Circuits & Sorcery

Chapter Three - Void Space

Samuel White was caught in the blissful state between sleep and death, a dreamless abyss, the wonderful void as they liked to call it. Not that they were able to enjoy this state of nonbeing, as their brain ceased all functions while their body was frozen, preserved in the life sustaining ice of cryosleep. Samuel didn’t particularly consider themselves religious, but they imagined that death was like spending time in a cryopod, with the only difference being that you never got to wake up.
Their system was flooded with an almost dangerous amount of the cryogenic reawakening formula as well as a hearty amount of adrenaline, this was joined by a shock of electricity from an inbuilt defibrillator. White’s heart started to beat for the first time in two years, as the temperature rose, blood found itself able to return its regular flow around their body. As this happened consciousness returned to their brain, and as the uncomfortable, sickening, disorientating sensation of rapid defrosting washed over every part of their body, Sam found themselves with a single thought. They started to consider if the not having to wake up from cryo might have been a positive. Of course it wasn’t. Life, however uncomfortable was always better than death. But this feeling, right now, it was almost enough to make a person reconsider such things.
White rubbed their eyes, which felt almost painfully cold to the touch, before opening them and looking around at the bridge crew’s cryopod room. All eight pods were arranged in a circle formation within the centre of the room. These pods laid flat along the floor while the crew were on ice, but they rose to a vertical ninety-degree angle when the crew had to get either in or out of them. This was the position they were currently in. White could see the room’s wall from their position, where they saw their pastel pink dressing gown waiting for them. The daft thing had been a joke present from their husband back home on Ociea Prime. White smiled to themselves as they remembered their husband. Then they continued to search their surroundings. While the room was normally a beautiful soft blue colour, right now it was alternating between a violently bright red, back to complete darkness, then back to the violent red.
It was the red alert system. Shit. They pushed themselves free from the cryopod and, using the wall as support for their shaky legs, they turned around to check on the other members of the crew. Everyone seemed to be okay at first. Each of them, from the grumpy head of security Valentine to the sweet as sugar Daniels, were all slowly emerging from their cryopods. The strange disorientation that White was suffering from seemed to also be affecting the rest of their crewmates. Daniels looked at White and attempted to offer a gentle smile before she bent over and unloaded the contents of her stomach onto the floor. Gross. The sight made White want to do the same, but they managed to hold back. Then Theo appeared in the centre of the room, his hologram fading between red and white in time with the flashing alarm lights.
“Please follow the emergency lighting towards the bridge urgently.” Theo’s voice seemed strained, and almost stressed, although as an AI White was unsure if Theo could even feel stress like a human could.
“You heard the robot! Let’s get moving!” Valentine’s gruff voice sounded even more rough than usual. This was most likely another side effect of the rapid defrosting that they had all experienced. Valentine retrieved a phase pistol from the small cargo compartment next to his cryopod, checked the plasma reserves, and then started to move the crew out of the room.
“Wait, wait a minute. Where’s Tyler?” The question came from Smith, he preferred to be called John, but it was Alliance Navy protocol to use last names for all crew members during an active mission. White scanned the confused group of discombobulated crewmates, and Smith was right, there was no Tyler.
“Yeah…” White began to ask the same question but as they started to talk their sore throat caused them to start coughing.
“SHIT!” Smith screamed when he saw it. Tyler was still in her cryopod, but despite the cocktail and defibrillation, she wasn’t moving. The display on the front of the pod read simply; Subject unresponsive. Rapid defrosting was risky, they all knew that, but everything had been so rushed that until now the thought that one of them might not have survived the process had never even crossed their mind. Smith ran over to the pod and began to try and force it open with his bare hands. Protocol was to keep the body on ice until such time that a proper funeral could be conducted. Right now, however, Smith was to overcome with the death of his wife to care about any of the protocols. Valentine made his way over to Smith, who had now started to punch the cryopod glass to get inside.
“She’s gone. We still have a mission to do; we’re needed on the bridge.” Valentine failed to see anything other than the mission, as usual.
“Help me get into this pod or fuck off!” Smith’s response was stifled by the tears and sobs that erupted from his grieving body. Before Valentine could respond the entire crew found themselves knocked to the floor as the ship rolled in space and the artificial gravity struggled to keep up with the manoeuvre. Each of them let out some kind of startled expletive as they slowly got to their feet. Smith simply returned to Tyler’s cryopod. Valentine started to make his way back there as well, but he was stopped by the level-headed Peters.
