Sun Ship 773 (Chapter 7)

Leaning past the opened wall with every precaution, Rainier looked for any sign of track or adjoining cables that may lead to what appeared to be one of the portals on the ship's side. Deba asked Rainier why he was particularly excited about the gems in the volcanic region being remnants from the dead sun but Rainier would only speak of the possibility of their existence being proof of reigniting a dead star. Zoic studied the platform inside the cave's entrance as he walked around the edges. He stepped into the middle while the others carefully searched for a way to the ship. Faint at first, Zoic spoke a few muddled words. Finally he looked up at the rock ceiling and back to the others.

"What was the old tale, in your recollection, about the gems and the sound they produced?" Zoic asked Rainier.

"In one of the more well-known stories it's something that's sung rather than spoken. Sort of like a rhyme or a bit from a longer song." Rainier answered while trying to remember the words.

"The notes are what we're hearing but the wording has escaped me. It's been so long since I've been privileged to listen to the story of the once great sun and the beauty of its elements." The others looked on as Rainier tried to repeat the story he knew.

"It mentioned the gems, and it mentioned a light. The ship of the great sun and of all the suns we know. It spoke of gems being conductors, that lead to the door. An arc that held steady, that would lead into the skies."

Zoic motioned to Rainier and the others to come to stand with him in the center of the platform. As they all gathered to the center of the strange platform that held them aloft, it began to move. The group held each other's hands as it moved steadily through the opening of the rock wall and glided toward the ship. A singular step from the ship protruded from the lower right side and an entrance opened that would lead them into the ship. They marveled, but there was a bit of fright to the experience as it was quite a drop from the ship to the grounds below. Once the group were all inside, the doorway closed and the platform seemed to turn into a hazy cloud and dissolved completely into nothing. The cave entrance where they stood moments before dimmed and faded as the rock wall seemed to seal itself to its former state.

Inside the ship it was lit well enough for its new crew to explore and learn its secrets. They would be here for a while learning everything they could. This was unlike any other ship they knew. Rainier asked for Zoic's guidance, as Zoic himself was a more seasoned pilot of spacecraft.

 

The first stage of knowing the ship was to be acquainted with its engine apparatus and flight controls. These were ancient and although something of an energy still hummed in the ship to activate an open door for them, it was now time to figure how to operate the flight deck and get the ship out from the mountain-like dock it had been in for a long period of time.

 

The belly of the ship contained the engine's power container and the engines themselves. Inside a column-like area, they noted the engines were all smaller than expected. Quite compact. And there were twenty of these all lined up, four apiece up each level of five ascending sections of the column. Connected to that were coils that ran along the outside of the column encircling it in a perfect wraparound and then splintered off into small bead-like nodes. The nodes seemed to hang in the air but were held by magnetic features in the walls of the craft. The living area was basic enough and what would be a cargo deck was spacious and dimensional. It could hold much more than what it seemed. This was a massive ship. By any other standards, it was build to be a battle-worthy craft among other things.

Once Zoic translated the ship's controls and tested the ship's hover and flying moves, the next step was to figure out how to exit the mountain. Nobody was leaving the ship the way they came as it wasn't known how they could. So there was only one option and that was to take the ship and look for an alternative docking spot.

They discussed hovering up into the highest point inside the cavern walls, but the ship was simply too big the risk bringing the rocks down on them. In the space of two turns, and half onto another night turn, the riddle of how to exit the mountain was solved. The engines when fired up, simply radiated all matter around the ship and all natural, solid matter around it, dissolved into a thin layer of beam and scattered molecules. When the ship cleared the pathway it made, all the matter of rock and form melded back into its original state. That was the power of the ship's legendary capabilities.

 

The ship was made in various parts of the same gems they found back at the cave, but they were larger and appeared to serve a function for pulsating power from one to the other. Taking a look at the engine apparatus in comparison, it showed that the engine structure itself was more for the basic travel and nominal workings rather than what gave it its more advanced capabilities. When Zoic, with Rainier on standby, began to make way back to Tuoce they soon realized that the ship would react with elements all around it, and change in temperature and oxygen levels if exposed to extreme instances where it acted as a shielding device with having any onboard protocols for such things. They tested how it operated underwater. It was incredible. The vents of the craft enclosed like a smooth gel that pulsated with the sound of the waves present in the water. And coming out of the water left no trace of it as if the gel had combined with the air upon rising up from the surface, leaving no strings of the element from where the ship exited the environment. There was a soft glow about the craft that simulated the light in the element itself. Giving the crew the knowledge that this was a ship with the ability to cloak itself in between environments.

