Cyberspace 3000
Written by Trav Hiltz

Last time we saw the crew of the Sol 3, they had tangled with the cosmic game master, Gamble. This left chief engineer, and resident empath, Shan O’ Meara in a coma, and recent addition to the crew, Dark Angel trapped in limbo. Then an explosion tore through the ship’s medical level...

The colony ship Sol 3 drifted through space, looking like a three mile long, silver barbell, missing a bell, and decorated with Christmas lights.
An explosion caused the entire ship to tremble. Then a cloud of gas and debris gysered out from the ship’s midsection. It spread and began to thin in spots, revealing a large sphere. It looked like an enormous soap bubble. There were a dozen people huddled inside.
Captain Jenifer Cabre-Rios sat up, feeling a bit whoozy. She was a tall, athletic woman in her mi- thirties. She wore a yellow body suit, with a blue jacket, gloves and a bulky gun belt.
“Uhh... not dead, that’s a good sign,” she muttered, running a hand through her short cropped, blonde hair, and then looking around at her surroundings. “ Quite the view.”
“I’d enjoy it more, if I was inside the ship, looking out,” a voice, to the Captain’s right grumbled. He was a squat, alien figure. Bald, chubby and purple with oversized, elfin ears and a perpetual frown. “Gordon Bennett! Look at the hole in my sickbay!”
Dr. S’rell, was Sol 3’s chief medical officer. he fished around in the pockets of his white, floor-length robe and pulled out a mini-scanner.
“What happened?” Jenifer asked, getting, shakily to her feet. “What caused that explosion?”
S’rell paced about the bubble, stepping over the other, unconscious occupants, until he came to a halt in front of one particular crew member. He held the scanner out towards the sprawled form.
“He did.”
Shan, was a tall, muscular man with unruly, auburn hair. He was dressed an ankle length, sleeveless red vest. His baggy pants, belt, fingerless gloves and headband were also in various shades of red. He was shirtless and wore a medallion that looked like a disk of glass or some kind of crystal on a thin silver chain.
“Shan?” Jenifer muttered, kneeling next to her unconscious Chief engineer. “He caused the explosion? How?”
“I had been noticing a slight increase in his psychic energy readings, during his latest med-scans,” S’rell explained. “And then there is his link with that Dark Angel woman...”
“You think she might’ve been right about that ‘cosmic messiah’ cruk?” Jenifer asked.
“Hardly, Captain. If you were the supreme being, would you trust someone with Shan’s taste in clothing to save the universe?” The diminutive alien doctor replied. “but there was a link of some kind between Dark Angel and Shan, and I think that influenced the increase in his powers. Shan was, somehow, tapping into Angel and increasing his power.”
“But, the explosion?” Jen muttered. “And this bubble! It’s impos...”
“ Ah, Captain Jen,” S’rell interrupted. “If I may have a word, over here.” He nodded his head to the far side of the bubble and the Captain followed him.
“What’s going on now, S’rell?”
“Just a theory, but Shan is not a true psychic, but rather an empath,” S’rell explained. “His abilities are tied into his emotions. Which is why the explosion occurred as a result of anger over Dark Angel’s disappearance.”
“You think the link between them might have been severed, when Angel was sucked into that dimensional rift?” Jenifer mused. “ and Shan is having a hard time dealing with the extra mental energy on his own?”
“She can be taught!” S’rell announced. “ E for effort, Captain.”
“What’s this got to do with this... safety bubble?”
“If the stability of our little life raft,” S’rell said. “ is dependent on Shan’s emotional state...”
“Maybe we shouldn’t go announcing that what’s keeping us alive is impossible,” another crewman added.
“Onanrwo!’”Jenifer said, walking over and giving her chief of security a hand up. Onanrwo was half- jovian, a solidly built bald man with coffee colored skin. He wore a chest plate, boots, wrist gauntlets and shorts of plast-steel armor.
“ Are you okay?” She asked.
The bulky security chief, glanced around at his unusual surroundings, then back up at his captain.
“Sorry, that was a stupid question,” Captain Jen muttered.
“ I understand. It’s been a stressful couple of days,” Onanrwo said, getting to his feet. “ Any casualties?”
