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A Day To Go Down In History

Published on 31. May, 2009 ... written by Ecaf Ersa, Tags: Articles, Fan Fiction

by Ecaf Ersa

Beep – beep – beep – beep – beep – beep

I slammed my hand down on top of the alarm clock.

Beep – beep – beep – beep – beep – beep

The alarm clock flew to the floor.

Beep – beep – beep – beep – beep – beep

“What the f…?”

I had been having a great dream and was very annoyed. I can’t remember what it was about now but I knew it had been a good one. Opening my eyes I saw the flashing light on the comm panel and realised my rude awakening had not been the alarm clock’s doing. Despite it’s recent cruel treatment at my hands it still dutifully informed me that the time was 03:42.

Through the sleepy haze I stabbed at the respond button, “WHAT?!”

“That is no way to answer the comm Ersa.”

Recognising Major Felps’ voice snapped my brain into gear. “Sorry Sir, you caught me in the middle of a good dream.”

“Well…for that you have my apologies Ersa.”

Major Felps was a good guy and a great officer – no, a great guy and an outstanding officer. He was the kind of officer that would have me instinctively reaching for the warp button after ordering me to send my freighter into a group of hostile battleships.

Socially he was a real riot and, outside of work, was referred to exclusively by his nick-name “Major Ding-Dong” which he had earned after having being seen naked in the shower. He was not the best looking guy on the station but could get nearly any woman he wanted into bed just by telling them how big his manhood was, which he was not at all shy about doing. This would usually result in anything from a shocked look to a witty put down and even occasionally a slap in the face but nine times out of ten their curiosity would get the better of them and we would see Ding-Dong heading for the bar door with the lady in question on his arm. Our well rehearsed salute to this would be the whole table shouting in unison “DING-DONG!! Time for bed!” – which we never grew tired of.

Felps continued, “Is your Recon flight ready Ersa?”

“Nothing I can’t fix in ten minutes Sir.”

“Good, be in my office in full flight gear in fifteen minutes.”

“Sir.”

The comm light went out and I hurriedly dressed.

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

It only took me a few seconds analysing the scanner data to be sure. “Yes Major, it’s the same thing as I encountered yesterday in DY-P. Looks much bigger and more stable too.”

“Any way of telling where it goes?”

“Not that I can see. That information could possibly be in this data but if it is we don’t know how to decipher it yet. Sending a probe through it might tell us more.”

“Might?”

“Yes Sir, it all depends on where the other end comes out. The probe will need to be able to recognise stellar patterns to know where it is and be able to communicate back to us. For all we know it could get crushed into a microscopic dot before it even makes it through and we’d have no idea.”

“Hmm, that’s comforting to know.” said Felps in a matter-of-fact tone whilst appearing to intently examine the floor.

Looking up at me he continued, “So any volunteers to go in first and find out?”

I knew I was the only other person there but couldn’t stop myself from looking around the room. “I guess that will be me then Sir.”

“Good man. Fit your Recon out as best as you think and be in the briefing room at 04:30.” Free reign on fitting? – that was something new.

I snapped to attention and saluted “Sir!” before turning and marching out. Felps might have been Mr Social but in work you did everything by the book. It had only taken one of us to be fined three days wages after calling him Ding-Dong in the office to learn that you didn’t blur that line.

I quickly adjusted the fitting on my ship. Most of what I figured I might need was already on there, the obligatory covert ops cloak, a full probe launcher, as much of an armour tank as can be crammed in, my treasured Gallente Navy webber, a disruptor and a microwarpdrive. I opted for sensor dampeners seeing as survival was more important than kills but swapped out the energy vampires for a couple of medium railguns just in case. Four medium drones completed the set up before I rushed off to the briefing room.

The briefing revealed a total of ten ships of various types being mustered for the mission as well as three carriers and a dreadnought ready to be hot dropped in at a few seconds notice. I was very happy to see a still blurry-eyed Marakal taking a seat in the room. He was the only one there that would be bringing a battleship to the party. My “volunteering” for a potential suicide mission had earned me a place at the table with the officers and brought a silent “oooh” face from Marakal.