Zoic and Rainer took head of the control panel's system that lit the way to achieve cloaking within environments and ran a few more test runs in and out of the water. Nackendara and Deba were looking into the weapons system and taking account of what the ship had in way of defense mechanisms. The ship produced energy beams that could be concentrated and narrowed, to pinpoint a target. The overall defense of the ship itself was in the energy it produced. Making itself a shielding of its own without activation of any control measures from the crew. They discussed what to do next, and it was agreed to hold off on returning to Anuna to report of the finding of the ship to Tuoce and instead try space travel with the ship.

"We'll take it out two parals, and circle Cova from that point and observe the ship's reaction to the outer orbital planes." Rainier said. The others agreed.

Lifting off the surface and rising into the heights of space, they saw the ocean planet shrink from their observatory window that stretched from the bridge to the back deck. There was nothing isolated or closed in as the hull of the ship seemed to allow light from space itself into its structure. A very dim light, but light nonetheless. The ship was, for all purposes, an energy producing craft that absorbed whatever environment it was in and adjusted with it. The design was of no planetary make any of the crew were familiar with or experienced.

 

When they were out at two parals, Cova was still massive in their view but they were effectively in position for re-entry to orbit. They let the ship glide along and kept watch on the panel's readouts, Zoic translated the ancient symbols with Rainier's help. They tested the light factors and the capability of the craft to signal or make itself known should they hail any outpost or ports within the parso worlds of the system. There was success as the Cova outpost at Anuna did receive their signal. They instructed that Tuoce meet them at the highest landing platform. Stressing that the landing of the ship might be a bit tricky and that they are still in the testing phase of how to pilot the craft.

 

When Tuoce learned that the ship had been found and the mission was successful, a light of hope played across his face. He had forgotten what the feeling of hope was like. He was speechless that their finding was miraculously quick. He prepared to meet the new crew of what was remembered only by the eldest of Cova's population, as the Sun Ship 773.

Brave New Space (Chapter 8)

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.

Small sentimental objects made from their realms. There was a reflector, a type of tractor beam of the ship's mechanisms that could send signals and the vibrations surrounding matter into an energy field and pinpoint that onto a location. Finding the nearest object, a scattered field of debris from an unknown moon or pieces of a disintegrated planet, Zoic placed first the element he held into the reflecting beam and narrowed it onto the debris field. Immediately the dreary rock pieces started to spin and hurl into each other. An energy field was created and there was now movement. But as he took the beam away and retracted it. The rocks began acting once again as if in a state of suspended animation.

"We now have a conduit of how to draw the dark matter out of its core, where it's located." Zoic said.

Rainier unlocked a set of drones to encircle the debris field of what he dubbed as the "Forgotten Moon" and prepared some of the elements from Cova into a wire-bound cluster to set as a beacon in a placement most likely to survive impacts with other floating pieces of rock and ice. The ship hovered as the drop was made. And the crew sped away and observed as the debris began to react again to the element now present. For some time they waited. But their efforts would pay off.

The drones picked up signals while monitoring the Forgotten Moon. But their range was very limited. The 773 could not travel too far from that sector. Or the sensory would be lost and the drones would die out and cease to function. While the drones were expendable, the crew felt no immediate danger from the dark frequencies of Dokk's reach.

It was slow, but the depth of where the dark energy flowed from, began to swallow the outer edges of the parso and outposts long abandoned. It crept up like an invisible veil and covered its trail with a deeper darkness following its encompassing path. The crew had taken watches while they alternated their sleep. The Forgotten Moon was sending off signals more rapidly and the crew would all be awake and aware when the opposing frequencies clashed with the newly active space where nothing could be seen or heard before. Zoic locked onto the approaching signal. Like a dread humming, it sought to envelope its intended target.

