This is the prologue of the novel I'm currently writting. Enjoy.
"exiting warren space in 3 minutes" called the navigation officer, "preparing to reengage sub-light engines". Similar status reports rang around the bridge of the ISF wanderer as her commander stood at the holographic command table in the centre of the organised chaos that was a ships crew at work. Commander Jorvesh Krakenswar didn't speak during the process, instead standing tall and with a straight spine, the picture of a ship commander, sure in his crews abilities, reviewing the holographic star map in front of him depicting their approximate position in real space and their destination. His second in command Corin Bolnir, an older veteran fleet officer, stood beside him surveying the bridge as they made ready to re-enter real space. "commander, all systems ready and awaiting your order to engage transition" the voice was polite, high born, and came out disembodied into his neural implant. A second later a small man dressed in ill fitted rags and a dock urchins cap appeared on the holo-table, floating around a hands breadth from its surface. Jorvesh nodded to the little artificial intelligence, the ship board AI who maintained and help control the ship itself. "all hands make ready for re-entry, mister talhir prepare to engage engines at one quarter, communications prep for warren network buoy drop", mister Bolnir relayed his commands, receiving acknowledgements from the various crew as they entered the last few procedures of the manoeuvre. Jorvesh stared ahead out the bridge canopy, the miasma of colours swirling around the hull like a great bubble was a typical sight to any who routinely traversed the warrens, but it wasn't caused by the warren itself, in fact the space that was the warren was a blank colourless void. It was the energy envelope generated by the ships colrangkar warren synchronizer, the machine that allowed them to enter and travel through the space that had been dubbed the warren. As he watched the energy field at the bow of the ship started to fluctuate and suddenly billions of points of light came into vision as the energy field parted and they entered normal space, several hundred light years from the point in space they had entered only 4 hours ago.
The ship glided forward past the star on the port side of the ship as their pilot mister talhir took the ship into a wide orbit of the star so gently and expertly that it was near impossible to sense the change in motion from leaving the warren space. "re-entry complete commander" announced cord "all systems report nominal, warren drive spinning down, network buoy away and transmitting. Shall i pop the cork on some wine for our 785th successful jump commander?" the little AI reported with a small smirked. Jorvesh answered with a little smile of his own "not while on duty cord. Mister calfrey, position report and solar analysis?"
"100 league drift from original projected exit. Preliminary solar analys shows five planets in range"
As the he spoke cord stepped up to the corner of the table and the image of the solar system began to appear above it, forming itself form the data of the ships sensor array. One tidal locked planet close to the star and three large gas giant planets of various class, one with a ring of asteroids. The middle planet was what caught the commanders attention, a class four garden world, with both oceans and land masses. They were still too far from the planet for the sensor array to give a more detailed analysis, only half the planets visable, the rest a grid mesh as they were only to one side of the planet itself.
"very good, take us in for a closer look at that garden world mister talhir, increase speed by one qauter-"
"commander, another ship has just dropped out of the warren" reported cord, turning and waving an arm towards the map and a symbol representative of the second ships position appeared, already moving to follow the wanderer.
"its the stormrider's FOF tag sir"
"well its about time, open a com channel cord"
A few moments later the form of a man stood to the left side of the table as the image resolved itself using the projectors above the table. He was of middling height and slim lean build. He had a shock of golden hair cut to just below his chin, longer than was standard regulations, but commanders were given some leeway aboard their own ships, his uniform was crisp and neat, baring the solid red sash from his shoulder and across his chest marking his rank. He had a strong jawline and a slightly hooked nose which gave him a near birdlike look, which was enhanced by his bright and darting eyes, however that did little to reduce his handsome looks, or so the women seemed to think.
"nice of you to join us commander Sarus" Jorvesh said with a small smirk "we thought you yalderan were meant to be quick off the mark, ain't that right gentlemen?". A round of laughter spread through the bridge crew at the gibe, but Sarus grinned along with it, it was an old rivalry between the crews, and it was a good way to keep them sharp with a bit of friendly banter. "yes, yes, laugh away. We had to let you win once in an age" Sarus turned and looked over the map table, which would be appearing the same on his own as data was shared between the ships. "a brand new system and a new garden world for the empire, think they'll let us name it?" he said with bright eyes, Sarus was always one for the fame and glory.
