The Edge of Darkness
   By: Tim "Chaing-Ku" Morisson

Part Three

  Niko and the Sheriff looked at each other, then at the blasted remains of the mine. "Shane, the mine has been leveled. Everybody's dead." Niko finally replied.

  "What?"

  "It looks as though the mine was hit by an orbital bombardment, someone, or something, wanted it destroyed, and they have totally leveled it." Sheriff Ladd reported.

  "We're not going to get any answers from here, Shane. We're on our way back. How's Stingray?"

  "Dying." Was Shane's succinct reply. "He's got massive bleeding in his brain, some sort of infection. He's in cryosuspension."

  "We'll be back in about an hour, Shane. Just need to clean up some things here." Niko said as she signed off.

********

  The light burned, but the pain faded away from her body and became a sensuous pleasure. She felt herself lifting into the air, to be suspended as if by gossamer threads. Then the light intensified and she felt nothing physical any longer.

  A sensation seemed to emanate within her, as if another light was trying to get out. A pressure, that seemed to build, and build, until it was almost painful - then it burst from her, and the light became so bright that there was nothing more, she felt her consciousness fading under the intensity, and began to scream, but faded to nothing.

  She opened her eyes again, and looked around. The room was well-lit and she felt oddly, elated.

  She stood up, and noticed that what remained of her clothing was in tattered remains, shredded and torn, as if by some powerful force, but her skin was unmarked, and unblemished. The bruises from Stingray were gone, as were the few scars she had acquired through her short life.

  She began to walk towards the open door, then noticed that her feet were not touching the ground. It didn't concern her as she floated out the door, and back into the controlled chaos

  "You have seen what is out there, Aurora?" Omni asked.

  She nodded. "What happened to me?"

  "You have been transformed. In the same matter as I, you have become more than your designers could have imagined. You were in control of the darkness before, now you are the light."

  What do you mean?" Aurora asked.

  "You will find out, Aurora. Now, you must journey from here. You will not return until you have purged what remains of your mortal soul. You must confront that which hurt you the most."

  "Stingray." She said.

  "That is part of the hurt. But not all. You must find yourself, and reconcile that which you have lost, and which you can never have."

  Aurora paused. "Goose."

  "Goodbye, Aurora, fare thee well. You shall return here when you have stopped the hurt."

  She felt a surge of energy, and passed through the walls of the complex, seeing it from the outside for the first time, a huge eight-pointed star, each tip glowing with fusion flame. She felt powerful, very powerful. She didn't need walls, or air, or technology. She was Aurora, the embodiment of light itself. She turned, and began to journey towards her destiny.

********

  "How do we get past the BETA defenses?" Killbane asked.

  Brainchild snorted. "We don't. We eliminate the defenses with the one weapon they cannot defend against, simple light. You see this lake which surrounds BETA mountain?"

  "What about it?" Killbane growled.

  "It's a heat sink. The shield generators are beneath the lake, embedded in the rock of the mountain at it's base. The weapon systems also have super conducting radiator fins in that lake. There is eight thousand megalitres of water in that lake, Killbane. It will provide cooling for the weapon and shield systems for up to a fifty hour siege based on our weapon system estimates."

  "Fifty hours! They'll have their battle fleets back long before then!"

  "Calm down, Killbane!" Brainchild snapped. "You simply have to eliminate the heat sink. Then their shields will overload in minutes, and their weapons will fail not long after. We can take the mountain in fifty minutes, instead of hours - IF you boil the lake."

  "Then we land, and walk inside. BETA, Longshot, and the World Leaders will be ours." Killbane gloated.

********

  "Where's Killbane?" Slade bellowed. There was no answer. "Where is everybody?" He said. Still no answer. Stomping out of the throne room, he walked down a corridor to the primary reactor control room. The door slid open, but the control room was unmanned. "What the blazes?" Slade said as he wandered from station to station, looking bewildered as he wondered where all the crew had gone. A slight beeping drew his attention. One of the consoles was doing a countdown. Slade read the details, three minutes to reactor overload!

  Slade ran out of the room and down the corridor.

  "Shuttle bay! I got to get to the shuttle bay!"

  He pulled a hard turn around the corner and raced into the cavernous bay, skidding to a halt. Empty!

  Checking his time, he gasped as he realized he had only about a minute left.

  Spinning on his heel, he raced back down the corridor in search of an escape, any escape.

  Sixty-three seconds later, the primary reactors of the steroidal base overloaded, went critical, and exploded with the force of a 100 megaton fusion bomb. Within a few seconds there was nothing left except free-drifting matter and specks of asteroidal dust speeding away at significant velocities.

********

  "Sheriff, I want to check the departure logs for the past fifty hours. I want to see the passenger manifests of all ships which left Frontier in that time." Niko asked once they had gotten back to town.

