*****Audio File***** "Chapter 36 - Stowaway - Audio File" [The White Raven, Chapter 36, Stowaway] [Dart Ship, Shadow of Nephilim - 3rd Moon of Planet Demonia] “I haven’t seen a single patrol ship,” says Ring. “Nothing on sensors either,” replies Vel adjusting the knobs on the control panel in front of her. “I think it’s safe to approach the planet.” “Our Fleet might still be chasing the pirate fleet,” says Ring. “It’s been months, has the planet been unguarded this whole time?” asks Vel. Ring navigates the borrowed Dart ship away from the moon they were hiding behind and around the debris fields spreading outward from the planet. “I still can’t believe what a mess it is out here,” says Ring. “I know, think about how many destroyed ships it took to create this mess,” says Vel. “I don’t think anyone realizes just how much of the Kitsune Fleet was destroyed. Prince Mischief is the second highest ranking Kitsune and he’s flying in an old Panther Interceptor that came out of a scrap yard, and have you noticed this is a First Generation Dart.” “Hard not to notice, this thing is probably a hundred years old, and I don’t think it’s in very good shape,” says Vel. “We’re using oxygen faster than we should, there might be a leak somewhere.” “There’s the planet, any patrols?” asks Ring. “Still nothing, this is an abandoned solar system,” replies Vel. “The Commonwealth Senate lied, and I think the Demonians know it, or might even be in on it,” says Ring. “This is a dead world, they have no intention of wasting resources guarding it, that’s why Prince Vengeance wasn’t interested, he believes this world will never support life again.” “Where’s all the salvage crews?” asks Vel. Ring stares out at the wealth of salvage floating around the planet, there’s enough debris to keep hundreds of salvage ships employed for decades. “Vel,” says Ring, his voice tense. “Oh ancestors,” says Vel. “I’m scanning now…” “They’re gone, aren’t they?” says Ring. “Not a single salvage crew anywhere,” replies Vel. “Scan the navigation lanes,” says Ring. “I'm trying, there should be one right in front of us,” replies Vel. “They’re all gone, aren’t they?” asks Ring. “Jon Black closed them down.” “Yes, even the one back to Darai is collapsing,” says Vel. “Nobody will ever come here again.” “What’s the travel time back to Darai without the navigation lanes?” asks Ring. “Three-hundred twenty-seven years,” replies Vel. The navigation lanes are a nearly infinite and intricate network of wormholes controlled by Jon Black that criss-cross the galaxy like roads between every possible destination. Without them, even at TDS, travel between worlds would be impossible in anything other than generational Galaxy Ships. “It’s a good thing Prince Mischief’s Fleet left for Kitsune already,” says Ring. “They would have been trapped at the edge of the solar system.” “Why do you think Jon Black shut down access to this system?” asks Vel. “A great civilization lived here once,” replies Ring. “I would guess he is preserving it as a monument to their achievements.” “What about us?” asks Vel. “We’re trapped.” “I think we’re still okay,” says Ring. “Raen will get worried eventually and check on us and see that the lanes are closed, and then contact Jon Black to re-open a lane so we can be rescued.” “We’ll run out of air long before that,” says Vel. “Where were you thinking of landing?” “The airfield where we launched the evacuation from,” replies Ring. Ring threads the Dart ship between two barely recognizable space stations and into the toxic atmosphere of the planet. The sulfurous clouds laced with volcanic ash create additional friction against the hull. Ring deploys the armor shielding to protect the aged ship. If anyone had been around to see the ship descending through the upper atmosphere would have wondered if the ship would survive re-entry. The plume of fire around the ship as it descended was spectacular, and deadly. Ring is forced to use more fuel than he should to slow the descent and decrease the friction against the weakening hull. “I would report on the hull integrity, but the sensors are all burned out,” says Vel. “I can smell sulfur,” says Ring. “There’s a crack in the hull somewhere, put your mask on.” Ring leveled the ship out at five-thousand feet and raced along the devastated landscape towards the burned out airfield they had left only a few months ago. “There’s the airfield,” says Ring. “See the big cargo ship we left behind, we can use that.” “There’s no fuel in it,” says Vel. “That’s why it was left.” “I know, but it does have a reactor,” says Ring. “We put the Dart in the cargo bay, and then transfer enough fuel over to the cargo ship to move it to the hanger lift.” “I see your plan, good idea,” says Vel. “We can put the ships underground and seal the hanger bay. The reactor can easily give us enough electricity to power the oxygen scrubbers, lights, and heat.” “Yes, and we seal the underground hanger up tight,” says Ring. “We can then plant Naylocliano seed to clean the air in the bunker, and with just the two