SciFi and Fantasy Stories: Starborn Angels--Interlude

Captain Sheena stared out the viewport into an unfathomable darkness, a blackness beyond black. The Sua'nor Daetrin had told her that she couldn't see anything in this hyperspace; to those born without some strange mental quirk it was as impenetrable as the inside of a black. Still, it was comforting to have something to represent the outside world.

She sensed more than heard the presence behind her, and so barely twitched when the strangely resonant voice of Daetrin's avatar murmured in her ear, "galactic empire for your thoughts, Captain."

"I was wondering why," she answered without turning around. "Why us, why now. I was wondering how long until we are finished fighting. But most of all I was wondering how this will all turn out."

"If I knew, Captain, I would tell you." The admission was not what she had expected from such a being as blatantly advanced and powerful as Daetrin. She turned to face him.

"You don't know? I thought..." She trailed off as Daetrin shook his head.

"I can guess," he said. "My guesses are better than most, but no force or being I know can truly predict the future."

"Couldn't you help us? I mean, you're on our side, right?" Sheena felt the beginnings of anger stir within her. "And why haven't you helped us before? I mean, my friends are dead out there. Family. If you had shown up at the beginning of this thing, almost all of this could have been avoided!"

Daetrin held up a hand. "Captain, I am neither omniscient nor all-powerful. I cannot be everywhere at once. I actually have only been observing your war for under a standard week." He looked down, then up at her again, and in his eyes she could see herself reflected, and the window behind. However, instead of the blank darkness, there were shapes, colors...

He blinked, and the effect was gone. "And I would help you if I could. But I cannot. I am bound by rules that take precedence over lives. If I interfere with your culture, your society, that much, I am substituting power for knowledge. That substitution inevitably leads to chaos."

"Captain, if I fight your war for you, in another hundred or two hundred years there will be war again, only a thousand times more bloody and terrible. And I cannot guarantee humans will survive that one."

"Then why help us now, if it is so against your principles?" Sheena was not entirely convinced of Daetrin's argument.

Daetrin turned to look out the window, and his dark eyes glowed. "Every hero deserves a second chance, Captain Sheena Robichaud."

"But I haven't seen the power supply or engines anywhere." Roy rubbed his temples to ward off the incipient headache he was getting from searching the corridors.

"Well, it's not like there's a lack of space for them to be in." Miranda leaned against the wall with her arms crossed. "On the other hand, I have no idea what Daetrin uses all this space for. It's like he normally carries entire battlecruisers or something."

Roy snorted. "I can't see him playing taxi all the time. No, I'm sure there's a good reason." He looked around. "Maybe I can ask him to show us his…uh." He stopped in the middle of his sentence. "For some reason it seems vaguely obscene to ask someone to show us his engines."

Miranda laughed. "I doubt he minds. He might talk nice enough but he's definitely a lot scarier than he sounds. There's probably not much you can do to offend him. In fact..." She looked around the empty corridor. "Daetrin? You there? Could we talk to you for a minute?"

On cue, the air thickened and Daetrin's avatar appeared before them. "You rang, madam?"

Miranda gave a half-bow. "Yes. My brother and I were wondering…"

"If you could see my engines, yes." Daetrin finished. "Of course, but you're rather far away from them. Just stay there for a minute."

The silver-grey floor around them grew up to meet the ceiling. In a matter of seconds, the three of them were enclosed in a box. The siblings felt a whisper of acceleration, then the far wall merged with the floor again to reveal an entirely different corridor.

The avatar led them down to where the hall ended at a blank wall. "Now, please don't touch anything in here without asking first. I don't want you dead." The wall melted away.

The chamber was surprisingly small. The main feature was a column of a substance that tugged at the eyes, as if it were not entirely there. On the surface of this pillar streams of energy writhed and twisted. The walls seemed liquid, somehow the surface was in motion. At the juncture between the column and the ceiling...

Roy stared, fascinated, at the sight. It took over the whole of his perception, and he started walking forward.

Abruptly his view was cut off. He shook his head in confusion, and heard, "It shouldn't have affected you like that. You must be a sensitive."

"What was that?" Roy asked. "I've never seen anything like it. I can't even begin to describe it." Miranda was staring at them both in puzzlement.

"It's a piece of hyperspace, a bit of spacetime compressed into a solid object." Daetrin turned to Miranda.

"Your brother is a sensitive, Miss Vattern. He's on the edge of being able to See. Unfortunately, Seeing is not a skill that can be improved."

Roy was still struggling with the concept of solidified reality. "You can...do that?"

Daetrin quirked an eyebrow at Roy. "Yes. And if you're a good boy, maybe one day I'll show you how."

Miranda started giggling at the stunned expression on Roy's face. Daetrin turned around and said, "but right now, your captain wants to speak with you. Come with me, please."

"We should be at Kimi in less than an hour," Daetrin's avatar announced. The black ops grumbled good-naturedly among themselves, having enjoyed the luxurious hospitality afforded by the sentient starship. For her part, Sheena was glad that she would soon be back, although she admitted to herself that she had enjoyed the two stress-free days aboard Daetrin. The avatar caught her eye and motioned over to an empty wall. She walked over to meet him, and the avatar held out a pendant that he certainly had not been holding before.

"Before you go, Captain, I would like you to take this...keepsake." He offered it to her.

She took it, and looked at it. It was made of the same silver-grey material as the interior of Daetrin's hull, and it had inset a black stone. Sheena ran her finger over the stone, and was surprised to feel it warm to the touch. She looked again, and realized that a bright pinpoint burned in its depths.

"It is a piece of space, Captain. It a piece of this universe turned into substance. That light you see is a star, a star much like the sun of old Earth." Daetrin's low voice was clear to her, although it certainly couldn't be heard by anybody else in the room.

Sheena almost dropped it in shock. She looked up at the avatar as he continued. "If you formally accept this gift, I will be the patron for humanity."

"Why would you want to do that?" She asked, her mind shooting off in different directions.

Daetrin smiled sadly. "Because, once, I too, was human."

To say the ops center at Kimi was alarmed to see a two-kilometer ship of unknown design and intentions appear of out nowhere would be like saying eternity was a long time.

Klaxons wailed as pilots ran to their ships for a combat scramble. The comms officer broadcast, "Unknown ship! Please state name and intentions!" He was surprised to hear a human female's voice answer, "Don't worry guys, he's with us. Or we're with him. Either way, we're ok." Another voice came on the speakers, a male voice that sounded only vaguely human. "Besides, one of your pilots sprained his ankle on the way to the fighters. You wouldn't want someone out here without a wingman, would you?"

Admiral Staab, standing in the ops, cut into the comms channel. "My God, Sheena, is that you?"

Sheena's voice answered, "Indeed it is, Admiral. And we've made a new friend."