The Black

Captain Jacob Irving settled into the captain’s chair of Lucid Travelers bridge, taking in the new yet old sights and smells and sounds of departure. He was one of several Humans selected to command Delmar-flagged freighters. He smiled quietly at the thought of being called a “freighter”. So much had changed since the ill-fated attack that had taken one of his eyes.

Delmar freighters were more like family colonies that took contracts. A third of the crew was now Human. Most of them had been “adopted” by one family group or another, and last year’s training and shake down cruises had already yielded a well-adjusted crew, and a couple of surprises. One of those surprises stepped up to him with a pad.

“We have the last of the crew aboard, we have been cleared out” - first officer Hera’lene Orlivarro, formally of the Delmar Defence Force handed him the pad.

“Ah, thank you, Hera. Helm, let’s light the fires. Loose moorings and come about. Make for the beacon, all ahead half.” the Human Captain ordered calmly.

Confirmation calls rang out as Jake laid a hand lightly on an arm rest, feeling Traveler come to life. He had been invited to dinner by the Grarzia’s and the Stevens months ago now and had been surprised to meet the current commander of Port Royal, who also happened to be the previous captain of the Traveler. The night was spent with good food, good drink, and a crash course on all of Traveler’s quirks by the people who knew her best. Hera had shown up as well, and Jacob had learned she was Frie’s sister. Commodore Stevens had met his bride through Hera, but much had been left unsaid. Mackenzie had gotten a boisterous laugh out of Jake still wearing the eye patch given to him at their first meeting.

“Moorings loosed, coming about to course, ETA 3 hours” the Helm reported.

“Once on course, ahead full. Let’s stretch her legs” Captain Irving stated standing and turning to his first officer with a polite smile. “XO? Care to join me for a bite? I need your insight on our first stop.”

“Aye Captain,” Hera nodded; suppressing the urge to snap a salute, if somewhat more easily than her first weeks aboard, “should I have our meals delivered to your office?”

“The mess will do, unless you’re asking me out number 1?” Jake grinned, blatantly poking at Hera’s sense of protocol, as one or two humans of the crew snorted.

“The mess will be fine… Captain” Hera leveled a withering stare that thoroughly failed to penetrate the human’s grin.

————————————————————

Tristen stood in the middle of a very different style of bridge. He had jumped at the bonus to get certified and Captain a human ship, big families were expensive, and until Sol had reached out to Delmar; the captaincy berths were all filled.

“Captain, your old haunt is off the port side” Aaron Diggs, his XO mentioned before swinging the optical screens field of view to watch Lucid Traveler burn past Port Royal burn for the beacon. “I still don’t get how different our freighter designs are”

“They do differ quite a bit” Tristen chuckled, holding on to a bar next to his temple. He was only standing in principal. Human freighter chose to forgo artificial gravity in service to the alter of speed. “Our stops have always been in a cluster of life, we had to plan to LIVE in between the stars, not just work in our own solar system. I suspect someone will blend the concepts and make both these types obsolete one day”

“Your lips to gods ears, I’m on a waiting list for a Delmar Berth. I want to see what it’s like.” The helms officer stated. Her brown hair tucked into a bun as she floated by to her “cubie.”

Human ships were designed with crew comfort third. Tristen was standing at the one spot designed to be “stood” at. It was just tall enough for him to stand, but his view was not that out of an observation window, but through a series of 9 screens that depicted either outside scenes, data or a HUD combination of both. Each position on the bridge was a sunken in slot in Tristen’s “floor” and a captain’s chair could be extended from the floor Tristen was standing on.

The Delmar sensor and communications officer snuggled into her cubie next and poked at her controls “we have our clearances, Captain. We can push back whenever we are ready.”

“Very well Risa’del, sent them the launch request. We have a long way to go.” Tristen stated.

His command was “S.F.S. Star Duster” was filled to her spine with cargo bound for Sol. Humanity had been just as starved for exotic foods and culture as Delmar had been for the same from Humanity. Half of her capacity was occupied with bio beds and Delmar made nano tech fabricators. They were going to jumpstart the drought that was humanities economy post extermination of half of their species in war. The other half of the cargo was food stuff, jewelry, hard drives full of Delmar media and galactic data to large in size to be transmitted. Data took energy and was still not expensive to send a movie in a subspace packet than to get that data to sol to be distributed there.

