Evil Horizon (Part 2)

The hunter opened his eyes and sat up. The room was softly illuminated by soft blue track lights. He was still in the same hallway, but this time, he was alone and the bodies had been moved.

Forcing weight onto his injury he winced and stood up. His leg was mostly healed, but like any deep injury, still needed time to heal. He reached behind his head and drew his sword. It had been subjected to some kind of massive explosion. It was burned and had a heat rainbow burned into its edges.

The self repairing alloy the sword was made from would eventually repair itself. But this again would take time. He drummed his fingers on the sword and returned it to its place.

“Computer, where is Aiko Polaris?” He waited for what seemed too long for a voice command response. “You are not authorized to use this service during your visit aboard this vessel.”

He rolled his head and closed his eyes. Aiko walked up quietly behind him. “I thought once you came to, you would just be a memory. I see you decided to stick around.”

He turned to face her. A look of Surprise rather than a calm and casual look raced across his face. He tried not to think how beautiful this Aiko was.

Her blonde curly hair hung unkept across her face. Her piercing blue eyes darted from his hips to his chest and then to his face. She was trying to anticipate any hostility. Her lips were luscious and barely covered her pear white teeth.

“My ship was destroyed in the cargo bay,” he blurted.

“Take a new one,” she shrugged.

“I was attached to my old one, and besides the computer seems to have locked me out of any voice commands. I doubt it will let me take a new Sparrow.” She frowned. “We don’t have time for sentiment Liam.”

He widened his eyes in curiosity.

“Look, besides you, all I had was dead people to move around and talk to. So yes, I DNA stamped you and traced your history.” He hesitated as he looked down uncomfortably

“So you know know me better than most... now what?” He asked annoyed.

“You woke up 48 hrs earlier that you should have. I woke you up to be sure you had a good chance to think about what you are going to do next. Given the chance im positive you would likely do something stupid.” He reached behind his back and slowly drew his damaged sword.

She eyed him up and chuckled, "Like trying to fight me.” They stood for a moment looking at each other. She felt no threat from him; she only carried a duffle bag. He on the other hand desperately tried to intimidate her with his brittle and damaged weapon. She spoke eventually: “You are welcome to stay.” She threw a bag full of items at his feet. “Just clean up after yourself. I’m not your maid and the ship won’t listen to you till I trust you. Even then I'm pretty sure this ship has a mind of its own.”

As Liam bent down he put his sword away. The hunter rummaged through the bag. “Why do you say that?” He grabbed a ration and broke open the package and quickly ate something.

“Because Liam, we are currently hiding in a nebula right now. That, and the ship hasn’t responded to my commands to get underway. Whether we like it or not, we are stuck together for a little while longer.” Curious now, they both investigated the bridge together.

Now on the bridge of the vessel they both stood in awe. The sensors were scanning deep into the surrounding space all around them. As the ship was currently hiding in the nebula, however, this greatly reduced its scanning range.

The empty seats at the command stations reminded them both, they were alone. They however seemed to be operational. Normally when not in use the stations would power down. This was the first time for the pair to see the bridge.

Behind them however; The weapons station powered up. They both rushed to the station. These stations don’t do this normally on their own.

“It’s on standby. Why are the weapons powering up Aiko?” She blinked her eyes in confusion, “I-I don’t know.” She looked to the main view screen.

“Computer, situation report.”

“All systems operational. Mission critical event underway, please strap into command chairs.”

“The ship is controlled by its own AI?” Liam tried to understand.

“Computer, abort mission, return to silent running.” The new captain tried to regain control.

“Voice command lockout, mission critical event underway. Please secure yourselves to the command chairs.” A stobing red light flashed over head.

Liam sat in the first officers chair, his armour received a wireless connection alert as some ship functions were being shared. It was only observational rather than interactive.

“I’m in the chair so I’ll play the role. Captain, we have all weapons loaded on the starboard side. We have one large target that will intersect ahead of us...” he looked up, and as they met eyes he informed her. “I believe the ship intends to attack another vessel.”

Feeling there was little they could do but watch; they sinched their belts tighter. As the location of the target moved, Liam reported its location. “Whatever the target is; it’s moving to our port side.” He watched as the ship adjusted its load of weapons to the port side of the vessel. “Meido has adapted its load out captain.” He said in a slight supprised voice.

“There’s a good chance fighting whatever the hell this thing is, may ruptured our hall. Secure helmets.” She cautiously warned her crewmates of one.