Chaotic Harbors (Chapter 9)

It wasn't unexpected, but the force of the waves following the arrival of what was determined to be Dokk's destructive force, had hailed from an endless connection to something that could not be reached without knowing the exact pathway. Whether by wormhole anomalies or great speeds, this was something they had no knowledge of where to begin. But the wisdom of Zoic and bravery of the crew, would set about a plan to destroy what was itself, a destroyer.

"How did you know that sending out elements of your world would trigger the entity of Dokk?" Deba asked Zoic as he remembered the ancient name of Foid. He stirred and stated that it was an old trick. Like a distraction.

"Foid has many old names..." Deba continued but was cut off.

"To speak the name would not be wise at this time." Zoic assured her.

"I won't. I heard tales and legends. None very good." She answered back.

"The thing about the elements of Fiod are that they carry the vibrations of the original creation of the world in its entirety. Those energy vibrations are contained and dense in their form. The Forgotten Moon will be what we'll use to keep what's out there at bay, while we head back to Arcan 748."

Zoic instructed the crew that unless he finds a sea vessel with the name of Titan, they'll need the scout ship on board to gain access to the surface and look for a captain of a sea vessel, a then-young man of the old world of their time. From memory of what the elders spoke of, the name of his ship was Titan. And every sea entryway had been limited to ports allowing only for sailing ships of the sea. None existed now for ships from other worlds. No accommodations would be found in that world in its present state.

One entire region of Arcan was entirely abandoned and a massive dead zone. No signals, or radio equipment could be picked up if one should be stranded there. It was known as the Dead Lands in a world that echoed of death.

Zoic had pondered on the possibility of the elements within the stones and gems he sent out amid the cluster of the Forgotten Moon to harness the dark energies away from the planet. But the journey toward Arcan 748 was the first step, and they would have to remain unseen as much as possible. Depending on basic manual flight in a rudimentary fashion. Dark forces had already claimed the planet and all living souls there were set on thoughts of keeping the dark energy supplied with whatever means they had. Rainier brought the ship's drones back in and collected the data. They gave some vital and key information. With the ship secure and no readings of any hints of trouble, they made for Arcan.

Titan was the only ship on those oceans that never hailed from any channeled frequencies or was tracked by any means of Arcan's rulers. The captain was a robust ancient from the old days and his parents regaled him with stories of how they escaped Fiod and then Arca and fled to this new world to live in peace. They called him Pacno, but he had changed his name to Pann since his early years. Although no one knew his true age, he would have been to that world at least 459 of their years, of age. But because of his long times in the world he now called home, he had discovered many magical and mystical things about the seas of Arcan. About the flow of the waters and secrets of the lands. Long before the complete invasion of Arcan there were ports that could only be accessed with a special ship, and a rare wind. And at certain times of Arcan's year. Pacno also kept the book of names from his former world. Some of those names were key to accessing the hidden ports of Arcan from one world to another. Since the takeover however, Pacno doubted that any such access would again be successful. So he sailed the seas and slowly began to accept a death that would eventually come.

On this very idea, having begun to lay heavily on him, it was at this time of all times that Pacno decided to brave the hidden ports of the ancient Arcan world. And the ship he commanded was such a special vessel to access those ports. How he came to be in possession of an obvious otherworldly craft was on account of his father's lifelong friend who lived in a remote cabin far away inland, nearing the borders of the Dead Lands.

All was quiet aboard the 773 as they set the course for their next destination. The hum of the engines and lights whirred like a small and faraway steady tone. This journey would prove that the Dead Sun was in truth the Forgotten Moon. But with the dark energy now focused on another pathway, a release was made of the grip upon Arcan 748. Passageways would be open now. Though the condition of those ports was a mystery.

Zoic awoke and wandered around the ship, checking the monitors for any sign of dark energy from the drones, but their status wasn't changed. Zoic unfastened a leather cord and loosened a rare stone he wore around his neck. He quietly placed it in a small drone and jettisoned it from the ship. He sent it on the far side of Arcan's pathway toward the suns but reversed, so as to set it in the opposite direction of where the planet was traversing. For a while he watched and waited.