Star Duster shuddered as she was released of her docking clamps and began her turn toward the beacon, but not quite.

“Helm, get me a triangulated course, I want to drop out on our mission designated destination.”

“Course for pandora MOA, Terra is already laid in Captain” Risa smiled from the helm.

“All stations report green, Cap’n.” Tristen’s XO stated as he took his own cubical.

Tristen activated his captain’s chair and settled in “Jump in 20, MARK!” He stated as he scanned through his screens.

20 seconds later Tristen watched the front viewer as he took his 1st non simulated jump into Slipspace.

_________________________________________________________________________________________________

Captain Morino Yasushi settled into his command chair on SEV Excelsior as she Burned out of the Grasp of Mar’s Gravity. Phobus had become the de- facto staging area for Humanities “Galaxy Shot” His ship had just returned from refit and resupply from the mission that shattered Humanities understanding of the surrounding space between them and the Unity. As part of Yasu’s debrief and update on information he would need for further missions, he had read the debrief and Report of the Ambassador to Delmar’s defense of their home system from an attack by an enemy that was apparently responsible for the galactic scale genocide that was to be Terra’s birthright… The captain shifted in his seat uncomfortable with Humanities place as the Benefactor of the resources left behind by not only hundreds of billions murdered… but possibly hundreds of civilizations exterminated in a galactic spanning species civil war that echo’d all to close to familiar for Yasu’s taste.

“Captain?” a young man asked a second time, stirring Yasushi from his thoughts.

“Yes, Ensign what can I do for you” The Captain stood to greet the young man.

“Ensign Patterson, Warren Patterson reporting for duty sir.” The young man responded.

“Ah, yes. Our new weapons officer, to see to our safety in this dangerous new expanse we find ourselves diving into.” Yasushi greeted the man with a warm smile, “Forgive me, but Why Ensign.”

“Your weapons and shields upgrades” Ensign Patterson stated, “I helped design them, I wanted to be on the ship they were being rapid prototyped on so that I can ensure their function should we have any problems. As for why I am still an Ensign, I’m still 17 years old Captain. I won’t be of age to take a Lieutenants test for another 8 months.”

“Times are certainly interesting. Welcome aboard Ensign, I suspect that you will do well here. Run me through our upgrades if you please. I’m afraid that was one of the files I was forced to skim during our lay- over.” Yasu smiled as he indicated to the Tactical controls alongside the Helm at the front of the bridge.

“Certainly captain” the Ensign instantly lit up, “All of Excelsior’s weapons are still of known types. However, our friends on the other side of “The Pond”, as it were, have spent millennia working with minimal power generation abilities. Because Humanity has just been able to play a game of “no replacement for displacement” our whole existence, we can generate absurd amounts of power by galactic standards, but our management of that power is.. sub par.”

The Ensign swiped his hand across one panel with practiced ease bringing up the power grid of Excelsior. “Excelsior is one of the first retrofitted ships of Sol to have the power efficiency concepts and technologies incorporated into her existing grid. You will not be able to attain the efficiencies as any of our later purpose build Sol or Delmar Hybrid ships; but with our efficiency gains and an upgraded Plasma Fusion Reactor Cluster Core using the same concepts. You now have an old surplus Corvette Class Martian PAC nested in with your MAC cannon. One of our Brilliant Allies figured out a way to minimize a PAC to fit into a Terran TALON3, and sent the blueprints over some time ago. Half of your GAU34’s have been replaced with Compact PAC’s, or “PAC-C’s”. Yes, your power core cluster is capable of running everything at full power. However, you’re power core is now backed up with system specific power banks using our capacitor technology and Delmar efficiency concepts so that should you need extra power to one system, or to say, a damage control forcefield...”

“Or an over stressed shield generator or heat dissipation system/” Yasushi stated pointedly.

“Well, yes, that as well” Patterson stated gamely. “You have a 1 hour run time at maximum draw from each of the power banks from their respective systems. Simply put, you now have built in, constantly ready, breathing room for emergency situations.”

“Excelsior sounds more like a warship…” Captain Yasushi stated warily.

“Captain. Excelsior, as she lays, could take any cruiser or destroyer class warships from the GSW in a duel, Martian or Terran.” Patterson waited as his Captain took in a low long breath at that, “Our new model Warships will be that much more capable because we are building in this new technology from the ground up. The balance of power between science vessel and Warship will still be preserved, Captain.”