This was to be primarily an information gathering exercise but given that we had no clue what would be at the other end, or even where that would be, we had a very wide remit to do what we thought best in any given opportunity and as I was the scanner I was made FC. WOOT!

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

The nerves began to creep in as I approached my Arazu “Nysm Nyd” but I stopped at the sound of quick footsteps behind me. I turned around to see Felps’ assistant Rashelle chasing after me. I’d been very shyly flirting with her for ages but hadn’t had the guts to ask her out yet. My heart began to race as it usually did whenever she came close. Damn she was beautiful.

“Come back please Ecaf” she said.

I thought at first she meant that the plan had changed but as I started to move back towards to the hangar door she leant in quickly and kissed me on the cheek. “Otherwise I’ll never get that dinner will I?” she said with a cheeky smirk and I realised she meant to come back from the mission.

I forgot my nerves for a few seconds and a big smile grew across my face. “Sure!” I responded and, now full of courage, I added, “Leave a light on for me.”

She just smiled coyly while twirling a lock of her long blonde hair around a finger. I took as long as possible closing the Recon’s hatch as she waved me off and at the last second before it sealed shut she blew me a kiss. Safely out of everyone’s sight I caught it and put it in my top pocket for safe keeping. It was bloody typical that I score just before a deadly mission into the unknown. We didn’t even know if our medical clones would function properly wherever it was we were going.

While the nine of us sitting outside the station waited for Marakal to buy replacement lasers for the ones he was for some reason missing, I examined our odd collection of ships. An official fleet wouldn’t usually comprise of such a variety. We had two frigates, a Rifter and a Maulus, two cruisers, a Vexor and a Blackbird, an Ishtar, a Sleipnir, a Myrmidon, my Arazu and Marakal’s still absent Apocalypse. I guess we covered most of the bases between us.

After another ten minutes had passed boredom began to creep in and I started having some fun abusing my FC comm channel permissions by cutting the middle out of peoples sentences. The resulting confusion was hilarious until everyone realised what I was doing. Within seconds I was webbed, scrammed, sensor damped, unable to target anything, my capacitor drained and my shields down to half.

We were cut short by Felps on the command channel, “What’s with the weapons fire Fleet Commander?”

I thought quickly, “Ah, just testing our set ups before we head into the unknown Sir.”

“Good idea but do it somewhere other than outside the station please.”

“Yes, sorry Sir. We’re done now in any case.” and as Marakal finally appeared I added, “Moving on to the wormhole now.”

“Align planet three.” After an appropriate pause I initiated fleet warp.

Ten ships all sharing a warp tunnel is always sight to behold, no matter how many times you’ve been there before, and I stopped contemplating the enormity of my task ahead to enjoy it. Marakal’s Apoc, with his signature crazy flames paint job, drifted in close then disappeared behind me as the tunnel collapsed and we shot out of it next to the wormhole.

Up till that point the fleet channel had been filled with lots of “La-la lala la-lah, Ecaf’s got a girlfriend.”, “Get bent”, “Up yours” and more of the usual general banter but now it fell silent as everyone except me took in their first sight of a wormhole. The pictures in the briefing room had been pretty but the real thing was simply awesome. Even I was somewhat taken aback as this must have been five times the size of the one I had found before, just a few minutes before it had fallen in on itself and disappeared.

I opened the fleet channel again. “OK guys, this is it, on the clock now, comms clear.”

I switched to the secure command line and reported that we had arrived and were commencing scanning. I fired off the deep space probe and took some initial readings from the wormhole. The data showed it was very stable and would take a significant amount of traffic. While relaying this to command I instructed the probe to move to the wormhole entrance. It was rather fortunate that the science boffins had recently discovered how to cram not only a simple ion drive onto these probes but remarkably a warpdrive as well, otherwise this would have been nearly impossible.

Energy began to crackle around the wormhole’s entrance then leapt across to the probe which simply disappeared.

“Erm….what happened there?” asked Marakal over the fleet channel.