of us we won’t exceed the ability of the scrubbers to keep up.” “This is a good plan, but I want to check on something else first,” says Vel. “There’s a research facility north of Lucaen City, remember, our first year biology professor was from there.” “I remember him saying they closed that facility before the war,” says Ring. “Exactly, but Demonians don’t close anything permanently, they stock-pile supplies so they can come back later,” explains Vel. “Lucaen City itself was wiped out, and we never heard from that professor again. Chances are nobody was left alive that remembered the research facility, so it might not have been stripped of supplies.” “Okay, we can come back for the cargo ship if the facility is still there,” says Ring. Ring banks the Dart ship north and heads for Lucaen City. The devastation on the ground is sobering, the Demonians never stood a chance to recover. If they made any mistakes, it was waiting too long to abandon the planet. Ring flies over the location Lucaen City had been, but other than a few scorch marks that might have been the foundations of buildings, the city was gone. “Did they nuke the city?” asks Vel. “Not even a nuke does this kind of damage,” says Ring. “We’ll probably never know what weapon the Kitsune used to do this, it’s like the city never existed.” Ring pushed the throttles open and continued north, looking for the research facility. The ground was covered in black ash obscuring details on the ground. “I don’t see anything,” says Ring. “Maybe it was destroyed.” “Fly past that mountain to the east… yes… I saw something,” says Vel. “What did you see?” asks Ring flying past the mountain. “There it is, a reflection off some metal or something,” says Vel. Ring pulls the Dart ship into a vertical hover over the reflection from the barely visible sun. “I see it,” says Ring. “Another month and it would have been completely covered in ash. It looks like they built it into the side of the mountain, but how do we get inside.” “Take us down and use the engines to blow away the ash, there has to be a hanger-lift down to the tunnels somewhere,” says Vel. Ring lowers the Dart until the engines are blowing clouds of volcanic ash into the air. The ash swirls, obscuring much of their vision. The engines begin to complain and struggle under the onslaught of toxic ash. “We’re going to stall the engines if we keep this up,” says Ring. “Just a few more minutes, I think I see a road,” says Vel. “No, it’s a runway, we’re close,” replies Ring trying to follow the buried concrete… damn, where did it go?” “We went the wrong way, this is the end of the runway, turn around,” says Vel. Warning lights on the control panel warn Ring of impending engine failure and he tips the Dart up on end. The engines rotate for a vertical launch and Ring fires the boosters, taking the ship straight up and into orbit. “I need to blow the ash out of the engines,” says Ring. “That was close, we almost stalled.” “This is costing us a lot of fuel, maybe we should have stayed with the Cargo Ship,” says Vel. Ring orbits the planet once at high speed to blow the ash out of the engines and then heads back down to the surface. “We won’t get another chance,” says Ring. “This Dart is on it’s last legs. We know where the end of the runway is now, I’ll come in fast and low, and blow the ash off the runway as we pass.” Ring lines the Dart ship up with the end of the runway and pushes the ship to just under 1,100 feet per second, then accelerates just before they reach the end of the runway. The Dart ship breaks the sound barrier and the displacement of air clears a wide path along the length of the runway. Ring pulls the Dart ship up and banks around, the ash is hanging in the air above the runway now, leaving them a clear opening under the clouds to see. “I still don’t see a hanger-lift,” says Ring. “No, wait, look… damn, I should have thought of this,” says Vel. “The Daraians built most of the advanced surface structures on Demonia, but the Demonians must have built this facility on their own.” “Yea, I see it now, it was buried under the ash,” says Ring. “The Demonians didn’t have the engineering skill to build a hanger-lift capable of holding a one-hundred ton Cargo Ship, so they built a launch tunnel instead.” Ring aims the Dart Ship for the tunnel, rotates the engines for hover-flight, and enters the dark launch tunnel. Volcanic ash piled in drifts against the walls of the tunnel are blown into the air and makes the tunnel impossible to see more than a few feet. The Dart Ship hits something solid and Ring pulls back a few feet. “I found the launch tunnel doors,” says Ring. “You think?” asks Vel sarcastically. Ring flips the Dart’s external spot light on and moves it over the door and walls. “Do you see any control-booths, or panels, maybe a doorknob?” asks Ring. “Should I get out and knock?” asks Vel. “If it would help,” says Ring. “They didn’t make a way to open the doors from the outside, they just assumed someone would be inside to open the doors.” Vel crawls up next to Ring and