Part Six: Prophecy

Goddard burst onto the command post, only to find Thelma already there, and the rest of the crew at their posts. Checking at the viewscreen, he saw a Spung Defense Cruiser, a smaller version of the immense Killcruisers.

"What do we do, Commander?" Harlan asked.

"We fight." Goddard replied, moving over to stand next to the helm.

"We can't fight." Radu said, from his post. "We're unarmed."

"Not anymore."

The atmosphere in the command post grew even more serious, as the though of fighting back against the Spung, with real weapons, sunk in.

"Whatever we're gonna do, we'd better do it now." Bova piped up.

The Defense Cruiser had powered up its weapons, and was tracking the Christa, ready to fire.

"Cat, power up weapons." Goddard ordered.

As the weapons came online, there was a subtle change in the background noise of the Christa, a slight hum that wasn't there before.

The hum made them all aware. There is no going back, now...

The Spung vessel fired. The shot glanced off the shields, doing little damage.

"Fire."

A bolt of white light lanced from the nose of the Christa, striking the Spung Defense Cruiser through its central axis. The Spung ship started disintegrating, drifting away.

It was over.

Goddard was old hat at stuff like this. He'd been in the war, after all. But, the others... He looked at them, into their eyes.

It's gone, he thought, the last of innocence. No going back.

"Let's keep going, team. We did what we had to, now let's head for home."

The alarms started blaring.

"Commander, a Spung Killcruiser has emerged from hyperspace directly behind us..." Thelma began. "They are powering up weapons..."

"Hang on!"

The Gate was as cold as ice when they contacted it. It froze down to the core, to their very souls. And, for a brief instant, in the cold, there was a warmth, of comfort, of home, of love...

And then, they were back into reality.

They were in the cargo bay of the Christa, and it was a mess. Boxes and barrels were all over the place, spare parts and nonperishable foods...

"Man, this place is a mess..." Connor was the frst to speak.

The three quickly separated, looking around the cargo bay. After a few moments, Cat called out:

"I found Thelma!"

Connor and Suzee rushed over to where she was. When they got there, they found Cat crouching down net to Thelma... Or, rather, what was left of her.

Thelma's legs and arms were almost totally destroyed, as was much of her lower body. Cat was trying to reactivate her, but it seemed a lost cause, until Thelma started talking...

"Brrrrrrt... Don't...G-g-go into the rest of... Ga ga ga... The ship..." Thelma stopped talking, just for a moment, "No atmosphere... Brrrrrrrrrt... Hull breach..."

Thelma went quiet.

"I... I can't fix her. She's gone." Cat said, almost crying.

They had a moment of silence for the android, who they left behind as they continued their search of the cargo bay. Then Connor found some EVA suits.

"We should check for other survivors." He suggested, and the others accepted the idea.

They suited up, and moved to the cargo bay doors.

"Be careful," Suzee said, through the suit radios. "We'll be pulled out of here pretty quick."

As the doors opened, she was proven correct. They were sucked out by the evacuating air from the cargo bay, into the vaccuum of the rest of the ship.

There was no light in the rest of the ship, no power, the corridors were dark and without gravity. They broke their momentum against the far wall, hanging stationary next to the wall.

"We need a plan," Connor remarked.

"Alright, let's split up." Catalina suggested.

After a few minutes, they came up with a plan. Connor would go to the crew sections, the bunkrooms and the galley; Catalina would go to engineering; and Suzee to the command post.

So, they all headed off various corridors, without looking back.

Catalina reached the engineering decks quickly. It was as dead here as the rest of the corridors. None of the main power systems were online, only some of the auxiliaries for sealed portions of the ship. Most of the readouts and screens were dark, and parts of the area bore carbon-scoring, the marks of energy weapon fire.

'This is hopeless." She said.

Connor floated gently along the wall of the corridor. There was a disturbing peacefulness to the blasted, airless corridors. After a few minutes of floating in the crew sections, he found an open door.

Floating inside, he was in the boys' bunkroom. The room was completely trashed, with various object floating about the room. At the far side, he saw two larger figures.

Moving closer, he could tell that one of them has been a Spung warrior. After a moment's examination, the identity of the other figure was obvious.

