CH 08 Dust Cloud

CH 7: DUST CLOUD

The Thauran now known as Red Dragon cursed at the Situation and cursed his Sensor Operator."You said you detected the Silver Streak in Orbit. Where is it?" "I swear to you it was there one second and now it's gone. I think she went over the Pole. Adjusting for magnetic interference now." "What a worthless idiot are you? Is she there or not?" "No Captain I cannot detect her ship anywhere in the system, maybe our Sensors were damaged." "Of course your sensors are damaged. She can't simply disappear, get them fixed now!" "Yes, Dragon." The irritated pirate captain tried to calm down. "Now let's sort things out. Hail the Intruder first." The face of the Orkh appeared on his viewer and he went straight to the situation. "We are buried underneath whatever this thing is. Shields are gone, the Hull is holding, but my Engineer says that thing is feeding on the metal. Our estimate is that we can survive for a few hours at best and then the hull is dissolved. As soon as you help us get out of here, we might be able to jury-rig her with spare parts for a limb back home. " "I call you right back. I need to talk to the others as well." The Bloody Mary was next. Crimson Curse was furious. "I am going to kill that stupid Meateater. It was him who fired on those crab symbiotes and agitated that planet covering organism." "How is your status?" "I am still on the Surface but I managed to get the Ship into the Ocean. The thing hasn't followed us into the water. We lost a few hull plates and one Enticer module is bent out of alignment but I think we can fix that within a day or so. The Refinery is scattered all over and we are trying to gather the pieces." "Alright, stay put." The Red Dragon waved at his Communication equipment operator. "Now get me the Puup." Brathering also responded right away. "No Damage here, just lost four of my crew working on the refinery. I think I scattered it a bit as I lifted off and toasted them in the process." He acknowledged, cut the Puup off and commanded. "Now get me the Silver Streak." "Sorry Captain I am unable to raise her. She might still be buried under that thing. Since our sensors are damaged who knows what that Bulfong thought he saw." The Scanner operator, a Togar extended his claws and threatened the beardless Kermac at the Comm Board. "I will rip you to pieces!" "Cut it out you two! Or I kill you both! Meateater has now lots of Crew who wants to come with us! Now find that Silver Streak. If she is buried we burn her out. There is plenty of treasure in that ship that makes it worth burning the entire planet to ashes!"

--""--

Circuit came on the bridge and positioned himself before me. "All shields are operational again. She and Narth have fixed and reset the Janus Device and we are the Karthanian once again. That Landing strut is back in shape in about two hours. Our real hull doesn't even have a scratch, captain. Tyron Suit who was still on me said. "That armor of this formidable ship is indeed quite advanced and if we add self-repair capability to it is better than Seenian armor. Your sensors remain to appear to be quite rudimentary and I think we should change that." Circuit immediately responded."You are one arrogant sack of molecule shifting matter, my hollow friend. Our Neutronium coated hull cannot be repaired with nanites. The coating is the densest matter known to Union science." "I am not hollow now, I am covering the shape of our Captain, a very nice shape if I understand Derek Simmon and a few of my friends correctly." I felt somewhat embarrassed. "What are you discussing in those lower desks?" "Only the best, Captain." Circuit was adding very fast and then he said."Union sensor technology is quite advanced, we are hampered by the fact that we simulating an old clunker." "We could scale up my sensors, no one below Tech ten would even know we use them." I was certain the suit could not see my smile while being worn. "Well, you two work on that. Now let us get back to that planet. We need to explain our disappearance convincingly" SHIP said."The Silver Streak is only a simulation. We have the 'Elfen Cloak' tech and can fully cloak. It won't mask regular engine emissions, but that won't be a problem with TransDim gravimetric." "You can do that?" "Yes, you all have been briefed on my equipment, back on Richter base." "I don't think we covered all the marvelous equipment." I said and then agitated I added."We could have simply cloaked in Orbit." "You never asked or gave me a chance to suggest, but your solution was quite brilliant, Captain." "I am glad you approve, SHIP." "Now work with Narth and get that cloak going." "Aye, Captain." "Starman Suit, do you really think we could scale up your sensors. Being forced to fly half blind is one of the biggest limitations we have." "Yes I think that would be possible, I have some preliminary ideas. I know I am a security officer first, but can I assist Circuit with the landing strut?" "Of course to right ahead." A robot stomped onto the bridge and the Suit separated itself from me, taking possession of the robot body again. "Starman Suit?" "Yes, Captain?" "Please next time you separate from me, wait till while we are in private. This is the second time I am in the buff in front of everyone!" "Oh, I apologize, I had no idea this was a problem." "I think Circuit needs to explain why we humans decide to wear clothing." I glared at the others." Go ahead and laugh. I know Har Hi is already biting his lip very hard and trying not to burst." Suit sounded distraught."I truly am sorry. Being a garment myself, I did not make the connection. Seenians wore garments other than battle suits as well." Shea handed me a science officer lab coat, thankfully covering up I left the Bridge. "I will be right back."

