The Black

Morino Yasushi sat in the captain’s chair of the SEV Excelsior, namesake of her class. No amount of ribbing was spared by his friends, family, and some of his crew on his appointment to her Captaincy. His first officer had even gifted him a picture of George Takei in uniform as “Captain Sulu” on the bridge of the science fiction ship of the same name.

Excelsior held little resemblance to her fantasy-inspired namesake. She was a squat squared-off torpedo shape with a bulbous-nosed bow and a cluster of 5 sub-light drives in pods on her aft. Her bow’s shape was from following function, and she carried a vast sensor suite for orbital survey and planetary scanning. She also carried a much larger than normal, for her size, crew complement. At 7km in length by just over 4km at her beam, a warship of her size should only carry 1500 crewmen and women. Excelsior was packed with almost 4000 men and women along with terraforming equipment, shuttles, and food stores. Her working crew was only about 2000, with the other half being terraforming/exploration crews and surveyors. Humanity had learned from the aggressiveness of the Unity's first contacts with them, and Excelsior was armed. She did not carry the weight of fire of a warship her size, but she could deploy a single R.M. 1005 from the forward section of her keel that could fire in a 270-degree arc centered about the bow. She also carried 6 automated GAU34 turrets and 4 turreted laser emitters for point defense. She did not carry the ammunition stores of a warship, but she could bear her claws if needed.

The Excelsiors were the heart of an exploration flotilla. There were 25, of these flotillas, being deployed throughout unexplored sectors, in the next few weeks. A total of 250 would be loosed upon the void as the vessels’ construction completed. Each flotilla had an exploration vessel such as Excelsior at their core surrounded by 2 new alliance class destroyers.

These new ships were the first off the line of new combined Terra - Mars designs and contained the latest of both Design evolutions. Each of the new Alliances’, coated in latest generation Martian stealth, adopted the Terran Rheinmetall RM1005s as the primary forward fixed armament. Each Destroyer had a pair of them in deployable pods that could fire in a 25-degree arch in front of the destroyers.

While their point defenses mimicked Excelsior in both number and type, each Alliance had the next-generation Fusion core power system. This allowed them, with the aid of the “Bank” system, to power 2 PAC emitter Turrets. One turret located along their dorsal section amidships, and one along the keel just aft of the beam, these new ships theoretically packed the destructive power of a light cruiser, while being slightly larger than the corvette class Destroyers of the war. The new alliance class destroyer only measured 2km stem to stern and 250 meters at the beam, and a prow reminiscent of a black tip reef shark of Terra.

Humanity had combined the bank systems used by the Delmar and the rest of the Unity with their own capacitance technology, and their power output capabilities. While the main cores were designed to power all systems at the same time, it was no longer required to in emergency or exigent circumstances. This modified version of the “power bank” system allowed power to be transferred as need be. Each alliance class had 4 “reserve banks”. Shields, point defense, PACs, and MAC all had back up power banks should the core be needed to provide extra power to one system or another, allowing a ‘neglected’ system to stay operational for a time while the main power was needed elsewhere.

Excelsior would commence her 2 year, or two-planet exploration voyage in a matter of moments. The two-planet limit was due to her supplies. Excelsior’s goal was to drop two exploration crews 1000 strong at individual planets respectively. One Destroyer would remain in orbit above each selected planet, and Excelsior was to jump for Sol to get two more exploration crews and two more destroyers. Her escorts for this maiden voyage were the USN Phobus and USN Luna. He smiled as he looked out of the observation blister of the navigational bridge, observing the two sleek hulls in formation with his charge. Someone on Luna, possibly her Floridian Captain, had gotten a shark’s face painted about the bow of his command. Yasushi shook his head and chuckled, ‘at least it’s smartly done’.

