Part Twelve: In Light, Darkness

He was laying in a meadow, on a beautiful spring afternoon. One of those afternoons which aren't too hot, or too cold, with a perfectly blue sky, and white, puffy clouds, clouds like great masses of cotton, floating through the sky. There were no bugs, nothing to disturb the moment, a second of perfection stretched across all of time.

He couldn't remember how he'd gotten here, why he was here, or anything he'd done before. Looking down at himself, he saw he was wearing a white t-shirt, and jeans. Black boots and white socks were piled next to his bare feet, and he wiggled his toes, half out of enjoyment of the breeze, half to prove to himself they were really his own feet. Slightly out-of-date clothing, but appropriate to where he was. Still, they seemed wrong somehow, in a way he couldn't quite remember, but felt he should.

A vague worry filled his mind, his brow furrowing at the missing memories.

Then he heard her; a rustling in the tall grass above his head, and a quiet giggle betraying her attempts to sneak up on him. He stayed there, perfectly still, wide grin creasing his face, his worries vapourized.

Suddenly, he found himself looking up into a female face; familiar washed-out blue eyes, almost grey, lit by the smile that seemed to nearly split her face, mirroring his own.

"Boo." She coughed out around a new fit of giggles. Her shoulder-length brown hair fell in front of her face, the tips brushing the skin of his cheeks and forehead. For a moment, there seemed to be coloured streaks in her hair, a misperception he quickly dismissed.

She was close, so very close. He sat up, turning towards her as he did. He couldn't remember who he was, or who she was. The whole universe was here, now, in this meadow. After all, who cares about anything else? He could just stay here, with her, forever. And be happy. He could feel her breath on his face. Close, close, almost...

Flicker.

Where was he? Who was he? He'd forgotten something....

Flicker.

The perfect sky was gone: It was raining fire. He could see ships; huge, terrible demons in the sky, blacking out the sun. He could smell the cities in flames. He could hear everyone dying. He could feel his Eden being torn apart, by forces unknown.

No, not unknown. The Spung.

She was dying, too. Those coloured streaks were back, and he knew they were real. Her eyes pleaded with him, begged him to save her. To save the others. To save them all.

"Death is lighter than a feather, duty heavier than a mountain." An ancient proverb which he'd heard his father recount numerous times, before he'd died, serving his people.

His duty. He must fulfill his duty.

Flicker.

He watched her being consumed by flames, heard her scream, smelt the burning flesh and hair. He couldn't move, couldn't look away or ignore her torment, no matter how much he needed to.

Where was he? The Christa, a voice in his mind told him. You are on the Christa.

Who was he? Connor Macfarlane, the voice replied, you are Connor Macfarlane, of Earth. And you are needed.

Flicker.

Needed? What was he needed for?

Flickerflickerflickerflickerflickerflicker...

Flash. An universe of light.

Connor awoke on the floor of the command post. His head hurt, his back hurt, and he was pretty sure that the rest of him hurt too. And he was very, very warm.

Picking himself up, he noticed Rosie, turned an incredibly dark red, crouched next to her post. She seemed to be in a deep concentration. He thought better of disturbing her, and looked at his own console.

They were almost in the star's corona.

"Oh, no..." He started trying various controls. No response. Major systems were fried, including internal communications, hyperdrive, maneuvering and a good part of life support. He hadn't been particularly apt at engineering, but what Cat had taught him during their voyages on their Christa had stuck with him.

"Probably a major electromagnetic pulse." He said quietly, so as not to bother Rosie, "still, how could the ship not have vapourized from the heat? Even Rosie isn't that powerful..."

Shields.

Sprinting over to tactical, he wiped his stinging sweat from his eyes. No blood. Well, something to be glad for. The shields were all but gone. We're out of hyperspace, though... That disturbance must have knocked us out...

Suddenly, the ship bucked, coming to a halt. Connor was tossed off the platform, and Rosie snapped out of her concentration. Getting to his feet, Connor instructed the computer.

"Screen on."

The Christa complied, sluggishly, a static-filled image appearing on the fore wall. The image scrolled from various angles, until it settled onto a large, grey ship, all hard lines and sharp angles, pulling the Christa away from the star with a tractor beam. A red light blinked on Rosie's station.

"Message from the other ship." Rosie's voice wavered.

"Uh, show it."

The image of the ship swirled into the face and shoulders of a human woman, with streaks of grey in her raven-black hair. She was in uniform, grey, with various patches visible on the coat.

Stardogs.

"This is UPP sentry ship Olivaw to unidentified vessel. You have entered Coreworld space without proper authorization, using an illegal hyperspace route. Stand down and prepare to be boarded."

The image swirled back to a wall.