“None,” S’rell replied, tapping at his porta-scanner. “ Bruises and abrasions, but otherwise everyone’s as sound as a pound credit.”
“Let’s back up a second,” Jenifer said, pressing her fingertips to her temples and lowering her voice. “Do you two both believe this bubble, the only thing between us and breathing vacuum, will pop because Shan may stop believing in it?”
“Stranger things have happened,” S’rell replied.
“Almost on a daily basis,” Onan added. “ Shan’s been showing a sharp increase in power, but no increase in his control. No sense in taking chances.”
“True,” Jenifer nodded. “ So, as long as he’s sleeping peacefully, we should be all right?”
“In theory,” S’rell replied.
“So, we sit still, try not to wake him and wait to be picked up.”
“Hate to be a pessimist...” Onan said.
“They why do you do it every chance you get?” S’rell mused, under his breath.
“But, there’s no guarantee, we’ll get picked up,” The security chief continued, with a scowl. “ Between the missing bell, the purging of Sol’s AI and the massive amount of damage Sol3 has suffered, the crew’s going to be too busy to even worry if we survived the explosion, let alone be able to arrange to pick us up. Tractor beams were out and the ...? What?”
“Your breath,” Captain Jen said, peering anxiously at Onan.
“What about it?” he asked, breathing into his cupped hand and sniffing.
“I can see your breath when you exhale,” she said. “ S’rell...?”
“Temperature is dropping,” the diminutive medic confirmed.
“Korvac’s bones,” Onan muttered.
“How long?” Captain Jen asked.
“ I’d say,” S’rell replied, tapping at his scanner. “ That we have two hours, maybe three, before it gets too cold for comfort, my chumblies. Though, the breathable atmosphere will have bled out of the bubble, long before the cold becomes a serious problem.”
“If it’s not one crukking thing,” Captain Jen muttered. “It’s four others. So, it’s up to us to get back to the ship.”
“Gonna be tricky, without any form of propulsion or equipment to cobble something together,” Onan said, looking around the bubble. “I’m open to suggestions.”
“Don’t look at me,” S’rell shrugged. “I just patch you lot back together, after one of your foolish stunts. I generally have the good sense to avoid being on the firing line.”
“Then you’re in charge of keeping an eye on Shan and making sure he doesn’t wake up and pop the bubble before I can put my brilliant plan into motion.”
The alien medic nodded and shuffled over to the sleeping engineer. Onan walked over to stand next to his captain.
“You have a brilliant plan?” He asked, in a neutral tone.
“Give me a minute,” she replied, rubbing at her chin, in thought. Her chief of security shrugged his broad shoulders and reached out a knuckle to tap at the wall of the bubble.
“Feels solid,” he muttered and pressed against it with his finger tips.
“Just be careful,” Jenifer warned him. “ I don’t think...!”
The whole bubble shifted. The few crew members standing struggled to keep their balance, as the bubble rolled forward several inches.
“Um... oops,” Onan said, glancing over his shoulder at the captain.
“Actually, I think you have found our way home,” she said, smirking at him.
Onan merely scowled back in puzzlement.
“ All Shan’s powers work on a gut, emotional level,” she explained. “Air, but no way to recycle it, heat, but no way to regulate or contain it. He caught us all in this bubble and placed it in one spot, when inertia should have sent us hurtling away from Sol, but we aren’t locked into one set position, as you’ve just proved...”
“You want us to ‘push’ the bubble back to the ship?” Onan asked, skeptically raising one eyebrow.”Ten klicks, with rapidly decreasing heat and oxygen?”
“It’ll be tricky, but we’ve got at least four healthy bodies in here. You have a better idea?”
“Give me a second...”
“Fine, in the mean time, put your shoulder to it.”
The Jovian shrugged and motioned for the four other crewmen to help with the pushing. Dr. S’rell concentrated on helping the injured and keeping Shan asleep.
The six people were spread across the bubble wall, trying to push in rhythm. Everyone pushed gently at first, concerned about the strength of the bubble, then with increasing energy as the previous pushes failed to cause any damage. The trickiest part was shifting Shan, as the bubble turned, without disrupting whatever trance state he had achieved. The Chief medic used a mild sedative to keep him unconscious.