Far below the Arcan clouds, Pacno sensed the change in the air. Zoic spotted the ship Titan. He focused on its captain. And the focus wasn't lost on Pacno. He set course and headed for a forgotten palace built into a mountain, with decayed gates and a haunted entrance. This was at once an ancient harbor. The seas had long receded leaving only dry, petrified ground and mountain trees. Nothing lived there. But there was something there that even the presence of darkness never learned of, and Zoic knew of the very mechanism that Pacno was drawn to and headed toward.

After some time, the 773 set back toward the Arcan planet. On board computers gave a reading that the original shielding over the planet was still intact except for the layers of dust and carbon from the nearest objects geared to keep it on a parallel track. Zoic had just arranged the world to discontinue its parallel path and to catch up on a higher trajectory with the suns. The drone would guide Arcan's movement away from whatever was based on the surface or in the surface of the planet itself. Pacno knew the signs to look for. And when he reached the ancient harbor, he made haste and searched for the planet's sounding wave. It would be in the mountain's entrance, a short way past a set of iron gates.

The seas were restless and the darkness sensed things amiss. The seas answered back with fury and Pacno knew the sign very well. Dokk's power was weak and waning in this area of the world. There, Pacno set up camp, and with portable equipment, set up a beacon. Zoic gathered the crew and prepared them and the ship to dock at the isolated location. Beyond that, they would have to use the ship's scouting pods to continue on any missions further into the more populated Arcan territories.

Pacno hailed the ship that he knew was just out there, though he couldn't see it. Zoic signaled back giving Pacno the go ahead to open the mountain's smooth-stoned side. The crew spoke very little, but there were nostalgic soft sentences about this world and how it was perhaps the last world that was meant to be an escape from their own worlds in the grip of an evil they all fought and still did.

The sounding waves flooded the entrance and Pacno channeled them into the mechanism that held the harbors around the sea and the inlaying mountain within a tonic hum. The planet's own natural song. The object was twelve measures of man in height, and had the appearance of a rod, with beads that flowed within magnetic liquid streams spinning around the top layer that sprawled out into a bowl-like apparatus. It was a grounding instrument. Very ancient and very precise in keeping a steady wavelength between the water and the sky. This in turn stilled the space so to allow a ship to land without detection from other elements.

Rainier held the ship in a steady approach as he lowered the ship in the trench provided by the mountain's now open gorge, Pacno waited on the small step ready to greet the members of the 773.

"Clear." Rainier spoke as he leveled off past the mountain top. "Extending hydraulic supports." It was actually the first time he'd landed a ship of that size but Zoic smiled. "Pretty good, captain."

Once the ship was settled onto its ground, the crew prepared to disembark.

Zoic emerged first and greeted Pacno with warmth and an embrace.

"Welcome! Welcome brave Sage of the Great Three Worlds beyond!" Pacno exclaimed.

"How do you like the ship, my friend?" Zoic asked as he waved his arm toward the massive vessel.

"Impressive and Incredible." Pacno said as he looked on and shivered a bit. "The legendary ship of Cova?"

"None other." Ackea smiled as she shook Pacno's hand, to which Pacno grabbed her arm and gave her a mighty hug. Ackea smiled even more feeling that he was a friend to be counted on.

The rest of the crew greeted Pacno as he welcomed them all with a much relieved looked on his face that they were all there, and ready to take the next step wherever that might lead them to. Pacno, like Zoic, was closely connected to the elders of Fiod as his father had also walked in the realm of the Shadowy Arch, a place that tests the resolve of warriors and sages alike. Zoic may have never thought of himself as a warrior but the escape-world of Arcan would soon prove that his Fiodian journeys were quite needed. A place of sheer tranquility in the unknown and the deep. For that, the crew of the 773, were already seasoned in warrior-hood. And this planet would take much to find all the hidden trickery of what had happened here. Arcan was no different now, than any of their worlds. The only difference now, was that most did not retain memories of where they originally came from.

Pacno began preparing for the next journey that would take them to yet another harbor. One that would be dangerous, for there were agents of Dokk and other sketchy characters about. Mingled in with the native population of the sea port of Huvado.

"We'll take my ship, but there should be room to bring a couple of scouting pods, and please, you must call me Pann! At least around the natives. I'm incognito!" Pacno laughed as he helped the crew gear up.

"The next harbor, that will be guarded by fifty-foot waves, if the sea is in a bad mood!" He laughed again.