The Sol Federation had decided to name all combined designed “Hybrid” ships that were to become the backbone of the USN after a fashion. All Destroyers of any class were to be named after moons in the Sol system, all Cruiser classes would be named after pre GSW Military figures, Dreadnaught classes were to be named from the planets of Sol. The names of the yet-to-be-built Ships of the Line would be reserved as Memorial to Humanity: Locations, places, landmarks, Battles, distinguished ships of the war ect.. exceptions would be on an individual basis and had to be petitioned by the inaugural crew before launch and voted on by the council.

“Captain, Excelsior reads green across the board.. Luna and Phobos report ready for nav-sync.” The young ensign reported from a distinctly civilian hybrid internal/external communication station called “Ops”.

“Nav’s synced and locked in Captain.” Called the Nav station.

“Excellent, execute Burn, standard Rate. Helm, Jump when ready.”

The hum of power shifted only slightly as Excelsior’s sublight drives bellowed to life, their faint blue glow of idle giving way to a brighter hue with flickers of orange and white as the drive’s burner nozzles managed the flow of power. The Exploration ship burned for her jump point at a sedately 4 Human G’s, which was a standard acceleration rate chosen by Sol. Inertial dampeners on ships of this size made the burn almost imperceptible.

20 min later, SEV Excelsior and her entourage departed for their first leg into the Black

——————————————————————

Celestial Traveler dropped out of subspace and Captain Olyvia Morallus’ eyes widened in shock.

“Captain! Multiple targetting systems have locked us!” The Sensor/navigation station cried moments after their arrival.

“COME ABOUT, make 228 by 339! Ahead Flank!!”

Celestial Traveller had been on a long haul with a faulty subspace transceiver. This was the first time they had contacted the home-world in almost 2 years, skipping one of her overhauls to complete the contract. The aging Freighter heaved to her orders as sensors showed multiple unidentified and heavily armed warships flanking a station that shouldn’t be there... Captain Morallus mentally prepared herself for incoming fire…. But nothing happened….

“Uh…. Ma’am, we are being Haled, a ‘Commander Silu’ of ‘Port Royal’ station.”

Olyvia glanced at her sensor officer, “Commander Silu? Status on those locks!”

“We are reading the sensor lock, but no longer the targeting arrays. no energy patterns consistent with weapons banks. These power readings are off the charts.” Came the response

“Put up the hale… resume course, keep the shields up.”

The Holographic feed sputtered to life, flickering slightly from the freighter-damaged Com’s array.

“Captain Morallus, Welcome to Port Royal.” The former captain of her freighter’s sister ship looked a little older, same familiar scar and blind eye though. He lacked his habitual Saber but leaned unobtrusively against a sturdy straight cane.

“Commander Silu, do you mind telling me why I am being targeted by Foreign Warships, upon entry into my Home system?” Morallus was fuming. ‘What the fuck is going on’.

“Captain, my apologies. Much has changed since your last departure. We did send out Delmar security codes over the private channels some months ago, along with an explanation.” Silu remarked just as a Dark-skinned Alien in a strange uniform walked up to him and whispered something in his ear, “Ah, thank you, Philip. We are reading that you have a disabled long-distance Subspace Array. That would explain much of your consternation. Please Captain, Dock and Come aboard Port Royal for Debriefing. Customs will be going through its inspection shortly. It is one of the newer… precautions we have had to take.”

Captain Morallus recognized the hint of an order in his voice. Silu was being polite, but this was not an optional request. “Confirmed, I see a clearance for Bay 4. We will proceed there presently.” She nodded her acceptance.

“Please do not trouble yourself Captain. Your questions will soon be answered” Silu smiled and cut the connection.

“What the fuck was that!” Lieutenant Grarzia asked quietly.

“I suspect we will find out” Captain Morallus responded as two very fast and strange-shaped fighters flew out to meet Celestial Traveler and escorted her into her assigned docking bay.. The fighters broke off with a maneuver that made Morallus worry what kind of Inertial dampeners they had.

“Lieutenant, finish the docking procedure.” She gave him a smirk, “Don’t scratch my ship, Grarzia”. With that, she left the bridge.

