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Chapter Sixteen

Five hundred Ten Years Ago

The bridge of the Valkyrie was a small circular room with heavy computer consoles on the wall, it had a distinctively cramped feeling, with its grey metal furnishings and distinct lack of colour. The bridge of itself was one of the old designs and lacked the comforts that many of the newer ships in the Terran fleet possessed.

Commander Kestra Valentine walked out on the bridge, straightening up her uniform as best as she could after her extremely inappropriate sexual encounter with her first officer, who she believed was still getting dressed in her cabin.

"Commanding Officer on the bridge!" bellowed the security officer, a small Miravikta who was standing on duty next to the entrance to the bridge.

Kestra sighed, running her fingers through her spines as she looked around the room, the three other members of the bridge crew all shot up to pay her the correct respect as demanded by naval tradition.

She hated naval tradition.

"As you were..." she said, raising her hand to calm the situation. She had not demanded this of her crew in years and they knew it. They had bonded together, almost like a family but since their return to Terra, she had been posted with some new crew members who were not familiar with the way that she liked to run her ship.

Kestra had been the brightest star of the Terran Fleet Academy. She had proven that she was a capable commander and was promoted to Commanding Officer of her own ship after she took command of the "Chariot", during the original border conflict between Terra and the neighbouring principality of Alexandria. Eventually the two worlds formed a strong alliance, one that Kestra was proud to have been a part of.

"What's your name?" she asked, stopping to look at the young looking security officer. She could barely remember being as young as he looked. His tail gave away his experience, it fluttered involuntary as she spoke to him.

"Midshipman Abbas Amari, M-Ma'am" replied the rather nervous looking security officer, his accent confirming that he was near the hot and dry country of Fesalis.

"Well..." replied Kestra, feeling almost sorry for putting the boy on the spot like this. He could not be any older then twenty-three. "Mr Amari. On my ship, there is no need to announce my presence everywhere I go, understood? I am sure that other commanding officers enjoy that... I don't"

"U-Understood M-Ma'am..." replied the young ocelot. Kestra could not help but crack a small smirk at his reaction. He looked like he was going to fall apart.

"Don't worry about it." she replied, a casual response for somebody in such a high position. "Give it time and I'm sure you'll make a fine addition to the crew." she beamed a smile at him that made him feel like heaven had opened up and the angels were singing.

"Absolutely Ma'am" he nodded his small, feline head, feeling a new sense of confidence that she had given him.

"Carry on Midshipman..." she tilted her head forward in a nod, looking round to the other crewman on the bridge that she had known a lot longer, most of them trying to stifle their smiles. They had known that Kestra had a distinctive dislike of naval tradition for a long time.

There were three other crewman on the bridge. The first was a rather tempered and aged Corvidae, by the name of Lieutenant Commander Aaron Summerton. His feathers, once brilliant black had dulled over time and were showing streaks of grey. He was much older then Kestra and had served as Chief Science Officer on many different ships in the Terran Fleet but he had never been interested in a command of his own, preferring the solace of his own research. He wore the same black naval uniform that all the crew of the ship did, something that he consistent complained about as it was "not designed" with winged species in mind.

The second person on the bridge was a young Dratari Helmsman called Steinar Yver. He also complained about the uniform, due to the lack of "wing support" as he put it. He was a stunning green dragon with an odd, almost metallic finish to his scales which made him shimmer in a way that petroleum did on a surface in daylight. His scaled possessed an almost mesmerising capacity.

The third and perhaps the most unusual member of the crew was Chief Engineer, Arthur Vereshchargin, a member of the almost xenophobic Ursidae species. The Ursidae species were a large and powerful bear-like species who were known for being extremely xenophobic, preferring to keep their unique and ancient culture intact. Very few Ursidae were seen outside of their northern homeland, to the north of Fesalis.

The Ursidae possessed a unique and complex set of beliefs, essentially a nomadic species with no fixed cities or settlements, they roamed the dense forests and semi-arctic tundra to cultivate the food they needed to survive the harsh winters of their climate.

Their xenophobia was only natural after the Fesalis attempted to invade their homeland almost one thousand years prior, destroying much of their forests which the peaceful Ursidea considered sacred. However since the affirmation of the Great Peace between all the species of Terra, they had retreated into their own territory and become distrustful of outsiders while being considered one of the most spiritual and dedicated creatures of Terra.

Arthur had decided to put his heritage to one side and become the first Ursidae to join the Terran Navy. He had decided, long ago, much to the ire of his parents, to reject his species xenophobic tendencies and embrace things with a more open mind. He was known to the crew of the Valkyrie as a spiritual, wise and very patient person.

"Commander" called Lieutenant Commander Summerton, looking over at Kestra after she had finished with the new security officer at the rear of the bridge. Kestra walked over to him, wondering what all this could have possibly been about, why was Celestial Gate asking them to investigate something when they should be on shore leave.

"Go ahead Aaron" she said, looking at him through her large eyes. They had been friends and colleagues for years and although it was considered "unprofessional" to refer to her crew on a first name basis, she had always preferred it. A more casual attitude promoted trust, in her opinion.

The raven tapped the console, bringing up several black and green diagrams of some sort of strange spatial anomaly. Kestra despised the computer systems on the Valkyrie as they were horribly outdated. She had begged Fleet Command for one of the more modern systems available on the larger capital ships but had been denied due to command thinking that it was a "waste of resources".

Then she had to be dragged out the room before she punched the Admiral.

