Eden's Trial by Kirwan Barry

Author:Kirwan, Barry [Kirwan, Barry]
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Publisher: Summertime Publications Inc
Published: 2011-12-04T04:30:00+00:00

He reached the bridge to find everyone else already there. Zack hunkered in his pilot’s seat immersed in a data cloud which he guessed controlled the weapons cache. Ramires and Sandy were huddled over a comms unit, trying to figure out the latest burst of data that had arrived in translucent rotating cubes of rust-coloured serif-like digits. Every now and again symbols would illuminate or change colour. Once, two entire cubes merged and spawned four smaller ones. He and Hannah agreed it was some form of matrix coding in three dimensions, possibly four, since the timing of the cubes’ interactions appeared to matter. It was like an IQ test, and they were failing dismally. Worse still, he suspected this was a rudimentary level of communication.

Hannah’s flaxen hair draped over her console as she hunched over her screen on its pedestal – making him think of a wild, long-necked bird stooped on its perch. Not unattractive, actually … he shook himself mentally. What was he thinking?

He strode past her and stood by his Captain’s chair, facing them all, and waited. No one had noticed his arrival. Oh well, he thought, here goes.

“Could you listen up, please, I’ve made a decision.”

One by one, the heads lifted and turned in his direction. He realised how much he hated being in the spotlight. Some are born to lead, his father had once lectured him, and some are not. He took a breath. “We –”

“– have company,” Hannah finished.

Micah and the others stared in her direction, then, seeing it was not a joke, whirled into activity. Within seconds everyone was at their post, infused with adrenaline. He didn’t know what to say, but a single word escaped nonetheless. “Report!”

Hannah: “Single ship, small transport most likely, off our starboard, approaching the docking bay.”

Zack: “Targeted their forward hull with two torpedoes.”

Sandy: “No comms yet.”

Ramires: “Visual image coming on-line… now.”

They turned as one to the large screen directly in front of Micah. A dark, circular shadow approached, discernible only by its obscuration of the stars behind it.

“Any chance of lighting it up?” Micah ventured.

“Hang on,” Ramires said, activating a touch-panel. “There!”

Nobody spoke, they just stared. Micah had seen plenty of cool ship designs in vids and games, but this wasn’t just the latest fluidic-chip maxi-sense holo-vid: this was real. And it was much, much better.

The approaching ship was somewhere between an elongated cone and a javelin, the sleek outer hull laced with metallic scarlet and purple shades rippling from the tip back to the aft section. Its texture reminded him of a moonlit lake, but its sleek lines suggested power, and above all, speed. It was hard to gauge the size, but as it approached Hannah filled them in.

“It’s a Scintarelli Star-piercer, according to the onboard database, Level Eight design, about two hundred meters in length, minimal jump drive, built for inter-stellar non-Transpace flight. Crew complement two, registering as Mannekhi, a Level Five race.”

Micah tore himself away from the screen to face her. ‘Two?’

She nodded assiduously.

It was hard

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