Out of the Night
The Earthforce Saga Continues...
Out of the Night
1 FEB 2190 SEC
Fedorov sat alone in the darkened room of his personal quarters. He was tired but sleep eluded him, and his mind remained full of unanswered questions. The experiences of the last few weeks had come like a series of inundating waves on a beach, and he was sodden and cold with their significance.
The Genomorph had erupted from Dharma-6, and then fled into the Sirian Quadrant to the planet Eridia, there to begin her life shaping work anew. The planet she left behind had been injected with a potent anti-viral Phage, and it would soon be purged of the pernicious effects of the invading Colony Virus—the Shadows would be cast out.
On the mission to Epsilon Eridani, they had also discovered that the Lyrian Empire had planted its flag on Eridia, and was watching over Mother Heart, so they would not have to fear for her wellbeing from that day on. Then, they had discovered their arch enemy, the Kroth, had seen their Homeworld bombarded into wreckage and cinders, and their survivors were fleeing the entire region in an effort to salvage what remained of their species. While this was good news on its face, it still filled him with a shudder of dread. There, but for the grace of God, go I.
On Mars, they had learned of a remnant, Kroth soldiers still hidden in deep ice that had emerged and then escaped from the Red Planet. And they fled into the next amazing discovery—the Startide filament that Apollo had navigated in part. That was where his mind rested a moment, in the amazing flow of that Startide.
What was it, exactly? Was his theory correct? Was it something that had been engineered by some ancient race, or was it a natural phenomenon of the growing Universe? He had suppositions and wild guesses about each of these questions, and he often shared them with Admiral Karpov. Fedorov had seen large scale images of the known universe that showed the twisted and knotted filaments that surrounded and flowed through clusters of stars and galaxies. They were enormous, and he realized that if these were all Startides like the one they had discovered, then they might ride them to destinations far and away from any of the nearby star systems they had taken in hand.
We could visit the center of the Milky Way, he thought, replete with countless millions of stars in close proximity. What might be there? The Startides could take us anywhere, all along the Orion Spur and out to the edge of the galaxy on the Perseus Spiral Arm. The Orion Spur was but a wisp of stars in a spur between the much bigger Centaurus and Perseus Arms. They had barely taken their first steps into interstellar space. These other spiral arms would have been beyond the reach of their Star Gates, or the 9-11 warp engines that drove their warships for centuries. Fedorov once thought that they would remain forever beyond his knowing as well, but no longer.
The discovery of the Startides had changed everything. Now they might ride them anywhere, and he had spoken with Karpov about this to see if he could pique his curiosity.
“But where would we go, Fedorov?”
“Out there…. Somewhere. It would be just like the leap of faith we took when the Viking first sailed east into the Atlantic, or when we first left Earth with the Outreach Expedition. Remember all that excitement? Look at all we have discovered since. What else is out there?”
“Yes, and who else. We’ve discovered four new intelligent races: The Kroth, The Shadows, The Fendi, and the Lyrians—and Fedorov, I had to go to war against three out of the four, and then some. We still don’t know what that creature was, Nagoth, or where it really came from.”
“But better to know than not. Yes? We’ve seen life forms with the power to destroy whole planets. If there is something else out there, another species like the Kroth, for example. Then shouldn’t we want to find it, know about it, and be prepared? If Kamenski hadn’t warned us, the Kroth would have destroyed the Earth when they came, because Earthforce would not have existed.”
“True enough, but what if the mere fact that we stuck our nose out there and revealed ourselves invites more trouble, my friend? The next species we might encounter could be like the Lyrians in terms of their technology, only with a mean disposition. If there is one thing we have learned in these expeditions and missions, it’s that outreach is dangerous. We could run into something like Nagoth, that would laugh off our Zircons, Rail Guns, and Lasers, and just devour us. We could tangle with a race that might destroy our squadrons as easily as we might swat a fly.”
“That is the risk every explorer has taken throughout human history. But someone has to be Columbus, Magellan, Vespucci, Cortes, or Drake. They found and opened the pathways to new worlds, just as we did to find and found the Colonies out here.”
“Yes, but they had the superior technology in their encounters. Now look at us. I’m staring at a possible civil war with the Homeworld here, Fedorov. How can we go wandering off into never, never land out there with these events impending. Did you hear who EARTHCOM has selected to replace Grant and lead the Home Fleet? Ivan Ivanovich Volkov—not the same man we dealt with on our earlier explorations in time, but his great, great grandson. And you know what they say about the acorn and the tree.”
“You don’t think this new iteration of Volkov could beat you, do you?”
“Of course not, not any more than the original. Yet it’s what I will have to do to beat him that I worry about. If he comes out here, I’m going to have to destroy Home Fleet, and cut the size of Earthforce in half. Thank God we won’t have to worry about the Kroth, but now what if we run into something else on our next Outreach effort? You say it’s so we can be ready, but this civil unrest could leave Earthforce a broken shell.”
“Well, I understand fully what you are saying. Perhaps we could do just enough damage to Volkov’s ships so that he gets the same message we sent the Kroth, and goes home. Take out his Longbeards, and he just might realize he’s overmatched and back off.”
“And at what cost? I trained the men in those ships, and they’re damn good after the Kroth War. It pains me to fire on them now.”
“Then what about this… Suppose we find another advanced race, like the Lyrians, only one that is benign, one we can see as a friend. We might trade for their technology, like the Indian tribes in North America traded for rifles, gunpowder, and bullets.”
“We might, but then again, we might not find such a race. Or we might get the Whisky, smallpox, US Cavalry, and reservations for our trouble.”
“The only way to know is to go and see. I’m not pushing you here, just saying. I think we should consider exploring how far the Startides go, and whether they can take us to something that would help us.”
“Let me think on it, Fedorov. In the meantime. How about that conversation with Director Kamenski? Let’s set that up. If he’s going to tell me that supporting the Colonies is a major error, then we need to re-think things.”
“I don’t expect he will be so forthright.”
“Well, set up the call and let’s find out what we can.”
This Volume will see Fedorov get his wish and take a wild ride on the Startides to a place he never dreamed he could go—but for a price. You get on free, but the ticket taker is waiting by the door when you want to get off this ride. This will be a volume of discovery, wonder, great loss, reconciliation, ressurection, vengeance, and death. It will end as it began, in the empty space between the stars when Apollo, gets swept into a local Cosmic Void now being called Mordor. But not all voids are entirely empty, and these missions will test the skills and nerves of all who undertake them, because even empty space can be a very frightening thing.
ON SALE NOW:
Out of the Night
Kirov Series Volume #81
Earthforce Saga #11
By
John Schettler
Prologue
Part I – The Space Between
Part II – Pillars of Creation
Part III – Ghost in the Machine
Part IV – Bull Run
Part V – Shame
Part VI – Poison
Part VII – Ragnarök
Part VIII– The Artifact
Part IX – Metamorphosis
Part X – Valhalla
Part XI – The Void
Part XII – Night Stars