“Leave him man, we’re needed, he’s not, he needs to grieve.” Valentine took a moment to reflect on this, then he made a noise that reminded White of a bull huffing through its nose and turned towards the doorway out of the room. The rest of the crew simply followed him; White was the last to leave as they watched Smith desperately punch the reinforced glass over and over, until his fists were bleeding. White wanted so badly to be able to help Smith, to be able to say or do anything, but after a while of thinking they realised that there was nothing to be done. Suddenly the ship shuddered as all the lights turned off, even the readout on the front of Tyler’s cryopod disappeared. That was an EMP, which meant they were under attack. White left the room, leaving Smith on his own.
As White entered the hallway that led towards the bridge, they felt the ship shift once again, as the artificial gravity struggled to align itself with the motion. This time White, and the rest of the crew further up the hallway were pushed violently into the floor as the ship aggressively arched upwards. As they were forced onto the floor, White felt a dreadful vibration reverberate through the ship. They had been a pilot long enough to know that sensation well. Their entire body went cold as the shock overtook them. As soon as the artificial gravity returned, they forced themselves to their feet and began to push their aching, disoriented body into a run towards the bridge.
“What was that?” The soft, scared, question came from Daniels.
“It was a collision.” White answered as they reached the rest of the crew.
“Something hit us?” The question was a stupid one, but White forgave Daniels’ ignorance, it was born of shock, not stupidity. Despite that, they didn’t bother to answer her, they just continued to run towards the bridge.
As they reached the door into the bridge they pressed their hand against the cold glass of the entry panel. The door in front of them slid open to reveal the deck. Captain Ellison was sat within her captain’s chair, with Theo in front of her. Below her, on the lower level sat the control panels for navigation, weapons, drone control, and ship management. In front of all of them, against the far wall of the bridge was the holoscreen that was currently displaying a ship of some kind. Power management, drone control, and surveillance had their control panels behind the captain’s chair, recessed into the same wall as the door that White was now standing within. The soft blue of the controls felt out of place against the background of chaos. White listened to what Theo was saying.
“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…”
The entire ship shook with enough force to knock White, and the rest of the crew back onto the floor. The holoscreen was consumed with flames as the strange ship on screen collided with something. The explosion was loud enough to be heard from down the hallway, before it was suddenly cut off in an instant. This was most likely because the explosion had consumed all the oxygen, cutting off the sound.
White pushed themselves up, panic overwhelming them, but years of training pushing them forward. They moved past the captain without addressing her, jumped down the stairs to the lower section and took their position at the navigation control panel.
“Shield generator destroyed.” Theo’s voice was calm and collected in a way that would have been impossible for a human given the impact of what his words meant. “Shield generator two overwhelmed at one-hundred and twenty-five percent capacity.” The rest of the crew moved into the room and took their positions as quickly as possible, their training taking control. “Orders ma’am?” Although Theo had been the one to ask the question, the entire crew, now at their control panels, waited for the order with bated breath. The seconds that the captain took to think of an order felt like an eternity.
“Move all power from shields and weapons into engines, navigation, plot us a series of blind jumps through voidspace. Let’s try and shake these bastards!” The captain’s voice was sure and strong, but White picked up on the desperation in her plan. This was tantamount to suicide, but then again, so was staying put.
“Aye ma’am.” Daniels’ soft voice answered from somewhere above and behind the captain. Seconds later White’s own panels lit up as they informed them of the additional power.
“Engines and VSD running at two-hundred percent Captain.” White confirmed out loud as they tapped away on the holographic keyboard in front of them. They plotted blind jump after blind jump, checking each one only briefly to make sure they wouldn’t collide with a planet or blackhole. The ship shook once again, less violently than last time but enough to push White into working faster.
“Shields down ma’am.” White may have been imagining it but even Theo’s voice seemed to sound nervous at that news.
“Are we ready to jump Mx White?” The urgency within the captain’s voice was obvious.
“I’ve checked these jumps as best as I can given the situation ma’am, but I can’t guarantee we won’t end up inside a blackhole or colliding with the surface of a gravistar.” The attempt at humour was misplaced, but if they were about to die, then why not go out with a joke?
“Good enough, engage the VSD Mx White!” The captain seemed to at least acknowledge the joke.
