//------------------------------// // The Black Seas // Story: [Forlorn Ascension]|[Rites of Dominion] // by Desrium //------------------------------// "We are going to get in so much trouble, Fin," Amadeus commented. He was trying to make his hoofsteps as quiet as he possibly could and failing almost comically in that regard. One could not make a boulder stealthy. His hoofsteps in the red corridor carried with them the weight and strength of a minotaur warrior. Amethyst and Phineas were little more than mice next to him. Perhaps they were little less. "Then why did you tell me about it?" Phineas replied somewhat irritably, making sure to keep his voice down. "Why involve me at all if I wasn't supposed to know?" he asked earnestly. "Because we had to tell someone!" Amethyst answered hotly herself. "Amadeus knew you for months... knew that if anypony could handle knowing about this, it'd be you. And since I've come to know you over the past week... I believed him. Do you have any idea what it is like to keep a secret like this? To be forced to lie about seeing a pony die right in front of you?" "No... but..." Phineas gritted his teeth. "Why is it a secret?" he asked, almost growling. "To prevent a panic. It's bad enough we found a destroyed Federation ship, we don't need the rest of us torn up about what happened to its sole survivor," she said. "You know... like we are," Amadeus added flatly. "Star Commander's been conferencing with Starfleet on how to handle it but until then this is supposed to be a contained incident." "A 'contained incident' I need to see before it's sent off to the lab for the gryphons to poke at," said Phineas, needlessly reminding the two officers why they were currently going through the restricted area of the security sector of the Iopteryx. Just as how the service tunnels kept unauthorized personnel away from the ship's internal workings, the mechanically locked doors in the red area kept the curious and nosy away from business that did not concern them. Said business included the ship's brig and armory among other things. The trio were lucky not to have come across the three other officers as they made their way through the secure sector. Eventually they came to the end of the hallway. Another corridor made the cross of a T at the end of it. Lined up side by side were holding chambers. The officers led the Chief Engineer to the one at the far left of the corridor, which slid apart when presented with the minotaur's PDA. Any officer could have accessed the door, but they weren't supposed to have unauthorized guests with them. Already Phineas could tell something was wrong. The body was on a stretcher, covered by a canvas sheet but it was barely there. There was a bulge where the snout was pointed to the lamp that shone directly down on it but the rest of the pony's shape was barely visible underneath the cover. The silver stallion's jaws were agape in shock. So it was true. When he demanded he be shown what he was told, he had his doubts. Not practical ones, justifiable ones, but ones bred from stubbornness and disbelief. But there was no denying it now. A Federation ship was destroyed, everyone that was on board was now dead, and the last of the crew was here, their body malformed beyond comprehension by means unknown. "I... I... isn't this a scientific vessel!? Shouldn't we be informing everyone about this? To understand what the hell has happened!?" "Calm down, Fin!" said the dark haired minotaur. "This is why we were supposed to keep this a secret... we can't risk productivity of the crew by having this get out..." Amethyst said, her voice so low she might have been mumbling. Phineas sighed and responded with: "Well everyone else will be just as curious as I as to what exactly the exploration team brought back with them regardless. A destroyed ship in some forsaken planet's ring is news enough without the escape pod that led us to it. Now we have it and we aren't willing to let them know what was inside? That's going to get a response and it won't be a good one." "Something the Captain and Star Commander know quite well. It's why they need Starfleet's input. It'd be one thing to say we found no survivors and that the distress signal was a fluke... but that still leaves the question of what did... that unanswered." Amadeus did not need to gesture to the cadaver that had already wasted away when the pony was still alive. Phineas looked back the way they came and said "I'm... going to get out of here... before somepony finds me where I'm not supposed to be." With that, he started to walk, not waiting for a reply from the two others. A subdued feeling of dread came over him, a sensation that something was amiss -more so than the body on the stretcher. A feeling of wrongness he felt a week prior, that fate was going to take a terrible turn for the worst and that he should be monitoring anything and everything he could to see it coming. "It's... nothing." he tried to tell himself. "You were wrong before. Things have been going great! You are on good terms with the other engineers and you've turned this ship into something of your own!" His self-assurance did nothing to rid him of the uneasiness he felt. It was as if the body was an omen and only upon viewing it beneath that white cover, its meaning was truly revealed. And it was a horrible truth bearing strife and misfortune for all aboard the Iopteryx -that the ship would meet the same fate of the lost vessel before it; floating in both infinity and eternity. He had to get such unsettling thoughts from his head. When he left the security sector and made certain that he was unnoticed, he made a beeline for the engineering block. He needed a distraction. He needed to do some calibrations. He needed to bask in the glow of the Spell-core. He needed to do something. *** The Iopteryx gradually tilted its forward end upwards at the careful input by Captain Novashot at the helm. Once pointed at zero degrees vertical, the engines fired up. Plumes of