"i believe tradition holds that the system names goes to the scout group that finds it, but its the first ships commander that gets to name the planet" Jorvesh smirked over at Sarus "ill remember to put you in a footnote somewhere".
As the two continued to talk over the details of each planet as the sensors of both ships compiled the data two more ships, the windchaser and the unimpeded arrived and their commanders brontac and caltis images appeared around the table. The ships spread to allow their combined sensors to cover more area.
"from our sensors we can see that the belt around this giant is mostly made up of stone of various minerals with very few ore deposits, but-"
"excuse me commanders, but you'll want to see this" cord said, interrupting commander brontac.
"what is it cord?" asked jorvesh
The little AI on the table waved towards the table and the system image shrank into the corner and a grouping of constantly shifting lines appeared next to him. "how revealing," Jorvesh remarked dryly. The little AI gave him a withering look, which was impressive for such a small avatar, "its a signal, coming from behind the second gas giant, ive already cross checked it with our own sensor echos before you ask, it aint one of ours sir" the image of the signal shrank down and the system map sprang back up so that the main image was of the planet in question and the approximate position of the signal source. "but we found no evidence of advanced life on the garden world, does it match any known signals or frequencies of our allies or any encountered race?" jorvesh asked, leaning on the table staring at the new and intriguing mystery signal.
"none sir. Its not transmitting on any band we use or have seen used. Only reason we didnt see it before is because its so faint and the gas giant is masking it"
"whats it saying?" asked Sarus
"its in a language we've never encountered, it just keeps repeating".
A moment later a distinctly masculine sounding voice came through the speaker system, jabbering on in some strange chant almost.
"well gentlemen, seems we might have a brace of first's today for the logs!" jorvesh announced, straightening. "helm, set course to these new coordinates, half full power to the engines if you please mister talhir"
"yes sir! Half power to engines aye, course correction in motion!"
The stars outside swam as the ship swung about to meet the new course, meanwhile Jorvesh turned to his fellow commanders, "have the windchaser and the unimpeded come at flanking angles, we dont know yet what it is we are dealing with so standard approach protocol stands. Stormrider will join with us part way as they are the closest and provide support if required" as he spoke he manipulated the image, the motion trackers on the table following his motions, enlarging the map to show all ships relative positions and drawing course projections for each ship.
"at current speed and heading we will reach the signal source in under 15 minutes," announced cord, "Transmitting course correction to the stormrider for interception at the 10 minute mark"
"receiving course correction now" acknowledged Sarus, his head turning to his own crew to relay the orders, the other commanders following suit.
Jorvesh turned to his second "mister Bolnir, have engineering prepare the shields, maximum strength. Commander brontac and caltis, please have your main weapons made ready, but stay from sensor range unless needed" second Commander Bolnir relayed his orders through the ships internal comms, "first engineer Ralts, bring the shields to full"
"the commander finding trouble again up their?" came the reply "thought this was a routine exploration operation"
"we dont pay you to question first engineer"
"you couldn't afford me if you did! Just tell him not to get us blown to the nine depths, Wanderers a delicate girl!"
"I'll take that under advisement, you have your orders" and with that mister Bolnir cut the connection. Jorvesh suppressed a smirk, those two never seemed to see eye to eye, even having served together for years, even before he took charge of wanderer.
"expecting trouble?" asked Sarus, turning to face him.
"im planning for the worst. But hoping for the best" he looked his old friend in the eyes "could be a first contact scenario Sarus, we've gotta be ready." Sarus nodded and gave similar commands to his crew. With that the commanders set about fine tuning their approaches.
