Chapter 5
Finally, the giant starliner, Aurora came into view. A behemoth of a liner, full of supplies, second wave colonists and equipment. Its silver sides glistened in the harsh, white light of the tugs that hovered around it gigantic bulk, the massive trident of the ISF emblazoned in gold on the side, signifying the three fleets; the military fleet, the colonial fleet and the merchant fleet. As a member of the colonial fleet the Aurora had the central prong of the trident highlighted with a blue outline.
The craft itself was shaped like a giant humpback whale but with the tail replaced by a horizontal rack of ion engines.. At the rear, four gigantic fold stabilisers glowed faintly purple and the ship was surrounded by haze as the superconductors were cooled to optimum temperature. Further fold stabilisers dotted the craft’s surface like purple measles.
These fold stabilisers were designed for use with Krasnikov tubes, giant intersystem motorways that allowed faster than light travel by bending space-time so that the distance between planets within the tube was less than the normal distance between those same planets, so much so that by taking this man-made shortcut, a spacecraft could overtake a beam of light without going faster than the speed of light itself, something that will always be impossible.
Sakara looked out at the blue-green world below him from the window in his room on the Aurora
“Utnosdimittatur.” he whispered to himself, echoing a prayer of the church of life, running a finger over the hidden symbol of the leaf on the inside of his calf, before standing and continuing his prayers.
“Utintelligamus.” he whispered, touching the tattoo of a question mark on the palm of his right hand. “Utnosparatosesse.” tracing the two diagonal scars on the inside of his forearms.
Technically to be a member of more than one church was illegal but many were members of two, and the government turned a blind eye on it, but to be a member of three churches, that was different. If he was found out, he would be imprisoned and fined, and all three emblems removed by force, but he had not wished for entrance into the church of blood and although he agreed with many of their beliefs, he had chosen the church of life to be his second religion, his other church being the church of answers.
In her cabin, Lara set the privacy lock on her door and crashed on her bed, the ride had been an hour of constant fending off of advances as the men were urged on by their fellows, many who had already failed, to get out with her, one was so insistent that she had rendered him unconscious out of annoyance, but even that did not deter the others.
She pulled herself up and gazed out the window at the blue-green world below her, touching the symbol of a leaf on her forearm and praying for forgiveness for all the damage mankind had caused.
DavridTelod looked out at the blue-green world he had fought to defend against so many threats, the Vortron, rebellions, and hundreds of unrecorded incidents against alien peoples.
“We gamble our lives and the future of our empire for ten more worlds.” he breathed to the darkness. “We kill a thousand people before we can even begin the testing of a weapon. We make deals with foes that could easily destroy us if they were given the chance, and we make deals with them to give them that chance. May I be forgiven for what I must do, For I must do what I am ordered not what I chose. And when I rise to the world beyond, may it be known that I do not stand beside those who have doomed us, but in order to save what few lives I can, I must. One tired old soldier cannot stop the darkness that is to come, cannot turn aside his superiors from their folly. If one person other than the subject survives this, I will be pleased, and surprised.”
He turned at a sound behind him and saw the tactician enter the room.
She looked at him in surprise and he realised that he was crying for the innocent lives that would be lost for no real reason.
“Are you alright?” she asked.
“It has been too long since I have left,” he lied “The last time I stood on a spacecraft looking down at the Earth I saw it in flames, surrounded by the last remnants of the Vortron empire in a last ditch attempt to cripple us and take us down with them.” This was also a lie and he turned from the innocent girl who would sooner or later die, either on the world of ice they were headed for or in the war that was to come. He did not trust their new ‘allies’ and having fought them, he did not trust in the Terran empire’s ability to defeat them as they had the Vortron.
The Aurora finally began moving at eight thirty three after a convict was brought on board for transport to the courts on Empyrion, A military cruiser waited for him in deep space for the last leg of his journey.
At nine twenty five, fully loaded and stocked for the journey to Exlixia, the starlinerAurora entered the Krasnikov tube, its stabilisers activated, glowing bright purple in the blackness of space before the space around the craft rippled as if there was a heat haze and the behemoth vanished.
It was a week before it was realised that it never reached Exlixia, and another before the first pieces of wreckage were found, three days after that one survivor was found on an abandoned military cruiser, along with two human bodies other than those of the crew. No more information was ever released until it was too late.