In the City of Tomorrow: Chapter 25

The Starfire had just left Alpha Mensae when the crew noticed that something unusual was going on. Reverend Knight was the first to discover that the now-empty cargo bay was filled with hundreds of glowing blue lights. He could not see any Poneri but he had a feeling that their portal was now active.

The evangelist brought this to the attention of the ship’s crew but nothing came of it. Laura and Davis were concerned but their concerns were lost on the captain, who scoffed at them. A light show in the cargo hold was of no concern to him. All he cared about was getting to Tau Ceti and finding another load of cargo to transport.

Reverend Knight argued that they should abandon the ship but the captain refused. Davis pointed out that their registration had been revoked while they were still in the Alpha Mensae system and that no company was willing to hire them. The captain did not care. “It’ll all be fine,” he told them. “We’ve weathered storms before and we’ll do it again. It’s nothing to worry about.”

“Things have changed,” Reverend Knight replied. “The Old Ones have awoken. They wish to return to Earth and reclaim their former home.”

“A few lights don’t worry me,” Captain Brahms scoffed.

So the ship continued on. Then, the following day, it happened. The first thing they noticed was that the ship’s computers no longer responded to their commands. After that the hallways became filled with ghostly blue lights that raced up and down the corridors. Evil laughter and whispers in an alien language could be heard throughout the ship, and yet no Poneri could be seen. Everywhere their effect could be felt but they remained hidden.

Reverend Knight gathered Davis and Laura into his cabin – the one place where the ghostly blue light could not be seen. Yet Captain Brahms remained on the bridge, oblivious.

Laura boldly left the safety of the cabin to try to save him. “Don’t you see what’s happening?” she hissed. “This ship has been taken over! I told you this would happen!”

“So our course has changed,” Captain Brahms said carelessly. “Sol works just as good as Tau Ceti. This is a Spanish ship, you know. In fact, this is even better! Maybe we’ll find paying customers there.”

“What’s gotten in to you?” Laura shouted. “We’ll never make it through the Wall, and even if we do we’ll just be shot on sight as soon as we enter the system! Don’t you know that the Empire is at war with the Rangers?”

“This is a Spanish ship,” the captain repeated. “We’ll be fine.”

“We will not be fine!” Laura screamed. “Don’t you think they’ll realize that we’re from the outside? They’re not going to pull up our registration data before they shoot us down!”

“It’ll all be fine,” the captain insisted. Laura shook her head and retreated to the safety of the cabin.

* * * * *

For several days the ship continued to be possessed by Poneri. The captain remained on the bridge, only leaving to get a bite of food. The rest of the passengers remained holed up in Reverend Knight’s cabin.

“What’s wrong with him?” Laura asked.

Reverend Knight spoke up. “The captain has gotten away with so many things in his life that he has lost his sense of danger. Now that he’s faced with a genuine threat he can’t see it. This will not end well for him. At the moment the Poneri do not see him as a threat but that will change before the end.”

“What’s going to happen to us?” Davis asked.

The evangelist paused before replying. “The Stryker twins have been watching over this vessel. They know it is gone and they will find it. When they do they will engage the Poneri. That will be our moment.”

“Our moment to do what?” Laura asked.

“To escape,” he replied.

* * * * *

That evening the Starfire stopped outside the Wall of Sol. As usual, Captain Brahms was on the bridge. He watched as three transparent blue Poneri materialized on the bridge. They ignored him and started using the ship’s weapons to fire on the Wall.

“Hey, those weapons haven’t worked in ages!” the captain exclaimed. “And they sure never fired anything like that, either. Huh.”

A few minutes later the ship was surrounded by thousands upon thousands of starships. A fierce battle was launched. Poneri streamed out of the ship and were immediately vaporized, much to the consternation of the three Poneri that were on the bridge. After a while the leader gave a command in an alien language and the fighting stopped. He then flipped a switch on the console and spoke.

“You are not welcome here, sons of Adam,” the Poneri said. “Depart from us and allow us to reclaim our home, or else we will end the frail lives of those aboard this vessel.”

Through the ship’s speakers a voice responded. “Hey, we’re not men!” a female voice exclaimed. “We’re women. There are no sons on board this ship.”

“You have thirty seconds to bring the Wall down,” the Poneri replied.

At this the captain got angry. “You’re not going to threaten me,” he muttered. He walked behind his chair and pulled out an ancient, rusty pistol that he kept hidden there for emergencies. He aimed at the Poneri that had uttered the threat and started firing.

After firing six shots he realized that the bullets were going right through the ghostly figure without having any effect. The Poneri he had been shooting turned around to face the captain. It angrily began advancing toward him.

The captain frantically emptied his gun at the Poneri but it did no good. In seconds the Poneri had reached him. He just barely had time to scream before the Poneri grabbed him. A moment later there was nothing left of Captain Brahms but a pile of bones on the floor of the bridge.

As the Poneri turned back around to face the console it was suddenly struck by a white beam of energy. The remaining two Poneri were vaporized seconds later. Amy Stryker then ran onto the bridge, where she saw the pile of bones.