--""-- The cloak worked and we slipped back into orbit, well almost. In order to cloak a ship-sized object in space, reflected photons were the least problem, the biggest one was the constant generated heat that had to be bled into the near vacuum of space, then there was the particle stream that provided the thrust, it, of course, left a trail. While the Tigershark could accelerate by projecting a gravitational singularity before the ship and thus continuously pull it towards it and thus not leave a particle stream, the excessive heat had to be funneled into hyperspace, a process which was not entirely tested nor working flawlessly. Thankfully the thermal radiation that was not transferred into hyperspace and trailed behind us was minuscule and hopefully not detected. Shea confirmed the Sensor rays of the other two ships went right through us without sensing anything. Narth said."Ensign Fivcheer made his sensor operator believe he fixed his malfunctioning Sensors." Har-Hi looked up from his readouts."Our comm department has analyzed and consolidated the pirates' transmissions. All, but one of the pirates managed to escape that continent-sized blanket creature, several suffered light to medium damage. There were several casualties." He tapped the info bubble to highlight another part of the report he had received. "The pirate captain Meateater and the Intruder received the brunt of the creatures attack. Crimson Curse believes it was Meateater firing on the crab creatures caused the reaction and the mayhem in the first place. They managed to get him out of under that living carpet. " Hans had been joined by Lt. Senhadjii and they both had their heads together whispering and going over signal data so it appeared.Lt.d then Lt. Neugruber then said."Captain, we have completed our assessment too. Meateater hopes our shields are still damaged. He was closest to us and he has witnessed our struggle, while he too was fighting the creature, and now plans to attack us." Hans looked at a projection of the Intruder and said."His ship sustained heavy damage and is no longer able to translight. He obtained spare shield parts from Captain Basoro. He wants to lure us close, then fire upon us, because he thinks we have no shields. So he can force us to surrender and take possession of the Silver Streak. The others will assist him if they think he succeeds." "Alright, that gives us a chance to take one out of the equation. Narth can you simulate damage on our Janus image the Janus fast?" "Yes I think so, with SHIPS help I can display some damage, Shea's image manipulation application from our Dolbarian adventure is awesome." I gave my fiance a thankful smile and explained. "I want them to be able to shoot at us once, then we turn on shields and that gives me a legitime excuse to retaliate." We waited for them to be out of a direct line of sight and SHIP turned our marvelous cloak off. "Elfi open me a general channel on Myon." She made the ok sign with her left and gave me the go signal. "Silver Streak calling anyone able to receive. We are testing our Communications Equipment, is it working again?" "Ah, there you are, Black Velvet. We were already wondering where you ended up. So you did manage to get off the planet after all. Meateater was convinced he saw getting away. Our Sensors didn't pick up anything. Any serious damage?" "Only minor. Our shields are still down and we are fixing those." He gave me a short report and told me the situation and added. "We burned an area clean and secured the Intruder. However, the organism is as big as the continent and there is more matter than we could destroy with the energy available. We think it might attack again." As he spoke the damaged Intruder appeared, from behind the Red Dragon, under shields firing Forced Energy projectors at us. Simultaneous he spoke into the open channel." Captain Velvet, you have no shields. My next shots will vaporize your bridge and your weapons. You can, however, surrender and land. I take over your ship and guarantee your crew will have a chance to work for me. Refuse and we all will destroy you." "You false bastard. I thought we were all in this together. Are you in with this Red Dragon?" "Not yet Velvet, this is a private matter between you and him. He is desperate I can't blame him. Whoever comes out on top comes along." "You guarantee the safety of my crew?" "I will talk to Captain Meateater and I will take some aboard." "Alright, I will land." Shaka took the ship down closely followed by the Meateater, and the rest of the pirates not far behind. We too landed in the water this time. The intruder was just about to land as well. "Mao, shields. Target the Meateater's weapons and shield generators and cut his remaining landing gear. Then pound him with Techstop." "Shields up. Firing now!" "Elfi put me back their channel." She made a sign that I was on. "Looks like my shields are back just in time. They weren't as badly damaged as thought." I put some anger in my voice. "Now, I am going to deal with this scum, once and for all. I had just about enough! Anyone interfering will find out what I took from Duke." I was certain most of them knew about the rumor that the Duke had Loki torpedoes and all of them knew there was nothing they could do to escape a real Loki torpedo that close. Narth had an amused tone in his voice."The Red Dragon just found out that his Seenian shields do not come on." It was the Red Dragon who responded. "As I said it is a private matter, between you and Meateater." I cut transmissions and said."Hans, take our marines and all members of the container kick teams we are going to board the Intruder and arrest those who surrender and terminate who doesn't. Then we plunder that ship in pirate fashion." I got up and added."Mao, you have permission to use Lokis on all but the Red Dragon if they interfere. Elfi have you prepared the doctored visuals?" "Yes, Captain, SHIP, TheOther and I did with lots of input from Mao, who loves the sickest gory horror virtus." "As soon as we are over there play it on our channels and use easy to hack codes keys as discussed." "It's  ready Captain."