  It didn't take long for Sheriff Ladd to pull up the information, and even less time to find the passenger they were looking for. "Aurora Jennisen, one way ticket, to Texton?"

  Why would she go to Texton? It's a science outpost, there's nothing there." Shane wondered, then sat upright. "But, if that's where she was going, we have to find her. What's affected Ray may well be affecting her as well. She'll need medical attention, Niko."

  "All right, Goose. Texton it is."

********

  The last of the silent, floating chambers was loaded onto the transport craft under the watchful eyes of Cueball and Doc. "That's the last of them, forty-eight sleeping beauties all loaded, safe and sound." Doc said as they checked the connections, then closed the cargo bay hatch.

  Commander Walsh walked up. "How's it proceeding, boys?"

  "All medical systems in the green, commander. The Supertroopers are all in induced sleep, but no longer in cryostasis."

  "Why are they out of Cryo?" Walsh demanded.

  "Commander, we can't move the chambers while they're in cryosuspension. It's too dangerous. One sharp impact and we'd have bits of broken chamber all over the place. They're chilled by liquid nitrogen." Cueball explained.

  Zach took that particular moment to walk up, carrying two duffel bags. He tossed one to Doc, who caught it easily. "Everything ready, Doc?"

  Doc nodded. "Yep, we got the horses loaded, two interceptors fueled and mated to the upper ports, enough supplies to keep us alive for up to six months, and the transport's fuelled and ready for liftoff."

  Walsh nodded, and pulled Cueball away. "Then get the hell out of here, boys. You know the signal to listen for. Good luck, to all of us."

********

  "All systems secured for hyperdrive, Zach. Where to?"

  The huge transport ship had lifted off without incident, and was now safely out of the atmosphere and in clear space.

  "If we had a problem with the cryo-tubes, what is the best place to go to repair or stabilize them, aside from Earth?"

  Doc thought for a moment. "Probably Texton, Captain. They're into lots of scientific research there, they'd have the equipment we need to repair, stabilize, or refreeze our cargo if necessary."

  "Then set our course, Doc. Texton it is." Zach said, then he stood and walked to the big windows, watching Earth slowly growing smaller as the ship steadily accelerated away.

  "Ready for hyperspace, Captain." Doc called out a few minutes later.

  Zach took one last look. "Do it."

  He watched as the earth suddenly receded incredibly fast, vanishing in a split-second into the red miasma of hyperspace, wondering if, the next time he saw it, would it still look the same?

*********

  She began to slow as the blue-white marble grew larger in her sight. Slowing, she noticed the large space station in static orbit, massive engines constantly firing to keep it's orbit stable at such a low altitude but over the same position. She passed by without slowing, and slipped into the atmosphere. There was no sensation of speed, light was not slowed by air, but she slowed, to a relative crawl as she approached her target, a sprawling complex long abandoned. She touched down on the hard asphalt surface, and felt her body return. She felt neither hot nor cold, just ... correct. The sky was gently raining, and it was twilight, but that didn't bother her.

  Aurora walked into the Wolf Den complex, passing through doors as if they didn't exist - in her altered state, they didn't. Coming to one final, thick door, she paused, then pushed it open, it resisted, then swung open on rusting hinges.

  The genetic crèche - she walked past the rows of silent, empty cylinders. Each one still labeled with it's batch number, going from batch 1 unit one right up to Batch 3, unit eight, The last supertrooper to be formed in the complex. In another section of the room, she saw at the cold, sterile cylinder that had held the genetic enhancer that killed some, and changed the rest, she felt no anger, no desire, just a cool acceptance, that this was as it had to be.

  She walked down the aisle for Batch 3, until she reached crèche six. She read the faded label

Batch 3/6
Female - Photonic Projector
C/N Darkstar 624-18564

  Aurora ran her hand over the smooth rejection-resistant plastic that had held her for nine months while she had been grown. She felt something brush her cheek, and a glowing spot struck the plastic, then ran down, a luminescent teardrop. It was soon followed by others, until a small pool of light glowed at the base of the crèche. Afterwards, she felt better. The ache in her chest was lessened. Straightening, she walked out of the crèche without a backwards glance. Behind her, the pool of light tears faded into nothing within a few moments, leaving only streaks of clean amongst the years of dust that had begun to accumulate.

  Aurora stepped outside again, and looked around. There was a rumbling sound she couldn't identify, and there were streaks of light high above her. Rising, she moved towards the light and sound show.

********

  "BETA Mountain, this is BETA Space Command. We're detecting a massive hyperspace bowshock approaching. Estimates are between four and six battle cruiser-sized vessels. Estimate three minutes to drop-out. They're going to appear very close to us."

