Chapter one - The UAV-Abyss
Captain Ellison was peacefully asleep within her
cryochamber, a thin layer of frost from the cryofreeze procedure clinging to
her dark brown skin. Her lungs and heart were static and unmoving as her body
was captured in a state between sleep and death. Machines quickly monitored her
status, making sure that her brain was frozen but not dead. Held in a single
moment, suspended in time. It was important that she survive, as she was the
acting captain aboard the United Alliance Vessel Abyss, otherwise known as the
UAV-Abyss. The crew and databanks of this massive frigate contained intel vital to the
United Alliance Government; Intel that could change the course of the war
between them and the Brotherhood of Interitus. It was vital that this
information make it back into Alliance space. This was why it was not that
surprising that someone was trying to stop that from happening. Captain Ellison’s
body was suddenly injected with a cocktail of cryogenic reawakening formula with
an extra dose of adrenaline, the temperature was rapidly warmed, while her cardio
system was jolted from its stasis via a shock of electricity. All of this was
done by the ship’s computer and onboard AI, Theo.
As Ellison’s body returned from the brink of death, her lungs suddenly gasped
for air, as she pulled in the precious oxygen, she felt her lungs ache. It was
to be expected, after all, this was the first breath she had taken in around
two years. She struggled to open her eyes as the thin layer of frost that
covered her skin held them shut, but after she quickly wiped them, she found
herself able to take in the chaos around her. She was within her Captain’s
ready room, just off the main bridge, it looked strange and unfamiliar under
the flashing red lights that violently flooded the room before just as quickly
vanishing, leaving the room in pitch black darkness. Even worse were the
thundering sirens that warned of incoming danger. Of course, she understood
what this meant. She had trained for this plenty of times. The simulations were
fresh inside her mind, so she let her training take over.
“Theo, what’s the situation?” As she spoke, she was reminded how sore her
throat was. This was a side effect of the rapid reawakening from cryosleep.
“Ma’am, we have five combatants that emerged from voidspace.” The ear-splitting
sirens reduced in volume as Theo’s voice came from the speakers built into the
ceiling of her room. With a bright flash that hurt Ellison’s tired eyes, Theo
manifested by the door to the bridge. He was five foot two inches tall, with
long curly hair, and a young boyish face. He wore the standard issue Alliance
Navy uniform, the same as Ellison herself was wearing. Unlike her, however,
Theo was constructed out of light and as such took on a single hue that
normally reflected his mood. Right now, he was a pulsing red colour that
matched the flashing red lights around the room.
“Anything else?” Ellison forced her weak legs to carry her from her cryopod
towards the doorway into the bridge. It was a slow, unsure, walk, that she
imagined resembled a newborn deer struggling to its feet for the first time.
“The aggressors all bare pirate markings, but in my personal opinion, ma’am,
their tactics and ability to locate us reeks of the Brotherhood.” Ellison
reflected on this information as she finally made it to the door.
“You think they’re hiding their true allegiance?” She pressed her hand against
the cold glass of the door’s console as she asked this question.
“It would make sense, ma’am.” The door slid smoothly open and revealed the
bridge to her ship. It was dark but Theo quickly activated the lighting and
within a couple of seconds she was greeted by her beautiful bridge. This was
her favourite place in the known universe. It was a place where she had
control. She stumbled through the doorway, towards the captain’s chair in the centre
of the room. As she made her uneasy journey to her chair Theo continued his
train of thought. “An open attack would jeopardise any bargaining power in the
upcoming peace negotiations. Then again, letting us bring the information we
have to the Alliance’s attention could spell doom to the Brotherhood’s plans
for expansion. Soo…”
“It would be perfect if our ship, just so happened to be attacked and destroyed
by pirates. Clever reasoning Theo.” Ellison sat down in her chair, and her
tired legs thanked her for it. She glanced around at the empty consoles around
her, her crew were still in cryo, which left her alone on the bridge.
“Thank you ma’am. Shall I wake up the rest of the bridge crew?” Theo had
repositioned himself to be standing next to the captain’s chair.