--""--

Red Dragon watched as a small army emerged from the Silver Streak rushed and flew over to the damaged Intruder and boarding her. His Comm Officer, the beardless Kermac said. "Captain I managed to break into Velvets command channel. She has a visual and audio feed going back to her ship." "Put it on." He and his bridge crew saw what a helmet cam of one of the boarders recorded. Black Velvet lead the boarding team herself, in her black outfit with a Nul Froth Caster in her left fist and a boarding ax in her right. She was like a banshee of legend let loose. She was shielded to her left by a real Y'All and to the left by a Nul. Who made sure nothing stopped her while she was dismembering and torturing the crew of the Intruder in the most brutal and inhuman way they had ever witnessed. She showed no mercy even to those surrendering. Meateater was the closest thing he had to a friend and to see him tortured like this for the codes of his ships computronics in such a gruesome manner was disturbing even to him. As she finally gouged the eyes out and ripped the throat from the already bleeding and mortally wounded captain, he almost threw up and looked away. Now Basoro called him. "We managed to get into her Comm Traffic. Do you want to see what she does?" "No, I just did!" "And I was almost going along with Meateater's plan. She toyed with you again. Her shields weren't as badly damaged as she made us believe." Now Sandovahl chimed in."I never saw anything like that. Hell has no fury like her." Lia Bassett joined the conference call. "I did not think she would be that vicious. But then that just confirms all the reports we heard." Captain Carrhrh already listening from the start said. "I've seen her fight in the arena. She is a savage beast." "I won't double cross her that is clear." The Jooltar Basoro chimed in. "I was always decent to my prey. Seeing what she does I think she is even worse than you Red Dragon." Dragon leaned back. He had lost his Celtest shields. They simply didn't activate and his engineer, of course, could not even begin to guess why. He was certain Velvet had the Loki torpedoes from the Duke and her threat to use them was not a bluff; she had become a serious threat. Only Shuputz had any chance to survive a direct hit in his Destroyer. He wanted to kill that woman and take that ship from her, but he knew that this was now more wishful thinking than ever and he had to be very smart about that near the end. He didn't want her to find the depot with him. How to get rid of her close before the target was more of a problem than he realized, now with his Celtest tech inoperable. Leaving her behind was also no option. He had committed to the trek and she could simply follow them. Besides he really needed her now since Meateater was gone. The first fuel stop and they already lost one ship. Things weren't going all that smooth at all.

