Ancient Hunter
Chapter 49

The rest of the meeting seemed to be matters above my head. Xenai’s eyes swept around the room taking note of all those assembled.

“If we are going to do this?” She was on about activating the crystal. “We need the crew at battle stations.” Turning her attention to the holos she said. We have to be ready for what happens and we’ll keep our comms.”

The holos blinked out one by one.

Xenai regarded her crew singling out an Ezaran. “Ventassi how long will it take to activate the crystal?” she said looking at him directly.

“About an hour or so.”

“Good let me know when you are ready. We’ll have to put Demeros PD on alert and co-ordinate our defences with the other ships here.” She turned to the assembled crew. “To your stations.” Then she fixed her gaze on me. “Gwen head back to your quarters. There is nothing you can do here?” She frowned. “I should send you to Demeros but I know what’s waiting for you down there I’d rather not.”

“I could help!” I said. Anything than being stuck in my quarters knowing there is a battle around me. I had all the Valkyrie training going to waste. But I was a realist there was nothing I could do, I’d only get in the way. I didn’t like being left out but I knew my limits.

Xenai spoke telling me the same thing as my thoughts. “As much as I’d like to, you have no ship combat experience.” The medals she wore both Confederacy and Empire told me she had. “You’ll be safe in your quarters it has its own facilities if there is a hull breach.”

I hadn’t much choice so I headed back.

Back in my quarters I sat unsure of what to do next. I jumped as Moon Shadow’s voice echo through my mind.

“Mother?” she called out.

I recovered quickly I shouldn’t have been so jumpy I had asked her for help. “Moon Shadow?” I said.

“I’m sorry mother I tried but no one here is an expert.”

“That ok,” I assured her. “You did your best. I briefly wondered if what was it like to have children for real. If I could after the Keepers had harvested my ovaries to remake themselves. Which was why they all looked like variations of me.

“We failed.”

I could clearly hear the agony in her voice. “Moon Shadow!” I realised how pointless it was to scold someone technically millennia older than I was.

“Mother?” Moon Shadow answered.

“Nothing sorry, keep yourself safe.” I keenly felt the pain of not finding the missing Keepers. I wasn’t about to lose the only ones left in the galaxy.

“We will mother.” Moon Shadow hesitated. “We are as strong as the others but we lack the will.” Again she hesitated. “I have to tell you some of us have retreated back to the safety of the columns.”

I knew what that meant they had turned themselves back into data. The state I’d found them in. The only thing I wished for was they had asked before they had harvested me. I had the feeling I would have refused. That would have been a definite after their computer had trapped me in the harness and forced me to work against my will. “Don’t judge them too harshly.”

“We don’t,” Moon Shadow stated.

“Any way stay safe.”

“Goodbye mother,” Moon Shadow said and she faded from my mind.

I wished Mouse or Digger were here it made it even more important that I find them. This was so frustrating I was stuck aboard the ship with no way off. Then I wasn’t safe if I went back to Demeros, stupidly I played my hand too early and the Confeds wanted to know what I knew. They’d take me apart to learn what I knew. The trouble was I didn’t know anything. All I had was altered DNA and the nanobots in my blood. I concluded that Jennifer knew more than she was telling me. There must be a way of contacting her without putting anymore stress on the remaining Keepers. I pulled off my dress shoes and unbuttoned my tunic and lay on the bed. Taking a deep breath, I reached out with my mind calling Jennifer by the name she called herself.

“Jennifer, Jennifer!” I called out all it resulted in was a mild headache. I was no telepath trained to use my mind like that. I such a relaxed state I fell asleep.

The sound of alarms and flashing red lights jerked me from my slumber. Hastily I buttoned my tunic and slipped into my shoes. Xenai’s voice echoed through the comms.

“All hands to battle stations!”

My wrist comms pinged and I opened it straight away. “Hunter,” I said formally.

“Gwen stay in your quarters the enemy is at the gates.”

I reflected this was an odd thing for a T’Arni to say, in fact any Confed. Then I remembered that she was born on Paranova a world within the Terran Empire. I heard Xenai’s sombre words. She knew the situation better than I did from her position on the bridge. There was nothing I could do I kept telling myself. The logical part of my brain agreed. With time on my hands I waited and pondered on these Unknown or Ulkoi, a T’Arni word for aliens outside the known races. Their technology was beyond anything the Empire or Confederacy could produce. I began to think it beyond that of the Keepers. The more I pondered over the question the more I began to suspect there was a link between the Ulkoi, The Rhosani and the Black Stripes. The last two were a definite link. The Curator before he died told about the link. The Rhosani were using the Black Stripes to cause chaos within the Confederacy. I suspected that they were using the Night Guard to achieve the same aims in the Empire. Unfortunately the Rhosani were beyond us safe in the Orsini Commonwealth. Not even the Alliance could touch them.

