In the City of Tomorrow: Chapter 9

Laura Fields was sitting on the bridge when the power went out. She was in the middle of a conversation with officials on Alpha Mensae, attempting to arrange for help to be at the spaceport in two days in order to unload all the mining supplies that the Starfire was carrying. Captain Brahms was sitting in his captain’s chair, fast asleep. He had been sleeping for the past two hours.

When the lights went out Laura inadvertently screamed. The noise woke up the slumbering captain. “What’s that?” he called out.

“The ship is dead,” Laura said. “Everything is off! It looks like we’ve lost power.”

“Better let Davis and Lee know,” the captain advised. “They’ve probably blown a fuse or something.”

“How am I supposed to do that? It’s pitch black – I can’t see a thing! How can I possibly make it all the way back to the engine room without any lights?”

“Call ’em up on the intercom, I guess,” Captain Brahms replied.

“But the intercom is dead! Everything is dead! There’s no power!”

“Better have Lee look into that took,” the captain mumbled. He turned over and went back to sleep.

“Wonderful,” Laura grumbled. “Just wonderful. Where do we keep the flashlights on this miserable excuse for a starship?”

As she sat there, wondering what to do, she noticed a series of blue lights appear near the ceiling. The lights separated and began whirling around the room. Laura felt a feeling of terror grip her as she stared at the lights. Something instinctively told her that they were deeply evil.

The lights seemed to sense her terror. They swirled around her just out of reach, as if they were taunting her. An evil laughter filled the room. The lights then smashed against the bridge windows. Laura heard a crack as they struck the fragile glass.

“Don’t do that!” she screamed. “If those windows break–”

As she spoke the lights deliberately slammed into the windows again, and again. The third time the glass shattered, and all the windows on the bridge broke at once. The air in the room was violently sucked out into space. A complete feeling of utter terror coursed through her as she realized she was about to suffocate.

Then something happened. The room was filled with a soft white light, and although the windows were still broken the air stopped leaking out of the room and air pressure returned to normal. Brilliant beams of white energy struck the points of blue light and vaporized them. Within moments they were all gone.

Laura felt a hand help her stand back up onto her feet. She looked up and saw a teenage girl helping her. The girl was tall and thin, with brown eyes and black hair. She was holding a large gun. “They’re gone now,” she said.

“Thanks.” Laura was still shaking. She sank back down into her chair. “They almost–”

“I know,” the girl said. She handed Laura the weapon that she was holding. “If they come back shoot them with this. It will drive them away.”

“Much obliged,” the captain mumbled. The teenager turned around and saw that the captain had climbed back into his chair and was settling back down to sleep.

“What’s wrong with you?” Laura asked the captain. “Don’t you realize we almost died?”

“The crisis is over now,” the captain replied, his eyes closed. “No need to get all upset. Life goes on.”

The teenage girl shook her head. “If they come back, shoot them.” She then vanished, leaving Laura and the captain alone.

* * * * *

Amy Stryker reappeared in the cargo hold. Her sister Amanda was standing guard over the Sentinel, who was still in the form of a small metal sphere.

“How did it go?” Amanda asked.

“I got rid of all the Poneri I could find and I handed out a lot of weapons. No one died and the passengers are safe, so I’d say that was a success.”

“You handed out weapons?” Amanda exclaimed. “Are you out of your mind?”

“I wasn’t just going to leave them defenseless! Anything could happen and I can’t be everywhere at once. This way they can defend themselves.”

“But they know you’re here!”

“I think the crew already knows that something is going on,” Amy replied. “Besides, it’s not like I introduced myself. The only person who knows it’s us is Reverend Knight.”

“Why did you tell anyone? We’re supposed to be dead! We can’t go around introducing ourselves!”

“I didn’t!” Amy protested. “He has the gift of discernment – it’s just what he does. By the way, he wants to talk to us before we leave.”

“We can deal with that later,” Amanda said. She turned her attention back to the Sentinel. By now the blue field that surrounded the anomaly was quite small. “How is it going?”

“Very well,” the Sentinel replied. “I am almost ready. All I need to do now is–”

Then something went wrong. The blue containment field turned crimson, then red, then white. In an instant it was sucked into the anomaly. The Sentinel fought against it but a second later it, too, was drawn inside and vanished.

“Steve!” Amy screamed. But it was too late – they were left alone.