The Black

Mac held his gaze for a long-pointed moment before continuing, “You want to shed the shackles of Unity. I want to keep my species from being provoked into a war for extinction. For me, Humanity arriving at this part of the galaxy is a certainty. I know from the telemetry of Concord’s test, that she was in contact with our observation systems before, during, and after she crossed the light speed barrier… humanity now knows it can be done…. Frankly… considering my recorded flight time… if humanity continues down the road of slip-space. They will be here much sooner than 20 or 30 years. You and I have an opportunity. To Guide where Humanity entered Unity space, who they meet, and more importantly… who they view as friend or foe when they get here. That, M’Lord, might not just save lives… but save civilizations. I have too much blood on my hands already to do nothing. I would have Sol ally with Delmar, and I would prefer Tribal approval.” Mac finished. The two sat in silence for a moment.

“I see your reasoning. I must ask you one final question. About my great grandniece... I know she claimed you... that is not often something successfully done with other species. I must hear it from you…” Declamus said softly.

“We share emotions through a bond through some sort of empathic connection. I can feel her nightmares, they have woken me from sleep on occasion. She has felt my wrath, as I nearly killed the Lycan spy, mentioned previously, with my bare hands for attacking her… the rest, a gentleman never tells.” Mac smirked at the last part, drawing an involuntary chuckle from the older Delmar.

“Indeed... that will be all, Mac. I’m sending you home in my personal air-car. It’s a little late to be out that far alone at night. Dismissed” Darclemus stood and shook the offered hand of Mackenzie. He pondered what had transpired and decided to sit alone until morning. He had much to ponder.

Mac was dropped off just after midnight. Thanking the 28-hour days for the extra time, he slipped inside and quietly crept up the stairs. Lyri was asleep, curled up in their massive bed in their master suite. 10 min later she gave a happy mumble as he slid up behind her, wrapping one arm around her and passed out as big spoon to her as she faded back out of consciousness.

——————————————————————

Later that night, the door to Darclemus’ office chimed. “Come” he ordered.

His head of security stepped through the door. He was wearing his customary deep sea blue uniform with bright auburn stitching and what a Terran Marine would all Blood stripes, but in silver. “We recovered the Gri’kra from where Maruk and Mr Grarzia were attacked…” the man paused. It was unlike him to break from efficiency.

“Go on Plorus, if you please” Darclemus ordered, but gently. The man’s face shown this was no normal report.

“Sir, I’m not sure you would believe me... I still don’t, I came to bring you to see the beast… or what is left of it..” Plorus responded. Darclemus raised an eyebrow, He had been at this a long time. He knew all of his staff as intimately as close family, and most of their families as well. If his chief of security was going to break from protocol, it was for a reason, and Darclemus was not in the Habit of surrounding himself with fools.

“Very well,” he stood, giving the younger man a smile, “Lead on.” and he followed his chief of security down to a department normally resourced for solving mysteries of a more criminal nature. They also dissected the occasional beast to ensure it was the correct one on the rare occasion they had to hunt a ‘man eater’ on their land.

What was left of the beast was laid out on the examining table. Plorus had been right to bring him down here, He would not have believed a verbal report, “What am I looking at here.”

His security chief nodded to the lab coated Delmar male currently washing at the sink. “Tell him what you told me.”

The tech walked up to where some of the head of the beast was laid out, “I guess we should start out somewhere. There was not much left of the beast’s cranial vault. You can see a small entry hole here;” he pointed to a perfect circle roughly 5 and a half millimeters in diameter “just above the upper mandible. We have some bits of metal embedded in the torso, but we believe it to be some kind of casing. Not the main projectile. Whatever the main impact was, it was kinetic; and it was traveling well in excess of the speed of sound. It acted almost like a Flak Kannon flechette on soft tissue, causing a shock wave in the water content of the brain. This turned the tissue itself into a bomb, shattering the orbital bones and facial structure. As you can see” the tech indicated to the bottom jaw “it sent bone shrapnel and hydrostatic shock down as well. The lower mandible is shattered in 6 separate places at its hinges. The primary projectile exited the back of the cranial vault and was not recovered.”