The ships arrived at the designated positions and were just rounding the planets orbit to come into visual range, "cord give me a full sensor sweep as we come into a clear range"
"i was actually thinking of just handing you a looking glass" responed cord with his sometime infuriating sarcasm. Each Artificial intelligence was created pretty much in a similar fashion, the neural pathways of a donor brain was mapped and recreated into a virtual matrix, from this framework the AI was fed knowledge, from which they grew and became more complex as the analysed and understood more and more. However through this process, as each becomes self aware, they each develop their own quirks, as evidenced by Cords appearance in his avatar and his sarcasm. That was his personality, what made him unique, even if it was insufferable at times. Jorvesh just let the comment pass, and in moments the rounded the planet.
Immediately video footage from the ships forward cameras appeared on the forward veiw screens. It showed a long structure with several sections, three rings about a central column with a bulbus nose and large aft section which must be the ships engines. There were no running lights on and it was only visible in the dim light coming over the planet horizon because the image had been enhanced and outlined. As the seconds passed the image gained more detail as the various sensors and camera's took in more data. From the image he could see what looked like veiw ports along the rings and at the head of the ships bulbus front. But as more was revealed he could see that some of what he had thought before were view port were turning out to be gaping holes in the structure.
"cord, analysis"
"it appears this vessel is running on below minimum power, its engines are completely cold and there is no power signatures across most of the ship barring only this area" cord said, turning once more to the holo table, the alien ship appeared over it in a blue rendition of the images on the view screens, the column at the centre of the middle ring lit up in red.
They all studied the images before them, the information being passed between the four ships. "can our sensors tell us whats inside that area?" asked caltis gesturing to the hilighted section of the ship.
"no. It appears to be made of a highly dense material we cannot readily identify at this distance. From what we can make out the rest of the ships hull has been made from a very light material, barring of course their engines. The power core is also housed in that area too, but it must be powered down to the barest minimum as their is only a faint signature coming from it" replied cord, more setions of the ship becoming highlighted in red, lines running to the middle section showing the transfer of power.
"looks pretty beat up, think this is the result of combat?" asked Sarus. "unlikely" responded brontac "theres no scorch marks on the entry holes and the main areas appear undamaged such as the front area which appears to be an open bridge or cockpit or the engines themselves. In combat those would be the first to be hit. These holes appear random"
"I came to a similar conclusion" added Jorvesh, "might be they were caught unawares in an asteroid cloud or a similar hazard of the void". Jorvesh crossed his arms examining the data and pictures in front of them. This was an unknown. The ship matched no know design of any imperial fleet or privateers vessel on record. Nor did it match any design of other races they'd encountered. On the other hand, their mission was to expand the empires boarders and knowledge, and bringing back news of and data about a new race would be a magnificent feather in their collective caps.
"right, there is a limit to what we can gain just sitting here pointing our cameras at the thing. So im going to take the wanderer in for a closer look. Ill lead a boarding party myself, if their is any information to be gained, it will be from aboard. We may even be able to power he back up and access her records. Find where this vessel came from in the first place." Jorvesh turned to his second "mister Bolnir ask first fist Qwil to meet me in the armoury in hanger bay 3 with twelve of his armoured drop soldiers, and prepare two dropships. Have the mapping data sent to the ready room there too."
"commander Sarus please move the stormrider up aswell to provide support on station" Jorvesh said addressing the other commanders "have the windchaser and the unimpeded hold position, just because it appears abandoned we cant let ourselves be caught unready." He was met with a round of affirmatives and then walked away from the table, the avatars of the commanders vanished as well. Bolnir walked at his side, and said in a tone meant only for him "sire, I am duty bound to remind you, a ships commanding officers place is with the ship. We have boarding crews for a reason, and they know their trade, there is no need for you to go too" they had reached the elevator and jorvesh keyed the summons. "noted second commander, but this has the potential to be a first contact scenario." As the elevator arrived he turned to his second in command, "mister Bolnir, i am not just a ship commander. I am the heir to house Krakenswar, one of the nine high houses. It is my duty to be the face of the empire when needed. If we are to encounter another race, it shall be one of the empires first sons that will meet it."
He stepped into the elevator, raising his voice a little to make sure he was heard on the bridge "you have your orders mister Bolnir. The bridge is yours" and with that the doors closed and he descended to the tram system below which would lead him to hanger three.
