of credits, making it cost prohibitive for their ragtag crew to acquire.

"Sixty seconds ladies! We're almost through this!" Inari exulted as she watched the numbers tick away. The crew waited with bated breath as the moment arrived.

"Five... four... three... two... one... drop us out Pree!" Natalya cried out over the intercom. Hitting the switch immediately, the Darkstrider dropped out of hyperspace, with nothing but black space around them. The entire crew let out a massive sigh of relief as they had escaped from a sticky situation yet again.

"Chalk that one up in the record books as our riskiest escape yet!" Priya said as she jumped out of the pilots' seat and embraced her captain fiercely, thankful that they were all alive. Inari returned the hug with all the strength she could muster, crying tears of joy. Happy squeals abounded as the rest of the crew joined in a group hug, smiling and laughing that they had beaten the odds. After a few minutes, they broke apart, the reality of their situation sinking in.

"We made a blind jump by the Maw and survived! We charted that route, right?" Inari asked, voice trembling with anticipation.

"That we did captain," Taal'ani said proudly, having recorded the entirety of their escape. "This is something that is ours alone!"

Taking a moment to calm herself, Inari spoke, her voice hopeful "Let's get back to our stations ladies. We should explore this area a bit, see if there's anything around here."

"Yes, Ma'am!" they all chorused as everyone retreated to their positions. Inari stepped into the pilot's chair and powered the engines, taking them forward, deeper into the blackness of space. She shut down the hyperspace sensor grid before the power drain took its toll on their already strained power core. The soft light of a yellow star shone in the distance, close enough to be seen but far enough away to be benign.

"Talk to me XO, is there anything on the scanners?" the captain asked.

"Just a moment captain." Priya said as she scanned the holographic representation of their current position. "I have a contact. Some sort of celestial body just ahead of us. About nine minutes out from our current position."

"Planetary contact?" Inari queried.

"That's affirmative captain. Doesn't look to be that large, and it appears to be moving at a rather slow pace though it is one of seven bodies detected," Pree said with a smattering of enthusiasm.

"Let's go have a look then! You never know what we could find but we should be ready for anything that could be out here," Inari stated, her excitement tempered by her caution. Without being asked to, both Korsa and Taal'ani bolted to the upper gun ports, keeping their eyes peeled for anything that might be considered hostile. The Darkstrider pushed forward through the darkness of space, sensors scanning for any readings they could pick up.

"I'm picking up readings that show that three planets are gaseous. Could be worth something in the long run, but we'd need detailed scans to be sure," Priya tittered excitedly. "The other four appear to be terrestrial, but we should have a look at them to determine what they exactly they are!"

"Anything to indicate that anyone has been here before us?" Inari asked as she coasted the ship around the planets.

"Nothing on the radar or the sensors. No ion trails, no artificial constructions of any sort. It's just us here!" Pree said.

"Ok ladies, we can stand down," Inari called out. In moments, the rest of the crew had returned to the bridge and everyone was clustered around the radar holo, buzzing with excitement.

"An undiscovered system and we're the first ones here! You know this could mean...." Taal'ani trailed off.

"A fortune provided we play our cards right," Pree said, her face alight with hope and possibility.

"We may want to keep this to ourselves for now. Who knows when we might need a place to go to ground again?" the captain stated, always the voice of both logic and reason.

"Inari is right girls," Korsa said stepping behind their captain in a show of support. "Having a hiding place that the entire galaxy knows nothing about, is an ace we should keep to ourselves," the large woman finished.

"Since when do you play Poker?" Inari asked, cocking an eyebrow.

"Nats has been teaching me whenever we're in a jump," Korsa shrugged.

"Anyway," Natalya interrupted from behind Korsa, "we probably should stop and drift for a bit. I need to step outside and have a look at how bad we got shot up. Mama, mind giving me a hand suiting up?" Korsa nodded and followed her daughter down the hatch from the bridge into the cargo bay.

As both women descended, Starwitch brought the ship to a complete stop. She then ran a full diagnostic on their systems, to be sure that everything they had was still functioning normally.

"Can you mind the diagnostic for a minute, Talon? I need a drink."

Taal'ani smirked, "I'm on it, boss. Mind grabbing me one while you're at it?"

"Sure!" Inari shouted out, while walking back into the lounge with her XO right behind her. The lounge was the size of a small den, with a circular table built into the decking, surrounded by a trio of somewhat comfy loungers, which were also bolted down.

Walking past all of that, Inari went right for the freezer above the fridge and pulled out the bottle of vodka that Nats kept in there. She then reached into the fridge and pulled out a bottle of fermented Shou'arie milk. Shou'arie was a cow-like creature native to the Fel'caan home world. The milk it produced was a potent aphrodisiac in its raw state. When fermented properly, it packed enough of a kick to down even Korsa, who had one hell of an alcohol tolerance for a Khontaran.

"I don't understand how Talon can still talk after drinking that stuff, much less walk straight," Priya said while crinkling her mouth in distaste, whilst plonking down a trio of glasses on the table.

"Something about her species' ability to withstand its effects I suppose," Inari replied. "Still, watching her on this stuff can be amusing," she smirked as she poured the milk into one tumbler, then a generous amount of vodka into the other two.

"Not as funny as when Nats drank that stuff on a dare! You remember what happened?" Priya asked giggling. Inari keeled over laughing, recalling the incident with perfect clarity.

"I'll never forget that day! I swear, it was like she was stoned out of her mind!" The captain sat down, shaking with laughter as her XO went back to the bridge to bring Taal'ani her drink.

******************************

Natalya had shrugged off her coveralls and was busy slipping into her vacc suit. She had further stripped down from her white tank top, charcoal work pants and work boots, standing in just a forest green sports bra and matching bikini panties. The suit fit over her like a second skin and she was busy sealing off the entry points while Korsa brought over the gear she needed.

Knee high mag-boots, designed to conduct deep space repairs, her engineers vambraces, containing most of the tools needed to make any repairs. A materials harness, which held any additional bits she might need and finally, her chest plate and helmet apparatus. Korsa couldn't help but look at her daughter, proud of her daughter and the woman she had become, but at the same time, wistful.

"What is it?" Natalya asked as she noticed her mother's stare.

"Nothing, it's just..."

Natalya rolled her eyes and sighed. "Mama, we've been over this. I know that you think I've become obsessed in trying to track down that scumbag. Thing is, I haven't had a good night's sleep since."

"I can't, not until that excuse for a human being is dead at my feet or thrown into a black hole where his worst nightmares seem like a happy place," the chocolate-skinned woman finished as she sealed her gloves to the bodysuit.

"I know, and I understand that, I really do. I want to see you happy Nats." The big woman replied.

"I will be happy, when that rat bastard is gone," Natalya said vehemently.

"But what about after?" Korsa asked with some concern.

"I'll figure that out when I get there. Now come on mama, I need to have a look at what's out there."

Nats stepped into the titanium boots, bending down to activate them. With a sucking hiss, they clamped shut around her legs, grafting themselves onto her suit. Korsa helped Natalya with her chest plate, locking it around her upper torso. Grabbing the vambraces, she slid them up her daughter's arms one at a time, until the shoulder plates locked in with the chest plate.

Checking the alignment and finding it good, Korsa then depressed a button the collar of the plating and with a similar hiss, the loose exoskeleton collapsed in on itself, secured to the vacc suit. Testing her mobility and finding it acceptable, Natalya stepped over and picked up the harness. She attached it to herself as she straightened up while Korsa retrieved her helmet. Checking herself over, to make sure she had everything, Nats stepped over to her mother and mentor, ready to finish.