"Well," the cheer returned to Rosie's voice, "I'm sure she's actually a very nice person."

The landing bay was in total disarray from the Christa's out-of-control spin. Rosie had been sent to locate the other members of the crew, while Connor met the incoming Stardogs, hoping to deflect their wrath.

He'd donned a hastily-grabbed replacement coat for his Starcademy uniform, hoping to avoid questions about his non-standard colour tones. At least, non-standard here. Sometimes he wished he was home. Sometimes.

And what was with this talk of proper authorization for accessing star systems? The UPP he knew didn't regulate who went where, they hadn't had any enemies in over a century. Not since the Spung were...

The Stardog shuttle completed a precision landing that made Harlan look like a student driver. The gangplank swung down, air seals opening, recycled air spilling out and mixing with the Christa's rebreathed air. Three Stardogs marched down the plank, with the same military precision that marked the landing. He recognized the leader as the woman from the message. Her badges and pins marked her as a captain.

She stepped forward, saluted him briskly.

"I'm Captain Lise Daneel of the Olivaw. And you are?"

"Uh," he gave a vague salute, "former cadet Connor Macfarlane, of the Christa." He noticed all three Stardogs' expressions flash with surprise. "Um, our commander is sorry he couldn't be here, but he's, ah, tied up at the moment."

"And who," Daneel asked, one eyebrow cocked, "is your commander?"

Connor paused, licking his lips. This was likely to cause an interesting reaction.

"Commander Seth Goddard, ma'am."

"Seth Goddard?" The woman's eyes widened in surprise. "That's impossible. He and his little crew were going to take four more years to return, if at all! Through Spung territory! Why..." Her eyes focused far past Connor as her voice trailed off.

Connor turned, to see Commander Goddard, Thelma, and Miss Davenport entering the landing bay. They looked slightly worse for wear.

"Connor, what's going on here?" Goddard asked, breathlessly.

"We've been stopped, Commander. By Stardogs." Connor gestured towards the boarding party with his head. "We're, uh, violating some sort of security laws by being here."

"This makes no sense..." Goddard replied. "We're still years form UPP controlled space..." He trailed off, as a sigh and a thump sounded behind him. He turned around, to see Davenport lying on the floor, with Rosie bent down over her.

"Great." He said, rolling his eyes. "She fainted."

Harlan woke up sandwiched. He was lying across Radu, on an almost perfect right angle. On top of him, Bova shifted, murmuring something about food. His head was swimming, but at least he wasn't in null-g freefall anymore. Lifting Bova off of himself, he tried to wake up the Uranusian, and was failing.

"Probably easier to get Lazarus up and about." He whispered.

"Hey..." Radu said very softly, barely loud enough to hear. "No need to shout."

Harlan looked over at the Andromedan, who was very slowly getting to his feet. Radu had a nasty lump developing on his forehead, and the side of his face was bruised.

"Man," Harlan whispered, as quietly as he could, "I hope I don't look half as bad as you."

"I bet it's a change from hoping you looked half as good as me..." Radu wore a lopsided grin. Harlan looked at his friend sideways. "Where did that come from? You must have a concussion or something, if you think you're better looking than me. Now, help me with Bova here. We've gotta get to the command post."

Suzee was half-carrying Catalina through the corridors. It wasn't safe to send her, semi-conscious, through the jumptubes, so they had to get to the medlab the long way. Engineering had been trashed by the time the ship had stopped moving, many of the ship's systems were toast. There hadn't been time to check them all, with the Saturnian/human hybrid lying on the ground, in a small pool of her own blood, dying.

It had taken Suzee's mind powers to rouse Cat to the semi-conscious state she was now in, and Suzee couldn't do much more until she had gotten her to medlab, and gotten Rosie down there. She brushed her friend's blood-matted hair out of her face. Cat was getting very pale, her eyes nearly closed.

She didn't have much time.

"Cat," She whispered, her voice strained, near to crying, "we have to hurry. Can you go faster?"

Catalina nodded, and they continued on, as fast as they dared.

The galley was a mess. Food tubes were everywhere, dishes strewn and broken all over the floor. The lights flickered constantly, a sickly fluorescent glow. At the table, Commander Goddard and Captain Daneel were sitting, staring at each other, anger smouldering in their eyes. Connor got the definite feeling that they both knew and didn't particularly like each other.

"That's your story as to how you got here? Some sort of spatial disturbance, sent you hurtling towards a sun four years worth of fast hyperspatial travel away from where you were?" Daneel's voice was icy, edged with disbelief. "How am I supposed to believe that? Maybe you and your kiddie crew went for a jaunt with the Spung, trading secrets with them? Then, maybe they turn on you, sending you and your disabled ship towards that star out there? It would certainly explain the similarities between their new technologies and this thing you're flying in, here."