violent pink energy were expelled as the ship flew directly out of the volatile planet's ring of death, for flying out the way the ship had come in wasn't necessary now that the point of interest had been dealt with; and going vertical was faster and safer. Only a few shards of the stricken vessel's hull, meteors and meteorites posed a threat to the Iopteryx and its shield was more than capable of sheering through the obstacles when it took its leave. It was a notably speedy departure, the exploration team was not even sent to investigate the wreckage strewn around the gas giant. It seemed that Starfleet wanted the Iopteryx to put as much distance as possible between it and the unfortunate starship. Maybe Novashot herself wanted to vacate the system as quickly as she could after the harrowing occurrence in the holding bay. Phineas sat at his desk, elbows resting on it, hooves pressed against each other and his chin resting on them. He was staring blankly at the monitors which glimmered in the darkness of his quarters; with them being the only light sources in the room. He was used to sitting in the darkness with the only light coming from his flashlight. He had a purpose to stay up late then, though. He stayed up to get that last ounce of revision in then. Now, he stayed up because he could not sleep, period. His blue eyes moved over the screen to the small digital clock tucked away at the lower right corner of it. It was tuned into the hourly rotational cycle of the Earth since before the Iopteryx left the planet and had been counting off the hours in space without fail since then. It was now 11 PM aboard the Iopteryx, though the lighting that illuminated the halls never emulated the passing of days. 11 PM, Phineas' lights were off except for his displays...and he couldn't sleep without the image of the pony beneath the sheet appearing behind his eyelids. Not that he would have fallen asleep anyway, with the anticipation of unforeseen consequences keeping him on edge constantly. He went through the system list...again; after doing so many times over already. His eyes were beginning to redden and strain looking over the screens but he continued to do so in blatant disregard. Energy levels nominal. Airlocks were indeed locked and air-tight. Oxygen distribution systems and other life support functions were fully functional. No crippling error. No system in need of dire repairs. All was normal. This silent vigil lasted until 1 AM before he finally fell asleep at his desk. His forelegs were crossed and his head rested on them. His eyelids twitched and his hind legs flinched and kicked when he was being sucked into a nightmare. From his mind's eye he was staring at the monitors. They were flashing red with alerts of critical damage, every system aboard ceasing function simultaneously. Shortly after, even the screens cut out, plunging Phineas into a choking darkness. He turned on his PDA's light and raced over to his supply chest, flipping up the metal lid and finding that his toolboxes were not in it. His eyes widened and he staggered backwards away from it. There wasn't anything he could do without his tools! Without panic or getting flustered, Phineas raised his PDA to contact the other engineers, only to have it too flicker and die. The Iopteryx was unfathomably doomed and Phineas was truly powerless to do anything about it. He fell to the floor, gasping for air when he should have had the greater part of an hour's worth of oxygen to breathe. He was grasping at his throat, unable to tell when he was going to fall unconscious and ultimately suffocate. He was already looking out into the blackest black that he would ever see, he couldn't tell if his surroundings were fading away as his life did- The silver stallion woke with a start and shot up rigid in his chair. His vision swirled around, unfocused. Everything was a blurry mess until his eyes adjusted to wakefulness. Immediately he got to looking at the screens, confirming yet again that the ship had not experienced cataclysmic tragedy. He sighed and sat back in his chair. "And to think I used to look for Luna in my dreams." he thought, yawning. Realizing his situation, he mused, "... And to think I used to go to bed... in my bed." He stretched, smacked his lips and checked his PDA for any messages, finding that he had none. From its clock he found that it was 6 AM. After his fitful slumber, it was far too early to be awake. On the other hoof, he was unable and unwilling to go back to sleep. "I can't keep on going like this... what the hell happened to that ship... and what the hell happened to that pony?" he asked himself, leaning back in his seat and putting his hooves to the side of his head, massaging his temples. "And why the hell do I feel like this ship will explode the moment I lay down my guard?" He got out of his chair and though he was heading for the door, something made him stop and go over to the supply chest near his bed. Like in his dream, he flipped up the black and white lid and saw his tool kits exactly where he put them. They were right there inside the chest, as they always were when he was finished with them. "Only in my dreams will I ever lose my tool kits!" Phineas said to himself with a weak chuckle and then he sighed in relief. He hastily strapped them onto his sides and he trotted out of his room into the vacant halls of the Iopteryx. He followed the orange streaked path further back to the Spell-core, finding it imperative to be at the engine room. *** He was not alone in the engine room. Prancer was jogging around the circular chamber, keeping a close eye on the engine. The Spell-core's light cast a soft pink glow on everything as its pylons spun around it. The red unicorn stopped mid-step and said to Phineas: "Oh, Chief... I didn't expect you to be on duty at this hour." "I didn't expect myself to be on duty at this hour," the silver pony thought. "Don't mind me, I'm just here to do a quick look around and then I'll be on my way." "You brought