"exiting warren space in 3 minutes" called the navigation officer, "preparing to reengage sub-light engines". Similar status reports rang around the bridge of the ISF wanderer as her commander stood at the holographic command table in the centre of the organised chaos that was a ships crew at work. Commander Jorvesh Krakenswar didn't speak during the process, instead standing tall and with a straight spine, the picture of a ship commander, sure in his crews abilities, reviewing the holographic star map in front of him depicting their approximate position in real space and their destination. His second in command Corin Bolnir, an older veteran fleet officer, stood beside him surveying the bridge as they made ready to re-enter real space. "commander, all systems ready and awaiting your order to engage transition" the voice was polite, high born, and came out disembodied into his neural implant. A second later a small man dressed in ill fitted rags and a dock urchins cap appeared on the holo-table, floating around a hands breadth from its surface. Jorvesh nodded to the little artificial intelligence, the ship board AI who maintained and help control the ship itself. "all hands make ready for re-entry, mister talhir prepare to engage engines at one quarter, communications prep for warren network buoy drop", mister Bolnir relayed his commands, receiving acknowledgements from the various crew as they entered the last few procedures of the manoeuvre. Jorvesh stared ahead out the bridge canopy, the miasma of colours swirling around the hull like a great bubble was a typical sight to any who routinely traversed the warrens, but it wasn't caused by the warren itself, in fact the space that was the warren was a blank colourless void. It was the energy envelope generated by the ships colrangkar warren synchronizer, the machine that allowed them to enter and travel through the space that had been dubbed the warren. As he watched the energy field at the bow of the ship started to fluctuate and suddenly billions of points of light came into vision as the energy field parted and they entered normal space, several hundred light years from the point in space they had entered only 4 hours ago.
The ship glided forward past the star on the port side of the ship as their pilot mister talhir took the ship into a wide orbit of the star so gently and expertly that it was near impossible to sense the change in motion from leaving the warren space. "re-entry complete commander" announced cord "all systems report nominal, warren drive spinning down, network buoy away and transmitting. Shall i pop the cork on some wine for our 785th successful jump commander?" the little AI reported with a small smirked. Jorvesh answered with a little smile of his own "not while on duty cord. Mister calfrey, position report and solar analysis?"
"100 league drift from original projected exit. Preliminary solar analys shows five planets in range"
As the he spoke cord stepped up to the corner of the table and the image of the solar system began to appear above it, forming itself form the data of the ships sensor array. One tidal locked planet close to the star and three large gas giant planets of various class, one with a ring of asteroids. The middle planet was what caught the commanders attention, a class four garden world, with both oceans and land masses. They were still too far from the planet for the sensor array to give a more detailed analysis, only half the planets visable, the rest a grid mesh as they were only to one side of the planet itself.
"very good, take us in for a closer look at that garden world mister talhir, increase speed by one qauter-"
"commander, another ship has just dropped out of the warren" reported cord, turning and waving an arm towards the map and a symbol representative of the second ships position appeared, already moving to follow the wanderer.
"its the stormrider's FOF tag sir"
"well its about time, open a com channel cord"
A few moments later the form of a man stood to the left side of the table as the image resolved itself using the projectors above the table. He was of middling height and slim lean build. He had a shock of golden hair cut to just below his chin, longer than was standard regulations, but commanders were given some leeway aboard their own ships, his uniform was crisp and neat, baring the solid red sash from his shoulder and across his chest marking his rank. He had a strong jawline and a slightly hooked nose which gave him a near birdlike look, which was enhanced by his bright and darting eyes, however that did little to reduce his handsome looks, or so the women seemed to think.
"nice of you to join us commander Sarus" Jorvesh said with a small smirk "we thought you yalderan were meant to be quick off the mark, ain't that right gentlemen?". A round of laughter spread through the bridge crew at the gibe, but Sarus grinned along with it, it was an old rivalry between the crews, and it was a good way to keep them sharp with a bit of friendly banter. "yes, yes, laugh away. We had to let you win once in an age" Sarus turned and looked over the map table, which would be appearing the same on his own as data was shared between the ships. "a brand new system and a new garden world for the empire, think they'll let us name it?" he said with bright eyes, Sarus was always one for the fame and glory.
