Servitude and Yoke was built one thousand years ago. It was one of the many slave ships, owned by operated by Hadrian trading companies. The Yoke would thunder over the Rhaetian homeworld, capture the locals, and sell them to trading posts around the Nerva-Antonine system. This practice persisted for centuries until the Hadrian High Priestess grew sick of it. Under her new directive, slave ships were mothballed and the hyperspace trading route was closed. She ordered the starmap stored away so the Rhaetian's homeworld location would never be known.
As time went by, the stars shifted and gravity wells altered. The hyperspace route had also shifted like sand dunes. By the time the freed Rhaetian people returned, it was beyond recognition.
The Helmswoman studied her ship's hull, the way it was divided into smaller hold rooms. The Yoke was designed to fit the maximum number of people, and onboard hygiene had not been a design concern. In the past, many lives had been lost in those slavery runs.
Now the Rhaetians prayed and remained steadfast in their beliefs. In Mok'sha verse 37, the ancient promise would be fulfilled. They would once again set foot in their mountainous country.
"Warning: K61 instability detected!"
The panels flashed in various bold colors. The black hole was changing shape and disrupting the space-time continuum. The Helmswoman adjusted her sensors, hoping to acquire a more detailed and closer look.
Turned out, K61 was collapsing. The foundations behind the old, interstellar spiral tunnel had been corrupted by chaos inherent in dynamic systems. It was a natural occurrence.
Everyone on board watched in awe as the black hole split into two. Then four. Then sixteen.
Multiple exits, multiple destinations throughout the galaxy. Which one could it be?
Then two hundred and fifty-six.
"No...no!" someone in the crowd cried.
By the time the commotion stopped, there were sixty-five thousand five hundred and thirty-six black holes.
The Helmswoman fell on her seat. This was it; she had failed utterly. Despite her courage and bravery, the exodus had been all for nothing.
The sound of despair was silence. It pervaded throughout the bridge, save for the wheezing noise of the black-hole entities. The starlight, meanwhile, was quietly diminishing.
It was the end of the journey. Prayer no longer had meaning, as the Rhaetians realized the prophecy was nothing but a myth. All dreams, no matter how hopeful and inspiring, must in the end come to a cruel awakening.
"Warning: radar contact! Unidentified spacecraft approaching at high speed!"
Suddenly, the panels were filled with fleetwide camera feeds. The spacecraft appeared the same in all four thousand view angles; it was small and had the shape of a sphere.
Her first instinct was to deploy her close-in weapon system. By the time autocannons were raised along the ship's surface, the sphere came to a stop and hailed Servitude and Yoke.
STAI LEGGENDO
The Songs of Polaris
Storie breviOnce upon a time, an advanced civilization resided in the Polaris system. Its people were immortal and capable of crossing dimensions. But pride goes before a fall; they revolted against their divine creator and were massacred. The sole survivor, kn...