your tools for a quick look around?" "A good engineer always has their tools," Phineas said as evenly as he could manage. Making pleasant small talk while agitated and sleep deprived was an incredibly trying task. "Oh, and what do you like to do with your... tools?" Prancer said in a strange way. Phineas raised a brow. "Fix things, Prancer. I like to... fix... things," he said, cocking his head when she approached him with a sway in her step. "I don't believe droids act like this..." "This is not the time," Phineas said with a cough. "I'll just make my rounds here and then leave-" The red mare was right in front of him, her snout to his with only inches between them. Her horn started glowing softly and he felt his toolboxes get a little lighter. He cleared his throat. "Prancer, I hardly believe this is proper conduct among crew members!" he scolded the Unicorn. She smiled and said: "And who's going to find out what we decided to do while we were at our lonesome? I won't tell anypony... would you?" "Even if I was okay with this - and I'm not, mind you - I am hardly in the right state of mind to be getting... intimate," Phineas responded. "Now please return my equipment to their proper place and I will be on my way." "I could change that... if you let me." "I highly doubt that miss Prancer, now please-" The impact rocked the Iopteryx, throwing both ponies to the floor with Prancer landing on top of the silver stallion. It would have been highly uncomfortable given their previous interaction if it hadn't been for the fact the ship had been struck by something incredibly massive. Something that was not only able to match velocities with a starship but actually impact with it. Phineas' heart thumped in his chest. His fears were confirmed. Something did happen the moment he let his guard down. And the thing that had his guard lowered with a fellow engineer's advances on him. He did not know when during the week she had developed these feelings for him and at the moment, those concerns were the most trivial of trivial things. Without bothering to dislodge the mare on top of him and getting up, he raised his PDA and yelled over the broadcast channel, "We're being assaulted! Something has hit near the engineering block and-" The ship's hull groaned loud in protest under an immense strain. A distant grinding was hardly a good sound to hear. "Whatever it is, it's tearing the ship apart!" Another metallic groan and the lights in the engine room flickered, the monitors blinked and sparks jumped. "Up! Up! Please get off of me!" Phineas shouted to the mare, who had been dazed by the abrupt event. She staggered to her hooves and when he was able to, Phineas stood as well, assisting her in steadying herself. He then looked around the Spell-core containment chamber, not needing his PDA to see that there was severe damages being sustained by the ship. Tremors shook the craft, the fluctuations in lighting and the jumping sparks caused a spasmodic juxtaposition of light and shadow. There was no point in trying to repair anything now. "We have to move," he said to Prancer, pointing her to the door. She had regained her senses and her other motivations had been thoroughly abandoned. She nodded and without a word she bolted for it with Phineas right behind her. "Damn!" she cried, rearing up and slamming her front hooves against the door. "Automatic power must be shot!" "A good engineer always has his tools!" Phineas proclaimed, craning his neck around and plucking a crowbar with gray heads and a red handle from a toolbox. He slammed one end into the seam of the door, lodging it in place then he spun and bucked it. The door, without any power to keep it locked, slid open so quickly it actually created a loud crash when it disappeared into the wall. The silver pony picked up the crowbar and put it in the toolbox when another loud groan echoed through the ship. The sound was disturbingly close this time, banging metal ringing out somewhere unseen. Then the hull of the Iopteryx screeched loudly, pops and bangs became audible which then led into the booms of explosions as all sorts of vital machinery were torn asunder by some unseen assailant, including the thrusters. The rear wall of the engine room caved inwards with a deafening thud. "Run!" Phineas barked to Prancer and the mare disappeared without another word. The silver stallion stole a look at what it was that had managed to pierce the thick plated hull of the starship. Something that had a chitin of some sort with bright blue glowing lines sprawling all over it. A giant, wicked looking pincer was pulled out from the hole in the wall, the carapace overlapping at parts with intimidating spikes protruding from it. Another giant pincer punched through the wall of the ship, then another and another. The first came down through the ceiling and Phineas saw the Spell-core containment chamber's glass crack and then shatter. The energy sphere once stabilized by the pylons became anything but stable, exploding violently and shredding the segment of the ship torn off by a gigantic alien monstrosity. Phineas felt the air rushing past him into space and for a brief moment, he saw what was attacking the starship against the black backdrop of space. It was insectoid looking with two sets of massive scorpion-like claws. It had no other limbs but it had nodes on its side which were glowing white-hot like a star. Several other points of light decorated its hideous visage, as if the thing were a constellation in of itself. Its body was slender and ended in six tendrils which had translucent "fins" at the end, almost like a cephalopod. Hovering some distance away from its gigantic form were four ethereal blue "wings" which looked horrifically similar to Luna's own mane. It was an Iopteryx. The celestial beast from which the starship got its namesake. It was an irony that did not escape Phineas as he fled, bulkheads with yellow and black checkerboard patterns at their edges lowering to isolate the breach...