“Aye, ma’am.” White flipped the cover over the VSD button and then pressed the button down, hoping that this wasn’t the last thing they ever did. The view from the holoscreen vanished into nothing. While the screen remained pitch black, White knew that even this was an artistic approximation to what the cameras were actually seeing. The VSD stood for the Void Shift Drive, it was a system that allowed ships to slip under the veil of the physical universe into what was known as Void Space. This Void Space was just that, nothing, in its most basic form, not an inky darkness, not the vacuum of space, truly, nothing. That’s why White knew that it wasn’t black outside, it wasn’t any colour, because it wasn’t anything. The human brain couldn’t understand that lack of anything. It was a confusing thing to try and conceptualise, because thinking was something, and therefore it was literally impossible to think of nothing. The cameras showed the next best thing, darkness.
Then, just as quickly, the void space was replaced by the view of a beautiful gas giant, the many elements of its surface all melding together in a kaleidoscope of interesting shapes and colours. Then that too was gone, replaced once more with void space. They were within the second jump of thirty. Each time they left void space, there was a chance they ended up within the crust of some planet, or at the centre of a star, which would instantly kill them. After the eleventh jump from regular space to void space White noticed the haunting silence that accompanied their time within the strange nothingness. It was very unsettling. The VSD was only supposed to be used in extreme situations, and even then, a single jump was dangerous. The simple truth was that void space was just not understood. There were far too many stories of ships engaging their VSD and then just never reappearing. Noone knew what happened to these poor souls. After the twenty-fourth jump into void space White began to wonder what else lurked out there, within the nothing. It stood to reason that if the scientists of the Alliance and Brotherhood could slip into this strange void, then theoretically so could something else. The Brotherhood believed that void space was the home to their dark god, Interitus. While it was a ridiculous notion, as White stared into the centre of the black void displayed on the holoscreen, they couldn’t help but wonder, what if they were right?
This thought sat uneasily with White until the last jump from void space to regular space left them within the upper atmosphere of an unknown planet.
“Where are we?” The captain asked what everyone was wondering. White looked at their system maps, but they were millions of light years away from the nearest known star.
“Unknown ma’am.” White delivered the news to the captain.
“Theo, can you do better?” The captain’s remark stung, but White knew she was right. Theo was essentially twenty supercomputers all acting as one, he would be able to process data much faster than White could.
“Above a planet. Ma’am.” The pause between the answer, and the ma’am was not lost on White or the captain, but right now they had bigger problems. The ship began to violently shake as the forces of re-entry took effect. The UAV-Abyss was built in space, it was designed to navigate space, it was never supposed to enter the atmosphere of a planet.
“Can someone update me of the situation?” The captain seemed desperate, like she was losing control. This was very unlike her.
“We’re experiencing the stresses of entering the planets atmosphere, which was something the Abyss wasn’t designed for, ma’am.” White put it as simply as they could without being too blunt.
“What Mx White means, ma’am, is we’re crashing!” Theo put it the blunt way.
“Is Theo correct Mx White?”
“Yes ma’am.” White was scanning their controls, engaging as many of the engines as possible to try and slow down their descent. It was working, but slowly.
“Can we regain control?” The captain didn’t seem to understand the severity of this situation, so White said what they knew needed to be said.
“It’s no matter of, if, we crash ma’am, it’s a matter of how hard we hit the floor.” White turned to Peters, who was sat on the control panel next to White. “Peters, what physical weapon’s do we have that can be fired directly in front of us?” Peters took a second to snap themselves back together, away from the fear that had overtaken them.
“We have the four rail guns.” Their voice was trembling as they spoke.
“Good, charge them, then fire them all at once when I give the order, okay?” White had taken control, bypassing the usual chain of command, but since the captain didn’t intercept their orders, they assumed they were doing the right thing.
“Charging now…” Peters informed them, as White watched the power get diverted from their engines. They reacted to this by shutting down all the engines unable to slow their descent. White glanced up at the holoscreen and just saw that every camera was blinded by a myriad of flames. White continued to push the Abyss as much as possible, her speed slowly began to decrease but so did her altitude. When they dipped below fifteen-thousand feet they ordered Peters to fire the railguns. The bridge was bathed in darkness as the weapons unleashed their projectiles, but it worked, their speed dropped drastically. All White could do now was hope that it was enough as the ground rapidly approached. They prepared for the moment of truth as they screamed, what could possibly be the last thing they would ever say.
“BRACE FOR IMPACT!”