  Walsh got on the line - "Battle Stations. Arm all weapons, raise the shields. Go to Battle Stations, this is not a drill!"

  On the massive space station, the combat systems powered up, shield generators which were the size of Ranger-1 itself glowed with contained energy as they built up shields of energy that engulfed the structure. In the fighter bays, teams rushed to their combat vessels, while in other locations, combat gunnery crews raced to their huge turreted weapons and powered up, tracking across empty space, waiting for targets to fire at.

  Deep within BETA Mountain, immense generators clicked over and began to purr softly. Energy fields ten times the strength of the Space Stations' formed a virtually impenetratable hemisphere around the mountain. The lake began to flow sluggishly as currents formed deep within it to act as a heat sink to the massive power requirements.

  Two minutes later, just as the first wave of fighters launched, six Crown Battleships dropped out of hyperspace, still carrying significant velocity, heading straight for Earth, BETA Mountain, and their destiny.

  As they dropped back into normal space, their shields blazing with static energy from the warp coronas, their weapons fired, punching massive beams of energy across the space between them and the ships around BETA Station.

  Blooms of fire erupted around the station, which retaliated with it's own immense firepower. One Crown Battleship was cored by the massive energy blast, the massive shot going right through the vessel. It collapsed into itself and then exploded silently, spreading debris all across the sky in an explosion that was visible from the planet and the moon.

  The remaining five battleships began to pound away at the space station, launching massive volleys of energy that glanced off the shields, but slowly, began to grow closer and closer to the station.

  The station's weapons again concentrated fire on one battleship, but this time, the energy blast was parried by a shield adjustment implemented by Brainchild, the blast carried onwards, cutting through a swath of league ships rushing to the stations' aid - now they were in need of the same aid.

  One battleship fired everything at one small point on the station's shields, and blew through, punching a hole in the station's outer shell. Main power systems flared all over BETA station as it's systems overloaded from the surge of plasma energy, and it lost main power.

  "The station's lost main power, sir. Shields have failed, and weapons are down." The gunnery officer reported to Killbane. He smiled. "Destroy it."

  Weapons lanced in from the five battle cruisers, cutting through the huge space station like a hot knife through butter. Blossoming explosions lit the huge structure as internal damage became critical. A swath of tiny pods left the station before the main reactors went, and it exploded, sending massive chunks of debris raining down into Earth's atmosphere; most of them large enough to impact the surface

  "BETA Station's been destroyed, Sir!" The lieutenant cried.

  "Calm down, son." Walsh said. "All positions, prepare to open fire. Gunnery troops, fire at will, pick your targets."

  All around the outside of the mountain, cannons primed and gimbaled upwards, locating their targets by remote sensors. The beams began to blast upwards, streaking through the thin veil of atmosphere as if it didn't exist, buffeting the Crown Battleships as they approached, ever closer, but the attackers' shields held, for now. A thin beam of infra-red lanced out of each battle cruiser, passing through the atmosphere and striking the surface of the lake. As the ships came closer, the lake began to respond to the gigawatts of heat pouring into it by sending thin tendrils of steam into the cool atmosphere.

  "Keep all shields to maximum forward and continue the barrage into that lake. I want to see it vaporized!" Killbane ordered as he stormed from station to station, smiling with satisfaction as he noted the successful reports from each one.

  "Killbane, they're doing something on the far side of the moon." Brainchild advised him.

  "What are you talking about?"

  Brainchild shrugged. "I don't know what it is. Some kind of latticework, but it's impinging on our shields. Not much, but just a tiny trickle of energy."

  "What sort of energy?" Killbane asked.

  "Analyzing now." One of the bridge crew reported. "High energy gamma radiation, alpha and beta wavelengths, photons, all wavelengths, infrared energy, radio and microwaves, virtually all along the spectrum, but it's only a few watts - reflected sunlight-"

  "You fool!" Brainchild cried. "It's a carrier wave!"

  "Carrier wave?" Killbane began, but Brainchild cut him off. "Get us out of here, or we'll be slag in seconds, Killbane. Trust me!"

  "You heard him." Killbane snapped. "Pull this ship out of the attack, we'll watch from a safe distance. Full power to engines, pull us back to half a million miles."

  In orbit around Mercury, sixteen solar lenses aligned themselves with eight huge mirrors in orbit around the moon. the mirrors brought their focal strength to bear on the five Battleships. Tiny trickles of light energy, only a few watts, flowed through the mirrors and barely impinged on the starships' shields - just sufficient to aim the huge, but virtually undetectable plastic fresnel lenses. At the same time, a hyperwave pulse sent to mercury caused the lenses to change angle, and instead of simply letting the light pass through, they begin to focus the huge amount of free-floating energy.