New technologies? Connor's eyes widened, and he remembered...

The Christa popped out of hyperspace, alongside the biggest ship any of them had ever seen. It was at least nine miles long, a massive, green structure formed of three pods. The center pod was largest, with two sweeping wings leading off from either side, onto which the side pods were attached. At the rear end of the main pod, a tower-shape jutted away, its surface glowing red. The hull was alive, seemed to be constantly shifting on its frame, and bristling with weapons and sensor pods.

Oh, no...

The perfect sky was gone: It was raining fire. He could see ships; huge, terrible demons in the sky, blacking out the sun. He could smell the cities in flames. He could hear everyone dying. He could feel his Eden being torn apart, by forces unknown.

"What sort of new technologies?" Goddard asked, sternly.

"You should know, Goddard. I'm afraid I'm going to have to arrest you, and your crew, for treason." Her voice sounded almost pleased.

"Treason?!" Davenport was hysterical, and only recently awake. "We're going to be charged with treason?!" She proceeded to faint, again.

This is bad, Connor thought, really, really bad.

In medlab, Radu had stopped off to grab some aspirin. Bova was still unconscious, though the microscanner said he was fine. Radu was searching through the mess, when Thelma came in.

"Thelma!" Radu exclaimed, wincing, "what happened?"

"We have been placed under arrest by Stardogs, Radu." She said, matter-of- factly. "What are you looking for?"

"Uh, aspirin. What do you mean, arrest? Is Elmira okay?"

"Oh. They believe we have been leaking advanced technology and secrets to the Spung. Rosie, wisely, got Elmira to hide in the girls' bunkroom. And, here is the aspirin." She handed him a plastic container, labeled in some alien language.

"Treason? I... I... Isn't that an executable offense?"

Thelma stopped, and her voice took on a worried tone. "I do not know, Radu. The Christa has suffered a great deal of damage. She is... No longer awake, to put it so you can understand. I have had a great deal of difficulty locating objects and people on the ship, and cannot access the main computer's libraries. I believe this is how the Stardogs boarded the ship; she didn't know to stop them."

Just then, Suzee and Catalina limped in.

"Someone help me, here." Suzee demanded, on the verge of tears. "Cat's dying."

"Get her onto the table," Radu said, clearing some debris. "I remember most of my first aid classes... I think I can help." He grabbed the microscanner, waving it over the pale, delirious girl. "She's got a broken leg, two fractured ribs and a nasty concussion. I... I can't do much. Only Rosie knows enough to handle all of this."

Suzee turned to Thelma. "Can you go, bring Rosie here?"

"I will try, Suzee. She is with the Stardogs right now." Thelma turned to go, and was greeted by a blaster. A quickening beep beep beep became one constant noise, showing that the weapon was primed and ready to fire. One of the Stardogs who had boarded the ship stood there, pointing the weapon in Thelma's face.

"Well, looky what I found. You're all under arrest." He looked over at Radu, who was wincing. "Don't like that sound, hunh, Andromedan?" His voice dripped with contempt. "We certainly learned a few things during the war. Try anything funny, and you'll get something much more painful. Or, maybe one of your girlfriends over there will. It figures. You Andromedans are always gonna serve the Spung, even after we liberated you. Now, though, you serve 'em by betraying your allies. I'm sure the UPP high command is going to love hearing about this, the first Andromedan to attend Starcademy, betraying us to the lizards. Probably start a new war, and we'll wipe you out like we should've the first time."

Radu was dumbstruck, staring wide-eyed at the deck.

"Move along, the lot of you." The Stardog said, then to his comlink, "We need a medical team down here, ASAP. One of the kids is dying."

Harlan reached the command post, running at full tilt. He entered the room, gaping at the mess, looking for someone, anyone to be here, even if they were unconscious.

It was empty and incredibly quiet. The usual background noise was absent, and only the sounds of his breathing and heartbeat filled his ears. Quietly, he stepped towards the fore of the deck.

"Screen on."

The response was sluggish, flickering on and off. The swirling stopped to reveal a UPP Sector Patrol cruiser, its primary batteries turned towards the Christa.

"Ummm... What's going on here?" He said to himself.

"We're arresting you." Came an unexpected response from behind him. He turned, and a Stardog officer was standing there, a primed blaster in his right hand. "Please come along quietly. I'd rather not have to harm anyone."

"What are we being arrested for?"

"Treason."

"Treason?!" Harlan was incredulous, moving towards the Stardog, who raised the blaster. "Okay, okay. I'm coming along quietly."

Their steps echoed throughout the empty corridors.