“Too late,” she whispered. “I was too late. Oh, you fool! What got into you? What made you think that shooting them was going to turn out well?”

In another part of the ship she heard a piercing scream. Amy zipped to the source and saw that Reverend Knight, Davis, and Laura were trapped in a small cabin. Dozens of Poneri were gathering at the door to the cabin. Reverend Knight was standing in the middle of the cabin, defying the Poneri, while Davis and Laura hid behind him. Laura kept screaming.

Amy wasted no time. She lifted her gun and fired at the crowd of Poneri, which quickly scattered. She then attempted to transport the occupants of the cabin to the Stryker flagship but something interfered. The girl closed her eyes to concentrate and saw that the Poneri had erected some kind of protective screen around the ship. Must have erected it after I got on board, she thought. I guess they don’t want us to escape the way we did last time. After summoning all of the energy that her nanites could produce Amy forced a small passage through the screen. She had just barely been able to transport the panicked Laura off the ship before something slammed into her, tossing her down the passageway.

Amy opened her eyes and saw that she was surrounded by Poneri that were beating at the shield that protected her. Her gun had been knocked out of her hands and was out of reach. She struggled against them but her efforts to penetrate the Poneri’s screen had left her feeling weak and drained.

“Get back from her!” Reverend Knight shouted. He had left the cabin and was advancing toward the Poneri. “Be gone, you creatures of darkness!”

The group of Poneri stopped attacking Amy and took a step back. They had no intention of leaving but they had a deep fear of this frail man. There was something about him that they could not stand.

Amy took that chance to leap over, grab her gun, and blast the Poneri. Several of them were vaporized and the rest disappeared. She then mentally forced her way through the screen again and was able to transport Davis out – this time keeping her eyes open. The effort left her completely empty.

Reverend Knight saw how tired she was. “You’ve done all you could,” he said softly. “Thank you for helping them.”

Amy tried to focus so she could rescue the evangelist and herself, but before she could do anything she felt something pulling at her. She fought against it but the pull was too great, and she vanished a moment later after losing consciousness.

* * * * *

When she came to herself again she saw that she was lying on the floor. Three concerned faces were looking down at her.

“Are you all right?” Amanda asked.

Amy wearily sat up. She saw that she was on the bridge of the Stryker flagship. “I’m just tired,” she said at last. “What happened?”

“I rescued you,” Amanda said. “After you vanished it took me a while to find you – the Poneri were somehow generating a terrific amount of interference that made it hard to see what was going on. I yanked you off the Starfire as soon as I figured out where you were. When you got here you had lost consciousness but seemed to be ok. Laura tried to bring you around while I suspended the Starfire in time.”

“You did what?” Amy exclaimed. “But Reverend Knight was still on there!”

“I’m sorry,” Amanda replied sadly. “Laura and Davis appeared on board, but nobody else showed up so I just grabbed you. I didn’t see anyone else on the Starfire.”

“But he’s still there! He just saved me, Atzi. We can’t leave him there!”

“And we can’t go back for him either! You almost died, you know that? Whatever possessed you to barge in there and engage the Poneri in hand-to-hand combat, anyway? Don’t you know how crazy that was? I almost wasn’t able to find you!”

“I would have been fine!” Amy protested. “Do you know what would have happened if I hadn’t jumped in? The Poneri got to the captain before I was able to save him but at least I was able to rescue Laura and Davis. I would have saved Reverend Knight too if I’d just had a few more minutes.”

“We appreciate that, by the way,” Laura replied.

“Right,” Davis agreed.

“I’m sorry,” Amanda said. “I really am. But it’s done. You’re here now and you’re not going back. In fact, I was just about to collapse the time field and put an end to the Poneri once and for all. They killed the captain and they almost killed you – twice. I’m not letting them put anyone else in danger.”

“But you can’t do that!” Amy exclaimed. She struggled to her feet so she could face her sister. “Reverend Knight is on board – if you collapse the field you’ll kill him! And Steve is trapped in there too.”

“Steve can find another way out,” Amanda replied.

“There is no other way out! Didn’t you hear what the Poneri said? They want to return home to Earth. If there was a portal on Earth then they could’ve used it instead of trying to beat the Wall down. The portal on the Starfire is the only one left. We can’t destroy it!”

“Then what do you want to do?” Amanda asked. “Just leave it there, suspended in time until the universe ends?”

“Yes,” Amy said firmly. “Then when we get to the future we can have the Artilect fix this. It’ll be easy to find again – it’s a time stasis located right next to Sol.”

“But won’t the Poneri be released when the Artilect turns the stasis field off?”

“It doesn’t matter,” Amy replied. “We’ll be there to tell the Artilect what is going on and we can make sure that he brings enough ships to keep them at bay. It will be fine. We’ve dealt with them multiple times now and we know how to fight them. It’s not like he’s going to be going in blind.”

Amanda sighed. “Fine. Have it your way. Let’s get Davis and Laura home.”