The blink of an eye

[airinhere]

Consider time dilation as a hazard of travel in space.  Exploring far outside the Galactic disk, Reaching far out into nearby Galactic clusters, exotic problems might arise.  Carcharodon Fleets are known to have ranged far and nearby Clusters are within their range.  But how does time work versus movement?  Are we trapped within a local sphere of space?  How far can one travel before time and space stop you?  What about those who move too close to the edge?  And might there be something waiting for us there?

 

 

A sickening scent of searing meat and electricity pushed deep past the nostrils and behind burning eyes.  Only a moment of sensation and then the clean, scrubbed, stale scent of endless corridors of metal.   Shifting from warp travel to real space never smelled the same twice, and yet it always had the familiar components.  This far out, far removed from the light of the Emperor (may he guide us), the scent was mild.  These constant jumps became an annoyance more than anything.  Danger felt far removed with carefully planned routes being set by some far away Mechanicum voidship.  

 

Servitor Management Adept class IV pulled his hand away from the bulkhead alongside him.  Corroded wiring had brought him down to these labyrinth passageways in the lower hull of the great Battleship Feasting.  Water formed from the very air sometimes down this deep and spilled across panels and circuits as it gathered into slow streams between deckplates.  White corroded powder slowly replaced solid metal fittings.  Chanting the "Hymnal of directed current, vol 3 chapter 7" deft hands flipped the sequence of switches to repower the replaced panel.  Tiny green lights and a small viewscreen awoke and invited an interface to reconfigure power routes.  A small sliver of metal reached from a concealed housing on his wrist as SAM allowed his programmed data to calibrate the newly mended panel.

 

"Such a waste", these bits dissolving into dust and being constantly mended and sought out.  SAM looked around as his cogitation unit completed its update cycle.  He would be needed back in his workshop soon.  Two Auto Servitors would have to be recycled.  An exciting task that would require selection of a volunteer who can host the Servitor harness.  Extreme heat and gaseous chemicals took its toll on organic components whenever the Battleship Feasting cycled its engines back to reality from warpspace.  A sudden smile crossed his face as he likened the dissolving servitors to the wiring that he had so carefully replaced just now.

 

Pulling his hand free, SAM turned and swiftly ambled down the corridor.  Up two flights of stairs and then the long conveyor back to his workshop.  Perhaps today he would march on as the conveyor moved.  No time for rest on such a busy busy day.  An upbeat hum broke from his audio unit and its static and off key tones mixed harshly with his rhythmic chanting as he eagerly moved forward.  Even the lighting seemed brighter to his organic eye.  His vid capture system analyzing intensity registering no difference from standard.  

 

Red light flickered into the distance as SAM entered the long hallway leading back to his workshop in the far Stern.  Keeping his pace even, SAM stepped onto the conveyor and moved at an enjoyable speed.  Chambers opened up to the left and right carrying great weapons of war.  Ceramite armored Thunderhawks hung from great racks ready to be deployed.  Occasional points of red light broke from the darkness as another SAM would go about his business in isolation far across the hangar bays.  A shower of sparks or ratcheting noise echoing from every direction and then swallowed by darkness.  SAM found the noises and far-off lights comforting.  His Brother Adepts working to maintain their honored duty.  The slow moving conveyor seemed to fly under his feet as his pace quickened.

 

Entering his workshop, SAM logged his service and update into his personal log.  One of the Servitors was already in its Solution tank and the organics were being recycled.  Unit CRDF 18709-43 was detained as it had experienced catastrophic failure and was being gathered for recycle service.  An update to flight control indicated that the signal from the Mechanicum ship leading the Battleship Feasting had become incoherent.  Energy surges and a bizarre repetition echoing across the darkness.  SAM uploaded the data to his cogitation bank and interfaced fully as the data stream was divided between SAM units linked to their cogitation engines.

 

Systems were logging the identification of only one digit of data coming from the Mechanicum craft ahead of them.  A single + indicating the line should be engaged, but without the datestamp or identity code required to connect for ship to ship communications.  The + took on a tonal quality as if the press of a button could alter its inflection and transform into music.  Sensors showed the Mechanicum ship far ahead of them, and nothing else unusual.  Just the musical tone of +.

 

This far away from the light of the Emperor, Every threat must be taken with great seriousness.  Level 3 system boot was engaged and across the darkened Battleship Feasting, white lights came to life for the first time in a century.  Dingy hallways once marked only with Ultraviolet light shone their rust and buildup of dust.  Far overhead, the living, unaltered humans of the Fleet were being summoned.  The stasis tubes they were interred in solemnly opening and welcoming the masters of the ship back among the living.  The alert eye of one officer noticed a far off pinprick of light that was not listed on the starcharts.  The Mechanicum vessel ahead seemed frozen in place as they Battleship Feasting roared toward it.  The only voice from their escort a single wavering tone.  Slightly turning back up on itself.