The ship rocked as if hit. I started to worry about what was happening. I decided my Alliance uniform wasn’t the best gear to fight in if it came to that. I changed into a comfortable plain T-shirt and jeans. I replaced my dress shoes with my more practical boots. Belting a combat knife around my waist I felt bereft without the familiar feel of a Seven Double ‘M’ in my hand. All I had was a knife and a Guardian sword hardly any defence against bullets. The ship shook again this time it felt closer to me. My thoughts took a dark turn was I to die here. My comms bleep signalling an urgent message.

“Hunter!”

“Gwen stay in your quarters I’m sending Marines to your location. We have a hull breach in sector sixteen. Look I not going to sugar coat it we’ve been boarded.” Xenai cut off her comms.

I hurried over to terminal and brought up the schematics of the ship. That section was perilously close to my quarters. I glanced across to my Guardian sword, it was better than nothing. I tried listening at the door forgetting how sound proofed it was. I felt another shudder. My eyes narrowed that was the door. Hastily I backed up. My comms was dead I was only getting a disconnection signal. I suppose that Xenai had cleared the channels for action reports. But I suspected that this wasn’t the case. Someone or something was deliberately blocking the comms. I walked over to the terminal the signal to that was blocked as well. I was effectively cut off from the outside. I glanced around with a heavy heart my only protection was the Guardian sword. When the door shuddered for the third time I took up the sword and took a stance. I was afraid I couldn’t deny that. I had a moment of deep regret before I took position facing the door.

The door bulged as something pressed hard against it. The creaking and groaning as the door tried to hold out sent shivers down my back. Something with incredible strength was trying to prise the door open. My heart began to pound faster as I contemplated my fate. What was on the other side of the door. It wasn’t the vacuum of space the door would be bulging the other way. No something was trying to get in, trying to get to me. Had it been Xenai’s crew there would have been the glow a laser cutter. This wasn’t it this was something else, something dangerous. The tip of the sword shook as I grappled with my fear. “Pull yourself together,” I muttered. The logical part of my mind agreed. Fear would kill me faster than the threat of an enemy would. Fearful people would make fatal mistakes. I took a deep breath and calmed my errant heart. There was one last screech as the door gave way. It was at that moment the lights decided to fail leaving me in total darkness.

Silhouetted in the dimness of the corridor’s emergency lighting was a huge hulking humanoid figure. As tall a Valkyrie and just as wide. As fearful as I was my Valkyrie training came to the fore. They’d thoughtfully trained me for situations like these. An expert would say it would have been impossible to wield a sword this long in a confined space like this. Then they hadn’t been through the training regime the Valkyrie had. Thousands of years training for this type of action. My heartbeat slowed as all of Thirika’s hard lessons came to the fore. I was ready for this or I would be dead. I stepped forward before the creature moved and thrust with the sword the way I’d been taught. I aimed for the dark patch under the creature’s face. The throat or the neck was my target Thirika had decried those showy vid moves. The ones where you saw the sword go all the way through and burst out the other side.

She’d also said if the tip of the blade hadn’t done the damage. Then using the rest of the blade was a waste of time and motion. I felt a calm descend on me as I remembered this. My fear faded and I concentrated on the lessons I learned. The Valkyrie trained in all weathers and conditions naked. Which was the way they’d trained me. The only thing was that they were prudish in front of males and other races. I’d been told that even those in the Confed forces trained and washed separately from the others. I pulled the blade out by muscle memory. The creature shrieked as I did that. Which made it sound more Human than machine. I saw what I assumed was its hand clap to its neck. So the thing did feel pain? I thrust again my action automatic. This I aimed lower for where I thought the heart to be. The same economical attack it been trained to do. I felt like I was attacking a training dummy. I approached the creature with that same dispassion. The creature recovered and went on the offensive. I ducked and rolled as the creature made a swipe at me. I felt a brush of wind as its hand tried to grab me.

I retreated into my quarters to give myself more room to manoeuvre. The creature followed me luckily it was moving at a slower pace. In quick succession I lashed out with my sword. With strikes at the limbs. Or where I assumed the limbs to be. It was too dark to be sure of anything. Something wet splashed across my face as it swiped at me. I felt the attack and reacted instinctively a shape passed across my face mere millimetres from the surface of the skin. I stepped back the fear inside me reawakening. I stuck back gaining a fresh coating of liquid .The smell more earthy than the stench of blood. I reached out fighting my fear and took the offensive. I felt the blade of my sword strike the solid shape I guessed was the head. I had a moment of levity before it died that of Thirika admonishing me for such a showy move.

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