Specter of Her Dreams - Cont....

What was it, she wondered. He was clearly worried, and very little worried the admiral. What type of rumor had caused such a stir? Space folding? She had heard of the premise before, but no one had been able to perfect it. It was the thought that if time could be folded upon itself, one could pass through the folds to cover a much greater distance. Folding, she felt, was just as foolish as the thought of stable spatial anomalies. Space was not some animal to be domesticated. Space could not be tamed.

She ran the brush through her hair again. She braided the thick, red mane and fastened it with a band. Standing, she took off the robe and hung it on its hook. With practiced motions she dressed in her comfortable uniform and checked her reflection. She was polished and poised in the dark-green, two-piece uniform. She ran her hand lightly over the colored badges on her left chest that publicized battles and campaigns.

She depressed the button for the bridge. "Who's on watch now?" She asked.

"Lt. Drageson." The man answered. "Course is steady and smooth, Captain." He recognized the voice of his captain. "We are eighty-nine parsecs away from coordinates."

"Increase speed one-third percent and continue, Lt."

"Aye, aye, Captain. Drageson out."

When the com when silent, she headed toward the mess. Down several floors and near the skin of the Specter was the observation mess. She enter the room and glanced about. The mess was the only place everyone wouldn't stand at attention when she enter a room. There were not quite a dozen people eating and talking. She spotted the man she wanted to speak with sitting alone, consumed with his meal.

She grabbed a tray and put a few items on. She knew she should eat, although she was still exhausted from the meeting and watching the Council's constant eating. She asked for a brewed tea and walked over to the corporal's table. "Mind if I sit?" She asked, to get his attention. "Captain." Corporal Van nearly choked. The Captain wanted to sit with him? He was suspicious instantly. Had he done something? No, she had a tray of food... what was it then? "Captain, how can I help you?"

"At ease, Corporal." She smiled.

Her smile was as sweet as the pie he just had in his mouth. "Is everything alright, Captain?" He took a sip of water to clear his throat.

"Well, I do have a little business to talk with you, but that can wait for a while." She wanted the man to feel at ease. She knew it would be difficult, after all she wasn't his peer, she was his commanding officer. "You just got back from leave, didn't you? You went to Earth to see family?"

"Yes."

"I haven't been back to Earth since I joined the Corp." She admitted. "Have things changed much?" He smiled at his Captain. She was smooth, he admitted, noting her grace and poise. "Not much." She wanted something specific, he saw that, but she wasn't going to do a snatch and run. She had class. "They still haven't got the ozoners going yet. Still have to wear sb97."

She nodded. Sun burn and skin cancer was rampant. People had to remain indoors or wear protection at all times. "Hopefully soon." She took a bite of her protein gelatin. "Is your family well?"

"Yes. My sister got married. It was a huge thing." He took another sip, she was so poised. He knew she didn't mix with the peons normally, but she didn't show any discomfort speaking with him. "He was a nice enough guy, at least. They did the traditional ceremony with vows and everything." Shaking his head, he added. "Promised "'til death do us part..." Amazing."

"I've notice that there is a trend to that." She nodded and ate her carrot. Carrots were her favorite food. They were one of the things that could be grown on ship. The hydroponics lab could grow only a few things that could be eaten raw, everything else had to be processed and made into blocks of victuals. "Did you hear any strange stories while you were there?"

Here it comes, he thought. "Stories?" He thought. What was she up to? Stories? "Nothing really odd. Heard mention of there being a chance that the Lions were going to win the Super Bowl."

She smiled. "Really? Think its possible?"

He laughed. She was playing along with him. "They've got a one in fifty chance." He answered

. "Really, what do you want to know?"

"Did you hear anything about the Naguar sector?"

"Where we're going now?" He took a thoughtful breath. He had absently wondered why they were going to an uncharted sector, but hadn't dwelt on the question. "What should I have heard?"

"I don't know. I was just wondering." She drank her tea. The tea had a faint citrus hint. "How do we go about getting information on the sector without looking like we're digging up information?"

Ah, that was it, he realized. That was why she came to him, he almost laughed out loud. Corporal Harris Van was the Specter's requisitions officer. If the ship needed something, he found it. "Are we looking for something specific, Captain?"

