Dark Echoes - Part 5

The room remained dark except for the running lights of passing ships dropping out of translight near the station, all of which flew so close after slowing to sublight and behaved as though they were completely oblivious to the station's being there, “Have we heard back from them, yet?”

After a long pause, the answer came as, “Not yet, sir. It’s only been about three hours.” ‘Three hours’. . .a lot can happen in that time under these circumstances, especially. He felt a heavy pit in the bottom of his stomach, considering. . .

The one wearing four stars on their high collar, sitting in the tallest, darkest and most cushioned seat took a sip of their darkly colored beverage, set the small glass on its coaster, then turned to their right and looked out of the view windows at the stars in the deepest visible depth of the vacuum—“When was the last contact?” the question came darkly.

“Twenty-two-hundred. Several of them have letters from their families that are a few days old that they haven’t read yet.”

“If they’re in stealth mode—and they likely are—even the Voyager would be lucky to detect them.” A third voice said. The mission objective rolled around the back of his mind like a hot coal. If they don’t succeed. . .

A corpsman entered the room, set a handheld in front of the four-star and then sharply left the room.

The four-star picked up the handheld, thumbed through the contents for several seconds, and then dropped the handheld on the table. He could feel the attention throughout the rest of the room bearing down on him. Regardless, he continued looking out the window into space. “We got another message from them—they made it into deep-sector space.” This news left no comfort. If anything, the tension and uneasiness in the room climbed sharply, especially with the four-star. The fact of that crew being comprised of space naval officers and having recognized the risks involved with such tours of duty and what the possible consequences could be of such a tour of duty meant virtually nothing right now.

The four-star leaned into his chair, took a deep breath and then asked, “Is there any chance of getting a message out to them?” yet, he already knew the answer to this frankly redundant question, he reminded himself.

A head turned, “Negative. Their stealth system makes our best reconnaissance. .heck, even our best counterintelligence drones seem like child’s toys by comparison.” Would that be for the better, though? He asked himself. That system was an enormously powerful piece of equipment that most of the more tenured and generally respected captains didn’t even know about. To say nothing about where they got it from. Nah, he silently corrected himself, where it came from is nothing compared to who helped us develop that technology. It was a collaborative engineering project—and Odyssey got the prototype. He reminded himself that a bunch of The Union’s bigger chips was invested in this mission. He still wondered why The Union’s ‘friends’ didn’t carry out this mission instead? The answer came as quickly as the question: that region of space has gone completely-unexplored for decades for a very—long—time. And for very, good, reasons. . . But still, his curiosity in silence piqued, would that system be enough? He sensed the four-star was thinking the same thing.

A subtle, high-pitched chime filled the room; the tension broke slightly, but the relief was short-lived. A female voice in its late 40’s filled the air, “Sir, your guest has arrived,”

The four-star sat upright and turned towards the doors and gestured for the guest to be allowed to enter.

With a touch to the doors’ control panel, the primary entrance doors into the room parted with a subtle mechanical hum. The light from the outside corridor shined into the room. In a blink, a six-foot-even security officer, clean-shaven, wearing a black cap with complete and unmarked body armor, and a stiff, straight face entered first sharply carrying an automatic compact assault rifle with the safety switched on. A dark humanoid shape stood just outside the doorway facing the room; its head was slightly disproportionate to the rest of its body. The shape's front appeared to be blackened out because of the lighting from behind it and the darkness in front of it.

The four-star faced the doorway, “‘Spike’! Please, come in.” 

*****

Make sure to like and follow the official StormTeam Simulations Facebook page for the latest! Keep reading!