Rainier, Deba, and Nackendara checked over the scouting pods and gave Pacno the dimensions of their size to determine if there was room on his ship for them, along with any smaller weapons that could be attached and would be needed considering the previous readings from before.

Going aboard Pacno's sailing ship, Rainer was back in familiar territory. He was enchanted by how similar the seas of Arcan were to Cova.

"It's all by instinct, isn't it?" Rainier asked Pacno. A little surprised at the question, Pacno finished raising a sail and turned to him.

"Everything must be. Like your crew mate here, Zoic. He didn't get orders of any specific mission. It's all played by ear. I've been around long enough to know that no plans can be laid without design and detail. In those things it may be needed for a final move against an enemy. But in the beginning stages, and following through, nothing can be foreseen confronting an unseen enemy." Pacno said musingly.

"How did you know to be at the mountain without knowing of our arrival, then?" Deba asked curiously.

"A feeling. It was that and the air was different. Something shifted. Something went in another direction." Pacno said softly.

As they sailed into Huvado waters. Zoic made no mention of the drone ship he sent above the planet's tracking, its cycles that were, as Zoic witnessed himself upon their first approach. Instinctively refraining from landing then. He and the crew had to know where the grip of dark energy was holding from, and once he knew the method, he could set about disengaging the world from spiraling down into the bottom of the entire expanse of space.

Nackendara read Zoic's expressions, and she knew something was in the works.

"One of the drone pods was absent from the ship's bay." She told Zoic.

"I know. I have a tracker on it. It's still making a route. So far undetected." Zoic answered.

"And with a part of the ship tracking through space, we could be almost anywhere if we were followed." She mused.

"We'll need to take the 773 up into higher fields above this system sooner or later." Zoic reached and leaned onto the side of the deck to stand closer. "But what we're looking for here, is a stone element about sixteen inches along from one side to the other and shaped in an oval form."

"Could it be in the sea?" She wondered aloud. "No, not this element. Not this object. It's probably hidden in a very secure location." Zoic supposed.

"The solar and lunar apparatus have been changed since anyone's been by, they've been localized. A beam has been fixed to keep a constant portal open toward the outer darkness. Away from the suns." Nackendara said while looking over the ship's maps of what fields of frequencies used to be in place.

"The entire world has been placed under a grid, the only edges are those that lead away from both small and greater light," said Zoic.

The skies were ominous. They all retired for the turn of night. A questionable span of time, now that nothing was familiar or as it was before. For two turns of day and night they sailed on.

The sea started to move faster as they approached Huvado. Pacno adjusted the sails and made haste to secure everything and the crew. "As usual, too many ships coming into the port town!" He shouted across the deck.

As they observed, waves began to form and crash into the distant, but now the visible land. The structures of Huvado were made of materials from the sea and floods that would have swept through the settlement were quickly redirected into a large encircled trench and washed back into the sea. Any ship or boat in the water though, was a different matter. The sea was angry and Pacno prepared to turn away and head for Stee. A smaller port town, and less likely to be ravaged by the high seas that surrounded Huvado. Although quieter, it was a place that hosted some of the more vicious types.

"Make way!" Pacno called out. "We'll be a little longer getting to where we need to go!"

The seas calmed as they came into Stee waters and there they docked. Pacno and the crew stepped off the ship while he went about and secured everything. Rainier sought out a land ship or vessel that would be able to traverse rugged ground. The others looked around at the somewhat dreary and moody settlement. Almost as if on queue, a fight broke out between two groups of folk, one accusing the other of foul play and superstitions being ignored. Pacno was grabbed by one of the combatants, as if he were somehow involved.

He struggled to gain his balance and he swung around and knocked his assailant to the ground.

"It's mistaken identity. I'm not the wizard that betrayed you." He said, gaining his composure.

Rainier and Nackendara both drew their weapons and held the fighting elements in their sights.

"Best move on, if you know what's good for the lot of you." Rainier told them.

"I would listen to him, he's got no time for the time that's been twisted here." Nackendara added.

This was something that resonated with their superstitious beliefs, so they dispersed.

"How did you know what to say?" Rainier asked her. Nackendara shrugged and mumbled "I just wanted to give voice to something I wanted to say out loud."

