Borne On Wings of Steel (39 page)

"We've never been afraid our whole lives,” Kyle assured her. He winked at Elise and gently patted her shoulder. “We'll watch out for you, kid. Stay close to us at all times."

"Yeah, stay close to us. We're absolutely fearless. No fear at all,” Jaric said with assurance.

Elise looked from one to the other with an expression of the slightest disbelief. She shook her head slowly as they walked on in silence down the metal corridor.

The tiniest hint of a smile lit her face.

"But this Wormhole—we could get killed a million ways to Sunday.” Elise slapped her palms together, causing a sharp sound that echoed off the
Aurora
's steel walls.

Momentarily startled, Jaric and Kyle each missed a step in response to the totally unexpected sound. They stared at her with stern faces.

"Smashed to molecules in nanoseconds!” she said with a twinkle in her blue eyes.

"Don't do that!” Jaric shouted. “We've got enough things to think about without you making a stupid noise like that."

Kyle growled to himself as he stared resolutely ahead and regained his composure.

"But, how can you not be afraid? Even a little bit?” Elise asked.

"Can't be. Absolutely no fear,” Jaric repeated, a strangled toughness in his voice. “You can't be afraid when you go into action. The T'kaan would've beaten us ten times over if we'd been afraid.” He looked over at the young woman keeping perfect step with him. “Not even a little bit."

"You've got to push it all away. Be a machine,” Kyle growled. “Go in, do your job. Get out.” He nodded and smiled. “Easy as that. No fear."

Suddenly they noticed a shadow with curved horns on its head. The three turned to find Rok walking behind them.

He smiled at them.

"Actually, a little fear is good for a warrior. Keeps him honest, makes him more careful. Make's him think when it's time to think. And act when it's time to act.” Rok's smile got bigger as he looked from Jaric back to Kyle. “A little fear might just give you that edge you need to stay alive. That extra bit of adrenaline that makes you act a fraction of a second quicker."

The four of them reached the door to the War Room and walked inside.

"Like I said.” Jaric arched his eyebrows. “I'm always a little bit afraid before I go into action."

"
You gotta feel it
,” Kyle agreed. “But keep it under control."

"Just a tiny bit of fear.” Jaric placed his forefinger to his thumb until there was almost no gap between them as he held it up to Elise. “A tiny, tiny bit of fear. Like right in the pit of your stomach."

"Yeah, right in the gut. And my heart's beating at full speed. I feel it a little then.” Kyle nodded.

"Good,” Rok congratulated them. “
But control it
."

Elise covered her mouth to keep from laughing out loud.

They found from the duty log that each of them was on the second shift.

Jaric was chosen as part of the backup team on the shield array.

Elise was backup on sensors—helping to monitor the fluctuating gravitational forces that could vary wildly in the narrow confines of a Wormhole. She also realized that she'd have to quickly learn how to recognize the early signatures that indicated a change was imminent—a change that could mean the difference between life and death.

Kyle was assigned to the navigation team. Jysar was assigned to Engineering while Krinia and Inaha were part of two different Damage Control teams.

They each had to learn their job on the journey to the Wormhole. Once they neared the Wormhole, they needed to rest during the next shift because they comprised the emergency backups for the first shift inside the Wormhole. And by the third shift inside the Wormhole, they would be the primary crew at their stations.

Five days went by as the
Aurora
traveled through hyperspace at her top speed. On board, each duty team trained hard and trained diligently. The primary personnel mentored their backups until they could perform their duties almost as well as the trainers themselves.

As the time approached on the sixth day, Kyle, Jaric and Elise found themselves going over their duty assignments one last time as Rok sat beside them.

"First Captain Rok,” a Kraaqi voice crackled over the speakers in the War Room.

"Speak, Ulrud,” Rok replied.

"The Iraxx ship is preparing to enter the Wormhole."

Rok looked from Jaric, to Kyle and then to Elise.

He nodded resolutely.

"We'll be right there. Sound Battle Alert. All hands to stations."

Throughout the
Aurora
, red lights pulsated from the bulkheads as the klaxon sounded and called everyone to their assigned stations. In every corridor, Kraaqi warriors ran in orderly fashion.

