Adrift (The Sirilians Book 1) (5 page)

Karo felt sick. Bile and the energy bar he’d eaten for lunch threatened to rise up his throat, but he managed to fight it down. It wouldn’t help to puke all over his console.

A quick check of his body showed that he was still in one piece, but riddled with cuts and scrapes. His ship had not fared as well; sparks flew from several ports, scattered fires thickened the air with smoke making it hard to breathe, and every console in the ship was blinking with either power outages or surges. His ship had not been built for that type of space travel.

An urgent voice captured Karo’s attention, “Jayda, behind you; there’s a ship on your tail!”

“I see it,” she answered just before the comm link went dead.

The cloak must have failed.

He wasn’t surprised, since there were only a few systems still functioning on his ship; but that meant that he’d been detected. He was about to face an unknown alien race.

I need information. I need to know who I’m dealing with.

His fingers flew over the consoles—a hard feat considering most of his instruments were damaged—but he was finally able to bypass shortages and pull up sensor data. It didn’t show what he’d expected.

Instead of the blackness of the void, the monitor gleamed brightly with stars and planets.

“Where in the universe am I?” Karo mumbled to himself. 

His first impulse was to repair navigation, but something on the console caught his attention. Stars were being blocked by something dark—something that was getting closer by the second. Dread swept over Karo.

“LINK, can you identify that?”

“Our sensors are barely operational, but it appears to be a ship.”

Karo guessed as much, but hearing LINK confirming his fears made it seem more real. There was a massive war ship quickly converging on his location.

Fixing the navigation was forgotten. It didn’t matter where he was. With his propulsion gone he couldn’t run away, and it was too late for the cloak—even if it had been working. There was nothing he could do but wait for the ship to arrive. 

A moment later a gruff voice spoke through his comms.

“Unknown ship, this is General Bogaard of the Arathian Defense. Identify yourself.”

Karo cleared his throat somewhat nervously. He hadn’t spoken to another living person in years. This was definitely not how he wanted his first conversation to go.

“My name is Karincin Abishek of the planet Siril. I’m on an exploratory mission, and mean you no harm.”

Especially since my ship is basically dead in the water,
Karo mentally added. As if to punctuate his thoughts, systems were failing as he watched. From behind him, an overload caused sparks to rain down and set his bedding on fire.

Shit!

He sprang into motion, momentarily ignoring the fact that he was in the middle of a conversation, but still aware that he had an audience. He grabbed the nearest canister of fire-extinguishing gas and ran to his bed. He turned his face away from the heat of the flames and aimed the nozzle.

“Your presence in our system is not authorized,” General Bogaard exclaimed.

No shit.
The heat subsided—thankfully the fire hadn’t spread too far—but there wasn’t time for rejoicing. A new alarm blared from his console, and its pitch was enough to tell Karo that it was far more serious than the others.

“I didn’t come here on purpose,” Karo defended as he skidded into his command chair. “I was pulled into the gravitational funnel behind the other ship.”

His heart fell at what the console showed: life support was barely functioning and could fail at any moment.

His first impulse was to enlist LINK to help, but something urged Karo to keep his AI’s presence hidden. He needed to protect LINK: the only friend he had.
I have to manually reroute power,
he thought as his hands raced across the console once more.
I have to keep life support going.

“Explain your intentions,” the General demanded.

“Right now my intention is to stay alive!”

No matter his efforts, alerts continued to ring from all directions. Karo’s movements stilled. There was no way he could make all of the repairs before the critical systems shut down. He had no choice but to solicit help from the strange aliens.

Karo ran his hands over his head in a rare moment of helpless frustration. He didn’t want to die here. Not now.  He tried to keep fear from his voice.

“General, I apologize for being in your system without permission, but my ship was unwillingly pulled here. Traveling through folded space did extensive damage to my systems, and I don’t think I can repair them. I’m in need of your assistance.”

There was another moment of silence. Karo held his breath.

“We will bring your ship into a secure docking bay. Power down as many systems as possible. Once inside, exit through your main hatch, unarmed, and ready to be taken into custody.”

“Thank you. I will do as you ask.”

Not that I have any choice in the matter.

Karo sprang into motion as he heard the comm link disconnect. He gave commands to LINK and together they quickly worked to do as the general had commanded. Sparks rained down as he fought to cut power to the nonessential systems: navigation, replicators, regeneration chamber; but there were other parts of the ship that refused to power down no matter what he did.

Karo shrugged it off and knew he had done as much as he could with the time he had.

He hurried to dress in more suitable clothes: a dark blue uniform, and sturdy boots; but left all of his weapons and larger pieces of technology in their places. He grabbed his wristunit and watched as his vessel was engulfed into the docking bay of a much larger ship.

“LINK, make sure to hide your matrix. I don’t want them to access your controls.”

“Consider it done.”

The ship rocked as the artificial gravity of the other ship engaged and locked his vessel down onto the docking bay. Karo took a few steps towards the main hatch and immediately noticed that the gravity was less than normal.
The alien’s homeworld must be smaller than mine,
Karo thought.

He stood still for a moment to look around and felt a pang of sorrow.
I’ve been here too long. Spent too much time within these walls.

Now he had no option but to leave.
I need to be strong. These aren’t the first aliens I’ve encountered. Of course the last aliens attacked and nearly killed me… better not think about that now.

“LINK, take care while I’m gone.”

“You as well. There are two dozen armed individuals waiting for you to exit. Be careful.”

