| Beyond the Wall of Hope - Dark Shadows |
Back to 'Near and yet Far'
Dark Shadows (31/08/00 )
Son…… please come with me…………
RED GLOWING EYES FOLLOW HIS MOVEMENT, TRIANGULAR SLITS, THAT BURN WITH FIRE AND EVIL. THERE WERE FOUR SETS IN ALL AND THEY FLOATED, DISEMBODIED JUST BEYOND HIS VISION, BUT HE KNEW THEY WERE THERE.
LARGE MECHANICAL MONSTROSITIES MILL ABOUT IN PRECISE MOVEMENTS, AS IF SEARCHING FOR SOMETHING.
They are seeking you, Ty, you must come with me. It was a familiar female voice, but listening to it sapped his strength the more he tried.
BEYOND THE FIELD WHERE THE ROBOTS SEARCHED AND BEHIND A HILL SAT THE BURNED HULK OF A SHIP, A SHUTTLE PERHAPS. NEAR THE RUBBLE SAT AN ESCAPE POD, LARGE ENOUGH FOR SEVERAL PEOPLE. IT HAD APPARENTLY SUFFERED SOME DAMAGE, PROBABLY AFTER EJECTING, SINCE NEITHER THE DROP SHUTES OR STABILIZERS WERE PROPERLY DEPLOYED. AS HE NEARS THE VESSEL A WASH OF PAIN HITS HIM AND TY IS UNABLE TO MOVE FORWARD. THE SCENE SHIFTS AND HE FINDS HIMSELF AWAY FROM THE SHUTTLE.
Ty, please you must come with me……
Mom?
Yes, Ty, please come towards my voice.
I’m so tired mom, I want to rest.
You can rest soon, but you must come with me. You grow weaker the longer you stay this far from yourself.
I can’t mom, there’s too much pain… I want to be with you….
You can be, but not like this. Your hurt, very hurt and you can’t project like this, please come with me….
What about the others, I must find the others………
NOW HE STANDS IN A SCORCHED FIELD NEAR AN OLD BURNED OUT TREE. THE LAST GREEN LEAF FLUTTERS TO THE GROUND AND LIGHTS ON A POOL OF WATER AT THE TREE’S BASE….. NO IT ISN’T WATER, IT IS BLOOD….. A RIPPLE FORMS WHERE THE LEAF LANDS.
The Sleeper must awaken
ALL THE ROBOTS AND THE RED EYES STOP AND STARE AT A LONE HUMAN, AVERAGE IN HEIGHT AND DRESSED IN AN OUTLANDISH UNIFORM.
Oh, sorry wrong dream sequence
Ty, come b…….a……..c…………k…….. The voice grows distant.
Abruptly sitting up and scattering sheets in his wake, Ty gasps, “Whoa, that was weird…..” A wash of vertigo hits him like a freight train, and the darkness washes up to meet him once again.
“I don’t think so, you’re not getting off that easy.”
Just before the darkness consumes him, Ty feels a hypo pressed against his neck, the injection shocks him back into consciousness.
“ooooh, where was that stuff after that bar on Rigel?” The Fox opened an eye and gazed around the room.
With a wry smile the canine doctor quipped, “Same place it always has been, right in the Medical sections…. You should know that, you seem to spend a lot of time in them.”
Grinning Ty shoots back, “Hey now, I have to make sure you doctors are earning your pay and keep you in practice.” His expression hardens, “What happened…. What am I doing in medical?”
“Well, as near as I can make out, we all suffered a massive backlash after our jump into normal space…..”
Interrupting, the major inquired, “Wait, Wykin…. what’s our situation… our location….” He got out of bed, but his legs still wanted to stay there.
“Whoa, hold on there Ty, you’ve been out for seventy-two hours, you’re still weak.”
“Seventy-two hours????!?!?!!! What happened?”
Dr. Wykin sat Ty down, “If you’d let me finish major.”
“Oh, Sorry. Uh, carry on?”
“As I was saying each crew member suffered the effects of a massive sensory and physical backlash. Psychics like your self were out longer, the stronger the psychic the longer they were unconscious. Each crew member suffered the effects of seventy-two hours of constant physical stress without food…”
“Come to think of it, I am rather hungry….” Ty licked his lips.
“As well as the actual amount of time they spent unconscious, due this effect you have been out for an effective six days.”
“Just Psychics…. Wait what about Kailli?”
The Doctor points to the last bed, “she is still out, her psychic defenses are not as strong as yours.”
“Who’s in command?”
“Captain Meilyn, she has been up there for almost seventy hours… she was out the shortest time and has refused to step down until you or Major Kailli were back up.” Wykin fumbled around in a cabinet, “Ah, here eat this…”
The ravenous fox snatched the bar from the Doctor’s hand, nearly taking the hand too. He sniffs the bar, shrugs and scarf’s down the entire thing in one gulp. “Yuck, that’s nasty….. tastes like dirty chalk…..”
“Yes, but its packed with energy and vitamins… another?”
“Uh, sure… I guess it’s an acquired taste.”
As Ty continued to inhale nutrobars, the doctor continued, “You’ll need to spend at least 1 more day in bed to recover adequately…..”
“Not possible, doctor, I have a ship to run and Meilyn needs to be relieved…. Is there something you could give me? A stim, or something?”
