SS: Al'i Aurora Aboard the TFS Uictoria Part 11

Aboard the TFS Uictoria, Al’i was debriefed and then cleared by Dr. Ishî. Interested in seeing how a space jump station drop-off was made via a ship, she headed to the observation deck near the commons.

She wasn’t alone. Being about 4 feet taller than the Tiur, she had no issue getting a view. There was a loud blast as a sphere shot out ahead of them. The sphere burst into five smaller spheres, with a connection between them. A huge flash of light blinded Al’i. An electric charge could be seen going through the connected lines to the spheres. The station was running.

Al’i then realized what was about to happen. Oh no. The ship took the jump through the station and the hole created. She clutched her stomach. At least I didn’t puke this time, she thought as a voice came over the ship’s communication system, “Now entering the Tiur System.” She decided to make her way back to her quarters.

When alone in her room, she took out her Thavma communications portal, “Left hub called New Thav with space jump station in place. People seem anxious about foreign help, including Thavmain. Worried about a takeover. Advise to proceed slowly at first. No seemingly intact government left, but hub itself in great condition. Before Panth attack, told hub housed around 4,000 Thavmains. Maybe a couple hundred left. Entering the Tiur system now.”

She pocketed the device and decided to get some quick rest. With that, Al’i had completed her first mission as a Lieutenant aboard the TFS Uictoria.

SS: Al'i Aurora Aboard the TFS Uictoria Part 10

Commander Blaze met them on the launch pad where Al’i landed on New Thav, “Good work Lieutenant.”

“Commander, this is Jeci. We saved his group from those creatures,” Al’i said.

Jeci nervously shook Blaze’s hand, having never actually met a Tiur before.

“Those creatures were Panths, from the Dunimis System. It seems they have acquired space travel capabilities. We should have expected this sooner and not left them to their own devices. Jeci, I’ve talked with the Muneric of Thavma. We are going to launch a space jump station nearby from our ship. The Muneric will send some ships through this station with aid and take over this place.”

Jeci yelled out, “This is not there place!”

Blaze did not respond and gave an order to Al’i, “Lieutenant Aurora, please wrap up and board soon, we will take off within the hour.”

With that Blaze left the two, Jeci upset and Al’i nervous about what to do. Al’i turned to Jeci, “Jeci this is best for New Thav. It will help you rebuild and the Muneric will protect this place. He won’t risk losing a hub like this.”

Jeci was silent for a bit before saying, “They will take over! Anything could come through this space station thing!”

“Don’t worry, these stations are highly regulated. If anything that shouldn’t comes through, we will know and respond. I’ll talk to the Muneric about a complete take over, but there are so few of you. It’s best to join the rest of the Thavmains, at least communication wise, for your safety.”

With that, Al’i left Jeci, and took off back to the ship. After all that, being attacked, they still want to be alone?

SS: Al'i Aurora Aboard the TFS Uictoria Part 9

The news of a Lieutenant Givens had reached Commander Blaze. I always hate losing men. The other news was still worse. Dr. Ishî identified the bodies of the other creatures as Panths.

Ever since the Tiur first tried to make contact with the Panths on Dunamis Minor, problem after problem occurred. Now, the worst fear of the Gia had happened. The Panths had been seen off their planet, and even worse, out of their system. They’re exploring, and taking what they want with them.

Commander Blaze clicked on his module to patch into Prime Liam, head of the Tiur. A hologram of Prime Liam appeared with a few of the Elected, other government representatives. The Prime spoke, “Commander Blaze, have you identified the source of the signal?”

The Commander saluted and replied, “It was a Thavmain distress signal that was bouncing off the asteroid field. It was coming from a hub called New Thav, which appears to have no connection to the Thavmain government. They didn’t even know it existed. Intel suggests a couple hundred survived.”

“Survived what, Commander?” Elected Mercedes asked.

The Commander paused, unsure of how to continue. “Well…it seems to have been from a Panth attack…”

Silence. Prime Liam face showed concern, as he clicked on his module. After a moment, Muneric Demosthenes appeared. Greetings were exchanged, and the Prime filled the Muneric in.

The Muneric asked the Commander, “Was the ship the lost Tiur vessel?”

“No. Similar technology, but definitely build from scratch. They have their own space travel capabilities now. We checked the logs, and nothing on any space jumps. Seems they haven’t figured out how they work.”

