The crew navigated the ship close to Arca and Fiod, going further away from Cova. The orbital planes were similar to Cova's mass. From fifty parals the other two worlds seemed cloaked and hidden. Zoic extended the distance between the ship and the planets to seventy parals, and at his instruction the crew recorded the view at that vantage point.
"This will be important." He said. "The space our worlds are suspended in has had the effect of the shadow that came a long time ago. It surrounds the life force with a dulling effect, almost like it's choking the energy away from the planets and moons and drawing it all away into the void beyond. It scatters."
"It has since taken over Arcan 748." Ackea stated coldly. The other crew members briefly looked in the direction of the last remnants of the dead sun. At the sense to find a clear flight path to the world of Arcan, the crew signaled back to Cova and instructed that they would briefly speak with Tuoce. That there could be no planned mission as a first for the crew of 773, because there was no way to tell what the environment of space was going to present them with. They would have to play it by ear. Landing on the highest platform on Cova to address Tuoce's inquiries, it was simple and quick. Tuoce wished them godspeed and gave them one of his gems from his crown. A water gem said to have been formed in a cluster of solid rock matter that when entering the dead sun's glow, melted into water and solidified again when falling to Cova's surface.
The crew then embarked on a flight path that would bring them close to Arcan 748. Between the living stars of the system and the planet, it too was cloaked in a shadow and rarely seen unless positioning the ship in the pathway of its closest sun. The outline was barely distinguishable and distorted while the crew was in opposition at seventy parals. Moving along the orbit, the crew monitored how the world was reacting to the suns. It had been common knowledge that it was similar to the three main worlds. But at this event in time, it was drastically different. Space itself held the world in its orbital cycles but the movement was as if it was suspended and space was static as the ship got closer.
"When was the last time anyone from Arca or Fiod traveled to this world?" Rainier asked.
"It's been a long time." Deba answered. "As far as we know it was around the time the entity Dokk had already killed a good number of Arcans back home."
"We had reports throughout the cycles, but they were given as mere long lost fragments with no absolute detail." Zoic said.
"We have to make contact with the old outposts there, then." Rainier stated.
When the crew came within reach of the planet to hail to them, they were surprised that there were no longer any channels or ports still set up for receiving any form of ship's signal. Let alone any kind of standard greeting. While back in their home worlds it was rare, there were still outposts and stations set up to receive neighboring ships from the other worlds or from anywhere that may be. It was as if this world was silent, entered into a dead zone itself, like the dead sun.
"We have to pull back!" Zoic suddenly urged. "We have to travel out toward the dead sun before trying to make entry here. There's something holding this world in suspension like this."
"Do you believe it's the dead star then?" Rainier asked.
"Yes, I do. This world didn't produce this effect. A more massive and sinister force did this, and no way would they have just gotten rid of their hailing posts unless Dokk or something of that origin had taken over Arcan. And then we'd be landing in a warzone." Zoic explained.
Disengaging from their current course, they opted to head out toward the outer zone on the edges of paralis distances to find the last known location of the dead sun. It was out there somewhere but its mass had been diminished and its power nullified. The first charted course was the inner paralis where the planets circled the main star. It would be a while before they could complete a roundabout on the first paralis, so they settled in for a space journey they had very little idea of how long it might take.
The ship was exceedingly fast, and Zoic set a course while the crew prepared to use less energy to sustain life. Although they had enough supplies from Cova and a lengthy journey wasn't an emergency situation, they wanted to be sure to be rested up for any unknowns.
The dining area of the ship found the crew in a light mood despite the situation. Though everyone was quietly speaking with one another and going over mission charts and courses from the ship's archives. Zoic sat down at a small table where Ackea and Nackendara were drinking nutrient water. "I found the last known location of the dead star according to the database of the 773." He told them. "What tales from Arca have you heard about it?"
Nackendara looked out the viewing window and noticed that space was darker than seen from any planet surface. "It was said to have went supernova." She answered him. "But that was when the light from it ceased to be seen in the night sky, that was once also seen in the day sky."
Zoic noticed that her tone was still as somber but soft as it had been when he first meet the Arcan members of the crew. "You seem sad." He noted. "Yes, well, I've been in hiding." She said.
Zoic took a drink from his glass and asked what she was hiding from. "Everything." She told him. But stirring she looked at Zoic and met his stare. "I've not had much willpower to speak at length, with all that's happened. How could I? I've tried to process everything. I just need time. But now, with the ship, and this mission wherever it may take us, I feel..." She stopped momentarily. Zoic tilted his head to keep eye contact when she lowered her head again. "I feel like, at least something's being done about everything now. Before I just hoped for some resolution and now it seems resolution can be had. By force as it would seem. The darkness is vile in evil that still lingers out there." As she spoke Zoic listened intently and then nodded in agreement. His own feelings were that they would find themselves in a warzone regardless of trying to avoid it.