Alien Pirate Pann (Chapter 10)

The land cruiser the crew had acquired and the few supplies they brought with them would get them to wherever Pacno was to lead them, however they first needed to head back to the ship to load the flying pods onto the cruiser's attached hauling unit without being too noticed.

Zoic tried to ignore the one thing that was gnawing at his thoughts. "Was there a wizard that betrayed anyone at Stee?" Zoic finally asked Pacno.

"Yeah that," he laughed. "It's a long story, but there was a spacecraft that was bound for Arcan, long time ago now. I was on that ship though I was much younger then. When the people who had hoped to live here without the death-grip of the Evil One and found that it was actually worse here or had gotten worse, they wanted to use the starship to search for another world."

Zoic was suddenly aware that this was the ship Khom had mentioned as never returning.

"From Arca the ship came here, and with it more survivors as it were..." Zoic stated.

"Yes," Pacno answered. "They know that the ship was hidden away, something like that was already a target. Many of the craft of the Great Three Worlds were being seized by the Evil One. And had begun to be gathered and used to do evil deeds. The wizard was the ship's last pilot. He was often, in his day, among the Elders of Fiod. Your home world."

"There's only one question that remains then," Zoic mused. "Why would those folk back there believe you to be the wizard and why do they feel betrayed?"

 

The air was still and barely stirred with a breeze. They would go quietly to retrieve the pods and get them covered well and head out. Standing and looking out from the lookout point they lingered and waited at, they readied themselves to move under the blanket of night.

Finally Pacno gave clarity to the crew's restless thoughts.

"The last pilot of the ship that never returned to Arca, was my father. And when we landed and all the passengers left to form new colonies and such, we stayed with the ship as my father knew there was something amiss. This escape world became the focus of the Evil One and his elemental goons. So my dad hid the ship. And when the people realized what was happening and what they escaped just followed, they wanted to board the ship that bore them here, to escape again. But by then it wasn't possible."

 

Zoic, with these new revelations, asked calmly. "What about the core element of the ship?"

"The stone you're looking for is where I'm leading you to, minus the ship for I, myself, don't know its whereabouts. But I can take you to what you seek." Pacno smiled.

"If the ship is still to be found, that would also come in helpful." Rainier said.

"Indeed it would." Zoic agreed.

There were layers to Arcan 748. There was the outer layer where the seas and solid country were settled. But there were other layers in the geometric sphere of this planet that was never present to any of the crew's own worlds. Pacno spoke of the spaceships able to travel between worlds for the lack of the layers and outer shell that eventually came to prevent any further outside travel. And as the crew already knew, rare it was traveling between worlds of their own.

Nackendara and Ackea were used to traveling across landscapes and settled into the cruiser that emitted the voices from some isolated base, reporting on weather conditions in the area. Pacno and the crew were soon on their way. They were heading for another destination that went over a mountain range and to another sea port. A more vast and brutal sea than the one they had sailed. But it was the mountain range that Zoic honed in on and through a series of recalled instructions and the detailed accounts of his fellow sages, the lone dwelling of stone and tree had an ever burning fire pit within its walls. And as they stopped short outside its line of sight, Zoic knew the elemental stone was there. Taking out the flying pods, they arranged a line-up of who would follow, who would be the distraction, and who would retrieve the stone. The dwelling shown to be abandoned but it was watched.

 

Flying in a formation of three, Zoic swooped in and Nackendara disembarked from the second pod as it positioned ahead to keep a visual line for their escape. Nackendara hastened to the cabin and quickly threw open the gate and then the door which were both non-functional. The single fire at a far end wall was the treasure they sought. Covered in white ash and crumbling, charred wood she quickly scooped it up, and wrapped it in the warm over-covering of her gear, securing it as the guards in land vehicles rushed to the perimeters. By then Nackendara was already pulled up into the third pod as they made their hasty escape. The guards ran out and opened fire at the tiny ships in the sky. The crew had obtained something that was still under guard after many thousands of years. They were stunned at how easily they pulled it off.

Pacno gestured a salute and pointed at Zoic. "You really are at full capacity here, while this world yet stumbles around in half life and half death."

