Chapter 2: Phoenix 7

Kavell Levaron Nesias. I had mentally added that to the list of names of people to avoid as much as possible. Unfortunately he was constantly around. I found myself pacing our temporary quarters impatiently as Kavell kept a steady eye on me from the sofa. It was really starting to annoy me. A sudden knock at the door was a thankful distraction. It was the Commander’s Second. Perfect. Before I could utter a single word, the Second held up a hand as if to block my questions and sighed, “The only reason I can disclose any information to you is that there are things that you can’t imagine knowing that may very well endanger your existence with this crew.” As he secured the door, I then noticed Kavell’s presence behind me and wondered for a split second how in hell he got so close without making a sound. Was he protecting me? Or protecting him? Hell with that. My only focus was on the Second and his curious words, “And what exactly should I know.” He eyed me cautiously and looked over to Kavell, “Don’t trust anyone.” My bodyguard merely nodded without question but I was more than glad to inquire why. “And what is that supposed to mean? You better give me something more than just that.”

“There are some things that need to be discovered in due time but what is more important right at the moment is for you to trust Kavell. You’re father entrusted him to protect you for a good reason. You cannot trust those around you, Necron or human, especially the Commander.” I frowned and spoke lowly, “What do you mean…” He stepped closer to me and hissed lowly, “He hated your father. The secrets, the lies, you don’t know how far deep this goes. How far the hatred has gone.” I was vaguely aware that Kavell had a hand on the Second, positioning himself so that there was again a distance between us. Heh, such a good bodyguard.

“Are you telling me that I am in danger just because of an old grudge between him and my father?!” I laughed, oh this was grand! This was absurd but the serious looks on both of their faces made my laughter cut short. The Second shook his head, “There’s more to this than what appears on the surface but unfortunately your father took his secrets to the grave.” He shook his arm from Kavell, opened the door and spoke in a hushed voice, “If I were you, I wouldn’t lay low. Don’t be thrown into the lime light or else something unfortunate might happen.” The Second closed the door, leaving us alone once more.

I laid my hands on my head and sat down on the couch before curling up, “This is so fucked up!” As I tried to recap everything so it would make sense, it just wouldn’t. ‘A’ and ‘B’ just wouldn’t add up to ‘C’, no matter how I looked at it. Two cold hands on my temples made me freeze and a low voice whispered in my ear, “Sleep.” I brushed his hands away, “Don’t you pull that crap on me.” I knew what he was trying to do and he was on the border of breaking the Code again. Damn him. “You need to sleep.”

“I’ve slept enough.” But in truth I was tired, at least mentally. I knew though that there were many aboard that have yet to even pause to think and weigh in what has happened. I could hear them, scurrying in the hallways, sounds over the speakers incoherent through the walls of our room. I couldn’t imagine what would happen if we were found. We were still too close to home, or what was left of it. Why haven’t we run? My eyelids started to close on their own and I could faintly hear a familiar voice in the borders of my dreams.

“Dad?”

“Hey baby girl.”

“Where are we?”

I looked around. By the gods, time had stopped. The wall of fire was just a few feet away from the port but frozen in space. My father stepped towards me and pointed to the sky, “There you are…” I looked and saw the ship floating in the sky with its blazing trail as still as a lazy cloud. I couldn’t help but gasp, “No, this can’t be real.”

I woke up to Kavell shaking my shoulder slightly and groaned, “Damn it, I was asleep.”

“We’re moving.”

Alarms blared from every crevice of the ship like the whole thing had gone mad. Funny how the sirens weren’t the reason for my awakening. I figured that They had found us and the crew was making a quick escape. I sat up as I heard a clear but low male voice in the mist of the blaring pitches, “Prepare to go subspace.”

A jolt. That was all I felt. By the gods, was that it?

No.

