The Forsaken Empire (The Endervar War Book 2) (48 page)

Arendi, however, continued to fight. She didn’t care if it was a losing battle. The targets were in her sights.

We have to take down all the pylons, she said. That’s the key.

Farcia listened and realized what was being asked. In other words, destroy it. Destroy every last piece of her world.

The remnants teemed in the distance. The dead matter was alive with light. The holoscreens displayed reminders of the ill-fated past but now it was becoming something else. Farcia didn’t know what. She only had the Enforcer’s word and her own desire.

Remember your promise

Farcia heard the echo and sniffed. The promise, she thought. Perhaps it had been flawed from the start. She couldn’t see or feel it anymore, and she knew why. The vow was all laced in anger and lies. The Enforcer and her own delusions had pushed her to the extreme. Now she had been betrayed and cast aside. The tired desperation of the promise. She had to let go. The hate could only take her so far.

Let them die this universe doesn’t deserve to exist they are your enemy. Restore your people the true people no matter the cost.

No, Farcia whispered. I can’t. It’s not right.

She pushed the echoes out of her mind. Instead, she cradled the other promise. The other potential. It was there, in her belly, and it was real. The sensation was small and crawling. Maybe even reaching. For once, Farcia didn’t fight it or feel the need to suppress it. She decided to imagine the unborn life. But it wouldn’t survive. None of them would. The tremors at her feet wouldn’t stop.

The enemy swarm continued to maul the mother ship. The beam blasts, missiles, and even fusion bombs threatened to clobber the vessel into dust. The impacts grew louder with every moan and whine across the control room.

Alysdeon said.

Farcia heard the bulkhead burst and bang from afar. It made her suddenly think of the sound of rubble falling. It roared through the surrounding corridors; the wall, the armor, and the force field protecting the ship were collapsing. In a sense, the enemy was almost at the doors. She could hear them knocking.

Arendi went to the main guns and fired off another javelin. The particle beam swiped across the vessel’s bow and crashed into a wave of enemy drones.

Engines! she shouted. Arendi needed them on immediately. Her mechanical claw itched, urgent and angry.

But what did it matter? They were but one vessel against a whole army. The swarm itself still numbered in the thousands. With that kind of resistance, the mother ship would never reach the target, let alone survive. At least, not like this not against these odds.

If only we had more ships.

The thought came to Farcia as she watched Arendi struggle and fight. She and her companions were seemingly on their own at the edge of the galaxy, trying to hold on. They were but a small pocket of resistance, firing away at the abyss. But still, the coming reality couldn’t be denied.

Defeat. They all could feel it. The grim sensation was on Arendi’s lips. The android woman bit down on her teeth, trying to face the inevitable. The remaining skin on her cheeks twitched. They wouldn’t win. Not unless they had help.

Farcia focused on Arendi and the lingering thought if only we had more ships

It then dawned on her. They could stop this. Farcia knew how.

Savior, she whispered. The android woman had come all this way for certain reasons. For reasons that Farcia understood. They were personal in nature.

The captain Farcia added.

Indeed, they were here on the edge of the galaxy, at the very site. The site where all this began. Farcia glanced up at the holoscreens, wondering how it might end. To save this universe would mean abandoning the old one forever.

She looked at what was left of her former home and saw nothing familiar. It was almost the inverse. The dead matter of her old world was about to explode and cast out pure destruction. It would kill everything in the name of a heartless machine.

No, Farcia thought. My people never wanted this.

Her people. The forgotten empire. The memory still lived in her mind. She knew them intimately. They had achieved many great things. Things that this new universe might never know. But never had they wanted death. Not deliberately. They had only asked for life.

Farcia realized this and felt the life growing in her belly. She sniffed, remembering her people and what they stood for. Maybe for once she could do what was right. But she would have to act fast.

You don’t need the engines, she said.

