Escaping My Shadows

The Gathering Begins

Commander Mendoza reaches the station's conference area and sees Lieutenant Klausener standing outside room three. When she sees him she waves and steps back inside the room. The commander walks in and sees her standing next to the small table. He assumes that the person sitting on the other side of the table is the captain of the Phaethon transport ship.

Mendoza closes the door and walks to the table. The Phaethon captain stands.

"Commander Mendoza, Captain Katsumi of the Phaethon."

After exchanging pleasantries the officers sit.

"Captain, please tell the commander what you told me. And please start from the beginning."

The commander can tell that the captain seems a little uncomfortable being here.

"Well, we left the Felicity terminal on the eleventh–"

The commander interrupts. "The eleventh? You mean day before yesterday?"

The Phaethon captain nods. The commander tries to process how this transport, which would take over two weeks of acceleration to almost reach the speed of light followed by three weeks of deceleration in order to reach this station, could arrive in only two days.

"Yes, I know, that's why I'm here, I guess. We were a day out, getting ready to begin the acceleration phase which would take about two weeks. All the passengers were tucked into their sleep pods and things were going as they should. Then I get a report that a ship has appeared on sensors, moving fast. We couldn't identify it until it assumed a parallel course five hundred meters from us. It was a shadow vessel.

"Shadow? That can't be! They're supposed to be gone!" exclaims the commander.

Before the captain can respond the lieutenant speaks. "We showed him pictures of various shadow vessels. He identified their guest as a Chitoxan fighter."

The commander shakes his head and wonders how they survived the encounter.

"So, what happened?" the commander asks.

"It hailed us. Which threw me ... I mean, I had gone through basic training, but hadn't qualified for anything before the war ended. But I read about the fights between us and the shadows. Never did I read of a shadow vessel hailing a ship before attacking. And it hailed us on a normal civilian frequency. I answered, asked what it wanted. Said it wanted supplies–"

"Supplies?" the commander interrupts.

The transport captain pauses. "You know, Commander, nothing personal, but it might be quicker for me to tell my story if you weren't interrupting me."

Instead of taking offense the commander says, "sorry. Been a very hectic day and ... I'll hold my questions until you are done."

Captain Katsumi smiles and nods. "The voice on the other end asked for any spare water, oxygen, and it would take all of the emergency rations we had. To be honest, I was happy to get rid of the rations. They'll keep you alive for a long time but taste like crap. I can get something better here. The voice said in return it would pull us into hyperspace and deliver us here well ahead of schedule.

The captain shakes his head, as if he doesn't believe what he just said. He waits for either the commander or the lieutenant to say something. When neither officer does he continues.

"I was surprised as hell. I mean, normally the shadows just fired at first contact. At least that's what I'd heard. But this one wanted to trade? Then I realized that it would save us five weeks in our journey. The cost savings would be astronomical, considering we wouldn't have to resupply here with the, uh, higher costs. Nothing personal. I asked how we could trust it, after all we had been at war. It stated that it had broken from the Chitoxan before the war was over so it wasn't at war with humanity. After discussing it with my crew we agreed. We sent over the O2 and water. It said it would wait until after it had brought us through hyperspace before accepting the rations. It pulled us in. And then dropped us back into normal space about a day away from here. We handed the rations over and it left."