“Comms clear please.” I responded calmly. I didn’t want to admit just yet that I didn’t know. I was getting no telemetry data from the probe and I wondered if my big break was going to be a washout. Then suddenly the data screens blazed alive as the probe reconnected with the ship’s computer and masses of data started pouring in.

“Command this is W-Squad FC. The probe is intact and sending data – routing it to you now.”

“Roger Fleet Commander. Give us your analysis as soon as you have it.”

It took a couple of minutes to extract the information I needed. Basically it was space just like any other bit of space but the probe had no clue where it was despite having the sum total of all technical data regarding all the stars in our known space. Nothing that it detected matched anything in it’s database – it did not recognise a single star.

Command’s analysis concurred with my own and I was given the order to proceed.

“Felder, connect to the deep space probe. I’ll contact you through that.”

“Roger Fleet Commander – Good luck Ecaf.”

A round of good luck messages came from the rest of W-Squad, except Marakal of course who instructed me to find the first bar I could and “get the beers in”. A private typed message appeared on my comm. It was from Felps and read “Major Ding-Dong wishes you the best of luck Ecaf. Fly safe.” I beamed at this previously unknown breach of protocol from a man I admired so much. I briefly considered the possibility of a promotion from this – if I could just make it back out alive.

I manoeuvred my ship toward the wormhole and when I got to around a kilometre away the same energy we had seen before crackled across the gap between the wormhole and my ship.

It appeared I was still alive so I opened my eyes again. Space looked pretty much the same here as it did everywhere. Checking my instruments revealed a standard solar system with four planets and six moons.

I reconnected to the probe and sent a message to Felder that I was alive and well and instructed the fleet to standby. After firing off several different probes I cloaked the Arazu and began to collate as much data from the system as I could.

A few minutes scanning satisfied me that I was alone and I sent another message to Felder to send the fleet through. Only he would remain behind to cover the wormhole entrance and to relay communications with command.

Within a few moments all eight of them had appeared around me and I opened the fleet channel, “Everyone bookmark the wormhole then find a safespot please. Make extra copies of your safespot bookmark for everyone.”

Once they had all reported back I ordered them all to warp to Marakal’s slow-boat battleship where we exchanged safespot bookmarks and established fallback plans and meeting points in case of various possible events. Leaving them there I returned to the wormhole cloaked so I could keep an eye on it while I used core probes to search out any signatures of interest.

I found a lot more than I had expected to and picked the one with the strongest signal. Having scanned the site down to the exact spot I warped in at a distance. I don’t know what I had expected but the sight of a complex of significantly sized structures was not high on my list of possibilities.

The structures looked industrial and although they were clearly not derelict there was not one single sign of movement or life. A place like this back home would be constantly buzzing with activity.

I related this development to the squad who all wanted to come and see it but I told them to stay put for now. I quickly put together a transmission package of scan data from the site and sent it to the deep space probe waiting patiently by the wormhole for Felder to send on to command.

For a while I flew around the buildings looking for some clue of what this place was for. The buildings were arranged in a rough, almost semi-circular, crescent moon shape with the larger structures concentrated in the centre and thinning out at the points. The whole complex was well over two hundred kilometres across. Getting nothing from the structures themselves I navigated towards the logical centre of the site.

Much became clear in the space of just a few seconds. The first unexpected event was the stars on my viewscreen suddenly moving downwards at speed and I instantly recognised that my ship had bounced off something that I hadn’t been able to see just a second before. This was followed quickly by my Arazu’s de-cloak alarm warning me I was visible.

Surprised into inaction for a second or two I sat momentarily confused as the ship attempted to return back to it’s previous course. The stars previously on the viewscreen had now disappeared, obscured by the vast expanse of metal less than a couple of kilometres in front of my ship, “Holy crap!!!” being the sole thought bouncing around inside my otherwise stunned and vacant brain.