The Muneric said, “We have to take control of the hub. The Panths could come back Commander, do you have a space jump station on board you can deploy?”

“Yes, we do Muneric,” Blaze replied.

The Muneric continued, “We are going to send some aid, and a couple Thavmain fighter ships. These are our people, we will take over.”

Prime Liam nodded in agreement, “Deploy the station at once Commander and report back to Coesi. We will send a couple TFS to Dunamis Major and warn the Gia. They won’t be happy with this news.”

The Commander clicked on his module and left the conference. He ordered the station deployment for readiness and a shuttle to land him on New Thav.

SS: Al'i Aurora Aboard the TFS Uictoria Part 8

The shuttle launched off of the Uictoria and headed for a landing area on the hub. Al’i was listening to another Lieutenant, introduced as Lieutenant Givens, give orders to his squad as she put on her air mask. Another first, she thought. The other Lieutenant turned to her and said, “Lieutenant Aurora, we are going to breach and secure, then have you join us. Stay behind the line.” She nodded, knowing once they landed, with the signal jam in place, they would have no communication with the ship.

The shuttle landed, and Al’i followed the squad as they cleared the launch pad. They then entered through a door, and Al’i had her comms wrist device check the atmosphere. It was breathable, but the team kept their gear on regardless. Al’i continued to follow the team as she sent out a signal via her comms device, “This is Thavmain Lieutenant Al’i Aurora from the TFS Uictoria. Come in.”

A response came through, “Hello? Hello? Can you hear me? Help us!”

“Yes. Can you push us your location through this signal?” Al’i asked.

Al’i received a layout of the hub and a location along with it, “Stay where you are, we are coming to you.”

The team pushed on as Al’i led them to the location. They reached a barricaded hallway. Lieutenant Givens gave the command to breach the barricade. They blasted a hole through it. As they filed through the hole, a spear went through the back of Lieutenant Givens’ head. “Take cover, behind us!” Al’i shouted.

Al’i went on the other side of the barricade and drew an orb from her strap. Her morphing purple and blue skin mix changed to a crisp blue color all over. The orb in her hand changed similarly, and she threw it into the smoke screen now coming up in the hall. A loud blast was heard as the orb shattered into ice as it landed. Well at least they work.

She took her gun in her left hand and summoned another orb in her right. The smoke cleared as she ordered the team to stop shooting and peaked around the corner. Two dead bodies, a species she didn’t recognize. “Let’s go,” she ordered and the team continued on, more alert.

She pressed her comms device again, “Hello? Come in?”

The voice responded, “Yes, we are still here. Did you run into them? We heard an explosion.”

“Do you know what they were? How many are there?” Al’i asked.

“No ide-,” came over before the signal became static.

Al’i hurried to the entrance doors of the room where the location was given. She gave the order the storm in and clear the room. Screams broke out as the team charged through the doors. Al’i ordered the doors to be resealed and looked at a group of about 20 Thavmains huddled against the back wall. Before she could speak, the whole place shook with a loud rumble, knocking Al’i off her feet.

“Lieutenant Givens come in,” came through Al’i headset.

Al’i responded, “Lieutenant Givens is dead, ran into some trouble, what’s going on?”

“A ship launched from the hub and went immediately into drive. Jamming has been disable and heat mapping shows only Tiur and Thavmain present aboard.”

Al’i breathed a sigh of relief. She gave an order to take the bodies back to the Uictoria for inspection before turning back to the group of Thavmains, “is there anyone else?”

“Possibly, we don’t know,” the voice that was coming through her comms device said. “Jeci Mens”

Al’i sent the rest of the team to search the rest of the place and shook hands with the Menoetian and asked, “what is this place?”

Jeci explained, “It’s called New Thav. Formed long ago as a place to start over, away from the rest of the universe. A whole city, built almost from scratch. About 4,000 Thavmains. Until the attack, that is.”

Al’i left with Jeci back to the TFS Uictoria.

SS: Al'i Aurora Aboard the TFS Uictoria Part 7

In the elevator on her way back up to the first floor of the ship, she adjusted the orb strap around her shoulder. It fit rather nice across her chest and then strapped around her waist. The belt part of it had holders on her right side for the orbs she brought with her. On the left, a Tiur handgun was attached and an extra clip. Here’s hoping I don’t have to use that. I’ve never shot any kind of a gun before.

