Chapter Six - Strange New World.
The crew of the UAV-Abyss were in bad shape. Most of them
hadn’t survived the crash landing on whatever planet this was. White was one of
only three survivors. Themselves, captain Ellison, and Valentine, the head of
security. Peters, who had been stationed next to White, hadn’t survived. What
stood out to Sam, as they stared down at the full body bags in front of them,
was the distance between themselves and Peters. The ships weapons expert had
been sat only a few feet to the righthand side of White. That tiny distance had
been the difference between life and death, with the pilot coming out on top.
White felt a confusing mix of emotions. They felt glad, relieved, to have
survived the crash. Because they lived there was a chance, they’d be able to see
their husband again. Yet, that relief created a feeling of guilt, born from the
fact that they were celebrating someone else having died in their place. Then
there was the dreadful burden and feeling of responsibility for all this death.
These thoughts rushed around in their head as they continued to look down at
the five bodies, hidden within their body bags. Daniels, Peters, Smith,
Swallow, and Fernsby, all gone in what felt like a single moment. Then there
was Tyler, still held tight and secure within her cryopod.
“Theo?” White called out to the AI.
“Yes Mx White, do you require any additional medical attention?” Theo’s voice
was calm, and furthermore, it was kind. White had a deep gash across their
forehead, and quite a few nasty bruises along with it. Valentine, a trained
field medic, had stitched up White’s head as best they could. It hurt but White
felt like it was a punishment that they deserved. “Mx White, are you okay?”
Theo’s question startled them as they had begun to dissociate again.
“I’m fine Theo. I need you to run some calculations.” White’s voice was
distant, distracted.
“Certainly Mx White. What are we calculating?” Theo’s kind tone felt soothing.
“I need to know if there was anything I could have done differently? Could I
have plotted the jumps better, or could I have decelerated more during our
entry into the planet’s atmosphere?” The query came out as more of a plea than
a question, White heard the desperation in their own voice and felt ashamed of
it.
“I checked all jump data before I allowed the VSD to activate. While I didn’t
have the time to arrange a one-hundred-percent safe jump, your calculations
were as good as anyone could have done given the urgency of the situation. As
for the entry, you did what little could have been done. The fact is that the
Abyss was simply not designed to operate within a planet’s atmosphere.” Theo
had an empathetic voice. White understood that they were a computer and
therefore didn’t experience human emotions or empathy; but sometimes, it felt
like they did. This was one of those times. The holographic projection of Theo
attempted to place their hand on White’s shoulder. “You’re not responsible for
these deaths, Sam.”
Had Theo used their first name? That was against the Alliance Navy protocol,
which made it odd that an AI went against it. A human might do such a thing,
given the right personality or situation, but AIs were supposed to always stick
to the protocol.
White hadn’t been imagining it, Theo was becoming more human. His code was
evolving. Interesting.
“Excuse me Mx White, our guests are here.” Theo sounded apologetic. Before
White was able to address any of these developments, the AI blinked out of
existence and reappeared standing next to the captain.
“Captain, our guests are here. With your permission, I’ll
disengage this collection of cores and reassemble as one consciousness with our
guests.” Ellison nodded her approval, and the projection of Theo vanished, just
as a second instance of Theo walked through the door to the bridge with two of
the strangest people that captain Ellison had ever seen. The first of them was
a knight that looked like he belonged to the old-world fables or children’s
fairytales. Chainmail was visible below the much more obvious knight’s plate
armour, which was itself covered with a white tunic depicting an abstract
picture of a woman’s face within a sun. Ellison guessed that this was a symbol of
some local religious order. The only armour that was absent was a helmet, and
considering the long, black, messy hair that suited the knight’s handsome face
and dark tanned skin, Ellison considered this a positive thing.
The other man was dressed in dusty purple robes, tied taut at the waist with a
belt, and a cloak of the same colour that covered most of the robe. He had a
hat that looked as grand as it did ridiculous, it had a wide brim and a tall
point. The strange man adjusted the positioning of his hat and then began to
run his fingers through his long white beard. Unlike the knight, this man had
old, tired looking skin with a pale complexion that was covered in tattoos. Every
patch of exposed skin had been covered in tattoos depicting strange symbols.
While they may have been letters in some language that Ellison didn’t
understand, they looked more like runes or hieroglyphs to her. These two
certainly made one hell of a first impression. Ellison pushed aside her initial
impressions and stepped forward to introduce herself, before she was able to,
however, the knight strode past her and right up to Valentine.
“My liege, as a knight of Solas, it would be my honour to aid you and your
crew, as long as your intentions are pure, and free from evil.” The knight
spoke to Valentine in a manner that made it clear that he assumed the gruff
older man was the acting captain.
Ellison cleared her throat and introduced herself.
“I am the acting captain of the UAV-Abyss, you may call me Ellison. The man you
assumed to be in command is our head of security, Valentine. I’m afraid the
only other surviving member of our bridge crew is Mx White, they were our
pilot. You have already met Theo, our on-board AI. May I ask who it is I have
the pleasure of introducing myself and my crew to?” Ellison’s tone was firm,
but not impolite. The knight turned to face her.
“You must accept my sincere apologies, captain Ellison. It’s rare, nay, unheard
of in some parts, to find a female captain within the Kingdom of Quilldrake.
