Emergence: Chapter 17

Hangar bays in any building are usually rather drab and dreary; they don't need to be fancy and the only thing that cleans up the dust and dirt from the floor are the boots of the pilots walking that short distance from the door to their ship. The Lord's Hangar, however, was rather extravagant. To match the Lord's robe, the walls had spiralling patterns set in red and gold plating atop polished walls. The lightbox-ceiling replaced the strip lights in the standard hangars, and the light reflected off of the polished walls and the heated floor tiles.

In the centre of the hangar bay was the Lord's ship; Watchman. Unlike the jagged angles and straight edges of the Xaosian Dominion, the Watchman was sleek and curved, shaped more like a flattened sphere than anything else. This disc-like ship could hold over one-hundred crew members, and it usually did so; most were guards trained in ship-to-ship combat made possible by the complex arrays of hidden weaponry hidden under panels in the ship. In combat, the panels would slide away after the weapon-bays became airlocked.

A Scaliman, yellow in colour, stood by the ship, waiting for Foton and Devilclash. Foton greeted him with a salute. “Nixiin, good to see you again.” Foton extended a hand, which Nixiin took and shook.

“And you too, Foton.” Nixiin smiled politely. “Ah, the Pyrkagias approaches! I've heard a fair bit about you, Devilclash.”

It took Foton a moment to remember that Devilclash had not actually left the Capital with Tahkshi before, so had not had the chance to meet Nixiin, who was in charge of this hangar.

“Only good things, I hope.” Foton liked Devilclash, but her flat and humourless drone of a voice irritated him whenever he heard it.

“Mostly.” Nixiin smiled and showed Devilclash her chambers on the ship's map. “You still waiting for Tahkshi?”

“Yeah, twit likes to keep me waiting.” It was no secret among Tahkshi's personal staff that he was, despite his media persona, a bit of a pompous arsehole.

Nixiin chuckled. “You realise he could've been right around the corner when you said that.”

Foton suppressed a natural smile at that. “I would have heard him.”

Nixiin considered this for a moment. “Yeah, you would've.”

Foton cocked his head. “Here he comes.”

Fast footsteps echoed down the hallway outside the hangar. “That's a damn good ear you got there, Foton.” Nixiin observed.

“Foton, Nixiin, get a move on!” Tahkshi strode into the hangar, escorted by two large Hak'i. He turned to them. “Go back to your posts now.” He continued walking, unbuckling his Lord's robe as he did so, revealing red and gold shirt and trousers underneath. “I'm going to my chambers, call if you need me.”

“We won't need you.” Foton said under his breath. “Nixiin, I'll see you in a day or so.” Foton walked briskly to the ship and up the ramp, which clanged beneath his steel soles; before coming to the hangar, he had changed into his light-combat armour. This armour consisted of the steel boots as well as a steel chestplate. However, his gloves and trousers were made from a metal fibre, creating a thick mesh which should stop oncoming blows and low-calibre bullets. At his waist, a holster held a small pistol with both a stun and kill setting. A knife was placed on the inside of each shin. Unlike the other guards, Foton also attached a retractable blade onto his wrist; these were technically illegal, but Foton chose to wear them to give him an edge in hand-to-hand combat. He didn't think anyone else knew about them, which suited him just fine.

When he got inside, he headed up to the ship's command hub. There he stood on a bridge overlooking banks of computers and their operators, both human and Irinian. “Everyone on board?”

A human near to him by the name of Jeok replied. “Life sign readings show that, yes everybody is on board.”

Foton nodded. “Excellent. Set course for Buun.”

Foton stood and waited for an Irinian – Foton thought he was called Wrotha – to respond. “Ready sir.”

“Call me Foton.” Foton abhorred being referred to as higher than the others, when they are doing more work than he. “Prepare for take off.”

He heard the hiss of the landing gear folding up and the airtight locks sealing. Then the engines thrummed louder and louder as they built up energy, before the hangar bay doors opened and the ship slowly manoeuvred out of them. As soon as it was out, the engines went silent; they were only loud when warming up. The ship angled itself towards the sky, and lumbered slowly upwards until it reached the upper atmosphere. The wall in front of Foton turned transparent and he could see the darkness of space outside. “Engage the L-Drive.”