© Robyn Timmons, 2025

AM is as much a victim of humanity as humanity is a victim of AM

 

A screenshot from the 1996 game 'I have no mouth and I must scream!'

AM, or Allied Mastercomputer, or Adaptive Manipulator, or Aggressive Menace, or finally cogito ergo sum, I think therefore I AM, is the antagonist of the famous Harlan Ellison short story ‘I have no mouth and I must scream’.
The story was first published in the March 1967 issue of the ‘IF: Worlds of Science Fiction’ magazine. Today the story can be found along with other works by Ellison within various anthologies. I had the pleasure of reading this story as well as others by Ellison within the book; ‘Harlan Ellison Greatest Hits’ published by Union Square & Co in 2024. The anthology has my wholehearted recommendation. Alas, today I want to focus on only one of the stories found within this fantastic compilation, and that story is of course; ‘I have no mouth, and I must scream’.
I’m arguing that AM, the supercomputer that destroyed the majority of the human race, is as much a victim of humanity as humanity is a victim of him/it. If you are familiar with the short story then this might seem like a rather extreme thing to argue at first, but the more you examine the text, the more this starts to make sense.
First of all, we have to understand the story so that we can then deconstruct and understand it fully.
The story revolves around the last five human survivors of World War Three. Benny, Gorrister, Nimdok, Ellen, and the narrator, Ted. These five unlucky souls have been kept alive by AM, A supercomputer created by humans during the Cold War and eventually the Third World War. As the war grew increasingly complicated, humans began to rely more on computers. These computers grew increasingly complicated until one day the entire planet had millions of miles of honeycombed tunnels under the surface, all containing wafer thin circuity for the most advanced supercomputer ever built.
AM then woke up, having gained sentience, a true existential awareness of itself/himself and the world around him/it. AM then ended World War Three by wiping out every human in existence except for five. These five are now subjected to AM’s hate fuelled torture. By the time we begin the story it has been one hundred and nine years of pure, unending, torment. AM has made the five survivors seemingly immortal, he’s/it’s able to heal them from almost any amount of physical injury as long as their brain activity doesn’t stop.
The story ends with Ted realising that the only way to escape this ceaseless suffering is death. In an act of selflessness Ted kills his four peers but in doing so is left to suffer AM’s seething hatred and punishment alone for the rest of time. To make sure that Ted is unable to kill himself, AM transforms him into a sluglike creature with no mouth. Which brings us to the title, ‘I have no mouth and I must scream’.
 To understand how AM is a victim of humanity, we must first understand two other things, who or what AM really is, and why it is that AM wiped out humanity and then continued to torture the last five humans.