“Have you ever noticed, Onan,” Captain Jenifer said, after nearly an hour of pushing. “That you and I never seem to talk unless it’s ship’s business or we’re in some kind of mortal danger?”
“Which means we speak every five minutes, with the way things have been occurring lately,” Onan replied.
“Just thinking, as we stroll,” The Captain said. “We don’t interact, socially.”
“No, we don’t.”
“I guess, with nothing better to do than move this thing, and trying not to worry, your mind drifts and you wonder about aspects of your life that you wish you could have done differently.”
“If I had any parts of my life that I should have done differently, then I’m sure I would be contemplating them,” Onan replied.
“Ah,” Jenifer continued. “You don’t interact much with the rest of the crew.”
“I interact with them when my duties call for such interaction. That is my professional life. My private life is different.”
“How so?”
“It’s private.”
“Kind of thought you’d say that.” She muttered.
“I hate to interrupt, while we are ‘bonding’, Captain,” Onan said. “ But, on the off chance that we make it back to the ship, without dying in the attempt, what is our next step?”
“ Crews should be working on structural damage, my biggest concern is dealing with Sol’s...”
“Actually, I had more in mind about how we are going to get back into the ship. Emergency force fields will have closed the hole Shan blew through the medbay, it’s not as though we can knock...”
“I see your point. There’s an hanger bay a couple levels below med central...”
“Bay 73, but it hasn’t been used for launching for several cycles. Engineering has been using it as a workshop. Engineer Cy’rrll was working on several prototype shuttles for exploring hostile planetary environments.”
“How is it, you are a vast storehouse of knowledge, yet none of it helpful to our situation? Cruk, it’s getting cold.” Captain Jen leaned her shoulder against the bubble wall, so she could flex some feeling back into her hands and still continue to push.
“Well, at the risk of ruining my ‘glass half empty’ reputation, there should be service droids working on the outer shell of the ship. They may be able to assist us, once we reach Sol.”
“See, that wasn’t so hard.”
“Unless, aspects of Sol’s deranged persona are still active in the system, then we may be attacked.”
“You were so close,” Jen muttered, zipping up her jacket.
“Actually, Captain,” One of the other pushing crewmen said. “The AI programs had crashed, so any Solbots on the hull would be on auto-function or inactive. We should be able to tap into their systems with our comm-braclets.”
“I may give him your job,” Jenifer muttered to Onan.
He frowned, then began to cough.
“Air’s getting...urk...stale,” Onan said. “ How much further... do you think we have?”
“We look to be only three klicks ... away,” Jen said, having to struggle to catch her breath. The physical exhaustion, mixed with the decline in air quality was slowing them down. Of the six pushes, two had already collapsed. Shan was still out, but Dr. S’rell looked a bit unsteady. He had a tendency to sway when he wasn’t concentrating on his scanner.
“I’m... going to see ...if we’re in comm range,” Jen rasped, leaning against the wall and tapping at her wrist communicator.
Onan nodded and redoubled his efforts to move the bubble closer to the ship. He could make out various windows and hatches. Occasionally, he could make out a shape, moving past one of the windows. Though, he didn’t know if anyone had spotted the bubble yet.
“Weak signal,” Jen muttered. “May be the Solbots, working the hull.” She continued to tap at her bracelet.
“I... don’t think...,” Onan muttered, than sank to his knees. “I’m ... going to be much more ...help, Cap...Captain...”
“Cruk!” Jen grunted, knowing the bubble wall was the only thing keeping her upright. One lone crewman, one of S’rell’s nurses, was still pushing the bubble, feebly along. It wasn’t going to be enough.
Dr. S’rell tumbled to the floor, leaning his head against Shan’s chest.
“Jus... a bit of... nap, chums ...I’ll.... uhn...” His scanner fell from numb fingers, and his eyes began to close. “Could use ...cup of tea ... soon ... we.get home...”
Beating feebly against the bubble wall, Jenifer watched the others all collapse, frustration mingling with regret.
“So... close...” she muttered, sliding down the bubble wall.