“Please do. Then move power from weapons to shields, we need to remain in one
piece long enough to have a chance to fight back.
“Yes ma’am.” Theo then vanished, leaving Ellison alone on the bridge. She
brought up the holoscreen at the front of the bridge. The view from every external
camera showed the cold dark emptiness of space. She scanned each of the dozens
of live feeds in front of her carefully. Eventually she spotted the attackers.
Theo was right, these were no pirates. They were sticking close together, using
tactical formations, helping each other dodge the incoming automated defences
when they got too close to her ships hull. Pirates were mostly civilians that
had turned to a life of crime, they used simple hit and run tactics, while it
wasn’t that strange to find the odd ex-military member among their numbers,
they were the rarer breed of pirate. These fighters on the other hand were all well
trained. It took her tired, adrenaline fuelled brain longer than she would have
liked, but eventually she noticed what the combatants were doing. They were
wearing down the shields above the shield generators, waiting for the
opportunity to take out the shields permanently. If they managed that then the
UAV-Abyss was almost certainly doomed.
“Shit!” The expletive shattered the silence that hung over the bridge like a
brick through a glass window. “Theo, we need to act now, no time to wait for
the bridge crew, I need you to take control.” Theo was standing next to her by
the time she had finished the sentence.
“Yes Ma’am. Cocktails have been administered; emergency lighting will lead the
crew towards the bridge. I can take control in the meantime. What are your
orders?”
“Lock every external camera we have on these bastards, I want to see every move
they make. Then launch defensive drones, target the ship in the lead position
within their formation. If we’re able to take out their leader, then the rest
may scatter.” All the camera feeds on the holoscreen repositioned themselves so
that the attackers were visible.
“Assigning cores thirteen through twenty to drone control Ma’am.” As Theo
announced this a small hatch within the centre of the UAV-Abyss opened and
hundreds of drones rushed out. It reminded Ellison of wasps rushing out of a
hive to defend their queen. The five attackers broke their formation, each
taking a swarm of the drones with them. They didn’t disperse like Ellison would
have expected pirates to do. Instead, the leader lined themselves up in front
of who Ellison guessed was the second in command, which allowed the number two
ship to pick off the drones harassing their commander. They were well trained.
“Theo, let’s use this chance to bring ourselves to bare on them. If the drones
can’t take them out, then maybe it’s time for the Queen to make an appearance.”
“Aye Aye, Ma’am.” As Theo complied Ellison felt her stomach threaten to spew
its contents all over the floor as the artificial gravity struggled to align
itself as the ship rolled around. After the manoeuvre had finished the
attackers were now facing the right side of the Abyss, opposed to her belly.
“Divert power to all short-range phase beams, and charge two of the railguns.
Keep them busy with the drones and phase beams, then line them up for the
railgun, once you’ve fired the first rail gun power it down and charge another.
Keep this going until I say otherwise.”
“Captain, when I fire the railgun, the shields will be momentarily dropped.”
“I know!” Ellison shouted at Theo. “Don’t question my command. I’m the captain,
remember that.” Her voice was back at its normal volume, but it still held
firm.
“Aye, ma’am. My apologies.” Theo’s light flickered for the briefest moment and
then continued his job. “Cores six through eleven diverted to phase beam
control, core twelve assigned to rail gun control.” The Theo that Ellison could
see in front of her was now operating at only one forth of his potential. He
was still a supercomputer with processing speed unmatched by any organic mind
in the universe, but he was now a fraction of a second slower than he normally
was. Ellison turned her attention to the holoscreens. The attackers had thinned
out the swarm of drones, reducing their numbers drastically. This should have
been next to impossible. Whoever these people were, they were the elite of the
elite. The five ships continued to dodge the phase beams while picking off the
drones.
“Theo bring the railgun charge percentage up on the holoscreen.”