leaning over his shoulder holds her hand out, wiggles her fingers and says, “Open-sesame.” Ring glances at Vel from the corner of his eyes. “Seriously, you think that will work?” A loud grinding of metal from outside penetrates the Dart and Ring and Vel look at the massive metal doors swing open. Vel looks at her hand. “I’ll be damned.” “Oh please, that wasn’t you, someone must have been left behind,” says Ring. “You doubt my powers, oh faithless mortal,” says Vel. Ring lifts the Dart several feet above the tunnel floor and slowly glides into the dark underground hanger. The external spotlight swivels around the chamber. “Oh ancestors,” gasps Vel. The hanger chamber has three Dart Ships and two science shuttles lined up against the far wall. The spot light passes over crates of supplies, fuel barrels, and two all-terrain ground vehicles. “This is great,” says Ring. “The whole facility is probably stocked with supplies.” “I think it’s sad,” says Vel. “The science team that worked here died early in the war with everyone else in Lucaen City. They couldn’t tell anyone of this treasure trove of critical supplies. How many Demonians starved to death after the war because nobody knew these supplies were here?” “The Demonians aren’t that much different than we are,” says Ring. “Individual tribes loosely united by one strong tribe, we call it House Governments and the Commonwealth Senate, but it’s the same thing. There are probably hidden caches of supplies all over the planet left behind by tribes that were wiped out during the war.” “Don’t they call their tribes, lounges?” asks Vel. “You took the Demonian Cultural class.” “Lounges are smaller family groups within a tribe, usually denoting a Hatching Mother group,” says Ring. “Lets go find out who opened the doors,” suggests Vel. “This is a First Generation Dart, the environment suits are stored in the compartment under the crew bunk,” says Ring. “There’s two latches on the side, just twist those to unlock it.” Vel crawls back into the crew compartment and finds the locking latches on the side and lifts the bunk up. The environment suits aren’t in the storage compartment. “Oh crap,” says Vel. “What?” asks Ring. “I think I know who opened the doors,” says Vel. Ring unbuckles his harness and crawls back into the crew compartment with Vel. “Damn,” sighs Ring looking down at the storage compartment. Instead of the environment suits, there is a blanket, a pillow, an entertainment tablet, and a stuffed toy fox. Ring picks up the stuffed animal and Vel snatches it from him. “I’m tired of that spoiled brat,” says Vel flipping a switch to turn on the Dart’s exterior speakers. Ring pushes the bunk back into place and sits down, whatever Vel is going to do should be entertaining. “Apparently you are unaware that I am a Raven,” says Vel into the microphone.” Ring can hear Vel’s voice echoing outside in the hanger. “I have your fox, if you don’t show yourself in five seconds I’m cutting it’s throat. Five… four… three… two…” Prince Mischief appears in front of Vel, grabs the stuffed toy and disappears again before Vel can wrap her arms around him. “Damn he’s fast,” says Vel. “Now what?” asks Ring. “Where’s our environment suits?” asks Vel into the microphone. “You were going to hurt Ruffee,” says a small voice over the hanger’s speakers outside. “I’m not telling you.” “We need those suits so we can come out and turn on the Base oxygen scrubbers,” says Vel. Vel turns to Ring and whispers. “How long can he last out there without oxygen?” Ring points at an empty hook on the wall, the label over the empty hook reads, ‘Portable Emergency Oxygen Tank’. “Damn that demon,” whispers Vel and turns back to the speakers. “I’m not mad at you, can you turn on the oxygen scrubbers to the Hanger?” “Ruffee doesn’t believe you,” replies the echoing voice of Prince Mischief. “Ruffee says you’re on time-out.” Ring swings his feet up on the bunk, lays back, and closes his eyes - this is going to take awhile. ***** [Crystal Rain - Jackdaw Flagship, Planet Raunu Major] Dear Pesa. I got your letter, congratulations on becoming a Junior Helm Officer, that’s awesome. I bet someday you’ll be the Captain of a Battle Carrier. We’re aboard the Crystal Rain, the Jackdaw Flagship, and on the way to Pyra for our first mission. I got a brand new Dart Ship thanks to the Gunslingers, they really aren’t so bad. You’re going to laugh, but Keal is enrolled in kindergarten. I’m not joking. He’s going to spend one day in each grade on the school deck learning what it is to be Daraian. Okay, take care. I’ll write again soon. Yours Forever, Love, Jaco. Jaco hit the send button and tucked the tablet back into his coat. He was sitting alone at a table in the Dining Mess, nobody would sit with him. Everyone was being polite enough to his face, and to Keal as well, but he had heard the whispered comments behind his back. He knew the humans were just children taking their first steps out into the galaxy, but Jaco was from a technologically superior and evolved species. The Daraians probably