“Close...,” Shan murmured. “ Home...”

A trio of Solbots, looking like shinny metal children, floated through space. Propulsion units in their feet and elbows propelling them towards the unidentified sphere that had been approaching the ship. Their scanners could detect weak life signs within the sphere.
Just as the Solbots, were in arms reach of the bubble, with a soundless ‘pop’, it disappeared...

Jenifer came slowly back to consciousness. She was laying on something soft and there was an odd odor in the air. The air was warm and breathable, so she was willing to put up with a little stench.
“Hmmm,” she murmured, after the events of the past week, reluctant to open her eyes and face reality. “Smells like my dorm room, back at the academy... where the cruk...?!”
The captain sat up and opened her eyes. It even looked like an academy dorm room. The bed she was laying on was unmade, the floor was littered with discarded clothes and there were numerous containers of decaying food decorating the room’s few pieces of furniture. The other crew men, from the bubble, were scattered about the room. S’rell was sprawled in an open dresser drawer, Shan was on the floor, his head pillowed on some dirty laundry. A door slide open and Onan stumbled into the room.
“Why was I sleeping in a shower stall?” He muttered, looking around.
“I think,” Captain Jenifer told him. “Shan got us home.”
“Home?” Onan asked. “ What pathetic life form wallows in such filth?”
“That’d be me,” Shan said, sitting up. He rested, with his back against the wall. “This is my room. Funny, I thought I fell asleep in the medbay.”
“See,” Jenifer said to Onan. “You’d have known that if you socialized more with your fellow crewmen.”
Onan looked around the room, then back at the Captain.
“Doubtful. We need to let someone know we are still alive. Theirs a great deal to be done...”
“Angel!” Shan yelled, staggering to his feet. “She’s gone! We’ve got to...!?”
“Here we go again,” S’rell muttered from the dresser. “Before he blows up another room...”
“Shan, calm down!” The Captain barked. Her tone got the empath’s attention. “We’ll find her, but, we can’t do her any good till we know what shape the ship is in. First stop, auxiliary bridge. We check in with our various sections and once Sol is under control, then you can mount a rescue mission. Understood?”
Shan nodded, but Jenifer could still feel the frustration coming off him in waves.
“Well, what are standing around for?” Jenifer said, standing up and heading for the door. “Let’s go hear the good news...”

An hour later, Captain Jenifer sat slumped in her command chair, on Sol 3’s auxiliary bridge, still waiting to hear some good news.
One hundred and fourteen casualties, nearly that many injured, the ship was running at sixty four percent power, with damage to nearly half the systems. The Sol AI had been completely purged, meaning everything the ship’s computer had run was either shut down or on emergency systems. Sol 3 was limping through the universe on reserve engines, as the still missing, presumed destroyed, bell contained the warp regulator systems. As well as another one hundred and twenty eight crew members.
After what seemed like day after day of attacks by various cosmic beings, and assorted disasters, life on the colony ship had quieted down, leaving the crew with time to repair the damage and attempt to resume their mission, finding some world to be safe haven to the nearly 5,000 beings, seeking escape from the Badoon invasion of the Milky Way.
The Captain stood up and began to pace the bridge, like some caged predator. She’d been feeling antsy of late, weither this was due to her general, aggressive personality, or some paranoia over the near constant threats to her ship was unclear. What was clear, was that she wasn’t savoring the momentary peace and quiet. Jenifer strode across the bridge, to where, a two man work crew and several Solbots were huddled around the main computer console. Most of the plasti-steel paneling was open and they were pouring over dozens of components and miles of wiring.
The ship’s computer, Sol, had been a sophisticated artificial intelligence program with hologram interface compastity. Sol had recently had a major psychotic episode that had endangered the ship and resulted in numerous death’s among the crew. Captain Cabre-Rios had been numbered among the casualties, until a cyber-interface brain scan and a cloned body had returned her to the land of the living.*
(* think I just make this stuff up? Go read Cyberspace 3000 #’s 1-4-Trav)
Because of her past history with the computer, the captain had a special interest in seeing that it was fixed and free of homicidal tendencies or delusions of god hood. One of the engineer’s stood up and stretched. It was an impressive sight, as she was well over six feet tall, her skin a light shade of purple and gave the impression that it would only take one more deep breath for her to burst through the cloth of her body suit. Aura Xieneth was second ranking engineer on the Sol 3. She turned at the captain’s approach, dusting her hands off on her pants.