The tech stepped away from the ruined head of Delmar’s most dangerous species, working his way down its body, “These holes in the thoracic cavity tell much the same story. Massive hydrostatic shock liquifying the organs and shards of bone lacerating the surviving ones. I would note that we have not found all the pieces. Whether those bone fragments were pulverized on impact or flung from the thoracic cavity, I do not know. The left wing’s membrane has one 5 and a half millimeters wide hole in it with several lesser secondary impacts. This did the least damage. The membrane was stretched out in flight and had little for the projectile to influence. The last hit we will look at is on the other wing. We can see a direct impact to one of the limb joints. 4 cm on either side. And the joint itself is simply gone.” The scientist finished his analysis, and the room fell silent. Faces creased with both concern and incredulity in equal measure.

It was the tech who spoke first, “M,Lord.. this beast looks like it took a hit from a ship grade kinetic…. I have read the report. Is it true that this animal was felled by a handheld device?”

“It is…” Darclemus nodded slowly.

“I would say that is not possible… but I know Maruk as a personal friend... skittish as the poor man may be, he does not lie. I would like to have a look at the weapon that did this… if we can scale it to our ships…...” his voice trailed off.

The scientist, Professor Quintius Grem was pulling double duty. Monster dissections were rare. As such, no permanent position existed for autopsies and dissections. Professor Grem simply had minored in Delmar biology and had taught himself to be a forensic analyst on the side. His true vocation was in Aerospace Design for ships, weapons, engines, ect…and Energy research. He was the head of the Helyon R&D think tank that tried to improve life for the freighter captains and crew.

‘So, this is what small human weapons are capable of... Void, Mackenzie might be right… at least right enough to take the chance…’

The head of state shook himself out of internal thought. “Thank you, professor. I’ll see what I can do.” He nodded and departed for his office.

6hours later his wife Clarise walked into his office, “Come dear, you’re practically asleep already. Tomorrow’s troubles can wait.” She walked with a cane, but her voice was strong still.

“Hmm indeed,” Grumped her Dar, “you always were the smart one” he whispered, taking her hand, and following her down the hall to their quarters, as head of state was traditionally to live on The Hall.

“I know” she smiled.

——————————————————————

Over the next week, Mac and Lyrian settled into a routine. Exercise in the morning, with a 10K run and calisthenics in their vests. Both of them enjoyed this run more now that they got to do a run through the jungle on various elevated walkways. They had incorporated ladders into their run to push Lyrian Just a bit. The hardest was the gravity. Mac had explained to Lyrian that they needed to slowly acclimate her heart and circulatory system to Terran gravity as well. So, at the beginning of week two, Mac had turned on the custom gravity plating in the houses foundations up to 1.25 Delmar G. This was hard on Lyri as her body strained under the unrelenting feeling of being slightly heavier. The few days fell away more ease as her body responded. Failure week had them do calisthenics inside under elevated G in their vests until failure. They pushed the run to the afternoon to give Lyri time to recover.

Mac had several more meetings with the Helyon head of state. The man was cautious. Mac could not blame him. Darclemus had finally given his limited permission. Mac to begin his plan and contact Sol. He had instructed Mac on what he wanted in the message. Mac agreed with the caution and easily agreed to the restrictions.

The beginning of the first month saw Mac and Lyri, in her now altered to fit her physique void suit, climb into Concord, and depart for one of Delmars research facilities and Orbital subspace relays. They had taken sporadic flights, staying in atmosphere. Lyrian was still learning how to land but had become proficient at taking off.

Darclemus had insisted on seeing the famous/infamous ship depart. He was amused at how a ship so advanced and powerful had no vertical takeoff ability. Mac had handed out ear protection before following Lyrian up the ladder. She finished off the checklist right as he strapped in. Concord awoke from her slumber with her customary baying screaming Howl. Mac noticed that most of the viewing entourage had stumbled back slightly in fear as Concord bellowed her greeting.

“Ok, that’s enough messing with the poor civies.” Mac said into the intercom.

“Skies clear, we have our flight plan, we are to report to Delmar Departure when we leave atmosphere” Lyri read off behind him, “scopes clear, beacon is on.” she finished.