The pain was considerable. Koan tried flexing his arms, his legs, his face, but the pain was all the same. He looked around at the sumptuous quarters Shank had provided for him after his return. They were decidedly non-Spung, designed according to the kind of human decadence which was fashionable amongst the Spung nobility these days. He rather liked it. It seemed fitting, for someone who was soon to be a god.

Except for the mirrors, of course. They had all been destroyed, all by him, so he wouldn't have to look at himself. At home, he had been considered quite handsome, and hadn't had a shortage of female admirers, Suzee included. Now, however, he was a shadow of his former self, burned and ruined. He touched the cold metal plate that covered half of his skull, using his good arm, his flesh arm. They said his hair would grow back, eventually, but not over the plate. He looked at his other arm. It was a Spung cybernetic implant, designed for utility, not looks. It was a bit more massive than his natural arms, but it was agile enough, and suited his purposes. Other than that, and the red crystal viewing device that served as an eye on the side of his face that was plated, his body was merely burned, not shattered beyond repair. He still had days before he would be up and about properly again, not needing the painkillers or a cane. Stupid lizards, he thought, can't even develop a proper regeneration tank. Back home, I'd be fully healed, and unscarred, and would've been out in a day.

He took a sip of water, purified for his biology, and laid back, considering his plans.

Harlan was pacing again. They were still three days from Earth, and Harlan had grown restless long since. Connor was nursing the water drinking pack he'd gotten at dinner, and Radu was laying back, on his cot. Bova was asleep, waking only at mealtimes since the accident on the ship. Just like every day of this trip. As far as they knew, the only person on the ship who hadn't been arrested was Elmira, although she might've been found after they were isolated in the cell.

"Stop pacing, Harlan." Connor said, around his straw. "You're making me dizzy. And I don't think you want me to puke, here in the cell."

"No, I don't. That crud smell bad enough before we eat it, I'd rather not see it half-processed." If any of them noticed their jokes, they didn't show it. A pensive silence fell over them, punctuated by Bova's snoring.

"We can't just lay down and die!" Harlan blurted, suddenly. "Whatever's going on, I doubt we'll have any defense, after they get through the whole ship. They'll probably find a way to turn everything we say against us."

"Some homecoming, huh?" Radu piped in from his cot. "We get back after three years worth of hostile space, weird aliens, and various things trying to shoot us, and now we're going to your homeworld, where our own peoples are going to try to shoot us."

"At least there's symmetry." Bova said, unexpectedly awake. "Man, I'm hungry. I don't want to die on an empty stomach, and they've barely been giving us enough food to feed you guys. I'm gonna starve to death before we get there!"

"Thanks, Bova." Harlan stopped pacing, prompting a sigh of relief from Connor. "You really know how to put things into perspective."

Rosie and Suzee were alone in another cell, just across from the boys'. Cat was still healing up, and they wouldn't put anyone healthy in the cells. Plus, once they discovered Cat's unique state, they'd probably start blood and other sample tests... And if... No, once they were executed, there'd be still more tests... And once they discovered that Suzee wasn't just a human girl with dyed hair...

They couldn't just go along with this. They had to find a way out.

Goddard was handcuffed, in the conference room of the cruiser. Miss Davenport was still in her cell, away from the children, and Thelma, were Captain Daneel to be believed, was being disassembled and studied. Goddard was worried.

"How long did you say there's been open hostilities?" Goddard licked his lips. Daneel had been humouring him, bringing him up to speed on recent galactic events, since he chose to hold to the facts of their trip.

"The Spung began conquering our outer colonies and protectorates three weeks ago. We officially declared war three days after they started the attacks, and so we instituted martial law in all outlying systems. Since then, five star systems have fallen to the Spung, who aren't taking any prisoners. They just destroy everything, burn the planets into the stone age. Very few people get away. And, for now at least, the Andromedans have remained neutral in the conflict, saying it's none of their business. When it comes out that your 'Radu' betrayed the UPP, they'll have to pick a side."

"Either one will cost them." Goddard wasn't asking a question.

"Right. Either their freedom, or their lives. Not much of a choice, really. We're losing this war, Seth. It's projected to be one month before they carve out enough of a wedge in UPP territory to strike at Earth. And we haven't even killed one of their new ships, and not for lack of trying."

This is bad. Goddard thought. Worse than anything before...

Deep inside the bowels of the Christa, Elmira stirred from sleep. She'd heard something. She got up from her makeshift bed, and crept down the corridor. She had her holdout blaster, issued to her by her father for emergencies, out and primed. She moved closer to the shuffling sound, a sound only a living being could make. None of this had been foreseen. It was all falling out of alignment. She turned the corner, and dropped her blaster in shock.

"You!"

The End of Part Twelve: In Light, Darkness

Up Next, Part Thirteen: In Darkness, Light