She looked at her left shoulder. There was a small metal section on this area of the belt. Travis had told her that placing her hand over it would produce an orb in her hand. They had yet to determine if these orbs would function properly or how many orbs would be produced. Please work.

When the doors opened, she was led to Commander Blaze, who went right into what was going on, “We got the signal. It’s a Thavmain distress signal. That was bouncing off the asteroid field.”

“What’s the situation?” Al’i asked.

“We don’t have any specific information. Our scope images seem to make out a hub of some kind,” Blaze said as he pulled up the images. “Know anything about this?”

Al’i shook her head. Not a damn clue.

“I’m going to call Muneric Demosthenes, see if he can shed some light on this,” Blaze said as he typed on module. The Muneric was patched through and filled in.

Demosthenes denied any Thavmain government projects in this region, but had a possibility, “the Mevoi were not the first organization to leave Thavma, just the most recent and well-known. A long time ago, there was another small separatist movement. We’re talking around when the Tiur arrived to Thavma. A group of Thavmain isolationists left to form their own society, far from the reaches of any other race. It was kept pretty quiet from the public. Anyone in that group would all be long dead.”

“What about a Thavma trade black market headquarters?” the Commander asked.

“It’s possible,” the Muneric answered, “our intel on illegal trade mostly just stems from hubs out of our planet. It would be a more hostile group, if that’s the case.”

“Thanks Muneric Demosthenes, we will let you know what we find. With being able to lock into the signal, we should be able to travel to its location faster,” Blaze said.

“One more thing, I’d like Aurora to head any communication. Either group will more likely entertain talking to a Thavmain over a Tiur,” Demosthenes said.

“I agree,” Blaze said and hologram communication signal signed off. Blaze went over some strategy with Al’i, and before long, they were informed that they had come up on the object. Blaze brought up a live feed on the module. It was indeed a hub of some kind, a fairly large one at that. It looked like it could house an entire city. It was unnaturally quiet in activity, however. After issuing some orders for the ship, he had a communication signal sent to the hub. He nodded to Al’i.

Al’i pressed the module, “This is Thavmain Lieutenant Al’i Aurora on the TFS Uictoria. Come in.” She paused. Nothing. The ship’s communication leader spoke over the module’s intercom, “we read an incoming signal, Commander, but it is appearing to be being jammed.”

“Lieutenant, head down to the boarding shuttles, I’ll have a squad meet you down there,” Blaze ordered.

“At once sir,” Al’i said and left for the lower decks.

SS: Al'i Aurora Aboard the TFS Uictoria Part 6

Al’i awoke to a large thud, like something hit the ship. Her comms device said it was 7:14 AM TFT. I slept threw dinner and night! Al’i ran to the observation deck on her current floor. An asteroid field. I need to brush up on my knowledge of universe maps.

“Lieutenant,” a voice behind her said.

“Hello again, Travis,” Al’i said greeting the Private.

“Startled by the thuds? We’re traveling through the Dunamis asteroid field. Word is the field was interfering with the signal we were picking up. It should come in once we are clear,” Travis informed her. “I think we are almost out of it.”

Al’i was silent looking out at the field. She turned and asked, “any news on the orb belt from the engineers?”

“Yes, actually. I have it down in the armory. It will need to be tested with you to see if it actually works, however,” Travis replied.

Her wrist vibrated. When she brought up her wrist to look at the device, a small, blue Commander Blaze appeared out of it. “Lieutenant, find Private Travis in the armory. Gear up and meet me back upstairs.” He disappeared.

Travis began towards the door, “well I guess we will find out if it works.”

SS: Al'i Aurora Aboard the TFS Uictoria Part 5

A couple hours later, Al’i was laying in her bed, messing with her new watch like comms device. She was beginning to feel the time difference. Taking Dr. Ishî’s advice, she got out of bed. The device on her wrist vibrated. She clicked the notification and an automated female voice came on. “Greetings Lieutenant Aurora. Commander Blaze would like to see you in the Diplomatic Room on the first floor.”

After stepping off the elevator and going through the additional security on this floor, she was escorted to the room. Is this normal? she thought as she entered. “Commander.”

“Lieutenant,” Blaze said without looking up from his module.

“What can I do for you sir?” Al’i asked.

“As a Thavmain in the Tiur fleet service, you’re in a unique position diplomatically. As such, you’ll be in more conversations to learn, and possibly, give Thavmain opinion.”