The crew landed at a safe distance, beyond the mountains. The dread of coming to Arcan 748 was turned around into a calming arrival point, the core element of the ship Pacno's father piloted, was what was the same elemental energies of the core of Arcan itself. Having this stone was an extremely fortunate device to possess and now would be in the right hands. The crew stepped away from their pods and with a few adjustments merged each pod into a single ship. A much more powerful one that could go longer distances over the wild terrains of the planet.

Reboarding, the crew began their next course of action.

"We'll fly over the mass ocean of Hebbura to avoid the desolation of the Hollow Flats, a complete dead zone where any living being can end up never heard from again. It can be seen from a distance but getting near it, you'd best stay clear of any droning beats, humming or otherwise. It's called a dead zone for a reason." Pacno instructed. "The only ones of legend known to survive it, brought stories to speak out into its inverted space, or a song, and even the ocean we must cross can facilitate any thought or spoken lament. Even a simple greeting is manifested and if these places, these waters, find any apprehension it won't be good." The crew knew all too well of the energies of the planets, and the living rhythms within them. This was no different except in this world, it was almost completely taken over by the dark forces of Dokk's draining design. Everywhere seemed to be shaped and built in a way as to take life. Not give it.

Across the sea, and turning southward, avoiding the Hollow Flats, there was a small but thriving kingdom. It was a more civilized realm and while things weren't perfect, there were many people from Fiod who had built it up into a more pleasant region among all the others in a world where every cell of the living was isolated and travel was treacherous. It was called Cloud Keep for the weather conditions were clam and warm, but thick dark clouds rode the skies while bright beams of light from the main sun broke through in wide angles to bathe the beautiful structures and flat lots, with trees planted in various spots throughout with inviting clear light.

Halfway over the dark sea however, the small scouting pods began to dip. A fierce force of pulling was detected and the crew climbed higher in altitude to avoid the pressure that was obviously just below the waves. They knew what the force was and had witnessed before this very destructive force. Its method was to cave in whatever grounds it could grasp in its vortex, pulling everything down with it. A sudden sense of fear and shock was repeating and the crew knew what was happening. As they flew ever higher above the waters, they saw the waves collapse far below. A whirlpool had left that portion of the sea exposed and all that could be seen was a blackened, slope-riddled area. There were no signs of life, as nothing lay in the open air. The crew kept on course until the sea met back up at the edge of whatever it was that caused such an event that an area of Hebbura had vanished.

"What would you tell, from such slim odds as this? Such a hopeless quest this?" Pacno asked, in the vein of what all the crew might have heard or seen before. And after such a harrowing experience. "Tell the story of the sea, in all its enormity. Give it a proper log of events even if it's just a memory or something you can draw from, give it a spiritual essence. Speak words that may echo and give it a sense of surrender and honest lament. That will grant us passage."

"What does it mean?" Zoic began. "The nice man said that we made it through thousands of years of empires and rebellions and revolutions. And here we are. Then I recalled the promises of things to be then. And that the ghosts of ghouls still found a way to crawl back up through the ground..."

 

Nackendara picked up the line of thought. "The deep and the dark wasn't gone. I could find ways to defeat that entity if only given the opportunity. Alas, the shell of me that has sailed through many years, and the thousand years I've wandered as a fire-ghost, finds me on a driftwood ship of little yard and mast. Hopeful words, still just thin air through seas harsh and stirred-up. And the wild evil still utters words to fall on all ears as they ever do. And the wooden planks and rusty iron holding fraying ropes and an anchor lost forty meters down, I cast off the last line. I am bracing."

Rainier spoke up. "There is no star under the waves of cloud and haze. And I've noticed before the coral and mineral deposits have grown around my feet and knees. The blade failed to free me from the nature of these waters. And failed to chip away what has clung to me and formed to me like a second skin. And I have wondered how would I move through now?"

 

Nackendara continued. "The deformation of such a time that turns always back to this. The escape of dreams never holds long. I struggle with the grip of this rigidity, well-accustomed-to torment. The ship sinks further into the endless, the unknown that I have spoken of during that same thousand years."

 

The shadowy sky began to host a light coloring of illuminated clouds that reflected the natural light given off by the planet's upper layer where the sunlight embraced the still living energy of a pure starlight closer in the heavens than the force that had been holding the world to its deathly influence.