Abruptly their soft human faces were replaced in nearly a second by emotionless and expressionless helmets. They would help see in complete darkness and regulate their onboard systems.

There was little that could penetrate their armour. However swords made out of the Ko’rat ore could very easily. Both of these two unlikely allies carried such a sword.

The electric royal purple clouds rippled and rolled as the elusive target moved out into the open. Meido dropped power to life-support and gravity and ignited its main drive engines. The thrust put noticeable strain on the passengers.

Meido was unrivalled when it came to speed. The Freighter known as Bettle was nothing more than a bump in the road. As The Bettle detected the approach of the other vessel it tried to load what it had for weapons.

As The Bettle loaded its first salvo. The crew looked up to a broadside Meido. All motion onboard the freighter halted. The Meido moved around its target like a hungry animal looking for the right Opportunity. As these seconds passed, both crews held their breath.

Until two low yield torpedoes launched from the Meido. They struck on the lower aft section of the vessel. From the attacking vessel the weapons did little but jump their reactor. As innocuous of an event as this may have been, it however was the first event in their ultimate destruction.

The reactor core began to cascade. The ship was not a warrior class. Any other ship would have shrugged this damage off. The Bettle began to spike in energy production. It’s fail safes melted. The energy feed back became to great for the core to handle. Aiko and Liam could only watch as smaller escape pods and vessels made their escape from the doomed freighter.

Their restraints suddenly released. Gravity restored and a voice filled the bridge of the Meido. “Board their vessel and bring me their computer core.” They took pause as their realized the crew were not in charge on this vessel.

“There is no way I’m going aboard that...” a beam of energy surrounded Liam and he was transferred to the bridge of the enemy. Aiko protested this greatly.

“Hunter, I would venture to say you have only a couple mintutes to complete your task. Please prioritize your efforts.”

Looking around he caught glance of a readout from the reactor core. “Meido there is a level 6 breach over here. There’s hardly enough time to scratch my ass,” he yelled.

“Don’t scratch then-just get the core,” Meido said calmly.

To obtain what he was sent for took only 15 seconds. But the scar this moment would leave on Liam would last for years. In 20 seconds later he was back aboard his vessel.

He screamed loudly at great length that the ship was malfunctioning and needed to be destroyed. In that moment the Bettle heaved and exploded into fine debris. Silence hushed the bridge as they watched it burn. Breaking the silence:

“You two are not my first owners,” Meido said, “In fact even my first owners were not really my owners.” The tone of voice was almost gender neutral, but somehow it began to sound more and more female as it spoke.

“I have been fought over for a very long time. I’m a very large bounty in a very large universe. If you don’t mind; I would rather be something useful rather than a war machine.”

Removing his helmet he stood with mouth gaping. “This ship isn’t AI. It’s alive... I mean it IS somebody.” Aiko nodded slowly. Her helmet peeled back.

“Let’s see why Meido sent you to the bettle.”

The kind voice interrupted the two humans again. “Please could you use my name? I mean it’s not really my name, but I’ve grown accustom to it.”

“Sure, whatever you like, just don’t send me anywhere with out asking me first,” Liam whined. Aiko began to access the files stored on the onboard computer within Liam’s armour. “To which name shall we address you?”

“When ever someone looks up Meido on the database, one name is always right next to it....MIA.” The pair silently realized the history this ship carried and busied themselves with their task at hand.

Nearby in the same galaxy;

A low hum crescendoed to a growl as the abandoned lunar station powered up. In amongst the abandoned items movement could barely be seen. The blue floor lights lit up deck by deck. Blueish green overhead lights began to power up.

A figure dressed in a survival suit floated towards a flat rectangle shaped control panel. It’s hand danced over the screen as a loud powerful machine engaged. Gradually the figured settled down to the floor platting. As the feet made contact, lights along the sides of the figures legs and outside edge of his feet lit up.

The reflective helmet he wore he began to remove. A hissing and popping sound filled the vacant yet professional styled room. As his helmet was placed on the table, he spoke to the computerized operating system.

“Sia, open all docking ports and pressurize the station on all levels.” He didn’t have to wait for a confirmation, as he felt the air in the station balance. He yawned slightly to pop his ears. He continued to remove his suit and get comfortable. Sitting in a chair he folded his hands and listened to the hum of the station.

As the lights grew to full brightness he began to notice some anomalies in the walls of the station. These anomalies moved closer into the light. A woman and a man formed out of the shadows. She was a high ranking general from the Atoma race. The man was a man only known by one name; Nector. Supposedly he was a guardian of some sort.