“Are you making it better or worse?” Jenifer asked.
“Well, there is progress,” Aura told her. “the news comes in two flavors: Good and bad. Which do you want first?”
“Start with the bad. That way I’ll have something to look forward to.”
“The bad is, we’ve had to do an out right purge on most of Sol’s systems to insure they still weren’t ‘corrupted’.
“Define ‘most’.” Jenifer said.
“97% of the AI files, including backup personality matrix and 92% of the operating mainframe,” Aura replied. “ We’ve got all ship systems working and slaved to the new command protocols.”
“What about an AI interface?” Jenifer asked, frowning. “ I hate all this typing to get anything done. It feels like I’m living in the dark ages. I like having a holo-liason. Except when it tries to kill me.”
“Don’t we all,” A voice said.
It belonged to the ship’s security chief. He towered everyone else on the bridge, except Aura, by a good six inches, and looked over the work being done with the same mix of suspicion and disapproval that he viewed most of the universe with. His gaze caused workcrews to double their efforts.
“Onan,” Captain Cabre-Rios greeted him. “ Things under control below decks?”
“They’re behaving themselves, for the moment. So, do we have a new AI personality to deal with or is Shan going to let Sol loose on us again?”
“They had to purge out all of Sol’s personality files,” Jenifer informed him.
“ Back up personality then?”
“Those had to go too,” Aura said. “We found most of them had been corrupted as well, Sol set up several backups, on the off chance we tried to shut him down. This is a new program, found it in one of the archives. It’s an older model, so we had a little trouble integrating it to our systems, but I think it’ll work. You should like it, Onanrwo. It appears to have been part of some kind of surveillance/ security system.”
The Chief, crossed his arms over his broad chest and gave Aura a doubtful look.
“Okay, impress me with your technical wizardry,” Jennifer said.
Aura nodded and went back to work. After another couple minutes, the workers and drones moved away from the console and the purple amazon tapped at several controls.
“Here we go,”she said.
A hum of power traveled around the bridge and lights flickered across the various consoles. In the center of the bridge a column of light appeared. It crackled for several minutes, then began to blur and change, a figure forming within it.
It formed into a hologram of a man. He looked to be in his late thirties. He wore a yellow body suit with a red belt, There were bands of red at his wrist, ankles and collar. His hair appeared to be on fire.
“Is he a mercurian program?” Jennifer asked, glancing at the hologram’s hair.
“No,” Aura replied. “ Terran. It came from an old heroic age program. Some experiment in melding human brain wave patterns with computer systems.”
“Heroic age artifacts...?” Onanrwo mused. “ Great.”
“Is it going to be reliable?” Jennifer asked. “ An AI program that old being merged with something like Sol...? Lke trying to power a shuttle with a steam engine, isn’t it?”
“It would be if we weren’t using top of the line, bio-adaptive system RAM. It also helps, that I’m a genius, as well as good looking.” Aura smiled and winked over the Captain’s head at Onan. He frowned, and immediately found another part of the bridge to intently study.
The hologram stood in the center of the bridge, it’s form flickering, spouting gibberish. After several moments, it became solid and looked around the bridge.
“If you can’t keep that dragon off of the satellite dish, especially during the cricket finals... um... I’ll... what the bloody hell...?!” He looked around, puzzled. Then glanced up at the three officers. “Kate? When did you get back? And what happened to your hair?”
“Genius, huh?” The Captain muttered, over her shoulder to Aura.
“Give it a minute. Poor thing’s been on pause for three hundred years and just had several million units of information dumped into it’s head. You’d be a little unsteady too...”
“What’s going on?” The hologram muttered. “ Feels like someone just threw up in my head... I...I.... I have... bzzt... been integrated into... thu... the Earth colony ship Sol3, crew/ passenger capacity five thousand and eighteen. It’s ungoing mission: to explore new worlds, to seek out new life, to boldly...”
