The Endurance

by LunasFury

Prologue x

My name is Clarissa Ryker, and this is my story.

The impossibly loud voice over the intercom awoke me from my peaceful sleep. It was as if someone took a canary and threw it into the hull of the ship every morning, except this time the voice came with a tone of urgency I had not heard since the war.

Captain Ryker, your presence is requested on the bridge immediately.

Sighing heavily, I got out of bed and threw on my uniform. As I was buttoning up the heavily decorated dress coat I looked myself over in the mirror. I have pure white hair and shinning blue eyes, my figure was slim but fit, my somewhat pale skin tone going with the rest of my looks nicely. I was never one to boast about my appearance, however LOTS of the crew members apparently found me attractive, according to my friend Mike that is. I myself paid it no mind, men never really interested me anyways.

It was my hair that gave me the nick name "Mira Korthal" in Vandull, which translates to "The White Witch". The day I heard about it I went out with some friends and celebrated, I had just became a figure of fear to the Vandull, and to top it off I had the dry dock paint my ship with my insignia in white so I would be recognized by the Vandull during battles, a white skull with angelic wings coming off the side. The thought of being recognized in such a way always brought a smirk to my face. I couldn't help it, I hated those damn reptiles just as much as the next guy, we've all lost something to the hands of the Vandull's harvester ships.

I pushed those thoughts aside as I brushed my hair down from its bed-head mess and grabbed my side arm off the night stand. My weapon was an older model multi-purpose laser pistol, painted pure black with a single white line down the side with my father’s hand written signature engraved just under it. I had been offered a newer model when I was promoted but I respectfully declined. It was my father’s pistol after all and it carried lots of memories for me, so I kept it and it quickly became one of the last things I had left of my past, a past that was best left forgotten.

5 minutes later I was in the elevator going up to the bridge. I was on board the capital ship Endurance, The crown jewel of the 2nd Battle Fleet, Over 2 kilometers long and equipped with enough firepower to blow up small moons, it was my pride and joy. I still remember the day I was commissioned the ship by the navy, consider it my promotion gift if you will from the battle of Terra.

I had taken command of the "Reliant". A slightly smaller dreadnought I had been serving on 4 years back after the captain was killed in a gas explosion mid battle. While in command, I single handedly took out 3 Vandull Harvesters and defended the colony we were in orbit over. I was a hero, I saved the lives of hundreds of thousands of colonists.

While the media buried the details of the battle in my success stories and how I was this big shot, I could never truly forget, they say I had won the day but I still don't feel that way. Even after I had taken command the scene before me had been a nightmare from hell itself. We lost more lives than we saved, 2 carriers, over 20 escorts, and 5 dreadnoughts, and yet I am still the hero...We lost over three hundred thousand men and woman and I am still somehow a hero?

My thoughts were pushed aside as the elevator doors opened and two guards on either side of the doors saluted me before returning to their Stoic posture. Immediately my presence was known as the entire bridge went silent. I walked forward and sat down in the central chair looking over the details of the fleet’s status before turning my attention to the rest of the room.

"What is the situation?" I asked

My first officer, Eric who was in a smaller chair with consoles next to me responded. "Sir, our scouts have found a very odd space anomaly exactly 20 light-years from our position. Upon closer inspection we discovered its giving off readings similar to that of a black hole but with no gravitational pull of any kind. It also seems to be radiating very high energy readings that are way off the charts."

I thought over what my officer just told me for a moment before responding. "Do we have images of the anomaly?"

Eric looked back at his screens. "Yes Sir, it seems to look like some kind of electrical storm...in space"

As he said this he put the image of the anomaly on the screen in front of us. It looked exactly like he described, a very large lightning storm in space. Except for the fact that Purple and yellow lightning arched off in random directions, and in the center was a bright blue sphere. It seemed to be rotating and the lightning seemed to be completely random with no real cause in sight. The rest of the crew stared in horrified fascination. It looked like something from science fiction movies, dangerous and completely unknown.

I loved it

After a minute of admiring the image I had made my decision. "I want 4 Idris-s class frigates to meet up with The Endurance and be prepared to enter quantum space. I want us placed within observational distance of the anomaly and notify the hanger to prepare a pair of science vessels for closer inspection after we confirm it's safe. Also set the ship status to condition one and spool up the quantum drive."