The beeping of alarms and sudden appearance of multiple ship signatures on my overview dragged my mind rapidly back into focus and I quickly turned the Arazu around and flew toward open space. More ships poured from the structures and I frantically spammed the cloak button as lock-attempt warnings flashed all over my screen. Thankfully I disappeared again before any of the locks completed. Adjusting course slightly to head straight toward a planet that was mercifully close to my alignment, I had a few seconds to view the gigantic, newly found object as the alien ships swarmed toward my position. The closest was just a few kilometres away when the stars stretched out into lines and I warped the hell out of there.

The pounding of my heart drowned everything else out including my own voice rapidly repeating the single word “SHIT!” Slowly I edged back to reality and what I had seen began to form into a single coherent word – “SHIP!”. The configuration was nothing like anything I had ever seen before but it was easily as big as any titan we had. No, it had to be bigger, much bigger. I’d never before faced a titan without having one of our own plus hundreds of other ships in the fleet and never while I was in charge. My pulse rate raced upward again as I fought to control my panic.

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

“Ecaf…you found that bar yet?……Ecaf…….Ecaf…….FACE!” Even Marakal’s impatient use of my nickname failed to penetrate the terror that gripped my mind like a slaver hound’s jaws on it’s victim’s neck.

“Ecaf…if you don’t respond I’ll have to assume command and take the fleet home without you.” Gorden was designated second-in-command but even this threat to my command didn’t drag me into focus.

“Come back please Ecaf.” Rashelle’s silky tones soothed their way into my head and I calmed down enough to take back some semblance of self-control.

“Comms clear…I won’t say it again. Safespot seven NOW…please.” As if disconnected from my own body I watched my fingers though a haze as they trembled over the controls. “Come on Ersa… get a grip!” By the time I arrived, last of everyone after even Marakal’s battleship, I had the situation clear in my head.

I quickly told them what I had found but had to shout down the babble of questions from everyone. “SHUT UP!!!…They could be listening. Nobody says anything from hereon in – use broadcasts if you need to alert me to something.”

I had been packaging what little data I had of the new ship and sent the transmission to the probe. Aura answered “Unable to connect.”

“WHAT?!…Shut it bitch!” I tried again but got the same result. I had been resolving myself to the task of returning to the site to gather more data but now I had a new problem. I kept this piece of information to myself for now and after broadcasting “Hold position” I warped to fifty kilometres of the wormhole, cloaking mid-warp, but arrived to find nothing. I checked my position – exactly fifty kilometres from my bookmark. “Where the hell is the probe?… Where the hell is the wormhole?…Shit!”

“OK Ecaf…keep calm…think……..right…it’s simple…get more data…make as much distance as you can from all this…scan for a new wormhole…get home…report in…be the hero…take Rashelle out to dinner…take Rashelle to bed…live happily ever after……yeah right…piece of cake!”

Buzzzzz….buzzzzz – the de-cloak alarm again. One of the alien ships had somehow sneaked up on top of me and I was being rapidly locked. With no time to run I locked back and activated all my weapons and warp disruptor while setting an orbit course. The alien ship was roughly the same size as mine but couldn’t keep up with my microwarpdrive enhanced speed so I kept the range I wanted and had good time to analyse the ship. I could recognise features but the technology was quite different, even the material it was made from was unknown to me.

Thankfully it’s turrets couldn’t keep track on me either and I was only taking random hits which my shield easily coped with. Launching my drones at him finished the job off and I rejoiced in the explosion. I was a little surprised to see a pod emerge from the wreck so I failed to lock it before it disappeared. Though why should a pod be surprising? We’d seen near identical technology develop independently in more than one place before. Unless…the two technologies had a common ancestor. This thought worried me a little though I wasn’t sure why.

Bolstered by a nice kill I was back in the zone again and warped back to the complex at a distance, cloaked of course. Some pilots bitched at cloaking ships claiming it was unfair – but bollocks – all is fair in love and war and if it keeps me alive then I’m going to use it. And besides there’s nothing stopping anyone from using them.

Things were now much more like I would expect, a mass of bustle and activity. Hoards of ships flitted here and there, mostly concentrated around the “titan” (for want of a better word) but also many combat vessels patrolling the perimeter. Only now I noticed that the ship was unfinished, although not by much. This site was clearly a mega-shipyard, probably, hopefully, built just for this one ship.

