The Color Of Thunder

Dust and asteroids float past on the view screen, slow and silent, like plankton adrift in an ocean current. Some are as big as the ship, most are as fine as sand. The dreadnought's bridge is dark, the water filling its hallways chill and stale. Engines, transit core, weapons, all are powered down. Even life support is set to the minimum bearable. The crew are mimicking those dead rocks outside, or the wreckage of their brethren. Anything but a living, functioning vessel.

To have the view screen switched on is a risky luxury, but the ship, armored for battle as it is, has no windows. After two tenths of a tide in the dark, it is a risk their captain is willing to take.

Many of his crew gather around to take in the view. A clearing in the rings reveals the gas giant beyond. Wispy clouds and a thousand whirlwinds spin, forming bands of dark and light across its smooth surface.

The Sencris captain recalls, then, the last time he saw a view like that. It had been during his previous assignment, only a few tides ago. He'd been tasked with assisting a group of Earthling astronomers, as they surveyed their home system's largest planet. One of the scientists had attempted to describe Jupiter's shades to him. Colors, he'd called them. He had assigned a different one to each band of cloud, from the frightening maelstrom south of the equator, to the tiniest whirlpools circling the poles. As he spoke, the captain's translator device had blurted out "a dark shade," or "a very light shade". Even the word "color" had presented a challenge for the people who first programmed the translation software. He'd tried hard to picture them in his mind but, as he stared out the research ship's window, all he had been able to see where shades of light and dark. He could no more picture color than the Earthling could sense sonar pings.

A swarm of icy debris passes by the camera feed, obstructing the captain's view. He decides he's risked enough, and powers down the view screen. His hunger for open spaces sated, for the moment, he retires to his quarters, leaving the bridge in his first officer's hands. Two tenths of a tide ago, he had her post, but they've all had to move up in the ranks after the attack.

He gives her the same orders. Keep all non-essential systems down, drift along with the ring particles. Pray to Sankhron for salvation.

On his way to bed, the captain swims past a sealed hatch. It leads to a decompressed sector. There are others like it throughout the ship, but they cannot risk repairs. Any movement on their part might draw attention. She might still be out there, looking for them. And, with their transit core damaged, they have no means of escape. They are trapped in this star system, with her.

Despite his fear, sleep comes quick. He'd been almost a tenth of a tide without it before the attack, and hasn't slept since. He swims in the planet below, his naked scales flowing with the helium clouds. Thunder booms all around as he drifts into one of the many storm eyes. Lightning flashes under two dark, narrow bands of gas along the eye wall. The two wispy clouds are antennae, jutting out of an Arphiren's bulbous head.

The Arphiren is a warrior monk. A round mask covers his mouth and nose. Armor made of many interlocking, rectangular pieces of tanned animal leather protects his tall, wiry body. On each of four hands, he holds a curved blade, sharp and gleaming.

The captain is a young soldier again, a willing conscript in the Sencris crusade to civilize the galaxy. They are two dozen strong, standing firm against an army of fast approaching hundreds. Behind him is the gateway to a small Arphiren town which has embraced Sencris rule. A town whose inhabitants will be slaughtered, should they fail to stop the charging fanatics. Yet the captain is not afraid. Why would he be?

"Halt!" His commander shouts via translator device, his voice amplified into a deafening roar. The attackers do not listen. "Aim!", he commands, now to his own troops. The captain obeys, training the tip of his railgun lance at the first line of warriors. "Open fire!"