Immediately the bridge crew went to work. Calling different parts of the ship and alerting the rest of the fleet to the new plans. The Endurance would go with the 4 escorts to the anomaly alone to avoid risking the rest of the Fleet. We would Observe and record whatever we could from the anomaly without getting too close. If we could deem it safe from that distance than one of the escorts with the science vessels would approach the anomaly and find out what they could and if possible find a cause and or purpose.

Normally I would send one of the battleships instead of the capital ship dreadnought of the fleet. However I wanted to see this thing up close myself and it had been far too long since we have had any action.

The Endurance pulled away from the rest of the fleet with the 4 escorts. The entire crew of the ship was buzzing with excitement at the discovery. Even if it turned out to be nothing, at least we had an excuse to get off our asses for a change instead of sitting in the middle of empty space...

"Give me the helm" I commanded. Almost instantly the controls for the ship popped out of the arm rests next to me. I always liked to pilot my own ship when it came to traveling or when we were in smaller battles. I enjoyed being in control of the ship, as it made me feel a bit safer and more in control of the situation. However in large fleet battles I respectfully give control to the helmsmen so I can focus on the battle itself.

After taking the controls I spooled up the engines and prepared the ship for quantum flight. The Idris frigates next to us matched our speed and did the same. Looking over the consoles in front of me and the readouts on the big screen I made sure that the ship was prepared, it was good to see that we hadn't lost our touch. The whole ship had been ready to go mere minutes after I gave the order to set condition one. Battle stations were ready, shields were up, crews were on standby, the medical wing was prepared to receive, and engineering was reporting an all green.

For some reason it made the day that much better.

I gave the order to enter quantum space and begin the jump process. The hum of the engines could be heard from the bridge, and the entire room went silent as we prepared for the jump. It never got old really, a bright white light briefly engulfed the ship as we shot into Quantum space. The stars and planets nearby shooting past us as we traveled 1/10th the speed of light, entire solar systems going by in the blink of an eye before completely disappearing behind us.

As quick as it started another bright light engulfed us before everything came back into focus as we exited quantum space. Shortly afterwards the 4 escort ships came out with us and immediately started launching their small detachments of SABRE fighters.

At first everything seemed normal, we exited quantum space, began our launch process, and looked upon the giant glowing ball of death in front of the ship...

"Wait what?"

Not even a kilometer from the front of The Endurance was the giant glowing blue sphere from the image. We were right smack in the middle of the purple lightning storm. Alarms started blaring and people were shouting in confusion as a shudder went through the ship’s hull.

"WHAT THE HELL HAPPENED?!?!" I yelled frantically.

"Were not sure sir! We set the distance for well over 500Mm from the anomaly but it seems something threw off our systems mid jump!" Someone yelled from the left.

"SIR! Massive energy build up warnings are coming from right of the ships bow!"

Right than a giant purple lightning bolt went off right next to The Endurance and struck one of the Idris escorts, which then flashed right out of existence.

The entire bridge went into shocked silence at the spectacle, no one said a word as we tried to comprehend what we just witnessed.

Seconds later my brain kicked itself into overdrive. I grabbed the controls and started turning the ship around, multiple energy overload warnings going off all over the ships interior. Even more reports of fires and electrical overloads, medical was overwhelmed and half of the ships systems were down.

Halfway through the lengthy turn 2 more bolts of lightning went off. One struck another escort, flashing it too out of existence and the other hitting The Endurance directly. Instead of the ship being destroyed however it hit the ships shields hard. The entire ship shaking violently and sparks and electrical shortages going off all over the bridge.

Chris, my engineering officer yelled out. "Sir! Shields are down and weapons systems have been destroyed. We have lost communications with the fleet!"

Pushing the ships situation to the back of my mind I activated the ships "EEWD" Or emergency experimental warp drive. Which is designed to instantly throw ships short distances forward. In this case just anywhere but where The Endurance currently was.

Practically slamming down on the controls the drive was activated and a wormhole appeared in front of the ship. The Endurance was practically thrown into the wormhole, leaving behind the monstrosity and to a unknown destination.

My vision went black upon entering the wormhole but I could still hear my crew yelling frantically around me. It felt like my body was being mutilated while I was conscious. The entire ship groaning as bright lights flashed by the ship. If this was what using this drive was like then I already hated it.

Soon my crews voices started to fade too as if I was blacking out. Before they completely dissipated I heard "Get her to the escape pods!", then everything faded into darkness.

Comments

[Firetype55]

FINALLY. I'm not the only multiverse traveler on this site now! YEESH.