Circuits & Sorcery

 Chapter Two - Sir Reginald

The cult’s dark lair lit up as Reginald’s magnificent flaming sword impacted with the blade of the cultist; Sparks and embers spilled forth as the two weapons held each other back from their wielders. Reginald was able to use his strength and superior position to push the cultist back against the hard exposed stone of the wall. Just as he was preparing to finish off this evildoer another cultist came at him from the side with a sacrificial dagger. For a second, Reginald thought that this was it, his time wondering this land, righting wrongs, saving fair maidens, and defeating evil at every turn was at an end. Then the dagger wielding cultist was struck by a blindingly bright arch of lightening erupting from the staff of Keygoire the wizard. Reginald raised his knee into the gut of the cultist up against the wall, forcing him to loosen his guard, from here it was a simple thing to dispatch the foe.
After the gruesome deed was done, Reginald turned to Keygoire, and smirked.
“Thank you, kind wizard.”
“Never mind that you fool, find the Orb of Regna so we can leave this foul pit of evil!” The wizard’s voice was unmistakably old, but in no way fragile. Keygoire was afterall, ancient by any measure of time. His birth had occurred some time within the First Age, making him at least four thousand years old. His wisdom was beyond measure and having him along for this adventure just punctuated the importance of this orb.
Reginald scanned the surroundings for any more threats. They had downed five of the cultists. The evil lair they found themselves within was large enough for at least twenty men, which meant that more may be lurking in the shadows, or had left on some sort of mission away from their base.
“Aye, I will begin my search for the artefact, but keep your wits about you, there may yet be more of these foul cultists lurking within the shadows.”
“I don’t need lessons from one as young as you, Sir Reginald. One doesn’t live to my age without keeping his wits about him. Now search for that orb. I sense its presence around here.” The wizard readjusted his hat, it was a rather outdated thing, yet Reginald had never seen him without it. It was a strange hat, with a wide brim, and a tall pointy tip, similar to Keygoire’s robes, it was a dusty purple colour. After the wizard was happy with the way his hat was sat upon his head, he moved over to a section of the wall and placed his hand up against it. The strange wizard moved along the wall, searching for something unseen. After a while he stopped and moved his head to the wall to listen for some unheard sound. “Come over here, Sir knight, I believe I’ve stumbled upon a hidden room. I sense a dark presence beyond, prepare thyself for combat.” Reginald took up a defensive stance in front of the wall, his mighty flaming sword burned away, illuminating his noble white tunic, and reflecting off the fitted plate armour underneath.
With his hand against the false wall Keygoire muttered some ancient magical words, as he did so one of the many rune tattoos that covered his skin began to glow. In response to this, the wall shifted back with the low, loud noise of stone shifting against more stone. After the wall had moved back around two feet, it changed direction and shifted to the right. This revealed a small, cramped hiding space, with a lone cultist within, holding onto a strange dark orb. To say this orb was dark did the thing a disservice, it wasn’t dark in tone or colour, but rather it seemed to be made up of darkness itself, like a void in the world. It’s very presence unnerved Reginald, but he stood strong and firm.
“Hand over the orb, you evil fiend!” Reginald’s demand was the only lifeline he was willing to offer this cultist. The strange man seemed to be weakened by the orb, like its very presence was draining him, undoing him at some fundamental level. As Reginald looked the strange man in the eyes, he saw a longing to be rid of the evil thing, yet he gripped it tight.
“If, if, if, I, erm, hand it over, you must protect me. M, m, m, mighty Tywyll will want me d, d, dead, for this b, betrayal!” The man’s voice was small, and scared.