Al’i figured eventually this could lead to a diplomatic or higher military position in Thavma, but that seemed years away. So soon? How am I supposed to know anything?

The commander continued and pointed at the module displaying a 3D map of a region of space, “here’s our current position. We are almost to the region we believe the interference is coming from. It could take a couple days to narrow down its location.”

“What then?”

“Depends what we find. You will either analyze with me from here or be sent with an exploration team. If there’s any need for communication, having a Thavmain here with me will make it seem less intrusive and invasive. There’s personal module in your quarters will contain some of this information, as well as some other classified intel. I suggest looking these over and keeping an eye out for anything new added. That’s all for now. I’ll notify you when the time is right. That’s all Lieutenant.”

“Thank you sir.” With that Al’i left and headed back to her room. Feeling exhausted, she lay down. She could not help but close her eyes and fall asleep.

SS: Al'i Aurora Aboard the TFS Uictoria Part 4

Al’i awoke in a daze. What time is it? She left her quarters and made her way to the elevator. She glanced at the directory. Third for the doctor. She left the elevator into an open common area. Finally some people. She walked up to a group of Tiur seated at a table together. “Excuse me, how to I get to Dr. Ishî from her?”

The table stood at once and said at once, “Lieutenant.” Al’i turned immediately and saluted. No one was behind her.

“Lieutenant Aurora?” one of the voices said behind her. Realizing her mistake, and her new title at the same time, she turned back to the group, blushing blue in her face, and said, “yes, I’m looking for Dr. Ishî.”

After giving her directions, one of the Tiur soldiers spoke up, “Lieutenant Aurora, we were actually just talking about you.”

“Oh?” Al’i felt like she was blushing again. Why is this so embarrassing?

“Um, yes. I’m Private Travis. I work in the armory. Engineers Taylor and Trey are almost done with a prototype for your orbs.”

ORBS! I only brought two orbs with me…what is wrong with me.

Travis continued, “They think they built a shoulder strap for you. It will contain your orb material inside it and on command push the material out at one point to create an orb.”

Trey added on, “We think. We don’t really know how your orbs work.”

“That makes two of us,” Al’I said as the group laughed. “Here, take this one.” Al’i reached in her pocket and gave Trey an orb. They thanked her, and Al’i left to find Dr. Ishî.

She ran into the doctor before getting to far. “Good to see you up and about,” Dr. Ishî said, “especially at this time for you.”

“What do you mean?” Al’i asked.

Dr. Ishî explained, “all Tiur fleet ships use the same time system, for coordination. We use the time that it is on Coesi, our government base. That makes it about 1 PM Tiur Fleet Time or TFT, and currently, I believe, about 12:30 AM on Munera. Oh, and it’s also a 24-hour system, shorter than the 25-hour Thavma system.”

“There’s a lot to get used to,” Al’i said.

Dr. Ishî laughed and said, “Yes. I suggest trying to power through today to get on the same time as everyone else. Also, head down to the armory sometime. We have some communication devices there that can display both Munera’s and our ship’s current time for you.”

“Thanks Dr. Ishî.” said Al’i. Al’i then left Dr. Ishî to head to the armory.

SS: Al'i Aurora Aboard the TFS Uictoria Part 3

Al’i awoke to a huge jolt. She turned over the side of the bed and puked. She felt dizzy. As she spit to get the taste out of her mouth, she thought, where did this pan come from? A voice took her by surprise, “here, take these. It will help with the dizziness.” 

Al’I sat up and looked down at a white, blue eyed Tiur. She took the pills, “Thanks.” Who is this?

Sensing the confusion at her presence, the voice introduced herself, “Dr. Ishî. I’m the ship’s medical doctor.”

Al’i went to stand up, but Dr. Ishî stopped her. “Lie back down.”

Al’i laid down, “what’s wrong with me?”

Dr. Ishî explained, “It’s sickness from the space jump, happens to everyone their first time through a space jump portal. You’ll gain your space legs and get used to the jumps eventually.”

“Space jump?”

“Yes, we left the Thavma system and jumped to the Dunamis System. From here, we are going to head out to find that signal. Get some rest and I’ll check on you later.” Dr. Ishî left the room.

What other lovely surprises did people leave out about space travel? Al’i thought before closing her eyes to rest some more.