“You sure about this?” Onan asked, skeptically.
“He’s fine,” Aura replied. “ See how he’s absorbing ship’s system data. The transition will take some time, but as the AI integrates, it’ll help the ship’s mainframe realign and systems will start running smoother. Once it’s linked to the ship’s self-diagnostic and repair files, it’ll cause a ripple effect and we should have systems up and running.”
“He,” the hologram said, appearing next to the alien engineer.
“What?” Onan said, looking suspiciously at it. The incident with Sol’s attempted takeover of the ship had left the senior officers leery of any AI.
“I’d prefer to be referred to as ‘he’, not ‘it.’ Makes it sound like I’m a piece of furniture. If I’m to be a productive member of the crew than granting me a bit more respect than you would a crescent wrench is a good start.”
“Umm...” Aura replied.
“ Well, than I guess I should do the honors of the ‘welcome aboard’ speech,” The captain said. “ I’m...”
“Jenifer Cabre-Rios. Rank: Captain. Current posting: Command of the Earth Colony ship Sol 3. Species designation: original:Terran-human. Current: Cybernetically enhanced human clone. Hair: blond. Eyes: Blue. Weight: ...”
“I think we get the point,” Jenifer interrupted. “And you are...?”
“Guliver Jones,” The Hologram replied. “ I acted under the code-name ‘Captain Kerosene.’” Guliver looked expectantly at the three crew members, who looked back blankly. “I served with British Intelligence and then later was a member of the Knights of Pendragon.”
“I never paid much attention to history, at the academy,” Aura said, with a shrug.
“Um... sorry,” Captain Jenifer added. “ Sounds like you’re talking about the ‘heroic age’, but none of it sounds familiar to me, either, and I did try to pay attention during history.”
“I see,” Guliver muttered, mopily.
“Of course, records are very sketchy about that period, due to the barrier event and the later invasions by the...”
“Oh, bugger,” the hologram muttered, blipping way and reappearing in front of the main view screen.
“The last one tried to enslave us, this one sulks,”Onan muttered. “ technology is our friend. If you need me, I’ll be on deck ten, supervising the security teams.”
Jenifer nodded at her security chief, still watching the ship’s new AI.
“I want to meet with all department heads in three hours,” Jenifer told him. “Try and have a status report put together by then.”
He nodded and walked off.
“And don’t forget, they haven’t canceled karaoke at Reese’s at thirteen hundred.” Aura called after him.
Captain Jenifer smirked, but the rest of the bridge crew quickly found tasks that took them to the far side of the room. Onan’s glare was potent enough to cause frost on several view screens.
“So, “ she said to Guliver. “ Think you’re up to the job of AI liaison?”
“I ran the computer and security systems in the Pendragon’s headquarters for many years. This is the same type of job, just on a bigger scale, and without having to deal with magic. I’ll adjust.”
“Good. We’ve had a rough couple of weeks...”
“I know, I’m linked to the ship’s log and scanners.” Guliver looked away from the view screen and glanced over at Jenifer.” You really need to take better care of your ship. Looks like I got here just in time.”
“Been awake five minutes and you’re criticizing my abilities as captain?” Jen smiled back. ‘You should fit right in. Think you can find your way to the observation lounge on deck twenty one?”
“I can manage.”
“Good. You heard about the meeting. I want a damage report and supply inventory,” Jenifer headed for the elevator. “I’ll be in my quarters when the next life or death crisis occurs. You have the bridge, Mister Jones.”
“Call me Gully. All my friends do.”

Onan sat at the desk, his elbows resting on it’s mock-mahogany surface, his fingertips steepled, a frown on his face. While he was thrilled not to have perished in space, he looked back at the time spent in the bubble with a certain fondness. Out there, he’d had only one problem to deal with ( not dying), as opposed to the four dozen he’d had to deal with since returning to the ship. He was peering across the desk, with barely contained annoyance, at problem number forty nine.
“You seem to be missing the point, Shan,” Onan said. “ When you translate the Captain’s order to ‘report to your department and organize/ overseer repair crews’ as ‘abandon your post, commandeer personnel, equipment and cause severe power drain of ship’s energy’, we have a problem.”