The ship had reached the first paralis and was effectively in the orbit of that circle. Space did seem a lot dense here. The 773 adjusted its own systems to keep all functions operating. While the ship was on course, the crew took their sleep and developed a longer pattern of it. Upon finishing the first paralis round, the crew updated the archives to include the substance of space now in these outer cycles beyond the planets. There was indeed a deeper shadow-like oppression and dark mass that seemed to be leftover burnout of the dead star.
The ship was going to be set to the second paralis circle and the crew knew that even longer sleep patterns would be needed. The adjustments were a bit jarring but in this regard, with this ship, it wasn't going to be a shock to their body systems. They were already preparing for longer space travels. The crew had not intended to search for the dead sun before dealing with the dark entity that permeated their respective worlds, but their goal now was to find whatever it was that was causing such a disturbance in the mechanisms of their worlds, and the dead sun was most likely the cause. Arcan 748 was the most ravaged of all their worlds. It was visible even from space.
Zoic and Rainier monitored the roundabout and sped up the process, setting the ship to take less time than what it usually would have taken. They were cautious to not set too much speed for the ship, it was still an unknown factor of whether or not the acceleration would be harmful to them. They pushed more of the limits when it was determined that they may have to go out beyond many more paralis.
It was strange to consider that the ship may have already made the journey beyond their own boundaries of space, but they were already facing the probability that they could perish if the ship wasn't designed to reach those distances. Rainier encouraged the rest of the crew that the ship was from beyond their system, that it wasn't constructed back on Cova. And when pressed about the knowledge of such a thing, he'd have no words and struggled to recall even the slightest mention of it from his past memory. There was so much uncertainty.
There was a signal that the ship picked up, like a drone from a fixed point somewhere in their desired destination. The pulse of the ship's own frequencies allowed for warp speed and when they reached the furthest region of known planetary boundaries they took the ship into the void. There were no frequencies beyond that. The connection to the planets of their system was just a weak strand of low vibrational energies that droned on in a steady flow. There it was, what Zoic was looking for. This would lead a way, like crumbs, to the source of Dokk's power. The ship would be engulfed in a state of plasmic matter and there were no grounds or visual light to show any shape or form of the space they now occupied. It was truly a void. It was death itself in a constant strain of nothingness yet existing as a force that managed a presence in everything it could reach with its tone. Its layers. Its being.
While the crew attempted to map the area, or world, or whatever was featured enough to draw up some form of map, the droning grew louder. Rainier used a tracking beam in an effort to find something solid to focus upon. Nackendara monitored the ship's integrity and kept the weapons ready for any surprises. It was dark all around the ship and the only light that existed was solely within the ship and the layer of the outer structure. Yet they knew that any other entity, be it ship or living source, would never be able to see them as the void swallowed up any trace of light. Like a thick fog that has turned to ice and then surrounded by a blanket of shadow. Hailing anyone or anything would be pointless as nothing reached beyond the ship itself. They knew they were in a place that was all too familiar of the way Dokk moved and suppressed all around its oppressive output.
"Lock onto the droning itself." Zoic suggested. "It's the only anomaly that can be detected by the ship."
Rainier focused the tracking beam onto the low, barely detectable signal and while it didn't produce anything other than a signal itself, it did seem to have a frame of beginning, out of some bottomless pit that kept enough form while maintaining a hollow non-existent origin. But the signal was definite. It was infinite to a degree that it seemed to have been there for unknown lengths of time calculated by any world they knew. But it was something. At first, the crew thought that following the signal to wherever it lead might be a plan of action. But there was no telling how long they might be following it. So they came up with a plan to harness the signal and weave another signal around it. Matching the frequency of it and perhaps enhancing the strength of it and echoing it back into the void from where it emitted.
Precautions were made that the frequency would not penetrate the ship and they made an adjustment to the ship's power that a mirroring effect would keep the frequency controlled giving them the ability to pull away if that should be needed.
But where would the signal eventually lead back to, they wondered. They knew it had to be connected to their own worlds, but it was certain that Arcan was heavily hooked up and it was feeding off of that world probably more so.
For some time the crew tracked the frequency back and forth as there was no beginning point and end point from their immediate location. Rainier took the ship back toward the region where the planets were visual again. Even as little sparks reflected in their view. But Rainier's hunch was right, the droning of the death-like signal was still intertwined with the ship's mock signal. Zoic looked over the charts in the ship's archives. There were several dead moons and objects that were scattered about the empty orbital planes that weren't governed by any central solar giants.
"Are there any gems or pieces of our planets aboard this ship?" Zoic asked the crew as he drew out a precious stone from one of his pockets. The rest of the crew had something with each of them that was a natural element from Cova and Arca.
...
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