I sat and observed the proceedings for a while, manoeuvring just a few times to keep clear of the roaming sentry ships. After about ten minutes all the ships that had been scurrying around the colossal ship, like tiny shrimp on a giant whale, moved away and huddled next to the structures. A little concerned at this I backed away too. Nothing moved for a few more minutes until an almost microscopic movement in the corner of my viewscreen caught my eye. I watched as two alien pods emerged from the central structure, lost in the vastness of the place. They made their way quickly to a neighbouring structure where several seemingly inactive but identical ships were clustered together. The two pods each disappeared inside one of these ships which then came alive and moved out into the centre underneath the titan.

As they came close, one almost right at the front and the other roughly in the centre, hatches opened and the two ships disappeared into the belly of the great beast, the hatches closing smoothly behind them. Not many seconds later the ship became animated. Plumes of fire, steam and smoke ejected from various points around it and my data screens started showing massive energy spikes coming from the mighty vessel.

I quickly identified two distinct energy signatures, one of which correlated very closely with the energy we had analysed from the wormholes. The other was new but bore many similar characteristics to readings I had seen on doomsday device scan data. My fear that this ship could only have one possible purpose solidified into fact.

I worried that the devices might be set off but I was further away from the titan than the structures and other alien ships were, so I sat tight and waited to see what would happen. By now I knew we had no choice but to somehow try and destroy this ship before it could be unleashed. I had no proof it would be heading to my home but that was a chance I didn’t want to take, and even if it first went elsewhere in my galaxy, would we be able to stop it once it was in full swing? The best chance was now, before it was completed, and I put my mind to thinking up a plan. But how could we achieve such a daunting feat with a handful of ships not suited to the task?

As I prepared to return to the fleet, the energy spikes dropped back down and the beast went back to sleep. I delayed warping as I watched the hatches open again and the two ships re-emerge to repeat their previous journeys in reverse.

A new idea began to form in my mind – an idea more crazy than the whole concept of crazy itself.

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

“You’re fucking insane Ecaf!” shrieked Marakal uncharacteristically, “You have no proof any of this will work!”

“Give me a better idea mate and we’ll do that instead.” I answered sombrely.

There was no response.

“We’re on our own here boys…I can’t, and won’t, make any of you do this. If anyone wants to go off and take their own chances then good luck. But I’m going in with this plan even if I’m on my own.” I’d always pictured myself draped in glory but I’d never gone as far as considering martyrdom before – I was too fond of life. Yet here I was, in all probability signing away my immortal life on a slim chance that I could save the galaxy from something it didn’t yet know existed. Worse than that, even if I succeeded they’d probably never even know I had done it. What a way to go – but the futility of it all somehow spurred me on – too many drunken nights watching action holo-reels I expect.

“OK dude,” came Marakal’s quavering voice over the fleet channel, “You’re a crazy bastard but I’ll follow you to our collective graves. You’re going to need a BS to have the remotest chance of pulling this off.”

Seven more responses came one at a time, some more enthusiastic than others, but all in the affirmative.

After hammering out the last details of the plan, we assembled at safespot two which gave us the best angle of warp into the crescent shape. We said our farewells, some on the verge of tears but I had a grim determination about me now. I wished I could have one last beer before my doom overtook me but, alas, I had neglected to bring any. Then I suddenly remembered boarding my ship and my mood lightened a touch as I put my hand in my breast pocket and retreived the “kiss” from Rashelle that I had stowed there. I pictured her face as I touched my fingers gently to my lips. It was the best I would get now.

I couldn’t enjoy our shared warp tunnel this time. I was too fixed on what I had to do. Against my whole Gallentean upbringing I decided to pray. Not because I was about to die but just in case there was a god out there who could bless this suicidal quest and make the assumptions that our slender chance of success relied on turn out to be fact.

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

I could only watch helplessly as Gorden’s Myrmidon and Pauli’s Vexor disintegrated and their pods blown into spacedust. Samethi’s Blackbird and Zurgu’s Maulus had both done well to keep the alien ships off for as long as possible but now they were gone too. Asketh’s Ishtar had survived remarkably well, taking out dozens of the smaller ships before finally succumbing under the weight of the enemy.