5 minutes later Olyvia Morralus stepped off the airlock tube into the titanic outer ring of Port Royal as she recognized Silu walking up with the same dark skinned shorter Being in the strange almost black, blue uniform with silver accents.

“Silu, you old Pirate… you got your hands on a space station? And some new friends I see.” She prodded gently with a smile.

“It’s good to see you to Oly, yes, I am in command of Port Royal; but much more is happening and has happened. I would like you to meet my first officer.”

“Lieutenant Philip Kenyi, United Sol Navy, Human; at your service Ma’am.” the strange being said with a slight accent to his Delmar. He gave a traditional Delmar greeting before smiling at Olyvia’s shock as another being, with pasty whitish pink skin and shaggy brown hair walked past the group and saluted both Silu and Philip.

Olyvia looked Silu’s first officer over. He was a chocolate brown, almost the color of the void itself from head to toe with bright active brown eyes that never seemed to stop moving completely as he paid close attention to his surroundings. The palms of his hands were a slightly lighter color of the same brown and he had short, cropped hair and a clean shaved face. “A pleasure to meet you Mr. Kenyi” She said finally, growing even more confused as a third ‘human’ walked by with shaggy dark reddish hair and bright blue eyes with little dots on her cheeks.

“Hey Phil, are we still on for tonight?” The young woman asked.

“Of course, 1920?” Philip responded. The woman nodded and flashed a smile that showed all her teeth before spinning and walking off. She was wearing civilian-style clothing, not a uniform.

“Ok… What the hell is going on...” Oly finally cracked, glaring at Silu.

“Yes, let us begin that in my office, shall we? Philip, send an orderly with some refreshments then see we are not disturbed. Then, take the day saving an emergency” Silu nodded to the shorter, ‘human’.

“Grazia, you deal with this new, ‘customs’. I want a full report on what they touched and didn’t in the morning.”

“Yes, Captain” Grarzia bowed slightly then made his way back into Celestial Traveler.

“Oly, Come. We have much to discuss.” Silu waved her towards his side as they walked to his office.

_____________________________________________________________________________________

Mac rang the doorbell on one of the doors of the Guest apartments in The Hall of Tribe Helyon. The door opened after a moment and Growrmun stared down at him. “…. Mackenzie” he growled. He still spat his name like he had spat the name “Demon” but at least he was using Mac’s real name.

“May I come in?” Mac asked calmly.

“Dear?” Came His mate's voice from deeper inside the abode. Mac caught a glimpse of her, with their son on her hip feeding him a bottle.

“Come” Growrmun grumbled and stood aside, waving Mac into the Living room. He moved passed Mac, to sit in one of the chairs facing a fireplace that was unused at the current season. “What do you want Mackenzie.”

“Two things really. The Unity is sending an Envoy fleet to open a dialogue. I am here to ask you to meet with the Delmar Council. They hope you can provide some insight.” Mac stated.

“I will disappoint them. I was just an Operative, They... pointed me at a problem and told me to solve it. They never told me why. However, I will meet with the council, I am granted Asylum after all..” Growrmun didn’t look up. He just stared at his claws. “I have no purpose Mackenzie…”

Young Ragarai bounded up on all fours, looking every bit the adorable Husky puppy from terra, and stood up to ask to be picked up by his father. Growrmun picked him up and gave him a scratch behind the ears.

“I would say you have a pretty important purpose right there. That’s the second thing I wanted to talk to you about. The twins and your boy are fairly close in age. They seemed to enjoy each other’s company. I would like to invite your son to my twins’ first-year birthday party. Your whole family is welcome. It’s not for a couple of months yet. You don’t have to give us an answer now.” Mac stood and offered a hand in what Growrmun had learned was a human gesture of friendship, “I know we won’t be friends, but I do want us as allies.”

“We will see, Mackenzie. Thank you for stopping by.” Growrmun took the offered hand and Mac gave it one shake before walking to the door and leaving.

Growrmun watched Mackenzie go and stared at the door, absent-mindedly scratching his son’s ears.