A shudder, the room seemed still yet blurred between parallel worlds. I could barely move. It took all of my might to shift my focus to where Kavell stood. He had his hand leaning onto the wall as if to brace himself from the sudden leap into subspace. The tribal like tattoos peaked from under his long sleeved shirt as his arm flexed furiously. From the stories that my father had told, I knew vaguely that this stance would only last a few more seconds as we shifted through the spatial dimension. I focused more on capturing the feeling and look of the room around me before as abruptly it began, it stopped. I inhaled sharply for I had the strange feeling that I had been holding it the whole time. Kavell gripped my shoulder and kneeled in front of me, “It’s always hard to breath after the first jump.” I nodded and swatted his hands away as I took a few deep breaths, “Felt like we were thirty feet underwater.”

We jumped once more. I didn’t know what was going through his head or if he even paid attention to our surroundings as our world blurred to oblivion. It was only a few seconds but it seemed longer as we leapt through space. It was like skipping stones across a pond but only that every time we jumped, we were in another part of space where time itself seemed frozen. I forced my eyes closed as we returned to normal space for a moment. I knew that the crew had to have been checking our surroundings to see if the enemy was behind us. It made me wonder how much more the systems could take with every leap.

And again.

I felt nauseous and gripped my knees to keep my stomach from expelling what little was left in me. It occurred to me that I hadn’t eaten in hours but I didn’t feel hungry, just sick. I opened my mouth dryly to ask in wonder to whether it was the last jump or not before they could try again when the lights flickered and went out. A low whine stalled to silence but then kicked back in as the emergency lighting crackled on, “Great, they broke it already.” I huffed, feeling half saddened and glad that we had finally stopped. Kavell stood slowly and wandered to the desk computer. I could see him looking up the engineering reports and flight logs as the nausea slowly left me. I wondered if he felt the same sickness… Doubt it.

Finally out of boredom and curiosity, I went for the door to see if anyone knew what was going on. I barely had time to touch the control panel before an arm shot between me and the controls. I glared at him, “What is with you?!” He shook his head and looked to the closed latch as though he was staring straight through it, “One of the engineers reported sabotage by a Necon. If it is true, then we may be in great danger but if not, we still are. This incident can likely spark something deadly between our races… Do you understand where I’m getting at?” I nodded but refused to believe him, “It was probably pilot or system error. Now get out of my way, I need to look around.” I ducked under his arm and touched the controls, opening the door. It was pretty quite in the hallway. The deep red lighting made the ship look eerily foreboding. The hairs on my neck stood as Kavell came out and stood uncomfortably close behind me, “Odd, where is everyone?” I wondered the same question and walked slowly down to the main hall, fighting the urge to run back to the safety of our room.

The sounds of pounding footsteps running towards us came to my ears shortly before Kavell pulled my body aside to the hallway’s edging. Heavily armored guards ran past us without ceasing a moment to see who they had almost run into. I couldn’t recognize any of them due to their battle ready attire but didn’t doubt that they were a mix of Necron and Human. The squad disappeared down the hall amidst shouts of orders from their squad leader. It wasn’t until they were out of earshot that Kavell released his grip on my arms and shook his head, muttering under his breath.

The rest of the halls were silent except for the few squads that ran to and fro from various places on the ship. Kavell kept annoyingly close behind me, almost to the point of stepping on my heels but it was a bit comforting knowing that he was there. Necrons had a way to sense what was around the corner and the running guards that raced throughout the ship to check on the various stations weren’t helping. In the hallway was a sub control panel meant for limited access to the mainframe. It served as a quick port to the computer systems for updates but for now it was all I had to use. I quickly went for it and searched through the recent data logs. Sure enough, one of the cores overheated and had shut the system down, leaving the ship to run on the main engines. Thankfully though, the fleet had jumped far enough away in various routes so as to ward off our attackers. It would only be less than an hour before the rest of the fleet would come back to our spot to search for us. In that case, the mechanics would have the core fixed in time to jump again to wherever the Commander was taking us all. Speaking of which, where were we heading? I scrolled through the plans warily, hoping that it was one of the few areas that would sustain us but judging from the charts and planned routes for the other ships in the fleet, the Commander was taking us to the farthest refuge where scientists have thought previously that we could possibly survive, the Siros system.