Just four of us remained. Marakal’s Apocalypse was completely obscured by swarms of alien battleships as he sent barrage after barrage of hybrid salvos into the unfinished section right at the rear end of the titan. As we had planned he was attracting the most attention from the aliens. His structure had taken a severe battering and he was barely being kept alive by Jordi’s Sleipnir which was also suffering badly under the onslaught of so many ships. We needed the Sleip for just a little longer and again I prayed that this could be so.

As I neared my objective on the other side of the titan I called to Jaxsen still waiting at safespot two in his Rifter and he confirmed “on my way” a few seconds before he dropped out of warp on top of me, uncloaking me in the process. Saved me from doing it myself I guess. We both ejected our pods and closed the last few metres to the only ships left silent, the ships that had earlier docked with the beast. I crossed my fingers and instructed my pod to board the closest ship. Damn! It was working! As my neural jack interfaced with the ship I became overwhelmed with alien symbols and had to fight to make any sense of it.

Slowly I began to recognise patterns of data and worked out how to get the ship moving. Nobody had noticed us yet but none of the other ships were moving. I hadn’t seen which one Jaxsen had boarded and couldn’t work out how to communicate with him. I didn’t have time to wait for him and carried on across the void towards the head of the beast. I started to make sense of the data I was getting and the picture around me became gradually clearer. I anxiously watched for Jaxsen to start moving but nothing stirred. The aliens seemed to be ignoring me, probably assuming I was on their side. “Yes, yes, I am on your side…move along…nothing to see here.”

An explosion erupted from within the mass of alien ships and I knew this meant the Apoc was no more, but I noticed a pod moving swiftly away and prayed that Marakal had ejected and escaped in the confusion before his ship had gone. Immediately Jordi became the focus of the alien’s attention and it was his turn to disappear inside a cloud of red. The pod that I hoped was Marakal was evading attention and moving toward the silent ships. Then my luck ran out and I turned my focus to the alien frigates which were closing in and starting to target me. Jordi also targeted me now and began turning his repair systems to my aid but surely he couldn’t last much longer.

My alien ship was just holding together as I approached underneath the front of the titan. I wondered how I would get in and just tried a “board ship” command. Logical I figured and sure enough the hatch started to slide open. It seemed I was doing the right thing because suddenly the Sleipnir reappeared again as every alien ship decided I was enemy number one. But they were too late – I was nearly inside the beast.

“Damn dude, you took your time getting that thing going.” came Marakal’s voice in my head and turning my attention aft I just glimpsed an alien ship docking in the rear hatch marginally ahead of mine.

I laughed for the first time in what seemed like forever and our fallen comrades were briefly forgotten as I instinctively quipped back, “Well you always were the languages man. If only you could add two numbers in your head you’d be a genius!”

“Haha, touché! Now, let’s get this party really going…with a great big bang!” I could imagine the grin that would surely have accompanied that sentence.

As the hatch slid shut below me my mind became suddenly stunned with a concept so large my brain struggled to comprehend it. The universe was trying to enter my brain all at once and I felt tiny…microscopic…infinitely insignificant against the backdrop of all of existence.

I was being to drown under it all when “WHAO! What a rush!” and I was back again, Marakal’s voice echoing through my head, anchoring me to reality and my pod, barely bigger than me.

I struggled to get any words to form “Nnnnn….how…did..you.cope with that so easily man?”

“Damn dude, didn’t you do X when you were a kid?” I knew he was referring to the highly illegal mind-bending drug X-Instinct.

“Erm..no.” I almost felt ashamed of my staid years at university studying away diligently while everyone else around me was off their heads.

“Much the same feeling. Are you with me? Jeez this is a damn awesome ship!” He was babbling a bit now.

“Errr..Ecaf…sod self-destructing the ship…we can take this home!”

“What!?!” was all I could manage finally adding, “How?”

“We can make wormholes!”

“Erm…we can?…well…that’s good…I think…carry on then.”