It was Radu.

"Oh, man."

The two bodies hung limply in the room, like puppets whose strings had been cut. Lifeless, with expressions of terror on their faces and the slight bloating of a body in zero pressure.

"Oh, man." He repeated, shock heavy in his voice.

He turned on his communicator.

"Uh, I found somebody. Dead. Whatever happened, there were Spung here, and they were all caught by surprise when the hull blew."

There was no response from either girl, except for a slowed, shallow breathing from Suzee's side.

"Is something wrong?" He asked.

In response, Suzee screamed.

Suzee entered the command post hesitantly, knowing full well that anyone who'd been on it was dead. They had been so for hours, if her calculations were accurate.

That's quite an assumption, a voice in her head said. It was her voice, of that she'd no doubt, but it had a malicious edge to it that her voice never had.

Don't be so sure. You're just so innocent and pure, eh?

Leave me alone, she said in her own mind, I don't need this right now.

Oh, I think you do, the voice retoted, I think you really do.

Suzee tried to continue searching the command post, but the voice kept taunting her, examining her faults and mistakes in gory detail, its remarks harsh and biting.

There were bodies floating in the command post. Commander Goddard, Harlan, Bova. And one other she had to get closer to see...

She found herself looking into her own dead face. She could hear Connor saying something, through the communicators, but it seemed so far off. And the voice was taunting her again. It seemed like her corpse's mouth was moving, like it was what was saying these things.

Connor was kind to you, the voice went on, he saved your life. And how will you repay him? Play games with his mind and affections, use him, like you always do? You even earned what you got from Koan, treating one of your old friends like that. Why...

It was all too much for her. She let out all her pain, frustration and anger in one long scream, then faded to black.

Aboard the Spung Killcruiser Rha'Shank, there was much to celebrate. The ship and crew which had plagued Spung activities for the last three years, and had proven to be a particular thorn to Warlord Shank, were now their captives. Those warriors not on duty were quite rowdy, most of them drunk. And they were on their way home.

The crew of the Christa were in a communal cell, A single, large room with an adjoining washroom; it was a cell specifically designed for Earthers.

They sat in the cell for hours, waiting to be brought a meal, when there was the sound of massive locks opening, and the three-inch thick cell door slid open. Into the cell stepped not a Spung, but a young man, dressed in tight fitting clothing. As he stepped into the area on the large central light of the cell, they could see his features. They were fairly sharp, his blue eyes set slightly wider than average. His hair was a very dark brown, almost a black, streaked at the temples and back with bright, vibrant colours. Orange at the back, with a streak of green at one temple, and of yellow at the other. He looked over the prisoners, his gaze cold and imperious.

"I trust you find these accomadations... Suitable?" He asked, wryly.

The crew all stared at him. His hair was so similar to Suzee's, and his clothing appeared to be made of the same material, and was of the same style, as that which she'd worn upon first arriving in their dimension...

"Ah, you recognize my clothing, perhaps? I suppose I should tell you... Your friend, Suzee, her companion Catalina, and that... Connor fellow, won't be returning."

Harlan rose quickly, in a fit of rage.

"What'd you do with Cat and Suzee?" He asked, grabbing Koan by the collar.

Rage flashed across Koan's face, and he slipped into Harlan's mind. He forced the Earther to let him go, and sat him down.

Letting Harlan go, he continued.

"I did nothing to them. They, regrettably, left into the dangerous wilderness of Yensid. A terrible idea, that. I was just there earlier today. Suzee's family is quite grief- stricken. It's such a shame.

"But, I assure you, that the same fate does not lie for you. No, Warlord Shank needs you alive, for matters of... Prophecy."

Goddard looked up at him.

"What do you mean 'prophecy'?"

"You'll find out, soon enough. Now, I must go. We will speak again before we reach the Spung homeworld. It will still be a day or so."

With a cold smile, Koan left the cell.

"Commander, he had something to do with Cat and Suzee being lost!" Harlan said, over-excited. "I know it!"

"He could've been lying, Mister Band. No, we'll find out, as he said, soon enough."