You must be an exceptional commander to have overcome such adversity. I am Sir
Reginald of Athelbury, Knight of Solas. My companion is the great and wise
wizard Keygoire.”
“I can introduce myself, Sir Knight.” The strange man snapped at Reginald,
before he turned to face Ellison and continued. “My younger companion is
correct; I am the wizard Keygoire of Biblio. This is a queer craft you have, is
it an airship of some variety?” The way he interrupted his own companion told
Ellison that this wizard had a very high opinion of himself.
“The UAV-Abyss is a spaceship, but my pilot, Mx White, can better explain the
specifics.” Ellison hoped that this response would be enough to prompt the
wizard to move on but instead he simply turned towards White.
“Are you Mix White?” The question was more thrust at the pilot than politely
asked.
“Yes, sir.” White answered the wizard. As the smallest member of the surviving
crew, Ellison had become somewhat overprotective of the pilot.
“Now what does your female captain mean by spaceship, is she referring to
realmspace or starspace?” Ellison felt her body tense as the wizard began to
assault White with his questions. White did their best to answer the curious
man.
Ellison took a long-controlled inhale of breath through her nose, held it there
for a moment, and then released it in a long exhale through her mouth. It was a
simple action, but one that allowed her to regain control of her emotions. When
she tuned back into the conversation between Keygoire and White they had
managed to reach an understanding. Apparently, the space between planets,
stars, and other astronomical bodies was referred to as starspace on this
world. Which led to an obvious question, which Ellison would have asked
herself, if White hadn’t beaten her to it.
“If the space between planets is referred to as starspace, then what is
realmspace?”
“What an interesting question.” The wizard chuckled to himself. “Realmspace is
the space within the realms of the Gods. I trust your people have encountered the
Gods?”
“I mean we certainly have religions, if that’s what you mean.” Ellison answered,
causing the wizard to turn to face her again.
“Yes, it is, and your religious leaders commune with their Gods, do they not?”
The wizard’s question seemed strange to the captain.
“Some believe they do, most take their Gods existence on faith, but there
exists no tangible proof of any communication. Most of the people of the
Alliance have accepted agnosticism over religion given this lack of any real
evidence of the Gods existences.” This response seemed to agitate the wizard.
“No proof! No evidence! Do you not have access to magic where you come from,
have the Gods truly abandoned you‽” Keygoire practically spat these words at
the captain.
“I’m sorry, but this is where I must draw the line. Magic is nothing more than
tricks for children, it’s far from real!”
“If not for magic, then what kept this vessel in the air‽” Again, the wizard
spat his question at the captain.
“Science! Measurable, testable, controllable, science!”
“You wish for proof of magic, then you shall have it! Sir Knight, kindly remove
your holy sword from its scabbard and show these uneducated fools’ proof of
magic.” The wizard turned to the knight.
“As you wish, wise wizard.” Reginald addressed the wizard first, before he then
looked briefly at each of the crew and addressed them all. “I draw my sword to
be examined, and not as a means of engaging in combat.” The knight seemed much
more polite than the wizard, which given his poor first impression was saying
something.
Sir Reginald then withdrew his sword from its scabbard and as he did so, it
erupted into flames that burned with no signs of slowing. Ellison couldn’t help
herself, the curiosity was too much to control, so she stepped forward to
examine the blade closer. As she did, she noticed the glowing symbols, similar
to the tattoos that covered the wizard’s skin.
“What are those symbols?” The question was addressed towards the knight but of
course it was the wizard who answered.
“Arcane runes. These runes are the original language of the Gods, first spoken
and then written down by the greatest of all Gods, Glas. These runes are more
than just simple symbols; anything scribed in them will materialise itself
within our mortal realm. Have you never encountered them before?” The wizard’s
tone still carried the same arrogance, but it had notably lost the aggression.
“We’ve never encountered anything like this.” The captain answered truthfully,
before continuing with a follow up question. “Are these the same as your
tattoos?”
“You’re a fast learner captain. Yes, I have covered my skin with the spells I
need to always have access to. My staff is also covered in these runes, as long
as I have hold of it, I am able to cast any of the spells that are etched onto
its surface.”
“Interesting.” The captain didn’t really know what to say, then White asked
what needed to be asked.
“If you’re able to use these runes to achieve, seemingly anything, would you be
able to use them to return us to our home world?”
“That is an interesting notion, but I’m afraid that the simple answer is no.
Teleportation is a tricky thing. The mages of Biblio have mastered the act of
teleporting between predetermined platforms; each etched with a rune of
teleportation and a rune giving it a specific name. However, teleporting from
one random spot to another random spot has always been met with tragedy. From
what the scholars of Biblio have determined, the problem is the movement of the
world itself. Say I mean to teleport from here, to Biblio. Well, the world
orbits the sun, so where I remember Biblio being, is not where it is in space
right now. So, if I try and teleport there, I end up in the space where it used
to be, rather than the space that it is currently in. Does that make sense?”
The wizard seemed invested in his explanation.
“Strangely enough…” White began the sentence but before they were able to
finish it, they were yanked backward by Valentine. A split-second later an
assassin’s blade slammed into the floor where they had been standing.
Ellison pulled her phase pistol free and prepared for a fight!
© Robyn Timmons, 2025