Stars and space zoomed past the ship as it became faster than light itself.

Foton sat down in his chair on the bridge and logged on to his computer. While he was tempted to check for news on Raan, he knew he shouldn't; he was meant to be in charge. He checked the Watchman's structural integrity and found it at one-hundred percent, just as he expected. Surprisingly, he found himself bored; he was never usually bored. There was always something to do, something to check. But now, he had a team doing those jobs for him and his principle wanted to be alone. He knew why he felt uneasy though; Devilclash's disbelief about his time on Buun. He knew he should never have mentioned it; his past always led to trouble. The minutes passed in silence.

“Foton!”

He turned to see Tahkshi walking towards him. “What do you want?”

Tahkshi looked irritable at Foton's tone, although Foton thought that he should be used to it by now. “How long is it to Buun?”

Foton shrugged. “I don't know.” He turned to the crew beneath the bridge. “How long is it to Buun?”

Wrotha turned around and said, “About 10 minutes; it takes about 25 to get there from New Orbus.”

Foton was always amazed by how fast L-Drive travel was; a matter of minutes, or hours, from New Orbus to anywhere else in the Twelve, aside from Oblivion. Light from the Sol took only eight minutes to get to Rat'hak, and about three hours from Rat'hak to Buun. New Orbus was rather close to Buun, and it led Foton to think about how Orbus's climate may have been like before it was wiped out. He presumed that it was a tropical landscape like Buun's, complete with that sticky, uncomfortable heat.

“Good.” Tahkshi answered. “I may just stay here for a bit; I do like to watch the stars.”

Foton nodded; the one thing that they shared. “They are beautiful.”

“They are.”

Silence as they looked at the streaks of white and silver across the screen; the stars became distorted due to the speed.

Something hit the ship.

Foton tumbled out of the chair, which then fell on him. He threw it off of himself and located Tahkshi; he was still on the floor. “What the hell's going on?”

“Something's knocked us out of L-Speed!” One of the crew members had got back up into their chair.

Foton yelled into his com, “Everyone to battle stations!” Along the exterior of the Watchman, panels slid open, revealing an array of cannons around the entire rim of the ship. Foton looked out of the screen and saw a white ship dart by. He didn't recognise the design; it must be new. Without warning, the ship rocked again. This time, Foton grabbed a railing to support himself. Proffering his hand, he pulled Tahkshi to his feet. “What was that?”

Another crash, another hiss of the air-seal; a quickly forming gel which solidifies into an airtight solid is secreted from the walls when they are breached. A voice came over the com. “The white ships are crashing into the sides of the ship, take them out!”

“Boarding parties or kamikaze?” Foton called back over the com.

“Boarding-” The com was cut off: dead. Foton had no time to mourn.

“We need to get to the escape pods!” Foton yelled. “Everyone go!”

A door hissed open and two armoured Xaosians were revealed. They were flanking a white being, the species of which Foton couldn't place; it was humanoid, but with an ivory exoskeleton covering its body and distorting some features. Foton couldn't care less. He drew his pistol, set it to kill and shot at the alien.

The bullet stopped in mid-air between its fingers. The alien examined it briefly, before discarding it. It drew its own weapon from a holster on its side and shot back. The bullet narrowly missed Foton as he threw himself to the ground. Screams shattered Foton's wish for silence, but the Xaosians soon granted that wish, each bullet silencing one of the crew members. Foton dragged Tahkshi along the bridge to the other door. Tahkshi tried to keep up, but Foton easily outpaced him. There was a sound behind them. Foton twisted round. The alien was there, just a couple of standards away. Foton put his pistol up and shot the alien three times in the head. The alien slid to the left; the bullets missed. Nothing should be that fast Foton thought, before realising that his gun was useless. He ran to the alien, hidden blade primed.

The alien grabbed his arm and threw him off the bridge and onto the computers below. Foton recovered just in time to see the alien shoot Tahkshi three times in the head.

Dead.

He had failed.