T Southwell - Prophecy

Tallyn winced, as if he had sampled her unguarded thoughts. "Okay, Marcon, switch it off. Run all the usual tests." He glanced around in surprise as Marcon announced, "Our long-range proximity repellers are reacting to an approaching mass, sir."

"What is it?"

"Its density indicates it's a ship."

"Can we focus a viewer on it?"

Marcon touched a crystal on his console, and an empty star field filled the screen. He touched more crystals, and the stars swelled, but remained enigmatic.

Tallyn demanded, "Are you sure the repellers reacted?"

"Yes, sir. They still are."

Rayne gazed at the screen, the excitement a welcome distraction. A star vanished near the centre of it, then another. She jumped up, pointing. "There is something there, look!"

Tallyn nodded as another star vanished. "I see it. Marcon?"

"Activating the laser pulse sensory array." He touched more crystals, studying a hologram that scrolled up before him. "We're getting a very mushy reading, sir, but it seems to be coming closer. The pulses are not being reflected, but absorbed. Time lapse indicates it's still quite distant, three light seconds. Initiating broad laser sweep."

One of the other officers looked up with a worried expression. "It appears to be enormous, sir."

"Elaborate," Tallyn said, frowning.

"At least five times the size of Vengeance. Maybe bigger."

Tallyn swung around. "Battle stations. Red alert."

Distant alarms sounded, and the bridge doors slid shut with an ominous hiss, cutting off the howling.

Tallyn turned to Marcon. "Try to contact it."

"Yes sir."

A few tense seconds passed, the Marcon said, "No response to laser link, trying radio… nothing. Microwave… nothing."

Tallyn glared at the screen. "All right, initiate Net link, power up energy conduits and shell."

Marcon's hands flew over the crystals before him. Vengeance lurched, making Tallyn stagger and grip a console. He frowned at his luckless lieutenant, who spoke calmly.

"Attractors, sir. Our orbit has been broken."

"Are we linked to the Net?"

"Yes."

"Charge the repellers."

A crewman's hands danced across his console, and Marcon watched his readouts with a frown. "There's no effect."

"Still no reply?" Tallyn glanced at his second-in-command, who shook his head.

"None."

The huge ship blotted out all the stars on the screen, filling it with a featureless blackness. The crewman who monitored the distance between the ships was down to thousands of kilometres now, the proximity becoming dangerous. Several officers showed symptoms of stress, their brows sheened with nervous sweat and their eyes wide. Tallyn and Marcon remained calm, their expressions set in rigid lines.

Tallyn said, "Fire energy weapons."

An officer touched a crystal, and a point of golden brilliance that rivalled the sun appeared on the screen, winking out as the black ship absorbed it.

"No hit, sir." Marcon stared at his hologram in disbelief.

"Impossible. We couldn't miss at this range."

"We didn't miss. It had no effect."

Tallyn's brows knitted. "Fire the anti-matter cannon."

The officer touched another crystal, and a distant boom shivered through the ship. The blackness on the screen remained unaffected.

"No effect, sir," Marcon stated with chilling calm.

"By the Olban," breathed Tallyn. "What is that?"

"I am the Guardian."

The voice came from all around them, as if the air itself had spoken. Tallyn swung around, his eyes snapping about the bridge, seeking an enemy.

"Who are you? What do you want?"

"I am the Guardian."

Tallyn stared at the black screen. "Why do you hold us? We have no quarrel with you."

"I have come to greet the Golden Child."

Everyone swung to stare at Rayne, who gaped at the screen, stunned. Tallyn muttered, "I knew it."

Rayne glanced at Rawn, who met her eyes with a look of mingled awe and disbelief. She wanted to run, but the door was closed, and she turned back to the screen, trying to ignore the crew's stares. Embarrassed by the sudden attention, she cleared her throat. "How do you know I'm the Golden Child?"

"I am your guide, Golden Child. Do not fear, your destiny will be revealed to you in due course."

She swallowed hard, wishing she could vanish like Mindra.

Tallyn frowned at the great ship. "What must she do?"

"That will be revealed only to her."

He nodded. "Why have you chosen to greet the Golden Child here, now?"

"I came to the place of her birth to await her, knowing she would return."

"You didn't know where she was?"

"I knew."

"Is the time of the prophecy approaching?"

"As it has been for millennia."

Tallyn snorted. "Why do you call yourself the Guardian?"

"I am the Guardian of my people, entrusted to keep them safe until they awaken. This place was one of their creations. More than that, you have no need to know."

"This place? What do you mean?"

A semi-transparent image of a blue planet appeared in the middle of the control room, making many of the crew jump up in consternation.

"A projection, sir," Marcon said. The planet rotated, its glowing blue seas patterned with snowy clouds within the clear bubble of its atmosphere.

"That's Earth," Rawn muttered.

Tallyn looked disbelieving.

"Ignorance and greed have destroyed it, just as they destroy everything they touch." The voice sounded sad, and the image of Earth vanished.

"How did you create it?" Tallyn demanded.

"My people did, not I. Such order does not easily come from chaos. My people created many habitable planets."

Rayne dragged her reeling mind from the morass of shock, the questions that hammered at her brain demanding answers. "If your people created it, can you save it?"

"There is nothing left to save. It has reverted to its former state, and my people are no longer here."

"Where are they?"

"In a safe place."

"Would that be Quadrant Forty-Four, by any chance?"

"Farewell, Golden Child, until we meet again."

The blackness vanished, and stars shone on the screen again. Rayne sank into a chair as her knees gave way. The crew stared at their readouts, their hands skipping over the lighted crystals that covered the consoles like jewels.

"We've been released, sir," a crewman announced.

"No sign of anything nearby, not even on the long-range repellers. I never saw anything move so fast," Marcon sounded amazed.

Tallyn's expression was inscrutable. "Send a message to Atlan. And try to identify that ship. Analyse the recordings of the voice. I want to know who or what that was, and where it came from."

"Yes, sir."

Marcon touched crystals, and other consoles lighted with his messages, their operators responding by touching other crystals or sensor pads. The alarm was cancelled and the bridge doors opened, allowing several new men to enter and take up unoccupied stations. The bridge became a hive of activity as crew members in other parts of the ship demanded orders through the consoles, and the officers replied. Marcon sat before five holographic readouts, scanning the displays.

Tallyn went over to an empty station at the back of the bridge, where a curved console deflected traffic. Rayne and Rawn followed, curious. He sat in the contoured chair and ran his hands over the crystals. Scorning the holograms, he directed the recorded image onto the screen, which lighted with the empty blackness of the strange ship's image. Tallyn tried to enhance the picture, but the scene remained black.

"How can a ship be so black it doesn't even reflect the stars?" he asked. "Why did the energy weapons have no effect, or the anti-matter cannon?"

Rawn stepped up to stand behind Tallyn's chair. "If he's Rayne's guide, maybe he has a super advanced ship."