Mac smirked into the camera as Lyri caught his expression, “Engage.” He said.

He could hear her giggles over the com as she pressed the throttles forward.

The small crowd took several more steps back as Concord roared past. And leapt for the black once more.

——————————————————————

Captain Clint Stevens leaned back in his office hair. He was back in Houston Station. This time in one of the offices near the research labs. Admiral Gwen had been forced to contact the United Sol Command after he had shown her what he found. Someone had caught wind and FOIA requests had broken the news to the public. LEAP was not a classified program after all. After all, one of its purposes was to mend deep wounds through the pursuit of science. “We are not alone” headlines had washed through both Terran and Martian headlines almost consistently since. This resulted in Terran command being pressured into refusing to classify LEAP. Whatever they found… everyone would know.

The result was Clint’s promotion and elevation to minor celebrity status on top of his and Mac’s service record. He hated it. Mac and him both hated the fame of being the single most deadly TALON crew on the Terran side of the GSW. This was worse, because every dumbass with a press badge inevitably brought out the one with the other. He was relieved to be able to leave Terra and return to Houston Station. It was easier to hide there… or just lock the doors claiming sensitive processes or testing. Most of the time the claim was even accurate.

Mac’s console beeped, “yes?” He answered.

“We are ready for the test, sir,” the voice stated, “We have authorization to utilize lighthouse, finally.”

“Outstanding, prep the sensor array and run a fill system check with Johansson. Stevens out.” Clint closed the call and stood, straightening his uniform. It had been months since he had lost a brother. The pain had fueled him. Mac had sacrificed himself for this program. Clint refused to let the work go unfinished.

They had deciphered much of what the original data stream had Been. They could tell it was in code, or maybe a language, but they didn’t have enough information. 6 weeks from now, the second slip space test was scheduled. It would be unmanned this time. The probe was built, but the ftl eggheads were waiting for him. Some of the raw math found suggested a layer below slip space, but they needed more. This test was to hopefully get that for them... in time.

Clint entered the main lab. “Status,”.

“Array’s Board is green.” Johansson reported.

“Light house synced to our input, go.” came another voice, Kraus maybe.

The rest of his staff sounded off.

“Activate Light House” Clint commanded. Nothing happened. At least not dramatically. The consoles streamed data past Him, and the quantum beacon flared to life for exactly two minutes then shut down.

“Light-house cycle complete. Pandora array active.” came the conformation call.

The array that had been overloaded had been renamed after the MOA that had claimed his brother. To be more accurate. The array was not overloaded as much as over saturated. It had been too sensitive in its calibration and had been unable to handle the intensity and density of the packet of data that it received, triggering an emergency shot down about 25 percent of the way into the reception. Pandora array had been recalibrated and isolated from the deep space listening system. It stayed in its exact location, but now it was listening for the right patterns.

“Now… we wait…” Clint mumbled, “call me if you get anything. It may take a while.”

——————————————————————

Mac settled heavily into the offered seat. It was finally ready. The research facility’s array could finally handle the power required for the transmission test. Lyrian was standing over the Coms station watching the data being compiled. Mac was sitting at the power management console. He had linked Concord to a data pad in his lap. They were going through the final preparations. Darclemus had approved of everything, even the private message he had included to his brother, as well as to his Aunt Gwen. The head of state had respected his privacy there, only asking that the private messages be held to the same information restrictions. They were, of course, but Mac appreciated not having to play them for the Patriarch.

The Techs on the station were practically drooling over Concord, or at least her power numbers. Concords twin Helion Industries, formerly Helion energy, fusion cores followed standard nuclear designs dating back to the early 21st century. The only difference is she did not require steam to produce her power. She made electrical energy directly from the plasma based fusion reaction. The tradeoff was that the Helion based design was extremely efficient, but only when running at full capacity. So, the standard procedure was to carry enough fuel onboard the reactor to continually run until it’s overhaul. As such, Concord could run her twin cores for a total of 3 years continually. With Mac being in a position to have a parent vessel, and not having to run continuously, he had a considerably longer duration before that became a problem.