“Dear?” Vivaria asked again, coming in to check on the two, “Supper is ready.”

“Ah, smells wonderful…. What do you make of... Mackenzie” Growrmun followed his wife into the kitchen table area and settles young Ragarai into his chair.

“He is strange. Very intense, but very gentle with his little ones and with our son. His mate is a little bubbly, but very motherly, and much stronger than a normal Delmar. They are well-matched. I lean toward trusting them. Why?” She responded.

“They wish Ragarai to come to their twin's birth party.” Growrmun.

“I see no problem with Ragarai going. I can take him if you do not wish to go.” Vivarai earned a complicated gaze from her mate.

“Do you afford them that level of comfort?” He asked.

“I don’t know, I do know that they bent over backward to keep me and our son safe. I doubt he will be in any danger from them at a children’s birth party.” Vivaria responded.

“Perhaps. Let’s eat.” Growrmun states as the family settled in for dinner.

­____________________________________________________________________________________

“I think I’ll take something a bit stronger,” Olyvia stated after a long moment of contemplation. Much had been revealed in the Debrief that had changed her outlook on the entire galaxy, “You’re telling me, that a fluke accident, by a race that just discovered FTL… sent one of their own 20 years distance in a matter of hours, have technology that renders most UGN capital ships into space dust, and are now allies that aren’t trying to take over the Galaxy?”

“Well, when you put it that way, I seem downright terrifying.” Chuckled Ambassador Gwen chuckled from her seat, sipping on a coffee.

“That’s because you are Ambassador… Humanity, the Galaxy is not ready for you.” Olyvia stated flatly, “Now, with This ‘Diplomatic’ group from the UGN coming…”

“We will take each bridge as it comes. I know you will like the upgrades to Celest. Humanity is gifting every freighter that will accept it, a remote gunnery system and their Cerebral Scan Technology for the gunners. You won’t lose people every time a turret gets taken out anymore.” Gwen stated.

“I truly thank you for that Captain. What I am not sure of are the hybrid crews. Humans and Delmar… I just don’t know.” Olyvia stared earnestly into Gwen’s eyes.

“We will have plenty of time to figure that out.” Silu looked down at his console, “Customs has cleared you Captain, it appears that Fearless Traveler has seen fit to join us. If you could, we would swap your two ships. Consider your ship cleared for departure for drydock.”

The three of them stood to leave and Some time later Olyvia stood again on the bridge of her Celest. “Something bothering you, Captain?” It was Corellus Grarzia, her second in command.

“Many things, but not enough time to explain. Loose Moorings, Lieutenant. We will continue this after we are under weigh,” Captain Morallus states and stepped into her ready room. She had transfers to look over. She had planned to promote Grarzia to first officer with her previous first officer in medbay with a virus picked up in their offload port. He was stable, but needed a hospital and was basically 1st officer in name only. She hadn’t had the heart to remove him on his last trip before retirement, and Grarzia had insisted he stay at his current rank in honor of the man who had mentored him.

This was going to be a long refit...

_____________________________________________________________________________________

It was early the next morning when Nicole showed up to watch the kids, on another day off. She had been dubbed “Aniky” by the twins who were just now starting to try words, a little quicker for Human babies, a little slower than a Delmar.

“You ok ‘Aunt Nicky’” Lyrian giggled as she grabbed her and Mac’s day packs. Mac pulled his G suit fully on.

“Oh go, me and the little ones will meet you on the tarmac!” Nicole giggled. She had a pranking streak almost as wide as Mac’s. Lyrian and Her had become very close over the last year. Nicole was basically family at this point. “We’re Fine Cher’, Geaux!” she said, putting her Cajun inflection into the word.

With that Lyrian bounded out the door after Mac who was already doing the exterior preflight for Concord.

“We good?” She called as she rounded the corner to find Mac unclipping the last of the ‘remove before flight’ tabs.