She broke away from her side of the room and came to Arendi. Her eyes were wide as she stared at the woman and all the technology around them. Arendi and her companions were trying to fight off the foe with brute force, using conventional weapons and shields. But they had yet to tap the mother ship’s true power.

Farcia told them how. Access spatial control. Focus on that.

She then touched Arendi’s mechanical claw. The small hand clasped the glove of metal. The heavy arm was attached to the room’s central computing tower, attempting to access the various systems. The robotic fingers then flinched.

What? Arendi asked, confused. What do you mean?

Farcia waved her other hand in the air, pointing.

This ship, she explained. The Enforcer may have built it, but the energy inside it’s from my people, my world.

Farcia spoke, knowing it was there. The technology was literally beneath her feet, contained by layers of machine metal. Weapons, shields all of that was nothing in comparison.

Farcia uttered it again: Spatial control trust me.

Arendi made the connection. She had nearly forgotten. You mean a portal, she realized.

Yes. We can cross the distances in an instant.

Farcia had shown Arendi the capability before. The method of travel was beyond known physical laws. But the mother ship possessed the power. In fact, the vessel housed a shard of Farcia’s dead universe. The energy, once harnessed, could easily make it true. The Endervars and their abilities to manipulate and mold space had transferred to this very ship.

But why? How we would we use it? Arendi asked.

To create a bridge. To where my home once was. I know the coordinates, Farcia said.

Through the holoscreens, she looked out to space and recalled it. Reinforcements. I know where to find them.

***

It had been twenty-one years ago that the experiment took place. Farcia had sought to create a bridge to her people and what was left of their world.

Now, she was attempting to do so again. To replicate those same conditions and bring forth the realm of her ancestors. Space would bend, and so would time. The energy from the mother ship and its spatial generator would briefly close the gap.

We’ll create a gateway, Farcia said. A true gateway.

The enemy swarm continued to storm their position. The full wrath came, ready to annihilate them. The drone fighters hounded from above and below, targeting the mother ship, with the intent of crushing the ten-mile disk into nothing.

But Farcia still had time. Maybe enough to make a difference.

She began to see it from the hologram beside her. The blond-haired man had regained his grin. Spatial control is ours, the Destroyer said, completing the hack. Dialing in the coordinates now.

Farcia felt the change under her feet. The force came thundering through the room. The power was taking shape, moving beyond the normal parameters. It crackled and surged within the vessel’s main generator, nearly breaking loose.

Farcia let it ramp up. Don’t spare anything, she said. All of it was needed. The energy and the intensity would only climb, draining the mother ship of whatever fuel it had left.

The spatial bridge. The technology of her people. Out in space, it was already beginning to form. The incoming portal would build and stretch for miles maybe dozens or more.

The larger the better, Farcia thought. From what she remembered, the original experiment had spanned the entire area. The power had rapidly proliferated in size and at one final point even consumed. The mother ship could probably never match that scale. But it didn’t have to.

Yes, the Destroyer said. I think it’s working. The disruption is growing.

The rift appeared only several thousand kilometers away. At first it was small, like a simple circular doorway, but wreathed in sparks and flames. The dimensional fabric, however, was quickly breaking down to do more. The powers at work reached into this section of space and began paving the way for the bridge.

The enemy, however, pressed its attack. The mounting blaster fire was tearing away at the last layers of protective shielding and raking into the mother ship’s armor. Farcia nearly stumbled with the impacts. The vessel itself seemed as if it were teetering toward collapse or were about to implode.

Arendi caught Farcia by the arm. She steadied her, pulling her in closer. At Arendi’s touch, Farcia tried to look away. Although her ragged white hair dangled over her vision, she could still see Arendi there, standing nearby, trying to help and protect her.

Why?

Farcia didn’t say it, but it was hard to face the woman like this. She would much rather have looked at Arendi from afar or not at all. Having hated her, despised her, even yearned to hurt her, and then suddenly to feel something different was difficult. To feel the guilt.

Farcia brushed her hair away from her eyes. She had shown the woman enough pain.