"Let's rock this Worm.” Jaric chuckled nonchalantly.

"Yeah, let's see what all this fuss is about,” Kyle agreed.

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IT LOOKED AS if the very fabric of space had been ripped apart like some cheap garment and then hastily sewed back together with the ragged tear still visible.

Jaric and the others looked closer at the view-screen.

At first glance, it was a typical scene—a rich starfield slowly approaching the observers from the main view-screen. But as the group gathered on the
Aurora
's bridge looked closer, a discernable
irregularity
of blackness marred the scene. It was like some kind of surreal, hazy—at once visible and yet with a twist of the head it almost disappeared—spot where the normal blackness of outer space seemed to overlap itself.

It seemed to be a small point of unreality in a sea of reality.

"That is the entrance to the Wormhole,” Qirn announced matter-of-factly.

"Looks like a huge scar on the fabric of space,” Kyle observed.

Everyone continued to stare at the view-screen with a growing sense of awe.

"There's the
LaQada
.” Jerr pointed to a spec of light on the view-screen that moved rapidly toward the Wormhole.

"Magnify,” Rok ordered tersely.

In a flash, the Iraxx starship filled the view-screen while the blackness of space wavered and shimmered all around it—space itself danced before their very eyes.

"Where's the entrance?” Jaric asked with puzzlement in his brown eyes.

"Hidden by the gravity waves escaping this end. Once you reach the edge of the gravitational horizon..."

At just that moment, the LaQada simply disappeared.

"What happened?” Elise and Jaric asked together.

"They are inside the Wormhole,” Rok said simply. He walked to his command chair and sat down. Facing the view-screen and the forward section of the bridge, he spoke with a deep, serious tone.

"Sound Battle Alert!"

Red lights strobed to a steady beat as the battle klaxon cut through the air once again.

"We must enter at exactly a forty-five degree angle to the entrance. It will put the least stress on the ship,” Jysar said with a knowing tone as everyone began to take their positions. “The gravitational forces escaping out this end are quite violent, but we can minimize the impact by this approach."

"Better take our stations,” Kyle said firmly as he made his way to the Kraaqi navigation console near the large view-screen.

Elise walked over to her sensor station and began observing intently the displays along with the Duty Officer. Jaric moved quickly to the opposite side of the bridge from Elise and took his post at the console to monitor their shields.

Everyone stood silent and at the ready.

Slowly, as if in a nightmare, the shimmering blackness approached. Closer and larger it grew until it seemed as if it would devour them.

"Steady,” Rok said. He stared intently at the view-screen, waiting like some hunting beast who knows the prey is almost within striking distance.

"Steady,” Rok repeated with a commanding tone.

And the Worm took them.

The
Aurora
shuddered violently as if it had hit some invisible wall—the lights on the bridge dimmed for just a moment as stifled gasps echoed across the bridge. The Kraaqi frigate shuddered again and again as the titanic forces emanating from the Wormhole pounded her with unrelenting fury. An especially powerful blow hurled two Kraaqi officers through the air while everyone else strained to hold their positions with white knuckles and straining muscles.

The
Aurora
groaned under the gargantuan forces.

And again the lights dimmed.

"Shields are down to seventy-four percent!” a Kraaqi officer shouted out across the bridge.

"Hold your course, Helm,” Rok said evenly.

"We've lost power on deck three!” another Kraaqi shouted. “Life Support is off-line too."

"Evacuate that deck,” Rok commanded. “Engineering, direct damage control."

"Shields down to sixty-six percent!"

"Steady,” Rok repeated.

The
Aurora
shook and jumped as if it were inside a gigantic maelstrom. Wave after wave of energy escaping the Wormhole hammered the resolute ship and crew.

"Shields down to forty-two percent!” The Kraaqi warrior looked up from his console with concern written across his face. “At this rate, we'll lose our shields in less than two minutes!"

"Give me more speed, engine room,” Rok said with just a hint of strain in his voice. “I want full power on both engines. And more if you can give it to me!"