“Roger Fleet Commander. But first, if you don’t mind, I’m going to set off this über-doomsday device!”

“Erm…OK…good idea…proceed!”

Within less than a minute an enormous blast of energy radiated out from our newly acquired ship, majestically sweeping most of the giant structures with it, leaving strands of twisted girders spiralling jaggedly off into the distance. The alien data streaming into my head from the eruption of energy had made a beautiful pattern and I felt the secrets of the universe’s energy unlocking themselves in my mind, as if they had always been there, hidden away in the darkest recesses.

A large number of the alien ships had stopped trying to destroy their own ship and warped off when they realised what was going to happen but they now returned and resumed their vain assault. I felt hope for the first time since I first saw this beast but regardless of the final outcome I was unashamedly proud of how far we had got and what we had already achieved.

I could sense large amounts of energy accumulating within the ship again but this was different to the last time. I excitedly realised this was going to be a wormhole and sure enough seconds later space began to warp and distort a few kilometres away to our right. There was a rushing sensation as if atmosphere had unexpectedly found its way into a vacuum, then the distortion erupted outward leaving behind a shiny new wormhole.

“Right your turn Ecaf…get this giant lump to that wormhole.”

My grasp of the alien technology was forming nicely now and the huge beast began to turn, agonisingly slowly, toward our road home. “Couldn’t you have made it in front of us?” I jokingly chastised Marakal.

“Pfft…the cheek!” was his response to that, thankfully picking up on the joke.

“Good work though mate. Well done.” It might have been my plan but he had made it work and, assuming we made it back, I would make sure he got the credit.

After what seemed like an age we made it to the wormhole with the alien ships still pounding away at us. I’ll never complain about a freighter again. Marakal spoke again, “They know where to hit us dude, some critical systems are going offline. I made the wormhole as big as I could but I don’t think it will survive this much mass. Fingers crossed we make it through.”

The energy from the wormhole surrounded our titan and the mouth opened up, sucking us inside. As we barrelled through the tunnel I noticed many ships following behind us but one was giving off very different energy patterns to the rest. I jubilantly recognised Jordi in his rather battered Sleipnir racing up next to us but I could also see the wormhole collapsing in on itself getting closer and ever closer.

The alien ships bringing up the rear span madly out of control before falling into the oblivion of the collapsing wormhole. A strange pain began to form in my head as the collapse caught up with the rear of the titan and our smooth transit quickly turned violently turbulent. I shared the ship’s pain as it began to twist and writhe under the cosmic stresses. The last thing I was conscious of was a feeling very much like when my ship disintegrates under fire automatically ejecting my pod, but there was something else too – a sense of abject loss, as if I was missing a limb.

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

“You have both suffered some neural damage but exclusively in certain specific memory engrams. Nothing you won’t recover from in time.”

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

“Please come back to me Ecaf.”

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

“Oi!….Dude!…There’s a cold beer here…if you ever come round.”

My eyes opened. Strip lighting. Plastic ceiling tiles.

“Finally!!…Here quick…before the nurse comes back.”

I turned my head toward the voice. Marakal was grinning inanely, as usual, from the bed next to mine, but more interestingly was waving a bottle at me. I tried to lean across but my body didn’t want to respond and the attempt was feeble. He leant in closer and closed the remaining gap between my hand and the bottle which I finally managed to grab. I stayed there just long enough to hear the familiar clink of glass on glass before slumping back into the comfy, welcoming embrace of the clean, crisp bedsheets. Lifting my head a fraction I poured the beer into my open mouth. Shame most of it missed.

“Great man! Well done! The nurse isn’t going to miss that! Neck it quick, we’ve got four more each to finish before she comes back and confiscates them.”

“Oh…by the way dude, we’re fucking heros…and Rashelle just left your bedside for the first time in days…that’s some bladder control she has…I reckon you’re well in there mate.”

He raised his bottle and winked before sinking the remaining contents and grabbing another one. I settled my head back on the pillow and, forgetting all about the beer, smiled the biggest smile of my life. At last…a hero.