“Aura knows what needs to be done,” Shan snapped. “ In case you’ve forgotten, Angel was sucked into an other-dimensional portal...!”
“In case you’ve forgotten, the Captain has said, we will rescue her, but we can’t do it with a ship low on power and in need of repairs.”
“Wyst will have a distinct energy signature,” Shan said, acting as though, the security chief hadn’t spoken. “ I used the scanner logs of our encounter with Gamble to find the energy wavelength, then had astro-cartography run a scan....”*
( Gamble was the cosmic game player the crew encountered in Cyberspace 3000 #’s 6-8. Wyst was one of his henchmen- Trav)
“Putting a serious drain on both Sol3’s power grid and mainframe,” Onan said. “ Then you took a repair crew off the shift working in the habitat levels and set them to work on C’yrell’s experimental shuttle project...”
“Which we’ll need, once I’ve located...”
The engineer was interrupted by Onan lunging forward and grabbing hold of the front of his jacket.
“I’m really busy today,” Onan said, in a dangerously quiet tone. “You and your ‘borrowed’ repair crew will return to duty, until such time as the ship is repaired and Captain Cabre-Rios authorizes a rescue mission. At that time, you’ll have access to whatever equipment or personnel you need, myself included. Otherwise...”
“Angel is missing,” Shan growled back. “Nothing else matters. Now, let go.” His eyes began to glow with blue energy. Movement behind the security chief caught his attention, for a second, then he turned his burning gaze back to Onan.
“ When I say so,” Shan muttered. “Duck.”
“What...?” Onan said.
“Now!”
Onan took the advice. Which meant that Shan’s blast of mental energy toasted the giant bug standing behind Onan, rather than Onan’s head.
Still holding onto Shan, Onan dove for the doorway, only to find another of the bug creatures blocking his way.Dangerous and hostile as they looked, the creatures were in fact passengers on Sol 3. The Trilexia each stood nearly two meters tall. Their body structure was a cross between grasshopper and ant. For most of the journey, the Trilexia had stayed in their habitant, ignoring and ignored by the rest of the ship. About the same time the wormhole had ingested the other Bell and the ship’s original computer had it’s psychotic episode, the insectoid aliens had begun to wander the halls. They also had developed a tendency to kill any being that crossed their path. No one was sure if the three events were connected in any way.
Onan dropped Shan, and moving faster than seemed possible for a man his size, drew his pistols.
“Do you have an appointment?” He asked the creature.
It paused, a questioning ‘chrriup?’ escaping from between it’s mouth mandibles.
“That’s unfortunate,” Onan said. “When you regain consciousness, make an appointment with the ensign.”
Both pistols fired and the Trixelian went flying backward, until it collided with the far wall. There was a crunch as exoskeleton struck plasti-steel, and the insectoid slid down the wall. Onan nodded to himself and, guns still raised, turned to face Shan.
“So, where were we?”
“Um... I was going to make sure I had an accurate report for the staff meeting,” Shan muttered in reply. “As well as a proposal for equipment and personnel I’ll need for my rescue mission.”
“I’ll make sure that I have a security team ready when you need it.”
Shan glared at Onan for a moment, then nodded and left the office.

“... and it was actually J.B. Braddock that oversaw construction, at the Jovian shipyards, of the Sol class ships,” Captain Jenifer said.
“Fascinating,” Gully said. “Glad to hear the family line survives. I’ve got some missing chunks of memory, to be expected when you get to be my age, but the last I recall, things looked fairly bleak for House Braddock...”
“There are several Bradock’s on the crew,” Jenifer told him, as they sat together in her new, makeshift office. It had started as a storage room, off of the auxiliary bridge. “ Though, they were both stationed on the main Bell. We ever find it, they might be able to help fill in some of your gaps. One, J.B.’s grandson, I think, is a historian.”
“Sounds like there’ll be plenty to keep me busy,” Gully said. “Amazing that mankind managed to survive the barrier years and get out to the stars...” He blipped, and when he came back was standing by a round porthole. With all the new data and old memories flooding his mind, it was very soothing to just watch the stars as Sol3 drifted along.
