[She took What?] - Chapter 99 : ORIGINS: There you go. As planned.

“It is better to breathe now.”

SolDiri axiom

 

| Location: Somewhere on the edge of Drexari space |

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They exited behind a Drexari frigate that was travelling in the same direction they were.

It immediately started firing at what looked like shadows, distortions that slid in and out of existence like living storms. All around them there was disorder and chaos. Space was alight with bolts of energy aimed at shadows that darted and jinked; trying to avoid the beams.

A large Drexari Destroyer, freshly minted was chasing two shadows when they reversed course; just like that. One second running away from the Destroyer, the next diving towards it. The Destroyer tried to change course, but its massive frame had too much mass to alter course quickly.

The Shadows, mass-less in their motion, closed in. One was struck by spears of energy fired from the destroyer and simply vanished, winked out of existence. The remaining Shadow didn't fire any weapons, just closed on the Destroyer and crashed into it. Suicidal ramming, that was their tactic and it worked.

But the effect on the ship was wrong.

The Drexari vessel didn’t explode. Its structure simply... failed, as if the forces holding it together stopped working. The hull splintered and broke into glittering shards that bent light around them, the fragments warping spacetime as they drifted apart. Then the pieces collapsed back, drawn together into a single point as if by gravity.

For a heartbeat the collapsing wreckage what was all there was of the Destroyer which burned with the brilliance of a newborn star. Then it detonated outward in a violent flash, a miniature supernova tearing the ship and the fabric of spacetime apart.

 

Meanwhile, Feebee and the crew were still in the body of frigate, sitting cross legged in a state of absolute calm.

"Breathe in for four, hold for four. Out for four.”

She had felt them drop out of jump space but had carried on. Not wishing to disrupt the crew or their exit.  She felt something was wrong; not with the ship but with the reality that wrapped around them.

The QI had multiple threads running simultaneously, an ability it had developed while on the crystal planet. One thread, looking out at the battle, noticed that the Shadows were not attacking their ship. The frigate ahead of them had already been destroyed but theirs was being ignored while other Drexari vessels were going supernova around them.

The QI gently called out to Feebee, aware that she didn’t like to be interrupted when doing meditative exercises.

 

'Feebee. Stay calm.'

'Ack. What?’

'We have exited jump space…’

‘I know.’

‘… and are in the middle of a battle.'

‘Oh. Ok,’ she said, sounding anything but Ok. She took an extra deep breath and held it.

‘We are surrounded by anomalous jump signatures. Space is weird, wrong.'

'I can feel that something is off.' Feebee answered.

'We appear to be safe for now.'

'Oh. Ok. Good.'

 

Feebee let her breath out, slowly. Using all her training to stay calm.  She didn't want to spook the others until she had more detail, so kept the breathing exercises and stillness training going.

 

All weapons and non-essential systems remained off-line; the crew were calm, in a balanced state and were repeating Feebee's instructions. But three Shadows had noticed them, then a fourth. They formed a tetrahedron around the frigate.

The QI’s spawned another thread and accessed Rockson's console. It saw a resonant field emerge within the shape formed by the four shadows. The frigate at its focus.

 

Feebee felt the need to remain quiet amongst all the chaos around them. Unsure why, but the feeling was strong.

"Stay focused on my words. Good, very good. Hold this state. Nothing sudden. Drop deeper, be calmer. Balance needs a fulcrum, find yours, anchor it to something and gently apply effort to maintain balance." 

Feebee called to the QI, 'Do we have control of the ship?'

'Mostly. I am currently bumping up against security layers that are in places and make perfect sense, like how power is routed around the jump core which, by the way, is still collapsing the corridor.'

'So?'

'Just an observation, the Drexari jump tech takes longer to power down. Could be a trade-off.'

'Explain,' asked Feebee, feeling the need to understand.

'Their jump corridor is a smoother ride but takes longer to power down. Physics tends to impose consequences.'

 

"In...two...three...four. Hold..."

"Out...two...three...four. Hold..."

 

Feebee started the next cycle of breathing.

 

"In... two..."

But this time the ship's hull, the floor plates, the whole ship started gently vibrating. A low resonant hum that pulsed with each beat as she counted.  When she said HOLD the humming remained steady, in tune with her voice. It even resonated through their bodies.

Feebee had felt this before, when the world stopped and all that was present balanced on an infinitely sharp knife edge.

"Focus. Hold. Calm."

As the crew descended into a deeper state of balance the resonant force acting on the ship responded and took on a pattern of its own.

 

One-Two... Three-Four.

...

One-Two... Three-Four.

...

 

This repeated. Feebee responded. "Match the resonant pattern. Breathe with it. In One.Two....Three.Four. Hold.  Out One.Two....Three.Four."

It took a couple of cycles but then the team was in lockstep and followed the new rhythm.

Feebee wanted to try something. "Now we slow this down. Feel it. Remain anchored, balanced and spread across your fulcrum."

"Slower. In One..Two........Three..Four.. Hold.  Out One..Two........Three..Four."

"In One..Two........Three..Four.. Hold.  Out One..Two........Three..Four."

 

And as they all followed the new exercise the resonance through the ship mimicked the cadence.

The ship was breathing with them?

The QI projected the image from one of its threads onto Feebee's overlays.

 

In the background she could see weapons fire, ships collapsing in on themselves then exploding, mini-supernova. Total chaos. In the fore ground, Shadows silently drifted around the frigate.

Facets within the Shadows slowly aligned and faced towards the frigate.  The facets in all four caught distant star-light, intensified and focused it on the frigate in an array of pixilated colour. The ship looked to be alight; gently bathed in flames. A deep resonant pulse accompanied this that was felt deep in the bones.

Then each of the Shadows shone light on the frigate in turn. With each gentle pulse of star-light the frigate vibrated, resonant energy rippled through the ship.

Feebee realised, "The Shadows are trying to communicate."

'Yes. And they are using jump space as the medium through which to communicate.'

'How is that possible?'

'Don't know, this is my first time... with them.' They both laughed.

The QI pushed a different image into Feebee's overlays. This was of the trace on Rockson's console. It showed a clean wave form with repeating harmonics aligned to the vibrations rocking the ship.

 

As the QI watched the harmonics shifted away from Feebee's exercises. They became mathematical, base ten. Simple ratios. 1:1, 3:2, 5:3, 7:4. Then a sequence of numbers.

 

One of the QI's threads had finally hacked the frigate's security.

'I have complete control and am able to get into jump drive systems.'

It had an idea.

 

The sequence of numbers started again, "5, 7, 11, 13." Then stopped.

The QI sent pulses of energy through the jump drive, mimicking the mathematical harmonics and providing the next numbers in the sequence, but then added its own on the end. "17,19, 23, 29...563, 569"

 

There was the briefest of pauses and then two numbers came back, "661, 673," and all four Shadows flashed light on the frigate at once.

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