"When I was in the meeting with the Council, I kept having this strange feeling that they were trying to hide something. Now as we know they are masters of mendacity, I always have that feeling, but this was something else. I had a nagging tap on my consciousness that there was something going on in the Naguar sector. They talked around it and away from it and everything except about it. I would like it very much if you would assist me in a little scavenger hunt. I don't know what we're looking for, but I'm sure we'll know it when we find it, eh?"

Her smile lit her face. If she wasn't the captain, he would have asked her to venture with him long ago. No, she was the captain and to ask would be stupid, he was just a corporal, after all.

"Sure. Sounds like fun."

It was nine days later when they were entering the system just prior to the Naguar sector. Edna was sitting in her quarters, sipping hot tea. She was reading Van's latest intelligence report. There had not been much to glean from the systems they passed through. She was beginning to wonder if she hadn't been sent by the Gnassians. Maybe they had intentionally made her feel odd about the Naguar sector...

So far it had been a smooth journey. They had stopped at the last Earther station and took on supplies and she had made a few special purchases of some items off the black-market. The items were not necessarily illegal to purchase, but they had long since been deemed un-healthy and were not produced by regular means, and therefore black-market. Everyone had vices, she thought, there was nothing wrong with her purchases.

A knock on her door. "Yes?"

"Captain," Terrance entered. "I was wondering..."

"What about, Terrance?"

"I've been thinking about - Hey! I was trying to buy some brandy, but the Keep said that he had just sold the last bottle." He pointed at the dark bottle on her desk with a smile. "I wondered who, besides myself, would be able to afford brandy."

"We all have our vices." She offered him a bit in a glass. "I would have preferred Cognac, but this is nice brandy." As Terrance took the glass and sat down, she encouraged him to continue his original thought.

"Well, I don't know why, but I feel we should go in with weapons locked and loaded."

"You feel that this a trap too?" She sipped the brandy. "I've been getting that feeling too, more and more. I agree. We'll use maximum caution and see what the Gnassians are up to. I think they're behind this feeling."

"That wouldn't surprise me in the least." He finished his drink and stood. "Do you think this whole 'space folding' technology is a hoax?"

"I don't know...." She stood and stretched her back. "I don't know what's going on. On one hand I think we've got something they want and we're flying into an ambush, and on the other I think that they want us to witness this technology first-hand."

"We're half a day a way. As we draw close, stand the crew ready for battle."

"Aye, Captain." He saluted and left.

She made a round through the vessel, checking on things that she didn't need to personally check. She knew it was just nervous energy, but she was responsible for the lives on Specter, and it gave her a sense of usefulness, even if it was slightly annoying to the crew.

She was review a diagnostic when the 'battle stations' alert sounded. She went to the nearest com panel. "Report!"

"We have four Gnassian war-class vessels on our radar, about 300 quaads out. There also appears to be one of ours. We're picking up distress beacon pulses."

"Time until we intercept?"

"Five minutes at maximum speed."

"Maximum speed."

"Aye, Captain!"

She felt the ever-so-slight change as the vessel went to maximum power. By the time she reached the bridge, a clearer semblance of what was happening was presented her. She read the report and looked at he view screen as they reached visual distance. Two Gnassian vessels flanked the vessel that bore the designation of Princeton. Another Gnassian Battle-status ship was approaching the Princeton. The Princeton was being fired upon. "Are we within transmission distance?" She asked over the communications officer's shoulder.

"Yes, Captain. Establishing contact with the Princeton, now."

"Good." She patted the officer on the shoulder and went to weapons. "Lock on the Gnassian Cruiser that's firing on the Princeton."

"Targeted."

"I've got the Princeton, Captain."

She went to the com. "Princeton, this is the captain of the Specter. Would you like a little assistance?" She heard a laugh as a reply.

"That would be most neighborly of you, Captain." The Princeton's captain answered. "We seem to have stumbled into a briar patch."

"Briar, you say." She smiled. The Princeton's captain didn't appear too worried about the Gnassians. She knew that such a lack of concern or underestimation of the Gnassians was usually fatal. She had spent just enough time in Gnassian company to know they were exceptionally crafty and prevaricators. "Have you been given a reason you're being fired upon?"