shouldn’t even being interacting with humans. If it weren’t for the Daraians and the Kitsune, the humans wouldn’t even be beyond the borders of their own solar systems yet. Jaco stood, he might as well go get it over with. He had a summons to report to the Jackdaw Council. They hadn’t said what the meeting was about, but Jaco could guess. He was going to have to answer for giving advanced technology to a human. The Council was Lord and Lady Jackdaw, the High Priestess, the Senior Hatchling Tarlock, and the various Ministers of the House. Not all of them were aboard the Crystal Rain, but their representatives would be there - and Jaco wasn’t looking forward to meeting any of them. The Council Chamber was also the Command Room Lord Jackdaw used for tactical meetings, and was located just off the Bridge of the Crystal Rain. A single guard was standing in front of the door hatch when Jaco arrived. The guard opened the door and Jaco entered the room. Jaco was surprised to find only one person sitting at the large oval table in the center of the room - the Ship’s Priestess. “Come in, Jaco, have a seat.” Jaco looked at all the empty chairs, wondering which one he was supposed to sit in. The Priestess waved a hand at the chair next to her and Jaco took the seat. “Do you know why you’re here?” asks the Priestess. “I’m in trouble for giving technology to a human?” replies Jaco. “Oh that, we knew almost immediately that you gave Library access to Keal,” says the Priestess. “Did you forget we run the Library database. Anyway, we’ve monitored his activity.” The Priestess picks up a folder and opens it. “Keal didn’t bother looking at any advanced technology. He did access a section on antique weapons, we assume he was trying to determine if there was a better revolver design.” “I already told him he had the best revolver ever designed,” says Jaco. “Keal also accessed a book on Daraian sexuality, several graphic images, and a two-hour Daraian porn-vid, of which he watched twice,” says the Priestess. “What?” asks Jaco, surprised. “No way, are you sure?” “Would you like to know the sections he paused the Vid at?” asks the Priestess. “Not really,” says Jaco. “But… Keal wouldn’t watch a porn-vid, it must be a mistake, he’s a straight up goody-goody Temple boy. He can’t even say the word, sex.” The Priestess smiles and closes the folder. “You’ve underestimated the curiosity of the human adolescent. But, this is not important, we’ve closed his access to the library for his own protection.” “Am I in trouble?” asks Jaco. “No, Keal only looked up guns and sex,” says the Priestess. “Not exactly unusual for a young Gunslinger. No harm was done.” “Then why am I here?” asks Jaco. “Are you ready to learn what your real mission was?” asks the Priestess. “Yes, please, but I know it wasn’t to help the Gunslingers find a drug dealer,” says Jaco. The Priestess hands Jaco a copy of a scroll. “No, of course it wasn’t, but you did a good job with it anyway and repaired much damage between the Gunslingers and Ravens. This scroll is copy of the White Raven’s interpretation of a minor passage in the Prophecy, or so we thought it to be minor.” Jaco reads through the scroll twice before setting it back down. “The least among us shall be the greatest among us,” says Jaco. “But the scroll says it’s a human, not a Daraian.” “That is correct, you were sent on this mission by the White Raven,” explains the Priestess. “To find Keal, but why?” asks Jaco. “Daraians have an ability that is unexplainable by any scientific means,” says the Priestess. Jaco looks up at the ceiling, thinking for a moment… an ability… what ability do the Daraians have that can’t be explained by science? “Oh, of course, our ability to project a vision to someone,” says Jaco. “But that’s usually only during First Bonding.” “We believe this part of the prophecy refers to an unexplainable ability the humans may have that we haven’t seen yet,” explains the Priestess. “Like what?” asks Jaco. “That is what you must find out,” says the Priestess. “But, we think Keal is going to demonstrate this ability in an act so profound that it will forever change the Daraian people, and our relationship with humans.” “Really? Keal?” says Jaco. “Okay, what do you want me to do?” “You must stay with Keal and discover this hidden ability of humans,” says the Priestess. Jaco laughs. “I have no intention of ever leaving Keal, we might have the strangest mating in Daraian history, but who else would mate with a failure like me?” “You may go,” says the Priestess. Jaco gets up and leaves the room. The Priestess closes her eyes and thinks about what Jaco said. A thought pulls at the back of her mind, she is certain the answer was in front of her. The Falcons had the most experience with humans of any of the Daraians, but they had only been able to report that humans defied every attempt to define themselves. Humans were dangerous, irrational, and floundered about the galaxy without any sense of purpose. “What are you going to show us, Keal?” the Priestess whispers to herself.