Chapter Thirteen

“Starship Unprecedented, this is the Recurring Dream awaiting final instruction.”

“Recurring Dream we have you on scanners. Take position on a one-eighty and dock in third place position. You’re our last.”

“No other transports got away?”

“Negative, Recurring Dream. You’re the last.”

The transport glided towards the great oval starship. There were another two transports of similar design already docked in the vessel that would take them to another world but their hull and colour were shaped and painted slightly differently.

The Familee brothers watched. This was, after all, their first space trip and they were quite amazed at the simplicity of the operation. The starship, glowing silver against the sun, seemed to fill the whole of one screen which was showing an external view. Each monitor around Captain Lovo was showing a myriad of different angles, and he was using these visual aids to guide the transport in.

Corii looked over at Yedda and attempted a brief smile, which Yedda returned before looking down on his sister. He pushed the long hair from her eyes and smiled as she stirred in her sleep. He envied her the chance to rest.

“Three... two... one... docking achieved. Thank you, Unprecedented.”

Captain Lovo started flicking switches and pressing studs and the engines of the transport died so that only a barely audible hum could be heard.

“Are you the only one on this ship?” Corii asked.

Lovo spun his seat, his body trying to drift from the restraining harness but failing. He tightened the straps and shook his head. “No, there’s Gordol in the engine room and Echut is my second. You won’t see them until we reach the safe world.”

“And where exactly are we going?” Yedda asked with an air of command. Corii looked over at him, wondering what the problem was. Yedda sometimes tried to use his bloodline influence on people but he could not see why he was getting haughty now.

“To Baron Ash, planet Nebrassa. He is a great supporter of your father and will welcome you in his walls. Well, so Arkin tells me.”

“Arkin must tell you a lot,” Yedda appeared annoyed that a lowly transport captain should be informed of the escape plans of a House noble.

Lovo noticed this and just smiled crookedly, the smile that had welcomed the refugees on his ship. “We trained, me, him and my brother, to fight in the Prime Lord’s Guard. You learn to trust someone you can place your life in the hands of.”

Corii interjected, seeing Yedda, who was obviously tired and upset, building up for a retort. “I never knew Arkin was classically trained. What happened?”

After flipping two more switches to bring up a view of the outside, Lovo shrugged. “We failed to qualify for the final training program. I went into business,” Lovo’s hands spread to encompass the ship around him, “Arkin joined House Familee and my brother became a mercenary. I haven’t seen my brother for years, but me and Arkin like to keep in touch. He’s a good man.”

Corii nodded and kept silent. He didn’t want to say anything about how he had last seen Arkin; running down a corridor to take on a squad of Janos troopers with a sword and wrist shield.

“Recurring Dream, this is Unprecedented. We are about to jump. Four minutes.”

The communication broke with a hiss, and Lovo just angled the exterior view to see directly ahead. Sensors and readouts showed the Starship was moving, pushing the string of transports ahead of it. Another monitor showed an intense build up of energy.

“Jump?” Corii asked, frowning.

Lovo pointed to the screen which was showing the energy build up. “We’re about to make a jump to hyperspace.”

“How long will that take?”

“Well, when hit it should take, oh, nine hours. Then we’ll be in House Ash territory.”

“Nine hours? But Nebrassa is a long way from here!” Corii was amazed again. He had done stellarcartography, and the mind-twisting distances between planets had always confounded him. How could the Ki-Ki Sector prosper so much when the planets were so far apart?

“It doesn’t matter. When we jump over it won’t matter.”

Yedda had taken an interest. “How does it work?”

“Beats me. The Dream can jump but taking a registered vessel will cover our tracks. We don’t want to be followed.”

Yedda had now forgotten his aloof attitude and was nodding with understanding. Lovo was pleased that he had managed to avoid a confrontation with the noble, not wanting to create friction aboard his ship. He could understand what the men had gone through, he had been in situations himself where loved ones had been lost, and wanted to make sure that everything went smoothly. His little explanation about the jump was more to keep their minds elsewhere than actually try to help them understand. He knew that the journey between worlds was a thousand times more complicated than even he was aware, but this simple explanation would do.

Ahead, space seemed to be twisting, as if all the stars to the fore were being sucked into a huge hole. The starship continued on into the long streaks of stars. Then, a huge circle expanded and they were in the swirling tunnel of hyperspace.

The brothers watched in fascination as the external cameras showed the spectacle.

Soon after, they fell into silence and then into a disturbed sleep.

Lovo stopped a chronometer he had activated as they had entered the tunnel. “We’re here,” he said with a smile. “In an hour and a half from now we’ll be going into orbit over Nebrassa.”

Corii was taking a deep breath, mixed with a smile. The journey from Chinngard to Nebrassa had only taken nine hours and twenty minutes! He shook his head for the umpteenth time. He had never paid much attention in class when they were explaining the dynamics of space travel. He couldn’t understand why people were so interested about it. Now he knew.

The communicator buzzed. “Recurring Dream, you are cleared to detach. Have a safe journey.”

“Thank you, Unprecedented. I’m transmitting the credits to your ship’s account now. See you soon.”

The Recurring Dream seemed to hum back to life. On the outside of its hull, lights started to grow with intensity and flash. The whole craft then shook as it disconnected from the next transport. As soon as it was at a safe distance to fire it’s main engine, the heart of the vessel stirred and the lower section spewed ionised gas. The ship began its journey to Nebrassa.

As the craft travelled the distance between the starship and the planet, the brothers were able to relax for the first time since they had fled their home. Each of them was quiet, lost in their own thoughts as to what the future would hold.

They were thinking of home. How it must look now. Was it standing but scarred? Was it nothing but a smoking ruin, ready to be rebuilt in the image of its conquerors?

Yedda shuddered as he thought of Janos. He knew ecology, how creatures adapted to suit the environment around them. The Janos seemed to have taken on the form of the world they inhabited, dry and harsh.

Janos had always been a threat, especially to Chinngard. All in the Setnin and Ki-Ki Sector knew that. It could not go unpunished. The Prime Lord himself would have to step in, now, since it concerned his daughter and his grandchildren.

But Corii was thinking the same thoughts, and he knew that the Prime Lord would be slow to respond. Yes, he had lost his daughter to the invasion, but her lineage within the Kreaiden bloodline had been struck from the records after she had defied her father’s wishes and married the Baron Pede Familee, before Chinngard had asked to join the Ki-Ki Sector. The only Baron who dared speak out against the Prime Lord. Surely the Prime Lord would retaliate on moral grounds, if nothing else. It was his daughter, after all.

On the other hand, House Familee had been crushed, which was something the Prime Lord had always wanted to see. Yedda could imagine why Janos had invaded, to take revenge on their failed invasion of Chinngard all those years ago, before he was born. Corii could not believe the Prime Lord would intervene. Their grandfather had always seen the triplets as the children of Familee and not his blood relatives.

Triplets.

A brother gone.

A father dead.

A mother lying with him.

A sister sick with some form of affliction unimaginable.

The brothers looked at each other, and Yedda said the words they had both been thinking.

“What are we to do, brother?”

Captain Lovo kept his eyes on his instruments and tried his best to ignore the silence behind him.