"Aye, sir!” came the reply from the engine room. “We're going to one hundred and ten percent on both engines. Now!"

The rising roar from the engines vied with the constant hail of hammer blows from the Wormhole against the weakening shields. And each powerful blow was accented by another dimming of the lights across the bridge and several decks of the valiant
Aurora.
The eerie strobe-light effect gave a dream-like quality to the bridge as everyone worked furiously at his assigned post.

"Captain! We've reached maximum sub-light speed. And we're pushing over the red line now!” a voice shouted through the main speaker.

"Hold her steady,” Rok calmly commanded.

"Shields down to twenty-one percent!"

"Hold her steady!” Rok shouted back.

"The shields are going to buckle, sir!"

"Steady!"

Showers of sparks erupted from one of the bridge consoles. Personnel yelled and moved quickly to put out the flames that appeared. Kraaqi warriors stumbled and fell as they fired the gas nozzles repeatedly until the flames began to wither. Everyone else held on tight to their posts or reached out with helping hands to assist their comrades who had slipped or been thrown down.

In the strange half-light of the bridge, it seemed as if chaos had suddenly taken command. But every officer stayed loyally at his post as Rok stared resolutely straight ahead.

All at once, the violent shuddering stopped.

The vast, star-filled universe was gone.

The view-screen now glowed with a pure and unbroken white luminance. As everyone on the bridge shielded their eyes from the blinding glare, it exploded into millions of tiny pinpoint shards of light—as if the view-screen itself had shattered.

A blinding array of colors swirled and flashed and spun down into a vast, raging whirlpool. Almost instantly, the interior of the Wormhole resolved into the picture they would become all too familiar with during the next six hours—a never-ending tunnel of glowing walls interspersed with streaks of various colors that seemed to stretch on and on forever.

"First Officer, direct damage control with Engineering. I want full power back on all decks now!” Rok growled. The Kraaqi captain shook his head, as if waving his horns in defiance of an enemy.

Finally, he sank back into the leather confines of his command chair and looked over his bridge and its officers with an approving expression. The Kraaqi captain, First Leader of the Band of the Stars, took a long, deep breath. He let it out slowly and spoke.

"Helm, keep us down the middle of this Worm. Hold a tight course."

"Aye, sir."

The Kraaqi officer punched the controls of the helm and strained to keep the
Aurora
on a tight course down the center of the tunnel that stretched before them.

"Sensors, report!” Rok said with a deep voice.

Elise watched as the Kraaqi officer next to her stared at the small screens of rapidly moving lines. She leaned closer, amazed at the pulsating waves that seemed to jump and suddenly disappear. The Kraaqi looked up.

"We're in a relatively quiet section right now. Nothing here to disrupt our course or that would pose a threat to our shields."

"Stay on top of it,” Rok replied sternly. He looked over at his communications officer. “Get me the Iraxx ship."

Static filled the speakers. But from that constant babble a weak voice emerged—words barely discernable above the roaring of static.

Or was the Wormhole shouting at them?

"Clean up the signal,” Rok ordered. “If we can establish a communication channel with them, the Iraxx will be able to warn us as we approach any dangerous sections after them."

"Working on it, sir!"

As the others around the bridge focused on their tasks, Kyle looked up and smiled over at Jaric.

"Well, that wasn't so bad.” Kyle chuckled.

"I dunno, I've had enough excitement for one day,” Elise shot back from her post.

"Yeah...” Jaric's next words were drowned out by a sudden roaring. But this sound was different, almost like the wailing of a thousand dying starships all at once.

"Gravitational vortex building! Prepare for impact!” The Kraaqi officer beside Elise shouted so loudly that it made her jump.

"Direction?” Rok shouted back.

Elise's eyes followed the Kraaqi as they both studied the waves of lines that fluttered and suddenly coalesced into a pattern.

"Starboard! A powerful vortex is building..."

"There's a bend approaching!” came the cry from helm as he steered the starship to match the approaching curve.

The
Aurora
shook violently, and everyone fell over to the right.

On the view-screen, the left wall of the glowing tunnel grew relentlessly closer even as the helm fought furiously to bring her hard to starboard.