“There’s nothing but dead planets in that one.” Kavell had obviously looked over my shoulder to what I was viewing. I turned my head to him with a quizzical look, “It’s probably just a rally point for everyone. No one would look for us there. And besides, there’s at least water on one of Centros’s moons, see?” I pulled up one of the data logs for the moon that scientists have been studying. It was small but its puncture wounds from massive asteroids had opened up the underlying frozen tundra of oxygen and hydrogen. Perfect for water, after it was modified and filtered for impurities of course.

Kavell let out a huff signaling that he still disapproved of the situation and started touching the keypads, directing the screen to show other planetary systems. I looked at him with a stern face, “Kavell, what do you think you’re doing?” He disregarded my question until he found what he was apparently looking for, “Perseus. It has enough vegetation to make it temporarily habitable.” I looked at the screen at the tiny planet showing up as a golden speck on the monitor, “Temporarily?”

“The climate won’t suit humans for very long. There isn’t enough there to support everyone long term but for the time being, it’s a habitable planet that the Necrons quite possibly don’t know of. Only problem is that it’s a couple jumps farther from Centros and with these human engines…” I already knew what he was going to say. “But first, we have to inform this Commander of yours. He can make that decision.”

“Lead the way, bodyguard.” He flashed a look at me but it only made me smirk even more.

As we walked towards the central command station, I noticed more and more mechanics at various stations, both human and Necron alike. They didn’t even seem to notice us as we passed by them; too busy fixing various problems within the ship’s systems. The hallways still glowed in the deep red lighting, making it harder to find our way. Kavell’s superior sight made it easier to navigate and after a while he took my forearm to pull me in the right direction. Not that I didn’t mind it, it felt unnerving to be moved to and fro with him showing the way. A few times he had to push me to the side as more armed guards raced to their stations. Eventually we made it to the helm.

The Commander stood over star charts that were laid across a lit table. He seemed older than my late father and had a scowl across his face that made him seem like a cold man. A few subordinates were near him, strategizing over something but it wasn’t until the Commander glanced up and saw us that he made them silent. His eyes surveyed me before the hint of recognition filled them and he strode over to us, “Caelest Dyre, what a pleasure to see that you’re still alive.” He held his hands behind his back as though to show superiority, “It was unfortunate to hear of your father staying behind. He was… a thoughtful man.” I nodded my head slowly as the memories of what had transpired came back. “My name is Adrian Sutter but you will refer to me as Commander Sutter while you are aboard my ship. I have heard of your piloting abilities from your father. We may need to make use of them in the future.” He then glanced to Kavell who stood behind me, “And who is this Necron?” His voice grew acidic on the last word, displaying is obvious distaste for the species and confirmed the rumors I had heard about this man, “He is my bodyguard, Kavell. My father assigned him to me before he left us.” The Commander’s nose wrinkled slightly as Kavell gave an acknowledging nod. I ignored the man’s attitude and continued on, “We came to tell you of a planet that Kavell found to be more suitable than the current course of action. It’s just a few jumps farther from Centros but Kavell assured me that-” Commander Sutter growled lowly before I could finish, “You’d take the word of a Necron? A Necron who still holds onto its traditions?” He indicated towards the tattoos on my guard that were partially uncovered from his clothing. I honestly didn’t know the full meaning of them but it was rumored that Necronians were given them after certain war rituals. Each style signified the clan from which the Necron came from and each grew more and more intricate depending on the individual’s success in the battles they fought in. I could hear Kavell’s low growl from behind me as he pulled at the clothing over the marks once again. For once I wished we had gotten onto one of the civilian ships. I glared at the Commander with my chin raised, “Yes, I do. I’ve seen the charts myself. There is enough on the planet to make it a temporary outpost until another is found.” The man turned back to the table and set both hands on its edges, “And where is this so called planet?”

“Perseus. It’s in the Sunia system, just a few jumps from Centros.”

The Commander looked up at me with an annoyed look in his brown eyes, “I will look into it.” I sighed slightly in relief but was cut short when he continued, “But don’t make this a habit Caelest. You may be your father’s daughter but remind yourself that you are on my ship. Now go.” I turned and left quickly with Kavell following close to my side, “He’s a dangerous man, Cael.” I nodded in agreement and followed my guard as he led the way back to our quarters.