“I see, I pray we don’t have to use this; but I fear we may be forced to as we stretch the edges of the map.”

“Hic Sunt Dracones” Patterson responded, drawing a raised eyebrow from his captain. “It’s Latin captain. It was a medieval practice of putting monsters and dragon iconography on the edges of maps denoting the lack of information of the unknown. We are, from a certain point of view, sailing off the edge of the maps.”

“I’m aware of the reference, my boy. I’m entertained to hear someone so young to make it” The captain smirked at the boy.

“We’ve all had to grow up quickly, Captain.” The man said somberly.

“Indeed, Take you station Ensign. We depart shortly” The Captain slapped the man lightly on the back, and the young man sat in his chair and strapped in.

“Com, request our release, we have a schedule to keep.” Captain Yasushi returned to his chair, standing in front of it, casually scanning his bridge as the crewmen bent to their tasks.

“Release granted; Confirmation will trigger our moorings,” The Com’s officer stated after a moment

“Confirm. Once loose come about to our scheduled Course. Notify Triton and Charon we will be meeting them at the departure point on schedule.” Yasushi stated. Excelsior barely shuddered as she shed her mooring and swung her head toward the outskirts of the Sol system.

______________________________________________________________

Hera settled back in her seat as she observed her captain as he wandered back from his second trip to the line to grab a desert this time. They had just initiated their first jump of the season, which had pushed lunch back considerably.

She had gotten to know Jacob a little bit, during her time with Clint and Frie; but this man was still a complete mystery. He acted nothing like Clint did. This Human was extremely abhorrent of protocol, and refused to use titles, or have titles used on him in informal settings. He lacked the Edge that made the Prey instincts of Hera tickle the back of her mind, like spending any amount of time with Clint or Mac tended to do when they let their guard down. This Jacob Irving seemed to not wear a mask of civility like most of the rest of the humans she had met were obviously wearing out of politeness. She shivered slightly as she remembered the night Clint had dropped his walls and shown her how intense Humanity could be.

“Cold?” Jacob startled her, settling down into his chair once more.

“No, just… Intense memories. So, what can I help you out with.” She pointedly changed the subject.

Jake just shrugged, “Our first Contract is for semiconductors out of Ya’shir 3. I’ve read the report blurb on the planet. It’s about 3 days from here. I want to know what’s not going to be on the tourist pamphlet.”

“Ah, Ya’shir is bit of a wildcard world. They are an industrial world that has long since lost its ecosystems. It still has a breathable atmosphere, but I would recommend at least a breathing apparatus for filtering out the pollution during our trips outside of the City’s buildings. We will need to shuttle down to inspect the product as it is being loaded, this is a high-flow production facility. Our ship is a respectable freighter in the grand scheme of the Unity, but her cargo capacity could be written off in the margins of Ya’shir’s weekly schedule losses. It will be up to us to ensure we get what we came for.”

“Bribes?” Jake asked between bites, infuriatingly not worried in the slightest. He even took a moment to wave to some as they entered the mess.

“Not as such. But courtesy and “Building Relationships” will be a big part of this. The Previous Captain of this Vessel had a contact that he maintained a mutual working relationship with.

“Ah, Ri’lirithor Criguv’orla. Silu told me about him. Slimy but straightforward. I’ve known the type. I have a case of Human Whiskey’s in my quarters for people like that. I doubt he will be able to resist something that literally doesn’t exist anywhere else in the Unity.” Jake chuckled.

“A good start, to be sure. Just don’t get him too accustomed to lavishness. Make this more of an ‘introduction’ gift.” Hera stated, observing her captain openly.

“Is there something on my face XO?” Jake half joked, but still wiped his mouth with a napkin just in case.

“No, it’s… It’s nothing” Hera stated

“Hera, It’s not nothing. It’s not been nothing since the dinner with the Commodores and the Ambassador.” Jacob stated flatly.

“Oh… It’s.. You are very unlike almost every human. I was in a... Courting relationship with Clint and Frie.. You’ve been informed on how Delmar chose mates?” She asked.