“Aye ma’am.” A percentage number appeared on the screen in front of Ellison
that read, thirty-four percent. It began to slowly climb; the tension was
palpable. By the time that the railgun was within the ninety percent range, the
last of the drones had been dispatched. “Cores thirteen through twenty returned
to my control ma’am.” The quiet implication of this news was obvious, Theo knew
he didn’t need to say it aloud. The railgun was at ninety-eight percent.
“Target the lead ship.”
“Aye ma’am.” The percentage in front of Ellison read ninety-eight still, but it
ticked over to ninety-nine. She gripped her chairs armrests tight and braced
herself. The number ticked over to one-hundred percent and then vanished as the
holoscreen lost power. The lights within the bridge turned off for a second,
blanketing the empty space in darkness. Even Theo blinked out of existence for
a moment. Ellison had been expecting this, the railgun unleashed a massive EMP
as it fired its projectile at close to the speed of light. The entire ship
shuddered from the recoil, jolting all the loose objects around the bridge onto
the floor. Theo blinked back to life in front of Ellison, shortly before the
lights did the same.
“Did we hit them?” The captain pushed the question at Theo, who held his hand
to his head, and took a moment to adjust. Ellison was struck by how human this
motion was. Theo was only dazed for about a second and a half, but for a
supercomputer of his capacity it was the equivalent of a solid few days of
human incapacity.
“Checking…” Theo returned to his usual position, straight posture with his arms
held behind his back. “I think it’s best you see ma’am.” The holoscreen
returned to its position in front of Ellison. To her great joy the flaming
remains of the squad’s leader was bouncing off their shields. Two of the
wingmen had broken formation in order to avoid being caught up in the debris
field of their lead. It took Ellison a second to catch it. There were five of
them. One down left four, if only two had pulled back, then where were the
other two?
“Theo, where are the other two fighters?”
“Bringing them up on screen now.” The camera feeds switched to that of a single
camera that zoomed in to reveal the two missing fighters. They had used the
brief moment that the shields had blinked off to duck under the shield. They
now flew in the narrow space between the hull of the Abyss and the frigates
energy shields. Each of the fighters were on a collision course with the shield
generators.
“Shit!” Ellison ran through her options as quickly as she could. What about the
phase beams? Unless the fighters happened to fly directly above any of them it
would be impossible to get a correct angle on them from this proximity.
“Two hundred and twenty metres until impact.” Theo updated her.
What about the drones?
“Theo, do we have any drones left?”
“Yes ma’am, but the odds of them being able to intercept the attackers before
impact is zero-point-one-nine-five.”
“Do it anyway!”
“Aye ma’am. Cores thirteen through twenty rediverted to drone control,
collision course for attackers plotted. One hundred and nine meters to impact
with shield generators.”
“Can you think of any other strategies Theo?”
“Yes ma’am, but it’s risky.”
“Do it!”
“Aye ma’am.” Ellison felt the artificial gravity struggle to stay level with
the ship once more as the massive frigate readjusted itself in space. Theo
pitched the Abyss up, causing the two fighters under the shield to impact with
the ship earlier than they intended too. Ellison felt the entire vessel shake
as the cameras showed one of the ships collide with the Abyss’ hull, tearing a
massive slice into her metallic flesh. The pilot was certainly skilled as they
were able to readjust and pull up and away from the gaping wound that was bleeding
atmosphere behind them, but they only made their situation worse as they
impacted with the shield above them. Their ship burst into flames that quickly
died away as the precious little oxygen within the fighter was consumed by the
fire. The remaining debris smashed back into the Abyss, sending a shudder along
the hull. The second fighter had managed to avoid the same fate as their
companion, but they hadn’t survived without any damage. Their right engine had
erupted into flames with a thick black smoke trail behind it that quickly
dissipated into the vacuum of space. “Twenty metres to impact ma’am. Crew decks
thirty-four, thirty-five, thirty-six, and thirty-seven are venting atmo.
Engineering deck eighty-one completely depresser…” Theo was cut off from his damage
report as the last fighter collided with one of the two shield generators.
© Robyn Timmons, 2025