 

++ entered as the tone continued to ring across the communications array.

[airinhere]

Two servitor class III augmented pilots looked across the bridge focusing on the green light that surely was not recorded by the inbound datastream before the warp drive was disengaged.  Their eyes were long ago replaced with optical uplinks and they strained to focus on the tiny point.  Major Searzy of the Imperial Navy stared over their shoulders for a moment and they with a cough brought the servitors back to their duty.  His gaze did not leave the spot.  Something strange was going on.  The Mechanicus ship Vigilant Traveler refused to respond to any contact and seemed frozen in place.  Sensors set to max could detect energy signatures and lifeforms aboard.  No weaponry was engaged.  But something was not right.

 

Major Searzy returned to his control station and uplinked to the cogitation machine requesting contact with the Navis Nobility running the ship from their silvery towers behind the main bridge.  Servitors responses made no sense either.  The Navigator Ameliar of the House Elbidriss was frozen and unresponsive.  The servitors assigned to his aid were running reactivation programs and seemed upset.  The tonal quality of the inbound transmission changed again seeming somehow different and then data began to enter.

 

                                                                                  ++++Alert!++++

 

An unencrypted, unstamped signal.  No reply required.  And nothing appearing on the viewscreens or even near the Mechanicus ship.  Alert would only be sent out under the most critical of events.  Survival of the Vigilant Traveler was never a priority.  This signal meant they feared for the Feasting.  In empty space.  Far from any systems and still outside the disk of the looming cluster of stars designated Ursa Minoris.  Empty space all around.  Major Searzy sighed as his free hand entered the codes required to activate the stasis pods for the Senior Bridge crews.  He had been assigned as a situational operator in case of Servitor escalated issues.                                                                                          

                                                                                 ++++Alert!++++

                                                                                 ++++

 

Closing down his Cybernetic uplink, Major Searzy headed up the flight of stairs to the command floor.  lights and holographic images cycled to life as he strode across the bridge and into a side hallway.  Unconsciously straightening his uniform as he stood in the dimly lit room waiting for Commodore Lowrhim Zelman to arrive from his reanimation.  The air in the room felt stale and humid.   A palpable dread eased over Major Searzy and his clothes itched against his skin as he waited.  A rush of cold, freshly scrubbed air flooded into the room chilling him and he tensed as the lighting in the room sharply increased to a blinding whiteness.

 

"At ease"  Commodore Zelman quickly looked the Major in his eye and strode past him opening a cabinet filled with old jackets.  

"Report"  Rang from behind the Major as he heard Commodore Zelman struggling with his heavy jacket.  

"Outbound warp incident.  Gellar Fields holding strong.  Hull integrity at 97%.  Engines operating at or above capacity.  All hands safe aboard and cargo is safely restrained for transit.  Upon entering realspace, we have visual and scan of the Vigilant Traveler, but it is strangely non responsive.  It is however, sending a single drawn out message of alert.  Somehow it seems to be arriving extremely slowly. "

 

"Alert, eh?"  the Commodore slowly exhaled.  A tarnished silvery button on his jacket reflecting the light from the room shone bright into Major Searzys eyes.  The Commodore pressed a button on his sleeve.  "Raise shields, power weapon systems.  Engage long range scanners. "  Exiting the room, the Commodore turned his head as he began to move .  "Dismissed"  Major Searzy relaxed his body and turned to follow behind the Commodore.  Outside, the hallways were cold with fresh cycled air.  Officers were exiting their chambers and heading to the Command Bridge.  Update on Contact was being reported.

                                                                                ++++Alert!++++

                                                                         ++++Inbound attack++++

                                                                          ++++sector 34

 

The alert had spread across the mighty Battleship Feasting.  Lighting that had not been used in a century blinked across the hull.  Ice broke away as plating was energized.   Looking out across the long prow of the Feasting, a million shards of ice exploded at once as armored plates were energized and readied for battle.  Each one reflecting a tiny green light, multiplied by each shard giving a slightly green glow to the massive voidship.   In less than one Terran hour, the ship was awake and glistening ready for combat. 

