Escaping My Shadows

A Walk on the Wild Side

Dave Walker and Tzuljin sit hidden in a hyperspace eddy. The war has been over for just a few weeks. With the shadows and their allies driven away, Dave is not sure what to do. He and his shadow vessel are persona non grata almost anywhere in the known galaxy. Though he and other ex-controllers played a major part in the Chitoxan defeat, little is known about it outside of certain parts of Earth Fleet and Fleet Intelligence. He is sure that Psy Corp and Earth Gov are doing what they can to keep this part of the war effort under wraps.  Dave knows if someone sees him, it will be shoot first and forget about asking questions. Of course, he knows it doesn't really matter. Thanks to the damage suffered during his personal vendetta against the shadows, neither he nor Tzuljin will be able to continue operating for much longer. His only choice is to search his ship's database to see if he can find any shadow bases that haven't been discovered and/or destroyed and see if there is something there that will help extend their lives just a little longer. He wonders how long he has.

0

Dave Walker suddenly regains consciousness.

"Whoa, what happened?" He thinks to himself. "I picked up that strange signal in hyperspace." He checks the ship's chronometer. "I jumped out to investigate and poof, here I am three hours later. I guess exiting hyperspace took more out of me that I thought it would."

He checks Tzuljin's power levels. "Damn, that might have been the last time I can use the jump engines."

He turns his attention back to Tzuljin's barely operational external sensors. Tzuljin had entered the outer limits of the unknown star system while Dave was unconscious. Dave checks Tzuljin's log to see what it did while Dave was out. He can see that Tzuljin attempted to jump back into hyperspace not once but twice. Fortunately, Tzuljin's energy levels are so low that the Other could not take advantage of Dave being unconscious. Now, thanks to the attempt to return to hyperspace, Tzuljin's power reserves are just about gone. Dave realizes that this system is where he and Tzuljin will die. He adjusts the flightpath and then compares what the sensors see to the ship's records.

"Wow, this system's not even in the ship's database. The Chitoxan have never been here. So nothing's been destroyed or stripped bare. Let's see. High levels of heavier elements in the star's core. She's been burning for a very, very long time. Couple of planets. None appear to be habitable, at least now. Who knows what might have been there long ago."

He hears something. He checks the communication system but no signal is coming in.

He hears it again. "Where is that signal originating? Wait, something out there is trying to reach into my mind."

Dave picks what he thinks is the correct heading and moves Tzuljin forward. After a few hours the sensors pick up something at extreme range. He scans the rest of the system as far as he can. No other ships or artificial objects appear on the scan. He watches over the next several hours as he nears the mysterious object. Finally, they are within 'visual' range.

"Wow," he thinks. "That is one gorgeous ship."

The ship is about the same size lengthwise as Tzuljin but narrower. Instead of Tzuljin's blacker-than-black skin, the alien ship has a medium greenish-grayish color scheme with strange blackish patterns running along the surface. Long, flowing curves give the ship a graceful, almost peaceful look. A quick scan shows a thick layer of interstellar dust covering the ship. Though the ship looks brand new, the dust's thickness indicates that the ship has probably been here for well over a thousand years. Surprisingly, the sensors do not see any of the usual surface pitting that occurs from micrometeor strikes. Even more surprisingly, the sensors show that the ship still has power.