“Ah… Yes, I am. You and your sister chose to do it the more traditional way because of your parents’ absence, I assume. It’s the only way two of you would go after the same man in the modern era. I’ve done my homework XO” Jake said softly, but leaned in. allowing her to talk more softly as she did the same.

“It’s not common knowledge that I courted Clint, uh, Commodore Stevens… My sister ended up claiming him when I backed out.. I found his human side… intense, violent, and terrifying. He never hurt me or threatened me.. but the back of my mind couldn’t shake the feeling of being inside a cage with a sleeping Gri’Kra the entire time I was around him.” Hera shuddered slightly, “I know my sister is safe with him, I will always consider him a friend. He pulled me from the void. when my ship was murdered by the V.R. in their attack” She paused as Jacob nodded in understanding, “But the Apex Predator in him is always just below the surface… But you, I don’t get you. If I didn’t know better, I would swear you acted more Delmar.. or Something less aggressive than your species History and development suggests.”

“I see... Well, Thank you. That was not easy for you to tell me. I know you had to give your file to apply for this position. I have read it. It’s the reason I asked for you personally.” Hera’s head snapped up as she stared into Jacob’s one remaining eye but he continued, “You are trying to, what my people would call, ‘get back on the horse’. To translate, you love being in space, the void. But you don’t want to return to the military service that took so much from you. You still want a life in The Black. I recognized myself in that respect.”

“you? You don’t seem the type to have been front-line military” Hera raised an eyebrow.

“Some of us healed better than others… As for you and the Comodore, His branch during the war had two types of people serving in it. The hyper-calculatingly aggressive…. And the dead. If Humanity is the Apex of Terra… People like James Mackenzie, and Clint Stevens are the Apexes of Humanity. You chose one of the most intense Humans I have ever met to try to have a relationship with. It’s not for everyone, just the slightly insane ones.” Jake grinned slightly at the pointed look Hera gave him.

Hera held her look for a moment before sighing, “I guess you have a point. Frie and Lryi were always the wild ones… Thank you.”

“I need my XO at her best. Now, tell me about the loading systems at Ya’shir3.” Jacob smiled as His first officer visibly relaxed near him for the first time in his memory and began again on their destination.

____________________________________________________________________

Ambassador Gwen stepped into her physician’s office of Tranquility, “Doc you wished to see me?”

“Yes, I have some…. Disturbing news for you Gwen.” Doc always used her real name when in private, it kept both of them grounded. “We ran tests on your through the beds after you returned from the Corth ship… You are perfectly healthy, too perfectly healthy…”

“Doc… Eric… Tell me straight.” Gwen asked slowly.

“We think it was the transportation technology that the Corth used… We have found de aging signs in your DNA, as well as evidence of a deep full body genetic sequencing scan… You were scanned down to the molecule during your trips in their “transporter” … Your visible age hasn’t changed… but Your body is in perfect health for a woman 20 years your junior… This Corth… She both gave you a new lease on life… and took every piece of information on Humanity that your body had to offer…”

Gwen wrapped her arms around herself tightly, “That’s… disturbing.” She couldn’t shake the slight feeling of violation that this information gave her. “Is there anything we can learn from my new condition?”

“There is, we believe that if we do the same deep scan, we can possibly figure out how to do it. I know you Gwen, I know you are thinking about it. Be sure, I don’t want to push this on you” Eric said softly.

“Doc, Humanity needs to rebuild... If that bitch accidentally gave us the key to immortality… we need to know…” Gwen stated through gritted teeth,

“Start the procedure”

______________________________________________________________________

Aiericastum monitored the satellite feed from the Delmar system. She had strategically placed piggyback programs into the network protocols that Delmar shared with the rest of the Unity to use their own satellites to monitor them. She had seen the earlier interaction between the Ambassador and her physicians. It had taken them far longer than she had expected to discover her little quid pro quo between Ambassador Gwen and herself. She had complete access to most of the minimally secure systems that shared Unity Technology. Terran Technology seemed to evade or obliterate her infiltrations, almost out of hand.

She watched as Ambassador Gwen sank into her office chair, pulling a half empty bottle of intoxicant from her desk before pouring a glass. ‘That will not due’ Aiericastum thought before initiating a live message.

Gwen was just touching the glass to her lips when her screen flashed black and block letters appeared... Gwen’s eyes narrowed as the letters scrolled across the hijacked console.

“Ambassador, we must speak. Sober if possible”