Savior, she whispered.

Farcia uttered the word, realizing that these might be their last moments. She could easily envision all the destruction. She had seen so much of it before. Base after base. Planet after planet. And now, perhaps, universe after universe. But instead she clasped Arendi’s hand and spoke louder.

I never told you.

What do you mean? Arendi asked.

The truth, Farcia replied. What happened twenty-one years ago. I promised I would show you.

She glanced up to the holoscreens and to the emptiness of space, hoping. Maybe he’s still there, Farcia said. Maybe they all are.

Her frail body felt the energy of her people. The mother ship was using every last bit of it. It was then that the power strengthened and commanded the void to bend. For a moment, the existing universe opened; the barriers holding it together loosened and then connected to the domain of another.

The bridge arrived, swirling against the night. The new storm erupted across the horizon, warping a corridor of space and time. It was how the Endervars had first arrived in this galaxy, funneling energy and ships through such portals. But in this instance, Farcia sought to release another force something once assumed lost.

Alysdeon said, as she stared at the holoscreens. Something was coming through.

The presence appeared on the scans amid the enemy swarm. New contacts, the Destroyer said. Man-made. Even bio signatures

It was one. Then six. Then over fifteen. And finally many, many more. The ships were streaming through, almost blinking into existence. The fleet emerged from the rift and entered into normal space. It came like a new wave, washing over the shore. Capital ships, carrier groups, and armies of automated attack craft suddenly lay perched over the battlefield, ready to strike.

Arendi saw the various vessels and their formations. She recognized the designs, colors, and lights. It’s the Alliance, she said.

But it was more than that. Much more. The truth was on full display. Arendi made the connection. She saw the piece of the past.

It’s the strike force. After all these years.

Yes, Farcia replied. The captain and the lost fleet.

She had known all along, never really caring, until now. Farcia glanced at Arendi, thinking and then realizing. Perhaps this was something that she could salvage. Something that she could save.

Twenty-one years ago they were swept away in the experiment, Farcia said. Now they return.

Chapter 49

The fleet struck with a fury. Battle carriers, dreadnoughts, and cruisers took off like sabers and spears flying through the night. Joining them were thousands of automated craft, launching into space and bolting toward their targets. The ships had quickly realized what was at stake. The distress call had made it clear.

Arendi identified herself as she sent the message out across all frequencies. She pointed to the threat at hand and to what it might unleash. The Gateway, she said. It has to be stopped at all costs.

The Enforcer and his chamber of power. The all-consuming reaction continued to escalate by the moment. The exotic energy inside was transforming and merging with the technology at the core. Meanwhile, the enemy swarm began to regroup. It no longer dominated the surrounding space unopposed. Alliance ships were filling the void with comm traffic and then weapons fire.

They all felt it. The shaking over the mother ship began to stop. As energy from the craft’s main generator started to ebb and wane, so did the enemy’s assault. It effectively scattered; a new bombardment had come to clear the area.

The Alliance fleet and its collective might arrived. From afar, dozens and then hundreds of gun blasts ripped through the offending swarm. Heated plasma and faster-than-light shells all went off. The main line of battleships had together launched an entire broadside into the machine flyers. But that was just the first strike. The fleet’s own army of automated drones plunged into the enemy, killing more.

The Destroyer watched the destruction, pleased.

The Enforcer is losing ground, he said. The tide is turning.

The new wave of Alliance ships and their repeated barrage almost seemed to shatter the opposing side. The strike force then began to separate, overrunning the area and assailing the battlefield from all angles.

Alysdeon marveled at the scans. Their reinforcements were more than ready to finish the fight. She then came to Arendi and asked,

Still checking.

Arendi was looking over the scans and cataloging the various ships. After twenty-one years, much of the strike force was still intact. She counted over two hundred sizable warships many from different galactic cultures as they sprawled over the area, attacking. Her machine systems were communicating with the fleet, feeding them intel and laying out the targets.