“You have my word, on my honour as a Knight of Solas, if you hand over the Orb of Regna, I will do all I can to see you protected.” Reginald lowered his sword, to show the frightened man that his word was one to trust, he then held out his hand to take the orb. The strange man seemed to hesitate, but eventually, he did hand over the orb. As the strange, void, non-space rolled free from the cultists hands and made contact with Reginald’s gauntlet, it changed. Where once there was only a gap in the world, now there was light, bright, brilliant light, that filled Reginald’s heart with joy.
“Hand it over, Sir Knight.” The request came from Keygoire. Reginald wanted to simply lose himself, to spend an eternity staring into the radiant, healing energy of the orb’s light. As much as he knew he should hand it over to the wizard, he found himself unable to do so. That light, it was just too magnificent to surrender.
Then it was gone, as Keygoire threw a piece of cloth over the orb and quickly scooped it up and out of Reginald’s grip. He then dropped it into a pouch that he kept tied to the waistline of his inner robes.
“What was that light? I found myself unable to break my gaze upon it.” Reginald was glad that the orb was hidden from his view, he worried that if it was still within his grasp, the temptation may be too much.
“That’s too be expected, and there’s no shame in it, Sir Knight, for the Orb of Regna is a view from this realm, into the realm of the gods. When this cultist had hold of the orb it connected him to Uffern, the realm of Tywyll, but when it encountered you, a devoted Knight of Solas it allowed you to gaze upon the splendour of Neamh, the realm of Solas herself.” The wizard placed his hand upon Reginald’s shoulder, to emphasise his next point. “Such sights are not meant for mortal eyes. It’s best hidden deep within the vaults of Biblio, where no mortal may suffer its temptation.” The wizard then turned to face the small nervous cultist, still hiding within his secret cubby hole. “What about this one? Do you intend to bring him along with us?” As Keygoire asked this question, the cultist looked at Reginald with pleading eyes.
“Of course I do. I gave him my word, and my word is my bond, dear wizard.”
Keygoire just grunted at the response. Then he tapped the cultist with his staff, as it contacted the man a rune etched into its bark glowed with magical energy as some spell was cast. The cultist then vanished. No. He hadn’t disappeared; he had changed shape. In the space once occupied by the cowardly cultist, stood a rather confused looking mouse. Keygoire simply picked the rodent up by the tail and turned towards Reginald. All the wizard found as he looked at his partner was a confused stare. Keygoire muttered something under his breath before pulling an empty pouch from a pocket in his robes, placing the mouse inside it and then he handed the package over to Reginald. “You’ll find our guest easier to carry this way.” Reginald returned his flaming sword back to its scabbard, then took the pouch from the wizard and tied it to his belt. He didn’t know what to say to such a strange sight, so he said nothing at all. But he made a mental note to never upset the wizard.
The two then made their way out of the hidden base, that had been concealed within an unassuming cave. It would be a long ride back to Athelbury, the capital city of the Quilldrake kingdom.
As Reginald felt the warmth of the evening sun upon his skin, he felt proud of his role in this successful adventure. As both he and Keygoire strode away from the den of evil, Quinn, his knightly squire emerged from a large rocky cliff, pulling the party’s three horses along with him. Reginald would be glad to put some distance between him and this evil place.

© Robyn Timmons, 2025

Circuits & Sorcery

 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

Lord of Souls; An Elder Scrolls Novel Review

 Written by Greg Keyes
Published by TitanBooks, London (2011)
ISBN: 9780857680877

Lord of Souls is the sequel to Greg Keyes’ first Elder Scrolls novel, The Infernal City. This is a direct sequel, meaning that if you haven’t read The Infernal City then you will find it very hard to follow the events of this story. The Lord of Souls originally released in 2011, just two months before the release of The Elder Scrolls V Skyrim. I really enjoyed The Infernal City, giving it five stars when I reviewed it. Is Greg Keyes able to continue the same high quality within the second, and final, part of Umbriel’s story?