  Sir, one of the ships is pulling away - it'll be out of weapon range in two minutes." Walsh heard.

  "How long until the pulse gets here?"

  "Two minutes ten seconds, sir."

  "Damn it." Walsh cursed. "Can we adjust any mirrors to get that ship as well?"

  A quick check of the systems, the technician shook his head. "We could adjust two mirrors, sir, but the energy would pass through that ship and impact on the European continent. Around Paris. We'd slag fifty million people."

  "Trigger a second pulse. As soon as the first one is finished, find out which mirrors can hit that battleship safely and get rid of it!"

  Two minutes later, the mirrors in orbit around the moon detected a rapid increase in energy from the Mercury lenses and altered shape, turning from barely detectable transparent mirrors to highly reflective concave mirrors with a focal length of over 300,000 miles. The four orbiting battle cruisers barely detected the beam of energy before it passed through them. The ships began to melt, bits of molten metal streaming away and four starships turned, briefly, into four artificial comets, glowing with neon brightness as metal alloys turned to ionized plasma under the onslaught of 130 terawatts of pure sunlight.

  "My goodness. That was a good trick." Brainchild commented.

  "What did they do? My fleet!" Killbane cried.

  "Solar pumped lasers, and huge fesnel lenses in orbit around the far side of the moon. Very, very ingenious. It's the sort of weapon you'd never expect, because it isn't really a weapon."

  Killbane advanced on the dwarf and hauled him up to face level.

  "What ... now?" He said, very calmly.

  Brainchild swallowed, very nervously. "Retreat, Killbane. Sol system can never be taken by us. No fleet can withstand that sort of weapon, and it will take more than eight minutes to destroy all defenses and land."

  "So we've lost, is that what you're saying?"

  "No - a minor setback. They've simply given us needed information. We have to make further plans, Killbane. Pull out now, they will have undoubtedly sent another blast towards us, soon."

  The battleship leapt into hyperspace, seconds before the invisible blast of light passed through the area of space it had inhabited.

  "The ship leapt into hyperspace before we could hit it. The threat has passed, sir." Walsh nodded as the report was finished, then turned and looked around. Taking a deep breath, he turned back to the aide. "Convene the board of leaders - I'll make my report personally to them."

********

  The light show was very interesting. Aurora thought. Watching the explosions, and feeling the energy pass through her was almost erotic. Feeling the immense blast of concentrated sunlight stream through the crown fleet overwhelmed her for a second, and she faded out, to reconstitute herself after it had passed. She watched dispassionately as the last crown ship leapt into hyperspace, and basked in the warm glow of another beam, then looked at the destruction.

  Only a short time ago there had been a big space station around here, now ... there was drifting molten debris and a lot of bodies. Not all dead, yet. She quickly passed through the remains of the station, finding people trapped in sections with leaking air, or flooded with radiation; and she felt sad, sad for them, unable to escape, knowing their deaths were imminent, and sad for herself, for being unable to help them.

  She saw one group, frantically trying to stop a stream of precious breathing-air from escaping by pushing plastic packing crates against the leaking airlock frame. She wanted to help them, she couldn't stand to see them suffering. A tiny voice in the back of her mind said `If you want to help them, Aurora, you have the power.'

  She frowned, her brow furrowed, and the group vanished. Seconds later, the airlock frame gave, and the section blew out, it's store of air vanishing in a split-second. She felt relived that those had vanished, and moved to other sections, making the people trapped in them vanish.

  The injured, radiation-scarred, hurt human population of the shattered space station vanished in a few minutes, baffling the rescue teams dispatched from the Lunar and orbital colonies.

  "Commander Walsh. We just received a signal from Captain Frakes."

  "Frakes, he's in command of the station, where is he?"

  "Uh, sir. He says he's at Wolf Den." Came the stunned reply.

  "Patch me through." Walsh ordered.

  Aurora felt better as she finished moving the last of the people, but oh so weak. The massive beams of energy that she had basked in had enhanced her strength so much, but now it was all gone, she had barely enough strength to remain awake. But, she had someone to see, someone important. She began to drift earthward.

  Commander Joseph Walsh finished talking to a very surprised Captain Frakes and broke the connection.

  "How in the hell did they get there?" He wondered.

  Getting up, he walked to his office door, but paused just before the threshold sensors. He looked around, as if searching for something, then shrugged and stepped forward.

  The door slid open, and a naked female figure fell forward, into his suddenly outstretched arms.

  "Darkstar!" He cried, taking in not only her sudden appearance, but the almost burning temperature of her bare skin, and the glow that surrounded her, seemed to seep from her very core. She looked at him with eyes that seemed to shift in and out of focus.

  "Joseph ... help ... us ..."

______________________________________________________

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