The canine frowned, ”I’m not usually in the business of dealing drugs… but try this….” Wykin placed the hypo against Ty’s arm and injected 32cc of SynthStim. “This injection, in conjunction with these stim-patches, should keep you up and running… just long enough to relieve Mei and put say, Alraen in charge. Then its straight back here for rest, ok?”
Tycko grinned, “Sure, as you say Dr. Wykin! I’ll be right back” He lied, No way I’m gonna lay around while this ship is in possible danger!
Wykin knew he was lying, but what could he do…. The minute he turned his back, Ty would try to sneak off…. He decided to only give the major a few stim-patches. “Here take these extra patches, they should last for a little while… just in case the unforeseen happens. Remember, just relieve Mei, send her down here and put Alraen in charge…. Doctor’s orders.”
Tycko took the strips and on his way out stopped at Kailli’s bed, “Doc, take care of her… don’t let her leave until she’s fully recovered!” He exited the room walking firm, when the door closed he stopped and braced himself against the wall. The hall was spinning with each step, he still felt weak, but it was clearing. He carefully made his way to the elevator.
__________________________________________________________________________
MEANWHILE ON THE BRIDGE……
“Pleaze, Captain Meilyn… ya neid to taike a breather, get a little tucker in ya and little snooze never hert a blighter much…”
The she-panther yawned and twirled a ball of blue yarn, she showed no weakness. “Do you speak English or are you making fun of me…. Mate?”
Alraen whistled in the air and seemed to turn red under that black fur. “Beauty, of course I’m spiken anglish! What would I be spiken, bloody german?”
Mei giggled and temporarily let her guard down. Alraen stepped closer a hypo carefully concealed. Geon and Bregan looked at each other nervously.
Mei growled and panther claws extended. “down boy, be a good doggie and sit…. I’m in command, I out rank you, lieutenant and I’m an Alpha Pack member of the dragoons….”
Alraen was just about to make his move when the bridge elevator doors opened.
“At ease, people!” The fox commanded.
Meilyn beamed, “Major!”
“Mei your relieved and thank you, Geon escort her to sickbay… the doctor wants to look her over.”
The cat looked hurt, “but sir, I...”
Ty cut her off, “You’ve been up for seventy hours, get some rest… that’s an order.”
“yes, sir….” She trudged off the bridge with Geon in tow.
Geon mumbled to himself, “Why, me? How come I have to baby sit the Cat?”
As the doors slid closed, Mei grinned impishly, “don’t worry little puppy….. I’ll be gooooooooood.”
“I, that is….. uh, ha ha…. Ummm…” stammered as the door SHHHHKLINK closed.
“Bregan, what’s our status?” Ty made his way to the captain’s chair and sat down hard.
Bregan keyed on the main viewer as he twirled a ball of blue yarn, “Well all ship systems and crew members working fully and all accounted for, however, that is our immediate concern at the moment. Well, now that Ms. Claws is safely on her way to medical, sir.”
“Cats…” Alraen shook his head.
On the viewer was a massive cylinder made of a dark gray metallic substance. It must have measured a mile in length. Several docking rings, ports and tubes jutted out from various locations. Bubble like habitats ringed the top and bottom of the cylinder. The station looked new, but it felt old. Around the midsection and spiraling both up and down its surface was a black luminous material, very organic in composition. The black material looked out of place, almost like a growth.
“What do the scans say?”
“Well, not much… this ship is equipped with only basic sensors… we can read only vague power readings, except at the center of that black mass. Though that is our immediate concern, our primary is our location… 52 parsecs from our last known coordinates.”
Ty’s jaw almost literally hit the deck, “how…. Where…”
“As near as I can determine we are in Local Group Alpha9. As for how, judging from the debris scattered around near us, one or both of the capital starships exploded at the time of our crossover. This caused a massive backlash the rended space and time and cast us 52 parsecs away,” the wolf grinned and shrugged, “er, well that seems the most likely…..uh, situation. It’s all I could come up with on short notice.”
“How are we going to get back.”
“Well the local space in this area is very weak, we can breach the dimension with the jump drive, however….”
The Vulpine looked very worried, “However?”
“Uh, the jump drained all of our fusion cells… we are running on solar and reserves, it’s not enough to jump.”
“Does any of the wreckage have any useful materials, powercells, anything?”
“Negative, its worthless scrap.” He handed Alraen a smooth black pistol, “You dropped this in the confusion…”
Alraen grabbed it quickly and wondered how he could have dropped it, since he was holding it in its holster a minute ago….
Ty watched the station spin, “Hmmm, you said there were power readings in that?”
“Yes, its possible that we could find and jury rig something, but it’s the proverbial ‘Long shot’ and could prove to be very dangerous…. Hey where did these stim-patches come from?”
Ty grabbed them from Bregan’s paw, “Hey, those are mine! I want Winger out in his cypherhawk to scout the area. I’ll put a team together to scout the inside… bring us to that docking ring and prepare to dock. Alraen you have the bridge…. Bregan, come with me…. Let’s do this.”
Bregan nodded, “Aye sir, uh, don’t you think you could use some rest?”
Ty shook his head, “No, I’m great… let’s go”
Both officers entered the turbolift, one slower than the other and both head down towards the ready room.
| Dark Shadows (Foxmage) - 31/08/00 |
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