He clenched his fists hoping to stop the slight shake, took a deep breath, and opened the hatch.

*****

The first thing Karo saw was bright light. He blinked to get his eyes accustomed, but could still make out the dark shapes of the two dozen guards, each aiming a weapon at him. When they were in focus he was surprised to see that the aliens looked similar to him—extremely similar. The only outward differences between Karo’s physiology and theirs was that the aliens had a light brown skin color and black hair on top of their heads. All of them were tall, muscular, and dressed in matching black uniforms.

Probably some kind of militia.

Karo raised his arms away from his body and slowly turned to show that he was unarmed. As he rotated, his eyes scanned the interior of the docking bay. There wasn’t much to see. It was a large space, but devoid of anything except a forcefield that seemed to encase the interior of the walls. Smart. 

He faced forward once again and watched as the men parted to allow one in particular to step forward. His face showed signs of age and had dull, gray-colored hair. He wore the same black uniform as the others, but his was decorated with extra insignias that had been etched into the fabric.

Karo descended the ramp slowly to greet him.

“I am General Bogaard. Can you understand my language?”

“Yes.” He’d been implanted with an aural translator before leaving Siril.

“Is your ship secured?”

“Yes. I was unable to power-down a few backup systems, but they pose no immediate threat. As a precaution I recommend placing a confinement field around the ship to ensure your people’s safety.”

“Already done.”

The general stood silently and looked him over from head to toe, probably analyzing every inch of what he saw. Karo stood still under the scrutiny and tried to appear non-threatening. He wasn’t sure if he succeeded or not. 

Before the general could comment further, large doors opened and a man and woman walked briskly into the room. They wore matching, tightly-fitted black bodysuits that were different than the others’ in front of him.

The woman had the same dark hair and brown complexion as the others, but the man’s appearance was unique. He had light yellow-colored hair, a paler shade of skin, and eyes that were strikingly blue. Karo was intrigued by his similarities to the two, but at the moment was far more concerned about the angry expression on the man’s face. The woman didn’t look angry, more… cautious and maybe a little curious.

The man walked right up to Karo, closer than was comfortable, and began speaking immediately. 

“Who are you?” he demanded.

I know that voice,
Karo thought. This man was one of the people he’d overheard through his comm; Lukas, they’d called him. He had been on the ship that had pulled him into the gravitational funnel. Karo glanced around and saw that the others—excluding the General—were deferring to this man. Apparently he was in some kind of authority role.

“I am Karincin Abishek of the planet Siril.” He gave the man a small bow. It never hurt to be respectful, especially when he needed help.

The general took a step closer to Karo, asserting himself again. “Why were you following an Arathian vessel?” he asked.

“I wasn’t following your ship. I was unwillingly pulled into the gravity funnel it created.”

“That wouldn’t have happened if you hadn’t been cloaked,” Lukas retorted through his clenched jaw.

“Are you here to spy on us?” General Bogaard asked.

“No, of course not. I don’t know who you are, or even where I am!” Karo took a calming breath and willed the aliens to understand.

“I was exploring a system at the far edge of the galaxy and was attacked by unfamiliar aliens. They used me for target practice, but I was able to escape using my ship’s cloak. Unfortunately they’d damaged my main engines beyond repair, and set me on a course into a void. I’ve been there for the past few days, staying cloaked to avoid further attacks, and making repairs.”

The woman subtly placed her palm on Lukas’s forearm—a small but intimate gesture. He responded by backing up a step, and Karo breathed a little easier. He hadn’t been that close to another person in a long time.

“I hope you understand our inquisitiveness,” she said evenly. “This is the first time we’ve ever unwittingly dragged someone through folded space with us.”

Karo knew her voice as well: Jayda, the pilot of the other ship. She looked calm, collected, and was not reacting to the anger rolling off of Lukas. It was clear from her darker complexion and black hair that she was from the same race as members of the militia and General Bogaard. 

The general interjected, “It is too much of a coincidence for me to accept his story, especially since our ship was being piloted by a princess.”

She’s a princess?! Oh shit.
Karo kept his composure and nodded. “I understand.” He bowed towards the woman. “If I frightened you, Princess, please accept my apology. It was never my intent.”

“Thank you Karincin,” she replied. “Your story is unorthodox, so I hope you understand why we’re going to assign teams to scan your ship and make sure it poses no threat.”

“I understand and would do the same were I you. Just… please be careful. That ship has been my home for two decades.”  

“We will take whatever measures necessary to maintain the safety of everyone on this ship,” the general barked. Karo saw irritation cross Jayda’s features but the older man continued, “Guards will take you to the Medical Center to ensure you don’t carry any pathogens.”

“We also want to make sure you didn’t sustain injuries during the trip through the fold,” Princess Jayda added.

The general looked at her with displeasure but didn’t correct her statement. Instead he turned back towards Karo.

“Our scans show that you’re unarmed, but before we take you further into our ship, we’ll need you to remove that piece of technology on your wrist.”

Karo looked down at his only connection to LINK and home. He didn’t want to be parted from it, but knew that he didn’t have any say in the matter. He nodded and regretfully removed his wristunit, handing it to the general.

“May I ask that you take care when handling this? It means a great deal to me.”

General Bogaard passed it to one of the uniformed men, who sealed it in a clear container, presumably to have it analyzed. The general then divided the crewmen into two groups: one stayed behind with his ship, while the other was to escort him to the Medical Center.