"You see that?" Pacno asked, pointing at the sky, "Even the skies have changed frequencies. The bellowing of the sea was probably the trigger."

The Hollow Flats would be on the horizon soon as they got closer. And Pacno went silent for a while. But when he finally stirred and focused on the upcoming ominous land, he asked if Rainier would allow him to take the pilot's seat, as he knew the area a little more than he. He didn't know much and he never encountered any past problematic situations but he did know there were tricks this dark place could play. Rainier offered his seat.

"When we get to Cloud Keep, call me Pann." Pacno requested. The others agreed. They knew they carried a very powerful and strategic object, and regardless of any welcome anywhere they traveled, it was best to appear as native as possible.

The Orb Of Hidden Maps (Chapter 11)

The shorelines began to creep up, the crew were finally passing over the sea of Hebbura. But what lay ahead was even more stark than the sea itself. Though it didn't appear as anything other than flat land as far as could be seen, there was a very powerful dread hanging over such a realm.

 

"What to say about this? What tales could possibly be told?" Deba asked looking out at such a bleak landscape. It was darkened as if no daylight could be seen, but in all directions the horizons were illuminated by what could have been starlight or a rising sun, but a dawn that would never break. Just a long static glow of light outlining the far off distances.

"Take a few steps in the Hollow Flats and you'd feel you been here for a long time." Pacno stated. "There's a prophecy about this place. I don't know what it is in your worlds, but here and from what I remember of Arca, it was an evil tiding that the life of a world would come to be subdued and lost to what all had been forgotten."

Rainier stirred from his quiet mood at the sight of the land before him.

"There's a prophecy about that, back on Cova. But it describes a lost sea. Something like; The life of the world came to be covered in death. The sea that once filled its territory rolled out and stretched to form another sea leaving all hope shattered."

The land that stretched out before them was more than just a vast dead zone, it held an emptiness that could be felt as nothing less than dread, but there were no signs of anything to dread. Just the very grip of dread itself.

Rainier adjusted the ship's lighting and navigated slowly enough to get a closer look at the grounds. Staying just above the thermal layer that the land was giving off.

"Fiodian prophecies speak of this dark land, as well." Zoic muttered. "But there was something else. A mystery really. Abandoned lands that shield against all outside influences."

Nackendara and Ackea exchanged glances, remembering such prophecies and tales of their own knowledge.

The craft began picking up strange sound patterns. Repeated tones but they would vary, as if there was a message within them. Rainier amplified the sounds and the ship's reading gave a structural graph of what the sound patterns showed visually as a three dimensional construct. Then another layer merged, and then another while also repeating the same structures.

"This is a collapsed realm", Nackendara stated. "It's collapsed underneath this layer of land. There's more here."

"I believe you're right." Rainier agreed.

Hovering now well within the border of the area showed that the light decreased almost ten percent and going further inward toward the desolation would eventually become pitch black save for the ship's lights and whatever light was brought with them. They would not go further and kept the distant lining of light within sight. But the tones remained. Zoic suggested a theory he had, but he would have to set foot onto the deadly ground. No signs of life were detected and he embarked after the crew set the ship into close hover mode no more than a couple of feet.

"Keep all engines burning! We don't want to anchor to this place, we keep her running as to not align with the tonic flow that seems to permeate here!" Zoic called back as he stepped out onto the surface.

It was at this sudden footfall that the ground gave way enough to pull Zoic down with it as it sank a subtle few inches. Rainier and Ackea reached out to pull him back up into the ship, but they were unable. Stumbling out onto the ground as well. The pull was so strong that they fell to their hands and knees. Nackendara secured herself to the ship and followed holding extra tethers. Pacno sprung into action and kept the ship in hover while activating the power beams to surround the ship with light. In the few moments that it took to secure the crew and help them re-enter the ship, the ground shifted in sections as if shattered glass. Although being secured to a line each, they were separated and with that the sound of a snap as they moved along the now mobile ground. At first, it was only a couple of yards away, but soon they were lost to view.

 

"The ground is rigged! Any movement or sound sets it off and it collapses!" Pacno cried out and immediately reversed the craft's undercurrent of power to a silent hovering maneuver. "We got beacons on them! Keep track!" he called to Rainer who was already mapping the area and the crew's signals.