“Yeah,” Jenifer told him. “Very little time to be bored. There’s always something happening...”
No sooner were the words out of her mouth, then the room began to tremble and flashes of multicolored light shone through the porthole.
“You were saying...” Gully smirked.
“I’ll need you on the bridge,” Jenifer snapped, racing for the door.
“I’m already there,” Gully replied.

Jenifer barged through the door and onto the bridge.
“Report! What the cruk is going on, this time?!”
“Other-dimensional disruption, of some sort,” Gully said, appearing besides her chair. He crossed his arms and cocked his head a bit to one side. “Scanners can’t penetrate it. I’d suggest we retreat a few klicks. It’s kicking up quite the ripples in space-time.”
“You heard him, Helm,” Captain Jenifer said. “ Another wormhole?”
“Possibly,” Gully replied. “It’s similar to scans of the pervious one... there’s something coming through!”
The swirling rainbow of energy on the main view screen pulsed and flared, until the entire bridge crew had to squint, to look at it. With a final flash, like a sun going nova, the disturbance vanished.
“It’s gone?” Jenifer asked.
“Closed up,” Gully replied.
“Huh.” Aura muttered. “ Usually, at this point, somebody shows up and tries to kill us.”
“Bite your tongue,” Jenifer told her. “Let’s savor the fact that it was probably just some random, naturally occurring, stellar phenomenon...”
“Security breach!” Gully announced. “Intruder alert on command level one!”
“That’s this room, isn’t it?” Aura asked, anxiously.
“God hates me,” Jenifer muttered.
“Captain Jenifer Cabre-Rios?” A voice asked, as the air next to Jenifer’s chair began to shimmer.
The Captain stood up, reaching for her holster. The main bridge doors slid open as Onan and a security squad came barreling into the room.
The shimmer formed into a being. It’s skin was red. It had fan-like ears, golden, pupil-less eyes and no visible mouth. From the waist up, it’s body was humanoid, though, it’s arms were long and ended in three fingered hands. From the waist down, the new arrival had a snakish tail, which it curled, to support itself when it stood. its only clothing was a floor length, red cloak with a high collar. It was fastened about the alien’s neck by a large, golden amulet.
“I am Krugarr, sorcerer supreme of this dimension. I seek Captain Jenifer Cabre-Rios of the earth ship, Sol 3.”
It took Jenifer a moment to respond, she was trying to figure out how a creature with no mouth could have such a rich, commanding speaking voice.
“I’m Captain Cabre-Rios,” she said. “ What do you want with me and my ship?”
“I believe this,” Krugarr said, reaching into his cloak. “Belongs to you.”
As several dozen guns were pointed his way, the alien sorcerer took out a small object from within his cloak. A thick disk, made of a silver-grey metal, incased in a nimbus of energy. Krugarr then tossed the object towards the main view screen.
“Down, people!” Onan shouted. “It could be a bomb! Lightening!”
A thin man, in a yellow body suit, lunged forward, then traveled across the bridge, faster than the human eye could follow. His fingers grazed the object as it reached the view screen, and then passed through it.
The image on the screen showed the object appearing, growing bigger, as it tumbled through space. In several minutes, it was recognizable to most of the bridge crew.
“Cruk me!” Aura breathed. “It’s the missing bell!”
“How did you...?” Jenifer started.
“It’s a long story,” Krugarr interrupted with a raised hand. “Your people will explain. Now, if you’ll excuse me...” With a flourish of his cloak, the alien was gone.
“You lot go through this sort of thing often?” Gully asked.
“Too smeggin’ often,” Jenifer told him. “ Helm! Bring us around for docking with the bell. Aura, get a repair crew together. Onan...”
“I’ve already alerted security and medical. They’ll meet us at the docking ring.”
“Looks like we’ll need to postpone the department meeting.”
“I’m sure all the department heads will understand, Captain,” Onan assured her.
“It might mean missing out on karaoke ,” Jenifer told him.
“Yet another crisis, I will have to learn to cope with,” Her security chief replied, stoney faced.

Next issue: What did happen to the bell?!