 

"Transmit datastream back to fleet resources advising against entering this sector.  Advise fleet to engage protocol Pare 56.  Ready ourselves for action.  And get that Navigator awake!"  Far behind in their silvery towers, the Astropathic choir began sending their message back into the warp.  All around the Feasting bright lights began to appear.  Reality unwinding and metal forms sliding out the impossible twists of the warpgates.  The Gates seemed to be moving in slow motion.  The normally shocking shift from warp to reality moving slowly and with a surreal purpose.  lights shone from the Navigator towers of the voidships, but few other lights peek out.  Each craft had suspended all primary crew functions during such a long crossing.

 

Blossoming like dazzling twisted flowers of the immaterium, some portals opened slow, some faster and everywhere the physics of what unfolded seemed off.  Watching from his command bridge, Commodore Zelman stood in horror as an unknown force moved against him in a way he had never encountered.  far off in the distance, the Vigilant Travelers message arrived.

 

                                                                                ++++Alert!++++

                                                                         ++++Inbound attack++++

                                                                   ++++sector 34-R874k-3112k++++

 

                                ++++====Vigilant Traveler=====Ident 6546513464651236544565126565++++

                                              ++++Long range scans indicate planetary fire locked on++++

                                                                ++++Engage evasive maneuvers++++

 

The green glow in the distance stretched into a thin line reaching across space.  Splitting and arcing back onto itself.  Dividing itself and centered on the Vigilant Traveler.  

[airinhere]

Tech Adept Lucane XIV pressed the alert beacon warning again.  The arc of green light had already destroyed the Sensor craft               V-ger 4587255.  In moments it would engulf his ship as well.  Shields were already raised, but the force arriving would surely breach them.  The Battleship Feasting had emerged from warp already but no response had arrived.  He sent the alert once again and began reciting the prayer of Ctrl-alt-delete.  The childrens story had always been one of his personal favorites and as the green lights reached him, he swore he saw lights come alive on the Feasting.  Brilliant green light.  Ctrl-Alt-Delete.

 

 

Commodore Zelman watched the green lights reach out before his eyes and the probe sent forward by the Vigilant Traveler dissolved into a cloud of plasma.  Shields activated on the Vigilant Traveler, wrapping it with an electric charge that crackled around its hull like lightning.  Around his position, warp gates seemed locked in place slowly spitting his fleet into reality as he watched the Vigilant Traveler become engulfed in green plasma.  Secondary explosions rocked across its hull and the beam of green light faded away like an afterimage.

 

"Forward full and prepare to put us astern!"  The fleet must be protected.  Hundreds of thousands of men and an entire Marine Chapter were stored in the hold of his ships.   Fury rose in his throat as he watched another tiny green light appearing in the distance.  The massive Battleship easily moved ahead of the slow moving ships all around him.  bearing all power to the port shields he pulled hard astern and sent a second message to emergency jump the entire fleet in a Haumaru maneuver.  Emergency authorizations encoded in the working itself.  As he braced the ship for impact, lights began to appear on some of the warp craft as they finally unfolded from the warp.

 

"Brace for impact!"  roared the Commodore as the beam unwound like a rope into several beams and struck the Feasting direct with 3 beams.  Two others spread past and ripped into smaller craft that had no shields activated.  The impact of the beams pierced the hull cleanly and sent violent explosions into the hull of the Feasting.  Shielded armor plating and bulkheads designed to prevent against massive damage.  Emergency klaxons rang out in the command station.  Holographic displays of the Feasting and the fleet splattered with red warnings.  Fire engulfing one Hunter class Destroyer that appeared below the Feasting and a Lancer broken in half and burning as its engines billowed black smoke as they prepared to explode.

 

"Maintain shields!  Prepare for Emergency warp jump!  Eject damaged compartments."  Fleet ships began to peel to the left and right as they initiated emergency warp jumps.  Lights shining in each as they moved away in silence.  Space twisting into itself as each voidship of the Predation Fleet Mako turned and escaped to safety.  A green light stretched again from the horizon piercing the darkness as the last ships disappeared into the warp.  Powering its engines at full, the Feasting rammed its way into the warp.  and with a flash disappeared into nothingness.  

 

Watching alone in the darkness, Tech Adept Illuvin XIV stared at the burning wreckage of the three ships destroyed by the strange green light.  In the time it had taken him to eject from V-ger 4587255, the Vigilant Traveler, the Feasting and the entire Fleet had arrived and was attacked by what seemed to be a single burst of light.  Turning his craft back toward Terra, he began sending a warning about the region and its dangerous light.  

[Welcheren]

Enjoyed it. 

 

Great introduction, and nice phraseology in several places.

 

Really enjoyed the crt-alt-delete bit. 

 

I must admit that am not entirely certain that I followed the plot, but by the end I got the impression (unless I missed the mark altogether) that confusion was part of the point. Ultimately what happened is a mystery and we are not meant to understand. Or did I miss it?