Connor, Cat and Suzee were in the landing bay, the last secure area of the ship. Cat had found Suzee and brought her here, instructing Connor to meet them.

There they were, an airlock on either side between them and hard vaccum, and they'd removed their EVA suits.

"I hope Suzee comes to soon," Connor sighed, "we can be pretty sure that this isn't the reality we were after..."

"Yeah. Well, when we get back, what are you gonna do?"

"I don't know... I can't go back to my own reality, and there really isn't anyhting for me there. I guess... I guess I'll just stay with you guys. Me and the Cat from my reality, that is."

"Cat from your reality? That'll be interesting. I'll be beside myself!"

"Heh, yeah. Of course, you'll probably find her to be a little different from you."

"How do you mean?"

"Well, uh, we didn't exactly have a very fun life back in our own reality. She was my foster sister, and when we were aboard our Christa, we lost most of our friends. Radu wasn't exactly a very nice person, the Commander and Miss Davenport decided to stay on some Eden-like planet we found, and Bova and Rosie were lost in a Starling when we were transported across realities..."

"Oh, I'm so sorry..." She reached out, to put a hand on his shoulder.

"Nah, it's okay." He shyed away. "I'm used to pain. I closed myself off. It's sort of a defense mechanism."

"So, you don't let anyone inside? No one close?"

"No," he said, looking down at the unconscious Suzee, "nobody at all."

Their arrival at the Spung homeworld was expected. Warlord Shank was greeted as the hero, returned from battle. The prisoners were led off the shuttles in chains. In front of the prisoners, next to Shank, walked the Yensidian Traitor, Koan.

"There, you see? The prophecy cannot come to pass, now."

"Warlord Shank is aware of what this means. You have done well. Warlord Shank will see that you are rewarded properly."

Elmira sat at a desk in her room, which was spartan, in the traditional Spung style. She was writing, copying out the great prophecy she'd recently seen. A prophecy about the rise and fall of her own people, a fall brought about by the people she called freinds. But, one part of the prophecy disturbed her...

Where once there was two, there will be one...

She didn't understand it... But she knew the things she'd seen, the massive fleet of Spung ships, using advanced technology, from the Lumanian vessel they'd recently captured in neutral space... She knew that the key to all of this was that girl from Yensid...

"This is all you have written by now, daughter?" Shank asked, over his only child's shoulder.

"This is the bulk of it, father." Elmira responded, sheepishly.

"Well, our allies have ensured that this will not come to pass. Sometimes, prophecy is easy to defeat."

"Of course, father." Elmira had learned to act submissive to her father, to feed him a little of what she saw, meekly, to prevent him from forcing her to give it all up.

She knew better. She knew what Trannik had told her. But she also knew that Radu and the others were imprisoned. There really didn't seem to be any hope.

Koan was worried. The prisoners were testing the limits of their new cell, and the Spung guards found it funny. Koan didn't find it funny: They were important parts of the prophecy, and only by keeping them here, alive, could the prophecy be turned to their benefit...

He hoped that Warlord Shank knew what he was doing...

Suzee came around slowly, taking in the fact that she was in a part of the ship with gravity, light, and air. She saw Connor, sleeping on the floor, and Cat, seemingly on watch.

"Hey, Cat," she said, quietly, "what's going on?"

"You're awake! Great! We can go soon!"

"Yeah, sure... Just let me get myself together, first. And we need to wake up sleeping beauty over there."

"What? Oh, right." She giggled.

There, in the landing bay, the three of them stood, hand in hand, in a circle.

"All right, how do we do this?" Connor asked.

"I... I don't really know." Suzee replied.

"Well, maybe you just hold the image of the place you want to go in your mind..." Catalina put in.

"I don't know... I don't think I can..."

"Don't worry," Connor said, squeezing her hand. "We believe you can."

Suzee was speechless. And Catalina wore a knowing smile.

"I'll try."

Suzee concentrated on the Christa, on her home of two years, of her friends, of their adventures, of how much she wanted to go there and take these two with them...

They all felt like they were being pulled into the pendant...

Then the universe became nothing but light...

The end of Part Six: Prophecy

Up Next, Part Seven: Through Fire and Darkness

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