--""-- I cringed in my seat as I watched the doctored recording."By Odin that is the most gruesome gory thing I ever have seen." Elfi turned it off. "Don't blame me. Mao added details from some of the worst and even some illegal Slasher Virtu Shows, he loves that stuff." Mao grinned sheepishly. "I just like horror Virtus. I agree maybe it was a little too much." Narth said. "The human psyche is perhaps the greatest enigma of this universe. That such Virtus find a ready audience is really fascinating." Then he added."But your plan worked. The remaining pirates did hack into the stream and some really fear you know. They won't be as easily persuaded by Red Dragon to do anything against you as before." "That was the idea. Now Meateater and those who gave up are in Stasis?" Hans responded. "Yes, 54 pirates have safely tugged away in security stasis. We can turn them over to the authorities when we return." I looked around. "I haven't seen the Golden where is he?" Har-Hi pointed to the I.S.T. "He is in our Lair tallying our loot we took from the Intruder. He took everything of value and is happy as can be."

--""--

The pirates relocated their fuel-making procedure to the other planet in the system. A rocky and cold world but with plenty of frozen water. It too was a good source form fuel, but could not be pumped like a liquid and had to be busted into pieces before they were fed into the refinery. Backbreaking work especially since they wanted to generate enough Nuc-Gas for nine ships. While they did that we landed back on the carpet creature world. Shea took samples and with her team surveyed the living carpet thing. It turned out to be some sort of silicone based life form of incredible age and was dormant as it had consumed all it could from its own planet, and without food, it was dormant, with the ships present and a new food source of metal it became more active. The Crabs were, as Shea and her team discovered in a symbiotic relationship with the carpet. The planet was named Carpet and put into the catalogs that way. My science team was convinced that this might be how Gore II developed.