That’s not what the techs were drooling over… they had run a full power test on Concord… and she had enough juice to run their biggest capital ships…. For two months with every system on and ever weapon firing before the capacitance-based power banks would stop being charged. Max was no scientist. But he did ask how Delmar reactors operated. This side of the galaxy had settled on magnetic confinement. It worked better with the fuel available in this part of the universe. But it was power limited to several orders of magnitude lower output because of molecular degradation of the reactor walls. Otherwise, the electrical current phases were very close in compatibility. There was just the not so simple task of beefing up the space station’s grid, so they didn’t blow themselves up trying to send their message.

Mac monitored the power output, easing a little more into the system as he slowly fed the research facility. Concord lent her strength to the massive subspace emitters as she prepared to ‘phone home’. Mac had dug through his files to find that movie. He and Lyri had watched it the night before they departed for orbit. He caught a movement out of the corner of his eye, and turned to see Lyri staring at him with a smirk... Lyri’s smirk turned into a smile as she hunched over slightly, raising her index finger on her right hand, slowly waving in a circle. Mac snarfed into his water glass, then smothered his laugh with a cough. He turned his attention back to avoid the grin of triumph from Lyri he reached for the power controls it was about time to...

“Mackenzie! We have contact! The subspace contact is back!” a frantic Delmar scientist came bolting in waving a pad. A stone sank in Mac’s gut as he bolted to his feet. He swung around and snatched the pad as the tech ran past him. Mac frantically scrolled through the Data…

“GOD FUCKING DAMMIT!!!” Mac bellowed, roaring his rage before sinking heavily to his chair. The entire room froze. The Delmar techs looked on in terror, and no one dared move, save for Lyri who was experiencing everything in excruciating detail. She rushed to his side, cupping his cheeks in her hands, and pressing her forehead to his, “What is it, love.” She was equal parts trying to calm him as she was trying to show the rest of the techs unfamiliar to humans that he wasn’t angry, at least at them. One or two slowly unwound but no one moved.

Mac dropped the pad, leaning into the gesture before pulling her hands into his left and picking up the discarded pad… “They activated Light-House…”

“Oh Gods…” Lyrian gasped, she remembered the details as to why Mac ended up where he did.

“were there two signals?” she asked softly..

Mac shook his head, “No... 2 earth minutes. That’s all they activated it for… the same procedure as for me... They just sent someone else… to god knows where”. His head sank, “Dhia, glèidh iad. (God save them.)”….

“Mackenzie, Sir, we are almost ready.” one of the techs said softly. Mac nodded and straightened, paying in the last 10 percent of the power needed from Concord. A low Thrum started building in the station’s bones as it struggled to control the energy coursing through its artificial veins.

“Array ready! Transmitting!!” shouted the lead Researcher, Professor Grem, over the building Din.

A full minute passed before, “COMPETE! Shut it down!!!!” the professor shouted lunging away from a console that started sparking and smoking violently. Mac triggered the emergency shut down on Concord, cutting the power off to the station. Two more consoles failed, but the power bled down into a prepared overflow capacitor bank left empty for this operation.

“Well, Mackenzie, that was certainly exciting” Professor Quintius chuckled, picking himself off the the floor. He had a slight burn mark on one lab coat arm, otherwise unhurt.

“Other than the poor soul they just sent to his death…” Mac mumbled, clearly emotionally spent.

“Yes. Well, hopefully they will see our message before they do it again. You couldn’t expect them to stop testing, could we?” the Professor placed a hand on Mac’s shoulder, “now come! Let’s get some food into all of us, its going to take a day to disconnect your mechanical marvel. Rest, we can look over the data later”. Lyri and Mac nodded their thanks and headed to the small mess.

Delmar was, ironically, on the boarder of the Galactic Unity closest to Sol. They had loosed their message true, but not fully undetected. A small intelligence satellite kicked out of the garbage airlock of the last Brig to patrol the edge of the Delmar Confederacy caught the transmissions power readings and vector... It also recorded the subspace pulse created by Light-House.. Its algorithms were not power hungry but were efficient. It compiled the little it snagged and sent a message. Deep in the catacombs of a governmental building on Termistrius Prime, the capital planet of the Galactic Unity, an alert popped up on the console of an Inquisitorius Analyst…