"i believe tradition holds that the system names goes to the scout group that finds it, but its the first ships commander that gets to name the planet" Jorvesh smirked over at Sarus "ill remember to put you in a footnote somewhere".
As the two continued to talk over the details of each planet as the sensors of both ships compiled the data two more ships, the windchaser and the unimpeded arrived and their commanders brontac and caltis images appeared around the table. The ships spread to allow their combined sensors to cover more area.
"from our sensors we can see that the belt around this giant is mostly made up of stone of various minerals with very few ore deposits, but-"
"excuse me commanders, but you'll want to see this" cord said, interrupting commander brontac.
"what is it cord?" asked jorvesh
The little AI on the table waved towards the table and the system image shrank into the corner and a grouping of constantly shifting lines appeared next to him. "how revealing," Jorvesh remarked dryly. The little AI gave him a withering look, which was impressive for such a small avatar, "its a signal, coming from behind the second gas giant, ive already cross checked it with our own sensor echos before you ask, it aint one of ours sir" the image of the signal shrank down and the system map sprang back up so that the main image was of the planet in question and the approximate position of the signal source. "but we found no evidence of advanced life on the garden world, does it match any known signals or frequencies of our allies or any encountered race?" jorvesh asked, leaning on the table staring at the new and intriguing mystery signal.
"none sir. Its not transmitting on any band we use or have seen used. Only reason we didnt see it before is because its so faint and the gas giant is masking it"
"whats it saying?" asked Sarus
"its in a language we've never encountered, it just keeps repeating".
A moment later a distinctly masculine sounding voice came through the speaker system, jabbering on in some strange chant almost.
"well gentlemen, seems we might have a brace of first's today for the logs!" jorvesh announced, straightening. "helm, set course to these new coordinates, half full power to the engines if you please mister talhir"
"yes sir! Half power to engines aye, course correction in motion!"
The stars outside swam as the ship swung about to meet the new course, meanwhile Jorvesh turned to his fellow commanders, "have the windchaser and the unimpeded come at flanking angles, we dont know yet what it is we are dealing with so standard approach protocol stands. Stormrider will join with us part way as they are the closest and provide support if required" as he spoke he manipulated the image, the motion trackers on the table following his motions, enlarging the map to show all ships relative positions and drawing course projections for each ship.
"at current speed and heading we will reach the signal source in under 15 minutes," announced cord, "Transmitting course correction to the stormrider for interception at the 10 minute mark"
"receiving course correction now" acknowledged Sarus, his head turning to his own crew to relay the orders, the other commanders following suit.
Jorvesh turned to his second "mister Bolnir, have engineering prepare the shields, maximum strength. Commander brontac and caltis, please have your main weapons made ready, but stay from sensor range unless needed" second Commander Bolnir relayed his orders through the ships internal comms, "first engineer Ralts, bring the shields to full"
"the commander finding trouble again up their?" came the reply "thought this was a routine exploration operation"
"we dont pay you to question first engineer"
"you couldn't afford me if you did! Just tell him not to get us blown to the nine depths, Wanderers a delicate girl!"
"I'll take that under advisement, you have your orders" and with that mister Bolnir cut the connection. Jorvesh suppressed a smirk, those two never seemed to see eye to eye, even having served together for years, even before he took charge of wanderer.
"expecting trouble?" asked Sarus, turning to face him.
"im planning for the worst. But hoping for the best" he looked his old friend in the eyes "could be a first contact scenario Sarus, we've gotta be ready." Sarus nodded and gave similar commands to his crew. With that the commanders set about fine tuning their approaches.