--""--

Four days later we left the 'Any Suggestions' system and proceeded to cross the gap between the two spiral arms. It was of course not without stars. The gaps between the spiral arms were thinly populated by mostly old and dim stars few far and between. It was in terms of space travel mostly a gaping void of nearly 2000 light years. The Red Dragon and the other ships dropped out of FTL about half way. The reason was a fuel leak aboard the Executor, the former ship of Captain Nocturna who died on Itheamh. If I understood correctly, it was now flown by her first mate Unwar Brata. He assured us it would take only a day, but he needed to get some fuel from Red Dragon to restock what they had lost. I just wanted to end my shift and planned to have lunch in our Den and then experience a popular chick virtu with Elfi, Cateria and of course Shea. As much as I got used, and as much as I enjoyed being female, I still found those virtus that focused on feelings, love relationships and more feelings incredibly boring. This particular form of entertainment was made for female audiences especially of the mammalian origin long before the ascent. Even my lovely sister Elena, gruff Sif and motherly Midril enjoyed them. I wondered why even a girl like Shea with an IQ of over 400 enjoyed them so much. I was convinced if I came behind the secret what the allure was I would have completed my transition, so far, however, it eluded me. Of course, my pride did not permit me to openly admit to that, so I was forced by my own strange personality and pride to participate. TheOther and the officers of the Afternoon watch arrived and I got up when SHIP raised alert. I plunged back in my seat and said." All hands Battle stations. All station status report." Narth spoke." SHIP raised alert because a drifting dust cloud of matter just changed course and accelerates towards us." "A dust cloud?" Shea analyzing the sensor data substantiated Narth's initial report. "A concentration of cosmic dust, composed of hydrogen, frozen gases. silica, metals, minerals and a host of organic base matter with a combined mass of 14 million tons spread over a roughly spherical shaped volume with a diameter of 2000 kilometers has just reduced its volume and thus density to less than twenty kilometers and changed from a drifting state to increase velocity and it changed course." Narth seamlessly added. "Fivcheer and I detect a presence. It appears similar to the living mountain we encountered in the Auriga XI system. It is a consciousness none of us telepathic gifted individuals have touched before. I do not understand it nor could I attempt to communicate at this state. The only somewhat familiar emotion is a sense of intense hunger and also loneliness." The Cloud had already reached the Red Dragon. Streaks of lightning like energies flickered over the ship's hull. The Dragon fired but the energy beams hit mostly nothing and the shots of concentrated nuclear energy dissipated as if absorbed. The Red Dragon and most of the other ships accelerated with red lining engines, barely making it out of this energy leeching embrace. More alerts rang and SHIP said."Captain, the cloud entity has just increased the gravimetric conditions and created a gravitation sinkhole, we are caught in it. The engines of our simulated appearance are too weak to pull out." Red Dragon hailed. "Looks like I just made it out. Our sensors detect an intensive gravitation well increasing in strength. Since there is no way I am going to risk my ship to get you. It was nice meeting you Velvet. Sorry, Brata, it was your shitty leak that got us in this mess, so deal with it!" The Red Dragon still increasing velocity followed the others and went trans light. Not even waiting for a response. Shaka said. "Gravimetric pressure increasing. I am not sure if we are still able to escape with our TransDim Gravi Drive as it might feed the entity out there even more. Our regular ISAH drive is only a secondary unit and if my calculations are correct no longer enough to escape fast enough." The Executor was firing out of every weapon and each shot vaporized a few molecules but its energies increased the power of the cloud. "Mao shut down Shields and any external drives." If we don't emit Energies it might simply slip past us and then we can use a few graviton mines to gather it and destroy it with a TL load." Narth said."Alice and I tried but it is difficult to get a hold of it telekinetically. It is as if you would try to hold water in your hands. "Hail the Executor and tell those idiots to stop firing!" Elfi turned."Unable to raise them, their channels are open, but no response." Circuit raised his voice. "The fuel supply on the other ship is leaking again, affecting the Antimatter storage." The being lost all interest on us and is now focused on the Executor." Circuit had come on the bridge and activated his Engineering Station. "Captain I give the other ship a maximum eight minutes before she goes. It looks like they abandoned their repair and containment activities to fight the entity." Suit arrived moments later." I analyzed the entity and it clearly shows sentient behavior. I could try to  extend my shields around the Ship to protect it." "No need Suit. We have very advanced shields as well but we can't use them without compromising our cover. The Red Dragon might still be within sensor range." I leaned forward ."Keep hailing them, I would like to try to save the crew if possible." "I am not getting through Captain. But I am getting something from the Cloud on regular sub-light electromagnetic radio." Even in this situation, I felt pride in my