“Yup! You got his Shuttle code?” Mac said, vaulting up to the canopy, quickly followed by Lyrian.

“Got it, 2877409. A little bird told me he just launched. He always did like to fly himself, when he could.” Lyri said, strapping into Concord.

The Alpha Sync was activated shortly after and in-cockpit checks flew past them at the speed of the mind.

Concord Roared to life, not bothering to initiate a hover as she howled down the runway and into the skies above Delmar.

_____________________________________________________________________________________

*Celest Shuttle 2877409, Helyon atmospheric approach control on point 778. How copy 409*

‘that’s odd, we just got cleared’ “409 copies on 778. Is there a problem, Control?” Lt Corellus Grarzia keyed into the mic.

*We have an inspection on approach. Maintain course and speed. They will be there in the next 90 seconds*

“Inspection? Control, 409, am I leaking something?” Corellus furrowed his brow, re-checking his instruments

*Unsure, they used the Military inspection codes, it’s not up to me. They have reported you in-site*

“Roger Control, 409 looking.” Corelius released his mic key and looked around, “You see them, Laris.”

“Nope Cory, I aint got shit.” Laris, his copilot and oldest friend on Celest muttered, still scanning visually.

“Control, 409 is no joy, holding course and speed.” Corelius spoke into the mic.

*Off your Larboard Cory* came a new voice into his headset. A shadow crossed over Corelius’s control panel as his head snapped to the left just in time to see a Massive grey and black fighter of some kind loom up from below his left side and gracefully role to match his course and speed, but upside down with its canopy facing the cockpit of the shuttle from above.

“Holy Fucking Shit Where did you come from!” Corellus swore.

*From below you* The voice said, *Inspection complete, Cobra 224 breaking off* and the shuttle shook as the metallic bird of prey throttled up and barrel rolled out in front of the shuttle before accelerating away faster than anything Corellus had seen in his life.

“L.T…. That thing didn’t come up on sensors… at all…” Laris whispered, “We were looking right at it from 3 meters… and the Sensors couldn’t pick it up…”

“What the void happened while we were gone…” Corellus and Laris shared a look and proceeded to the landing zone.

20 minutes later, they were touched down at the shuttle terminal. Laris was just finishing the offload of crew and equipment before handing the shuttle off to its normal crew when a soul-shaking deep piercing Howl drowned out all sound on the shuttle tarmac. That same Death-Bird came soaring overhead coming to rest in one of the open shuttle slots. Moments later, the cockpit opened, and two Void-suit clad individuals climbed out and nodded to security who had quardened off the terrifyingly predatory ship from the rest of the tarmac. The two void-suits walked toward the shuttle as Corellus stepped out down the ramp.

Laris flicked a glance, alerting Corellus to their visitors.

Corellus put on his best stern face, “You two not finished your ‘inspection’ yet?”

The seals hisses as the helmets retracted themselves; Corellus’ stern scolding morphed into pure unadulterated shock as long silver hair and a familiar face was freed into the late summer air.

“Oh Cory, you were always so easy to rile.” The now familiar voice spoke behind a satisfied smirk and mischievous eyes.

“LYRIAN!” Cory squawked as he realized what had just happened. Lyrian pounced and gave him a crushing hug.

“I’ve missed you brother, I’ve missed you!” She held the embrace for several moments until a wheeze for air finally escaped her older brother. She released him a little sheepishly.

Cory sucked in a massive breath of air, “When did you start crushing people! And When did you learn to fly a Fighter... like THAT!!” Cory swiped away the poking finger of a catatonically shocked Larus “Wait, HOW do you own a fucking starfighter!!” he heaved, finally running out of breath. “WHAT!!” He turned to Laris.

“Most of those I can explain easily.” Lyrian grinned as she walked over to the subject of Laris’ shock causing Cory to follow her with his eyes only to have them widen as he realized; the speaker in the other void suit was human.

Lyian grinned unrepentantly, “I’d like you to meet my Husband, Mac. Mac, my oldest Brother Cory.”