Divergence

Prologue

Trailblazer stumbled against the wall as the ship shook again. She had told that man not to get so close. But he wouldn't listen. He just had to show off his piloting skills. Now they were running for their lives. If they survived this, she'd smack him. She knew she would. For now, she needed to get to engineering. She just might be able to increase their odds. She secured the bag she was carrying and continued her way to engineering.

The ship was s stealth scout ship. The UESS Coyote, the most advanced scout ship the United Earth Force could currently produce. It was under the command of Captain Steven Bellman. They were on patrol when they received orders to examine an area of space. It seemed that the enemy, a collection of A.I. controlled machines, had a drone research ship stationed there. By itself, it wasn't strange. The A.I.s had such ships stationed in a lot of places. What was strange was the evidence that that one ship had been stationed there for millennia. That was highly unusual and worthy of investigation. Even more so when Earth's allies told them there was nothing in that region of space.

When they arrived, they found more than just a ship. There was a whole fleet there. Everything from dreadnoughts to destroyers were there. Along with several score more research ships. The captain immediately ordered the ship to activate the stealth systems. Once the systems were fully active and Captain Bellman was sure they had gone unnoticed, they began to look around.

It took them two days to find what the A.I.s were looking for. And that was because they had gotten lucky. A random asteroid was moving through the region. When it reached the area in question, part of it suddenly disintegrated. The ships sensors detected a ripple in space where the asteroid was. Even with the disintegrating asteroid, they could barely detect the cause.

The cause was a barely detectable energy barrier. One unlike any they had seen before. For one thing, the barrier stretched for parsecs. Nobody had the knowledge or ability to make a barrier that size. For another, it was of an energy that was unknown. It was obvious that the A.I.s wanted whatever was making the barrier. And it was equally obvious they the humans and their allies couldn't let them have it. Because the fleet was there, it was believed that the A.I.s were close to breaching the barrier. They sent a message back to command and received the expected stay and watch. They were only to act if the A.I.s were able to make a breach. They only had enough supplies for a month before they would have to leave in order to resupply. They were promised to be relieved or resupplied before then.

It was two weeks later that everything fell apart.

They hadn't been idle for those weeks. They had performed their own scans of the barrier and dutifully sent the data to the science team being assembled. The crew, though, noticed that one member seemed to be very nervous. Her name was Trailblazer and she was relatively new to the crew and they weren't quite sure what to make of her. The captain said she was okay, and that was good enough for the crew. She said it was nothing when asked. And since whatever was wrong didn't interfere with her duties, they let it slide. They had leaned not to pressure her on things when it wasn't an emergency.

The day had started normal. But the pilot, Adam Penknife, was starting to feel adventurous. He started to get closer and closer to the enemy fleet. Trailblazer had warned him not to. She told him that nothing good would come of him showing off. And she was right. He got too close. They were detected. And now, the chase was on.

"Trailblazer, just what the fuck are you doing?" There were times when she hated personal communication systems.

"Saving our hides," Trailblazer snapped back. "I have an idea that'll help us escape, Captain."