"No." The Captain Stated. "We were on our way to the next cluster and as we were passing through, saw that they were up to something. We asked what they were doing and they began firing upon us."

"Could you tell what they were up to?"

"No, not really. Our monitors showed spatial anomalies, but we couldn't attribute the anomalies to any known causes."

"Do we have an anomalous readings?" She asked her crew member and then returned to the Princeton's captain. "Fire on the Gnassian vessel."

"They've done it!" Terrance breathed, looking at the readings. "Captain, look at this." He was aghast as the folded rift opened before the them like a great hungry mouth.

The first assault on the Gnassian vessel was true. Several systems were destroyed immediately. The other Gnassian vessels turned their attention to Specter and her crew. The attack that was launched, made the one on the Princeton look lazy and half-hearted.

"It appears we have their attention, Captain." Weapons reported, setting for another shot.

"Captain! The readings are amazing! But they show that the rift is extremely unstable. There's countering readings alternating from the rift." The Lt stated.

"Get us out of here!" She called, but not soon enough, or perhaps the moment they entered the sector it was too late for them. As the engines sparked, alarms began to sound. "Report!" She could see the Princeton was taking heavy damage again.

"We're being sucked in." Navigation tried to up the power.

"As is the Princeton and one of their ships."

"Full power away!"

"We are, Captain. Its not working. We're powerless to escape. We're going in!"

"Report on the rift then." She held on to the arms of her chair as the vessel began jerking radically. "Let's know what we're getting into!"

Terrance absently wondered if she realized the irony of that statement. As the Specter entered the rift behind the Princeton, he went to the viewer to watch the Gnassian ship follow them in. Electronics began sparking. He shielded his face but kept an eye on the Gnassian vessel. As it entered the strange rift, something odd began. The rift, which if this was a stable spatial distortion, should have remained open, began to buckle and twist as though it were closing. "This thing's coming apart!" He had to yell, for now alarms began sounding as the ship showed errors and failures. "We need to get through this thing before we're - I don't know what the hell will happen, but we need to get out!!!"

"Navigator, plot a course as best you can and engage engines full. Notify the other ship to power up and get out also." The Captain ducked out of her seat as sparks blew in a great arc just over her head. "NOW!" The spatial distortion was distorting all of its own: twisting and expanding and contorting. If they remained, they would be torn apart. The ships systems began failing and shorting out at an alarming rate. The Specter passed the Princeton but not by much as they both emerged from the rift.

Terrance watched as the rift contorted and the Gnassian vessel exploded in an awesome display, closing the rift. It was gone. Debris was all that marked there ever being something present.

"The Gnassians didn't make it. But the Princeton did. They don't look much better than us, though." The Lt stated, wiping blood from a gash on his cheek. "We're slowly imploding. I'm getting reports from all throughout the ship. Heavy casualties. Whole systems destroyed." "Where are we?" She asked. "Navigator? What are our coordinates?"

"Not sure Captain. If the readings are right, and I can't be sure.... we look to be so far from where we were it would take us, at full speed, one-thousand, seven-hundred years to return."

Systems were failing across the board. There was a breach somewhere that was venting atmosphere to space. It wouldn't be long before the ship was unable to support life. "Navigator! Is there a planet in the vicinity capable of supporting life?" She yelled over the various ship's alarms and snapping circuits. "Find a good one, we're liable to be there a long time."

"Captain!"

She turned just in time for the explosion to miss her face. The counsel exploded behind her instead of in her face, pushing her toward the Ensign. She didn't remember anything else until she woke in Terrance's arms. "What happened?"

"The panel blew. You alright?"

"Yes. How long was I out?"

"Just long enough for Navigator to notify us that she found a planet. And for me to order all hands to abandon ship."

He grimace, knowing that this was her ship.

"We can't save her? We can't go down to the planet and come back up with work teams and repair her?" She thought.

"Can't we take her down and repair her there?"

"No, Captain. Specter is a goner. I'm sorry." He helped his captain to her feet. "She's not space worthy and she won't make it through the atmosphere. I'm very sorry." He made like he wasn't supporting her, but he made sure she had her feet before he stepped away from her.

She was furious.