"It's some sort of spatial anomaly" replied Summerton, with a harsh tone to his perfectly formed traditional accent. "We cannot get a precise reading, Celestial Gate has ordered us to investigate."

"Can't they send one of their own ships?" asked Kestra.

"I was thinking that too!" replied Helmsman Yvar, who was busy getting the engines ready for a possible departure from the station. His young but deep voice conveying the frustration that Kestra was feeling. They were supposed to be on holiday.

"Unfortunately not, most of their ships are under repair or refit. Our ship is the only one that is current spaceworthy." replied Summerton.

"Alright then..." replied Kestra, looking at the two of them. "Let's get this over with... Helm, release docking clamps and request undocking procedure from the station."

Yvar sighed and took the two large silver rods in front of him to steer the massive hulking hull of the Valkyrie. "Aye Ma'am" he replied.

The Valkyrie's glowing blue engines blazed to life as the ship slowly reversed out of the dock. The ship itself was one of the smaller vessels in the Terran Fleet but it was still easily seven hundred metres long. Yvar took extreme caution to make sure that the Valkyrie did not smack into the outer ring of the station as he pulled up to fly over it and out into the cosmos.

It took two hours for the Valkyrie to reach a position just behind the seventh planet in Terra system. Her ion drive was slow at sublight speeds and with her Faster-Than-Light drive offline due to repairs, she was restricted to a slow crawl through the system.

By this time, Commander Marcell had joined Kestra on the bridge with them trying not to look direct at each other with the same longing that she had a few hours earlier in her cabin.

The Valkyrie came to a full stop as a huge, swirling vortex of yellow burst into view in front of her. It was unlike anything the bridge crew had ever seen before and seemed to be hiding within some subspace layer, eventually bursting into view at timed intervals.

Kestra looked at her Science Officer. "What do you make of it Aaron?" she asked.

"I'm not picking up any readings at all Ma'am" replied Aaron, who was busy using his clawed hands to manipulate the computers, running a diagnostic on the sensor system to see if they were at fault.

"Looks like some kind of spatial vortex? Almost like a wormhole." remarked Arthur, who had been also sending what remaining damage control teams he had to check the sensors as it was possible there could have been a glitch in the system.

A wormhole was a highly rare spatial anomaly, they have been theorised by the greatest minds of Terra but a stable one had never been discovered. The anomaly was a passage through space time that could provide instantaneous travel from one region of space to another, however they had never been encountered before.

"This is strange..." muttered Aaron, after a few seconds of silence on the bridge. "Sensors seem to be working fine. But I'm reading no matter, no energy... nothing. It's almost like its there but isn't there."

"Take the ship to Condition Two" replied Kestra, she did not like the look of this at all.

A klaxon blared throughout the ship, alerting the crew of possible danger. Condition Two was used when the ship was investigating something could possibly dangerous. It was used to read the crew against a possible crisis situation.

"Hold on..." replied Aaron, looking back at the Commanding Officer from his console. "I'm picking up an energy emission, its a nadion pulse... Brace!"

A pulse of orange energy shot out from anomaly and impacted the Valkyrie blowing a massive hole in the side of the ship and entire ship to shake. The impact automatically took the ship to Condition One as the bridge's lights flashed red and emergency power was automatically transferred to Kinetic Barriers.

"Hull Breach, Decks G... H... I..." shouted Arthur as he attempted to get emergency teams to seal the breach as soon as possible.

Kestra had been blasted off her feet from the force of the impact, picking herself up from Commander Marcell who had caught her just before she bashed her head on the cold metal flooring of the bridge.

"Kinetic Barriers are online and full charged!" exclaimed Arthur as he tried to get a handle on the situation.

"Turn us around!" shouted Kestra to Helmsman Yvar. "Get us out of range!"

The Valkyrie began to slowly turn, the hulking mass, now with a large hole in its side, limping away like a wounded animal, turning to one side. From the outside, the damage had been heavy and the hole in the ship flickered from the disconnected power conduits. The life blood of the vessel.

Too slow...

Another pulse came through the anomaly, shooting straight through the kinetic barriers and blasting off one of the Valkyrie's struggling engines, spiraling the debris into space.

An explosion rocked the bridge, causing the main helm console to explode and Yvar to be blasted backwards into a scaled heap on the floor. His wings over him, hiding his lifeless body.

"Medic!" shouted Commander Marcell, who rushed to check if he was alright while Kestra attempted to take command of the situation.

"Kinetic Barriers had no effect! They are slicing straight through them!" shouted Arthur as he was stuck, at a loss how to explain this. Kinetic Barriers were energy shields, designed to repeal incoming fire and debris but this type of energy passed straight through them.

Commander Marcell, reached out with his huge hands and touched under the wings of the fallen dragon, looking to Kestra and shaking his head. "He's dead..."

Kestra slammed her fist down on the railing. It was her job to protect these people, to be ready for anything. She had not taken this seriously because she was still stuck in "shore leave mode" and now, a member of her crew were dead.

"We are receiving a transmission..." called out Aaron, interrupting her moment of self loathing. "It's coming from the anomaly."

Kestra rose to her feet, her helmsman was dead, her ship crippled and she wanted to know who was responsible for this. She wanted to make them pay!

"Put it on speaker..."

An echoed voice filled the room, a strange sound that made this female voice sound like it was projecting itself into her mind directly.

"Your time has ended, the Pantheon has come..."

Kestra had no time to react before, out the massive window at the front of the bridge, the anomaly burst into view again, one huge, massive vessel, bigger than all the ships in the Terran Fleet came into view.

"We have come to reclaim what is ours..."