They were worried.
And then they were vaporized in the wake of larger eruption as white flames spewed from the wormhole.
“Bordel de merde!” Chevallier yelled when her HUD reported a large surge in UV radiation. Heat followed by an EMP burst killed her shield, suit, and rifle’s power supply.
With the screen inside of her helmet blank, she quickly tore it off and saw the rest of her allies struggling with the same problems, as roaring pillars of flames poured out through the wormhole, incinerating the walls of the box-shaped room, vaporizing the remaining Marduk soldiers and pushing outward.
Chevallier, the Hammerheads, and their Poniga were next. “OK, fuck this, retreat!”
Fortunately for them they were garrisoned next to the teleportation alcove to start with. Everyone, along with their nonfunctioning equipment stormed through into the alcove, which was not affected by the EMP. Chevallier made a mental note about the freak discovery, EMPs have little to no effect on Lyonria technology, it might come in handy one day. She leaped through and was swept away by blue psionic energy, seconds before the incoming mini solar flare arrived.
Her body materialized down below in the main hallways along with everyone else. She leaped and pushed everyone away from the alcove, half expecting the heat to teleport down with them, no such event occurred, only the sound of a massive explosion followed by the rumbling of the Lyonria hub.
The holographic preview screen which normally displayed the room the teleportation alcove was connected to, went blank, with text written in the Lyonria language written across it, an error message most likely. The top spire, box-shaped room, wormhole, and alcove linking to it were obliterated in the explosion.
Chevallier winced and shrugged her shoulders. “Pierce is going to be pissed. He was really looking forward to studying that room when this was all over.”
THE WINDS from the storm began to die down as the hurricane lost its power and pushed deeper into the continent, and with that came the backup they requested, three transports landed next to the entrance to the hub. It was a welcome sight for the survivors of the battle as nearly an hour passed since the explosion took out the top spire. Their equipment never recovered from the EMP burst, leaving them trapped inside until the storm died down.
Chevallier left the hub and stepped next to the opened transport doors, grinning at their late as hell backup. She looked up at the ancient structure still intertwined with the growth of the jungles. Flames and smoke billowed out from the top spire, confirmation that that particular section had indeed been wiped out.
The backup Hammerheads stormed out of their transports, trekking past Chevallier to assist the injured Hammerheads and Poniga. Mavron and Eisila approached her, muttered words in their language to her before offering what appeared to be their way of delivering a handshake. She was impressed at how well they held their ground during the fighting and how well they passed on what she taught them about using combat armor and rifles to their comrades. They’ll need it if they plan to free their people and remove Marduk’s forces on their home world.
“Master Chief.” She turned around and saw Chief Petty Officer Long give her a salute as his armored body stepped away from the transport.
“What took you guys so long?” she asked.
“The shield modifications for the transport gave out on us ma’am. Looks like they were good for one or two runs through the storm at best.”
“Figures.” Chevallier climbed aboard the transport, Long followed behind. “Any word from the Carl Sagan? Interference from the storm should be a nonissue now.”
“Nothing, ma’am, the colony hasn’t received any transmissions either.”
Chevallier grimaced, over six hours had passed since her arrival on the planet, more than enough time for the colony and the transports to receive a transmission. “Anything on scanners?”
“Lot of solar flare activity on Sirius A, that’s it.”
Chevallier thought back to the flare that shot through the wormhole and what appeared to be the destruction of Marduk’s ship.
Did they fight him next to the star? she wondered.
She accessed a nearby computer terminal and began to review sensor logs from the transports and colony. The timing of the discovered solar flares was consistent with the timing of their miraculous escape through the teleportation alcove.
What destroyed Marduk’s ship was a solar flare.
But what would have caused him to travel so close to the star?
Chevallier knew the answer, she just didn’t want to accept it. Because she knew very well if Marduk was in pursuit of the Carl Sagan they too would have been destroyed, after all Marduk’s ship was faster, if he didn’t escape how could they?
Chevallier frantically began to send transmissions to the Carl Sagan on all channels. She gazed at the communication equipment for thirty-five minutes, equipment that remained silent apart from the odd transmission from the colony or the other transports. Her focus and search blinded her to the fact that the transport had long taken off from the jungles and arrived at the colony base camp. And then back up into orbit on patrol, preparing to search for the Carl Sagan. Or its remains. She cringed at the thought of that, but smiled at how everyone followed her lead without question, she was the ranking personnel now.
The three transports leapt out of view into sub light speeds, fanning out to conduct a wider search of the system, starting with the sectors closest to Sirius A. They found nothing of interest, other than the Poniga home world. She looked out of the windshield to get a better view of the planet, baked in a sea of cosmic radiation, heat and light, while multiple blue domes adorned the surface of the planet, while flowing lakes, rivers, forests, and deserts remained inside. Marduk’s handiwork and his means of controlling their species.
“I got something dropping out of sub light,” Long said to Chevallier, bringing her attention back to the matter at hand.
“The Carl Sagan?”
“I don’t know, it’s not transmitting any IFF, and its moving very slow, like slower than this transport.”
The transport slowed and positioned itself to intercept the unknown craft. Chevallier and the crew aboard looked out into the blackness of space and waited in anticipation for what might be coming their way.
The wreckage of Marduk’s ship? Maybe it wasn’t destroyed after all. A Qirak ship? Norauk did mention his people came from another system. The ship appeared before them, it was a smoldering blackened mess, partially melted, riddled with holes. Chevallier’s eyes zeroed in on the name of the ship, ‘ESRS Carl Sagan,’ it was barely legible, but there.
As for signs of life . . .
The three transports boarded the Carl Sagan. Its docking bay was exposed to space, and the lights on the ceiling had long burned out. Chevallier and several Hammerheads glided out from their transport and navigated their way into the interior of the ship. They arrived at compartments of the ship that were still pressurized; lights flickered on and off like an eerie haunted house.
Magnetic boots clung their feet to the charred floor while flashlights illuminated their way to engineering and the elevator to the habitat ring, what was left of the elevator at least. The stubborn melted doors leading into engineering were pushed open, revealing that the staff inside were alive. Rivera’s hair and bloodied face was a mess, she remained tightlipped about what became of the rest of the crew, still visually shaken at what they experienced.