The ships arrived at the designated positions and were just rounding the planets orbit to come into visual range, "cord give me a full sensor sweep as we come into a clear range"
"i was actually thinking of just handing you a looking glass" responed cord with his sometime infuriating sarcasm. Each Artificial intelligence was created pretty much in a similar fashion, the neural pathways of a donor brain was mapped and recreated into a virtual matrix, from this framework the AI was fed knowledge, from which they grew and became more complex as the analysed and understood more and more. However through this process, as each becomes self aware, they each develop their own quirks, as evidenced by Cords appearance in his avatar and his sarcasm. That was his personality, what made him unique, even if it was insufferable at times. Jorvesh just let the comment pass, and in moments the rounded the planet.
Immediately video footage from the ships forward cameras appeared on the forward veiw screens. It showed a long structure with several sections, three rings about a central column with a bulbus nose and large aft section which must be the ships engines. There were no running lights on and it was only visible in the dim light coming over the planet horizon because the image had been enhanced and outlined. As the seconds passed the image gained more detail as the various sensors and camera's took in more data. From the image he could see what looked like veiw ports along the rings and at the head of the ships bulbus front. But as more was revealed he could see that some of what he had thought before were view port were turning out to be gaping holes in the structure.
"cord, analysis"
"it appears this vessel is running on below minimum power, its engines are completely cold and there is no power signatures across most of the ship barring only this area" cord said, turning once more to the holo table, the alien ship appeared over it in a blue rendition of the images on the view screens, the column at the centre of the middle ring lit up in red.
They all studied the images before them, the information being passed between the four ships. "can our sensors tell us whats inside that area?" asked caltis gesturing to the hilighted section of the ship.
"no. It appears to be made of a highly dense material we cannot readily identify at this distance. From what we can make out the rest of the ships hull has been made from a very light material, barring of course their engines. The power core is also housed in that area too, but it must be powered down to the barest minimum as their is only a faint signature coming from it" replied cord, more setions of the ship becoming highlighted in red, lines running to the middle section showing the transfer of power.
"looks pretty beat up, think this is the result of combat?" asked Sarus. "unlikely" responded brontac "theres no scorch marks on the entry holes and the main areas appear undamaged such as the front area which appears to be an open bridge or cockpit or the engines themselves. In combat those would be the first to be hit. These holes appear random"
"I came to a similar conclusion" added Jorvesh, "might be they were caught unawares in an asteroid cloud or a similar hazard of the void". Jorvesh crossed his arms examining the data and pictures in front of them. This was an unknown. The ship matched no know design of any imperial fleet or privateers vessel on record. Nor did it match any design of other races they'd encountered. On the other hand, their mission was to expand the empires boarders and knowledge, and bringing back news of and data about a new race would be a magnificent feather in their collective caps.
"right, there is a limit to what we can gain just sitting here pointing our cameras at the thing. So im going to take the wanderer in for a closer look. Ill lead a boarding party myself, if their is any information to be gained, it will be from aboard. We may even be able to power he back up and access her records. Find where this vessel came from in the first place." Jorvesh turned to his second "mister Bolnir ask first fist Qwil to meet me in the armoury in hanger bay 3 with twelve of his armoured drop soldiers, and prepare two dropships. Have the mapping data sent to the ready room there too."
"commander Sarus please move the stormrider up aswell to provide support on station" Jorvesh said addressing the other commanders "have the windchaser and the unimpeded hold position, just because it appears abandoned we cant let ourselves be caught unready." He was met with a round of affirmatives and then walked away from the table, the avatars of the commanders vanished as well. Bolnir walked at his side, and said in a tone meant only for him "sire, I am duty bound to remind you, a ships commanding officers place is with the ship. We have boarding crews for a reason, and they know their trade, there is no need for you to go too" they had reached the elevator and jorvesh keyed the summons. "noted second commander, but this has the potential to be a first contact scenario." As the elevator arrived he turned to his second in command, "mister Bolnir, i am not just a ship commander. I am the heir to house Krakenswar, one of the nine high houses. It is my duty to be the face of the empire when needed. If we are to encounter another race, it shall be one of the empires first sons that will meet it."
He stepped into the elevator, raising his voice a little to make sure he was heard on the bridge "you have your orders mister Bolnir. The bridge is yours" and with that the doors closed and he descended to the tram system below which would lead him to hanger three.