crew. They worked together like a well-maintained machine. Elfi transferred her Data to Shea. Shea signaled with a hand sign she was working on it and SHIP's screen image blinked at her console and I knew it was helping too, without being tasked to it like a regular Computronic. Tyron suit simply joined them to add its sensor data. Narth suggested. "I think I can teleport 10 or 15 of them before it explodes, but not all." Starman Suit turned it's open cowl and thus the robots head. "My sensors located the ego center of the being. It is a small dense mass of Matter with synaptic neuroactivity." The Executor ejected her Reactor Core but it was too late. The Core exploded still within the ejection port and ripped the entire aft section of the pirate vessel to shreds. Narth said. "There are still survivors. I am getting as much as I can." Our Delicate officer speaking over Intership said."I can teleport as well and will assist." I nodded and Narth vanished. Hans got up and ran to the IST alerting his Marines to receive the Pirates. Har-Hi informed Sickbay as well. Shea nodded to Elfi and then said."Captain, I believe we can communicate now with the Dust cloud. the creature is indeed intelligent and responded to the mathematical sequence and now we understand it." "We can talk to it?" "Yes." "Let's try it. Make the connection if you can." Elfi said. "It should be able to receive you, Captain." "This is Captain Olafson calling the space-born entity. Can you hear me?" At first, there was only a hissing sound crackling almost like wind. Elfi said." Sorry, these are radio wave statics I am trying to compensate. It is analog and not digital." Then a voice came through the statics. "Matter concentration speaks to I. I is not alone now there is other I." "Why are you attacking us?" "Attacking...not, no. I was hungry to far from heat light. Little Metal mass came has lots of food. Little mass gives much food. Unaware you have voice." Fivcheer interrupted via Intership. "Captain, I am getting more and more structure now. His thoughts become more and more structured in an understandable way" I acknowledged and said to the entity. "We are many voices inside the Metal Mass. Your gravimetric alteration is keeping us and caused harm." "When I stop mass wave increase you will leave?" "We must leave. We cannot remain here." "Please not go. I am alone. So alone and now you speak. I am no longer alone." "If you would not be so big. We could maybe tow you across the Expanse." "Big? My size variable. Much mass can be discarded is only added mass. Please, I no longer alone. Will not cause harm." Narth almost sounded like out of breath as he re-appeared on the bridge and said. "It has no concept of lie or falsehood. It also has no aggressive thoughts, violence is unknown to it. It did not know our ships were anything else but dead matter. It never had any contact with another living being and thought it is the only sentient being in the universe. I see images now of stars and constellations from many million years ago. It is unable to travel faster than light. It feeds on energy and out here to far from stars it became weak and hungry and unable to reach the other side of the gap and slowly but surely starving to death." "How is the rescue operation going, Narth?" "Brana and I have transferred 79 pirates. The rest is dead. Hans and his team are currently transferring the prisoners into stasis containers and store them." I had Elfi turn the radio wave channel back on. "We will remain until we find a way to help you." "I is so happy. Not alone and talk with other much joy! I will shed much matter." Shaka said. "Gravitational pull is gone. We are fully maneuverable." And Mao added. "The Cloud center, Tyron identified has separated from most of the other matter. I can easily target it and destroy it now." He added. "Just in case of course." "Can we tow the rest mass across the rest of the gap?" Shea nodded. "The Cloud center has approximately less than two tons of mass. We could load that in a big container for all that." Har-i kept an eye on the long range sensors."The Red Dragon and the other ships have stopped at their maximum sensor range and scanning us. I bet they going to hail us soon." "Alright, I want to help that being if we can. Do we want to take in, can we contain it?" Har-Hi shrugged. "I don't see why not. It is only matter and some energy and only two tons of it. We can keep it in containment fields and destroy it too." "Well, I guess we take this galactic orphan along." Elfi opened the channel and I said. " We will take you along with us. A door will open and you can enter our sphere. So we can take you across the void." "One is overwhelmed." "Shea would you go and make sure the thing is correctly contained and see if we need to feed it or something." "Aye Captain." "Shaka, once we got that dust thing loaded, get us going and follow the Red Dragon." As Har-Hi predicted he called just then. "We can see you managed to get out of this gravitation trap as well." "I thought we formed this little Armada of yours so we can assist each other in times of trouble. So I will make this perfectly clear. The next time you are in any sort of predicament. Don't expect me to raise a finger." "I must admit If I was in your place I think the same way. We lost two ships already and not even in a real fight with anything. If that continues we never make it, none of us. Who would have thought this is going to be such a challenge." "Just lead the way Dragon. Don't expect any favors or social calls from me. It is strictly business from now on."

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