Sitting now the pair looked towards the relatively modestly armoured man. He had still one hand on his helmet, whereas the other was on his hip. Nector leaned forward and began to speak.

“Long sey be the razor drawn.” He spoke in a very butchered language. There was no real grammar or syntax. But the other man seemed to understand.

“May the sun always be to your back,” he replied a little nervous as his hand migrated to his lap. His eyes shifted and looked to his life support system on his left wrist. He looked towards Atiera as she spoke. “I’m speaking for myself here, but you said you had some information; information that could; in your words: blow our minds.”

Annoyed he hung and shook his head from side to side, “No not blow your mind; it would change everything…” he looked up and realized they were waiting on him to elaborate. He frowned nervously and began to bring up a digital display. As the information rolled in front of their eyes, it was downloaded to their memory stores.

“Everything we know about here is a lie. Our great founders never discovered new races or settled new worlds; they butchered our own DNA and spliced other strains into it. Our alien races are nothing more than heavily modified HUMANS. We originate from a planet called earth uncountable light years away. What is odd is that time doesn’t pass as it does in our supercluster galaxy. In fact it passes 20 times faster here… all of the research is right there.” He pointed to the screen.

He sighed as he felt despair but also relief. “Nobody believes me, but that ship docked out there was a 30 man vessel. We had six in our company of ships just like it,” he mumbled expecting little of a reply.

The two were silent as their on board computers chewed on the information presented. The information and research was confirmed. Nector began, “I knew Atomas were invented, but I had no idea it didn’t end there.” He stood up and slowly walked towards a teleportation platform. Atiera stood and very confused, thanked the man for reaching out. She too made her way down the hallway and in an instant vanished.

He had completed his mission. He made it back to his small ship named Pinto and was about to fire up its small reactor. Overcome with emotion, He paused and held his face in his gloves. He weeped loudly as he had sacrificed much. Talking to these two very elusive people only made the news he carried more grim. The universe they knew was not native or new, it was a garbled mess of human inventions and monstrosities.

All of their advancements could only be described as butchery and lies. The gloves created heavy black marks around his eyes as it mixed with his tears. Looking outside of his ship he suddenly froze as fear gripped his heart.

The Black hunters could always be counted on to try and ruin anyone’s life. They had tracked him; this time he was alone. The owner of the Pinto was well versed in the pain they could unleash. His hand moved away from the main reactor power button.

If he fired up now, they would detect his energy signature. If he waited too long; he would be floating to the nearby planet. He chose to wait.

The two feared vessels powered up weapons and began to pummel the station with weapons fire. The stations reactor began to spike. Staying close to the station was now a poor choice if he wanted to live. The informant manually released the vessel from the docking collar. It drifted helplessly in the debris field released from the unrelenting attack on the station.

The informant had guessed right, but the planet had began to have a pull on the small ship. He reasoned he could slip away unnoticed and power up as he entered the atmosphere. All was going well until a stray piece of the station slammed into the side of his vessel.

Powering up now was unadvisable. As his level of atmospheric reentry increase; He had to try. The reactors power began to flow as he adjusted for the damage. “Success!” He yelled above the chaos in the vessel. A klaxon alarm began that could mean only one thing now. He was landing on this planet. It was still too soon to know however, in how many Pieces.

The informant was no slouch when it came to piloting his vessel. If a name were to be put to his previous occupation; space pirate would be an acceptable synonym.

Hours passed since the Pinto had come to a halt in a deep tropical forest. Fresh mud along with extreme humidity and heat surrounded the remaining occupant. Slowly his eyes rolled behind the solar sensitive face shield.

His hands ran down his body. His suit could detect any imperfection in the seals. All he needed to do was touch the nodes that corresponded to the right system. His suit cleared him from any leaks. Looking up he noticed the tree branch that had impaled the front viewport of his ship.

The 3 inch in circumference branch had stopped just shy of impaling his head. Taking it as an omen of good luck. He removed his helmet. His onboard computer protested his actions; reminding him of various other biological scans it needed to complete. He tested his luck on a regular basis, why stop now?

Running on jelly like legs he made his way to his communications station. He watched the power flicker in the panel as he tried to use it.

“Pinto Actual crew one,” he paused midspeech and thought about what he was saying. “Why would someone come and rescue me?” The power finally drained from the unit as the coms station died. He removed his helmet and sighed as the fresh air rolled into his lungs.

It had been 14 years since he breathed fresh air. Despite being lost on a relatively hostile planet, being lost had so far, one perk.